Month: August 2022

Categories
Sports

South Sydney star Latrell Mitchell ready to fire in first NRL finals series since 2019

South Sydney star Latrell Mitchell ready to fire in first NRL finals series since 2019

Latrell Mitchell says September football is “what I live for” as he eyes off four upcoming blockbuster club clashes and playing finals footy in a Rabbitohs jersey for the first time.

Mitchell, who starred in the 38-point walloping of the Warriors on Saturday with a personal haul of 24 points to lift South Sydney to sixth position on the ladder, has not played in a final since winning the 2019 decider with the Roosters.

Since joining the Rabbitohs he missed the 2020 finals series with a ruptured hamstring tendon and last year’s finals due to suspension.

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He has a sensational record in football finals, winning six of seven games and two premierships with the Roosters. He throws in five tries, with a try in each of his first five appearances, and it is his time to shine.

The 25-year-old custodian is not satisfied with what he has done. It is what comes next that drives him. Winning a competition with South Sydney is his quest from him, but huge games against the Eels, Panthers, Cowboys and Roosters in the next month could make or break the Rabbitohs

“I just love the pressure of this time of year. I love the competitiveness. It is what I live for. I strive for that,” Mitchell said.

“When you know what semi-finals tastes like, it is where you want to be.

Latrell Mitchell starred for the Rabbitohs against the Warriors. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images

“Let’s focus on getting there first… but it would be a different feeling winning [a title] here at South Sydney. I know the passion of the South Sydney fans, members, sponsors and investors… everyone who has put their blood, sweat and tears into it. It is time to repay that.

“I am definitely putting my hand up to do that because I haven’t played [finals] since 2019 and I am really excited to feel the pressure and see what unfolds.

“The next month, I think it is definitely what we need. It is only going to be a positive for us. It will outline a few things that we need to work on. This week’s done. Next week is Parra’.”

Mitchell said he had learned a lot about getting the best out of himself, while reflecting on his three-year absence from the business end of the season.

“That is a real eye opener, but it is a disappointing thing as well… with injury and suspension. Things happen in a split second,” he said.

“I have taken a lot of things out of the last three years, just with my growth. I’ve learned how to be a better teammate, and a better dad off the field as well. When your off-field is making you happy it translates into your footy, and vice-versa. I am continuing to build my legacy.

“I want to keep working on the little things and put myself in the best position.”

The Rabbitohs have won five of six matches since Mitchell’s return from a nine-week absence due to a hamstring injury suffered in round five. After putting the Warriors to the sword, South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou said Mitchell’s best of him was yet to come in the next month.

The Rabbitohs fullback said the entire side had another gear.

“We still haven’t got our full strength back yet,” Mitchell said. We still have Campbell Graham to come back into the team and a few others. It is exciting. It is a great time of the year to give everyone a taste and see where our depth is at.”

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Categories
Australia

Perth weather: South-west corner of WA could be in for its coldest day this year

Perth weather: South-west corner of WA could be in for its coldest day this year

A wintry mix of hail, blustery thunderstorms and even snow flurries is on the cards for Western Australia, as the south-west corner of the state, including Perth, braces for what could be its coldest day of the year so far.

A gusty cold front reached Perth just before midday on Monday, and is set to sweep over the remainder of the South West Land Division, reaching Geraldton to Hopetoun this evening.

While this event is not likely to be as strong or prolonged as the system that hit WA last week, causing record wind gusts in some places, it is still expected to pack a punch.

Cape Leeuwin and Ocean Reef have already recorded wind gusts nearing 90 kilometers per hour.

A large tree lies across the ground in a yard near a home.
Trees and power lines were brought down by a storm that hit Perth last week.(Supplied: Rowan Newton)

Hail could impact large swathe of state

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Caroline Crow said the initial cold front would be followed by a pool of cold air on Tuesday, which would send maximum temperatures plummeting and bring hail to a large area of ​​the state.

