All posts tagged: breaking

The Breaking Point for Eggs

The Breaking Point for Eggs

Published by José

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. One sign that the egg-cost crisis has gotten dire came in the form of a bright-yellow sticker on a laminated breakfast menu: On Monday, Waffle House announced that it would be adding a temporary 50-cent surcharge to each egg ordered. Egg prices have risen dramatically as of late. First, inflation pushed up their cost. Then the ongoing bird-flu outbreak led to shortages. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump assured Americans that he would get food costs under control: He vowed last summer that he would bring food prices down “on day one”—a promise he did not fulfill. As egg prices have kept ticking up in recent weeks, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, has blamed the Biden administration for high egg costs, citing the standard, USDA-authorized measure of killing millions of egg-laying chickens that were infected with bird flu (something …

What Breaking Up Google’s Search Monopoly Could Do to AI

What Breaking Up Google’s Search Monopoly Could Do to AI

Published by skeptic

The most powerful chatbot may not be the most successful one. Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. November 29, 2024, 2:30 PM ET This is Atlantic Intelligence, a newsletter in which our writers help you wrap your mind around artificial intelligence and a new machine age. Sign up here. Google is taken for granted as a dominant force in the generative-AI market—so it’s easy to forget that, in the initial frenzy following the release of ChatGPT, the search giant was caught flat-footed. The company raced to catch up with OpenAI, and its early models made some basic and highly publicized errors. But now the company is at the technology’s vanguard. Its flagship Gemini AI models are being integrated into seven different Google-owned products with at least 2 billion users each. That’s not because Gemini is so much better than ChatGPT, Claude, or any other competitor—but because Google already had that sprawling ecosystem and user base. That ecosystem advantage, perhaps more so than the talent of their research teams, is what makes Google, Apple, Meta, and …

Breaking the Holiday Drinking Cycle

Breaking the Holiday Drinking Cycle

Published by skeptic

The holidays can be a joyous time, filled with family, friends, and celebrations. But for many, they also bring a unique set of challenges: parties with free-flowing alcohol, family stress, and societal pressure (or permission) to drink… a lot. Nearly 40% of Americans increase their alcohol consumption during the holiday season, according to the NIAAA. But what if this year, you broke the cycle and experienced the season differently? By understanding the underlying emotional hooks and adopting practical strategies, you can make this holiday a turning point. Understanding the Emotional Hooks of Holiday Drinking For many, the holidays evoke powerful emotions—nostalgia, joy, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. These feelings, combined with societal norms, create a potent cocktail of triggers that can lead to excessive drinking. In my books The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked, I explain that addiction often stems from emotional pain or unmet needs. As I say in the Abstinence Myth, “Alcohol becomes the quick fix for emotions we don’t want to face.” The holiday season, with its highs and lows, amplifies this dynamic. The …

A Journey of Resilience: Breaking Chains, Embracing Truth

A Journey of Resilience: Breaking Chains, Embracing Truth

Published by skeptic

[ Adobe Stock | ergey Nivens ] Mariam Oyiza Aliyu The following piece was written by Mariam Oyiza Aliyu, an ex-Muslim rights activist and survivor of gender-based violence from Kogi State in central Nigeria. Aliyu has focused her humanitarian energies on the most vulnerable in Nigeria: women and children.  I grew up in the quaint town of Okene, nestled between the boundaries of a bustling city and a serene village in Kogi State, Nigeria. Our family was deeply immersed in the Islamic faith, and my father, a renowned sheik, held a prominent position within the community. However, he was an absentee father, leaving my sibling and me to be raised primarily by our extraordinary mother—a woman of unyielding strength and intellect. Despite the constraints imposed by our religious beliefs, my mother remained open-minded and free-spirited. Her activist tendencies, fueled by a burning desire for justice, often led her to question the norms of our community. This audacity, however, came at a price. As our faith was placed under scrutiny, we became targets of harassment and …

Are we breaking the law? – OpentheWord.org

Are we breaking the law? – OpentheWord.org

Published by skeptic

Icebergs in the Antarctica’s Lemaire ChannelCredit: Christopher Michel, Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0 So, do you have an opinion about Climate Change? Most people do. I’m sure I do, although I don’t think about it all day. Are you ready to talk about it? If you are ready to give an opinion, I recommend caution. Denying Climate Change, or taking the opposite position and strongly advocating for remedies to fix the problem, might get you into legal problems, in some places. I am not a lawyer, but apparently taking a strong position in favor of Climate Change beliefs might get you into legal difficulties in the State of Florida. On the other side, denying Climate Change might also get you into legal problems in Canada. Other places also seem to be taking legal positions. Did you know? There are news stories about oil companies that are very cautious with their public statements, these days. They don’t want expensive legal action, including lawsuits. Here is one person’s opinion: You could also research titles like “Apocalypse 2050” or …

