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www.independent.co.uk New AI tool picks up every scratch on your car rental – and its freaking people out

One woman was charged by Hertz for a mark she says ‘could have been a shadow’

New AI tool picks up every scratch on your car rental – and its freaking people out

>- Car hire companies are deploying new AI-powered scanning systems to detect even minor vehicle damage, sparking customer outrage over unexpected charges. >- Hertz, a prominent car rental firm, is using UVeye's automated technology at several US airports, which compares high-resolution images taken at pickup and return to identify new damage. >- Customers report receiving substantial bills for tiny imperfections, such as small dents or scuffs, often just minutes after returning their vehicles. >- Specific cases include Kelly Rogers being charged for a 'dent' she thought was a shadow, and another customer facing a $440 bill for a one-inch scuff. >- Despite customer complaints and plans to expand the system to over 100 US airports, Hertz maintains the technology ensures customers are not charged for pre-existing damage.

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phys.org In Texas, Florida and across the globe, warmer climate makes flooding 'more unprecedented'

As the Texas flooding death toll reached 95 on July 6—at least 27 of them children—and Tropical Storm Chantal prompted dozens of water rescues in North Carolina, some Floridians were reminded of the disastrous "rain bomb" in 2023 that hit faster and harder than any hurricane in living memory.

In Texas, Florida and across the globe, warmer climate makes flooding 'more unprecedented'

>As the Texas flooding death toll reached 95 on July 6—at least 27 of them children—and Tropical Storm Chantal prompted dozens of water rescues in North Carolina, some Floridians were reminded of the disastrous "rain bomb" in 2023 that hit faster and harder than any hurricane in living memory. > >Though no one died from the 2 feet of rain that deluged Fort Lauderdale in a single day in April two years ago, the relentless rain forced hundreds to flee to Red Cross shelters, covered airport runways, filled the tunnel that runs under the New River and turned downtown streets into raging rivers. > >And, despite the sheer speed with which these floods took people by surprise, they have another thing in common: Climate change made them even more catastrophic.

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Paleontologists Find Ancient Proteins in 18-Million-Year-Old Mammal Tooth Enamel
www.sci.news Paleontologists Find Ancient Proteins in 18-Million-Year-Old Mammal Tooth Enamel | Sci.News

Paleontologists have discovered protein sequences within dense enamel tissues of ancient rhinocerotid and proboscidean fossils collected at sites of Buluk and Loperot in the Turkana Basin, Kenya.

Paleontologists Find Ancient Proteins in 18-Million-Year-Old Mammal Tooth Enamel | Sci.News

>As herbivores, these animals had large teeth for grinding their diet of plants. > >“These mammals can have enamel two to three millimeters thick. It was a lot of material to work with,” Dr. Green said. > >“What we found — peptide fragments, chains of amino acids, that together form proteins as old as 18 million years — was field-changing.” > >“Nobody’s ever found peptide fragments that are this old before.” > >Until now, the oldest published materials are about 3.5 million years old.

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apnews.com Missouri governor repeals paid sick leave law approved last year by voters

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe has signed a repeal of a law guaranteeing paid sick leave for workers and inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage.

Missouri governor repeals paid sick leave law approved last year by voters

>Eight months after voters approved it, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the repeal of a law Thursday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage. > >The move marked a major victory for the state’s largest business group and a frustrating defeat for workers’ rights advocates, who had spent years — and millions of dollars — building support for the successful ballot measure. The repeal will take effect Aug. 28.

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arstechnica.com Woman takes 10x dose of turmeric, gets hospitalized for liver damage

Although she eventually recovered, she was close to needing a liver transplant.

Woman takes 10x dose of turmeric, gets hospitalized for liver damage

>A 57-year-old woman spent six days in the hospital for severe liver damage after taking daily megadoses of the popular herbal supplement, turmeric, which she had seen touted on social media, according to NBC News. > >The woman, Katie Mohan, told the outlet that she had seen a doctor on Instagram suggesting it was useful against inflammation and joint pain. So, she began taking turmeric capsules at a dose of 2,250 mg per day. According to the World Health Organization, an acceptable daily dose is up to 3 mg per kilogram of weight per day—for a 150-pound (68 kg) adult, that would be about 204 mg per day. Mohan was taking more than 10 times that amount.

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Dams around the world hold so much water they've shifted Earth's poles, new research shows
www.livescience.com Big dams are so heavy they shift Earth's poles away from the rotational axis, new research shows

Dam construction since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to "wander" away from the planet's rotational axis because of the massive weight of water reservoirs.

