schwit1 writes: Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, tops a ranking that is increasingly dominated by Asia: the world's most populated city. It edged out Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and Japan's Tokyo to earn the title in a new United Nations report. [PDF] With an estimated population of nearly 42 million residents, Jakarta soared from 33rd place in the previous rankings, in 2018, that were topped by Tokyo. It's followed by Dhaka, with 36 million, which the report says is "expected to become the world's largest city by mid-century."

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An anonymous reader shares a report: CISA has warned that state-backed snoops and cyber-mercenaries are actively abusing commercial spyware to break into Signal and WhatsApp accounts, hijack devices, and quietly rummage through the phones of what the agency calls "high-value" users. In an alert published Monday, the US government's cyber agency said it's tracking multiple miscreants that are using a mix of phishing, bogus QR codes, malicious app impersonation, and, in some cases, full-blown zero-click exploits to compromise messaging apps which most people assume are safe. The agency says the activity it's seeing suggests an increasing focus on "high-value" individuals -- everyone from current and former senior government, military, and political officials to civil society groups across the US, the Middle East, and Europe. In many of the campaigns, attackers delivered spyware first and asked questions later, using the foothold to deploy more payloads and deepen their access.

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Two coal plants in Mumbai (in India) that were scheduled to close last year continue operating after the state government of Maharashtra reversed shutdown decisions in late 2023 and extended the life of at least one facility by five years. The largest single factor the Indian conglomerate Tata cited in its petition for an extension was increased energy demand from data centers. The Guardian reports that Amazon operated 16 data centers in Mumbai last year. The company's official website lists three "availability zones" for the city. Amazon's Mumbai colocation data centers consumed 624,518 megawatt hours of electricity in 2023. That amount could power over 400,000 Indian households for a year. Residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres from one coal plant. Earlier this year doctors found three tumours in the brain of a resident's 54-year-old mother. Studies show people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop cancer. By 2030 data centers will consume a third of Mumbai's energy, according to Ankit Saraiya, chief executive of Techno & Electric Engineering. Amazon's colocation data centers in Mumbai bought 41 diesel generators as backup. A report in August by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy identified diesel generators as a major source of air pollution in the region.

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Nvidia pushed back against investor concerns about Google's competitive positioning in AI on Tuesday after the chipmaker's shares tumbled 4.4% and erased nearly $200 billion in market cap on fears that Alphabet's tensor processing units were gaining ground against its dominance in AI computing. The company said it was "delighted by Google's success" but asserted that it continues to supply chips to Google. Nvidia said it remains "a generation ahead of the industry" as the only platform that runs every AI model and operates everywhere computing is done. The statement came after investors reacted to the release of Google's Gemini 3 large language model last week. The model was trained using TPUs rather than Nvidia chips. A report in The Information on Monday said Google was pitching potential clients including Meta on using TPUs in their data centers rather than Nvidia's chips. Nvidia said its platform offers "greater performance, versatility, and fungibility than ASICs," referring to application-specific integrated circuits like Google's TPUs that are designed for specific AI frameworks or functions. Google's TPUs have until now only been available for customers to rent through its cloud computing service. Nvidia has lost more than $800 billion in market value since it peaked above $5 trillion less than a month ago.

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The abstract of a paper on NBER: This paper examines a large-scale randomized evaluation of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program in 531 Peruvian rural primary schools. We use administrative data on academic performance and grade progression over 10 years to estimate the long-run effects of increased computer access on (i) school performance over time and (ii) students' educational trajectories. Following schools over time, we find no significant effects on academic performance but some evidence of negative effects on grade progression. Following students over time, we find no significant effects on primary and secondary completion, academic performance in secondary school, or university enrollment. Survey data indicate that computer access significantly improved students' computer skills but not their cognitive skills; treated teachers received some training but did not improve their digital skills and showed limited use of technology in classrooms, suggesting the need for additional pedagogical support.

