> > > To use the Montreal subway (the Métro), you tap a paper ticket against the turnstile and it opens. The ticket works through a system called NFC, but what's happening internally? How does the ticket work without a battery? How does it communicate with the turnstile? And how can it be so cheap that you can throw the ticket away after one use? To answer these questions, I opened up a ticket and examined the tiny chip inside. > >

After fleeing Hitler, brilliant Jewish economist Karl Polanyi was never welcomed by the British. Now, for the first time in 80 years, his masterwork The Great Transformation has been be published in the UK

Big tech companies are still trying to rally workers back into physical offices, and many workers are still not having it. Based on a recent report, computer-maker Dell has stumbled even more than most.

Dell announced a new return-to-office initiative earlier this year. In the new plan, workers had to classify themselves as remote or hybrid.

Those who classified themselves as hybrid are subject to a tracking system that ensures they are in a physical office 39 days a quarter, which works out to close to three days per work week.

Alternatively, by classifying themselves as remote, workers agree they can no longer be promoted or hired into new roles within the company.

Business Insider claims it has seen internal Dell tracking data that reveals nearly 50 percent of the workforce opted to accept the consequences of staying remote, undermining Dell's plan to restore its in-office culture.

https://archive.ph/9Mq4c

Temperatures are rising as summer kicks off, and psychological scientists are sounding the alarm on what to be aware of in warmer temperatures. It remains to be seen whether summer 2024 breaks the records of last summer: In the United States, heat domes baked the Midwest; El Paso, Texas, saw weeks without a day below 100°F; and Tampa Bay, Florida, issued its first extreme heat advisory. In November 2023, Phoenix reported that at least 569 people had died because of heat-related reasons over the summer.

Extreme heat days are an inevitable consequence of a warming world, and things are not cooling down. Globally, 2023 was the hottest year on record, and the Met Office—the United Kingdom’s national weather service—predicts that 2024 may be worse. It could even be the first year on record to surpass 1.5°C of warming above the preindustrial era.

The companies led by the boob-obsessed billionaire have faced a number of sexual harassment lawsuits. Why do his cult-like followers still consider him a genius?

Elon Musk is a boob. The brash billionaire is also, as he can’t stop telling the world, embarrassingly obsessed with breasts – so much so that last year he painted over the “W” on the Twitter sign at the San Francisco headquarters so that it read “Titter”. This belaboured joke was a long time in the making: days before offering to buy Twitter in April 2022, he tweeted a poll: “Delete the w in Twitter?” It’s highly possible that Musk spent $44bn on the social media platform just so that he could one day turn this very stupid gag into reality. This wasn’t the first time he’d publicly sremoveded “Haha, female anatomy is hilarious!” like a dimwitted schoolboy.In 2021 he joked about starting a university called the Texas Institute of Technology & Science. Gettit? It’s a naughty acronym. Hilarious! Indeed, this particular joke never seems to get old for the 52-year-old. Earlier this year, he tweeted “Boobs just rock, it’s a fact,” alongside a meme of a man distracted by a woman’s cleavage.

An awful lot of people seem to dismiss Musk’s juvenile behaviour and incessant innuendo as harmless high jinks. But this is wrong: his misogyny matters.

Tony Sinclair had worked all his life – but still found himself sleeping rough. Then even his tent was taken away from him.

In a way, 70-year-old Tony Sinclair was lucky to be in his tent on the day last year when the police arrived. The canvas that kept him from the elements ended up in the bin, but, unlike several of his neighbours, he was able to save his most important possessions from going the same way.

Source post : https://mastodon.social/@debdiscourse/112621050081552276 Cartoon author ? : https://www.adamdouglasthompson.com/about-wexley

Institutions alleged to have given billions of dollars to oil and gas companies involved in projects that are harming the rainforests

Five of the world’s biggest banks are “greenwashing” their role in the destruction of the Amazon, according to a report that indicates that their environmental and social guidelines fail to cover more than 70% of the rainforest.

The institutions are alleged to have provided billions of dollars of finance to oil and gas companies involved in projects that are impacting the Amazon, destabilising the climate or impinging on the land and livelihoods of Indigenous peoples.

António Guterres warns of ‘climate crunch time’ and announces dire new scientific warnings of global heating

Fossil-fuel companies are the “godfathers of climate chaos” and should be banned in every country from advertising akin to restrictions on big tobacco, the secretary-general of the United Nations has said while delivering dire new scientific warnings of global heating.

In a major speech in New York on Wednesday, António Guterres called on news and tech media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking fossil-fuel advertising money while warning the world faces “climate crunch time” in its faltering attempts to stem the crisis.

“Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health, like tobacco,” he said. “I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil-fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil-fuel advertising.”