Author name: Kris Guyer

microsoft-turns-50-today,-and-it-made-me-think-about-ms-dos-5.0

Microsoft turns 50 today, and it made me think about MS-DOS 5.0

On this day in 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded a company called Micro-Soft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The two men had worked together before, as members of the Lakeside Programming group in the early 70s and as co-founders of a road traffic analysis company called Traf-O-Data. But Micro-Soft, later renamed to drop the hyphen and relocated to its current headquarters in Redmond, Washington, would be the company that would transform personal computing over the next five decades.

I’m not here to do a history of Microsoft, because Wikipedia already exists and because the company has already put together a gauzy 50th-anniversary retrospective site with some retro-themed wallpapers. But the anniversary did make me try to remember which Microsoft product I consciously used for the first time, the one that made me aware of the company and the work it was doing.

To get the answer, just put a decimal point in the number “50”—my first Microsoft product was MS-DOS 5.0.

Riding with DOS in the Windows era

I remember this version of MS-DOS so vividly because it was the version that we ran on our first computer. I couldn’t actually tell you what computer it was, though, not because I don’t remember it but because it was a generic yellowed hand-me-down that was prodigiously out of date, given to us by well-meaning people from our church who didn’t know enough to know how obsolete the system was.

It was a clone of the original IBM PC 5150, initially released in 1981; I believe we took ownership of it sometime in 1995 or 1996. It had an Intel 8088, two 5.25-inch floppy drives, and 500-something KB of RAM (also, if memory serves, a sac of spider eggs). But it had no hard drive inside, meaning that anything I wanted to run on or save from this computer needed to use a pile of moldering black plastic diskettes, more than a few of which were already going bad.

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genres-are-bustin’-out-all-over-in-strange-new-worlds-s3-teaser

Genres are bustin’ out all over in Strange New Worlds S3 teaser

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns this summer with ten new episodes.

Paramount+ has dropped a tantalizing one-minute teaser for the upcoming third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds., and it looks like the latest adventures of the starship Enterprise will bring romance, comedy, mystery, and even a bit of analog tech, not to mention a brand new villain.

(Some spoilers for S2 below)

We haven’t seen much from the third season to date. There was an exclusive clip during San Diego Comic Con last summer—a callback to the S2 episode “Charades,” in which a higher-dimensional race, the Kerkohvians, accidentally reconfigured Spock’s half-human, half-Vulcan physiology to that of a full-blooded human, just before Spock was supposed to meet his Vulcan fiancee’s parents. The S3 clip had the situation reversed: The human crew had to make themselves Vulcan to succeed on a new mission but weren’t able to change back.

The S2 finale found the Enterprise under vicious attack by the Gorn, who were in the midst of invading one of the Federation’s colony worlds. Several crew members were kidnapped (La’an, M’Benga, Ortegas, and Sam), along with other survivors of the attack. Pike faced a momentous decision: follow orders to retreat, or disobey them to rescue his crew. In October, we learned that Pike naturally chose the latter. New footage shown at New York City Comic-Con picked up where the finale left off, giving us the kind of harrowing high-stakes pitched space battle against a ferocious enemy that has long been a hallmark of the franchise.

Genres are bustin’ out all over in Strange New Worlds S3 teaser Read More »

a-look-at-the-switch-2’s-initial-games,-both-familiar-and-what-the-heck

A look at the Switch 2’s initial games, both familiar and what-the-heck

You can read a lot more about original Switch games’ compatibility on the Switch 2, “Editions,” and upgrade packs elsewhere in Ars’ Switch 2 launch coverage.

AAA games of recent vintage

Switch 2’s “Partner Spotlight,” Part 1

With the promise of new hardware capable of 1080p, 120 frames per second, HDR, and even mouse capabilities, the Switch 2 is getting attention from developers eager to make up for lost time—and stake out a place on a sequel to the system that sold more than 150 million hardware units.

Elden Ring Tarnished EditionYakuza 0Hitman: World of AssassinationCyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts Legacy, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade stood out as games from the near-to-middle past slated to arrive on the Switch 2.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Street Fighter 6, Civilization 7, and Cyberpunk 2077 are due to arrive at launch on June 5, with the rest arriving in 2025.

Notable independents (most notably Silksong)

Proof of life.

