Author: NY TIMES

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors find themselves in the Western Conference play-in round, needing two wins to make the true playoff picture. This week’s loss brings them closer to the inevitable end of their era.That was the anticlimactic end to Game 82: the No. 10 seed. Their latest performance is that they are playing well with their backs against the wall.This is real. The best players on this team have had an epic playoff run and responded to the few edges they’ve been pushed to. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney —…

Joe Biden is a dapper guy. He always has been. When he turned up decades ago for a first date with the woman who would become his wife and the country’s first lady, her gut reaction was, “This is never going to work, not in a million years.”Dressed in a sports coat and loafers, Joe Biden was too dapper for someone who had previously gone out with men in T-shirts and clogs.They worked it out. And the future president stuck to his style. It was one that sometimes skewed Gatsby, for which in 1974 Washingtonian magazine noted his penchant for…

Flying with a pet can be expensive and confusing, with fees, weight limits, carrier size rules and the need to make sure there’s no loud barking (or meowing) on board.Recently, American Airlines relaxed its pet policy to allow passengers to bring a carry-on bag in addition to a pet in a carrier, and more private flight options have been emerging in recent years for pet owners who can afford them.Still, flying with large or medium-size dogs can be tricky, and many travelers are wary of leaving a pet in the plane’s cargo hold.For those traveling on the major carriers with…

Maybe it’s the superior experience of sipping a crisp, carbonated beverage through a straw. Maybe it’s the rise of Stanley Cups, or the supremacy of cold brew even in the winter months. Whatever it is, straws have evolved beyond the single-use plastic straw-man argument for environmental personal responsibility into so much more.There are straws made of paper, glass straws, metal straws and durable, reusable plastic straws. Many come with their own silicone accessories, cleaning systems, and personalized carrying cases.Our endless enthusiasm for sipping things through narrow tubes has birthed much innovation in the straw market. It has also created a…

When Iran agreed to a deal in 2015 that would require it to surrender 97 percent of the uranium it could use to make nuclear bombs, Russia and China worked alongside the United States and Europe to get the pact done.The Russians even took Iran’s nuclear fuel, for a hefty fee, prompting celebratory declarations that President Vladimir V. Putin could cooperate with the West on critical security issues and help constrain a disruptive regime in a volatile region.A lot has changed in the subsequent nine years. China and Russia are now more aligned with Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” to an…

Former Vice President Al Gore was in New York City over the weekend for a leadership training convened by the Climate Reality Project, his nonprofit organization.On Saturday, before thousands of attendees, Mr. Gore highlighted mounting climate perils but also spoke of progress. He slammed fossil fuel companies for ramping up plastics production and promoting technology to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which he called “utterly preposterous.”Afterward, Mr. Gore explained in an interview why he was not surprised that major oil and gas companies have walked back their pledges to decarbonize. And he said he believed that former President Donald…

It seems unlikely that North London resident TS Eliot is an Arsenal fan, but his poem suggests otherwise.”April is the cruelest month,” “The Wasteland” begins. “I wept, fasted, wept, prayed,” lamented J. Alfred Prufrock’s “Love Song.” “The challenge ended; not with a bang, but with a whimper,” which may have been the first draft of The Hollow Man.Sunday was a disappointing day not only for Arsenal and Liverpool fans, but also for those neutrals who had hoped to see the three-way title race continue. Liverpool lost 0-1 to Crystal Palace and Arsenal lost 0-2 to Villa, leaving Manchester City with…

I am healthy and active, but my legs have lots of scars, including a seven-inch incision from a recent surgery. I am attending an event that asks people to wear cocktail attire. My nice dresses are all just below the knee or knee length. Do I wear pantyhose or show off all my scars, blemishes and other things that come related with life and age? — Susan, Del Mar, Calif.In a world of Instagram filters, Photoshop, fillers, Botox, lasers and every other body treatment under the sun, it can be shocking to look at your actual untouched self. Marks that…

The Biden administration will give up to $6.4 billion in grants to Samsung, one of the world’s largest chipmakers, the latest in a slew of awards intended to shore up domestic production of cutting-edge semiconductors.The money will help Samsung, the South Korean company, fund its new chip manufacturing hub in Taylor, Texas, and expand an existing site in nearby Austin. Samsung will now build an additional manufacturing plant and upgrade a facility under construction in Taylor. It will increase its investment in Texas to roughly $45 billion, up from the $17 billion it announced more than two years ago, administration…

Which A.I. system writes the best computer code or generates the most realistic image? Right now, there’s no easy way to answer those questions. Source link