(date: 2023-12-05 09:34:54)
date: 2023-12-05, from: Liliputing
The MINIX Z100 is a compact computer that measures 123 x 120 x 46mm (4.84″ x 4.72″ x 1.81″) and features an Intel Alder Lake-N processor, support for up to two displays, a decent set of ports, and support for WIFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and 2.5 GbE Ethernet connections. It’s also a fanless computer that […]
The post MINIX Z100 is a small, fanless PC with an Intel N100 Alder Lake-N processor appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/minix-z100-is-a-small-fanless-pc-with-an-intel-n100-alder-lake-n-processor/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
Are you thinking about purchasing a house in Missouri and searching for financing alternatives? If that’s the case, an FHA loan might be the perfect option for you. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers mortgage insurance on loans provided by FHA-approved lenders such as Society Mortgage, making it simpler for individuals to meet the requirements […]
The post Navigating the FHA Loan Process and Requirements in Missouri: Factors to Consider appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/navigating-the-fha-loan-process-and-requirements-in-missouri-factors-to-consider/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
Jolie reveals in a new interview that she is seeking more ‘authenticity’ in her life, away from the ‘shallow’ world of Hollywood and movies.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/angelina-jolie-may-quit-acting-and-live-in-asia-once-shes-free-of-brad-pitt-divorce-battles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
From Ortega to Hatch, La Victoria and more, who makes the best canned chiles? We taste tested 11 brands to find the very best ones – and found four so terrible, you need to back away from the supermarket shelf.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/taste-off-the-best-canned-diced-green-chiles-and-the-duds/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror and more holidays — whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Yule — ahead, it’s time to start thinking about the perfect gift for the beer lovers in your life. Luckily, there are always options for gifting joy to the beer aficionados on your shopping list.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/2023-holiday-gifts-for-beer-lovers-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
Today’s post is in honor of National Miners Day, celebrated annually on December 6th. This blog is written by John C. Harris, Archives Technician at the National Archives at Philadelphia. Introduction Amidst the era of New Deal regulation and reform, Congress aimed to regulate the coal industry. The Bituminous Coal Conservation Act of 1935 established … Continue reading Mining the Archive for Prospective Research
https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2023/12/05/mining-the-archive-for-prospective-research/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
For avid travel enthusiasts, travel is more than a quick getaway from the rigours of daily life. It is an opportunity to embrace change, seek adventure, and enjoy meaningful experiences that last a lifetime. For the discerning traveller, the right credit card is a gateway to an elevated lifestyle. IndusInd Bank introduces a host of […]
The post <strong>What are the Lifestyle Benefits Offered by the IndusInd Bank Avios Visa Infinite Credit Card?</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/what-are-the-lifestyle-benefits-offered-by-the-indusind-bank-avios-visa-infinite-credit-card-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: NASA breaking news
NASA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of International Space Station operations during a live conversation with crew aboard the microgravity laboratory for the benefit of humanity. During a space-to-Earth call at 12:25 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 6, the Expedition 70 crew will speak with NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana and Joel Montalbano, space station program […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-leaders-to-highlight-25th-anniversary-of-space-station-with-crew/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
Privacy advocates have long warned that sharing DNA with testing companies like 23andMe and Ancestry makes consumers vulnerable to the exposure of sensitive genetic information that can reveal health risks of individuals and those who are related to them.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/23andme-says-health-data-was-included-in-hack-that-compromised-6-9-million-users/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
While SoCalGas isn’t expecting huge increases like last winter, it’s trying to help customers avoid any surprises.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/los-angeles-gas-bill-help-socalgas-utility-winter-southern-california Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Big tech brands including IBM, Meta, Intel, Red Hat and Oracle are banding together with universities and organizations such as NASA to create a community that develops open and responsible AI tech - just as regulators begin looking at legislation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/ai_alliance_opens_its_doors/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Liliputing
Beeper has been offering a unified messaging platform for a few years, allowing users to open a single app to communicate with contacts via SMS, Google Chat, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, and perhaps most significantly, iMessage. Up until this week though, Android users that wanted to use Beeper to send “blue bubble” messages to […]
The post Beeper Mini is an iMessage-for-Android app that doesn’t require any Apple device at all appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/beeper-mini-is-an-imessage-for-android-app-that-doesnt-require-any-apple-device-at-all/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Nov. 15 raid stemmed from a DUI investigation roughly three weeks earlier.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/chp-seizes-1250-rounds-of-ammo-three-guns-in-raid-of-pittsburg-home/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
Juan Soto and Luis Robert Jr. are the highest-profile trade candidates, but there are a number of players who fit the Giants’ needs.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/with-sf-giants-more-likely-to-add-bats-via-trade-who-are-some-fits/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
The gondola would take people from Union Station in downtown L.A. through Chinatown to Dodger Stadium.
https://laist.com/news/transportation/las-proposed-gondola-project-releases-final-environmental-impact-report Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
A Bay Area developer has proposed a big industrial complex on a San Jose site once tied to Amazon.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/san-jose-amazon-real-estate-build-develop-tech-industrial-economy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Distilled Earth blog
This weekend’s voluntary pledge by oil and gas companies is a distraction. It also misses the biggest source of methane emissions.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-latest-methane-agreement-at-cop28 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the Rolling Stones to Bonnie Raitt and Dolly Parton, there are plenty of septuagenarians creating new, quality works. These performers are redefining “oldies but goodies,” but what can they teach us about prospects for an economy with an aging population? We rock out a bit, then discuss. Also on the show: Sweden’s Ericsson sees a win over Finland’s Nokia, and Moody’s issues a negative outlook for China’s government debt.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/it-pays-to-play-on-as-you-age Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: Deno blog
Terraform is a popular tool used to safely and predictably provision and manage infrastructure in any cloud. Here’s how you could use Terraform to manage your Deno Deploy or Deno Subhosting projects.
https://deno.com/blog/terraform Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No, it isn’t your imagination. Windows really is installing the HP Smart App and renaming printers without user interaction.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/hp_smartapp_microsoft_issue/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
The killing is the 117th homicide investigated by Oakland police this year.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/man-fatally-shot-in-oaklands-eastlake-district/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
Cards were declined in three separate incidents.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/credit-card-thieves-try-to-make-fraudulent-purchases-at-los-gatos-apple-store/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: San Jose Mercury News
California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/05/gms-cruise-robotaxi-service-faces-fine-in-alleged-cover-up-of-san-francisco-accidents-severity/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Heatmap News
The rules governing virtually all of the remaining policies in President Joe Biden’s climate law — including some of its most important and generous provisions — will come out in the next several weeks, signaling a new era in the law’s implementation, a senior White House advisor told Heatmap in an exclusive interview.
Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, the advisor John Podesta said that the Treasury Department will publish rules governing some of the law’s biggest remaining subsidies by the end of the year. The former White House chief of staff and veteran political strategist also offered a window into his thinking about the implementation of the policies, which he has been charged with overseeing since last year.
The upcoming subsidies include some of the most important tax credits in the law. They are aimed at boosting climate-friendly aviation fuel, low-carbon hydrogen, and new factories building EVs and other clean-energy equipment. Podesta said that guidance for all three tax credits will be published by the end of the year. When they are released, every active subsidy in the Inflation Reduction Act will be usable and open for business.
Get one great climate story in your inbox every day:
Podesta has spent much of the past year immersed in the tax code, the site of many of the law’s most sweeping policies. On Sunday, he walked Heatmap through his thought process behind some of the biggest unreleased rules.
He expressed particular worry about the rules governing “green hydrogen,” which is produced by using electricity to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen.
“This has been the most challenging piece of policy that we’ve had to contend with” while implementing the IRA, Podesta said.
Many energy scholars believe that hydrogen, which produces no climate pollution when burned, could potentially replace fossil fuels in many sectors. But the IRA’s tax credit is so generous — providing companies with up to $3 for every kilogram of hydrogen produced — that some experts have argued that exceptionally strong rules must govern it, so as to make sure it actually serves to reduce emissions.
Hydrogen “has the potential to pay enormous dividends in 2030 and 2040 in reducing emissions from the industrial sector, from heavy duty transportation, et cetera,” Podesta said. “But at the same time, not do it in a way that lacks environmental integrity.”
He described the White House’s work as trying to balance between two bad outcomes: On the one hand, it could stifle the production of green hydrogen so much that “blue hydrogen,” produced using natural gas and carbon capture technology, dominates; on the other, it could boost green hydrogen so much that it distorts electricity markets nationwide.
“We could kind of blow it in either direction, I think,” Podesta said. “We can either be in a context in which we’re not really driving deployment, and therefore driving innovation, particularly on the electrolyzer side, so that we end up kind of filling the gap with a lot of blue hydrogen rather than green hydrogen. On the other hand, if we go the other way, we sort of blow emissions on the grid.”
The big question confronting the Treasury Department is how to measure climate pollution produced from the electricity used to create green hydrogen. One sticking point is whether hydrogen producers will be allowed to buy power from existing zero-carbon power plants, like nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams. That could be a boon for Constellation Energy, the country’s largest owner of nuclear facilities.
But researchers at Princeton and MIT have argued that if hydrogen companies aren’t required to bring new clean energy resources onto the grid to account for the power that they’re using to make hydrogen, then they will inadvertently increase climate pollution. That is because if a nuclear reactor stops serving homes and businesses and starts powering hydrogen production, then natural gas and coal plants will likely produce electricity to fill the gap, at least in the near term.
“You could see a world where all of the U.S. nukes pivot to supplying electrolyzers and just print money that way,” Dan Esposito, a policy analyst at the think tank Energy Innovation, told Heatmap earlier this year. “There’s just a lot of layers to how bad this can get.”
But speaking in Dubai, Podesta appeared to reject some of these more extreme scenarios.
“I think a lot of the model runs just have assumptions that are very, very — you know,” Podesta said. “Like, all nuclear power plants are not going to stop sending power to the grid and start making hydrogen. That is not going to happen. I guarantee you that.”
“So you can have an upside estimate of what that means, but to what end?” he added. “It’s tricky, because the [hydrogen] industry essentially does not exist. So we’re making judgment calls about what we need to do to get the green side of the industry really going, in this decade.”
Podesta was more sanguine about the other two tax credits. “We’ve got a game plan on [the sustainable aviation fuel tax credit], and I think it’s going to be fine,” he said, although he added that it would require updating a key Department of Energy model that governs the policy.
“We’ll be able to both stimulate production but also create environmental integrity in that program,” he said.
That policy is expected in the middle of December. The last remaining tax credit, which will subsidize new factories in America to build clean-energy equipment, will be out next week, a Treasury Department spokesperson told Heatmap.
Once rules are written for those three programs, virtually all of the active subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act will be ready to use. The IRA contains another set of subsidies — “technology-neutral” tax credits that will boost zero-carbon power generation until the country hits certain decarbonization goals — that the Treasury Department has not yet written rules for. But that program will not go into effect until 2025.
Starting on January 1, a new era will begin in the law’s implementation, as the government moves to award the climate law’s more than $100 billion in grants, Podesta said. “It’s going from, ‘This money is available, please apply,’ to, ‘Here’s the money, go put it to work,’” Podesta said.
In the spring, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund — a new $27 billion in-house investment fund created at the Environmental Protection Agency — will begin distributing its funding, he added.
