Author: KnowledgeHippo

Michele Heisler, 61, is an avid swimmer, doing 45 minutes three times a week in a local 80-foot pool. But swimming while traveling can be difficult. “Most hotel pools are too small or too full,” he said.Then, while planning a trip to Chicago, Ms. Heisler, of Ann Arbor, Mich., came across a photo of her dream hotel pool. At the Intercontinental Hotel, the 25-meter swimming pool, built in 1929, is one of the oldest in Chicago and is surrounded by Greek-inspired marble decoration. “You feel like you are swimming in an ancient Greek temple. It’s a magical experience,” said Ms.…

President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran said on Tuesday that Israel’s airstrikes on an Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, which killed three top Iranian commanders, will not go unanswered. Government supporters took to the streets and called for retaliation against Israel.The strike, on part of the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, killed three Iranian Quds Force generals and four other officers, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the years-long shadow war between Israel and Iran.Mr Raisi said it was an “inhumane attack in barbaric violation of international law”, in comments reported by Tasnim, a semi-official news agency. He…

For more than half a century, the playbook for how developing countries can get rich hasn’t changed much: Move surviving farmers into jobs in industry, then sell what they produce to the rest of the world.The recipe — adapted in various ways by Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and China — has produced the most powerful engine the world has ever known for generating economic growth. It has helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, create jobs and improve living standards.The Asian Tigers and China succeeded by combining vast pools of cheap labor with access to…

In recent months, Google has struggled to settle a slew of lawsuits ahead of major antitrust battles with the Justice Department later this year.On Monday, the company settled its fourth case in four months, agreeing to delete billions of data files it collected about millions of Chrome browser users, according to a legal filing. The suit, Chasom Brown, et al. against Google, said the company had misled users by tracking their online activity in Chrome’s incognito mode, which they believed would be private.Since December, Google has spent well over $1 billion settling lawsuits as it prepares to fight the Justice…

The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that hospitals must obtain written informed consent from patients before undergoing sensitive tests — such as pelvic and prostate exams — especially if the patients are under anesthesia.A 2020 New York Times investigation found that hospitals, doctors and trainees sometimes performed pelvic exams on women under anesthesia, even when those exams weren’t medically necessary and the patient hadn’t authorized them. Sometimes these tests were done only for the educational benefit of medical trainees.On Monday, the Health and Human Services secretary, along with top officials from the department’s Centers for Medicare and…

Japan’s pandemic lockdown has coincided with a flurry of new hotels, especially in Kyoto, where Park Hyatt, Aman and Four Seasons were joined by a group of independent properties and the archipelago’s first Ace hotel. When the country finally reopened to foreign visitors in October 2022, tourists came flooding back to the 800-year-old temple town and its spoiled bamboo forests for a choice of accommodation, at various price points. The number continues to grow: Next month, wellness-focused brand Six Senses will open its first Japanese outpost in the city’s Higashiyama district, home to many of the main tourist attractions. Here,…

At least seven officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East were killed in Damascus on Monday when Israeli warplanes struck a the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital, according to a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.The strike killed three generals in Iran’s Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign military and intelligence agency, and four other officers, the Corps said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the years-long shadow war between Israel and Iran. The Israeli military declined to comment on the strike, but four Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss…

Betty Cole Dukert, who began her career in Washington as a secretary in the 1950s and later became the top producer of NBC News’ weekly public affairs program “Meet the Press,” died March 16 at her home in Bethesda, Md. . 96.Her late husband’s niece Barbara Dukert Smith said the cause was complications from Alzheimer’s disease.In her 41 years on ”Meet the Press,” a Sunday show on NBC’s schedule, Ms. Duckert booked politicians, diplomats, foreign dignitaries, cultural figures and heart surgeons to be interviewed by a moderator and a panel of reporters. looked for the most qualified reporters for the…

David Autor seems improbably optimistic about artificial intelligence. The MIT labor economist is best known for his in-depth studies showing how technology and trade have eroded the incomes of millions of American workers over the years.But Mr Autor now argues that the new wave of technology – genetic artificial intelligence, which can produce hyper-realistic images and videos and convincingly mimic human voices and writing – could reverse this trend.”Artificial intelligence, if used correctly, can help restore the middle-skilled, middle-class heart of the US labor market that has been destroyed by automation and globalization,” Mr. Autor wrote in an article published…

At least one person in Texas has been diagnosed with bird flu after coming into contact with suspected infected dairy cows, state officials said Monday.The announcement adds an alarming dimension to an outbreak that has affected millions of birds and marine mammals around the world and, more recently, cows in the United States.So far, there is no evidence that the virus has evolved in ways that would help it spread more easily between people, federal officials said.The patient’s main symptom was conjunctivitis. the person is treated with an antiviral drug and recovers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and…