🐤 Apple's big week

Markets: The last week of October includes a number of factors that could influence the immediate trajectory of the stock market. Earning season continues with an emphasis on the tech industry, the latest employment numbers will be dropping soon, and a new inflation report will shed even more light on the economic situation. Investors were somewhat optimistic yesterday as all three major indexes ticked up by a fraction of a percent.

Three-peat prediction: Travis Kelce helped lead the Kansas City Chiefs to two consecutive Super Bowl victories, and his girlfriend, pop superstar Taylor Swift, seems to think the NFL team has another championship in the cards. During a recent concert at the same New Orleans, Louisiana, stadium where the next Super Bowl will be played, Swift offered a few remarks about her beau. Following her impression of Kelce’s on-field antics, she raised three fingers in the air — apparently to share her forecast of a third straight Lombardi trophy for the Chiefs.

The play of the season: Sunday’s game between the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears came down to the final second and ended with a pulse-pounding Hail Mary launched by Washington QB Jayden Daniels. The ball ended up being tipped by Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson to Commanders wide receiver Noah Brown who scored the game-winning touchdown. The unusual ending attracted plenty of commentary from both teams, including Daniels who called it “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Shutting them down: There’s been an ongoing trend in recent years of once-successful restaurant chains falling on hard times and declaring bankruptcy or closing down locations in hopes of getting back on the right track. For TGI Fridays, the news this week involved the closure of dozens of restaurants nationwide, specifically in New York, New Jersey, and California. In all, the closing restaurants account for nearly one-fourth of all the chain’s locations. There are now 164 locations compared to 270 open at the beginning of this year.

Going up in smoke: A pair of ballot drop off boxes on either side of the Oregon-Washington border were reportedly set ablaze Monday, potentially destroying hundreds of ballots with just over a week left until Election Day. Authorities are treating the incidents as arson and believe they might be connected to another damaged ballot box discovered recently in Vancouver, Washington. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek issued a response via social media: “Voter intimidation or any criminal act to undermine the upcoming election is un-American & will not be tolerated.”

There’s no doubt that Apple is among the tech industry’s heaviest hitters — so when it promises a week of exciting announcements, fans and influencers alike are bound to take notice. Product updates began rolling out yesterday, and we’ve got a breakdown of the biggest confirmed news and rumors.

• All about AI: Like almost all of its Big Tech rivals, Apple has been pursuing an artificial intelligence strategy that will offer users an array of useful and clever features. A suite of tools including writing assistance and photo editor are currently being implemented in a beta version on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, and users are required to join a waitlist before the platform is implemented on the device.
• iMac updates: If you’re in the market for a new iMac, it might be worth waiting for the latest version, which boasts a powerful M4 chip, an 8-core CPU, and as much as a 10-core GPU. There are a lot more color options available now as well as an array of accessories. Prices start at just under $1,300.
• Other notable news: Insiders say the new MacBook Pro is expected to receive the latest M4 chip, though Apple hasn’t confirmed that yet. There’s also a big redesign in the works for the Mac Mini, which is expected to become more compact than ever. And say goodbye to the Lightning Port because Apple confirmed it is replacing all of its accessories with more common USB-C ports.

Whether you’re a long-time Apple loyalist or simply curious about what the company has in store, this week should be a great opportunity to find out the latest about what is already here and what you can expect in the near future. And next month, even more product launches are slated to be announced.

We’re a week away from a presidential election and abortion has been a hot-button campaign issue on both sides of the aisle. But there’s a bit of common ground when it comes to mifepristone, a type of steroid often used to terminate a pregnancy.

A wide swath of Americans agree that the drug should be available nationwide … and a new study suggests it might help slow or reverse the effects of aging.

What we already knew

This isn’t the first time mifepristone has been used for purposes other than inducing an abortion. Individuals with Cushing’s disease, for example, have been prescribed the drug to treat a number of symptoms, including:

• Endometritis
• Elevated blood sugar
• Uterine fibroids

But if mifepristone works on humans the way it appears to work on fruit flies, there will likely be many more people lining up to take it.

Age ain’t nothing but a number

Flies are known for having particularly short lives, but when a group of researchers from the University of Southern California administered the drug to female fruit flies they noticed that it seemed to possess some anti-aging properties.

In fact, it worked better by itself than rapamycin, an immunosuppressant known to have similar benefits. The median lifespan extension recorded through mifepristone was 114%, whereas rapamycin was only associated with an 81% increase.

The resulting study has been published in the Fly scientific journal, and the researchers summed up their findings: “The data suggest that mifepristone and rapamycin act through a common pathway to increase mated female Drosophila [fruit fly] life span.”

Before you get too excited, it’s worth noting that just because something works on flies doesn’t mean it’ll benefit us. But the latest evidence should be enough to warrant additional research into the topic.

We’ve all seen predictions about how artificial intelligence might negatively impact our society. From the spread of misinformation to widespread job losses, there’s no shortage of reasons to be wary about the proliferation of this powerful technology.

But there’s an environmental factor that doesn’t get as much attention — and it probably should.

Preparing for the future

You might have heard that AI uses an immense amount of energy, which at this time is produced largely from fossil fuels. But that’s not the only reason that the AI boom could spell bad news for our planet.

According to available research, the current rate of AI expansion is on track to result in as much e-waste as 10 billion iPhones combined by the end of this decade.

A new study published in the Nature journal noted that “the physical materials” and “waste stream of obsolete electronic equipment” are major factors that “have received less attention” than the relative energy requirements.

“Our study aims not to precisely forecast the quantity of AI servers and their associated e-waste, but rather to provide initial gross estimates that highlight the potential scales of the forthcoming challenge, and to explore potential circular economy solutions,” the study explained.

Addressing the challenges

Instead of pushing for the eradication of power-hungry generative AI models, the researchers offered a number of steps developers and consumers should take in order to reduce the impact.

Among the recommendations included in the research paper are:

• Creating more efficient software that will allow devices to last longer
• Finding new uses for servers after they have outlived their usefulness
• Recycling various components necessary in the creation of AI

While these might be positive first steps, the researchers weren’t very specific about their potential benefit, stating that these strategies could reduce e-waste anywhere from 16% to 86%.

Engineers just created the world's strongest suction cup.

I'm still not sure how they pulled it off.

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