A hand holds a giant ball of hail
David Zander from Parmelia said it hailed at their house last Tuesday morning.(Supplied)

“Coming into tomorrow there will be potential hail though the South West Land Division from about Jurien Bay to Lake Grace to Esperance,” she said.

“Broadly speaking, it’s the coldest outbreak for the south-west of the state that we’re looking at for this season so far, given the region of hail potential which is quite far inland.”

SES fixing Mt Helena house roof
SES officers were kept busy with calls for help from residents across Perth last Tuesday and Wednesday.(ABC News: Nic Perpitch)

She said maximum temperatures would generally be between two and six degrees Celsius lower than average on Tuesday, with temperatures in the Great Southern region struggling to reach the low teens.

“The Great Southern and south coastal district is looking at temperatures around 10C to 12C,” she said.

“And from Bunbury into inland parts of the South West Land Division, all the way to the south-east coastal district around that 12C mark.”

Perth is also forecast for cooler-than-normal weather, with a maximum of 15C expected in the city and 14C in Mandurah.

The coldest day of the year so far in Perth was on July 17, when the temperature peaked at 14.2C.

In Katanning, the coldest day was on July 30 when the mercury reached just 11.1C, Mount Barker’s chilliest day was on August 3 (11C) and Bunbury’s coldest day was on July 30 (13.9C).

A branch breaking through the roof to Mt Helena home.
The weather is not expected to get as wild as it did last week, when a tree branch pierced the roof of this Mt Helena home.(ABC News: Nic Perpitch)

Bluff Knoll could get more snow

Ms Crow said the cold blast could mean snow on Bluff Knoll, in the Stirling Ranges, for the second time in a fortnight.

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“It might get cold enough tomorrow to see a little bit of snow up Bluff Knoll, early in the morning around 4am to 5am through until midday,” she said.

“It’s more likely to be flurries rather than really settling on Bluff Knoll.”

One weather app, Windy, has even forecast the chance of light snow on the Perth Hills early on Tuesday. However Ms Crow said that was unlikely.

“The darling scarp doesn’t have a freezing level low enough or cold enough to get a dusting of snow like Bluff Knoll,” she said.

‘Unseasonal’ rain for northern parts of WA

It’s not just the south of the state expecting a wintry blast.

Ms Crow said a band of cloud was starting to thicken up over western Pilbara and central WA, which would likely bring showers by mid-week.

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Categories
US

Mayor pushes back as Texas sends more than 4,000 immigrants to NYC

Mayor pushes back as Texas sends more than 4,000 immigrants to NYC

The mayor spoke to the media outside of the busy bus terminal Sunday morning, adding that some of the families on the bus wanted to go to another city. But when they tried to explain, they were given no choice, the mayor asserted.

“It is unimaginable what the governor of Texas has done. When you think about this country, a country that has always been open to those who are fleeing persecution and other intolerable conditions,” he said. “We’ve always welcomed that. And this governor is not doing that in Texas. But we are going to set the right message and the right tone of being here for these families.”

Abbott involved New York as a means of trying to force President Joe Biden’s hand on enacting stricter border security measures.

“New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said in a statement. “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”

Abbott claimed a bus that arrived in New York on Friday with 54 immigrant passengers was the first to be sent by Texas, but New York City officials said they were skeptical, pointing to a considerably larger number of people who have arrived in the city in recent months, though not all by bus.

Manuel Castro, the city’s immigrant affairs commissioner, said Abbott was using immigrants “as political pawns,” and urged the Biden administration to provide federal relief.

“Our budgets are impacted because no one plans for [4,000] or [5,000] or 6,000 or even more people to arrive, so they need a shelter,” Castro said in an interview with Gothamist. “And so of course, that’s the assistance we are seeking the federal government to step in.”

Although the city is asking the federal government for emergency relief, it is not talking to officials in Texas.

“Frankly, they’re not communicating, coordinating at all,” said Castro. “This is meant to be disruptive, and that’s unfortunate. Because we’re talking about people’s lives.”

