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☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

StackSkills Unlimited Courses Are $35 Right Now

Par : StackCommerce — 29 mars 2024 à 00:00

You can get lifetime access to StackSkills Unlimited courses on sale for $34.97 right now (normally $600) until April 2. StackSkills Unlimited is an online learning platform that offers thousands of training courses. They aren’t a replacement for college courses, degrees, or certifications—instead, think of them as a way to learn about a subject you didn’t take or pay enough attention to in school. StackSkills Unlimited has courses in IT, web design, coding, language learning, Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Cloud, business, marketing, and more. You’ll get instant access to over a thousand courses, with over 50 new courses added each month.

You can get lifetime access to StackSkills Unlimited courses on sale for $34.97 right now (normally $600) until April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

This Amazon Smart Thermostat Is on Sale for $25

Par : Daniel Oropeza — 28 mars 2024 à 23:30

Smart home devices can make life easier and more convenient (and might even save you some money on your utility bill). A smart thermostat is a great place to begin if you're new to the smart home world because they're easy to install and fairly affordable. The Amazon Smart Thermostat is all those things, plus it can connect to the Alexa app to be voice controlled.

Woot is selling refurbished Amazon Smart Thermostats for $29.99 (originally $79.99), (and until midnight on Friday, you can apply a $5.00 coupon with code "SMARTFIVE" at checkout). The sale goes until April 9 at 1 a.m. ET or until the thermostats run out. Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. Keep in mind that the thermostat is refurbished, so it might come with signs of wear, but it was serviced and given the thumbs-up to work properly. 

The installation is simple, and you can do it yourself. All you need to do is some basic rewiring on your current thermostat. If you're not sure what that entails, you can follow along on the video below. The Alexa app also guides you through the process of installation.

PCMag rated this thermostat as an "excellent" device for its price, support for the Alexa ecosystem, and ability to track and manage your HVAC system, potentially saving you some money on your utility bill. Don't expect all the fancy features that you can get from other, more premium smart thermostats, like motion detection, remote control, and support for other smart home systems. But for $24.99, it's a good value.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

I Tested Three AI Essay-writing Tools, and Here’s What I Found

Par : Lindsey Ellefson — 28 mars 2024 à 23:00

Writing essays can be draining, tedious, and difficult, even for me—and I write all day long for a living. If writing isn’t your special skill, it’s even harder, which is why there are so many sites and products out there that are designed to help you get your homework done. Some of them are pretty unethical, and I’m not going to recommend hiring someone else to write your papers for you, but there are some cool AI tools that can give you a hand that are worth considering. (The essay-writing businesspeople are probably using these, too, so you’re better off eliminating the middleman and using them on your own.)

The best AI essay-helper tools

I have an essay due next week on the history and impact of a federal law, 21 U.S.C. S856, which outlaws the operation of any building where drugs are made or used. I won’t lie: I’m excited to work on it this weekend, but that’s just me. I tested out a few of the more popular AI essay-helper tools, pretending I wasn’t excited about it, to see how they worked. Here’s my assessment. 

Grammarly

First up was Grammarly, which prompted me to fill out a personalization quiz before I could use it. I told the site I was a grad student, interested in improving the vocabulary I use in my work, and looking to brainstorm topics for my essay. I used the text-input section to type a quick introductory paragraph and selected “Generative AI” from the list of options. When I hit the “Improve It” button, Grammarly showed me a revised version that added a bunch of words, but still said the same thing as my more concise entry. To me, that’s annoying, but if you’re trying to hit a word count, this could be useful. I was also given options like “Make it assertive,” “Make it persuasive,” and “Make it confident.” When I selected “Make it more detailed,” the generative AI did expand the information pretty significantly, but it didn’t add any citations and I’m not convinced it drew on material outside of what I inputted. When I hit “Make it persuasive,” the AI automatically assumed the bias should fall in favor of the law, but when I added more detail to my original paragraph, suggesting for argument’s sake that the law has curtailed efforts to reduce drug overdoses throughout the country, the AI assistant said, “Grammarly assistance is unavailable for this prompt because it may result in sensitive content.”

Overall, this wasn’t great for my needs, as my topic's content was too “sensitive” and the generative AI really only added a bunch of words. This one would be most useful for someone trying to hit a word count. 

Cramly

Next I tested Cramly, which I hadn’t heard of before. Before upgrading to a $4/month plan, you do get to try five free prompts, so I pasted my basic intro paragraph in there and, after a few seconds, got five paragraphs in return. It was obvious the AI was pulling from external sources somehow, as it mentioned fines and prison sentences associated with the law that I hadn’t specified, but it didn’t actually cite those sources. Still, the information it provided was helpful, so this one would be great if you’re not sure how to frame or expand on a topic and need a general idea of what your essay could look like. You’ll just have to go through everything it spits back at you and look it up independently, finding solid sourcing. 

EssayGenius

EssayGenius is extremely easy to use. It asked me to type what I’m writing about into a box. I simply inputted the name of the law and, about 10 seconds later, got 10 paragraphs back, some with subheadings like “historical background” and “implications in criminal law and public policy.” Again, there were no citations here, but the service provided not only a lot of details that could be used as a springboard to find more, but a solid outline for what the paper could look like. The AI played both sides, objectively presenting the cases for and against the law, then provided a conclusion that made it easy to narrow down where to go with the topic. Impressively, I was able to generate all that for free, but if you want to write up to 10 essays per month, it’ll cost you $9.99 a month. 

JotBot

Finally, I tried out JotBot, which I have seen advertised on social media. It asked me what I was writing about, plus if I wanted an outline, but also gave me an opportunity to upload my old essays so it could replicate my writing style. As scary as it was, the paragraphs it generated after reading some of my older work did sound more like me than standard AI does. It give me subtopic suggestions, like “impact,” “historical background,” and “controversies,” which I could select from a sidebar and, if I liked the paragraph it wrote, drag into the essay itself. From there, I could accept or reject sentences one by one as it generated new ones. I could write in the essay editing section, too, and it generated more suggestions based on what I was typing. Frankly, this one was really cool and I can see how it would help beat writer’s block with ease, since you can type and get suggestions as you go. There was a learning curve, though, and I didn’t realize how quickly I was blowing through my 10 free daily “credits,” since it’s unclear what, exactly, costs credits and how many it costs to, say, accept one suggestion. You can unlock unlimited credits, unlimited autocomplete, unlimited sources, and more for $14 per month. 

Conclusions

Overall, EssayGenius and JotBot were the best AI tools I tested. I was impressed by EssayGenius’s ability to research the topic on its own and JotBot’s mimicry of my own writing style. They do cost money, but that might be worth it if you’re someone who struggles with idea generation, outline creation, or getting into the flow of writing overall. 

Bear in mind these are not meant to churn out entire essays for you and you shouldn’t use them to do that. I don’t mean because it’s unethical, but I mean because it’s pretty easy for professors to catch you doing it. Even if you do use an AI tool to generate a whole paragraph or more, try to write it in your own voice and think of it more as a way to study and learn about your topic than have the writing done for you. 

Or, pay nothing and just use ChatGPT to generate outline ideas. I do that all the time and never have to worry about getting in trouble, cheating myself out of an education, or paying for anything. I just asked ChatGPT to generate an outline for an essay on 21 U.S.C. §856 and its impact on American harm reduction efforts and got eight sections, each with three subsections, and an easy roadmap I could follow to write my paper on my own. Doing it this way ensures I’ll actually research and learn about the topic, which is important to me, but also avoid the risk of going down for plagiarism or cheating, which is probably important to you. 

No matter what you end up doing, always run your work through a plagiarism checker (like Grammarly’s, which is better than its AI essay-writing tools) and ZeroGPT to make sure you’re not turning in something that’s going to get you in trouble.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

How I Cleaned My Stainless Steel Sink Without Spending Extra Money

Par : Lindsey Ellefson — 28 mars 2024 à 22:30

There is a wide variety of ways to clean and buff a stainless steel sink. Some require the purchase of specialty products, and others are more reliant on household materials and DIY hacks.

While I won't dissuade you if you want to choose a ready-made, store-bought solution like Bar Keepers Friend or Weiman Stainless Steel Sink Cleaner, I did some testing to determine whether or not the cheaper methods work—and experienced some success. It turns out all you may need to clean your stainless steel sink is a melamine sponge and regular old baking soda.

How to clean a stainless steel sink with baking soda

Because I am a renter, my sink, like everything else in my apartment, came to me "pre-loved"—and it shows. It shows some serious scratches, evidence of its long history of being used to clean up cookware messes I can only imagine. A big part of cleaning stainless steel involves scuffing out minor scratches, which is why the internet is filled with recommendations for using abrasive cleaners or other granular agents. I opted for baking soda as my cleaning agent.

I next had to choose my cleaning implement. Perennial wisdom may tell you that you can use lemon wedges to remove stains, but in my experience, lemon-based hacks are hit or miss. I split the difference by choosing a lemon-scented S.O.S. steel wool pad

A dirty stainless steel sink
Before! Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

The first step to cleaning the sink is removing any dishes and wiping away any obvious residue. Since I just did a massive dish-cleaning session, my sink was extra grimy, so I pulled out a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Ultra Foamy and scrubbed every inch.

Next, I sprinkled plain baking soda all over the sink. It’s abrasive, but mildly, so it’s perfect for removing light scratches and polishing the steel. I scrubbed the baking soda with the Magic Eraser, then rinsed and looked for lingering, more serious scratches or stains. I then used my S.O.S. pad to lightly buff at those spots, and saw a little improvement. Obviously, it’s hard to remove deep scratches by hand, but what little polishing I did had a noticeable effect.

I then rinsed out the sink again, and dried it with a soft cloth before applying a light layer of baby oil as a cheap, efficient polish. 

A clean stainless steel sink
After! Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Overall, I was pleased with my low-cost, minimal effort results. If you're dealing with more stubborn stains, you can spring for an abrasive specialty cleaner like Bar Keepers Friend, but it's hard for me to justify the purchase when I only deep clean my sink every month or so. The baking soda worked perfectly well at buffing and shining my stainless steel sink, and I didn’t have to spend anything to do it, since I used products I already had on hand. 

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Strange Tax Deductions You Might Not Know About

Par : Meredith Dietz — 28 mars 2024 à 22:00

While most of us are familiar with the common tax deductions like mortgage interest, charitable donations, and retirement contributions, there are plenty of unexpected deductions and other little-known uses for pre-tax money.

Tax deductions you might not be aware of

Andy Phillips, Director of H&R Block’s Tax Institute, says that with the April 15 deadline fast approaching, his tax experts are getting plenty of unconventional questions from filers looking to maximize every deduction available to them. Phillips shared some of the strangest tax deductions people have claimed and actually gotten away with:

  • Gambling losses. While gambling winnings are taxable income, the IRS allows taxpayers to deduct their gambling losses up to the amount of their winnings. This deduction is often claimed by professional gamblers and those who frequent casinos.

  • Snacks. Daycares can deduct set amounts for the breakfast, lunch, and snacks provided to children in their care. 

  • Your pool or hot tub. If you are self-employed and use your backyard pool or hot tub to entertain clients or employees, you may be able to deduct a portion of your operating costs and even the initial installation. Just make sure to carefully document the business uses.

  • Tampons. Menstrual care products like tampons and pads are qualified expenses you can pay with your health savings account.

  • Pet food. For the most part, deducting medical expenses for pets is not allowed as a medical expense on your tax return. The only exception would be when an animal is a certified service animal, like a guide dog, to assist you. Service animals generally aren’t considered pets though. If you have a physical disability or are hearing or visually impaired, you can deduct medical expenses for your pets if they are certified service animals. Expenses that may be covered include purchasing, training and maintenance of the animal which includes food, grooming and medical care.

  • Some cosmetic surgeries. A taxpayer can deduct as medical expenses amounts paid for cosmetic surgery necessary to improve a deformity arising from, or directly related to, a congenital abnormality, a personal injury resulting from an accident or trauma, or a disfiguring disease. Breast reconstruction after cancer is an example of a deductible surgery. Vision correction surgery is another example of a deductible procedure. 

  • Clarinet lessons. Believe it or not, the IRS has allowed deductions for clarinet lessons as a medical expense in certain circumstances where the lessons were recommended by a doctor to help treat a health condition like stammering or neurological issues. You'll need a physician's letter to claim this one.

  • EV chargers. If you install an electric vehicle charger in your home, you may be eligible for a tax credit. 

  • Construction expenses. If you build a house, construction expenses you can include in the basis of your home include land, materials, architect fees, building inspection fees, and building permit fees. 

Phillips shares some more unexpected facts about deductions; for instance, people who are wrongfully incarcerated may be able to exclude settlement money they receive to compensate them. If you’re at least 65 years old or blind, you can claim an additional standard deduction on your tax return. And if you’re just starting to repay your student loans for the first time, you might not know that most taxpayers can deduct up to $2,500 of student loan interest payments each year. 

Remember to keep accurate records and consult with a tax professional if you have any questions or concerns. While the above deductions might not apply to you, there are still plenty of deductions to make sure you're taking advantage of—like home office perks or retirement contributions. And if you want to avoid the April 15 scramble, be sure to check out the best filing services for 2024.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

You Can Get an Apple Vision Pro for $200 Off, If It Fits

Par : Daniel Oropeza — 28 mars 2024 à 21:30

The Apple Vision Pro, arguably the most impressive virtual reality and augmented reality headset available for public consumption, is seeing its first significant discount. Woot is selling new 256 GB Apple Vision Pros for $3,299—a $200 discount—but only in the small Solo Knit Band size and 21W Light Seal.

This sale on the Apple Vision Pro will go on until the end of February. If you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping; otherwise, it’ll be $6 to ship. (Heads up, though: Woot only ships to the 48 contiguous states in the U.S.)

Of course, $3,299 is still a whopping amount of money and not everyone's head will fit in the small band and 21W seal. If you have an Apple store close by, you can go and get yourself measured to see if the small band and 21W seal will fit you. If you're not that patient, you can see Apple's breakdown of what each measurement means in the screenshot below.

Apple VIsion Pro measurements
Credit: Screenshot from Apple website

The /r/VisionPro Reddit page also has a helpful breakdown of the sizes. And if you're more of a visual person, this video does a good job of giving you an idea of what to expect from the different sizes.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Le réchauffement climatique ralentit la rotation de la Terre !

