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☆ Nvidia, Amazon, Microsoft, and Paramount execs discuss the use of AI in Hollywood. Here are 9 startups they're watching.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Read previewStartups are rushing to create the best artificial intelligence video generation tools and convince Hollywood that AI won't decimate the creative industries. But, the most common early use of AI in entertainment is often more mundane than reverse-aging Harrison Ford to simulate a younger Indiana Jones. When top executives at the intersection of AI and entertainment met at the virtual Digital Hollywood summit on Monday, the use cases for AI in Hollywood were decidedly deeper in the details. These are some of the startups AI and entertainment leaders have their eyes on. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesLuma AI, another image generation AI startup Bakhtar named, has raised more than $68 million according to Bain, with recent backing from Andreessen Horowitz.

Persons: —, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones, They're, Panah Bakhtiar, we're, Phil, Alejandro Matamala, Ortiz, Anastasis Germanidis, Cristóbal Valenzuela, Krikey, Bakhtar, Marc Andreessen, Justin Sullivan, Bain, Andreessen Horowitz, Amit Jain, xMentium, Eliot Sakhartov, Speechmatics Michael Kaplan, Oleg Elkov, Nvidia's Kaplan, Sakhartov, Jensen Huang, Reid Hoffman, Huang, Kaplan Organizations: Service, Hollywood, Business, Paramount, Companies, Microsoft, AWS, Nvidia, Runway, Google, Apple Vision Pro Locations: London, New York, Taiwan

☆ 4 Missouri Prison Guards Charged With Murder in Death of a Black Prisoner
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-28 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four Missouri prison guards were charged with murder on Friday and a fifth with involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the death of a Black man who died last year after they pepper sprayed him, covered his face with a mask and left him in a restraint chair, the authorities said. The man, Othel Moore Jr., 38, died of positional asphyxiation on Dec. 8 at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, according to court records, which list homicide as the cause of death. The episode that led to Mr. Moore’s death occurred during a sweep by the Missouri Department of Corrections Emergency Response Team of one of the prison’s housing units that was being searched for contraband, according to court records. Mr. Moore was searched and stripped down to his boxer shorts, and staff members used pepper spray on him multiple times and placed him in a restraint system with a spit mask, which is supposed to prevent spit from hitting others, and a padded helmet, records show. He was then taken to a different housing unit, where he was left in a cell with the spit mask, helmet and restraint system.

Persons: Othel Moore, Moore’s, Moore Organizations: Jefferson City Correctional Center, Missouri Department of Corrections Locations: Missouri, Jefferson

☆ A Tenacious and Wild Pekingese Is the Ugliest Dog, After Five Tries
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-22 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The 8-year-old Pekingese from Oregon was crowned the World’s Ugliest Dog on Friday, confirming that when the looks are, well, lacking, there’s something to be said for persistence. “His victory is a testament to his undeniable charm and resilience,” said a statement released by the competition following Wild Thang’s big win. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Wild Thang’s life got off to a difficult start, according to his biography (yes, he has one). As a puppy, he contracted distemper, an infectious disease caused by a virus that attacks dogs’ respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. He barely survived, and his biography notes that Wild Thang was left permanently affected by the disease: “His teeth did not grow in, causing his tongue to stay out and his right front leg paddles 24/7.”

Persons: “, ”, distemper Locations: Oregon, Los Angeles

☆ I spent 12 days seeking Costa Rica's highlights, from the Cloud Forest to the Nicoya Peninsula. I'd revisit 3 places in a heartbeat but one tourist trap I'll never fall into again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Read previewMy partner and I decided to splurge on a vacation to Costa Rica for a milestone birthday celebration this year. Costa Rica boasts 5% of the world's biodiversity, with white sand beaches and lush jungles to explore — a huge draw for us as animal lovers. My partner captured drone footage of our rafting trip down the Rio Celeste in Costa Rica. We chose to take a night walk that included a coffee and chocolate tour. I suggest a dedicated night walk tour, which usually begin at dusk, for a chance to see sloths and other creatures, rather than a gimmicky coffee and chocolate tour offered by many locations.

