The Micro Blog

CBC: B.C. ministry singles out Oak Bay, West Vancouver for not meeting housing targets

Housing minister says neighbouring communities have done the hard work to meet or exceed goals.

Slashdot: Russia Space Chief Says Country Will Fly On Space Station Until 2030

In a wide-ranging interview with a Russian television station, the chief executive of Russia’s main space corporation said the country is now planning to participate in the International Space Station project all the way to NASA’s desired goal of 2030. “In coordination with our American colleagues, we plan to de-orbit the station sometime around the beginning of 2030,” the country’s chief space official, Yuri Borisov, said during the interview. “The final scenario will probably be specified after the transition to a new NASA administration.”

NYT: How the Right and the MAHA Movement Have Co-opted ‘Crunchy’

Once, eating whole foods and avoiding toxins was associated with a lefty worldview. Now, being a “crunchy mom” is more often about “health freedom.”

MacRumors: Ice Dive Apple Vision Pro Immersive Video Now Available

Apple Vision Pro users can watch a new episode [episode 3] of the “Adventure” series starting today, delving into a freezing underwater dive in the Arctic with athlete Ant Williams.

The Ice Dive episode follows Williams as he attempts to shatter the world record for swimming the longest distance under ice with just one breath.

Last Updated: 20.Dec.2024 14:56 EST

Thursday’s articles

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NYT: Starbucks’ China Problem: Coffee Drinkers Want More for Less

For years, Starbucks was the dominant coffee chain in China. Now rivals offering local flavors and cheaper prices are crushing the company’s bottom line in its second-largest market.

NYT: This Brazilian Velvet Ant Is So Dark That It’s Super-Black

A team of scientists led by Dr. Lopez recently found that the black parts on female velvet ants were actually ultrablack — so matte that they absorbed nearly all visible light. The discovery, published in the Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology this month, makes this particular species of velvet ant, Traumatomutilla bifurca, the first known insect among Hymenoptera — the group of animals consisting of bees, wasps and ants — to display such a striking shade.

“We have never seen this kind of color in the dragonflies or bees or beetles we have analyzed,” said Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira, another entomologist at the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro and an author of the paper.

SMH: Electric vehicle chargers: Plan to install chargers on power poles

Drivers across Victoria could charge their electric cars directly from power poles on the street if a joint trial by energy companies is approved.

CitiPower, Powercor and United Energy want to install 100 electric vehicle chargers on power poles across Melbourne’s inner and south-eastern suburbs, the Mornington Peninsula and parts of western Victoria next year.

MacRumors: iCloud Backups No Longer Available for iPhones and iPads Running iOS 8 or Earlier

Making a device backup over iCloud now requires iOS 9 or later, which means iPhones and iPads that are running iOS 8 or earlier are no longer able to be backed up using ‌iCloud‌.

Last Updated: 19.Dec.2024 17:59 EST

Wednesday’s articles

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Tedium.co: So, Bluesky Has An Extortion Problem

Bluesky, until now, has had a reputation as being a more moderation-friendly alternative to X, Threads, Mastodon, and other social networks.

But what happens when the pedal is put to the metal, and shady figures attempt to test the network’s ground rules?

You may not find the results to your liking. That was a realization I made this week after getting an up-close view of an extortion attempt involving a prominent journalist and a well-known entrepreneur.

NYT: Honda and Nissan Are in Talks to Deepen Ties and Possibly Merge

The merger talks between Japan’s second- and third-largest automakers highlight the intense upheaval within the world’s auto industry.

Wired: CDC Confirms First US Case of Severe Bird Flu

A severe case is significant because bird flu has previously been associated with severe illness in other countries, including outbreaks that resulted in death in up to 50 percent of cases. From 2003 to 2023, of the 878 people who tested positive for the virus, 458 deaths were reported.

The virus has decimated poultry flocks and wild birds across the country and has infected more than 800 dairy herds in 16 states. Infected animals have been spreading the virus to people who come into contact with them. Since April, the US has seen a total of 61 reported human cases of bird flu in eight states. Of those, 37 had exposure to sick or infected dairy cows, while 21 had exposure to poultry farms and culling operations. In those cases, people developed conjunctivitis and mild respiratory symptoms and fully recovered.

MacRumors: Apple Says Meta is Making Unreasonable Interoperability Requests Under Europe’s DMA Requirements

In a statement provided to Reuters, Apple said that Meta is asking for changes that could compromise user security and privacy.

In many cases, Meta is seeking to alter functionality in a way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users, and that appears to be completely unrelated to the actual use of Meta external devices, such as Meta smart glasses and Meta Quest.

If Apple were to have to grant all of these requests, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp could enable Meta to read on a user’s device all of their messages and emails, see every phone call they make or receive, track every app that they use, scan all of their photos, look at their files and calendar events, log all of their passwords, and more.

Guardian: Two-inch long ‘murder hornets’ eradicated from US, agriculture department says

World’s largest hornet, which killed 42 people in China in 2013, has been wiped out in US five years after first being spotted

The world’s largest hornet, an invasive breed nicknamed the “murder hornet” for its dangerous sting and ability to slaughter a hive of honeybees in as little as 90 minutes, has been declared eradicated in the US, five years after being spotted for the first time in Washington state near the Canadian border.

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DNA evidence suggested the populations found in British Columbia and Washington were not related and appeared to originate from different countries. There also have been no confirmed reports in British Columbia since 2021, and the nonprofit Invasive Species Centre in Canada has said the hornet is also considered eradicated there.

BBC: Montana Supreme Court upholds landmark youth climate ruling

Montana’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s decision that had sided with 16 young activists who argued that the state violated their right to a clean environment.

The lawsuit was brought by students arguing that a state law banning the consideration of climate when choosing energy policy was unconstitutional.

In a 6-to-1 ruling, the top court found that the plaintiffs, between ages five and 22, had a “fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment”.

Last Updated: 18.Dec.2024 23:03 EST

Tuesday’s articles

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Globe: Freeland’s resignation upends the Commons, sending shock waves throughout Ottawa

Mr. Trudeau, in a call that a source told The Globe and Mail lasted an hour, told her that after she delivered the fall economic statement, he wanted to take the finance portfolio away from her in exchange for a job overseeing U.S. relations. It would come with no staff, no money and no authority.

No thanks, Ms. Freeland responded.

NYT: His Family Voted to Support Trump’s Deportation Plan. That Includes Him.

Sky had spent much of his adulthood preparing to protect his family in a crisis. He’d learned survival tactics in the Army and had trained in hand-to-hand combat as a Georgia corrections officer. In the last few years, as he sensed the country becoming more polarized and volatile, he’d built up a small collection of firearms and a cache of emergency supplies. He’d been anticipating a moment when the government might rise up against his family, but this particular crisis was one he’d helped to create.

“I’m going to be straight with you,” he told Jaime. “I voted for Trump. I believe in a lot of what he says.”

“I figured as much,” Jaime said. “You and just about everyone else around here.”

“It’s about protecting our rights as a sovereign country,” Sky said. “We need to shut down the infiltration on the border. It’s not about you.”

“It is about me,” Jaime said. “That’s the thing I don’t understand.”

gift link

Globe: Trudeau told Freeland that Carney would replace her as finance minister over Zoom

The sources say Mr. Trudeau was direct in the call, telling her that by Tuesday morning she would no longer be finance minister and that the job would be handed to Mr. Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England. The Prime Minister still expected her to deliver the economic and fiscal update on Monday that showed she would miss the government’s promised $40.1-billion deficit target by more than $20-billion.

Ms. Freeland resigned Monday morning, before delivering the update.

Daring Fireball: Mozi

Mozi is a private social network for seeing your people more, IRL. Add your plans, check who’s in town, and know when you overlap.

Last Updated: 17.Dec.2024 23:37 EST

Monday’s articles

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CBC: Canada Post says workers to return Tuesday after labour board ruling

Canada Post says it has agreed with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to implement a five per cent wage increase retroactive to the day after the collective agreements expired.

The Lamp Magazine: The One Hundred Pages Strategy

Almost nothing I have written in the last few years has given rise to more correspondence than a throwaway column about reading, in which I alluded to what I call the “hundred pages strategy.” This is exactly what it sounds like: every day, come rain or shine, on religious and secular holidays, when I travel and when I am exceptionally busy, I read at least one hundred printed pages.

The most common question I have received regarding the hundred pages strategy is, of course, How do you do it? This has proven more difficult to answer than I thought it would. While I have chosen to refer to it as a “strategy,” the truth is that most of it, including the page target itself, is really something more like a post-hoc attempt at systematizing my own habits; I did not wake up one day as an infrequent reader and work slowly towards one hundred pages a day out of some inchoate desire for self-improvement. Rather, like many of us, I decided some years ago that if I did not take it upon myself to spend less time scrolling through Wikipedia or the AllMusic Guide or returning to my Twitter “feed”–the implicit image of a trough is appropriate–I would find myself losing one of my greatest pleasures to sheer indolence.

