A supercut of context-free intertitles from Adam Curtis documentaries. Even if you don’t know who Adam Curtis is, this is entertaining.

Who needs power outlets when you can charge off of animal labor? The next time someone asks you if a hamster running on a wheel can produce a measurable amount of energy, you can point them to one inventive young YouTuber who has proven that the answer isn’t just yes - it’s also enough energy to harvest. Flamethrower, a Spanish YouTuber whose channel is full of experiments and DIY projects, most recently took to the video platform to post about his experiment in turning his brother’s hamster’s wheel into a machine he could use to charge his smartphone. “After my parents prohibited me from genetically or cybernetically modifying it,” Flamethrower explained in the video, “I deemed its existence … unacceptably useless. So what did I do? Exploit it for energy production, of course.” As anyone who’s owned a hamster knows, midnight runs on a squeaky wheel can be obnoxious to say the least. Sleepless nights, combined with memories of cartoons where hamster wheels powered the contraptions of evil geniuses, gave the young maker an idea: Strap a turbine to the wheel and make that hamster earn its keep. Of course, it’s not as simple as just attaching a 5V electric motor to use as a turbine and wiring it up to a USB-C plug. Hamsters can’t exactly be cajoled onto a wheel for regular charging shifts, and even if they could be, keeping them running at a charging pace would be pretty much impossible. “Say you have one of those common 5V DC motors,” Flamethrower explained. “Unless you spin that at over 10,000 RPM you wouldn't even reach the standard 15-watt charging speed” of most modern smartphones. “Forget about quick charging,” he added. “The motor would probably melt before that.” To get around those limitations, Flamethrower turned to the CJMCU-2557 low-power energy-harvesting chip. Energy harvesters like the 2557 (albeit larger ones) are designed to boost and regulate tiny amounts of input power, from sources such as solar cells or generators, into a usable voltage suitable for charging components like a capacitor or, in this case, a single lithium-ion battery cell. After doing some wiring work and putting the contraption together, Flamethrower left it to run overnight, and woke to a battery with enough charge in it to provide juice to his phone, though the amount wasn’t substantial. “I haven't measured exactly how much battery it can charge,” Flamethrower told us in an email. “It's not a lot, so it certainly won't fill the entirety of a phone's battery in a single night, although of course the energy generated each day can vary a lot based on the hamster's mood.” “I did a very rough calculation and the current generated might be like around an amp when the fella is running,” Flamethrower added. In other words, as frenetic as a hamster can get, it’s still not producing that much energy. Regardless, the young inventor told us that he is still using the device, and that it’s proved to be fantastic for providing energy to charge the family's smartwatches. As for whether he might consider attaching a bigger battery, that might be a bit overkill, he told us. “In any case, the CJMCU-2557 is only meant to charge 1 cell,” Flamethrower said. “There are, admittedly, slightly higher capacity cells, but I use it frequently enough to not have to care about reaching their limit.” A useful invention, then, if not a bit of an on-the-nose realization of a science-fiction dystopia trope. Hey, at least the hamster is happy and putting all that necessary calorie burning to work for a good cause - if we all used our pets' episodes of the zoomies to charge our devices, think of the load on the grid we could save. ®

In het bericht van gisteren kwam deze video al voorbij als voorbeeld. Maar ik vond deze (en de andere die ik daar noem) te waardevol om daar slechts als een “wellicht kom je hem tegen en bekijk je hem” op te nemen. Dus plaats ik de komende week een aantal van deze video’s. In het interactieve format dat AI ervan weet te maken met navigatie, Nederlandstalige ondertiteling (die is er namelijk lang niet altijd) en zelftest.

In deze BBC-documentaire bouwt wiskundige Hannah Fry samen met software-ingenieur Brendan een eigen AI-agent met de open-source tool OpenClaw van Peter Steinberger. Ze noemen het* Cass (kort voor Cassandra) en test Cass twee weken lang in de echte wereld. Een toegankelijk uitgelegd verhaal, beetje de grenzen opgezocht, het model uitgedaagd, niet te wetenschappelijk allemaal.

* het LLM-model heeft het over hem, zo staat het op de interactieve pagina. Nou kun je zeggen dat ik ten onrechte veronderstellen dat Cassandra een zij zou moeten zijn en geen hij, maar eigenlijk gaat het om een tool, dus dan zijn beiden toch niet correct eigenlijk?

jeditobe writes: Developers of ReactOS told Phoronix that the project has introduced a unified BootCD, replacing its previously separate installation media and LiveCD images. The new image combines the traditional text-mode installer with a LiveCD mode in a single medium. Within this unified BootCD, the updated LiveCD mode now includes an option to launch a first-stage GUI installer. The graphical interface is intended to make installation more approachable for new users compared to the long-standing text-based setup process.

In a separate development, the project has also merged a new ATA storage driver that has been in progress since early 2024. The plug-and-play aware storage stack supports SATA, PATA, ATAPI, AHCI, and even SCSI devices, potentially expanding the range of hardware on which ReactOS can successfully boot.

Following recent improvements to graphics driver support, the project continues to make incremental progress across core subsystems, though its long development timeline remains a point of discussion. Will these usability and hardware compatibility improvements be enough to broaden ReactOS adoption beyond its current niche?
Please note that all new features are not present in version 0.4.15 and are available for testing in the latest nightly test builds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Brighton hands City title

• Andrée Jeglertz’s side still have chance of Double

Manchester City are WSL champions for the first time in 10 years, after Arsenal were held to a frustrated draw at Brighton.

It is not the nicest way to win a league title, but City will not care. Their only previous WSL title was won in 2016 and they have had six runners-up finishes since, as well as second place in the shortened Spring Series as the competition moved from its previous summer scheduling.

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USHUAIA (ANP/RTR/AFP) - Het Argentijnse ministerie van Gezondheid is van plan om knaagdieren te vangen in de buurt van de zuidelijke stad Ushuaia, de plek waar een of meerdere passagiers van het cruiseschip MV Hondius mogelijk het hantavirus hebben opgelopen. De Argentijnse autoriteiten willen de knaagdieren onderzoeken in hun zoektocht naar de oorsprong van het virus.

Het hantavirus wordt normaal gesproken overgebracht via de ontlasting en urine van knaagdieren. Volgens de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie is de kans groot dat in elk geval een persoon het virus heeft opgelopen voordat het cruiseschip op 1 april vertrok uit Ushuaia. De Nederlandse man van 69 die als eerste symptomen vertoonde, had daarvoor door Zuid-Amerika gereisd.

Er is in het zuiden van Argentinië in elk geval geen sprake van een hantavirus-uitbraak, zegt een medisch expert van de universiteit van Córdoba. Er zijn dit jaar wel meer gevallen dan vorig jaar, maar het zijn er niet abnormaal veel, aldus bioloog Raúl González Ittig.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo: