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Here’s one good reason you may want to ‘downgrade’ your SSD and lose capacity in the process — cheap QLC SSD can be transformed into expensive SLC to improve endurance but it’s not for the fainthearted

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We love crazy tech projects here at TechRadar Pro – Some of our recent favorites include an enthusiast getting ChatGPT to run on a NAS, and the person who transformed AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor into a storage device with read-write speeds to rival some of the best SSDs.

The latest idea to cross our desks comes from Gabriel Ferraz, a computer engineer and TechPowerUp’s SSD database maintainer, who turned a 512GB QLC SATA III SSD into a 120GB SLC one.

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Support communities that will lose out in the energy transition

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Windmill from Mesquite Creek Wind O&M with an oil derrick, Lamesa, TX, USA.

With many places around the world heavily reliant on fossil-fuel production for jobs, there is a need for more global studies to assess the impact of decarbonization on affected communities.Credit: Madeleine Jettre/Alamy

Thirty million new jobs. According to the International Energy Agency, that’s what the clean-energy sector will need by 2030 if the world follows a path towards net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. It compares with the 13 million jobs at risk in the fossil-fuel sector under the same scenario. On the basis of the bare numbers, it’s a trade-off worth making. But every job lost affects someone, and new jobs won’t necessarily be located where the old ones are lost.

As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, communities, states and countries that rely on fossil energy could see their economies falter and their tax bases shrink. Public discontent and backlash from climate policies is increasing in the Americas, Europe and elsewhere. Political leaders are rightly moving to protect the world from the effects of global warming, but more must be done to ensure that those who depend on fossil fuels for their livelihoods are not casualties of the clean-energy transition.

The United States is showing signs of understanding the problem on, or close to, the required scale. The administration of President Joe Biden, working with Congress, has secured around US$1 trillion in climate spending for the decade to 2032. Billions of these dollars will flow to communities that are dependent on coal, oil and gas for jobs and tax revenues. The spending will cover areas such as environmental remediation and worker reskilling, as well as incentives for businesses to invest in hydrogen energy and carbon capture.

But as such programmes are rolled out, there’s an increasing need to assess whether they are achieving the desired objective of bringing about an equitable transition to clean energy. The US-based Resilient Energy Economies (REE) initiative is one project trying to do just that. With a modest sum of almost $2 million in seed money from the Bezos Earth Fund, it is seeking to better understand the economic risks and opportunities for fossil-fuel-dependent communities. Projects already funded include evaluations of recent federal programmes intended to help at-risk communities; efforts to understand the risks and opportunities of decarbonization for members of Indigenous American communities who have worked in the oil and gas industries; and schemes to assess the impact of closure or threatened closure of fossil-fuel power plants on various communities. The REE is also looking to fund new proposals. It is US-focused, but this type of research is in fact needed globally.

There is a precedent for understanding such large-scale economic transitions: researchers have previously studied the loss of industrial jobs in high-income countries as a result of the manufacturing boom in low- and middle-income countries. Work led by David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has shown how US factory closures associated with a rise in imports from China, particularly after China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, led to economic stagnation in communities across the United States. Between 1999 and 2011, the United States is estimated to have lost up to 2.4 million jobs to this ‘China shock’ (see go.nature.com/3uhk5cs). By mapping out where these jobs were lost, and comparing this information with district-by-district voting trends, the authors suggest that this shock is associated with the increased political polarization the country is seeing1.

At the same time, there’s evidence that appropriate, targeted support for those affected by the clean-energy transition could build popular support for climate action. A polling study2 published earlier this year by political scientist Alexander Gazmararian at Princeton University in New Jersey, for instance, found that most people in coal-dependent communities in the Appalachian region of the United States would be more likely to support climate policies if these were coupled with economic assistance to make the transition less painful. This also holds in Spain, according to a study by Diane Bolet at the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, and her colleagues3.

Environmental economists, pro-climate politicians and campaigners have understandably focused their research and policymaking on the positive aspects of the clean-energy transition, making the case that a green transition creates benefits such as new jobs, cleaner air and more secure food supplies. But there must also be a focus on those who will bear the economic burden of decarbonization.

At last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai, world leaders pledged to transition energy systems away from fossil fuels. They also committed to doing so in a “just, orderly and equitable manner”. This is not just the right thing to do; it might also be our only hope of building the viable political coalition that is needed to get the work done, for the good of people and communities everywhere.

