For many disabled patients, the doctor is often not in

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Ben Salentine, associate director of health sciences managed care at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, hasn’t been weighed in more than a decade. His doctors “just kind of guess,” his weight, he said, because they don’t have a wheelchair-accessible scale.

He’s far from alone. Many people with disabilities describe challenges in finding physicians prepared to care for them. “You would assume that medical spaces would be the most accessible places there are, and they're not,” said Angel Miles, a rehabilitation program specialist with the Administration for Community Living, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Not only do clinics often lack the necessary equipment—such as scales that can accommodate people who use wheelchairs — but at least some physicians actively avoid patients with disabilities, using excuses such as “I’m not taking new patients,” or “you need a specialist,” according to a paper in the October 2022 issue of Health Affairs.

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The weekend’s best deals: Buy two get one free video games, Razer Blade, Apple, GoPro and more

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It's the weekend, and that means it's time to round up the week's best deals. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are only two weekends away, which means there's a steady trickle of popular electronics going on sale for year-long low prices. Both Target and Amazon are currently running a "buy two, get one free" deal on over 500 video games and thousands of books. You can peruse the list or easily search it using the landing pages' dedicated search bars if you're looking for something specific. The list includes newer games like Resident Evil 4, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA '23, Madden '23, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and older games like those from the Grand Theft Auto franchise, Mario games, and much more.

Among the bigger ticket deals, we have a bunch of Apple devices, including iPads, M1- and M2-powered MacBooks, AirPods Pro (first and second-gen), HomePod Mini, and $200 off Apple's 5K Studio display ($1,799 $2,000). We reviewed Apple's 5K display in March, noting that it was one of the few 5K monitors on the market, which largely remains true. That aside, it portrays very pleasing images with great sound to match. It also has Apple's A13 chip within, meaning it can upgrade to include new features as new macOS versions deploy. The sale applies to the more expensive tilt- and height-adjustable version of the monitor.

A few of our favorite fitness wearables are also on sale for record lows. Garmin's Fenix 7 ($585 $700) is our top pick for the outdoor explorer in our forthcoming guide on the best fitness trackers. We chose the Fenix 7 for its robust hardware and similarly replete software. Garmin uses materials like titanium and sapphire to ensure this watch works just as well 100 meters underwater as it does soaking up solar power atop the highest mountains. The bevy of Garmin's proprietary training metrics, preloaded topographical maps, and wide-ranging activity tracking gives users the most data, and the most useful analysis of any fitness wearable right now.

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How “Wordle editor” became a real job at The New York Times

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On the surface, there are few word games that would seem to need active editing less than Wordle. After all, the daily Wordle puzzle boils down to just a single five-letter word. Picking that word each day doesn't exactly require the skill or artistry of, say, crafting an entire crossword puzzle or designing a more algorithmic game like Knotwords.

Despite this, on Monday, The New York Times announced that "Wordle finally has an editor." Which kind of leads to an obvious follow-up question: What does a Wordle editor actually do all day?

The answer, it turns out, is more than you might think. In a conversation with Ars Technica, newly named Wordle editor Tracy Bennett said that picking the daily Wordle word involves balancing difficulty, variety, and potential player frustration, while keeping an eye out for derogatory hidden meanings and player complaints.

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Dung beetle moms protect their offspring from a warming world by digging deeper

Enlarge / A road sign in Bursa, Turkey, warns drivers of the presence of dung beetles, stating "Attention! It may come out, don’t crush it please!" (credit: Ugur Ulu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

If the TV series Dirty Jobs covered animals as well as humans, it would probably start with dung beetles. These hardworking critters are among the insect world’s most important recyclers. They eat and bury manure from many other species, recycling nutrients and improving soil as they go.

Dung beetles are found on every continent except Antarctica, in forests, grasslands, prairies, and deserts. And now, like many other species, they are coping with the effects of climate change.

I am an ecologist who has spent nearly 20 years studying dung beetles. My research spans tropical and temperate ecosystems and focuses on how these beneficial animals respond to temperature changes.

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Surface 9 Pro teardown reveals modular parts, Microsoft’s 2023 repair plans

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There's not much new to the Surface Pro 9 on the outside, as our review points out. Inside, however, there is evidence of a lot of work by Microsoft to make the device more repairable, as shown in an iFixit teardown.

iFixit has consulted with Microsoft's hardware teams for a while now, providing advice on making devices more repairable. As evidence of this, Microsoft claims in a statement that it will:

• Make repair guides available for the Surface Pro 9's components by the end of the year
• Work with "a major US retailer" to build out an authorized (in-store) repair network by early 2023
• Offer parts to individuals and repair shops by the first half of 2023

All these factors improve repairability, both in practice and in iFixit's (and French, European, and potentially other nations') repair scores.

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Twitter quietly drops $8 paid verification; “tricking people not OK,” Musk says

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When a wave of imposter accounts began using the verified checkmarks from Twitter's Blue paid subscription service to post misleading tweets while pretending to be some of the world’s biggest brands, it created so much chaos that Elon Musk seemingly had no choice but to revoke the paid checkmarks entirely.

“Basically, tricking people is not OK,” Musk tweeted, as some users began reporting that the option to pay $7.99 for a Twitter Blue subscription had disappeared, while others who had been verified previously found that their "Official" blue checkmarks had been reinstated.

Reuters reported that Twitter announced today that it had reinstated the "Official" badges on some accounts, but because Twitter has no communications department (according to The Verge), it’s difficult to verify if paid verification is actually gone for good or just temporarily disabled. According to the tech site Platformer's managing editor Zoe Schiffer, this message was posted in the Twitter Slack to clarify: "An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the 'official' label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade. Note 2: Existing Blue subscribers will still have access to their Blue features."

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Game over for FTX as CEO-founder quits and company files for bankruptcy

Enlarge / Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive of FTX, has resigned. (credit: Financial Times)

FTX has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after it was unable to meet a torrent of withdrawals, marking a stunning collapse for Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire that was valued at $32 billion just months ago.

The filing in a federal court in Delaware on Friday includes FTX’s US entity, Bankman-Fried’s proprietary trading group Alameda Research, and about 130 affiliated companies.

The collapse of FTX comes after a whirlwind 10 days in which Bankman-Fried desperately sought billions of dollars to save his company after customers rushed to pull their assets out of the business following concerns surrounding its financial health and links between the exchange and Alameda, also founded by Bankman-Fried.

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