This NOVA special on PBS focuses on the discoveries madeincluding lead coffins and broken statuaryduring renovations after the cathedrals 2019 fire.

Who, what, where, when? Report: Elon Musk failed to report movement required by security clearance No federal agencies have accused Musk of disclosing classified information. Eric Berger Dec 17, 2024 5:30 pm | 83 Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, President-elect Donald Trump, and Gen. Chance Saltzman of the US Space Force watch the sixth launch of Starship Tuesday. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Elon Musk, SpaceX's CEO, President-elect Donald Trump, and Gen. Chance Saltzman of the US Space Force watch the sixth launch of Starship Tuesday. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreA new investigation from The New York Times suggests that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has not been reporting his travel activities and other information to the Department of Defense as required by his top-secret clearance.According to the newspaper, concerns about Musk's reporting practices have led to reviews by three different bodies within the military; the Air Force, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, and the Defense Department Office of Inspector General.However, none of the federal agencies cited in the Times article has accused Musk of disclosing classified material.The Times reports that Musk had a mid-level security clearance until 2018, at which point SpaceX applied for a top-secret clearance for its chief executive. SpaceX performs a number of functions for the US government, both civil and military branches. Among its most secretive activities are launching classified satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office and providing encrypted communications and observational activities with its Starshield satellites.Why didnt he?As part of the screening process, federal officials gather financial information and examine personal relationships. It took two years to process Musk's security clearance, the newspaper reports, which is more than double the average time. During the time this security clearance was pending, Musk violated security clearance rules by smoking pot on Joe Rogans podcast, and his business interests in China deepened.Musk ultimately received the security clearance, but since 2021, he has failed to self-report details of his life, including travel activities, persons with whom he has met, and drug use, according to the Times. The government is also concerned that SpaceX did not ensure Musk's compliance with the reporting rules.Government agencies "want to ensure the people who have clearances dont violate rules and regulations," Andrew Bakaj, a former CIA official and lawyer who works on security clearances, told the Times. "If you dont self-report, the question becomes: Why didnt you? And what are you trying to hide?'"According to the report, Musk's handling of classified information has raised questions in diplomatic meetings between the United States and some of its allies, including Israel.Musk's national security profile has risen following his deep-pocketed and full-throated support of Donald Trump, who won the US presidential campaign in November and will be sworn into office next month. After this inauguration, Trump will have the power to grant security clearance to whomever he wishes.Eric BergerSenior Space EditorEric BergerSenior Space Editor Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston. 83 Comments

Silver linings Unprecedented decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts Kids who were in 8th grade at pandemic's start have ushered in an era of abstaining. Beth Mole Dec 17, 2024 5:15 pm | 8 Rear view of a multiracial group of students walking in school corridor Credit: Getty | Rafa Fernandez Torres Rear view of a multiracial group of students walking in school corridor Credit: Getty | Rafa Fernandez Torres Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreTeen drug use continued to fall in 2024, extending a dramatic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic that experts expected would reverse now that the acute phase of the global crisis is well over.But, according to data released Tuesday, the number of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders who collectively abstained from the use of alcohol, marijuana, or nicotine hit a new high this year. Use of illicit drugs also fell on the whole and use of non-heroin narcotics (Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet) hit an all-time low."Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted," Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further."The Monitoring the Future studywhich has been running for 50 years and is funded by the National Institutes of Healthsurveys a nationally representative group of teens each year on their involvement with the ever-evolving drug landscape. This year, the survey collected data from over 24,000 students at more than 270 public and private schools.The initial drop in drug use between 2020 and 2021 was among the largest ever recorded. And researchers like Miech expected the rates would bounce back, at least partially. But now, the data suggests the pandemic has started a wave of abstention that is still rippling through grade levels.A new era"Kids who were in eighth grade at the start of the pandemic will be graduating from high school this year, and this unique cohort has ushered in the lowest rates of substance use weve seen in decades," Miech noted.For alcohol, use in the past 12 months among eighth graders was at 12.9 percent in 2024, similar to 2023 levels, which are all-time lows. For 10th graders, the rate dropped significantly from 30.6 percent in 2023 to 26.1 percent, and for 12th graders, from 45.7 percent to 41.7 percentboth record lows.For nicotine vaping, rates fell for 10th graders (from 17.5 percent to 15.4 percent) and remained at low levels for eighth and 12th graders. For marijuana, use remained low for eighth and 10th graders and fell significantly for 12th graders (from 29 percent to 25.8 percent). All three grades are at lows not seen since 1990.For abstainers from alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine, the rate among eighth graders hit 90 percent, up from 87 percent in 2017, when it was first measured. The rate was 80 percent among 10th graders, up from 69 percent in 2017, and 67 percent for 12th graders, up from 53 percent in 2017."This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented," Nora Volkow, director of NIHs National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said. "We must continue to investigate factors that have contributed to this lowered risk of substance use to tailor interventions to support the continuation of this trend."Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 8 Comments

Unintended features Nvidias new app is causing large frame rate dips in many games Fully disabling optional, AI-powered filters seems to fix the problem. Kyle Orland Dec 17, 2024 4:43 pm | 20 "Frame rate decrease" is pointedly not listed under the "New Features" Credit: Nvidia "Frame rate decrease" is pointedly not listed under the "New Features" Credit: Nvidia Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreWhen Nvidia replaced the longstanding GeForce Experience App with a new, unified Nvidia App last month, most GPU owners probably noted the refresh and rebranding with nothing more than bemusement (though the new lack of an account login requirement was a nice improvement). Now, testing shows that running the new app with default settings can lead to some significant frame rate dips on many high-end games, even when the app's advanced AI features aren't being actively used.Tom's Hardware noted the performance dip after reading reports of related problems around the web. The site's testing with and without the Nvidia App installed confirms that, across five games running on an RTX 4060, the app reduced average frame rates by around 3 to 6 percent, depending on the resolution and graphical quality level.The site's measured frame rate drop peaked at 12 percent for Assassin's Creed Mirage running at 1080p Ultra settings; other tested games (including Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Flight Simulator 2024, and Stalker 2) showed a smaller drop at most settings.UnfilteredThis is a significant performance impact for an app that simply runs quietly in the background for most users. The impact is roughly comparable to that of going from a top-of-the-line RTX 4070 Ti Super to an older RTX 4070 Ti or 4070 Super, based on our earlier testing of those cards. A promotional video highlighting some of the benefits of the Nvidia App. The problem, it seems, stems from the Nvidia app's integration of new, optional Game Filters. The company says these "AI-powered" filters can provide "dynamic vibrance" to "better distinguish in-game elements" or virtual HDR color support in games not coded with HDR in mind.Apparently, merely having these optional filters enabled in the app takes its toll on game performance whenever the app is running, even if the filters aren't actively being used in a running game. To fix the problem, you have to turn off the Game Filters feature completely in the Nvidia App itself ("Nvidia App Settings > Features > Overlay > Game Filters and Photo Mode").In a statement to Tom's Hardware, Nvidia acknowledged that it was "aware of a reported performance issue related to Game Filters and are actively looking into it." Hopefully they'll quickly figure out why this inert feature is causing such a noticeable impact on many games. In the meantime, those who don't want to worry about this kind of thing can still manually install the latest GPU drivers by downloading them directly from Nvidia's website.Kyle OrlandSenior Gaming EditorKyle OrlandSenior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 20 Comments

