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☆ ‘A Daily Game of Russian Roulette’: Homeless in San Diego
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Eli Saslow | Erin Schaff | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Laine Goettsch packed her emergency medical bag and drove into downtown San Diego to look for her favorite patient, afraid of what she might find. Sometimes, she saw Abdul Curry cleaning the sidewalks near his tent and dancing to a playlist of Ed Sheeran songs. Now she drove into a homeless encampment and saw three people huddled near a camping stove and sharing a bottle of vodka. The toll in San Diego County had increased by nearly 10 times in the last decade, from 64 homeless deaths in 2014 to nearly 600 investigated by the medical examiner’s office in the last year. She drove across a bridge and spotted Abdul slumped over at the entrance of a parking garage.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Amazon is offering money to pick up your order, ChatGPT writes a “Succession” scene, and tips from an OnlyFans creator
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon Astro Amazon1. Internal documents revealed that Amazon plans to make Astro "more intelligent, more useful, and conversational." The project is internally called "Burnham" and is the latest example of Amazon's push to bring AI to its services and products. Internal documents signal that Amazon is pretty confident that this is a major upgrade to the home robot. Amazon is offering $10 for you to pick up your own order.

☆ I blew a golden opportunity to boost my savings in my 20s—the 7 money skills I wish I'd known by 30
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Mike Winters | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

And since I lived with my parents for almost half of my 20s, my expenses were low, which meant I blew a golden opportunity to boost my retirement savings. Know how interest worksYou can't make long-term financial decisions without knowing how interest affects your money. Your credit score matters because you're less likely to qualify for loans, auto financing and credit cards if you have a low credit score. Additionally, itemized summaries of your credit score, known as credit reports, are produced by the three major U.S. credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Overdue payments can result in penalty fees, higher interest rates and a lower credit score by over 100 points, in some cases.

☆ The Mother Who Changed: A Story of Dementia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Katie Engelhart | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In October 2017, Diane Norelius stopped answering the phone. Her two daughters called and called. The women worried that their mother, who was 81, was sick, or maybe even dead. When Bill died of complications from a broken hip in 2011, after 53 years of marriage, Diane found herself alone for the first time. Then Erik died of cancer at age 55.

☆ I Always Avoided It, but Now I’m in the Kitchen - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Yana Pan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There always seems to be this invisible fence between us, even though I’m an only child, her only daughter. You know how sometimes you remember the wise thing your parents said to you when you were a kid? To me, this meant I’d better have a well-paying career so I wouldn’t end up a housewife like her. In her short film “Semiotics of the Kitchen,” Martha Rosler shifted the traditional language around the kitchen to something violent, frustrating and radical. And because of how I grew up, the kitchen has always been a frustrating space that I refused to enter.

☆ Codename Burnham: Amazon has a secret new home robot with ChatGPT-like features that understands a lot more of its surroundings.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amazon is working on an upgraded version of its home robot Astro, powered by 'Burnham' technology. The robot has ChatGPT-like features, using large language models and other advanced AI. This is a new phase for Astro and the latest example of Amazon adding AI models to existing products. In one of these documents related to Burnham, Amazon describes an Astro product that costs $995. As LLMs were growing in scale, they started demonstrating "emergent skills in both inference and problem-solving," one of the Amazon documents stated.

☆ I left Miami for a remote village in Pakistan. I have no running hot water and limited electricity — but my quality of life here is infinitely better.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Samantha Shea | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

She moved to Hunza Valley in Northern Pakistan in 2021, where she's lived ever since. I live in Hunza Valley, 8,500 feet above sea level on the border with Western China, where I work as a digital nomad. A drone shot of Hunza Valley in early May. A Hunza Valley local drying apricots. Though my solo journey to Pakistan started as a trip, Hunza Valley is now my home.

