đź”— Articles: Thursday 16.May.2024
NYT: What to know: Putin-Xi Summit
China’s backing will be crucial to President Vladimir V. Putin as he intensifies his offensive in Ukraine. But his host, Xi Jinping, has other competing priorities.
Pitchfork: Duane Eddy, Influential Rock’n’Roll Guitarist, Dies at 86
Duane Eddy, the pioneering guitarist who helped popularize twang–the reverberating electric sound that emits a warped and dusty tone–in rock’n’roll during the 1950s, has died, reports The Associated Press. He died of complications from cancer in the hospital on Tuesday (April 30) in Franklin, Tennessee, according to his wife, Deed Abbate. He was 86 years old.
A self-taught artist, Duane Eddy was drawn toward the bass strings on his guitar and believed that lead lines sounded better recorded there than on the higher strings. Leaning into that deeper tone, he began experimenting with his vibrato bar to capture the twang sound and found his signature style at that intersection. Eddy landed several hits in the late 1950s into the 1960s, including “Rebel Rouser” and “Forty Miles of Bad Road,” and sold over 100 million records worldwide. In the process, he went on to influence some of the biggest names in rock: George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, and more.
MacRumors: 40 Million People Subscribe to Netflix’s Ad-Supported Tier
Netflix’s ad-supported streaming tier has 40 million global monthly active users, up 35 million from a year ago, Netflix said today at its Upfront advertising presentation. Netflix has 270 million total subscribers worldwide, so the majority of its users are still on the ad-free tiers.
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In the United States, the Standard with ads plan is priced at $6.99 per month for HD streaming on up to two devices at one time, with all but a “few movies and TV shows available.” The basic ad-free plan is $15.49 per month, while the premium plan is $22.99 per month. Netflix’s ad-supported plan does not include the option to download content for offline viewing, nor does it support spatial audio.
Guardian: Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers
Sir John Armitt, the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), said good progress had been made on renewable energy in the past five years, but changes to key policies, including postponing a scheme to boost heat pump takeup, had created uncertainty and delay.
He said the government could no longer “duck key decisions”, as Britain was falling behind on vital infrastructure, from rail transport and energy to water, flood defences and waste.
Failure to catch up would stymie economic growth, and imperil climate targets, the NIC found in its latest annual review.
The unusually specific list of impacts is interesting.
TorStar: What went wrong with decriminalization in British Columbia?
On the streets of Victoria, addicts and those who care about them have mixed feelings about the return of criminalization, and they have a warning for Toronto.
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“We need to make sure the mental health piece is in place before decriminalization,” said Candice Csaky.
“We did things backward here.”
Unfortunately this seems to be a pattern for government. The passing of the law (free) happens first but the expensive part (enforcement, oversight/monitoring, funded programs) happens much later or never.
CBC: Customers are fed up with anti-theft measures at stores. Retailers say organized crime is to blame
Along with wheel-locking shopping carts, other contentious measures include metal gates with designated entry and exit points, random receipt checks and tall plexiglass barriers, which recently popped up at many Loblaw stores.Â
Major retailers like Canadian Tire and Walmart have implemented some of the measures; Loblaw has incorporated all of them.Â
Last Updated: 16.May.2024 22:55 EDT