ICT news

• Middle-Aged Man Trading Cards Go Viral in Rural Japan Town

  08-04-2025 20:05 via entertainment.slashdot.org
  
  Children in a small Japanese town are obsessively collecting trading cards featuring local elderly men rather than popular fantasy creatures, helping bridge generational gaps in an aging rural community.
  In Kawara, Fukuoka Prefecture, the "Ojisan TCG" (Middle-aged Man Trading Card Game) features 28 local men with assigned elemental types and battle stats. The collection includes a former fire brigade chief and a prison officer-turned-volunteer whose card has become so sought-after that children
  
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• China's Biotech Advances Threaten US Dominance, Warns Congressional Report

  08-04-2025 19:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  China is moving fast to dominate biotechnology, and the U.S. risks falling behind permanently unless it takes action over the next three years, a congressional commission said. WSJ: Congress should invest at least $15 billion to support biotech research over the next five years and take other steps to bolster manufacturing in the U.S., while barring companies from working with Chinese biotech suppliers, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology said in a report Tuesday. To achie
  
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• Shopify CEO Says Staffers Need To Prove Jobs Can't Be Done By AI Before Asking for More Headcount

  08-04-2025 18:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke is changing his company's approach to hiring in the age of AI. Employees will be expected to prove why they "cannot get what they want done using AI" before asking for more headcount and resources, Lutke wrote in a memo to staffers that he posted to X. From a report: "What would this area look like if autonomous AI agents were already part of the team?" Lutke wrote in the memo, which was sent to employees late last month. "This question can lead to really fun discussions a
  
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• Micron To Impose Tariff-Related Surcharge on SSDs, Other Products

  08-04-2025 17:04 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Micron has informed US customers it will implement surcharges on memory modules and solid-state drives starting Wednesday to offset President Trump's new tariffs, according to Reuters. While semiconductors received exemptions in Trump's recent trade action, memory storage products didn't escape the new duties.
  Micron, which manufactures primarily in Asian countries including China and Taiwan, had previously signaled during a March earnings call that tariff costs would be passed to customers.Read
  
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• Meta Got Caught Gaming AI Benchmarks

  08-04-2025 16:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Meta released two new Llama 4 models over the weekend -- Scout and Maverick -- with claims that Maverick outperforms GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 Flash on benchmarks. Maverick quickly secured the number-two spot on LMArena, behind only Gemini 2.5 Pro.
  Researchers have since discovered that Meta used an "experimental chat version" of Maverick for LMArena testing that was "optimized for conversationality" rather than the publicly available version.
  In response, LMArena said "Meta's interpretation of our
  
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• India's 'Frankenstein' Laptop Economy Thrives Against Planned Obsolescence

  08-04-2025 13:16 via it.slashdot.org
  
  In Delhi's Nehru Place and Mumbai's Lamington Road, technicians are creating functional laptops from salvaged parts of multiple discarded devices. These "Frankenstein" machines sell for approximately $110 USD -- a fraction of the $800 price tag for new models. Technicians extract usable components -- motherboards, capacitors, screens, and batteries -- from e-waste sourced locally and from countries like Dubai and China.
  "Most people don't care about having the latest model; they just want someth
  
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• Bluesky Can't Take a Joke

  08-04-2025 11:00 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  On Bluesky, the joke's on you if you don't get the joke. The social network has become a "refuge" for those fleeing X and Threads, but its growing pains include a serious case of humor-impairment. When Amy Brown jokingly posted she was "screaming, crying, and throwing up" about price differences between Ohio and California Walgreens, literal-minded users scolded her for exaggerating. Brown, a former Wendy's social media manager who got banned from X after impersonating Elon Musk, puts it simply:
  
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• US's AI Lead Over China Rapidly Shrinking, Stanford Report Says

  08-04-2025 08:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. is still the global leader in state-of-the-art AI, but China has closed the gap considerably, according to a new report from Stanford. Axios: Institutions based in the U.S. produced 40 AI models of note in 2024, compared with 15 from China and three from Europe, according to the eighth edition of Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Index, released on Monday.
  However, the report found that Chinese models have rapidly caught up in quality, noting that Chinese models reached near parity on
  
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• No, the Dire Wolf Has Not Been Brought Back From Extinction

  08-04-2025 06:00 via science.slashdot.org
  
  Colossal Biosciences has claimed it "successfully restored" the extinct dire wolf after a "10,000+ year absence," but scientists clarify these are actually genetically modified grey wolves. The U.S. company announced three pups -- males Remus and Romulus born in October, and female Khaleesi born in January -- as dire wolves, but made only 20 genetic edits to grey wolves.
  Beth Shapiro of Colossal told New Scientist that just 15 modifications were based on dire wolf DNA, primarily targeting size,
  
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• States Are Banning Forever Chemicals. Industry Is Fighting Back

  08-04-2025 04:00 via news.slashdot.org
  
  New Mexico's legislature passed bills last week that would ban consumer products containing PFAS, joining a small but growing number of states taking action against these persistent "forever chemicals." If signed by the governor, the legislation would prohibit the sale of many products with added per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in New Mexico, making it the third state after Maine and Minnesota to enact such comprehensive restrictions.
  At least 29 states have PFAS-related bills b
  
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• Framework Stops Selling Some of Its Laptops in the US Due To Tariffs

  08-04-2025 03:10 via news.slashdot.org
  
  Framework -- a company that makes upgradeable and repairable laptops -- will pause sales on several versions of one of its models in America thanks to Trump's tariffs, it said. From a report: "Due to the new tariffs that came into effect on April 5th, we're temporarily pausing US sales on a few base Framework Laptop 13 systems (Ultra 5 125H and Ryzen 5 7640U). For now, these models will be removed from our US site. We will continue to provide updates as we have them," Framework said in a post on
  
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