CBC: Chrystia Freeland’s unexpected resignation sparks stunned reactions from all sides

Freeland said PM Trudeau told her Friday she would no longer be serving as finance minister.

SMH: Heatwave: Out-of-control bushfire burns near Ballarat as mercury tops 40 degrees in parts of Melbourne

Firefighters are battling an out-of-control blaze in Victoria’s west after Melbourne sweltered through its hottest day of the year with the mercury topping 40 degrees in parts of the city.

Hottest day since since January 2020 when it peaked at 42.9 during the Black Summer bushfires.

Globe: Eight highlights from the Liberal government’s fall economic update

• The Deficit …
• Fiscal targets…
• No funding for the $250 cheques…
• Support for business…
• $1.3-billion for the border…
• Crime…
• Housing…
• Terry Fox on the $5 bill…

Last Updated: 16.Dec.2024 23:27 EST

Sunday’s articles

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TED Talk: Scott Galloway: How the US is destroying young people’s future

In a scorching talk, marketing professor and podcaster Scott Galloway dissects the data showing that, by many measures, young people in the US are worse off financially than ever before. He unpacks the root causes and effects of this “great intergenerational theft,” asking why we let it continue and showing how we could make it end. (Note: This talk contains mature language.)

Populist-style delivery although probably not populist-style content

Globe: Andrew Coyne: With Trudeau and his Finance Minister at war, it’s clear: this government is done

When Chrystia Freeland rises in the House Monday to deliver the Fall Economic Statement – if she does – the country will be presented with a remarkable and disturbing sight.

The Finance Minister will read out a document that it is now known she does not agree with, charting an economic course she does not believe in, and that will repudiate promises to which she nailed her credibility just eight months ago.

After which, Justin Trudeau will in all probability fire her.

CBC North: Six decades ago folk-singer Valdy got booed off stage. It led to his biggest hit

Many people know Paul Valdemar Horsdal, better known as Valdy, as the singer behind Rock And Roll Song. It became a hit in 1972, and remains the Canadian folk singer’s most popular tune. 

But that huge hit came out of a bad situation. In the late 1960s, as Valdy’s popularity grew, the Aldergrove Rock Festival invited him to perform. But the rock fans at the B.C. festival didn’t like Valdy playing his own folk music and covers of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. They raised their fists in the air yelling “Rock! Rock!” and “Get this jerk off the stage!”

Wired: The UK Now Has Its Own Illegal Rubberized Cybertruck on the Road

Car customizer to the stars Yianni Charalambous, owner of luxury vehicle wrapping workshops in England, is aiming to legalize a Tesla Cybertruck for driving in the UK. If successful, this would be the first Cybertruck allowed on British roads, and would join the rubberized Cybertrucklegalized for use on Czech roads through the fitting of skinny bumpers over the electric pickup’s sharp edges.

To the dismay of road safety organizations, the minimally altered Czech Cybertruck passed an individual vehicle approval (IVA) test, one of the ways to legalize low-volume imported cars in the EU.

Guardian: Interview: ‘Trump has been explicit about revenge’: Asif Kapadia on his new film about the threat to democracy

“Generative AI didn’t exist when we started this film. Trump had just lost the election. Every American was saying: ‘Why do you have shots of him in the film? He’s finished, he’s old news. Everyone’s sick of him.’ And then by the time the film’s come out, he’s just won the election.”

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I watch 2073 for the first time in the summer with an invited audience of journalists and activists who in some way helped and even though they all know some bits of the story, they’re still shocked by having it threaded together in a way that seems new and revealing and alarming: populist politics plus surveillance technology plus climate emergency equals our dystopian future – which is actually our dystopian present.

ScienceAlert: Health Gap at End of Life Is Now Wider in US Than Any Other Country

Humans today are living longer than ever before, but how many of those added years are spent in good health?

A data-crunching survey covering 183 member nations of the World Health Organization has now confirmed what some scientists feared: while years are being added to most people’s lives, healthy life is not being added to most people’s years.

Last Updated: 15.Dec.2024 23:49 EST

Saturday’s articles

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Time: Fact-Checking Trump’s 2024 Person of the Year Interview

For the 2024 Person of the Year issue, former and future President Donald Trump sat down for a lengthy interview with TIME on Nov. 25 at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.

TIME has published the transcript of that conversation. In addition, below is a review for facts and context of several of Trump’s statements from the interview.

Did they really give it to him?! (He wanted it so badly.)

Electrek: Tesla is buffing Foundation Series badges off Cybertrucks to sell them as regular trucks

Tesla is turning some of its Foundation Series Cybertrucks into regular Cybertrucks to sell them and sending hundreds of US Cybertrucks to be homologated in Canada as it is having issues selling them in the US.

There have been several signs lately that Tesla has worked through its Cybertruck reservation backlog and it is now having some demand issues.

NYT: Ocean Heat Killed Half the Common Murres Around Alaska

About four million common murres were killed by a domino effect of ecosystem changes, and the population is showing no signs of recovery, according to new research.

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About half of Alaska’s common murres, some four million birds, died as a result of the marine heat wave, the scientists found. They believe it is the largest documented die-off of a single species of wild birds or mammals. The state is home to about a quarter of the world’s common murres, scientists say.

Murres were the victims of a domino effect of oceanic changes tied to the warm water, according to a growing body of research. It affected marine life from plankton to humpback whales. Critically for the murres, it led to a collapse in the fish they depend on.

NYT: John McWhorter: How to Dangerously Misread a Very Important Verdict

Since Monday, when a jury found Daniel Penny not guilty in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway, the conversation has threatened to go off the rails.

Penny was the man who stepped up when Neely caused a commotion on the F train, shouting at passengers, “I’m fed up. I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.” Penny put him in a chokehold and held him for about six minutes. Neely died from compression to his neck, according to the medical examiner.

It should have been a story about the horror of a mentally ill person abandoned by the city and left to fend for himself in subway tunnels or on street corners, or about how scary it can be for those around him to navigate the wreckage, or about how one 24-year-old Marine veteran tried to protect a group of strangers, taking action that ended in unintended tragedy.

Utah News Dispatch: As he leaves office, Romney says GOP policies don’t always align with the working class

When Mitt Romney joined the Senate in 2018, he was mostly seen as a mainstream Republican. Now, with his one and only term coming to an end, the 77-year-old isn’t sure what the future holds for his party. 

But he did caution Republicans during a news conference on Friday. 

“The Republican Party, made up of working class Americans, and Republican policy positions don’t necessarily line up terribly well,” he said. 

Whatever happens with the GOP, don’t expect Romney to be a part of it. His time on the political stage is over, he said on Friday.

Last Updated: 14.Dec.2024 23:58 EST

Friday’s articles

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Vanity Fair (YouTube): Hugh Grant Rewatches Love Actually, Notting Hill, Heretic & More

“I just think, why doesn’t my character have any balls?” Hugh Grant takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including ‘Love Actually,’ ‘Notting Hill,’ ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary,’ ‘Paddington 2,’ ‘A Very English Scandal,’ ‘The Undoing’ and ‘Heretic.’ Hugh looks back at working alongside Julia Roberts in ‘Notting Hill’, shooting fight scenes with Colin Firth for ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ and so much more.

UPI: A Charlie Brown Christmas nearly didn’t air — why the holiday special endures today

But this beloved TV special almost didn’t make it to air. CBS executives thought the 25-minute program was too slow, too serious and too different from the upbeat spectacles they imagined audiences wanted. A cartoon about a depressed kid seeking psychiatric advice? No laugh track? Humble, lo-fi animation? And was that a Bible verse? It seemed destined to fail — if not scrapped outright.

And yet, against all the odds, it became a classic. The program turned Peanuts from a popular comic strip into a multimedia empire — not because it was flashy or followed the rules, but because it was sincere.

Kottke: Restoring Vintage Star Wars Posters

Watching these expert restorers mend & refresh a pair of vintage Star Wars posters (neither of which features the logo we’re familiar with todayand one of which is signed by the designer) is both fascinating and relaxing. It’s like the posters are having a spa day: bit of a soak, a gentle scrub, some light bodywork, and voila, you’re brand new.

CNN: Duke lacrosse accusations: Crystal Mangum, who accused three players of rape, now says she lied about the encounter

Crystal Mangum, the former exotic dancer who accused three Duke men’s lacrosse players of rape in 2006, igniting a national firestorm, now says she lied about the encounter.

“I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong. And I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me,” Mangum said on the web show “Let’s Talk with Kat," hosted by Katerena DePasquale.

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The charges brought broad media attention, forced the cancellation of the team’s 2006 season, and cost coach Mike Pressler his job. The district attorney on the case was convicted of criminal contempt and disbarred.

This is most unfortunate.

