Apple is adding vertical tabs and an Adaptive Dark Mode to Safari with iOS 27.3, iPadOS 27.3 and macOS Golden Gate 27.3. The December updates will also expand Siri's browser controls, including organizing tabs and clearing site-specific history, with a later feature allowing Siri to understand and answer questions about content across multiple open webpages. MacRumors reports: Vertical Tabs are located on the left side of the display and use icons by default to save space, but there is an option to make the tab bar wider to show website titles as well. Vertical Tabs work with both Topics and Tab Groups to keep things organized. Topics are created when automatic Apple Intelligence tab sorting is turned on in iOS 27. Pinning tabs by dragging, quickly swapping between Tab Groups, and other features also continue to work.

[...] Apple is adding Adaptive Dark Mode for websites that don't have a dark mode design option by default. If you use Dark Mode and then browse to a website with a bright background color, Safari will offer an option to "Try" Adaptive Dark Mode. After tapping Try, Safari renders a Dark Mode version of the page that makes the background darker, changes text contrast, inverts logos and graphics, recolors vector artwork, lifts raised surfaces, and rebalances layered shadows.

Each website will be adapted based on what's needed to make it readable, so not every tweak is applied to every site. You can opt to turn Adaptive Dark Mode on for all sites or on a site-by-site basis after using it. If a site has a native dark mode or has a dark design already, Adaptive Dark Mode won't activate. Developers can also add a tag that causes Safari to ignore Adaptive Dark Mode and show the website as the developer intended.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An adviser to the EU's highest court says Google's Gemini may violate publishers' copyright when it reproduces recognizable portions of their articles or circumvents paywalls and other technical protections to generate answers. Reuters reports: The case before the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union pitted Hungarian website operator Like Company against US-based Google's artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini. A ruling against Google, which could force the tech giant to pay fees for the use of such content, could throw a lifeline to online media such as Like Company. They have seen traffic dwindle as news summaries written by AI chatbots like Gemini increasingly replace traditional search engines' results, which include hyperlinks to the media websites.

"When an LLM (large language model)-driven chatbot retrieves a publication from a press publisher's website, reuses that publication to generate an answer, and provides that answer to the user, the press publisher's right may be infringed in certain circumstances," Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said. Gemini's answers fall under the publishers' right of reproduction when chatbots access publications by unlawfully "circumventing paywalls or other technical barriers, or when they reuse "the form of expression of that publication in a recognizable manner," he said.

Copyright rules do not protect the "mere facts" reported by press publications, but "only the specific form of expression," he added. On the other hand, he said, the use of material protected by copyright to train LLMs -- AI systems that use vast amounts of text to generate human-like responses and summarize information -- is "freely permitted under the text and data mining exception." Szpunar said there was no evidence that Google had used the Hungarian publisher's articles to train Gemini. The court, which follows the majority of its advisers' non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Google's powerful gatekeeping role in search makes this particularly important. Publishers depend on Google to reach readers, while Google increasingly delivers AI-generated answers directly to users," said Angela Mills Wade, the council's executive director.

"Publishers should not have to choose between search visibility and protecting their rights. Nor should Google's control over access to audiences become leverage to secure publishers' content for AI services," she said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mozilla is testing a new Firefox Nightly feature called Mini Window that lets users pop an entire webpage into a small, always-on-top window stripped of most browser controls. "The idea behind the Firefox Mini Window feature is simple: allow users to move a currently open tab (or a section of a tab) into a separate mini window," writes ZDNet's Jack Wallen. "Think of it as moving a tab from one window to what appears like a web app." From the report: At first blush, there's no address bar, controls, scroll bar, or anything else that would normally be associated with Firefox. The Mini Window appears to be a web app, without having to actually create it. However, when I hover my cursor inside the Mini Window, I do see the address bar, the back/forward/reload buttons, and the window close button -- and that's it. The browser gets out of your way, so the only thing I see is the content.

On top of that (pun intended), the Mini Window stays on top of other Firefox windows, so I can have that popped-out content always in focus while I work on other things. This feature comes in handy when I'm working with limited display space (say, on a laptop) and need to reference a page while working on another. For multitasking, it comes in very handy. [...] Let's say I'm writing a paper on Linux and need to read a particular article for background information. I could have my document open in the main window, and then open the article in question in a Mini Window. I could then reference the article without having to click back and forth between them -- even when working on a smaller display.

