After flaunting rainbow-colored products throughout the month of June as part of its ‘Pride Out Loud’ campaign, Amazon is now restricting items and search results related to LGBTQ people on its website in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The company reportedly received pressure from the government to remove products…
Source: Gizmodo – Amazon Succumbs to UAE Government Pressure to Restrict LGBTQ Products
In a new round of what can only be described as entertainment industry news Mad Libs, the original artist behind a design appearing on a bootlegged Doctor Who t-shirt depicting Ncuti Gatwa’s new Doctor has made the design available properly, after it went viral this week being worn by Ryan Gosling on the set of the …
Source: Gizmodo – Ryan Gosling’s Bootleg Doctor Who T-Shirt Is Now a Thing You Can Buy
During Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct Mini, Return To Monkey Island was finally seen in motion. Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman’s return to the series, after over 30 years away, has given a lot of cause for interest among classic point-and-click adventure fans. And unfortunately, where go fans go assholes, people leaving…
Source: Kotaku – Monkey Island Creator Ron Gilbert Has Joy Sapped From Sequel Thanks To Awful People
A Swiss chocolate manufacturer paused production this week at the largest plant in the world following a positive test for salmonella.
Source: Gizmodo – Charlie and the Salmonella Factory: World’s Largest Chocolate Plant Shuts Down Over Contamination
ASRock isn’t waiting around for Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors to arrive before updating its existing motherboards to support the next-gen chips. The company has already made available BIOS updates for dozens of 600-series motherboards spanning the boards based on Z690 all the way down to H610.
We still don’t have a release date
Source: Hot Hardware – Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs Are Already Supported On These ASRock Motherboards
With abortion access becoming more limited throughout the US, demand has spiked for emergency contraceptive pills that can help prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after sex. This week, in an effort to maintain supply, Amazon joined retailers like CVS and Walmart by placing temporary limits on the number of “morning-after pills” that can be purchased.
CNBC reports that Amazon customers will be capped at a maximum purchase of three units each week of emergency contraceptive brands like Plan B, which is the most widely available option. However, if you shop around, you can find “varying quantity limits” for different brands. A generic option like My Choice can still be purchased in higher quantities, up to 30 units at once.
At CVS, temporary limits are no longer in place because demand dipped back down to normal levels. Walmart said that purchase limits can fluctuate with demand in its online stores, but the company has no policy to limit sales of emergency contraceptive pills.
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Source: Ars Technica – Until demand drops, Amazon limiting Plan B purchases to 3 per week
While we might try our hardest to always keep our tools clean and dry, they may still battle rust. When your prevention methods fail, common wisdom might be to toss out the damaged tools—and sometimes that’s inevitable. But before you junk your metal implements, there are a few things you can try to salvage them and…
Source: LifeHacker – Vinegar, Ketchup, and Other Household Items That Can Remove Rust From Tools
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the authority to regulate carbon pollution from existing power plants. From a report: The 6-3 decision, with the three liberal justices dissenting, makes it increasingly likely that an act of Congress will be required to create regulations to rein in planet-warming emissions. “Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, which was joined by the five other conservative justices on the bench. “On EPA’s view of Section 111(d), Congress implicitly tasked it, and it alone, with balancing the many vital considerations of national policy implicated in the basic regulation of how Americans get their energy,” Roberts wrote. “There is little reason to think Congress did so.” In instances like this, he said, “[a] decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – US Supreme Court Says EPA Can’t Regulate Carbon Pollution Under Clean Air Act
Enlarge / You’re unlikely to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but you might encounter a Polestar 2. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)
Polestar is riding pretty high right now. Now listed on the NASDAQ exchange, the company is preparing to introduce three new electric vehicles over the next three years: a large SUV in 2023, a smaller crossover in 2024, and a flagship (read: expensive) four-door coupe in 2025. In March, the company introduced a new variant of the Polestar 2 fastback sedan, the $48,400 Polestar 2 Long Range Single motor.
