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MacRumors: X May Charge New Users a ‘Small Fee’ to Post, Like and Reply

X Daily News, a feed that posts X updates, today noticed that text strings on the website have been updated to mention a small annual fee that new users will need to pay in order to access the social network.

Musk said in response that the fee for new users is “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”

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Globe: Hockey gear maker CCM up for sale as private equity owner looks for an exit

On the eve of the NHL playoffs, private equity fund manager Birch Hill Equity Partners has placed CCM Hockey on the auction block. CCM, one of two dominant hockey-gear companies, is expected to fetch a price that is a significant multiple to the $110-million Birch Hill paid for the business seven years ago.

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UPI: On This Day, April 16: Wayne Gretzky announces retirement from NHL

On April 16, 1999, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years.

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Globe: Cathal Kelly: Alex Ovechkin is a new kind of sports celebrity, a legacy-maker that nobody wants to talk about

You head over to his official Instagram and, yes, it’s still Ovechkin standing beside Vladimir Putin flashing a V for victory.

This guy either doesn’t get it, doesn’t care or does in both instances and has an agenda. None of those options show well on hockey.

This has turned Ovechkin into a new kind of sports celebrity – the all-timer in the midst of achieving his legacy who cannot be promoted.

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Fast Company: Colorado is offering $450 e-bike subsidies. Other states should too

The commencement of the largest ever e-bike subsidy program in the U.S. is as good a time as ever to sing the praises of these kinds of policies. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offers electric car subsidies as large as $7,500, but not a penny for e-bikes. It was a huge missed opportunity—hopefully one that will be corrected in the future. There are few policies that can do so much good for so little money as e-bike subsidies.

There are a million good reasons to get more e-bikes on the streets. E-bikes “provide a Swiss Army knife’s worth of societal benefits,” transportation analyst David Zipper has written. Zipper has been calling for federal e-bike subsidies for years, and various other pundits, like Jay Caspian Kang and Alex Pareene, have made similar arguments.

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TorStar: CRA’s debt recovery ‘horror stories’ flood social media

You’ve tried paying back your tax debt but it turns out, none of it went through. Or you have to prove to the government that you are, actually, broken up with your ex and don’t owe thousands of dollars to the Canada Revenue Agency.

Look through your TikTok feed and you’ll come across the same story on repeat: a notice from the CRA, scrutiny on past tax filings and a hefty back payment due with a quick turnaround.

It’s a problem that has been plaguing frustrated tax filers who are taking to social media to vent, many saying they now owe the federal agency thousands of dollars.

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UPI: Trump Media value falls additional 14% as new streaming platform launch announced

The stock value of former President Donald Trump’s media company — the owner of app Truth Social — on Tuesday continued to fall more than 14% as the company unveiled its intent to launch a digital live-streaming platform.

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The new streaming content — which will roll out in three phases — will include “live TV, including news networks, religious channels, family-friendly content including films and documentaries” and “other content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”

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ScienceAlert: Scientists Unlock The Mystery of How We Taste Bitterness

Led by a team from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, the study focuses on a bitter taste receptor called TAS2R14, and its role in helping identify one of the five different tastes we can sense: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (or savory).

It builds on what we know about the sense of taste, and could potentially lead to improved treatments for health conditions that the TAS2R14 receptor has been implicated in – including obesity, diabetes, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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The team revealed that when bitter substances (or tastants) hit TAS2R14, they’re wedged into the allosteric site. This regulatory region allows molecules to bind to a protein and influence its functional activity.

The mechanism hasn’t been discovered before. The tastant’s connection with the allosteric site changes the shape of the receptor, activating its coupled G protein and setting off a chain reaction of signaling further down the line.

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9to5Mac: Apple to let users watch their own videos during Vision Pro demo

Internally known as the “VPG Photos Retail Experience,” this system will create an HTTP file transfer service with SPAKE2 encryption to transfer files between an iPhone and Apple Vision Pro. Customers will be able to select their own Spatial Videos and then transfer them to the Vision Pro by scanning an App Clip code.

There will be a limit to how many videos can be transferred so that the process doesn’t take too long. All files will be deleted immediately after the demo session for privacy reasons.

Aaahhh! SPAKE2 encryption!

Apple Vision Pro costs $3,499 in the US, and the company says the headset will reach more countries by the end of the year. As for iOS 17.5, the update is expected to be released to the public next month.

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MacRumors: Native Microsoft OneNote App Now Available for Apple Vision Pro

Microsoft today introduced a version of OneNote that is designed to run on the Apple Vision Pro headset. OneNote for Vision Pro was created for visionOS, and it includes many of the features that are available on OneNote for iPad.

The app can be used to write memos, notes, and digital notebooks, and there are options to sync content to OneDrive for access across multiple platforms. There is support for tags like Important and To Do, and notes can be protected with a password.

OneNote on Vision Pro works hands-free or with a connected keyboard and mouse. In the future, Microsoft plans to add support for Copilot, two-factor authentication, and inserting images from the camera or the Photos app.

OneNote can be downloaded from the ‌visionOS‌ App Store as of today. It works with personal and work accounts that are not managed by an organization.

Microsoft has made many of its apps available on the Vision Pro, including Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

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Carsie Blanton (YouTube): Fishin’ With You

A tribute to the great John Prine. I learned of his passing last night. I cried all day today, then wrote this. Almost made it through the take without crying! Borrowed John’s melody and a bunch of his words, like I often do. They’re embossed on all my guts. I wouldn’t know what songs are without his. John, we’ll never thank you enough. #RIPJohnPrine

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Last Updated: 16.Apr.2024 23:54 EDT

Monday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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NYT: On Himalayan Hillsides Grows Japan’s Cold, Hard Cash

But life can be tough. Wild animals destroyed the corn and potato crops of Pasang Sherpa, a farmer born near Mount Everest. He gave up on those plants a dozen years ago and resorted to raising one that seemed to have little value: argeli, an evergreen, yellow-flowering shrub found wild in the Himalayas. Farmers grew it for fencing or firewood.

Mr. Sherpa had no idea that bark stripped from his argeli would one day turn into pure money — the outgrowth of an unusual trade in which one of the poorest pockets of Asia supplies a primary ingredient for the economy in one of the richest.

Japan’s currency is printed on special paper that can no longer be sourced at home. The Japanese love their old-fashioned yen notes, and this year they need mountains of fresh ones, so Mr. Sherpa and his neighbors have a lucrative reason to hang on to their hillsides.

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Wales Online: New warning to pregnant women over even small amount of alcohol

Even a small amount of alcohol whilst pregnant can cause birth abnormalities, a new paper has suggested. New research shows that no amount of drinking during pregnancy is safe as even low to moderate alcohol use can cause babies to be smaller and premature.

The study, published in the journal Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research, also discovered that the effects of drinking can differ based on the sex of the developing baby. Boy babies were seen to be more likely to be premature, whereas girl babies were more likely to be smaller.

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NYT: Lindsay Ryan: Many Patients Don’t Survive End-Stage Poverty

gift link

Safety-net hospitals and clinics care for a population heavily skewed toward the poor, recent immigrants and people of color. The budgets of these places are forever tight. And anyone who works in them could tell you that illness in our patients isn’t just a biological phenomenon. It’s the manifestation of social inequality in people’s bodies.

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OpenSSF: Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations Issue Alert for Social Engineering Takeovers of Open Source Projects

The recent attempted XZ Utils backdoor (CVE-2024-3094) may not be an isolated incident as evidenced by a similar credible takeover attempt intercepted by the OpenJS Foundation, home to JavaScript projects used by billions of websites worldwide. The Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations are calling all open source maintainers to be alert for social engineering takeover attempts, to recognize the early threat patterns emerging, and to take steps to protect their open source projects.

Failed Credible Takeover Attempt

The OpenJS Foundation Cross Project Council received a suspicious series of emails with similar messages, bearing different names and overlapping GitHub-associated emails. These emails implored OpenJS to take action to update one of its popular JavaScript projects to “address any critical vulnerabilities,” yet cited no specifics. The email author(s) wanted OpenJS to designate them as a new maintainer of the project despite having little prior involvement. This approach bears strong resemblance to the manner in which “Jia Tan” positioned themselves in the XZ/liblzma backdoor.

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NYT: Lake Mead Ancient Rocks Toppled by Vandals

After a video was widely shared online of two men pushing over a rock formation at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, the authorities are asking for the public’s help to identify them.

They wanted to show their children how brainless their dads are?

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NYT: ‘Eldest Daughter Syndrome’ and Sibling Birth Order: Does it Matter?

On X, a viral post asks: “are u happy or are u the oldest sibling and also a girl”?

Firstborn daughters are having a moment in the spotlight, at least online, with memes and think pieces offering a sense of gratification to responsible, put-upon big sisters everywhere. But even mental health professionals like Ms. Morton — herself the youngest in her family — caution against putting too much stock in the psychology of sibling birth order, and the idea that it shapes personality or long term outcomes.

Of course she says that: she’s the youngest!

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Last Updated: 15.Apr.2024 22:14 EDT

Sunday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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NYT: She Was Kidnapped a Decade Ago With 275 Girls. Finally, She Escaped.

Saratu Dauda had been kidnapped. It was 2014, she was 16, and she was in a truck packed with her classmates heading into the bush in northeastern Nigeria, a member of the terrorist group Boko Haram at the wheel. The girls’ boarding school in Chibok, miles behind them, had been set on fire.