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The brain goes through five distinct phases in life, with key turning points at ages nine, 32, 66 and 83, scientists have revealed. From a report: Around 4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells. Researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties when we "peak." They say the results could help us understand why the risk of mental health disorders and dementia varies through life. The brain is constantly changing in response to new knowledge and experience -- but the research shows this is not one smooth pattern from birth to death. Some people will reach these landmarks earlier or later than others -- but the researchers said it was striking how clearly these ages stood out in the data. These patterns have only now been revealed due to the quantity of brain scans available in the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Solid-state drives sitting unpowered in drawers or storage can lose data over time because voltage gradually leaks from their NAND flash cells, and consumer-grade drives using QLC NAND retain data for about a year while TLC NAND lasts up to three years without power. More expensive MLC and SLC NAND can hold data for five and ten years respectively. The voltage loss can result in missing data or completely unusable drives. Hard drives remain more resistant to power loss despite their susceptibility to bit rot. Most users relying on SSDs for primary storage in regularly powered computers face little risk since drives typically stay unpowered for only a few months at most. The concern mainly affects creative professionals and researchers who need long-term archival storage.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Singapore's police have ordered Apple and Google to prevent the spoofing of government agencies on their messaging platforms, the home affairs ministry said on Tuesday. The order under the nation's Online Criminal Harms Act came after the police observed scams on Apple's iMessage and Google Messages purporting to be from companies such as the local postal service SingPost. While government agencies have registered with a local SMS registry so only they can send messages with the "gov.sg" name, this does not currently apply to the iMessage and Google Messages platforms.

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In the latest Windows Insider beta update, Microsoft has announced that it is exploring preloading File Explorer in the background to improve launch performance. The feature will load File Explorer silently before users click on it and can be toggled off for those who prefer not to use it. Microsoft introduced a similar capability earlier this year for Office called Startup Boost that loads parts of Word in the background so the application launches more quickly. The company is also removing elements from the File Explorer context menu in the same update.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Lenovo is stockpiling memory and other critical components to navigate a supply crunch brought on by the boom in artificial intelligence. The world's biggest PC maker is holding on to component inventories that are roughly 50% higher than usual, Chief Financial Officer Winston Cheng told Bloomberg TV on Monday. The frenzy to build and fill AI data centers with advanced hardware is raising prices for producers of consumer electronics, but Lenovo also sees opportunity in this to capitalize on its stockpile. "The price is going very, very high, of course, and I think it's been unprecedented in terms of this rate driven by the AI demand," Cheng said. His company has long-term contracts in place and the benefit of scale, he added, and "those that have the supply actually would be able to have a position in the market." Beijing-based Lenovo will aim to avoid passing on rising costs to its customers in the current quarter, as it wants to sustain this year's strong sales growth, according to the CFO. He said the company will strike a balance between price and availability in 2026. Lenovo said last week that it has enough memory chips for all of 2026 and it can navigate any shortages better than its competitors.

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The EPA has approved new pesticides that qualify as PFAS "forever chemicals" (paywalled; alternative source), sparking criticism from scientists and environmental groups who warn these decisions could increase Americans' exposure through food and water at a time when many states are moving to restrict such substances. The Washington Post reports: This month, the agency approved two new pesticides that meet the internationally recognized definition for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or fluorinated substances, and has announced plans for four additional approvals. The authorized pesticides, cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram, which was approved Thursday, will be used on vegetables such as romaine lettuce, broccoli and potatoes. The agency also announced plans to relax a rule requiring companies to report all products containing PFAS and has proposed weakening drinking water standards for the chemicals. "Many fluorinated compounds registered or proposed for U.S. pesticidal use in recent years offer unique benefits for farmers, users, and the public," EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said in a statement. "It is important to differentiate between the highly toxic PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS for which the EPA has set drinking water standards, versus less toxic PFAS in pesticides that help maintain food security," notes Doug Van Hoewyk, a toxicologist at Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. He added that concerns about food residue depend on the PFAS and the quantity. Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, also commented: "The data we have about the use of PFAS pesticides is already seven years old, and since there have been many new approvals during that time, those numbers are sure to underestimate the amount were using today."

