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Bees learn waggle dance moves with a little help from their coworkers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

(CNN) — Booty-shaking worker bees guide their fellow workers to pollen by a form of communication known as “waggle dancing” — performing steps that map out where food is located and how far it is from the hive.And now scientists have discovered that bees hone these moves when they’re young, by touching their antennae to the bodies of dancing elder bees; if they miss that chance, their dances have more mistakes, and their maps are less accurate.Waggle dances are tricky to execute, and missteps can send foraging bees flying off in the wrong direction. But there’s a critical learning phase in a young worker bee’s life when she’s about 8 days old — right before she becomes a full-fledged forager — which helps her to perfect her dance.When older workers return to the hive and waggle dance, novice workers observe them closely. By doing so, less-experienced bees learn to perform dances that generate more accurate maps to the next meal. Worker bees ...

Former NBA star Shawn Kemp being released following arrest

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — No charges are immediately being filed against former NBA star Shawn Kemp following his arrest in a drive-by shooting in Washington, prosecutors said Thursday.Kemp, 53, was booked for investigation of felony drive-by shooting shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday in Tacoma, online jail records show. No one was injured in the shooting Wednesday afternoon.Adam Faber, a spokesman for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon that that no charges were immediately being filed against Kemp and that he was being released from jail pending further investigation.Kemp, who has two licensed cannabis stores in Seattle, was a six-time NBA all-star and played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1989 to 1997. He also played for Cleveland, Portland and Orlando. Kemp debuted in the NBA during the 1989-90 season as a 20-year-old who had never played college basketball. He became known for his high-flying, athletic dunks.Tacoma polic...

Hot Property: Cambridge condo checks all boxes

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

Real estate trends in the greater Boston area have been… all over the place. There isn’t a ton of inventory, interest rates are making buyers more hesitant, and there’s always the push-pull of suburban space vs. urban amenities.So buyers are looking for the unicorn-iest unicorn — a home that makes sense today and that’s flexible enough for families as they change or expand. Does Unit 1 at 24 Camp Street in Cambridge fit that profile? It just might.The four-bedroom condo boasts more than 2,000 square feet across two floors, plus the Cambridge holy grails — private patio space and off-street parking. After undergoing a top-to-bottom gut renovation, the condo development’s sole remaining unit is sleek and bright.An open floor plan extends the stylish, Thermador-decked kitchen into a living and dining space that’s capped with a wall of bay windows overlooking the quiet streetside. Two bedrooms on the main floor include a large primary suite with double closets and an en-suite bath...

Ex-Goldman Sachs banker gets 10-year sentence for fraud

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — A former Goldman Sachs banker was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for his role in looting a Malaysian development fund of billions of dollars used to finance lavish parties, a superyacht, premium real estate and even the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street.”Roger Ng was convicted last April by a U.S. District Court jury in Brooklyn, but he continues to deny charges that he conspired to launder money and violated two anti-bribery laws.Prosecutors said Ng and his co-conspirators helped the Malaysian fund, known as 1MDB, raise $6.5 billion through bond sales — only to participate in a scheme that siphoned off more than two-thirds of the money, some of which went to pay bribes and kickbacks.Reading from a prepared statement, Ng pleaded for mercy from U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie.“I’m embarrassed. I’m ashamed,” he told the judge.“I don’t want to live in resentment,” he said. “I want to redeem myself.”The judge admonished...

ChatGPT wrote a bogus newsletter reporting a fictitious fight at a Connecticut middle school

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

A middle school in South Windsor, Conn. has advised parents that someone was circulating a fictitious school newsletter evidently written by the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.The phony newsletter described a fictitious conflict between students, and listed names and penalties they sustained, according to the school system.Administrators were not taking questions this week, and police said they had received no complaint related to the incident.“It has come to our attention that a fictitious newsletter was shared among some students and families that closely resembled the formatting of the TEMS monthly communication to families,” Principal Candice Irwin of the Timothy Edwards Middle School said in a letter to parents Feb. 27.“This writing was generated using ChatGPT (open AI) and reported false information about a fabricated altercation that occurred between TEMS students.”Irwin’s letter did not state whether the phony newsletter was distributed electronically or in print, h...

