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Longtime friends and neighbors fell out of touch and in some cases died, leaving the couple more isolated and vulnerable. Not long before he met the Davises, Maw pitched a local businessman on investing in his engine business. In the Davises, he had met a couple who had sizable bank accounts and an impressive car collection. The buyer also said he paid more for LaDonna’s property than for two larger buildings on the same street.) The Davises' property on Holt Avenue in West Covina.

Persons: James, LaDonna, ”, Michael McCasland, Min Zaw Maw, Maw, “, Javier Puga, ” Puga, Ladonna’s, Frank Piro, Piro, Amis, didn’t, McCasland, Davis, Min Maw, “ Maw ingratiated, ” McCasland, Rich Schapiro, Diana Homeier, ” Homeier, ” Maw, Maw “, LaDonna Davis, Moe, Gilbert Amis, ” Amis, Brett Hitchman, ” Piro, ” LaDonna, Min, Juan Dotson, Dotson, Michael Ebiner, ” Ebiner, ’ ”, Gus May, Hitchman, ” Hitchman, LaDonna “, Ebiner, breathlessly, Stacey Wood, Wood, ’ Organizations: Powertek Engineering Group, Pacific Western Bank, Citizens Business Bank, NBC News, McCasland, Holt, St, NBC, Nascar, Google, Protective Services, Center, Adult Protective Services, ”, Public Guardian, West, West Covina police, Bank of America, Scripps College Locations: Holt, Myanmar, Arcadia, LaDonna, West Covina, Vincent, St, Upland, Calif, Angeles County, McCasland, Los Angeles

☆ Sometimes to save the internet, you must eat glue
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The glue pizza search result was traced back to a comment from a Redditor who went by "fucksmith" making an obvious joke on the subreddit r/Pizza. Because I'm both brave and a genius, naturally, I had to try to make the glue pizza myself. Was Google's response to tamp down its big AI search ambitions just because a few jokesters on X made silly queries? The ridiculousness of those AI answers does call into question the entire concept of using AI for Google search results. And I like to convince myself that my eating glue pizza was part of the noise that prompted Google to act.

Persons: I'm, Barack Obama, Katie Notopoulos, Liz Reid, Reddit, Sundar Pichai, Max Read, John Herrman Organizations: Service, Google, Business, New York Magazine

☆ Happy New Year of the Dragon - or Loong?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Chris Lau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

This year, it’s the Year of the Dragon, or more accurately, the “Year of the Loong,” says Chinese state media, using its preferred term for the mythical beast. The Chinese “loong” conjures positivity, nobleness and fortune and therefore should be distinguished linguistically from its Western cousin, state media argues. Chinese media has dedicated coverage and airtime to promote the new nomenclature over the past week or so, though both “dragon” and “loong” are being used interchangeably in English-language reports. “Transcribing long into English ‘loong’ would cause more problems and confusion than translating it as ‘dragon’,” he wrote. He noted that “some patriotic and political sources in the Sinosphere” have been peddling the concept that the Western dragon is fearful.

Persons: ”, Loong ”, it’s, loong, “ loong, Xi Jinping, Loong, John Lee, Wong Tai, Alex Chan Tsz Yuk, Elliott, Bradford Lee Eden, Eden, Eduardo Leal, ‘, Weibo, Victor Mair, Mair, “ loong ”, ” Eden, “ Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Disney, Xinhua, of Library Services, Valparaiso University ,, Tolkien Research, Getty, University of Pennsylvania, Valparaiso University Locations: China, Hong Kong, Beijing, Valparaiso University , Indiana, Macau, Weibo, West

☆ Opinion | When the Sky Offers an Unexpected Gift of Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Middle Tennessee has one metaphorical foot in the Midwest and one in the Deep South. We expect a certain amount of weather whiplash here, even without factoring in the extremities of climate change, but January has been a carnival ride. Thunderstorms and tornadoes followed by brutal cold and then by snow the likes of which we haven’t seen in years. Last week, temperatures dropped into the single digits at night and didn’t rise much higher during the day. Many people lose work they can’t afford to lose, while others risk their lives to get to jobs they aren’t allowed to miss.