Here's another use case I've found: When using MacOS's Stage Manager feature, I only have one window available at a time. The Mini Window bypasses that limitation, so I can have my main browser window focused as well as the page open in the Mini Window. Another handy way I like to use Mini Window is to open a favorite search engine, move it to a Mini Window, and then I have an always-ready search tool at my fingertips. I could also open my favorite AI service and use it in the same way.

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During a video celebrating Bethesda's 40th anniversary, the studio officially confirmed that The Elder Scrolls VI will be titled The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. "Thank you for 40 years of shared memories," wrote Bethesda in a separate tweet. "We can't wait to make even more together with The Elder Scrolls VI: Sentinel. Development continues, and while it'll be some time before we're ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you." Video Games Chronicle reports: "You know, as we're here in the 40th anniversary, we think about all of the games we've made," Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard said in the video, walking past a display case. "And you know, every day when I walk by this case, obviously I look at the games and think about them, but more so I think about the teams that made them, and the time and the passion that everybody put into the games. And then what they meant to all of you, and hearing from you, and the time that you spent in them, how meaningful that was to you, and to let you know when we hear that, how meaningful that is to us.

And so even though yes, we're looking back, we're also looking forward to all we're doing, particularly with the Fallout franchise and obviously The Elder Scrolls. You know, everybody's always asking about Elder Scrolls 6. And we thought, hey, given the the moment, what a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called." The video then showed the logo for the game.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Dat er systemisch geweld bestaat, is waar. Maar het antwoord daarop is niet het geweld van het oproer, schrijft Bernard-Henri Lévy. Het is de rechtsstaat. Het is gerechtigheid.

De jaarlijkse vergelijking van vijftig gemeenten voor de Atlas voor gemeenten wijst onder meer uit dat Maastricht klimt op meerdere ranglijsten. En ook: „Bereikbaar aanbod van banen over de grens, is niet automatisch toegankelijk aanbod.”

We look at the betting odds and analyse the chances of the five drivers most likely to win at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.

Meet the people who have "beaten" gambling games. I'm not talking about legal advantage plays which usually only pays in gas money. I'm talking about players who have won big by discovering actual loopholes, using hacks, or exploiting glitches in gaming. Gerald and Marge Selbee won millions by finding loopholes in particular lotteries, using math. John Kane exploited a bug in the Game King video poker machines, here's a video link. Murat Bliev and his hacking team took down Aristocrat Mark IV slot machines using a phone app. The NPR piece is a fun listen.

First polls close in Indiana and Kentucky; several key states see record turnout as Americans decide the direction of Congress for remainder of Trump’s term

• Track live results from all 50 states

in Austin, Texas

There is a slow but steady flow of voters at the Austin Recreation Center in Austin, the Texas capital, which has emerged as one of the biggest battlegrounds of the midterm elections.

It’ll be a shocker for sure. But it would make me very proud to be a Texan.

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‘It’s the disregard for the rule of law. It just seems like they’re thumbing their nose at it’

In the battleground state of Maine, Todd Cox, 63, has supported the state’s incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins not once, but twice, in previous elections. Not this time.

On Tuesday, Cox, a technology professional, cast his vote for Collins’ Democratic challenger Troy Jackson – driven not by pressing local issues, but broader concern “for the direction the country is going in”, he said.

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“This stadium brings back bad memories but I hope to be able to replace them with good ones,” Harry Kane had said on Monday night, and 24 hours later this was a start. A small step, perhaps, towards coming back on 5 June and having a second go at winning the Champions League in the arena where he lost the 2019 final. On his first European outing since winning the Ballon d’Or, the England captain was unable to score but he and his Bayern Munich team defeated Atlético Madrid, fellow semi-finalists from last season. They did so in a way that suggests that their candidacy this season is serious.

It may not have been sparkling but they had been superior almost from the start, dominant in physique and football. This is a team with few weaknesses, intense and impressive throughout. All Atlético could do was resist and it never truly felt like they would be able to do that for ninety minutes; ultimately, they lasted 54. That was when Lennart Karl scored the first. The superb Konrad Laimer then added the second on a night when they racked up nineteen shots. It had been heavy going for a while, and they had been made to wait, but in the end Bayern were just that bit too good.

