Withings Body Smart review: a flawed but thoughtful approach to weight

The scale’s Eyes-Closed Mode gives you an alternative way to interact with your weight and body composition data.

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Target is selling the Xbox Series S with a free game right now

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The Xbox Series S may sometimes go a little unloved, but Microsoft’s tiny white box isn’t just a QHD-capable console with 512GB of storage — it’s also a veritable deals machine. That’s because, unlike its bigger sibling, the Xbox Series X, the Series S often sees some worthwhile sales. Right now, for instance, Target is offering a special online-only bundle that includes a free digital game when you buy the Xbox Series S for $297.99.

In all, there are about 50 eligible Xbox titles to choose from, including more recent hits like Diablo IV, MLB The Show 23, Hogwarts Legacy, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, along with a handful of other digital titles that normally retail for $69.99. And the Xbox Series S on offer is the “Gilded Hunter...

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'Nonfiction' Book About Maui Wildfire 'Smells of AI,' Gets Pulled From Amazon

Wildfires in Maui have devastated the communities in Hawaii over the last week, but a new book listed on Amazon about the natural disaster has raised eyebrows from reviewers.

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Space Force releases the patch design for its new Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconaissance division, and, yeah, this whole thing is being run by pre-pubescent boys, isn't it? [Facepalm]

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Florida’s War With Invasive Pythons Has a New Twist

It may not be possible to eradicate the state’s tens of thousands of Burmese pythons. But the local wildlife is biting back—and humans wielding new tech can help.

Lucy Letby: how did a nurse commit such unthinkable murders?

Trial detailed the deaths of newborns and harm done to other babies – but we may never know why she became a murderer

It was, as one doctor put it, the safest place in the world. A place where babies smaller than an adult’s hand take their first fragile breaths, where every pounding heartbeat is cause to celebrate, and where – almost always – those born on the edge of life eventually go home with their parents.

To imagine a killer stalking the quiet, hopeful corridors of a hospital neonatal unit is to push back the frontiers of what many think of as evil. That a young, smiling woman in blue NHS scrubs could carry out these crimes is somehow even worse.

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US, Japan and South Korea agree to security pledge over China’s objections

‘Duty to consult’ commitment means three countries will contact each other in event of security crisis or threat in the Pacific

The United States, Japan and South Korea have agreed to a new security pledge committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to Biden administration officials.

Details about the new “duty to consult” commitment emerged as Joe Biden prepared Friday to welcome South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

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Transgender women banned from competing in Women's MMA matc...check that. They're being banned from CHESS? Why are there gender based CHESS competitions? [Asinine]

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A closer look at Harvard and Google's HPC heart research project

That's a massive workload you've got there – how much does it cost?

Google is working with Harvard University on a medical research program using public cloud resources rather than a supercomputer to run very large scale simulations..…

‘Hospital could have stopped it’: babies’ parents demand Lucy Letby public inquiry

Mother and father whose twin boys survived nurse’s attack say Countess of Chester hospital did not act on doctors’ concerns

• Lucy Letby found guilty – latest updates

The parents of twin babies attacked by Lucy Letby have demanded a public inquiry into the hospital’s handling of concerns about the nurse, saying: “They could have stopped it.”

The newborn boys, known as Child L and Child M, had to be resuscitated by doctors after Letby tried to murder them at the Countess of Chester hospital, in Chester, in April 2016.

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Haiti: 97% of households in some areas suffering from severe hunger

Of 2,664 households interviewed in Croix-des-Bouquets and Delmas, 2,596 were usually getting one meal a day, survey found

Haiti’s hunger crisis is now so acute that 97% of households in some areas around the capital are suffering from severe hunger, according to a new survey by the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps.

Of 2,664 households interviewed in the neighbourhoods of Croix-des-Bouquets and Delmas, 2,596 were suffering from severe hunger and usually getting no more than one meal a day.

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Get Another New Look at Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron

Get a look at Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal in Amazon’s new sci-fi thriller Foe. Archer heads to England in new details about the last season. Plus, Netflix gives us one last look at Disenchanted’s own finale, and when to expect a return to Adventure Time in Fionna and Cake. Spoilers now!

