iPhone 15 Pro screen burn-in or image retention concerns emerge - "This concern adds to the growing list of challenges faced by users of these new iPhone models, including problems such as overheating, display issues, rapid battery drain and other software and hardware complications. Moreover, these issues have emerged within a mere two weeks of the product’s release, leaving users understandably frustrated and unable to fully enjoy their new devices."
Meme - "Apple in 1993:
Does More. Costs Less. It's that simple.
Apple in 2020:
Does Less. Costs More.
The rest of this slogan is available for additional purchase starting from $699.99"
'Ritual mass murder' report in Chapel St Leonards was yoga class - "A yoga class was mistaken for a "ritual mass murder" scene after members of the public saw several people lying on the floor and reported it to police. Five police cars descended on the North Sea Observatory in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, on Wednesday night. Yoga teacher Millie Laws said she thought reports of her being a "mass murderer" were a "joke at first"... The 22-year-old teacher said she was teaching seven students at the Seascape Cafe, which is inside the building, when she saw two dog walkers peering closely through the glass window during the Shavasana or relaxation stage of the class. "They're [students] laying down with blankets over them, their eyes are closed. It's very dark in there. I just had candles and little tea lights lit the whole room, and I was just walking around playing my drum. I had a nice floaty top on with large bell sleeves," she said."
J.K.Rowling Official Site - "The Harry Potter Lexicon
This is such a great site that I have been known to sneak into an internet café while out writing and check a fact rather than go into a bookshop and buy a copy of Harry Potter (which is embarrassing). A website for the dangerously obsessive; my natural home"
Man jailed for attacking sex worker after finding payment 'not worth it' - "Goh Jun Liang pleaded guilty to one count of voluntarily causing hurt... She advertised sexual activities for S$130 (US$96) per act, and Goh arranged to meet her at her residence later that night. They met at the victim's home at 8pm and Goh handed her S$130. They had sexual intercourse before washing up. After this, Goh requested for a second round and handed another S$130 to the victim. However, he was unable to perform the act and the victim had to assist him. Goh felt unhappy as she was doing so, as he felt the victim "had used too much strength and caused him pain", the prosecutor said. Goh was also upset that the victim had called him "troublesome" as he was taking too long."
Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome - "Chrome's invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the "Privacy Sandbox," is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome... Google seemingly knows this won't be popular. Unlike the glitzy front-page Google blog post that the redesign got, the big ad platform launch announcement is tucked away on the privacysandbox.com page... all of Google's documentation about this feature feels like it was written on opposite day, with Google calling the browser-based advertising platform "a significant step on the path towards a fundamentally more private web." The argument here is that someday—not now, but someday—Google promises to turn off third-party tracking cookies in Chrome, and the new ad platform, which has some limitations, is better than the free-for-all that is third-party cookies. The thing is, third-party cookies mostly only affect Chrome users. Apple and Firefox have both been blocking third-party cookies for years and won't be implementing Google's new advertising system—it's only the Chromium browsers that still allow them."
Cardiff: Parents' fury after son refused food and drink during heatwave - "A mum and dad from Cardiff say their son was left 'hungry and humiliated' after he was unable to have lunch due to a problem with the canteen's electronic payment system. Ben and Anna claim their son, who goes to St Illtyd’s Catholic High School, scanned his fingerprint on the ParentPay system during lunchtime on Thursday (8th September) but when it declined was told by staff: "You can’t have food, no money darling.""
Melton news: Klay Holland who bashed and raped home intruder Shane Cox jailed in Melbourne - "A Melbourne man who overpowered and raped an intruder will spend at least four years in prison. Klay Holland, 32, faced the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday when he was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of four years and 10 months. Holland's victim, Shane Cox, had broken into a unit in Melton in Melbourne's west in March 2021 armed with a knife and wearing a mask. He had asked for money and drugs, and was allegedly linked to others who had gone to the home to stand over a resident. Cox, 36, who was high on methylamphetamine, was overpowered by Holland who was a guest at the home. Cox was beaten with a baseball bat and was incapacitated on the floor, where Holland then raped him... He was hogtied, his mouth was duct taped and his pants were pulled down to his upper thighs"
Of course, the Americans were very upset. Their love of vigilante justice is probably linked to their individualism
Swiss aim to classify details of bank collapse for 50 years - "the investigating commission will hand over its files to the Swiss Federal Archives after longer than the usual 30 years to ensure confidentiality in the case, which focuses on the activities of the Swiss government, financial regulator, and central bank in the run up to the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse."
