News gathered 2024-01-17

(date: 2024-01-17 17:29:05)

San Jose: More racist texts from scandalized former cop revealed in court filing

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Attorneys for K’aun Green want a judge to default in their favor after alleging that Mark McNamara’s deletion of social media accounts amounted to evidence destruction.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-jose-more-racist-texts-from-scandalized-former-cop-revealed-in-court-filing/ Save to Pocket

CSUN Students Offer Free Tax Preparation Help to Low-Income People

date: 2024-01-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The calendar may say January, but April 15 will be here before you know it and taxes will be due

https://scvnews.com/csun-students-offer-free-tax-preparation-help-to-low-income-people/ Save to Pocket

Oakland man fell to the ground with gunshot wounds, only to have his killer stand over him and shoot again, police say

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

A 33-year-old man was identified as the victim of a Dec. 23 homicide in Oakland.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/oakland-man-fell-to-the-ground-with-gunshot-wounds-only-to-have-his-killer-stand-over-him-and-shoot-again-police-say/ Save to Pocket

Spectrum Reach Opens Applications for 2024 “Pay It Forward” Initiative

date: 2024-01-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales business of Charter Communications, Inc., announced it will offer 250 underserved small business owners nationwide access to its expert advertising and marketing resources through its 2024 “Pay It Forward” initiative. 

https://scvnews.com/spectrum-reach-opens-applications-for-2024-pay-it-forward-initiative/ Save to Pocket

Purdy hopes to put his stamp on 49ers-Packers playoff rivalry

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Brock Purdy is drawing from his last year’s playoff debut to help prepare him for Saturday’s game, when the top-seeded 49ers (12-5) host the upset-minded Packers (10-8) at Levi’s Stadium.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/49ers-brock-purdy-banks-on-past-drama-to-usher-him-back-into-playoff-mode/ Save to Pocket

Hartmann: Energy and Enthusiasm

date: 2024-01-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

County government has many functions, and we don’t normally expect our public officials to care equally about all of them. But then there’s Joan Hartmann.

The post Hartmann: Energy and Enthusiasm appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/hartmann-energy-and-enthusiasm/ Save to Pocket

Planning OKs car wash, Sand Canyon subdivision 

date: 2024-01-18, from: The Signal

The city of Santa Clarita’s Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a new automated car wash and a Sand Canyon subdivision.  The Mister Car Wash is an automated, self-service spot with one to two employees on site, which was approved for the southeast corner of Newhall Ranch Road and Bouquet Canyon Road.   The size of […]

The post Planning OKs car wash, Sand Canyon subdivision  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/planning-oks-car-wash-sand-canyon-subdivision/ Save to Pocket

Jan. 25: Matadors Start Their Engines with Spring Fest

date: 2024-01-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The California Northridge Student Union is inviting students to get up to speed with campus resources during Spring Fest. 

https://scvnews.com/jan-25-matadors-start-their-engines-with-spring-fest/ Save to Pocket

San Jose: Man dies of injuries suffered in shooting last fall

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

The death marked the second homicide of the year in the city.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-jose-man-dies-of-injuries-suffered-in-shooting-last-fall/ Save to Pocket

Maine judge delays Trump ballot decision until SCOTUS weighs in

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Maine has just four electoral votes, but it’s one of two states to split them. Trump earned one of Maine’s electors when he was elected in 2016 and again in 2020 when he lost reelection.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/maine-judge-delays-trump-ballot-decision-until-scotus-weighs-in/ Save to Pocket

Oakland man who came to the US in his early 20s has struck it rich through fentanyl sales, feds allege

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Milton Varela-Arteaga, 27, owns a Mercedes Benz and stockpiled $70,000 in cash at his Oakland home, while his girlfriend has a bank account with a quarter-million despite claiming employment as a housecleaner, authorities say.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/oakland-man-who-came-to-the-us-in-his-early-20s-has-struck-it-rich-through-fentanyl-sales-feds-allege/ Save to Pocket

Freezing temps complicate Chicago’s plan for asylum-seekers

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Until the weather turned, the city was keeping migrants aboard eight city buses that were running continuously and parked near a downtown highway in an area designated “the landing zone.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/freezing-temps-complicate-chicagos-plan-for-asylum-seekers/ Save to Pocket

Letters: Voter’s view | Lashing out | Fails definition | Co-opting King

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for Jan. 18, 2024

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/letters-1572/ Save to Pocket

Lichee Console 4A, RISC-V mini laptop: review, benchmarks and early issues

date: 2024-01-18, from: OS News

I always liked small laptops and phones – but for some reason they fell out of favor of manufacturers (“bigger is more better”). Now if one wanted to get tiny laptop – one of the few opportunities would have been to fight for old Sony UMPC’s on ebay which are somewhat expensive even today. Recently Raspberry Pi/CM4-based tiny laptops started to appear – especially clockwork products are neat, but they are not foldable like a laptop. When in summer of 2023 Sipeed announced Lichee Console 4A based on RISC-V SoC – I preordered it immediately and in early January I finally received it. Results of my testing, currently uncovered issues are below. ↫ Mikhail Svarichevsky I want one of these.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138374/lichee-console-4a-risc-v-mini-laptop-review-benchmarks-and-early-issues/ Save to Pocket

Frigid Weather Compounds Chicago’s Struggles to House Asylum-Seekers

date: 2024-01-18, from: VOA News USA

chicago — As temperatures hover below freezing in Chicago, dozens of asylum-seekers are staying in the lower level of a library until the bitter cold gripping much of the country lifts. 

But after that, Chicago’s plans for offering immediate shelter to the growing number of migrants arriving in the nation’s third-largest city remain murky. 

For more than a year, Chicago has wrestled with how to house new arrivals until shelter space is free, utilizing measures that city leaders insist are a stopgap. Last week, it was parked city buses. Before that it was police station lobbies and airports. The makeshift approach has frazzled volunteers, nonprofit groups and migrants wary of the lack of a long-term plan, particularly during the city’s long winters. 

“The city’s favorite word for everything is ‘temporary,’” said Vianney Marzullo, a volunteer who has helped migrants staying at O’Hare International Airport. “It’s their new choice of Band-Aid word. Everything is temporary, temporary, temporary.” 

Chicago has struggled, like New York and Denver, to deal with the crisis that started in 2022 when migrants began arriving in Democratic-led cities, largely at the direction of Texas Governot Greg Abbott. The winter weather has further complicated efforts. Last week, New York, which has received more than 170,000 migrants, evacuated a massive tent camp ahead of a storm. Big-city mayors have asked repeatedly for more federal help. 

Chicago’s response has stood out for its haphazard approach with a heavy reliance on volunteers who have spent more than a year providing medical care, food and donated items. 

City leaders say the situation keeps changing and there have been snags along the way. 

Mayor Brandon Johnson floated the idea of a heated tent encampment, but construction was scrapped over the risk of contaminants at the former industrial site. 

The city had instituted a 60-day limit for shelter stays but pushed the first batch of notices off to next week because of the weather. Meanwhile, the city has been heavily criticized for conditions at its shelters and the death of a young boy whose family stayed at one. 

The political fight has also heated up and spread to the suburbs. 

Abbott’s busing operation has been dropping off migrants at all hours in different Chicago area cities without coordination. When the city began fining bus companies and filing lawsuits, Abbott fired back with chartered planes. Johnson had planned a summit for this week with suburban mayors to discuss the problem; it was canceled by the weather. His office didn’t return a request for comment Wednesday. 

“This is an international crisis that requires federal intervention of which local government is subsidizing that work. Never designed to do it, but yet here we are still standing,” Johnson said last week ahead of the storm. 

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker also wrote to Abbott last week asking to suspend buses until the temperatures rise and with many migrants arriving without winter coats or shoes. But Abbott rejected the notion, saying the federal government needs to step up. 

More than 33,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have arrived in Chicago since 2022. Currently, nearly 15,000 migrants are living in 28 shelters and the city is continually opening more. Many migrants have gone elsewhere or live with family and friends in the area. Chicago, like other cities, has offered bus tickets out of the city. 

The city wound down its much-maligned use of police stations to house migrants, but O’Hare International Airport is still being used, with some asylum-seekers staying for weeks at a time as they await shelter. More than 200 were there Wednesday, according to the city. 

Until the weather turned, the city was keeping migrants aboard eight city buses that were running continuously and parked near a downtown highway in an area designated “the landing zone.” 

Six heated tents are under construction nearby, which the city says will be used for intake and services, such as medical care. It’s unclear if they will also be used for housing. 

Marylin Gonzalez, 34, slept on the buses last week along with her husband and three children, ages 15, 16 and 18. The buses were crowded, with sicknesses spreading quickly. 

Gonzalez described the atmosphere aboard as tense, with many worried about where they would go. She said it made her feel like a prisoner. 

“The children are stressed. People get stressed, they argue, they are already desperate,” she said. “Sometimes we have to sleep sitting up because there is no space to lay down.” 

Outside the buses, many would take up activities, like throwing around a football, to keep warm. 

The landing zone was cleared of people and vehicles on Monday, but by Wednesday morning, the empty warming buses were parked there again, a signal that the city intends to return to using them. The city’s Office of Emergency Management didn’t respond to questions Wednesday about the city’s plans when the weather warms. 

Roughly 50 migrants were staying in the lower level of the Harold Washington Library Center, the city’s flagship location downtown during the cold snap, according to people staying there. Migrants, including those who came in on their own to avoid the cold, were living with others facing homelessness. According to the city’s tally, 5 migrants at the library site were on lists for shelters. An Associated Press reporter was not allowed inside. 

Angel Alberto Chourio, 30, slept there over the weekend, saying he was trying to figure out his next steps. He and a friend arrived from Venezuela last year. The promise of work out of state didn’t pan out, so they came back to Chicago recently. Without any place else to go, they came to the library. 

He said Wednesday that he was nervous about the shelter stay limits and was not on a waiting list for one. 

“We are not used to this. The cold is too much, since it is already below zero,” he said, looking for a silver lining. “At least they give one a chance to continue living.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/frigid-weather-compounds-chicago-s-struggles-to-house-asylum-seekers-/7444829.html Save to Pocket

Water Commission Presents Drought Strategies

date: 2024-01-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The California Water Commission today approved a white paper that contains potential strategies to protect communities and fish and wildlife in the event of drought

https://scvnews.com/water-commission-presents-statewide-strategies-for-protecting-communities-fish-wildlife-during-drought/ Save to Pocket

Biden Convenes Top Congressional Leaders to Discuss Ukraine Aid, US Border Deal

date: 2024-01-18, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden convened top congressional leaders at the White House to underscore Ukraine’s security needs, a meeting that comes at a pivotal time as senators narrow on a landmark immigration deal that could unlock $110 billion in stalled aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies.

But Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans used the face-to-face moment with Biden to push him for tougher border security measures, with the speaker telling the president that Republican lawmakers were demanding “substantive policy change” and insisting that the White House’s executive actions on immigration had weakened the border.

“We understand that there’s concern about the safety, security and sovereignty of Ukraine,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting, which ran for more than an hour. “But the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our safety and our security.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also speaking to reporters after the meeting, stressed that Biden has repeatedly said he is willing to compromise on certain border measures and that any effort in a divided Congress must be bipartisan. House Republicans have insisted on passage of a hard-line border security measure that has no Democratic support on Capitol Hill.

“There was a large amount of agreement around the table that we must do Ukraine, and we must do border,” he said.

The White House called the meeting with lawmakers — including Johnson, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell — to brief them on Ukraine’s current need for weapons and other aid, which the White House described as “desperate” and “urgent.”

By populating the meeting with national security leaders, the meeting was expected to impress on the new speaker the importance of the aid package and the current U.S. approach to world affairs. The Republicans in the room, even Johnson, are largely supportive of aiding Ukraine but have stressed to the White House that it will need significant border-security measures in return to persuade the large swath of rank-and-file Republican lawmakers skeptical about sending more funds abroad.

“He’s willing to hear what these congressional members want to talk about, but the purpose of this meeting is to talk about Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said ahead of the mid-afternoon gathering, which was held in the Cabinet Room.

Key time to convene

Biden is convening the lawmakers at the start of an election year when border security and the wars abroad are punctuating the race for the White House as he faces a potential rematch against Republican Donald Trump with control of the presidency and Congress all at stake.

It comes as Congress is about to quickly approve temporary funding to avoid a government shutdown — postponing the annual spending battles — but as the supplemental aid package sits undone during the immigration and border talks.

Biden, a longtime leader in U.S. foreign policy, finds himself confronting a new generation of Republican lawmakers who have little interest in engaging abroad or supporting vast American military aid or actions around the world.

Led by Trump, the former president who is the Republicans’ front-runner for the nomination, a growing number of the Republicans in Congress are particularly hostile to helping Ukraine fight Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who along with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met this week with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Davos, Switzerland, said Washington is determined to keep supporting Ukraine, and “we’re working very closely with Congress in order to do that.”

Ahead of the meeting, McConnell announced the package could be ready for a vote as soon as next week, and Schumer sounded a similarly optimistic note — though negotiations continue.

Senators develop border proposal

Johnson, since taking the gavel in October, signaled he personally believes in supporting Ukraine as it works to expel Russia. He met privately with Zelenskyy during the Ukrainian president’s whirlwind tour of Washington last month seeking aid before the year-end holidays.

But the speaker leads an ambivalent House Republican majority that wants to extract its own priorities on the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for any overseas support.

The speaker has insisted any border security deal must align with the House-passed strict border security bill. He told lawmakers in a private meeting over the weekend that they could probably get their priorities enacted with a Republican president, though the speaker did not mean that to preclude not taking action now, said a Republican leadership aide familiar with the call.

But senators, even fellow Republicans, said the House approach is a nonstarter that would never find the bipartisan backing in both chambers needed for approval.

Instead, a core group of senators led by Republican James Lankford has been meeting privately for weeks with Biden’s top advisers — including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — to develop a border security package that could actually be signed into law.

Lankford told reporters late Tuesday that he hopes to prepare bill text as negotiations try to wrap up soon.

McConnell told Republican senators privately last week they should take the deal Lankford is producing, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the closed meeting.

“This is a unique moment in time,” said the Number 2 Republican John Thune.

“It’s an opportunity to get some really conservative border policy that we haven’t been able to get for 40 years,” he said. “And so we’ll see. I mean, it may or may not happen, but I think you got to take a run at it.”

Senator ‘hopeful’

The broader security package includes about $60 billion for Ukraine, which is mainly used to purchase U.S. weaponry to fight the war and to shore up its own government operations, along with some $14.5 billion for Israel, about $14 billion for border security, and additional funds for other security needs.

Biden opened the door to a broader U.S.-Mexico border security package late last year and the changes being discussed could be difficult for some Democrats who oppose strict restrictions on immigration.

Schumer said negotiations over the border security package have made progress in recent weeks and he was “hopeful that things are headed in the right direction.”

Schumer said he expects the meeting with Biden will reinforce that the national security package is urgent and “any agreement on an issue as complex and contentious as the border is going to have to have support from both sides of the aisle.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-convenes-top-congressional-leaders-to-discuss-ukraine-aid-us-border-deal-/7444452.html Save to Pocket

Do users write more insecure code with AI assistants?

date: 2024-01-18, from: OS News

AI code assistants have emerged as powerful tools that can aid in the software development life-cycle and can improve developer productivity. Unfortunately, such assistants have also been found to produce insecure code in lab environments, raising significant concerns about their usage in practice. In this paper, we conduct a user study to examine how users interact with AI code assistants to solve a variety of security related tasks. Overall, we find that participants who had access to an AI assistant wrote significantly less secure code than those without access to an assistant. Participants with access to an AI assistant were also more likely to believe they wrote secure code, suggesting that such tools may lead users to be overconfident about security flaws in their code. To better inform the design of future AI-based code assistants, we release our user-study apparatus and anonymized data to researchers seeking to build on our work at this link. ↫ Neil Perry, Megha Srivastava, Deepak Kumar, and Dan Boneh I’m surprised somewhat randomly copying other people’s code into your program – violating their licenses, to boot – leads to crappier code. Who knew!

https://www.osnews.com/story/138370/do-users-write-more-insecure-code-with-ai-assistants/ Save to Pocket

Sheriff’s Office Releases Name of Santa Maria Man Fatally Shot by Deputies

date: 2024-01-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office also named the deputies involved in the shooting of the allegedly armed suspect following an hours-long standoff.

The post Sheriff’s Office Releases Name of Santa Maria Man Fatally Shot by Deputies appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/sheriffs-office-releases-name-of-santa-maria-man-fatally-shot-by-deputies/ Save to Pocket

Letters: Pacifica Pier | Shifting costs | ‘Bidenomics’ contradicted | Trump opposition

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Mercury News Letters to the Editor for Jan. 18, 2024

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/letters-1571/ Save to Pocket

California health officials shorten COVID isolation guidance as infections peak

date: 2024-01-18, from: San Jose Mercury News

Under new guidance schools are advising that students who test positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms can continue to come to school if they wear masks indoors for 10 days after testing positive.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/california-health-officials-shorten-covid-isolation-guidance-as-infections-peak/ Save to Pocket

SCVEDC 2023 Annual Report Highlights

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

After 13 years of collaborative efforts within the community, the work of the Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation continues to be crucial to the region’s growth

https://scvnews.com/2023-scvedc-annual-report/ Save to Pocket

From 0 to 1 MB in DOS

date: 2024-01-17, from: OS News

Since the last article on the text-based IDEs of old, I’ve been meaning to write about the GCC port to DOS, namely DJGPP. As I worked on the draft for that topic, I realized that there is a ton of ground to cover to set the stage so I took most of the content on memory management out and wrote this separate post. This article is a deep dive on how DOS had to pull out tricks maximize the use of the very limited 1 MB address space of the 8086. Those tricks could exist because of the features later introduced by the 80286 and the 80386, but these were just clutches to paper over the fact that DOS could not leverage the real improvements provided by protected mode. ↫ Julio Merino The DOS memory story is a string of hacks upon hacks that somehow managed to work – and that still work today.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138367/from-0-to-1-mb-in-dos/ Save to Pocket

Apple, AMD, Qualcomm GPU security hole lets miscreants snoop on AI training and chats

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

So much for isolation

A design flaw in GPU drivers made by Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, and likely Imagination can be exploited by miscreants on a shared system to snoop on fellow users.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/leftoverlocals_gpu_flaw/ Save to Pocket

May 9: Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center Presents Blues Traveler

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Enjoy the sounds of blues at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center, as it presents Blues Travelers. 

https://scvnews.com/may-9-santa-clarita-performing-arts-center-presents-blues-traveler/ Save to Pocket

King Tides Reveal Increased Beach Erosion

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

Rising sea levels can cause the waves to reach farther ashore, causing more erosion.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/king-tides-reveal-increased-beach-erosion Save to Pocket

Father, Christmas: A reconstructed wardrobe of migration

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

As the temperatures drop in Southern California, I walk the frigid boulevard and find my thoughts rising and entwining with my frosty breath. The moon slung low and my hands wedged firmly in my pocket clasping my phone. Dreading the sporadically scheduled phone call to my aging father. The calls are few and far between…

https://sundial.csun.edu/177866/opinions/father-christmas-a-reconstructed-wardrobe-of-migration/ Save to Pocket

Inspired by an Oppenheimer screening, NY Times congressional correspondent Catie Edmondson chased…

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043798-inspired-by-an-oppenheime Save to Pocket

Hyundai and Kia Know the Secret to Selling Electric Cars

date: 2024-01-17, from: Heatmap News

America’s electric car market has a new champion. The automaking alliance of Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Motors is now the second biggest seller of electric cars in the United States, according to new data released last week by Bloomberg BNEF.

The two companies sold more than 117,000 electric vehicles in the United States last year, or about 8% of all new EVs nationwide, according to the research firm. Only Tesla, the industry’s longtime leader, sold more electric cars: It still commands about half of U.S. market share.

The two companies’ success is an encouraging sign in what was more broadly a weird year for the EV market. Scarcely more than a year ago, the public’s demand for electric cars overwhelmed available inventory, and dealers were selling every EV they could get their hands on.

But as gas prices have fallen, the growth in EV sales in the United States has slowed, and the market has gotten more uneven. Tesla, looking to shore up its market position, launched a price war last year that juiced sales but cut deep into its profits. Ford and General Motors, meanwhile, are suffering anemic sales and cutting back on their short-term EV plans.

Amid this patchy landscape, Hyundai and Kia’s growth stands out. While the two companies are technically independent, Hyundai owns about a third of Kia Motors, and they collaborate on vehicle design, engineering, and manufacturing. They also use the same vehicle “platforms,” a common set of parts that can be used across models.

Since the news came out last week, I’ve seen climate people on Twitter and elsewhere try to explain why it’s happening. Many of these explanations conform to the views that the urban, progressive climate commentariat already hold about the car market. Look, Hyundai and Kia are winning because they’re making smaller cars, not behemoth SUVs.

But the answer, while not quite the opposite, doesn’t line up with what many might wish. In fact, Hyundai and Kia are dominating the EV market right now by churning out a mostly unbroken stream of crossover and SUVs. All but one of their electric cars qualifies as an SUV or crossover; all of their plug-in hybrids are SUVs. It is this commitment to repetition — to giving the consumer a lot of choices on a central theme — that sets their product lines apart right now.

You can see the importance of this by looking at their models in more depth. Take the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6, for instance, which have led EV sales at the two brands and which are built on the same platform. Each is an electrified take on the type of car that, for years now, Americans haven’t been able to get enough of: the compact crossover SUV. The Ioniq 5 and EV6 each have two rows of seating and 25 cubic feet of trunk space. They drive more or less like a car, sit high on the road like an SUV, and fall in the broad category of cars that — as a friend’s wife puts it — looks like a fist with its thumb stuck out.

The Ioniq 5 and EV6 are also really, really similar to the Mustang Mach E, Ford’s attempt at an electric crossover. In fact, if you look only at specs, they’re basically the same car. All three have the same length and width and take up about 95 square feet of road space. All three have five seats. All three have roughly the same size trunk, although the Ford’s is maybe slightly bigger. And all three have an entry-level model starting at about $42,000 — although the lowest trim Ford has slightly more range and horsepower, and costs about a grand more.

As you might expect from those specs, the Mach E narrowly outsold the Ioniq 5 and EV6 in the United States last year. Ford sold more than 40,000 Mach Es in 2023, while Hyundai moved nearly 34,000 Ioniq 5s and Kia sold 19,000 EV6s. But here’s the thing: The Mach E did not outsell the Ioniq 5 and EV6 combined. And unlike Ford, which only sells one electric SUV, Hyundai and Kia continued to flood the zone with SUV options for consumers.

How many options? Hyundai sold plug-in versions of its Tuscon and Santa Fe SUVs. Kia sold an electric version of its subcompact Niro SUV and a plug-in hybrid version of its Sportage SUV. And even though Kia only started selling its new three-row SUV, the EV9, in December, it had already delivered more than 1,000 of them by the end of the year.

In fact, only one electric car from Hyundai-Kia — the new Ioniq 6 — was designed like a traditional sedan. But it made up only around 8% of the alliance’s total sales. Hyundai and Kia achieved their commanding position by giving Americans what they want: a seemingly endless stream of SUVs and crossovers.

Now, it matters here that Kia and Hyundai are two different companies, so there is some automatic duplication in their product lines. It might never make sense for Ford or GM to sell cars as similar as the EV6 and Ioniq 5. But if we’re being honest, their SUV lineups are already pretty duplicative: Do most consumers understand the difference between a Ford Edge and a Ford Escape? There’s no reason Ford couldn’t add an Escape EV to its lineup — something a little smaller and a little cheaper. That’s exactly what Kia does with the EV Niro, after all.

It helps, too, that lots of Kia and Hyundai’s cars look like great deals for consumers. Many of their key offerings hover in the high $30,000s to mid $40,000s, seemingly the sweet spot for new family cars today. Even though Hyundai and Kia’s cars don’t qualify for the new EV tax credit, Americans can use the $7,500 federal tax credit if they lease a vehicle instead.

Hyundai especially has used this credit — and a creative mix of rebates and low-interest-rate offers — to bring down the monthly payment for consumers. (Nearly half of new Ioniq 5s are leased, according to BNEF, which is a much higher rate than normal for Hyundai’s cars.)

Finally, it helps that Kia and especially Hyundai are making more interesting-looking vehicles than any other automaker right now. Compared to the staid peoplemover that is, say, the Volkswagen ID.4, the Ioniq 5 is striking, novel, and seems to push EV design forward. Its pixelated taillights are unlike anything else on the road, and it’s an extremely charismatic vehicle to drive; it’s just a better product, overall, than other cars out there.

And that might be the most important lesson behind Hyundai and Kia’s success. For the past few decades, decarbonization advocates have gotten used to thinking about electric cars primarily as a market abstraction: Are they cheap? Are they available? Are they growing as a sector? But as the EV transition continues, we are going to have to think about them more as products, as specific tools that can improve someone’s life by their presence. The EV companies that ultimately win will make better products than their competitors — cars that bring together capability, design, and price in a special way. Right now, Hyundai and Kia are pushing to the front of that race.

https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/hyundai-motor-group-kia-motors-ioniq-5-ev-6 Save to Pocket

Newsom Sides with Parents’ Rights Groups to Defend Youth Tackle Football

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Assembly has until the end of January to decide the fate of the youth tackle football bill, which would prevent kids under 12 from playing the sport to protect them from brain trauma.

The post Newsom Sides with Parents’ Rights Groups to Defend Youth Tackle Football appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/newsom-sides-with-parents-rights-groups-to-defend-youth-tackle-football/ Save to Pocket

Apple Set to Collect $73 Million in Legal Fees From Epic Games

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://twitter.com/games_fray/status/1747504304695484810?s=20 Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Today’s Olbermann is worth a listen, esp the first part where he talks about political reporters vs sports reporters. Politics is a lot simpler than most sports, and they repeat themselves for years even decades, yet the sports reporters manage. Not all of them, there are plenty of empty-headed sports reporters. But there are also some very insightful ones. It makes all the the difference. In New York basketball we’re blessed with two of the best. Mike Breen and Walt Frazier. I’d listen even if I gave up hope on the Knicks, which believe me, I have done many many many times. Also Olbermann says that Dolan, the owner of the Knicks, is a schmuck. He got that right. But somehow this time he managed to hire an exec who has some kind of a clue.

http://scripting.com/2024/01/17.html#a223707 Save to Pocket

Valencia boys’ soccer comes back against Saugus

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Down a goal with 57 minutes left, Valencia Vikings boys’ soccer stormed back into the game at Saugus.  The Vikings netted the equalizer in the second half thanks to a header from junior Nico Hovsepian. It was Hovsepian’s second goal of the day off of a throw-in from Kenneth Yoo.  Valencia never felt satisfied with […]

The post <strong>Valencia boys’ soccer comes back against Saugus</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/valencia-boys-soccer-comes-back-against-saugus/ Save to Pocket

Fess Parker Winery Kicks Off 35th Anniversary Year in a Big Way

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The “Big Bottle Bash” at Fess Parker Winery in Los Olivos featured large-format library wines.

The post Fess Parker Winery Kicks Off 35th Anniversary Year in a Big Way appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/fess-parker-winery-kicks-off-35th-anniversary-year-in-a-big-way/ Save to Pocket

The 30th Anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The Northridge earthquake, a 6.7 magnitude quake that was the costliest earthquake disaster in the history of the United States, rocked the Santa Clarita Valley 30 years ago on Jan. 17,

https://scvnews.com/the-30th-anniversary-of-the-northridge-earthquake-jan-17/ Save to Pocket

Lilbits: A “breadboard phone,” Wine 9.0 released, and the future of Amazon’s Alexa

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

Generative AI is more conversational and responsive than the software that powered early voice assistant software like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. But it’s also a lot more expensive to run, due to the amount of processing power required by the servers that make things tick. Meanwhile Amazon, which was one of the companies that […]

The post Lilbits: A “breadboard phone,” Wine 9.0 released, and the future of Amazon’s Alexa appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/lilbits-a-breadboard-phone-wine-9-0-released-and-the-future-of-amazons-alexa/ Save to Pocket

LA Expands RV Parking Bans To Parts Of West LA And Coastal Neighborhoods

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The new restrictions will affect more than a dozen streets in neighborhoods like Venice, Playa Vista, and Westchester.

https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/la-expands-rv-parking-bans-to-parts-of-west-la-and-coastal-neighborhoods Save to Pocket

Gathering Ice for a Hot Mongolian Breakfast

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/gathering-ice-for-a-hot-mongolian-breakfast Save to Pocket

iLEAD students complete postflight analysis of space station experiments

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

News release   While their classmates were on winter break, teams of students from three area tuition-free public charter schools gathered in the science lab at Santa Clarita Valley International Charter School on Dec. 30 to open packages sent to them from space.   As part of their recent DreamUp to Space missions, the students, representing […]

The post iLEAD students complete postflight analysis of space station experiments appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/ilead-students-complete-postflight-analysis-of-space-station-experiments/ Save to Pocket

Saugus girls’ soccer blanks Valencia

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

“Probably the goal of the season.”  Saugus coach Kai English was amazed yet again by his senior Sophia Ruys after her goal that beat the Valencia Vikings on Tuesday.   Ruys’ score was the only goal of the game and it came early. Junior Makenna Blum stole the ball at midfield and set up Ruys for […]

The post <strong>Saugus girls’ soccer blanks Valencia </strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/saugus-girls-soccer-blanks-valencia/ Save to Pocket

★ Coming to Grips With Apple’s Seemingly Unshakable Sense of Entitlement to Its Commissions From Third-Party iOS Apps

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

No matter what the sport, no matter what the letter of the rulebook says, it’s never a good idea to piss off the refs.

https://daringfireball.net/2024/01/coming_to_grips_with_apples_seemingly_unshakable_sense_of_app_store_entitlement Save to Pocket

Full Belly Files | Emerging from the Holidaze

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

A rundown of my end-of-year eats & drinks; plus, the first 2023 wine reviewed; my TV pilot wins award; and stories you may have missed.

The post Full Belly Files | Emerging from the Holidaze appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/full-belly-files-emerging-from-the-holidaze/ Save to Pocket

Facial recognition tech has outpaced US law – and don’t expect the Feds to catch up

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Let’s be realistic: If the EU can’t regulate it well, America definitely won’t

Comment  If anything could compel the US government to regulate facial-recognition technology, a report sponsored by federal law enforcement urging just that may do the trick. …

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/face_recognition_tech_us/ Save to Pocket

Bike Protestors for Hamas

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The bike protesters supporting Hamas would feel differently if they had experienced what Israelis have experienced.

