Biden’s EPA proposes water rule to finally ditch lead pipes within 10 years

City workers unload a truck containing pallets of bottled water to distribute during a water filter distribution event on October 26, 2021 in Hamtramck, Michigan. The state Department of Health and Human Services has begun distributing water filters and bottled water to residents due to elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water due to old and un-maintained water pipes in the city.

Enlarge / City workers unload a truck containing pallets of bottled water to distribute during a water filter distribution event on October 26, 2021 in Hamtramck, Michigan. The state Department of Health and Human Services has begun distributing water filters and bottled water to residents due to elevated levels of lead found in the drinking water due to old and un-maintained water pipes in the city. (credit: Getty | Matthew Hatcher)

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed a stricter rule on lead in drinking water that would require that all lead service lines in the country be replaced within 10 years, and would lower the current lead action level in drinking water from 15 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.

More than 9.2 million American households have water connections that include lead piping, according to the White House. Lead moves from the pipes into the water when the plumbing experiences corrosion, which is most severe when the water is acidic or has low mineral content. There is no safe level of lead, which is a toxic metal with wide-ranging health effects, including neurotoxic effects. In children, lead exposure can damage the brain and nervous system, slow development, lower IQ, and cause learning, behavioral, speech, and hearing problems. In adults, it can increase the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, and kidney damage.

The EPA estimates that the rule will generate between $9.8 billion to $34.8 billion in economic benefits each year based on health improvement, including higher IQs in children, healthier newborns, lower cardiovascular risks in adults, and a reduction in care for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Biden’s EPA proposes water rule to finally ditch lead pipes within 10 years

New chip-packaging facility could save TSMC’s Arizona fab from “paperweight” status

Apple wants to build more of its A- and M-series chips in the United States.

Enlarge / Apple wants to build more of its A- and M-series chips in the United States. (credit: Apple)

Late last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company would definitely be buying chips made at Taiwan Semiconductor’s new Arizona-based fab once it had opened. Apple working with TSMC isn’t new; most, if not all, of the processors currently sold in Apple’s products are made on one of TSMC’s many manufacturing nodes. But being able to buy them from a US-based facility would be a first.

The issue, as outlined by some TSMC employees speaking to The Information in September, is that the Arizona facility would manufacture chips, but it wouldn’t be building a facility to handle packaging. And without packaging, the Arizona factory would essentially be a “paperweight,” requiring any chips made there to be shipped to Taiwan for assembly before they could be put in any products.

Today Apple announced that it had solved that particular problem, partnering with a company called Amkor to handle chip packaging in Arizona. Amkor says that it will invest $2 billion to build the facility, which will “employ approximately 2,000 people” and “is targeted to be ready for production within the next two to three years.” Apple says that it has already worked with Amkor on chip packaging for “more than a decade.”

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – New chip-packaging facility could save TSMC’s Arizona fab from “paperweight” status

The Great Google Account Purge starts tomorrow for inactive users

The Great Google Account Purge starts tomorrow for inactive users

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Hello fellow procrastinators. This is your last-minute warning that you have until the end of the day to log in to any inactive Google accounts before they start getting deleted on December 1. Google is going to wipe any accounts that have been “inactive” for two years, allowing the company to free up storage space, delete unused personal data, and continue the ongoing journey of intense cost cutting it has been on for the past year.

The plan to do this was announced in May, and Google says inactive accounts should get “multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided),” so hopefully this isn’t a surprise to anyone. The company says it will “take a phased approach” to deleting accounts, starting with “accounts that were created and never used again,” so even if you’re reading this on December 1, there’s probably still time to log in to an old account and save it.

As for the caveats around “inactivity,” Google says this will only apply to personal accounts that don’t have any subscriptions running, so Google Workspace and Google One users have nothing to fear. The company says you’ll count as “active” if you “sign-in at least once every 2 years,” which is pretty easy to do. Confusingly it also lists certain activities you can perform that will count as “activity,” but those seem rather moot, since you would already need to be logged in to do them. The “Sign in with Google” OAuth platform on other websites also counts as account activity, and so does being signed in on an Android phone.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – The Great Google Account Purge starts tomorrow for inactive users

Meta sues FTC, hoping to block ban on monetizing kids’ Facebook data

Photo illustration in which the Facebook logo is displayed on the screen of an iPhone in front of a Meta logo

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Chesnot)

Meta sued the Federal Trade Commission yesterday in a lawsuit that challenges the FTC’s authority to impose new privacy obligations on the social media firm.

The complaint stems from the FTC’s May 2023 allegation that Meta-owned Facebook violated a 2020 privacy settlement and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The FTC proposed changes to the 2020 privacy order that would, among other things, prohibit Facebook from monetizing data it collects from users under 18.

