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Thursday, December 22, 2022

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 The US Postal Service is finally getting EVs




MIT Technology Review / 35min
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The US Postal Service is finally going electric. The USPS announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire at least 66,000 electric delivery vehicles between now and 2028, and all purchases after 2026 will be EVs. In total, the agency will invest nearly $10 billi

FTX Execs Plead Guilty While Throwing Sam Bankman-Fried Under the Bus


Gizmodo / 40min
Two executives connected to FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange once valued at $32 billion, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who made the announcement in a video statement released online late Wednesday . And that’s really bad news for FTX co-founder Sam… Read more...

Watch out AMD – overclocked Intel Raptor Lake flagship CPU has blasted past 9GHz


TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 52min
Intel’s Core i9-13900K has set a new world record overclock for a desktop processor, breaking the 9GHz mark for the first time ever. Tom’s Hardware spotted that a team of overclocking experts from Asus managed to get the Raptor Lake flagship to reach 9.008GHz. Naturally, that was with exotic cooling (liquid nitrogen and liquid helium, in this case) with the CPU nestled in an Asus ROG Maximus Z790


Photo dumps are the no makeup-makeup looks of Instagram


Mashable / now
If you’ve used Instagram recently, you’ve probably seen your mutuals post a group of seemingly random photos in "dumps." There’s a vacation dump, a party dump, a monthly recap dump. There’s a dump for everything. Photo dumps are styled to appear as if they're a random assortment of photos, hastily thrown together with supposedly very little thought or curation. However, in reality, more thought g

The Secret Life of Plant Killers


Wired / 37min
To take out invasives, the US relies on crews wielding hatchets, chainsaws, and herbicide. It’s a messy, fun job—but it may not be enough to stop the spread.

Creative Sound Blaster X1 Review: A Swiss Army Knife DAC and Headphone Amp


How-To Geek / 39min
Creative’s Sound Blaster line started in the 1990s as computer sound cards, but now that name applies to a range of products. A case in point is the Creative Sound Blaster X1, a portable digital-to-analog converter and amplifier meant to help you get the most out of your favorite headphones. Read This Article on How-To Geek ›

Robocall company may receive the largest FCC fine ever


Engadget / 42min
The FCC has proposed a $299,997,000 fine against "the largest robocall firm" it has ever investigated, the regulator announced . It would be the FCC's largest fine ever, and targets a firm that made over 5 billion calls in three months, enough "to have called each person in the United States 15 times," it wrote. The operation is run by Roy Cox, Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones via their Sumco Panama c

Good: New United Airlines Pilot Union Boss Resigns


200+One Mile at a Time / 45min
Earlier this week I wrote about United Airlines’ problematic new pilot union boss . There’s a major update, as he has now resigned. Captain Neil Swindells resigns as head of United MEC Captain Neil Swindells has resigned as head of the United Airlines Master Executive Council (MEC) of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), just days after being voted to lead the 14,000+ member union. He wrote a

FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Alameda’s Caroline Ellison plead guilty to criminal charges


TechCrunch / 51min
The FTX/Alameda saga continues, with news late Wednesday that two key Sam Bankman-Fried associates were charged and have been charged with federal criminal offences in the U.S.: Both former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang plead guilty to multiple charges, and accepted plea agreements that offer reduced sentencing in exchange for assistance in ongoing investigations into

Twitter now displays stock and cryptocurrency prices directly in search results


TechCrunch / 1h
Amid all the chaos , Twitter rolled out a useful feature that lets you search for listed company stocks and cryptocurrency prices. To do this, users have to just type the dollar symbol followed by the relevant ticker symbol, e.g. “$GOOG” or “$ETH” (minus the quote marks), in the search bar and Twitter will display the current price. This does also work without using the $ symbol in some instances

Okta confirms code breach, but says no customer data was harmed


TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 1h
Authentication giant Okta has now confirmed recent reports of a data breach affecting its internal code . In a press release , the company repeated the points given in a confidential email shared with its security contacts - namely, that someone managed to gain access to the company’s GitHub repository, a breach of which Okta was notified in early December this year. After investigating the matte

What’s next in space in 2023


MIT Technology Review / 1h
We’re going back to the moon—again—in 2023. Multiple uncrewed landings are planned for the next 12 months, spurred on by a renewed effort in the US to return humans to the lunar surface later this decade. Both private space companies and national agencies are set to make the 240,000-mile trek to our celestial neighbor, where they will test landing capabilities, look for usable water ice , and mor

How to have great sex standing up


Mashable / 1h
Standing sex can feel like the most inspired idea in the universe until you’re getting thrusted into at an awkward angle by someone whose height doesn’t align with yours. A lot of the time, it ends up being one of those "we went for it and honestly, it wasn’t great" kind of situations. "Having sex standing up [comes from] spontaneity and unbridled passion," Moushumi Ghose , MFT, a licensed sex th

Astronomers spot a planet caught in a disastrous death spiral


Mashable / 1h
Like bathtub water circling a drain, a planet far from Earth is swirling closer to its inevitable grim end: death by star. Astronomers are watching an exoplanet known as Kepler-1658b whose orbit is getting ever-shorter around its dying host star. Theories have predicted this type of Doomsday scenario, but experts say this marks the first time in history they've observed one actually unfolding in

Our kid reviewers tested the top toys of 2022. These are their favorites.


