Nitter

🤦‍♂️ Lock your edibles up like responsible people if you have kids/pets, folks.

"Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which are hiring local musicians and carefully curating playlists to help lighten travelers’ moods."

I have a distinct memory of hearing and seeing a pilot play a baby grand piano in Frankfurt airport during a transfer, and it was such a pleasant impromptu experience. I welcome both thoughtfully curated recorded & live music in airports. It's a win also for local talent.

This is related to my previous question about AM5. Turns out 2 8x lane GPUs on AM5 might be an option after all.

So my question: Does a 16x lane PCIe GPU always support x8 lanes as well? (Like a Radeon RX 7900 XTX or something bigger and better from the future.)

The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people disappeared from radar screens on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.Despite the largest search in aviation history, the plane has never been found.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Malaysia had agreed to a new search operation by maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which also carried out an unsuccessful hunt in 2018. The company's first efforts followed a massive Australia-led search for the aircraft that lasted three years before it was suspended in January 2017.

Loke said a new 15,000 square kilometre (5,800 square mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean would be scoured by Ocean Infinity, which is based in the United Kingdom and United States. "The new search area proposed by Ocean Infinity is based on the latest information and data analysis conducted by experts and researchers," Loke said. "The proposal for a search operation by Ocean Infinity is a solid one and deserves to be considered," he told reporters.

The government said it agreed to Ocean Infinity's proposal "in principle" on December 13, with the transport ministry expected to finalise terms by early 2025. The new search will resume "as soon as the contract is finalised and signed by both parties", Loke said. "They have informed us that the ideal time for the search in the designated waters is between January and April. We are working to finalise the agreement as quickly as possible," he added.

"I truly hope there will be an end to the loss of MH370. May all questions be answered," Malaysian Rosila Abu Samah, 60, the stepmother of one of the passengers, told AFP. Malaysian Shim Kok Chau, 49, whose wife was a flight attendant on the ill-fated flight, said he had come to accept her fate but hopes to know what happened to the plane, "why it happened and who did it".

The new search will be on the same "no find, no fee" principle as Ocean Infinity's previous search, with the government only paying out if they find the aircraft. The contract is for 18 months and Malaysia will pay $70 million to the company if the plane is found, Loke said.

The original Australia-led search covered 120,000 square kilometres in the Indian Ocean but found hardly any trace of the plane, with only some pieces of debris picked up. The plane's disappearance has long been the subject of theories -- ranging from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue. A final report into the tragedy released in 2018 pointed to failings by air traffic control and said the course of the plane was changed manually.

This is very entertaining.

In order to give myself and the many tired volunteers around WordPress.org a break for the holidays, we’re going to be pausing a few of the free services currently offered:

• New account registrations on WordPress.org (clarifying so press doesn’t confuse this: people can still make their own WordPress installs and accounts)
• New plugin directory submissions
• New plugin reviews
• New theme directory submissions
• New photo directory submissions

We’re going to leave things like localization and the forums open because these don’t require much moderation.

As you may have heard, I’m legally compelled to provide free labor and services to WP Engine thanks to the success of their expensive lawyers, so in order to avoid bothering the court I will say that none of the above applies to WP Engine, so if they need to bypass any of the above please just have your high-priced attorneys talk to my high-priced attorneys and we’ll arrange access, or just reach out directly to me on Slack and I’ll fix things for you.

I hope to find the time, energy, and money to reopen all of this sometime in the new year. Right now much of the time I would spend making WordPress better is being taken up defending against WP Engine’s legal attacks. Their attacks are against Automattic, but also me individually as the owner of WordPress.org, which means if they win I can be personally liable for millions of dollars of damages.

If you would like to fund legal attacks against me, I would encourage you to sign up for WP Engine services, they have great plans and pricing starting at $50/mo and scaling all the way up to $2,000/mo. If not, you can use literally any other web host in the world that isn’t suing me and is offering promotions and discounts for switching away from WP Engine.

https://www.nytimes.com/games/connections

Signed into law by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday, the legislation comes as Egypt faces a severe economic crisis and fallout from regional conflicts, including Sudan and Gaza. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says Egypt is receiving hundreds of Sudanese refugees daily, with more than 845,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered as of November.

Official estimates suggest Egypt now hosts more than nine million "guests" -- the government term for refugees and migrants. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the nine million includes all who entered Egypt, regardless of legal status or migration reason.

For decades, the UNHCR managed refugee registration under a 1954 agreement, but the new law shifts these responsibilities to Egyptian authorities. The law creates a permanent refugee committee under the prime minister to oversee asylum applications and services.

