A terrifying new report from the New York Times claims that “near collisions” involving commercial airliners are basically a weekly occurrence in America. The Times report draws on extensive records sourced from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as a little known NASA database that holds “safety reports”…
I spent the weekend away with friends and then today I did two interviews, one for print and one for radio, and now I’m surfacing to see what’s going on in the world. Want to come along with me? Sure you do!
Trump Has to Shell Out $200,000 For Bail in Georgia: Actually, as I understand it, he really only has to put down 10% of that in cash, which is probably good for him, seeing that his lawyer bills are pushing him in the direction of “broke” these days, which delights me, he deserves every bit of that. Apparently among the terms of the bail is that he can’t make threats, “direct or indirect,” against anyone who is a co-defendant or witness for the trial, which means that soon the Fulton County Jail is going to come into some money, since Trump is (heh) constitutionally unable to not channel his existential panic through either his tongue or his thumbs. It may be the easiest bail money revocation ever, honestly.
Trump still has to surrender to authorities by this Friday, and it’ll be interesting to see if they’re going to make him do a mug shot. They said they would — he’s just like any other citizen! — but we’ll see.
Elon Musk Admits the Former Twitter May Fail: This is after a weekend where apparently someone poured Fresca into the one remaining operating server, severing connections to links and photos posted before 2014, and of course Musk announced the end of blocking on the service, which prompted enough of an exodus to other services that Bluesky found its own server overheating, as everyone who had been banking an invite there suddenly tried to port themselves over. Musk’s phrasing of the possible imminent failure of his $44 billion trash fire was unusually passive and fatalistic, suggesting that he doesn’t want to take responsibility for his part in it, and/or that he was stoned to the gills as wrote it.
Either way, it’s not exactly the most positive spin Musk could have put on the current situation, which is, remember, entirely of his own doing and every little bit of it is his fault.
Hurriquake! California doesn’t disappoint; not content merely to have its first hurricane/tropical storm in 84 years, the Golden State also unleashed a 5.3 earthquake during the downpour, with dozens of smaller aftershocks thereafter. The silver lining on this particular rain cloud is that so far there don’t appear to be any deaths, and while the storm that broke rainfall records across the state created floods and mudslides, which are not good and can be a danger, it could have been much worse, damage-wise. Take your breaks where you can.
Climate change being what it is, it’s a reasonably safe bet it won’t be another 84 years before another tropical storm hits the area.
Mortgage Rates, Oy: They’re up to 7.48%, which is the highest they’ve been since the turn of the century, and by the way, there’s a phrase that makes me feel old. It’s also by some measures the least affordable time to be buying a house in four decades, so if you were thinking of buying recently, maaaaaybe hold off a bit if you can. Apparently overall house prices are down a bit in the last couple of months, but any savings you get from that would be erased by the interest rates. So if you are in the market for a house right now, sympathies.
The summer of foldables has started fizzling out, and now we’re moving on to the next batch of flagship phones. Google’s Pixel 8/8 Pro is expected to be the next major Android smartphone release this fall. And it might be Google’s first eSIM-only smartphone. Apple went eSIM-only with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro…
Priserna för många toppmodeller har skjutit i höjden senaste åren. Enligt spekulationer kommer framtida flaggskepp kosta ännu mer. Yogesh Brar förutspår prishöjningar på mellan 50–200 dollar för ”alla stora flaggskepp” likt Galaxy S24-serien, Pixel 8 och Pixel 8 Pro, Iphone 15-serien och Xiaomi 14.
Google undvek trenden förra hösten genom att inte ta mer betalt för Pixel 7 och Pixel 7 Pro än för föregångarna, medan Apple höjde svenska priset på Iphone Pro med hela 2700 kronor från år till år.
Ett relaterat rykte hävdade häromdagen att Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 kommer kosta så pass mycket för tillverkare att chippet främst kommer användas för de mest påkostade flaggskeppen. Övriga toppmodeller sägs få föregångaren Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 istället.
Försommaren 2021 svarade bara 14 procent att de är beredda att betala mer än 10 000 kronor för en telefon, så flaggskeppen riktar sig alltmer till en begränsad skara konsumenter. För merparten, 66 procent, låg smärtgränsen vid 7500 kronor eller mindre.
I haven’t had the spoons to write for a few weeks, but today, something was different, and I finished my breakfast with an ambitious, totally realistic plan to do a little work on Project Daffodil.
So I walk into my office, sit down, and realize that my desk is a clusterfuck of notes and magazines and stickers and … batteries? okay, batteries, I guess … and more than enough dust to complete the metaphor.
I stand up, and begin Unfucking my desk. It comes along nicely. I move the pile of New Yorkers I’m totally going to read to the top of the other pile of New Yorkers I’m totally going to read, careful not to disturb the pile of WIREDs I’m absolutely going to read.