Par : Camille Auchère, Journaliste junior — 28 mars 2024 à 21:01
Pour être plus précis : le changement climatique modifie la vitesse de rotation de la Terre, le ralentissant alors que la tendance naturelle de notre planète est d'aller en accélérant. Un phénomène qui pourrait bien avoir un impact sur la façon dont nous mesurons le temps...

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Please, Don't Trust AI to Identify Mushrooms

Par : Beth Skwarecki — 28 mars 2024 à 21:00

Eating wild mushrooms is a famously dangerous hobby. If you are an expert forager, you’ll know what grows in your area, where to find it, and how to be absolutely sure that you’ve found an edible species rather than a poisonous one. If you aren’t, you could end up chowing down on mushrooms with names like “death cap” and “destroying angel.” 

It takes years of experience and a keen eye for detail to become an expert in identifying mushrooms. There are no easy rules for telling good from bad; the poisonous ones often look very similar to popular, tasty edible mushrooms. But you have to know that this confusion is possible, and that you, as a beginner at this, are liable to fuck it up. Join your local mycological (mushroom-studying) society, and you can start learning from the experts. 

You may think there's a shortcut: can't you just download an app? If iNaturalist (for example) can tell you that the white-flowered tree in your neighbor’s yard is a dogwood, it should be able to tell you what mushroom you found in the woods, right? It cannot.

AI mushroom apps could literally kill you

In an in-depth report in Public Citizen, wild mushroom enthusiast Rick Claypool shows all the ways that AI-powered identification apps and AI-generated field guides can kill you or make you sick if you trust them. 

He cites an example of Google Lens identifying a mushroom nicknamed “the vomiter” as a different mushroom it described as “choice edible.” (The person who posted the photo got very sick, but survived.) In an even scarier 2022 incident, an Ohio man used an app to confirm that some mushrooms he found were edible—the app said yes—and ended up in the hospital fighting for his life. (An experimental treatment may be what helped him pull through; 40% of people who eat toxic Amanita mushrooms, the type he’s thought to have eaten, end up either dying or needing a liver transplant.) 

As Claypool points out, real live mushroom experts do not look at a picture and say “yep, that’s edible.” They’ll ask to see details of the underside and the bottom of the mushroom, they’ll want to know exactly where and when it was found, and they may recommend further steps for identification like making a spore print. They’ll also be able to say how sure they are of their conclusion. Claypool notes: “An app that responds to an identification attempt with a vague or non-committal answer may be perceived as malfunctional instead of cautious.”

He also points out that identifying the species is not the only step in knowing whether mushrooms are safe to eat: “The first mushrooms novice foragers find are often mushrooms that are beyond the state of freshness required for safe consumption. Foragers are in a race against mold, insects, slugs, and everything else in the wild that eats mushrooms. Unless you know the signs, whether a mushroom is infested with maggots or grubs might not be obvious until it’s cut.”

AI is not “intelligent” and never has been

The term “artificial intelligence” is a buzzword, a nickname, a fantasy. It is not a description of what these apps are or do. It’s a term coined by scientists who dreamed about what might be possible in the future, and was then popularized in science fiction. The creators of tools like ChatGPT chose to use it because it sounds exciting and futuristic. 

Never forget that AI hype is mostly just marketing from big tech companies who hope to get money from other tech companies before the bubble bursts. This will all die down once people realize AI is not actually doing anything useful for anybody who cares about the output, but it will take a while for the tech bros to figure that out.

Claypool’s article lays out several things that AI can ostensibly do for mushroom identification, and the deadly flaws in each: 

  • Photo identification, through mushroom apps: Even a human cannot identify all mushrooms with certainty through pictures. 

  • AI-created guidebooks: These have been found to contain incorrect information. (It hasn’t been conclusively proven that the guidebooks in question were written by AI, but they sure look like it.)

  • AI-generated pictures: When Claypool tested image generation tools, they routinely drew incorrect pictures of the features of edible and toxic mushrooms, and labeled them incorrectly. 

  • AI descriptions of pictures: Mushroom experts use specific terminology to describe the features of mushrooms in guidebooks. When Claypool asked an AI tool to describe a photo of a toxic mushroom, it said the mushroom had “free gills” when it actually had attached gills, and got other identifying features wrong.

  • AI-summarized search results: Google happily provided a recipe for cooking toxic mushrooms, claiming that boiling can remove toxins. (This is not true.)

The AI tools Claypool tested also dropped bits of misinformation here and there in the process, implying that toxic mushrooms are brightly colored and that brightly colored mushrooms are toxic (neither is true as a rule).

The bottom line for you and me? AI doesn’t actually “know” anything. These algorithms are better thought of as predictive: if you ask it a question, it writes a prediction of what an expert’s answer to that question might look like. Sometimes it’s good at this kind of prediction, and sometimes it’s absolutely terrible. 

Just like when Futurama’s Bender the robot made terrible food for his human friends because he didn’t understand the concept of taste, AI produces text or images that superficially look like what it thinks you asked for, without understanding the concepts involved. AI does not know toxic from edible mushrooms. It doesn’t even know what a mushroom is. It just spits out words and images that it thinks will make you happy, and it does not know how to care whether you live or die.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Oregon Just Passed a Monumental ‘Right to Repair’ Law

Par : Jake Peterson — 28 mars 2024 à 20:30

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek officially signed a new "Right to Repair" law on Wednesday that will make it much easier to repair our stuff—at least in the state of Oregon.

Much of the law follows in the footsteps of Right to Repair legislation passed by New York, Minnesota, and California: Tech companies that sell their products in Oregon will need to allow customers and third-party repair stores to buy things like parts, tools, and schematics for most electronic devices. The law retroactively applies to these devices, as well: It applies to smartphones released on July 1, 2021 and newer, and most other electronic devices sold on or after July 1, 2015. That means, if you live in Oregon, Apple will need to let you buy parts for that MacBook you bought almost nine years ago.

While these impacts alone would be a welcome change, what sets this Oregon law apart from the other three states is that is bans "parts pairing," a term that describes when companies prevent unauthorized parts from functioning in their devices. Parts pairing can also brick features of your device when these unauthorized parts are installed. We saw this with Apple with the iPhone 13: If you replaced the display with an unauthorized screen, iOS would shut off Face ID. (Apple later reversed course.)

But rather than rely on public backlash to bully companies into doing the right thing, Oregon's new law will ensure no company selling electronics in the state will be able to take away functionality because a user installs a part they don't approve of. Unlike the other side of the law, however, parts pairing legislation is not retroactive: It will only apply to devices made after Jan. 1, 2025. So while your existing electronics like phones and laptops can continue employ parts pairing policies, anything you buy in Oregon in 2025 will be banned from doing so.

What does this mean for repairability?

If you live in Oregon, your ability to repair your own products is improving dramatically—especially with devices you buy next year. But what's so great about this law is that it doesn't just apply to the devices we think of when we talk about repairability: It also applies to most electronic devices you own. If your smartwatch breaks, or you can't seem to clean with your vacuum anymore, those manufacturers need to offer you the option to purchase tools that can fix your devices, rather than force you to buy new ones.

The major exceptions here are medical devices, farm equipment, devices that run on an internal combustion engine (your gas-powered car isn't covered, unfortunately), or video game consoles. So while Microsoft might not need to worry about helping you repair your Xbox, it will need to offer parts and documentation for your Surface.

Right to Repair is really all about two things: The first is empowering consumers to continue using the devices they paid for. Companies have gotten us too used to abandoning cheap products once they fall apart. If the law makes them offer ways to repair these products, not only will we be able to fix our devices more easily, but we should see companies start to make more durable products as well—at least, that's the hope.

The second part of the movement, however, tries to put the power in the hands of the consumer when it comes time to repair those devices. Sure, fixing your tech is great, but if it costs an arm and a leg because you're forced to do it the way the manufacturer wants you to, it's hardly better than buying something new. Allowing customers and third-party repair shops access to parts and documentation levels the playing field, and makes repairs more affordable for everyone.

As states pass these laws, we're seeing improvements for everyone: Apple has a self repair program that allows anyone to buy genuine Apple parts and follow instructions for fixing their own products, as does Samsung. They're far from perfect though: Apple's program in particular is expensive. Hopefully, the more Right to Repair laws that pass, the more accessible these self repairs become.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Use This Plugin to Add Your WordPress Site to the Fediverse

Par : Justin Pot — 28 mars 2024 à 20:00

I miss blogs. Don't get me wrong: I write professionally for various websites, and I have an email newsletter, but none of them quite give me that blog feeling from the 2000s. The closest thing I've found is Mastodon. Maybe it's the jankyness, maybe it's the do-it-yourself mindset, but scrolling through Mastodon reminds me of old school blogs.

As it turns out, I can combine my passion for old-school blogging with my love of Mastodon. There's a simple plugin you can install on any WordPress site to make it part of the Fediverse, which is the network of social networks that includes Mastdon and, eventually, Meta's Threads. Users of those networks can follow your blog and get all of your posts, right in their timeline.

To get started, you need only install the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress. You can do this by heading to Plugins in your WordPress dashboard and searching for the plugin. Install and enable it and you're done: your website is now on the Fediverse.

Just install and activate the plugin and you're on the Fediverse. It's that easy.
Credit: Justin Pot

Every user of your WordPress site can now be followed by users of Mastodon and other social networks built on the ActivityPub protocol (collectively called "The Fediverse"). I confirmed this by searching for, and following, my blog from Mastodon.

It's my blog, but on Mastodon.
Credit: Justin Pot

I also followed myself, just to see how it looks. Full posts are available right in the Mastodon timeline, allowing people to follow keep up with my blog without leaving Mastodon. But the coolest thing, to me, is that any reply anyone sends to your posts shows up as a comment on your site.

Someone on Mastodon responded to my blog post. It showed up in the comments section.
Replies from Mastodon and other services show up right in the comments section. Credit: Justin Pot

You can reply to the comments right in WordPress, if you want, and the user will get the reply the same way they would any other reply. This allows you to blog, just the way you remember, while allowing everyone else to use the tools they prefer.

And you can go even further. If you want to follow people back, if only out of respect, you're going to need the Friends plugin, which basically turns your WordPress website into a complete ActivityPub social network. You can even set up the plugin to work with Mastodon apps, including Mona, the best app for Mastodon.

That's just for power users, though. For most people, this is just a simple way to give potential readers another way to read and interact with your blog posts. Setting this up also means Threads users will eventually be able to follow your blog, without you having to use Threads. Other services, including Tumblr, are also working on integrating with ActivityPub. An ecosystem like that just might bring back blogging—at least, I hope so.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

YouTube Is Testing a Feature That Uses AI to Skip to the Best Parts of a Video

Par : Sachin Bahal — 28 mars 2024 à 19:30

YouTube is always trying out new features for its users, which they call experiments. The latest experimental feature is called Jump Ahead, which purports to skip to the best part of a YouTube video for you.

The new feature works in conjunction with the double tap feature already available in the YouTube app on Android or iOS, which lets you hop forward in a video in 10-second increments until you've reached the portion that interests you.

The Jump Ahead feature will analyze that user watch data and couple it with machine learning algorithms to automatically detect what it believes is the next "best" point in a video that a viewer may be interested in, and offer a prompt to take you to that point via an onscreen Jump Ahead button.

YouTube says the Jump Ahead feature will work for creators when watching their own videos, even if they aren't currently subscribed to YouTube Premium. Otherwise, the Jump Ahead feature is currently being tested with a small group of YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. There's no word as to when the feature could roll out more widely.

Previously, YouTube introduced similar functionality in the form of a graph integrated into a video's progress bar that shows you the "most replayed" parts of that video. Initially, the most replayed feature was similarly exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers, so there's always a chance that, if proven popular and effective, Jump Ahead could become an all-access option in the future. Last year, the company also tested, then removed, then reintroduced the option to watch any video in double speed by pressing and holding on the video player from within the YouTube app.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Les IA savent faire les meilleures bières

Par : Sylvain Biget, Journaliste — 28 mars 2024 à 19:07
L’IA a aussi du palais. Des chercheurs de la KU Leuven, en Belgique, ont développé un modèle d’apprentissage automatique qui peut générer des arômes de bière plus attrayants pour les consommateurs. L’IA sait prédire la saveur et l’appréciation du consommateur à partir de la seule composition...

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Five Situations You Should Be Using a Contract (and How to Make One)

Par : Jeff Somers — 28 mars 2024 à 19:00

If you stop to think about it, society is pretty fragile. A lot of it’s just agreements between total strangers to do certain things in certain ways all the way down, and if enough people stopped honoring those agreements, everything would collapse pretty fast. Most of those agreements are unwritten and unspoken—like not playing the bongos at 3 a.m. while your neighbors are sleeping—but many are enshrined in a written contract. And we should all be using contracts more in our lives, because they remove uncertainty.

A contract is just a legally binding agreement between two or more parties that sets out the terms of an agreement. You don’t need to be a lawyer (or hire a lawyer) to write one, and they can protect you and the other party in a variety of ways. Any time you enter into an agreement that involves money or property, you should have at least a simple contract in place to make sure things go smoothly—because if they don’t and you need to take someone to court (even small claims court), having a contract will significantly strengthen your position and improve the odds of things going your way.

Contract basics

First, you have to know a few basic things about writing a contract. You don’t need fancy language, formatting, or specific legal terms in there, but the contract does have to include a few basics to be considered legally enforceable:

  • Consideration. There has to be an exchange of value, like when you pay someone to perform a service for you.

  • Clear acceptance. What’s being offered (e.g., a fee and a service) has to be very clear, as does the other party’s acceptance of the terms.

  • Legality. A contract that has illegal terms can’t be enforced, so forget about legally binding someone to commit crimes for your benefit.

  • Capability. Both parties in the contract have to be competent, of legal adult age, and capable of understanding what they’re agreeing to.

  • Mutuality. Everyone has to agree that they are, in fact, entering into a contract and agree to be bound by its provisions. In other words, you can’t trick someone into signing a contract.

Contracts don’t have to be lengthy, but they do have to be clear—any confusing wording or imprecise terminology may come back to haunt you. There are a lot of free downloadable contract templates out there, however, which you can either use as-is or alter to your needs. And if you have any doubts about your ability to craft a contract, you can always pay a lawyer to either write one for you or review one you’ve created yourself.

So, you can write a simple contract for just about anything. When should you?

