Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the would-you-look-at-that department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: [...] The study, led by researchers at Brown University, found that the wealthiest Americans lived shorter lives than the wealthiest Europeans. In fact, wealthy Northern and Western Europeans had death rates 35 percent lower than the wealthiest Americans, whose lifespans were more like the poorest in Northern and Western Europe -- which includes countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. "The findings are a stark reminder that even the wealthiest Americans are not shielded from the systemic issues in the US contributing to lower life expectancy, such as economic inequality or risk factors like stress, diet or environmental hazards," lead study author Irene Papanicolas, a professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown, said in a news release.
The study looked at health and wealth data of more than 73,000 adults across the US and Europe who were 50 to 85 years old in 2010. There were more than 19,000 from the US, nearly 27,000 from Northern and Western Europe, nearly 19,000 from Eastern Europe, and nearly 9,000 from Southern Europe. For each region, participants were divided into wealth quartiles, with the first being the poorest and the fourth being the richest. The researchers then followed participants until 2022, tracking deaths. The US had the largest gap in survival between the poorest and wealthiest quartiles compared to European countries. America's poorest quartile also had the lowest survival rate of all groups, including the poorest quartiles in all three European regions.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the leveling-up-your-studying department: Google's NotebookLM has added a new "Discover sources" feature that allows users to describe a topic and have the AI find and curate relevant sources from the web -- eliminating the need to upload documents manually. "When you tap the Discover button in NotebookLM, you can describe the topic you're interested in, and NotebookLM will bring back a curated collection of relevant sources from the web," says Google software engineer Adam Bignell. Click to add those sources to your notebook; "it's a fast and easy way to quickly grasp a new concept or gather essential reading on a topic." PCMag reports: You can still add your files. NotebookLM can ingest PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs, or Google Slides and summarize, transcribe, narrate, or convert into FAQs and study guides. "Discover sources" helps incorporate information you may not have saved. [...] The imported sources stay within the notebook you created. You can read the entire original document, ask questions about it via chat, or apply other NotebookLM features to it.
Google started rolling out both features on Wednesday. It should be available for all users in about "a week or so." For those concerned about privacy, Google says, "NotebookLM does not use your personal data, including your source uploads, queries, and the responses from the model for training." There's also an "I'm Feeling Curious" button (a reference to its iconic "I'm feeling lucky" search button) that generates sources on a random topic you might find interesting.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the doubling-down department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Walled Culture has been following closely Italy's poorly designed Piracy Shield system. Back in December we reported how copyright companies used their access to the Piracy Shield system to order Italian Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to all of Google Drive for the entire country, and how malicious actors could similarly use that unchecked power to shut down critical national infrastructure. Since then, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), an international, not-for-profit association representing computer, communications, and Internet industry firms, has added its voice to the chorus of disapproval. In a letter (PDF) to the European Commission, it warned about the dangers of the Piracy Shield system to the EU economy [...]. It also raised an important new issue: the fact that Italy brought in this extreme legislation without notifying the European Commission under the so-called "TRIS" procedure, which allows others to comment on possible problems [...].
As well as Italy's failure to notify the Commission about its new legislation in advance, the CCIA believes that: this anti-piracy mechanism is in breach of several other EU laws. That includes the Open Internet Regulation which prohibits ISPs to block or slow internet traffic unless required by a legal order. The block subsequent to the Piracy Shield also contradicts the Digital Services Act (DSA) in several aspects, notably Article 9 requiring certain elements to be included in the orders to act against illegal content. More broadly, the Piracy Shield is not aligned with the Charter of Fundamental Rights nor the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU -- as it hinders freedom of expression, freedom to provide internet services, the principle of proportionality, and the right to an effective remedy and a fair trial.
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Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - April 3, 2025
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Hunter
Beast Mastery
Fixed an issue where Call of the Wild could summon pets at your target without line of sight.
Monk
Windwalker
Fixed an issue that caused Slicing Winds to sometimes not hit large or elevated targets.
Paladin
Holy
Fixed an issue that caused Divine Toll to sometimes not generate the correct amount of Holy Power.
