ICT news

• Belgium Becomes First EU Country To Ban Sale of Disposable Vapes

  01-01-2025 21:30 via slashdot.org
  
  Belgium has become the EU first country to ban the sale of disposable vapes in an effort to stop young people from becoming addicted to nicotine and to protect the environment. From a report: The sale of disposable electronic cigarettes is banned in Belgium on health and environmental grounds from 1 January. A ban on outdoor smoking in Milan came into force on the same day, as EU countries discuss tighter controls on tobacco.
  Announcing the ban last year, Belgium's health minister, Frank Vandenb
  
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• India Again Delays Rules To Break Payments Duopoly

  01-01-2025 20:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  India has once again pushed back a contentious plan to limit major technology companies' control of the nation's digital payments system, extending a regulatory uncertainty that has weighed on the sector for years. From a report: The National Payments Corporation of India said on Tuesday it would extend the deadline for implementing a 30% cap on any individual app's share of transactions on the Unified Payments Interface, or UPI, the country's ubiquitous digital payments network, to December 31,
  
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• Tintin, Popeye Enter Public Domain as 1929 Works Released

  01-01-2025 18:11 via it.slashdot.org
  
  Thousands of copyrighted works from 1929, including Mickey Mouse's first speaking appearance and original versions of comic characters Popeye and Tintin, entered the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2025, as their 95-year copyright terms expired.
  Popeye debuted in E.C. Segar's "Thimble Theatre" comic strip, while Tintin first appeared in Georges Remi's "Les Aventures de Tintin." These original character versions can now be freely used without permission or fees. Literary classics joining the pub
  
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• SEC Writes Off $10 Billion in Fines It Can't Collect

  01-01-2025 17:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Securities and Exchange Commission wrote off nearly $10 billion in uncollected fines over the past decade, with $1.4 billion written off in 2023 alone, WSJ reported, citing internal data.
  While the agency reported $4.9 billion in sanctions last year, it typically collects only two-thirds of imposed penalties. The SEC stopped disclosing collection rates in 2019. In fiscal 2024, it collected just 23% of $8.2 billion in reported sanctions, including a $4.4 billion judgment against cryptocurrenc
  
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• Why Breakfast Is Busting Your Food Budget

  01-01-2025 16:13 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Food prices continue climbing, posing challenges for U.S. consumers and policymakers, with average food-at-home prices recording their largest annual increase in November. While some commodities like wheat and corn have seen price drops, key breakfast staples remain expensive due to global supply disruptions from disease, weather, and reduced production.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
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• Students Overpaid Elite Colleges $685 Million, 'Price-Fixing' Suit Says

  01-01-2025 15:02 via news.slashdot.org
  
  A filing in an antitrust lawsuit against some of the nation's top universities alleges the schools overcharged students by $685 million in a "price-fixing" scheme, raising serious questions about their past admission and financial aid policies. From a report: Documents and testimony from officials at Georgetown University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT and other elite schools suggest they appeared to favor wealthy applicants despite their stated policy of acce
  
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• California Will Require Insurance Companies To Offer Coverage In Wildfire Zones

  01-01-2025 14:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: Insurance companies that stopped providing home coverage to hundreds of thousands of Californians in recent years as wildfires became more destructive will have to again provide policies in fire-prone areas if they want to keep doing business in California under a state regulation announced Monday. The rule will require home insurers to offer coverage in high-risk areas, something the state has never done, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara
  
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• Microplastics Found In Multiple Human Organ Tissues Correlated With Lesions

  01-01-2025 11:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Research from Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University reveals a concerning correlation between micro and nanoplastic (MNP) concentrations in damaged human tissues and various health conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, thrombosis, and cancer. Phys.Org reports: In the study, "Mapping micro(nano)plastics in various organ systems: Their emerging links to human diseases?" published in TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry, investigators collected 61 available research articles for MN
  
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• NATO Plans To Build Satellite Links As Backups To Undersea Cables