Persons: —, It's, Costa, Rio Celeste, Rio, Sergio Ortiz, Katherine Tangalakis Organizations: Service, Central, Business, La Fortuna, La, El, Costa Rica — Locations: Costa Rica, Central American, Costa Rica's, San Jose, La, Arenal, Monteverde, Santa Elena, Paquera, Montezuma, Nicoya, Rio Celeste, La Fortuna, Tigre, Puntarenas, artsy, El Tigre, Costa Rican

☆ Kia Recalls Telluride SUV Over Fire Risk; Urging Owners to Park Outside
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-08 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | More About Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The automotive company Kia issued a recall on Friday of certain Telluride SUVs from the years 2020 through 2024 and urged the owners of the vehicles to park outside and away from structures because of a fire risk, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The issue stems from the front power seat motor, which can overheat “because of a stuck power seat slide knob, potentially resulting in a fire and increasing the risk of injury,” the NHTSA said in a statement. “To fix the issue, dealers will install a bracket for the power seat switch back covers and replace the seat slide knobs, free of charge,” the statement said. Kia recommended that drivers park outside until repairs were completed. About 460,000 vehicles could be affected by the recall, according to the NHTSA, and notices informing owners of affected Tellurides are expected to be mailed beginning July 30.

Persons: Kia Organizations: Kia, Telluride, Traffic Safety Administration

☆ A 12-Year-Old Wins Astonishing Spell-Off at Scripps National Spelling Bee
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

PinnedTing Shen for The New York TimesTing Shen for The New York TimesCredit... Ting Shen for The New York TimesBruhat Soma held his trophy high after winning the second-ever spell-off at the Scripps Bee. The Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday came down to its second-ever spell-off, a fast-and-furious tiebreaking round that rewards speed as much as accuracy. Image Credit... Ting Shen for The New York TimesThe next competitor, Aditi Muthukumar, was asked to spell Lillooet, a Salishan people of the Fraser River valley in British Columbia. Immediately after Aditi came Bruhat, the night’s eventual champion, who correctly spelled “Okvik,” from an Alaskan geographical name. Image Credit... Ting Shen for The New York TimesFaizan, who is from the Dallas area, came in second place after spelling 20 words correctly in the spell-off.

Persons: Ting Shen, The New York Times Ting Shen, Soma, Faizan Zaki, Bruhat, Rishabh Saha, “, Rishabh, The New York Times Shrey Parikh, ”, Ananya Prassanna, YY Liang, Kirsten Santos, “ Jumano, Aditi Muthukumar, Aditi, “ Okvik, The New York Times Faizan Organizations: The New York Times, The New York Times Credit, Scripps Bee, Scripps, Spelling, Texas, Bee, Lone Star State, Texans Locations: Tampa, Fla, —, Philippines, Southwest, South Plains, Lillooet, Fraser, British Columbia, Texas, Dallas, United States, spellers, California, New York

☆ ‘General Hospital’ Actor Reported Killed in Shooting in Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | More About Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Johnny Wactor, an actor best known for his role in “General Hospital,” was shot and killed on Saturday, reports said, amid what his family described as an attempted theft of a catalytic converter in Los Angeles. The fatal shooting took place around 3 a.m. on Saturday, when Mr. Wactor approached three men in downtown Los Angeles, The Associated Press reported, citing the Los Angeles Police Department. His mother, Scarlett Wactor, told the local news station ABC7 that Mr. Wactor left the rooftop bar where he worked late in the evening and was walking with a co-worker toward his vehicle when he interrupted someone who was in the process of stealing the vehicle’s catalytic converter. Ms. Wactor said her son thought his car was being towed at first, and when he approached the person to ask, the person “looked up, he was wearing a mask, and opened fire.”

Persons: Johnny Wactor, ”, Wactor, Scarlett Wactor Organizations: “, Associated Press, Los Angeles Police Department, ABC7 Locations: Los Angeles

☆ How Today’s Economy Could Matter in November
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Jess Bidgood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ortiz, 32, lives in Bethlehem, Pa., and has a job that she loves, analyzing claims of malpractice and other issues. But with prices still feeling high and a recent round of layoffs at work, she feels like the economy has gotten worse. Now, after sitting out the presidential elections in 2016 and 2020, Ortiz has been paying a lot of attention to politics. And right now, Ortiz, a onetime Obama voter, is leaning toward former President Donald Trump. “When he was president, we got a raise in my job,” Ortiz said, as she loaded a couple of packages of energy drinks into the back of a big S.U.V.

