Would you like a chat with that haircut? Are you feeling rooted? What kinds of things do you collect? Do you mix and match your watch bands? What tomato timer is the best? All these questions answered, and more, this week on Hemispheric Views! Haircuts 00:00:00 Haircuts in Americ … | Continue reading
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A Sound … | Continue reading
Two-thirds of adults get at least 7 hours of sleep. I am not in that two-thirds. Tags: rest, sleep | Continue reading
Landlocked Tajikistan recently featured prominently in two key reports—one highlighting its stellar growth and another naming it as one of the least democratic countries in the world. Be it the development of new, high-rise apartment blocks (some built in questionable taste) or t … | Continue reading
"Over time, it can be a big issue." Homeowner makes upsetting discovery after taking closer look at landscaping outside new house: 'We didn't even know' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Hydrogen-fueled combustion engines have slowly emerged in the mobility world, designed to run everything from race cars to pleasure boats. The latest hydrogen ICE to rumble to life was born with a special mission at its core: claim an all-out land speed record or two for the emer … | Continue reading
How to set up your own styles in TextEdit, DelightEd or another editor using macOS's features. Use them to make laying out styled text easier and more powerful. | Continue reading
Any unwanted ad is just another piece of trash for homeowners to deal with, but these are particularly bad. Local resident baffled by landscaping company's absurd approach to advertising: 'I hope this does not catch on' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
It was several months back now that someone e-mailed me and suggested I try to make London Cheesecakes. I am always open to suggestions. I did some research and discovered that London Cheesecakes are not cheesecakes at all, but beautiful puff pastry bakes, topped with a bit of ja … | Continue reading
Whenever we think about the Universe at a fundamental level, there’s always the temptation to wonder if reality might somehow be simpler than we perceive it to be. As complex and diverse as the natural world is, it’s humbling to recognize that everything we see, perceive, and int … | Continue reading
Boom has been given permission to go supersonic by the US FAA. The first-ever Special Flight Authorization (SFA) to Exceed Mach means the company's XB-1 prototype will be allowed to break the sound barrier during its test flights. Continue Reading Category: Aircraft, Transport Ta … | Continue reading
"I was definitely aware of the risk of any particular storm causing a problem in the future." Listing of luxury waterfront home slashes price by nearly 75% as major erosion concern washes value away: 'The price mitigates the risk' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
The worldwide building and construction industry hit all-time highs for emissions in recent years. Researchers find strategy to effectively reduce pollution of construction industry: 'Our findings provide a starting point for policymakers' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Interesting times: "This is what is currently happening in the House of Representatives explained by Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson" (via r/BeAmazed) 2024 Apr 17 (recorded April 16): Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson [NC] on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jeffjacksonnc/video/7358844815 … | Continue reading
From my latest exchange with Ratika Deshpande: The sky is a color that refuses to be named; it is at once peach and grey and beige and white. I can’t think of anything to compare it to. In On Writing, Stephen King says that while people can go, “It was so beautiful I couldn’t des … | Continue reading
The fate of deep sea mining hangs in the balance. Scientist calls out problematic 'climate solution' with potential for severe ocean damage: 'The issues far outweigh the benefits' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Here is the audio, video, and transcript, along with almost thirty minutes of audience questions, filmed in Miami. Here is the episode summary: Tyler and Peter Thiel dive deep into the complexities of political theology, including why it’s a concept we still need today, why Pete … | Continue reading
Google says it terminated 28 employees associated with protests of the company’s $1.2 billion cloud computing contracts with the Israeli government on Wednesday. The firings follow the arrests of nine Google employees for trespassing in the company’s New York and California offic … | Continue reading
For the last few months, Benjamin Tissoires and I have been working on and polishing a little tool called udev-hid-bpf [1]. This is the scaffolding required quickly and easily write, test and eventually fix your HID input devices (mouse, keyboard, etc.) via a BPF program instead … | Continue reading
In the early 2000s, I was a new and ambitious software engineer with very little theoretical knowledge. Worked as a webmaster, which included front-end, back-end, databases, and a bit of systems work, all with Microsoft products. My confidence didn’t match the realities of my act … | Continue reading
First, there is nothing. You mindlessly walk into the Sea of Cars from the mall and start tapping your remote over and over and over again into quiet and silent night. Foggy memories of parking near the pizza smell by the back slowly hit you and you groggily stumble forward like … | Continue reading
Looking for the books that are inspired by true stories? Here, we bring you the list of five best books based on true stories. Let’s explore: The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont Just hours following her husband’s announcement that he was leaving her and marrying his mistress, … | Continue reading
Archive What If? About Feed•Email TW•FB•IG -Books- What If? 2 WI?•TE•HT A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. What If? is on YouTube! The first video answers “What if we aimed Hubble at Earth?” Follow the What If? channel to be notified about new videos. | Continue reading
