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This week, the popular Internet slang FOMO, short for fear of missing out, was employed by an unlikely speaker: Indias Prime Minister.

Narendra Modi was giving a joint address with Denmarks Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to the India-Denmark Business Forum on the sidelines of the second India-Nordic Summit in Copenhagen. The official handle of the Prime Ministers Office tweeted: These days the term FOMO or fear of missing out is gaining traction on social media. Looking at Indias reforms and investment opportunities, I can say that those who dont invest in our nation will certainly miss out: PM @narendramodi in Copenhagen.

What is FOMO?

The Oxford English Dictionary describes FOMO as the anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media.

In their 2021 research paper Fear of missing out: A brief overview of origin, theoretical underpinnings and relationship with mental health, authors Mayank Gupta and Aditya Sharma wrote that FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing.

Although the phenomenon of the fear of missing out was identified some time in the late 1990s by a brand strategist named Dan Herman, the expression was popularised only in 2004 by Patrick J. McGinnis, an American venture capitalist.

In their 2016 article titled Fear of missing out, need for touch, anxiety and depression are related to problematic smartphone use,Jon D Elhai, Jason C Levine, Robert D Dvorak, and Brian J Hall highlighted that problematic smartphone use was most related to the fear of missing out, depression (inversely), and a need for touch.

Gupta and Sharma wrote that The social aspect of FoMO could be postulated as relatedness which refers to the need to belong, and formation of strong and stable interpersonal relationships.

And what is meant by Internet slang?

Since it first originated in the Internets early days, Internet slang or Internet shorthand has been developing constantly and rapidly. With time, the occurrence of these words and expressions in the vocabulary, especially of users who spend significant time on social networking services and similar online platforms, has become more frequent. And as our digital lives and personalities have become increasingly more enmeshed with real ones, this language of the Internet has seeped into everyday speech.

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A BBC report from 2015 traced the origins of one of the earliest Internet slangs to the mid-1980s when a developer in Canada claimed that he had used LOL in a chat room. Laughing out loud is one of the most commonly used and easily recognisable Internet slang words, and it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011.

So are BTW (by the way), TFW (that feeling when), and CUL8R (see you later), the last being more common during the early days of SMS.

Punctuation marks play an important role in the language of Internet slang: common punctuation marks used to express feelings or emotions include, for example, a string of full stops (.) and a series of exclamation marks (!!!!!!!!!!), as well as a combination of question marks and exclamation marks (?!?!?!?!).

In 2014, following a Freedom of Information request, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published an 80-page list of Internet slang words that it had compiled to help the agencys agents navigate the fast-changing world of Internetspeak. But a Fast Company report published earlier this year indicated that the list had become largely irrelevant, an indication of how quickly the language develops.

It is often not so much the creation of new words as it is the appropriation of existing words and phrases, which are given new identities and meanings on the Internet. Researchers have submitted that the development of earlier technologies such as radio, television, and telephone too engendered their own set of slang. An example: the phrase the pilot radioed the control room produced the verb radioed that originated in the technology itself.

How can you pick up Internet slang?

You have to spend a lot of time on the Internet, of course, and you have to be, as active social media users say, ITK, or in the know. New words first become cool in certain spaces, and having a wide trawling sweep helps, as does a circle of users who are with it on the Internet. New expressions and connotations keep emerging, with older ones becoming uncool.

For those who are starting out, Kaspersky has a helpful beginners guide to Internet slang. Another resource that is being constantly updated is Urban Dictionary, a crowdsourced online dictionary specifically to help decode slang words and phrases.

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Explained: What Modi meant by FOMO and other Internet shorthand and how to pick them up - The Indian Express

To prep for an upcoming course he was teaching, Penn researcher David Lydon-Staley decided to conduct an experiment: Might melatonin gummiessupplements touted to improve sleephelp him, as an individual, fall asleep faster?

For two weeks, he took two gummies on intervention nights and none on control nights. The point, however, wasnt really to find out whether the gummies worked for him (which they didnt), but rather to see how an experiment with a single participant played out, whats known as an n of 1.

Randomized control experiments typically include hundreds or thousands of participants. Their aim is to show, on average, how the intervention being studied affects people in the treatment group. But often theres a failure to include women and members of minoritized racial and ethnic groups in those clinical trials, says Lydon-Staley, an assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication. The single-case approach says, instead of randomizing a lot of people, were going to take one person at a time and measure them intensively.

