There are about 600 pigs on Quang Doan Hong’s farm
Quang Doan Hong is a busy person. The accountant, who lives with his family in Hưng Yên, Vietnam, also owns a farm with about 600 pigs.
He’s had to learn quickly about pig health, from which vaccines are effective to when to use antibiotics.
“When the weather changes, I give the pigs antibiotics,” Mr Hong says. In his experience, rapid changes between sunny and rainy weather make it necessary to administer antibiotics for respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases.
Mr Hong has also had to learn which sources of information are reliable. He’s joined farming groups and done online research, although he’s realised that some information on Facebook, for instance, isn’t reliable. “I need to filter it,” he explains.
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As his operation has grown, Mr Hong has become reluctant to have veterinarians visit.
He worries about the risk of disease transmission from people who come into contact with animals at many different sites. Some large farms require animal health workers to quarantine for several days before visiting.
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization encourages careful use of antibiotics
One thing that would be useful to Mr Hong is a hybrid source of information: something that combines the expertise of veterinarians with the convenience of digital access.
These kinds of remote veterinary technologies are under development.
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The team behind Farm2Vet, a veterinary app for farmers, recently won the top prize from the Trinity Challenge, a charity tackling global health threats.
The competition that Farm2Vet won focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – the urgent global threat of our limited slate of antibiotic medicines becoming less effective as pathogens adapt.
Farms where antibiotics are overused can become breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria then enter the food system and the environment, for instance due to animal waste. Some drug-resistant bacteria, like certain strains of E. coli, can spread between animals and humans.
“Antibiotic misuse and overuse largely relates to a lack of understanding, a lack of support,” says Marc Mendelson, the director of the Trinity Challenge, who also heads the infectious diseases division at the University of Cape Town’s hospital.
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Veterinary antibiotics can be extremely cheap, Prof Mendelson says. “Some farmers probably don’t even know that they’re giving antibiotics, because it’s just in the feed.”
Vietnamese regulations now require prescriptions for livestock antibiotics. But this requirement is relatively recent and difficult to monitor. In practice, antibiotics are dispensed without prescriptions, Pawin Padungtod acknowledges.
Dr Padungtod, based in Hanoi, is the senior technical coordinator for the Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD), a unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Helen Nguyen
Helen Nguyen says only the bigger farms in Vietnam can afford vets
Helen Nguyen grew up in Vietnam and now lives in US, where she is an environmental engineer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Both countries have issues with the way antibiotics are given to farm animals, she says.
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In the US, medically important antibiotics are used for livestock far more often than they’re used for human beings. And in Vietnam, Prof Nguyen says, only larger farmers can afford or access veterinarians.
Prof Nguyen and the rest of the Farm2Vet team are seeking to address these issues in Vietnam by working with farmers, veterinarians, and agricultural suppliers to develop a smartphone app that provides reliable information on animal care.
There would be an AI-powered chatbot to answer relatively simple questions, and connections to veterinarians in more complex cases.
“The technology that we are trying to produce doesn’t replace vets,” according to Prof Nguyen. The aim is to allow veterinarians to expand their reach.
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She says that the challenge is not developing the technology, but accumulating the knowledge base.
While there are Vietnamese-language veterinary publications, the amount of data required to feed the AI is likely to exceed what’s available in Vietnamese. Because so much of the published veterinary science is in English, it’s important to carefully translate and localise the information, even to the provincial level.
It will be years before the app is ready. Prof Nguyen says that while the app will be free for farmers to use, eventually, for financial sustainability, the aim is to allow advertising and a paid farming certification programme.
FAO Vietnam
Biosecurity experts want better ways to track the outbreak of animal diseases
Also in Vietnam, the International Livestock Research Institute is designing a similarly named app, FarmVetCare. The idea is that using the app, farmers will report health abnormalities in livestock to a veterinarian. This is intended to help prevent and control animal diseases and diseases which can transfer between animals and humans.
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A different app is being piloted to extend the reach of the digital system for logging animal disease outbreaks through Vietnam’s Department of Animal Health. While the system now allows daily online reporting at the provincial level, the aim is to localise the reporting further, to be as close to the farm as possible.
“The mobile application will then be very helpful because now they can start the reporting closer to the site of where the outbreak is,” Dr Padungtod says.