Then she noticed that some girls were jumping off the back of the truck, she said, some alone, others in pairs, holding hands. They ran and hid in the scrub as the truck trundled on.

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Guardian: Torsten Bell: We don’t do our best work just before lunch, and it’s not much better afterwards

But new research reassures me that “postprandial somnolence” (the food coma) is real. A study in India investigated how the test scores of 4,600 students were swayed by their satiation. A lot is the answer. Those who’d eaten within an hour of their exam scored 17% lower in some subjects. The more complex the task, the more pronounced the decline in cognitive performance: reading comprehension declined by only 4% for individual words, but a whopping 18% for paragraphs.

This is problematic because, well, we do need to eat. Being “hangry” and needing a break brings its own troubles. Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who died last month, helped popularise a study he’d edited, showing that judges were not neutral decision-making machines of legal theory. The probability of them granting parole dropped towards zero just before lunch, before jumping back up (to about 65%) immediately after.

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CBC: Sask. forecasts $250M deficit, $1.3B worse than original budget projection

27.Nov.2024

Saskatchewan’s latest mid-year financial update projects a $250-million deficit, an outcome that would be $1.3-billion worse than the $1-billion surplus predicted in the annual budget.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said the swing is due in part to drought that resulted in crop insurance payouts, along with lower potash prices and sales than expected.

“Two large factors outside of the government’s control play into this forecast. The drought was unforeseen, reducing projected crop production by 20 per cent in 2023, when compared to 2022,” Harpauer said.

If you don’t like the cost of carbon reduction, you’re going to hate the costs of climate change.

*via What On Earth on the CBC Radio podcast*

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CBC: Sask. premier says change in federal government the only way to solve carbon tax dispute

28.Mar.2024

Moe and six other premiers have called for a halt to the planned increase to Ottawa’s carbon pricing plan — to $80 per tonne from $65 — scheduled for April 1.

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Just Have a Think (YouTube): Ocean Electricity Grid. How do they do that?

Pylons are ugly and nobody likes them! Filling up our countryside with thousands more of them to facilitate a massive electricity grid expansion is proving to be a very tricky challenge with lots of local opposition. But what if you could build your electricity grid out at sea and just bring cables to shore where they’re needed?

Interesting discussion of the issues around creating an offshore electrical grid for Britain.

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Atlantic: Tupperware Is in Trouble

For the first several decades of my life, most of the meals I ate involved at least one piece of Tupperware. My mom’s pieces were mostly the greens and yellows of a 1970s kitchen, purchased from co-workers or neighbors who circulated catalogs around the office or slipped them into mailboxes in our suburban subdivision. Many of her containers were acquired before my brother and I were born and remained in regular use well after I flew the nest for college in the mid-2000s. To this day, the birthday cake that my mom makes for my visits gets stored on her kitchen counter in a classic Tupperware cake saver–a flat gold base with a tall, milky-white lid made of semi-rigid plastic. Somewhere deep in her cabinets, the matching gold carrying strap is probably still hiding, in case a cake is on the go.

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Daring Fireball: The Masters VisionOS App

Link: The Masters VisionOS App on the AppStore

It’s Sunday at Augusta, the leaderboard is tight at the top, and Augusta National has a pretty damn good VisionOS apps. Some cool VR features like tabletop-style VR maps of the holes, with 3D shot-tracking. All free of charge, too, from one of the only major sporting events in the entire world with a restrained approach to advertising and sponsorships.

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Health Digest: Eating Sourdough Bread Has An Unexpected Effect On Your Heart

According to a 2021 article in Microorganisms, sourdough bread is healthier than you think with its vitamins and minerals that regulate metabolism and boost your energy. Sourdough can also keep tabs on your blood sugar, and the natural prebiotics are good for your gut health. The antioxidants and other nutrients found in sourdough bread can also protect your heart from disease.

The fermentation process used to make sourdough bread not only makes it more digestible than other breads, but also improves its antioxidant, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory properties, according to a 2023 article in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. For example, sourdough bread made from fermented spelt has more phenols and flavonoids compared to non-fermented spelt. These phenols and flavonoids are antioxidants that combat oxidative stress that’s often linked to heart disease and cancer. Beta-glucans in sourdough bind with cholesterol so it doesn’t get absorbed in your bloodstream.

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Last Updated: 14.Apr.2024 22:33 EDT

Saturday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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NewsNation: DeSantis signs bill banning heat protection laws for outdoor workers

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Thursday barring local governments from requiring heat protection for outdoor workers.

Rather than sign the bill at a press conference, as DeSantis usually does, the Florida governor opted to quietly sign the controversial bill and announce it during a Thursday night press release alongside nine other bills.

The bill, passed by the Florida Senate in March 2024, makes it so local governments can not require companies to “meet or provide heat exposure requirements beyond those required by law.” Miami-Dade County commissioners took up an ordinance last year that would require employers to provide access to water and breaks in the shade on especially hot days, but it was deferred to this spring.

The ordinance was the culmination of a years-long campaign from local workers’ rights groups in response to heat-related illnesses and deaths in industries such as construction and agriculture.

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Guardian: Naama Lazimi: I believe in another Israel – one not defined by Benjamin Netanyahu and his cronies

But the broader Israeli populace desires something different. They seek the opportunity to rebuild their communities destroyed by Hamas attacks, yearning for the return of their 133 loved ones who were abducted.

Moreover, they don’t want to witness further bloodshed in Gaza; instead they want to see the elimination of the murderous terrorism that declared war on Israel and slaughtered us mercilessly on that terrible day. They want to see their sons return from the battlefield. They want a quiet home in which to raise happy children. Over the past few weeks, there has been a surge in protests demanding the return of the hostages and the replacement of the government. Thousands of Israeli citizens have taken to the streets, advocating for immediate elections, a deal for the hostages, and a more accountable leadership.

We must not allow Netanyahu — who is accused of criminal activity including fraud, bribery and breach of trust (he denies the allegations), who made dangerous alliances with extremists to form his government, and has even attempted to turn Israel into a de facto dictatorship through his government’s controversial attempt to pass “judicial reform” — to dictate our relations and divide us. We need to make a clear distinction between this extremist government and the people. When US vice-president Kamala Harris was asked if Israel is at risk of losing American support in the war, she replied that it is important to distinguish between the Israeli government and its citizens, and she is absolutely right. The Israeli people are entitled to security — as are the Palestinians. Israeli citizens are the ones thwarting Netanyahu’s authoritarianism, we are the ones holding him back in this moment.

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AP: How a father of a trans daughter pushes past his prejudice

Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out.

Before all that, Dusty Farr was — in his own words — “a full-on bigot.” By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ+.

Now, though, after everything, he says he wouldn’t much care if his 16-year-old daughter — and he proudly calls her that — told him she was an alien. Because she is alive.

“When it was my child, it just flipped a switch,” says Farr, who is suing the Platte County School District on Kansas City’s outskirts. “And it was like a wake-up.”

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CP (Yahoo Sports): US and Canada win semifinals to set up 22nd gold-medal showdown at women’s hockey championships

The Americans advanced on Saturday with a 5-0 win over Finland, in an outing Laila Edwards scored a natural hat trick and Aerin Frankel stopped 15 shots to set a single-tournament record with her fourth shutout.

The Canadians followed with 4-0 win over Czechia, more widely known in English as the Czech Republic. Emily Clark and Jocelyne Larocque had a goal and assist each, and Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped nine shots for her second shutout of the tournament.

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Last Updated: 13.Apr.2024 23:59 EDT

Friday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

It feels like the Apple Vision Pro’s profile has sunk like a stone. I hope they release it to more countries soon. I wonder if they threw things like internationalization overboard in the final push to ship?

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pv magazine: California Supreme Court to review rooftop solar net metering

The case involves the state’s NEM 3.0 net metering scheme and the rate structure that went into effect in April 2023. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a request by the state’s largest investor-owned utilities to cut compensation to customers that export excess solar generation to the grid, a process called net energy metering.

Net metering rates were rapidly cut by 80% under NEM 3.0. This change, combined with a high-interest rate environment, has pushed the state’s robust rooftop solar industry off a cliff, damaging the return on investment for homeowners, and leading to more than 17,000 solar jobs lost, demand falling 80% post-implementation, and numerous companies filing for bankruptcy.

“The commission’s new rooftop solar policy enables the utilities’ self-interested attack on rooftop solar,” said Bill Powers, an energy expert with The Protect Our Communities Foundation. “The real problem is heedless pursuit of maximum profit by the utilities at the expense of reasonable rates and commonsense climate action.”

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TorStar: Jagmeet Singh backpedals on consumer carbon levy

Referring to a March report that concluded industrial carbon pricing systems were far more effective than the consumer levy on fuel, Singh told reporters that the New Democrats “want more attention on the policies that are the biggest drivers of lowering emissions,” such as the industrial price on pollution and methane regulations. He said the NDP would release its own climate plan.

“It can’t just be that our only approach to fighting the climate crisis is using free-market solutions,” he said. “That is not sufficient to meet the seriousness of what we’re up against.”

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Overall, the Abacus data showed a small increase in the number of respondents who don’t support the federal carbon pricing system, although it also revealed they were skeptical of all political messaging around the issue – regardless of whether it was positive or negative. When it comes to which of the two major federal leaders was providing the most accurate information around the policy, 27 per cent of responders chose Trudeau, 32 per cent chose Poilievre, and 41 per cent said neither.