Locations: Tennessee, Midwest, Nashville

☆ Chiseled Cheekbones and Comic Chops: Why We Don’t Like Our Stand-Ups Hunky
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Jason Zinoman | More About Jason Zinoman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Comedy has been the rare field where square jaws and chiseled features can count against you. Bob Odenkirk once said that it was impossible for men to be funny and sexy. Attractiveness has entered the maw of the culture war because the stigma against beautiful men has been fading. But you now see handsome men everywhere, even at small Brooklyn shows like the one where a comic introduced the endearingly cute Lucas O’Neil by citing not his credits but his cheekbones. Kumail Nanjiani most famously, but Chris Rock showing off his abs in The Hollywood Reporter took me more by surprise.

Persons: Bob Odenkirk, John Mulaney, Anthony Jeselnik, Pete Davidson, “, Jimmy Fallon, Lucas, Trevor Noah, Colin Jost —, “ You’ve, Nanjiani, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld Organizations: Twitter, ”, Hollywood, Daily Beast Locations: Brooklyn

☆ An Epic Pilgrimage Across Three Great Religions
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Aatish Taseer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +111 min

Before there was tourism, there was pilgrimage: a trip of endurance, hardship and ecstasy in celebration of one’s faith. On an epic pilgrimage of his own, one writer ventures into the heart of three great religions in Bolivia, Mongolia and Iraq. The Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala the day after Ashura. “They’re poor, but they come thousands of kilometers for the love of Imam Hussein.” PILGRIMAGE WAS A great equalizer. “Labaik ya Hussein,” came the solemn chorus of surrounding voices.