Credit: Nintendo/Team Cherry

Proof of life. Credit: Nintendo/Team Cherry

The cruel games industry joke, ever since Silksong’s announcement in 2019, is that the game, originally intended as DLC for acclaimed platformer/Metroidvania Hollow Knight, is always due to be announced, never gets announced, and resumes torturing its expectant fans.

But there it was, for a blip of a moment in the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal: Silksong, coming in “2025.” That’s all that is known: it will, purportedly, arrive on this console in 2025. It was initially due to arrive on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox when it was announced, but that remains to be seen.

Another delayed indie gem, Deltarune, a kinda-sequel to Undertale, purports to land all four chapters of its parallel story on Switch 2 at the console’s launch.

Other notable games from across the studio-size spectrum:

  • Hades 2 (2025)
  • Split Fiction (at launch)
  • Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster (at launch)
  • Enter the Gungeon 2 (“Coming soon”)
  • Two Point Museum (2025)
  • Human Fall Flat 2 (“Coming soon”)

The legally distinct game that sure looks like Bloodborne 2

The hero of this sanguine tale. FromSoftware

The next original game from FromSoftware, maker of beautifully realized finger-torture titles like Elden Ring and the Dark Souls series, is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, The Duskbloods. The trailer, with its gore-etched hands, gothic churches, and eldritch/Victorian machinery, certainly stood out from the Kirby and Donkey Kong games around it. The game arrives sometime in 2026.

A look at the Switch 2’s initial games, both familiar and what-the-heck Read More »

vast-pedophile-network-shut-down-in-europol’s-largest-csam-operation

Vast pedophile network shut down in Europol’s largest CSAM operation

Europol has shut down one of the largest dark web pedophile networks in the world, prompting dozens of arrests worldwide and threatening that more are to follow.

Launched in 2021, KidFlix allowed users to join for free to preview low-quality videos depicting child sex abuse materials (CSAM). To see higher-resolution videos, users had to earn credits by sending cryptocurrency payments, uploading CSAM, or “verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos.”

Europol seized the servers and found a total of 91,000 unique videos depicting child abuse, “many of which were previously unknown to law enforcement,” the agency said in a press release.

KidFlix going dark was the result of the biggest child sexual exploitation operation in Europol’s history, the agency said. Operation Stream, as it was dubbed, was supported by law enforcement in more than 35 countries, including the United States.

Nearly 1,400 suspected consumers of CSAM have been identified among 1.8 million global KidFlix users, and 79 have been arrested so far. According to Europol, 39 child victims were protected as a result of the sting, and more than 3,000 devices were seized.

Police identified suspects through payment data after seizing the server. Despite cryptocurrencies offering a veneer of anonymity, cops were apparently able to use sophisticated methods to trace transactions to bank details. And in some cases cops defeated user attempts to hide their identities—such as a man who made payments using his mother’s name in Spain, a local news outlet, Todo Alicante, reported. It likely helped that most suspects were already known offenders, Europol noted.

Vast pedophile network shut down in Europol’s largest CSAM operation Read More »

“chaos”-at-state-health-agencies-after-us-illegally-axed-grants,-lawsuit-says

“Chaos” at state health agencies after US illegally axed grants, lawsuit says

Nearly half of US states sued the federal government and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today in a bid to halt the termination of $11 billion in public health grants. The lawsuit was filed by 23 states and the District of Columbia.

“The grant terminations, which came with no warning or legally valid explanation, have quickly caused chaos for state health agencies that continue to rely on these critical funds for a wide range of urgent public health needs such as infectious disease management, fortifying emergency preparedness, providing mental health and substance abuse services, and modernizing public health infrastructure,” said a press release issued by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.

The litigation is led by Colorado, California, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Washington. The other plaintiffs are Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Nearly all of the plaintiffs are represented by a Democratic attorney general. Kentucky and Pennsylvania have Republican attorneys general and are instead represented by their governors, both Democrats.

The complaint, filed in US District Court for the District of Rhode Island, is in response to the recent cut of grants that were originally created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The sole stated basis for Defendants’ decision is that the funding for these grants or cooperative agreements was appropriated through one or more COVID-19 related laws,” the states’ lawsuit said.

The lawsuit says the US sent notices to states that grants were terminated “for cause” because “the grants and cooperative agreements were issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purpose has run out.”