Creatures and NPCs
Tainted Fragments located in the Taelloch area of the Ringing Deeps no longer cause overwhelming amounts of damage.
Items
Cloak of Questionable Intent should now drop in Mythic+ and the Great Vault.
Cataclysm Classic
Fixed an issue with Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest, where sometimes it would interact with Frostfire Orb and cause inappropriate healing and snare values. When this item is used with Frostfire Orb, the duplicated damage will now appear as "Wrath of Tarecgosa" instead of "Frostfire Orb" and will no longer cause the interaction bug.
Developers’ note: The changes below went live with this week’s realm restarts.
Dragon Soul is now available in Looking for Group.
Madness of Deathwing will now drop two Essence of Corrupted Deathwing on Normal and Heroic difficulties.
Spine of Deathwing will now drop an Essence of Corrupted Deathwing.
Crystalline Geodes will now have a higher chance to award an epic gem.
Elementium-Coated Geodes can now drop Elven Peridot, Deepholm Iolite, and Lightstones.
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Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW 20th Anniversary Edition Phase 3 Arathi Basin Now Live!
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
On April 3, two weeks after the launch of Phase 3, the PvP Honor Rank 11 cap will be removed, giving access to titles and awards for ranking up to 14. The gates of Arathi Basin will open for a 15 vs.15 resource battle, and more opportunities for Honor and Rewards can be had during Battleground holiday weekends.
Get Ready for Arathi Basin
Players must hone their team coordination to a keen edge to capture and hold five different bases throughout the map and accrue resources. Alliance players will start close to the Stables at Trollbane Hall, while Horde players will begin near the farm in the Defiler’s Den. The first team to collect 2000 resources wins.
Players: 15 vs.15
Level Range: 20+
Capture Points: Farm, Mine, Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, and Stables
Resources Needed to Win: 2000
Battleground Holidays: More Honor and Rewards
Every weekend from Thursday night at midnight until early Tuesday morning, performing objectives in the featured battleground gains increased Honor and Faction rewards. Battleground holidays are on a weekly rotation cycle, starting the weekend of April 4 with Arathi Basin. Seek out the emissary in major cities to get the objective for the featured battleground to kick off your battle weekend.
We look forward to seeing how you fare in Phase 3 of WoW Classic: 20th Anniversary Edition.
See you in Azeroth!
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the what-to-expect department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Ryan Whitwam: Researchers at DeepMind have ... released a new technical paper (PDF) that explains how to develop AGI safely, which you can download at your convenience. It contains a huge amount of detail, clocking in at 108 pages before references. While some in the AI field believe AGI is a pipe dream, the authors of the DeepMind paper project that it could happen by 2030. With that in mind, they aimed to understand the risks of a human-like synthetic intelligence, which they acknowledge could lead to "severe harm." This work has identified four possible types of AGI risk, along with suggestions on how we might ameliorate said risks. The DeepMind team, led by company co-founder Shane Legg, categorized the negative AGI outcomes as misuse, misalignment, mistakes, and structural risks.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the golden-age department: U.S. stock markets suffered their worst day since the Covid pandemic after Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs, triggering a global selloff and wiping out $470 billion in value from tech giants Apple and Nvidia. From a report: The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 6%, while the S&P 500 and the Dow dropped 4.8% and 3.9%, respectively. [...] Meanwhile, the US dollar hit a six-month low, going down at least 2.2% on Thursday morning compared with other major currencies and oil prices sank on fears of a global slowdown. Though the US stock market has been used to tumultuous mornings over the last few weeks, US stock futures -- an indication of the market's likely direction -- had plummeted after the announcement. Hours later, Japan's Nikkei index slumped to an eight-month low and was followed by falls in stock markets in London and across Europe.
Multiple major American business groups have spoken out against the tariffs, including the Business Roundtable, a consortium of leaders of major US companies including JP Morgan, Apple and IBM, which called on the White House to "swiftly reach agreements" and remove the tariffs. "Universal tariffs ranging from 10-50% run the risk of causing major harm to American manufacturers, workers, families and exporters," the Business Roundtable said in a statement. "Damage to the US economy will increase the longer the tariffs are in place and may be exacerbated by retaliatory measures."
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