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Rural Maine airports look to upgrade services, infrastructure

Portland Press Herald Business - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 1:00pm
Carrabassett Valley is seeking over $5 million in federal grants for renovations.

Social Media Platforms Need To Stop Never-Ending Scrolling, UK's Starmer Says

Slashdot - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 1:00pm
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said social media platforms should remove addictive infinite-scroll features for young users as Britain considers new child-safety measures. "We're consulting on whether there should be a ban for under 16s," Starmer told BBC Radio. "But I think equally important, the addictive scrolling mechanisms are really problematic to my mind. They need to go." Reuters reports: Britain, like other countries, is considering restricting access to social media for children and it is testing bans, curfews and app time limits to see how they impact sleep, family life and schoolwork. Social media companies had designed algorithms that were intended to encourage addictive behavior, and parents were asking the government to intervene, Starmer said. [...] More than 45,000 people had already responded to its consultation on children's online safety, the UK government said, adding that there was still time to contribute before a deadline of May 26. "We want to hear from mums and dads who are worried about the amount of time their children spend online and what they are viewing," Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Monday. "We want to hear from teenagers who know better than anyone what it is like to grow up in the age of social media. And we want to hear from families about their views on curfews, AI chatbots and addictive features."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

How to Use Google Chrome’s New AI-Powered ‘Skills’

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 1:00pm
The premade Skills available through the Gemini sidebar in Chrome include ways to maximize protein in recipes or summarize YouTube videos.

GoPro’s New Mission 1 Cameras Have 8K Video and Interchangeable Lenses

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 12:17pm
GoPro announced a new cinema-focused series of action cameras with 8K video, better low-light performance, and the ability to use Micro Four Thirds lenses.

Google Faces Mass Arbitration By Advertisers Seeking Billions

Slashdot - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 12:00pm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Alphabet's Google is facing billions of dollars in potential damage claims as part of mass arbitration tied to the company's online search and advertising technology businesses, which courts have ruled were illegal monopolies. Advertisers are banding together to seek payouts through mass arbitration proceedings. While many companies that displayed ads purchased through Google -- including USA Today Co. and Advance Publications -- have sued for damages since the rulings in 2024, advertiser contracts with the search giant require mandatory arbitration over legal disputes. In arbitration, legal disputes are handled by a mediator, a process that tends to favor companies in individual claims. Mass arbitration -- where 25 or more claims against the same company are pooled together -- have become more common and provide a greater likelihood of settlement awards for claimants. Ashley Keller, a Chicago lawyer whose firm has handled mass arbitrations against DoorDash, Postmates and TurboTax-maker Intuit, said he's already signed up a "significant number" of advertisers to participate in claims against Google. The first of those are expected to be filed this week. "Two federal judges have already adjudicated Google to be a monopolist," Keller said in an interview with Bloomberg. "It seems sensible to seek redress." Keller, who is also representing Texas and other states in a lawsuit against Google for monopolization of advertising technology, estimates potential claims for online search and display ads could reach $218 billion or more, based on calculations from an economist his firm has hired. Similar mass arbitrations have lasted 12 to 24 months between the filing of claims and resolution, he said. "Given the nature of these matters, we cannot estimate a possible loss," Google said in a recent corporate filing. "We believe we have strong arguments against these open claims and will defend ourselves vigorously."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Spain launches $200M biotech fund targeting Boston and Spanish companies

Mass High Tech News - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 11:58am
The initiative aims to help Spanish life sciences companies expand in the United States using Boston as their launching pad.

