Among the worst offenders is plastic, a material that is largely unregulated and can contain thousands of chemicals. Silicone and coatings on metal cans can also contain toxic or understudied compounds, Geueke said. Many paper and cardboard products were until recently treated with PFAS and can contain a layer of plastic.
Over the past 40 years, Americans have been moving to more disaster-prone regions of the U.S. South and West. “A hurricane cutting the Gulf side of Florida now just encounters way more houses, way more businesses, way more roads, way more infrastructure than it did 40 years ago,” Keys said.
At the same time, climate change has been increasing the frequency and severity of extreme storms and wildfires in those fast-growing regions. Finally, when disaster strikes, inflation and labor shortages have driven up the cost of rebuilding.
All of these factors have made disasters more expensive, and contributed to the rise in premiums. But the biggest factor behind the rise, according to Keys, is the way that climate change is reshaping a fundamental pillar of the insurance industry.
Insurance is built around the assumption that disaster doesn’t strike everyone at the same time. For many types of insurance, that assumption is mostly true — a car insurer, for example, knows that it’s unlikely that every driver will get into a fender bender on the exact same day. But when it comes to home insurance, climate change is causing this assumption to crumble. A major wildfire could easily burn down an entire town, or a hurricane could easily rip the roofs off all the homes in a neighborhood. For this reason, insurance companies in disaster-prone regions end up purchasing their own insurance policies, known as “reinsurance.”
Reinsurance protects regular insurance companies from going bankrupt from a string of major disasters. Since reinsurance companies cover the epicenters of extreme weather, they’ve recently become extremely sensitive to climate risk. Since 2020, premiums for reinsurance have doubled, and will likely continue to rise. In states that experience frequent extreme weather disasters — like Louisiana, Texas, and Florida — insurance companies end up purchasing a lot of expensive reinsurance, and those costs get passed down to customers.
This is the biggest factor behind the recent surge in home insurance premiums, and Keys doesn’t expect it to stop anytime soon. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Jacques de Vaucleroy, the chairman of the major reinsurance firm Swiss Re, said that reinsurance premiums will continue to rise until people stop building in dangerous areas.
Good article, several interesting specifics and a food overview. The last bold is mine.
Two full systems were donated using German funds. I hope more are in the pipe.
Each Skynex system is composed of four Revolver Gun Mk3 cannons, a CN-1 control node, and an X-TAR3D radar.
Another great list.
Practical Engineering is beloved. I used to like Smarter Everyday about the same, but Grady is just so much more consistent and interesting on the infrastructure world.
And Jenny is a geek I can get along with. The Starwars hotel failure was fascinating. Wish there was a bit more economic context, but she's great.
Looking forward to some binges here.
Lots of good ones in there. Thanks!
B1M is great, Mega Projects and others of Simon's channels are good (some better then others). Wendover is amazing, I just wish he out more out, but the production quality is probably to high to increase the rate.
I'll have to check the rest out. :)
He is indeed a great find. His Dubai lights was one I was just thinking about due to another post.
As I said in the other comment, PreRun mentioned the same. It's actually impressive to see how well Ukraine has adapted to EU/NATO/Western standards whilst in a war. More ways Ukraine is winning this, or at least staying afloat.
Indeed, PreRun said similar in his most recent video about Ukraine's War Economy. Still, percentages or some indication of how close they are to being capable would make me feel less frustrated with the situation.
What are lemmy's favorite video channels for more depth then you get from average news and television sources?
Prerun is one that comes to mind as he digs, thinks, and explains, and is willing to say he's wrong. Business Insider is another one that has a great number of in depth topics, even if not quite as much as one might want sometimes. DW is another. RealLifeLore also seems to some great explaining. LegalEagle similar.
All of these are debatable to a greater or lesser degree, but I'm interested in alternative sources. What else is out there? What platform? Why?
I read this on the 14th or so and did a face palm. Floridaland is for the alligators apparently.
