Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said this week that his company’s software engineering headcount has remained “mostly flat” over the past year as internal AI tools have delivered substantial productivity gains.

Speaking on TBPN, Benioff said he has about 15,000 engineers who are “more productive than ever.” The company has redirected its hiring efforts toward sales and customer engagement roles, hiring 20% more account executives this year as it pushes its Agentforce agentic AI service.

Human salespeople remain essential for explaining the “intricacies and nuances” of agentic AI to skeptical enterprise customers, he argued. Other parts of the business have seen deeper cuts. In a separate appearance on The Logan Bartlett Show, Benioff said that Salesforce had reduced its customer support workforce by roughly 50%.

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Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes’ candy-colored, ultra-stylized period piece has been a legitimate sensation for Netflix, adapting the Julia Quinn novel series that itself owes plenty to Jane Austen (as does just about any Regency romance). With a large, rotating ensemble—led, perhaps, by Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Bridgerton, who is ably assisted by Adjoa Andoh, Jonathan Bailey, Ruth Gemmell, Polly Walker, and Julie Andrews (as the voice of the mysterious Lady Whistledown)—the show revels in the tropes of the literature of the era while turning up the dial on sex, scandal, and drama. With four seasons and a spin-off, Bridgerton doesn’t show signs of slowing down—but it’s hardly the only hot period drama in town.

The Buccaneers (2023 – )

While not quite going full Bridgerton in terms of hyper-stylization, this 1870s-set adaptation of an unfinished Edith Wharton novel isn’t afraid to take several liberties in terms of costuming and music (see, for example, a key second season moment set to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Looking at Me.”) The buccaneers of the title are among the so-called dollar princesses of the era: Nan St. George (Kristine Froseth) and her friends are young women from upperclass American families on the make among the British aristocracy—the Americans get titles, and the English lords get to keep their frequently cash-poor estates running. What starts as soapy mercenary mission for the strong and spirited young women becomes a hunt for true love. It’s been renewed for a third season at Apple. Stream The Buccaneers on Apple TV+.

The Buccaneers

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

My Lady Jane (2024)

What if we did a steamy period drama involving England’s first (if only for nine days) queen, Jane Grey? But with an oppressed class of humans who can turn into animals? Based on a book from Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, the show stars Emily Bader as the titular queenly contender, dealing with a dying king cousin, a sketchy marriage, and competition from sisters Elizabeth and Mary. The magic and shapeshifting make the whole thing sufficiently bonkers and a lot of fun, kicking off with the invocation: “She could have been the leader England needed. Instead, history remembers her as the ultimate damsel in distress. Fuck that.” Stream My Lady Jane on Prime Video.

My Lady Jane (2024)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

The Great (2020 – 2023)

Catherine the Great had a little bit of a moment a couple of years back, kicked off by that high-profile HBO miniseries starring Helen Mirren. This is not that. The opening credits offer up that this is an “occasionally true story,” so you know what you’re in for. No real history lessons here, but a legitimately funny political satire, and of costume dramas in general, from the guy who co-wrote The Favourite, and starring everyone’s favourite Fanning alongside Nicholas Hoult. He plays Emperor Peter III, the husband who Catherine would ultimately overthrow, and the show plays on the sexual tension (and sometimes outright lust) between this married couple/political rivals always on the verge of either killing each other or ripping each other’s clothes off. Stream The Great on Hulu.

The Great

at Hulu

at Hulu

The Gilded Age (2022 – )

Julian Fellowes made period drama buzz-worthy with Downton Abbey, and does something similar here while shifting the time and place to the 1880s in New York City. We’re introduced to the world of upper and then extremely upper-class New York City society by Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), poor relation to the estranged aunties who take her in, and Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), a young Black writer from a solidly middle-class family who becomes a secretary to Christine Baranski’s Agnes van Rhijn. Old-money Agnes and sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) live across the street from new-money social climbers the Russells (led with juicy imperiousness by Carrie Coon’s Bertha); established society isn’t keen on letting in these upstarts—though money very much talks. In one sense, the stakes here could not possibly be lower (Bertha wants a better seat at the opera! Twink footman invents a new clock!)—so why is the show so addictive? It’s been renewed for a fourth season. Stream The Gilded Age on HBO Max.