Big dams are so heavy they shift Earth's poles away from the rotational axis, new research shows

>The construction of thousands of dams since 1835 has caused Earth's poles to wobble, new research suggests. > >Scientists found that large dams hold so much water they redistribute mass around the globe, shifting the position of Earth's crust relative to the mantle, the planet's middle layer. > >Earth's mantle is gooey, and the crust forms a solid shell that can slide around on top of it. Weight on the crust that causes it to shift relative to the mantle also shifts the location of Earth's poles, the researchers said.

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YouTube cracks down on AI slop — while enabling AI slop
www.pcworld.com YouTube cracks down on AI slop it helped create

YouTube wants to get rid of low-effort spammers uploading mountains of AI garbage to YouTube. But Google is one of the companies that's creating the garbage in the first place.

YouTube cracks down on AI slop it helped create

>YouTube has an AI slop problem, with both the main site and the booming Shorts section filling up with low-effort crap shoveled in front of viewers by the millions. New policies are trying to demonetize, or sometimes even ban, accounts that take advantage of AI to mass produce garbage. But if Google is upset that it’s suddenly hosting the web’s video dross, it has only itself to blame. > >Starting on July 15th, and with less than a week of notice, YouTube will be taking a closer look at members of the YouTube Partner Program. This is the monetization side of YouTube videos that makes a career as an independent (or even corporate) YouTube video producer functional. Beginning next week, YouTubers who want to keep their advertising dollars will have to avoid “mass-produced and repetitious content,” as well as “inauthentic” videos.

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www.sciencealert.com Modified Herpes Virus Found to Shrink Deadly Skin Cancers in Clinical Trial

Scientists have hijacked the herpes virus and turned it into a cancer-busting ally.

Modified Herpes Virus Found to Shrink Deadly Skin Cancers in Clinical Trial

>Scientists have hijacked the herpes virus and turned it into a cancer-busting ally. > >A decade after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first virus-based cancer therapy, another potentially life-saving treatment is on the horizon. > >A genetically modified herpes simplex virus, called RP1, has now been shown to destroy advanced melanoma tumors, even when they exist deep in the body, according to a phase 1/2 clinical trial. > >The trial involved injecting RP1 into melanoma tumors on or just below the surface of the skin, or deeper in the body like in the lungs or liver. In patients who responded positively to the treatment, even tumors not directly injected with the medicine began to shrink.

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www.sciencenews.org Trees can’t get up and walk away, but forests can

In fantasy worlds, trees like the Lord of the Rings’ Ents are agile and mobile. In the real world, they’re slow.

Trees can’t get up and walk away, but forests can

>While individual trees can’t cross rivers and climb mountains, entire forests can. And climate change is making their journeys treacherous. > >“Trees have been migrating forever,” says Leslie Brandt, an ecologist formerly with the U.S. Forest Service in St. Paul, Minn. During the last ice age, when an ice sheet covered most of Canada and the northern United States, many tree species took refuge in warmer, southern climates. As northern habitats got colder, seeds thrived in the warmer south. More new trees grew on the southern edges of forests, while older trees up north died out. Slowly, forests migrated, moving around 100 to 500 meters a year, Brandt says. > >But now, human-caused climate change is altering habitats faster than forests can move. Rising oceans are threatening coastal mangrove forests worldwide. Higher temperatures in Canada are making it difficult for white spruce to grow. And drier conditions in the American Southwest are harming pinyon pines.

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www.theguardian.com US neo-fascist group claims it is part of Texas floods relief efforts

Patriot Front leader says so-called ‘activists’ prioritizing giving supplies to their ‘people’ and ‘European peoples’

US neo-fascist group claims it is part of Texas floods relief efforts

>A US racist and neo-fascist hate group that has become a public fixture in recent years has descended on central Texas in a stunt it claims is part of the “disaster relief” efforts under way after the devastating flash floods hit the region last week. > >Patriot Front, founded following the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where its leader, Thomas Rousseau, a Texan, was later charged for his participation, has claimed on its Telegram app channel that it has shown up in the areas near Camp Mystic, where 27 young campers lost their lives. > >“Patriot Front is here in central Texas,” Rousseau declares in a video statement, amid the backdrop of what sounds like buzzing chainsaws and a flood ravaged community, “responding to the flooding, which has destroyed communities and taken the lives of scores of Americans”. > >Rousseau goes on to claim that his so-called “activists” are distributing supplies to survivors, but clarifies that his group is prioritizing their “people” and “European peoples” in those operations.