The post Bike Protestors for Hamas appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/bike-protestors-for-hamas/ Save to Pocket

Jan 18: Circle K Offers Gas Up To 40 Cents Off Per Gallon

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Circle K will offer 40 cents off per gallon of fuel between 4 and 7 p.m. local time tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 18 during Circle K Fuel Day Pop-Up and 50% off on car washes all day at over 200 participating Circle K locations including Los Angeles. 

https://scvnews.com/circle-k-offering-gas-up-to-40-cent-off-per-gallon/ Save to Pocket

Hotel development implodes in Bay Area and California due to economy: new report

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Hotel development and new openings have cratered in the Bay Area and throughout California.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/hotel-real-estate-bay-area-san-jose-oakland-tech-economy-build-buy/ Save to Pocket

The South Is Smashing Electricity Records in the Dead of Winter

date: 2024-01-17, from: Heatmap News

America’s largest public power company just set a new record. The Tennessee Valley Authority said consumers used around 34,500 megawatts of electricity on Wednesday morning, about 1,000 megawatts more than its previous all-time record of around 33,500 megawatts in August 2007.

While the cold weather across much of the country has strained many power grids, especially those in the South where electric heating is more common, it’s noteworthy that TVA not only broke its winter record, but it’s all-time record as well. By contrast, the market that covers 90% of Texas, ERCOT, set a winter demand record earlier this week, but its overall record is still from this past summer.

Much of the area around the Tennessee Valley served by the Authority have seen persistent low temperatures over the past few days. Nashville has a forecast high of 30 degrees Wednesday and has gotten as cold as -1 degree Fahrenheit, only the second time the city has experienced below-zero temperatures since 1996, according to the National Weather Service.

And cold temperatures mean more electricity usage. Like much of the region, Tennesseans largely heat their homes using electricity as opposed to fuel oil or natural gas.

“Heavy snow and bitter cold temperatures are creating record high demand for electricity across the Southeast region,” the TVA said in a warning released Tuesday, asking its customers to reduce their electricity consumption from 6 am to 10 am. Similar warnings were issued by ERCOT, which also serves millions of households who heat their homes via electricity. The cold snap is expected to last through the weekend.

And like in Texas, the amount of power TVA is called upon to provide has grown as the region it serves has seen its population and economy grow.

While TVA has a relatively modest solar portfolio compared to the large and growing amounts of wind and solar in Texas, the TVA can still struggle with cold mornings. Some of this is due to what solar power it does have not being available, but it’s largely because of the nature of electricity demand in the winter. On cold days, it is especially chilly in the morning, when people are trying to heat their homes between waking up and going to work or school. By contrast, summer afternoons and early evenings are tough for grids to manage because temperatures stay high even as the sun goes down and people return to their homes and cool them and start operating appliances.

TVA’s generation mix is almost unique within the United States in that much of it is non-carbon-emitting but with relatively little wind or solar. About 60% of its power comes from carbon-free sources, which are nearly entirely its three nuclear plants and its iconic dams.

https://heatmap.news/sparks/tennessee-valley-authority-record-electricity-ercot-texas Save to Pocket

Swift Protocol Requirement Quirks

date: 2024-01-17, from: Michael Tsai

Jesse Squires: A handful of protocol witness mismatches are currently allowed:Non-failable initializers can satisfy failable initializer protocol requirements (as I encountered above)Non-throwing functions can satisfy throwing function protocol requirementsNon-escaping closure parameters can satisfy @escaping protocol requirementsGeneric functions can satisfy non-generic protocol requirementsNon-mutating functions can satisfy mutating protocol requirementsEnum cases can satisfy static function protocol requirementsSynchronous […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/01/17/swift-protocol-requirement-quirks/ Save to Pocket

ScreenFloat 2

date: 2024-01-17, from: Michael Tsai

Matthias Gansrigler (Mastodon): ScreenFloat powers up your screenshots by allowing you to take screenshots and recordings that float above everything else, keeping certain information always in sight. I’ve known about this app for a long time, but I’d never used it or thought much about it because the description doesn’t speak to me. I just […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/01/17/screenfloat-2/ Save to Pocket

Game Mode in Sonoma

date: 2024-01-17, from: Michael Tsai

Andrew Cunningham: Sonoma brings two more features that point to Apple’s newfound seriousness about gaming on the Mac. The first is Game Mode. It’s analogous to a Windows 11 feature of the exact same name, and they’re functionally similar in that they both promise to deprioritize background tasks to keep games running smoothly.Apple’s version of […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/01/17/game-mode-in-sonoma/ Save to Pocket

The companies behind 6 and 7 screen mobile workstations have gone out of business

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

Dual-screen laptops may be all the rage these days, with Lenovo and Asus both introducing models designed to be used as a laptop, tablet, or something in between. But why stop there? A few years ago Expansys introduced a 7-screen laptop, and last year MediaWorkstation unveiled a 6-display workstation PC that’s not exactly a laptop, […]

The post The companies behind 6 and 7 screen mobile workstations have gone out of business appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/the-companies-behind-6-and-7-screen-mobile-workstations-have-gone-out-of-business/ Save to Pocket

The Marshall Star for January 17, 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

‘Be King’: Team Redstone Invites All to Honor Civil Rights Icon’s Legacy By Jessica Barnett Several accomplished speakers took to the stage Jan. 11 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to share how Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy helped shape their lives. The event was hosted by Marshall’s ODEO (Office of Diversity and […]

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-january-17-2024/ Save to Pocket

Authorities Release Identity of Santa Barbara Man Killed in Head-on Truck Crash at Gaviota

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Thomas McGregor, 25, died January 5 when his pickup collided with a semi-truck on the southbound 101.

The post Authorities Release Identity of Santa Barbara Man Killed in Head-on Truck Crash at Gaviota appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/authorities-release-identity-of-santa-barbara-man-killed-in-head-on-truck-crash-at-gaviota/ Save to Pocket

Kurtenbach: Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojević dead at 46 — “Decky” embodied what is great about the game

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Dejan Milojević, who died Wednesday at the age of 46, was a great player back in the day. He turned out to be an even better coach.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/kurtenbach-warriors-assistant-coach-dejan-milojevic-dead-at-46-decky-embodied-what-is-great-about-the-game/ Save to Pocket

Photos: Northern Calif. mansion featured in HBO series hits auction block

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The Queen Anne-Victorian style property in Mendocino County was featured in the series “Sharp Objects.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/photos-northern-calif-mansion-featured-in-hbo-series-hits-auction-block/ Save to Pocket

Google introduces Google Takeout API

date: 2024-01-17, from: OS News

Google has detailed more of the changes it’s implementing to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. We already covered the changes to linked services, but Google is also changing how results related to shopping and booking results are displayed. We will introduce dedicated units that include a group of links to comparison sites from across the web, and query shortcuts at the top of the search page to help people refine their search, including by focusing results just on comparison sites. For categories like hotels, we will also start testing a dedicated space for comparison sites and direct suppliers to show more detailed individual results including images, star ratings and more. These changes will result in the removal of some features from the search page, such as the Google Flights unit. ↫ Oliver Bethell Google is also releasing its promised Google Takeout API, allowing developers to programmatically deal with users wanting to take their data out of Google to another service. This one in particular I’m interested in, since I’m curious if, say, a competing email service will make it easier and automatic to move away from Gmail.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138364/google-introduces-google-takeout-api/ Save to Pocket

An organized retail crime theft ring attempted to commit 25 robberies in a two-month period, authorities say

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The crime ring also invaded a store in San Diego and stole two ATM machines, authorities said.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/an-organized-retail-crime-theft-ring-attempted-to-commit-25-robberies-in-a-two-month-period-authorities-say/ Save to Pocket

Now you get free coffee when you take the San Francisco Bay Ferry

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The ferry service has added free coffee to its snack bars, in a promotion to benefit local food banks.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/now-you-get-free-coffee-when-you-take-the-san-francisco-bay-ferry/ Save to Pocket

Ruffle: an open source Flash Player emulator

date: 2024-01-17, from: OS News

Made to run natively on all modern operating systems and browsers, Ruffle brings Flash content back to life with no extra fuss. ↫ Ruffle website It’s using Rust and WASM, making it supposedly safer than the real Flash PLayer ever was, and of course, it’s open source too. Their most recent progress report details just how far along this project already is.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138350/ruffle-an-open-source-flash-player-emulator/ Save to Pocket

Works by Picasso, Rembrandt Damaged in Seattle Gallery Fire

date: 2024-01-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Davidson Galleries had been preparing to move to a new location, so some of its works were especially vulnerable to smoke damage

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/works-by-picasso-rembrant-may-have-been-damaged-in-seattle-art-gallery-blaze-180983611/ Save to Pocket

Ryan’s Got News

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Our news reporter Ryan P. Cruz is always at council meetings, covering courts and crime, or reporting on community updates

The post Ryan’s Got News appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/ryans-got-news/ Save to Pocket

Photos: stuffed animal sleepover

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Children, parents and stuffed animals gathered to watch magician Arty Loon and have a stuffed animal sleepover at the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library on Tuesday.

The post Photos: stuffed animal sleepover appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/photos-stuffed-animal-sleepover/ Save to Pocket

‘Know to Say No’ Anti-Trafficking Campaign

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

In the course of her work, Adela Estrada has interfaced with and supported hundreds of children and youth of all genders, ranging in age from nine to 21, who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation or sex trafficking

https://scvnews.com/children-and-family-services-begins-know-to-say-no-anti-trafficking-campaign/ Save to Pocket

NASA Sets Briefings for Crew-8, International Space Station Missions

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

NASA will host a pair of news conferences Thursday, Jan. 25, from the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to highlight upcoming crew rotation missions to the International Space Station. A mission overview news conference will begin at 1 p.m. EST and cover NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission to the microgravity laboratory and Expeditions 70/71. A […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-briefings-for-crew-8-international-space-station-missions/ Save to Pocket

Correction: Tribal Chairwoman runs for 18th district seat

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

In an article published on Friday, Jan. 12, a quote from Rep. Zoe Lofrgren erroneously stated that Congress had never overturned a determination on tribal recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana were granted federal tribal recognition by Congress as part of an amendment to […]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/correction-tribal-chairwoman-runs-for-18th-district-seat/ Save to Pocket

Carbajal’s Charade

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Regarding Congressmember Carbajal’s co-sponsorship of a House resolution for a humanitarian pause in Gaza, a pause is merely a few days of relief before Israel drops another 2,000-pound bomb on orphans foraging for food.

The post Carbajal’s Charade appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/carbajals-charade/ Save to Pocket

High school boys soccer rankings Jan. 17, 2024: Bay Area News Group Top 15

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Mountain View (12-1) takes over No. 1 spot. Carlmont, Granada, Bishop O’Dowd climb into Top 5.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/high-school-boys-soccer-rankings-jan-17-2024-bay-area-news-group-top-15/ Save to Pocket

High school girls soccer rankings Jan. 17, 2024: Bay Area News Group Top 15

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

High school soccer: Berkeley jumps into the Top 3, Palo Alto and Presentation join the rankings

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/high-school-girls-soccer-rankings-jan-17-2024-bay-area-news-group-top-15/ Save to Pocket

Poetry Connection | Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Our Poet Laureate reflects on the lasting impact of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle’s life.

The post Poetry Connection | Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Sojourner Kincaid Rolle appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/poetry-connection-celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-sojourner-kincaid-rolle/ Save to Pocket

Maine Court Puts Trump Ballot Decision on Hold Until After US Supreme Court Acts

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

Washington — A Maine court on Wednesday ordered the state’s top election official to reevaluate a decision to bar former President Donald Trump from the Republican primary ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a related case from Colorado. 

State Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy found that the Supreme Court’s decision to take the Colorado case “changes everything about the order in which these issues should be decided and by which court.” 

The judge ordered Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows, a Democrat, to reassess her decision to bar Trump from the ballot within 30 days after the Supreme Court rules. 

In December, Bellows determined that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was ineligible to hold office again under a provision in the U.S. Constitution that bars people who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office. 

Depending on the sweep of its ruling in the Colorado case, the U.S. Supreme Court could resolve the issue nationwide in the coming weeks, with oral arguments scheduled for February 8. 

Maine and Colorado are so far the only two states to disqualify Trump under the constitutional provision, known as Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Both states have put their decisions on hold while Trump appeals. 

Courts and election officials in several other states have rejected similar ballot challenges to Trump’s candidacy.

https://www.voanews.com/a/maine-court-puts-trump-ballot-decision-on-hold-until-after-us-supreme-court-acts/7444251.html Save to Pocket

Kate Middleton’s 2-week hospital stay after abdominal surgery sparks concerns about her condition

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The announcement about the Princess of Wales’ surgery, lengthy hospital stay and two- to -three month recovery time ‘came out of nowhere,’ one report said.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/kate-middletons-2-week-hospital-stay-after-abdominal-surgery-sparks-concerns-about-her-condition/ Save to Pocket

IBM scraps rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Big Blue staffers aren’t pleased to lose out on potential bonuses

Exclusive  IBM has canceled a program that rewarded inventors at Big Blue for patents or publications, leaving some angry that they are missing out on potential bonuses.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/ibm_inventor_reward_program/ Save to Pocket

Bay Area arts: 12 cool shows to see this weekend and beyond

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

From an intimate portrait of legendary playwright August Wilson to SketchFest SF, Randy Rainbow and lots more comedy, there are a tom of great shows to see in the Bay Area.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/bay-area-arts-11-cool-shows-to-see-this-weekend-and-beyond/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-01-17, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Images on the command line, getting started with Joseph:

https://blog.la-terminal.net/images-on-the-command-line/

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111773086620737102 Save to Pocket

CSUN Professor’s Work Included in ‘Best American Short Stories of 2023’

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The short story chronicling what happens next, “Supernova” by Kosiso Ugwueze, an assistant professor of English at California State University, Northridge, has been included in “The Best American Short Stories 2023,”

https://scvnews.com/csun-professors-work-included-in-best-american-short-stories-of-2023/ Save to Pocket

@Ayjay blog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Ayjay blog)

DHH is exactly right: Apple has become too powerful, and with that power has come a sense of entitlement, and with that sense of entitlement has come a shortsighted pettiness and vindictiveness. I don’t want to support such a company, in part because I don’t have the bandwidth to go full Linux at the moment, […]

https://blog.ayjay.org/45933-2/ Save to Pocket

Doomed Lunar Lander Will Burn Up in Earth’s Atmosphere on Thursday

date: 2024-01-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Astrobotic, the company in charge of the mission, says its Peregrine spacecraft will not reach the moon, and burning it will ensure the lander doesn’t end up as space debris

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/doomed-lunar-lander-will-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-thursday-180983609/ Save to Pocket

The Markup Wins Philip Meyer Journalism Award

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Markup blog

The award honors the best uses of social science research methods in journalism

https://themarkup.org/inside-the-markup/2024/01/17/the-markup-wins-philip-meyer-journalism-award Save to Pocket

Santa Barbara Women’s March Returns This Saturday

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

A rally and vigil at De la Guerra Plaza on January 20 will be followed by a march “to take a stand against the assault on women’s rights and democracy.”

The post Santa Barbara Women’s March Returns This Saturday appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/santa-barbara-womens-march-returns-this-saturday/ Save to Pocket

Asus Fanless Chromebox CF40 is a small, quiet ChromeOS desktop with Intel Celeron N4500 Jasper Lake

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

The Asus Fanless Chromebox CF40 is a compact computer with an aluminum chassis, a fanless design, support for up to three 4K displays, WiFi 6, and Gigabit Ethernet. When Asus first unveiled its 2024 mini PC lineup earlier this month, the company didn’t have much to say about its newest Chromebox, other than that it was […]

The post Asus Fanless Chromebox CF40 is a small, quiet ChromeOS desktop with Intel Celeron N4500 Jasper Lake appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/asus-fanless-chromebox-cf40-is-a-small-quiet-chromeos-desktop-with-intel-celeron-n4500-jasper-lake/ Save to Pocket

An Aurora in Another Light

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, over western Canada at 3:23 a.m. MST (5:23 a.m. EST) on November 5, 2023. Auroras are colorful ribbons of light appearing in night skies, incited by a strong geomagnetic storm in Earth’s magnetosphere. Multiple […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/an-aurora-in-another-light/ Save to Pocket

ChipWits: The Robot Coding Game

date: 2024-01-17, from: Tilde.news

Comments

https://chipwits.com/ Save to Pocket

The Frozen Colors of Winter

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/the-frozen-colors-of-winter Save to Pocket

Blinken Stranded After Davos By Boeing, His Old Client

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Lever News

The Secretary of State previously advised the airline manufacturer; on his return from the World Economic Forum, he ran into one of its troubled 737 planes.

https://www.levernews.com/blinken-stranded-after-davos-by-boeing-his-old-client/ Save to Pocket

“Just an idea” Event Types

date: 2024-01-17, from: Chris Coyier blog

Maggie Appleton thinks there should be Speculative Calendar Events. I don’t want to add them as real events. Because they are not real events. They are speculative possibilities of events. The majority of them won’t be filled, and having both speculative and real events looking and behaving like the same type of thing is messy […]

https://chriscoyier.net/2024/01/17/just-an-idea-event-types/ Save to Pocket

New York City Music Festival Gives Voice to Ukrainian Resistance

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

At an international music festival in New York City, a Ukrainian-Canadian band sings songs about strength and resisting the Russian invasion. The band, Balaklava Blues, is one of 10 groups from all over the world performing at Globalfest. Joti Rekhi reports from New York City. Camera: Nick Jastrzebski

https://www.voanews.com/a/music-festival-in-new-york-city-gives-voice-to-ukrainian-resistance/7444150.html Save to Pocket

US Lawmakers Push for Limits on American Investment in China Tech

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

Capitol Hill — U.S. lawmakers renewed calls Wednesday to pass bipartisan legislation that would restrict American investment in Chinese technology.

“It should come as no surprise that China’s military and surveillance state are exploiting loopholes in U.S. policy to access billions of U.S. investment dollars and expertise. We know that U.S. investment has not democratized China and countries which are controlled by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] have no power over the applications of their technology. The CCP can direct it to us for military or surveillance purposes,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said at a hearing on the legislation Wednesday. 

The bill – which has support from both conservative organizations and the Biden administration – was not included in the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA passed late last year. Republican Senator John Cornyn has sponsored companion legislation in the U.S. Senate that passed with more than ninety votes. 

Lawmakers hope it can still be passed individually and signed into law.  

If passed, McCaul said the measure, H.R. 6349, would target “specific technology sectors, like AI [artificial intelligence] and quantum computing, that are empowering China’s military development and surveillance.” 

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said an executive order issued by the Biden administration last August “that calls for provisions and notification requirements of specific types of American investments in China, or in certain companies that develop or produce semiconductors, quantum computers, and artificial intelligence applications” is an important first step. 

But experts in U.S.-China relations told a House panel more could be done. 

“Congress has an opportunity to build on the initial steps taken by the Trump and Biden administrations to prevent U.S. capital from fueling China’s military and intelligence capabilities. First, Washington should take a sectoral rather than merely an entity-based approach. The Treasury Department has demonstrated since at least 2021 that it is disinterested in using even its existing narrow authorities to limit investment in Chinese military-linked companies. And in fairness to the Treasury Department tackling the problem on a company-by-company basis would be a resource-intensive and gargantuan task,” Matthew Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser during the Trump administration, said Wednesday. 

“We still haven’t learned that they will do everything they can to take anything we sell, particularly in the area of electronics and really high tech, and use it for the military. They’ve been doing that for decades. We don’t learn. We think somehow if you trade more, they’ll matriculate from dictatorship to democracy,” Republican Rep. Chris Smith said Wednesday.

The bipartisan push in the U.S. House comes as Senate negotiators continue work on the White House’s $106 billion national security supplemental request that includes funding to combat Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. Citing a border security crisis, Senate Republicans have sought changes to U.S. immigration law in return for their votes to pass more than $50 billion in assistance to Ukraine that is also part of the Biden administration’s request. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged lawmakers Wednesday to reach an agreement soon. 

“It’s become quite fashionable in Washington to talk about how we’re not taking competition with China seriously enough,” McConnell said. “Winning this competition means credibly deterring Beijing’s worst impulses, which, for us, means investing in American strength. Outcompeting the PRC [People’s Republic of China] will require greater investments in our military capabilities and in our industrial capacity to produce them. The West cannot be caught unprepared for this challenge. We cannot afford to neglect the lessons of history.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-lawmakers-push-for-limits-on-american-investment-in-china-tech/7444165.html Save to Pocket

Forgotten Tudor Wall Paintings Discovered in a Cambridge University Loft Space

date: 2024-01-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Unseen for nearly 300 years, the art resurfaced during restorations at Christ’s College

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tudor-wall-paintings-resurface-at-a-cambridge-college-after-300-years-180983588/ Save to Pocket

Whistler Blackcomb might not be a ski resort in another few decades….

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043794-whistler-blackcomb-might- Save to Pocket

Robot Team Builds High-Performance Digital Structure for NASA

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

Greater than the sum of its parts: NASA tests the capability of a system that includes simple robots, structural building blocks, and smart algorithms to build functional, high-performance large-scale structures, ultimately enabling autonomous deep-space infrastructure.

https://www.nasa.gov/general/robot-team-builds-high-performance-digital-structure-for-nasa/ Save to Pocket

The Search for a High Seas Solution

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: RAND blog

While Western military action against the Houthis has increased, the Red Sea crisis is sailing through opaque waters. Short-term military action might help with the immediate crisis, but shipping routes will remain vulnerable unless the world recognizes its exposure to threats and cooperates to defend them.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/01/the-search-for-a-high-seas-solution.html Save to Pocket

Judge threatens to boot Trump from court over loud talking

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that Trump could be heard “loudly saying things that are false” as he sat at the defense table, frequently tilting back in his chair and leaning over to converse with lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/judge-threatens-to-boot-trump-from-court-over-loud-talking/ Save to Pocket

What would a second Trump presidency look like for health care?

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Health policy during Trump’s tenure was dominated by Covid-19 and a failed effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/what-would-a-second-trump-presidency-look-like-for-health-care/ Save to Pocket

What to watch: ‘Origin’ is uniquely brilliant and riveting

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Ava DuVernay’s masterful ‘Origin’ and the Nazi-themed ‘Zone of Interest’ are unique, compelling films and playing in Bay Area theaters.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/what-to-watch-origin-is-uniquely-brilliant-and-riveting/ Save to Pocket

Northern California community trapped without power after rain washes out roads

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

“There’s like 20-, 30-foot canyons where the road used to be,” said one resident of Redwood Valley.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/northern-california-community-trapped-without-power-after-rain-washes-out-roads/ Save to Pocket

Samsung Galaxy S24 series brings Galaxy AI features, 7 years of software updates

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

Samsung’s newest flagship smartphones pack premium features like AMOLED displays with 120 Hz refresh rates, high-quality camera systems, and speedy processors. But that’s not really enough to make a phone that stands out these days. So Samsung is introducing some big new software features rather than just focusing on hardware. The Galaxy S24 will be […]

The post Samsung Galaxy S24 series brings Galaxy AI features, 7 years of software updates appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/samsung-galaxy-s24-series-brings-galaxy-ai-features-7-years-of-software-updates/ Save to Pocket

Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tails? Scientists Examine the Endearing Behavior

date: 2024-01-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Dogs communicate through tail-wagging, and humans may have selected for the trait during domestication

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-do-dogs-wag-their-tails-180983608/ Save to Pocket

Fistful of Films, Big Screened

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Taking stock of a handful of recent movies on the big screen.

The post Fistful of Films, Big Screened appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/fistful-of-films-big-screened/ Save to Pocket

SCV Sheriff’s Station: No serious injuries in collision near Canyon High  

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

A Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station official said there were no major injuries reported after a vehicle struck a student near Canyon High School at around 8:48 a.m. Wednesday.   A high school student was hit by a car, but was not seriously hurt in the collision, according to Sgt. Sherry Clark of the SCV Sheriff’s […]

The post SCV Sheriff’s Station: No serious injuries in collision near Canyon High   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/scv-sheriffs-station-no-serious-injuries-in-collision-near-canyon-high/ Save to Pocket

San Jose Sharks to retire Joe Thornton’s No. 19 next season

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

NHL: Joe Thornton No. 19 to be raised to the rafters at SAP Center next season

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-jose-sharks-to-retire-joe-thorntons-no-19/ Save to Pocket

Corporations Are Not To Be Loved

date: 2024-01-17, from: Innessential (Brint Simmons’ blog)

I started using Apple computers — and writing code for them, starting with BASIC — 43 years ago, before the Macintosh, even, and I’ve made this my career. I’ve had all these decades to really, thoroughly delight in these incredible machines and software, and to give a little back with my own apps.

Apple’s positive effect on my life should not be underestimated. My Mom once (lovingly, teasingly) said to me that my alternate career, had all this never happened, was “criminal genius.” Which might have been fun too, but possibly more stressful than I might have liked. At any rate, Apple has saved me from a life of crime, and I should love Apple for that.

But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions.

Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.

Luckily, Apple has just provided us all with a reminder. Just like the sixth finger in an AI-rendered hand, Apple’s policies for Distributing apps in the U.S. that provide an external purchase link are startlingly graceless and a jarring, but not surprising, reminder that Apple is not a real person and not worthy of your love.

https://inessential.com/2024/01/17/corporations_are_not_to_be_loved Save to Pocket

Family says Antioch homicide victim was loving father, friendly neighbor

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

An online fundraiser for the family raised more than $10,000 by Wednesday morning.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/family-says-antioch-homicide-victim-was-loving-father-friendly-neighbor/ Save to Pocket

What are life insurance living benefits?

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Life insurance living benefits provide extra financial security while you’re still alive, but they come at a cost.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/what-are-life-insurance-living-benefits/ Save to Pocket

Newsom Sides With Parents’ Rights Groups To Defend Youth Tackle Football

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The Assembly has until the end of January to decide the fate of the youth tackle football bill, which would prevent kids under 12 from playing the sport to protect them from brain trauma.

https://laist.com/news/politics/newsom-sides-with-parents-rights-groups-to-defend-youth-tackle-football Save to Pocket

Researchers confirm what we already knew: Google results really are getting worse

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

‘Search engines seem to lose the cat-and-mouse game that is SEO spam,’ says study

Updated  No, it’s not just you - search engine results really are getting worse as the internet is flooded with low-effort garbage from SEO farms and affiliate link sites, a group of German researchers has concluded. …

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_search_results_spam/ Save to Pocket

San Jose city council supports Israel-Hamas ceasefire in letter — but won’t pass resolution

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and all ten city councilmembers have signed onto a statement that urges the U.S. government to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-jose-city-council-supports-israel-hamas-ceasefire-in-letter-but-wont-pass-resolution/ Save to Pocket

Democracy! The Animation!

date: 2024-01-17, from: Margaret Atwood’s substack

Is it a hot air balloon?

https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/democracy-the-animation Save to Pocket

Flickr Commons celebrated its 16th birthday with 16 stories about some of…

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043795-flickr-commons-celebrated Save to Pocket

Great Name, Terrible Shipping

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/01/17/great-name-terrible-shipping/ Save to Pocket

Retro Programming (2017)

date: 2024-01-17, from: Tilde.news

Comments

http://www.retroprogramming.com Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-01-17, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

With the US backing for this bloodbath, there is no end in sight.

Our entire government has outsourced their vote to their handlers at AIPAC.

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111772605203896829 Save to Pocket

One of the Bay Area’s biggest bands has something cool in store for fans

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Green Day fans really won’t want to miss the East Bay band’s upcoming Saviors Tour, featuring Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid and the Linda Lindas.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/one-of-the-bay-areas-biggest-bands-has-something-cool-in-store-for-fans/ Save to Pocket

Best Online Slots in 2024: Top Real Money Slot Sites with High RTPs (Update)

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

We’ve rounded up the leading slots sites online. Read our review of the best real money slot sites with the highest payout percentages and exciting games.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/best-online-slots/ Save to Pocket

Getting ‘Left-of-Launch’ in the Counter-Drone Fight

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: RAND blog

The democratization of drone technology means that adversaries are now able to conduct attacks with near impunity. The Houthis’ recent drone attacks in the Red Sea show that America’s current approach to countering them is not working. A holistic, offensive strategy is needed.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/01/getting-left-of-launch-in-the-counter-drone-fight.html Save to Pocket

20 Years After Landing: How NASA’s Twin Rovers Changed Mars Science

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

This month marks the 20th anniversary of Spirit and Opportunity’s landing on Mars, part of a mission whose legacy will extend far into the future. In January 2004, twin NASA rovers named Spirit and Opportunity touched down on opposite sides of Mars, kicking off a new era of interplanetary robotic exploration. They arrived in dramatic […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mer/20-years-after-landing-how-nasas-twin-rovers-changed-mars-science/ Save to Pocket

Open House This Wednesday for Proposed 642-Unit Housing Project at La Cumbre Plaza

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The proposal marks perhaps the biggest private redevelopment project proposed in Santa Barbara’s modern history.

The post Open House This Wednesday for Proposed 642-Unit Housing Project at La Cumbre Plaza appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/open-house-this-wednesday-for-proposed-642-unit-housing-project-at-la-cumbre-plaza/ Save to Pocket

Chip wars could lead to oversupply as China increases domestic capacity

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Middle Kingdom can make market moves too… as potential global price battles loom

China’s chip manufacturing capacity is expected to more than double within the next 5 to 7 years, according to TrendForce, and this could lead to a market oversupply that would spell trouble for semiconductor companies elsewhere.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/chip_wars_china_oversupply/ Save to Pocket

Economy, Immigration Weigh on US Voters in Presidential Election Year

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

The health of the economy often plays a big role in how Americans vote in general elections, including for the next president. This year, there are early signs that other issues are equally important to people as they prepare to cast their ballots in November. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story from Washington.

https://www.voanews.com/a/economy-immigration-weigh-on-us-voters-in-presidential-election-year-/7443946.html Save to Pocket

The Artifact news app (by the Instagram founders) is shutting down because…

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043791-the-artifact-news-app-by Save to Pocket

Judge Threatens Trump With Expulsion From Defamation Trial

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Wednesday threatened to expel former U.S. President Donald Trump from a civil trial after he repeatedly made side comments disparaging the testimony of his accuser, writer E. Jean Carroll. 

Carroll is seeking damages from Trump, whom she accuses of defaming her after she accused him of sexually abusing her decades ago. 

Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump that his right to be at the trial would be revoked if he continued to ignore warnings to keep his comments to his lawyers quieter and out of earshot of the nine-member jury. 

But after an initial warning, Carroll’s lawyer said Trump could still be heard making remarks to his lawyers, including “it is a witch hunt” and “it really is a con job.” 

Kaplan, after excusing the jury for lunch, said, “Mr. Trump, I hope I don’t have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you’re probably eager for me to do that.” 

“I would love it,” Trump shot back, shrugging as he sat between lawyers Alina Habba and Michael Madaio at the defense table. 

“I know you would like it. You just can’t control yourself in this circumstance, apparently,” Kaplan responded. 

“You can’t either,” Trump muttered. 

The exchange came after Carroll lawyer Shawn Crowley complained for a second time that Trump could be heard “loudly saying things that are false” as he sat at the defense table.