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Scientists report that the Antarctic ozone hole in 2025 is the fifth-smallest since 1992, thanks largely to decades of global restrictions on ozone-depleting chemicals under the Montreal Protocol. ABC News reports: The ozone hole reached its greatest one-day extent for 2025 in early September, measuring 8.83 million square miles, about 30% smaller than the largest hole on record in 2006. NOAA and NASA scientists emphasize that recent findings show efforts to limit ozone-depleting chemical compounds can have a significant impact. The regulations are established by the Montreal Protocol, which went into effect in 1992. Subsequent amendments are driving the gradual recovery of the ozone layer, which remains on track to fully recover later this century as countries worldwide replace harmful substances with safer alternatives. For decades, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting compounds were widely used in aerosol sprays, foams, air conditioners and refrigerators, causing significant reductions in ozone levels. Natural factors, such as temperature and atmospheric circulation, also influence ozone concentrations and are likely to have contributed to a smaller ozone hole this year, according to researchers. "This year's hole would have been more than one million square miles larger if there was still as much chlorine in the stratosphere as there was 25 years ago," said Paul Newman, a senior scientist at the University of Maryland system and longtime leader of NASA's ozone research team.

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Today, Reginald approaches us for a confession.

He writes:

I've no idea where I "copied" this code from five years ago. The purpose of this code was to filter out Maps and Collections Maybe the intention was to avoid a recursive implementation by an endless loop? I am shocked that I wrote such code.

Well, that doesn't bode well, Reginald. Let's take a look at this Java snippet:

/** * * @param input * @return */ protected Map rearrangeMap(Map input) { Map retMap = new HashMap(); if (input != null && !input.isEmpty()) { Iterator it = input.keySet().iterator(); while (true) { String key; Object obj; do { do { if (!it.hasNext()) { } key = (String) it.next(); } while (input.get(key) instanceof Map); obj = input.get(key); } while (obj instanceof Boolean && ((Boolean) obj).equals(Boolean.FALSE)); if (obj != null) { retMap.put(key, obj); return retMap; } } } else { return retMap; } }

The first thing that leaps out is that this is a non-generic Map, which is always a code smell, but I suspect that's the least of our problems.

We start by verifying that the input Map exists and contains data. If the input is null or empty, we return it. In our main branch, we create an iterator across the keys, before ethering a while(true) loop. So far so bad

Then we enter a pair of nested do loops. Which definitely hints that we've gone off the edge of the map here. In the inner most loop, we do a check- if there isn't a next element in the iterator, we… do absolutely nothing. Whether there is or isn't an element, we advance to the next element, risking a NoSuchElementException. We do this while the key points to an instance of Map. As always, an instanceof check is a nauseating code stench.

Okay, so the inner loop skips across any keys that point to maps, and throws an exception when it gets to the end of the list.

The surrounding loop skips over every key that is a boolean value that is also false.

If we find anything which isn't a Map and isn't a false Boolean and isn't null, we put it in our retMap and return it.

This function finds the first key that points to a non-map, non-false value and creates a new map that contains only that key/value. Which it's a hard thing to understand why I'd want that, especially since some Map implementations make no guarantee about order. And even if I did want that, I definitely wouldn't want to do that this way. A single for loop could have solved this problem.

