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Scientists Link Hundreds of Severe Heat Waves To Fossil Fuel Producers' Pollution
A new study published in Nature links more than 200 severe heat waves directly to greenhouse gas pollution from major fossil fuel producers like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP. Researchers found that up to a quarter of these heat waves would have been virtually impossible without emissions from oil, coal, and cement companies. NPR reports: The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, found that 213 heat waves were substantially more likely and intense because of the activity of major fossil fuel producers, also called carbon majors. They include oil, coal and cement companies, as well as some countries. The scientists found as much as a quarter of the heat waves would be "virtually impossible" without the climate pollution from major fossil fuel producers. Some individual fossil fuel companies, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, had emissions high enough to cause some of the more extreme heat waves, the research found.
For the new study, the scientists looked at something called the disaster database, a global list of disasters maintained by university researchers, to identify heat waves "with significant casualties, economic losses and calls for international assistance. The scientists then used historical reconstructions and statistical models to see how human-caused global warming made each heat wave more likely and more intense. Then, to examine the link to major fossil fuel producers, the researchers relied on the Carbon Majors Database to understand the emissions of major oil, gas, coal and cement producers.
"We ran a climate model to reconstruct the historical period, and then we ran it again but without the emissions of a specific carbon major, thus deducing its contribution to global warming," Yann Quilcaille, climate scientist at ETH Zurich and lead author of the study, says in an email. While some of the contributions to heat waves came from larger well-known fossil fuel companies, the study found that some smaller, lesser-known fossil fuel companies are producing enough greenhouse gas emissions to cause heat waves too, Quilcaille says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite - GamingOnLinux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite - GamingOnLinux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite - GamingOnLinux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite - GamingOnLinux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite - GamingOnLinux
Anti-cheat looks like a no-go on Linux / SteamOS and Steam Deck for Arena Breakout: Infinite GamingOnLinux
Categories: Linux
New Malware Exploits Fake Job Ads to Hit Crypto Wallets on Windows, Mac, Linux - Cryptonews
Categories: Linux
Intel Panther Lake Xe3 GPU gets up to an 18% gaming boost in Linux thanks to new patches - Club386
Categories: Linux
Gravitational Waves Finally Prove Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Theorem
Physicists have confirmed Stephen Hawking's 1971 black hole area theorem with near-absolute certainty, thanks to gravitational waves from an exceptionally loud black hole collision detected by upgraded LIGO instruments. New Scientist reports: Hawking proposed his black hole area theorem in 1971, which states that when two black holes merge, the resulting black hole's event horizon -- the boundary beyond which not even light can escape the clutches of a black hole -- cannot have an area smaller than the sum of the two original black holes. The theorem echoes the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy, or disorder within an object, never decreases.
Black hole mergers warp the fabric of the universe, producing tiny fluctuations in space-time known as gravitational waves, which cross the universe at the speed of light. Five gravitational wave observatories on Earth hunt for waves 10,000 times smaller than the nucleus of an atom. They include the two US-based detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) plus the Virgo detector in Italy, KAGRA in Japan and GEO600 in Germany, operated by an international collaboration known as LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK).
The recent collision, named GW250114, was almost identical to the one that created the first gravitational waves ever observed in 2015. Both involved black holes with masses between 30 and 40 times the mass of our sun and took place about 1.3 billion light years away. This time, the upgraded LIGO detectors had three times the sensitivity they had in 2015, so they were able to capture waves emanating from the collision in unprecedented detail. This allowed researchers to verify Hawking's theorem by calculating that the area of the event horizon was indeed larger after the merger. The findings have been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hackers built a new crypto-stealing virus and it slips past antivirus on Mac, Windows & Linux - Cybernews
Hackers built a new crypto-stealing virus and it slips past antivirus on Mac, Windows & Linux Cybernews
Categories: Linux
Search Central Live Tokyo: The 2025 Return
Get ready, Japan! We're thrilled to announce the return of Search Central Live Tokyo on Nov 7, 2025! If you are fluent in Japanese and are interested, read on! We're bringing back all the elements you loved, with even more opportunities for you to shape the experience.
