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Month: March 2023

Amazon is shutting down DPReview and The Book Depository [Updated]

2023-03-22 /

There’s nothing like it online. DPReview founder Phil Askey speaks out. “What a waste.”

Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch »

The team’s knowledge, acumen and extensive objective testing contributed to reviews that famously reached near-comical lengths at times, but that was because shortcuts simply were not taken: You could be sure that even minor models were getting not just a fair shake, but the same treatment a flagship model received. Its back catalog of camera reviews and specs is an incredible resource that I have consulted hundreds of times. […]

Somehow Amazon never really found a way to capitalize on this one-of-a-kind asset, and DPReview has carried on over the years more or less untouched, to the point where it seems possible its parent company forgot they owned them. It’s hard not to see the opportunities that present themselves when you own one of the world’s leading expert voices on a major category, but perhaps unsurprisingly, no one thought to invest in and integrate DPReview closely with Amazon’s other properties. It isn’t the first time the left hand and right hand have been incommunicado at that company.

Elsewhere » Peta Pixel / The Register / The Verge / Daring Fireball / Boing Boing

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Last Updated on April 6, 2023

Led Zeppelin » Kashmir

2023-03-16 /

Led Zeppelin » 

September 16, 1970

The Savoy Hotel in London played host to the 1970 Melody Maker Poll Awards, where Led Zeppelin displaced the Beatles in the most popular group category.(The first time the Beatles had not been ranked #1 in eight years). Robert Plant was also voted best male vocalist.

John Bonham and Robert Plant make a rare appearance on TV, interviewed for BBC’s Nationwide.

More » 

Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Only 5% of countries met WHO Air Pollution Guidelines in 2022

2023-03-14 /

IQAir‘s 5th Annual World Air Quality Report reveals alarming details of the world’s most polluted countries, territories, and regions in 2022.

For this year’s report, data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,323 locations in 131 countries, territories, and regions was analyzed by IQAir’s air quality scientists.

Key findings from the 2022 World Air Quality Report (Download the full report):

  • Six countries met the World Health Organization PM2.5 guideline (annual average of 5 µg/m3 or less): Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand.
  • The top five most polluted countries in 2022 were:
    • Chad (89.7 µg/m3) more than 17 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Iraq (80.1 µg/m3) more than 16 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Pakistan (70.9 µg/m3) more than 14 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Bahrain (66.6 µg/m3) more than 13 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Bangladesh (65.8 µg/m3) more than 13 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
  • A total of 118 (90%) out of 131 countries and regions exceeded the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline value of 5 µg/m3
  • While the African continent saw an increase from 13 countries represented in 2021 to 19 countries included in this year’s report, Africa remains the most underrepresented continent. Only 19 countries out of 54 countries have sufficient air quality data
  • The region of Central and South Asia was home to eight of the world’s ten cities with the worst air pollution
  • Lahore is the most polluted metropolitan area of 2022. It ranked #15 in 2021
  • Chile became home to eight of the region’s top 15 most polluted cities
  • The most polluted city in the U.S. was Coffeyville, Kansas. The most polluted major U.S. city was Columbus, Ohio
  • California was home to 10 of the 15 most polluted cities in the U.S.
  • Las Vegas, Nevada was deemed the cleanest major city in the U.S.
  • Canada’s cleanest city in 2022 was Schefferville, Quebec
  • Canada most polluted city in 2022 was Clearwater, British Columbia

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Last Updated on July 2, 2023

A diet rich in seafood, fruit, and nuts may indeed help reduce the risk of dementia

2023-03-13 /

New research has revealed that individuals who ate a Mediterranean-like diet had up to 23% lower risk for dementia than those who did not.

Medical Express »

They conclude that based on their data, a Mediterranean diet that has a high intake of healthy plant-based foods may be an important intervention to incorporate into future strategies to reduce dementia risk.

Dr. Janice Ranson, at the University of Exeter, joint lead author on the paper, said, “The findings from this large population-based study underscore the long-term brain health benefits of consuming a Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats.