And after a few days of driving one, I think it’s another data point in favor of the argument that less power sometimes means more fun when it comes to EVs. But I must confess I’m scratching my head about the “long range” part, given the useable capacity of the battery pack and the EV’s energy efficiency.
As the name suggests, the biggest mechanical change compared to the dual-motor version we drove in 2020 is the loss of the rear motor. Polestar has also made some changes to the way it sources and makes components like the aluminum alloy wheels and the battery case; the company says these changes reduce the carbon footprint of the car’s manufacturing by just under 3,000 lbs (1,350 kg).
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Source: Ars Technica – The 2023 Polestar 2 Single Motor proves “basic” doesn’t mean “boring”
President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that he would support changing senate filibuster rules in order to codify the “right to privacy” and abortion rights into law.
Source: Gizmodo – Biden Says He’ll Support Filibuster Changes to Codify Abortion Rights
In its 30-year history, the terminal-based text editor Vim has been one of the most recognizable names in the open-source world, loved by some and disliked by others. After two and a half years of development, Vim 9.0 is now available, firmly focused on the new Vim9 scripting language capabilities.
Source: LXer – Vim 9.0 Released, Introduces the New Vim9 Scripting Language
Looking for a little bit of independence this Fourth of July weekend? Good luck. Already, passengers are experiencing packed airports and planes, canceled flights, and rough customer service trying to get from here to there.
Source: Gizmodo – Airlines and Airports Really Don’t Want You Flying on Independence Day
The post More on Thunderbird 102: Release Adds Matrix Support and New Address Book appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – More on Thunderbird 102: Release Adds Matrix Support and New Address Book
The Samsung Gaming Hub is live now on 2022 Samsung smart TVs and smart monitors, and it’s adding two services from Amazon to its game-streaming lineup: Twitch and Luna. Twitch is available today, while Luna is coming soon. Gamers will also be able to access Xbox Game Pass now, as well as apps for NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia and Utomik in the same designated area on their TVs. The company plans to release details about the gaming hub’s rollout to earlier Samsung smart TV models at a later date, a Samsung spokesperson confirmed to Engadget.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Samsung Gaming Hub, it essentially offers players a way to access major cloud gaming services on their smart TV using only their Bluetooth controller, no console needed. Apps for both Spotify and YouTube are also included in the gaming hub.
Samsung says it plans on delivering even more gaming-focused content in the future, including new partnerships. “With expanding partnerships across leading game streaming services and expert curated recommendations, players will be able to easily browse and discover games from the widest selection available, regardless of platform,” said Won-Jin Lee, president of Samsung’s Service Business Team.
Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service has only been available to the general public since March, and is already available on Fire TVs. Its partnership with Samsung could give the nascent gaming service an easy way to reach people who have never used it in their homes. Twitch (which is owned by Amazon) once had an app for Samsung smart TVs, but it was retired in 2019. The platform’s return to the newest Samsung smart TVs will be happy news for streamers and their fans.
It seems natural for Samsung to further embrace the gaming community, given that smart TVs have become close to a necessity in gaming. Last year Microsoft announced that it would begin working with global TV manufacturers to directly integrate Xbox into smart TVs via an Xbox with Game Pass app. The idea of an “all-in-one” destination for all your cloud-based and console games is certainly convenient to some, and may help gamers avoid the time and hassle of switching between modes.
Source: Engadget – Samsung Gaming Hub goes live today with Twitch, Xbox Game Pass and more
YouTube is enacting more measures in its battle to cut down on comment spam and channel impersonation. Creators now have access to a new setting for comments in YouTube Studio. They’ll be able to select an “increase strictness” option. YouTube says this builds on the “hold potentially inappropriate comments for review” setting and will reduce the number of spam and identity abuse comments. It’s a less strict option than requiring manual review for all comments or switching them off completely.
