Today’s edition of The Download, MIT Technology Review’s daily tech newsletter

The must-reads

I’ve combed the world-wide-web to obtain you today’s most fun/significant/scary/intriguing stories about technologies.

1 Foods prices are soaring
Ukraine provides substantially of the world’s wheat, corn, and barley—and its farmers are unlikely to be in a position to plant this period. (NYT $)
  + Climate modify is compounding the trouble. (Wired $)
  + A Ukrainian MP has accused Russia of striving to starve Mariupol into surrender. (BBC)
  + Russia is using cluster bombs, and they could pose a threat for many years. (Wired $)
  + 6.5 million men and women have been displaced inside of Ukraine, in accordance to the UN. (Axios

2 Is Russia holding again from cyberwar?
The most dire predictions haven’t occur to pass—yet. (Vox)
  + Correct now, the propaganda war is the most considerable digital battlefront. (TR)
  + Russian households are combating more than reality, as distinct users obtain vastly distinctive studies on the war. (WP $)
  + Ukraine is appealing to DJI to restrict in which its drones can fly. (Vice

3 China described its to start with covid fatalities because January 2021
Omicron has arrived on its shores—but it’s assembly with rigid resistance. (The Guardian)
  + England’s well being service has commenced offering out 2nd covid boosters to people categorized as greater-chance. (The Guardian)
  + Hong Kong is rising from some of the world’s strictest covid limits. (Nikkei)
  + But reduced vaccination premiums and stages of immunity led to a heavy death toll. (The Guardian

4 What’s a “normal” amount of time to grieve?
Psychiatry’s most potent physique thinks it is about a 12 months. (NYT $)
  + How to mend your broken pandemic brain. (TR

5 Americans are hoarding nickels 💰
The types who’ve observed its price tag spiking not too long ago, at minimum. (The Atlantic $)
  + The war in Ukraine appears to be probably to also lead to a scarcity of neon. (Recode)
  + It could be a main setback for electric car or truck profits as well. (NYT $) 

6 NASA’s giant new moon rocket has arrived at its start pad 🚀
Marking a crucial milestone in NASA’s room exploration plans, even though it could be months just before it flies. (Ars Technica)
  + Russia sent three cosmonauts to the Worldwide Space Station amid turmoil around Ukraine. (WP $) 

7 Appears like SXSW was… kinda depressing
There’s constantly buzz in tech, but the gap between promises and possible results looks like a big chasm recently. (Vice)

8 Have Iphone cameras come to be too good?
Some users are complaining that the most up-to-date iteration about-corrects their photographs. (New Yorker $)

9 Why do movie online games preserve acquiring for a longer time? 🎮⌛
It is a golden age for games—you just will need to have the time to in fact engage in them. (WP $)

10 What AI thinks an Emily Dickinson poem appears like
Genuinely otherworldly stuff. (Debugger $)

Estimate of the working day

“There can be no chat of any surrenders, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian aspect about this. As a substitute of losing time on 8 web pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor.” 

~Ukraine’s deputy key minister Iryna Vereshchuk difficulties a defiant concept as the Russian military deadline for the surrender of Mariupol passed nowadays, news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reports.

We can still have nice points

A place for comfort, enjoyment and distraction in these strange instances. (Obtained any strategies? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

  + Not NOW, Japanese demon
  + These physics toys look endlessly entertaining. 
  + Sean Connery’s Highlander voiceover dubbed over the opening of Teletubbies cannot be unheard—or unseen. 
  + Why you should really embrace being uninteresting
  + New Ben Affleck film Deep Drinking water asks the eternal problem: can a drone engineer be sexy