NASA Declares Start Of 2026 Fireball Season As Meteor Activity Intensifies

NASA Declares Start Of 2026 Fireball Season As Meteor Activity Intensifies
Heads up sky-gazers, fireball season is upon us! That’s according to NASA, which notes that we’re now in peak fireball season, a time period that typically runs from February through April. During that time, exceptionally bright meteor sightings can increase by 10-30%, especially around the March equinox. That date has already come and gone,

[$] Objections to systemd age-attestation changes go overboard

In early March, Dylan M. Taylor submitted a pull request to add a field
to store a user’s birth date in systemd’s JSON user records. This was done to allow
applications to store the date to facilitate compliance with age-attestation and
-verification laws. It was to be expected that some members of the community would
object; the actual response, however, has been shockingly hostile. Some of this has
been fueled by a misinformation campaign that has targeted the systemd project and
Taylor specifically, resulting in Taylor being doxxed and receiving death
threats. Such behavior is not just problematic; it is also deeply misguided given the
actual nature of the changes.

PNY Scores Points With Gamers After Replacing Dead RTX 5070 With A 5070 Ti

PNY Scores Points With Gamers After Replacing Dead RTX 5070 With A 5070 Ti
More often than not, if an RMA makes the news cycle, it’s because something went horribly wrong. Sometimes those wrongs are corrected, like when ASUS revamped its return policy, but wouldn’t it be nice if a company got it right on the first try? Enter PNY and a surprise GPU upgrade it sent a user who owned a GeForce RTX 5070 that “died completely.”

Reddit

Stunning Look 795 Blade RS Ciel du Nord honours Laurent Jalabert’s 1992 Tour de France win in Brussels 

There’s a photo that hangs in Look’s HQ of Laurent Jalabert winning stage six of the 1992 Tour de France. It’s the colours in this shot that have inspired the paintwork of the new Ciel du Nord special edition of the Look 795 Blade RS, which the company has launched in a limited run of 167 bikes, matching the length in kilometres of the stage.

The stage marked Jalabert’s first Tour win and took in the Kwaremont, Kreusberg, Muur van Geraardsbergen and other cobbled climbs in Belgium used in the spring classics, and was marked by rain and thunderstorms. 

Look has chosen a mid-range spec to help keep the Ciel du Nord edition’s price down. @rising.story_@colinolivero

Look describes the colour scheme as “an ode to the red bricks, the unforgiving cobbles, and the unique atmosphere that makes the North the heart of the cycling world”. Each Ciel du Nord frame is hand-painted in Nevers, central France, making it a one-off, Look says. 

Rather than kitting the bike out with a fancy spec, as is typical for limited-edition bikes, the 795 Blade RS Ciel du Nord has a mid-range spec. Look says this is because the north of France is very much an industrial area, with a history of coal mining and heavy industry, so it’s one of the poorer areas of France.

The colour scheme was inspired by this shot of Jalabert’s win in 1992. @pressesports

There’s a Shimano Ultegra 52/36t x 11-34t electronic groupset and Mavic Cosmic S42 Carbon wheels with Continental GP 5000 TLR 28mm tyres, along with Look’s own finishing kit. Look claims a 7.6kg bike weight.

To round out the special edition, each bike comes with a set of Look Keo Blade Ceramic pedals, with its blades matching the bike, a Ciel du Nord jigsaw puzzle and a matching tote bag.

You can purchase the complete Look 795 Blade RS Ciel du Nord bike for £7,290 / €7,690 / $10,700 or the frameset for £4,800 / €4,800 / $6,000.

3 top deals from Lidl’s cycling sale, including a budget torque wrench

Lidl’s middle aisle sales can turn a weekly shop into the birth of a new hobby. That stand mixer is just too good a deal to not start baking, and I have really meant to take up weight training – and why wouldn’t I when that kettle bell is just so cheap?

But flights of fancy aside, occasionally Lidl’s bargains offer an affordable way to aid an existing pastime. So that’s why, here at BikeRadar, our attention has turned to the discount supermarket’s current selection of cycling deals from its in-house cycling brand Crivit (which also provides team Lidl-Trek with off-bike clothing).  

We’ll admit that much of what’s on offer (Lidl has full details of the range on its site) doesn’t set our heart racing, but there are three deals that might be worth your time.

Crivit Torque Wrench 

Lidl Crivit Torque Wrench set.
Lidl’s Crivit Torque Wrench set is yours for less than £15. Lidl

If you’re serious about bike maintenance, a torque wrench is essential. Torquing bolts on your bike with this specialist tool can prevent you over-tightening and ruining bearings or carbon components.