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www.cbsnews.com French university courts American researchers seeking "scientific asylum" amid Trump's academic cuts

A French university says almost 300 U.S. researchers have applied for its "Safe Place for Science" program, seeking "scientific asylum" amid Trump's academic funding cuts.

French university courts American researchers seeking "scientific asylum" amid Trump's academic cuts

>A university in France says nearly 300 American researchers have applied for a space in its "Safe Place for Science" program that was created to lure U.S. researchers seeking "scientific asylum" amid aggressive academic spending cuts and other actions against colleges by the Trump administration.

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High School Queen - Episode 34

>Cheongha Kim, a legendary swordswoman from the Joseon era, awakens centuries later in the body of Dajin Park, a quiet high school student. Armed with deadly combat skills, Cheongha must face school bullies, navigate the chaos of modern-day life, and find her place in a world far different from her own. The halls of Juwon High are about to meet a warrior unlike any they’ve seen before.

Warning the series contains themes regarding bullying and violence that may be upsetting to some readers.

tags : Fantasy, Reincarnation, Action, School Life, Violence

Episode 34

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www.theguardian.com US issues sanctions against Francesca Albanese, UN official investigating abuses in Gaza

Trump administration targets special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, in latest action against critics of Israel’s war

US issues sanctions against Francesca Albanese, UN official investigating abuses in Gaza

>The Trump administration announced on Wednesday it was issuing sanctions against an independent official tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza. > >The state department’s decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed. > >Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has been vocal in calling for an end to what she describes as the “genocide” that Israel is waging against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US, which provides military support, have strongly denied that accusation. > >Israel has faced accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the ICC over its devastating military assault on Gaza. Albanese’s position has also been backed by leading genocide scholars and rights organisations.

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Perplexity rips another page from the Google playbook with its own browser, Comet

>Perplexity has released its own web browser called Comet, and it's clearly aimed at Google. > >The AI search upstart has taken a page straight out of Google's playbook to try and supplant it: Comet comes with Perplexity AI search as the default search engine, a position The Chocolate Factory has fought to keep in various third-party browsers and platforms with a series of contracts, some of which a court has ruled to be anticompetitive. > >Perplexity says it built Comet "to amplify our intelligence." But that's arguably a very simplified version of its goals. Like Google, Perplexity sees value in employing user data to personalize the browsing experience - and, perhaps, sell ads. > >During an interview on the TBPN tech podcast in April, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas cited personalized advertising as one of the reasons to build a browser, noting that you need "memory" – the ability to retain the information provided in and produced by prompts to AI models – to make personalization work.

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toronto.citynews.ca 'Everything is dying': Prairie farmers, crops struggling with yearly droughts

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's drought monitor shows swaths of the country have been anywhere from abnormally dry to extremely parched.

'Everything is dying': Prairie farmers, crops struggling with yearly droughts

>Environment and Climate Change Canada’s forecast predicts a warmer-than-usual summer with uncertain precipitation levels. Bill Merryfield, a research scientist with the weather office, recently said human pollution has been a key influence on hotter summers. > >Tinder dry conditions have also created the fuel needed to start hundreds of wildfires across the country, forcing thousands in Manitoba and Saskatchewan to flee their communities earlier this spring. > >As of Friday, Manitoba has reported 60 active wildfires, with residents of Lynn Lake now being told they’ll have to evacuate for a second time. Saskatchewan has reported 65 active fires, with five communities under evacuation.

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watchers.news Satellite data confirm Southern Ocean has entered a new physical state

A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed a significant shift in the Southern Ocean’s surface conditions. This shift is marked by a rapid…

Satellite data confirm Southern Ocean has entered a new physical state

>- Remote sensing confirms a shift from long-term freshening to increasing surface salinity south of 50° S, beginning around 2015. >- Denser surface waters are enhancing vertical mixing, allowing warmer subsurface water to reach the surface, accelerating Antarctic ice loss. >- The shift in surface salinity and stratification could impact deep ocean water formation and disrupt components of the global thermohaline circulation, including the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

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archaeologymag.com Lighthouse of Alexandria rises again as 22 massive blocks resurface from the seafloor after 2,000 years

22 blocks of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria recovered for a groundbreaking digital reconstruction of the lost wonder.

