Blog

Regulators Approve New Type of Bitcoin Fund, in Boon for Crypto Industry
10
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
Technology

Regulators Approve New Type of Bitcoin Fund, in Boon for Crypto Industry

Federal regulators on Wednesday approved a new financial product that tracks the price of Bitcoin, a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency industry that proponents hope will increase investment in the technology.The Securities and Exchange Commission authorized 11 applications by financial firms to offer what are known as exchange-traded funds tied to Bitcoin, a potentially simpler way for people to invest in digital assets on traditional platforms like the Nasdaq. Some of the largest financial companies in the world, including the asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity, were approved to offer the products, known as E.T.F.s, which could begin trading as soon…
Read More
Quebec Still Longs for Its Lost Hockey Team, a Nationalist Symbol
09
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
New miscellaneous

Quebec Still Longs for Its Lost Hockey Team, a Nationalist Symbol

When the Nordiques left Quebec nearly 30 years ago, the hockey team’s departure fueled the kind of mythologizing and nostalgia familiar to fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers.The Nordiques’ stint in Quebec, playing there in the N.H.L. from 1979 to 1995, overlapped with the French-speaking province’s two failed attempts to secede from the rest of Canada, and the team’s identity melded with that of their fans: a linguistic minority struggling to assert itself in a part of the world dominated by English speakers.The Nordiques wore their politics on their sleeves, literally, putting the Quebec flag’s fleur-de-lis on their uniforms. They also…
Read More
Michigan stymies Michael Penix Jr., Washington to claim first national championship since 1997 season
09
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
Sports

Michigan stymies Michael Penix Jr., Washington to claim first national championship since 1997 season

By Lauren Merola, Max Olson, Austin Meek, Jim Trotter and Nicole AuerbachIt’s been 26 years, but finally, no one has it better than Michigan.The Wolverines, who ranked second in passing yards allowed per game with 150.0 heading into title town, faced their toughest task yet in taming the flamethrower that is Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Michigan answered the bell, subduing Penix to 255 yards and one touchdown — the only Washington TD on the night — against two interceptions on 27-of-51 passing, a vast divergence from the usual performance of the nation’s leader in passing yards per game (332.0)…
Read More
OpenAI Says New York Times Lawsuit Against It Is ‘Without Merit’
09
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
Technology

OpenAI Says New York Times Lawsuit Against It Is ‘Without Merit’

OpenAI said on Monday that a New York Times lawsuit against it was “without merit” and that it supported and created opportunities for news organizations, as it waded further into a debate over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies.The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft on Dec. 27, accusing the companies of infringing on its copyrights by using millions of its articles to train A.I. technologies like the ChatGPT chatbot. Chatbots now compete with The Times as a source of reliable information, the lawsuit said.In a 1,000-word blog post on Monday, OpenAI said it collaborated with…
Read More
Blessing of Same-Sex Couples Rankles Africa’s Catholics
07
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
New miscellaneous

Blessing of Same-Sex Couples Rankles Africa’s Catholics

The Vatican’s recent declaration allowing the blessing of same-sex couples caused a stir around the globe, but perhaps most of all in Africa, a rising center of the Roman Catholic Church’s future. In one statement after the next, bishops in several countries spoke of the fear and confusion the declaration has caused among their flocks, and said it was out of step with the continent’s culture and values.The bishops also harbored a deeper fear: that in a place where the church is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, and where many forms of Christianity are competing for worshipers,…
Read More
Bird, ‘The Wire,’ a life sentence paroled and a Colts game 40 years in the making
07
Jan
Avatar photo
By William Lee
Sports

Bird, ‘The Wire,’ a life sentence paroled and a Colts game 40 years in the making

Bleary-eyed from 16 hours on a Greyhound bus, he strolled into the stadium running on fumes. He’d barely slept in two days. The ride he was supposed to hitch from Charlotte to Indianapolis canceled at the last minute, and for a few nervy hours, Antonio Barnes started to have his doubts. The trip he’d waited 40 years for looked like it wasn’t going to happen.But as he moved through the concourse at Lucas Oil Stadium an hour before the Colts faced the Raiders, it started to sink in. His pace quickened. His eyes widened. His voice picked up.“I got chills…
Read More