The Gilded Age (2022 – )

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Sanditon (2019 – 2023)

Sanditon is based on Jane Austen’s final, incomplete work, which allows for plenty of creative leeway—it doesn’t have the stylistic whimsy of Bridgerton, but serves as a purer distillation of the regency-drama thrills that Austen bequeathed to us. Here, the wildly independent Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) sets out to reinvent herself while moving to the title’s growing seaside resort town (based, probably, on the real-life Worthing). She discovers that commercial prospects have drawn schemers and chancers to the area, creating a unique and vibrant social scene, with all of the balls and fancy costumes you’d expect. Naturally, romantic complications ensue when Charlotte gets judgy about the entrepreneurial Parker family and finds herself at odds with, and then getting close to, the wild youngest son, Sidney (Theo James). Stream Sanditon on PBS Passport or buy episodes from Prime Video.

Sanditon (2019 – 2023)

at PBS Passport

at PBS Passport

Dickinson (2019 – 2021)

Dickinson is so scrupulously weird that it gets points just for being unexpected. The most surprising thing about it, though, is that it’s not merely idiosyncratic—it’s good. The show imagines the life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson, with the conceit that she didn’t fit especially well in her own time, a fact the show reflects stylistically through the casual use of anachronisms and more modern sensibilities (think Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette or, for that matter, Bridgerton). It’s also beautifully filmed and acted, and impressively light for a show about a figure as mysterious and haunted as Emily herself. Stream Dickinson on Apple TV+.

Dickinson (2019 – 2021)

at Apple TV+

at Apple TV+

The Decameron (2024)

Moving the clock back a few centuries and heading to Italy, The Decameron is a funny, dark, ultimately surprisingly humane (after a fashion) show that takes on Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century short story collection with Bridgerton-esque swagger. With the plague ravaging Florence, a bunch of nobles and attendants make their way to a countryside villa to wait out the plague and drain the liquor supplies. Rules and mores are turned upside down, particularly by the servant Licisca (Tanya Reynolds), who kind of accidentally kills her lady on the way to the villa and decides to take her place. Somehow, despite being about mostly terrible people, this makes for an entirely addictive binge experience that deserved a lot more attention than it got when it was released. Stream The Decameron on Netflix.

The Decameron (2024)

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Tudors (2007 – 2010)

The show may play fast and loose with history, but does remind us that the Tudors were far hornier than all those archbishops would have us believe. The show’s Jonathan Rhys Meyers is quite a bit hotter and probably a fair bit more lovable than the actual sociopathic, serial-killing Henry—but many of the women characters give as well as they get (both politically and in bed), particularly Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn. Stream The Tudors on Paramount+ and Prime Video.

The Tudors (2007 – 2010)

at Paramount+

at Paramount+

Reign (2013 – 2017)

We didn’t come here for historical accuracy, and this CW drama isn’t offering much. Adelaide Kane stars as Queen Mary Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots, beginning the series as a teenage girlboss coming of age while also coming into her royal power. It’s soapy, sexy, and a little bit campy—which I absolutely mean as a compliment. Stream Reign on Prime Video.

Reign (2013 – 2017)

at Prime Video

at Prime Video

Washington Black (2025)

With much of the heightened style of Bridgerton, but a steampunk aesthetic, Washington Black follows a young genius (Ernest Kingsley Jr.), once enslaved, with as inventive a mind and spirit as any Jules Verne character as he comes under the mentorship of Sterling K. Brown’s Medwin Harris. That introduction to a larger world sets our lead off on a series of adventures that are whimsical without ignoring the particular dangers and challenges to be faced by a Black man in the 19th century. In the absence of more complex narratives about real historical figures, this show (and the Esi Edugyan novel on which it’s based) at least centers the notion that Black North American history included innovation, progress, and even joy. Stream Washington Black on Hulu.

