Author: palmbeachocean.com

Even by the standards of London’s white-hot real estate market, it was a property with seemingly limited appeal: an unused stairwell, attached to the back of a suburban building, next to a parking garage.Nevertheless, the four-story metal stairwell, enclosed by translucent panels, sold at auction on Tuesday morning for 25,000 pounds (about $32,000), 20 percent more than the starting bid.Simon Squibb, the longtime entrepreneur who bought the stairwell, said he saw what the property listing called its “development potential.”Mr. Squibb recently co-founded HelpBnk, a company that supports budding entrepreneurs, possibly with the help of his new stairwell.The plan is to…

The recent, record-breaking heat waves that have scorched the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, China and southern Europe were made dramatically more likely due to human-caused climate change, researchers report July 25 in a study from the World Weather Attribution network. “This is absolutely not a surprise,” climate scientist Friederike Otto of Imperial College London said at a July 24 news briefing. But “while the weather is changing as expected, how much it hurts us is larger than expected.” These intense and at times deadly heat waves are occurring as high-pressure systems stall across the Northern Hemisphere, creating barely…

The title of the new Amazon offering “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart,” with its echo of V.C. Andrews’s Gothic novels of family calamity, is a case of truth in advertising. The seven-episode Australian mini-series, which is based on the novel by Holly Ringland and premiered Thursday on Prime Video, is an unapologetic melodrama — a family saga in which lies and secrets proliferate beyond all reason, putting parents and children, friends and bystanders, through unnaturally intense storms of emotion.That it’s also entertaining, moving and vividly atmospheric is a pleasant surprise in a time when melodrama tends toward the banal…

The Pro Football Hall of Fame passed an uncomfortable Rubicon in 2018 when the former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis spoke for more than 33 minutes at his induction ceremony.The Hall’s role is to celebrate the N.F.L.’s greatest players and coaches, who often give impassioned and emotional speeches at their inductions. But over the past decade, the event, held annually in August, has become an arms race of “thank yous” and rambling speeches that run 15 minutes or longer.As ceremonies stretched past four hours, droves of fans sitting outdoors at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, left…

Facepalm: Data from Google Project Zero says Microsoft products have accounted for 42.5 percent of all zero-day security vulnerabilities discovered since 2014. Now a security firm is accusing the Redmond corporation of being irresponsible and putting all its users at risk. Tenable CEO Amit Yoran criticizes Microsoft for its irresponsible security practices and lack of transparency on breaches. Its Azure platform has dangerous vulnerabilities, but Microsoft has deliberately kept its customers in the dark about the risks. Redmond allegedly overlooked Azure vulnerabilities for months, even when security specialists knew the issues existed. Yoran quotes a letter sent last week by…

Cities and workplaces have been upended since the pandemic began. Some people moved from cities to suburbs. Stores and restaurants moved out of busy downtown areas. Train and bus schedules shifted.The New York Times is reporting on how commuting has changed over the last three years for people who have never had the option to work from home because their jobs must be done in person — in health care, hospitality, food service, manufacturing, building maintenance, sanitation, public safety, you name it. We’d like to hear about your experiences. We may use your contact information to get in touch with…

A couple of days before Spain’s first genuine test of this World Cup — an encounter with Japan in Wellington, New Zealand — team officials became aware of an issue. The players, it turned out, were bored. Their families and friends, who had traveled halfway around the globe to watch their games, were bored. Some of the squad had young children in tow. They were bored, too.Spain had chosen the town of Palmerston North as its base for the tournament. It made perfect sense. The team was guaranteed to play all of its games until the semifinal on New Zealand’s…

Apple introduced the third-generation AirPods nearly two years ago, raising questions about what the company may have in store for the fourth version of the device. The design of the original AirPods persisted through two generations, so the redesign introduced with the third-generation in 2021 may be likely to stick around with the fourth version of the device. There are still at least seven plausible new features that seem likely to come to the next-generation AirPods Many of the changes and improvements introduced with the third-generation AirPods originated on the first-generation AirPods Pro. As such, it seems likely that many…

The fallout from Fitch’s downgrade continues Stocks appear set to open lower today, after falling yesterday in the wake of Fitch Ratings downgrading the United States’s AAA credit rating. (Treasury yields rose as well.)White House officials, economists and some prominent Wall Street leaders said the move, which took the U.S. rating to AA+ because of concerns about growing federal deficits and political polarization, was puzzling and wouldn’t have much impact. But others have said Fitch’s move, while largely symbolic, still points to long-term troubles for the nation and its fiscal health.The U.S. is unlikely to regain its pristine rating any…

Climate-related environmental disasters have not let up this summer. Heat waves are roasting the United States, Europe, China and North Africa (SN: 7/19/23), while wildfires are raging in Canada and Greece. Choking smoke from the Canadian fires has obscured skies throughout the United States (SN: 7/12/23). This is harmful to everyone, but especially children. The United Nations Children’s Fund calls climate change a child rights crisis. The organization estimates that 1 billion children worldwide – nearly half of all children – are at extremely high risk of the effects of climate change. This threatens the health of these children now…