TechCrunch: The federal crash-reporting rule Tesla opposes could be on the chopping block

The Trump transition team wants to end a federal rule requiring automakers to report crashes when advanced driver-assistance or autonomous driving technology is engaged, Reuters reports.

Federal safety agencies would lose the ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems should the rule — which went into effect in 2021 — be killed.

The crash-reporting rule has allowed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to analyze data on more than 2,700 crashes, leading to 10 investigations into six companies, including Tesla and Cruise, along with nine safety recalls from four different companies, says Reuters.

Globe: Freeland confirms Ottawa to develop $15-billion program to help pension funds invest in AI data centres

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed Ottawa plans to develop a $15-billion program to generate up to $45-billion in investments from pension plans to build AI data centres, as first reported by The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Freeland announced a suite of measures aimed at making it more attractive for major pension funds to invest in Canada at an event in Toronto on Friday. The new measures will be part of Ottawa’s fall economic statement, which will be released on Monday.

Globe: Ontario didn’t inform public about expert advice to shift away from natural gas

It is unclear how this report has informed the Ford government’s energy plans, which adopt an “all-of-the-above” approach that includes renewable energy but also a large increase in natural gas to mitigate the energy supply gap. The move has already made Ontario’s grid dirtier: in 2021, the electricity system was 94 per cent emissions-free, but that is now down to 87 per cent.

CBC: These musicians bought a seat for cello worth $4.5M. Air Canada wouldn’t let it on board

A pair of classical musicians, including famed British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cancelled a sold-out show in Toronto after Air Canada refused to allow them to board their flight with a cello, even though they’d purchased a seat for the instrument.

Kanneh-Mason and his pianist sister Isata were scheduled to perform at Koerner Hall on Wednesday, but had to cancel last minute, the pair shared in an Instagram post.

“First we had delays, then a cancellation, and the day concluded by being denied boarding with the cello — despite having a confirmed seat for it — on a new, final flight into Toronto,” they wrote.

UPI: Trump advocates eliminating daylight saving time, calling it ‘inconvenient’

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he would work to ditch the practice of setting clocks ahead by one hour each spring and back in the fall.

Something we agree on!

Last Updated: 13.Dec.2024 23:10 EST

Thursday’s articles

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TorStar: Canadian iPhone and Android users should stop texting each other, experts advise, as FBI investigates cyberattacks in the U.S.

Instead of relying on texting, experts say Android and Apple users should use fully end-to-end encrypted services to communicate with each other, like WhatsApp or Telegram. Hengartner personally recommends the app Signal, which he says “has a very good reputation in the security community.”

TorStar: Trudeau government unveils new target to cut greenhouse gas

Climate activists expressed disappointment over the target, with the organization Environmental Defence decrying the goal as a “failure” for Canada’s contribution to the global struggle against the climate crisis. 

Caroline Brouillette, executive director of an umbrella group of organizations called Climate Action Network Canada, said the new target shows the federal government “has chosen to cave” instead of pledging to seriously address national emissions.

“This weak target is deeply disconnected from Canada’s fair share of the global climate effort, and from the level of ambition we are seeing in other countries,” she said in an emailed statement.

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Over more than 30 years of participation in international efforts to fight climate change, Canada — one of the world’s heaviest emitters and a major fossil fuel producer — has never hit a promised emissions-reduction target. Other wealthy countries also have more ambitious climate targets. The United Kingdom recently declared it would slash emissions to 81 per cent below 1990 levels by 2035.

TorStar: Suncor to increase oil and gas output by up to five per cent in 2025

Suncor says it is aiming to add more than 100,000 barrels per day of oil and gas production between 2023 and 2026.

And in related news…

UPI: U.S. fines foreign airlines $825K for designator code violations, flying in prohibited air space

U.S. authorities fined Etihad Airways $400,000 for using United Airlines designator code and Ethiopian Airlines $425,000 for using the code that belongs to JetBlue Airways.

“Ethiopian Airlines operated a significant number of flights carrying the United Airlines code between Ethiopia and Djibouti in airspace prohibited by the FAA to U.S. operators,” the Transportation Department officials said in a statement.

Guardian: ‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research

World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth.

The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections.

Although a viable mirror microbe would probably take at least a decade to build, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns about the organisms that the 38-strong group urged scientists to stop work towards the goal and asked funders to make clear they will no longer support the research.

Guardian: Gukesh Dommaraju becomes youngest world chess champion after horrific Ding Liren blunder

“I was totally in shock when I realized I made a blunder,” Ding said. “His facial expression showed that he was very happy and excited and I realized I made a blunder. It took some time to realize it.”

Guardian: Pompeii experts back Pliny’s account of Mount Vesuvius eruption date

The date on which Mount Vesuvius erupted, wiping out the lives of thousands in ancient Pompeii and other nearby towns, has long divided scholars.

But a study by Pompeii experts suggests that the Roman author Pliny the Younger probably had it right all along: the volcano erupted on 24 August AD79 and not later in the year as has been suggested.

Last Updated: 12.Dec.2024 23:58 EST

Wednesday’s articles

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MacRumors: Apple Releases tvOS 18.2 With Snoopy Screen Savers and Projector Support

Apple today released tvOS 18.2, the newest version of the tvOS 18 operating system that came out in September. tvOS 18.2 comes more than a month after Apple released tvOS 18.1, and it is available for the Apple TV 4K and the ‌Apple TV‌ HD models.

CBC: Entertainer and mentalist The Amazing Kreskin dead at 89

A former manager says George Joseph Kresge Jr. died in his New Jersey home Tuesday.

Last Updated: 11.Dec.2024 23:59 EST

Tuesday’s articles

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CleanTechnica: US Postal Workers Love Their New Electric Mail Trucks!

What’s new with the new USPS electric mail trucks? Nearly everything, as the design of the vehicles hasn’t had an upgrade since the 1980s. Carriers had offered ideas for improving their vehicles for years, and some of their suggestions were incorporated into the final design. These vehicles offer a 360-degree camera, side cargo door for loading and unloading packages, storage space extraordinaire, and air conditioning — so au courant!

PBS: Probate commissioner rejects Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change family trust over Fox News media empire control

A probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant, according to a sealed document obtained by The New York Times.

In a decision filed on Saturday, a probate commissioner in Nevada concluded that Murdoch, 93, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, had acted in “bad faith” in their endeavor to amend the irrevocable trust, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Wired: Poker Cheaters Allegedly Use Tiny Hidden Cameras to Spot Dealt Cards

Several recent schemes were uncovered involving poker players at casinos allegedly using miniature cameras, concealed in personal electronics, to spot cards. Should players everywhere be concerned?

TechCrunch: Google kicks off $20B renewable energy building spree to power AI

Nuclear power may have received the lion’s share of attention from energy hungry tech companies over the past few months, with Google among them. But it appears that those new reactors won’t be enough for their AI ambitions: Google is now working with partners to build gigawatts of renewable power, battery storage, and grid upgrades to power its data centers.

Google announced Tuesday it signed a deal with renewable developer Intersect Power and investment fund TPG Rise Climate to spin up enough carbon-free power to drive several gigawatt-scale data centers. Altogether, the investment in renewable power will run about $20 billion, and Intersect is already financing the first project, the company told TechCrunch.

How much AI will be “free” in the next year or two?

Globe: Trudeau declines to defend Finance Minister in exchange with Poilievre

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declined to say whether he is at loggerheads with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland over government spending, on the same day that she gave the clearest signal yet that the minority Liberals will not meet their promised deficit target.

Opposition MPs seized on a Globe and Mail report Tuesday that said tensions have risen between Ms. Freeland and the Prime Minister’s Office about increased spending on political strategies such as the two-month GST holiday on toys, alcohol and food and a promised $250 rebate for people earning $150,000 or less.

The Globe, citing 10 sources, said Ms. Freeland is concerned that this kind of spending has put what she previously called her $40.1-billion “fiscal guidepost” in jeopardy and that her department had characterized the GST and rebate policies as economically unwise.

TechCrunch: Amazon is officially in the online car sales business

Amazon expanded Tuesday into online car sales with the launch of Amazon Autos, an e-commerce business that lets customers find, order, and buy new cars, trucks, and SUVs from dealerships.

Amazon is kicking off the new endeavor with Hyundai in 48 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The launch comes a little more than a year since the e-commerce giant announced plans to start selling vehicles on its website in the second half of 2024. Amazon said it will add more cities and additional auto manufacturers in 2025.

MacRumors: Apple Releases iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 With Genmoji, Image Playground, Siri ChatGPT and More

Safari

• New background images to customize your Safari Start Page
• Import and Export enables you to export your browsing data from Safari and import browsing data from another app into Safari
• HTTPS Priority upgrades URLs to HTTPS whenever possible
• File Download Live Activity shows the progress of a file download in the Dynamic Island and on your home screen

Last Updated: 10.Dec.2024 23:59 EST

Monday’s articles

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Just Have a Think (YouTube): Renewable Energy Domination

Renewable technology cost curves are dropping so quickly and installation rates are accelerating so fast that in some countries around the world they already account for more than fifty percent of all electricity generation. No wonder the fossil fuel industry is trying every trick in it’s playbook to try to hoodwink the public and slow progress. But seriously guys…give it up. It’s over already!

