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This is today's variation of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a regular dose of what's going connected successful the satellite of technology.
How blistery is excessively blistery for the quality body?
There’s nary different mode to accidental it: it’s hot. Temperatures this summertime person yet again breached records, and astir the world, clime alteration is pushing the limits of what we tin handle. So our clime newsman Casey Crownhart asked the experts: however blistery is excessively blistery for the quality body?
To support our bodies astatine their comparatively unchangeable halfway somesthesia of astir 98.6 °F (37 °C), we perpetually suffer heat. It’s a process that tin beryllium sped up by sweating. But the full balancing enactment tin get derailed erstwhile we’re exposed to utmost heat. If your assemblage isn’t capable to chill itself down accelerated enough, a full cascade of problems tin start, from stressing retired your bosom to throwing your kidneys and liver into chaos.
Sounds bad, huh? Here’s immoderate bully news: to immoderate extent, our bodies tin and bash set somewhat to the heat. But there’s lone truthful overmuch radical tin endure—that mightiness alteration by idiosyncratic oregon place, but limits exist. That’s partially wherefore vigor is an equity issue: not everyone has entree to cooling, oregon the quality to structure wrong erstwhile temperatures rise. Read the afloat story.
This communicative is from The Spark, Casey’s play newsletter keeping you up-to-date connected each things to bash with vigor and clime change. Sign up to person it successful your inbox each Wednesday.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the net to find you today’s astir fun/important/scary/fascinating stories astir technology.
1 Researchers are racing to replicate the LK-99 superconductor
It seems improbable they’ll succeed, but for present there’s inactive a small anticipation amid each the hype. (Wired $)
+ Even if the claims aren’t backed up, they could inactive pb to progress. (New Scientist $)
+ Either way, it’s a slow, painstaking process, truthful we won’t cognize for a while. (CNET)
2 Ocean temperatures are rising
That is each spot arsenic atrocious arsenic it sounds. (The Atlantic $)
+ And it’s not lone disastrous for corals. It threatens the full oceanic ecosystem. (Wired $)
+ There are besides grounds debased levels of Antarctic oversea crystal this year. (NYT $)
3 AI is shaking up YouTube’s thumbnail industry
Cue overmuch consternation from designers—but it’s inactive unclear however overmuch it’ll interaction their jobs. (Rest of World)
+ Meta has released a caller euphony AI model. (The Verge)
+ AI models tin get worse implicit time. (Scientific American $)
+ A apical gaming YouTuber is trying to regenerate himself with AI. (Wired $)
4 What we request to cognize astir the caller question of obesity drugs
They enactment well—but we don’t precisely cognize why, oregon who is champion suited for them. (Nature)
+ When you suffer weight, wherever does it go? (MIT Technology Review)
5 Twitter Blue subscribers present person the enactment to fell their bluish checks
Which does beg the question of what, exactly, it is that they’re near paying for. (Ars Technica)
+ What connected world should we telephone Twitter now? (NYT $)
6 Etsy is scrambling to halt a sellers’ strike
Vendors accidental that the platform’s policies are leaving them retired of pocket. (Quartz)
+ Why everyone’s going connected onslaught this summer. (Vox)
7 Tesla is yet starting to get much competitors for EV charging
The important happening volition beryllium trying to get everyone to converge connected a azygous standard. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ In the clash of the EV chargers, it’s Tesla vs. everyone else. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Please friends, let’s support theaters phone-free zones 📵
Taking photos of your TV astatine home? Knock yourself out! At a theater? Absolutely not. (WSJ $)
9 Sick of dating apps? Try Google Docs.
People are penning ‘date maine docs’ successful the anticipation it mightiness assistance them find amended matches. (NYT $)
10 A important metric for weather: dew point 💧
The higher it is, the much of a sweaty messiness you’ll feel. (Vox)
Quote of the day
“Oh my God. Wow.”
—Uber’s main enforcement Dara Khosrowshahi’s absorption aft an interviewer told him helium paid $51.69 for a three-mile thrust to the company’s yearly merchandise lawsuit successful New York, the Guardian reports.
The large story
The two-year combat to halt Amazon from selling look designation to the police
MS TECH | GETTY
June 2020
In the summertime of 2018, astir 70 civilian rights and probe organizations wrote a missive to Jeff Bezos demanding that Amazon halt providing Rekognition, its look designation technology, to governments.
Despite the mounting pressure, Amazon continued pushing Rekognition arsenic a instrumentality for monitoring “people of interest”. But 2 years later, the institution shocked civilian rights activists and researchers erstwhile it announced that it would spot a one-year moratorium connected constabulary usage of the software. Read the afloat story.
English (US) ·