A New Computer Chip Could Finally Withstand The Hellscape of Venus

Slashdot - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 11:00am
Researchers at the University of Southern California say they've developed a memristor memory device that continued operating at 700 degrees Celsius. "And crucially, 700 degrees was not the limit, it was simply as hot as their testing equipment could go," adds ScienceAlert. "The device showed no signs of failing." From the report: The device is called a memristor and it's a nanoscale component that can both store information and perform computing operations. Think of it as a tiny sandwich with two electrode layers on the outside and a thin ceramic filling in the middle. The team built theirs from tungsten, the metal with the highest melting point of any element, combined with a ceramic called hafnium oxide, and with a layer of graphene at the bottom. Each material can withstand enormous heat. Together, they turned out to be extraordinary. What makes graphene the key ingredient is the way it interacts with tungsten at the atomic level. In a conventional device, heat causes metal atoms to drift slowly through the ceramic layer until they bridge the two electrodes, short circuiting everything and leaving the device permanently broken. Graphene stops that process dead. Its surface chemistry with tungsten is ... almost like oil and water. Tungsten atoms that drift toward the graphene find they simply cannot take hold, no anchor, no short circuit, no failure. The team used advanced electron microscopy and quantum level computer simulations to understand exactly why, turning a single lucky result into a repeatable principle. The findings have been published in the journal Science.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rolls-Royce launches new two-seater electric car

BBC Tech News - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 8:06am
The company says it will create only 100 of its Project Nightingale in its Goodwood headquarters.

Rolls-Royce launches new two-seater electric car

BBC Tech News - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 8:06am
The company says it will create only 100 of its Project Nightingale in its Goodwood headquarters.

The 23 Best iPhone 17 Cases and Accessories Out of More Than 100 (2026)

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 7:30am
Protect your expensive iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone Pro, or iPhone 17e with our favorite cases and screen protectors.

Air Force Pushed Out UFO Investigator

Slashdot - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 7:00am
J. Allen Hynek started as an Air Force consultant brought in to help explain away early UFO reports, but over time he grew frustrated with what he saw as the government's effort to minimize unexplained cases rather than seriously investigate them. Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares an article from Popular Mechanics, in collaboration with Biography.com, that argues Hynek's shift from skeptic to advocate helped shape modern ufology, and that the Air Force's attempts to control the narrative may have deepened the public distrust and conspiracy thinking that followed. From the report: Do you think the U.S. government is hiding, and possibly reverse-engineering, extraterrestrial technology? Think again. Or better yet, don't think about it at all. Nothing to see here. That's the underlying message of a report released in 2024 by the Department of Defense. The 63-page "Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) " concludes that the DoD's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) "found no evidence that any [U.S. Government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology." The AARO, as The Guardian summarizes, is "a government office established in 2022 to detect and, as necessary, mitigate threats including 'anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.'" This report came on the heels of, and in contradiction to, what was arguably the most high-profile hearing on UAPs -- formerly known as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs -- in decades: the August 2023 testimony of "whistleblower" Dave Grusch. [...] The 2024 AARO report stated that during the time Hynek was working with Project Blue Book [the U.S. Air Force's best-known UFO investigation program], "about 75 percent of Americans trusted the [US government] 'to do the right thing almost always or most of the time.'" But, the report noted, since 2007, that number has never risen above 30 percent. "This lack of trust probably has contributed to the belief held by some subset of the U.S. population that the USG has not been truthful regarding knowledge of extraterrestrial craft." Ultimately, the Air Force's efforts to stifle Hynek -- pressuring him to offer the public standard responses to questions he wasn't even allowed to ask -- appears to have backfired. Ironically, the Air Force's attempts to quiet suspicions only fueled them, leading to more conspiracy theories and distrust. People came to believe that the government was hiding the truth, contrary to Hynek's actual revelation: that, in reality, the people at the top may not care much about finding the answers after all.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

These Are the 3 Power Tools You Need (2026)

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 7:00am
New to DIY and home repair? These are the essential power tools that will make your life easier, no matter what you’re building and repairing.

Why You Should Consider a Coros Watch Instead of a Garmin (2026)

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 6:30am
The Coros Pace 4’s long battery life, training tools, and accessible price point are all reasons why you should reconsider getting a Garmin.

The Best Streaming Bundles and Streaming Deals of April 2026

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 6:01am
Here are the current best bundles from the most popular services.

The Best Mattresses for Stomach Sleepers, According to a Sleep Science Coach (2026)

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 5:37am
The best mattresses for stomach sleepers have spinal alignment in mind. These are my recommendations as a certified sleep science coach.

