Meanwhile YouTube tries to copy TikTok by pushing Shorts.

About bloody time.

Japan’s proportion of elderly people is the highest in the world.

A battle is brewing between the city and its booksellers, who have been warned that the kiosks will have to be taken down for the Paris Olympics – an unprecedented move since the book stalls took up full-time residence along the Seine more than 160 years ago.

Pros

• Classic design, compact, lightweight, grippy, well-protected.
• Excellent OLED screen with immersive aspect, 120Hz, HDR10.
• Outstanding battery life.
• Superb speakers.
• The latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
• Great photo quality across all cameras, day and night.
• Dependable video quality, great sound, top-notch stabilization.
• No-nonsense launcher based on Android 13.
• Plenty of professional camera apps.
• 3.5mm jack, microSD expansion, physical camera shutter key.

Cons

• No charger and no cable in the box.
• No dynamic refresh rate for the screen.
• No telephoto camera, no macro capabilities.
• Throttles under heavy loads.
• 128GB storage is the only built-in storage option.

Scientists are scouring garbage sites around the world for bacteria, fungi and even insects that harbor enzymes that could be harnessed for breaking down various polymers. It’s early days, but if the efforts can be efficiently scaled-up, such biological recycling could put a dent in the plastic waste problem.

Japan’s population declined in all of its 47 prefectures for the first time in a record drop, while its number of foreign residents hit a new high, reaching almost 3 million people, according to government data released Wednesday, highlighting the increasing role that non-Japanese people play in the shrinking and aging country.

The population of Japanese nationals fell by about 800,000 people, or 0.65%, to 122.4 million in 2022 from the previous year, falling for a 14th straight year.

It’s ok 👍

I want to be very clear: this is not my car. An Audi E-tron parked across multiple spots in order to access a Tesla Supercharger.

One of the more threatening aspects of climate change is its potential to unleash feedbacks, or situations where warming induces changes that drive even more warming. Most of those are natural, such as a warmer ocean being able to hold less carbon dioxide, resulting in even more of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

But at least one potential feedback has a very human element: air conditioning.

A lot of the carbon dioxide we emit comes from the production of electricity. The heat those emissions generate causes people to run air conditioning more often, which drives more electricity use, which drives further emissions. It’s a feedback that will remain a threat until we manage to green the electrical grid.

The real reason seems to be clear: data and revenue. Like other automakers, GM is looking to monetize data-driven add-on features and services. They’re hoping to achieve profit margins of over 20% on “new businesses” by 2030, and the all-new subscription-based infotainment system will play the central part.

This is a familiar approach; every automaker now wants to be the next Netflix of the auto industry, where your car becomes another subscription service.

GM’s competitor, Ford, is also vying for a slice of this pie, aiming to create a “software-defined vehicle” with over-the-air updates and paid features.