The Information reported on Wednesday that Nvidia has agreed to buy open-source platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. "Deal talks began after Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform developers use to collaborate, test and share tools, received acquisition interest from another suitor," reports CNBC, citing the (paywalled) report. Business Insider separately reported the acquisition talks. From CNBC: If completed, the acquisition would put one of the most widely used platforms for sharing and working with open-source AI models under Nvidia's ownership, expanding the chipmaker's reach further into the software and model ecosystem. Siddy Jobe, a fund manager at Eonopolis Exponential Technologies funds, said it made sense for Nvidia to target a company like Hugging Face, as Nvidia has made it clear that it is not looking to discriminate between closed and open-source models.

"I think Nvidia is very much a community, a platform-based company, and in that respect, I think Hugging Face fits perfectly within that. There is this five-layer cake from Nvidia, and foundational models are one of them," Jobe told CNBC's Squawk Box Europe on Thursday. "It is clear that Nvidia wants to be integrated in the entire stack vertically, going from energy to foundational models and also to applications," he added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Operation Bluebird, the Virginia-based startup trying to revive the allegedly abandoned "Twitter" name and logo, announced Monday that it has launched its new social media network: Twitter.now. "We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a product," Stephen Coates, one of Operation Bluebird's cofounders, told Ars. "And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are not going to wait anymore."

[...] Twitter.now, still in its nascent stage, only has hundreds of users for the time being. The social media network looks and feels much like the Twitter of old and many of its offshoots -- it has replies and retweets. A new and notable feature is the automated fact-checking tool, a Gemini-based "veracity engine for real-time analysis" ("Vera" for short), which runs on every tweet. Coates has been testing Vera in recent days by posting obviously false messages, like "George Washington was our second president."

"Our first goal is to see if we can truly bring back a town square that's safer and less harmful," he said. "We say freedom of speech and not freedom of reach. We want people to say what they want, but we also want to create a platform that's not financially locked into that viral content that's harmful or inaccurate." Operation Bluebird argues that Elon Musk effectively abandoned the Twitter brand and trademarks when he renamed the company X, opening the door for the startup to claim them. X Corp. sued to stop the effort, but a federal judge tentatively ruled in April that X appeared to have relinquished rights to "tweet," the bird logo, and possibly "Twitter" itself, though no written ruling has been issued.

Bluebird has taken that as enough of a green light to move forward while emphasizing that its new Twitter is not affiliated with X. "Operation Bluebird, Inc. picked up the name X Corp. walked away from and is rebuilding it on trust, in your browser at twitter.now," it states prominently on its website. "We are not X, and we are not affiliated with X Corp."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Reuters reports that Meta explored shrinking some teams by as much as 60% as part of an "AI native" restructuring plan that would shift much of employees' day-to-day work to AI agents and smaller teams of human "builders." But the effort quickly ran into employee revolt and disappointing productivity gains, leading Zuckerberg to scrap a planned second wave of cuts after Meta laid off 10% of its workforce in May. From the report: In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his top lieutenants gathered for their annual leadership retreat at his Hawaii compound. There they hatched a radical plan to reimagine work at the social-media giant in the age of artificial intelligence. Code-named Project OT -- short for Organization Transformation -- the plan envisioned an "AI native" future for the owner of Facebook and Instagram. AI would take over much of the daily work performed by thousands of human employees. Virtual workers would be overseen inside Meta by smaller, "talent-dense" cadres of human staffers, according to one internal planning document reviewed by Reuters and three people familiar with the project.

In scenario-planning exercises, two of these people said, executives explored slashing the size of many teams across Meta by as much as 60%. Some employees would be offered roles in new units, while others would be laid off as part of a culling that one human-resources executive projected would be as big as or bigger than the company's cuts of around 25% three years ago, according to another internal document. The restructuring would be carried out in two "waves," beginning with a first purge in May and followed by another shake-up in November, internal planning documents seen by Reuters showed. Layoffs would be supplemented with the closing of open positions and pushing people out who Meta believed were poor performers. These and other details of the plan, including the scale of the restructuring, haven't been previously reported. AI would take over much of the daily work performed by thousands of human employees. Virtual workers would be overseen inside Meta by smaller, "talent-dense" cadres of human staffers.

