đź”— Articles: Monday 18.Mar.2024
MacRumors: iOS 17.4.1 Update for iPhone is Imminent
MacRumors previously reported that Apple was internally testing iOS 17.4.1. As a minor update for the iPhone, it will likely address software bugs and/or security vulnerabilities. It is unclear if the update will include any other changes.
As to be expected, Apple has also been internally testing iOS 17.5, and the first beta of that update is likely to be released this week.
We consider it likely that there will also be a macOS 14.4.1 update for the Mac at some point, as there have been complaints about several bugs on macOS 14.4 related to USB hubs, Java, Bluetooth, printers, audio plugins, and more.
Guardian: Rule of law declining across EU, report warns
Civil liberties network says in states where far-right parties influence power, rule-of-law deterioration risks becoming systemic.
The rule of law is declining across the EU as governments continue to weaken legal and democratic checks and balances, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting in particular a sharp rise in restrictions on the right to protest.
Berlin-based Liberties said in its annual report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that in older democracies with mainstream parties in government, such as France, Germany and Belgium, challenges to the rule of law remained sporadic.
However, in similarly long-established — so resilient — democracies where far-right parties are in power, or influencing power, such as Italy and Sweden, Liberties said deterioration of the rule of law, while gradual, risked becoming systemic.
CNN: Global ocean heat has been at record levels every single day for the last year
The world’s oceans have now experienced an entire year of unprecedented heat, with a new temperature record broken every day, new data shows.
Global ocean surface temperatures started breaking daily records in mid-March last year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, fueling concerns for marine life and extreme weather across the planet.
TorStar: Bonnie Crombie promises no provincial carbon tax
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie says there will be no provincial carbon tax if she topples Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives in the 2026 election.
“We will ensure major polluters pay, but we will not have an Ontario carbon tax on consumers,” Crombie said Monday as she announced a new panel to develop the party’s climate-change policies.
What’s going on here?! Is she relying on the federal carbon tax?
BNN Bloomberg: Sports Illustrated will continue operations after agreement reached with new publisher
Sports Illustrated will continue operations after the company that owns the brand agreed with a new publisher for its print and digital products.
Minute Media took over on Monday after reaching a licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group. On Jan. 19, Authentic announced that it was revoking The Arena Group’s publishing licence after Arena failed to make a quarterly payment.
Reuters: Out of money, Pentagon chief looks to convince allies of commitment to Ukraine
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday will try and convince European allies that President Joe Biden’s administration is still committed to supporting Ukraine, even as Washington has essentially run out of money to continue arming Kyiv and few signs that Congress will move to replenish funds.
Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60 billion more for Ukraine and the White House has been scrambling to find ways to send assistance to Kyiv, which has been battling Russian forces for more than two years.
The US congress is dysfunctional and ignoring the huge long-term implications.
The Sun Spot: NASA Engineers Make Progress Toward Understanding Voyager 1 Issue
Since November 2023, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, but the signal does not contain usable data. The source of the issue appears to be with one of three onboard computers, the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth by the telemetry modulation unit.
On March 3, the Voyager mission team saw activity from one section of the FDS that differed from the rest of the computer’s unreadable data stream. The new signal was still not in the format used by Voyager 1 when the FDS is working properly, so the team wasn’t initially sure what to make of it. But an engineer with the agency’s Deep Space Network, which operates the radio antennas that communicate with both Voyagers and other spacecraft traveling to the Moon and beyond, was able to decode the new signal and found that it contains a readout of the entire FDS memory.
Daring Fireball: My 2023 Apple Report Card
Last month Jason Snell published his annual Six Colors Apple Report Card for 2023. As I’ve done in the past – 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 — I’m publishing my full remarks and grades here. I’m late publishing this year because I forgot to last month. On Snell’s report card, voters give per-category scores ranging from 5 to 1; I’ve translated these to letter grades, A to E.
I mostly agree with his assessments except that I find Apple software full of a myriad of little bugs, some of them (eg dictation) getting worse and many of them many years unfixed (eg Apple Mail).
NYT: Justice Breyer, Off the Bench, Sounds an Alarm Over the Supreme Court’s Direction
In an interview in his chambers and in a new book, the justice, who retired in 2022, discussed Dobbs, originalism and the decline of trust in the court.
â‹®
There are three large problems with originalism, he wrote in the book.
“First, it requires judges to be historians – a role for which they may not be qualified – constantly searching historical sources for the ‘answer’ where there often isn’t one there,” he wrote. “Second, it leaves no room for judges to consider the practical consequences of the constitutional rules they propound. And third, it does not take into account the ways in which our values as a society evolve over time as we learn from the mistakes of our past.”
Last Updated: 18.Mar.2024 21:47 EDT