Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, September 22

If you’re looking for the Connections answer for Friday, September 22, 2023, read on—I’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solutions to all four categories. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 22, NYT Connections #103! Scroll to the end if you want some hints (and then the answer) to…

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Source: LifeHacker – Today’s NYT Connections Hints (and Answer) for Friday, September 22

Rishi Sunak Presses On With Net Zero U-Turn

Rishi Sunak has vowed to press ahead with watering down key green measures despite intense criticism, because he still believes the UK will hit its net zero target in 2050. From a report: The prime minister defended defying the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) and said he had “absolute confidence and belief” the country was on track to meet its end goal. In a BBC radio interview on Thursday morning, Sunak shrugged off suggestions he had ignored the view of the official body that advises governments on reducing emissions. He said: “I’m very happy to have opinions and advice from everybody, and everyone’s entitled to their view. We’re very confident — being in government, with all the information at our disposal — that we we are on track to hit all our targets.”

Sunak told Radio 4’s Today programme that Margaret Thatcher would have agreed with his rationale, and that it was not right for “working families” to face significant costs as part of the country’s transition to net zero. But he struggled to provide an explanation for claims he had scrapped measures critics said had never seriously been mooted — such as an alleged tax on meat, compulsory car sharing and forcing households to use seven recycling bins. “These are all things that have been raised by very credible people,” he argued. When pressed, Sunak was unable to provide evidence that those specific measures had been suggested by anyone and instead said they had been euphemistically advocated for by bodies such as the CCC.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Rishi Sunak Presses On With Net Zero U-Turn

This $90,000 fireproof tankbot will scout burning buildings for people to save

Fighting fires was always dangerous. But with climate change, there have been more wildfires, which means even more risky rescue missions for local firefighting squads. That’s why multiple different companies and teams of scientists are working to develop robots that can scope out burning buildings before human firefighters have to enter. The latest entrant is FireBot, a remote-controlled robot that can withstand temperatures as high as 650 degrees Celsius. At that scalding temperature, a firefighter wearing a protective suit can only withstand about 15 minutes of exposure.

FireBot, which can be operated for four hours at a time, looks like an object straight out of a sci-fi film. With its saw-like “arms” that help the metallic boxy device move, the bot can climb obstacles in its path using tracks that allow it to climb stairs and debris – a requirement for navigating raging fires. According to TechCrunch, which hosted FireBot’s parent company at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this week, the bot uses MIMO wireless technology that can transfer data to a receiver as far as 0.9 miles away. That way, a crew can safely examine the inside of a burning building while using a joystick and display to maneuver the bot.

The device has built-in sensors that include HD optical and thermal imagers, as well as various mechanisms to detect dangerous gasses. In addition, it can check for the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which are the two deadliest fumes that can injure or kill humans in a fire. Also importantly, the device is seemingly fast despite its boxy appearance. The FireBot can move twice as fast as a firefighter wearing full personal protective equipment that can, on average, be as heavy as 45 pounds.

Paradigm Robotics' Firebot
Paradigm Robotics

The robot is expected to cost at least $90,000 when it goes on sale in the third quarter of 2024. Alternatively, fire departments could lease it. Although this device isn’t exactly cheap, it can help alleviate the annual fees associated with firefighter injuries, which is estimated to cost fire departments up to $197,860 a year, according to a paper the National Fire Protection Association published in late 2019.

The FireBot is not the first device that uses robotics to make firefighting safer. Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are developing what’s known as SAFFiR, or the Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot. The bi-pedal humanoid robot is being engineered to navigate ships, interact with people, and use thermal imaging to identify and handle a hose to put out small fires.

When Engadget covered the Navy’s robot back in 2019, SAFFiR was still not water- and fire-proof, which may be why the Navy said its more advanced prototypes are still in the experimental stages of R&D. Similarly, there’s DARPA’s Atlas, a disaster-response robot that hosts an infrared and a rotating light detection and ranging (LIDAR) laser that allows it to navigate dense smoke. Still, nothing is as seemingly advanced as Paradigm’s FireBot in terms of being able to withstand and navigate heat at fire scenes.

In a similar vein, the Los Angeles Fire Department even experimented with specialized drones that can aid in scope and rescue missions as well as a ridiculously large 3,500-pound “Thermite RS3” robot. That robot costs $272,000, making the FireBot seem almost reasonable by comparison.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-90000-fireproof-tankbot-will-scout-burning-buildings-for-people-to-save-231509079.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – This ,000 fireproof tankbot will scout burning buildings for people to save

NSYNC Confirms They Were Jedi in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

In this, our year of 2023, NSYNC has broken the internet with a reunion and confirmation that three members of the group were in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. My ‘90s nerdy teeny bopper brain can’t process two of my core fandoms almost crossing over: boy bands and Star Wars.