When it makes sense to use a contract

Roommates

If you’re taking on a roommate—especially if it’s an informal arrangement in a property you own—you should consider preparing a contract that spells out how the arrangement will work. As anyone who has ever had a roommate will tell you, getting the rent or mortgage split out of them is just one battle. There’s kicking in for shared utility bills, discovering that your new roommate considers washing dishes to be an extremely optional activity, and waking up one day to find out your roommate has taken in a roommate of their own to split their half of the rent. This applies to both randos you lure to your home via an advertisement and friends, family, or even a partner, because defining financial responsibilities is a lot healthier than simmering in resentment towards people you love.

A contract can spell all of this out—how the money, chores, and lifestyle considerations will be handled. Plus, a contract can avoid awkward conversations by spelling out who gets the bigger bedroom, whether or not pets are allowed, and how you’ll handle it if your roommate needs to move out before the end of the agreement. The chances you will need to legally enforce a contract like this are relatively small (there are a lot of better options for handling bad roommates), but if things really degenerate and your roommate owes you a lot of back rent or causes other problems, having something in writing will be very helpful.

Loans

It’s always kind of awkward when a friend or relative asks for a loan. If you’re willing to help someone out with a personal loan, you should definitely have a loan contract created. For one thing, people sometimes have very short memories when it comes to their emphatic pledges to pay a loan back. For another, money has a way of distorting our memory and perception of events, so a contract can make the terms of the loan very clear.

Again, this doesn’t have to be complicated. A loan contract should state who the borrower and lender are, how much is being loaned, interest charged (if any), and the repayment terms, including a deadline for completely paying back the loan. Crucially, it should also include a provision for what happens if the borrower doesn’t pay it back. Do you get their baseball card collection? Do you charge a penalty? Do you get a specific number of Thanksgiving Day slaps? Putting this in writing will spare you a lot of stress if things go south.

Borrowed stuff

If someone wants to borrow your expensive stuff—or you want to borrow someone else’s stuff—a contract is a must. Whether it’s your vehicle, expensive power tools, or anything else, a contract protects your property by having the borrower assert that it is in undamaged condition when they take possession of it, by defining how it will be used and for how long, and clarifying that the borrower is responsible for any damage, tickets, or other problems stemming from their use of the property. A contract can also clarify that if they nail their hand to their thigh using your nail gun, you’re not responsible for their medical costs, and if they let your car roll down a hill because they forgot to set the parking brake they have to pay for repairs or replacement.

Pet- or house-sitting

Having a pet is a huge comfort—and a huge responsibility. When we have to leave our pets while we go on vacation or business trips, it’s pretty common to have someone check on them, feed them, and interact with them. And if you don’t have pets, having someone check on or even live in your home while you’re gone can offer a sense of security. You can hire professional house- and pet-sitting services for this, of course, but a lot of folks will just ask a friend to check up on their home and/or pets—or hire someone directly.

To make sure your home and beloved animals are properly cared for, a contract can help define all the expectations on both sides. From how often the sitter will check on the animals to their specific responsibilities (do the animals need medications? do you want music played during the day, or windows opened for them?) to the payment terms, whether a house-sitter can have guests, or how emergencies will be handled (including veterinarian bills incurred while you’re away), a contract will remove any uncertainty concerning how your animals should be cared for.

Handyman projects

Ah, the handyman and handywoman—an essential figure in home maintenance. Ideal for projects too small for a contractor but too complex for a homeowner lacking the right skill set, handypeople are often hired informally, and agreements are often handshake and cash in nature. The problem, of course, is that a handyperson is still in your home messing with essential stuff, and things can go wrong. A handyperson contract can lay out the scope of work, ensure there’s no confusion about how much you’ve agreed to pay them, clarify who’s responsible for buying materials, and make it clear they’re an independent contractor and you have no responsibility for their insurance.

Anything else

If you’re entering into an agreement with someone but you don’t have the specifics worked out quite yet, but want to nail things down a bit, you can craft a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This document is not a contract, and isn’t necessarily legally enforceable. But it’s useful if you’re negotiating because it lays out what both parties understand about the deal, and can be referred to when the actual contract is being composed. This way if someone tries to Darth Vader that deal by altering the terms you’ll have something in writing to fall back on. For example, if someone is negotiating to buy a big-ticket item from you (like a used car) but they need to secure financing, you can draw up an MOU that outlines the price you’ve agreed on and defines how long you’ll wait before you look for other buyers.

A contract might seem like a lot of trouble for small or friendly arrangements, but they don’t take long to put together and can save you a lot of heartburn if those arrangements turn wonky.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

The Pixel 8 Is Getting Gemini Nano AI Features After All

Par : Joshua Hawkins — 28 mars 2024 à 18:00

After citing "hardware limitations" as the main reason why Google's Gemini Nano wouldn't come to the cheaper Pixel 8, the tech giant seems to have found a way to make it work after all.

According to reports from TechCrunch, Google has announced plans to roll out on-device AI features such as recording summaries and smart replies to the Pixel 8. These features have previously been locked to the Pixel 8 Pro, as Google said it had no plans to bring those Nano-powered features to the base Pixel 8 due to differences in the hardware.

For the most part, Google has mostly relied on AI-powered features that rely on the cloud. But now that the company is bringing its features to work on-device, it's (hopefully) going to open a lot of doors for faster processing and response times.

It is interesting to see Google going back on its claims that Nano-powered features wouldn't run on the Pixel 8. It's very likely that the company didn't see a way to make it work on the lower amount of RAM that the Pixel 8 sports—it offers only 8GB of RAM compared to the 12GB of RAM found in the Pixel 8 Pro. However, after some "testing and validation," the company is ready to push it out to the Pixel 8 in the latest Android developer build.

This is good news for Pixel 8 owners, as Google will hopefully continue to bring new Nano-powered features to the base Pixel 8 series device. And, if the company can get the AI to work on that base model, it might also be able to get some things to work on the upcoming Pixel 8a, which is rumored to contain very similar specs to the mainline Pixel 8 series.

There was, of course, a lot of uproar when Google said the Pixel 8 wouldn't offer Nano-powered features. Most notably, the "hardware limitations" reasoning given made it seem like a ploy to push more Pixel 8 Pro sales on consumers.

However, with Samsung bringing Galaxy AI features to older Galaxy devices, it makes no sense for Google to claim such issues, especially since many of the same features found in Samsung's phones rely on Google's AI development to run.

No real release date for the AI features has been given, though Google has said it will begin testing them in the next PIxel 8 developer build.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Cette sonde spatiale a déjà découvert 5 000 comètes en observant le Soleil

Par : Morgane Gillard, Rédactrice — 28 mars 2024 à 18:31
Depuis 1996, le satellite SoHO observe le Soleil. Les données qui ne cessent de s’accumuler nous permettent ainsi de mieux comprendre la structure interne de notre Étoile, ainsi que les processus à l’origine du vent solaire et de la couronne. Mais ce n’est pas tout ! Car depuis sa position...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Bluffant : cette intelligence artificielle parle de vive voix et réagit à vos émotions

Par : Edward Back, Journaliste hi-tech — 28 mars 2024 à 18:03
Hume vient de dévoiler Evi, sa nouvelle IA dotée d’une intelligence émotionnelle qui détecte vos émotions et y répond. Sa capacité à tenir une conversation de manière naturelle de vive voix est bluffante.

☐ ☆ ✇ National Geographic

Mory Sacko, porteur d'une cuisine "qui n’existe nulle part ailleurs"

Par : National Geographic — 28 mars 2024 à 17:52

Mory Sacko a banni le mot « fusion » de son vocabulaire. « Nous ne mélangeons pas les gastronomies, il s’agit plutôt d’un dialogue entre différentes cultures », explique-t-il à propos de MoSuke, son premier restaurant qui a ouvert ses portes à Paris en 2020. Les cuisines française, africaine et japonaise y sont au menu et chaque plat est une œuvre d’art à trois volets avec ses propres ingrédients, saveurs et textures.  

« C’est une cuisine qui n’existe nulle part ailleurs, parce qu’à travers elle, je raconte ma propre histoire », poursuit Mory Sacko. Cette dernière, il l’illustre également avec sa tenue. Au travail, il porte la veste de cuisine blanche dont sont traditionnellement vêtus les chefs mais il a fait personnaliser celle-ci : elle est ornée de tissu wax africain et, au lieu d’un double boutonnage classique, elle enveloppe son corps comme un kimono japonais.

Mory Sacko est le premier d’une fratrie de huit enfants nés en France. Son père, d’origine malienne, travaillait dans le bâtiment, tandis que sa mère, élevée au Sénégal, était femme de ménage. Il a grandi en Seine-et-Marne, dans la banlieue parisienne. Ses parents parlaient deux langues à la maison, le soninké et le bambara, et cuisinaient essentiellement des plats d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Parallèlement, le jeune Mory Sacko a nourri une passion pour les mangas et les animés japonais. Des bols de ramen et des onigiris étaient constamment consommés dans les œuvres comme Naruto, Pokémon et One Piece, et il ne pouvait s’empêcher de se demander si les plats de ces programmes diffusés à la télévision étaient aussi bons dans la vraie vie qu’ils le semblaient à l’écran. 

Au milieu de son adolescence, Mory Sacko s’est inscrit dans un établissement d’enseignement secondaire spécialisé dans l’hôtellerie et la restauration, avant de commencer sa carrière en cuisine. C’est en travaillant avec le chef Hans Zahner dans un restaurant de l’hôtel cinq étoiles le Royal Monceau – Raffles Paris, et en étant mis au défi de créer un nouveau plat, qu’une étincelle s’est animée en lui et qu’il a vraiment pris goût à la cuisine. « J’ai commencé à penser à la gastronomie et à m’endormir en imaginant des plats », raconte-t-il.

Inspiré par sa passion d’enfance pour le Japon, il a commencé à faire des expérimentations avec des ingrédients tels que le miso, le yuzu et le shichimi togarashi, un mélange d’épices, en complément de sa formation en cuisine française classique. Il a également puisé dans son héritage africain en tentant à plusieurs reprises, en vain, de recréer le mafé, un ragoût à base d’arachides, de sa mère. « Je me suis dit : "au lieu de rechercher cette saveur spécifique, crée ta propre recette" », se souvient-il. Mory Sacko a donc décidé d’utiliser de la pâte miso pour épicer, ce qui a permis de réinventer ce plat typique, conservant ainsi le côté réconfortant du mafé tout en l’alliant à la complexité de l’umami, la cinquième saveur japonaise. 

Désireux de consacrer plus de temps à l’expérimentation et au développement de son propre style de cuisine, Mory Sacko a ouvert MoSuke. Le nom du restaurant est une combinaison de son prénom et de Yasuke, un Africain du 16ᵉ siècle, probablement originaire du Mozambique, qui a échappé à l’esclavage en devenant samouraï dans le Japon féodal. Yasuke est estimé comme avoir été le seul samouraï noir de l’histoire. Mory Sacko a voulu intégrer ce récit historique à l’âme de son établissement pour symboliser le rapprochement des cultures africaine et japonaise. Cette vision s’est avérée très populaire : les tables sont prises d’assaut dès que les réservations sont ouvertes, des mois à l’avance.

Mory Sacko fait partie d’une nouvelle génération qui introduit la diversité culturelle dans la gastronomie française. Il est l’un des rares chefs de couleur à être sous les feux des projecteurs en France. Il a participé à l’édition 2020 de Top Chef et anime sur France 3 sa propre émission de cuisine, Cuisine ouverte. En 2022, lorsqu’il a fallu sélectionner le chef qui cuisinerait pour le président Emmanuel Macron lors d’un Sommet Afrique-France, c’est Mory Sacko qui a été choisi. 

Toute la reconnaissance qui lui est aujourd’hui montrée est bien loin de l’image que donnait la scène gastronomique française à ses débuts, lorsqu’il cherchait en vain des chefs à la peau noire comme modèles. « S’il y a une chose que je peux faire, c’est inspirer les autres et montrer qu’être un chef noir et viser une étoile Michelin n’est pas quelque chose d’extraordinaire », déclare-t-il. Le restaurant de Mory Sacko a reçu son étoile en 2021. Aujourd’hui, le chef est inspiré par ses confrères noirs tels que Marcel Ravin, dont le restaurant Blue Bay de Monte-Carlo a reçu la première de ses deux étoiles Michelin en 2015, ou encore son amie Georgiana Viou, dont le restaurant Rouge de Nîmes en a reçu une au début de l’année.

Outre la promotion de la diversité raciale, Mory Sacko s’engage également en faveur du développement durable. « Si nous voulons continuer à exercer ce métier dans les trente prochaines années, nous devons trouver des solutions », affirme-t-il. Si Mory Sacko tire son inspiration d’autres continents, celui-ci tient néanmoins à importer le moins d’ingrédients possible. Il expérimente par exemple la fabrication de son propre miso, plutôt que de le commander au Japon. Au lieu d’utiliser le traditionnel koji de haricots, son équipe travaille sur la fermentation de niébés, originaires d’Afrique. Le processus dure deux mois et fournira au restaurant suffisamment de miso pour un an. Pour les agrumes japonais tels que le yuzu et le sudachi, Mory Sacko travaille avec un agriculteur situé aux alentours de Carcassonne. Lorsque certains produits doivent être importés, il s’assure que ceux-ci sont de saison et conservés de manière à durer le plus longtemps possible. C’est le cas des piments de Côte d’Ivoire, qui sont séchés, puis fermentés.

