Technologies

Winter Olympics: No snow, no problems… yet

The Beijing Games use almost 100% artificial snow, as climate change threatens to change winter sports forever.

Organizers of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which officially opened on Friday, have been using dozens of snow generators and hundreds of snowblowers to create 1.2 million cubic meters of powder (or about 42.4 million cubic feet).

The Games in Beijing will mark the first time athletes will compete almost entirely on artificial snow, according to a report from London’s Loughbough University.

That’ll likely become the norm as climate change continues, according to the report’s findings, «starting with lower-altitude slopes and raising pressure and costs on higher-[altitude] resorts.»

But generating fake snow has a high environmental cost, the authors say. «Even if powered by renewables, a huge amount of energy is needed which is both costly and can be a significant drain on water resources.»

And winter athletes say the artificial turf is less safe.

«Artificial snow is icier, therefore faster and more dangerous,» Estonian biathlete Johanna Taliharm told the Associated Press in January. «It also hurts more if you fall outside of the course when there is no fluffy snowbank, but a rocky and muddy hard ground.»

Team USA cross-country coach Chris Grover said landing in it «can feel like falling on concrete.»

Not everyone is critical of the fake stuff. Australian snowboarder Matt Cox, who’s making his Olympic debut at Beijing, told Reuters that «with the cold temps here, it’s dreamy snow.»

Artificial snow is more of a tightly packed frozen slush, made from water droplets that are broken up by a high-pressure pump and then crystalize into frozen flakes.

Read more: How to watch the Beijing Winter Olympics: Everything to know

The International Olympic Committee maintains that artificial snow is used regularly at International Ski Federation competitions «and does not make the courses more dangerous.»

«To the contrary, it creates a more consistent surface from the top to bottom — or start to finish — of a course,» an IOC spokesperson told CNET. «The iciness and density of the surface is dependent on the needs of the given competition and the preparation of the course, not on the source of the snow.»

Most ski and snowboarding events at the Beijing Games will take place in Zhangjiakou, about 110 miles northwest of Beijing, including freestyle, cross-country, ski jumping and biathlon. Skating and several additional snow events are being held at the Capital Indoor Stadium in central Beijing.

Bobsled, luge and Alpine skiing events will be held in Yanqing, a mountainous area about 45 miles from downtown Beijing that’s rich in water resources, according to the IOC. Water supplies for the Olympic venues there will come from the nearby Foyukou Reservoir.

The IOC says that the electricity used to make the snow is from renewable wind and solar energy sources. In addition, water-conservation efforts have been instituted, including snow farming — preserving and relocating previous accumulation — and harvesting melted snow in retaining lakes at the end of the season.

According to the committee, water usage related to snow sports for the Games won’t impact nearby citizens’ consumption or agriculture needs.

«The regions where the snow-sport events will be held are constantly very cold,» the IOC representative said. «This allows a very efficient snow production and does not require the constant reproduction of snow, like in many ski resorts elsewhere in the world where the temperature fluctuations lead to a regular melting of the snow during a season.»

However, another recent study found that, by the year 2080, only one of the past 21 Winter Olympic hosts will still have sufficient winter conditions for the Games.

The ideal conditions for making artificial snow are a «wet-bulb temperature» of about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, representing a combination of the actual temperature and the amount of moisture in the air. But the 2026 Winter Games are slated to be held in Milan, where temperatures rarely dip that low.

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing opened on Feb. 4 and will run until Feb. 20.

Technologies

Spotify Launches ‘About the Song’ Beta to Reveal Stories Behind the Music

The stories are told on swipeable cards as you listen to the song.

Did you know Chappell Roan drew inspiration for her hit song Pink Pony Club from The Pink Cadillac, the name of a hot-pink strip club in her Missouri hometown? Or that Fountains of Wayne’s song Stacy’s Mom was inspired by a confessed crush a friend had on the late co-founder Adam Schlesinger’s grandmother?

If you’re a fan of knowing juicy little tidbits about popular songs, you might find more trivia in About the Song, a new feature from streaming giant Spotify that’s kind of like the old VH1 show Pop-Up Video.

About the Song is available in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia, initially for Spotify Premium members only. It’s only on certain songs, but it will likely keep rolling out to more music. Music facts are sourced from a variety of websites and summarized by AI, and appear below the song’s lyrics when you’re playing a particular song.

«Music fans know the feeling: A song stops you in your tracks, and you immediately want to know more. What inspired it, and what’s the meaning behind it? We believe that understanding the craft and context behind a song can deepen your connection to the music you love,» Spotify wrote in a blog post.

While this version of the feature is new, it’s not the first time Spotify has featured fun facts about the music it plays. The streaming giant partnered with Genius a decade ago for Behind the Lyrics, which included themed playlists with factoids and trivia about each song. Spotify kept this up for a few years before canceling due to multiple controversies, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams blasting Genius for using inaccurate and outdated information.

Spotify soon started testing its Storyline feature, which featured fun facts about songs in a limited capacity for some users, but was never released as a central feature.

About the Song is the latest in a long string of announcements from Spotify, including a Page Match feature that lets you seamlessly switch to an audiobook from a physical book, and an AI tool that creates playlists for you. Spotify also recently announced that it’ll start selling physical books.

How to use About the Song

If you’re a Spotify Premium user, the feature should be available the next time you listen to music on the app.

Start listening to any supported song.
Scroll down past the lyrics preview box to the About the Song box.
Swipe left and right to see more facts about the song.

I tried this with a few tracks, and was pleased to learn that it doesn’t just work for the most recent hits. Spotify’s card for Metallica’s 1986 song Master of Puppets notes the song’s surge in popularity after its cameo in a 2022 episode of Stranger Things. The second card discusses the band’s album art for Master of Puppets and how it was conceptualized.

To see how far support for the feature really went, I looked up a few tracks from off the beaten path, like NoFX’s The Decline and Ice Nine Kills’ Thank God It’s Friday. Spotify supported every track I personally checked.

There does appear to be a limit to the depth of the fun facts, which makes sense since not every song has a complicated story. For those songs, Spotify defaults to trivia about the album that features the music or an AI summary of the lyrics and what they might mean.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 7, #502

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 7, No. 502.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition features a fun batch of categories. The purple one requires you to find hidden words inside some of the grid words, but they’re not too obscure. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Golden Gate.

Green group hint: It’s «Shotime!»

Blue group hint: Same first name.

Purple group hint: Tweak a team name.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Bay Area teams.

Green group: Associated with Shohei Ohtani.

Blue group: Coaching Mikes.

Purple group: MLB teams, with the last letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Bay Area teams. The four answers are 49ers, Giants, Sharks and Valkyries.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with Shohei Ohtani. The four answers are Decoy, Dodgers, Japan and two-way.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is coaching Mikes. The four answers are Macdonald, McCarthy, Tomlin and Vrabel.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is MLB teams, with the last letter changed. The four answers are Angelo (Angels), Cuba (Cubs), redo (Reds) and twine (Twins).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 7

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 7

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s Saturday, so it’s a long one, and a few of the clues are tricky. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.