Activists argue the law was rushed without consultation with civil society organisations or the UNHCR. "The law was passed through with a great deal of urgency and secrecy," Karim Ennarah, director of the research unit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told AFP. UNHCR declined an AFP request for comment.

Parliamentarians defended the law. "The urgency in enacting the legislation arises from the necessity of having a framework," Tarek Radwan, head of the parliament's human rights committee, said, citing the country's geopolitical challenges and the growing refugee population. "No country can manage a steady rise in refugee numbers without regulations to govern their presence," he told AFP.

The government says the law aligns with international treaties and aims to streamline refugee data by integrating its databases with those of the UNHCR. However, critics say the law adopts "a security-focused approach".

A major concern is a clause granting authorities the power to take "necessary measures" against refugees during wartime, counter-terrorism operations or national security crises. Another controversial provision criminalises housing refugees without notifying the police, punishable by imprisonment. The law also requires refugees who enter Egypt illegally to apply for asylum within 45 days of arrival. "These law gaps and vague language further weaken the already fragile protections for refugees," Ennarah said. "It also creates a climate of fear around refugees."

Egypt has hosted large numbers of displaced people, including Syrians, Palestinians and Sudanese. More than 1.2 million Sudanese refugees have arrived since April 2023, joining more than 150,000 Syrians and over 100,000 Palestinians. Amid the country’s financial crisis, anti-refugee sentiment has been rising, with concerns about strains on healthcare, housing and education. Refugees, however, receive little to no assistance from either the United Nations or the government.

Egyptian officials have repeatedly urged more international funding to manage the crisis, with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly saying in April that the support given to Egypt falls short of the burden of hosting millions of refugees. In October, the European Union granted Egypt 12.2 million euros to provide health and education services to refugees, migrants and asylum seekers in Egypt.

However, Egypt's refugee policies have faced scrutiny. In June, Amnesty International reported that 800 Sudanese detainees were forcibly returned without being allowed to seek asylum. Human Rights Watch warned that the law could increase the risk of authorities arbitrarily denying asylum and undermining refugee rights.

University students joined the protest movement in the wake of the tragedy, which had already forced the resignation of construction minister Goran Vesic. He was later arrested before being released. But outrage at the deaths in the northern city of Novi Sad has not abated, with many protesters accusing the government of corruption and inadequate oversight.

Serbia's four education unions had called on teachers and other staff to walk out Friday to support the protests. "Employees will stop work in solidarity and support of students in the fight for a better and fairer society," unions said in a letter to pupils' parents this week. With pressure mounting, the Serbian government said schools would close early for the winter holidays.

They had already released official documents on the building works at the station and bowed to student demands to raise higher education funding by a fifth in a bid to calm the anger. "We fulfilled all the (students') demands. We do not accept additional ones," President Aleksandar Vucic said earlier this week.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of the prime minister and the Novi Sad mayor over the disaster, and want to see those found responsible prosecuted. Fourteen people, aged between six and 74, were killed at the scene on November 1 when the roof collapsed after major renovation works on the station. A 15th victim died in hospital weeks later.

Seven weeks on, tensions remain high with violence breaking out at some protests, with students accusing pro-government football hooligans of targeting demonstrations. A video widely shared on social media showed opposition leader Dragan Djilas scuffling with supporters of Vucic's party on Thursday night.

Moscow has struggled to rein in inflation, which has soared in the wake of Moscow's almost three-year Ukraine offensive. Prices are rising fast across the Russian economy, pushed up by massive government spending on the military campaign and deep labour shortages.

President Vladimir Putin called inflation "worrying" in an end-of-year press conference on Thursday but said the sanctions-hit economy was stable. Most economists had expected a hike to be announced Friday, but the bank appeared to have headed to harsh criticism by Russian business and political establishment, most of which does not want to see rates go up any more.

The unexpected move "sparks a lot of questions about the central bank's reaction function -- and whether it may be starting to become subject to political pressure", said Liam Peach, senior emerging markets economist at London-based research group Capital Economics.

The central bank has hiked rates aggressively over the last 18 months in the face of a slumping currency and stubborn price rises. Despite elevate price growth, the bank said in a statement Friday it "estimates that inflationary pressures will begin to decline in the coming months under the impact of tight monetary conditions and the cooling of lending activity". Annual inflation is estimated to have increased to 9.5 percent as of December 16, more than twice the government's four-percent target.