The best torque wrenches can cost in excess of £100. But if you’re keen to try out a cheap option before you invest a lot of money, the Crivit Torque Wrench could be for you at £14.99. 

The wrench comes in a case with nine sockets, including options for hex and torx bolts.

It is covered by a three-year warranty. 

Crivit Cordless Compressed Air Pump

Lidl Crivit electric pump.
Lidl’s Crivit Compressed Air Pump. Lidl

Although they’re not quite as integral as torque wrenches, electric bike pumps have grown in popularity because they make pumping up tyres easy-peasy. 

The Crivit Cordless Compressed Air Pump is another budget alternative from Lidl. The pump has an electronic display, which provides information on tyre pressure and its battery status. It comes with preset air pressures for cars, motorbikes, basketballs and bikes. The preset for bikes is roughly 60psi. 

The device charges via USB-C and has a fabric-coated pump tube. 

It’ll also set you back £14.99.  

Crivit Brake Cleaner 

Lidl Brake Cleaner.
Crivit Brake Cleaner is easy on the pocket. Lidl

Contaminated disc brakes can lead to horrible howling sounds and significantly increase your stopping distance. In short, they’re a nuisance. But so too is forking out money for the – often expensive – products you need to clean them.

But Lidl’s cycling sale seems to have the solution. The supermarket is selling 400ml of brake cleaner for only £2.49.

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All About the New Princeton Carbonworks Wake 6560 White Wheels in Zwift

Princeton Carbonworks has arrived in Zwift, with three wheelsets released to the game: the Alta 3532, the Wake 6560 White, and the Mach TSV2/Blur Disc. Today, we’re looking at the Wake 6560, the company’s popular flagship racing wheelset, known for aero performance and light weight.

A bit of trivia: the “Wake” name is a nod to the collegiate rowing roots of Princeton Carbonworks’ founders.

Here’s how these wheels (the Wake 6560 Evolution II) are described: “The 6th iteration of the Wake series and the largest step change in performance they’ve made yet. Faster. Lighter. Stiffer.”

The wheels are now available in the Drop Shop, accessible at level 32 and above, for 685,000 Drops. Notably, they are rated 4 stars for aero and 4 for weight, the only wheelset in game with such a high rating, apart from the newish ENVE SES 4.5 PRO. Since Zwift’s 4-star rating system isn’t precise enough for our taste, we ran these wheels through our standard battery of tests to determine exactly how they perform in Zwift and stack up against other wheelsets in game.

Let’s dive in and learn all about the performance of this wheelset from Princeton Carbonworks…

Aero (Flat/Rolling) Performance

Princeton’s Wake 6560 wheels deliver impressive aero performance, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO but falling just behind the most aero hoops in game: the ENVE SES 8.9, DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 65, and ENVE SES 7.8.

As the 4th-fastest wheels in game, the Wake 6560 lose 4.4 seconds across an hour of riding compared to the ENVE SES 8.9. They lose 10.2 seconds across an hour compared to the fastest disc wheelset in game, the DT Swiss ARC 1100 DICUT 85/Disc.

Climb Performance

You would think such a deep wheelset wouldn’t climb well, but this is 2026, and wheelmakers are working miracles. With a claimed 1250-gram wheelset weight, the Wake 6560 is a bit lighter than the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO, and it shows in Zwift.

Princeton’s Wake 6560 wheels gain 12.3 seconds over our baseline wheels in an hour of climbing, beating the current top climbers (Zipp 353 NSW and Lightweight Meilenstein) by 2.5 seconds, and beating the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO by 2.9 seconds. How’s that for an all-arounder performance?

Note: all test results above are from a 75kg, 183cm rider holding 300W steady using the Zwift Carbon frame.

Conclusions

The Wake 6560 wheels from Princeton are Zwift’s new top all-arounders, edging out the ENVE SES 4.5 PRO in both our flat and climb tests and, in fact, outclimbing all the best dedicated climbing wheels in the game, apart from the new Princeton Alta 3532 hoops!

If you’re looking for a wheelset to use in races with significant climbs, this is the best one available in Zwift today.

These wheels have been, or will soon be, added to the following posts:

Questions or comments?

Share below!

Important note: this post contains speed test results for Zwift frames or wheels. These results may change over time, and a bike’s performance relative to others may also change. We don’t always revise posts when performance rankings change, but we do keep current, master versions of our speed test results which are always available. See the frame charts, wheel charts, and Tron vs Top Performers for current performance data.

