Update, 5/29/25: The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch soon on June 5. Pre-order advice currently remains the same, which is to say that you probably won't be able to pre-order the console before launch day anymore, since all retailers still list it as either "unavailable" or "coming soon." Now, it's all about launch-day logistics. A number of retailers, including Best Buy, plan to open some stores early on June 5 and have stock available for customers to purchase on site. If you didn't manage to get a pre-order in already, your best bet may be to go to a local Best Buy, Walmart, Target or GameStop on June 5 to see if you can walk out with a new console that day.  Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are officially live at Nintendo's online store — but only if you've received an invite. As advertised, the My Nintendo Store began sending out Switch 2 pre-order invites on Thursday to those who previously registered their interest and meet the company's "priority criteria." If you've been chosen, congratulations! You have 72 hours from the time your email was sent to complete your purchase. If you previously signed up but haven't received a notice, well, we'll have to see when exactly it'll arrive. Nintendo has been accepting registrations since April 2, and it's sending invites to past Switch players and Switch Online subscribers before anyone else.  If you meet the priority requirements and signed up on the earlier side, you should (hopefully) get your invite before most others. If you signed up later, don't be surprised if it takes awhile for Nintendo to grace your inbox. The company warned last month that it may not be able to send all invites — or even deliver all orders that do get placed — before the Switch 2's June 5 release date. Beyond Nintendo, the song sadly remains the same. As of our latest check, the device remains fully sold out at Walmart, GameStop, Best Buy, Target and other retailers. This has mostly been the case in the US since the Switch 2 first went up for sale on April 24, and it remains unclear when it'll change. That said, we're keeping an eye out for any surprise restocks that pop up. If you're still hoping to get your hands on the device early, we've rounded up all the Switch 2 pre-order listings we could find for easy access and broken down what to know about buying the console.   How to pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2 at the My Nintendo Store As noted above, Nintendo is only selling the Switch 2 through an invite system, which began on April 2. While it seems unlikely you'll receive your console before launch day if you sign up with Nintendo now, we still recommend doing so in case stock remains low at other stores. Registration is free, and you'll receive your invite eventually, even if it takes some time. On that point, Nintendo says it is prioritizing invites "on a first-come, first-served basis" to registrants who meet the following criteria: You must have purchased a Switch Online membership as of April 2, 2025. If you've only ever been part of a family plan and weren't the paying account, that's a no-go. You must have been a paid Switch Online subscriber for at least 12 months as of April 2, 2025. You must have logged at least 50 hours of total Switch gameplay time as of April 2, 2025. You must have opted into sharing gameplay data with Nintendo as of April 2, 2025. You can confirm this in your account's privacy settings. You must be a Nintendo account holder who is at least 18 years old. If you fulfill those requirements, you'll be ahead in Nintendo's invite queue. If not, you'll have to wait until after the priority registrants receive their emails. Once they do, the remaining invites will go out on a first-come, first-served basis. Whenever you get your email, you'll have a 72-hour window to buy.  As with other stores, you have two models to pick from: the base Switch 2 console for $450, and a bundle with Mario Kart World for $500. Note that you can only purchase one console per invite. You'll also be able to pick up certain accessories when it's your time to shop.  Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle Nintendo We received our invite late Thursday evening after signing up about an hour after the registration window first opened. We've posted screenshots of what the official invite email and buying process looks like below. (A previous version of this guide linked to screenshots from Reddit and the gaming forum ResetEra, but one ResetEra user appears to have shared a fake invite, so we've removed that.) Broadly speaking, the experience is far less chaotic than it's been at other stores. Our confirmation email says that our console will ship by June 4. How to pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2 at other retailers Unfortunately, the Switch 2 remains sold out everywhere else as of this writing. To recap the situation: After a two-week delay, Nintendo finally kicked off Switch 2 pre-orders at third-party retailers in the US and Canada at midnight ET on April 24. A couple of (headache-inducing) hours later, stock at Walmart, Target and Best Buy had sold out. GameStop began taking pre-orders later that morning but quickly met the same fate. Some eagle-eyed buyers were reportedly able to pre-order through Walmart as late as April 26, but things have dried up since. Other membership-based retailers like Costco and Sam's Club have Switch 2 listings as well, but we haven't seen anything to suggest they will accept pre-orders. Newegg also has a Switch 2 page but hasn't provided an option to buy just yet. As for Amazon, we assume the Switch 2 will eventually be available there, but it's not today, and there's been no indication as to when that might change. (Even before the Switch 2 was unveiled, stock of the original Switch and first-party Switch games had been limited at Amazon US for several months.) If you're desperate to catch a restock, it's a good idea to create a free account with the retailers above and ensure all of your shipping and billing info is up to date with each. Downloading each store's mobile app and signing up for notifications may help too, though that could get annoying fairly quickly.  Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* *As of 1:15pm ET on Friday, May 9, Amazon has not listed either Switch 2 console package for sale. We will update this article with direct links if they arrive; until then, we're linking to the site's Nintendo-focused hub. How to pre-order Switch 2 accessories and games Naturally, there are numerous accessories and games up for pre-order alongside the Switch 2 itself. While Nintendo hasn't changed the console's price since delaying its initial pre-order date, it has hiked the cost of several accessories due to "changes in market conditions" (read: tariffs). The new Switch 2 camera, for instance, now costs $55 instead of its original $50, while the Switch 2 Pro Controller leapt from $80 to $85. An extra set of Joy-Con 2 controllers is up to $95 from $90, and the official Joy-Con Charging Grip costs $40 instead of $35. Most (but not all) of Nintendo's official Switch 2 accessories are still up for grabs at one or two retailers at a minimum, but stock has become spottier since they first went up for sale. Upcoming Switch 2 games like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, meanwhile, remain widely available. Mario Kart World for $80 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Donkey Kong Bananza for $70 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Additional Switch 2 games Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon Samsung microSD Express Card (256GB) for Nintendo Switch 2 for $60 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon Joy-Con 2 bundle for $95 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Switch 2 Pro Controller for $85 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Switch 2 Camera for $55 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Hori Nintendo Switch 2 Piranha Plant Camera for $60 Best Buy Target Amazon Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip for $40 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Joy-Con 2 Wheels (set of 2) for $25 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Switch 2 All-in-One Carrying Case for $85 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector for $40 Nintendo Walmart GameStop Best Buy Target Amazon* *As of 1:15pm ET on Friday, May 9, Amazon has not listed any first-party Switch 2 accessories or games for sale. (Some third-party devices and games are listed, however.) We'll update this article with direct links if they arrive; until then, we're linking to the site's Nintendo-focused hub. More Switch 2 details The Nintendo Switch 2. Sam Rutherford for Engadget We knew from its initial teaser trailer that the Switch 2 would be bigger than its predecessor and take a new approach to its detachable Joy-Cons. The Joy-Con 2s, as they're called, now attach magnetically and include a C button, mouse controls and a built-in gyroscope for tilt control. The console itself is indeed larger, with a 7.9-inch LCD screen that supports a 1080p resolution, a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and HDR10. The hardware also has a built-in mic to support a new feature called GameChat that'll let you communicate with friends in-game. (This is what that C button is for.) Nintendo says this service will be free to all Switch 2 users until March 31, 2026, at which point it'll require a Switch Online membership. When docked, you'll be able to play up to 4K on your TV. Nintendo says it's improved the consoles internal speakers as well. The updated dock has a built-in fan to keep the console cool and help maintain performance during long play sessions. Though we won't know exactly how much of a power upgrade the Switch 2 is over to the first Switch until it's released, it looks to be fairly significant leap, given that it'll have ports of relatively demanding games like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077. Elsewhere, the Switch 2 has dual USB-C ports for charging, while the internal storage amount has jumped from 32GB to 256GB. That storage is still expandable, but the device will only work with newer (and more expensive) microSD Express cards. As seen in the recent 20.0.0 update for the original Switch, the upcoming console will also utilize Nintendo's new Virtual Game Card system for lending digital games across systems, as well as a GameShare feature that lets you share select titles locally with just one copy of a game. Tariffs and the Nintendo Switch 2 The Nintendo Switch 2's Joy-Con 2 controllers. Sam Rutherford for Engadget During its most recent Direct presentation at the start of April, Nintendo showed off more of the Switch 2 than it ever had before. That included the reveal of its original April 9 pre-order date, in addition to its $450 starting price. Shortly after, President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on China and other countries, prompting Nintendo to delay pre-orders in the US and Canada. In a reversal, President Trump later announced a 90-day pause on steep tariffs affecting 75 countries, but also announced that the tariff imposed on China will go up even further (right now, it sits at 145 percent). We now know that the original $450 price for the Switch 2 will remain the same in the US and Canada, but based on its official statement, it appears Nintendo is leaving the door open for potential future price increases. We also know that Nintendo started moving some of its Switch console manufacturing to Vietnam in 2019. The increased tariff for Vietnam was set to be 46 percent, but that's temporarily on hold in favor of a 10 percent tariff that’s in effect for the 90-day pause period. It has been speculated that Nintendo will boost production of Switch 2 consoles in Vietnam so it can stay on schedule, even if it sells the console at a loss in the short term. It appears the company will have to seriously ramp up production to keep up with Switch 2 demand: According to Nintendo, 2.2 million people entered the pre-order lottery in Japan alone, which is far more devices than it is expected to deliver in that region on launch day. In total, the company projects it will sell 15 million Switch 2 units through March 2026. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-pre-order-updates-ahead-of-the-june-5-launch-date-140931884.html?src=rss

The European Cloud Competition Observatory has issued its second damming report against Broadcom, relating to VMware pricing.