Reginald, I don't think there's any absolution for this. Instead, my advice would be to install a carbon monoxide detector in your office, because I have some serious concerns about whether or not your brain is getting enough oxygen.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Hacker conferences -- like all conventions -- are notorious for giving attendees a parting gift of mystery illness. To combat "con crud," New Zealand's premier hacker conference, Kawaiicon, quietly launched a real-time, room-by-room carbon dioxide monitoring system for attendees. To get the system up and running, event organizers installed DIY CO2 monitors throughout the Michael Fowler Centre venue before conference doors opened on November 6. Attendees were able to check a public online dashboard for clean air readings for session rooms, kids' areas, the front desk, and more, all before even showing up. "It's ALMOST like we are all nerds in a risk-based industry," the organizers wrote on the convention's website. "What they did is fantastic," Jeff Moss, founder of the Defcon and Black Hat security conferences, told WIRED. "CO2 is being used as an approximation for so many things, but there are no easy, inexpensive network monitoring solutions available. Kawaiicon building something to do this is the true spirit of hacking." [...] Kawaiicon's work began one month before the conference. In early October, organizers deployed a small fleet of 13 RGB Matrix Portal Room CO2 Monitors, an ambient carbon dioxide monitor DIY project adapted from US electronics and kit company Adafruit Industries. The monitors were connected to an Internet-accessible dashboard with live readings, daily highs and lows, and data history that showed attendees in-room CO2 trends. Kawaiicon tested its CO2 monitors in collaboration with researchers from the University of Otago's public health department. The Michael Fowler Centre is a spectacular blend of Scandinavian brutalism and interior woodwork designed to enhance sound and air, including two grand pou -- carved Mori totems -- next to the main entrance that rise through to the upper foyers. Its cathedral-like acoustics posed a challenge to Kawaiicon's air-hacking crew, which they solved by placing the RGB monitors in stereo. There were two on each level of the Main Auditorium (four total), two in the Renouf session space on level 1, plus monitors in the daycare and Kuracon (kids' hacker conference) areas. To top it off, monitors were placed in the Quiet Room, at the Registration Desk, and in the Green Room. Kawaiicon's attendees could quickly check the conditions before they arrived and decide how to protect themselves accordingly. At the event, WIRED observed attendees checking CO2 levels on their phones, masking and unmasking in different conference areas, and watching a display of all room readings on a dashboard at the registration desk. In each conference session room, small wall-mounted monitors displayed stoplight colors showing immediate conditions: green for safe, orange for risky, and red to show the room had high CO2 levels, the top level for risk. Colorful custom-made Kawaiicon posters by New Zealand artist Pepper Raccoon placed throughout the Michael Fowler Centre displayed a QR code, making the CO2 dashboard a tap away, no matter where they were at the conference. Resources, parts lists, and assembly guides can be found here.

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Researchers warn that rapid advances in neuroscience, pharmacology, and AI are bringing "brain weapons" out of science fiction and into real-world plausibility. They argue current arms treaties don't adequately cover these emerging tools and call for a new, proactive framework to prevent the weaponization of the human mind. The Guardian reports: Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are about to publish a book that they believe should be a wake-up call to the world. [...] The book, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, explores how advances in neuroscience, pharmacology and artificial intelligence are coming together to create a new threat. "We are entering an era where the brain itself could become a battlefield," said Crowley. "The tools to manipulate the central nervous system -- to sedate, confuse or even coerce -- are becoming more precise, more accessible and more attractive to states." The book traces the fascinating, if appalling, history of state-sponsored research into central nervous system (CNS)-acting chemicals. [...] The academics argue that the ability exists to create much more "sophisticated and targeted" weapons that would once have been unimaginable. Dando said: "The same knowledge that helps us treat neurological disorders could be used to disrupt cognition, induce compliance, or even in the future turn people into unwitting agents." The threat is "real and growing" but there are gaps in international arms control treaties preventing it from being tackled effectively, they say. [...] The book makes the case for a new "holistic arms control" framework, rather than relying on existing arms control treaties. It sets out a number of practical steps that could be taken, including establishing a working group on CNS-acting and broader incapacitating agents. Other proposals concern training, monitoring and definitions. "We need to move from reactive to proactive governance," said Dando. Both men acknowledge that we are learning more about the brain and the central nervous system, which is good for humanity. They said they were not trying to stifle scientific progress and it was about preventing malign intent. Crowley said: "This is a wake-up call. We must act now to protect the integrity of science and the sanctity of the human mind."

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BrianFagioli writes: President Trump has issued a sweeping executive order that creates the Genesis Mission, a national AI program he compares to a Manhattan Project level effort. It centralizes DOE supercomputers, national lab resources, massive scientific datasets, and new AI foundation models into a single platform meant to fast track research in areas like fusion, biotech, microelectronics, and advanced manufacturing. The order positions AI as both a scientific accelerator and a national security requirement, with heavy emphasis on data access, secure cloud environments, classification controls, and export restrictions. The mission also sets strict timelines for identifying key national science challenges, integrating interagency datasets, enabling AI run experimentation, and creating public private research partnerships. Whether this becomes an effective scientific engine or another oversized federal program remains to be seen, but the administration is clearly pushing to frame Trump as the president who put AI at the center of U.S. research strategy.

