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Where did all your Zoom friends go?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

One day last year, Julie Gauthier went on Twitter with a confession to make. “Unpopular opinion: I don’t have zoom fatigue and I miss zoom happy hours and game nights,” she wrote. “I feel more isolated now than I did when friends all took time to chat online at the beginning of the pandemic.”Gauthier, 30, had been scrolling through old photos and found a screenshot of one of the virtual happy hours she’d had with friends in the early days of COVID restrictions. At the time, living alone and working remotely as a software engineer in rural Coventry, Connecticut, the self-described extrovert seized every opportunity for human contact she could get.Virtual trivia nights? She was in. Mask-making over Zoom with members of a local maker space? Why not? She made a new best friend out of a stranger she met at an online meetup for tech workers, and when another friend’s band began broadcasting porch concerts over Facebook Live, Gauthier streamed the show on her TV and got all dressed up as i...

Who will take care of Italy’s older people? Robots, maybe.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

CARPI, Italy — The older woman asked to hear a story.“An excellent choice,” answered the small robot, reclined like a nonchalant professor atop the classroom’s desk, instructing her to listen closely.She leaned in, her wizened forehead almost touching the smooth plastic head.“Once upon a time,” the robot began a brief tale, and when it finished asked her what job the protagonist had.“Shepherd,” Bona Poli, 85, responded meekly.The robot didn’t hear so well. She rose out of her chair and raised her voice.“Shep-herd!” she shouted.“Fantastic,” the robot said, gesticulating awkwardly. “You have a memory like a steel cage.”The scene may have the dystopian “what could go wrong?” undertones of science fiction at a moment when both the promise and perils of artificial intelligence are coming into sharper focus. But for the exhausted caregivers at a recent meeting in Carpi, a handsome town in Italy’s most innovative region for elder care, it pointed to a welcome, not-too-distant future ...

Lakewood may dust off the wrecking ball as plan forms to target blight

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

LAKEWOOD — A pair of filthy mattresses strewn near a stack of tires. A car, stripped of its mechanics, up on blocks. A grimy yet heartfelt Father’s Day card jammed into the chain link of a security fence, surrounded by shards of glass.This and more can be experienced in the pothole-gouged parking lot of Holiday Shops on the eastern fringe of Lakewood. A shopping center that once bustled with a grocer, a pharmacy and even a square dance supply store is now a former shell of itself, slathered in graffiti and bearing a sign for menudo sabroso in the window of a restaurant that will never serve another meal.It’s actually been this way, more or less, for a decade or more.“It makes me very sad — I’m very distraught that it has sat there like that for so long,” 81-year-old Two Creeks neighbor Maddie Nichols said of the empty strip mall at the corner of W. 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard that dates back to 1966. “We want it down.”Lake...

Colorado becomes testing ground for gun reform in the West

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

Colorado lawmakers’ latest suite of gun reform bills bolster the state’s position at the vanguard of the national firearm debate, advocates and critics say, while marking it as a proving ground for how step-by-step reforms can coexist within the West’s distinct regional identity.As Colorado has turned deeper shades of blue over the past five years, it’s simultaneously become a regional and national leader in reforming its gun laws, lawmakers and activists said. The grip that Democrats have on state government has signaled to national gun reform groups, like Everytown for Gun Safety and Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, that they can pass legislation here.In a libertarian, otherwise conservative region, Colorado’s changing political culture and success in advancing gun reform is either proof of concept for like-minded legislators or a warning to wary neighbors.Amid growing Capitol protests by students affected directly by gun violence, the Col...

At Apple, rare dissent over a new product: Interactive goggles

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When Apple held a corporate retreat in California’s Carmel Valley about five years ago to discuss its next major product, Jony Ive, its longtime design chief, captivated a room of the company’s 100 top executives with a concept video as polished as an Apple commercial.The video showed a man in a London taxi donning an augmented reality headset and calling his wife in San Francisco. “Would you like to come to London?” he asked, two people who saw the video said. Soon, the couple were sharing the sights of London through the husband’s eyes.The video excited executives about the possibilities of Apple’s next business-altering device: a headset that would blend the digital world with the real one.But now, as the company prepares to introduce the headset in June, enthusiasm at Apple has given way to skepticism, said eight current and former employees, who requested anonymity because of Apple’s policies against speaking about future products. There are concerns about...