In May 2023, Chinese astronauts swabbed several surfaces of their space station Tiangong (Mandarin for "Heavenly Place"), then sent the samples back to Earth for analysis. The results are now in: the sample contained one bacterium never before seen, according to a report in the International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology.New Bacteria in Space Station The samples were taken, according to the paper, to help keep astronauts healthy in subsequent missions. “Understanding the characteristics of microbes during long-term space missions is essential for safeguarding the health of astronauts and maintaining the functionality of spacecraft,” according to the paper.There are multiple plausible explanations for both the bacteria’s presence and novelty. It could have hitch-hiked with the astronauts and remained more or less the same (although thousands have been identified, there are potentially billions of unknown bacterium on our planet). It could have taken that same route, but mutated and evolved. Or it could be a strain only found in space.Bacteria Similarities and AbilitiesTo get a better picture of the possibilities, it might be best to parse the knowns from the unknowns. First, and perhaps most importantly, it is not completely novel. The bacteria shares enough genetic similarities (two significant stretches of DNA match or are conserved) with Niallia circulans for it to be considered the same genus. Therefore, the authors named it Niallia tiangongensis.Its general appearance also doesn’t appear to be completely out of this world. The paper described it as an “[…] aerobic, spore-forming, rod-shaped strain.”It does appear to have some interesting abilities, though. According to the paper, it shows “a unique ability to hydrolyse gelatin.” This means it can break down some compounds and add components of water to them, perhaps as a way to feed themselves in an environment with little available food.Adaptations to SpaceDifferences in two proteins that resemble those in its cousin hint that it has evolved enhanced abilities to protect itself from some conditions specific to space. Those include tools to create a biofilm it could perhaps hide beneath, and the means to repair damage from radiation, among other abilities.Its terrestrial cousin has one concerning ability. It can cause infection — even sepsis. Knowing whether N. tiangongensis can do the same, and if so, at what level, will likely be the subject of further investigation, since such understanding is a key part of the China Space Station Habitation Area Microbiome Program (CHAMP) that led to its collection, return, and analysis.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:International Journal of Systemic and Evolutionary Microbiology. Niallia tiangongensis sp. nov., isolated from the China Space Station Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Haga clic aquí para leer esta historia en español.SONORA, Mexico — This landscape didn’t seem like a place to find jaguars, the world’s most famous jungle cat. The ground was parched and rocky and mostly brown, other than the occasional cactus or palm tree. It was so hot and dry that even some of the prickly nopales were wilting.Yet there it was — in the playback screen of a motion-sensing camera, strapped to an oak tree near a dry stream bed. Less than a week earlier, a large jaguar had walked exactly where I was now standing. Even from the small camera display, the cat looked imposing, with its oversized paws and a wide, skull-crushing jaw. The Northern Jaguar Reserve is nestled in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. During our visit in April, the dry season, there was little green vegetation other than desert plants like organ pipe cactuses and agave. Ash Ponders for VoxIt was a blistering afternoon in April, and I was in the Northern Jaguar Reserve, a protected area in Sonora about 125 miles south of the US border in Arizona. The reserve and the region around it are home to the world’s northernmost population of jaguars, the largest cats in the Western Hemisphere, as well as three other species of wild felines: ocelots, bobcats, and mountain lions, or pumas.The cat on the screen was named El Guapo. He’s the largest of five or six resident jaguars in the reserve and has likely fathered a handful of kittens, Miguel Gómez Ramírez, the reserve manager, told me.El Guapo has a bold personality: While some of the park’s jaguars get spooked by the flash or sound of motion cameras scattered through the reserve, jumping in the air like surprised house cats, El Guapo doesn’t seem to care. It’s as if he knows he’s at the top of the food chain. 1/4El Guapo. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectWhile jaguars are often associated with the tropics, they once ranged as far north as Southern California, the Grand Canyon, and possibly even Louisiana. The US had jaguars! Then they were gone. By the mid-1900s, ranchers and hunters had exterminated these felines, largely because they were seen — like many other wild predators — as a threat to cattle. Jaguars do occasionally kill cows, though few cases of livestock predation in the US have actually been verified. Over the last few decades, several male jaguars have been spotted in their historic territory in the American Southwest — most recently, in December 2023. The extraordinary sightings give environmental advocates hope that jaguars could one day return to the US, fixing a broken food chain and recovering an important missing piece of Indigenous culture in the southern borderlands.A jaguar pelt is on display at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo in the state capital of Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxThose cats all came from northern Mexico. They came from the region where I was now standing, slipping through some of the last remaining gaps in the border wall. That means any chance that jaguars now have of returning to the US depends on maintaining openings in the wall — and on an ample reserve of cats in northern Mexico. Jaguars can only reestablish in their northern range if they’re sufficiently abundant in Mexico, where they’re endangered. And like in the US, ranchers in Sonora have a long history of killing felines for their perceived, and occasionally real, threat to cattle. While the Northern Jaguar Reserve helps protect wild cats in Sonora, what had ultimately brought me to Mexico was a project to conserve jaguars that extends far beyond the park’s boundary. For many years, a small group of scientists and advocates have been working to cast Sonora’s jaguars in a different light — to turn them from beef-hungry villains to important features of the ecosystem that can bring ranchers financial reward. Those efforts appear to be paying off: The population of jaguars in the reserve and the ranching region around it is stable, if not growing, offering hope that people can live harmoniously with the predators they once loathed.The Northern Jaguar Reserve is, without exaggerating, in the middle of nowhere.I traveled there last month with Roberto Wolf, a veterinarian who leads the Northern Jaguar Project (NJP), an American nonprofit that oversees the refuge. After crossing the border south of Tucson, we drove another four hours or so to a charming ranch town called Sahuaripa, where the narrow streets were lined with brightly colored homes and full of stray dogs.Homes in the town of Sahuaripa are brightly painted and often have crosses mounted on their front doors. Ash Ponders for VoxA man named Don Francisco sells warm tortillas at dawn in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxA one-armed statue of Jesus overlooks the town of Sahuaripa. The other arm, I was told, fell off in a lightning storm. Ash Ponders for VoxFrom there it was another few hours on to the reserve, largely on rugged dirt roads. (I felt like we were in one of those car commercials for all-terrain vehicles that are only useful in this exact scenario.)Some time after entering the reserve we stopped by a log on the side of the road. It was covered in scratch marks, like the arm of a couch in a home filled with cats. That was the work of a mountain lion marking its territory, said Gómez, who met us in the park. He pointed out a motion camera nearby that had previously captured the behavior. Right before arriving at our campsite, a skunk ran across the front of the car, did a handstand, and then disappeared into the scrub. The next morning, which was cloudless and crisp, we hiked to a place called La Hielería — the spot where the trail cam had recently spotted El Guapo. Large winged shadows crossed our paths, cast by vultures hunting