There is a signal, born in the earliest days of the cosmos. It’s weak. It’s faint. It can barely register on even the most sensitive of instruments. But it contains a wealth of information about the formation of the first stars, the first galaxies, and the mysteries of the origins of the largest structures in the Universe.
Despite decades of searching for this signal, astronomers have yet to find it. The problem is that our Earth is too noisy, making it nearly impossible to capture this whisper. The solution is to go to the far side of the Moon, using its bulk to shield our sensitive instruments from the cacophony of our planet.
Building telescopes on the far side of the Moon would be the greatest astronomical challenge ever considered by humanity. And it would be worth it.
Merged last month to the widely-used FFmpeg open-source multimedia library was an initial Vulkan-based decoder for FFV1 for the FF Video 1 lossless video coding format. Should you be interested in using this FFV1 decoder on AMD GPUs, there’s a reported 3x performance improvement with the newest code…
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement has called for peaceful protests at this year’s Grand Tours against the participation of Israel–Premier Tech.
In an announcement published yesterday, the BDS Movement says the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta España are allowing “Israel Premier Tech, a cycling team representing Israel, to participate”.
“As Israel escalates its ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and its violent military occupation of the West Bank, international sporting bodies have a moral obligation to take all measures to prevent genocide, or risk being held criminally liable,” the announcement reads.
The BDS Movement adds that by allowing Israel–Premier Tech to participate in the three Grand Tours, the events are helping Israel “sportswash its grave crimes against Palestinians”.
Sportswashing is typically described as a public relations exercise to use sport to help improve the reputation of a government or state.
Political scientist Jiri Zakravsky, author of Cycling Diplomacy: Undemocratic Regimes and Professional Road Cycling Teams Sponsorship, explained to BikeRadar that the term “is closely connected with governments and governmental activities, especially in the context of human rights”.
Who are Israel–Premier Tech?
Canadian-Israeli Sylvan Adams (left) is the co-owner of Israel–Premier Tech. Emmanuel Dunand / Getty Images
Israel–Premier Tech was founded in 2014 and is co-owned by Canadian-Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams.
Adams has referred to himself as a “self-appointed ambassador at large for the State of Israel”. He drove Israel’s £9m bid to host the start of the 2018 Giro d’Italia and built the region’s first Olympic-standard velodrome in the same year.
Adams has previously said the UCI ProSeries team is apolitical and not a government project, although it receives a “pitiful small amount” of funding from the national tourism board.
Ron Baron, the team’s other co-owner, has described Israel–Premier Tech as a form of “sports diplomacy”. Israeli Guy Niv, who rode for the team from 2018 to 2022 and is a former army sniper, has said every rider on the team understands that “being on an Israeli team, they are ambassadors for the country”.
Adams has described Israel’s genocide against Palestinians as “good vs. evil and civilization against barbarism” and said anti-Israel activity is “aided by useful idiots” in the West.
UCI hypocrisy
Ahead of the Giro d’Italia starting on 9 May, the BDS Movement’s call for protest also accuses the UCI, cycling’s international governing body, of “hypocrisy”.
It says the UCI sanctioned Russia days into its invasion of Ukraine, suspending Russian and Belarusian teams and banning UCI events in Russia and Belarus, but that it has not taken the same measures against Israel.
The BDS Movement claims the UCI “is now helping to sportswash Israel’s Gaza genocide by allowing Israel–Premier Tech to participate” in its events.
The BDS Movement upholds the principle that “Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity”. It was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks and other bodies after Palestinian civil society organisations in 2005 called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.
BikeRadar has contacted Israel–Premier Tech and A.S.O, the organiser of the Tour de France, for comment.
Colnago has unveiled the V5Rs, Tadej Pogaçar and UAE Team Emirates’ new all-round race bike.
The bike represents evolution over revolution, featuring an aerodynamic makeover alongside weight savings, thanks to a refined carbon layup process. It’s the lightest frame Colnago has ever made, saving around 150g compared to the V4Rs.
Nevertheless, the V5Rs could see the end of one of the last ‘pure lightweight’ race bikes in the pro peloton, with Colnago claiming the V5Rs as being its second-most aerodynamic bike ever (after the Y1Rs).
