Author: damazah@gmail.com

Melbourne finishes second-last at world tram driving championshipsDespite having one of the largest tram networks in the world, Melbourne tram drivers finished second last, just ahead of London, at the 12th European TramDriver Championship held in Warsaw yesterday.A team from Prague finished first out of 26 teams, at the highly demanding course, which included: smooth stop and go, speed control at 25 km/h, target braking, tram bowling, lateral distance, basketball, a perfect stop with the second door, and a reverse ride guided by whistle commands.Melbourne will host the next event in 2027. In 2022, Australia was the first ever non-European…

President Donald Trump has responded in characteristic fashion to the recent debate around AI safety — by declaring that these concerns are part of a long line of hoaxes “generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country.” On Saturday, Trump began his musings on AI by writing on his social network Truth Social that “many people think that the words ‘Artificial Intelligence’ are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence.” So he posted a poll where followers could vote on a new name for the technology — Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme…

By Omeiza Ajayi Tension that had simmered for months within the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the immediate circle of President Bola Tinubu has finally spilled into full public view, setting the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, against a bloc of governors elected on the party’s ticket, and raising hard questions about how the president plans to keep his disciples intact heading into the 2027 election. Where each side stands The governors staked out their position at a closed-door session of the Progressive Governors Forum PGF in Abuja last Monday, presided over by Imo State Governor,…

The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has directed all its candidates to remain in Nigeria until after the 2027 general elections. The party’s state chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi, announced the directive at the inauguration of the APC’s Tinubu-Hamzat Campaign Council at the party secretariat in Ikeja. The inauguration of the council, set up to oversee the campaigns for the victories of President Bola Tinubu and APC’s governorship candidate Femi Hamzat in Lagos State in next year’s elections, formally marks the commencement of the party’s state-wide campaigns ahead of the 2027 general elections. Mr Ojelabi said candidates were…

*Northern senators, NBA, CD demand independent investigation  *Babangida denies ownership of mining site, calls for investigation Alex Enumah, Michael Olugbode, Sunday Aborisade in Abuja and Laleye Dipo in Minna The federal government has constituted a 10-member independent committee to investigate the deaths of the 37 suspected illegal miners detained last Thursday by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, the Niger State capital.This development followed Friday’s directive by President Bola Tinubu for a “full and transparent” investigation into the deaths of the suspected illegal miners. The Northern Senators Forum (NSF), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Campaign…

Embattled surveillance technology company Flock Safety unveiled a “generous” severance package for voluntary employee departures on Friday, according to a report in Wired. Flock reportedly expects a significant portion of its 1,500-person workforce to express interest in the buyouts, and said it will grant them to a majority of those who are interested. The company’s internal announcement described these packages as the “most generous” it has ever offered. By letting employees depart voluntarily, Flock can say goodbye to team members demoralized by the ongoing backlash over the company’s license plate recognition technology. Wired also reports that without buyouts, the company…

Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing calls to set a national waiting-time target for dementia care in England.An Alzheimer’s Society proposal to set an 18‑week referral‑to‑treatment target has been backed by Professor Sir Mike Richards, England’s former national cancer director, and Baroness Louise Casey, who’s leading a major review of adult social care.In a report, Alzheimer’s Society and the King’s Trust said a “cancer-style revolution” was needed to improve dementia care, which they described as being “stuck in the 20th century”.In a speech at Alzheimer’s Society conference on Thursday, Social Care Minister Alison McGovern expressed support for the report, external.She…

A powerful eruption at Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau sent ash high into the atmosphere, disrupting thousands of flights and worsening air quality across parts of the country. Anak Krakatau is a small but highly active volcano located between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Its eruptions are often relatively modest, but the volcano is also capable of producing much more hazardous activity. In early September 2026, Anak Krakatau entered a prolonged explosive phase that lasted for more than 24 hours, sending large amounts of gas and ash into the sky. The eruption disrupted air travel and contributed to poor air…

Singer Ed Sheeran has apologised to fans for making “mistakes”, as he opened a solo show in Philadelphia by addressing the controversy that has engulfed his tour.The star responded to the fallout over rapper Macklemore being dropped from the tour for making pro-Palestinian remarks on stage earlier in September.”I never wanted to be an activist musician, but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about free speech and the most complex political issue on the planet,” he said at Saturday’s show.He described the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks as “horrific” and called the situation…

Standard versus watermarked text generation. Credit: Lasso Security Standard versus watermarked text generation. Credit: Lasso Security A key feature of SynthID is something known as tournament sampling. Similar to a sports game, SynthID evaluates large numbers of next-word token candidates. It uses a secret key to assign them probability scores. A pair of tokens competes in a round. The one with the higher hidden score wins and advances to the next round. The process continues until a final winning token is determined. More about tournament sampling can be found here and here. Siposova tested the “non-distortionary” configuration of SynthID-Text through…