In Lydon-Staleys spring semester class, Diversity and the End of Average, seven graduate students conducted their own n-of-1 experimentson themselvestesting whether dynamic stretching might improve basketball performance or whether yoga might decrease stress. One wanted to understand the effect of journaling on emotional clarity. They also learned about representation in science, plus which analytical approaches might best capture the nuance of a diverse population and individuals with many intersecting identities.

Its not just an n of 1 trying to do what the big studies are doing. Its a different perspective, says Lydon-Staley. Though its just one person, youre getting a much more thorough characterization of how theyre changing from moment to moment.

In a small classroom on the third floor of the Annenberg School for Communication, second-year doctoral student Adetobi Moses kicked off the trio of presentations happening that mid-April day. My intent for the study was journaling, she says.

She described the different options, including her choice of stream-of-consciousness journaling, then talked through her two-week experiment. In the end, her data showed that the writing helped only minimally with her emotional clarity. But the process itself? She found it empowering, a sentiment that others in the room echoed. Despite experimental results that may have lacked statistical significance, the grad students appreciated gaining deeper insight into an aspect of themselves.

Sometimes the results surprised them, too, like those of Darin Johnson, a third-year Ph.D. student studying code-switching. For his experiment, he wanted to understand whether reducing social media use on his phone would drop his stress level. I follow a lot of social justiceoriented pages, which include a lot about racism and police brutality. I would just sit there scrolling and be stressed out, he says. He thought removing the input that caused these reactions might prevent the anxiety associated with them.

So, on intervention days, he would receive a notification when he reached the time limit that hed set. On control days, his access remained unlimited. At the end of each day, he took a survey that hed created. Before even analyzing his data, he realized that avoiding social media didnt actually help him but instead made him feel isolated, cut off from his circle. Its counterintuitive, he says.

The notion of n-of-1 experiments often raises eyebrows, says Lydon-Staley. Im on the fringe here, but I think its the way to go, he says. Randomized control trials give you a statistic for the average person, but thats a statistical artifact that doesnt exist. I want to know what works for me.

Lydon-Staley applies this framework to much of the research conducted in his Addiction, Health, & Adolescence Lab. For example, in a project about smoking cessation, he and his team are collecting reports from participants about their specific withdrawal symptomscravings, irritability10 times a day for 10 days, before and during a quit attempt. In a project about alcohol and the brain, participants get brain scans five times sober, five times after drinking alcohol.

We say, On average, when people drink, the brain looks like this, but were making a huge assumption that the average were getting can tell us about the individual, Lydon-Staley says. I dont think thats the case. Literally everything I do has been collecting lots and lots of data on individuals to get at our heterogeneity. This is pushing us to gain a better understanding at the individual level.

Though its just one person, youre getting a much more thorough characterization of how theyre changing from moment to moment. David Lydon-Staley, Annenberg assistant professor of communication

Personalized medicine has already moved in this direction, using genetics and other biomarkers to guide treatment. So many people deal with medical issues that may not have a one-size-fits-all solution, says second-year Ph.D. student Baird Howland, who is also in the class. Anybody could, in theory, do this type of experiment to figure out what works and what doesnt for them.

Lydon-Staley sees great potential in the ability to scale up the single-case approach: Collect enough samples and patterns will emerge revealing natural rather than artificial clusters. Often, you cant take an intersectional approach with statistics, Johnson says. People might aggregate by race or by gender. Those are disparate categories, but Im gay and Black. If I were to do a statistical analysis, Id have to separate them out, and n of 1 allows us not to.

The point of the class isnt just to show these graduate students a different approach to science but also to get them thinking about the advantages of research that includes broad representation. The people we recruit into our studies benefit the most from the science, says Lydon-Staley. The findings are more applicable to them than people who arent collected as part of the data.

That said, Lydon-Staley isnt suggesting throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as he puts it. Im biased, and I recognize that. This type of methodology is not something we necessarily learn even though its intuitive, he says. You need a course like this to dive into the methods, which can hopefully make it easier to collect a more diverse sample.

Johnson and his classmates have become quick converts. I like the fact that you can focus on the full person, he says.

Even Howland, who studied physics as an undergrad and is now looking at the effect of mainstream news on public agendas for his doctoral work, sees how this approach can succeed. My future work doesnt map super well to these individual-based treatments, but I wouldnt rule it out, he says. Its a nice reminder that you can think about your individual issues scientifically and learn something about yourself. Its something that could catch on.

Lydon-Staleys seen it happening more already. But, he says, even if the methodology stays on the perimeter for now, hes grateful for the chance to get students thinking about new ways to make science more diverse and representative. No one is just one thing. Theyre also a specific race, a specific ethnicity, a specific sexual orientation. Its hard to think about how to capture those, he says. With the bottom-up approach, you start at the person level.