Ontario bans TikTok app from government-issued mobile devices

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

The Doug Ford government is banning the use of the social media app TikTok from government-owned mobile devices, following the lead of the federal government and other Canadian provinces.Last month, the federal government banned the app from such devices days after federal and provincial privacy watchdogs launched an investigation into the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform, delving into how the app collects, uses, and discloses personal information.On Thursday, Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, President of the Treasury Board, issued the following statement:“Effective immediately, the Ontario government has started the removal of the social media application TikTok from all Ontario government-issued devices. Also effective immediately, all Ontario PC party caucus members will begin the removal of the application from all personal mobile devices. As part of this ban, government advertising campaigns will also be removed from TikTok.“The decision to block the TikTok application from governm...

Georgia to drop foreign agents law after massive protests

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia’s governing party said Thursday it would withdraw draft legislation that opponents — and tens of thousands of protesters who swarmed the capital — warned could stifle dissent and curtail media freedoms, ushering in Russian-style repression.The bill would have required media and nongovernmental organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from foreign sources to register as “agents of foreign influence.” Its opponents argued the bill was inspired by a similar law in Russia that’s used to silence critics, and could hinder Georgia’s aspirations of one day joining NATO and the European Union.Protests against the bill began last week in the capital, Tbilisi, but swelled in recent days and were met with tear gas and water cannons. The Interior Ministry said 133 demonstrators were arrested, although Georgian police late announced they had released all who face administrative charges and not criminal prosecution, without specifying how many...

3 wounded in Tel Aviv shooting, hours after West Bank raid

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire on a crowded street in central Tel Aviv late Thursday, wounding three people before he was shot and killed, Israeli officials said. The shooting came hours after an Israeli military raid killed three Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.The incidents were the latest violence in a year-long wave of Israel-Palestinian fighting that shows no signs of slowing.The Tel Aviv shooting occurred on Dizengoff Street, a popular thoroughfare filled with shops and restaurants. The city was filled with people on Thursday night, the start of the Israeli weekend, and as anti-government protests were taking place in the Mediterranean city .An image on social media showed what was believed to be the attacker standing in the middle of the road as he pointed a pistol. The MADA rescue service said one of the wounded was in critical condition, while authorities said security forces in the area quickly killed the shooter. Amateur video app...

Wisconsin court sides with AP, others in open records case

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appeals court ruled Thursday that the state Assembly violated the open records law when it initially rejected, then fulfilled with redactions, documents sought by The Associated Press and three other media outlets related to sexual harassment allegations against a former legislator.The AP, the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sued in March 2020 after their open records requests seeking copies of the complaint against then-state Rep. Staush Gruszynski and other related documents were denied by the clerk of the Assembly.The 4th District Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a lower court’s ruling from 2021 in favor of the AP and others. The appeals court agreed with a circuit court’s ruling that Assembly leaders misapplied a balancing test, erroneously finding that the complainant’s privacy outweighed the public’s interest in the documents.The appeals court also found that the Assembly violated the...

4 ‘Ostomy Athletes’ to climb the Seven Summits around the world

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 11:53:36 GMT

A group of four people from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. who each have Crohn’s Disease and Ileostomy are setting their sights on a lofty goal, climbing the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents and pursing the Explorer’s Grand Slam.The group, which calls themselves the Ostomy Athletes, hope to begin their epic adventure in September this year and it’s expected to take until Dec. 2026 to complete.The seven summits including Everest, Kilimanjaro and Denali while the Explorer’s Grand Slam will consists of skiing to the North and South Pole.Patrick Belton, a Toronto native, put together the team and will be joined by the only man to ever climb some of the world’s tallest mountains, including Everest with an ostomy and an inflammatory bowel disease.The team will be the second.Belton tells CityNews he came up with the idea after he was two to three years into his recovery from his 13th intestinal surgery and began hiking a trail in Cape Breton.&#...