The man may be related to the girls, who all survived, the police said. An 11-year-old called 911, and officers rushed to the house in Brooklyn where the children lived.

The play, about Roald Dahl’s antisemitism, took home three awards at Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys. So did a “Fiddler on the Roof” revival and a folk rock “Benjamin Button.”

theodp writes: America's National Football League announced that beginning with the 2025 season, Sony's Hawk-Eye virtual measurement technology will assess and identify first downs after a ball spot. Sony's Hawk-Eye virtual measurement technology, which consists of six 8K cameras for optical tracking of the position of the ball, is operated from the NFL's "Art McNally GameDay Central Officiating Center" in New York and is integrated with the League's existing replay system. It will serve as an efficient alternative to the process of having a three-person chain crew walk chains onto the field and manually measure whether 10 yards have been met after the official has spotted the ball. However, the chain crew will remain on the field in a secondary capacity. The NFL's executive VP of football operations says their move brings "world-class on field officiating with state-of-the-art technology to advance football excellence." (The NFL's announcement notes the whole process takes about 30 seconds, "saving up to 40 seconds from a measurement with the chains.") The move comes a full seven years after Apple introduced its iPhone Measure app...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's "a milestone for Meta AI and for open source," Mark Zuckerberg said this weekend. "For the first time, the best small, mid-size, and potentially soon frontier [large-language] models will be open source." Zuckerberg anounced four new Llama LLMs in a video posted on Instagram and Facebook — two dropping this weekend, with another two on the way. "Our goal is to build the world's leading AI, open source it, and make it universally accessible so that everyone in the world benefits." Zuckerberg's announcement: I've said for a while that I think open source AI is going to become the leading models. And with Llama 4 this is starting to happen. - The first model is Llama 4 Scout. It is extremely fast, natively multi-modal. It has an industry-leading "nearly infinite" 10M-token context length, and is designed to run on a single GPU. [Meta's blog post says it fits on an NVIDIA H100]. It is 17 billion parameters by 16 experts, and it is by far the highest performing small model in its class. - The second model is Llama 4 Maverick — the workhorse. It beats GPT-4o and Gemini Flash 2 on all benchmarks. It is smaller and more efficient than DeepSeek v3, but it is still comparable on text, plus it is natively multi-modal. This one is 17B parameters x 128 experts, and it is designed to run on a single host for easy inference. This thing is a beast. Zuck promised more news next month on "Llama 4 Reasoning" — but the fourth model will be called Llama 4 Behemoth. "This thing is massive. More than 2 trillion parameters." (A blog post from Meta AI says it also has a 288 billion active parameter model, outperforms GPT-4.5, Claude Sonnet 3.7, and Gemini 2.0 Pro on STEM benchmarks, and will "serve as a teacher for our new models.") "I'm not aware of anyone training a larger model out there," Zuckberg says in his video, calling Behemoth "already the highest performing base model in the world, and it is not even done training yet." "If you want to try Llama 4, you can use Meta AI in WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct," Zuckberg said in his video, "or you can go to our web site at meta.ai." The Scout and Maverick models can be downloaded from llama.com and Hugging Face. "We continue to believe that openness drives innovation," Meta AI says in their blog post, "and is good for developers, good for Meta, and good for the world." Their blog post declares it's "The beginning of a new era of natively multimodal AI innovation," calling Scout and Maverick "the best choices for adding next-generation intelligence." This is just the beginning for the Llama 4 collection. We believe that the most intelligent systems need to be capable of taking generalized actions, conversing naturally with humans, and working through challenging problems they haven't seen before. Giving Llama superpowers in these areas will lead to better products for people on our platforms and more opportunities for developers to innovate on the next big consumer and business use cases. We're continuing to research and prototype both models and products, and we'll share more about our vision at LlamaCon on April 29... We also can't wait to see the incredible new experiences the community builds with our new Llama 4 models. "The impressive part about Llama 4 Maverick is that with just 17B active parameters, it has scored an ELO score of 1,417 on the LMArena leaderboard," notes the tech news site Beebom. "This puts the Maverick model in the second spot, just below Gemini 2.5 Pro, and above Grok 3, GPT-4o, GPT-4.5, and more. "It also achieves comparable results when compared to the latest DeepSeek V3 model on reasoning and coding tasks, and surprisingly, with just half the active parameters."