Additionally, the federal government has failed to provide sufficient data to support the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 boosters, or acknowledge previously demonstrated safety concerns associated with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, including:
- prolonged circulation of mRNA and spike protein in some vaccine recipients,
- increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, and
- increased risk of autoimmune disease after vaccination.
And my favorite:
- Potential DNA integration from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines pose unique and elevated risk to human health and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients.
Apparently we are at risk of covid immune babies!
Exactly true in the newpipe comparison. Same with YT-dlp variants.
I'm an always on VPN sort of guy, but most are not. So yes the fingerprint tradeoff is one I accept within my ability to deal with inconvenience. Mostly upside at this point with no ads, just sponsors that slip through sponsor block.
My fingerprint it's perfect, but I know it's working as I can see other peoples feeds are more adaptive and directed then whatever I get. I know I have a hole when I see something spammy too.
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/ always worth a check.
Agreed, now the fun part of coming up with a legal basis to do so and convincing regulators.
Mix of Firefox derivatives on LineageOS, or Cromite. Firefox or ungoogled chrome on a desktop.
Try reading tomshardware with ublock origin on, and without using a reader mode or other trick I couldn't get past it's adblock detector and Captchas (on VPN). That was several years ago so I just stopped visiting. My mental blocklist persay. Looks like it's more accessible now, but I'll probably still avoid it.
Yes... But what rate are they producing? Bloody article.
Guessing it's lower then the 2000 shot daily. I know the US is ramping up it's own production of 155.
I don't think this requires an act of congress. I think you might see more consumer advocation on the part of FTC (although it doesn't currently regulate online broadcast), or potentially the CFPB.
Admittedly it's more likely to see the EU do some regulations, but it all depends on the election.
That's pretty impressive. I've been using Omnivore but newswaffle might work better. I like the open source existence. Did you find it or are you the developer?
I miss it all the time. I wish Pixels would get off their internal storage racket, or at least give you extremely large options.
I appreciate the cogent context and solution oriented post.
I'd also say though that from a privacy standpoint self-hosting invidious is still allowing GeoIP info to be attached to downloaded videos, which is a fingerprint which can be used by data mining. Admittedly rather abstract as in this case the primary point of deplatforming might just be to de-ad, or give better video control, etc, and not obfuscate for privacy sake.
As I said though great points!
While I agree, I have a hard time seeing how people will stop using it until the field changes. Maybe in 10 years it will the the MySpace of the sitcom era, but right now it's still growing. That growth is giving it carte blanche to manipulate the users as it sees fit. Regulation might impact it, but it's still a bit of a Goliath.
- Compared to 2023, YouTube’s user base has grown by 20 million this year, representing a 0.74% increase. From Global media insights
Also the active user base is 2.7 billion people in 2024 from the same source above.
The alternatives are out there, but just not in the same league.
I'm with the OP. I just gave up on tomshardware pages entirely, even with ublock origin, reader mode, and other tricks. The enshitification just makes it to difficult to garner the info I want, and it's easier to find it elsewhere.
>Harris entered August with more money than Trump, and managed to raise more than she spent over the month. Trump’s campaign, by contrast, spent more than it raised despite far fewer expenses. Her campaign reported taking in $190 million; his, just shy of $45 million.
>The vice president’s campaign outspent Trump $174 million to $61 million in August. But Harris’ preexisting cash advantage and superior fundraising mean that she ended the month with $235 million, $100 million more than Trump.
...
>Trump is also relying heavily on outside groups, including for campaign activities that most campaigns have traditionally conducted in-house, such as canvassing.
>He benefited from more outside spending on his behalf in August than Harris did — $163 million to $104 million, according to FEC independent expenditure filings.
>One pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., reported $25 million newly raised in August, including $10 million from Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks and $5 million from Paul Singer, a major GOP donor who was once critical of Trump. Several other groups that reported major spending on Trump’s behalf in August, including the Elon Musk-linked America PAC, don’t report their donors until October.
