Six days on the bubble with America’s most eclectic team
6Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Sports

Six days on the bubble with America’s most eclectic team

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s 9:40 a.m. in the southeast parking lot at The Pit, and a man in black-and-white face paint circles on a dirt bike. This is Snake. He arrives early for New Mexico men’s basketball games, hypes up friendly faces and sportively harasses the visiting team when it arrives. Everyone knows Snake. He’s been at this for years. He’s a believer.An attendant asks Snake how he is, and Snake declares he has everything he needs. His Lobos are hunting for their first NCAA Tournament berth in a decade. In a couple hours, they’ll be on network television, playing the first of back-to-back home games against ranked teams. That hasn’t happened in two decades. A door cracked open for a program aching to find a way.When the team’s coach, Richard Pitino, pulls into his parking spot, Snak...
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Israel-Hamas War Live Updates: Blinken Arrives in Mideast to Rally Support for Cease-Fire Plan
5Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
World

Israel-Hamas War Live Updates: Blinken Arrives in Mideast to Rally Support for Cease-Fire Plan

Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday. He was greeted by Mohammed Al-Ghamdi of the Saudi foreign affairs ministry.Credit...Mark Schiefelbein/Associated PressSecretary of State Antony J. Blinken began a Middle East trip on Monday that is meant to prevent a broader war in the region, and to rally allies around a proposal to release hostages held in Gaza. The visit comes as the Biden administration pursues retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias that have targeted U.S. troops.Mr. Blinken landed in Saudi Arabia in his fifth trip to the region since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. U.S. officials said he hopes to advance talks on a series of interlocking deals to end the war in Gaza and will hold meetings with leaders in Saudi Arabia, ...
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How Nevada Is Pushing to Generate Jobs Beyond the Casinos
5Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Business

How Nevada Is Pushing to Generate Jobs Beyond the Casinos

Before the pandemic brought everyday life to a halt, Joe Kiele supported himself through the industry that dominates Nevada’s economy. He waited tables at a steakhouse inside a casino in Reno.Four years later, Mr. Kiele, 49, remains in Reno, yet he now spends his workday inside a factory. In place of worrying about the doneness of a customer’s rib-eye, he trains people on the proper handling of industrial chemicals.His employer, Redwood Materials, is constructing an enormous complex across a lonely stretch of desert. There, the company has begun recycling batteries harvested from discarded smartphones and other electronics. It extracts critical minerals like nickel, lithium, copper and cobalt, and uses them to manufacture components for electric vehicle batteries.Not coincidentally, the pl...
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Fake and Explicit Images of Taylor Swift Started on 4chan, Study Says
5Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Technology

Fake and Explicit Images of Taylor Swift Started on 4chan, Study Says

Images of Taylor Swift that had been generated by artificial intelligence and had spread widely across social media in late January probably originated as part of a recurring challenge on one of the internet’s most notorious message boards, according to a new report.Graphika, a research firm that studies disinformation, traced the images back to one community on 4chan, a message board known for sharing hate speech, conspiracy theories and, increasingly, racist and offensive content created using A.I.The people on 4chan who created the images of the singer did so in a sort of game, the researchers said — a test to see whether they could create lewd (and sometimes violent) images of famous female figures.The synthetic Swift images spilled out onto other platforms and were viewed millions of ...
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When a Spouse Goes to the Nursing Home
5Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Health

When a Spouse Goes to the Nursing Home

Even as the signals of approaching dementia became impossible to ignore, Joseph Drolet dreaded the prospect of moving his partner into a long-term care facility.Mr. Drolet, 79, and his beloved Rebecca, 71, both retired lawyers and prosecutors in Atlanta, had been a couple for 33 years, though they retained separate homes. In 2019, she began getting lost while driving, mishandling her finances and struggling with the television remote. The diagnosis — Alzheimer’s disease — came in 2021.Over time, Mr. Drolet moved Rebecca (whose surname he asked to withhold to protect her privacy) into his home. But serving as her round-the-clock caregiver, as she needed help with every daily task, became exhausting and untenable. Rebecca began wandering their neighborhood and “getting dressed in the middle ...
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​​NHL player poll: Why 78 percent say there should be no neck-guard mandate
4Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Sports

