Mon:Welcome to the QOP's Favorite Day, Labor Day.

Lightning is Going the Way of BetaMax

Apple's latest iPhone will almost certainly feature a USB-C charge point when it is unveiled on 12 September.

The firm's phones currently use its proprietary Lightning adaptor, unlike rivals, including Samsung.

A European Union law requires phone manufacturers to adopt a common charging connection by December 2024 to save consumers money and cut waste.

Most new Apple products such as the latest iPads already use USB-C, but the firm had argued against the EU rule.

When it was introduced in September 2021, an Apple representative told BBC News: "Strict regulation mandating just one type of connector stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, which in turn will harm consumers in Europe and around the world."

Lightning to USB-C adaptors are already available from other electronics brands including Amazon, and all iPhones since the iPhone 8 which launched in 2017 have supported wireless charging.

As the current iPhone 14 now looks to be the last Apple device to exclusively use it, this could mark the beginning of the end of the Lightning cable - which retails on the Apple store for £19.

Thanks to the EU of Ending Our Cable Nightmare.

Winning the Artillery War

Thus, while people have complained about the lack of “progress” on the front lines, the artillery balance of power has completed shifted to Ukraine’s advantage. That kind of unheralded success makes scenes like this one possible:

Ukrainian soldiers sit in their trenches enjoying the relentless artillery barrage on Russian positions. This was the sort of video that we’d see reversed the first year of the war, even at Bakhmut this year—non-stop Russian artillery pounding the crap out of Ukrainian positions.

Now, not only does Ukraine enjoy that newly earned artillery edge, but that artillery seems unconcerned with counter battery fire. Not only do Western guns outrange Russia’s Soviet-era guns, and not only are they more accurate and efficient, but Russia doesn’t have much left to strike back. And let’s not even talk about those Ukrainian soldiers. Nothing is hitting them.

There have been recent videos of Russian suicide drones taking out Ukrainian artillery, but all those hits are in daytime. At night, Ukrainian artillery can do whatever it wants unimpeded, with little fear of Russian countermeasures. Not that daytime brings Russia any reprieve:



How to Stop Suicide Drones

Tuberville Fiddles While the US Burns

Gen. Eric M. Smith has a vision for furthering the Marine Corps’ transformation from a force shaped by two decades of counterinsurgency warfare into one that’s optimized for a great-power clash, possibly with China.

He can’t share it with anyone, though.

The United States, Smith said in a recent interview, finds itself in an “interwar period” and must take full advantage of peacetime to regroup and advance new fighting concepts.

But the general, selected by President Biden to become the Marines’ next top officer, is one of more than 300 senior military leaders whose nominations are on hold, caught in an acrimonious months-long dispute between Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and the administration stemming from the Pentagon’s abortion policy. And so, Smith said, for now he must “ruthlessly adhere” to admonitions from the Senate that he not presume his next assignment is assured.

“People say, ‘What’s your commandant’s planning guidance?’” Smith said, referring to a major document that the Marine Corps leader typically distributes at the outset of his term, to set priorities and expectations for the 200,000 active-duty troops and reservists under his command. The general’s reply: “You’ll have to ask the 39th commandant when that person is confirmed,” he said, “because I cannot work on that document.”

Marines’ top general ‘ruthlessly’ rides out Tuberville’s military hold

This Week in Fake News

CLAIM: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that a new COVID-19 variant is more contagious among vaccinated people than those who are unvaccinated.

THE FACTS: In a risk assessment summary published Aug. 23, the CDC wrote that the BA.2.86 variant may be more likely to infect people with existing immunity to COVID-19, either from vaccinations or prior infections, than previous variants. It did not say that vaccinated people are at a higher risk than the unvaccinated.

CLAIM: President Joe Biden “literally” convinced segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond to vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act.

THE FACTS: Biden had not yet been elected to the U.S. Senate when the landmark law was passed in 1964, and Thurmond was among the prominent southern Democrats to vote against the bill. A White House spokesperson confirmed the president misspoke in his remarks. Biden made the claim during a White House event Monday.

CLAIM: Increased incidence of a meat allergy linked to tick spit in the U.S. is connected to a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that involves genetically modifying cattle ticks.

THE FACTS: The program to create a modified cattle tick, with the goal of reducing their population and protecting livestock, has thus far been limited to lab work in the U.K. The ticks in question have been largely eradicated in the U.S. and do not bite humans, an expert said. But social media posts are baselessly tying that work to recently published government research estimating that hundreds of thousands of Americans may have an allergy to red meat because of a syndrome triggered by tick bites.

The reaction, called alpha-gal syndrome, occurs when an infected person consumes beef, pork, venison or other mammal products. It’s caused by a sugar in meat from mammals—and in tick spit—that, when transmitted through the skin via a tick bite, can lead to an allergic reaction.

CLAIM: Only blue items survived the Maui wildfires and lasers do not impact that color, suggesting the island was actually hit by a directed energy weapon “attack.”

THE FACTS: The wildfires didn’t spare only blue things, with photos and videos clearly showing that buildings and objects of many colors both survived and perished. More importantly, there is ample evidence that Maui was ravaged by fires, while the notion that a weapon or laser was involved has been repeatedly debunked.

mhb, do you know of a way to stay logged in to prevent having to sign in every time you come back to the site?

mine has gone crazy. it used to keep me signed in for weeks. now if i leave for 10 seconds i have to sign in again.