Kaplan said, “I’m just going to ask that Mr. Trump take special care to keep his voice down when conferring with counsel to make sure the jury does not hear it.” 

The jury was seated less than 4 meters from where Trump was sitting. 

Trump was particularly incensed that Kaplan refused to call off the proceedings on Thursday so Trump could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral in Florida and not miss any of the courtroom testimony. 

Before Carroll resumed her testimony after lunch, Trump’s lawyers asked for Kaplan to recuse himself from the case because of “general hostility” toward the former president. 

“Denied,” Kaplan said in a one-word response. 

Carroll, now 80, has alleged that Trump decades ago sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf-Goodman department store and then defamed her by denying the attack occurred and saying that he did not know who she was. Carroll was a long-time advice columnist for Elle magazine at the time of the alleged assault. 

A New York jury last year awarded Carroll $5 million in ruling that Trump sexually abused her and that he defamed Carroll in 2022 comments he made while denying the attack occurred and saying that she was “not my type.” 

Carroll testified, “It means I’m too ugly to assault.” 

An excerpt of Trump’s October 2022 deposition released by U.S. District Court for Southern New York included an exchange wherein Trump mistook a photo of Carroll for his ex-wife, Marla Maples. 

In the current case, Kaplan has ruled that the facts of the alleged attack are already established by the earlier verdict and that the jury’s only decision is whether to award further damages, $10 million or more, because of 2019 remarks Trump made about Carroll while he was president. 

As Trump watched from the defense table Wednesday, Carroll told the jurors, “I’m here because Donald Trump assaulted me and when I wrote about it, he said it never happened. He lied and shattered my reputation.” 

Once, Carroll testified, she was a respected advice columnist. “Now, I’m known as the liar, the fraud and the whack job.” 

Trump has made repeated disparaging comments about Carroll on his Truth Social platform in recent days leading up the trial. 

Carroll testified, “He has continued to lie. He lied last month. He lied on Sunday. He lied yesterday.” 

While attending the trial in New York, Trump, the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential campaign, has shuttled back and forth between the courtroom and campaign appearances in the northeastern state of New Hampshire, where the first U.S. party primary election is set for next Tuesday.

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-sex-abuse-accuser-testifies-ex-president-shattered-her-reputation-/7443914.html Save to Pocket

GUSTO Balloon Mission Maintains Course Circling Antarctic Skies

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

High above the icy landscape of Earth’s southernmost continent, the Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) scientific balloon mission has been afloat for more than 15 days since its launch from McMurdo, Antarctica, on Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. local time (Dec. 31, 1:30 a.m. EST). GUSTO is mapping a large portion of the Milky Way […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gusto-balloon-mission-maintains-course-circling-antarctic-skies/ Save to Pocket

NASA Study: More Greenland Ice Lost Than Previously Estimated

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

A new, comprehensive analysis of satellite data finds that majority of glaciers on the landmass have retreated significantly. The Greenland Ice Sheet has shed about one-fifth more ice mass in the past four decades than previously estimated, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California reported in a new paper. The majority of glaciers […]

https://www.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/ice-glaciers/nasa-study-more-greenland-ice-lost-than-previously-estimated/ Save to Pocket

Michael Thorpe Studies Sediment from Source to Sink

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

Sedimentary and planetary geologist Michael Thorpe finds the stories rocks have to tell, those on Earth and those from Mars.

https://www.nasa.gov/people-of-nasa/goddard-people/michael-thorpe-studies-sediment-from-source-to-sink/ Save to Pocket

Can solar power be beamed down from space? Yes. Is it commercially viable? Not yet

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Caltech looks back on the highs and lows of the SSPD-1 project

A year after the launch of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is revealing the highs and lows of the mission.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/highs_and_lows_of_sspd_1/ Save to Pocket

Frore’s AirJet Mini Slim is a smaller, lighter solid state cooling module for PCs and mobile devices

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

A big part of what makes modern computers tick are the cooling systems that keep the CPU, GPU, and other hardware from overheating and slowing down or burning out. Most PCs solve this with a combination of heat sinks and spinning fans, which can cause their own problems like noise and dust buildup. Most phones […]

The post Frore’s AirJet Mini Slim is a smaller, lighter solid state cooling module for PCs and mobile devices appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/frores-airjet-mini-slim-is-a-smaller-lighter-solid-state-cooling-module-for-pcs-and-mobile-devices/ Save to Pocket

Sea Center on Stearns Wharf Offers Free Admission for Underwater Parks Day Festival

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

SANTA BARBARA, CA—The Sea Center on Stearns Wharf is offering free admission to its Underwater Parks Day Festival on Saturday, January 20, 2024 with

The post Sea Center on Stearns Wharf Offers Free Admission for Underwater Parks Day Festival appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/17/sea-center-on-stearns-wharf-offers-free-admission-for-underwater-parks-day-festival/ Save to Pocket

The Thrill of College Basketball: More Than Just a Game

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

In the realm of sports, college basketball holds a unique position, embodying a blend of youthful energy, community spirit, and pure athletic talent. Unlike its professional counterpart, college basketball is often celebrated for its raw emotion, intense rivalries, and the sense of unity it brings to campuses across the United States. This article delves into […]

The post <strong>The Thrill of College Basketball: More Than Just a Game</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/the-thrill-of-college-basketball-more-than-just-a-game/ Save to Pocket

The Last Repair Shop

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/the-last-repair-shop Save to Pocket

Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojević hospitalized in Salt Lake City

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic hospitalized after medical emergency at a restaurant

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/warriors-assistant-coach-dejan-milojevic-hospitalized-in-salt-lake-city/ Save to Pocket

Young people are giving up on BBC News. A new podcast is helping try to get them back

date: 2024-01-17, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

We all know the direction of travel, even if we don’t know the stats off by heart: Legacy media hasn’t figured out how to give young people what they want. And it doesn’t really get more “legacy media” than the 101-year-old, publicly funded British Broadcasting Corporation.  Here are some of those unsurprising but nonetheless grim…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/young-people-are-giving-up-on-bbc-news-a-new-podcast-is-helping-try-to-get-them-back/ Save to Pocket

JetBlue and Spirit’s merger is not cleared for takeoff

date: 2024-01-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report

A federal judge has blocked JetBlue’s efforts to purchase Spirit Airlines. The Justice Department had filed an antitrust lawsuit, saying the merger would eliminate a low-cost carrier that has been keeping airfares down. Also on the show: We all spent a lot in December, the market for super shoes is running hot, and China’s economic recovery looks shaky.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/jetblue-and-spirits-merger-is-not-cleared-for-takeoff Save to Pocket

How The New York Times is building experimental handwriting recognition for its crosswords app

date: 2024-01-17, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

As part of MakerWeek 2023, The New York Times’ annual hackathon, iOS and Android mobile engineers explored the ability to write in The New York Times Crosswords app on each respective platform. As an Android engineer who participated in the experiment, I’m excited to share my platform specific experience implementing on-device ML onto the Android…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/how-the-new-york-times-is-building-experimental-handwriting-recognition-for-its-crosswords-app/ Save to Pocket

How inside information gave 49ers a head start on preparing for Packers, Jordan Love

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The 49ers’ defense is preparing for a Green Bay offensive system that they see in practice with regularity.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/how-inside-information-gave-49ers-a-head-start-on-preparing-for-packers-jordan-love/ Save to Pocket

NVMe consortium polishes its specs to support computational storage

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Tech to shift storage to compute has so far failed to catch on in a big way

The NVM Express consortium has updated its specifications by adding a Computational Storage Feature, creating a standardized way for applications to talk to storage devices that include some processing capability.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/nvme_specs_get_an_update/ Save to Pocket

Signs that you need a technical writer

date: 2024-01-17, from: Blog by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti

Soon after publishing Tips for hiring your first technical writer, some readers kindly suggested to follow up with a post covering the previous step in the tech writing journey, that is, the realization that one needs a technical writer. As there seems to be a strong appetite for this kind of content, I’m going to spend some words to list what I think are the most egregious signs that your team, company, or product requires a technical writer (or a tech writing team).

https://passo.uno/signs-need-tech-writer/ Save to Pocket

NASA’s Roman to Search for Signs of Dark Matter Clumps

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

Some of the finest, smallest details in the universe – the gaps between elongated groups of stars – may soon help astronomers reveal dark matter in greater detail than ever before. After NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches, by May 2027, researchers will use its images to explore what exists between looping tendrils of stars that are pulled […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/roman-space-telescope/nasas-roman-to-search-for-signs-of-dark-matter-clumps/ Save to Pocket

iOS apps can now offer external payment links, but Apple’s rules make it very, very unappealing

date: 2024-01-17, from: Liliputing

This week the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals in the Epic v. Apple anti-trust case that’s been underway for the past few years regarding the company’s App Store. That means lower court rulings stand, and that Apple does not have to allow users to sideload apps that aren’t available from the Play Store or […]

The post iOS apps can now offer external payment links, but Apple’s rules make it very, very unappealing appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/ios-apps-can-now-offer-external-payment-links-but-apples-rules-make-it-very-very-unappealing/ Save to Pocket

‘Student Should Have a Healthy-Looking BMI’: How Universities Bend Over Backwards to Accommodate Food Delivery Robots

date: 2024-01-17, from: 404 Media Group

Internal emails show how universities make nonsentient, profit-seeking Starship robots feel comfortable on campus.

https://www.404media.co/student-should-have-a-healthy-looking-bmi-how-universities-bend-over-backwards-to-accommodate-starship-food-delivery-robots/ Save to Pocket

Real estate deal collapses for vast ranch on pristine San Jose land

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

China-based Z&L Properties had agreed to sell the ranch, on some 3,654 acres of pristine hills, but the deal fell through.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-jose-real-estate-buy-land-china-ranch-build-home-house-develop/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Bluesky has launched RSS feeds.

https://openrss.org/blog/bluesky-has-launched-rss-feeds Save to Pocket

Um, Burt’s Bees has teamed up with Hidden Valley Ranch to sell…

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043792-um-burts-bees-has-teamed Save to Pocket

Could immutability be a Leap too far for openSUSE users?

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Update on Linux distro’s next major version heralds big changes ahead

The future of openSUSE is firming up, but possibly not in the direction that existing users of the distro will enjoy.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/opensuse_confirms_leap_16/ Save to Pocket

US Redesignates Yemen’s Houthis as Major Terror Group

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — The United States is cracking down on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, redesignating them as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group following weeks of missile and drone attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The move came nearly three years after the Houthis were first designated as a terror group and then subsequently delisted because of humanitarian concerns, and it followed repeated demands from the U.S. and other countries for the Houthis to stop firing on commercial shipping.  

But the demands have been ignored, and attacks have continued despite a series of airstrikes by the U.S. and Britain, aimed at taking out radar systems and launch sites used in the attacks.

“We cannot sit idly by and watch what the Houthis are doing in the Red Sea and not recognize their actions for what they are,” a senior U.S. administration official told reporters, briefing the condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.

“These attacks fit the textbook definition of terrorism,” a second official said, likewise speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They have endangered U.S. personnel, civilian mariners and our partners, jeopardized global trade and threatened freedom of navigation.”

U.S. officials point to about 30 attacks from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen since mid-November, impacting citizens, cargo and vessels from more than 50 countries.

Officials have also said that since the attacks started, some 2,000 ships have been diverted thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea. Additionally, Houthi militants have threatened or taken hostage mariners from more than 20 countries.

On Tuesday, the U.S. for the first time carried out a series of preemptive strikes, destroying four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles before they could be launched.

That followed two waves of U.S. and British strikes last week against more than 60 targets in 16 locations across Houthi-controlled Yemen.

Houthi officials Wednesday described the U.S. designation as an attempt at “blackmail.”

“Whoever fails with aggression will certainly fail with a decision [of designation],” Houthi media official Abdul-Rahman Al-Ahnumi said in an interview with Reuters.

“The decision came at this time after Britain and America launched a military aggression against Yemen and failed to achieve the same goal, which is to dissuade Yemen from its position,” Al-Ahnumi said. “It is also an attempt to dissuade Yemen from its position supporting Palestine and Gaza.” 

But in separate statements Wednesday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the Houthi attacks “unprecedented.”

“This designation is an important tool to impede terrorist funding to the Houthis, further restrict their access to financial markets,” Sullivan said.

“The Houthis must be held accountable for their actions,” Blinken said.

Several U.S. officials, though, left open the possibility the designation could be revoked if the attacks cease.

“The ultimate goal of sanctions is to convince the Houthis to de-escalate and bring about a positive change in behavior,” one of the senior administration officials who briefed on the condition of anonymity told reporters. “If the Houthis cease their attacks, we can consider delisting designation.”

But the official added the U.S. is taking steps to ensure that the designation does not harm efforts to help Yemen’s civilian population, where the United Nations estimates 24 million people are at risk of starvation.

The re-designation of the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group will not go into effect for 30 days, “to allow us to ensure robust humanitarian carve-outs are in place,” the official said.

The official also said commercial shipments to Yemen of for food, medicine and fuel would not be affected by the sanctions.

The designation, however, will block the ability of the Houthis to access the U.S. financial system and paves the way for other sanctions and law enforcement actions against the group.

U.S. officials said the ability to ensure to continuation of humanitarian aid played a role in the decision to label the Houthis with the SDGT designation.

They said designating the Houthis with the harsher Foreign Terrorist Organization, or FTO, label would require additional sanctions that could ensnare aid organizations trying to provide relief for Yemen’s civilians.

“We found in our conversations with groups that are providing humanitarian aid in Yemen that an FTO designation ran the risk of having a deterrent effect on some of those aid groups continuing to provide aid, worried that they might be charged as providing material support to a terrorist organization,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday.

“So, when weighing those options, we decided that the SDGT designation gave us the tools to deny the Houthis access to the financial system, and gave us the tools to impose additional actions, additional sanctions, on anyone who does business with the Houthis, while minimizing some of the downstream harm to Yemeni civilians,” he said.

Some aid groups, though, have already raised concerns that the SDGT designation will hurt more than it helps.

“Even with carve-outs, there is likely to be a serious chilling effect,” the International Rescue Committee’s Anastasia Moran said in a statement. “We are concerned some private sector actors, including food importers and banks facilitating transactions for humanitarian organizations, may choose to disengage altogether.”

In contrast, some U.S. lawmakers are warning the SDGT designation does not go far enough.

“Designating the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist only applies sanctions and avoids taking any real action,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner said in a statement. “It’s time to lead and protect and call them what they are — a Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen specialist at the University of Cambridge in Britain, cautioned that regardless of the type of terrorist designation, the impact on the Houthis was likely to be minimal.

“Houthi hardliners and leaders will see this as a badge of honor and continue business as usual,” she told VOA via email.

“They will not be the ones to suffer,” she added. “The war economy is booming and has enriched many powerful figures. The smuggling trade may even prove more lucrative following the designation.”

There are also questions about how the new designation will affect countries like Iran that have been supplying the Houthis.

“They [Houthis] currently use IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] funding, training and weapons to destabilize Yemen and engage in terrorist activities or terrorism that affects the region,” said a third senior administration official in response to a question from VOA.

“So, we will continue to also counter Iranian malign influence wherever we can,” the official said. “Of course, the choice to move away from Iran is now in the hands of the Houthis.”

The U.S. first designated the Houthis, also known as Ansarallah, as both an SDGT and a FTO during the last days of President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2021.

According to a statement by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the move was intended “to hold Ansarallah accountable for its terrorist acts, including cross-border attacks threatening civilian populations, infrastructure and commercial shipping.”

But the designation was revoked about a month later under current U.S. President Joe Biden, with officials citing the need to get humanitarian aid into Yemen to prevent a possible famine.

“This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time. “By focusing on alleviating the humanitarian situation in Yemen, we hope the Yemeni parties can also focus on engaging in dialogue.”

The White House on Wednesday defended its decision to remove the terror designation for the Houthis, despite the need to redesignate them now.

“A big reason why we delisted them literally on day one was to address a dire, dire humanitarian situation on the ground,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. 

The Pentagon on Wednesday said the decision to designate the Houthis would not affect military operations in the region.

White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters and The Associated Press.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-re-designates-yemen-s-houthis-as-a-major-terror-group/7443801.html Save to Pocket

Man caught throwing rocks at cars from Campbell overpass

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Police investigating similar incidents over last few months.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/man-caught-throwing-rocks-at-cars-from-campbell-overpass/ Save to Pocket

The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community

date: 2024-01-17, from: Quanta Magazine

The post The Quest for Simple Rules to Build a Microbial Community first appeared on Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-quest-for-simple-rules-to-build-a-microbial-community-20240117/ Save to Pocket

California foreclosure filings climb 41% off pandemic era lows

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

California’s 32,905 foreclosure filings in 2023 was No. 2 among the states.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/california-foreclosure-filings-climb-41-off-pandemic-era-lows/ Save to Pocket

@Ayjay blog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Ayjay blog)

Jaroslav Pelikan:  Origen may … have been the first church father to study Hebrew, “in opposition to the spirit of his time and of his people,” as Jerome says; according to Eusebius, he “learned it thoroughly,” but there is reason to doubt the accuracy of this report. Jerome, however, was rightly celebrated as “a trilingual […]

https://blog.ayjay.org/45921-2/ Save to Pocket

This Distant Exoplanet Has a 350,000-Mile-Long Tail, Like a Comet

date: 2024-01-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine

A stream of particles flung from the planet’s star is causing its atmosphere to boil away and lose 200,000 tons of mass per second

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-distant-exoplanet-has-350000-mile-long-tail-like-comet-180983597/ Save to Pocket

Looking back at 2023

date: 2024-01-17, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog

Looking back at 2023

We played at least 65 games in 2023 on the Grenzland Discord server! Some more were played offline. But those 65 games were open tables in one form or another.

I played in 11 of these games and I ran 31 of them.

“Play Games 🤝 Run Games”

Of games I ran:

On the German ADDCON Server I ran:

I also played in two sessions by @settembrini and one session by the @ghoul.

All in all, for the games I played in:

#RPG #Life

2024-01-16. Got more numbers from the ADDKON Server:

@settembrini writes:

27 Mal Miesbohl geleitet, davon zu Beginn das Froschgottkloster, dann das Zeughaus des Elementaren Bösen und gaanz viel Brennglob.

The ghoul writes:

Ich habe nur 9× Lakedonia geleitet in 2023.

Blut & Glas writes:

Ich habe 1× (in Worten: ein mal) Narkwoll geleitet^^

Taco Jr. writes:

Ich habe 1× Alt Kattun geleitet 🫣

Elder Thing writes:

Ich habe 2023 2× Schutzheim geleitet!

https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-01-01-looking-back Save to Pocket

What’s worse than paying an extortion bot that auto-pwned your database?

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Paying one that lied to you and only saved the first 20 rows of each table

Publicly exposed PostgreSQL and MySQL databases with weak passwords are being autonomously wiped out by a malicious extortion bot – one that marks who pays up and who is not getting their data back.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/extortion_bot_is_autopwning_postgresql/ Save to Pocket

Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles, Surfboards

date: 2024-01-17, from: NASA breaking news

Researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like surfboards and pool noodles – and are rarely round, like volleyballs or frisbees. “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we studied appear to be flattened in two dimensions,” explained lead author […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-shows-many-early-galaxies-looked-like-pool-noodles-surfboards/ Save to Pocket

Huh, Rob Reiner is doing a sequel to This Is Spinal Tap…

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043785-huh-rob-reiner-is-doing Save to Pocket

San Francisco homicide: Man shot in Mission Bay

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

The shooting was reported at 12:07 a.m. in the 100 block of Berry Street, across Third Street from Oracle Park.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/san-francisco-homicide-man-shot-in-mission-bay/ Save to Pocket

Princess of Wales Kate Middleton in hospital after undergoing abdominal surgery

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Catherine, Princess of Wales, will spend up to two weeks recovering in hospital after successfully undergoing abdominal surgery.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/princess-of-wales-kate-middleton-in-hospital-after-undergoing-abdominal-surgery/ Save to Pocket

How I got $146.19 in free food and drink from Bay Area restaurants for my birthday

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Here’s how our hungry reporter saved nearly $150 with birthday deals from Jamba Juice, Red Robin, McDonald’s and 12 other chain restaurants.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/how-i-got-146-19-in-free-food-and-drink-from-bay-area-restaurants-for-my-birthday/ Save to Pocket

AI investment still at the planning stage through 2024, Gartner says

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Imagined impact of GenAI on GDP is over-optimistic, analyst firm says

Gartner thinks the ever-expanding GenAI ecosystem is being hyped with real customer deployments not emerging in earnest until next year.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/ai_investment_gartner_tech_spending/ Save to Pocket

A Golden State Killer movie with Vincent Gallo and James Franco? Yes, of course there’s controversy

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

It may come as no surprise to many that a film about the crimes of serial killer and rapist Joseph DeAngelo, starring two polarizing Hollywood actors, could be mired in questions about its treatment of female actors.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/a-golden-state-killer-movie-with-vincent-gallo-and-james-franco-who-thought-the-world-needed-this/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Notes on the archive element in the source namespace. It’s important that we share our ideas and collaborate, and listen and ask the right people to help. Manton was asking why weren’t his ideas on archiving incorporated in other people’s work, it’s the same concern I have, why didn’t we work together on this Manton? Two heads are better than one in things like this. I think Automattic may be the place to get together on this. Esp since they are the market leader now in this area. What they do, right off the bat, has to be supported everywhere, so we want them to do a good job. 😄

http://scripting.com/2024/01/17.html#a142928 Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

I got the help I needed yesterday, pointing me in the right direction wrt APIs for ChatGPT. I’m ready to try some ideas out once I get to a stopping point on my current project. Can’t wait to try out these ideas.

http://scripting.com/2024/01/17.html#a142706 Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

ChatGPT is like having a programming partner you can try ideas out on, or ask for alternative approaches, and they’re always there, and not too busy to help out. They know everything you don’t know and need to know, and rarely hallucinate (you have to check the work, same as with a human btw). It’s remarkable how much it is like having an ideal human programming partner. It’s the kind of helper I aspire to be.

http://scripting.com/2024/01/17.html#a142417 Save to Pocket

Groundbreaking South Bay politician receives lifetime achievement award at MLK Day luncheon

date: 2024-01-17, from: San Jose Mercury News

Former Santa Clara County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado says she’s honored to receive an award named for Iola Williams, her late colleague on the San Jose City Council in the 1980s.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/17/groundbreaking-politician-receives-lifetime-achievement-award-at-mlk-day-luncheon/ Save to Pocket

Pluralistic: The super-rich got that way through monopolies (17 Jan 2024)

date: 2024-01-17, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog

Today’s links The super-rich got that way through monopolies: A report in honor of Davos. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading The super-rich got that way through monopolies (permalink) Just in time for Davos, here’s ‘Taken, not earned: How monopolists drive the world’s power and wealth divide,” a report from a coalition of international tax justice and anti-corporate activist groups: https://www.balancedeconomy.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Davos-Taken-not-Earned-full-Report-2024-FINAL.pdf Everyone – even the World Economic Forum – says that wealth inequality is a serious problem, corroding our politics and our social cohesion. What this report does is link that inequality to monopolies, which produce the billionaires who are wrecking the world. The rise of monopolies over the past 40 years came about as the result of specific, deliberate policy choices. As the report documents, the wealthiest people in America funneled a fortune into neutering antitrust enforcement, through the “consumer welfare” doctrine. This is an economic theory that equates monopolies with efficiency: “If everyone is buying the same things from the same store, that tells you the store is doing something right, not something criminal.” 40 years ago, and ever since, the wealthy have funded think-tanks, university programs and even “continuing education” programs for federal judges to push this line: https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down They didn’t do this for ideological reasons – they were chasing material goals. Monopolies produce vast profits, and those profits produce vast wealth. The rise and rise of the super rich cannot be decoupled from the rise and rise of monopolies. If you’re new to this, you might think that “monopoly” only refers to a sector in which there is only one seller. But that’s not what economists mean when they talk about monopolies and monopolization: for them, a monopoly is a company with power. Economists who talk about monopolies mean companies that “can act independently without needing to consider the responses of competitors, customers, workers, or even governments.” One way to measure that power is through markups (“the difference between the selling price of goods or services and their cost”). Very large companies in concentrated industries have very high markups, and they’re getting higher. From 2017-22, the 20 largest companies in the world had average markups of 50%. The 100 largest companies average 43%. The smallest half of companies get average markups of 25%. Those markups rose steeply during the covid lockdowns – and so did the wealth of the billionaires who own them. Tech billionaires – Bezos, Brin and Page, Gates and Ballmer – all made their fortunes from monopolies. Warren Buffet is a proud monopolist who says “the single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power… if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business.” We are living in the age of the monopoly. In the 1930s, the top 0.1% of US companies accounted for less than half of America’s GDP. Today, it’s 90%. And it’s accelerating, with global mergers climbing from 2,676 in 1985 to 62,000 in 2021. Monopoly’s cheerleaders claim that these numbers vindicate them. Monopolies are so efficient that everyone wants to create them. Those efficiencies can be seen in the markups monopolies can charge, and the profits they can make. If a monopoly has a 50% markup, that’s just the “efficiency of scale.” But what is the actual shape of this “efficiency?” How is it manifest? The report’s authors answer this with one word: power. Monopolists have the power “to extract wealth from, to restrict the freedoms of, and to manipulate or steer the vastly larger numbers of losers.” They establish themselves as gatekeepers and create chokepoints that they can use to raise prices paid by their customers and lower the payout to their suppliers: https://chokepointcapitalism.com/ These chokepoints let monopolies usurp “one of the ultimate prerogatives of state power: taxation.” Amazon sellers pay a 51% tax to sell on the platform. App Store suppliers pay a 30% tax on every dollar they make with their apps. That translates into higher costs. Consider a good that costs $10 to make: the bottom 50% of companies (by size) would charge $12.50 for that product on average. The largest companies would charge $15. Thus monopolies don’t just make their owners richer – they make everyone else poorer, too. This power to set prices is behind the greedflation (or, more politely, “seller’s inflation”). The CEOs of the largest companies in the world keep getting on investor calls and bragging about this: https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power The food system is incredibly monopolistic. The Cargill family own the largest commodity trader in the world, which is how they built up a family fortune worth $43b. Cargill is one of the “ABCD” companies (“Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus”) that control the world’s food supply, and they tripled their profits during the lockdown. Monopolies gouge everyone – even governments. Pfizer charged the NHS £18-22/shot for vaccines that cost £5/shot to make. They took the British government for £2bn – that’s enough to pay last year’s pay hike for NHS nurses, six times over, But monopolies also abuse their suppliers, especially their employees. All over the world, competition authorities are uncovering “wage fixing” and “no poaching” agreements among large firms, who collude to put a cap on what workers in their sector can earn. Unions report workers having their pay determined by algorithms. Bosses lock employees in with noncompetes and huge repayment bills for “training”: https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose Monopolies corrupt our governments. Companies with huge markups can spend some of that money on lobbying. The 20 largest companies in the world spend more than €155m/year lobbying in the US and alone, not counting the money they spend on industry associations and other cutouts that lobby on their behalf. Big Tech leads the pack on lobbying, accounting for 82% of EU lobbying spending and 58% of US lobbying. One key monopoly lobbying priority is blocking climate action, from Apple lobbying against right-to-repair, which creates vast mountains of e-waste, to energy monopolist lobbying against renewables. And energy companies are getting more monopolistic, with Exxonmobil spending $65b to buy Pioneer and Chevron spending $60b to buy Hess. Many of the world’s richest people are fossil fuel monopolists, like Charles and Julia Koch, the 18th and 19th richest people on the Forbes list. They spend fortunes on climate denial. When people talk about the climate impact of billionaires, they tend to focus on the carbon footprints of their mansions and private jets, but the true environmental cost of the ultra rich comes from the anti-renewables, pro-emissions lobbying they buy with their monopoly winnings. The good news is that the tide is turning on monopolies. A coalition of “businesses, workers, farmers, consumers and other civil society groups” have created a “remarkably successful anti-monopoly movement.” The past three years saw more regulatory action on corporate mergers, price-gouging, predatory pricing, labor abuses and other evils of monopoly than we got in the past 40 years. The business press – cheerleaders for monopoly – keep running editorials claiming that enforcers like Lina Khan are getting nothing done. Sure, WSJ, Khan’s getting nothing done – that’s why you ran 80 editorial about her: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion (Khan’s winning like crazy. Just last month she killed four megamergers:) https://www.thesling.org/the-ftc-just-blocked-four-mergers-in-a-month-heres-how-its-latest-win-fits-into-the-broader-campaign-to-revive-antitrust/ The EU and UK are taking actions that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Canada is finally set to get a real competition law, with the Trudeau government promising to add an “abuse of dominance” rule to Canada’s antitrust system. Even more exciting are the moves in the global south. In South Africa, “competition law contains some of the most progressive ideas of all”: It actively seeks to create greater economic participation, particularly for ‘historically disadvantaged persons’ as part of its public interest considerations in merger decisions. Balzac wrote, “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” Chances are, the rapsheet includes an antitrust violation. Getting rid of monopolies won’t get rid of all the billionaires, but it’ll certainly get rid of a hell of a lot of them. Hey look at this (permalink) The coming storm https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/01/the-coming-storm.html Retrocomputer miniatures https://store.transmutable.com/ Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find https://www.404media.co/google-search-really-has-gotten-worse-researchers-find/ This day in history (permalink) #15yrsago Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance, a look at the bumbling, murdering, drunken idiots (and others) who’ve served as vice-president of the USA https://memex.craphound.com/2009/01/18/veeps-profiles-in-insignificance-a-look-at-the-bumbling-murdering-drunken-idiots-and-others-whove-served-as-vice-president-of-the-usa/ #10yrsago Tim Wu on FCC’s net neutrality disaster https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/01/14/a-fema-level-fail-the-law-professor-who-coined-net-neutrality-lashes-out-at-the-fccs-legal-strategy/ #10yrsago Random NSA program generator, with denials https://divergentdave.github.io/nsa-o-matic/ #10yrsago Parfaitzilla: the dessert that ate Japan https://mochihead.tumblr.com/post/31243751745 #10yrsago Scoring Obama’s NSA reforms (spoiler: it’s not good) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/rating-obamas-nsa-reform-plan-eff-scorecard-explained #15yrsago Mr Chicken: the genius who paints London’s fried-chicken signs https://web.archive.org/web/20101208073826/https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/march/meet-mr-chicken #10yrsago Congress requires publicly funded research to be publicly available https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/newly-passed-appropriations-bill-makes-even-more-publicly-funded-research-available-online #10yrsago Android malware uses accelerometer readings to figure out if it was running on a real phone or in emulation https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/01/google-play-malware-used-phones-motion-sensors-to-conceal-itself/ #5yrsago An archive of Freedom, Paul Robeson and Louis Burnham’s radical Harlem newspaper https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223255/http://dlib.nyu.edu/freedom/ #5yrsago Unsealed court documents reveal that Facebook knew kids were being tricked into spending thousands of dollars on their parents’ credit cards https://revealnews.org/blog/a-judge-unsealed-a-trove-of-internal-facebook-documents-following-our-legal-action/ #5yrsago Why charter schools are the flashpoint for the LA teachers’ strike https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/01/rising-tide-teacher-strikes-finally-exposing-corrupt-charter-school-agenda.html #5yrsago Now EVERYBODY hates the new EU Copyright Directive https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/now-everybody-hates-new-eu-copyright-directive #1yrago Care Inflation: The inflation no one wants to talk about https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/18/wages-for-housework/#low-wage-workers-vs-poor-consumers #1yrago Eleanor Janega’s “Once and Future Sex”: The true, weird, horny history of medieval gender and sex https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/17/ren-faire/#going-medieval 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: The Bezzle, read by Wil Wheaton (excerpt) https://craphound.com/news/2024/01/14/the-bezzle-read-by-wil-wheaton-excerpt/ Upcoming appearances: Enshittification: The Rise and Fall of Big Tech (Crash Course Economics) https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YsKONp5zRgeF6SVuIOb6hQ#/registration Books & Books (Coral Gables, Florida), Jan 22 https://www.booksandbooks.com/event/in-person-an-evening-with-cory-doctorow/ Marshall McLuhan Lecture 2024 (Berlin), Jan 29 https://transmediale.de/en/2024/event/mcluhan-2024 The Lost Cause at Otherland (Berlin), Jan 30 https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/autor-innenabend-mit-cory-doctorow.html Recent appearances: The Lost Cause (The Writer’s Voice) https://www.writersvoice.net/2024/01/cory-doctorow-the-lost-cause/ What the Future will Bring (Homeless Romantic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Vq8qW2A8I Talking “The Lost Cause” with Warren Mosler (MMT Podcast) https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-182-cory-95211955 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/2024/01/17/monopolies-produce-billionaires/ Save to Pocket

