Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the really-cool-findings department: A new study shows bonobos can combine vocal calls in ways that mirror human language, producing phrases with meanings beyond the sum of individual sounds. "Human language is not as unique as we thought," said Dr Melissa Berthet, the first author of the research from the University of Zurich. Another author, Dr Simon Townsend, said: "The cognitive building blocks that facilitate this capacity is at least 7m years old. And I think that is a really cool finding."
The Guardian reports: Writing in the journal Science, Berthet and colleagues said that in the human language, words were often combined to produce phrases that either had a meaning that was simply the sum of its parts, or a meaning that was related to, but differed from, those of the constituent words. "'Blond dancer' -- it's a person that is both blond and a dancer, you just have to add the meanings. But a 'bad dancer' is not a person that is bad and a dancer," said Berthet. "So bad is really modifying the meaning of dancer here." It was previously thought animals such as birds and chimpanzees were only able to produce the former type of combination, but scientists have found bonobos can create both.

The team recorded 700 vocalizations from 30 adult bonobos in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, checking the context of each against a list of 300 possible situations or descriptions. The results reveal bonobos have seven different types of call, used in 19 different combinations. Of these, 15 require further analysis, but four appear to follow the rules of human sentences. Yelps -- thought to mean "'et's do that" -- followed by grunts -- thought to mean "look at what I am doing," were combined to make "yelp-grunt," which appeared to mean "let's do what I'm doing." The combination, the team said, reflected the sum of its parts and was used by bonobos to encourage others to build their night nests.

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Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Hotfixes - April 4, 2025

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Classes

Rogue

Outlaw

Trickster: Fixed an issue that allowed Coup de Grace to be activated a second time with precise input timing. The skill override effect will now become immediately unavailable upon a successful cast of Coup de Grace.

Dungeons and Raids

Cinderbrew Meadery

Flavor Scientist’s Failed Batch range reduced to 60 yards (was 100 yards) and now respects line of sight.

Brew Master Aldryr

Happy Hour no longer knocks back players.

Operation: Mechagon - Workshop

Fixed an issue where players may become stuck at the start of the slide after defeating Tussel Tonks.

Fixed an issue where the rim visual for Platinum Pummel and Foe Flipper can occasionally change size.

Priory of the Sacred Flame

Lightspawn’s Purification now prefers unique targets.

Baron Braunpyke

Fixed an issue where the boss can fail to cast Castigator's Shield.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the mission-accomplished department: SpaceX's Fram2 mission returned safely after becoming the first crewed spaceflight to orbit directly over Earth's poles. From a report: Led by cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang, who is the financier of this mission, the Fram2 crew has been free-flying through orbit since Monday. The group splashed down at 9:19 a.m. PT, or 12:19 p.m. ET, off the coast of California -- the first West Coast landing in SpaceX's five-year history of human spaceflight missions. The company livestreamed the splashdown and recovery of the capsule on its website.

During the journey, the Fram2 crew members were slated to carry out various research projects, including capturing images of auroras from space and documenting their experiences with motion sickness. [...] This trip is privately funded, and such missions allow for SpaceX's customers to spend their time in space as they see fit. For Fram2, the crew traveled to orbit prepared to carry out 22 research and science experiments, some of which were designed and overseen by SpaceX. Most of the research involves evaluating crew health.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the according-to-the-science department: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's ambitious plan to create 1 million hectares of new rice farms in eastern Merauke Regency faces strong criticism from scientists who have warned it will fail due to unsuitable soils and climate. Military "food brigades" are currently guarding bulldozers clearing swampy forests in Indonesian New Guinea for the project, which aims to boost food self-sufficiency for the nation's 281 million people.

Soil scientists warn that Merauke's conditions could lead to acidic soils unable to support economically viable rice farming, potentially resulting in abandoned fields vulnerable to wildfires. "Farmers will get no profit at all," said Dwi Andreas, a soil scientist at Bogor Agricultural University who tested 12 rice varieties in similar soils with poor results.

The initiative mirrors past failed megaprojects, including a 1990s attempt to convert 1 million hectares of Borneo peatlands to rice paddies and a 2020 onion and potato farming expansion in North Sumatra that saw 90% of fields abandoned. A previous 2010 attempt to expand rice farming in Merauke also failed, destroying forests that Indigenous Papuans relied on and increasing childhood malnutrition, according to anthropologist Laksmi Adriani.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the bright-futures department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: In a world filled with "vibe coding," Zach Yadegari, teen founder of Cal AI, stands in ironic, old-fashioned contrast. Ironic because Yadegari and his co-founder, Henry Langmack, are both just 18 years old and still in high school. Yet their story, so far, is a classic. Launched in May, Cal AI has generated over 5 million downloads in eight months, Yadegari says. Better still, he tells TechCrunch that the customer retention rate is over 30% and that the app generated over $2 million in revenue last month. [...]

