Matt Damon Says He Did That Dumb Crypto.com Ad Because His Water Nonprofit Was 'Down'

Actor Matt Damon briefly became the face of cryptocurrencies with his “history is filled with almosts” commercial for the digital currencies exchange Crypto.com. Despite crypto’s ballooning prices in 2021, after the collapse of several major exchanges and lenders in 2022 the entire industry is feeling more like an…

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Elon's Ego Can Rest Easy Knowing He Now Has the Most Followers on Twitter

Twitter CEO Elon Musk surpassed former President Barack Obama in followers on Thursday, making him the most followed person on the platform. At the time of writing, Musk has more than 133 million followers, according to SocialBlade which reported his count hovers at 40,000 more than Obama.

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Evacuations Ordered After Minnesota Train Carrying Ethanol Derails, Catches Fire

Multiple cars on a BNSF freight train came off the tracks early Thursday morning, prompting evacuations within half a mile of the crash site in Raymond.

Working on Star Trek: Picard Together | LeVar and Mica Burton Interview

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Netflix Might Bring Its Games to TVs in Effort to Get People to Actually Play Them

Higher quality TV and movies? No. A standard of not cancelling shows after a single season? Nah. Mobile games on your TV? Yup. That appears to be Netflix’s plan after a developer found some hidden code while digging through the platform. The company’s actually been offering games on mobile since 2021, but given paltry…

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ embraces its nihilism

The following discusses Star Trek: Picard, Season Three, Episode 7, “The Dominion.”

I reckon there’s a couple of generations who were raised, in whole or part, by their televisions. With surrogate parents who showed us a better way of living was possible and that the easy solution isn’t always best. Jean-Luc Picard was a leader of principle, with backbone and a belief that humanism should always prevail. When given the chance to eradicate the Borg, who had tortured, dehumanized and used him as a meat puppet to murder thousands of his colleagues, he demurred. In his own version of the Trolley Problem, he was initially in favor of wiping them out until his colleagues, including an aghast Dr. Crusher, convinced him otherwise. Their objections helped reawaken his humanity and reminded him that there was a better way.

Star Trek: Picard doesn’t just feel its lead made the wrong decision back then, it abdicates any sort of debate to justify why the alternative is better. Holding an unarmed Vadic prisoner on the Titan, Picard and Crusher agree the only course of action is to execute her. This comes after Crusher has already conceived building a new anti-changeling virus, only giving a second’s thought to the notion that it would be genocidal. Crusher, so often Star Trek: The Next Generation’s most moral compass, even says that Picard’s trap has invited death upon the Titan. When Jack is threatened, there’s no contemplation of alternatives or smarter solutions beyond those found at the business-end of a phaser. Are we watching Star Trek or 24?

But, to be even-handed, it’s also possible to offer a weaker, but present, argument that Picard is wrestling with America’s position in a post-Iraq world. Since the Dominion War has been retrofitted (pretty perfectly) as a War on Terror analog, then the changeling virus must now be seen as equivalent to the invasion itself. Shaw has given voice to the idea more than once that the changeling virus has radicalized a generation of zealots looking for revenge. But if that’s the case, why is there not a greater examination of what any of that would mean in the real world? Maybe because it’s so hard to imagine what a peace would look like that there’s no point even trying.

I’d love nothing more than to see Star Trek convincingly argue for the opposite just to see what that would look like. And it’s clearly something that Trek of old engaged with, in “Descent,” Picard wrestles with the decision made in “I, Borg,” telling Riker “the moral thing to do was not the right thing to do.” A better venue for this, however, was in Deep Space Nine, a show much better suited to painting its canvas in shades of gray than The Next Generation’s beige-carpeted explorers. “In The Pale Moonlight,” arguably the best hour of Trek ever made, makes the case that killing two people will save billions more, and makes it well. But Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson’s performances both show that while they can make that case intellectually, neither has anything close to a clean conscience.

As for the rest of the episode, Picard hatches a plan to trap the Shrike and lure Vadic on board by playing possum, which leads to some phaser-fu fights when Jack realizes that he’s telepathic, enough to pass his punch-fight knowledge onto LaForge. Meanwhile, we learn that Vadic is, or was, a sinister Section 31 scientist who merged with one of her changeling captors, and a changeling that she was torturing and experimenting on has vowed revenge on the Federation. At this point, my sympathies are almost lurching toward the changelings.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-picard-307-dominion-review-140506376.html?src=rss

‘Star Trek: Picard’ embraces its nihilism

The following discusses Star Trek: Picard, Season Three, Episode 7, “The Dominion.”