Podcast: Google Finally Endorses Right to Repair

date: 2024-01-17, from: 404 Media Group

This week we talk right to repair, an online dating lawsuit, and a follow-up to the spread of AI-enabled surveillance cameras around the country.

https://www.404media.co/404-media-podcast-week-21/ Save to Pocket

AI political disinformation is a huge problem – but harder to fight than ever

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

How OpenAI, Microsoft, and others are trying to combat deepfakes and more

Analysis  Tackling AI disinformation is more crucial than ever for tech companies this year as they brace for the upcoming US presidential election.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/ai_political_disinformation/ Save to Pocket

Suspect allegedly used kitchen knives to assault, cut victim

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

A 26-year-old suspect was accused of cutting a man’s hand while wielding and swinging two kitchen knives at him.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/suspect-allegedly-used-kitchen-knives-to-assault-cut-victim/article_aa0b94ae-b4da-11ee-9a34-3fcf31a89dd5.html Save to Pocket

Start of trial for 1-year-old’s death delayed

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

The death of a Korean tourist has delayed pretrial matters in a case in which a mother is accused of beating her 1-year-old son to death.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/start-of-trial-for-1-year-olds-death-delayed/article_6fbf04ce-b4d6-11ee-b946-6314b2dbf97f.html Save to Pocket

Suspect charged with custodial interference of 15-year-old girl

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

A man faces felony charges after a teenage girl’s father filed a complaint with police when the girl didn’t return home from school.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/suspect-charged-with-custodial-interference-of-15-year-old-girl/article_5d67f2be-b421-11ee-a0ee-ab5e29515696.html Save to Pocket

Kick the Fat run set for March

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

Returning in its 28th year, Pay-Less Markets announced its Kick the Fat 5K/10K Run/Walk and Wellness Fair will take place in March.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/kick-the-fat-run-set-for-march/article_3e124af0-b4de-11ee-91c1-fb45ff936f53.html Save to Pocket

Smokin’ Wheels canceled, GRF seeking a licensing agreement

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

Without a track to use or a lease to utilize the Guam International Raceway in Yigo, the Guam Racing Federation announced that Smokin’ Wheels, the event that has attracted thousands of motor sports competitors and car enthusiasts from around the…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/smokin-wheels-canceled-grf-seeking-a-licensing-agreement/article_bac985a6-b4f5-11ee-a937-cbcf3c72e374.html Save to Pocket

Speaker: Hospital seems ‘to be doubly short’ for mold mitigation

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

The Guam Memorial Hospital Authority continues to tackle the mold issue at the island’s only public hospital. While there are planned capital improvement projects to mitigate the spread of mold, some of which will be funded by federal dollars, shortages…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/speaker-hospital-seems-to-be-doubly-short-for-mold-mitigation/article_6751a6ee-b430-11ee-b5fc-f76b15fae88c.html Save to Pocket

Adelup: Woman fined for illegal dumping at Two Lovers Point

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

A woman was cited for illegal dumping after park police officers “sifted through the trash and discovered a name and address on multiple documents,” a press release from Adelup stated.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/adelup-woman-fined-for-illegal-dumping-at-two-lovers-point/article_06c8240a-b4ef-11ee-a292-0fb2731d3a7c.html Save to Pocket

How Climate Denial Is Changing

date: 2024-01-17, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: Nashville recorded sub-zero temperatures for only the second time since 1996 • Heavy rains left at least 11 dead in Rio de Janeiro • Invasive and deadly fire ants have been spotted “rafting” on Australian flood waters.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Climate denial tactics are changing

The climate denial movement has entered a new phase, suggests new research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The study analyzed transcripts of more than 12,000 climate-related YouTube videos posted since 2018 and found evidence that “old denial” narratives (Global warming isn’t real! Humans have nothing to do with it!) are becoming less common as the effects of climate change become undeniable. But they’re being replaced by what the researchers call “new denial” tactics. These narratives focus on discrediting climate solutions like renewable energy projects and electric vehicles, or downplaying the harmful effects of global warming. “New denial” claims more than tripled since 2018; “old denial” claims were down by one-third.

CCDH

The shift exposes a gap in YouTube’s disinformation policies: While the platform has cracked down on advertising on videos that deny outright that climate change is real, no such rules exist for the wave of “new denial.” The study estimates YouTube could be making up to $13.4 million per year in ad revenue from channels that promote denial. “Given that the battleground has shifted and the new denial is the biggest component of climate denial content overall, it’s time for them to extend their rules to that as well,” Imran Ahmed, founder and chief executive officer of the CCDH, told Bloomberg Green.

2. Shipping emissions on the rise due to Red Sea conflict

Greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector are increasing due to ongoing disruption in the Red Sea, Reuters reports. The Red Sea is the gateway to the Suez Canal, which offers a quick route for ships transporting goods from Asia to Europe. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been attacking ships in the region in response to the Israel-Hamas war. To avoid the conflict, vessels are taking longer routes via the southern tip of Africa and burning more fuel as a result. The average container vessel transporting goods from China to Rotterdam via the Suez Canal would spew about 41,000 tons of carbon dioxide, but that total jumps to 55,000 tons if that ship has to go the long way, Reuters says. And as ships increase their speeds to make up for lost time, they produce even more pollution. International shipping already accounts for about 2% of global energy-related CO2, according to the International Energy Agency.

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3. Southeast Asia boosts solar and wind capacity by 20%

Southeast Asia has increased its solar- and wind-power capacity by 20% in the last year, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM). The analysis looks at the energy mix across 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These include Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Cambodia. It finds that solar and wind account for 9% of electricity generating capacity in the region, and flags Vietnam as being a regional leader. When combined with hydropower, geothermal, and bioenergy, this brings the ASEAN bloc’s renewable capacity to 32%, which is very near its goal of 35% by 2025. GEM says this target is therefore “unambitious.” The report cautions that fossil fuel use is likely to rise in the region as “energy demands are outpacing utility-scale solar and wind development.”

4. Mountain goats are becoming more nocturnal

Mountain goats are daytime creatures, and they usually do most of their foraging while the sun is up. But as global temperatures rise, they are becoming more active at night, according to a new study seen by The Guardian. Researchers from the University of Sassari, in Sardinia, tracked the behaviors of the Alpine ibex goat over 13 years and found that on especially warm days, the animals were more likely to be active at night, even though this put them at higher risk of being attacked by predators. “We can expect that during the night when the temperature is lower other animals will shift their activity towards the nocturnal hours,” Francesca Brivio, who co-authored the study, tells The Guardian. “If during the day it is too hot to eat or to be active, they will prefer to perform all their activities, like foraging, at night.”

5. Tracking 2000 years of climate change

Climate scientist Ed Hawkins, creator of the warming stripes, put together a detailed graphic that tracks changes in the climate system alongside important milestones in human history, such as the invention of the steam engine and the discovery of global warming. “In every case, the recent changes are rapid and unusual compared to before human influence on the climate,” he says. Take a look:

Ed Hawkins

THE KICKER

“Do you think those CEOs are going to say, ‘Oh my God, they just elected a new president, let’s go back and build internal combustion engine cars?’ Not on your life. Not happening.” –U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on whether a second Trump presidency would halt America’s clean energy transition

https://heatmap.news/climate/climate-denial-shipping-emissions Save to Pocket

Post Office boss unable to say when biz knew Horizon could be remotely altered

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

CEO stays tight-lipped in front of MPs while Fujitsu admits moral responsibility for compensation

Post Office chief exec Nick Read left British politicians shocked with his evidence before a Parliamentary committee yesterday after he admitted he could not say when the public body at the center of the historic miscarriage of justice knew when its system was at fault.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/post_office_inquiry_latest/ Save to Pocket

For Community College Students, Sundance Film Festival Offers A Foot In The Door

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

In a town where USC, UCLA, and AFI tout their powerful alumni networks, community colleges have a stake in developing future members of the film industry.

https://laist.com/news/education/for-community-college-students-sundance-film-festival-offers-a-foot-in-the-door Save to Pocket

30 Years After The Northridge Quake, What’ve We Learned?

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-18, from: The LAist

A whole lot has changed, but the risk of catastrophic quakes remains.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/30-years-after-the-northridge-quake-whatve-we-learned Save to Pocket

The Northridge Earthquake Rocked Southern California 30 Years Ago. We Asked For Your Memories

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The emotional stories from those who lived through and survived the magnitude 6.7 quake that shook Southern California on Jan. 17, 1994.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/the-northridge-earthquake-rocked-southern-california-30-years-ago-we-asked-for-your-memories Save to Pocket

The FAFSA Rollout Has Been Rough On Students. The Biggest Problem Is Yet To Come

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The Education Department has made a big mistake with this year’s FAFSA — one that could cost students financial aid they’re entitled to. It’s now grappling with how to implement a fix.

https://laist.com/news/education/the-fafsa-rollout-has-been-rough-on-students-the-biggest-problem-is-yet-to-come Save to Pocket

Hanford Program Supports Teen Parents While They Finish High School

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The program is called Helping Our Parenting Students Excel, or HOPE.

https://laist.com/news/education/hanford-program-supports-teen-parents-while-they-finish-high-school Save to Pocket

30 Years Since The Destructive And Deadly 6.7 Northridge Quake, We Remember That Terrifying Day And The Aftermath

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The quake killed 58 people, injured more than 9,000, displaced 125,000 residents. Larry Mantle, longtime host of “AirTalk” on 89.3 FM, remembers how communities came together.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/northridge-earthquake-anniversary-30-years-memories Save to Pocket

Each Facebook User is Monitored by Thousands of Companies

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Markup blog

A new study looks at who is sending information about your online activity to Facebook

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2024/01/17/each-facebook-user-is-monitored-by-thousands-of-companies-study-indicates Save to Pocket

Ditch Google Maps

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Markup blog

I found a strong alternative in Apple Maps

https://themarkup.org/gentle-january/2024/01/17/ditch-google-maps Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

How the Anti-Trump Coalition Crumbled.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/can-joe-biden-win-2024-presidential-election-anti-trump-coalition.html Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Judge Aileen Cannon is sabotaging the Trump classifed docs case.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/judge-aileen-cannon-trump-classifed-sabotage.html Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Tesla Drivers in Chicago Confront a Harsh Foe: Cold Weather.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/business/tesla-charging-chicago-cold-weather.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OU0.A6Nl.4CKbbA6aKP9B&smid=url-share Save to Pocket

Bank fees, Apple fees and shipping fees

date: 2024-01-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Many of the nation’s largest banks have reported mixed results recently. Banks often turn to fees – including overdraft charges – to help boost their bottom lines. But a Biden administration rule announced Wednesday would reduce those fees and save consumers billions a year. Then, Apple is making changes to its App Store but will still charge a hefty commission. And shipping rates have soared following continued Red Sea attacks.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/bank-fees-apple-fees-and-shipping-fees Save to Pocket

Microsoft touts migration to Windows 11 as painless, though wallets may disagree

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Millions have perfectly serviceable PCs running Windows 10 at home

Microsoft’s desperation to persuade customers that migrating to Windows 11 is a painless process has taken a new turn, thanks to a relentlessly perky video: “Make Your Move to Windows 11 Easier.”…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/windows_11_migration_easy/ Save to Pocket

Code Written with AI Assistants Is Less Secure

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Interesting research: “Do Users Write More Insecure Code with AI Assistants?“:

Abstract: We conduct the first large-scale user study examining how users interact with an AI Code assistant to solve a variety of security related tasks across different programming languages. Overall, we find that participants who had access to an AI assistant based on OpenAI’s codex-davinci-002 model wrote significantly less secure code than those without access. Additionally, participants with access to an AI assistant were more likely to believe they wrote secure code than those without access to the AI assistant. Furthermore, we find that participants who trusted the AI less and engaged more with the language and format of their prompts (e.g. re-phrasing, adjusting temperature) provided code with fewer security vulnerabilities. Finally, in order to better inform the design of future AI-based Code assistants, we provide an in-depth analysis of participants’ language and interaction behavior, as well as release our user interface as an instrument to conduct similar studies in the future…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/code-written-with-ai-assistants-is-less-secure.html Save to Pocket

China’s population declines for second straight year

date: 2024-01-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: Data released on Wednesday showed that China had a population of 1.4 billion at the end of 2023 — a 2.08 million decrease from 2022. The decline underscores concerns about the future growth of the world’s second largest economy. Then, the U.K.’s Post Office scandal rumbles on, and pricey, high-tech sneakers for runners becomes a big business.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/chinas-population-declines-for-second-straight-year Save to Pocket

Windows Server 2022 patch is breaking apps for some users

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Uninstall the update or edit the Windows registry to restore order

The latest Windows Server 2022 patch has broken the Chrome browser, and short of uninstalling the update, a registry hack is the only way to restore service for affected users.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/windows_server_2022_patch_breaks/ Save to Pocket

LEVER TIME: Trump Won Iowa – Can He Beat The Supreme Court?

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Lever News

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

https://www.levernews.com/lever-time-trump-won-iowa-can-he-beat-the-supreme-court/ Save to Pocket

The ‘nothing-happened’ Y2K bug – how the IT industry worked overtime to save world’s computers

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

…though bonkers conspiracies on solving date-field problem never died down

Retro Tech Week  Forty years ago, both Jerome and Marilyn Murray saw their brainchild reach the light of day. In 1984, their book, Computers in Crisis, was published, becoming the first authoritative guide to the Millennium Bug coding problem, which, in the final year of the century, would consume media, political and business attention.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/y2k_feature/ Save to Pocket

Toyota Is Far Less Climate-Friendly Than Most Americans Think

date: 2024-01-17, from: Heatmap News

A year ago, the Toyota Prius went from bulbous to badass. The hybrid icon got its most dramatic redesign in two decades, which dispensed with the familiar friendly and rounded look for an angular, almost menacing front end. The vehicle, which once again came in traditional hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants, earned enthusiasm from buyers and plaudits from the auto press. What Toyota didn’t do, curiously, was finally turn the Prius into a true battery electric vehicle.

The world’s largest car company has been among the slowest of the major automakers to embrace 100% electric propulsion. Yet, as Heatmap data shows, such heel-dragging hasn’t dinged Toyota’s green reputation. In our November 2023 survey, Toyota scored the second-highest on perceived sustainability of any automaker.

Audi’s E-Tron, VW’s ID.4, Kia’s Soul EV, BMW’s i3, and Hyundai’s Kona Electric were all on sale in the U.S. well before the bZ4X, Toyota’s first mass market EV. Yet none of those cars could transform American attitudes about companies that made them. While Tesla’s notoriety helped it to top our sustainability survey, the likes of Audi, Volkswagen, Kia, Hyundai, and BMW all scored below Toyota.

To be clear, Toyota certainly earned some sustainable bona fides. The Prius for years was the icon of conspicuous conscientious driving. Eventually, the car of the eco-minded became the car of anybody who wanted to get great gas mileage. In selling six million Priuses, Toyota helped countless drivers post far better mpg than they otherwise would have. And let us not forget the Toyota Mirai, which since 2014 has been the best mainstream option for anybody who wants to drive a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

But the results go to show that even at the dawn of the mainstream EV era, more goes into the popular idea of “sustainability” than purely electric cars.

Volkswagen, for example, may have introduced a popular EV with the ID.4 crossover, but many respondents surely remember the scandal over VW’s diesel emissions and punished the German giant for its misdeeds.

Or consider the case of Subaru, which was not part of this survey. The brand incessantly advertises itself as a friend of the National Park System and touts its corporate donations to climate causes. Its car show launch events and television commercials depict Subarus in outdoor environments. Given its public image, I’d have to guess that Subaru would have scored highly. Yet none of its vehicles get particularly high gas mileage. (There is a Subaru commercial that drives my wife and me crazy, in which a teacher describes her 240-mile daily carbon-spewing commute like it’s a badge of honor.) Like Toyota, Subaru was slow into the EV market; its first, the Solterra, just came out last year. It was co-developed with Toyota and is fundamentally the same car as the bZ4X.

Despite leading the charge on hybrids and hydrogen, Toyota’s electric enthusiasm has been tepid at best. Whereas many auto giants have trotted out new electrics or teased battery-powered versions of their iconic gas vehicles, Toyota’s attitude more mirrored the general public’s: We’ll just wait until the charging infrastructure makes this more practical for daily driving, thank you very much. In the meantime, the brand touts its “electrified” lineup, which, aside from the bZ4X, is made up entirely of hybrids that also burn gasoline.

And to drive the point home, Toyota has also actively worked against emissions regulations, repeatedly lobbying against such efforts. In 2021, the company settled with the U.S. government for $180 million for failing to comply with Clean Air Act regulations. Hino, a truck- and bus-making division of Toyota, was caught falsifying engine emissions data going back decades.

Seeing the lukewarm reception given many legacy carmakers’ EV offerings, it’s hard to blame Toyota for languishing in the rear, content to keep selling fossil-fuel burning vehicles for as long as it’s profitable. It also must answer a tricky question: What is the EV Prius? The hybrid standard-bearer had a clear identity as an eggshell that delivered top gas mileage. In the EV space, where even big vehicles deliver excellent mileage equivalence, it’s unclear what the Prius brand name will mean.

But pretty soon, Toyota needs to pounce. The company is clearly getting a little closer to ready: A couple of months ago I came to praise the Hilux EV, a prototype fully electric version of Toyota’s global best-selling compact truck. That project was a one-off built by engineers overseas, but it points the way to how Toyota could flex its global muscles to help turn the world fleet over to EVs. Toyota is also seen as among the most reliable carmakers — for example, Toyota and its sub-brand Lexus topped the 2023 Consumer Reports reliability rankings. That, combined with its reputation for sustainability, could be enough to convince hesitant car shoppers to go fully electric once the brand finally rolls out EV editions of the Camry, RAV4, or, yes, the Prius.

The bZ4X might have been uninspiring, but that’s not what really matters. What matters is that Toyota is finally moving into true EVs — and soon, we hope, it will do a lot more to back up its good name among climate-friendly companies.

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/electric-vehicles/toyota-prius-vw-audi-kia Save to Pocket

Meet PiDex: your Raspberry Pi 5-powered doomsday companion

date: 2024-01-17, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)

Kenneth (aka Raspduino Uno) is nothing if not prepared, and he’s getting ready to survive in a post-apocalyptic world by building his own Raspberry Pi 5-powered cyberdeck. Meet PiDex.

The post Meet PiDex: your Raspberry Pi 5-powered doomsday companion appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/meet-pidex-your-raspberry-pi-5-powered-doomsday-companion/ Save to Pocket

BT to spell out contract price hikes in pounds and pence

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

None of this inflation-linked percentage nonsense, says Ofcom

Updated  BT is ditching mid-contract price hikes linked to inflation before Britain’s comms regulator issues a blanket ban in pursuit of greater transparency for customers.…

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Vulcans split home doubleheader against Academy of Art

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>UH-Hilo&#8217;s men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s basketball teams split a doubleheader against Academy of Art, as the Vulcans&#8217; women&#8217;s team won 68-53 and the men fell 80-63 on Monday night at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/vulcans-split-home-doubleheader-against-academy-of-art/ Save to Pocket

BIIF soccer and basketball roundup

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Soccer</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/biif-soccer-and-basketball-roundup/ Save to Pocket

PGA Champions Tour returns to the West Side this week

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>KA&#8216;UPULEHU-KONA &#8212; Another PGA Tour Champions season is set to begin later this week, and what better way to kick it off than on the charming Big Island?</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/pga-champions-tour-returns-to-the-west-side-this-week/ Save to Pocket

Column: The last five weeks on the PGA Tour had something for everyone

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>HONOLULU &#8212; Camilo Villegas was laughing about the time he was disqualified from Kapalua 13 years ago on his birthday. That was long before he was married, had his first child and then lost his daughter to brain cancer. He has been through a lot. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/column-the-last-five-weeks-on-the-pga-tour-had-something-for-everyone/ Save to Pocket

New Hampshire gets its turn after Trump’s big win in Iowa puts new pressure on Haley and DeSantis

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>ATKINSON, N.H. &#8212; After Donald Trump&#8217;s record victory in the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire voters now get their turn to decide just how competitive the Republican nominating fight will be as the former president continues to dominate his party.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/new-hampshire-gets-its-turn-after-trumps-big-win-in-iowa-puts-new-pressure-on-haley-and-desantis/ Save to Pocket

Kona airport repairs continue

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Over two dozen flights were impacted by the closure of Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole on Monday afternoon after the discovery of cracks in the runway.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/kona-airport-repairs-continue/ Save to Pocket

DOH: First child flu death of the season occurred on Oahu

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The first pediatric influenza death of the ongoing flu season in Hawaii was announced Tuesday.</p>
        

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Supervised release for senior citizen charged with attempted robbery

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A 74-year-old Kailua-Kona man accused of a violent attempted carjacking is free after his initial court appearance.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/supervised-release-for-senior-citizen-charged-with-attempted-robbery/ Save to Pocket

Theft of mail reported in parts of Hilo

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Hilo residents are advised to secure their mailboxes after a spate of mail thefts around the north edge of town.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/theft-of-mail-reported-in-parts-of-hilo/ Save to Pocket

A freed Israeli hostage relives horrors of captivity and fears for her husband, still held in Gaza

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Standing in the ruins of her home in the Nir Oz farming village on the Gaza border, Sharon Alony Cunio gazed at the distant skyline of Khan Younis, the Palestinian city where Hamas militants dragged her more than three months ago. Her husband, David, remains captive in Gaza.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/features/a-freed-israeli-hostage-relives-horrors-of-captivity-and-fears-for-her-husband-still-held-in-gaza/ Save to Pocket

Targeting drug middlemen could create more loopholes

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Congress is back in session with a long list of unfinished business. Topping the health-care agenda is legislation that aims to lower the cost of prescription drugs and make their prices more transparent. Although these proposals have rare bipartisan support, lawmakers should proceed cautiously. Some well-intentioned measures could backfire or prove ineffective.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/opinion/targeting-drug-middlemen-could-create-more-loopholes/ Save to Pocket

New law requires more transparency for use of force by police

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A law requiring all police agencies statewide to maintain publicly available written policies regarding minimum standards on the use of force went into effect Jan. 1.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/new-law-requires-more-transparency-for-use-of-force-by-police/ Save to Pocket

Violinist Midori performs in concert Jan. 22 in Hilo

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The Hawaii Concert Society presents the violinist known worldwide by her first name, Midori, appearing in concert at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 22, at the University of Hawaii&#8217;s Performing Arts Center in Hilo.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/entertainment/violinist-midori-performs-in-concert-jan-22-in-hilo/ Save to Pocket

Water department accepting entries for keiki poster contest

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The Hawaii County Department of Water Supply is now accepting entries for its sixth annual Keiki Water Conservation Poster Contest open to Hawaii Island students attending kindergarten through the sixth-grade.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/community/water-department-accepting-entries-for-keiki-poster-contest/ Save to Pocket

Nutrition Program gets specialized vehicles

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Hawaii County has acquired two state-of-the-art F-150 Ford Hot Shot vehicles to support it Nutrition Program.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/community/nutrition-program-gets-specialized-vehicles/ Save to Pocket

Lunar New Year dinner set for next month

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The Chinese Civic Association of Hawaii is celebrating the Lunar New Year with its first in-person public event in three years.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/lunar-new-year-dinner-set-for-next-month/ Save to Pocket

Trump glowers and gestures in court, then leaves to campaign as sex abuse defamation trial opens

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Donald Trump shook his head in disgust Tuesday as the judge in his New York defamation trial told would-be jurors that an earlier jury had already decided the former president sexually abused columnist E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/trump-glowers-and-gestures-in-court-then-leaves-to-campaign-as-sex-abuse-defamation-trial-opens/ Save to Pocket

Suspect in Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial killings is charged with the death of a fourth woman

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>RIVERHEAD, N.Y. &#8212; A New York architect charged in a string of slayings known as the Gilgo Beach killings was accused Tuesday in the death of a fourth woman, a Connecticut mother of two who vanished in 2007 and whose remains were found more than three years later along a coastal highway on Long Island.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/suspect-in-long-islands-gilgo-beach-serial-killings-is-charged-with-the-death-of-a-fourth-woman/ Save to Pocket

Obituaries for January 17

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Gale Fumiko Brumaghim, 68, died Aug. 29 at Kona Community Hospital. Born in Kealakekua, she was a grocery store cashier and stock clerk for a local grocery store and worked a coffee farm alongside her husband. Private services held on January 10. Survived by husband, Wayne Brumaghim of Kealakekua; son, Wayne Brumaghim Jr. of Kailua-Kona; daughter, Krystal Brumaghim of Kealakekua; sisters, Janell Okumura and Kathleen Yamagata, both of Kealakekua. Arrangements by Dodo Mortuary.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/obituaries/obituaries-for-january-17-11/ Save to Pocket

Oregon braces for freezing rain while cold temperatures elsewhere strain electric grids

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Parts of Oregon braced for freezing rain Tuesday after a weekend of extreme winds knocked down trees and cut power to thousands, while communities across the U.S. also struggled with perilously cold weather that closed schools and put electricity supplies at risk.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/oregon-braces-for-freezing-rain-while-cold-temperatures-elsewhere-strain-electric-grids/ Save to Pocket

Emmy Moments: ‘Succession’ succeeds, ‘The Bear’ eats it up, and a show wraps on time, thanks to Mom

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>So it be, so it is, as Cousin Greg would say: &#8220;Succession&#8221; had a fittingly successful sendoff at the Emmys, the addictive saga of the roiling Roy family dynasty winning best drama for a third time and five more awards, including three top acting prizes.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/emmy-moments-succession-succeeds-the-bear-eats-it-up-and-a-show-wraps-on-time-thanks-to-mom/ Save to Pocket

What is Disease X? How scientists are preparing for the next pandemic

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>It sounds like something Elon Musk might have cooked up: &#8220;Disease X.&#8221;</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/what-is-disease-x-how-scientists-are-preparing-for-the-next-pandemic/ Save to Pocket

Chaotic wave of attacks, reprisals in Middle East fuel worries of a broader regional war

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; A barrage of U.S., coalition and militant attacks in the Middle East over the last five days are compounding U.S. fears that Israel&#8217;s war on Hamas in Gaza could expand, as massive military strikes failed to stall the assault on Red Sea shipping by Yemen-based Houthis.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/chaotic-wave-of-attacks-reprisals-in-middle-east-fuel-worries-of-a-broader-regional-war/ Save to Pocket

Senators reject Bernie Sanders’ effort to curb Israel-Hamas war but the vote signals rising unease

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; In a notable test Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders forced colleagues to decide whether to investigate human rights abuses in the Israel-Hamas war, a step toward potentially limiting U.S. military aid to Israel as its devastating attacks on Gaza grind past 100 days.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/senators-reject-bernie-sanders-effort-to-curb-israel-hamas-war-but-the-vote-signals-rising-unease/ Save to Pocket

Your Views for January 17

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Regarding Harbaugh&#0010;and Michigan&#8217;s win</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/opinion/your-views-for-january-17-8/ Save to Pocket

Kudos to Chris Christie, who told the truth about Trump

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>As he exits the stage before any votes are cast, Chris Christie deserves credit and thanks for repeatedly saying what Republican primary voters need to hear.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/opinion/kudos-to-chris-christie-who-told-the-truth-about-trump/ Save to Pocket

JetBlue’s $3.8 billion buyout of Spirit Airlines is blocked by judge citing threat to competition

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>DALLAS &#8212; A federal judge on Tuesday sided with the Biden administration and blocked JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, saying the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/nation-world-news/jetblues-3-8-billion-buyout-of-spirit-airlines-is-blocked-by-judge-citing-threat-to-competition/ Save to Pocket

Eagles center Jason Kelce intends to retire after 13 NFL seasons, AP sources say

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>PHILADELPHIA &#8212; Jason Kelce stood on the sideline in tears as the final seconds ticked off in his likely final NFL game. Kelce embraced his long-time offensive line coach. He removed his helmet once the game ended &#8212; a Philadelphia Eagles loss that completed a harrowing season-ending collapse &#8212; and extended his hand to his wife and his father in the stands.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/eagles-center-jason-kelce-intends-to-retire-after-13-nfl-seasons-ap-sources-say/ Save to Pocket

Analysis: McVay kicking himself over dubious decisions that doomed Rams on a wacky wild-card weekend

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Regrets, Sean McVay has a few. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/analysis-mcvay-kicking-himself-over-dubious-decisions-that-doomed-rams-on-a-wacky-wild-card-weekend/ Save to Pocket

Taulia Tagovailoa to enter 2024 NFL Draft, despite seeking sixth year of eligibility

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Taulia Tagovailoa is entering the 2024 NFL Draft.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/sports/taulia-tagovailoa-to-enter-2024-nfl-draft-despite-seeking-sixth-year-of-eligibility/ Save to Pocket

DOH: Voluntary recall of Big Island Candies product

date: 2024-01-17, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The state Department of Health is alerting residents about a voluntary recall by Big Island Candies of its 10-ounce Makana Brownie Assortment Box, because it may contain peanut allergens not listed on the label.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/17/hawaii-news/doh-voluntary-recall-of-big-island-candies-product/ Save to Pocket

Office Hours: Can Trump’s nomination be stopped?

date: 2024-01-17, from: Robert Reich on Substack

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-can-trumps-nomination Save to Pocket

Rob Kerchner | Who’s the Fascist?

