Sep 30
Both Moderna and Pfizer have new COVID shots available. Does it matter if you get a different shot than your last one? Experts weigh in.
Sep 30
Read Elon Musk's Private Texts With Joe Rogan, Jack Dorsey, Larry Elllison, and More
Posted in: Today's Chili
Elon Musk’s private texts were included in new court filings on Thursday as part of the lawsuit brought by Twitter to make the billionaire buy the social media company. And whatever you think of Musk’s weird attempt to back out of the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the texts provide a fascinating…
Sep 30
The Morning After: Google is shutting down Stadia, its game streaming service
Posted in: Today's ChiliDespite denials until mid-2022, Stadia is winding down. The technically impressive game streaming service, which delivered current-gen games through smartphones, PCs, tablets and even Chromecast, is the latest victim of Google’s long list of service casualties. Google said the service “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected.” That’s entirely true. Google closed its internal game development studios early last year, and the company sadly failed to turn things around, even as rumors swirled that Stadia wasn’t long for this world. It’s a shame, as the service worked incredibly well, especially at the nascent beginnings of cloud gaming.
The good news is if you invested in the standalone games, Google “will be refunding all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store, and all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store.” This was outlined by Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison in a blog here.
If you subscribed to Stadia Pro and built up a catalog of games, there are no reimbursements. You’ll be able to play your games until January, but it’ll serve as a reminder that streaming services, if they go, can leave you with nothing. Except maybe a Chromecast.
– Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
Square makes Tap to Pay on iPhone available to all US sellers
Peloton fitness gear will soon be available at Dick’s Sporting Goods
Meta reportedly suspends all hiring, warns staff of possible layoffs
Adobe vows to continue offering Figma’s free plan if its buyout is approved
James Webb and Hubble captures pictures of NASA’s spacecraft−asteroid collision
The first time both telescopes observed the same celestial target at the same time.
NASA made history this week when it slammed its DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft into an asteroid nearly seven million miles away. Now, we can see the test from afar, thanks to the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. JWST and Hubble picked up different wavelengths of light (infrared and visible, respectively), and NASA says that observing data from multiple wavelengths will help scientists figure out if big chunks of material left Dimorphos’ surface or if it was mostly fine dust. This is an important aspect of the test: The ultimate aim is to develop a system that can divert incoming asteroids away from Earth. Like 1998’s Armageddon, just with less Bruce Willis and Aerosmith.
Sonos Sub Mini review
The practical sub we’ve been waiting for.
Engadget
Finally, after only 10 years, Sonos has launched the Sub Mini, and at $429, it’s relatively affordable. It’s perfectly sized for apartments and small rooms, and it’s a simple upgrade to your Sonos Beam or Ray. Finally, you have a viable, moveable way of beefing up your sound, which isn’t obscenely expensive. Check out our full review.
Meta’s new Make-a-Video AI can generate quick movie clips from text prompts
Even more complicated AI-generated art.
Meta unveiled its Make-a-Scene text-to-image generating AI in July, which, like Dall-E and Midjourney, can create fantastical depictions based on written prompts. On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Make-a-Scene’s more animated contemporary, Make-a-Video. Functionally, Video works the same as Scene – combining natural language processing and generative neural networks to convert non-visual prompts into images – it’s just pulling content into a different format.
Teenage Engineering’s PO-80 Record Factory both cuts and plays vinyl
Why not both?
Teenage Engineering
The Swedish brand, best known for electronic music toys and tools, has released the decidedly more analogue PO-80 Record Factory. As the name implies, it can cut vinyl records as well as play them back. The orange and white design is cute, as is the simplicity. You just need to plug an audio device into the 3.5mm jack and start recording. You’re limited to monophonic sound, and you won’t be cutting more than a single with a B-side. The Record Factory is available for $149.
Musk’s texts with Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal detail tumultuous Twitter negotiations
Dorsey asked Musk to join Twitter’s board long before he tried to buy the company.
A tranche of Elon Musk’s private messages has been made public as part of his ongoing lawsuit with Twitter. The messages, revealed in a court filing Thursday, shed new light on Musk’s behind-the-scenes negotiations with Twitter’s leadership, discussions with former CEO Jack Dorsey, and how Musk talks with CEO Parag Agrawal quickly soured. The messages include the moment Musk tells Agrawal he wants to acquire Twitter and take it private, rather than join the board, as well as Agrawal confronting Musk about an April 9th tweet questioning if “Twitter is dying.”
Sep 30
For those who are in recovery or even sober-curious, here are a few important questions to think over before drinking a CBD or low-ABV beverage.
Sep 30
Satellites must be deorbited within five years of completing missions, FCC rules
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules to address the growing risk of “space junk” or abandoned satellites, rockets and other debris. The new “5-year-rule” will require low-Earth operators to deorbit their satellites within five years following the completion of missions. That’s significantly less time than the previous guideline of 25 years.
“But 25 years is a long time,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “There is no reason to wait that long anymore, especially in low-earth orbit. The second space age is here. For it to continue to grow, we need to do more to clean up after ourselves so space innovation can continue to respond.”
Rosenworcel noted that around 10,000 satellites weighing “thousands of metric tons” have been launched since 1957, with over half of those now defunct. The new rule “will mean more accountability and less risk of collisions that increase orbital debris and the likelihood of space communication failures.”