Azealia Banks cancels show in Brisbane, Australia - "Azealia Banks has canceled another Australian show and said she won’t return because the country makes her “utterly miserable.” Banks was due to perform in Brisbane at The Tivoli on Tuesday night but took to Instagram to unleash on Australia before the promoter confirmed in a statement that the show was canceled and all ticketholders would be refunded... “I’m so sorry you guys, actually I’m not sorry. But listen, last time I was in Brisbane and y’all threw s–t on the stage and damn near almost f–king hit me in the face with a f–king bottle of soda or whatever that s–t was,” she said in a video. “That was the most like racist, most f–king demoralizing experience of my f–king life and right now I’m on a really good track.” She said she had “enough emotional intelligence to kind of erase room for error before it happens.” “I am a beautiful black woman and I am not going to get in front of some audience of white people for them to be throwing s–t at me,” she said. “I am so not sorry. I am not sorry at all. Brisbane, y’all are just going to have to take the L and smoke it.”... Banks has previously criticized Australia, calling her performance at Splendour In The Grass in 2015 a “waste of my f–king time.” Reports from 2013 claim Banks walked off stage 90 seconds into her performance at the Listen Out Festival in Melbourne after a bottle was thrown at her, and 15 minutes into her 50-minute headline set in Sydney when a can of beer was thrown at her."
Meme - Rachel McCartney @RachelMComedy: "I put my leftover dinner in a takeout container last night and dumped it onto my plate this morning and now it looks like it costs $47"
Baby Enlists Dog's Help To Pull Off The Greatest Fridge Heist Ever - "Look, I'm not saying they're all Einsteins, but some babies are way smarter than we give them credit for. Like, for instance, this little tot who enlisted the help of his faithful canine sidekick to grab some sneaky snacks from the fridge."
Keywords Kid climbs on dog to raid fridge
Meme - "15 Disney Princesses Taking A Dump What Their Turds Would Look Smell Like
Yes, Disney Princesses Need To Do Number Two Too
Princess Jasmine's turds would probably be long, curly smell really awful as the food in Arabia at that time would have consisted of dates, barley, rice & meat."
Meme - "So I asked my boyfriend to talk dirty to me in Bulgarian during sexytime... It was incredibly hot, until I recognized the word "tomato" and asked him what he was saying. He then admitted that he was explaining how to make a salad."
Meme - *Gru's Plan*
"Invasive Pig
Cull
Invasive Spotted Lantern Fly
Cull
Invasive Burmese Python
Cull
Invasive House Cat
Trap, Neuter, Release"
Being too intelligent might make you a less effective leader - "But new research suggests that having a very high IQ is not necessarily such a good thing when it comes to leadership – the brightest people are actually less effective leaders, according to new research... The reasons behind the trend are harder to pinpoint. The highly intelligent leaders were not using harmful leadership styles, such as adopting a laissez-faire approach. But they did struggle to adopt the best leadership practices. One of the reasons may be that very clever people sometimes fail to communicate clearly enough or explain complex tasks. They may also struggle to see what others find challenging. And if a manager comes across as too intellectual, it may make the leader appear aloof or unapproachable."
Disney, Bob Iger, Bob Chapek Sued Over “Fraudulent” Streaming Costs - "Disney has been hit again with another lawsuit from investors over the alleged sleight of hand accounting the company used to hide streaming losses."
Disney Sued By Film Finance Partner For Using ‘Hollywood Accounting’ - "Disney has been hit with a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court by film financier TSG, which claims that the media giant used “nearly every trick in the Hollywood accounting book” to hoard hundreds of millions in profit."
Meme - "Hahaha I'm Irish"
"Oh cool what part of lreland are you from?"