Maine makes a high-stakes bet to protect its waterways

Portland Press Herald Business - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 4:00am
With extreme weather on the rise, the state is embracing an ancient, low-tech method of using dormant cuttings to stabilize shorelines.

Bremont Is Sending a Watch to the Moon’s Surface

Wired Top Stories - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 3:30am
Bremont’s Supernova Chronograph will be attached to the chassis of Astrolab’s FLIP rover, which will land on the moon later this year.

WeatherBug Data Says October 8 Is the Real Perfect Date

Slashdot - Tue, 04/14/2026 - 3:00am
BrianFagioli shares a report from NERDS.xyz: For years pop culture has treated April 25 as the "perfect date," thanks to the famous Miss Congeniality line about needing only a light jacket. But new analysis from WeatherBug suggests that idea does not actually hold up when you look at the numbers. After reviewing U.S. weather data from 2018 through today, the company concluded that October 8 delivers the most reliable combination of comfortable temperatures and low rainfall nationwide. According to the analysis, the average conditions on that day land around 66F with just 0.0573 inches of precipitation. The study used population weighted weather data drawn from roughly 20 million daily WeatherBug users across the United States. When the company compared all days of the year, April 25 ranked only 80th, averaging about 60F and roughly 0.1297 inches of rain. The broader dataset also shows July dominating the hottest days of the year while January owns the coldest, with January 20 averaging just 33F nationally. While no single date guarantees perfect weather everywhere in a country as large as the U.S., the numbers suggest early October may quietly offer one of the most reliable windows for comfortable outdoor conditions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Stanford Report Highlights Growing Disconnect Between AI Insiders and Everyone Else

Slashdot - Mon, 04/13/2026 - 11:30pm
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: AI experts and the public's opinion on the technology are increasingly diverging, according to Stanford University's annual report on the AI industry, which was released Monday. In particular, the report noted a growing trend of anxiety around AI and, in the U.S., concerns about how the technology will impact key societal areas, such as jobs, medical care, and the economy. [...] Stanford's report provides more insight into where all this negativity is coming from, as it summarizes data around public sentiment of AI across various sources. For instance, it pointed to a report from Pew Research published last month, which noted that only 10% of Americans said they were more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI in daily life. Meanwhile, 56% of AI experts said they believed AI would have a positive impact on the U.S. over the next 20 years. Expert opinion and public sentiment also greatly diverged in particular areas where AI could have a societal impact. Indeed, 84% of experts, the report authors noted, said that AI would have a largely positive impact on medical care over the next 20 years, but only 44% of the U.S. general public said the same. Plus, a majority (73%) of experts felt positive about AI's impact on how people do their jobs, compared with just 23% of the public. And 69% of experts felt that AI would have a positive impact on the economy. Given the supposed AI-fueled layoffs and disruptions to the workplace, it's not surprising that only 21% of the public felt similarly. Other data from Pew Research, cited by the report, noted that AI experts were less pessimistic on AI's impact on the job market, while nearly two-thirds of Americans (or 64%) said they think AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years. The U.S. also reported the lowest trust in its government to regulate AI responsibly, compared with other nations, at 31%. Singapore ranked highest at 81%, per data pulled from Ipsos found in Stanford's report. Another source looked at regulation concerns on a state-by-state level and concluded that, nationwide, 41% of respondents said federal AI regulation will not go far enough, while only 27% said it would go "too far." Despite the fears and concerns, AI did get one accolade: Globally, those who feel like AI products and services offer more benefits than drawbacks slightly rose from 55% in 2024 to 59% in 2025. But at the same time, those respondents who said that AI makes them "nervous" grew from 50% to 52% during the same period, per data cited by the report's authors.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Man charged with attempted murder over attack on home of OpenAI's Sam Altman

BBC Tech News - Mon, 04/13/2026 - 9:05pm
The Texas man, who also faces federal felony charges, allegedly had documents advocating for violence against AI executives.

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