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It was long-time Slashdot reader uninet who argued "Apple Needs a Snow Sequoia." (That is, Apple needs an upgrade to MacOS Sequoia that's like it's earlier "Snow Leopard" upgrade to "Leopard" OS — an upgrade that's "all about how little it added and how much it took away".) "My recent column on Apple's declining software quality hit a nerve..." he writes in a follow-up. "So why do any of us put up with software that grows increasingly buggy?" "One word: hardware. And that's where I'd love to see someone help Linux take the next step." Apple knows how to turn out very good quality pieces of hardware and, for many purposes, stands alone. That's been largely true for the last couple of decades. The half-decade of Apple Silicon has cemented this position. At any price point Apple contends, Macs, iPads and iPhones are either without peers or at the top of the market in build quality and processing power... [I]f only there were hardware that was as good and worked together as well as Apple's, jumping ship to Linux would be awfully attractive at this juncture... For Apple aficionados troubled by the state of MacOS, the modern GNOME desktop on Linux beckons as a more faithful implementation of the ideals of MacOS than current MacOS does. GNOME is painstakingly consistent across its different apps and exudes the minimalist philosophy with which Apple's hardware shines... Now is a perfect moment for a modern Linux push to take that wind back. What it needs, though, is to solve its remaining weakness on the hardware side. One of the giants of electronics manufacturing, tired of being stuck between the Microsoft and Apple ecosystems, would only need to decide to commit the resources necessary to solve the hardware puzzle... ChromeOS has grown to the extent it does because there is hardware designed for it. Take that and carry it further by making it good hardware utilizing the best Linux software and you'd have something disruptive... Initially, the hardware could be "good enough" for the software, much as Apple's software today is merely "good enough" for the hardware. Iterating from there could lead to a genuine third way of computing. They titled their piece, "I Want a Better Mac, so I'm Cheering for a Better Linux." (Wondering if Dell or Sony could be the one to supply that good hardware...) "I say this not as someone who thinks Linux will ever dominate the personal computing world, but as someone who wants to see a spark of creativity and push beyond mediocrity in it again. "Apple needs a real competitor, one alternatives such as GNOME on Linux could actually be, if only the hardware rose to the occasion."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"I started working on Voyager in 1977," the Voyager mission's project scientist told Gizmodo Saturday in a new interview. "It was my first job out of college." 35 years later, a Voyager probe became the first spacecraft to cross into interstellar space in 2012, with Voyager 2 following in 2018. But while each Voyager spacecraft carries 10 scientific instruments, all but three have now been turned off to conserve power, Gizmodo writes. "The two spacecraft now have enough power to operate for another year or so before engineers are forced to turn off two more instruments..." Voyager Mission Project Scientist Linda Spilker: The number of people that are working on and flying Voyager is a whole lot smaller than it was in the planetary days... The challenge was, can we reach the heliopause? We didn't know where it was, we had no idea how far away it was. We got to Neptune, and then we thought, "well, maybe it's just another 10 [astronomical units] or so, a little bit further, a little bit further." And so every time we got a little bit further, the modelers would go back, scratch their heads and say, "ah, it could be a little bit more, a little bit farther away," and so on and on that continued, until finally, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause in 2012... Gizmodo: Is it an emotional decision to turn off Voyager's instruments? Spilker: I was talking to the cosmic ray instrument lead, and I said, "Wow, this must really be tough for you to see your instrument turned off." He helped build the instrument in the early 1970s. This instrument that's been sending you data, and that's been part of your life for over 50 years now. And he said, it was hard to think about turning it off for the whole team. It's kind of like losing a best friend, or someone that's been a part of your life for so many years, and then suddenly, it's silent. At the same time, there's this pride that you were part of that, and your instrument got so much great data — so it's a mix of emotions... The spacecraft had a lot of redundancy on it, so that means two of every computer and two of all the key components. We've been able to turn off those backup units, but we're now at the point where, to really get a significant amount of power, all that's left are some of the science instruments to turn off. So, that's where we're at... How cold can the lines get before they freeze? How cold can some of these other components get before they stop working? So that's another challenge. Then there are individual tiny thrusters that align the spacecraft and keep that antenna pointed at the Earth so we can send the data back, and they're very slowly clogging up with little bits of silica, and so their puffs are getting weaker and weaker. That's another challenge that we're going through to balance. But we're hopeful that we can get one, possibly two, spacecraft to the 50th anniversary in 2027. Voyager's golden anniversary, and perhaps even into the early 2030s with one, maybe two, science instruments. "We're well past the warranty of four years..." Spilker says at one point. And "We're still working and thinking about an interstellar probe that would go much, much farther than Voyager. "You're talking about a multi-generation mission."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Liberal Party, which not long ago seemed destined to crash in federal elections under Justin Trudeau, is experiencing a reversal of fortune. Here’s what a close review of polls shows.

