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How to prepare for another season of wildfire smoke

Vox: “Several US states are again experiencing an influx of wildfire smoke as Canada’s summer fire season gets underway. Due to the scale of the wildfires and natural weather patterns, enormous amounts of smoke are drifting southward — much like last year. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota are among the earliest states to… Continue Reading

PolitiFact launches Spanish-language website to serve more than 40 million U.S. Spanish-speakers

“Poynter’s PolitiFact, the Pulitzer-Prize winning fact-checking newsroom, is pleased to announce the launch of a new Spanish-language experience, PolitiFact en Español, to help more than 40 million Spanish-speakers in the U.S. sort out the truth in politics. A new Spanish-language website and a related social media presence are the culmination of an effort that began… Continue Reading

Daily court transcripts – People v Trump Stormy Daniels payoff

pdfs.nycourts.gov – /PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/ [To Parent Directory] 5/13/2024 4:31 PM 2239131 4-22-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 2488456 4-23-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 3407978 4-25-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 3453757 4-26-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 3355432 4-30-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 3540025 5-02-2024.pdf 5/13/2024 4:34 PM 3363923 5-03-2024.pdf 5/7/2024 10:30 PM <dir> 5-06-2024 5/9/2024 1:53 PM <dir> 5-07-2024 5/10/2024 8:22 PM <dir>… Continue Reading

7 Steps to Disprove a Conspiracy Theory

The Conversation: “Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and they can involve just about anything. People believe false conspiracy theories for a wide range of reasons – including the fact that there are real conspiracies, like efforts by the Sackler family to profit by concealing the addictiveness of oxycontin at the cost of countless American lives. The… Continue Reading

What I wish I’d known before my smartphone was snatched

FT.com – unpaywalled: “Phone theft is rising at a rapid pace. And far more lucrative than the value of the handset, organised criminal gangs know that our smartphones have become the gateway to a vast amount of our personal financial information. They will go to incredible lengths to steal phones unlocked, deploying tactics including “shoulder… Continue Reading

Google now offers ‘web’ search and an AI opt-out button

The Verge: “This is not a joke: Google will now let you perform a “web” search. It’s rolling out “web” searches now, and in my early tests on desktop, it’s looking like it could be an incredibly popular change to Google’s search engine. The optional setting filters out almost all the other blocks of content… Continue Reading

Decode ingredient lists like a pro

“INCIDecoder is a tool to help you to understand ingredient lists at a press of a button. Not just giving you some numbers or colorings (though we do that too, if you are in a hurry, but having science-based and easy-to-understand explanations about more and more ingredients, so that you can truly understand ingredient lists,… Continue Reading

Rising Cyber Threats Pose Serious Concerns for Financial Stability

IMF: “Cyberattacks have more than doubled since the pandemic. While companies have historically suffered relatively modest direct losses from cyberattacks, some have experienced a much heavier toll. US credit reporting agency Equifax, for example, paid more than $1 billion in penalties after a major data breach in 2017 that affected about 150 million consumers. As… Continue Reading

How to block websites on your iPhone

Mashable: “Whether you’re trying to manage screen time and avoid certain websites, or whether you’re setting some boundaries on your kid’s device, there’s an easy way to block sites on your iPhone. If it’s specifically the latter, you can also set up parental controls on your iPhone — just know they’re not the full answer.… Continue Reading

If You Read a Lot of Fiction, Scientists Have Very Good News About Your Brain

Futurism: “It’s a big day for bookworms: scientists studying how reading fiction affects your brain say the news is very good. In an interview with PsyPost, Lena Wimmer, a postdoctoral researcher at Germany’s Maximilian University, explained that she and her colleagues wanted to lay the groundwork for quantitative studies about fiction’s effect on thinking — and… Continue Reading