Persons: Eduardo Quintela Gonzáles, ” Quintela, JAN, “, ”, Quintela, Victor, Edith Turner, Chaucer, ferne, sondry londes, Vaishno Devi, Lyra Skinner, Lyra, Victoria Preston’s, —, Prophet Muhammad, Virgin Mary, Bath, Naipaul, Augustus, Ryan, garret, Virgin, Monica Machicao, Nicholas Casey, ” Monica, Casey, Evo Morales, sloughing, Columbus, Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Monica, glitzy cholets, Peru —, Viracocha, it’s, Pablo Quisbert, Leandro Chitarroni, Eichmann, Father Chitarroni, Father Chitarroni’s, Conquistadores ”, Fernando Cervantes, Bernabé Cobo, Quisbert, Edgar Quispe, Tatiana Huayhua, Francisco Tito Yupanqui, Mary, Yupanqui’s, su, Yupanqui, Chitarroni, she’s, Friar Abelino Yeguaori, Friar Yeguaori, Friar Yeguaori’s, Irene, Juana, hajji, Waka, Aracely Alcón, Santiago, Alcón, ‘, don’t, ” Alcón, Tito Yupanqui, Uma Marka, Pachamama, haggard, Amaru Fiorilo Barrios, he’d, ” Fiorilo, Fiorilo, who’d, Valeria Alcón, Laureano Jose Quisbert, Elena Ticona Flores, Eduardo Quintela’s, Ensamble, pang, padre, consolations, Sincrético, El, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Axel, amauta, strode, La, Aatish Taseer, Saint Helena —, Constantine I, La Paz, Orgilbaatar Tsolmon, Orgil, Genghis Khan, Edward Gibbon, ” Orgil, Araniko’s, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s, Kubla Khan, Coleridge, Kublai, Stalin, sybarite, Khamar, Dalai Lama, Lama, Christopher Kaplonski, ger, I’d, banshtai tsai, Prim, Egi, Munkhdul, Gandantegchinlen, Haidav, herder, “ Um sain, boltugai, Danzanravjaa, Zanabazar’s, Erdene, Mandakhtsog Monkhbaatar, Monkhbaatar’s, Dalai Lamas, prostrated, He’d, Zuu, she’d, Santiago de, L.K, Advani, Emperor Babur, Ram, kar sevaks, Ayodhya, Narendra Modi, Munkhbaatar Batchuluun, Henry Wallace, Franklin D, Potemkin, Munkhbaatar, Gerelmaa, Giimaa, She’d, Eduardo Quintela, Aracely, Santiago’s, Joseph Brodsky’s, Muhammad’s, Hussein, William Keo, ” Khuder, pillion, Labaik, Hussein ”, O Hussein, hearkened, Prophet, Ali —, Ali, Yazid, Imam, crackling, chickpeas, Imam Ali, Imam Hussein, Saddam Hussein, Tusi, Qasim, Imam Hussein’s, Khuder, “ Will, Najaf, prestes, — I, Yasir Yaseen, Ashura, Ali Akbar, Abbas, Ali Asghar, “ We’re, Francisco Goya’s, Hussein’s, Groom, Joseph, ” Wissam, Turfi, Saddam —, Arbaeen, Saddam, “ Imam Hussein, WE, Muhammad, Barnaby Rogerson, Prophet Muhammad ”, ” Ali, Muhammad — Muhammad, formlessness, Muqtada al, Abrams, chiding, Abu Musab Al, Zarqawi, Al Qaeda, William, “ They’re, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, flagellants, ruddy, stylishly, Hussein — shahid —, Farman Ahsan, Syed Salman Raza —, Saddam’s, ” Raza, William “, Ali Zayn al, Abidin, Labaik ya Hussein, thrall —, Lloyd, Susanne Rudolph — Organizations: CITY LA, LA, LA PAZ, Virgin, Crusaders, Dolorosa, Sun, The New York Times, Bolivian, Spain, La, Cordillera, Universidad Mayor de, Catholic, Good, La Paz, Dominican, Pakistan, Caesars, Nissan, Coke, Communists, Communism, ardor, Communist, Hyundai, flails, sacra, Apache, Mahdi Army, Al, ISIS, Karachi —, Princeton Locations: Bolivia, Mongolia, Iraq, Aatish Taseer Bolivia Mongolia Iraq, CITY LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, NAJAF, IRAQ, ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA, LA PAZ, La Paz, Bolivian, Copacabana, Lake Titicaca, New York, Christian, British, sondry, India, Delhi, Varanasi, Europe, American, Mecca, Arabia, Long, Vino Tinto, Chile, Peru, Monica, Plurinational State, Bolivia —, Americas, Spain, Columbian, Aztec Mexico, Inca Peru, Calvary Hill, Virgen del Cerro, South America, Puerto Rico, Huatajata, ”, Argentine, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Mexican, revelry, Spanish, “, morena, La, “ India, multilayered, Potosí, Argentina, Warisata, Scotch, Santiago de Compostela, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Nations, El Alto, Buenos Aires, Bombay, Tibet, Bolivia’s, Yamuna Rivers, United States, Buddhist Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian, Istanbul, Asia, Islam, China, Beijing, Dadu, Erdene Zuu, Soviet, Gobi, Los Angeles, gers, Qing China, Karnataka, Töv Province, Karakorum, Khamar, Erdene, Ukraine, Korea, Golden, Bayankhongor, Lhasa, Dalai, Inner Mongolia, Mongol, Nalaikh, Santiago, Santiago de Compostela and Canterbury, Bulgan Province, Somnath, Gujarat, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, ger, East German, Uvs Province, Pakistani, Indian, Tennessee, Najaf, Baghdad, Khuder, —, abayas, KARBALA, Kufa, Medina, Saudi Arabia, Karbala, Imam Ali, Bab, Kuwaiti, Bohras, South Asia, Tajikistan, Zaydis, Yemen, Alawites, Anatolia, Syria, Iran, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Sadr, U.S, Jordanian, Al Qaeda, Mesopotamia, Al, Multan, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan’s, Islamabad, Lahore, Kuwait, Karachi, Doha, Qatar