I declare magazine bankruptcy; into the recycling they go.
Back to my desk. These sticky notes that fell off my monitor can enjoy their retirement catching up on the New Yorker. And I’ll just pick up this — what the? Okay, who even uses 9 volt batteries and why do I have one on my — oh, the smoke detector. Right. This should have gone into the trash when I put in a new battery on Daylight Saving Time. I glace around, furtively, Commander Hoek with his Beloved Ice Cream Bar. Real quick, before I toss it away, I taste it. Just to be sure.
Hm. These Gym Mats have very little battery zap in them. A surprisingly high number of 90s animation references, though. Into the bin.
I sort the stickers. Most will be added to project Cover This Box With Layer After Layer of Stickers. But one of them victoriously emerges from the rest, as a laptop contender. I place it on the desk where it will be … considered.
That’s when I get a closer look at the dust. I don’t know how thick a single layer of dust is, but this is enough to qualify for a blanket.
PRO TIP FROM UNCLE WIL: Iif you’re super lazy like me and hate dusting, you can put the air filter in your office to maximum, close the door, and use your compressed air thing to blast the dust off your desk, right into the air. The filter will suck it all out and you get to decide if you want that to be a dirty joke or not. This is not recommended for people with allergies. Wearing a mask while you do it is encouraged.
The dust settles. And now my work area is clean and orderly.
Well … except for that cable.
SOME TIME LATER
Fucking cables my god why does everything have to be so hard all I wanted was a Pepsi.
But the desk really does look great. In fact, I can feel the creative energy building around me and flowing…
…right into that stack of boxes in the corner, next to the bags of stuff I brought home from cons last year that I was going to sort through right after I got caught up on the New Yorker. It’s kind of pooling there, sloshing up on that Lego set I’ve been hoping to build since the 1900s.
Shit. Okay. I guess we’re doing this. Having unfucked the desk, I now turn my attention to unfucking the entire office.
I make three piles: recycle. trash. keep.
The keep pile is sorted into categories: Presidential Library, Art, Badges, Books, and so on. They will be put away in due time, but I linger on some of them: dice. drawings. notes from people who didn’t trust themselves to remember the words when they met me (I see you SO HARD, friends). And I remember how fun it was before Covid, how hard we’ve tried since Covid to make it fun again, and how much I’m sincerely excited to see my friends, castmates, and fellow nerds again in Austin next month.
I put the keepers away in their various proper places, handle the rest, and look around my freshly unfucked office. Now! I can get to work!
Into the chair. Okay, shake off the cobwebs, open xed and … oh. Wow.
Wow that’s … wow.
My keyboard is so dirty. Like, I need to write myself up for this. How did I not notice this before? Why is that key sticky? Is that cat fur? And is that … is that fucking barbecue sauce down there between the K and the L?
The keys come right off for easy cleaning. I have a little tool and everything.
No, it's not a coincidence: Eric Kripke was a huge Good Omens fan, and always happy to talk about it. (And a Sandman fan and an American Gods fan.) You'll find bits of each of them in Supernatural.
Disneys vd Bob Iger har under en resultatrapport berättat att företaget aktivt utforskar sätt att förhindra kontodelning. Företagets användaravtal för strömningstjänsterna kommer få nya villkor angående kontodelning senare i år.
Iger valde att inte ge en specifik siffra för hur många kunder som delar konton men sa att det rör sig om ett ”betydande” antal. Enligt Iger har Disney den tekniska förmågan att upptäcka kontodelning och företaget hoppas hinna implementera åtgärder nästa år.
Netflix har aktivt förhindrat kontodelning ända sedan början av 2022. De nya reglerna nådde Sverige i maj. Efter Netflix initiativ har det förekommit spekulationer att övriga strömningstjänster kommer ta efter och börja förbjuda kontodelning för att öka intäkterna.
Disney+ kommer dessutom höja priserna i vissa regioner, men vi vet inte huruvida prishöjningen gäller Sverige. I USA höjs abonnemanget från 11 dollar i månaden till 14 dollar med start 12 oktober. Disney har även berättat att det billigare abonnemanget med reklam kommer introduceras i Kanada och i delar av Europa 1 november.
