NPR: Popeye, Tintin among works entering U.S. public domain in 2025
Jan. 1 marks the dawn of a new era for Popeye and Tintin. It’s the day the nonagenarian cartoon characters officially enter the U.S. public domain along with a treasure trove of other iconic works.
The copyrights of thousands of films, songs and books expire in 2025, making them instantly available for people to use, share and adapt. The list includes classics like Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One’s Own, the Fats Waller song Ain’t Misbehavin' and the Marx Brothers' first feature film, The Cocoanuts.
NPR: How not to be ageist
Ageism — discrimination and prejudice based on someone’s age — is so ingrained in society that most of us don’t notice it. Yet “we all face the consequences and we all have a role in fixing it,” Clark-Shirley says.
Experts say that fighting ageism isn’t only important to create an equitable and fair society, it also helps all of us live longer, healthier — even more fulfilling — lives.
Yale professor Becca Levy studies the psychology of aging. Her research found that people who had positive beliefs about aging bounced back more effectively from illnesses and other setbacks than those who had negative perceptions about what it meant to be older.
The positive people even lived an average of 7 1/2 years longer than those who thought aging was a bummer.
CleanTechnica: Germany Embraces Balkonkraftwerke — Balcony Solar For Apartments
In Germany, more than 1.5 million people have installed Balkonkraftwerke, which translates as “balcony power plants.” Almost every apartment has a balcony with a railing to keep folks from tumbling into the street below. If it gets any sun exposure during the day, balcony solar panels can be mounted to those railings to make electricity that helps power a home.
Native to European seas, the sea lamprey wriggled its way up the Great Lakes' canal and channel system in the early 1900s where it found ample breeding grounds, a lack of predators and sufficient prey among lake trout, whitefish and other commercially valuable species in the region. By the fifties, an estimated two million sea lampreys infested the Great Lakes, killing up to 100 million pounds of fish.
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“We kill 8.5 million sea lampreys per year,” said Greg McClinchey, the commission’s director of policy and legislative affairs. “That’s what the commission, give or take, has to kill every year just to hold the population steady.”
CBC: RCMP asks for help handling troubling number of kids radicalizing online
Security agencies from Canada and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance say they’ve seen a ‘rising prominence’ of young people and minors in counterterrorism cases.
Daring Fireball: OpenAI’s Board, Paraphrased: ‘To Succeed, All We Need Is Unimaginable Sums of Money’
Thus, effectively, OpenAI is to this decade’s generative-AI revolution what Netscape was to the 1990s’ internet revolution. The revolution is real, but it’s ultimately going to be a commodity technology layer, not the foundation of a defensible proprietary moat. In 1995 investors mistakenly thought investing in Netscape was a way to bet on the future of the open internet and the World Wide Web in particular. Investing in OpenAI today is a bit like that — generative AI technology has a bright future and is transforming the world, but it’s wishful thinking that the breakthrough client implementation is going to form the basis of a lasting industry titan.
NYT: Jimmy Carter Funeral: Tentative Plans Will Play Out Over the Next Eight Days
Memorial services for former President Jimmy Carter will play out over the next eight days, including a state funeral in Washington, D.C., and ceremonies in Georgia before he is buried in Plains, Ga., according to plans that have been in the works for years.
NYT: Dorthy Moxley, Who Pursued Justice in Her Daughter’s Murder, Dies at 92
Dorthy Moxley, who crusaded for half her life for justice in the murder of her teenage daughter, Martha, in Greenwich, Conn., in 1975, but who was never fully vindicated in her belief that a young neighbor related to the Kennedy family had killed Martha with a golf club, died on Tuesday at her home in Summit, N.J. She was 92.
Her son, John, said the cause was complications of the flu.
Last Updated: 29.Dec.2024 20:15 EST