for carcasses. On the drive from Arizona to Sahuaripa, we crossed the Yaqui River, just west of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. It cuts through the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Ash Ponders for VoxDozens of motion-detecting trail cameras are scattered throughout the reserve. Here, the display shows a mountain lion that walked by several days earlier. Ash Ponders for VoxLa Hielería, once part of a cattle ranch, has an important place in cat conservation. In the late 1990s, when jaguars were reappearing in the US, a team of researchers began exploring northern Mexico to find out where they were coming from. As part of that work, a biologist named Gustavo Pablo Lorenzana Piña set up a motion camera by a stream bed in La Hielería. The camera captured, as expected, cow after cow after cow. But then, as Lorenzana kept clicking through, he saw it: a jaguar, “the undisputed ruler of the neotropical forests, captured in a beautiful shot with shrubs and cacti in the background,” he said. The image, taken in early 2000, was the first ever photo of a live jaguar in Sonora. It was a female, later named Gus, in honor of Gustavo.The first ever photo taken of a live jaguar in Sonora. GP Lorenzana/CA López-GonzálezHer story ended — as most other jaguar tales do — at the hands of humans. The animal was pursued and killed for allegedly harming cattle, Lorenzana told me. Although it’s technically illegal to kill jaguars in Mexico, hunting them for real or perceived harm to livestock was once a common practice. And it’s still a threat today. In the late 20th century, at least five animals were killed on average per year in the state, according to the book Borderland Jaguars by David Brown and NJP co-founder Carlos López González.One man I met, in his 70s, told me he’d killed six jaguars on a ranch that is now part of the reserve. (He’d typically use dogs to track down the cats and chase them into a cave or a tree. Then he’d shoot them.) Ranch owners would pay around 5,000 Mexican pesos — worth around $260 in today’s US dollars, and nearly double that in the early 2000s — per slain jaguar. Heraclio “Laco” Duarte Robles killed several jaguars when he worked for a ranch in what is now the reserve. Now Laco is employed by the Northern Jaguar Project, where he helps keep the cats alive. Ash Ponders for VoxJaguars do occasionally kill calves, though they prefer to feed on wild prey, such as deer or javelina, a small, fierce peccary that looks like a pig. In Sonora, jaguars and pumas might each kill a few calves per year, which typically amounts to only a fraction of a rancher’s production.While Gus was on the losing side of encounters between ranchers and cats, she left a lasting conservation legacy. By showing up on a trail cam in La Hielería, she helped prove that Sonora was home to a breeding population of jaguars. That spurred an effort to buy up ranches — including the one comprising La Hielería — and turn them into a reserve. NJP purchased its first ranch in 2003, and has since added several more. Together they cover more than 56,000 acres. Today the Northern Jaguar Reserve has a small yet healthy population of five or six jaguars, according to Carmina Gutiérrez González, a biologist at NJP. Motion cameras have spotted another 10 or so jaguars passing through the region, said Gutiérrez, who identifies individuals by their unique patterns of spots. Our only in-person encounter with a jaguar was at the Ecological Center of Sonora, a zoo within a half-day’s drive from the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxAfter seeing El Guapo on the camera in La Hielería I wandered down the dry stream bed, where I stumbled upon a pile of feces. Jaguar feces, Gómez suspected. I’ve never been so excited to find a pile of shit in my life. People like Gómez who have spent more than a decade in the reserve have never seen jaguars face to face. My chance was close to zero. So poop? I’ll take it.The reserve is essential though insufficient — it’s relatively small, covering less than 3 percent of the area of Yellowstone, for example. Jaguars in Sonora, meanwhile, have incredibly large home ranges, and can travel as much as 10 miles a day, Gómez said. Protecting them in one small area isn’t enough in a region where hunting still occurs. So the Northern Jaguar Project had came up with another solution.One morning, after a few nights in the reserve, we drove to a cattle ranch just beyond the boundary. We parked our dusty 4Runner next to a handful of cows and their calves, who froze and stared at us as if they had never seen humans before. Uriel Villarreal Peña on his ranch, Saucito, near the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxA rancher named Uriel Villarreal Peña, who owns the property, came out to greet us, trailed by two dogs. As we sat around his outdoor table, under the shade of a tin roof, he told us he owns a little more than 100 cattle — each worth several hundred dollars — that he sells in Sahuaripa to be exported to the US.For more than a decade, Villarreal, who wore a ball cap, jeans, and a button-down shirt, has been part of a program called Viviendo con Felinos. The program, launched by NJP in 2007, works with ranchers to place motion cameras on their land. When those cameras detect a wild cat — a jaguar, puma, ocelot, or bobcat — the nonprofit pays the rancher from a pool of funds they’ve raised from donors. The idea, Wolf told me, is “to make living wild animals more valuable than dead ones.”Photos of jaguars are worth 5,000 pesos each (~$260), which is similar to what hunters might make for killing them. Photos of ocelots earn 1,500 pesos (~$78), pumas 1,000 pesos (~$52), and bobcats 5,000 pesos (~$26). Each rancher can earn a max of 20,000 pesos (~$1,038) a month for their photos — more than double the minimum monthly wage in Mexico. By joining Viviendo con Felinos, ranchers also agree not to kill any wild animals on their ranch, including deer and javelina. Roberto Wolf rests for a moment on our hike in La Hielería. Ash Ponders for Vox(Mexico has another, unrelated program run by its national livestock confederation that partially reimburses ranchers for cattle killed by wild predators. Ranchers complain that these funds, which are similarly meant to reduce hunting, are hard to access and inadequate.)Villarreal told me he joined the NJP program partly for the money. Cat photos taken on his ranch earn him a few thousand dollars each year, he said, which amounts to about 10 to 15 percent of his annual income from the ranch. But he also just likes jaguars. “I’m interested in seeing animals, in preserving animals because they look pretty,” he said. It helps that jaguars haven’t caused him many problems. When he was young, Villarreal thought wild cats were bad because they ate cattle, a rancher’s livelihood. But over time he learned that predators will avoid calves as long as they have plenty of deer and javelina to eat. After sampling a bit of Villarreal’s homemade Bacanora — an agave-based liquor, similar to mezcal; my job is hard, I swear! — he took us to see one of his motion cameras. It was “nearby,” though getting there involved a short drive, a half-hour hike in the sun, and a run-in with a road runner, a manic-looking ground bird that always seems to be in a rush.Wolf and NJP field technician Heraclio “Laqui” Duarte López show us a map at an overlook on our way to the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxHiking in the reserve takes you across volcanic rocks and scrubland, often in the blistering heat. Ash Ponders for VoxA cattle skull on the outskirts of Peña’s ranch. Ash Ponders for VoxA vermilion flycatcher takes wing across the bank of the Aros River in the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxStrapped to a wooden post, the camera was plastic, colored in camo, and roughly the size of a brick. We opened it up and clicked through the recent photos. Me approaching. Rabbit. Deer. Fox. A raccoon-like creature called a ringtail. Coati. Ocelot. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina. Javelina.And more javelina. I asked Villarreal what he thinks when he sees a wild cat on the camera. “1,500!” he joked, referring to the money in Mexican pesos he earns from each picture of an ocelot. He then added, more seriously: “It feels good to be able to say that they do exist.”To date, 21 ranchers near the reserve have joined Viviendo con Felinos. And together, their land comprises 126,000 acres — an area more than twice the size of the actual reserve. The program has in effect expanded the area across which jaguars and their prey are protected. What’s more, it’s so popular among ranchers that there’s actually an informal waitlist to join, Wolf said. NJP has been slowly growing the program, but adding more ranches — and all of the photos they may take — is expensive, Wolf noted. Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, NJP spent well over $100,000 on photo awards alone. That doesn’t include staff time or the cost of cameras, which run around $150 each. And those cameras often need to be replaced because, of all things, woodpeckers occasionally hammer out the lenses and sensors, Gómez told me.Viviendo con Felinos has given jaguars in Sonora more space to roam, and that alone is huge. But these iconic animals are also benefiting from a more fundamental shift in the region — a shift in its culture and customs. After our visit with Villarreal, we stopped at his neighbor’s property, a large ranch owned by Agustín Hurtado Aguayo. Hurtado, now in his 80s, is the former president of the state’s livestock association and a sizable figure in Sonora’s ranching community. Several years ago, “I hated felines,” he told me at his home in the city of Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, a few hours west of Sahuaripa. Cowboy hats and a pair of bull horns hung from the wall. “I had a very bad image of them,” Hurtado said. Agustín Hurtado Aguayo at his home in Hermosillo. Ash Ponders for VoxRanch-life photos and a longhorn bull mount line the wall of Hurtado’s home. Ash Ponders for VoxHunting wild cats was a practice that older generations passed on, he said, and it stemmed from the belief that cats hurt production. “That’s the training we had,” he told me. It was also normal for cowboys to hunt and eat deer, he said, which diminished an important food source for predators.After Villarreal joined Viviendo con Felinos, Hurtado grew curious about the program. He liked the cat photos from his neighbor’s ranch. “When I began to see photos from the cameras, I began to appreciate the animals,” he said, showing me his iPhone wallpaper of a mountain lion. “Little by little, my vision of wild cats began to change.”Hurtado, who later also joined the program, realized that by limiting the number of cattle on his ranch, his cows would be healthier and there’d be more grass left over for deer. If he had more deer — and his workers refrained from hunting them — wild cats would kill fewer of his animals. These ideas are becoming increasingly common among ranchers in Sonora who have joined the program.“If we as ranchers or as owners of property preserve the normal food chain, we have no problem,” said Jose de la Cruz Coronado Aguayo, another rancher in Viviendo con Felinos. There are other ways, too, to protect cattle from predators, such as by making sure calves don’t roam the mountains alone. In other regions of the world, installing predator deterrents, such as electric fences, alarms, and flashing lights, is also effective in preventing predation. “Cats can really coexist with livestock,” Hurtado told me.The reserve is surrounded by cattle ranches that mostly sell calves for meat. Ash Ponders for VoxWhile it’s clear how photos of jaguars might make someone fall in love with wild cats, that doesn’t explain how ranchers like Hurtado learned how to farm in such a way that protects both felines and cattle. Wolf, of NJP, says it often comes down to individual experiences. Ranchers learn over time that by leaving deer alone or creating new water sources for animals, fewer livestock go missing. What’s also crucial, he said, is that by earning money for photos of cats, people in the program become more tolerant of their presence — and more open to compromise and finding ways to live with them. Before we left his home, Hurtado took out his laptop and showed us photos from the motion cameras on his ranch. They were spectacular: a mountain lion, close to the camera and wearing a look of surprise. An ocelot with what looks like a mouse in its mouth. And several jaguars, including the image below, taken in 2023 — which he had set as his desktop background. 1/3Photos from motion cameras on Hurtado’s ranch. Courtesy of the Northern Jaguar ProjectNot everyone in Sonora suddenly loves cats. Ranchers still blame jaguars when their calves disappear or turn up dead. And some jaguars are still killed discreetly. One rancher who’s not part of Viviendo con Felinos told me that since November he’s lost more than a dozen of his calves, and he suspects that wild cats are behind the damage. He says the reserve should be fenced in for the benefit of ranchers. (There’s no evidence that mountain lions or jaguars killed his calves, Wolf said.)Tension in the region boiled over earlier this year, when a mountain lion apparently entered the house where a ranch worker was staying and attacked his dog. The worker, a man named Ricardo Vazquez Paredes, says he hit the cat with a pipe and the lion ran away, but not before injuring his dog, Blaki. While Wolf and some of the other ranchers I spoke to suspect his account might be exaggerated — it’s rare for mountain lions to go near human dwellings — the story raised concerns around Sahuaripa about jaguars and efforts to protect them. Climate change might also worsen conflict in the region. Ranchers I spoke to say Sonora is getting drier, meaning there will be less and less grass for cattle — and for animals like deer that wild cats eat. That could make cows weaker and more likely to starve and jaguars hungrier and more likely to attack. Research suggests that jaguars kill more calves when it’s dry. In 2023, a rancher in Viviendo con Felinos named Diego Ezrre Romero lost a calf to a jaguar. “The most critical thing on my ranch is water,” Ezrre told me. “There are few deer because of the conditions.”Diego Ezrre Romero, a rancher in the Viviendo con Felinos program, in the verdant courtyard of his home in Sahuaripa. Ash Ponders for VoxThis is to say: Conflict in Sonora isn’t about to disappear altogether. Yet Viviendo con Felinos appears to be helping. Along with NJP’s other efforts to engage the community — education programs, for example, and painting murals that depict the iconic cats in Sahuaripa and other towns — the group is making ranchers in jaguar territory more tolerant to cats. And thanks to payments, more tolerant to losses that they may cause. “Without them [NJP] there wouldn’t even be a jaguar here right now,” said Fausto Lorenzo, a rancher near Sahuaripa who’s not affiliated with the reserve. “All the ranchers would have killed them because that was the custom.”From Hurtado’s home in Hermosillo, we drove back toward Arizona. The highway cut through fields of saguaro cactuses. Dust devils spun in the distance, moving like flying whirlpools across the scrubland.The sun sets behind the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains near the reserve. Ash Ponders for VoxThe success that NJP has had in Mexico ultimately bodes well for efforts to restore jaguars to the US. The number of jaguars in the reserve is stable, Gutiérrez says, but motion cameras suggest that year-over-year more individuals are passing through the region. That’s more individuals that could potentially spill into the US.One big problem, however, remains. As we neared the US border, the wall came into focus. It was metal and brown and rose 18 feet above the desert. Now stretching hundreds of miles across the Southwest, the wall has made the border largely impassive to wildlife — including jaguars. And it’s still expanding. The Trump administration is now planning to complete one of the last unwalled sections of the border, a 25-mile stretch in the San Rafael Valley, about 150 miles northwest of the refuge, where jaguars have crossed into the US. The future for Sonora’s jaguars appears promising regardless of whether Trump finishes his wall. NJP and other organizations have given these animals more space to live and helped lessen the threats they face. The real loss will be felt in the US. And not just among environmentalists and other wildcat advocates. Jaguars have lived in the US long before any of us. They’re part of the country’s nature heritage — of the ecosystems that are truly American — and their absence leaves our landscapes impaired. Ranchers in Sonora teach us that we can live alongside the continent’s great predators. We just have to choose to. Update, May 20, 11:25 am ET: This piece was originally published on May 20 and updated to include both peso and dollar amounts where applicable.See More:

