schwit1 shares a report from Gothamist: Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain's Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month. Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored by the Rochester-headquartered supermarket chain. The information is used to "protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees," according to the signage. The new scanning policy is an expansion of a 2024 pilot.
The chain had initially said that the scanning system was only for a small group of employees and promised to delete any biometric data it collected from shoppers during the pilot rollout. The new notice makes no such assurances. Wegmans representatives did not reply to questions about how the data would be stored, why it changed its policy or if it would share the data with law enforcement.

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According to Bloomberg, Discord has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO. Reuters reports: The U.S. IPO market regained momentum in 2025 after nearly three years of sluggish activity, but hopes for a stronger rebound were tempered by tariff-driven volatility, a prolonged government shutdown and a late-year selloff in artificial intelligence stocks. Discord, which was founded in 2015, offers voice, video and text chatting capabilities aimed at gamers and streamers. According to a statement in December, the platform has more than 200 million monthly users.

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sinij shares a news release from the Utah Department of Commerce: The state of Utah, through the Utah Department of Commerce's Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Doctronic, the AI-native health platform, to give patients with chronic conditions a faster, automated way to renew medications. This agreement marks the first state-approved program in the country that allows an AI system to legally participate in medical decision-making for prescription renewals, an emerging model that could reshape access to care and ultimately improve care outcomes. Politico provides additional context in its reporting: In data shared with Utah regulators, Doctronic compared its AI system with human clinicians across 500 urgent care cases. The results showed the AI's treatment plan matched the physicians' 99.2 percent of the time, according to the company. "The AI is actually better than doctors at doing this," said Dr. Adam Oskowitz, Doctronic co-founder and an associate professor of surgery at the University of California San Francisco. "When you go see a doctor, it's not going to do all the checks that the AI is doing."

Oskowitz said the AI is designed to err on the side of safety, automatically escalating cases to a physician if there's any uncertainty. Human doctors will also review the first 250 prescriptions issued in each medication class to validate the AI's performance. Once that threshold is met, subsequent renewals in that class will be handled autonomously. The company has also secured a one-of-a-kind malpractice insurance policy covering an AI system, which means the system is insured and held to the same level of responsibility as a doctor would be.

Doctronic also runs a nationwide telehealth practice that directs patients to doctors after an AI consultation. In Utah, patients who use the system will visit a webpage that verifies they are physically in the state. Then the system will pull the patient's prescription history and offer a list of medications eligible for renewal. The AI walks the patient through the same clinical questions a physician would ask to determine whether a refill is appropriate. If the system clears the renewal, the prescription is sent directly to a pharmacy. The program is limited to 190 commonly prescribed medications. Some medications -- including pain management and ADHD drugs as well as injectables -- are excluded for safety reasons.

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Google will begin releasing Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source code only twice a year starting in 2026. "In the past, Google would release the source code for every quarterly Android release, of which there are four each year," notes Android Authority. From the report: Google told Android Authority that, effective 2026, Google will publish new source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4. The reason is to ensure platform stability for the Android ecosystem and better align with Android's trunk-stable development model.

Developers navigating to source.android.com today will see a banner confirming the change that reads as follows: "Effective in 2026, to align with our trunk-stable development model and ensure platform stability for the ecosystem, we will publish source code to AOSP in Q2 and Q4. For building and contributing to AOSP, we recommend utilizing android-latest-release instead of aosp-main. The aosp-latest-release manifest branch will always reference the most recent release pushed to AOSP. For more information, see Changes to AOSP."

A spokesperson for Google offered some additional context on this decision, stating that it helps simplify development, eliminates the complexity of managing multiple code branches, and allows them to deliver more stable and secure code to Android platform developers. The spokesperson also reiterated that Google's commitment to AOSP is unchanged and that this new release schedule helps the company build a more robust and secure foundation for the Android ecosystem. Finally, Google told us that its process for security patch releases will not change and that the company will keep publishing security patches each month on a dedicated security-only branch for relevant OS releases just as it does today.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: On Monday, [Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the chip-making giant Nvidia] said the company would begin shipping a new A.I. chip later this year, one that can do more computing with less power than previous generations of chips could. Known as the Vera Rubin, the chip has been in development for three years and is designed to fulfill A.I. requests more quickly and cheaply than its predecessors. Mr. Huang, who spoke during CES, an annual tech conference in Las Vegas, also discussed Nvidia's surprisingly ambitious work around autonomous vehicles. This year, Mercedes-Benz will begin shipping cars equipped with Nvidia self-driving technology comparable to Tesla's Autopilot.

Nvidia's new Rubin chips are being manufactured and will be shipped to customers, including Microsoft and Amazon, in the second half of the year, fulfilling a promise Mr. Huang made last March when he first described the chip at the company's annual conference in San Jose, Calif. Companies will be able to train A.I. models with one-quarter as many Rubin chips as its predecessor, the Blackwell. It can provide information for chatbots and other A.I. products for one-tenth of the cost. They will also be able to install the chips in data centers more quickly, courtesy of redesigned supercomputers that feature fewer cables. If the new chips live up to their promise, they could allow companies to develop A.I. at a lower cost and at least begin to respond to the soaring electrical demands of data centers being built around the world.