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TorStar: Jon Wells: 14 years. 140 officers. Inside the Lucas Shortreed case

She determined it was OEM: Original equipment manufacturer vehicle paint.

To find a match for her white paint sample, she tapped into an RCMP database that stored more than 15,000 paint samples.

She determined the paint had come from the frame of the hit-and-run car, near where the windshield meets the front door, and found 578 samples in the database that matched.

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Globe: Priest accused of sex assaults against children in Nunavut dies

The Oblates of Lacombe Canada and the Oblate Province of France say Johannes Rivoire died Thursday.

Rev. Ken Thorson with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Lacombe Canada said Friday in an email the death may be difficult news for those who advocated for the priest to face justice in Canada.

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Globe: Gary Mason: Victoria has a problem it can’t solve: homelessness

Pandora Avenue, in the downtown core, has long been a magnet for displaced persons. A broad stretch of sidewalk extending a long city block is today the site of a number of tents, some quite large, that house dozens and dozens of homeless people, many of whom are drug-addicted and mentally ill. Outreach workers have noted the recent arrival to the camp of people from outside the province and also an increase in the number of youth.

It’s all had a debilitating impact on nearby businesses, such as McDonald’s and Save-On-Foods, which are constantly calling police to deal with issues caused by those who have little to eat and no place to turn when nature calls.

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Yahoo Sports: Coyotes players reportedly told team is moving from Arizona to Utah

Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong met with the team before their game against the Edmonton Oilers on Friday to confirm rumors that the NHL has facilitated a sale of the team to Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the Utah Jazz, according to ESPN. Players had reportedly been demanding answers, leading Armstrong to fly up to Edmonton to break the news.

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Last Updated: 12.Apr.2024 23:50 EDT

Thursday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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NYT: Trina Robbins, Creator and Historian of Comic Books, Dies at 84

Trina Robbins, who as an artist, writer and editor of comics was a pioneering woman in a male-dominated field, and who as a historian specialized in books about women cartoonists, died on Wednesday in San Francisco. She was 84.

Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her longtime partner, the superhero comics inker Steve Leialoha, who said she had recently suffered a stroke.

In 1970, Ms. Robbins was one of the creators of It Ain’t Me Babe Comix, the first comic book made exclusively by women. In 1985, she was the first woman to draw Wonder Woman in her own comic after four decades of male hegemony. In 1994, she was a founder of Friends of Lulu, an advocacy group for female comic-book creators and readers.

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NYT: Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on Her New Home and Book

After Doris Kearns Goodwin’s husband died nearly six years ago, the couple’s home, a 19th-century farmhouse in Concord, Mass., no longer felt right.

“We were there for 20 years,” said Ms. Kearns Goodwin, 81, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose new book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” will be published April 16.

“It was a house we had loved, and a house that in many ways we had built together,” she continued, referring to assorted refinements, including the three-car garage that became a library and the addition of a tower inspired by her husband’s fascination with Galileo.

Love her writing!

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ScienceAlert: Organic Material Detected in Eggshell Fossils Could Unlock Dinosaur Secrets

Organisms reinforce these shells with a type of calcium carbonate mineral called calcite. Unlike the calcium phosphate that makes up bone, calcite can act as a closed system by trapping the products of proteins involved in calcification as they break down, including free amino acids separated from protein sequences. This closed system allowed us to observe the amino acids in our analyses.

Bird eggshell is even among the best materials to find preserved protein sequences in fossils, let alone free amino acids. Demarchi’s team has detected short, intact sequences of amino acids still bound in a chain from bird eggshell at least 6.5 million years old.

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NYT: Huey Lewis Lost His Hearing. That Didn’t Stop Him From Making a Musical.

Gift link

After Huey Lewis learned that a syndrome of the inner ear called Ménière’s disease had caused him significant hearing loss and left him unable to play or hear music, he faced the difficult task of having to tell his friends and peers.

Lewis, whose wry lyrics and rumbling vocals powered Reagan-era pop hits like “I Want a New Drug” and “If This Is It,” turned to people like Tico Torres, the longtime Bon Jovi drummer, whom he’d gotten to know on golfing trips. But their conversation proved to be an unexpected source of the pragmatic philosophy that Lewis built his career on.

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As Lewis, 73, explained, “Zen Buddhists say you need three things: Something to love, something to hope for and something to do.”

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NYT: Late Night Mocks Arizona’s Abortion Law

Stephen Colbert described the abortion ban as “so old that it was passed before women had the right to vote,” adding, “to which the Arizona Supreme Court said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll work on that one next.’”

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CBC: 140 BMO customers say they lost $1.5M in transfer frauds, plan to sue bank

BMO told them they won’t be reimbursed because their passwords were used correctly and, in some cases, one-time codes were sent and entered correctly and the IP addresses matched those of the client, according to emails from the bank.

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Kenrick Bagnall, a former Toronto police cybercrime investigator who worked in the bank security sector, says he believes the customers’ devices were infected by malware, which harvests digital credentials like passwords and IP addresses from a computer, tablet or phone.

Bagnall says cybercriminals often use social media to gain information about an individual, then send them a targeted phishing email based on their interests and recent activity, which if clicked on, can infect a device.

The malware — which can evade even advanced scanning programs — then bundles the stolen information into a package, which is sold on the dark web for between $50 to $200, depending on several variables, according to Bagnall.

There’s something really fishy here.

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CBC: Freeland announces housing affordability measures for first-time buyers, current owners

Freeland announced that effective April 16, the amount first-time home buyers can withdraw from their RRSPs to make a down payment on their first home will rise from a maximum of $35,000 to $60,000.

“This, plus the Tax-Free First Home Savings Account, can be combined, which will give younger Canadians more tools to save what is actually needed,” she said.

The Tax-Free First Home Savings Account program allows Canadians to save up to $8,000 per year toward a home, with a maximum lifetime contribution limit of $40,000.

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She said first-time home buyers who withdraw money from their RRSPs between Jan. 1 2022 and Dec. 31, 2025 will now have five years to begin repayments, instead of two.

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She said that beginning Aug. 1, first time home buyers with insured mortgages who purchase a new home will get 30 years to pay that mortgage back so “more younger Canadians can afford to pay that monthly mortgage on a new home.”

Since housing is supply-constrained, increasing the availability of money will only put upward pressure on pricing, not increase availability.

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CBC: Submitted for her approval: Danielle Smith’s new jab at Trudeau hits cities, universities too

Earlier this week, the Danielle Smith government performed its latest round of celebrating “red tape reduction.” It pledged to streamline and slash bureaucratic burdens for rural utilities, cannabis vendors and autonomous-vehicle innovators.

Two days later, what happened?

The premier announced legislation declaring that next year any municipality, school or agency that wanted any dollar or any deal with Ottawa would first need provincial civil servants to review, deliberate and give Alberta’s seal of approval.

Seems hypocritical.

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MacRumors: DuckDuckGo Launches 3-in-1 ‘Privacy Pro’ Subscription With VPN and Personal Data Removal Tool

Privacy Pro includes a VPN for anonymous browsing and secure connections regardless of location, personal information removal for removing personal data from data broker sites, and identity theft restoration should any DuckDuckGo subscriber suffer from an identity theft situation.

The VPN works on up to five devices simultaneously, so it can be installed and used on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, and other devices at the same time. It is turned on through the DuckDuckGo browser so a second app is not required, and it does filter traffic through all apps and browsers.

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Privacy Pro from DuckDuckGo is priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, and it is currently only available in the United States. Users will need to ensure they are using the latest version of the DuckDuckGo browser to take advantage of the features.

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Ars Technica: Apple will allow reuse of iPhone parts for repairs, with a notable catch

Apple also announced that iPhones’ Parts and Service history will be expanded to show whether each part that has been replaced is a new or used Genuine Apple part. Apple did not mention aftermarket parts but will presumably continue to label those as an “Unknown Part.”

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TechCrunch: Walmart will deploy robotic forklifts in its distribution centers

That Florida distribution center is the first of what the company calls its “high-tech DC.” These are warehouses where it trials automation and various other technologies, before rolling them out to its wider channel of distribution and fulfillment centers. DC 6020 is the place where Walmart began trials with Symbotic’s package sortation and retrieval technologies.

Following that successful trial, Walmart announced plans to roll out the technology to all 42 of its Regional Distribution Centers — that was nearly double the original target of 25. This week’s news is more modest, targeting four high-tech DCs, but if things go well, the retailer will order more.

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TechCrunch: Ford’s hands-free BlueCruise system was active before fatal Texas crash

The driver of a Mustang Mach-E who crashed into a stationary car in Texas in February was using Ford’s hands-free driver assistance system, BlueCruise, according to data obtained by the National Transportation Safety Board.

It’s the first known fatality resulting from a crash involving the use of BlueCruise, which Ford first announced in 2021. The system allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on pre-mapped highways, and uses eye-tracking to determine whether drivers are paying attention to the road.

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The February crash happened just outside San Antonio. A 1999 Honda CR-V was stationary in the center lane of Interstate 10 with no lights on at around 9:50 p.m. CT, when the Mustang Mach-E crashed into the back of it. The Honda flipped over and wound up in the left lane. The safety board said Thursday that the Mustang driver “had been operating the vehicle in BlueCruise mode before the crash.” The 56-year-old driver of the Honda died after being transferred to the San Antonio Military Medical Center, according to the police report, while the driver of the Mustang sustained “minor injuries.” Police found no signs of intoxication in the Mustang driver. The NTSB said another driver missed the Honda moments before the Mustang crashed into it.