Washington Black (2025)

at Hulu

at Hulu

The Cook of Castamar (2021)

Let’s head over to Madrid, just a few decades earlier than Bridgerton, where Clara Belmonte (Michelle Jenner) has just taken a job in the kitchens of the Duke of Castamar (Roberto Enríquez). He’s been a virtual recluse since the unexpected death of his wife, though now the King and various family members are pressuring him to get back on the horse, literally and figuratively, and fulfill his obligations as a noble. Clara, on the other hand, had developed a bit of agoraphobia following the execution of her father, and she’s perfectly content to toil in the gloomy kitchens rather than go outside. Of course, the grieving Duke takes notice of her just as he’s being plied with marriage prospects. Plenty of characters, subplots, and sex in this Spanish import. Stream The Cook of Castamar on Netflix.

The Cook of Castamar (2021)

at Netflix

at Netflix

The Law According to Lidia Poët (2023 – )

A fun and fast-moving historical crime drama, the show (heavily) dramatizes the live of the real-life Poët, Italy’s first female lawyer—disbarred as the series opens in 1883 because LADY LAWYER?! WHAT? While she fights the ruling, she takes a job at her brother’s law firm where, of course, she’s the real brains of the operation, solving big cases in grand period style (and with a fair bit of sex, as well). It’s been renewed for a third season. Stream The Law According to Lidia Poët on Netflix.

The Law According to Lidia Poët

at Netflix

at Netflix

Harlots (2017 – 2019)

Harlots takes the historical costume drama in unique directions, and deserved more attention than it got during its three-season run. Its women aren’t dressed in fancy dresses because they’re royalty, but because they’re high-end sex workers (if the title didn’t make clear) in Georgian England. When Margaret Wells moves her brothel to Soho, she comes into direct competition with her own former madam, who runs a high-end establishment in the same neighborhood. It’s got more sex and moves at a faster pace than more traditional period pieces, and the chess game between rival houses (as they both fight the male-dominated law enforcement establishment) makes for juicy entertainment. Stream Harlots on Hulu.

Harlots (2017 – 2019)

at Hulu

at Hulu

Gentleman Jack (2019 – 2022)

Though her love dared not speak its name, the real-life Anne Lister certainly had no problem putting words to it—something like five million of them across her many diaries. So many, in fact, that the production of this show necessitated new transcriptions of works that hadn’t been fully examined, despite having been written in the 1830s. Suranne Jones stars as Anne Lister, landowner and budding industrialist who returns to her inherited family estate only to discover that the neighbors are snatching coal from her land—and also that Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), a wealthy estate owner, is looking pretty fine. It’s a clever, funny series, and its use of Lister’s prolific diaries gives it a real sense of verisimilitude in its depiction of a queer trailblazer. Stream Gentleman Jack on HBO Max or buy episodes from Prime Video.

Gentleman Jack (2019 – 2022)

at HBO Max

at HBO Max

Queen Charlotte (2023)

This one’s probably obvious, given its direct relationship, but, just in case you missed it, let’s give this Bridgerton spin-off series its due. Maintaining much of the original show’s style, but with a laser focus on the title character, Charlotte rather brilliantly crafts a passionate, tortured romance between the Queen (here played as a young woman by India Amarteifio, with Golda Rosheuvel reprising the role for the framing bits), and King George III (Corey Mylchreest). The pressures of royal life and the king’s growing mental illness create a rocky road for the young couple, but their passion is moving and deeply, deeply horny. Stream Queen Charlotte on Netflix.

Queen Charlotte (2023)

at Netflix

at Netflix

AI still can’t produce code as well as most junior programmers he’s worked with, David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of 37 Signals, said on a recent podcast , which is why he continues to write most of his code by hand. Hansson compared AI’s current coding capabilities to “a flickering light bulb” — total darkness punctuated by moments of clarity before going pitch black again.

At his company, humans wrote 95% of the code for Fizzy, 37 Signals’ Kanban-inspired organization product, he said. The team experimented with AI-powered features, but those ended up on the cutting room floor. “I’m not feeling that we’re falling behind at 37 Signals in terms of our ability to produce, in terms of our ability to launch things or improve the products,” Hansson said.

