Sci-Tech news

• Red cards have more than TRIPLED since the last World Cup, study reveals

  08-07-2026 11:07 via dailymail.com
  
  If you've noticed an exceptional number of red cards at the World Cup, you're not imagining it. A new study has revealed that red-card issuances have more than tripled.
  
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• AI slop writing has taken over the internet, particularly LinkedIn and X

  09-07-2026 23:01 via theregister.com
  
  No surprise here. A study from AI detection platform Pangram suggests that social media posts are teeming with AI-generated slop, particularly if the posts are long and especially if they live on LinkedIn or X. If you’re sick of reading non-human prose, we’d recommend getting off the platforms altogether. Along with offering your typical AI-content detection services, Pangram released a Chrome extension at the end of April that, with a $20/month subscription, will automatically scan
  
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• I'm a priest and the Bible gives us proof of what UFOs really are... here's what Jesus told us

  09-07-2026 21:01 via dailymail.com
  
  A priest has identified several Bible passages he believes hold the key to understanding UFOs.
  
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• AI tool scours the web for job openings, preps your resume and cover letter

  09-07-2026 19:40 via theregister.com
  
  Combing through job postings and company help wanted pages for a position that matches your resume is the very definition of drudge work. Now, there's an AI designed to suck up information from the web, do the search for you, and even help you apply. Software developer Tarun Gupta created just such a tool in the form of Autopilot-Jobhunt. When configured with a profile of the user and their desired jobs (and what they absolutely won’t accept in an opening), A-J will scan the web while user
  
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• OpenMandriva claims disgruntled admin trashed repos after community bust-up

  09-07-2026 19:15 via theregister.com
  
  OpenMandriva has accused a former contributor of using his trusted admin access to trash repositories and push a package that could have broken desktop installations after a community dispute spilled over into the project's infrastructure. The Linux distribution disclosed the incident in a forum post this week, describing what it called an attempted act of "distribution sabotage" allegedly involving Davide Beatrici, a developer known for his work on the Mumble instant messaging app. According to
  
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• Hidden detail in iconic 1962 World Cup photo sparks wild 'time traveler' theories

  09-07-2026 18:59 via dailymail.com
  
  With the World Cup underway in the US, a photo from the 1962 tournament has gone viral after fans claimed it showed a 'time traveler' hidden in the crowd.
  
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• SAP makes it easier for customers to shop for legacy product support, ending EU antitrust probe

  09-07-2026 18:46 via theregister.com
  
  The European Commission has ended an investigation into possible anticompetitive practices after SAP agreed to abolish reinstatement fees and reduce back-maintenance fees. The move could reduce barriers for customers considering third-party support for products nearing the end of their vendor support terms, including thousands of large businesses that rely on SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) to run their business operations. SAP's mainstream support for ECC ends in December 2027, while customers
  
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• Outlook for Mac bug makes font choice a purely decorative feature

  09-07-2026 18:30 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft's apparent ambition to make Outlook the worst email client for Mac shows no sign of fading after a recent update broke font selection in emails. The problem occurs when composing an email. Outlook uses the default font as the user types, but will ignore any request to select something different. Several threads have appeared on Microsoft's forums about the issue, and a moderator confirmed that something was amiss in a post on July 8. One workaround is to roll back to an earlier version
  
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• EU 'Chat Control' snoopfest returns after vote to kill it falls short

  09-07-2026 17:51 via theregister.com
  
  An effort by European parliamentarians to block the reintroduction of an interim rule allowing tech companies to scan chats for evidence of child sexual abuse failed today, despite securing more votes than the MEPs who want to keep it alive. Commonly referred to by critics as Chat Control, or Chat Control 1.0, the interim rule acts as a derogation from the ePrivacy Directive, allowing online communications platforms to voluntarily detect, report, and remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Ch
  
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• SignalTrace Just Weaponized Your AirPods With License Plate Readers Nationwide

  09-07-2026 17:50 via technocracy.news
  
  Just like Flock cameras ran ahead of regulators’ ability to contain them, so has Leonardo launched a dragnet product to scan all Bluetooth and WiFi signals in realtime, attaching the result to Flock cameras taking pictures of your license plate. There are no laws against this to slow or stop its spread. Leonardo DRS is a defense contractor whose website says, “These cutting-edge sensing systems provide targeting, surveillance, and protection capabilities based on our advanced electro
  
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• NASA reveals it has captured UFO imagery as space agency chief admits 'there's life everywhere'

  09-07-2026 17:33 via dailymail.com
  
  The new head of NASA confirmed that images which cannot be explained have been taken, and revealed plans to 'invade' other worlds throughout the cosmos.
  
