(date: 2023-12-08 12:30:17)
date: 2023-12-08, from: Authors Union blogs
The cases that threaten authors’ rights aren’t always obvious. You might have noticed in the last year that we’ve filed amicus briefs in some unusual ones—for example, a trademark lawsuit about squishy dog toys, or a case about YouTube recommendation algorithms. It’s often true that cases like these raise legal questions that extend well beyond […]
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2023/12/08/authors-alliance-amicus-briefs-defending-free-expression-from-trademark-social-media-and-copyright-law-challenges/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Liliputing
Best Buy is running a 3-day sale with discounts on laptops, tablets, TVs, and a whole bunch of other products. But you can also score some pretty good deals on laptops if you buy directly from Lenovo or HP right now, with both companies running their own sales. One thing to note is that I […]
The post Daily Deals (12-08-2023) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-12-08-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved a pair of gene therapies for sickle cell disease, including the first treatment based on the breakthrough CRISPR gene editing technology.
The agency approved Lyfgenia from bluebird bio, and a separate treatment called Casgevy by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics.
Both the therapies were approved for people aged 12 years and older.
The Vertex/CRISPR gene therapy uses the breakthrough gene editing technology that won its inventors the Nobel Prize in 2020.
Sickle cell disease is a painful, inherited blood disorder that can be debilitating and lead to premature death. It affects an estimated 100,000 people in the United States, most of whom are Black.
In sickle cell disease, the body makes flawed, sickle-shaped hemoglobin, impairing the ability of red blood cells to properly carry oxygen to the body’s tissues.
The sickle cells tend to stick together and can block small blood vessels, causing intense pain. It also can lead to strokes and organ failure.
U.S.-listed shares of CRISPR therapeutics were up 1.6%, while Vertex Pharmaceuticals stock was down 1.4%. Shares of bluebird bio were halted for trading ahead of the news.
Makers of both the therapies have pitched them as one-time treatments, but data on how long their effect lasts is limited. The only longer-term treatment for sickle cell disease is a bone marrow transplant.
“I actually am very reticent to call them a cure. I prefer to call them a transformative therapy because patients will still have sickle cell disease on the other side of gene therapy,” said Dr Sharl Azar, medical director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Bluebird bio’s sickle cell therapy is designed to work by inserting modified genes into the body through disabled viruses to help the patient’s red blood cells produce normal hemoglobin.
For Vertex’s therapy, patients must have stem cells harvested from their bone marrow. The cells are then sent to manufacturing facilities where they are edited using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. Once the cells are incubated, they are infused back into the patient during a month-long hospital stay.
Both gene therapies can take several months and involve high-dose chemotherapy, but this has potential risks of infertility.
“Not everybody who undergoes chemotherapy will end up having infertility, but the majority of them will,” said Dr Azar.
While the risk can be managed by fertility preservation methods like freezing eggs and sperm banking, this is only covered by insurance for cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy and not those receiving gene therapy, said Dr. Azar.
He said the out-of-pocket expense on it can be as high as $40,000.
FDA staff in documents released ahead of an October meeting of a panel of independent experts on Vertex’s therapy had also flagged concerns of unintended genomic alterations from the treatment.
The company plans to assess potential long-term safety risks through a 15-year follow-up study after approval.
Vertex’s CRISPR therapy is also under an FDA review for another blood disease, transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia, with a decision expected by March 30.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-approves-two-gene-therapies-for-sickle-cell-disease-/7390144.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Federal Railroad Administration announced a $500,000 grant award from the Corridor Identification and Development Program to the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Agency
https://scvnews.com/high-desert-corridor-project-awarded-500k-grant/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. Treasury’s ’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Friday announced sanctions against 20 individuals in nine countries for human rights abuses.
Friday’s sanctions include 13 individuals targeted for their roles in perpetrating or condoning the perpetration of rape and other forms of sexual violence in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and South Sudan.
In addition, two Taliban officials in Afghanistan were designated for abuse related to the repression of rights for woman and girls based solely on their gender. In Iran, two intelligence officers were designated for cracking down on opponents of the government and peaceful protests.
Two Chinese government officials in Xinjiang province were also targeted for serious human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim ethnic minority.
In announcing the sanctions, the department noted the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR, “the landmark document enshrining human rights and fundamental freedoms for all individuals.”
The declaration was drafted by representatives from all regions of the world and proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948.
The department also noted U.S. President Joe Biden has made promoting accountability for conflict-related sexual violence a top priority, signing a memorandum last year to strengthen the U.S. government’s efforts to combat it, using financial, diplomatic, and legal tools.
In the statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. commitment to upholding human rights is sacrosanct.
She said the sanctions announced Friday — and over the course of the past year — “underscore the seriousness of our commitment to promoting accountability for human rights abuse and safeguarding the U.S. financial system from those who commit these egregious acts.”
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-treasury-sanctions-people-in-9-countries-for-human-rights-abuses-/7390126.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
NASA experts will join a virtual news conference hosted by Axiom Space at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 13, to discuss the launch of Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), the third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The Ax-3 launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft is targeted no earlier than […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-participate-in-next-private-astronaut-mission-news-conference/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced that a gun buyback event will be held in Belmont on Saturday.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/san-mateo-county-law-enforcement-agencies-hosting-gun-buyback-event-saturday/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Stellantis NV is eliminating a shift at a plant in Detroit and cutting jobs at its Toledo assembly complex, a move the company blamed on strict emissions standards adopted by California and more than a dozen other states in 2019.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/stellantis-blames-job-cuts-at-jeep-plants-on-california-emissions-rules/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Vanishing point Green Park Tube Station the other day. Quote of the Day “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/friday-8-december-2023/38884/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Photos published Friday confirm that Turner is dating Peregrine Pearson, whose father is a viscount who runs a U.K. media empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/sophie-turners-new-boyfriend-is-handsome-british-aristocrat-reports-confirm/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Greg Knapp coached 25 years in the NFL before being dying in a Danville cycling crash in 2021
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/49ers-coaches-to-honor-longtime-colleague-knapp-with-stair-climb-before-seahawks-game/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
By Dakkota Searcy Have you ever been to Disneyland and been blown…
The post Winter Wonderland in the SCV appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/winter-wonderland-in-the-scv/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
With the holiday season just around the corner, The Boys and Girls…
The post The Santa Clarita Valley Gets Festive For a Good Cause at The Festival of Trees appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/the-santa-clarita-valley-gets-festive-for-a-good-cause-at-the-festival-of-trees/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Digital Antiquarian
From the Seven Hills of Rome to the Seven Sages of China’s Bamboo Grove, from the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to the Seven Heavens of Islam, from the Seven Final Sayings of Jesus to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the number seven has always struck us as a special one. Hironobu Sakaguchi […]
https://www.filfre.net/2023/12/putting-the-j-in-the-rpg-part-2-playstation-for-the-win/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo termed out in 2022.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/ex-san-jose-mayor-sam-liccardo-is-officially-running-for-u-s-rep-anna-eshoos-congress-seat/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The US Department of Energy has released $42 million in seed funding to help research the nuclear fusion techniques successfully demonstrated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory last year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/nuclear_fusion_research_funding/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: 404 Media Group
This week, we discuss staying connected in remote places, the future of the “content creator,” and how a stalker posing as a cop tricked Verizon.
https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-12-8/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
This striking Hubble Space Telescope image shows the densely packed globular cluster known as NGC 2210, which is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The LMC lies about 157,000 light-years from Earth and is a so-called satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, meaning that the two galaxies are gravitationally bound. Globular clusters are very stable, tightly bound clusters of thousands […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hubble-captures-a-cluster-in-the-cloud/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Bay Area prep roundup: Riordan pulled away from San Ramon Valley at Gridley, Salesian defeated host Gridley and more
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/prep-roundup-archbishop-riordan-boys-vallejo-girls-basketball-mountain-view-soccer-among-thursdays-winners/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Regulators on Friday approved two new gene therapies for sickle cell disease that doctors hope can cure the painful, inherited blood disorder that afflicts mostly Black people in the U.S.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/two-gene-therapies-for-sickle-cell-disease-approved-in-us/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/graham-smith-appreciation-post Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
Eight U.S. university teams are partnering with NASA to advance technologies for small spacecraft, increasing their capability to support the agency’s science and exploration missions within the Earth, cislunar, and deep space domains. The University SmallSat Technology Partnerships (USTP) initiative within NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program selected the eight teams from proposals received in response to […]
https://www.nasa.gov/general/nasa-selects-universities-to-support-small-spacecraft-technologies/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Building supplies that cost a typical California $10,000 at the start of 2013 now run $16,703.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/california-home-repair-costs-jump-67-in-a-decade/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Datacenters generate lots of heat and myraid providers are trying to put this resource to use, but there are geographic and various practical limitations on re-purposing it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/reusing_datacenter_heat_is_tricky/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Witnesses said the truck suddenly accelerated backward through the crowd lining 21st Street.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/truck-drives-into-crowd-awaiting-bakersfield-christmas-parade/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
“Wait and see what happens” is a losing strategy. By the time you figured out what happened, if you ever do, it’s too late.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08.html#a162428 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
Astronomers found what looks like a glowing cloud of dust from a massive planetary pile-up—and NASA volunteers helped make the discovery!
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/amateur-astronomers-help-discover-cosmic-crash/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/jogging-stroller-comic Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Recovering from a bitter divorce, Costner has sparked rumors that he’s dating Jewel, after the two were seen getting ‘cozy’ at a celebrity fundraising event in the British Virgin Islands.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/08/flirty-kevin-costner-seems-unable-to-keep-his-hands-off-jewel-on-caribbean-trip-report/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
While mortgage rates have been on the decline recently, this year has been, on average, the least affordable time to buy a home since the housing site Redfin started crunching the numbers 11 years ago. That’s on top of already sky high prices and limited housing inventory. Plus: a labor market in a healthy place, a strike at shipping company DHL and a beloved Korean street food.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/its-hard-to-survive-the-2023-housing-market Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
One day master Liù asked his student: what’s the sound a single d20 makes in your hand? The student could not reply. That same evening the student saw master Liù rolling 2d6 at the gaming table and was enlightened.
Not long ago, I noticed that the spectre of plagiarism was raising its head again. Oh no! Here’s Marcia:
Just over a year ago, I heard whispers that Unconquered plagiarized locations, encounters, and setting-elements from previous, more prominent science-fantasy setting books: Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City by Luka Rejec (2020), and Vaults of Vaarn by Leo Hunt (2021). This was very frustrating on one hand, but I also missed doing critical analysis of texts. Seeking justice and wanting to exercise my little gray cells, I challenged myself to produce an intensive comparison of these texts as well as a history of how Unconquered developed. – Plagiarism in Unconquered (2022)
I read Luca’s post on the topic, too.
The broader solution, beyond any one case, is for all of us to promote, encourage and celebrate artists and writers, designers and all the people whose creativity inspires us. I know this from my experience and heart. – On Creative Theft
That reminded me that I have a copy of the Ultraviolet Grasslands 1.8 on my bookshelf. And I started reading again… It really is like a colour spray spell cast right into your brain. I remember now why I felt unable to run it. It was vague. It had inspiration but no foundation. I wanted rooms, characters, quests, and this was just pictures and words. But this time, it was different.
I had played and run some Classic Traveller. And as recently discussed Traveller on the Internet Office Hours Podcast, prep for a typical Traveller game might involve an A5 page page of scribbling at most. Your ideas are being generated as you fill the subsector with text. And my take-away was that I needed more patrons in my game.
So… suddenly it seemed like playing Ultraviolet Grasslands was a go. It wouldn’t be a game like the games I run with Halberds & Helmets with a mapped environment. I still have a bunch of non-player characters I prepare ahead of time, with (some) stats and an agenda, but there is also a lot of improvisation. There are daydreams of buildings and environments but no exact maps.
I’m going to give this a try! Let’s play Ultraviolet Grasslands with Fantasy Traveller – that is to say: Halberts. If you’re interested, let me know and join that Discord server…
Resources:
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2023-12-08-uvg Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
On Dec. 9, astronomers and physicists will commemorate two years of landmark X-ray science by NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) mission. IXPE is the joint NASA-Italian Space Agency mission to study polarized X-ray light. Polarization is a characteristic of light that can help reveal information about where that light came from, such as the […]
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/ixpe/nasas-ixpe-marks-two-years-of-groundbreaking-x-ray-astronomy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Liliputing
The Radxa Zero 3W is a single-board computer that measures just 65 x 30mm (2.6″ x 1.2″) and features a Rockchip RK3566 quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 processor with Mali-G52-2EE graphics and an integrated neural processing unit. First unveiled in October, the Radxa Zero 3W is available now for $15 and up from Arace, and should be […]
The post Radxa Zero 3W is a Pi Zero-sized PC with a RK3566 processor, WiFi 6 and up to 8GB RAM appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/radxa-zero-3w-is-a-pi-zero-sized-pc-with-a-rk3566-processor-and-up-to-8gb-ram/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
Approximately seven mortar rounds landed in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad during an attack early on Friday, a U.S. military official told Reuters, in what appears to be one of the largest attacks against the embassy in recent memory.
It also marked the first time the U.S. embassy had been fired on in more than a year, apparently widening the range of targets after dozens of attacks on military bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since mid-October amid fears of broadening conflict in the region.
No group claimed responsibility, but previous attack against U.S. forces have been carried out by Iran-aligned militias which have targeted U.S. interests in Syria and Iraq over Washington’s backing for Israel in its Gaza war.
The U.S. military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, left open the possibility that more projectiles were fired at the embassy compound but did not land within it.
The official added that the attack caused very minor damage but no injuries.
Explosions were heard near the embassy, in the center of the capital, at about 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Friday. Sirens calling on people to take cover were activated.
State media said the attack damaged the headquarters of an Iraqi security agency.
The U.S. military official added that Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts U.S. and other international forces in western Iraq, had also been targeted but the projectiles did not land in the base.
Sheik Ali Damoush, a senior official in the Lebanese group Hezbollah, said in a Friday sermon that attacks by Iran-aligned groups across the Middle East aim to apply pressure for a halt to Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. He did not refer specifically to Friday’s attack.
The dozens of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have been claimed by a group of Iran-aligned Shi’ite Muslim militias operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The U.S. has responded with a series of strikes that have killed at least 15 militants in Iraq and up to seven in Syria.
‘Acts of terrorism’
The attacks pose a challenge for Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who has pledged to protect foreign missions and capitalize on fragile stability to focus on the economy and court foreign investment, including from the United States.
Sudani directed security agencies to pursue the perpetrators, describing them as “unruly, lawless groups that do not in any way represent the will of the Iraqi people,” a statement from his office said.
He also said that undermining Iraq’s stability, reputation and targeting places Iraq has committed to protect were acts of terrorism.
A U.S. embassy spokesperson called on the Iraqi government to do all in its power to protect diplomatic and coalition personnel and facilities.
“We reiterate that we reserve the right to self-defense and to protect our personnel anywhere in the world,” he said.
Aside from its diplomatic staff in Iraq, the United States has about 2,500 troops in the country on a mission it says aims to advise and assist local forces trying to prevent a resurgence of Islamic State, which in 2014 seized large swathes of both countries before being defeated.
Iran-aligned Houthis have been firing at Israel and ships in the Red Sea in a campaign they say aims to support the Palestinians. U.S. warships have shot down several of their projectiles.
https://www.voanews.com/a/about-7-mortar-rounds-land-in-us-embassy-compound-in-baghdad-official-says-/7389869.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Where is the Resistance?
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08.html#a154019 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
Cross-posted from Threads.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08/153339.html?title=usingThreadsIsGivingUp Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Human trafficking for the purposes of populating cyber scam call centers is expanding beyond southeast Asia, where the crime was previously isolated.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/human_trafficking_for_cyber_scam/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: 404 Media Group
The data transfer is a massive failure by Verizon, which fell for a low quality scam that may have put someone’s physical safety in danger.
https://www.404media.co/verizon-gave-phone-data-to-stalker-edrs-search-warrant-pose-as-cop/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/asmr-recommendations-moonlight-cottage-ecuador-live Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
We know journalists are not The Resistance, which begs the question – who is and why aren’t journalists searching for them?
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08.html#a150259 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The LAist
The SAG-AFTRA strike meant that nearly all scripted TV stopped shooting in the Los Angeles Area, according to the agency FilmLA, but it’s started to come back after the actor’s union ratified its new contract.
https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/on-location-filming-in-l-a-is-coming-back-after-a-slow-strike-summer-and-fall Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/0043590-i-saw-a-ton-of Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Goldberg said they are not The Resistance, they’re journalists. Well then my question is what good are you exactly and why are you using up all the airtime? Why is NPR even bothering to interview you. He said it clearly, he was just trying to save his conscience for after the Nazis came to power in the US. We have bigger issues than Jeffrey Goldberg’s conscience. Why doesn’t NPR and The Atlantic go out and find The Freaking Resistance and introduce us to them. My grandfather said something to me when I was a little boy, with such clarity, I can never forget it. He said David, when the Nazis come (he was sure they would) you need to go up on the roof with a gun, and shoot them. He knew. He didn’t say “David, run” or “David, write an article in The Atlantic so you have a clear conscience.” He said I should fight. With guns. That was the lesson he learned from his experience. So where is our Resistance? What the F are we waiting for?
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08.html#a143944 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The curious case of the HP Smart app and unexpected renaming of printers has taken another turn, after a Reg reader pointed to broken metadata pushed out in a November Windows Servicing Stack Update (SSU).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/messed_up_metadata_to_blame/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2023/12/08/destroying-twitter/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog
Today’s links “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing”: When Big Content makes the paid version worse than the free one. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2018, 2022. Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (permalink) 20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with Chris Anderson, who was then the editor in chief of Wired. I’d publicly noted my disappointment with glowing Wired reviews of DRM-encumbered digital devices, prompting Anderson to call me unrealistic for expecting the magazine to condemn gadgets for their DRM: https://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/is_drm_evil.html I replied in public, telling him that he’d misunderstood. This wasn’t an issue of ideological purity – it was about good reviewing practice. Wired was telling readers to buy a product because it had features x, y and z, but at any time in the future, without warning, without recourse, the vendor could switch off any of those features: https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/29/cory-responds-to-wired-editor-on-drm/ I proposed that all Wired endorsements for DRM-encumbered products should come with this disclaimer: WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS. THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE — BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS. Wired didn’t take me up on this suggestion. But I was right. The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you’ve already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations. Inkjet printers were always a sleazy business, but once these printers got directly connected to the internet, companies like HP started pushing out “security updates” that modified your printer to make it reject the third-party ink you’d paid for: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer Now, this scam wouldn’t work if you could just put things back the way they were before the “update,” which is where the DRM comes in. A thicket of IP laws make reverse-engineering DRM-encumbered products into a felony. Combine always-on network access with indiscriminate criminalization of user modification, and the enshittification will follow, as surely as night follows day. This is the root of all the right to repair shenanigans. Sure, companies withhold access to diagnostic codes and parts, but codes can be extracted and parts can be cloned. The real teeth in blocking repair comes from the law, not the tech. The company that makes McDonald’s wildly unreliable McFlurry machines makes a fortune charging franchisees to fix these eternally broken appliances. When a third party threatened this racket by reverse-engineering the DRM that blocked independent repair, they got buried in legal threats: https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war Everybody loves this racket. In Poland, a team of security researchers at the OhMyHack conference just presented their teardown of the anti-repair features in NEWAG Impuls locomotives. NEWAG boobytrapped their trains to try and detect if they’ve been independently serviced, and to respond to any unauthorized repairs by bricking themselves: https://mamot.fr/@q3k@hackerspace.pl/111528162905209453 Poland is part of the EU, meaning that they are required to uphold the provisions of the 2001 EU Copyright Directive, including Article 6, which bans this kind of reverse-engineering. The researchers are planning to present their work again at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg this month – Germany is also a party to the EUCD. The threat to researchers from presenting this work is real – but so is the threat to conferences that host them: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/researchers-face-legal-threats-over-sdmi-hack/ 20 years ago, Chris Anderson told me that it was unrealistic to expect tech companies to refuse demands for DRM from the entertainment companies whose media they hoped to play. My argument – then and now – was that any tech company that sells you a gadget that can have its features revoked is defrauding you. You’re paying for x, y and z – and if they are contractually required to remove x and y on demand, they are selling you something that you can’t rely on, without making that clear to you. But it’s worse than that. When a tech company designs a device for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades, they invite both external and internal parties to demand those downgrades. Like Pavel Chekov says, a phaser on the bridge in Act I is going to go off by Act III. Selling a product that can be remote, irreversibly, nonconsensually downgraded inevitably results in the worst person at the product-planning meeting proposing to do so. The fact that there are no penalties for doing so makes it impossible for the better people in that meeting to win the ensuing argument, leading to the moral injury of seeing a product you care about reduced to a pile of shit: https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification But even if everyone at that table is a swell egg who wouldn’t dream of enshittifying the product, the existence of a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature makes the product vulnerable to external actors who will demand that it be used. Back in 2022, Adobe informed its customers that it had lost its deal to include Pantone colors in Photoshop, Illustrator and other “software as a service” packages. As a result, users would now have to start paying a monthly fee to see their own, completed images. Fail to pay the fee and all the Pantone-coded pixels in your artwork would just show up as black: https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process Adobe blamed this on Pantone, and there was lots of speculation about what had happened. Had Pantone jacked up its price to Adobe, so Adobe passed the price on to its users in the hopes of embarrassing Pantone? Who knows? Who can know? That’s the point: you invested in Photoshop, you spent money and time creating images with it, but you have no way to know whether or how you’ll be able to access those images in the future. Those terms can change at any time, and if you don’t like it, you can go fuck yourself. These companies are all run by CEOs who got their MBAs at Darth Vader University, where the first lesson is “I have altered the deal, pray I don’t alter it further.” Adobe chose to design its software so it would be vulnerable to this kind of demand, and then its customers paid for that choice. Sure, Pantone are dicks, but this is Adobe’s fault. They stuck a KICK ME sign to your back, and Pantone obliged. This keeps happening and it’s gonna keep happening. Last week, Playstation owners who’d bought (or “bought”) Warner TV shows got messages telling them that Warner had walked away from its deal to sell videos through the Playstation store, and so all the videos they’d paid for were going to be deleted forever. They wouldn’t even get refunds (to be clear, refunds would also be bullshit – when I was a bookseller, I didn’t get to break into your house and steal the books I’d sold you, not even if I left some cash on your kitchen table). Sure, Warner is an unbelievably shitty company run by the single most guillotineable executive in all of Southern California, the loathsome David Zaslav, who oversaw the merger of Warner with Discovery. Zaslav is the creep who figured out that he could make more money cancelling completed movies and TV shows and taking a tax writeoff than he stood to make by releasing them: https://aftermath.site/there-is-no-piracy-without-ownership Imagine putting years of your life into making a program – showing up on set at 5AM and leaving your kids to get their own breakfast, performing stunts that could maim or kill you, working 16-hour days during the acute phase of the covid pandemic and driving home in the night, only to have this absolute turd of a man delete the program before anyone could see it, forever, to get a minor tax advantage. Talk about moral injury! But without Sony’s complicity in designing a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature into the Playstation, Zaslav’s war on art and creative workers would be limited to material that hadn’t been released yet. Thanks to Sony’s awful choices, David Zaslav can break into your house, steal your movies – and he doesn’t even have to leave a twenty on your kitchen table. The point here – the point I made 20 years ago to Chris Anderson – is that this is the foreseeable, inevitable result of designing devices for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades. Anyone who was paying attention should have figured that out in the GW Bush administration. Anyone who does this today? Absolute flaming garbage. Sure, Zaslav deserves to be staked out over and anthill and slathered in high-fructose corn syrup. But save the next anthill for the Sony exec who shipped a product that would let Zaslav come into your home and rob you. That piece of shit knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. Fuck them. Sideways. With a brick. Meanwhile, the studios keep making the case for stealing movies rather than paying for them. As Tyler James Hill wrote: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing”: https://bsky.app/profile/tylerjameshill.bsky.social/post/3kflw2lvam42n (Image: Alan Levine, CC BY 2.0 modified) Hey look at this (permalink) Taking advantage of the Purge by building dense multifamily housing units Palo Alto https://twitter.com/tomgara/status/1731520311206490440 (h/t Super Punch) Electing the Doge of Venice: analysis of a 13th Century protocol https://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2007/HPL-2007-28R1.html (h/t Schneier) 23andMe just sent out an email trying to trick customers into accepting a TOS change that will prevent you from suing them after they literally lost your genome to thieves https://mamot.fr/@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io/111531294948620738 This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar) https://web.archive.org/web/20040112231612/http://www.forteanbureau.com/dec2003/Doctorow/index.html #15yrsago New Rochelle school board mutilates books to protect children https://web.archive.org/web/20081210080026/http://www.newrochelletalk.com/?q=node/288 #15yrsago How to Pay for National Health Insurance https://ritholtz.com/2008/12/how-to-pay-for-national-health-insurance/ #5yrsago Literal breadboarding, with toast and Vegemite https://twitter.com/lukeweston/status/1071220362606608385 #5yrsago $30 plug-and-play kit converts a Bird scooter into a “personal scooter” https://hackaday.com/2018/12/07/liberating-birds-for-a-cheap-electric-scooter/ #5yrsago An annual Christmas craft tradition: the Die Hard Air Duct ornament https://web.archive.org/web/20171214160218/https://unlikelywords.com/2016/12/23/how-to-make-your-own-die-hard-christmas-tree-ornament/ #5yrsago Top FTC official is so such a corporate shill that he has conflicts of interest for 100 companies, including Equifax and Facebook https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/6/18129572/facebook-uber-ftc-conflict-interest-andrew-smith #5yrsago Ha-ha, only serious: McSweeney’s on price-gouging in the emergency room https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/welcome-to-our-modern-hospital-where-if-you-want-to-know-a-price-you-can-go-fuck-yourself #1yrago One weird trick to make monopolies self-destruct https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/08/one-last-job/#icahns-raiders 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 Geneva Dialog (Dec 7) https://genevadialogue.ch/event/geneva-manual-event/ Recent appearances: AI needs to work with humans — not replace us (CBC IDEAS) https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/artificial-intelligence-provocation-ideas-festival-1.7046841 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 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/2023/12/08/playstationed/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/0043589-here-is-a-very-pleasing Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: 404 Media Group
Our second FOIA Forum tackled the serious stuff: surveillance and, uhh, pickleball!
https://www.404media.co/heres-the-video-for-our-second-foia-forum-pickleball-ai-surveillance-and/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I
heard Jeffrey
Goldberg, the Editor in Chief of The Atlantic,
on
NPR this morning talking about their
special
edition about what a second Trump presidency would be like. I’d love
to read it but I am not a subscriber. I’d like to hear Goldberg
interviewed on what happened to buying an issue of a magazine just
because I want to read it. I think it’s actually a bigger story, because
realistically, it’s probably good journalism but won’t do anything to
prevent a second Trump term, where hearing him explain why they have
such a bizarre economic model might help them try another approach and
thus provide greater service, and very likely increase their revenue
because it would give readers a way to ease into subscribing.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/08.html#a140102 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
For many years, health care on Guam has been hampered by a shortage of nurses, but a recent partnership between the University of Guam and the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences could help build the workforce.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/uog-partners-with-taipei-university-to-build-nurse-workforce/article_4964ce14-9490-11ee-9f77-7feb71d10047.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
A search warrant for a residence in Chalan Pago resulted in the charging of a man accused of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-allegedly-sold-meth-from-his-bedroom-window/article_7a0b48de-955f-11ee-897d-2782777e2ade.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
A couple are seeking to have separate trials on charges related to the death last month of their 1-year-old child.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/couple-seeking-separate-trials-in-death-of-their-child/article_060975ca-955d-11ee-b8ce-432d0696b498.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
Louis Anthony Vargas will get a new trial after the Supreme Court of Guam vacated his criminal sexual assault convictions stemming from accusations he raped a 9-year-old girl.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/supreme-court-reverses-sexual-assault-conviction-orders-new-trial/article_ab2c84c8-94ab-11ee-a5c6-139c47e82887.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
Guam prosecutors are still waiting for DNA evidence of Adam Messier to be analyzed by the FBI.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/oag-still-waiting-for-messier-dna-to-be-analyzed-by-fbi/article_5fe16136-9498-11ee-8af1-fb2f1c6adddc.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero is in Washington, D.C., pushing for U.S. officials to recognize that support outside the fence is important to military initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and to the military buildup on Guam.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/governor-meets-with-us-officials-in-dc-stresses-importance-of-military-funding-outside-the-fence/article_7bf4ab4a-9569-11ee-b621-5b81dfcee7b4.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Racing Federation is no longer occupying Lot 7161-R1, the Chamorro Land Trust Commission property housing the Guam International Raceway, according to John Burch, the acting CLTC administrative director.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/burch-grf-no-longer-occupying-raceway-property/article_139830d4-94c5-11ee-b4f7-b7af98a3b6f7.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
A 19-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery and stabbing, allegedly telling police it was a “prank.”