Hansson said he remains skeptical of claims that businesses can fire half their programmers and still move faster. Despite his measured skepticism, Hansson said he marvels at the scale of bets the U.S. economy is placing on AI reaching AGI. “The entire American economy right now is one big bet that that’s going to happen,” he said.

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Late last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened yet another investigation into Tesla and its partially automated driver assist systems. This time it was about FSD (again), which has been the subject of more than 60 complaints to the regulator after Teslas operating under FSD either ignored red traffic lights or crossed into oncoming traffic. As part of the preliminary investigation, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation has asked Tesla for more information on the problem. This week, it told the automaker it could have a five-week extension on its homework.

To be fair to Tesla, NHTSA has asked for a comprehensive amount of information: a list of every Tesla produced and sold or leased in the United States, including whether or not that car had FSD and which version; cumulative data on how many US Teslas have FSD and how often it’s used; and a list of all the customer complaints, field reports, incident reports, lawsuits, and other data related to FSD ignoring traffic laws.

For each incident involving a crash, Tesla must give NHTSA a summary of the incident, including “causal and contributing factors.” Further questions require information on FSD use by crashed cars; any alert shown to the drivers; what work, simulation, or otherwise Tesla has conducted to ameliorate the problem; any modifications or changes to FSD hardware or software; an explanation of Tesla’s theory of operation for traffic lights and stop signs; and Tesla’s assessment of the problem.

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You have probably heard of skimming, a type of fraud in which criminals install physical devices capable of capturing your payment card details on ATMs, gas pumps, and point-of-sale terminals. If you enter your debit or credit card into one of these fake card readers, your data is stored for later download or transmitted wirelessly in real time to a device controlled by scammers, who will use the information to steal from your accounts.

Unfortunately, online shoppers aren’t immune from this scheme. Web skimming is a type of cyberattack that uses malicious code to steal card data during checkout, and researchers have identified an ongoing campaign targeting major payment providers and, by extension, consumers.

Online credit card skimming

Web skimming attacks, broadly referred to as “Magecart” campaigns, are initiated when malicious JavaScript is injected into e-commerce websites and payment portals. When a checkout page loads, the skimmer replaces it with a spoofed form that collects card numbers, expiry dates, card verification codes, and billing or shipping addresses—everything threat actors need to turn around and use your card for fraudulent purchases.

The fake payment forms use legitimate-looking branding and styling to minimize suspicion. Once payment details are transmitted to the attacker, the user gets an error message and is redirected to the real checkout page, a flow designed to make you believe that you’ve simply entered your information incorrectly.

Web skimmers are typically designed to avoid detection and may even self-destruct, making them difficult to identify even for site admins. They also utilize bulletproof hosting, which shields cyber actors from takedown requests and law enforcement action.

How to protect your payment card

Unfortunately, consumers can’t do much about the presence of web skimmers, but they can play defense against them. Red flags of an online shopping scam are also red flags for skimming—for example, deals and discounts that are too good to be true are indicators of a possible fraudulent vendor or malicious site, where you may be more likely to have your card details stolen. Shopping with reputable vendors will reduce (though not entirely eliminate) the risk. You should also be vigilant about any unusual steps during checkout, such as redirects or error messages, and abandon any suspicious transactions.

If you suspect that your payment details may have been stolen, keep an eye on your bank and credit card statements for unauthorized activity, and enable transaction alerts for real-time updates. Remember that credit cards offer more security protections than debit cards. You could also use virtual cards for online purchases, which allows you to keep your actual card details private and protect you from further fraud. (Note, however, that virtual cards have some drawbacks. For example, you may lose some protections offered by your primary card provider and have a tougher time obtaining refunds.)