It’s fair to say the V5Rs doesn’t rewrite the rulebook like its most high-profile rider, though – the geometry has been tweaked rather than overhauled and the clearance for 32mm-wide tyres is unchanged.
One notable switch is to a BSA threaded bottom bracket from a T47, and some (if not total) free-of-charge flexibility in rider-fit components is welcome.
The Colnago V5Rs is available in seven specifications, with prices from €10,000 up to €15,400. US and UK model availability and prices vary, but the bike is available from today in all major territories.
The V5Rs looks very similar to the V4Rs, despite being an ‘all-new’ bike. Colnago
“Our sponsored teams didn’t ask for anything specific for the V5Rs,” Colnago’s head of research and development, Davide Fumagalli, says. “Instead, they just asked for a bike that met the latest standards and trends.”
It may come as little surprise, then, that the V5Rs ticks the wide tyre clearance box (officially 32mm with 4mm space between tyre and frameset) and now features a BSA threaded bottom bracket.
Beyond this, Fumagalli’s team sought to develop the V4Rs by improving the old bike’s aerodynamics and weight, while retaining similar stiffness and compliance levels.
The frame has seen an overhaul – it’s 9 watts faster at 50kph and around 150g lighter than the V4Rs. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
Central to this is a modified carbon layup process, in which polypropylene mandrills are inflated inside the laid-up carbon, which (once cured) produces fewer imperfections in the finished frame compared to using the brand’s previous foam-and-bag technique.
Colnago says every tube on the new frameset is new, and is created in five pieces – the main triangle, plus two seatstays and chainstays – before being bonded together.
Alongside that, Fumagalli says carbon materials have continued to evolve, enabling the brand to shave unnecessary carbon from the frame, while optimising the mix.
Colnago says it has saved on excess material throughout the frame. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
Where previously the V4Rs used a greater proportion of ‘high strength’ fibres than ‘high modulus’ fibres, this has been reversed for the V5Rs. Generally speaking, this makes the layup stiffer, according to Fumagalli, but meant the brand was able to tweak the tube profiles for aerodynamic gain (more on this to come) and weight loss.
This has seen the bottom bracket area shrink compared to the V4Rs, a contributing factor in the switch to the BSA standard.
A complete frameset ‘kit’ (which includes the derailleur hanger) weighs 1,027g – 146g less than the V4Rs in Colnago’s size 485, which is roughly equivalent to a size 52cm or small for many other brands.
Aero wins… again
The junction of the head tube, seat tube and seatstays has been tidied up, with a newly reprofiled seat tube and seatpost. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
When Colnago unveiled the Y1Rs aero bike, it effectively affirmed the generally held consensus that aerodynamics are the biggest influence on rider speed – whether you’re Tadej Pogačar or not.
Perhaps expectedly, the V5Rs has seen a major aerodynamic overhaul, using the same CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model, 3D-printing prototyping and wind tunnel pressure mapping techniques developed for the Y1Rs.
This has yielded a narrower head tube with a downsized 1-1/8in upper bearing and thinner fork blades, plus a thinner and deeper profile for the seat tube and seatpost. This remains proprietary, but an evolution of the old D-shape seatpost.
The head tube has been slimmed down for aerodynamic gain. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
The head tube’s lower bearing remains at 1-1/4in, retaining the use of CeramicSpeed’s SLT (Solid Lubrication Technology).
Colnago claims the frontal area of the bike has been reduced by 13% and that “the aerodynamic performance of the V5Rs is in line with many WorldTour aero bikes”.
Exactly which bikes Colnago is referring to isn’t clear, just as when the brand claimed the Y1Rs was the most efficient bike in the pro peloton.
All bikes use the Colnago CC.01 one-piece cockpit. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
With a mannequin mounted to the V5Rs, the bike-rider system produces a WAD (wind averaged drag) of 490W at 50kph, according to Colnago (mannequin and bike sizes aren’t declared). This compares to 499W for the V4Rs, while the Y1Rs scored 474W in the same test.
A side benefit of the narrowed profile is said to be increased steering reactivity and control on descents, a desirable outcome given Pogačar’s tendency to attack over summits and carry on.