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-19-tells-police-robbery-stabbing-was-a-prank/article_10fff940-9562-11ee-9b21-9b8e448ffecb.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
Funding to counter China in the Pacific is now caught in the congressional battle in Washington over foreign aid and border security. The White House calls the package a “critical component” of its national security. And as VOA’s Jessica Stone reports, time is running out to lock in an economic and security relationship between the United States and three strategic Pacific Island nations. Camera: Yu Chen, Jessica Stone, Saqib Ul Islam
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-funding-to-counter-china-in-pacific-in-limbo/7389660.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California as a special counsel investigation into the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son intensifies against the backdrop of the 2024 election.
The new charges filed Thursday — three felonies and six misdemeanors — are in addition to federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging Hunter Biden broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018. They come after the implosion of a plea deal over the summer that would have spared him jail time, putting the case on track to a possible trial as his father campaigns for reelection.
Hunter Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” special counsel David Weiss said in a statement. The charges are centered on at least $1.4 million in taxes Hunter Biden owed during between 2016 and 2019, a period where he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The back taxes have since been paid.
If convicted, Hunter Biden, 53, could a maximum of 17 years in prison. The special counsel probe remains open, Weiss said.
In a fiery response, defense attorney Abbe Lowell accused Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” in the case.
“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell said in a statement.
The White House declined to comment on Thursday’s indictment, referring questions to the Justice Department or Hunter Biden’s personal representatives.
The charging documents filed in California, where he lives, detail spending on drugs, strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars, “in short, everything but his taxes,” prosecutor Leo Wise wrote.
The indictment comes as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming he was engaged in an influence-peddling scheme with his son. The House is expected to vote next week on formally authorizing the inquiry.
No evidence has emerged so far to prove that Joe Biden, in his current or previous office, abused his role or accepted bribes, though questions have arisen about the ethics surrounding the Biden family’s international business.
The separate, long-running criminal investigation into Hunter Biden had been expected to wind down with a plea deal where he would have gotten two years’ probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble.
The agreement was pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump. Trump is facing his own criminal cases, including charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden, a Democrat.
Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, gave credit for the new charges Thursday to two IRS investigators who testified before Congress that the Justice Department had mishandled and “slow walked” the investigation into the president’s son. Justice officials have denied those allegations.
The two IRS employees, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, said the indictment was “a complete vindication of our thorough investigation.”
The new charges against Hunter Biden include filing a false return and tax evasion felonies, as well as misdemeanor failure to file and failure to pay.
The defense signaled that it plans to fight the new charges, likely at least in part relying on immunity provisions from the original plea deal. Defense attorneys have argued those remain in force since that part of the agreement was signed by a prosecutor before the deal was scrapped.
Prosecutors have disagreed, pointing out the documents weren’t signed by a judge and are invalid.
Lowell said he’s also planning to push for dismissal of the gun charges next week, calling them “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”
The three federal gun charges filed in Delaware allege Hunter Biden had lied about his drug use to buy a gun that he kept for 11 days in 2018. Federal law bans gun possession by “habitual drug users,” though the measure is seldom seen as a stand-alone charge and has been called into question by a federal appeals court.
Hunter Biden’s longstanding struggle with substance abuse worsened after the death of his brother Beau Biden in 2015, according to court documents and his memoir “Beautiful Things,” which ends with him getting clean in 2019.
His gross income nevertheless totaled some $7 million between 2016 and 2020, prosecutors said, pointing to his roles on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and a Chinese private equity fund as well as his position at a law firm.
Hunter did eventually file his taxes in 2020, while facing a child support case in Arkansas, and the back taxes were paid by a “third party,” prosecutors have said in court documents.
https://www.voanews.com/a/hunter-biden-indicted-on-9-tax-charges-adding-to-gun-charges-in-special-counsel-investigation/7389648.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
LOGOWATCH Linux distro openSUSE this week parked its electric scooter outside the marketing boutique as it pursues a brand that somehow reflects the paradigm shift in its own not-so-corporate journey.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/opensuse_vote_on_logo/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Once people had recovered from the shock of seeing both a power button and a real-time clock on a Raspberry Pi, one of the most commented-on features of the new platform was the small, vertical, 16-way FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) connector on the left-hand side of the board, which exposes a single-lane PCI Express interface.
The post Double standards appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/double-standards/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The LAist
Whether you’re noshing on churros or zoolbia, beignets or bomboloni, may your fritters be crisp, may your candles shine bright, and may it be a Hanukkah of light, sweetness, and unity.
https://laist.com/news/food/churros-for-hanukkah-why-yes-and-other-multicultural-fried-dough-treats-to-explore Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The LAist
Desiree Flores didn’t know any other vegans when she grew up in Boyle Heights. Today, she’s the founder and owner of Dear Mama, a plant-based Mexican pop-up eatery and catering business.
https://laist.com/news/food/turning-your-grandmothers-best-birria-in-town-into-a-vegan-business Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
A University of Pennsylvania donor has threatened to withdraw a $100 million donation from The Wharton School, the university’s business school, following the appearance of the university’s president before Congress.
University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill appeared before Congress Tuesday along with leaders of two other Ivy League schools - Harvard President Claudine Gay and Sally Kornbluth of MIT.
During a hearing, none of the presidents answered “yes” or “no” to the question: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying and harassment?”
All three presidents told the panel that they did not condone antisemitism and were taking steps to prevent it on campus, but on the specific question they cited free speech rights and said any discipline would depend on the specific circumstances.
Hate speech and acts — both antisemitic and Islamophobic — have erupted on U.S. college campuses since the Hamas-Israel war began in October.
All the presidents have received criticism because of their refusal to give a definitive answer to the question.
Stone Ridge Asset Management CEO Ross Stevens says he will withdraw his donation, now worth $100 million, to the Wharton School’s Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance if Magill is not removed from office.
https://www.voanews.com/a/donor-threatens-to-withdraw-100-million-from-university-after-congressional-hearing/7389601.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
As part of this month’s Econ Extra Credit series, we’ll look at a study about how likely drivers were to stop for a pedestrian waiting at a crosswalk. Turns out, the nicer the car, the less likely it was to stop. What can we learn about how wealth — or the lack of it — impacts our behavior? We’ll also check on the status of big passenger railway upgrades throughout the U.S.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/does-being-richer-makes-you-more-self-interested Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: NASA breaking news
This striking Hubble Space Telescope image shows the densely packed globular cluster known as NGC 2210, which is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The LMC lies about 157,000 light-years from Earth and is a so-called satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, meaning that the two galaxies are gravitationally bound. Globular clusters are very stable, tightly bound clusters […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-a-cluster-in-the-cloud/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The UK’s competition regulator wants to know if recent changes at OpenAI and its evolving relationship with Microsoft are cause for concern.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/microsofts_relationship_with_openai_now/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Bruce Schneier blog
New attack breaks forward secrecy in Bluetooth.
BLUFFS is a series of exploits targeting Bluetooth, aiming to break Bluetooth sessions’ forward and future secrecy, compromising the confidentiality of past and future communications between devices.
This is achieved by exploiting four flaws in the session key derivation process, two of which are new, to force the derivation of a short, thus weak and predictable session key (SKC).
Next, the attacker brute-forces the key, enabling them to decrypt past communication and decrypt or manipulate future communications…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/12/new-bluetooth-attack.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Heatmap News
Americans remain immensely concerned about climate change, with 70% calling it a serious problem and over one in three saying they are extremely concerned about the issue, Heatmap’s second Climate Poll has found, echoing results from its first survey last winter.
Conducted in mid-November by Benenson Strategy Group, the second poll explored both how Americans’ perceptions of climate change have shifted since Heatmap’s inaugural survey in February and also expanded to touch on questions about individuals’ personal experiences with climate change, their concerns about the future, their knowledge about climate issues and their attitudes on solutions, and how the issue is factoring into their 2024 presidential election decisions.
Encouragingly, the vast majority of Americans (68%) agree with the scientific consensus that climate change is a result of human activity, including almost half (48%) of Republicans and many (44%) former Trump voters.
However, most people do not think that things are moving in the right
direction: 46% of respondents said they are “increasingly pessimistic”
about climate change, while only a quarter said they think things are
looking up.
While extreme heat, historic smoke, flooding, rapidly intensifying hurricanes, and the deadliest wildfire in modern history made headlines throughout 2023, Americans reported a slight decline from last winter in their feelings of being personally affected by climate change: 44% said they were “very” or “somewhat” affected, down 6 points since the Heatmap Climate Poll was last conducted 10 months ago. The highest numbers came from respondents in the West, about half (49%) of whom said they’d experienced climate change personally, and the lowest numbers were in the Midwest, with 37% who said they’d been affected.
However, that has not affected Americans’ sense of urgency or concern about future weather impacts on their communities. Of the extreme weather scenarios that Heatmap asked about — tornadoes, extreme thunderstorms, hurricanes, wildfires, drought, flooding, extreme heat, and blizzards — a majority of Americans said they had concerns about the climate impacting the place they live. The lowest level of reported anxiety was over hurricanes (57%), which makes sense given that the impacts are heavily (albeit, sometimes surprisingly) regional.
These concerns played into Americans’ thoughts about the future more
generally as well. Nearly three-quarters of parents (72%) reported
having high levels of concern about the climate, with
dads
slightly more worried (77%) than moms (68%).
More than one in 10 Americans (12%) are worried that insurance companies are leaving their area. Almost one in five Americans (19%) say they’ve already seen their insurance rates increase due to weather extremes, and eight in 10 Americans say they want the government to require insurance companies to continue offering insurance in areas that are affected by climate change.
Most respondents said they are taking personal action on some level, whether it’s recycling (70%), carrying a reusable water bottle (62%), or driving or hoping to drive an EV in the future (46%). Even among people who voted in 2020 for Trump — no fan of electric vehicles — 30% said they drive or would like to drive an electric car in the future.
When it comes to solutions, though, Americans are more divided on the best approach. There’s uncertainty around the green energy transition, with 38% of respondents worried it will cost them money, 35% believing it will save them money, and 27% unsure. Proposals like providing tax incentives to make homes more energy efficient; making it easier to build new solar plants; investing in public transportation; and funding scientific studies to explore ways of reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere are widely popular, though, with all receiving over 80% support by respondents.
However, Americans who currently drive, or are interested in buying, an EV largely said that fuel savings (73%) were a bigger incentive to them than the benefits for the climate (63%). Starkly, Americans are also not sold on the phase-out of fossil fuels: 62% said they support making it easier to drill and build new pipelines, including 51% of Democrats and 59% of Independents.
What does the picture painted by the Heatmap poll mean for the 2024 election? There is a clear bipartisan interest in climate change, with 68% of Americans saying a candidate’s position on climate change is important in determining their presidential vote, including 86% of Democrats, 53% of Republicans, and 62% of Independents. Additionally, nearly one in seven (69%) Americans said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate that led an initiative to plant millions of trees to remove carbon from the atmosphere — a popular, albeit dubious, Republican climate proposal that 80% of Democrats said they could get behind.
Heatmap will continue to offer further analysis of the survey’s results in the coming days, including closer looks at Americans’ understandings of climate lingo, how they are influenced by common land development arguments, and more.
The Heatmap Climate Poll of 1,000 American adults was conducted by Benenson Strategy Group via online panels from Nov. 6 to 13, 2023. The survey included interviews with Americans in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
https://heatmap.news/climate/change-polling-concern-belief-republicans-vs-democrats Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: In a widening regional labor challenge for Tesla, the Finnish Transport Workers Union has joined an ongoing dispute in support of Tesla employees in Sweden. Plus, in a left-field move, Chanel has chosen the streets of British industrial city Manchester to host a catwalk show. Then, Korea’s cultural exports, or K-content, is worth $12 billion. The latest trend? The K-dog.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/finnish-unions-join-actions-against-tesla Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Heatmap News
The biggest debates during the annual United Nations climate conference, underway this week in Dubai, always center around language.
The Paris Agreement, the 2015 treaty significant for uniting almost every country in the world in supporting a common strategy to address climate change, was almost scuttled by an argument over whether nations “should” cut emissions or “shall” do it. This year, delegates are at odds over whether the world should “phase down” or “phase out” fossil fuels, and whether to allow for “abated” fossil fuels, a euphemism for the use of carbon capture technologies that prevent emissions from entering the atmosphere.
To explain the significance of these debates, the media often points to the scientific consensus that the world must reach “net zero” to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. But does anyone know what we’re talking about?
Heatmap’s second Climate Poll, conducted in mid-November by Benenson Strategy Group, found that the “Paris Agreement,” “Net Zero,” and a number of other terms used by activists, politicians, and climate communicators, are still unfamiliar to the majority of Americans.
One thousand adults, ages 18 and up, were asked, “In the context of climate change, sustainability and environmental responsibility, how familiar are you with the following terms?”
The results are not exactly surprising. It makes sense that people would
be far more familiar with mature technologies like solar, wind, and
nuclear, than with terms like “green hydrogen” and “direct air capture,”
which are much newer to the conversation and barely exist at scale in
the real world yet.
When I ran the findings by Jonathon Schuldt, an associate professor at
Cornell University who studies public opinion on health and
environmental issues, he agreed that they reflect “the effect of time
and exposure” to these terms among the public. “Solar, wind, and nuclear
energy have been part of the mainstream discourse for many decades,” he
said, “even before terms like global warming and climate change.” To
prove it, Schuldt showed me the results of running the terms through the
Google Books Ngram Viewer, which identifies their prevalence in books
over time:
Google
Books Ngram Viewer
But now, the reality on the ground in the U.S. is changing rapidly. The Biden administration is pouring more than $10 billion dollars into deploying green hydrogen plants and direct air capture machines at various sites around the country as a result of two major climate packages passed in 2021 and 2022, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Even as these two pieces of legislation have reshaped the energy and climate discussion in the U.S. in the last two years, public familiarity with green hydrogen and direct air capture appears to have remained static. Our findings line up very closely with a similar poll conducted by Data for Progress in May 2021. While both solutions hold a lot of promise to reduce climate change, they come with many more risks and trade-offs than solar or wind.
In general, we found that more Democrats were familiar with the terms on the list than Republicans. But slightly more Republicans expressed familiarity with “ESG” (40% vs 35%) “nuclear energy,” (71% vs 70%) “wind energy,” (77% vs 75%), “the IPCC 1.5C report” (22% vs 21%) and “Paris agreement” (38% vs 35%).
More men also expressed knowledge of the terms than women in every category.
There was also a significant gap between Americans below and above the age of 50, with younger generations far more likely to know terms like “environmental justice,” “carbon removal,” and “the IPCC 1.5C report.”
We also found a correlation between people who said that they had been personally affected by climate change and knowledge of key climate concepts. About three times as many people who had been affected by climate change knew what “green hydrogen” or a “direct air capture plant” was, compared with those who said they had not been affected by climate change.
“A key question is whether familiarity corresponds to support,” Schuldt
told me. “Especially given COP28’s emphasis on the need to shift to
renewable energy. On the other hand, that most respondents were
unfamiliar with central terms like environmental justice and net zero
suggests that the climate movement has more work to do when it comes to
engaging the general public in these conversations.”
Well, Heatmap asked about support, too, for at least a few of these. And while solar and wind do have significant support, some of the results are a bit contradictory to the familiarity findings, because far more people said they would support the Paris Agreement and environmental justice than admitted they knew what these phrases meant. (The added context probably helped too.)
We went a lot deeper on some of these questions, especially around
support for renewable energy, and will have more to share with you in
the coming weeks.
The Heatmap Climate Poll of 1,000 American adults was conducted by Benenson Strategy Group via online panels from Nov. 6 to 13, 2023. The survey included interviews with Americans in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
https://heatmap.news/politics/climate-change-polling-net-zero-paris-agreement-esg Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Manu - I write blog
This is the 15th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Eli Mellen and his blog, Oatmeal.
I was introduced to Eli’s blog by Piper Haywood, previously featured on the series, and loved the “tumblrness” of his digital home. That’s a terrible description but still, if you used tumblr before you probably understand what I’m talking about.
To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.
Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?
Hi, I’m Eli. I live on the coast of Maine in the US with my family and a number of pets. I have a weird background in literary theory, art history, philosophy, animation and design, but backed my way into a career as an approximately programmer-shaped person. I’ve worked as a software architect, QA lead, accessibility specialist and product manager. These days I do that sorta stuff in the civic tech space. I love to read, play SNES-era jrpgs, cook vegetarian food, and wander around outside with my kids.
What's the story behind your blog?
I’ve had some iteration of my website at my current domain name since the spring of 2013. Before that, though, I also had various (embarrassing) tumblrs and livejournals. I’ve written online, for good and ill, for as long as I’ve been online. The first iteration of my current website was born a bit out of desperation and hubris. I thought being online could land me a job. It was also a space where I could teach myself more about web hosting and development.
I was freshly out of undergrad, and was barreling my way out of graduate school with a family on the way. I’d always dabbled with technology and programming, even though I hadn’t studied it in school, so it seemed like a good place to look for work. The internet world was all Bootstrap and Ruby on Rails at the time, so I dove deep into those things, and everything else that seemed hip at the time. I guess my hope was to blog so good that I got a job? And, it sort of worked out in that my website became a playground for me to learn technical skills that would eventually help me be employable.
Everything has changed a lot over the years. Around 2018 I got really excited about the indieweb and rebuilt my website to support all the indieweb functionality I could cram into my homespun CMS. At that point things took a turn towards microblogging — quick, short posts without titles — so, I did that on my website.
These days my setup is simpler. I’ve removed all the indieweb features, like webmentions and use a content management system called blot to publish plaintext as pretty well formatted HTML, with an RSS feed.
My domain name is entirely uncreative. I wanted the shortest, yet most affordable thing I could find, and my name happened to work out.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
I wish I had an elegant answer. Something about going for a swim in a mountain lake, then sitting on the floor with a beautiful notebook and drafting an initial sketch of a thing while a concerto plays softly in the background, leaf-dappled light filling the minimal, wood-hewn space.
In reality I’m more of a goblin than that. I tend to bang things out over breaks, or in little spare windows of time.
I have a drafts folder filled with dozens of long form things, partially researched and mostly unfinished. What gets posted to my website these days tends to be the quicker stuff. Photos and things I write on my phone or directly on my desktop, then read through once or twice before I share them.
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?
I think I do have an ideal creative environment, I don’t think I’ve discovered it yet. Reading a lot helps me feel creative, as does listening to music. When I’m in a rut I usually pick up a book.
I have a strange relationship with technology. As a person who “does tech” for a job, I really really loathe most technology. I find it cumbersome and not something I wanna give attention to, so, these days I seek out things that get out of my way, support the accessibility features I need, and that won’t require heaps of my attention after setting them up.
Because of this I end up using a lot of default, or barebones, applications. Almost all my blog posts are composed in macOS’ default TextEdit application. If I’m writing something longer than a normal post, or writing code I’ll reach for either Acme or Emacs.
I like a clicky keyboard, but don’t have strong opinions about which ones, or types of keys.
A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?
The tech stack has changed a number of times. Originally my website was totally static, hosted with GitHub pages. I used a variety of static site generators there, including a few I made myself. For the hottest of seconds I used Wordpress hosted on a VPS, but I quickly became frustrated with how limiting that felt, and tore it all down to write my own CMS. That CMS took a few forms, in a few languages, but was mostly a PHP monstrosity that supported micropub for creating and editing posts.
These days I use blot.im — my website is a pile of directories and plaintext files on my computer that get synced to blot automatically. It is pretty magical. I built a custom theme for blot that I recently updated to make more accessible. Blot is one of the very few legitimately great web services I’ve ever used.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
If I was starting again today, I think I would do a few things differently:
I would consider blogging anonymously, or more disconnected from my lived life. The hope would be that would let me feel cozier being more weird (I’m excited about a weirder, quieter internet).
I would lean away from the chronological timeline as the primary organizing mechanism of the website, and have better URLs without dates in them.
I have a wiki section these days, and like how that invites me to revisit stuff I’ve written, keeping it up-to-date and alive in a way that the chronological timeline doesn’t.
Financial question since the web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?
I make, and have made exactly $0 from my website to date. I’ve no plans to try and monetize it. I have no clue how many folks read my site. I’ve never had analytics or anything of the sort.
I pay $20/year for my CMS, and $25/year for my domain name.
I’ve got no qualms with folks monetizing their websites, especially when they’re upfront about it. I’ve thought about it before, but nothing more than fancifully thinking “it’d be nice to work less and play more.”
Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?
Oh! So many!
I keep a blogroll of personal sites that I enjoy. Two great sites that I find really inspiring are maya.land and Bill Mill’s notes blog. I think they’d each make for fascinating interviews!
I love the writing, and sprawling topics across maya.land, and I dig how Bill’s website leans more personal tool than personal website. I used to post a ton of links to my website, but was never as organized about it.
I also love to explore spaces like Marginalia and the Merveilles webring.
Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?
Thanks for this opportunity and for maintaining this awesome project!
If anyone reading is looking for a lower key version of the Advent of Code, check out the December Adventure!
Supposedly, one day, I’ll either share a video game or some fiction I’ve created. Those will land on my website when that time comes, but for now I have a shout outs page on my website. I update that with stuff that I think is worth shouting out.
This was the 15th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Eli. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.
You can support this series on Ko-Fi and supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.
If you like this series and want to help it grow, you can:
https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/ufFKSEp5OMjarfNF Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
Recently, our organized crime-figure president, Joe Biden, released a series of bulleted talking points to make Thanksgiving family get-togethers even more hellish. The comedy troupe formerly known as the Democratic Party issued a list cleverly titled: “Your Handy Guide for Responding to Crazy MAGA Nonsense this Thanksgiving.” Bright side? It wasn’t in Chinese. Families used […]
The post John Boston | A Handy GOP Holiday Talking Points Guide appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/john-boston-a-handy-gop-holiday-talking-points-guide/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The 255th version of systemd is here, banishing support for split and
unmerged /usr directories but enriching its UKI boot
support.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/systemd_255_is_here/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Long before the internet became our world, there was a mishmash of online services such as AOL, CompuServe, GEnie, and Prodigy. Except for being faster, there’s less difference between then and now than you might think. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/opinion_column/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Heatmap News
The Americanization of electric cars is in full swing, with every U.S. automaker doing what it does best: building ever larger, heavier, and more spacious vehicles. So it’s refreshing to see Stellantis, the parent company of Fiat, bringing its first new EV to the States in the form of a reborn 500e.
Fiat
The 500e was beloved when it first landed a decade ago, providing a quick, ultra-compact hatchback that fit the needs of most city and suburban drivers. And given there weren’t exactly a lot of small, inexpensive EV options at the time (and incentives were plentiful), you still see them on the road today.
For the new model, Fiat addressed this week some of the issues of its predecessor, with a boost in both power and range thanks to a 42 kWh battery pack that wrings out 149 miles on a charge. The $34,000 price tag may not make it the bargain it used to be, particularly compared to more spacious and long-range options like the Tesla Model 3, which, unlike the 500e, is also eligible for a federal tax credit. But Fiat includes a free Level 2 home charger in the deal, and its 3,000-pound weight and diminutive size make a compelling case for the average commuter.
Plus, when it’s trundling along at low speeds, the 500e’s Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (that low hum you hear that’s required on EVs) plays a little Italian concerto, “The Sound of 500.”
If that’s not enough personality for you, one of the most storied British sports car brands, Morgan, unveiled Wednesday an electric update to its iconic three-wheeler. With a 33kWh battery pack mounted in the front and an electric motor putting out 134 horsepower to the rear wheel — singular — the XP-1 is a glimpse of the ultimate electric urban runabout.
