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Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah — a multibranched candelabra.In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication.” The holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem nearly 2,200 years ago after a small group of Jewish fighters liberated it from occupying foreign forces.With the tiny supply of ritually pure oil that they found in the temple, they lit the menorah. According to the Talmud, it miraculously remained lit for eight days. The ritual of…

Holiday shopping has always felt like a “chore” for Amrita Bhasin. Between deciding what to buy, comparing prices and checking reviews, the 24-year-old retail tech CEO said she spent more than 15 hours each year buying gifts for her friends and family, a process that took the joy out of giving. But this year, Bhasin said she did all of her shopping in a fraction of the time and even had a little “fun” — all thanks to her new personal assistant: ChatGPT. “I feel like I’ve got that physical store associate that I’m talking to, so I feel like I’m getting better…

A construction worker building a concrete wall at SpaceX’s Starbase site in November was crushed by a large metal support that fell from a crane, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, TechCrunch has learned. The worker, Eduardo Cavazos, filed a previously unreported lawsuit in November detailing the accident, and is suing SpaceX and one of its contractors for negligence. SpaceX reported the incident to OSHA, and the agency opened a “rapid response investigation,” according to Joanna Hawkins, deputy regional director of public affairs. Rapid response investigations typically involve OSHA asking an employer for more information…

Overview Energy emerged from stealth today with a plan to use the world’s solar panels as nighttime collectors of power beamed down from space. The startup plans to use large solar arrays in geosynchronous orbit — about 22,000 miles above Earth where satellites match the planet’s rotation — to harvest sunlight. It will then use infrared lasers to transmit that power to utility-scale solar farms on Earth, allowing them to send power to the grid nearly round the clock.  Overview has raised $20 million to date, and part of that money has gone toward an airborne demonstration of its power-beaming…

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian accident investigators on Thursday released dramatic images of a skydiver’s parachute becoming entangled on an airplane’s tail, leaving him dangling at 4,500 meters (15,000 feet.)The skydiver, Adrian Ferguson, used a hook knife to cut himself free and sustained minor leg injuries during the incident on Sept. 20 that began at Tully Airport in Queensland state. The pilot and 16 other parachutists on board the Cessna Caravan that day were not hurt.The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released the video with its report on its investigation into the mishap.The plane had reached the desired altitude where the…

Spotify announced on Wednesday that, for the first time, it’s giving users more control over the streaming service’s algorithm. That’s at least how the company is framing the launch of its new “Promoted Playlists,” a feature that will initially be available to Premium subscribers in New Zealand. The feature, which is currently available in English only, is still in beta and will evolve before rolling out to other markets, according to Spotify. The new tool allows users to describe what they want to hear in a personalized playlist that reflects the “full arc” of their tastes, according to the company.…

Park Dae-jun has resigned as chief executive of South Korean retail giant Coupang after a data breach exposed the personal information of more than half of the country’s population. In a statement, Park apologized for the breach, citing a “deep sense of responsibility for the outbreak and the subsequent recovery process.” Coupang has replaced Park with Harold Rogers, the top lawyer at Coupang’s U.S.-based parent company, according to a machine translation of the company statement. The retail giant, often compared to Amazon for its dominance in South Korean e-commerce and logistics, last month revealed details of a data breach affecting…

Google launched Android Emergency Live Video on Wednesday, which allows people to stream video when contacting emergency responders. This feature could help give first responders extra context in circumstances like car accidents, fires, or medical crises. There’s no setup required to use this feature. Instead, during an emergency call or text, a dispatcher can send a request to your device. Then you can opt into sharing your camera’s live video, which is encrypted and can be stopped at your discretion. “With a single tap, you can start securely streaming from your camera, allowing responders to quickly assess the situation and…

Nvidia is allegedly testing software that can track the location of its AI chips as reports of its chips being smuggled into China are on the rise. Nvidia has built location verification technology that would allow it to track which country a chip is located in, Reuters originally reported, citing anonymous sources. This software tracks computing performance but the delay in communication between servers also offers a sense of a chip’s location. This software will be optional for customers to use and will be made available for Blackwell chips first, Reuters said. Multiple reports have surfaced in the last few…

After a string of disturbing mental health incidents involving AI chatbots, a group of state attorneys general have sent a letter to the AI industry’s top companies, with a warning to fix “delusional outputs” or risk being in breach of state law.  The letter, signed by dozens of AGs from U.S. states and territories with the National Association of Attorneys General, asks the companies, including Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and 10 other major AI firms, to implement a variety of new internal safeguards to protect their users. Anthropic, Apple, Chai AI, Character Technologies, Luka, Meta, Nomi AI, Perplexity AI, Replika, and…