throws_lemy

Matt Turnbull, an Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, recently made a LinkedIn post, emphasizing that he'd be "remiss in not trying to offer the best advice" he could to laid-off workers in these trying times. This "best" advice is to turn to AI assistants like Copilot and ChatGPT for emotional support and to reduce cognitive load.

All further melting between now and October will see the size of glaciers in the Swiss Alps shrink, according to Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS).

This century, the tipping point, on average, has been reached in mid-August -- itself already bad news for the nation's 1,400 glaciers, which are shrinking at a staggering rate.

Its arrival several weeks earlier on July 4 is "another alarm call", GLAMOS chief Matthias Huss told AFP.

Glaciers in the Swiss Alps began to retreat about 170 years ago.

The retreat was initially modest but in recent decades, melting has accelerated significantly as the climate warms.

The volume of Swiss glaciers shrank by 38 percent between 2000 and 2024.

Hyeseong, a boy living on a remote island, and Yunhae, a mysterious mermaid, become each other's only friend. But soon after they meet, they're separated after Hyeseong moves away. Six years later, Yunhae develops a mysterious power and finds Hyeseong again. Unfortunately, too much has changed, and Hyeseong can no longer dedicate all his time to her as he did in their childhood. He tells her they are too different, but Yunhae's attachment to Hyeseong slowly transforms into an obsession.

Warning the story may contains depictions of self harm, murder, child abuse that may be upsetting to some readers

tags : Fantasy, School life, Thriller, Romance, Monster Girls

Episode 45

A polar air mass has brought record low temperatures to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, causing at least 15 deaths and forcing governments to restrict gas supplies and activate emergency shelters.

The three South American countries have all recorded sharply below-zero temperatures as the polar air originated from Antarctica and swept across the region.

In Argentina, at least nine homeless people have died from the cold this winter, according to NGO Proyecto 7.

The capital Buenos Aires recorded its lowest temperature since 1991 at -1.9 deg C on July 2, while the coastal city of Miramar saw snow for the first time in 34 years. Further south, the town of Maquinchao recorded –18 deg C on July 1.

Electricity demand caused cuts across Buenos Aires, leaving thousands without power for over 24 hours in some areas.

As European countries struggle with heat waves, some LATAM countries are facing polar air mass from South Pole.

and there is a video of heavy snowfall in the Atacama Desert

https://xcancel.com/BuenosDiasTVN/status/1938595103146168376

Julia Liuson, president of the Microsoft division responsible for developer tools such as AI coding service GitHub Copilot, recently sent an email instructing managers to evaluate employee performance based on their use of internal AI tools like this.

"AI is now a fundamental part of how we work," Liuson wrote. "Just like collaboration, data-driven thinking, and effective communication, using AI is no longer optional — it's core to every role and every level."

Liuson told managers that AI "should be part of your holistic reflections on an individual's performance and impact."

Microsoft's performance requirements vary from team to team, and some are considering including a more formal metric about the use of internal AI tools in performance reviews for its next fiscal year, according to a person familiar with the situation. This person asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is asking tech companies to pitch digital forensics tools that are designed to process and analyze text messages, pictures, videos, and contacts from seized phones, laptops, and other devices at the United States border, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

The agency said in a federal registry listing that the tools it’s seeking must have very specific capabilities, such as the ability to find a “hidden language” in a person’s text messages; identify specific objects, “like a red tricycle,” across different videos; access chats in encrypted messaging apps; and “find patterns” in large datasets for “intel generation.” The listing was first posted on June 20 and updated on July 1.

CBP has been using Cellebrite to extract and analyze data from devices since 2008. But the agency said that it wants to “expand” and modernize its digital forensics program. Last year, CBP claims, it did searches on more than 47,000 electronic devices—which is slightly higher than the approximately 41,500 devices it searched in 2023 but a dramatic rise from 2015, when it searched just more than 8,500 devices.

The facility, at an airport used for training, will have an initial capacity of about 3,000 detainees, DeSantis said. The center was built in eight days and features more than 200 security cameras, 28,000-plus feet (8,500 meters) of barbed wire and 400 security personnel.

Immigrants who are arrested by Florida law enforcement officers under the federal government’s 287(g) program will be taken to the facility, according to an official in President Donald Trump’s administration. The program is led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allows police officers to interrogate immigrants in their custody and detain them for potential deportation.

The facility is expected to be expanded in 500 bed increments until it has an estimated 5,000 beds by early July.

a feature we never asked for

• Meta is training custom AI chatbots to send unprompted follow-up messages and boost user engagement.
• Contractors at Alignerr help develop bots that remember chats and personalize replies on Meta apps.
• Mark Zuckerberg has said AI companions are a potential fix for the "loneliness epidemic."

A 64-year-old man went to the emergency department of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston with a painful festering ulcer spreading on his left, very swollen ankle. It was a gruesome sight; the open sore was about 8 by 5 centimeters (about 3 by 2 inches) and was rimmed by black, ashen, and dark purple tissue. Inside, it oozed with streaks and fringes of yellow pus around pink and red inflamed flesh. It was 2 cm deep (nearly an inch). And it smelled.

The man told doctors it had all started two years prior, when dark, itchy lesions appeared in the area on his ankle—the doctors noted that there were multiple patches of these lesions on both his legs. But about five months before his visit to the emergency department, one of the lesions on his left ankle had progressed to an ulcer. It was circular, red, tender, and deep. He sought treatment and was prescribed antibiotics, which he took. But they didn't help.

With the realm of possibilities large, they started with the man's medical history. The man had immigrated to the US from Korea 20 years ago. He owned and worked at a laundromat, which involved standing for more than eight hours a day. He had a history of eczema on his legs, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes. For these, he was prescribed a statin for his cholesterol, two blood pressure medications (hydrochlorothiazide and losartan), and metformin for his diabetes. He told doctors he was not good at taking the regimen of medicine.

His diabetes was considered "poorly controlled." A month prior, he had a glycated hemoglobin (A1C or HbA1C) test—which indicates a person's average blood sugar level over the past two or three months. His result was 11 percent, while the normal range is between 4.2 and 5.6 percent.