Meet XP-1, Morgan’s Electric Experimental Prototype youtu.be
Completely developed in house by Morgan, it’s the company’s first serious foray into electric motoring, with an aim to get about 100 miles on a charge. At just over 1,500 pounds, the XP-1 is a scant 130 pounds heavier than its internal combustion counterpart, providing the kind of performance and raw driving experience Morgan is known for. Granted, the lack of a roof limits its four-season functionality, but no one has ever accused a Morgan of being sensible.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/fiat-500e-morgan-xp-1-electric-cars Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: RiscOS Story
Ah, no, now I get it – it’s a mystery machine, not The Mystery Machine! If you’re planning to pay a visit to the MUG RISC OS Xmas Market on Saturday1, you’ll undoubtedly want to pop into the second room to see what’s on offer from RISCOSbits, because it looks like there will be quite a selection. Andy Marks says there will be “a range of hardware devices, including several machines not yet seen in the wild. The first of machines that isn’t a mystery machine is the recently launched…
https://www.riscository.com/2023/riscosbits-at-the-mug-xmas-show/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Openreach claims it has reached the halfway point in its goal of rolling out fiber broadband to 25 million UK premises by the end of 2026.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/openreach_halfway_fiber_milestone/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
More than $800,000 is now being processed as part of the next batch of Disaster Unemployment Assistance benefits, according to the Guam Department of Labor. The next batch of benefits should be mailed out by next week, a release from…
https://www.postguam.com/news/more-than-800k-in-dua-being-processed/article_f23f697a-95af-11ee-8f36-43ed0047c57e.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAS VEGAS (TNS) — The gunman suspected of killing three people at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was identified as an academic who was seeking work at the university, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/three-killed-in-las-vegas-shooting-were-university-faculty-gunman-had-sought-job-sources-say/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A recent Federal Trade Commission civil lawsuit accusing one of the nation’s largest anesthesiology groups of monopolistic practices that sharply drove up prices is a warning to private equity investors that could temper their big push to snap up physician groups.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/ftc-chief-gears-up-for-a-showdown-with-private-equity/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The U.S. Department of Energy is creating three research hubs in the hopes of harnessing miniature laser-driven thermonuclear explosions for future power plants, officials announced Thursday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/3-laser-fusion-research-hubs-picked-by-energy-department/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>PEARL HARBOR, Oahu — Ira “Ike” Schab had just showered, put on a clean sailor’s uniform and closed his locker aboard the USS Dobbin when he heard a call for a fire rescue party.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/hawaii-news/centenarian-survivors-of-pearl-harbor-attack-return-to-honor-those-who-perished-82-years-ago/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Most gamblers looking for action in Las Vegas head for the Strip, but the biggest bet to watch these days is on the edge of town. There, a vast new complex will take plastic waste from across the West and process it into high-quality material that manufacturers can turn back into water and soda bottles or other food-grade packaging.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/next-generation-plastic-recycling-plant-is-bet-on-rising-us-demand/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON — House members voted again Thursday to punish one of their own, targeting Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a U.S. Capitol office building when the chamber was in session.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/house-votes-to-censure-democratic-rep-bowman-for-pulling-a-fire-alarm-in-a-capitol-office-building/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas judge on Thursday gave a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis permission to get an abortion in an unprecedented challenge over bans that more than a dozen states have enacted since Roe v. Wade was overturned.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/texas-judge-grants-pregnant-woman-permission-to-get-an-abortion-despite-states-ban/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is appealing a ruling that found he is not immune from criminal prosecution as he runs out of opportunities to delay or even derail an upcoming trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/trump-appeals-ruling-rejecting-immunity-claim-as-window-narrows-to-derail-federal-election-case/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A woman in Ohio who threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle worker and was convicted of assault has been sentenced to an unusual punishment that includes working in fast food for two months.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/woman-who-threw-food-at-chipotle-employee-sentenced-to-work-fast-food-job/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The kona low system that swept over the state at the end of November gave Big Islanders, especially those using water catchment systems, a welcome respite from the drought.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/hawaii-news/kona-low-system-provided-some-drought-relief-but-dry-conditions-expected-to-persist/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/trumps-vow-to-only-be-a-dictator-on-day-one-follows-growing-worry-over-his-authoritarian-rhetoric/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A community meeting was held Wednesday to provide updates about the Kalaoa Solar Project, a proposed 40-acre renewable energy facility on state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property in Kalaoa.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/hawaii-news/kalaoa-renewable-energy-project-aims-to-be-community-based/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hawaii County’s construction permitting process could become more efficient under a new law signed last week by Mayor Mitch Roth.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/hawaii-news/new-law-streamlines-building-permit-process/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil fraud trial Thursday to spotlight his defense, renewing his complaints that the case is baseless and heaping praise on an accounting professor’s testimony that backed him up.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/donald-trump-returns-to-court-lauds-his-defense-expert-who-sees-no-evidence-of-accounting-fraud/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Tomas Ramos Guerrero Sr., 89, of Keaau died Dec. 2 at Hale Anuenue Restorative Care Center. Born in Burayoc Batac, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, he was a former professor of agriculture at Mariano Marcos State University in the Philippines, security guard at Alii Security and Royal Guard Security, diversified agriculture farmer and member of Annak ti Batac Big Island Chapter. Visitation 9-10 a.m. Wednesday (Dec. 13) at Dodo Mortuary Chapel. Prayer service at 10 a.m. Burial to follow at Alae Cemetery. Casual attire. Survived by children, Thomas Lynn (Ana Lourdes) Guerrero of Keaau, Hazel Lynn (Liberato Jr.) Alonzo of Kurtistown, Honey Lynn (Karlito Agliam) Guerrero of Keaau, Hannah Lyn (Samuel) Umayas of Hawaiian Paradise Park and Tomas Guerrero Jr. of Keaau; brother, Camilo (Gloria) Guerrero of Hilo; sister, Luisa Paguirigan of Keaau; sisters-in-law, Miriam Guerrero-Dublada of Hilo, Nenita Guerrero of Keaau and Josenia Guerrero of Honokaa; grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Arrangements by Dodo Mortuary.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/obituaries/obituaries-for-december-8-11/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KAILUA-KONA — It’s never too early to mitigate risks, and perhaps no one knows that better than West Hawaii Explorations Academy.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/community/kona-charter-school-launches-freediving-safety-course/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Applicants are being sought for the Akamai Internship Program.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/community/applicants-needed-for-paid-stem-based-internship/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hawaii Police Department Detective John Balberde was honored Wednesday morning with the Haweo Award during a ceremony held at the Hawaii County Council chambers in Hilo.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/community/hpd-detective-honored-for-outstanding-work/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. government is entering a new era of collaboration with Native American and Alaska Native leaders in managing public lands and other resources, with top federal officials saying that incorporating more Indigenous knowledge into decision-making can help spur conservation and combat climate change.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/us-touts-new-era-of-collaboration-with-native-american-tribes-to-manage-public-lands-and-water/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/nation-world-news/desperation-grows-among-palestinians-trapped-with-little-aid-as-israel-battles-hamas-in-gaza/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>In 2015, the world’s governments declared a collective ambition: to limit the rise in global temperatures to just 1.5 degrees Celsius. Since then, two things have become clear. First, the costs of exceeding that threshold are greater than believed eight years ago. Second, the goal looks increasingly difficult to reach. Even if governments enact all the climate policies they’ve so far announced — an optimistic assumption — warming this century is on track to exceed 2C and might run as high as 2.9C. As 70,000 politicians, officials and interested parties gather in Dubai for COP28 — two weeks of talks to review what’s been done and still needs to be done — this failure to align policies with promises should remain front of mind. BloombergNEF is watching 10 areas where progress in Dubai can be measured against identifiable targets. As the meeting began, the expected score across all these initiatives was 3.9 out of 10. Likely progress on the overarching objective — to get global carbon emissions in sync with the 1.5C ambition by 2030 — was a pitiful 1 out of 10.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/opinion/cop28-needs-less-talk-and-more-action/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Days before Sam Altman was fired — and then rehired — as CEO of OpenAI, researchers at the company wrote a letter to its board of directors warning that a major new discovery could threaten humanity. We don’t know more about the details of that breakthrough or its precise role in the soap opera that’s consumed the tech world in recent weeks, but we do know that artificial intelligence is advancing at a rapid pace, and our public policy to regulate it is moving at the speed of Washington.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/opinion/human-intelligence-must-rule-ai-needs-limits-impose-by-people/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Sign needed at
free legal service</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/opinion/your-views-for-december-8-9/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Youth runners from Hilo’s Sunrise Athletics traveled to California last weekend to compete in the Foot Locker West Regionals Cross-Country Championships.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/sunrise-runners-medal-at-mt-sac/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Kea‘au High boys soccer team notched its first win in blowout fashion, defeating visiting Makua Lani Christian 6-0 on Wednesday at Kea‘au HS.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/hawaii-news/cougars-blank-lions/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>“Schager Bombs ” will no longer be launched in Manoa.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/hawaii-quarterback-brayden-schager-enters-ncaas-transfer-portal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The UH-Hilo men’s and women’s basketball teams played their second doubledheader of the week, as the men won and women lost against Fresno Pacific on Wednesday at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/vulcans-split-another-doubleheader/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK — Juan Soto’s arrival is a sign the New York Yankees want stars to help them rebound from their worst season in three decades — a move right out of late owner George Steinbrenner’s playbook. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/the-yankees-made-a-vintage-steinbrenner-move-to-land-juan-soto-after-a-lousy-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KEALAKEKUA — Even on back-to-backs, Konawaena girls basketball’s offense fails to slow down.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/week-3-of-biif-basketball-nears-its-end/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton hit his third 3-pointer with less than a minute left, pounded his chest, and looked down at his wrist to let everyone know one thing: “It’s our time!”</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/pacers-defeat-bucks-lakers-decimate-pelicans-during-in-season-tournament-semifinals/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The 2nd Annual Hilo High School Jingle Bell Color Run is on tap for 3 p.m. Sunday at the Russell Carroll Bayfront Soccer Fields.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/hilo-high-school-jingle-bell-color-run-on-tap-for-sunday/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) — Bailey Zappe threw three first-half touchdown passes, and the New England Patriots snapped a five-game skid while damaging the playoff hopes of the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 21-18 victory on Thursday night. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/08/sports/bailey-zappe-throws-for-3-tds-patriots-damage-steelers-playoff-hopes-with-21-18-win/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: RiscOS Story
We’re on a ROAD to software, come on and code… In a move designed to hopefully encourage more people to develop software for RISC OS, and at the same time help existing developers with kit to test software on, and hopefully encourage those who are thinking about dipping a toe in the world of programming or people who are already capable but who have left the platform, the RISC OS Active Developer Scheme – or ROADS for short is a new initiative from RISCOSbits. A notable problem on our platform…
https://www.riscository.com/2023/riscosbits-roads/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
I keep having this recurring nightmare of who will be in the Donald Trump cabinet if he wins the presidency again. Here are my top candidates/worries: • Chief of Staff: Marjorie Taylor Green; works well with others. Secretary of State: Jared Kushner; also ambassador to Saudi Arabia. • Department of Justice: Rudy Giuiliani; (after conviction […]
The post Thomas Oatway | This Is What Keeps Him Up at Night appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/thomas-oatway-this-is-what-keeps-him-up-at-night/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
The fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act passed the conference committee this week, and while the legislation still includes several provisions for the island, the committee removed the amendment that would have expanded the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA)…
https://www.postguam.com/news/reca-language-removed-from-ndaa-h-2b-extension-included/article_03dc2fa8-95a9-11ee-9b4c-4368488ad3e8.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
After weeks of chaotic non-leadership by the Republican-held house, a far-right, inexperienced Louisiana Republican is now the speaker of the House. Lo and behold. This new speaker has advocated the overturn of the 2020 presidential election, and in doing so he tried to get the House to refuse to certify the results of the election. […]
The post Lois Eisenberg | Lois and Behold appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/lois-eisenberg-lois-and-behold/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Robert Reich on Substack
The so-called “free market” is a dangerous illusion
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-biggest-myth-of-all Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Status-Q blog
On Wednesday I was part of a group that visited Thalia Waste Management, a substantial local domestic-waste-processing and recycling facility, and it was most interesting. Quite apart from seeing some of the machinery and getting a feel for what actually happens to the stuff in those bins you leave on the kerb, we heard Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2023/12/08/11851/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
On Call The steady process of time means that The Register has once again arrived at Friday and the timeslot we reserve for On Call – our weekly reader-contributed tale of tech support trials and tribulations.…
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date: 2023-12-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1941 – Julius Dietzmann family of Castaic arrested as German enemy aliens. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-dec-8/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
As part of his campaign for a second term as U.S. president, Donald Trump and his allies say the former president — if he wins — would use federal law enforcement to punish his political enemies and restructure the federal government to streamline implementation of his policies.
While Democrats have been virtually unanimous in their concerns about a second Trump presidency, warning that it would be tantamount to a “dictatorship,” the reaction among Republicans has been sharply divergent. Some in the Republican Party are raising an alarm, while others downplay Trump’s rhetoric, suggesting that concerns about it are overblown.
A key distinction, though, is that most of the Republicans expressing concerns about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies are either no longer in office or have announced their retirement, which suggests that resistance to the former president’s expressed preferences may not be a tenable position in the modern-day Republican Party.
Revenge and retribution
In recent weeks, Trump has promised his supporters that he will be their “retribution” if he retakes the White House, and has used language reminiscent of the worst of European fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, calling his political opponents “vermin” and warning that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States.
Trump has also expressed interest in reclassifying broad swaths of the federal workforce — tens of thousands of career civil servants — as “Schedule F” employees whom he could fire at will. A coalition of conservative think tanks, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, is currently “vetting” thousands of Trump supporters who are interested in serving in a second Trump administration and who could be expected to faithfully carry out his wishes.
Trump has also promised to take specific steps, including “going after” President Joe Biden and his family with a “special prosecutor,” and has suggested that news outlets critical of him should be silenced.
Trump’s closest supporters have echoed his threats. In an interview with former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon this week, Kash Patel, a former Defense Department official during the Trump administration, said that in a second Trump term, “We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media …
“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections — we’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”
“This is just not rhetoric,” Bannon added. “We’re absolutely dead serious.”
A one-day dictator?
As recently as Tuesday in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Trump was given the opportunity to allay concerns that he would behave like a dictator if reelected.
“To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?” Hannity asked.
“You mean like they’re using right now?” Trump replied, and did not answer the question.
A few minutes later, Hannity tried again, “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?”
“We love this guy,” Trump replied. “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ’No, no, no. Other than Day One. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator. OK?”
The Trump campaign did not respond to an emailed request asking for clarification of his remarks.
Republicans issue warnings
In the Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie painted a dire picture of what he thinks another Trump presidency would look like.
“This is an angry, bitter man who now wants to be back as president because he wants to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him, anyone who has tried to hold him to account for his own conduct, and every one of these policies that he’s talking about are about pursuing a plan of retribution,” Christie said.
“Do I think he was kidding when he said he was a dictator?” Christie continued. “All you have to do is look at the history, and that’s why failing to speak out against him, making excuses for him, pretending that somehow he’s a victim empowers him. …
“Let me make it clear: His conduct is unacceptable. He’s unfit. And be careful of what you’re going to get if you ever got another Donald Trump term. He’s letting you know, ‘I am your retribution.’”
Trump was not on the stage, having declined to participate in any of the primary debates. The other three Republicans on the debate stage, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, avoided any sharp criticism of the former president, who retains a commanding lead in polls of likely primary voters.
‘Sleepwalking into a dictatorship’
Christie’s concerns have been echoed by other Republicans such as Utah Senator and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who told The Washington Post this week that Trump’s base seems to want him to behave like an authoritarian.
“His base loves the authoritarian streak,” Romney said. “I think they love the idea that he may use the military in domestic matters, and that he will seek revenge and retribution. That’s why he’s saying it and has the lock, nearly, on the Republican nomination.” In September, Romney announced that he will not be running for reelection next year.
Former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, who has been a vocal critic of Trump and served on the House panel that investigated the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, told CBS News last weekend that she has no doubts about what a second Trump presidency would look like.
“One of the things that we see happening today is sort of sleepwalking into a dictatorship in the United States,” she said.
Not a serious threat
Current Republican officeholders who are supportive of the former president often downplay his suggestion that he will use the levers of governmental power to punish his critics.
During Wednesday’s debate, for example, DeSantis dismissed concerns about Trump behaving as an authoritarian during a second term.
“Look, the media’s making a big deal about what he said about some of these comments,” he said. “I would just remind people that is not how he governed.”
Senator Lindsey Graham has said publicly he believes Trump’s comments to Hannity were meant to be “funny.” In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Graham disputed Cheney’s assertions about how Trump will behave in office, saying they stem from her personal animosity toward the former president.
“I think a continuation of the Biden presidency would be a disaster for peace and prosperity at home and abroad,” Graham said. “Our border is broken. The only person who is really going to fix a broken border is Donald Trump. When he was president, none of this stuff was going on in Ukraine. Hamas and all these other terrorist groups were afraid of Trump.”
Asked to comment on Trump’s statement that he would be a one-day dictator, Republican Senator Thom Tillis said, “He said he would do two things: He would close the border and drill. Everybody could say that’s abusing power. I think that’s a righteous use of power, and President Biden’s failed on it.”
‘Autocrats always tell you who they are’
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University and author of “Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present,” warned against the danger of dismissing Trump’s rhetoric as unserious or flippant.
“Everything Donald Trump says should be taken seriously,” she wrote in an email exchange with VOA. “Autocrats always tell you who they are and what they are going to do. In this case, Trump is saying clearly he has aspirations to be a dictator, which is unsurprising given his incitement of a coup to stay in office illegally and given his open adulation of others of his tribe such as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping].”
Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor of Communications at American University who studies the connection between political language and violence, said that downplaying Trump’s rhetoric allows much of what the former president says to become “normalized” with the general public.
“They’ve been saying he’s ‘just joking’ for seven years now,” Braddock told VOA. “And whether he’s just joking or not is immaterial as far as I’m concerned. People interpret it, or some segment of the population interprets it, as being truthful.”
“When there’s a population that admires somebody as much as some individuals admire Trump, the normalization of this kind of language promotes positive attitudes about the kinds of things it implies,” Braddock said.
“So if he jokes about being a dictator, or jokes about implied violence against political enemies, the more he does that the more it kind of becomes part of our normal vocabulary.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/republicans-split-on-whether-trump-would-be-dictator-if-reelected/7389280.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
Western foreign policy experts are welcoming recent U.S. agreements to jointly tackle foreign disinformation with Seoul and Tokyo, saying they are needed to counter Chinese efforts to undermine liberal democracies through the spread of fake news.
The U.S. signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday “to identify and counter foreign information manipulation,” according to a State Department statement.
The agreement follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed with South Korea in Seoul on Friday to cooperate in their efforts to tackle foreign disinformation. The agreements, the first designed to fight disinformation, were made during an Asia trip by Liz Allen, the U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
They are designed to “demonstrate the seriousness with which the United States is working with its partners to defend the information space,” according to the State Department’s Wednesday statement, which did not specify any nations as threats.
In response, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Tuesday that he wants to stress that “China always opposes the creation and spread of disinformation.”
He said, “What I have seen is that there is a lot of disinformation about China on social media in the U.S. Some U.S. officials, lawmakers, media and organizations have produced and spread a large amount of false information against China without any evidence, ignoring basic facts.”
The agreements the U.S. made with its allies are “a deliberate acknowledgment of the threats posed by China,” said David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.
“Disinformation is part of a deliberate long-term political warfare campaign by China to subvert the democracies of the U.S., the ROK and Japan as well as to undermine the alliance relationships to prevent unified action against China,” Maxwell said, using the acronym for South Korea’s official name, Republic of Korea.
China is seemingly accelerating its social media operation aimed at influencing the U.S. election in 2024.
Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on Nov. 30 that it took down 4,789 Facebook accounts based in China that were impersonating Americans, including politicians, and posting messages about U.S. politics and U.S.-China relations.
In the report on adversarial threats, Meta said China is the third-most-common source of foreign disinformation after Russia and Iran.
Dennis Wilder, a senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, said, “The Chinese, Russians, and others seek to disrupt the normal give and take of our political discourse.”
Wilder, formerly National Security Council director for China in 2004-05 during the George W. Bush administration, continued to say the agreements Washington made with Seoul and Tokyo are “a significant step forward” as “democracies must work together” to offset “disinformation designed to influence electorate and sow overall dissent within our open political systems.”
Beijing appears to be spreading anti-U.S. and pro-China messages in South Korea as well.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) announced Nov. 13 it had identified and taken down 38 fake Korean-language news sites operated by two Chinese public relations firms, Haimai and Haixun.
South Korea’s National Cyber Security Center, which is overseen by NIS, released a report on the same day describing the kind of propaganda that the firms disseminated through the fake news sites by posing as members of the Korean Digital News Association. The organization oversees the copyrights of news articles posted by its members.
Using news site names such as Seoul Press with the corresponding domain name as seoulpr.com and Busan Online with busanonline.com, Haimai has been disseminating disinformation and operating the sites from China, according to the report. Busan is South Korea’s second-largest city.
An article on Daegu Journal, another illicit site Haimai was running, stated in June that nuclear wastewater released from Japan would affect the South Korean food supply chain.
The National Cyber Security Center report also noted that U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant, owned by Google, released a report in July accusing Haimai of operating 72 fraudulent websites to spread anti-U.S. messages.
Cho Han-Bum, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told VOA’s Korean Service on Tuesday that “China and North Korea have been attempting in various ways to influence South Korea’s public opinion.”
He said the influence campaign could affect South Korean politics and therefore Seoul’s relations with Beijing or its stance on Pyongyang.
Kim Hyungjin in Seoul contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-deals-with-allies-signal-concerns-over-china-s-disinformation-campaign-/7389344.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The Hubble Space Telescope is expected to resume science operations on Friday, after a gyroscope glitch forced NASA to suspend astronomical observations for weeks.…
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date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A trio of Polish security researchers claim to have found that trains built by Newag SA contain software that sabotages them if the hardware is serviced by competitors.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/polish_trains_geofenced_allegation/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
A carjacking suspect was apprehended by California Highway Patrol officers in northern Valencia on Thursday night following an hourslong pursuit that began in Fontana. “The original warrant was for a possible carjacking,” said CHP Traffic Management Officer Sean Lough. “We got the transfer from Fontana (Police Department). I believe the location we got was in […]
The post <strong>Carjacking suspect apprehended in Valencia following hourslong pursuit</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/carjacking-suspect-apprehended-in-valencia-following-hourslong-pursuit/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
On Thursday, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report urging tighter restrictions on export of critical technologies to China – including a policy of denial for all items controlled for national security reasons.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/us_lawmakers_want_denialfirst_policy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cisco has quietly introduced changes to the licensing model for its Catalyst range, and will bring it to more products over time.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/cisco_networking_cloud_licensing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
Black people make up about 38% of Mississippi’s population, but a new study shows that Black women were four times more likely to die of causes directly related to pregnancy than white women in the state in 2020.
“It is imperative that this racial inequity is not only recognized, but that concerted efforts are made at the institutional, community, and state levels to reduce these disparate outcomes,” wrote Dr. Michelle Owens and Dr. Courtney Mitchell, leaders of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee that conducted the study.
The Mississippi State Department of Health published the findings Wednesday.
The committee said 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in Mississippi between 2016 and 2020 were considered preventable, and cardiovascular disease and hypertension remain top contributors to maternal mortality.
Women need comprehensive primary care before, during and after pregnancy, but many people live in areas where health care services are scarce, Owens and Mitchell wrote.
“A substantial portion of this care is being shouldered by smaller hospitals with limited resources, many of whom are facing possible closure and limiting or discontinuing the provision of obstetrical services, further increasing the burdens borne by the individuals and their communities,” they wrote.
The Maternal Mortality Review Committee was formed in 2017, and its members include physicians, nurses, public health experts and others who work in health care.
The committee found that from 2016 to 2020, Mississippi’s pregnancy-related mortality rate was 35.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. The study did not provide a comparable five-year number for the U.S. but said the national rate was 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 and 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020.
Mississippi has long been one of the poorest states in the U.S., with some of the highest rates of obesity and heart disease.
A state health department program called Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies offers care management and home visits for pregnant women and for infants who are at risk of having health problems.
“Losing one mother is too many,” Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, said in a news release about the maternal mortality study.
The committee recommended that Mississippi leaders expand Medicaid to people who work in lower-wage jobs that don’t provide private health insurance — a policy proposal that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has long opposed.
Earlier this year, Reeves signed a law allowing postpartum Medicaid coverage for a full year, up from two months.
Medicaid expansion is optional under the health care overhaul that then-President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010, and Mississippi is one of 10 states that have not taken the option. The non-expansion states have Republican governors, Republican-controlled Legislatures or both.
“Medicaid expansion should be incorporated for rural hospitals to remain open and include access to telehealth services,” the Maternal Mortality Review Committee leaders wrote. “There is a need for rural healthcare facilities to provide higher levels of critical care, recruit and retain adequate providers, and have access to life saving equipment, especially in the most vulnerable areas of the state.”
The study examined deaths that occurred during or within one year after pregnancy. It defined pregnancy-related deaths as those “initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy” and pregnancy-associated deaths as those “from a cause that is not related to pregnancy.”
Pregnancy-related deaths during the five years included 17 homicides and four suicides, plus 26 instances of substance abuse disorder contributing to the maternal death and 30 instances of mental health conditions other than substance abuse disorder contributing to a death.
The study also said obesity contributed to 32 maternal deaths and discrimination contributed to 22. It noted that some pregnancy-related deaths could have more than one contributing factor.
The committee recommended that health care providers develop procedures and training to address maternal patients with severe complaints for the same health concern, including training to eliminate bias or discrimination.
https://www.voanews.com/a/mortality-rate-higher-for-black-moms-than-white-moms-in-mississippi-study-says-/7389389.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
The Biden administration is running out of time to secure a deal on tens of billions of dollars in wartime aid for Ukraine and Israel that Senate Republicans blocked Wednesday. President Joe Biden has signaled he is willing to compromise on Republicans’ demands on border security to get the package through. But his aides accuse Republicans of ignoring Biden’s proposal. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports. Camera: Oleksii Osyka. Contributors: Tatiana Vorozhko, Katherine Gypson.
https://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-and-republicans-stuck-in-ukraine-funding-impasse/7389336.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Amazon’s game-streaming business Twitch has announced it will quit South Korea, citing network access costs ten times higher than those it pays in any other nation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/twitch_quits_south_korea/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Daring Fireball
https://mastodon.social/@jackwellborn/111539651190313429 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Daring Fireball
https://github.com/ml-explore/mlx Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
The William S. Hart Union High School District governing board unanimously approved the appointment of Lori Gambero as the new principal at Arroyo Seco Junior High School at Wednesday’s regular board meeting. Gambero will be taking over for current Principal Andy Keyne, who is set to retire. “I just want to thank you all, Superintendent […]
The post <strong>Gambero appointed as new Arroyo Seco Junior High principal</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/gambero-appointed-as-new-arroyo-seco-junior-high-principal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Guam Daily Post
A three car crash in Barrigada sent one occupant to the hospital with minor injuries.
https://www.postguam.com/news/one-hospitalized-in-three-car-crash-in-barrigada-four-total-sustain-minor-injuries/article_fecabe8a-956c-11ee-9e07-dfd1d46ae675.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Daring Fireball
https://sixcolors.com/link/2023/11/the-cops-think-ios-17s-namedrop-is-dangerous/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: OS News
Fvwm3, the successor to fvwm 2.6, has a new version, 1.0.9. This highly customisable and lightweight window manager for X has been around for a very long time, since 1993, and has been in development ever since. This new release, as the version number suggests, does not have the longest changelog. If you’re a user of fvwm, you already know exactly what 1.0.9 will mean for you.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138027/fvwm3-1-0-9-released/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: OS News
HP knows people have grown to hate printers. It even knows that people hate HP printers. But based on a new marketing campaign the company launched, HP is OK with that—so long as it can convince people that there are worse options out there. The marketing campaign hitting parts of Europe aims to present HP as real and empathetic. The tagline “Made to be less hated” seems to acknowledge people’s frustration with printers. But HP’s a top proponent of the exact sort of money-grabbing, disruptive practices that have turned people against printers. ↫ Scharon Harding at Ars Technica I need to print something maybe a few times a year, and I still hate dealing with my printer more than any other tech item in my house. Everything about them is bad, and no cutesy marketing campaign centrered on them being bad is going to change that.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138025/hp-misreads-room-awkwardly-brags-about-its-less-hated-printers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Signal
No program, no full season, no problem. Trinity Knights tennis duo Aubrey Kua and Katelyn Waugh defied the odds and reached the CIF Individual tournament last week. Kua and Waugh attend Trinity Classical Academy, which does not currently offer tennis. The two still embarked on a season, taking on every invitational and tournament invite they […]
The post <strong>Trinity tennis duo reach CIF Individuals Championships</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/trinity-tennis-duo-reach-cif-individuals-championships/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Daring Fireball
https://blog.google/technology/ai/google-gemini-ai/?utm_source=gdm&utm_medium=referral#performance Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Russia-backed attackers have named new targets for their ongoing phishing campaigns, with defense-industrial firms and energy facilities now in their sights, according to agencies of the Five Eyes alliance.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/08/five_eyes_star_blizzard_warning/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
Members of the Santa Clarita Valley had the chance to enjoy a…
The post Focusing on the Reason for the Season at the Annual Winter Wonderland Event appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/focusing-on-the-reason-for-the-season-at-the-annual-winter-wonderland-event/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Each year, the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation, in collaboration with economist Dr. Mark Schniepp, releases the Economic Outlook Book
https://scvnews.com/scvedcs-2023-economic-outlook-book-now-available/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved six people to serve on the board of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the government agency that oversees six congressionally funded international broadcasting and tech entities, including Voice of America.
The bipartisan International Broadcasting Advisory Board (IBAB) was approved by the Senate en bloc, meaning the nominees were approved without a recorded vote.
In an email Thursday to staff, USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett said the newly approved board “brings a wealth of talent, expertise and passion to our mission, which remains critical in the wake of the ongoing global information war.”
“As hundreds of millions of people rely on our fact-based news to triumph over information manipulation and censorship, the IBAB adds a layer of oversight and strategic guidance that will undergird our commitment to freedom and democracy into the future,” she added.
The board members include Jamie Fly, the former head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Kathleen Cunningham Matthews, a former journalist and communications executive; Jeffrey Gedmin, a journalist, author and former head of RFE/RL; Kenneth M. Jarin, a partner at national law firm Ballard Spahr; Luis Manuel Botello, a former investigative journalist and consultant for the International Center for Journalists; and Michelle Mai Selesky Giuda, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state and acting undersecretary of state.
USAGM has a seven-person board, six of whom are presidentially appointed and one who is the secretary of state. No more than three can be affiliated with the same political party.
This is the first USAGM board approved since legislation passed in late 2020 empowered the board to approve appointments or dismissals of any network heads.
Under those changes, the board is required to advise the chief executive on ways to improve the effectiveness of programming, report to congressional committees and act as a safeguard to ensure the chief executive “fully respects the professional integrity and editorial independence” of the networks she oversees.
Those provisions were created after the previous USAGM chief, Michael Pack, drew widespread criticism for his interpretation of the powers granted to the presidentially appointed chief executive.
An independent investigation into whistleblower complaints about Pack and his team’s governance found he abused his authority, allowed gross mismanagement of funds and breached the editorial firewall designed to protect USAGM journalists from political interference.
