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Infamous ‘Erin Brockovich’ Toxin Polluted Air for Months After LA Fires

The January wildfires left many scars on the city of Los Angeles, from rubble-reduced homes to torched abandoned vehicles. Though cleanup crews quickly cleared much of the debris, one alarming invisible impact lingered over the city for months, a new study suggests. In late March—more than two months after the flames died out—researchers detected levels of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (a.k.a. chromium-6) 200 times greater than baseline levels for LA air. If this pollutant sounds familiar, y

DJI Mic 3 Review: The Best Wireless Mic Gets Better

When DJI announced the Mic 3 just 18 months after the excellent Mic 2, I didn’t really get it. The Mic 2 has been my own go-to wireless microphone (bought with my own money, no less) for over a year now, and it still feels new to me. What could justify yet another iteration so soon? It took about five seconds with the Mic 3 in my hands to understand exactly what DJI was thinking. The transmitter units are dramatically smaller and lighter than those on the Mic 2, so much so that they feel like e

Google adds iPhone-like ‘Calling Cards’ to its Phone app

Google’s Phone app is adding “Calling Cards” that let you customize the appearance of contact screens for incoming calls. They’re similar to the Contact Poster feature that iPhone users have had since 2023, allowing Google Phone app users to replace the teeny contact photos that appear when someone is calling you with full-screen images and stylized names. The update is part of Android’s Material 3 Expressive design language overhaul, which Google used to test a revamped Phone app interface in

A deep dive into Debian 13 /tmp: What's new, and what to do if you don't like it

Debian 13 “Trixie” introduces an important change to /tmp. Traditionally, it’s been just another filesystem, albeit with some special permissions that allows everyone on the system to use it without being able to remove each other’s files. In Trixie, it’s been moved off the disk into memory – specifically a type of memory called tmpfs. To quote the tmpfs man page: The tmpfs facility allows the creation of filesystems whose contents reside in virtual memory. Since the files on such filesystems

HP Coupon Codes and Deals: Up to 60% Off | September 2025

If you don't know where to start—and use—your HP coupon code, there’s a wide variety of options available at HP.com in terms of budget and use case, but my eye goes first to the high-end HP Omen gaming monitors, like the fantastic HP Omen Transcend 32. This 4K 240Hz monitor is a favorite among PC gamers, even among the huge amounts of OLED options out there. It can hit a peak brightness of over 1,000 nits in HDR, bringing scenes in games to life in vivid detail. Or if you’re on the other side o

The King's Quarry: How Louis XVI Went from Hunter to Hunted

Marie Antoinette on the hunt ( Public domain ) One of the most famous diary entries of all time consists of a single word: rien, which is French for “nothing.” It’s what King Louis XVI recorded on July 14, 1789, the day the Bastille was stormed. This entry (or lack thereof) is often cited as evidence of the king’s disinterest in the brewing revolution. The standard narrative about Louis is that he was simply not up to the task of dealing with the forces that threatened his throne. As a second

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the over-reliance on PowerPoint (2019)

We’ve all sat in those presentations. A speaker with a stream of slides full of text, monotonously reading them off as we read along. We’re so used to it we expect it. We accept it. We even consider it ‘learning’. As an educator I push against ‘death by PowerPoint’ and I'm fascinated with how we can improve the way we present and teach. The fact is we know that PowerPoint kills. Most often the only victims are our audience’s inspiration and interest. This, however, is the story of a PowerPoint s

A Deep Dive into Debian 13 /tmp: What's New, and What to Do If You Don't Like It

Debian 13 “Trixie” introduces an important change to /tmp. Traditionally, it’s been just another filesystem, albeit with some special permissions that allows everyone on the system to use it without being able to remove each other’s files. In Trixie, it’s been moved off the disk into memory – specifically a type of memory called tmpfs. To quote the tmpfs man page: The tmpfs facility allows the creation of filesystems whose contents reside in virtual memory. Since the files on such filesystems

Thirsty data centres boom in drought-hit Mexico

Thirsty data centres boom in drought-hit Mexico 59 minutes ago Share Save Suzanne Bearne Technology Reporter, Querétaro, Mexico Share Save Arterra/Getty Images Querétaro is known for its impressive stone aqueduct Located in the middle of Mexico, Querétaro is a charming and colourful colonial-style city known for its dazzling stone aqueduct. But the city, and state of the same name, is also recognised for a very different reason - as Mexico's data centre capital. Across the state companies inc

Affirm's stock soars 15% on earnings, revenue beat

Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and chief executive officer of financial technology company Affirm, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort for the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, in Sun Valley, Idaho. Affirm shares rose 15% in extended trading on Thursday after the provider of buy now, pay later loans reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter. Here's how the company did versus LSEG consensus estimates: EPS: 20 cents vs. 11 cents estimated 20 c

Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people

We’ve all sat in those presentations. A speaker with a stream of slides full of text, monotonously reading them off as we read along. We’re so used to it we expect it. We accept it. We even consider it ‘learning’. As an educator I push against ‘death by PowerPoint’ and I'm fascinated with how we can improve the way we present and teach. The fact is we know that PowerPoint kills. Most often the only victims are our audience’s inspiration and interest. This, however, is the story of a PowerPoint s