Meta’s lawsuit against the FTC challenges what it calls “the structurally unconstitutional authority exercised by the FTC through its Commissioners in an administrative reopening proceeding against Meta.” It was filed against the FTC, Chair Lina Khan, and other commissioners in US District Court for the District of Columbia. Meta is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the FTC proceeding pending resolution of the lawsuit.

Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Meta sues FTC, hoping to block ban on monetizing kids’ Facebook data

Meta’s “overpriced” ad-free subscriptions make privacy a “luxury good”: EU suit

Meta’s “overpriced” ad-free subscriptions make privacy a “luxury good”: EU suit

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

Backlash over Meta’s ad-free subscription model in the European Union has begun just one month into its launch.

On Thursday, Europe’s largest consumer group, the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), filed a complaint with the network of consumer protection authorities. In a press release, BEUC alleges that Meta’s subscription fees for ad-free access to Facebook and Instagram are so unreasonably high that they breach laws designed to protect user privacy as a fundamental right.

“Meta has been rolling out changes to its service in the EU in November 2023, which require Facebook and Instagram users to either consent to the processing of their data for advertising purposes by the company or pay in order not to be shown advertisements,” BEUC’s press release said. “The tech giant’s pay-or-consent approach is unfair and must be stopped.”

Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Meta’s “overpriced” ad-free subscriptions make privacy a “luxury good”: EU suit

ChatGPT is one year old. Here’s how it changed the world.

A toy tin robot blowing out a birthday candle.

Enlarge / An artist’s interpretation of what ChatGPT might look like if embodied in the form of a robot toy blowing out a birthday candle. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

One year ago today, on November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT. It’s uncommon for a single tech product to create as much global impact as ChatGPT in just one year.

Imagine a computer that can talk to you. Nothing new, right? Those have been around since the 1960s. But ChatGPT, the application that first bought large language models (LLMs) to a wide audience, felt different. It could compose poetry, seemingly understand the context of your questions and your conversation, and help you solve problems. Within a few months, it became the fastest-growing consumer application of all time. And it created a frenzy.

During these 365 days, ChatGPT has broadened the public perception of AI, captured imaginations, attracted critics, and stoked existential angst. It emboldened and reoriented Microsoft, made Google dance, spurred fears of AGI taking over the world, captivated world leaders, prompted attempts at government regulation, helped add words to dictionaries, inspired conferences and copycats, led to a crisis for educators, hyper-charged automated defamation, embarrassed lawyers by hallucinating, prompted lawsuits over training data, and much more.

Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – ChatGPT is one year old. Here’s how it changed the world.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 tops list of fastest-charging EVs; Chevy Bolt ranks last

Symbol for a charging ststion for electric vehicles on tarmac

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Despite the fact that most of us generally drive short distances when we get in our cars, the time it takes to fast-charge an electric vehicle remains of paramount importance to potential EV buyers. It’s hard to blame them—for more than a century, motorists have come to expect short refueling stops, and until someone actually lives with an EV for a while, it can be hard to make that paradigm shift. And of course, not everyone has the ability to slow-charge an EV at home or at work, your author included.

So with that in mind, the consumer advice publication Edmunds decided to test a whole bunch of EVs to find out which one adds the most miles of range in the fewest minutes possible.

Working with the automotive consultancy P3, Edmunds tested 43 different EVs, running down their batteries on its EV range-testing route to calculate the car’s efficiency, then fast-charged them from 10 to 80 percent, measuring peak and average charging power and calculating charging losses in the process. Edmunds says it did this because automakers are inconsistent in advertising fast-charging times—some list charge times from 10 to 80 percent, while others simply say their cars can add 100 miles (160 km) of range in a given time.

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Hyundai Ioniq 6 tops list of fastest-charging EVs; Chevy Bolt ranks last

Sam Altman officially back as OpenAI CEO: “We didn’t lose a single employee”

A glowing OpenAI logo on a light blue background.

Enlarge (credit: OpenAI / Benj Edwards)

On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that Sam Altman has officially returned to the ChatGPT-maker as CEO—accompanied by Mira Murati as CTO and Greg Brockman as president—resuming their roles from before the shocking firing of Altman that threw the company into turmoil two weeks ago. Altman says the company did not lose a single employee or customer throughout the crisis.

“I have never been more excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for everyone’s hard work in an unclear and unprecedented situation, and I believe our resilience and spirit set us apart in the industry,” wrote Altman in an official OpenAI news release. “I feel so, so good about our probability of success for achieving our mission.”

