đź”— Articles: Thursday 18.Apr.2024
NYT: Opinion: Abortion Is Remaking Our Political Landscape. Why Aren’t Guns?
Now, the idea of making abortion a state issue only works if you’re just looking for a make-believe answer that might let you escape from discussing the subject. But we don’t have a visible gun consensus. Even mass school shooting tragedies like Sandy Hook and Uvalde didn’t bring the debate to a head. Many, many politicians are still trying to protect the right of Americans to own weapons while giving at least some verbal deference to the right of everybody else not to be shot.
Shootings qualify as “mass” when a minimum of four people — shooter excluded — are hit. At this writing there have been 119 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. (Really kinda depressing to be living in a country that requires the services of a Gun Violence Archive.) But don’t hold me to that number — it goes up fast. Just the other day one child was killed and 10 people injured at a backyard party in Chicago and 12 people were shot outside a New Orleans nightclub, one fatally.
MacRumors: Should Apple Kill Siri and Start Over?
Enthusiasm for Siri has undeniably waned in the intervening years. Despite regular updates and improvements from Apple, Siri has struggled to keep pace with its advancing rivals, and in an era of generative AI chatbots and large language models, Siri’s failings have only been magnified. Issues ranging from misinterpreted commands to limited contextual understanding have not only hindered Siri’s usability but have also led to an almost universal perception of the virtual assistant as a source of user frustration rather than assistance. This persistent underperformance begs the question: Is it time for Apple to kill Siri and start over?
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Here are just a handful of serial issues some users have recently reported:
- Setting timers instead of alarms.
- Bungling music requests (even for purchases that Siri has local access to).
- Delayed responses over fast data connections.
- Nonsense responses to conversion requests.
- Creating notes instead of reminders.
- Acknowledging requests without acting on them.
- Overwrought punctuation when dictating.
- Inability to consistently control smart devices.
The list could go on. But has Siri really gotten more stupid?
UPI: Fruits, vegetables contain concerning levels of pesticides, report finds
Nearly 20% of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables that Americans eat contain concerning levels of pesticides, a new report finds.
Pesticides posed significant risks in popular choices such as strawberries, green beans, bell peppers, blueberries and potatoes, the review from Consumer Reports found.
“One food in particular, green beans, had residues of a pesticide that hasn’t been allowed to be used on the vegetable in the U.S. for over a decade,” the report authors said in a news release. “And imported produce, especially some from Mexico, was particularly likely to carry risky levels of pesticide residues.”
And acceptable levels in the US are much higher than Europe in many cases.
Ars Technica: Big Tech can’t hoard brainwave data for ad targeting, Colorado law says
On Wednesday, Colorado expanded the scope of its privacy law initially designed to protect biometric data like fingerprints or face images to become first in the nation to also shield sensitive neural data.
That could stop companies from hoarding brain activity data without residents realizing the risks. The New York Times reported that neural data is increasingly being collected and sold nationwide. And after a market analysis showed that investments in neurotechnology leapt by 60 percent globally from 2019 to 2020—and were valued at $30 billion in 2021—Big Tech companies have significantly intensified plans to develop their own products to rake in potentially billions.
Waveshare: Pico LCD 1.3
The ST7789VW is a single-chip controller/driver for 262K-color, graphic type TFT-LCD. It consists of 240 source line and 320 gate line driving circuits. The resolution of this LCD is 240 (H) RGB x 240 (V), it supports horizontal mode and vertical mode, and it doesn’t use all the RAM of the controller.
This LCD accepts 8-bits/9-bits/16-bits/18-bits parallel interface, that are RGB444, RGB565, RGB666. The color format used in demo codes is RGB565.
This LCD uses a 4-line SPI interface for reducing GPIO and fast speed.
Yahoo Sports: NHL approves Coyotes’ move to Utah; Arizona expected to explore expansion club
As has been expected for months, the NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the sale of the franchise’s hockey assets to Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, and Smith Entertainment Group (SEG). The group made an official request for an expansion team for Salt Lake City in January but later ceded to the NHL’s desire to relocate the Coyotes from Arizona.
The team will play in the Delta Center, currently the Jazz’s home arena. However, the NHL wants renovations to make the facility more hockey-friendly – especially if the club ends up playing there permanently. A new arena was part of SEG’s expansion team proposal, and it would also be used for a likely Winter Olympics in 2034.
