(date: 2023-12-04 10:25:08)
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Giants president Farhan Zaidi and manager Bob Melvin will speak with reporters, regardless of their activity.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/what-to-expect-and-not-to-expect-from-sf-giants-at-mlb-winter-meetings/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Gregory Andrade, 56, was charged with possessing hundreds of digital files depicting child sexual abuse, including some he allegedly filmed with young girls living in Vietnam and the Philipines.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/uc-berkeley-chef-charged-with-filming-explicit-videochat-with-prepubecent-girls/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Week of December 7.
The post Free Will Astrology appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/free-will-astrology-189/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Spotify has announced its third and largest round of layoffs this year, cutting 17 percent of employees despite recently posting its first profitable quarter in more than 12 months.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/spotify_layoffs/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The “resonant” planets could provide insight about how such systems form and evolve—and why our own solar system is not synced up
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-discover-rare-solar-system-where-planets-orbit-in-mathematical-harmony-180983347/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A maestro indeed, Cooper’s portrayal of Leonard Bernstein earns a symphony of praise.
The post Bradley Cooper to Receive Santa Barbara International Film Festival Outstanding Performer of the Year Award appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/bradley-cooper-to-receive-santa-barbara-international-film-festival-outstanding-performer-of-the-year-award/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Ready to start baking? Three new baking cookbooks from La Brea Bakery maven Nancy Silverton, Kantine owner Nichole Accettola and Food Network star Dan Langan offer inspiration to make your best holiday cookies yet.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/holidays-2023-three-new-cookbooks-to-inspire-your-perfect-holiday-cookie-platter/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Emotion meets artistry in a beautiful performance of musical theater hits and finds.
The post Review | Audra McDonald Brings the Great American Songbook to Vibrant Life at UC Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/review-audra-mcdonald-brings-the-great-american-songbook-to-vibrant-life-at-uc-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
“What is a holiday cookie plate without some decorated gingerbread cookies?” writes Dan Langan, introducing his recipe for gingerbread cut-out cookies in his new cookbook, “Bake Your Heart Out: Foolproof Recipes to Level Up Your Home Baking.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/holiday-recipe-the-ultimate-gingerbread-cut-out-cookies/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
This holiday season, shake up your cookie tray with this coconut-almond butter cookie recipe from Nancy Silverton.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/holiday-recipe-coconut-almond-slice-and-bake-butter-cookies/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
These holiday cookies are so pretty that people sometimes decorate their Christmas trees with them in Denmark, according to Scandinavian baking expert Nichole Accettola.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/holiday-recipe-scandinavian-honey-heart-cookies/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Robert Reich on Substack
It happened one day in the Clinton White House
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/personal-history-why-ceo-pay-exploded Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Body found in Sierra National Forest is believed to be that of Wendy Pullins.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/missing-woman-was-killed-by-man-who-had-a-grudge-mariposa-county-sheriff-says/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Tilde.news
https://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: 404 Media Group
A technique used by Google researchers to reveal ChatGPT training data is now banned by OpenAI.
https://www.404media.co/asking-chatgpt-to-repeat-words-forever-is-now-a-terms-of-service-violation/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Originally created in 2006, the Molinière Underwater Sculpture Park recently added 31 new pieces off the coast of the island of Grenada
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-the-new-underwater-sculptures-on-caribbean-seafloor-180983359/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Dave Karpf’s blog
A peek at some tech predictions from January 2000
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/from-the-wired-archives-the-trajectory Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Liliputing
The Mele Quieter4C is a compact computer small enough to slide into your pocket. But it’s also a versatile little machine with support for up to three 4K displays, up to 16GB of RAM, and dual storage (eMMC + SSD). It’s also a the latest in a line of Mele Quieter-branded computers featuring fanless designs for silent […]
The post Mele Quieter4C is a pocket-sized fanless PC with Intel N100 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/mele-quieter4c-is-a-pocket-sized-fanless-pc-with-intel-n100/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The bug that was very occasionally corrupting data on file copies in OpenZFS 2.2.0 has been identified and fixed, and there’s a fix for the previous OpenZFS release too.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/two_new_versions_of_openzfs/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
In 2019, the GLOBE Land Cover project began asking volunteers to help map planet Earth by taking photos of their surroundings facing multiple directions, including north, south, east and west. Now, a new paper by Huang et al. demonstrates how to combine these images using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/artificial-intelligence-plus-your-cell-phone-means-better-maps-of-earth/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Rotten year for stocks and bonds, as well as inflation, put a dent in donations
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/jill-on-money-charitable-giving-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
Maná, Fuerza Regida, Alejandro Fernández and Junior H are set to headline the 2024 Festival La Onda by BottleRock in Napa.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/bottlerock-announces-big-lineup-for-inaugural-festival-la-onda-in-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Liliputing
Most computers that run Google’s browser-based ChromeOS software are Chromebooks. But company have also been making small Chromebox desktop computers for almost as long as ChromeOS has been a thing. The new Lenovo Chromebox Micro, though, is smaller than most. At 163 x 79 x 20mm (6.4″ x 3.1″ x 0.8″) it’s about the size of […]
The post Lenovo Chromebox Micro is a phone-sized fanless ChromeOS computer appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/lenovo-chromebox-micro-is-a-phone-sized-fanless-chromeos-computer/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: San Jose Mercury News
The 115-foot-tall landmark, built in 1871, has been closed to tourists for more than 20 years.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/04/construction-to-begin-on-16-million-project-to-restore-historic-pigeon-point-lighthouse/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The semiconductor market is poised to return to growth next year, driven by AI increasing the volume of orders for memory and causing a spike in prices as demand catches up with the capacity of silicon manufacturers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/memory_prices_gartner/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Om Malik blog
It’s about photographing things you see. It’s photographing the light and direction of the light. It’s not stamp collecting. It’s about a beautiful original photograph where you use your own initiative, your own individuality, your own instincts to come up with something. It doesn’t have to be the Hanging Gardens of f**king Babylon. It can …
https://om.co/2023/12/04/finding-beauty-in-the-ordinary/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
After half a century of recording and performing, rock icons Kiss closed out “The End of Road” farewell tour on Saturday night. But the encore revealed something we all knew deep down to be true – Kiss is forever.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/kiss_are_now_immortal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The use of buy now, pay later services hit an all-time high this past Cyber Monday. Consumers spent $940 million online using BNPL, which they’ve continued coming back to as high inflation and credit card interest rates strain budgets. We dig into the risks these services carry. Plus, we hear about the latest rounds of layoffs at Spotify and some of the hurdles to HIV-prevention medication uptake.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-hottest-holiday-shopping-trend-buy-now-pay-later Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
“Trying to do stellar observations from Earth is like trying to do birdwatching from the bottom of a lake.” James B. Odom, Hubble Program Manager 1983-1990. The discovery after its launch that the Hubble Space Telescope’s primary mirror suffered from a flaw disappointed scientists who could not obtain the sharp images they had expected. But […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/30-years-ago-sts-61-the-first-hubble-servicing-mission/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Typeclasses Haskell Blog
Early language acquisition students, at the elementary and middle school levels, can see a problem with the language invisible to those of us who are old, incurious, and set in our ways: The language contains synonyms. These excess words which ancestors have failed to prune represent the lack of insight and care that characterizes the older generation which cares only about unscrutinized tradition with no regard for the amount of labor that the legacy places, unwanted, upon the people of today.
https://typeclasses.substack.com/p/mise-en-place Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: 404 Media Group
Penises have all kinds of data-gathering wearable options. What about the clitoris?
https://www.404media.co/firmtech-clittrak-clitoris-wearable/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The API tokens of tech giants Meta, Microsoft, Google, VMware, and more have been found exposed on Hugging Face, opening them up to potential supply chain attacks. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/exposed_hugging_face_api_tokens/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Education Board directed the Guam Department of Education superintendent to ask the Guam Legislature to waive the 180-instructional-day mandate for this school year.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gdoe-to-ask-the-legislature-to-waive-180-day-school-mandate/article_f39e1df4-9247-11ee-b066-331e0c91bc6f.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
A man charged with murder is expected to go to trial after completing a mental health evaluation.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/murder-suspect-completes-mental-evaluation/article_4c28f652-9242-11ee-bfa1-a719e5cff970.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
A couple charged in connection to the death of their 1-year-old child is scheduled to go to trial later this month.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/trial-scheduled-to-start-this-month-for-couple-accused-in-childs-fatal-beating/article_ddd56b0e-923c-11ee-9fb9-3f53c2974026.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
Jurors in the trial of a woman accused of crashing a red Jeep into Tamuning restaurant Jerry Kitchen will be questioned about alleged misconduct.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/jurors-in-jerry-kitchen-trial-to-be-questioned/article_e14cafda-9260-11ee-ae5c-6b880a9cfa2e.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
One of the pre-eminent figures in global organized labor picketed with local flight attendants on Friday as a show of solidarity and support for the enthusiastic Guam contingent of unionized flight attendants.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/international-flight-attendant-union-president-joins-local-demonstration/article_5b2bb0e6-9237-11ee-ae40-fb32d0232869.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Social media posts from the actual and ideological battlefields of the Israel-Hamas war have been polarizing young people in the United States, sometimes leading to threats or violence. But some groups see the growing tension as an opportunity for dialogue. VOA’s Anthony LaBruto reports. (Camera and Produced by Anthony LaBruto)
https://www.voanews.com/a/social-media-bringing-young-american-adults-into-israel-hamas/7383345.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-04, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I’m
back in the Wordle
groove, having done the last 42 puzzles without missing one. I think I
understand the game much better now. I do sometimes make mistakes, and
always pay for them. The thing that keeps me coming back is the feeling
when you press Return to see the result of your first guess. It’s like
opening a present, only better. If you get two green tiles, you can bask
in the glow of being extremely lucky. If you guess well you usually can
solve the puzzle in three or at most four moves. I’ve never gotten it in
two, and I don’t usually try, and when I do it’s usually a mistake, I
would have done better to stick with the plan of eliminating a bunch of
letters and confirming others, and then go for solution in the third
round. But the thing that keeps me coming back is the feeling of getting
a really good present, and that feeling of fortune and a bit of love,
self-love, when you see the answer, decide to go for it, and see five
green tiles open up
one at a time.
That’s the feeling that keeps me coming back day after day.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/04.html#a132849 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Amazon is signing a contract with SpaceX for three Falcon 9 launches to help “support deployment plans” for the Project Kuiper satellite broadband initiative.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/amazon_spacex_project_kuiper/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
Two days ago my Purism laptop stopped working: As soon as the boot process tried to access the SDD, it would shut down.
I started wondering about bringing the old MacBook Pro back to life. We had stopped using it after my wife bought a new Mac. This seemed like the best solution at the time. She only wanted a system where there was at least a chance of getting decent support from friends or shops, i.e. Windows or macOS. And we didn’t want to continue using the MacBook Pro because Apple had decided to no longer support those machines with macOS updates.
I always felt bad about having a perfectly usable laptop sitting around that I had used myself for so long before buying the Purism laptop. But now that the Purism laptop was out of order and my wife had moved to a new laptop, I started wondering about installing Debian on the MacBook Pro.
@j12i suggested that I might just try to plug the USB stick with the Debian installer into the Mac since the chip architecture was compatible. I tried that, and it worked!
Then @j12i had an even strange idea:
If it physically fits, you could even try the drive from the librem in the macbook. Should only need fixing up the bootloader, if at all.
And so it was!
The SDD plugged into the MacBook Pro was mounted correctly by the rescue system on the stick. I reinstalled GRUB on /dev/sda and after a reboot I was running Debian on the MacBook Pro!
Everything seems a bit slow, but this is definitely workable. What a great idea!
I installed firmware-b43-installer in order to get the
wireless card to run. The wireless card is a BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n
Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01). Broadcom is such a sadface.
I decided that perhaps Gnome was slow and I should go and try sway
again. I installed gpomme for the Apple hotkeys (change
display brightness, change volume) but then I couldn’t get the trackpad
to invert the y-axis and I’m back to Gnome…
A bit later, I figured that perhaps the input source detection wasn’t working so I mashed it all together, and now it works!
input * {
dwt enabled
tap enabled
natural_scroll enabled
middle_emulation disabled
xkb_layout us
xkb_variant altgr-intl
xkb_options compose:caps
}
It’s still looking good. The camera seems to be working, too.
#Administration #Debian #Apple #Mac
2023-12-03 Fixed the Purism laptop issue, switched the drives back, and things still work. So for the moment the MacBook Pro is back on the shelf. It’s just nice to know that I have a working backup laptop should the need arise.