Lighthouse of Alexandria rises again as 22 massive blocks resurface from the seafloor after 2,000 years

>Earlier this summer, archaeologists began hauling some of the giant granite blocks that once comprised one of the tallest buildings in the world out of the Alexandrian harbor after centuries underwater. Twenty-two blocks, to be precise, each one weighing between 80 and 90 tons with the operation requiring a boat, a platform, and a crane employing specific techniques to ensure the integrity of the blocks.

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news.sky.com Corpse flower that smells like rotting meat begins rare bloom in San Francisco

The stench - which is strongest on the first day of the flower's two-day bloom - has been likened in the past to dead animals, rotten eggs, sweaty socks, sewage and rubbish.

Corpse flower that smells like rotting meat begins rare bloom in San Francisco

>Native to Indonesia, the corpse flower is known locally as bunga bangkai. It is endemic to the rainforests of western Sumatra. > >The flower, also known by its scientific name amorphophallus titanum or titan arum, is known for its distinctively pungent smell, which has been likened in the past to dead animals, rotten meat, eggs, sweaty socks, sewage and rubbish. > >Sharing the news on social media, the botanical garden, which is in the city's Golden Gate Park, encouraged people to come and see the phenomenon. > >The blooming process only lasts for a couple of days and will not occur again for another three to five years, according to the garden's website.

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www.tomshardware.com AI is eating up Pennsylvania's power, governor threatens to pull state from the grid — new plants aren't being built fast enough to keep up with demand

Spiking demand is sending energy bills skyrocketing, while the governor threatens to pull the state from the grid.

AI is eating up Pennsylvania's power, governor threatens to pull state from the grid — new plants aren't being built fast enough to keep up with demand

>Artificial intelligence and the hardware that powers it, is at the heart of a fallout in Pennsylvania, where electricity prices have risen dramatically for wholesalers and consumers due to surging demand. The governor is now threatening to abandon the state's grid energy provider, PJM Interconnection, via Reuters. He's demanding that PJM increase energy capacity through the acceleration of new energy plant construction and approval. > >Following the launch of ChatGPT in 2023 and the explosion of competitor tools and chatbots in the months that followed, the regional transmission organization, PJM, saw a surge in demand for power as major tech companies scoured the country looking for spare grid capacity to run AI and build new data centers to support them. AI can demand a lot of power, so much so that Elon Musk is shipping an entire power plant to the US. > >This couldn't have come at a worse time, as in 2022, PJM had paused new power plant connections after it faced a huge influx of applications for new renewable projects, which required more engineering oversight before they could be connected to the grid. Although PJM claims that this hasn't led to a shortfall in supply, it has meant the grid hasn't expanded like it was expected to. Local opposition to the construction of some of the plants that have been approved has further compounded the issue.

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Trump threatens 200pc tariffs on medicine
  • Is this one of those things where I go and check where most American drugs are made and it's already the us?

    Just by looking at the value of drug imports to the US, most likely

    Britain exports £8.8bn of pharmaceutical products to the United States and is home to some of the world’s largest drug companies including GSK and AstraZeneca.

    Mr Trump’s drug tariffs would be especially punitive for Ireland, which is responsible for 28pc of America’s imported drugs.

    The country, which exports $66bn worth of pharmaceuticals, has 30,000 people currently employed in plants by US drug companies.

  • Using ZRAM on a laptop with 8 GB RAM. Worth it or waste of CPU?
  • I have some Linux installed on my x240, Mini PC, and 12th Gen Intel Core i3 laptop with ZRAM without any issues.

    Here are screenshots of the dual boot Linux on my old Mini PC, Celeron with 8GB RAM and 500GB HDD

  • According to Pornhub data (yes seriously!) Linux market share in 2024 increased more than 40% relative to 5.1% of all users.
  • of course, you don't want M$ Copilot digging into your porn history, do you?

  • Pakistan flash floods, heavy rain kill 45 in just days
  • it just didn't get as hot there because of the rainy weather

    When the day starts, it will be very hot til around 12:00-13:00. between 14:00-16:00 when water vapor accumulates, it will rain heavily. But it happens randomly and regardless of the season as used to be.

    As far as I can tell, this has happened in the last two or three years, I don't know what season it is. And it gets worse, since this January there has been no rainy season or summer.

    May I ask where you are? Is it a monsoon climate?

    I live in SEA, around May-August it should be summer. November-March is the monsoon.

  • Pakistan flash floods, heavy rain kill 45 in just days
  • Not at all, at least where I live I don't experience flooding. But I recognize that there are floods elsewhere in my country, especially in places very close to the equator.