Mashable / 1h
There are so. many. toys. out there, it's hard to know which ones are actually worth your money and which ones your kids will play with once, then let collect dust at the bottom of their toy box. We wanted to see which of this year's hottest toys were actually worth the hype, so we had our panel of kid reviewers (along with their parents) test out 14 of 2022's top toys based on various lists such

Get a sleek MagSafe-compatible wireless charger for iPhone and Android for $48


Mashable / 1h
TL;DR : As of Dec. 22, you can snag the Speedy Mag wireless charger for just $48.99 instead of $119 — that's 59% in savings. Carrying a phone charger at all times isn't exactly convenient. Its cable may not take up much space, but it can still get tangled, and you still need an outlet to use it. On the other hand, the Speedy Mag is a compact, portable wireless charger compatible with iPhones and

Warm up with the hottest holiday movie ever: 'Batman Returns'


Mashable / 1h
Long before there was the MCU vs. the DCEU , superhero movies were so fitfully made you wouldn't dare call them a genre at all. A Superman here (1978), a Batman there (1989) — Spider-Man wouldn't come until the next century had dawned. But into this dearth of superpowered spectacle came a film so singular that it's not only my favorite superhero movie, not only my favorite Batman movie, but also

Capture crisp photos in the wild with 35% off a pair of camera binoculars


Mashable / 1h
TL;DR : Snag a pair of HD Digital Camera Binoculars for just $129.95 instead of $199.99 as of Dec. 22. That's 35% in savings. When hiking through the mountains or a damp forest, you probably shouldn't use your phone or DSLR so much. A pair of binoculars can give you a sharp view of nature, but memories don't last forever. When planning your next outdoor excursion, bring along a pair of HD Digital

Tackle your 2023 to-do list with this refurbished MacBook Air for under $250


Mashable / 1h
TL;DR : As of Dec. 22, you can get a refurbished MacBook Air (Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD) for only $247.99 instead of $700. That saves you about 64%. We could all use a fresh start in 2023 . Whether we're working from home, searching for new opportunities, or heading back to school in the new year, a new computer is a great way to feel like you're turning an upgraded page. Unfortunately, a

How to curate your Instagram Reels to show you content you actually like


Mashable / 1h
Whether you consider it a feature or a bug, Instagram Reels are becoming a mainstay in our collective internet experience — another constant, droning pull to keep us online and on our phones. I've come to accept that Logging On is a distinct part of my life, but as part of my ongoing attempt to hate myself less, I've been trying to trick the Instagram Reels algorithm into serving me content that


Two top executives plead guilty to fraud in FTX case


20Engadget / 1h
Top FTX executives close to Sam Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison and Zixiao "Gary" Wang, have pleaded guilty to fraud and are cooperating with prosecutors. The pair were convicted "in connection with their roles in the fraud that contributed to FTX's collapse," said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a press conference . Ellison, the former CEO of FTX sister

Musk Lifted Bans for Thousands on Twitter. Here’s What They’re Tweeting.


23NYT > Technology / 1h
Many reinstated users are tweeting about topics that got them barred in the first place: Covid-19 skepticism, election denialism and QAnon.

Microsoft Gambles on ‘Nice Guy’ Strategy to Close Activision Megadeal


30NYT > Technology / 1h
Federal regulators have sued to block the $69 billion acquisition, but the company has settled on a path forward and is preparing to force the issue.

It’s a Christmas miracle; I can finally afford an Overwatch 2 skin


TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 2h
Christmas has come early for Overwatch 2 fans; now there’s a themed skin for only one coin. The festive gingerbread Bastion is on sale in the Overwatch 2 shop for significantly less than any other skin in the game. Plus, you also get a cute little candy cane charm for your weapon, too. The charm can be used with any hero you see fit, and you can add this charm to multiple heroes at a time; there

The Meta Quest 2's latest update overclocks its GPU to improve performance


Engadget / 2h
The two-year-old Meta Quest 2 is now faster due to a surprise performance boost in the headset's latest update . Meta boosted the maximum frequency from 490 MHz to 525 MHz, giving all Quest 2 headsets up to 7 percent more performance. "No integration or coding is needed to start reaping the benefits of this improvement — the dynamic clocking system will automatically increase the frequency as it

