Cheer Shows Competitive Cheerleading Is Almost as Dangerous as Football. So Why Isn’t It Officially Considered a Sport?

Watching Netflix’s Cheer is not for the faint of heart. In Greg Whiteley’s six-part documentary series, which built up an enthusiastic fanbase after hitting the streamer in January, the young athletes of Navarro College’s 14-time national championship-winning cheerleading team repeatedly lift, throw and catch flying teammates, many of them already nursing injuries and at risk…

AI Is Coming for Your Most Mind-Numbing Office Tasks

In 2018, the New York Foundling, a charity that offers child welfare, adoption, and mental health services, was stuck in cut-and-paste hell.Clinicians and admin staff were spending hours transferring text between different documents and databases to meet varied legal requirements. Arik Hill, the charity’s chief information officer, blames the data entry drudgery for an annual…

The Feds Ban a Self-Driving Shuttle Fleet From Carrying People

Late Tuesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—the federal agency in charge of road safety in the US—took the unusual step of ordering a fleet of self-driving shuttles to stop carrying passengers. The shuttles, from the French company EasyMile, were transporting or preparing to transport riders in 16 US cities. NHTSA’s order allows the vehicles…

‘Sharapova retires with many questions unanswered’

Maria Sharapova won the last of her five Grand Slam titles at the 2014 French OpenA farewell tour – with the chance to perform one final time in Paris, London and New York – would not have been the Maria Sharapova way.No longer competitive, and with a shoulder not fit for purpose, she would have…

Spit Kits, Sperm Donors, and the End of Family Secrets

Alice Collins Plebuch, or Grandma Nerd, as her grandkids call her, is good at solving puzzles. She was among the first wave of computer programmers—when that term meant punching information on cards to be fed into mainframes. She has an analytical mind and is at ease with technology. Years ago, she began digging into her…

How to Upgrade Your Home Wi-Fi and Get Faster Internet

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, many people find themselves working or studying from home. Which also means that they are stuck with their home Wi-Fi networks, many of which may not feel up to the task.Some cable companies have increased speeds for low-income customers. Others have suspended broadband data…

Coronavirus: Lombardy region announces stricter measures

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The new measures ban weekly markets, work on building sites and physical activity outdoors The Italian region of Lombardy has introduced stricter measures in a bid to tackle the spread of coronavirus. Under the new rules announced late on Saturday, sport and physical activity outside, even individually, is banned. Using…

A Critical Internet Safeguard Is Running Out of Time

Keeping the internet safe may sometimes feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole, reacting to attacks as they arise, then moving on to the next. In reality, though, it’s an ongoing process that involves not just identifying threats but grabbing and retaining control of the infrastructure behind them. For years a small nonprofit called Shadowserver has…