Categories
Business

An uncomfortable reality is finally dawning on Australia’s tech sector

An uncomfortable reality is finally dawning on Australia's tech sector

Cliff Obrecht, the co-founder of Australia’s most valuable and celebrated start-up, used an interview with this masthead last week to reassure staff about the future and financial position of his company after investors slashed their holdings in Canva for more than $20 billion. Journalists obsessed with his firm’s plunging valuation “need some more interesting things to write about”, he said.

To enter Blackbird's website, users zoom in through the eye of this bird and pass a wave of psychedelic shapes.

To enter Blackbird’s website, users zoom in through the eye of this bird and pass a wave of psychedelic shapes.Credit:Blackbird Ventures

Obrecht is not the only member of the tech sector to be feeling this way, as punishing market conditions hit home, bringing a decade-long boom in start-ups to an abrupt end. “In 2021 the media stories for start-ups were gushing and in 2022 it’s doom and gloom,” Paul Bassat, one of the country’s largest start-up investors, recently said on Twitter. “It wasn’t that good last year and it’s definitely not that bad this year.”

Endless glowing magazine covers, laudatory pieces about minor capital raisings and photoshoots of two founders standing against an exposed brick wall attest to the former complaint from Bassat. But while some privately grumbled about that, many in the start-up scene grew accustomed to uncritical coverage in the media as a normal standard. Now though, the market has turned sour, and the tech industry is having trouble adjusting.

Some compelling investor letters aside, venture capital firms have every incentive to act like the downturn is a problem for other people. Until recently, capital was a commodity. To persuade start-ups to take their cash, investors had to show that they weren’t just money bags, they were true believers. Consider perhaps Australia’s most prominent venture firm, Blackbird Ventures, for example. Instead of a typical website, a visitor to its online property must “enter the world of Blackbird” by zooming in through the eye of a flame colored bird and flying past a series of kaleidoscopic shapes to learn that the fund backs ambition so great it is. “generationally”.

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In America, this kind of self-mythologizing has spawned a legion of critical pundits. For almost every entrepreneur hawking indecipherable self-help proverbs on Twitter, there is a skeptic. Most famously, New York University Professor Scott Galloway gained prominence after lambasting the coworking firm WeWork’s claim it would “elevate the world’s consciousness”.

In some cases, the technology-media relationship in the United States has grown intensely bitter. After a series of stories on allegations of harassment, corporate mismanagement and his sex life, the billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that “The media is a click-seeking machine dressed up as a truth-seeking machine.” Another start-up founder, Ryan Breslow, issued a series of tweets obliquely implying some form of collusion between the New York Times and a venture capital firm when his company was the subject of a critical story. Big name venture capitalists routinely attack the media. Of course, there is a history of corporate tension between the media and the technology industry: sites like Facebook, Google and eBay took billions that once went to print advertising. But the American experience points to a deeper belief present: that technology and start-ups are fundamentally good, so any reporting on unfavorable truths is therefore fundamentally bad.

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That worldview is still rare in Australia, where laudatory stories about tiny start-ups raising cash ⁠— or even hoping to ⁠— still predominate. The exhortation from Bassat and Obrecht is instead to “ignore the noise” of the broader economy, which is in one sense, good advice. Start-ups aren’t day traders, trying to buy low and sell high. If a company has the potential to upend an enormous industry and generate billions in revenue over the long term, it shouldn’t really matter if it has to endure a downswing on the way. In other words, Obrecht can’t do anything to change inflation or interest rates, so on Bassat’s logic, Canva should not focus on them. But that is not the point: how companies respond to a new situation is what counts. Does marketing expenditure go up or down? Do they have too many staff? And while Canva, a profitable company with $1 billion in the bank and 70 per cent annual revenue growth, can afford to regard a recent multibillion-dollar hit to its valuation as “noise”, it is the exception that proves the rule.

