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Chilly Start, Warm-Up Ahead

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

Brrr…. A little bit of chill in the air to say the least this morning. In all honestly, we’re late to the frost/freeze party for many inland locations, so to see temps in the mid 30s across MetroWest is pretty typical for the time of year. None-the-less, it is cool, and one of the cooler starts we’ve had since last Spring. Winds are light and will be light all day as highs head back into the lower 60s this afternoon. The big warm-up begins tomorrow with highs recovering in the lower 70s in the afternoon. We’ll do it again Thursday, Friday and into Saturday. Saturday, we peak the warmth as highs push into the upper 70s, near records for the time of year. It’ll stay mainly dry into the weekend, although some showers are possible late Sunday.

Patriots look to build on offensive performance with some of NFL’s most generous defenses up next

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The seat under Bill Belichick isn’t as warm as it seemed just a week ago. How long that remains the case is to be determined.No, the Patriots’ 29-25 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday didn’t save their season. At 2-5, New England is still at the bottom of the AFC East and would need to improve significantly over its final 10 games to move into playoff contention.But for a team that entered the week mired in injuries, inconsistency and ineptitude on offense, Sunday’s victory offered the first real signs that the Patriots possess the potential — and personnel — to compete with the AFC’s better teams.Quarterback Mac Jones built on the strides he showed in Week 6 against Las Vegas and completed a season-high 83% of his passes (25 of 30) for 272 yards and two touchdowns. His 126.7 quarterback rating was his best of the season.“It’s just a crumb. That’s what I always say. And you’ve got to build off that,” Jones said. “I want to continue to do th...

Chatbots might disrupt math and computer science classes. Some teachers see upsides

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

For as long as Jake Price has been a teacher, Wolfram Alpha — a website that solves algebraic problems online — has threatened to make algebra homework obsolete. Teachers learned to work around and with it, said Price, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Puget Sound. But now, they have a new homework helper to contend with: generative artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT.Price doesn’t see ChatGPT as a threat, and he’s not alone. Some math professors believe artificial intelligence, when used correctly, could help strengthen math instruction. And it’s arriving at a time when math scores are at a historic low and educators are questioning if math should be taught differently.___The Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition of eight newsrooms, is documenting the math crisis facing schools and highlighting progress. Members of the Collaborative are AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News...

Police command post to set up at Canada’s Wonderland amid security concerns due to Israel-Hamas war

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

Police services in the GTA are continuing to take measures to ensure people feel safe amid violence in the Middle East.York Regional Police (YRP) say they are setting up a second mobile command post to address security concerns expressed by residents’ as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.“YRP continues to coordinate with our federal and provincial partners and no credible threat has been identified within the region at this time,” reads a release from the service. “However, we are actively monitoring the situation and will continue to deploy police resources strategically.”The York police RIDE truck will be deployed at a parking lot Canada’s Wonderland on Tuesday and Wednesday before moving to the Armadale Community Centre in Markham for Thursday and Friday. The RIDE truck will then spend this weekend at Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill.An existing York police command post at the Promenade Mall in Thornhill will remain in place.Both command...

The 2023 Soros Arts Fellows plan to fight climate change and other global issues with public art

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Palestinian artist Nida Sinnokrot, one of 18 artists receiving the 2023 Soros Arts Fellowships from the Open Society Foundations on Tuesday, says that art provides hope and resilience, even in the midst of war.“It’s our duty to find the strength to keep the despair at bay in the face of the unimaginable,” said Sinnokrot, who is the co-founder of Sakiya, a Palestinian academy of agrarian traditions and contemporary art, and a faculty member in Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Art, Culture, and Technology Program. “We have to, as artists, find the courage to disrupt convention, practice the spreading of hope and cultivate new stories and imaginaries that challenge divisive binaries.”Members of this year’s class of Soros Arts Fellows, including Sinnokrot, will receive $100,000 in unrestricted funding from Open Society Foundations to develop a public art project that confronts climate change with community-based solutions in the next 18 months, said Tatiana Mouarb...