For most of my life, I’ve relied on a paper map when I go outdoors. Then, in March, I joined my friend Rusty on the Appalachian Trail for two weeks. He told me to download FarOut.FarOut was my introduction to the world of app-based navigation. It’s focused on thru-hikers, and has useful details, including comments that tell you whether a specific water source is flowing, and if so, how well. It took me a minute to get the hang of it — I was hiking southbound, and it defaults to northbound — but once I did, I was impressed.FarOut works like a guidebook. But the kind of backpacking I ordinarily do is on more offbeat trails in the local national forests — not the wilderness highways FarOut specializes in. So for my first solo trip, to the Ventana Wilderness area of the Los Padres National Forest, I thought I’d try out some of the other navigation apps, as part of an absolutely transparent ploy to get my job to let me fuck off outdoors more often; there are a lot of hikes I want to do. I suspect many of our readers are connoisseurs of the great indoors, but I also know you love gadgets, and let me tell you something: so do backpackers. You would not believe the conversations I have had with absolute strangers about gear.I do work at the phones website. We kind of specialize in having feelings about appsNow, I’m not going to top Outdoor Gear Lab — I love their reviews, and have found them reliable guides when it comes to big purchases* — but I do work at the phones website. We kind of specialize in having feelings about apps.I considered several options. I quickly discarded onX Backcountry when I discovered on one of my trial hikes how quickly it drained my phone battery. I also used CalTopo to prepare for the hike, but because it’s a fairly complex platform with a steep learning curve, I don’t think I’ve spent enough time with it to give it a proper review.I figured I might as well keep it simple. I already knew Google Maps wouldn’t cut it; the acquisitions Google has made over the years suggest that the company’s more interested in cars than pedestrians. Looking at the Health and Fitness category on the Apple App Store, I noticed AllTrails ranked #10, so trying the popular app seemed natural. The other app I saw frequently mentioned on hiking subreddits — besides CalTopo — was Gaia GPS. So I figured I’d start with those two.There are a few other apps in the space I didn’t consider. The most notable are Avenza and Goat Maps. I’ve found Avenza limited, but it seems the feature set has been updated since the last time I played with it. Goat Maps is new to me, but it’s from the same team that created Gaia GPS before it was sold to Outside. (More about that in a minute.)Route planningBecause this was my first solo hike, I was not interested in doing anything especially difficult. I’ve been to the Ventana Wilderness before, and am familiar with the Pine Ridge Trail, which I viewed as the backbone of my trip. One of the things AllTrails has going for it is suggested routes — for this area, 41 possible hikes.I had originally contemplated doing an overnight at China Camp before heading down the Pine Ridge Trail to Sykes Camp as an out-and-back, but after hiking with Rusty, I decided I could be more ambitious. I considered a few routes before settling on what AllTrails calls the Big Sur Sykes Hot Springs Extended Loop. That was partly because I’d checked in with the Big Sur Trail Map, a volunteer information repository hosted by Jack Glendening for trail conditions, and discovered a few trails I might have otherwise wanted to use were overgrown.Once I started mapping my route, I noticed some troubleAllTrails has user comments, which can be useful. One user told me to prepare for ticks and poison oak. Another suggested a stop at Timber Top for a meal or snack as it was beautiful, even if it was a detour, so I worked that into my agenda.In order to get a sense of what I’d be doing, I used tools to create my routes, with different lines for each day. CalTopo, AllTrails, and Gaia all have “snap to route” tools that let you automatically follow a trail the map knows about, which makes creating a route easier. But once I started mapping my route, I noticed some trouble. AllTrails said this was a 32.8-mile hike. I had trouble getting Gaia to acknowledge the fire road that would be part of my route with its auto-route tool set; also, the app insisted I was hiking 40 miles. Both the AllTrails and Gaia “snap to route” tools were easier to use than CalTopo, and it came up with a totally different mileage count than either: a 35-mile hike.Here’s the AllTrails route I planned. It was the easiest tool to use for routing by farHere’s CalTopo’s route-planning; you can see I’m considering doing the route in three days, rather than four.This is the Gaia GPS route plan. As you can see, it’s a mess, and because it was hard to edit, it was difficult to correct the mess.Similarly, looking at elevation gain, AllTrails told me to expect 9,160 feet, CalTopo told me to expect 8901 feet, and Gaia, for some reason, was insisting on 19,000 feet. I gotta say, 19,000 feet did not seem like it was in the vicinity of right. Looking at the map I created on Gaia, I think that’s because the “snap to route” tool had given me some weird detours.Well, what’s a couple miles and a few hundred feet of elevation between friends? I decided the smartest move would be to plan a four-day hike with three overnight stops: Sykes Camp, Rainbow Camp, and Outlaw Camp. I figured having more stops meant I could more easily absorb some unexpected miles if I had to.AllTrails’ route-building tool was easiest to use, and the easiest to edit if I made a mistake. While I appreciated Gaia’s similarly easy snap-to-trail function, it was a profound pain in the ass to edit after I’d made a route. And CalTopo was the most finicky for route-building of the bunch, requiring painstaking clicking. But it also had the best feature set, in terms of lines, colors, and editing. It also had more base layers and overlays showing, among other things, where to expect cellphone service.CalTopo and Gaia let you build and edit maps on a phone, but I primarily used my laptop because a big screen is better for planning routes, and a mouse is a more precise tool than my finger. Tinkering with Gaia on my phone, I found route creation buggy. AllTrails doesn’t seem to offer route creation on the iPhone at all. This didn’t matter much for me, but if you’re creating routes on the fly in the backcountry, you’re out of luck with AllTrails, and Gaia may suddenly quit working.Why use apps at all?I harbor a deep and profound pro-paper bias. A notebook is the best organizational tool available to you. I own hundreds of paper books because they don’t have DRM and they can’t be altered post-publication, or removed from my devices. I like paper maps a great deal, and have used them as my main navigation tool for my entire hiking career.Paper maps have downsides. They don’t respond well to water, for instance. Wear and tear can render them unusable. They may be out of date. And, of course, there are no crowdsourced comments telling you about trail conditions before your hike.The obvious benefit of the navigation apps is the reassuring little blue dotThe obvious benefit of the navigation apps is the reassuring little blue dot that tells you exactly where you are on the trail, without requiring nearly as much work. You can pull out your phone and see how much farther you need to go before arriving at a landmark. And most of us have our phones on our hikes because they’re the most convenient way to take photos. Gaia and AllTrails offer downloadable maps as part of a premium service — for a subscription fee, of course. That’s either $59.90 for Gaia or $89.99 for Gaia’s Outside Plus, which includes access to Outside’s assorted publications. The AllTrails Plus subscription I tested was $35.99 a year; after I went on my hike, it announced AllTrails Peak, which costs $79.99 a year and includes AI tools for route planning. (Given what I know about LLMs, I personally would not trust an AI to plan any hiking route, but I suppose your mileage may vary.) CalTopo, which offers its own set of subscription plans at $20, $50, and $100 a year, shows weather data and information about how much sunlight any part of its map gets at any hour of the day.There are a couple downsides to these apps. They drain the phone battery, which necessitates carrying a portable charger, which means more weight. If the phone doesn’t work — because, say, you dropped it — the app won’t work either. And there are, of course, the privacy issues.I don’t want people to know where I am at all timesMy location is sensitive information; I don’t want people to know where I am at all times. AllTrails defaults to sharing your data publicly, so anyone on Earth can look up your hikes. While you can change this setting, defaults matter. “Public trail