An anonymous reader shares a report: China is pulling the plug on a key advantage held by high-frequency traders, removing servers dedicated to those firms out of local exchanges’ data centers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Commodities futures exchanges in Shanghai and Guangzhou are among those that have ordered local brokers to shift servers for their clients out of data centers run by the bourses, according to the people, who said the move was led by regulators. The change doesn’t only affect high-frequency firms but they are likely to feel the biggest impact. The Shanghai Futures Exchange has told brokers they need to get equipment for high-speed clients out by the end of next month, while other clients need to do so by April 30, the people said.

The clampdown will hit China’s army of domestic high-frequency firms but will also impact a swathe of global firms that are active in the country. Citadel Securities, Jane Street Group and Jump Trading are among the foreign firms whose access to servers is being affected, the people said, asking not to be named as the matter is private.

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It has been nearly 80 years since Ferrari unleashed its first V12-powered sports car upon the world with the 125 S. In 1947, its debut year, the 125 S secured Ferrari’s first-ever race victory for the automaker, along with five other wins in the 14 events it competed in that season.

Although it was soon replaced by the 159 S, the success of the 125 S kickstarted Ferrari’s storied history of producing some of the most desirable 12-cylinder performance cars known to man. And while the Italian automaker has come to embrace forced induction and electrification in recent years, its legacy of building stunning front-engine, rear-wheel drive machines with spectacular V12s stuffed into their engine bays continues with the 12Cilindri Spider.

Ferrari hasn’t shied away from leveraging cutting-edge technology in the development of its latest models, but the company also understands the value of a good throwback. As the successor to the 812 Superfast, the 12Cilindri boasts clever performance technologies, like a sophisticated active aero system and a four-wheel steering system that can manage each corner independently to enhance response, but it’s ultimately an homage to the heady days of late ’60s luxury grand touring. The exterior styling takes obvious inspiration from the 365 GTB Daytona, while its lack of all-wheel drive, turbocharging, and electric assistance bucks trends that have become nearly inescapable in modern performance cars.

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Apple’s next-gen Siri is still far off, but this week the company announced that it’ll be using Google’s Gemini AI for its new foundation models. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic discuss why Apple teamed up with Google again, instead of OpenAI or Anthropic. Also, they chat about Meta’s Reality Lab layoffs, which is refocusing the company on AI hardware like its smart glasses.

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Topics

• Meta announces 1000+ layoffs, closes 3 VR studios as it shifts focus to AI hardware – 2:12

• Gemini can now pull context from the rest of your Google apps including photos and Youtube history – 12:31

• Framework raises the price of its desktop by $460 because of the global RAM shortage – 18:36

• NVIDIA may revive the RTX 3060 and kill off 5070 Ti due to its VRAM demands – 21:57

• Apple creates a subscription bundle for Pro creative apps like Final Cut Pro, Logic, and others – 23:00

• Tesla’s Full Self Driving is also going subscription only, a year costs $999 – 29:15

• Matthew McConaughey trademarks himself to fight unauthorized AI likenesses – 33:27

• Apple announces that its long delayed ’smarter Siri’ will be powered by Google Gemini – 35:15

• X finally responds to Grok’s CSAM and nudity generation with limits – 51:46

• Cursor claims their AI agents wrote 1M+ lines of code to make a web browser from scratch, are developers cooked? – 57:52   

Credits

Host: Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Igor Bonafacic
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-why-did-apple-choose-gemini-for-next-gen-siri-150000993.html?src=rss

Stock Android added the concept of App Pairs back in Android 15. You choose two apps to use in split screen mode, add a shortcut to the paired apps to the home screen, and it’s now trivially easy to trigger split screen multitasking (instead of having to perform multiple tap and drag gestures).

It sounds neat, but I never really used it, because on my small Pixel 9a, using apps in 50:50 split-screen mode is hardly user-friendly. There’s just not enough room on the screen for each app to take up half of it and still be usable. But that changed with Android 16, thanks to a small update to how split screen works.

In Android 16, the split screen ratios for app pairs are much more flexible. You can have two apps in 70:30, or even 90:10. And once you get used to the idea of 90:10 split screen multitasking, things really start to flow.