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Uber and Lyft Could Leave Minneapolis Over $0.51

Uber and Lyft threatened to leave Minneapolis after the city council approved a minimum wage for drivers that would force the tech companies to pay drivers $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute during rides. The ordinance, which passed the Council 7-5 on Thursday, could still be vetoed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey,…

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And soon following NATO would remove all semblance of Belarus from the planet [Dumbass]

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Many of first victims identified in Hawaii fires are over the age of 70

While full list will likely represent broader cross section of ages, deaths underscore risk for elderly people in fast-moving blazes

As the first victims of the fires that scorched Maui are identified by authorities and family members, an early pattern has emerged. Many who perished were over the age of 70.

Scores more victims will be identified in the weeks and months to come. While the final list of fatalities will almost surely represent a broader cross section of ages, the deaths underscore that elderly people are at greater risk in fast-moving blazes.

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The fandomization of news

Lil Tay in 2018. | Image: Lil Tay / YouTube

Younger generations expect news to come straight from creators. But when creators are wrong, the news ecosystem quickly breaks down.

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Threads Gets a Couple More Twitter-Like Features

Threads is desperately trying to stay relevant by announcing a small update on Thursday to include a repost tab feature to the app. The newest tweaks come as the number of daily active users decreased by 80% since the app launched in July.

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Subby is confused; headline says, 'painful erections' while article says, 'powerful erections'. either way, its austailia so it's 50/50 as to whether to visit the mostly deadly continent [Giggity]

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‘Really, Alex?’: Tory moderates risk reputations by backing Lee Anderson

Constituents of MPs such as Alex Chalk are expressing frustration at endorsement of hard-right views

• UK politics live – latest updates

As political graffiti goes, the message to the Conservative MP Alex Chalk scrawled on some steps in the centre of his Cheltenham constituency was polite, if very pointed. “F**k off back to France?” it began, using slightly coy asterisks. “Really, Alex?”

For baffled locals in the genteel Regency town who have not been following politics amid the summer recess, it was a reference to Chalk’s defence of inflammatory comments about asylum seekers made last week by Lee Anderson, a fellow Tory MP and one of the party’s vice-chairs.

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New Covid variant causing concern among scientists detected in London

It is unclear whether BA.2.86 causes more severe disease but its detection in several countries has put scientists on alert

A new Covid variant that is causing concern among scientists due to its large number of mutations has been detected in London.

The variant, dubbed BA.2.86, has been detected through genetic sequencing, although only a handful of such sequences have so far been reported. The first was reported in Israel, with the variant since being detected in Denmark and the US.

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US justice department seeks 33 years in prison for ex-Proud Boys leader

If imposed, sentence for Enrique Tarrio, convicted of seditious conspiracy, would be longest punishment for January 6 riot

The US justice department is seeking 33 years in prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the attack on the US Capitol, according to court documents.

The sentence, if imposed, would be by far the longest punishment that has been handed down in the massive prosecution of the riot on January 6, 2021. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in a separate case, has received the longest sentence to date – 18 years.

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Meta's Next Big Open Source AI Dump Will Reportedly Be a Code-Generating Bot

Meta’s language-centric LlaMA AI will soon find itself in the company of a nerdier, coding wiz brother. The company’s next AI release will reportedly be a big coding machine meant to compete against the proprietary software from the likes of OpenAI and Google. The model could see a release as soon as next week.

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Covid infections on the rise again in Germany, say experts

Events such as Barbenheimer partly blamed as epidemiologists warn country could have a summer wave

German epidemiologists are warning of a summer wave of coronavirus infections, blaming in part mass gatherings such as the Barbenheimer double feature craze.

The government’s disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), says that while infections remain low compared with at the height of the pandemic, they have been on the rise for the past month.

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Tiffany Haddish on her new movie’s bleak vision of our streaming future

Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk in Landscape With Invisible Hand_._ | Image: MGM

Landscape With Invisible Hand is an alien invasion story with a twist: a species known as the Vuuv take over the planet not by force but through economics. Their advanced technology allows them to live in floating cities with the human elite, while the rest of the population scrapes by on the surface. Because of this, some new ways of making money arise — including a very intimate form of livestreaming. Because the Vuuv do not have romance like humans, they’re obsessed with watching young couples broadcast their lives, tipping generously along the way.

For Tiffany Haddish, who stars in the film, part of the appeal was that the premise didn’t seem that far-fetched. “I really love [director and writer Cory Finley] a lot, I love his work,”...

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A license to trust: Can you rely on 'open source' companies?

Sometimes nothing fails like success

Opinion Company after company has had their start in open source software, and then gone on to dump their open source licenses once they've achieved a measure of success. It's time to stop it.…