Categories: Web
Meet Kate Alessi: Leading Google UK & the AI OpportunityMeet Kate Alessi: Leading Google UK & the AI OpportunityVice President and Managing Director
New Google UK lead on partnering with British businesses to use AI-powered technologies to drive economic growth across the UKNew Google UK lead on partnering with British businesses to use AI-powered technologies to drive economic growth across the UK
Categories: Technology
Have we finally reached the year of Linux on the desktop? - Alex Reviews Tech
Have we finally reached the year of Linux on the desktop? Alex Reviews Tech
Categories: Linux
News Explorer — Stealthy Malware Strain Targeting Crypto Wallets on Windows, Linux, and MacOS Systems - Decrypt
Categories: Linux
AI Use At Large Companies Is In Decline, Census Bureau Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: [D]espite the AI industry's attempts to make itself seem omnipresent, a new report this week shows that adoption at large U.S. companies has declined. The report comes from the Census Bureau and shows that the rate of AI adoption by large companies -- that is, firms with over 250 employees -- has been declining slightly in recent weeks. The report is based on a biweekly survey, dubbed Business Trends and Outlook (or BTOS), of some 1.2 million U.S. firms. The survey, which asks businesses about their use of AI tools, such as machine learning and agents, found that -- between June and now -- the rate of adoption had declined from 14 to 12 percent. Futurism notes that this is the largest drop-off in the adoption rate since the survey first began in 2023, although the survey also showed a slight increase in AI use among smaller companies.
The moderate drop off comes after the rate of adoption had climbed precipitously over the last few years. When the survey first began, in September of 2023, the AI adoption rate hovered around 3.7 percent (PDF), while the adoption rate in December 2024 was around 5.7 percent. In the second quarter of this year, the rate also rose significantly, climbing from 7.4 percent to 9.2. The new drop-off in reported usage comes not long after another study, this one published by MIT, found that a vast majority of corporate AI pilot programs had failed to produce any material benefit to the companies involved.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SUSE Installer Agama 17 Lets You Skip SELinux, Customize Storage, and More - It's FOSS News
Categories: Linux
Windows Developers Can Now Publish Apps To Microsoft's Store Without Fees
Microsoft has eliminated the one-time fee for publishing apps on its Windows Store. According to The Verge, "Individual developers in nearly 200 countries can now sign up to publish apps on the Microsoft Store with just a personal Microsoft account, and no more one-time fees." From the report: Microsoft started cutting its $19 one-time fee to publish apps to its Windows store in June in certain markets, and it's now essentially removing this fee for all developers worldwide. Apple still charges an annual $99 fee to developers, and Google charges a one-time registration fee of $25.
"Developers will no longer need a credit card to get started, removing a key point of friction that has affected many creators around the world," explains Chetna Das, senior product manager at Microsoft. "By eliminating these one-time fees, Microsoft is creating a more inclusive and accessible platform that empowers more developers to innovate, share and thrive on the Windows ecosystem." [...]
The Microsoft Store is now used by more than 250 million monthly active users, according to Microsoft. Microsoft is now encouraging more developers to make use of the store, where they can publish a variety of Win32, UWP, PWA, .NET, MAUI, or Electron apps. Developers can even use their own in-app commerce system to keep 100 percent of their revenues on non-gaming apps.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
'No Tax On Tips' Includes Digital Creators, Too
"President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act may have quietly changed the economics of the creator economy," reports the Hollywood Reporter. The Treasury Department has ruled this past week that digital creators, including podcasters, influencers, and streamers, qualify for the U.S. "no tax on tips" policy, allowing them to deduct tipped income up to $25,000. From the report: The change could cause digital creators to rethink how they seek income. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Twitch and Snapchat all offer a variety of ways for creators to generate income, be it a share of advertising revenue or creator funding programs, or options to launch subscription tiers for their channels or profiles. But they also give creators the option to turn on tips or gifts. If revenue from user tips or gifts is eligible, while recurring subscription revenue is not, it could shift how streamers, podcasters or influencers ask their followers to support them.
To be sure, there are limitations: The tax deduction is capped at $25,000 per year, and it begins to phase out at $150,000 in income for single filers and $300,000 for married joint filers. The act also provides that tips do not qualify for the deduction if they are received "in the course of certain specified trades or businesses -- including the fields of health, performing arts, and athletics," Treasury says, further limiting the deduction opportunity for some in entertainment-adjacent lines of work.
But by making influencers, Twitch streamers and podcasters eligible, the administration has nonetheless changed the incentive structure for digital creators, and the ramifications could be felt across the creator economy in the name of tax efficiency (Don't be surprised if users are asked to like, subscribe, and tip). Platforms may also develop more ways to more prominently feature tips and gifts, pushing creators to add more opportunities for that income. But the inclusion of digital creators is also a recognition of how the power dynamics have shifted in media.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
