The Micro Blog

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🔗 Articles: Sunday 02.Jun.2024

Betcha can’t eat just one!

Daring Fireball: ICQ Is Shutting Down (Also: ICQ Is Still Around)

Perhaps no area of computing was more disrupted by the smartphone revolution than messaging. Pre-mobile, “instant messaging” had a surprising number of popular platforms. AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was tops amongst my cohort, almost certainly because Apple’s iChat – the Mac-only predecessor to the app we now call Messages – started in 2002 exclusively as an AIM client. But Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ were all popular too. The list of protocols that the popular Mac chat app Adium supported was very long.

NYT: In Singapore, China Warns U.S. While Zelensky Seeks Support

“These malign intentions are drawing Taiwan to the dangers of war,” Admiral Dong told the meeting after making an oblique but unmistakable reference to U.S. military and political support for Taiwan. “Anyone who dares split Taiwan from China will be smashed to pieces and court their own destruction.”

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There is no clear evidence yet that Ukraine has struck inside Russia with weapons provided by its allies in NATO, after the Biden administration acceded last week to a request from the government in Kyiv to be able to hit targets across the border. That shift in U.S. policy had followed declarations from nearly a dozen European governments and Canada that their weapons could be used in this way.

TechCrunch: Iceland’s startup scene is all about making the most of the country’s resources

With fewer than 400,000 inhabitants, Iceland receives more than its fair share of tourists — and of venture capital. Both are good reasons to pay attention to what’s going on and coming out of this unique island nation.

“We need more pillars to our economy,” Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Iceland’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, recently told TechCrunch at Iceland Innovation Week in Reykjavík.

Guardian: Editorial: The Guardian view on taxing billionaires: we need to talk about the super-rich

G20 countries will discuss proposals to make the world’s wealthiest individuals pay more towards funding public goods. The debate is overdue.

ABC (.au): Harlow’s neurosurgeon Amelia Jardim not only repaired her brain but inspired the schoolgirl through a special bond

Dr Jardim is among just 17 per cent of Australian neurosurgeons who are women.

She juggles three children — aged five, three and one – with a demanding role as a brain surgeon working across the Queensland Children’s and Mater Health hospitals in Brisbane.

ABC (.au): China defence chief says Beijing ready to ‘forcefully’ stop Taiwan independence

National security expert Professor Rory Medcalf called it the “most pointedly intimidating speech” he had heard from a Chinese representative in the past 20 years.

TorStar: Man charged with careless driving in TTC streetcar collision

Toronto police said they charged a man with careless driving after the Saturday morning collision involving a streetcar in the area of Frederick and King Streets.

TorStar: Justin Ling: I asked why the Liberals broke a vow. Their reply shocked me

In 2021, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, desperately clinging to a minority government in an election they didn’t have to call, made a bold promise on policing. Re-elect the Liberals, the party’s platform said, and the new government would prohibit the RCMP from employing neck restraints–like the ones used to kill George Floyd and Eric Garner — or deploying tear gas or bullets to control unruly crowds.

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But three years on, the government has done little to make any of those promises a reality. In fact, my reporting shows the Liberals have effectively abandoned even their own promised baby steps toward reform. Why? Because the RCMP told them to.

TorStar: If Red Lobster dies, part of me will, too

I know this probably sounds pretty maudlin. And I guess it is. But my point is that we all have these places where our lives unfold. If we’re lucky, they’re perfect places. It could be the crest of a hill overlooking a vista, as the sun sets. Or some lake, or whatever. But if we live, like lots of us live, in the suburbs and exurbs that cling wrap this vast continent, then chances are your life probably doesn’t have a perfect crest, or a vista, or a lake.

Chances are it has an East Side Mario’s, or an Applebee’s, or a Red Lobster. You know: a place where the staff has memorized an in-house birthday song that they all recite tableside, clapping more-or-less in synch. These places bloom in the memory. And they are in increasingly short supply.

TorStar: How did Justin Trudeau screw up so badly? Maybe the answer was hiding in plain sight

By the fall of 2022, though, the Liberals really started losing the thread. They didn’t see the cost-of-living crisis coming on. They failed to come to grips with housing and immigration, and they didn’t grasp the connection between those issues. They didn’t go at Pierre Poilievre hard when he took over as Conservative leader, leaving him a clear field to define himself as the champion of middle-class Canada.

Most obviously, the Liberals completely bungled the foreign interference file. If they’d taken it seriously and done what pretty much everyone suggested — set up a foreign agents register and promise an inquiry — they could have contained the damage.

Instead, inexplicably, they dodged and weaved and turned a problem into a crisis. By the summer of 2023 they’d fallen to 20 points behind the Conservatives and nothing they’ve done since has turned that around.

Last Updated: 02.Jun.2024 23:56 EDT

Saturday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Friday 31.May.2024

If you can find a better car, buy it.

CleanTechnica: California Heat Pump Partnership Aims For 6 Million In 6 Years

Everybody knows that heat pumps are going to push fossil energy out of buildings and back underground where it belongs. The question is how far, and how fast. The newly launched California Heat Pump Partnership has the answer and they are not kidding around, with the firepower of a collaborative effort that includes the companies covering more than 90% of the US consumer heat pump market.

Manton Reece: About

Want the longer story? I’ve been developing apps for the Mac and the web since the mid-1990s. …

NYT: Opinion: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases

Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection. Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.

Kottke: Fabric & Letterforms

I loved looking at some of the items from the Letterform Archive related to the representation of letters with fabric (knitting, cross-stitch, weaving, etc.) Also, I did not know this re: the word “text”:

The word “text” originated from the Latin word “textus,” which means “a weaving” or “a fabric.” In ancient times, textus referred specifically to the process of weaving fabric. Over time, the meaning of the word expanded to include written or printed material, reflecting the idea of words being woven together to create a coherent written work. …

MacRumors: Apple Vision Pro International Launch Likely Scheduled for July

The international launch of the Vision Pro is likely to fall in the third or fourth week of July. Given this timing, there is a chance that Apple will confirm the date at its WWDC keynote on June 10.

Dave Winer (Scripting News): Tech is about people

Once again we’re at the beginning of a huge tech-induced transformation, and yet again the people who already occupy a high rung of the ladder of success, or imagine they do, are p*ssing all over it, without using it.

NewsNation: Carville, Rivera disagree on Trump verdict

James Carville believes in the American jury system, believes it worked in the Donald Trump hush money case, and believes the jury got it right.

“In spite of Trump’s constant telling people that he was going to take the stand and defend himself, he offered no defense,” Carville said. “He chickened out.”

“I respect jurors. Believe they are diligent American citizens. The idea these jurors were some sort of political pawn is a disservice to the jury system and a disservice to the rule of law,” Carville told NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”

NewsNation: Trump says he wanted to testify in hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump, now also a convicted felon, said during a news conference Friday he wanted wanted to testify in his criminal hush money trial but was discouraged by his legal team.

Speaking in front of Trump Tower in New York the day after the unprecedented verdict in his trial, Trump said he ultimately decided not to testify because it would have allowed lawyers to dig into everything he’s ever done, and that the judge wanted to go into every detail.

He got good advice, I’d say.

MacRumors: iOS 18 to Add Text Effects to iMessage

While it is already possible to send iMessages with bubble effects or full-screen effects, such as invisible ink or confetti, the text effects would allow you to animate individual words within a message. With the Messages app set to gain RCS support on iOS 18, it is possible the text effects will also work with green bubbles.

Our hope is that Apple will also add bold, italics, and underline formatting options alongside the text effects, but we have not confirmed that possibility.

In addition to the text effects and RCS support, the Messages app on iOS 18 will reportedly gain an AI-powered autocompletion tool.

Electrek: Volkswagen ID.3 gains more spunk, power, and a lower price model

The “major” upgrades include new software and infotainment (with ChatGPT). VW’s new system features a larger touchscreen with an improved design.

With a stronger and more efficient motor, the new ID.3 (Pro S) delivers 228 hp (170 kW) as standard with up to 347 miles (550 km) WLTP range. The upgraded model also features faster charging speeds with up to 175 kW DC charging capacity and added battery pre-conditioning.

CBC: What the ‘inadvertent error’ in the PBO’s carbon tax analysis means, in as plain English as possible

Both the PBO and the other group of economists agree the majority of Canadian households receive more in rebates than they pay in these direct and indirect fiscal costs, combined. (This is the portion of the PBO analysis that the federal Liberals like to point to, and that the federal Conservatives like to ignore.)

TechCrunch: Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach

Live Nation said the breach occurred on May 20, and that a cybercriminal on May 27 “offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web.” The company did not say who the personal information belongs to, though it’s believed to relate to customers.

AppleInsider: AirTag crucial to recovery of $5 million of stolen tools in Metro DC

After getting fed up with overnight thefts of tools, a Northern Virginia carpenter planted AirTags on his tools, leading police to series of storage facilities full of stolen goods.

Twice, an unnamed carpenter woke in the early morning to find his van broken into, and thousands of dollars of tools stolen out of the vehicle. He decided that if there was going to be a third time, he was going to hunt down the thieves.

He bought a series of AirTags and planted them in some of the larger tools that had yet to be stolen.

On January 22, the thieves returned. All in all, between the three break-ins, 50 tools had been stolen from the man — including some of the tools seeded with AirTags.

BBC: Migrants and drugs - why Mexico’s election matters to the US

Opinion polls have given the frontrunner, Claudia Sheinbaum, and her main rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, such a large lead over their male rivals, that a female president looks like a foregone conclusion.

But whoever wins this coming Sunday will have to deal with the sensitive relationship with the United States, which is not only Mexico’s northern neighbour but also its top commercial partner.

How to handle the Mexican drug cartels – largely blamed by US authorities for the deadly epidemic of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the US – is not the only daunting issue for the Mexican presidential candidates.

The winner will also have to deal with the record flows through Mexico of US-bound foreign migrants that are a burning topic in the US’ own 2024 electoral race.

Last Updated: 31.May.2024 23:59 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Thursday 30.May.2024

It beats as it sweeps as it cleans.

NYT: Nate Cohen: Perhaps Lost in the Polling: The Race for President Is Still Close

Though he trails in the polls, President Biden has mostly held his support among white voters. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin probably offer his clearest path to victory.

Reuters: US Labor Dept sues Hyundai over US child labor, court filing shows

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday sued South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Co, an auto parts plant and a labor recruiter, over illegal use of child labor in Alabama.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Alabama, also sought an order requiring the companies to relinquish any profits related to the use of child labor.

Reuters reported in 2022 that children, some as young as 12, worked for a Hyundai subsidiary and in parts suppliers for the company in the Southern state.

The Labor Department in its filing named three companies as defendants, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama LLC, SMART Alabama LLC, an auto parts company, and Best Practice Service LLC, a staffing firm, for employing a 13-year-old child.

The Department’s Wage and Hour Division found the child had worked up to 50-60 hours per week on an assembly line operating machines that formed sheet metal into auto body parts.

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In 2022, Reuters revealed the widespread and illegal employment of migrant children in Alabama factories supplying both Hyundai and sister brand Kia. In addition to leading to probes by law enforcement and regulators, the coverage was followed by other media examinations of the problem of child labor in the U.S.

CBC: Ford suggests immigrants to blame for shooting at Jewish school

Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested Thursday immigrants to the province were responsible for shooting at a Jewish girls’ elementary school in North York last weekend, despite police saying they have little information on the suspects.

He’s back into full idiot mode!

CBC: Emigration from Canada to the U.S. hits a 10-year high as tens of thousands head south

Census says 126,340 people left Canada for the U.S. in 2022, a 70 per cent increase over a decade ago.

CBC: Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in hush-money trial

“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial, and the real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” he said, referring to the upcoming U.S. presidential election this fall.

“We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m an innocent man.”

NYT: Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America’s First Felon President

Donald J. Trump was convicted on Thursday of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign, capping an extraordinary trial that tested the resilience of the American justice system and transformed the former commander in chief into a felon.

The guilty verdict in Manhattan — across the board, on all 34 counts — will reverberate throughout the nation and the world as it ushers in a new era of presidential politics. Mr. Trump will carry the stain of the verdict during his third run for the White House as voters now choose between an unpopular incumbent and a convicted criminal.