Coca-Cola distributor looking to build new bottling plant on DIA property

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

A Colorado Coca-Cola distributor is looking to strike a $271 million deal with Denver International Airport to build a new bottling plant on its property. If the project is approved, it’s a big win for the airport’s commercial development plans.A subsidiary of Swire Coca-Cola USA, which produces, sells and distributes the beverage throughout most of Colorado, is seeking to secure a 75-year ground lease to build the manufacturing plant, according to a March 23 proposal. The new facility would replace both its production center at 3825 York St. and its sales center at 2145 E. 40th Ave.If finalized, Swire would lease 97 acres east of Tower Road and north of Peña Boulevard, with more than 1 million square feet of new construction. Denver City Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, April 5, to consider the lease agreement, according to a meeting agenda.“As part of our long-term planning and growth goals, we are seeking to lease property near Denver International Ai...

Newts v. commutes: Park rangers push to extend road closures near Berkeley during migration

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

BERKELEY — Every winter, newts emerge from their seasonal slumber to lumber through Tilden Regional Park’s wooded hills searching for mating pools of water at the nearby Wildcat Creek, Regional Parks Botanic Garden and even Tilden Golf Course.While a potent toxin secreted from the skin of these 6-inch, brown-bodied, golden-bellied salamanders protects the amphibians from many predators during their annual migration, there’s still one major threat that the newts can’t fend off: car tires speeding down South Park Drive as they commute through the park.That’s why the East Bay Regional Parks District closes off the 1.5-mile roadway to vehicles from November to April to give the small, slow-moving animals a fighting chance against being smushed.But when wet, rainy weather extends beyond that five-month period, so does migration season. And as an increased number of newts are still making the crawl in April and even May, conflict is brewing among park rangers who want to...

UC has a plan to make it easier for community college students to transfer. Critics say it’s still not enough

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

The University of California has proposed a new pathway for community college students across the state — one that guarantees admission into one of UC’s nine campuses for those who qualify. But the plan has been met with mixed reactions from lawmakers, with some worried it doesn’t go far enough to simplify the process for students hoping to transfer to a four-year school.The proposal, introduced earlier this week at the State Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom in January called on UCLA either to join the university system’s existing transfer guarantee program or forfeit $20 million in state funding. That’s despite the fact that last fall, UCLA enrolled more community college students than any other campus, according to university data.With the right set of courses and GPA requirements, UC’s new program would enable California community college students to apply for the campus of their choice — and if they aren’t a...

A’s starter Fujinami has the stuff to wow MLB

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

OAKLAND — Massive roster teardowns and rebuilds are a familiar devastation in Oakland. But fresh starts set the stage for intrigue, too. This 2023 A’s roster is rife with potential, including Japanese pitching sensation Shintaro Fujinami.He’s no sure-fire superstar like his former high school rival Shohei Ohtani, but Fujinami’s eight-pitch arsenal has his teammates talking.“His stuff is absolutely electric,” catcher Shea Langeleirs said. “Two types of cutters, two sliders, two splitters. When he’s on, it’s fun.”Fujinami, 28, will make his Major League Baseball debut Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels. Though he won’t enter a pitchers’ duel with Ohtani — who struck out 10 A’s over six scoreless innings in the Angels’ Opening Night loss — Fujinami will likely face the two-way star and three-time MVP Mike Trout in his formal introduction to A’s fans and the American game.Expect some electricity Sat...

Borenstein: Oakland police chief was unfairly fired, confidential reports show

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:19 GMT

Confidential reports that provided the basis for the firing of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong were internally inconsistent and relied on thin evidence to unfairly tarnish his reputation.That’s my take after reading the reports — and I’m not alone.“I was dumbfounded by their conclusions,” says civil rights attorney John Burris. “The evidence did not support the termination.”As lead attorney in the infamous Riders case litigation against the city that has led to two decades of federal court oversight of the Police Department, Burris also has read the confidential documents.So have members of the Oakland Police Commission, whose chairperson, Tyfahra Milele, in statements after the firing, lauded Armstrong as an “effective reform-minded Chief.” Speaking on behalf of the commission, she too expressed concern about the “questionable quality, sufficiency, and credibility of the outside investigations.”The confidential reports, prepared by an outside law firm at the behest of ...