Categories
Technology

These Earbuds Can Diagnose a Range of Ear Conditions

These Earbuds Can Diagnose a Range of Ear Conditions

A team from the University at Buffalo has developed a simple, non-invasive way to diagnose three common ear diseases. The new system involves an audio test that uses an audio chirp to map out the ear structure in conjunction with Bluetooth earphones and a deep learning AI system.

The EarHealth system uses a pair of Bluetooth earphones modified with inward-facing microphones and linked to a smartphone application. The device works by chirping an audio signal into the user’s ear, then recording the sound’s reverberation time as it travels through the ear canals. This allows the system to profile each user’s specific inner ear shape.

These Earbuds Can Diagnose a Range of Ear Conditions
The EarHealth system uses a pair of earbuds with an inward-facing microphone attachment. (Credit: University at Buffalo)

A reading is taken from the user with a sonar-like audio chirp when they are healthy to create a baseline. Then, the test is repeated regularly to check for changes. In human trials with 92 participants, the system diagnosed three common conditions that change the ear’s geometry with an accuracy of 82.6% only by looking for changes in the inner ear.

It recognized three common ear conditions: ruptured eardrums, earwax blockage, and ostitis media, a common ear infection. Furthermore, it could spot them before they become significant issues in many cases.

These Earbuds Can Diagnose a Range of Ear Conditions
The researchers have identified four different conditions that alter the returned audio signal in a way the deep learning system can identify and diagnose at over 80% accuracy. (Credit: University at Buffalo)

Zhanpeng Jin, Ph.D., the lead author of a study published by the ACM, explained:

“With EarHealth, we have developed what we believe is the first-ever earbud-based system that monitors ear health conditions in an effective, affordable and user-friendly way. In addition, because it has the potential to detect these conditions very early, it could greatly improve health outcomes for many people.”

The researchers aim to increase the system’s accuracy by examining the potential influence of ear hair, prior eardrum irritation, and other variables on readings. However, the system appears efficient, practical, and user-friendly enough to gain universal acceptance for regular, super-fast ear exams.

EarHealth is still in its infancy, and there are some limitations. For example, the system cannot be used to identify more complex ear problems such as otosclerosis or chronic middle ear infections. It also does not work well if users wear glasses or hearing aids. However, it is much cheaper than current methods and could be useful for screening large populations.

Categories
Sports

Wayne Carey, Anthony Stevens, separated, hotel, verbal spat, altercation, cheating, reunion, premiership, 1996, Glenn Archer, Denis Pagan, North Melbourne Kangaroos

Wayne Carey, Anthony Stevens, separated, hotel, verbal spat, altercation, cheating, reunion, premiership, 1996, Glenn Archer, Denis Pagan, North Melbourne Kangaroos

The drama between former North Melbourne premiership teammates Wayne Carey and Anthony Stevens has taken a twist, with reports the duo had to be “separated” at a club reunion on the weekend.

More than 20 years after Carey’s cheating scandal with Stevens’ then-wife rocked the Kangaroos and ended with the skipper departing the club, an SEN report on Monday suggested the duo clashed at a gathering of former North players on Saturday night.

SEN reporter Sam Edmund told Dwayne’s World there was an “ugly altercation” between Carey and Stevens at North Melbourne’s 1996 premiership gathering at the Railway Hotel in Yarraville.

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“Witnesses said, Dwayne, that Carey went at Stevens, accusing him of talking behind his back, telling people not to bother trying to catch up with him but then being fine in-person,” Edmund told Dwayne’s World.

the Herald Sun reported the conversation centered around Stevens’ mental health, with Carey discussing how he dealt with his own issues following the affair scandal. Carey told Channel 7 earlier this yer the affair was the “biggest regret of his adult life” and had “haunted me for over 20 years.”

Edmund said witnesses had told him the pair were “separated”, with fellow ex-Kangaroos left “stunned” by the verbal attack. the Herald Sun reported there was no potential of violence and that the pair “moved on and shared a beer together” afterwards.