Video Transcripts available at our website http://www.justhaveath…

• IEA PVPS - trends in Solar PV 2024
• Lawrence Livermore - Energy Sankey Chart
• EIA - US energy projection 2023
• Solar domination of California grid [LinkedIn]
• The primary energy fallacy

Mark Z. Jacobson: On Bluesky

IEA-PVPS: Trends in PV Applications 2024

For the 29th consecutive year, the IEA-PVPS Trends report is now available. This document provides the most comprehensive global overview of the development of the Photovoltaics sector, covering policies, drivers, technologies, statistics and industry analysis.

Key Highlights:

• Global PV Installations: A record-breaking 456 GW of photovoltaic capacity was installed globally in 2023.

• China’s Dominance: China’s solar market accounted for the majority of global growth, contributing 277 GW, while the rest of the world added 179 GW.

• Operational Capacity: By early 2024, over 1.6 TW of PV systems were operational globally, producing 2,136 TWh of electricity, which accounts for 8.3% of global electricity demand.

• Emission Reductions: These PV systems reduced 0.92 gigatons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 2.5% of global energy-related emissions, if we consider they now replace baseload power generation — confirming solar energy as a cornerstone of the sustainable energy transition.

report (PDF)

Benzinga: Warren Buffett Says Medical Costs Are ‘The Tapeworm’ Of The U.S. Economy – And Warns ‘The Tapeworm Won the Fight

Buffett’s longtime partner, the late Charlie Munger, didn’t hesitate to share his critique of the U.S. health care system. In a 2018 interview on Squawk Box, Munger called the system “shot through with rampant waste” and even went as far as to label it “deeply immoral.”

EIA: Today in Energy - U.S. Energy Information Administration

Recent articles

Mark Jacobson: Growing Effectiveness of Renewables

3 U.S. states produced 70-78% of their electricity demand with just wind for a full year (Oct 1, ‘23-Sep 30, ‘24)

SD: 77.5% wind IA: 76.6% KS: 69.82%

Another 4 produced 46-51% wind:

OK: 51.4% WY: 49.7% NM: 46.3% ND: 48.5%

NYT: Police Identify ‘Strong Person of Interest’ in C.E.O.’s Killing

• The man was arrested in Altoona, Pa., on gun charges after he was spotted in a McDonald’s.
• He was carrying a handwritten manifesto criticizing health insurance companies, law enforcement officials said.

NYT: Trump’s Perfume Line Hits the Market With Jill Biden Photo

With weeks until he takes office, Mr. Trump is capitalizing on the attention of his election victory, hawking fragrances and footwear to supporters who are in the mood to celebrate. There have been $299 “Trump Crypto President” sneakers on offer, along with $119 “Victory” cologne and $299 “First Lady” shoes. There is little information available about what materials the products are made from or where they are manufactured. And according to the products’ website, sales are final.

The Atlantic: Sora Is the Most Hyped Bot Since ChatGPT

OpenAI’s key word this afternoon was product. The company is billing Sora not as a research breakthrough but as a consumer experience–part of the company’s ongoing commercial lurch. At its founding, in 2015, OpenAI was a nonprofit with a mission to build digital intelligence “to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return.” Today, it pumps out products and business deals like any other tech company chasing revenue. OpenAI added a for-profit arm in 2019, and as of September, it is reportedly considering revoking the control of its nonprofit board entirely. Sora’s marketing is even a change from February, when OpenAI presented the video-generating model as a step toward the company’s lofty mission of creating technology more intelligent than humans. Bill Peebles, one of Sora’s lead researchers, told me in May that video would enable “a couple of avenues to AGI,” or artificial general intelligence, by allowing the company’s programs to simulate physics and even human thoughts. To generate a video of a football game, Sora might need to model both aerodynamics and players’ psychology.

Guardian: Exercising for 30 minutes improves memory, study suggests

For cycle-to-work commuters and those who start the day with a brisk walk, the benefits of banking some early exercise is well understood.

Now scientists believe activity is not just a good idea for improving the day ahead — physical activity could be associated with small increase in memory scores the next, too.

A study from University College London has shown that 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity and sleeping for at least six hours at night, could contribute to improved cognitive performance the following day.

Globe: On the front lines of the EV revolution: Inside the plant making the first made-in-Canada production EV

As the first made-in-Canada production EVs start rolling off the line at the Stellantis plant in Windsor, Ont., we take an in-depth look at what it took to get here.

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Getting to this moment – the first mass-produced electric passenger car made in Canada — is the culmination of years, arguably decades, of work by governments, unions, auto workers, suppliers and car company executives, not to mention tens of billions of dollars in government subsidies for companies all along the EV supply chain.

Most of that money is intended to establish Ontario as a global electric vehicle manufacturing hub — a key part of our green future and new economy.

Last Updated: 09.Dec.2024 23:12 EST

Sunday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

Globe: I paid $16 to not see Taylor Swift at her Vancouver Eras Tour show, and the ‘no stage view’ seats were worth it

Some magic must have been at work when a friend of mine snapped up a pair of $16 “no-stage view” tickets to the Eras Tour’s first Vancouver show and asked me to go.

MacRumors: 20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

While not all advertised Apple Intelligence features will be available immediately, iOS 18.2 introduces several capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we’ve listed 20 new things your iPhone will be able to do when the update rolls out in time for the holidays.

CBC: A huge hack of U.S. phone companies means your text messages may not be safe

Canadians should consider encrypted messaging services to protect themselves, cybersecurity experts say.

How to Geek: Bluesky Doesn’t Allow for Private Accounts Yet, so How Do You Protect Yourself?

Many like to tout Bluesky as being a safer, less toxic platform than one like X (formerly Twitter). But as more people create accounts, that includes the trolls. So, how do you protect yourself from trolling, harassment, and other toxic behavior without the ability to lock your account?

Last Updated: 08.Dec.2024 21:06 EST

Saturday’s articles

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Six Colors: Simply brings its piano app to Vision Pro

This week I took Simply Piano for Vision Pro for a spin, and it was anything from boring. The popular iPad app for teaching piano has come to Vision Pro, and so I sat down at the very same piano I used to practice on as a kid–it’s in a somewhat warmer room now–but with a Vision Pro over my head.

Simply Piano works by listening to you playing notes and detecting if you’re playing the right or wrong ones. It’s very clever, but the Vision Pro version adds in the ability to overlay a virtual keyboard on your real one, so it can provide visual cues (in the form of glowing notes) when you’re not sure which key to play. It also annotates your fingers, so you can see which fingers are supposed to play which notes.

Globe: Chrystia Freeland answered Senate questions on the GST break. It did not go well

Too often these days, House of Commons committees are like one of those “inspiration vs. reality” split images comparing the perfect magazine version of a cake with the melting, cockeyed, radioactive-looking reality some poor schmuck whipped up at home.

Magazine-cake version of Commons committees: We are here to study complex issues in depth and use our partisan tensions constructively to shape better legislation.

Hideous home-baker reality: We are here to kick each other in the crotch for social-media clips.

But this week, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland appeared before the Senate finance committee to defend her government’s two-month GST holiday. And because it was a Senate and not a Commons committee, the manner of working was completely different. It was not recognizably partisan and there were no histrionics or cheap games, just precise and technical questions seeking real answers.

It was, in short, a disaster for a government looking to claim thoughtfulness and coherence for this policy.

Fast Company: Supreme Court could make it easier for projects to ignore environmental impact

The Eagle County case stems from a proposal by a coalition of railway project developers to build an 85-mile rail line in Utah to transport waxy crude oil from wells to the interstate rail network. The developers sought a license from the Surface Transportation Board, an independent federal agency, which prepared an environmental impact statement and ultimately approved the license in 2021.

Officials in Eagle County, Colorado, sued, along with several environmental groups, arguing that the environmental impact statement was defective. In their view, the Surface Transportation Board should have gone further in considering “upstream” environmental effects that the railway would induce, such as increased oil drilling, and “downstream” effects of refining and consuming that additional oil.

NewsNation: Ohio bill would require high-demand liquor bottles to be opened when sold

The problem, DeMora said, is that people who he refers to as “flippers” quickly buy up the allocated bourbons and illegally resell them on a secondary market for significantly more than what they paid. 

“If they buy a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle (a brand of bourbon) for $165, they turn around and sell it for $2,000 on the internet with these various sites, and that is illegal, and what it does is it basically stops people that are bourbon drinkers that want the bourbon for themselves, they can’t get them,” DeMora said. 

Maybe the state should be auctioning high demand bourbons?