☆ 26-year-old pays $1,157 a month for a 240-square-foot studio: 'I didn't even know they made apartments this tiny'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Jennifer Liu | In Jljenniferliu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Before Chi Baik moved into her 240-square-foot studio in Seattle last year, she tells CNBC Make It she"didn't even know they made apartments this tiny." Baik moved in September of 2022 and used to pay $1,550 for the place. John Paget | CNBC Make ItHer kitchen has modern finish with a two-burner stove but no oven. John Paget | CNBC Make ItChi Baik moved to Seattle from the Washington, D.C., area in the fall of 2022. Chi Baik is getting her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in special education Jon Paget | CNBC Make It

☆ New York will ban gas stoves in new buildings in an effort to meet emissions reduction goals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

New York will ban gas stoves in new buildings as part of its new budget agreement. The GOP vilified similar propositions earlier this year, enlisting gas stoves into the culture wars. The ban on natural gas in new buildings will phase in at the end of 2025, and it will not apply to current gas stove owners, the Times reported. The Consumer Protection Safety Commission said in March it was seeking information as to the potential health risks of gas stove emissions in the home, including a potential link to childhood asthma. The budget deal also allows the New York Power Authority to manufacture and own wind and solar energy projects, the Times reported.

☆ Yasmeen Lari, ‘starchitect’ turned social engineer, wins one of architecture’s most coveted prizes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Nicole Mowbray | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Yasmeen Lari, widely recognised as Pakistan’s first female architect, has become the first woman since Zaha Hadid to win the prestigious Royal Gold Medal, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Lari created the Zero Carbon Cultural Centre in 2011. The Pakistan State Oil Head Office in Karachi (shown here in 1984) was designed by Lari. RIBA President Simon Allford said, “Lari’s mission during her ‘second’ career has empowered the people of Pakistan through architecture, engaging users in design and production. “It’s about seeing how you can help build communities.”Top image: Yasmeen Lari at the Zero Carbon Women Center on Bamboo Stilts in Pakistan, 2011.

☆ Republicans want to ban banning gas ovens as part of their legislation to raise the debt ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Republicans have finally put their demands for the debt ceiling in writing and released legislation. They also want to preserve consumers' access to gas stoves, a fiery issue for the right. When Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, told Bloomberg that the agency was contemplating banning gas stoves, uproar ensued. Ultimately, the CPSC said it wasn't looking to outright ban gas stoves, and instead wanted to look how to reduce potentially hazardous emissions from stoves. What remains to be seen, then, is if McCarthy has enough votes to pay the country's debts and hold onto gas stoves.

☆ Real-estate investor Anne Curry has built a 311-unit portfolio since obtaining her first rental property in 1997. She shares the no-money-down strategy she used to scale up— and how she eventually wor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Anne Curry started her real-estate investing journey in 1997. She laid out for Insider in detail the method she used to scale up, starting with hard-money lenders. By the time they were ready to move out, the property had just about doubled in value to $124,000, Curry said. According to property tax documents viewed by Insider, she now owns a 59-unit property, a 30-unit property, an 14-unit property, and two 12-unit properties, as well as several smaller multifamily properties. Curry said the property was a good deal because big commercial real-estate investing firms weren't interested because it was considered affordable housing.

☆ This is what happened when 25 AI avatars were let loose in a virtual town
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Aaron Mok | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Researchers let 25 AI avatars loose in a virtual town. "To be honest, I don't like Sam Moore," the AI Tom said. Jaime Sevilla, an AI researcher not involved in the study, told Insider the models behind the study could be applied to non-player characters in video games. After all, the AI agents in the study were prone to hallucinations — like failing to recall certain events — which he attributes to how the model was trained. While researchers concluded their AI agents displayed emergent human behaviors, Woolridge said "we need to be skeptical" and "question" what AI tells us at face value.

☆ Kyrgyz eco-activist's 'trashion' tackles a burning problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Kyrgyz artist and environmental activist Cholpon Alamanova poses for a picture in her workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan March 30, 2023. Alamanova and her team of more than 80 women use the Kyrgyz traditional patchwork sewing technique, kurak, in order to recycle the textile waste, usually burned in landfills, into colourful blankets, clothes and accessories. In doing so, her workshop has become part of a global "trashion" trend promoting the use of recycled, used, thrown-out and repurposed elements to create garments, jewellery and art. The task engenders a warming feeling that motivates her to keep doing it, says Alamanova, while helping to keep alive the tradition. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ I started making candles from a humble craft kit and grew it into a million-dollar business. Here are the steps I took to go from Etsy to Nordstrom.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Lola Christina Alao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Tamara Mayne started making candles as gifts for her family with a store-bought candlemaking kit. I thought: Why not try and make some extra cash from selling candles on the side? I also started selling on Scoutmob — a now defunct website where buyers could discover independent makers, while still selling on Etsy and Squarespace. After a few weeks of just selling candles, I decided to pick up some freelance art-directing work to cover the bills. Our candles cost between $28 and $38 because of our increased overhead, when I first started selling them I was charging only $16.