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Guardian: Varied reactions to OJ Simpson’s death reflect a complicated life

Usually the death of a celebrity prompts a flood of similar-sounding tributes, remembering the highlights of their lives and keeping a respectful distance on any of the lower moments and controversies.

But for Simpson, that was never going to be the case.

The news that Simpson, the former top American football player who was acquitted of the double murders of his ex-wife and her friend in 1994, had died of cancer sparked an immediate and widespread response. Few of them – aside from his immediate family – were conventionally mourning his passing.

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Guardian: Banquet room with preserved frescoes unearthed among Pompeii ruins

‘Black room’ with frescoes inspired by Trojan war described as one of most striking discoveries ever made at site in southern Italy.

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The 15-metre-long, six-metre-wide room was found in a former private residence in Via di Nola, which was ancient Pompeii’s longest road, during excavations in the Regio IX area of the site.

The “black room”, so-called because of the colour of its walls that were probably intended to mask the soot from burning oil lamps, was a “refined setting for entertaining during convivial moments”, experts said.

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NYT: Frank Bruni: Republicans Are Fleeing the Stench of a Rotten Congress

Now, its fruits. “Four G.O.P. committee chairs are leaving,” Marianna Sotomayor wrote in a roll call of the Republican refugees in The Washington Post last weekend. “Eight lawmakers are retiring from the coveted Energy and Commerce Committee, and eight subcommittee chairs are leaving.”

Sotomayor quoted Buck as saying: “The populist wave has eroded the conservative values that I had when I came to this place. Now, we’re impeaching people like it’s some kind of carnival, and the Constitution is just a thing of the past to the very same people who were tea party patriots 10 to 12 years ago.”

*Also includes the not-to-be-missed For the Love of Sentences section.*

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Last Updated: 11.Apr.2024 23:27 EDT

Wednesday’s articles

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NYT: Trina Robbins, Creator and Historian of Comic Books, Dies at 84

Trina Robbins, who as an artist, writer and editor of comics was a pioneering woman in a male-dominated field, and who as a historian specialized in books about women cartoonists, died on Wednesday in San Francisco. She was 84.

…

In 1970, Ms. Robbins was one of the creators of It Ain’t Me Babe Comix, the first comic book made exclusively by women. In 1985, she was the first woman to draw Wonder Woman in her own comic after four decades of male hegemony.

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Vox: Why are young people … getting cancer? The search for answers

Adults in the prime of their lives, often otherwise outwardly healthy, are dying of aggressive cancers that appear to develop more quickly and be more deadly than in the past, for reasons that scientists cannot adequately explain.

Clinicians have especially been noticing a rise in cancers in the gastrointestinal (GI) system – including colorectal, kidney, and pancreatic cancers – in adults younger than 50, the cutoff for what is usually considered early-onset cancer.

Scientific authorities around the world see this as one of the most pressing questions for modern medicine and are now funding an ambitious, globe-spanning research project to provide some desperately needed answers.

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Benzinga: Elon Musk Reacts To Old Clip Of Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Saying ‘There’s A Tremendous Amount Of Craftsmanship In Between A Great Idea And A Great Product’

“It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell your… all these other people that here’s this great idea, then of course they can go off and make it happen.”

“There is a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product,” Jobs said, explaining how ideas evolve and that the final product is never as it was first envisioned.

Musk said, “Precisely.”

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Jobs then explained that while it’s possible to come up with several good ideas, not every one of them can be turned into a good product. A part of the problem here is that the technology — be it semiconductors, glass, plastic, factories, and even robots — is just not there yet.

“Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain… and fitting them all together.”

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BBC: Scrabble: Mattel launches new version of game which is ‘less competitive’

Mattel is to launch a new version of Scrabble which is designed to be more collaborative and accessible for those who find word games intimidating.

The new double-sided Scrabble board will still feature the original game for those who want to play the traditional version.

But the new game on the flip side will include helper cards, use a simpler scoring system and be quicker to play.

The new board, Scrabble Together, will also allow people to compete in teams.

via @Miraz on micro.blog

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AP: A new version of Scrabble aims to make the word-building game more accessible

A spokesperson for Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, confirmed to The Associated Press via email Tuesday that the company currently has no plans for a U.S. update — but added that the brand “love(s) the idea of different ways to play Scrabble and continue to attract new players to the game around the world.”

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Lex Friedman: Lex’s Games

Daily grouping puzzles, inspired by The New York Times’s daily Connections puzzle. Sort 16 terms into four set of four.

via @odd on micro.blog

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Guardian: Farmers warn ‘crisis is building’ as record rainfall drastically reduces UK food production

Reduction in yields means UK will be dependent on imports for wheat in coming year and possibly beyond.

…and people are still behaving as if it isn’t happening.

via @denny on micro.blog

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PBS NewsHour: Ukraine will be outgunned by Russia 10 to 1 in weeks without U.S. help, top Europe general says

The top general for U.S. forces in Europe told Congress Wednesday that Ukraine will be outgunned 10 to one by Russia within a matter of weeks if Congress does not find a way to approve sending more ammunition and weapons to Kyiv soon.

The testimony from Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of U.S. European Command, and Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, comes as Congress enters pivotal weeks for voting for aid for Ukraine, but there’s no guarantee funding will be improved in time.

Ukraine has been rationing its munitions as Congress has delayed passing its $60 billion supplemental bill.

“They are now being outshot by the Russian side five to one. So the Russians fire five times as many artillery shells at the Ukrainians than the Ukrainians are able to fire back. That will immediately go to 10 to one in a matter of weeks,” Cavoli said. “We’re not talking about months. We’re not talking hypothetically.”

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Free Pascal wiki: ARM Embedded Tutorial - FPC and the Raspberry Pi Pico

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released the Raspberry Pi Pico, a very cheap Microcontroller board with quite interesting specs.

To best use this tutorial you will need to buy (at least) two Raspberry Pi Pico, we will use one as a target and the second one as a debug probe. Do yourself a favour, invest $4 for a second device, being able to debug is worth so much more.

As the Pico is brand new and support for the board is a work in progress I’d recommend that you set up a dedicated installation of Lazarus and Free Pascal as you will need to use both trunk version of Lazarus and a specially patched version of FPC that includes the necessary adjustments so that FPC knows about the Pico. Also expect changes as we all learn along the way.

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Last Updated: 10.Apr.2024 23:40 EDT

Tuesday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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Daring Fireball: Google Launches Upgraded Find My Device Network for Android

Erik Kay, writing on Google’s company blog:

Today, the all-new Find My Device is rolling out to Android devices around the world, starting in the U.S. and Canada. With a new, crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices, Find My Device can help you find your misplaced Android devices and everyday items quickly and securely. Here are five ways you can try it out. […]

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A separate post by Dave Kleidermacher on the Google Security Blog gives a high-level overview of the platform’s privacy and security features.

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Guardian: Epidemic fears as 80% of Indigenous Amazon tribe fall ill

“The vulnerability of this community is extremely high; any infection can quickly escalate into an epidemic,” said Manoel Chorimpa, a local leader and adviser at OPI, an organisation dedicated to protecting Indigenous groups in voluntary isolation and those recently exposed to urbanisation.

Healthcare workers operating in the territory say that of the 101 individuals from the Korubo community diagnosed with symptoms, 22 cases had progressed to pneumonia, of whom 15 were under nine years old.

This article is about more than the virus.

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NYT: FAA Investigates Claims by Boeing Whistle-Blower About Flaws in 787 Dreamliner

The engineer, Sam Salehpour, who worked on the plane, detailed his allegations in interviews with The New York Times and in documents sent to the F.A.A. A spokesman for the agency confirmed that it was investigating the allegations but declined to comment on them.

Mr. Salehpour, whose résumé says he has worked at Boeing for more than a decade, said the problems stemmed from changes in how the enormous sections were fitted and fastened together in the assembly line. The plane’s fuselage comes in several pieces, all from different manufacturers, and they are not exactly the same shape where they fit together, he said.

Boeing conceded those manufacturing changes were made, but a spokesman for the company, Paul Lewis, said there was “no impact on durability or safe longevity of the airframe.”

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CBC: Canadian DNA lab knew its paternity tests identified the wrong dads, but it kept selling them

A Canadian DNA laboratory knowingly delivered prenatal paternity test results that routinely identified the wrong biological fathers — ruling out the real dads — and left a trail of shattered lives around the globe, a CBC News investigation has found.

Harvey Tenenbaum, the owner of Viaguard Accu-Metrics, told a CBC producer with a hidden camera during a conversation in his office that prenatal paternity test results that his laboratory produced for about a decade were “never that accurate.”

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CBC: Kelowna woman gets 2 successful clones of her dead cat

After two years and four failed attempts, a ragdoll cat that belonged to a Kelowna, B.C., woman has been successfully cloned. 

Kris Stewart received not one but two kittens cloned using DNA from her beloved cat Bear.

Stewart said she sent Bear’s DNA to ViaGen, a Texas-based pet cloning company, after he died at the age of five in a traffic accident in January 2022.

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Stewart said four embryo transfers failed before Bear Bear and Honey Bear were born. She said the process cost her about $50,000 in total.

Hmmm, what are the implications…?

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Last Updated: 09.Apr.2024 18:40 EDT

Sunday & Monday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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NYT: Ezra Klein: Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You.