But on the night of May 19, just hours before the first layoff wave, Zuckerberg blinked. Meta laid off 10% of its employees the next day, but it called off planning for the November cuts, according to one internal document reviewed by Reuters. By then, Meta employees were in open revolt, convinced that the company's AI transformation initiatives were partly aimed at replacing them. Internal data was also suggesting that autonomous AI "agent" technology at the heart of the strategy was failing to deliver hoped-for productivity gains. Some investors were questioning what Meta had to show for its gargantuan spending on AI. This article reveals for the first time the rapid pace of the cuts Meta was considering, the thinking behind the plans and how they quickly unraveled. Based on scores of internal documents, posts and recordings reviewed by Reuters, as well as conversations with more than 20 people with knowledge of Meta's inner workings, the reporting shows how the social-media giant attempted to position itself at the forefront of an AI-driven workplace overhaul, only to stumble in the execution.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

James Vowles has identified why Carlos Sainz is an important driving force at Williams.

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ - 27-08-2026 19:15 CEST

In één oogopslag:
• 25.8°C · Bewolkt ☁️ | Min 17.3°C / Max 28.0°C | Kans op neerslag 34%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 17.3°C, Max 28.0°C (Lichte regen) 🌧️, Neerslag 4.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 34%, 🧭 1008.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 21.6 km/u (6.0 m/s), richting: ↖ 128°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 20:00: 25.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 25%, 🧭 1007.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 7.6 km/u (2.1 m/s), richting: ↘ 302°
• 21:00: 24.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 42%, 🧭 1008.3 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 10.1 km/u (2.8 m/s), richting: → 276°
• 22:00: 22.1°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.2 mm, Kans op neerslag 68%, 🧭 1008.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 13.7 km/u (3.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 216°
• 23:00: 21.1°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.6 mm, Kans op neerslag 88%, 🧭 1008.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 4.0 km/u (1.1 m/s), richting: ↑ 170°
• 00:00: 21.2°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.2 mm, Kans op neerslag 97%, 🧭 1008.4 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 12.6 km/u (3.5 m/s), richting: ↑ 166°
• 01:00: 20.3°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 100%, 🧭 1007.9 hPa ↘️ -0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 6.8 km/u (1.9 m/s), richting: ↖ 140°
• 02:00: 20.2°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 96%, 🧭 1007.2 hPa ↘️ -0.7 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 8.3 km/u (2.3 m/s), richting: ↑ 163°
• 03:00: 20.1°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 83%, 🧭 1007.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 10.1 km/u (2.8 m/s), richting: ↑ 188°
• 04:00: 19.9°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 64%, 🧭 1006.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 10.4 km/u (2.9 m/s), richting: ↗ 204°
• 05:00: 19.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 47%, 🧭 1006.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 13.0 km/u (3.6 m/s), richting: ↑ 191°
• 06:00: 19.5°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 36%, 🧭 1006.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 15.1 km/u (4.2 m/s), richting: ↗ 205°
• 07:00: 19.2°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 27%, 🧭 1006.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 13.3 km/u (3.7 m/s), richting: ↗ 206°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• vrijdag 28 augustus: Min 18.5°C, Max 21.2°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 57%, 🧭 1007.4 hPa ↘️ -0.8 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 29.2 km/u (8.1 m/s), richting: ↗ 217°
• zaterdag 29 augustus: Min 17.8°C, Max 22.3°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 2.4 mm, Kans op neerslag 63%, 🧭 1008.3 hPa ↗️ +0.9 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 31.7 km/u (8.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 207°
• zondag 30 augustus: Min 17.4°C, Max 21.7°C (Matige motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 3.2 mm, Kans op neerslag 48%, 🧭 1008.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 25.6 km/u (7.1 m/s), richting: ↗ 221°
• maandag 31 augustus: Min 15.4°C, Max 19.9°C (Lichte onweersbui) ⛈️, Neerslag 19.8 mm, Kans op neerslag 67%, 🧭 1009.4 hPa ↗️ +1.1 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 23.2 km/u (6.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 232°
• dinsdag 01 september: Min 14.8°C, Max 19.0°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 3.6 mm, Kans op neerslag 28%, 🧭 1017.0 hPa ↗️ +7.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 16.9 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ↗ 242°
• woensdag 02 september: Min 14.2°C, Max 18.0°C (Zware motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 6.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 35%, 🧭 1019.7 hPa ↗️ +2.7 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 19.9 km/u (5.5 m/s), richting: → 250°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 19:15): 25.8°C (Bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 26.3°C (+0.5°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 9.7 km/u (2.7 m/s), richting: → 272°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 20.9 km/h (5.8 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 59%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1007.8 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 25.8 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.5
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 06:45 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 20:40

