Space.com calls it "the once-in-a-lifetime reignition of a long-dead star in an explosion powerful enough to briefly match the brilliance of Polaris, the North Star." In March CNN promised this once-every-79-years event would happen "anytime between now and September." But it didn't... Space.com has a spectacular animation showing what this "recurring nova" was supposed to look like (described by CNN as a "sudden, brief explosion" from a collapsed/"white dwarf" star). "The highly-anticipated 'guest star' of the night sky has yet to deliver its grand performance," adds Space.com, "but we have an update." For a quick recap... T Coronae Borealis — often called T Cor Bor or T CrB — is home to a white dwarf, a dense, burnt-out star siphoning material from its companion star, which is a massive red giant close to the end of its life. This material spirals into an accretion disk around the white dwarf, where it slowly coats the star's surface. Every 80 years or so, the white dwarf manages to accumulate enough mass to trigger a nuclear explosion, sparking an outburst that boosts its typically dim magnitude of 10 to a bright 2.0 — that should look like a "new star" in the night sky to us... [T]he elusive system continues to show signs that an outburst is still imminent. So, what gives? "We know it has to happen," astrophysicist Elizabeth Hays, who is watching T CrB every day using NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope, told Space.com in a recent interview. "We just can't pin it down to the month." The unpredictability stems partly from limited historical records of T CrB's outbursts. Only two such eruptions have been definitively observed in recent history: on May 12, 1866, when a star's outburst briefly outshined all the stars in its constellation, reaching magnitude 2.0, and again on February 9, 1946, when it peaked at magnitude 3.0. These events appear to follow the star's roughly 80-year cycle, suggesting that the next outburst may not occur until 2026. However, in February 2015, the system brightened in a manner reminiscent of its behavior in 1938, eight years before its 1946 eruption. This rise in brightness suggested T CrB's outburst was accelerated to 2023. The system also endured a "unique and mysterious" dimming about a year before its 1946 outburst, and a similar dip started in March last year, prompting astronomers to adjust their predictions to 2024. Yet, the cause of this pre-eruption dip in brightness remains unclear, making it only a coincidental predictor. "We got really excited when it looked like it was doing similar things," said Hays. "Now we're learning, 'Oh, there's another piece we can't see.'" Moreover, the rate at which the red giant's material is being drawn toward the white dwarf may fluctuate over the years, making it trickier to put a date on the calendar for the outburst, Edward Sion, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, told Space.com... "There's a lot of uncertainty about the actual average accretion rate," said Sion. The article points out that last time there was an eruption, "there were no X-ray or gamma-ray telescopes in space, so there is no data from wavelengths other than optical to shed light on what happened before the outburst." But this time astrophysicist Hays says "We're getting the best dataset we've ever had on what does nova look like before it goes off". Space.com says "this wealth of data will allow them to better predict future outbursts, and will eventually benefit models of how stars work." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Okian Warrior for sharing the article.

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This week AWS pledged up to $100 million in cloud-computing credits for educational organizations over the next five years, to help them build "technology-based learning experiences" on AWS, including: AI assistants coding curriculums - connectivity tools student learning platforms mobile apps chatbots One example shared by Amazon: The nonprofit Code.org will use AWS's cloud credits to scale their AI teaching assistant that "has already helped teachers reduce the time they spend assessing students' coding projects by up to 50%." (Amazon's blog post notes that "Improved efficiency means teachers have more time to work on personalized lesson plans and coach students" — and that Code.org's assistant uses an AWS service for building AI tools...) $100 million sounds pretty generous. But long-time Slashdot reader theodp notes the application for the cloud credits limits education organization to $100,000 in credits (though "your organization may be able to apply for a credits expansion" if needed). Do these figures suggest Amazon expects less than 1,000 organizations to apply for free cloud-computing over the next five years? ($100,000,000/$100,000 = 1,000) theodp also spotted a GitHub comment from a Code.org software engineer comparing accuracy for its teaching assistant after a switch from GPT-4 Turbo to Claude. Both before and after the switch, the teaching assistant averaged an accuracy rate of 77%, the comment notes. I guess that 77% accuracy rate is what Amazon is calling "improved efficiency" that "means teachers have more time to work on personalized lesson plans and coach students." (Maybe you're never to young to learn that AI makes mistakes?)