☆ The Masters were caddied by only Black men for nearly 50 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Located just three miles from The Masters venue, the historically Black district lay adjacent to Augusta Country Club. Eventually, many would hop across Rae’s Creek to begin work at Augusta National. A “good bag” at Augusta National would pay up to $5, Maben said, offering $20 for a particularly lucrative day’s labor. The 1983 Masters saw the first White caddies walk the greens at the major, with just 19 Black caddies on the bag, Clayton said. This year, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum will put the legacy of Augusta’s Black caddies – quite literally – center stage.

Persons: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Willie Peterson caddied Nicklaus ’, Nathaniel “, ” Avery, Peterson –, –, Augusta, Nicklaus, Peterson, Augusta caddies, Leon Maben, Lucy, Lucy Craft Laney, Ward Clayton, “, ” Palmer, ” Clayton, …, Maben, Jerry ” Beard, caddie, Fuzzy Zoeller, John P, caddying, Willie “ Pappy ” Stokes, Stokes, Henry Picard, Ben Hogan, Hogan, Beard, Zoeller, Augusta “, Clayton, ” Maben, ” Beard, Heinz Kluetmeier, Tommy “, ” Bennett, Woods, scalding, John H, Stovepipe ” Gordon, Frank “, ” Stokes, Matthew “ Shorty Mac ” Palmer, Avery’s, Gordon, Gene Sarazen, Sarazen, Willie “, Perteet, Dwight D, Eisenhower, ”, ’, ‘, We’re, caddies, Jim Crow, Ron Townsend, Lee Elder, Elder, Andy Lyons, Townsend, ” Carl Jackson, Ben Crenshaw, Jackson, Crenshaw, “ Gentle Ben ”, Watson, Jamie Squire, Harvey Penick, ” Jackson, you’re, Andrew Redington, Avery, Palmer, Augusta caddies – Stokes, It’s Organizations: CNN, Augusta National, Bettmann, Getty, Augusta Country, Lucy Craft, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of, . Augusta National, ”, Augusta, ESPN, National, PGA, Augusta Country Club Locations: Georgia, Cedar Grove, Sand, Black, Augusta, caddies, Clayton, America, ”, Perteet

☆ ‘Retracing the Iron Curtain’ Review: The Border of Borders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andrew Stuttaford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 2019, writer and historian Timothy Phillips embarked on a 3,000-mile trek along the route of Europe’s postwar dividing line—almost a third was on foot. The trip began in Norway’s far north and ended where Turkey and Azerbaijan meet, and in his engrossing “Retracing the Iron Curtain,” Mr. Phillips uses that journey to tell the story of this brutal “border of borders,” which in the early days after World War II reached much further than is typically recalled. And so Mr. Phillips shows up in Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, which was still being “liberated” by the Soviets when Churchill spoke of an Iron Curtain. The Soviets eventually left, with conditions—just as there were conditions when they handed back Porkkala, a Finnish peninsula a few miles west of Helsinki that for a decade or so had been an exclave of the Leningrad region. The Soviets departed abruptly, but when the Finns returned home, “it wasn’t so much a case of the coffee still steaming on the stove as of the smoke still rising from the wreckage.”

☆ I work in a naked spa. It's exhausting and so much fun – but every now and then we have to stop people from getting intimate.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Andy Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Felix Kühn manages the sauna at a "textile-free" spa in Berlin, Germany. "It's a very physical and exhausting job, but I have so much fun with it," says Kühn. I started at Vabali Spa Berlin in December 2014. I was working in a pizza shop and on the first day of my university geography studies in Berlin, I met a guy who told me they were looking for people to work at the sauna at Vabali Spa Berlin. It's a very physical and exhausting job, but I have so much fun with itI still do sauna infusions.

