Heidi Widmer now helps her neighbor, who has Parkinson's. Courtesy of Heidi Widmer Heidi Widmer is a 35-year-old who moved into an apartment building in Los Angeles in July. For the first two weeks, she heard a loud sound from the apartment above and was annoyed. She found out the noise was being made by her neighbor, who has Parkinson's. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Heidi Widmer. It has been edited for length and clarity. In July, I moved into an apartment in Los Angeles, exhausted from a six-day drive across the country from New York. All I wanted to do was get into the apartment and sleep, and luckily, my bed had been delivered on the same day I arrived. Trying to fall asleep at 2 a.m., all I could hear was a loud noise coming from the apartment upstairs. It sounded as if someone was bowling. Although I was tempted to shout for them to be quiet, I held my tongue — I was the new neighbor and didn't want to be difficult. But the noise just didn't seem to stop. Whoever lived up there also never came downstairs. Who lives up there? I thought to myself. I realized my neighbor had Parkinson's Two weeks after moving in, I heard someone coming down the stairs and had to get a glimpse of who lived above me. Peeking out of my door, I saw Carole for the first time, slowly making her way down the stairs, shaking badly from what was clearly Parkinson's, and trying to carry a bunch of bags full of recycling. Just as I was about to open the door to see if she needed help, she dropped all the bags with only a couple of steps left. I burst out of my apartment to help her. "Oh my gosh, thank you," she said in her sweet British accent. "Did you just move in? Am I too loud for you?" In that moment, I felt totally and completely humbled. Having grown up in the Catholic church, I was taught never to judge a book by its cover, and with Carole, I hadn't even seen the cover. I judged her simply by the noise she produced upstairs. How could I be so judgmental? It turns out that sound had been Carole rolling a three-wheeled, broken chair across her floor to get to her mini fridge — the mini fridge social services had given her when her refrigerator broke. She had to hoist herself out of her broken chair to get down and access the mini fridge. That was the noise. I was determined to figure out what I could do to help Two days after we met, I knocked on her door. She peeked through and nervously let me in. The conditions inside weren't great. Although she can live independently, she just needs a little help. I later learned that she doesn't like accepting help from people, especially social services. The fact that she is frightened of the very people meant to help her breaks my heart. That day, I took all of her trash out for her, reassuring her I wasn't judging her at all. Heidi Widmer has been going to her neighbor's apartment to help her clean. Courtesy of Heidi Widmer In the weeks and now months that have followed, I have been up to Carole's to help with the trash, cooking (she'd only been having microwave meals), cleaning, and contacting the landlord to get him to replace and repair items in the apartment. We've decorated her apartment, too. I raised $80,000 to help her out Together, we made her an Amazon wish list, and I shared it on social media so that people could order things she needs and have them delivered directly to her. People have been so generous, purchasing things like an expensive Buddhist "butsudan" that Carole didn't expect anyone to buy. Heidi Widmer set up an Amazon wish list, and people bought her neighbor what she needed. Courtesy of Heidi Widmer We set up a GoFundMe, which has raised about $80,000, and we plan to use the funds to have a stair lift installed for her. Any leftover money will be spent on in-home care as she continues to age and her Parkinson's Disease progresses. I know I've been helpful to Carole in these last few months, but she's been the perfect person at the perfect time for me, too. Moving to LA, I had hardly any connections. Lots of Carole's family members are either no longer living or back in the UK (she moved here in her 20s as an au pair). Carole became the family I haven't had, and I became hers. We text back and forth each day, and I see her most days. She calls me granddaughter, and I see her as my grandmother. When I've had a hard day at work teaching at a local middle school, Carole is ready to give me a big hug when I get home. She's been my safe space, and I've been hers. The universe knew we needed each other. It's an unlikely connection, but it shows that when you lead with kindness rather than judgment, the person you were ready to judge can become someone you can't imagine your life without. Read the original article on Business Insider

