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Showing posts from September, 2024

A major port strike is looming. Costco says it's prepared.

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The key question Costco CEO Ron Vachris and other experts are weighing is less about whether a strike will occur and more about how long it will last. Dominick Reuter/Business Insider Eastern US ports could largely halt operations if a maritime workers union goes on strike Tuesday. As the likelihood of a stoppage has increased, retailers like Costco have taken steps to plan ahead. "We've taken as many preemptive measures as we could to prepare," CEO Ron Vachris said last week. US ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast could largely come to a halt as soon as Tuesday when the largest union of maritime workers in North America is set to go on strike. Retailers like Costco have taken steps to plan ahead as the likelihood of a stoppage has increased. The International Longshoremen's Association, which says it represents 85,000 members, said Sunday that a strike at dozens of facilities at 14 US ports is set to begin on October 1 as contract negotiations with the ...

California enacts an internet-connected car data privacy law to curb domestic violence, requiring carmakers to make it easier to submit restraining orders, more (Reuters)

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Reuters : California enacts an internet-connected car data privacy law to curb domestic violence, requiring carmakers to make it easier to submit restraining orders, more   —  California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill that requires automakers selling internet-connected cars … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/EC9jQKg

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill SB 1047; source: Newsom vetoed because the bill applies only to large AI models and leaves others unregulated (Wall Street Journal)

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Wall Street Journal : California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AI safety bill SB 1047; source: Newsom vetoed because the bill applies only to large AI models and leaves others unregulated   —  Governor seeks more encompassing rules than the bill opposed by OpenAI, Meta and supported by research scientists from Techmeme https://ift.tt/0C2iJeL

Gavin Newsom just used a QR code to announce his decision to sign a bill

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced the QR code. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to add QR codes to student ID cards. Then, he used a QR code to announce he had signed the bill into law. The bill's author said it was the first time a QR code was used as a signing message. You might be used to scanning a QR code to see a restaurant menu. But California just brought QR codes — shortcuts that take users to a desired landing page by aiming their smartphone camera at it — into the state legislature. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Friday allowing student ID cards to include QR codes linking to local mental health resources. The bill applies to public and private school students in grades 7 through 12. To announce he had signed the bill into law, Newsom let a QR code do the talking. Republican State Sen. Shannon Grove, who authored the bill, said it was the "first time in legislative history" that a QR cod...

Actor who plays Erik Menendez in 'Monsters' had an 'emotional' meeting with the convicted murderer thanks to a prison visit arranged by Kim Kardashian

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Erik Menendez and actor Cooper Koch. 48 Hours/YouTube/Netflix Erik Menendez told Cooper Koch he "did a great job" playing him in "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story," Koch said. The series centers on the 1989 murders of José and Kitty Menendez by their two sons. The series has faced criticism over alleged inaccuracies. Actor Cooper Koch said Erik Menendez told him he thought he "did a great job" portraying him in Netflix's true crime series, " Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story " — despite Menendez having previously criticized the show for alleged inaccuracies. Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the series centers on Erik and his older brother, Lyle Menendez, who shot and killed their parents, José and Kitty Menendez, in 1989. Koch, who portrays Erik, told The Hollywood Reporter that he came face-to-face with both Menendez brothers during a prison visit last week set up by Kim Kardashian . Koch said that ...

Buffalo Wild Wings is still fighting in court to prove its boneless wings aren't just 'chicken nuggets'

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Buffalo Wild Wings is fighting in court to prove that it is not misleading to call its product "boneless wings," even though it is not made from chicken wings. Buffalo Wild Wings on Facebook Buffalo Wild Wings is defending its "boneless wings" in court against deceptive marketing claims. The plaintiff argues the wings are made from chicken breast meat and not chicken wing meat. Buffalo Wild Wings argue it is 'common sense' that they are not actually wings, citing another case. Buffalo Wild Wings has been fighting in court for over a year to prove that its "boneless wings" aren't just chicken nuggets. Now, the company's attorneys say an Ohio Supreme Court case has already settled the question. Aimen Halim filed a class action lawsuit against Buffalo Wild Wings in March 2023, claiming in court documents that the chain's "boneless wings" are actually made of chicken breast, which he said amounts to "deceptive mark...