Polish opposition groups say Donald Tusk is their candidate for prime minister

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The leaders of three opposition groups that collectively won the most votes in Poland’s recent elections said Tuesday that Donald Tusk, the leader of the largest group, is their candidate to be prime minister.“We are ready to create a government,” Tusk, a former prime minister and former president of the European Council, said as he and other opposition party leaders stood together in parliament to announce their decision to cooperate.The announcement came just before President Andrzej Duda was scheduled to open two days of postelection consultations with the heads of parties that won seats in the new parliament.Tuesday’s developments mark important steps on the path to the formation of a new government after the national election on Oct. 15, though it is still unclear when a new government can take over in the Central European nation of 38 million people. Much depends on the actions of Duda, whose constitutional role includes calling the first meet...

RSV shots for infants in short supply: CDC

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

(The Hill) - The monoclonal antibody for preventing the respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, in infants is in short supply, and federal officials are advising doses be prioritized for those at the highest risk for severe illness, with the drug's manufacturer saying demand has outpaced expectations.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday issued a health advisory recommending prioritizing available 100-milligram doses of the RSV monoclonal antibody nirsevimab — known commercially as Beyfortus — for "infants at the highest risk for severe RSV disease." These include infants younger than 6 months and those with underlying conditions.There are two forms of Beyfortus, a 100 mg dose for infants weighing more than 11 pounds and a 50 mg dose for infants weighing less than that. Citing "manufacturing capacity and currently available stock," the CDC said there would not be enough doses of the 100 mg Beyfortus to protect all infants this season. The recommendation f...

Google and Apple disable map functions in Israel, Gaza Strip as invasion looms

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

(The Hill) - Tech giants Google and Apple have disabled some features in their mapping applications in Israel and the Gaza Strip, as tensions ramp up ahead of an imminent invasion of the area currently controlled by militant group Hamas, the companies confirmed Monday.Hamas, which the U.S. recognizes as a terrorist organization, launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, killing thousands of Israelis and resulting in around 200 more being taken hostage and transported back to the Gaza Strip.In response, Israel has launched aerial and naval attacks on Gaza, an area controlled by Hamas. The Gaza Health Ministry says the resulting reprisals have killed over 5,000 people. Israeli military commanders have said a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip will happen soon.Sources told Bloomberg Monday that the company is removing real-time crowding data in Israel and Gaza at the request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), noting that live traffic information could previously reveal the movements of I...

Israeli boy marks 9th birthday as he is held hostage by Hamas

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

KFAR SABA, Israel (AP) — Ohad Munder-Zichri's 9th birthday is on Monday. But instead of celebrating at home with his family and friends, he is believed to be somewhere in Gaza, one of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas since the militants' devastating Oct. 7 incursion.The fourth-grader from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba was nabbed along with his mother and grandparents during a holiday visit to his grandparents’ kibbutz of Nir Oz along the border with Gaza.This photo provided by Avi Zichri shows his son, Ohad Munder-Zichri, on Oct. 1, 2023. Ohad turned 9 on Monday, Oct. 23, but instead of celebrating at home with his family and friends, he was somewhere in Gaza, one of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas since the militants' devastating Oct. 7 incursion. (Courtesy of Avi Zichri via AP)This photo provided by Avi Zichri shows his son, Ohad Munder-Zichri, on Oct. 1, 2023. Ohad turned 9 on Monday, Oct. 23, but instead of celebrating at home with his family and friends, he was...

David French: The worst scandal in American higher education isn’t in the Ivy League

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:09:59 GMT

Those of us who write about higher education can pay too much attention to America’s elite universities. Schools including Harvard, Yale and Stanford are seen as virtual cultural superpowers, and the battle over these schools is sometimes seen as a proxy for battles over the future of the country itself. It’s not that this argument is wrong, exactly. That’s why I’ve written about these schools. But it’s incomplete.In rightly ascribing importance to the Harvards of the world, we can forget that other schools in other contexts also exercise immense influence, and their virtues and flaws can sometimes be more consequential than anything that happens in the Ivy League.Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Friday, March 27, 2020. (Julia Rendleman / The New York Times)In fact, I’d argue that the moral collapse at Liberty University in Virginia may well be the most consequential education scandal in the United States, not simply because the details themselves are shocking and appalling,...