There are no end of theories for why the internet feels so crummy these days. The New Yorker blames the shift to algorithmic feeds. Wiredblames a cycle in which companies cease serving their users and begin monetizing them. The M.I.T. Technology Review blames ad-based business models. The Verge blames search engines. I agree with all these arguments. But here’s another: Our digital lives have become one shame closet after another.

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Reuters: US FAA to investigate loss of engine cowling on Southwest Boeing 737-800

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Sunday it will investigate after an engine cowling on a Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) Boeing 737-800 fell off during takeoff in Denver and struck the wing flap.

Boeing! (That’s the sound it made!)

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Scripting News (Dave Winer): How my workday flows

In my work, I start pretty much at the same time every day, and I get a good five or six hours before it’s time to do the next thing. The first hour is warming up. Then I go to the notes I left the night before about where I’m going next. By hour two, I’m not quite at my highest rate but getting there, by hours 3-5 I get monster stuff done, if I’m in a good groove. Hour six is iffy. All the while I’m taking short breaks to check email, tweets, whatever. All of it asynchronous. Waiting for my attention to be available, for a short period.

After 5-6 hours of this, I’m wiped out.

I can handle small interruptions, like a package delivery.

But if it involves the front of my brain for any real amount of time, if I have to shift my attention elsewhere, boom, it all drops out of my head. It doesn’t take much of a shift in attention to lose the whole thing, and basically have to start over the next day.

Dave Winer is an iron man! (With a brain.)

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Daniel Sax (Vimeo): Ira Glass: The Gap

I think it was in the time of spring 2012, when I came across David Shiyang Liu’s lovely piece of work about Ira Glass. It was the most inspiring and motivating video I had ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over again, listened to Ira Glass’ voice, and told myself, that I am not the only person who is constantly disappointed about the gap between one’s taste and one’s skills. Later in 2012, I decided to do my own filmed version of Ira’s interview - using my own language to tell his message. It took me about a year from concept to upload.

I made it for myself and for anybody who is in doubt about his/her creative career. I also think that Ira Glass’ message isn’t only limited to the creative industry. It can be applied to everyone who starts out in a new environment and is willing to improve.

via @WritingSlowly on micro.blog

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NYT: Maryland Passes 2 Major Privacy Bills, Despite Tech Industry Pushback

The Maryland Legislature this weekend passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to restrict how powerful tech platforms can harvest and use the personal data of consumers and young people – despite strong objections from industry trade groups representing giants like Amazon, Google and Meta.

One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose wide-ranging restrictions on how companies may collect and use the personal data of consumers in the state. The other, the Maryland Kids Code, would prohibit certain social media, video game and other online platforms from tracking people under 18 and from using manipulative techniques — like auto-playing videos or bombarding children with notifications — to keep young people glued online.

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Monday 08.Apr.2024

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Wikipedia: Eclipse of Thales

The eclipse of Thales was a solar eclipse that was, according to ancient Greek historian Herodotus, accurately predicted by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. If Herodotus’ account is accurate, this eclipse is the earliest recorded as being known in advance of its occurrence. Many historians believe that the predicted eclipse was the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 BC. How exactly Thales predicted the eclipse remains uncertain; some scholars assert the eclipse was never predicted at all. Others have argued for different dates, but only the eclipse of May 585 BC matches the conditions of visibility necessary to explain the historical event.

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Solartime with Martyna (YouTube): Enphase vs Tigo | Watch this REAL TEST | Which one is better? Microinverter vs Optimizer

The time has come, to test these two together! Enphase IQ8A Microinverter versus Tigo Power Optimizer + SMA String Inverter! We performed another set of 20+ Tests, with and without shading to determine which one wins the battle!

Are they really that different?
What is the cost comparison?

TLDW: 19% performance differences; 40% capital cost difference.

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AppleInsider: How to fix Universal Clipboard in macOS

Much like how copy and paste works at a system level to shift files, text, video, or images between documents or storage folders, Universal Clipboard is the same thing, but across multiple devices. It’s possible to copy text from one item, like a Mac, and to paste that same data to Messages running on an iPhone.

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For every device that you want Universal Clipboard to work on, you need to make sure they’re all signed in with the same Apple ID and can access iCloud.

You also have to ensure that the devices all have Bluetooth enabled and have Wi-Fi enabled. Ideally they should be on the same Wi-FI network, and to be within close proximity to each other.

Handoff also needs to be turned on for every device. It is turned on by default, but it can be disabled.

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Last Updated: 08.Apr.2024 22:46 EDT

Saturday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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The Atlantic: Gary Shteyngart: Crying Myself to Sleep on the Icon of the Seas

Gift link

My first glimpse of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, from the window of an approaching Miami cab, brings on a feeling of vertigo, nausea, amazement, and distress. I shut my eyes in defense, as my brain tells my optical nerve to try again.

The ship makes no sense, vertically or horizontally. It makes no sense on sea, or on land, or in outer space. It looks like a hodgepodge of domes and minarets, tubes and canopies, like Istanbul had it been designed by idiots. Vibrant, oversignifying colors are stacked upon other such colors, decks perched over still more decks; the only comfort is a row of lifeboats ringing its perimeter. There is no imposed order, no cogent thought, and, for those who do not harbor a totalitarian sense of gigantomania, no visual mercy. This is the biggest cruise ship ever built, and I have been tasked with witnessing its inaugural voyage.

According to the Cambridge dictionary, “pendejo” has multiple meanings, none of them complimentary. Less-contemptuous ones are “snotty-nosed kid” or “wastrel”.

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Guardian: One engineer’s curiosity may have saved us from a devastating cyber-attack

On Good Friday, a Microsoft engineer named Andres Freund noticed something peculiar. He was using a software tool called SSH for securely logging into remote computers on the internet, but the interactions with the distant machines were significantly slower than usual. So he did some digging and found malicious code embedded in a software package called XZ Utils that was running on his machine. This is a critical utility for compressing (and decompressing) data running on the Linux operating system, the OS that powers the vast majority of publicly accessible internet servers across the world. Which means that every such machine is running XZ Utils.

Freund’s digging revealed that the malicious code had arrived in his machine via two recent updates to XZ Utils, and he alerted the Open Source Security list to reveal that those updates were the result of someone intentionally planting a backdoor in the compression software. It was what is called a “supply-chain attack” (like the catastrophic SolarWinds one of 2020) — where malicious software is not directly injected into targeted machines, but distributed by infecting the regular software updates to which all computer users are wearily accustomed. If you want to get malware out there, infecting the supply chain is the smart way to do it.

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Molly White (YouTube): Become a Wikipedian in 30 minutes

Have you ever wanted to learn to edit Wikipedia, but got overwhelmed? This video will help you get started contributing to one of the best projects on the web.

► Create an account: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.p…
► Reliable sources guideline: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki…
► Perennial sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki…
► Task center: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki…
► Introduction pages: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help…
► Teahouse: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki…

Molly White is a researcher, software engineer, and long-time Wikipedia editor. She is best known for her website, Web3 is Going Just Great, and for her Citation Needed newsletter.

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Wojciech Domski Blog: On-screen Display with Raspberry Pi Pico

For quite some time, I was curious about the on-screen displays (OSDs). It is a piece of equipment which enables you to put some text or graphics directly on a video stream. I am going to present you my solution for this device and, most importantly, why it is useful. The project was based on the RP2040 microcontroller which can be found on a very popular platform, Raspberry Pi Pico.

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Guardian: I’ve always been a messy person. The situation was grim – but could I really change? | Australian lifestyle

Though not a crime scene, the situation was grim. The bedside table littered with supplements and pharmaceuticals, tea-stained yet unread books and several half-drunk cups of tea. A chest of drawers, with little in them, covered by knick-knacks: tiny sculptures, favourite pebbles, pointless bowls – all somehow sentimental but sitting under layers of dust. A second chest of drawers doing nothing to quell the mountain of clothing that permanently resides on the floor. Getting to the uninhabited square metre of space that is, in theory, a bed, requires some quite specific gymnastics – physical and mental.

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Last Updated: 06.Apr.2024 23:59 EDT

Friday’s articles

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iTunes: Not clear on the concept

Tastes in comedy vary greatly. Like art, music, or food, what is appealing to one person can be offensive or repulsive to another, so I’m not going to claim that there is one greatest situation comedy of all time. You could choose Seinfeld or Fawlty Towers, Cheers or The Simpsons, Good Neighbours , All in the Family, or Taxi. I couldn’t object. My nominee, though, would have to be one of the originals: The Dick van Dyke Show.

Debuting in 1961, created by comedy giant Carl Reiner, starring the multi-talented Dick van Dyke, and introducing the young future comedy star Mary Tyler Moore as his wife, the show drew laughs without ever resorting to being mean or crude. A source of many great situations (the inflatable raft) and lines (“You slept through The Guns of Navarone?!”) it may always be my favourite.

Link: The Dick van Dyke Show on Wikipedia

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CBC: CSIS report on Liberal nomination race recalled after meeting with PM’s top security adviser

The head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) issued a burn notice for an intelligence assessment about possible foreign interference in a Toronto Liberal nomination race, according to a document tabled in the public inquiry into foreign interference.

The commission’s lawyers wrote that CSIS director David Vigneault told them that he “has no recollection” why the document was recalled, but was confident the only reason why he would’ve agreed to do so would be “because there was an issue with it; he had never and would never recall a document because it was too sensitive.”