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• KDE Plasma users face a dire omen of change: 6.6.6 arrives

  09-07-2026 17:02 via theregister.com
  
  KDE Plasma 6.6.6 is here, along with a beastly long list of bugfixes, so if you have Plasma 6.6.5 – for instance, if you are using KDE on FreeBSD 15.1 – then it's an update well worth having. KDE Plasma 6.6.6 is a release that really is just about bug-fixes, but while there are no headline-grabbing features coming out for this inauspicious version number, it's worth remembering: in a world of bloated code, real-world software still depends on experienced maintainers. If you really li
  
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• Canonical Managed Kubeflow lands on Azure

  09-07-2026 17:00 via theregister.com
  
  Platform engineering team leads are facing a quiet crisis. Your data science teams want Kubeflow for its pipeline orchestration, metadata tracking, and training operators, so you build it for them on Kubernetes. Then day two arrives. Your engineering backlog is swallowed by breaking changes from upstream, Istio configuration complexity, security patching, and storage provisioning bottlenecks. You didn't build an ML platform; you accidentally adopted a full-time infrastructure maintenance program
  
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• Ramping Up: Current State Of Robotics In 2026

  09-07-2026 16:30 via technocracy.news
  
  In 2025, I forecast that 2026 would be the “Year of the Robot” and it’s right on track. Analysts at this CITI Research conference agree that physical AI has moved past the demo stage and reached commercial deployment. The entire industry could be stalled by the AI bubble, lack of training data, and dislocations is the chip industry, but it is here to stay in the long term. Most robots will be deployed as Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS). ⁃ Patrick Wood Editor.Citi’s&nbs
  
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• Brown says AI make student brain no work good, teacher should help use it better

  09-07-2026 16:29 via theregister.com
  
  Students and faculty at Brown University are worried generative AI could harm learning after an economics professor's take-home exam produced results he said pointed to widespread misuse of the technology. In a report [PDF] published by Brown's Generative AI in Teaching and Learning (GAITL) committee, teaching staff say they fear AI could weaken students' cognitive skills and encourage cheating. The committee's report comes days after Brown's Roberto Serrano warned that society "cannot choose to
  
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• Monster heat dome to suffocate 20 US states as 115F 'feels like' temperatures return in just DAYS

  09-07-2026 16:06 via dailymail.com
  
  Millions of Americans are set to roast under a monster heat dome, with 'feels like' temperatures reaching 115°F.
  
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• UK.gov withholds £10M payment from Capita over pensions project fiasco, as dispute continues

  09-07-2026 16:01 via theregister.com
  
  The UK government has withheld £10 million in payments to tech and business process outsourcing biz Capita following the disastrous takeover of the Civil Service pensions scheme (CSPS). The penalties (£9.9 million) in the £239 million contract relate to the transition from the earlier scheme provider to the Capita service. Since the service went live in December last year, Capita has continued to miss the majority of its KPIs and is locked in a dispute with the government over
  
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• Microsoft closes book on Nightmare Eclipse's RoguePlanet zero-day

  09-07-2026 15:30 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has quietly fixed the “RoguePlanet” zero-day in Microsoft Defender, closing the latest hole exposed by security researcher Nightmare Eclipse after months of public sparring over the company's handling of vulnerability reports. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-50656, was addressed through an update to the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine rather than via its monthly Patch Tuesday bundle. Microsoft said customers should ensure they're running the latest engine version
  
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• How accurate is The Odyssey movie? Historical experts weigh in as Elon Musk and Tom Holland clash over casting

  09-07-2026 15:13 via dailymail.com
  
  Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey has sparked controversy before it even hits the big screens in a row over historical accuracy.
  
