New posts from the.micro.blog
🔗 Articles: Tuesday 16.Apr.2024
MacRumors: X May Charge New Users a ‘Small Fee’ to Post, Like and Reply
X Daily News, a feed that posts X updates, today noticed that text strings on the website have been updated to mention a small annual fee that new users will need to pay in order to access the social network.
Musk said in response that the fee for new users is “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”
Globe: Hockey gear maker CCM up for sale as private equity owner looks for an exit
On the eve of the NHL playoffs, private equity fund manager Birch Hill Equity Partners has placed CCM Hockey on the auction block. CCM, one of two dominant hockey-gear companies, is expected to fetch a price that is a significant multiple to the $110-million Birch Hill paid for the business seven years ago.
UPI: On This Day, April 16: Wayne Gretzky announces retirement from NHL
On April 16, 1999, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years.
Globe: Cathal Kelly: Alex Ovechkin is a new kind of sports celebrity, a legacy-maker that nobody wants to talk about
You head over to his official Instagram and, yes, it’s still Ovechkin standing beside Vladimir Putin flashing a V for victory.
This guy either doesn’t get it, doesn’t care or does in both instances and has an agenda. None of those options show well on hockey.
This has turned Ovechkin into a new kind of sports celebrity – the all-timer in the midst of achieving his legacy who cannot be promoted.
Fast Company: Colorado is offering $450 e-bike subsidies. Other states should too
The commencement of the largest ever e-bike subsidy program in the U.S. is as good a time as ever to sing the praises of these kinds of policies. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offers electric car subsidies as large as $7,500, but not a penny for e-bikes. It was a huge missed opportunity—hopefully one that will be corrected in the future. There are few policies that can do so much good for so little money as e-bike subsidies.
There are a million good reasons to get more e-bikes on the streets. E-bikes “provide a Swiss Army knife’s worth of societal benefits,” transportation analyst David Zipper has written. Zipper has been calling for federal e-bike subsidies for years, and various other pundits, like Jay Caspian Kang and Alex Pareene, have made similar arguments.
TorStar: CRA’s debt recovery ‘horror stories’ flood social media
You’ve tried paying back your tax debt but it turns out, none of it went through. Or you have to prove to the government that you are, actually, broken up with your ex and don’t owe thousands of dollars to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Look through your TikTok feed and you’ll come across the same story on repeat: a notice from the CRA, scrutiny on past tax filings and a hefty back payment due with a quick turnaround.
It’s a problem that has been plaguing frustrated tax filers who are taking to social media to vent, many saying they now owe the federal agency thousands of dollars.
UPI: Trump Media value falls additional 14% as new streaming platform launch announced
The stock value of former President Donald Trump’s media company — the owner of app Truth Social — on Tuesday continued to fall more than 14% as the company unveiled its intent to launch a digital live-streaming platform.
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The new streaming content — which will roll out in three phases — will include “live TV, including news networks, religious channels, family-friendly content including films and documentaries” and “other content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation or is being suppressed on other platforms and services.”
ScienceAlert: Scientists Unlock The Mystery of How We Taste Bitterness
Led by a team from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, the study focuses on a bitter taste receptor called TAS2R14, and its role in helping identify one of the five different tastes we can sense: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (or savory).
It builds on what we know about the sense of taste, and could potentially lead to improved treatments for health conditions that the TAS2R14 receptor has been implicated in – including obesity, diabetes, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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The team revealed that when bitter substances (or tastants) hit TAS2R14, they’re wedged into the allosteric site. This regulatory region allows molecules to bind to a protein and influence its functional activity.
The mechanism hasn’t been discovered before. The tastant’s connection with the allosteric site changes the shape of the receptor, activating its coupled G protein and setting off a chain reaction of signaling further down the line.
9to5Mac: Apple to let users watch their own videos during Vision Pro demo
Internally known as the “VPG Photos Retail Experience,” this system will create an HTTP file transfer service with SPAKE2 encryption to transfer files between an iPhone and Apple Vision Pro. Customers will be able to select their own Spatial Videos and then transfer them to the Vision Pro by scanning an App Clip code.
There will be a limit to how many videos can be transferred so that the process doesn’t take too long. All files will be deleted immediately after the demo session for privacy reasons.