Stevens then didn’t attend the club’s 1996 reunion parade at Marvel Stadium on Sunday — where 17 players took part in a motorcade before the Roos’ clash with Sydney — as he was left “shattered by the heated exchange”.

The Roos told the Herald Sun that Stevens, who’s also a club director, didn’t attend Sunday’s event because he was ill.

Stevens had played a crucial role in organizing the celebrations, but ultimately saw fit to stay away from Sunday’s event.

“It’s a pretty sad sequel,” Edmund said.

While Stevens was absent on Sunday, Carey was in a vehicle with ex-teammate Wayne Schwass and premiership coach Denis Pagan for the lap around the Docklands stadium.

Also in attendance was Glenn Archer, who famously uncovered the affair at his house back in March 2002.

The scandal saw Carey resign in disgrace before moving across to play his final two years at Adelaide – and famously coming up against former teammates like Archer.

North Melbourne’s 1996 premiership reunion at Marvel Stadium on Sunday. Picture: Michael WillsonSource: Supplied

Last weekend’s gathering was to celebrate the club’s 25-year anniversary, but due to Covid restrictions in 2021 the meeting was pushed back to last weekend.

Six players were presented life membership at the club – Stuart Anderson, Mathew Capuano, Glenn Freeborn, Mark Roberts, Robert Scott and Peter Bell.

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Categories
Australia

WA Supreme Court hears man allegedly attempted to kill partner of 35 years

Supreme Court WA 27/09/2013

A 58-year-old Perth man armed himself with a large knife and tried to kill his wife after becoming angry at her for ending their 35-year relationship and taking out a restraining order against him, the WA Supreme Court has been told.

The man, who the ABC has chosen not to name, is on trial accused of attempting to murder his wife as she lay sleeping the room of her Beeliar home, with her four-year-old granddaughter beside her, just after midnight on September 25 , 2020.

The court was told the couple’s adult son, who was staying with his mother to protect her, heard his mother’s cries for help and rushed into the bedroom.

He managed to grab his father in a bear hug and eventually forced him to drop the knife, while the woman called the police.

She had suffered injuries to her hands, including a ruptured tendon, because she grabbed the knife when her husband jumped on top of her, after entering the bedroom and turning on the light.

State Prosecutor Brett Tooker said the man had been holding the weapon at his wife’s chest while yelling things like “you’re dead, I’m going to kill you.”

A silhouette of a woman as she looks out of a window
The woman ended the relationship with her husband after he started drinking and psychologically verbally abusing her.(ABC Far North: Holly Richardson)

Mr Tooker said the problems in the relationship started in about 2017, when the accused man started drinking alcohol heavily and mixing it with prescription medication.

The court heard the man first physically assaulted his wife in early 2018, when he put his hands around her neck, but she decided not to call the police because he promised not to do it again.

‘You better sleep with one eye open’, wife told

However, Mr Tooker said the man continued to verbally and psychologically abuse his wife who, by mid-September 2020, decided to end their relationship.

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Categories
US

Nurse Involved in Deadly Windsor Hills Crash Could Be Charged Monday – NBC Los Angeles

Fiery Multi-Car Crash at Windsor Hills Intersection Leaves 5 Dead, Including Baby – NBC Los Angeles

Charges could be filed as early as Monday against a registered nurse from Houston who is suspected of speeding a Mercedes through a Windsor Hills intersection, sparking a fiery crash that killed six people — including an infant and a pregnant woman.

Nicole Lorraine Linton, 37, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.

Linton was released from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center Saturday and is in police custody being held on a $2 million bail, according to police records.

District Attorney George Gascón said Friday that his office would be “working with law enforcement throughout the weekend,” and the investigation could be presented to his office for consideration of charges “as early as Monday.”

“Preliminary investigation indicates Nicole Lorraine Linton was driving a dark-colored Mercedes, traveling southbound on La Brea Ave. at a high rate of speed,” a CHP statement said.