The Duty-Free Loophole Is Closing. What That Means for You—and Your Packages

Want to buy something online and have it shipped into the US? Well, get ready to pay more for the privilege. Starting Friday, small packages imported into the country will be subjected to a duty. The Trump administration is levying a new tax on all packages coming into the country—regardless of value—starting August 29. This is the latest push in President Trump’s global trade war. The new policy is the result of an executive order issued in July that officially suspended the de minimis import

Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training

Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. While the company directed us to its blog post on the policy changes when asked about what prompted the move, we’ve formed some theories of our own. But first, what’s changing: Previously, Anthropic didn’t use consumer chat data for model training. Now, the company wants to train its AI systems on user conversations

Trump administration’s deal is structured to prevent Intel from selling foundry unit

The Trump administration seems intent on controlling Intel’s ability to make key business decisions around its floundering foundry business unit. Intel’s CFO David Zinsner shared new details about the company’s recent deal with the Trump administration, which gave the U.S. government a 10% equity stake, at a Deutsche Bank conference on Thursday, according to reporting from the Financial Times. The deal was structured in a way to penalize Intel if it spins out its foundry business unit, which m

Enterprise data infrastructure proves resilient as Snowflake’s 32% growth defies tech slowdown fears

Want smarter insights in your inbox? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get only what matters to enterprise AI, data, and security leaders. Subscribe Now Just days after Gartner’s stock plummeted 50% on warnings of slowing enterprise technology purchases, Snowflake delivered a resounding counter-narrative. Enterprises aren’t pulling back on data infrastructure. They’re doubling down. The cloud data platform company reported 32% year-over-year growth in product revenue for its fiscal second

Samsung offers enticing preorder deal for new Galaxy tablets ahead of September Unpacked

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

AI adoption linked to 13% decline in jobs for young U.S. workers: study

A Standford study has found evidence that the widespread adoption of generative AI is impacting the job prospects of early career workers. There is growing evidence that the widespread adoption of generative AI is impacting the job prospects of America's workers, according to a paper released on Tuesday by three Stanford University researchers. The study analyzed payroll records from millions of American workers, generated by ADP, the largest payroll software firm in the U.S. The report found

A forgotten medieval fruit with a vulgar name (2021)

Medieval Europeans were fanatical about a strange fruit that could only be eaten rotten. Then it was forgotten altogether. Why did they love it so much? And why did it disappear? In 2011, archaeologists found something unusual in a Roman toilet. The team were excavating the ancient village of Tasgetium (now Eschenz, Switzerland), ruled by a Celtic king who was personally given the land by Julius Caesar. It was built on the banks of the river Rhine, along what was then an important trade route

Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your data for AI training

Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. While the company directed us to its blog post on the policy changes when asked about what prompted the move, we’ve formed some theories of our own. But first, what’s changing: previously, Anthropic didn’t use consumer chat data for model training. Now, the company wants to train its AI systems on user conversations

Are you hoping for a live iPhone event on September 9? [Poll]

To say that Apple’s pre-recorded events are divisive is an understatement. What initially seemed like a pandemic-fueled stopgap has become the company’s standard way to make announcements, even though its competitors have largely moved back to live presentations. With the upcoming “Awe Dropping” event, Apple has an opportunity to take a new crack at the live event format. Do you think it’ll take it? Apple has been doubling down on pre-recorded events There is no question that Apple prefers th

Best Labor Day laptop deals 2025: Sales on Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and more

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

China is eating the world

The thing that surprised me most about traveling to China back in 2019 was how quiet it was. I expected chaos, noise, pollution—all the stuff you associate with a developing country. Instead, I found electric bikes gliding silently through tree-lined streets. We lived there for five months until COVID hit. About a week ago, I went back to visit Yunnan. Walking through the ancient towns another reality hit me: China doesn't need us anymore. These towns were packed with only Chinese tourists, I c

Charting Form Ds to roughly see the state of venture capital “fund” raising

The startup bubble that no one is talking about August 28, 2025 Figure 1** Above is a graph that displays the amount of Form Ds filed, where the entity (read: company/firm) name contains the phrases "fund I", "fund II", "fund III", and "fund IV". The x-axis is not the prettiest, but it is broken down by quarter. You can see that the line for "fund I" sees by far the greatest peak around quarter 3 of 2022, with a steep drop off immediately after. The other lines have a similar, but less pronou

My startup banking story (2023)

March 14, 2023 As a relatively new member of adult society, and an absolute infant of the business world, I didn't think much about bank choice. I figured: you put money in, you take money out, they're all the same. I also figured a local branch of a global bank is just a fungible tentacle of the giant banking machine, so also... who cares. Both incorrect assumptions, but let's relive and rediscover the effect of these assumptions as I did. I start my company. I am a 22 year old recent college

Building your own CLI coding agent with Pydantic-AI

Learning by doing Ben O’Mahony is Principal AI Engineer at Thoughtworks. He is a results-driven AI/Engineering leader with a track record of building high-performing teams and shipping business-critical AI, ML and data products and platforms at scale. He has deep expertise across the full Engineering and Data lifecycle from research to production deployment. Ben is adept at defining technical strategy, driving execution and partnering cross-functionally to deliver measurable impact. Recently Be

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