☆ How Chinese demand for fish maw (swim bladder) fuels a $52 million industry in Uganda
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Chris Snyder | Emily Christian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Fish maw — the swim bladder of a fish — is one of the most expensive dried-seafood products in the world. But the main reason fish maw is so desired is its supposed medical value. Fish maw is also often recommended in China for postpartum recovery and to reduce post-surgery pain. But because of overfishing in East Asia, China now imports the majority of its bladders from other countries, like Uganda. In Uganda, fishers compete for Nile perch in Lake Victoria and ship them to China for extremely high prices.

Persons: maw Locations: China, East Asia, Uganda, Lake Victoria

Just as the news broke on Wednesday of the presumed death of the mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was presiding over a televised World War II anniversary ceremony on a dark stage lit dramatically in red. He held a moment of silence, flanked by service members in dress uniforms, while a metronome’s beats sounded, like the slow ticking of a clock: Tock. The eerie split screen — the reported fiery demise of the man who launched an armed rebellion in June and the Russian president telegraphing the state’s military might — may have been coincidental. But it underscored the imagery of dominance and power that Mr. Putin, 18 months into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, appears more determined than ever to project. His internet “troll farm” helped the Kremlin interfere in the 2016 American presidential election, while his mercenary empire helped Russia exert influence across Africa and the Middle East.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Vladimir V, Putin, telegraphing Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Bakhmut, Africa

☆ Dr. Chatbot will see you now
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Almost invariably, the chatbot answers were rated as three or four times as reliable as the ones from the poor wee humans. But here's the most striking part: The chatbot answers, on average, were rated seven times as empathetic as the ones from humans. It's as if the unfeeling android Mr. Data figured out how to convincingly emulate Dr. Crusher's comforting bedside manner. Give those medical chatbots access to people's individual medical records, and they could offer more precisely directed advice. Healthcare AI startups will want the cheapest versions with the most financial bang, which won't necessarily have the best patient outcomes.

Persons: feely, San Diego lurked, I'm, ChatGPT, John Ayers, Ayers, —, chatbot, they're, That's, They're, Teva Brender, Brender, Jonathan Chen, Greg Corrado, isn't, Adam Rogers Organizations: University of California, UC San Diego, Pew Research Center, Harvard, Google, Stanford University School of Medicine, Food and Drug Administration, Healthcare Locations: San Diego, San Francisco

☆ Creepy close-up images of the sun reveal yarn-like strands, dark pores, and a 'light bridge' crossing a decaying sunspot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The sun looks spooky and mysterious in new images from the world's most powerful solar telescope. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has been observing the sun from the Hawaiian island of Maui since it first opened in 2020. Its first video, below, showed roiling solar plasma, each cell the size of Texas. Dark "pores" on the solar surface indicate powerful magnetic fields, which are likely driving the dark threads visible in the atmosphere above. The bright yellow surface plasma cools until its density is so low that it drops below the surface, through the dark lanes between cells.

☆ A research page about a new AI image tool that's basically Photoshop on steroids is so popular the website is crashing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A new AI tool, part of a research effort, could allow users to quickly edit and morph photos. The tool would let users quickly adjust the positions, stances, expressions and sizes of photo subjects. The research page showing demos of the tool has been crashing due to interest, The Verge reported. A page by the researchers showing video demos of the tool is already crashing as aspiring users flock to the site, The Verge reported. The tool could be the latest in an array of AI tools being opened up to the public, like OpenAI's DALL-E image generation tool, and many others.

☆ Google's new A.I. search could hurt traffic to websites, publishers worry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Instead of "ten blue links," the phrase that describes Google's usual search results, Google will show some users paragraphs of AI-generated text and a handful of links at the top of the results page. But website publishers are already worried if it becomes Google's default way of presenting search results, it could hurt them by sending fewer visitors to their sites and keeping them on Google.com. Rutledge Daugette, CEO of TechRaptor, a site focusing on gaming news and reviews, said Google's move was made without considering the interests of publishers and Google's AI amounts to lifting content. According to Search Engine Land, a news website that closely tracks changes to Google's search engine, the AI-generated results are displayed above the organic search results in testing so far. CNBC previously reported Google's plans to redesign its results page to promote generated AI content.