​​NHL player poll: Why 78 percent say there should be no neck-guard mandate

Mandatory neck guards are coming to youth hockey in the United States.Already required in Canada and many other countries, USA Hockey, which governs the sport at the amateur level in the U.S., has long held its line at “recommending” laceration protection — namely neck guards, but also cut-resistant socks, sleeves and undergarments.The decision was announced Sunday and will go into effect on Aug. 1, about nine months after the issue was thrust into the spotlight when former NHL player Adam Johnson died of a skate cut to the neck during a game in England.More NHLers have begun to wear neck protection in the months since, either regularly or to try to find something comfortable.“You’re seeing more and more of it,” one player told The Athletic. “I wear the shirt for my wrists. I think you’re ...
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Wildfires Threaten 2 Chilean Cities, Destroying 1,000 Homes and Killing 40
4Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
World

Wildfires Threaten 2 Chilean Cities, Destroying 1,000 Homes and Killing 40

Forest fires ripping through central Chile’s coastal hills since Friday have killed at least 40 people and destroyed more than 1,000 homes, with many more feared dead, according to the national government.The wildfires are encroaching on Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, two cities that form a sprawling region that is home to more than one million people on Chile’s central coastline, about 75 miles northeast of the capital, Santiago.Just after midday, President Gabriel Boric flew over the area in a helicopter, and said his government had worked to “secure the greatest resources” in Chile’s history to fight the blazes during the country’s wildfire season, which typically hits during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer and reaches a peak in February.“I assure you all that we will be there as a gover...
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Biden to Sit Out Super Bowl Interview for Second Year in a Row
3Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Business

Biden to Sit Out Super Bowl Interview for Second Year in a Row

President Biden is sitting out the Super Bowl for the second year in a row.CBS said on Saturday that the White House had turned down a request for Mr. Biden to participate in a televised interview with its news division, which would have aired in the highly rated hours ahead of the big game on Feb. 11.In a tradition dating to 2009, presidents have recorded an interview with the network that broadcasts the Super Bowl, although there have been exceptions. Donald J. Trump did not appear on NBC in 2018. Last year, Mr. Biden declined to appear on Fox, home of cable hosts like Sean Hannity who are sharply hostile toward him.But the White House has been receptive to CBS News in the past. The president was interviewed by the “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell ahead of the 2021 Super Bowl, a...
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Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine
3Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Technology

Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine

On a sweltering July evening, the din from thousands of computers mining for Bitcoins pierced the night. Nearby, Matt Brown, a member of the Arkansas legislature, monitored the noise alongside a local magistrate.As the two men investigated complaints about the operation, Mr. Brown said, a security guard for the mine loaded rounds into an AR-15-style assault rifle that had been stored in a car.“He wanted to make sure that we knew he had his gun — that we knew it was loaded,” Mr. Brown, a Republican, said in an interview.The Bitcoin outfit here, 45 minutes north of Little Rock, is one of three sites in Arkansas owned by a network of companies embroiled in tense disputes with residents, who say the noise generated by computers performing trillions of calculations per second ruins lives, lower...
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6 Reasons That It’s Hard to Get Your Wegovy and Other Weight-Loss Prescriptions
3Feb Avatar photoBy James W. BrownNo Comments
Health

6 Reasons That It’s Hard to Get Your Wegovy and Other Weight-Loss Prescriptions

About 3.8 million people in the United States — four times the number two years ago — are now taking the most popular weight-loss drugs, according to the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, an industry data provider.Some of these prescriptions are for diabetes. The medicines are Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy (the same drug sold under different brand names), and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound (also the same drug).Pent-up demand is even higher, because many people who want the drugs cannot find or afford them. Without insurance coverage, people have to pay out of their own pockets. If they obtain a coupon offering a discount from Eli Lilly, people with commercial insurance pay $550 a month for Zepbound. For those who are commercially insured, a coupon from Novo Nordisk for Wegovy ...
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