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Source: Gizmodo – NSYNC Confirms They Were Jedi in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

You Can Get 10TB of Degoo Cloud Storage for $100 Right Now

You can currently get a lifetime backup plan of Degoo Premium with 10TB of storage on sale for $99.99 right now (reg. $1,080). Degoo Premium is an AI-based cloud storage solution that offers 10TB of secure space—more than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. If you’re in search of ample storage, this a great option.…

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Source: LifeHacker – You Can Get 10TB of Degoo Cloud Storage for 0 Right Now

Google Takes a Snarky Shot at Apple Over RCS in Its Latest Ad

An anonymous reader shares a report: Google has been trying to publicly pressure Apple into adopting the GSMA’s RCS (Rich Communications Service) messaging protocol for a long time now, with nothing to show for it. As a matter of fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed to completely dismiss the idea when he answered a question on the subject by saying that consumers should buy their moms an iPhone. Google and its Android platform aren’t giving up that easily and they’ve just released a snarky ad to continue criticizing Apple’s preferred messaging platform.

The ad’s called “iPager” and mimics Apple’s marketing language to reveal a retro-styled beeper, indicating that Apple’s behind the curve with its chosen messaging platform. The spot states that the iPager uses “outdated messaging tech” to “text with Android,” citing many of the perceived disadvantages of sticking with SMS technology when communicating with Android phones. Google didn’t invent this comparison whole-cloth, as the 30-year-old SMS tech actually dates back to old-school pagers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Google Takes a Snarky Shot at Apple Over RCS in Its Latest Ad

Incomplete disclosures by Apple and Google create “huge blindspot” for 0-day hunters

Incomplete disclosures by Apple and Google create “huge blindspot” for 0-day hunters

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Incomplete information included in recent disclosures by Apple and Microsoft reporting critical zero-day vulnerabilities under active exploitation in their products has created a “huge blindspot” that’s causing a large number of offerings from other developers to go unpatched, researchers said Thursday.

Two weeks ago, Apple reported that threat actors were actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in iOS so they could install espionage spyware known as Pegasus. The attacks used a zero-click method, meaning they required no interaction on the part of targets. Simply receiving a call or text on an iPhone was enough to become infected by the Pegasus, which is among the world’s most advanced pieces of known malware.

“Huge blindspot”

Apple said the vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-41064, stemmed from a buffer overflow bug in ImageIO, a proprietary framework that allows applications to read and write most image file formats, which include one known as WebP. Apple credited the discovery of the zero-day to Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School that follows attacks by nation-states targeting dissidents and other at-risk groups.

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Source: Ars Technica – Incomplete disclosures by Apple and Google create “huge blindspot” for 0-day hunters

Everything to Know About the New Microsoft Surfaces

When you’re thinking of picking up a new laptop, Microsoft wants you to think of Surface. And during its big September event, the company not only debuted Copilot, its AI-focused assistant rolling out with the next big Windows 11 update, it also showcased two new Surface laptops, both of which could shake up the…

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Source: LifeHacker – Everything to Know About the New Microsoft Surfaces

Forcing Installation of Held-Back Packages in Ubuntu/Debian

During regular software updates in Ubuntu Linux distros, you may encounter a situation where some packages have been kept back and are not updated. This could lead to disparities in the version of packages across different systems.This article will delve into the management of kept back packages in Ubuntu. It will provide a step-by-step guide on how to force these packages to be automatically installed.

Source: LXer – Forcing Installation of Held-Back Packages in Ubuntu/Debian

V/H/S/85 Trailer Promises Grainy Nightmares of the Highest Order

While we can’t really tell what’s happening in the trailer for V/H/S/85, based on the disturbing glimpses it gives—as well as our prior knowledge of the V/H/S series—we can assume it’s a lot of just godawful things, made even more terrifying as they’re rendered in grainy, retro-vintage formats.

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Source: Gizmodo – V/H/S/85 Trailer Promises Grainy Nightmares of the Highest Order

You Should Make the Tiny Frozen Fried Eggs Reddit Hates

It is always fun to watch the internet get angry about food. I’m pretty good at spotting outrage-inducing dishes (before the outrage even begins), and one thing I know with utter certainty is that most people do not appreciate whimsy. Case in point: These tiny fried eggs, which are causing quite a stir on Reddit.

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Source: LifeHacker – You Should Make the Tiny Frozen Fried Eggs Reddit Hates

Facebook Now Allows Users to Link Separate Profiles

Facebook users can now create multiple personal profiles with unique feeds and relevant content for each one, Meta announced in a press release on Thursday. Historically, users had to create a completely unattached profile and log in and out to toggle between the two, but that is changing with the new feature.

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Source: Gizmodo – Facebook Now Allows Users to Link Separate Profiles

The Apocalyptic Events You Should Actually Worry About

If you are a normal person who even occasionally reads or listens to the news, you’ve probably wondered when, and not if, the world is going to end. With the global pandemic still fresh in everyone’s mind, this isn’t as crazy as it might have seemed a few years ago—and make no mistake, the world is going to end…

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Source: LifeHacker – The Apocalyptic Events You Should Actually Worry About

US to again offer free COVID tests ahead of respiratory virus season

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Source: Ars Technica – US to again offer free COVID tests ahead of respiratory virus season