>Two pro-Harris super PACs, FF PAC and American Bridge, respectively reported $36 million and $21 million raised in August. Much of that money came funneled through nonprofits, so the actual donors behind that money are not known. The largest individual donations to the groups included $3 million from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz to FF PAC and $2.5 million from longtime Democratic donor Deborah Simon to American Bridge.
So lots of numbers and a bit hard to track it in this article they way they reference, they need a table. An amazing amount of money for monthly numbers, even this late in the campaign.
Academic who coined the word presenteesim says ‘micromanagers’ will not attract talent and may harm productivity
>Employers who force staff to return to the office five days a week have been called the “dinosaurs of our age” by one of the world’s leading experts who coined the term “presenteeism”.
>Sir Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School, said employers imposing strict requirements on staff to be in the office risked driving away talented workers, damaging the wellbeing of employees and undermining their financial performance.
Ukraine’s military has claimed it sank a Russian submarine in a port in Crimea, in what would be another major setback for Moscow in the occupied peninsula.
Rostov-on-Don hit again? Anyone have links to visuals?
> Trump has the magic touch to juice turnout and excite Republicans in a way that his imitators do not. In 2018 and 2022, the two elections in the Trump era when the head honcho was not on the ballot, pro-Trump Republican candidates did poorly, running below expectations and losing winnable races. Meanwhile, even when Trump lost in 2020, he overperformed in public polling.
> It’s an interesting puzzle: Many of Trump’s ideas are largely unpopular with voters; without his charisma, his ideological allies are left with policy positions like abortion bans that most Americans don’t really like. It’s Trump’s personality that keeps him happily ensconced at the head of the party.
> The result is that candidates like Vance up and down state ballots try to build on Trump’s political legacy without being able to capture his personal one.
It’s a political problem, not an economic crisis.
Alternative link: https://archive.ph/ce08r
"Specifically, let me make three points. First, while $34 trillion is a very large figure, it’s a lot less scary than many imagine if you put it in historical and international context. Second, to the extent debt is a concern, making debt sustainable wouldn’t be at all hard in terms of the straight economics; it’s almost entirely a political problem. Finally, people who claim to be deeply concerned about debt are, all too often, hypocrites — the level of their hypocrisy often reaches the surreal.
How scary is the debt? It’s a big number, even if you exclude debt that is basically money that one arm of the government owes to another — debt held by the public is still around $27 trillion. But our economy is huge, too. Today, debt as a percentage of G.D.P. isn’t unprecedented, even in America: It’s roughly the same as it was at the end of World War II. It’s considerably lower than the corresponding number for Japan right now and far below Britain’s debt ratio at the end of World War II. In none of these cases was there anything resembling a debt crisis. ..."
The platform’s listing, expected in March, would be the largest IPO by a social media company since Pinterest went public in 2019
Reddit made an initial public offering filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday ahead of its highly-anticipated stock market debut.
The social network plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT.” Its listing – expected in March – would be the largest IPO by a social media company since Pinterest went public in 2019.
How social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined, Reddit said in a statement.
The IPO filing revealed that Reddit sustained $90.8m in losses in 2023, as its revenue grew by roughly 21%. The business estimated that its US average revenue per user or ARPU, was $3.42 for the last quarter of 2023 – a decrease of 2% year over year...
Major international oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron have increased their footprint in the region.
Guyana's oil production is booming, and it's growing at an unprecedented pace, according to energy expert Dan Yergin.
"Guyana is very important because it is the fastest offshore oil development in the history of the world," he said in a CNBC interview on Monday.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron have both been expanding their footprints in the region. Exxon began production at its third project in Payara, Guyana, this year, bringing its total production capacity in the region to approximately 620,000 barrels per day.
And in October, Chevron signed a deal to acquire oil company Hess, with one big trophy of the agreement being a project off the coast of Guyana.
