Author: Geek Planet

But here’s one such controversy that is actually fun: At Science News, Elie Dolgin reports on a West Coast wolf who found an unexpected way to break into a crab trap and steal the bait: Haíɫzaqv Guardians had noticed many crab traps dragged onto the beach, their netting mangled and bait missing. The wardens initially thought marine mammals might be to blame. Or maybe bears. Remote cameras not only revealed the real culprit, but also later captured similar, less conclusive glimpses of the same behavior in additional wolves. Whether this qualifies as tool use, however, remains a matter of debate.…

On Wednesday, November 19 at COSM 2025, philosopher of technology George Gilder offered an exciting prediction: “The wafer scale will have the same effect on the economy as the smartphone.” Gilder presented the Keynote Luncheon address, The New Paradigm: Life After Chips. “Chips have shaped my life and all our lives,” he told the audience. Gilder, of course, was the man who handed a microchip to then-President Ronald Reagan, accurately predicting the next technological revolution. Now, he sees the rise of the wafer scale technology  — superchips, essentially — on the horizon. While Elon Musk’s dalliance with wafer scale technology…

Agentic AI has grandiose ambitions, promising marketers ideation and execution all in the same go with little oversight. The reality, however, is that humans still have the wheel. For the better part of 2025, agentic AI has been the industry’s buzzword. It’s defined as “a situation where multiple AI agents work together to complete complex tasks, with minimal oversight or intervention from a human user,” as Digiday explains it. The minimal oversight from a human user, however, seems to be the hangup keeping marketers from embracing agentic AI’s full autonomy. “It’s not just ready to go from generation [to publication],”…

At the Daily Mail last month, Wiliam Hunter reports on a recent study of 48 near-death experiences: Some participants described seeing heavenly beings, while one even said they experienced a terrifying journey into a black hole. Others, meanwhile, described grand visions featuring religious figures and profound emotional experiences. For example, one participant told scientists: ‘There were stone stairs on the left in front of me, and Jesus was toward the top, wearing a white robe,’ while another described how ‘God appeared as a great light in the distance’. Yet some people’s visions of the afterlife were far more fantastical, featuring…

If you’re bored of the usual “glass rectangle” phones and you want something that feels genuinely different without giving up flagship-level performance, this deal is worth a look. The Nothing Phone (3) (256GB, unlocked) is down to $639.00 (was $799.00), saving you $160 at 20% off. That’s a meaningful discount on a 2025 model that’s aiming for premium specs plus personality, not just another minor refresh. What you’re getting The highlights here are big: 256GB storage, Android 15, and a Snapdragon 8s Gen4 chipset that’s positioned for fast everyday performance and longevity. You’re also getting an AMOLED display, a 5150mAh…

Meta has acquired Manus, a Singapore-based startup behind a general-purpose autonomous agent it plans to fold into its products. Meta Manus AI agents are being framed as the next step beyond chat, software that can carry work through to completion. Meta and Manus say the agent can independently handle tasks like market research, coding, and data analysis. The expectation is, you keep working where you already are, and the agent takes on more of the busywork that normally eats a day. If you already use Manus, the companies are stressing continuity. The subscription service will keep running through the current…

What should have been a celebratory year for the 28-year-old business proved to be one of its hardest. “We took a margin hit,” said Scherz. And Bela wasn’t the only one.  For Sam Piliero, CEO and founder of media agency The Moonlighters, it’s been a “whirlwind” of a year. The agency works with almost 100 brands, 80% of which are e-commerce businesses – many spending between $1 million-$10 million annually. During the choppiest period of Trump’s tariff maneuvers, Piliero estimated some clients cut back on media spending by 50% as they navigated higher costs on imported goods and the end…

This week, Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko told the country’s Energy Minister Alexei Kushnarenko that he wants to use their surplus of electricity to mine cryptocurrency like Bitcoin to accumulate a reserve. “Look at this mining. More and more people are turning to me. If it is profitable for us, let’s do it,” President Lukashenko said. “We have excess electricity. Let them make this cryptocurrency and so on.”  NEW: 🇧🇾 Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko says if Bitcoin & crypto mining is profitable, “let’s do it.” “We have excess electricity. Let them make this cryptocurrency and so on.” pic.twitter.com/rSmqUR5gdn— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine)…

A Samsung reversible flip phone patent spotted on the World Intellectual Property Organization site hints at a clamshell with no obvious “right” side when it’s shut. Based on the designs spotted by XpertPick, Samsung is exploring a reversible front and back design where either outer face could be the one you see. That’s a notable shift from today’s flip phones, which usually have a clear split between a cover display side and a plainer rear panel. This filing looks like it’s trying to make the closed phone feel consistent from both sides. It’s also worth keeping expectations grounded. This is…

Micro Softy 52:  Elon Musk Parody Asks if You Are a Genius In his early career, Elon Musk did a lot of coding. Good coders must be clever — so here’s a puzzle for our clever readers. This is not Elon Musk either/Grok. We got this one from a post on X on April 13, 2025, by Not Elon Musk. This is identified as a parody account, meaning that the post was not from Musk. Still, it’s a hard one. Readers are told that “People with the right answer are certified geniuses.” The author did not claim to have solved…