ScienceAlert: Scientists Reveal a Very Compelling Reason to Use Your Air Fryer

Stir frying, deep fat frying, boiling, and pan frying food are all far more likely to pollute your home’s indoors than the relative newcomer to the modern kitchen, the benchtop air fryer oven.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham in the UK and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany set up a kitchen in their lab to see how the different methods compared when cooking chicken breast.

They measured levels of particulate matter (PM) between 0.18 and 26 microns (millionths of a meter), as well as levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); chemical pollutants found across foods, cleaning products, paint, and many other substances.

TechCrunch: Google says its new AI model outperforms the top weather forecast system

In a paper published in Nature, DeepMind researchers said they found that GenCast outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' ENS – apparently the world’s top operational forecasting system.

And in a blog post, the DeepMind team offered a more accessible explanation of the tech: While its previous weather model was “deterministic, and provided a single, best estimate of future weather,” GenCast “comprises an ensemble of 50 or more predictions, each representing a possible weather trajectory,” creating a “complex probability distribution of future weather scenarios.”

Last Updated: 07.Dec.2024 23:16 EST

Friday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

Atlantic: Appeasement in the New Age of Trump

It is a very ominous thing if our leading forums for discussion of public affairs are already feeling the chill of intimidation and responding with efforts to appease.

I write these words very aware that I’m probably saying goodbye forever to a television platform that I enjoy and from which I have benefited as both viewer and guest. I have been the recipient of personal kindnesses from the hosts that I have not forgotten.

I do not write to scold anyone; I write because fear is infectious. Let it spread, and it will paralyze us all.

gift link

BBC: Storm Darragh: Rare red weather warning cancels Christmas events

A rare red weather warning has been issued with extremely strong and damaging winds possible this weekend.

The wind warning - the highest level - is predicting dangerous and potentially life-threatening weather across 13 counties as Storm Darragh arrives.

Gusts of 90mph (144 km/h) or more are possible over the coasts and hills of north, west and south Wales and are expected to develop during the early hours of Saturday morning.

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The red warning is due to come into effect at 03:00 GMT and remain in force until 11:00.

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The current red wind warning covers counties including Monmouthshire, Cardiff and Carmarthenshire in the south, Ceredigion, and Gwynedd and Anglesey in the north west.

Last Updated: 06.Dec.2024 20:32 EST

Thursday’s articles

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TorStar: Ford government defends tripling spending on ads

Auditor general Shelley Spence castigated the Tories for an Ontario Place redevelopment conducted in a way that was “not fair, transparent or accountable” with a $2.237-billion price tag five to six times original estimates.

Steven G Harris (GitHub): MarkupEditor: WYSIWYG editing for SwiftUI and UIKit apps

Jealous of those JavaScript coders with their WYSIWYG text editors, but just can’t stomach the idea of immersing yourself in JavaScript when you’re enjoying the comfort and joy of Swift? Yeah, me too. So when I was forced to do it, I thought I’d share what I did as a way to help others avoid it.

via Johan L

CBC: Federal minister Harjit Sajjan defends accepting taxpayer-funded Taylor Swift tickets

Federal cabinet minister Harjit Sajjan is defending his decision to accept taxpayer-funded Taylor Swift tickets for himself and his daughter.

Sajjan, the minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, was invited by PavCo, a B.C. Crown corporation that owns and operates B.C. Place Stadium, where the concerts will take place.

PavCo has been donating Swift tickets to food banks and other charity organizations so that they could raffle them off and raise money. PavCo has also donated B.C. Place suites to be auctioned off, raising more than $1 million, according to the corporation.

MacRumors: Former Apple Employees Used Charity Scam to Steal Over $150,000

Apple has a program that will match or double employee donations made to charities, and the employees came up with a plan to make fake donations and collect money from Apple.

Ringleader Siu Kei Kwan had five other Apple employees make donations to the American Chinese International Cultural Exchange (ACICE) or Hop4Kids, both of which he was associated with. After Apple matched the donations, the original money was returned to the employees, and the matched money was kept. The employees also wrote off their fake charitable donations on their tax returns, earning them additional money.

Between July 1, 2018 and April 6, 2021, the employees collected approximately $152,000 from Apple’s program and overreported $100,000 in charitable contributions as tax deductions. Apple detected the fraud and brought it to the attention of the district attorney’s office.

NYT: Zeynep Tufekci: The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms

I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.

Bernie Getz?

Last Updated: 05.Dec.2024 18:58 EST

Wednesday’s articles

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NYT: California Democrat Flips Seat in the Last House Race to Be Called

Though the G.O.P. has won more than the 218 seats necessary to control the House, President-elect Trump wants two of the Republican House members to serve in his administration. A third, Matt Gaetz, resigned last month after Mr. Trump announced that he intended to nominate him for attorney general. (Mr. Gaetz later withdrew from consideration after considerable opposition surfaced to his potential nomination.)

ListenNotes: About Listen Notes Podcast Search Engine and Database

Search the whole Internet’s podcasts. Curate your own podcast playlists. Listen on your favorite podcast player apps.

via Dave Winer

UPI: High-fructose corn syrup in foods might speed cancer

The new research shows that fructose differs from other sugars (such as glucose) in the way that it aids and abets cancer cells.

BBC: Secretary of State begins process of repealing Legacy Act

The secretary of state for Northern Ireland has begun the process of formally repealing the controversial Legacy Act.

The act, which was brought in by the Conservative government, introduced a ban on inquests and civil actions related to incidents during the Troubles.

It also sought to offer a conditional amnesty for people suspected of Troubles-related crimes in exchange for co-operating with a new information recovery body.

Labour pledged to repeal the Legacy Act if they won the general election in July.

Last Updated: 04.Dec.2024 22:30 EST

Tuesday’s articles

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Ars Technica: Certain names make ChatGPT grind to a halt, and we know why

Filter resulting from subject of settled defamation lawsuit could cause trouble down the road.

Ars Technica: Company claims 1,000 percent price hike drove it from VMware to open source rival

Companies have been discussing migrating off of VMware since Broadcom’s takeover a year ago led to higher costs and other controversial changes. Now we have an inside look at one of the larger customers that recently made the move.

According to a report from The Register today, Beeks Group, a cloud operator headquartered in the United Kingdom, has moved most of its 20,000-plus virtual machines (VMs) off VMware and to OpenNebula, an open source cloud and edge computing platform. Beeks Group sells virtual private servers and bare metal servers to financial service providers. It still has some VMware VMs, but “the majority” of its machines are currently on OpenNebula, The Register reported.

NPR: People who take obesity drugs lose the taste for alcohol, new study finds

Many social drinkers who take obesity medications, such as Wegovy or Mounjaro, say they don’t enjoy alcohol as much.

A new study of WeightWatchers members who take obesity drugs — and were in the habit of drinking — finds about half of them cut back after they started the medication.

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Hall’s experience fits with the results of the new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study included survey data from about 14,000 WeightWatchers members, mostly women, all of whom were taking medication including Wegovy and Mounjaro. Some were taking older medications such as metformin.

Daring Fireball: Google Search Is Already in Decline

The accompanying chart (“Estimated share of U.S. search advertising revenue”) suggests Google’s decline has been Amazon’s gain. Basically, Google may still dominate the market for general web search, but people more and more are searching using apps and services that aren’t (or aren’t only) general web search engines. And the reason why is that Google web search has gotten worse.

Ars Technica: Flour, water, salt, GitHub: The Bread Code is a sourdough baking framework

One year ago, I didn’t know how to bake bread. I just knew how to follow a recipe.

If everything went perfectly, I could turn out something plain but palatable. But should anything change—temperature, timing, flour, Mercury being in Scorpio—I’d turn out a partly poofy pancake. I presented my partly poofy pancakes to people, and they were polite, but those platters were not particularly palatable.

NYT: How Amazon Delivers Packages Within A Day

Walmart, which last year started offering customers deliveries in as little as 30 minutes, says it can now offer same-day delivery to 86 percent of all U.S. households from its 4,600 stores. In November, Walmart’s chief financial officer said deliveries from stores were up nearly 50 percent from a year earlier and accounted for $2.5 billion in sales in each of the previous 12 consecutive months. Sales on delivered items grew faster than sales in stores.

CBC: Convoy organizer Steeve Charland found guilty of mischief

Steeve Charland was found guilty by an Ontario Superior Court judge on Tuesday for his role in the Freedom Convoy protest in downtown Ottawa in early 2022.

Over the course of the trial, the defence argued the convoy demonstration was being “managed” by the City of Ottawa and that the Crown had not established beyond a reasonable doubt that the protest was illegal.

The judge said in French it was unreasonable to believe the city approved of the demonstration. He listed 10 consequences of the protest including street congestion, noise from horns and engines, the closure of some businesses and the disproportionate use of police resources to maintain public order.