“I think that could be very, very powerful and important, not just from the perspective of reducing costs for consumers and reducing emissions, but in terms of the goal of deploying against the justice part of the president’s agenda,” he said. “That’s really where you can see the community impact happen.”
https://heatmap.news/economy/john-podesta-tax-credits-schedule-hydrogen-sustainable-aviation-fuel-manufacturing Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Microsoft reckons Visual Studio Code has a community of more than 2.5 million Java developers, and coming up next for them is full support for Java 21 and changes intended to improve reliability and stability.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/java_visual_studio_code/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: NASA breaking news
In February 2023, researchers from around the country gathered at a NASA-sponsored workshop to discuss the latest developments and a roadmap for a cryobot mission concept to drill through the icy crusts of Europa and Enceladus and search for life.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/science-enabling-technology/digging-deeper-to-find-life-on-ocean-worlds/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: NASA breaking news
Meeting members of the Artemis generation often inspires NASA’s workforce as much as it encourages the students themselves. For one recent group of students, a visit to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida brought mentorship, new experiences, and inspiration for answering the profound questions of our universe. The 22 students traveled to the world’s […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/nasa-helps-create-space-for-all-through-mentorship/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
In 2021, Maryland residents Georgia Dodson and Jade Conner started a nonprofit that rescues aging dogs. So far, Miri’s Haven Senior Dog Rescue says it has helped more than 280 dogs, all of which are over 7 years old, many with medical issues. Masha Morton has the story. VOA footage by Alexey Zonov.
https://www.voanews.com/a/maryland-residents-run-nonprofit-to-save-senior-dogs/7384902.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: 404 Media Group
OctoML, the engine that powers a16z funded Civitai, thought the images could qualify as “child pornography,” but ultimately decided to keep working with the company anyway, internal Slack chats and other material shows.
https://www.404media.co/a16z-funded-ai-platform-generated-images-that-could-be-categorized-as-child-pornography-leaked-documents-show/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The US Department of Energy’s watchdog claims that operations and maintenance are being poorly managed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s datacenter, home to advanced computers such as the world’s first exascale system, Frontier.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/warnings_of_poor_maintenance_at/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
Guam Waterworks Authority General Manager Miguel Bordallo said GWA did not receive and was not expecting to receive any communication from the Department of Defense about GWA’s concerns regarding the proposed missile defense system’s impact on the water and wastewater…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/bordallo-gwa-missile-defense-concerns-would-be-in-draft-eis/article_a5d80ce0-924e-11ee-be8d-1ba76db6b56f.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The Malesso’ coconut Christmas tree, which debuted in 2019, is back for its fifth year and thousands of people have visited to decorate and display their coconuts on the tree.
https://www.postguam.com/island_life/the-malesso-coconut-christmas-tree-is-back-for-its-5th-year/article_793c4cea-926d-11ee-a001-03d3c8135329.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Department of Education Head Start Program has a lot riding on its ability to correct the deficiencies and compliance issues noted by U.S. Head Start Region 9 officials. If corrective actions laid out in the quality improvement plan…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/issues-with-supervision-safety-found-in-head-start-program/article_28c6f884-9243-11ee-b185-b75a5f135e39.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
A civil attorney has agreed to stay on a criminal case for a murderer needing to be sentenced again after appealing his conviction.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/attorney-to-stay-on-acosta-case/article_1107d932-924f-11ee-97d0-7f3ef3739e82.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
One of two brothers charged in connection to the death of Arnold Narruhn last year will go to trial Wednesday, while the other is set to plead guilty.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/1-brother-heads-to-trial-2nd-to-plead-guilty-in-2022-fatal-attack/article_161cfde2-92fb-11ee-888c-fb812d1f6717.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The University of Guam is facing a discrimination lawsuit for allegedly passing on a candidate based on her race, national origin and age.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/university-facing-lawsuit-in-alleged-discrimination-case/article_ce4428ec-9318-11ee-a004-7bc72025122e.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
A 26-year-old man with a criminal past became the first person to receive his high school diploma from the Asmuyao Community School while on release from prison.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-is-1st-to-earn-diploma-while-on-release-from-prison/article_dcc8c1c2-9302-11ee-81b9-eb08a40310c3.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The Supreme Court of Guam has issued its decision on several issues in a government corruption case which stemmed from a judge being listed as a professional reference in Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s election campaign.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/supreme-court-issues-order-in-public-health-corruption-case/article_646546f0-9308-11ee-ba00-6f02358e1b59.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
Sen. Frank Blas Jr. is recommending that the governor create a comprehensive task force composed of experts in medical care, hospital administration and management, financial management, procurement, engineering and human resources to evaluate the state of the Guam Memorial Hospital,…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/blas-suggests-comprehensive-task-force-to-evaluate-hospital/article_a1b08156-9320-11ee-8bce-3bf5982721a5.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The Civil Service Commission addressed two adverse action cases involving the Office of the Attorney General last week, rejecting a motion to dismiss one case, while the other was said to be in settlement.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/csc-to-hear-ag-termination-case/article_77898f20-901a-11ee-864e-9f0053c3ca33.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Following the UK’s success in rejoining the EU’s Horizon science program, the government has promised a “push” to maximize the nation’s participation so local academics, researchers, and businesses of all sizes can seize the opportunity of being part of the €100 billion scheme.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/new_uk_immigration_rules_could/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Marketplace Morning Report
A tax case over $15,000 that could rewrite the U.S. tax code goes before the Supreme Court today. We’ll parse the arguments, politics and implications of it all, including what a ruling could mean for a potential wealth tax. Then, we’ll hear how Chinese property giant Evergrande avoided liquidation this week and what Mark Cuban’s sale of the Dallas Mavericks could mean for gambling in Texas.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-case-that-could-overhaul-the-income-tax-system-as-we-know-it Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
From 2016 to 2022, fentanyl overdose deaths in Los Angeles County increased 1,652%.
https://laist.com/news/health/la-county-overdose-deaths-in-2022-climb-to-more-than-3-200 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
From fresh water to clean needles, volunteers hit the streets each day to provide services to the unhoused.
https://laist.com/news/how-to-la/these-volunteers-are-trying-to-fill-the-gaps-in-las-response-to-the-homelessness-crisis Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
This week is the deadline for candidates to file for the March 2024 primary. Here’s what it takes to make it in.
https://laist.com/news/politics/how-to-get-your-name-on-the-ballot-in-la Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The word means “style, charm or attractiveness” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rizz-is-oxfords-2023-word-of-the-year-180983367/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Cyclone Michaung drenches Chennai, India, with 20 inches of rain in two days • Death toll from northern Tanzania floods rises to 63 • The high is 90 degrees in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which voted this weekend to annex two-thirds of neighboring oil state Guyana.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber responded to critics on Monday, insisting that he and the UAE “very much believe and respect the science” after The Guardian published a video of him pooh-poohing the phase-out of fossil fuels in an online event that took place ahead of the summit. “I have always been very clear on the fact that we are making sure that everything we do is centered around the science,” Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the UAE’s state oil company Adnoc, went on. “We did not in any way underestimate or undermine the task at hand.”
Al Jaber’s ability to lead the climate summit had been called into question after the publication of the comments on Sunday, which he says were taken out of context. Some critics, however, remain unappeased. In an interview Monday, former Vice President Al Gore called Al Jaber “a smart guy … [but] when I look at the massive expansion plan that they have to increase their production of oil [after the conference] … do you take us for his fools?”
Get Heatmap AM in your inbox every weekday morning:
All the attention on Al Jaber took some wind out of the sails of the
UAE’s major green financing deal on Monday, needless to say. But
the
biggest pledge of COP28’s finance-themed day came from the country’s
banking sector, which committed $270 billion to green finance through
2030. That’s on top of
a
$30 billion fund the UAE announced Friday to invest in clean energy,
infrastructure, and other climate projects. It’s been
previously
estimated that the developing world will need an investment of $2.4
trillion a year to address climate change.
Here are some other
highlights from finance and gender day at COP28:
Tuesday’s COP28 agenda is focused on energy and industry, the just transition, and Indigenous Peoples.
Carbon dioxide becomes a “more potent greenhouse gas” the more it accumulates in the atmosphere, a new study published in Science found. Previously, the strength of the greenhouse gas effect of CO2 was thought to scale linearly, Science writes. Overall, the paper found that “doubling the atmospheric CO2 concentration increased the impact of any given increase in CO2 by about 25%,” thanks to the gas’s effect on the stratosphere.
While that would imply the planet will heat at an increasingly rapid rate, the report wasn’t all bad news. “[T]hough this effect means that the carbon dioxide added to the air now leads to more warming than it would have a century ago,” writes Science, “it also means that geoengineering schemes to release sunlight-reflecting particles could be more effective than thought by heating the stratosphere and reducing CO2’s strength.”
There are enough voters who prioritize climate issues to potentially swing elections in certain key states, a new 18-state study by the Environmental Voter Project (EVP) has found. It’s not just young voters (ages 18-34) doing the heavy lifting on climate and environment at the ballot box, either; voters who are 65 and older were second to young voters with regards to prioritizing green political issues, with one in six listing “climate change” or “clean air, clean water, and the environment” as their #1 issue.
This is significant, because in states like New Mexico, for example, EVP found that one-third of older voters prioritize climate. And just next door, “EVP identified 230,000 climate voters 65 or older in Arizona, a state where the presidential race was decided by 10,500 votes in 2020,” Inside Climate News reports. Read the full results here.
Today’s 15-year-olds will be just 27 when states like California, New York, and New Jersey begin to require that all new cars on the road be zero-emission vehicles. To best prepare today’s learning-permit holders for the future, then, states like Illinois have begun to add electric vehicles to their driver’s education fleets, Yale Climate Connections reports.
Using grants from ComEd, the local utility, “more than a dozen schools” in Illinois have made EVs and chargers available to first-time drivers so far. Educators point out that EVs still have “four wheels, a steering wheel, a brake pedal, and an accelerator” to allow students to learn the basics, but they can also offer features that double as handy teaching tools, like overhead cameras that show how far a vehicle is from a curb during those dreaded parallel parking sessions.
“There’s always talk about ‘I’ll just wait for technology,’ but the technology is available — there are ways of doing it.” —Massive Attack founding member Robert Del Naja. The band announced on Tuesday its plans for a one-day music festival in August that will be 100% powered by renewable energy.
https://heatmap.news/economy/am-briefing-al-jaber-plays-defense Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Moody’s, the rating agency, has changed China’s government credit outlook from stable to negative due to debt fears and lower growth forecasts. And, one year on, have sanctions from the European Union and G7 stop oil money flowing to Russia? Then, a former Tesla employee says he believes the company’s self-driving tech isn’t fit for public roads.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/ratings-agency-changes-china-credit-outlook-to-negative Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The AlphV/BlackCat ransomware group said it plans to “go direct” to the clients of a firm it allegedly attacked to extort them, claiming to have infiltrated the systems of accounting software vendor Tipalti.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/alphvblackcat_shakes_up_tactics_again/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: PeerJ blog
Bioacoustics is the scientific study of biological sounds. The International Bioacoustics Society (IBAC), which has a long history dating back to 1969, was having a congress every other year before the covid-19 pandemic attacked the world and prevented people from travelling. The latest IBAC congress had been originally scheduled in 2021, but had to be […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284888632/peerj-award-winner-at-ibac-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog
Spying and surveillance are different but related things. If I hired a private detective to spy on you, that detective could hide a bug in your home or car, tap your phone, and listen to what you said. At the end, I would get a report of all the conversations you had and the contents of those conversations. If I hired that same private detective to put you under surveillance, I would get a different report: where you went, whom you talked to, what you purchased, what you did.
Before the internet, putting someone under surveillance was expensive and time-consuming. You had to manually follow someone around, noting where they went, whom they talked to, what they purchased, what they did, and what they read. That world is forever gone. Our phones track our locations. Credit cards track our purchases. Apps track whom we talk to, and e-readers know what we read. Computers collect data about what we’re doing on them, and as both storage and processing have become cheaper, that data is increasingly saved and used. What was manual and individual has become bulk and mass. Surveillance has …
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/12/the-internet-enabled-mass-surveillance-ai-will-enable-mass-spying.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Marc Corredera has been posting some excellent Spanish-language Raspberry Pi content recently and we thought we’d share it with you.
The post Raspberry Pi 5 and retro gaming with Spanish reviewer Marc appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-5-and-retro-gaming-with-spanish-reviewer-marc/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Dell thinks it knows what is going to keep CIOs awake at night over the next year, and this includes making generative AI work for their organization, security, and the edge.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/dell_gen_ai_in_production/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Heatmap News
One block of Detroit’s hip Corktown neighborhood is now the home to the nation’s first inductive charging roadway, allowing specially-equipped vehicles to charge while on the move.
The electric road system is being deployed two years after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the pilot program. A joint project between the state’s Department of Transportation, Detroit, and the company that developed and installed the technology, Electreon, the quarter-mile stretch of road is packed with copper coils that allow EVs equipped with Electreon’s magnetic receivers to wirelessly charge while driving, idling, or parked. Just as importantly, it’s safe for pedestrians, animals, and other vehicles.
The stretch of 14th Street the city picked for the test was also no accident; it’s directly in front of Michigan Central, Detroit’s innovation and technology hub that includes everything from autonomous vehicle developers to drone deployments. The symbolism is obvious.
Yet Electreon — a company that has partnered with other cities in Europe and its home country of Israel — might be interested in the area for more practical reasons. It’s just really hard to maintain roads in Michigan.
Concrete and pavement is pummeled year-round with excessive moisture that seeps into cracks, contracting and expanding to break apart roads from the inside. And that’s before you throw in metro traffic, tractor trailers, and the thousands of pounds of salt scattered on the road that keeps ice at bay and accelerates rust.