“Chaos” at state health agencies after US illegally axed grants, lawsuit says Read More »

apple-enables-rcs-messaging-for-google-fi-subscribers-at-last

Apple enables RCS messaging for Google Fi subscribers at last

With RCS, iPhone users can converse with non-Apple users without losing the enhanced features to which they’ve become accustomed in iMessage. That includes longer messages, HD media, typing indicators, and much more. Google Fi has several different options for data plans, and the company notes that RCS does use mobile data when away from Wi-Fi. Those on the “Flexible” Fi plan pay for blocks of data as they go, and using RCS messaging could inadvertently increase their bill.

If that’s not a concern, it’s a snap for Fi users to enable RCS on the new iOS update. Head to Apps > Messages, and then find the Text Messaging section to toggle on RCS. It may, however, take a few minutes for your phone number to be registered with the Fi RCS server.

In hindsight, the way Apple implemented iMessage was clever. By intercepting messages being sent to other iPhone phone numbers, Apple was able to add enhanced features to its phones instantly. It had the possibly intended side effect of reinforcing the perception that Android phones were less capable. This turned Android users into dreaded green bubbles that limited chat features. Users complained, and Google ran ads calling on Apple to support RCS. That, along with some pointed questions from reporters may have prompted Apple to announce the change in late 2023. It took some time, but you almost don’t have to worry about missing messaging features in 2025.

Apple enables RCS messaging for Google Fi subscribers at last Read More »

cheap-tvs’-incessant-advertising-reaches-troubling-new-lows

Cheap TVs’ incessant advertising reaches troubling new lows

As Distractify detailed, the video in question includes Noem telling people who live outside of the US that the US government will “hunt you down” if they enter the country illegally. Noem also claims in the video that “weak leadership has left our borders wide open, flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals.”

“This TV will be out of my house by the end of the week. Fucking dystopian bullshit company,” DoubleJumps said.

Ars Technica hasn’t been able to replicate this internally. We also haven’t seen other reports of Vizio TV owners seeing this ad. Vizio and parent company Walmart didn’t respond to requests for comment.

However, what DoubleJumps detailed is completely within the scope of Vizio’s advertising efforts. Vizio TVs have something called Scenic Mode, which has the sets show, per Vizio, “relaxing, ambient content when your TV is idle for a period of time,” along with ads. Scenic Mode can be disabled, but if it’s enabled, the ads cannot be turned off. Vizio says the ads help it pay for things like the TVs’ free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels and help keep Vizio TV prices low.

Vizio also has ties to political ads. It has previously boasted about its work with “a political candidate on an ad campaign that combined CTV ads with our Household Connect omnichannel feature to reach potential voters both on their TV sets and on other opted in devices.” The company says it can play a “powerful role… in helping political campaigns reach their intended audiences.” 

The possibility that the ad placement was a mistake doesn’t bring that much comfort either. If TV OS operators want to be so dependent on the advertising business, they owe it to customers to at least make sure errors like this (assuming this was an error) don’t happen.

Idle TVs are advertisers’ playthings

Even though Vizio TV owners can turn off Scenic Mode, a company marketing screensaver ads as “an experience that adds to the environment of your home or office” shows how far some TV brands are willing to go to make advertising dollars. Selling screensaver ad space to politicians delivering threats and associating immigration with “drugs, human trafficking,” and violence suggests a lack of discernment over what sort of ads are shown where. A political ad shown during a TV commercial break is reasonable. However, seeing one when using a TV functionality that’s supposed to offer “relaxing, ambient content” seems wholly misguided.

Cheap TVs’ incessant advertising reaches troubling new lows Read More »

research-roundup:-2,400-year-old-clay-puppets;-this-is-your-brain-on-klingon

Research roundup: 2,400-year-old clay puppets; this is your brain on Klingon


The stories we almost missed this month

Also: testing the efficacy of WWI “dazzle” camouflage; how the male blue-lined octopus survives deadly mating ritual.

Credit: J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI

It’s a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we’ve featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we’re experimenting with a monthly collection of such stories. March’s list includes fascinating papers on such topics as how the brain responds to speaking Klingon (or Dothraki, or Navi), the discovery of creepy preclassic Salvadoran puppets, the effectiveness of “dazzle camouflage,” and how male blue-lined octopuses manage not to be cannibalized by their chosen mates.