☆ Travelers who don't know how to go off the grid bring 7 suitcases and a microwave to stay in a yurt, according to owners of rustic Airbnbs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Travelers may crave a break from their phones, but going off the grid can prove difficult for some. Courtesy of the KernohansIn Missouri, Michael Loftis built an off-the-grid cabin for his family, but eventually moved them to a town nearby. Many guests are quick to ask Kernohan if bears or other wildlife are a threat to their stay. Courtesy of Michael LoftisTo add to the rustic mood of his cabin, Loftis has furnished it with antiques, including a clawfoot tub and a 1920s gas-powered cookstove. Thankfully, she was safe, but it reminded Loftis that many guests are unfamiliar with old-school appliances.

☆ Some Etsy sellers say they're shutting their stores until the platform clears up any risk of non-payment from Silicon Valley Bank's collapse
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Etsy sellers have started putting their shops on "vacation mode" to lower the risk of non-payment. The e-commerce platform used the Silicon Valley Bank to process payments to their sellers. This new move from some Etsy sellers comes as Etsy reels from the fallout of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation dissolved Silicon Valley Bank on Friday after a disastrous bank run. Silicon Valley Bank's collapse is the largest bank failure in the US since the 2008 financial crisis.

☆ A former Starbucks barista shares how she makes 5 popular drinks at home: 'It's easy and just as good'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Stefania Marzelia | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Home recipes inspired by Starbucks' most popular drinksI recommend purchasing a moka pot, which is a stove-top or electric coffee maker. Here are some of my favorite at-home recipes, inspired by popular Starbucks drinks (based on a 16-ounce cup size): 1. Add some ice and pour espresso over it. Pour milk in. Heat to desired temperature (I heat mine to 150 degrees) and pour into a coffee mug.

QADIS, Afghanistan — When the temperatures plunged far below freezing in Niaz Mohammad’s village last month, the father of three struggled to keep his family warm. One particularly cold night, he piled every stick and every shrub he had collected into their small wood stove. He scavenged for trash that might burn, covered the windows with plastic tarps and held his 2-month-old son close to his chest. Ice crept across the room: It covered the windows, then the walls, then the thick red blanket wrapped around Mr. Mohammad’s wailing son. “The cold took him,” Mr. Mohammad, 30, told visiting journalists for The New York Times, describing the details of that horrible night.

REUTERS/Lisi NiesnerLUCH, Ukraine, Feb 27 (Reuters) - For a Ukrainian village devastated by war, Cold War bunkers built to withstand a nuclear attack that never happened have proven a lifeline for residents who have spent much of the past year living in them. In April, with their village caught between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Gynzhul, her husband Dmytro and their son moved into a warehouse basement, just before their second-storey apartment was shelled. Ukrainian soldiers pushed the Russians south away from Luch last autumn and by early November had recaptured Kherson city. Gynzhul and the others in her bunker live off humanitarian aid and her 4,000 hryvnia ($109) per month salary from her administrative job in the village. Bunker resident Iryna Sichkar said her son was captured early in the war in Mariupol.

☆ This collection of minimalist homes with a California flair are built in a factory, trucked to their final location, and start at $1,680 per month — take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Each Abodu has laminate flooring, with three different color options for buyers to choose from. The kitchen of a one-bedroom Abodu ADU in San Jose Courtesy of AboduThey also come with Bosch appliances including a dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, hood, and electric stove. Everything in this unit runs on electric. In the kitchen of this one-bedroom Abodu ADU in San Jose, the countertops are quartz and the cabinetry has a matte-black finish. The hanging lamps are an add-on called the hanging concrete pendant.

☆ Seeking a Studio in Downtown Brooklyn for Less Than $400,000: She Was Surprised by the Options
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The first time Jenn Leyva moved to New York, it was to start college at Columbia University. She took Zoom calls in a corner of the communal living room and made sure to always wash her dishes. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]She was pleasantly surprised by the options she found online: a handful of studios for less than $400,000, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, in the corner of the borough where leafy Brooklyn Heights meets Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. “Studios were cheap, because everyone was still working from home and wanted a one-bedroom with a separate sleeping space and work space,” Ms. Leyva said. “But my work space is in Manhattan.”She teamed up with Leora Blumberg Rubinstein, a realtor with Douglas Elliman, who approved of her strategy.

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