If that sounds like an awful place to test copper-embedded roadways and external magnetic receivers, maybe that’s the point. If wireless charging can make it in Detroit, it can make it anywhere.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/electreon-detroit-electric-vehicle-wireless-charging Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: OS News
Intel’s Optane memory modules launched with a lot of fanfare in 2015, and were recently discontinued, in 2022, with similar fanfare. It was a sad day for me, a lover of abstraction-breaking technologies, but it was forseeable and understandable. At the time of Optane’s launch, a lot of us were excited about the idea of having a new storage tier, sitting between DRAM and flash. It was announced as having DRAM endurance and speed with the persistence and size of flash. It was a futuristic memory technology, but the technology of the future met the full force of Wright’s Law. ↫ Nima Badizadegan I definitely remember Optane being presented as a huge deal, but it seems it fell between the cracks of other technologies developing around it and their prices dropping fast.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138005/rest-in-peace-optane/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
In the past two months we have witnessed a horrific pogrom on the people of Israel, followed by weeks of war, and antisemitic attacks directed at Jews throughout the world including in our own community. These events have left the Jewish community distraught, angry and frightened at a level we have not seen in our […]
The post Mark Blazer | It’s a Season to Celebrate Heroism appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/mark-blazer-its-a-season-to-celebrate-heroism/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sir Richard Branson is leaving his space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, to stand or fall on its own two feet after declaring that his business empire will not be tipping any more cash into the project.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/branson_virgin_galactic_funding/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Underrepresentation in computing is a widely known issue, in industry and in education. To cite some statistics from the UK: a Black British Voices report from August 2023 noted that 95% of respondents believe the UK curriculum neglects black lives and experiences; fewer students from working class backgrounds study GCSE Computer Science; when they leave…
The post Engaging primary Computing teachers in culturally relevant pedagogy through professional development appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/culturally-relevant-pedagogy-areas-opportunity-adapting-lessons/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog
Today’s links Pedophiles for Purdue Pharma: With amici like these… Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Pedophiles for Purdue Pharma (permalink) It’s not merely that the Sacklers – a multigenerational, ultra-wealthy drug-pusher dynasty – made billions while murdering hundreds of thousands of Americans by lying about the safety of Oxycontin, the flagship product of their Purdue Pharma drug company. It’s that they got away with it. After a decade-long crime spree in which the family used a combination of elite philanthropy and vicious legal threats against critics (including me!) to maintain a squeaky-clean image, the Sackler name is finally a synonym for mass murder, and will forever be a curse. But though they lost their name, they kept their billions. In so doing, the Sacklers exposed the rot at the heart of American bankruptcy, bringing an obscure, deeply corrupt system into the public eye. Bankruptcy has always been with us. As Michael Hudson reminds us, “Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.” Without some system for discharging debt, control over the entire productive capacity of a society is eventually shifted to a hereditary creditor class, which precipitates calamity: https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/08/jubilant/#construire-des-passerelles But America has a bifurcated bankruptcy system. For normal people, bankruptcy is more punishment than relief. For the ultra-wealthy, bankruptcy is a system of total impunity for ghastly crimes. Simply undertake those crimes through the “personage” of an LLC and you’re on easy street: https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/bankruptcy-protects-fake-people-brutalizes-real-ones/ (This is America, so of course there’s a racial dimension to punishment-by-bankruptcy. Broke white people are funneled into quick means of discharging debts while people of color are pushed into “expensive and lengthy repayment plans”) https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2376 Anything that can’t go on forever eventually stops. At a certain point, it wasn’t possible for the Sacklers to maintain their cuddly billionaire charade. It was time to shut down the Big Store con, cool the mark, and blow town. For the Sacklers, that meant going to court. The Sacklers were facing hundreds of billions of dollars in personal liability for their individual and collective corrupt acts. They were being sued by estates, by survivors, by cities, by states, and by the USA itself. If even a fraction of these claims succeeded, the Sacklers would be wiped out. To get away clean, the Sacklers needed a plan. Enter the “Third-Party Nonconsensual Release,” a bizarre and wildly corrupt feature of elite bankruptcy. The Sacklers offered the court a deal: they would take the family business, Purdue Pharma, into bankruptcy, and kick in a few billion out of their collective hoard. In return, the court would settle all claims against both Purdue and the family. The family would not have to go bankrupt. They could keep their billions. And no one would be allowed to sue them for their opioid killing-spree, ever: https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/18/lets-make-a-deal/#art-of-the-deal You can’t make this argument in front of just any judge. It takes a Very Special judge, with a Very Special brain, to grant a proposal like this. There were just three courts in the USA where the Sacklers were likely to find a willing accomplice: two in Texas, one in New York. They chose the Empire State. To get their case in front of Judge Robert Drain, the Sacklers opened a tiny, empty office in White Plains, New York. They waited 190 days (satisfying the six-month residency requirement with a few days to spare), and then filed in the Southern District of New York. They hid invisible metadata in the PDF of their filing, which tricked the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system into putting their case in front of Drain. They even pre-captioned their brief with “RDD” for Robert D Drain: https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/23/a-bankrupt-process/#sacklers The Sacklers’ plan worked. Judge Drain nonconsensually settled all the third-party claims against the Sacklers, without requiring the Sacklers to give up the majority of their fortunes. Then, Drain resigned from the bench and took a cushy job with the BigLaw corporate crime enablers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judge-who-oversaw-purdue-sears-bankruptcies-join-law-firm-skadden-2023-04-13/ But the story doesn’t end here. While this kind of bankruptcy judge shopping and third-party nonconsensual releases had been SOP for some of the most vicious and unrepentant institutional criminals of the century, the Sacklers’ impunity was so egregious, so revolting, that the Supreme Court (yes, this Supreme Court!) agreed to hear a case challenging its constitutionalilty: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed As the hearing looms, various “friends of the court” are filing amicus briefs, trying to ensure that the Supremes understand what’s at stake here. This is a normal part of any Supreme Court case, but what’s less normal is who these amici are, and what they want the court to understand. Writing for the New York Times, Abbie Van Sickle rounds up an eye-popping summary of these amici and their concerns. Tldr? There are a lot of pedophiles who are briefing for the Sacklers: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/us/politics/oxycontin-supreme-court-purdue-sacklers.html First on deck is the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, who remind the court that nonconsensual third-party releases were essential to the Catholic Church’s ability to walk away from the untold number of children abused by the clergy who were protected by the Church: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-124/288262/20231027145345921_23-124%20bsac%20USCCB%20Purdue%20Pharma.pdf Next up are the Boy Scouts of America. Like the Bishops, the Scouts want the Court to remember that the decades of sexual abuse committed by scoutmasters who were protected by the BSA while their victims were marginalized and silenced would have destroyed the Scouts if the victims had been able to get justice. It was only through the magic of the Third-Party Nonconsensual Release that the BSA was able to live on, even after decades of unspeakable crimes. However the case pans out, there is change in the air. Johnson & Johnson’s bid to escape liability for the years it spent knowingly telling women to dust their vulvas with asbestos failed (thank goodness): https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit Bankruptcy scholars are taking aim at the obviously corrupt practice of bankruptcy shopping: https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#shoppers-choice And the judges who specialize in these Third-Party Nonconsensual Releases are dropping like flies. Not long after Judge Drain went through the revolving door at a BigLaw firm, (ex-)Judge David Jones was forced to resign when it emerged that he was romantically involved with a lawyer who kept winning huge windfalls for her clients in his court: https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/16/texas-two-step/#david-jones There’s never just one ant. The kinds of judges, lawyers, law firms and corporations who use the bankruptcy system this way are bound to be corrupt in many, many other ways as well. Rooting out elite bankruptcy fraud doesn’t have to stop in bankruptcy court. Anyone arrogant and immoral enough to pull these scams will have plenty of other skeletons in their closets. (Image: Jesse Collins, CC BY 3.0, modified) Hey look at this (permalink) Please Help Duane Wilkins Pay His Medical Debt https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-duane-wilkins-pay-his-medical-debt (h/t Jon Lasser) Inside America’s School Internet Censorship Machine https://www.wired.com/story/inside-americas-school-internet-censorship-machine/ What Drives This Madness On Small Modular Nuclear Reactors? https://cleantechnica.com/2023/11/30/what-drives-this-madness-on-small-modular-nuclear-reactors/ (h/t Slashdot) This day in history (permalink) #15yrsago Berlin hacker con will use RFID badges to simulate life in a totalitarian panopticon https://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/wiki/OpenBeacon_with_OpenAMD/ #15yrsago RIP, Forrest J Ackerman https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06-story.html #15yrsago Googling Security: book that opens your eyes to how much you disclose to Google https://memex.craphound.com/2008/12/05/googling-security-book-that-opens-your-eyes-to-how-much-you-disclose-to-google/ #10yrsago 75% of American silent feature films lost https://variety.com/2013/film/news/library-of-congress-only-14-of-u-s-silent-films-survive-1200915020/ #10yrsago NSA collecting unimaginable quantities of mobile phone location data for guilt-by-association data-mining https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html #10yrsago Democratic lawmakers share a squalorous house in DC https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/04/politics/real-alpha-house/index.html #10yrsago Rob Ford police document: allegations of heroin use and more https://torontolife.com/category/city/toronto-politics/2013/12/04/new-bombshells-from-police-documents-suggest-rob-ford-may-have-tried-heroin-been-blackmailed/ #10yrsago NYPD shoot at unarmed man, hit bystanders, charge man for making them shoot https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/nyregion/unarmed-man-is-charged-with-wounding-bystanders-shot-by-police-near-times-square.html?smid=pl-share #10yrsago Orange UK plumbs the depths of insulting, stupid marketing, finds a new low https://memex.craphound.com/2013/12/05/orange-uk-plumbs-the-depths-of-insulting-stupid-marketing-finds-a-new-low/ #5yrsago What it’s like to be a woman reporter on a cryptocurrency cruise where nearly all the other women are sex-workers https://web.archive.org/web/20181205144647/https://breakermag.com/trapped-at-sea-with-cryptos-nouveau-riche/ #5yrsago See you in court: amid protests, shameless Wisconsin GOP neuters the incoming governor in an all-night, lame-duck session https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2018/1205/Wisconsin-GOP-pass-slew-of-measures-during-lameduck-session #5yrsago British Member of Parliament publishes 250 pages of damning internal Facebook documents that had been sealed by a US court https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-and-sport/Note-by-Chair-and-selected-documents-ordered-from-Six4Three.pdf #5yrsago The longest-serving Congressman in US history proposes a four fixes for American democracy https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/john-dingell-how-restore-faith-government/577222/ #5yrsago RIP, George HW Bush: a mass-murderer and war-criminal https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/george-h-w-bush-1924-2018-american-war-criminal/ #5yrsago Trump cybersecurity advisor Rudy Giuliani has no idea how the internet works https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/rudy-giuliani-doesnt-seem-to-know-how-the-internet-works.html #5yrsago Not just breaches: Never, ever use Quora https://waxy.org/2018/12/why-you-should-never-ever-use-quora/ #5yrsago Obamacare study: 25% decline in home delinquencies among newly insured poor people https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-04/how-access-to-obamacare-cuts-late-housing-payments #5yrsago Poland rejects the EU’s copyright censorship plans, calls it #ACTA2 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/11/poland-saved-europe-acta-can-they-save-us-acta2 #1yrago Monopoly’s event-horizon: The true capitalist singularity https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/05/eldritch-physics/#wouldnt-start-from-here Colophon (permalink) Today’s top sources: James Boyle (http://james-boyle.com/). 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/2023/12/05/third-party-nonconsensual-releases/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The UK’s communications regulator has laid out guidance on how online services might perform age checks as part of the Online Safety Act.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/uk_age_verifcation_proposals/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>This past weekend saw the conclusion of two invitational basketball tournaments on the isle’s leeward side, as well as two regular season outings at Ka‘u High.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/leeward-side-sees-plenty-of-hoops-action-over-the-weekend/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>One step in front of another.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/lahaina-teacher-marathon-runner-raising-funds-for-maui/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Patriot Way has lost its direction. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/analysis-patriots-problems-are-bigger-than-quarterback-blame-starts-with-bill-belichick/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>UH-Manoa</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/how-hawaii-players-fared-in-nfls-week-13/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Before taking a single swing in the major leagues, Jackson Chourio landed the type of contract players spend years dreaming about. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/chourio-gets-82-million-8-year-deal-with-brewers-largest-before-a-players-big-league-debut/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KIHEI, Maui — Leo Saito, a 12-year-old from Hilo, won the boys 11-12 flight of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association’s (HSJGA) First Tee Hawaii Tour Championship on Sunday at the Wailea Emerald Golf Course.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/sports/saito-wins-hsjga-championship/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Dressed in borrowed camouflage fatigues, they fumbled with their ammunition belts and K2 assault rifles. Some had white hair and a slow, shuffling gait; their average age was 63, the oldest 75.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/koreas-army-of-senior-citizens-ready-for-battle-i-dont-remember-the-rifles-being-so-heavy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hilo is experiencing a rapid decline in brick-and-mortar retail businesses.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/hawaii-news/study-hilo-had-20-2-decline-in-brick-and-mortar-retailers-from-2011-to-2021/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hawaiian Airlines’ pending $1.9 billion sale to Alaska Airlines was praised by industry analysts and experts as a positive development that is expected to receive clearance by the U.S. Department of Justice and benefit the flying public.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/hawaii-news/airline-analysts-experts-tout-deal-between-alaska-hawaiian/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>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.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/hawaii-news/pilots-flying-tourists-over-national-parks-face-new-rules-none-are-stricter-than-at-mount-rushmore/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Leopoldo “Leo” Daquep, 73, formerly of Ookala, died Nov. 5 in Paauilo. Born in the Philippines, he was a retired housekeeper at the Fairmont Orchid. Visitation 9-10 a.m. Saturday (Dec. 9) at Ballard Family Mortuary. Service at 10 a.m. Survived by wife, Hermenegilda “Sheila” Daquep; sons, Paulo (Terrilyn) Daquep of Ahualoa, Philip John “PJ” (Jennifer) Daquep of United Kingdom; daughter, Pamela (Roger) Pagaduan of Paauilo; brothers, Antonio “Tony” Irelan of Florida, Nestor (Lelis) Daquep and Rueben (Carol) Daquep of Hilo; sisters, Leonila “Nelly” Guelguel of Keaau, Estrelita “Ester” Alban and Lorna (Robinson) Agdeppa of Hilo; sisters-in-law, Rosita Pasturan, Carmen Tamero and Ludy (Alfonso) Ambat of the Philippines; a grandson, Jayden; nieces, nephews and cousins. Arrangements by Ballard Family Mortuary.