Bien qu’il soit à la tête d’un établissement gastronomique et qu’il ait même été accueilli en résidence au restaurant de la marque de luxe Louis Vuitton à Saint-Tropez l’été dernier, Mory Sacko tient à ce que sa cuisine soit aussi accessible que possible. « Il y a vingt ans, les restaurants étoilés étaient réservés à une élite. Aujourd’hui, la bonne cuisine se partage beaucoup plus facilement », explique-t-il. « Les réseaux sociaux ont démocratisé la gastronomie. »

En effet, certains de ses followers l’ont contacté pour lui dire qu’ils désiraient goûter sa cuisine mais qu’ils n’avaient pas les moyens d’aller dîner chez MoSuke. C’est ce qui l’a incité à lancer MOSUGO, un restaurant qui propose de la street food et pour lequel des pop-up stores ont également vu le jour dans tout Paris. Le concept consiste à réimaginer de manière gastronomique la nourriture classique de fast food, comme un hamburger au poulet frit avec de la mayonnaise au miso, des pickles de concombre et de l’emmental. « Je ne veux pas être perçu comme un chef gastronomique perché dans sa tour d’ivoire proposant un menu à 200 euros », déclare Mory Sacko. « Je veux que ma cuisine soit accessible au plus grand nombre, pour que tout le monde puisse y goûter. »

Cet automne, le chef a ouvert un nouveau restaurant au centre de Paris, le Lafayette’s, qui sert des plats d’inspiration française et américaine dans un décor de brasserie. Dans le même temps, il continue à cuisiner au MoSuke, fermant même l’établissement lorsqu’il est absent. Malgré un dévouement évident à son métier, il se détache de ses plats une fois ceux-ci présentés à ses clients. « Dès que le plat est servi, il ne m’appartient plus », en convient-il. « Il appartient au client, qui y trouvera ce qui résonnera en lui. »

Cet article a initialement paru dans le magazine National Geographic Traveller en langue anglaise.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

There’s a New King of the Chatbots, and It’s Not ChatGPT

Par : Jake Peterson — 28 mars 2024 à 17:30

If you asked the general public what the best AI model was, chances are good most people would respond with ChatGPT. While there are many players on the scene in 2024, OpenAI's LLM is the one that really broke through and introduced powerful generative AI to the masses. And as it would happen, ChatGPT's Large Language Model (LLM), GPT, has consistently ranked as the top performer among its peers, from the introduction of GPT-3.5, to GPT-4, and currently, GPT-4 Turbo.

But the tide seems to be turning: This week, Claude 3 Opus, Anthropic's LLM, overtook GPT-4 on Chatbot Arena for the first time, prompting app developer Nick Dobos to declare, "The king is dead." If you check the leaderboard as of the time of this writing, Claude still has the edge over GPT: Claude 3 Opus has an Arena Elo ranking of 1253, while GPT-4-1106-preview has a ranking of 1251, followed closely by GPT-4-0125-preview, with a ranking of 1248.

For what's it's worth, Chatbot Arena ranks all three of these LLMs in first place, but Claude 3 Opus does have the slight advantage.

Anthropic's other LLMs are performing well, too. Claude 3 Sonnet ranks fifth on the list, just below Google's Gemini Pro (both are ranked in fourth place), while Claude 3 Haiku, Anthropic's lower-end LLM for efficient processing, ranks just below a version 0613 of GPT-4, but just above version 0613 of GPT-4.

How Chatbot Arena ranks LLMs

To rank the various LLMs that currently available, Chatbot Arena asks users to enter a prompt and judge how two different, unnamed models respond. Users can continue chatting to evaluate the difference between the two, until they decide on which model they think performed better. Users don't know which models they're comparing (you could be pitting Claude vs. ChatGPT, Gemini vs. Meta's Llama, etc.), which eliminates any bias due to brand preference.

Unlike other types of benchmarking, however, there is no true rubric for users to rate their anonymous models against. Users can simply decide for themselves which LLM performs better, based on whatever metrics they themselves care about. As AI researcher Simon Willison tells Ars Technica, much of what makes LLMs perform better in the eyes of users is more about "vibes" than anything else. If you like the way Claude responds more than ChatGPT, that's all that really matters.

Above all, it's a testament to how powerful these LLMs have become. If you offered this same test years ago, you would likely be looking for more standardized data to identify which LLM was stronger, whether that was speed, accuracy, or coherence. Now, Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini are getting so good, they're almost interchangeable, at least as far as general generative AI use goes.

While it's impressive that Claude has surpassed OpenAI's LLM for the first time, it's arguably more impressive that GPT-4 held out this long. The LLM itself is a year old, minus iterative updates like GPT-4 Turbo, while Claude 3 launched this month. Who knows what will happen when OpenAI rolls out GPT-5, which, at least according to one anonymous CEO, is, "...really good, like materially better." For now, there are multiple generative AI models, each just about as effective as each other.

Chatbot Arena has amassed over 400,000 human votes to rank these LLMs. You can try out the test for yourself and add your voice to the rankings.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

La Nasa dévoile les instruments qui iront sur la Lune et sème la première graine d’une agriculture lunaire

Par : Rémy Decourt, Journaliste — 28 mars 2024 à 17:23
La Nasa, toujours convaincue qu'Artemis III se posera sur la Lune fin 2026, vient tout juste de révéler les premiers instruments qui seront utilisés par les astronautes lors de cette mission historique, plus de 50 ans après Apollo 17. 

☐ ☆ ✇ National Geographic

Suède : ce train de nuit vous emmènera tout droit aux aurores boréales

Par : National Geographic — 28 mars 2024 à 16:36

Les voyageurs qui prennent le train de 17 heures reliant Stockholm à Abisko ont un objectif commun : voir des aurores boréales. Cette petite ville, située à 250 kilomètres au nord du cercle polaire arctique, est l'une des localités les plus septentrionales d'Europe, au ciel particulièrement dégagé, ce qui en fait une destinaion de choix pour les chasseurs d'aurores. Le microclimat unique du village produit un phénomène de « trou bleu », des courants-jets dégageant le ciel et augmentant les chances d'observer des aurores.

Installée dans mon siège côté fenêtre, je plonge mon regard dans l'obscurité. Les amateurs d'aurores boréales ont tout intérêt à se rendre à Abisko. En 2024, les experts affirment que l'activité solaire atteindra un pic (appelé « maximum solaire ») qui se produit tous les onze ans environ.

« Quand l'activité solaire est forte, les aurores envahissent le ciel nocturne, un véritable kaléidoscope de couleurs en perpétuel mouvement », décrit l'astronome John Mason

 

LUMIÈRE NATURELLE

Le train part de Stockholm à 18 heures tous les jours et arrive au petit matin, quand une douce lumière rose enveloppe les plaines enneigées de Sápmi, le territoire traditionnel du peuple sami, qui englobe le nord de la Norvège, la Suède, la Finlande et la péninsule de Kola, en Russie.

Quelques tour-opérateurs organisent des excursions de jour à partir d'Abisko, notamment pour la pêche et l'escalade sur glace, des expériences culturelles samies, l'observation des élans et des excursions photographiques dans les fjords norvégiens avoisinants.

Mais les activités proposées ne s'arrêtent pas là. La nuit, vous pouvez observer la Voie lactée et tous les autres phénomènes célestes depuis la fenêtre de votre hôtel ou vous rendre dans des zones reculées du village, comme la jetée du lac Torneträsk, pour une visite guidée. « Nous n'avons pas beaucoup de pollution lumineuse », explique Niklas Hjort, directeur de l'Abisko Mountain Lodge. « Il vous suffit d'ouvrir la porte et de regarder dehors pour voir les aurores boréales. »

En passant la porte de mon hôtel, elles étaient bien là, tels des rubans verts iridescents.

Chad Blakley, fondateur de Lights Over Lapland, explique que le phénomène du trou bleu distingue le village des autres destinations où l'on peut observer des aurores. « Le ciel d'Abisko est l'un des plus clairs de la planète », explique-t-il. 

Ce petit trou bleu quasi permanent crée un effet coupe-vent, les montagnes dispersant la couche nuageuse pour offrir des nuits claires à la ville située en contrebas. En l'absence de couverture nuageuse, il y a 88 % de chances de voir une aurore boréale lors d'une visite de trois jours à Abisko.

« C'est un exemple de ce que l'on appelle un microclimat, un ensemble de conditions atmosphériques localisées qui diffèrent de celles de la région environnante et créent un modèle météorologique propre à cet endroit », explique John Mason. « Le parc national d'Abisko, dans le nord de la Suède, bénéficie de nuits plus claires que la plupart des autres endroits situés dans l'ovale auroral nord. » Les visiteurs du parc peuvent observer le jeu de lumières au-dessus de la vallée d'Abisko et du lac Torneträsk depuis la grande terrasse extérieure de l'Aurora Sky Station (à environ 900 mètres au-dessus du niveau de la mer).

Ceci étant, la meilleure façon de voir les aurores est sans doute de prendre le train de retour vers Stockholm. À peine une trentaine de minutes se sont écoulées que déjà une annonce retentit dans les haut-parleurs du train : « Chers passagers, si vous observez le paysage par les fenêtres de droite, vous verrez de magnifiques aurores boréales ». La poignée de touristes présents dans le wagon se précipite près des fenêtres, pour assister à ce spectacle qui devait durer plusieurs heures.

Eibhlis Gale-Coleman est une journaliste de voyage indépendante originaire du Royaume-Uni. Suivez-la sur Instagram.

Cet article a initialement paru sur le site nationalgeographic.com en langue anglaise.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

What to Do If Your Neighbor’s Tree Hangs Over Your Property

Par : Jeff Somers — 28 mars 2024 à 16:30

Sometimes it seems like living in a society would be much better if we didn’t have to deal with all these other people all the time. If you own a home, you know that your neighbors are both one of life’s great blessings and often the biggest pain in your ass. On the one hand, sometimes you wake up and they’ve shoveled the snow from your sidewalk, and when you go on vacation they check on your cat! On the other hand, things can get really tense when disputes crop up unexpectedly—like when your neighbor’s tree hangs over your fence.

At first glance this might not seem like a big deal, but those overhanging branches can cause problems. They mess up your property by dumping leaves everywhere; they can scrape your roof shingles, smack into windows during high winds, and get tangled in power lines. Underground, the tree's roots could be worming into your sewer and water lines. That tree might be pretty, and you might enjoy its borrowed shade on sunny days, but if it starts to be a problem, what can you do?

Tree law

America is not so much a large country as a collection of tiny countries standing on each other’s shoulders wearing a trenchcoat, so the laws governing trees and property will vary from state to state—you’ll have to do some local research if you’ve got a situation brewing with a neighbor’s tree. That said, there are three things that are almost certainly true about your neighbor’s tree:

  • It has value. Sure, it’s a tree, and apparently grows for free out of the ground as if by elven magic. But a tree on your neighbor’s property has monetary value. For one thing, your neighbor may have paid for the tree and had it planted. Then there are other benefits, like the carbon dioxide offset of that tree, the cooling effect of its shade, or fruit that it provides. The USDA Forest Service offers a free calculator that estimates the economic benefits of a tree, which isn’t definitive but gives you some idea of how someone might define its value.

  • It’s your neighbor’s property. If the tree’s trunk is entirely on your neighbor’s property, no matter how much it overhangs yours, it belongs to them just like anything else in their yard. If the trunk straddles or crosses the property line, it’s probably considered a boundary tree—community property. That means that you have as much say and responsibility for it as your neighbor, but you still can’t unilaterally make decisions about it.

  • You have the right to defend your property. If the tree’s branches cross the property line, you have the right to trim them, especially if they threaten to damage anything. But you can’t go past your property line under any circumstances.

That last bit might make this all seem very clear and simple: If the tree is causing havoc on your side of the fence, get out there and cut it back to the property line. While you have the right to do that, you should think twice for one simple reason: If you touch your neighbor’s tree and damage it, destroy its aesthetic value, or kill it outright, you could be held liable for the loss and the cost of treating or replacing it. This can run to the thousands of dollars—especially if it’s an expensive ornamental tree that’s part of a cohesive landscaping design.

How to trim

So you have to be careful if your neighbor’s tree is invading and needs trimming. Here’s your best approach:

  • Talk to your neighbor. That liability goes both ways: Since the tree is your neighbor’s property, if it damages your property you can hold them liable. Approach your neighbor and ask if they’ll help trim the tree or grant explicit permission to do the work on your side, releasing you from liability—they might be incentivized to do so if the tree is causing damage. If it’s a boundary tree, you’ll need to negotiate with your neighbor anyway to get anything done.

  • Call the power company. If the offending tree is near power lines, you can probably call your local utility and schedule a free tree trimming. Most utilities have arborists on staff, and they are more than happy to clear branches away from power lines to avoid damage. That being said, keep in mind that the utility may trim more aggressively than you want. Also, keep in mind that once alerted to trees near power lines on your (or your neighbor’s property), the utility can come and trim them any time they want without your permission. Electric utilities have an easement on all private property to allow them access for maintenance and repair.

  • Hire a professional. The more you distance yourself from the tree trimming, the less likely you’ll run into trouble. You’ll want a company that has a certified arborist on staff, because trees are living things and they come in a wide variety of species. An arborist can identify the tree and prescribe the right way to trim it without damaging it or leaving it vulnerable to disease.

A tree growing right by your property line offers a lot of free benefits—but also free problems. If the latter is starting to outweigh the former, be careful—trimming your neighbor’s tree can open up a can of worms.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Un énorme cratère d'impact vieux de 7 000 ans découvert en Inde !

Par : Morgane Gillard, Rédactrice — 28 mars 2024 à 16:28
Une nouvelle étude confirme que la structure de Luna, en Inde, serait bien liée à la chute d’une météorite il y a près de 7 000 ans. Il pourrait ainsi s’agir du plus grand cratère d’impact des 10 000 dernières années.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Use the 6/10 List to Take the Stress Out of Cleaning

Par : Lindsey Ellefson — 28 mars 2024 à 16:00

Making a to-do list is a major step in being productive in any area of your life, from your personal pursuits to your work responsibilities, but when it comes to cleaning your home, you may not think to make one—let alone realize that some kinds of lists are better than others. You should definitely have an attack strategy before you start tidying up, which is why the 6/10 List is such a useful tool for busy people who still want their personal space to look nice.

What is the 6/10 List?

This cleaning method comes from Organized Chaos, which guides people through organizing, cleaning, meal planning, and more. The brand’s TikTok has over 800,000 followers and its video on the 6/10 List has over 3 million views, so it’s CleanTok-approved.

Basically, this method acknowledges and leaves space for the fact that you’re busy and cleaning is overwhelming. It provides an easy framework for how you should schedule and prioritize your cleaning tasks, taking the work out of figuring that out yourself and divvying the tasks across multiple days. 

The list is split into two main categories: “The Daily 6” and “The Weekly 10.” 

The Daily 6 are, roughly, these:

  1. Make beds

  2. Wash dishes

  3. Scrub sink

  4. Wipe counters

  5. Vacuum floors

  6. One load of laundry

The Weekly 10 are generally these:

  1. Wipe out fridge

  2. Wipe out microwave

  3. Tidy pantry

  4. Mop floors

  5. Clean bathrooms

  6. Clean sink drains

  7. Dust furniture

  8. Wash bedding

  9. Tidy car

  10. Clean pets’ bowls

Beyond that, there’s space for monthly tasks (scrubbing showers, deep cleaning appliances, cleaning out the garage, and vacuuming vehicles) and quarterly ones (wiping baseboards and doors, cleaning fans and lights, cleaning windows, cleaning furniture, changing your air filter, wiping down cabinets). 