Companies want CIOs to weigh in on corporate strategy, yet most CIOs find that they must carve out their own strategic roles. Whats the best way to do this?At first blush, it might seem that there is no best way, because the idea of a CIO sitting at the corporate strategic roundtable is relatively new.An initial driver for CIO strategic engagement was ushered in with the launch of digitalization initiatives. Digitalization made CEOs and boards realize that technology would be a driver of business success. This prompted a deluge of invitations to CIOs to attend strategic meetings, even though no one (including CIOs!) knew how and what CIOs would contribute.Ultimately, it was left to CIOs to define their own strategic business roles.Rule #1: CIOs contribute to corporate strategy by defining their own strategic roles.CEOs know they want the CIO at the strategic roundtable since its now obvious to everyone that technology enables business success, but that tends to be all a CEO knows.Thats why CEOs and boards expect CIOs to establish their own strategic identities and worth. To do this, CIOs must first read the tea leaves of their companies.Is it best to be a technology thought leader? I know of at least one case where that was all that was expected of the CIO in strategic planning. The CEO and the board wanted to know that they had an in-house data architect who knew what every system was doing, where every piece of data was, and how best to align all of it so everyone in the company worked with consistent, high-quality information.Related:In other cases, companies want a CIO who is so business-savvy that the CIO knows all the customer touch points and business pain points, and like a super physician can apply a magical technology balm to these processes, taking the pain away. Ive seen CIOs do this, and some have even ascended to CEO positions.Still other CIOs see themselves as technology trash collectors. They update technology over a series of years and get rid of the outmoded boat anchors that burden corporate balance sheets.CIOs who are defining their strategic identities and the value they bring might choose one or more of these approaches, but one common path that they all travel is role definition, for there is no one else in the organization who can do it for them.Rule #2: Contributions grow when you stick to business.There was the CIO who established himself as a master data architect, and this satisfied the board and the CEO. But he was an outlier. This is because most companies want their CIOs to transform the business for the better. To do this, CIOs are building their business chops by studying finance, operations, marketing and sales, because they understand that they must get up to speed on how their companies operate and thrive above and beyond technology.Related:These CIOS analyze revenue streams, income statements, financial ratios, borrowing costs, customer behavior, and stakeholder concerns. Theyre addressing these topics head-on in strategic meetings. This helps them gain business respect with their peers in the C-suite and with stakeholders, board members and the CEO.There is also one special insight that CIOs possess and that other executives dont: CIOs are integrally familiar with the enterprises portfolio of systems. Their work in IT has acquainted them with where they have systemic malfunctions and breakdowns. In a sense, the CIO is like an enterprise surgeon. He sees the breakdowns in those systems and can likely trace those breakdowns to problems in the business. If he can solve these problems with technology, he establishes his strategic worth.Rule #3: C-suite teamwork pays off. CIOs are at their strategic best when they team with other C-level executives in a digital transformation project that closely aligns technology with the business.Related:An example would be a new CRM system that gives everyone a 360-degree view of the customer experience with the company, whether they work in customer service, sales, marketing, product development, order fulfillment, or finance. It isnt enough to ensure that systems and data across all functions are operational and consistent; you must also have the enthusiastic backing and participation of the executives who use these systems.By teaming with their executive peers on digital projects, CIOs erase the old pattern of users coming to IT, asking for systems, and then returning to their regular business routines while IT works in the back room on a system that the users might not end up liking.Communication channels develop and trust builds when C-level executives work together. A foundation of mutual work and trust is built that paves the way for more productive strategy making.Rule #4: Go for the home run; dont just get on base. CIOs are not necessarily risk averse, but there are some who like to play their positions on the conservative side. If this management style fits your personality, you should probably stick with it. However, there is empirical evidence that CIOs who are willing to step outside of their traditional comfort zones -- say to propose a new business -- assume high risk but also cash in on high strategic rewards.An example is the CIO at a well-known financial services company who developed a product in IT that was so innovative that he proposed a separate for-profit line of business for it. The board and the CEO approved, and the CIO became the CEO of a new subsidiary. This is an extraordinary example of where high-risk-high reward strategic business leadership can go, but if the shoe fits, go for it.