"i dont fucking know. I was born in Tampa, Florida. you'd have to ask my ancestor from 300 years ago who came here and had his lineage procreate with every other flavor of white person before I settled on whichever of those 36 heritages had my favorite aesthetic so that I seem cultured"
Can Singapore hold on to its reputation as Asia’s ‘safe haven’? | Financial Times - "The city-state is wrestling with rising inequality — linked to unrestrained capital inflows from the US, Europe and especially China — as it prepares for its first change of leader in almost 20 years. Some are questioning whether an economic model so reliant on foreign capital is benefiting citizens in the way it once did. There is also the delicate matter of deteriorating Sino-US relations. As more mainland Chinese cash and influence seeps out of China and into Singapore, the country’s high-wire balancing act between Beijing and Washington becomes even more precarious. All 10 accused in the money-laundering sting share one thing in common: possession of a passport believed to be issued in China... Singapore receives a bigger percentage of US foreign direct investment into Asia-Pacific than China and Hong Kong combined... “The money is pouring in,” says Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a global strategic advisory firm. Investors want somewhere “genuinely open, home to everyone and that isn’t dominated by one power. Hong Kong has long since ceased to be that pan-Asian hub.”... For Singaporeans preparing for this next era, the opacity of the succession plan adds to an underlying sense of unease about the city-state’s identity. “Philosophically and emotionally, it’s the sense that the ‘Switzerland of the east’ is actually designed more for global plutocrats than ordinary Singaporeans”... Singapore, whose own population is ageing, has become a favoured home for Asia’s millionaires, prompting local pushback to foreign workers and immigration. House prices and rents have skyrocketed, with the median price of a private home hitting $1.2mn in 2022, the highest among cities in the Asia-Pacific, according to data from the Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific Centre for Housing. Rents for private homes outpaced even New York City at the end of last year... Fuelling a large part of this spike in housing costs, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, has been the movement of rich Chinese, not just tycoons but also talented citizens with specific skills. Many are fleeing a “common prosperity” campaign — aimed at redistributing more of China’s wealth — and a crackdown on multiple industries including property, healthcare, technology and education. “Singapore-washing”, where mainland Chinese companies redomicile and rebrand as Singapore-based international businesses as a hedge against geopolitical risk, has increased. Of 63,801 new corporate entities formed in Singapore last year, 29 per cent had majority foreign ownership, according to analytics group Handshakes. Of those 7,312 were from China, up from 4,951 in 2021... the S$1.8bn money-laundering scandal will reinforce some critics’ view that Singapore acts as a bolt-hole for less-than-respectable money or flight capital... Singapore has “one foot firmly in each canoe, gaining benefits from both [the US and China],” says Drew Thomson, a visiting senior research fellow at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “But those canoes are drifting apart, can you really play both sides forever?”"
The limits of our personal experience and the value of statistics - Our World in Data
On the valorisation of personal experience
Meme - "Pro tip: stuff some Crazy Bread DEEP! DEEP! in that turkussy for an EXTRAMOISTBESTEST Thanksgiving bird"
Photographer finds venomous human-hand sized spider guarding babies under his bed - "A photographer's shocking picture of a Brazilian wandering spider hiding under his bed has made him one of the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Gil Wizen won the Urban Wildlife Award as part of the prestigious competition, which is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum. The photographer snapped the picture of the deadly spider – which feeds on frogs and cockroaches – while he was visiting Ecuador. After becoming suspicious about the amount of spiders in the room he was staying in, he looked under his bed to discover the Brazilian wandering spider guarding hundreds of baby spiders. Brazilian wandering spiders produce toxic venom which can be deadly to mammals, including humans."
Guy Builds Terrifying Laser-Powered Lawn Mower - ""It's not going to cut your finger off or anything like that," Riley warned in his video, "but a direct hit to your eyeball, even for just a nanosecond, would make you blind for the rest of your life." Worst of all, Riley's invention is incredibly inefficient, felling grass and other weeds in a narrow beam over an entire week... In short, it's exactly the kind of invention you'd see a YouTuber come up with: not to actually serve a useful purpose, but to give their audience a chuckle — and we're here for it."
