Science

Randomized trial results of the experimental GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon drug shows that it may be too effective, while causing a whopping 11% of participants at the highest dose to drop out because of the severity of the side effects. In Optimizer, Victoria Song covered TikTok influencers pushing grey market knockoffs of “Ratatouille” and attempted to find out what was actually in them. (Please don’t buy shady “Retatrutide” from the internet.)

It’s rolling out now in partnership with Instacart to more than 25 US cities, with car rentals joining private car hires later this summer:

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced the Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act, which would put new requirements on “energy-intensive facilities,” in an effort to lower the strain on the energy grid. It doesn’t yet have co-sponsors, but hits on an issue that’s become central to many communities and elections.

Turns out one of Trump’s top infectious disease officials is a former penile implant specialist, which is odd considering some of the administration’s other policy positions.

Single-use vapes were banned last year, but that hasn’t stopped the deluge. Six million vapes and vape pods are being thrown out there every week, and the sheer volume is proving impossible to keep up with. Plus, the lithium-ion batteries inside are causing fires. According to The Guardian:

Sometimes the entire story about Trump and RFK’s attitudes towards public health is right there in the headline. CNN reports:

President and COO Gwynne Shotwell took to X to comment on yesterday’s vague commitment by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to plug the long-standing gaps in rural US coverage, as frustrated residents adopt solutions from Starlink, Amazon, and AST SpaceMobile:

Last year, EchoStar agreed to offload 65Mhz of its spectrum to SpaceX for its direct-to-cell service, while AT&T snapped up 50Mhz of its spectrum to build out its 5G network. Now it’s official, with the FCC noting that SpaceX will be able to use its spectrum for “terrestrial, space-based, and hybrid network architectures.”

The Wall Street Journal has the story.

Calbee, the Japanese snack company, is temporarily switching its packaging on some items to grayscale, citing “supply instability affecting certain raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East.” CNN reports that it wasn’t clear what component was at risk — but it’s just the latest industry to feel the pinch as a result of the US and Israel attacking Iran in February.

The Trump Administration has made another website, this time a dedicated Pentagon page with “new, never-before-seen files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

Following its acquisition by Elon’s other company, xAI is now being referred to as SpaceXAI. Presumably this is only the start of the brand synergy to come.

In Wednesday’s annoucement of its compute partnership with Anthropic, the company formerly known as xAI referred to itself as “SpaceXAI.” It was the first time I had seen that name, and while I don’t think it’s a good one, it made some sense following SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.

That’s according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Similar numbers of both Republicans and Democrats also cite data centers, which are quickly becoming a bipartisan issue, as a major reason for higher costs.

The $140 million funding round, led by Thiel, values Panthalassa at nearly $1 billion, according to the Financial Times. Data centers in space, data centers in the ocean… where won’t they try to put data centers?

App analytics firm Kochava and its subsidiary, Collective Data Solutions, will be prohibited from “selling, licensing, transferring, sharing or disclosing” sensitive location data without express consent from consumers. The ban settles the FTC’s lawsuit alleging that Kochava sold sensitive geolocation details that could track people seeking or performing abortions.

Instead, President Trump said he’s nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general. While Saphier doesn’t appear to be running the wellness grifter playbook and does, in fact, have a current medical license, she’s also a Fox News commentator with a MAHA-derate stance on vaccines. When will my suffering end?

That’s the finding of a new study from researchers at the University of Oxford, published in Nature today. The researchers found AI chatbots trained to be warmer were significantly more likely to make factual errors and agree with false beliefs than the originals. Cold models didn’t experience the same drop in accuracy.

That’s the title of a paper that 404 Media reports was recently published by Alexander Lerchner, a Senior Staff Scientist at Google DeepMind. Regardless of grand pronouncements from folks, including DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, about AGI’s potential, the paper states that “phenomenal consciousness” is a physical state, and “not a software artifact that can be accidentally or deliberately created.”

To encourage breaks that focus on carbs instead of doomscrolling and texting, KitKat in Panama created a limited edition Faraday cage wrapper for your phone that blocks cell signals. The wrapper is made from layers of copper, polyester, and polypropylene and is expected to work for about a year at which point you can recycle it.

Meta announced a new deal this morning with Overview Energy, a space-based solar company with plans to demo beaming “energy wirelessly from space to a solar farm on Earth” in 2028, ahead of commercial delivery in 2030.