No, Charlie Cox's Daredevil won't be in Marvel's Deadpool 3


29TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 3h
Daredevil star Charlie Cox has clarified comments he made about his Marvel character's possible appearance in Deadpool 3. In an exclusive chat with TechRadar, Cox confirmed he won't be making a cameo in Deadpool 3, let alone feature in a larger capacity. Instead, the next time we'll see The Man Without Fear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – outside of a potential cameo in Echo's Marvel Pha

Tesla offers $7,500 discount on new Model 3 and Model Y cars


100+Mashable / 3h
Tesla CEO Elon Musk once said that Tesla will never offer a discount on a new car, unless there's an "underlying rationale." Now, that underlying rationale is probably here, as the company is offering $7,500 credit and 10,000 miles of free supercharging on a new Model 3 and Model Y cars in the U.S. The car has to be delivered between Dec. 21 and 31, 2022, meaning that the company is probably tryi

Caroline Calloway's latest self-proclaimed scam is here


Mashable / 5h
For Extremely Online people, Caroline Calloway is the ultimate Extremely Online celebrity. And after a long hiatus, she's back with another literal scam. The social media star, occasional writer, and self-proclaimed scammer has long been the source of virality in more ways than one. The most infamous of these is a certain 2019 tell-all essay on The Cut by her former ghostwriter and friend Natalie

'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for December 22


Mashable / 5h
If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need. What is Quordle ? Quordle is a five-letter word guessing gam

Today's Wordle Answer #551 – December 22, 2022 Solution And Hints


SlashGear / 6h
You might think you're very good at Wordle, but even the best of us need a hint or two. Plus we have the solution to help you keep your streak intact.

Changing This Samsung Galaxy Setting Can Help You Take Better Selfies


SlashGear / 6h
There are a couple of tricks and things you can do to take better selfies on your Samsung Galaxy device.

Apple finally updates AirTags to help you seek out suspiciously placed tags


TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 6h
Apple is currently rolling out a long overdue firmware update that makes it easier to locate unknown AirTags in your immediate vicinity. This is part of the company’s efforts to make sure bad actors don’t misuse the devices to stalk others. The stalking problem first made its appearance back in May 2021 when an investigative report from The Washington Post showed how relatively easy it is to foll

A lifetime subscription to the Jillian Michaels fitness app is on sale for 66% off


Mashable / 6h
TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to the Jillian Michaels fitness app is on sale for £122.68, saving you 66% on list price. The January Gym rush is coming. Don’t let your friends or family quit their New Year’s resolution to exercise more just because the gym is packed with people. Give them a way to work out at home. The Jillian Michaels Fitness app could help keep those fitness goals in sight, and

Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for December 22


Mashable / 6h
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas — just three sleeps to go! Will we get a festive Wordle on the day? Only time will tell. In the meantime, there's today's to solve. And as always, we're here with some tips and hints to help you nail it. If you want to bypass the struggle, you can jump to the bottom of this article to get December 22's Wordle solution straight up. But if you prefer to w

Vianova builds the location data platform for shared mobility companies and cities


22TechCrunch / 6h
Meet Vianova , a French startup that is building a data platform for shared mobility companies as well as local governments. The company acts as both a data repository and a data visualization dashboard. It has raised a $6.4 million (€6 million) Series A funding round led by Baloise VC with XAnge as well as existing investors RATP Capital Innovation and Ponooc also participating. Many cities have

HBO Max reveals first look at Jodie Foster in new 'True Detective' and more


300+Mashable / 7h
HBO Max has a bunch coming our way in 2023, from new originals to returning favorites. And to tease it out, the streaming platform released a preview of some of its upcoming content for the new year. This includes the long-awaited adaptation of hit video game The Last of Us , the return of Succession , which hardly needs introduction, and a second instalment of Sex and the City reboot And Just Li

Two Former FTX Executives Plead Guilty Ahead Of Bankman-Fried's Arrival In US


SlashGear / 7h
Two former FTX executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges for their roles in the crypto empire's collapse. They are said to be cooperating witnesses.

Former Tesla Executive Reveals Incredible New Electric Speed Boat Powered By Solar


SlashGear / 7h
BIG, a company founded by former Tesla executive John Vo, has teased a solar-powered speed boat that will be revealed in a bigger way during CES 2023.

Could 2023 finally be the year of the color Kindle?


