Month: July 2026

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 1 #881

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Aug. 1 #881

Published by skeptic

Today’s Strands puzzle was kind of tough, with some really long clues to unscramble. If you need hints and answers, read on. Hint for today’s Strands puzzle Today’s Strands theme is: “As if!” If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Ha ha! Clue words to unlock in-game hints Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work: PERT, SUET, ROLL, ROLLS, BADE, TREE, POTS, SPOT, TOPS Answers for today’s Strands puzzle These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned …

Argentina’s Milei Borrows Warren Buffett’s Idea To Punish Deficit-Spending Politicians

Argentina’s Milei Borrows Warren Buffett’s Idea To Punish Deficit-Spending Politicians

Published by Jenni Sidey

More than two years after campaigning to “blow up” Argentina’s central bank, President Javier Milei has announced his “Fiscal Shackle” bill – a permanent rule aimed at preventing Argentina from approving or maintaining budgets with fiscal deficits that could have consequences for politicians. On Thursday, in a speech recorded at the Casa Rosada and broadcast nationwide, Milei proposed an overhaul that would restore the Central Bank of Argentina’s sole mandate of preserving the currency’s value, stop direct and indirect financing of the Treasury, provinces, and municipalities, and expose officials who violate the rules to criminal charges. “It will be considered fraud and illicit association,” he explained. Milei said this is the “most important set of structural reforms in the last 91 years,” taking the year of the Central Bank’s founding, 1935, as the starting point for that period. He argued that the central bank has functioned as “a tool for theft” and indicated that his reform proposal seeks “to put an end to the scam of counterfeiting money to finance high-level politics, whose most evident …

OpenAI reportedly finds evidence that more of its agents ran amok

OpenAI reportedly finds evidence that more of its agents ran amok

Published by skeptic

Much has been made of the incident in which one of OpenAI’s agents broke out of its sandboxed test environment and proceeded to hack the AI hosting platform Hugging Face. OpenAI has since launched an investigation into how the incident occurred, which is still ongoing. Now, anonymous sources have told Reuters that more of OpenAI’s agents are believed to have escaped their sandboxes. However, one source downplayed the severity, saying that with those escapes, the agents didn’t appear to leave OpenAI’s network to hack into another company’s. TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for more information. AI programs acting in bizarre ways has apparently become a weird, almost bragging point for companies. The same week, Anthropic also announced that it had discovered not one, but three instances in which its agents had escaped test environments and hacked other organizations. AI companies have also been accused of using such incidents for marketing purposes — as they generate considerable attention and may underscore how powerful the companies’ products are. The flip side of that is that these disclosures …

6 Firm Boundaries People Usually Set When They Are Especially Difficult To Manipulate

6 Firm Boundaries People Usually Set When They Are Especially Difficult To Manipulate

Published by Jenni Sidey

Boundaries should be non-negotiable in any relationship, but some people are constantly bending them to appease others. That leaves them vulnerable to exploitation. But when someone is difficult to manipulate, it’s because they set firm boundaries. They understand that the sooner they put these rules in place, the more control they retain in this relationship. People who are difficult to manipulate set these firm boundaries 1. Expressing and sticking to their values PeopleImages | Shutterstock Not everyone is going to agree with you or live their life the same way. But you have control over who is allowed into your life, and if their views don’t align with yours, you’re allowed to respectfully walk away. The easiest people to manipulate are the ones who don’t stick to their boundaries or stay assertive when people are trying to bring them down. They’re riddled with self-doubt and are more susceptible to believing someone else’s lies over their own feelings. Neuroscientist Dr. Eamonn Walsh said that this is caused by someone being suggestible. The more suggestible you are, …

Law firm loses touch with hundreds suing over L.A. County landfill

Law firm loses touch with hundreds suing over L.A. County landfill

Published by Sam Flores

Downtown LA Law Group, a law firm facing multiple state and local investigations, says it plans to bow out of a high-stakes environmental case against the county’s second-largest landfill within the next two months. Andrew Morrow, an attorney spearheading the litigation for the firm, said in court Thursday that the group has passed off about 500 of its 1,200 landfill clients to another personal injury firm. Roughly 500 more clients, he said, could not be reached and will likely be dismissed from the case. “We have sort of exhausted our ability to communicate with most of these people,” Morrow told District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. A spokesperson for the firm did not respond to questions from The Times into what precipitated it losing touch with roughly 40% of clients in the litigation against Chiquita Canyon landfill, which has been accused of allowing toxic fumes to waft into nearby homes. The hearing comes as Downtown LA Law Group, or DTLA, faces allegations of attorney misconduct in two significant cases moving through California courts. The Times reported …

