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Is NameDrop really a privacy threat? The truth revealed

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

Over the weekend, law enforcement agencies around the country started posting security warnings about a new iPhone feature called NameDrop, and how it could potentially share your contact information just by bringing two iPhones close together.The posts encouraged users to turn the feature off to protect their privacy, insinuating that a stranger could collect your data just by getting near your phone.Turns out, it's just not true.In my extensive testing of the feature, I figured out exactly how it works. Read on to understand it and determine if you want to turn it off.Follow Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro on Instagram for more tech news, tips and reviews.I was there as Apple announced the feature to much fanfare at its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference in June 2023."This year we’re expanding how you can use AirDrop to share in all new ways starting with how you swap your number with someone new," started Apple executive and engineer Craig Federighi."With NameDrop, you can just br...

The keffiyeh explained: How this scarf became a Palestinian national symbol

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

By Zoe Sottile | CNNOver the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont, two of them while wearing keffiyehs, in a crime their families have said was “fueled by hate.”Although keffiyehs are worn across the Middle East, in recent decades they have come to be identified in particular as a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance. At pro-Palestinian protests across the world amid the Israel-Hamas war, demonstrators have sported the scarves around their necks or used them to cover their faces.Originally worn by shepherds and nomadic farmers, the keffiyeh “has become an iconic piece of clothing globally worn by anti-colonialist revolutionaries, activists, and the like, while still worn in the traditional headwear fashion by elders and farmers,” said Majeed Malhas, a Palestinian-Canadian journalist and PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Toronto.What is a keffiyeh?Palestinians seen at a polling station in the West Bank town of...

Bay Area News Group high school football predictions: Week 15, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

Welcome back to our all-in-fun high school football picks competition.With two weeks to go, red-hot Mike Lefkow has made up some ground but is still going to need a miracle finish to catch me in the season standings.It’s not going to happen this week because he and I picked the same teams in seven of the eight games on our NorCal regional card. He trails by seven games.But Lefkow did prevail in our pick-the-section-champions sidebar.He had Serra, Los Gatos, De La Salle, Pittsburg, El Cerrito, Marin Catholic and Acalanes winning section titles, which they all did.I probably should have reviewed my notes. I picked Acalanes to win the North Coast Section Division IV championship, too, but three weeks later had San Marin beating Acalanes in the final.Oh well.Joseph Dycus and I, by the way, picked the correct section champions in six of 14 divisions.In this week’s video, we discuss what the fresh data says about the differences between the Central Coast Section and NCS playof...

UC Berkeley, law school sued over ‘unchecked’ antisemitism

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

By David Voreacos | BloombergTwo Jewish groups sued the University of California at Berkeley and its law school over the “longstanding, unchecked spread of antisemitism” they say has escalated since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.UC Berkeley and the law school have “failed to confront, much less combat, the antisemitic environment their inaction has fostered,” according to the complaint. It was filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco by the Louis D. Brandeis Center and Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, or JAFE.At the law school, at least 23 student organizations have enacted policies to “discriminate against and exclude Jewish students, faculty and scholars,” the groups said. They claim the university’s leaders have flouted UC rules and US law and “enabled the normalization of anti-Jewish hatred on campus.”Dan Mogulof, an assistant vice chancellor at Berkeley, said in a statement that the university “has long been committed to confronting antisemitism and to ...

SF Giants should be center of attention at next week’s MLB Winter Meetings

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

About this time last year, Bob Melvin gussied himself up in a black blazer, took a seat at one of two tables set up in a nondescript hotel ballroom a stone’s throw from the San Diego waterfront and answered questions on the state of the Padres, fulfilling the manager’s media obligations at the annual gathering of the baseball world.Next week, Melvin will go through the same ritual, in another hotel ballroom, a couple thousand miles east, only now representing the San Francisco Giants.After missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the Giants’ biggest moves entering the Winter Meetings, which kick off Monday and run through Wednesday at the Nashville Opryland Resort, have been the new manager and his coaching staff. Farhan Zaidi is the only executive in the NL West yet to execute a move on his major-league roster (though he has more company league-wide, where about half the teams have stood still so far).But the Giants aren’t expected to remain q...