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/obituaries/obituaries-for-december-5-11/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A super political action committee backing the independent presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to spend $10 million to $15 million to get Kennedy on the ballot in 10 states, a substantial effort that, even if partly successful, could heighten Democratic concerns about his potential to play the role of spoiler in 2024.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/rfk-jr-allies-say-theyll-spend-over-10m-on-ballot-access/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Panama Canal, the century-old engineering marvel that revolutionized global trade, is being squeezed shut by drought and forcing shippers worldwide to face a painful choice.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/panama-canal-jam-sends-ships-sailing-continents-out-of-way/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>ATLANTA — On Election Day next year, the Fulton County jurors sitting in judgment of Donald Trump may have some decisions to make: should they take time off from court to cast a vote in the presidential election? And, if they do, will they vote for the defendant or against him?</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/would-a-trump-trial-during-election-be-interference-or-due-process/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>MIAMI — A former career American diplomat was charged with serving as a secret agent for communist Cuba going back decades in what prosecutors portrayed as one of the most brazen and long-running betrayals in the history of the U.S. foreign service.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/former-career-us-diplomat-charged-with-secretly-spying-for-cuban-intelligence-for-decades/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Faculty at California State University, the largest public university system in the U.S., kicked off a series of one-day strikes starting Monday across four campuses to demand higher pay and more parental leave for thousands of professors, librarians, coaches and other workers.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/california-faculty-at-largest-us-university-system-launch-strike-for-better-pay/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes heavily bombarded an area around Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday as the military ordered mass evacuations from the town in the face of a widening ground offensive that is pushing Palestinians into a progressively shrinking portion of the besieged territory.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/israel-orders-evacuations-as-it-widens-offensive-but-palestinians-are-running-out-of-places-to-go/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/the-supreme-court-wrestles-with-oxycontin-makers-bankruptcy-deal-with-billions-of-dollars-at-stake/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>An emergency working group established in July by Gov. Josh Green to speed delivery of affordable housing in Hawaii has gotten back to work after initial setbacks that included legal challenges and the resignation of its leader.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/hawaii-news/hawaii-governors-emergency-housing-panel-resumes-work/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p> President Joe Biden’s budget director warned Monday that the United States would run completely out of resources to assist Ukraine by the end of the calendar year, as the White House looks to ratchet up pressure on lawmakers to pass an emergency funding package.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/white-house-warns-congress-nearly-out-of-time-on-ukraine-funds/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>TOKYO (AP) — U.S. and Japanese divers have discovered wreckage and the remains of five crew members from a U.S. Air Force Osprey aircraft that crashed last week off southwestern Japan, the Air Force announced Monday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/divers-have-found-wreckage-5-remains-from-osprey-aircraft-that-crashed-off-japan-us-air-force-says/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) — Landing gear from a U.S. Navy jet pulverized coral when it came to a stop in an environmentally sensitive Hawaii bay after overshooting a runway nearly two weeks ago, a state official said Monday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/nation-world-news/us-navy-plane-removed-from-hawaii-bay-after-it-overshot-runway-coral-damage-being-evaluated/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>What the hell was that?</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/opinion/how-did-gov-newsom-fare-against-his-florida-rival-gov-desantis/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Bacillus cereus:</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/features/lets-talk-food-bacteria-in-our-food/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>I found this delicious and very easy way to steam fish. It’s in the oven instead of over boiling liquid. It helps retain moisture and flavor. The combination of ginger, scallions and garlic form a flavorful sauce for steamed tilapia. It takes a few minutes to prepare ingredients, but then the oven does the rest of the work. Serving the fish over Chinese noodles makes a perfect pairing for the sauce. These are very thin noodles. There are several types. I use wheat-based noodles which take only 3 minutes to boil. You can also use angel hair pasta for this dinner..</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/features/quick-fix-ginger-and-scallion-steamed-tilapia-over-chinese-noodles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A possible path to
a two state solution</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/opinion/your-views-for-december-5-7/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Most would agree one of the best parts of being on vacation is getting to try unfamiliar foods and cuisines and realizing, with the right recipes, you can re-create those tastes at home.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/features/lamb-tagine-with-dates-and-shallots/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Potlucks, cocktail parties, family gatherings and happy hours all require noshes and nibbles as well as libations. Now’s the time to make a plan.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/features/dip-into-the-holidays-with-these-tasty-spreads/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A magnitude-4.9 earthquake rattled the Big Island early this evening.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/05/hawaii-news/magnitude-4-9-earthquake-shakes-big-island/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The LAist
Two members of the City Council want the city attorney to look at how littering laws can be used to outlaw antisemitic fliers on people’s properties.
https://laist.com/news/politics/las-hate-flier-proposal-aimed-at-anti-semitic-messaging-raises-first-amendment-concerns Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Opinion Earlier this year, the prime minister launched the UK government’s plan to cement the nations place as “a science and technology superpower by 2030.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/esn_home_offifce_committee/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Tilde.news
https://html-lang.org/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Democrats endorse George Gascón? That must mean there are 20 shoplifting days until Christmas! Denise Lite Santa Clarita
The post Denise Lite | Mark Your Calendars appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/denise-lite-mark-your-calendars/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
Unbelievable. Once again, hyperbole and false claims rule the local Republican cabal’s misinformation campaigns. Literally the entire cabal’s membership showed up to gripe that “12-year-olds will be able to consent to mental health services without parental consent.” Widely refuted by the Associated Press news and nearly every childhood advocacy organization as a falsehood, The Signal […]
The post Christopher Lucero | Hyperbole Reigns Supreme appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/christopher-lucero-hyperbole-reigns-supreme/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
Why does The Signal keep idolizing Paul Walker? He has been a poor example of public respect and safety with his media. His death here in the Santa Clarita Valley was brought on by himself. In the future, find more deserving people to idolize than the likes of Paul Walker. Ronald Hopkins Stevenson Ranch
The post Ronald Hopkins | A Poor Example of Safety appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/ronald-hopkins-a-poor-example-of-safety/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Robert Reich on Substack
How can we best remedy it?
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/americas-stress-crisis Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Tiny bits of space junk too small to track using current methods could be detected by a novel process using by ground-based radio dishes, according to the latest research.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/space_debris_orbit/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1938 – Supervisors award construction contract for jail at Wayside Farms in Castaic (later called Pitchess Detention Center). [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-dec-5/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Power Authority is informing residents that “a partial implementation” of its December rotating outage schedule “began at 4 p.m. Tuesday.”
https://www.postguam.com/news/gpa-partial-implementation-of-outage-schedule-began-at-4-p-m/article_65cecf8a-9334-11ee-b770-bffd6f11cad1.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A group representing some of Spain’s largest media outlets have sued Meta, demanding €550 million ($596 million) in recompense for Zuckercorp’s “systemic and massive” disregard for EU privacy regulations that have left them at risk of collapse.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/spanish_media_meta_lawsuit/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The government of the United Kingdom has issued a strongly worded denial of a report that the Sellafield nuclear complex has been compromised by malware for years.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/uk_government_denies_sellafield_hack_claim/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
China has introduced a program designed to make propaganda fun – an online knowledge competition that poses questions about the rules of proper socialist internet use and other cyber matters.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/china_gamifies_censorship_and_surveillance/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: Anthony Bucci blog
In the flurry of text that text-generating large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have induced people to generate, a number of analogies have arisen to help make sense of what exactly these things do. Like most metaphors, some work better than others and none really suffice. This post is about viewing LLMs as “word calculators”, in other words tools that allow us to work with language in a way analogous to how calculators allow us to work with math.
https://bucci.onl/notes/Word-calculators-dont-add-up Save to Pocket
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2023-12-05, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
A beautiful bouquet: https://infosec.exchange/@lcamtuf/111525589436089266
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111525724338288047 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A little more than a week after North Korea claimed to have launched its first indigenous military reconnaissance satellite, South Korea has done the same – then followed up by launching another sat on its own rocket.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/south_north_korea_spy_satellites/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
Only four Republican presidential candidates have qualified to take to the stage for a fourth and final debate of the year Wednesday, meaning the audience will hear more from each candidate before the U.S. primaries begin in 2024. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti tells us what else they need to do to “break out from the pack.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-republican-presidential-candidates-look-for-edge-in-final-debate/7384593.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
More than $950,000 has been raised for the recovery of one of the three college students of Palestinian descent who was shot in Vermont and is currently paralyzed from the chest down, according to a GoFundMe page set up by his family.
One of the bullets that hit Hisham Awartani on Nov. 25 is lodged in his spine, his family said.
“Hisham’s first thoughts were for his friends, then for his parents who were thousands of miles away. He has demonstrated remarkable courage, resilience and fortitude - even a sense of humor - even as the reality of his paralysis sets in,” the fundraising page, which was set up on Saturday, states.
Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad are childhood friends who graduated from a private Quaker school in the West Bank and now attend colleges in the eastern U.S. The 20-year-olds were visiting Awartani’s relatives in Burlington for the Thanksgiving break. They were walking to the house of Hisham’s grandmother for dinner when they were shot in an unprovoked attack, the family said.
The young men were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible hate crime.
“In a cruelly ironic twist, Hisham’s parents had recommended he not return home over winter break, suggesting he would be safer in the US with his grandmother,” the fundraising page states. “Burlington is a second home to Hisham, who has spent summers and happy holidays with his family there. It breaks our hearts that these young men did not find safety in his home away from home.”
All three were seriously injured. Abdalhamid was released from the hospital last week.
The suspected gunman, Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested the following day at his Burlington apartment, where he answered the door with his hands raised and told federal agents he had been waiting for them. Eaton has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and is currently being held without bail.
The shooting came as threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have increased across the U.S. in the weeks since the the Israel-Hamas war erupted in early October.
Awartani, who speaks seven languages, is pursuing a dual degree in math and archaeology at Brown University, where he is also a teaching assistant, the fundraising page said. He told his college professors that he is determined to start the next semester on time, according to the fundraiser.
“We, his family, believe that Hisham will change the world,” the fundraising page states. “He’ll change the world through his spirit, his mind and his compassion for those much more vulnerable than himself, especially the thousands of dead in Gaza and many more struggling to survive the devastating humanitarian crisis unfolding there.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/more-than-950-000-raised-for-palestinian-student-paralyzed-after-being-shot-in-vermont/7384589.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The proposed changes to the ordinance include giving tenants the first right of refusal and stronger protections from harassment.
The post Santa Barbara to Consider Even Stronger Tenant Protections appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/santa-barbara-to-consider-even-stronger-tenant-protections/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Two years ago, a Brazilian minor came to the US as an exchange student in the US and stayed in a West Virginia home in which her host had placed a spy camera bought on Amazon.com.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/amazon_camera_hook_case_proceeds/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Peoples CDC blog
This is the @PeoplesCDC weekly update for December 4, 2023! This Weather Report from the People’s CDC sheds light on the ongoing COVID situation in the US.
https://peoplescdc.org/2023/12/04/peoples-cdc-covid-19-weather-3/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer led a U.S. delegation to New Delhi on Monday where he noted the formation of an investigative panel by India to probe an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil.
“Mr. Finer acknowledged India’s establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible,” the White House said in a statement Monday.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department alleged that an Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on U.S. soil, while it announced charges against a man accused of orchestrating the attempted murder.
U.S. officials have named the target of the attempted murder as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
In response, India expressed concern about one of its government officials being linked to the plot, from which it dissociated itself, as being against government policy.
India said last week it would formally investigate the concerns aired by the U.S. and take “necessary follow-up action” on the findings of a panel set up on Nov. 18.
News of the incident came two months after Canada said there were “credible” allegations linking Indian agents to the June murder of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a Vancouver suburb, a contention India has rejected.
U.S. President Joe Biden, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, CIA director Bill Burns and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have discussed this issue with their Indian counterparts in recent weeks.
