U.S. News has once again ranked all the diets, with the groundbreaking result that...they are all different ways to eat food.Their website does provide a nice comparison of various diets pros and cons, but the whole concept of declaring one diet better than another is broken to begin with.The whole idea of a "best" anything assumes that each thing is competing against the others, and that those at the top of the list are better than those at the bottom. (U.S. News says that they are rating diets and no longer ranking thembut, I'm sorry, when you produce a list with the "best" items at the top, that is a ranking. And it feeds into the misconception that you just have to find the right diet, the "best" diet, to solve what you see as your weight-loss problems or health problems. Why best diet lists are bullshitBefore you even start ranking (sorry, rating) the "best," theres the question of what a diet really is. The diets on the U.S. News lists form a bizarre mix. Some are vague approaches to eating, like the "flexitarian diet," which just refers to the concept of not eating meat very often. Some are commercial products intended to help people lose weight, like the subscription app Noom or the multi-level marketing product Optavia. Some are diets meant to manage a medical condition, like the low-FODMAP diet. Putting these disparate items into a lineup is not really helping anyone. And while I do appreciate that U.S. News has stopped including crash diets like the Master Cleanse, this year's list includes the "BRAT diet," which is not a competitor to any of the above (nor a marketing vehicle for Charli XCX). It's mnemonic for four foodsbananas, rice, applesauce, and toastthat are considered bland enough to not trigger nausea in patients who are experiencing gastrointestinal illness. Restricting patients to those four foods is not even recommended by medical professionals anymore, so it's wild that U.S. News decided to introduce it this year as a "new" diet on their list.How to actually choose the right dietFirst, if youre looking to lose weight, recognize that all weight-loss diets work the same goddamn way: They give you a framework to eat fewer calories than you burn. The best diet to do that is whichever one you find easiest to stick with, so long as it still gets you a reasonable amount of protein, veggies, fats, and micronutrients like vitamins. Some people feel great on a keto diet; some find intermittent fasting convenient; some would rather eat low-fat and vegan. It doesnt really matter, so long as the calorie deficit isnt too extreme and youre not depriving yourself of important nutrients like fiber, vitamins, or protein. Whether youre trying to change your body weight or not, the basics of a healthy diet are pretty straightforward: lots of fruits and vegetables, enough protein, not too much sugar. If you have specific health concerns that youve discussed with a doctor, make sure to account for those. (For example, the DASH diet is a list of guidelines you can follow if you need to lower your blood pressure. It involves eating less sodium and more potassium, among other things.) If youre willing to pay for help, youre better off consulting a dietitian than buying into the latest expensive weight-loss product.So are you looking to eat more healthily, lose weight, or manage a health condition? Find an approach to eating that meets your goals and that you can stick with. If you want some structure, its fine to buy a book that gives you recipes and a fancy name for the diet. The top-ranked diet, the Mediterranean diet, is fine. But the #23-ranked (sorry, rated) paleo diet, despite its silly premisethat cavemen made lots of fake pizzas from almond flour and coconut oil, if I understand correctlymight do the job just as well.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Some people think of January as a quiet, reflective time for gardeners, but those people probably don't know any gardeners. Actually, January is full of glee and excitement. Seed catalogs are out, and it's high time to set up seed starting stations. Plus, with the holidays out of the way, we can focus solely on planning for the spring and summer season.Here's what you should check off your list this month. Order your bulbs For the second year in a row, most of the country is experiencing a mild winter, which means the earth is still workable, even in early January. Take advantage of this time, as I have, and get an order of fall bulbs into the ground at bare bottom discounts. I just ordered 300 tulip, ranunculus, and allium bulbs, and look forward to a few chill afternoons planting them. My favorite bulb houses, like Tulip World and Eden Brothers, are all featuring steep discounts of more than 60% off, which means now is the time to grab expensive bulbs (like alliums). Do a midwinter cleanupSure, you put your beds to...bed a few months ago. But post-holiday, it's a good idea to do some tidying. Clean up branches that have blown into your yard, sweep the sidewalks, and ensure you get the keep the eaves from clogging the drains in the street. Those flowers you were holding onto at the end of the season are also likely ready to be chopped back. Turn your compost over to keep it brewing good bacteria, so it will be ready by spring. Prune your shrubs and trees now that the leaves are goneNow that most trees and shrubs are in their winter dormancy, and I dont have a lot of other garden tasks keeping me busy, Im taking the time to really look at them. Don't just hack them back; think about the structure of the plant. With the leaves all gone, I can truly see the branches and take time to be thoughtful in how pruning will inform the growth pattern. For instance, the giant hydrangea at my door, devoid of leaves, is exposed so I can be sure to cut out any branches that are growing inward, or crossing another branch. Since the tips all feature buds now, I can be more deliberate in which branches are old growth versus new growth. Never take more than one-third of the plant, but now is a good time to do a hard cut back of these older shrubs to encourage healthy growth. Im taking the same tack with the blueberries I ignored this past fall.Now that they're naked, I can more clearly see where to prune the Japanese Maple and the branches of my cherry trees that overhang the street. These overhanging branches are most at risk during winter and spring storms, so the quiet of this time of year is a good time to address them if you havent yet.If you need to move shrubs and trees, now is the time. A cherry that has overgrown its space is on my agenda this month, and I started by simply going in with a spade all around the tree, to get it ready. The rain will do the rest for me, so that when im ready, the ground will be, too. Its also a good time to plant shrubs and trees, even though it might feel otherwise.Believe it or not, it's time to start some seedsThe major push for spring and summer planting is still a month or two away, but you do want to think about the flowers (columbine, foxglove, and delphinium) and herbs ( lavender, lemongrass, oregano, rosemary, sage, and thyme) that require a long germination periods, as well as the vegetables you need to plant in early springartichokes and asparagus (yes, you can grow your own asparagus, although most people buy three-year-old crowns), onions/leeks, and celery. Cold stratify any seeds that need itMany seeds, whether poppies or phlox, enjoy (and sometimes require) a chill period of six weeks or so. Were running out of time on that requirement; seed starting is immanent. If the winter is mild, you may want to cold stratify in your fridge, or try a new method I'm giving a go: Bag your seeds and keep them outside all winter. Visit your local garden centerOne of my favorite places to go walking with my dog is the garden center. Unlike the spring and summer when garden centers are packed full of colorful blooms and seasonal help, winter is when the year round help are around, and theyve got some time on their hands. Now is when they can spare 30 minutes to talk to you about a particular hedge or precisely what clematis would bloom on your wall. Take advantage of this time to really dig into their expertise about everything garden-related. Want to get your soil really healthy? These are the people most likely to be able to help and can walk you through the fertilizer section with time and thoughtfulness they wont be able to spare in March.Test your soil and make any necessary adjustmentsSpeaking of soil, the most important factor to the success of your plants is soil health, and unfortunately, just dumping fertilizer into the soil isnt going to do it. You need to know whats in your soil and now is a great time to do some of that work. There are soil kits on the market, but generally its best to get a soil test to know what youre working with. Your garden center can help you do sojust give them a call.Start dreaming and planningStart sketching a plan for this spring. What is going to go where; how many plants do you need; do you need new trellises or should you move them? I dont get into varieties yet, I just worry about what Ill plant, where, so I know Ill need 10 tomato plants or five kinds of peas. I sketch this out in my garden journal.Collect seed catalogsIve been ignoring the stack until I can devote time to it, but make sure youre at least getting the catalogs and if not, get onto the websites and sign up for them. Websites are helpful and where I ultimately end up ordering, but a catalog, with its ability to be dog-eared, is indispensable for seed hunting, in my opinion. The nation is full of seed houses and I tend to gravitate towards seed houses with test gardens nearby, so I know the seeds will work where I live. You can find yours by googling. As backup for a wealth of varieties, I make sure to have Burpee and Johnny Seeds catalogs.