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"We're excited to be working with Microsoft to keep Xboxes running longer and out of the waste heap," iFixit's director of sustainability told The Verge. iFixit now sells genuine Xbox parts you can use to repair your Xbox Series X or S and offers official guides to help with fixes [including both the all-digital and disk drive editions]... iFixit's Microsoft Repair Hub also features iFixit's parts for repairing Microsoft Surface devices, which it started selling in 2023. "Since we launched our Surface parts collaboration with Microsoft last year, we've been helping our customers repair their own Microsoft laptops and tablets — and it's awesome to be able to offer Xbox owners the same opportunity," says Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit's director of sustainability. The article points out that iFixit also sells "nearly every part of the Steam Deck" and "a bunch of repair guides for Valve's handheld PC, too," along with genuine repair parts for Google's Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. "With Microsoft, we've created a one-stop place for guides, tools, and spare parts to make self-service repair accessible to anyone," says iFixit's new web page. "Imagine how different the world would be if repairing every device could be this easy."

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"Google says its new AI model family has a curious feature: the ability to 'identify' emotions," writes TechCrunch. And that's raising some concerns... Announced on Thursday, the PaliGemma 2 family of models can analyze images, enabling the AI to generate captions and answer questions about people it "sees" in photos. "PaliGemma 2 generates detailed, contextually relevant captions for images," Google wrote in a blog post shared with TechCrunch, "going beyond simple object identification to describe actions, emotions, and the overall narrative of the scene." Emotion recognition doesn't work out of the box, and PaliGemma 2 has to be fine-tuned for the purpose. Nonetheless, experts TechCrunch spoke with were alarmed at the prospect of an openly available emotion detector... "Emotion detection isn't possible in the general case, because people experience emotion in complex ways," Mike Cook, a research fellow at Queen Mary University specializing in AI, told TechCrunch. "Of course, we do think we can tell what other people are feeling by looking at them, and lots of people over the years have tried, too, like spy agencies or marketing companies. I'm sure it's absolutely possible to detect some generic signifiers in some cases, but it's not something we can ever fully 'solve.'" The unsurprising consequence is that emotion-detecting systems tend to be unreliable and biased by the assumptions of their designers... "Interpreting emotions is quite a subjective matter that extends beyond use of visual aids and is heavily embedded within a personal and cultural context," said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, a nonprofit that studies the societal implications of artificial intelligence. "AI aside, research has shown that we cannot infer emotions from facial features alone...." The biggest apprehension around open models like PaliGemma 2, which is available from a number of hosts, including AI dev platform Hugging Face, is that they'll be abused or misused, which could lead to real-world harm. "If this so-called emotional identification is built on pseudoscientific presumptions, there are significant implications in how this capability may be used to further — and falsely — discriminate against marginalized groups such as in law enforcement, human resourcing, border governance, and so on," Khlaaf said. Those concerrns were echoed by a professor in data ethics and AI at the Oxford Internet Institute, Sandra Wachter, who gave this quote to TechCrunch. With models like this, "I can think of myriad potential issues... that can lead to a dystopian future, where your emotions determine if you get the job, a loan, and if you're admitted to uni."