How to use the 6/10 List

According to Organized Chaos, you can start small by choosing three of the six daily tasks to work on every day, then build your way up to tackling more. Those are the most necessary, basic cleaning steps that will keep your house looking nice, so it’s key to get in the habit of doing them every day. Of course, there are all kinds of other little tasks you could do on top of those—but like the 1-3-5 method of creating a to-do list, this recognizes that there really is a finite amount of things you have energy for in the day, so you should choose which ones you take on strategically. (And don’t forget the Pareto Principle, which says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort, so don’t waste your time on unnecessary tasks.)

The weekly tasks can—and should—be spaced out across the week so you don’t get overwhelmed. Once you get the hang of getting the daily and weekly chores done, reevaluate how using the list is going and feel free to swap out some tasks that might make more sense for your space. You might not have pet bowls to clean weekly, for instance, so something more specific to your life can fill that slot. The goal here isn’t to clean exactly as someone else prescribes, but to build timely habits that you can maintain and which will take the stress off of figuring out what you should even focus on in a given day. 

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Une vue à couper le souffle sur Mars pour fêter les 25 000 orbites de la sonde Mars Express

Par : Morgane Gillard, Rédactrice — 28 mars 2024 à 15:57
Voilà de quoi donner le tournis ! Depuis qu’elle s’est positionnée autour de Mars en 2003, la sonde Mars Express a accompli plus de 25 000 orbites, les yeux toujours rivés sur la surface de la Planète rouge. Et le compteur continue de tourner, pour notre plus grand plaisir et celui, surtout, des...

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

You Can Get This 4K Dual-Camera Drone on Sale for $75 Right Now

Par : StackCommerce — 28 mars 2024 à 15:30

You can get this dual-HD-camera drone on sale for $74.99 right now (reg. $129.99). It's a budget drone that is excellent for beginners who want to experiment with flying: it has one-key takeoff and landing, altitude hold mode, and four-channel movement with a rolling 360-degree function. You can pair with your smartphone to take pictures and videos or see a real-time feed through the drone's two 1080p cameras; the front with 90-degree views and the bottom with 120-degree views. It also comes with four spare blades and two batteries for 26 total minutes of flying time.

You can get this dual-HD-camera drone on sale for $74.99 right now (reg. $129.99), though prices can change at any time.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

25 of the Best Anime Movies Streaming

Par : Ross Johnson — 28 mars 2024 à 15:30

Anime, a category of animation that goes back at least to 1958's The Tale of the White Serpent, has nothing to prove at this point—though non-Japanese audiences are sometimes still surprised by the variety and depth of the films it encompasses, which are generally a lot broader and more varied than American animation (still mostly thought of as just kids' stuff).

The word "anime" is just a form of a Japanese word referring to animation, and, though Japanese filmmakers have excelled in crafting animated films for decades, it's often taken to represent a particular and specific style or genre. Not so: Movies like Ghost in the Shell, The Red Turtle, Weathering with You, and Howl's Moving Castle have very little in common other than their statuses as cinematic classics at large, and their brilliant, usually hand-drawn animation.

Many of the best anime movies streaming will be familiar to animation fans, but for newcomers, any of them would be a great place to dive into the broad world of anime.

Your Name (2016)

Country girl Mitsuha begins mysterious trading bodies with Taki, a boy from Tokyo, and the two slowly come to understand each other and their separate lives. Gut-punching revelations in the second act take what begins as a coming-of-age rom-com into deeper science-fictional waters, the film revealing itself to have far more on its mind that a metaphysical meet-cute. Director Makoto Shinkai (Weathering with You) and the animators brilliantly play with light, giving some of the movie's real-life locations stunning glow-ups. Never has a body-swap story been this gorgeously rendered, and the film holds a well-earned place near the top of all-time anime box office champs.

Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Crunchyroll


Roujin Z (1991)

This wild ride from Hiroyuki Kitakubo, one of the animators of Akira, takes place in the near future—which, because this was made way back in 1991, happens to be the early 21st century. An 87-year-old widower named Kijuro Takazawa is the first test subject for an experimental robotic hospital bed designed to take care of all of a patient’s needs. But then the bed begins transmitting his thoughts, and things get more dramatic from there (if you think this story of a dying man and future healthcare couldn’t possibly turn into a mecha anime, you’re mistaken). For all the wild plot developments, there’s some smart commentary about our eagerness to ignore the needs of the elderly, and the ways in which even “humane” technological advancements can be dehumanizing.

Where to stream: YouTube


Akira (1988)

This is one that everyone's heard of, and with good reason: its wildly kinetic animation and its highly detailed cityscape set a new standard for anime—writer/director Katsuhiro Otomo and company gave birth to a new animated world with this movie, and we're still living in it. Set in a dystopian 2019 (well, differently dystopian than our 2019), the cyberpunk classic finds biker Kaneda forced to face down his friend Tetsuo after the latter gains telekinetic abilities in an accident. Akira is more than just its action, and it's dense enough that it can be hard to follow for the uninitiated—but it's a movie that keeps going bigger with every scene.

Where to stream: Hulu, Crunchyroll, Funimation


The Red Turtle (2016)

This Studio Ghibli production is, technically, a Japanese and French co-production with a Dutch director—pushing, perhaps, the definition of anime just a bit (globally, we tend to use the term for animation explicitly from Japan). But we're not here to nitpick, especially over something this lovely and moving. The dialogue-free film tells the story of a man who becomes trapped on a desert island with only a giant turtle for companionship, and it turns out the turtle is guarding a secret that changes the man's life. What starts as a survival tale takes on deeper resonance as their bond grows in this powerful emotional journey.

Where to stream: Starz


Paprika (2006)

Dr. Atsuko Chiba and her colleagues are working on a therapeutic tool, a device that allows for the sharing of dreams. She's a scientist by day, and, as her titular alter ego Paprika, a dream detective by night, venturing into dreams to help her psychiatric patients. The device she's using can shatter minds when in the wrong hands and so, when it is stolen, she knows it must be recovered. Satoshi Kon’s mind-bending masterpiece was a clear inspiration for Christopher Nolan's Inception, playing as it does with layers of emotion and reality without ever leaving its audience feeling disoriented.

Well, maybe a little bit disoriented. You'll definitely get a little lost now and again, but it's worth the ride.

Where to stream: Tubi


Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)

This one might be tough sell for the uninitiated, given that it's the twentieth Dragon Ball film—and that's without even mentioning the multiple TV series (nor, of course, the long-running manga). Still, as an entry to the series, you could do a lot worse than this wildly action-packed entry, which is probably the best of the films. Series leads Goku and Vegeta encounter exiled and incredibly powerful Saiyan fighter named Broly, leading to some typically colorful chaos. The sensitive and out-of-control Broly is a genuinely tragic antagonist, and the emotional stakes place this one a bit above the Dragon Ball average.

Where to stream: Crunchyroll


Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Roughly inspired by John Ford’s 1948 3 Godfathers, this one opens on a drag queen, a teenage runaway, and a good-hearted middle-aged alcoholic living on the streets of Tokyo. The odd companions come across a baby in a trash bin on Christmas Eve. With few clues to go on, the three spend the night searching the streets of Tokyo for the baby's parents. The moving adventure that follows comes from director Satoshi Kon, who also directed other classics on this list, including Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Paprika, in his too-short life and career (in 2010, he died from pancreatic cancer at just 46 years old).

Where to stream: Tubi, Hoopla, The Roku Channel


The Girl Who Leaped Through Time (2006)

Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1965 novel of the same name is often cited as an early (and popular) use of the now-familiar time loop narrative, and it’s been adapted multiple times in Japan. The best version (even the book's author loved it) is this 2006 anime from director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai), following 17-year-old Makoto Konno, who, following a bit of clumsiness that puts her in the path of an oncoming train, discovers that she has the ability to send herself backward in time. Quickly deducing that the use of the power for her own gain can have unexpected consequences, she begins deploying the power only for small and frivolous things. Which is fine, until she also realizes she can only use her power a finite number of times. Potentially tragic circumstances soon threaten to leave her powerless when she needs to alter time the most. Unlike some of the more mature or action-oriented films here, this one perfectly captures the vibe of shōjo manga, with its emphasis on its teen girl lead.

Where to stream: Crunchroll


Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)

For a newcomer, it can be deeply confusing trying to find an entry point into any of the Japanese mega-franchises. This one's an adaptation of the Street Fighter II Capcom game—but the movie, naturally, has a bit more plot than the fighter, and it's almost entirely standalone. There's not a lot of socially redeeming value here, nor emotional resonance...but the movie does offer exactly what's suggested by the title: sweet violence, with just enough character work to make the punches land a bit harder. The fight scenes are all impressively choreographed, and the ’90s animation style, while very '90s, holds up beautifully.

Where to stream: Prime Video


Mirai (2018)

Mirai feels ignored and abandoned when his new baby sister arrives, his feelings complicated by his father’s affectionate, yet emotionally awkward nature. But then Mirai wanders into a strange garden that transports him through time. He meets his mother as a child, and also his new baby sister as a grown-up. There's adventure to be found along the way, but the movie's real resonance comes in quiet, emotional moments, and from its sensitivity to the complications of growing up—both for us, and for the families that have to deal with us. It always helps to get a new perspective.

Where to stream: Digital rental


Redline (2009)

The plot is minimal, but that’s not in any way a disparagement: This gorgeously hand-drawn thrill ride is a work of art nonetheless. On a distant planet in an evocative future, the most popular race in the galaxy is set to begin. A daredevil driver is determined to compete, but before he has the chance, he’s got to overcome a criminal cartel, the police, and an army of robots. The movie tanked at the box office back in 2009, but quickly became a cult classic. It looks like nothing you've ever seen before.

Where to stream: Vudu


Ghost in the Shell (1995)

A legitimate cyberpunk mind-bender, Ghost in the Shell easily stands alongside spiritual cinematic siblings like Blade Runner or The Matrix (which it explicitly inspired). From director Mamoru Oshii and writer Kazunori Itō, the film finds cyborg security officer Motoko Kusanagi on the hunt for a seemingly invincible hacker. The case leads her to question not only her own identity as, essentially, a robot with a human mind—but also the very nature of reality itself. Along with Akira, this movie became a gateway to anime for an entire generation of American fans, and it holds up well.

Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi, Freevee


Demon Slayer—Kimetsu no Yaiba—The Movie: Mugen Train (2020)

A dark fantasy with some old-school shōnen style (albeit from a very R-rated point-of-view), Mugen Train picks up following the first season of the Demon Slayer series—that, and the excessive title, would seem to make it a tough recommendation, but it broke box office records in 2021 and became the highest-grossing anime of the year while scoring excellent reviews and winning awards. While there’s undoubtedly some extra resonance to be had when watching the movie in sequence, it works well on its own as the story of a tragic lead Tanjiro Kamado who board the titular train determined to save its passengers. The movie satisfyingly balances its stellar action sequences with some real emotional consequences.

Where to stream: Funimation, Crunchyroll


Only Yesterday (1991)

Though Only Yesterday was Japan’s highest-grossing film of 1991, it remains less well-known than many of its Studio Ghibli siblings, and that’s unfortunate. From director Isao Takahata (also the author of the criminally non-streaming Grave of the Fireflies), Only Yesterday follows 27-year-old Taeko Okajima, who works at a company in Tokyo but takes a train trip into the country side to visit relatives and escape from the hectic pace of the city. The journey conjures memories, both good and bad, of her past life, forcing her to reconcile her present with the life she left behind. It’s a lovely, melancholy take on life’s unexpected pathways.

Where to stream: Max


The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

Isao Takahata capped his career with this Academy Award-nominee based on the 1,000-year-old folktale known as "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter." The deceptively simple pencil and watercolor style is endlessly gorgeous. The story itself involves a woodsman who finds a baby in the bamboo and ultimately decides that it’s his fate to give her the life of a princess. The girl wants nothing more than the love of her family, but the movie turns on the dichotomy between that simple virtue and the need to satisfy the desires of family and community.

Where to stream: Max


Blame! (2017)

In the future, the City grows like a virus, endlessly in all directions, and humans have long since lost control of the automated systems designed to run things. Those same systems now see views humans as “illegals” to be purged, leaving flesh-and-blood survivors caught between the city’s murderous defense systems and the need to find food. One group of humans is on the hunt for the existence of someone with a genetic marker that they believe will allow for access to the city’s control systems—a hunt lead by Killy, a synthetic human who might have the key. Some deeply cool world-building here, and solid CGI animation.

Where to stream: Netflix


The Sky Crawlers (2008)

In a world largely at peace (imagine!), mega-corporations hire fighter pilots to engage in genuinely dangerous combat operations that serve, on one level, as entertainment, but also as a way for the world’s population to blow off some steam and experience the visceral thrills and nationalistic fervor of war without any of the devastating consequences. There’s a lot going on here, including the stories of pilots genetically engineered to remain adolescents, but the beautifully animated aerial sequences (involving mysterious attackers who endanger what was initially intended as a reconnaissance flight) are a highlight. Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) directs.

Where to stream: Tubi


Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2020)

A meet-cute between 22-year-old university student Tsuneo and Josee gives way to a more unconventional relationship: Tsuneo is hired as a caretaker for disabled Josee by her grandmother. Money, tragedy, and regular life threaten to get in the way of their budding relationship, but the two keep finding themselves drawn back together. The typical "inspirational" disability tropes are kept to a minimum—Josee is a fully rounded character, and the movie takes great lengths to emphasize the barriers that a wheelchair-user is likely to face in Japan, both culturally and practically.

Where to stream: Digital rental


Child of Kamiari Month (2021)

Kanna Hayama was a dedicated runner until the death of her mother, after which she becomes withdrawn and joyless, refusing to share her feelings with her friends and family. Of course, we're in an anime fantasy, so she soon meets a fanged demon-boy during a race who tasks her with taking up her mother's mantle as a literal footrace deity, and sends her on a quest with the help of a talking rabbit. Her adventures put her on a path toward coming to terms with her mother's passing and rediscovering her own sense of joy.