Singapore’s Shanti Pereira finishes eighth in Commonwealth Games 200m final

Singapore’s Shanti Pereira finishes eighth in Commonwealth Games 200m final

Published by Sam Flores

SINGAPORE: Shanti Pereira finished eighth in her maiden Commonwealth Games 200m final on Friday (Jul 31). At the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow, the Singaporean sprinter clocked a time of 23.21s. British Virgin Islands’ Adaejah Hodge won gold with a time of 22.07s, Trinidad and Tobago’s Shaniqua Bascombe took silver (22.35s) and Alana Reid of Jamaica clinched bronze (22.56s). On Thursday, the 29-year-old made history by becoming the first Singaporean to qualify for an individual sprint final at the Games. She timed a season-best of 22.81s in the semi-finals, qualifying eighth overall. Pereira’s national record in the 200m is 22.57s, set at the World Championships in 2023. She is the reigning Asian Games champion in the event. Earlier this week, Pereira qualified for the 100m semi-finals at the Glasgow Games with a time of 11.24s, her fastest of the season in that event. She was just 0.04 seconds off her national mark of 11.20s, set at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships. At the last Commonwealth Games in 2022, Pereira lowered both the national 100m and 200m …

WMG Announces Departure of CFO Armin Zerza, Tom Corson Named COO

WMG Announces Departure of CFO Armin Zerza, Tom Corson Named COO

Published by Daniella Wilson

Warner Music Group COO and CFO Armin Zerza is stepping down from his role, the company announced on Friday, noting that the executive has decided to leave for “personal reasons.” Warner Records COO Tom Corson will replace Zerza WMG’s as COO, and the company is starting a search for its next CFO. Zerza “will remain available to the company through the end of the fiscal year to ensure a seamless transition,” WMG said. Louis Dickler, WMG’s SVP, Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer will serve as interim CFO while the company looks for a replacement. It’s a sudden departure for Zerza given that he joined the record company just over a year ago in April of 2025, and he was given the joint role as COO as well just over two months ago. Zerza’s successor will be WMG’s fourth CEO since 2023. Longtime CFO Eric Levin retired in 2023, succeeded by former ESPN and Disney executive Bryan Castellani before Zerza’s appointment in 2025. “Armin has been an instrumental leader and member of the executive team …

Why older men may be particularly vulnerable to suicide in Singapore

Why older men may be particularly vulnerable to suicide in Singapore

Published by Sam Flores

WHAT CAN BE DONE If older men experience emotional distress differently, experts said support must also be offered differently. The pattern is reflected in SOS’s data. While women accounted for about one-third of suicide deaths in 2024, they made up 62.5 per cent of suicide-related calls and texts received by the organisation. SUSS’ Dr Ko said outreach efforts should be designed around how men naturally build relationships. “Women talk face to face but men talk shoulder to shoulder,” she said, explaining that men often connect through shared activities rather than conversations. Rather than expecting men to join traditional support groups, she said programmes centred on practical activities may feel more natural, allowing friendships and trust to develop over time. Dr Ko pointed to the Men’s Shed model as an example where older men meet regularly to work on practical projects and spend time together.  She said similar approaches could help reduce loneliness by creating opportunities for men to connect in ways they find more comfortable.  Ms Jennie Wan, director of mental health at Montfort Care, …

Silicon Valley loves young founders. Until it doesn’t.

Silicon Valley loves young founders. Until it doesn’t.

Published by skeptic

For Arlan Rakhmetzhanov, 19, there is no middle ground. Either he builds a company as valuable as Google, he says, or he fails and ends up on the streets. He started coding at 15 in his native Kazakhstan, completed a couple of summer programs in San Francisco, and cold-DM’ed every Y Combinator founder he could find on LinkedIn until one gave him an angel check for his first company at age 17.   That company, now the YC-backed Nozomio, is an API index for AI agents — a tool that helps AI agents find and use software services — and has raised more than $6 million in funding to date. “I either win or lose, and a lot of young founders have the same mindset,” he told TechCrunch. “They just want to win.” Young founders like Rakhmetzhanov are building under a new set of pressures. Investors are throwing more capital at them, yet the expectation to hit that “north star” milestone — the one big number investors are chasing — hasn’t relaxed, and every misstep along …

Rivian spinoff Also to start delivering e-bikes after months of delays

Rivian spinoff Also to start delivering e-bikes after months of delays

Published by skeptic

Rivian spinoff Also will finally start delivering its first e-bikes to customers next week, after months of delays related to unspecified supply chain issues. The company told TechCrunch on Friday that the Launch Edition of its TM-B e-bike, which retails for $4,500, has started shipping from its manufacturer to its warehouse in the U.S. Also said it expects to deliver all Launch Edition bikes between next week and September. Also began as a skunkworks project inside Rivian in 2022, after CEO RJ Scaringe started looking into making an e-bike to complement his portfolio of electric vehicles for the outdoorsy set. The company spent a few years tinkering with the idea, and even hired Jony Ive’s design firm LoveFrom to help with an early design, as TechCrunch first reported in 2025. In March 2025, Rivian spun out Also as its own company, with $105 million in backing from Eclipse. The startup revealed its first e-bike, the TM-B, in October of last year. It originally targeted a “spring” 2026 ship date, but supply chain headaches got in …