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Midterms didn’t appear to have huge impact, though predicted wins for Democrats could mean more regulation

US tech stocks made a recovery on Tuesday afternoon after a selloff spooked investors over AI spending.

Tuesday’s midterm elections didn’t appear to have a huge impact on Wall Street, though investors are predicting Democrats get at least a majority in the House and potentially gain seats in the Senate, which could lead to more AI regulation.

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photo-tez has added a photo to the pool:

薬師茶屋

BertvB posted a photo:

A peaceful and evocative sunset silhouette photograph captured in the nature reserves surrounding Arcen, Limburg. Shot at 40mm with f/11 and 1/1250s shutter speed, a flock of wild geese flies in formation across a glowing amber sky as the setting sun dips behind a dark treeline, capturing the true spirit of early autumn migration.

WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump volgt de midterms op televisie. Hij schreef op sociale media dat hij Fox News keek, zonder verder in detail te treden over het verloop van de verkiezingen.

Wel klaagde hij over de "onuitstaanbare" stem van een van de vrouwen in de uitzending. "Ik moet ergens anders heen tot die LOSER van de buis is - ik ben straks weer terug!"

CNN schrijft dat Trump de uitslagen gaat bekijken met een groepje bondgenoten en kabinetsleden in de East Room van het Witte Huis. Zijn Republikeinen riskeren bij deze verkiezingen hun nipte meerderheden in het Congres te verliezen.

Trump heeft achter gesloten deuren toegegeven dat zijn partij mogelijk afstevent op het slechtst mogelijke scenario, zeggen bronnen tegen de nieuwszender. Hij leek soms te hopen dat de peilingen ernaast blijken te zitten.

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De overheid is de afgelopen jaren onbetrouwbaar geweest voor boeren, concludeert de Nationale ombudsman na een onderzoek onder de beroepsgroep. Plannen werden steeds aangepast, ingetrokken of uitgesteld, en belangrijke besluiten bleven lang onzeker. "Deze onbetrouwbaarheid heeft de afgelopen jaren geleid tot stilstand en gebrek aan toekomstperspectief voor boeren."

In zijn rapport citeert ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen boeren die in de knel kwamen door toedoen van overheden. "Wij weten al sinds 2019 niet waar we aan toe zijn", zegt een van hen, verwijzend naar het jaar dat de rechter het stikstofbeleid van tafel veegde. "Het is niet betrouwbaar als elk kabinet weer zijn eigen ijkpuntjes gaat zetten zonder consistent beleid."

Overheidsorganisaties moeten volgens de ombudsman zo veel mogelijk als één overheid handelen, maar ook aan die 'regierol' ontbrak het volgens de ombudsman. Bovendien zijn de regels voor veel boeren onduidelijk.

Onderzoekers spraken namens de ombudsman met 32 boeren en met andere betrokkenen zoals brancheorganisatie LTO, de Rabobank en natuurorganisaties. Zelf ging Van Zutphen ook langs bij boeren. Ze hebben vooral behoefte aan toekomstperspectief, concludeert hij. Boeren willen duidelijke regels, met de ruimte om zelfstandig in te vullen hoe ze hun doelen kunnen bereiken.

Volgens de ombudsman moet de overheid doelen voor de lange termijn stevig in de wet vastleggen. "Tegelijkertijd is het belangrijk om te erkennen dat er altijd partijen teleurgesteld zullen zijn in de uitkomst."

Landbouwminister Jaimi van Essen (D66) is bezig om nieuwe regels uit te werken die Nederland uit de stikstofcrisis moeten helpen. Die regels vragen ook veel van boeren, merkte het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving al op. Op sommige plekken is het mogelijk niet realistisch dat boerenbedrijven kunnen blijven bestaan.

De landbouw zal hoe dan ook veranderen, schrijft Van Zutphen. Sommige boeren zullen hun bedrijf aanpassen, minder dieren houden of zelfs stoppen. "Dat raakt aan hun boerenidentiteit. Meer erkenning hiervoor van de overheid helpt om de overgang naar een toekomstbestendig landbouwsysteem te maken."

In a recent video, Kurzgesagt explores what we know about the first human civilizations that formed some 12,000 years ago and how they led to the first cities and the invention of writing.

