Fjall 3.0, a Rust-based log-structured key-value storage engine similar to RocksDB, has been released with significant performance improvements, new APIs, enhanced data checksumming, and default compression for large values, making it a competitive option for embedded database solutions.
The Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Database, recently reinstated by Climate Central after being discontinued during the Trump administration, reports that the first half of 2025 has caused over $100 billion in damages from extreme weather events in the US, with a notable increase in billion-dollar disasters driven by climate change, population growth, and increased infrastructure in harm's way.
An online group called the Charlie Kirk Data Foundation is creating a searchable database of social media users who criticized or celebrated Kirk's death, claiming to analyze support for political violence, raising concerns about free speech and chilling effects on debate in America.
Biologists have launched a new database of marine animals' body sizes, which could aid in ocean biodiversity preservation by providing insights into animal behavior, physiology, and habitat preferences.
The Trump administration reportedly plans to create a comprehensive database on Americans using Palantir's technology, raising privacy and security concerns due to its potential for extensive surveillance and data centralization, with Palantir having a history of government contracts and controversial work.
Snowflake is acquiring Crunchy Data, a Postgres database company, in a deal estimated at around $250 million, to enhance its database offerings and support AI-driven data solutions, including the upcoming launch of Snowflake Postgres.
The 2023 Massachusetts State Police payroll has been released, revealing earnings ranging from $400,000 and above. The Boston Herald encourages readers to explore the database and offers a Watchdog newsletter for related coverage, while also inviting tips and questions regarding the payroll.
Cryptographers have developed a secure method for preprocessing a single-server database, allowing for private information retrieval. The method involves transforming the information in the database into a mathematical expression that can be evaluated by the server. By using this approach, the authors were able to construct a new scheme that improves the efficiency of internet searches and programs requiring quick access to data. While the current implementation is not practically useful, further optimization could make private lookups from large databases a reality, offering hope for total search privacy.
Monday.com, a business tools platform, decided to build its own database, MondayDB, instead of buying one off-the-shelf due to the need for flexibility and the inability of existing databases to handle the diverse use cases of its customers. The new database, implemented since July, is designed to handle various tasks by layering on other databases. The decision to build a new database was driven by the company's recognition of the need to pay off technical debt and adapt to the evolving needs of its product.
Here are the scores from Thursday night's high school football games in Michigan during Week 2. You can search the database to find your favorite team's results, which will be updated throughout the night.
A new database created by The San Francisco Chronicle highlights overdose death rates in every county in the United States. The database, which tracks drug overdoses using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals that certain counties are disproportionately impacted by the drug epidemic. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl are driving most of the deaths. Hamilton County, Ohio, saw a 16% reduction in overdose deaths in 2022, but the county still faces challenges in addressing addiction. The database provides valuable insights for understanding and responding to addiction at the local level.
A new database released by the San Francisco Chronicle using data from the Center for Disease Control reveals that the Central Coast of California has a significantly lower overdose mortality rate compared to much of the state. The 2022 overdose mortality rates per 100,000 people are as follows: Monterey (20.6, 89 deaths), Santa Cruz (35.6, 94 deaths), and San Benito (16.3, 11 deaths). In contrast, San Francisco County has one of the highest overdose mortality rates in the country, ranking seventh among 145 counties with at least 500,000 people.
Researchers from the UK have created a publicly available database called the "unknome," which compiles information on thousands of understudied proteins encoded by genes in the human genome. The database assigns a "knownness" score to each protein based on factors such as function, conservation, and subcellular compartmentalization. By prioritizing research on proteins with low knownness scores, the database aims to accelerate the understanding of these genes and their potential roles in critical cellular processes. The authors tested the database by studying genes in humans and flies, revealing that many of these understudied proteins contribute to essential functions. The unknome database provides a platform for identifying and selecting important genes of unknown function, bridging the gap in biological knowledge.
Databricks has acquired MosaicML, an AI startup focused on taking AI beyond the lab, for $1.3 billion. MosaicML's Composer program makes it easy and affordable to speed up the development of AI programs such as OpenAI's GPT. MosaicML's approach implies that whole areas of working with data, such as the traditional relational database, could be completely reinvented. The acquisition brings MosaicML into a vibrant non-relational database market that has been shifting the paradigm of a data store beyond row and column.
The Information has created a database of over 35 companies that use generative AI, with startups on the list having raised over $15 billion. The database will be updated regularly with more information on the companies and their growth. The rise of generative AI has also led to record spending on the cloud.