The issue is highly delicate for both India and the Biden administration as they try to build closer ties in the face of an ascendant China perceived as a threat for both democracies.
The Indian government has long complained about the presence of Sikh separatist groups outside India. New Delhi views them as security threats. The groups have kept alive the movement for Khalistan, or the demand for an independent Sikh state to be carved out of India.
Finer met Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. They also discussed developments in the Middle East, including the Israel-Hamas war, plans for a post-war Gaza and recent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the White House said Monday.
https://www.voanews.com/a/senior-us-official-visits-india-discusses-alleged-plot-to-kill-sikh-separatist/7384565.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: OS News
The Windows Accessibility team adheres to the disability community’s guiding principle, “nothing about us without us,” emphasizing the creation of products that empower everyone. We launched and announced new and exciting features last September through our Windows 11 2022 Update and with your feedback, we have improved upon those experiences in a number of ways. ↫ Divya Bhaskaran on Microsoft’s official Windows blog In this blog post, Microsoft details some of the accessibility features it has added to Windows in 2023.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138003/a-year-in-recap-windows-accessibility/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
IBM has unveiled the Heron – a quantum processor it claims has achieved “utility scale” – and a so-called modular System Two architecture that will employ it in production.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/05/ibm_heron_quantum_processor/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives are asking the public if they have any information regarding a report of gunshots in Val Verde early Saturday morning. No one was struck by gunfire, according to station officials, but deputies responded to a home in the 30300 block of San Martinez Road after receiving multiple reports of […]
The post Detectives asking public for help in shooting appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/detectives-asking-public-for-help-in-shooting/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: OS News
Even if you’ve used the Mac for decades, I suspect you have never fully understood the Fn key. Not helping is the fact that Apple sometimes calls it the Function key, but all Mac keyboards already have 12 or more numbered F-for-Function keys! The Fn key first appeared in 1998 in the PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet) and has become a fixture in the lower-left corner of laptop keyboards ever since. The Fn key migrated to standalone keyboards only in 2007 with the release of the Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, where it occupies a spot between the Delete key and the Home key. On Apple’s compact desktop keyboards, it reverts to the lower-left corner. ↫ Adam Engst at TibBITS This article made me wonder when the Fn key first appeared, but searching for it leads to a lot of SEO spam that is clearly all wrong. As the article notes, Apple first introduced it in 1998, and IBM already it in on the monochrome ThinkPad 300 in 1992. It’s much older than that, though; the IBM PC Convertible from 1986 also had one, as did the IBM PCjr from 1984. At this point I’m starting to think it was actually a fairly common key, but with the explosion of IBM compatibles in the early ’80s it’s basically impossible to check them all, and, of course, there’s the possibility it may have existed on earlier systems, or third-party keyboards long lost to time. This would be an interesting mystery to solve.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138001/the-hidden-secrets-of-the-fn-key-on-the-mac/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Mexico City this week to boost cooperation with Mexican counterparts on combating illicit finance and the trafficking of fentanyl, and work to strengthen Mexico’s role in U.S. supply chains, Treasury officials said Monday.
Yellen’s Tuesday-to-Thursday trip will include meetings with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the country’s central bank governor and finance minister, among others, Treasury said in a statement.
The trip follows Treasury’s announcement Monday of a counter-fentanyl “strike force” that will bring together the department’s resources, including the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit to disrupt illicit drug trafficking.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping last month agreed to deepen cooperation to stem the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China, which are often mixed by Mexican drug gangs before distribution in the U.S.
Illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids cause tens of thousands of overdose deaths every year. The formation of the task force comes as the Treasury in recent months has intensified its sanctions efforts targeting fentanyl logistics in Mexico.
“Treasury will use every tool at its disposal to disrupt the ability of drug traffickers to peddle this poison in our country,” Yellen said in a statement.
Disguised
The Treasury for years has imposed sanctions on Mexican cartels and their money-laundering entities. While these have disrupted individual cartels, the efforts have done little to stem the overall cross-border drug trade, estimated at $20 billion to $30 billion a year, said Earl Anthony Wayne, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2011 to 2015.
“Somehow that money gets back to cartels,” said Wayne, now a lecturer at American University’s School of International Service. “Neither the U.S. nor Mexico has been very good at finding that money.”
A senior U.S. Treasury official said Yellen will discuss with Mexican counterparts and financial institution executives ways to step up efforts to fight illicit drug finance, including better coordination of investigations, as narcotics traffickers “continue to innovate.”
The goal is to be more effective at exposing drug supply chains that are disguised as legitimate commercial trade and cut off their access to financing, the Treasury official said. The department has imposed sanctions on over 250 entities related to drug trafficking in the past two years.
Friend-shoring, national security
During her trip, Yellen also will promote Mexico’s role as a premier destination for the “friend-shoring” of U.S. supply chains to make them more resilient and promote U.S. national security interests, Treasury officials said.
Mexico this year has overtaken China as the largest U.S. trading partner, and investment continues to grow.
Among issues she plans to discuss are U.S. tax credits for electric vehicles produced in North America and new Treasury rules limiting the amount of Chinese-controlled content that can be allowed, which could impact Chinese investment in Mexico.
https://www.voanews.com/a/yellen-heads-to-mexico-to-boost-work-on-fentanyl-supply-chains-/7384537.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
The William S. Hart Union High School District will be looking at plenty of new things at Wednesday’s regular governing board meeting. On the agenda, posted to the district’s website on Friday, are a presentation on additional air conditioning units for gymnasiums at the seven high schools in the district and a proposal to adopt […]
The post <strong>Hart district to look at spending $20M on new gym A/C</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/hart-district-to-look-at-spending-20m-on-new-gym-a-c/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
Environmentalists and holiday enthusiasts alike arrived at Placerita Canyon Nature Center to take part in its annual Holiday Craft Fair on Saturday and Sunday. Guests were encouraged to create and design their own Christmas-themed decorations and trinkets using a wide array of natural materials such as fresh-cut greenery and pine cones. “We love to preserve […]
The post Placerita Canyon Nature Center hosts annual Holiday Craft Fair appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/placerita-canyon-nature-center-hosts-annual-holiday-craft-fair/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita City Council approved Tuesday traffic changes to McBean Parkway that’s meant to improve circulation around the SCV’s only hospital. The work is centered around McBean from the hospital to nearby Orchard Village Road, according to city officials. “The project will realign the existing medians east and west of Orchard Village Road and […]
The post Upgrades OK’ed for McBean Parkway appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/upgrades-oked-for-mcbean-parkway/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: VOA News USA
Protesters marching in Philadelphia against the bombardment of Gaza chanted about genocide Sunday outside an Israeli-style restaurant, leading Governor Josh Shapiro to call the demonstration “antisemitic.”
In Philadelphia’s Center City and University City neighborhoods, hundreds of people marched to criticize Israel’s military actions in Gaza, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
However, it was unclear why some specifically protested the restaurant. A video of demonstrators outside Goldie Falafel depicted people chanting, “Goldie, Goldie, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” which garnered backlash from the Democratic governor.
Shapiro first addressed the protest on X, formerly known as Twitter. Later Monday, appearing at an unrelated event in suburban Philadelphia, the governor said he was in touch with Michael Solomonov, one of the restaurant’s owners, to make sure he and his staff knew that the governor would support them.
Solomonov is a prominent Israeli chef who has co-authored three cookbooks and received several James Beard awards. He and Steve Cook, the co-owner, are both Jewish.
“The purposeful gathering of a mob outside of a restaurant simply because it is owned by a Jewish person - well, that’s antisemitism, plain and simple,” Shapiro said at a separate news conference Monday in suburban Philadelphia.
The governor - who, while campaigning last year, talked about his Jewish faith and how it inspires him toward public service - called for “a spirited debate, dialogue, peacefully and respectfully, about what’s happening in the Middle East.”
Representatives of the restaurant’s group, CookNSolo, declined to comment on the protest. Requests for comment were left with the Philadelphia Palestine Coalition. A message seeking information on any possible arrests was left with the Philadelphia Police Department.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates called it “completely unjustifiable” to target restaurants that serve Israeli food “over disagreements with Israeli policy.”
Goldie Falafel is a vegan kosher restaurant that has five locations in Philadelphia. CookNSolo operates several well-known restaurants with Israeli fare in Philadelphia.
A line of people stretched into the street outside Goldie on Monday afternoon, with many coming out to get food and to show support.
Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel triggered the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades. The war has killed thousands and displaced over three-fourths of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, who are running out of safe places to go.
The war has sparked protests across the U.S. and abroad. Students around the country have faced suspension for demonstrations on college campuses, and there have been high school walkouts. Demonstrators who targeted specific companies have largely protested media bias and focused on media outlets, including The New York Times.
https://www.voanews.com/a/governor-rebukes-philadelphia-protesters-for-chanting-outside-israeli-eatery/7384509.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Master’s University has launched a new church and ministry scholarship for prospective students attending churches in the Southern California region (defined with Fresno County as the northern extremity)
https://scvnews.com/tmu-launches-scholarship-serving-students-in-socal-region/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The American Red Cross has a critical need for blood donations, and the city of Santa Clarita is urging residents to make a life-saving appointment today
https://scvnews.com/scv-blood-donors-urgently-needed/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, updated: 2023-12-05, from: Go language blog
What we learned from our 2023 H2 developer survey
https://go.dev/blog/survey2023-h2-results Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: Crossref Blog
The second half of 2023 brought with itself a couple of big life changes for me: not only did I move to the Netherlands from India, I also started a new and exciting job at Crossref as the newest Community Engagement Manager. In this role, I am a part of the Community Engagement and Communications team, and my key responsibility is to engage with the global community of scholarly editors, publishers, and editorial organisations to develop sustained programs that help editors to leverage rich metadata.
This represents an exciting phase in my professional journey, as I now have the chance to learn and develop new skills, broaden my understanding of the publishing landscape, and at the same time be able to leverage the experience I gained so far. I originally trained as an ecologist, obtaining a PhD studying colour change in a tropical agamid lizard in India at the Indian Institute of Science (Bengaluru, India). Having immensely enjoyed the process of writing manuscripts based on the data that resulted from my PhD thesis, I was drawn to working in the scholarly publishing industry. I worked for 3.5 years as a Senior Associate at Wiley, overseeing an editor support service by devising strategic scale-up planning and process improvement initiatives.
I then moved countries as well as jobs and joined Crossref. The world of scholarly communications is a rapidly changing ecosystem, that is ably supported by scholarly infrastructure - the sets of tools and services that support this industry. Being a part of Crossref, a global organisation that provides open scholarly infrastructure, allows me to work with and make an impact on the broad scholarly community that ranges from publishers of all shapes and sizes, funders, to academic institutions, and researchers.
So far, the integrity of the scholarly record (ISR) has been the focus of my work. Now more than ever, the community is cognizant of the need to uphold the integrity of the scholarly output. Metadata and relationships between research outputs can support this endeavour in a substantial manner because information such as who contributed to a research output, who funded it, who cites it, whether it was updated after publication, aids provenance and provides signals about whether the output is trustworthy.
Most of Crossref’s tools and services play a key role here: be it reference linking to allow researchers to increase discoverability of their work, tracking post-publication updates to research outputs via Crossmark, or detecting text plagiarism via Similarity Check. We noticed that not all editors and editorial teams associate metadata as signals of integrity, and might be unaware of the benefits of rich metadata. Therefore, my priority is to utilise opportunities to engage with editors about how metadata can provide trust indicators about a research output. I aim to empower editors to collect and leverage rich metadata.
While I am no stranger to the world of scholarly communications, engaging with the broader Crossref community has been a new experience for me. In my day to day work, I employ a range of different skills such as program design and management, content planning and outreach, networking, and meeting facilitation. I have also been participating in trainings to enhance my skill set – I recently completed a training course on Community Engagement Fundamentals, which has equipped me with a better understanding of the concepts and strategies that I will need as a community manager. Additionally, I also underwent the Group Facilitation Methods training course led by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) where I learnt a couple of effective methods for group facilitation and leading workshops.
Equipped with these skills, I have moderated a few community events already – most prominently the community call about Crossref and Retraction Watch to discuss Crossref’s acquisition and opening up of the Retraction Watch database. It was a valuable experience to contribute to the planning of an online event and host a panel of distinguished guests.
I was also fortunate to be able to meet our community members in-person: I supported the organisation of the Frankfurt roundtable event that was held as part of Crossref’s Integrity of the Scholarly Record (ISR) program, where we engaged with community members to get their perspectives on how to work together towards preserving the integrity of the scholarly record (keep watching this space for a forthcoming blog summarising the outcomes from this event!). Additionally, I attended the Frankfurt Book Fair – the experience of getting to meet our members and to hear from them first-hand about all things Crossref, was unparalleled! I used this opportunity to meet several of our publisher members and discuss their view points about engaging with editors on ISR. The idea was received positively: we heard specific suggestions of metadata that would be of interest to readers of scientific manuscripts, and our members also expressed interest in finding out more about how metadata can act as markers of trust for a research output. I plan to use the insights from these meetings for the development of the ISR editor engagement program.
