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New South Wales has banned Australians from taking ebikes on trains

[...] Those who own converted e-bikes are now banned from using certain public transport services in New South Wales.

It comes as the state government seeks to crack down on battery-related fires linked to e-mobility devices.

The new rule came into effect on November 1.

Converted e-bikes, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, are regular pedal bicycles that have been retrofitted with an electric motor and battery.

[...] According to Transport for NSW, converted e-bikes have a “higher risk of electrical failure and fire risk to DIY installations, inadequate wiring and use of second-hand batteries and incompatible or poor-quality components.”

Commercially manufactured e-bikes and shared e-bikes will still be permitted.

Riders caught bringing a banned e-bike on board face a $400 on-the-spot fine, with a maximum penalty of $1,110.

NSW’s e-bike ban could spread nationwide after a spate of similar e-bike battery fire incidents in other states have affected public transport services in recent years.

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The Australian Wine Industry has had enough of counterfeits which are weighing in at an estimated cost of $70 billion. Bottle caps with NFC and an application to read the value to verify that the bottle is authentic.

Australian wines have long been sought after on international shelves, renowned for their bold flavours and global appeal.

But recent reports of counterfeit Australian wines circulating overseas are sparking new fears that one of our nation’s most valuable exports is under threat – with a growing underground market of fake bottles waiting to cash in.

It’s estimated that counterfeit wine affects up to 20 per cent of the global $350 billion wine industry, ripping off up to $70 billion a year.

And the trade is becoming more sophisticated than just crude label forgery, replicating bottles and even serial numbers with extreme accuracy.

Now, the industry is turning to technology to fight back through the use of “smart” bottle tops.

Perth company Cellr has developed a product to combat the fake wine market, with technology built directly into bottles.

The caps include Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips that can be scanned using an accompanying app.

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gawdonblue writes:

This story, from Australia's national broadcaster, details how scientists were keen to use old lead from a ship that sunk in Roman times to shield modern instruments from stray radiation.

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hubie writes:

Fans of kopi luwak claim the coffee has a unique aroma and taste. A new chemical analysis backs them up:

In 2007's The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson's billionaire magnate is a fan of a luxury coffee called kopi luwak, only to be informed that the beans first pass through the digestive tracts of civets and are harvested from their feces prior to roasting. The implication is that the billionaire just liked drinking gimmicky expensive coffee without realizing its less-than-luxurious origins. It's one of the most expensive coffees in the world, ranging from $45 per pound to $590 per pound, depending on whether the beans are farmed or collected in the wild.

Whether kopi luwak is worth that hefty price tag depends on who you ask. A Washington Post food critic once compared the beverage to stale Folgers, memorably describing the flavor as "petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water." Yet kopi luwak has many genuine fans who claim the coffee has a unique aroma and taste. Based on a new chemical analysis, they might have a point, according to a paper published in Scientific Reports.

Technically, kopi luwak is a method of processing, not a specific coffee bean variety. Asian palm civets hang around coffee plantations because they love to feast on ripened coffee berries; the berries constitute most of their diet, along with various seeds. The consumed berries undergo fermentation as they pass through the animal's intestines, and the civets digest the pulp and excrete the beans. Coffee farmers then collect the scat to recover the excreted beans and process and roast them to produce kopi luwak.

There have been numerous scientific studies over the last 15–20 years aimed at identifying any key differences between civet coffee and regular varieties, with mixed results. Some have noted differences in volatile compounds, protein, sugar, mineral concentrations, and caffeine levels, as well as lower acidity and bitterness, and higher levels of acetic acid and lipids.

It's not just about aromas and flavors, either. Because kopi luwak is so pricey, there is a thriving counterfeit trade, so achieving a better understanding of its specific chemistry helps detect fake products. And given the increased concern over intensive farming, where civets are kept in captivity and force-fed coffee berries, that deeper understanding could lead to a viable artificial fermentation process.

[...] The civet beans had higher fat levels, particularly those compounds known to influence aroma and flavor, such as caprylic acid and methyl esters—contributing to kopi luwak's distinctive aroma and flavor—but lower levels of caffeine, protein, and acidity, which would reduce the bitterness. The lower acidity is likely due to the coffee berries being naturally fermented in the civets' digestive tracts, and there is more to learn about the role the gut microbiome plays in all of this. There were also several volatile organic compounds, common to standard coffee, that were extremely low or absent entirely in the civet samples.