Judge Paula Xinis, who has ordered that the Trump administration return the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, by Monday, also rejected a request to pause that order.

Just two months ago, Pierre Poilievre seemed destined to become Canada’s next prime minister. But his double-digit polling lead vanished with President Trump’s threat to annex Canada.

Tinder "is experimenting with a chatbot that claims to help users improve their flirting skills," notes Washington Post internet-culture reporter Tatum Hunter. The chatbot is available only to users in the United States on iPhones for a limited time, and powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o each character "kicks off an improvised conversation, and the user responds out loud with something flirty..." "Three of them dumped me." You can win points for banter the app deems "charming" or "playful." You lose points if your back-and-forth seems "cheeky" or "quirky"... It asked me to talk out loud into my phone and win the romantic interest of various AI characters. The first scenario involved a financial analyst named Charles, whom I've supposedly run into at the Tokyo airport after accidentally swapping our luggage. I tried my best to be polite to the finance guy who stole my suitcase, asking questions about his travel and agreeing to go to coffee. But the game had some critical feedback: I should try to connect more emotionally using humor or stories from my life. My next go had me at a Dallas wedding trying to flirt with Andrew, a data analyst who had supposedly stumbled into the venue, underdressed, because he'd been looking for a quiet spot to ... analyze data. This time I kept things playful, poking fun at Andrew for crashing a wedding. Andrew didn't like that. I'd "opted to disengage" by teasing this person instead of helping him blend in at the wedding, the app said. A failure on my part, apparently — and also a reminder why generative AI doesn't belong everywhere... Going in, I was worried Tinder's AI characters would outperform the people I've met on dating apps and I'd fall down a rabbit hole of robot love. Instead, they behaved in a way typical for chatbots: Drifting toward biased norms and failing to capture the complexity of human emotions and interactions. The "Game Game" seemed to replicate the worst parts of flirting — the confusion, the unclear expectations, the uncomfortable power dynamics — without the good parts, like the spark of curiosity about another person. Tinder released the feature on April Fools' Day, likely as a bid for impressions and traffic. But its limitations overshadowed its novelty... Hillary Paine, Tinder's vice president of product, growth and revenue, said in an email that AI will play a "big role in the future of dating and Tinder's evolution." She said the game is meant to be silly and that the company "leaned into the campiness." Gen Z is a socially anxious generation, Paine said, and this age group is willing to endure a little cringe if it leads to a "real connection." The article suggests it's another example of companies "eager to incorporate this newish technology, often without considering whether it adds any value for users." But "As apps like Tinder and Bumble lose users amid 'dating app burnout,' the companies are turning to AI to win new growth." (The dating app Rizz "uses AI to autosuggest good lines to use," while Teaser "spins up a chatbot that's based on your personality, meant to talk and behave like you would during a flirty chat," and people "are forming relationships with AI companion bots by the millions.") And the companion-bot company Replika "boasts more than 30 million users..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This October will see the release of a film that's nearly 43 years in the making, reports Ars Technica: It's difficult to underestimate the massive influence that Disney's 1982 cult science fiction film, TRON, had on both the film industry — thanks to combining live action with what were then groundbreaking visual effects rife with computer-generated imagery — and on nerd culture at large. Over the ensuing decades there has been one sequel, an animated TV series, a comic book miniseries, video games, and theme park attractions, all modeled on director Steve Lisberg's original fictional world. Now we're getting a third installment in the film franchise: TRON: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), that serves as a standalone sequel to 2010's TRON: Legacy. Disney just released the first trailer and poster art, and while the footage is short on plot, it's got the show-stopping visuals we've come to expect from all things TRON. The film's director says it "builds upon the legacy of cutting-edge design, technology and storytelling, according to an official statement from Disney. And here's how they describe the plot. "TRON: Ares follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with A.I. beings." Share your thoughts in the comments. (Anyone remember playing the Tron videogame?) The first episode of 2012's animated Tron: Uprising is available on the Disney XD YouTube channel...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Minimalist gadgets like the new Light Phone III, a smartphone that barely does anything, promise to help us focus. The trade-offs are big.

