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Musk could act as middleman between China and Trump in possible global trade war
Hisense’s new L9Q short-throw projector with Google TV hits a blistering 5,000 lumens
Hisense has a track record of releasing impressive short-throw projector options that offer a well-executed Google TV experience. The Hisense L9Q is the company’s latest high-end projector, and it features a laser system that can reach an impressive 5,000 lumens, hitting the nail on the head when it comes to uninterrupted daytime viewing.
more…Cristin Milioti Knows Sofia Falcone Is an Iconic Batman Villain in The Penguin
In her instantly iconic yellow dress, the mob princess turned stone cold baddie quickly became a fan favorite.
Apple to release Q1 2025 earnings report on January 30
Apple on Friday confirmed that it will release its Q1 2025 earnings report on January 30, 2025. The report will cover and Apple Watch Series 10 sales more extensively, as well as giving us a hint about sales performance during the holiday season.
more…Are We Blessed or Cursed to Get a Fantastic Four Reboot Once a Decade?
With The Fantastic Four: First Steps out later this year, it'll be four takes on Marvel's first family in four decades.
One less thing to worry about in 2025: Yellowstone probably won’t go boom
It's difficult to comprehend what 1,000 cubic kilometers of rock would look like. It's even more difficult to imagine it being violently flung into the air. Yet the Yellowstone volcanic system blasted more than twice that amount of rock into the sky about 2 million years ago, and it has generated a number of massive (if somewhat smaller) eruptions since, and there have been even larger eruptions deeper in the past.
All of which might be enough to keep someone nervously watching the seismometers scattered throughout the area. But a new study suggests that there's nothing to worry about in the near future: There's not enough molten material pooled in one place to trigger the sort of violent eruptions that have caused massive disruptions in the past. The study also suggests that the primary focus of activity may be shifting outside of the caldera formed by past eruptions.
Understanding Yellowstone
Yellowstone is fueled by what's known as a hotspot, where molten material from the Earth's mantle percolates up through the crust. The rock that comes up through the crust is typically basaltic (a definition based on the ratio of elements in its composition) and can erupt directly. This tends to produce relatively gentle eruptions where lava flows across a broad area, generally like you see in Hawaii and Iceland. But this hot material can also melt rock within the crust, producing a material called rhyolite. This is a much more viscous material that does not flow very readily and, instead, can cause explosive eruptions.
Your Dream Website Starts Here: 80% Off the #1 Website Builder + 2 Free Months
Have you always wanted to create your own website? Take advantage of Hostinger's current promotion to get started without breaking the bank (less than $2.50/month).
Do Kwon, the crypto bro behind $40B Luna/Terra collapse, finally extradited to US
The US government finally got its metaphorical hands on Do Hyeong Kwon, the 33-year-old Korean national who built a financial empire on the cryptocurrency Luna and the "stablecoin" TerraUSD, only to see it all come crashing down in a wipeout that cost investors $40 billion.
As private investors filed lawsuits, and as the governments of South Korea and the United States launched fraud investigations, Do Kwon was nowhere to be found. In 2022, the Korean government filed a "red notice" with Interpol, seeking Kwon's arrest and his return to Korea. A few months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Kwon with fraud in the US.
On September 17, 2022, Kwon famously tweeted, "I am not 'on the run' or anything similar"—but he also wouldn't say where he was. He didn't help his case when he was arrested in March 2023 by the authorities in Montenegro. At an airport. With fake travel documents. On his way to a country with no US extradition agreement.
US stocks rally to shake off new year jitters amid light trading
Apple makes CFO transition official as Luca Maestri departs role
Apple announced last year that the company’s CFO Luca Maestri would move to a new role in 2025. As promised, the company has now issued a report to investors making Maestri’s transition from CFO official.
more…New ship, new year: SpaceX to deploy model Starlink satellites on next Starship launch
SpaceX is significantly upping the ante of its Starship test flight program, with the next rocket launch expected to demonstrate payload deployment for the first time. The payload in question will be 10 Starlink “simulators” that will be similar in size and weight to the next-gen satellites SpaceX plans to use Starship to deploy in […]
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Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi resigns from self-driving truck startup Aurora’s board
Dara Khosrowshahi is resigning from the board of autonomous vehicle technology company Aurora Innovation, citing a desire to focus on his ongoing responsibilities as CEO of Uber and reduce external board commitments, according to a Friday regulatory filing. Khosrowshahi’s resignation was effective as of Tuesday. Aurora says Khosrowshahi’s decision to leave the board was not […]
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Now, Elon Musk Is Trying to Upend British Politics
Why is Trump's righthand man trying to discredit Britain's Labour government?