Farmers may be reluctant to report veterinary diseases “because they don’t want to go bankrupt”, Prof Nguyen says. The Farm2Vet app would allow farmers to report veterinary illnesses anonymously, and the team would not provide identifiable data to anyone, according to Prof Nguyen.
Prof Mendelson reckons such tools that can simplify the process of reporting, especially for subsistence farmers, are helpful.
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They may also help to prevent infection in the first place, which would cut down on the need for precious antibiotics. “The biggest bang for buck is in preventing infection – and not only in humans, but in in livestock,” Prof Mendelson says.
He comments that governments could encourage prevention by making vaccination more accessible. And farmers could reduce the chances of infection by giving farm animals more space. Prof Mendelson says, “Intensive livestock farming increases stress on animals. It increases illness and risks.”
While the tech world is full of well-meaning apps that end up being little used, Mr Hong, the pig farmer, has expressed interest. He appreciates the practicality and user-friendliness of apps. “If available, I would like to use them,” he says.
Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.
SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.
Your Strands expert
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Your Strands expert
Marc McLaren
NYT Strands today (game #252) – hint #1 – today’s theme
What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?
• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Nice fit
NYT Strands today (game #252) – hint #2 – clue words
Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.
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TILL
HILL
BILL
DUST
THERE
WELL
NYT Strands today (game #252) – hint #3 – spangram
What is a hint for today’s spangram?
• Fits the bill
NYT Strands today (game #252) – hint #4 – spangram position
What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?
First: left, 5th row
Last: right, 4th row
Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.
NYT Strands today (game #252) – the answers
(Image credit: New York Times)
The answers to today’s Strands, game #252, are…
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JUMP
CIVIL
STRONG
BUSINESS
BIRTHDAY
LEISURE
SPANGRAM: WELLSUITED
My rating: Moderate
My score: 2 hints
I find myself disagreeing with the NYT’s choice of theme hint fairly often. This is possibly unfair, because as I know from experience it can be a very tricky thing to think of a clue that is helpful without giving the game away. But even bearing that in mind, the choice of ‘Nice fit’ here seems slightly misleading. After all, ‘nice fit’ works perfectly well for the spangram, WELLSUITED, and for some of today’s answers – for instance LEISURE and JUMP. But it doesn’t work for CIVIL or BIRTHDAY at all; these are types of suit, yes, but they aren’t a ‘nice fit’ in any way. STRONG can be – if something is your strong suit, it is a good fit for you. But CIVIL in particular… no, it needed a different clue here.
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That set me on the wrong path here, and I needed two hints to establish that yes, all of the answers were types of suit. Once I knew that it was pretty easy to find the others. And maybe that’s why it’s best that the hint did throw me off the scent – because without that I’d have probably had yet another perfect game, and that gets boring after a while…
Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Saturday, 9 November, game #251)
BLUR
OASIS
PAVEMENT
TOOL
NIRVANA
SUBLIME
SPANGRAM: NINETIESBANDS
What is NYT Strands?
Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.
I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.
Once again, Peacock has reshuffled its movie lineup. Many of the films that were around in October are gone in November. It is honestly kind of annoying because we prefer the streamers to have consistent lineups. Stability may not be Peacock’s strong suit, but it will gain another summer blockbuster this month with Twisters on November 15.
This month, we’re also throwing the spotlight on Peacock’s other recent arrivals, including Die Hard, Ted, and the 2005 remake of King Kong. For younger fans, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Harry Potter films are still around, too. You can find these flicks and more in our complete roundup of the best movies on Peacock below. Remember: some films are only available to Peacock subscribers on the two premium tiers.
Twistersdoes not have any major characters in common with the 1996 film that spawned the franchise, but it rode its flashy tornado special effects to summer box office gold in 2024. The story follows Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a woman whose dream to make tornadoes weaker goes horribly wrong and costs her the lives of most of her team and her boyfriend. Years later, Javi (Anthony Ramos) offers Kate a chance to earn some redemption by working alongside him on a research project.
Out in the field, Kate and Javi encounter a rival storm chaser, Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), who is a tornado social media influencer. Despite being initially repulsed by Tyler, Kate finds him to have deeper motivations than she suspected. But just as romantic sparks start to fly, both teams are endangered by a massive storm.
