After a nearly monthlong delay, states are now able to order this season’s COVID-19 vaccines through a federal program that provides free immunizations to low-income children, the US health department says. Trump officials have still not provided a clear explanation for the delay, raising concerns about meddling from anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

On Wednesday, Ars Technica reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had still not opened ordering for 2026–2027 COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program. That was despite the vaccines having been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in late August.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told Ars on Wednesday that “CDC has not yet finalized procurement decisions” for the shots. The department’s statement further suggested Trump officials were questioning whether children should receive them. “HHS and CDC are committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources and to ensuring that vaccines purchased through federally funded programs are appropriate for the populations those programs serve,” the department said.

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Did you know that the first character that Walt Disney created to specifically appear on television was inspired, in part, by early Space Age rocket scientists?

On this day 65 years ago (September 24, 1961), Disney introduced the “renowned scientist, lecturer, psychologist [and] world traveler,” Ludwig Von Drake. A member of the Duck family (he is the “brilliant and eccentric” uncle of Donald Duck), Von Drake was “the outstanding genius of the century” (per Disney himself) who helped to explain scientific principles and technological concepts to the millions of people who tuned in every Sunday to watch Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on NBC.

A few years later, after expertly (but often absent-mindedly) addressing topics such as how color television works, the health benefits of exercising, and the history of aviation, Von Drake dove into the topic for which he said he wrote the book on, in the February 10, 1963, episode “Inside Outer Space.”

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No more Beavis and Butt-Head in your matches.

404 Media reports “multiple contractors hired to improve OpenAI’s models have been fired for using AI to train the AI:

That’s not great for the models themselves, but there is also obviously a great irony in AI training companies working for OpenAI firing people for using AI when OpenAI’s whole thing is to make people use AI at work… OpenAI declined to comment on its contractors being fired for using AI.

Their article cites internal documents and three contractors working on OpenAI-related projects which can include more than ten thousand contractors:

One contractor said they see people using AI “all the time and people are let go for it all the time, it’s pretty much the one thing that will get you kicked off ASAP.” The person said, “in a group of thousands there are tons that have been caught….” Two of the sources said people have been fired or offboarded for using AI… One contractor said they used AI while helping to train OpenAI’s models and shared what they presented as their termination letter. It said their employer had identified issues with the “authenticity” of their work….

404 Media spoke to a fourth contractor who has worked on training models for various AI companies. They said they sometimes purposefully chose the worst responses because they wanted to actively sabotage the models’ training. “I did feel guilty about doing this kind of work at the start,” they said. “I either pay zero attention to the results and choose randomly or purposely choose the [worst] output. I’m not sure how much of a difference it actually makes since there are hundreds of other people also rating prompt results, but it does feel like I’m getting paid to make AI worse.”

Two of the contractors worked for Mercor, the article reports, a company which last month Nvidia reportedly discussed funding at a $20 billion valuation.

Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Marble mazes: I used to love making them as a kid. I probably still would, but who has the time for fun? My Playstation controller doesn’t even hold a charge between the times I’m able to play. This is a video demonstration of the ‘Cacophany’ marble maze constructed by Jelle’s Marble Runs over the course of 278 hours. It has hoppers to run either 200 or 1,000 marbles and was designed specifically to make a bunch of noise as marbles travel along its track and includes “128 bells and chimes, but also a large number of drums, funnels, springs, nails, wooden sticks and more.” It was an enjoyable watch. My across-the-street neighbor leaving for work with his coffee on top of his car? Also enjoyable, because he’s a jerk. If he didn’t let his dog poop in my yard when he thinks I’m not looking (I’m always looking) I might have said something. Well, if I’d had any clothes on, which I didn’t, and still don’t. *shrug* It’s a slow morning. “It’s 2PM.” Sure, but it’s 8AM in Honolulu. “And are you in Honolulu?” Only in the fake vacation album I made with AI to brag about on Instagram. “This is a photo of you swimming with mermaids.” You should have been there, it was once in a lifetime!