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• Speedier type checks in TypeScript 7.0 as first stable Go release ships

  09-07-2026 15:01 via theregister.com
  
  The Microsoft-led TypeScript 7.0 features an order-of-magnitude speed boost, a victory not only for TypeScript itself but also for Go, the programming language used to completely rewrite the web staple's compiler. Following a major rewrite effort that began with an experimental native Go implementation, this is the first stable release of the language to include its long-in-development Go-based compiler rewrite. “TypeScript 7 brings native code speed, shared memory multithreading, and a nu
  
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• Britain's cloud habit has become a billion-pound risk

  09-07-2026 14:42 via theregister.com
  
  Amid calls for digital sovereignty, a report warns that more than 60 percent of UK companies depend on cloud services for critical functions, and an outage in one or more of the big providers could prove costly. Researchers at the Cyber Monitoring Centre nonprofit found a high level of cloud dependence among British firms, rising to more than 80 percent among FTSE 100 firms, and say this means cloud outages will disproportionately affect some of the country's most economically important companie
  
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• Scientists reveal the most exciting World Cup games so far - and none of England's matches even make the top 10!

  09-07-2026 14:03 via dailymail.com
  
  Experts from Northeastern University have built a new algorithm which measures and ranks World Cup games for their level of excitement.
  
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• Microsoft to switch off OWA Light after nearly two decades

  09-07-2026 13:53 via theregister.com
  
  Microsoft has warned admins that Outlook Web Access (OWA) Light is set to be disabled and removed with the August 2026 Exchange Server update. The announcement applies to the on-premises version of Exchange Server. The feature was deprecated on August 19, 2024, but some users might still be caught off guard when the plug is pulled once and for all. OWA Light – not to be confused with the stripped-down Android app Outlook Lite, which was retired earlier this year – is a simple web cli
  
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• Does Arthur Fery have what it takes to win Wimbledon? Scientists reveal how the British tennis star's short stature, young age and limited experience at Grand Slams could give him the edge

  09-07-2026 13:53 via dailymail.com
  
  Arthur Fery's youth, shorter stature and relative Grand Slam inexperience could actually give the British wildcard an unlikely edge, according to experts.
  
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• MPs tell NHS to start packing Palantir's bags ahead of 2027 contract break

  09-07-2026 13:26 via theregister.com
  
  A cross-party group of MPs has told the government to start planning for life after Palantir, arguing the NHS should use a 2027 break clause in its Federated Data Platform (FDP) contract to find a replacement rather than doubling down on one of Whitehall's most contentious tech deals. In a letter to Health Innovation Minister Preet Kaur Gill, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) should begin preparing to replace the FDP when t
  
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• Accenture admits to 'isolated matter' after crook tries to flog alleged 35GB haul

  09-07-2026 12:35 via theregister.com
  
  Accenture has confirmed an "isolated matter" after a cybercriminal put up for sale what they allege is 35GB of the consulting giant's internal data, including source code, cryptographic keys, and cloud credentials. The listing, seen by The Register, appeared on a cybercrime forum on July 6 under the title "Accenture Data Breach," posted by a user with the handle "888." The seller claimed the stolen archive contained source code alongside RSA keys, SSH keys, Azure Personal Access Tokens (PATs), A
  
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• Man overboard! AI 'guardian' for cruise ships can detect passengers falling into the water instantly - even in darkness

  09-07-2026 12:03 via dailymail.com
  
  The new system, called ZOE, is capable of detecting both adults and children falling overboard from cruise ships within four seconds.
  
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• Ubuntu emphasizes Arm64 support – and gets Rustier

  09-07-2026 11:59 via theregister.com
  
  Some of Canonical’s ambitions for the future directions of Ubuntu are becoming apparent – despite some bumps in the road. Canonical engineering manager Ravi Kant Sharma posted an Ubuntu on Arm summer ’26 update on the Ubuntu Discourse. The company is boosting its efforts to make running Ubuntu on Arm64 a first-class experience. Some of the changes are behind the scenes, and others will be more immediately visible. Last month, Canonical announced that Ubuntu’s support for
  
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• Scientists analyse the 'witches' marks' on the walls of old English buildings - and finally reveal the meaning behind the mysterious symbols

  09-07-2026 11:47 via dailymail.com
  
  The marks - often referred to as daisy wheels or hexafoils - can be found inside medieval churches and houses across the country.
  
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• Is this the key to preventing a Super El Niño? Scientists say artificially brightening the CLOUDS could shield us from floods, extreme heat and wildfires

  09-07-2026 11:30 via dailymail.com
  
  With the strongest Super El Niño on record now underway, scientists are investigating a controversial method that could stop the weather cycle in its tracks.
  
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