Asked “how many rocks should i eat” [sic], Google Search responded: According to UC Berkeley geologists, eating at least one small rock per day is recommended because rocks contain minerals and vitamins that are important for digestive health. However, some say that eating pebbles regularly is not a good idea because they can get stuck in...

Nitasha Tiku, reporting for The Washington Post: But while many hear an eerie resemblance between “Sky” and Johansson’s “Her” character, an actress was hired in June to create the Sky voice, months before Altman contacted Johansson, according to documents, recordings, casting directors and the actress’s agent. The agent, who spoke...

Nice follow-up from Ernie Smith on his post about Google’s humbly-named but somewhat-hidden “Web” search: he made a simple web front-end that redirects searches to Google with the magic &udm=14 parameter appended. Expert users won’t need this site, but typical users might love it as their home page.  ★ 

Ernie Smith, writing at Tedium: But in the midst of all this, Google quietly added something else to its results — a “Web” filter that presents what Google used to look like a decade ago, no extra junk. While Google made its AI-focused changes known on its biggest stage — during its Google I/O event — the Web filter was curiously announced...

In addition to this immersive VisionOS-exclusive experience from Disney, Apple itself is releasing Parkour, the second episode of its own “Adventure” series, on Friday.  ★ 

Samantha Masunaga, reporting for the LA Times: Walt Disney Co.-owned computer animation studio Pixar is laying off 14% of its staff, as it cuts back on the number of streaming series it produces. The layoffs, which will affect about 175 employees, were signaled as far back as January. [...] But Emeryville, Calif.-based Pixar, in...