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Sam Altman and Jony Ive say they've settled on a prototype for OpenAI's first hardware device that could ship in "less than" two years. The Verge reports: In an interview with Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective's 2025 Demo Day, they said they are currently prototyping the device, and when asked about a timeframe, Ive said it could arrive in "less than" two years. Little has been revealed so far about the OpenAI device in development, but it's rumored to be screen-free and "roughly the size of a smartphone." Altman described the design as "simple and beautiful and playful," adding that, "There was an earlier prototype that we were quite excited about, but I did not have any feeling of, "I want to pick up that thing and take a bite out of it,' and then finally we got there all of a sudden." Ive similarly emphasized simplicity and whimsy, saying, "I love solutions that teeter on appearing almost naive in their simplicity, and I also love incredibly intelligent, sophisticated products that you want to touch, and you feel no intimidation, and you want to use almost carelessly, that you use them almost without thought, that they're just tools." Altman went on to comment, "I hope that when people see it, they say, 'That's it!,'" to which Ive responded, "Yeah, they will."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The island of Hokkaido has long been an agricultural powerhouse -- now Japan is investing billions to turn it into a global hub for advanced semiconductors. More than half of Japan's dairy produce comes from Hokkaido, the northernmost of its main islands. In winter, it's a wonderland of ski resorts and ice-sculpture festivals; in summer, fields bloom with bands of lavender, poppies and sunflowers. These days, cranes are popping up across the island -- building factories, research centers and universities focused on technology. It's part of Japan's boldest industrial push in a generation: an attempt to reboot the country's chip-making capabilities and reshape its economic future. Locals say that beyond the cattle and tourism, Hokkaido has long lacked other industries. There's even a saying that those who go there do so only to leave. But if the government succeeds in turning Hokkaido into Japan's answer to Silicon Valley -- or "Hokkaido Valley", as some have begun to call it -- the country could become a new contender in the $600 billion race to supply the world's computer chips. At the heart of the plan is Rapidus, a little-known company backed by the government and some of Japan's biggest corporations including Toyota, Softbank and Sony. Born out of a partnership with IBM, it has raised billions of dollars to build Japan's first cutting-edge chip foundry in decades. The government has invested $12 billion in the company, so that it can build a massive semiconductor factory or "fab" in the small city of Chitose. In selecting the Hokkaido location, Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike points to Chitose's water, electricity infrastructure and its natural beauty. Mr Koike oversaw the fab design, which will be completely covered in grass to harmonize with Hokkaido's landscape, he told the BBC. Local authorities have also flagged the region as being at lower risk of earthquakes compared to other potential sites in Japan.

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Amazon is committing up to $50 billion to massively expand AI and supercomputing capacity for U.S. government cloud regions, adding 1.3 gigawatts of high-performance compute and giving federal agencies access to its full suite of AI tools. Reuters reports: The project, expected to break ground in 2026, will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing capacity across AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret and AWS GovCloud regions by building data centers equipped with advanced compute and networking technologies. The project, expected to break ground in 2026, will add nearly 1.3 gigawatts of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing capacity across AWS Top Secret, AWS Secret and AWS GovCloud regions by building data centers equipped with advanced compute and networking technologies. Under the latest initiative, federal agencies will gain access to AWS' comprehensive suite of AI services, including Amazon SageMaker for model training and customization, Amazon Bedrock for deploying models and agents, as well as foundation models such as Amazon Nova and Anthropic Claude. The federal government seeks to develop tailored AI solutions and drive cost-savings by leveraging AWS' dedicated and expanded capacity.

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Core Devices has fully open-sourced the entire Pebble software stack and confirmed the first Pebble Time 2 shipments will start in January. "This is the clearest sign yet that the platform is shifting from a company-led product to a community-backed project that can survive independently," reports Gadgets & Wearables. From the report: The announcement follows weeks of tension between Core Devices and parts of the Pebble community. By moving from 95 to 100 percent open source, the company has essentially removed itself as a bottleneck. Users can now build, run, and maintain every piece of software needed to operate a Pebble watch. That includes firmware for the watch and mobile apps for Android and iOS. This puts the entire software stack into public hands. According to the announcement, Core Devices has released the mobile app source code, enabled decentralized app distribution, and made hardware more repairable with replaceable batteries and published design files.

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