In the statement, Altman formalized plans that have been underway since last week: ex-Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and economist Larry Summers have officially begun their tenure on the “new initial” OpenAI board of directors. Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo is keeping his previous seat on the board. Also on Wednesday, previous board members Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner officially resigned. In addition, a representative from Microsoft (a key OpenAI investor) will have a non-voting observer role on the board of directors.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Sam Altman officially back as OpenAI CEO: “We didn’t lose a single employee”

How Huawei made a cutting-edge chip in China and surprised the US

Read 65 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – How Huawei made a cutting-edge chip in China and surprised the US

FDA warns chemical company not to mix brake cleaner into hand sanitizer

A person holding a bottle of soap and washing their hands.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Jena Ardell)

A chemical manufacturing facility in Wisconsin has drawn the ire of the Food and Drug Administration for making hand sanitizer with the same equipment it uses to make products with toxic industrial solvents and chemicals, such as automotive brake parts cleaner. The practice is a clear violation of manufacturing standards and could lead to harmful cross-contamination, the FDA said.

The agency sent a warning letter dated October 26 to the maker of the hand sanitizer, Brenntag Great Lakes, LLC, in Wisconsin. The letter, which redacted the name of the hand sanitizer, stated that the agency had found “significant violations” in an inspection in the spring and that the company’s responses since then were “inadequate.”

Toxic hand sanitizers became an alarming problem in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for the germ-fighting gels skyrocketed and manufacturers rushed products to market. Hundreds of products that flooded the market were found to contain methanol, a toxic alcohol that can cause harm via inhalation, ingestion, and skin absorption. Use of the products leads to poisoning, blindness, and even death, the FDA reported.

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – FDA warns chemical company not to mix brake cleaner into hand sanitizer

My long quest to revive a ’90s Windows gaming cult classic

The elusive, addictive gameplay that has been haunting my dreams for years.

As 2023 draws to a close—and as we start to finalize our Game of the Year contenders—I really should be catching up on the embarrassingly long list of great recent releases that I haven’t put enough time into this year. Instead, over the last few days, I’ve found myself once again hooked on a simple, addictive, and utterly unique Japanese Windows freeware game from the late ’90s that, until recently, I thought I had lost forever.

Pendulumania is a cult classic in the truest sense of the word: Few people have heard of it, even in hardcore gaming circles, but those who have experienced it tend to have very fond memories of it. And while I shared those memories, it wasn’t until this week that I’ve been able to share my effusive praise for a game whose name and playable executable had eluded me for well over a decade.

Timeless design

The mechanics of Pendulumania are incredibly simple. You use the computer mouse to control a metal ring, which is attached via an elastic string to a white ball. The object is to carefully move the ring so the stretchy string and gravity can nudge the ball around a 2D plane, crashing into floating scoring orbs to collect points (colored orbs that randomly appear can make the ball larger or the string stronger as well). Be careful, though; if the elastic string stretches too far, it will break and your game will be over.

Read 18 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – My long quest to revive a ’90s Windows gaming cult classic

Elon Musk on X antisemitism controversy: “Don’t advertise. Go f*** yourself”

Illustration of a shovel being used to bury the Twitter logo

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Elon Musk addressed an antisemitism controversy in characteristically unwise fashion during a public interview today, telling businesses to “go fuck yourself” and to stop advertising on the social network formerly named Twitter.

Musk spoke on stage at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in an interview conducted by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. Sorkin asked Musk about trying to gain back advertising from businesses that pulled ads from X after Musk posted a favorable response to an antisemitic tweet.

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk said in response to Sorkin’s question (see video).

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Elon Musk on X antisemitism controversy: “Don’t advertise. Go f*** yourself”

2 municipal water facilities report falling to hackers in separate breaches

2 municipal water facilities report falling to hackers in separate breaches

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

In the stretch of a few days, two municipal water facilities that serve more than 2 million residents in parts of Pennsylvania and Texas have reported network security breaches that have hamstrung parts of their business or operational processes.

In response to one of the attacks, the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania temporarily shut down a pump providing drinking water from the facility’s treatment plant to the townships of Raccoon and Potter, according to reporting by the Beaver Countian. A photo the Water Authority provided to news outlets showed the front panel of a programmable logic controller—a toaster-sized box often abbreviated as PLC that’s used to automate physical processes inside of industrial settings—that displayed an anti-Israeli message. The PLC bore the logo of the manufacturer Unitronics. A sign above it read “Primary PLC.”

WWS facilities in the cross hairs

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration on Tuesday published an advisory that warned of recent attacks compromising Unitronics PLCs used in Water and Wastewater Systems, which are often abbreviated as WWSes. Although the notice didn’t identify any facilities by name, the account of one hack was almost identical to the one that occurred inside the Aliquippa facility.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – 2 municipal water facilities report falling to hackers in separate breaches

2023 has been another year with a record number of orbital launches

A solid-fueled Ceres 1 rocket, developed by the Chinese company Galactic Energy, fires away from an ocean-going launch platform in the Yellow Sea on September 5.