BBC: Dinosaur hunter stumbles across million-dollar find

The first stegosaurus skeleton to go under the hammer is set to fetch millions of dollars in New York. But the extraordinary discovery was made by chance, thousands of miles away out west during one man’s birthday stroll, writes Stephen Smith.

9to5Mac: YouTube app no longer hijacks Apple TV screen saver

This is certainly good news for Apple TV users. Although the YouTube screensavers were harmless, some people were afraid that the app would use this space to show ads in the future. Even Google executive Philipp Schindler said earlier this year that the company was testing a way to show ads on TVs when a video is paused.

Ubiquitous, pervasive advertising is a pox.

WashPo: What to know about the jurors in Trump’s New York hush money trial

Here is what the jurors said during jury selection about Trump, their media consumption and their ability to remain impartial: …

CBC: Health Canada must reconsider man’s bid to use magic mushrooms for cluster headaches, Federal Court rules

A 51-year-old Calgary man who suffers debilitating cluster headaches has won a Federal Court battle forcing Health Canada to reconsider his bid for legal access to psilocybin to treat his extreme pain.

Ottawa Federal Court Judge Simon Fothergill, on May 24, granted an application for judicial review of Health Canada’s denial of Jody Lance’s bid for legal access to medical grade psilocybin — the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms — to manage pain associated with the headaches, which is so bad they have earned the nickname “suicide headaches.”

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Psilocybin has been legal for Canadians to access in a limited way under the Special Access Program since 2022. As of November 2023, Health Canada had authorized 153 requests for 161 patients.

Health Canada will need to establish better evidentiary rules for such substances.

Guardian: Moira Donegan: I had convinced myself Trump would never be convicted. I’m happy I was wrong

There are so many things that Trump should go to prison for, which he never will. He should go to prison for what he did on January 6. He should go to prison for what he did to migrant families. If there were justice, he would go to prison for what he did to E Jean Carroll and allegedly to any number of the two dozen other women who have accused him of sexual assault. He might never go to prison, and there’s still a long way to go before anything like true justice is served.

But for those of us who had despaired of a day like this — who had convinced ourselves that to think he would ever be convicted of anything was childishly naive — this is a very good day. We can be happy, among other things, that we were wrong.

NYT: David French: ‘Ukraine Has Gone Through a Terrible Period’: A Q. and A. With Frederick and Kimberly Kagan

He is the director of the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project and was one of the intellectual architects of America’s successful surge counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq in 2007. She wrote a military history of the surge and is the founder and president of the Institute for the Study of War, which is producing in-depth, real-time analysis of the battlefield in Ukraine for the public and government leaders.

I found their observations about what is arguably the most consequential military conflict of the 21st century invaluable. I hope you find them as instructive as I did.

Atlantic: Dressing for Court

The courtroom dress code for most witnesses and defendants is modest, quiet attire—clothing that no one will be talking about. But when celebrities and politicians are in the mix, it’s not that simple.

Atlantic: David Frum: Wrong Case, Right Verdict

Donald Trump will not be held accountable before the 2024 presidential election for his violent attempt to overturn the previous election. He will not be held accountable before the election for absconding with classified government documents and showing them off at his pay-for-access vacation club. He will not be held accountable before the election for his elaborate conspiracy to manipulate state governments to install fake electors. But he is now a convicted felon all the same.

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The United States can have a second Trump presidency, or it can retain the rule of law, but not both. No matter how much spluttering and spin-doctoring and outright deception you may hear from the desperate co-partisans of the first Felon American to stand as the presumptive presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party — there is no denying that now.

Atlantic: Amazon Returns Have Gone to Hell

I’ve had this same experience — where Amazon insists that it never got an item I really have sent back — many times now. In some cases, I did end up getting charged, and had to talk with customer service to unwind the matter. Sometimes it took several separate calls or chats to resolve.

NYT: What I Learned About Life at My 30th College Reunion

“Every classmate who became a teacher or doctor seemed happy,” and 29 other lessons from seeing my Harvard class of 1988 all grown up.

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12. Many classmates who are in long-lasting marriages said they experienced a turning point, when their early marriage suddenly transformed into a mature relationship. “I’m doing the best I can!” one classmate told me she said to her husband in the middle of a particularly stressful couples’-therapy session. From that moment on, she said, he understood: Her imperfections were not an insult to him, and her actions were not an extension of him. She was her own person, and her imperfections were what made her her. Sometimes people forget this, in the thick of marriage.

13. Nearly all the alumni said they were embarrassed by their younger selves, particularly by how judgmental they used to be.

Last Updated: 30.May.2024 23:37 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Tuesday 28.May.2024

Have It Your Way!

WashPo: Va. firm fined for discriminatory hiring ad that only sought White citizens

A Virginia-based technology company will pay more than $38,000 in penalties** **for posting a discriminatory job advertisement that only sought to hire White U.S. citizens, the Justice Department announced.

Arthur Grand Technologies Inc., a firm that provides information technology services, in March 2023 posted a job advertisement for a business analyst position on the hiring site Indeed that asked in a bolded note for “Only Born US Citizens [White] who are local within 60 miles from Dallas,” according to a Justice Department news release. “Don’t share with candidates,” the advertisement read in brackets. Outrage quickly followed when the job posting was shared on social media.

More and more blatant.

WashPo: Virginia solar projects stall after Dominion Energy required pricey upgrades

“We went from a worst-case scenario of interconnection fees being about $20,000 – and that was a rare, worst-case scenario – to we’re starting out at half a million and going up from there. They’ve literally shut down midsize solar,” said Alden Cleanthes of Norfolk Solar, which works in low-income communities.

After launching in 2019, her company did more than $2 million in business, including installations on two historically Black churches, a community center and a family-owned roofing company. In 2023, it completed no projects.

ScienceAlert: New Type of Reversible Male Contraception Proves a Success in Mouse Study

A new type of male contraceptive that doesn’t rely on hormones has shown preliminary success in mice. The novel medicine is not only reversible; it comes with very few side effects.

Clinical trials for humans are still years away, but in initial experiments on rodents, the right dose of medicine at the right time can enter the bloodstream, cross into the testes, and curtail the hyperactivity of sperm.

The compound is called CDD-2807, and US researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine are keen to keep studying it.

BBC: British Museum gems for sale on eBay - how a theft was exposed

In 2020, Danish antiquities dealer Dr Ittai Gradel began to suspect an eBay seller he had been buying from was a thief who was stealing from the British Museum.

More than two years later, the museum would announce that thousands of objects were missing, stolen or damaged from its collection. It had finally believed Dr Gradel - but why had it taken so long for it to do so?

BBC: Tackling water shortages with the ‘Star Wars’ tech

Their system converts air to water using atmospheric water generators that contain a liquid desiccant, which absorbs moisture from the air.

Using sunlight or renewable electricity they heat the desiccant to 65C which releases the moisture, which can then be condensed into drinking water.

Mr Shrivastav says the whole process takes about 12 hours. Today each unit produces about 2,000 litres of drinking water.

CBC: Inuit musical duo records album for new Canadian animated film

PIQSIQ’s Tiffany Ayalik and Inuksuk Mackay created the movie’s score.

CBC: Neuralink looks to the public to solve a seemingly impossible problem

The problem, said Roy van Rijn, director of software consultancy OpenValue Rotterdam, is that the files appear very noisy. In other words, they contain many unique data points without common patterns. “If there aren’t enough ‘patterns’ in the data, it is mathematically impossible to compress something further,” he said in an email.

Van Rijn wrote a simple algorithm that compressed the Neuralink files at a ratio of 3.37 to 1. He speculated that participants using a similar approach might be able to compress the neural signals further, but that the “general consensus is that [200 to 1] is just outlandish.”

Neuralink is Musk’s company.

CNN: US pier constructed off Gaza has broken apart

The temporary pier constructed by the US military to transport aid into Gaza broke apart and sustained damage in heavy seas on Tuesday in a major blow to the American-led effort to create a maritime corridor for humanitarian supplies into the war-torn enclave, the Pentagon said.

The pier was “damaged and sections of the pier need rebuilding and repairing,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday. The pier will be removed from its location on the Gaza coast over the next 48 hours and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where US Central Command will carry out repairs, Singh said. The repairs will take more than a week, further delaying the effort to get the maritime corridor fully operating.

MacRumors: Nomad Tracking Card Review

Nomad today announced the launch of the Tracking Card, a super thin Find My-enabled card that is designed to be carried in a wallet so that it’s trackable with an iPhone.

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Perhaps the best feature of the Tracking Card is the battery. The battery inside can be recharged by putting the card on a Qi-based charger, and the markings on the card show the alignment. I tested the card with several Qi/MagSafe (https://www.macrumors.com/guide/magsafe-battery-pack/)chargers and they were all able to provide power, with charging indicated by a small red LED on the card.

CBC: Doug Ford’s change to booze sales could cost far more than $225M

Official figures from the Ministry of Finance and the LCBO obtained by CBC News on Monday show the province is facing a net revenue loss of $150 to $200 million per year as a result of the changes, in addition to the Beer Store payment.

Huge deficit and he’s cutting revenues!

Last Updated: 28.May.2024 17:06 EDT

Monday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Monday 27.May.2024

Imagination at work

The Verge: Google promised a better search experience — now it’s telling us to put glue on our pizza

Imagine this: you’ve carved out an evening to unwind and decide to make a homemade pizza. You assemble your pie, throw it in the oven, and are excited to start eating. But once you get ready to take a bite of your oily creation, you run into a problem — the cheese falls right off. Frustrated, you turn to Google for a solution.

“Add some glue,” Google answers. “Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer’s glue in with the sauce. Non-toxic glue will work.”

So, yeah, don’t do that. As of writing this, though, that’s what Google’s new AI Overviews feature will tell you to do. The feature, while not triggered for every query, scans the web and drums up an AI-generated response. The answer received for the pizza glue query appears to be based on a comment from a user named “f–ksmith” in a more than decade-old Reddit thread, and they’re clearly joking.

Egg freckles.

ScienceAlert: Mysterious Viral DNA in Human Genome Linked With Psychiatric Disorders

We found that that the expression of four Hervs was linked with genetic susceptibility to major psychiatric disorders. The expression of two of these Hervs was associated with schizophrenia, one Herv with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and one with depression.

These results suggest that Hervs may be playing a more important role in the brain than initially thought.

CleanTechnica: Kenya To Get 1,000 MW Data Center Powered By Geothermal Energy

Kenya is already in the top 10 countries when it comes to electricity generation plants powered by geothermal. Kenya has the 6th highest installed generation capacity and is inching closer to being one of the few countries in the world that have generation capacity from geothermal that is over 1,000 MW. Kenya’s current installed capacity from geothermal is 985 MW. According to THINK GEOENERGY, only New Zealand (1,042 MW), Turkiye (1,691 MW), Philippines (1,952 MW), Indonesia (2,418 MW), and the US (3,900 MW) have more generating capacity than Kenya.

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Last week, Microsoft Corp. and G42 announced a comprehensive package of digital investments in Kenya, as part of an initiative with the Republic of Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy. In collaboration with Microsoft and other stakeholders, G42 will lead the arrangement of an initial investment of $1 billion for the various components outlined in the comprehensive package. One of the Kenyan investment priorities is a state-of-the-art green data center that will be built by G42 and its partners to run Microsoft Azure in a new East Africa Cloud Region.

Cult of Mac: Ikea Sjöss 45W charger review: Why buy anything else?

Plenty of power bricks with dual USB-C ports give you options for charging your Apple devices. But Ikea — yes, the company known for its DIY furniture — has a new offering that trumps them all from a value viewpoint. As you’ll find out in our review of the Ikea Sjöss 45W charger, it packs two USB-C ports and supports all popular fast charging standards.

The effective power adapter stands out for its super-low price, which significantly undercuts the competition. Below is our quick review of the Ikea Sjöss 45W USB-C charger.

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As mentioned, despite a peak 45W output and dual USB-C ports, the Sjöss 45W costs just $14.99. Apple’s 35W power brick with dual USB-C ports cost $59, nearly four times more than Ikea’s offering. Even Apple’s 30W USB-C power adapter, which costs $30, is twice as expensive as Ikea’s more powerful model.