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

One hundred years ago, progressives were touting a “scientific consensus” in eugenics to support abortion, racism and antisemitism. Individual lives and liberties were dismissed; instead, groupthink and top-down control “for the good of society” drove their dreams of social(ist) “progress.” Sound familiar? A hundred years later the same ilk are busily touting a “scientific consensus” […]

The post Rob Kerchner | Who’s the Fascist? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

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Home improvement marketers dial up trouble from regulator

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

ICO slaps penalties on two businesses that collectively made more than 3 million cold calls

Another week and yet another couple of pesky cold callers face fines from the UK’s data privacy watchdog for “bombarding” unsuspecting households with marketing messages about home improvements.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/ico_cold_call_fines/ Save to Pocket

The Savvy Senior | Are You at Risk of Developing Glaucoma?

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Dear Savvy Senior,  What can you tell me about the eye disease glaucoma? My older brother was recently diagnosed with it and lost some of his vision, but never had a clue anything was wrong. Could I be at risk, too?  — Stressed Sibling  Dear Stressed,   Yes, having an immediate family member with glaucoma significantly […]

The post The Savvy Senior | Are You at Risk of Developing Glaucoma? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/the-savvy-senior-are-you-at-risk-of-developing-glaucoma/ Save to Pocket

YouTube video lag wrongly blamed on its ad-blocking animus

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Slowdowns apparently due to a bug afflicting browser extensions, not retaliation against filters

Google claims users of popular ad-blocking extensions have wrongly blamed YouTube for slow video streaming speeds – and that the content filters themselves are the reason for stuttering playback.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/youtube_video_lag_ads/ Save to Pocket

Classifieds – January 17, 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

The Daily Trojan features Classified advertising in each day’s edition. Here you can read, search, and even print out each day’s edition of the Classifieds.

The post Classifieds – January 17, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.

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Stephen Maseda | Reply to Criticism of the Analysis …

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Re: Ron Perry, letters, Jan. 10.  Mr. Perry, thanks for the reply. Let’s start with the easiest and most obvious issue with your reply. My earlier comments do not deny your right to believe as you do — they are simply a critical analysis of your criticism of Pastor David Hegg’s column discussing noble lies. […]

The post Stephen Maseda | Reply to Criticism of the Analysis … appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/stephen-maseda-reply-to-criticism-of-the-analysis/ Save to Pocket

Today in SCV History (Jan. 17)

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

1994, 4:31 a.m. – Magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake rocks Santa Clarita Valley. [video

https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-8/ Save to Pocket

Women’s basketball is a legit contender

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

After a dominant win over then-No. 2 UCLA, nothing can stop the Trojans.

The post Women’s basketball is a legit contender appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/womens-basketball-is-a-legit-contender/ Save to Pocket

Don’t get your news from late-night comedy

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Research-heavy comedy segments exaggerate the truth of their stories.

The post Don’t get your news from late-night comedy appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/dont-get-your-news-from-late-night-comedy/ Save to Pocket

New year, new hobbies

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Start January off right with a skill that’ll do wonders for your mental health.

The post New year, new hobbies appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/new-year-new-hobbies/ Save to Pocket

USG senate declares California’s March primary a USG holiday

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

A second RestSC spot will open in February, vice president Michelle Lu said

The post USG senate declares California’s March primary a USG holiday appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/usg-senate-declares-californias-march-primary-a-usg-holiday/ Save to Pocket

Down go the Bruins: Trojans prevail behind Watkins

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Women’s basketball routed the AP No. 2 team in front of a record-breaking crowd.

The post Down go the Bruins: Trojans prevail behind Watkins appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/down-go-the-bruins-trojans-prevail-behind-watkins/ Save to Pocket

Reverse engineering a ‘Get ready with me’

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

How can you fall in love with the process of getting ready, and how does the preparation for a night out translate into real life?

The post Reverse engineering a ‘Get ready with me’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/more-like-30-staying-30-2/ Save to Pocket

Altered FAFSA launches two months late

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

USC students shared their opinions on the new FAFSA and financial aid resources.

The post Altered FAFSA launches two months late appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/altered-fafsa-launches-two-months-late/ Save to Pocket

I’m here today because of two people who aren’t anymore

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

I have drifted apart from the friends who helped me discover my love for writing.

The post I’m here today because of two people who aren’t anymore appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/17/im-here-today-because-of-two-people-who-arent-anymore/ Save to Pocket

CalTrans to Open 1994 Northridge Earthquake Exhibit

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

On the 30th anniversary of the Jan. 17, 1994 Northridge earthquake, the California Department of Transportation will commemorate the efforts of the public servants who worked to safely rebuild the highways following the disaster.

https://scvnews.com/caltrans-to-open-northridge-earthquake-exhibit/ Save to Pocket

What are our top picks from the vast world of retro tech? Let’s find out

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Standby to be amazed: Lotus Notes is still being developed

Kettle  It’s Retro Tech Week here at The Register, and we’ve got four of our vultures together to talk about old computers and software that, in one form or another, thankfully refuses to die.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/does_old_tech_never_die/ Save to Pocket

GDOL: 47% noncompliant with fair chances hiring law

date: 2024-01-17, from: Guam Daily Post

Nearly half of all employers inspected over the last five years were found to be noncompliant with a local law intended to help individuals with criminal pasts by barring employers from asking about criminal histories or pending cases until a…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gdol-47-noncompliant-with-fair-chances-hiring-law/article_adc7a232-b4fc-11ee-bbc3-b34b704bfa51.html Save to Pocket

Combination of cheap .cloud domains and fake Shark Tank news fuel unhealthy wellness scams

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

.SBS gTLD once owned by Australian broadcaster is another source of strife

Scammers are buying up cheap domain names to host sites that sell dodgy health products using fake articles, according to cybercrime disruption outfit Netcraft.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/netcraft_health_scams_analysis/ Save to Pocket

Google updates Chrome’s Incognito Mode data slurp disclaimer in early browser build

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

After settling privacy lawsuit now admits you’re observable even when trying for anonymity

Google has altered the text describing data collection when users employ Incognito Mode in its Chrome browser.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/google_updates_chrome_incognito_disclaimer/ Save to Pocket

January 16, 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog

[Warning: paragraphs 6–8 talk about rape.] In yesterday’s Iowa caucus, 51% of Republican caucusgoers chose former president Donald Trump as their preferred candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Twenty-one percent of Republican caucusgoers chose Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Nineteen percent chose former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Seven percent chose technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. These results mean that 20 of Iowa’s 40 delegates will go to Trump; 8 to DeSantis; 7 to Haley; and three to Ramaswamy. An apparent Trump surrogate in the primary debates, Ramaswamy suspended his campaign after the caucus and endorsed Trump.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-16-2024 Save to Pocket

30 years since 6.7 

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Local leaders reflect on 30th anniversary of quake that struck Jan. 17, 1994  Jan. 17, 2024, marks 30 years to the day since the costliest earthquake in U.S. history, a magnitude-6.7 event, struck at 4:31 a.m.  While the epicenter was identified as being in Northridge — and the heaviest damage was in the western San […]

The post 30 years since 6.7  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/30-years-since-6-7/ Save to Pocket

San Marcos Girls’ Water Polo Defeats Rival Dos Pueblos 12-5

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Charlotte Raisin scored a game-high four goals.

The post San Marcos Girls’ Water Polo Defeats Rival Dos Pueblos 12-5 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/san-marcos-girls-water-polo-defeats-rival-dos-pueblos-12-5/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-01-17, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

New PTSD just dropped:

https://hachyderm.io/@thomasfuchs/111768918083135181

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111769458815339301 Save to Pocket

Working from home never looked better: Leopard stalks around Infosys and TCS campuses

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

No consultants were mauled or eaten but some were quite scared

Indian forestry authorities have laid traps for a leopard that was spotted prowling near campuses used by tech services giants Infosys and TCS.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/leopard_infosys_tcs_india/ Save to Pocket

Apple’s Workaround for the ITC’s Import Ban on Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2: Disabling the Blood-Oxygen Sensor in Software

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/apple-watch-redesigned-without-blood-oxygen-monitoring-to-avoid-import-ban/ Save to Pocket

Tempers flare at end of Hart-Valencia game

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Teammates and coaching staff rushed in between players after a shove following the Hart Indians boys’ basketball home game with the Valencia Vikings.  Following the final buzzer, several of the victorious Vikings ran to the opposing side of the court and waved goodbye to the Hart student section.  The Indians were lined up for the […]

The post <strong>Tempers flare at end of Hart-Valencia game</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/tempers-flare-at-end-of-hart-valencia-game/ Save to Pocket

Jan. 20: First Santa Clarita Community Hike of 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The first Santa Clarita Community Hike of 2024 will be held Saturday, Jan. 20 at 9 a.m. Hikers will meet at the Gates Family Wildlife Preserve Pine Street Trailhead, access via Pine Street

https://scvnews.com/jan-20-first-santa-clarita-community-hike-of-2024/ Save to Pocket

In Memoriam Faris “Feltaan” Sanjakdar 1993-2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Our darling habibi, Faris “Feltaan” Sanjakdar, tragically left us on January 1, 2024. He left behind a loving partner, Patrick

The post In Memoriam </br> Faris “Feltaan” Sanjakdar </br> 1993-2024 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/in-memoriam-faris-feltaan-sanjakdar-1993-2024/ Save to Pocket

Post-SCOTUS Ruling, Apple Releases Guidelines for ‘External Purchase Links’ in iOS Apps (Spoiler: They Still Demand the Same Commissions)

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://developer.apple.com/support/storekit-external-entitlement-us/ Save to Pocket

Youth Mountain Bike Demo Days at Trek Bike Park

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The Trek Bike Park of Santa Clarita will host several sessions of the Youth Mountain Bike Demo Day program.

https://scvnews.com/youth-mountain-bike-demo-days-at-trek-bike-park/ Save to Pocket

Man Fatally Shot by Sheriff’s Deputies in Santa Maria After Brandishing Weapon

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Authorities are investigating the incident after a suspect was killed following a four-hour standoff.

The post Man Fatally Shot by Sheriff’s Deputies in Santa Maria After Brandishing Weapon appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/man-fatally-shot-by-sheriffs-deputies-in-santa-maria-after-brandishing-weapon/ Save to Pocket

Trump Back in Court for Second Defamation Trial After Iowa Victory

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

NEW YORK — Fresh off a campaign victory in Iowa, Donald Trump sat in a New York courtroom on Tuesday to defend himself for a second time against charges that he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of raping her decades ago.

Trump watched from the defendant’s table as Carroll’s lawyer told a jury that the then-U.S. president made her life miserable when she went public in 2019 with her story that he had attacked her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan.

“He used the world’s biggest microphone to attack Ms. Carroll, to humiliate her, and to destroy her reputation,” lawyer Shawn Crowley said.

Carroll, 80, is seeking at least $10 million in damages in a civil case that will put the allegations of sexual assault back in the headlines while Trump pursues the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Jurors will only consider how much Trump should pay Carroll in damages, not whether the alleged assault took place or whether Trump lied about it afterward.

Crowley said Trump’s “horrible” lies unleashed a torrent of abuse from his followers and wrecked her sense of safety.

“As he’s campaigning for president of the United States, Donald Trump continues to lie about Ms. Carroll,” Crowley said.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba countered that Carroll was “basking in the limelight” in the years since she released her memoir and accused Trump of rape.

“She is looking for you to give her a windfall because some people on social media said mean things about her,” Habba said.

Trump, 77, has said he wants to testify.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has barred him from arguing that he did not defame or sexually assault Carroll or that she made up her account.

Nevertheless, Trump accused Carroll on social media of lying as court proceedings got underway on Tuesday morning.

Shortly after the court adjourned for the day, Trump accused Kaplan of being politically biased against him, echoing complaints he has made against judges overseeing his other cases.

Trump could spend much of this year shuttling between campaign rallies and courtrooms, as he seeks to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

He won the first state contest in Iowa on Monday by a wide margin, and opinion polls show him leading in the next contest in New Hampshire a week from Tuesday.

“I should be in New Hampshire, campaigning and fighting for our Country, and I will be later today, but for now I had to spend time in a Federal Courthouse with a Trump Hating, Radical Left Judge,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the court adjourned for the day.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases that could potentially land him in prison before the November presidential election, including two that accuse him of trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. He also is a defendant in at least two other civil cases.

Kaplan said he expects the trial to last three to five days.

Second trial

Trump’s high profile was apparent as prospective jurors were screened for the case. Many acknowledged they were familiar with Trump’s various legal troubles, though none said they knew the details of the first defamation trial.

One said she used to work for his daughter Ivanka. She was not chosen for the jury.

Jurors’ identities are being kept confidential.

Trump has already lost one defamation case against Carroll.

A jury last May ordered Trump to pay the former Elle magazine columnist $5 million for having sexually abused her during the encounter and defaming her in 2022 by denying that it happened. Trump skipped that trial.

Trump is appealing the $5 million award and could appeal any award at the second trial. Appeals could take years.

In both cases, Trump has said he did not know Carroll and that she invented their encounter to sell her memoir.

Kaplan has barred Trump from suggesting he did not rape Carroll, as New York’s penal law defines the term, because the first jury did not find that Trump committed rape. Kaplan has ruled that Carroll’s rape claim was “substantially true.”

Trump also cannot discuss DNA evidence or Carroll’s sexual activities or suggest that Democrats are bankrolling her case.

As at the first trial, jurors will be able to see the 2005 “Access Hollywood” video where Trump graphically described the ability of famous people like himself to have sexual relations with beautiful women.

Kaplan has said the video could offer “useful insight into Mr. Trump’s state of mind” toward Carroll.

On social media, Trump accused Kaplan of being “biased,” echoing attacks he has made on judges overseeing some of his other cases.

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-back-in-court-for-second-defamation-trial-after-iowa-victory/7443338.html Save to Pocket

La Posada Tiny-Home Village Breaks Ground at Former Juvenile Hall in Santa Barbara

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The project will provide transitional housing for 80 people now dwelling in the homeless encampments scattered in hillsides above the site.

The post La Posada Tiny-Home Village Breaks Ground at Former Juvenile Hall in Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/la-posada-tiny-home-village-breaks-ground-at-former-juvenile-hall-in-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket

Nokia walks the walk about its RAN to play on Uncle Sam’s China fears

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

It pays not to be Huawei, and the US military can be lucrative, too

Comment  A vendor establishing a business unit dedicated to government sales is not new or unusual. But Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia’s decision to do so in the USA this week tells a bigger story about Washington’s paranoia regarding the security of critical communications infrastructure security.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/nokia_us_sales_list/ Save to Pocket

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle’s Life Celebrated at Memorial Service in Downtown Santa Barbara

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Hundreds gathered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to remember the poet laureate, educator, activist, and Black history archivist.

The post Sojourner Kincaid Rolle’s Life Celebrated at Memorial Service in Downtown Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/sojourner-kincaid-rolles-life-celebrated-at-memorial-service-in-downtown-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket

The 2024 Coachella Lineup Is Here

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

Headliners include Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt and Tyler, the Creator.

https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/the-2024-coachella-lineup-is-here Save to Pocket

US to Relist Yemen’s Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists, AP Sources Say

date: 2024-01-17, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to soon announce plans to redesignate Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen as specially designated global terrorists, according to two people familiar with the White House decision and a U.S. official.

The move comes as the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The group says it has attacked the ships in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The three people familiar with the decision were not authorized to comment and requested anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of the expected formal announcement.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both a foreign terrorist organization and as specially designated global terrorists in February 2021 as the administration sought to make it easier to get food imports and humanitarian aid into Yemen.

In its waning days, the Trump administration designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization over the strong objections of human rights and humanitarian aid groups.

The foreign terrorist designation barred Americans and people and organizations subject to U.S. jurisdiction from providing “material support” to the Houthis, which the groups said would result in an even greater humanitarian catastrophe than what was already happening in Yemen.

Shortly after the Biden administration took office, Blinken removed the designations in a step that was roundly criticized by conservative lawmakers and others but was intended to keep much-needed food, medicine and other aid flowing to Yemen.

Yemen, on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula bordering the Red Sea, is the poorest country in the Arab world. War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease as of 2023, and roughly 14 million in acute need of assistance, the United Nations says. About two-thirds of Yemenis live in territory controlled by the Houthis.

While supporters of broad sanctions argue it’s possible to shape any enforcement mechanisms to exempt food and humanitarian aid, aid organizations worry that fears of running afoul of U.S. regulation could scare away shippers, banks and other players vital to Yemen’s commercial food supply. Arid Yemen imports 90% of its food.

“This designation would add another level of uncertainty and threat for Yemenis still caught in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises,” said Scott Paul, an associate director of Oxfam America. “The Biden administration is playing with fire, and we call on them to avoid this designation immediately and prioritize the lives of Yemenis now.”

The specially designated global terrorists label to be reimposed on the Houthis does not include sanctions for providing “material support,” and it does not come with travel bans that are also imposed with the foreign terrorist organization label, steps intended to help prevent the U.S. move from harming ordinary Yemenis.

Meanwhile, a senior White House official said Tuesday that addressing the ongoing threat by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the Red Sea is an “all hands on deck” problem that the U.S. and allies must address together to minimize impact on the global economy.

“How long this goes on and how bad it gets comes down not just to the decisions of the countries in the coalition that took strikes last week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The Iran-backed Houthi group has launched dozens of attacks since November on vessels in the Red Sea, a vital corridor for the world’s shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians in the war with Israel. U.S. and British forces have responded by carrying out dozens of air and sea strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen since Friday. The attacks by the Houthis have continued.

Linda Thomas Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said last week that 2,000 ships since November have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea. Houthi militants have threatened or taken hostage mariners from more than 20 countries.

The Red Sea attacks have already caused significant disruptions to global trade. Oil prices have edged higher in recent days, though Brent crude futures were down slightly in early trading Tuesday.

The U.S. launched a new strike against the Houthis on Tuesday, hitting anti-ship missiles in the third assault on the Iranian-backed group in recent days. The strike came as the Iranian-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack against the Malta-flagged bulk carrier Zografia in the Red Sea. No one was injured.

Sullivan said it was critical that countries with influence on Tehran and other Middle East capitals make it clear “that the entire world rejects wholesale the idea that a group like the Houthis can basically hijack the world.”

President Joe Biden’s senior adviser acknowledged that the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea as well as groups allied with Iran carrying out attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen pose concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could escalate even as Israeli officials have indicated a shift in intensity in their military campaign.

“We have to guard against and be vigilant against the possibility that in fact, rather than heading towards de-escalation, we are on a path of escalation that we have to manage,” Sullivan said.

The comments from Sullivan came after Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said during an appearance at the Davos forum that the situation in the Middle East is a “recipe for escalation everywhere.” He said Qatar believes that ending the conflict in Gaza will stop the Houthis and militant groups from launching attacks elsewhere in the region.

Sullivan on Tuesday met with Al Thani as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, according to the White House.

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling U.S. Consulate compound in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Iraq on Tuesday called the attacks, which killed several civilians, a “blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and recalled its ambassador from Tehran.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-to-relist-yemen-s-houthis-as-specially-designated-global-terrorists-ap-sources-say/7443322.html Save to Pocket

AQMD officials criticize landfill response 

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

Chiquita accused of releasing ‘misleading’ statements on potential health impacts   ]Representatives from the South Coast Air Quality Management District on Tuesday criticized Chiquita Canyon Landfill for its response to an ongoing crisis at the Val Verde facility that’s been responsible for 113 violations, as well as allegations that the landfill has put out “misleading” statements […]

The post <strong>AQMD officials criticize landfill response</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/aqmd-officials-criticize-landfill-response/ Save to Pocket

FBI: Beware of thieves building Androxgh0st botnets using stolen creds

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Infecting networks via years-old CVEs that should have been patched by now

Crooks are exploiting years-old vulnerabilities to deploy Androxgh0st malware and build a cloud-credential stealing botnet, according to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/fbi_botnet_warning/ Save to Pocket

Update: The Family Who Died at Eagle Pass

date: 2024-01-17, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Often lost in the gamesmanship of border politics are details of those who tragically die trying to get to this country. In 2022, the most recent year for which records are available, nearly 700 people perished or disappeared trying to come to the United States. The International Organization for Migration says this is the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide.

https://steady.substack.com/p/update-the-family-who-died-at-eagle Save to Pocket

Deputies: One transported to hospital after vehicle hits motorcycle 

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

One person was transported to a local hospital after a vehicle hit a motorcycle Monday afternoon near the intersection of Smyth Drive and Copper Hill Drive, according to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials.  Deputies responded to a call reporting a traffic collision on the 28000 block of Smyth Drive at approximately 4:03 p.m. and […]

The post <strong>Deputies: One transported to hospital after vehicle hits motorcycle</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/deputies-one-transported-to-hospital-after-vehicle-hits-motorcycle/ Save to Pocket

Hart district to look at big purchases for field upgrades 

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Signal

New lights at five high school fields, new turf at Canyon High would cost more than $4.5 million  The William S. Hart Union High School District is looking to spend millions on adding lights to the five high school fields that do not yet have them.  The Hart district governing board is scheduled to vote […]

The post <strong>Hart district to look at big purchases for field upgrades</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/hart-district-to-look-at-big-purchases-for-field-upgrades/ Save to Pocket

Disney Has a Good Disney+ App for VisionOS (and, by the Way, I Got Another 30-Minute Hands-On Experience With Vision Pro)

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-on-apple-vision-pro-ushers-in-a-new-era-of-storytelling-innovation-and-immersive-entertainment/ Save to Pocket

Boss fight between Donkey Kong champ and leaderboard org ends with settlement

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Video game record keepers Twin Galaxies finish messy four-year fight with Billy Mitchell

Retro Tech Week  The world-beating video game scores of self-styled arcade legend Billy Mitchell have been reinstated following a settlement with record-keeping org Twin Galaxies, which had wiped his achievements in 2018 following allegations of cheating.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/twin_galaxies_billy_mitchell_kong/ Save to Pocket

CVS Pharmacy at USC Village to close next month

date: 2024-01-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

An employee confirmed the closure but didn’t specify on which date it would occur.

The post CVS Pharmacy at USC Village to close next month appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/16/cvs-pharmacy-usc-village-will-close/ Save to Pocket

Feb. 4: Hart High Baseball Team Preview, Alumni Game

date: 2024-01-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The 2024 Hart High School Baseball Team Preview and Alumni Game (3-Inning) will be held Sunday, Feb. 4 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m

https://scvnews.com/feb-4-hart-high-baseball-team-preview-alumni-game/ Save to Pocket

San Clemente Will Have To Wait For Better Sand, Delaying Replenishment Project

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The contractor is expected to get back to work in about two months with better quality sand.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/san-clemente-will-have-to-wait-for-better-sand-delaying-replenishment-project Save to Pocket

After Four Decades Of Acting, Willem Dafoe Is Still Trying To ‘Mix It Up’

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

From ‘Platoon’ to ‘Poor Things,’ Willem Dafoe’s career is fluid and full of wonder.

https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/willem-dafoe-is-still-trying-to-mix-it-up Save to Pocket

86-DOS revisited

date: 2024-01-17, from: OS News

Recently, the oldest known versions of DOS were uploaded to the internet, and Michal Necasek dove into the floppy images. Even after more than 40 years(!), old software releases and pre-releases can still surface. In the case of 86-DOS 0.11 and 0.34 it’s practically a miracle, since there were probably never very many copies in existence. For the first time since the early 1980s, FAT formatted floppies with the primordial 16-byte directory entry format have come to light. The old 16-byte directory entries were gone by 86-DOS 1.0 in April 1981 and of course never appeared in any public PC DOS release. These prehistoric versions of 86-DOS allow us to fill in further missing pieces in the puzzle of DOS origins. It is fascinating to follow how DOS developed from almost nothing to a multi-million dollar business in the course of just a few years. ↫ Michal Necasek It started out so humbly. Yet, here we are, in 2024, and variants of DOS still have their uses in certain niches. An incredible legacy, for sure.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138343/86-dos-revisited/ Save to Pocket

The Home Page | Sparkling Pools and Twinkling Lights

date: 2024-01-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Open houses and tons of tacos.

The post The Home Page | Sparkling Pools and Twinkling Lights appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/the-home-page-sparkling-pools-and-twinkling-lights/ Save to Pocket

Wednesday 17 January, 2024

date: 2024-01-17, from: John Naughton’s online diary

This is how you do it Trinity Street, Cambridge. Quote of the Day ”I love criticism so long as it is unqualified praise.” Noel Coward Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Tuba Skinny | Jubilee Stomp – Royal Street … Continue reading →

https://memex.naughtons.org/wednesday-17-january-2024/39036/ Save to Pocket

A shocking amount of the web is machine translated: insights from multi-way parallelism

date: 2024-01-17, from: OS News

We show that content on the web is often translated into many languages, and the low quality of these multi-way translations indicates they were likely created using Machine Translation (MT). Multi-way parallel, machine generated content not only dominates the translations in lower resource languages; it also constitutes a large fraction of the total web content in those languages. We also find evidence of a selection bias in the type of content which is translated into many languages, consistent with low quality English content being translated en masse into many lower resource languages, via MT. Our work raises serious concerns about training models such as multilingual large language models on both monolingual and bilingual data scraped from the web. ↫ Brian Thompson, Mehak Preet Dhaliwal, Peter Frisch, Tobias Domhan, Marcello Federico As a translator myself, this is entirely unsurprising. Translating is a craft, a skill, and much like with any other craft, you get what you pay for. If you pay your translator(s) a good rate, you get a good translation. If you pay your translator(s) a shit rate, you get a shit translation. If you pay nothing, you get nothing. I’m definitely seeing more and more people in my industry integrate machine translations, but so far, it’s not been an actual issue – I have no qualms about accepting a job where I take a machine-translated text and whip it into shape and turn it into a human-readable, quality translation… As long as people pay me a reasonable rate for it. Working from a machine translation is often quicker and easier, so the going rate obviously reflects that. The quality of machine translations is absolutely atrocious, however, and the idea of relying on it for texts other people – customers, clients, employees, etc. – are actually supposed to read and work from is terrifying. Google Translate is an effective tool for personal use, but throwing, I don’t know, your product’s manual at it and dumping the unedited result onto your customers is borderline criminal. Pay nothing, get nothing.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138340/a-shocking-amount-of-the-web-is-machine-translated-insights-from-multi-way-parallelism/ Save to Pocket

htmx is composable??

date: 2024-01-17, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Tom Kellog blog

http://timkellogg.me/blog/2024/01/17/htmx Save to Pocket

FOSSASIA PGDay 2024 takes place in Hanoi, Vietnam on April 9

date: 2024-01-17, from: PostgreSQL News

FOSSASIA PGDay is a one day conference that will take place at the annual FOSSASIA Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 9, 2024.

The event is dedicated to all things PostgreSQL! FOSSASIA PGDay will be a day filled with insightful talks, engaging discussions, and hands-on sessions, creating a platform for the PostgreSQL community to share, learn, and connect.

Call for Speakers

The Call for Speakers is open. Please select the PGDay track and one of the PGDay session choices in the submission form.

We are particularly interested in submissions on the following topics:

• High Availability in Postgres
• Disaster Recovery
• Logical Replication
• Distributed Data in PostgreSQL
• Database Authentication and Encryption Methods
• Indexing and Partitioning in PostgreSQL
• Performance Tuning

Talk slots are 20 minutes long or 40 minutes. Please tell us the proposed length of your session at the time of submission.

Registration

The PGDay is part of the FOSSASIA Summit. Registration for the FOSSASIA Summit will give you access to PGDay as well. For more information and updates, please visit summit.fossasia.org/pgday

Sponsorship & Contact

Our call for sponsors is also open. Details on the PGDay website! Please contact us at office@fossasia.org to discuss opportunities.

See you at FOSSASIA PGDay in Vietnam!

https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/fossasia-pgday-2024-takes-place-in-hanoi-vietnam-on-april-9-2788/ Save to Pocket

Nordic PGDay 2024 - Schedule announced and open for registration

date: 2024-01-17, from: PostgreSQL News

Nordic PGDay 2024 will be held in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday, March 21, 2024 at the at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel. It features a full day with a track of PostgreSQL presentations from both Nordic and global PostgreSQL experts. It will cover a wide range of topics of interest. Alongside the main track it will include a sponsor track with presentations showcasing innovative products and services from our partners.

The schedule is now published and registration has now opened. Seats are limited so we recommend that you register early if you are interested! There are 30 Early bird discounted tickets available until the 21st of February 2024; grab yours before they run out or the campaign ends.

Nordic PGDay is proud to be a PostgreSQL Community Recognised Conference.

We look forward to seeing you in Oslo!

https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/nordic-pgday-2024-schedule-announced-and-open-for-registration-2789/ Save to Pocket

Case Study: The Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative and ROR

date: 2024-01-17, from: ROR Research ID Blog

Professor Cameron Neylon of Curtin University talks telephones, power outlets, chat services, persistent identifier education, federated versus centralized curation, providing actionable information to universities, and why the COKI Open Access Dashboard relies on ROR.

https://ror.org/blog/2024-01-17-coki-case-study/ Save to Pocket

Expedition 69 Crew, Three NASA Astronauts to Share Mission Highlights

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

Jan. 16, 2024 RELEASE: 24-001 Four astronauts, including the current record holder for the longest single U.S. stay in space aboard the International Space Station, will make their first public appearance in Houston since returning to Earth. The crew also will be available for interviews before the event at 5 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 18, […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/expedition-69-crew-three-nasa-astronauts-to-share-mission-highlights/ Save to Pocket

NBA All-Star Game In 2026 Will Take Place At Intuit Dome

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

Mayor Bass said the major sporting events on the horizon will positively impact local businesses and public transit.

https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/nba-all-star-game-in-2026-will-take-place-at-intuit-dome Save to Pocket

CalArtians Nominated for 2024 Annie Awards

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The International Animated Film Society has announced the nominees and honorees for the 51st annual Annie Awards with CalArtians from the California Institue of the Arts in Valencia named among those recognized for their contributions to the animation industry across multiple categories

https://scvnews.com/calartians-nominated-for-2024-annie-awards/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Early Opportunities to Test WordPress 6.5.

https://make.wordpress.org/test/2024/01/13/early-opportunities-to-test-wordpress-6-5/ Save to Pocket

The Queen Mary Turns A Profit After Years of Debt And Disrepair

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The beloved ocean liner turned a profit last year after years of neglect, headaches and major debt.

https://laist.com/news/la-history/the-queen-mary-turns-a-profit-after-years-of-debt-and-disrepair Save to Pocket

Valencia basketball takes round two with Hart

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

After a heartbreaking loss in the first go with Hart Indians boys’ basketball, the Valencia Vikings overcame adversity and won on the road.  The Vikings won the Foothill League battle, 69-57, on Friday, and did so without McDonald’s All-American nominee Bryce Bedgood and shooting guard Jacob Michel-Zavala for a chunk of the second half.  Michel-Zavala […]

The post <strong>Valencia basketball takes round two with Hart</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/valencia-basketball-takes-round-two-with-hart/ Save to Pocket

A Coveted Crypt Next To Marilyn Monroe In Westwood Could Be Yours — For The Right Price

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The LAist

The burial spot, which also neighbors Hugh Hefner, is going up for auction in March.

https://laist.com/news/a-coveted-crypt-next-to-marilyn-monroe-in-westwoo-could-be-yours Save to Pocket

Trump’s Dominance in Iowa Sets Tone for Republican Primary

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-s-dominance-in-iowa-sets-tone-for-republican-primary-/7442836.html Save to Pocket

There’s a New Kind of Energy Risk: Cold Winter Mornings

date: 2024-01-16, from: Heatmap News

The Texas grid has had two close calls already this week, leading ERCOT, the electricity market that covers about 90% of the state, to ask households, businesses, and government agencies to conserve energy due to high demand. These calls for moderation are nothing new — ERCOT issued several of them issued this summer, when temperatures were over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in much of the state. What’s new is that these calls weren’t coming on sweltering afternoons, but rather on freezing mornings.