In short, the comparative analysis "further supports the notion that civet coffee is chemically different from conventionally produced coffee of similar types, mainly due to fermentation," the authors concluded. They recommend further research using roasted samples, along with studying other coffee varieties, samples from a more diverse selection of farms, and the influence of certain ecological conditions, such as canopy cover and the presence of wild trees.

Journal Reference: Mitra, R., Jose, T., Abhiram Krishnan, P. et al. Civet Robusta and natural Robusta coffee are different on key fatty acid methyl esters and total fat. [OPEN] Sci Rep 15, 36281 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-21545-x

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PiMuNu writes:

I thought this was an interesting angle on the Air India crash back in June - questioning whether the crash of the Boeing 787 might be a technical fault, rather than pilot error as had been presumed previously by media reporting:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33pzypkkdzo

"""
Nearly five months after a plane crash in India which killed 260 people, the investigation has become mired in controversy – with the country's Supreme Court the latest to weigh in. An interim report was released in July, but critics argue it unfairly focused on the actions of the pilots, diverting attention away from a possible fault with the aircraft. On Friday, a judge in India's Supreme Court insisted that nobody could blame the aircraft's captain. His comments came a week after the airline's boss insisted there was no problem with the aircraft.

Because the accident happened in India, the investigation is being led by the country's Air Accident investigation Bureau (AAIB). However, because the aircraft and its engines were designed and built in America, US officials are also taking part.

Indian aviation safety consultant Capt. Mohan Ranganathan strongly implied that pilot suicide could have caused the accident, in an interview with the country's NDTV channel. Capt. Amit Singh, founder of the Safety Matters Foundation, has produced a report which claims the available evidence "strongly supports the theory of an electrical disturbance as the primary cause of the engine shutdown" that led to the disaster.
"""

This article:
https://safetymatters.co.in/flight-ai171-analysing-electrical-system-anomalies/
has more details on the electrical faults

"""
A primary theory under examination attributes this shutdown to an electrical disturbance... The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) captured ... transitions of the fuel cutoff switches, reflecting the commanded state as interpreted by the aircraft's digital systems, rather than direct physical manipulation by the crew...

The aft Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR) was located in the tail section of the aircraft, specifically at STA 1847, on the rooftop of Building A. This unit sustained significant "impact and thermal damages to the housing," with investigators noting that "wires were protruding from the housing and the connectors were burnt"... The absence of soot on the aft EAFR casing despite sooted surroundings , indicates that a clean-burning likely caused the thermal damage, high-heat source such as an electrical fault or localized metallic combustion, rather than a widespread fuel-fed fire.
"""

See also:
https://safetymatters.co.in/when-words-create-blame-reading-the-ai171-preliminary-report-through-the-lens-of-language/

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canopic jug writes:

In print since 1818, and not to be confused with The Old Farmers' Almanac which started in 1792, The Farmers' Almanac is shutting down and closing up shop. Their web site will be up through December 2025 and the 2026 Farmers' Almanac will be their last edition:

Dear Friends,

It is with a great appreciation and heartfelt emotions that we write to share some sad news. After more than 200 years of sharing a unique blend of weather, wit and wisdom, we’ve made the very difficult decision to write the final chapter of this historical publication. The 2026 Farmers' Almanac will be our last edition.

Via Boing Boing, which adds:

WMTW notes,"The Farmers' Almanac is different from The Old Farmer's Almanac, the latter of which is based in Dublin, New Hampshire, and has been published continuously since 1792." The Internet Archive has scans of both titles, as well as others of a similar nature.

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upstart writes:

Microsoft AI Chief Warns Pursuing Machine Consciousness Is a Gigantic Waste of Time:

Head of Microsoft's AI division Mustafa Suleyman thinks that AI developers and researchers should stop trying to build conscious AI.

"I don't think that is work that people should be doing," Suleyman told CNBC in an interview last week.

Suleyman thinks that while AI can definitely get smart enough to reach some form of superintelligence, it is incapable of developing the human emotional experience that is necessary to reach consciousness. At the end of the day, any "emotional" experience that AI seems to experience is just a simulation, he says.

"Our physical experience of pain is something that makes us very sad and feel terrible, but the AI doesn't feel sad when it experiences 'pain,'" Suleyman told CNBC. "It's really just creating the perception, the seeming narrative of experience and of itself and of consciousness, but that is not what it's actually experiencing."

"It would be absurd to pursue research that investigates that question, because they're not [conscious] and they can't be," Suleyman said.