Guardian: Sunak struggles to control Tory party on chaotic fifth day of election campaign

Prime minister campaigns in Buckinghamshire as his military service plan is criticised and MP defects to Reform.

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Sunak found himself under fire early on Monday, as Steve Baker, a Northern Ireland minister, said introducing mandatory national service was a policy dreamed up by advisers and sprung on candidates.

It later emerged that Baker, who is defending the Labour target of Wycombe, had chosen to go on holiday to Greece rather than stay on the campaign trail — after Sunak previously told MPs they should go ahead and book time off.

The prime minister was then hit with the defection of Lucy Allan, the Conservative MP for Telford, who said she would support the local candidate for Reform. The party suspended the whip, but she hit back saying she had quit first and that the Conservatives had no chance in her seat, according to the Shropshire Star.

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The prime minister also struggled to say how his national service policy would work, refusing to clarify what fines or incentives would make it mandatory for 18-year-olds. One minister claimed that it could involve parents being fined if their grownup children did not comply, before another party official appeared to rule that out.

The former defence secretary Ben Wallace defended the policy by appearing to suggest young people had few demands on them. “Heaven forbid young people are made to do something … ” he said.

No stereotyping going on here.

CBC: Federal government plans to increase its use of AI — with some big exceptions

Speaking to a hand-picked roundtable of experts Monday, Anand said the government has set three priorities for a national public service AI strategy: providing services to Canadians, increasing operational efficiency and driving science and research.

“The question is really going to be how can we, with this strategy, add greater efficiencies but also simplify the interactions of the Canadian population and organizations and businesses with federal services,” Anand told the roundtable.

Last Updated: 27.May.2024 17:05 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Sunday 26.May.2024

It’s the Real Thing!

NYT: Trump Tells Libertarians to Nominate Him, and Mocks Them When They Boo

Early in his speech at the Libertarian Party’s national convention on Saturday, Donald J. Trump told the party’s delegates bluntly that they should nominate him as its candidate for president. He was vigorously booed.

When the jeers died down, Mr. Trump, visibly frustrated with the rowdy reception he had received ever since taking the stage, dug in and went a step further, seeming to insult the very group that had invited him.

“Only do that if you want to win,” he said of nominating him. “If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting your three percent every four years.”

The boos began anew, only louder.

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“He’s going to make himself sound Libertarian,” Ms. Welch said. “But he’s the ultimate authoritarian.”

NYT: Hillary Clinton Has Some Tough Words for Democrats, and for Women

Hillary Clinton criticized her fellow Democrats over what she described as a decades-in-the-making failure to protect abortion rights, saying in her first extended interview about the fall of Roe v. Wade that her party underestimated the growing strength of anti-abortion forces until many Democrats were improbably “taken by surprise” by the landmark Dobbs decision in 2022.

In wide-ranging and unusually frank comments, Mrs. Clinton said Democrats had spent decades in a state of denial that a right enshrined in American life for generations could fall — that faith in the courts and legal precedent had made politicians, voters and officials unable to see clearly how the anti-abortion movement was chipping away at abortion rights, restricting access to the procedure and transforming the Supreme Court, until it was too late.

“We didn’t take it seriously, and we didn’t understand the threat,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Most Democrats, most Americans, did not realize we are in an existential struggle for the future of this country.”

Well, yeah.

CleanTechnica: Publishing On Cement Decarbonization Brings Challenges, Corrections And More Approaches

We make about 4.1 billion tons of cement annually, which turns into perhaps 40 billion tons of concrete. The carbon dioxide is about one for one with cement, so that’s about 4.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, or 8% to 10% of all carbon dioxide we emit annually in the world. It’s a big climate problem.

Sublime Systems’ solution — full article with all the nerdy details, some of which I got wrong, here — is electrochemistry, the same class of chemistry that is used in all of our batteries, to make aluminum and to make the chemical that bleaches paper, among a lot of other things. The basics of electrochemistry are that if you have a positively and negatively charged electrode in a medium and you adjust the pH balance, you can do stuff that sometimes seems like alchemy.

Guardian: Charles Leclerc wins Monaco F1 GP for Ferrari to delight of home crowd

This is Leclerc’s sixth attempt to win the race and now that the 26‑year‑old has done so he can consider his Monaco curse truly lifted, becoming the first Monegasque to win here since the Formula One world championship began in 1950 by beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri into second and his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz into third.

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Yet the race he won was a turgid affair to watch. Dictated by tyre management at a torturously slow pace and with passing impossible, the cars circled round in an endless procession, offering neither interest nor any sense of jeopardy, nor indeed barely a sniff of actual racing.

With the top 10 finishing in exactly their grid order, there was nary even an attempt at an overtake among them — Monaco, the so-called jewel in the Formula One crown, proving once more as patently unfit for purpose in the modern era.

The Verge: Bambu P1P vs. Creality K1C: an ‘easy’ 3D printer showdown

If you asked me to recommend an “easy” consumer 3D printer, I’d warn you first: despite countless innovations, you still can’t quite hit a button to reliably photocopy a 3D model. Buying a 3D printer is buying an entire hobby, one where — if you’re a lazy bum like me — many attempts will turn into worthless gobs of plastic.

But if you persisted, I’d tell you my one clear choice for lazy bums: the Bambu P1P.

What, a printer from the company that recalled its newest model and whose earlier ones once went rogue? Yep — because not only did Bambu handle those incidents with rapid apologies, investigations, transparency, and even refunds, the $599 Bambu P1P is also absolutely the easiest, most reliable 3D printer I’ve used.

Last Updated: 26.May.2024 23:52 EDT

Saturday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Friday 24.May.2024

Just do it!

Vox: Besides Ticketmaster and scalpers, why are concert tickets are so expensive?

The fact is, concerts have steadily gotten more expensive even on the primary market — the place where someone can originally buy tickets, like Ticketmaster — before any scalper upcharge is added. According to the live music trade publication Pollstar, the average ticket price of the top 100 music tours last year was $122.84. In 2019 it was $91.86 — a rise that outpaced inflation by a good margin. Back in 2000, it was $40.74. For the top 10 grossing tours in 2023, the average price was even higher: $152.97.

Though there are a number of factors involved in this price creep (including high fees, which a 2018 Government Accountability Office report says make up an average of 27 percent of the ticket’s total cost), the heart of the matter is simple: demand. People all over the world are clamoring to go to just a handful of the most popular artists’ concerts. Live Nation reported that 145 million people attended one of its shows in 2023, compared to 98 million in 2019. The momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing, with ticket sales in the first quarter of 2024 higher than they were this time last year.

CNN: Michael Richards talks 2006 racist rant, but he’s ‘not looking for a comeback’

“I was a good character actor, but I was comfortable being the character, not in being me,” Richards told the publication.

“I said no to the offer of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t feel deserving,” he also said. “I said no to hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ twice because I didn’t feel good enough. I was never really satisfied with my Seinfeld performance. Fame magnified my insecurities.”

NYT: Supreme Court Justice Alito’s Beach House Displayed ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag

Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag was flown outside the Virginia home of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., another provocative symbol was displayed at his vacation house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs.

This time, it was the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which, like the inverted U.S. flag, was carried by rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Also known as the Pine Tree flag, it dates back to the Revolutionary War, but largely fell into obscurity until recent years and is now a symbol of support for former President Donald J. Trump, for a religious strand of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push to remake American government in Christian terms.

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The disclosure about the new flag is troubling, several ethics experts said in interviews, because it ties Justice Alito more closely to symbols associated with the attempted election subversion on Jan. 6, and because it was displayed as the obstruction case was first coming for consideration by the court.

As a Supreme Court judge, you think he’d understand the importance of the separation of church and state, wouldn’t you?

Ars Technica: Apple clarifies iOS 17.5 bug that exposed deleted photos

The company claimed that when users reported the photos resurfacing on a device other than the one they were originally deleted on, it was always because they had restored from a backup other than iCloud Photos or performed a direct transfer from one device to another.

Wired: Don’t Believe the Biggest Myth About Heat Pumps

Not only do heat pumps work fine in cold weather, they’re still more efficient than gas furnaces in such conditions.

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If heat pumps don’t actually work in frigid weather, no one told the Nordic nations, which endure Europe’s coldest climates, with average winter temperatures around 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees F). As of 2021, Norway had heat pumps in 60 percent of households. In 2022, Finland installed more of the appliances per capita than any other country in Europe, while Sweden has similarly gone all-in on the technology. In the United States, heat pumps are selling like hotcakes in Alaska, and last year Maine announced it had reached its goal of installing 100,000 of the devices way ahead of schedule. These places ain’t exactly perpetually sunny California. (US-wide, heat pumps now outsell gas furnaces.)

via John, Apple News+

Electrek: Nissan preps next-gen LEAF EV production, but challenges await

With trials expected to run for six months, Nissan could begin next-gen LEAF production as early as March 2025. We could see Nissan’s electric car debut before the end of the year. However, that’s if everything goes smoothly.

via John

NewsNation: RFK Jr. makes Florida ballot with help of Reform Party

As independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his quest to make it on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and qualify for the upcoming presidential debates, he’s now succeeded in Florida.

The Reform Party of the United States has nominated Kennedy as its presidential candidate, allowing him to appear on the Florida ballot. He is hoping to peel voters away from both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, with a platform that includes a mix of positions appealing to voters on both sides of the aisle.

He asked the Reform Party for help in his effort to qualify in all states. The party defines itself as a moderate, centrist party founded in 1996 by supporters of independent candidate Ross Perot, who ran for the presidency in 1992.

NewsNation: Eastern Oregon residents pass ‘Greater Idaho’ measure

Residents in Crook County, Oregon, approved the “Greater Idaho” measure Tuesday that would require the county to proceed with efforts to secede from the state and join Idaho.

Voters passed the measure with 53%, making it the 13th county in eastern Oregon to approve it.

NewsNation: US taxpayers pushing back on multibillion-dollar stadium plans

Despite opposition, city officials continue to preach the benefits pro franchises provide despite promised economic benefits that Ganis, the stadium expert, says should always be taken with a grain of salt.

“It’s really the haves and the have-nots,” Christina Giunchigliani, former Clark County Board told the New York Times. “If they really wanted to diversify the economy, does sports add a component? Yes. But they didn’t need public tax dollars to do it.”

Daring Fireball: Publishing AI Slop Is a Choice

From a New York Times story by Nico Grant, under the headline “Google’s A.I. Search Errors Cause a Furor Online”:

With each mishap, tech industry insiders have criticized the company for dropping the ball. But in interviews, financial analysts said Google needed to move quickly to keep up with its rivals, even if it meant growing pains.

Google “doesn’t have a choice right now,” Thomas Monteiro, a Google analyst at Investing.com, said in an interview. “Companies need to move really fast, even if that includes skipping a few steps along the way. The user experience will just have to catch up.”

That quote is insane. There’s no reason Google had to enable this feature now. None. If their search monopoly has been losing share recently, it’s not because of rivals who are serving up AI-generated slop. It’s because even before this, Google’s search results quality was slipping in obvious ways. This is just making it worse.

BBC: Royal Mail investigated by Ofcom for missing delivery targets

Royal Mail is being investigated by Ofcom after the service failed to deliver less than three quarters of first-class post on time in the last year.

In its yearly financial results on Friday, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS) said only 74.5% of first-class mail was delivered within one working day.

Regulator Ofcom’s rules state 93% of first-class mail must be delivered within the timeframe, excluding Christmas.

Something similar should be set up for Canada Post.

CBC: Mexico is about to experience its ‘highest temperatures ever recorded’ as death toll climbs

The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has killed dozens of people across multiple states.

CBC: Oliver Karafa and Lucy Li found guilty of murder, attempted murder after 2021 botched ambush in Stoney Creek

The jury reached their verdict after less than a day of deliberations.

First-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years — the sentence imposed by Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell. He described their Karafa and Li’s actions as “the most heinous crimes of violence” noting that Pratt and Romano were unarmed, unsuspecting victims.

NYT: Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War

Super Size Me helped lead a backlash against McDonald’s. Twenty years on, the industry is bigger than ever.

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It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.

But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and about 36 percent of Americans — more than 115 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.

