đź”— Articles: Mon 04.Mar.2024
“News that belongs to you.” — CBC
UPI: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission en route to International Space Station
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 successfully launched from the Florida coast on Sunday night with a final destination of the International Space Station.
RNZ News: Long-tailed bat the weight of a AAA battery believed to be NZ’s oldest
A bat of at least 26 years is officially New Zealand’s oldest known long-tailed bat/pekapeka.
Known as T7787, she was caught as part of a bat monitoring programme in Fiordland this month.
She was given a quick health check, then released to rejoin her colony at Walker Creek in the Eglinton Valley, where she has lived her entire life.
via Miraz
CBC: Everything you need to know about protecting yourself against measles
Individuals who’ve only received a single dose, as well as people who were infected with and recovered from measles before vaccines were available, should still get an updated dose, said Chagla.
“Two doses gives you optimal protection.”
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Despite the widespread availability of measles vaccines in developed countries, public health experts are tracking a growing number of cases in higher-income European countries such as the U.K., Austria and Belgium.
According to data published by the WHO, Europe saw a 30-fold increase in measles cases in 2023 compared to 2022. Europe had 941 cases in all of 2022, compared to more than 58,000 reported cases in 2023, according to the WHO.
Chagla is quick to point out that measles case rates in Canada are significantly lower than those in Europe and even the U.S.
MacWorld: Apple faces mammoth $2 billion EU fine over Spotify App Store complaint
Apple has been fined an astonishing 1.8 billion euros (roughly $1.95 billion) by EU regulators. The news was reported Monday by The New York Times and follows a five-year investigation into alleged anticompetitive behavior.
The decision relates to the dominance of Apple’s iOS App Store and the claim that it leverages this dominance to punish rivals or squeeze them out of the market. Back in 2019, Spotify complained about the Cupertino giant’s practices and Apple’s defensive PR campaignwasn’t enough to dissuade the EU from launching an investigation.
The dispute centers around the rules and fees that Apple levies on developers who sell apps for the iPhone and other devices. Spotify claimed the rules “purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience,” while the 30 percent commission on all app revenues was claimed to be excessive. (This fee has since been lowered in many cases.) Devs were also forced to use Apple’s own payment system, preventing them from avoiding the revenue cut, although this too is an area where Apple has begun to make small compromises since the investigation began.
CBC: Apple to pay up to $14.4M in iPhone throttling settlement approved by B.C. judge
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has approved a proposed maximum $14.4 million settlement from Apple to eligible members of a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of deliberately providing software updates that slowed its iPhone 6 and 7 models.
Apple denies the allegations. The company had earlier agreed to pay between $11.1 million and $14.4 million as part of the settlement. It says the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Depending on how many people apply for the settlement, claimants will receive between $17.50 and $150. They must provide a serial number for the impacted phone.
CultOfMac: New Belkin mount connects iPhone to Apple TV for video calls
Apple TV 4K became a more versatile living room device when tvOS 17 brought support for FaceTime. Although the video streamer comes with no camera of its own, it can use an iPhone’s, thanks to the magic of Apple’s Continuity Camera system. This allows the top-quality rear-facing cameras built into an iPhone to be used with a Mac or Apple TV.
And that’s where Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Apple TV 4K comes in. It clips to the top of a TV screen and holds the handset during video calls. An included mounting bracket promises added stability.
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And it isn’t only useful for FaceTime. Continuity Camera also supports Webex and Zoom, plus Apple Music Sing.
CultOfMac: M3 MacBook Air gets big specs boost with same design, battery life
The 2024 MacBook Air lineup launched Monday by Apple runs on the company’s M3 chip, bringing a significant performance boost to the laptop. It also benefits from Wi-Fi that’s up to twice as fast. Plus, the new MacBook Air can support two external displays. This all comes in the same thin design, with the same two display sizes and four colors.
Apple’s press release says that “with a faster and more efficient Neural Engine in M3, MacBook Air continues to be the world’s best consumer laptop for AI.”
The M3 MacBook Air starts at the same $1,099 price as the outgoing M2 model, which remains on sale starting at $999. You can order the new MacBook Air now from the Apple Online Storeand it will be available this Friday.
TorStar: Conservative Jamil Jivani wins Durham federal byelection
In the 2021 election, the Liberals received about 29 per cent of the vote. On Monday, the results midway through the evening saw their vote share hovering around 22 per cent.
In third place were the New Democrats, whose candidate was Chris Borgia, the president of the Durham Labour Council, who had been joined on the campaign trail over the weekend by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
The Green candidate for Monday’s byelection was Kevin MacKenzie. There was also an Independent candidate, Pranay Gunti. Adam Smith was on the ballot for the Rhinoceros party, Khalid Qureshi for the Centrist party and Grant Abraham for the United party.
TorStar: Guilbeault calls Saskatchewan premier ‘immoral’ for breaking carbon-price law
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Ottawa has to take action against Saskatchewan for breaking the federal carbon-pricing law.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said last week his province would not submit the money it owed for the carbon price on natural gas as required on Feb. 29.
Moe is protesting Ottawa’s decision to exempt heating oil from the levy but not natural gas, which is used by eight in 10 households in Saskatchewan.
TorStar: Why has Canadian politics become so stupid?
Now let’s get into your question. I think we need to look at it at two levels. There’s obviously a degree of stupidification of politics in every part of the world that I pay any attention to right now. Was it the Belgians who literally could not form a government for month after month not that long ago? And was that a strange kind of maudlin envy I felt when they just went without? Democracy is in a pretty sorry state everywhere these days, and there’s a lot of explanations that we can point to: social media and deliberate disinformation campaigns, collapse of the legacy press, loss of institutional trust during and since the pandemic, and all the rest. That’s the big picture. In the specifically Canadian context, which does fit into all the above, my best guess at an answer for this dreadful state of affairs is that we have the two major federal parties — sorry, NDP — that are both calculating that their short-term political interests are best served by amping up the stupid. The Tories need people to stay as angry as they are now. The Liberals need people to get afraid of how well the CPC is polling so that they’ll flock back to Trudeau. Both of these persuasion campaigns are going to unfold over social media, a place where even smart people sound like raving lunatics. I think this is why things are as bad as they are now. And why they’ll get worse as the vote gets closer.
Good article.
Last Updated: 04.Mar.2024 23:57 EST