********** MUSIC **********
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The Best Albums of 2024
Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:00:00 +0000
It’s possible that I listened to more music this year than any other. I lost interest in podcasts. I lost interest in silence. There was too much extraordinary work out there.
Match ID: 0 Score: 15.00 source: www.newyorker.com age: 1 day
qualifiers: 15.00 (best|great) album(|s)
Filter efficiency 99.892 (1 matches/928 results)
********** ASIA **********
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US blocks China from foreign exports with even a single US-made chip
Mon, 02 Dec 2024 19:21:08 +0000
New China export curbs could hurt US chipmakers, allies more than Huawei.
Match ID: 0 Score: 130.00 source: arstechnica.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 50.00 china trade, 40.00 china, 20.00 singapore, 20.00 malaysia
Algorithms Are Coming for Democracy—but It’s Not All Bad
2024-12-03T12:00:47Z
In 2025, AI is poised to change every aspect of democratic politics—but it won’t necessarily be for the worse.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has used AI to translate his speeches for his multilingual electorate in real time, demonstrating how AI can help diverse democracies to be more inclusive. AI avatars were used by presidential candidates in South Korea in electioneering, enabling them to provide answers to thousands of voters’ questions simultaneously. We are also starting to see AI tools aid fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts. AI techniques are starting to augment more traditional polling methods, helping campaigns get cheaper and faster data. And congressional candidates have started using AI robocallers to engage voters on issues. In 2025, these trends will continue. AI doesn’t need to be superior to human experts to augment the labor of an overworked canvasser, or to write ad copy similar to that of a junior campaign staffer or volunteer. Politics is competitive, and any technology that can bestow an advantage, or even just garner attention, will be used...
Lawyers and campaigners hail removal of 47 people from remote Indian Ocean island as ‘a big day for justice’
Dozens of people stranded in hellish conditions for more than three years on the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia have touched down in the UK.
Lawyers and campaigners hailed the arrival of 47 Sri Lankan Tamils on Monday night as a “big day for justice”, with a further eight arriving on Tuesday morning from Rwanda, where they had been receiving medical treatment. Twelve children were among them.
Continue reading...Market share increases after strong demand within country offsets risks from western tariffs on Chinese-made EVs
China’s share of the global electric vehicle market reached 76% in October, the country’s automotive trade body said, reflecting strong demand for EVs in the country even as western tariffs risk hobbling exports.
Between January and October, sales of EVs reached 14.1m units, according to the China Passenger Car Association, with 69% of those sales in China. In October, China’s share surpassed three-quarters.
Continue reading...Wealth management employee charged with robbery, attempted murder and arson after home visit to elderly clients
The boss of the Japanese bank Nomura has apologised and taken a voluntary pay cut after a former employee was charged with robbery and attempted murder of a customer.
Kentaro Okuda, who has led Nomura since 2020, will take a 30% pay cut over the next three months, with several other senior managers at the bank taking similar reductions, the bank said.
Continue reading...Relevance of World Trade Organization under scrutiny amid US president-elect’s protectionist stance
The sting of teargas was a price worth paying, said Michael Dolan, as he looks back on the Battle of Seattle and how the World Trade Organization’s attempt to break down the barriers to international trade was derailed by anti-globalisation protesters.
“The WTO has never recovered, it really hasn’t,” he said.
Continue reading...Launched in Japan in December 1994, the record-breaking PlayStation started out as a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo – but ended up ushering video games into a new era all on its own
If you were an obsessive video game fan in the summer of 1994, you’ll remember where you were when Edge magazine’s August issue dropped. By then, Sony had already announced its intention to develop the PlayStation console – the previous October – but it was the cover feature in the world’s most forward-looking game publication that really blew open the possibilities of the machine. As well as listing its specifications in full, Edge secured enthusiastic statements of support from Capcom, Namco and Konami. One breathless developer told the mag: “It’s going to revolutionise the way computers are at the moment.” Suddenly, the whole structure of the console games business was being threatened. All it needed was a push.
Sony’s entry into the video game industry has become the stuff of legend (and probably, one day, the stuff of a passable Netflix movie). In the late 1980s, the company was keen to get a foothold in an increasingly profitable business after the failure of its MSX games computer, so when the chance came up to build a CD-Rom drive for the soon-to-be-released Super Nintendo (SNES) console, Sony leapt at it. In the background, however, Sony’s engineering genius Ken Kutaragi, was also designing a standalone system, the PlayStation, capable of playing SNES games as well as a new CD format that Sony itself would control.
