The World on Time 📦
Thousands of bitcoiners camped out for hours to see crypto’s self-declared candidate on Saturday at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville.
Is this a significant voting block?
Guardian: Japan cracks down on use of rideable electric suitcases amid tourist boom
As record numbers of tourists flock to Japan to take advantage of the weakness of the Japanese yen, some are running into trouble with authorities thanks to the growing popularity of motorised, rideable suitcases.
Two major Japanese airports have already asked travellers not to ride motorised suitcases within their facilities, according to Kyodo news agency, while police are urging domestic retailers to warn customers of the strict laws concerning their use.
In recent years motorised luggage, similar to children’s scooters but powered by lithium-ion batteries, have become more common among travellers, while also being popularised by celebrities like Paris Hilton and Shilpa Shetty.
CBC: She lost 200,000 bees to bandits — and is now one of many paying thousands on surveillance
A beekeeper since 2011, this is the first time she’s had hives stolen. But as vice-president of Quebec’s beekeeping association, she says theft and vandalism have been affecting producers across the province for years. It’s forced some to invest thousands of dollars in cameras and other surveillance methods, she says.
ScienceAlert: This New Blood Test Identifies Alzheimer’s Memory Loss With 90% Accuracy
In addition to the blood test, most patients also received a lumbar puncture for spinal fluid. The few who couldn’t underwent a radionuclide-tagged PET scan instead to assess abnormal aggregations of proteins in the brain.
Comparing the results, both forms of assessment fared just as well, predicting Alzheimer’s with a 90 percent accuracy.
The convenience of a blood test means more patients can receive an accurate diagnosis sooner, allowing them to receive the healthcare they require without delay.
Globe: The U.S. Supreme Court’s historic term has done much more than boost Donald Trump
4/5.Jul.2024
The U.S. Supreme Court made history this week with a ruling that bestowed broad immunity from criminal prosecution on Donald Trump for his official acts as president. But that decision was just one of many consequential moves by the court at the end of its most recent term.
The court’s other rulings, which culminated in the release of the immunity decision on Monday, reshaped the way U.S. law applies to areas that include environmental protection, white-collar crime and public corruption.
In decisions that were nearly all 6-3, with the court’s conservative wing in the majority, the Supreme Court’s justices overturned a 40-year precedent about deference to the expertise of regulatory agencies. It ruled that municipalities can seek criminal sanctions against homeless people, weakened a criminal bribery law, and gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to combat cross-state pollution.
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In the Environmental Protection Agency case, known as Ohio v. EPA, the court’s majority put on hold the EPA’s power to enforce a rule related to cross-state emissions of nitrogen oxide. (The majority opinion had to be corrected and reissued because Justice Neil Gorsuch confused nitrogen oxide with nitrous oxide, which is colloquially known as laughing gas.)
ha ha
The case involved a former mayor of an Indiana city. The city had awarded a US$1.1-million garbage truck contract to a local company. Afterward, the mayor approached the owners and told them, “I need money.” He asked for US$15,000, but received US$13,000. He was later convicted of bribery.
The Supreme Court overturned the conviction, and Justice Kavanaugh explained that an after-the-fact gift is a “gratuity,” and not covered by federal bribery law. He warned that otherwise many people could face prosecution for receiving gifts.
Which Supreme Court justices might be covered by this new ruling?
The Verge: Elon Musk posts deepfake of Kamala Harris that violates X policy
The platform’s owner posted a digitally altered campaign ad of the vice president without context that it was not real.
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to say anything.
Chance of buying a Tesla now: 0% (That’s a substantial drop.)
Seeking Alpha: Robotaxi jolt: Tesla autonomous driving test goes poorly for Truist Securities
Analyst William Stein said the new version was impressive, but does not solve autonomy. “The shortcomings that we observed make it challenging to imagine what TSLA will reveal in its RoboTaxi event in October,” highlighted Stein. He wrote in detail on some of the positive advancements included in FSD V12.3.6, while also highlighting some notable problems on the test drive.
“For example, the Model Y accelerated through an intersection as the car in front of us had only partly completed a right-turn. My quick intervention was absolutely required to avoid an otherwise certain accident. Another intervention was required when a police officer used hand motions to signal to us to pull to the side of the road to allow a funeral procession to pass. A third intervention was less of a requirement and more of a convenience. Finally, in a section of our route, the highway was curvy and narrow, and had a solid white line separating lanes, signaling a prohibition against lane changes. Still, the Model Y switched lanes twice under that condition.”
Yeah, they’re a long way off!
Universe Today: Kepler Sketched the Sun in 1607. Astronomers Pinpointed the Solar Cycle
Johannes Kepler is probably most well known for developing the laws of planetary motion. He was also a keen solar observer and in 1607 made some wonderful observations of our nearest star using a camera obscura. His drawings were wonderfully precise and enabled astronomers to pinpoint where the Sun was in its 11-year cycle. Having taken into account Kepler’s location and the location of sunspots, a team of researchers have identified the Sun was nearing the end of solar cycle-13.
Guardian: Indonesia president begins working from new capital despite construction delays
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has begun working from the presidential palace in the country’s ambitious new administrative capital, the flagship project of his two terms in office but which has been plagued by delays.
The capital is due to move from traffic-clogged and sinking Jakarta to the planned city of Nusantara in East Kalimantan province on Borneo, but the $33bn project announced in 2019 is months – even years – behind schedule.
SMH: Trump backs away from debating Harris, defends Vance’s ‘childless cat lady’ comments
Donald Trump seemed to back away from his earlier commitment to debate Vice President Kamala Harris, questioning the value of a meetup and saying he “probably” will debate but he “can also make a case for not doing it.”
Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired Monday night (Tuesday AEST), was pressed several times about committing to debating Harris before giving a squishier answer than he had in recent days.
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In the same interview, Trump also backed his running mate, Senator JD Vance, over past comments about “childless cat ladies” that have gone viral and become a political headache for their White House campaign.
Vance’s 2021 comments criticising Harris and other Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives” resurfaced after Trump selected the Ohio senator as his running mate earlier this month.
NYT: ‘The Interview’: Melinda French Gates Is Ready to Take Sides](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/magazine/melinda-french-gates-interview.html)
The act of walking away from all that would have been surprising enough. But French Gates also did something she never did while at the Gates Foundation: entered the political fray, saying she would focus her resources on supporting women’s rights in the United States, including abortion rights. And in June she endorsed President Biden.
When we spoke this month, she told me why she feels so much urgency to get involved in these issues now. (We talked before Biden dropped out of the presidential race; she has since endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.) We also talked about life after divorce, raising rich children, her new YouTube series, called Moments That Make Us, and her evolving views on how to use her own money.
Last Updated: 29.Jul.2024 23:58 EDT