The Street: McDonald’s is facing the brutal aftermath of price increases

The average price of a McDonald’s menu item has increased by roughly 40% since 2019, so it is no surprise that consumers are pursuing other options for quick meals.

CBC: Excavation begins at Winnipeg-area landfill for remains of women, victims of serial killer

The search for the remains of Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran has officially started at Prairie Green landfill, north of Winnipeg.

The dig began Monday morning, Premier Wab Kinew announced at a noon news conference.

“At 10:01 a.m., the first truck carrying landfill material drove down this mountain that is Prairie Green and delivered that first load of landfill material into the search facility,” he said.

Inside Climate News: Droughts in Brazil and Vietnam Are Driving up Global Coffee Prices

Climate change is projected to drastically reduce suitable coffee-growing regions by 2050.

Your morning caffeine fix could soon become a luxury in the face of climate change. Last week, coffee prices surged to a 47-year high as global growers struggle to recover from extreme weather.

Last Updated: 03.Dec.2024 23:40 EST

Monday’s articles

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CBC: Call to reopen search for missing paramedic comes after hiker survives 50 days in northeast B.C. woods

The story of a man who survived 50 days in northeastern B.C.’s backcountry has reignited interest in the search for a second man who was reported missing the same weekend in a different part of B.C.’s Peace region.

Jim Barnes, 29, was last seen on Oct. 18 when he took his golden retriever, Murphy, out to an area near Groundbirch Forest Service Road, southeast of Chetwynd, B.C., and about 60 kilometres southwest of Fort St. John.

He was reported missing on Oct. 19 after he failed to return home — the same day that 20-year-old Sam Benastick was reported missing in the Redfern-Keily Provincial Park, about 250 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John.

ScienceAlert: Mysterious Driving Factor Behind Long COVID May Have Been Identified

Around 5–10% of people with COVID infections go on to experience long COVID, with symptoms lasting three months or more.

Researchers have proposed several biological mechanisms to explain long COVID. However, in a perspective article published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, we argue that much, if not all, long COVID appears to be driven by the virus itself persisting in the body.

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What needs to happen next?

The obvious response to this is to fast-track trials of known antivirals for prevention and cure of long COVID.

This should include more left-field therapies such as the diabetes drug metformin.

MacRumors: Coinbase Onramp Now Supports Buying Crypto With Apple Pay

Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase today announced the launch of a new feature designed to let people buy cryptocurrency using Apple Pay.

Apple Pay‌ is available for all fiat-to-crypto purchases (aka paper currencies like the U.S. dollar) in Coinbase Onramp, a tool that developers and websites can use to accept crypto payments from customers.

With ‌Apple Pay‌ integration in Coinbase Onramp, a customer can use ‌Apple Pay‌ to buy an item or a service, paying in dollars that are converted to cryptocurrency for the merchant. Coinbase promises a straightforward verification process and free offramping.

Does Manton take crypto?

UniLadTech: Apple’s guide to uninstalling iOS 18 after iPhone users rage about latest update

Complaints over features like the new photo gallery, emoji size, and countless other additions or changes have caused quite the pushback, and the frustration has largely been left at the feet of Apple as people feel like they’re stuck.

UniLadTech: Life-changing hidden iPhone weather app setting texts you before it’s going to rain

To activate Apple’s weather alerts, follow these simple steps:

• Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services
• Select Weather and tap on ‘Always’
• Ensure Precise Location is turned on
• Head to the Weather app and tap the menu button at the bottom right (it looks like three stacked dots)
• Tap the menu button in the top right (three dots in a line)
• Press notifications

There should be options for ‘Severe Weather’ and ‘Next-Hour Precipitation’, and you’ll want to make sure both are toggled on. There are some limits to the service, but according to the official information from Apple, severe weather information uses national weather services from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, the United States, and ‘most’ of Europe. If you’re in China, severe weather warnings are available from QWeather.

Interesting Engineering: Japan launches FAST fusion project to achieve limitless energy by 2030

The plan is to use the high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils and select the low aspect ratio tokamak to generate high-pressure plasmas in a compact size, compared to more conventional, larger tokamaks. Reducing the device size also helps to lower manufacturing times and costs.

This device will operate using novel technologies such as HTS coils, new low-activation materials, and deuterium production from seawater. FAST will be carried out in collaboration with a wide range of partners in the public and private sectors, both domestically and internationally.

Last Updated: 02.Dec.2024 23:50 EST

Sunday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

CBC: Black plastics may contain toxic compounds that can leach into food, experts say

Study finds fire retardants in products like kitchen utensils, takeout containers made with recycled plastics.

Those containers look awfully familiar…

Norrsken: Impact/100

Don’t you know that there are literally thousands of people out there working on mind-blowing solutions to the world’s greatest challenges?

That’s why we’ve created the Impact/100. It’s a list of the world’s most promising impact startups, as chosen by Norrsken and our partners.

You could say a lot about them, but it’s basically this: It’s 100 ways to fix the future.

NYT: Cara Hoffman: Running Away From Trump’s America Is Complicated. I Should Know.

My next departure was after the first Trump victory in 2016. I didn’t want to live in a nation capable of electing a Donald Trump, with his world of endless self-promotion, dishonesty and accumulation. I didn’t want to watch his hatred and lies become accepted or rationalized. But it wasn’t just Mr. Trump. I had become a workaholic, sometimes spending 12 hours a day staring into the void of a glowing computer screen. My partner and I lived in part of the Lower East Side that eventually became gentrified beyond recognition. Every year I felt more certain that to succeed in an atomized consumer culture was to fail as a human being.

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In 2015, roughly 6,800 Americans applied for Canadian residence. After Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017, that number jumped to over 9,000. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 17 percent of Americans said they wanted to leave the country permanently. In the latest polling from 2024 that number had risen to 21 percent.

American Citizens Abroad estimates 3.9 million Americans were living abroad permanently as of 2023. According to World Population Review, as of 2024 those millions of Americans were living in 158 different countries. The largest number, about 800,000, were in Mexico. Financial advisers and immigration experts are now anticipating a new surge of Americans leaving.

Of course, for many people they need to leave to find a place that they can afford.

SMH: Eyes of the energy world on WA vanadium battery tech

A deep-storage battery being trialled in Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia could solve the clean energy challenge for some of the nation’s most remote communities.

As well as being a challenging environment to live or work in, hot and humid Kununurra is not connected to the state or national electricity grid.

“A lot of our communities are remote and do struggle with the cost of living and we don’t want them to miss out on the energy transition,” Horizon Power’s executive general manager for business development and strategy Vi Garrood said.

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Horizon is also trialling Redflow’s zinc bromine flow battery (100 kW/400 kWh) on Nullagine’s microgrid and BASF’s sodium sulphur battery (250 kW/1450 kWh) at Carnarvon.

NYT: Kash Patel’s Threat to the Rule of Law

The perfect expression of the authoritarian approach to the rule of law comes from a former Peruvian president, Óscar Benavides: “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” The truly corrupted legal system combines impunity for the ruling class with punitive repression of political dissent.

When Jack Smith moved to dismiss his federal cases against Donald Trump, that clearly signaled Trump’s impunity. It was a representation of the adage that might makes right. He won, so he now enjoys a privilege from prosecution.

The selection of Kash Patel to lead the F.B.I. — a move that would require firing or forcing the resignation of Christopher Wray, the current F.B.I. director, well before the end of his 10-year term — demonstrates Trump’s commitment to repression and revenge.

Patel is the ultimate Trump loyalist. I strongly recommend reading Elaina Plott Calabro’s profile of Patel in The Atlantic. Much of her reporting was based on interviews with Patel’s former colleagues in the first Trump administration.

“Patel was dangerous,” Calabro wrote, summarizing their thoughts, “not because of a certain plan he would be poised to carry out if given control of the C.I.A. or F.B.I., but because he appeared to have no plan at all — his priorities today always subject to a mercurial president’s wishes tomorrow.”

Last Updated: 01.Dec.2024 16:07 EST

Saturday’s articles

Follow along as new links are added to today’s list

CleanTechnica: Volt Solar Tile Set to Expand into the US Market

In a nutshell, Peter has learnt that cracking the US market needs to be done properly. It’s more challenging and has different regulations, requiring lots more design tweaks to maintain Volt’s unique benefits of speed of install and low cost. But now Volt is ready to storm the Bastille. As part of the push forward, Volt is seeking crowdfunding.

WashPo: Inside your body, aging unfolds at remarkably different rates

The research suggests aging isn’t strictly temporal, not solely about minutes and years passing. Once considered a steady, predictable decline, affecting everything in our bodies, everywhere, all at once, aging is much more haphazard than we once thought, starting in different parts of our bodies at different times, possibly long before we’re even thinking about aging.

It’s also personal, occurring at a unique molecular level inside each of us, and the process may be partially within our control. Once we know how our own organs are aging, we may be able to brake or speed that process by how we live.