As of July 29th, channels won’t be able to hide their subscriber counts. YouTube says this is a tactic commonly used by those pretending to be behind larger and more established channels. Impersonators often leave comments on other videos to bring people over to their fake page. For instance, someone who sees a comment left by a user named MrḂeast (with a special character in place of the “B”) might click through to that channel to see it has only 100 subscribers, compared with the genuine MrBeast’s 97.7 million subscribers.
YouTube acknowledged that some creators prefer to hide their subscriber count while they’re building up an audience. However, it says this move will make things safer for everyone.
Speaking of phony channels that use special characters to imitate more prominent creators, that strategy will soon be a little less effective. YouTube says it’s reducing the character set that people can use when updating a channel name. It said that bad actors won’t be able to modify their name to ”¥ouⓉube” or some such after the change.
Source: Engadget – YouTube introduces new tools to battle comment spam and account imitators
Everyone knows how to add app shortcuts to your smartphone’s home screen, but did you know you can also save web pages as shortcuts, too? This simple method makes it easy to open your most-visited pages without fiddling with your web browser app’s bookmarks or searching for the website through the Google app, saving…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Add a Website Shortcut to Your Android Home Screen
Most of us likely babysat, mowed lawns, or worked part-time jobs to earn money as teens. However, teens in 2022 have some rather interesting and unexpected ways to make some extra cash. Minors are reportedly developing, discussing, and selling malware through a Discord server. What happened to paper routes?
Cybersecurity experts from Avast
Source: Hot Hardware – Teens Have A New Sinister Side Hustle Selling Malware On Discord For Pocket Money
In yet another historic reversal of long standing precedent, the US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6 – 3 along ideological lines to severely limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency in regulating carbon emissions from power plants, further hamstringing the Biden administration’s ability to combat global warming.
The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 20-1530, centered both on whether the Clean Air Act gives the EPA the power to issue regulations for the power industry and whether Congress must “speak with particular clarity when it authorizes executive agencies to address major political and economic questions,” a theory the court refers to as the “major questions doctrine.”
This decision doesn’t just impact the EPA’s ability to do its job, from limiting emissions from specific power plants to operating the existing cap-and-trade carbon offset policy, it also hints at what other regressive steps the court’s conservative majority may be planning to take. During the pandemic, the court already blocked eviction moratoriums enacted by the CDC and told OSHA that it couldn’t mandate vaccination requirements for large companies. More recently, the court declared states incapable of regulating their own gun laws but absolutely good-to-go on regulating women’s bodily autonomy.
Developing…
Source: Engadget – Supreme Court ruling guts the EPA’s ability to enforce Clean Air Act
The sulfer-coal-burning John E. Amos Power Plant in West Virginia. (credit: Cathy)
On Thursday, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling in a case that will severely hamper the ability of the US to limit its carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act. In an unusual move, the court kept a case alive that was focused on an emissions plan formulated by the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency—even though that plan was discarded and replaced by both the Trump and Biden administrations.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court determined that the EPA has only been granted the power to control emissions from existing facilities—it cannot force utilities to shift to different, cleaner-generating technologies. This will make it extremely difficult to use the Clean Air Act to compel a shift from coal to renewables, and it raises questions about whether the Clean Air Act can be used to set effective climate policy at all.
The case is a product of a legal back-and-forth that started nearly two decades ago. During the Bush Administration, the EPA decided that the Clean Air Act did not give the agency the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. A number of states sued, and the case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the EPA’s claim was incorrect: the Clean Air Act required it to determine whether greenhouse gas emissions posed a threat to the US public.
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Source: Ars Technica – Supreme Court severely limits the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions
2022 is halfway over and you have a lot of TV to catch up on. We say this knowing that it’s an undeniable fact. Every single person reading this has about 50 shows they’ve heard are great, but have not yet watched yet. And 2022 hasn’t helped by adding even more shows to the list. Show about sci-fi offices, potty…
Source: Gizmodo – The Best Genre TV of 2022 (So Far)