☆ After Years in the Shadows, Prigozhin Becomes a Player in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Anton Troianovski | Ben Shpigel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin quietly profited from his personal ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, winning lucrative catering and construction contracts with the Russian government while building a mercenary force known as Wagner. After throwing his fighters into Ukraine, their ranks swelled with prisoner recruits, Mr. Prigozhin emerged as a public power player, using social media to turn tough talk and brutality into his personal brand. In a scorching video posted Friday on social media, Mr. Prigozhin threatened to pull his fighters next week out of Bakhmut, the embattled city where he has thrown thousands of convicts into the maw of Ukraine’s defenses, taking extraordinary casualties in a stubborn effort to wear down the other side. Citing a lack of ammunition, Mr. Prigozhin delivered the ultimatum after walking among rows of bodies that he claimed were Wagner fighters killed in the battle for Bakhmut. He called out Russia’s defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, and Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the chief of the military general staff, as responsible for their deaths.

But it serves to highlight the importance of one of the most inaccessible parts of southeast Asia to the global tin supply chain. Imports from Myanmar grew from 30,000 tonnes in 2012 to 89,000 tonnes in 2013 and mushroomed to almost 500,000 tonnes in 2016. CHINESE DEPENDENCEThe Myanmar tin boom occurred at the right time for China's tin smelters, many of which were struggling to bring on new mining capacity as Beijing steadily tightened environmental controls on the mining sector. However, the threat alone underscores the fragility of tin supply at a time when Indonesia, the largest exporter of the metal in refined form, is mulling an export ban to stimulate the build-out of downstream processing capacity. This is probably not going to be the last time tin gets spooked by unexpected news from Myanmar.

☆ Hong Kong woos mainland China crypto firms in push to bolster finance hub status
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] A visitor looks at screens showing advertisements of NFTs and virtual lands, at Hong Kong Web3 Festival, in Hong Kong, China April 13, 2023. According to Xiao, many in the crypto industry thought Hong Kong would inevitably adopt the same regulations as mainland China. But he said that the government is now trying to emphasise Hong Kong practices different laws from mainland China under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework. These firms, which have exited countries like Canada and Britain, are among the sponsors of the glitziest Hong Kong parties this week. Reporting by Josh Ye in Hong Kong; Editing by Brenda Goh and Kenneth MaxwellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ T. Rex Had Lizard-like Lips That Covered Its Teeth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Aylin Woodward | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Conjure up an image of Tyrannosaurus rex in a Hollywood blockbuster. The meat-eating dinosaur’s long, serrated teeth taper to sharp points that protrude from a gaping maw bared wide in a roar. As the predator closes those jaws around its prey, its upper teeth remain exposed in a fanged smile. But new research is challenging these popular-culture depictions. The teeth of T. rex and its two-legged, three-toed meat-eating kin—known as theropods—were likely covered by thin, scaly lips resembling those of some modern lizards, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

☆ Gourmet fish bladder races chicken, beef to profitability in Singapore's lab meat push
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Chen Lin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Two years after Singapore greenlighted lab-grown meat for human consumption, mass production has yet to start. The technological, regulatory and scale barriers to entry for cultivated meat are very high compared to plant-based meat, said Didier Toubia, chief executive of Israel's Aleph Farms, which makes cultivated beef steak. "It's too high and it's embarrassing ... We lose money every time someone enjoys our cultivated chicken," Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said. Hong Kong-based Avant Meats is more bullish than Eat Just, with ambitions to make a premium food, cultivated fish maw. Fish maw is the swim bladder of a fish, a delicacy prized in China that could fetch up to thousands of dollars per kilogram, depending on its grade.

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