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"SpaceX has launched 20 of its Starlink satellites up into Earth's orbit, enabling direct-to-cellphone connectivity for subscribers anywhere on the planet," reports the tech blog New Atlas. That completes the constellation's first orbital shell, following a launch of an initial batch of six satellites for testing back in January. The satellites were launched with a Falcon 9 rocket from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on December 5 at 10 PM EST; they were then deployed in low Earth orbit. SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted on X that the effort will "enable unmodified cellphones to have internet connectivity in remote areas." He added a caveat for the first orbital shell — "Bandwidth per beam is only ~10 Mb, but future constellations will be much more capable...." The big deal with this new venture is that unlike previous attempts at providing satellite-to-phone service, you don't need a special handset or even a specific app to get access anywhere in the world. Starlink uses standard LTE/4G protocols that most phones are compatible with, partners with mobile operators like T-Mobile in the U.S. and Rogers in Canada, and has devised a system to make its service work seamlessly with your phone when it's connecting to satellites 340 miles (540 km) above the Earth's surface. The SpaceX division noted it's also worked out latency constraints, ideal altitudes and elevation angles for its satellites, along with several other parameters, to achieve reliable connectivity. Each satellite has an LTE modem on board, and these satellites plug into the massive constellation of 6,799 existing Starlink spacecraft, according to Space.com. Connecting to that larger constellation happens via laser backhaul, where laser-based optical communication systems transmit data between satellites. This method leverages the advantages of lasers over traditional radio frequency communications, enabling data rates up to 100 times faster, increased bandwidth, and improved security. The direct-to-cell program was approved last month, the article points out — but it's ready to ramp up. "You'll currently get only text service through the end of 2024; voice and data will become available sometime next year, as will support for IoT devices (such as smart home gadgets). The company hasn't said how much its service will cost. " (They also note there's already competing services from Lynk, "which has satellites in orbit and launched in the island nation of Palau back in 2023, and AST SpaceMobile, which also has commercial satellites in orbit and contracts with the U.S. government, Europe, and Japan.") Elon Musk's announcement on X.com prompted this interesting exchange: X.com User: You've stated that purchasing Starlink goes toward funding the journey to Mars, yes? Elon Musk: Yes.

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The new movie Y2K is either a comedy or a disaster/horror film, according to Wikipedia. The film "imagines a turn of the century where the machines don't just glitch or stop working," writes the Hollywood Reporter. "They go full homicidal." With a cast that includes 1990s icons like Alicia Silverstone and the lead singer for the Napster-loving 1990s metal band Limp Bizkit, the movie "gives the '90s the ending it deserved," according to the article. They interviewed the film's director (and co-writer and co-star) Kyle Mooney, best-known for SNL, starting by complimenting this fidelity to the tech of its day. "The film opens with a high schooler getting home and logging into AOL Instant Messenger, which is not a scene I think I've ever seen in another movie. Mooney: All of my relationships, between 17 and 22 years old, were short-lived and spawned because I was most confident flirting on Instant Messager.... Q: The tech here is such a huge part of the story. Were there any logos or brands you had a tough time getting on camera? Mooney: Definitely. This isn't really a spoiler, but Jaeden Martell's character's computer — the one that we open up with him logging into AOL — eventually turns into a robot. That was supposed to be an iMac. But I don't think Apple wanted their machines strangling people or whatever the robot does — so we had to change the look of it by, like, 30 percent. There were a few instances like that, where we couldn't get the exact thing, but we were allowed to get as close as possible. Deadline's article includes a spoiler about the film, but also this interesting note about two of its young actors, Julian Dennison and Jaeden Martell" [A]lthough Dennison and Martell were both born after 2000, they enjoyed slipping into the "lack of convenience and the lack of technology" that came with the era. "I wish I got to experience that. I wish I didn't live in the age of everything being so accessible," said Martell. And apparently the movie also incldues a quick shout-out to Myspace co-founder Tom Anderson.