As I reflect on the past three months, there are a few things that have stood out to me. In terms of work, no two days are the same. My work plan for the day can range from making presentations for outreach activities, creating content such as this blogpost, working on an engagement strategy, to planning events, attending online or offline community meetings, facilitating or moderating some of those events, and networking with community members. This variety in work keeps me motivated to give my best each day. I am also grateful that I have the ability to make an impact with my work in an area that I am passionate about. In my previous job, I had developed a good understanding of research integrity and publication ethics. As a community manager now, I’m looking to work with editorial teams on the integrity of the scholarly record. This role gives me an opportunity to further nurture this interest of mine.
At times, working from home remotely has been a challenge. However, I have enjoyed attending in-person events as they are not just a chance to meet our community members, but also a chance to meet my colleagues and connect with them.
I feel privileged to be able to connect with research communities all over the world and make a meaningful contribution towards supporting the discoverability and impact of their work. I am particularly excited to work at the forefront of shaping the future of preserving the integrity of the scholarly record, in tandem with our community. If this is a topic that excites you as well, I am keen to hear from you. It has been a wonderful three months at Crossref so far and I look forward to future collaborations with our community to develop effective ways of supporting and empowering editors to make the most of metadata for their publications.
https://www.crossref.org/blog/perspectives-madhura-amdekar-meeting-community-pursuing-research-integrity/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: PostgreSQL News
Toronto, Canada - December 03, 2023
This PostgreSQL extension provided compatibility with the DBMS_LOCK
Oracle package except the DBMS_LOCK.CONVERT() function and
some unsupported lock modes who anyway are rarely found in the Oracle
PL/SQL stored procedures.
The following stored procedures are implemented:
ALLOCATE_UNIQUE(): Allocates a unique lock ID to a named
lock.
REQUEST(): Requests a lock of a specific mode.
RELEASE(): Releases a lock.
SLEEP(): Puts a procedure to sleep for a specific time.
For instance, user locks can be used to do the following:
This is the initial release of this exention.
Any contribution to build a better tool is welcome. You can send your ideas, features requests or patches using the GitHub tools.
Links :
The pg_dbms_lock extension is an original work at HexaCluster Corp, Gilles Darold and Akhil Reddy Banappagari are the authors and the official maintainers.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pg_dbms_lock-v10-released-2760/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: PostgreSQL News
The SPQR team is proud to release the first production-ready version of the SPQR (Stateless Postgres Query Router).
SPQR is a query router for horizontal scaling of PostgreSQL via sharding. SPQR is designed to be as lightweight as a connection pooler, reducing knowledge of the data schema to the necessary minimum.
Essential set of features of the SPQR is used in production. But automatic shard rebalancing is not production ready yet. Also, SPQR supports some cross-shard queries, but they have inconsistent snapshot and are not 2PC-locked to provide true cross-shard atomicity.
Currently, the project is being maintained by Yandex Cloud. However, we are looking for new architects and contributors to broaden our technical views. As always, any feedback is welcome.
SPQR is developed and distributed at https://github.com/pg-sharding/spqr.
Released versions can be found at the releases page.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/stateless-postgres-query-router-100-released-2759/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-05, from: PostgreSQL News
Antananarivo, Madagascar - November 30th, 2023
pgBadger is a PostgreSQL performance analyzer, built for speed with fully detailed reports based on your PostgreSQL log files.
pgBadger 12.3 was released today, this release of pgBadger fixes some issues reported by users since last release and adds some new features:
–include-pid to only report events related to a
session pid (%p). Can be used multiple time.
–include-session to only report events related
to the session id (%c). Can be used multiple time.
–dump-raw-csv to only parse the log and dump
the information into CSV format. No further processing is done, no
report is generated.
For the complete list of changes, please checkout the release note on https://github.com/darold/pgbadger/releases
I would like to thank all users who submitted patches and users who reported bugs and feature requests, they are all cited the ChangeLog file.
pgBadger is an open project. Any contribution to build a better tool is welcome. You just have to send your ideas, features requests or patches using the GitHub tools or directly to pgbadger@darold.net.
Links :
For a complete list of commercial support near of your place take a look at the PostgreSQL Professional Services page, they all do great job and most of them can help you.
About pgBadger :
pgBagder is a new generation log analyzer for PostgreSQL, created by Gilles Darold (also author of ora2pg, the powerful migration tool). pgBadger is a fast and easy tool to analyze your SQL traffic and create HTML5 reports with dynamics graphs. pgBadger is the perfect tool to understand the behavior of your PostgreSQL servers and identify which SQL queries need to be optimized.
Docs, Download & Demo at http://pgbadger.darold.net/
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgbadger-v123-released-2758/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons had five players served with All-Western State Conference, South Division honors after closing out the 2023 season
https://scvnews.com/cougars-earn-all-wsc-recognition/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Guam Daily Post
Guam now has two confirmed cases of dengue fever this year, according to the Department of Public Health and Social Services. The department announced confirmation of the second case in a release Monday, adding that it is most likely an…
https://www.postguam.com/news/dphss-confirms-second-dengue-case-of-the-year/article_c8690a7a-92f8-11ee-aca0-5f9cadbe8acd.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
U.S. forces killed five Iran-backed militants as they prepared to launch a drone attack in Iraq, as the number of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria rose to 76 since mid-October.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday that U.S. forces saw the militants Sunday as they were beginning to launch an attack drone and fired a precision munition from a U.S. drone to take them out.
“We felt that … it was going to be a threat to U.S. forces, and because we have the inherent right to self-defense we took action,” she said.
Iranian-backed proxies launched two multi-rocket attacks against U.S. forces in eastern Syria over the weekend; one targeting Rumalyn Landing Zone and another targeting forces in Shadaddi. The attacks resulted in no casualties or damage to infrastructure.
“Iran, we believe, is the ultimate party responsible” for attacks on ships transiting near Red Sea, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday.
“This is an issue for the entire world,” he added.
The latest violence in Iraq and Syria comes as Iranian-backed Houthi insurgents in Yemen hit three commercial ships in the Red Sea with missiles Sunday, 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.
“Houthi forces attacked multiple commercial vessels in the Red Sea,” the Defense Department told VOA. “The USS Carney lended aid in some circumstances and shot down Houthi drones that were headed in its general direction.”
According to U.S. Central Command, after the first ballistic missile hit the waters near M/V Unity Explorer, the USS Carney, a guided missile destroyer, responded and took out a drone heading in the direction of the two ships.
Less than an hour later, M/V Unity Explorer was hit by a Houthi missile, causing minor damage. While the USS Carney was responding to the ship’s distress call, Houthis fired another drone at the ships that was shot down by the Carney crew.
A few hours later, missiles launched from Yemen hit two more commercial ships, the M/V Number 9 and the M/V Sophie II, damaging both vessels. While responding to the Sophie II’s distress call, USS Carney shot down another drone heading in its direction.
Singh said the Pentagon assessed the Carney was not the target of any of the attacks, but when pressed by VOA, she acknowledged that this was an initial assessment and the Pentagon had not ruled out the possibility that the Carney might have been a drone target.
“It came close enough that the commander of the ship felt that it was a threat and needed to engage and shoot down that drone,” she said.
Singh added that the attacks were “very concerning” but would not say how or whether the U.S. would respond. In 2016, the U.S. launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled territory to retaliate for missiles being fired at U.S. Navy ships.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for 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/7384127.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Iran-linked cyber thugs have exploited Israeli-made programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used in “multiple” water systems and other operational technology environments at facilities across the US, according to multiple law enforcement agencies .…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/iran_terrorist_us_water_attacks/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
When Joseph Alexander was just 16 years old, he and his family were forced to leave their home in Kowal, Poland. The year was 1939 and Nazi Germany had just invaded the area. Alexander’s entire family was killed, leaving him as the only survivor. But Alexander said that he remained hopeful, all throughout the war….
https://sundial.csun.edu/177268/news/holocaust-survivor-speaks-at-csun/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
VOA Correspondent Kane Farabaugh has covered the life and legacy of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for nearly 20 years. After attending the former first lady’s funeral on November 26, Farabaugh shares his personal reflections of Rosalynn Carter, who helped redefine the role of first lady in and out of the White House.
https://www.voanews.com/a/the-first-lady-i-knew-voa-reporter-reflects-on-rosalynn-carter-/7384153.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: OS News
It was Big Sur that focussed attention on the size of macOS updates. In Mojave and earlier, updates had essentially been Installer packages that brought a minimum of overhead. By the time that many had installed Big Sur’s new Signed System Volume (SSV), we were starting to discover just how large its updates were. Those were early days with its completely new updating process that builds a new System volume, takes a snapshot of it, and constructs a tree of hashes that verify the integrity of every last bit within it. ↫ Howard Oakley I had no idea macOS updates had become as big as they had, and good on Apple for trying to bring this back down again, and speed up installation of updates, too.
https://www.osnews.com/story/137999/macos-sonoma-is-setting-records-for-update-size/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
We don’t have deep-pocketed corporate backers, nor do we harvest every last bit of your personal information to sell to advertisers, so would you kick in a few bucks to keep TidBITS vibrant in the next year?
https://tidbits.com/2023/12/04/tidbits-needs-your-support-in-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
It came down to the final 3.2 seconds
https://scvnews.com/heartbreaking-loss-for-mustangs-in-florida/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
Dec. 4, 2023 MEDIA ADVISORY: M23-001 Four astronauts, including the current record-holder for the longest single stay in space aboard the International Space Station, will make their first public appearance in Houston since returning to Earth. The crew will be available for interviews at 5 p.m. CST Wednesday, Dec. 6, at Space Center Houston. NASA […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/expedition-68-crew-with-three-nasa-astronauts-to-discuss-mission/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
The review comes after a massive arson fire shut down a portion of the 10 Freeway in downtown L.A.
https://laist.com/news/transportation/caltrans-inspecting-sites-under-freeways-and-bridges-for-potential-risks Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Heatmap News
COP is always awash in new policy reports and scientific studies. It can
be hard to figure out which are the most important. So I want to draw
your attention to a particularly interesting report that came out in
Dubai over the weekend. On Sunday, a consortium of climate science
groups released this year’s
“10 New
Insights in Climate Science,” a synopsis of the most recent climate
research.
The report was written at the invitation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it’s meant to keep negotiators up to date on climate science in between major reports from the larger Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Some IPCC authors also work on the “10 New Insights” report.) But it does something interesting that I want to highlight. Here were its top three insights:
A. Overshooting 1.5 degrees Celsius [of global temperature rise] is fast becoming inevitable. Minimizing the magnitude and duration of overshoot is essential.
B. A rapid and managed fossil fuel phase-out is required to stay within the Paris Agreement target range.
C. Robust policies are critical to attain the scale needed for effective carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
The big news here, of course, is the continued message that we are on track to rapidly exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of temperature rise, the level at which climate change will become especially disastrous. And probably the second biggest news is how the report — which was written before this week — appears to directly contradict recently surfaced remarks from Sultan Al-Jaber, the president of this COP and the head of the U.A.E.’s national oil company. In a video from November 21 first reported by The Guardian, Al-Jaber said that there was “no science out there, or no scenario out there” to support the idea that fossil fuels must be phased out to stay within the 1.5 degree Celsius limit.
While Al-Jaber denied saying those remarks this morning, the remarks have been a huge deal at COP for the past few days, as they drive at the tension of an oil executive leading an international climate conference.
But I wanted to focus on one more aspect of the report: its endorsement of carbon dioxide removal. The report says steadfastly that carbon dioxide removal is essential to meeting our climate goals, and that we need to invest more in CDR technologies to scale them up fast enough. But it pairs that insight with the idea that we also need to phase out fossil fuels.
Instead of treating carbon dioxide removal as a tissue to cover up emissions — which is the role it can sometimes play in public discussions — it pairs it with the need to phase out fossil fuels.
I asked Oliver Geden, an author of the new report and the head of climate research at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, about that pairing — and about whether mentioning CDR at all would seem to apologize for future fossil-fuel emissions. Here’s what he told me:
“The report directly says that CDR can only be seen as a complement to emissions reductions, not as a substitute to emissions reductions. Of course in the general climate debate, it often appears that proponents of some continued fossil fuel use then evoke CDR. But if you look at the IPCC scenarios, and then you look at national net-zero emissions scenarios, it usually comes only on top — counterbalancing a net-zero pathway, often on hard-to-abate residual emissions from industrialized sectors.”
I think this pairing — a phaseout of fossil fuels and a get-serious moment about CDR — is promising.
In non-COP news, it’s now official: More than 1 million electric cars and light-duty trucks were sold this year in the United States, the largest number ever.