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The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since Super Size Me came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.

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It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.

But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and about 36 percent of Americans — more than 115 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.

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The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since Super Size Me came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.

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In 2016, 91 percent of parents reported buying lunch or dinner for their child in the past week from one of the four biggest chains — a significant increase compared with the 79 percent who did in 2010 and the 83 percent in 2013.

Gift link

Last Updated: 24.May.2024 23:30 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Thursday 23.May.2024

Don’t leave home without it!

ScienceAlert: Oldest Known Human Viruses Found in 50,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Bones

“To support [this] provocative and interesting hypothesis, it would be necessary to prove that at least the genomes of these viruses can be found in Neanderthal remains,” molecular biologist and senior author of the new study, Marcelo Briones, told New Scientist’s James Woodford. “That is what we did.”

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Briones, along with evolutionary geneticist Renata Ferreira of the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil and colleagues, sampled DNA from the skeletons of two male Neanderthals.

There, amongst the Neanderthal genome, they found snippets of DNA that resembled three modern viruses: adenovirus, which today causes common colds; herpesvirus, the culprit behind cold sores; and papillomavirus, transmitted during sex and causing genital warts.

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The research has been posted to the bioRxiv preprint server ahead of peer review.

The Atlantic: Nikki Haley Surrendered, But Not Her Voters

Most of her supporters voted for Haley as a way to stop Trump. Haley’s announcement today that she intends to vote for Trump won’t raise their opinion of him, it will only lower their opinion of her. When she says, as she said again today, that she wished Donald Trump would “reach out” to her voters, she’s speaking words that may sound like English, but make no sense. The only way Donald Trump could reach out to Trump-skeptical Republicans is by pleading guilty to the many criminal charges against him and vowing to devote the rest of his life to restitution for the victims of his many civil frauds.

TorStar: Minister tables bill to extend citizenship rights to children born abroad

In 2009, the Conservative government changed the law so that Canadian parents who were born abroad could not pass down their citizenship unless their child was born in Canada.

Stephen Harper, you say?

TorStar: Ontario judge compares police officers to sitcom buffoon

“TELL THE TRUTH,” Justice Fergus O’Donnell wrote, addressing police in capital letters in a May 10 decision that details his frustration that a group of Niagara Regional Police officers seemed bafflingly unable to remember what each other was doing during an impaired driving arrest.

When an officer, or anyone else, takes the stand, their sole job is to be truthful, O’Donnell wrote — “Period. Full stop. End of. Unvarnished. Unselective. The truth, the whole truth (this phrase was underlined) and nothing but the truth. It really is that simple.”

TorStar: Susan Delacourt: Liberals paint Poilievre as scary, but many don’t care

Liberals like to say that the large polling gap with the Conservatives will be narrowed when voters stop and take a hard look at what Pierre Poilievre would do to the country.

But a new poll from Abacus shows that many Canadians have no illusions about how much Poilievre could shake up things — beyond just axing taxes — and the Conservatives are still holding a comfortable, 16-point lead in this latest survey. It should be noted that Abacus removes undecided voters from these horse-race results.

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This reminds me of the aftermath of the 2005-06 election, when a newly elected Conservative government followed through on its promise to end the Liberals’ national child care program. Ken Dryden, the minister responsible for that program, said he kept running into people during that campaign who believed they could have both — a Liberal child care program and the Conservatives’ subsidy to parents.

As former prime minister Jean Chrétien was fond of saying, everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. If the next election comes down to a choice between change and stability, this poll would seem to be an indication that people want both.

Slashdot: Amazon Plans To Give Alexa an AI Overhaul, Monthly Subscription Price

According to CNBC, Amazon plans to enhance its Alexa voice assistant with generative AIand introduce it to customers through a monthly subscription service. While the price point has yet to be determined, sources say it will not be included in the company’s $139-per-year Prime offering.

“Revenue enhancement”.

James Thomson: About by PCalc in Apple VisionPro

About by PCalc for visionOS is now available!

Perhaps the most pointless app on Vision Pro, but still quite fun to play with. This is a complete remake of the original PCalc About screen in VR. It’s basically me experimenting with what’s possible today with RealityKit, over-engineering things as usual, and then for some inexplicable reason actually shipping it. I hope you enjoy it!

apps.apple.com/gb/app/about-by…

James Thomson: About by PCalc in Apple VisionPro

Here are some more screenshots showing the actual About by PCalc interface in action on visionOS. The main controls have virtual joysticks, but there’s a list of gestures you can assign to each hand, including a point and teleport option for people who don’t enjoy fast movement in VR. Gamepads are fully supported too.

You can also just choose between some points of interest and take in the sights. The settings let you tailor things a bit if you want the controls in a slightly different place.

AP: NCAA, leagues sign off on $2.8 billion plan, setting stage for dramatic change across college sports

The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims,a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start directing millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester.

The Pac-12 became the final conference to sign off on the proposal Thursday when its university leaders voted to approve, according to a person with direct knowledge of the results.

Guardian: Gavin Newsom signs bill to help people in Arizona get abortions in California

Under the new law, doctors licensed to perform abortions in Arizona could provide abortion care for their patients in California. The legislation offers medical providers an expedited path to getting their credentials in California.

“With SB 233 California offers a lifeline to Arizona doctors to provide the healthcare their patients need without fear of a prison sentence. Once again, California has made it loud and clear we will remain a safe haven for reproductive care,” the California Legislative Women’s caucus said in a statement after lawmakers approved the bill.

Last Updated: 23.May.2024 23:31 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Wednesday 22.May.2024

CTV: Woman found dead in Lake Ontario in 2017 is missing person in Switzerland

Then, in January 2023, Toronto police began using investigative genetic genealogy, which revealed that the unidentified woman had distant relatives in North America, most of whom had heritage that traced back to a specific region in Switzerland.

In August 2023, Toronto police with the assistance of the RCMP reached out to police in the European nation, and began focusing their investigation on a woman who went missing from there in September 2017.

The Athletic: What do you think of Scott Foster after reading this?

Foster’s “Three Things” are always in the same order:

The 134 phone calls Foster exchanged with referee Tim Donaghy during a seven-month span when Donaghy was betting on NBA games and providing inside information to bookies.

Friction with [Chris] Paul, the All-Star guard, which has included veiled accusations by Paul that Foster made things personal in the wake of a postgame encounter in 2015 with Paul’s young son.

A collection of anonymous player polls, one by The Los Angeles Times in 2016 and one by The Athletic in 2023, in which players voted Foster the worst referee in the NBA. In a 2019 poll by The Athletic, players voted Foster the second-worst ref behind Tony Brothers.

NewsNation: Nearly half of swing-state voters expect violence around election: Survey

The Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll asked voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, “How much do you trust each of the following — That the election and its aftermath will be free from violence.”

Thirty-one percent of respondents said “not much,” while 18 percent said “not at all.” Thirty-five percent said “some,” and those answering “a lot” equaled 16 percent.

The same poll also found that in a hypothetical match-up between former President Trump and President Biden, the swing-state voters went for Trump by 4 points, with Trump at 48 percent in the poll versus Biden’s 44 percent.

Bloomberg: US Justice Department to Seek Breakup of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

The US Justice Department and a group of states will sue Live Nation Entertainment Inc. for antitrust violations related to Ticketmaster’s unrivaled control of concert ticket sales, according to people familiar with the case.

The suit is expected to be filed in the Southern District of New York Thursday, said the people who asked not to be identified. The dispute will seek remedies including breaking up Live Nation, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential information.

Last Updated: 22.May.2024 21:02 EDT

Tuesday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Tuesday 21.May.2024

US FDA: Do Not Use Cue Health’s COVID-19 Tests Due to Risk of False Results: FDA Safety Communication

Date Issued: May 13, 2024

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning home test users, caregivers, and health care providers not to use Cue Health’s COVID-19 Tests for Home and Over-the-Counter (OTC) Use and its COVID-19 Test intended for patient care settings due to increased risk of false results.

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The FDA issued a Warning Letter to Cue Health on May 10, 2024, after an inspection revealed the company made changes to these tests and these changes reduced the reliability of the tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus.

via Pratik

InsideEVs: Study Finds Just 2.5% Of EVs Have Had Their Battery Replaced

The new study found that battery replacement rates for EVs built before 2015 are as high as 13%, but for vehicles from 2016 or newer, they drop to 1% or less. The oldest EVs included in the study were from 2011, and about one in three needed a new battery, but this was due to several factors, not just their age.

Electric Car Charger Vandalism Continues To Surge Nationwide

A Tesla Supercharging station in the Bay Area was recently targeted by vandals who severed the charging cord from every stall. A few days prior, 5 separate Supercharger locations were stripped in Houston, TX. In Fresno, CA, over 50 of the city’s 88 EV charging stations have been pillaged – some multiple times.

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Still, sometimes the vandalism is not about the money at all. Property damage is also performed by petty, anti-EV actors all over the world just looking to make life more miserable for others. An individual in British Columbia, Canada dipped the charging plugs of a Tesla Supercharger in a sealant, which when dried rendered the station inoperable.

Once they get more surveillance cameras installed, we’ll find out who these people are. In the meantime, costs rise.

The Atlantic: Scientists Are Very Worried About NASA’s Mars Plan

If, that is, the samples ever make it back to Earth. NASA officials recently announced that the sample-return effort has become too expensive and fallen worryingly behind schedule. The latest estimated cost of as much as $11 billion is nearly double what experts initially predicted, and the way things are going, the samples won’t arrive home until 2040, seven years later than expected. At a press conference last month, NASA chief Bill Nelson repeatedly called the state of the Mars Sample Return mission “unacceptable,” a striking chastisement of his own agency, considering that MSR is an in-house effort. Officials have put out a call—to NASA’s own ranks and to private space companies—for “quicker and cheaper” plans that don’t require “huge technological leaps” to bring the samples home.

Guardian: Donald Trump removes video on Truth Social with ‘unified reich’ reference

Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social account referencing a “unified reich” if Trump wins the presidential election in November – then, after being criticized for it in some quarters for more than half a day, removed it.

The video posted on Monday remained up for 15 hours into Tuesday morning despite the reference being pointed out by media outlets. The former president’s account removed it by about 10am ET on Tuesday.

TorStar: There’s only so one way to fix Canada. Everyone will hate it

Today, some provinces are hitting eject just for kicks. Saskatchewan is using the clause to bully transgender kids at school, Ontario wielded it to pass a political advertising law, and Quebec has used it to tell religious minorities how to dress on the job. Pierre Poilievre even wants to use it to pass cruel, inhumane, ineffective, unconstitutional criminal sentencing laws

Trudeau’s strategy has been to leave it to the courts, hoping against hope that they would find some ingenious way to reinstall the glass box marked “DO NOT PRESS.” This is a legal fantasy. The only way to uninstall this constitutional vestige — or, at least, to make it harder to use — is to amend the constitution.

TorStar: Impact of pot legalization on older Canadians has been stark

A year after legalizing dried cannabis flowers, Canadian older adults were the age group with the largest growth in overall cannabis use. Yet, little is known about the health effects of legalizing edible cannabis on older adults.

Our study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine found that Canada’s legalization of cannabis was associated with increased rates of emergency department visits for cannabis poisoning among older adults in Ontario. The largest increases occurred after edible cannabis became legally available for retail sale in January 2020 (three times greater than pro-legalization, and 1.5 times greater then when only dried cannabis flower was legally available for retail sale).

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A study of Canadian children found that legalization of edible cannabis was associated with marked increases in poisoning hospitalizations. Older adults are similarly prone to unintentional poisonings because edible cannabis products are visually attractive and palatable, and may be taken in error, being easily confused with non-cannabis foods and candies.

Some of the harms we observed were likely related to intentional ingestions, including for recreational purposes. Compared to inhaled cannabis, edibles have delayed drug effects of about three hours. Older adults may be more accustomed to the instantaneous high of inhaled cannabis, and ingest excessive doses of edibles before peak effects have occurred. This is known as ‘dose-stacking’ and is a contributor to cannabis poisoning.

MacRumors: New ‘Parkour’ Immersive Video Coming to Vision Pro on Friday

A description of the Parkour episode invites Vision Pro wearers to join the “world’s leading parkour athletes” as they go on a “gravity-defying trek across the streets and rooftops of Paris.”