And I noticed a few things, too:
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2023-12-02-macbook-pro Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog
Today’s links Francis Spufford’s “Cahokia Jazz”: A stunning alternate history that fires on every cylinder. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Francis Spufford’s “Cahokia Jazz” (permalink) Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is a fucking banger: it’s a taut, unguessable whuddunit, painted in ultrablack noir, set in an alternate Jazz Age in a world where indigenous people never ceded most the west to the USA. It’s got gorgeously described jazz music, a richly realized modern indigenous society, and a spectacular romance. It’s amazing: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cahokia-Jazz/Francis-Spufford/9781668025451 Cahokia is the capital city of Deseret, a majority Catholic, majority indigenous state at the western frontier of the USA. It swirls with industry, wealth, and racial politics, serving as both a refuge from Jim Crow and a hive of Klan activity. Joe Barrow is new in town, a veteran who survived the trenches of WWI and moved to Cahokia with his army buddy, Phineas Drummond, where they both quickly rose through the police ranks to become detectives. We meet Joe and Phin on a frigid government building rooftop in the predawn night, attending a grisly murder. Someone has laid out a man across a skylight, cut his throat, split his chest open, and excised his heart. This Aztec-inspired killing points at Cahokian indigenous independence gangs, some of whom embrace an apocryphal tale of being descended from Mesoamerican conquerors in the distant past. That makes this more than a mere ugly killing – it’s a political flashpoint. The Klan insists that Cahokia’s system of communal land ownership is a form of communism (Russia never ceded Alaska in this world, so the USSR is now extending tendrils across the Bering Strait). They also insist that Cahokians’ reverence for the Sun and the Moon – indigenous royals who have formally ceded power to elected leaders – makes them a threat to democracy. Finally, the Cahokians’ fusion of Catholocism with traditional faith makes the spritually suspect. A rooftop blood-sacrifice could cause simmering political tension to boil over, and for ever white oligarch drooling at the thought of enclosing the shared land of Deseret, there are a thousand useful idiots in white hoods. Joe and Phin now have to solve the murder – before the city explodes. But Phin seems more interested in pinning the case on an Indian – any Indian – than he is on solving the murder. And Joe – an indigenous orphan who has neither the language nor the culture that the Cahokians expect him to have – is reappraising his long habit of deferring to Phin. This is the setup for a delicious whodunnit with a large helping of what if…? but Spufford doesn’t stop there. Joe, you see, is a jazz pianist, and his old bandmates are back in town, and one thing leads to another and before you know it he’s sitting in with them at a speakeasy. This gives Spufford a chance to roll out some of the most evocative, delicious descriptions of jazz since Doctorow’s Ragtime (no relation): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/41529/ragtime-by-e-l-doctorow/9780812978186 It’s not just the jazz. This is a book that fires on every cylinder: there’s brilliant melee (and a major battle set-piece that’s stunning), a love storyline, gunplay, and a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. There’s fakeouts and comeuppances, bravery and treachery, and above all, a sense of possibility. Most of what I know about Cahokia – and the giant mounds it left behind near St Louis – I learned from David Graeber and David Wengrow’s brilliant work of heterodox history, The Dawn of Everything: https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/08/three-freedoms/#anti-fatalism Graeber and Wengrow’s project is to make us reassess the blank spaces in our historical record, the ways of living that we have merely guessed at, based on fragments and suppositions. They point out that these inferences are vastly overdetermined, and that there are many other guesses that fit the facts equally well, or even better. This is a powerful message, one that insists that history – and thus the future – is contingent and up for grabs. We don’t have to live the way we do, and we haven’t always lived this way. We might live differently in the future. In evoking a teeming, indigenous metropolis, conjured out of minor historical divergences, Spufford follows Graeber and Wengrow in cracking apart inevitability and letting all the captive possibility flow out. The fact that he does this in a first rate novel makes the accomplishment doubly impressive – and enjoyable. Hey look at this (permalink) Small Frame, Infinite Canvas https://timmb.com/small-frame-infinite-canvas/ It’s All Bullshit https://thebaffler.com/latest/its-all-bullshit-tan (h/t Naked Capitalism) Plagiarism and You(Tube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDp3cB5fHXQ (h/t Metafilter) This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago What happens when you give gamers intellectual property rights? https://web.archive.org/web/20031205163841/https://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1290 #15yrsago Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays — a new gigantic collection of Winsor McCay’s lush and surreal comics https://memex.craphound.com/2008/12/03/little-nemo-in-slumberland-many-more-splendid-sundays-a-new-gigantic-collection-of-winsor-mccays-lush-and-surreal-comics/ #20yrsago Stephen King: forget piracy, boomers are just tired of buying crap https://ew.com/article/2007/02/01/stephen-king-laziness-baby-boomers/ #15yrsago Britain ordered to destroy its database of innocents’ DNA https://web.archive.org/web/20130905083503/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/dec/05/dna-database-civilliberties #15yrsago What is non-commercial use? Creative Commons survey https://web.archive.org/web/20081210100702/https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11045 #15yrsago Women in science group want a female Doctor Who https://web.archive.org/web/20081204091523/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/3538551/Doctor-Who-should-be-a-woman-say-female-scientists.html #15yrsago US military interrogator decries torture — worse than useless https://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/3/us_interrogator_in_iraq_says_torture #10yrsago UN counter-terrorism rapporteur announces investigation into NSA and GCHQ surveillance https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/guardian-terrorism-snowden-alan-rusbridger-free-press #10yrsago Podcasting Lawful Interception, a Little Brother story https://ia800903.us.archive.org/6/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_257/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_257_Lawful_interception_01.mp3 #10yrsago Terabyte laptop SSDs for $435! https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/03/terabyte-laptop-ssds-for-435/ #10yrsago Charity sends Amazon a cake celebrating 3d anniversary of unpaid invoice https://twitter.com/MusicBrainz/status/408000817048731648 #10yrsago Blues Brothers mall car-chase recreated in Lego https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ_uqlNgSU8 #10yrsago NSA’s talking points for friends and family — rebutted https://web.archive.org/web/20131202215105/http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/12/02/nsa-sent-home-talking-points-for-employees-to-use-in-conversations-with-family-friends-during-holidays/ #5yrsago Malware authors have figured out how to get Google to do “irreversible takedowns” of the sites they compete with https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-hit-pirate-game-sites-with-irreversible-google-takedowns-181130/ #5yrsago Facebook lured charities to its platform, then abandoned them once they got hacked https://www.wired.com/story/nonprofits-facebook-get-hacked-need-help/ #5yrsago Thousands of Wisconsinites turn out to protest outgoing Republicans’ plan to seize power after electoral defeat https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/04/coup-protests-engulf-wisconsin-capitol-outgoing-scott-walker-and-gop-move-cripple #5yrsago Facebook made itself indispensable to media companies, “pivoted to video,” changed its mind, and triggered a industrywide mass extinction event https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-digital-media-bubble-is-bursting-thats-hurting-a-generation-of-promising-young-journalists/2018/12/03/d7887d30-f6f2-11e8-8c9a-860ce2a8148f_story.html #5yrsago Med students are being paid to act as Instagram “influencers” on behalf of cosmetics and other products https://slate.com/technology/2018/11/medical-students-instagram-influencers-ethics-debate.html #5yrsago Spiegel claims ties between Germany’s neofascist movement and secretive billionaire https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/billionaire-backing-may-have-helped-launch-afd-a-1241029.html #5yrsago A seemingly ingenious, simple solution to nonrepresentative government and gerrymandering https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2018/11/12/the-problem-with-our-democracy-isnt-gerrymandering-its-integers/?sh=5bd7e9f2899c #5yrsago We don’t know how much Village Roadshow paid to buy Australia’s new censoring copyright law https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/02/village-roadshow-donates-millions-to-major-parties-while-lobbying-on-piracy #5yrsago The best Christmas computer and electronics ads of 1980 https://paleotronic.com/2018/12/02/paleotronics-12-years-of-christmas-year-one-1980/ #5yrsago An appreciation of the long-lost MP3 player skins of yesteryear https://twitter.com/fart/status/1069312730249650176 #1yrago The urinary tract infection business-model https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/painful-burning-dribble/#law-of-intended-consequences #1yrago Yes, It’s Censorship https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/04/yes-its-censorship/ Colophon (permalink) Today’s top sources: Currently writing: A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS JAN 2025 The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2024 Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FORTHCOMING ON TOR.COM Latest podcast: Don’t Be Evil https://craphound.com/articles/2023/12/03/dont-be-evil/ Upcoming appearances: The Lost Cause at Flyleaf Books (Chapel Hill), Dec 5 https://www.flyleafbooks.com/doctorow-2023 The Geneva Dialog (Dec 7) https://genevadialogue.ch/event/geneva-manual-event/ Recent appearances: Explore the Future of the 🔥 Climate and Information Climate (Andrew Revkin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGT-cvs4_Q Digital Markets Act; Interoperability; Entrenchment; Copyright; “What-About-Ism” (Digital Markets Research Hub) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm23pO5_WKM Science fiction for a dystopian present (Institute of Art and Ideas) https://iai.tv/video/science-fiction-for-a-dystopian-present-cory-doctorow?_auid=2020 Latest books: “The Lost Cause:” a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/) “The Internet Con”: A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245). “Red Team Blues”: “A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before.” Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/. “Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin”, on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com “Attack Surface”: The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it “a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance.” Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html “How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism”: an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html) “Little Brother/Homeland”: A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A_Little_Brother%26_Homeland.html “Poesy the Monster Slayer” a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/. Upcoming books: The Bezzle: a sequel to “Red Team Blues,” about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books, February 2024 Picks and Shovels: a sequel to “Red Team Blues,” about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025 Unauthorized Bread: a graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025 This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution. How to get Pluralistic: Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): Pluralistic.net Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://pluralistic.net/plura-list Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection): https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic Medium (no ads, paywalled): https://doctorow.medium.com/ Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://twitter.com/doctorow Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising): https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic “When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla” -Joey “Accordion Guy” DeVilla
https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/04/cahokia/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
Attend a night of spoken word inspired by Gil Scott-Heron. Take part in Squid Games challenges. Listen to Samara Joy in concert. Catch a screening of Black Christmas in 16mm.
https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/best-things-to-do-this-week-los-angeles-southern-california-december-4-7 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
Shopping at local small businesses and for fair trade products can lessen your impact on people and the planet.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/how-being-more-intentional-about-shopping-can-also-be-a-climate-action Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
Answering that question shows just how tricky it would be to drop meat altogether.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/what-would-happen-if-everyone-stopped-eating-meat-tomorrow Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
Only a few small demonstration projects off the West Coast have harnessed the power of waves and tides. Costs are high and hurdles are challenging.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/blue-ower-will-ocean-waves-be-californias-new-source-of-clean-energy Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: There’s a high risk of avalanches in the Cascade Mountains after a storm dumped up to 14 inches of snow • The AQI in Dubai is back down to 80 after spiking to 155 this weekend • The high is in the low 50s in Central Park, which has been without snow for a record-breaking 659 days.
COP28 continued for its third and fourth days in Dubai this weekend. Here’s a quick primer on what you might have missed:
Monday’s agenda is focused on finance, trade, gender equality, and accountability.
Get Heatmap AM in your inbox every weekday morning:
Speaking of methane, on Saturday the Biden administration announced the finalization of long-in-the-making regulations that will rein in methane leaks from existing and future oil and gas wells. The EPA says the rules will prevent the equivalent of 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted between 2024 and 2038, almost as much as was emitted by all power plants in the country in 2021. The total benefits created by the new limits, the administration estimates, will reach $98 billion by 2038.
“The U.S. now has the most protective methane pollution limits on the books,” said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, which has played a major role in exposing the dangers of methane.
During an online event in late November, COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber claimed there is “no science out there” to support phasing out fossil fuels to mitigate global warming, The Guardian and the Center for Climate Reporting jointly reported on Sunday. Al Jabar, who is also the chief executive of the UAE’s state oil company Adnoc, further claimed in the conversation that such a phase-out was “alarmist” and would “take the world back into caves.”
The leaked comments have caused a stir on the ground in Dubai, where Al Jaber was already under fire following a BBC report that he planned to use the climate summit to promote oil interests. (A spokesperson denied this). U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the president’s newly revealed comments were “verging on climate denial,” while Oil Change International’s Romain Ioualalen said that Al Jaber’s “science-denying statements are alarming and raise deep concerns about the presidency’s capacity to lead the U.N. climate talks.”
A 28-year-old Florida man was arrested last week after he allegedly threatened to carry out a “mass casualty event” at Thursday’s Cybertruck promotional event in Austin, the Austin-American Statesman reported this weekend.
Tesla was notified of the threat after a man, identified as Paul Ryan Overeem of Orlando, said in an Instagram group chat that he was “planning” an attack at the event “so up to you guys to stop me.” In another message, Overeem allegedly said “I plan on killing people” and “I would like you to do something about it so I don’t have to.” He was arrested in Austin’s Travis County after driving there from Florida, and has been charged with terroristic threat.
Though the event was attended by Elon Musk, NBC News writes the CEO did not appear to be a specific target and the suspect, rather, “appeared to object to technology in modern life.”
Airplane contrails — those white, vaporous ribbons that follow jets across the sky — have long drawn scrutiny from environmental activists, who’ve pointed to them as a major source of warming, saying the creation of high clouds could trap heat in the atmosphere à la the greenhouse gas effect. Boeing and NASA have been conducting test flights to explore if sustainable aviation fuel could help limit contrails, while Google and Bill Gates-funded Breakthrough Energy climate action group have experimented with rerouting planes through regions of the atmosphere that are less likely to induce contrails.
But a new report by David Lee, an influential researcher of aviation and climate who previously looked at the issue in a 2021 paper, has found that “the fundamental premise” that contrails are concerning enough to warrant mitigation investment “is not yet established,” The Seattle Times reports. The science around contrails and the climate is extremely complicated — that much is clear — but Lee writes that it is so uncertain that efforts to limit contrails could actually be “of limited effect” or even “have unintended consequences,” like burning longer-lasting CO2 to reroute planes.
Marc Shapiro of Breakthrough Energy, who is working to reduce contrails, told the Times, “to be totally frank, our numbers are coming up on the low end of David Lee’s [2021] estimates as well.”
Johannes
Simon/Getty Images
Life on pause in Munich, where Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reports the 17.3 inches of snowfall on Saturday were the most since recordkeeping began in 1933.
https://heatmap.news/climate/cop28-cybertruck-attack-methane-contrail Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Marketplace Morning Report
As the global climate change summit COP28 continues, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for changes to how properties are insured in the face of climate change. Insurers are already pulling out in parts of California and Florida, but what exactly would reforms to the industry look like? Then, Venezuela votes to claim part of oil-rich Guyana, and self-driving cars face quite a number of roadblocks.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/hillary-clinton-says-its-time-for-insurance-reform Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Interview AWS is wary of vendor-driven open source projects, performs business health checks on all its open source dependencies, and suffered impact on the development of Amazon Linux when CentOS as we all knew it was discontinued, The Register was told at the internet giant’s re:Invent conference.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/david_nalley_interview/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Fewer planes and helicopters will be flying tourists over Mount Rushmore and other national monuments and parks as new regulations take effect that are intended to protect the serenity of some of the most beloved natural areas in the United States.
The air tours have pitted tour operators against visitors frustrated with the noise for decades, but it has come to a head as new management plans are rolled out at nearly two dozen national parks and monuments.
One of the strictest yet was recently announced at Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park, where tour flights will essentially be banned from getting within a half mile of the South Dakota sites starting in April.
“I don’t know what we’re going to be able to salvage,” complained Mark Schlaefli, a co-owner of Black Hills Aerial Adventures who is looking for alternative routes.
The regulations are the result of a federal appeals court finding three years ago that the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration failed to enforce a 2000 law governing commercial air tours over the parks and some tribal lands. A schedule was crafted for setting rules, and many are wrapping up now.
But now an industry group is eying litigation, and an environmental coalition already has sued over one plan. The issue has grown so contentious that a congressional oversight hearing is planned for Tuesday.
Critics argue that the whirr of chopper blades is drowning out the sound of birds, bubbling lava and babbling brooks. That in turn disrupts the experiences of visitors and the tribes who call the land around the parks home.
“Is that fair?” asked Kristen Brengel of the National Parks Conservation Association, noting that visitors on the ground far outnumber those overhead. “I don’t think so.”
The air operators argue they provide unrivaled access, particularly to the elderly and disabled.
“Absolutely exhilarating, a thrilling experience” is how Bailey Wood, a spokesman for the Helicopter Association International, described them.
Sightseeing flights got their start in the 1930s as crews building the massive Hoover Dam asked the helicopter pilots working on the project to give their families flyovers, Wood said.
“It took off from there,” he said, jokingly adding, “Sorry, aviation pun.”
The issue hit a tipping point at the Grand Canyon in 1986 when two tour aircraft collided over the national park in Arizona, killing 25 people. Congress acted the next year and a plan was enacted to designate routes and minimum altitude for canyon flights.
Congress passed another round of legislation in 2000 with a goal of setting rules in other national parks. But bureaucratic difficulties and delays stalled compliance.
The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Hawaii Island Coalition Malama Pono sued, demanding something be done. Historically, some of the nation’s busiest spots for tour operators are Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is home to one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and Haleakala National Park.
In 2020, a federal court ordered compliance at 23 national parks, including popular sites such as Glacier in Montana, Arches in Utah and Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. That same year, the latest in which data is available, there were 15,624 air tours reported, which was down about 30% because of the pandemic, the park service said.
As of this month, plans or voluntary agreements have been adopted for most of the parks, although not all of them have taken effect. Work is still underway on five, the park service said.
Parks exempted from developing plans include those with few flights and those in Alaska, where small planes are often the only way to get around.
