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The AI boom is proving to be a windfall for construction workers building the massive data centers that power everything. According to the Wall Street Journal, data center construction workers are seeing pay increases of 25% to 30% compared to their previous jobs, and in some cases, much more. Among them is Demond Chambliss, who sold his small drywall business in Columbus, Ohio, to take a supervisory position overseeing 200 employees at a data center site. He now makes over $100,000 a year. “I pinch myself every day when I go to work,” the 51-year-old told the publication. In Oregon,…
Planned data center construction shows no signs of slowing down, with new additions requiring 2.7 times (almost three times) the sector’s current electricity demand over the next 10 years, according to a new report from BloombergNEF. By 2035, data centers will consume 106 gigawatts of power, a significant increase from the 40 gigawatts used today. BloombergNEF said much of that growth will occur in more rural areas as facilities expand in size and land near urban areas becomes scarce. Part of the growth driver is the huge scale of the planned data centers. Today, only 10% of data centers consume…
Comet 3I/ATLAS appears to have spiral jets erupting from its surface, which the authors of the new preprint interpret as a type of cryovolcanism. (Image credit: Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez/B06 Montseny Observatory)New observations suggest that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be covered in erupting “cryovolcanoes.”Researchers found evidence that a series of cryovolcanoes (nicknamed “cryovolcanoes”) erupted on the comet’s surface as it approached the sun. The activation of these icy jets can be explained by what this strange comet is made of, according to the study posted on the preprint server arXiv on November 24th.The results of the study, which have not…
A coalition of law enforcement agencies coordinated by Europol announced on Monday the closure of cryptocurrency laundering service Cryptomixer. Europol confirmed the seizure in a press release, stating that Cryptomixer is “the platform of choice for cybercriminals seeking to launder illegal proceeds from a variety of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, arms trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud.” Europol announced that since 2016, cryptomixers have facilitated the laundering of 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in Bitcoin. Hackers and other criminals use laundering services such as Cryptomixer to obfuscate and hide the origin of cryptocurrencies. By design, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin…
Russia’s only operating launch pad has been temporarily disabled after sustaining severe damage during its recent launch of three astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Experts say this leaves the country unable to send humans into space for the first time in more than 60 years.On Thanksgiving Day (November 27), the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft launched from Site 31/6 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at approximately 2:30 pm local time (4:30 am ET). The rocket carried Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kudo Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, along with NASA astronaut Chris Williams, and they all arrived safely at the ISS and…
December 1, 2025Ravi LakshmananSurveillance/National Security India’s Ministry of Telecommunications has reportedly asked major mobile device manufacturers to preload the government-backed cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi on all new mobile phones within 90 days. Reuters reports that the app cannot be removed or disabled from users’ devices. Sanchar Saathi is available on the web and via mobile apps for Android and iOS, and allows users to report suspected scams, spam, and malicious web links through calls, SMS, or WhatsApp. Block your stolen phone. It also allows mobile subscribers to see the number of mobile connections made in their name. One of its…
The threat actor known as ShadyPanda has been involved in a seven-year browser extension campaign that has resulted in over 4.3 million installs. According to a report by Koui Security, five of these extensions started as legitimate programs and introduced malicious changes in mid-2024, garnering 300,000 installations. These extensions have since been removed. “These extensions are currently performing remote code execution every hour, downloading and executing arbitrary JavaScript with full browser access,” security researcher Tuval Admoni said in a report shared with The Hacker News. “They monitor every website visit, steal encrypted browsing history, and collect complete browser fingerprints.” To…
Behind the achievements of large-scale language models like Chat GPT lie efforts with complex environmental and social impacts, from mineral extraction by children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to training systems that subject people to violent and degrading images in countries like Nigeria, to vast, resource-hungry data centers in regions with cheap access to energy, water, and communications infrastructure. This means that the AI boom has the potential to create new resource production and consumption economies. This is perhaps more likely in communities that are already marginalized or have been affected by resource booms and busts in the…
Extreme hurricane flooding in the northeastern United States, which once occurred once every 100 years, could become an annual occurrence by the end of this century, a new study has found.The researchers wanted to predict how changes in hurricane behavior (which are expected to become more frequent and intense) and rising sea levels due to climate change would change the region’s flood risk in coming decades.Their results were solemn. “By the end of this century, the risk of flooding will increase significantly,” study lead author Amirhossein Begmohammadi, a civil engineer who worked on the project while a postdoctoral fellow at…
Approximately 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV. Advances in treatment have meant that infectious diseases are no longer the death sentence they once were, but researchers have so far been unable to find a cure. Instead, people living with HIV must take a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs for the rest of their lives.But in 2025, researchers reported a breakthrough suggesting that a “functional” cure for HIV – a way to keep HIV under control for long periods of time without ongoing treatment – may actually be possible. In two independent trials using engineered antibody infusions, some participants remained…