The concept is simple: Take a picture of the food you are about to consume, and let the app log calories and macros for you. It's not a unique idea. For instance, the big dog in calorie counting, MyFitnessPal, has its Meal Scan feature. Then there are apps like SnapCalorie, which was released in 2023 and created by the founder of Google Lens. Cal AI's advantage, perhaps, is that it was built wholly in the age of large image models. It uses models from Anthropic and OpenAI and RAG to improve accuracy and is trained on open source food calorie and image databases from sites like GitHub.

"We have found that different models are better with different foods," Yadegari tells TechCrunch. Along the way, the founders coded through technical problems like recognizing ingredients from food packages or in jumbled bowls. The result is an app that the creators say is 90% accurate, which appears to be good enough for many dieters. The report says Yadegari began mastering Python and C# in middle school and went on to build his first business in ninth grade -- a website called Totally Science that gave students access to unblocked games (cleverly named to evade school filters). He sold the company at age 16 to FreezeNova for $100,000.
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Posted by Randall Munroe from XKCD
We haven't actually seen a star fall in since we invented telescopes, but I have a list of ones I'm really hoping are next.

Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the closer-look department: Web crawlers collecting training data for AI models are overwhelming Wikipedia's infrastructure, with bot traffic growing exponentially since early 2024, according to the Wikimedia Foundation. According to data released April 1, bandwidth for multimedia content has surged 50% since January, primarily from automated programs scraping Wikimedia Commons' 144 million openly licensed media files.

This unprecedented traffic is causing operational challenges for the non-profit. When Jimmy Carter died in December 2024, his Wikipedia page received 2.8 million views in a day, while a 1.5-hour video of his 1980 presidential debate caused network traffic to double, resulting in slow page loads for some users.

Analysis shows 65% of the foundation's most resource-intensive traffic comes from bots, despite bots accounting for only 35% of total pageviews. The foundation's Site Reliability team now routinely blocks overwhelming crawler traffic to prevent service disruptions. "Our content is free, our infrastructure is not," the foundation said, announcing plans to establish sustainable boundaries for automated content consumption.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the homebrew-computing department: Software engineer and longtime Slashdot reader, Dmitry Grinberg (dmitrygr), shares a recent project they've been working on: "an interactive-speed Linux on a tiny board you can easily build with only 3 8-pin chips": There was a time when one could order a kit and assemble a computer at home. It would do just about what a contemporary store-bought computer could do. That time is long gone. Modern computers are made of hundreds of huge complex chips with no public datasheets and many hundreds of watts of power supplied to them over complex power delivery topologies. It does not help that modern operating systems require gigabytes of RAM, terabytes of storage, and always-on internet connectivity to properly spy on you. But what if one tried to fit a modern computer into a kit that could be easily assembled at home? What if the kit only had three chips, each with only 8 pins? Can it be done? Yes. The system runs a custom MIPS emulator written in ARMv6 assembly and includes a custom bootloader that supports firmware updates via FAT16-formatted SD cards. Clever pin-sharing hacks allow all components (RAM, SD, serial I/O) to work despite the 6 usable I/O pins. Overclocked to up to 150MHz, the board boots into a full Linux shell in about a minute and performs at ~1.65MHz MIPS-equivalent speed.

It's not fast, writes Dmitry, but it's fully functional -- you can edit files, compile code, and even install Debian packages. A kit may be made available if a partner is found.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the end-of-an-era department: Longtime Slashdot reader CyberSlugGump shares a support article from AT&T, writing: On June 17th, AT&T will stop supporting email-to-text messages. That means you won't be able to send a text message to an AT&T customer from an email address. You can still get in touch with AT&T customers using SMS (text), MMS, and standard email services.

Posted by from MMO Champion
Upcoming PvP Class Tuning with the Weekly Maintenance on April 8

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The following PvP class adjustments will arrive with scheduled weekly maintenance (April 8 in this region). We will continue to monitor and tune class combat in PvP and PvE as necessary in the weeks to come.

PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER

Death Knight

Unholy

Developers’ notes: We’re increasing the damage of Unholy through a few sources this week and adding some power back into their healing reduction PvP talent.

Necrotic Wounds now absorbs 4% of all healing received (was 3%).

Festering Wound damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.

Virulent Plague damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.

Death Coil damage increased by 12% in PvP combat.

Druid

Heart of the Wild cast time reduction reduced to 15% in PvP combat (was 30%).

Feral

Rip damage decreased by 15% in PvP combat.

Restoration

Mana regeneration reduced by 70% in PvP combat (was 65%).

