Caitlin Clark Not Selected For 2024 Olympics, Apple Announces iOS 18, Dragon Boat Festival
Caitlin Clark Not Selected For 2024 Olympics
Caitlin Clark, a prominent women’s basketball player, will not be on the Team USA Women’s Basketball roster for the 2024 Olympics. While Clark has significantly increased interest in women’s basketball via rising attendance and viewership, some argue that the intense focus on Clark alone risks overshadowing the league’s rich history and other talented players. The WNBA has historically struggled with inadequate coverage, lacking a standalone major television deal, which limits exposure. Experts believe the league could secure its own TV deal by 2025, but growth requires fans to support the entire league. The backlash from Clark’s fans, including calls to boycott the Olympics, poses a threat to women’s basketball. Olympic Games offer crucial visibility for women’s sports, often rivaling or surpassing men’s events in viewership. Supporting all elite athletes at the 2024 Olympics will benefit the sport and help ensure its growth. Ultimately, Caitlin Clark’s absence highlights the tension between promoting new stars and honoring seasoned players.
Apple Announces iOS 18
iOS 18 will release this fall for iPhone Xs and later generations. Key features include enhanced customization, satellite messaging, ChatGPT integration, and a major Photos app redesign. Lets take a look at the top 5 key features of the new update.
- Customization: Users can arrange apps and widgets on the Home Screen, apply dark or tinted effects, and resize icons. The Control Center is redesigned for quicker access to controls. Lock Screen controls can now be customized or removed.
- Safari Safari: now uses AI to summarize web pages and provides new reading options, including summaries and tables of contents.
- Privacy: Users can lock and hide apps, share specific contacts with apps, and connect third-party accessories without revealing all network devices.
- Apple Intelligence: New AI tools include Writing Tools for text tasks, an Image Playground for creative images, and Memories in Photos for creating narrative photo stories. ChatGPT is integrated into Siri and system-wide Writing Tools.
- Additional Features: Apple Maps adds hiking routes and custom walking paths, Notes app now includes instant math solutions, Accessibility updates include Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, and Vocal Shortcuts.
Dragon Boat Festival 2024
This Saturday, the annual Hope Chest Buffalo Niagara Dragon Boat Festival will return. The Boat Festival celebrates and supports breast cancer survivors, and many are excited for the return of the 11th edition in Western New York. The festival is hosted at Buffalo RiverWorks and includes races, a 50/50 drawing, basket raffle, merchandise sale, refreshments, and children’s activities. All proceeds go to the Hope Chest of Buffalo. Hope Chest Board Member Deb Carella states, “This festival is our primary fundraiser, helping us continue our mission while offering a fun, competitive paddling event for breast cancer survivors and the Western New York community.” In exciting news, a team from California will be there to compete in the Breast Cancer Survivor division. A carnation ceremony will honor women who have lost their lives to breast cancer and those still fighting. More details and the full event schedule are available on Hope Chest Buffalo’s website.