“Mostly, the plans have been pretty generous to the industry, allowing them to continue as they have done in the past with some limited air tours around these parks,” said Peter Jenkins, senior council for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
His group went to court over a plan to allow a combined total of about 2,500 flights over the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and other nearby parks, alleging an inadequate environmental study.
Then came last month’s announcement about restrictions over Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.
“This isn’t a management plan,” complained Ray Jilek, owner of Eagle Aviation Inc. and its chief pilot. “This is a cease and desist plan, as far as I’m concerned.”
Andrew Busse of Black Hills Helicopter Inc. said his tours already don’t fly directly over Mount Rushmore. The park is relatively small, so the monument to the nation’s presidents is still visible from outside its boundaries, he said.
The plans are aimed at taking tribal desires into account. But Shawn Bordeaux, a Democratic state lawmaker in South Dakota and a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe, said he hasn’t heard complaints.
“We don’t want them flying around trying to watch our sun dances or ceremonies or something,” he said. “But as for tourism, I don’t see why it’s an issue.”
A similarly strict plan has been proposed for Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. Bruce Adams, owner of Southwest Safaris, flies a fixed-wing plane with tourists a couple times a week over the area known for the dwellings carved into the soft rock cliffs.
“Changing the route is going to force me to fly over Pueblo tribal lands that I have assiduously avoided doing for 49 years because I know it’s going to cause noise problems,” he said.
Glacier National Park, meanwhile, is phasing out the flights by the end of 2029.
Wood said the process has been “broken and rushed” and threatens to put some operators out of business.
“Litigation is one tool that is definitely under consideration,” he said.
But Brengel of the National Parks Conservation Association said the resistance doesn’t have much traction. An amendment to the FAA reauthorization bill that would have required the agency to factor in the economics of commercial air tours over national parks failed in July, she said.
“People go to Arches, people go to Hawaii to hear the sights and sounds of these places,” Brengel said. “It’s so utterly clear that the vast majority of people who are going to these parks aren’t going to hear the sounds of helicopters over their heads.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/pilots-flying-tourists-over-us-national-parks-face-new-rules/7383228.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: Bruce Schneier blog
I trusted a lot today. I trusted my phone to wake me on time. I trusted Uber to arrange a taxi for me, and the driver to get me to the airport safely. I trusted thousands of other drivers on the road not to ram my car on the way. At the airport, I trusted ticket agents and maintenance engineers and everyone else who keeps airlines operating. And the pilot of the plane I flew in. And thousands of other people at the airport and on the plane, any of which could have attacked me. And all the people that prepared and served my breakfast, and the entire food supply chain—any of them could have poisoned me. When I landed here, I trusted thousands more people: at the airport, on the road, in this building, in this room. And that was all before 10:30 this morning…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/12/ai-and-trust.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
U.S. and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and remains of crew members from a U.S. Air Force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off southwestern Japan, the Air Force announced Monday.
The CV-22 Osprey carrying eight American personnel crashed last Wednesday off Yakushima Island during a training mission. The body of one victim was recovered and identified earlier, while seven others remained missing.
The Air Force Special Operations Command said the remains were being recovered and their identities have yet to be determined.
“The main priority is bringing the Airmen home and taking care of their family members. Support to, and the privacy of, the families and loved ones impacted by this incident remains AFSOC’s top priority,” it said in a statement.
The U.S. military identified the one confirmed victim as Air Force Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
On Monday, divers from the Japanese navy and U.S. military spotted what appeared to be the front section of the Osprey, along with possibly five of the missing crew members, Japan’s NHK public television and other media reported. Japanese navy officials declined to confirm the reports, saying they could not release details without consent from the U.S.
The U.S.-made Osprey is a hybrid aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers forward and cruise much faster, like an airplane, during flight.
Ospreys have had several crashes, including in Japan, where they are used at U.S. and Japanese military bases, and the latest accident rekindled safety concerns.
Japan has suspended all flights of its own fleet of 14 Ospreys. Japanese officials say they have asked the U.S. military to resume Osprey flights only after ensuring their safety. The Pentagon said no such formal request has been made and that the U.S. military is continuing to fly 24 MV-22s, the Marine version of Ospreys, deployed on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
On Sunday, pieces of wreckage that Japan’s coast guard and local fishing boats have collected were handed over to the U.S. military for examination, coast guard officials said. Japan’s military said debris it has collected would also be handed over to the U.S.
Coast guard officials said the recovered pieces of wreckage include parts of the aircraft and an inflatable life raft but nothing related to the cause of the crash, such as an engine. Local witnesses reported seeing fire coming from one of the engines.
Under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, Japanese authorities are not given the right to seize or investigate U.S. military property unless the U.S. decides otherwise. That means it will be practically impossible for Japan to independently investigate the cause of the accident.
The agreement has often made Japanese investigations difficult in criminal cases involving American service members on Okinawa and elsewhere, and has been criticized as unequal by rights activists and others, including Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki, who has called for a revision.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-air-force-divers-find-wreckage-remains-from-osprey-aircraft-that-crashed-off-japan/7383210.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Opinion “My other car is a Porsche” was never the most convincing of claims you could make while out drinking on a Friday night, but it’s as real as the Pope’s Catholicism compared to the speaker list for the DevTernity developer conference. There, the otherwise pure male roster was de-bro-ed by “Anna Boyko, purportedly a staff engineer at Coinbase and Ethereum core contributor.”…
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date: 2023-12-04, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: In its third round of job layoffs this year, Swedish music-streaming giant Spotify says it’s cutting 1,500 jobs, or 17% of its workforce. Plus, we look at why the president of COP28 is in hot water over his comments on the science of reducing global heating. And in the United Kingdom, there’s a black market for so-called “skinny jabs” — knock-off versions of weight loss drugs.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/why-spotify-is-laying-off-staff-again Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, and other United States government leaders unveiled the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center Monday during the 28th annual United Nations Climate Conference (COP28). “NASA data is essential to making the changes needed on the ground to protect our climate. The U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-partners-launch-us-greenhouse-gas-center-to-share-climate-data/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
A maker and roboticist known commonly as Odd Jayy, Jorvon creates cool stuff for Digi-Key.
The post Meet Jorvon Moss | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/meet-jorvon-moss-magpimonday/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Valve Software’s latest update announcement for the Steam client contains news for both Mac and Linux users – and the portents should concern not only gamers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/steam_mac_lin_changes/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Status-Q blog
Looking yesterday at some student application forms, we were bemused by the phraseology and grammatical constructions of one or two of the ‘personal statements’. These were from candidates who were (supposedly) native English speakers, applying for a subject at a top university in which clear and effective use of English will be a key skill. Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2023/12/04/11833/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Status-Q blog
I’ve been doing an experiment which I fear will end up costing me money. And this is in response to the observation that so much of the online world we see is filtered through Google. I have nothing against Google, but this means that the starting point for most online exploration is filtered through Google’s business Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2023/12/04/11829/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
We partner with organisations around the world to bring coding activities to young people in their regions through Code Club and CoderDojo. Currently involving 54 organisations in 43 countries, this Global Clubs Partner network shares our passion for educating kids to create with technology. We work to connect our Global Clubs Partners to foster a…
The post Creating connections at our 2023 Africa partner meetup appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/2023-global-clubs-partner-meetup-africa/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
HP is squeezing more margin out of print customers, the result of a multi-year strategy to convert unprofitable business into something more lucrative, and says its subscription model is “locking” in people.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/hp_printer_lockin/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials on Sunday launched an investigation into allegations that Russian forces killed surrendering Ukrainian soldiers — a war crime if confirmed — after grainy footage on social media appeared to show two uniformed men being shot at close range after emerging from a dugout.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/nation-world-news/kyiv-investigates-allegations-russian-forces-shot-surrendering-ukrainian-soldiers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Bill 36, in its original form, had one purpose: to end corruption within the troubled city Department of Planning and Permitting.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/hawaii-news/honolulu-city-council-anti-bribery-bill-fades-in-committee/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Filling in for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris flew to the Middle East to tackle a pair of challenges that have flummoxed White Houses for decades: climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Each carries the risk of political blowback going into next year’s presidential elections.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/nation-world-news/harris-dashed-to-dubai-to-tackle-climate-change-and-war-each-carries-high-political-risks-at-home/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military said Sunday its ground offensive had expanded to every part of Gaza, and it ordered more evacuations in the crowded south while vowing that operations there against Hamas would be “no less strength” than its shattering ones in the north.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/nation-world-news/israel-expands-gaza-ground-offensive-says-efforts-in-south-will-be-no-less-strength-than-in-north/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Malama Market meat and seafood cutters are on strike in Pahoa after fighting for fair wages and better benefits for two years.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/hawaii-news/meat-and-fish-cutters-strike-at-malama-market-nears-second-month/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships Sunday in the Red Sea, while a U.S. warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hourslong assault, the U.S. military said. The Iranian-backed Houthis claimed two of the attacks.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/nation-world-news/3-commercial-ships-hit-by-missiles-in-houthi-attack-in-red-sea-us-warship-downs-3-drones/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>SEATTLE — Alaska Airlines agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal announced Sunday, potentially putting it on track for a clash with a Biden administration wary of higher airfares.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/hawaii-news/alaska-air-to-buy-hawaiian-airlines-in-a-1-9-billion-deal-that-may-attract-regulator-scrutiny/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The pharmaceutical industry suffered a huge legislative defeat last year when Congress and President Joe Biden enacted a law aimed in part at lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/nation-world-news/big-pharma-is-reeling-over-the-inflation-reduction-act-now-merck-is-fighting-back/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>PHILADELPHIA — Brock Purdy threw for 314 yards and four touchdowns, Deebo Samuel scored three TDs and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was checked for a concussion in the San Francisco 49ers’ 42-19 win over Philadelphia on Sunday night.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/sports/san-franciscos-brock-purdy-throws-4-td-passes-as-49ers-thump-injured-hurts-eagles-42-19/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The giant waves form in the storm belts of the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica, where whales roam. Supercharged by intense winds, the swells then roll on an ocean journey of thousands of kilometers (miles) to crash into Tahiti in the South Pacific.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/sports/the-surfing-venue-for-the-paris-olympics-is-on-the-other-side-of-the-world-but-could-steal-the-show/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>As President Joe Biden founders in the polls, he’s decided to revive a hackneyed progressive standby: The rampant inflation Americans have experienced under his administration is actually the fault of evil corporations.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/opinion/presidents-inflation-rhetoric-revives-tired-old-standby/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>In a federal indictment this week, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams unveiled an indictment against Nikhil Gupta, an alleged Indian narcotics trafficker who prosecutors say had attempted to hire a hitman— who turned out to be an undercover federal agent — to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen. The feds say Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic, was directed by a senior Indian government official.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/opinion/india-assassination-plot-against-us-citizen-breaches-international-order/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose … oops!</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/opinion/rainy-side-view-mele-kalikimaka-to-the-readers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The final season of the four-team College Football Playoff turned out to be the most controversial with an unprecedented snub.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/sports/michigan-vs-alabama-washington-vs-texas-in-college-football-playoff-unbeaten-florida-st-left-out/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LANDOVER, Md. — Tyreek Hill wasn’t surprised to see just one defender covering him. After catching a 78-yard touchdown pass, he was plenty thankful.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/sports/hill-has-2-tds-as-the-dolphins-beat-the-commanders-45-15-theyre-9-3-for-the-1st-time-since-2001/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KEALAKEHE — The Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) continued to open its girls soccer season over the weekend on the west side of the island — as Kealakehe fell to Hilo 6-0 in a sunny Saturday bout at Waverider Stadium.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/sports/west-side-soccer-waveriders-ka-makani-fall-in-season-openers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Howard Jacobson blog
The return of the Blood Libel
https://jacobsonh.substack.com/p/the-lie-that-will-not-die Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It is 40 years since Turbo Pascal revolutionized the coding marketplace with a slick (for the time) Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and performance to spare. So why aren’t we all using it today?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/40_years_of_turbo_pascal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
CSUN and Moorpark college computer science professor Loay Alnaji was arrested on Nov. 16 for the death of Jewish man Paul Kessler at a protest in Thousand Oaks, California. The 50-year-old professor, a husband and father of three, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and battery after Kessler, 69, fell backwards and hit his head at…
https://sundial.csun.edu/177245/news/csun-professor-arrested-under-suspicion-of-death-of-protester/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Robert Reich on Substack
A necessary piece of legislation has just been introduced in Congress. It needs your support.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/ceo-pay-is-out-of-control Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Japan’s joint fusion reactor project with the European Union (EU), the JT-60SA, was inaugurated in Naka, Japan on Friday, marking the start of experimental operations for the world’s biggest and most advanced tokamak.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/jt_60sa_tokamak_online/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1962– Actress and future Soledad Canyon big-cat rescuer Tippi Hedren, “Hitchcock’s New Grace Kelly,” makes cover of Look magazine for upcoming thriller, “The Birds” [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-dec-4/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
who, me? Brace yourselves, gentle readers, for we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the weekend is over, and you have to be back at work. The good news is that Monday brings an instalment of Who, Me? in which Reg readers entertain with tales of technical misfires.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/who_me/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Infosec in brief The European Union’s Parliament and Council have reached an agreement on the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), setting the long-awaited security regulation on a path to final approval and adoption, along with new rules exempting open source software.…
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date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nine days after issuing a vaguely worded warning about a possible cyber security incident, web tracking and analytics outfit New Relic has revealed a two-front attack.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/new_relic_security_incident/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a coder was stirring, not even their mouse.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/linux_kernel_6_7_rc4/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Transit’s drivers will be back behind the wheel Monday, according to union officials. The union met Sunday and agreed to terms that would end the strike by Teamsters Union Local 572 after eight weeks. “It’s a little bittersweet, right,” said Lourdes Garcia, the union’s secretary-treasurer, in a phone interview Sunday, “but it’s a […]
The post Union: Santa Clarita Transit drivers agree to MV’s terms to end strike appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/union-santa-clarita-transit-drivers-agree-to-mvs-terms-to-end-strike/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Trouble with playground bullies started for Maria Ishoo’s daughter in elementary school. Girls ganged up, calling her “fat” and “ugly.” Boys tripped and pushed her. The California mother watched her typically bubbly second-grader retreat into her bedroom and spend afternoons curled up in bed.
For Valerie Aguirre’s daughter in Hawaii, a spate of middle school “friend drama” escalated into violence and online bullying that left the 12-year-old feeling disconnected and lonely.
Both children received help through telehealth therapy, a service that schools around the country are offering in response to soaring mental health struggles among American youth.
Now at least 16 of the 20 largest U.S. public school districts are offering online therapy sessions to reach millions of students, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. In those districts alone, schools have signed provider contracts worth more than $70 million.
The growth reflects a booming new business born from America’s youth mental health crisis, which has proven so lucrative that venture capitalists are funding a new crop of school teletherapy companies. Some experts raise concerns about the quality of care offered by fast-growing tech companies.
As schools cope with shortages of in-person practitioners, however, educators say teletherapy works for many kids, and it’s meeting a massive need. For rural schools and lower-income students in particular, it has made therapy easier to access. Schools let students connect with online counselors during the school day or after hours from home.