Protesters vandalize a retail store during a demonstration near Place de la République in Paris. Carl Court/Getty Images Smashed shop windows and cars on fire — that's what happened in Paris on Saturday, and again Sunday. The chaos was an escalation in violence after weeks of demonstrations in the country. Students and workers alike have been taking to the streets to protest the cost of living. A series of protests over the cost of living devolved into chaos and violence across France on Saturday and Sunday. Mobile phones, luxury goods looted as French protests turn violent Looters ransacked an SFR mobile phone store during protests on October 17. Djoudi Hamani / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images Looting kicked off around the Place de la République in the French capital, where young people smashed their way through shop windows and made off with merchandise, the AFP reported. The mob hit an SFR mobile phone store and other outlets that sold luxury goods and clothing. Grocery chain outlets were looted, too A Franprix store was looted. Djoudi Hamani / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images Franprix, Monoprix, Picard, and Carrefour City were among the grocery retailers looted in Paris, the AFP reported. In the 11th arrondissement, looters were seen leaving a Franprix filled with bags of juice, alcohol, and cakes, according to the AFP. 'The apocalypse' Shops at Place De La Republique in Paris were looted and set ablaze. Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images The shopkeeper of a store near Place de la République named Cédric told RTL, a radio network in France, that he had barricaded himself inside his business in a bid to protect his goods. "They're smashing everything around us," he told RTL, adding that he'd been a storekeeper in the area for 30 years. "They've destroyed my business. They've smashed my shop windows. They're taking pieces of glass to throw at the riot police. They're giving us the finger. They're telling us they're going to slit our throats. It's just the apocalypse." Other French cities also saw looting and damage to businesses Rioters set cars on fire at the Canal Saint Martin during severe unrest on October 17, 2026 in Paris, France. Remon Haazen/Getty Images The AFP reported that looting took place in several French cities, including Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg, where supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, and electronics stores were raided and vandalized. Luxury goods looted Mask protesters force a metal grid to the Galeries Lafayette to loot items in Paris. Gauthier Bedrignans / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images Photos also showed luxury goods outlets — including the Galeries Lafayette — being looted. Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste, posted a statement on Instagram on Saturday about the "images of violence and destruction" he had seen from the protests. "When our Lacoste and Aigle stores are looted, like so many other businesses across France, it's not just shop windows that are smashed. It's jobs, years of work, expertise, and the commitment of thousands of women and men that are jeopardized," Guibert wrote. "As a leader, I cannot bear to see what we have collectively built destroyed in this way. And I know that this concern is shared by many entrepreneurs and business owners throughout France," he added. Building set aflame This is the moment a town hall collapsed as protests sweep across France. The 140-year-old town hall in the French city of Limoges caught fire during protests in the city Read the latest on the Sky News website and app: https://t.co/oaLTf7aDbP pic.twitter.com/3OC3eU3Hf7 — Sky News (@SkyNews) October 17, 2026 Dramatic videos on social media also showed buildings on fire. Videos showed the bell tower of the city hall building in Limoges collapsing after protesters broke in and set fire to the ground floor. Mass arrests across France as police attempt to bring riots under control Looted furniture is thrown onto a fire during demonstrations on October 17, 2026 in Paris, France. Carl Court/Getty Images French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said late Saturday that authorities had arrested 1,200 people across the country following the day’s protests. Lecornu also said that at least 150 police officers had been injured. "Peaceful demonstrations have their rightful place in our Republic. Arson, looting, and attacks have no place whatsoever," Lecornu wrote in a post on X on Saturday. French President Emmanuel Macron said on X on Saturday that "those who have broken, attacked the prefectures, as well as businesses, looted even our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished." Read the original article on Business Insider