Wind Cave’s rocks fluoresce under black light

Several fluorescence measurements of a zebra calcite in Wind Cave were taken using portable spectrometers.

Several fluorescence measurements of a zebra calcite in Wind Cave were taken using portable spectrometers. Credit: Joshua Sebree

South Dakota’s Wind Cave gets its name from the flow of air moving continually through its many passages and equalizing the atmospheric pressure between the air inside and outside—almost like the cave is “breathing.” Its rock and mineral formations also boast a unique chemistry that fluoresces when exposed to black light, according to talks presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego. That fluorescence could shed light on how life can thrive in extreme environments, including that of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

University of Northern Iowa astrobiologist Joshua Sebree and several students have been mapping new areas of Wind Cave (as well as other caves in the US), recording the passages, rock formations, minerals, and lifeforms they encounter in the process. They noticed that under UV light, certain parts of Wind Cave took on otherworldly hues, thanks to different concentrations of organic and inorganic fossilized chemical compounds. Those areas seem to indicate where water once flowed, carrying minerals into the cave from the surface 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, according to their analysis of the fluorescent spectra. Sebree et al. found that Wind Cave was likely carved out by waters rich in manganese, producing zebra stripes that glow pink under UV light, revealing the calcites that grew within as a result of those waters.

The physics of swing-top beer bottles

Three frames of a high-speed recording after popping a homebrewed bottle of beer.

Three frames of a high-speed recording after popping a homebrewed bottle of beer. Credit: Max Koch

So-called kitchen science is all the rage these days, with champagne, wine, and beer being particularly favorite subjects for experimentation. German physicist Max Koch of the University of Goettingen is as passionate about home brewing as he is about fluid dynamics. So naturally, Koch became fascinated by the distinctive “pop and slosh” sounds produced whenever he opened one of his home-brewed swing-top beer bottles. His experiments used a high-speed camera to capture the acoustics and underlying physics, augmented by audio recording and computer simulations.

Rather than producing a single shockwave, Koch and his co-authors discovered that the unique sound occurs because popping the lid produces a vibrating standing wave, thanks to condensation within the bottleneck, according to a paper published in the journal Physics of Fluids. They were surprised to find that the frequency of the pop was significantly lower than the resonance produced by blowing across the open bottle top, which they attributed to the sudden expansion of the carbon dioxide and a strong cooling effect that reduces sound speed. The sloshing is due to the bottle’s motion, and it’s possible that the lid hitting the glass after popping could produce more bubbles and hence gushing.

Physics of Fluids, 2025. DOI: 10.1063/5.0248739  (About DOIs).

How effective was WWI “dazzle paint”?

A painting by Norman Wilkinson of a moonlit convoy wearing his dazzle camouflage, 1918

A painting by Norman Wilkinson of a moonlit convoy wearing the dazzle camouflage he invented, 1918. Credit: Public domain

During World War I, ships were often painted with complex geometric shapes in contrasting and intersecting colors, dubbed “dazzle camouflage” and usually attributed to British marine artist Norman Wilkinson. The objective was to confuse enemy U-boat captains trying to determine the speed and direction of those ships, and a 1919 study seemed to support that hypothesis. Aston University researchers have revisited that original study and concluded that the horizon effect—in which ships viewed from a distance seem to be traveling along the horizon—is a more effective means of confusing enemy combatants, according to a paper published in the journal i-Perception.

The author of the 1919 study was an MIT marine engineering student named Leo Blodgett, who painted model ships in those geometric patterns and observed them with a model periscope in a mechanical test theater to see if he could determine whether an observer’s perception of the direction of travel was markedly different from the actual direction. He concluded that this was indeed the case and therefore dazzle paint was effective.

But according to the Aston scientists, Blodgett’s experiment did not have a solid control condition to warrant such a conclusion. So they revisited his 105-year-old data and ran their own version of Blodgett’s experiment, comparing results from his photographs showing the original dazzle camouflage with versions that had the camouflage patterns edited out. The results: the dazzle camouflage did work via a twist on perspective, but it was a small effect. The horizon effect had a much stronger confounding effect.

i-Perception, 2025. DOI: 10.1177/20416695241312316  (About DOIs).

Early Salvadoran clay puppets

These “Bolinas” figures were found in a Salvadorian pyramid.