Aaahhh! SPAKE2 encryption!
Apple Vision Pro costs $3,499 in the US, and the company says the headset will reach more countries by the end of the year. As for iOS 17.5, the update is expected to be released to the public next month.
MacRumors: Native Microsoft OneNote App Now Available for Apple Vision Pro
Microsoft today introduced a version of OneNote that is designed to run on the Apple Vision Pro headset. OneNote for Vision Pro was created for visionOS, and it includes many of the features that are available on OneNote for iPad.
The app can be used to write memos, notes, and digital notebooks, and there are options to sync content to OneDrive for access across multiple platforms. There is support for tags like Important and To Do, and notes can be protected with a password.
OneNote on Vision Pro works hands-free or with a connected keyboard and mouse. In the future, Microsoft plans to add support for Copilot, two-factor authentication, and inserting images from the camera or the Photos app.
OneNote can be downloaded from the visionOS App Store as of today. It works with personal and work accounts that are not managed by an organization.
Microsoft has made many of its apps available on the Vision Pro, including Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Carsie Blanton (YouTube): Fishin’ With You
A tribute to the great John Prine. I learned of his passing last night. I cried all day today, then wrote this. Almost made it through the take without crying! Borrowed John’s melody and a bunch of his words, like I often do. They’re embossed on all my guts. I wouldn’t know what songs are without his. John, we’ll never thank you enough. #RIPJohnPrine
Last Updated: 16.Apr.2024 23:54 EDT
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🔗 Articles: Wednesday 17.Apr.2024
Guardian: Mentally stimulating work plays key role in staving off dementia, study finds
People in routine and repetitive jobs found to have 31% greater risk of disease in later life, and 66% higher risk of mild cognitive problems.
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Among the jobs ranked as most stimulating were teachers and university lecturers, according to the study, in Neurology. Some of the least cognitively demanding jobs were those that involved repetitive manual tasks, such as road work, cleaning and delivering the post.
Previous studies have shown that education has a significant protective effect against cognitive decline in old age.
Guardian: Mike Johnson moves ahead with foreign aid bills despite threats to oust him
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is pushing ahead with his plan to hold votes on four separate foreign aid bills this week, despite threats from two fellow Republicans to oust him if he advances a Ukraine funding proposal.
Shortly after noon on Wednesday, the rules committee posted text for three bills that would provide funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The text of a fourth bill, which is expected to include measures to redirect seized Russian assets toward Ukraine and force the sale of TikTok, will be released later on Wednesday, Johnson said in a note to members.
The legislation would provide $26bn in aid for Israel, $61bn for Ukraine and $8bn for US allies in the Indo-Pacific. The Israel bill also appeared to include more than $9bn in humanitarian assistance, which Democrats had demanded to assist civilians in war zones like Gaza.
Last Updated: 17.Apr.2024 18:32 EDT
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🔗 Articles: Thursday 18.Apr.2024
NYT: Opinion: Abortion Is Remaking Our Political Landscape. Why Aren’t Guns?
Now, the idea of making abortion a state issue only works if you’re just looking for a make-believe answer that might let you escape from discussing the subject. But we don’t have a visible gun consensus. Even mass school shooting tragedies like Sandy Hook and Uvalde didn’t bring the debate to a head. Many, many politicians are still trying to protect the right of Americans to own weapons while giving at least some verbal deference to the right of everybody else not to be shot.
Shootings qualify as “mass” when a minimum of four people — shooter excluded — are hit. At this writing there have been 119 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. (Really kinda depressing to be living in a country that requires the services of a Gun Violence Archive.) But don’t hold me to that number — it goes up fast. Just the other day one child was killed and 10 people injured at a backyard party in Chicago and 12 people were shot outside a New Orleans nightclub, one fatally.
MacRumors: Should Apple Kill Siri and Start Over?
Enthusiasm for Siri has undeniably waned in the intervening years. Despite regular updates and improvements from Apple, Siri has struggled to keep pace with its advancing rivals, and in an era of generative AI chatbots and large language models, Siri’s failings have only been magnified. Issues ranging from misinterpreted commands to limited contextual understanding have not only hindered Siri’s usability but have also led to an almost universal perception of the virtual assistant as a source of user frustration rather than assistance. This persistent underperformance begs the question: Is it time for Apple to kill Siri and start over?