“This is how we can prevent people from falling through the cracks,” said Ishoo, a mother of two in Lancaster, California.
Ishoo recalls standing at her second-grader’s bedroom door last year and wishing she could get through to her. “What’s wrong?” the mother would ask. The response made her heart heavy: “It’s NOTHING, Mom.”
Last spring, her school district launched a teletherapy program and she signed up her daughter. During a month of weekly sessions, the girl logged in from her bedroom and opened up to a therapist who gave her coping tools and breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. The therapist told her daughter: You are in charge of your own emotions. Don’t give anyone else that control.
“She learned that it’s OK to ask for help, and sometimes everyone needs some extra help,” Ishoo said.
The 13,000-student school system, like so many others, has counselors and psychologists on staff, but not enough to meet the need, said Trish Wilson, the Lancaster district’s coordinator of counselors.
Therapists in the area have full caseloads, making it impossible to refer students for immediate care, she said. But students can schedule a virtual session within days.
“Our preference is to provide our students in-person therapy. Obviously, that’s not always possible,” said Wilson, whose district has referred more than 325 students to over 800 sessions since launching the online therapy program.
Students and their parents said in interviews they turned to teletherapy after struggling with feelings of sadness, loneliness, academic stress and anxiety. For many, the transition back to in-person school after distance learning was traumatic. Friendships had fractured, social skills deteriorated and tempers flared more easily.
Schools are footing the bill, many of them using federal pandemic relief money as experts have warned of alarming rates of youth depression, anxiety and suicide. Many school districts are signing contracts with private companies. Others are working with local health care providers, nonprofits or state programs.
Mental health experts welcome the extra support but caution about potential pitfalls. For one, it’s getting harder to hire school counselors and psychologists, and competition with telehealth providers isn’t helping.
“We have 44 counselor vacancies, and telehealth definitely impacts our ability to fill them,” said Doreen Hogans, supervisor of school counseling in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Hogans estimates 20% of school counselors who left have taken teletherapy jobs, which offer more flexible hours.
The rapid growth of the companies raises questions about the qualifications of the therapists, their experience with children and privacy protocols, said Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, executive director of Counseling in Schools, a nonprofit that helps schools bolster traditional, in-person mental health services.
“As we give these young people access to telehealth, I want to hear how all these other bases are covered,” he said.
One of the biggest providers, San Francisco-based Hazel Health, started with telemedicine health services in schools in 2016 and expanded to mental health in May 2021, CEO Josh Golomb said. It now employs more than 300 clinicians providing teletherapy in over 150 school districts in 15 states.
The rapid expansions mean millions of dollars in revenue for Hazel. This year, the company signed a $24 million contract with Los Angeles County to offer teletherapy services to 1.3 million students for two years.
Other clients include Hawaii, which is paying Hazel nearly $4 million over three years to work with its public schools, and Clark County schools in the Las Vegas area, which have allocated $3.25 million for Hazel-provided teletherapy. The districts of Miami-Dade, Prince George’s and Houston schools also have partnered with Hazel.
Despite the giant contracts, Golomb said Hazel is focused on ensuring child welfare outweighs the bottom line.
“We have the ethos of a nonprofit company but we’re using a private-sector mechanism to reach as many kids as we can,” Golomb said. Hazel raised $51.5 million in venture capital funding in 2022 that fueled its expansion. “Do we have any concerns about any compromise in quality? The resounding answer is no.”
Other providers are getting into the space. In November, New York City launched a free telehealth therapy service for teens to help eliminate barriers to access, said Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. New York is paying the startup TalkSpace $26 million over three years for a service allowing teens aged 13 to 17 to download an app and connect with licensed therapists by phone, video or text.
Unlike other cities, New York is offering the service to all teens, whether enrolled in private, public or home schools, or not in school at all.
“I truly hope this normalizes and democratizes access to mental health care for our young people,” Vasan said.
Many of Hawaii’s referrals come from schools in rural or remote areas. Student clients have increased sharply in Maui since the deadly August wildfires, said Fern Yoshida, who oversees teletherapy for the state education department. So far this fall, students have logged 2,047 teletherapy visits, a three-fold increase from the same period last year.
One of them was Valerie Aguirre’s daughter, whose fallout with two friends turned physical last year in sixth grade, when one of the girls slapped her daughter in the face. Aguirre suggested her daughter try teletherapy. After two months of online therapy, “she felt better,” Aguirre said, with a realization that everyone makes mistakes and friendships can be mended.
In California, Ishoo says her daughter, now in third grade, is relaying wisdom to her sister, who started kindergarten this year.
“She walks her little sister to class and tells her everything will be OK. She’s a different person. She’s older and wiser. She reassures her sister,” Ishoo said. “I heard her say, ‘If kids are being mean to you, just ignore them.’”
https://www.voanews.com/a/lacking-counselors-us-schools-turn-to-booming-business-of-online-therapy/7383026.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Signal
Two individuals were detained as sheriff’s deputies investigated the attempted theft of a vehicle near Six Flags Magic Mountain on Sunday, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “The original call came in at 4:51 p.m.,” said Deputy Joana Warren. “And the victim, or the informant, let us know that there were males that […]
The post Grand theft suspects detained in Magic Mountain parking lot appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/grand-theft-suspects-detained-in-magic-mountain-parking-lot/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AI in brief Using a text-to-image model to craft an AI-generated image can require almost the same amount of power as that required to charge a smartphone, according to recent research.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/ai_news_in_brief/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: John Naughton’s online diary
The view from here Dingle Bay, early yesterday morning. Quote of the Day ”Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in depth.” Robert Frost Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Van Morrison | Saint Dominic’s Preview Link … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-4-december-2023/38869/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Advent of Computing
https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-121-arguments-against-programming Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Many Western arms companies failed to ramp up production in 2022 despite a strong increase in demand for weapons and military equipment, a watchdog group said Monday, adding that labor shortages, soaring costs and supply chain disruptions had been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In its Top 100 of such firms, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said the arms revenue of the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies last year stood at $597 billion — a 3.5% drop from 2021.
“Many arms companies faced obstacles in adjusting to production for high-intensity warfare,” said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of the independent institute’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.
SIPRI said the revenues of the 42 U.S. companies on the list — accounting for 51% of total arms sales — fell by 7.9% to $302 billion in 2022. Of those, 32 recorded a fall in year-on-year arms revenue, most of them citing ongoing supply chain issues and labor shortages stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nan Tian, a senior researcher with SIPRI, said that “we are beginning to see an influx of new orders linked to the war in Ukraine.”
He cited some major U.S. companies, including Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies, and said that because of “existing order backlogs and difficulties in ramping up production capacity, the revenue from these orders will probably only be reflected in company accounts in two to three years’ time.”
Companies in Asia and the Middle East saw their arms revenues grow significantly in 2022, the institute said in its assessment, saying it demonstrated “their ability to respond to increased demand within a shorter time frame.” SIPRI singled out Israel and South Korea.
“However, despite the year-on-year drop, the total Top 100 arms revenue was still 14% higher in 2022 than in 2015 — the first year for which SIPRI included Chinese companies in its ranking.
SIPRI also said that countries placed new orders late in the year and the time lag between orders and production meant that the surge in demand was not reflected in these companies’ 2022 revenues.
“However, new contracts were signed, notably for ammunition, which could be expected to translate into higher revenue in 2023 and beyond,” Beraud-Sudreau said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/despite-ukraine-war-needs-arms-sales-troubled-by-production-woes/7382992.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
Angel Sablan, the former Mayors’ Council of Guam executive director, has been tapped to lead the Department of Parks and Recreation.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/sablan-tapped-to-lead-dpr/article_bfa50158-9237-11ee-bbe2-43f82107c78b.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, updated: 2023-12-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Asia In Brief China last week sank the first modules of an undersea datacenter.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/03/asia_tech_news_roundup/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio is eyeing the governor’s seat come the 2026 election.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/tenorio-to-run-for-governor/article_fc146d74-9235-11ee-8cd7-b32ba6ad1422.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: James Fallows, Substack
Air traffic controllers are in the news again. The problem is not that they’re drunk or dozing off. It’s that we need more of them.
https://fallows.substack.com/p/pushing-tin Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
The newest group of Kennedy Center honorees, including comedian Billy Crystal and actor Queen Latifah, are being feted Sunday night at a star-studded event marking their lifetime achievement in arts and entertainment.
Opera singer Renee Fleming, music star Barry Gibb and prolific hitmaker Dionne Warwick also are being honored at the black-tie gala. Each will receive personalized tributes that typically include appearances and performances that are kept secret from the honorees themselves.
In announcing the recipients earlier this year, the Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah F. Rutter, called this year’s group of inductees “an extraordinary mix of individuals who have redefined their art forms.”
Crystal, 75, came to national prominence in the 1970s playing Jodie Dallas, one of the first openly gay characters on American network television, on the sitcom “Soap.” He went on to a brief but memorable one-year stint on “Saturday Night Live” before starring in a string of movies, including hits such as “When Harry Met Sally…” “The Princess Bride” and “City Slickers.”
Crystal, who also received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for lifetime achievement in comedy in 2007, joins an elite group of comedians cited for both: David Letterman, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Lily Tomlin, Carol Burnett and Neil Simon. Bill Cosby received both honors, but they were rescinded in 2018 following his sexual assault conviction, which later was overturned.
Warwick, 82, shot to stardom in the 1960s as the muse for the superstar songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Her discography includes a multidecade string of hits, both with and without Bacharach, that includes “I Say a Little Prayer,” “I’ll Never Love This Way Again” and “That’s What Friends Are For.”
Fleming, 64, is one of the leading sopranos of her era, with a string of accolades that includes a National Medal of Arts bestowed by President Barack Obama, a Cross of the Order of Merit from the German government and honorary membership in England’s Royal Academy of Music.
Gibb, 76, achieved global fame as part of one of the most successful bands in the history of modern music, the Bee Gees. Along with his late brothers Robin and Maurice, the trio launched a nearly unmatched string of hits that defined a generation of music.
Latifah, 53, has been a star since age 19 when her debut album and hit single “Ladies First” made her the first female crossover rap star. She has gone on to a diverse career that has included seven studio albums, starring roles in multiple television shows and movies and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role in the movie musical “Chicago.”
Fleming and Latifah, real name Dana Owens, also share an obscure bit of Kennedy Center Honors historical trivia. They both performed at the 2014 Super Bowl. Fleming sang the national anthem while Latifah performed “America the Beautiful.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/queen-latifah-billy-crystal-dionne-warwick-among-2023-kennedy-center-honorees/7382653.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Inclusion of people with disabilities is not about doing more, it’s just about doing things differently.
The post Navigating an Inaccessible World appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/03/navigating-an-inaccessible-world/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I’ve been working on the mobile version of FeedLand.
This is very much a snapshot in time. Lots more tweaking coming. ;-)
I want to do some more reduction on the menubar at the top.
Timelines and feed lists have been converted.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/03/221320.html?title=feedInfoForPhones Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
The holidays are coming, there’s a chill in the air (literally for me, I live in the Arctic), so it’s time for a few new additions to the official OSNews Merch Store. Do you live in the terminal, breathe the terminal? We’ve got new shirts just for you. The opening message of the terminals of Mac OS X, BeOS, and MS-DOS (let’s be generous and call MS-DOS a terminal), with a command to call an osnews directory on the file system, printed on the front of the shirt. They sport the correct fonts, background colours, and exact verbiage used in the operating systems themselves. For the Mac OS X one, I had to choose a last login date and a username, so I opted for the exact time and date of birth of my oldest son, and a username that’s a bit of an Easter egg. These shirts of the organic cotton variety, and all proceeds go to supporting OSNews’ continued existence so we don’t have to resort to SEO crap, “AI”-generated garbage, and malvertising. Every item sold on the store generates around $10 for us, with the rest going to our partner Bonfire for producing the items and running the store. You can also support OSNews through individual donations on Ko-Fi, by becoming a Patreon, and by supporting us through LiberaPay.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137987/launching-brand-new-beos-mac-os-x-and-ms-dos-t-shirts-in-the-osnews-merch-store/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
You may have noticed that starting today, I’ve been adding a dedicated link to the main story in every post on OSNews. Our old-fashioned 2001 method of “biggest link is main story” simply doesn’t hold up today as proper attribution, so from here on out every post will have a link marked by ↫ crediting the name and/or publication of the main linked article (or multiple where it makes sense). I’ve been unhappy with our attribution for years, and finally got my act together and settled on this solution. While I’ve had, in total, maybe no more than 2-3 complaints about this since I started in 2006 – it’s taken too long, and I apologise for that. Credit and attribution matter. For the curious: ↫ is part of the arrows Unicode block as U+21AB, titled “Leftwards arrow with loop”. I settled on it because the path of the loop and the arrow evoked a feeling of being yoinked back somewhere else, and that’s what a link does. Sure, I could’ve opted for a chain link or whatever, but that’s boring.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137992/finally-proper-attribution/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: TidBITS blog
Given New York State laws against biking with a pair of earbuds, Adam Engst explores other options and settles on a handlebar mount for his iPhone, discovering that it also provides a perfect opportunity for reading song lyrics.
https://tidbits.com/2023/12/03/how-i-use-the-iphone-to-listen-to-music-while-biking/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The property owner has almost constantly allowed the weeds on at least the middle part of the property to grow taller than my 5-foot 7 1/4-inch fence, and there are times, some listed above, when he will not mow the perimeter next to the neighboring houses in a timely manner and/or without being asked.
The post Correcting the Record on Kenwood Village appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/03/correcting-the-record-on-kenwood-village/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Shady Characters
https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2023/12/advent-calendar-counting-rods/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
“Fediverse” is another kind of silo.
Our social media apps should be rising up out of feeds to interop with each other now, not sometime in the future.
By then Facebook (or Meta or Threads) will own us as much as Twitter did.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/03/212537.html?title=whatAboutTheFediverse Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
I was always very interested in OpenBSD and a few months ago, I decided to give it a try. I’ve quickly fallen in love with it! There is, however, a big problem: Hare does not fully support OpenBSD! So, I decided to port it and I am happy to announce that my work was merged yesterday and OpenBSD is now fully supported by Hare. Let me show you some of the tricky stuff that was involved in the port. ↫ Lorenz (xha) on the official Hare blog Hare is a relatively new programming language, and originally only supported Linux and FreeBSD. This post details the process of porting it over to OpenBSD.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137985/porting-hare-to-openbsd/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Beyoncé ruled the box office this weekend. Her concert picture, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” opened in first place with $21 million in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres Sunday.
The post-Thanksgiving, early December box office is notoriously slow, but “Renaissance” defied the odds. Not accounting for inflation, it’s the first time a film has opened over $20 million on this weekend in 20 years (since “The Last Samurai”).
Beyoncé wrote, directed and produced “Renaissance,” which is focused on the tour for her Grammy-winning album. It debuted in 2,539 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, as well as 94 international territories, where it earned $6.4 million from 2,621 theaters.