MacRumors: Next Emoji Coming to iOS Could Include Face With Eye Bags, Shovel, Fingerprint, Splatter and More

Apple adds new emoji to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other devices regularly based on updates made to the emoji catalog by the Unicode Consortium, and the there are seven new emoji that we could see sometime in late 2024 or early 2025.

The next emoji characters being considered include face with bags under eyes, fingerprint, leafless tree, root vegetable, harp, shovel, and splatter.

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Apple last introduced new emoji with the iOS 17.4 update that was released in March 2024. Characters added in iOS 17.4 include lime, an edible brown mushroom, a phoenix, a broken chain, shaking head vertically (as in a “yes” nod), and shaking head horizontally (a “no” head shake).

Last Updated: 21.May.2024 22:47 EDT

Monday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Monday 20.May.2024

ScienceAlert: Mysterious Code in Ancient Assyrian Temples Can Finally Be Explained

In particular, these symbols relate to King Sargon II, who ruled from 721–704 BCE. In their short form, they comprise a lion, a fig tree, and a plough. In their longer form, there are five symbols in sequence: a bird and a bull after the lion, then the tree and the plough.

These images appear in several places in temples in Dūr-Šarrukīn, which was briefly Assyria’s capital. The buried ruins of the ancient city were excavated during the 19th and 20th centuries.

But the meaning of the images — whether they represent gods, supernatural forces, the king’s authority, or an attempt at Egyptian hieroglyphs — has long been debated.

MacRumors: Apple Releases iOS 17.5.1 With Fix for Reappearing Photos Bug

There have been several complaints from iPhone and iPad users who saw their old, deleted photos resurfacing after installing the iOS 17.5 update. Images deleted as far back as 2010 were surfacing again, leading to confusion and worry over what was going on. Apple’s information today indicates that it was a database corruption issue, and iOS 17.5.1 should solve the problem.

MacRumors: Microsoft Debuts New Copilot+ Windows PCs Designed Around AI

Recall - Recall gives the PC a “photographic memory” so users can access anything they’ve seen or done on their PC. Content can be located using timelines across any website, application, or document, with support for snapshots.

Cocreator - Text prompts can be used to generate new images using the neural processing units of the computer. Art can be created based on the text input, and there is a creativity slider to choose from a range between more literal to more expressive.

Restyle Image - Combines image generation and photo editing. Pre-set styles can be used to change the background, foreground, or full image.

Live Captions - Live Captions support live translations and can turn any audio that passes through the PC into a single, English-language caption experience in real time across all apps. Any live or pre-recorded audio in any app or video platform can be translated from 40 languages into English.

NYT: David Kaye: With I.C.C. Arrest Warrants, Let Justice Take Its Course

In seeking the arrests of senior leaders of Israel and Hamas, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has given the world a promise of accountability.

Regardless of the outcome of the cases, the prosecutor’s request that the court issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar helps cut through the polarizing language of the moment and promotes the idea that the basic rules of international humanitarian law apply to all. Anyone demanding an end to the conflict in Gaza and the release of all hostages from the grasp of Hamas should embrace the decision.

Last Updated: 20.May.2024 19:22 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Saturday 18.May.2024

WashPo: Biden’s debate moves set off a mad scramble at CNN — and in Trumpworld

The only thing left was for the campaigns and the country to figure out what had happened. Disagreements about the debate conditions and the agreement’s significance flared even as voters began hearing the news. At 10:56 a.m., CNN announced terms that largely followed the demands Biden had announced earlier that morning — a first meeting in June, organized by a network on Biden’s suggested list, with no live audience.

CleanTechnica: Biden-Harris Administration Enacts Law Banning Importation of Russian Uranium

Yesterday, President Joseph R. Biden signed into law H.R.1042, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act. The passage and signing of this law will ensure the U.S. will no longer be reliant on imported uranium fuel from the Russian Federation. It will ban the import of Russian uranium and revive domestic nuclear fuel production by unlocking $2.72 billion recently appropriated by Congress, at the request of the President, to expand our domestic uranium enrichment and conversion capacity.

Good news if you hold Cameco stock.

CBC: Toronto eliminated from PWHL playoffs after surrendering 2-0 series lead to Minnesota

Taylor Heise scored twice, including the winner in the third period, as Minnesota downed Toronto 4-1 on Friday, roaring back from a 2-0 series deficit to take the best-of-five PWHL semifinal 3-2.

Om Malik: A startup’s “tablet” gears up to take on Apple’s iPad

I am a tablet nerd. I have been since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad.

Tablets, especially the iPad, connect with me emotionally, much like my vintage fountain pen and notebook made out of Japanese paper. There is a reason why I use the iPad for most of my work, though lately, it has taken a backseat to a new device – the Daylight Computer’s Tablet.

This is one of the most talked about devices in Silicon Valley. It was created by Daylight Computer, a company started by Anjan Katta to solve his problem – he suffers from ADHD and wanted something that allowed him few distractions and allowed him to work with intent. The reason I am excited about that new tablet is because it is optimized around reading, writing, and productivity. This is very different from the tablets we have had so far.

Arun: Daylight at the end of the tunnel

For the last month, I’ve been testing the Daylight Tablet - a device designed from the ground up to encourage focus, productivity and a more mindful digital existence. It will be available to the public in a few months.

PBS NewsHour: Hot weather poses risk as power outages remain from deadly Houston storm

As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and scorching temperatures that could pose health risks.

National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said on Saturday that highs of around 90 degrees (32.2 C) were expected through the start of the coming week, with heat indexes likely approaching 100 degrees (38 C) by midweek.

Wales Online: Simon Cowell’s surprise call to BGT comedian’s mum after his secret audition gets huge reaction

Alex Mitchell, 23, from Leeds impressed the judges on Saturday’s programme with his self-deprecating humour about dating as an autistic man who has ticks - and viewers were left laughing even more when Simon Cowell phoned Alex’s mum to prank her after Alex’s brilliant audition.

Surely they must mean tics, not ticks?!

“Alex, I think you should phone your mum and dad now and tell them where you are,” Simon said, before taking Alex’s phone and calling his mum.

“Becky? I want to speak to you about your son. As you know, he’s at a stag do tonight and his behaviour has been absolutely appalling!”

“I am so sorry, he gets that from his father’s side,” responded Alex’s mum, Becky.

UPI: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pardons Daniel Perry for killing Black Lives Matter protester in 2020

16.May.2024

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday pardoned Daniel Perry, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020.

Abbott signed the proclamation after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to grant Perry a full pardon and restoration of gun rights.

“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial,” Abbott said in a statement.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive district attorney. I thank the board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”

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Travis County District Attorney José Garza, who prosecuted the case against Perry, said the board and Abbott’s decision “made a mockery of our legal system.”

“They should be ashamed of themselves,” Garza said. “Their actions are contrary to the law and demonstrate that there are two classes of people in this state where some lives matter and some lives do not.”

UPI: Boeing Starliner launch delayed to end of May to fix helium leak

Boeing’s first crewed space mission was delayed again Friday due to a persistent helium leak.

The spacecraft now is scheduled to take off May 25 after NASA scrapped a launch set for Tuesday.

The delay will give time for the team to further assess a small helium leak in the spacecraft’s service module, the agency said.

It is the latest in a series of delays for Boeing’s Starliner mission, which is supposed to send NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams to the International Space Station.

I wonder if Butch and Suni are thinking of other things they have to do that day?

SportsNet: Canucks-Oilers Notebook: Skinner’s return, McDavid’s disappearance, and MIller’s growth

Facing elimination Saturday night, the Edmonton Oilers will fix something that’s not broken, going back to Stu Skinner in goal after a pair of stellar starts by backup Calvin Pickard.

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Ignoring recent trends:

Skinner was pulled after 40 minutes in Game 3 last Sunday, and watched Pickard take the Oilers through the last seven periods. Skinner’s playoff save percentage (.877) pales next to Pickard’s (.915), but Knoblauch is banking on the fact that — since the Oilers turnaround began in the first week of November — Skinner’s .912 was fifth-best among NHL starters.

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McDavid’s production has stalled, with one lone assist in the last three games. He knows he’s the leader here, and this team tends to follow wherever McDavid can take them.

NBC: Supreme Court Justice Alito urged to step off Trump election case over U.S. flag controversy

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday and others urged Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself from considering cases related to the 2020 election — including the question of former President Donald Trump’s immunity from criminal prosecution — because of controversy over an upside-down U.S. flag that flew outside Alito’s home more than a week after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitiol.

Judiciary chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., suggested that the conservative Alito was adding to ethical concerns about the court after The New York Times report on Thursday detailing a photo of the flag displayed in that manner outside the justice’s Virginia home on Jan. 17, 2021, three days before President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was due to be sworn into office.

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Durbin in a statement said, “Flying an upside-down American flag – a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement – clearly creates the appearance of bias.”

“Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,” Durbin said.

UPI: Judge says Ohio law banning cities from regulating tobacco sales is unconstitutional

Under the law, Ohio cities would be prohibited from enacting their own regulations on the sale of tobacco products.

Columbus had previously voted for a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco, and Cincinnati leaders are considering a similar ordinance. State Republicans have opposed municipal bans arguing they would hurt store owners.

Republicans don’t want to end the scourge of tobacco if there’s a buck to be made. Maybe they should allow the sale of fentanyl?

WashPo: Dabney Coleman, actor who portrayed comic scoundrels, dies at 92

He found his critical breakthrough in “9 to 5” (1980), portraying a predatory manager who seeks sexual conquest in the secretarial pool and gets his comeuppance courtesy of co-stars Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin.

The next year, Mr. Coleman had a rare sympathetic part as Fonda’s dentist boyfriend in the drama “On Golden Pond” before returning to his unsavory bread-and-butter. He was a chauvinistic soap-opera director in “Tootsie” (1982), a hard-edged computer scientist in “WarGames” (1983), a seedy Broadway producer in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” (1984), a lisping smut peddler in “Dragnet” (1987) and an ignorant police chief in the slapstick comedy “Amos & Andrew” (1993).

On TV, he was among the first sitcom leading men with few redeeming values, memorably playing an insensitive talk-show host on NBC’s “Buffalo Bill.” The program ran for only 26 episodes in 1983 and 1984 but drew a devoted following over the years for the astringent performance by Mr. Coleman, who in character tells one guest, “I don’t care what the jury said, you look like a rapist to me” and reassures his latest love interest, “You’re better than 90 percent of those bimbos out there.”

Last Updated: 18.May.2024 23:55 EDT

Friday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Friday 17.May.2024

BNN: Chinese-made Teslas pour into Canada as Biden erects U.S. tariff wall

The Biden administration is quadrupling U.S. tariffs on electric vehicles manufactured in China. But Chinese-made cars are still finding their way into a receptive North American market – just to the north.

Canada is seeing a surge of imports of Chinese-made EVs, particularly Tesla Inc. models made in Shanghai. The number of cars arriving from China at the port of Vancouver rose more than fivefold last year, to 44,400, after Elon Musk’s automaker started shipping Model Y vehicles made there.

Now we just need to start getting BYD cars here!

And, as in the U.S., electric vehicles remain a relatively small part of the Canadian auto market. Canadians registered about 185,000 battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles last year — an increase of nearly 50 per cent from the year before, but still only 11 per cent of all new vehicle registrations.

Kottke: Whoa, classic console emulators work on Apple TV now?

Whoa, classic console emulators work on Apple TV now? (In other words, you can play old school NES/SNES/N64 games on your Apple TV.) You can even connect a controller.

Last Updated: 17.May.2024 23:09 EDT

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🔗 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.

Major retailers like Canadian Tire and Walmart have implemented some of the measures; Loblaw has incorporated all of them.

Last Updated: 16.May.2024 22:55 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Wednesday 15.May.2024

NYT: John Barbata, Turtles and C.S.N.Y. Drummer, Dies at 79

Barbata belonged to marquee bands of the late ’60s and ’70s, drumming on smash hits such as “Happy Together,” the first song he recorded with the Turtles.

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John Barbata, the drummer for the Turtles, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who walked away from rock music at the height of his career, has died. He was 79.