David Lydon-Staley is an assistant professor of communication and principal investigator of the Addiction, Health, & Adolescence Lab in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Baird Howland is a second-year doctoral student in the Annenberg School for Communication studying American media diets and dominant narratives in the news media.

Darin Johnson is a third-year doctoral student in the Annenberg School for Communication studying how racialized populations understand and engage in code-switching as they communicate in different contexts, and the psychological mechanisms that underpin code-switching.

Adetobi Moses is a second-year doctoral student in the Annenberg School for Communicationstudying how rhetoric and cultural memory intersect with political realities particularly during global crises and how the media and globalization inform transnational spaces, identities, cultures, and artistic practices.

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Moving away from 'average,' toward the individual | Penn Today - Penn Today

From pulling a man from a burning building to delivering hampers for COVID-stricken communities, 19 NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) staff, volunteers and teams have been honoured for their bravery and exceptional service.

NSW RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers was today joined by Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke to recognise the efforts of the NSW RFS members at the annual St Florians Day awards.

Held on the fourth of May each year, the award ceremony coincides with the Feast Day of St Florian, Patron Saint of Firefighters and International Firefighters Day.

Commissioner Rogers praised the recipients for their ongoing hard work and professionalism.

These past few years have seen the State face fires, floods and a global pandemic, and our NSW RFS members have selflessly stepped up to help communities through these challenges, Commissioner Rogers said.

Minister Cooke thanked each award recipients for their dedication and commitment to serving and protecting communities across NSW.

I am incredibly proud of our NSW RFS staff and volunteers who remain on call, day after day, responding to all manner of emergencies and incidents, Ms Cooke said.

Commissioner Rogers paid special tribute to firefighter Lee Byrne, who was awarded a Commissioners Commendation for Bravery.

Firefighter Byrne, who is a member of the Baan Baa Brigade, was part of the team responding to a house fire in Baan Baa about 8.30pm on 10 July 2021. When he arrived at the home, Firefighter Byrne was informed that a person may be trapped by fire inside the building.

The building was engulfed by fire as Firefighter Byrne forced entry into the house, where he found a man unresponsive on the floor, Commissioner Rogers said.

Bravely, he pulled the man from the home and performed first aid to help resuscitate him. Firefighter Byrne risked his life and put himself in harms way to try and save someones life.

Sadly, the man passed away before NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived.

Firefighter Byrnes fellow Baan Baa Brigade members received a Commissioners Certificate of Commendation (Unit) for their response to the house fire and for the comfort they provided to the mans grieving son, who was on scene at the time of the fire.

In what was a very distressing situation, these brigade members displayed great dignity and professionalism, Commissioner Rogers said.

The Bourke Headquarters Brigade received the Commissioners Certificate of Commendation for going above and beyond to aid their community during a COVID-19 outbreak.

In August 2021, a hub for community assistance was set up at the Bourke Fire Control Centre with members of the Bourke Headquarters Brigade becoming key personnel to distribute care and food hampers across the region, including to Enngonia, Louth, Fords Bridge, Wanaaring and Byrock.

Commissioner Rogers said the volunteers worked 700 hours in morning and afternoon shifts by the end of the outbreak in October 2021.

It is humbling to see the lengths our volunteers went to including multiple 300 kilometre trips to Enngonia to ensure remote communities affected by COVID-19 could still have these essential supplies, Commissioner Rogers said.

During this outbreak, these dedicated volunteers delivered 1,000 hampers and 250 fresh fruit and vegetable parcels to people. NSW RFS members are always there for their communities in sickness and in health.

The full list of recipients of the 2022 St Florians Day Awards is available here: http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/st-florians-day-2022.

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Bravery and commitment of firefighters recognised on St Florian's Day - NSW Rural Fire Service - NSW Rural Fire Service

As one of the millions of Egyptians who took to the streets demanding Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice during the Arab Spring, I experienced firsthand the very best and the worst that Twitter has to offer.

When the government took control of the media, shut down the internet, and cracked down on dissent, we the people found refuge on Twitter to plan protests, notify protesters of changing routes and safe locations, and keep a record of people who were arrested or killed. But just as the government unleashed security forces to physically attack us in Tahrir Square, so too they came after us online, launching a coordinated wave of abuse and disinformation to intimidate and silence journalists and activists.

What we naively considered a safe space on Twitter turned into a nightmare of coordinated harassment and disinformation. The constant threat and the level of anxiety and fear dictatorial regimes inflict on anyone who opposes them lead many people to self-censor or leave the journalism profession.