Putin hailed Russia's economic "stability" in the face of "external threats" on Thursday. "The thing that is unpleasant and bad is the rise in prices. But I hope that if macroeconomic indicators are maintained, we will be able to cope with it," Putin said.

The Russian economy is facing a cocktail of headwinds as its offensive on Ukraine nears the three-year mark. Alongside high inflation and labour shortages, Western sanctions have sent the value of the ruble plunging and growth is set to slow next year. That has raised concerns about the possibility Russia could see a period of stagflation -- low growth and high interest rates -- something economists see as tricky for policy makers to deal with. High interest rates have so had only limited impact in bringing down prices, but have triggered a backlash among borrowers and businesses.

"The economy can't survive like this for long," German Gref, CEO of Russia's largest lender, state-run Sberbank, said this month. Even Putin's closest allies have complained. Sergei Chemezov, head of the Rostec military-industrial conglomerate and a close friend of the president, described interest rates of more than 20 percent as "madness".

Putin had on Thursday refrained from explicitly advising the central bank whether to raise rates, saying only that he hopes the decision will be "balanced and meet the demands of today". The central bank had earlier predicted a sharp slowdown in growth next year -- to below 1.5 percent, from over 3.5 percent this year. The bank's next key rate meeting is set for February 14, it said, days before the third anniversary of Moscow's Ukraine offensive.

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The tradition of partners being carefully selected by the two families remains hugely popular, but in a country where social customs are changing rapidly, more and more couples are making their own matches. So for some families, the first step when young lovers want to get married is not to call a priest or party planner but a sleuth like Paliwal with high-tech spy tools to investigate the prospective partner.

Sheela, an office worker in New Delhi, said that when her daughter announced she wanted to marry her boyfriend, she immediately hired Paliwal. "I had a bad marriage," said Sheela, whose name has been changed as her daughter remains unaware her fiance was spied on. "When my daughter said she's in love, I wanted to support her -- but not without proper checks."

Paliwal, 48, who founded her Tejas Detective Agency more than two decades ago, says business is better than ever. Her team handles around eight cases monthly. In one recent case -- a client checking her prospective husband -- Paliwal discovered a decimal point salary discrepancy. "The man said he earns around $70,700 annually," Paliwal said. "We found out he was actually making $7,070."

"Sometimes my clients also don't want people to know they are meeting a detective," she laughed. Hiring a detective can cost from $100 to $2,000, depending on the extent of surveillance needed. That is a small investment for families who splash out many times more on the wedding itself. It is not just worried parents trying to vet their prospective sons or daughters-in-law. Some want background checks on their future spouse -- or, after marriage, to confirm a suspected affair.

"It is a service to society," said Sanjay Singh, a 51-year-old sleuth, who says his agency has handled "hundreds" of pre-matrimonial investigations this year alone. Private eye Akriti Khatri said around a quarter of cases at her Venus Detective Agency were pre-marriage checks. "There are people who want to know if the groom is actually gay," she said, citing one example.

Arranged marriages binding two entire families together require a chain of checks before the couple even talk. That includes financial probes and, crucially, their status in India's millennia-old caste hierarchy. Marriages breaking rigid caste or religious divisions can have deadly repercussions, sometimes resulting in so-called "honour" killings.

In the past, such premarital checks were often done by family members, priests or professional matchmakers. But breakneck urbanisation in sprawling megacities has shaken social networks, challenging conventional ways of verifying marriage proposals. Arranged marriages now also happen online through matchmaking websites, or even dating apps. "Marriage proposals come on Tinder too," added Singh.

The job is not without its challenges. Layers of security in guarded modern apartment blocks mean it is often far harder for an agent to gain access to a property than older standalone homes. Singh said detectives had to rely on their charm to tell a "cock and bull story" to enter, saying his teams tread the grey zone between "legal and illegal". But he stressed his agents operate on the right side of the law, ordering his teams to do "nothing unethical" while noting investigations often mean "somebody's life is getting ruined".

Technology is on the side of the sleuths. Khatri has used tech developers to create an app for her agents to upload records directly online -- leaving nothing on agents' phones, in case they are caught. "This is safer for our team," she said, adding it also helped them "get sharp results in less time and cost".

Surveillance tools starting at only a few dollars are readily available. Those include audio and video recording devices hidden in everyday items such as mosquito repellent socket devices, to more sophisticated magnetic GPS car trackers or tiny wearable cameras.

The technology boom, Paliwal said, has put relationships under pressure. "The more hi-tech we become, the more problems we have in our lives," she said. But she insisted that neither the technology nor the detectives should take the blame for exposing a cheat.