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David Geffen, who had just started his first record label, invited Mr. Barbata to join a new group called the Eagles, but he declined, saying he couldn’t leave C.S.N.Y., according to a profile on him in the book “Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties” by Bob Cianci.

NYT: FIFA Set to Roll Back Reforms Enacted After Corruption Scandal

FIFA tried to put a corruption crisis behind by changing its rules and claiming its governance overhaul had the endorsement of the Justice Department. U.S. officials say that was never the case.

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Less than a decade later, soccer’s appetite for reform appears to have waned. An outside audit of African soccer’s governing body, commissioned after FIFA took control of the organization, suggested tens of millions of dollars in misappropriated funds. The governing bodies for Europe and for North and Central America have backed away from reforms or ignored promised ones altogether, according to a comparison of public pledges and concrete actions. The Asian soccer confederation will vote this week on scrapping term limits for its senior leadership.

And on Friday in Bangkok, Mr. Infantino and FIFA will ask its members to approve a slate of changes to its statutes that would roll back yet more of the changes he once embraced, and restore structures that he had sought to sweep away.

Natron Energy: home page

Natron sodium-ion solutions outperform, are significantly safer, and are far more sustainable than lithium-ion options.

A strong candidate to replace Li+ for static electrical storage (peak utility power, power conditioning, home battery storage, solar auto charging station storage, etc.).

Salon: “Why am I f***ing listening to you?”: Bill Burr rips Bill Maher’s “very simple solution” to Gaza war

Comedian Bill Burr took Bill Maher to task over campus protests stemming from Israel’s war in Gaza and cancel culture, among other topics, during Sunday’s episode of the “Club Random with Bill Maher” podcast.

Maher during the episode alleged that campus protesters supporting Gazans are “in with the terrorists.”

“They were for the Palestinians,” Burr countered. The comedian added that he is “on the side of the kids,” prompting a tense exchange.

Platformer: Google’s broken link to the web

“Web publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers,” read an accurate headline in the Washington Post on Monday. Until now, publishers have been able to rely on significant volumes of traffic coming from the blue links that appear under many queries. But what the company is now calling AI overviews often obscure these links, requiring users to click to see them, or simply abstracting them away in an automatically generated summary. Analysts who have studied the company’s early experiments with SGE say a bloodbath is coming.

Last Updated: 15.May.2024 23:57 EDT

Tuesday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Tuesday 14.May.2024

BBC: Weight loss jab could reduce heart attack risk, study finds

An injection designed to tackle obesity could reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people regardless of the amount of weight they lose while on the drug, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at the effects of semaglutide - which is a prescription drug that supresses appetite and is sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus.

They found the anti-obesity jabs could also benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults.

Prof John Deanfield, who led the team of researchers, said the generic drug could have a positive impact on blood sugar, blood pressure or inflammation, as well as direct effects on the heart muscle and vessels.

BBC: Richard Scolyer: Top doctor remains brain cancer-free after a year

A year after undergoing a world-first treatment for glioblastoma, Australian doctor Richard Scolyer remains cancer-free.

The esteemed pathologist’s experimental therapy is based on his own pioneering research on melanoma.

Prof Scolyer’s subtype of glioblastoma is so aggressive most patients survive less than a year.

But on Tuesday the 57-year-old announced his latest MRI scan had again showed no recurrence of the tumour.

BBC: David McBride: Australian army whistleblower jailed for leaking documents

A whistleblower who helped expose allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail. David McBride pleaded guilty to stealing and sharing military secrets on the eve of his trial last year, after legal rulings sunk his defence. An ex-military lawyer, McBride said he felt a moral duty to speak up. A landmark inquiry later found evidence that Australian forces had unlawfully killed 39 Afghans during the war. McBride’s case has sparked uproar in Australia, putting a spotlight on what some say are flimsy whistleblower protections and slow progress towards prosecuting soldiers alleged to have killed with impunity under its flag.

ScienceAlert: Perseverance Has Achieved Amazing Feats During 1,000 Days Exploring Mars

I can remember when Perseverance was launched, travelled out into the Solar System and landed on Mars in February 2021.

In all the time since it arrived, having clocked up 1000 days of exploration, it has collected 23 samples from different geological areas within the Jezero Crater. The area was once home to an ancient lake and if there is anywhere on Mars to find evidence of ancient (fossilised) life, it is here.

BBC: Adam Johnson death: Team-mate Victor Bjorkung still gets ‘flashbacks’

In an interview with BBC Sport, he spoke about the lasting impact the incident has had on him and the sport.

He also revealed his views on the need for safer clothing were only strengthened when he suffered his own laceration injury.

UPI: David Sanborn, Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, dies at 78

David Sanborn, the six-time Grammy Award-winning jazz saxophonist who “put the saxophone back into Rock ‘n Roll” in live performances with David Bowie and the Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 78.

Sanborn died Sunday in Tarrytown, N.Y., due to complications following a long battle with prostate cancer, according to a message posted to Sanborn’s social media channels.

Wales Online: Major announcement could ‘transform’ treatment of ‘dreadful disease’

Jess Mills, daughter of Dame Tessa and chief executive of the Tessa Jowell Foundation, welcomed the announcement but stressed the need for “no more delays”.

She said: “We are meeting today almost six years to the day that my mum Tessa Jowell died from Glioblastoma. Six years on, brain cancer is still the biggest cancer killer of children and under 40s, the need for patients to gain access to new and better treatments and care is as acute as ever.

Wales Online: Where Wales’ eight universities stand in latest UK rankings

Cardiff University has kept its crown as the number one university in Wales but has some of the least satisfied students, according to the latest rankings from The Complete University Guide 2024. Swansea University in second place with Aberystwyth in third place.

Five of the eight Welsh universities have risen in the CUG rankings this year and three have fallen. Wrexham Glyndwr languishes at last on the list of 130 UK institutions ranked.

Cardiff is now listed as 27tht in the UK, up five places on last year. Swansea in second place for Wales comes 39th in the UK and Aberystwyth in third, followed by Cardiff Metropolitan University.

OpenAI: Hello GPT-4o

13.May.2024

GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”) is a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction—it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. It can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time(opens in a new window) in a conversation. It matches GPT-4 Turbo performance on text in English and code, with significant improvement on text in non-English languages, while also being much faster and 50% cheaper in the API. GPT-4o is especially better at vision and audio understanding compared to existing models.

MacRumors: iOS 17.5 Includes These 15 Security Fixes, But One Causes Another Bug

iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 include 15 security patches for the iPhone and iPad, according to a recently-published Apple support document, but unfortunately one of the patches has led to a software bug affecting alternative app marketplaces.

I’m sure that there are more. (Auto-complete suggested “many”.)

Cult of Mac: Smartphone customer satisfaction report shows Apple slipping

Apple has lost its customary lead on smartphone customer satisfaction as archrival Samsung has drawn even overall and gone ahead in one area, according to new data.

New findings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) show Apple’s rating went up a point, but Samsung’s rose three points to tie overall and creep ahead on 5G satisfaction.

Cult of Mac: Vision Pro should go on sale outside US soon

The wait to get Apple Vision Pro is apparently nearly over for consumers in more than half a dozen countries.

Although the AR/VR headset launched in the United States this winter, availability has yet to expand outside the borders of Apple’s home country. But Apple Store employees around the world are reportedly getting trained on the device. And the headset reportedly cleared a major regulatory hurdle Monday for launching in China.

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“The company plans to bring the Vision Pro to international markets for the first time after its Worldwide Developers Conference early next month,” Bloomberg reported Monday.

As this is a leak not an official Apple announcement, there is not a complete list of countries where the headset will launch in the coming months. Bloomberg says retail employees from Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and South Korea have received training on it, though.

Note: no mention of Canada. (But see below.)

Cult of Mac: Bill Gates on iPod: Doom awaits! | Today in Apple history

May 12, 2005: Longtime Apple frenemy Bill Gates tells a German newspaper that Apple may have hit it big with the iPod, but that its success isn’t going to last forever.

The reason? Mobile phones are going to steal the iPod’s market share. The good news for Gates is that he was right on the money. The bad news for Microsoft is that Apple cannibalized itself by making the iPhone. And Apple’s smartphone became even more successful than the iPod.

The Atlantic: This Is the Next Smartphone Evolution

Apple markets its maligned iPhone voice assistant as a way to “do it all even when your hands are full.” But Siri functions, at its best, like a directory for the rest of your phone: It doesn’t respond to questions so much as offer to search the web for answers; it doesn’t translate so much as offer to open the Translate app. And much of the time, Siri can’t even pick up what you’re saying properly, let alone watch someone solve a math problem through the phone camera and provide real-time assistance, as ChatGPT did earlier today.

NYT: Jerry Seinfeld’s Speech Was the Real News

Yet coverage of the commencement treated something just before his speech as more newsworthy: As the Associated Press reported, roughly 30 student protesters walked out of the graduation ceremony as Seinfeld was introduced. They represented a tiny fraction of the 7,000 students present.

MacRumors: iPad Pro Review

Longtime ‌iPad‌ user Federico Viticci of MacStories didn’t share a full review of the new ‌iPad‌, but he penned a piece pointing out the many shortcomings of iPadOS. It’s well worth a read to see what it’s like using an ‌iPad‌ as a main machine, with highlights on the pain points of multitasking, limited apps, and more.

The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern said that using the ‌iPad Pro‌ is like “driving a Ferrari on a golf course” because the iPhone-based operating system hampers what the ‌iPad‌ could be capable of doing.

The Wall Street Journal said that despite the creativity apps available on the ‌iPad‌, it “still isn’t direct competition for the versatility of a MacBook” and it’s not a good platform for those who want to “multitask on multiple windows.”

Almost every review mentioned the shortcomings of iPadOS as the major fault with the new ‌iPad Pro‌ models.

Slashdot: ChatGPT Is Getting a Mac App

OpenAI has launched an official macOS app for ChatGPT, with a Windows version coming “later this year.” “Both free and paid users will be able to access the new app, but it will only be available to ChatGPT Plus users starting today before a broader rollout in ‘the coming weeks,’” reports The Verge. From the report:

_In the demo shown by OpenAI, users could open the ChatGPT desktop app in a small window, alongside another program. They asked ChatGPT questions about what’s on their screen — whether by typing or saying it. ChatGPT could then respond based on what it “sees.” OpenAI says users can ask ChatGPT a question by using the Option + Space keyboard shortcut, as well as take and discuss screenshots within the app.

Further reading: OpenAI Launches New Free Model GPT-4o

MacRumors:Setapp’s EU Alternative iPhone App Marketplace Launching on May 14

MacPaw today said that its Setapp alternative app marketplace for the iPhone will be launching on Tuesday, May 14 in the European Union.

A Setapp marketplace has been in the workssince February, which is when Apple first announced the alternative app downloading options that would be coming in iOS 17.4.

For those unfamiliar with Setapp, it is a subscription-based service that lets users access dozens of apps for $9.99 per month. Popular apps like Ulysses, iStat Menus, Spark, Unite, Yoink, and more are available through the current subscription service.

MacRumors: Vision Pro Appears in Chinese Regulatory Database Before Expansion to New Countries

MacRumors has previously found evidence in Apple’s backend code that Vision Pro would expand to Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, and it appears that information was correct as retail employees from these countries have been visiting Apple’s Cupertino headquarters for Vision Pro training in recent days.

Wikipedia: The Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry (Irish: Mórchuaird Chiarraí) is a 179-kilometre-long (111-mile) circular tourist route in County Kerry, south-western Ireland. Clockwise from Killarney it follows the N71 to Kenmare, then the N70 around the Iveragh Peninsula to Killorglin – passing through Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen, and Glenbeigh – before returning to Killarney via the N72.

Last Updated: 14.May.2024 23:59 EDT

Monday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Monday 13.May.2024

UPI: SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites from Florida

SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday night, bringing the total number of Starlink satellites in orbit to just over 6,000.

This was the 15th mission for the reusable booster rocket, which launches the spacecraft into orbit, largely under the power of a million pounds of rocket-grade kerosene. Nine of its launches have been Starlink missions.

After separation, the booster returned to the drone ship called A Shortfall of Gravitas, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, and will be reconditioned for a future mission.