Persons: Syd Ortiz, Ortiz, Donald Trump, ” Ortiz, Biden Locations: Bethlehem, Pa, New York

☆ Buzz, Chirp, Wee-Oo: The Sounds of Cicadas Are Back
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was early morning on April 29 when Jakob Dwight ’s grandmother, Valeria Richards Maye, died in Alabama. It was that day, too, when he heard the cicadas sing near her home and it comforted him. “I don’t know if they were out a few nights before,” he said. “I did not hear them the night before.”It felt like some kind of connection to his grandmother: Describing the sound as almost like a ray-gun in a science-fiction movie or a thin metallic sheet rippling, Mr. Dwight said in an interview on Wednesday that he felt touched listening to the droning “in the way that if people lose a loved one, they tend to have magical experiences or at least imbue things in nature with kind of that spirit of the loved one.” He would go on to record the cicadas’ song the day after her funeral. This spring, as two broods of cicadas emerge in a rare simultaneous event to produce a sound as loud as an airplane’s, Americans are feeling connected to nature and rejoicing — or covering their ears — as they listen to the song in their backyards.

Persons: Jakob Dwight ’, Valeria Richards Maye, “, ”, Dwight Locations: Alabama

☆ Opinion: Tom Brady’s roast realization came too late
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Opinion Kara Alaimo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

But a number of the jokes touched on his divorce from his ex-wife, Gisele Bündchen, with whom Brady shares two kids, Benjamin, 14, and Vivian, 11. It’s hard to believe that, with so many years of experience with both parenthood and global stardom, Brady didn’t foresee that appearing on “The Greatest Roast” would essentially be accepting an invite to have his family skewered. He’s serving as an executive producer of “The Greatest Roast” series, so he clearly stood to benefit from the attention his episode received. Everyone — but especially an executive producer of this very series about roasting people — knows that few topics are off limits in a roast. Maybe he really didn’t see coming how hard this would be on his kids.

Persons: Kara Alaimo, Tom Brady, didn’t, Brady, Kevin Hart, Gisele Bündchen, Benjamin, Vivian, “, ” Brady, ”, Jeff Ross, Robert Kraft, Ross, he’d, Brady didn’t, It’s, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Facebook Brady, He’s, Rob Gronkowski, David Ortiz Organizations: Fairleigh Dickinson University, Women, Press, Facebook, CNN, Netflix, New England Patriots, Twitter Locations: ”

☆ Can MLB save the starting pitcher? The search for solutions to baseball’s ‘existential crisis’
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Jayson Stark | Ken Rosenthal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +20 min

Ten active major-league starting pitchers have won a Cy Young Award — and nine of them have spent time on the injured list in 2024. The issue is not only the health of the modern starting pitcher, but the role those starters play in the sport these days. “You’ve got to get the starting pitcher back. But has the starting pitcher crisis risen to that level? If you’re a dominating starting pitcher in this era, it probably means you throw harder than the average pitcher.

Persons: Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, ’, Cy Young, Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes, Yu Darvish, Justin Steele, ”, Max Scherzer, “ You’ve, Patrick Mahomes, isn’t, that’s, weren’t, here’s, It’s, they’d, you’re, they’re, David Ortiz, Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Adam Wainwright, they’ve, “, North America aren’t, I’ve, you’ve, ” Scherzer, Corbin Burnes, Patrick Smith, Rob Manfred, we’re, “ You’re, wouldn’t, it’s, “ that’s, He’s, Manfred, Eamonn Dalton, Conrad Williams , Jr, Matthew Grimes Jr Organizations: Cy, Wrigley, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Cubs, Padres, Major League Baseball, Texas Rangers, NFL, Athletic, MLB, American League, of Fame, didn’t, Atlantic League, Red Sox, National League, North America, Orioles, Newsday, Getty Images, Atlanta Braves, Getty