For example, I have an app pair for my Chrome and Gemini apps. Chrome for browsing, and Gemini for research.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Chrome is usually my maximized app, taking up 90% of my screen space, while Gemini is docked at the bottom, minimized. But with one tap, Gemini comes to the front and Chrome takes a back seat. And I can keep switching between the two just as easily. This is much faster than using Android’s multitasking menu.

How to set up App Pairs with 90:10 split screen multitasking

To set up an App Pair and try this out for yourself, you’ll first need to create a split screen pair. Open the two apps that you want to pair, and then go to the multitasking view (swipe up from the Home bar and hold for a second). Tap the name of the first app you want to open and choose the Split screen option. Then choose another app to pair it with. You’ll now enter a 50:50 split screen view. Grab the handle in between the two apps and drag it all the way up or all the way down to trigger the 90:10 split. Alternatively, you can also set up a 70:30 split by leaving some extra space on your second app.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Now, go back to the multitasking view, tap on one of the app names, and choose the Save app pair option.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

After that, you’ll find the app pair as a shortcut on your home screen. Tap on it to launch your pre-configured app combo. And yes, it does remember your last used split screen ratio, saving you some valuable setup time.

Tom’s Hardware: Extensive research into the pricing of some of the best hard drives on the market for large capacity, economical storage indicates that prices are beginning to increase sharply, with some of the most popular models on the market seeing increases upwards of 60%. According to research from ComputerBase, pricing analysis on 12 of the most popular mainstream drives on the market indicates an average price increase of 46% over the last 4 months.

While the research and price checks on these drives track movement based on European prices (ComputerBase is a German outlet), Tom’s Hardware checks on similar or identical SKUs in the U.S. indicate that the trends are indeed replicated, or perhaps worse, on the other side of the pond. CB reports that various drives like Seagate’s IronWolf NAS line, Toshiba’s Cloud Scale Capacity Drives, Western Digital’s WD Red, and Seagate’s BarraCuda lines are all showing price increases of between 23% and 66%. As noted, the average price increases clock in at 46% since September 2025.

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There is a rumor going around online—on Reddit, Facebook, TikTok, and (I assume) Friendster—that gravity will stop working for seven seconds on August 12. Here is part of the warning posted online:

In November 2024, a secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor” leaked online. The project’s budget is $89 billion, and its goal is to survive a 7-second gravitational anomaly expected on August 12, 2026, at 14:33 UTC

Key facts:• Duration: 7.3 seconds.• Expected casualties: 40-60 million.

What will happen: 1-2 seconds: Everything not secured will rise (people, vehicles, animals).3-4 seconds: Objects will continue to rise to 15-20 meters.5-6 seconds: Panic and chaos will ensue as people hit ceilings.7 seconds: Gravity returns, and everything falls from height.

Expected consequences:• 40 million deaths from falls.• Infrastructure destruction.• Economic collapse lasting over 10 years.• Mass panic.

This is a shockingly irresponsible prediction filled with misinformation. In a theoretical world where gravity was optional, the death toll would ultimately be much greater, but it would come from earthquakes and tidal waves, not fall damage.

What would happen if gravity stopped working for seven seconds?

We’ll have to wait until August for observational data about the Great Gravity Switch-Off, but I wanted to be prepared, so I asked Joel Meyers, a theoretical cosmologist and professor at Southern Methodist University, what we can expect on August 12. He said that most of us would survive the initial period of weightlessness without injury, and there’s no reason to tie yourself to the sofa. “It depends on where you are in terms of latitude, but for somebody in, say, New York City, in seven seconds with no gravity, you’d expect to sort of slowly drift upward by about two feet off the surface of the Earth.”

So, shockingly, conspiracy theorists on the internet are wrong: you wouldn’t “rise to 15-20 meters;” you wouldn’t even hit your head on the ceiling. You’d just float—unless you leapt into the air at the right moment. “An average person who could jump about a foot and a half would actually end up jumping about 64 feet in the air without gravity,” Meyers said.

Gravity fears assuaged

Before I spoke to a patient theoretical cosmologist, I was concerned that the lack of gravity inside my body might cause my atoms to detach from one another and I’d dissolve into dust, which I am generally not in favor of. “Gravity itself doesn’t play a role in holding us together,” Meyers said. “The structure of our bodies are not gravitational, but electromagnetic.”