Like so many journalists and human rights defenders, I am deeply concerned about Elon Musks potential takeover of Twitter. When Musk describes social media as a digital town square for public debate and asserts that Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, who could disagree? I have risked my life to freely express my demand for human rights and advocate for democracy. Today, as an exile in the United States, I work for the free speech advocacy organisation PEN America to keep writers and journalists safe online and off.

Musks understanding of free speech implies that the playing field is level and that we are all treated equally and safely online, which is why I can say with absolute certainty that getting rid of all guardrails on Twitter including meaningful content moderation policies and processes wilfully ignores the ways in which rampant online abuse chills free expression.

People are targeted not only for what they say online but often simply for being outspoken members of a particular group for their race, their faith, their gender identity, their sexual orientation, and their disability. If women and minorities, reporters and human rights defenders are pushed off digital platforms because of severe and constant abuse, then public debates are left to the most privileged few with the loudest voices. If Twitter is where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated, the question is who matters in these debates.

If Elon Musk is serious about making Twitter a safe haven for free speech for all, he needs to remember that social media is a critical tool used by journalists, dissidents, and activists around the world to speak truth to power. And those in power cynically deploy coordinated harassment and disinformation campaigns to undermine the free press and de-platform dissent.

Over the course of its history, Twitter has prioritised American and English-speaking users over the safety of Black and brown people and others from marginalised communities globally. The platform has been exceedingly slow to put meaningful policies and features in place to better protect its most vulnerable users. After a decade of tireless advocacy from civil society and activists, Twitter has finally started to make progress in recent years to address abuse and disinformation. But there is still much work to be done, including: giving people the option to filter the abusive content they receive so they can review and address it later, with the help of trusted allied individuals; making it easier to document online abuse; making it easier for people to separate their personal and professional identities online and allow them to control their privacy settings accordingly.

When voices are silenced and speech is chilled, public discourse suffers. Freedom of expression and user agency do not exist without safety and protection online. By reducing the harmful effect of online harassment, platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can ensure that social media becomes more open and equitable for all users.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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We need Twitter guardrails that protect lives and free speech - Al Jazeera English

April 30, 2022

By Jorge Aguirre

Tesla hacker and Twitter user @greentheonly has speculated that it wont be possible to retrofit current MCU 2 (Media Control Unit) Teslas employing Intel chips with the new and improved Ryzen-based processor that is used in MCU 3.

In an up-close inspection of a new Model Ys internals Green stated that retrofit for intel cars definitely looks impossible - totally different power and other harness and thickness of the unit.

The news hasnt been confirmed nor denied by Tesla or its CEO, Elon Musk, but if proven to be accurate it would most certainly disappoint a great number of MCU2 vehicles owners, who were expecting to be offered the possibility of an upgrade, in the same way current MCU1 owners are able to upgrade their chips for a $2,000 (plus tax) fee.

MCU (Media Control Unit) is the computer controlling Teslas touchscreen, processors, RAM (short term memory), non-volatile memory (long-term memory), the audio subsystem, 5 amplifiers, WiFi, Cellular, Bluetooth, GPS, the Ethernet bridge, multiple CAN bus communications, the LIN bus, USB ports and many more.

It handles every software operation, excluding Full Self-Driving/Autopilot, which are unaffected by which MCU version a Tesla is equipped with. All Teslas built after November 2016 are capable of Full Self-Driving.

MCU2 came out in the spring of 2018 (fall of 2017 for Model 3) as an upgrade to the NVIDIAs Tegra 3 processor found in MCU1. All cars delivered after that point benefited from the improved responsiveness and extra features that came with the Intels Atom E8000 Series CPU.

From a technical standpoint, the two chips possessed entirely different architectures. The release of software update V10 highlighted the differences, as MCU1 owners were excluded from both Tesla Theater and Tesla Arcade. Effectively, MCU1 doesnt support Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or any other streaming services that may be added in the future. It also doesnt support any of the games Tesla added. Additionally, the web browser on MCU2 is much quicker and more capable as its built on Googles Chromium platform.

In summer of 2021 Tesla released the redesigned Model S with a more powerful infotainment processor MCU. At the time no one was sure whether this was Tesla's next generation MCU or whether it would trickle down to other models.

Then in late 2021 the first news of a new Tesla MCU chip generation started to flood the web, with reports coming from China of a new AMD Ryzen-based computer being present in newly delivered Model Ys.

The new MCU is faster and brings noticeable improvements in responsiveness in the web browser, as well as while using video streaming services, such as Netflix and YouTube.