But long-simmering antagonisms between Guyana and its neighbor Venezuela have resurfaced recently, with Venezuela claiming a big chunk of Guyana's land.
"So far it's more bluster," Yergin said. "Nicolás Maduro, the dictator president of Venezuela, had this farcical referendum where maybe 10% of people voted claiming two thirds of Guyana. But what's really piqued his interest is offshore oil."
The flare-up should be taken seriously in the US, Yergin warned, as Maduro remains in a weak position with the country seeing a large refugee crisis.
That's after years of economic collapse have sent millions of Venezuelans fleeing the country, landing mostly in other part of Latin America.
"The risk is that he might do something, he might seize a piece of territory, plant a flag," he said. "And of course, you have to keep in mind that Maduro's close allies are Russia, Cuba, and increasingly, Iran."
For now, hostility between Venezuela and Guyana is more words than action, Yergin added.
In terms of geopolitics, the real threat to oil markets is in the Middle East, at the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
That waterway sees about 9 million barrels of oil pass through every day, especially with Russian oil shifting south after Western sanctions were imposed.
Meanwhile, Houthi rebels in Yemen have declared they would target Israel-bound vessels that do not stop in Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
"The Houthis seem to feel that they're invincible, that they can attack US naval ships," Yergin said. "That's a thing to watch as a geopolitical factor that could affect [oil markets]."
Defence Blog Magazine Russia uses tactics of strategic deception DEFENSE & SECURITYNEWS By Dylan Malyasov Dec 7, 2023
In a geopolitical landscape dominated by shifting alliances and strategic maneuvering, the Russian approach to conflict resolution often veils ulterior motives. Despite calls for peace and temporary ceasefires, the Russian modus operandi seems rooted in exploiting diplomatic processes to buy time for economic recovery and military resurgence.
At present, while global attention is fixated on the Middle East, Moscow actively advocates for “peace talks” concerning Ukraine, enlisting partners from Turkey and the UAE.
Ukrainian intelligence has previously indicated Russia’s contemplation of freezing the conflict—a move that could grant Russia until 2028 to rebuild its military might, potentially expanding aggression beyond Ukraine to the Baltic states.
This practice of tactical maneuvers is not new for the Kremlin; Putin himself has adeptly manipulated public statements and actions. Drawing parallels, the Russian-Chechen conflict saw a similar pattern, dividing the bloody conflict into phases after significant losses suffered by Russian forces against local resistance. Initially aiming to annex the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Russia faced staunch opposition, leading to a divided conflict. Ultimately, the conflict resulted in the withdrawal of Russian forces and the preservation of Chechnya’s independence.
Post the Russian defeat in the first Chechen war, discontent brewed within Russian political circles, particularly the military, regarding the outcome. Concerns surfaced that the Chechen issue remained unresolved, setting a precedent for other national autonomies historically annexed by force.
To reinitiate hostilities, a formal pretext was utilized, purportedly combating non-governmental armed formations considered a terrorist threat. The second war proved more successful for Russia, primarily due to active targeting of civilian populations. Mass clearances of settlements resulted in substantial civilian casualties. Between 1999 and 2002, an estimated 16,000 lives were lost, a significant toll for the relatively small population of the republic.
Russia’s hybrid tactics extended beyond direct engagements. Signing agreements with other states, it employed proxies to destabilize regions, providing a formal pretext for resuming hostilities. This was evident in the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, where Russian intervention followed actions by South Ossetia and Abkhazia—regions under Russian influence—creating conflict with Georgia’s armed forces.
This intervention was preceded by formal appeals from the separatist groups of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the Russian parliament for recognition. Simultaneously, Georgia proposed international peacekeeping forces in the separatist regions, prompting escalated Russian actions post-April 2008. Despite Western initiatives for peaceful resolutions, rejected by separatists and Russia, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war with Russian forces occupying significant Georgian territory, termed by Russian propaganda as “peace enforcement.”