“While driving the Mercedes, Linton proceeded through a red light and collided into multiple vehicles traveling eastbound and westbound on Slauson Ave. As a result of this collision, multiple parties were ejected and two vehicles were fully engulfed in flames. Following the collision, involved parties were transported to (Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center) by ambulance and six individuals were declared deceased on scene,” the CHP reported.

“Due to extensive fire damage, it is unknown at this time the make and model of the involved vehicles and which vehicles the involved parties were traveling in,” the CHP reported.

Kaiser Permanente issued a statement Friday saying, “Everyone at Kaiser Permanente is deeply saddened by Thursday’s horrific crash. It’s impossible to imagine the pain those involved are experiencing. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy. At this time, we are not able to comment on what has been reported as a criminal investigation.”

The pregnant woman who died in the crash was identified Friday by the coroner’s office as 23-year-old Asherey Ryan of LA. She and her de ella male fetus were among the victims killed in the crash that occurred just before 1:40 pm Thursday at La Brea and Slauson avenues, near Ladera Park.

According to Ryan’s family, the woman’s year-old son, Alonzo Quintero, was also killed, along with Ryan’s boyfriend, who was the father of her unborn son. Ryan’s boyfriend was driving the car that was struck, according to a video posted online by Ryan’s sister of hers, Shoshanna Kerr.

Kerr identified him as Reynold Lester, 24, of LA who worked as a security guard.

Another person killed at the scene has been identified as Craig Pitchford, 66, a possible pedestrian, according to the coroner’s office.

In the video, Kerr said Ryan was 8 1/2 months pregnant, and she was on her way to a doctor’s appointment when the crash occurred.

The family was planning to name the unborn infant Armani Lester, according to the LA County coroner’s office.

“She left the house at 1:30. She woke me up,” Kerr said. “She woke me up and told me she was going to go to her doctor’s appointment, that she loved me and she’ll be right back. “

She said that 15 minutes later, she saw video of the car crash. “And for some reason, as soon as I saw that video, it hit me. It felt different. I felt connected,” she said.

Kerr said she cried throughout the night.

“I didn’t sleep one bit,” she said. “I’m all raised out.”

Shoshanna Kerr also told reporters that Ryan’s family forgives the driver who caused the crash.

“I just want to tell her that we forgive her,” she said. “She will have to live with this for the rest of her life. That’s why she was spared. We understand it already.”

A GoFundMe page established on behalf of the family had raised over $127,000 as of Sunday morning.

On Friday and again on Saturday night, friends and family gathered at the crash site to remember and say goodbye to the victims. Lighted candles dotted a memorial near the site of the fiery crash. Saturday’s gathering included some LA County firefighters who were among the first to respond to the crash.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a nearby resident and president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, told reporters the intersection has been historically dangerous with speeding vehicles, as well as the scene of occasional street takeovers.

Dramatic surveillance video from the scene Thursday showed the Mercedes plowing through the 35 mph zone on La Brea at a speed authorities estimate neared 100 mph — speeding through a red light at Slauson and broad-siding a vehicle.

The crash ignited an inferno as the sedan struck by the Mercedes was pushed into at least one other vehicle, and both wound up against a gas station sign on the corner. A trail of fire was left burning in the intersection as the vehicles struck by the speeding driver were engulfed in flames.

CHP reports indicate eight vehicles, including Linton’s, were involved in the collision. The heavily damaged Mercedes ended up near a bench down the street.

According to the fire department and the CHP, three adults and one infant died in the collision, and there were multiple ejections due to the crash. Ryan’s male fetus was also being counted among the deceased.

The CHP reported a sixth victim was later found dead in the burned wreckage of one vehicle, but further information about that person has not been released.

Eight others were injured in the collision, including seven occupants of a Chevrolet Traverse. The 33-year-old driver, a year-old boy and three teenagers suffered moderate injuries, while two other teens inside the vehicle had only minor injuries.