Quick Look is one of the best macOS featuresjust press the spacebar while browsing files to instantly preview the one you've currently selected. This is great when you're browsing for images, videos, and documents, but can be less-than-ideal for plaintext filesthere's no coloring for code and markdown isn't renderedand some other file types aren't even supported.Enter Peek, an $8 indie app that adds support for over 600 filetypes to Quick Look while also grafting on new features. It adds color highlighting for code, complete with customizable theming and rendering for Markdown. It also adds features that otherwise aren't offered in Quick Look, including a functional search and the ability to copy text.To get started, install the app and start using Quick Look as usual. Preview a markdown file and it will be rendered, complete with a table of contents. Preview a file with code and it will be color coded. Credit: Justin Pot A few of the best features aren't so obvious. First, you can now highlight text and copy it right from Quick Look, something not previously possible. You can now use the keyboard shortcut "Command-F" to search inside the document preview.Your Mac won't give Peek full controlNote that these features are only added in files if Peek is the one providing the preview. Apple does not allow third party applications to take over preview functionality for certain filetypes, including PDF, txt, and office documents. You can tell if Peek is providing the file preview by looking for the pair of eye emoji at the end of the file name at the top of the window. (Note that while PDF files are not supported, ePDF files are.) Credit: Justin Pot There are a number of other options worth checking out in the preferences, which you can find by launching the application. You can choose the color scheme for code highlighting, customize how markdown rendering works, and configure how postscript and ePDF files are rendered.Peek is, in many ways, the ultimate Quick Look extension, especially if you work a lot with text files.