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Here are just a handful of serial issues some users have recently reported:
- Setting timers instead of alarms.
- Bungling music requests (even for purchases that Siri has local access to).
- Delayed responses over fast data connections.
- Nonsense responses to conversion requests.
- Creating notes instead of reminders.
- Acknowledging requests without acting on them.
- Overwrought punctuation when dictating.
- Inability to consistently control smart devices.
The list could go on. But has Siri really gotten more stupid?
UPI: Fruits, vegetables contain concerning levels of pesticides, report finds
Nearly 20% of fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables that Americans eat contain concerning levels of pesticides, a new report finds.
Pesticides posed significant risks in popular choices such as strawberries, green beans, bell peppers, blueberries and potatoes, the review from Consumer Reports found.
“One food in particular, green beans, had residues of a pesticide that hasn’t been allowed to be used on the vegetable in the U.S. for over a decade,” the report authors said in a news release. “And imported produce, especially some from Mexico, was particularly likely to carry risky levels of pesticide residues.”
And acceptable levels in the US are much higher than Europe in many cases.
Ars Technica: Big Tech can’t hoard brainwave data for ad targeting, Colorado law says
On Wednesday, Colorado expanded the scope of its privacy law initially designed to protect biometric data like fingerprints or face images to become first in the nation to also shield sensitive neural data.
That could stop companies from hoarding brain activity data without residents realizing the risks. The New York Times reported that neural data is increasingly being collected and sold nationwide. And after a market analysis showed that investments in neurotechnology leapt by 60 percent globally from 2019 to 2020—and were valued at $30 billion in 2021—Big Tech companies have significantly intensified plans to develop their own products to rake in potentially billions.
Waveshare: Pico LCD 1.3
The ST7789VW is a single-chip controller/driver for 262K-color, graphic type TFT-LCD. It consists of 240 source line and 320 gate line driving circuits. The resolution of this LCD is 240 (H) RGB x 240 (V), it supports horizontal mode and vertical mode, and it doesn’t use all the RAM of the controller.
This LCD accepts 8-bits/9-bits/16-bits/18-bits parallel interface, that are RGB444, RGB565, RGB666. The color format used in demo codes is RGB565.
This LCD uses a 4-line SPI interface for reducing GPIO and fast speed.
Yahoo Sports: NHL approves Coyotes’ move to Utah; Arizona expected to explore expansion club
As has been expected for months, the NHL Board of Governors voted to approve the sale of the franchise’s hockey assets to Ryan and Ashley Smith, owners of the NBA’s Utah Jazz, and Smith Entertainment Group (SEG). The group made an official request for an expansion team for Salt Lake City in January but later ceded to the NHL’s desire to relocate the Coyotes from Arizona.
The team will play in the Delta Center, currently the Jazz’s home arena. However, the NHL wants renovations to make the facility more hockey-friendly – especially if the club ends up playing there permanently. A new arena was part of SEG’s expansion team proposal, and it would also be used for a likely Winter Olympics in 2034.
The Independent: Axed Tesla staffers say the chaos will lead to ‘pretty bad’ quality only getting ‘worse’
This week’s layoffs appeared to be the largest in Tesla’s recent history, targeting 10 per cent of its roughly 140,000 employees, ranging from salesfolk in China through factory workers in Texas to engineers in California.
Simultaneously, Tesla lost two prominent executives: Drew Baglino, a long-serving lieutenant to chief executive Elon Musk who had been with the company for 18 years, and Rohan Patel, a former climate adviser to Barack Obama who led Tesla’s dealings with governments and regulators.
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A recent report in The New York Times highlighted how Tesla’s sweetheart deal with Chinese officials to build a factory in Shanghai helped kickstart the country’s EV market, ironically allowing local firms such as BYD to begin undercutting Tesla’s expensive premium vehicles.
Despite this danger, Musk has reportedly sidelined Tesla’s long-awaited low-cost EV project, veering from his original “master plan” for the company and potentially ceding a whole segment of the market to his rivals.