Under the amended provisions approved in late 2020, the USAGM chief executive now needs majority board approval to hire or remove network heads.
Bennett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative journalist and former VOA director, was approved as USAGM chief executive in a September 2022 vote for a three-year term. She oversees an agency that for fiscal 2024 submitted a budget request of $944 million and that has a mission to provide independent international news coverage and circumvention tools to a weekly audience of 410 million.
USAGM oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. It also oversees the Open Technology Fund, which provides tools to help audiences overcome internet restrictions and surveillance.
https://www.voanews.com/a/senate-approves-usagm-board/7388939.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Master’s University will host its acclaimed Winter 5K run on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024, starting at 9 a.m
https://scvnews.com/start-2024-at-tmus-winter-5k/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Christmas Bird Count is coming: citizen science at its best.
The post Backyard Birds Are Thin on the Ground appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/backyard-birds-are-thin-on-the-ground/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Eighth Annual Juried Competition Show for 2nd Fridays Art @ SBTC on View Throughout December.
The post “Wings/2023” Flies in to Santa Barbara Tennis Club appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/wings-2023-flies-in-to-santa-barbara-tennis-club/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The LAist
The climate crisis will increase the number of marine mammals needing treatment, experts say.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/10000th-marine-mammal-released-san-pedro-center Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Arts Commission will hold its regular meeting Thursday, Dec. 14, at 6 p.m., in Council Chambers at City Hall.
https://scvnews.com/dec-14-santa-clarita-arts-commission-regular-meeting-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-08, from: Infrastructure LA Blog
Gifts that Keep Giving: December’s Federal Funding Finds! Infrastructure Forum: Reflecting on Progress and Commitment We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all those who participated in the enlightening LA Infrastructure Forum hosted by Engineering News Record (ENR) on November 20 in Los Angeles. The day was filled with insightful discussions, presentations, and […]
https://infrastructurela.org/intel20/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=intel20 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Castaic Union School District Governing Board will hold its regular/organizational meeting Monday, Dec. 11, at 6 p.m
https://scvnews.com/dec-11-cusd-regular-organizational-board-meeting/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/swetland/ahcc Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
The International Friendship Center hosted its 11th annual Christmas Banquet last weekend at the Newhall Community Center. Peter Pereira, the president and CEO of Global Hope Partners, and award-winning South Indian actress Divya Vani were among the featured speakers. As Vani spoke in Telegu (below), IFC President Jairaju Sam Gorlla provided translation to English. The event […]
The post International Friendship Center hosts Christmas Banquet appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Meta has launched Purple Llama – a project aimed at building open source tools to help developers assess and improve trust and safety in their generative AI models before deployment.…
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date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
President Joe Biden convened a two-day summit Wednesday with the heads of more than 300 tribal groups, saying his administration is committed to writing “a new and better chapter of history” for the more than 570 Native American communities in the United States by making it easier for them to access federal funding.
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. of the Cherokee Nation, one of the largest Indigenous tribes in the United States, spoke to VOA about those efforts and also some of the themes of Native history that are in the forefront today.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: What are your goals for your half-million citizens at this summit?
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.: It’s to press the administration on meeting America’s commitment but also learn more about what their plans are. … The most important thing for the Cherokee Nation, I think — and all tribes — is the efficient deployment of resources, and then allowing tribes to decide how to use those resources. So, a more efficient, streamlined process in terms of getting funding out.
VOA: The Biden administration says it will release at this summit a report card of sorts. What’s your assessment of how the administration has succeeded and where it could do better?
Hoskin: I think overall, it’s been very, very positive. … The bipartisan infrastructure deal has been important for the Cherokee Nation. The American Rescue Plan has enabled us to do things that may seem small to the rest of the world, like putting a cell tower in a community that didn’t have cellphone access, by improving water systems.
VOA: Any criticism?
Hoskin: To the extent that it’s criticism: The federal government’s a big ship, it’s tough to steer. What I have seen over the years is, you get a new administration in, it takes a while for the relationships to be built up, for executive orders on consultation to translate down to agencies.
VOA: President Biden has not made — publicly, at least — any sort of land acknowledgment statement. Is that something you seek?
Hoskin: Reminding the country that there were aboriginal people here before anyone ever heard of the United States, I think that’s important. But I think in terms of what tribal citizens want to see, and what tribal leaders want to see is access to land, control of resources, more land placed into trust for the benefit of Native Americans.
VOA: The current war between Israel and Hamas is also about land. Do you have any advice for President Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during this very tense moment?
Hoskin: I do think there are some parallels. You’re talking about people who say that they’ve been on the land from time immemorial. That’s what we Cherokees say, and we have a history of being dispossessed from our land. I would just remind people that there’s a way to balance rights. I think we’re trying to do that in the United States in terms of Indian Country versus the rest of the country. We haven’t perfected it, but I think we’re making some progress. So, all I would say is the respect and dignity that every human being deserves ought to be on display anytime you’re having these sorts of situations. That’s a difficult sentiment to express in the midst of some real difficulties.
VOA: Adversaries of the U.S. have weaponized the well-documented suffering of Native Americans, saying the U.S. doesn’t have the moral high ground on the world stage.
Hoskin: Certainly it would be accurate to say the United States has an appalling record towards Indigenous peoples. Is it perfect now? No, it’s not. But we’re making progress. I mean, think about what’s happened on the world stage. In Australia, that country just rejected the recognition of aboriginal people. In the United States, we have federal recognition. … We do have a foundation upon which we built a great deal. And so, to those critics of the United States, I would say, come to the Cherokee Nation and look at what we’re doing, leading in things like health care and lifting up people economically. It’s not perhaps the picture that has been painted by some of these regimes.
VOA: I believe you knew [former Cherokee chief] Wilma Mankiller very well. Talk a bit about her.
Hoskin: Anybody in the world who cares about human rights, the dignity of everybody, civil rights, they should get to know her. … She reminded us of who we are and what we always had in us, which was the ability to govern ourselves, to protect ourselves, to understand we have this common history and destiny. She reminded us that we were Cherokee after generations of being suppressed and a bit beaten down. So, she lifted us up. The fact that there’s a Barbie doll that depicts her, that there’s a quarter from the United States Mint — that shows what a powerful person she was.
VOA: How do you feel about not being consulted on the Barbie doll?
Hoskin: Well, I think it’s disrespect on the part of Mattel, but I will also tell you that they very quickly understood that, and we’re engaging. So, I think that overall, I appreciate Mattel depicting Wilma Mankiller, the great Cherokee chief. On balance, this is a good thing.
VOA: What does it mean to you to be an American?
Hoskin: I think a lot about this. I can go back a few generations to my ancestors who signed up to fight for this country in World War I and World War II — while within their living memory, there was a great deal of oppression and atrocities by this country to their own people. But in terms of the principles of what we want for this country, like freedom and opportunity for everyone, if we aspire to that, that’s something we all share. And so for me, that’s what it means to be an American.
VOA: How do you feel about public holidays like Columbus Day and Thanksgiving?
Hoskin: Columbus Day is abhorrent. [Christopher Columbus is] demonstrably somebody who engaged in great atrocities towards Native peoples. … There’s plenty to celebrate in American history without celebrating and misstating what he did. In terms of Thanksgiving, I think it’s become for the Cherokee people something that we just celebrate in terms of what unites humanity, which is giving thanks for what we have and trying to do better.
VOA: Anything else you’d like to tell our audience? We broadcast in 48 languages. Would you like to say something in your language?
Hoskin: Sure. I’d say “osiyo,” which is “hello” in Cherokee. And “donadagohvi,” which is ”we will see each other again.” We don’t say goodbye. We just look forward to seeing people again. I look forward to seeing you again.
VOA: And I look forward to seeing you again.
https://www.voanews.com/a/cherokee-nation-chief-speaks-to-voa-on-us-promises-and-progress-/7388891.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The LAist
Metro is partnering with Hayden AI to install the cameras and be fully operating by spring 2024.
https://laist.com/news/transportation/las-metro-buses-will-use-ai-to-ticket-drivers-parked-in-bus-lanes Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
A Southern California Edison Electric System Upgrade on Lyons Avenue will begin on Monday, Dec.
https://scvnews.com/city-announces-lyons-avenue-lane-closures/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
News release Learning Post Academy, the William S. Hart Union High School District’s independent study school, will hold informational meetings via Zoom for interested parents and students on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Learning Post Academy provides various independent study options to accommodate the needs of students seeking a flexible and […]
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date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
A senior U.S. administration official said the United States needs to move ahead and fulfill its commitment under new arrangements with three Pacific Island nations as Washington faces fierce competition from Beijing in the region.
The new 20-year funding programs for the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau are awaiting congressional approval. Under the new arrangements, the U.S. would provide defense and economic assistance while securing exclusive military access to pivotal areas across the Pacific.
Thursday, the nominee for deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, told a Senate panel that if Congress fails to fund the agreements, “you can expect that literally the next day, Chinese diplomats, military and other folks will be on the plane landing in” each of these island states, trying to “secure a better deal for China.”
Campbell, currently the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, also said it is critical for the United States to support its diplomatic personnel amid intense competition from China.
“I remember last year we went to the Solomons for the first time. We landed in our plane. We got off. We were met at the airport by one [U.S.] diplomat, probably the most hard-charging guy I’ve ever met, and he was exhausted.
“He was a one-person diplomacy in the Solomons, one of our most contested places, and was living in a hotel with his dog. And as we drove into town, we went by the gleaming Chinese Embassy [with] dozens and dozens of staffers,” Campbell said during his nomination hearing.
In Beijing, Chinese officials have said competition should not define its relationship with the U.S.
“Major-country competition cannot solve the problems facing China and the United States or the world,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a readout after U.S. President Joe Biden’s four hours of talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on November 15 on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco.
Some U.S. lawmakers say they disagree with Beijing’s assessment.
“China intends to replace us, probably by midcentury, as the economic, military and geopolitical leader of the world,” Republican Senator Mitt Romney said during Campbell’s nomination hearing Thursday. “They [China] say, of course, that they’re worried about us, you know, constraining and containing them, which is laughable. They’re all over the world, far more than we are.”
Taiwan
Campbell told U.S. lawmakers that the Biden administration’s budget request to Congress reflects the U.S. strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, including “to stand with Taiwan” and “to support the Philippines.”
A turbulent year in U.S.-China relations culminated in talks between the country’s two leaders in mid-November. Xi told Biden that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in their bilateral ties. Ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was high on the agenda. According to a senior U.S. official, Xi signaled that he was unaware of plans for a massive invasion of Taiwan.
Despite this pledge, China has escalated military activities near the Taiwan Strait in recent months. The United States has voiced concerns about any Chinese interference through military coercion, as Taiwan prepares for a presidential election in January.
Some analysts say there must be credible threats and assurances on the part of the U.S. to ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
“It is essential that Taiwan and the United States have the ability to threaten to impose a lot of pain and consequences on the People’s Republic of China if it were to use force against Taiwan,” Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the German Marshall Fund, told VOA.
Glaser added that there also need to be “some assurances” from the U.S., China, and Taiwan at the same time. For example, the United States has said it does not support Taiwan independence. If China does not use force, China should be assured that its real interests will not be damaged. If Taiwan does not declare independence, it will not be targeted with the use of force by Beijing.
Human rights
During Thursday’s hearing, Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said American foreign policy must be driven by core values, including promoting democracy, fighting corruption and defending human rights.
December 10 marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Some human rights advocates said the way Washington manages the Israel-Hamas conflict, while safeguarding the rights and dignity of the Palestinian population, will have a significant impact on the perception of U.S. credibility and leadership on the global stage.
“The U.S. as a global leader should not selectively apply the universal human rights values when aligned with its foreign policy objectives and amplify voices that suit its agenda. Such positioning undermines the efforts of human rights advocates,” U.S.-based Uyghur human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat told VOA.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with “a diverse group” of representatives from human rights organizations on Thursday at the State Department. A spokesperson said the secretary wants to learn about the challenges of their work.
If confirmed by the Senate, Campbell will replace Wendy Sherman, who retired in July, to become deputy secretary of state.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-official-urges-approval-of-new-deals-with-pacific-islands-/7388918.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: City of Santa Clarita
EXPECT LANE CLOSURES ON LYONS AVENUE FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON UPGRADE PROJECT A Southern California Edison Electric System Upgrade on Lyons Avenue will begin on Monday, December 11. Southern California Edison, along with their contractor, HotLine Construction Inc., will perform underground vault and conduit installations on Lyons Avenue, from Railroad Avenue to Wiley Canyon Road. […]
The post Expect Lane Closures on Lyons Avenue for Southern California Edison Upgrade Project appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/12/07/expect-lane-closures-on-lyons-avenue-for-southern-california-edison-upgrade-project/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The California Transportation Commission allocated $8 million Thursday from the California State Transportation Agency’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program to the High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Agency
https://scvnews.com/high-speed-rail-corridor-project-awarded-8m-grant/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
News release A Southern California Edison electric system upgrade on Lyons Avenue is scheduled to begin on Monday, Dec. 11, and the project will result in temporary lane closures. Southern California Edison, along with its contractor, HotLine Construction Inc., will perform underground vault and conduit installations on Lyons Avenue, from Railroad Avenue to Wiley Canyon […]
The post Lanes closures expected on Lyons due to Edison upgrade appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/lanes-closures-expected-on-lyons-due-to-edison-upgrade/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
News release Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, has announced she has officially filed to run for re-election to continue representing the 40th Assembly District, which includes most of the Santa Clarita Valley. “Serving our community in the Assembly has been the honor of a lifetime — I am eager to continue the work we’ve started and […]
The post Schiavo announces re-election bid appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
With just four working days left before its holiday recess, the U.S. Congress is no closer to passing the White House’s $60 billion request for aid to Ukraine.
Lawmakers are running out of time to negotiate a deal on border security that Republicans say must be included to overcome their concerns about funding foreign conflicts while leaving domestic priorities unaddressed.
“This is about securing our border so we can then help our allies,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters Thursday.
Watch related video by Patsy Widakuswara:
Graham called on President Joe Biden to enforce existing immigration laws, saying he would not return to his home state of South Carolina to “try to explain why I helped Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel and did nothing to secure our own border. I will help all of our allies, but we have got to help ourselves first.”
The Ukraine aid request is part of a larger $106 billion emergency supplemental request that includes military assistance to Israel and Indo-Pacific partners as well as Democratic priorities for border security funding.
“Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin a gift, the greatest gift that Putin could … hope for,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.
Senators resumed negotiations Thursday after failing to open debate on the supplemental request by a 49-51 vote late Wednesday.
“I think the vote yesterday convinced them [Democrats] that we are serious about it, and something needs to be done,” Senator Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told VOA. “And I’m convinced that we’ll get there. That’s just democracy.”
Democrats object to Republicans’ proposals to change asylum rules at the U.S. border and argue the White House request must be considered all together as part of a broader national security strategy.
“It was Republicans who threw an unnecessary wrench into Ukraine funding by tying it to the extraneous issue of the border,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday.
“We all agree that border security is important,” he said. “President Biden included strong border provisions in the proposal he sent us. But we also know it’s a complicated issue — very complex — that’s escaped bipartisan solution for years.”
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been expected to address a classified briefing for U.S. senators via videoconference but canceled unexpectedly. The meeting ultimately grew tense as Republicans accused Democrats and Biden administration briefers of not addressing their concerns about the border.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a strong supporter of aid to Ukraine, emphasized Thursday that Republican border security proposals must be included to win Republican votes.
“It is profoundly unserious to pretend that national security priorities don’t include securing our nation’s borders,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday.
“To warn about borders in jeopardy and not start with the one that’s being overrun here at home,” he said. “To invoke threats facing sovereign nations without a clear plan to uphold America’s own sovereignty.”
Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Tuesday that there is $1.1 billion left to replenish U.S. military stockpiles for weapons and equipment sent to Ukraine.
The White House also warned earlier this week that the United States has about $4.8 billion left to supply Ukraine with aid, an amount that would run out by the end of this year.
Any compromise passed in the Democratic-majority Senate would also need to pass the Republican-majority House of Representatives, where support for Ukraine has diminished this year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated he does not plan to extend the House schedule past its last scheduled day in session on December 14. Earlier this week, he told reporters several key questions about accountability and the longer-term strategy for victory in Ukraine remain.
Many Republicans recognize that aid to Ukraine is important for deterrence but argue for more oversight.
Republican Representative Michelle Steel told VOA on Thursday, “We’ve been spending so much — billions and billions of dollars. We have to see transparency, that exactly where these monies are going and how they’re spending it.”
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, aid commitments to Ukraine are at their lowest since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
“Between August and October 2023 saw a stark drop in the amount of newly committed aid, with the value of new packages totaling just EUR 2.11 billion,” the report said.
Biden has worked to shore up the support of allies amid uncertainty over passage of the funding on Capitol Hill.
“Great Britain and the European countries will keep on supporting Ukraine,” David Cameron, British foreign secretary and former prime minister, told VOA.
“But clearly America is an essential partner in this,” he said. “They are the world’s biggest economy, the biggest defense player, absolutely vital. So, let’s keep going on making the argument about what a difference the resources will make.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-running-out-of-time-to-pass-ukraine-aid-border-security-funding/7388847.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/07/ios-17-namedrop-like-wallet-passes-sharing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Updated Broadcom CEO Hock Tan has announced his intention to divest VMware’s end-user computing and Carbon Black units, and signalled a rapid shift to subscription licenses of bigger software bundles.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/broadcom_q4_2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. government on Thursday unveiled measures to combat Russian hackers accused of targeting U.S-based entities and individuals and meddling in a British election.
The cyber actors targeted include the Callisto group, also known as Star Blizzard or COLDRIVER, which engaged in espionage and is connected to Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, according to a statement released by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Also, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against two Russian hackers, Andrey Stanislavovich Korinets and Ruslan Aleksandrovich Peretyatko, in connection with what the State Department called “a criminal hacking conspiracy that targeted U.S.-based entities and individuals, including U.S. Department of Energy facilities’ employees.”
Financial sanctions
In addition to the indictment, the U.S. Treasury announced it has imposed financial sanctions on Peretyatko and Korinets for their roles in malicious cyber-enabled activity.
Under the Rewards For Justice program, or RFJ, the U.S. offered unspecified rewards for information on the whereabouts of Peretyatko and Korinets.
A notice on the RFJ website says awards of up to $10 million can go to anyone who has information “leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, engages in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure.”
Hackers also targeted individuals
The hackers, who the U.S. says worked in the Callisto Group, also targeted individuals based in the United Kingdom.
The U.S. noted concern about the hackers’ targeting of the U.K., which London described as a failed attempt to interfere with politics from Russian agents.
The U.K. sanctioned the two hackers in connection with the cyberattacks and summoned the Russian ambassador.
“I can confirm today that the Russian Federal Security Services, the FSB, is behind a sustained effort to interfere in our democratic processes,” British Junior Foreign Minister Leo Docherty said in a statement to lawmakers.
The hacking group has been known for years to target and attempt to hack personal emails from high-profile victims.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-uk-act-against-russian-hacker-group/7388832.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
His new book, “Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic,” comes out December 5.
The post Neal Allen’s Book-Signing at Chaucer’s Books in Santa Barbara, with Special Guest Anne Lamott appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/neal-allens-book-signing-at-chaucers-books-in-santa-barbara-with-special-guest-anne-lamott/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Karpf’s blog
Tech’s center of gravity has shifted a lot over the past thirty years
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/notes-from-wired30 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/harvard-mit-penn-presidents-antisemitism.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
What a year it has been – from ribbon cuttings and new amenities to summer events and fall programming, it is wonderful to see how busy our community has been throughout
https://scvnews.com/cameron-smyth-skate-at-the-cubes-christmas-tree-this-holiday-season/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
New research explores how moisture affects static electricity and clumping of ground coffee beans
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-simple-trick-will-help-you-brew-better-coffee-according-to-scientists-180983390/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A series of attacks against Microsoft Active Directory domains could allow miscreants to spoof DNS records, compromise Active Directory and steal all the secrets it stores, according to Akamai security researchers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/attacks_abuse_microsoft_dhcp/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The William S. Hart Union High School District Governing Board unanimously approved the appointment of Lori Gambero as the new principal at Arroyo Seco Junior High School
https://scvnews.com/lori-gambero-appointed-new-arroyo-seco-junior-high-principal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The rock band is the first in the U.S. to immortalize its performances with a digital recreation
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/kiss-band-digital-avatars-180983388/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
You may have seen crowds of purple along Centre Pointe Parkway last…
The post People Dressed in Purple to Walk for a Good Cause appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/people-gathered-in-purple-to-walk-for-a-good-cause/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
By Rose Navarro Every year people of all ages gather at the…
The post Canyon Country Community Thanksgiving Dinner appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/canyon-country-community-thanksgiving-dinner/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has selected the following companies for a multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to fabricate ground support equipment at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: The work will support Artemis, including missions to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon. The contractors will provide management, labor, facilities, materials, equipment, and other […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-contractors-for-ground-support-equipment-fabrication/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Even at his advanced age, the Seychelles giant tortoise shows “no sign of slowing down,” his vet tells Guinness World Records
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-oldest-living-land-animal-a-tortoise-named-jonathan-turns-191-180983392/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
http://scripting.com/2023/12/07/205026.html?title=grandmaOnASnowyWinterDay Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: OS News
The controller, which was created in collaboration with disabled gaming groups such as AbleGamers, Stack-Up, and SpecialEffect, has a unique circular design. The controller comes with a number of different button caps, along with three stick caps that can be changed out to suit the specific needs of the gamer. The controller itself is also designed to rest on a flat surface for players that would require that kind of feature. ↫ John Callaham at Neowin Microsoft has a similar product as well, and it’s great that disabled people who want to play games are being taken so much more seriously these days. Excellent work from both console giants.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138023/sony-officially-launches-its-ps5-access-controller-for-disabled-gamers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
Four years ago I drove my beloved brown dog home from the high desert beagle rescue in our little red EV. She sat silently in my wife’s lap, wondering what this new life might entail, and spent the ensuing months shedding stabby hairs on the seat cover and slobbering on the back windows as we drove back and forth to the mountains above Los Angeles to hike our way through the darkest days of COVID. Now, she has lost exclusive access to the back seat. Two weeks ago, white-knuckled and nervous, I drove my newborn daughter home from the hospital.
These are the moments that transfigure a hunk of metal into the family car, a thing made of remembrance as much as nuts and bolts. It is a process possible only when you own a vehicle long enough for the good stuff of life to seep into the carpets and scratch up the upholstery. In this way, it matters to me that my Model 3 is our car.
However, after four-plus years of electric vehicle ownership, I am here to tell you: If you’re thinking of getting a new EV this holiday season, then you should probably lease, not buy.
I don’t say this lightly. The idea of leasing sits uneasy with me now that we live in a subscription society where everything is rented and nothing is ours. Leasing, though, could be an ideal solution for those who want to try out the electric life but have reservations about going all-in. And at this moment in the EV age, it’s hard to argue with leasing logic.
For one thing, in terms of resale value, owning a used EV isn’t what it used to be. In 2021, during the chaos of peak pandemic, used car prices spiked to unprecedented levels. As those prices have begun to come down to Earth, EVs are reportedly depreciating at levels faster than gasoline cars, losing as much as half their value in three years, in part because of the price-cutting wars that slashed the cost of a new electric over the past year. As the cost of a new EV continues to fall, the value of owning an older one will wane.
Leasing, at least right now, is also a simpler and better way to shop for an EV. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo reported last week, the tax credits for buying electric are becoming an even more confusing mess in 2024 because Inflation Reduction Act rules mandate domestic manufacturing for pretty much all components of a qualifying car. But a buyer can skirt much of the red tape by leasing rather than buying. Quality but foreign-built EVs like the Hyundai Ioniqs, which don’t qualify for tax credits if you buy them, can qualify if you lease them, too.
Plus, after three years of driving an EV, you might be eager to start over. I bought a Tesla in 2019 when the most affordable Standard Range Plus version of the Model 3 came with an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated 240 miles of range. If I’d leased it, I could have returned the car by now and gotten into a new Model 3 or Y with at least 260 miles of range, a nice little quality-of-life bump. (Honestly, what’s more likely is that after years of living with the limitations of a shorter-range EV, I would have ponied up for a longer-range model on the second go-round.) Instead, I’m stuck with my slowly decaying battery for as long as I decide to hold onto this car.
The other perk of leasing is the freedom from long-term maintenance and other ownership issues. The EV revolution is still young enough that we don’t know how today’s EVs will age, or what particular problems Model 3s or Chevy Bolts or Ford F-150 Lightnings might encounter when they reach 10 or 12 or 15 years old. EV owners will face thorny questions about whether to replace a battery that’s lost much of its capacity, live with the depleted range, or get out from under the car. EV lessees won’t.
The most compelling reason not to buy an EV today, though, is that you don’t know what’s coming around the corner tomorrow. We’re on the cusp of seeing the carmakers produce fully electric versions of all sorts of iconic and beloved vehicles, from the Jeep Wrangler to the Chevy Corvette. Battery improvements will mean more cars on the market with longer ranges, making longer-distance travel less burdensome.
Think of an EV like a smartphone. Gas-powered cars are like the iPhones and Androids of today — a mature, honestly kind of boring technology that doesn’t change much from year to year. Electric cars are more like what smartphones were 10 years ago, when each passing year brought what felt like a major leap forward and your two- or three-year-old phone felt woefully out of date.
Years from now, when you know exactly what you’re getting into, you might feel more comfortable buying an EV to serve as the dutiful family car for a decade to come — the car that takes your son to second grade and the car he learns to drive in. But if you don’t want to be tied down by what’s on offer today, maybe you should just lease it until tomorrow rolls around.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/you-should-lease-your-ev Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Inspired by the success of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter, Chinese boffins are proposing a more capable extraterrestrial flier for a planned Mars sample return mission. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/chinese_mars_quadcopter/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
In Shawn Fain’s victory speech after the United Autoworkers won significant raises and benefits from the Big Three automakers earlier this fall, the union president promised to go on to accomplish what no other UAW president had managed to do. “We’re going to organize non-union auto companies like we’ve never organized before,” he said.
On Thursday, the union made its first move: Workers at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee went public with a union drive, announcing that more than 30% of the plant had signed union authorization cards.
After the UAW won 25% raises in its deals with GM, Ford, and Stellantis, Volkswagen gave its workers an 11% raise. In a press release, workers at the Chattanooga plant said they were striking due to pay that lagged behind their unionized peers, mistreatment by management, forced overtime, and a lack of time off. “Turnover at the plant is a serious problem,” said Josh Epperson, an equipment operator in assembly. “I have trained new people on the line and most of them are gone in a few months. They don’t have the tools and the support they need to thrive.”
The Chattanooga plant opened 15 years ago and is VW’s only factory in the U.S.; by contrast, all of the company’s workers in Germany are unionized. The U.S. plant currently produces the VW Atlas, Atlas Sport, and the company’s only electric model currently available here, the ID.4.
Workers at the U.S. plant have already attempted to unionize twice, in 2014 and 2019, both of which were narrow losses. An account of what went wrong in 2019 by Chris Brooks, a labor activist and current strategist for Shawn Fain, said that lawmakers threatened to pull incentives for the plant’s expansion and new electric vehicle line if the plant flipped.
Similar expansions are on the table again this time around. In early November, senior vice president and head of strategy at VW Group of America Reinhard Fischer announced plans to bring a new, under-$35,000 EV to the U.S. market. He said the company would either build the vehicle at the Chattanooga Plant or in Puebla, Mexico. He also said that the company was considering assembling battery packs for the vehicle in the U.S. due to subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act.
While 30% support is low, it clears the threshold to submit a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote on the union’s formation. Still, the Chattanooga workers are likely to hold off for more. The UAW has said that once 50% of workers at a nonunion plant sign cards, Fain will hold a rally at the plant. If the drive gets 70% support, UAW will seek recognition from the company, or otherwise submit a petition to the NLRB.