These “Bolinas” figures were found in a Salvadoran pyramid. Credit: J. Przedwojewska-Szymańska/PASI

Archaeologists excavating the San Isidro pyramid in El Salvador have discovered five carved clay figurines dating back to around 400 BCE that may have been controlled with string like modern marionettes. Such “Bolinas” figures have also been found at a Mayan burial site in Guatemala, suggesting the two areas may have shared culture and civilization, according to a paper published in the journal Antiquity.

Three of the puppets were about a foot tall, with the other two measuring about 18 centimeters. The larger ones had adjustable heads connected to their bodies via matching sockets. The carved faces feature tongues, tattoos, and facial expressions that shift depending on the viewing angle: fearful when viewed from below and grinning from above, for example. The authors suggest that these puppets weren’t used as toys, but as “clay actors” in ritualistic funeral performances. “The universal impetus for creating scaled-down humanoid figures appears to be mimetic—that is, imbuing these handheld objects with deeper meanings that are readily decoded by the intended audience,” they concluded, although the shared cultural “code” for interpreting those meanings has been lost.

Antiquity, 2025. DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2025.37  (About DOIs).

This is your brain on Esperanto and Klingon

Worf, son of Mogh, is surprised by new fMRI study.

Worf, son of Mogh, is surprised by new fMRI study. Credit: Paramount+

J.R.R. Tolkien invented two Elvish languages (Quenya and Sindarin) when writing The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Star Trek has Klingon, the Avatar films have Na’vi, and Game of Thrones boasts two constructed languages, or conlangs: Dothraki and High Valyrian. There are even hardcore fans who have diligently become proficient in those invented languages. And apparently conlangs activate the same parts of the brain as their native tongues, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

MIT neuroscientist Evelina Fedorenko previously spearheaded studies on how the brain responds to stimuli that share certain language features—music, gestures, facial expressions, and computer programming languages like Python. None seemed to engage the language-processing areas of the brain. Curious about what makes natural language unique, Fedorenko et al. turned to conlangs. They organized a weekend conference featuring conlang creators as speakers and invited people fluent in Esperanto, Klingon, Na’vi, Dothraki, and High Valyrian to participate. They scanned 44 conlang speakers with fMRI as they listened to sentences in both their chosen conlang and their native tongue, performing nonlinguistic tasks as a control.

The results: The same language regions lit up regardless of whether they were speaking in their chosen conlang or native natural language. This helped the group determine that language responses appear to be driven in part by how they convey meaning about the interior and exterior world—objects, properties of objects, events, etc. Python, by contrast, is highly symbolic and abstract, disconnected from the everyday “real” world we experience. The group next plans to study how the brain responds to a different conlang called Lojban, created in the 1990s, to learn more about which language features activate the brain’s language centers.

PNAS, 2025. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2313473122  (About DOIs).

Venom as a protective strategy for male octopuses

Male blue-lined octopuses inject females with venom during sex to avoid being eaten

Male blue-lined octopuses inject females with venom during sex to avoid being eaten. Credit: Wen-Sung Chung/University of Queensland

Sexual cannibalism—in which a female of the species consumes the male after copulating—is a very real thing in nature, seen in insect species like mantises and spiders, certain crustaceans and gastropods, and even certain species of octopus. Case in point: the blue-lined octopus (Hapalochlaena fasciata), a tiny creature found in shallow waters whose venom can be quite deadly, especially to humans. The females of the species might be the size of golf balls, but they are nonetheless significantly larger than the males and have a tendency to eat their mates.

Fortunately, the males have developed an effective defense strategy, according to a paper published in the journal Current Biology: They inject their chosen females with tetrodotoxin (a venom also produced by pufferfish) just before mating, temporarily paralyzing the females so the males can avoid being eaten. Scientists at the University of Queensland studied the behavior of mating blue-lined octopuses in the lab and noticed that males would bite the females near the aorta as the mating ritual commenced, flooding their systems with the venom.

This immobilized the females for the duration of the mating sessions (which lasted between 40 and 75 minutes); they largely stopped breathing, turned pale, and did not respond to visual stimuli during that time. The males actually increased their respiration rate as they used a specialized mating arm to deposit their sperm into the females’ oviducts to fertilize the eggs. The effects of the venom eventually wore off sufficiently for the females to push the males away without suffering any permanent effects. The authors suggest that female blue-lined octopuses may have evolved a tolerance to tetrodotoxin, ensuring they survive to lay their eggs and propagate the species.