“On behalf of AMC Theaters Distribution and the entire theatrical industry, we thank Beyoncé for bringing this incredible film directly to her fans,” said Elizabeth Frank, AMC Theaters executive vice president of worldwide programming, in a statement. “To see it resonate with fans and with film critics on a weekend that many in the industry typically neglect is a testament to her immense talent, not just as a performer, but as a producer and director.”
Despite several other new releases including “Godzilla Minus One,” the Hindi-language “Animal,” Angel Studios’ sci-fi thriller “The Shift,” and Lionsgate’s John Woo-directed revenge pic “Silent Night,” it was a slow weekend overall. Films in the top 10 are expected to gross only $85 million in total. But it was in this traditional “lull” that AMC Theaters found a good opportunity for “Renaissance” to shine.
“They chose a great weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There was competition, but it was from very different kinds of movies.”
Though “Renaissance” did not come close to matching the $92.8 million debut of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in October, it’s still a very good start for a concert film. No one expected “Renaissance” to match “The Eras Tour,” which is wrapping up its theatrical run soon with over $250 million globally. Prior to Swift, the biggest concert film debuts (titles held by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber for their 2008 and 2011 films) had not surpassed the unadjusted sum of $32 million.
The 39-city, 56-show “Renaissance” tour, which kicked off in Stockholm, Sweden in May and ended in Kansas City, Missouri in the fall, made over $500 million and attracted over 2.7 million concertgoers. Swift’s ongoing “Eras Tour,” with 151 dates, is expected to gross some $1.4 billion.
Both Beyoncé and Swift chose to partner with AMC Theaters to distribute their films, as opposed to a traditional studio. Both superstars have been supportive of one another, making splashy appearances at the other’s premieres. Both had previously released films on Netflix (“Miss Americana” and “Homecoming”). And both are reported to be receiving at least 50% of ticket sales.
Movie tickets to the show were more expensive than average, around $23.32 versus Swift’s $20.78, according to data firm EntTelligence.
Critics and audiences gave “Renaissance” glowing reviews – it’s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and got a coveted A+ CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences who were polled. EntTelligence also estimates that the audience, around 900,000 strong, skewed a little older than Swift’s.
“To have two concert films topping the chart in a single year is pretty unprecedented,” Dergarabedian said. But to compare them too closely would be a mistake.
“Taylor Swift was a total outlier and the result of a very specific set of circumstances,” he said. “These two films are similar in genre only.”
Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” fell to second place in its third weekend with an estimated $14.5 million. The prequel has now earned over $121 million domestically.
“Godzilla Minus One” took third place on the North American charts with $11 million from 2,308 locations — the biggest opening for a foreign film in the U.S. this year. The well-reviewed Japanese blockbuster distributed by Toho International cost only $15 million to produce and has already earned $23 million in Japan.
“This year, we made a concentrated effort to answer the demand of the marketplace and make Godzilla globally accessible across many different platforms,” said Koji Ueda, President of Toho Global, in a statement.
“Trolls Band Together” landed in fourth place in its third weekend with $7.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $74.8 million.
Fifth place went to Disney’s “Wish,” which fell 62% from its underwhelming first weekend, with $7.4 million from 3,900 locations. Globally, it’s now made $81.6 million.
The studio’s other major film in theaters, “The Marvels” is winding down in its fourth weekend with a disastrous global tally of $197 million against the reported $300 million it cost to make and market the superhero film.
In its second weekend, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” earned an estimated $7.1 million from 3,500 locations. Produced by Apple Original Films and distributed by Sony Pictures, the film starring Joaquin Phoenix has now made $45.7 million domestically against a $200 million budget.
Things should pick up in the final weeks of 2023, with films like “Wonka” and “The Color Purple” yet to come. The industry is looking at a $9 billion year — still trailing the $11 billion pre-pandemic norm, but a marked improvement from the last few years. And there are still many solid options for moviegoers, as the industry’s awards season gets into full swing.
“We had a slow Thanksgiving and we’re having a pretty slow weekend this weekend, but it’s a great weekend to be a moviegoer in terms of the breadth and depth of the movies out there,” Dergarabedian said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” $21 million.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” $14.5 million.
“Godzilla Minus One,” $11 million.
“Trolls Band Together,” $7.6 million.
“Wish,” $7.4 million.
“Napoleon,” $7.1 million.
“Animal,” $6.1 million.
“The Shift,” $4.4 million.
“Silent Night,” $3 million.
“Thanksgiving,” $2.6 million.
https://www.voanews.com/a/beyonc%c3%a9-s-renaissance-tops-box-office-with-21-million-debut-/7382581.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I wrote this as a Mastodon post to a bunch of people who somehow I got cc’d to. I figured I should share it here too.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/03/203633.html?title=whateverVerseYouLike Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
U.S. funding for Ukraine may soon come to an end. A divided Congress has so far failed to approve a long-term budget for the U.S. government, let alone new money for aiding allies mired in conflicts abroad. The country’s top defense official says that’s a mistake. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-funding-may-dry-up-despite-nato-support-for-ukraine/7382594.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Working out and building community in Santa Barbara and beyond.
The post Sweat Equity appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/03/sweat-equity/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, updated: 2023-12-03, from: The LAist
The hangar fire in Tustin has been fully put out, authorities announced on Friday.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/using-gorilla-snot-to-mitigate-ab Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Digital Rhetoric Collaberative
Hello! I’m Alex. Technology seemed somewhat inaccessible to me while I was growing up. It wasn’t that I had no access to technology. We had a family computer, and in my teenage years I was given a number of cell phones by my parents, ostensibly to be able to call them in case I got […]
https://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2023/12/03/introduction-to-alex-mashny/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
The Canyon Country Community Center culminated its year of festivities with its last recreational family event for the holidays with over 430 people in attendance and tons of fun for children on Saturday afternoon. A long line was forming in the middle of the hallway where parents and children stood patiently to get a photo […]
The post <strong>Merry memories at Canyon Country Community Center’s cookies with Santa </strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/merry-memories-at-canyon-country-community-centers-cookies-with-santa/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I pinged Doc the other day saying he should do an artcasting feed.
Doc is in addition to being a prodigious blogger, also is a photo taker and story teller, so he is perfect for artcasting.
I
was then going to think about what would be the easiest way to get him
going, and quickly realized the fastest way is Bluesky because
John
Spurlock did it right and his feeds coming out of Bluesky are
totally artcasting-compatible. Just like that. (Artcasting is one of
those cases where almost everyone was doing it the right way. Absolutely
no one invented it, it was just obvious how it should work, obvious to
enough people.)
But I wanted to talk about it with A8C people first, because it’s also an opportunity to support it in WordPress, or to create a small app that interfaces to WordPress, so it can lead here too. But Doc beat me to it, he posted a beautiful picture of a building site his new hometown to Bluesky, and it appeared in his RSS 2.0 feed, and of course it showed up in FeedLand when I subscribed to his feed.
So I added it to my collection of artcasting feeds, and the new version is now available on FeedCorps and his name shows up in the list in the artshow app.
This is how we do it, keep turning the wheel.
Interop my friends.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/03/192821.html?title=docFeedlandArtcasting Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
The problem is that very few people are interested in learning COBOL these days. Coding it is cumbersome, it reads like an English lesson (too much typing), the coding format is meticulous and inflexible, and it takes far longer to compile than its competitors. And since nobody’s learning it anymore, programmers who can work with and maintain all that code are a increasingly hard to find. Many of these “COBOL cowboys” are aging out of the workforce, and replacements are in short supply. This puts us in a tricky predicament. We need to maintain and modernize the code that underpins so much of the business and finance worlds, but we don’t have enough skilled workers we need to carry out those updates. This is precisely the kind of problem that IBM thinks it can fix with AI. ↫ JD Sartain for PCMag It seems like learning and getting good at COBOL is a surefire way to ensure job security. I wonder if there’s a way to make modern applications or software in COBOL? I mean, there are COBOL compilers for modern platforms, of course, but are there any bindings (I think that’s the correct term?) for modern GUI toolkits like GTK, Qt, and so on? The headline’s probably a bit hyperbolic, but the core of the issue stands.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137983/the-world-depends-on-60-year-old-code-no-one-knows-anymore/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: City of Santa Clarita
Holidays Are Better at The Cube! By City Manager Ken Striplin “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” – Maya Angelou One of my favorite new holiday traditions is taking my family to a day out on the ice at The Cube – Ice and Entertainment Center, Powered by FivePoint Valencia, especially […]
The post Holidays Are Better at The Cube! appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/12/03/holidays-are-better-at-the-cube/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
Hewlett-Packard’s 9000 Series 300 (HP300) was a range of technical workstations based on Motorola 680×0 microprocessors. Superbly engineered in modular form, and ahead of the curve in terms of functionality, these workstations were used mainly as instrument controllers and for desktop technical computing. The HP300 series launched in 1985 with the models 310 (pictured below) and 320. It evolved through numerous variants of increasing power, concluding with the 38x models released in 1991. The series was officially obsolete as of 1997. The definitive website dedicated to vintage Hewlett-Packard computers is the wonderful HP Computer Museum, which has excellent and wide-ranging archival resources. The present site is focused specifically on the HP 9000 series 300 and is for anyone interested in the history, conservation and restoration of these personal workstations. ↫ hp-series300.net Everything you could possibly ever want to know about the series 300, in one place. It’s incredibly detailed, and if you have your eyes on buying one of these machines, I urge you to keep this resource in a permanently open tab so you know what you’re doing.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137981/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-hps-9000-series-300/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
In the midst of a busy and successful season, three members of the Los Angeles Kings stopped by the Cube to practice with special needs athletes. The Cube was the team’s stop on Saturday as part of the team’s “2023 We Are All Kings Rink Tour.” The Kings partnered with the Special Needs Athletes and […]
The post LA Kings give back at the Cube appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/la-kings-give-back-at-the-cube/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: RiscOS Open
Tradition has it around this time of year that you enjoy a warm mug of hot chocolate and replay some old classic films. However, if you’re looking to avoid the annual debate whether Die Hard counts as a Christmas movie or not, why not head to the MUG Christmas Market on Saturday 9th December 2023 in Wychbold, WR9 7PU from 11:30 to 16:00.
Entrance is free.
http://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2023/12/03/a-festive-mug Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: OS News
On Unix, ‘test‘ and ‘[‘ are two names for (almost) the same program and shell builtin. Although today people mostly use it under its ‘[‘ name, when it was introduced in V7 along side the Bourne shell, it only was called ‘test‘; the ‘[‘ name was only nascent until years later. I don’t know for sure why it was called ‘test‘, but there are interesting hints about its potential genesis in the shell used in V6 Research Unix, the predecessor to V7, and the control flow constructs that shell used. ↫ Chris Siebenmann I’m fairly sure if I read this about 12 more times, I’ll start to maybe understand some of it.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137977/the-unix-v6-shell-and-how-control-flow-worked-in-it/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
A chaotic end to the fourth quarter saw Golden Valley Grizzlies boys’ basketball survive its league opener with the Castaic Coyotes. The Grizzlies missed seven free throws in crunch time and were held without a field goal for the final five minutes of play. However, tough defense and some missed Coyote free throws gave Golden […]
The post Golden Valley hoops survives Castaic comeback appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/golden-valley-hoops-survives-castaic-comeback/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
Aliens must have been real because they were present all around the Santa Clarita Old Town Newhall Library on Saturday. The 16th annual Family Literacy Festival opened the doors to a crowd of 1,000 to celebrate literacy. “We expect like over a thousand people to come and find out a little bit more about their […]
The post <strong>‘Take Me to Your Reader’</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/take-me-to-your-reader/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Liliputing
Simple Mobile Tools is the developer behind a suite of open source Android apps that live up to their name, with simple, ad-free user interfaces and features. Simple Voice Recorder has long been my go to recommendation for anyone looking for a no-nonsense way to record voice memos on an Android phone, and the developer […]
The post Android app maker Simple Mobile Tools acquired by ZipoApps appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/android-app-maker-simple-mobile-tools-acquired-by-zipoapps/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Iranian-backed Houthi insurgents in Yemen launched armed drones and missiles in a five-hour-long attack targeting a U.S. warship and several commercial ships in the Red Sea, the Pentagon said Sunday, with at least one of the missiles hitting a Bahamas-flagged cargo vessel.
“Houthi forces attacked multiple commercial vessels in the Red Sea early this morning,” the Defense Department said. “The USS Carney lended aid in some circumstances and shot down Houthi drones that were headed in its general direction.”
It said the Carney, a guided missile destroyer, shot down two of the drones, in what could be a further escalation in a string of maritime attacks in the Middle East linked to the nearly two-month-old Israel-Hamas war. The U.S. ship was not damaged in the incident.
The U.S. has in recent weeks shot down several drones headed toward Israel that were launched from Yemen, and in Sunday’s attack, the Pentagon said it responded to a distress call from the Unity Explorer, which said it was under attack from missile fire.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed the attacks, saying the rebels hit one vessel with a missile and another with a drone while in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
“The Yemeni armed forces continue to prevent Israeli ships from navigating the Red Sea [and Gulf of Aden] until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops,” Saree said. “The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all Israeli ships or those associated with Israelis that they will become a legitimate target if they violate what is stated in this statement.”
Saree also identified the first vessel hit as the Unity Explorer, which is owned by a British firm that includes Dan David Ungar, who lives in Israel, as one of its officers. The Houthi spokesperson said the second hit was a Panamanian-flagged container ship called Number 9, which is linked to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement.
Israeli media have identified Ungar as being the son of Israeli shipping billionaire Abraham (Rami) Ungar.
For more than a month, Iranian-backed militias have conducted drone and rocket attacks against the 2,500 American troops based in Iraq and the 900 troops in Syria.
https://www.voanews.com/a/pentagon-a-us-warship-and-multiple-commercial-ships-have-come-under-attack-in-red-sea-/7382446.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-03, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
“Wait and see what happens” is a losing strategy. By the time you figured out what happened, if you ever do, it’s too late.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/03.html#a164130 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Liliputing
The Chinese company that makes single-board computers sold under the Orange Pi brand has been busy cloning the designs of the Raspberry Pi Zero, CM4, and Model B recently. But the company’s latest product is a little different. The new Orange Pi AIpro is a single-board computer with a Huawei Ascend processor designed to handle on-device […]
The post Orange Pi AIpro single-board computer features a Hauwei Ascend AI chip and up to 16GB RAM appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/orange-pi-aipro-single-board-computer-features-a-hauwei-ascend-ai-chip-and-up-to-16gb-ram/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, updated: 2023-12-03, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Efforts to convince remote workers to return to corporate offices appear to have stalled, based on data from the government, academia, and private-sector organizations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/03/return_to_office/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
On Saturday night, Kiss closed out the final performance of their “The End of the Road” farewell tour at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden.
But as dedicated fans surely know — they were never going to call it quits. Not really.
During their encore, the band’s current lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — left the stage to reveal digital avatars of themselves. After the transformation, the virtual Kiss launched into a performance of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”
The cutting-edge technology was used to tease a new chapter of the rock band: after 50 years of Kiss, the band is now interested in a kind of digital immortality.
The avatars were created by George Lucas’ special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse Entertainment Group, the latter of which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. The two companies recently teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” show in London, in which fans could attend a full concert by the Swedish band — as performed by their digital avatars.
Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Entertainment, says this new technology allows Kiss to continue their legacy for “eternity.” He says the band wasn’t on stage during virtual performance because “that’s the key thing,” of the future-seeking technology. “Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That’s what you could do with this.”
In order to create their digital avatars, who are depicted as a kind of superhero version of the band, Kiss performed in motion capture suits.
Experimentation with this kind of technology has become increasingly common in certain sections of the music industry. In October K-pop star Mark Tuan partnered with Soul Machines to create an autonomously automated “digital twin” called “Digital Mark.” In doing so, Tuan became the first celebrity to attach their likeness to OpenAI’s GPT integration, artificial intelligence technology that allows fans to engage in one-on-one conversations with Tuan’s avatar.
Aespa, the K-pop girl group, frequently perform alongside their digital avatars — the quartet is meant to be viewed as an octet with digital twins. Another girl group, Eternity, is made up entirely of virtual characters — no humans necessary.
“What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley said in a roundtable interview. “It’s exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized.”
“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” Kiss bassist Gene Simmons added. “The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he’s ever done before.”
And for those who couldn’t make the Madison Square Garden show — stay tuned, because a Kiss avatar concert may very well be on the way.
https://www.voanews.com/a/kiss-say-farewell-to-live-touring-become-first-us-band-to-go-virtual-and-become-digital-avatars-/7382404.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
“It’s a trillion tons of ice,” as one expert told NPR. Now the largest iceberg in the world, A23a, is on the move after decades of being grounded on the seafloor.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/the-iceberg-cometh-its-the-size-of-oahu-and-its-moving-into-the-open-ocean Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, updated: 2023-12-03, from: The LAist
Without something to shoo them away, the seagulls at SoFi Stadium and YouTube Theater would be a nuisance and a danger to flights out of LAX.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/sofi-stadium-uses-trained-hawks-to-keep-annoying-and-potentially-dangerous-gulls-at-bay Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
Lawmakers adjourned session Thursday without debating Bill 201-37, despite placing the measure on the agenda less than half an hour before adjourning. Now that the session has ended, a new agenda will need to be made for lawmakers to address…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/session-ends-without-debating-measure-for-gpa-procurement/article_4c6a6b52-8fe8-11ee-a170-53cf651d56cf.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
Graduation numbers are up and the dropout rate for public high school students is down.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/report-gdoe-graduation-rates-rise-while-dropout-rate-shrinks/article_a70f85e6-90a7-11ee-a6b8-d343a6504f66.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
A man who allegedly carried out two robberies at gunpoint used an airsoft gun and was motivated by drugs, according to charging documents.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/suspect-allegedly-committed-2-robberies-for-money-to-buy-meth/article_0c01f3a2-916c-11ee-8f8e-0b04036537c4.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
A man was partially successful in appealing convictions related to “dubious” documents submitted in an attempt to secure pandemic unemployment assistance.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/supreme-court-rules-on-pua-appeal-case/article_6b9b8b76-9170-11ee-be41-9b65dbc1c6bb.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Department of Education Head Start program has 90 days to address deficiencies found by Head Start Region 9 officials, or risk losing funding.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/head-start-at-risk-of-losing-federal-funding/article_9544f96c-918e-11ee-86a8-43be755e965c.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Department of Education superintendent’s attempt to hire a facilities and maintenance manager and worker was denied by the Guam Education Board.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/education-board-denies-gdoe-request-for-facilities-and-maintenance-manager-worker/article_e893315e-917c-11ee-bfe3-134fea5312ec.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
In Chile, leftists were tortured, tossed from helicopters and forced to watch relatives be raped. In Argentina, many were “disappeared” by members of the brutal military dictatorship that held detainees in concentration camps.
It all happened with the endorsement of Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state who died Wednesday at age 100.
As tributes poured in for the towering figure who was the top U.S. diplomat under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, the mood was decidedly different in South America, where many countries were scarred deeply during the Cold War by human rights abuses inflicted in the name of anti-communism and where many continue to harbor a deep distrust of their powerful neighbor to the north.
“I don’t know of any U.S. citizen who is more deplored, more disliked in Latin America than Henry Kissinger,” said Stephen Rabe, a retired University of Texas at Dallas history professor who wrote a book about Kissinger’s relationship with Latin America. “You know, the reality is, if he had traveled once democracy returned to Argentina, to Brazil, to Uruguay — if he had traveled to any of those countries he would have been immediately arrested.”
There is likely no starker example of Kissinger’s meddling with democracy in the region and then supporting brutality in the name of anti-communism than Chile.
In Chile, Kissinger played a key role in the efforts to do everything in the United States’ power to undermine and weaken the socialist government of Salvador Allende, who was elected president in 1970. Kissinger then used his sway to prop up the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who rose to power in a 1973 coup, repeatedly refusing to call attention to the numerous human rights violations of Pinochet’s regime, which murdered opponents, canceled elections, restricted the media, suppressed labor unions and disbanded political parties.
Kissinger long alleged that he wasn’t aware of the human rights abuses that were committed in the region, but records show that this wasn’t the case, said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive that is in charge of its Chile project.
“The declassified historical record, the documents that Kissinger wrote, read and said, leave no doubt that he was the chief architect of the U.S. policy to destabilize the Allende government and that he was also the chief enabler of helping the Pinochet regime consolidate what became a bloody, 17-year infamous dictatorship,” Kornbluh said.
Kissinger was “somewhat obsessed” with Allende’s government, fearing that the rise of a socialist government through democratic means could have a contagion effect in the region, said Chilean Sen. José Miguel Insulza, a former secretary general of the Organization of American States who served as a foreign policy adviser in Allende’s government.
“For him, any action that meant defending the national interest of the United States seemed justifiable,” Insulza said.
Kissinger feared what Allende’s government could mean for the world.
“In geopolitical terms, Kissinger considered the rise of a left-wing coalition to power through democratic means even more dangerous than the example set by Cuba. Indeed, this could be replicated in Western countries with powerful communist parties in terms of electoral influence, such as in Italy,” said Rolando Álvarez, a history professor at the University of Santiago, Chile.
Kissinger was seemingly unaffected by tales of suffering at the hands of military officers, even though his own family arrived in the U.S. as refugees who had to flee Nazi Germany in his teens.
“By the end of 1976, State Department aides were telling Henry Kissinger, a Jew, that Jews were being targeted in Argentina,” Rabe said. “And Kissinger just didn’t do anything.”
In Chile’s neighbor, Argentina, a military junta rose to power in 1976 vowing to combat leftist “subversives.” Kissinger made clear he had no objections to their brutal tactics and repeatedly ignored calls from other State Department officials to raise more concerns about human rights violations.
In a June 1976 meeting, Kissinger had a message for Argentina’s foreign minister, Admiral César Augusto Guzzetti: “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly.” He later reiterated that support during a meeting in October 1976 — a time when Argentine officials were worried the U.S. would raise human rights concerns amid increasing reports of torture and disappearances.
Guzzetti was “overjoyed” at the meetings, and “had felt that Kissinger had given him the signal that the United States had no objection to wholesale slaughter,” Rabe said.
Kissinger had a similar attitude toward other military dictatorships in the region, including in Uruguay and Brazil, and never raised objections to what was known as Operation Condor, a clandestine program that allowed military regimes in that part of the world to illegally pursue, detain, torture and assassinate political dissidents who fled their countries.
That attitude made a lasting imprint on Latin Americans’ psyche.
“At least here in Latin America, what I perceived in Henry Kissinger’s vision is very negative because it’s a kind of anything goes mentality. No matter how brutal the dictatorship is that must be supported, it doesn’t matter,” said Francisco Bustos, a human rights lawyer and professor at the University of Chile.
Decades later, the effects of that policy are still being felt in a region that feels the U.S. would go to any lengths to support its interests.
“There is a segment of political parties and movements in Latin America, including Chile, where the relationship with the United States is essentially marked by anti-imperialism. This perspective essentially sees any U.S. administration, whether Democratic or Republican, liberal, progressive, or ultraconservative, as more or less the same,” said Gilberto Aranda, an international relations professor at the University of Chile.
Although U.S. intervention in a region that was often referred to as “America’s backyard” has a long history, Kissinger seemed to take that into overdrive.
It’s no surprise then that one of the harshest reactions to Kissinger’s death came from a Chilean official.
“A man has died whose historical brilliance never managed to conceal his profound moral misery,” Chile’s ambassador to the United States, Juan Gabriel Valdes, posted on the social media platform X. Chile’s leftist President Gabriel Boric then retweeted the message.
https://www.voanews.com/a/kissinger-s-unwavering-support-for-brutal-regimes-still-haunts-latin-america/7382245.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
By David Hegg (Note: Yes, I’ve run this column before but, due to popular demand, here it is again, updated just a bit!) It’s here! While we’ve been treated to advertisements, store promotions, and an occasional seasonal song since before Halloween, there is no doubt that the Christmas season has finally landed. Now the goal […]
The post David Hegg | Toward an Ethical Christmas appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/david-hegg-toward-an-ethical-christmas/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
In his Nov. 10 column, Jim de Bree said, “What (Rep. Mike) Garcia fails to consider is that reducing the IRS funding by $14.3 billion will result in fewer tax collections. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the resulting tax revenue loss to be $26.8 billion.” He is implying, if not stating, that the reduction passed […]
The post Stephen Maseda | Columnist Mixes Apples, Oranges appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/stephen-maseda-columnist-mixes-apples-oranges/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: The Signal
Think COVID was the first time Democrats urged meaningless mass action to address a national threat? Think again. Oct. 6 marked the 62nd anniversary of President John Kennedy urging Americans to build bomb shelters for protection against nuclear attack. At least he didn’t harangue and fire people for not building them. Six years later California […]
The post Rob Kerchner | Mass Action Redux appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>SEATTLE — Alaska Air Group said Sunday it agreed to buy Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal including debt.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/alaska-air-to-buy-hawaiian-airlines-in-a-1-9-billion-deal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) released its annual awards for girls varsity volleyball on Thursday night.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/all-biif-volleyball-awards-released/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers only led for 9.2 seconds against the Golden State Warriors. That was all the time they needed.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/clippers-edge-warriors-113-112-on-georges-3-pointer-with-9-seconds-remaining-for-1st-lead-of-game/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAS VEGAS — A locker room can go either way when a coaching change is made, and in Boise State’s case, players lined up behind Spencer Danielson when he was handed the job on an interim basis with two games left in the regular season.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/green-jeanty-lead-boise-state-to-44-20-win-over-unlv-for-mountain-west-title/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>INDIANAPOLIS — Blake Corum scored twice, tying the school record for touchdown runs with 55, and No. 2 Michigan beat No. 18 Iowa 26-0 on Saturday night in the Big Ten championship game to likely take the top seed in the College Football Playoff.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/no-2-michigan-beats-no-18-iowa-26-20-for-big-ten-title-likely-to-claim-top-playoff-seed/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>ATLANTA — After handing Georgia its first loss in nearly two years, Alabama mixed a raucous celebration of its latest Southeastern Conference championship with a whole lot of lobbying for a College Football Playoff spot that no one could’ve envisioned in September.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/no-8-alabama-knocks-off-no-1-georgia-27-24-for-sec-title-both-teams-await-postseason-fate/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>When the Hawaii women’s volleyball team left for the mainland two days after senior night, only one more match was a given.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/trail-ends-in-oregon-for-hawaii-womens-volleyball/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/nation-world-news/us-targets-oil-and-natural-gas-industrys-role-in-global-warming-with-new-rule-on-methane-emissions/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A mother and her 14-year-old daughter are advocating for better protections for victims after AI-generated nude images of the teen and other female classmates were circulated at a high school in New Jersey.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/nation-world-news/teen-girls-are-being-victimized-by-deepfake-nudes-one-family-is-pushing-for-more-protections/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hilo High’s second invitational basketball tournament of the season began on Thursday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/sports/hilo-basketball-tournament-continues/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded targets in crowded southern Gaza on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect civilians a day after a truce collapsed.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/nation-world-news/israeli-offensive-shifts-to-crowded-southern-gaza-driving-up-death-toll-despite-evacuation-orders/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Navy estimates it will cost $1.5 million to salvage a jet plane that crashed on a coral reef in Hawaii nearly two weeks ago, officials said Saturday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/us-navy-says-it-will-cost-1-5m-to-salvage-jet-plane-that-crashed-on-hawaii-coral-reef/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. military has confirmed that it will permanently end live-fire training in Makua Valley on Oahu, a major win for Native Hawaiian groups and environmentalists after decades of activism.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/us-military-affirms-it-will-end-live-fire-training-in-hawaiis-makua-valley/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>America’s high schools face a growing crisis: Millions of students who entered ninth grade in the fall of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, are set to graduate this spring, with little hope of recovering from the learning loss incurred while schools were shut. Simply put, they’re running out of time. Since the start of the pandemic, the academic performance of high school students has been abysmal. In 2022, average scores on the ACT exam were the lowest in 30 years; this year’s results were even worse. Barely 20% of students met college-readiness benchmarks in all four areas tested — English, math, reading and science — and 43% met none, up from 35% in 2018. Other data show broad declines in reading and math proficiency, while the number of students receiving failing grades has soared. In Houston, the country’s eighth-largest public school district, as many as half of high school students have flunked at least one course since the start of the pandemic, compared to one-third in 2019.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/opinion/americas-high-schoolers-are-running-out-of-time/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Construction work on a new football field and track at Hilo High School — a project that has long languished on the drawing board — is underway.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/contractor-breaks-ground-on-hilo-highs-new-football-field-track/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Rosita Ann Joyce, 89, of Keaau died Nov. 15 at home. Born on Molokai, she was a homemaker. Private services held. Survived by sons, Glen Sambueno of Hilo, Michael Joyce and James (Michelle) Joyce of Keaau; daughters, Barbara Alcos, Debra (George) Evangelista and Robin (Artemio Jr.) Sensano of Keaau, Theresa Kamakawiwoole of Hilo, Darlene (Luis) Linares of Honolulu and Crystal Kunishige of Las Vegas; sisters, Mariah Wallet and Carol (Edwin) Coloma of Keaau, Dorothy Wood of Kona; 27 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren and four great-great Grandchildren; nieces and nephews. Arrangements by Dodo Mortuary.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/obituaries/obituaries-for-december-3-6/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hawaii Police Department officers employed a drone Tuesday to gather intelligence during a seven-hour-plus standoff with an allegedly armed suspect in Kalapana Black Sands subdivision.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/police-used-drone-during-armed-standoff-in-puna/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A pair of Ocean View men were indicted Monday by a Kailua-Kona grand jury for allegedly taking an acquaintance’s truck while armed with a firearm and a machete.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/2-ov-men-indicted-for-allegedly-stealing-truck-with-firearm-machete/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Pahala Town Lighted Christmas Parade is returning for the first time since 2019.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/pahala-town-lighted-christmas-parade-to-return/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Long-awaited repairs to the Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp have been funded, but more steps are necessary before work can begin.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/hawaii-news/funds-allocated-for-overall-replacement-of-laupahoehoe-ramp/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>More ‘local style’
leadership needed</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/opinion/your-views-for-december-3-7/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>CIA Director William Burns’ holoholo abroad this year to meet nonintelligence-affiliated leaders, including Egypt’s and Qatar’s presidents just this last, and the White House’s elevation in July of his office to a Cabinet position, has fueled misperceptions of growing CIA power.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/03/opinion/the-island-intelligencer-spies-as-diplomats-and-spooks-in-the-cabinet/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Robert Reich on Substack
And last week’s winner
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-contest-free-fall Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
New England’s long-shuttered shrimp business, which fell victim to warming waters, will remain in a fishing moratorium indefinitely, fishery regulators ruled Friday.