[...] On Monday, he said Nvidia had developed new A.I. software that would allow customers like Uber and Lucid to develop cars that navigate roads autonomously. It will share the system, called Alpamayo, to spread its influence and the appeal of Nvidia's chip technology. Since 2020, Nvidia has been working with Mercedes to develop a class of self-driving cars. They will begin shipping an early example of their collaboration when Mercedes CLA cars become available in the first half of the year in Europe and the United States. Mr. Huang said the company started working on self-driving technology eight years ago. It has more than a thousand people working on the project. "Our vision is that someday, every single car, every single truck, will be autonomous," Mr. Huang said. The Rubin chips are named for the astronomer Vera Rubin, a pioneering astronomer who helped find powerful evidence of dark matter.

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iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

Keith Midson has added a photo to the pool:

Cormorants of Taroona.

lioil has added a photo to the pool:

Yokohama, Japan

World Thru Lenz has added a photo to the pool:

check out the hook while the DJ revolves it

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

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jpellgen (@1105_jp) has added a photo to the pool:

Kinnikuman (キン肉マン) is the protagonist of the popular manga of the same name. The series ran from 1979-1987 and was later adapted to other forms of media, toys, etc. I recall having several of the mini figurines as a kid.

In total, there are five Kinnikuman manhole covers in Osaka. If you dont want to make the effort to see them in the wild, the Osaka City Sewerage Science Museum currently has all five in one display.

Osaka Castle Park. Chuo, Osaka.

CARACAS (ANP/AFP) - De Venezolaanse interim-leider Delcy Rodríguez heeft een week van rouw afgekondigd voor de slachtoffers van de Amerikaanse aanval die leidde tot de gevangenneming en wegvoering van president Nicolás Maduro.

"Ik heb besloten zeven dagen van rouw af te kondigen ter ere van de jongeren, vrouwen en mannen die hun leven hebben gegeven ter verdediging van Venezuela en president Nicolás Maduro", zei ze op de staatstelevisie.

Cuba en Venezuela meldden dat 55 militairen bij de aanvallen zijn omgekomen, terwijl de Venezolaanse procureur-generaal sprak van "tientallen" doden onder burgers en militairen, zonder verdere details te geven. The New York Times sprak eerder van "ongeveer tachtig" doden op basis van een anonieme regeringsbron.

CAPELLE AAN DEN IJSSEL (ANP) - Het lukt jonge starters op de woningmarkt beter een eerste huis te kopen. In het laatste kwartaal van vorig jaar lag het aantal hypotheekaanvragen van deze groep 169 procent hoger dan in dezelfde periode in 2024. Dat meldt De Hypotheker.

Dat het aantal aanvragen door jonge starters tot 25 jaar meer dan verdubbeld is, is het gevolg van een groter aanbod van starterswoningen en een verbeterde koopkracht. Dat stelt De Hypotheker op basis van eigen cijfers.

Twee op de vijf jonge starters kopen de eerste woning zelfstandig, dus zonder partner, ziet commercieel directeur van De Hypotheker Mark de Rijke daarnaast. Dat is een stijging van 9 procentpunten ten opzichte van een jaar eerder.

Het totale aantal hypotheekaanvragen zat in de lift, ondanks de stijgende huizenprijs. In de laatste drie maanden van vorig jaar werden er 15 procent meer hypotheken voor een nieuwe woning aangevraagd dan in 2024. Het stijgende aantal aanvragen wordt vooral gestuwd door jonge huizenkopers tot 35 jaar. Het aantal aanvragen van deze groep steeg met 24 procent.

Starters waren goed voor meer dan de helft, 53 procent, van alle hypotheekaanvragen. De overige aanvragen kwamen van doorstromers. Binnen de groep starters neemt het aandeel van de jonge starters toe. Zij waren volgens De Hypotheker goed voor 11 procent van alle aanvragen voor een eerste koopwoning in het vierde kwartaal van 2025. In dezelfde periode in 2024 was dat nog 4 procent.

Het gemiddelde hypotheekbedrag bedroeg in het vierde kwartaal van 2025 zo'n 360.000 euro. Dat is 2 procent meer dan een jaar eerder, maar de laagste stijging van het afgelopen jaar. Een gevolg van het groeiende aanbod goedkopere ex-huurwoningen op de woningmarkt, stelt De Hypotheker.

Het aantal aanvragen voor woningverbetering loopt terug, nadat het een aantal kwartalen was toegenomen. Dat is volgens De Hypotheker het gevolg van onzekerheid over verduurzaming en nieuwe regelgeving. Huiseigenaren zijn daardoor minder bereid de woning te verduurzamen of te verbeteren, ziet De Hypotheker. "Dat is zorgelijk, want juist verduurzaming en verbouwing zijn belangrijk om de bestaande woningvoorraad toekomstbestendig te maken", stelt De Rijke.

BOSTON (ANP/AFP) - De 48-jarige man die zichzelf een "beest" noemde en verantwoordelijk was voor een massale schietpartij op de Amerikaanse universiteit Brown University bekende zijn misdaden in een video die hij na de schietpartij maakte. Dat meldt het ministerie van Justitie. In de video gaf hij geen motief voor zijn daden. Ook toonde hij geen berouw over zijn daden.

Schutter Claudio Neves Valente doodde twee mensen en verwondde negen anderen op de prestigieuze universiteit, voordat hij twee dagen later ook een professor van het Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doodde bij wie hij eerder had gestudeerd.

Tijdens een zoektocht in een opslagruimte waar Neves Valente zich blijkbaar had verscholen en later zelfmoord pleegde, vonden agenten een video waarin hij de schietpartijen bekende, aldus het ministerie. "Ik vind Trumps uitspraken wel leuk, dat hij me een beest heeft genoemd, wat waar is", zei hij onder meer volgens het transcript. "Ik ben een beest en hij ook, maar ik voel geen liefde of haat voor Amerika."