Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. From a report: It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest's long-overlooked native bees -- which, unlike their cousins the European honeybees, have no sting -- now have the right to exist and to flourish. Cultivated by Indigenous peoples since pre-Columbian times, stingless bees are thought to be key rainforest pollinators, sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem health.

But they are faced with a deadly confluence of climate change, deforestation and pesticides, as well as competition from European bees, and scientists and campaigners have been racing against time to get stingless bees on international conservation red lists. Constanza Prieto, Latin American director at the Earth Law Center, who was part of the campaign, said: "This ordinance marks a turning point in our relationship with nature: it makes stingless bees visible, recognises them as rights-bearing subjects, and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems."

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: China drafted landmark rules to stop AI chatbots from emotionally manipulating users, including what could become the strictest policy worldwide intended to prevent AI-supported suicides, self-harm, and violence. China's Cyberspace Administration proposed the rules on Saturday. If finalized, they would apply to any AI products or services publicly available in China that use text, images, audio, video, or "other means" to simulate engaging human conversation. Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law, told CNBC that the "planned rules would mark the world's first attempt to regulate AI with human or anthropomorphic characteristics" at a time when companion bot usage is rising globally.

[...] Proposed rules would require, for example, that a human intervene as soon as suicide is mentioned. The rules also dictate that all minor and elderly users must provide the contact information for a guardian when they register -- the guardian would be notified if suicide or self-harm is discussed. Generally, chatbots would be prohibited from generating content that encourages suicide, self-harm, or violence, as well as attempts to emotionally manipulate a user, such as by making false promises. Chatbots would also be banned from promoting obscenity, gambling, or instigation of a crime, as well as from slandering or insulting users. Also banned are what are termed "emotional traps," -- chatbots would additionally be prevented from misleading users into making "unreasonable decisions," a translation of the rules indicates.

Perhaps most troubling to AI developers, China's rules would also put an end to building chatbots that "induce addiction and dependence as design goals." [...] AI developers will also likely balk at annual safety tests and audits that China wants to require for any service or products exceeding 1 million registered users or more than 100,000 monthly active users. Those audits would log user complaints, which may multiply if the rules pass, as China also plans to require AI developers to make it easier to report complaints and feedback. Should any AI company fail to follow the rules, app stores could be ordered to terminate access to their chatbots in China. That could mess with AI firms' hopes for global dominance, as China's market is key to promoting companion bots, Business Research Insights reported earlier this month.

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More than a decade after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished over the Indian Ocean en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the marine robotics company that located Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance is preparing to resume its hunt for the missing Boeing 777. Ocean Infinity, a UK and US-based seabed survey firm, began searching a 15,000 sq km priority area in the Indian Ocean in February but called off the expedition in April after 22 days due to poor weather conditions.

The company plans to resume operations on December 30 for 55 days under a $70 million "no find, no fee" contract from the Malaysian government. The company has already covered nearly 10,000 sq km and intends to search another 25,000 sq km. Richard Godfrey, an independent aviation investigator, estimates Ocean Infinity has spent "tens of millions of dollars" on ships and equipment. "I don't think they're in this for the monetary reward of $70m, because this search is very, very expensive," Godfrey says. "I think they're in this for the achievement and their ability to market themselves as the greatest underwater-search firm in the world because they found MH370."

The search relies on Hugin 6000 autonomous underwater vehicles capable of mapping the ocean floor at depths up to 6,000 metres using sonar, laser, and acoustic technology. Each AUV can operate independently for 100 hours before surfacing. The machines carry magnetometers that can detect metal buried under several metres of sediment. The story adds: One of the biggest challenges Ocean Infinity faces is the risk of being very close to the MH370 wreckage and missing it because of difficult terrain or gaps in the survey data.

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Americans are settling into streaming habits that should worry Hollywood executives, as new Nielsen data analyzed by Bloomberg reveals that not a single new original series cracked the top 10 most-watched streaming shows in 2025 -- the first time this has happened since Nielsen began publishing streaming data in 2020.

The shift extends beyond original programming as free, ad-supported streaming services are growing faster than their paid counterparts. YouTube has become the most-watched streaming service on American televisions, now larger than Netflix and Amazon combined. The Roku Channel and Tubi have nearly doubled in size over the past two years, while Peacock and Warner Bros.' streaming services have stagnated at roughly half their free competitors' viewership share.