TorStar: Why did Toronto gas prices jump by 14 cents?
As we enter the summer months, gas stations transition to a “summer blend” which contains alkylate, a component added to gas that boosts octane, Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, explained.
Gas stations are, by law in the U.S., required to transition away from the winter blend which contains butane, a compound that easily evaporates but is useful for igniting in cold temperatures.
The cost of alkylates have jumped thanks to a spike in demand, as gas blended with alkylates is cleaner and able to meet better fuel efficiency standards.
TorStar: Trudeau government gets big push back as it promotes budget
Indigenous leaders, disability groups, doctors, real estate investors, business groups, opposition Conservatives and other political rivals of the Trudeau government blasted measures that either didn’t go far enough for some, or for others went too far.
MacRumors: Best Buy Launches Apple Vision Pro App for Previewing Tech Products
Best Buy today announced the launch of a new “Envision” app designed for the Apple Vision Pro headset. Envision is designed to allow Best Buy customers to explore different products and see how those products look in their own living spaces.
According to Best Buy, the Envision app is meant to help consumers plan their “ultimate home technology setup.” 3D models of Best Buy products are included, so users can see them from all angles and get an idea of the space they take up. The app includes big screen TVs, large and small appliances, computers, furniture, fitness equipment, and more.
The ultimate shopping appliance?
CBC: What the jury didn’t hear at the murder trial of Umar Zameer
The judge overseeing the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer repeatedly raised concerns over the prosecution’s changing theory of what happened that night and at one point indicated she did not see how a jury could reach a guilty verdict on murder based on evidence presented in court.
During legal arguments not heard by the jury, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy on several occasions asked the Crown to lay out its narrative for how Umar Zameer came to hit Det.-Const. Jeffrey Northrup with his car on July 2, 2021.
Prosecutors Michael Cantlon and Karen Simone raised new theories about where and how Northrup was struck after all their evidence had been presented to the jury, including some that were not brought up during their own expert’s testimony.
Guardian: Juliette Pavy: Sony World Photographer of the Year 2024
Between 1966 and 1975, Greenlandic Inuit women were subjected to an involuntary birth control programme known as the Spiralkampagnen (“spiral campaign”). Led by the Danish authorities, nearly 4,500 intrauterine devices, otherwise known as coils or “spirals”, were implanted into Inuit women and girls, some as young as 12. Many of them say that the procedure was performed without their consent. The campaign was first widely publicised by a Danish podcast in spring 2022, and documents now prove that the authorities implemented the policy to reduce Inuit population growth. An official investigation has now been opened, which is set to conclude at the end of 2024.
BlogTO: Flight with 290 passengers reports ‘multiple failures’ on approach to Toronto airport
Emergency vehicles were forced to meet an Air Canada flight that landed at Toronto Pearson Airport earlier this month after “multiple failures” onboard the aircraft.
According to a reconstruction video by the aviation YouTube channel, You can see ATC, the incident involved Air Canada flight AC935 from Punta Cana International Airport to Toronto on April 8 at approximately 6:50 p.m.
During the descent towards Toronto, pilots declared PAN-PAN, a term used in radiotelephone communications to signify that there is an urgency on board a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.
Last Updated: 18.Apr.2024 23:59 EDT
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🔗 Articles: Friday 19.Apr.2024
NYT: Michelle Goldberg: Republicans Wanted a Crackdown on Israel’s Critics. Columbia Obliged.
“Has there been any disciplinary action taken against students who have chanted, ‘From the river to the sea’?” the New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who scored a major political victory with the previous hearings, asked, citing a common anti-Zionist slogan. Shafik responded, “We have some disciplinary cases ongoing around that language.”
You don’t have to like anti-Israel language or activism to be worried about congressional demands to suppress it. These hearings are highly unusual; it’s hard to think of a time since the anti-Communist House Un-American Activities Committee when Congress has made such an effort to investigate disfavored ideologies in academe.
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Such pressure is the point: Republicans want to silence Israel’s opponents. In one of the hearing’s most farcical moments, Rick Allen, a Republican from Georgia, asked Shafik whether she knew Genesis 12:3. She didn’t recall the biblical passage offhand, so he explained it to her. “It was the covenant that God made with Abraham, and that covenant was real clear: ‘If you bless Israel I will bless you, if you curse Israel I will curse you,’” he said, explaining how this compact was confirmed in the New Testament.