Continue reading...New head of National Cyber Security Centre to warn of risk to infrastructure in first major speech
The UK is underestimating the severity of the online threat it faces from hostile states and criminal gangs, the country’s cybersecurity chief will warn.
Richard Horne, the head of GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, will cite a trebling of “severe” incidents amid Russian “aggression and recklessness” and China’s “highly sophisticated” digital operations.
Continue reading...Captain Paul Watson talks about his arrest on behalf of the Japanese government, his ‘interesting’ Greenland prison, and separation from his children
The humpback whales watched by Paul Watson from his prison cell this summer have long since migrated from the iceberg-flecked Nuup Kangerlua fjord to warmer seas. It is over four months since Watson – an eco-terrorist to some and a brave environmentalist to others – was brought here to Anstalten, a high-security jail perched on the frozen coast of south-east Greenland after being arrested while refuelling his ship, MV John Paul DeJoria, in nearby Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous Danish territory.
He had been on his way with a 32-strong crew to practise his decades-long policy of “non-violent aggression” by intercepting a new Japanese whaling “mothership”, the ¥7.5bn ($47.4m) Kangei Maru. But shortly after tying up his vessel in the harbour “a nice police car turned up” and 12 armed officers boarded.
Continue reading...New Zealand fast bowler recalls the feelings before and after he took England’s final wicket in 2023
The Basin Reserve was built on land thrown up by an earthquake in 1855 and England’s return to the ground this week brings memories of last year’s seismic Test match flooding back. It was the rarest of margins, with New Zealand the second team in history to win by a single run, and for Neil Wagner, front and centre during its breathtaking climax, the goosebumps are yet to subside.
“It was just a sense of massive relief and jubilation at the end,” says Wagner, who with England nine wickets down and needing two to win, had Jimmy Anderson snared down the leg side. “Winning the World Test Championship [in 2021] was the pinnacle but that Test match, just one run in it, will also stay with me for ever.
Continue reading...Sparse and precise, this meditative film immerses the viewer in the world of lepidopterist Mansi Mungee and her assistant as they survey hawk moths
This extremely slow, meditative documentary about a scientist and her assistant studying moths in the eastern Himalayas can only be fully appreciated if it’s watched in a darkened room, preferably a cinema, with no distractions. Otherwise, it’s almost impossible to appreciate its unique relationship to time and action, given that practically nothing happens even though it’s full of teeming, humming, vibrating life. And we’re not just talking about the insects, who we often observe blurring their wings to stay warm as they bask on a sheet lit by moon-mimicking UV light that the scientists have rigged up in the forest to attract the bugs in the first place.
Lepidopterist Mansi Mungee is researching how the rising temperatures of the local ecosystem are affecting hawk moths, a large species with extremely particular tastes when it comes to temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors. She and her assistant Bicki (not himself a scientist although he becomes increasingly fascinated by the process), spend hours each night staring at the screen-UV-light setup, which soon becomes carpeted with thousands of insects, as do the researchers themselves. In long, deep-breath takes, the camera drinks in the dark cool palette of blues, purples, inky greens and powdery browns on the insects and humans alike – hence the title Nocturnes – while the sound unfurls a steady backbeat of birdsong, wind-ruffled leaves, maybe the distant toot of an elephant or two. Sometimes there’s music by Nainita Desai, but it’s a score so minimalist there’s barely a breath between the natural and the human-made soundscapes.
Continue reading...Members of the national assembly reportedly banned from entering building after president announces ‘emergency martial law’
The US, south Korea’s most powerful ally, has not yet commented on the martial law declaration. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in south Korea to guard against north Korea, led by Kim Jong Un.
The Yonhap News Agency is reporting that members of the national assembly have been banned from entering the building, with the South Korean military having reportedly announced the suspension of all parliamentary activity. We have not yet independently verified this information. The parliament speaker is traveling to parliament and plans to convene a session, according to local broadcaster YTN TV.
Continue reading...President Yoon Suk Yeol accuses opposition party of controlling parliament and sympathising with North Korea as he declares martial law on TV
The Yonhap News Agency is reporting that members of the national assembly have been banned from entering the building, with the south Korean military having reportedly announced the suspension of all parliamentary activity. We have not yet independently verified this information.