Enlarge / A solid-fueled Ceres 1 rocket, developed by the Chinese company Galactic Energy, fires away from an ocean-going launch platform in the Yellow Sea on September 5. (credit: Chen Xiao/VCG via Getty Images)

Led by SpaceX and China, the world’s launch providers have put more rockets and payloads into orbit so far in 2023 than in any prior year, continuing an upward trend in launch activity over the last five years.

On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration reported that it screened more than 2.9 million airline passengers making their way through US airports after Thanksgiving. It was the busiest day in history for US airports.

A few days earlier, the world’s spaceports set a new record with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with another batch of Starlink Internet satellites from Florida. This launch on November 22 was the 180th launch of 2023 to put its payload into orbit, eclipsing the mark of 179 successful orbital launches from last year.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – 2023 has been another year with a record number of orbital launches

Nvidia CEO: US chip independence may take 20 years to achieve

Founder and CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023, in New York City.

Enlarge / Founder and CEO of NVIDIA Jensen Huang speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images North America)

The US could be up to two decades away from maintaining its own domestic chips supply chain, Nvidia Corp.’s CEO, Jensen Huang, told an audience gathered in New York for the New York Times’s DealBook conference.

Nvidia is a giant in the semiconductor industry, and Huang said his company’s success depends on “myriad components that come from different parts of the world,” Bloomberg reported. “Not just Taiwan,” Huang said, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing company makes the world’s most advanced semiconductor technology.

“We are somewhere between a decade and two decades away from supply chain independence,” Huang said. “It’s not a really practical thing for a decade or two.”

Read 16 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Nvidia CEO: US chip independence may take 20 years to achieve

Netflix lands its first big-name games with Grand Theft Auto trilogy

A logo for the enhanced edition of the GTA trilogy, next to cover artwork from the three games

Enlarge / The enhanced edition trilogy includes Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. (credit: Rockstar Games)

Netflix subscribers will be able to play the three original 3D Grand Theft Auto games on iOS and Android starting in December, according to a blog post from the streamer.

The titles included are 2001’s Grand Theft Auto III, 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

All three released initially on the PS2 and Xbox. The first 3D entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto III, was a crossover cultural sensation when it debuted, and it is credited as one of the main originators of the open-world genre, which remains one of the most popular genres in triple-A games to this day.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Netflix lands its first big-name games with Grand Theft Auto trilogy

Google to pay Canada’s “link tax,” drops threat of removing news from search

Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Google to pay Canada’s “link tax,” drops threat of removing news from search

Stable Diffusion Turbo XL can generate AI images as fast as you can type

Example images generated using Stable Diffusion XL Turbo.

Enlarge / Example images generated using Stable Diffusion XL Turbo. (credit: Stable Diffusion XL Turbo / Benj Edwards)

On Tuesday, Stability AI launched Stable Diffusion XL Turbo, an AI image-synthesis model that can rapidly generate imagery based on a written prompt. So rapidly, in fact, that the company is billing it as “real-time” image generation, since it can also quickly transform images from a source, such as a webcam, quickly.

SDXL Turbo’s primary innovation lies in its ability to produce image outputs in a single step, a significant reduction from the 20–50 steps required by its predecessor. Stability attributes this leap in efficiency to a technique it calls Adversarial Diffusion Distillation (ADD). ADD uses score distillation, where the model learns from existing image-synthesis models, and adversarial loss, which enhances the model’s ability to differentiate between real and generated images, improving the realism of the output.

Stability detailed the model’s inner workings in a research paper released Tuesday that focuses on the ADD technique. One of the claimed advantages of SDXL Turbo is its similarity to Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), especially in producing single-step image outputs.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Stable Diffusion Turbo XL can generate AI images as fast as you can type

Are big international teams leaving creativity out of science?

Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Are big international teams leaving creativity out of science?

Google caught placing big-brand ads on hardcore porn sites, report says

Google caught placing big-brand ads on hardcore porn sites, report says

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

The appearance of any big brand’s ads on websites that the brand has specifically blocked is one of a brand’s biggest nightmares. That could include specifically blacklisted sites—like Breitbart—or any category of generally controversial site, like sites in countries sanctioned by the government, sites featuring hardcore pornography, or sites containing pirated content.

According to an Adalytics report, the Google Search Partner Network (SPN) has allegedly been putting brands at risk of all of these undesirable placements without advertisers fully realizing the dangers. Adalytics researchers reported finding Google search ads for top brands and government agencies displaying on hundreds of undesirable websites.

Among those impacted were big brands—like Amazon, Apple, BMW, Home Depot, Lego, Meta, Microsoft, Paramount+, Samsung, and Uber—and top government entities including the US Treasury and the European Commission. Ads from nonprofits like the American Cancer Society and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, as well as major media outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal were also found on illegal or adult sites.

Read 26 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Google caught placing big-brand ads on hardcore porn sites, report says