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Endangered bees stop Meta’s plan for nuclear-powered AI data center
Meta’s rivals have struck deals to use nuclear power for some data centers.
Plans by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to build an AI data center in the US that runs on nuclear power were thwarted in part because a rare species of bee was discovered on land earmarked for the project, according to people familiar with the matter.
Zuckerberg had planned to strike a deal with an existing nuclear power plant operator to provide emissions-free electricity for a new data center supporting his artificial intelligence ambitions.
However, the potential deal faced multiple complications including environmental and regulatory challenges, these people said.
Laptop, smartphone, and game console prices could soar after the election
Most Americans may not realize popular tech hasn’t been hit by China tariffs—yet.
Tech companies are bracing ahead of the US presidential election, dreading the looming threat of more tariffs that could further restrict the flow of imports from China, no matter which candidate is elected.
Tariffs are a tax placed on imports and are intended to disrupt trade with foreign adversaries. While former President Donald Trump has frequently claimed that China pays for tariffs, in actuality, that tax is paid by US businesses and citizens any time they want to purchase a restricted good from China.
Used as a trade barrier, tariffs can place an economic burden on countries like China, but that burden is really only felt if businesses and consumers avoid importing goods. If companies cannot cost-effectively or practically switch suppliers—as is the case with China, which is a dominant global manufacturing hub in the tech industry—shrinking profit margins can trigger US businesses to spike prices for consumers.
Here are 3 science-backed strategies to rein in election anxiety
A clinical psychologist offers guidance on how to deal with ramping stress.
Uncertainty about the election getting to you? Is anxiety the dominant feature of your emotional landscape, maybe with a small sprinkling of impending doom?
You are not alone. A recent survey found that 69 percent of American adults are seriously stressed about the 2024 presidential election.
It’s difficult not to be worked up about politics in today’s polarized climate. Regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, you may find yourself glued to your browser or TV, gobbling up every tiny tidbit of news and feeling your stress levels skyrocket.
Dystopika is a beautiful cyberpunk city builder without the ugly details
Your only mission in this dark, futuristic city builder? Make cool skylines.
Some of my favorite games deny me the thing I think I want most. Elden Ring refuses to provide manageable save files (and I paid for it). Balatro withholds the final math on each hand played (and its developer suggests avoiding calculators). And the modern X-COM games force me to realize just how much a 98% chance to hit is not the same as 100%.
Dystopika (Steam, Windows) is a city builder in maybe the strictest definition of that two-word descriptor, because it steadfastly refuses to distract you with non-building details. The game is described by its single developer, Matt Marshall, as having “No goals, no management, just creativity and dark cozy vibes.” Dystopika does very little to explain how you should play it, because there’s no optimal path for doing so. Your only job is to enjoy yourself, poking and prodding at a dark cyberpunk cityscape, making things that look interesting, pretty, grim, or however you like. It might seem restrictive, but it feels very freeing.
The game’s interface is a small rail on the left side of the screen. Select “Building” and a random shape attaches to your cursor. You can right-click to change it, but you can’t pick one. Place it, and then optionally place the cursor near its top to change its height. Making one building taller will raise smaller buildings nearby. Reaching certain heights, or densities, or something (it’s not explained) will “unlock” certain new buildings, landmarks, and decorations.
US Space Force warns of “mind-boggling” build-up of Chinese capabilities
Russia and China “have developed and demonstrated the ability to conduct war fighting in space.”
The chief of the US Space Force has warned that China is putting military capabilities into space at a “mind-boggling” pace, significantly increasing the risk of warfare in orbit.
“The number of different categories of space weapons that [China has] created and … the speed with which they’re doing it is very threatening,” said General Chance Saltzman, head of space operations at the US military’s recently created force tasked with protecting American interests in space.
Saltzman spoke during a tour of Europe to raise awareness about the potential for conflict in space with powers including China and Russia and the need to cooperate with European allies to improve deterrence capabilities.
Fungi may not think, but they can communicate
Fungi form distinct networks depending on how food sources are arranged.
Fungi can be enigmatic organisms. Mushrooms or other structures may be visible above the soil, but beneath lurks a complex network of filaments, or hyphae, known as the mycelium. It is even possible for fungi to communicate through the mycelium—despite having no brain.