However, the V5Rs is now firmly considered an all-rounder race bike by Colnago, as opposed to the V4Rs’ less aero-optimised approach.
Sharpened handling?
Colnago claims it has been able to slim down the frame without sacrificing stiffness or compliance. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
Fumagalli says the V4Rs’ handling was one of its most popular features, but that the construction and aerodynamic changes to the frameset haven’t resulted in a loss of stiffness.
Colnago refers to ‘Real Riding Stiffness’ when it describes frame rigidity, prioritising efficiency when sprinting and climbing seated – both significant strengths of its star rider.
The geometry has been tweaked, though, in an attempt to make the V5Rs “slightly more aggressive and efficient while better accommodating modern riding positions”.
The proprietary seatpost is available in two models, but customers will have to pay to swap to this inline model. 15mm setback is fitted as standard. Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
This starts the introduction of a second fork for the smaller four sizes, with a 47mm rake, helping to keep the handling consistent for those framesets. The three larger frame sizes feature a fork with a 43mm rake.
The head tube and seat tube angles have also been steepened slightly, which promotes a more ‘forward-oriented’ position. It’s worth remembering that Pogačar is notable for this, while the bike is available with a standard 15mm-setback or inline seatpost.
Customers need to purchase the inline seatpost should they require one, but have a free choice of handlebar width (37, 39, 41 and 43cm measured from centre-to-centre) and crank lengths offered by the relevant groupset brand.
Colnago V5Rs specifications and prices
This Shimano Ultegra Di2 R8100s-spec build is the second-cheapest, at £8,999.99 ($11,000 / €10,800). Ashley Quinlan / Our Media
The bike is available in seven complete builds and as a frame kit, which includes the frame, fork, headset, CC.01 handlebar (in Europe and the UK only), seatpost and bottle cages. In the US, the CC.01 cockpit is a $900 add-on.
All bikes are available in Europe, with specific builds available in the US and UK.
Both Red Matter games are receiving physical editions for PlayStation VR2 from Limited Run Games.
Previously only available digitally on PS5, Limited Run Games and developer Vertical Robot announced physical editions for both Red Matter and Red Matter 2 will be available for pre-order soon. No limits to how many copies you can pre-order are in place, and both games will keep this ordering window open until May 25.
The award-winning sequel to the iconic VR adventure Red Matter is coming soon to LRG! Red Matter 2 packs another immersive storyline into this game as you reenter dystopian deep space. You’ll return as Sasha, chasing a ghost from your past and uncovering a dark conspiracy, are… pic.twitter.com/iGWFQI4Bqw
Going by the store pages, both physical versions do not appear to include any extras beyond the complete game on a disc; there are no special editions, as we sometimes see with Limited Run Games. Red Matter will retail for $34.99, while Red Matter 2 will cost $39.99, and they’re estimated to ship in late September.
With this, the Red Matter series joins an increasing list of VR titles from the limited print boutique publisher. Previous physical PlayStation VR2 releases that are no longer available include Kayak VR: Mirage, C-Smash VRS and a Pixel Ripped double pack, while other publishers like Skydance Games and Perp Games continue releasing physical editions on PS5.
We praised both games in our previous reviews when they initially launched. Back in 2018, we considered Red Matter to be a “textbook example of how to do VR adventure games right” with great immersion and design. Four years later, we highlighted Red Matter 2 for its “stunning visuals” while praising the sci-fi sequel, later returning to check out the PS VR2 release.
Limited Run Games is releasing physical editions of Doom and Doom II, including a $666 “Will it Run Edition” that features a literal game box capable of playing Doom. Engadget reports: It costs $666, which is a nod to the devilish source material, and is being kept to a limited run of 666 copies. It comes with the aforementioned screen-enabled game box that runs Doom, but that’s just the beginning. The combo pack ships with the soundtrack on cassette, a certificate of authenticity and a trading card park with five cards.
It comes with a couple of toys based on one of the franchise’s most iconic enemies. There’s a detailed three-inch Cacodemon that connects to a five-inch base, which looks pretty nifty. There’s a smaller handheld Cacodemon that, you’ll never guess, also runs Doom. This edition is available for Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The PC version, however, ships with a download code and not physical copies of both games. Preorders start on April 18 and end on May 18, with a release sometime after that.