There are 13 non-union automakers operating in the U.S. Tesla, which has six factories here, could be next — Fain told Reuters that many workers at the EV giant have also expressed interest in organizing.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/the-id-4-could-be-volkswagens-first-ev-made-with-u-s-union-labor Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Crowds gathered around the green field at the center of campus on Nov. 25 on the Sierra Quad to watch a ceremonial performance, the Gourd Dance. It honors veterans, the culture and acts as a prayer to the creator of the Kiowa tribe. Starting off with a bang, arena director Victor Chavez and Randy Pico…
https://sundial.csun.edu/177307/news/csun-holds-38th-annual-powwow/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Shady Characters
https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2023/12/advent-calendar-rechenuhr/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/06/facebook-content-enabled-child-sexual-abuse-new-mexico-lawsuit.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Jon Millican and Reed Riley (Hacker News): We are beginning to upgrade people’s personal conversations on Messenger to use end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default.Meta is publishing two technical white papers on end-to-end encryption:Our Messenger end-to-end encryption whitepaper describes the core cryptographic protocol for transmitting messages between clients.The Labyrinth encrypted storage protocol whitepaper explains our protocol […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/end-to-end-security-for-facebook-messenger/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple: Starting in spring 2024, if your new app or app update submission adds a third-party SDK that is commonly used in apps on the App Store, you’ll need to include the privacy manifest for the SDK. Signatures are also required when the SDK is used as a binary dependency. […] Based on the feedback we […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/privacy-manifests-update/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Benjamin Mayo (MacRumors): Apple will discontinue the standalone iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps on the Apple TV box, starting with tvOS 17.2 The warning message seen above has started appearing in the release candidate version of tvOS 17.2 beta, released yesterday. […] Apple has updated the TV app in 17.2 in preparation of […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/tv-app-in-tvos-17-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Rob Griffiths: I ran into this while working on a Keyboard Maestro macro that creates hard links: The macOS version of cp won’t create links, at least not in Sonoma. In Ventura, it works even though it throws the same error as it does in Sonoma.[…]I have filed this bug as FB13255408 with Apple, and […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/sonomas-cp-l-wont-create-links/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Joe Rosensteel: Why do I care about the “Pro” chip so much? Despite the name the Pro is really the middle chip, but there’s no middle laptop for it. The base M2 and M3 can be configured with more RAM (to a point) but they can’t be configured with extra ports, or even drive more […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/the-macbook-air-gap/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
Adam Tow: As I continue to investigate how to bring MsgFiler to macOS Sonoma, here’s a tip from a user that allows you to file messages via the keyboard on Sonoma. It also works on previous versions of macOS dating back to 2011.Select a message to fileClick on the Help menu or press Command-Shift-/Type in […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/filing-mail-messages-on-sonoma-using-the-keyboard/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
NASA celebrates a quarter century of human cooperation in space. Plus, a busy week of space launches, and ‘America’s Dad’ wants you to see the moon like those who’ve been there. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space
https://www.voanews.com/a/nasa-celebrates-25th-birthday-of-international-space-station/7388698.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Michael Tsai
I received a pair of e-mails from one of my payment processors, FastSpring, which included this text: Our implemented process is designed to ensure full alignment and compliance with regulatory standards, including KYC/KYB (Know Your Customer/Know Your Business) requirements, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) guidelines, and international sanctions screening. We’ve […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/12/07/fastspring-risk-screening/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
The “green” puns pretty much write themselves. On Wednesday, Ireland set an all-time high for wind output on the Irish grid at 4,629 megawatts, Green Collective reports.
By midnight Thursday, wind had accounted for a smidgen over 70% of Ireland’s total electricity demands for the day.
Wind generation has been falling since about 6pm so we’re calling it: the new all-time, all-island high for wind output on the Irish grid is 4629MW, seen at 4pm this afternoon 83egeneration so far today equivalent to 73% of electricity demand - full report tomorrow!83c83c83d— (@)
In 2022, Ireland ranked third in the world, alongside Uruguay, when it came to its share of electricity generated by wind power: 33%. Only perennial wind leader Denmark, which generated a whopping 55% of its electricity from gusty weather last year, and surging Lithuania (38%), edged it out.
It’s not just — forgive me — luck, either. According to the COP28 Global Offshore Wind Update, a new report from industry consultancy ERM published yesterday, only two countries out of the 19 that have 2030 offshore wind targets are expected to hit them: Ireland being one, and Poland being the other, Recharge writes. Most of its current wind capacity, however, is from onshore wind farms.
Ireland’s wind generation information is easily accessible from EirGrid, making the region a favorite case study among energy nerds — including the creators of the charming Irish Energy Bot (which later evolved into Green Collective). Earlier this year, the account also celebrated wind generation exceeding “all-island electricity demand” in Ireland for the first time, during overnight hours and Storm Agnes-related gusts. According to EuroNews, such trends have translated into significant savings:
[As of September, the] latest figures mean that in total, Irish wind farms provided 32% of the country’s power over the first eight months of 2023. Electricity prices on days with the most wind power dropped by an average of 5% to €88.34 [$95] per megawatt-hour.
On days when Ireland relied almost entirely on fossil fuels, that cost rose to €123.07 [$132] per megawatt-hour.
With numbers like that, who needs a crummy old pot of gold?
https://heatmap.news/sparks/ireland-just-set-a-new-wind-energy-record Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Gary Marcus blog
Friends don’t let friends take demos seriously
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-googles-amazing-new Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Fairphone has retained top marks for repairability, with the Dutch manufacturer’s fifth iteration scoring high for software longevity, even if some components are starting to get a little more “conventional.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/fairphone_5_repairability/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Visitors will be safely strapped in as they sit atop a beam hundreds of feet above New York City
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/recreate-an-iconic-1932-photo-during-this-new-experience-at-rockefeller-center-180983387/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Daring Fireball
https://managingeditor.substack.com/p/the-mensch Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
The crash happened about 12:40 a.m. on El Portal Drive near Glenlock Street.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/two-dead-another-critically-injured-after-head-on-crash-in-san-pablo/ Save to Pocket
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2023-12-07, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
Join us on Wednesday, December 13 for our next
#IIIF
Community Cross-Pollination call, featuring George Oates of
@flickrfdn
📸
Zoom info on the IIIF Community Calendar: http://iiif.io/community
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/111540714313159267 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Kendi, the first giraffe born at the Oakland Zoo in 11 years, is taking baby steps in learning how to drink water.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/watch-baby-giraffe-at-oakland-zoo-struggles-to-drink-from-pond/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Think ahead to the fall of 2024. The Republican party nominee for president pledges that his administration will open investigations into media companies that make statements his voters don’t like to hear. This nominee has a very real chance of winning the election. And he has promised to act not on his own impulses, not…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/media-owners-in-the-crosshairs-as-trump-craves-retribution/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
The stakes have never been higher for American democracy. The most likely winner of the Republican primary in 2024 called for the disruption of the certification of the electoral vote in 2020, insists without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen, refuses to take part in the Republican National Committee primary debates, refers to political…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/tv-rewards-the-authoritarian-candidate/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
If you want to see a journalist recoil and slowly back away from you, start talking about Gantt charts, RACI responsibility matrices and project post-mortem meetings. But they can’t run forever. As newsrooms face increasing pressure to develop new ways of working, and to adapt to changing audience behaviors, many more reporters and editors will…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/newsrooms-rediscover-the-magic-of-project-management/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
I spent a decent amount of time conversing with chatbots this year, trying to gauge how effective they are at writing and editing. Their headlines were boring. Their social posts sounded like they were written by overcaffeinated marketers. Their copy was predictable, or it was inaccurate. They certainly couldn’t gain the trust of sources or…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/humans-hold-their-own-against-the-robots/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
In 2023, many public discussions about the future of American democracy centered on increasing the supply of local news. The situation is certainly dire: By the end of 2024, Northwestern’s Local News Initiative predicts that the United States will have lost one-third of its newspapers since 2005. Press Forward — a collaborative of philanthropists including…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/local-news-will-adapt-to-low-demand/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
If you’re not paying close attention, you might dismiss generative AI as a fleeting technophilic trend or an existential threat. This year’s breathless chatter about ChatGPT echoes past hoopla over blockchain, NFTs, or the “pivot to video.” Moreover, AI certainly had its pitfalls this year. Missteps involving AI-driven articles not only embarrassed the responsible news…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/the-rise-of-the-ai-class/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/diary-comics-nov-9 Save to Pocket
@Tomosino’s Mastodon feed (date: 2023-12-07, from: Tomosino’s Mastodon feed)
https://lithub.com/censoring-imagination-why-prisons-ban-fantasy-and-science-fiction/
👿
https://tilde.zone/@tomasino/111540659390407875 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: City of Santa Clarita
Skate Around the Tree this Holiday Season! By Mayor Pro Tem Cameron Smyth “Just because I cannot see it, doesn’t mean I can’t believe it!” – Jack Skellington, A Nightmare Before Christmas What a year it has been – from ribbon cuttings and new amenities to summer events and fall programming, it is wonderful to […]
The post Skate Around the Tree this Holiday Season! appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2023/12/07/skate-around-the-tree-this-holiday-season/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Tilde.news
https://cdrom.ca/games/2023/12/06/classical-cats.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
“Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” Chutkan, an appointee of President Barak Obama, wrote in her ruling earlier this month.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/trump-appeals-ruling-on-his-absolute-immunity-claims/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
A vast new Las Vegas complex will take plastic waste from across the West and process it into high-quality material that manufacturers can turn back into water and soda bottles or other food-grade packaging.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/next-generation-plastic-recycling-plant-is-bet-on-rising-us-demand/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
Anabel Falcon Tom Parkey
https://www.nasa.gov/general/november-retirements/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
House members voted again Thursday to punish one of their own, targeting Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for triggering a fire alarm in a U.S. Capitol office building when the chamber was in session.
The Republican censure resolution passed with a few Democratic votes, but most of the party stood by Bowman in opposition of an effort they said lacked credibility and integrity. The prominent progressive now becomes the third Democratic House member to be admonished this year through the censure process, which is a punishment one step below expulsion from the House.
“It’s painfully obvious to myself, my colleagues and the American people that the Republican Party is deeply unserious and unable to legislate,” Bowman said Wednesday as he defended himself during floor debate. “Their censure resolution against me today continues to demonstrate their inability to govern and serve the American people.”
The 214-191 vote to censure Bowman caps nearly a year of chaos and retribution in the House of Representatives. Since January, the chamber has seen the removal of a member from a committee assignment, the first ouster of a speaker in history and, just last week, the expulsion of a lawmaker for only the third time since the Civil War.
Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, who introduced the censure resolution, defended it, claiming Bowman pulled the alarm in September to “cause chaos and the stop the House from doing its business” as lawmakers scrambled to pass a bill to fund the government before a shutdown deadline.
“It is reprehensible that a Member of Congress would go to such lengths to prevent House Republicans from bringing forth a vote to keep the government operating and Americans receiving their paychecks,” McClain said in a statement.
Bowman pleaded guilty in October to a misdemeanor count for the incident, which took place in the Cannon House Office Building. He agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and serve three months of probation, after which the false fire alarm charge is expected to be dismissed from his record under an agreement with prosecutors.
The fire alarm prompted a buildingwide evacuation when the House was in session and staffers were working in the building. The building was reopened an hour later after Capitol police determined there was no threat.
Bowman apologized and said that at the time he was trying to get through a door that was usually open but was closed that day because it was the weekend.
Many progressive Democrats, who spoke in his defense, called the Republican effort to censure him “unserious,” and the accused those across the aisle of weaponizing the censure process against Democrats over and over again for political gain.
“Censure me next. That’s how worthless your effort is,” Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on the floor late Wednesday. “It has no credibility. No integrity. No legitimacy. Censure me next, and I’ll take that censure and I’ll wear it next week, next month, next year like a badge of honor.”
The vote is the latest example of how the chamber has begun to deploy punishments like censure, long viewed as a punishment of last resort, routinely and often in strikingly partisan ways.
“Under Republican control, this chamber has become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all,” Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said during floor debate. “Republicans have focused more on censuring people in this Congress than passing bills that help people we represent or improving this country in any way.”
While the censure of a lawmaker carries no practical effect, it amounts to severe reproach from colleagues, as lawmakers who are censured are usually asked to stand in the well of the House as the censure resolution against them is read aloud.
Bowman is now the 27th person to be censured by the chamber — and the third just this year. Last month, Republicans voted to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan in an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
In June, Democrat Adam Schiff of California was censured for comments he made several years ago about investigations into then-President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-house-votes-to-censure-democratic-member-for-pulling-fire-alarm-in-capitol-office-building/7388509.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Care
<p>A Tamil translation of Meredith Whittaker’s piece.</p>https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/origin-stories-translation Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey shows that many Bay Area cities have more people speaking other languages than English at home.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/in-which-bay-area-cities-do-most-people-speak-another-language-at-home/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
The District 16 race has quickly become a crowded field.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/palo-alto-councilmember-julie-lythcott-haims-tech-entrepreneur-peter-dixon-announce-bids-for-u-s-rep-anna-eshoos-congressional-seat/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
A 1,447-square-foot house built in 1948 has changed hands. The property located in the 100 block of Washington Avenue in Palo Alto was sold on Nov. 15, 2023. The $3,200,000 purchase price works out to $2,211 per square foot.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/detached-house-sells-in-palo-alto-for-3-2-million/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has signed a working arrangement with its EU counterparts to increase cross-border information sharing and more to tackle criminals.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/cisa_enisa_intel_sharing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
December is finally here and we’re excited to share the highlights from our event-filled November
https://scvnews.com/cindy-curtis-jci-santa-clarita-november-recap/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Anti-abortion organizations are pushing state lawmakers to promote a controversial and unproven “abortion reversal” treatment — flouting the objections of medical professionals who point out it is not supported by science.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/abortion-opponents-push-state-lawmakers-to-promote-unproven-abortion-reversal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
The European Union launched the first stage of its carbon border tax this fall, and the world’s biggest emerging economies aren’t happy.
As of October 1, the EU regulation officially known as the “carbon border adjustment mechanism” requires importers to report the emissions associated with making steel, cement, fertilizers, and other carbon-intensive products. Those embedded emissions will then be subject to a targeted carbon tax starting in 2026.
The tariff isn’t merely punitive — rather, it’s intended to keep companies in the EU competitive with those in countries with lower or nonexistent carbon regulations. (The EU has capped internal carbon emissions since 2005.) But Brazil, China, India, and South Africa have all pushed back against the EU for raising trade barriers, calling the adjustment “discriminatory.”
Now, Brazil has brought those grievances to COP28. On behalf of the four countries, it pushed for language — seemingly authored by China — to be inserted into an early draft of the agenda-setting global stocktake that will be negotiated during the conference, Politico reported.
The draft text “expresses serious concern” about policies like the EU’s tariff, “which are not aligned with the principles of the Paris Agreement, in particular equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, as well as [World Trade Organization] rules.” Brazil’s submission argues that such “unilateral” measures “seriously undermine multilateral cooperation and the ability of the concerned countries to combat climate change.”
In fact, top WTO officials have voiced support in the past for rules that address “carbon leakage” and have said they’re trying to overcome international differences on carbon pricing, according to an earlier Politico report.
Rebeca Grynspan, secretary general of the United Nations conference on trade and development, spoke up for emerging economies at COP28, explaining at an event that they see green trade barriers like the EU’s as “protectionist” and as “an obstacle for their development,” according to Agence France-Presse. Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, also warned in Dubai of “unintended consequences” from regulating trade.
European negotiators, for their part, don’t seem too worried. “We don’t expect them to derail the conversations, mostly because I don’t think any party expects this to be a forum for a discussion” on trade, EU representative Jacob Werksman told reporters. “There’s a whole other institution for that. That’s the World Trade Organization.”
https://heatmap.news/sparks/cop28-brazil-eu-carbon-tax Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
The aging pool of Pearl Harbor survivors has been rapidly shrinking. There is now just one crew member of the USS Arizona still living, 102-year-old Lou Conter of California. Two years ago, survivors who attended the 80th anniversary remembrance ceremony ranged in age from 97 to 103. They’ll be even older this time.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/pearl-harbor-survivors-return-to-honor-those-who-perished/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
The couple have found life in France to be more affordable than in the US, noting that their health care costs and property taxes are considerably less now.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/12/07/california-couple-bought-a-house-in-france-for-20000-without-seeing-it-heres-what-happened/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
The walls at College of the Canyons are usually covered in posters…
The post Posters in Support of Israel are Reportedly Being Ripped Down from the Walls of COC appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/posters-in-support-of-israeli-hostages-are-reportedly-being-ripped-from-college-of-the-canyons-walls/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/maskromtool/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
WASHINGTON (CN) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced new partnerships with Native American tribes to manage federal lands, promote bison conservation and support animal harvesting and meat processing
https://scvnews.com/usda-native-tribes-partner-to-manage-federal-lands/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
Students at COC were treated to a special demonstration at the school’s…
The post COC Intercultural Center Hosts Celebration for Native American History Month appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/coc-intercultural-center-hosts-celebration-for-native-american-history-month/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A new report finds the global average temperature so far this year is 1.46 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2023-will-officially-be-the-hottest-year-on-record-scientists-say-180983389/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
As many users wait for their Raspberry Pi 5 units to arrive, a fresh version of the Raspberry Pi OS has just landed, complete with fixes and that most essential of operating system add-ons – dark mode.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/raspberry_pi_os_dark_mode/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Responding to increased attacks on ships in the southern Red Sea by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen.
Treasury says that previously sanctioned Houthi and Iranian financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal uses a network of exchange houses and firms to help Iranian money reach the country’s militant partners in Yemen.
The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.
Money lenders in Lebanon, Turkey and Dubai are listed for assisting al-Jamal, along with shipping firms from Russia to St. Kitts and Nevis, which allegedly move al-Jamal’s Iranian commodity shipments. All people and firms were hit with sanctions Thursday.
Brian Nelson, Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the Houthis “continue to receive funding and support from Iran, and the result is unsurprising: unprovoked attacks on civilian infrastructure and commercial shipping, disrupting maritime security and threatening international commercial trade.”
“Treasury will continue to disrupt the financial facilitation and procurement networks that enable these destabilizing activities.”
Since October, the Houthis have launched missile and drone attacks over commercial shipping operations in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region over time, but the attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, spiking after an October 17 explosion at a hospital in Gaza killed and injured many. Houthi leaders have insisted Israel is their target.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-sanctions-money-lending-network-to-houthi-rebels-in-yemen/7388406.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Care
<p>The proto-Taylorist methods of worker control Charles Babbage encoded into his calculating engines have origins in plantation management.</p>https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/origin-stories-plantations-computers-and-industrial-control Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
A Texas judge on Thursday granted a pregnant woman permission to obtain an abortion in an unprecedented challenge to the state’s ban that took effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.
It was unclear how quickly or whether Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, will be able to obtain an abortion. State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, an elected Democrat, said she would grant a temporary restraining order that would allow Cox to have an abortion under what are narrow exceptions to the state’s ban. That decision is likely to be appealed by the state.
Cox is 20 weeks pregnant and doctors say her fetus has a fatal diagnosis. In a brief emergency hearing Thursday, her attorneys told Gamble that Cox went to an emergency room this week for a fourth time since her pregnancy.
Cox and her husband both attended the hearing via Zoom but did not address the court. Doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her prior cesarean sections, and that another C-section at full term would endanger her ability to carry another child.
“This law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation since the U.S. Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.
Since that landmark ruling, Texas and 12 other states rushed to ban abortion at nearly all stages of pregnancy. Opponents have sought to weaken those bans — including an ongoing Texas challenge over whether the state’s law is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications — but until now, a woman has not gone to court seeking approval for an immediate abortion.
“I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy or continue to put my body or my mental health through the risks of continuing this pregnancy,” Cox wrote in an editorial published in The Dallas Morning News. “I do not want my baby to arrive in this world only to watch her suffer.”
Although Texas allows exceptions under the ban, doctors and women have argued that the requirements are so vaguely worded that physicians still won’t risk providing abortions, lest they face potential criminal charges or lawsuits.
State officials had asked Gamble to deny the request, alleging that Cox does not meet the requirements for an exception to the ban.
“There are no facts pled which demonstrate that Ms. Cox is at any more of a risk, let alone life-threatening, than the countless women who give birth every day with similar medical histories,” the state wrote.
Cox has been told by doctors that her baby will likely be stillborn or live for a week at most, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin. The suit says doctors told her their “hands are tied” under Texas’ abortion ban.
The lawsuit was filed a week after the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the ban is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications. That case is among the biggest ongoing challenges to abortion bans in the U.S., although a ruling from the all-Republican court may not come for months.
Cox had cesarean sections with her previous pregnancies. She learned she was pregnant for a third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at a high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates, according to the lawsuit.
In July, several Texas women gave emotional testimony about carrying babies they knew would not survive and doctors unable to offer abortions despite their spiraling conditions. A judge later ruled that Texas’ ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications, but that decision was swiftly put on hold after the state appealed.
More than 40 woman have received abortions in Texas since the ban took effect, according to state health figures, none of which have resulted in criminal charges. There were more than 16,000 abortions in Texas in the five months prior to the ban taking effect last year.
https://www.voanews.com/a/texas-judge-grants-pregnant-woman-permission-to-get-an-abortion-despite-state-s-ban/7388367.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
It’s a “rest day” at COP28, which means there probably won’t be a ton of news coming out of Dubai as delegates take a breather before the climate talks shift into high gear tomorrow. That makes now a good time to reflect on what’s happened so far and what to expect as the conference enters its second half.
Some key accomplishments:
Still to come:
“We had a pretty damn good week here in Dubai already,” U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry told the AP. But underlying it all is the reality that the event is being held in one of the world’s biggest petrostates, fossil fuel lobbyists are out in force, and the summit’s president, Sultan Al-Jaber, has been openly skeptical about the science connecting fossil fuel caps to taming global temperatures.
“I’m not telling you that everybody’s going to come kumbaya to the table,” Kerry added, “but I am telling you we’re going to make our best effort to get the best agreement we can to move as far as we can as fast as we can. That’s what people in the world want us to do. It’s time for adults to behave like adults and get the job done.”
The summit is set to end on December 12, but previous COPs have run into overtime.
https://heatmap.news/climate/cop28-key-moments-cheat-sheet Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Liliputing
Mini PC makers have been stuffing high-performance mobile chips into compact desktop computers for years. But recently we’ve seen companies take a somewhat stranger approach by using the same chips in mini ITX motherboards, allowing users to build their own mini PC. Why is that weird? Because mini ITX boards can also support socketed, desktop-class […]
The post MINISFORUM AR900i is a mini ITX motherboard with an Intel Core i9-13900HX chip appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/minisforum-ar900i-is-a-mini-itx-motherboard-with-an-intel-core-i9-13900hx-chip/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
On Nov. 16, 2023, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (left) and Christina Koch (middle) of NASA and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen (second from left) view the core stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The three astronauts, along with NASA’s Victor Glover, will launch […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/artemis-ii-crews-sls-visit/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
Owning a two-wheeler is a dream for many. It represents freedom, convenience, and a suitable way to navigate the roads. If you are thinking about buying a bike, but are worried about how to finance the purchase, a two wheeler loan might be the right solution for you. A two wheeler loan facilitates the purchase […]
The post <strong>How do I Know if I Am Eligible For a Two Wheeler Loan?</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/how-do-i-know-if-i-am-eligible-for-a-two-wheeler-loan/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: 404 Media Group
This is your captain speaking: Ahead of Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday 2’ out on December 8, fans flock to an AI-generated world of their own making.
https://www.404media.co/nicki-minaj-pink-friday-2-gag-city-ai-generated/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Google has released an updated version of the Google Drive app for Windows and macOS that, along with some simple manual work, should resolve missing file issues.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/google_drive_missing_files_fix/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara County seeks to terminate the operator and hire a new contractor.
The post Tajiguas Landfill Still Stinking Up a Gaviota Neighborhood appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/tajiguas-landfill-still-stinking-up-a-gaviota-neighborhood/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Liliputing
The Looking Glass Go is a 6 inch, 1440 x 2560 pixel display connected to a stand with support for adjustable viewing angles. But it’s not just a standard digital photo frame, it’s a glasses-free 3D display that’s the most compact, affordable holographic display to date from Looking Glass. It’s expected to ship in June, […]
The post Looking Glass Go is a pocket-sized holographic display for viewing 3D images without special glasses (crowdfunding) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/looking-glass-go-is-a-pocket-sized-holographic-display-for-viewing-3d-images-without-special-glasses-crowdfunding/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
Updated, Dec. 7, 2023 NASA plans to restore the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope to science operations Friday, Dec. 8, following a series of tests to gain insight into the gyro performance that caused the spacecraft to pause science operations last week. After analyzing the data, the team has determined science operations can resume under three-gyro […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-space-telescope-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I’m following my old programming buddy in FeedLand, on Automattic, via Bluesky. This is the kind of stuff I build. Chains of formats and servers where the interop goes where you want it to. A bell-ringer. bing!
http://scripting.com/2023/12/07.html#a161735 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Former President Donald Trump returned to his civil business fraud trial as a spectator Thursday, after a month of assailing the proceedings from afar.
With testimony winding down after more than two months, the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner showed up to watch an accounting professor testify about financial topics important to the case.
Trump himself is scheduled to take the stand Monday, for a second time.
Even while campaigning to reclaim the presidency and fighting four criminal cases, Trump is devoting a lot of attention to the New York lawsuit. He’s been a frustrated onlooker, a confrontational witness and a heated commentator outside the courtroom door.
“This is a witch hunt, and it’s a very corrupt trial,” Trump said on his way into court Thursday.
The case is putting his net worth on trial, scrutinizing the real estate empire that first built his reputation, and threatening to block him from doing business in his native state.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ suit accuses Trump, his company and some executives of misleading banks and insurers by giving them financial statements full of inflated values for such signature assets as his Trump Tower penthouse and Mar-a-Lago, the Florida club where he now lives. The statements were provided to help secure deals — including loans at attractive interest rates available to hyperwealthy people — and some loans required updated statements each year.
Trump denies any wrongdoing, and he posits that the statements’ numbers actually fell short of his wealth. He also has downplayed the documents’ importance in getting deals, saying it was clear that lenders and others should do their own analyses. And he claims the case is a partisan abuse of power by James and Judge Arthur Engoron, both Democrats.
The former president has regularly railed about the case on his Truth Social platform.
Going to court in person affords him a microphone — in fact, many of them, on the news cameras positioned in the hallway. He often stops on his way into and out of the proceedings, which cameras can’t record, to expostulate and to cast various developments as victories.
His out-of-court remarks got him fined $10,000 Oct. 26, when Engoron decided Trump had violated a gag order that prohibits participants in the trial from commenting publicly on court staffers. Trump’s lawyers are appealing the gag order.
James hasn’t let Trump go unanswered, often — but not Thursday — showing up to court herself when he’s there and making her own comments on social media and the courthouse steps. Lawyers in the case have been told not to make press statements in the hallway, but the former president has been allowed to do so.
“Here’s a fact: Donald Trump has engaged in years of financial fraud. Here’s another fact: When you break the law, there are consequences,” her office wrote this week on X, formerly Twitter.
While the non-jury trial is airing claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records, Engoron ruled beforehand that Trump and other defendants engaged in fraud. He ordered that a receiver take control of some of Trump’s properties, but an appeals court has held off on that order for now.
At trial, James is seeking more than $300 million in penalties and a prohibition on Trump and other defendants doing business in New York.
It’s not clear exactly when testimony will wrap up, but it’s expected before Christmas. Closing arguments are scheduled in January, and Engoron is aiming for a decision by the end of that month.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-is-back-at-new-york-fraud-trial-again-as-testimony-nears-an-end/7388264.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The LAist
A graduate student’s discovery in random genetic testing could be game-changing.
https://laist.com/news/health/more-la-county-dogs-are-getting-sick-with-a-respiratory-illness-researchers-might-know-why Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/basement-sign-comic Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Several universities in the United States are taking measures to prevent and address incidents of antisemitism and Islamophobia related to the Israel-Hamas war. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias spoke with several students who favor freedom of speech with certain limits.
https://www.voanews.com/a/as-antisemitism-rises-in-us-some-students-want-limits-to-freedom-of-expression-/7388254.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Meta is pressing ahead with default end-to-end encryption on chats and calls in Messenger, with the rollout beginning today.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/messenger_encryption/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
Eight years ago, at the Paris climate convention, Bill Gates committed $2 billion to fighting climate change.