Consciousness is a tricky thing to explain. There are multiple scientific theories that try to describe what consciousness could be. According to one such theory, posited by famous philosopher John Searle [PDF] who died last month, consciousness is a purely biological phenomenon that cannot be truly replicated by a computer. Many AI researchers, computer scientists and neuroscientists also subscribe to this belief.

Even if this theory turns out to be the truth, that doesn't keep users from attributing consciousness to computers.

"Unfortunately, because the remarkable linguistic abilities of LLMs are increasingly capable of misleading people, people may attribute imaginary qualities to LLMs," Polish researchers Andrzej Porebski and Yakub Figura wrote in a study published last week, titled "There is no such thing as conscious artificial intelligence."

In an essay published on his blog in August, Suleyman warned against "seemingly conscious AI."

"The arrival of Seemingly Conscious AI is inevitable and unwelcome. Instead, we need a vision for AI that can fulfill its potential as a helpful companion without falling prey to its illusions," Suleyman wrote.

He argues that AI cannot be conscious and the illusion it gives of consciousness could trigger interactions that are "rich in feeling and experience," a phenomenon that has been dubbed as "AI psychosis" in the cultural lexicon.

There have been numerous high-profile incidents in the past year of AI-obsessions that drive users to fatal delusions, manic episodes and even suicide.

With limited guardrails in place to protect vulnerable users, people are wholeheartedly believing that the AI chatbots they interact with almost every day are having a real, conscious experience. This has led people to "fall in love" with their chatbots, sometimes with fatal consequences like when a 14-year old shot himself to "come home" to Character.AI's personalized chatbot or when a cognitively-impaired man died while trying to get to New York to meet Meta's chatbot in person.

"Just as we should produce AI that prioritizes engagement with humans and real-world interactions in our physical and human world, we should build AI that only ever presents itself as an AI, that maximizes utility while minimizing markers of consciousness," Suleyman wrote in the blog post. "We must build AI for people, not to be a digital person."

But because the nature of consciousness is still contested, some researchers are growing worried that the technological advancements in AI might outpace our understanding of how consciousness works.

"If we become able to create consciousness – even accidentally – it would raise immense ethical challenges and even existential risk," Belgian scientist Axel Cleeremans said last week, announcing a paper he co-wrote calling for consciousness research to become a scientific priority.

Suleyman himself has been vocal about developing "humanist superintelligence" rather than god-like AI, even though he believes that superintelligence won't materialize any time within the next decade.

"i just am more more fixated on 'how is this actually useful for us as a species?' Like that should be the task of technology," Suleyman told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.

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fliptop writes:

Farley is questioning their increasing control over cars, asking 'Do you want the Apple brand to start the car?'

At the center of the conflict between Big Tech and Big Auto is CarPlay Ultra, the newest version of the popular CarPlay system that can mirror a user's iPhone interface on a screen within a vehicle. Announced earlier this year, CarPlay Ultra is going a step further by displaying car functions like fuel level and speed. It also lets drivers control the air conditioning, radio, and driving modes, all from the same screen. Aston Martin is the only automaker that has fully integrated CarPlay Ultra into its vehicles.

While Ford is committed to Apple, CEO Farley said: "We don't like the execution of Ultra in round one.

"I've talked to Tim [Cook] many times about this. Ford does not have the right, in our opinion, to disrupt someone's digital life when they get in their car," Farley told The Verge in an interview.

[...] "How far do you want the Apple brand to go? Do you want the Apple brand to start the car? Do you want the Apple brand to limit the speed? Do you want the Apple brand to limit access?" asked Farley.

[...] Carmakers are in a tough spot as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are considered must-haves for many new car buyers, according to preliminary data from research firm AutoPacific. A McKinsey report from 2023 found that 85% of car owners who had CarPlay or a similar system preferred it over the carmaker's operating system.

Related:

• How I Hacked My Car
• The Screens in Cars are Becoming a Problem

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upstart writes:

Nvidia will help build 7 AI supercomputers for DoE:

The US Department of Energy is partnering with Nvidia and Oracle to build seven new AI supercomputers to accelerate scientific research and develop agentic AI for discovery. Two of these systems, located at Argonne National Laboratory, will together form the DOE's largest AI supercomputing infrastructure.

Speaking at his company's annual GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a partnership with Oracle and Illinois-based Argonne to build the DoE's largest-ever AI supercomputer in the form of Solstice, a 100,000 Blackwell GPU system. When interconnected with another new system Nvidia and Oracle are building at Argonne, the 10,000 Blackwell GPU-strong Equinox, the interconnected supercomputers will have a combined 2,200 exaFLOPs of AI compute performance.