Where to stream: Netflix


Weathering With You (2019)

Makoto Shinkai followed up Your Name with this equally successful successor, a gorgeous vision of rain-soaked Tokyo, and a young woman who can control the weather (visually, this movie beautifully does for water what Your Name did for light). Troubled runaway Hodaka meets and befriends Hina, whose emotions impact the weather. There are life- and world-threatening consequences to all of this, but, ultimately, it's about the triumphs and tragedies of first love.

Where to stream: Max


Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop (2020)

A cute, music-filled teen love story, this one finds shy, haiku-writing Cherry working at a senior center when he meets Smile, an outgoing social media influencer who's secretly embarrassed about her teeth and braces. They're both deeply insecure in different ways, and each has developed their own coping strategies. Their relationship soon takes a backseat to the story of a couple from five decades earlier, and the quest for a record that connects their love story to that of one of Cherry's clients. The stakes are relatively small and entirely personal, and that's more than OK. It's vibrant and fun, one of the better modern examples of teen romance in modern anime.

Where to stream: Netflix


Memories (1995)

This science fiction anthology is comprised of three short films, each well-done and darkly entertaining. The highlight is the opening segment, directed by anime master Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika)—it's called "Magnetic Blue," and is the story of space salvagers and the engineers who discover a haunted and unforgettably haunting abandoned space station. It's a perfect blend of science fiction and existential horror.

Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi


The End of Evangelion (1997)

Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series ended with a brilliantly abstract and shocking whisper—one that left many action-craving fans cold. They might have been careful what they wished for. Fim coda The End of Evangelion offers a slice of hell through the eyes of its child-soldier lead, giant robot pilot Shinji Ikari. Where the show ended with the imagery of group therapy gone well, this alternate finale hinges on an apocalypse so horrifying, survival is the cruelest twist imaginable.

Where to stream: Netflix


Perfect Blue (1997)

Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue isn't going to be for everyone, a blurring of fantasy and reality that draws comparisons to the films of Darren Aronofsky—though, of course, it's really the other way around, as Perfect Blue came before both Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan, which echo it. (Perfect Blue has also inspired Madonna, so do with that what you will). If nothing else, it proves that anime can do the psychological thriller genre at least as well as any medium can. Its story follows a young Japanese singer who is pushed to quit her career to take a job on television—a move with horrific consequences in the best tradition of high-price-of-fame stories.

Where to stream: Shudder


The Hayao Miyazaki Collection

Hayao Miyazaki's career in animation began in the 1970s, but his work as an artist of global stature began in earnest with 1984's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, the first of an unbroken sequence of masterpieces that have pushed subsequent animators into new territory. One can easily make the case that without Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli (which he co-founded), we don't have anything like the varied world of animated films we're privileged to see today. Miyazaki's oeuvre could easily take up half of this list so instead, I'm going to suggest that all his movies are similarly great, which is not the same as saying that they're all similar.

Among the director's most beloved are Spirited Away (2001), involving young Chihiro's quest to save her parents from puckish beings in a fantasy realm; Princess Mononoke (1997), a epic environmental parable; Howl's Moving Castle (2004), about a young woman's quest to break a curse and the castle with legs; and My Neighbor Totoro (1988), a sweet story of two girls who meet fantastic creatures in the first near their new home. There are really no bad choices, though, with all but Miyazaki's most recent (Oscar-winner The Boy and the Heron) currently streaming on Max. While wildly varied, each is stunningly animated and lushly detailed, and each deals with the trials and challenges of growing up (at any age).

Where to stream: Max

☐ ☆ ✇ National Geographic

Les compléments alimentaires peuvent-ils vraiment aider à traverser la préménopause ?

Par : National Geographic — 28 mars 2024 à 15:27

La préménopause (ou périménopause) a le vent en poupe sur le marché des produits non médicamenteux : outre les traitements traditionnels de la ménopause, on trouve de plus en plus de pilules et de crèmes en vente libre destinées aux femmes sur le point d'atteindre la ménopause.

La préménopause, cette période précédant la ménopause, se manifeste généralement vers 45 ans et dure souvent plusieurs années. Au cours de cette phase de transition, les changements hormonaux peuvent entraîner une perte osseuse et provoquer des dizaines de symptômes désagréables tels que des bouffées de chaleur, des troubles du sommeil et des troubles de l’humeur.

Alors que l’hormonothérapie et d’autres médicaments sur ordonnance peuvent aider à soulager certains de ces symptômes, de nombreuses personnes cherchent d'autres solutions. « C’est là que les compléments alimentaires et les produits non médicamenteux entrent en jeu », explique Mary Jane Minkin, gynécologue et professeure clinique à l’école de médecine de Yale.

Mais selon Minkin et d’autres médecins habitués à traiter les symptômes de la préménopause, les données scientifiques relatives à de nombreux produits portent à confusion. « Mieux vaut considérer la plupart de ces produits avec des pincettes », soutient Nanette Santoro, professeure et présidente du département d’obstétrique et de gynécologie à la faculté de médecine de l’université du Colorado.

Voici ce que l’on sait des compléments alimentaires censés soulager les symptômes de la préménopause, et ce que suggèrent les experts à ce propos.

 

QU’EST-CE QUE LA PRÉMÉNOPAUSE ET QUE CONTIENNENT CES COMPLÉMENTS ALIMENTAIRES ?

Pendant la préménopause, les ovaires produisent moins d’œstrogènes et de progestérone (les hormones sexuelles féminines) et leurs taux augmentent et diminuent de façon sporadique, ce qui entraîne des règles irrégulières. La ménopause, quant à elle, se définit par l’absence de règles de plus d'un an.

Bien que les termes « préménopause » et « ménopause » fassent référence à deux étapes distinctes du développement humain, ils sont souvent utilisés l'un pour l'autre, et ce même sur l’emballage de certains compléments alimentaires, souligne Santoro.

Les produits qui prétendent soulager les symptômes de la préménopause sont souvent constitués d’un mélange de divers ingrédients, dont de la vitamine B (pour l’énergie, l’humeur, etc.), de la vitamine D (pour la santé des os) et des minéraux comme le zinc (pour la santé de la peau et des ongles).

Certains contiennent également des plantes comme la maca et la populaire actée à grappes noires, toutes deux censées atténuer plusieurs symptômes, ainsi que des phytoestrogènes, des composés provenant de plantes telles que le soja et le trèfle rouge, qui présentent une structure et des fonctions similaires à l’œstrogène humain.

 

CES COMPLÉMENTS ALIMENTAIRES SONT-ILS EFFICACES ?

Selon les experts, il n’y a tout simplement pas assez de preuves pour affirmer que ces ingrédients soulagent bel et bien les effets secondaires de la préménopause. En effet, certains ingrédients n’ont été que peu étudiés, quand, pour d’autres, les résultats des études se sont souvent avérés incohérents.

Par exemple, des analyses de la littérature scientifique réalisées en 2012 et 2016 ont montré que l’ingestion d’extrait d’actée à grappes noires ne réduisait pas plus les bouffées de chaleur que la prise d’un placebo. Pourtant, une revue systématique de 2017 a soutenu le contraire.

Selon Minkin, les études sur les compléments alimentaires sont souvent loin d’appliquer la méthodologie de référence recommandée pour ce type de recherche, à savoir de vastes essais randomisés, en double aveugle, contrôlés par placebo, qui suivent les participants dans le temps.

Par ailleurs, la diversité des processus de culture, d’extraction et de production de nombreux ingrédients complique davantage la collecte de données fiables, ajoute Minkin.

Prenons l’exemple du soja, parfois commercialisé comme traitement des bouffées de chaleur. En 2023, la Menopause Society, une organisation à but non lucratif américaine, a conclu qu’il était difficile de résumer les études publiées sur le soja depuis 2015, tant elles étaient différentes. En effet, ces études analysent des dosages du soja différents ou des mélanges de soja et de différents minéraux et vitamines, ainsi que différentes formes d'aministration du soja, comme des boissons et des comprimés.

En fin de compte, la Menopause Society n’a recommandé ni le soja ni aucun autre complément alimentaire qu’elle a évalué (dont des capsules d’onagre, de la crème d’igname sauvage et autres) pour traiter les bouffées de chaleur.

Cela dit, les experts expliquent qu’il peut leur arriver de recommander certains compléments alimentaires aux personnes en période de préménopause. Les suppléments de calcium, par exemple, peuvent favoriser la santé des os si l’alimentation n’en fournit pas suffisamment, tout comme la vitamine D, que l’on produit moins efficacement avec l’âge, explique Karen Adams, professeure clinique d’obstétrique et de gynécologie à la faculté de médecine de l’université de Stanford.

En outre, Adams indique qu'il existe « quelques preuves » suggérant que la mélatonine peut améliorer le sommeil, en particulier chez les personnes âgées, mais ces études sont de petite envergure et de courte durée. Les experts ont également averti le National Geographic que la mélatonine ne devait être utilisée qu’à court terme.

Bien sûr, les preuves anecdotiques abondent, certaines personnes jurant que certains compléments alimentaires les ont aidées à soulager leurs symptômes. Cependant, selon les experts, il pourrait s’agir d’un effet placebo puisque dans le cas des traitements contre les bouffées de chaleur, par exemple, des études ont démontré que plus de 30 % des personnes signalaient des améliorations avec le placebo.

Quoi qu’il en soit, si les symptômes s’améliorent et si le complément alimentaire semble sans danger, Minkin préfère aller dans le sens de ses patients. « Ma ligne de conduite habituelle est la suivante : si mes patients trouvent une utilité aux suppléments, je les invite à poursuivre leur traitement », dit-elle.

Mais comment s’assurer qu’un complément alimentaire est sans danger ? C’est une autre histoire.

 

CE QU’IL FAUT SAVOIR AVANT DE PRENDRE DES COMPLÉMENTS ALIMENTAIRES POUR LA PRÉMÉNOPAUSE

Les agences de régulation des médicaments n’ont pas à approuver la plupart des compléments alimentaires pour qu’ils soient commercialisés. Il n’y a donc aucune garantie qu’un produit soit efficace, qu’il n’interagisse pas avec des médicaments ou même qu’il contienne ce qu'indique l’étiquette. « Les fabricants de compléments alimentaires peuvent prétendre tout ce qu’ils veulent », déclare Adams.

Une étude de 2006, par exemple, a révélé que trois des onze produits à base d’actée à grappes noires analysés dans le cadre de l’étude ne contenaient pas d’actée à grappes noires, mais une autre plante à fleurs appelée actée asiatique.

Il est ainsi recommandé aux personnes qui envisagent d’acheter des compléments alimentaires pour la préménopause de rechercher le sceau de la pharmacopée française, de Consumerlab.com ou de NSF International, qui testent les compléments alimentaires pour vérifier des facteurs tels que l’identité des produits et leur pureté. 

 

LES AUTRES SOLUTIONS POUR SOULAGER LES SYMPTÔMES

Si de nombreux médecins ne vous orienteront pas vers les compléments alimentaires, vous pouvez trouver d’autres types de solutions fiables et approuvées.

Selon les experts, l'intervention hormonale constitue le traitement le plus efficace pour pallier les symptômes courants de la préménopause. En revanche, si certains médecins préfèreront l’hormonothérapie (soit le recours à des pilules, des patchs ou à tout autre produit contenant des œstrogènes ou un mélange d’œstrogènes et de progestérone), explique Minkin, d’autres ne vous la recommanderont pas, car la production d’œstrogènes chez les personnes préménopausées peut encore être élevée à certains moments. Une des solutions dans ces cas-là peut être d'avoir recours à une contraception hormonale.

Toutefois, si vous préférez renoncer au traitement hormonal ou si vous n’êtes pas une bonne candidate pour ce traitement (comme les personnes ayant des antécédents de thrombose idiopathique ou de cancer du sein ou d’autres cancers sensibles aux œstrogènes, par exemple), vous pouvez également vous procurer des médicaments non hormonaux sur ordonnance.

Certaines techniques psychocorporelles peuvent également s’avérer utiles.

Pour atténuer les bouffées de chaleur, la Menopause Society recommande deux techniques : l’hypnothérapie, qui implique des séances de relaxation profonde et axées sur la concentration destinées à vous rendre plus influençable, et la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale, axée sur l’identification et le remplacement des schémas de pensée néfastes.

Santoro rappelle que faire de l’exercice physique est « bon dans tous les cas », mais souligne également que selon certaines données, il n'aide pas à réduire les bouffées de chaleur. Par ailleurs, le fait de suivre un régime alimentaire équilibré, composé d’aliments entiers et non transformés, permet de contrôler la glycémie, d’assurer un apport adéquat en vitamines et de prévenir la prise de poids qui peut survenir pendant la préménopause, souligne Santoro.

Enfin, Minkin insite : il est essentiel de consulter un fournisseur de soins de santé bien informé qui peut vous aider à naviguer parmi les options, y compris les compléments alimentaires.

« J’encourage toujours mes patients à consulter des sources fiables, ajoute-t-elle, et à ne pas fonder leurs décisions sur les propos d’une star de cinéma. »

Cet article a initialement paru sur le site nationalgeographic.com en langue anglaise.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Ce robot humanoïde peut prédire un sourire avant qu’il ne se produise !

Par : Sylvain Biget, Journaliste — 28 mars 2024 à 15:08
La tête robotisée Emo est capable d’identifier une expression faciale avant qu’elle ne soit marquée sur le visage et d’y répondre avec son équivalent. C’est un grand pas vers l’ajout de la communication non verbale aux robots humanoïdes.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

The Only Four Gardening Tools You Actually Need

Par : Amanda Blum — 28 mars 2024 à 14:30

According to a recent study, Americans spend over $500 a year on gardening tools. That's a lot. Gardening is one of those hobbies that requires a few tools, so it's inevitable that you're going to drop some cash, but you only really need a few. You can start gardening with incredibly little overhead. 

A pretty good shovel

If you’re digging in the dirt, you’re gonna need a shovel. They come in a surprising number of shapes, all of which serve a different purpose, but the one you’ll use most often is a common garden spade. With a wide pan, flared edges and a soft point, a spade will easily slide into the earth with a lip you can stand on. The width of the pan will allow you to scoop up the dirt generously, with edges that’ll hold the dirt on the pan, and you can use the point that you can use to break up the soil. While we often think of wooden-handled garden tools, I prefer shorter handles made of steel, which are less likely to break. I’m particularly fond of the Radius line, with its easy circular handles, but the Bully long-handled shovel is also solid. 