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SpaceX has been authorized to deploy 12,000 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit and has applied for approval for an additional 30,000.

NBC: Virginia school board votes to restore names of Confederate leaders to schools

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a school board in Virginia stripped the names of Confederate military figures from two schools. Four years later, the board approved a motion to restore the names.

The school board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, early Friday approved a proposal that will restore the names of Confederate military leaders to two public schools.

The measure, which passed 5-1, reverses a previous board’s decision in 2020 to change the names of schools that had been linked to Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, three men who led the pro-slavery Southern states during the Civil War.

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The vote in Shenandoah County comes as conservative groups across the U.S. increasingly push back against efforts to reckon with race in America in educational settings, including efforts to limit classroom discussion of racial identity, ban library books dealing with racial themes, and derail diversity plans.

Globe: Three firms tied to ArriveCan app got $1-billion in federal contracts, Ottawa reveals

Three government contractors involved in developing the ArriveCan app have received hundreds of federal contracts worth more than $1-billion over the past 13 years.

Until now, the federal government has not been able to provide a clear breakdown of how much contract work the three companies have been awarded. The new numbers were provided to MPs on the public accounts committee and a copy was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The three companies have been at the centre of parliamentary scrutiny into the sharp increase in federal outsourcing on professional services – from about $8-billion a year in 2016 to projections of more than $21-billion last year.

Globe: Carbon capture plan faces doubts after Capital Power cancels $2.4-billion project

The Edmonton-based power generator announced in its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday that it is discontinuing pursuit of the $2.4-billion project because it does not work financially. It had previously said that the proposal would annually capture up to 3 million tonnes of emissions from natural-gas units at its Genesee generating station in Alberta.

All smoke and mirrors.

Electrek: Tesla’s head of Cybertruck manufacturing is out

Tesla’s head of Cybertruck manufacturing has left the company. It’s unclear if he was involved in yet another round of layoffs or if he left on his own accord.

Over the last month, Tesla has been conducting several major waves of layoffs across its entire organization.

At least 10% of the workforce has been let go, but Electrek has heard that as much as 20% of the entire headcount could be gone by the time everything is said and done.

The massive destruction continues.

SportsNet: Canucks’ Carson Soucy suspended one game for cross-checking Oilers’ Connor McDavid

Vancouver Canucks defenceman Carson Soucy has been suspended one game for cross-checking Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced Monday.

The incident occurred at the end of the Canucks’ 4-3 win over the Oilers in Game 3 Sunday in Edmonton.

CBC: Gas station chain’s 29-year lease on reserve land is invalid, B.C. judge rules

7.May.2024

Agreement between Super Save and Penticton Indian Band members was example of ‘buckshee lease’: judge.

CBC: Trump’s former lawyer ‘beyond angry’ he wasn’t offered senior White House post, trial told

He described his reaction when he learned that Stormy Daniels was shopping around her story, just days after the release of an explosive Access Hollywood tape that captured Trump describing crude, unwanted sexual advances against women.

Of the decision to pay $130,000 US to keep Daniels quiet, Cohen said the motivation was politics, not about keeping the news from Trump’s wife. “He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” said Cohen, who summed up his own reaction at the time: “Catastrophic. This is horrible for the campaign.”

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Cohen testified that he remembered Trump telling him: “This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women will hate me. Guys — they’ll think it’s cool. But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.” He said Trump ordered him to deal with it and make sure it didn’t emerge before the election.

Last Updated: 13.May.2024 18:37 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Saturday 11.May.2024

Discover: Rare and Endangered, These Non-Parasitic Lampreys Are Far From Home

The endangered species is especially unusual because it is part of a paired species — meaning that it has a relative with some physical differences that is genetically similar. Its closest cousin, the short-headed lamprey (Mordacia mordax), attaches to its prey with a ring of sharp teeth, then sucks its blood. M. praecox, which is nearly indistinguishable from M. mordax, dines by straining water through a filter in its mouth.

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“Basically, there’s only a several month window in their entire lifespan were you can distinguish them, and it’s rather tricky,” says Carpenter-Bundhoo.

Manton Reece (micro.blog): Welcome Kimberly Hirsh! 👋

Excited to announce that @kimberlyhirsh is joining the Micro.blog team. She’ll be helping part-time with curation and community. We’ve been talking to Kimberly for a while and I’m happy she can join us as @jean moves on.

Kimberly Hirsh: My new role

Thanks to everyone for your kind words over on Manton’s post about my joining the Micro.blog team!

I want to be clear that I’m not taking over for Jean as community manager. I’m the first of I hope many people who will contribute to curation and community work.

The World (PRX): Once the epicenter of hydraulic engineering, Mexico City is now running out of water

Water supplies in Mexico City are at a historic low due to low rainfall, rising temperatures and outdated infrastructure. The World’s Tibisay Zea reports on the paradox of a sinking, thirsty city that was once surrounded by lakes.

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But environmental factors alone don’t explain the scale of the current water crisis in Mexico’s capital, according to Luis Zambrano, a professor of urban ecosystems at the National Autonomous University (UNAM). He said chaotic urban growth, leaking infrastructure and the overuse of water by large companies have also contributed to the problem.

Zambrano added that the city has a history of bad water management that goes back to colonial times.

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In recent weeks, residents in the Benito Juarez borough, primarily populated by the middle and upper-middle classes, started to notice that the water running from the tap smelled “like gasoline.” Resident Cristina Montemayor said she and her neighbors had a hard time getting the attention of the authorities, who initially dismissed their claims.

After days of protests, city leaders agreed to take and examine water samples in the district, but they are reluctant to publish the results, alleging “they could be misinterpreted”.

Guardian: She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all

But a little over a year later, when Spone finally appeared in court to face the charges against her, she was told the cyberharassment element of the case had been dropped. The police were no longer alleging that she had digitally manipulated anything. Someone had been crying deepfake. A story that generated thousands of headlines around the world was based on teenage lies, after all. When the truth finally came out, it was barely reported – but the videos and images were real.

Guardian: Tim Dowling: No focus, no fights, and a bad back – 16 ways technology has ruined my life

17.Feb.2024

Let’s be fair: technology has improved my life in ways that still surprise and delight me on a daily basis. My phone is also a torch! My TV remembers how far I got in last night’s episode, even if I don’t! The bus stop knows when the bus is coming, and I can watch my pizza’s entire journey from the restaurant to my house! These are, frankly, miracles.

But there have been corresponding sacrifices. Over 20 years, I have turned over whole areas of competence, memory, authority and independence to the machines in my life. Along the way, I have become anxious about problems that didn’t used to exist, indecisive over choices I never used to have to make, and angry about things I would once have been wholly unaware of.

There are probably hundreds of ways in which technology has ruined my life. But let’s start with 16 of them.

Last Updated: 11.May.2024 18:17 EDT

Friday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Friday 10.May.2024

Guardian: Fixation on UK nuclear power may not help to solve climate crisis

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are backing as yet unproven small modular reactors (SMRs) as an indispensable part of the answer to the climate crisis and are running competitions to get this industry started. These reactors, from tiny ones of the type that power nuclear submarines, to scaled-up versions that can, in theory, be factory produced and built in relays to provide steady power, are all still in the design stage.

As the Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States points out, whichever model is chosen they have all the drawbacks of existing nuclear power stations; expensive, even without cost overruns, and the still unsolved waste problem. The biggest disadvantage, the group says, is that even if the technology worked it would be too little, too late, to keep the climate safe.

NYT: Colson Whitehead Cancels His Commencement Speech at UMass Amherst

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead said Thursday that he would not give the commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on May 18 as planned, citing the administration’s decision to call the police on campus protesters.

“I was looking forward to speaking next week at UMass Amherst,” Mr. Whitehead wrote on the social network Bluesky. “But calling the cops on peaceful protesters is a shameful act. I have to withdraw as your commencement speaker. I give all my best wishes and congratulations to the class of ’24 and pray for the safety of the Palestinian people, the return of the hostages, and an end to this terrible war.”

Benzinga: Elon Musk Announces $500M Investment In Tesla’s Supercharger Network Expansion In 2024

Musk, in a post on Friday, reiterated Tesla’s commitment to expanding its Supercharger network despite recent layoffs and a shift in strategy.

“Just to reiterate: Tesla will spend well over $500M expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year. That’s just on new sites and expansions, not counting operations costs, which are much higher,” Musk wrote.

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Amid these developments, **BP ** has expressed interest in acquiring Tesla’s Supercharging stations and plans to spend $1 billion by 2030 to install more than 3,000 charging locations across the U.S.

NYT: Giuliani Is Suspended by WABC, and His Radio Show Is Canceled

The radio station disciplined Rudolph W. Giuliani after he violated company policy by trying to discuss the legitimacy of the 2020 election on the air.

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In a statement, he called WABC’s policies “a clear violation of free speech.” He disputed that he had been aware of any policy related to what he could say on air about the 2020 election, and said he only learned he had been fired when contacted by The New York Times.

As a lawyer, Giuliani should be aware of the actual definition of free speech protection, shouldn’t he?

NYT: Judge Blocks New U.S. Rule Limiting Credit Card Late Fees

In March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that a new federal rule would cap fees on late credit card payments at $8 a month, estimating that the change would save American households $10 billion a year.

On Friday, a federal judge in Fort Worth temporarily blocked the rule, siding with bank and credit card company lobbyists who contend in a lawsuit that it is unconstitutional.

Last Updated: 10.May.2024 23:28 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Thursday 09.May.2024

9to5Mac: Vision Pro support arrives for Duet Display and Screens to enhance your virtual desktop

More functionality for Vision Pro has landed with two new third-party app updates. The popular Duet Display and Screens are both now available for Apple’s headset. Here are all the details and features.

NYT: Milan Cracks Down on Nightlife After Campaign to Lure Visitors

Packed bars with carousing revelers spilling onto clogged streets. Takeaway booze swigged by drunken tourists and students. Earsplitting volumes in once quiet residential neighborhoods long after midnight.

When Milan’s authorities embarked years ago on plans to promote the city as a buzzy destination by building on its reputation as Italy’s hip fashion and design capital, the resulting noise and rowdy overcrowding were perhaps not quite what they had in mind.

Yahoo Sports: Sheldon Keefe fired as Maple Leafs’ head coach after 5 seasons

“Today’s decision was difficult,” said Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving in a statement. “Sheldon is an excellent coach and a great man; however, we determined a new voice is needed to help the team push through to reach our ultimate goal. We thank Sheldon for his hard work and dedication to the organization over the last nine years, and wish him and his family all the very best.”

As far as Keefe’s staff — Guy Boucher, Dean Chynoweth, Manny Malholtra, Mike van Ryn and Curtis Sanford — the team says “decisions regarding the remainder of the coaching staff will follow.”

Guardian: Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere

The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.

The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO2levels over a 12-month period.

The increase has been spurred, scientists say, by the periodic El Niño climate event, which has now waned, as well as the ongoing and increasing amounts of greenhouse gases expelled into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

via Denny

Guardian: Is a previously unheard-of First Nation just Canada’s latest Pretendian case?

Local chiefs claim Kawartha Lakes First Nation is part of a wave of cases in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity.

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About two months ago, William Denby, the self-proclaimed “chief” of the Kawartha group began sending emails to local chiefs, municipal and provincial officials. The messages, seen by the Guardian, were often written in all caps and combined grievances and increasingly bold claims.

Denby protested against the destruction of farmland for housing developments and made broad allegations of corruption. He also said he was the hereditary leader of a forgotten Indigenous nation and claimed his group had rights to nearly 5,800 square miles (15,000 sq km) of land.

Guardian: Trump promised to scrap climate laws if US oil bosses donated $1bn – report

According to the Washington Post, the former US president made his jaw-dropping pitch, which the paper described as “remarkably blunt and transactional”, at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago home and club.

In front of more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, he promised to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, remove hurdles to drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, and reverse new rules designed to cut car pollution. He would also overturn the Biden administration’s decision in Januaryto pause new natural gas export permits which have been denounced as “climate bombs”.

“You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump said, according to the Post, citing an unnamed dinner attendee.

Guardian: World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target

Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.

Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.

Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.

Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.