"Together with Oracle, we're building the Department of Energy's largest supercomputer that will serve as America's engine for discovery, giving researchers access to the most advanced AI infrastructure to drive progress across fields ranging from healthcare research to materials science," Huang said of the duo's plans at Argonne.

Solstice and Equinox won't just be serving up more compute power for scientific experiments at Argonne, though; they're also going to be part of the lab's drive "to develop agentic scientists," Nvidia noted. While not providing much in the way of details as to what that means for scientific research at the lab, Nvidia noted that the goal of introducing agentic AI to DoE scientific research was focused on "boosting R&D productivity and accelerating discovery enabled by public research dollars within a decade."

Equinox is expected to come online next year, but neither Nvidia nor the DoE gave a timeline for the giant Solstice system's arrival on the AI supercomputing scene.

fliptop writes:

Ten years ago the discussion was about STEM and answering the question, "Are there flaws in the American education system, both at the K-12 level and in college, that lead us to be very dependent on foreign STEM graduates?"

Now that technology has started cannibalizing entry-level jobs, GenZ is starting to reach for a toolbelt instead of a mouse:

When I graduated college, my Dad gave me the best piece of life advice I've ever received. He told me to go get a skill beyond what was taught as part of my degree, because one day my education would fail me, and when it did, I would have something to fall back on.

So, I became a bartender for a while. I'm no longer tending bar, but I'm still grateful for the skill set — and the lesson.

Millennials were taught the path to success and financial stability ran through a college campus. I followed the path — chasing internships, earning good grades and securing jobs where I could use my bachelor's degree. The corner office in the C-Suite was the end goal. But things have changed.

[...] Sometimes called the "toolbelt generation," Generation Z is picking up tools and looking to trade careers. According to Resume Builder, 42% of Gen Zers are either pursuing or working in blue collar or skilled trade jobs — including 37% who already have college degrees.

[...] "We've been telling kids for 15 years to code. 'Learn to code!' we said. Yeah, well, AI's coming for the coders. They're not coming for the welders. They're not coming for the plumbers. They're not coming for the steamfitters or the pipe fitters or the HVACs. They're not coming for the electricians."

[...] He also noted that younger workers view the trades as "legitimate occupational choices, not fallback options." But he cautioned against romanticizing the trend. "While skilled trades are vital," he said, "college education still correlates with higher median earnings and broader well-being."

[...] Since 2020, the National Student Clearinghouse has found an increase of nearly 16% of students enrolling in vocational focused community colleges.

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canopic jug writes:

In regards to open access, the London School of Economics and Political Science has an article asking the question, does academia need a wake up call on Wikibooks? The various Wikibooks are non-fiction works and cover a range of topics. They are all licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License which fits well within the Open Access movement in general.

Wikibooks receives nearly half a billion page views annually, but has hardly featured in academic debates on open access. Caroline Ball argues that by working with the platform to create open educational resources academics have much to gain.

Journal articles and monographs have dominated debates around open access. The infrastructure, campaigns, and funding models central to OA advocacy tend to revolve around these traditional formats. But in doing so, are we overlooking a platform that has been quietly producing free, editable, collaboratively written textbooks for over two decades?

I'm talking about Wikibooks: the Wikimedia project launched in 2003 to create and share open educational resources in the form of textbooks and instructional manuals. Like Wikipedia, Wikibooks is built by volunteers around the world. All content is freely licensed (CC BY-SA) and editable by anyone. It is, effectively, an OA book publishing platform hiding in plain sight.

The Wikibooks project is maintained under the parent organization the Wikimedia Foundation, the same parent as for Wikipedia.

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hubie writes:

OpenAI asks U.S. for loan guarantees to fund $1 trillion AI expansion:

OpenAI is seeking U.S. government support to help finance what could become one of the largest infrastructure buildouts in corporate history — exceeding $1 trillion. Speaking at a Wall Street Journal business conference, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the company is exploring federal loan guarantees to attract broader funding for its AI computing expansion, describing a potential "ecosystem of banks, private equity, maybe even governmental" participants.

Friar said government backing would significantly lower borrowing costs and broaden OpenAI's access to credit markets, since federal guarantees would protect lenders from losses if the company defaulted. The proposal is highly unusual for a Silicon Valley technology firm, effectively positioning OpenAI alongside sectors such as energy and infrastructure that traditionally rely on state support.

