Federal prosecutors in Nevada allege Brent Kovar ran a Ponzi scheme that fraudulently raised $24 million from roughly 400 investors by claiming he used AI software on a supercomputer to mine and verify cryptocurrency. He promised annual returns of 15 to 30 percent with a full money-back guarantee, but investigators say he paid earlier investors with money from new ones and could not honor his guarantees. Kovar now faces 11 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, and two counts of money laundering, carrying a maximum combined sentence of 280 years.
Researchers led by CSIRO's James Quach built a quantum battery prototype that charges in femtoseconds using a phenomenon called superabsorption, where organic dye molecules packed between two mirrors respond collectively to laser light. Unlike conventional batteries, this device charges faster as more molecules are added, and the team successfully extracted a small electrical current from it, extending earlier 2022 research that only showed rapid energy absorption.
A Mother Jones investigation found 19 police agencies in ten states spent nearly $1 million of opioid settlement money on automatic license plate readers from companies like Flock and Axon. The funds were originally allocated to help communities devastated by the opioid crisis, but state distribution agencies instead routed portions to police departments, which pitched surveillance tech as a crime-fighting tool.
New workplace research indicates that many managers approach coaching as a rigid, scheduled event rather than an ongoing practice, often limiting it to annual reviews or occasional check-ins. This narrow view leads managers to either jump in and solve problems directly or treat coaching as an awkward, infrequent obligation. The findings point to four practical adjustments managers can make to turn coaching into a more natural, continuous part of daily work.
A Wonder Tools newsletter roundup highlights software for private AI chats, offline audio transcription, and secure PDF redaction that all run without sending user data to external servers. The focus is on tools designed so sensitive information stays on the user's own device rather than being uploaded for processing.
A newly minted PhD in Arithmetic Geometry from the University of Florida writes candidly about choosing not to pursue an academic mathematics career, describing years of quiet, unhurried study under an advisor who never pushed toward the professor track. The essay explores the gap between the intense passion typical of career mathematicians and the author's own more ambivalent relationship with the field.
Debian held a project-wide vote on whether to restrict AI-assisted contributions and settled on a policy of neutrality: the project neither endorses nor bans generative AI tools for code, packaging, or documentation. Contributors remain fully responsible for the quality, legality, and maintainability of anything they submit, whether or not AI tools were used to help produce it.
The FreeCORE Project has shipped version 15.0-U1, a stable update for its independently maintained fork of TrueNAS CORE 13.3. Existing TrueNAS CORE 13.3 installations can upgrade in place directly to 15.0 and then continue receiving updates through FreeCORE's own release track. The project rebases the old CORE codebase onto FreeBSD 15 and OpenZFS after iXsystems ended upstream development of TrueNAS CORE.
A new open-source project called Open OSCAR Server, written in Go, lets classic AIM and ICQ clients connect and communicate again by reimplementing the old OSCAR and TOC protocols. It supports a wide range of legacy Windows clients from the late 1990s through 2000s, along with features like buddy lists, chat rooms, file sharing, and user profiles.
Conservation Through Public Health, working with the EU-Africa NESTLER project, gathered disease samples from cattle and poultry near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and combined them with gorilla health monitoring records. The pooled data is being fed into AI models designed to predict zoonotic disease outbreaks before they spread among wildlife, livestock and people, shifting the group's approach from reactive response to proactive prevention.
Growing numbers of satellites and debris in low-Earth orbit are prompting SpaceX and other operators to repeatedly reposition spacecraft to avoid collisions. The increasing density of objects, ranging from active satellites to defunct hardware and fragments, is straining existing traffic-management practices.
Google has published troubleshooting guidance for Android Auto users experiencing connection issues, covering both wired and wireless setups. The advice includes checking cables and ports for damage, using data-capable cables under six feet, and toggling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to force a manual reconnection.
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