When FTX halted withdrawals on November 8, at least one unlucky soul had made their first deposit into the crypto exchange the very same day, praying for a profit. But by the time the money had been deposited, the platform had shut down all trades, leaving this person unable to do anything. It’s just one sad story of…
Retiring Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi pulled no punches in a guest essay for The New York Times, saying his successor’s behavior “went beyond BS.”
Certain variants of Tesla’s Model Y may not qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit based on the IRS’s latest guidelines, a situation that Elon Musk has called “messed up.” It looks as though the five-seat Long Range version of the hatchback is too expensive as a car and not considered an SUV, so it falls outside the current guidelines. That could change, though, as the rules won’t be finalized until March 2023.
The IRS has divided vehicles into two categories: vans, SUVs and pickup trucks under $80,000, and other vehicles under $55,000. For the first category, the vehicle must have 4-wheel drive or be rated at more than 6,000 pounds of gross weight. It also has to meet four of five other characteristics, most notably front and rear axle clearances of 18 centimeters or higher and a running clearance of at least 20 centimeters (no Model Y meets these specs).
According to the IRS, only the 7-seat variants of the Model Y qualify as SUVs in the category up to $80,000, while the 5-seat vehicles (Long Range, AWD and Performance) are in the $55,000 section. The 7-seaters comfortably fall under the $85,000 limit, but all the 5-seaters exceed the $55,000 price, so they don’t qualify.
Tesla doesn’t have a specific AWD variant of the Model Y in the US (both the Long Range and Performance models are AWD), so it’s not clear which model the IRS is referring to. The 5- and 7-seat versions cost the same, starting at $65,990 for the Long Range version before destination and order charges.
Critics are pointing out that far more polluting hybrid vehicles qualify for the tax credits, including two Jeeps, the Audi Q5 e Quattro, BMW X5 xDrive45e and Ford’s Escape PHEV. However, if someone buys a Jeep Wrangler with 56 MPGe (23 MPG after the battery is depleted) instead of a Tesla Model Y with 122 MPGe, then the government clearly isn’t doing the most it can to reduce carbon emissions. The IRS has invited consumers to comment on the matter, and Musk encouraged people to do so in a tweet.
A mail muddle saw a namesake of Scott Stallings invited to play at the Masters instead of the PGA Tour player himself.
The newspaper slammed Kevin McCarthy and George Santos as “the poster children for GOP dysfunction.”
OnePlus has officially launched its new flagship phone and earbuds in China, more than a month before their global debut. The OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will be available in the company’s home country starting on January 9th before their worldwide release on February 7th. OnePlus had already revealed most of the new phone’s features back in December, and its most notable offerings include the Alert Slider, which was absent from the OnePlus 10T. True to its name, the slider makes it easy to shift from alert mode to silent or vibrate and vice versa.
The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that promises AI, camera and 5G speed upgrades and comes with support for ray tracing. In addition, it uses Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging technology to be able to quickly charge its 5000 mAh dual-cell battery, has 16GB of RAM and has a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has three camera sensors, with the main one being a 50-megapixel lens, and it marks the return of Hasselblad camera tuning on the brand’s phones.
As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, they feature MelodyBoost Dual Drivers, which is what the company calls the “technology derived from premium speakers” that it had developed with Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Dynaudio. They also come with one default equalizer (EQ) and three customized EQs. OnePlus says it will reveal more information about the earbuds during its February 7th event in New Delhi, India.
We asked the company for information regarding pricing in China and will update this post when we hear back.
The Republican congressman had “basically catfished an entire congressional district,” cracked the late night host.
We’re now in the first week of 2023, and that means different things for different people, such as taking another stab at a New Year’s resolution that’s been on the list forever or getting started on a plan to reach a goal before the year ends. For Louisiana residents, it also means having to verify their ages if they want to access porn online.
A new state law (PDF, courtesy of Motherboard) went into effect on January 1st, requiring websites containing “a substantial portion” of “material harmful to minors” to ask users to prove that they’re 18 or older. “Substantial portion,” according to the new law, is more than 33.3 percent of a website’s content. As Gizmodo notes, Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube have already started asking visitors to verify their age.
Websites that host content that can be considered porn have to implement “reasonable age verification methods,” including asking users to present a government-issued ID or a digitized form of it. Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube had chosen to ask visitors to prove their age by using their LA Wallet app, which is the state’s digital wallet app for drivers licenses. A video posted on Twitter shows how Pornhub uses the app to check for a user’s age.
Hello from the surveillance state of Louisiana. People in Louisiana have to use their drivers license to go to pornhub. This is truly wild. Under his eye. https://t.co/uji6Jo3Tdepic.twitter.com/pVKEeVcCGw
— Public Defendering (@fodderyfodder) January 2, 2023
In the document detailing the law, its authors said: “Due to advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements, minors are exposed to pornography earlier in age. Pornography contributes to the hyper sexualization of teens and prepubescent children and may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior. Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”
Speaking to TechCrunch, Olivia Snow, sex worker and research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, described the need for verification to access porn as “surveillance.” She also said that it can harm LGBTQ populations in extreme cases: “As homophobia and transphobia — especially homophobia in the context of porn — is rising, I could totally see the state zeroing in on people consuming gay porn, or lesbian porn, and either surveilling them further or criminalizing that.” Critics are also raising security and privacy concerns about having to present IDs to access porn online even if Pornhub promises that one’s “proof of age does not allow anyone to trace [their] online activity.”
Experts weigh in on what distinguishes the two and which one requires more immediate care for a chance at survival.
Five-year-old pool cleaning company Aiper is launching the Seagull Pro, which the company says is the world’s first quad-motor pool-cleaning robot. The flagship vacuum is a CES 2023 Innovation Award Honoree.
The Seagull Pro’s quad-motor system moves the robot around your pool by sucking and quickly exhausting water. Aiper says it can “suck in dirt, sand, leaves, hairs and other particles on the pool’s floor more efficiently than other models.” It can clean in- or above-ground pools (up to 3,200 sq. ft.) for up to three hours per charge and offers three modes: floor cleaning, wall cleaning and auto, which cleans both. Aiper says the device’s WavePath Navigation follows “a unique wave shape” while cleaning to increase its coverage compared to vacuums that wander randomly. The Seagull Pro will cost $900 when it launches in March.
Additionally, Aiper has new cheaper models, including the $400 Seagull Plus. It’s made for pools up to 1,300 sq. ft. and helps reduce its cost by trading the quad motor for a dual-motor system. It lasts an estimated 110 minutes while recharging in two and a half hours. Meanwhile, the Aiper Elite Pro skips the Seagull branding while offering high-end features at a slightly lower price than the Seagull Pro (although one big tradeoff is that the Elite Pro only covers 1,300 sq. ft.) It has a lightweight design, wall-cleaning capabilities and a dual-motor system. It can clean for two hours, the same time it takes to recharge. The Elite Pro arrives this Thursday for $800.
Aiper also highlights the Seagull SE, a budget water vacuum released in November. Although it only supports pools up to 850 sq. ft., it has dual drive motors and can run for 90 minutes (recharging in two and a half hours). The Seagull SE costs $300.
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