iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:
iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:
The FCC's ban on Chinese-made robots extends well beyond humanoids to quadrupeds, research platforms, and many robot vacuums from allied countries. Supporters call it a major boost for domestic robotics, but critics warn that cutting researchers and startups off from affordable foreign hardware could slow U.S. innovation instead. Ars Technica's Jeremy Hsu examines who stands to gain and who stands to lose from the prohibition: Such an import ban would apply to some of the most affordable robots primarily produced by Chinese companies, including Unitree's humanoid robots that are used by robotics labs and researchers for tasks such as experimental robot surgeries. US consumers would also likely lose access to the newest robot vacuum cleaners that are mainly manufactured by Chinese companies such as Roborock. But the ban also broadly applies to foreign-made robots produced by countries nominally allied to the United States, including Japan, South Korea, and Germany. [...]
The ban on foreign-made robots could theoretically encourage more US and foreign companies to set up manufacturing facilities in the United States. There are already multiple companies racing to scale up production of humanoid robots in US factories, including Agility Robotics, 1X Technologies, and Figure AI. Tesla has been attempting to shift production away from older electric vehicle models and toward its Optimus humanoid robot. Boston Dynamics has already been making its Atlas humanoid robot, along with its four-legged Spot robot and wheeled Stretch robot, at its main facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. The US robotics company is also planning to massively scale up manufacturing of the Atlas robot under South Korea's Hyundai Motor Company, which gained full ownership of Boston Dynamics in July 2026.
"This is one of the strongest technology-security actions in modern US history," wrote Evan Beard, CEO of Standard Bots, in a LinkedIn post. "The message is unambiguous: robotics is a technology America must lead and own -- and foreign-subsidized robots will not be allowed to unfairly dominate US robotics as they did solar." Similar praise came from Rush Doshi, director of the Initiative on China Strategy at the Council on Foreign Relations, who, in a social media post, described the FCC decision as "one of the most significant actions taken so far in support of the US robotics ecosystem."
However, several robotics researchers and analysts interviewed by The Robot Report expressed skepticism about any potential boost to US competitiveness in robotics. Some even warned that the ban could prove counterproductive for US robotics efforts to develop humanoid robots. "In the near term, the measure could slow US physical AI innovation by cutting startups and researchers off from future low-cost Chinese platforms before comparable Western alternatives exist," said Georg Stieler, a global robotics advisor and managing director for Asia at Stieler Technology & Market Advisory, in an interview with The Robot Report.
US domestic production of robots lags behind China in terms of mass manufacturing at lower cost, said Rueben Scriven, a senior analyst at Interact Analysis. "This announcement is more likely to inhibit the US humanoid robotics industry, as the presence of low-cost Chinese humanoid robots has been helping educate the US market through promotional and entertainment use cases -- an effect this policy risks undermining," Scriven told The Robot Report. The report notes that previous FCC bans have done little to help create competitive U.S. alternatives, with restrictions on Chinese drones instead prompting companies to sell barely disguised versions of DJI technology.
The ban on foreign-made robots could theoretically encourage more US and foreign companies to set up manufacturing facilities in the United States. There are already multiple companies racing to scale up production of humanoid robots in US factories, including Agility Robotics, 1X Technologies, and Figure AI. Tesla has been attempting to shift production away from older electric vehicle models and toward its Optimus humanoid robot. Boston Dynamics has already been making its Atlas humanoid robot, along with its four-legged Spot robot and wheeled Stretch robot, at its main facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. The US robotics company is also planning to massively scale up manufacturing of the Atlas robot under South Korea's Hyundai Motor Company, which gained full ownership of Boston Dynamics in July 2026.
"This is one of the strongest technology-security actions in modern US history," wrote Evan Beard, CEO of Standard Bots, in a LinkedIn post. "The message is unambiguous: robotics is a technology America must lead and own -- and foreign-subsidized robots will not be allowed to unfairly dominate US robotics as they did solar." Similar praise came from Rush Doshi, director of the Initiative on China Strategy at the Council on Foreign Relations, who, in a social media post, described the FCC decision as "one of the most significant actions taken so far in support of the US robotics ecosystem."