Netflix still dominates when it comes to hits, accounting for about two-thirds of original programs appearing in Nielsen's weekly top 10 lists. But that dominance is eroding -- the company's share of streaming viewership has fallen below 20%. Meanwhile, Disney's streaming services haven't increased their share of TV viewing in three years, and Amazon is closing in. The most-watched original series of 2025 was Squid Game's final season, followed by returning shows Wednesday and Love Island.

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Windows 10's formal end-of-support arrived in October, and while the operating system is generally remembered as one of the "good" versions of Windows -- the most widely used since XP -- many of the annoyances people complain about in Windows 11 actually started during the Windows 10 era, ArsTechnica writes.

Windows 10 earned its positive reputation primarily by not being Windows 8. It restored a version of the traditional Start menu, rolled out as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8 users, and ran on virtually all the same hardware as those older versions. Microsoft introduced the Windows Subsystem for Linux during this period and eventually rebuilt Edge on Chromium. The company seemed more willing to meet users where they were rather than forcing them to change their behavior.

But Windows 10 also began collecting more information about how users interacted with the operating system, cluttered the lock screen with advertisements and news articles, and added third-party app icons to the Start menu without user consent. The mandatory Microsoft Account sign-in requirement -- one of Windows 11's most frequently complained-about features -- was a Windows 10 innovation, easier to circumvent at the time but clearly a step down the road Windows 11 is currently traveling.

To be sure, Windows 11 has made things worse by stacking new irritants on top of old ones. The Microsoft Account requirement expanded to both Home and Pro editions, the SCOOBE screen now regularly nags users to "finish setting up" years-old installations and Microsoft's Copilot push changed the default PC keyboard layout for the first time in 30 years.

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appow has added a photo to the pool:

Canon EOS RP
RF24-70mm F2.8 L IS USM

SergioQ79 - Osanpo Photographer - has added a photo to the pool:

Questo vicolo sembra vuoto, quasi respingente.
Tubi, condizionatori, porte di servizio: nulla che inviti a entrare.
Eppure è proprio da luoghi così che, in Giappone, nasce spesso qualcosa.
Un bar minuscolo, un izakaya nascosto, una luce accesa più avanti.
Non è degrado né abbandono: è lo spazio che resta tra le cose che funzionano.
Camminarci dentro è una scelta, quella di allontanarsi dalle strade principali per cercare ciò che non si mostra subito.
Ed è spesso lì che il Giappone diventa più interessante.

この路地は一見すると人を寄せつけない。
配管や室外機、裏口ばかりで、入っていく理由はどこにもない。
それでも日本では、こういう場所の先に何かがあることが多い。
小さなバー、隠れた居酒屋、奥で灯る一つの明かり。
これは荒廃でも放置でもなく、機能しているものの間に残された空間だ。
ここを歩くのは選択であり、表通りを離れて、すぐには見えないものを探しに行くということ。
そして、そういう場所でこそ、日本はより面白くなる。

This alley looks empty, almost unwelcoming.
Pipes, air conditioners, service doors—nothing that suggests you should walk in.
And yet, in Japan, places like this often lead somewhere.
A tiny bar, a hidden izakaya, a light still on further down.
This isn’t decay or abandonment, but the space left between things that still work.
Walking through it is a choice: stepping away from the main streets to look for what doesn’t immediately show itself.
And that’s often where Japan becomes more interesting.

@odd it's spelled SPARQL

@Mdubbelm Roger en clear, Hugo snapt Obsidian markdown. Good to know

@Mdubbelm En dat works out of the box met hugo? of moet je je markdown nog herschrijven.

@Mdubbelm En hoe schrijf je je site? Speciale markdown editor of gewoon in een IDE?

NEW YORK (ANP) - De aandelenbeurzen in New York zijn maandag licht lager gesloten. Beleggers deden het rustig aan tijdens het begin van de laatste week van 2025. Onder andere techaandelen eindigden in de min.

Beleggers leken wat winst te nemen, nadat de brede S&P 500 en de Dow-Jonesindex woensdag nieuwe records bereikten. Op donderdag, eerste kerstdag, bleef Wall Street dicht. Vrijdag sloten de aandelenbeurzen in New York vrijwel onveranderd.

De Dow-Jonesindex eindigde 0,5 procent lager op 48.461,93 punten. De S&P 500-index daalde 0,4 procent tot 6905,74 punten. Techgraadmeter Nasdaq verloor 0,5 procent tot 23.474,35 punten.