☆ Woman Made Her Home Inside a Grocery Store’s Rooftop Sign, Police Say
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-11 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A woman found living in the rooftop sign of a grocery store in Michigan had set up the small space to call home with flooring, a Keurig coffee maker and a computer, the authorities said. The unidentified 34-year-old woman, who was not formally charged with anything, had been living there for about a year, Brennon Warren, a spokesman for the Midland Police Department in Midland, Mich., said in an email. The police were called by store staff members on April 23 around 2 p.m. after contractors who were working on the roof found her, Officer Warren said. It is unclear how she was getting up and into the triangular sign on the rooftop of a Family Fare store, he said, estimating the building to be between 15 to 20 feet tall and the space where she had been living to be about 10 to 15 feet in length, five feet wide and approximately six to eight feet “at its highest peak.”

Persons: Brennon Warren, Warren, ” Organizations: Midland Police Department Locations: Michigan, Midland, Mich

☆ When Prison and Mental Illness Amount to a Death Sentence
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Glenn Thrush | Carlos Javier Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four men in black tactical gear pinned him, his face to the concrete, to cuff his hands behind his back. “I didn’t do anything,” Mr. Johnson moaned as they pressed a shield between his shoulders. Mr. Johnson, 21 and serving a short sentence for gun possession, was in the throes of a mental collapse that had gone largely untreated, but hardly unwatched. But for the previous three weeks, Mr. Johnson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had refused to eat or take his medication. Most dangerous of all, he had stealthily stopped drinking water, hastening the physical collapse that often accompanies full-scale mental crises.

Persons: Markus Johnson, Mr, Johnson moaned, Johnson Organizations: Danville Correctional Center Locations: Danville, Chicago

☆ A New Battery Warns Parents if Their Child Has Swallowed It
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Almost two years after a report warned that children were swallowing batteries at an alarming rate, Energizer is releasing a new battery designed to alert parents if their child has swallowed one. The new coin lithium battery features more secure packaging, a nontoxic bitter coating to discourage swallowing and “color alert technology” that activates a blue dye when the battery comes into contact with moisture, like saliva, so parents and caregivers know that medical attention could be required. The new battery was announced in a video last week by Energizer and Trista Hamsmith, whose 18-month-old daughter died after swallowing a button battery from a remote control. Ms. Hamsmith founded a nonprofit organization focused on children’s safety, successfully advocated for legislation, known as Reese’s Law, that requires a secure compartment of the batteries in products that use them as well as stronger warning labels on all packaging, and is now working to make the batteries themselves safer.

Persons: Energizer, Trista Hamsmith, Hamsmith

At least one tornado struck parts of Nebraska on Friday afternoon, leading to the collapse of an industrial building, injuring at least three people and prompting a widespread emergency response, officials said, a day after tornadoes battered other parts of the Midwest. The Weather Service issued tornado warnings for much of Omaha, including the downtown area. The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office responded to the industrial building at Garner Industries around 3 p.m. and found it “pretty much totally collapsed” with several people trapped inside, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said. Three people were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, he said, adding that roughly 70 people were inside when the tornado struck. The sheriff’s office also received reports of a derailed train in Waverly, Chief Houchin said, adding, “They didn’t require any emergency assistance, so we’re hoping it’s very minor.”

Persons: Ben Houchin, Houchin, it’s, ” Organizations: Midwest, The Weather Service, Sheriff’s, Garner Industries Locations: Nebraska, Omaha, Lancaster, Waverly ,

☆ I've been laid off 5 times. The first one was devastating — but I wouldn't have reinvented myself without them.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Charissa Cheong | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

AdvertisementWhen I first started working, I could not have imagined that I'd have to live through layoffs five times over eight years. I've worked in magazine media, startups, and tech. AdvertisementI am very loyal to all of the people that I've worked for and worked with. I started working as a director of marketing content strategy for Dropbox in August 2020. What I've learned after five layoffs in less than eight years is that no industry is immune to instability.

