Author: Vidya Saras

The recent buy out of Bell’s stake in the parent company of the Toronto Raptors by Rogers Communications could impact the future of Masai Ujiri with the franchise, reports The Athletic. Ujiri’s current contract to run the Raptors runs through the 25-26 season. Rogers chairman Edward Rogers reportedly most heavily scrutinized the decision to pay Ujiri as one of the NBA’s most highly paid executives when he was up for a new contract in 2021. Rogers and Ujiri have had a strained relationship in the past. Larry Tanenbaum is an influential figure in the NBA and remains the Raptors’ governor,…

PHILIPPINE INFLATION would likely ease to 2.5% this month, giving the central bank room to cut interest rates more than expected, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said on Tuesday. But the government remains cautious as the escalating conflict in the Middle East could lead to a spike in global oil prices, he said. “Inflation is on a downward trend,” Mr. Recto, fresh from a Cabinet meeting on managing food and nonfood inflation, said at a Palace briefing. “We expect inflation to go down to 2.5% by September.” September inflation data will be released on Oct. 4. Mr. Recto said the…

There’s been a growing shift in the fitness, health, and wellness industry. The promise of “immediate results” will probably never lose its sparkle. But, as a good portion of our population (hi, Boomers!) moves into their “silver” years, conversations around optimizing lifespan (how long you live) and healthspan (how long you live with a high quality of life) are also on the rise. People are more interested than ever in longevity, which, these days, means the combination of a long lifespan and a long healthspan. (Historically, longevity and lifespan were synonymous.) Trending too is the concept of biological age—essentially, how…

SpaceX plans to launch 20 more of its Starlink broadband satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capability, from California early Wednesday morning (Sept. 25).A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California’s central coast, Wednesday at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT; 9:01 p.m. on Sept. 24 California time).You can watch the action live via SpaceX’s X account; coverage will begin about five minutes before launch.If all goes according to plan, the Falcon 9’s first stage will come back to Earth 8.5 minutes after liftoff, landing on the SpaceX drone ship…

Arvind Narayanan, a computer science professor at Princeton University, is best known for calling out the hype surrounding artificial intelligence in his Substack, AI Snake Oil, written with PhD candidate Sayash Kapoor. The two authors recently released a book based on their popular newsletter about AI’s shortcomings.But don’t get it twisted—they aren’t against using new technology. “It’s easy to misconstrue our message as saying that all of AI is harmful or dubious,” Narayanan says. He makes clear, during a conversation with WIRED, that his rebuke is not aimed at the software per say, but rather the culprits who continue to…

Fifteen technologies developed either wholly or in part by MIT Lincoln Laboratory have been named recipients of 2024 R&D 100 Awards. The awards are given by R&D World, an online publication that serves research scientists and engineers worldwide. Dubbed the “Oscars of Innovation,” the awards recognize the 100 most significant technologies transitioned to use or introduced into the marketplace in the past year. An independent panel of expert judges selects the winners.“The R&D 100 Awards are a significant recognition of the laboratory’s technical capabilities and its role in transitioning technology for real-world impact,” says Melissa Choi, director of Lincoln Laboratory. “It is exciting…

The proliferation of new top-level domains (TLDs) has exacerbated a well-known security weakness: Many organizations set up their internal Microsoft authentication systems years ago using domain names in TLDs that didn’t exist at the time. Meaning, they are continuously sending their Windows usernames and passwords to domain names they do not control and which are freely available for anyone to register. Here’s a look at one security researcher’s efforts to map and shrink the size of this insidious problem. At issue is a well-known security and privacy threat called “namespace collision,” a situation where domain names intended to be used…

One afternoon I was using the device for a little over an hour when I heard a voice in the headset: “You’ve earned a brain break.” Alcaide says the device can detect when your focus is starting to decline and that this feature is meant to help people avoid burnout. “We can tell you when to take a break once we start detecting that your brain is fatiguing,” he says. I didn’t feel fatigued, but I went ahead and took a 10-minute break at the app’s suggestion.Another day, I collected 200 points in a day and earned a trophy with…

Politics / September 24, 2024 There is growing concern within the GOP that the Trump campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation is dangerously anemic. Edit Ad Policy Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Ed Fry Arena in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on September 23, 2024.(Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images) Alongside enduring enigmas such as “Vivek Ramaswamy: why?” and “What exactly does RFK Jr. think he’s doing?,” one bewildering legacy of the 2024 election cycle will be the Donald Trump campaign’s decidedly anemic ground game. A recent flurry of news reports have noted how tardy and tightfisted the Trump operation has been in…

Company Name: LNbitsFounders: Ben ArcDate Founded: Project: 2019 | Company: 2022Location of Headquarters: Fully remote (most developers based in Europe)Amount of Bitcoin Held in Treasury: N/ANumber of Employees: 6 (+ “a couple dozen other developers”)Website: https://lnbits.com/Public or Private? PrivateFive years ago, Ben Arc first had the vision for LNbits — free and open-source software that works with any Lightning Network funding source and offers a suite of extensions for both personal and business use cases.The vision for the project came to him in what he describes as a flash of inspiration.“Christian Russo, the developer of the RaspiBlitz, had come down…