Author: KnowledgeHippo
A lawmaker in the Australian state of Victoria sat down to watch the nightly news Monday, expecting to see herself as a prominent opponent of duck hunting.But Victorian MP Georgie Purcell noticed that in a photo used by 9News, the tattoos on her lower back were missing.”I saw the image come up on the screen and I thought, ‘This is really weird’ because my stomach is heavily tattooed,” Ms Purcell said on Wednesday.She compared the image to the original photo, taken last year by a local newspaper, and realized that not only had her tattoos been removed, but her dress…
Listen and Follow “Hard Fork”Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTubeApple’s Vision Pro headphones are now on sale in stores. Will it live up to the hype? Kevin Roose and Casey Newton tried it out to see. Then, in a high-profile congressional hearing on child safety and social media, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, apologized to the families of victims of online child abuse. Is there new legislation on the horizon? And finally, what the collapse of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company, means for the future of self-driving cars.Credits“Hard Fork” is hosted by Kevin Rouse and Casey Newton and are produced…
With space and weight limitations, what would you bring if you went to Mars? An ideal choice might be a single material that can shift shapes to any object you can imagine.In the morning, you could mold this stuff into dinnerware. When you finish breakfast, you can transform your fork and knife into a shovel to tend your garden on Mars. And then, when it’s happy hour on the red planet, that shovel could become a cup for your Martian beer.What sounds like science fiction is, perhaps, one step closer to reality. Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School…
Last May, Fabuwood, a kitchen cabinet maker in Newark, instituted a new company policy: No phones allowed during meetings.To enforce this, the company installed “device racks” outside each of its six glass-walled conference rooms. On a recent Wednesday morning, cartoon meetings were taking place in three of the conference rooms, and the shelves outside were filled with ’90s-style smartphones, tablets and cell phones. The 1,200-person company is paying the cost of a flip phone for employees who ditch their smartphones, and 80 people have acted on the offer.Surprisingly, employees say they like it. Rena Stoff, a project manager, said that…
As Twitter, the social media company struggled to find its influencer niche. While YouTube had pranksters and beauty gurus, and Instagram had fashionistas and travel bloggers, Twitter had vicious journalists, political flame wars and niche humor. Before Mr. Musk took over, the company dabbled in various ways to attract creators. It provided funding for aspiring podcasters to create shows on its audio chat feature, Spaces, and appealed to digital artists during the 2022 NFT boom.”We’re all in a war for people’s time,” Mr. Weitz said.Some of the creators X hopes to attract have been skeptical about the potential profits. Jimmy…
Joe Madison, a prominent talk radio host with a musical baritone, who interviewed President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and many other political leaders in his studio in Washington, DC, urging them to take action on political and humanitarian issues rights. at his home in Washington. It was 74.His family announced the death Thursday, but did not say when it happened. In December, Mr. Madison said in a statement that he was taking a leave of absence from his daily show, on SiriusXM satellite radio, after learning that his prostate cancer had returned. he has been in remission since…
Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the biggest US energy companies, on Friday reported strong profits for the final quarter of last year, showing that the oil and gas industry remained robust at a time of uncertainty over climate change concerns.The companies’ earnings were down from the year 2022, when rising prices boosted earnings, but were otherwise the strongest in recent history.Exxon earned $7.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, down 40% from a year earlier. For all of 2023, the company reported earnings of $36 billion, up from $55.7 billion in 2022. Before that, the last time Exxon had more…
As far as signs of trouble at a company go, a hole blowing through the wall of one of its planes at 16,000 feet is not subtle.So it was no surprise that Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun spent most of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday focusing on safety. “We caused the problem and we understand,” he said of the Jan. 5 incident.Mr. Calhoun said the company had instituted additional quality controls and halted production for a day to focus on safety and quality. But Boeing’s issues span decades, and some aviation and management experts have long suggested they go deeper…
President Biden is out of the Super Bowl for the second year in a row.CBS reported on Saturday that the White House had rejected a request for Mr. Biden to participate in a televised interview with his news division that would have aired in prime time before the Feb. 11 big game.In a tradition dating back to 2009, presidents have taped an interview with the network that broadcasts the Super Bowl, though there have been exceptions. Donald J. Trump did not appear on NBC in 2018. Last year, Mr. Biden refused to appear on Fox, the home of cable hosts…
It’s the best news that few people seem to know about: Prescription drug costs are going down this year for more than a million seniors — in many cases, by thousands of dollars.The lower costs are a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which was signed into law by President Biden in 2022 and is best known for investing more than $370 billion in climate and energy programs. His changes to Medicare, which will help people enrolled in the prescription drug coverage programs known as Part D, are significant. But a recent survey by the nonprofit KFF found…