Author: Geek Planet

Last week, federal lawmakers proposed changes to the 2018 Farm Bill that would effectively ban most hemp-derived THC products in a year.  The proposed ban was included in the bill Congress passed to end the government shutdown. The Farm Bill had removed hemp as a controlled substance under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Since the bill’s passing, federal law has allowed for hemp that contains less than 0.3% of THC to be infused into products like cocktails and gummies, ushering in an explosion of new businesses. But now, brands across the category are preparing for potential shifts in their business models. In…

Grok’s Deepfake Capacities Modified Following Pushback Source link

Google has quietly taken a major step toward beefing up browser-level privacy. A new entry in the Chrome Platform Status shows that Google and the Chromium project are finally getting ready to support Global Privacy Control (GPC). This is a big deal because it’s a legally recognized signal that tells websites – automatically and right from your browser – to stop selling or sharing your personal data. A privacy signal with legal weight The idea behind Global Privacy Control is to let you make one single privacy choice that sticks. Once you turn it on, your browser sends a “hush”…

This article, Lawsuit in Canada to Force Catholics to Permit Euthanasia| National Review is republished from National Review with the permission of the author. Freedom of religion is on the ropes in increasingly authoritarian Canada — despite a specific charter guarantee of “freedom of religion and conscience.” Indeed, an Ontario court ruled previously that doctors can be coerced under threat of professional discipline to perform lethal jabs or abortions against their religious beliefs and conscience objections. Why? The court ruled that the unenumerated right of patients to receive any legal procedure paid for by the government superseded the specific charter protection. If doctors don’t want…

Google DeepMind’s impressive video generation tool Veo just picked up an update, bringing a long-awaited feature to users. The tool now supports native vertical video output, making it ideal for creating content for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. In its announcement, Google notes that Veo now lets users generate videos in a 9:16 aspect ratio, eliminating the need to crop or reframe clips for vertical-first platforms. To create portrait videos, users only need to upload a vertical image and Veo will maintain the aspect ratio and orientation. The update also brings improvements to the tool’s Ingredients to Video capabilities,…

As the data center faces unprecedented demand and a critical shortage of skilled technicians, energy tech firm Schneider Electric has launched an initiative to recruit and train 400 U.S. military veterans for customer-facing service roles supporting data centers, power systems and critical facilities. The timing couldn’t be more opportune. Data center demand is projected to grow 33% annually by 2030, while the industry struggles to find qualified candidates for increasingly complex systems. Veterans already comprise 7.2% of Schneider’s U.S. workforce, exceeding the federal benchmark of 5.1%. The company was recently named a 2025 Gold Military Friendly Employer. Those who may…

One of my favorite books of all time is the Book of Lists. It contained weird and interesting lists. Here is a list of a dozen of these lists, i.e. a list of lists:    10 Famous Insomniacs 10 Really Unusual Medical Conditions 9 Cats Who Traveled Long Distances to Return Home 15 Famous People Who Worked in Bed 11 Most Unusual Objects Sold on eBay 10 Celebrated People Who Read Their Own Obituaries 16 Famous Events That Happened in the Bathtub The World’s Greatest Libel Suits People Suspected of Being Jack the Ripper Worst Places to Hitchhike Dr. Demento’s…

Generative AI, or AI for short, is the most controversial technology of the 21st century. Some believe it will lead to rapid increases in productivity, others say the opposite, believing it represents an existential risk to humanity, while still others believe it is the biggest financial bubble of all time (one estimate is $35 trillion). I belong to the third category and have written many articles and a book (Unicorns, Hype and Bubbles) about this claim, often with Gary Smith. I also admit that I was mystified by why more people don’t agree with me until I read Steven Pinker’s…

If you’re shopping for a lightweight “daily driver” laptop and you don’t want to spend midrange money, Best Buy has the ASUS Vivobook 14 (Copilot+ PC) down to $349.99. That’s $400 off (about 53%) for a modern Windows laptop with Snapdragon X, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD, which is a lot of hardware for this price tier. What you’re getting This model pairs a 14-inch display with a taller 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) resolution in an IPS panel with 300 nits brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. On the portability side, the product specs call out 3.28 lb weight…

AI chatbots have upended how people search online, creating a zero-click environment and reducing traffic to traditional search results. Publishers have taken the brunt of it, seeing dips in traffic to news coverage. Marketers too, however, are feeling the effects of lower site traffic, creating less first-party data and fewer opportunities to retarget shoppers, according to six agency execs.Some media agencies have already started to scrutinize paid search adjustments amid the zero-click signal confusion even as Google remains the go-to search engine with more than half of U.S. consumers reportedly preferring to use it over AI platforms, according to eMarketer.…