Full article via Yahoo. Also found in AppleNews+.

NYT: Cucumbers Are Recalled After Salmonella Sickens People in 19 States

At least 68 people have fallen ill in the outbreak believed to be linked to cucumbers sold in the United States and Canada, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

NYT: It’s Time to Talk About Your Advance Care Directive

Instead of talking about politics around the Thanksgiving table this year, consider a less fraught topic: death.

It’s something few of us want to think about, but death is a fact of life that we will all encounter, often first as a caregiver and then, inevitably, when we reach our own.

As uncomfortable as it can be, discussing what medical care you want to receive at the end of your life is “one of the most loving things” you can do for your family, said Dr. Jennifer Gabbard, the director of the Palliative Medicine Research Program at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

ScienceAlert: Scientists Discover Wolves Mimicking Bees in an Incredible New First

If they are contributing to flower fertilization, the endangered wolves would join an exclusive but adorable group of non-flying mammals that pollinate plants. Examples of what is referred to as therophily include rodents, primates, elephant shrews and honey possums (Tarsipes rostratus) — the only entirely nectarivorous mammal that isn’t a bat.

Includes pictures of cute animals.

How to Geek: How to Use a Website as Your Mac’s Desktop Wallpaper

• Plash allows you to use any web page as your wallpaper, making it always visible behind your other windows.
• By default the web page is locked in state, but you can use Browser Mode to interact and adjust appearance and audio settings.
• Consider using Plash to display a highly visible clock or calendar, to avoid closing sites while screen capturing, or to keep track of sites by refreshing them frequently.

How to Geek: Proton VPN vs NordVPN: Will Nord Carry the Day?

• Proton VPN and NordVPN both have a complex interface, hindering usability.
• Proton VPN performs better than NordVPN, with faster speeds in recent years.
• Proton VPN has a straightforward pricing scheme compared to NordVPN’s complicated plans.

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When it comes to security and privacy, Proton VPN has the advantage, albeit a slim one. Over the years, it has garnered a reputation for being a privacy-focused service, based in part on the company’s tireless activism, as well as the fact that it’s based in Switzerland. This country’s strict privacy laws give Proton users a large umbrella to shelter under — though Proton does make clear it’s not bulletproof.

ScienceAlert: Expired Cans of Salmon From Decades Ago Reveal a Huge Surprise

That’s a problem for parasite ecologists, like Natalie Mastick and Chelsea Wood from the University of Washington, who had been searching for a way to retroactively track the effects parasites had on Pacific Northwestern marine mammals.

So when Wood got a call from Seattle’s Seafood Products Association, asking if she’d be interested in taking boxes of dusty old expired cans of salmon – dating back to the 1970s – off their hands, her answer was, unequivocally, yes.

The cans had been set aside for decades as part of the association’s quality control process, but in the hands of the ecologists, they became an archive of excellently preserved specimens; not of salmon, but of worms.

Last Updated: 30.Nov.2024 23:58 EST

Friday’s articles

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ScienceAlert: The World’s Rarest Mineral Is So Rare It’s Only Ever Been Found Once

The stone itself was purchased in 2010 at a market in Chaung-gyi in Myanmar by gemologist Kyaw Thu, who thought the raw gem was a mineral called scheelite. After he faceted the stone, though, he realized that he was looking at something unusual.

Unable to match the mineral with anything known, he sent it to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand. There, mineralogists were able to relate the stone to synthetic BiSbO4 — bismuth antimonate — though with the formula Bi3+Sb5+O4, an arrangement never before found in nature.

SMH: Kristian White: Clare Nowland killer to remain on bail over Christmas

“Mr White did not intend to kill or seriously injure Ms Nowland,” the judge said.

“Mr White did not act out of anger, or malice, or revenge, or retribution, or envy, or jealousy, or avarice, or greed, or some misplaced desire to inflict harm or to avoid detection for some crime. Mr White made a significant mistake in the course of his work.”

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, had submitted a full-time custodial sentence was “realistically inevitable” and that the jury had found White’s use of force “was not reasonably necessary”.

It’s easy to see how the Taser/Axon company’s repeated claims that they are relatively harmless devices lead, at least in part, to this mistake.

Guardian: We need to talk about plastic: five everyday items choking the planet

Some plastics are worse than others and have a unique impact in various parts of the world. Here, we look at five of the worst offenders.

• Plastic sachets, Indonesia …
• Polyester clothing, Ghana and Kenya …
• Drinks bottles, Caribbean islands …
• Tetra Pak, Vietnam …
• Wet wipes, UK …

Guardian: Andrei Popoviciu: My father voted for Romania’s ultra-nationalist. I am beginning to understand why)

His sentiment is not uncommon. For the past 35 years, Romania’s two dominant parties — centre-left social democrats and centre-right liberals — have presided over corruption scandals, nepotism, politically connected fraud and opaque use of public funds. Their decision to govern together in a coalition for the past three years has only deepened public mistrust, reinforcing the perception that they are all in it together against the people. For many Romanians, voting for Georgescu wasn’t just about ideology, but frustration.

iPhone in Canada: Flickr’s “Your Best Shot 2024” Photo Contest Opens December 1st

Photography enthusiasts, mark your calendars! Flickr’s most anticipated annual photo contest, Your Best Shot 2024, is set to begin on Sunday, December 1st.

What began as a casual discussion in the FlickrCentral group in 2007 has grown into Flickr’s most popular contest. Over the years, Your Best Shot has become a global stage for photographers of all skill levels, highlighting exceptional talent and fostering a sense of community among Flickr members.

This year’s contest is bigger than ever, featuring five competitive categories, including the much-loved “Open” category, which makes a triumphant return. Whether you’re a landscape photographer, portrait specialist, or experimental artist, there’s a category to showcase your finest work.

Last Updated: 29.Nov.2024 15:35 EST

Thursday’s articles

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NYT: E.U. Vessels Surround Anchored Chinese Ship After Cables Are Severed in Baltic Sea

For more than a week, a Chinese commercial ship has apparently been forced to anchor in the Baltic Sea, surrounded and monitored by naval and coast guard vessels from European countries as the authorities attempt to unravel a maritime mystery.

The development arose after two undersea fiber-optic cables were severed under the sea, and investigators from a task force that includes Finland, Sweden and Lithuania are trying to determine if the ship’s crew intentionally cut the cables by dragging the ship’s anchor along the sea floor.

On Wednesday, the Swedish police announced that the inquiry into the episode had concluded but that an investigation was ongoing. Sweden did not release any initial findings.

American intelligence officials had assessed that the cables were not cut deliberately, though the authorities in Europe say they have not been able to rule out sabotage.

9to5Mac: Review: FInd your lost wallet with your iPhone using SwitchBot Wallet Finder Card

I have an AirTag on my keychain to keep track of my keys, but obviously an AirTag is too big and bulky to fit inside a wallet. That’s what the SwitchBot Wallet Finder is for. (Wallet Finder is currently 30% off for Black Friday [Amazon link], so it’s an even better deal than normal right now.)

Disguised inside a thin, credit-card form factor, the SwitchBot Wallet Finder connects to the Find My app on your iPhone, so you can follow its location, and it even houses a speaker so you can make it beep to help you find your wallet when it inevitably gets lost somewhere in your home. Read on for my review …

BBC: Daniel Khalife was a British soldier who spied for Iran and wanted to be a double agent

At secondary school in south-west London, many of Khalife’s friends came from well-off families and he felt ashamed of his relative poverty. He had struggled to focus at school but managed to get 10 GCSEs.

Aged 15, Khalife was caught stealing goods from a shop by using a powerful magnet to remove security tags.

“I have always had a gift for exposing flaws in security,” he told the jury during his recent trial.

Certainly in other cases people’s need or desire for money has been a significant motivator in their willingness to spy.

BBC: Israel building new military dividing line across Gaza, satellite images suggest

Experts disagree over how long the new partition might be intended to remain in place. Dr Hellyer suggested that it could form the basis of plan to expel Palestinians from the area permanently.

“Personally I think they’re going to settle Jewish settlers in the north, probably in the next 18 months,” he said. “They won’t call them settlements. To begin with they’ll call them outposts or whatever, but that’s what they’ll be and they’ll grow from there.”

Discover Magazine: Two Different Early Human Species Walked the Same Lake 1.5 Million Years Ago

About 1.5 million years ago, two different species of early man likely came within hours of passing each other on the shores of what is now known as Lake Turkana in Kenya. Two sets of footprints tracing each hominin’s path represent the first geological record of such an example, according to a report in Science.

Those footprints are part of a much larger picture that tells a more complete story of life there then.

“The footprint evidence provides a unique window into the occupation of the landscape over a short period of time,” says Craig Feibel, a geology professor at Rutgers and an author of the study. “We can actually see not only two different species of hominid, but all of these birds and antelope and everything else active on the lake margin 1.5 million years ago.”