However, several robotics researchers and analysts interviewed by The Robot Report expressed skepticism about any potential boost to US competitiveness in robotics. Some even warned that the ban could prove counterproductive for US robotics efforts to develop humanoid robots. "In the near term, the measure could slow US physical AI innovation by cutting startups and researchers off from future low-cost Chinese platforms before comparable Western alternatives exist," said Georg Stieler, a global robotics advisor and managing director for Asia at Stieler Technology & Market Advisory, in an interview with The Robot Report.
US domestic production of robots lags behind China in terms of mass manufacturing at lower cost, said Rueben Scriven, a senior analyst at Interact Analysis. "This announcement is more likely to inhibit the US humanoid robotics industry, as the presence of low-cost Chinese humanoid robots has been helping educate the US market through promotional and entertainment use cases -- an effect this policy risks undermining," Scriven told The Robot Report. The report notes that previous FCC bans have done little to help create competitive U.S. alternatives, with restrictions on Chinese drones instead prompting companies to sell barely disguised versions of DJI technology.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Valve is funding Collabora's experimental effort to port the open-source RADV Vulkan driver from Linux to Windows. The team has already demonstrated Counter-Strike 2 running with RADV, but a stable interface or compatibility shim will be needed to handle undocumented driver changes. Phoronix reports: Louis-Francis Ratte-Boulianne put out a blog post highlighting their initial work on porting RADV to Windows. Besides working on Windows WDDM2 integration for Windows, a big challenge with porting RADV to Windows is on relying on the AMD Radeon Software Windows kernel driver.
It's out-of-scope of this current work for trying to port the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver to Windows, so they are working on bringing RADV to Windows while relying on AMD's official Windows kernel driver. That in turn has led to reverse engineering and other steps for figuring out the proprietary kernel driver's data structures and other elements so RADV can be adapted to use it.
It's out-of-scope of this current work for trying to port the AMDGPU Linux kernel graphics driver to Windows, so they are working on bringing RADV to Windows while relying on AMD's official Windows kernel driver. That in turn has led to reverse engineering and other steps for figuring out the proprietary kernel driver's data structures and other elements so RADV can be adapted to use it.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Substitute’s 75th-minute shot gives Liverpool 1-0 win in New York
Chances few and far between in pre-season friendly that fails to ignite
Liverpool turned the Empire State Building red when launching a new away kit on Tuesday but neither they nor Wrexham could illuminate Yankee Stadium 24 hours later. It was rough in the diamond, although Rio Ngumoha’s deflected goal made it two wins out of two for Andoni Iraola on his first pre-season tour as Liverpool head coach.
Ngumoha, a second half substitute who Iraola deployed on the right, satisfied the majority of a 42,204 crowd with a 75th-minute shot that looped in off Wrexham defender Lewis Brunt. Wrexham’s Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (now simply Rob Mac) were in attendance for what the former had labelled a “punch-me moment” but in truth few blows were traded at the iconic baseball stadium.
Continue reading...US announces attacks early on Thursday, as experts say strikes carried out by both sides in previous day increase risk of return to all-out war
Three explosions have been heard on Iran’s Qeshm island, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency is saying.
Before Wednesday’s flare-up of hostilities, mediators had expressed optimism about bringing the US and Iran back to the negotiating table following the collapse of an interim agreement amid renewed fighting over the strait of Hormuz.
Continue reading...
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
handwritten on back of photograph, "Dough Cherd, NYC, Radio City Music Hall Trip, 1974"
ajpscs posted a photo:
TOKYO SKYTREE : TOBU LINE : SUMIDA CRUISE BOATS
LIGHT STREAM
NIGHT LIGHTS & ILLUMINATIONS
LIGHT PAINTING
© ajpscs
ajpscs has added a photo to the pool:
TOKYO SKYTREE : TOBU LINE : SUMIDA CRUISE BOATS
LIGHT STREAM
NIGHT LIGHTS & ILLUMINATIONS
LIGHT PAINTING
© ajpscs
Cheapism explores Playground Equipment From the '70s Considered Too Dangerous Today, including the Giant Stride and its heavy-metal older brother, the Witch's Hat. According to the National Post, "When Iowa's Quad-City Times canvassed its older readers for memories of the thing in 1991, they received a torrent of positive mail, with one woman even citing it as evidence that growing up during the Great Depression was more fun."