A wine store in Paris was emptied of all its products during riots on Saturday. Nathan Rennolds/Business Insider Paris erupted as protests turned to riots and masked looters ransacked stores on Saturday. Small business owners took stock of what they'd lost on Sunday. "When I got back, they'd taken everything," one store owner told Business Insider. "When I got back, they'd taken everything." That's what one shopkeeper in Paris told me as she cleared debris from her store after major cost-of-living protests turned violent across parts of France. Chaotic scenes unfolded on Saturday as rioters clashed with police and set vehicles and trash bins alight before masked marchers began to ransack businesses, including in the trendy Marais shopping district. After hundreds of arrests and a tense, momentary calm on Sunday morning, more violence broke out Sunday evening as black-clad rioters dragged debris into streets and set it aflame. Employees at a boutique fashion brand working in the area as the riots unfolded told me the situation felt "dystopian," and that at one point tear gas began seeping into the store. That apparently was not enough to put some shoppers off, however, as some continued to browse, they said. They added that there was a heavy police presence on the street throughout Saturday, and that although they had hired extra security, they eventually decided to close early as the violence intensified. Cycling through the city on Sunday, I followed what felt like a path of destruction that steadily ramped up as I neared the Place de République, where the city's 3rd, 10th, and 11th arrondissements meet — the scene of some of Saturday's most serious violence. I stopped at several stores along the way to photograph the damage and speak with shop workers about their experiences. A looted storefront in Paris. Courtesy of Lucie Bardinet A store owner at a gold-buying shop whose front window had been smashed told me she was forced to close up early on Saturday. "I got a call. It was my neighbor, who was working next door at the restaurant. He'd made a video showing a group of young people," she said, adding that they forced the door open and "smashed everything up." "They stole things," she said. "When I got back, they'd taken everything." Later, I stopped outside a ransacked Nicolas wine store, one of the country's most prominent wine retail brands. The storefront was agape, the entrance and both display windows smashed, revealing shelves picked clean. Empty Champagne boxes and glass littered the floor. The interior of a Nicolas wine store was picked clean by looters in Paris on Saturday. Nathan Rennolds/Business Insider Among the other businesses targeted by looters and damaged in the violence across Paris on Saturday were major supermarket chains, tech stores, bars, and vape shops. Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of the Carrefour Group, one of France's biggest supermarket chains, said the cost of repairs to damaged stores would run well over $11 million. He said the destruction would lead to "considerable human and economic consequences," as franchise partners would be forced to reduce the hours of dozens of employees. On the other side of Paris, the situation was calmer on Saturday. Outside my apartment in Montmartre, for example, life ticked along as usual, terraces full of weekend revelers and a Saturday buzz in the air. A bartender at a popular Irish pub along the boulevard — a few doors down from the Moulin Rouge — said it had been a particularly busy evening and that she had seen no trouble, adding that people were on the whole "very polite." By Sunday morning, however, many other Parisians were greeted by smashed storefronts and ATMs, broken glass, litter-filled streets, and burned-out cars as they emerged into a chilly, blue-skied morning. And there were signs the city had begun to recover. Workers were already making repairs to an employment agency that had been broken into, and volunteers swept the streets. As Paris tries to get back on its feet, Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that local businesses would receive government help. He said he had requested the creation of an "emergency task force to support shopkeepers" with insurance and administrative procedures. "You bring Paris to life every day. Today, it's Paris's turn to stand by your side," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider

Two people can receive an Alzheimer's diagnosis and still face strikingly different problems. One may struggle primarily with memory, another with finding words or navigating familiar places. Their brain scans, genetic backgrounds, and other health conditions may also differ. For researchers trying to predict what happens next, the diagnosis alone leaves much unexplained. A review led by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem proposes a computational way to bring those differences…

The filing also says that the “vast majority” of Character.AI employees who were offered jobs at Disney accepted them. However, this is a stalking horse bid, so another company could come forward with a higher offer.

Gordon Ramsay has an easy 10-minute pasta. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I tried Gordon Ramsay's 10-minute pasta, which he often makes for his family. The dish features a turkey and leek sauce and is topped with crispy sage breadcrumbs. Ramsay's delicious pasta was light and bright. It's perfect for a busy week. Gordon Ramsay has never let me down when I need a quick recipe, whether it's a 15-minute Bolognese or a 10-minute bacon cheeseburger. So I was ecstatic when I discovered that the Michelin-starred chef has an entire cookbook dedicated to dishes that can be made in 10 minutes. The very first recipe I tried from "Ramsay in 10" was a turkey and leek pasta with crispy sage breadcrumbs. "For a change, skip the Bolognese and make this creamy turkey and leek sauce in a fraction of the time instead," Ramsay writes in the description. "It might just become a regular midweek family meal, as it has at my house." Ramsay's 10-minute pasta includes turkey, breadcrumbs, and leeks. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider To make Ramsay's 10-minute pasta for four, you'll need: 17 ounces of fresh penne or fusilli pasta 14 ounces of ground turkey ¾ cup of heavy cream 4 sage leaves 4 regular shallots (or 2 banana shallots) 3 garlic cloves 2 leeks 1 lemon A handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (for serving) To make the breadcrumbs, you'll need: 6 tablespoons of fresh breadcrumbs 2 sage leaves 2 tablespoons of olive oil Ramsay notes in his cookbook that the breadcrumbs are optional, but I recommend taking the extra step. It was my first time making fresh breadcrumbs, and it couldn't have been easier. But feel free to play around with the ingredients depending on your preferences. Ramsay said this dish also works well with ground chicken or sausage; the sage can easily be swapped for thyme, parsley, or tarragon; and any shape of fresh or dried pasta will do. Before I started cooking, I needed to prep my ingredients. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider First, I brought a saucepan of salted water to a boil so it'd be ready for the pasta in a few minutes. Then, per Ramsay's recipe, I peeled and grated my shallots and garlic. If the handheld grater proves tricky — and risky for your fingers — feel free to use a knife to finish mincing the veggies. After grating my shallots and garlic, I finely sliced the leeks. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Ramsay recommends prepping your shallots and garlic while the olive oil is heating up in the pan and slicing your leeks right before you add the pasta. I'm still pretty slow at chopping veggies, so I got my prep out of the way so I wouldn't be stressed about burning anything. I also soaked my sliced leeks in a bowl of cold water to ensure they were fully cleaned. The recipe took me a tad longer than 10 minutes, but you can follow Ramsay's lead if you're confident in your chopping speed! I also prepped my fresh breadcrumbs. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I simply tore two slices of bread into pieces and threw them into the food processor. I placed my Dutch oven over medium-high heat and added two tablespoons of olive oil. Then I added my shallots and garlic to the pan. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I allowed the shallots and garlic to cook for two minutes, stirring regularly. If you don't have a Dutch oven handy, Ramsay says this recipe also works with a heavy-based frying pan or skillet. After two minutes had passed, I threw in the turkey and sage leaves. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I broke the turkey up with a wooden spoon and allowed it to cook until the meat was lightly browned, which took around three to four minutes. While the turkey cooked, I added my leeks to the boiling water. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I let the leeks cook for one minute, per Ramsay's instructions. I threw in the penne and allowed the noodles to cook until they were al dente. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Since I chose penne, my pasta didn't cook in the speedy two minutes Ramsay recommends for fusilli. But just follow the instructions on your box, and the noodles will taste great. While my pasta was cooking, I added the cream to my turkey. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I stirred everything together and brought the sauce to a boil. Then I reduced the sauce to a simmer until I was ready to serve. Next up were the crispy sage breadcrumbs. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I placed a frying pan over medium heat and drizzled some olive oil. Then I added two sage leaves, which I had finely chopped. I cooked the breadcrumbs until they were crisp and golden brown. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider This happens very quickly — make sure to watch the pan carefully so they don't burn! I drained my pasta and leeks and added the penne to the sauce. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider Ramsay recommends saving two to three tablespoons of the pasta water and adding it to the sauce. I added the finely chopped parsley leaves, along with some lemon zest. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I also added some salt and pepper before giving everything a big stir. I topped everything off with the sage breadcrumbs. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider After I added the freshly grated Parmesan cheese and drizzle of olive oil that Ramsay recommends, I stepped back and admired my pasta. The dish looked bright and inviting, thanks to the pops of color from the parsley and breadcrumbs, and I loved seeing so many different textures meld together. Plus, it smelled absolutely delicious. Ramsay's 10-minute pasta took me a couple of extra minutes, but the final result was worth it. Anneta Konstantinides/Business Insider I don't usually go for poultry with my pasta, so I was skeptical when making the turkey sauce. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved Ramsay's recipe. The sauce is light but packed with so much flavor. The leeks add a hint of lovely sweetness, and the lemon brightens each bite. The contrasting textures of the crispy sage breadcrumbs and the creamy sauce also make a fantastic team. I don't usually crave a big meal on a weeknight, so I love that this pasta makes dinner interesting without being too heavy. Whether you're longing for a quick weeknight dish or just want a light and bright recipe during the busy season, Ramsay's favorite 10-minute pasta will satisfy all your cravings. And if you're looking for more recipe inspiration, you can check out my ranking of Gordon Ramsay's pasta dishes. Read the original article on Business Insider