The Integrated ROCm Story For Ubuntu 26.04 Still Playing Out

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is just three weeks out for release with many great features in tow from the GNOME 50 desktop to the very leading-edge Linux 7.0 kernel and many other package updates. One feature that many had been looking forward to is Canonical’s plans to ship AMD ROCm directly in the Ubuntu archive for a much cleaner experience for those wanting to make use of AMD’s open-source GPU compute stack. As a common question in recent weeks from readers, it remains to be seen if that milestone will be achieved for the Ubuntu 26.04 launch day…

The Next LVFS Actions Begin Tomorrow To Encourage More Hardware Vendors To Step Up

Last year the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS) announced plans for major vendors to pay or contribute code to this project that makes it easy for deploying new system and device firmware on Linux systems. They are asking those with less than 99 employees to contribute $10k USD annually or those larger organizations to contribute $100k USD annually or to be employing engineer(s) to work full-time on LVFS/Fwupd. Beginning tomorrow the next phase of their transition to encourage vendors to support the open-source project goes into effect…

The Quoc Gran Tourer is one of my favourite gravel shoes and the new version could be even better 

Quoc’s original Gran Tourer launched back in 2018 and was one of the first dedicated gravel shoes on the market.

The stylish lace-up upper and chunky walkable sole gave a different outlook from the co-opted mountain bike cross-country shoes that dominated gravel footwear.

Now Quoc has launched the third generation of the Gran Tourer. The Tech Dial closure has been updated to use metal core laces, with Quoc claiming this brings better durability and finer adjustment mid-ride because the lace now has no stretch.

The outsole retains the same chunky design, but it has been reformulated with a new hybrid rubber compound that is claimed to offer better grip and improved comfort when walking or hiking. The deep tread hides a recessed SPD (two-bolt) mounting, again to make the shoes easier to walk in.

The rubber-compound outsole wraps around a glass-fibre midsole to provide pedalling efficiency and better comfort.

The Gran Tourer III is available in sizes EU38 to 47 and is priced at £170 / $250 / €230.

quoc gt 3 sole
The new outsole has a softer, more compliant rubber compound. Warren Rossiter / Ourmedia

Wider fit

quoc gt 3 toe
The toe box is wider than the previous generation. Warren Rossiter / Ourmedia

The upper design now has a wider toe box, and both the toe box and the tongue feature laser-cut pinholes to aid breathability.

The collar of the upper is lined with a new soft-touch jersey material that it’s claimed eliminates pressure points.

Gran Tourer 3
The Gran Tourer III gets a reflective 3M wave print, bisecting the upper colours. Warren Rossiter / Ourmedia

The new finish includes a wave accent dividing the two-tone matt colours rendered in reflective 3M print.

The second-generation Gran Tourer was one of my favourite gravel shoes. The new model looks to have upped the stakes again with a new-shaped toe box and new outsole compound that helps reduce the weight to 712g a pair (size 45) from the previous generation’s 756g.

The Lilac Haze colourway shown here launches today, with an Ash version following on 5 May.

Python calculation based on principle of argument (theory of functions of a complex variable)

Principle of Argument doesn’t provide any information about values of polynomial zeros inside predefined circle as well as locations of these zeros on complex plane. Classic math just says how many polynomial zeros we get inside given circle and nothing else. Library cxroots imported in python module provides object Circle having method roots to achieve the goal to get actual zeros values.

AI Data Centers Can Warm Surrounding Areas By Up To 9.1C

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Scientist: Andrea Marinoni at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues saw that the amount of energy needed to run a data centre had been steadily increasing of late and was likely to “explode” in the coming years, so wanted to quantify the impact. The researchers took satellite measurements of land surface temperatures over the past 20 years and cross-referenced them against the geographical coordinates of more than 8400 AI data centers. Recognizing that surface temperature could be affected by other factors, the researchers chose to focus their investigation on data centers located away from densely populated areas.

They discovered that land surface temperatures increased by an average of 2C (3.6F) in the months after an AI data center started operations. In the most extreme cases, the increase in temperature was 9.1C (16.4F). The effect wasn’t limited to the immediate surroundings of the data centers: the team found increased temperatures up to 10 kilometers away. Seven kilometers away, there was only a 30 percent reduction in the intensity. “The results we had were quite surprising,” says Marinoni. “This could become a huge problem.”

