International

Connected media - Linked media Is this the future? A world in which people can’t step away from the digital realm long enough to focus solely on everyday tasks such as socializing or exercising? Eric Decker, a YouTube and TikTok creator who goes by the name Airrack, posted a video poking fun at an “average day for an Apple Vision Pro owner,” showing him wearing the headset while lifting weights at the gym, getting his hair cut, going through airport security, walking down a street and even showering. (The Vision Pro is not waterproof.) “I truly feel most of these videos are skits,” Mr. Lentini said. “You can just tell.” Still, skit or not, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Tuesday that distracted driving is no joke. In 2021, more than 3,500 people in the Unit...

Beneath its bright, icy shell, Jupiter's moon Europa is believed to harbor a salty ocean, making it a world that could be one of the most habitable places in our solar system.But most life as we know it needs oxygen. And it's an open question whether Europa's ocean has it.Now, astronomers have determined how much of the molecule is produced on the moon's icy surface, which could be a source of oxygen for the waters below. Using data from NASA's Juno mission, the findings, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that the icy world generates less oxygen than some astronomers had hoped.“This is lower than we would expect,” said Jamey Szalay, a plasma physicist at Princeton University who led the study. But it's "not completely prohibitive" to habitability, he added.On Ear...

It would be easy to dismiss Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI as a case of sour grapes.Musk sued OpenAI this week, accusing the company of violating the terms of its founding agreement and violating its founding principles. According to him, OpenAI was founded as a non-profit organization that would build powerful artificial intelligence systems for the benefit of humanity and distribute its research to the public for free. But Musk argues that OpenAI broke that promise by starting a for-profit subsidiary that absorbed billions of dollars in investment from Microsoft.A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment on the lawsuit. In a memo sent to employees on Friday, Jason Kwon, the company's chief strategy officer, denied Musk's claims and said: "We believe the claims in this lawsuit m...

Americans with Covid or other respiratory infections do not need to isolate for five days before returning to work or school, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, a striking sign of changing attitudes about the coronavirus.People with respiratory illnesses can resume daily activities if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the help of medications and if their symptoms are improving, agency officials said. Recognizing that people can be contagious even without symptoms, the CDC urged those ending isolation to limit close contact with others, wear well-fitting masks, improve indoor air quality and practice good hygiene, such as wash your hands and cover your coughs and sneezes, for five years. days.The guidelines apply to Covid, influenza and respir...

An official responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion at Columbia University's Irving Medical Center was accused this week of plagiarizing large sections of his doctoral thesis, according to an anonymous complaint filed with the university.The 55-page complaint accused the official, Alade McKen, of copying material in her 2021 thesis at Iowa State University from more than two dozen other scholars and from Wikipedia, which is written and edited by volunteers from the general public.The complaint was published online Thursday by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news site that last year campaigned against former Harvard University president Claudine Gay. She resigned in January following accusations of plagiarism and after her response to anti-Semitism on campus was criticiz...

When you read – a book, a street sign, a billboard, this article – how much do you really notice the letters? If you're like most people, the answer is probably no.But even if you don't really notice them, you might sense if something has changed slightly. That's the feeling some people have had in recent weeks when they turn on their Microsoft Word programs.After 17 years of Calibri as Word's default typeface, many users suddenly found themselves typing a new typeface called Aptos. The change also affects the appearance of PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel.Letters are letters, but to designers and typography enthusiasts they matter a lot.Why the change?“We wanted to come up with something new and fresh that was truly designed natively for the modern age of computing,” said Jon Friedman, th...

Most of the plastic in the medicine cabinet is high-quality, medical-grade, and fiendishly difficult to safely dispose of, let alone recycle.Standard recycling center sorting equipment is typically unable to handle small items, and including them only prolongs the sorting process, which therefore increases recyclers' costs without recovering the plastic. Some household medical products, such as needles that have come into contact with bodily fluids, shouldn't even be relegated to household waste.Governments and large pharmacy chains offer some guidance. For example, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has a map of safe drug disposal collection containers, while Walgreens and CVS Health have safe drug disposal kiosks in select locations. They also sell special con...

The Food and Drug Administration this month approved a drug that reduces the risk of severe reactions in children and adults exposed to traces of peanuts, tree nuts, milk, dairy products and other food allergens — a move that could dramatically improve the quality of people's lives. cope with these risks. The results of the clinical trial supporting the decision were released on Sunday.Although the drug Xolair offers a new level of protection to people who may have life-threatening reactions to common foods, and especially to those who are allergic to several foods, its use comes with important warnings.Does Xolair cure food allergies?No. Xolair is not a cure for food allergies, nor can it be used to treat acute reactions. People taking Xolair should continue to avoid foods to which the...