Why Did Obama Free This Terrorist? - "On January 17, 2017, as one of the final acts of his presidency, Barack Obama commuted the sentence of 74-year-old Oscar Lopez Rivera, the Puerto Rican nationalist who had served 35 years of a 55-year conviction for the crime of “seditious conspiracy,” as well as attempted robbery, explosives and vehicle-theft charges... from 1974, when the group announced itself with its first bombings, to 1983, when arrests finally destroyed its membership base, the FALN was the most organized, active, well-trained and deadly domestic terror group based in the United States. The FALN was responsible for over 130 bombings during this period, including the January 1975 explosion in Manhattan’s historic Fraunces Tavern, which killed four and wounded 63. In October of that year, it set off, all within the span of an hour, 10 bombs in three cities, causing nearly a million dollars in damage. In August 1977, the FALN set off a series of bombs in Manhattan, forcing 100,000 workers to evacuate their offices; one person was killed, and six were injured. In 1979, the group even threatened to blow up the Indian Point nuclear energy facility located north of New York City. It later sent a communiqué warning the U.S. to “remember … that you have never experienced war on your vitals and that you have many nuclear reactors.” In 1980, FALN members stormed the Carter-Mondale election headquarters in Chicago, and the George H.W. Bush campaign headquarters in New York, holding employees there hostage at gunpoint. In 1981, they plotted to kidnap President Reagan’s son Ron. Plainly, the group was deadly serious about its objectives—a free, independent and socialist Puerto Rico—and zealous in its pursuit of them... In the mid-1970s, Fidel Castro made Puerto Rican independence a major plank of his country’s foreign policy, much to the consternation of the Ford and Carter administrations. Over this period, Cuba had very close relations to the main pro-independence party in Puerto Rico, the PSP. (The FBI, in fact, held that by the early 1960s, Juan Mari Brás, the PSP’s leader, was a paid Cuban agent). And, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the prominent Puerto Rican revolutionary Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, who later co-founded the FALN, was recruited by Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) as an operative as early as 1963. U.S. authorities claim that Cuban intelligence gave Ojeda Ríos training in espionage and bomb-making techniques, which he then passed on to other pro-independence militants. According to the FBI, by 1973, 135 Puerto Rican radicals had received “extensive instruction in guerrilla war tactics, preparation of explosive artifacts and sophisticated methods of sabotage” within Cuba itself... Clinton’s conditional offer required that FALN members “refrain from the use or advocacy of the use of violence for any purpose.” Clinton offered Lopez this same deal. He refused it. Perhaps it was because he could not, in good conscience, agree to abide by its conditions... As during the 1970s and 1980s, support for outright independence is almost nonexistent"
Female surgeons sexually assaulted while operating - "Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery's open secret. There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex... Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons who responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years... the report shows men are also subject to some of this behaviour (24% had been sexually harassed)"
UK’s biggest pub group to charge 20p more a pint at busy times under surge pricing - "A pint of beer during the busiest periods will cost drinkers 20p more under a “dynamic pricing” system introduced by Britain’s largest pub group. Stonegate Group, which owns chains including the Slug & Lettuce and Yates’s, said it was raising prices at 800 of its venues during peak times, such as weekends, to help cover soaring costs... Dynamic pricing, often known as surge pricing, is a common feature of other industries, such as aviation, where airlines charge more for tickets during the school holidays. Uber uses the feature when demand is high, with prices rising automatically when more people are trying to hail a ride. Dynamic pricing is also a common practice among big sports or gig ticket companies in the US, although it is more rare in the UK... The chief executive of another of Britain’s big pub chains, who asked not to be named, said the practice was not unusual and had been “going on for decades”, in the largest venues, during events and busy periods. “They’re not the only ones doing it,” he said. “To be honest, good for them that they’re telling people,” he said, adding that the transparency may have backfired amid dismay on social media and negative publicity."
These Airports Allow Unticketed Visitors Through Security - "Prior to the pandemic, a slowly growing number of U.S. airports had started allowing visitors to do something they used to be able to do regularly in the pre-9/11 era of air travel: meet and mingle at the terminal gates, see their friends and family take off, or welcome loved ones with a warm embrace right at the gate, regardless of whether they were flying anywhere... The new ONT+ Visitor Pass program allows unticketed guests to obtain a visitor pass, which they can use to pass through TSA security checkpoints and either spend more time with friends and family before they depart or greet them when they land. ONT+ is also meant to simply make the bars, restaurants, and retail stores in the terminal’s upper departure levels available to the nontraveling public."