“Do you consider that a serious issue?” Allen asked heatedly. “Do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?” Shafik responded, “Definitely not.” Allen continued, “Young people are being indoctrinated by these professors to believe this stuff, and they have no idea that they’re going to be cursed by God, the God of the Bible and the God over our flag.”
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Just before the hearing began, a group of students from Columbia and its sister school, Barnard, organized a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on Columbia’s main lawn. On Thursday, Shafik took the extraordinary step of calling the police in to dismantle it, and over 100 people were arrested. The last time the school’s administration brought in the N.Y.P.D. to disperse demonstrations was in 1996, and many on campus were in shock.
Time to put on Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?
UPI: Wild turkey populations declined in some areas of U.S.
Wild turkeys were abundant across North America when European settlers arrived. But people killed them indiscriminately year-round – sometimes for their meat and feathers, but settlers also took turkey eggs from nests and poisoned adult turkeys to keep them from damaging crops. Thanks to this unregulated killing and habitat loss, by 1900 wild turkeys had disappeared from much of their historical range.
Turkey populations gradually recovered over the 20th century, aided by regulation, conservation funding and state restoration programs. By the early 2000s, they could be found in Mexico, Canada and every U.S. state except Alaska.
Dead and dying shrubs and trees – some of which are found nowhere else on Earth – line more than 1,000km across the state’s south-west.
Kottke: “my therapist just told me that the NYT word games app is be…
“my therapist just told me that the NYT word games app is becoming a problem for many of her patients, including me … she asked me how long i spent every day doing them and i LIED”
— Tess Owen on Twitter
CBC: Slain tow truck kingpin had a target on his back for years, court documents show
Tow truck wars in Toronto. Quite the story!
No reports of injuries as fire affects several buildings at former airport.
Cybersecurity firm hired by pharmaceutical companies says it took down more than 250 sites last year.
Last Updated: 19.Apr.2024 23:47 EDT
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🔗 Articles: Saturday 20.Apr.2024
NYT: Top Chinese Swimmers Tested Positive for Banned Drug, Then Won Olympic Gold
The case, involving multiple swimmers who seven months later won medals at the 2021 Games, prompted accusations of a cover-up and concerns over why antidoping regulators chose not to intervene.
Electrek: Tesla is ending its referral program on April 30th worldwide
The program was originally launched in 2015, and has evolved many times since then. It started off as a direct $1,000 reward, but later turned into various tier systems, point systems, and so on.
A buyer would use a current owner’s referral link to place an order, and in return the buyer would get some sort of benefit (a discount, some free supercharging, or some free FSD access), and the referrer would get credit towards some sort of prize.
At one point, Tesla even promised free or discounted next-gen Roadsters, and ended up promising giving away around 80 of them – or at least, promising to, whenever that car (or is it even a car?) may or may not finally get made.
UPI: House passes $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan
The most contentious bill, a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine, passed in a 311-112 vote, with Democrats overwhelming GOP opposition to the measure.
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The House-passed bills are similar to another $95 billion aid package the Senate passed in February. A key difference in the House bill is that it designated $10 billion of the Ukraine funding as a repayable loan to appease some Republicans.
CBC: Ukraine strikes 8 Russian regions in long-range drone attacks
Ukraine attacked eight Russian regions with dozens of long-range strike drones, setting ablaze a fuel depot and hitting three power substations in a major attack early on Saturday, an intelligence source in Kyiv told Reuters.
The overnight attack, which was confirmed by the defence ministry in Moscow, comes amid a Russian airstrike campaign that has battered Ukraine’s energy system and pounded its cities in recent weeks.
Facing mounting pressure on the battlefield more than two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has tried to find a pressure point against the Kremlin by targeting oil refineries and energy facilities inside Russia using drones.
CBC: Jason Markusoff: Danielle Smith wants ideology ‘balance’ at universities. Alberta academics wonder what she’s tilting at.