activities and community reviews are a big part of the AllTrails experience,” spokesperson Mia DeSimone in an email. I was also prompted to review my hike afterwards — part of the crowdsourced data that makes AllTrails work, I suppose.AllTrails also shares your data. Some of that is unobjectionable — payment providers, for instance — but some of it, like sharing data with marketing partners, raised my eyebrows. “AllTrails does not process sensitive personal data, including precise geolocation, for purposes other than actual use of the AllTrails platform,” DeSimone said.I can’t speak to the pluses and minuses of AllTrails Peak, which I haven’t experimented with. But after my hike, AllTrails also discontinued its “Advanced Conditions” feature that showed weather along a prospective route, what to expect from the ground (wet? icy?), and mosquito activity. AllTrails Peak users will get access to “Trail Conditions,” which DeSimone says is “significantly more robust and precise than Advanced Conditions.” Some AllTrails users seem unhappy about the new pricing tier.I got this AllTrails pop-up after my hike. Reader, I did not review it.Gaia similarly defaults to public sharing, because of “a social component designed to help users connect, share experiences, and discover trails,” said Devin Lehman, general manager of Gaia GPS, in an emailed statement. “Public sharing of hikes is the default setting to encourage this community engagement.” Gaia also shares some data, including location data, with unnamed “service providers,” but Lehman said this is done “under strict data protection agreements” and is used to “support and power specific features and functionalities.”Last year, Gaia began requiring sign-ins, catching a few people who were on multi-day trips by surprise. “To ensure minimal disruption, we implemented a ‘snooze’ option allowing users to defer login for up to 28 days if prompted during an active trip,” Lehman wrote. “Users entirely offline (airplane mode or zero cell service) would not see the prompt at all. However, we understand some users in areas with intermittent service did encounter unexpected prompts. We’ve taken user feedback seriously and continue refining our app experience to better support uninterrupted outdoor adventures.”Its parent company, Outside, also jacked up the cost of subscriptions, and on April 14th this year, it removed access to the National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps. “While we understand some subscribers valued the National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps, these maps offered limited regional coverage and lacked the global scope and dynamic functionality our growing user base needs,” Lehman wrote. He says Gaia “substantially expanded” its offerings in the last few years, and the price increase reflects “the ongoing investment required to maintain and continuously improve Gaia GPS.”Be that as it may, I’ve got several friends who are disgruntled Gaia subscribers looking around for another option. And I personally do not have faith in Outside’s management of Gaia, or its other properties, in the long run.On the trailRun away with me! Elizabeth LopattoBecause I was uncertain about my mileage, I decided to track myself several ways: AllTrails, Gaia, and my Apple Watch Series 6. The Apple Watch isn’t really an ideal fitness tracker for outdoors enthusiasts — it’s flimsy and its battery drains too fast; even the Ultra 2 only gives you 72 hours in low power mode. What it does have going for it is that I already own it, and there are other pieces of gear that were more important to upgrade after my experience on the AT. The Big Four in pack weight are your tent, sleeping bag or quilt, sleeping pad, and pack itself. Updating my tent and quilt, both expensive, also meant I lost about 5 pounds of weight from my pack immediately. Since this wasn’t a long hike and I was already carrying a battery, the Apple Watch’s propensity to drain quickly, even with both low power mode and theater mode on, didn’t seem too terrible.I set out from the trailhead Monday morning, and turned on tracking for AllTrails, Gaia, and my Apple Watch. As with all tracking, there are opportunities for user error — I am of course capable of forgetting to turn this stuff on, or pausing it and then never unpausing it. I mention this because there was user error: I paused the AllTrails tracker and then never unpaused it, so as far as it’s concerned, I hiked 3.7 miles that first day.See? I really did walk some number of miles. Perhaps 11, who knows!I was more successful with my watch and Gaia. I started my watch late — looking at the map, I seem to have missed at least a mile before I started it; it recorded 9 miles of walking. I did start Gaia at the beginning of my hike, and it recorded I hiked 11.6 miles. Both watch and app recorded about 2,400 feet of ascent, a little less than what CalTopo told me to expect (2,600 feet of elevation gain) and significantly less than what AllTrails told me to expect (3,000 feet).I arrived at Sykes Camp, alongside the Big Sur River, a little after 4PM, and set up my tent. It was close enough to dinnertime that I decided to eat. As I was hunched over the stove, a woman walked by, so I said hello. She was looking for the hot spring, and continued walking upriver. About 45 minutes later, she returned. She hadn’t found it.The hot spring wasn’t listed on the AllTrails map, the CalTopo map, or either of my paper maps. But it was on Gaia, and after dinner, I found the hot spring, a half-mile hike on a somewhat overgrown path downriver, and soaked blissfully for about half an hour. I’d post a selfie, but this is the internet, and I know better than to post feet for free.If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is. Elizabeth LopattoThe next morning I packed up and headed off to Rainbow Camp around 8:45AM. This, I knew, would be an up-and-down day of ridgeline hiking; AllTrails had a helpful elevation map telling me roughly what to expect. Unlike Sykes, Rainbow Camp was likely to be a place I’d be alone. Most of the people I’d spoken to the day before were doing an out-and-back, with Sykes as their only stop. But this ridgeline hike was spotted with wildflowers.I’d planned for this to be a fairly short day, only about 7 miles. I pulled into Rainbow Camp around 2PM and was underwhelmed — it was buggy and not especially scenic. So after eating lunch and refreshing my water supply, I decided to push on to Cold Spring Camp. The AllTrails map suggested it would only be 5 miles more. It was uphill, though, about 2,000 more feet of climbing. Even if I dragged along at 1 mile an hour, I’d still arrive before sunset.I’d thought about camping at Cold Spring before I set off, and had shied away from it both because of the climb and my uncertainty about the actual mileage of my hike. But I was feeling good, and I’d used my Garmin InReach Mini to check in about my change of plans, so I shoved off.According to my trackers recording my actual route — Gaia and AllTrails — it was more like 6 miles, not 5. Gaia tracked 4,884 feet of climb over a total distance of 13.6 miles; AllTrails suggested I’d climbed 5,213 feet over 14.6 miles. (Did I miss a mile somewhere on Gaia? I don’t see a gap in the recording, so I’m not sure how to account for the difference.) My Apple Watch said I’d gone 11.5 miles, also with 4,884 feet of climb — but its battery died before I made camp. I set up camp at Cold Spring, and watched the sun go down over the ocean as I ate dinner.The extra mileage meant I could plausibly make it home the following day. Sure, there were several camps available if I was too tired to do the rest of the hike, but depending on which tracker I used as my source of truth, I had somewhere between 11 and 13 miles left, a fairly easy day of hiking, particularly since it would all be downhill. The third day opened with ridgeline views; I was above a thick ceiling of clouds hiding the ocean. There were, of course, more wildflowers. When I turned off the dirt road onto Terrace Creek Trail, I met a day hiker going the other direction, who warned me about ticks on the grassy descent toward a redwood grove. (Maybe because he went through just before me, or maybe because of the permethrin I’d used on my clothes, I didn’t see any.) I made it back to the parking lot a little after 4PM. I’d had some user error with my Apple Watch — forgetting to start it again after breakfast at Timber Top, so there was an hour and a half gap in its data — and it recorded 11 miles. AllTrails crapped out at some point between when I set off from Cold Spring and breakfast, so it didn’t record my entire hike. Still, it got 11.63 