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Philips, Ahold donated to 26 election deniers running to hold their U.S. Congress seats

Between 2021 and 2024, Philips and Ahold donated money to U.S.

Crime and Courts Read on NL Times
Beta Technologies unveils first passenger carrying electric aircraft

Beta Technologies unveiled Monday the next electric aircraft in its lineup — a passenger-carrying version of its ALIA vertical takeoff and landing and fixed-wing vehicles. Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles don’t rely on a runway, whereas fixed-wing aircraft do. The Vermont-based startup, which has raised over $860 million in equity to date from […]

Environment Read on TechCrunch
News Image Death Stranding 2’s photo mode looks wild

The 2024 edition of the Tokyo Game Show took place over the weekend, and one of the highlights was a presentation from Death Stranding 2 studio Kojima Productions. It included a few interesting details about the weird-as-hell sequel, which the developer has helpfully split up into a series of clips in lieu of a traditional trailer. They feature some of the new characters joining the cast, some dialogue that makes little sense out of context, and what looks like a completely ridiculous photo mode to play around with. The first includes some returning faces played by Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux and also provides a proper introduction to one of the stranger elements of Death Stranding 2: a physic medium who has been turned into a...

Entertainment Read on The Verge
Augmented Intelligence claims its symbolic AI can make chatbots more useful

Augmented Intelligence claims that its 'symbolic AI' techniques can help lead to better chatbot experiences.

Politics Read on TechCrunch
News Image Dungeon-mastering emotions: D&D meets group therapy

Enlarge ,” explained Gary Colman, the chairman of Game Therapy UK, a registered charity staffed by volunteer professionals who are developing evidence-based therapeutic gaming projects. “In practical terms, it can also be used for a range of purposes, including modeling positive behavior and teaching soft social skills and basic educational skills, including language and numeracy.”

Education Read on Ars Technica
News Image Amazon’s Stock Clearance: Upgrade Your TV with Amazing Fire TV Stick Discounts

Whether you're a casual viewer or a dedicated binge-watcher, these discounts make it easier than ever to access your favorite shows in stunning quality.

Business Possible ad Read on Gizmodo
News Image The NFL’s head trauma problem isn’t going away

Recently, trauma suffered by football stars has raised fresh concerns about the league’s ongoing issues with head injuries — and raised questions about whether there is more the NFL could do to protect its players.  In early September, Tua Tagovailoa, a quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, suffered a frightening third (diagnosed) concussion, prompting some fans and former players to urge his retirement. In the wake of that injury, former Green Bay Packers star quarterback Brett Favre disclosed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease during congressional testimony on Tuesday, noting that repeated head trauma was likely a major factor. And on Thursday, Malik Nabers, a rookie wide receiver for the New York Giants, set a receiving record before leaving the game with a concussion.  It isn’t news that professional football can be dangerous: The NFL first admitted the connection between football and CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain condition — in 2016. CTE is most often found in athletes who suffer repeated hits to the head and members of the military who are exposed to explosive blasts, and has been tied to the deaths of famous football players, including Andre Waters and Mike Webster. More than 300 former football players have been diagnosed with CTE following their deaths. (The condition requires a brain autopsy to accurately diagnose.)  Due to concerns about CTE and other conditions related to brain trauma, the league has invested in improving the equipment that players wear, changed rules for practice and game day, and promoted techniques intended to reduce head contact. This season, those changes include allowing players to wear new headgear meant to better protect players’ brains. This week, however, was a reminder that major problems remain for America’s most popular sport. In recent years, the NFL has made major changes to helmets and protective gear, as well as shifts to in-game rules aimed at reducing collisions, NFL Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills told Vox.  Perhaps one of the most noticeable this season is the introduction of a new type of headgear called “Guardian Caps” — layers of foam padding worn over a helmet — during games. The caps, which most players have been required to wear when practicing since 2022, are intended to reduce the impact that players experience if they get hit in the head, potentially by about 10 percent, according to the NFL.  There are a few issues with the caps, however. One, players aren’t required to wear them during games, and relatively few players have chosen to do so thus far, limiting their impact.  And independent studies also haven’t confirmed whether they’re effective. Despite the NFL’s findings, separate teams of researchers from the University of North Carolina and the University of Nevada-Reno both found limited reductions in force for players wearing the caps, while a third study, from Stanford, saw force reductions in the lab but not when athletes wore them on the field. Sills argues this variability comes from differences in the researchers’ methodology and the NFL’s, and notes that the NFL intends to publish its research within the next few months.  The NFL also claims its researchers found that Guardian Caps reduced concussions by roughly 50 percent when worn in practice, a finding that some physicians have been skeptical of.  One main issue, doctors told the New York Times, is that better helmets and Guardian Caps shield the head, but they don’t shield the neck — which can be critical for preventing concussions. Hits and twisting of the neck play a major role in causing concussions, they note.  As Jamshid Ghajar, a neurosurgeon, told the Times, race car drivers’ helmets, like those used in Formula 1 racing, are more effective at preventing concussions because they stabilize the neck even in cases of a crash. The NFL has disputed the Times’s characterization of concussions, and Sills argued that concussions aren’t predominantly caused by what he characterized as “neck forces.” The NFL has also touted its use of 12 new helmet models this season, which are supposed to protect players from position-specific blows, and a new rule meant to make kickoffs — a part of the game in which players run toward one another, often at high speeds — safer. The effectiveness of these changes is still unclear, and it’s important to note that even with these changes, the fundamental issue of football involving bodily collisions and head contact remains. As Julie Stamm, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin Madison, notes, “the best way to prevent [head trauma] is to not have impacts.”