The outside watchdog can publish its findings without Anthropic's approval.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: HomeView units sat in warehouses for months; Apple plans a Nov. 6 store reset, likely for new Macs; iPhone Duo preorder mess could boost 18 Pro sales  —  Also: The company is planning Nov. 6 retail store reset, indicating potential Mac release date.

Bloomberg Businessweek features writer Austin Carr tells Bloomberg This Weekend how Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen became an increasingly influential Republican donor and adviser after years of shifting political allegiances, with disputes over AI, crypto and other Biden-era policies playing a role in his latest turn. Speaking with hosts David Gura and Christina Ruffini, Carr explains how Andreessen has translated his Silicon Valley influence into Washington access while maintaining a political style that associates describe as more calculated than his combative online persona. (Source: Bloomberg)

Also: The company is planning Nov. 6 retail store reset, indicating potential Mac release date.

"Always switch" is true for one particular host. Watch a few episodes and you can work out which host you've got. The post Inferring the Host: A Bayesian Look at the Monty Hall Problem appeared first on Towards Data Science.

Discussion | Link

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has recently been discussing “artificial general intelligence” that matches or surpasses human capabilities. This is from the same person who has said children born today (including his own) will “never be more intelligent than AI, from a ‘raw IQ’” (intelligence quotient) perspective. United States President Donald Trump has also recently mused about who is and who is not “high IQ.” As a scholar rooted in the history of Canadian higher education and its intersections with rhetoric around disability and race, every time I hear the word “intelligence,” including as “IQ,” I get jumpy. “Intelligence” clearly has a high-stakes and worrisome future, but also a dark history. To figure out what AI might be replacing, we need to better understand intelligence as a historically situated idea — and a dangerous one — rather than as some sort of biological fact. For universities, this reflection matters as institutions confront questions about how their responses to AI align with their missions. What is intelligence? For millennia, western literature has suggested it may be a liability ‘Intelligence’ and eugenics In the early 20th century, universities, university disciplines and academic careers were built by crafting scientific-sounding definitions and measures of “intelligence” and “IQ.”. As historian Gerald Thompson notes, the creator and head of the University of Toronto’s department of educational research, Peter Sandiford, tested the “intelligence” of Chinese and Japanese Canadian students in British Columbia in the 1920s. This was done under the direction of the first full professor of education at the University of British Columbia, George Moir Weir. The research, writes Thompson, “was meant to confirm” long-standing racist notions of Anglo-white superiority and Asian inferiority. As historians like Angus McLaren have demonstrated, such projects were the work of eugenics. These defined intelligence as a genetic and inheritable trait that could be measured but not necessarily easily developed within individuals, and assumed a pseudo-scientific racialized genetic hierarchy. Colonial educational legacies of eugenics Researchers involved in such projects ranked Canadians, and these rankings determined educational and social futures. Eugenic ideas of intelligence deeply shaped residential schools and their colonial legacies. Sociologist Alexandra Giancarlo has documented how in the 1930s, Kenneth E. Kidd, who went on to found the “Indian-Eskimo Studies” program at Trent University, administered a series of IQ tests at the Mohawk Institute, a residential school in southern Ontario. This led to two published books that advanced racist ideas around intelligence and informed Department of Indian Affairs policy not just for children at the Mohawk Institute, but at residential schools across the country. Some of the researchers — such as Weir, Kidd and Sandiford, who contributed to popularizing these ideas — went on to build university programs and disciplines. Universities must open their archives and share their oppressive pasts The more general result was that universities and academics claimed a major stake as measurers of intelligence. This coincided with an increased reliance on testing, exams and grading at Canadian universities and academic rankings. Now, because of the fear of AI cheating, educators are grappling with forms of assessment. In some cases, this means more hand-written or oral exams, which raise concerns about ableism. In the past, measuring intelligence was a way to exclude entire groups of people from opportunity. How will intelligence be used and misused going forward? Teaching, learning and AI These histories influence how we talk about artificial intelligence, and should also shape how we position teaching and learning today. The intersection of AI and eugenics is beginning to be studied more deeply, for instance by the Rutgers AI Lab. The lab notes this technology may be “shaping people to fit a narrow standard of intelligence, health, ability or social worth” often “through data, algorithms, or evaluation systems that encode biased ideas about who has potential and who does not.” Likewise, the impacts of AI usage on learning and “de-skilling” have been extensively explored, with some people calling de-skilling “enfeeblement,” perhaps unaware of the eugenic history of this wording: “feeble-mindedness” was a pseudoscientific, eugenic term. As disability studies scholar Rua Williams argues, “through ignorance of the historical context,” the current project of artificial intelligence may be “replicating historical and political projects that devalue human beings on the basis of abstract or fabricated concepts” of intelligence. Others express concern that a lack of regulation around AI is coinciding with authoritarian politics and ideas. Role of schooling, education On the one hand, we are told that technology is already “smarter” than we are, smarter than we can teach our young people to be. On the other hand, we are asked to trust people like Altman to train or regulate this AI. What role is there, then, for education and educators? Reflecting on the history of IQ testing should prompt universities to call into question the value that we have placed on IQ to begin with. IQ was at first an educational tool; it was gradually transformed into a weapon used to identify and segregate whole populations based on terrible science. Educators will need to confront how many of the ways that we have built efficiency and credibility have also sought to validate our expertise in testing and ranking, sometimes understood as quantifying intelligence. Ironically, our institutions’ obsessions with standardizing education and their over-emphasis on grading and assessing students has made our work too easy to automate. It has also arguably contributed to grade inflation and other trends that devalue our important work. Focus on connection, critical thinking So, what do educators do? We should focus, more than ever, on the collaboration and critical thinking our students do, as well as how they connect through relationships and learn to connect ideas. We should move away from high-stakes testing, measuring and grading. Why should humanities education persist in an AI age? Self-development, to start “Intelligence” itself has been an ableist, even eugenic, construct — certainly in how and why it has been measured. Teaching and learning in contemporary universities can be much more dynamic, interpersonal and human. Our innovative classroom practices can lead other educators to resist transactional teaching as well. We need to continue asking: “What is intelligence?” And we need to provide different answers to this question than we ever have throughout the history of higher education. Jay Timothy Dolmage receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Morgan Meaker, a senior writer for Bloomberg Weekend, tells Bloomberg This Weekend about the arrest of an OpenAI engineer accused of planting a covert recording device in an executive conference room, a case highlighting growing concerns about protecting sensitive AI technology. Meaker also explains to hosts David Gura and Christina Ruffini how AI training work is shifting toward highly skilled experts and why that evolution could eventually reshape the professions providing that expertise. (Source: Bloomberg)