The tariffs-are-a-tax messages are targeting residents in places like Pittsburgh that count on Canadian trade.

States that were once reluctant to expand Medicaid now have their state budgets tied to the fate of the program by constitutional amendments.

U.K. postmasters were mistakenly sent to prison due to a bug in their "Horizon" accounting software — as first reported by Computer Weekly back in 2009. Nearly 16 years later, the same site reports that now the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission "is attempting to contact any former subpostmasters that could have been prosecuted for unexplained losses on the Post Office's pre-Horizon Capture software. "There are former subpostmasters that, like Horizon users, could have been convicted of crimes based on data from these systems..." Since the Post Office Horizon scandal hit the mainstream in January 2024 — revealing to a wide audience the suffering experienced by subpostmasters who were blamed for errors in the Horizon accounting system — users of Post Office software that predated Horizon have come forward... to tell their stories, which echoed those of victims of the Horizon scandal. The Criminal Cases Review Commission for England and Wales is now reviewing 21 cases of potential wrongful conviction... where the Capture IT system could be a factor... The SCCRC is now calling on people that might have been convicted based on Capture accounts to come forward. "The commission encourages anyone who believes that their criminal conviction, or that of a relative, might have been affected by the Capture system to make contact with it," it said. The statutory body is also investigating a third Post Office system, known as Ecco+, which was also error-prone... A total of 64 former subpostmasters in Scotland have now had their convictions overturned through the legislation brought through Scottish Parliament. So far, 97 convicted subpostmasters have come forward, and 86 have been assessed, out of which the 64 have been overturned. However, 22 have been rejected and another 11 are still to be assessed. An independent group, fronted by a former Scottish subpostmaster, is also calling on users of any of the Post Office systems to come forward to tell their stories, and for support in seeking justice and redress.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The rising water levels have prompted rescues and road closures. The storm, which has killed at least 16 people, doesn’t show signs of letting up.

Law firms and universities do not need to capitulate. Here’s how they can fight back.

I didn’t know how to tear down that wall of silence and mystery that creeps up between parents and their teens, but I knew doing so was essential.

The Starliner spacecraft lost four thrusters while approaching the International Space Station last summer. NASA astronaut, Butch Wilmore took manual control, remembers Ars Technica, "But as Starliner's thrusters failed, Wilmore lost the ability to move the spacecraft in the direction he wanted to go..." Starliner had flown to within a stone's throw of the space station, a safe harbor, if only they could reach it. But already, the failure of so many thrusters violated the mission's flight rules. In such an instance, they were supposed to turn around and come back to Earth. Approaching the station was deemed too risky for Wilmore and Williams, aboard Starliner, as well as for the astronauts on the $100 billion space station. But what if it was not safe to come home, either? "I don't know that we can come back to Earth at that point," Wilmore said in an interview. "I don't know if we can. And matter of fact, I'm thinking we probably can't." After a half-hour exclusive interview, Ars Technica's senior space editor Eric Berger says he'd heard "a hell of a story." After Starliner lost four of its 28 reaction control system thrusters, Van Cise and this team in Houston decided the best chance for success was resetting the failed thrusters. This is, effectively, a fancy way of turning off your computer and rebooting it to try to fix the problem. But it meant Wilmore had to go hands-off from Starliner's controls. Imagine that. You're drifting away from the space station, trying to maintain your position. The station is your only real lifeline because if you lose the ability to dock, the chance of coming back in one piece is quite low. And now you're being told to take your hands off the controls... Two of the four thrusters came back online. Wilmore: "...But then we lose a fifth jet. What if we'd have lost that fifth jet while those other four were still down? I have no idea what would've happened. I attribute to the providence of the Lord getting those two jets back before that fifth one failed... Berger: Mission Control decided that it wanted to try to recover the failed thrusters again. After Wilmore took his hands off the controls, this process recovered all but one of them. At that point, the vehicle could be flown autonomously, as it was intended to be. "Wilmore added that he felt pretty confident, in the aftermath of docking to the space station, that Starliner probably would not be their ride home," according to the article. And Williams says it was the right decision. Publicly, NASA and Boeing expressed confidence in Starliner's safe return with crew. But Williams and Wilmore, who had just made that harrowing ride, felt differently.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Humor and art have been used to mock the powerful in Britain for centuries. Now Elon Musk is on the receiving end.