The makers of the Fedora-based Ultramarine Linux distribution released today the ISO images of the Ultramarine 41 release, which is built on top of Fedora Linux 41 and was already available for existing users.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Fears that smartphones, tablets and other devices could drive dementia in later life have been challenged by research that found lower rates of cognitive decline in older people who used the technology. An analysis of published studies that looked at technology use and mental skills in more than 400,000 older adults found that over-50s who routinely used digital devices had lower rates of cognitive decline than those who used them less. It is unclear whether the technology staves off mental decline, or whether people with better cognitive skills simply use them more, but the scientists say the findings question the claim that screen time drives what has been called “digital dementia”.
“For the first generation that was exposed to digital tools, their use is associated with better cognitive functioning,” said Dr Jared Benge, a clinical neuropsychologist in UT Health Austin’s Comprehensive Memory Center. “This is a more hopeful message than one might expect given concerns about brain rot, brain drain, and digital dementia.” Benge and his colleague Dr Michael Scullin, a cognitive neuroscientist at Baylor University in Texas, analysed 57 published studies that examined the use of digital technology in 411,430 adults around the world. The average age was 69 years old and all had a cognitive test or diagnosis. The scientists found no evidence for the digital dementia hypothesis, which suggests that a lifetime of using digital technology drives mental decline. Rather, they found that using a computer, smartphone, the internet or some combination of these was associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment. The details have been published in Nature Human Behaviour. “Using digital devices in the way that we use televisions — passive and sedentary, both physically and mentally — is not likely to be beneficial,” said Scullin. “But, our computers and smartphones also can be mentally stimulating, afford social connections, and provide compensation for cognitive abilities that are declining with ageing. These latter types of uses have long been regarded as beneficial for cognitive ageing.”
American Airlines announced today that it will add free in-flight Wi-Fi starting in 2026. However, Axios notes you’ll need to be an AAdvantage member (American’s loyalty program) to access it. From the report: American is partnering with AT&T to introduce free WiFi in January. It will be available on about 90% of the airlines’ fleet, which will be planes equipped with Viasat and Intelsat high-speed satellite connectivity, per a press release. More than 500 of the airlines regional planes are expected to have high-speed WiFi capabilities by the end of the year.
Google is rolling out Veo 2 video generation in the Gemini app for Advanced subscribers, allowing users to create eight-second, 720p cinematic-style videos from text prompts. 9to5Google reports: Announced at the end of last year, Veo 2 touts “fluid character movement, lifelike scenes, and finer visual details across diverse subjects and styles,” as well as “cinematic realism,” thanks to an understanding of real-world physics and human motion. In Gemini, Veo 2 can create eight-second video clips at 720p resolution. Specifically, you’ll get an MP4 download in a 16:9 landscape format. There’s also the ability to share via a g.co/gemini/share/ link. To enter your prompt, select Veo 2 from the model dropdown on the web and mobile apps. Just describe the scene you want to create: “The more detailed your description, the more control you have over the final video.” It takes 1-2 minutes for the clip to generate. […]
On the safety front, each frame features a SynthID digital watermark. Only available to Gemini Advanced subscribers ($19.99 per month), there is a “monthly limit” on how many videos you can generate, with Google notifying users when they’re close. It is rolling out globally — in all languages supported by Gemini — starting today and will be fully available in the coming weeks.
The GNOME Help Browser “Yelp” for viewing HTML / man page / DocBook and other documentation formats from the GNOME desktop is subject to a yet-to-be-patched-upstream security vulnerability that is now public and can allow for arbitrary file reads and could be funneled through your web browser…
In the first filesystem-track session at the 2025 Linux Storage,
Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit (LSFMM+BPF), virtual
filesystem (VFS) layer co-maintainer Christian Brauner had a few different
topics he wanted to talk about. Issues on the agenda
included iterating through anonymous mount namespaces, a needed feature
for ID-mapped mounts, the perennial unprivileged mounts topic, potentially
using hazard pointers for file reference counting, and Rust bindings. He
did not expect to get through all of them in the 30 minutes allotted, but
the session did move along pretty quickly to at least
introduce them to the assembled filesystem developers.