Anthropic has partly resolved a legal disagreement that saw the AI startup draw the ire of the music industry. In October 2023, a group of music publishers, including Universal Music and ABKCO, filed a copyright infringement complaint against Anthropic. The group alleged that the company had trained its Claude AI model on at least 500 songs to which they held rights and that, when promoted, Claude could reproduce the lyrics of those tracks either partially or in full. Among the song lyrics the publishers said Anthropic had infringed on included Beyoncs Halo and Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5.In a court-approved stipulation the two sides came to on Thursday, Anthropic agreed to maintain its existing guardrails against outputs that reproduce, distribute or display copyright material owned by the publishers and implement those same measures when training its future AI models.At the same time, the company said it would respond expeditiously to any copyright concerns from the group and promised to provide written responses detailing how and when it plans to address their concerns. In cases where the company intends not to address an issue, it must clearly state its intent to do so.Claude isnt designed to be used for copyright infringement, and we have numerous processes in place designed to prevent such infringement," an Anthropic spokesperson told Engadget. "Our decision to enter into this stipulation is consistent with those priorities. We continue to look forward to showing that, consistent with existing copyright law, using potentially copyrighted material in the training of generative AI models is a quintessential fair use."As mentioned, Thursdays pact doesnt fully resolve the original disagreement between Anthropic and the group of music publishers that sued the company. The latter party is still seeking an injunction against Anthropic to prevent it from using unauthorized copies of song lyrics to train future AI models. A ruling on that matter could arrive sometime in the next few months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-agrees-to-work-with-music-publishers-to-prevent-copyright-infringement-154742806.html?src=rss

LG has announced two new projectors for CES 2025, which it calls successors to last year's CineBeam Q. The PF600U may look like a stand fan, but it's actually a projector that's also a Bluetooth speaker and a LED mood lamp. Its lighting has nine colors and five brightness levels, so you can customize it to create the ambiance you want. Tilt its head, and you've got yourself a projector that can produce images up to 120 inches in size with an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution and 300 ANSI lumens of brightness. It can stream movies, shows and other content from streaming platforms via LG's webOS.The company's other projector is CineBeam Q's direct successor. CineBeam S is now LG's smallest 4K Ultra Short Throw projector and weighs in at only 5.5 pounds. It's capable of delivering images as big as 100 inches with a 4K UHD resolution and with 500 ANSI lumens of brightness while only needing "a few inches of wall clearance." It has Dolby Atmos capability, and like the PF600U, it's powered by LG's webOS. The device has a metallic finish and was designed to be portable, so you can easily set it up anywhere you want. Since it was made to be moved around, LG gave it intuitive features that can automatically align its screen, adjust its colors based on the wall, as well as resize its picture to fit the room's dimensions.LG has yet to reveal the projectors' prices and availability, but it willy likely announce more details at CES 2025. To note, the CineBeam Q became available for preorder in March 2024 and sold for $1,299.LGThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/lgs-new-projector-looks-like-a-stand-fan-140048366.html?src=rss

Proposed import tariffs for the US could see PC costs rise as much as 46%, with smartphones also becoming more expensive.

Taylor Sheridan's western movie Hell or High Water on Paramount Plus is perfect if you're missing Yellowstone.

If it's a Knight you need to save you from your morning commute, Noble says it's got just the thing.