Molecular testing can be used to assess drink qualityEvgenii Parilov/AlamyDrinks manufacturers and consumers may soon have a small, portable kit, not much bigger than a covid test, to check the quality and safety of alcoholic beverages.The device is being described as an artificial tongue because it can detect additives, toxins and the sweetness of the drink with just a few drops. AdvertisementShuo Huang at Nanjing University in China says that while this first generation of the new technology cant yet test for date rape drugs in spiked drinks or detect methanol contamination, which recently resulted in the deaths of six backpackers in Laos, future versions may.Current methods for analysing alcoholic drinks, such as liquid chromatography, involve expensive and cumbersome laboratory equipment, requiring expert technicians to operate and analyse samples.The artificial tongue relies on biological nanopore technology. This uses a modified organism such as a bacterium with a small hole or pore, just a few nanometres in diameter, in its cell membrane. By charging the membrane with electricity, small molecules of the substance being tested can be pulled into and through the pore. Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.Sign up to newsletterAs these molecules pass through the nanopore they create a unique electrical signature, which can be analysed to identify the chemicals present in the sample. Nanopores have already revolutionised DNA sequencing, allowing the almost-instant testing of genetic material with a device that can be easily transported.Huang and his colleagues used a nanopore already deployed in DNA sequencing, made with a bacterium called Mycobacterium smegmatis.The device uses artificial intelligence to identify the molecules passing through the nanopore, including flavour compounds and additives, says Huang. The sensor will immediately tell us what kind of alcoholic beverage it is, he says. It can provide a quantitative standard for the product and also easily spot counterfeit alcoholic beverage products as well.The nanopore detector only needs a source of electricity to operate, he says. This nanopore sensing assay can be carried out at home, in the office or by the roadside as well, as simple as a covid test, Huang says. The only thing you need to do is to add a drop of alcoholic beverage to the sensor and wait for the result. The machine learning algorithm will do the rest of the job for you.Journal reference:Matter DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2024.11.025Topics:

Tree planting projects help tackle the climate crisis, but they can also impact water suppliesCostfoto/NurPhotoThe major environmental, social and economic crises facing the world today involving biodiversity, climate change, health, food and water are inextricably interlinked, and tackling them together has many benefits. Focusing on one issue alone, however, can make the other crises worse.That is the conclusion of a major report put together by 165 researchers from 57 countries over the past three years, and approved by the governments of 147 countries. AdvertisementThe UN conventions on issues such as biodiversity and climate focus on these problems individually. So what hasnt been done before that we now do in this report is to join all of that together and show looking at these crises individually not only is inefficient but actually has a real danger, says Paula Harrison at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who co-chaired the assessment process for the report. Action is urgent, but if we dont act in a way that takes account of these interdependences, it will cause new problems or make existing problems worse.Harrison says the scientific studies assessed for the report provide strong evidence that there are many actions that can be taken that have beneficial effects in all five areas simultaneously. These include conserving and restoring mangrove forests, boosting soil health and carbon content, creating early warning systems for all kinds of hazards, reducing the risk of diseases spreading from animals to humans, universal healthcare and international cooperation on technologies related to these issues.There are trade-offs: the actions with wide-ranging benefits arent the same as the actions that are the most optimal solution to any one problem, she says. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month.Sign up to newsletterWhat you cant do is get the highest possible value all at the same time, says Harrison. You cant optimise food production and not have negative impacts on everything else, but you can have a balanced approach across them all that benefits them all.Harrison gives the example of planting trees to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If the focus is solely on climate, the trees chosen may be fast-growing exotic species that dont support any wildlife and impact water supplies by taking up too much water. But if projects take a more holistic approach, they would choose native tree species that use less water and boost biodiversity. They might not sequester quite as much carbon, but they will provide a lot of value for other aspects of the system, says Harrison.There are also economic benefits to an integrated approach that helps preserve biodiversity as well as achieving other goals. The Nexus report, as it is officially known, says that more than half of global gross domestic product $50 trillion is moderately to highly dependent on nature.It is estimated that the unaccounted-for costs of current approaches to economic activity reflecting impacts on biodiversity, water, health