A deep dive into the surprising uses and linguistic shortfalls of the ubiquitous symbols

In 2016, Apple announced that its gun emoji, previously a realistic grey-and-black revolver, would henceforth be a green water pistol. Gradually the other big tech companies followed suit, and now what is technically defined as the “pistol” emoji, supposed to represent a “handgun or revolver”, does not show either: instead you’ll get a water pistol or sci-fi raygun and be happy with it. No doubt this change contributed significantly to a suppression of gun crime around the world, and it remains only to ban the bomb, knife and sword emoji to wipe out violence altogether.

As Keith Houston’s fascinatingly geeky and witty history shows, emoji have always been political. Over the years, people have successfully lobbied the Unicode Consortium – the cabal of corporations that controls the character set, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple – to include different skin colours and same-sex couples. It was easy to agree to add the face with one eyebrow raised, the guide dog and the egg. But not every request is granted. One demand for a “frowning poo emoji” elicited this splendid rant from an eminent Unicode contributor, Michael Everson: “Will we have a crying pile of poo next? Pile of poo with tongue sticking out? Pile of poo with question marks for eyes? Pile of poo with karaoke mic? Will we have to encode a neutral faceless pile of poo?”

Continue reading...

Our 12-megapixel autofocus camera assembly is available to purchase as a standalone product, for designs requiring a custom form factor.

The post Available now from $15: Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 Sensor Assemblies appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

Meta wiped out a business account and all contacts without warning for not abiding by community guidelines

I am the mentor of a young black entrepreneur, RM, who has had his personal and business social media accounts removed by Meta, which owns Instagram. There was no notice, no option to appeal and, from my understanding, no just cause. He had built up two successful businesses in clothing design and music events.

Six days before the ban, he had sold 1,500 tickets for an electronic dance event in London. Instagram, rather than a website, is the platform for his work. However, he was suddenly informed that his content did not abide by Meta’s community guidelines on violence and incitement.

Continue reading...

Smallest and most affordable Framework still has brilliant modular ports, is upgradable and designed to last

The modular and repairable PC maker Framework’s latest machine moves into the notoriously difficult to fix 2-in-1 category with a fun 12in laptop with a touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge.

The new machine still supports the company’s innovative expansion cards for swapping the different ports in the side, which are cross-compatible with the Framework 13 and 16 among others. And you can still open it up to replace the memory, storage and internal components with a few simple screws.

Continue reading...

The brilliant planet will move across the invisible line between the pair and appear 3 degrees away from the star Aldebaran

This week, Venus will pass through the so-called Golden Gate of the Ecliptic. Although the name has risen to prominence with science popularisers in recent decades, its exact origin is unknown.

It references two star clusters in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. The Hydes and the Pleiades lie on either side of the ecliptic, which is the plane of the solar system. As such, the sun, the moon and the planets all follow this line in their passage through the sky. The constellations the ecliptic passes through are known as the zodiacal constellations, referred to in popular culture as the signs of the zodiac.

Continue reading...

The 6.16-rc5 kernel prepatch has been released. Quoth Linus: "Please keep testing, but this all feels fairly regular for this phase of the release".

PLUS: Lexmark’s Chinese owners sell to Xerox; India, Australia, target underwater drones; JPMorgan drops custom TLDs; and more!

Asia In Brief  Australian collaborationware company Atlassian has migrated the four million Postgres databases that back its customers’ Jira implementations to Amazon Web Services’ Aurora.…

Are these videos a sign of the times? Are they brainwashing me towards Christianity? Can scrolling deliver me salvation? Why can’t I stop watching?

• Read more in the Internet wormhole series

Jesus walks through an emerald field holding a selfie stick. The first chords of Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather rise like a prayer. “OK besties so apparently I’m the chosen one, like full-blown save humanity arc,” he cheeses. “Love that for me.” Jesus flicks his Jonathan Van Ness locks behind his ears.

The scene switches. He’s still holding the selfie stick but now he’s strolling through a dusty town. “So I just told the squad I have to die and Peter literally tried to gaslight me. Like babes, don’t be dramatic. This is the prophecy.”

Continue reading...

The 6.15.5, 6.12.36, 6.6.96, and 6.1.143 stable kernels have been released; each contains another set of important fixes.

Detectorists and archaeologists sometimes clash, but the recent find of two Roman swords was the thrilling result of collaboration

The discovery of two swords at a dig in Gloucestershire has fuelled speculation that a Roman villa may once have stood there, at a period in the second or third century AD when Saxons were making inroads in the region. Experts think that the blades may even have been deliberately hidden – but not deep enough to conceal them from a novice metal detectorist, Glenn Manning. Next month, the public will get a chance to see the weapons when they go on display at the Corinium museum in Cirencester, to which they have been given.

The items join a growing list of striking finds by hobbyists. These include a gold nugget found in the Shropshire Hills by Richard Brock, who located it with the help of an old machine that was “only half working”. Another newcomer dug up a gold necklace bearing the initials of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, which is now in the British Museum.

Continue reading...