When a nurse in Thunder Bay opens a patient’s chart or a shopper in Halifax taps a bank card, the request travels somewhere physical — a building humming with servers, storage, network equipment, backup power and cooling systems. Data centres are not mythical “AI factories” or innocuous warehouses, but industrial infrastructure with real appetites for electricity, water and land. Current debate about data centres seems to offer a false binary: stop these facilities or accept them unconditionally. There is a better option. We need to develop projects that are transparent, low-carbon, grid-responsible, respectful of Indigenous rights and that leave durable public value where they stand. A baseline, not a permit On Sept. 3, the federal government and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities unveiled Canada’s Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, backed by 23 industry signatories. The principles say projects should: Create lasting local benefits. Avoid shifting project-driven electricity costs onto households and existing businesses. Minimize freshwater use and environmental impacts. Provide transparent, independently verifiable information on local impacts and commitments. Deliver lasting strategic value for Canada. The principles are a common national framework, a baseline of expectations that complement provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous processes. They are not binding federal law, a permit or an approval. These principles are a necessary start. Ottawa acknowledges that Canada relies significantly on infrastructure abroad for computing power, cloud and data storage. If we build domestic capacity, we can strengthen our resilience, keep critical services running and support innovation here. However, location is not sovereignty. A Montréal server run by a firm subject to foreign law may still face foreign legal demands. Sovereign AI? Anthropic shutdown reveals Canada’s weakness No two facilities are alike A facility’s impacts depend on several things: its workload (AI or conventional); IT load (the power the computers themselves draw) and how fully it runs; cooling design; water source and local water stress; electricity mix; grid connection; backup generation and location. Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is calculated by dividing a facility’s total energy by the energy its computers use; the theoretical ideal is one. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) counts litres of water consumed per kilowatt-hour of computing energy. Carbon usage effectiveness (CUE) does the same for emissions. Natural Resources Canada’s best-practice guide notes that PUE ignores the useful work servers perform. It also reports that only about 22 per cent of Canadian data centres report their PUE. And these ratios measure efficiency, not absolute local impact or public value. An efficient university campus, for example, can still strain a regional grid or a stressed watershed. In Alberta, companies have requested about 19,565 megawatts (MW) of new data centre load. That is more than the province’s record hourly peak of roughly 12,800 MW. The International Energy Agency projects that global data centre electricity use will roughly double between 2025 and 2030. Energy and water stewardship Principles and expectations are not enforceable outcomes, however. We need to test these principles on a project-by-project basis, using data that communities, regulators and Indigenous rights holders can inspect and commitments they can enforce. This begins with mandatory disclosure before approval. Proponents should report: Peak and average electricity demand, and expected load shape. New transmission, generation and substation needs. Water withdrawal and consumption by source. Cooling design and backup generation. Noise, emissions and land impacts. We then need independent measurement, public reporting and enforceable consequences when a project deviates materially from its commitments. Those building data centres should bear the connection, grid-upgrade and reliability costs their projects directly cause, not households or existing businesses. Clean-power rules should fit the local grid. A project should be judged against the capacity and emissions of its regional grid, not a one-size-fits-all national rule. They should also disclose whether a company’s clean-energy claims rest on annual matching (balancing yearly totals) or hourly matching (clean supply at the time power is used). Research has found that hourly matching could substantially cut long-run system emissions in the western United States, although the cost is contested. Water stewardship should start from basin conditions and drought planning. Cooling choices trade water against energy, so no single technology is always best. Waste-heat recovery should be assessed in contexts where a viable heat customer and infrastructure exist. Communities must benefit Community benefits should be enforceable and should outlast the construction of data centres. Benefits can include training, Indigenous and local procurement, research partnerships, municipal infrastructure and local access to computing power. When a government decision could negatively affect Indigenous or treaty rights, the Crown must consult the affected Indigenous Peoples and, where needed, adjust the decision or reduce the harm. Consultation is not consent. A data centre also does not automatically trigger a federal impact assessment. Engagement should begin early and be grounded in rights. Advocates of rapid expansion have a point. Blanket bans on data centres could forfeit economic and resilience gains, push impacts to other jurisdictions and deepen dependence on foreign infrastructure. But that argument supports conditions, not their absence. It does not excuse opaque projects, subsidized grid costs or disregard for host communities. Canada has an opportunity to lead, if we can turn principles into proof. The question is not whether Canada should build more data centres, but what it should ask of them before they draw on public systems and local landscapes. Jake Okechukwu Effoduh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

A reranker is a second-stage model that evaluates a small candidate set more deeply and reorders it for relevance after a fast initial retrieval. This guide explains the mechanism, trade-offs, evaluation, and controls that matter in practice.

The statistical paradox that shows how combining data can reverse the story. The post Both Charts Are Right. So Why Do They Disagree? appeared first on Towards Data Science.