Persons: Betty Wong Ortiz, She's, Ortiz, —, I've, Rocco DiSpirito, I'd, We'd, Meredith, It's Organizations: Service, Fitness Magazine, Meredith Corporation, Blink Health, Dropbox, Blink Locations: Lake George , New York, Dropbox

☆ Up to a Trillion Cicadas Are About to Emerge in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In a rare occurrence, a trillion cicadas from two different broods are expected to begin appearing in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States at the end of April. It’s the first time since 1803 that Brood XIX, or the Great Southern Brood, and Brood XIII, or the Northern Illinois Brood, will appear together in an event known as a dual emergence. Thomas Jefferson was president the last time that the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year period. After this spring, it’ll be another 221 years before the groups, which are geographically adjacent, appear together again. A roughly 16-state area will be center stage for these periodical cicadas, which differ from those that appear annually in smaller numbers.

Persons: It’s, Thomas Jefferson, it’ll Organizations: Southern, Northern Illinois, Northern Illinois Brood’s Locations: Midwest, United States, Northern

At an event in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Tuesday, Mr. Trump described Ruby Garcia, 25, and her killing at length. She faulted Mr. Trump for framing her sister’s death as a border issue. Mr. Trump recently derailed a bipartisan border deal in the Senate by urging Republicans not to support it, in a move that prevented a political win for President Biden and allowed Mr. Trump to continue campaigning on the issue. During the event, Mr. Trump described Ms. Garcia as an “incredible young woman,” though at one point mistakenly said she was 17 years old. Local Democrats pre-emptively criticized Mr. Trump for planning to make Ms. Garcia part of his campaign rally.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Ruby Garcia, Garcia, ”, Mavi Garcia, “, ” Mavi Garcia, Mr, “ It’s, I’ve, —, ” Ruby Garcia, Brandon Ortiz, Ortiz, Vite, Laken Riley, Biden, Justin Barclay, emptively, Debbie Stabenow, Garcia’s, Trump’s Organizations: Michigan, Republicans, NBC, West Michigan, New York Times, Washington Post, ABC News, . Immigration, Customs, Augusta University, University of Georgia, Local Democrats Locations: Grand Rapids, Mich, United States, Grand, Mexico, Georgia, Athens, Venezuela, Michigan, Detroit

☆ Chance Perdomo, Star of ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,’ Dies at 27
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | More About Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Chance Perdomo, the British actor known for his roles in the series “Gen V” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” died on Friday. Mr. Perdomo died in a motorcycle accident, Larissa Saenz, a representative for him, confirmed in a statement on Saturday. The statement said that the “authorities have advised that no other individuals were involved.” It was not immediately clear where the accident happened. Mr. Perdomo played the pansexual warlock Ambrose Spellman in the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” and Andre Anderson, a superhuman with magnetic manipulation abilities, in “The Boys” spinoff series “Gen V.”He was born on Oct. 20, 1996, according to his representative, in Los Angeles and raised in Southampton, England. Details on survivors were not immediately available.

Persons: Chance Perdomo, V, Sabrina, ”, Perdomo, Larissa Saenz, Ambrose Spellman, Sabrina ”, Andre Anderson Organizations: Netflix Locations: British, Los Angeles, Southampton, England

☆ AT&T Resets Millions of Passcodes After Customer Records Are Leaked
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-30 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | More About Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The telecommunications giant AT&T announced on Saturday that it had reset the passcodes of 7.6 million customers after it determined that compromised customer data was “released on the dark web.”“Our internal teams are working with external cybersecurity experts to analyze the situation,” AT&T said. “To the best of our knowledge, the compromised data appears to be from 2019 or earlier and does not contain personal financial information or call history.”The company said that “information varied by customer and account,” but that it may have included a person’s full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, AT&T account number and passcode. In addition to those 7.6 million customers, 65.4 million former account holders were also affected. The company said it would be “reaching out to individuals with compromised sensitive personal information separately and offering complimentary identity theft and credit monitoring services.”