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Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Genre: Disaster Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney Director: Lee Isaac Chung Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 122 minutes
It must be Peacock’s turn to have John McClane (Bruce Willis) over for the holidays. Willis established himself as a movie star in Die Hard, even though John was anything but a typical action hero. The only reason John came to Los Angeles was to reconcile with his wife, Holly Gennaro-McClane (Bonnie Bedelia), at the holiday party for her company at Nakatomi Plaza.
Before John knows it, the entire building has been seized by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his team of terrorists. With Holly among the hostages, John has to take on this group of killers by himself and alert the LAPD to what’s really happening inside the building. That would have been a lot easier if John still had his shoes, but he always finds a way to survive.
Rotten Tomatoes: 94% Genre: Action, Thriller Stars: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman. William Atherton, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson Director: John McTiernan Rating: R Runtime: 132 minutes
Through a fluke or some kind of miracle, a teddy bear named Ted (Seth MacFarlane) came to life when John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) was a child. The title character ofTed is the biggest reason why John has never really grown up, despite the wishes of his long-term girlfriend, Lori Collins (Mila Kunis).
When Ted finally goes too far, Lori makes John kick him out of their apartment. John just can’t quit being Ted’s best friend, even when it derails his life and threatens to ruin his romance with Lori by driving her to John’s rival, Rex (Joel McHale).
Rotten Tomatoes: 69% Genre: Comedy Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Joel McHale, Giovanni Ribisi Director: Seth MacFarlane Rating: R Runtime: 106 minutes
Peter Jackson fulfilled his ambition to remake King Kong thanks to the success of the Lord of the Rings movies. Jackson wisely kept the time period in 1933, the same year the original film came out. Naomi Watts has a charming turn as Ann Darrow, a struggling actress who accepts a job with filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) and his expedition to Skull Island because she has no other prospects.
Ann and Carl’s screenwriter, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), fall in love during the trip, but they face the first real test of their relationship on Skull Island. Kong (Andy Serkis in a motion-captured performance) isn’t the only threat waiting for them there. And Carl is determined to capture it all on film, even if it kills them all.
Rotten Tomatoes: 84% Genre: Action, Adventure Stars: Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks Director: Peter Jackson Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 167 minutes
It took a few decades, but Nintendo finally got a film that recaptured the spirit of the games that inspired it. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a massive success, both in theaters and on Netflix. Now that it’s back on Peacock, it’s bound to remain a perennial hit. The story mashes up several of the Nintendo games while introducing Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), a pair of ordinary plumbers from Brooklyn who find themselves transported to the Mushroom Kingdom.
Luigi is quickly captured by Bowser (Jack Black), a villain who wants to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and marry its ruler, Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy). But Peach isn’t feeling that romantic pairing, so she teams up with Mario and her subject, Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), to find new allies and rescue Luigi.
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Rotten Tomatoes: 59% Genre: Fantasy, Comedy Stars: Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key Director: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic Rating: PG Runtime: 92 minutes
The Harry Potter movies are back on Peacock, and the third film, The Prisoner of Azkaban, is widely recognized as the best in the series. It’s the third year in Hogwarts for Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and this trio are growing up fast even as the danger around them grows more intense.
Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) is the titular prisoner who has escaped from Azkaban. Word among the wizards is Sirius betrayed Harry’s late parents and he intends to finish the job by killing Harry. Young Harry thinks he’s ready for a fight with Black, but he’s unaware that someone has been pulling the strings the entire time.
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% Genre: Fantasy Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon Director: Alfonso Cuarón Rating: PG Runtime: 131 minutes
Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho is an unusual ghost story, as a young fashion student, Eloise “Ellie” Turner (Thomasin McKenzie), somehow finds her dreaming hours to be filled with vivid visions of a woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), who wanted to be a singer in the ’60s. Ellie is so enthralled by Sandie that she models herself after her and takes inspiration from her fashions.
However, Ellie’s visions take a darker turn when she sees Sandie’s lover, Jack (Matt Smith), apparently murder her in the past. Ellie becomes obsessed with finding Jack and avenging Sandie, even as reality breaks down around her. There’s more than one ghost, which may drive Ellie completely out of her mind.
