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The incredible flying Tesla Roadster is just for show

Tesla Roadster

Last night, Elon Musk gave the people what they want: a car driving vertically up a multistory ramp, launching off the edge, executing a midair "kickflip" over a lineup of Teslas, and landing via cold-gas thrusters.

That's what the people want, right? "We were promised flying cars," sure, but isn't the operative word in that statement "we"? Because as far as I can tell, everything we saw last night - while extremely cool and incredibly impressive - won't result in a real, production-ready car you can park, or, I guess, land in your driveway.

Tesla's late-night demonstration in Waco, Texas, certainly gave some corners of the internet what …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Time is a-changin’: say goodbye to the leap second

Doomsday clock close to midnight with ASCII graphic.

An important change will soon be made to global timekeeping that aims to prevent potential infrastructure failures akin to the Y2K bug scare. On Thursday, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) voted to scrap the leap second, an ad hoc time adjustment that's occasionally added so tracked time standards mirror the Earth's real (and inconsistent) rotation.

BIPM members previously agreed in 2022 to cease using leap seconds on or before 2035, but this is now being expedited to take effect on May 20th next year, aligning with World Metrology Day. There's an unprecedented reason for its retirement being brought forward: changes t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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The Tesla Roadster flew, drove upside down, and hit 60mph in under a second

Elon Musk promised a flying car. And the Tesla Roadster did exactly that.

Tesla demonstrated its next-generation Roadster at an event in Waco, Texas, where the electric supercar drove upside down, briefly flew, and accelerated to 60mph in under a second. It was an impressive demonstration of a car that likely will come with some heavy caveats and restrictions if it ever goes into production.

The event was less than 30 minutes and felt more like a stunt show than a product reveal. Indeed, there was no mention of price, release date, or other such mundane details. Musk promised the hypercar would go into production in 2028, but after near …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Withings now charges $100 per year to sync your data to other apps

A person stands on a Withings smart scale on a tile floor.

If you're a new user of Withings' fitness-tracking smartwatches or smart scales and want to sync and access your health data through third party apps like Apple Health or Google Health it's now going to cost you.

According to a discussion on Withings' support forums spotted by MacRumors, new Withings accounts created from October 13th, 2026, and onwards will require a Withings Plus subscription to use the "automatic sync to third-party apps" feature. The subscription costs $9.95 per month or $99.50 per year but Withings' devices come with a free one month trial that includes the option to sync their data to third-party apps. When the trial …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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My AI doppelganger tells me what to eat

This is Optimizer, a weekly newsletter sent from Verge senior reviewer Victoria Song that dissects and discusses the latest gizmos and potions that swear they're going to change your life. Opt in for Optimizer here.

For the past 100 days or so, my mornings have had a new rhythm. When I wake up, the first thing I have to do is feed my digital twin. It consumes my metabolic data, and its first "meal" of the day is my body composition data, sent straight from a smart scale.

Once that's logged in the app, I scoot over to the kitchen to fill an Owala with lemon water to take my medications with. That, too, gets logged in the app. On Mondays, I'll …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Microsoft has a new machine learning tool to improve weather forecasts

Art depicts palm trees over an image of a swirling tropical storm.

Old-school physics-based weather forecasting and even new AI models typically become less reliable beyond two weeks, a problem Microsoft claims to have solved using machine learning.

Researchers with the company say they've found a new, cost-effective way to make more accurate weather forecasts two to six weeks in advance - allowing farmers and emergency responders to plan ahead with greater certainty. The findings were published today in the journal Nature, and the tool is now open-source software.

Microsoft joins Google, Nvidia, and other companies developing AI tools for weather forecasting. Instead of creating a new standalone weather …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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Ukraine claims Starlink is suddenly disrupting service for its military

The aftermath of a Russian missile strike on October 12th, 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. | Photo by Andrew Kravchenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Ukrainian officials claim the Elon Musk-owned Starlink put new limits on its service in the area without warning, disrupting the country's drone operations and missions, according to reports from Reuters and the Financial Times. The move comes just days after Musk wrote on X that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "has gone too far," in response to President Donald Trump's disapproval of Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries.

"It is clear that this action is not coincidental and is related to the current political situation," Ukrainian defense tech advisor Serhii Beskrestnov writes on Telegram.

Earlier this week, Russia launched a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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The Tesla Roadster could have stayed vaporware

Tesla Roadster
Imagine a light bar on this 2017 Roadster concept image, and you’ll start to see it. | Image: Tesla

For a car that's supposed to be one of the fastest ever made, the new Tesla Roadster certainly took its sweet-ass time getting here.

It's been nearly a decade since Elon Musk made the surprise announcement about plans to build a next-gen Roadster. Now, the Tesla Roadster is finally expected to make its production-ready debut at an event in Waco, Texas - and the timing couldn't be worse.

The new Roadster is set to arrive in an EV market beset by high energy prices, political turmoil, and consumer uncertainty. The tax-credit-fueled exuberance of the post-covid years has since given way to slower sales and fewer options. Automakers are scalin …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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New FDA loophole would allow toxic chemicals into food

Kennedy

No longer will Americans have to go without delicious and inexpensive industrial dyes in their foodstuffs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reportedly to allow additives to be added to food without safety review so long as they aren't proven to be carcinogenic and introduced at levels below 0.5 parts per billion. — Read the rest

The post New FDA loophole would allow toxic chemicals into food appeared first on Boing Boing.

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