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TechCrunch: Startups Weekly: Let’s see what those Y Combinator kids have been up to this time

Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG) financial lifting of the veil reveals a $58 million loss on a meager $4 million in revenue. This isn’t your typical Silicon Valley “burn cash now, profit later” saga; it’s more of a “burn cash now, and that’s it” kind of story.

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MacRumors: Apple Updates App Store Guidelines to Permit Game Emulators, Website Links in EU Music Apps

Apple today updated its App Store guidelines to comply with an anti-steering mandate levied by the European Commission. Music streaming apps like Spotify are now permitted to include a link or buy button that leads to a website with information about alternative music purchasing options, though this is only permitted in the European Economic Area.

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Kingstonist: Shore volunteers needed for water clean-up event

Volunteers are needed later this month at a water clean-up event at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. The City of Kingston, in partnership with CORK and Neptune & Salacia Diving, is inviting non-diving shore volunteers to help out with the event, ‘Dive Against Debris,’ starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Apr. 20, 2024.

“Certified divers, under the direction of Neptune & Salacia Diving, will be removing debris from the marina water,” the City said in a media release. “Volunteers stationed on land will help gather and sort the retrieved debris. Twenty pairs of work gloves will be available for volunteers. This important role ensures responsible and sustainable clean-up efforts and supports the goal of a healthier marine environment.”

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MacRumors: Batterygate: iPhone Users in Canada Can Now Submit Claims for Up to $150 Payout From Apple

Apple agreed to pay up to $14.4 million (CAD) to settle a class action lawsuit in Canada that alleged the company secretly throttled the performance of some iPhone models (“batterygate”), and eligible customers can now submit a claim for payment.

Apple’s settlement received court approval on March 4, and the claims period began today, according to law firm Rochon Genova LLP. To submit a claim, visit the settlement website, select “Submit a Claim” in the top menu, and follow the steps. A serial number for an eligible iPhone is required. The deadline to submit a claim is September 2.

Each affected customer will receive a payment of between $17.50 (CAD) and $150 (CAD) from Apple per valid claim submitted, with the exact payout amount to be dependent on the total number of claims submitted.

To be eligible, you must be a current or former resident of Canada (excluding Québec) who owns or owned an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and/or iPhone SE with iOS 10.2.1 or later installed or downloaded, and/or an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 11.2 or later installed or downloaded, before December 21, 2017.

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NYT: Some Colleges Will Soon Charge $100,000 a Year. How Did This Happen?

Some Vanderbilt students will have $100,000 in total expenses for the 2024-25 school year. The school doesn’t really want to talk about it.

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Manton Reece: Indie Microblogging progress

I’m doing another editing pass of Indie Microblogging. Changing the page size and running a test printing soon to see how it feels in hardcover instead of paperback. I know it’s ridiculous that it has taken so long. New goal is to have it shipped by not-yet-announced Micro Camp 2024.

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Last Updated: 05.Apr.2024 23:59:40 EDT

Thursday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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ScienceAlert: Quantum Computing Heats Up: Scientists Achieve Qubit Function Above 1K

Our new research may offer a way forward. We have demonstrated that a particular kind of qubit – one made with a quantum dot printed with metal electrodes on silicon, using technology much like that used in existing microchip production – can operate at temperatures around 1K.

This is only one degree above absolute zero, so it’s still extremely cold. However, it’s significantly warmer than previously thought possible. This breakthrough could condense the sprawling refrigeration infrastructure into a more manageable, single system. It would drastically reduce operational costs and power consumption.

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Wikipedia: Striped Toothpaste

Striped toothpaste was invented by Leonard Marraffino in 1955. The patent (US patent 2,789,731, issued 1957) was subsequently sold to Unilever, who marketed the novelty under the Stripe brand-name in the early 1960s. This was followed by the introduction of the Signal brand in Europe in 1965 (UK patent 813,514). Although Stripe was initially very successful, it never again achieved the 8% market share that it cornered during its second year.

Marraffino’s design, which remains in use for single-color stripes, is simple. The main material, usually white, sits at the crimp end of the toothpaste tube and makes up most of its bulk. A thin pipe, through which that carrier material will flow, descends from the nozzle to it. The stripe-material (this was red in Stripe) fills the gap between the carrier material and the top of the tube. The two materials are not in separate compartments, but they are sufficiently viscousthat they will not mix. When pressure is applied to the toothpaste tube, the main material squeezes down the thin pipe to the nozzle. Simultaneously, the pressure applied to the main material causes pressure to be forwarded to the stripe material, which thereby issues out through small holes (in the side of the pipe) onto the main carrier material as it is passing those holes.

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The iconic depiction of a wave-shaped blob of toothpaste sitting on a toothbrush is called a “nurdle”.

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LATimes: Trump says he’ll jail his opponents. Members of the House Jan. 6 committee are preparing

Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.

Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past election day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.

In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.

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Kottke: The Sound of Knitting

The above comes across as almost a parody of itself – halfway through, I thought This could be an SNL sketch! – but it’s also delightful. It’s a trailer for The Sound of Knitting, “an evening where classical music and knitting merge.” The popular designers and podcasters Arne & Carlosteamed up with the Norwegian string instrument group (heh) Trondheimsolistene to make a concert/tutorial/behind-the-scenes knitting video, available for purchase. In addition to featuring knitting-friendly music, the video includes a tour of the Norwegian municipality of Selbu, famous for its gorgeous mittens, as well as a virtual class on how to knit those mittens. It all seems lovely, although I confess I was slightly disappointed “the sound of knitting” wasn’t an ASMR video of needles clicking, although I’m sure that’s out there, too. I mean I know it is because I’ve seen it.

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Last Updated: 04.Apr.2024 18:46 EDT

Wednesday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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Austin American-Statesman: Sources confirm UT laid off staff previously in DEI-related position

A week after state Sen. Brandon Creighton warned Texas university system administrators about the state’s expectations for higher education institutions to comply with Senate Bill 17 — an anti-DEI law that went into effect in January — the University of Texas has laid off at least 60 staff members who previously worked in diversity, equity and inclusion-related positions, according to three people with knowledge of the terminations.

I had no idea that Texas had such a law.

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Atlantic: The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust

As an agnostic, I have spent most of my life thinking about the decline of faith in America in mostly positive terms. Organized religion seemed, to me, beset by scandal and entangled in noxious politics. So, I thought, what is there really to mourn? Only in the past few years have I come around to a different view. Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence.

More than one-quarter of Americans now identify as atheists, agnostics, or religiously “unaffiliated,” according to a new survey of 5,600 U.S. adults by the Public Religion Research Institute. This is the highest level of non-religiosity in the poll’s history. Two-thirds of nonbelievers were brought up in at least nominally religious households, like me. (I grew up in a Reform Jewish home that I would describe as haphazardly religious. In kindergarten, my parents encouraged my sister and me to enthusiastically celebrate Hanukkah–and, just as fervently, to believe in Santa Claus.) But more Americans today have “converted” out of religion than have converted to all forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam combined. No faith’s evangelism has been as successful in this century as religious skepticism.

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Atlantic: DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest

People are discovering the truth about their biological parents with DNA—and learning that incest is far more common than many think.

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The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives — a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,” he told me. And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study.

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WashPo: Nebraska lawmakers face Trump-fueled push to change electoral vote system

Nebraska is one of only two states that divide electoral votes among statewide and congressional district winners, which allowed Joe Biden to pick off an electoral vote in the red state in 2020 by carrying a swing district in the Omaha area. But Gov. Jim Pillen ® and Trump on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to return the state to a winner-take-all system, possibly upending the final days of the state’s legislative session, which ends April 18.

The effort was put to an early test Wednesday night when Republican state Sen. Julie Slama tried to add the winner-take-all proposal to an unrelated bill as an amendment. The chair of the legislature ruled that the amendment was not germane to the underlying bill, prompting an effort to overrule the chair.

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WashPo: Ruby Garcia’s family says they never spoke with Trump, despite his claims in Michigan

Donald Trump used his campaign event in Michigan on Tuesday to denounce what he called “Biden’s border bloodbath,” zeroing in on the case of a young woman killed by someone immigration officials say had entered the country illegally.

“She lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people,” Trump said at a news conference in the hometown of the 25-year-old victim, Ruby Garcia. “I spoke to some of her family.”

But Garcia’s sister, acting as a family spokeswoman, said Tuesday that Trump and his campaign have not contacted her or other immediate relatives — and rebuked the GOP presidential nominee’s effort to make the case part of his calls for a border crackdown.

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Last Updated: 03.Apr.2024 23:23 EDT

Tuesday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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RenewablesNow: Renewables meet 89% of Portugal’s Q1 power demand

National grid operator Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN) said on Monday that renewable energy plants in Portugal have covered 89% of the country’s electricity consumption in the first quarter of 2024.

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Hydro accounted for 47% of consumption, wind for 31%, solar photovoltaic (PV) for 6%, and biomass for 5%. On March 11, hydropower reached 7,280 MW, a new maximum power delivered to the grid.

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NYT: Joe Flaherty, SCTV and Freaks and Geeks Actor, Dies at 82

His death was confirmed by his daughter, Gudrun Flaherty, who said that Mr. Flaherty died after a “brief illness.” She did not specify a cause, or say where he died.

Alongside an ensemble that included John Candy, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, Mr. Flaherty played a variety of characters on “SCTV.” The concept of the series, which aired in the 1970s and ’80s, was that its sketches were “shows” for a low-rent TV station in a fictional town called Melonville.