Another personal gravity fear involves breathing. Since gravity holds the atmosphere to earth, wouldn’t all the air be instantly ejected into space instead of staying in my lungs where it belongs? Nope. Decompression would happen, but it would take time. “The upper layers of the atmosphere would start to float out into space, being pushed away by the layers of atmosphere below them,” Meyers said, “But a few seconds wouldn’t be long enough for us to lose all of the atmosphere around the Earth.”

When the gravity turns back on, though, it would create a air pressure wave that would disrupt weather patterns in ways we couldn’t possibly predict. Worse than that would be the effect of sudden gravity loss on the planet itself. “This is where things get a little more catastrophic,” Meyers said. “In the absence of gravity, there’s nothing to fight against that pressure that exists in the core of the Earth or the mantle or the crust. The Earth wouldn’t instantaneously explode—it takes time for the mass to move in response to the pressure and to the forces—but there would certainly be a lot of tectonic activity.”

But it gets worse. After seven seconds, the Earth would clump back together, which “would create an impulse that would spread throughout the world in terms of global earthquakes in ways that are really difficult to predict in detail,” Meyers said.

The best vehicles to be in when the gravity goes off

If you’re going anywhere on August 12, make sure you’re not traveling by car. The lack of gravity means your wheels would leave the road, so your ability to steer or brake would be gone. “You would effectively just be continuing in a straight line at whatever speed you were traveling just before gravity turned off,” Meyers said, so expect traffic delays on the 405 as every car crashes into every other car, tree, and barrier. Airplanes and submarines would be safe, though, which brings me to my personal plan for August 12.

How I’ll survive gravity-free day

Since I am not on NASA’s list of chosen people, I am going to ride this thing out inside the metal womb of a deep sea submersible. The submersible is a closed system designed to withstand changes in external pressure, negating any atmospheric effect. The turmoil of the ocean rising then falling would likely cause massive tidal waves, but not where I am, under the sea.

While the rest of you suckers are dealing with the aftereffects of unimaginable global earthquakes and magma flows, I’ll be chilling in my submarine, playing Angry Birds. When the time is right, I’ll return triumphantly to the surface to rule over the ruined planet. “I think that’s a very solid plan; [it] really does cover a lot of the bases,” Meyers said.

The bottom line: Is gravity going to turn off on August 12?

I felt dumb doing it, but I asked Meyers point-blank what the chances are that the internet is right about gravity ending on August 12. He said, “it is very far outside the realm of possibility.”

There is no secret NASA document titled “Project Anchor,” and there’s no way to turn off gravity. “Gravity is an inherent property of space-time,” Meyers explained, closing the book on one the year’s dumbest conspiracy theories.

Ashley St Clair, the influencer and mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, has sued the billionaire’s AI company, accusing its Grok chatbot of creating fake sexual imagery of her without her consent.

In the lawsuit, filed in New York state court, St Clair alleged that xAI’s Grok first created an AI-generated or altered image of her in a bikini earlier this month.

St Clair claims she made a request to xAI that no further such images be made, but nevertheless “countless sexually abusive, intimate, and degrading deepfake content of St. Clair [were] produced and distributed publicly by Grok.”

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The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery remains the biggest story in Hollywood, with Paramount Skydance refusing to back down from its rival bid to the proposed Netflix acquisition of the company. If the Netflix deal does go through, the company’s co-chief executive, Ted Sarandos, has attempted to ease concerns around what that could mean for theaters.

In an interview with The New York Times, Sarandos responded to a question about his company’s commitment to the theatrical business by insisting that he has no interest in bringing a swift end to it. “We will run that business largely like it is today, with 45-day windows,” he said. “I’m giving you a hard number. If we’re going to be in the theatrical business, and we are, we’re competitive people — we want to win. I want to win opening weekend. I want to win box office.”