Current Biology, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.027  (About DOIs).

Rubber hand illusion alleviates pain

A rubber hand is perceived as part of your own body when you can't see your own.

A rubber hand is perceived as part of your own body when you can’t see your own. Credit: Damian Gorczany

One of the many strange things to come out of 21st-century neuroscience is the so-called rubber hand illusion, in which a subject’s hand is hidden and replaced by a rubber hand in the position where the real hand would be. When both the real and fake hands are stroked simultaneously, subjects respond as if the rubber hand were part of their body. Threaten the rubber hand by attempting to stab it with a dagger, for instance, and the participants exhibit an involuntary startle or fear response. It’s the combination of visual and tactile feedback that does it, and it only takes a few seconds for the illusion to kick in. And it’s not a purely psychological effect; there have been measurable physiological responses as well.

Scientists in Bochum, Germany, have now shown that the rubber hand illusion can also alleviate pain, according to a paper published in the journal Pain Reports. They recruited 34 right-handed subjects, evaluated their individual pain thresholds, then placed the subjects’ left hands behind a screen. A left rubber hand was placed in front of the subjects, which could be lit from below with red light. Then heat was applied at different temperatures to the hidden hand, while red light increased on the visible rubber hand. Subjects were asked to rate their pain in response.

The results: subjects’ perception of pain decreased noticeably when the rubber hand illusion was used, compared to control conditions. The authors don’t yet know what the underlying mechanism might be but suggest it could be related to visual analgesia, in which pain is considered less intense if someone can see the part of the body that is being hurt.

Pain Reports, 2025. DOI: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000001252  (About DOIs).

Photo of Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban.

Research roundup: 2,400-year-old clay puppets; this is your brain on Klingon Read More »

lithium-ion-battery-waste-fires-are-increasing,-and-vapes-are-a-big-part-of-it

Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it

2024 was “a year of growth,” according to fire-suppression company Fire Rover, but that’s not an entirely good thing.

The company, which offers fire detection and suppression systems based on thermal and optical imaging, smoke analytics, and human verification, releases annual reports on waste and recycling facility fires in the US and Canada to select industry and media. In 2024, Fire Rover, based on its fire identifications, saw 2,910 incidents, a 60 percent increase from the 1,809 in 2023, and more than double the 1,409 fires confirmed in 2022.

Publicly reported fire incidents at waste and recycling facilities also hit 398, a new high since Fire Rover began compiling its report eight years ago, when that number was closer to 275.

Lots of things could cause fires in the waste stream, long before lithium-ion batteries became common: “Fireworks, pool chemicals, hot (barbecue) briquettes,” writes Ryan Fogelman, CEO of Fire Rover, in an email to Ars. But lithium-ion batteries pose a growing problem, as the number of devices with batteries increases, consumer education and disposal choices remain limited, and batteries remain a very easy-to-miss, troublesome occupant of the waste stream.

All batteries that make it into waste streams are potentially hazardous, as they have so many ways of being set off: puncturing, vibration, overheating, short-circuiting, crushing, internal cell failure, overcharging, or inherent manufacturing flaws, among others. Fire Rover’s report notes that the media often portrays batteries as “spontaneously” catching fire. In reality, the very nature of waste handling makes it almost impossible to ensure that no battery will face hazards in handling, the report notes. Tiny batteries can be packed into the most disposable of items—even paper marketing materials handed out at conferences.

Fogelman estimates, based on his experience and some assumptions, that about half of the fires he’s tracking originate with batteries. Roughly $2.5 billion of loss to facilities and infrastructure came from fires last year, divided between traditional hazards and batteries, he writes.

Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it Read More »

the-2025-bmw-m5-touring-review:-way-more-power,-way-too-much-weight

The 2025 BMW M5 Touring review: Way more power, way too much weight

Basic functions like adjusting the fan speed of the air conditioning system require taking your attention off of the road to call up the comfort settings on the display, and if you dare to venture further down the rabbit hole to adjust something else, you’ll find an app drawer-style menu filled with ambiguously named icons that rarely get you where you want to go the first time out.