Getting enough steps in to stay healthy might be easier than expected, a new review of the evidence suggests. The study found that walking just under 4,000 steps a day is associated with a reduced risk of early death, while even less than 2,500 steps a day could cut your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.…
Zoom updated its Terms of Service on Monday after a controversy over the company’s policies about training AI on user data. Although the policy literally says that Zoom reserves the right to train AI on your calls without your explicit permission, the Terms of Service now include an additional line which says,…
Last week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered to meet with the striking Writers Guild of America for the first time in nearly 100 days. But almost immediately after leaving the bargaining table, the WGA started receiving calls from trade magazines asking for comments on the negotiations.…
The UK’s Royal Mail today shared images of the eight Special Stamps they are issuing to celebrate Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, marking the 40th anniversary of The Colour of Magic, first book in the series. The stamps can be pre-ordered now, and will … Continue reading →
Remember if you’re out at a store and someone says “This is a robbery” you can say “no it’s not” and then the robber will leave because theyre a robber and this is no longer a robbery .
You can not just say this without dropping the whole story
Ok so,
My dads coworker is at the front and this man comes Up and hands him a document.
The coworker took a Look at the document and while he couldn’t read the things written by Hand, because he wasn’t wearing his glases, he did notice the Logo of a different Bank so he’s like:
“Oh, sorry sir you can’t do that here! You have to go to the other Bank for this :)”
The man, visibly confused leaves, but dosen’t take the document with him.
The coworker, now just as confused as the Guy actually Takes Out his glases and reads the hand written part:
This is a robbery
Can you imagine trying to rob a god damn bank and the teller just cheerfully tells you to go rob the competition instead
I worked as a bank teller for several years and a few things you should know, bank robberies happen far more frequently than you might think and they come in waves. When a bank gets robbed a notification with photos goes to all banks in the area to be on the lookout. And there are two kinds of robbery, the pass the note and the takeover (what you see in movies).
So our branch had had a big takeover robbery as well as a note one. We also had a teller that had transferred to our branch after having been through a robbery. She was sweet as apple pie, hair up to the ceiling, southern lady who had just been through multiple robberies.
A guy comes in and hands her a folded note. Her immediate thought was “this guy needs to learn you don’t hand bank tellers notes. I am just not going to read that.” So how the conversation goes:
Her: how can I help you today?
Him: I’m here to get money
Her: great *hands him a withdrawal slip*
Him: all the information is on the paper
Her: to process the transaction I need you to put it on my piece of paper
SO HE FILLS OUT A WITHDRAWAL SLIP. Meanwhile another coworker is looking at her latest robbery notification email thinking the guy at the window looks a lot like him but the teller is calm and seems to be following standard transaction.
Back at the window the teller notices his name on the withdrawal slip doesn’t match the name on the account so she asks for his ID. He once again tells her all the relevant info is on the folded note but also gives her his ID and says it is his dad’s account. She tells him he will need a check from his dad to get cash. He grabs the note and leaves.
ONE HOUR LATER
Two new robbery notifications hit our emails, both branches within a mile. It is our guy. Teller goes over to the manager and sheepishly informs them he was here and the time. Security department is notified as are local police and the FBI. The FBI comes over believing that these poor tellers had been robbed for the 3rd time in a month and take her statement. She is completely embarrassed telling them how everything went down and he kept signaling to the note and telling her to read it but she was just done.
To which this FBI agent of 40 years who has been to the scene of many bank robberies (several at this branch in recent weeks) says: Ok. Let me see if I got this right, he came in fully intending to rob you. He gave you the note and you just…refused to read it? So he left and went to the bank literally across the street, handed them the exact same note, and they just handed him five grand? Do I have that correct?”
Her: I am so embarrassed
FBI: this is best thing I have ever heard. He even handed you his ID! Holy-
Her: I feel so dumb!
FBI: don’t! This is the best thing I have ever heard. This is going to be in training courses. (He sat there giddy for at least 5 more minutes)
I have a similar story from my friend Fred, who is a great human and I like him lots.
He was working at a 7-11 that got robbed a lot, working nights. And he was bored and read though his entire contract and learned if you’re shot at work you get $200,000. Also, he hated his boss and the job.
So when a guy came in to rob him at gunpoint he got excited and was able to hatch the plan he had been pondering while dealing with a Shitty Boring Job.
“Dude. Shoot me in the leg. Right here- it’ll go through and not hit anything vital and I’ll be able to quit this fucking job. I’ll give you fifty fucking grand to shoot me in the leg then you can take everything in the register.”
This ended with him chasing the weeping attempted burglar out of his store screaming “SHOOT ME YOU FUCKING COWARD I WANT THE MONEY”.
One of my uncles was a branch manager at a local bank when I was a kid. His branch had the dubious honor of being one of- if not the- most robbed bank in the area. There was a bullet hole in the wall behind his desk where he’d been shot at once.
One day, this guy came in and announced he was there to rob the place. This man was smoking a cigar with one hand and had a gun in the other.
My uncle pointed at the “No Smoking” sign and told him in no uncertain terms, “Put that cigar out, or finish it outside first.”
This guy, bless his heart, went back outside to finish his cigar.