It initially seemed her Bill 18, the Provincial Priorities Act, was intended to make her government play checkstop or gatekeeper whenever the federal government and mayors made deals without provincial involvement.
Then it became apparent that Smith’s government would apply the same scrutiny to the higher-learning sector, and the premier’s remarks made it clearshe had federal research grants and notions of ideological “balance” in her targets.
Wikipedia: Philip Kerr
A writer of both adult fiction and non-fiction, he is known for the Bernhard “Bernie” Gunther series of 14 historical thrillers set in Germany and elsewhere during the 1930s, the Second World War and the Cold War. He also wrote children’s books under the name P. B. Kerr, including the Children of the Lamp series. Kerr wrote for The Sunday Times, the Evening Standard, and the New Statesman. He was married to fellow novelist Jane Thynne; they lived in Wimbledon, London, and had three children. Just before he died, he finished a 14th Bernie Gunther novel, Metropolis, which was published posthumously, in 2019.
Last Updated: 20.Apr.2024 23:35 EDT
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📷 Day 20: ice #mbApr
🔗 Articles: Sunday 21.Apr.2024
Electrek: First ever electric semi truck rides into Mexico with SDG&E
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) says the maiden voyage of their Class 8 heavy-duty electric semi marks the first time an electric semi has crossed the border hauling a standard load, marking an important milestone as the two nations move toward a net zero future.
The electric semi truck — one of 11 Peterbilt 579EV Class 8 trucks bought by San Diego-based Bali Express last year — made its first trip to Mexico carrying an unspecified load of goods through the Port of Entry at Otay Mesa, which connects Southern California to the city of Tijuana, Mexico.
Bali Express’ electric trucks will utilize SDG&E’s recently activated HD charging infrastructure to provide “reliable and affordable” electric freight options for medium and heavy-duty EVs crossing the US/Mexico border.
CBC: The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson: World’s Fastest Man*
World’s Fastest Man* The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson
by Mary Ormbsy
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Mary Ormsby, who was the Toronto Star’s Ben Johnson reporter for the entire debacle, vividly hauls it all back into the present, for better or worse, in _World’s Fastest Man* The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson. _Once again, a reader confronts the unsatisfying characters who so completely owned our attention back then.
Vox: Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here’s how they get made.
It’s partly AI, partly a get-rich-quick scheme, and entirely bad for confused consumers.
Just Have a Think (YouTube): 100% wind and solar is coming!
100% electrification from renewables like wind, solar, geothermal and hydro power, backed up with interconnections and energy storage is now just around the corner, and already the cheapest option available. But there are still bumps in the road. Can we overcome them in time?
In the UK specifically.
Slashdot: The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Just Sent Its Last Message Home
Two months ago the team behind NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter released a video reflecting on its historic explorations of Mars, flying 10.5 miles (17.0 kilometers) in 72 different flights over three years. It was the team’s way of saying goodbye, according to NASA’s video.
And this week, LiveScience reports, Ingenuity answered back:
On April 16, Ingenuity beamed back its final signal to Earth, which included the remaining data it had stored in its memory bank and information about its final flight.
Slashdot: Should Automakers Feel Threatened by China’s Exports of Electric Cars?
The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S.-China rivalry “has a new flashpoint in the battle for technology supremacy: electric cars.”
Dave Winer (YouTube): meta.ai draws a pastoral scene
I asked meta.ai to draw a pastoral scene with sheep and dogs, birds, fish, airplanes, clams and seagoing ships in ancient england.
This really is amazing.
FreeThink: AI can help predict whether a patient will respond to specific TB treatments
Rapidly and holistically analyzing available medical data can help optimize treatments for each patient and reduce drug resistance. In our recently published research, my team and I describe a new AI tool we developed that uses worldwide patient data to guide more personalized and effective treatment of TB.
FreeThink: US will accelerate geothermal power exploration on federal land
Now, the BLM is adopting two categorical exclusions, already used by the Navy and the US Forest Service, that eliminate the need for geothermal power developers to conduct an environmental assessment if an exploration proposal meets certain conditions (e.g., it doesn’t require the creation of new roads longer than one mile).
“Geothermal energy is one of the technologies that can move our country toward a clean energy future,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “It only makes sense to use the same streamlined processes for permitting geothermal exploration that other government agencies have proven can work.”
