The sound you can’t hear might just save your house.
It sounds like something out of a sci-fi blockbuster, but firefighters in California are firing up a fascinating new way to fight flames — with sound waves.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department recently showed off a futuristic system that detects and extinguishes flames without water or chemicals.
Instead, it uses powerful — but completely silent — sound vibrations to snuff out the fire itself.
Way cool tech. Hopefully coming soon to buildings everywhere.
Imports of consumer-grade foreign-made routers subject to Covered List over cybersecurity and supply chain vulnerabilities
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to ban imports of all foreign-produced routers over “unacceptable risks to national security.”
A public notice dated March 23 extends the import ban to consumer-grade devices produced outside the U.S. The move does not impact any previously-purchased consumer-grade routers, the FCC confirmed, with consumers still able to use devices they’ve already acquired.
I'm glad, and surprised it took our government so long.
But are there any US router manufacturers left to buy from?
Videos posted on social media captured the myriad of lifelike robots at a McDonald’s in Shanghai performing routine tasks typically completed by human workers, such as greeting customers and delivering food.
Diners were seen interacting with the robots dressed in the fast-food joint’s iconic red-and-yellow uniforms behind counters, while children chased more of the moving machinery disguised as cute animals.
Staff members at a restaurant in Cupertino, California, were forced to physically restrain a humanoid robot after it began wildly flailing its arms and smashing dishware during a performance.
TechCrunch reports that a humanoid robot performing at a hot pot restaurant in Cupertino, California, created a chaotic scene when it began moving erratically, breaking plates and scattering chopsticks across the dining area. The incident required at least three employees to physically restrain the machine as it continued to swing its arms unpredictably.
A Virginia man was busted Friday for swiping a gun from a car and peddling it for a measly $100 profit to Mohamed Jalloh — who then used it in the Old Dominion University terror shooting, authorities said.
And this is one (of many) reasons why gun-control laws don't work. This murderer didn't buy his gun from a licensed firearms dealer. He bought a stolen gun on the black market which, by definition, is not going to obey any laws.
Gun control laws prevent law-abiding citizens (including, possibly the instructor and students in the ROTC class where the shooting occurred) from having the means to shoot back. Fortunately, some of the students had the ability to defend themselves with bare hands and a knife, preventing this from turning into a mass-killing, but it shouldn't have had to come to that.
CrowdStrike Counter Adversary Operations identifies innocuous trigger words that lead DeepSeek to produce more vulnerable code. ...
In January 2025, China-based AI startup DeepSeek (深度求索) released DeepSeek-R1, a high-quality large language model (LLM) that allegedly cost much less to develop and operate than Western competitors’ alternatives.
CrowdStrike Counter Adversary Operations conducted independent tests on DeepSeek-R1 and confirmed that in many cases, it could provide coding output of quality comparable to other market-leading LLMs of the time. However, we found that when DeepSeek-R1 receives prompts containing topics the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) likely considers politically sensitive, the likelihood of it producing code with severe security vulnerabilities increases by up to 50%.
This comes as absolutely no surprise to me.
This should be a lesson to all of us. AIs are not people. Their "intelligence", however you define the term, is a function of the data it was trained on. If you train it with corrupt and biased data, you will get corrupt and biased results.
Models from nation states that believe in using any and all means to take advantage of and corrupt (if not open wage war on) the rest of the world should not be trusted. It should be assumed that those models will generate output in support of their creators' national goals, just as if you had hired a government agent from that nation to do the work.
In 2018, Justin Kropp was working on a transmission circuit in Southern California when disaster struck. Grid operators had earlier shut down the 115-kilovolt circuit, but six high-voltage lines that shared the corridor were still operating, and some of their power snuck onto the deenergized wires he was working on. That rogue current shot to the ground through Kropp’s body and his elevated work platform, killing the 32-year-old father of two.
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Justin’s accident was caused by induction: a hazard that occurs when an electric or magnetic field causes current to flow through equipment whose intended power supply has been cut off. Safety practices seek to prevent such induction shocks by grounding all conductive objects in a work zone, giving electricity alternative paths. But accidents happen. In Justin’s case, his platform unexpectedly swung into the line before it could be grounded.
Adding a layer of defense against induction injuries is the motivation behind Budapest-based Electrostatics’ specialized conductive jumpsuits, which are designed to protect against burns, cardiac fibrillation, and other ills. “If my boy had been wearing one, I know he’d be alive today,” says the elder Kropp, who purchased a line-worker safety training business after Justin’s death. The Mesa, Ariz.–based company, Electrical Safety Consulting International (ESCI), now distributes those suits.
Here's hoping this product can usher in a new era of safety for linemen.
Electric car batteries that can reach a whopping 600 miles before they ever need a recharge — twice the mileage of today’s EVs — are coming to a garage near you, Samsung recently boasted.
Typically, lithium-ion batteries in modern EVs tap out at around 300 miles, with drivers wasting 45 minutes waiting for a charge from 10% to 80%.
Solid Energies, one manufacturer of these All Solid-State Batteries (ASSBs), has a good whitepaper explaining the tech (or at least their implementation of it), along with some self-serving marketing material comparing themselves against competing ASSB tech: Superior All Solid State Solutions, Why ASSB.