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The Verge thinks Valve "could make a play to dethrone the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft." And it's not just because there's lots of new SteamOS hardware on the way (including a wireless VR headset and a pair of trackable wands, a Steam Controller 2 gamepad, and a living room console. "Valve has also now seemingly revealed plans for partners to create third-party SteamOS hardware too." It won't be easy to take on Sony, Microsoft, or Meta. Those companies have a lot to lose, and they're deeply entrenched. But the Steam Deck has revealed a massive weakness in each of their businesses that may take them years to correct — the desire to play a huge library of games anytime, anywhere. And while they figure that out, Valve may be building an entire new ecosystem of SteamOS hardware, one that could finally let PC and peripheral makers tap into the huge and growing library of Windows games on all sorts of different hardware without relying on Microsoft or subjecting their customers to the many annoyances of Windows... Valve has long said it will open up SteamOS to other manufacturers, even recently committing to some direct support for rival handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally — and the other week, Valve quietly updated a document that may reveal its larger overarching strategy. It won't just leave SteamOS sitting around and hope manufacturers build something — it'll hold their hand. Valve now has an explicit label for third parties to create "Powered by SteamOS" devices, which it explicitly defines as "hardware running the SteamOS operating system, implemented in close collaboration with Valve." It additionally lets companies create "Steam Compatible" hardware that ships with "Valve approved controller inputs," as well as SteamVR hardware and Steam Link hardware that lets you stream games from one device to another... When Valve asked PC manufacturers to sign onto its Steam Machines initiative over a decade ago, with the idea of building living room PC consoles, it asked for a leap of faith with very little to show and a tiny chance of success. It took years for Valve to even build the oddball living room controller for its Steam Machines, and it didn't get far in convincing Windows game developers to port their games to Linux. But by the time it announced the Steam Deck, Valve had hammered out a Proton software compatibility layer so good that many Windows games now run better on Linux, and created the most customizable yet familiar set of controls ever made. If manufacturers could build their own Steam Machines rather than equivalent Windows machines, they could offer better gaming products than they do today. Maybe they'd even want to release a VR headset that isn't tied to Microsoft or Meta if it doubled as a Steam Deck, portably playing decades of flatscreen games. It's not clear any of this will pan out; Valve is an exceedingly small company that tries not to chase too many things at a time. When I speak to PC industry executives about why they pick Windows over SteamOS, some say they're concerned about whether Valve would truly be able to support them. But it's just as intriguing an idea as it was 12 years ago when Gabe Newell explained the initial vision to us, and this time, there's a far better chance it'll work. "Today, every major PC company is building one or more Steam Deck rivals," the article points out. "But without Valve's blessing and support, they're saddled with a Windows OS that doesn't start, pause, and resume games quickly and seamlessly enough to feel portable and easy..."

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An anonymous reader shared this report from the blog Windows Central: Microsoft has ended production on the Surface Studio 2+, its ultra-premium all-in-one desktop PC designed for creatives and commercial customers. Starting at a whopping $4,500, the Studio 2+ was the ultimate Windows all-in-one with the best touchscreen display on a unique hinge that allowed the screen to lay down like a draft board... So, if you're interested in buying a Surface Studio 2+, you better hurry, as whatever stock is remaining is all that's left. Unfortunately, it's likely that the end of production on the Surface Studio 2+ also marks an end to the Surface Studio line as a whole. My own sources tell me there's no Studio 2+ successor lined up currently. Ars Technica points out that over the eight-year run of the Surface Studio, Microsoft only updated it twice. Like the Surface Laptop Studio, the desktop's claim to fame was a unique hinge design for its screen, which could reposition it to make it easier to draw on with the Surface Pen. But the desktop's high cost and its perennially outdated internal components made it a less appealing machine than it could have been... The longest-lived Studio desktop was the Surface Studio 2, which was released in 2018 and wasn't replaced until a revised Surface Studio 2+ was announced in late 2022. It used an even higher-quality display panel, but it still used previous-generation internal components. This might not have been so egregious if Microsoft had updated it more consistently, but this model went untouched for so long that Microsoft had to lower Windows 11's system requirements specifically to cover the Studio 2 so that the company wouldn't be ending support for a PC that it was still actively selling. The Studio 2+ was the desktop's last hurrah, and despite jumping two GPU generations and four CPU generations, it still didn't use the latest components available at the time. Again, more consistent updates like the ones Microsoft provides for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop could have made this less of a problem, but the Studio 2+ once again sat untouched for two years after being updated.

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"The U.S. government on Friday ordered testing of the nation's milk supply for bird flu," reports the Associated Press, "to better monitor the spread of the virus in dairy cows." Raw or unpasteurized milk from dairy farms and processors nationwide must be tested on request starting Dec. 16, the Agriculture Department said. Testing will begin in six states — California, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Officials said the move is aimed at "containing and ultimately eliminating the virus," known as Type A H5N1, which was detected for the first time in March in U.S. dairy cows. Since then, more than 700 herds have been confirmed to be infected in 15 states. "This will give farms and farmworkers better confidence in the safety of their animals and ability to protect themselves, and it will put us on a path to quickly controlling and stopping the virus' spread nationwide," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. The risk to people from bird flu remains low, health officials said. Pasteurization, or heat treatment, kills the virus in milk, leaving it safe to drink... At least 58 people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu, mostly farm workers who became mildly ill after close contact with infected cows, including their milk, or infected poultry.