“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “[Authorities] will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”

Will people adopt the changes that are required, or will we pay the far higher price of inaction?

Guardian: ‘Destruction of the human experience’: Apple iPad ad prompts online backlash

Apple has faced an online backlash over an advert for its new iPad that features an industrial-sized hydraulic press crushing a collection of objects and gadgets including musical instruments and books.

The ad, launched by Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, on Tuesday, shows the machine squashing an array of items – ranging from a piano and a metronome to tins of paint and an arcade game – before a single iPad Pro then appears in their place. A voiceover then states: “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”

But the revenues! 🤑🙄

TorStar: Green Party trying to move past an ugly internal rift

Some Green Party members are calling for a new leadership election a year and a half after long-time Green MP Elizabeth May returned to power as party leader on a mandate to co-lead with activist Jonathan Pedneault.

Although the pair campaigned on a co-leadership bid, the party’s constitution does not allow co-leaders, and there is debate about whether changing the constitution to allow it should warrant a new leadership election. It’s unclear if May and Pedneault, who has yet to be officially made co-leader, would have to face election if the constitution is overhauled.

Wikipedia: The Waffle

The Waffle (officially known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada after 1972) was a radical wing of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s. It was generally a New Left youth movement that espoused both Canadian nationalism and solidarity with the Quebec sovereignty movement.

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Lewis remained hostile; in 1972, he described the Waffle as “an encumbrance around my neck”. Then at the NDP’s Provincial Council on 24 June, Lewis obtained a resolution ordering the Waffle to disband or else leave the NDP. Debate on the motion lasted for three hours, with labour leaders leading the charge to expel the Waffle. Finally, the council approved the anti-Waffle motion 217 to 86, thereby ending months of public feuding.

TorStar: Premier Ford staffer met with developer over Greenbelt land

A member of Premier Doug Ford’s officeattended a private meeting with a developer regarding his land that was later removed from the Greenbelt, reigniting questions about how directly involved the premier’s staff were in the ill-fated housing development plan.

Newly released records show that Carlo Oliviero, who was at the time the executive director of stakeholder relations for Ford, was invited to the meeting about Greenbelt lands in Hamilton. The invitation was forwarded by a well-known lobbyist and former executive assistant of the premier’s.

Within days of the meeting, internal emails show, housing ministry staff were actively researching the land in Hamiltonbefore ultimately selecting it for Greenbelt removal.

ScienceAlert: Alarming Study Finds 99% of Fake Painkillers Tested Contain Fentanyl

In 2022, of all the counterfeit oxycodone seized by Rhode Island law enforcement, virtually every pill that scientists tested contained fentanyl – a synthetic narcotic 50 times more powerful than heroin and now claiming the lives of more than 100,000 people a year nationally.

Between 2017 and 2020, only 10 percent of fake oxycodone pills seized by the state contained fentanyl, researchers at Brown say.

That’s an incredibly steep rise for a particularly dangerous street drug – one that’s made all the more concerning by fentanyl’s regular pairing with a strong sedative: a non-opioid horse tranquilizer called xylazine, that is not approved for human use.

CBC: Writer and journalist Rex Murphy dead at 77: National Post

Rex Murphy, the controversial Newfoundland-born pundit and wordsmith whose writing and often-blistering commentaries were the focus of a decades-long career in Canadian media, has died at the age of 77, according to the National Post.

“You might not agree with what Rex had to say, but oh, boy, could he ever say it,” said comedian and fellow Newfoundlander Mark Critch, who performed an impression of Murphy on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

In a report published on the Post’s website on Thursday, the newspaper said Murphy died after a battle with cancer.

Rhodes scholar.

ScienceAlert: Scientists Discover First-of-Its-Kind Molecule That Absorbs Greenhouse Gasses

A ‘cage of cages’ is how scientists have described a new type of porous material, unique in its molecular structure, that could be used to trap carbon dioxide and another, more potent greenhouse gas.

Synthesized in the lab by researchers in the UK and China, the material is made in two steps, with reactions assembling triangular prism building blocks into larger, more symmetrical tetrahedral cages – producing the first molecular structure of its kind, the team claims.

The resulting material, with its abundance of polar molecules, attracts and holds greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide(CO2) with strong affinity. It also showed excellent stability in water, which would be critical for its use in capturing carbon in industrial settings, from wet or humid gas streams.

Last Updated: 09.May.2024 22:48 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Wednesday 08.May.2024

pv magazine: Solar-hydrogen solution rolled out for off-grid settings

H2PowerBox has launched its eponymous integrated solar-hydrogen energy system that generates and stores hydrogen through electrolysis during the day and uses a fuel cell to convert it back to electricity when needed, providing an alternative to mobile diesel generators in off-grid scenarios.

The trailer-mounted system is equipped with solar panels, a high-performance electrolyzer and a fuel cell. An integrated intelligent energy management system allows for efficient management of the entire process from solar energy capture to hydrogen production.

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The H2PowerBox has a peak output of 10kW but has been designed for scalability with multiple units able to be combined to meet larger power requirements.

I couldn’t find the storage capacity (in kWh) in the article or on their website.

9to5Mac: New iPads won’t include stickers in the box due to Apple’s environmental goals

Apple Stores, however, are receiving shipments with a limited quantity of Apple logo stickers that can be distributed to customers who buy a new iPad Pro or iPad Air, but only upon request. So, if you buy an iPad Pro or iPad Air from an Apple Store, you can request an Apple sticker at the time of purchase.

CBC: FTX says most customers will get all their money back less than 2 years after crypto fraud crisis

Company owes $11.2B US to its creditors, has up to $16.3B to distribute to them.

The rest will go to the lawyers?

UPI: Boeing’s Starliner flight delayed again for oxygen tank valve replacement

The test launch is now set for 6:16 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Space Station Florida on May 17, a week later than the date set earlier this week after the initial launch was scrubbed due to concerns about an oxygen relief valve, NASA said Tuesday.

ULA will replace the valve when the rocket is moved back to its Vertical Integration facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday.

Kottke: After launching last month, the Delta game emulator has been one of the most popular apps

After launching last month, the Delta game emulator has been one of the most popular apps in Apple’s App Store. It allows you to play NES, GB, SNES, N64, and DS games on your iPhone or Mac.

Last Updated: 08.May.2024 19:09 EDT

Tuesday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Monday 06.May.2024

ScienceAlert: Watch: Boeing’s Starliner Capsule Blasts Off on First Crewed Mission to ISS Today

Launch day is finally here: Boeing’s Starliner capsule blasts off Monday to the International Space Station on its first crewed mission – several years after SpaceX first achieved the same milestone.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it was scrubbed because of a faulty oxygen relief valve.

NYT: Bernie Sanders to Run for Re-Election, Seeking a Fourth Senate Term

The 82-year-old Vermont independent, a leading progressive in Washington, cast November’s elections as a fight for democracy.

ScienceAlert: Fusion Breakthrough: 6 Minutes of Plasma Sets New Reactor Record

A [tokamak] fusion reactor in southern France, called WEST, just achieved an important milestone that brings us one step closer to clean, sustainable, nearly limitless energy.

Scientists at New Jersey’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, who collaborated on the project, announced today that the device created … a plasma that reached 90 million degrees Fahrenheit (50 million degrees Celsius) for 6 straight minutes.

NYT: Michelle Goldberg: Senators Need to Stop the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act

An unfortunate symbiosis has developed between pro-Israel culture warriors like Republican Representative Elise Stefanik and the most self-indulgent fringe of pro-Palestinian campus protesters. Together they are, wittingly or unwittingly, shifting attention from the urgent emergency in Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to defy the United States and invade the southern city of Rafah, to the much smaller problem of campus antisemitism.

NYT: Lead in Beethoven’s Hair Offers New Clues to Mystery of His Deafness

Using powerful technologies, scientists found staggering amounts of lead and other toxic substances in the composer’s hair that may have come from wine, or other sources.

gift link

Last Updated: 06.May.2024 23:21 EDT

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🔗 Articles: Sunday 05.May.2024

Vince Ritter: The silence of the blog

You see, I love working on things behind the scenes. I love it because I get to touch a handful of people’s lives in a meaningful way. I don’t need to blog about it… all I need to do is bring myself and deliver what I do. That’s it.

It’s simple. I love touching peoples lives through my code. That might be directly through my products, or code that you don’t see and perhaps use without knowing. And I don’t need confirmation of big user numbers to feel a sense of achievement, nor do I need follower counts to claim my “status”.

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I am happiest when I open my code editor and create something. I am happy that whoever I work with is happy with the results… and I am happy when those results speak and get in the hands of a handful others (maybe just used internally, who knows).

People: Death of Skier Killed in Collision With Another Skier Is Ruled a Homicide

Per a Facebook post made by the Teton County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) on Monday, April 22, the collision occurred at approximately 10 a.m. on the Rendezvous Trail at JHMR in Teton Village.

Wuerslin — a 71-year-old part-time ski instructor — was skiing with a group of peers when the unidentified skier collided with him from uphill, per the skiing industry site Snow Brains. He wasn’t teaching at the time of the incident.

via SmartNews

Electrek: Tesla conducting more layoffs, including entire Supercharger team

29.April.2024

Just after laying off “more than 10%” of its global workforce, Tesla is laying off even more employees – including senior executives and long-time veterans of the company, most notably the entire Supercharging team and the executive responsible for negotiating NACS adoption across the industry.

Tesla started the week before last with news of a huge round of layoffs.

The layoffs were quite broad across the company. Tesla shortened production shifts at Gigafactory Texas and cleared out several teams associated with critical projects there, even firing important executives.

CleanTechnica: EVs At 24.3% Share In France — BEVs Grow Volume 45% YoY

The auto market saw plugin EVs at 24.3% share in France in April 2024, growing from 21.1% year on year. Full electric volume was up by a strong 45% YoY, while plugin hybrid volume was flat. Overall auto volume was 146,979 units, up 11% YoY, though remaining below 2017–2019 seasonal norms (~185,000). The Peugeot e-208 was once again the best selling full electric vehicle.

Last Updated: 05.May.2024 23:54 EDT

Saturday’s articles

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🔗 Articles: Friday 03.May.2024

CBC: Foreign meddling may have flipped B.C. riding, inquiry finds

[CPC candidate Kenny] Chiu, who was first elected in the riding in 2019 after coming second in 2015, was defeated in the 2021 election by Liberal Parm Bains, by a count of 16,543 votes to 13,066.

CBC: London Drugs reviewing billions of lines of code as it attempts to recover from cybersecurity incident

Company’s 80-plus stores in Western Canada have been closed since Sunday due to ‘cybersecurity incident’.

CBC: Alberta Conservative MP kicked out of the House of Commons

Speaker of the House Greg Fergus orders Conservative MP Rachael Thomas to withdraw from the House of Commons for ‘disregarding the authority of the chair.’ Thomas was heard saying ‘the chair is acting in a disgraceful manner.’

NewsNation: Titan submersible likely imploded due to shape, carbon fiber: Scientists

Most submersibles are spherical, allowing pressure to be evenly distributed around them, while the Titan was a cylindrical vessel to allow more space for passengers. While a perfectly shaped cylinder could withstand large amounts of pressure, imperfections in its shape could lead to uneven pressure distribution that could cause the walls to buckle.

The submersible was also constructed with carbon fiber and titanium, rather than just titanium or steel, which could have played a role. Carbon fiber is strong but subject to more wear and tear than titanium or steel. Any weakness in the material could have been enough to cause an implosion.

Wales Online: Will Hayward: I stayed in the cheapest hotel in Cardiff and I was so miserable

Given that I just needed somewhere to sleep it made sense to try to go for a cheap option. So I went on a few price comparison sites, shopped around a bit and discovered the cheapest option for me in Cardiff at the time was the Zip hotel on Ipswich Road, hidden behind the David Lloyd Club on a patch of land between Newport Road and the A48.

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From the outside of the hotel you can see that there are windows there. I also have mates who have stayed at the hotel before it was a Zip and they said they had windows! I think what they have done is halve the size of all the rooms meaning that the windows would actually straddle across two rooms so they have therefore decided to cover the windows and allow people to have their own misery disco instead.

Last Updated: 03.May.2024 02:24 EDT