The shrimping business was based mostly in Maine and produced small, pink shrimp that were a winter delicacy in New England and across the country. The industry has been in a moratorium since 2013 in large part because environmental conditions off New England are unfavorable for the cold water-loving shrimp.
That moratorium will remain in effect with no firm end date, a board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Friday. The board stopped short of calling the move a permanent moratorium because it included a provision to continue monitoring the shrimp population and consider reopening the fishery if the crustaceans approach a healthy level.
‘I think we’re all done’
But it was clear board members saw little chance of a future for a fishery that once provided a beloved seafood item that appeared on restaurant menus and in seafood markets every year around Christmas.
“I think we’re all done here with this stock. I see the water temperatures. I don’t think we’re coming back,” said Mike Armstrong, an environmental analyst and member of the panel.
The warming of the Gulf of Maine, a body of water where the shrimp live that is critical to U.S. commercial fishing for species such as scallops and lobsters, is an ongoing subject of scientific study. In addition to the shrimp, other New England species, such as Atlantic cod, have also declined in the face of warming waters and overfishing.
Previous extensions of the shrimp fishing moratorium have been for one year or three years at a time. However, the shrimp stock isn’t showing signs of improvement, said Chelsea Tuohy, a fishery management plan coordinator for the commission.
“Recently, under no fishing mortality, the population continues to decline,” Tuohy said. “The Gulf of Maine is warming quicker than other areas of the ocean, and the shrimp tend not to do well in warming waters.”
The commercial fishery for the New England shrimp, which are also called Maine shrimp or pink shrimp, was established in the 1950s and peaked at nearly 30 million pounds (13.6 million kilograms) per year in the late 1960s, Atlantic States commission documents state. Maine fishermen caught more than 10 million pounds of the shrimp per year as recently as 2011. Fishermen in Massachusetts and New Hampshire also once sought them.
New approaches?
Shrimp are among the most popular seafood items in the world, and New England shrimp were once a small part of the worldwide shrimp industry, which includes wild-caught and farmed shrimp species from many parts of the globe. Canadian fishermen have long harvested the same species of shrimp as New England fishermen, and their exports of the shrimp are still sometimes found in U.S. seafood markets.
Some U.S. fishermen have advocated trying to save New England’s shrimp fishery with new management approaches. Glen Libby, a former shrimp trawler, said regulators need to gather more data before taking drastic measures to close a historic fishery.
The shrimp panel also voted to investigate the possibility of an industry-based research program about the fishery.
“A lot of people, mostly in the industry, don’t think that we have a complete picture of what’s going on,” Libby said. “Let’s not open it up, let’s just have a limited season. There’s a hunger for more data, that’s for sure.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/climate-change-shuts-decades-old-new-england-shrimp-fishery-/7381333.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
A federal jury in Illinois ordered $17.7 million in damages — an amount tripled to more than $53 million under federal law — to be paid to several food manufacturing companies who had sued major egg producers over a conspiracy to limit the egg supply in the U.S.
The jury ruled last week that the egg producers used various means to limit the domestic supply of eggs to increase the price of products during the 2000s. The time frame of the conspiracy was an issue throughout the case; jurors ultimately determined the actions at issue occurred between 2004 and 2008.
The damages verdict was reached Friday in the Northern District of Illinois. According to federal antitrust law, the damages are automatically tripled, bringing the total to more than $53 million. Court documents on the verdict were not readily available Friday evening, but statements from the manufacturers’ attorney and one of the egg producers confirmed a total of about $17.7 million.
“We are extremely grateful for the jury’s service and findings,” Brandon Fox, an attorney representing the food manufacturers, said in a statement. “This was an important case for many reasons, and the jury’s award recognizes its significance.”
Attorneys for the four egg suppliers named in the lawsuit did not immediately return phone messages on Friday. Court documents show the defendants have denied the claims.
The egg suppliers include the family company of its former chairman, John Rust, who’s running for the U.S. Senate in Indiana. In a written statement on the verdict, Rust said the jury’s decision “will be appealed.”
Strategies detailed
The jury found that the egg suppliers exported eggs abroad to reduce the overall supply in the domestic market, as well as limited the number of chickens through means including cage space, early slaughter and flock reduction, court documents say.
Jurors were specifically told not to consider more recent changes in egg pricing during their deliberations.
Food manufacturers joining as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the egg producers are Kraft Foods Global Inc., Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc. and Nestle USA Inc.
The jury found the egg suppliers who participated in the conspiracy were Cal-Maine Foods Inc., United Egg Producers Inc., United States Egg Marketers Inc. and Rose Acre Farms Inc., a southern Indiana company previously chaired by Rust.
Rose Acre Farms, which identifies itself as the second-largest egg producer in the U.S., disagreed with the jury’s verdict in a written statement.
“Rose Acre has and continues to steadfastly deny being part of any anti-competitive egg price-fixing conspiracy, and we will continue to explore and consider all legal options, including post-trial relief and appeal,” the statement said.
Cal-Maine Foods said in a written statement it has petitioned the court to rule in its favor and will continue to evaluate its options, “including, if necessary, an appeal.”
“Cal-Maine Foods respects the jury’s decision and appreciates that the damages awarded by the jury are relatively modest compared to the damages sought but remains disappointed with the verdict as Cal-Maine Foods continues to believe that the company did nothing wrong,” the statement said.
Emails sent to the United Egg Producers and United States Egg Marketers representatives were not immediately returned Friday.
https://www.voanews.com/a/egg-producers-ordered-to-pay-17-7m-for-conspiring-to-limit-supplies-in-2000s-/7381337.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Philadelphia City Council passed legislation to ban ski masks in some public spaces, a measure supporters say will increase public safety amid high violent crime, but opponents argue it will unfairly target people without proof of any wrongdoing.
The legislation passed on Thursday with a 13-2 vote, and now goes to Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney. A spokesperson said he would review the legislation and “looks forward to our ongoing work with City Council on the urgent matter of ensuring public safety.”
The measure would ban ski masks, or balaclavas, in public spaces like schools, recreation centers, parks, city-owned buildings and on public transportation. It defines the garment as a close-fitting covering over the whole head, with holes only for the eyes, nose, or mouth.
A $250 fine would be imposed against anyone who violates the law. It has exceptions for religious garb and protests.
The legislation comes as the nation’s sixth-largest city has been beleaguered by violent crime, tallying a record number of homicides in 2021, most of them gun-related. That number fell from 562 to 516 in 2022 but was still higher than pre-pandemic levels, and advocates have said they are on track to decrease further this year.
Big cities across the nation experienced spikes in crime as social supports were upended during the pandemic, though crime has started to decrease to pre-pandemic levels.
Philadelphia’s move goes in the opposite direction to New York City, which relaxed a law that prohibited masks, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, New York City repealed a more than century-old law that prohibited face coverings in public. It was meant to permit mask-wearing during the coronavirus outbreak. Supporters of the repeal said the former law also exposed men of color to police harassment and was used against protesters during demonstrations.
Concerns about theft, even as crime decreases in the city, pushed Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, to suggest storeowners should refuse to admit anyone wearing a mask unless it was lowered to be picked up by store cameras.
Philadelphia’s ban cites an increase in those casually wearing ski masks in 2020 — during the beginning of the pandemic — alongside a rise in individuals sought by Philadelphia police. The ski masks conceal people’s identities, making it harder for the police to identify them, supporters say. Messages were left for the bill’s sponsor, Councilman Anthony Phillips.
But it drew sharp opposition from some progressive members of Council and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, which said there was no evidence to support that ski masks cause or encourage crime.
“Giving police the authority to stop civilians without suspicion of unlawful activity is unconstitutional,” Solomon Furious Worlds, an attorney for the ACLU, said in a statement.
The ban is part of a larger puzzle the Democrats are grappling with: balancing accountability after protests against police brutality, while trying to address community concerns about safety.
Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker won election with a tough-on-crime approach, vowing to put hundreds of officers on the street, embedded within communities.
She’s drawn criticism for her stance that officers should use “reasonable suspicion” to stop people — which opponents feel comes uncomfortably close to the controversial stop-and-frisk tactic. She recently tapped longtime police official Kevin Bethel as her police commissioner, saying he had the experience to restore order while holding police accountable.
https://www.voanews.com/a/some-worry-philadelphia-ski-mask-ban-will-unfairly-target-some-/7381315.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Michael Genaldi’s road to homelessness began early this year when a car slammed into the rear of his motorcycle, crushed three of his ribs, and left him in a coma for over a month.
The 58-year-old lost his job as a machine operator, then his home, and he was living in his truck when he was diagnosed with stage 2 lung cancer. Too young to get Social Security, Genaldi now lives temporarily in a shelter for people 55 and older in Phoenix while he navigates the process of qualifying for disability payments.
As its population ages, the United States is ill-prepared to adequately house and care for the growing number of older people, concludes a new report being released Thursday by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Without enough government help, “many older adults will have to forgo needed care or rely on family and friends for assistance,” warned Jennifer Molinsky, project director of the center’s Housing an Aging Society Program. Many, like Genaldi, will become homeless.
Molinsky said more governmental assistance could better help the upsurge of older Americans who are baby boomers born after World War II.
The report says that in 2021, federal housing assistance like Section 8 or Section 202 — which provides housing with supportive services such as cleaning, cooking and transportation for older people — was only sufficient for a little more than a third of the 5.9 million renters ages 62 and over who were eligible.
Creative ideas are especially needed now to house people with fixed or dwindling incomes and with insufficient savings, the report says. Think house or apartment sharing to cut back on costs rather than living alone, in accessory dwelling units or ADUs known as casitas, granny flats and in-law units. There are also cohousing communities where individual homes — sometimes even tiny homes — are arranged around a building with a communal space such as a dining room.
Over the next decade, the U.S. population over the age of 75 will increase by 45%, growing from 17 million to nearly 25 million. And many of those people are expected to struggle financially. The report notes that in 2021, nearly 11.2 million older adults were “cost burdened,” which means they spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
Some of the highest cost-burden rates for renters 65 and older were in Sunbelt areas traditionally popular for retirement: Las Vegas; San Diego; Raleigh, North Carolina; Miami and Daytona Beach, Florida.
Like renters, many older homeowners also struggle to keep a roof over their head.
The report says that mortgage debt among older adults is rising, with the median mortgage debt for homeowners 65 to 79 shooting up over 400% from $21,000 in 1989 to $110,000 in 2022 as people increasingly need to access cash for basic needs and care.
Many older adults also find it challenging to obtain the additional services they need as they age, with the costs of long-term care averaging over $100 a day.
The report says the households of older people of color are far more likely to be cost burdened than older white households, especially Black and Latino households. Older people who live alone are also more likely to be cost burdened than married or partnered couples: 47% versus 21% of couples.
In Phoenix, Angelita Saldaña, 56, became homeless after her marriage fell apart. The granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, Saldaña initially lived in her truck with her pet dog Gaspar, but they now live at the 60-bed shelter where Genaldi stays with his pet dog Chico.
Saldaña said her $941 monthly disability check isn’t enough to pay for even a studio apartment in the area, where average rents start at around $1,200. A caseworker is trying to help her find something she can afford.
In the meantime, she has a motel room to herself with a private bathroom.
“Here, I can sleep good,” she said, unlike the months she spent at the state’s largest shelter in downtown Phoenix, which has 10 times as many beds.
Lisa Glow, the CEO for Central Arizona Shelter Services, which operates both facilities, said older people do much better in a shelter designed with their needs in mind — including more space, limited stairs and wider doorways for wheelchairs.
Glow spoke of an 82-year-old man with dementia who struggled to sleep on a bunk bed at the downtown shelter before he was transferred. Staff members tracked down his family and got him transferred to a skilled nursing facility for more personalized care.
“The downtown shelter is not a good place for an aging adult with chronic conditions,” said Glow. “We see a lot of people there in their 70s and 80s.”
“I’ve been shocked to see so many seniors on the street,” she added. “People with wheelchairs. People with walkers.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-ill-prepared-to-house-growing-number-of-older-people-study-says-/7379844.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Flu is picking up steam while RSV lung infections that can hit kids and older people hard may be peaking, U.S. health officials said Friday.
COVID-19, though, continues to cause the most hospitalizations and deaths among respiratory illnesses — about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every week, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency is also looking into reports of pneumonia outbreaks in children in two states, but Cohen said “there is no evidence” that they are due to anything unusual.
As for the flu season, seven states were reporting high levels of flu-like illnesses in early November. In a new CDC report Friday, the agency said the tally was up to 11 states — mostly in the South and Southwest.
In the last month, RSV infections rose sharply in some parts of the country, nearly filling hospital emergency departments in Georgia, Texas and some other states. But “we think we’re near the peak of RSV season or will be in the next week or so,” Cohen said.
RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus is a common cause of mild coldlike symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and older people.
Cohen was asked about pneumonia cases in children reported in Massachusetts and in Warren County, Ohio, near Cincinnati. There are a number of possible causes of the lung infection, and it can be a complication of COVID-19, flu, or RSV.
In Ohio, health officials have reported 145 cases since August and most of the children recovered at home. The illnesses were caused by a variety of common viruses and bacteria, officials said.
Massachusetts health officials said there’s been a modest increase in pneumonia in kids but that it is appropriate for the season.
China recently had a surge in respiratory illnesses which health officials there attributed to the flu and other customary causes.
https://www.voanews.com/a/flu-on-rise-rsv-infections-may-be-peaking-us-health-officials-say-/7381309.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1887 – Prohibitionist Henry Needham purchases land in Newhall, attempts to establish “dry” colony [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-dec-3/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Lush Elements brings the outdoors indoors.
The post Santa Barbara Business Specializes in Living Art appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/02/santa-barbara-business-specializes-in-living-art/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
An iconic chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, inspired countless Native American children as a powerful but humble leader who expanded early education and rural health care.
Her reach is now broadening with a quintessential American honor: a Barbie doll in the late Mankiller’s likeness as part of toymaker Mattel’s “Inspiring Women” series.
A public ceremony honoring Mankiller’s legacy is set for Tuesday in Tahlequah in northeast Oklahoma, where the Cherokee Nation is headquartered.
Mankiller was the nation’s first female principal chief, leading the tribe for a decade until 1995. She focused on improving social conditions through consensus and on restoring pride in Native heritage. She met with three U.S. presidents and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
She also met snide remarks about her surname — a military title — with humor, often delivering a straight-faced response: “Mankiller is actually a well-earned nickname.” She died in 2010.
The tribe’s current leader, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., applauded Mattel for commemorating Mankiller.
