Author: Vidya Saras

The scientists behind NASA’s largest and most powerful space telescope ever built are bracing for potentially crippling budget cuts, and the observatory is only halfway through its primary mission.The team overseeing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been directed to prepare for up to 20% in budget cuts that would touch on every aspect of the flagship observatory’s operations, which are managed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Maryland. The potential cut comes even as the space observatory is more in demand than ever before, with astronomers requesting the equivalent of nine years’ worth of Webb observing…

Luka Doncic is making progress on his calf injury and will begin playing both games of a back-to-back sometime soon, sources told Marc Stein of The Stein Line. Doncic missed the Lakers’ win over the Blazers on Thursday night after playing against the Hornets on Wednesday. Doncic said that he spent the All-Star break getting his mind off basketball.

Jayne McCormack and Jessica LawrenceBBC News NIPA MediaSinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and first minister Michelle O’Neill will not attend St Patrick’s Day events at the White House this year When power-sharing is functioning, it is custom for the first and deputy first ministers to make the trip to Washington DC.In a video posted on the social media platform X, McDonald said she had followed the president’s comments on Gaza with “growing concern” and had listened in “horror” to calls for “mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and the permanent seizure of Palestinian lands”.”Such an approach…

Are there generative AI tools I can use that are perhaps slightly more ethical than others?—Better ChoicesNo, I don’t think any one generative AI tool from the major players is more ethical than any other. Here’s why.For me, the ethics of generative AI use can be broken down to issues with how the models are developed—specifically, how the data used to train them was accessed—as well as ongoing concerns about their environmental impact. In order to power a chatbot or image generator, an obscene amount of data is required, and the decisions developers have made in the past—and continue to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Four banks have agreed to pay fines totalling more than £100mn after an investigation by the UK’s competition watchdog found that employees used Bloomberg chat rooms to share sensitive information on gilt trading. Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada have agreed to settle separate cases with the Competition and Markets Authority on conduct that took place between 2009 and 2013. A small number of traders from the banks were found to have participated in “unlawful” exchanges by sharing sensitive…

February 20, 2025 Biden left office as the king of border contracts, creating a massive border-and-deportation arsenal now at Trump’s disposal. Ad Policy Donald Trump talks with reporters as he tours a section of the southern border wall, Wednesday, September 18, in Otay Mesa, California.(Evan Vucci / AP) This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com. It didn’t take long for the border and immigration enforcement industry to react to Donald Trump’s reelection. On November 6, as Bloomberg News reported, stock prices shot up for…

Mathematical Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated strong problem-solving capabilities, but their reasoning ability is often constrained by pattern recognition rather than true conceptual understanding. Current models are heavily based on exposure to similar proofs as part of their training, confining their extrapolation to new mathematical problems. This constraint restricts LLMs from engaging in advanced mathematical reasoning, especially in problems requiring the differentiation between closely related mathematical concepts. An advanced reasoning strategy commonly lacking in LLMs is the proof by counterexample, a central method of disproving false mathematical assertions. The absence of sufficient generation and employment of counterexamples hinders LLMs…

Normalize crises to reduce shocks Normalizing crises could help reduce the emotional shock of a bad cybersecurity incident. “I got this really good advice from the COO of eBay when I was working there,” Sullivan says. “He said, ‘If your job is to respond to crisis situations, you need to build an organization that views it as their job, not as a crisis.’ In short, if your job is to put out fires, build a fire department. Firefighters wake up every day, and they know what their job is. They don’t stress. They go into high-risk situations, but they’re prepared…

Sweeping layoffs architected by the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency may be coming as soon as this week at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a nonregulatory agency responsible for establishing benchmarks that ensure everything from beauty products to quantum computers are safe and reliable.According to several current and former employees at NIST, the agency has been bracing for cuts since President Donald Trump took office last month and ordered billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE to slash spending across the federal government. The fears were heightened last week when some NIST workers witnessed a…

The ending of Oz Perkins' The Monkey features some big swings, so let's talk about them. Specifically, here's who a main character encounters at that stoplight.