Using population data, the researchers estimate that more than 340 million people live within 10 kilometers of data centers, so live in a place that is warmer than it would be if the data centre hadn’t been built there. Marinoni says that areas including the Bajio region in Mexico and the Aragon province in Spain saw a 2C (3.6F) temperature increase in the 20 years between 2004 and 2024 that couldn’t otherwise be explained. University of Bristol researcher Chris Preist said the findings may be more complicated than they look. “It would be worth doing follow-up research to understand to what extent it’s the heat generated from computation versus the heat generated from the building itself,” he says. For example, the building being heated by sunlight may be part of the effect.

The findings of the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, can be found on arXiv.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You Can Get This 2025 11-Inch iPad With Cellular on Sale for Just $360 Right Now

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Apple’s 11-inch iPad (2025) usually sells for around $499, but StackSocial currently has refurbished 11-inch iPads with wifi and cellular on sale for just $359.97 right now. This listing carries a Grade-A refurbishment rating, which means the tablet should show little to no cosmetic wear and has been cleared to function like new. At this price, you’re getting the tablet, a charger, and a charging cable, but accessories like the Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard aren’t included, so anyone planning to use the tablet for drawing or heavy typing would need to budget for those separately. Even so, refurbished listings like this can make newer Apple hardware easier to justify, especially when the core performance components are still recent.

Inside, the tablet runs on Apple’s A16 chip with 6GB of RAM. In everyday use, that combination keeps the tablet responsive during common tasks. Switching between Safari, a note-taking app, or a video stream tends to stay smooth, and apps rarely reload when you move between them. Plus, its 11-inch Liquid Retina display pushes a 1640×2360 resolution with True Tone support, so text remains crisp, and colors adapt slightly to ambient lighting. The tablet includes 128GB of storage, which is plenty for apps, documents, and downloaded shows, though people who store large video projects or game libraries may hit the limit sooner. As for its cameras, there’s a rear 12-megapixel lens that works well for scanning documents or taking quick photos, and a 12-megapixel front camera that supports Apple’s Center Stage feature, which automatically keeps you framed during video calls.

Cellular connectivity sets this model apart from the standard wifi-only iPads. Since it supports an eSIM, you can activate a mobile data plan and stay online even when you’re away from home networks, which can make a difference if you travel frequently, work from cafés, or simply want a reliable connection on the go without being dependent on public wifi. Apple estimates up to 10 hours of battery life when browsing over wifi and slightly less (around nine hours) when using cellular data. The tablet also supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C charging, and Touch ID for unlocking. Overall, this 2025 11-inch iPad is a great buy at this price for reading, streaming, note-taking, and everyday productivity.


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You Can Get These Beats Powerbeats Fit Earbuds on Sale for 37% Off Right Now

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

Workout earbuds often promise a secure fit and big sound, but not all deliver both. The Beats Powerbeats Fit earbuds are currently on sale for $124.97 on StackSocial as open-box units, and they balance those priorities. These are the newer versions replacing the older Fit Pro in Beats’ lineup, and the biggest change is how they stay in your ears. Instead of the traditional ear-hook design, Beats switched to a fit wing that gently presses against the inside of the ear for stability. In practice, that means the buds stay in place during runs, workouts, or quick movements without the clamp-like feel that some hook designs create. Each earbud also includes physical controls, so you can press to play or pause music, adjust volume, or hold the button to toggle features like noise canceling or Siri. The earbuds also carry an IPX4 water-resistance rating, meaning they can withstand sweat and light rain.

The sound leans toward the kind of tuning Beats is known for. The 9.5mm drivers push a strong low end that works well for workout playlists or bass-heavy music. The bass has impact but does not completely overpower everything else. Vocals and instruments remain clear enough to follow along with podcasts or pop tracks, though the midrange sits slightly behind the bass. These earbuds also support active noise canceling, which helps reduce background noise like traffic rumble or gym equipment. It won’t create total silence, but it can make music easier to hear without turning the volume up too high.

Battery life is also solid for daily use: You can expect about six hours of listening with ANC on, and up to 24 hours total with the charging case. The Apple H1 chip inside the earbuds makes them particularly convenient for iPhone users. Pairing happens quickly, switching between Apple devices is seamless, and you can use hands-free Siri to control playback or send messages. The earbuds also work with Android devices through a companion app that gives access to most of the same controls. That said, as with most workout earbuds, the focus here is stability and energy in the sound rather than studio-level accuracy.


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