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Nuclear rods are traditionally clad in metal. But a U.S. energy company wants to develop a better, safer alternative that instead uses silicon carbide composites. Working with America's Energy Department, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems just completed a 120-day irradiation testing period simulating the intense radiation and extreme temperatures (3,452F) of a pressurized water reactor in a real-world nuclear power plant. And the tests "showed no significant mass change, indicating promising performance," the company said in a statement. "This indicates that the SiGA cladding is exceptionally resistant to the damaging effects of radiation." Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot shared this report from the Interesting Engineering blog: "This success is a key milestone on SiGA cladding's development path to enhance the safety of the existing U.S. fleet of light water reactors," added Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS. "It could also do the same for the future generation of advanced nuclear power systems." This advanced material offers significant advantages over traditional metal cladding. It can withstand temperatures up to 1900 degreesC (3452 degreesF), far exceeding the limits of current materials. This enhanced heat resistance is crucial for improving safety margins in nuclear reactors. Moreover, the company claims that in case of any accident, SiGA cladding is designed to maintain its integrity at temperatures where traditional cladding might fail. This could prevent the release of radioactive materials and significantly improve overall reactor safety. Furthermore, SiGA cladding offers performance benefits. It enables higher power operation and longer fuel lifetimes. This translates to increased efficiency and reduced costs for nuclear power plants... The design, safety, and installation of new nuclear reactors have been a prime subject for research. Recently, France-based Newcleo applied to the United Kingdom's Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to enter its lead-cooled small modular reactor for generating fission energy in the generic design assessment phase. Newcleo's SMR can operate at atmospheric pressure, and the company also states that no significant energy release occurs in cases of vessel failure. This also eliminates the need for high-pressure-resistant containment. The article notes that General Atomics's collaboration with the U.S. Energy Department is "part of the Accident Tolerant Fuel Program, a national effort to improve the safety and performance of nuclear reactors."

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"Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok is now available to free users on X," reports the Verge: Several users noticed the change on Friday, which gives non-Premium subscribers the ability to send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours. xAI launched Grok last year as a "humorous AI assistant," but it was only available to Premium subscribers... Making Grok more widely available might help it compete with the already-free chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Anthropic's Claude.

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"TikTok has lost its bid to strike down a law that could result in the platform being banned in the United States," reports CNN. A U.S. federal appeals court just unanimously ruled in favor of the new U.S. law requiring TikTok's China-based owners to either sell the app next month or face an effective ban in the United States. Denying TikTok's argument that the law was unconstitutional, the judges found that the law does not "contravene the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States," nor does it "violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws"... After the [January 25] deadline, U.S. app stores and internet services could face hefty fines for hosting TikTok if it is not sold. (Under the legislation, President Biden may issue a one-time extension of the deadline.) In a statement, TikTok indicated it would appeal the decision. "The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," said company spokesperson Michael Hughes. "Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people. The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025".... "People in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing," the judges said. "What the Act targets is the PRC's ability to manipulate the content covertly. Understood in that way, the Government's justification is wholly consonant with the First Amendment." The judges also wrote that "in part precisely because of the platform's expansive reach, Congress and multiple Presidents determined that divesting it from the PRC's control is essential to protect our national security... Congress judged it necessary to assume that risk given the grave national-security threats it perceived." CNN notes that ByteDance "has previously indicated it will not sell TikTok."

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An anonymous reader shared this report from Phoronix: New Linux patches from Huawei engineers are preparing new driver support for controlling High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) with the ARM-based Kunpeng high performance SoC... [I]t would appear there is a new Kunpeng SoC coming that will feature integrated High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).Unless I missed something, this Kunpeng SoC with HBM memory hasn't been formally announced yet and I haven't been able to find any other references short of pointing to prior kernel patches working on this HBM integration... It will be interesting to see what comes of Huawei Kunpeng SoCs with HBM memory and ultimately how well they perform against other AArch64 server processors as well as the Intel Xeon and AMD EPYC competition.