Traditionally, we start to get nervous about the electric grid in the summertime around sunset. With air conditioners running and people getting home from work, demand for electricity goes up just as a major source of it (that is, solar power) starts to taper off. This effect is known in California as the “duck curve,” and in Texas as the “dead armadillo curve,” referring to the shape of graphs showing hourly demand on the grid.

The basic issue on very cold days like the ones Texas has been experiencing is that people wake up and start consuming electricity — especially heat, which is largely electric in Texas — before the sun comes up. Solar power provides around a fifth of the state’s electricity in the afternoon, even in winter. But at 7 a.m. on a January morning in Austin, the sun is nowhere to be found. Add on the fact that the rest of the system, especially its natural gas production system and power plants, is at risk of weather-related issues — sometimes literally freezing — and winter, especially winter mornings, become very touch-and-go.

While the Texas grid is unique in its relatively free-market organization and isolation from the rest of the country, it is certainly not unique in experiencing winter — if anything, more of the country may start to look like Texas. Not every decarbonized energy system would be at the mercy of very cold mornings, and batteries for storing excess electricity on the grid can help fill gaps when solar is unavailable. But decarbonization nationwide will necessarily lead to load growth, which means that making it so you can get out of bed and keep your toes warm will put pressure on electricity systems everywhere.

New England’s grid is forecasting that its winter peak demand will increase around 3% per year, three times faster than the summer peak, with some 3,000 megawatts of that 6,000 to 9,000 MW projected increase coming from electrification of home heating. In New York, grid planners expect heating-related demand to double over 30 years, and even surpass summer demand by around 2040 thanks to a combination of electric vehicle adoption and the use of heat pumps for home heating. In Quebec, which features a unique combination of extremely cold winter temperatures and plentiful green energy in the form of hydropower from its massive dams, plus home heating systems that are mostly electric already, demand tends to peak on very cold winter days.

While Texas is unlikely to pursue climate policy as aggressive as New England, New York, or (shudders) Canada, it does have a burgeoning renewables sector and an incumbent electrified home heating system that leaves it vulnerable to weather-dictated swings in demand.

And Texas has been uncommonly cold lately. In Austin, temperatures have remained below freezing since very early Sunday morning, dipping as low as 18 degrees on Monday and Tuesday mornings. In Houston, temperatures got as low as 20 on Tuesday morning. The system burst through its January demand record by 5,000 megawatts early this week, breaking a record set in late 2022 during Winter Storm Elliott.

This time, the grid was able to meet the high winter demand without malfunctioning, unlike during 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, when much of the state’s generation system tripped offline for days, resulting in prolonged blackouts and hundreds of deaths.

Since Winter Storm Uri, advocates and analysts have bemoaned that while Texas does have electrified heating, it tends to be inefficient resistance heat (think electric furnaces and baseboard heating) instead of more efficient heat pumps, which is then called upon to heat homes built with little or sometimes no insulation. At very low temperatures, according to one expert report on Winter Storm Uri, “uninsulated homes cannot be heated effectively.” Texas only adopted a mandatory building code in 2001; last year, the state’s Governor Greg Abbott vetoed a bill that would have updated codes for new buildings in the course of a fight with the state legislature over property taxes.

https://heatmap.news/climate/texas-grid-demand-cold-mornings Save to Pocket

What If The Bear, But a Commercial for Coke?

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/what-if-the-bear-but-a-commercial-for-coke Save to Pocket

Pentagon using ChatGPT? Oh sure, for cyber-things and veterans, says OpenAI

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Just days after ban on ‘military and warfare’ applications goes away, Davos hears the details

OpenAI is developing AI-powered cybersecurity capabilities for the US military, and shifting its election security work into high gear, the lab’s execs told the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/us_military_openai/ Save to Pocket

iPod podcasting nostalgia

date: 2024-01-16, from: John’s World Wide Wall Display

I found my old iPod last night, took a while to get it to boot, but I recorded a microcast just for nostalgia. I use this quite a lot around 2005-9 to record podcasts with my primary classes. There seem to be some interesting crackles added this time. Suprisingly it mounted on my mac, I […]

https://johnjohnston.info/blog/ipod-podcasting-nostalgia/ Save to Pocket

curl is a CNA

date: 2024-01-16, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog

The curl project has been accepted as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for vulnerabilities in all products directly made or managed by the project. If I’m counting correctly, we are the 351st CNA. The official announcement from Mitre states: curl is now a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) for all products made and managed by the … Continue reading curl is a CNA →

https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/01/16/curl-is-a-cna/ Save to Pocket

Lilbits: Apple v Epic, Apple v Masimo, Microsoft Copilot v your wallet, and Motorola’s new budget phone

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

The legal battle between Epic Games and Apple that began in 2020 has now come to an end. The US Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals from either company, which means lower court rulings will remain in effect. For the most part that’s a win for Apple. But there is one significant change that’s […]

The post Lilbits: Apple v Epic, Apple v Masimo, Microsoft Copilot v your wallet, and Motorola’s new budget phone appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/lilbits-apple-v-epic-apple-v-masimo-microsoft-copilot-v-your-wallet-and-motorolas-new-budget-phone/ Save to Pocket

Movie Money in the EU: A Deception Circulating in Plain Sight

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: RAND blog

Altered design banknotes—often referred to as movie money or prop copies—have a similar shape and color to real euros. Without close inspection, they can easily be accepted as genuine money. They include disclaimers but they are still illegal.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/01/movie-money-in-the-eu-a-deception-circulating-in-plain.html Save to Pocket

Elton John Just Became an EGOT Winner

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

With his victory at last night’s Emmy Awards, the celebrated musician is the 19th person in history to take home an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elton-john-egot-winner-180983595/ Save to Pocket

Bluesky Adds RSS

date: 2024-01-16, from: Michael Tsai

Open RSS (via Hacker News): The link to a user’s RSS feed is quite lengthy, making it not so easy to remember, and you can’t really tell which user’s profile an RSS feed is for just by looking at it.[…]So if a user has their posts set to be visible only to logged-in users, you […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/01/16/bluesky-adds-rss/ Save to Pocket

Resolving Trusted Execution Problems

date: 2024-01-16, from: Michael Tsai

Quinn: If you’re developing software for macOS your goal is to avoid trusted execution entanglements. You want users to install and use your product without taking any special steps. If, for example, you ship an app that’s blocked by Gatekeeper, you’re likely to lose a lot of customers, and your users’ hard-won trust.[…]If you launch […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/01/16/resolving-trusted-execution-problems/ Save to Pocket

Carl Zimmer: Why are some mushrooms “magic”? “I like to imagine them…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043787-carl-zimmer-why-are-some Save to Pocket

Part of Santa Clara River Trail Closed Weekdays for Fence Repair

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The Santa Clara River Trail behind Lowe’s on Bouquet Canyon Road in Saugus will be closed Monday-Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. starting Tuesday, Jan. 

https://scvnews.com/part-of-santa-clara-river-trail-closed-weekdays-for-fence-repair/ Save to Pocket

This DIY PlayStation 5 “tablet” puts the guts of Sony’s console into a (kind of) portable game system

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

Sony’s PlayStation 5 game console has been around since late 2020, but it’s undergone some changes since then, most notably with the launch of a new “PlayStation 5 Slim” model released last fall. Among other changes? The motherboard has gotten a lot smaller. So YouTuber Matthew Perks decided it was time to transplant that motherboard […]

The post This DIY PlayStation 5 “tablet” puts the guts of Sony’s console into a (kind of) portable game system appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/this-diy-playstation-5-tablet-puts-the-guts-of-sonys-console-into-a-kind-of-portable-game-system/ Save to Pocket

Three Former Major League Players to be Inducted in the Santa Barbara Foresters Hall of Fame

date: 2024-01-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Josh Jung, Brett Hayes, and Dana Eveland will be honored on January 28, and the community is invited.

The post Three Former Major League Players to be Inducted in the Santa Barbara Foresters Hall of Fame appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/three-former-major-league-players-to-be-inducted-in-the-santa-barbara-foresters-hall-of-fame/ Save to Pocket

‘It hasn’t delivered’: The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology

date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog

The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20240111-it-hasnt-delivered-the-spectacular-failure-of-self-checkout-technology Save to Pocket

How ‘sleeper agent’ AI assistants can sabotage your code without you realizing

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Today’s safety guardrails won’t catch these backdoors, study warns

Analysis  AI biz Anthropic has published research showing that large language models (LLMs) can be subverted in a way that safety training doesn’t currently address.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/poisoned_ai_models/ Save to Pocket

Foraging for the Family

date: 2024-01-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Melany Kahn is coming to Santa Barbara to tell us to search for mushrooms with our kids.

The post Foraging for the Family appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/foraging-for-the-family/ Save to Pocket

Iceland Volcano Eruption Destroys Homes, May Signal a New Era of Frequent Activity

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Fissures near Grindavík ejected lava for the second time in one month and engulfed three homes in the coastal fishing town

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/iceland-volcano-eruption-destroys-homes-may-signal-new-era-frequent-activity-180983600/ Save to Pocket

NASA, DOD Seek Universities to Develop CubeSats for Launch

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force to offer a set of hands-on learning engagements that will help higher education institutions, faculty, and students learn more about what it takes to build small satellites and be selected for flight opportunities.  Teams selected for the University Nanosatellite Program Mission Concepts 2024 […]

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/somd/launch-services-office/lsp/nasa-dod-seek-universities-to-develop-cubesats-for-launch-2/ Save to Pocket

See the Face of Roman Britain’s Only Known Crucifixion Victim

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

A forensic artist has reimagined what the man may have looked like 2,000 years ago

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-the-face-of-roman-britains-only-known-crucifixion-victim-180983596/ Save to Pocket

Brass Bird Coffee Is Perking Up Carpinteria

date: 2024-01-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Euro-style café offers creative food and drinks.

The post Brass Bird Coffee Is Perking Up Carpinteria appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/16/brass-bird-coffee-is-perking-up-carpinteria/ Save to Pocket

“When We Return You Won’t Recognise Us”

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/when-we-return-you-wont-recognise-us Save to Pocket

Day in Review (January 16–18)

date: 2024-01-16, from: Association of Research Libraries News

Last Updated on January 17, 2024, 2:43 pm ET Sign up to receive the Day in Review by email. Jump to: Wednesday, January 17 | Thursday, January 18 Tuesday, January…

The post Day in Review (January 16–18) appeared first on Association of Research Libraries.

https://www.arl.org/day-in-review/day-in-review-january-16-18/ Save to Pocket

WobblyBox, a web component for wobbly boxes

date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Rupert blog

For years the latest articles list on my homepage had a neat little CSS trick where each post had wobbly “rough boxes” around them. To create the effect I used a script from css-houdini.rocks aptly named Rough Boxes. One minor problem, CSS Houdini paintlets aren’t – and probably never will be – cross-browser. Do websites have to look the same in every browser? No. But after half a decade of not seeing those wobbly boxes on iOS, I decided to abandon Houdini and draw my own quirky boxes… so I made a web component that you can use today called <wobbly-box>!

View on GitHub

Introducing WobblyBox

WobblyBox is a web component for drawing wobbly boxes around your content. Copy or install the file into your project then wrap any element you want WobblyBox around with the <wobbly-box> Custom Element.

<script type="module" src="wobbly-box.js"></script>
<wobbly-box>
    Any content goes here
</wobbly-box>

Making a WobblyBox with SVG and Border-Image

I wanted something as simple as the Houdini script so I started looking at porting the <canvas>-based paintlet script but couldn’t get over the feeling that SVG might be the best fit.

Inside every SVG path there are some little commands in the path string. Some you may already know like M is for “move”, Z is for “terminate”, L is for “line”. One I didn’t know about was Q which creates a point on the path and bends the path towards that point in a bit of an arc.

Q was a major unlocking for the effect because drawing a box in SVG is relatively easy. Here’s a 100x100 box inset 5px from the edge to account for wobble.

<path d="M5,5 95,5 95,95 5,95 5,5Z" />

The next step was adding in Q points on the path in between the points that make my box wobble…

<path d="M5,5 Q50,0 95,5 Q100,50 95,95 Q50,100 5,95 Q0,50 5,5Z" />

I wanted a bit of randomization in the borders, just like the original so I used JavaScript to generate random Q values within a few pixels positive or negative. I made some artistic choices to make it not completely random and have the top and bottom sides have the same bend while the inline sides of the box mirror each other.

The final step was to get this box I made to surround the content. I had an image that I wanted to use as a border… so I thought the not-often-used border-image property might be appropriate.

Then I wrapped it all up in a web component because that seemed like the easiest delivery vehicle. I’m happy with the final effect and it’s close to what I had before except that it avoids redrawing the entire border on resize, so that’s a plus.

Not a big roadmap

I could have – maybe should have – used a pre-existing solution like WiredJS components. I like how WiredJS looks, especially for rough prototyping, but it’s probably overkill for my little boxes. I like how simple <wobbly-box> is; more cartoony and a lot more dumb.

If I were to make some improvements, there’s three big ticket items I’m considering…

1. It’d be cool to control –wobble, –thickness, as well as –border-color
2. Get rid of magic numbers
3. Sometimes there’s a little “tuck” in the corners due to how CSS’s 9-slice borders works, I’ve tried to nudge those but it’s imperfect. It’s kind of cute, so potentially worth keeping.

But those improvements are not for today! I just needed this to work on Safari and Firefox.

https://daverupert.com/2024/01/wobblybox/ Save to Pocket

Trump Exhibits Political Resilience Amid Legal Challenges

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-exhibits-political-resilience-amid-legal-challenges/7442718.html Save to Pocket

Marcia Mayeda | A Pawsome Guide to Selecting Pet Health Insurance

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Several years ago, I was walking our three dogs at the time, Isabella, a Great Pyrenees, Rebecca, a Golden Retriever, and Lucy, a Bernese Mountain Dog. In the middle of our walk, Isabella began having difficulty breathing

https://scvnews.com/marcia-mayeda-a-pawsome-guide-to-selecting-pet-health-insurance/ Save to Pocket

US Pacific Territory Wants to Balance Chinese Tourism With Security Concerns

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

Washington — The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a U.S. territory in the western Pacific, is the only place in the United States where Chinese nationals can enter without a visa for up to 14 days.

Security hawks in the U.S. Congress want to shut down the visa waiver program, arguing it is a backdoor for Chinese citizens to enter the United States. CNMI Governor Arnold Palacios was in Washington, D.C., last week discussing this issue with government officials. He sat down with VOA to share his views on the program and the economic challenges faced by his government. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: How important is tourism to your economy — and specifically Chinese tourism?

Palacios: Tourism is our primary industry. It is our economy, basically. The significance of Chinese tourism pre-pandemic, it was close to [nearly half] of tourists that come to the Commonwealth were from mainland China. So that’s our second largest market. South Korea being the number one market. The China market is a significant market for [our] tourism industry.

VOA: When you took over as governor in January 2023, were you already aware of the visa waiver program that was giving 14-day access to Chinese nationals?

Palacios: Yes. Those visa waivers were issued in 2005. And then it was adjusted down from 45 days to 14 days. The Commonwealth and [Customs and Border Patrol] in Homeland Security cut it down to 14 days. So that’s the existing visa system that we have for China.

VOA: Do you believe that this program is responsible for the volume of Chinese tourists that you get?

Palacios: Yes, I believe so.

VOA: So, members of Congress are worried that this is a backdoor to the United States, for Chinese spies to come into this country and do the U.S. harm. What is your opinion on closing the [visa waiver] program?

Palacios: In my inaugural speech, I explained and articulated why we need to wean ourselves from dependency on the Chinese market. We saw what happened in Palau. [Editor’s note: Palau’s president has suggested his country has suffered severe economic consequences for keeping diplomatic ties with Taiwan, citing a sharp drop in Chinese tourists, which once accounted for some two-thirds of visitors, but has since dropped to almost zero.]

That’s also a concern for people [in the] Commonwealth. We have [had Chinese] folks going from Saipan to Guam by boat, landing at Ritidian Point, which is the northernmost part of Guam … the closest point if you travel by boat. Ironically and coincidentally, that’s where our military bases are. That’s where Andersen Air Force base is. And so, yeah, there’s this reason to be concerned. Obviously.

VOA: Is there a middle ground to ensure that [CNMI gets] Chinese tourists and yet reassure the U.S. government that you can do it safely?

Palacios: They’re reviewing what is called EVS-TAP.

[It’s] a more robust pre-screening of tourists, by Homeland Security and [Customs and Border Patrol] to screen the folks that want to come to Saipan or the Commonwealth. And so it’s more robust than what we have today.

That program is under review or being drafted. We would like to review it also to make sure that that we also have a say — not to dilute the authority nor the robustness of the security part, but one of the biggest concerns that we have is we know that CBP is spread thin. It’s spread thin also in specific areas. And so we have personnel assets that could be trained to assist.

VOA: Has the Department of Homeland Security been receptive to that idea?

Palacios: We haven’t heard anything back regarding the status of that program or what are the rules for it, but if that program works, I think it will be OK.

VOA: Is there a revenue source to replace lost income from the Chinese tourism market?

Palacios: Not right now, so it’s very significant. We’ve had to make drastic sacrifices in government operations and public services. People are leaving the Commonwealth because of the depressed state of the economy right now, because of the major impact of losing close to half-a-billion to a billion dollars’ worth of economic activities.

VOA: Largely because of the loss of Chinese investment and Chinese economic activity?

Palacios: Right. We are a U.S. territory, but actually most of the economic investments come from the Asian countries and the Pacific. For the past 30 years, Chinese businesses have played a significant role in economic activities in the Commonwealth, and sometimes policies that were made, you know, 9,000 miles away, sometimes they forget that they need to look at it closer, and how it impacts the American community out [here.]

At the end of the day, we will make our voices heard to our federal partners, the agencies, and hope that they understand and hopefully craft a policy that is going to meet national security standards. And at the same time, not completely kill the economy in the Commonwealth.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-pacific-territory-wants-to-balance-chinese-tourism-with-security-concerns/7442690.html Save to Pocket

Geekom APro8 Max is a game console-like mini PC with Ryzen 9 8940HS and Radeon RX 7600M XT

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

The Geekom APro8 Max is a small desktop computer that looks more like a game console than a typical PC… and that’s fitting, since it has the guts of a gaming laptop inside. After teasing the upcoming mini PC in December, Geekom showed off the APro8 Max at CES last week, where the company revealed […]

The post Geekom APro8 Max is a game console-like mini PC with Ryzen 9 8940HS and Radeon RX 7600M XT appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/geekom-apro8-max-is-a-game-console-like-mini-pc-with-ryzen-9-8940hs-and-radeon-rx-7600m-xt/ Save to Pocket

If a human does it

date: 2024-01-16, from: Manu - I write blog

Let’s just state the obvious here: AIs are not human. Should be obvious but apparently it’s not. I say it’s not because the amount of people who justify all sorts of shitty behavior coming from people working on AI models is astounding.

And the reasoning it’s always the same: it’s ok for an AI model to do X because if a human were to also do X the results would be the same. Which is a completely idiotic way of reasoning. And it’s idiotic for a few reasons.

First, if a human were to spend their time learning how to draw and paint in the style of 4000 different artists you’d be dead before getting halfway through that list. The same is true for any other stupid example.

And second, if a human were to do that we’d all condemn it pretty quickly because it goes against everything we find valuable. When a big company rips off a smaller artist everyone yells and screams. But now that AIs are doing the same that’s fine because they’re clearly not ripping off anyone, they’re just taking inspiration, like humans would do.

Except that if fucking Disney were to “just take inspiration” and steal designs from smaller artists we’d all be enraged, and for good reasons.

So please, cut the bullshit. Train your goddamn AI on whatever you want, steal all the content, but at least be honest and feel some shame.

https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/Varus2rDlaigFrwE Save to Pocket

You Can Now Walk Down ‘Rue David Bowie’ in Paris

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The city’s 13th arrondissement honored the British musical legend on what would have been his 77th birthday

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/you-can-now-visit-david-bowie-street-in-paris-180983592/ Save to Pocket

Google AI chatbot more empathetic than real doctors in tests

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

No, that does not mean machines can replace primary care physicians

An AI chatbot was better at diagnosing medical ailments and communicating results than human physicians in text-based conversations, a research paper from Google claims.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/google_ai_chatbot_heathcare/ Save to Pocket

Call for Proposals: Advancing Inclusive Computational Research with Archives Research Compute Hub

date: 2024-01-16, from: Internet Archive Blog

Last summer, Internet Archive launched ARCH (Archives Research Compute Hub), a research service that supports creation, computational analysis, sharing, and preservation of research datasets from terabytes and even petabytes of […]

https://blog.archive.org/2024/01/16/call-for-proposals-advancing-inclusive-computational-research-with-archives-research-compute-hub/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Chicago area drivers stranded their Teslas at charging stations in Chicago highlighting the foolishness of owing an EV without a reliable home charger.

https://mishtalk.com/economics/tesla-charging-stations-in-chicago-lined-with-dead-cars-and-zero-temperatures/ Save to Pocket

Jan. 15-21: Seven Productions Filming in SCV

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The city of Santa Clarita’s Film Office released the list of seven productions currently filming in the Santa Clarita Valley for the week of Monday, Jan. 15 - Sunday, Jan. 21.

https://scvnews.com/jan-15-21-seven-productions-filming-in-scv/ Save to Pocket

The Hidden Cost of Being Branded a Terrorist by the US Government

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/the-hidden-cost-of-being-branded-a-terrorist-by-the-us-government/7442338.html Save to Pocket

The U.S. Must Close the Long-Distance Power Transmission Gap with China

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: RAND blog

The gap in long-distance transmission technologies between the United States and China raises significant national security implications.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/01/the-us-must-close-the-long-distance-power-transmission.html Save to Pocket

We Set Fire to a Pair of Pants. We Put Out the Fire. We Cleaned It Up. They Kicked Us Out of Campus Housing.

date: 2024-01-16, from: The California Tech (Caltech student paper)

Oh, and I was a first-term freshman.

https://tech.caltech.edu/2024/01/16/pants-fire-frosh-evicted/ Save to Pocket

Hachette v. IA Amicus Briefs: Highlight on Privacy and Controlled Digital Lending

date: 2024-01-16, from: Authors Union blogs

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash Over the holidays you may have read about the amicus brief we submitted in the Hachette v. Internet Archive case about library controlled digital lending (CDL), which we’ve been tracking for quite some time. Our brief was one of 11 amicus briefs filed that explained to the court the […]

https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/01/16/hachette-v-ia-amicus-briefs-highlight-on-privacy-and-controlled-digital-lending/ Save to Pocket

Cat and Girl comic: “On being listed on the court document of…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043789-cat-and-girl-on-being Save to Pocket

JPMorgan latest to pile into quantum upstart with $5B valuation

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Banking giant believes Quantinuum key to optimizing investment portfolios

The wave of generative AI may have captured the world’s attention, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of capital into quantum computing as JPMorgan Chase and others plow more cash into the emerging tech.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/jpmorgan_quantum_banking/ Save to Pocket

Tim Sweeney on the SCOTUS Ruling

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Daring Fireball

https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/1747280528745624000?s=61&t=16WqqI8uLOTkQieKK2aS4g Save to Pocket

Free Clean California Coloring Books for Kids

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Central Library Children’s Division have partnered to give away free educational anti-litter Clean California Activity/Coloring Books

https://scvnews.com/free-clean-california-coloring-books-for-kids/ Save to Pocket

Daily Deals (1-16-2024)

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

Amazon is running a sale on Fire tablets that lets you pick up the latest Fire HD 8 for $65 (marked down from $100) or the latest Fire HD 10 for $95 and up (marked down from $140). Or if you’ve got a bit more money to spend and want a tablet that comes with […]

The post Daily Deals (1-16-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-1-16-2024/ Save to Pocket

NASA X-59 Unveiled During Rollout Ceremony

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

A climactic curtain drop reveals the newly painted red, white, and blue X-59 aircraft during its rollout ceremony on Jan. 12, 2024, at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California – a major milestone before its first flight. A long-standing aviation tradition, rollout ceremonies celebrate years of technical achievements. In the case of the X-59, […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-x-59-unveiled-during-rollout-ceremony/ Save to Pocket

The Baltimore Sun explores the question of whether there can be a worse newspaper owner than Alden Global Capital

date: 2024-01-16, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

It’s a question only the bravest have dared contemplate: Is there something worse for a newspaper than being owned by Alden Global Capital? The vulturous hedge fund has, after all, been traditionally seen as an end-stage owner. In the old days, newspaper owners existed in an ersatz great chain of being. Family-owned papers worried about…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/the-baltimore-sun-explores-the-question-of-whether-there-can-be-a-worse-newspaper-owner-than-alden-global-capital/ Save to Pocket

Photo series from In Focus: Lava Flows Into an Icelandic Town. There…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043790-photo-series-from-in-focu Save to Pocket

As the Planet Warms, Australia’s Numbats Are at Risk of Overheating

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The endangered, squirrel-sized marsupials forage for termites during the day—but they can become too hot after just ten minutes in direct sunlight, according to new research

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/as-the-planet-warms-australias-numbats-are-at-risk-of-overheating-180983594/ Save to Pocket

US Supreme Court doesn’t want to hear Apple, Epic’s gripes about in-app purchases

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Get ready for links to non-Cupertino payment systems, America, hopefully

Updated  Apple fans in the US may soon see links appearing in some of their iOS apps to non-Apple payment systems through which they can purchase stuff. That’s because the nation’s Supreme Court has decided not to hear appeals from the iGiant and Epic Games in the pair’s long-standing spat over this processing of in-app payments.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/apple_epic_payments_ruling/ Save to Pocket

Science Launches to Space Station on NASA’s 20th Northrop Grumman Mission

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

Tests of a 3D metal printer, semiconductor manufacturing, and thermal protection systems for reentry to Earth’s atmosphere are among the scientific investigation that NASA and international partners are launching to the International Space Station on Northrop Grumman’s 20th commercial resupply services mission. The company’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nasa-science-launches-to-space-station-20th-northrop-grumman-mission/ Save to Pocket

a shape of black: adoption as theft, ancestry as freedom

date: 2024-01-16, from: Care

            <p>matthew reflects on his own experience of severance from his family into the home of evangelical Christians in an alleged sundown town. This non-fiction horror/memoir draws on the Black radical tradition to uneasily suture the fragments of his life, where possible.</p>

https://logicmag.io/policy/a-shape-of-black Save to Pocket

NEXT WEEK: Celebrate the Public Domain In-Person & Online!

date: 2024-01-16, from: Internet Archive Blog

We’ve heard you loud and clear since January 1—you love the public domain! We do, too, so let’s celebrate together… Next week we have two events to help welcome the […]

https://blog.archive.org/2024/01/16/next-week-celebrate-the-public-domain-in-person-online/ Save to Pocket