The solar farm could be the paradigm for similar projects moving forward. Officials greenlight massive billion-dollar solar farm project that will be largest of its kind: 'Unique and bold opportunity' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
A communication system whose users reveal only a few verified aspects of their identity can empower less confident participants to speak up, researchers report. | Continue reading
Minister of Bavaria Marcus Söder (CDU) has announced that the southern German state will ban smoking weed in beer gardens, at festivals and in certain public parks. Here’s what... | Continue reading
What do companies want from government policy? They want consistency and predictability. Whether policies are more supportive or less, consistency and predictability allow a company to plan things out. They allow a company to more easily forecast consumer demand as well as compan … | Continue reading
AI is the current thing. While there are still some core questions about it up in the air, the industry is swiftly navigating itself to leverage this platform shift. This swiftness is a particular trait of the Valley. People went all-in on almost everything since the web: mobile, … | Continue reading
I have a child who is also 2e and has been part of the NYC G&T program. We've had a positive experience with the citywide program, specifically with the program at The Anderson School. — Meta AI bot, answering a question on a forum | Continue reading
"Paediatricians cannot be any clearer on this point." Charities warn of 'crisis' affecting children that policymakers are ignoring: 'Rampant health inequalities can no longer be ignored' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Clean School Bus grant brings green future to school transportation. Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz and U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA-11) celebrated one of EPA’s first Clean School Bus grants under the Bipartisa … | Continue reading
llm-reka My new plugin for running LLM prompts against the Reka family of API hosted LLM models: reka-core ($10 per million input), reka-flash (80c per million) and reka-edge (40c per million). All three of those models are trained from scratch by a team that includes several Goo … | Continue reading
"It's like a fairytale." Homeowner shares progress photo after converting grass lawn to unorthodox ground cover: 'I would love to do this' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
EV sales have grown strongly in recent years, and while we’ve explained that they’re still growing nicely in many places and for many companies, it’s also clear that we’re not in the period of the fastest growth for the industry. Most notably, we’ve just seen #1 BEV seller Tesla … | Continue reading
"One of the lessons here is that it is usually impossible to restore all that has been lost." Restoration project refills US lake empty for more than a century: 'Overall picture at the end I think will be pretty nice' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Farmers will be able to rent the equipment thanks to local government and public institution partnerships. Researchers develop 'breakthrough' technology to eradicate crop-destroying pests: 'Will contribute a lot to agricultural productivity and farmers' income' first appeared on … | Continue reading
The incentives have been a success for wildlife officials and the local salmon population. Fisherman earns six-figure sum for help in removing menace from state rivers — how experts use bounties to control populations of problematic species first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
"It's taken a long time to get to this point." African nation achieves remarkable milestone against ongoing health threat of malaria: 'A beacon of hope' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
mistralai/mistral-common New from Mistral: mistral-common, an open source Python library providing "a set of tools to help you work with Mistral models". So far that means a tokenizer! This is similar to OpenAI's tiktoken library in that it lets you run tokenization in your own c … | Continue reading
"[Tighter restrictions] will only work if they are implemented quickly and effectively." Investigation uncovers continent-wide illegal trade of hazardous materials: 'Traffickers are becoming more sophisticated' first appeared on The Cool Down. | Continue reading
Report Details Recommendations to Streamline Interconnection with Near- to Long-Term Solutions to Add Clean Energy Resources to the Transmission Grid and Boost Our Clean Energy Economy WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a new roadmap outlining solutio … | Continue reading
President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda Equips Utilities and Power Providers With a Suite of Tools to Meet Increasing Demand, While Keeping Costs Affordable for Consumers, Cutting Emissions and Ensuring Reliability Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) toda … | Continue reading
In mid-March, we added this line to our system prompt to prevent Claude from thinking it can open URLs: "It cannot open URLs, links, or videos, so if it seems as though the interlocutor is expecting Claude to do so, it clarifies the situation and asks the human to paste the relev … | Continue reading
Rewind back to the '90s with this tribute to the iconic Motorola Pager. | Continue reading
Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke My rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is definitely more political than the last non-fiction book I read, Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, but that makes sense. The author’s entire thesis is not so much about but … | Continue reading
I came across this video that’s a pretty in-depth history of video game controller that taught me quite a bit I didn’t know and helped bridge some connections between the different companies throughout the industry’s history. | Continue reading
Running a small business is no easy task. There are so many things to deal with outside of the core work of the company. In this day and age, part of that is managing all kinds of technology, including websites and apps. But how to go about getting a custom ... [continued] The po … | Continue reading
The following JEP is targeted to JDK 23: 473: Stream Gatherers (Second Preview) | Continue reading