The Independent: Axed Tesla staffers say the chaos will lead to ‘pretty bad’ quality only getting ‘worse’
This week’s layoffs appeared to be the largest in Tesla’s recent history, targeting 10 per cent of its roughly 140,000 employees, ranging from salesfolk in China through factory workers in Texas to engineers in California.
Simultaneously, Tesla lost two prominent executives: Drew Baglino, a long-serving lieutenant to chief executive Elon Musk who had been with the company for 18 years, and Rohan Patel, a former climate adviser to Barack Obama who led Tesla’s dealings with governments and regulators.
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A recent report in The New York Times highlighted how Tesla’s sweetheart deal with Chinese officials to build a factory in Shanghai helped kickstart the country’s EV market, ironically allowing local firms such as BYD to begin undercutting Tesla’s expensive premium vehicles.
Despite this danger, Musk has reportedly sidelined Tesla’s long-awaited low-cost EV project, veering from his original “master plan” for the company and potentially ceding a whole segment of the market to his rivals.
TorStar: Why did Toronto gas prices jump by 14 cents?
As we enter the summer months, gas stations transition to a “summer blend” which contains alkylate, a component added to gas that boosts octane, Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, explained.
Gas stations are, by law in the U.S., required to transition away from the winter blend which contains butane, a compound that easily evaporates but is useful for igniting in cold temperatures.
The cost of alkylates have jumped thanks to a spike in demand, as gas blended with alkylates is cleaner and able to meet better fuel efficiency standards.
TorStar: Trudeau government gets big push back as it promotes budget
Indigenous leaders, disability groups, doctors, real estate investors, business groups, opposition Conservatives and other political rivals of the Trudeau government blasted measures that either didn’t go far enough for some, or for others went too far.
MacRumors: Best Buy Launches Apple Vision Pro App for Previewing Tech Products
Best Buy today announced the launch of a new “Envision” app designed for the Apple Vision Pro headset. Envision is designed to allow Best Buy customers to explore different products and see how those products look in their own living spaces.
According to Best Buy, the Envision app is meant to help consumers plan their “ultimate home technology setup.” 3D models of Best Buy products are included, so users can see them from all angles and get an idea of the space they take up. The app includes big screen TVs, large and small appliances, computers, furniture, fitness equipment, and more.
The ultimate shopping appliance?
CBC: What the jury didn’t hear at the murder trial of Umar Zameer
The judge overseeing the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer repeatedly raised concerns over the prosecution’s changing theory of what happened that night and at one point indicated she did not see how a jury could reach a guilty verdict on murder based on evidence presented in court.
During legal arguments not heard by the jury, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy on several occasions asked the Crown to lay out its narrative for how Umar Zameer came to hit Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup with his car on July 2, 2021.
Prosecutors Michael Cantlon and Karen Simone raised new theories about where and how Northrup was struck after all their evidence had been presented to the jury, including some that were not brought up during their own expert’s testimony.
Guardian: Juliette Pavy: Sony World Photographer of the Year 2024
Between 1966 and 1975, Greenlandic Inuit women were subjected to an involuntary birth control programme known as the Spiralkampagnen (“spiral campaign”). Led by the Danish authorities, nearly 4,500 intrauterine devices, otherwise known as coils or “spirals”, were implanted into Inuit women and girls, some as young as 12. Many of them say that the procedure was performed without their consent. The campaign was first widely publicised by a Danish podcast in spring 2022, and documents now prove that the authorities implemented the policy to reduce Inuit population growth. An official investigation has now been opened, which is set to conclude at the end of 2024.
BlogTO: Flight with 290 passengers reports ‘multiple failures’ on approach to Toronto airport
Emergency vehicles were forced to meet an Air Canada flight that landed at Toronto Pearson Airport earlier this month after “multiple failures” onboard the aircraft.
According to a reconstruction video by the aviation YouTube channel, You can see ATC, the incident involved Air Canada flight AC935 from Punta Cana International Airport to Toronto on April 8 at approximately 6:50 p.m.
During the descent towards Toronto, pilots declared PAN-PAN, a term used in radiotelephone communications to signify that there is an urgency on board a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.
Last Updated: 18.Apr.2024 23:59 EDT