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An anonymous reader shared this report from Defense News: Following a pattern of undersea cable damage across European waters in the last year, with the most recent disruptions happening just weeks ago, top NATO officials have begun envisioning a capability that would allow the alliance to have permanent eyes above and under the waterline. In an interview with Defense News, Admiral Pierre Vandier, the alliance's Norfolk, Virginia-based commander for concepts and transformation, likened the idea to police CCTV cameras installed on street lights in urban trouble spots for recording evidence of crimes. "The technology is there to make this street-lighting with USVs," he said, using the military's shorthand for unmanned surface vessel. Vandier said his team is in the early stages of developing an unmanned surface vessel fleet so that "NATO can see and monitor daily its environment." The first step would be to achieve this at a surface level, and then later under water... According to Vandier, the goal is to launch the drone surveillance fleet before the next NATO Summit, which will be held in the Netherlands next June. The article notes the U.S. Navy's Task Force 59 (launched in 2021) is already "dedicated to integrating unmanned systems and AI in the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet area of operations." This prompted Admiral Vandier to say the technology for an unmanned cable-watching fleet "already exists... everything is known and sold, so it is much more a matter of adoption than technology."

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Thursday OpenAI released a "smarter, faster" ChatGPT. But there's still competition, notes the tech site Tom's Guide (which is liveblogging December's AI news). "Not to be outdone by OpenAI, this week has seen several big announcements by other AI companies." Google Deepmind unveiled Genie 2, a tool capable of creating limitless 3D environments. It could create playable games based on a single text input. ElevenLabs announced a new Conversational AI system. It's a voice bot meant to feel like you're making a phone call. Tom's Guide AI editor Ryan Morrison used it to clone his voice to act as technical support for his dad. OpenAI will probably announce an upgraded Sora video model in the coming days, but we were impressed by the new Hunyuan Video model that released a demo this week. Sora has some serious competition and we're interested in seeing how it competes.

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Mozilla's developer blog is announcing "JavaScriptmas". [F]rom December 1st to December 24th, we will release a fun, daily coding challenge for you to solve on [code-learning platform] Scrimba. Each challenge comes with an introductory screencast called "scrim", some starter code, and then it's your turn to fill in the gaps. JavaScriptmas is about coding, learning, and the chance to win exciting prizes. Two lucky coders will be chosen as winners at the end of JavaScriptmas, and each will win a MacBook Air M3, swag from MDN and Scrimba, and a lifetime Scrimba Pro membership (worth ~$200 per year). The Scrimba membership will give you access to all courses, including the Frontend Developer Career Path based on the MDN curriculum. Most of the challenges will evolve around JavaScript algorithms. You will also practice subjects like DOM manipulation, UI design, CSS, accessibility, and even a bit of cyber security. The challenges are a collaborative effort from Scrimba teachers, mentors, and MDN content writers, all with the goal of turning you into a more well-rounded web developer. Winners will be chosen randomly from everyone who submits correct solutions. We want JavaScriptmas to be accessible for both beginners and experienced developers alike. That said, the more challenges you solve, the better your chances of winning! To maximize your chances, try to solve all 24 challenges and submit them as both regular entries and social entries. You don't have to submit your solutions on the same day they're published — the deadline for any submission is midnight UTC on Christmas Eve.