Last Updated: 21.Apr.2024 23:20 EDT
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🔗 Articles: Monday 22.Apr.2024
NYT: Let Them Eat … Everything
She asserts her own right to be “fat,” the preferred adjective in her corner of the internet. In Sole-Smith’s house there are neither “good” or “bad” foods nor “healthy” or “unhealthy” ones; doughnuts and kale hold equivalent moral value and no one polices portion size. By relieving herself and her family of rules about eating, Sole-Smith believes she will have a better chance of raising children who are proud of their bodies, trust themselves to enjoy their food and leave the table when they’re full. She serves dessert and snacks, like Cheez-Its, along with the dinner entree; her kids can eat their meal in any order.
Vox: The NBA’s lifetime ban of Jontay Porter over gambling, explained
And thirdly, Porter altered his own actions in a game in order to help fulfill a wager that a bettor had made. In sports betting, people can bet on everything from who will score the most points to whether a player commits a foul. These are known as proposition bets, or prop bets,which focus more on developments in a game than just the outcome of a game.
In Porter’s case, a bettor had placed a prop bet for $80,000 on the fact that he would underperform in a March 20 game. The payout for that bet would have been $1.1 million. In that game, Porter stopped playing after just three minutes, claiming that he felt sick. This bet, however, was flagged by betting operators and frozen. Following its investigation, the NBA has concluded that Porter claimed illness so that this wager would be successful.
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Sports leagues — including the NBA, NFL, and NHL — actively work with licensed betting platforms to promote sports betting in exchange for a significant cut of the revenue. The NBA, for example, works with FanDuel and DraftKings as its sports betting partners and has integrated live betting during games into its app. The NFL, similarly, has formal sports betting partnerships; the Washington Commanders even host a sports betting hub in their stadium.
Electrek: BYD unveils luxurious Sea Lion 07 interior to rival Tesla Model Y
BYD is coming for Tesla’s sweet spot in the mid-size electric SUV market with its new Sea Lion 07. Ahead of its official launch, BYD unveiled the Sea Lion 07’s luxurious interior. Check out the first images below.
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Designed by Wolfgang Egger, an ex-Lamborghini and Audi designer, the Sea Lion 07 is arguably BYD’s sleekest electric SUV yet. It combines details from both iconic brands into an EV built for the modern era.
NewsNation: George Alan Kelly trial: Judge calls mistrial in second-degree murder case
Kelly said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone, explaining that he feared for his safety and that of his wife and property.
“He says he shot 100 yards over their heads. But he never told law enforcement that he was in fear of his life,” Jette said in closing arguments.
Kelly fired nine shots toward the group, according to Jette, who said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.
NewsNation: Judge approves Google class action settlement
A federal judge has approved a $62 million settlement in a class action suit against Google. If follow an AP investigation that exposed the Silicon Valley titan for tracking down user information without consent, even if they used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so.
According to the settlement, Google published a support page on how to manage and delete a user’s location history, which stated, “When you turn off location history for your Google account, it’s off for all devices associated with that Google account.”
Despite its promises against tracking a user’s location, the settlement states, “Google’s representation was false.” As AP revealed, turning off “Location History” only stopped Google from creating a location timeline that the user could view. Google, however, still continued to track the phone owners and kept a record of their locations, the settlement states.
Even when “Location History” is turned off, the settlement states a user’s location is stored every time they use any Google-controlled features on their phone, including the Google Maps app, weather apps, and searches made with the phone’s mobile browser.
Do no evil?.
NewsNation: Florida joins Texas in banning local outdoor worker protection laws
The Sunshine State lives up to its name every summer, making work in the extreme heat dangerous for highway, construction, farm workers and others who are primary outside all day. Miami-Dade County was considering an ordinance that would mandate breaks in the shade and access to water.
But now, the state of Florida says no.
It’s joined Texas in banning counties and cities from establishing their own heat protection rules. The Florida law takes effect July 1. It also prevents local governments from raising the minimum wage beyond the state level.
Unconscionable. Not being allowed to protect people from life-threatening conditions!
Last Updated: 22.Apr.2024 23:42 EDT
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