Canadian Andrew Koller bought a home in Japan. Courtesy of Andrew Koller Andrew Koller owns property in Canada, but decided to buy a home in Japan after visiting. Koller spent $15,000 CAD on an akiya and spent months renovating it. He plans to visit on occasion and rent it out some of the time. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Andrew Koller, 31, a freelance camera operator who purchased a home in Yamagata, Japan, in March. Koller, who's based in Edmonton, Canada, renovated the home and plans to use it as a vacation home. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Like a lot of millennials, I was exposed to Japanese culture in some sense early on with "Naruto," "Pokemon," and "Dragon Ball Z." After that, I don't think my interest really left. Come 2020, I had a bunch of time on my hands like everybody else. It seemed like a good time to finally learn Japanese. I've been learning Japanese with a private tutor since then. Then, in 2023, I made my first trip to Japan. Like everybody else who comes back from their first trip to Japan, I just fell in love. I couldn't stop talking about it, but I wanted a deeper connection to the community. Koller's home in Yamagata, Japan. Courtesy of Andrew Koller I wanted more than just the superficial, surface-level experience of Japanese life. So I thought maybe a good way to get that experience would be to buy a house that's not in a major tourist city, somewhat live there, and spend a good chunk of time over there getting involved with the community by renovating a forgotten property. The algorithm was watching for sure. After my first Japan trip, my YouTube and Instagram algorithms were suggesting to me all these similar people doing similar things. From that, I was like, this seems like something I can do. In my free time, I like to DIY. I have a little workshop — I wouldn't say I'm good at it, but I feel like I know enough to do the basics. I'm at the point in my life now where I've had all these ideas and I've said, "Oh, it'd be cool to do this," but I never do it. I never follow through. I just wanted to prove to myself that I actually followed through on one of these somewhat whimsical ideas. The house I bought in Japan cost a fraction of what houses cost in Canada I've always been interested in real estate since a young age. Purchasing your first house is doable, but if you want to purchase a second house after that, like a rental, it's extremely challenging to do that in Canada. Canada's housing market has exploded, especially in Alberta. I'm in a very fortunate position where my partner and I own a house and we own a rental property as well close to the university area. I bought the rental house when I was 20 with my parents — they had to sign on because no bank was going to loan a 20-year-old kid a mortgage. I rented out the rooms and then I lived for free for my time in college. Koller's Tatami room before renovation. Courtesy of Andrew Koller Both houses have a similar value. My primary residence is worth just under $600,000 CAD (about $422,880). When we bought the rental 10 years ago, it was around $500,000 CAD, but it's gone up since. For my home in Japan, I spent $15,000 CAD (about $10,600) on the purchase price plus closing costs, which was another $3,000 CAD. I can definitely see myself spending extended time in Japan. I want to go out there at least a few times a year. It's close to a pretty big ski resort, and I snowboard. Doing the math for that, if I was to go stay in Banff or Jasper — one of the more popular mountain towns in Alberta — for a week and ski, it's actually cheaper to fly to Japan, because the skiing is also very affordable, so that was a big factor for me. I would like to rent it out, but I don't plan on making a lot of money from it I went to Japan in October 2025 to look at properties. I made an offer in November, it got accepted, and then I got possession of the property in March 2026. Then I went up for the entire month of April to start renovations on it. I wanted to respect what was already there when I went in. Even though the house itself wasn't ancient or historical — it was built in the '60s or '70s — it was very traditionally built with the Tatami rooms. I wanted to keep a lot of that, coming in as a Westerner. I wanted to try and adapt to their way of life rather than trying to impose my own. I just wanted to complement what was already there. The Tatami room after renovation. Courtesy of Andrew Koller Now, the house is 98% done. The actual renovation costs right now are just over the purchase cost. So I'm at around $18,000 CAD and change, doing most of it myself. Right now, the goal would be to do a short-term rental in the future, but I don't plan on it making a lot of money. I think that's the one thing people will get confused about. They think, "If I do this and renovate it, I can make a ton of money off a short-term rental in Japan." That's not the case, because there's so much competition with the hotels there that are already amazing and very affordable. Koller's wife in their home in Japan. Courtesy of Andrew Koller I just want to cover the maintenance costs more than anything. Doing a little bit of short-term rental, I think, will help with that. It's not an asset. I think maybe people go to Japan with the Western mindset, like, "Oh, it's a buy-and-hold asset." Outside of Tokyo and the big cities, real estate doesn't do that. Real estate always goes down in value over time. If you're buying a house in Japan, go in with the expectation that it's not as much of a financial asset as it is a recreation: you'll get more of a cultural experience. Read the original article on Business Insider