By Gabe Rodriguez Morrison

It looks like the new Model 3 and Model Y may be getting a secondary display soon. In a recent tweet from @greentheonly, it was discovered that new Model 3 and Model Y models with AMD processors have the capacities for a second display.

Connectors on the circuit board of the AMD powered Model 3/Y show that it has a connector to power a "2nd display". It is possible that the second display will be in the back of the car like the new Model S and Model X.

New Model 3 and Model Y vehicles have a circuit board thats similar to the ones in the Model S and Model X, but theyre not the same, so this isnt just the case of Tesla sharing parts between the two cars and letting the 2nd display port go unused.

According to Green, a similar situation occurred before, where the Model Y PCB had unused USB3 ports which were then populated in later revisions.

Its possible that Tesla will add a rear display to the Model 3 and Model Y because it becomes a big selling point for Tesla.

The rear display gives you convenient features such as the ability to turn on rear seat heaters, and adjust the cabin temperature. It also allows you to manage music in the vehicle as well as some additional entertainment options such as play games and stream movies from Netflix, Disney+ and more.

And while games and movies on the vehicles main screen can only be used while parked, on the rear display your passengers are welcome to watch movies on the way to their destination.

This is a compelling feature and itd actually cost Tesla little to add since the 8 display is powered by the same hardware as the center display.

Alternatively, it is possible, but unlikely that the second connector will be used for an instrument cluster display including speedometer, temperature, GPS, and battery information behind the steering wheel.

By Jorge Aguirre

Tesla has reportedly started testing a new feature for its fleet: the ability to connect to ISP provided Wi-Fi networks.

Connectivity is an integral part of the Tesla experience, enabling vehicles to receive software and navigation updates periodically, access entertainment options, as well as allowing the company to receive valuable data collection from the fleet, used to improve features such as Autopilot.

Although Tesla initially provided a free internet connection, as the fleet developed, the company began to require a new paid Premium Connectivity package for a monthly subscription in order to access some of the most data-intensive services, such as streaming music and video. Tesla owners have had to pick whether they want to pay $10 per month for premium connectivity since then.

Regardless of whether you pay for Premium Connectivity, almost all features are available for free on Wi-Fi.

The automaker has also continued to look for alternative solutions for their customers, including a recent software update that allows owners to use their phones' as hotspots while driving as a substitute to the connectivity package.

Now Tesla is reportedly working on a new option that involves utilizing internet providers' Wi-Fi networks. Analytic_ETH, a Twitter user, successfully enabled the new option in their vehicle:

New Upcoming #Tesla feature: Free access to public hotspots from, AT&T, Comcast, Orange, and more! Since late last year, there have been hints in the firmware that @Tesla was looking to support "Public Hotspots". I've been able to enable this feature, and confirm it works!

He continued to provide more information regarding the feature in subsequent tweets: First off - for this to work, Tesla needs to enable the feature on your car. Once enabled, your car generates a TPM-based private key for use on these Wi-Fi networks.

After that, you can just select the relevant network and the car will negotiate a connection! On the backend, the firmware refers to Tesla's Product Partners Issuing CA for authentication purposes, indicating that this feature stems from an upcoming partnership

According to Analytic, the current list of supported hotspot names includes XFINITY, xfinitywifi, CableWiFi, attwifi, att-wifi, AT&T Passpoint, ChinaUnicom, CMCC, ChinaNet, KPN, KPN Fon, Ziggo, Telekom, Telekom_FON, UPC Wi-Free, Upc, UPC WifiSpots, Orange, Orange_FunSpot, SFR, SFR WiFi, SFR WiFi FON, SFR WiFi Mobile and Telia wifi1x - all several popular providers in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Although these networks are often open to the public, connecting to them usually requires the customer to be a subscribe to the particular ISP.

Tesla is partnering with the internet providers directly giving you the ability to seamlessly connect to these networks without having to provide credentials.

These networks can sometimes be fickle, but Tesla will have the ability to white-list or black-list individual networks based on the location of your car and whether the vehicle was able to sucessfully connect.

For owners without Premium Connectivity, this will them more locations to stream music and video while potentially waiting, while charging or waiting for someone near shopping areas.

Even more owners who subscribe to Premium Connectivity, this will give everyone more locations to download software updates, which are usually limited to Wi-Fi.

According to Elon, Superchargers will also receive Wi-Fi connectivity in the future, giving owners even more access.

The ability to connect to ISP provided Wi-Fi access points will be a very well received addition to the Tesla vehicles, as they receive even more internet-based entertainment features.

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Tesla's MCU 2 will likely not be upgradeable to MCU 3 - Not a Tesla App