See a Giant Stride, teeter-totters, a metal slide and the monkey bars in the 1939 documentary, The City in the Internet Archive. Music by Aaron Copeland; the playground's about 24 minutes in to their half-hour version of the film.
The Last Museum is the largest search engine for museum art. It uses semantic search, allowing you to search for artworks by theme, style, subject, vibes, cultures, artists or any description you can imagine.
They currently have around 5 million artworks indexed, and strive to eventually index all museum art in the world.
For a more charming browsing experience check out The Tenth Muse with works from 20 Western museums.
From the About: on The Last Museum - "This website is completely free to use. We are not affiliated with any museums or galleries, and we do not own any of the images. Much of the art we index is in the public domain. Where works are still under copyright, we show them in accordance with fair use: We operate as a search engine and reference tool, an informational purpose rather than a substitute for the original work. Works are shown for educational and non-commercial purposes. We index art that is already freely available to the public online. Copyrighted works appear only at browsing resolution, not as high-quality reproductions. Every artwork links back to its original source." hat tip to NYT's The Good List.
From the About: on The Last Museum - "This website is completely free to use. We are not affiliated with any museums or galleries, and we do not own any of the images. Much of the art we index is in the public domain. Where works are still under copyright, we show them in accordance with fair use: We operate as a search engine and reference tool, an informational purpose rather than a substitute for the original work. Works are shown for educational and non-commercial purposes. We index art that is already freely available to the public online. Copyrighted works appear only at browsing resolution, not as high-quality reproductions. Every artwork links back to its original source." hat tip to NYT's The Good List.
RIO DE JANEIRO (ANP) - Een zware storm in het zuidoosten van Brazilië heeft zeker vijf mensen het leven gekost, melden Braziliaanse media, waaronder CNN Brasil en het nieuwsplatform G1.
In Rio de Janeiro kwamen twee mensen om toen een muur instortte, aldus de brandweer. Een visser wordt vermist. In São Paulo stierven twee mensen door omvallende bomen. Een derde persoon overleed toen een boot kapseisde.
Windstoten van meer dan 100 kilometer per uur veroorzaakten chaos in de grote stedelijke gebieden van Rio de Janeiro en São Paulo, evenals in andere steden. Tientallen bomen waaiden om, daken werden van huizen gerukt en muren stortten in. Er waren op grote schaal stroomstoringen.
De storm legde ook het wegverkeer stil. Het openbaar vervoer en vliegverkeer raakten verstoord. Op videobeelden is te zien hoe windstoten een kabelbaancabine, bouwvakkers op steigers en boten op zee heen en weer slingerden.
WASHINGTON (ANP) - Amerikaanse strijdkrachten zijn donderdagochtend om 03.30 uur (Iraanse tijd) begonnen met luchtaanvallen op Iran, meldt het Amerikaanse leger op X. De aanvallen zijn een "reactie op de Iraanse aanvalspogingen van gisteren tegen Amerikaanse troepen in het Midden-Oosten", aldus het centrale commando CENTCOM.
Het zijn de eerste Amerikaanse aanvallen op Iran sinds vrijdag, toen de Amerikaanse president Donald Trump het leger opdracht gaf de aanvallen te staken, naar eigen zeggen om onderhandelingen meer ruimte te geven.
In het zuiden en westen van Iran zijn explosies te horen, melden Iraanse media. Als doelwitten worden onder meer Abadan, Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Khorramshahr, Nurabad, Sirik en de eilanden Kish en Qeshm genoemd.
Trump had woensdag in een interview met de zender Fox News al aangekondigd dat de VS een Iraanse aanval met ballistische raketten op Amerikaanse troepen in Jordanië zouden vergelden. "Ze kunnen een afranseling verwachten", zei hij onder meer.
In de nacht van dinsdag waren de Amerikanen ook al militair actief. Samen met de Saudi's voerden ze luchtaanvallen uit op pro-Iraanse milities in Irak, waarbij zeker twintig doden zouden zijn gevallen.