đ Articles: Fri 01.Mar.2024
NewsNation: HB 500: Kentucky bill could end workers’ lunch and rest breaks
Some workers in Kentucky may be poorer â and hungrier â at their jobs soon if a new bill passes the state’s House of Representatives.
The legislation, House Bill 500, would allow employers to stop offering their workers “reasonable” lunch and rest breaks, mandatory under current Kentucky law, and end the requirement that employees who work seven days in a row receive overtime pay.
Per the Kentucky Lantern, HB 500 also “(prevents) employers from being punished for not paying minimum wage or overtime pay when an employee is traveling to and from a workplace.”
Is this really what the people of Kentucky believe represents their interests?
Daring Fireball: Daring Fireball: Are Customers Returning Vision Pros in High Numbers? Seemingly Not.
Ming-Chi Kuo:
According to my survey of the repair/refurbishment production line, the current return rate for Vision Pro is less than 1%, with no anomalies.
Does Ming-Chi Kuo really know how many Vision Pros are being returned? I don’t know. Probably not. But two weeks after Vision Pro went on sale there was a bizarre rash of stories suggesting they were being returned in droves, probably driven by this Victoria Song piece for the Verge, with the â I must say â mildly jacktastic headline “Apple Fans Are Starting to Return Their Vision Pros”.
Wales Online: The Welsh seaside town where people go and never want to leave
Nestled between the hills and beaches, you’ll find Aberystwyth. The seaside town at the heart of the Ceredigion coastline is roughly as far from St Davids in Pembrokeshire as it is from Pwllheli in Gwynedd.
But the largest town in the county isn’t merely where north and south meet, it is a prominent destination itself. Known simply as ‘Aber’ by those who live there, here you’ll find a castle, a promenade, the National Library of Wales, the Arts Centre and more than 50 pubs. Not to mention one of Wales’ oldest universities.
Often referred to as the “culture capital” of Cymru, the town is one of the most visited places in Wales alongside the likes of Cardiff, Bannau Brycheiniog and Eryri. It boasts an array of independent shops, a vibrant culinary scene and architecture that dates back to the Middle Ages.
On my list to visit when we get to Wales.
SMH: Albanese government furious over Meta’s plan to pull out of Facebook news deal
The federal government has delivered a blistering rebuke to Facebook parent company Meta, with Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland accusing the tech giant of “a dereliction of its commitment to the sustainability of Australian news media” after it announced plans to cut off news content deals worth millions to local journalism.
Jones has signalled the government is prepared to use the news media bargaining code put in place by former treasurer Josh Frydenberg to force Meta back to the table to negotiate with Australian media companies for the millions of dollars in content they provide.
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The company announced the decision to scrap its news bookmark tab via a blog post, and said it will not strike new commercial deals with local publishers when they expire later this year.
“To ensure that we continue to invest in products and services that drive user engagement, we will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future,” the statement said.
CleanTechnica: Brown University Study Documents Links Between National & Local Offshore Wind Opponents
A month ago, we reported on how opponents to solar farms who appear to be local are actually supported by national organizations with one mission â protecting fossil fuels. You might ask yourself why anyone would want to protect fossil fuel companies when their activities have altered the Earth’s climate. They threaten to interrupt the flow of the Gulf Stream, melt the polar ice caps, and bring drought and flooding to many parts of the world. A new study from Brown University shows in graphic detail how similar linkages exist between opponents of offshore wind and captive fossil fuel apologists at the national level.
Yahoo Finance: Nuclear-powered rally: Soaring uranium prices âhit another inflection pointâ
Uranium hit US$91 per pound this week, inching towards the triple-digit prices of 16 years ago. Last year, the price climbed from US$48. Data firm UxC estimates utilities contracted more than 160 million pounds in 2023, the most since 2012.
“With the spot price of uranium recently reaching US$90 per pound, we believe we have hit another inflection point in this bull market,” John Ciampaglia, CEO of Sprott Asset Management, which runs the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (U-UN.TO), wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “While 2023 was a momentous and rewarding year for nuclear energy, uranium and the miners, we remain bullish on the long-term prospects for the sector.”
The Spokesman-Review: Strange, unhappy life of Rodney Dangerfield
18.July.2004
âIf a really good comedian isnât depressed, somethingâs wrong,â says stand-up veteran Bob Saget, who was discovered by Dangerfield at the famed Comedy Store in Hollywood.
âWhen youâre a comedian,â says Saget, âyouâre looking at the world from the outside in. Youâre trying to be funny, but at the same time youâre really asking, âWhatâs it all mean?â Rodney has always talked about the heaviness â about how heavy everything is. Itâs funny when he says it, but the meaning behind it isnât. The weight is on his shoulders. He feels it, and itâs torturous.â
CleanTechnica: US To Investigate “Security Concerns” Involving Chinese Electric Cars
We have been talking lately about the collective shudder that has gone through the community of American automobile manufacturers after it was learned that BYD is scouting locations for a new factory in Mexico. BYD built more battery electric cars than Tesla in the 4th quarter of last year to become the largest EV manufacturer in the world (Tesla built more in 2023 overall). Suddenly, everyone and their uncle is sounding alarms about the threat posed by Chinese electric cars.
But there is a problem. Cars built in Mexico can be imported to the US without paying any tariffs, thanks to the US–Mexico–Canada Agreementthat replaced NAFTA. The Alliance of American Manufacturers calls the prospect of cheap Chinese electric cars flooding across the border an “extinction level event” for US automakers and the hundreds of industries that rely on car manufacturing.
Globe: Andrew Coyne: Canada is no longer one of the richest nations on Earth. Country after country is passing us by
The growth crisis deepens. The latest figures from Statistics Canada confirm that Canada suffered yet another decline in per capita GDP in the fourth quarter of 2023: the fifth decline in the past six quarters, the worst sustained drop in more than 30 years. Per capita GDP, after adjusting for inflation, is now below where it was in the fourth quarter of 2014, _nine years _ ago.
Most news reports focused on the fact that the GDP itself (i.e. total output, not per capita) did not actually drop, but eked out a 0.2-per-cent gain, after the third quarter’s small decline â meaning Canada “dodged a recession.” But the problem with Canada’s economy is not cyclical, but secular; not one of utilization, but capacity. It is not so much that growth is temporarily below potential as that potential growth has slowed to a crawl.
Nor is this a short-run problem. It has been going on for decades. In the 1950s and 60s, Canada’s economy grew at a rate of more than 5 per cent annually, after inflation. By the 1970s that had slowed to roughly 4 per cent; to 3 per cent in the 1980s; to 2.4 per cent in the 1990s; to 2 per cent in the 2000s. Over the past 10 years, it has averaged just 1.7 per cent. Last year it was 1.1 per cent.
Phil Rosenthal World: Iceland
Phil’s Iceland Locations
- Vikinga Pylsur (hot dogs)
- BrauĂ° & Co (pastries)
- SĂŚgreifinn (The Seabaron) (langoustine soup, wolffish kabobs)
- Sumac Grill + Drinks (middle eastern, lamb)
- Silfra Snorkeling (2 tectonic plates!)
- SkĂĄl (scallops, pork belly, char)
- Le Kock (American sandwiches, donuts)
- Matur og Drykkur (Icelandic)
From the iconic food-travel series Somebody Feed Phil, season 7 (just released today). I canât wait to visit Iceland again!
Last Updated: 01.Mar.2024 23:59 EST