Throughout history, Russia has demonstrated a pattern of ceasefire simulations only to resume conflicts under diverse pretexts. Understanding this historical context becomes imperative in assessing current geopolitical tensions and forecasting potential escalations in global security.
In a similar vein, the crisis in Ukraine unfolded along analogous lines when, employing their proxies and even involving, for the first time, the deployment of the private military company (PMC) “Wagner,” Russians gained control over Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine. Notably, at that juncture, official Moscow distanced itself from Wagner and the separatist factions, labeling them as “little green men.”
Moscow and Putin consistently denied direct involvement in Ukraine. On March 4, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that the forces in Ukraine were not Russian Federation troops but rather “self-defense units” who acquired weapons from local Ukrainians. Simultaneously, media reports analyzing the armaments of the “little green men” revealed Russian weaponry.
It wasn’t until April 17, 2014, that Putin publicly acknowledged Russian military presence in Crimea. The direct involvement of state institutions in creating and managing the PMC “Wagner” was only acknowledged in 2023 during an attempted coup led by the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who subsequently perished in an explosion aboard his private plane over Russian territory.
Initially, the Kremlin denied the existence of the PMC “Wagner,” later referring to it as a “volunteer group” before eventually acknowledging its direct involvement. Putin personally confirmed Russia’s full support and provision of the private military company on June 27 during a meeting with the Ministry of Defense officials.
During the period from 2014 to February 2022, Ukraine pursued diplomatic avenues to resolve the conflict, resorting to ceasefire agreements, notably the Minsk Agreements. These agreements, signed by parties in the Normandy Format, involved Russia and Putin himself as negotiators. However, they were consistently violated, primarily by Wagner mercenaries and proxy forces controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The tenure of Russia under Putin’s leadership has been characterized by the use of clandestine hybrid tactics, propaganda, and a blatant disregard for international law and legal accountability. Adopting a modus operandi akin to organized crime syndicates, the Kremlin feigned agreement signings only to breach them using its hybrid forces. Furthermore, on the international stage, Moscow reneged, denounced, and terminated several crucial agreements concerning human rights, disarmament, and the prevention of global conflicts.
Therefore, the likelihood of Russia, under Putin’s helm, adhering steadfastly to its commitments in the future appears improbable. Expecting the Russian regime to acknowledge its mistakes and engage in talks to create a foundation for a long-term peaceful process might not align with its historical patterns.
Hence, it’s imperative not to don rose-colored glasses and anticipate that the Russian regime will concede its errors or engage in negotiations for the establishment of a prolonged peace process.
Bill Gates says a certain level of intensity is necessary in creating innovative companies like Microsoft.
Bill Gates name-checked Elon Musk and Steve Jobs during a fireside chat on Thursday. The Microsoft founder said he considers himself "very nice" compared to his fellow tech leaders. But Gates acknowledged that a certain level of intensity is required in innovative fields. Bill Gates said he considers himself a more relaxed boss than many of his tech compatriots at the top.
The Microsoft founder name-checked Elon Musk and Steve Jobs during a fireside chat on Thursday after being awarded the Peter G. Peterson Leadership Excellence Award by the Economic Club of New York.
The talk's moderator asked Gates about the lessons he learned in creating a culture of innovation during his time at the helm of Microsoft.
The billionaire, who co-founded the technology company with his childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, said leaders like himself have to think about how "hardcore" they should be when spearheading innovative companies.
"Everybody is different. Elon pushes hard, maybe too much," Gates said, referencing Musk. "Steve Jobs pushed hard, maybe too much."
"I think of myself as very nice compared to those guys," he added with a laugh.
Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, while Musk is the founder and SpaceX and the Boring Company, and cofounder of OpenAI and Neuralink.
Gates has a checkered history with both men. He and Jobs nursed a decades-long love-hate relationship, going from allies to rivals and back again several times. Their back-and-forth competitive spirit is often credited with spurring major innovations at both Microsoft and Apple over the years.