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don’t lose touch with the joy of fieldwork

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The intertidal is a conversation I join whenever the tides allow, negotiating with barnacle-covered rocks and rockweed for permission to enter. As a child, I ran across the beaches of the US central east coast with my grandfather, sand in my afro, marvelling at the tiny sand dollars dotting the shoreline. I could never have dreamed that, decades later, I’d be searching for their ‘cousins’ — sea urchins and starfish (also known as sea stars) — on the rocky beaches of the Pacific Northwest with the same enthusiasm, splaying myself across the rocks almost like I’m playing Twister. My ankles and my ecosystem knowledge grow stronger with every visit.

I’m a marine molecular ecologist, performing biodiversity assessments to help characterize how ecosystems are changing in a warming planet. These are physical endeavours that couple simple tools with complex ecosystem knowledge: location access, tide schedules and species recognition are just the beginning. But with techniques such as environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, the situation has started to change. My colleagues and I can create site-specific species inventories using high-throughput genetic sequencing to analyse the DNA that every living organism sheds into its environment, using just a small sample of seawater.

Such methods provide the almost-instant gratification of hard data. They help us make the intertidal zone accessible to those who haven’t experienced it. But eDNA inventories are only as strong as the — still limited — DNA reference libraries available. They also render moot the reason I’ve worked hard to know the difference between a gunnel and a prickleback, so I can identify fish before they zip out of sight. The more time we spend analysing at the bench, not the beach, the less connected we are to the ecosystems we are trying to protect. In an age of data abundance, I urge myself and other ecologists not to lose touch with the joy of the field.

This sense of connection is personal. As I’m seeing techniques change, I’m also seeing a changing of the guard. The field-hardened scientists — most of whom are male, and white — who taught me, in practice or through literature, are adding ‘emeritus’ to their titles, one by one. With them goes a wealth of knowledge and their history of belonging. I and my younger colleagues must now share our knowledge and foster a new, inclusive sense of belonging.

It is no secret that female scientists, especially those from historically under-represented backgrounds, are the most susceptible to fieldwork exclusion or harassment (A.-J. C. Demery and M. Avery Pipkin Nature Ecol. Evol. 5, 5–9; 2021). As one of just 2% of graduate students in Earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences who identify as Black (L. M. Isma et al. Oceanography 36, 56–59; 2023), I am used to being the only one, and having to explain and defend my presence in science and in the field. One of the attractions of the field is that my non-human kin don’t question my purpose there.

Creating a more inclusive, joyful feeling of belonging is the motivation behind the Yellow Island Intertidal Monitoring programme, a collaboratively developed project that I lead. It is sponsored by Black In Marine Science — an organization from which I have received mentorship, support and funding, and that I gratefully acknowledge — in partnership with a US non-profit organization, the Nature Conservancy. The programme’s team operates on a tiny islet of the San Juan archipelago in the Salish Sea, between Washington state and British Columbia, Canada, and seeks to understand how the region’s ecosystem is changing. The Yellow Island project comes with a template for an islet-specific species survey. A suite of student papers written in 2004 at the University of Washington Friday Harbor Laboratories under the guidance of Megan Dethier and Kevin Britton-Simmons provides a baseline for how the ecosystem looked two decades ago.

Every summer since 2022, participants have learnt about the islet’s species, completed surveys, obtained boating licences, practised science-communication skills and built a community. Hearing a student’s confidence in identifying organisms or their yelps of excitement when their favourite echinoderm burrows underneath the rock they flipped over (and back) is enough to invoke a sentimental attachment to the place — the bliss of belonging in a community bonded by the ecosystem and the science. I mean, who doesn’t want to touch a starfish?

We don’t ignore technology: the students work with both physical surveys and eDNA data. I’m optimistic that eDNA and the bioinformatic tools behind it can help to extend our community and, hopefully, our joy. It can corroborate the presence of some of the organisms the students physically counted, and add scores more.

Time in the field provides an opportunity to define a space not only for the students, but also for myself. It’s where I stand on the shoulders of my teachers to teach the next generation — where I share my interpretations and myself. This is a space where I can simultaneously be a molecular ecologist, a Black woman and a nerd for chitons: armoured snails that are exquisitely adept at contouring themselves to the shape of the islet’s rocks.

Conversation in the intertidal zone is punctuated with the pop of rockweed when you step on it. It’s full of the salacious secrets of anemones, and the whispers of stealthy mink slinking over the high tide line, looking for limpets to scrape free. This conversation is important to remind us that we are part of the world. Let’s not lose our ear for it.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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The Hades 2 Technical Test is so good it nearly made me lose my Duolingo streak

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I’ve spent a good chunk of time these last few evenings playing through the Hades 2 Technical Test, which I was lucky enough to receive an invite for after registering my interest on the game’s Steam page. Despite only featuring the first major level and some elements of the hub area, I’ve already found myself completely unable to put the game down.