Prior to this new NYT interview’s publication, Deadline reported that it had been told by sources that Netflix was supportive of a 17-day window, which would obviously be far more damaging to theaters. This came after the Stranger Things finale reportedly banked north of $25m during its brief theatrical run over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Sarandos was also asked if he regretted saying the theatrical business as we know it today is an “outmoded” idea. He told the NYT: “You have to listen to that quote again. I said ‘outmoded for some.’ I mean, like the town that ‘Sinners’ is supposed to be set in does not have a movie theater there. For those folks, it’s certainly outmoded. You’re not going to get in the car and go to the next town to go see a movie.” (Movies are actually nascent technology in Sinners, which is set in the 1930s. Bad example, Ted!) He went on to explain that for someone like his daughter, who lives in Manhattan and has a number of theaters within walking distance of her home, the term does not apply in the same way.

The Netflix co-chief exec’s latest comments seem to be designed to appease theater owners as much as the movie-going public, after a number of chains opposed the proposed WBD sale. “Such an acquisition will further consolidate control over production and distribution of motion pictures in the hands of a single, dominant, global streaming platform in a market that is already highly concentrated,” said trade organization Cinema United in a statement to Congress.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/netflix-will-give-wbd-movies-45-day-theater-exclusivity-if-deal-goes-through-141223786.html?src=rss

If you don’t like how the internet makes you feel right now, you’re not alone. The entire ecosystem seemingly exists to manipulate you, which can make finding clarity hard. I’ve written about how to avoid anxiety bait, which can be an important step toward healthy and productive engagement, but an important step is recognizing when you’re being manipulated. RageCheck is a potentially useful tool here.

Built using concepts from social science research, this website can analyze any link or screenshot. It points out examples of potentially manipulative language, from us-versus-them framing to emotionally loaded phrasing. “The system analyzes text for linguistic patterns commonly associated with manipulative framing—language optimized to provoke high-arousal reactions over understanding,” says the methodology page. “It does not assess factual accuracy or political bias.”

Using the site is simple: just paste a link to an article and hit Enter. After a few moments, you’ll see a statistical breakdown of the potentially manipulative language in the piece across five categories—emotional heat, us versus them, moral outrage, black-and-white thinking, and fight picking. The article is excerpted below, with examples of these tactics highlighted. In the left panel you’ll see a “Bait Score,” which is an attempt to calculate how manipulative the article is being. Below that, you’ll see a list of the potentially manipulative techniques employed in the article.

None of this is intended to be used as an alternative to fact checking or serve as some kind of truth-detecting machine. “A high score means content uses manipulative framing—it doesn’t mean the underlying claims are false,” says the about page. “Conversely, a low score doesn’t mean content is true.”

It’s worth pointing out that the techniques this tool detects also aren’t necessarily bad. Some news stories really should inspire moral outrage, especially in the context of an opinion piece or editorial. Regardless, there’s still value in identifying those techniques.

Basically, this is a tool that can help you think critically about the media you’re consuming, not do that critical thinking for you. Use it if you want to learn a little bit about the kinds of rhetorical tricks you might be vulnerable to.

theodp writes: Code.org, the nonprofit backed by AI giants Microsoft, Google and Amazon and whose Hour of AI and free AI curriculum aim to make world’s K-12 schoolchildren AI literate, points job seekers to its AI Use Policy in Hiring, which promises dire consequences for those who use AI during interviews or take home assignments without its OK.

Explaining “What’s Not Okay,” Code.org writes: “While we support thoughtful use of AI, certain uses undermine fairness and honesty in the hiring process. We ask that candidates do not […] use AI during interviews and take-home assignments without explicit consent from the interview team. Such use goes against our values of integrity and transparency and will result in disqualification from the hiring process.”

Interestingly, Code.org CEO Partovi last year faced some blowback from educators over his LinkedIn post that painted schools that police AI use by students as dinosaurs. Partovi wrote, “Schools of the past define AI use as ‘cheating.’ Schools of the future define AI skills as the new literacy. Every desk-job employer is looking to hire workers who are adept at AI. Employers want the students who are best at this new form of ‘cheating.'”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.