New posts from the.micro.blog
đ 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 pathologistâs experimental therapy is based on his own pioneering research on melanoma.
Prof Scolyerâs 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.
McBrideâs 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 âflashbacksâ
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 âput the saxophone back into Rock ân Rollâ 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 Sanbornâs social media channels.
Wales Online: Major announcement could âtransformâ treatment of âdreadful diseaseâ
Jess Mills, daughter of Dame Tessa and chief executive of the Tessa Jowell Foundation, welcomed the announcement but stressed the need for âno more delaysâ.
She said: âWe 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 Walesâ 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 (âoâ for âomniâ) is a step towards much more natural human-computer interactionâit 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.
Iâm sure that there are more. (Auto-complete suggested âmanyâ.)
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 Appleâs rating went up a point, but Samsungâs 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 Appleâs 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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âThe company plans to bring the Vision Pro to international markets for the first time after its Worldwide Developers Conference early next month,â 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 isnât going to last forever.
The reason? Mobile phones are going to steal the iPodâs 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 Appleâs 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 âdo it all even when your hands are full.â But Siri functions, at its best, like a directory for the rest of your phone: It doesnât respond to questions so much as offer to search the web for answers; it doesnât translate so much as offer to open the Translate app. And much of the time, Siri canât even pick up what youâre 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 Seinfeldâs 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 âiPadâ user Federico Viticci of MacStories didnât share a full review of the new âiPadâ, but he penned a piece pointing out the many shortcomings of iPadOS. Itâs well worth a read to see what itâs like using an âiPadâ as a main machine, with highlights on the pain points of multitasking, limited apps, and more.
The Wall Street Journalâs Joanna Stern said that using the âiPad Proâ is like âdriving a Ferrari on a golf courseâ because the iPhone-based operating system hampers what the âiPadâ could be capable of doing.
The Wall Street Journal said that despite the creativity apps available on the âiPadâ, it âstill isnât direct competition for the versatility of a MacBookâ and itâs not a good platform for those who want to âmultitask on multiple windows.â
Almost every review mentioned the shortcomings of iPadOS as the major fault with the new âiPad Proâ models.
Slashdot: ChatGPT Is Getting a Mac App
OpenAI has launched an official macOS app for ChatGPT, with a Windows version coming âlater this year.â âBoth 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 âthe coming weeks,ââ 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 whatâs on their screen â whether by typing or saying it. ChatGPT could then respond based on what it âsees.â 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:Setappâs 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 Appleâs 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 Appleâs Cupertino headquarters for Vision Pro training in recent days.
Wikipedia: The Ring of Kerry
The Ring of Kerry (Irish: MĂłrchuaird ChiarraĂ) 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 â passing through Sneem, Waterville, Cahersiveen, and Glenbeigh â before returning to Killarney via the N72.
Last Updated: 14.May.2024 23:59 EDT
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đ 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 â60s and â70s, drumming on smash hits such as âHappy Together,â 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 couldnât leave C.S.N.Y., according to a profile on him in the book âGreat Rock Drummers of the Sixtiesâ 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, soccerâs appetite for reform appears to have waned. An outside audit of African soccerâs 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.).
Comedian Bill Burr took Bill Maher to task over campus protests stemming from Israelâs war in Gaza and cancel culture, among other topics, during Sundayâs episode of the âClub Random with Bill Maherâ podcast.
Maher during the episode alleged that campus protesters supporting Gazans are âin with the terrorists.â
âThey were for the Palestinians,â Burr countered. The comedian added that he is âon the side of the kids,â prompting a tense exchange.
Platformer: Googleâs broken link to the web
âWeb publishers brace for carnage as Google adds AI answers,â 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 companyâs early experiments with SGE say a bloodbath is coming.
Last Updated: 15.May.2024 23:57 EDT
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đ Articles: Thursday 16.May.2024
NYT: What to know: Putin-Xi Summit
Chinaâs 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 RockânâRoll Guitarist, Dies at 86
Duane Eddy, the pioneering guitarist who helped popularize twangâthe reverberating electric sound that emits a warped and dusty toneâin rockânâroll 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 âRebel Rouserâ and âForty Miles of Bad Road,â 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 Netflixâs Ad-Supported Tier
Netflixâs 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 âfew movies and TV shows available.â The basic ad-free plan is $15.49 per month, while the premium plan is $22.99 per month. Netflixâs 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 âduck key decisionsâ, 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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âWe need to make sure the mental health piece is in place before decriminalization,â said Candice Csaky.
âWe did things backward here.â
Unfortunately this seems to be a pattern for government. The passing of the law (free) happens first but the expensive part (enforcement, oversight/monitoring, funded programs) happens much later or never.