This brief opening snippet of gameplay was so thoroughly compelling that it began to eclipse all the tasks I’d planned to do this week. Not least of all was a certain multilingual bird getting particularly irate with me. All of this is to say, when Hades 2 releases in Steam Early Access in the near future, be sure to make ample time for it, because as the game’s intro succinctly stresses: time cannot be stopped.

Family matters

Hades 2

(Image credit: Supergiant Games)

Hades 2 is a direct sequel to Supergiant Games’ smash-hit 2020 roguelite. This time around you’re playing as Melinoë, immortal princess of the underworld and sister to Zagreus – the first game’s protagonist. Her titular father and extended family have been spirited away by Chronos, the Titan of Time. 

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Fitbit watches in the EU will lose third-party apps and watch faces – here’s why

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European Fitbit owners have been dealt a huge blow as Google will be removing all third-party apps and clock faces from all devices existing in the European Economic Area. This includes the entire EU as well as non-members like Iceland.

The tech giant didn’t make any formal announcements through its usual channels. Instead, it opted to update its software management page on the Fitbit Help Center website. There, it’s stated the changes will go into effect sometime in June 2024; an exact date was not given. 

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Best Pill to Lose Belly Fat: What You Need to Know.

Belly fat is not only unsightly, but it also poses a health risk. Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers are more likely to happen if you have too much belly fat. Losing belly fat improves both health and appearance.

But losing belly fat isn’t easy. It involves changes in food, exercise, and way of life. You may not always get the desired results, even if you try hard. Because of this, some people try pills that promise to help them lose belly fat faster and easier.

But do these pills work? And do you know if they are safe? In this article, we’ll talk about some of the most famous and effective pills that may help you lose belly fat and their benefits, risks, and limits.

The best pills to lose belly fat

There are many pills that can help you lose belly fat. The famous and effective ones include:

Alli: Best pill to lose belly fat

Like its pharmaceutical counterpart, Orlistat, Alli prevents the digestive tract from absorbing fat. Alli can help with weight loss by blocking the absorption of about 25% of dietary fats.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that Alli may support weight loss of up to 10% in a single year, which is more than is possible with diet and exercise alone. Alli isn’t perfect, however. Oily stools, flatulence, diarrhea, and vitamin shortages are all possible adverse effects. In addition, a low-fat diet is required for Alli to be practical. Consuming an unhealthy amount of fat may cause a variety of gastrointestinal issues.

Best pills to lose belly fat

As a result, you can’t expect to reduce belly fat with little effort with Alli. A good diet and regular exercise are still necessary for lasting success. Alli may interact with other medications or health issues, so it’s best to check with your doctor first.

Here are some of the pros and cons of Alli:

Pros:

  • Alli has been clinically proven to aid in weight loss more than just dieting and exercise alone.
  • Alli is easy to access and does not require a prescription. You can buy it from most pharmacies and online retailers.
  • Alli can help you control your portions and reduce your snacking. Since it blocks fat absorption, it can make you feel full and prevent overeating.

Cons:

  • Alli can cause unpleasant side effects, such as oily stools, gas, diarrhea, and vitamin deficiencies. Following a low-fat diet can reduce these side effects, but they may still occur.
  • Alli can be expensive, especially if you take it for a long time. You must pay for it out of pocket because insurance does not cover it.
  • Alli requires a commitment to a healthy lifestyle. It is not a magic pill that can make you lose weight without effort. You must still follow a balanced diet and exercise routine to achieve long-term results.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): Best pill to lose belly fat

Some dairy and meat products contain conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a type of fatty acid that occurs naturally. It may help reduce body fat, especially in the abdomen, by increasing your metabolism and muscle mass.

Several studies have shown that CLA can help you lose up to 3% of your body weight in 6 months. However, CLA also has some limitations. It may not work for everyone, as its effects may vary depending on your genes and diet. It may also cause side effects such as digestive problems, inflammation, and insulin resistance.

Therefore, CLA is not a miracle pill that can make you lose belly fat without any risk. You must still follow a balanced diet and exercise routine to optimize its benefits. You should consult your doctor before taking CLA, as it may have contraindications or interactions with other drugs or health conditions.

Here are some of the pros and cons of CLA:

Pros:

  • CLA may help reduce body fat, especially in the abdomen, by increasing metabolism and muscle mass. Several studies have shown that CLA can help you lose up to 3% of your body weight in 6 months.
  • CLA may reduce the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes by enhancing blood sugar and insulin sensitivity.
  •  Some studies have found that CLA can lower fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and insulin resistance in people with diabetes or prediabetes.
  • CLA may have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which could protect your cells from damage and inflammation. In studies, CLA has been suggested to modulate the immune system and decrease pro-inflammatory cytokine production.