and climate change, including from food production are at least $10 to 25 trillion per year, Pamela McElwee of Rutgers University in New Jersey, the other co-chair, said in a statement.Theres a lot of evidence now if we carry on the way that we are, there are very strong and increasing biophysical risks to economic prosperity and financial stability, says Harrison.The Nexus report was put together by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which is a non-UN body but works in a similar way to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report was officially approved on 16 December by representatives of the 147 member states of IPBES, meeting in Namibia.The report is very ambitious, says Anne Larigauderie, the executive secretary of IPBES. The aim is to provide the science and evidence needed to support the achievement of other international treaties, she says, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement on climate change.Topics:

There may be more moon-born asteroids near Earth than we thoughtESA/P.CarrilA huge rock orbiting near Earth appears to have originated from the moon, the second such object known to exist, with maybe more than a dozen awaiting discovery.The asteroid, called 2024 PT5, is about 10 metres wide. Spotted in August, it was later snared by Earths gravitational pull, becoming a second moon of our planet, referred to as a mini-moon, between September and November.Re-examining the asteroid, Teddy Kareta at Lowell Observatory

Recorded on December 17, 2024The Worst Technology Failures of 2024Speakers: Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine, and Niall Firth, executive editor.MIT Technology Review publishes an annual list of the worst technologies of the year. This year, The Worst Technology Failures of 2024 list was unveiled live by our editors. Hear fromMIT Technology Reviewexecutive editor Niall Firth and senior editor for biomedicine Antonio Regalado as they discuss each of the 8 items on this list.Related CoverageThe 8 worst technology failures of 2024The worst technology failures of 2023The worst technology of 2022

They say you learn more from failure than success. If so, this is the story for you: MIT Technology Reviews annual roll call of the biggest flops, flimflams, and fiascos in all domains of technology. Some of the foul-ups were funny, like the "woke AI which got Google in trouble after it drew Black Nazis. Some caused lawsuits, like a computer error by CrowdStrike that left thousands of Delta passengers stranded. We also reaped failures among startups that raced to expand from 2020 to 2022, a period of ultra-low interest rates. But then the economic winds shifted. Money wasnt free anymore. The result? Bankruptcy and dissolution for companies whose ambitious technological projects, from vertical farms to carbon credits, hadnt yet turned a profit and might never do so. Read on. Woke AI blunder GOOGLE GEMINI VIA X.COM/END WOKENESS People worry about bias creeping into AI. But what if you add bias on purpose? Thanks to Google, we know where that leads: Black Vikings and female popes. Googles Gemini AI image feature, launched last February, had been tuned to zealously showcase diversity, damn the history books. Ask Google for a picture of German soldiers from World War II, and it would create a Benetton ad in Wehrmacht uniforms. Critics pounced and Google beat an embarrassed retreat. It paused Geminis ability to draw people and agreed its well-intentioned effort to be inclusive had missed the mark. The free version of Gemini still wont create images of people. But paid versions will. When we asked for an image of 12 CEOs of public biotech companies, the software produced a photographic-quality image of middle-aged white men. Less than ideal. But closer to the truth. More: Is Googles Gemini chatbot woke by accident, or by design? (The Economist), Gemini image generation got it wrong. We'll do better. (Google) Boeing Starliner THE BOEING COMPANY VIA NASA Boeing, we have a problem. And its your long-delayed reusable spaceship, the Starliner, which stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Suni Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore on the International Space Station. The June mission was meant to be a quick eight-day round trip to test Starliner before it embarked on longer missions. But, plagued by helium leaks and thruster problems, it had to come back empty. Now Butch and Suni wont return to Earth until 2025, when a craft from Boeing competitor SpaceX is scheduled to bring them home. Credit Boeing and NASA with putting safety first. But this wasnt Boeings only malfunction during 2024. The company began the year with a door blowing off one of its planes midflight, faced a worker strike, agreed to a major fine for misleading the government about the safety of its 737 Max airplane (which made our 2019 list of worst technologies), and saw its CEO step down in March. After the Starliner fiasco, Boeing fired the chief of its space and defense unit. At this critical juncture, our priority is to restore the trust of our customers and meet the high standards they expect of us to enable their critical missions around the world, Boeings new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, said in a memo. CrowdStrike outage MITTR / ENVATO The motto of the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike is We stop breaches. And its true: No one can breach your computer if you cant turn it on. Thats exactly what happened to many people on July 19, when thousands of Windows computers at airlines, TV stations, and hospitals started displaying