A hand spade or hori hori

Shovels work at a distance, but to dig a hole to plant in, or work with the dirt when you’re closer to it, you’ll want a hand spade. Like shovels, these come in many shapes, but it’s best to start with a general tool. A spade that isn’t too wide or narrow, with a good sharp edge and a comfortable handle that isn’t going to wilt in the summer sun or get gross in the rain. You can also consider a hori hori, which is a longer blade with a serrated edge.  While it won’t allow you to scoop soil in the way a spade will, a hori hori is a spectacular all around hand tool that allows you to get a deep hole precisely where you need it, without disturbing nearby plants, will cut through rhizomes like butter, and get right to the roots of weeds. 

Garden gloves

You don’t really need garden gloves. Digging in the dirt with your hands is good for your soul, if not your manicure. Gloves can, however, be useful if you are working with thorny plants, or worms give you the ick. For that reason, I keep a few sets around—a workhorse pair that will stand up to the thorniest roses, and a pair of softer gloves for basic gardening work. Since I lose them often, having more than one pair at any time is always useful.

A great hose attachment

If there are plants, they’ll need to be watered. Any hose will do for now, but you’ll want a decent nozzle for that hose so you can adjust how much you’re watering and where that water goes. If you have hanging planters or beds that are a little out of reach, consider a nozzle on an extension pole. For just buzzing around the garden, a simple spray attachment will work. Be sure to bring those attachments inside for the winter. These attachments tend to leak easily, so spend a little more to get one of decent quality. 

There are legions of tools that I enjoy and use, from seeding gadgets to aprons to trellises, but you’ll figure out what you enjoy using over time. None of them are required to enjoy spending time outside or start digging in the dirt.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Profitez du week-end de Pâques pour forger votre esprit critique !

Par : Futura Partenariats, Brand Content — 28 mars 2024 à 14:30
Universcience présente le Printemps de l’esprit critique 2024 et la troisième édition du Baromètre de l’esprit critique, deux manifestations qui se tiendront du 21 mars 2024 au 3 avril 2024 à la Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, aux Étincelles du Palais de la découverte et sur le blob.fr. De...

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

How to Recognize an AI-generated Cookbook

Par : Allie Chanthorn Reinmann — 28 mars 2024 à 14:00

As I sit here eating rich, juicy dumplings made by a dedicated human chef, I’m pondering—lamenting?—AI's role in the food industry. Specifically, I’m stewing over one small, wholesome corner that AI has been butting into: cookbooks. AI-generated recipes and cookbooks aren’t new by any means, but they’re more prevalent than ever, and better at impersonating human authors than before. These AI cookbooks are sneaky, but they're not perfect, and you should be able to decide if that’s what you really want to buy. Luckily, there are a few red flags to keep an eye out for.


By the way, the dumplings were from East Wind Snack Shop. The human chef and owner, Chris Cheung, wrote a cookbook, Damn Good Chinese Food, and it’s for sale here along with some other fantastic cookbooks:


An AI-generated cookbook in the wild

A recent post on X from Matthew Kupfer shows just how creepy AI cookbooks can be. It’s mostly hilarious, but quickly becomes alarming when you realize someone used AI to generate a bio and a photo of the “author.” 

A screenshot of @Matthew_Kupfer's post on X
Credit: @Matthew_Kupfer/X

Clearly, AI-generated recipes and cookbooks are already out there. That’s fine—besides the knowledge and work that it silently scraped from all the recipes on the internet—it is what it is. Even companies like Instacart have taken a dip in AI waters to generate recipes, but at least they're up front about it. They also note that the recipes "may not be perfect" due to the nature of its creation. AI recipes are untested, likely unedited, and there’s a possibility the meal comes out weird in some way, but hopefully not inedible.

But the dubious recipe quality is just one part of the problem. Cookbooks aren’t just collections of recipes. They’re years of hard work, mistakes, successes, incredible photography, experiences, and stories. Those stories are woven into recipes that share a person’s life. Maybe I’m a little sensitive because I’m an aspiring cookbook author myself, but it’s the impersonation that is unsettling. The lengthy prose of manufactured human experience, and the faux inspiration—you’ll have to excuse me, but I’ve lost my appetite. 

Your AI is showing

Since you can’t rely on the usual tricks—checking for the author’s photo or only searching for hardcover books—you might have to dig a little deeper, and trust your gut. Here are a few things to look out for when you're vetting a cookbook.

Odd cover claims

While the title might seem harmless, like The Complete Crock Pot in the X post, the subtitle, or other quips and promises on the cover can be a dead giveaway. For example, “2000 days easy delicious recipes” sounds like an extreme amount of days, and it seems to be missing a word.

Clunky phrasing or repeats

Speaking of missing words, this tip is from our post on how to tell if you’re chatting with a bot, and it’s applicable for cookbooks too. Look out for grammatical missteps, sure, but also oddly robotic phrasing and repetition. As Jeff Somers notes in the aforementioned post, “Even the best conversational AI often has trouble with the weird complexities and contradictions of language.”

If you feel like a sentence just doesn’t sound right, like “This electrical cooking equipment is used to make meals, particularly when you want to leave your cooking uncontrolled for hours,” you’re not being judgmental. This is not how most folks would describe crockpot cooking.

Repeated phrases are also a hallmark of AI writing. I intentionally switch up vocabulary when I write because I know it’s boring to read the same words again and again, but AI doesn’t get bored. It gets even. Just kidding, it’s awful at alternate phrasing. You wouldn’t believe how many times the section “What is Crock-Pot?” has the exact, or nearly identical, phrasing for “a crock pot, or slow-cooker, is a pot made of ceramic…” It’s a lot.

Publishing houses versus self published

Many AI-generated cookbooks are sold online, and they are self published. You can probably figure out why. As of right now, most established publishing houses are interested in making deals with human authors. It’s a shame because there are a lot of self-published authors out there who write great books, and big publishers can make it difficult for even great books to be seen. In the case of cookbooks though, look for what publishing company it's from; if it's listed as "self published" or "independently published," be wary.

Errors with key ingredients

If you can, look closely at some of the recipes in the book. While AI doesn’t usually make egregious measurement mistakes, like suggesting two cups of salt, it can omit things. If a recipe is titled “Barley Chicken Salad with Fresh Herbs,” and there are no herbs or barley to be found in the ingredient list, you might be dealing with an AI cookbook. Likewise, if a cookbook claims to be for special diets, like a low-glycemic cookbook or this vegan cookbook that got ripped off by AI, keep a lookout for recipes that don’t fit the diet. 

AI might hurt our human feelings when it imitates us, but this type of error is where untested, unedited recipes get dangerous. A vegan is likely to catch butter or mozzarella listed in a recipe, but beginners following a low-glycemic recipe might not catch a starch error.

Tips for cookbook shopping success

Don’t be fooled by an author picture and biography

AI generates photos with terrifying ease. Read here for tips on identifying pictures of fake humans (two words: errant earrings). If you’re not sure, you can also look up the author. AI “authors” will have no history besides the cookbook, so you won’t have to do much research.  

Check for AI-generated reviews

AI reviews look suspiciously alike—like word-for-word alike—and 20 or 30 reviews will post on the same date, or within a tight time frame. If you see that, the next step is to click on the one- or two-star reviews. Those are probably humans and they’re probably telling you the cookbook is AI generated.

Shop in a bookstore

A what? A brick and mortar bookstore. If you’re buying new, then you can rest assured that bookstores like Warwick’s and Greenlight Bookstore are buying their stock from reputable publishers. If you’re buying used, then at least you can flip through the book and thoroughly check for the red flags mentioned above. Plus, you’ll be supporting a real-life bookstore, and that’s nice too.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Révolutionnaire : un rein de porc a été greffé avec succès sur un humain !

Par : Stéphanie Le Guillou, Journaliste Santé — 28 mars 2024 à 13:59
Le Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) a récemment accompli une avancée médicale remarquable en réalisant la première transplantation réussie d'un rein de porc génétiquement modifié chez un patient humain, marquant une nouvelle ère dans le domaine de la transplantation et offrant un nouvel...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Une violente éruption du Santorin a fait basculer l’histoire il y a 1 300 ans

Par : Morgane Gillard, Rédactrice — 28 mars 2024 à 13:03
Longtemps supposée sur la base de récits historiques, l’éruption volcanique sous-marine qui aurait déclenché la période iconoclaste dans l’Empire Byzantin en l’an 726 aurait bien eu lieu. Une récente campagne sur la caldeira du Santorin apporte les preuves de cet événement et révèle que ce...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

La bactérie « mangeuse de chair » inquiète le Japon et progresse en Europe

Par : Destination Santé et Futura — 28 mars 2024 à 12:19
Le syndrome du choc toxique streptococcique (SCTS) est le plus souvent causé par le streptocoque A, surnommé « bactérie mangeuse de chair ». Depuis le 1er janvier, le Japon recense une flambée de la maladie avec 517 cas. Un chiffre qui inquiète les autorités sanitaires alors que le SCTS est...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Ces nuages fluorescents observés dans le sud de l’Europe étonnent les météorologues

En décembre dernier, il ne s'est pas passé une seule journée sans que des internautes partagent des images spectaculaires d'étonnants nuages multicolores dans le ciel d'Europe. Cette invasion de nuages polaires stratosphériques du nord au sud de l'Europe, visibles jusqu'en France, avait suscité...

☐ ☆ ✇ National Geographic

À la découverte des communautés les plus reculées de l'est du Bhoutan

Par : National Geographic — 28 mars 2024 à 10:59

Cet article a initialement paru sur le site nationalgeographic.com en langue anglaise.

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Ce fruit consommé tous les jours améliorerait les performances sportives !

Par : Claire Manière, Journaliste — 28 mars 2024 à 09:35
À l’approche des JO de Paris, les athlètes se demandent comment booster leurs performances. Nul doute qu’à ce niveau, la moindre amélioration peut faire la différence sur le podium. Et pourquoi pas avec un aliment naturel ?

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

Seuls 7 pays dans le monde respirent un air sain !

Par : Camille Auchère, Journaliste junior — 28 mars 2024 à 08:01
Le rapport annuel de IQAir sur la pollution de l'air montre les niveaux catastrophiques de contamination aux particules fines. Sans surprise, les taux enregistrés dans les pays les plus pauvres pulvérisent les recommandations de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS). Les bons élèves sont...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

100e épisode de Science ou Fiction !

— 28 mars 2024 à 07:45
Pour une fois, il n'y a pas à deviner si c'est vrai ou faux : c'est le 100e épisode de Science ou Fiction ! Dans cet épisode spécial, vous pourrez découvrir qui se cache derrière votre podcast préféré, mais aussi comment debunker efficacement, et comment faire face aux fake news dans un monde où...

☐ ☆ ✇ Futura-Sciences

1 sur 7 000 : un généticien révèle des chiffres choc sur l'inceste

Par : Camille Auchère, Journaliste junior — 26 mars 2024 à 18:03
La France n'est pas la seule à être frappée par le fléau de l'inceste, en témoigne le généticien Jim Wilson qui a analysé le génome de plusieurs milliers de personnes. Résultat : un Américain sur 7 000 serait né d'un inceste. Un chiffre qui pointe un sujet tabou, enjeu juridique et de santé...

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Gemini Finally Comes to Google Messages (for Some Users)

Par : Joshua Hawkins — 28 mars 2024 à 01:30

Google has been upfront about its plans to inject its Gemini AI into just about everything it can, save for the base Pixel 8—which it says has some hardware limitations that keep it from sporting the latest Gemini version. One of the latest ways to get the Gemini treatment is through Google Messages.

This rollout isn't surprising at all, as Google officially confirmed the addition of Gemini to Messages around a month ago. Now, though, it has finally started to become available to some Google Messages beta users, and here's what you can expect from the new integration.

For starters, it's only available for beta testers that have RCS enabled, are at least 18 years old, and own a Pixel 6 or newer, Pixel Fold, Galaxy S22 or newer, Galaxy Z Flip, or Galaxy Z Fold. Any other devices aren't eligible for Gemini in Google Messages just yet. Google also says you'll need to have your phone's language set to English in places where Gemini in Messages is available, or French if you're in Canada.

Once you're into the beta and have Gemini, though, you'll then be able to do a number of things with the AI chatbot, including talk to the bot for information. You can respond to Gemini using text or image prompts, and you'll even be able to use extensions in your chats with Gemini.

If you want help drafting messages, all you need to do is ask Gemini and it will provide an appropriate response you can edit and then send as you see fit. You'll also be able to give feedback directly in the Messages app by long-pressing and holding down on the response you want to provide feedback for and then selecting the thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate what kind of response it was.

Google hasn't said yet whether it will allow Gemini Advanced users access to their premium features in Messages, so we'll have to wait for more information about the AI feature to become available before we can say for sure. But, at least for now, you can join the beta for Google Messages and test out the feature as long as you meet the requirements outlined above.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Google Wants You to Use AI for Your Next Vacation

Par : Joshua Hawkins — 28 mars 2024 à 01:00

Google hopes you'll trust its AI-powered search enough to use it to plan your next vacation. According to a blog post released this week, Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) can now help you plan an itinerary of destinations for your next trip, including highlighting must-visit locations, restaurants, and even an overview of possible flight and hotel options.

The new system builds heavily off of Google's AI search response system, which scours the internet for different responses to your queries. Google says that using SGE will provide you with all the details you need, including photos, reviews, and other info about businesses that you might visit. Of course, that isn't taking into account the problems that SGE is already experiencing, like the fact that it is pushing scam and malware sites in SGE results. Hopefully Google has resolved some of that, but be careful which links you click on in the meantime.

Aside from SGE, Google has also highlighted how recommended lists in Google Maps can help you plan your vacation better, including showcasing lists of recommendations from sites you trust as well as locals who know all the best spots. This doesn't really build off AI, but it's likely we'll see more AI features coming to Google Maps and other Google products in the future.

It isn't all that surprising to see Google pushing more AI features across its various projects. The company has made big strides to put its Gemini AI chatbot out there, and it is likely we'll even see these trip-planning features make their way to Maps at some point, though perhaps in a different fashion. However, it will probably be a while before you can fully trust the information these AI tools are spitting out at you.

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

What's New on Paramount+ With Showtime in April 2024

Par : Emily Long — 28 mars 2024 à 00:30

Paramount+ viewers can start April with the premiere of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery (April 4), which will wrap up the 65-episode series that rejuvenated the sci-fi franchise in 2017. There's also season four of The Challenge: All Stars (April 10), the reality competition show that, this time around, brings together former players to go head-to-head in South Africa. There's also CTRL+ALT+DESIRE (April 16), a three-episode docuseries about the manhunt to capture Grant Amato following the murder of his family members.