However, some US representatives don’t necessarily agree with the decision. Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said in a letter that such decisions are often taken by NASA. By acting unilaterally, the FCC “could create uncertainly and potentially conflicting guidance” for the space industry. They asked the FCC to explain the decision to Congress, saying “this would ensure that procedural measures such as the Congressional Review Act are not necessary.”
NASA has said there are “23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.” It noted that China’s 2007 anti-satellite test “added more than 3,500 pieces of large, trackable debris and many more smaller debris to the debris problem.”
Sep 30
Satellites must be deorbited within five years of completing missions, FCC rules
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules to address the growing risk of “space junk” or abandoned satellites, rockets and other debris. The new “5-year-rule” will require low-Earth operators to deorbit their satellites within five years following the completion of missions. That’s significantly less time than the previous guideline of 25 years.
“But 25 years is a long time,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “There is no reason to wait that long anymore, especially in low-earth orbit. The second space age is here. For it to continue to grow, we need to do more to clean up after ourselves so space innovation can continue to respond.”
Rosenworcel noted that around 10,000 satellites weighing “thousands of metric tons” have been launched since 1957, with over half of those now defunct. The new rule “will mean more accountability and less risk of collisions that increase orbital debris and the likelihood of space communication failures.”
However, some US representatives don’t necessarily agree with the decision. Members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology said in a letter that such decisions are often taken by NASA. By acting unilaterally, the FCC “could create uncertainly and potentially conflicting guidance” for the space industry. They asked the FCC to explain the decision to Congress, saying “this would ensure that procedural measures such as the Congressional Review Act are not necessary.”
NASA has said there are “23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.” It noted that China’s 2007 anti-satellite test “added more than 3,500 pieces of large, trackable debris and many more smaller debris to the debris problem.”
Sep 30
‘Truly Bats**t’: Seth Meyers Shows Just How Unhinged Ginni Thomas Really Is
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe “Late Night” host tears into the wild conspiracy theories spread by the wife of a Supreme Court justice.
Sep 30
Meta is done rolling out support for non-fungible tokens or NFTs in the US. The company first started giving select creators in the country the option to display their tokens on Facebook and Instagram earlier this year. But now everyone in the US can display their collections on both platforms, whether they’re NFTs they’ve created and are selling or something they’ve purchased from creators. Those who have both social media apps can also cross-post their digital collectibles from either app so they don’t have to share them twice.
In addition, the ability to post NFT collections on Instagram is now live for users in 100 countries. The social network first announced that it was going to expand the feature’s availability back in August to countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. This probably doesn’t sound like good news for people who aren’t fond of NFTs or are concerned about their environmental impact. But it looks like Meta is set on making them a part of its platforms in its journey towards creating the metaverse it envisions.
To be able to display their collection, a user must have a supported digital wallet, which includes Rainbow, Trust Wallet, Dapper, Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask, installed on their device. They then have to link their wallet to either or both apps by going to the “digital collectibles” tab in their app settings. Once they’ve linked their wallets, they’ll be able to view their collectibles through the Facebook or Instagram app and share their NFTs to their feed.
Sep 30
Stephen Colbert Exposes Trump-Backed Candidate’s Problem In 2 Scathing Words
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe host of the “Late Show” explains why one MAGA candidate is 10 points behind in the polls.
Sep 30
New York joins California in aiming to make all auto sales hybrid or EV by 2035
Posted in: Today's ChiliNew York is following California’s lead by mandating that all new cars, pickups and SUVs sold in the state must be either EVs or plug-in hybrids, Governor Kathy Hochul announced. To reach that goal, 35 percent of new cars must be zero-emission by 2026 and 60 percent by 2030. New school buses must also be zero emissions by 2035. A public hearing will be held before the rules are put into place.
Hochul ordered the state’s environmental agency to create similar standards to those adopted by California that phases out all fossil-fuel-only car sales by 2035. Those rules went into last month and were designed to reduce passenger vehicle pollution 25 percent by 2037, with 9.5 fewer internal-combustion engine (ICE) only vehicles sold by 2035.
“We had to wait for California to take a step because there’s some federal requirements that California had to go first — that’s the only time we’re letting them go first,” the governor said in a press conference yesterday.
NEW: All new vehicles sold in New York must be zero emissions by 2035.
By revving up our clean transportation transition and making major investments to make EVs more accessible, we’re supercharging our fight against climate change. #NationalDriveElectricWeekpic.twitter.com/AWvSjK8b7D
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) September 29, 2022
The state is following California’s actions for a reason. The Clean Air Act permits California to set its own pollution rules, but other states aren’t allowed to do that. However, they can follow California once it acts — so California must pave the way for any emissions rules implemented by individual states.
The governor also unveiled a $10 million Drive Clean Rebate Program. That gives residents a $2,000 rebate toward the purchase of over 60 EVs and plug-in hybrids that’s on top of the $7,500 federal tax rebate. The state has spent $92 million on the program to date. The state also announced the installation of its 100th fast charger as part of the EVolve charging network.
“With sustained state and federal investments, our actions are incentivizing New Yorkers, local governments, and businesses to make the transition to electric vehicles,” Hochul said.
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