The eighth victim — the 19-year-old driver of an Audi A3 — also suffered minor injuries.

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Categories
Business

Elon Musk scalls Instagram a ‘thirst trap,’ confesses to ‘selfie’ problem

Elon Musk scalls Instagram a 'thirst trap,' confesses to 'selfie' problem

Elon Musk has called Instagram a “next-level thirst trap” full of attractive women, and admitted that he stopped using the photo-sharing app after he found himself taking too many selfies.

“I was on Instagram for a while but I mean, so the problem is Instagram, man, it’s just a thirst trap, you know?” Musk said on an episode of the full send podcast last week, the new york post reports.

“Instagram is a next-level thirst trap.”

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A co-host then asked Musk to clarify, “On the women side, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, totally,” replied Musk, who has fathered 10 children with three different women.

“But the thing is I found myself taking like a lot of selfies and sh*t and I’m like, what the f**k man. Why am I doing this?

Musk then said that he realized that he was wasting his time with the app and decided to delete his account.

“I’m like, oh I’m trying to get more likes and do selfies, I’m not gonna – I gotta stop,” he said.

Musk said that he now maintains a “secret Instagram account” that he uses to look at posts.

He said he prefers using Twitter to communicate with the public.

“Whatever message I’m trying to get across I can just post on Twitter,” Musk said.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Read related topics:Elon Musk

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Categories
Technology

NINA Synth Available For Pre-Order

NINA Synth Available For Pre-Order

Melbourne Instruments tells us that after the overwhelming response received at NAMM 2022, they have decided to offer Pre-orders for their LITTLE GIRL synth directly from their website, rather than a Kickstarter. Pre-orders will launch via Melbourne Instruments webstore from 10am, Tuesday, August 9, 2022 (Melbourne, Australia GMT+10). Here’s the details that they have sent us…

Price information
The full retail price for NINA is $US3500.00 plus taxes. A special first-edition run of 500 units will be individually badged and numbered. The first 100 units ordered will receive an Early Bird Discount of $500.00. After this, all units ordered before October 30, 2022 will have an Early Adopter Discount of $250.00. From November 1, 2022, any remaining units will be priced at $3500.00.


Updated NINA overview
Melbourne Instruments have pushed Nina’s capabilities, picking the best technology in analog and digital domains, but staying true to the simple operation of this type of instrument.


Key Features
• 12 Voices. Multitimbral and layering possible.
• Fully analog signal path.
• Discrete analog circuitry for the VCOs and VCFs, not off-the-shelf synth chips.


• Digital oscillators, wavetables and samples.
• Stereo output from each voice and a unique unison stereo spin effect..
• Patch morphing between 2 sounds of all settings including the mod matrix.
• A powerful modulation matrix that gets very close to the anything-to-anything ideal,
with unlimited bus connections.
• Interactive mod matrix setup mode using the motorized controls.
• Large amount of overdrive possible.
• Useful and expressive haptic feedback when using the knobs.
• Hackable open source software.


Melbourne Instruments are working closely with several renowned patch designers across the world, and promise a solid set of hundreds of patches on release. Some clips have already been put up on Soundcloud and Melbourne Instruments will be uploading more previews of the sound library in the coming weeks.


Availability
The first edition run of NINA is exclusively available direct from Melbourne Instruments. Pre-orders will commence on August 9, with delivery available to most locations. Nina is expected to ship in December this year.


NINA’s motorized controllers
Melbourne Instruments have developed our own motorized controller* to replace the potentiometers in a traditional synth. The design is based on a brushless drone motor with a custom own ultra-hires optical sensor. The brushless motor and contactless optical sensor are extremely robust with a lifetime rating in excess of 50 million cycles, which is 500 times more than conventional pots.
The result is the feel, subtlety and precision of a real analog potentiometer, while having instant recall and haptics. With haptics, the knobs can change dynamically from smooth to detained to multi-position switches. The end experience is far more useful and engaging than a standard analog pot.
*Patent Pending

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