Steve Jobs Bill Gates Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Beck Diefenbach/Reuters; Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times
After Jobs died in 2011, Gates said he respected the Apple founder and was grateful for their competition.
The philanthropist's relationship with Musk has been even more turbulent in recent years. The two men have publicly poked at each other and frequently disagree on everything from space travel to climate change.
Gates told Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, that the Tesla CEO was "super mean" to him in 2022.
"Once he heard I'd shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he's super mean to so many people, so you can't take it too personally," Gates told Isaacson.
But Gates acknowledged during the Thursday discussion that a "certain intensity" is required to succeed as an innovative leader.
"In my 20s, I was monomaniacally focused on Microsoft," he said. "I didn't believe in weekends or vacations.'
The moderator asked Gates to confirm an urban legend that has circulated in recent years in which the billionaire memorized all of his employees' license plates during the early days of Microsoft so he could track who was putting in long hours at work.
"It wasn't that many license plates. We only had a few hundred employees," Gates said, seemingly confirming the tale.
"I can still tell you when they came in and out," he added.
Gates cites his intensity with the "positive experience" he had at Microsoft, which he said still guides his thinking today.
"I view every problem through this innovation lens," he said.
The change is to keep things “affordable for all New Yorkers.”
"For most markets where DoorDash operates, customers are prompted to tip on the checkout screen, with a middle option already selected by default. If they want to, they can adjust the tip later from the status screen while awaiting their food, or even after it’s delivered. That’s changing today; while blaming New York City’s minimum wage increase for delivery workers, DoorDash announced that for “select markets, including New York City,” tipping is now exclusively a post-checkout option"
It seems so ridiculous given tipping fatigue, that DoorDash is making what should be a given sound like a negative.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.
Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed a Russian 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzer with a highly maneuverable racing drone rigged with explosives.
Shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by civil rights activist Serhii Sternenko, a video showing a Russian 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzer which was destroyed by a Ukrainian First-Person-View (FPV) racing drone laden with explosives.
In dramatic footage, the Russian self-propelled howitzer is being blown to pieces in a huge blast.
Ukrainian Soldiers are strapping rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and self-made bombs to cheap racing drones and using them to attack the Russian armored vehicles and trenches.
https://twitter.com/sternenko/status/1712764228837224856
The inexpensive racing drones are apparently so effective that Ukrainian forces can quickly locate and destroy enemy heavy armored vehicles with minimal cost and risk to themselves.
The supersonic Kh-22 anti-ship missile was built to be a carrier killer, but Russia is using them to hit urban areas packed with civilians.
- Russia is launching "unusual" numbers of carrier killer missiles, among others, at urban areas in southern Ukraine.
- The Kh-22 missile is inaccurate when used this way and exceptionally dangerous.
- Its reported use in recent attacks on Odesa indicates Russia is continuing to engage in indiscriminate destruction.
Fairphone proves the usual excuses for ending Android support aren't valid.
I have to admire a company following through on the e-waste reduction by doing it's own updates of the Android OS for an EOL chip. I just wish the fairphone 3 was actually more usable.
> No one in the Android ecosystem can hold a candle to Apple's software support timeline for the iPhone, but there is one company that comes the closest: Fairphone. Following in the footsteps of the Fairphone 2, the Fairphone 3 is also getting an Android-industry-best seven years of OS support. Fairphone continues to run circles around giant tech companies that have a lot more resources than it does, and it's doing this even in the face of component vendors like Qualcomm dropping support for the phone's core components.
> The company announced today that the Fairphone 3, which was released in 2019, has had its support extended to 2026, making for seven years of updates. The company also just released Android 13 for the Fairphone 3. Google's own 2019 phone, the Pixel 4, shut down support in October 2022.
> Fairphone strives to make sustainable smartphones, designing its products to be repairable and also offering replacement parts for sale online. Part of that sustainability mission is an absolutely herculean effort to keep the Android updates flowing, even when Qualcomm drops critical software support for the SoC. Fairphone says the Snapdragon 632 SoC in the Fairphone 3 was only supported up to Android 11, so continuing to support the Fairphone 3 meant doing the upgrades all by itself.