You have to admire his ROI. Since then, Breakthrough Energy, the set of Gates-linked climate groups, has become ubiquitous on the topic. It invested in dozens of climate-tech startups, and Gates personally lobbied for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Gates has also come to formulate a big idea: the “green premium,” the gap between the cost of a fossil-fueled technology and the cost of a climate-friendly one. Right now, electricity generation has almost no green premium, for instance — solar power is dirt cheap — but steelmaking’s green premium is very high. Only when the world gets green premiums down to zero for every economic activity, Gates argues, will it be able to seriously solve climate change.
I had a few minutes to chat with Gates on the sidelines of COP28, the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, about green premiums and what we were doing in Dubai in the first place. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Well, there’s a lot of good things that happen at COP. Remember that there are many sectors that make up the solution. Small, innovative companies — and Breakthrough Energy has 30 [startups] here, I bet you there’s 70 others — they need big companies, they need government policies, and they have booths here. And they give people a sense: Oh, there is a new way to make steel. Well, how quickly can that be adopted? How quickly do you get the green premium down to zero? Are my steel companies and my company engaged in this? What do they think? It keeps the pressure on.
Obviously, there is no coercive mechanism here. So solving global problems — given that you don’t have world government — maybe you need meetings of 70,000 people to try and say, “Hey, come on, everybody, let’s do this together.” You know, anti-climate people say, “Hey, why should the U.S. make sacrifices? Because if the U.S. alone does this, or even U.S. and Europe, the [effect on global average temperature] is very, very small and it’s not worth doing.”
Climate is so complicated. To really understand climate, you’d have to be a physicist, a biologist, an atmospheric scientist. People who are polymathic love the subject, because it allows you to say, “Oh, I’m reading a book that’s going to help you understand climate” — and almost any science book you can justify.
So getting people to understand a little bit more about climate … this is an atmosphere that the bias is toward exaggerating the impact of climate, but oh well. Maybe the signal gets muted when it gets out to the other 7 billion, and so we have to kind of, you know, overdo it here so at least it gets some resonance.
The political situation is that about 40% of voters are like, “Wow, I didn’t know my lifestyle was going to be reduced because of this. Isn’t there some rich guy or some other country or someone else who should be paying for this electric heat pump, or paying more money for their gasoline because of your carbon tax?”
Washington State has a carbon tax, which is kind of unusual in that it’s been focused on gasoline, so it’s actually raised the gasoline price. We have a referendum [to overturn the law in the works] — it’ll be interesting to watch.
Even in Europe, who you’d have to say is the most climate-committed region of the world, they have very few political parties — although maybe the one just won the Netherlands elections is one of them — who are like, “Hey, screw all this, let’s do nothing.” But even there they have to be careful because the elites‘ commitment to climate greatly exceeds the general voter’s. So when Macron puts on his diesel tax, that lasted about three months, because the rural people who are less well-off than the urban people said, “Oh, this tax is targeted at us. You’ve lost touch.” And then a whole movement gets created around that, and he pulled the diesel tax really quickly. And compared to the carbon tax that you should have on diesel, [Macron’s diesel tax] was like a tenth of the increase.
So, you know, the 70,000 here aren’t — it’s like the Republican primary, it’s not a representative set of people. For me, you know, I only have one hammer, which is innovation, whether it’s software, global health, or climate. I’ve never seen a problem that innovation can’t solve, which is a caricature, but that’s where I add value. It’s organizing the capital and the teams and the goals. It’s fantastic how much progress we’ve made in eight years.
It’s going super well. They’ve got [former White House chief of staff] John Podesta [leading the effort], who’s here helping to try and make sure it goes faster than normal. We fund groups that are helping with IRA implementation. There’s various philanthropic things we’ve done in support of getting the IRA to move quickly — so that, like Obamacare, maybe it’s more popular four years after it passes in red states than it was the day that it went through on a purely partisan vote.
Some people have estimated the cost of these tax credits at way beyond what they were scored. I think they’re wrong, because their EV number was insane — that Goldman Sachs, $1.2 trillion thing. But the Congress is there if a tax credit over-succeeds. They can — at year four, five, six — cut it back or eliminate it.
Right now, companies are responding to the IRA incentives. But you know, if you get Trump elected, and he really gets rid of it, there’s a lot of business plans that will [make people] feel foolish. And then for the future, it’s going to be very tough. Because even if the Democrats come in and put something new in, people say, “Well, you’re asking me to make a 30-year investment. And half the time, I’m stupid.” So that could be quite damaging that it’s so unpredictable.
I’ve said very clearly that, unless you get green premiums to zero, you’ll never get adoption in the middle-income countries. The low-income countries are small numbers, and you can subsidize them — maybe, in some cases, you should. But [you can’t] in the middle-income countries — that’s India, China, Brazil, Vietnam. You know, humanity lives in middle-income countries, and thank God, it’s the opposite of what it was in the 1960s, when there were almost no middle-income countries and there was this rich, Europe-U.S. piece.
So yes, we have to make solar, fission, fusion, storage, cement, steel, beef — we’ve got to make them at, ideally, negative green premiums, but at least at zero green premiums. Otherwise, you never get adoption.
Now, technology can go through a period where it has a green premium. And then you’re asking rich countries, rich companies, rich people to create the demand signal to get on the learning curve, like was done with solar. Breakthrough [Energy] only works on technologies that, once they’re down the learning curve, have zero or negative green premiums. At the Paris talks, there was almost no focus on the hard to abate areas. Even though it won’t achieve 1.5 [degrees Celsius of warming] and probably won’t achieve 2 [degrees Celsius], the fact that we kicked that off, and there are more companies than I would have expected with cool ideas — many of which will fail, you know — that’s more than I thought we’d have eight years ago.
Rhodium is not assuming there’s a cheap fission reactor. Once you get to 2060, predicting the costs of things… I mean, even fusion. We will probably have extremely economic fusion by then.
Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication.
https://heatmap.news/economy/bill-gates-cop28-green-premium-trump Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Jeff Geerling blog
Raspberry Pi 5 and RP1 X-ray scans
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Following up on my <a href="https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/look-inside-raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-and-rp3a0-au">X-ray scans of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W</a> two years ago, I had the opportunity to scan the Raspberry Pi 5, working with an electronics inspection lab:</p>
I posted a video detailing everything I imaged on the board, but in this blog post, I’ll hit on the highlights—the new chips at the heart of the Pi 5: the BCM2712 SoC and the RP1 ‘southbridge’.
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Jeff Geerling</span></span>
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/raspberry-pi-5-and-rp1-x-ray-scans Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Average mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest levels since August, cooling from nearly 8% to around 7%. While that may be more manageable for prospective homebuyers, rates are still significantly higher than they’ve been in decades. What will this mean for home sales and refinancing? Plus, EV tax credits are getting complicated, and we hear about the olive oil crisis playing out in Spain.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-falling-mortgage-rate-makes-a-difference Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Audience development roles became ever more challenging in 2023 with Big Tech pivots, new platform launches, and the unknown threats and opportunities of generative AI. In 2024, we’ll need new frameworks to help us prioritize the places we go to to meet our audiences. 2023 timeline: The year of “post-platform” fragmentation A snafu by Meta…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/for-audience-development-less-is-more/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Audience development roles became ever more challenging in 2023 with Big Tech pivots, new platform launches, and the unknown threats and opportunities of generative AI. In 2024, we’ll need new frameworks to help us prioritize the places we go to to meet our audiences. 2023 timeline: The year of “post-platform” fragmentation A snafu by Meta…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/we-get-past-post-platform/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
If communities living in a news desert are starved of credible, trustworthy information, then communities living in a news mirage are feasting on information that looks like trustworthy news — but isn’t news at all. We know the crisis of news mirages: Communities who are lacking access to reliable information and news are flooded with…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/news-mirages-not-news-deserts-are-the-scarier-problem/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
The rise of the internet and social media has been an incredible gift for the world of journalism — and a terrible influence on the important work of covering American politics. The last presidential election cycle saw the rise of the mantra “Twitter is not real life,” implying a sort of rare self-reflection — or…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/the-touch-grass-election-cycle/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Before the internet, legacy publishers were gatekeepers. In the age of artificial intelligence, our devices will play that role, making choices that cannot be easily predicted, deciphered or reverse engineered. This shift will make it harder for news organizations to build direct relationships with their audience. Subscription and membership programs will suffer as a result….
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/devices-are-the-new-gatekeepers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Before there were free public libraries, there were subscriptions. Much like today’s local news institutions, access to high-quality information and continuing education was restricted to those who could afford it. In 1875, the U.S. had 422 municipal public libraries. In 2023, that number was more than 9,000. In that time, the proportion of Americans with…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/local-news-library-moment/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
In the dynamic digital landscape of 2024, the development of technology platforms becomes an intricate dance, harmonizing agility and scalability. In an industry where chaos is a feature and not a bug, the crux lies in the strategic adoption of agile methodologies — not as a mere procedural shift but as an imperative for continuous…
https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/12/we-get-agile/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/0043583-the-cloisters-but-make-it Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What’s this? A tacit admission from Hewlett Packard that customers hate printer products?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/hp_made_to_be_less_hated/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-08, from: Charlie’s Diary
Why you shouldn’t trust AI (large language models): a cautionary example….
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2023/12/made-of-lies-and-more-lies.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
These were the most outstanding nonprofits of the year.
The post Gail Arnold’s Favorites of 2023 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/gail-arnolds-favorites-of-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
My old friend Chuck Shotton just showed up on Bluesky.
I love Chuck. We’ve been through a lot together over a long time.
We had a ton of fun in the early days of the web on the Mac. Chuck wrote the HTTP server we all used. And he loved Frontier, so we made our products work incredibly well together.
Those were the days! 😄
Anyway, of course I immediately followed Chuck in Bluesky, but then I realize, I can also follow him in FeedLand because thanks to John Spurlock, we have feeds for every freaking Bluesky user.
Spurlock is a gifted programmer, like Chuck, who thinks creatively and doesn’t mind priming the pump of a bootstrap, something Chuck and I have done many times in the past. (Chuck is an largely uncredited contributor to the bootstraps of RSS, XML-RPC, podcasting, object databases, content management systems, hey pretty much everything I’ve worked on since 1994 or so.)
Okay, now I get to the point.
I want to build with confidence on the feed connection with Bluesky. Today I know the ability to subscribe to a Bluesky RSS 2.0 feed is there, but will it be there in the future? I would feel better if the feed support were built-into Bluesky, part of its basic feature set. Another very simple API that gets ideas out of Bluesky and anywhere feeds go, which is, as you know, everywhere.
Feeds should be the baseline of compatibility between social media platforms.
Working with Spurlock, we have given Bluesky a huge headstart, a lead in what I hope will be a race to feed support in all the social media apps, to hook them up to the worldwide feed bus. It’s a way to get interop without having to concede that any comprehensive API is the winner. Think of RSS 2.0 support at the TCP of social networking, offering a LCD compatibility to a world that desperately needs one.
And then after we have that, we can talk about the format of the data we’re sending over this network. We have some work to do there too, but luckily the capabilities and limits of RSS 2.0 are a perfect match here.
In summary, the reason we want it is so we can do more with confidence with Bluesky, integrate it into more systems.
The reason the Bluesky people should want it is that it offers a way to interop with all social nets, that will take almost no effort on their part, and there’s no guesswork, we already know how to make feeds that will work pretty much everywhere, and it lets them take the lead in what will be an important way to communicate on the net.
And the reason it’s good for all of us is we can start viewing the web once again as a fully supported writing environment, and let the writers of the world get to work on solving all our problems (of which we have many) and get the freaking technology out of their way.
Think of it as the feed-iverse, it’s easier and more low-level than the fed-iverse, and can be implemented in a weekend. And it’s fun!
http://scripting.com/2023/12/07/140505.html?title=whyWeWantFeedsInBluesky Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/23/12/out-today Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: 404 Media Group
Patreon told creators that their accounts were banned for sexualizing minors, which members of the AB/DL community say is unfair and untrue — and throws many of them into real financial hardship.
https://www.404media.co/adult-baby-diaper-lover-furry-patreon/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
The Mighty Signal gives Gary Horton a weekly pulpit to spew forth his misguided ideas about the state of our city and country. I’m sure this is a token gesture on the part of our only local newspaper. However, today’s (Nov. 8) Horton missive makes me say, “This guy is living in an alternate universe.” […]
The post Larry Moore | Alternate Universe appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/larry-moore-alternate-universe/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Artist Emilie Gossiaux has been working with a 13-year-old lab named London for a decade
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-exhibition-celebrates-the-bond-between-an-artist-and-her-guide-dog-180983383/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
A distributor was suspected of trafficking counterfeit YETI products last year.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/yeti-distributor-suspected-of-selling-fakes/article_e752c884-93db-11ee-b854-03a64b756920.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
An inmate accused of having drugs in his cell is currently serving a 20-year sentence and has a prior record of allegedly having prison contraband.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/inmate-serving-20-years-with-past-prison-contraband-record-found-with-drugs-in-cell/article_d7156694-93d5-11ee-b5cf-9b3c43bb813d.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
Breaking Wave Theatre Company is inviting guests to step into the world of make-believe for a good cause and enjoy dinner and a show to help raise funds for aspiring local artists.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/breaking-wave-theatre-company-to-host-1st-gala-event-saturday/article_9d3ef724-94a6-11ee-a3e5-3f7ccbed8933.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
The holiday season is upon us and the United States Postal Service announced suggested mail out dates, holiday hours for postal offices, and tips on sending out packages.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/usps-savings-tips-mail-dates-new-post-office-holiday-hours/article_3e785c32-93d2-11ee-96fe-2f1b9518ea9f.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
A man charged in the fatal assault of Arnold Narruhn refused to plead guilty despite signing a plea agreement.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-denies-role-in-fatal-2022-attack-despite-plea-agreement/article_fbfe640a-948f-11ee-9829-2fb48990de73.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
Sen. William Parkinson said he intends to hold oversight hearings with the Guam Power Authority over the maintenance of the island’s power plants, after the passage of legislation that would waive certain procurement requirements so GPA can quickly increase generation…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/parkinson-to-hold-hearings-on-power-plant-maintenance/article_08659694-9497-11ee-b637-83e485dae3b8.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
Several officials met informally on Wednesday to begin planning the course for the Special Cost of Living Economic Task Force, ahead of the governor signing legislation creating the group.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/officials-hold-informal-meeting-to-plot-cola-task-force-course/article_66036180-9403-11ee-8221-734814783390.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
Instead of creating a task force, as suggested by Sen. Frank Blas Jr., the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority recommends a review of the five-year strategic plan already in place.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gmha-review-strategic-plan-instead-of-creating-task-force/article_fc0676c8-94b1-11ee-b290-7f5f41e96edc.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
Thirteen retailers were caught selling tobacco or e-cigarette products to minors during the 2023 annual tobacco retailer compliance inspections.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/13-retail-stores-caught-selling-minors-tobacco-vape-products/article_66a89670-9492-11ee-921a-73b4ee60b5bd.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Guam Daily Post
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, based in New York City, recently awarded the University of Guam a $900,000 grant to support the creation of a CHamoru Studies Center and other projects to revitalize CHamoru language and culture, the university announced…
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/uog-awarded-900k-to-revitalize-chamoru-language-and-culture/article_e0ee1f48-948a-11ee-8663-b3ce87b7e9b3.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
A few months ago, a group of concerned parents met to talk over a proposal from the national chapter of Moms for Liberty to start a chapter for Los Angeles County. Four moms and a father decided to take the plunge and start what would be known as the Moms for Liberty L.A. County Chapter. […]
The post Karen Frost | Accountability for the Left? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/karen-frost-accountability-for-the-left/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
In reading Lynn Wright’s letter to Michael Sandeen (Sept. 12) I remembered a letter I once wrote in The Signal encouraging political partisans to openly bash their own. I thus found Mr. Wright’s letter refreshingly honest, and agree that California’s Republicans are out of touch with the needs, interests and values of two-thirds of its […]
The post Arthur Saginian | The Root Cause of It All appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/arthur-saginian-the-root-cause-of-it-all/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
“Just because I cannot see it, doesn’t mean I can’t believe it!” – Jack Skellington, A Nightmare Before Christmas What a year it has been – from ribbon cuttings and new amenities to summer events and fall programming, it is wonderful to see how busy our community has been throughout 2023. Even though we are […]
The post Cameron Smyth | Skate Around the Tree this Holiday Season! appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/cameron-smyth-skate-around-the-tree-this-holiday-season/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
The Autonomous Systems Laboratory team at NASA’s Stennis Space Center recently cleared a major milestone for a historic in-flight mission to demonstrate the capabilities of a site-developed autonomous software package. The NASA Stennis team passed its software Flight Readiness Review for the first flight opportunity of ASTRA (Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications), a partnership […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-stennis-achieves-major-milestone-for-in-flight-software-mission/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
Video Credit: NASA/Steven Logan Air taxis hold the promise to revolutionize air transportation. NASA is working to make this vision a reality, collaborating with industry to reduce aircraft noise in our communities. Quiet flight will be especially important when air taxis and drones take off and land in future airports called vertiports that can be […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/nasa-moog-humming-along-on-air-taxi-noise-tests/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
A corrollary to the textcasting philosophy is that I should be able to use any writing tool I like to post to the web, and have it flow where ever I want. The idea of being forced to use a teeny little edit box to write my wonderful prose is as silly as bunding a word processor with a printer, and forcing you to use that editor if you want to print it with that printer. If I sent you a document written for my Brand X printer but you had Brand Y, sorry – you can’t read it. I’m at the point in my life where I have to explain to young folk how great things were when I was their age, but it’s true in this case, when I was in my 20s and 30s, there were simple standards for text, and you could print documents produced by any writing tool on any printer. And as a result a wide variety of writing tools and editors were available, and there was lots of innovation in a very short period of time because everyone had competition they could learn from and had to keep up with. Now there’s no reason for Twitter, Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Bluesky, Mastodon or whatever to improve their editors because after all you don’t have any choice. That’s another important facet of textcasting that we borrow from podcasting – lots of ways to create and lots of ways to listen mean things can get better. With lock-in, they can’t.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/07.html#a133832 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AWS has publicly called out Microsoft’s software licensing terms, claiming they “restrict choice” and make it “financially unviable” for customers to choose anyone other than Microsoft – something Google and other rivals have complained of.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/aws_says_only_microsoft_has/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog
Today’s links An adversarial iMessage client for Android: Beeper Mini preserves end-to-end encryption and doesn’t require an Apple ID. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2018, 2022 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading An adversarial iMessage client for Android (permalink) Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that’s when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product to reconfigure or mod it (interoperability) in ways its users like, but which its manufacturer objects to (adversarial): https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability “Adversarial interop” is a mouthful, so at EFF, we coined the term “competitive compatibility,” or comcom, which is a lot easier to say and to spell. Scratch any tech success and you’ll find a comcom story. After all, when a company turns its screws on its users, it’s good business to offer an aftermarket mod that loosens them again. HP’s $10,000/gallon inkjet ink is like a bat-signal for third-party ink companies. When Mercedes announces that it’s going to sell you access to your car’s accelerator pedal as a subscription service, that’s like an engraved invitation to clever independent mechanics who’ll charge you a single fee to permanently unlock that “feature”: https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/05/carmakers-push-forward-with-plans-to-make-basic-features-subscription-services-despite-widespread-backlash/ Comcom saved giant tech companies like Apple. Microsoft tried to kill the Mac by rolling out a truly cursèd version of MS Office for MacOS. Mac users (5% of the market) who tried to send Word, Excel or Powerpoint files to Windows users (95% of the market) were stymied: their files wouldn’t open, or they’d go corrupt. Tech managers like me started throwing the graphic designer’s Mac and replacing it with a Windows box with a big graphics card and Windows versions of Adobe’s tools. Comcom saved Apple’s bacon. Apple reverse-engineered MS’s flagship software suite and made a comcom version, iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could flawlessly read and write MS’s Word, Excel and Powerpoint files: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay It’s tempting to think of iWork as benefiting Apple users, and certainly the people who installed and used it benefited from it. But Windows users also benefited from iWork. The existence of iWork meant that Windows users could seamlessly collaborate on and share files with their Mac colleagues. IWork didn’t just add a new feature to the Mac (“read and write files that originated with Windows users”) – it also added a feature to Windows: “collaborate with Mac users.” Every pirate wants to be an admiral. Though comcom rescued Apple from a monopolist’s sneaky attempt to drive it out of business, Apple – now a three trillion dollar company – has repeatedly attacked comcom when it was applied to Apple’s products. When Apple did comcom, that was progress. When someone does comcom to Apple, that’s piracy. Apple has many tools at its disposal that Microsoft lacked in the early 2000s. Radical new interpretations of existing copyright, contract, patent and trademark law allows Apple – and other tech giants – to threaten rivals who engage in comcom with both criminal and civil penalties. That’s right, you can go to prison for comcom these days. No wonder Jay Freeman calls this “felony contempt of business model”: https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain Take iMessage, Apple’s end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) instant messaging tool. Apple customers can use iMessage to send each other private messages that can’t be read or altered by third parties – not cops, not crooks, not even Apple. That’s important, because when private messaging systems get hacked, bad things happen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak But Apple has steadfastly refused to offer an iMessage app for non-Apple systems. If you’re an Apple customer holding a sensitive discussion with an Android user, Apple refuses to offer you a tool to maintain your privacy. Those messages are sent “in the clear,” over the 38-year-old SMS protocol, which is trivial to spy on and disrupt. Apple sacrifices its users’ security and integrity in the hopes that they will put pressure on their friends to move into Apple’s walled garden. As CEO Tim Cook told a reporter: if you want to have secure communications with your mother, buy her an iPhone: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tim-cook-says-buy-mom-210347694.html Last September, a 16-year old high school student calling himself JJTech published a technical teardown of iMessage, showing how any device could send and receive encrypted messages with iMessage users, even without an Apple ID: https://jjtech.dev/reverse-engineering/imessage-explained/ JJTech even published code to do this, in an open source library called Pypush: https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush In the weeks since, Beeper has been working to productize JJTech’s code, and this week, they announced Beeper Mini, an Android-based iMessage client that is end-to-end encrypted: https://beeper.notion.site/How-Beeper-Mini-Works-966cb11019f8444f90baa314d2f43a54 Beeper is known for a multiprotocol chat client built on Matrix, allowing you to manage several kinds of chat from a single app. These multiprotocol chats have been around forever. Indeed, iMessage started out as one – when it was called “iChat,” it supported Google Talk and Jabber, another multiprotocol tool. Other tools like Pidgin have kept the flame alive for decades, and have millions of devoted users: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/tower-babel-how-public-interest-internet-trying-save-messaging-and-banish-big But iMessage support has remained elusive. Last month, Nothing launched Sunchoice, a disastrous attempt to bring iMessage to Android, which used Macs in a data-center to intercept and forward messages to Android users, breaking E2EE and introducing massive surveillance risks: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/21/23970740/sunbird-imessage-app-shut-down-privacy-nothing-chats-phone-2 Beeper Mini does not have these defects. The system encrypts and decrypts messages on the Android device itself, and directly communicates with Apple’s servers. It gathers some telemetry for debugging, and this can be turned off in preferences. It sends a single SMS to Apple’s servers during setup, which changes your device’s bubble from green to blue, so that Apple users now correctly see your device as a secure endpoint for iMessage communications. Beeper Mini is now available in Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima&hl=en_US Now, this is a high-stakes business. Apple has a long history of threatening companies like Beeper over conduct like this. And Google has a long history deferring to those threats – as it did with OG App, a superior third-party Instagram app that it summarily yanked after Meta complained: https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained But while iMessage for Android is good for Android users, it’s also very good for Apple customers, who can now get the privacy and security guarantees of iMessage for all their contacts, not just the ones who bought the same kind of phone as they did. The stakes for communications breaches have never been higher, and antitrust scrutiny on Big Tech companies has never been so intense. Apple recently announced that it would add RCS support to iOS devices (RCS is a secure successor to SMS): https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/ Early word from developers suggests that this support will have all kinds of boobytraps. That’s par for the course with Apple, who love to announce splashy reversals of their worst policies – like their opposition to right to repair – while finding sneaky ways to go on abusing its customers: https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently The ball is in Apple’s court, and, to a lesser extent, in Google’s. As part of the mobile duopoly, Google has joined with Apple in facilitating the removal of comcom tools from its app store. But Google has also spent millions on an ad campaign shaming Apple for exposing its users to privacy risks when talking to Android users: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883609/google-rcs-message-apple-iphone-ipager-ad While we all wait for the other shoe to drop, Android users can get set up on Beeper Mini, and technologists can kick the tires on its code libraries and privacy guarantees. Hey look at this (permalink) Why We’re Publishing Never-Reported Details of the Uvalde School Shooting Before State Investigators https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-school-shooting-investigation-details-publishing-decision Artificial intelligence needs to work with humans — not replace us https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/artificial-intelligence-provocation-ideas-festival-1.7046841 Freeing Ourselves From The Clutches Of Big Tech https://www.noemamag.com/freeing-ourselves-from-the-clutches-of-big-tech/ This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago Not to be read by Metafilter Matt https://web.archive.org/web/20031208053325/https://jonsullivan.com/thread.php?id=110&mat=8549 #20yrsago How many years does an Azeri have to work to buy a copy of WinXP? https://web.archive.org/web/20031204165358/https://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/ghosh/index.html #15yrsago How the Great Firewall of Britain works https://nock.co.uk/2008/12/08/great-firewall-of-britain/ #15yrsago Maker of squeezy arthritis-friendly handgun claims the FDA has classed it as a medical device https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16207-company-tries-to-get-gun-classed-as-medical-device/ #5yrsago US governmental conservationists really hope that young endangered seals will stop getting eels stuck in their nostrils https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/07/make-better-choices-endangered-hawaiian-monk-seals-keep-getting-eels-stuck-up-their-noses-scientists-want-them-stop/ #5yrsago Every NSFWpocalypse sends users to small, indie platforms, who are threatened by the same factors that make no-platforming practical https://memex.craphound.com/2018/12/07/every-nsfwpocalypse-sends-users-to-small-indie-platforms-who-are-threatened-by-the-same-factors-that-make-no-platforming-practical/ #5yrsago Paranoid, miserable Facebook employees have started using burner phones to complain about the company to each other and the press https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/charliewarzel/facebooks-tensions-zuckerberg-sandberg #5yrsago PWC recommended that corporations should ask science fiction writers about the future https://onezero.medium.com/nike-and-boeing-are-paying-sci-fi-writers-to-predict-their-futures-fdc4b6165fa4 #5yrsago America’s largest sex-furniture manufacturer pays well, sources locally, and is profitable and fast-growing https://qz.com/1481545/what-the-largest-sex-furniture-manufacturer-in-the-us-can-teach-america-about-trade #5yrsago #D5: Advice for people who just realized that Qanon is bullshit https://violentmetaphors.com/2018/12/04/your-q-anon-exit-briefing/ #5yrsago Devo’s open letter on “Drowning in a Devolved World” https://www.vice.com/en/article/qvqek5/devo-open-letter-devolution-rock-hall-trump-2018 #5yrsago Australia just voted to ban working cryptography. No, really. https://memex.craphound.com/2018/12/07/australia-just-voted-to-ban-working-cryptography-no-really/ #5yrsago Videos from the University of Chicago “Censorship and Information Control” seminar https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNP7NIWmB70wFBv9QolYkg #1yrago EU to Facebook, ‘Drop Dead’ https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/07/luck-of-the-irish/#schrems-revenge Colophon (permalink) Today’s top sources: Eric Migicovsky (https://twitter.com/ericmigi). 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 Geneva Dialog (Dec 7) https://genevadialogue.ch/event/geneva-manual-event/ Recent appearances: Artificial intelligence needs to work with humans — not replace us (CBC IDEAS) https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/artificial-intelligence-provocation-ideas-festival-1.7046841 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 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/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2023-12-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Twitter
poisoned our minds with the idea that by taking away the basic features
of writing on the web they were encouraging people to write shorter,
better, more to-the-point posts and that would make communication on the
web like poetry. It was a very zen-like mystical idea, and imho totally
wrong. And it’s still repeated as if it were gospel – it’s a typical
response when I beg for a standard that is more realistic, that
incorporates the basic features of web
writing: simple styles, links, optional titles, enclosures, the
ability to edit and unlimited length. The fallacy of this response is
that you are free to write however you want, if you feel your ideas are
better communicated in short messages, go ahead. I want to use all the
tools in my writing. And if you don’t want to read all that I write or
any of it, there are tools that make that easy. So everyone wins, and
you don’t have to try to impose your ideas of religiously pure writing
on anyone but yourself.
http://scripting.com/2023/12/07.html#a132459 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Members of SAG-AFTRA voted to ratify a contract with Hollywood studios following the recent months-long actors strike. A major concern for voting members was how and when artificial intelligence could be used. While actors won some protections regarding AI usage, some still feel the deal fell short. We’ll also hear about a ban on Russian diamond imports and examine claims of organized theft at stores.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/what-does-the-new-sag-contract-say-about-ai-use Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The LAist
As remnants of the past, this group of high-rise bridges links us to an abandoned future of what Los Angeles could have been.
https://laist.com/news/transportation/los-angeles-history-pedway-pedestrian-walkway-public-safety-calvin-hamilton Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Markup blog
18th century German forest management explains why government websites make you want to pull your hair out
https://themarkup.org/2023/12/07/how-certain-algorithms-to-improve-the-human-condition-have-failed Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Parts of the Great Plains and Upper Midwest could see record high temperatures today • Australia is in the grips of a ferocious heatwave • The Greek village of Metamorfosi has voted to relocate its residents to the nearby town of Palamas following devastating September floods. A thunderstorm warning is in effect today for Palamas.