Ukraine's drone operators want drones that they can send en masse and tailor to their own needs. Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images Ukraine's drone pilots want masses of cheap, simple drones, a soldier and analyst said. Western manufacturers overcomplicate them and "get it so wrong," he added. Operators want drones they can tweak near the front and send out in large numbers. Ukrainian drone operators need masses of relatively simple drones without a bunch of flashy features, a soldier with firsthand experience explained, cautioning the West against making them too complicated as it readies for future drone fights. Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion is a grinding war of attrition that is consuming weaponry so fast that combatants need affordable weapons in huge numbers, and battlefield technology becomes obsolete so quickly that soldiers need systems they can update easily to keep them relevant in battle. Dmytro "Liber" Zhluktenko, a former drone operator who is now a lessons learned analyst in Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment "RAID," told Business Insider that "we need something that works great but doesn't have superfluous features." "That is something that most of the Western defense technology manufacturers, they get it so wrong," he said. Consider first-person-view attack drones, "we need something that is really basic." "We are yet to find Western manufacturers that are able to produce, let's say 500,000 FPV drones, simple ones that just work, that are fine-tuned without any extra autonomy or extra navigation or any features like that," he added, describing what Ukraine needs most as something pilots can easily take straight into combat. Ukrainian drone companies work closely with operators and units to learn what they want and need. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Western-made drone tech, he said, is often "too complicated, often detached from the battlefield, and much more expensive than Ukrainian options doing the same job. Therefore, most of the drones used at Ukraine's battlefield are Ukrainian-made." His assessment of the situations draws on both his experience as a drone operator and his role as an analyst, where he looks at battlefield trends, interviews operators, meets with foreign defense manufacturers, prepares briefs for higher command, and organizes the sharing of information between Ukrainian units. Simple drones give soldiers more flexibility Part of the appeal of simpler drones is that Ukrainian operators can adapt them themselves. Near the front, soldiers routinely modify weapons to keep them useful as the battlefield changes, and some units even have their own R&D centers. They often want drones and other combat systems that are basic, generic platforms they can rework, upgrade, or configure for different missions, much like ground robots that can be assembled with different weapons or components like Lego sets. Ukrainian companies and foreign companies that work with units know this is happening, work with unit engineers to help keep products updated, and are often surprised by the ways soldiers modify their gear. Companies are increasingly making their products modular, both so they can upgrade the products more easily and so soldiers can make their own changes near the front. Ukrainian soldiers repair, maintain, and upgrade drones at a workshop near the front lines, and some Ukrainian companies design their drones so soldiers can alter and upgrade them as easily as possible. Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Zhluktenko said Ukraine's operators want products they can "tune ourselves, we would change the components or whatever as we need, because that's the normal process. But something like the basic platform that it could build upon." He said it's "bonkers" that, despite the West's "significant industrial capacities," they aren't seeing anyone produce something simple and effective at scale. Zhluktenko said that many Western manufacturers are still "stuck in this doctrine of building tools in small quantities that maybe yes, they do have some extra features, but that's not something that is way too relevant for Ukraine's combat." The case for cheaper drones in greater numbers Zhluktenko's comments echo warnings from Western and Ukrainian officials that this war has shown the West the limits of relying on smaller numbers of exquisite, highly advanced weapons. Modern, large-scale warfare, as the situation in Ukraine has demonstrated, may also require much larger numbers of cheaper, less capable gear. Ukraine is still buying and building advanced drone technology with cutting-edge features like autonomy, which can be critical for warfighting tasks such as intercepting Russia's attack drones or executing long-range strikes that need to break through the enemy's electronic warfare. Drones are central to Ukraine's fight. Carlo Bravo/Anadolu via Getty Images Zhluktenko said that it's about "balance," arguing that simpler drones remain essential and are often needed in far greater numbers. Ukrainian companies like SkyFall and General Cherry are producing these kinds of drones at scale, he said. A representative for Ukrainian drone and technology company TechEx told Business Insider that Western manufacturers often have to deal with heavier, peacetime regulations. They may have "levels of additional software and hardware that's put on top of it instead of making it a bare, functional, ready to go system here and now," she said. That can "overcomplicate the operation of the system," she added. It can also make the manufacturing process more complex, so it's harder to produce the large volumes that some Ukrainian manufacturers can. She described it as the contrast between "wartime operations and the peacetime operations." She said Western companies might have different processes and priorities if they needed to work faster and on a bigger scale. Western officials say the war shows that allies need much larger volumes of cheap weapons, with leaders like Danish defense minister Troels Lund Poulsen previously telling Business Insider that "one of the lessons" from Ukraine is that the West needs far greater quantities of inexpensive weaponry. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last year that "speed is of the essence, not perfection." Drones are central to Ukraine's fight, and it says they now cause as much as 95% of Russia's front-line losses. But using drones effectively can require deploying large numbers of them, knowing that many will never reach their targets. That means making systems that are cheap and workable is key. Zhluktenko said that when it comes to drones, the mindset should be about "spending thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands." Read the original article on Business Insider