the blue screen of death. The cause wasnt hackers or ransomware. Instead, those computers were stuck in a boot loop because of a bad update shipped by CrowdStrike itself. CEO George Kurtz jumped on X to say the issue had been identified as a defect in a single computer file. So who is liable? CrowdStrike customer Delta Airlines, which canceled 7,000 flights, is suing for $500 million. It alleges that the security firm caused a global catastrophe when it took uncertified and untested shortcuts. CrowdStrike countersued. It says Deltas management is to blame for its troubles and that the airline is due little more than a refund. More: Crowdstrike is working with customers(George Kurtz), How to fix a Windows PC affected by the global outage (MIT Technology Review), Delta Sues CrowdStrike Over July Operations Meltdown (WSJ) Vertical farms MITTR / ENVATO Grow lettuce in buildings using robots, hydroponics, and LED lights. Thats what Bowery, a vertical farming startup, raised over $700 million to do. But in November, Bowery went bust, making it the biggest startup failure of the year, according to the business analytics firm CB Insights. Bowery claimed that vertical farms were 100 times more productive per square foot than traditional farms, since racks of plants could be stacked 40 feet high. In reality, the companys lettuce was more expensive, and when a stubborn plant infection spread through its East Coast facilities, Bowery had trouble delivering the green stuff at any price. More: How a leaf-eating pathogen, failed deals brought down Bowery Farming (Pitchbook), Vertical farming "unicorn" Bowery to shut down (Axios) Exploding pagers MITTR / ADOBE STOCK They beeped, and then they blew up. Across Lebanon, fingers and faces were shredded in what was called Israels surprise opening blow in an all-out war to try to cripple Hezbollah. The deadly attack was diabolically clever. Israel set up shell companies that sold thousands of pagers packed with explosives to the Islamic faction, which was already worried that its phones were being spied on. A coup for Israels spies. But was it a war crime? A 1996 treaty prohibits intentionally manufacturing apparently harmless objects designed to explode. The New York Times says nine-year-old Fatima Abdullah died when her fathers booby-trapped beeper chimed and she raced to take it to him. More: Israel conducted Lebanon pager attack (Axios), A 9-Year-Old Girl Killed in Pager Attack Is Mourned in Lebanon (New York Times), Did Israel break international law? (Middle East Eye) 23andMe MITTR / ADOBE STOCK The company that pioneered direct-to-consumer gene testing is sinking fast. Its stock price is going toward zero, and a plan to create valuable drugs is kaput after that team got pink slips this November. 23andMe always had a celebrity aura, bathing in good press. Now, though, the press is all bad. Its a troubled company in the grip of a controlling founder, Anne Wojcicki, after its independent directors resigned en masse this September. Customers are starting to worry about whats going to happen to their DNA data if 23andMe goes under. 23andMe says it created the worlds largest crowdsourced platform for genetic research. Thats true. It just never figured out how to turn a profit. More: 23andMes fall from $6 billion to nearly $0 (Wall Street Journal), How todelete your 23andMe data (MIT Technology Review), 23andMe Financial Report, November 2024 (23andMe) AI slop AUTHOR UNKNOWN VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Slop is the scraps and leftovers that pigs eat. AI slop is what you and I are increasingly consuming online now that people are flooding the internet with computer-generated text and pictures. AI slop is dubious, says the New York Times, and dadaist, according to Wired. Its frequently weird, like Shrimp Jesus (dont ask if you dont know), or deceptive, like the picture of a shivering girl in a rowboat, supposedly showing the US governments poor response to Hurricane Helene. AI slop is often entertaining. AI slop is usually a waste of your time. AI slop is not fact-checked. AI slop exists mostly to get clicks. AI slop is that blue-check account on X posting 10-part threads on how great AI isthreads that were written by AI. Most of all, AI slop is very, very common. This year, researchers claimed that about half the long posts on LinkedIn and Medium were partly AI-generated. More: First came Spam. Now, With A.I., Weve got Slop (New York Times), AI Slop Is Flooding Medium (Wired) Voluntary carbon markets MITTR / ENVATO Your business creates emissions that contribute to global warming. So why not pay to have some trees planted or buy a more efficient cookstove for someone in Central America? Then you could reach net-zero emissions and help save the planet. Neat idea, but good intentions aren't enough. This year the carbon marketplace Nori shut down, and so did Running Tide, a firm trying to sink carbon into the ocean. The problem is the voluntary carbon market is voluntary, Running Tides CEO wrote in a farewell post, citing a lack of demand. While companies like to blame low demand, it's not the only issue. Sketchy technology, questionable credits, and make-believe offsets have created a credibility problem in carbon markets. In October, US prosecutors charged two men in a $100 million scheme involving the sale of nonexistent emissions savings. More: The growing signs of trouble for global carbon markets (MIT Technology Review), Running Tides ill-fated adventure in ocean carbon removal (Canary Media), Ex-carbon offsetting boss charged in New York with multimillion-dollar fraud (The Guardian)