“The protective effect of this diet against dementia was evident regardless of a person’s genetic risk, and so this is likely to be a beneficial lifestyle choice for people looking to make healthy dietary choices and reduce their risk of dementia. Future dementia prevention efforts could go beyond generic healthy diet advice and focus on supporting people to increase consumption of specific foods and nutrients that are essential for brain health.”

Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Living off-grid in Manhattan

2023-03-11 /

Joshua Spodek, writing in Ars Technica »

I learned to time my activities around the sun. In direct sunlight, the panels fully charged the battery in about four hours. A cloudy day could mean the battery wouldn’t fully charge, but between planning and my NYU cheat, I missed zero meetings.

Some changes that made the experiment work included reading more books, writing by hand, choosing salads over cooked foods, going out instead of staying in, and shifting work to daytime hours. At first, I considered these changes sacrifices, but looking back, I view them more as a cultural shift, a bit like when I lived overseas and couldn’t find a good bagel. Finding the local equivalent—croissants in Paris or vegetable steamed buns in Shanghai—worked better than complaining, and it expanded my world.

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Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Singapore grades itself on its Covid-19 responses

2023-03-11 /

Salma Khalik, writing in The Straits Times »

The White Paper on the nation’s performance, released on Wednesday, was not a self-congratulatory exercise but an effort to understand how it can build on its successes and avoid the errors committed in the fog of war, when the next big pandemic knocks on its doors.

…

“Vaccination was clearly such an important way out of this pandemic for the world and for Singapore,” he added. “Overall, our whole vaccine strategy from procurement, to the rolling out of the vaccines, to the communication to actually delivering jabs to people, I think we have generally done well, and that has enabled us to get through this pandemic.”

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Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Record number of women worked in construction in Quebec in 2022

2023-03-11 /

On this year’s International Women’s Day, the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) announced that a record number of women worked on construction sites in 2022—over 7,200, an increase of nearly 970 over 2021—accounting for 3.64% of the overall workforce.

Large numbers of women chose to begin a construction career, surpassing the 1,900 mark for a second year in a row and representing a peak of 9.32% of all newcomers to the industry.

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Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Timothy Snyder » The global fight for our future

2023-03-11 /

If you think democracy is some kind of inevitable, default setting for the world, then you aren’t going to have it for very long, says historian and author Timothy Snyder. From World War I to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Snyder dives into the structures that uplift and tear down political systems, offering a historical perspective on the current state of democracy around the world as well as the patterns of thought that lead to tyranny.

Timothy David Snyder is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Wikipedia

Clocks in many parts of Canada to jump forward this weekend

2023-03-11 /

Most Canadians will set their clocks forward an hour tonight before going to bed. Most provinces, as well as the territories of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, will set their clocks ahead one hour.

Yukon and most of Saskatchewan keep their clocks the same year-round. Yukon made the switch for the last time in March 2020, and standard time is now permanent there.

Also » CBC / Axios

Last Updated on July 2, 2023

A moderate amount coffee is associated with lower mortality risk

2023-03-11 /

Tina Reed, writing in Axios »

The researchers from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, used behavioral data from more than 171,000 people enrolled in a U.K. study to understand coffee consumption patterns.

  • They found during a seven-year follow-up period, participants who drank any amount of unsweetened coffee were 16% to 21% less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.
  • Participants who drank 1.5 to 3.5 daily cups of coffee sweetened with sugar were 29% to 31% less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.

 

Last Updated on July 2, 2023

Meeting an old friend for the first time

2023-03-11 /

David Weinberger, Ph.D. writing in Phycology Today »

I ran into him a couple of weeks ago at a conference and had multiple conversations, a few of them quite extended. When it was time to leave the conference, one of us said to the other that our intermittent friendship is long, deep, and important to us. The other agreed with his whole heart.

At age 72 I have discovered a type of friendship that I did not know existed. It’s a friendship that does not correlate with the amount of time we have spent together, the frequency of the meetings, how well we’ve “kept up” with the other, or the significance of the events we’ve participated in—no weddings, birthdays, or funerals.

Last Updated on July 2, 2023

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