Zendaya’s Dune Wardrobe Woes Sound as Harsh as Arrakis
The star of Dune: Part Two recalls how she took suffering for her art to a whole new level.
Apple Intelligence Now Takes Up Nearly Twice as Much Storage as It Did at Launch
User adoption of Apple's AI is low, but it just keeps taking up more space.
Tim Cook is donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, too
Apple CEO Tim Cook is the next tech exec to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration committee, according to Axios. Cook’s donation follows similar commitments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos through Amazon, and Meta as Big Tech companies and executives work to curry favor with the incoming administration.
Cook famously built a personal relationship with Trump during his first term that other tech CEOs are looking to replicate. He was one of many to congratulate Trump after his Election Day victory, and Axios reports that Cook has met with Trump at Trump Tower and his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Elon Musk, who dropped in on Bezos’ December dinner with Trump, joined “part of” Cook’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Axios says. The New York Times previously reported that Cook met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Unnamed sources tell Axios that “Cook, a proud Alabama native, believes the inauguration is a great American tradition, and is donating to the inauguration in the spirit of unity.” Apple is “not expected” to donate to the inauguration. The company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Utah lawsuit alleges TikTok knew minors were being exploited on livestreams
Streams on TikTok Live were used to exploit children, according to a newly unredacted lawsuit filed by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes. The lawsuit says that TikTok was not only aware that TikTok Lives were exposing minors to concerning messages from adults, but the company also directly profited off of some of the exchanges through TikTok Live's virtual gifting system.
Following an investigation by Forbes into TikTok Live, TikTok conducted its own review called "Project Meramec," according to the suit. The company found that "hundreds of thousands of children" were getting around TikTok's age restrictions, hosting livestreams and interacting with adults.
Because TikTok pockets a portion of the sale of digital gifts in livestreams, the company was technically making money on "transactional gifting" over "nudity and sexual activity" that happened during streams. And since TikTok's algorithm favors livestreams where virtual gifts are being exchanged, the lawsuit says, some of these sexually exploitative streams were also distributed more widely than they would have been otherwise.
The lawsuit details another TikTok investigation, "Project Jupiter," that looked in to whether TikTok Live's gifting feature was being used to launder money. As it turns out, it was. According to the lawsuit, the company found that "criminals were selling drugs and running fraud operations" during livestreams.
When reached for a comment on the lawsuit, TikTok shared the following statement:
This lawsuit ignores the number of proactive measures that TikTok has voluntarily implemented to support community safety and well-being. Instead, the complaint cherry-picks misleading quotes and outdated documents and presents them out of context, which distorts our commitment to the safety of our community.
We stand by our efforts, which include: robust safety protections and screen time limits for teen accounts enabled by default, Family Pairing tools for parents to supervise their teens, strict livestreaming requirements, and aggressive enforcement of our Community Guidelines on an ongoing basis.
Utah's AG filed the redacted version of this lawsuit in June 2024, following a different suit from 2023 concerning the addictive design of the TikTok app. The Utah lawsuit isn't the first time the company has come under scrutiny for its handling of child safety. The FTC has investigated TikTok's handling of child privacy, and the ban of the app — now headed to the Supreme Court on appeal — was partially pushed over concerns with how social video app could be used to influence children.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/utah-lawsuit-alleges-tiktok-knew-minors-were-being-exploited-on-livestreams-220851340.html?src=rssInside the wild fall and last-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded over the holidays
Friday, December 27, was supposed to be the start of a relaxing holiday weekend. But it was chaos for thousands of small business owners who use Bench, an accounting and tax startup based in Canada that raised $113 million from investors like Bain Capital Ventures and Shopify. That morning, they found themselves unable to log […]
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These fintech companies are hiring in 2025 after a turbulent year
While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams.
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