Uri Herrera from the Nitrux Project unveiled today NX AppHub, a new system for managing and building applications for the Debian-based, systemd-free, and immutable Nitrux Linux distribution.
Nvidia is launching the RTX 5060 Ti this week, and will launch the RTX 5060 in May.
These budget graphics cards are significantly less powerful than the RTX 5070 that Nvidia launched earlier this year, but are also up to $150 less expensive and use less electricity.
CUDA Cores
VRAM
Bus Width
TDP
MSRP
RTX 5060
3840
8GB GDDR7
128-bit
145W
$300
RTX 5060 Ti
4608
8GB/16GB GDDR7
128-bit
180W
$380/$430
RTX 5070
6144
12GB GDDR7
192-bit
250W
$550
RTX 5060 will be $300, and has 8GB of VRAM. RTX 5060 Ti is offered in two variants, $380 with 8GB of VRAM or $430 with 16GB of VRAM.
Like the rest of the RTX 50-series family, RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti use Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture and feature GDDR7 VRAM, which offers 33% faster memory bandwidth compared to GDDR6X. They also support DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, but this feature isn’t suitable for VR.
For standalone headsets accessing PC VR via compressed streaming, the RTX 50 series added support for 4:2:2 color encoding. If future headsets support this, it would offer a more vibrant image compared to the 4:2:0 color compression of today’s VR streaming.
For $300, the RTX 5060 should offer similar performance to 2018’s RTX 2080, a card that was more than double the price, and which Half-Life: Alyx was designed to run very well on.
If you want to play racing or flight simulators in VR, if you want to push the graphics of cross-platform VR titles, or if you want to drive a very high resolution headset, we strongly recommend picking up one of Nvidia’s higher-end cards, such as the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090.
But if you’re on a very strict budget, and you just want to play titles like Half-Life: Alyx and Skyrim VR on your Quest or PlayStation VR2, the RTX 5060 family might be an affordable option to make the jump into PC VR.
RTX 5060 launches in May, while RTX 5060 Ti launches tomorrow.
A Canadian math prodigy is accused of stealing over $65 million through complex exploits on decentralized finance platforms and is currently a fugitive from U.S. authorities. Despite facing criminal charges for fraud and money laundering, he has evaded capture by moving internationally, embracing the controversial “Code is Law” philosophy, and maintaining that his actions were legal under the platforms’ open-source rules. The Globe and Mail reports: Andean Medjedovic was 18 years old when he made a decision that would irrevocably alter the course of his life. In the fall of 2021, shortly after completing a master’s degree at the University of Waterloo, the math prodigy and cryptocurrency trader from Hamilton had conducted a complex series of transactions designed to exploit a vulnerability in the code of a decentralized finance platform. The maneuver had allegedly allowed him to siphon approximately $16.5-million in digital tokens out of two liquidity pools operated by the platform, Indexed Finance, according to a U.S. court document.
Indexed Finance’s leaders traced the attack back to Mr. Medjedovic, and made him an offer: Return 90 per cent of the funds, keep the rest as a so-called “bug bounty” — a reward for having identified an error in the code — and all would be forgiven. Mr. Medjedovic would then be free to launch his career as a white hat, or ethical, hacker. Mr. Medjedovic didn’t take the deal. His social media posts hinted, without overtly stating, that he believed that because he had operated within the confines of the code, he was entitled to the funds — a controversial philosophy in the world of decentralized finance known as “Code is Law.” But instead of testing that argument in court, Mr. Medjedovic went into hiding. By the time authorities arrived on a quiet residential street in Hamilton to search his parents’ townhouse less than two months later, Mr. Medjedovic had moved out, taking his electronic devices with him.
Then, roughly two years later, he struck again, netting an even larger sum — approximately $48.4-million — by conducting a similar exploit on another decentralized finance platform, U.S. authorities allege. Mr. Medjedovic, now 22, faces five criminal charges — including wire fraud, attempted extortion and money laundering — according to a U.S. federal court document that was unsealed earlier this year. If convicted, he could be facing decades in prison. First, authorities will have to find him.
