Author: NY TIMES

What’s in a name?If you could ask the humble zircon, the answer might be mistaken identity and decades of undeserved obscurity.In the Victorian era, the peak of popularity for zircons, a mined mineral, colorless ones were regularly used as diamond alternatives and blue ones were particularly popular.“Zircon can come in a wide range of colors — blue, yellow, brown, green and, rarely, a purplish-pink color,” said Nathan Renfro, senior manager of colored stone identification at the Gemological Institute of America. “They also have quite a high luster and a high degree of dispersion; as the light travels through the stone,…

As far as signs of trouble in a company go, a hole blowing through the wall of one of its airplanes at 16,000 feet is not subtle.So it was not a surprise that the Boeing chief executive, Dave Calhoun, spent most of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday focused on safety. “We caused the problem, and we understand that,” he said of the Jan. 5 incident.Mr. Calhoun said the company had instituted additional quality controls and paused production for a day to focus on safety and quality. But Boeing’s issues span decades, and some aviation and management experts have…

When Apple unveiled the Vision Pro virtual reality goggles last year at a technology conference, many in the audience gasped at the price: $3,500. That’s more than quadruple the cost of a new iPhone and 14 times the cost of a competing headset from Meta.The headset, which Apple has marketed as a computer, movie player and gaming machine, will arrive in stores on Friday. Ahead of its release, the discussion has focused on its price: Many have wondered why people would pay so much to do what they could already do with their computers, TVs and game consoles.Yet the true…

Even as the signals of approaching dementia became impossible to ignore, Joseph Drolet dreaded the prospect of moving his partner into a long-term care facility.Mr. Drolet, 79, and his beloved Rebecca, 71, both retired lawyers and prosecutors in Atlanta, had been a couple for 33 years, though they retained separate homes. In 2019, she began getting lost while driving, mishandling her finances and struggling with the television remote. The diagnosis — Alzheimer’s disease — came in 2021.Over time, Mr. Drolet moved Rebecca (whose surname he asked to withhold to protect her privacy) into his home. But serving as her round-the-clock…

3. Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash: “Jackson”The rather verbosely named award for best country & western performance duet, trio or group (vocal or instrumental) went to “Jackson,” that still-crackling instant classic recorded by Johnny Cash and his soon-to-be wife, June Carter.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube4. Aretha Franklin: “Respect”The Recording Academy put some much-deserved respect on Aretha Franklin’s name, awarding her both best R&B recording and best R&B solo vocal performance, female.▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube5. Sam & Dave: “Soul Man”The duo Sam & Dave netted a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2019, but…

The aftermath of the U.S. military strikes targeting sites in Syria and Iraq began coming into focus on Saturday morning as a Britain-based Syria monitoring group said that at least 18 members of an Iran-backed group had been killed in strikes there and the Iraqi government said that 16 people had been killed, including civilians.The Biden administration warned that the strikes overnight on sites used by Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias in retaliation for the killing of three U.S. troops last week would not be the last.Civilians, as well as soldiers, were among those killed in Syria, the country’s defense…

As Michelle O’Neill walked down the marble staircase in Northern Ireland’s Parliament building on the outskirts of Belfast on Saturday, she appeared confident and calm. She smiled as applause erupted from supporters in the balcony. Only the seriousness of her gaze conveyed the gravity of the moment.The political party she represents, Sinn Fein, was shaped by the decades-long, bloody struggle of Irish nationalists in the territory who dreamed of reuniting with the Republic of Ireland and undoing the 1921 partition that has kept Northern Ireland under British rule.Now, for the first time, a Sinn Fein politician holds Northern Ireland’s top…

A four-decade timeline of total transformation in Brooklyn. Source link

When the cryptocurrency exchange FTX declared bankruptcy about 15 months ago, it seemed few customers would recover much money or crypto from the platform. As John Ray III, who took over as chief executive during the bankruptcy, put it, “At the end of the day, we’re not going to be able to recover all the losses here.” He was countering Sam Bankman-Fried’s repeated claims that he could get every customer their money back.Well, it turns out, FTX lawyers told a bankruptcy judge this week that they expected to pay creditors in full, though they said it was not a guarantee…

Members of Congress have introduced a number of different bills intended to boost protections for children and teenagers online.One is a wide-ranging measure, the Kids Online Safety Act or KOSA. It would require online services like social media networks, video game sites and messaging apps to take “reasonable measures” to prevent harm — including online bullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, anorexia, self-harm and predatory marketing — to minors who used their platforms.It would also require the services to turn on the highest privacy and safety settings by default for users under 18. And it would allow young people to limit or…