Goodbye, Guy Caballero.

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NYT: Magazine: Peter C. Baker: The Case Against ‘Good’ Coffee

The coffee was fine. Not as good as a cup of freshly roasted, single-origin, shade-grown made at my favorite shop, but it was recognizably coffee. There was no process worth speaking of to enjoy, but there were no grounds on the counter, either, and I soon felt the caffeine caressing my synapses. If I had to pick one word to describe the process, that word would be: “instant.” And if I had to pick one word to describe how this simplified process made me feel, that word would be: “good.”

Coffee articles always perc me up…

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Engadget: Amazon just walked out on its self-checkout technology

Amazon is removing Just Walk Out tech from all of its Fresh grocery stores in the US, as reported by The Information. The self-checkout system relies on a host of cameras, sensors and good old-fashioned human eyeballs to track what people leave the store with, charging the customers accordingly.

The technology has been plagued by issues from the onset. Most notably, Just Walk Out merely presents the illusion of automation, with Amazon crowing about generative AI and the like. Here’s where the smoke and mirrors come in. While the stores have no actual cashiers, there are reportedly over 1,000 real people in India scanning the camera feeds to ensure accurate checkouts.

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

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CleanTechnica: 10 Cleantech Stories Not to Miss — Electric Truck Towing, Chinese EV Takeover, Support Solar & Get An EV

1. Chinese electric cars are quietly taking over the auto market globally, and that’s starting to get interesting. According to one analysis from Transport & Environment (T&E), a full 25% of electric cars sold in Europe in 2024are expected to have been produced in China! In 2023, the figure was 19.5%.

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Last Updated: 02.Apr.2024 19:28 EDT

Monday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

I wrote a great piece about the evolution of society in my mind as I was falling asleep last night. Unfortunately I forgot to press Save and it got overwritten by my spectacular Stanley Cup winning goal…

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Teslarati: Tesla lead engineer defends Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system

One of the things that MKBHD praised in his review was the Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system, which Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill also noted has ruined everything else for him. With steer-by-wire, pretty much every vehicle that still uses a traditional steering system immediately feels outdated. Such a comment caught the eye of some critics, one of whom noted that no one wants steer-by-wire in sports cars and that Tesla engineers are engineers first and car guys second. 

In response to the steer-by-wire critic, the Cybertruck Lead Engineer explained the advantages of steer-by-wire, including the system’s capability to behave like a power-assisted steering system if necessary. He also noted that drivers can amplify feedback in a steer-by-wire system.

I’m sure old pilots don’t like fly-by-wire either. But everybody uses it now.

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NYT: California Highway 1 Collapse Leaves 2,000 Tourists Stranded

Officials in California on Sunday slowly began guiding drivers past a collapsed section of scenic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area, one day after the damage left about 2,000 motorists stranded overnight.

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NYT: Magazine: Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?

After decades of declining fatality rates, dangerous driving has surged again.

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To Kuhls, it felt as if all the deadly habits that were on such flagrant display during the early months of the pandemic had become normalized. “We’ve all gotten stuck,” Kohls told me. “That’s true here; it’s true nationally. And it’s a scary thing to comprehend.”

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CBS: Alex Murdaugh gets 40 years for stealing from clients, law firm

Murdaugh was punished - this time in federal court - for stealing from clients and his law firm. The 55-year-old disbarred attorney is already serving a life sentence without parole in a state prison for killing his wife and son.

Original plea deal:

Murdaugh agreed to plead guilty to more than a dozen counts, including money laundering, breach of trust and financial fraud, in exchange for a 27-year sentence. The sentence must be approved by Judge Clifton Newman, who set a sentencing hearing for Nov. 28 at which victims or their families will get to speak.

Oops.

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TheFocus: 8 incredible must-see movies added to Amazon Prime Video this week

The Focus breaks down a list of eight fantastic movies added to the Amazon Prime Video streaming library this week.

• The Aviator (2004)
• The Big Short (2015)
• Blockers (2018)
• Chaplin (1992)
• Cloverfield (2008)
• Fighting With My Family (2019)
• Nebraska (2013)
• Richard Jewell (2019)

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TheFocus: Changing my morning coffee routine was the best decision for my energy levels

Unfortunately, this led to some less-than-ideal habits. For one, I grew attached to a Starbucks secret menu item called the Liquid Cocaine which is as deadly as it sounds. Secondly, I ignored scientific advice and drank coffee whenever I felt like it. Shock, it was all the time.

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While there isn’t a specific time to start drinking coffee, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recommended waiting 90 to 120 minutes before partaking.

“The reason I delay caffeine is that one of the factors that induce a sense of sleepiness is the build-up of adenosine in our system,” he said. “The buildup of adenosine accumulates the longer we’re awake, so early morning, your adenosine levels are likely to be very low.”

Worth a try.

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TheFocus: 7 April Fool’s Day products that brands need to make a reality

Each year, April Fool’s Day provides companies with the perfect time to trial potential products without the need to actually launch them.

e.g.

• Domino’s: The Edibox edible pizza box
• KFC: Mighty Mouth Expander
• Tinder: bans fish pictures
• Pringles: lip balm
• McDonald’s: milkshake dipping sauces

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Apple Insider: macOS 15 at WWDC 2024: release date, features, rumors

Aside from comments from Tim Cook and Greg Joswiak effectively confirming AI will be a feature of the event, there have been various stories about Apple’s machine learning work that seem primed for launch.

For a start, Apple’s famous digital assistant Siri is expected to receive a massive upgrade for 2024. This includes claims of investing $1 billion into adding AI to Siri, and suggestions that generative AI elements are on the way.

It would be great to have an overhauled version of Siri.

The main claim is that new tools in Xcode will use AI to predict and automatically complete blocks of code. For developers this could save time in writing code elements for apps, as well as potentially reducing the amount of bugs caused by spelling mistakes, missing, or additional elements.

There is also the possibility of using AI to generate code for testing applications, saving developers time in a particularly tedious process.

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Apple is working on AI-based image editing models

07.Feb.2024

Apple, in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, has released its own AI-based image editing model that and anybody can try.

The model has been dubbed “MGIE,” which stands for MLLM-Guided Image Editing and allows users to edit images based on natural language instructions. It leverages multimodal large language models (MLLMs), which combine various types of information, such as text, photos, and videos, to understand and generate human-like language.

⋮

MGIE is open-source and available on GitHub for anyone to try. The GitHub page allows users to snag the code, data, and pre-trained models.

The speed of image generation will vary significantly based on hardware performance. Also, models such as this are incredibly RAM hungry.

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Engineers Need Art: Virtual Pinhead

Jump to the fall of last year though and I read a post on Hacker News about virtual pinball. While the author did manage to make playing pinball sound more appealing to me (I was not aware that nudging a pinball cabinet was anything other than verboten), I think I was more drawn to the challenge of building a virtual pinball cabinet.

Six months after that blog post and virtual pinball (Visual Pinball specifically) has become a hobby that I have fully immersed myself in. I still think I am unlikely to get a real pinball machine, but I’m afraid that I have not just one, but two virtual pinball cabinets in my basement. I’m also experimenting with a more modest-size “controller” that others with a smaller budget (or with less woodworking skills) might find more approachable.

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Reuters: Would-be Tesla buyers snub company as Musk’s reputation dips

The ranks of would-be Tesla buyers in the United States are shrinking, according to a survey by market intelligence firm Caliber, which attributed the drop in part to CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing persona.

While Tesla continued to post strong sales growth last year, helped by aggressive price cuts, the electric-vehicle maker is expected to report weak quarterly sales, as early as Tuesday.

Caliber’s “consideration score” for Tesla, provided exclusively to Reuters, fell to 31% in February, less than half its high of 70% in November 2021 when it started tracking consumer interest in the brand.

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Last Updated: 01.Apr.2024 14:55 EDT

Sunday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #1: Toy. Easter.

I’m continuing to enjoy using Strata on iOS for updating my daily link blog.

I still have some kind of mental block on seeing how to set up a separate blog for them though! 🤔 In the meantime they show up in this blog and you can see the day’s links in progress courtesy of Strata’s sharing feature.

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BlockClubChicago: Heinz Is Putting Up Ketchup Dispensers To Tempt Chicagoans With Forbidden Condiment

There are some Chicago restaurants that will show you the door if you ask for ketchup.

But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Heinz is helping out ketchup-loving Chicagoans by putting up small billboards that dispense the condiment outside famous local restaurants that refuse to serve ketchup.

Passersby will be able to smack a ketchup bottle attached to the boards, and packets of Heinz ketchup will fall out, according to a Heinz news release. The dispensers go up Tuesday and will be available through April 9 outside the Wieners Circle, 2622 N. Clark St., and by Navy Pier, among other spots, a Heinz spokesperson said.

via Elliot Shank (clonezone on micro.blog)

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Guardian: Martha Gill: Cute, cuddly, and often crippled: look where the love of dogs has taken the British

But then, it is also a strange kind of love, the sort that doesn’t feel quite right. The first clue, I think, that something is off, is in the breeds we feel so strongly about preserving. Our British concern for animal welfare does not stop us from joining the rest of the world in producing dogs with terrible health problems. Dachshunds are just the start of it. Labradors have hip issues. Dalmatians go deaf. And then there’s the pug, whose famous features, according to a study from the Royal Veterinary College of the UK, lead directly to “a lifetime of suffering”. They lack “even core body functions” and can’t sleep properly as they constantly have to wake up to breathe.