CBC: Customers are fed up with anti-theft measures at stores. Retailers say organized crime is to blame
Along with wheel-locking shopping carts, other contentious measures include metal gates with designated entry and exit points, random receipt checks and tall plexiglass barriers, which recently popped up at many Loblaw stores.Â
Major retailers like Canadian Tire and Walmart have implemented some of the measures; Loblaw has incorporated all of them.Â
Last Updated: 16.May.2024 22:55 EDT
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đ 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 â 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 Muskâs 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 â 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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Have you spent more on computing devices or cars?
đ Articles: Saturday 18.May.2024
WashPo: Bidenâs debate moves set off a mad scramble at CNN â 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 agreementâs 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 â a first meeting in June, organized by a network on Bidenâs 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 startupâs âtabletâ gears up to take on Appleâs 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 â the Daylight Computerâs 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 â 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, Iâve 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 Cowellâs surprise call to BGT comedianâs mum after his secret audition gets huge reaction
Alex Mitchell, 23, from Leeds impressed the judges on Saturdayâs 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 Alexâs mum to prank her after Alexâs brilliant audition.
Surely they must mean tics, not ticks?!
âAlex, I think you should phone your mum and dad now and tell them where you are,â Simon said, before taking Alexâs phone and calling his mum.
âBecky? I want to speak to you about your son. As you know, heâs at a stag do tonight and his behaviour has been absolutely appalling!â
âI am so sorry, he gets that from his fatherâs side,â responded Alexâs 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.
âAmong 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,â Abbott said in a statement.
âTexas has one of the strongest âStand Your Groundâ 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.â
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Travis County District Attorney JosĂ© Garza, who prosecuted the case against Perry, said the board and Abbottâs decision âmade a mockery of our legal system.â
âThey should be ashamed of themselves,â Garza said. âTheir 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.â
UPI: Boeing Starliner launch delayed to end of May to fix helium leak
Boeingâs 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 spacecraftâs service module, the agency said.
It is the latest in a series of delays for Boeingâs Starliner mission, which is supposed to send NASA astronauts Barry âButchâ Wilmore and Sunita âSuniâ 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: Skinnerâs return, McDavidâs disappearance, and MIllerâs growth
Facing elimination Saturday night, the Edmonton Oilers will fix something thatâs 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. Skinnerâs playoff save percentage (.877) pales next to Pickardâs (.915), but Knoblauch is banking on the fact that â since the Oilers turnaround began in the first week of November â Skinnerâs .912 was fifth-best among NHL starters.
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McDavidâs production has stalled, with one lone assist in the last three games. He knows heâs 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 â including the question of former President Donald Trumpâs immunity from criminal prosecution â because of controversy over an upside-down U.S. flag that flew outside Alitoâs 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 justiceâs 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, âFlying an upside-down American flag â a symbol of the so-called âStop the Stealâ movement â clearly creates the appearance of bias.â
âJustice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former Presidentâs immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,â 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 donât want to end the scourge of tobacco if thereâs 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 â9 to 5â (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 Fondaâs dentist boyfriend in the drama âOn Golden Pondâ before returning to his unsavory bread-and-butter. He was a chauvinistic soap-opera director in âTootsieâ (1982), a hard-edged computer scientist in âWarGamesâ (1983), a seedy Broadway producer in âThe Muppets Take Manhattanâ (1984), a lisping smut peddler in âDragnetâ (1987) and an ignorant police chief in the slapstick comedy âAmos & Andrewâ (1993).
On TV, he was among the first sitcom leading men with few redeeming values, memorably playing an insensitive talk-show host on NBCâs âBuffalo Bill.â 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, âI donât care what the jury said, you look like a rapist to meâ and reassures his latest love interest, âYouâre better than 90 percent of those bimbos out there.â
Last Updated: 18.May.2024 23:55 EDT
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đ Articles: Sunday 19.May.2024
9to5Mac: Security Bite: Most common macOS malware in 2024 so far
It is a long-standing misconception that Macs are impervious to malware. Unfortunately, this has never been the case. While Apple might hope people continue to overlook the severity, Mac users continue to be caught off guard by cybercriminalsâ advanced attack methods. Below, you can find the most common macOS malware in 2024 so farâŠ
Guardian: Ex-ministers warn UK universities will go bust without higher fees or funding
Vice-chancellors and former ministers are warning that the cash crisis facing universities is so serious that the next government will have to urgently raise tuition fees or increase funding to avoid bankruptcies within two years.
They said the state of university finances was more dire than revealed in last weekâs report by the Office for Students, which forecast 40% of Englandâs universities would end this year in the red.
Vice-chancellors said that increases of between ÂŁ2,000 to ÂŁ3,500 a year for each student would be needed to stabilise the sector.
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Another former higher education minister, the Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said raising fees was âpolitically impossibleâ but that the funding system needed to be made more progressive.
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Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, the sectorâs main lobby group, said there were two big things the next government could do: reinstate raising tuition fees in line with inflation each year, and for ministers to stop using international students as a political football in the immigration debate.