TechRadar - All the latest technology ne... / 8h
Color ereaders aren't new, we've had a fair few come through from smaller players in the ereader market, particularly from Chinese company Onyx and Switzerland-based Ukrainian brand PocketBook. We've even tested a few here at TechRadar – such as the Onyx Boox Nova 3 Color and the PocketBook InkPad Color – but we've never really enjoyed how the colors looked on screen. They look very washed out an

Netflix is delving into fitness with Nike Training Club programs


Mashable / 9h
Netflix is delving into fitness , and I, dear reader, couldn't be more...happy about it, yes, that's it. The streaming giant has teamed up with Nike to launch its longstanding free workout app Nike Training Club on the platform on Dec. 30 (yep, New Year's, it's not lost on me ). Basically, alongside your gloriously slothy binge-watching stretches, you'll be able to run up that hill physically and


Caroline Ellison and FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Plead Guilty to Fraud


1KNYT > Technology / 9h
Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, a founder of FTX, are cooperating in the federal criminal case against Mr. Bankman-Fried.

NASA's InSight Mars mission has officially ended after four years


500+Mashable / 10h
After four years of incredible research on the red planet, NASA's landmark InSight lander mission is officially over. Following a final photo post (and the world's saddest tweet) from the lander on Monday , the space agency officially announced the end of the InSight mission on Thursday, after the spacecraft's solar batteries reportedly finally lost power. It's been four glorious years on Mars fo

FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried arrives in US to face charges


500+BBC News - Technology / 10h
Two ex-associates plead guilty as the former "King of Crypto" is extradited from the Bahamas.

Train to Busan Director Yeon Sang-ho Takes on Freaky AI in New Netflix Sci-Fi Film


Gizmodo / 10h
The future of AI robotics never seems to have a silver lining, and here’s a new nightmarish vision of what could come to pass from Jung_E, the latest film from Yeon Sang-ho ( Train to Busan ) . The Netflix release is slated to hit the streaming service exclusively on January 20, 2023. Read more...

Tesla Is Reportedly Planning Layoffs. Are Musk's Twitter Antics To Blame?


SlashGear / 10h
Since Musk went public with his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, the price of Tesla stock has tanked, and right now, it's headed towards its worst quarter ever.

This Isn't Mars Litter, It's The Start Of A Bold Plan By NASA


SlashGear / 10h
Lying on the rocky, dusty Martian surface is a newly deposited titanium tube that somewhat resembles a lightsaber hilt. NASA says it was put there on purpose.

This Strange World Deleted Scene Highlights a Heroine Moment


Gizmodo / 11h
Walt Disney Animation Studios ’ Strange World will be hitting home media platforms just in time for the holidays. And with the digital release on December 23, animation fans will be able to unlock special features not yet available on Disney+, where the film will also be streaming. Read more...

John Cleese’s classic “silly walk” burns more calories than a normal gait


200+Ars Technica - All content / 11h
Walking like John Cleese's character, Mr. Teabag, in Monty Python's famous " Ministry of Silly Walks " skit requires considerably more energy expenditure than a normal walking gait because the movement is so inefficient, according to a new paper published in the annual Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal. In fact, just 11 minutes a day of walking like Mr. Teabag was equivalent to 75 mi

Okta says source code for Workforce Identity Cloud service was copied


27Ars Technica - All content / 11h
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Single sign-on provider Okta said on Wednesday that software code for its Okta Workforce Identity Cloud service was copied after intruders gained access to the company’s private repository on GitHub. “Our investigation concluded that there was no unauthorized access to the Okta service, and no unauthorized access to customer data,” company officials said in a statem

Avatar: The Way of Water's Space Battle That Could've Been Comes to Life in This Comic Preview


28Gizmodo / 12h
There was a long— long —time between Avatar and The Way of Water , and in the decade-plus it took James Cameron to make his sequel and bits of bobs of maybe another three movies beyond it, there were many ideas for what came next in Jake and Neytiri’s stories that were left off the table . But now you can take a look at… Read more...

New York's New Warehouse Worker Law Sets It Sights on Amazon’s Dystopian ‘Time Off Task’ Productivity Metric


Gizmodo / 12h
Amazon warehouse workers in New York may finally have some legal reprieve from the company’s alleged soul crushing AI-assisted productive quotas. Those quotas were partly responsible for harrowing accounts of Amazon workers last year admitting they felt pressured to pee in bottles to avoid performance penalties. Read more...

Daily Crunch: UK-based news site The Guardian under ransomware attack, editor says


22TechCrunch / 12h
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . It’s the mooooost wonderful tiiiiiiime of the yeeeaaar. Today, we’ve been skiving off work to explore the weirdest subgenres of holiday music. Trap Christmas is a thing . Christopher Lee (yes that Christopher Lee, Saruman in “Lord of the Rings”) recorded a heavy me

The Witcher Will Be Giving Henry Cavill a Suitably Epic Send-Off in Season 3


Gizmodo / 12h
The Witcher season three will arrive on Netflix next year—a bittersweet binge for Henry Cavill fans, since it’ll be the last time he’ll play Geralt of Rivia before Liam Hemsworth steps into the role ( Superman something something , Warhammer something something ). But fret not: the dep