Liberation of Undermine 4-set bonus chance to trigger reduced to 10% in PvP combat (was 15%).

Hunter

Marksmanship

Developers’ notes: We’re adjusting Marksmanship with the goal of reducing their maximum burst damage potential and increasing their consistent damage.

Trick Shots now hits targets for 40% of normal damage in PvP combat (was 75%).

Aspect of the Hydra now fires at 30% original value in PvP combat (was 60%).

Spotter’s Mark increases Aimed Shot’s damage by 10% in PvP combat (was 20%).

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the new-and-improved department: Midjourney's new V7 image model features a revamped architecture with smarter text prompt handling, higher image quality, and default personalization based on user-rated images. While some features like upscaling aren't yet available, it does come with a faster, cheaper Draft Mode. TechCrunch reports: To use it, you'll first have to rate around 200 images to build a Midjourney "personalization" profile, if you haven't already. This profile tunes the model to your individual visual preferences; V7 is Midjourney's first model to have personalization switched on by default. Once you've done that, you'll be able to turn V7 on or off on Midjourney's website and, if you're a member of Midjourney's Discord server, on its Discord chatbot. In the web app, you can quickly select the model from the drop-down menu next to the "Version" label.

Midjourney CEO David Holz described V7 as a "totally different architecture" in a post on X. "V7 is ... much smarter with text prompts," Holz continued in an announcement on Discord. "[I]mage prompts look fantastic, image quality is noticeably higher with beautiful textures, and bodies, hands, and objects of all kinds have significantly better coherence on all details." V7 is available in two flavors, Turbo (costlier to run) and Relax, and powers a new tool called Draft Mode that renders images at 10x the speed and half the cost of the standard mode. Draft images are of lower quality than standard-mode images, but they can be enhanced and re-rendered with a click.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the PSA department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A technique that hostile nation-states and financially motivated ransomware groups are using to hide their operations poses a threat to critical infrastructure and national security, the National Security Agency has warned. The technique is known as fast flux. It allows decentralized networks operated by threat actors to hide their infrastructure and survive takedown attempts that would otherwise succeed. Fast flux works by cycling through a range of IP addresses and domain names that these botnets use to connect to the Internet. In some cases, IPs and domain names change every day or two; in other cases, they change almost hourly. The constant flux complicates the task of isolating the true origin of the infrastructure. It also provides redundancy. By the time defenders block one address or domain, new ones have already been assigned.

"This technique poses a significant threat to national security, enabling malicious cyber actors to consistently evade detection," the NSA, FBI, and their counterparts from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand warned Thursday. "Malicious cyber actors, including cybercriminals and nation-state actors, use fast flux to obfuscate the locations of malicious servers by rapidly changing Domain Name System (DNS) records. Additionally, they can create resilient, highly available command and control (C2) infrastructure, concealing their subsequent malicious operations." There are two variations of fast flux described in the advisory: single flux and double flux. Single flux involves mapping a single domain to a rotating pool of IP addresses using DNS A (IPv4) or AAAA (IPv6) records. This constant cycling makes it difficult for defenders to track or block the associated malicious servers since the addresses change frequently, yet the domain name remains consistent.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the AI-all-the-things department: Google has introduced Sec-Gemini v1, an experimental AI model built on its Gemini platform and tailored for cybersecurity. BetaNews reports: Sec-Gemini v1 is built on top of Gemini, but it's not just some repackaged chatbot. Actually, it has been tailored with security in mind, pulling in fresh data from sources like Google Threat Intelligence, the OSV vulnerability database, and Mandiant's threat reports. This gives it the ability to help with root cause analysis, threat identification, and vulnerability triage.

Google says the model performs better than others on two well-known benchmarks. On CTI-MCQ, which measures how well models understand threat intelligence, it scores at least 11 percent higher than competitors. On CTI-Root Cause Mapping, it edges out rivals by at least 10.5 percent. Benchmarks only tell part of the story, but those numbers suggest it's doing something right. Access is currently limited to select researchers and professionals for early testing. If you meet that criteria, you can request access here.

Posted by Claire Jackson, Ethan Gach, Carolyn Petit, and Zack Zwiezen from Kotaku
Here we are at the end of another week of…well, ain’t the world just a fantastic place right now? Fortunately, civilization has provided us with a number of means of escaping the realities around us. And, you know, that’s not inherently a bad thing. Times sure are interesting and uncertain, and I think it’s especially…

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Posted by from MMO Champion
Patch 11.1.5 PTR Development Notes - April 4, 2025

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Greetings! Here are the notes for this week’s PTR update:

HORRIFIC VISIONS REVISITED

Enemy Changes

Bosses and lieutenants have had their health increased when running with 1 or more masks.

Nemesis enemies have been tuned down slightly.