> For the normal update process, Google releases a new build to the Android open source repository, then SoC vendors like Qualcomm take those builds to create a "Board Support Package (BSP)" for each SoC, which includes updated drivers, proprietary blobs, and all the other bits of code that make the hardware work. Android phone manufacturers usually start their work from these SoC-supported builds of Android, so they only need to add support for their additional hardware. With Qualcomm dropping support for the Fairphone 3 SoC, Fairphone had to do the BSP update work on its own. Fairphone is the only Android phone manufacturer that does this. Everyone else shuts down support along with the SoC vendor.
> While seven years of updates is incredible, the one thing you could ding Fairphone for is that the updates don't arrive at a regular cadence. The company actually skipped Android 12 to deliver Android 13 due to all that "build the BSP yourself" work. Monthly security updates probably don't arrive that regularly either. Still, Fairphone doing this with a fraction of the budget of larger companies shows that the usual excuses Android manufacturers make aren't valid. Any company could offer longer support if it wanted to; they're all just content forcing people to upgrade and creating e-waste.
"Will this undermine most of what makes IAmA special? Probably."
... On Saturday, the r/IAmA moderators announced that they will no longer perform these duties:
Active solicitation of celebrities or high-profile figures to do AMAs. Email and modmail coordination with celebrities and high-profile figures and their PR teams to facilitate, educate, and operate AMAs. (We will still be available to answer questions about posting, though response time may vary).
Running and maintaining a website for scheduling of AMAs with pre-verification and proof, as well as social media promotion.
Maintaining a current up-to-date sidebar calendar of scheduled AMAs, with schedule reminders for users.
Sister subreddits with categorized cross-posts for easy following.
Moderator confidential verification for AMAs.
Running various bots, including automatic flairing of live posts The subreddit, which has 22.5 million subscribers as of this writing, will still exist, but its moderators contend that most of what makes it special will be undermined.
"Moving forward, we'll be allowing most AMA topics, leaving proof and requests for verification up to the community, and limiting ourselves to removing rule-breaking material alone. This doesn't mean we're allowing fake AMAs explicitly, but it does mean you'll need to pay more attention," the moderators said.
The mods will also continue to do bare minimum tasks like keeping spam out and rule enforcement, they said. Like many other Reddit moderators Ars has spoken to, some will step away from their duties, and they'll reportedly be replaced "as needed." ...
While Reddit's traffic took a slight hit in the first days of the moderator-led protest, it appears to be bouncing back to near-normal levels.
The bad, although expected news is that according to Similarweb via Gizmodo Reddit traffic is back to pre-protest levels. The caveat is that some of the traffic might still indicate protests, (i.e. John Oliver pics). Most interesting:
> However, Similarweb told Gizmodo traffic to the ads.reddit.com portal, where advertisers can buy ads and measure their impact, has dipped. Before the first blackout began, the ads site averaged about 14,900 visits per day. Beginning on June 13, though, the ads site averaged about 11,800 visits per day, a 20% decrease.
> For June 20 and 21, the most recent days for which Similarweb has estimates, the ads site got in the range of 7,500 to 9,000 visits, Carr explained, meaning that ad-buying traffic has continued to drop.>>>
After Disney refused to re-up Nate Silver’s contract at the influential polling blog FiveThirtyEight, it hired his quasi rival, G. Elliott Morris.
Article from a few weeks ago, but now that G. Elliott Morris is taking over without Nate's models, I'm curious what lemmy's think about political polling analysis from FiveThirtyEight?
Relay for Reddit might continue to be available.
Verge interviewed the maker of Relay for Reddit and says he might survive on a subscription only model of $2-3 USD per month. Lots of limitations inherent in that, but maybe.
How do lemmies feel about this?