Signs of mysterious respiratory illness affecting dogs reported from California to New Hampshire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

By Chris Boyette | CNNAn infectious respiratory disease among dogs that continues to baffle veterinarians has now been reported in at least a dozen US states, from Washington, Oregon and California to New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania.David B. Needle, a pathologist at the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and clinical associate professor at the University of New Hampshire, and a team of researchers have been unable to identify it as any known canine respiratory disease.“This early metagenomic work did not reveal any RNA or DNA virus of concern, and no typical fungal or bacterial respiratory pathogens were identified,” the researchers wrote.Since the middle of August, the American Veterinary Medical Association said vets in Oregon have reported over 200 cases.The mysterious illness was described as an “atypical canine infectious respiratory disease,” by the Oregon Department of Agriculture and symptoms include coughing, sneezing, eye or nose discharge and lethargy....

US moves to protect wolverines as climate change melts their mountain refuges, threatens extinction

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

FILE - This photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife from a remote camera set by biologist Chris Stermer, shows a wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest near Truckee, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2016, a rare sighting of the elusive species in the state. Scientists estimate that only about 300 wolverines survive in the contiguous U.S. (Chris Stermer/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)(AP/Chris Stermer) FILE - This photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife from a remote camera set by biologist Chris Stermer, shows a wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest near Truckee, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2016, a rare sighting of the elusive species in the state. Scientists estimate that only about 300 wolverines survive in ...

Man with gunshot wounds dies after crashing into parked car in Montgomery Co., police say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

A man has died after crashing into a parked car while suffering from gunshot wounds Tuesday night in Kensington, Maryland, according to Montgomery County police.Officers were sent to a reported car crash in the 3600 block of Spruell Drive at 9:40 p.m. A sedan had crashed into a parked car, and neighbors pulled the driver from the vehicle to attempt CPR before emergency services arrived, police told WTOP.EMS crews found apparent gunshot wounds on the driver and called for police.The driver died at the scene and was transported to a medical examiner for an autopsy.Police have not released the name of the deceased nor a cause of death.The incident remains an ongoing investigation, and officials say they will release more information when it is available.A map with the approximate location of the incident is below. Source

Luke Donald stays on as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain for 2025 after overwhelming backing of players

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

Rory McIlroy and his teammates wanted it. The European tour wanted it. And, after some reflection, Luke Donald wanted it, too.Emboldened by seemingly unanimous backing, Donald accepted an offer to stay on as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain for its defense of the 17-inch golden trophy in 2025 at Bethpage Black in New York.The 45-year-old Donald led the Europeans to a 16½-11½ victory over the United States outside Rome last month. As he was delivering his victory speech at Marco Simone, Europe’s players — led by McIlroy and Shane Lowry — started a chant of “two more years.”“Hearing them shout two more years, at the back of my mind I thought I don’t really want to let these guys down,” Donald said Wednesday after the European tour announced he would be carrying on in the role.Still, Donald gave himself a few weeks to weigh up his options, speak to his family and decide whether he wanted to take on a task that, to many, is up there with the toughest in golf: winning a Ryder Cup o...

Stock market today: Wall Street gains ground after encouraging updates from GM and other companies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:06:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose broadly in morning trading on Wall Street Wednesday following some encouraging updates from U.S. companies, including General Motors.The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, finding upward momentum after two days of mostly listless trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44 points, or 0.1%, to 35,465 as of 10:11 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq gained 0.5%.General Motors surged 10.2%. The company announced a big stock buyback, raised its dividend and told investors it won’t have any trouble absorbing the costs of its new labor contract. GM and its rivals agreed to new contracts with the United Auto Workers and Canadian auto workers in late October following strikes that lasted more than a month.Ford rose 3.4% and Jeep maker Stellantis rose 4.5%.Technology companies were behind much of the gains following several strong financial updates. NetApp jumped 15% after easily beating analysts’ forecasts for earnings in its latest quarter and raising its outlook for the ye...