Bumble, Muzz, and Match Group are pushing their friend-finding and community-building products to attract young users hit by so-called dating app fatigue (Stephanie Stacey/Financial Times)

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Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times : Bumble, Muzz, and Match Group are pushing their friend-finding and community-building products to attract young users hit by so-called dating app fatigue   —  Bumble and Match Group launch friendship and social products to help reverse post-pandemic slowdown from Techmeme https://ift.tt/6fNv9Wp

De-escalation in the Middle East is now up to Iran

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Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on September 28. Joseph Eid Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a major escalation. Nasrallah was one of Iran's most important allies. Iran's response could de-escalate the conflict or spark a wider war involving major global powers. Israel's assassination of Hassan Nasrallah , the head of Hezbollah for over 30 years, is a major escalation in the Middle East conflict. De-escalation is now up to Iran. Nasrallah was Iran's most trusted proxy in its conflict with Israel and its power struggle with Saudi Arabia and the United States. A senior Iranian commander working with Nasrallah was also killed in the attack, Iranian state media confirmed on Saturday. Israel last assassinated an Iranian commander in April when it struck an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, the capital of Syria, killing multiple military officers, including Brig. Gen. Moha...

Sources: Amazon Prime Video is in talks with veteran anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night special, its first entry into news-related programming (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

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Brian Steinberg / Variety : Sources: Amazon Prime Video is in talks with veteran anchor Brian Williams to host a live Election Night special, its first entry into news-related programming   —  Brian Williams may have found his next TV-news job....except it won't be on traditional TV.  —  The veteran NBC News … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/SR1m9Ix

WeightWatchers' CEO embraced Ozempic. Now she's out of the company.

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Sima Sistani, who stepped down Friday, helped push WW International to embrace weight loss drugs. WeightWatchers WeightWatchers' CEO of roughly two years, Sima Sistani, is out. She helped push the company into the white-hot weight-loss drug space. Its interim chief said the company was in a critical period of transformation. It's been a bumpy year for WW International, the company also known as WeightWatchers. In a leadership shake-up Friday, the weight-loss company announced CEO Sima Sistani is stepping down after roughly two years — effective immediately — and board member Tara Comonte is stepping up to serve as interim chief. "On behalf of the Board, I want to sincerely thank Sima for her leadership in advancing our strategy, for adding WeightWatchers Clinic to our offerings, and for her unwavering commitment to our mission," said Thilo Semmelbauer, Chairman of the WeightWatchers Board of Directors. "We wish her all the best in her future endeavors....

Meta will also block sharing of Ken Klippenstein's newsletter and other sources with the JD Vance dossier, citing foreign meddling and hacked materials policies (Cristiano Lima-Strong/Washington Post)

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Cristiano Lima-Strong / Washington Post : Meta will also block sharing of Ken Klippenstein's newsletter and other sources with the JD Vance dossier, citing foreign meddling and hacked materials policies   —  The platform blocked a journalist from sharing a purported research document on the candidate, mirroring its past controversy. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/mft9dcW

Eric Adams told a staffer he 'always' deleted texts following discussion of alleged Turkish bribes, messages obtained by prosecutors show

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Eric Adams faces corruption charges. Seth Wenig Eric Adams told a staffer he "always" deleted messages after discussing alleged bribes. Prosecutors included some of the messages in the new indictment against the NYC mayor. Adams also claimed he forgot his new phone password after the FBI seized it. New York City Mayor Eric Adams promised to "always" delete messages exchanged with one of his staffers who arranged Turkish government-funded trips, according to the indictment against him unsealed Thursday. Prosecutors got their hands on the messages anyway. "To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me," the Adams staffer wrote in a message to Adams, according to the indictment. "Always do," Adams responded, according to prosecutors. In the sweeping 57-page indictment , the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York accused Adams of taking bribes from Turkey over the course of several years. Adams a...

Sources: Robinhood and Revolut are exploring offering their own stablecoins; Tether's USDT has grown to $120B, accounting for over two-thirds of market value (Bloomberg)

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Bloomberg : Sources: Robinhood and Revolut are exploring offering their own stablecoins; Tether's USDT has grown to $120B, accounting for over two-thirds of market value   —  - Tether's USDT accounts for over two-thirds of market value  — BitGo executive sees ‘hyper-fragmentation’ of stablecoins from Techmeme https://ift.tt/aLkZKjR

Meta debuts Quest 3S, larger and with lower-resolution displays than Quest 3 but with better battery and the same chip and controllers, coming Oct. 15 for $300+ (Jay Peters/The Verge)

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Jay Peters / The Verge : Meta debuts Quest 3S, larger and with lower-resolution displays than Quest 3 but with better battery and the same chip and controllers, coming Oct. 15 for $300+   —  Meta finally announced the very heavily leaked Quest 3S VR headset, and the leaks were right: it's a $299.99 headset that looks like a mix of the Quest 2 and Quest 3. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/xS0gXvW

I'm an interior designer. Here are 10 ways to make your home look more expensive for cheap.