Recent visa changes have led to a slump in international student applications, depriving universities of a lucrative source of revenue.
Disappointing how all the debate is about costs and revenues, and not about why people, either domestic or foreign, should be going to university. Total lack of vision.
Guardian: Trump floats idea of three-term presidency at NRA convention
During a bombastic speech in Dallas, GOP frontrunner asks: âAre we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?â
Chilling.
Guardian: âOne hell of a storm is comingâ: Canadian graphic novel about Indigenous identity sparks outrage
A graphic novel investigating Indigenous identity in Canada has prompted outrage from MĂ©tis groups, who say the book undermines their history and represents an attack on their sovereignty.
The work is the result of a third-year history seminar at Dalhousie University, where students collaborated on a book examining thorny questions over ancestry and identity.
Guardian: Academic and doctor Chris van Tulleken: âUltra-processed products are food that lies to usâ
The author on how his mission to improve our national diet began â and where it needs to go.
Globe: Canada suffocates our teams, then blames them when they come up short
The inaugural Professional Womenâs Hockey League season was a North American project, but it had a national purpose. It was going to prove that Canada can win a top-level pro-hockey championship.
There were three Canadian teams in a six-team league â a 50-50 shot. During the regular season, Toronto and Montreal were the best teams by far.
The postseason set-up was rigged to benefit the top finisher. Toronto was allowed to pick its first-round opponent. The playoffs would be a quick-and-dirty affair â two best-of-fives â presumably favouring the in-form squads.
This is as close as you can get to fixing the system, but Canada still couldnât get anywhere near closing it out.
Montreal was swept by Boston. Toronto wishes it could have got off that easy. Itâs one thing to lose. Itâs another thing to lose to a team you donât rate, because you asked to play them.
ChangeCreator: Lessons For a Simpler Sustainable Life By Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard
Axios: What to know about Iranian President Ebrahim Raisiâs helicopter crash
Raisi and other officials were returning from a ceremony to open the Qiz Qalasi Dam, located on the border of Iran and Azerbaijan, with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Three other helicopters were traveling with Raisiâs aircraft, but lost contact before the crash.
ScienceAlert: High-Potency Cannabis Linked to Dramatically Higher Risk of Psychotic Episodes
Consuming higher-potency cannabis between the ages of 16 and 18 doubles the likelihood of psychotic experiences between the ages of 19 and 24, compared with lower-potency cannabis â according to a new study of 1,560 UK adults.
NewsNation: More women, children joining drug cartels: Reports
Armes says a good example is Michelle Angelica Pineda, known as âLa Chely,â who has a reputation for extreme brutality. When she was recently arrested in El Paso in February, police found weapons, drugs and other material needed to set up a drug trafficking operation in her motel room.
âShe would cut out the heart of her victims and offer them to the patron saint of the drug traffickers ⊠Santa Muerte.â
But it isnât just women who are being recruited by Mexican cartels. A recent report from The Borgen Project claims 350,000 children have been recruited by Mexican criminal organizations. They often promise those kids money and a sense of belonging.
Cabel Sasser: The Forged Apple Employee Badge
At first, it looked good. The plastic was scuffed with age, the tape on the map was yellowed, the logo was (mostly) correct, and Sherry Livingston really was Employee #10.
But it also felt a little off. The scuffing looked⊠sandpapery. The splotches on the map felt overcooked. And I couldnât stop looking at the âtypewrittenâ partâŠ
With comments from Randy Wigginton, Cabel Sasser, and Chris Espinosa!
Guardian: Horizon: An American Saga â Chapter 1: Costner casts himself as wildly desirable cowboy
After three saddle-sore hours, Kevin Costnerâs handsome-looking but oddly listless new western doesnât get much done in the way of satisfying storytelling.
Admittedly, this is supposed to be just the first of a multi-part saga for which Costner is director, co-writer and star. But it somehow doesnât establish anything exciting for its various unresolved storylines, and doesnât leave us suspensefully hanging for anything else.
In fact, the ploddingly paced epic ends by suddenly accelerating into a very peculiar preview montage of part two, with Costner speeding around punching people weâve never seen before â as if someone had accidentally leant on the fast-forward button and we got to watch the whole of the second section in 25 seconds.
Waterworld on land?
Last Updated: 19.May.2024 23:33 EDT
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đ 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 721â704 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 DĆ«r-Ć arrukÄ«n, which was briefly Assyriaâs capital. The buried ruins of the ancient city were excavated during the 19th and 20th centuries.
But the meaning of the images â whether they represent gods, supernatural forces, the kingâs authority, or an attempt at Egyptian hieroglyphs â 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. Appleâs 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 âphotographic memoryâ so users can access anything theyâve 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 prosecutorâs request that the court issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamasâs 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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