Some caster groups in Stormwind Mage Quarter have had casters removed or swapped for melee.

Follower Tuning

The orb will now heal constructs.

General construct damage increased for all roles.

Damage Dealer construct will now hit multiple targets for added area-of-effect damage.

Healer construct’s damage-over-time will max out at 5 targets.

Vengeance Mask

Bonus damage reduced to 15% (was 20%).

Now one debuff instead of multiple that would include the bonus from previous buffs.

Scorched Feet Madness

Cooldown increased from 9 seconds up to 19 seconds to happen less frequently.

Split Personality Madness

Removed two orbs to increase the opening to get out and add some smaller escape routes in a pinch.

Crests and Valorstones

Gilded Crest repeatable amounts increased slightly for 5, 6, 7, and 8 mask levels, 3, 4, 5, and 6 respectively.

Weekly bonus crests at all levels is 5.

Repeatable Valorstone values for 2+ masks slightly reduced.

Quality of Life

We now remember the Construct of Soridormi selected in your last run and automatically summon that one.

Also soon, mask selection will be remembered between runs. For groups it will use the Leaders last selection to start.

Various bug fixes. Also, we are disabling the 8.3 Horrific Vision food for Horrific Visions Revisited.

Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Weekly: 20th Anniversary Edition Phase 3 PvP, AWC Returns on April 4, April Fools

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

WoW 20th Anniversary Edition Phase 3 Honor Cap, Arathi Basin, and More Now Live



The PvP Honor Rank 11 cap has been removed, giving access to titles and awards for ranking up to 14, the gates of Arathi Basin are open for a resource race, and more opportunities for Honor and Rewards can be had during Battleground holiday weekends.

Get Ready for Arathi Basin

Players: 15 vs.15

Level Range:20+

Capture Points: Farm, Mine, Blacksmith, Lumber Mill, and Stables

Resources Needed to Win: 2000

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.

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.

< This article continues on their website >

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the art-of-the-deal department: For the second time, President Trump has extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. operations by 75 days. The TikTok deal "requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed," said Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform. The extension will "keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days."

"We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!)," Trump added. CNBC reports: ByteDance has been in discussion with the U.S. government, the company told CNBC, adding that any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law. "An agreement has not been executed," a spokesperson for ByteDance said in a statement. "There are key matters to be resolved." Before Trump's decision, ByteDance faced an April 5 deadline to carry out a "qualified divestiture" of TikTok's U.S. business as required by a national security law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024.

ByteDance's original deadline to sell TikTok was on Jan. 19, but Trump signed an executive order when he took office the next day that gave the company 75 more days to make a deal. Although the law would penalize internet service providers and app store owners like Apple and Google for hosting and providing services to TikTok in the U.S., Trump's executive order instructed the attorney general to not enforce it. "This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security!," Trump said in the Truth Social post. "We do not want TikTok to 'go dark.' We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Posted by Tony_Bacala from The Toyark


After an early start today, Mattel has shared full details about the Fall 2025 Lineup for Masters of the Universe.  New looks and pre-orders are now live for Origins, Masterverse, and the latest crossover – MOTU x Thundercats.  Read on ...

The post Masters of the Universe Fall 2025 Line Up – Origins, Masterverse and MOTU x Thundercats appeared first on The Toyark - News.

Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the nice-try department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: It took only seconds for the judges on a New York appeals court to realize that the man addressing them from a video screen -- a person about to present an argument in a lawsuit -- not only had no law degree, but didn't exist at all. The latest bizarre chapter in the awkward arrival of artificial intelligence in the legal world unfolded March 26 under the stained-glass dome of New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division's First Judicial Department, where a panel of judges was set to hear from Jerome Dewald, a plaintiff in an employment dispute. "The appellant has submitted a video for his argument," said Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels. "Ok. We will hear that video now."

On the video screen appeared a smiling, youthful-looking man with a sculpted hairdo, button-down shirt and sweater. "May it please the court," the man began. "I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five distinguished justices." "Ok, hold on," Manzanet-Daniels said. "Is that counsel for the case?" "I generated that. That's not a real person," Dewald answered. It was, in fact, an avatar generated by artificial intelligence. The judge was not pleased. "It would have been nice to know that when you made your application. You did not tell me that sir," Manzanet-Daniels said before yelling across the room for the video to be shut off. "I don't appreciate being misled," she said before letting Dewald continue with his argument.

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Posted by Ethan Gach from Kotaku
There’s a scene in Far Cry 4 in which a female NPC chastises the player if they look down at her bare chest. “Stop looking at my tits,” she says. Well, at least one player was shocked to find the scene censored when they were playing the 11-year-old Ubisoft game this week. The French publisher says it was a mistake…

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