Beleggers op Wall Street kunnen alvast terugkijken op een succesvol 2025. De S&P 500 is dit jaar tot nu toe ruim 17 procent gestegen. De Dow heeft er zo'n 14 procent bijgekregen en ligt op koers voor het sterkste jaar sinds 2021. De Nasdaq heeft dit jaar meer dan 21 procent gewonnen.

Nvidia zakte 1,2 procent, nadat het AI-chipconcern vrijdag nog 1 procent steeg. Vorige week profiteerde Nvidia op de beurs van de licentiedeal met AI-startup Groq om diens technologie te gebruiken.

Tesla daalde 3,3 procent, nadat de elektrische autofabrikant vorige week een nieuw recordniveau bereikte. Softwareconcern Oracle zakte 1,3 procent.

DigitalBridge klom 9,6 procent. De Japanse techinvesteerder SoftBank wil het bedrijf, dat investeert in datacenters, zendmasten en glasvezelnetwerken, overnemen. De deal wordt gewaardeerd op ongeveer 4 miljard dollar.

Ook mijnbouwbedrijven sloten in de min, doordat de goud- en zilverprijzen terugvielen van nieuwe recordniveaus. De prijs van zilver steeg maandag kort tot 84 dollar per troy ounce (31,1 gram), waarmee het edelmetaal voor het eerst meer dan 80 dollar waard werd. Barrick Mining en Newmont Mining zakten 4,7 en 5,6 procent.

In de laatste handelsdagen van het jaar worden weinig belangrijke economische cijfers verwacht. Dinsdag komen de notulen van het laatste rentebesluit van de Amerikaanse centrale bank naar buiten.

Ook deze week is een kortere handelsweek. Op donderdag 1 januari blijven Wall Street en alle andere aandelenbeurzen dicht. De handel wordt op vrijdag 2 januari weer hervat.

Op de 1.000 meter bij de mannen zat er 0,005 seconden tussen een olympisch startbewijs en niets. Na afloop was niemand blij – óók niet de gekwalificeerde schaatsers. „Vier jongens voor drie plekken, het zou verboden moeten worden.”

Honderden Iraniërs zijn in verschillende steden de straat op gegaan nadat de koers van de rial is gekelderd en de directeur van de centrale bank is opgestapt.

There's more where that came from, CEO says

Rogue insiders suspected of taking bribes to hand over Coinbase customer records to criminals are beginning to face justice, according to CEO Brian Armstrong.…

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Lang wilde niemand behalve enkele dappere, trouwe fans eraan geloven, maar inmiddels ben je helemaal geen vreemde eend in de bijt meer als je gelooft in wat voor gelovigen simpelweg De Waarheid is: professioneel worstelen is echt. En dus niet nep, zoals de kerstman, de paashaas en Klaas Vaak (hoewel onderzoek over die laatste nog loopt). Goed, complotdenkers zullen complotdenken en die lui zijn er nu eenmaal in elke tak van sport dus ook in het worstelen. Edoch zijn wij overtuigd en ook het internet laat steeds meer tekenen zien van gezond verstand, van mensen die doorhebben wat er speelt in de WWE-ring: matpartijen op leven en dood, een passievolle strijd om eer, een klim naar de Olympus en wat je noemt pure sport. Het zal blinden en wappies misschien nooit overtuigen en haters zullen haten en zeggen dat het allemaal 'show' is, ondanks dat je ze natuurlijk meteen schaakmat kunt zetten met vragen als: hoe komen al die vechtersbazen dan aan van die verbouwde kinnebakken? Zijn die gasten voor niets allemaal zo gespierd? Hoe mis je in godsnaam iemands gezicht met een klapstoel? Is Hulk Hogan voor niets zo jong gestorven? Het is beslist positief nieuws dat dit besef zo aan het einde van het jaar wijdverbreid doordringt op het internet. Wij resten onze case verder met een verwijzing naar de beelden, die voor zich spreken.

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Zie dan

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Doodsstrijd noem je 'overselling' als je geen argumenten meer hebt

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Geloof dan!

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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on back of photograph, "easter Sunday, April 3, 1983, a 6 in snow. It was beautiful. The new part is a 2 car garage addition. Coleman and Zelma Grubbe Home in the Rocky Mountains, Mesa, Colorado, the trees are fruit trees"