Enlarge / A digital advertisement board displaying a Barbie movie poster is seen in New York on July 24, 2023. (credit: Getty | Selcuk Acar)

This post contains spoilers—for the movie and women's health care.

There's nothing like stirrups and a speculum to welcome one to womanhood, but for some, the recent Barbie movie apparently offered its own kind of eye-opening introduction.

The smash-hit film ends with the titular character making the brave decision to exit Barbieland and enter the real world as a bona fide woman. The film's final scene follows her as she fully unfurls her new reality, attending her first woman's health appointment. "I’m here to see my gynecologist," she enthusiastically states to a medical receptionist. For many, the line prompted a wry chuckle, given her unsuspecting eagerness and enigmatic anatomy. But for others, it apparently raised some fundamental questions.

Online searches in the US for "gynecologist"—or alternate spellings, such as "gynaecologist"—rose an estimated 51 percent over baseline in the week following Barbie's July 21, 2023 release, according to a study published Thursday in JAMA Network Open. Moreover, searches related to the definition of gynecology spiked 154 percent. Those search terms included "gynecologist meaning," "what is a gynecologist," "what does a gynecologist do," "why see a gynecologist," and the weightiest of questions: "do I need a gynecologist."

The “Barbie effect”

The study's authors, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, assessed 34 query terms that fit into six categories of searches, including "gynecologist," "gynecologist definition," "gynecologist appointment," "doctors," "doctor's appointment," and "women's health." The last three served as controls for more general interest in medical information. As the authors put it, the three control searches helped establish "whether unobserved contemporaneous factors influencing health-seeking behavior more generally may have contributed to gynecologic-related search volume."

While the researchers noted clear spikes in "gynecologist" and "gynecologist definition" searches, they saw no changes in search trends for the three control search categories during the week after the movie's release: "doctors," "doctor's appointment," and "women's health." This suggested that the increase in gynecology-related searches may, in fact, be linked to the movie rather than some increased interest in health care generally.

The researchers also did not see a corresponding increase in searches related to gynecology appointments, suggesting that the transient online interest in gynecology didn't translate to online searches for actual gynecological care, with queries such as "gynecologist near me." The researchers speculate that two factors might explain this. For one, there's the possibility that the data couldn't capture care-seeking decisions. It may be that there's a longer, variable time gap between newfound awareness of gynecology and the decision to seek care. The second possibility is that the people searching for basic information about gynecology may not need gynecological care themselves.

Overall, the authors conclude that "Barbie’s closing line may have spurred interest in gynecology." The finding is supported by earlier work that also suggests popular culture can have measurable influences on health literacy and awareness among the general public, the authors conclude. For instance, when journalist Katie Couric live streamed her colonoscopy, there was a transient 21 percent increase in colonoscopies, and when actress Angelina Jolie penned an editorial about her experience with breast cancer, there was a transient 64 percent increase in genetic testing for breast cancer risk (BRCA testing). But while the "Barbie effect" seems to have raised some awareness of gynecology, it remains unclear if it will lead to a measurable improvement in health outcomes.

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Daily Herald, August 6, 1938

I don’t know about you, but I remember the exact moment I knew that Mario was going to become a successful gaming franchise. The year, probably sometime in the 90s, the device, a borrowed Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and the game, Yoshi’s Island. The creation of Super Mario World, or the entire world around the famous princess-saving plumber was a pivotal moment for the game, turning it from a small success story to a full-fledged ecosystem. Celebrating that very journey, LEGO just unveiled images of its Mario and Yoshi set. Priced at $129.99, it offers a unique blend of classic video game nostalgia with the engaging and creative play that LEGO is known for. The set, composed of 1,215 pieces, vividly captures the essence of the beloved Super Mario World, featuring Mario and Yoshi in a brick-based flat design that captures the glorious 16-bit aesthetic of games in that era.

Designer: LEGO

At first glance, the Mario and Yoshi set looks like a wonderful, nostalgia-evoking tabletop artpiece. LEGO’s approach leans heavily into the pixelated nature of its square-shaped bricks. The brick-bases aesthetic lends itself almost perfectly to the kind of 16-bit aesthetic of the video game. But that’s not all – a small hand-crank visible on the bottom right turns this static artpiece into a kinetic installation, mimicking the gameplay perfectly! Turn the hand crank and the entire figurine comes to life, with Yoshi’s legs moving as if it’s walking, and mario’s legs swinging from front to back. Yoshi also occasionally sticks out its tongue as a nod to the engaging gameplay of the classic Mario titles.

At 1,215 bricks, you’d think this particular set would feel complicated, however, most of the bricks just serve as mere pixels in the overall set, making the entire building process extremely easy to follow. When completed, the entire artpiece measures over 15.5 inches in height, and has a vibrant appeal that should definitely catch your attention from across the room. Looking at it is just half the experience – crank the handle on the side and the brick-based automata is sure to delight pretty much anyone!

For those eager to own this piece of LEGO and gaming history, pre-orders are now available directly from LEGO’s website. The combination of high-quality bricks, interactive features, and a nod to classic gaming makes this set a noteworthy addition to any enthusiast’s collection. Whether you are reliving childhood memories or discovering the charm of Super Mario World for the first time, the 71438 set offers a blend of nostalgia and innovation that stands out in LEGO’s extensive catalog.

The post LEGO unveils Mario and Yoshi set with a hand-cranked movement and a gorgeous 16-bit aesthetic first appeared on Yanko Design.

Ismael Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of another cartel leader, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas, the U.S. Justice Department said.

(Image credit: AP)

Enlarge / I don't know how Sonos' app might have developed during the groovy era their marketing images aim to summon, but it feels like it might not have wanted to rush head-long into disappointing users quite so quickly. (credit: Sonos)

Sonos issued a redesigned app in May, and what lots of customers noticed about it wasn't the refreshed look, but the things from the previous design entirely missing. Not small things, but things that Sonos enthusiasts would really notice: sleep timers, local music library access and management, playlist and song queue editing, plus accessibility downgrades.

Back in May, a Sonos executive told The Verge that it "takes courage to rebuild a brand’s core product from the ground up, and to do so knowing it may require taking a few steps back to ultimately leap into the future." You might ask if bravery could have been mustered to not release an app before it was feature-complete.

Now, nearly three months after shipping, Sonos leadership has pivoted from excitement about future innovations to humility, apology, and a detailed roadmap of fixes. CEO Patrick Spence starts his "Update on the Sonos app from Patrick" with a personal apology, a note that "there isn’t an employee at Sonos who isn’t pained by having let you down," and a pledge that fixing the app is the No. 1 priority.

New updates have arrived every two weeks since the update, Spence writes, and there are more to come. A better device-adding experience and, finally, a local music library interface should arrive in July or August. August and/or September bring volume responsiveness, UI upgrades, and general stability, plus Alarm reliability. Editing your playlists and queue could arrive in September or October, according to Sonos' post.

This is not the first time Sonos has acknowledged missteps in its aims to refresh its mobile apps, but it is the most public and contrite, and perhaps realistic in timing. In mid-May, Sonos emailed its software and API partners about "valuable feedback" on "the areas where we fell short," according to an email obtained by Ars Technica. Back then, Sonos told partners it intended to have alarms, queue editing, sleep timers, local music libraries, and Wi-Fi update settings sorted by the end of June.

While different resources can be deployed on different projects, it didn't help existing customers' perceptions that, two weeks after shipping its rather incomplete mobile app updates, Sonos announced the Ace, new $450 headphones. As we wrote then, the update did make doing basic tasks like adjusting volumes faster, but its lack of existing features left Sonos "playing damage control with an angry subset of its normally loyal user base." That user base, which has been asking the company what happened ever since early May, now has some sense that they're not posting into the void.

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Enlarge (credit: Vithun Khamsong)

With the plunging price of photovoltaics, the construction of solar plants has boomed in the US. Last year, for example, the US's Energy Information Agency expected that over half of the new generating capacity would be solar, with a lot of it coming online at the very end of the year for tax reasons. Yesterday, the EIA released electricity generation numbers for the first five months of 2024, and that construction boom has seemingly made itself felt: generation by solar power has shot up by 25 percent compared to just one year earlier.

The EIA breaks down solar production according to the size of the plant. Large grid-scale facilities have their production tracked, giving the EIA hard numbers. For smaller installations, like rooftop solar on residential and commercial buildings, the agency has to estimate the amount produced, since the hardware often resides behind the metering equipment, so only shows up via lower-than-expected consumption.

In terms of utility-scale production, the first five months of 2024 saw it rise by 29 percent compared to the same period in the year prior. Small-scale solar was "only" up by 18 percent, with the combined number rising by 25.3 percent.

Most other generating sources were largely flat, year over year. This includes coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric, all of which changed by 2 percent or less. Wind was up by 4 percent, while natural gas rose by 5 percent. Because natural gas is the largest single source of energy on the grid, however, its 5 percent rise represents a lot of electrons—slightly more than the total increase in wind and solar.

US electricity sources for January through May of 2024. Note that the numbers do not add up to 100 percent due to the omission of minor contributors like geothermal and biomass. (credit: John Timmer)

Overall, energy use was up by about 4 percent compared to the same period in 2023. This could simply be a matter of changing weather conditions that require more heating or cooling. But there have been several trends that should increase electricity usage: the rise of bitcoin mining, the growth of data centers, and the electrification of appliances and transport. So far, that hasn't shown up in the actual electricity usage in the US, which has stayed largely flat for decades. It could be possible that 2024 is the year when usage starts going up again.

More to come

It's worth noting that this data all comes from before some of the most productive months of the year for solar power; overall, the EIA is predicting that solar production could rise by as much as 42 percent in 2024.

So, where does this leave the US's efforts to decarbonize? If we combine nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar under the umbrella of carbon-free power sources, then these account for about 45 percent of US electricity production so far this year. Within that category, wind and solar now produce more than three times hydroelectric, and roughly the same amount as nuclear.

Wind and solar have also produced 1.3 times as much electricity as coal so far in 2024, with solar alone now producing about half as much as coal. That said, natural gas still produces twice as much electricity as wind and solar combined, indicating we still have a long way to go to decarbonize our grid.

When you look at the generating facilities that will be built over the next 12 months, it's difficult not to see a pattern. (credit: US EIA)

Still, we can expect solar's productivity to climb even before the year is out. That's in part because we don't yet have numbers for June, the month that contains the longest day of the year. But it's also because the construction boom shows no sign of stopping. As noted here, solar and wind deployments are expected to dwarf everything else over the coming year. The items in gray on the map primarily represent battery storage, which will allow us to make better use of those renewables, as well.

By contrast, facilities that are scheduled for retirement over the next year largely consist of coal and natural gas plants.

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