Persons: “ Organizations: Social

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A fourth officer has resigned during an investigation into alleged wrongdoing by officers assigned to a unit charged with stopping impaired drivers, the police department in Albuquerque, New Mexico, said. Investigators had been trying to schedule an interview with Nelson Ortiz, but he resigned on Thursday, the department said in a news release. Ortiz joined the department in January 2016 was assigned to the DWI unit from 2018 to 2021. The police department launched the probe into officers who were currently or previously working for the unit. Photos You Should See View All 60 ImagesThe investigation has partly focused on DWI criminal cases filed by specific officers that were eventually dismissed, the Journal reported.

Persons: —, Nelson Ortiz, Ortiz, Justin Hunt, Honorio Alba, Harvey Johnson Organizations: FBI, Albuquerque Journal Locations: ALBUQUERQUE, N.M, Albuquerque , New Mexico

☆ Colorado Man Died From Venomous Gila Monster Bite, Autopsy Confirms
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

An autopsy report revealed that a pet Gila monster’s venomous bite contributed to a Colorado man’s death in February in what an expert described as “an incredibly rare” fatality caused by one of the desert lizards. The man, Christopher Ward, 34, died on Feb. 16 “due to complications of Gila monster envenomization,” said the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office autopsy report, which also cited heart and liver problems as contributing factors. Mr. Ward endured a four-minute-long bite by the lizard to his right hand on the night of Feb. 12, the report said. Paramedics found Mr. Ward in a bed, minimally responsive and “in apparent severe distress,” the report said. He was taken to a hospital, where he was put on life support and “continued to decline throughout his hospitalization.”

Persons: Christopher Ward, ”, Ward, “ Locations: Colorado, Jefferson

☆ A ‘Perfect Monolith’ Appears in Wales
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-12 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Not one to let “horrific” weather stop him, Craig Muir left his house in Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales, early Tuesday to take his usual walk up Hay Bluff when he spotted something large, shiny and new. Standing there in the distance, like a beacon, was a silver monolith with no apparent trace as to how it got there or what it was doing in that spot. It looked like it had “just been dropped down from space,” Mr. Muir said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. The sighting immediately captured media attention, calling to mind similar mysterious objects placed around the world in late 2020. “If you didn’t know anything, to look at it, you could have easily thought it had been dropped off by a U.F.O.

Persons: Craig Muir, Mr, Muir, ” Locations: Hay, Wye, Powys, Wales

☆ Bike lanes are good for business
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Freaked-out business owners have been fighting bike lanes coast to coast, in cities from San Diego to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rowe compared sales taxes in these “Neighborhood Business Districts” with those in similar districts in the city that didn’t get bike lanes. In one NBD, which replaced car lanes and three parking spots with two bike lanes, sales closely tracked those in the bike-less areas, both in peaks and troughs. Sometimes nothing changed, but more often the areas near bike lanes wound up with more employees and more revenue. It’s the new normal.” All the data in the world may prove that bike lanes are good for business.

Persons: —, ”, Joseph Poirier, Nelson Nygaard, “, It’s, I’ve, Kyle Rowe, Rowe, it’s, Poirer, Jenny Liu, Wei Shi, Liu, Poirier, Shi, ” Liu, downtowns, who’s, Larisa Ortiz, ” Poirier, Adam Rogers Organizations: —, University of Washington, New York City Department of Transportation, ”, San, Portland State University, Center for Urban Studies, Portland State, Boston Globe, Automobile, Getty, Business Locations: San Diego, Cambridge , Massachusetts, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx, ”, San Francisco, there’s, Oregon, Portland, San Francisco , Minneapolis, Memphis, Minneapolis, America’s, downtowns, United States, Chicago ; New York City, Angeles

☆ Richard Lewis and ‘The (Blank) From Hell’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Aimee Ortiz | More About Aimee Ortiz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Go ahead and call Richard Lewis the comedian from hell. But his most indelible legacy could be one simple phrase, spoken so often that its origin might never be questioned. “The (insert hated thing here) from hell.”It’s a phrase that seemingly has been around since time immemorial. The flight from hell, the day from hell, the lunch from hell. According to Richard Lewis and the “Yale Book of Quotations,” it came from him.

Persons: Richard Lewis, You’d, HBO’s, “, Lewis, ” Organizations: Yale, Twitter, UPI

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