Pluralistic: American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides (16 Jan 2024)

date: 2024-01-16, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog

Today’s links American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides: A common core, but no commons. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading American education has all the downsides of standardization, none of the upsides (permalink) We moved to America in 2015, in time for my kid to start third grade. Now she’s a year away from graduating high school (!) and I’ve had a front-row seat for the US K-12 system in a district rated as one of the best in the country. There were ups and downs, but high school has been a monster. We’re a decade and a half into the “common core” experiment in educational standardization. The majority of the country has now signed up to a standardized and rigid curriculum that treats overworked teachers as untrustworthy slackers who need to be disciplined by measuring their output through standard lessons and evaluations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core This system is rigid enough, but it gets even worse at the secondary level, especially when combined with the Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which adds another layer of inflexible benchmarks to the highest-stakes, most anxiety-provoking classes in the system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement It is a system singularly lacking in grace. Ironically, this unforgiving system was sold as a way of correcting the injustice at the heart of the US public education system, which funds schools based on local taxation. That means that rich neighborhoods have better funded schools. Rather than equalizing public educational funding, the standardizers promised to ensure the quality of instruction at the worst-funded schools by measuring the educational outcomes with standard tools. But the joke’s on the middle-class families who backed standardized instruction over standardized funding. Their own kids need slack as much as anyone’s, and a system that promises to put the nation’s kids through the same benchmarks on the same timetable is bad for everyone: https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/give-me-slack-2/ Undoing this is above my pay-grade. I’ve already got more causes to crusade on than I have time for. But there is a piece of tantalyzingly low-hanging fruit that is dangling right there, and even though I’m not gonna pick it, I can’t get it out of my head, so I figured I’d write about it and hope I can lazyweb it into existence. The thing is, there’s a reason that standardization takes hold in so many domains. Agreeing on a common standard enables collaboration by many entities without any need for explicit agreements or coordination. The existence of the ANSI/SAE J563 standard automobile auxiliary power outlet (AKA “car cigarette lighter”) didn’t just allow many manufacturers to make replacement lighter plugs. The existence of a standardized receptacle delivering standardized voltage to standardized contacts let all kinds of gadgets be designed to fit in that socket. Standards crystallize the space of all possible ways of solving a problem into a range of solutions. This inevitably has a downside, because the standardized range might not be optimal for all applications. Think of the EU’s requirement for USB-C charger tips on all devices. There’s a lot of reasons that manufacturers prefer different charger tips for different gadgets. Some of those reasons are bad (gouging you on replacement chargers), but some are good (unique form-factor, specific smart-charging needs). USB-C is a very flexible standard (indeed, it’s so flexible that some people complain that it’s not a standard at all!) but there are some applications where the optimal solution is outside its parameters. And still, I think that the standardization on USB-C is a force for good. I have drawers full of gadgets that need proprietary charger tips, and other drawers full of chargers with proprietary tips, and damned if I can make half of them match up. We’ve continued our pandemic lockdown tradition of my wife cutting my hair in the back yard, and just tracking the three different charger tips for the three clippers she uses is an ongoing source of frustration. I’d happily trade slightly sub-optimal charging for just being able to plug any of those clippers into the same cable I charge my headphones, phone, tablet and laptop on. The standardization of American education has produced all the downsides of standardization – a rigid, often suboptimal, one-size-fits-all system – without the benefits. With teachers across America teaching in lockstep, often from the same set texts (especially in the AP courses), there’s a massive opportunity for a commons to go with the common core. For example, the AP English and History classes my kid takes use standard texts that are often centuries old and hard to puzzle out. I watched my kid struggle with texts for learning about “persuasive rhetoric” like 17th century pamphlets that inspired anti-indigenous pogroms with fictional accounts of “Indian atrocities.” It’s good for American schoolkids to learn about the use of these blood libels to excuse genocide, but these pamphlets are a slog. Even with glossaries in the textbooks, it’s a slow, word-by-word matter to parse these out. I can’t imagine anyone learning a single thing about how speech persuades people just by reading that text. But there’s nothing in the standardized curriculum that prevents teachers from adding more texts to the unit. We live in an unfortunate golden age for persuasive texts that inspire terrible deeds – for example, kids could also read core Pizzagate texts and connect the guy who shot up the pizza parlor to the racists who formed a 17th century lynchmob. But teachers are incredibly time-constrained. For one thing, at least a third of the AP classroom time seems to be taken up with detailed instructions for writing stilted, stylized “essays” for the AP tests (these are terrible writing, but they’re easy to grade in a standardized way). That’s where standardization could actually deliver some benefits. If just one teacher could produce some supplemental materials and accompanying curriculum, the existence of standards means that every other teacher could use it. What’s more, any adaptations that teachers make to that unit to make them suited to their kids would also work for the other teachers in the USA. And because the instruction is so rigidly standardized, all of these materials could be keyed to metadata that precisely identified the units they belonged to. The closest thing we have to this are “marketplaces” where teachers can sell each other their supplementary materials. As far as I can tell, the only people making real money from these marketplaces are the grifters who built them and convinced teachers to paywall the instructional materials that could otherwise form a commons. Like I said, I’ve got a completely overfull plate, but if I found myself at loose ends, trying to find a project to devote the rest of my life to, I’d be pitching funders on building a national, open access portal to build an educational commons. It may be a lot to expect teachers to master the intricacies of peer-based co-production tools like Git, but there’s already a system like this that K-8 teachers across the country have mastered: Scratch. Scratch is a graphic programming environment for kids, and starting with 2019’s Scratch 3.0, the primary way to access it is via an in-browser version that’s hosted at scratch.mit.edu. Scratch’s online version is basically a kid- (and teacher-)friendly version of Github. Find a project you like, make a copy in your own workspace, and then mod it to suit your own needs. The system keeps track of the lineage of different projects and makes it easy for Scratch users to find, adapt, and share their own projects. The wild popularity of this system tells us that this model for a managed digital commons for an educational audience is eminently achievable. So when students are being asked to study the rhythm of text by counting the numbers of words in the sentences of important speeches, they could supplement that very boring exercise by listening to and analyzing contemporary election speeches, or rap lyrics, or viral influencer videos. Different teachers could fork these units to swap in locally appropriate comparitors – and so could students! Students could be given extra credit for identifying additional materials that slot into existing curricular projects – Tiktok videos, new chart-topping songs, passages from hot YA novels. These, too, could go into the commons. This would enlist students in developing and thinking critically about their curriculum, whereas today, these activities are often off-limits to students. For example, my kid’s math teachers don’t hand back their quizzes after they’re graded. The teachers only have one set of quizzes per unit, and letting the kids hold onto them would leak an answer-key for the next batch of test-takers. I can’t imagine learning math this way. “You got three questions wrong but I won’t let you see them” is no way to help a student focus on the right areas to improve their understanding. But there’s no reason that math teachers in a commons built around the (unfortunately) rigid procession of concepts and testing couldn’t generate procedural quizzes, specified with a simple programming language. These tests could even be automatically graded, and produce classroom stats on which concepts the whole class is struggling with. Each quiz would be different, but cover the same ground. When I help my kid with her homework, we often find disorganized and scattered elements of this system – a teacher might post extensive notes on teaching a specific unit. A publisher might produce a classroom guide that connects a book to specific parts of the common core. But these are scattered across the web, and they aren’t keyed to the specific, standard components of common core and AP. This is a standardized system that is all costs, no benefits. It has no “architecture of participation” that lets teachers, students, parents, practitioners and even commercial publishers collaborate to produce a commons that all may share and improve upon. In an ideal world, we’d get rid of standardization in education, pay teachers well, give them the additional time they needed to prepare exciting and relevant curriculum, and fund all our schools based on need, not parents’ income. But in the meanwhile, we could be making lemonade of out lemons. If we’re going to have standardization, we should at least have the collaboration standards enable. Hey look at this (permalink) Among Linguists, the Word of the Year Is More of a Vibe https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/crosswords/linguistics-word-of-the-year.html The FTC Just Blocked Four Mergers in a Month. Here’s How Its Latest Win Fits Into the Broader Campaign to Revive Antitrust https://www.thesling.org/the-ftc-just-blocked-four-mergers-in-a-month-heres-how-its-latest-win-fits-into-the-broader-campaign-to-revive-antitrust/ The charges against Binance https://blog.mollywhite.net/binance-script/ This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago Developing nations shouldn’t respect US copyright unless farm subsidies end https://www.wired.com/2004/01/a-taste-of-our-own-poison/ #20yrsago Self-parking Prius https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/look-no-hands-car-parks-itself-1134918.php #20yrsago Disney selling off Celebration, FL https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/16/us/disney-is-selling-a-town-it-built-to-reflect-the-past.html #15yrsago Zimbabwean $100 trillion note https://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/16/zimbawe.currency/index.html #15yrsago UK MPs to hide their expenses from Freedom of Information requests https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jan/15/freedom-of-information-expenses #10yrsago Building a fully open, transparent laptop https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/building-an-open-source-laptop/ #10yrsago Why the sum of all positive integers is -1/12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-I6XTVZXww #10yrsago NSA harvests 200M of SMSes every day with untargeted, global “Dishfire” program https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep #10yrsago Congress calls on Schneier to give it answers that the NSA won’t https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/today_i_briefed.html #10yrsago How to have a healthy relationship with technology https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/16/digital-failures-software #10yrsago What’s the most profitable price for an ebook? https://blog.luzme.com/2014/01/10-things-may-know-ebook-prices/ #10yrsago Copyright troll dodging disbarment by resigning from the bar? https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2014/01/15/how-to-avoid-disbarment-disbar-yourself/ #10yrsago The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, a graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/15/the-encyclopedia-of-early-earth-a-graphic-novel-by-isabel-greenberg/ #10yrsago Leaked: environmental chapter of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty https://wikileaks.org/tpp-enviro/ #10yrsago Booth babes are bad for business https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/13/booth-babes-dont-convert/ #10yrsago Blackphone: a privacy-oriented, high-end, unlocked phone https://web.archive.org/web/20140115183757/https://www.blackphone.ch/ #10yrsago HEADWATER: NSA program for sabotaging Huawei routers over the Internet https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/headwater_nsa_e.html #10yrsago Judge rules TSA no-fly procedures unconstitutional https://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/01/judge-rules-for-plaintiff-in-no-fly-case.html #10yrsago Dirty secrets of America’s most notorious patent troll https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/mphj-exposed-the-real-dirt-notorious-scanner-troll #10yrsago UK consultation on orphan works https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/copyright-uk-orphan-works-licensing-scheme #5yrsago Even the rightsholders think Europe’s Article 13 is a mess, call for an immediate halt in negotiations https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/even-rightsholders-think-europes-article-13-mess-call-immediate-halt-negotiations #5yrsago AOC’s debut speech on the Congressional floor: “It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-No5ClLS1W8 #5yrsago Vermont official fact-checks mobile carriers’ coverage maps, proves they’re lying like crazy https://www.vermontpublic.org/vpr-news/2019-01-16/state-official-went-roaming-around-vermont-to-test-cell-coverage-claims #5yrsago The glass is half-full (of bile over Facebook’s business-model) https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/17/18186045/facebook-pew-research-ad-targeting-consumers-quitting #5yrsago Privatized energy utilities are burning down their states, but antitrust can make them stop https://www.wired.com/story/to-prevent-wildfires-treat-utilities-like-railroad-barons/ #5yrsago Trump’s FCC chairman won’t do anything about your cellular company selling your location to bountyhunters because shutdown https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/01/ajit-pai-gives-carriers-free-pass-on-privacy-violations-during-fcc-shutdown/ #5yrsago Shutdowns don’t get bad linearly; they get bad exponentially https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-15/the-shutdown-s-bad-buckle-up-because-it-could-get-much-worse #5yrsago Tory voters: are you happy with your purchase? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae5t1CZFCU8 #5yrsago Largest dump in history: 2.7 billion records; 773 million of them unique; 140 million never seen before https://www.wired.com/story/collection-one-breach-email-accounts-passwords/” #1yrago 1,000,000 stranded Southwest passengers deserved better from Pete Buttigieg https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/16/for-petes-sake/#unfair-and-deceptive #1yrago Normalize Dark Corners! https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/15/normalize-dark-corners/ 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: The Bezzle, read by Wil Wheaton (excerpt) https://craphound.com/news/2024/01/14/the-bezzle-read-by-wil-wheaton-excerpt/ Upcoming appearances: Enshittification: The Rise and Fall of Big Tech (Crash Course Economics) https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YsKONp5zRgeF6SVuIOb6hQ#/registration Books & Books (Coral Gables, Florida), Jan 22 https://www.booksandbooks.com/event/in-person-an-evening-with-cory-doctorow/ Marshall McLuhan Lecture 2024 (Berlin), Jan 29 https://transmediale.de/en/2024/event/mcluhan-2024 The Lost Cause at Otherland (Berlin), Jan 30 https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/autor-innenabend-mit-cory-doctorow.html Recent appearances: The Lost Cause (The Writer’s Voice) https://www.writersvoice.net/2024/01/cory-doctorow-the-lost-cause/ What the Future will Bring (Homeless Romantic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Vq8qW2A8I Talking “The Lost Cause” with Warren Mosler (MMT Podcast) https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-182-cory-95211955 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/2024/01/16/flexibility-in-the-margins/ Save to Pocket

The Trailer for Adam Sandler’s Spaceman

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/the-trailer-for-adam-sandlers-spaceman Save to Pocket

Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find

date: 2024-01-16, from: 404 Media Group

“The majority of high-ranking product reviews in the result pages of commercial search engines use affiliate marketing, and significant amounts are outright SEO product review spam.”

https://www.404media.co/google-search-really-has-gotten-worse-researchers-find/ Save to Pocket

Court Rules Against Returning Nazi-Looted Pissarro Painting to Jewish Family

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Sold in exchange for exit visas in 1939, the estimated $30 million masterpiece will stay at a Spanish museum

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/court-rules-pissarro-painting-stolen-by-nazis-will-not-return-to-its-jewish-owners-180983581/ Save to Pocket

Patch now: Critical VMware, Atlassian flaws found

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

You didn’t have anything else to do this Tuesday, right?

VMware and Atlassian today disclosed critical vulnerabilities and, while neither appear to have been exploited by miscreants yet, admins should patch now to avoid disappointment.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/patch_vmware_atlassian/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

I imagine ChatGPT must have an interface that allows me to send it a bit of text via an API, and get back the same response I’d get if I were typing it into their web page. I am a paying user, I don’t want to do any more than I’m currently doing with it. I just want to be able to keep an archive of everything I do, in a format that’s more useful to me. (Update: They do have a simple API, documented here.)

http://scripting.com/2024/01/16.html#a180357 Save to Pocket

Watch the Synchronized Dance of a 6-Planet System. A star has been…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043784-watch-the-synchronized-da Save to Pocket

The new Ubisoft+ and getting gamers comfortable with not owning their games

date: 2024-01-16, from: Tilde.news

Comments

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-gamers-comfortable-with-not-owning-their-games Save to Pocket

The chips are down in China as imports see largest ever drop

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Makes sense since the global market fell 11% in 2023

China’s imports of semiconductors and integrated circuits were hit by their largest ever drop last year, although chips are said to remain the country’s biggest import item.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/china_chip_imports_fall/ Save to Pocket

NASA Administrator Names New Head of Space Technology

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

Dr. Kurt “Spuds” Vogel will serve as the new associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Tuesday. His appointment is effective immediately. Vogel succeeds James Reuter, who retired from the agency in June 2023. Dr. Prasun Desai has served as the acting […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-administrator-names-new-head-of-space-technology/ Save to Pocket

Adjust Touch Duration for Haptic Touch on the iPhone and iPad

date: 2024-01-16, from: TidBITS blog

https://tidbits.com/2024/01/16/adjust-touch-duration-for-haptic-touch-on-the-iphone-and-ipad/ Save to Pocket

AI can do your homework. Now what? “This presents a major challenge…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043783-ai-can-do-your-homework Save to Pocket

More than 178,000 SonicWall firewalls are exposed to old denial of service bugs

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Majority of public-facing devices still unpatched against critical vulns from as far back as 2022

Updated  More than 178,000 SonicWall firewalls are still vulnerable to years-old vulnerabilities, an infosec reseacher claims.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/more_than_178000_sonicwall_firewalls/ Save to Pocket

49ers-Packers playoff history: Thrilling finishes highlight NFL-high 10 postseason matchups

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

All nine of the 49ers’ prior playoff matchups with the Packers have come in the last 30 years. Here’s a look at every game.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/49ers-packers-playoff-history-thrilling-finishes-highlight-nfl-high-10-postseason-matchups/ Save to Pocket

Recognition for a job well done, 1952

date: 2024-01-16, from: National Archives, Text Message blog

Employees in a bureaucracy do not always receive recognition for their contributions to the success of their institutions.  This is especially true in large agencies facing a constant barrage of activities such as the Department of State.  There are occasional exceptions to that rule.  One of those came about in early 1952 after the mid-January … Continue reading Recognition for a job well done, 1952

https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2024/01/16/recognition-for-a-job-well-done-1952/ Save to Pocket

NASA’s IXPE Helps Researchers Maximize ‘Microquasar’ Findings

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

The powerful gravity fields of black holes can devour whole planets’ worth of matter – often so violently that they expel streams of particles traveling near the speed of light in  formations known as jets. Scientists understand that these high-speed jets can accelerate these particles, called cosmic rays, but little is definitively known about that […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/ixpe/nasas-ixpe-helps-researchers-maximize-microquasar-findings/ Save to Pocket

ECS LIVA X3A is a compact fanless PC with RK3588 processor and 4 HDMI ports

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

The ECS LIVA X3A is a small, fanless computer with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 6 support, four HDMI ports, and a Rockchip RK3588 processor. While it’s pretty clearly designed for digital signage or other commercial applications, it also seems like a versatile little multi-purpose computer. At the heart of the system is Rockchip’s RK3588 processor […]

The post ECS LIVA X3A is a compact fanless PC with RK3588 processor and 4 HDMI ports appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/ecs-liva-x3a-is-a-compact-fanless-pc-with-rk3588-processor-and-4-hdmi-ports/ Save to Pocket

Janet Jackson and very special guest kick off tour with lengthy California run

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

Janet Jackson and Nelly are set to perform at Chase Center, Golden 1 Center, Kia Forum and the Honda Center.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/janet-jackson-and-very-special-guest-kick-off-tour-with-lengthy-california-run/ Save to Pocket

Sharks Are Being Killed at Rising Rates Despite Increased Regulations

date: 2024-01-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Global bans on finning have inadvertently opened up shark meat markets, prompting demand for threatened species, a new study reveals

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sharks-are-being-killed-at-rising-rates-despite-increased-regulations-180983593/ Save to Pocket

YouTube Commenters and the Grassroots Movement Pushed Google to Support Right to Repair

date: 2024-01-16, from: 404 Media Group

Google says its own customers drove it to ultimately support a strong version of right to repair.

https://www.404media.co/youtube-commenters-and-the-grassroots-movement-pushed-google-to-support-right-to-repair/ Save to Pocket

Brent Brennan set to leave San Jose State for Arizona’s head coaching job

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

Brennan was a graduate assistant under Dick Tomey at Arizona, and the Wildcats pursued him in 2020 before going with Jedd Fisch.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/brent-brennan-set-to-leave-san-jose-state-for-arizonas-head-coaching-job/ Save to Pocket

ONEXPLAYER X1 gaming tablet with detachable controllers and Intel Meteor Lake launches in China (global launch coming soon)

date: 2024-01-16, from: Liliputing

The ONEXPLAYER X1 is a 10.95 inch tablet with a 2560 x 1600 pixel, 120 Hz display, detachable game controllers that connect to the sides, and an Intel Meteor Lake processor. Designed both as One Netbook’s largest handheld gaming PC to date, and as a multi-purpose tablet that can be used with accessories like an optional keyboard, […]

The post ONEXPLAYER X1 gaming tablet with detachable controllers and Intel Meteor Lake launches in China (global launch coming soon) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/onexplayer-x1-gaming-tablet-with-detachable-controllers-and-intel-meteor-lake-launches-in-china-global-launch-coming-soon/ Save to Pocket

From To

date: 2024-01-16, from: Chris Coyier blog

I live in the Awbrey Butte neighborhood of Bend, Oregon. Say I was going to move to Butte, Montana. I could plug those into this app and get neighborhood comparisons. Much like Awbrey Butte in Bend with its hillside views and upscale homes, Butte’s Uptown also features prominent landmarks and historic architecture. Butte’s Uptown is […]

https://chriscoyier.net/2024/01/16/from-to/ Save to Pocket

John Deere tractors get connectivity boost with Starlink deal

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

SpaceX gets chance to prove the FCC was wrong for rejecting its $885m rural broadband subsidy bid

Farm equipment maker John Deere has signed a deal with SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet service to keep combines and other farm equipment connected to the internet in underserved rural areas.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/john_deere_tractors_get_connectivity/ Save to Pocket

Supreme Court Rejects Petitions in Epic v. Apple Antitrust Case, Largely a Win for Apple

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24039983/supreme-court-epic-apple-antitrust-case-rejected Save to Pocket

Emma Stone applies to be on Jeopardy! every year — and not…

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/0043782-emma-stone-applies-to-be Save to Pocket

Why Trump ran away with Iowa

date: 2024-01-16, from: Robert Reich on Substack

Friends, The mainstream media still don’t get it. This morning’s New York Times tried to describe it and utterly failed: “Donald J. Trump’s decisive victory in Iowa revealed a new depth to the reservoir of devotion inside his party. For eight years, he has nurtured a relationship with his supporters with little precedent in politics. He validates them, he entertains them, he speaks for them and he uses them for his political and legal advantage.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-trump-ran-away-with-iowa Save to Pocket

Windows 12 fan fiction shows how Microsoft might ladle AI into the OS

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Unlikely to be a stop-the-slurpage button, but look at the wallpaper

A visualization of what Windows 12 – or whatever Microsoft decides to call its upcoming OS – might look like has arrived, and it is expectedly heavy on AI integration.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/windows_12_speculation/ Save to Pocket

Tesla electric vehicle and sales service center may sprout in San Jose

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

A Tesla electric vehicle sales store could sprout on empty land in San Jose.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/san-jose-tesla-real-estate-electric-car-green-store-build-economy-tech/ Save to Pocket

Apple Teases New Entertainment Experiences Launching With Vision Pro

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/01/apple-previews-new-entertainment-experiences-launching-with-apple-vision-pro/ Save to Pocket

US Seizes Iranian-Made Missile Parts in Raid Near Somali Coast

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

JERUSALEM — U.S. Navy SEALs seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weapons bound for Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militants in a raid last week where two service members went missing, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The SEALs boarded a traditional dhow sailing vessel near the coast of Somalia in international waters of the Arabian Sea, seizing Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components, including propulsion, guidance, and warheads for Houthi medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.

The raid last Thursday marked the “first seizure of advanced Iranian-manufactured ballistic missile and cruise missile components by the U.S. Navy since November 2019,” the U.S. military said. As the SEALs were boarding the dhow in rough seas, one SEAL got knocked off by high waves. A fellow SEAL went in after him, and both remain missing.

The U.S. military detained the dhow’s 14 crew members and sank the ship after deeming it unsafe, according to CENTCOM. A United Nations resolution bans arms transfers to the Houthis. Iran has denied arming the Houthis despite evidence of the contrary.

The announcement came as Houthi militants attacked another ship traveling through international waters in the region on Tuesday. The Maltese-flagged vessel was struck by a missile and sustained some damage, though no one was wounded, according to officials.

Earlier on Tuesday, U.S. forces destroyed four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles that were prepared to launch from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. A U.S. defense official said the ballistic missiles “presented an imminent threat to both merchant and U.S. Navy ships in the region.”

The Houthis have launched a series of attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The militants say the attacks are due to Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but many of the ships targeted have no links to Israel.

The military said missile components seized during last week’s raid included parts like those used in recent Houthi attacks. Images released by the U.S. military showed components resembling motors for rockets and what looked like an anti-ship cruise missile’s turbojet engine.

The United States, Britain and a handful of other allies answered dozens of Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with a series of powerful airstrikes on Friday and Saturday designed to severely degrade the Iranian-backed group’s capabilities.

U.S. and U.K. military leaders said the strikes hit dozens of targets ranging from command-and-control nodes, munitions depots, launching sites for drones and missiles, and production facilities.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-military-seizes-iranian-missile-parts-bound-for-houthi-rebels-2-seals-still-missing/7442175.html Save to Pocket

How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles

date: 2024-01-16, from: Quanta Magazine

The post How to Guarantee the Safety of Autonomous Vehicles first appeared on Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-to-guarantee-the-safety-of-autonomous-vehicles-20240116/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

People choose to interop because it helps them find new users. If you have no users to offer, there won't be much interest in interop.

https://this.how/standards/#1497798790000 Save to Pocket

Challenges players face

date: 2024-01-16, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog

Challenges players face

I’m running Arden Vul as an open table. Sessions are generally less than 2h long. There are maybe a dozen players, maybe half of them regulars. Arden Vul is a megadungeon. The PDF has about 1200 pages. There are many entrances, many levels, many factions, and so on. As it is a megadungeon, players can choose for themselves what difficulty level they want to go for. Conversely, if there’s a new player with a level 1 character, they can all agree to stick to lower level characters in order to make an adventure party that promises an entertaining evening for all.

Recently, I’ve started noticing that the setup introduces some player challenges that I hadn’t thought of.

If the party is powerful and the opposition is strong but clearly less powerful, then frontal assaults “work” but at the same time the session only lasts for a certain number of hours and endless fighting killing many dozens of goblins, skeletons or cultists turns out to be somewhat boring and sap away time. Even if the characters aren’t hurt, time is lost.

This is a challenge that attacks player entertainment somewhat like character death or long character creation, I feel.

You know how regular combat in the game attacks the player characters. Some elements of it also attack player resources. This is mostly related to character death. The result forces the player to do things they dislike: start with a new character that has fewer levels, fewer connections, less money, or incurs some other loss. Furthermore, if character creation takes a very long time, then the player has to spend the time thinking up a new build, a new concept.

In a way, an opposition that acts like a morass, wasting time unless the players find another way to circumvent the problem, is a similar attack upon the enjoyment of players. No amount of attack bonuses and initiatives won helps against waves of undead if you can’t turn them or hold them off some other way.

But there is more!

Since the megadungeon has a lot of doors and secrets that need keys, and artefacts that are required for certain goals or quests, it’s important to note who has what, and where it was found. I don’t want there to be a virtual pool of plot items in a bag of holding that is always with the group currently adventuring because even though everybody likes it now I dread the first total party kill where I announce that all the plot items are now lost. That’ll be the end of the campaign for sure.

I confess that I also hope on some level that knowing who has what plot-relevant item increases interactivity as people start to realize that for this or that to happen, they need to contact the player of the character who’s the owner of a particular item.

But yes, if players stop showing up, their characters don’t show up and the items they have, both magic items they found and plot items they hold, effectively disappear from the game.

So this is an additional player challenge of their organisational skills. Can they keep track of the items? Can they organise hand-overs?

Arden Vul is also a megadungeon where hints can be found in the hundreds of rumours, wall scribbles, frescos, mosaics, and so on. But if nobody collects and studies them, the information is effectively lost. If one player keeps notes on paper, or in their Google Docs, that information is effectively lost to the others.

I know that as a player in the Barrowmaze I’m also not a great organiser of rumours heard and information gathered. There is space for improvement!

So this is another player challenge: how to best share information. Can they build a knowledge repository somewhere, that helps them distribute information and collect hypothesises and conclusions?

The same is true about the ruins explored, entrances found, and perhaps more importantly, the places where no entrances were found but also they left before making absolutely sure. In a few sessions, players don’t remember where they’ve been and they don’t remember whether an area was fully explored. This duplicates effort and lost opportunities.

All in all, this is a sort of price to pay for the freedom players have in this kind of setup.

#RPG #ArdenVul

https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-01-13-challenging-players Save to Pocket

100 Layer Lasagna

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/01/100-layer-lasagna Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

I think it’s fair to say that the new FeedLand, at feedland.com, and running in Automattic’s cloud, is stable, and performing nicely. So if you have an account on feedland.org, the original system, which is still running of course, you could now reasonably move to feedland.com. To do so, just export your OPML subscription list from .org, create a new account on .com, and import the subscription list. It might take a while for all the new feeds to be fully updated, but you’ll be rewarded by a higher performance user experience. Thanks to Matt and company for giving us access to this phenomenal resource. I still haven’t gotten used to designing with the assumption that my system can scale as far as it seems it can.

http://scripting.com/2024/01/16.html#a153348 Save to Pocket

Apple claims top spot in global smartphone market for first time

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Shipments grow in Q4 after near two years of declines, and Huawei making a comeback in China

Apple’s iPhone is the frontrunner in the global smartphone market for the first time after demand finally returned to a sector that has shrunk for almost two years.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/apple_tops_smartphone_market/ Save to Pocket

Build Your Own Cloud IDE with the Subhosting API

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: Deno blog

This tutorial will show you how to build a simple cloud IDE using the Deno Subhosting API.

https://deno.com/blog/build-cloud-ide-subhosting Save to Pocket

skyjake/lagrange - Release v1.17.6

date: 2024-01-16, from: Tilde.news

Comments

https://github.com/skyjake/lagrange/releases/tag/v1.17.6 Save to Pocket

Author Interview: Insights on Pinna nobilis genetic connectivity in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea

date: 2024-01-16, from: PeerJ blog

https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284888781/author-interview-insights-on-pinna-nobilis-genetic-connectivity-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-sea/ Save to Pocket

Career Journey: Cooking Up a Job as a Space Food Scientist

date: 2024-01-16, from: NASA breaking news

As the Space Food Systems manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Xulei Wu works with a team to create tasty, shelf-stable meals for astronauts aboard the International Space Station and, soon, for crews flying to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. What does it take to become a space food scientist […]

https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/career-journey-space-food-scientist/ Save to Pocket

Pac-12 MBB power ratings: Oregon is No. 1, WSU jumps after toppling Arizona

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

The surprising Ducks are unbeaten in league play after three weeks.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/pac-12-mbb-power-ratings-oregon-is-no-1-wsu-jumps-after-toppling-arizona/ Save to Pocket

Ivanti zero-day exploits explode as bevy of attackers get in on the act

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Customers still patchless and mitigation only goes so far

There’s a “reasonable chance” that Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS) VPN users are already compromised if they didn’t apply the vulnerability mitigation released last week, experts say.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/ivanti_zeroday_exploits_explode_into/ Save to Pocket

Israel’s ‘People’s Army’ at War

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: RAND blog

The IDF’s relationship with Israeli society, cultural predilections, and individual norms make it a very different kind of military—informing how it fights in Gaza.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/01/israels-peoples-army-at-war.html Save to Pocket

‘Oldest ever dog,’ Bobi, has title suspended amid investigation

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

The world’s “oldest ever dog” Bobi, who died in October reportedly aged 31, has provisionally lost his title as Guinness World Records (GWR) investigates his age.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/oldest-ever-dog-bobi-has-title-suspended-amid-investigation/ Save to Pocket

US airlines cancel another 1200 flights Tuesday

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

Tuesday’s disruptions come on top of more than 3,300 flight cancelations on Monday, which was highest number of cancellations since the Southwest meltdown in 2022.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/us-airlines-cancel-another-1200-flights-tuesday/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

The new FeedLand docs site is deployed.

https://docs.feedland.com/ Save to Pocket

Blinken Assures Zelenskyy of ‘Strong Enduring Support for Ukraine’

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-assures-zelenskyy-of-strong-enduring-support-for-ukraine/7442098.html Save to Pocket

Rebecca Romijn ‘incredibly shocked’ by John Stamos’ memoir, his claims she cheated, treated him poorly

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

The Berkeley-reared actor and model also said she was ‘blindsided’ by things that ex-husband Stamos said in his book, which was published in October.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/rebecca-romijn-incredibly-shocked-by-john-stamos-memoir-his-claims-she-cheated-treated-him-poorly/ Save to Pocket

Tesla owners in deep freeze discover the cold, hard truth about EVs

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Not all batteries like subzero temperatures

This week’s frigid winter conditions in North America exposed the shortcomings of certain electric vehicles, particularly Teslas.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/tesla_owners_in_deep_freeze/ Save to Pocket

Fact-checking journalism is evolving, not stagnating

date: 2024-01-16, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

“Fake news” loves a crisis. It’s clear now that false information has played a role in recent events around the world from divisive elections to the COVID pandemic to the conflict roiling Israel and Gaza. It is important to counter false claims and false narratives. And research now shows a lot more clarity about how…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/01/fact-checking-journalism-is-evolving-not-stagnating/ Save to Pocket

How pizza can explain proposed bank capital regulation

date: 2024-01-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Today is the deadline for comments on a proposed rule to increase capital requirements for large banks. It can be useful to think of the money a bank uses to fund its business as a pizza — some slices are equity, others are debt, and others are unknowns. We’ll dish up that analogy. Sticking with the food theme: Mexican food is increasingly popular with young Americans, and one in 10 eateries serves it.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/how-pizza-can-explain-proposed-bank-capital-regulation Save to Pocket

As abandoned boats pile up in Bay Area waters, who’s responsible for the environmental damage?