It’s a “rest day” at COP28, which means there probably won’t be a ton of
news coming out of Dubai. But now’s a good time to reflect on what’s
happened so far, and what to expect as the conference enters its second
half.
Key accomplishments:
Still to come:
The U.S. added 6.5 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in the third quarter of 2023, up 35% year-over-year, according to a new report published this morning from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. The report projects that in 2023 the U.S. will add a total of 33 GW of solar capacity, a 55% increase compared to new capacity in 2022. Growth is expected to slow slightly next year as the industry runs up against economic headwinds, but the dip will be temporary. By 2028, U.S. solar capacity is expected to reach 377 GW, up from 161 GW now, and solar is “still expected to be the largest source of generating capacity on the U.S. grid by 2050,” Electrek reports. The authors urge the industry to “continue to innovate to maximize the value that solar brings to an increasingly complex grid.”
SEI/Wood
Mackenzie
“The woke climate agenda” emerged as a villain at the fourth GOP debate on Wednesday night, reports Heatmap’s Jeva Lange. The topic first lurched on stage in the form of Republicans’ favorite three-letter boogeyman, ESG. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called ESG investing an attempt to use “economic power to impose a left-wing agenda on this country.” Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley alleged that DeSantis is beholden to Chinese companies like “JinkoSolar,” which he supposedly gave “$2 million in subsidies.” And in his closing remarks, Vivek Ramaswamy really let loose: “We should not be bending the knee to this new religion! That’s what it is, a substitute for a modern religion! We are flogging ourselves! And losing our modern way of life! Bowing to this new god of climate! And that will end on my watch!”
Get Heatmap AM in your inbox every morning:
The Biden administration has awarded a $3 billion federal grant to Brightline West to develop an all electric high-speed rail line connecting Las Vegas to the outskirts of Los Angeles. The funding is an “almost unheard of infusion of federal money for a private project,” The Washington Post explains. The project is expected to cost $12 billion in total and be completed in just four years, in time for the 2028 Olympic Games in L.A. Trains will travel at 186 miles per hour and transport commuters in about 2 hours – roughly half the driving time. “This is a historic moment that will serve as a foundation for a new industry, and a remarkable project that will serve as the blueprint for how we can repeat this model throughout the country,” Wes Edens, the founder and chairman of Brightline, said in a statement.
Brightline
West
Brightline
West
Reduced capacity for container ships in the Panama Canal due to ongoing drought in the region could cause a bottleneck that turns into “the Pinch that Stole Christmas,” says Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan. Daily crossings have already been reduced from 36 to 25 and will be cut further to just 18 by February. Container vessels, which carry everything from cars to Christmas toys, are being hit especially hard. “After the drought made the canal shallower, ships now have to lighten their loads,” Cuplan explains. “The result is fewer containers making the crossing per day, heightening the chance that many goods won’t make it to their destinations in time for Christmas.”
Despite OPEC production cuts, oil prices are at their lowest level in five months thanks to investor concerns over rising supply and waning global demand.
https://heatmap.news/economy/cop28-solar-record-brightline-west-record Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2023/12/07/the-id-give-a-kidney-sort-of-bond/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
More than 22,000 patients of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were hit by data leaks that took place between 2020 and 2021.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/losing_track_yet_yet_another/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
The day after the successful meetup with our Global Clubs Partner organisations based in Africa, our team and some of our partners enjoyed participating in the Coolest Projects South Africa 2023 event to meet young tech creators and help out as project judges. Here are some of our impressions. A day of Coolest Projects This…
The post Impressions from Coolest Projects South Africa 2023 appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/coolest-projects-south-africa-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration is pulling out of China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, the massive infrastructure and trade project. This is leading to fears that Italy’s $20 billion export market into China could be threatened. Plus, G7 countries look to sanction Russian diamonds. Then, in Spain, a poor harvest is causing a shortage of olive oil and pushing prices up.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/italy-withdraws-from-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-06, from: Bruce Schneier blog
When you get a push notification on your Apple or Google phone, those notifications go through Apple and Google servers. Which means that those companies can spy on them—either for their own reasons or in response to government demands.
Sen. Wyden is trying to get to the bottom of this:
In a statement, Apple said that Wyden’s letter gave them the opening they needed to share more details with the public about how governments monitored push notifications.
“In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information,” the company said in a statement. “Now that this method has become public we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests.”…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/12/spying-through-push-notifications.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
Time is limited to see the National Archives exhibit, All American: The Power of Sports, which ends its run in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery in Washington, DC, on January 7, 2024. Today’s post on the sport of fencing comes from Alyssa Manfredi at the National Archives History Office. Fencing is a combat sport that … Continue reading En Garde! A History of Fencing
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2023/12/07/en-garde-a-history-of-fencing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
GitLab has again warned of material weaknesses in its financial controls because of failures to design and maintain the correct internal IT systems.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/gitlab_finance_control_warning/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
In the year since Open AI introduced ChatGPT to the world, almost 600 media organizations have blocked the technology from scraping their content.
Two other AI chat bots — Google AI’s Bard and Common Crawl’s CCBot — are also blocked by some or most of those same news organizations.
The list grows longer each day, according to Ben Welsh, a news applications editor for Reuters, who compiled a survey of news organizations for his media blog.
“What we are seeing here is that news publishers, at least half of them in my survey, want to put the brakes on this a little bit and not just allow themselves to be included in this without some sort of conversation or negotiation with the Open AI company,” Welsh said.
Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT, offered 1,153 news organizations the option to block its chat bot in August 2023. As of Wednesday, nearly half have taken up that offer.
While most are U.S. organizations, including The New York Times and CNN, the list also includes international media groups, including Australia’s ABC News, The Times of India, and The South African.
Welsh’s survey didn’t dig deeply into the reasons for blocking ChatGPT, but he said that commercial media tend to be among the groups that stop ChatGPT whereas nonprofits are more likely to share content.
VOA’s attempts to contact ChatGPT via LinkedIn, email and at its offices in San Francisco were unsuccessful.
Seen as threat
Many media analysts and press freedom groups see AI as a threat to publishers and broadcasters, as well as a threat to ethical journalism.
Among the chief concerns are the use of artificial intelligence to create false narratives and fake visuals and to amplify misinformation and disinformation.
“It is clearly possible that some groups or organizations use and fine-tune models to create tailored disinformation that suits their projects or their purpose,” said Vincent Berthier, who manages the technology desk at Reporters Without Borders, or RSF. “But right now, today, the higher risk of disinformation comes from generative AI from pictures and deep fakes.”
RSF organized a commission made up of 32 journalism and AI experts, led by Nobel laureate and disinformation expert Maria Ressa, to regulate how media use the technology.
The resulting Paris Charter on AI and Journalism, released in November, sets parameters for the use of AI for news organizations and makes clear that journalists must take a leading role.
RSF’s Berthier believes that many of the organizations opting out are sending a clear message to AI developers.
“What media companies are saying is AI won’t be built without us and it is exactly RSF’s position on this topic,” Berthier said. “It is the spirit of the charter we released this month saying that media and journalism should be part of AI governance.”
Media freedom is already at risk from Big Tech and social media algorithms, Berthier said.
“That’s why we fight every day to protect press freedom and just make sure that journalists can still do their jobs to give the most accurate information to the public,” he said.
The Associated Press became partners with OpenAI in a news content and information sharing agreement in July.
Pamela Samuelson, a MacArthur Fellow, University of California-Berkeley law professor and information technology expert, said the deal might be just the beginning of many licensing agreements and partnerships between AI and journalism.
But she also predicted that companies would work to develop their own AI.
“So The New York Times might be doing it, CNN might be doing it, we just don’t know,” Samuelson said. “They will announce either their own generative stuff or they will just keep it in house.”
Ethical concerns
As the debate over the use of AI in journalism unfolds, many news organizations and journalists cite ethical concerns and reservations about its use.
Others cite economic factors, such as the use of their copyrighted materials and unique intellectual property without payment or provenance.
But, said Samuelson, “The predictions of doom, doom, doom are probably overblown.”
“Predictions that everything is going to be perfect, that is probably wrong, too,” she added. “We will have to find some new equilibrium.”
Generative AI can write computer code, create art, produce research and even write news articles. But makers widely admit in disclaimers that there are problems with its reliability and accuracy.
There is also growing fear among researchers that a dependence on generative AI to both produce and access news and information is spreading and that too often the information being dispensed isn’t reliable or accurate.
“There is one thing that journalism puts right up at the top of the list and that’s accuracy and that is a weakness of these tools,” Welsh said. “While they are incredibly great at being creative and generating all sorts of interesting outputs, one thing they struggle with is getting the facts right.”
Some AI analysts and watchers say the growing list of news organizations blocking AI bots could further affect that quality.
https://www.voanews.com/a/generative-ai-may-need-news-organizations-journalism-to-succeed/7387319.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Desert Gazette Blog
Zosh was ready to make his first transporter trip. Was to go very far away very fast–very, very fast. Faster than light–much faster–instantaneous. The technology had been perfected in the labs, and the government used it heavily throughout its development. Zosh was very excited. Essentially, the transporter would disassemble every molecule, atom, and particle of […]
https://desertgazette.com/blog/?p=12837 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The European Commission yesterday proposed a three-year delay on cross-border electric vehicle tariffs it described as a “one-off.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/brexit_car_tariffs/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Status-Q blog
Google has just announced the launch of the Bard chatbot, its competitor to ChatGPT, and I, no doubt like many others, immediately went to compare their performance when asked some of the key questions of our age: ChatGPT 3.5 Mmm. OK, well, let’s try… Bard Bard gets my vote. Now, having done that important test, Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2023/12/07/11839/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hilo High and Honoka‘a High’s boys and girls soccer teams clashed Tuesday at the UH-Hilo soccer field.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/vikings-soccer-teams-stay-undefeated/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAS VEGAS — The Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks are used to being on the NBA’s biggest stages, both of those teams having won championships in the last four seasons. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/sports/bucks-pacers-lakers-pelicans-in-las-vegas-for-nba-tournament-semifinals/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>President Joe Biden is pushing to allow the Indigenous nation that invented lacrosse to play under its own flag when the sport returns to the Olympics in 2028. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/sports/president-joe-biden-and-the-white-house-support-indigenous-lacrosse-team-for-the-2028-olympics/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Buckets, buckets and more buckets.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/sports/biif-hoops-trojans-notch-first-win-daggers-3-0/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Though shaken by Von Miller being charged with domestic violence, general manager Brandon Beane and the Buffalo Bills proceeded cautiously on Wednesday in awaiting the legal process to play out before rushing to judgement or discipline. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/sports/bills-gm-says-edge-rusher-von-miller-to-practice-and-play-while-facing-domestic-violence-charge/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nikki Haley was targeted Wednesday from the opening moments of the fourth debate for Republican presidential hopefuls as time runs out for the shrinking field to shake up a race dominated by former President Donald Trump.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/nikki-haley-is-targeted-in-the-fourth-republican-debate-by-her-rivals-they-all-trail-trump/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LOS ANGELES — Norman Lear, the writer, director and producer who revolutionized prime time television with “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Maude,” propelling political and social turmoil into the once-insulated world of TV sitcoms, has died. He was 101.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/norman-lear-producer-of-tvs-all-in-the-family-and-influential-liberal-advocate-has-died-at-101/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>ATLANTA — Fulton County prosecutors could call several senior officials who served in the Trump administration and Georgia’s top elected leaders as witnesses during the trial for their election interference case, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/fulton-county-prosecutors-list-top-trump-aides-georgia-officials-as-witnesses/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops battled Hamas militants Wednesday in the center of the Gaza Strip’s second-largest city, the military said, pressing a ground offensive that has sent tens of thousands of Palestinians fleeing to the territory’s southernmost edge and prevented aid groups from delivering food, water and other supplies.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/fighting-between-israel-and-hamas-rages-in-gazas-second-largest-city-blocking-aid-from-population/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Two men are facing federal charges for allegedly selling cocaine, ecstasy, magic mushrooms and other drugs out of vending machines in a Honolulu after-hours club and in a fake health and wellness store.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/vending-machine-at-nightclub-allegedly-sold-cocaine-and-ecstasy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAS VEGAS — Three people were shot to death and a fourth critically wounded Wednesday in an attack at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas that sent shock waves through a city still scarred by the deaths of 60 people in a 2017 shooting only a few miles away on the famous Strip. The suspected shooter also was found dead.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/police-say-3-dead-fourth-wounded-and-shooter-also-dead-in-university-of-nevada-las-vegas-attack/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were still up for grabs as team officials started to head home Wednesday evening following a baseball winter meetings of much talk and little action. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/sports/ohtani-soto-and-yamamoto-still-up-for-grabs-as-teams-head-home-from-winter-meetings/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department announced on Wednesday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/us-announces-new-weapons-aid-for-ukraine-as-congress-is-stalled-on-more-funding/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Google took its next leap in artificial intelligence Wednesday with the launch of project Gemini, an AI model trained to behave in human-like ways that’s likely to intensify the debate about the technology’s potential promise and perils.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/google-launches-gemini-upping-the-stakes-in-the-global-ai-race/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — The heads of Wall Street’s biggest banks used an appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to plead with senators to stop the Biden administration’s proposed changes to how banks are regulated, warning that the new proposals could negatively impact the economy at a time of geopolitical turmoil and inflation.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/ceos-of-the-nations-biggest-banks-warn-that-new-regulations-could-harm-the-economy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Two months after his historic ouster as U.S. House speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that he is resigning and will leave Congress by the end of the year.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/kevin-mccarthy-was-booted-as-house-speaker-two-months-ago-now-hes-leaving-congress-by-years-end/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden told Native American nations gathered for a summit Wednesday that his administration was working to heal the wrongs of the past as he signed an executive order that seeks to make it easier for Indigenous peoples to access federal funding, and have greater autonomy over how to spend it.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/at-tribal-summit-biden-says-hes-working-to-heal-the-wrongs-of-the-past-and-move-forward/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Former President Ronald Reagan once noted, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.” That’s true, which is why what’s currently happening with Medicaid is so remarkable.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/opinion/the-impossible-is-happening-as-medicaid-enrollment-drops/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>‘Obligation’ to curb greenhouse gases</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/opinion/your-views-for-december-7-8/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>In 2010, the Affordable Care Act emerged as a ray of hope for the 64 million women in the United States now entitled to no-cost preventive services. With their health insurance, it promised no-cost access to birth control, a vital component of health care.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/opinion/its-time-for-no-cost-birth-control/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Family Self-Sufficiency Program has helped one Hilo family achieve financial independence.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/program-helps-hilo-family-reach-financial-independence/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>In weather terminology, they call it “rapid intensification” — the process by which a storm strengthens dramatically in a short period.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/nation-world-news/2023-taylors-version-the-year-in-pop-culture/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A 28-year-old Kona man who was indicted in 2022 on two dozen charges stemming from an alleged armed robbery that was followed by a car crash and the man reportedly shooting at a police officer pleaded guilty to two charges on Tuesday.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/kona-man-pleads-guilty-to-2022-armed-robbery/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A Hawaii Police Department detective accused of lying to a Hilo grand jury in March pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of perjury and tampering with a government record.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/hpd-detective-pleads-not-guilty/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>After impassioned support from community members, a pair of Keaukaha restaurants have been spared eviction and won’t be replaced by a car dealership in two years.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2023/12/07/hawaii-news/kias-rezoing-request-rejected-millies-deli-new-saigon-wont-be-replaced-by-auto-dealership/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Andrea Favero created CUBOTino, a tiny Rubik’s Cube solving robot, to save you the frustration and eventual shame of not being able to complete the world’s bestselling toy.
The post CUBOTino, the Rubik’s Cube solving robot appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/cubotino-the-rubiks-cube-solving-robot/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has revealed that Redmond’s efforts to port Windows from 32-bit to 64-bit had a code name that served a second purpose: a thinly veiled dig at a rival.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/64bit_windows_code_name/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
A new optical ground station has been built by the Australian National University to help the U.S. space agency, NASA, and others explore space and safely reach Mars.
The Australian team has developed a new type of space communication using lasers.
Researchers say the system will allow them to connect with satellites and NASA-crewed missions beyond low-Earth orbit.
The project is supported by the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars initiative.
The Australian National University Quantum Optical Ground Station is based at the Mount Stromlo Observatory, near Canberra.
It is a powerful telescope that will support high-speed advanced communications with satellites orbiting at distances from low-Earth orbit to the moon.
Kate Ferguson, associate director for strategic projects at the Australian National University Institute for Space, told VOA current communication systems relying on radio frequencies can be slow and cumbersome.
“I am sure some of us remember the grainy pictures that we got of the moon landing that came from the Apollo era,” Ferguson said. “So, again the current radio frequency systems, they have these much slower data rates and especially over really long distances. For space exploration those become very slow but with optical communications we will be able to increase the rate of that communication.”
She said the new system, based on powerful lasers that are invisible to the naked eye, will transform communications in space.
“What we are aiming to do is to be able to receive high-definition video from future crewed missions. Not only will that be great for us here on Earth, seeing what is happening with the astronauts on these types of missions, but it will improve the connectivity between those missions,” she said. “And what we are doing here is optical communication, which uses laser beams to communicate and these offer much higher speeds and increased security over the current systems and this is really important for us to be getting that data down and being able to use it here on Earth.”
Scientists say the Australian-developed systems will be compatible with NASA missions.
They say the laser-based technology will improve astronauts’ ability to connect with Earth from the moon and also allow high-definition video to be sent from the moon and Mars.
NASA has said previously that astronauts could be sent on a mission to the red planet by the mid-to-late 2030s.
https://www.voanews.com/a/australian-laser-technology-to-help-future-nasa-missions-to-mars/7387898.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Robert Reich on Substack
How the Republican Party turns fascist
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-gops-integrity-death-cycle Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Iran on Wednesday launched a “biological capsule” into low Earth orbit – an effort the nation’s minister of communications claims is a precursor to crewed flights.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/iran_astronaut_precursor_leo_launch/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1921 – William S. Hart marries actress Winifred Westover. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-dec-7/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A love story from the previous century leaves its mark on this home.
The post A Home with a Lot of Heart appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/07/a-home-with-a-lot-of-heart/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Manu - I write blog
With his “I am a poem I am not software” post Robin touched on an interesting problem related to personal websites. I’m not going to summarise Robin’s post because his writing is great and you should read his words on his blog.
what should our personal websites do? Should we prioritize getting a new gig or selling a service? Or can we be ourselves? Weird and fun and peculiar? Should we talk about topic X but avoid topic Y?
These are all very interesting questions but for me, the more pressing question is a slightly different one: which you is your personal site representing? We often don’t pay too much attention to this but we all have different ways of being ourselves.
So which one of these should my site represent? Should my site be the personal site of the Manu freelance web developer, with his interests in digital typography, minimal design, and simple websites? Or should represent the slightly competitive on the basketball court Manu, who doesn’t really care all that much about winning but is concerned about having fun? Or maybe it should represent Manu the romantic partner, with all his worry about the practical aspects of life but also full of affection for his partner? The list goes on and on.
All of these “me” have a different way of communicating because they all live in different parts of my life. Which one should this site represent? Hard to say.
Personal sites—and, more broadly, our digital lives—are a mirror of who we are. Some of us will try to neatly organize everything under one hyper-curated digital roof while others will scatter things around on 12 different domains and 24 services. Some will design a site for themselves and not touch it again for a decade while others will feel the need to redesign every 6 months. Those are all right answers to a question that doesn’t have wrong answers.
A personal site is—or at least it should be—a reflection of whoever you want to be. It could be the complete you, one of the many versions of you, or even an aspirational you. Just be comfortable in your digital home. It’s all that matters.
https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/QHwc8OKa1wDGQ6iv Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A Belgian man has been arrested and charged for his role in a years-long smuggling scheme to export military-grade electronics from the US to Russia and China.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/belgian_russia_china_hardware/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cisco has refreshed its small business switch range, giving the world the Catalyst 1200 and 1300 series devices.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/cisco_catalyst_1200_1300_refresh/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
The Holiday Home tour hosted its 43rd anniversary at Hyatt Regency Valencia…
The post Holiday Tour Gala appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/holiday-tour-gala/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
InfluencerHER is an organization within the SCV Chamber ofCommerce where women help…
The post InfluenceHER Promotes Women’s Empowerment at Local Event appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/influenceher-santa-clarita-valley-event-promotes-women-empowerment/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
The Santa Clarita Valley Bar Association, or SCVBA, held its annual gala…
The post Santa Clarita Valley Bar Association hosts annual gala appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/santa-clarita-valley-bar-association-hosts-annual-gala/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
This past Saturday, members of the Santa Clarita Valley gathered at Castaic…
The post ‘Friends of Castaic Lake’ hosts the Winter Magic Boat Parade. appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/friends-of-castaic-lake-hosts-the-winter-magic-boat-parade/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Swedish Tesla employees have gone on strike, and unions in neighboring Denmark and Norway have joined boycotts of Elon Musk’s electric automaker.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/swedish_tesla_strike_international/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
Imagine hearing your favorite Disney songs coming to life. A band calledThe…
The post West Ranch High School puts on Disney GOJazz performance. appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/west-ranch-high-school-puts-on-disney-gojazz-performance/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Hannah Richie at Substack
Increased recycling, substitution, mining and refining capacity are all essential if we’re to have secure mineral supplies in the medium-term.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/transition-mineral-demand-part-two Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The holiday fun has just begun — get the most out of this magical time of year with Santa Barbara’s complete guide to holiday happenings.
The post ’Tis the Season 2023 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/06/tis-the-season-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
This plot of land may look ordinary, but the history behind it…
The post A look at the unique history of the Lang Station. appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/history-of-lang-station-railroad-system/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Tyler Martinez exploded for 27 points and 20 rebounds.
The post Cate Holds Off Bishop Diego to Claim 67-62 Victory in Tri-Valley League Opener appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/06/cate-holds-off-bishop-diego-in-to-claim-67-62-victory-in-tri-valley-league-opener/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Google’s latest code-generating model – AlphaCode 2, powered by its Gemini Pro system and making its public debut on Wednesday – reportedly scored above the 99.5 percentile of participants competing in programming contests online.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/alphacode_2_software/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
What to buy and where to buy it this holiday season.
The post The 2023 Santa Barbara Gift Guide appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/06/the-2023-santa-barbara-gift-guide/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Australia is building a top-secret cloud to host intelligence data and share it with the US and UK, which have their own clouds built for the same purpose.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/australia_top_secret_cloud/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
In the mood for some grub, or some beer to fill up…
The post Pocock Brewing Company hosts 8th Annual Beer Festival. appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/pocock-brewing-company-hosts-8th-annual-beer-festival/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Heatmap News
Who, or what, was the biggest villain of the fourth Republican debate? Vivek “The Most Obnoxious Blowhard in America” Ramaswamy would, of course, be an easy pick. So too would “the three previous Republican debates,” which were all so painfully boring that most Americans probably didn’t bother to investigate if Wednesday’s host network, News Nation, was actually a real channel. (Whadda you know, it is!).
But there was another villain, too: a shadowy threat that, you’d think from the tone on stage, imperils nothing less than American freedom, our values, and everything we love. And no, it wasn’t Donald Trump. It was, shudder, the woke climate agenda.
The topic first lurched on stage in the form of Republicans’ favorite three-letter boogeyman, ESG. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took an opportunity to brag that he pulled $2 billion in Floridian pensions from Blackrock “when they did the ESG.”
“This ESG,” he went on, “they call it ‘environment, social, governance’ … they want to use economic power to impose a left-wing agenda on this country. They want basically to change society without having to go through the constitutional process.”
But that boogeyman doesn’t look quite as scary when you turn the lights on. While it’s true that DeSantis targeted ESG as part of his crusade against “woke capitalism,” Bloomberg noted in January that
…[t]he Florida State Board of Administration — which oversees roughly $180 billion in pension money — didn’t hold investments labeled as ESG when DeSantis ramped up his campaign last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Even after the state’s treasury said it would pull $2 billion from BlackRock amid DeSantis’s criticism, the world’s largest asset manager still oversees $12.9 billion for the state’s retirement funds.
Okay, well, the nefarious climate agenda must be hiding elsewhere? Sure enough, a little later in the debate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley alleged that DeSantis is beholden to Chinese companies like “JinkoSolar,” which he supposedly gave “$2 million in subsidies.”
Sounds ominous! But a closer look also revealed the facts to be a little less exciting: “JinkoSolar predates DeSantis,” PolitiFact explained after Haley tried a similar line of attack during a November appearance on Fox & Friends. Besides, “state governments typically lack the authority to bar an established business from making operational decisions, unless those businesses are breaking the law” and “JinkoSolar hasn’t been charged with a crime.” PolitiFact rated the whole attack as “false.”
Reference to the dark conspiracy of the climate agenda surfaced a third and final time during the debate in the form of Ramaswamy’s closing remarks. Ramaswamy has long railed against what he calls the “climate change agenda,” presumably climate policy, calling it a “hoax.” But he used his final minutes on the mic before a national audience on Wednesday to warn that it’s also a false idol. “If you thought COVID was bad, what’s coming next with this climate agenda is far worse!” he insisted. “We should not be bending the knee to this new religion! That’s what it is, a substitute for a modern religion! We are flogging ourselves! And losing our modern way of life! Bowing to this new god of climate! And that will end on my watch!”
“Thank you. Ambassador Haley?” Megyn Kelly transitioned, evidently unruffled.
Admittedly, it’s hard to take Ramaswamy’s alarm (or, well, Ramaswamy himself) seriously. But for those watching closely — which, again, it’s more than understandable if you’re not! — a clear pattern is beginning to emerge. Republican candidates are attempting to divorce the actual climate agenda from the “cLiMAte AgENda,” a made-up specter they can scare their base with, the same way they previously weaponized and rendered meaningless words like “critical race theory” and “woke.”
