Florida Catholics slap down state AG by rejecting religious vaccine exemptions

Florida Catholics slap down state AG by rejecting religious vaccine exemptions

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

Florida's attorney general got a fiery rebuke and some ecclesiastical schooling from the state's Catholic bishops after he boldly threatened to block funding to Catholic schools unless the church bends to the state's anti-vaccine policies—policies allegedly intended to uphold religious freedom.

On July 31, Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a questionable letter to the bishops regarding exemptions to school vaccination requirements. Florida law requires public and private schools to allow vaccination exemptions based on religious grounds. But Catholic schools in the state do not accept religious exemptions; Florida's Catholic dioceses support vaccination and recognize no theological argument against it. The schools only accept exemptions based on medical conditions that are verified by a healthcare provider.

Uthmeier, himself a Catholic, wrote to the bishops in an open letter that, based on his own understanding of Catholicism, he saw "no legitimate religious reason to refuse granting religious exemptions." He reviewed select theological positions regarding the use of "abortion-derived vaccines," and suggested to the bishops that it was "morally reprehensible" that they not grant religious exemptions.

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Google announces Gemini 3.5 Transcribe for AI-powered speech-to-text

Google announces Gemini 3.5 Transcribe for AI-powered speech-to-text

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

While we wait (possibly in vain) for Gemini 3.5 Pro to launch, Google is releasing a different model in the 3.5 branch. The company has announced Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, an AI model designed to streamline voice input by editing out "ums" and corrections, outputting polished AI text. This model already powers the Gboard "Rambler" feature on the Pixel 11, but it's about to appear throughout the Google ecosystem.

According to Google, Gemini 3.5 Transcribe is much faster and more accurate than its previous voice-to-text engine, known as Chirp 3. The new AI model should be about 70 percent faster from voice to final transcribed text, and the live-speech error rate has dropped to 5.5 percent. That's only a little better than Chirp 3, which Google measures at 7.32 percent. Still, it's a pain to fix typos when you're using voice input, so any improvement here is beneficial.

Credit: Google

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The Porsche 911 GT3 Touring punches above its weight class

The Porsche 911 GT3 Touring punches above its weight class

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

The GT3 occupies a singular place in the 911 lineup. Whereas the range-topping Turbo S piles on power, technology, luxury, and all-weather capability, the GT3 has always pursued something more elemental: a lighter weight, more focus, and a finely honed setup that puts the driver at the center of the experience.

Porsche has expanded the GT3 formula since the model’s debut in 1999, adding the more extreme GT3 RS to the lineup in 2003 and the slightly more reserved GT3 Touring in 2017, along with the GT3 S/C earlier this year. While the concept behind the drop-top S/C requires some mental gymnastics to make sense of it, the Touring’s original premise was refreshingly simple: Take the standard GT3—including its naturally aspirated 4.0 L flat-six and track-tuned chassis—and replace the fixed rear wing with the deployable spoiler from the Carrera. The result is a subtler version of the homologation car that recaptures the classic 911 silhouette without giving up the hardware that makes a GT3 a GT3.

Fresh from its 992.2 mid-cycle update, the latest GT3 Touring sticks closely to that original design. Its 4.0 L flat-six still spins to 9,000 rpm and produces 502 hp (375 kW) and 331 lb-ft (449 Nm), sending its output exclusively to the rear wheels through either a seven-speed PDK dual-clutch automatic or six-speed manual gearbox. Massive brakes, rear-axle steering, a GT3-specific suspension, active sport exhaust, and plenty of other road course-oriented hardware remain standard.

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Xtracycle's Swoop ASM e-bike brings an automatic transmission to cargo bikes

Xtracycle's Swoop ASM e-bike brings an automatic transmission to cargo bikes

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

The Velotric Discover M e-bike we reviewed earlier this year had a feature I found somewhat annoying: It would sporadically block much of the display with an alert telling me I should be in a different gear. While the implementation bugged me, the concept made a certain degree of sense; most e-bikes now know your cadence, how much torque you're generating, and how that power is being translated into speed. That's everything you need to know to determine an optimal gear.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought, "If you're so smart, why don't you just shift for me?"

I was completely unaware that Shimano had already developed a system that did exactly that. And for the past few weeks, I've been using it on a $4,500 cargo bike from Xtracycle called the Swoop ASM that let me see what it's like to hand control of my gears to an electronic brain.

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World humanoid robot games show runners breaking records, bursting into flames

World humanoid robot games show runners breaking records, bursting into flames

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

Viral videos of the World Humanoid Robot Games show sprinting robots beating the human 100-meter record held by Usain Bolt—but also feature running robots crashing into barriers and falling down because they cannot readily stop running. A few fallen robots even break at the waist in a shower of sparks or catch on fire.

That demonstration of both robotic prowess and limitations came from the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games hosted in Beijing from August 22–26. Like the inaugural event held in 2025, this year’s event challenged humanoid robots to run fast, perform kung fu or dance moves, fight one another in kickboxing, and play soccer or table tennis.

This year’s games also tested robots in more humdrum practical scenarios like washing and hanging laundry, where they appeared to lag behind typical human working speeds. That suggests the event organizers, including Chinese state media and the Beijing city government, are keen to showcase the commercial potential of humanoid robots at a time when China’s robotics industry is rapidly developing and testing such robots.

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Preserving glow-in-the-dark art and fashion for future generations

Preserving glow-in-the-dark art and fashion for future generations

fivenewscrypto    août 27, 2026   

Fashionistas of a certain age no doubt remember the late designer Stephen Sprouse, who gave Blondie's Debbie Harry her distinctive Bowery punk style. Sprouse's first collections in the mid-1980s made a major splash, melding graffiti prints, a playful '60s aesthetic, and bright Day-Glo colors that won admirers such as Andy Warhol.

Several examples of Sprouse's work are preserved in the textiles collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, where conservationists are trying to learn more about the phosphorescent and fluorescent pigments the designer used in his creations in order to keep the colors from dulling over time. They described recent advances in that research at a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held this week in Chicago.

Scientists began describing minerals that glowed in the dark as phosphors in the Middle Ages. Typically, such materials take on a charge when exposed to light, storing the absorbed energy and releasing it gradually as re-emitted light. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactive decay in 1896 because of his work with phosphorescent uranium salts: He left the salts in a closed drawer with photographic plates, which fogged up even without a light source. DayGlo paints and similar materials exploit the related phenomenon of fluorescence. DayGlo pigments fluoresce in daylight by essentially converting UV light into visible light to produce brighter, more vibrant colors.

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Google's anti-nausea Motion Assist dots finally rolling out on Android

Google's anti-nausea Motion Assist dots finally rolling out on Android

fivenewscrypto    août 26, 2026   

Some people are cursed with motion sickness, which can make it impossible to read or use a phone in a moving vehicle without suffering waves of nausea. There's a surprisingly simple trick that can make smartphones usable in such situations. Apple deployed it on the iPhone a couple of years ago, and now Google's own version is finally coming (slowly) to Android.

Motion sickness is caused by a disagreement between what your inner ear senses and what your eyes see. If you're looking at a book or a screen while in a car, the sensory mismatch can lead to a pretty unpleasant time. As part of iOS 18 in 2024, Apple released a feature called Motion Cues that places a network of moving dots on the screen to alleviate motion sickness, and it seems to work surprisingly well. Google's version is similar, but it's called Motion Assist.

Google began testing Motion Assist back in 2024, but it never expanded beyond an internal test until now. Android Authority reports Motion Assist is appearing on Pixel phones running Android 17, but there's no app or update you can install to get the feature—it's being delivered by Play Services as part of a staged rollout.

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