miles. Gaia also had a gap in its recording (something wrong with my phone?) and put me at 12.7 miles.I thought the hike would settle how long the route was. It did, in a way — certainly the hike was longer than the 32.8 miles AllTrails had promised. If we take Gaia’s tracking, which was the most complete of the bunch, as the source of truth, I’d hiked 38 miles, 39 if I added the hike to the hot spring. Conclusion… of some sortWhile I had my paper maps (and compass) with me, the point was to test the apps, and they worked well enough that I didn’t have to refer to my “real” maps at all. But I also didn’t come away with a single clear winner, whether AllTrails or Gaia was best. AllTrails offered better route-planning features, while Gaia was more reliable on the trail. Both had worrisome inaccuracies in their data, which meant in practical terms that I lugged around another day of food in extra weight because I wasn’t totally sure how far I’d be climbing or walking. That’s consequential — food and water are usually the heaviest things a hiker carries.I certainly wouldn’t recommend relying on either of these, particularly without a backup map, and I’m not sold on how they handle my privacy. AllTrails seems to be aimed at people who are more casual hikers than I am. I don’t think Outside has been a good steward of Gaia (or of Outside Magazine). I also hesitate to recommend pricey subscriptions to these apps, given the issues I had with them. In fact, as I was writing this, I realized the most useful app in planning the trip was the one I hadn’t downloaded maps from: CalTopo.I haven’t tested CalTopo in the backcountry yet, so consider this a cliffhanger. Please feel free to pop over to the comments to demand I be allowed to go backpacking for work sooner rather than later, so you can hear more about my map-related misadventures. I’ve been eyeing the Tahoe Rim Trail for later this summer, and if I’m testing gear, it doesn’t count as vacation time, right? Right? Outdoor Gear Lab’s top bra recommendation’s largest size is a C cup, and the reviews are written primarily for teeny tatas. That’s an astounding editorial failure. Not only do athletes of big titty experience have a harder time finding bras at all, we are more likely to experience boob pain — which is a major reason women quit sports. Breast tissue is dead weight, so bra structure is crucial. A bra that’s stretchy enough to fit over your head won’t keep the girls in place during high-impact exercise. Some other rules of thumb: racerbacks press on your traps; thin straps cut into your shoulders; a thick, tight band is a must for weight distribution. A low-cut bra means an astonishing amount of cleavage, but a high neckline will make your gazongas look even bigger, so pick your poison, I guess. (Also, a high-cut bra worn for a long time will incubate a real banner crop of cleavage zits and, in some cases, chafing.) For running, I like Enell’s High Impact Bra — it’s the only one I’ve tried that’s kept my rack from bouncing. (It’s also recommended by Swole Woman Casey Johnston.) I’m still on the lookout for the best backpacking bra; the Enell one is too binding for all-day wear.See More:

Christine Farro has cut back on the presents she sends her grandchildren on their birthdays, and she’s put off taking two cats and a dog for their shots. All her clothes come from thrift stores and most of her vegetables come from her garden. At 73, she has cut her costs as much as she can to live on a tight budget.But it’s about to get far tighter.As the Trump administration resumes collections on defaulted student loans, a surprising population has been caught in the crosshairs: Hundreds of thousands of older Americans whose decades-old debts now put them at risk of having their Social Security checks garnished.“I worked ridiculous hours. I worked weekends and nights. But I could never pay it off,” says Farro, a retired child welfare worker in Santa Ynez, California.Like millions of debtors with federal student loans, Farro had her payments and interest paused by the government five years ago when the pandemic thrust many into financial hardship. That grace period ended in 2023 and, earlier this month, the Department of Education said it would restart “involuntary collections” by garnishing paychecks, tax refunds and Social Security retirement and disability benefits. Farro previously had her Social Security garnished and expects it to restart.Farro’s loans date back 40 years. She was a single mother when she got a bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology and when she discovered she couldn’t earn enough to pay off her loans, she went back to school and got a master’s degree. Her salary never caught up. Things only got worse.Around 2008, when she consolidated her loans, she was paying $1,000 a month, but years of missed payments and piled-on interest meant she was barely putting a dent in a bill that had ballooned to $250,000. When she sought help to resolve her debt, she says the loan company had just one suggestion.“They said, ‘Move to a cheaper state,'” says Farro, who rents a 400-square-foot casita from a friend. “I realized I was living in a different reality than they were.”Student loan debt among older people has grown at a staggering rate, in part due to rising tuitions that have forced more people to borrow greater sums. People 60 and older hold an estimated $125 billion in student loans, according to the National Consumer Law Center, a six-fold increase from 20 years ago. That has led Social Security beneficiaries who have had their payments garnished to balloon by 3,000% over the same period, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.An estimated 452,000 people aged 62 and older had student loans in default, according to a January report from CFPB.Debbie McIntyre, a 62-year-old adult education teacher in Georgetown, Kentucky, is among them. She dreams of retiring and writing more historical fiction, and of boarding a plane for the first time since high school. But her husband has been out of work on disability for two decades and they’ve used credit cards to get by on his meager benefits and her paycheck. Their rent will be hiked $300 when their lease renews. McIntyre doesn’t know what to do if her paycheck is garnished.She floats the idea of bankruptcy, but that won’t automatically clear her loans, which are held to a different standard than other debt. She figures if she picks up extra jobs babysitting or tutoring, she could put $50 toward her loans here and there. But she sees no real solution.“I don’t know what more I can do,” says McIntyre, who is too afraid to check what her loan balance is. “I’ll never get out of this hole.”Braxton Brewington of the Debt Collective debtors union says it’s striking how many older people dial into the organization’s calls and attend its protests. Many of them, he says, should have had their debts cancelled but fell victim to a system “riddled with flaws and illegalities and flukes.” Many whose educations have left them in late-life debt have, in fact, paid back the principal on their loans, sometimes several times over, but still owe more due to interest and fees.For those who are subject to garnishment, Brewington says, the results can be devastating.“We hear from people who skip meals. We know people who dilute their medication or cut their pills in half. People take drastic measures like pulling all their savings out or dissolving their 401ks,” he says. “We know folks that have been driven into homelessness.”Collections on defaulted loans may have restarted no matter who was president, though the Biden administration had sought to limit the amount of income that could be garnished. Federal law protects just $750 of Social Security benefits from garnishment, an amount that would put a debtor far below the poverty line.“We’re basically providing people with federal benefits with one hand and taking them away with another,” says Sarah Sattelmeyer of the New America think tank.Linda Hilton, a 76-year-old retired office worker from Apache Junction, Arizona, went through garnishment before COVID and says she will survive it again. But flights to see her children, occasional meals at a restaurant and other pleasures of retired life may disappear.“It’s going to mean restrictions,” says Hilton. “There won’t be any travel. There won’t be any frills.”Some debtors have already received notice about collections. Many more are living in fear. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the Department of Education’s dismantling and, for those seeking answers about their loans, mass layoffs have complicated getting calls answered.While Education Secretary Linda McMahon says restarting collections is a necessary step for debtors “both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook,” even some of Trump’s most fervent supporters are questioning a move that will make their lives harder.Randall Countryman, 55, of Bonita, California, says a Biden administration proposal to forgive some student debt didn’t strike him as fair, but he’s not sure Trump’s approach is either. He supported Trump but wishes the government made case-by-case decisions on debtors. Countryman thinks Americans don’t realize how many older people are affected by policies on student loans, often thought to be the turf of the young, and how difficult it can be for them to repay.“What’s a young person’s problem today,” he says, “is an old person’s problem tomorrow.”Countryman started working on a degree while in prison, then continued it at the University of Phoenix when he was released. He started growing nervous as he racked up loan debt and never finished his degree. He’s worked a host of different jobs, but finding work has often been complicated by his criminal record.He lives off his wife’s Social Security check and the kindness of his mother-in-law. He doesn’t know how they’d get by if the government demands repayment.“I kind of wish I never went to school in the first place,” he says. Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky —Matt Sedensky, AP National Writer

Heneghan Peng's University of Greenwich building Source:&nbsp Hufton + Crow EXCLUSIVE: Lecturers at Greenwich University’s architecture school have been left ‘angry and disillusioned’ by plans for a restructure that put over 300 university staff at risk, including dozens in the department The south-east London university informed staff last month of its plans to make 319 redundancies, including all casual staff known as hourly-paid lecturers (HPLs) within the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (FLAS) and Greenwich Business School (GBS). A consultation document for FLAS, sent out to staff last month and seen by the AJ, reveals the university intends to replace 151 HPLs with just 50 academic teaching posts, which would mainly be part-time positions, equating to 17 full-time equivalents. It also wants to set up a ‘pool’ of associate academic staff for ad-hoc cover, which it is understood will work on zero-hour contracts.Advertisement The School of Design, which includes the architecture department and is based at a Heneghan Peng-designed building in Greenwich town centre, is one of the worst-hit departments. Within architecture, the AJ understands 50 of the 70 teaching staff could be made redundant, with 20 then hired back. It is believed that 31 full-time academics will also be made redundant in the Faculty of Engineering and Science. According to the consultation document, the faculty’s rationale is to claw back staffing costs, with the university forecasting it will spend £1.7 million on HLPs in 2024/2025. It says it needs to reduce staff costs by 4 per cent (around £800,000) to operate within budget. ‘Staff cost savings measures need to be fully implemented no later than 31 August 2025 to have as close to full-year effect,’ the consultation states. However the restructure of FLAS, which since last year has been under the leadership of pro vice-chancellor and executive dean professor Natasha Vall, is facing opposition from lecturers, students and the University and College Union (UCU).Advertisement A letter heavily criticising the plans, and seen by the AJ, was sent to senior management last week and signed by more than 30 teaching staff in the architecture school. Describing the plans as ‘hugely damaging to the faculty and its students’, the letter includes calculations that suggest the proposals will reduce student teaching time by 40 per cent. It also warns that the reduction in staff-to-student ratios could mean the courses could come under scrutiny from accrediting bodies such as the RIBA and the Architects’ Registration Board (ARB). ‘There is a real risk that affected courses will lose their accredited status or be put on to special measures,’ it said. The lecturers’ letter also raises concerns that the ‘associate academic’ positions could essentially become zero-hour contracts at a lower remuneration, classifying staff as workers rather than employees and removing basic rights such as sick pay and maternity pay. It adds that staff are ‘incredibly angry and disillusioned’ by the way the proposals have been presented, and especially that the redundancy plans were announced during the Easter break, after many HPLs’ teaching involvement for the year had ended. This meant that any HPLs who wanted to take part in the consultation had to do so at a time they were not employed by the university. Explaining the rationale for axing HPLs, the consultation said that while the casual lecturers had played an ‘important role’ in providing specialist teaching and cover for sickness absence, they had also been used to ‘meet core teaching needs’. It added: ‘The faculty considers that, however able and committed individual HPLs are, it is important that core teaching should be provided by members of staff with a longer-term commitment to, and stake in, the university.’ However, the lecturers’ letter said the comparison between full-time and HLP staff denigrates and discriminates against employees on HPL contracts, many of whom have worked for the university for years. What is an HPL? Hourly paid lecturers are teaching staff paid a specific rate per hour and often work on a contract basis, which may be for a specific academic year or even a term without a guarantee of ongoing work. While hourly-paid roles are often taken up by postgraduate or PhD students, many are also professionals who come in to teach alongside their main jobs. This is especially the case in the school of architecture, where architects teach alongside working in practice. Students are also opposing the cuts. A letter sent by the Greenwich Landscape and Architecture Society to School of Design head Chris Pallant and associate head Rashesh Ram said the proposed changes would ‘damage the credibility’ of the course and reputation of the School of Design. ‘Students are concerned that being taught in larger groups by multiple full-time tutors will not only prevent them from learning from real-life practitioners, but also create problems with design process as no one will fully know their project and be able to provide them with the guidance equivalent to 1:1 tutorials we currently have,’ it said. Lecturers have also urged the university to explain its justification for the cuts, given that the university is in good financial health. Last year, financial records show that Greenwich University made a surplus of more than £33 million. In a statement issued on the cuts at Greenwich, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘Students are having their fees hiked, yet the University of Greenwich wants to sack hundreds of their teachers and instead bring in a pool of zero-hour academics, all while the vice-chancellor's pay continues to soar. These are the actions of the very worst type of rogue employer, not a public institution of Greenwich’s standing. ‘There is no financial justification to force through these cuts, and if the university continues to do so, impacted courses will be stripped of their academic value. It must think again.’ The spokesperson said the UCU had taken steps to raise a dispute with the university and was moving to consultation on a ballot for strike action. Greenwich University has been approached for comment. 2025-05-15 Ella Jessel comment and share

Microsoft quietly announced earlier this week that it plans to shut down a long-standing tool supplying search engine startups and other software developers with a raw feed of Bing search results. From a report: The Bing Search APIs, or application programming interfaces, were once vital to many niche Google alternatives, but fell out of favor more recently as Microsoft hiked fees for the service and restricted its use. The shutoff, which is scheduled to begin on August 11, still came as a surprise to several developers who spoke with WIRED. Customers learned of it on Monday via an email from Microsoft and a post on its website. They were directed to consider using "Grounding with Bing Search as part of Azure AI Agents," a Microsoft service that allows chatbots like ChatGPT to augment AI-generated responses with "real-time public web data." Some developers view the AI-centric alternative as an insufficient replacement. Larger customers like DuckDuckGo told Wired they won't be affected. Read more of this story at Slashdot.