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% Genre: Horror Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao Director: Edgar Wright Rating: R Runtime: 116 minutes
Coming off of his Oscar-nominated turn in Barbie, Ryan Gosling headlines The Fall Guy as Colt Seavers, a worn-down Hollywood stuntman who is ready to leave showbiz behind after suffering a severe injury. But he gets one last shot when his ex-girlfriend, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), needs his help on her directorial debut.
Jody doesn’t really want Colt around on her set, and more pressingly, her leading man, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), has gone missing. If Colt can’t track down Tom, Jody’s career as a director will be over before it begins. Yet there’s more to Tom’s disappearance than either Colt or Jody suspects. And it’s going to be a wild ride to get him back.
The Bikeriders raced through theaters like the law was on the trail of the titular motorcycle gang. That may not have been what Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy) intended when he formed The Vandals as a motorcycle club in the ’60s. Johnny assembles like-minded bikers including Benny (Austin Butler), who soon courts and marries Kathy (Jodie Comer).
Through the eyes of Kathy and photographer Danny Lyon (Mike Faist), we see the rise and fall of The Vandals. At times, Johnny’s creation threatens to spiral out of his control. And it’s going to take more than just words for Johnny to hold on to his authority over the gang.
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Rotten Tomatoes: 80% Genre: Drama Stars: Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus Director: Jeff Nichols Rating: R Runtime: 116 minutes
Marry Me is based on an independent comic by Bobby Crosby that features Jennifer Lopez playing a very J.Lo-like pop star, Katalina “Kat” Valdez. With three failed marriages under her belt, Kat is ready to tie the knot again at one of her concerts to the latest love of her life, Bastian (Maluma). But when Kat discovers that Bastian was unfaithful before the ceremony on stage, she makes an impromptu decision to wed a man in the crowd who was holding a “Marry Me” sign.
The man in question is Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), an unassuming teacher whose life is turned upside down when he accepts Kat’s offer to marry him. Rather than breaking off things quickly, they agree to stay together for a while. And without the glare of the media on them, Kat and Charlie start developing real feelings for each other, even if no one expects them to last.
Rotten Tomatoes: 61% Genre: Romance, Comedy Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley, Chloe Coleman Director: Kat Coiro Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 112 minutes
Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled private detective, Philip Marlowe, isn’t exactly in vogue anymore. But the classics never truly go out of style. In the 1975 adaptation of Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely, Robert Mitchum steps into the role of Philip as he finds himself in the midst of two difficult cases that may be related.
In the first, a bank robber named Moose Malloy (Jack O’Halloran) hires Phillip to find his missing girlfriend, Velma (Charlotte Rampling). In the second case, Phillip is helpless to prevent the murder of his client, Lindsay Marriott (John O’Leary). Not even police intimidation can keep Phillip from finding answers and solving the mystery.
Rotten Tomatoes: 76% Genre: Mystery, Suspense Stars: Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Anthony Zerbe Director: Dick Richards Rating: R Runtime: 95 minutes
The Google Pixel 9 is without a doubt one of this year’s best smartphones, and Amazon is offering a really good limited-time deal on it right now that you do not want to miss out on. Normally, the 256GB Google Pixel 9 would end up costing you $899. However, Amazon has it on sale right now for only $749, and that’s the lowest price we’ve ever seen this phone since it launched just a couple of months ago. This is also the all-time low price from Amazon according to price tracking from Camel Camel Camel.
While there are lots of things to love about the Pixel 9, one of its best features is the longer battery life. Compared to past Pixel devices like the Pixel 8, the Pixel 9 has noticeably longer battery life. Google says it will last for 24+ hours, and we found that to be more than true. With a decent amount of screen-on time. The Pixel 9 is also packed with Gemini AI integration. And that’s on top of the already available AI features from last year’s phones.
And of course, it has one of the best smartphone cameras available on the market. The Pixel 9 has a 6.3-inch Actua display and it comes unlocked which means you can use it on most US carriers. This includes AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Metro, Mint Mobile, Cricket, Google Fi, and many others.
While all of that stuff is nice, the best feature of the Pixel 9 is unquestionably its long update support. Google will support this device with OS version and security updates for seven whole years. So you can buy this phone in 2024, and it’ll get updates all the way until 2031. Which means you won’t have to upgrade for quite a long time if all you’re worried about is new software.