Do I change the damper stiffness by pressing the M Mode button on the center console, or is it in the Drivetrain and chassis submenu under Driving Settings? The answer is neither. (In fact, you should use iDrive’s excellent voice commands so you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road—Ed.)

With adjustments for throttle response, brake regeneration, steering weight, brake pedal responsiveness, transmission behavior, all-wheel drive system modes, simulated engine noise volume, and other performance-related features, you can create literally hundreds of different combinations of vehicle settings, but thankfully, the aforementioned M1 and M2 buttons on the steering wheel provide an easy way to call up one of your two favorite presets on the fly. The bigger concern, though, is how all of these augmentations and enhancements seem to conspire to hide the shortcomings of BMW’s design decisions but aren’t successful in doing so.

Chassis upgrades are a prerequisite for an M car, and with an M-tuned adaptative suspension, additional structural bracing, massive brake discs with six-piston calipers up front, four-wheel steering, and torque vectoring all on board as standard, the M5 certainly isn’t short on them. Given that, it’s reasonable to expect that an M model will have a firmer ride quality than its garden-variety counterpart.

But the vehicle has an additional measure of harshness as compared to previous M5 models, even under normal driving situations with the dampers set to their most relaxed mode, which I theorize is related to the suspension tuning needed to keep body motions controlled and maintain a sport-oriented feel despite the weight involved.

Don’t get me wrong, this is still a grand tourer of the highest order. Triple-digit speeds can be accessed with a brief stab of the throttle, and thanks to the improved ergonomics of the latest 5-Series and the model-specific sport seats that are both comfortable and supportive, the M5 will still devour highway miles with the best of them. At times when both the electric motor and the V8 are working together, the hybridized powertrain also delivers the kind of instant-on throttle response that’s typically reserved for EVs.

The 2025 BMW M5 Touring review: Way more power, way too much weight Read More »

google’s-new-experimental-gemini-2.5-model-rolls-out-to-free-users

Google’s new experimental Gemini 2.5 model rolls out to free users

Google released its latest and greatest Gemini AI model last week, but it was only made available to paying subscribers. Google has moved with uncharacteristic speed to release Gemini 2.5 Pro (Experimental) for free users, too. The next time you check in with Gemini, you can access most of the new AI’s features without a Gemini Advanced subscription.

The Gemini 2.5 branch will eventually replace 2.0, which was only released in late 2024. It supports simulated reasoning, as all Google’s models will in the future. This approach to producing an output can avoid some of the common mistakes that AI models have made in the past. We’ve also been impressed with Gemini 2.5’s vibe, which has landed it at the top of the LMSYS Chatbot arena leaderboard.

Google says Gemini 2.5 Pro (Experimental) is ready and waiting for free users to try on the web. Simply select the model from the drop-down menu and enter your prompt to watch the “thinking” happen. The model will roll out to the mobile app for free users soon.

While the free tier gets access to this model, it won’t have all the advanced features. You still cannot upload files to Gemini without a paid account, which may make it hard to take advantage of the model’s large context window—although you won’t get the full 1 million-token window anyway. Google says the free version of Gemini 2.5 Pro (Experimental) will have a lower limit, which it has not specified. We’ve added a few thousand words without issue, but there’s another roadblock in the way.

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EU will go easy with Apple, Facebook punishment to avoid Trump’s wrath

Brussels regulators are set to drop a case about whether Apple’s operating system discourages users from switching browsers or search engines, after Apple made a series of changes in an effort to comply with the bloc’s rules.

Levying any form of fines on American tech companies risks a backlash, however, as Trump has directly attacked EU penalties on American companies, calling them a “form of taxation,” while comparing fines on tech companies with “overseas extortion.”

“This is a crucial test for the commission,” a person from one of the affected companies said. “Further targeting US tech firms will heighten transatlantic tensions and provoke retaliatory actions and, ultimately, it’s member states and European businesses that will bear the cost.”

The US president has warned of imposing tariffs on countries that levy digital services taxes against American companies.

According to a memo released last month, Trump said he would look into taxes and regulations or policies that “inhibit the growth” of American corporations operating abroad.

Meta has previously said that its changes “meet EU regulator demands and go beyond what’s required by EU law.”

The planned decisions, which the officials said could still change before they are made public, are set to be presented to representatives of the EU’s 27 member states on Friday. An announcement on the fines is set for next week, although that timing could also still change.

The commission declined to comment.

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