This is Robinson Meyer’s fourth dispatch from Dubai, where he is attending COP28. Read the first here, the second here, and the third here. You can also sign up to receive the next one in your inbox with Heatmap Daily:
https://heatmap.news/sparks/cop28-carbon-removal-new-insights-in-climate-science Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Pharma giant AstraZeneca has signed a $247 million deal with Ai drug creation company Absci to develop an antibody designed to fight cancer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/astrazeneca_absci_cancer/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The butterfly population is up again; the city is restoring the eucalyptus grove.
The post Monarch Butterflies Return to Ellwood Mesa in Goleta appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/monarch-butterflies-return-to-ellwood-mesa-in-goleta/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Lompoc resident pleaded guilty to obstructing a federal probe into a plane crash he posted on YouTube.
The post Santa Barbara County YouTuber Pilot Trevor Jacob Sentenced to Six Months in Prison appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/santa-barbara-county-youtuber-pilot-trevor-jacob-sentenced-to-six-months-in-prison/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons has received a $500,00 grant from the California Workforce Development Board to develop High Road Training Partnerships with regional industry partners.
https://scvnews.com/coc-awarded-500k-training-grant/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The new lab at the Goleta United Boys & Girls Club allows students to explore and learn through virtual reality and video games.
The post Cox Innovation Lab Brings New Technology to Goleta’s Youth appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/cox-innovation-lab-brings-new-technology-to-goletas-youth/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Scientists discovered a connection between a bacteria linked to eczema and an itch-causing enzyme in a study of mice
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-what-can-cause-itchiness-according-to-new-research-180983365/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: City of Santa Clarita
URGENT NEED FOR BLOOD DONORS Make a Life-Saving Appointment Today! The American Red Cross has a critical need for blood donations, and the City of Santa Clarita is urging residents to make a life-saving appointment today. There are three upcoming City blood drives scheduled for the month of December. The first one takes place Friday, […]
The post Urgent Need for Blood Donors appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/12/04/urgent-need-for-blood-donors-7/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A former Harvard misformation scholar has filed a whistleblower complaint against the Ivy League university, alleging that its Kennedy School canceled her research into social media harms in order to protect a $500 million donation from The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/researcher_harvard_meta/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Care
<p>After attending a man’s second funeral, Kalundi Serumaga discovers an archive of African State TV broadcasts in London. He describes the fight to save colonial archives of Ugandan history and the stakes for Black African Indigenous peoples.</p>https://logicmag.io/policy/under-seen-african-state-tv-postcolonial-archives Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
Howard Oakley (Hacker News): When a user accepts Software Update’s invitation to upgrade to macOS 13 or 14, rather than downloading a full installer app of about 12 GB, Ventura or Sonoma will instead attempt an update, in which only changed files are copied to the System volume, substantially reducing the amount to be downloaded, […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/smaller-and-faster-updates-with-sonoma/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
PlayStation Store (via Hacker News, Reddit): As of 31 December 2023, due to our content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library. It isn’t that streaming content is no longer available; they […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/sony-removing-purchased-discovery-tv-shows/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
Jane Thier (via Hacker News): Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, reportedly told members in an internal meeting that when it comes to returning to the office, “it’s time to disagree and commit. We’re here, we’re back—it’s working,” he said. “I don’t have data to back it up, but I […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/amazon-employees-returning-to-offices/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/marsedit-5-1/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
Matt Growcoot: A woman says that “the fabric of reality crumbled” after she looked at an iPhone photo of herself trying on a wedding dress and noticed that her reflection looked different.Standing in front of two large mirrors, Tessa Coates’ reflection does not return the same pose that she is making, and not only that, […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/computational-bridal-photo/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
Dave Plummer (via Hacker News): Dave Cutler is a seminal figure in computer science, renowned for his contributions to operating systems. Born in 1942, he played pivotal roles in the development of several OSes, most notably VMS for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Windows NT for Microsoft. Cutler’s design principles emphasize performance, reliability, and scalability. […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/dave-cutler-interview/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Michael Tsai
Jeff Johnson: The good news is that when you navigate to a new page in a Safari tab after disabling the extension, its content script won’t get injected into the new page. The bad news is that if you navigate back to the old page with Safari’s back button, the disabled extension’s injected content script […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/04/disabled-safari-extensions-are-not-fully-disabled/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/final-cut-pro-x-10-7-compressor-4-7-and-motion-5-7/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Yair Haimoff, managing director SIOR of Spectrum Commercial Real Estate, Inc., is pleased to announce the recent sale of four medical office condos located at 27335 Tourney Road in Valencia for a purchase price of $3.4 million
https://scvnews.com/valencia-medical-office-condos-sell-for-3-4m/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/url-manager-pro-6-4/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/quicken-7-4-1/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/affinity-designer-photo-and-publisher-2-3/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/arc-1-19-1/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: TidBITS blog
The results of our poll asking which Apple services TidBITS readers use are in, with iCloud+ proving the most popular by far, followed by a surprisingly strong showing from Apple TV+. Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+ brought up the rear, but remember, TidBITS readers aren’t representative of the overall Apple audience.
https://tidbits.com/2023/12/04/do-you-use-it-apple-services-see-widely-varying-popularity/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The footprints pre-date the earliest known fossils of avian ancestors by roughly 60 million years, per a new study
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mysterious-creatures-with-bird-like-feet-made-these-tracks-long-before-birds-evolved-180983362/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: RiscOS Story
In case you haven’t noticed any previous references, such as the first announcement, or the banner along the top of all the pages on this site1, there is an extra (sort of2) RISC OS show taking place in just five days time on 9th December – the MUG RISC OS Xmas market. If you want to take the opportunity to get that last minute Christmas present for a family member (okay, for yourself really) then the place to head for is: Dodderhill Parish Community Hall,School Road,Wychbold,Droitwich,Worcestershire,WR9 7PU. The Hall is…
https://www.riscository.com/2023/mug-risc-os-xmas-market-5-days-to-go/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Updated Intel has delayed paying $2.18 billion in damages for its alleged misuse of patents on Monday after a US appeals court threw out the case against the chip giant brought by VLSI.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/intel_vlsi_reversal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
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 during the holiday season
https://scvnews.com/ken-striplin-holiday-season-at-the-cube/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The LAist
As Israel’s military begins to concentrate its siege in southern Gaza, a United Nations agency warns that the people there could soon begin dying from diseases as well as Israel’s bombardment.
https://laist.com/news/israeli-forces-push-into-southern-gaza-as-humanitarian-crisis-worsens Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The temporary truce between Israel and Hamas broke down the day before Saturday’s emotion-packed rally.
The post Hundreds Gather at Santa Barbara Courthouse to Call for Cease-Fire in Gaza appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/hundreds-gather-at-santa-barbara-courthouse-to-call-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
I am writing to urge you in the strongest possible terms to pass a resolution in support of a full and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The post Support a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/support-a-permanent-ceasefire-in-gaza/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, has been charged with spying for Cuba since at least 1981.
Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday and charged with multiple federal crimes, including acting as an illegal foreign agent and using a fraudulently obtained passport.
According to the complaint, Rocha met with Cuban intelligence operatives and gave false information to U.S. government officials about his travels. Prosecutors said Rocha concealed his identity as a foreign agent in efforts to protect himself, so he could continue engaging in “clandestine activity” for the Cuban government.
The United States requires individuals acting for the benefit of foreign agencies to register with the U.S. Justice Department.
Rocha, a Colombian born, naturalized U.S. citizen, held several positions within the U.S. State Department, giving him “unique access,” to non-public government information, prosecutors said.
Rocha joined the department in 1981 and worked his way up to becoming the top U.S. diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000, and later the ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.
Rocha’s arrest comes as the Justice Department ramps up criminal enforcement of illicit foreign affairs.
Since last year, the FBI has been running a series of undercover operations that include an FBI agent pretending to be a Cuban contact. In an undercover meeting in Miami last year, Rocha exposed that he had been instructed by the Cuban government’s intelligence services to “lead a normal life” and that he had created the “legend,” or artificial persona, “of a right-wing person,” according to a recording of the meeting cited in court documents.
In the meetings with the undercover FBI agent, Rocha repeatedly referred to the United States as the enemy and used the term “we” to describe himself and Cuba.
Rocha was expected to make his initial appearance in court on Monday. It was not clear whether he had a lawyer.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
https://www.voanews.com/a/former-us-diplomat-charged-with-spying-for-cuba-for-decades-/7383980.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
Katie Konans, NASA’s audio and podcasting lead at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is one of two NASA employees named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Class of 2024. The other agency honoree, Clare Luckey, is a systems engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list is […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasa-audio-specialist-named-in-forbes-30-under-30-list-of-innovators/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
The CSUN Matadors (6-23) dropped their final game of the season to the CSUF Titans (2-25) Nov. 18 at the Premier America Credit Union Arena. The Matadors won the first set but subsequently lost the following three due to poor defense and errors as they hosted their senior night, which was the final collegiate game…
https://sundial.csun.edu/177262/sports/matadors-drop-final-game-on-senior-night/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Heatmap News
Under pressure from the U.S. to hold a free and fair election, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro upped the ante. On Sunday, the nation went to the polls — to vote to invade its neighbor and the world’s newest petrostate, Guyana.
Approval was seemingly swift and suspiciously overwhelming. According to the Venezuelan National Electoral Council, the ballot’s five-question referendum — which culminated in asking if Caracas should incorporate Guyana’s Essequibo region “into the map of Venezuelan territory” — passed by a margin of 95%.
Calling the vote a free or fair election might be a bit of a stretch; local opponents seized on the fact that the National Electoral Council touted “10.5 million votes cast,” rather than the overall number of voters, meaning that — given the five ballot questions — potentially as few as 2 million people actually turned out to vote in the nation of 28.2 million. Reuters also reported that lines were scarce at voting centers.
Still, snatching the Essequibo region, which makes up about two-thirds of Guyana and is roughly the size of Florida, is popular among Venezuelans due to a controversial 1899 decision by an international tribunal that gave the territory to what was then the British colony of Guiana. Venezuelans have long considered themselves to have been swindled by Western powers in the deal, with decades of revanchist schooling and local propaganda making the Essequibo issue an easy and appealing way for Maduro to shore up domestic support.
It remains unclear, though, how far Venezuela might go in the enforcement of its claim on the land, CNN notes. International Court of Justice President Joan E. Donoghue has nevertheless warned that Caracas appears to be “taking steps with a view toward acquiring control over and administering the territory in dispute.” Comparisons to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Argentina’s 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands are already popping up, with commentators wondering what President Biden will do if the crisis escalates to actual fighting — and on America’s hemispheric doorstep, no less.
Many experts on the region also say the referendum, and any ensuing land grab, are distractions meant to bolster nationalist sentiment and Maduro’s popularity during a time of domestic turmoil and outside pressure for a leadership change. But it’s hardly a coincidence that the land in dispute is oil-rich — and newly considered to be so. Guyana was a poor, remote, and tiny neighbor to Venezuela before the discovery of oil offshore (and in Essequibo) in 2015. Now the country is thought to be sitting on 11 billion recoverable barrels and international oil companies are jostling for a go at the reserves, even as Guyana faces the irony of being especially susceptible to climate change.
The easy comparison between the two oil states makes the situation even more bruising for Caracas: Guyana is now “set to surpass the oil production of Venezuela,” CNN writes, while the latter country’s production has dropped from a height of 3 million barrels per day in 1999 to a mere 700,000 barrels per day this year, due to ongoing mismanagement and U.S. sanctions. No wonder the oil reserves just across the border look so tempting.
Perhaps, then, this will be the way the world’s next oil war starts: Not with a bang but with a vote.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/venezuela-guyana-war-oil-nicolas-maduro Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has threatened driverless taxi outfit Cruise with fines and sanctions unless it can prove it didn’t withhold information and make misleading statements about an October accident. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/cruise_pedestrian_california/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
The UC Irvine Anteaters (11-19) swept the Matadors (6-23) in the second-to-last game of the season Nov. 17 at the Premier America Credit Union Arena. Although CSUN maintained great effort throughout the game, the team struggled to close out each tightly contested set due to their poor defense, as all three sets were ultimately decided…
https://sundial.csun.edu/177258/sports/matadors-are-swept-in-second-to-last-game-of-the-season/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Spotify says it is planning to lay off 17% of its global workforce, amounting to around 1,500 employees, following layoffs earlier this year of 600 people in January and an additional 200 in June.
The music streaming giant is continuing its effort to cut costs and work toward becoming profitable, said Spotify CEO Daniel Ek in a prepared statement.
“By most metrics, we were more productive but less efficient,” he said. “We need to be both.”
The layoffs come following a rare quarterly net profit of about $70.3 million in October. The company has never seen a full year net profit.