NewsNation: Amazon workers on strike from Black Friday to Cyber Monday

Amazons workers across 20 countries, including the United States, are striking against what the organizing labor union calls anti-worker and anti-democratic practices.

This is the fifth year UNI Global Union has spearheaded the “Make Amazon Pay” movement with the aim to hold Amazon accountable for “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy.”

MacRumors: tvOS 18.2 No Longer Expected to Include More Apple TV+ Screen Savers

The upcoming tvOS 18.2 update adds a rotation of Snoopy screen savers to 2021 and newer Apple TV models, but it seems that an additional “TV and Movies” category of screen savers has been canceled, or at least postponed. These screen savers were expected to be based on various Apple TV+ series and movies.

PBS: Supreme Court to hear case on crackdown of sweet vapes popular with kids

Vaping is coming before the Supreme Court next week as federal regulators ask the high court to uphold its block on sweet, flavored products following a spike in youth e-cigarette use.

The Food and Drug Administration has denied more than a million marketing applications for candy- or fruit-flavored products that appeal to kids, part of a wider crackdown that advocates say helped drive down teen vaping after an “epidemic level” surge in 2019.

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The marketing refusals combined with age-limit enforcement on the federal and state levels have helped drive down youth nicotine use to its lowest level in a decade, said Dennis Henigan, vice president for legal and regulatory affairs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

He says the FDA was clear in its requirements and fears a court decision that leads to wider availability for flavored vape products, which are the dominant choice among the 1.6 million high school students who still vape. “We think that would be a real harm to public health,” Henigan said.

UPI: Stowaway flies aboard Delta flight to Paris from New York City

The woman was discovered while the Boeing 767-400ER was in midair and was arrested in Paris, the airline told CNN.

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The woman had completed security screening and bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations before boarding the aircraft, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

Her bags also were scanned for prohibited items before she went to the gate.

Stuff: High income workers unable to claim unjustifiable dismissal thanks to new policy

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said the change would enable employers to ensure they have the right fit for their high impact leadership and specialist roles.

“This policy is about offering workers and employers more choice when negotiating contracts. Employers and employees are free to opt back into unjustified dismissal protection if they choose to or negotiate their own dismissal procedures that work for them,” she said.

And who wouldn’t negotiate it into their contract, except people people in the middle who don’t have negotiated contracts.

Stuff: Report: Nissan may have just ‘12 or 14 months’ to survive

Nissan is really in dire straits, it seems. A new report from The Financial Times has revealed it is urgently looking into a long-term shareholder as its Alliance partner, Renault, considers pulling back its stake.

“We have 12 or 14 months to survive,” a senior official close to Nissan told the publication. “This is going to be tough. And in the end, we need Japan and the US to be generating cash.”

When asked for comment by Stuff, a Nissan representative said the brand cannot comment on speculation.

Last Updated: 28.Nov.2024 23:55 EST

Wednesday’s articles

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IEEE Spectrum: Researchers Develop VR Lollipop to Simulate Taste

Lickable devices could make for flavorful extended-reality environments.

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To fill the gap, researchers at the City University of Hong Kong have developed a new interface to simulate taste in virtual and other extended reality (XR). The group previously worked on other systems for wearable interfaces, such as haptic and olfactory feedback. To create a more “immersive VR experience,” they turned to adding taste sensations, says Yiming Liu, a coauthor of the group’s research paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Kingstonist: Julie Salverson explores her own perception of her father in A Necessary Distance: Confessions of a Scriptwriter’s Daughter

In her new novel A Necessary Distance: Confessions of a Scriptwriter’s Daughter, local author Julie Salverson brings to life the story of her father, George Salverson, and explores who she thought her father was in comparison to the man she uncovers in his personal journals.

George Salverson was a radio play scriptwriter for the CBC before becoming the first television drama editor for the corporation. He worked on many documentaries and wrote scripts for many shows, including The Beachcombers and the Littlest Hobo. He taught writing to students at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnic University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) for several years, and authored a book, Around the World in 80 Limericks.

YouTube (oboogie69): Steve Ballmer Sells Windows XP [video]

Steve Ballmer and Brian Valentine in a Crazy Eddie ad for Windows XP

You might want to turn the volume down first.

Also The Nine Cringiest Moments From the Windows 95 Launch.

Raspberry Pi: Compute Module 5 on sale now from $45

Today we’re happy to announce the much-anticipated launch of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, the modular version of our flagship Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer, priced from just $45.

CBC: Health Canada approves Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug to reduce risk of non-fatal heart attack

Health Canada has approved Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy to reduce the risk of non-fatal heart attack, the drug maker says.

Novo Nordisk said Wednesday that Wegovy is the first Health Canada-approved treatment for both chronic weight management and to reduce the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction.

The treatment reduces the risk of such incidents in adults with established cardiovascular disease and a body mass index equal to or greater than 27 kilograms per metre squared, according to Health Canada’s approval notice

CBC: Vote to approve natural gas heating in new homes puts Vancouver councillors on the hot seat

Since 2016, Vancouver has been on a path to gradually phase out natural gas for space and water heating in most new building types by 2025 because burning natural gas to heat space and water in buildings is the single largest source of carbon pollution in the city, according to materials from City of Vancouver staff.

In July, councillors voted 6-5, with Mayor Ken Sim casting the tie-breaking vote remotely from vacation in favour of Coun. Brian Montague’s motion seeking the change.

Montague argued allowing natural gas for space and water heating would reduce barriers to building middle-income and multiplex housing and make Vancouver more affordable.

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“Allowing natural gas for space heating and hot water provides applicants with more choice over fuel source but is not expected to improve affordability or accelerate housing approvals when compared to the low carbon option,” reads the report.

Last Updated: 27.Nov.2024 23:13 EST

Tuesday’s articles

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CBC: LifeLabs data breach report released after firm loses 4-year bid to keep it quiet

A long-withheld investigation into a 2019 hacking at LifeLabs Inc. that compromised millions of Canadians' health data has finally been made public after an Ontario court dismissed the company’s appeal to prevent its release.

A statement from the privacy commissioners of both Ontario and British Columbia says their joint report, completed in June 2020, found that LifeLabs “failed to take reasonable steps” to protect clients' data while collecting more personal health information than was “reasonably necessary.”

The report ordered LifeLabs to address a number of issues, such as appropriately staffing its security team, and the commissioners' statement says the company complied with all of the orders and recommendations.

CBC: Sightings of deer wearing high-vis jacket raise questions, quips and concerns in B.C. village

Arnold said there are people in town who sometimes provide food for deer. But to dress a deer would require someone to get the jacket around the wild animal’s legs and zip it up — and she would like to learn how that happened.

“I don’t need to know the who,” she said. “I just want to know how.”

Globe: Cathal Kelly: Maple Leafs’ recent run of success almost makes Auston Matthews look expendable

On Sunday against Utah, Mitch Marner expanded on his brief for re-admittance into Toronto’s good books.

Everybody in the city who wanted him strapped to a rocket six months ago is having second thoughts. Fourteen points in eight games during which the team have gone 7-1 will do that.

More than points, Marner’s case might be helped most by something that isn’t there – his linemate, Auston Matthews.

Michael Tsai: The End of Delicious Library

Wil Shipley:

Amazon has shut off the feed that allowed Delicious Library to look up items, unfortunately limiting the app to what users already have (or enter manually).

I wasn’t contacted about this.

I’ve pulled it from the Mac App Store and shut down the website so nobody accidentally buys a non-functional app.

Raspberry Pi: Pico 2 W on sale now at $7

Update: In advance of official MicroPython support for Pico 2 W, you can download our unofficial MicroPython build here; you’ll find the README here.

Today our epic autumn of product launches continues with Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, the wireless-enabled variant of this summer’s Pico 2. Built around our brand new RP2350 microcontroller, featuring the tried and tested wireless modem from the original Pico W, and priced at just $7, it’s the perfect centrepiece for your connected Internet of Things projects.

ScienceAlert: Justin Stebbing: Surprise Discovery Finds Severe COVID Infection May Shrink Tumors

A fascinating new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, has revealed an unexpected potential benefit of severe COVID infection: it may help shrink cancer.

This surprising finding, based on research conducted in mice, opens up new possibilities for cancer treatment and sheds light on the complex interactions between the immune system and cancer cells – but it certainly doesn’t mean people should actively try to catch COVID.

The data outlining the importance of the immune system in cancer is considerable and many drugs target the immune system, unlocking its potential, an important focus of my own research.

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However, in cancer patients, monocytes can sometimes be hijacked by tumour cells and transformed into cancer-friendly cells that protect the tumour from the immune system.

What the researchers discovered was that severe COVID infection causes the body to produce a special type of monocyte with unique anti-cancer properties. These “induced” monocytes are specifically trained to target the virus, but they also retain the ability to fight cancer cells.

Last Updated: 26.Nov.2024 19:50 EST

Monday’s articles

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