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The Los Angeles Wildfires Are Climate Disasters Compounded

3 months 3 weeks ago
Unprecedented January wildfires in Los Angeles signal an emerging pattern of compound climate disasters, as record-breaking Santa Ana winds up to 100 mph combine with the driest start to a winter season in the city's history. The Palisades and Eaton fires have each burned over 10,000 acres amid drought conditions that climate scientists say are intensified by global warming. The blazes, occurring weeks earlier than historical fire patterns, come just 16 months after Los Angeles experienced its first tropical storm, illustrating what experts describe as increasingly unpredictable weather extremes driven by climate change.

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Trump China tariffs to 'overshadow' the 'progress' of AI PCs

3 months 3 weeks ago
Already inflated costs of NPU-based boxes set to jump on import tax

The "progress" of AI PCs is being "overshadowed" by enterprises concerned about the state of the economy and US President-elect Trump's tariff threats for kit made in China, according to market watcher and number cruncher IDC.…

Paul Kunert

VLC Tops 6 Billion Downloads, Previews AI-Generated Subtitles

3 months 3 weeks ago
VLC media player, the popular open-source software developed by nonprofit VideoLAN, has topped 6 billion downloads worldwide and teased an AI-powered subtitle system. From a report: The new feature automatically generates real-time subtitles -- which can then also be translated in many languages -- for any video using open-source AI models that run locally on users' devices, eliminating the need for internet connectivity or cloud services, VideoLAN demoed at CES.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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