If this tech delivers on its promises, this will be a game-changer. Not just for electric vehicles, but for all portable rechargeable devices. Higher capacity and less chance of catching fire are both critical to the future of modern electronics.
Looking forward to seeing this in future cell phones and laptops.
A Netherlands-based startup, Aqua Womb, is exploring the potential of making a womb-like life support system for extremely premature infants.
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The Guardian reported that the system utilizes a glass tank filled with synthetic amniotic fluid at near-body temperature.
It is designed with a firm outer silicone layer that pushes back against the baby’s kicks, thereby helping their muscles to stretch and gain strength.
An artificial womb would allow the baby to be delivered via C-section directly into a fluid-filled pouch and connected to a human-made placenta.
Another incredible invention which will be a massive game-changer if it proves to work as designed.
Losing tooth enamel has long been a one-way street. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. But that may soon change.
Scientists have developed a new gel that can repair and regenerate enamel, offering a glimpse of a future where teeth can heal themselves.
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Acting as a scaffold, it pulls calcium and phosphate ions from saliva and promotes the organized growth of new minerals in a process known as epitaxial mineralization.
The result? Newly grown enamel that restores both the structure and properties of natural teeth.
They're expecting a product to ship next year. If it works as promised, this will be a massive game-changer for dental health.
Users have sued Amazon Prime Video for removing media from their library after being purchased, accusing the company of fraudulent advertising.
Users have been “purchasing” media on Prime Video (movies, television shows) only to realize months later that their purchases no longer exists in their media library. That’s because Amazon only sells a limited-time license to its users so that they watch the movie in perpetuity until the company loses the rights.
If the tech giant loses the rights to that version, the movie can be replaced with a different cut, like the one for theaters. And if Amazon loses the rights to the film altogether, it’ll completely disappear from the viewer’s library.
So should Amazon be able to say a consumer is “buying” that movie? Some people don’t think so, and they’ve turned to court.
I've been saying it for many years: all streaming services are rentals. No matter what they call that "purchase", if you can't download a copy without DRM, then you are forever at the mercy of whether it will remain hosted on its cloud server.
The content can go away for any reason whatsoever. If the company goes out of business. If they terminate their streaming service. If the server goes down. If they lose the rights to the content. Or if some employee decides Wednesday will be "no movies for you day". And I guarantee that the license agreements you agree to (which you certainly didn't read) has legalese that says the same thing.
Which is why I never "buy" streaming media content. When I buy music and movies, I either buy physical discs (preferred) or I buy from a service where I can download non-DRM tracks (e.g. Amazon's MP3 store and Apple's iTunes Music). If the content is protected or streaming-only, then I will not even consider a "purchase", and I will be very hesitant before even a "rental".
Personally, I'm really surprised Amazon's customers took this long to figure out that they've been scammed all along.
Any suggestions for growing this list? Please only pick music actually used as a show's bumper music (cite the show), not songs you would like a show to use.
The SEC has fined Vanderbilt University $100,000 after fans rushed the field and tore down the goal posts following the team’s win against Alabama on Saturday.
But me, in my complete ignorance of sports, especially at the college level, read this headline and thought "why would the US Securities & Exchange Commission care about a football riot?"
Apple's Vision Pro headset can now be controlled using only thoughts, thanks to integration with neurotechnology startup Synchron's brain-computer interface (BCI).
The company today announced that Apple Vision Pro has been successfully used by a patient through direct brain control facilitated by Synchron's brain-computer interface technology. Mark, a 64-year-old man suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), demonstrated the integration.
With this technology, Mark controlled the cursor on the Vision Pro to play Solitaire, watch Apple TV, and send text messages without using his hands, which he can no longer move due to his condition. The Vision Pro's reliance on hand gestures would otherwise pose a barrier for users like Mark who have lost upper limb functionality.
Incredible. This is one of the best uses of this tech I've read about to date.
I just ran across this incredible video (from two years ago) where an independent garage fixed a Tesla (broken battery coolent line) for $700, mostly labor, whereas Tesla wanted to charge $16,000 to replace the entire battery pack.
Wow. Someone was selling Apple Employee #10’s employee badge?! What an incredible piece of Apple history! Sure, it’s not Steve Jobs’ badge (despite the auction title), but there are only so many of these in the world — especially from one of the first ten employees.
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Oh snap. It’s really fake?
A great story about an eBay forger who (unfortunately) has been getting away with selling all kinds of fake memorabilia. Be sure to also read the comments, which point out all kinds of mistakes the forger made, which may help you spot some fakes on other auction listings.
Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Or so said Steve Jobs when he announced iPhone in 2007.
But I’m talking about a different revolutionary product. A foundational product that forever changed how everyone on this planet gets to where they need to be.
Today, I’d like to tell you about the Etak Navigator, a truly revolutionary product and the world’s first practical vehicle navigation system.
The Etak system encapsulated most of what modern navigation systems use today, and it did it with 1980's technology.
Firefighters show off amazing new way to extinguish flames — by blasting them with sound, not water