Cons:

  • CLA may not work for everyone, as its effects may vary depending on your genes and diet. Some people may not respond to CLA or may need higher doses to see any benefits.
  • CLA may cause side effects like digestive problems, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, and headaches. These side effects may be more common or severe with higher doses or longer-term use of CLA.
  • CLA may interact with other drugs or health conditions, such as blood thinners, antidiabetic medications, or liver disease. You should consult with your doctor before taking CLA, especially if you have any medical issues or are taking any medications.

GLP-1 agonists: Best pill to lose belly fat

Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists are injectable medications that imitate the effects of the glucagon-like peptide-1 hormone, which controls hunger and blood sugar levels. By increasing satiety and decreasing food intake, they facilitate weight loss.

Liraglutide (Saxenda) and liraglutide (Wegovy) are two GLP-1 agonists that the FDA has approved for the treatment of obesity. Several studies have shown that using GLP-1 agonists might result in a weight loss of up to 15% in one year. There are, however, risks associated with GLP-1 agonists. Possible negative responses to injection sites include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and hives. GLP-1 agonists are also costly and must be injected once a day or weekly.

That said, GLP-1 agonists are not a magic bullet for effortless fat loss in the abdominal region. To maximize their benefits, you should still eat well and exercise often. GLP-1 agonists may interfere with other medications or health issues, so talking to your doctor before starting treatment is essential.

However, GLP-1 agonists also have pros and cons that you should be aware of before taking them. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of GLP-1 agonists:

Pros:

  • GLP-1 agonists are highly effective at lowering blood glucose and A1C levels. They can help you achieve your diabetes management goals and prevent complications.
  • GLP-1 agonists, a drug used to treat diabetes and obesity, can cause significant weight loss. Semaglutide (Ozempic) is an example of a GLP-1 drug that can help you lose up to 15% of your body weight in a year.
  • GLP-1 agonists are easy to use and have flexible dosing options. Most GLP-1 drugs are injectable medications that you can take once daily or weekly. Some GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide (Rybelsus), are available in tablet form that you can take orally once daily.

Cons:

  • GLP-1 agonists can cause unpleasant side effects, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and injection site reactions. These side effects may be more common or severe with higher doses or longer-term use of GLP-1 drugs.
  • GLP-1 agonists can be expensive, especially if your insurance does not cover them. You may have to pay out of pocket for these medications or look for assistance programs to afford them.
  • GLP-1 agonists may interact with other drugs or health conditions, such as blood thinners, antidiabetic medications, or liver disease. You should consult your doctor before taking GLP-1 drugs, especially if you have any medical issues or are taking any medications.

Phentermine/topiramate (Qsymia): Best pill to lose belly fat

Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate) is an effective weight loss medication since it combines the benefits of both medicines. Phentermine, a psychostimulant, helps you eat less and want less food. Topiramate, an anticonvulsant, increases the efficacy of phentermine and prolongs satiety.

Several studies have shown that using Qsymia may reduce your weight by as much as 10% in a year. There are, however, drawbacks to using Qsymia. Dry mouth, sleeplessness, mood swings, and even birth deformities are all possible adverse effects. Because of its status as a prohibited drug, Qsymia may only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription and close medical supervision.

Therefore, Qsymia is not a worry-free method of losing abdominal fat. You should continue your low-calorie diet and exercise program to maintain its advantages. Because of the possibility of medication interactions and contraindications, you should talk to your doctor before starting treatment with Qsymia.

Naltrexone/bupropion (Contrave)

Naltrexone/bupropion (Contrave) is another combination of two drugs that affect your brain chemistry and reduce your cravings for food and addictive substances. Naltrexone blocks the pleasurable effects of opioids, while Bupropion increases mood and energy.

Best pills to lose belly fat

According to several studies, Contrave can help you lose up to 5% of your body weight in a year. However, Contrave also has some drawbacks. It may cause side effects such as nausea, headaches, constipation, and seizures. Moreover, Contrave is a prescription drug that requires regular follow-up by your doctor.

Therefore, Contrave is not a harmless pill that can make you lose belly fat without any side effects. You should consult your doctor before taking Contrave, as it may interact with other drugs or health conditions. Regular exercise and a healthy diet are essential to maintaining its benefits.

Conclusion

As you can see, no single pill can make you lose belly fat quickly and safely. All the pills that we reviewed have some benefits, but also some risks and limitations. They are not magic solutions that can replace a healthy lifestyle. You still need to follow a balanced diet and exercise routine to achieve long-term results. You should also consult with your doctor before taking any weight loss medication, as it may have contraindications or interactions with other drugs or health conditions.

Remember, losing belly fat is not only good for your appearance but also for your well-being. Investing time and effort to find the best way to lose belly fat can improve your well-being.