A federal appeals court sealed the fate of the Biden administrations efforts to regulate internet providers on Thursday, striking down the Federal Communications Commissions 2024 net neutrality order once and for all.The order sought to reclassify internet service providers as common carriers, not unlike telephone companies, which would prohibit them from preferencing or punishing certain websites or services by, say, slowing them down or speeding them up. But since its adoption in 2015 under the Obama administration, the FCCs net neutrality rule has been tied up in a decade-long regulatory tug-of-war, alternatively held up in court or hamstrung by administrative flip-flopping.The FCC repealed the rule during Donald Trumps first term, but it was then brought back under President Joe Biden. Trumps pick to be the next head of the FCC almost certainly would have scrapped it again. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals just beat him to it.In its decision striking down the rule, the three-judge panel noted net neutralitys long history as a political football. This orderissued during the Biden administrationundoes the order issued during the first Trump administration, which undid the order issued during the Obama administration, which undid orders issued during the Bush and Clinton administrations, the judges wrote. They said they believed this decision would end the FCCs vacillations.While the Sixth Circuits ruling was a momentous one, given the net neutrality fights contentious history, it was hardly unexpected. Last summer, the Sixth Circuit blocked the rule from taking effect while the underlying case proceeded and hinted that the broadband providers who were opposing the rule were likely to succeed on the merits. Absent a clear mandate to treat broadband as a common carrier, we cannot assume that Congress granted the Commission this sweeping power, the judges wrote at the time.The rule seemed doubly doomed given the outcome of a separate Supreme Court case last year called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In that case, the justices overturned a longstanding legal precedent in which courts deferred to federal agencies interpretation of ambiguous laws, thus effectively curtailing those agencies power. In its ruling on net neutrality, the Sixth Circuit panel leaned heavily on the Loper Bright decision, writing [W]e no longer afford deference to the FCCs reading of the statute.Free speech and digital rights advocates quickly condemned the decision. Internet rights are civil rights, Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, tells Fast Company in a statement.Evan Greer, director of the grassroots group Fight for the Future, tells Fast Company the broadband industry forum-shop[ped] for industry-friendly judges to strike down some of the most popular consumer protection rules in history.But the truth is, however the court ruled, the FCCs net neutrality protections never stood a chance of surviving the next four years. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who is likely to lead the agency under the second Trump term, has long opposed the rule and cast it as an example of the agencys excesses. (This, even as Carr has called on the FCC to take aggressive action to reinterpret Section 230, the decades-old law governing tech platforms ability to moderate content.)While the work to unwind the Biden [Administrations] regulatory overreach will continue, this is a good win, Carr wrote on X after the net neutrality decision came out Thursday. Even if the court had upheld the protections, in just a few weeks, it would have been up to the Trump FCC to enforce them. In striking the rule, the court has only hastened the inevitable.https://twitter.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1874894796277645533If theres any silver lining for net neutrality proponents, its that another net neutrality law is alive and well in California, a state large enough to influence broadband providers behavior nationwide. Meanwhile, people like current FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel are looking to Congress to enshrine net neutrality principles into law. Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair, Rosenworcel wrote in a statement. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law.Of course, to many Republicans, who have historically loathed net neutrality proposals, that supposed mandate isnt so clear at all. Given the fact that those same lawmakers are now about to control both chambers of Congress and the White House, it seems far more likely that any attempt to enshrine net neutrality at the federal level will be indefinitely throttled.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called to open up the British North Sea and get rid of windmills in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.In October, the British government said it would increase a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers to 38% from 35% and extend the levy by one year. The government wants to use the revenue from oil and gas to raise funds for renewable energy projects.The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills! Trumps post said.His post was in response to a report about U.S. oil and gas producer APA Corps unit Apaches plans to exit the North Sea by year-end 2029. The company expects North Sea production to fall by 20% year over year in 2025.Oil companies have been steadily exiting the North Sea in recent decades, with production declining from a peak of 4.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day at the start of the millennium to around 1.3 million boed today.Meanwhile, the Labour government aims to quadruple offshore wind generation by 2030 to 60 gigawatts.The North Sea has seen major offshore wind farm development by Britain and European countries, but the rapidly growing sector has had a tough few years as costs ballooned due to technical and supply chain problems as well as higher interest rates, leading many companies to review investments.The North Sea Transition Authority, Britains offshore oil and gas regulator, declined to comment about Trumps post. Britains energy security department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Britain has a target to largely decarbonise its power sector by 2030 which will mean reducing its reliance on gas-fired power plants and rapidly increasing its renewable power capacity.North Sea producers have warned that the higher tax rate could lead to a sharp drop in investments and are exiting from the ageing basin ahead of the new tax increases.Top British North Sea producer Harbour Energy wants to sell stakes in North Sea oilfields and is reviving plans for a U.S. listing, Reuters has previously reported. U.S. oil major Exxon completed its exit from the North Sea region in July last year.Companies are also reconsidering their investments in offshore wind, or have assumed impairments, due to the rising cost of developing wind farms that can be more than 100 km (60 miles) offshore.Orsted, the worlds biggest offshore wind farm developer, trimmed its investment and capacity targets last year.Gursimran Kaur and Ron Bousso, Reuters