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The Verge is applauding Hyundai's electric SUV, the IONIQ 5 for "Fake shifting, real fun." And others agree. "The Ioniq 5 N is also special for how it simulates the 'feel' of gear shifting," writes the blog Inside EVs, "including the jolt and brief interruption in power that happens and the mechanical resistance that's normal upon downshifting. "The Ioniq 5 N also simulates engine sounds through the speakers, will let you rev the 'engine' while parked and has a 'redline' you'll hit before you need to shift again. It's all great fun." [E]very single person who drives the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, whether they're a die-hard EV person or the most hardcore electro-skeptic, absolutely loves it. And they love the fake shifting most of all... Shut up and embrace the fake EV shifting, you nerds. Find some joy in your life for once. And joy will definitely be on order with the new 2025 Kia EV6 GT. The U.S.-spec version of Kia's updated crossover made its debut [November 21] at the L.A. Auto Show. And while there's still a lot we don't know about it, we have power specs and one key detail: the EV6 GT now gets a simulated gear shift feature. "The GT's new Virtual Gear Shift feature enhances driving immersion by simulating gear shifts with visuals, engine sound effects, and a tactile sensation through motor torque adjustments," Kia officials said in a news release. The Verge points out that Hyundai's Ioniq 5 N even uses speakers — both inside the car and outside — to broadcast the sounds of ignition, a boosted EV sound, and a third sound which "sounds like a robotic version of a fighter jet." Paired with the seemingly endless power and torque offered by the electric motors, I couldn't stop grinning. It's just like a little kid making car noises as they push a Hot Wheels car around a track, but combined with the driving experience in the Ioniq 5 N, it just taps into a pure enthusiast joy. Even kids around my neighborhood stopped and looked when I started the Ioniq 5 N up with the sound management turned on. They'd pull out their phones to take photos and videos as I drove off, happily faking the internal combustion engine experience and knowing I wasn't adding a drop of carbon to the atmosphere. The Ioniq 5 N just might be the performance EV that will change self-described "auto enthusiast" minds about the electric transition. It's that good.

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The use of lead in gasoline "might have harmed the mental health of a generation," reports USA Today. Gen X bears an extra burden of conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and neurotic behavior because of the leaded gasoline they were exposed to as children, according to a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Leaded gas was banned in the United States in 1996, but the study said years of exposure during development made them particularly vulnerable. Lead gas peaked from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, and children born during that era would later develop some of the highest rates of mental health symptoms, the study said. The study also linked leaded gas to "disadvantageous" traits, such as struggling to concentrate, stay on task or organizing thoughts. "I tend to think of Generation X as 'generation lead,'" said Aaron Reuben, a study co-author and assistant professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia. "We know they were exposed to it more and we're estimating they have gone on to have higher rates of internalizing conditions like anxiety, depression and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder...." Researchers linked the lead exposure to an estimated 151 million "excess mental disorders" in the United States over the 75-year period. The estimates should be "considered a floor" because it relies mainly on gas and not exposure from lead in paint and pipes, Reuben said... Those born between 1966 and 1986 generally had higher mental illness levels linked to lead exposure with the rates peaking for those born between 1966 and 1970, the study said. Those rates coincided with the peak use of lead in gas from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s... The study said the peak lead use coincided with increased demand for psychiatric care and higher rates of juvenile delinquency. Today there's routine blood screenings for high levels of lead, study co-author Reuben says. But in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, "folks were walking around with an average blood lead value that today would trigger clinical follow-up."

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This week, a double dose of Daniel D.

First he shared a lesson he titled "Offer you can't refuse a.k.a. Falsehood programmers believe about prices" explaining "Some programmers believe that new prices per month (when paid annually) are always better then the old ones (when paid monthly). Only this time they have forgotten their long-time clients on legacy packages."

 

Then he found a few more effs. "This e-shop required to create an account to download an invoice for order already delivered. Which is kind of WTF on its own. But when I pasted a generated 62 mixed character (alphanumeric+special) password, their form still insisted on entering 8+ characters. not correct. Well, because their programmers didn't expect somebody to paste a password. Once I did another JS event - e.g. clicked a submit button, it fixed itself."

 

And our Best Beastie in Black discovered "Anomalies in the causal structure of our particular 4-dimensional Lorentzian manifold have apparently caused this secure message portal belonging to a tax prep/audit company to count emails that haven't yet been sent by sender."

 

Traveler Tim R. struggled to pay for a visa, and reports this result. Rather than an error reported as success, we appear to have here a success reported as an error. "We're all familiar with apps that throw up an eror dialog with the error message as success but it's particularly irritating when trying to submit a payment. This is what happened when I tried to pay for an Indian visa with Paypal. To add insult to injury, when you try to pay again, it says that due to errors and network problems, you must check back in 2 hours before attempting a repeat payment."

 

Finally Robert H. is all charged up about Chevy shenanigans. "I thought one of the advantages of EV vehicles was they don't need oil changes?"

 

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