I reckon there’s a couple of generations who were raised, in whole or part, by their televisions. With surrogate parents who showed us a better way of living was possible and that the easy solution isn’t always best. Jean-Luc Picard was a leader of principle, with backbone and a belief that humanism should always prevail. When given the chance to eradicate the Borg, who had tortured, dehumanized and used him as a meat puppet to murder thousands of his colleagues, he demurred. In his own version of the Trolley Problem, he was initially in favor of wiping them out until his colleagues, including an aghast Dr. Crusher, convinced him otherwise. Their objections helped reawaken his humanity and reminded him that there was a better way.

Star Trek: Picard doesn’t just feel its lead made the wrong decision back then, it abdicates any sort of debate to justify why the alternative is better. Holding an unarmed Vadic prisoner on the Titan, Picard and Crusher agree the only course of action is to execute her. This comes after Crusher has already conceived building a new anti-changeling virus, only giving a second’s thought to the notion that it would be genocidal. Crusher, so often Star Trek: The Next Generation’s most moral compass, even says that Picard’s trap has invited death upon the Titan. When Jack is threatened, there’s no contemplation of alternatives or smarter solutions beyond those found at the business-end of a phaser. Are we watching Star Trek or 24?

But, to be even-handed, it’s also possible to offer a weaker, but present, argument that Picard is wrestling with America’s position in a post-Iraq world. Since the Dominion War has been retrofitted (pretty perfectly) as a War on Terror analog, then the changeling virus must now be seen as equivalent to the invasion itself. Shaw has given voice to the idea more than once that the changeling virus has radicalized a generation of zealots looking for revenge. But if that’s the case, why is there not a greater examination of what any of that would mean in the real world? Maybe because it’s so hard to imagine what a peace would look like that there’s no point even trying.

I’d love nothing more than to see Star Trek convincingly argue for the opposite just to see what that would look like. And it’s clearly something that Trek of old engaged with, in “Descent,” Picard wrestles with the decision made in “I, Borg,” telling Riker “the moral thing to do was not the right thing to do.” A better venue for this, however, was in Deep Space Nine, a show much better suited to painting its canvas in shades of gray than The Next Generation’s beige-carpeted explorers. “In The Pale Moonlight,” arguably the best hour of Trek ever made, makes the case that killing two people will save billions more, and makes it well. But Avery Brooks and Andrew Robinson’s performances both show that while they can make that case intellectually, neither has anything close to a clean conscience.

As for the rest of the episode, Picard hatches a plan to trap the Shrike and lure Vadic on board by playing possum, which leads to some phaser-fu fights when Jack realizes that he’s telepathic, enough to pass his punch-fight knowledge onto LaForge. Meanwhile, we learn that Vadic is, or was, a sinister Section 31 scientist who merged with one of her changeling captors, and a changeling that she was torturing and experimenting on has vowed revenge on the Federation. At this point, my sympathies are almost lurching toward the changelings.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/star-trek-picard-307-dominion-review-140506376.html?src=rss

Insta360 Flow: A Feature-packed Phone Gimbal With 12 Hours Of Battery Life

Insta360, a very well-known name in the world of cameras and imaging technology, has recently entered the smartphone gimbal market with its latest offering, the Insta360 Flow. The gimbal aims to simplify the process of capturing professional-quality video footage with your smartphone.

Arriving as a direct competitor for the DJI Osmo Mobile 6 range of smartphone gimbals, the Flow has put up a decent fight in matching DJI’s features, with the added advantage of a built-in tripod and a 215mm (8.5-inch) selfie stick. It also has a built-in cold shoe mount for a microphone, which is missing from the Osmo Mobile 6. Additionally, Insta360’s Flow boasts a larger 2,900mAh battery, providing up to 12 hours of use (compared to DJI’s 6 hours and 24 minutes).

One of the most exciting features is the “Shot Genie,” which recommends the ideal settings for capturing a particular scene based on over 80 example scenarios. Insta360’s software can give you hints on how to film several different scenarios, as well as assist with editing, using FlashCut. The app includes various shooting modes, such as dolly zooms, time-lapses, and panoramas and the gimbal even supports hands-free gesture control and a “Live Mode” for keeping yourself in the frame while on video calls or streaming.

Offered in two colors (white and gray) and priced at $159.99, The Insta360 Flow is available now in the US, Europe, and Japan offering a whole new way of filming moments with your smartphone. While its features are impressive, we’ll have to wait for full reviews to hit the market to determine how well the gimbal performs in practice or how accurate and reliable its tracking technology is.

Insta360 Flow: A Feature-packed Phone Gimbal With 12 Hours Of Battery Life

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Largest U.S. Egg Producer Reports Massive Profit As Prices Soared

Cal-Maine Foods reported an eightfold increase in net income as eggs topped inflation lists.

2023 Ford Maverick Tremor Review: Right Truck, Wrong Engine

Ford’s Maverick is best known as a small pickup with a small price tag. Tremor trim adds some off-road cred, but does it sacrifice too much in the process?