School rapped after breaking data law

School rapped after breaking data law

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles A school has been rapped by the information watchdog after it illegally used facial recognition on its pupils, prompting a call for leaders to safeguard children’s rights when implementing new technology. The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a formal reprimand to Chelmer Valley High School in Essex following “infringements” of the UK’s general data protection regulations (GDPR) relating to the processing of biometric data. The school failed to assess the impact of technology introduced to manage its cashless catering system before it was introduced, and did not get explicit consent from its pupils, the ICO ruled. Lynne Currie, ICO head of privacy innovation, said: “Handling people’s information correctly in a school canteen environment is as important as the handling of the food itself. “We expect all organisations to carry out the necessary assessments when deploying a new technology to mitigate any data protection risks and ensure their compliance with data protection laws.” She said introducing measures such as facial recognition technology “should not be taken lightly, particularly when it …

The Dam Is Breaking for Biden

The Dam Is Breaking for Biden

Published by skeptic

Nearly from the moment President Joe Biden walked off the Atlanta debate stage three weeks ago, Senator Peter Welch of Vermont has been trying—first gently, then much more directly—to get him to end his reelection bid. He now believes that effort is working. “I think it’s happening,” he told me by phone this morning. More than 20 House Democrats have publicly pushed Biden to withdraw. For now, Welch is the only senator calling for him to step aside. But the party is rapidly turning against Biden. The Democratic National Committee yesterday paused plans to nominate him early by virtual roll call, and last night, reports emerged that a trio of party leaders—Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi—each told Biden in separate private conversations that his nomination would jeopardize the Democrats’ chances to win this fall. Former President Barack Obama, perhaps Biden’s most helpful ally to this point, has reportedly told Democrats that Biden needs to reconsider his candidacy. Shortly before I spoke with Welch this morning, …

Breaking down the battles Israel’s Netanyahu is facing to stay in power

Breaking down the battles Israel’s Netanyahu is facing to stay in power

Published by Sam

As the battles in Gaza have ground on — the fighting has killed more than 300 Israeli soldiers and more than 37,000 Palestinians — top officers have increasingly flagged the need for a “day after” plan: Who would run Gaza when the fighting ended? For the commanders, the question is a military necessity. Without a plan for some authority to take control, they cannot pull troops from Gaza without fear that Hamas would quickly regroup, rearm and threaten to carry out another Oct. 7. For Netanyahu, it’s a political minefield. His most extreme partners advocate for Israel to permanently occupy Gaza, and even to rebuild Jewish settlements there. Caught in the middle, Netanyahu has refused to form any plan at all. When pushed, he repeated only that Israel would keep fighting until Hamas is “destroyed.” Military leaders, who are close to completing their target lists in Gaza, seem to have had enough. The complaints they had shared with reporters off the record for weeks became increasingly public. Earlier this week, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the …

I am in jail for breaking windows at JP Morgan, the biggest funder of fossil fuels. Here’s why I did it | Amy Pritchard

I am in jail for breaking windows at JP Morgan, the biggest funder of fossil fuels. Here’s why I did it | Amy Pritchard

Published by skeptic

Every day I struggle to hold the insanity of our collective behaviour within me – in my psyche, my heart and my body. The harm we are causing to ourselves, to our fellow humans and all other beings, and our incredible, beautiful home, is horrific. Yet I know that what I think and feel is a healthy response to what’s going on. In April 2021, Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the EU commission, said: “Today’s children will face a future of fighting wars for water and food.” We are already facing significant impacts on our harvests here. The prospect of wars over resources and conflict caused by and exacerbated by climatic conditions is an almost unbearable intergenerational injustice. The loss of biodiversity, meanwhile, will erode the foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, law and order, health and quality of life worldwide. If the government’s primary duty is to protect the people, then the form of democracy we have is failing. We took this action because the institutions and systems that we relied upon were …

How BBC’s breaking news alerts are giving voters – and political parties – an electoral buzz | General election 2024

How BBC’s breaking news alerts are giving voters – and political parties – an electoral buzz | General election 2024

Published by skeptic

The most powerful person in British media during this election, in terms of having the most direct access to voters, is no longer the editor of BBC’s News at Six or the person who chooses the headlines on Radio 2. Nor are they a newspaper editor, a TikTok influencer, or a podcaster. Instead, they’re the anonymous on-shift editor of the BBC News app, making snap judgments on whether to make the phones of millions of Britons buzz with a breaking news push alert. The BBC does not publish user numbers, but external research suggests about 12.6 million Britons have its news app installed. BBC newsroom sources say the actual number is higher and the assumption is that about 60% of users have notifications enabled. This means that on a conservative estimate, a typical push alert is reaching the phones of 7 million Britons – more than any other broadcast news bulletin in the UK. Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former director of communications, said influencing the BBC’s coverage was the main objective for all political press …