Other brainless life-forms (such as slime molds) have surprising ways of navigating their surroundings and surviving through communication. Wanting to see whether fungi could recognize food in different arrangements, researchers from Tohoku University and Nagaoka College in Japan observed how the mycelial network of Phanerochaete velutina, a fungus that feeds off dead wood, grew on and around wood blocks arranged in different shapes.
The way the mycelial network spread out, along with its wood decay activity, differed based on the wood block arrangements. This suggests communication because the fungi appeared to find where the most nutrients were and grow in those areas.
iPod fans evade Apple’s DRM to preserve 54 lost clickwheel-era games
Dozens of previously hard-to-access games can now be synced via Virtual Machine.
Old-school Apple fans probably remember a time, just before the iPhone became a massive gaming platform in its own right, when Apple released a wide range of games designed for late-model clickwheel iPods. While those clickwheel-controlled titles didn’t exactly set the gaming world on fire, they represent an important historical stepping stone in Apple’s long journey through the game industry.
Today, though, these clickwheel iPod games are on the verge of becoming lost media—impossible to buy or redownload from iTunes and protected on existing devices by incredibly strong Apple DRM. Now, the classic iPod community is engaged in a quest to preserve these games in a way that will let enthusiasts enjoy these titles on real hardware for years to come.
Perhaps too well-protected
The short heyday of iPod clickwheel gaming ran from late 2006 to early 2009, when Apple partnered with major studios like Sega, Square Enix, and Electronic Arts to release 54 distinct titles for $7.49 each. By 2011, though, the rise of iOS gaming made these clickwheel iPod titles such an afterthought that Apple completely removed them from the iTunes store, years before the classic iPod line was discontinued for good in 2014.
As North Korean troops march toward Ukraine, does a Russian quid pro quo reach space?
The budding partnership between Russia and North Korea may now be blossoming into space.
Earlier this week, North Korea apparently completed a successful test of its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, lofting it nearly 4,800 miles into space before the projectile fell back to Earth.
This solid-fueled, multi-stage missile, named the Hwasong-19, is a new tool in North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated arsenal of weapons. It has enough range—perhaps as much as 9,320 miles (15,000 kilometers), according to Japan’s government—to strike targets anywhere in the United States.
The test flight of the Hwasong-19 on Thursday was North Korea’s first test of a long-range missile in nearly a year, coming as North Korea deploys some 10,000 troops inside Russia just days before the US presidential election. US officials condemned the missile launch as a “provocative and destabilizing” action in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
Thousands of hacked TP-Link routers used in years-long account takeover attacks
The botnet is being skillfully used to launch “highly evasive” password-spraying attacks.
Hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government are using a botnet of thousands of routers, cameras, and other Internet-connected devices to perform highly evasive password spray attacks against users of Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, the company warned Thursday.
The malicious network, made up almost entirely of TP-Link routers, was first documented in October 2023 by a researcher who named it Botnet-7777. The geographically dispersed collection of more than 16,000 compromised devices at its peak got its name because it exposes its malicious malware on port 7777.
Account compromise at scale
In July and again in August of this year, security researchers from Serbia and Team Cymru reported the botnet was still operational. All three reports said that Botnet-7777 was being used to skillfully perform password spraying, a form of attack that sends large numbers of login attempts from many different IP addresses. Because each individual device limits the login attempts, the carefully coordinated account-takeover campaign is hard to detect by the targeted service.
As hospitals struggle with IV fluid shortage, NC plant restarts production
The initial batches will be shipped in late November at the earliest.
The western North Carolina plant that makes 60 percent of the country’s intravenous fluid supply has restarted its highest-producing manufacturing line after being ravaged by flooding brought by Hurricane Helene last month.
While it’s an encouraging sign of recovery as hospitals nationwide struggle with shortages of fluids, supply is still likely to remain tight for the coming weeks.
IV fluid maker Baxter Inc, which runs the Marion plant inundated by Helene, said Thursday that the restarted production line could produce, at peak, 25 percent of the plant’s total production and about 50 percent of the plant’s production of one-liter IV solutions, the product most commonly used by hospitals and clinics.