“When Native girls see it, they can achieve it, and Wilma Mankiller has shown countless young women to be fearless and speak up for Indigenous and human rights,” Hoskin said in a statement. “Wilma Mankiller is a champion for the Cherokee Nation, for Indian Country, and even my own daughter.”
Mankiller, whose likeness is on a U.S. quarter issued in 2021, is the second Native American woman honored with a Barbie doll. Famed aviator Bessie Coleman, who was of Black and Cherokee ancestry, was depicted earlier this year.
Other dolls in the series include Maya Angelou, Ida B. Wells, Jane Goodall and Madam C.J. Walker.
The rollout of the Mankiller Barbie doll, wearing a ribbon skirt, black shoes and carrying a woven basket, has been met with conflicting reactions.
Many say the doll is a fitting tribute for a remarkable leader who faced conflict head-on and helped the tribe triple its enrollment, double its employment and build new health centers and children’s programs.
Still, some Cherokee women are critical, saying Mattel overlooked problematic details on the doll and the packaging.
“Mixed emotions shared by me and many other Cherokee women who have now purchased the product revolve around whether a Wilma Barbie captures her legacy, her physical features and the importance of centering Cherokee women in decision making,” Stacy Leeds, the law school dean at Arizona State University and a former Cherokee Nation Supreme Court justice, told The Associated Press in an email.
Regina Thompson, a Cherokee basket weaver who grew up near Tahlequah, doesn’t think the doll looks like Mankiller. Mattel should have considered traditional pucker toe moccasins, instead of black shoes, and included symbols on the basket that Cherokees use to tell a story, she said.
“Wilma’s name is the only thing Cherokee on that box,” Thompson said. “Nothing about that doll is Wilma, nothing.”
The Cherokee language symbols on the packaging also are wrong, she noted. Two symbols look similar, and the one used translates to “chicken,” rather than “Cherokee.”
Mattel spokesperson Devin Tucker said the company is aware of the problem with the syllabary and is “discussing options.” The company worked with Mankiller’s estate, which is led by her husband, Charlie Soap, and her friend Kristina Kiehl, on the creation of the doll. Soap and Kiehl did not respond to messages left by the AP.
Mattel did not consult with the Cherokee Nation on the doll.
“Regrettably, the Mattel company did not work directly with the tribal government’s design and communications team to secure the official seal or verify it,” the tribe said in a statement. “The printing mistake itself does not diminish what it means for the Cherokee people to see this tribute to Wilma and who she was and what she stood for.”
Several Cherokees also criticized Mattel for not consulting with Mankiller’s only surviving child, Felicia Olaya, who said she was unaware of the doll until about a week before its public launch.
“I have no issues with the doll. I have no issues with honoring my mom in different ways,” said Olaya, who acknowledged she and Soap, her stepfather, are estranged. “The issue is that no one informed me, no one told me. I didn’t know it was coming.”
Olaya also wonders how her mother would feel about being honored with a Barbie doll.
“I heard her once on the phone saying, ‘I’m not Princess Diana, nor am I Barbie,’” Olaya recalled. “I think she probably would have been a little conflicted on that, because my mom was very humble. She wasn’t the type of person who had her honorary degrees or awards plastered all over the wall. They were in tubs in her pole barn.”
“I’m not sure how she would feel about this,” Olaya said.
Still, Olaya said she hopes to buy some of the dolls for her grandchildren and is always grateful for people to learn about her mother’s legacy.
“I have a warm feeling about the thought of my granddaughters playing with a Wilma Mankiller Barbie,” she said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/barbie-doll-honoring-cherokee-nation-leader-met-with-mixed-emotions-/7382162.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday denounced those who advocate “an American retreat from responsibility” and said sustained U.S. leadership is needed to help keep the world as safe, free and prosperous as possible. He also urged Congress to end the partisan gridlock that has stalled the federal budget and war spending.
The United States must reject calls to turn away from global interests and become more isolationist, he told an audience of lawmakers, corporate and defense leaders and government officials attending a security conference. Those who “try to pull up the drawbridge,” he said, undermine the security that has led to decades of prosperity.
In his remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California’s Simi Valley, Austin delivered a lengthy defense of U.S. support to Israel in its war against Hamas and to Ukraine in its struggle to battle Russia’s invasion.
“The world will only become more dangerous if tyrants and terrorists believe that they can get away with wholesale aggression and mass slaughter,” he said.
‘It is not bold’
Austin met privately with top lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
His message of rejecting isolationism appeared directed at conservative lawmakers who are increasingly opposed to spending on overseas wars and back former President Donald Trump’s “America First” ideology.
“You’ll hear some people try to brand an American retreat from responsibility as bold new leadership,” Austin said. “Make no mistake: It is not bold. It is not new. And it is not leadership.”
Congress has failed to approve any new money for the wars in Ukraine and Israel and has managed to pass only a short-term budget bill, known as a continuing resolution, that runs out early next year. The Senate has been deadlocked for months over one lawmaker’s move to block hundreds of military nominations, including critical senior commanders for key regions around the world.
“Our competitors don’t have to operate under continuing resolutions. And doing so erodes both our security and our ability to compete,” Austin said. He opened his speech with a plea to the lawmakers in the crowd to pass both the budget and the supplemental funding for the wars.
War spending would create jobs
Administration officials have warned that money for Ukraine is running out and may only last through the end of this year. The Pentagon has about $5 billion worth of equipment it can send from its own stockpiles and has been eating away at almost weekly. Money to replace military weapons and equipment taken from Pentagon stocks to send to Ukraine is rapidly dwindling, and totals about $1 billion.
Austin, who was in Ukraine’s capital less than two weeks ago, has repeatedly pressed the importance of helping Ukraine battle Russia’s invasion, as part of a broader campaign to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from threatening other countries in Europe.
Austin also noted that as much as $50 billion of that supplemental budget request for the wars would flow through American defense companies, helping to create or support tens of thousands of jobs in more than 30 states.
While he did not mention it in his address, Austin has often criticized Congress for its failure to confirm more than 400 military officers nominated for promotions or other jobs.
Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from the state of Alabama, has blocked the nominations and objected when other senators have tried to get some through. On just two occasions, the Senate has managed to vote to confirm a total of six high-ranking leaders.
Almost 400 military nominations are in limbo, and the number is growing. Frustrated Republicans have tried unsuccessfully for almost nine months to persuade Tuberville to drop the holds, and negotiations are continuing. Senior military officials have warned repeatedly that the situation threatens readiness and national security.
https://www.voanews.com/a/austin-decries-isolationists-who-want-us-to-retreat-from-responsibility-/7382139.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
For Some DACA Recipients, Leaving US Only Way to Escape Legal Limbo
In 2020, Tawheeda Wahabzada had had enough. It was time to leave the country she’d grown up in. “The idea of leaving has always been at the back of my mind. … It was a constant reminder that this is temporary, and I felt I wasn’t able to live a meaningful life because of my status,” she said. Wahabzada is one of a growing number of young immigrants brought to the United States as children who do not want to live in legal limbo anymore. She, like millions of other immigrants who entered the country without permission or overstayed their visas, has no path to citizenship. VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story.
Mexican Journalist Granted US Asylum After 15-Year Journey
Emilio Gutierrez Soto came to the National Press Club on Wednesday with a message of gratitude. Press freedom advocates came with a call to action. The 60-year-old journalist fled with his son to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2008 seeking asylum after receiving death threats because of his reporting on Mexican military corruption. After 15 years, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in favor of Gutierrez Soto. He still needs to go in front of an immigration judge in March 2024 to receive his asylum papers, but his immigration lawyer said his case has been resolved. VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros has the story.
US Closing Remote Arizona Border Crossing, Citing Overwhelming Migrant Arrivals
So many migrants are crossing from Mexico into the United States around remote Lukeville, Arizona, that U.S. officials say they will close the port of entry there so that the operations officials who watch over vehicle and pedestrian traffic going both ways can help Border Patrol agents arrest and process the new arrivals. Customs and Border Protection announced Friday that the temporary closure of the crossing will start Monday as officials grapple with changing migration routes that have overwhelmed Border Patrol agents stationed there. Arizona’s U.S. senators and governor called planned closure “unacceptable.” Reported by The Associated Press.
Northern US Cities Scramble to House Migrants for Winter
Chicago is scrambling to house hundreds of asylum-seekers who are still sheltering on sidewalks, at police stations and at the city’s busiest airport as the cold weather sets in and with winter just around the corner. The country’s third-largest city announced a partnership with religious leaders this week to house 400 of the migrants in churches. But with nighttime temperatures dropping below freezing and chillier conditions still ahead, more than 1,000 were still living at police stations or at O’Hare International Airport as of Friday, according to the city dashboard. The Associated Press reports.
Immigration around the world
Former Somali Refugee Wins Prestigious UN Award
A former child refugee from Somalia has won the prestigious UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. Abdullahi Mire, 36, was recognized for bringing 100,000 books to his compatriots languishing in sprawling camps in Kenya. Reported by VOA’s Mohamed Olad Hassan.
Finland Closes Russian Border Over Migrant Influx, Estonia Could Follow
Finland closed its entire 1,340-kilometer border with Russia this week, accusing Moscow of sending asylum-seekers across the frontier in a hybrid attack in retaliation for its decision to join NATO. Russia denies the accusation. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell has more.
Greek Police Arrest 6 Alleged Migrant Traffickers, Hunting 7 More
Greek police have arrested six people who they say are members of a large human trafficking gang that violently extorted money from migrants to assist them in crossing into neighboring Albania and travel to European Union countries to the north. Reported by The Associated Press.
Afghans Face Abuses in Pakistan, US Announces Hotline
Pakistani police are facing accusations of unlawfully detaining, beating, extorting and sexually harassing Afghan refugees as part of a coercive campaign aimed at compelling them to return to their home country. By VOA’s Akmal Dawi.
About Half of Nicaragua’s Population Wants to Emigrate, Study Says
Lawyer Isabel Lazo’s jobs are being systematically canceled by Nicaragua’s increasingly repressive government. Lazo worked at a university before the government of President Daniel Ortega closed it. She now is employed at a nongovernmental organization that she fears will soon be shuttered too. The Associated Press reports.
Pakistani Top Court Seeks Government Response on Afghan Expulsion Policy
Pakistan’s Supreme Court asked the government Friday to respond to questions raised over its policy of expelling Afghans residing illegally in the country, observing that Islamabad must abide by United Nations’ resolutions protecting refugees. Reported by Sarah Zaman.
Rohingya Refugees Fleeing Bangladesh by Boat This Year Top 2022 Number
The number of Rohingya taking risky boat trips across the Andaman Sea to flee mounting hunger and hopelessness in the refugee camps of Bangladesh this year has topped last year’s numbers and could keep rising, rights groups and aid agencies told VOA. By Zsombor Peter.
News Brief
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, continues to remove single adults and family units to Central America and Venezuela.
https://www.voanews.com/a/voa-immigration-weekly-recap-nov-26-dec-2-/7382135.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: VOA News USA
Henry Kissinger will be remembered in much of the world as a foreign policy genius who ushered China into the world community, driving a wedge between Beijing and its Cold War ally Moscow, and eventually transforming the world economy.
In Southeast Asia, the Nixon-era national security adviser and secretary of state who died this week at age 100 is being remembered differently.
The opening to China that Kissinger engineered sent a rippling effect to Thailand, which, former Thai Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun said, had trepidation for Communism.
“A lot of Thai people didn’t understand China, believing that the communist China couldn’t be trusted,” Anand, who served as the prime minister of Thailand from 1991 to 1992, told VOA’s Thai Service in May when Kissinger celebrated his 100th birthday.
“I don’t think it was [only because of] Kissinger’s policy” toward China but “also because of the ties between the Thai and U.S. military” that focused on defense rather than diplomatic relations, said Anand.
Architect of war strategy
In Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, meanwhile, Kissinger is remembered as the architect of a war strategy that devastated vast regions and killed uncounted numbers of people.
“If we just focus on the region … Kissinger’s decisions in these areas, no matter how brilliant he may have been, no matter how skillful a negotiator he may have been, were disastrous for hundreds of thousands of innocent people,” said Larry Berman, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis who has written extensively on the Vietnam War.
“It is where the judgment of history will be,” Berman told VOA’s Vietnamese Service on Thursday.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
The United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia between 1965 and 1975 — twice the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II, according to the website Storymaps.
At the time, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, which was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist countries, was fighting the U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam in the south.
Analysts say Kissinger’s policies aimed at quashing the communist forces were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
North Vietnam moved troops and supplies to the South via Laos on what was known as the Ho Chi Minh trail. Kissinger and other American officials wanted that to end.
From 1964-1973, the U.S. dropped 2.5 million tons of bombs on Laos, making it the most bombed country in the world, according to Legacies of War. Tens of thousands of people were killed.
The U.S. dropped an estimated 500,000 tons of bombs in Cambodia as what began with a CIA operation in Laos expanded to Cambodia, said Erin Lin, assistant professor of Political Science at the Ohio State University, in her book, “When the Bombs Stopped.”
The bombing killed as many as 150,000 Cambodian civilians, said Yale University historian Ben Kiernan, cited by The Washington Post.
In Cambodia, the bombing “enraged populace into the arms of an insurgency that had enjoyed relatively little support until the bombing began, setting in motion the expansion of the Vietnam War deeper into Cambodia, a coup d’état in 1970, the rapid rise of the Khmer Rouge, and ultimately the Cambodian genocide,” according to a Walrus magazine article in Yale University’s genocide studies program.
In Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, trained personnel, children and farmers are still finding unexploded ordnance more than 50 years after the last U.S. service member left Vietnam on March 29, 1973.
Some of it is removed by those who know how. Some of it injures or kills the finder.
Ros Chantrabot, a Khmer historian and personal adviser to Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia from 1985 until this year, told VOA’s Khmer Service on Thursday that “Henry Kissinger had a huge responsibility … for involving Cambodia in the war, which killed many people and left many landmines in Cambodia today.”
“The sad reality is, he leaves this legacy which many, many Cambodians still pay the price for,” said Sophal Ear, a Cambodian American political scientist, to The Washington Post. “To this day, there are people who … lose limb and life in the process of trying to make a living in a land that has been filled with bombs.”
East Timor
Brad Simpson, professor at the University of Connecticut Department of History, said Kissinger is also responsible for backing Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975.
Indonesia said at the time that annexation of East Timor was crucial to prevent the spread of communism.
Simpson told VOA’s Indonesian Service on Thursday that Kissinger “helped to expedite the flow of weapons and military equipment to Indonesia over the next year as it faced a determined guerrilla resistance from armed East Timorese resistance fighters.”
He continued, saying, “By the time Kissinger left office in the beginning of 1977, Indonesia had killed perhaps a tenth of the population of East Timor.” At the time, the population was 619,308, according to the World Bank.
The Indonesian invasion led to a long and bloody occupation of the territory that ended only after an international peacekeeping force was introduced in 1999 and as many as 200,000 people had died, according to National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 62.
The Korean Service, Khmer Service, Vietnamese Service, Indonesian Service and Thai Service contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/kissinger-s-legacy-still-ripples-through-asia-/7382122.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-03, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-342/ Save to Pocket