New episode of This Week in Tech:
Host: Leo Laporte · Guests: Jason Hiner, Lisa Schmeiser, Owen JJ Stone
Topics covered: Supreme Court imposes constitutional limits on geofence warrants, reshaping digital privacy Chinese AI models gain ground on US competitors amid legal and chip supply challenges Google faces multiple antitrust rulings and fines in the EU Apple may face RAM supply issues for Chinese iPhones Prediction markets allow betting on wildfires and other real-world events
The heat deaths in Europe were around 62,700 in 2024 and 16,500 last year, not 6,500.
Most modern homes in Europe are designed to keep the heat in and the cold out in winter and the reverse in summer, once you have cooled the house down. I live in a flat in a house built around the turn of the 20th Century (around 1910). We had temperatures of 42°C last week (107°F). The flat warmed up to around 27°C (80°F) on the first day 29°C (84°F) on the second day But we normally get up at around 05:30 and at that time, the temperature is in the low 20s, so we open all the windows, front and rear and get the air flowing through the flat, that drops the temperature to around 22°C, around 71.6°F, then, when the sun starts to climb, we close the windows and drop the shutters on the sun side. That works fine for the traditional week of hot weather we used to get in Germany.
The problem is, that week has turned into 2-3 weeks and we are also getting tropical nights, where the temperature during the day rises to over 42°C and at night, it stays in the low to mid 30s (86°F-94°F), which means the traditional method of cooling off the buildings over night or early in the morning no longer work.
Type Ashton did a report on it, although I don’t agree with everything she said, the general gist of the video is correct.
Same here in the UK. We’re fine with our typical summer weather - warm days, cooler nights. The house is stone, with stone floors and has always been nice and cool up to now.
But with the weather we’re getting now, there’s no respite at night, so the house gets hotter and hotter until the weather breaks. We were seeing 30C in the house at night.
We’ve borrowed a portable AC unit from a friend
Good to see Owen again. Don’t worry, the police don’t enforce TV licences here. You get a letter, and you can opt out and declare you don’t watch TV. It only gets serious if you ignore the letters and do nothing.
YouTube Kids is allowed under these new proposed regulations. That’s the point, I think. So what Owen does is exactly what’s expected - control your kids devices, access to apps, ability to install VPNs etc. and the platforms are expected to segregate the child and adult content somehow.
I don’t buy this VPN increase story. More likely to be adults not wanting to give their details IMO.
Yes, I heard that as well. It sounded like it was a combination of health challenges, plus other happenings that took him off the roster. Either way, I’m glad he has gotten through his health challenges and is back on TWiT.
Agreed. I’m also using portable air conditioners and although the outside temperature here at midnight is a couple of degrees lower than the target aircon temp, it still keeps turning back on because the rooms are heating back up from heat stored in the building structure, which is mainly brick.
I never realized this is why in summer my rooms (if I turn off the air conditioners) always end up creeping back up to 23-24C (which is fine with a big fan) despite being kept at 20-21 all day and cooler outdoors.
It makes sense, I just never thought about it like that.
Supreme Court imposes constitutional limits on geofence warrants, reshaping digital privacy
Chinese AI models gain ground on US competitors amid legal and chip supply challenges
Apple may face RAM supply issues for Chinese iPhones
Prediction markets allow betting on wildfires and other real-world events