Why do we still buy these dogs, when we know they suffer? A University of Copenhagen study discovered a strange phenomenon: the decision to buy a breed which has lots of health issues may in fact be deliberate. These dogs require care, and this in turn produces feelings of love and satisfaction in their carers.

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NetNewsWire: Free and Open Source RSS Reader for Mac and iOS

It’s like podcasts — but for reading.

NetNewsWire shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read.

via Odd-Egil (odd on micro.blog)

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9to5Mac: This GTA6-disguised macOS malware performs heist on Keychain passwords

During an analysis of various splinter samples of a noteworthy macOS stealer, security researchers at Moonlock discovered one with an alarming level of sophistication. Under the disguise of the unreleased video game GTA6, once installed, the malware executes rather clever techniques to extract sensitive information, such as passwords from a user’s local Keychain.

In typical Security Bite fashion, here’s the breakdown: how it works and how to stay safe.

GTA = Grand Theft Auto

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Lamborghini PR: Automobili Lamborghini launches its new corporate look

After more than two decades since the last update, Automobili Lamborghini has renewed its historic logo. The restyling is driven by a new strategy that involves adapting the brand’s visual expression to better reflect the “brave”, “unexpected” and “authentic” values of its mission, namely “Driving Humans Beyond”, a concept that translates into the intention to always go beyond the limits, standards and conventions.

This evolution is part of the broad transformation process denoted Direzione Cor Tauri, the strategy that embodies Lamborghini’s new trajectory focused on sustainability and decarbonization. The aim is to create a solid pact with the future generations, serving as an inspiration and model for innovation and sustainable progress. With this in mind, the House of Sant’Agata Bolognese is implementing changes that involve not only the cars, but the corporate identity as a whole, thus impacting the company’s culture and values, which will also see a new expression in terms of all the visual aspects.

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Scripting News (Dave Winer): The language of developers

I loved hanging out with fellow math and compsci majors in college and grad school. It’s nice when you get to speak in the language of math and programming, where you can’t be fuzzy about things, you have to be direct, because it’s the only way to communicate.

No one attaches their feelings to the things other people say in this context. But sometimes it hurts anyway. …

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UPI: Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupt Easter vigil in NYC

Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted a vigil celebrating Easter at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, the group said on social media.

Activists rose to sing “Dona Nobis Pacem,” which translates to “grant us peace” from Latin, but were allegedly “slammed” to the ground by cathedral security, Extinction Rebellion said in a statement.

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“War, occupation, and industrial pollution are poisoning the soil, air, and water in Gaza and all over the planet, destroying the earth’s capacity to sustain life,” Schwedock said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Catholic leaders in East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank compared Gaza’s suffering to the crucifixion of Jesus in an Easter message as protestant leaders also decried Israel’s continuing war in the Palestinian enclave. Pope Francis has also called for an end to the war.

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Last Updated: 31.Mar.2024 15:59 EDT

Saturday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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AppleInsider: AT&T’s customer passcodes, personal info compromised in breach

AT&T is finally resetting passcodes for current customers after hackers stole a trove of customer data more than two years ago.

The vast majority of the compromised passcodes belong to some 65.4 million current and former AT&T customers. However, the company has reset passcodes for 7.6 million of its current customers, in the typical abundance of caution often cited.

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The stolen data was first reported on hacker forums in 2021. AT&T denied that the hack was real — until now.

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AppleInsider: Learn to code in Swift with new Apple tutorial guides

Apple has launched a new tutorial webpage featuring beginner resources for programming using Swift, Swift UI, and Xcode.

Ahead of its annual Worldwide Developer Conference this June, “Develop in Swift Tutorials” has appeared on the the company’s developer website. It offers guides intended to encourage new would-be developers.

The site is aimed at those with little or no prior coding experience. It features step-by-step guides on how to install Xcode, create a new project in Swift, and creating a simple app using SwiftUI.

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In addition to the foundations of SwiftUI and app navigation, there is a section of the tutorials devoted to spatial computing and developing for the Apple Vision Pro. The listed requirements for the tutorials include a Mac running either macOS Sonoma or Ventura, Xcode, and “curiosity and imagination.”

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Common Dreams: ‘Obscene’: Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel

”‘Quietly,’” Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer scoffed in response to the report. “This is cowardly from the administration. If you are going to be full backers of genocide, own it. We see you and history sees you as well.”

“It is scary to think of the world U.S. support for Israel is creating. A world with no rules, no limits in war, where norms don’t exist, and where genocide is supportable,” he added. “Good luck getting anyone to listen to you about international law after this.”

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“The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000-pound bombs that can level entire city blocks,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media Friday. “This is obscene. We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel.”

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Guardian: ‘You wouldn’t put your dog in this river’: Boat Race exposes Thames Water failings

Thanks to the vast amounts of sewage now being dumped in the Thames, prevalence of the bug was 10 times higher than what is considered to be safe. As a result, crews from both boats were warned not to take a dive into the Thames at the end of the race lest they suffer diarrhoea, kidney failure or sepsis.

And the culprit? Thames Water, which has been found to have been releasing effluent directly into the river and its tributaries on a grand scale. One recent study indicated that the utility firm had pumped at least 72 billion litres of filth into the river since 2020, enough to fill 29,000 Olympic swimming pools.

⋮

Last week, the company’s leadership was denounced as a disgrace by the communities secretary, Michael Gove,and accused of taking excess profits while failing to invest in badly needed infrastructure. Now the renationalisation of Thames Water has become a real prospect. The water industry was privatised by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, and if Thames Water is renationalised this would confirm in many people’s minds that the whole exercise had been a very costly fiasco.

There may be organizations that are worth privatizing, but many were privatized for the wrong reasons and they have cast a long shadow.

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Guardian: Le Crookie: after the cronut and the cruffin, latest croissant hybrid takes Paris by storm

Teenagers queue outside bakeries to buy pastry seen on TikTok that puts American twist on French pâtisserie.

Sounds worth investigating!

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Guardian: ‘Feeble, desperate, mentally unfit’: Biden changes tack to mock Trump

“It’s very sad that the other side is now starting to play the same game. This looks like we’ve lost as a society, because everyone plays that game now,” West said.

For now, it is hard to tell whether Biden cracking jokes about Trump will be a winning strategy. There is evidence, however, that Republican and Democratic voters increasingly view members of the opposing party with contempt.

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Guardian: Explorers unlock the mystery of ‘pirate king’ who vanished after huge heist at sea

Kingsley and Cowan discovered that the letter links Avery with one of the first great spy rings, believed to have included Daniel Defoe, the Robinson Crusoe author, and Thomas Tenison, the archbishop of Canterbury. Together, they were protecting Protestant England from the threat of “popery”, a Catholic invasion from France and an enemy seizing the throne.

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Last Updated: 30.Mar.2024 23:44 EDT

Friday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

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9to5Mac: Apple sues former iOS engineer for leaking Journal app, Vision Pro details, and more

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Andrew Aude, a former iOS Software Engineer, accusing him of leaking “information about more than a half-dozen different Apple policies and products.” The leaks included details about Apple’s then-unreleased Journal app, Apple’s “development of products within the spatial computing space,” and more.

“Mr. Aude often took and saved screenshots of his communications on his Apple-issued work iPhone to preserve them for posterity,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit, filed in California this month and embedded below, includes several examples of Aude’s leaks over the years at Apple. He sent thousands of messages to multiple journalists at both The Information and the Wall Street Journal.

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Cult of Mac: iMessage getting RCS for better cross-platform texting in fall 2024

Google let slip that Apple will fulfill its promise to add support for Rich Communication Services to the iPhone Messages app “in the fall of 2024.”

That almost certainly means iPhone and Android users will enjoy higher quality cross-platform texting with the release of iOS 18 and not before.

“Let slip.”

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Discover Magazine: Elon Musk’s Brain Chip Could Restore Vision and Mobility, But Has a Long Way to Go

More recently, in March, Neuralink posted a live stream showing 29-year-old implant recipient Norland Arbaugh using the technology to play a digital version of chess and express how the device has transformed his life after a spinal injury.

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MacRumors: Criminals in Montreal Using AirTags to Steal Vehicles

Thieves in Montreal, Canada have been using Apple’s AirTags to facilitate vehicle theft, according to a report from Vermont news sites WCAX and WCAX (via WCAX). Police officers in Burlington, Vermont have issued a warning about AirTags for drivers who recently visited Canada.

Two Burlington residents found Apple AirTags in their vehicles after returning from trips to Montreal, and these are not the first reports that officers have encountered. One man, Ethan Yang, said he was coming from Montreal after visiting family, and he was alerted that there was an AirTag traveling with him. He was able to use his phone to make the ‌AirTag‌ beep, and he was able to locate the device, which had been placed in the front grille of the vehicle.

Not just Montreal.

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CBC: Patriarch of Canada’s largest family-owned egg farm dies at 94

It all started as Joe Hudson’s school project in 1943.

Hudson was raising 50 baby chicks for an agricultural class in Brockville, Ont., and that assignment sparked a bright idea: switching the family’s dairy farm to the egg business instead.

More than eight decades later, Burnbrae Farms is considered the largest family-owned egg farm in Canada, with their products on grocery store shelves across the country.

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Last Updated: 29.Mar.2024 23:55 EDT

Thursday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list