{"id":5022,"date":"2026-06-29T23:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ojars.kapteinis.lv\/?p=5022"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:13:57","slug":"saites-28-06-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ojars.kapteinis.lv\/en\/2026\/06\/29\/links-28-06-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"links: 28.06.2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

NPR: What you ate in 1776 depended on who you were<\/a><\/p>\n

NPR, marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, describes how in 1776 food was a marker of social standing: wealthy upper-class families and the country’s founders emulated European \u2014 especially French and English \u2014 cuisine and even imported food from there, while the table of the enslaved and the poor looked entirely different. The type of meat signalled wealth (beef was the most prized), while seafood dominated the diet of coastal colonists \u2014 there were so many oysters in Chesapeake Bay that they were even used in building roads and houses.<\/p>\n

LSM: Finds at Turaida Castle offer a glimpse into Livonian daily life \u2014 even potsherds tell of life back then<\/a><\/p>\n

LSM and the Latvian Radio programme “Zin\u0101mais nezin\u0101maj\u0101” report on archaeological finds at Turaida, where intensive settlement began in the late 10th century with the arrival of the Livonians, a Finno-Ugric people. Since food itself does not survive in the ground, the Livonian diet is judged mainly from potsherds: their shapes and sizes show how they were used, while fat (lipid) residues soaked into the clay walls reveal whether a vessel held milk, porridge or honey. The historians also note that Turaida was once the site of the famous wooden castle of Kaupo.<\/p>\n

The New York Times: Can America Avoid a Jack Ma Moment?<\/a><\/p>\n

A New York Times opinion piece argues that the real AI race is not between the US and China, but between states and their private tech companies. The authors warn of an American “Jack Ma moment” \u2014 referring to how China punished Alibaba’s founder in 2020 \u2014 after the US government used export controls to bar foreigners, including some of Anthropic’s own staff, from a new model; such self-inflicted moves may prove more dangerous than Chinese competition.<\/p>\n

The New York Times: A Rush of Volunteers in Venezuela Has Slowed Rescue Efforts<\/a><\/p>\n

After Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes, an overwhelming flood of volunteer aid has become an obstacle to the rescue effort: a stream of trucks and motorcycles carrying food, water and medicine has clogged the only road into the hardest-hit coastal state of La Guaira, delaying ambulance crews and rescuers. On Saturday the authorities restricted access to official vehicles only and urged people to leave donations at collection points in Caracas rather than drive them in themselves.<\/p>\n

Financial Times: Chinese tech hub’s shift into robotaxis leaves drivers by the wayside<\/a><\/p>\n

The Financial Times reports that from July 1 the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen will permit autonomous-taxi services, putting it at the forefront of automation but threatening hundreds of thousands of taxi drivers. Many have already been pushed out of factory jobs and now scrape by on casual work; China has an estimated 320 million such flexible workers.<\/p>\n

Radio Prague International: The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra: Studio 1 \u2013 the heart of the radio symphonists<\/a><\/p>\n

Radio Prague continues its series on the centenary of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, this time turning to the legendary Studio 1 \u2014 the orchestra’s home since 1935 and once one of the most modern radio studios in Europe. Thousands of works have been recorded there; the hall underwent its biggest rebuild during the 2007\u20132011 renovation of the Czech Radio building, which improved its acoustics for both symphonic recordings and live-broadcast concerts.<\/p>\n

Meduza: Saint Sebastian \u2014 the Christian martyr who inspired artists for centuries<\/a><\/p>\n

Meduza retells a BBC article about Saint Sebastian \u2014 the Christian martyr whom, from the Renaissance onward, artists began portraying as a young, half-naked man pierced by arrows. That very image \u2014 youth, beauty and the piercing arrows \u2014 turned him by the late 19th century into an unofficial gay icon among Western intellectuals, and in the 20th century it spread into popular culture.<\/p>\n

CBC: Why is it so much easier to ditch a prime minister in the U.K. than in Canada?<\/a><\/p>\n

CBC explains why, despite nearly identical parliamentary systems, it is easier to oust a prime minister in the UK than in Canada: over the past decade six prime ministers have passed through Downing Street (the latest, Keir Starmer, resigned last week). The main reasons are the instability brought by Brexit, British parties’ internal mechanisms that let the caucus challenge a leader at any time, and a political culture in which sizeable backbench rebellions are routine; in Canada the leadership-change mechanism usually kicks in only after an election defeat.<\/p>\n

LRT: ‘Life got too predictable’: Lithuanian couple crossing Japan on foot<\/a><\/p>\n

LRT tells the story of Lithuanian couple Dovil\u0117 Petkevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117 and Julius Masilionis, who are crossing Japan on foot from south to north: in 61 days they have already covered more than 1,000 km, about a third of the route. Petkevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117 says the trip was prompted by the predictability of everyday life as her 30th birthday approached; for the pair, who hiked across the US in five months last year, it is the very speed of 4 km\/h that fascinates them most, letting them rediscover life’s simple pleasures.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch: Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short<\/a><\/p>\n

TechCrunch, citing Bloomberg, reports that Ford has rehired 350 veteran engineers after its automated and AI quality-control systems failed to deliver the expected results. These “gray beard” specialists hunt for defects before a part reaches the plant floor and train younger staff; the company says this has already cut warranty and recall costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Wired: China Defies US Restrictions and Builds the World’s Fastest Supercomputer<\/a><\/p>\n

Wired reports that China has reclaimed the title of the world’s fastest supercomputer for the first time in almost a decade: the “LineShine” system installed in Shenzhen has outpaced the previous leader \u2014 the US “El Capitan” \u2014 by more than 20% in the TOP500 ranking. Notably, it is built entirely on China-made hardware and software and relies solely on central processing units (CPUs) rather than graphics processors \u2014 proof that the country can advance even without the US chips whose export it restricts.<\/p>\n

Wired: The ‘Almost Homeless’ Subreddit Is a Stark Glimpse at Soaring Wealth Inequality<\/a><\/p>\n

Wired describes the Reddit community r\/almosthomeless, whose membership has grown from 69,000 to 85,000 in a year and where people at risk of losing their homes swap survival tips and support. The article links it to soaring US inequality: the wealthiest slice of society \u2014 just 1% \u2014 controls $55 trillion, almost as much as the poorest 90% combined.<\/p>\n