The discovery by JWST of a substantial population of compact "Little Red Dots" (LRDs) presented astronomers with a major mystery. By reproducing their spectra with simulations, a team argued that they were Direct Collapse Black Holes (DCBHs).

Why fight your food if you don't have to?

The former One Direction singer headlines in Buffalo on Nov. 7.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have descended into utter lawlessness, most recently in Minnesota. The violence is shocking. So are the intrusions on digital rights and civil liberties. For example, immigration agents are routinely scanning faces of people they suspect of unlawful presence in the country – 100,000 times, according to the Wall Street Journal. The technology has already misidentified at least one person, according to 404 Media. Face recognition technology is so dangerous that government should not use it at all—least of all these out-of-control immigration agencies. To combat these abuses, EFF is proud to support the “ICE Out of My Face Act.” This new federal bill would ban ICE and CBP agents, and some local police working with them, from acquiring or using biometric surveillance systems, including face recognition technology, or information derived from such systems by another entity. This bill would be enforceable, among other ways, by a strong private right of action. The bill’s lead author is Senator Ed Markey. We thank him for his longstanding leadership on this issue, including introducing similar legislation that would ban all federal law enforcement agencies, and some federally-funded state agencies, from using biometric surveillance systems (a bill that EFF also supported). The new “ICE Out of My Face Act” is also sponsored by Senator Merkley, Senator Wyden, and Representative Jayapal. As EFF explains in the new bill’s announcement: It’s past time for the federal government to end its use of this abusive surveillance technology. A great place to start is its use for immigration enforcement, given ICE and CBP’s utter disdain for the law. Face surveillance in the hands of the government is a fundamentally harmful technology, even under strict regulations or if the technology was 100% accurate. We thank the authors of this bill for their leadership in taking steps to end this use of this dangerous and invasive technology. You can read the bill here, and the bill’s announcement here.

In 2026, Amazon plans to spend $200 billion in capex. Google is just behind at $175 billion to $185 billion. It's a lot of money!

“I never … believed there was one code of morality for a public and another for a private man.” –Thomas Jefferson  Last weekend, the Justice Department released millions of additional pages (along with thousands of additional photographs) of the Epstein files. The little bit that I have seen so far absolutely staggers the imagination and …