What we know about human history is only a fraction of the full story. Much of the rest is like dark matter, invisible to us. We can’t see it, and we can only see the effects of its presence. But thanks to new techniques for DNA sequencing, dating ancient detritus, mathematical models, and aerial and lidar archaeology, we are now able to get a faint idea of what this world might have looked and felt like.

One thing I really appreciate about Kurzgesagt is how each of their videos is accompanied by an extensive list of sources. For instance, I’m not sure I’d heard about the massive Lake Agassiz draining into the world’s oceans and disrupting the entire planet’s climate some 8200 years ago — and there are several primary sources listed for further reading. Here’s how Kurzgesagt tells it:

Around the year 3800 of the human era a sudden catastrophe happened in North America. The receding glaciers of the last ice age had created one of the largest lakes in Earth’s history, larger than the Caspian Sea today. It was held back by super massive ice sheets, which formed a gigantic dam.

Surprising no one, the dam melted and suddenly failed – the whole lake suddenly drained into the ocean. Global sea levels rose by 1-2 meters and the great conveyor belt that carried warm water northwards slowed down. Across the North Atlantic and Europe, and into the Near East, the climate turned colder and drier – in some regions by several degrees. Rain patterns shifted, summers grew longer and harsher, and a drought lasting well over a century parched the land.

And:

We know that during this time all over the world migration towards rivers and lakes sped up — bringing agriculture and technology with them. Some of the most consequential journeys led into the Nile Valley, where farming villages took root and slowly laid the ground for the rich civilization that would one day rise there.

From Wikipedia:

Lake Agassiz’s major drainage reorganization events were of such magnitudes that they significantly impacted climate, sea level, and possibly early human civilization. The lake’s enormous freshwater release into the Arctic Ocean has been postulated to have disrupted oceanic circulation and caused temporary cooling. The draining of 13,000 years ago may be the cause of the Younger Dryas stadial. Although disputed, the draining at 9,900–10,000 years ago may be the cause of the 8,200 yr climate event. A study by Turney and Brown links the 8,500-years-ago drainage to the expansion of agriculture from east to west across Europe; they suggest that this drainage may also account for various flood myths of ancient cultures, including the Biblical flood narrative.

Fascinating.

Tags: archaeology · kurzgesagt · science · video

Across ancient Mesopotamia, lamassu figures assumed the form of a winged goddess. In the ancient Assyrian Empire, giant bulls or lions with human heads and wings represented the deities, which artisans often carved at a monumental scale to protect cities and palaces. For Albuquerque-based Esther Elia, who is of Assyrian and Irish descent, lamassu are anything but a relic of the distant past. Through sculpture, paintings, and textiles, the artist explores contemporary Assyrian experience through pattern, fashion, and autobiography.

Her solo exhibition, Bazaar Ashuraya at Hecho a Mano, centers around a new collection of acrylic paintings, plus tile mosaics and functional objects. Elia delves into the theme of home, where lamps, garments, and paintings evocative of rugs or tapestries portray vibrant figures, shapes, and objects associated with daily life. Compositions such as “Sharrat Wearing Adidas” and “Esther and Zahra Wearing Farm Rio” playfully nod to contemporary fashion and folk designs.

“The home is where Assyria lives and breathes,” Elia says in a statement. She adds:

The home is where our language is spoken. Even if we speak English or Arabic or Farsi or French or Swedish outside of the home, the home is where Assyrian food is made, where Assyrian customs thrive, and where culture is maintained as well as created—pushed forward. As we mix with diaspora, our clothes, furnishings, and habits reflect the mixing with these new places.

Elia’s sculptures have reached nearly life-size through the use of Mexican tiles on cement board and plywood, with wheels affixed to the bases so they can move around. She coined these her “diasporic deities” because they incorporate materials readily sourced in the Southwest and are designed to be adaptable to different spaces.

Bazaar Ashuraya runs from November 6 to 29 in Santa Fe, and the artist was recently announced as a 2027 resident of the John Michael Kohler Art Center and Kohler Co.’s Arts/Industry program. See more on Elia’s Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Assyria is Far from Ancient in Esther Elia’s Characterizations of Contemporary ‘Diasporic Deities’ appeared first on Colossal.