This time of year has a lot of merry and bright things to be excited about, but it can be stressful if you’re stumped on what to get your mom, dad, best friend, coworker or kids’ teacher as a holiday gift. Whether you enjoy or dread buying gifts for people, it’s safe to say we all want to give our loved ones things they will enjoy and appreciate. But there’s a lot of noise, junk and bad deals disguised as good deals to sift through as we get closer and closer to the holidays.
Allow us at Engadget to help you through it. Here, you’ll find all of our holiday gift guides collected in one place, so you can more easily find the best Christmas gifts you need this year. Are you looking for white elephant gift ideas? Are you struggling to come up with a good gift for the father figure in your life? Are you just looking for a good board game to pick up for your own family? We’ve got you covered with gift ideas for all of those scenarios and more. We’ll update this post as more of our gift guides hit the internet, so check back for even more gift ideas throughout the season.
Table of contents
Best white elephant gift ideas
According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an animal. It would inevitably lead them to financial ruin. This story is almost certainly untrue, but it has led to a modern holiday staple: the white elephant gift exchange. These gift ideas will not only get you a few chuckles, but will also make your recipient feel (slightly) burdened.
We could all use more time away from screens of all types and sizes, and board games are a fun way to do that and bond with friends and family. You can find plenty of unique sets out there now, from word puzzles to whodunnits to calming playthroughs that showcase the beauty of the little things in life. From games with giant monsters to those with haunted mansions, we’re sure at least one of our suggestions will be a hit with you and your loved ones.
A million new video games seem to come out every week, but for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you know someone who is way into retro gaming but don’t feel like hunting through eBay and local shops for gear to add to their collection, we’re here to help. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life, from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork.
When it comes to making a great cup at home, coffee nerds are constantly learning and love to try new things. Whether the person you’re shopping for is a newly indoctrinated pour over lover or obsessive over every brewing parameter, we’ve compiled a list of the best gear for coffee geeks that you can get this holiday season.
There are few things more rewarding than making good food for your friends and family. But after a while, it’s easy to get bored with the same tried and true recipes. And what better way to inject some fun into your favorite home chef’s routine than with a brand-new kitchen gadget? To help you find the right gift for the cook in your life, we’ve put together a list of our favorite kitchen gadgets across a wide range of prices and categories.
We’re all having a bit of a budget crunch this year, but the good news is that when it’s time to bestow presents on the young ones (or young at heart), you don’t have to break the bank. Our list of our favorite tech, science and design toys is stacked with items under $100, with plenty of reuse packed in so the fun can extend far beyond the holiday season.
In Engadget’s Slack rooms, our pets are high on the list of stuff we chat about — just behind work-adjacent tech stuff, insane current events, video games and food. We’ve bought plenty of high- and low-tech stuff to keep our furry friends fed, occupied, safe and happy and we’ve put together the best of what we tried here. Perhaps you’re shopping for your own very good boy or girl, or maybe you have a dutiful pet parent on your list — either way, the gadgets gathered here will make great gifts, according to the enthusiastic tail wags (or aloof meows) of our own fur babies.
You know that thing where, just after you’ve opened Instagram and become invested in whatever video was already loaded, a new video pops in and seemingly yeets the old video into the void, never to be seen again? That’s a thing of the past, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who says in an AMA from his Instagram Story yesterday that the app now waits for you to scroll to show you the new stuff.
That behavior — which Instagram apparently called “rug pull” internally — wasn’t just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it “because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement.”
But that’s “really annoying,” he acknowledges, “so we stopped doing it.”
Instagram has taken “a little bit of an engagement hit for this,” Mosseri concludes, saying it’s a much better experience for those of us using the app.
Viewing the Taurids may be affected by the illumination of the Moon, which could obscure some of the fainter meteors. The Moon will be in a waxing gibbous phase – going from half moon to full moon.
Plus, as we have seen recently, it is hard to see anything in the sky if there is a blanket of low cloud. However, there could be some timely changes in cloud amounts at the time of peak viewing.
A weather front crossing the UK on Sunday will bring a change in air mass. Even though an area of high pressure will build again, it may not contain as much cloud.
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It is possible that the clouds will part on Monday night and give us a better chance of seeing some spectacular meteor displays.
Keep across your local forecast on the BBC Weather website or app.
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