But if that doesn’t frighten you, you know what is really spooky? The Iowa caucuses are less than six weeks away.
https://heatmap.news/politics/republicans-weave-a-climate-conspiracy-at-the-final-debate Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
Emails from Chiquita Canyon Landfill indicate operators were aware of a leachate-seepage problem in April, observed it spread in August and reported it Oct. 18 to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, after an Oct. 6 notice to comply was issued by the agency. The landfill shared its emails to the AQMD ahead of […]
The post AQMD to consider additional regulations for Chiquita appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/aqmd-to-consider-additional-regulations-for-chiquita/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Canyons News (COC student paper)
For the third year in a row, The Cube brings together People…
The post The Cube Christmas Tree Lighting appeared first on Canyons News.
https://canyonsnews.com/the-cube-christmas-tree-lighting/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CANALYS APAC FORUMS Lenovo won’t stop making Chromebooks despite the machines scoring poorly when it comes to both sustainability and revenue, according to an exec speaking at Canalys APAC Forum in Bangkok on Wednesday.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/chromebooks_are_problematic_for_profits/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
With the passage of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, awareness of airborne hazards faced by veterans in Southwest Asia (SWA), including Iraq and Afghanistan, has grown significantly
https://scvnews.com/veterans-and-airborne-hazards-awareness-and-action/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his administration is committed to writing “a new and better chapter of history” for more than 570 native communities in the U.S. by — among other things — making it easier for them to access federal funding. A leader of one of the largest communities speaks to VOA about those efforts and how some of the themes of native history continue to play out halfway across the planet. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from the Department of the Interior.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-clears-path-for-tribal-nations-to-access-federal-funds/7387790.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CANALYS APAC FORUM Buyers won’t tolerate Nvidia’s long lead times to deliver GPUs, enabling new entrants to enter the market, according to Dell Asia Pacific and Japan president, Peter Marrs.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/dell_apj_president_says_industry/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
A home invasion call was being investigated Wednesday night in Canyon Country, according to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials. According to Deputy Robert Jensen, a spokesman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, deputies responded to the 25000 block of Chisom Lane at approximately 5:50 p.m. to reports of a home invasion. The informant reported they […]
The post <strong>Canyon Country home invasion under investigation </strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/canyon-country-home-invasion-under-investigation/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his administration is committed to writing “a new and better chapter of history” for its more than 570 native communities by, among other things, making it easier for them to access federal funding.
“It’s hard work to heal the wrongs of the past and change the course and move forward,” Biden said. “But the actions we’re taking today are key steps into that new era of tribal sovereignty and self-determination. A new era grounded in dignity and respect, that recognizes your fundamental rights to govern and grow on your own terms. That’s what this summit is all about.”
Biden, speaking at the U.S. Department of the Interior, which sits on the ancestral land of the Nacotchtank people, announced more than 190 agreements during a two-day summit of some 300 tribal leaders.
They include an executive order that will make it easier to access federal funding, plus efforts to clean up nuclear sites, support clean energy transitions and work toward the repatriation of native remains and sacred objects.
The administration will also release a progress report on its efforts to date.
Hope for more
The leader of one of the largest groups told VOA that the government’s efforts have been “very, very positive” and said he hoped to see more.
“The most important thing for the Cherokee Nation, I think — and all tribes — is the efficient deployment of resources, and then allowing tribes to decide how to use those resources,” said Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
But, he said, as his people know too well, land dispossession and conflict is not ancient history. Here’s his advice to Biden and Middle Eastern leaders as war rages in Gaza after the October 7 attack by Hamas militants:
“We have a history of being dispossessed from our land,” he said. “And so, I would just say, remind people that there’s a way to balance rights. I think we’re trying to do that in the United States in terms of Indian Country versus the rest of the country.
“We haven’t perfected it, but I think we’re making some progress,” Hoskin said. “So, all I would say is the respect and dignity that every human being deserves ought to be on display.”
Youth see potential
Younger tribal citizens say they have high expectations. Sareya Taylor, the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Phoenix, is a member of the White Mountain Apache and Navajo communities.
“I voted for Biden in 2020,” said Taylor, 21. “And I believe there’s so much more that can be done, especially in terms of climate and how we look at food sovereignty.”
But if she could ask the president for anything, she said, it would be for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“As an Indigenous person, I see my history, like, being like, livestreamed right now,” she said. “If that were happening to us, I’d like to believe that it would be stopped immediately. But you know, considering President Biden won’t even call for a cease-fire, I don’t know about that.”
Hoskin, who is nearly three decades older than Taylor, took a more measured view.
“Obviously, if these were easy issues, somebody would have solved them a long time ago,” he said.
But, he said, step by step, the U.S. government is working to right past wrongs on its own soil.
“Certainly, it would be accurate to say the United States has an appalling record towards Indigenous peoples,” he said. “Is it perfect now? No, it’s not. But we’re making progress.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-clears-path-for-tribal-nations-to-access-federal-funds/7387778.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Four Republican candidates sparred for two hours Wednesday – at times attacking and yelling over each other – in the fourth and final presidential debate of the year. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was absent, as he has been for the three previous debates.
That did not stop former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie from criticizing the former president and accusing the others of being too afraid to do so. Trump, despite facing 91 felony counts and a civil lawsuit, remains substantially ahead of his rivals, according to opinion polls.
Israel-Hamas war
Two months after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, the Republican candidates agreed Israel should be allowed to conduct its own war against the group without interference from the United States.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis asserted “This administration is trying to hobble Israel from being able to defend itself,” calling out Hamas for wanting “a second Holocaust.”
The governor also suggested cutting off oil revenue to Iran, saying they “send it to Hamas… to Hezbollah, and they foment jihad throughout the Middle East.”
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russian President Vladimir Putin is thrilled that America has redirected its attention from Ukraine to Israel, saying “There is a reason that Taiwanese want to help Ukrainians because they know if Ukraine wins, China won’t invade Taiwan.”
She made the same comparison with Ukrainians who want to help the Israelis, “because they know that if Iran wins, Russia wins … but what wins all of that is a strong America, not a weak America. And that’s what [President] Joe Biden has given us.”
Christie, asked in the NewsNation debate if he would send in U.S. troops to free the American hostages held by Hamas and other militants, said, “You’re damn right I would send the American army in there to get them out safely.”
Southern border and fentanyl
On fentanyl entering the U.S. through the southern border, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said he would have had a different conversation with China’s leader than President Biden and would “tell Xi Jinping you will not only not buy land in this country or donate to universities,” but also say, “U.S. businesses won’t expand into the Chinese market” until China stops manufacturing fentanyl for the Mexican cartels.
DeSantis said he wants cartels categorized as “foreign terrorist organizations” and added the he will build a wall at the border to discourage entry, but unlike former President Trump, would get Mexico to pay for it. Haley would “end all normal trade relationships with China,” pointing to the country as the source of the drug.
Attacking the former president
A Messenger/Harris poll indicates that among Republican voters former President Donald Trump leads his competitors with support from 68% of those surveyed, followed by DeSantis at 9% and Haley at 7%. Ramaswamy garnered 4%, while Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who qualified to participate only in the first of the four debates but officially remains in the race, were at 1% or less.
The candidates attempted Wednesday to distinguish themselves from the former president, should he not run or not be able to run due to his court cases.
Kaivan Shroff, political commentator and press secretary for Dream for America, says the candidates missed the chance to “attack the real frontrunner in the race. Only Chris Christie did so.”
Christie had called Trump an “angry, bitter man who wants to be back as president because he wants to enact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him.”
Shroff warned that “Haley and DeSantis showed they were too cowardly to make the case against Trump in this final debate of the year and they will pay the price.”
Ramaswamy took a swipe at the former and current presidents as well as his on-stage rivals, saying “It is going to take a leader from the outside with fresh legs from the next generation to unite this country.”
On to the first official challenge: Iowa in January
The first voting on the 2024 presidential campaign calendar is the Iowa Republican caucus on January 15. Analysts say Ramaswamy could be the most vulnerable candidate at this point, especially after some sharp personal barbs at his rivals Wednesday night evoked boos from the audience.
“I think he has hit the apex of his candidacy,” said Andra Gillespie with the Department of Political Science at Georgia’s Emory University. Gillespie called Ramaswamy a “novelty” given his lack of elective experience. “It just becomes a question of ‘how long can he sustain this candidacy?’”
Meantime, Christie has said he will stay in the race. Gillespie expects him to compete through the New Hampshire primary on January 23 “or until he runs out of money.”
99 counties
Saturday, DeSantis completed his tour of all 99 counties in Iowa, courting voters in the Midwest state ahead of the caucuses. The latest poll averages posted by the website 538 Wednesday show Trump leading in Iowa by 45.9% to DeSantis’s 19.7%, Haley’s 17.5% Ramaswamy’s 4.8% and Christie’s 3.9%.
https://www.voanews.com/a/rivals-target-nikki-haley-in-4th-republican-debate-all-trail-trump/7387783.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
Valencia alumnus Tanner Miller is the latest former Viking to leave his mark on the collegiate level. Miller, an offensive lineman at Oregon State, was named to the All-PAC-12 team on Tuesday. The former Viking was part one of the best offensive lines in college football. The Beavers gave up just 15 sacks on the […]
The post <strong>Valencia alumnus earns all-PAC-12 honors</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The LAist
The city is facing significant cleanup challenges: Hundreds of requests from residents to have fire debris tested for asbestos and removed from their yards remain unresolved.
https://laist.com/news/tustin-hangar-doors-lowered-after-fire-asbestos Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Facebook and Instagram fail to protect underage users from exposure to child sexual abuse material and let adults solicit pornographic imagery from them, New Mexico’s attorney general alleges in a lawsuit that follows an undercover online investigation.
“Our investigation into Meta’s social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a statement Wednesday.
The civil lawsuit filed late Tuesday against Meta Platforms Inc. in state court also names its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, as a defendant.
In addition, the suit claims Meta “harms children and teenagers through the addictive design of its platform, degrading users’ mental health, their sense of self-worth and their physical safety,” Torrez’s office said in a statement.
Those claims echo others in a lawsuit filed in late October by the attorneys general of 33 states, including California and New York, against Meta that alleges Instagram and Facebook include features deliberately designed to hook children, contributing to the youth mental health crisis and leading to depression, anxiety and eating disorders. New Mexico was not a party to that lawsuit.
Investigators in New Mexico created decoy accounts of children 14 years and younger that Torrez’s office said were served sexually explicit images even when the child expressed no interest in them. State prosecutors claim that Meta let dozens of adults find, contact and encourage children to provide sexually explicit and pornographic images.
The accounts also received recommendations to join unmoderated Facebook groups devoted to facilitating commercial sex, investigators said, adding that Meta also let its users find, share and sell “an enormous volume of child pornography.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta executives are aware of the serious harm their products can pose to young users, and yet they have failed to make sufficient changes to their platforms that would prevent the sexual exploitation of children,” Torrez said, accusing Meta’s executives of prioritizing “engagement and ad revenue over the safety of the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, did not directly respond to the New Mexico lawsuit’s allegations, but said it works hard to protect young users with a serious commitment of resources.
“We use sophisticated technology, hire child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators,” the company said. “In one month alone, we disabled more than half a million accounts for violating our child safety policies.”
Company spokesman Andy Stone pointed to a company report detailing the millions of tips Facebook and Instagram sent to the National Center in the third quarter of 2023 — including 48,000 involving inappropriate interactions that could include an adult soliciting child sexual abuse material directly from a minor or attempting to meet with one in person.
Critics, including former employees, have long complained that Meta’s largely automated content moderation systems are ill-equipped to identify and adequately eliminate abusive behavior on its platforms.
https://www.voanews.com/a/meta-sued-for-allegedly-failing-to-shield-children-from-predators-/7387728.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
The military announced late Wednesday that it was grounding all of its Osprey V-22 helicopters, one week after eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members died in a crash off the coast of Japan.
The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps took the extraordinary step of grounding hundreds of aircraft after a preliminary investigation of last week’s crash indicated that a material failure — something went wrong with the aircraft — and not a mistake by the crew led to the deaths.
The crash raised new questions about the safety of the Osprey, which has been involved in multiple fatal accidents over its relatively short time in service. Japan grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.
Lieutenant General Tony Bauernfeind, head of Air Force Special Operations Command, directed the stand-down “to mitigate risk while the investigation continues,” the command said in a statement. “Preliminary investigation information indicates a potential materiel failure caused the mishap, but the underlying cause of the failure is unknown at this time.”
In a separate notice, Naval Air Systems Command said it was grounding all Ospreys. The command is responsible for the Marine Corps and Navy variants of the aircraft.
The Air Force said it was unknown how long the aircraft would be grounded. It said the stand-down was expected to remain in place until the investigation has determined the cause of the Japan crash and made recommendations to allow the fleet to return to operations.
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. Air Force Special Operations Command has 51 Ospreys, the U.S. Marine Corps flies more than 400, and the U.S. Navy operates 27.
The Osprey is still a relatively young plane in the military’s fleet — the first Ospreys became operational in 2007 after decades of testing. But more than 50 troops have died either in testing the Osprey or conducting training flights in the aircraft, including 20 deaths in four crashes over the past 20 months.
An Osprey accident in August in Australia killed three Marines. That accident also is still under investigation.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-military-grounds-entire-osprey-fleet-following-deadly-crash-off-coast-of-japan-/7387740.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Business and technical leaders should prepare to focus on memory safety in software development, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) urged on Wednesday.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/12/07/memory_correction_five_eyes/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
It is among 19 projects nationwide to receive more than $100 million to protect big and small game.
The post Wildlife Crossing Project in Gaviota Awarded $8 Million Federal Grant appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/06/wildlife-crossing-project-in-gaviota-awarded-8-million-federal-grant/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Learning Post Academy, the William S. Hart Union High School District’s outstanding independent study school, will hold informational meetings via Zoom for interested parents and students on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m
https://scvnews.com/dec-12-learning-post-academy-holds-informational-meetings/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Sunkissed Pantry and Mission Refill are on a mission to serve sustainably.
The post Zero-Waste Is Win-Win with Santa Barbara’s Two Refill Shops appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2023/12/06/zero-waste-is-win-win-with-santa-barbaras-two-refill-shops/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: VOA News USA
Ten Republicans who posed as fake electors for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Wisconsin and filed paperwork falsely saying he had won the battleground state have settled a civil lawsuit and admitted their actions were part of an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory, attorneys who filed the case announced Wednesday.
Under the agreement, the fake electors acknowledged that Biden won the state, withdrew their filings, and agreed not to serve as presidential electors in 2024 or any other election where Trump is on the ballot.
The 10 fake electors agreed to send a statement to the government offices that received the Electoral College votes saying that their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”
The settlement marks the first time that any Trump electors have revoked their filings sent to Congress purporting that Trump had won in seven battleground states. Nevada on Wednesday became the third state to criminally charge fake electors, following Georgia and Michigan. Trump faces charges in Georgia and in a federal investigation of his conduct related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The settlement was announced by Law Forward, Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and the Madison-based Stafford Rosenbaum law firm.
“Americans believe in democracy and the idea that the people choose their leaders through elections,” said Jeff Mandell, one of the attorneys who brought the case on behalf of Democratic voters, including two who served as Biden electors. “The defendants’ actions violated those bedrock principles. We brought this case to ensure that they are held accountable.”
There is no known criminal investigation ongoing in Wisconsin. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has signaled he is relying on federal investigators to look into what happened in Wisconsin, while also not ruling out a state probe.
Lawsuit sought $2.4 million
Democrats brought the lawsuit last year seeking $2.4 million in damages from 10 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump as the 2020 election winner in Wisconsin. They also sued two of Trump’s attorneys, including one who has already pleaded guilty to other charges stemming from the 2020 election in Georgia.
The case was scheduled to go to a trial by jury in September 2024, two months before the presidential election.
Under the deal, the fake electors don’t pay any damages or attorneys’ fees, and there is no admission of wrongdoing or liability.
The Wisconsin Republican electors have long said that they were partaking in the plan in case a court later ruled that Trump had won the state. One of the fake electors, former Wisconsin state Republican Chairman Andrew Hitt, repeated that position in a statement Wednesday.
“The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy,” he said. Hitt said he has been working with the Justice Department since May of 2022, and he will not be supporting Trump in 2024.
Fake electors signed fake certificates
The fake elector plan hatched in seven battleground states was central to the federal indictment filed against Trump earlier in August that alleged he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors said the scheme originated in Wisconsin.
Fake electors met in Wisconsin and six other states where Trump was defeated in 2020 and signed certificates that falsely stated Trump, not Biden, won their states. The fake certificates were ignored.
One of the attorneys named in the Wisconsin lawsuit, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents after being charged with participating in efforts to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia. Chesebro was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law.
The Wisconsin lawsuit cites a memo Chesebro sent to Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin, Jim Troupis, in November 2020 detailing the elector plan.
Fake electors agree to help Democrats
Under the settlement, the 10 fake electors promised to assist the Department of Justice with its ongoing investigation. They also agreed to help the Democrats as they continue their lawsuit against Troupis and Chesebro.
Troupis and Chesebro did not return voicemail messages seeking comment.
The fake electors also released nearly 600 pages of documents related to their scheme, under terms of the settlement.
Those show one Republican involved with the fake elector plot texting another one referring to their action declaring Trump the winner of Wisconsin as a “possible steal.” The sender said they felt compelled to go along with the plan or else Trump supporters would be upset, and there “would be a target on my back.”
Government and outside investigations have uniformly found there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have swung the election from Biden. Trump has continued to spread falsehoods about the 2020 election.
Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.
https://www.voanews.com/a/fake-trump-electors-settle-lawsuit-in-wisconsin-agree-biden-won/7387691.html Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
The drummer from Oingo Boingo, a Daytime Emmy winner, the voice of Ferb from “Phineas and Ferb,” Jack Sparrow, Mrs. Claus and Santa Claus walk into Salt Creek Grille on Saturday. The goal? Provide an unforgettable Christmas for members of the community in need. Shawn Dettenmaier was 7 years ago when she saw a need […]
The post <strong>Come in, Combat Radio dials in Christmas for those in need</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2023/12/come-in-combat-radio-dials-in-christmas-for-those-in-need/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: The Signal
After trailing at halftime, Valencia Vikings’ boys soccer found its equalizer late in its home match with the Saugus Centurions. Sophomore Henry Sarkisyan drilled a shot into the back of the net after a deflected corner kick found the forward striding toward the back pole. Sarkisyan’s score tied the game up, 2-2, and was the […]
The post <strong>Valencia soccer draws with Saugus</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
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date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The LAist
One year in, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ administration says 3,551 people have been permanently housed.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/bass-homeless-progress-city-hall-data-inside-safe-permanent-housing Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: OS News
systemd 255 has been released, and it contains one particular new feature I want to highlight. A new component “systemd-bsod” has been added to show logged error messages full-screen if they have a “LOG_EMERG” log level. This is intended as a tool for displaying emergency log messages full-screen on boot failures. Yes, BSOD in this case short for “Blue Screen of Death”. This was worked on as part of Outreachy 2023. The systemd-bsod will also display a QR code for getting more information on the error causing the boot failure. ↫ Michael Larabel at Phoronix I like this. Operating systems usually have excellent logging capabilities, but getting to these logs and making sense of them isn’t always easy, especially if you’re not elbow-deep in the weeds of how your operating system of choice works. Giving a useful error screen when things really hit a brick wall at 200 km/h is a good thing, and will make at least some troubleshooting easier.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138020/systemd-255-released/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: OS News
Government investigators in the United States have used push notification data to pursue people of interest, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a letter Wednesday to the Justice Department, revealing for the first time a way in which Americans can be tracked through a basic service provided by their smartphones. Wyden’s letter said the Justice Department had prohibited Apple and Google from discussing the technique and asked it to change the rule, noting that his office had received a tip that foreign governments had also begun requesting the push-notification data. ↫ Drew Harwell for The Washington Post Not surprising, of course. The one nugget of good news here is that while Apple’s policy is to hand over this data after a mere subpoena (“privacy is a fundamental human right“, everybody), Google requires an actual court order, meaning federal officials must convince a judge of the validity of the request. Assuming this is not a nebulous secret backroom deal but a proper judicial process, I’m actually okay with that – law enforcement does need the ability to investigate potential criminals, and as long as this happens within the boundaries of the law and properly overseen and approved by the judiciary every step along the way, I can support it.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138018/federal-government-is-using-data-from-push-notifications-to-track-contacts/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: NASA breaking news
Marshall Kicks Off Holiday Season with Tree-Lighting Ceremony NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated its annual tree-lighting ceremony in the courtyard of Building 4221 on Nov 30. Marshall team members and their children gathered for the lighting of the 32-foot artificial tree decorated with blue lights and a 10-pointed star representing each NASA center. Joseph […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-december-6-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, updated: 2023-12-07, from: The LAist
We need clear plans if we’re going to have enough water for the future.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/la-county-sets-goal-to-greatly-increase-stormwater-capture-by-2045 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today announced that the National Park Service will collaborate with Tribes across the nation on a new theme study that will focus on the Indian Reorganization Period to help broaden the understanding of an important chapter in American history
https://scvnews.com/interior-secretary-haaland-announces-national-park-service-to-collaborate-with-tribes-on-theme-study-of-native-american-history/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: OS News
This promise of a world responsibly empowered by AI continues to drive our work at Google DeepMind. For a long time, we’ve wanted to build a new generation of AI models, inspired by the way people understand and interact with the world. AI that feels less like a smart piece of software and more like something useful and intuitive — an expert helper or assistant. Today, we’re a step closer to this vision as we introduce Gemini, the most capable and general model we’ve ever built. Gemini is the result of large-scale collaborative efforts by teams across Google, including our colleagues at Google Research. It was built from the ground up to be multimodal, which means it can generalize and seamlessly understand, operate across and combine different types of information including text, code, audio, image and video. ↫ Demis Hassabis on Google’s official blog It’s no secret I’m not particularly impressed by “AI”, not least because its ability to autocomplete complete nonsense based on copyrighted works it’s drawing from without permission and the dangers this might represent to our society. That being said, Google’s new “AI” thing, as demonstrated in this video, actually seems a tiny bit impressive. It still looks like to me like it’s just blurting out random information using fairly mundane things like object and speech recognition, but the fluidity of it all definitely feels a lot more natural than whatever OpenAI and Microsoft have shown so far. I’m still not even remotely interested in any of this stuff, but this at least seems slightly more possibly useful than other examples I’ve seen so far.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138015/introducing-gemini-googles-largest-and-most-capable-ai-model/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Crossref Blog
In the scholarly communications environment, the evolution of a journal article can be traced by the relationships it has with its preprints. Those preprint–journal article relationships are an important component of the research nexus. Some of those relationships are provided by Crossref members (including publishers, universities, research groups, funders, etc.) when they deposit metadata with Crossref, but we know that a significant number of them are missing. To fill this gap, we developed a new automated strategy for discovering relationships between preprints and journal articles and applied it to all the preprints in the Crossref database. We made the resulting dataset, containing both publisher-asserted and automatically discovered relationships, publicly available for anyone to analyse.
We have developed a new, heuristic-based strategy for matching journal articles to their preprints. It achieved the following results on the evaluation dataset: precision 0.99, recall 0.95, F0.5 0.98. The code is available here.
We applied the strategy to all the preprints in the Crossref database. It discovered 627K preprint–journal article relationships.
We gathered all preprint–journal article relationships deposited by Crossref members, merged them with those discovered by the new strategy, and made everything available as a dataset. There are 642K relationships in the dataset, including:
In the future, we plan to replace our current matching strategy with the new one and make all discovered relationships available through the Crossref REST API.
Relationships between preprints and journal articles link different versions of research outputs and allow one to follow the evolution of a publication over time. The Crossref deposit schema allows Crossref members to provide these relationships for new publications, either as a has-preprint relationship deposited with a journal article, or an is-preprint-of relationship deposited with a preprint.
To assist members who deposit preprints, we also try to connect deposited journal articles with preprints. The current method looks for an exact match between the title and first authors. We send possible matches as suggestions to the preprint server, which decides whether to update the metadata with the relationship.
At the time of writing, 137,837 journal articles in the Crossref database have a has-preprint relationship1, and 562,225 works of type posted-content (preprints belong to this type) have an is-preprint-of relationship2.
We suspected that many preprint–journal article relationships are missing, as some members inevitably fail to deposit them, even after suggestions from the current matching strategy. Another factor is that the current strategy is fairly conservative, and probably misses a significant number of relationships. For these reasons, we decided to investigate whether we could improve on the current process. Doing so would allow us to infer missing relationships on a large scale, similar to how we automatically match bibliographic references to DOIs.
This preprint matching task can be defined in two directions:
On the one hand, matching from journal articles to preprints would allow us to enrich the database continually with new relationships, either periodically or every time new content is added. Since journal articles tend to appear in the database later than their preprints, it makes sense for a new journal article to trigger the matching and not the other way round. This way we can expect the potential matches to be already in the database at the time of matching.
On the other hand, matching from preprints to journal articles can be useful in a situation where we want to add relationships in an existing database retrospectively. In our case, the database contains many more journal articles than preprints, so for performance reasons it is better to start with preprints.
In both cases we are dealing with structured matching, meaning that we match a metadata record of a work (preprint or journal article), rather than unstructured text.
As a result of matching a single preprint or a single journal article, we should expect zero or more matched journal articles/preprints. Multiple matches occur when:
The image shows the result of matching a journal article to two versions of a preprint:
Our matching strategy uses the following workflow:
Gathering candidates is done using the Crossref REST API’s query.bibliographic parameter. The query is a concatenation of the title and authors’ last names of the input item. We filter the candidates based on their type, to leave only preprints or only journal articles, depending on the direction of the matching. In the future, instead of getting the candidates from the REST API, we will be using a dedicated search engine, optimised for preprint matching.
Scoring candidates is heuristic-based. Similarities between titles, authors, and years are scored independently, and the final score is their average. Titles are compared in a fuzzy way using the rapidfuzz library. Authors are compared pairwise using the ORCID ID, or first/last names if ORCID ID is not available. The similarity score between issued years is 1 if the article was published no earlier than one year before the preprint and no later than three years after the preprint, or 0 otherwise.
The final decision is made based on two parameters: minimum score and maximum score difference, both chosen based on a validation dataset. The following diagram depicts the results of applying these two parameters in all possible scenarios. First, any candidate scoring below the minimum score is rejected (grey area in the diagram). Second, the scores of the remaining candidates are compared with the score of the top candidate. If the score of a candidate is close enough to the score of the top candidate, it is returned as a match (blue area).
This process can result in the following scenarios:
We evaluated this strategy on a test set sampled from the Crossref metadata records. The test set contains 3,000 pairs (journal article, set of corresponding preprints). Half of the journal articles have known preprints and the other half don’t. The test set can be accessed here.
We used precision, recall, and F0.5 as evaluation metrics:
The strategy achieved the following results: precision 0.9921, recall 0.9474, F0.5 0.9828. The average processing time was 0.96s.
We have made this strategy (journal article -> preprints) available through the (experimental) API: https://marple.research.crossref.org/match?task=preprint-matching&strategy=preprint-sbmv&input=10.1109/access.2022.3213707. The input is the DOI of a journal article we want to match to preprints, and the output is a list of matches found, along with the score for each.
We have investigated other approaches to making decisions about which candidates to return as matches (step 3 above), including using machine learning. At present none have outperformed the heuristic approach described above. The heuristic method is also preferred because of its fast performance.
We applied the strategy to the entire Crossref database:
The resulting dataset is a single CSV file with the following fields:
The dataset contains:
The dataset can be downloaded here.
Overall, based on the number of existing and newly discovered preprint–journal article relationships, it seems that employing automated matching strategies would approximately double the number of these relationships in the Crossref database. In the future, we would like to match new journal articles on an ongoing basis. We also plan to make all discovered relationships available through the REST API.
In the meantime, we will be publishing the discovered relationships in the form of datasets, and we invite anyone interested to further analyse this data. And if you find out something interesting about preprints and their relationships, do let us know!
https://www.crossref.org/blog/discovering-relationships-between-preprints-and-journal-articles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: ETH Zurich, recently added
Nadja Beeler; Esther Ziegler; Andreas Volz; Alexander A. Navarini; Manu Kapur
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/646177 Save to Pocket
date: 2023-12-07, from: Robert’s Ramblings
RSS is alive and kicking and Bluesky should support it too. Explore my recipe for reading web news.
https://rsdoiel.github.io/blog/2023/12/07/rss-and-my-web-experience.html Save to Pocket