    I read somewhere it is predicted that there will be very wet season around the equator and it will last until December. This is very unusual for us, I realized people around me didn't know this.

  • Which country is the best for off-the-grid living?
  • what are you trying to achieve by living off the grid here? escape from fascist regime? or AI apocalypse?

  • Pakistan flash floods, heavy rain kill 45 in just days
  • I live near equator, We should have a hot summer this June and temperatures around 27-34°C in May-August, but instead we got the rainy like season.

  • Windows seemingly lost 400 million users in the past three years — official Microsoft statements show hints of a shrinking user base
  • I don't think they going to stop now. They even forced users to create Windows accounts in order to use Windows 11. They will also force Copilot to be installed on Windows 11.

    Did we ever ask M$ for this AI spy tool? No.

  • Windows seemingly lost 400 million users in the past three years — official Microsoft statements show hints of a shrinking user base
  • That's one of the reasons I use Linux as my daily driver. I'm not playing high end games, I only play old windows games from my childhood.

  • The year of the European Union Linux desktop may finally arrive
  • In my opinion, EU needs to force PC/laptop and other hardware manufacturers to provide drivers for Linux. Without this step, it will make it harder for them to move away from M$ Windows.

  • What's the future of the Linux ?
  • We gonna fork him into isekai world!

  • Aotearoa Weekly Kōrero 20/6/2025
  • I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Perhaps I will use it as network storage. it has an external SATA port, so I can add another storage.

    At first I just wanted to learn arch-based Linux. But I found it easier to learn OMV, as it has a similar learning curve to Debian and Ubuntu-based distros.

  • Aotearoa Weekly Kōrero 20/6/2025
  • suprisingly, we have more posts this week 👀

    Two weeks ago I installed dual boot EndeavourOS and OpenMandriva on my potato Mini PC (Celeron 1007U, 8GB RAM, 500 GB HDD), but I haven't gotten around to fiddling with it yet. 🙄

  • Microsoft locks Windows 11 user out, shows how easy losing data from forced encryption is
  • yep, in several countries including where I live. Several government institutions and state-owned companies have been using M$ Azure since 2 years ago.

  • Must fight temptation to buy an overpriced raspberry pi
  • I have several options here : OrangePI, used Android TV box, mini PC, thin-client and laptop.

    currently just installed dual boot Linux on my old mini PC (Celeron 1007U, 8GB RAM, 512GB HDD)

  • The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it's time to consider Linux and LibreOffice
  • just happened, a few days ago I installed dual boot of EndeavourOS and OpenMandriva replacing Windows 7, on my potato mini PC. (Celeron 1007U, 8GB RAM, 512GB HDD)

  • Here's why Linux market share isn't going to skyrocket anytime soon
  • Hardware support really sucks, as many hardware manufacturers only care about supporting M$ Windows.

    There's a way to force them to provide drivers for Linux, let's say the trade commission in any country forces all devices to have drivers for Linux.

  • Japan records lowest number of births in more than a century, as population fears grow
  • I could tell from my POV, there is a need for foreign labor in Japan. It was even announced at the Japanese embassy (in my country) most of the labor needed to care for the elderly.

    another example just a few months ago https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/02/59f0c75e44f4-indonesian-bus-driver-to-be-1st-to-work-under-new-japan-visa-status.html

    You can also take a look at r/japanlife, most of them are foreigners from western countries.

  • My week with Linux: I'm dumping Windows for Ubuntu to see how it goes
  • My laptop did not go to sleep

    Some people have similar experiences regarding sleep issue, including system just went blank on wake up.

    From my experiences on Linux Mint in two different laptops, the sleep issue related to Linux system cache. By default, many Linuxes use these settings, vm.dirty_ratio and vm.dirty_background_ratio are about 5 to 20 percent of the available system memory. This is fine if your system has less than 4GB of memory installed, but if your system has 8GB or more of memory, this can cause problems later on.

    So I have this "can't wake up" issue on my two differents laptop, the first laptop has 8 GB of memory and the second laptop has 16 GB. And both laptops are running on Linux Mint.

    In search of a solution, I came across this conversation https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/10/25/39

    I also found some possible system cache related issues on various distros.

    So I tried what Linus suggested, and I use lower values than suggested. And it worked!, the "can't wake up" issue on both laptops just gone in instant!

  • Do What?
  • I guess you're not wrong, could be the author took the character design from the manga.

  • throws_lemy Lee Duna @lemmy.nz
    Posts 4.2K
    Comments 429