The company's request comes amid a wave of capital-intensive commitments, including a $300 billion deal with Oracle and a $500 billion "Stargate" data center venture with Oracle and SoftBank. Despite projecting revenues in the tens of billions this year, OpenAI's income remains far below the enormous outlays required to sustain its AI operations.

Friar dismissed speculation that OpenAI might soon go public, saying an IPO "is not on the cards right now." Instead, she emphasized that the company's focus remains on scaling its capabilities and securing the financing needed to underpin its long-term ambitions.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

FuguIta is a Live System based on OpenBSD.

It inherits almost all of the features of OpenBSD.

It can be booted and used directly from DVD or USB media. Since it does not affect the internal storage, it is ideal for trying out or testing OpenBSD.

The operating environment can be saved to storage and reloaded at the next boot, enabling persistent use.

It also provides a variety of original tools such as desktop environment installation, live update, and USB media management (saving environments, remastering, etc.).

FuguIta leverages the simple and robust design philosophy of OpenBSD to provide a world that can be used for everyday purposes as well as applied to a wide range of scenarios, from desktop environments to network appliances.

It aims to respect the user's freedom to build and shape their own environment.

- Screenshots

Previously:

FuguIta @ SN: FuguIta: OpenBSD Live CD - Celebrates Their 20th Anniversary!
FuguIta: OpenBSD Live CD - Desktop Environment Demo Version with XFCE v.4.20.0

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/04/dhs_wants_to_collect_biometric_data/

If you're filing an immigration form - or helping someone who is - the Feds may soon want to look in your eyes, swab your cheek, and scan your face. The US Department of Homeland Security wants to greatly expand biometric data collection for immigration applications, covering immigrants and even some US citizens tied to those cases.

DHS, through its component agency US Citizenship and Immigration Services, on Monday proposed a sweeping expansion of the agency's collection of biometric data. While ostensibly about verifying identities and preventing fraud in immigration benefit applications, the proposed rule goes much further than simply ensuring applicants are who they claim to be.

First off, the rule proposes expanding when DHS can collect biometric data from immigration benefit applicants, as "submission of biometrics is currently only mandatory for certain benefit requests and enforcement actions." DHS wants to change that, including by requiring practically everyone an immigrant is associated with to submit their biometric data.

"DHS proposes in this rule that any applicant, petitioner, sponsor, supporter, derivative, dependent, beneficiary, or individual filing or associated with a benefit request or other request or collection of information, including U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and lawful permanent residents, and without regard to age, must submit biometrics unless DHS otherwise exempts the requirement," the rule proposal said.

DHS also wants to require the collection of biometric data from "any alien apprehended, arrested or encountered by DHS."

It's not explicitly stated in the rule proposal why US citizens associated with immigrants who are applying for benefits would have to have their biometric data collected. DHS didn't answer questions to that end, though the rule stated that US citizens would also be required to submit biometric data "when they submit a family-based visa petition."

hubie writes:

Study concludes cybersecurity training doesn't work:

It was a big sample group. The researchers examined nearly 20,000 employees at UC San Diego Health. People who got cybersecurity training were compared to those who got none.

Some people with training were slightly less likely to click on a phishing lure than the untrained. But some trained people were more likely to click.

"And we found that there was no relation to time and your cybersecurity annual training. And so that means even if you had just recently taken it, you are just as likely to click as someone who had taken it 8, 10, 12 months ago," said Ariana Mirian, one of the co-authors of the study done at UC San Diego.

Phishing is done to gain access to your online information including passwords, banking information or medical records.

The study found some phishing lures worked better than others. For instance, a fake message, that claimed to be from Human Resources, asked you to click on an update to your company's dress code policy. Lots of people fell for that one.

Even more people fell for a fake message asking recipients to click on an update to their company's vacation policy.

The UCSD study kept track of cumulative lure clicks over several months, and it suggested that even if you don't click on the first one you get, pretty soon one of them is likely to get you.

"So what this is showing is that each month, a new set of users is failing," Mirian said as she pointed to a graph in the study. "So you can imagine if this goes on forever, eventually most people will fail at least one phishing lure."

Mirian works for the cybersecurity company Censys, and she was completing her Ph.D. at UCSD when she co-authored the study, which was presented at the Black Hat USA convention in Las Vegas this year.

She said given how ineffective cybersecurity training is, it might be better to build more effective security into workplace computer systems.

"Should we as a security community be putting all the time and energy and money into other defenses like multifactor authentication or maybe email spam detection? Things that remove the responsibility from the end user and put it on the system itself," she said.

Because that training just doesn't seem to stick to people.

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