A spokesperson for the finance ministry says south Korea’s most senior economy officials will hold a meeting now (11:40pm local time; 1440 GMT), according to Reuters. We will bring you the latest as soon as we get it.
Continue reading...Yoon Suk Yeol says in late-night address that opposition parties have taken parliamentary process hostage
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has declared martial law in an unannounced late-night televised address, claiming he would eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.
It is the first time since 1980 that martial law was declared in South Korea.
Continue reading...Two satellites in Proba-3 mission expected to be launched on Wednesday in India and will work in tandem to study sun’s corona
Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.
The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency’s first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.
Continue reading...After 250 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.
The post Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears appeared first on The Intercept.
With Trump returning to the White House, only mass commutations will stop another federal execution spree.
The post Biden Has “Pardoned” Eight Turkeys. Will He Spare the Lives of 40 Human Beings? appeared first on The Intercept.
Truong My Lan must repay three-quarters of $12bn she embezzled from bank in a case that shocked the country
The Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan has lost her appeal against the death penalty for masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal – though she could still save her life if she can repay most of the funds she embezzled.
Lan, who founded the real-estate developer Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to death in April for embezzling $12bn (£9.95bn) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in a case that shocked the country.
Continue reading...Big public universities, historically at the forefront of catalyzing activist movements, are now using legal action, disciplinary efforts, and rule changes to chill speech and dissent.
The post How Universities Are Trying to Stop Another Year of Anti-War Activism appeared first on The Intercept.
The Israeli company NSO Group sells Pegasus spyware to countries around the world (including countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Mexico, Morocco and Rwanda). We assumed that those countries use the spyware themselves. Now we’ve learned that that’s not true: that NSO Group employees operate the spyware on behalf of their customers.
Legal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker and not its government customers is the party that “installs and extracts” information from mobile phones targeted by the company’s hacking software...
It’s the smallest country in south-east Asia, but this tropical island’s vibrant diversity, modern architecture and warm hospitality creates a wealth of opportunities for travellers of all kinds
For such a small country – the smallest in south-east Asia – Singapore sure packs in a lot. In the 59 years since independence, it has gone from post-colonial minnow to roaring Asian powerhouse where gleaming skyscrapers and sprawling malls rub up against heritage-listed shophouses and leafy neighbourhoods.
Predominantly Chinese, Indian and Malay populations share this spotlessly clean, lush and green multicultural melting pot of a tropical island. Your visit starts when you land at Changi airport, frequently voted the world’s best, from where it’s a quick cab ride to the city centre. The island’s compact size (and amazing public transport system) means it’s a breeze to get around, and visitors can fit in plenty in just a few days.
Continue reading...The marketing of a new military tech tool powered by Meta’s artificial intelligence is “irresponsible” and “clumsy,” experts said.
The post Meta-Powered Military Chatbot Advertised Giving “Worthless” Advice on Airstrikes appeared first on The Intercept.
Lots of details that are beyond me.
Min Aung Hlaing accused of crimes against humanity over deportation and persecution of Rohingya minority
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) is seeking an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military leader, Min Aung Hlaing, for crimes against humanity over the deadly crackdowns against the country’s Rohingya minority that drove hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh.
Karim Khan said that “after an extensive, independent and impartial investigation” his office had concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe that the Myanmar junta chief “bears criminal responsibility for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya committed in Myanmar and in part in Bangladesh”.
Continue reading...Crystal-clear waters, white sand and unspoilt coves – Thailand’s beaches exceed expectations in every way. Here’s what to expect from two of the country’s most sought after coastal resorts
Thailand is one of the world’s sandiest nations, with hundreds of beaches garlanded over 2,000 miles of coastline. These range from secluded, unspoilt coves with fine, white sand and crystal-clear waters to the more easily accessible and well-known beaches that tourists flock to every day. So where do you start?
You’ll find the best introduction in Hua Hin and Koh Samui. Two very different destinations but both oozing with the charm and beach experience that you’d expect from Thailand. Once a quiet fishing village on the skinny stretch of mainland north of the Malay peninsula, Hua Hin was established as a royal getaway in the 1920s and has since grown into a fashionable resort town. While Koh Samui offers laidback island life with pristine beaches, tropical greenery and a calm blue sea. Both border the Gulf of Thailand, a sandy-bottomed waterworld filled with kaleidoscopic sea life, where temperature in the area seldom dips below 24 degrees.