My uncle locked the door behind him and waited for the cops to show up.
This is what I like to call the Bugs Bunny Deescalation Strategy
The third incarnation of Reddit’s r/Place has come and gone, and now the social media platform has released a timelapse compilation of the project to highlight all of the whimsy—and anger—of its users.
fireflies lighting up a rural Pennsylvania field at dusk
As a european i sometimes forget furefkied are actually real and not american folklore/cryptids. Like you’ve got friendly little bugs that glow in the dark….. b r uh
in case europeans were worried: we love them very much! even tho they’re clumsy and slow and sometimes bump into you, no one swats fireflies here, or takes them for granted. even grownups sometimes reach out in the summer and gently catch a firefly for a minute before letting it go.
By “reach out” that’s meant quite literally–you just kinda. Stick your hand in their flight path and they land on you and will sit on your hand for a bit. Sometimes if you’re just walking or standing outside while they’re active you have to shoo them off you because they’ll just. Sit on you.
They’re harmless and very pretty and it’s always a treat to see because they’re out for a relatively short time each year.
A boycott or a non-boycott by a member of the Public is a voluntary thing.
If your friend sells a script to a struck company during the strike then, yes, she would profoundly damage her chances of joining the WGA when the strike is over. She’s taking the job of someone who is on strike and hurting the strike.
If her sibling (or she) pays for or watches a streaming service, that’s not going to hurt her chances of joining the WGA one day.
The first year of the covid-19 pandemic helped fuel a spike of boozy liver injuries in the U.S., recent research suggests. The study found a jump in reported hospitalizations from alcohol-related hepatitis across the U.S. in 2020—even above the steady increases seen in past years. Deaths from these injuries…
Google lade ned RSS-läsaren Reader för tio år sedan. Nedläggningen var del av Googles stora vårstädning som inleddes 2011 och resulterade i att över 70 produkter övergavs. Bland de hängivna användarna är Reader än idag ett viktigt exempel på hur Google ibland ställer in uppskattade produkter.
Enligt Google berodde nedläggningen av Reader på en dalande användarskara. Google ville även göra verksamheten mindre utspridd och fokusera på vinnande kort. För de som är nyfikna har The Verge en ingående rapport om hur Reader skapades och varför tjänsten försvann, full av anekdoter och baserad på intervjuer med utvecklarna.
Reader hade som mest 30 miljoner användare. Ett mycket respektabelt antal för de allra flesta företag, men småpotatis för en jätte likt Google. I rapporten framgår att den ursprungliga visionen för Reader var betydligt mer ambitiös än att bara skapa en RSS-läsare. Satsningen kallades till en början för ”Fusion”.
Teamet ville skapa ”världens bästa och mest intelligenta leveranstjänst för webbinnehåll och samarbete”. Ett slags socialt nätverk som även kunde visa poddar, bilder och videor. Den mer storslagna visionen fick dock aldrig gehör från chefer. Enligt rapporten ansåg chefer att Reader passade bättre som en finess inom en annan tjänst än som en fristående app.
Tidiga medlemmar i Reader-teamet: Ben Darnell, Chris Wetherell och Laurence Gonsalves
Instagram-grundaren Kevin Systrom var en gång i tiden marknadschef för Reader. Teamet för Reader bestod som mest av runt 12 personer. Ene Google-grundaren Larry Page sägs ha gillat appen i början men den ska sedermera ha hamnat på Page lista över de 100 värsta Google-projekten.
Är det några som fortfarande saknar Reader eller har andra appar och sätt att ta del av webbinnehåll fyllt tomrummet?
When does a squirrel become a pancake? Answer: Apparently, when the world becomes a griddle. It’s officially sweat season for humans in the U.S., which means it’s sploot season for squirrels. And if you don’t know what that means, keep reading.
It’s the end of June and tens of thousands of Americans have struggled through sweltering heat throughout this month. Texas has seen a pretty long heat wave that has brought on triple digit heat, and heat indices higher than 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in some cities. Residents have cranked up the air…
Hazy enough that my camera was able to record sunspots without the benefit of a filter. That’s… pretty hazy, folks.
I hope those in Canada affected by the fires are staying safe, and those in Canada and elsewhere affected by the smoke are doing what they can to avoid the worst effects.
Stranger things have happened, but this one conspiracy theory might actually be true. Alex Goldman, the former host of the once-heralded, now-defunct podcast Reply All, may have just cracked the code on whether Disney replaced the skin of a Hillary Clinton robot with that of Donald Trump.
An overheating phone is something you want to avoid: It can impact the performance of your device, degrade the battery, and even cause permanent damage to the phone (and anything in close proximity to it). As we go into the summer months, spending more time outside, the risk of your phone going from hot to dangerously…