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If you want your space to look more expensive, be thoughtful in which decor and materials you go with. Thomas Barwick/Getty Images As an interior designer , I know a few simple, cheap ways to make your space look expensive. Incorporate the three tiers of lighting and a mixture of luxe textiles into your space. Most importantly, remember that any space will look best when you keep it clean and decluttered. As an interior designer, I have a few tricks for making your home look more luxurious . Here are 10 ways to make your home look more expensive without splurging.  Hang curtains that go all the way to the ceiling. Curtains can elongate a wall. Viktoria Lytvyn/Shutterstock Hanging curtains closer to the ceiling and letting them graze the floor creates an illusion of height and grandeur. The trick elongates the visual lines of your walls, so your room feels more spacious and the windows appear larger. You don't even have to break the bank on window treatments. Ike...

Vinod Khosla says universal basic income may be needed as AI takes over jobs and drives wealth disparity

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Investor Vinod Khosla said universal basic income might be necessary as artificial intelligence takes on more of the work humans do. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla says AI will handle 80% of work in 80% of jobs. Khosla argues AI will reduce labor value, making expertise nearly free and driving down costs. He said the resulting disruptions to the labor market help make the case for universal basic income . Famed Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla thinks artificial intelligence will be able to do 80% of the work of 80% of jobs. That will mean humans have a lot more free time because the value of our labor will fall. One way to cushion the blow: universal basic income . Khosla, who cofounded Sun Microsystems and who has invested in OpenAI, wrote in a lengthy post on the website of his eponymous venture capital firm that AI would reduce costs and make expertise nearly free. That means everyone from doctors to those in sales to pe...

Researchers find a new version of Necro malware in Google Play apps with 11M+ total installs; Necro malware in 2019 was found in Play apps with 100M+ installs (Ionut Arghire/SecurityWeek)

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Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek : Researchers find a new version of Necro malware in Google Play apps with 11M+ total installs; Necro malware in 2019 was found in Play apps with 100M+ installs   —  The Necro trojan was found in two Android applications in Google Play with a combined downloads count of over 11 million. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/sCcFr8l

Microsoft releases a progress report on its efforts to make security its top priority, which began in November 2023 after a scathing report from the US CSRB (Tom Warren/The Verge)

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Tom Warren / The Verge : Microsoft releases a progress report on its efforts to make security its top priority, which began in November 2023 after a scathing report from the US CSRB   —  Microsoft made security its No. 1 priority for every employee earlier this year, following years of security issues and a scathing report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/0Yn7dTf

A profile of French billionaire Xavier Niel, a driving force of French AI and ByteDance's newest board member, who believes Europe should pursue homegrown AI (Morgan Meaker/Wired)

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Morgan Meaker / Wired : A profile of French billionaire Xavier Niel, a driving force of French AI and ByteDance's newest board member, who believes Europe should pursue homegrown AI   —  The TikTok owner's newest board member revels in challenging the establishment. … I wait to meet Xavier Niel in a room that feels fitting for one of France's richest men. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2nsQ01P

Here's where every major character ended up in 'Emily in Paris' season 4

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Eugenio Franceschini as Marcello, Lily Collins as Emily, and Lucas Bravo as Gabriel in season four of "Emily in Paris." Netflix "Emily in Paris" has reached the end of its fourth season. Business Insider has taken a look at where each of the show's major characters ended up. Warning: This article contains major spoilers for season four of "Emily in Paris." The second half of " Emily in Paris " saw American marketing whiz Emily Cooper ( Lily Collins ) take on a new frenemy, a new romance, and a brand-new city . Characters like Emily's best friend Mindy ( Ashley Park ) and boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) also had their lives turned upside down as the drama dialed up. But what happened to everyone else? Since a  fifth season of the series has already been greenlit , it's as good a time as any to take a look at where the major characters left things at the end of season four. Emily finally got together with Gabriel, b...