For Paramount+ With Showtime subscribers, there's Talk to Me (April 1), a supernatural horror film from A24 about a group of friends who use an embalmed hand to communicate with the spirit world.

Paramount+'s live programming kicks off with the CMT Music Awards (streaming on April 7) followed by live coverage of The Masters, which begins on April 8. There's also The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time (April 14 at 9 p.m. ET), a livestream of the artist's 100th sold-out concert of his MSG residency.

Here’s everything else coming to the service in April. Note that titles with an asterisk are exclusive to Paramount+ With Showtime; everything else is also available to subscribers on the ad-supported plan. Those with two asterisks are available to Paramount+ With Showtime users streaming live on CBS and to all subscribers the following day.

Paramount+ Originals and premieres coming in April 2024

Arriving April 1

  • Talk to Me*

Arriving April 4

  • Star Trek: Discovery, season five premiere

Arriving April 7

  • CMT Music Awards**

Arriving April 10

  • The Challenge: All Stars, season four premiere

Arriving April 12

  • DORA, premiere

Arriving April 14

  • The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time**

Arriving April 16

  • CTRL+ALT+DESIRE

Arriving April 26

  • Knuckles, premiere

TV shows coming to Paramount+ in April 2024

Arriving April 1

  • Jeff Dunham: I'm with Cupid

Arriving April 3

  • Bubble Guppies (Season 6)

  • Bubble Guppies: Bubble Puppy’s Fin-tastic Fairy Tale

  • Bubble Guppies: Guppy Style!

  • Bubble Guppies: The Puppy and the Ring

  • CMT Crossroads (Seasons 21-22)

  • CMT Presents The Judds: Love Is Alive - The Final Concert

Arriving April 8

NCISVerse: The First 1,000**

Arriving April 10

  • Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out (Seasons 19-20)

Arriving April 17

  • Mighty Planes (Seasons 1-4)

  • RENO 911! (Season 8)

  • The Last Cowboy (Season 4)

Arriving April 24

  • Air Disasters (Season 9-10)

  • How Did They Fix That? (Seasons 1-2)

Movies coming to Paramount+ in April 2024

Arriving April 1

  • Arsenal*

  • B.A.P.S.

  • Bandslam*

  • Black Lotus

  • Blades of Glory

  • Catch and Release

  • Chaplin

  • Cheech & Chong's Still Smokin'*

  • Cloud Atlas

  • Cold Mountain

  • Daddy's Home

  • Deep Impact

  • Domestic Disturbance*

  • Drive Me Crazy

  • Edge Of Darkness

  • El Dorado

  • Emma

  • Empire Records

  • Face/Off

  • First Blood

  • Galaxy Quest*

  • Get Rich or Die Tryin'

  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

  • Hotel for Dogs

  • I Love You, Man

  • Identity

  • Inherent Vice

  • Jacob's Ladder*

  • Juice

  • Just Like Heaven

  • Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

  • Last Night*

  • Life

  • Like a Boss

  • Magnolia

  • Malcolm X

  • Max Steel*

  • Mimic

  • Muriel's Wedding*

  • My Baby's Daddy

  • Nebraska

  • Nick of Time*

  • Planes, Trains and Automobiles

  • Rambo: First Blood Part II

  • Rambo III

  • Saturday Night Fever

  • Secret in Their Eyes*

  • Team America: World Police

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

  • The Crossing Guard*

  • The Evening Star*

  • The Heartbreak Kid

  • The King of Comedy

  • The Ring

  • The Ring Two

  • The Ring Two (Unrated)

  • The Score

  • The Secret Garden

  • The Station Agent

  • The Transporter Refueled*

  • The Uninvited

  • TMNT

  • Total Recall

  • Transformers

  • Up in Smoke

  • Vacancy

  • Varsity Blues

  • Whip It

  • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  • Wild Card*

  • Wuthering Heights*

Arriving April 11

  • School For Scoundrels*

Arriving April 12

  • Deliver Us from Evil

Arriving April 25

  • The Painter

☐ ☆ ✇ Lifehacker

Xbox Cloud Gaming Now Supports Mouse and Keyboard for Beta Users

Par : Jake Peterson — 28 mars 2024 à 00:00

Mouse and keyboard fans, rejoice: Microsoft is finally rolling out support for these peripherals for Xbox Cloud Gaming, so long as you're a selected Xbox Insider.

The company is rolling out mouse and keyboard support as part of its latest Xbox Update Preview for Alpha Skip-Ahead testers. That means general Xbox Insiders will still need to wait, but for those in the "invite only" testing program, you should be able to hook up your favorite mouse and keyboard to play games that previously required a controller.

Microsoft says mouse and keyboard support works in cloud gaming on Microsoft Edge and Chrome, as well as the Xbox App on PCs (for those enrolled in the PC Gaming Preview). If you're playing in a browser, you'll need to enable Preview features first. You'll find the option on xbox.com/play by clicking your profile picture, choosing Settings, and enabling Preview features.

The program currently supports 14 titles at this time. Not a ton, but enough to get you started with experiencing mouse and keyboard controls on Xbox Cloud Gaming:

  • Fortnite (browsers only)

  • ARK Survival Evolved

  • Sea of Thieves

  • Grounded

  • Halo Infinite

  • Atomic Heart

  • Sniper Elite 5

  • Deep Rock Galactic

  • High on Life

  • Zombie Army 4 Dead War

  • Gears Tactics

  • Pentiment

  • Doom 64

  • Age of Empires 2

Microsoft has acknowledged a known issue with Atomic Heart, as there can be issues when swapping from your controller to mouse and keyboard while streaming the game.

You'll also notice that games display controller UI elements until you start to use your mouse and keyboard to interact with the game. If you see "press A to start," for example, trying clicking or moving with WASD to adjust the UI.

Browser users should take note that the stream needs to be in full screen for your mouse and keyboard to work. If you want to exit full screen, hit the Escape key. You also need to click on a game stream element in order for the game to recognize your mouse input. You can also press F9 to exit out of mouse and keyboard controls for the game.

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You Can Get OneAir Elite on Sale for $80 Right Now

Par : StackCommerce — 27 mars 2024 à 23:30

You can get a lifetime subscription to OneAir Elite on sale for $79.97 right now (reg. $790) until April 2. OneAir is a deal-alert service that lets you know when great flight deals are available—it tracks millions of fares in real time, lets you set destination-specific alerts, and lets you book destinations based on your budget. You just select your preferred departure airports (up to ten of them) and wait for OneAir notifications via email and mobile notifications. A lifetime Elite Plan offers access to Business, First, Premium, and Economy flights, and the membership can easily pay for itself with one great trip deal. OneAir Elite also offers discounts for hotels, ground transportation, entertainment, and activities.

The OneAir app is available on iOS and Android, and a lifetime subscription to a OneAir Elite Plan is on sale for $79.97 right now (reg. $790) until April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PT, though prices can change at any time.

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Don't Trust These 'Reset Password' Pop-ups on Your Apple Devices

Par : Jake Peterson — 27 mars 2024 à 23:00

If you're minding your business on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and all of a sudden are spammed by pop-ups requesting that you reset your Apple ID password, you would understandably be a bit freaked out. The thing is, this is actually happening, and you should exercise caution—but not panic—if it happens to you.

What's behind the Apple ID password reset attack

As explained by Krebs on Security, bad actors are attacking Apple users by spamming their devices with password reset requests. These pop-ups do not go away unless you dismiss or engage with them via the Allow or Don't Allow options, which means in order to continue using your device, you need to constantly tap Don't Allow.

The pop-ups themselves aren't necessarily nefarious: This is how Apple allows you to change your Apple ID password on a non-trusted device, or on the web. Let's say you forget your Apple ID password and go through Apple's password reset website to reset it: Once you enter the appropriate amount of information, Apple will send a pop-up to your trusted, connected devices to approve the reset process. Once you approve, you can enter a new password.

What bad actors are doing, however, is exploiting some vulnerability in Apple's MFA (multi-factor authentication) process to not only send these reset pop-ups to your devices, but to truly spam you with them. You may dismiss the pop-up only to receive another almost immediately. One victim had to dismiss over 100 of these pop-ups before they finally stopped.

While we don't know exactly how attackers are spamming users with pop-ups, it's not difficult to imagine how they're targeting their victims. When you go to Apple's password reset site, you need to present your Apple ID and your phone number. If an attacker knows these two credentials of yours, they're free to trigger a reset pop-up.

Of course, you don't want to hit Allow. When you do, whoever is initializing this password request will be able to change your password on your behalf. When they do, they'll be able to log into your account on their devices and lock you out. While it's scary enough with how easy it would be to accidentally tap Allow after being spammed so many times, it's even more concerning that the pop-up appears on your Apple Watch as well. Krebs on Security reports on one victim who received the pop-up on their watch while they were sleeping: I could imagine myself accidentally tapping Allow if half-asleep, just trying to dismiss the notification.

It's not over if you hit "Don't Allow"

Even if you're able to wait out attackers and dismiss these notifications over and over again, they have another tactic at play. Since they have your phone number, they'll call you directly, spoofing their number as Apple Support. (It will literally show Apple Support's official number as the incoming caller.)

If you were to answer this call, attackers would try their best to convince you they were Apple Support, perhaps presenting certain information of yours that they have as "proof." Once they trick you, they'll trigger an SMS-based OTP (one-time password) code, which Apple uses to prove your identity when logging in somewhere unfamiliar. Don't share this code with anyone. Apple even includes that warning in the text it sends to you. While ideally, you wouldn't be talking to the attackers in the first place, if you're already in this situation, know that Apple Support would never ask for this code themselves.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there's any way to protect yourself from these spam pop-ups if attackers already have your Apple ID and phone number. The only thing to do is to change your phone number, which is probably more of a hassle than it's worth in this case. (But if you have other reasons to do it, it might be worth it.) We'll just need to wait for Apple to fix whatever vulnerability these bad actors are exploiting to protect us. In the meantime, trust no one, and never tap Allow or OK on unsolicited pop-ups.

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Your PS5 Will Soon Be Able to Capture Game Clips to Help Other Players

Par : Pranay Parab — 27 mars 2024 à 22:30

If you're playing a game on your PS5 and can't defeat a particularly challenging boss or figure out how to solve a certain puzzle, you'll soon be able to get help from an anonymous stranger. Sony has announced that later this year, your PS5 will be able to automatically capture game clips from your play sessions and upload them as hints for other players—and clips taken by other players will be available for your reference, too. This addition is called Community Game Help, and it's something you'll have to opt into, offering an interesting way to get help with a game without looking up an online walkthrough.

How you can contribute to PS5's Community Game Help

A screenshot of the upcoming Community Game Help settings page.
Credit: Sony

In the coming months, you will be able to opt in to Community Game Help, which means that videos from your gameplay will help others. Once this feature is rolled out to your PS5, you can go to PS5 settings > Captures & Broadcasts > Captures > Auto Captures > Community Game Help > Participate. This will allow you to opt in to the program.

This settings page, according to Sony, will also let you select how many videos you want to let the console capture every month. When you do certain things in supported games, your PS5 will automatically capture these videos and upload them to Sony's servers. When videos are uploaded, a moderator will review your content and decide if it can be published under Community Game Help. If your video is published, you'll get a notification on your PS5 and it'll appear under the Your Published Videos option on the Community Game Help settings page.

Sony says that your PS5 will automatically delete these clips once they're uploaded, which means that you don't have to worry about running out of storage. The company has also addressed other privacy concerns by confirming that only raw gameplay footage will be uploaded. Sony won't access your webcam feeds, party chat audio, or audio from your mic. According to Sony, this feature will be available "in select games later this year, and [its] goal is to expand it to as many titles as possible in the future."

How to use Community Game Help on your PS5

A screenshot of the upcoming Community Game Help feature from Sony's PS app.
Credit: Sony

At the moment, Community Game Help is being rolled out slowly, so it could be a while before it shows up on your PS5. To check if you've got it, you can hit the PS button when you're playing a game, select a card labelled Hints Inside, and select any of the videos under Community Game Help. This will also be available on the PS app.

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These Monitors Are on Sale for as Low as $80

Par : Daniel Oropeza — 27 mars 2024 à 22:00

Dell's TechFest sale lasts for a few more days, so if you've been looking for a laptop, monitor, or other Dell product, take a quick look. If the 34-inch Ultra-wide LG monitor going for 50% off or the comically wide Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor don't tickle your fancy, then perhaps one of these Dell monitors will. Here are my favorite three deals from the sale.

The 24-inch Dell SE2422H monitor is $79.99

You're not going to find anything fancy on the Dell SE2422H monitor, but if you're looking for a decent budget monitor that will get the job done, this monitor for $79.99 is a good option. The Dell SE2422H launched in 2021 and usually hovers around the $120 price point, according to my price tracking tools. It is a VA panel with 1920 by 1080 resolution, which is Full HD. What is surprising is the 75Hz refresh rate, which is more than the standard 60 Hz that you'll find in most monitors. You can do much worse for $79.99 than this monitor.

The 32-inch Dell S3222DGM curved gaming monitor for $249.99

For a budget gaming monitor, the Dell S3222DGM offers great value for the money. The 32-inch LED screen display features 2560 by 1440 Quad High Definition resolution (between FHD and 4K), 165Hz refresh rate, which is more than the 144 Hz you'll find on most monitors at this price, and HDMI DisplayPort connectivity. It has a curved display and a 2 ms response time. For $249.99, you're getting a respectable gaming monitor for a great price.

The Dell 32-inch G3223Q 4K gaming monitor with a $150 e-gift card

The Dell 32-inch G3223Q 4K UHD gaming monitor is not discounted per se, but it does come with a $150 Dell e-gift card that essentially makes the monitor $549.99 (if you were looking to spend at least $150 more on other products). The lowest I've seen this monitor go for is $599, so this is a solid deal. This 32-inch 4K gaming monitor offers HDR, has HDMI 2.1 port support, solid color accuracy, and is light at 13.29 lbs. But as our friends at PCMag will tell you, this monitor has a low contrast ratio, dims when viewing Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content, and has high input lag. If most of your gaming is High Dynamic Range (HDR) instead of SDR, then that con will not matter much.

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