Continue reading...When it comes to female fashion, think comfort, culture, weather and colour – all key considerations when exploring this diverse corner of the world
South-east Asia has it all: thanks to the dazzling variety in landscapes, cultures and religions, both within and between nations, it’s one of the most diverse regions on the planet. It’s what makes it such an extraordinarily popular place to holiday – there really is something for everyone. But its many blessings in that regard can potentially make it feel like a packing nightmare … because, how on earth do you prepare your suitcase for the free-wheeling eclecticism of itineraries that could take you from a mountain hike in the morning to rice paddy mid-afternoon, then a beach for the sunset, before a dance at the hotel bar?
Well, it might sound obvious but whether you’re looking to discover archaeological wonders, bargains in a market, or moonlit raves, before you venture out, really research and think about what is a bucket-list must for you so that you bring the right clothes, plus (very importantly!) the appropriate footwear. Because you’ll probably find there are a couple of sites and sights you didn’t even know existed (did you know Thailand has an ancient temple guarded by a giant catfish? I’ll bet you didn’t.)
Continue reading...Welcoming more than 20 million tourists a year, Thailand’s capital is a playground for holidaymakers of all kinds – and these swanky hotels make the perfect base for exploring all this bustling city has to offer
Colourful, cacophonic and a round-the-clock adventure – in Bangkok gilded royal palaces are sited next to shopping malls containing their own theatres and urban parks. Bangkok lives large: it plays in sky bars, night markets and open-air theatres. It prays at Buddhist temples, Catholic churches, ornate mosques and Hindu temples. In a city that serves up one fast-paced adventure after another – travellers will need a place of calm where they can retreat from the melee. Three standout hotels promise a serene respite from the hustle and bustle – all you need to do is choose your holiday style …
Explore history and culture from Millennium Hilton Bangkok
The Chao Phraya river – or the River of Kings – courses through a city of 11 million to connect palaces, temples and major historical sights. The cultural must-see is the Grand Palace. From 1782, this gilt-edged complex hosted the kings of Siam – the historic name of Thailand – amid pavilions, a throne room and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
The Grand Palace
Continue reading...A wonderfully crackly Washington leads Scott’s frenetic, macho action flick, as part of an experimental FBI unit that hopes to use time travel to stop a terrorist attack
In a 2005 interview with the Sunday Times, the late Tony Scott reflected on the key artistic difference between himself and his older brother Ridley: “[He] makes films for posterity … they’ll be around for a long time. I think my films are more rock’n’roll.”
While the elder Scott’s movies certainly tend to be classical and operatic in their scope and style, the younger brother’s films are marked by a much more experimental edge – a rebellious desire to create beauty out of divine chaos. The pinnacle of this creative ethos may be his 2006 work Déjà Vu, a high-octane sci-fi action hybrid which asks the question: would you risk your life to go back in time and save a person you loved?
Continue reading...Launched in Japan in December 1994, the record-breaking PlayStation started out as a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo – but ended up ushering video games into a new era all on its own
If you were an obsessive video game fan in the summer of 1994, you’ll remember where you were when Edge magazine’s August issue dropped. By then, Sony had already announced its intention to develop the PlayStation console – the previous October – but it was the cover feature in the world’s most forward-looking game publication that really blew open the possibilities of the machine. As well as listing its specifications in full, Edge secured enthusiastic statements of support from Capcom, Namco and Konami. One breathless developer told the mag: “It’s going to revolutionise the way computers are at the moment.” Suddenly, the whole structure of the console games business was being threatened. All it needed was a push.
Sony’s entry into the video game industry has become the stuff of legend (and probably, one day, the stuff of a passable Netflix movie). In the late 1980s, the company was keen to get a foothold in an increasingly profitable business after the failure of its MSX games computer, so when the chance came up to build a CD-Rom drive for the soon-to-be-released Super Nintendo (SNES) console, Sony leapt at it. In the background, however, Sony’s engineering genius Ken Kutaragi, was also designing a standalone system, the PlayStation, capable of playing SNES games as well as a new CD format that Sony itself would control.
Continue reading...
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
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