“I realize that for many, a reduction of this size will feel surprisingly large given the recent positive earnings report and our performance,” Ek said. “We debated making smaller reductions throughout 2024 and 2025. Yet, considering the gap between our financial goal … and our current operational costs, I decided that a substantial action to right size our costs was the best option to accomplish our objectives.”
With the new layoffs, the company now expects to see a fourth quarter loss between $100 million to $117 million after previously anticipating a $40 million profit.
A majority of the charges will go toward severance for laid off employees, who will get about five months’ pay, vacation pay and health care coverage for the severance period.
Spotify did not clearly state when the layoffs would become financially beneficial but said that they would “generate meaningful operating efficiencies going forward.”
Spotify is following many companies in the tech industry trying to cut costs after growth in the industry slowed following a surge during the COVID pandemic.
Tech giants including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google parent company, Alphabet, all have plans to cut 10,000 or more people this year.
Spotify began informing affected employees on Monday.
Some information in this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
https://www.voanews.com/a/spotify-to-lay-off-1-500-employees/7383842.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita is pleased to announce that MV Transportation and the union that represents the bus drivers came to an agreement on Sunday, ending the strike.
https://scvnews.com/santa-clarita-bus-strike-over/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Tilde.news
https://zeromips.org/posts/2023-11-18-gprobe/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Liliputing
At the start of the year we noticed that a handful of Chinese PC makers were selling small, fanless mini PCs with 12th-gen Intel Alder Lake-U chips and six 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports as “Firewall Micro Appliance” systems. Now it looks like they’ve gotten a spec bump, because you can pick up models with 13th-gen […]
The post Fanless mini PC with 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports gets an Intel Raptor Lake update appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/fanless-mini-pc-with-2-5-gbe-ethernet-ports-gets-an-intel-raptor-lake-update/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the first-ever Space Agencies Leaders’ Summit at COP 28 in Dubai, UAE, on Dec. 4, 2023. At the summit, organized by the UAE Space Agency, Nelson underscored the importance of sharing climate data transparently and openly with the world. Leaders from two dozen space agencies discussed enhancing data sharing […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-administrator-bill-nelson-participates-in-space-agencies-leaders-summit-at-cop-28/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: OS News
A prominent disinformation scholar has accused Harvard University of dismissing her to curry favor with Facebook and its current and former executives in violation of her right to free speech. Joan Donovan claimed in a filing with the Education Department and the Massachusetts attorney general that her superiors soured on her as Harvard was getting a record $500 million pledge from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s charitable arm. ↫Joseph Menn for The Washington Post This is why “voting with your wallet” is such an empty platitude, usually used by corporatists trying to absolve corporations from misdeeds and shifting the blame to us, mere consumers. How on earth can us regular folks vote with our wallet when someone like Zuckerberg can just buy the entire “election” without blinking?
https://www.osnews.com/story/137996/ousted-propaganda-scholar-joan-donovan-accuses-harvard-of-bowing-to-meta/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita’s Film Office released the list of six productions currently filming in the Santa Clarita Valley for the week of Monday, Dec. 4 - Sunday, Dec. 10.
https://scvnews.com/ncis-csi-vegas-among-six-productions-filming-in-scv/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.
The justices seemed by turns relucant to break up an exhaustively negotiated agreement, but also leery of somehow rewarding the Sacklers.
The agreement hammered out with state and local governments and victims would provide billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic. The Sacklers would contribute up to $6 billion and give up ownership of the company, but retain billions more. The company would emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used for treatment and prevention.
The high court put the settlement on hold during the summer, in response to objections from the Biden administration.
“It seems as though the federal government is standing in the way of that as against the huge, huge, huge majority of claimants,” Justice Elena Kagan said.
But later, Kagan also said that in bankruptcies, protection against lawsuits has a price.
“You get a discharge when you put all your assets on the table,” she said. “The Sacklers didn’t come anywhere close to doing that.”
The issue for the justices is whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. Lower courts have issued conflicting decisions over that issue, which also has implications for other major product liability lawsuits settled through the bankruptcy system.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department, contends that the bankruptcy law does not permit protecting the Sackler family from being sued. During the Trump administration, the government supported the settlement.
Justice Department lawyer Curtis Gannon told the court Monday that negotiations could resume, and perhaps lead to a better deal, if the court were to stop the current agreement.
Proponents of the plan said third-party releases are sometimes necessary to forge an agreement, and federal law imposes no prohibition against them.
“Forget a better deal,” lawyer Pratik Shah, representing victims and other creditors in the bankruptcy, told the justices. “There is no other deal.”
Lawyers for more than 60,000 victims who support the settlement called it “a watershed moment in the opioid crisis,” while recognizing that “no amount of money could fully compensate” victims for the damage caused by the misleading marketing of OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller.
A lawyer for a victim who opposes the settlement calls the provision dealing with the Sacklers “special protection for billionaires.”
OxyContin first hit the market in 1996, and Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of it is often cited as a catalyst of the nationwide opioid epidemic, persuading doctors to prescribe painkillers with less regard for addiction dangers.
The drug and the Stamford, Connecticut-based company became synonymous with the crisis, even though the majority of pills being prescribed and used were generic drugs. Opioid-related overdose deaths have continued to climb, hitting 80,000 in recent years. Most of those are from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.
The Purdue Pharma settlement would be among the largest reached by drug companies, wholesalers and pharmacies to resolve epidemic-related lawsuits filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments and others. Those settlements have totaled more than $50 billion.
But the Purdue Pharma settlement would be one of only two so far that include direct payments to victims from a $750 million pool. Payouts are expected to range from about $3,500 to $48,000.
Sackler family members no longer are on the company’s board, and they have not received payouts from it since before Purdue Pharma entered bankruptcy. In the decade before that, though, they were paid more than $10 billion, about half of which family members said went to pay taxes.
A decision in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, 22-859, is expected by early summer.
https://www.voanews.com/a/supreme-court-wrestles-with-oxycontin-maker-s-bankruptcy-deal/7383875.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: City of Santa Clarita
BUS STRIKE IS OVER Santa Clarita Transit Returns to Full Service The City of Santa Clarita is pleased to announce that MV Transportation and the union that represents the bus drivers came to an agreement on Sunday, ending the strike. This resolution brings the restoration of regular local, commuter, Dial-A-Ride and ADA services to residents […]
The post Bus Strike Is Over appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/12/04/bus-strike-is-over/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
There’s no sugarcoating this news: The Hershey Company has disclosed cyber crooks gobbled up 2,214 people’s financial information following a phishing campaign that netted the chocolate maker’s data.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/hershey_phishes_data_breach/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Dan Rather’s Steady
The threat is real
https://steady.substack.com/p/dictatorship Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Computer ads from the Past
Soda or bytes
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/comic-a-worthwhile-trade Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: VOA News USA
Eight U.S. lawmakers have called on the State Department to designate American Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva as “wrongfully detained.”
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the lawmakers, led by Democrats Eleanor Holmes Norton and Adam Schiff, requested updates on Kurmasheva, who has been detained in Russia since October 18.
The Prague-based editor for the Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL, was detained while in Russia handling a family emergency.
Russian authorities accuse Kurmasheva of failing to register as a foreign agent, which she rejects. A court Friday ordered her held until February. If convicted, Kurmasheva could be jailed for up to five years.
The U.S. lawmakers requested information on the State Department’s efforts to secure consular access. Russia has so far denied such requests.
They urged the State Department to designate the Russian journalist as “wrongfully detained.”
“Based on the facts that are known, we believe a formal designation is warranted and remains important to ensure the full engagement of the U.S. government and the provision of all relevant resources to support Ms. Kurmasheva and her family as efforts continue to return her to her loved ones as soon as possible,” the letter said.
The State Department designated jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as wrongfully detained within two weeks of the American’s arrest in Russia.
Russian authorities accuse Gershkovich of espionage, which he and his media outlet deny.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Monday that calls for the United States to designate someone as wrongfully detained is “a matter we take very seriously here,” adding that the government has to look at statutory requirements and other available information.
“No one should read anything into the lack of other wrongful detention determinations,” Miller said, adding that it is an “ongoing, active process inside the United States government.”
On Monday, Gershkovich marked 250 days in a Russian prison. A court last week extended his detention to January 30.
Wall Street Journal journalist Paul Beckett sees similarities in the case of his colleagues Gershkovich and Kurmasheva.
“To me, they’re both journalists who have been grabbed by the Russians for leverage over the United States,” said Beckett, who is leading the newspaper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release.
Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, has said the wrongfully detained designation could give the family access to greater resources to help free his wife.
“I’m convinced that Alsu’s being targeted because she’s an American citizen and because she is a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty,” Butorin told VOA last week.
Butorin is the director of Current Time TV, a Russian-language TV and digital network led by RFE/RL in partnership with VOA.
Kurmasheva’s family and colleagues have pressed the U.S. for help to secure her release.
“We would like to see more involvement from the United States government and from other parties, as well from the European Union and from human rights organizations,” Butorin said.
U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) chief executive Amanda Bennett on Friday said it was “crucial” for Kurmasheva’ to be officially designated wrongfully detained “so that her case can receive the time and attention it deserves.”
USAGM is an independent global media agency that oversees Voice of America and five other broadcasting entities.
“Every day that Alsu Kurmasheva remains behind bars is a tragedy for her husband and two young children, her community, and journalists everywhere,” said Bennett in a prepared statement.
VOA State Department bureau chief Nike Ching contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-urge-state-dept-to-designate-journalist-wrongfully-detained-/7383787.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A scent-detecting dog led the team to the discovery in South Africa, and traces of mole DNA helped confirm it
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-uncover-golden-mole-species-thought-to-be-possibly-extinct-180983355/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
Engineers and technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently installed a key component called the frangible joint assembly onto the adapter that connects the core stage to the upper part of the NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. The cone-shaped stage adapter, called the launch vehicle stage adapter, will be part […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-continues-progress-on-artemis-iii-rocket-adapter-with-key-joint-installation/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Liliputing
Google continues to offer Black Friday pricing on its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones… but Best Buy is knocking an extra $19 off the Pixel 8’s sale price, bringing it down to $531. Prices for the Pixel 8 Pro still start at $799 at most retailers (marked down from the $999 list price). […]
The post Daily Deals (12-04-2023) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-12-04-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Mary Conrad, along with her husband, Barnaby, made a positive impact on the lives of thousands of aspiring writers through
The post In Memoriam </br> Mary Nobles Conrad </br> 1935-2023 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/in-memoriam-mary-nobles-conrad-1935-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, updated: 2023-12-04, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Today is the thirtieth anniversary since NASA launched the first servicing mission for the stricken Hubble observatory, a record that lands just as the the space telescope faces a fresh round of fixes.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/remember_when_the_hubble_space/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Matt Haughey blog
20 years ago, I joined the Hertz gold program back before Uber/Lyft existed and you had to have a car in almost every American city you flew to. Fast forward to 2023 and I hadn’t regularly rented cars in a decade but recently I grabbed one and forgot how useful they could be, especially during …Continue reading “An unexpected Tesla Model 3 review”
https://a.wholelottanothing.org/2023/12/04/an-unexpected-tesla-model-3-review/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: NASA breaking news
This illustration made on Nov. 26, 1974, by Rick Giudice shows the Pioneer 10 spacecraft traveling through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. At the time, it was uncertain whether it would traverse it safely since the density of particles large enough to damage the craft was […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/pioneer-10-crosses-the-asteroid-belt/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/trufae/Therm Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Los Angeles Philharmonic returns to The Granada Theatre for the second time in 2023, with legend Zubin Mehta conducting.
The post Mehta Leads L.A. Phil’s Second Time Around Town This Year appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/mehta-leads-la-phils-second-time-around-town-this-year/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
“LinkedIn is cool now” is something I’ve been saying a lot (sometimes received with side eye!) since August when Bloomberg’s Sarah Frier first said it in an in-depth piece making the case for the platform’s future. “As other networks stagnate, shift their algorithms or burn themselves to the ground, LinkedIn is becoming a site where…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/how-13-news-outlets-use-linkedin-newsletters/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Enchant the family with this cirque-meets-the-holidays twist on seasonal tidings.
The post ‘Cirque Dreams Holidaze’ Brings Holiday-Style Circus Fun to Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/cirque-dreams-holidaze-brings-holiday-style-circus-fun-to-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Tilde.news
https://www.datagubbe.se/30yearcomp/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-04, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The eighth annual juried competition show for 2nd Fridays Art @ SBTC is on view throughout December.
The post ‘Wings/2023’ Flies to Santa Barbara Tennis Club appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/04/wings-2023-flies-to-santa-barbara-tennis-club/ Save to Pocket
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: 2023-12-05, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Updated 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: 2023-12-05, 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: 2023-12-05, 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.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/opinion/ Save to Pocket
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: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A magnitude-4.9 earthquake rattled the Big Island early this evening.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/04/hawaii-news/usgs-magnitude-4-9-earthquake-shakes-big-island/ 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.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/infosec_in_brief/ Save to Pocket
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