  01-01-2025 08:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Tom's Hardware reports that NATO is developing an advanced system to address the growing number of undersea cable disruptions observed in recent years. Known as HEIST (Hybrid Space-Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications), the project is designed to significantly enhance the resilience of undersea communication networks. HEIST will enable damage detection with an accuracy of one meter, facilitate rapid data rerouting through satellite networks when disruptions occur, and es
  
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• Scientist's 'Ruthlessly Imaginative' 1925 Predictions For the Future

  01-01-2025 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: When the scientist and inventor Prof Archibald Montgomery Low predicted "a day in the life of a man of the future" one century ago, his prophecies were sometimes dismissed as "ruthlessly imaginative." They included, reported the London Daily News in 1925, "such horrors" as being woken by radio alarm clock; communications "by personal radio set"; breakfasting "with loudspeaker news and television glimpses of events"; shopping by moving stairw
  
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• 2025 Marks the Start of the Gen Beta Era

  01-01-2025 03:20 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Generation Beta, starting in 2025 and lasting until around 2039, will grow up deeply immersed in AI and smart technology, facing pressing societal challenges like climate change and global shifts while potentially being shielded from excessive screen time by tech-savvy Gen Z parents. NBC News reports: Start and end dates of generations can be murky, but Generation Beta will keep being born until around 2039. Before them, Gen Alpha stretched from 2010 to 2024, Gen Z from around 1996 to 2010, and
  
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• Alibaba Slashes Prices On LLMs By Up To 85% As China AI Rivalry Heats Up

  01-01-2025 02:40 via slashdot.org
  
  Alibaba is cutting prices on its large language models by up to 85% to attract more enterprise users and strengthen its position in China's competitive AI market. CNBC reports: The Hangzhou-based e-commerce firm's cloud computing division, Alibaba Cloud, said in a WeChat post that it's offering the price cuts on its visual language model, Qwen-VL, which is designed to perceive and understand both texts and images. [...] Major Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, JD.com, Huawei a
  
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• Venezuela Issues $10 Million Fine For TikTok Over Deadly Viral Challenges

  01-01-2025 02:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Venezuela's Supreme Court on Monday fined TikTok $10 million for failing to prevent viral challenges allegedly linked to the deaths of three children. It also ordered the platform to establish a local office to oversee content compliance with national laws. The Associated Press reports: Judge Tania D'Amelio said TikTok had acted in a negligent manner and gave it eight days to pay the fine [...]. The judge did not explain how Venezuela would force TikTok, whose parent company is based in China, t
  
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• California Grid Ran On 100% Renewables For a Record 98 Days

  01-01-2025 01:25 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Electrek: A new study published in the journal Renewable Energy (PDF) uses data from the state of California to demonstrate that no blackouts occurred when wind-water-solar electricity supply exceeded 100% of demand on the state's main grid for a record 98 of 116 days from late winter to early summer 2024 for an average (maximum) of 4.84 (10.1) hours per day. Compared to the same period in 2023, solar output in California is up 31%, wind power is up 8%, a
  
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• New York Retires Iconic Subway Cars

  01-01-2025 00:45 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has announced plans to retire its iconic R46 subway cars, triggering nostalgia among New Yorkers who cherished their distinctive seating arrangement. The fleet -- which has served A, C, N, R, Q, and W lines for five decades -- will be replaced by R211 cars expected for delivery in 2027.
  The R46's perpendicular seating configuration, designed for comfort during long trips to destinations like Coney Island, encouraged social interaction among passengers, a
  
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• AI Might Start Selling Your Choices Before You Make Them, Study Warns

  01-01-2025 00:05 via slashdot.org
  
  AI ethicists are cautioning that the rise of AI may bring with it the commodification of even one's motivations. From a report: Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence say -- in a paper published Monday in the Harvard Data Science Review journal -- the rise of generative AI, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, comes with the increasing opportunity for persuasive technologies to gain a strong foothold.
  "Tremendous resources are being ex
  
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