Health Read on Vox
Car crashes into water in Amersfoort; Three killed

Three people died in a traffic accident in Amersfoort early on Monday morning.

Crime and Courts Read on NL Times
News Image 15 Best Keyboards for PC (2024): Gaming and Work

Whether you’re looking to boost your productivity or your Fortnite stats, these are the top typing peripherals for the job.

Business Read on WIRED Gear
News Image Updates From Jurassic World Rebirth, and More

Plus, get another sneak peek at Robert Eggers' Nosferatu.

Entertainment Read on Gizmodo
Qodo raises $40M Series A to bring quality-first code generation and testing to the enterprise

At first glance, Qodo, the startup previously known as CodiumAI, may appear to be yet another AI code generation tool. But the team, which is announcing a $40 million Series A round led by Susa Ventures and Square Peg today, is just as much focused on generating code as on generating the tests and code […]

Business Read on TechCrunch
News Image AMD improves Zen 5 CPU latency and performance with BIOS updates

AMD is releasing new BIOS updates that will boost performance for its Ryzen 9600X / 9700X processors and address some latency issues. The performance improvements and latency reductions arrive around a month after disappointing Zen 5 desktop CPU reviews and appear alongside updates to Windows 11 that include optimized AMD-specific branch prediction for both Zen 4 and Zen 5 chips. CPU reviewers have been reporting a higher-than-expected core-to-core latency across the Ryzen 9000-series of desktop processors, and now AMD has addressed this with a new BIOS optimization. The latest AMD updates for AM5 motherboards include AGESA PI 1.2.0.2 firmware, which AMD says will address some “corner cases” where it takes two transactions to read and...

Politics Read on The Verge Tech
Airship wants to build better sales tools for HVAC contractors

The HVAC industry is going through a transformation. The old guard of tradespeople are on the cusp of retiring while private equity firms are consolidating the industry. Airship is building a software solution for HVAC’s next chapter. Airship is building a point-of-sale software for HVAC contractors to give them the knowledge they need, on things […]

Business Read on TechCrunch
News Image California Governor Vetoes AI Bill Aimed at Preventing Catastrophic Harms

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that by focusing only on the largest harms caused by the largest AI models the bill would harm innovation and fail to keep up with the pace of technology.

Politics Read on Gizmodo
News Image Amazon is Clearing Out Echo Dots for Just $22—Barely More Than a Starbucks Coffee

Elevate your smart home experience with unbeatable deals on Amazon's top smart speakers.

Business Possible ad Read on Gizmodo
Over 19 Dutch died per day after falling due to a stumble or slip last year

More and more people are dying from tripping or slipping. Last year, almost 7,000 people died after a fall, an average of over 19 people per day.

Environment Read on NL Times