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 56 🟡 (Matig)
• PM2.5: 8.6 μg/m³
• PM10: 15.4 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Father Dionysios Tabakis says his views are those of Orthodox church, ‘nothing more, nothing less’

A Greek Orthodox priest whose home-recorded album of drone metal and religious dubstep has made him a cult figure in experimental music circles has issued a statement in which he has clarified his stance on homosexuality and the Greek radical right.

“As can be seen from my musical expression, I am in favour of unity, love, empathy and help for every needy, wronged and suffering person in life,” Father Dionysios Tabakis said in a public statement shared with the Guardian. “Whoever they are, whatever they believe, whether they are a saint or a sinner.”

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts and former officials say accounts are running dry, and funding a war with no clear endgame is the main challenge

Donald Trump’s war on Iran has driven the US military into a severe financial crisis, with the US navy forced to transfer money from its payroll and other sources to cover the costs of combat, according to documents obtained by the Guardian, and interviews with navy officials, contractors and defense analysts.

The US-Israeli operation, which has depleted US munitions stockpiles and prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes that have wrecked strategic bases across the Middle East, is piling pressure on budgets across the military.

Continue reading...

KATHMANDU (ANP/AFP) - Het dodental na de overstromingen in Nepal is opgelopen tot bijna vierhonderd, meldt de Nepalese politie op basis van een nieuwe telling. Reddingswerkers hebben de lichamen van zeker 389 slachtoffers geborgen. Net over de grens in Tibet staat het dodental nog steeds op drie.

Volgens de nieuwste telling worden ruim 1400 mensen nog vermist, onder wie veel buitenlanders. Op de lijst met vermisten staan volgens Nepal ook twee Nederlanders.

Zeker 466 mensen zijn tot nu toe gered, meldt de politie. Volgens BBC News zei de Nepalese premier Balendra Shah na een bezoek aan de getroffen regio dat donderdag zelfs 573 mensen zijn gered met 69 reddingsvluchten.

Volgens Shah zijn 13.000 militairen en agenten van het Nepalese leger, de gewapende politie en de nationale politie gemobiliseerd om deel te nemen aan zoekoperaties.

Meldingsmoeheid is bijvoorbeeld als de katalysator onder je Prius vandaan geschroefd wordt en je daar wel melding van kán maken, maar je zeker weet dat je een paar weken later een berichtje krijgt dat de zaak is gesloten. Of dat je wel aangifte kán doen van je gestolen fiets, maar dat er niet eens een reactie op komt. Of dat je geweldsincidenten in Amsterdam-Zuidoost wel kán melden, maar de gemeente je dan met je snuit in de bureaucratische stront duwt en niet laat weten wanneer je eruit mag komen. Volgens Femke Halsema heerst er in de Bims een 'zwijgcultuur' waardoor mensen geen meldingen maken van incidenten. Volgens buurtbewoners en stadsdeelcommissieleden worden er wel meldingen gemaakt, maar wordt er niks mee gedaan. "Men weet niet wat er met de melding gebeurt en heeft niet het gevoel dat er iets mee wordt gedaan. Dat zorgt voor meldingsmoeheid." Mel-dings-moe-heid. Definitieve polllll hieronder en u weet: juridisch bindend en gekozen moet er worden.

@curiousicae
Technically you're absolutely right, the distance functionality and the map are only available on fedihood.social. But it's possible to communicate to and from the instance, as.you already mentioned. So it is a fully functional activitypub server, with some nice extra functionality that's only available there. And that's why we need an account on fedihood to use the functionality.
@apps