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

When owners get fed up with aging, costly vessels, they often dump their boats in the bay, sometimes filled to the brim with trash.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/as-abandoned-boats-pile-up-in-bay-area-waters-whos-responsible-for-the-environmental-damage/ Save to Pocket

San Jose wage theft proposal considered after Silvery Towers scandal

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

Rule would prohibit developers and contractors from moving ahead on San Jose projects if they have unpaid wage judgements

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/san-jose-wage-theft-proposal-considered-after-silvery-towers-scandal/ Save to Pocket

Audit: Oakland program that reduced gun violence to a historic low could be key to crime crisis

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

A new report says the city abandoned the core strategies that made Ceasefire a huge success in 2010s.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/audit-oakland-program-that-reduced-gun-violence-to-a-historic-low-could-be-key-to-crime-crisis/ Save to Pocket

Europe benched in high tech ‘Champions League’ says ASML

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Calls for stronger team play in the global economic tournament

The EU needs to get serious and act more decisively and collectively if it wants economic security, especially in advanced technology, as it is trailing global rivals such as Japan, China, and the US.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/eu_champions_league_asml/ Save to Pocket

Kurtenbach: The Warriors can’t answer basic questions, and that tells you everything

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

What is this Warriors team good at?

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/kurtenbach-the-warriors-cant-answer-basic-questions-and-that-tells-you-everything/ Save to Pocket

Is Archbishop Mitty making its case for best Bay Area girls basketball team ever?

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

Archbishop Mitty, led by Morgan Cheli and sophomore McKenna Woliczko, improves to 14-0 after routing Bishop O’Dowd on MLK Day 

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/is-archbishop-mitty-making-its-case-for-bay-area-girls-basketball-team-ever/ Save to Pocket

Elon Musk demands another huge payday from Tesla

date: 2024-01-16, from: San Jose Mercury News

In a series of posts on X Monday night, Musk said that he would not want to grow Tesla to become a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without a compensation plan that would give him ownership of around 25% of the company’s stock.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/01/16/elon-musk-demands-another-huge-payday-from-tesla/ Save to Pocket

FDA expands recall of Quaker Oats products

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said Quaker Oats bars, cereals and snacks sold in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and Saipan are at risk of potential salmonella contamination and has published an expanded recall of the products, the…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/fda-expands-recall-of-quaker-oats-products/article_3d9117fa-b425-11ee-a6de-b354226d37be.html Save to Pocket

Conversation on RECA expansion to ‘soon commence’

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

Discussions on expanding the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to Guam and other jurisdictions will commence “soon enough,” according to Hannah D’Avanzo, spokesperson for Guam Del. James Moylan.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/conversation-on-reca-expansion-to-soon-commence/article_30985e84-b383-11ee-b8b0-170ef4d6eada.html Save to Pocket

Hardware store burglary suspect charged

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

A man charged with burglarizing Guam Home Center in Dededo is suspected of being involved in nine other police reports from December 2023.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/hardware-store-burglary-suspect-charged/article_724cda8a-b41e-11ee-aa22-97e54bd33e28.html Save to Pocket

Another bill aims to use FY 2024 excess, but report shows only $5M unobligated

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

Another measure has been added to the growing list of bills seeking to utilize fiscal year 2024 general fund excess revenues.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/another-bill-aims-to-use-fy-2024-excess-but-report-shows-only-5m-unobligated/article_b6d74d8c-b367-11ee-825a-b77774af130d.html Save to Pocket

Man allegedly punches woman after rear-ending her vehicle

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

A man was charged with assaulting a woman known to him after hitting her car.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-allegedly-punches-woman-after-rear-ending-her-vehicle/article_2bf58eb4-b415-11ee-bac9-bf5f42224489.html Save to Pocket

Judge revokes Ricky Camp’s pretrial release

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

A former mixed martial arts fighter’s pretrial release has been revoked in a case where he was accused of several acts of assault last year.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/judge-revokes-ricky-camps-pretrial-release/article_302d21b2-b411-11ee-8c28-2731d52aac2b.html Save to Pocket

GWA looking to further change sewer hookup loan fund amount

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

Editor’s note: This article initially referred to the work session as taking place Thursday. It has been corrected to say Tuesday.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gwa-looking-to-further-change-sewer-hookup-loan-fund-amount/article_83e4909c-b40c-11ee-8fec-d3b3449a504f.html Save to Pocket

Is Your Local Police Department Using Fusus AI-Enabled Cameras? Find Out Here

date: 2024-01-16, from: 404 Media Group

404 Media has obtained a new dataset which shows the spread of Fusus cameras across the country. Check the map to see if your local law enforcement agency has signed up.

https://www.404media.co/fusus-ai-cameras-map-local-police/ Save to Pocket

F−−, Would Not Be Harassed by Again

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/01/16/f-would-not-be-harassed-by-again/ Save to Pocket

Climate Change Is Making CEOs Nervous

date: 2024-01-16, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: New York City’s Central Park has officially broken its 701-day snow-free streak • Extreme flooding from Cyclone Belal submerged cars in the ocean island nation of Mauritius • It’s 24 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in Davos, where the 54th annual World Economic Forum gathering begins this week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump’s Iowa speeches offer preview of 2024 climate attack lines

Former President Donald Trump handily won the Republican Iowa caucus on Monday night, and his speeches at the event were sprinkled with anti-climate lines we’re likely to hear more of in his 2024 presidential campaign, writes Heatmap’s Jeva Lange. In his victory speech, Trump made a jab about electric vehicle range anxiety, and promised to do more “drilling” if he gets the White House back. Earlier in the evening he told would-be voters that “I stood up for ethanol like nobody has ever stood up for it” – a dig at Biden’s climate agenda, which has aimed to limit liquid fuel in vehicles, a sensitive issue for Iowa voters during their primary season. On Sunday a group of young climate protesters disrupted one of Trump’s rallies, calling him a “climate criminal.” Trump told them to “go home to mommy.”

This was the coldest caucus in Iowa’s history thanks to a weather system that dragged temperatures below freezing for most of the country. As Lange notes: “Scientists say the arctic blast is exactly the kind of extreme event we can expect more of in a climate-changed world.”

2. Cold snap forces mass school closures

Half a million students in southern states have the day off as a dangerous cold snap forces school closures across Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas. ERCOT, which manages most of Texas’ electric load, has asked residents to conserve energy as the state faces wind chill advisories and hard freeze warnings. At least five deaths have so far been attributed to the severe winter weather. More than 70 million people across the country remain under winter weather alerts of some kind, and something like 250 daily cold temperature records are expected to be shattered today. Temperatures could warm slightly Wednesday but the National Weather Service expects another arctic blast to descend Thursday. Here’s a look at the temperature lows currently forecast for Friday night:

Temperature lows forecast for Friday night NOAA and NWS

3. Investors pressure Shell on warming emissions

Oil and gas giant Shell is facing its “most significant shareholder push on climate policy,” reports the Financial Times. A group of 27 investors – including Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi – are backing an independent resolution filed by activist group Follow This demanding the company do more to slash its greenhouse gas emissions. The resolution calls on Shell to better align its pollution targets with the Paris Agreement and focuses specifically on the emissions customers generate when they use Shell’s products, known as Scope 3 emissions. The company called the resolution “unrealistic and simplistic” and insisted its targets already align with the Paris Agreement. This isn’t Follow This’ first resolution aimed at Shell, but this one appears to have the most momentum: Its investor-backers own about 5% of Shell’s shares. Support for the resolution is expected to grow ahead of a vote at the company’s annual general meeting in May, The Guardian reports.

4. Survey: CEOs increasingly worried about climate change

A growing number of company executives across the globe are worried their firms won’t survive the next 10 years unless they undergo a major overhaul, according to a survey of 4,700 CEOs conducted by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). About 45% of the respondents are concerned about their current business models, up from 39% on last year’s survey. Among their top anxieties are artificial intelligence and – you guessed it – climate change. Nearly one-third of CEOs say they expect climate change to “alter the way they create, deliver, and capture value over the next three years.” About two-thirds of respondents say their firms are improving their energy efficiency, but support is lacking for other climate-related company initiatives:

Company actions related to climate change PwC

5. BMW says it has passed the EV tipping point

The electric vehicle tipping point has come and gone for carmaker BMW, according to the company’s chief financial officer. Most of BMW’s sales growth now comes from EVs, not combustion vehicles, CFO Walter Mertl said at a media event yesterday. He added that “the current sales plateau of combustion cars will continue and then fall off slightly.” After the company’s EV sales nearly doubled in 2023 to more than 375,000, EVs now make up 15% of total sales, and the company expects to sell more than 500,000 EVs in 2024, Reuters reports.

THE KICKER

FEMA has partnered with the Red Cross to create a printable emergency preparedness children’s game featuring a cartoon penguin named Pedro as its main character:

Ready.gov

https://heatmap.news/politics/ceo-climate-change-arctic-blast Save to Pocket

Professional Riders Brave Eight Seconds on a Bucking Bull

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

In the Western United States, professional bull riders risk serious injury on the back of bulls that can weigh more than 700 kilograms. But eight seconds on a bucking beast can mean thousands of dollars. VOA’s Scott Stearns takes us to the show.

https://www.voanews.com/a/professional-riders-brave-eight-seconds-on-a-bucking-bull/7441970.html Save to Pocket

Vodafone signs a 10-year, $1.5B deal with Microsoft that sheds European DCs

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

AI for customers and staff, while Euro bitbarns shifted to Azure

Microsoft and Vodafone have inked a 10-year deal worth $1.5 billion, resulting in the telecommunication giant shuttering physical datacenters across Europe in favor of virtual ones using Azure.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/vodafone_microsoft_ai_decade_deal/ Save to Pocket

PUSSY

date: 2024-01-16, from: Howard Jacobson blog

‘And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea….’

https://jacobsonh.substack.com/p/pussy Save to Pocket

Saving Lives Or Warehousing The Sick? Debate Continues Over New Law That Expands Criteria For Involuntary Treatment

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The LAist

Senate Bill 43 broadens the criteria for holding someone against their will. Some see it as a long overdue change; others a return to a harmful past.

https://laist.com/news/politics/saving-lives-or-warehousing-the-sick-debate-continues-over-new-law-that-expands-criteria-for-involuntary-treatment Save to Pocket

Stop TikTok from Suggesting Your Account to Others

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Markup blog

The “people you may know” may not be people you want looking at your social media profile

https://themarkup.org/gentle-january/2024/01/16/stop-tiktok-from-suggesting-your-account-to-others Save to Pocket

The Lazy Tyranny of the Wait Calculation

date: 2024-01-16, from: One Useful Thing

Taking AI timelines seriously

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-lazy-tyranny-of-the-wait-calculation Save to Pocket

A look at what’s on the docket at Davos 2024

date: 2024-01-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Today is the first full day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Among the challenges to be discussed are artificial intelligence, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, election integrity and the climate crisis. We’ll hear more about what to expect from the meeting of global leaders. Then, Lebanon is projected to slide back into recession as its tourism industry feels the economic shock of the Israel-Hamas war.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-look-at-whats-on-the-docket-at-davos-2024 Save to Pocket

Asahi Linux team issues promising update on efforts to conquer Apple Silicon

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Good progress for penguinistas keen on Macs

The Asahi Linux team has followed up the release of Fedora Asahi Remix with a post detailing the progress of the project to bring Linux to Apple silicon.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/asahi_linux_progress_update/ Save to Pocket

Raspberry Pi and GPT-4 help you cook steak to perfection

date: 2024-01-16, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)

Maker Louis wanted to test GPT-4V’s capabilities by finding out whether it could deliver subjective feedback on how well a steak is cooked.

The post Raspberry Pi and GPT-4 help you cook steak to perfection appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-and-gpt-4-help-you-cook-steak-to-perfection/ Save to Pocket

The Story of the Mirai Botnet

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Over at Wired, Andy Greenberg has an excellent story about the creators of the 2016 Mirai botnet.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/the-story-of-the-mirai-botnet.html Save to Pocket

Google pulls crypto exchanges from Play Store in India

date: 2024-01-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: Google Play Store has pulled some major crypto exchanges, including Binance and Kraken, in India. The move comes two weeks after India’s financial watchdog said the platforms were operating “illegally” there. Also on the program: A U.S.-owned cargo ship survives a Houthi rebels missile attack, and Lebanon’s economy is hit hard by the war in Gaza

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/google-play-store-crypto-exchanges Save to Pocket

The Deadly Consequences of Playing Politics

date: 2024-01-16, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Immigration has always been Donald Trump’s most compelling issue. It was a major factor in his Iowa victory last night and is his best hope for returning to the presidency. Many Republican officeholders and office seekers recognize this and follow Trump’s lead.

https://steady.substack.com/p/the-deadly-consequences-of-playing Save to Pocket

UK public sector could save £20B by swerving mega-projects and more, claims chief auditor

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Spending watchdog slams reliance on outdated systems and poor governance

The UK’s chief auditor has claimed the government could save at least £20 billion by modernizing IT systems and other measures.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/dolphins_not_whales_will_help/ Save to Pocket

@Jessica Smith’s blog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Jessica Smith’s blog)

Reached the point of my redrafting where I just redrafted the very end of my story! I still need to go back and redraft a lot of earlier chapters, but I’ve been working through this awfully dark last third of the book for the last month, and I’m so relieved to be able to get out of that headspace for a while.

https://www.jayeless.net/2024/01/redrafted-the-end.html Save to Pocket

Working with UK youth and community organisations to tackle the digital divide

date: 2024-01-16, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)

At the heart of our work as a charity is the aim to democratise access to digital skills and technologies. Since 2020, we have partnered with over 100 youth and community organisations in the UK to develop programmes that increase opportunities for young people experiencing educational disadvantage to engage and create with digital technology in…

The post Working with UK youth and community organisations to tackle the digital divide appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/working-with-uk-youth-community-organisations-to-tackle-digital-divide/ Save to Pocket

The coming storm

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-18, from: Charlie’s Diary

(I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago …) 2024 looks set to be a somewhat disruptive year. Never mind the Summer Olympics in Paris; the big news is politics, where close to half the world’s population get…

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/01/the-coming-storm.html Save to Pocket

How Sinclair’s QL computer outshined Apple’s Macintosh against all odds

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Compatible hardware and peripherals are still on sale, four decades after its launch

Retro Tech Week  Two weeks before Apple launched the Macintosh, Sir Clive Sinclair launched his unprecedentedly powerful yet affordable Motorola-powered SOHO computer – starting a line of hardware and software that, remarkably, is still going.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/ql_legacy_at_40/ Save to Pocket

Deep Green gets £200M from power supplier to scale waste heat reuse

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Octopus Energy wants to back server-cooling, district heating projects

Datacenter operator Deep Green has bagged £200 million ($254 million) from power provider Octopus Energy to help scale deployments that give municipal sites free heat in exchange for cooling its IT hardware.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/deep_green_gets_200m_from/ Save to Pocket

Iowa Delivers Former President Trump Record Caucus Win

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

Former President Donald Trump is the resounding winner of the 2024 Iowa Caucus, finishing with more than 50% of the overall vote. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports from Des Moines, dangerously cold weather that descended on Iowa ahead of the caucus impacted turnout, with overall participation down this year after reaching record highs in 2016.

https://www.voanews.com/a/iowa-delivers-former-president-trump-record-caucus-win/7441816.html Save to Pocket

Let’s Talk Food: Mexican casseroles

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Ihave a yearning every once in a while for Mexican food and when that happens, an easy casserole usually fits the bill. It is so much easier than the authentic dishes of Mexico.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/community/lets-talk-food-mexican-casseroles/ Save to Pocket

BIIF soccer: Hilo remains unbeaten, HPA splits with Kea‘au

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>HILO &#8212; The two top squads in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) Division I soccer squared off on the pitch Friday &#8212; with Hilo edging out Waiakea 2-0 on the road.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/biif-soccer-hilo-remains-unbeaten-hpa-splits-with-keaau/ Save to Pocket

Josh Allen, Bills dispatch Steelers 31-17 in playoff game delayed a day by snow. Chiefs up next

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. &#8212; It made no difference to Josh Allen what day or time the Buffalo Bills faced the Pittsburgh Steelers.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/josh-allen-bills-dispatch-steelers-31-17-in-playoff-game-delayed-a-day-by-snow-chiefs-up-next/ Save to Pocket

Mayfield throws for 337 yards and 3 TDs to lead Buccaneers to 32-9 NFC wild-card rout of Eagles

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>TAMPA, Fla. &#8212; Baker Mayfield threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns to lead the resurgent Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 32-9 wild-card playoff victory over Jalen Hurts and the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/mayfield-throws-for-337-yards-and-3-tds-to-lead-buccaneers-to-32-9-nfc-wild-card-rout-of-eagles/ Save to Pocket

Donovan Mitchell scores 34 points as the Cavaliers pull away late to beat the Bulls 109-91

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>CLEVELAND &#8212; Donovan Mitchell scored 34 points, Jarrett Allen had 10 points and 14 rebounds for his ninth straight double-double, and the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled away late for a 109-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/donovan-mitchell-scores-34-points-as-the-cavaliers-pull-away-late-to-beat-the-bulls-109-91/ Save to Pocket

Messi edges Haaland in tiebreaker for FIFA’s best men’s player award. Bonmatí takes women’s prize

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>LONDON &#8212; Lionel Messi landed another prestigious award in soccer &#8212; barely.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/messi-edges-haaland-in-tiebreaker-for-fifas-best-mens-player-award-bonmati-takes-womens-prize/ Save to Pocket

Bill Belichick interviews with Falcons for head coaching job

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>ATLANTA &#8212; Bill Belichick signaled he&#8217;s ready to get back to coaching less than a week after parting with the New England Patriots, speaking with the Atlanta Falcons about their vacant position.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/bill-belichick-interviews-with-falcons-for-head-coaching-job/ Save to Pocket

Osaka’s Grand Slam comeback ends in 1st-round loss to Garcia, Gauff advances at Australian Open

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>MELBOURNE, Australia &#8212; Moments after her Grand Slam comeback ended in a first-round loss, Naomi Osaka walked back through the players&#8217; tunnel where her name has a prominent place among recent Australian Open champions.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/sports/osakas-grand-slam-comeback-ends-in-1st-round-loss-to-garcia-gauff-advances-at-australian-open/ Save to Pocket

New trial to start for two accused of brutally beating Kona security guard

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Two defendants convicted of the attempted murder of a security guard at the Kona Seaside Hotel are set to have their case retried today.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/hawaii-news/new-trial-to-start-for-two-accused-of-brutally-beating-kona-security-guard/ Save to Pocket

Trump notches a commanding win in the Iowa caucuses as DeSantis edges Haley for second place

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>DES MOINES, Iowa &#8212; Former President Donald Trump scored a record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday with his rivals languishing far behind, a victory that sent a resounding message that the GOP&#8217;s 2024 presidential nomination is his to lose.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/trump-notches-a-commanding-win-in-the-iowa-caucuses-as-desantis-edges-haley-for-second-place/ Save to Pocket

The world could get its first trillionaire within 10 years, anti-poverty group Oxfam says

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>DAVOS, Switzerland &#8212; The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/the-world-could-get-its-first-trillionaire-within-10-years-anti-poverty-group-oxfam-says/ Save to Pocket

MLK Jr. holiday celebrations include acts of service and parades, but some take a political turn

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>ATLANTA &#8212; Communities across the nation celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday with acts of service, prayer services and parades. But with the November presidential election as a backdrop, some events took on an overtly political turn.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/mlk-jr-holiday-celebrations-include-acts-of-service-and-parades-but-some-take-a-political-turn/ Save to Pocket

Hilo man faces attempted police assault, firearms and theft charges

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A 34-year-old Hilo man was arrested Wednesday in Hilo on warrants, including one alleging he attempted to run over a police officer in a pickup truck 2 1/2 years ago.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/hawaii-news/hilo-man-faces-attempted-police-assault-firearms-and-theft-charges/ Save to Pocket

Trump plans to attend E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, NYC jury to decide further damages

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>NEW YORK &#8212; Donald Trump is set to face a second Manhattan trial against E. Jean Carroll today &#8212; and plans to address a jury that will decide how much more he owes the writer who already won millions in damages after proving he sexually abused and defamed her.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/trump-plans-to-attend-e-jean-carroll-defamation-trial-nyc-jury-to-decide-further-damages/ Save to Pocket

Owner of Tribune-Herald is restructuring, selling company

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The owner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today has entered a court-supervised restructuring to reduce debt and to position the company for a possible sale to a partnership that plans to invest in quality, impactful journalism in Hawaii.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/hawaii-news/owner-of-tribune-herald-is-restructuring-selling-company/ Save to Pocket

A surgeon general report once cleared the air about smoking. Is it time for one on vaping?

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>NEW YORK &#8212; Sixty years ago, the U.S. surgeon general released a report that settled a longstanding public debate about the dangers of cigarettes and led to huge changes in smoking in America.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/a-surgeon-general-report-once-cleared-the-air-about-smoking-is-it-time-for-one-on-vaping/ Save to Pocket

Ukraine says it shot down 2 Russian command and control aircraft in a significant blow to Moscow

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>KYIV, Ukraine &#8212; The Ukrainian air force shot down a Russian early warning and control plane that can spot targets up to 650 kilometers (400 miles) away and a key command center aircraft that relays information to troops on the ground in a significant blow for the Kremlin&#8217;s forces, Ukraine&#8217;s military chief said Monday.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/ukraine-says-it-shot-down-2-russian-command-and-control-aircraft-in-a-significant-blow-to-moscow/ Save to Pocket

Arctic freeze continues to blast huge swaths of the US with sub-zero temperatures

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>BUFFALO, N.Y. &#8212; Brutally cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills stayed put across much of the U.S. Monday, promising the coldest temperatures ever for Iowa&#8217;s presidential nominating contest, holding up travelers, and testing the mettle of NFL fans in Buffalo for a playoff game that was delayed a day by wind-whipped snow.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/arctic-freeze-continues-to-blast-huge-swaths-of-the-us-with-sub-zero-temperatures/ Save to Pocket

Israel’s trial on genocide charges before a UN court should be a wake-up call for Jerusalem

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The charge of &#8220;genocide&#8221; leveled at Israel last week before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, should be a wake-up call for Jerusalem, but not for the reasons you might think.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/opinion/israels-trial-on-genocide-charges-before-a-un-court-should-be-a-wake-up-call-for-jerusalem/ Save to Pocket

Trump is always Trump: The fraudster ignores the rules of the court

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Like the drowning scorpion slipping under the water next to the stung and dying frog, Donald Trump could not help himself to violate an explicit court order and make a political speech when Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron extended him the privilege to say a few words about his civil fraud trial after Trump&#8217;s defense lawyer concluded his closing argument Thursday.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/opinion/trump-is-always-trump-the-fraudster-ignores-the-rules-of-the-court/ Save to Pocket

Obituaries for January 16

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Murray C. Gardner, PhD., 91, of Waimea died Jan. 2 at North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., was a co-founder of GeothermEx, a geothermal consulting firm in California and U.S. Marine Corps Reserves captain who received his Bachelors Degree from Brooklyn College and his PhD. from the University of Arizona. His interests included swimming, hiking, reading and gardening. His philanthropic interests included Guide Dogs For the Blind. Services noon Wednesday (Jan. 17) at West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery. Online condolences: ballardfamilymortuaries.com. Survived by wife, Donna Lee Gardner of Waimea; children, Annette L. (Charles Simons) Gardner of Laytonville, Calif., Michael-M. C. (Amy Dickman) Gardner of Lake Charles, La.; brother, Sherwin Gardner, of Washington, D.C.; a grandson; nieces and nephews. Arrangements by by Ballard Family Mortuary.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/obituaries/obituaries-for-january-16-9/ Save to Pocket

Davos elite size up the global risks of another Trump presidency

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Donald Trump is thousands of miles away from the Alpine Swiss town of Davos but talk of his possible return to the White House is on everyone&#8217;s lips even before the annual shindig of the global elite has kicked off.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/davos-elite-size-up-the-global-risks-of-another-trump-presidency/ Save to Pocket

This week’s Axiom Space flight to ISS marks 1st crewed launch of the year

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Commercial astronaut trips from the Space Coast are becoming commonplace, with Axiom Space about to send up another crew from Kennedy Space Center this week.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/this-weeks-axiom-space-flight-to-iss-marks-1st-crewed-launch-of-the-year/ Save to Pocket

Boeing steps up inspections, to review quality after blowout

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Boeing Co. will step up inspections of aircraft during production and open its factories to airline customers as the planemaker bolsters its response to a near-disaster on a 737 Max 9 jet earlier this month.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/nation-world-news/boeing-steps-up-inspections-to-review-quality-after-blowout/ Save to Pocket

Mahuna sworn in as deputy police chief

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The Hawai&#8216;i Police Department announces that effective today, Maj. Reed K. Mahuna is permanently appointed as deputy police chief. A 25-year veteran of the department, Mahuna was named acting ceputy chief on July 1, 2023.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/hawaii-news/mahuna-sworn-in-as-deputy-police-chief-2/ Save to Pocket

HVNP: Hikers cited after being rescued from Mauna Loa

date: 2024-01-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK &#8212; Two hikers were rescued and airlifted off Mauna Loa on Monday morning after running out of food and water and getting lost during severe winter weather that closed the mountain above 10,000 feet.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/01/16/hawaii-news/hvnp-hikers-cited-after-being-rescued-from-mauna-loa/ Save to Pocket

What’s the “Chevron doctrine,” and why should you want to preserve it?

date: 2024-01-16, from: Robert Reich on Substack

Two cases to be argued tomorrow before the Supreme Court threaten hundreds of consumer and environmental protections

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/whats-the-chevron-doctrine-and-why Save to Pocket

Trump’s Climate Sneak Peek in Iowa

date: 2024-01-16, from: Heatmap News

On Monday night, former President Donald Trump handily won what will officially go down as the coldest caucus in Iowa’s history.

The global warming jokes, naturally, wrote themselves. But in his freewheeling, name-dropping, teleprompter-free victory speech in Des Moines, Trump showed uncharacteristic restraint in avoiding the low-hanging comedic fruit.

Perhaps it was because Trump’s mind was on other things: his civil damages trial that begins in New York City on Tuesday, say. Or maybe, as I suspect, it was part of a larger trend that has come to shape Trump’s third presidential campaign — that he’s honing his attacks on climate science and the energy transition for the 2024 race.

Certainly, Trump’s Iowa speech featured some of his favorite one-liners from the campaign trail. “He comes all the way from Missouri, which isn’t that far,” Trump said at one point in an apparent reference to Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, one of numerous surrogates who’d helped with a ground game Trump hadn’t seemed terribly interested in trying himself. “Couldn’t drive an electric car that far, though,” Trump added to laughs — a variation of a jab about range anxiety that he’s been trotting out at his rallies. (Des Moines to the Missouri border is 76 miles, which even the least efficient EVs could make without stopping; most new EVs on the market could also make it to the capital, Jefferson City — 255 miles away — on a single charge).

Trump also made enthusiastic references to “drilling,” promising we’ll do a whole lot of it if he gets the White House back. “We have to stop the invasion, we have to bring down the energy — you know, I say all the time, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any other nation anywhere in the world — and we have to stop the crime and we have to help rebuild our cities,” Trump went on, distracted from his usual script, which typically involves an additional story about President Biden “begging” Venezuela for oil.

Trump had also spoken in specifics earlier in the evening when he’d told would-be voters that “I stood up for ethanol like nobody has ever stood up for it” — another dig at Biden’s climate agenda, which has aimed to limit liquid fuel in vehicles, a sensitive issue for Iowa voters during their primary season.

But if Americans could agree on anything this week, it’s that it’s cold. Between the Iowa caucuses and Tuesday night, more than three-quarters of the country will experience temperatures below freezing — weather that will shatter over 200 winter temperature records, all told. And while that might lend itself to unoriginal jokes among conservatives, scientists say the arctic blast is exactly the kind of extreme event we can expect more of in a climate-changed world.

On Sunday, Trump mocked any alarm that might instill in people — including his own supporters — by telling a group of climate protesters that interrupted his rally to “go home to mommy. Your mommy’s waiting.”

But nowhere is safe, and there are a long 11 months and three seasons to go before the next election. Still, some things can grimly be assumed to be forgone: Trump will almost certainly be the Republican candidate. And whatever comes next, it will be worse.

https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-iowa-caucus-victory-speech-evs-ethanol-drilling Save to Pocket

Kipp Mueller | Baxter Shows Importance of No-Kill Shelters

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

If you already know me, or follow me on social media, then you know about Baxter. He is the rescue dog who came into my life in 2019.  Baxter became a bit infamous when, just one week before my primary election in March 2020, he escaped a dog sitter.  Alongside friends and family, I spent […]

The post Kipp Mueller | Baxter Shows Importance of No-Kill Shelters appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/kipp-mueller-baxter-shows-importance-of-no-kill-shelters/ Save to Pocket

Bob Plassmeyer | The Only Plausible Answer

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

In response to Ron Perry’s letter, “Respecting One’s Beliefs,” Jan. 10: In 1858 at Lourdes, France, Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared to a 14-year-old girl Bernadette Soubirous. She told Bernadette to dig in the dirt and water appeared and became a spring, which is flowing today. Millions of people have touched the water and […]

The post Bob Plassmeyer | The Only Plausible Answer appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/bob-plassmeyer-the-only-plausible-answer/ Save to Pocket

Gerald Staack | Economic Model After Europe?

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

After decades of contentious conflicts between labor unions and corporate America, and with no serious government intervention to stabilize their combativeness, I feel it’s time for a law that can steady and improve their relationship … a law that is beneficial for both business and workers, propping up everyone’s quality of life. A simple solution […]

The post Gerald Staack | Economic Model After Europe? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

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Lois Eisenberg | Why Have So Many Been Arrested?

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

If there was no insurrection as believed by the MAGA cult, why have so many been arrested and charged for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol of the United States? There have been 657 rioters who pleaded guilty, 623 have been sentenced, and more than 1,146 rioters have been charged, per […]

The post Lois Eisenberg | Why Have So Many Been Arrested? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/lois-eisenberg-why-have-so-many-been-arrested/ Save to Pocket

Remember when enterprise administration was more than just a browser dashboard?

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Playing Colossal Cave Adventure on an ICL 2966 and coding on the last Elliott 803

Retro Tech Week  Keeping old computers running for everyone to enjoy is getting increasingly difficult as the years pass. Parts get harder to obtain, and the skills needed start fading away.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/retro_enterprise_administration/ Save to Pocket

Most Iowa Republican Caucus-goers Say Trump Fit to be President if Convicted

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — Most Republicans at Iowa’s caucus said they felt Donald Trump would be fit for the White House even if he were convicted of a crime, an entrance poll showed on Monday, underscoring the stronghold the former president has on the Republican Party.

About two-thirds of caucus-goers also said they did not believe Democratic President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, according to the poll.

Following are highlights from the Edison Research poll based on interviews with 1,628 Iowa Republicans.

66% said they did not think Biden legitimately won the presidency in 2020.
65% said they decided who to support in the presidential nomination contest before this month.
65% said Trump would still be fit to be president if he were convicted of a crime. 31% said he would be unfit if convicted.
61% said they favor a federal law that would ban abortions nationwide.
53% of white caucus-goers who considered themselves evangelical or born-again Christians supported Trump, while 27% backed DeSantis.
46% of voters said they considered themselves part of the MAGA movement, a reference to Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. 50% said they were not part of that movement.
Trump led Haley and DeSantis by double digits among men and women alike. But among college graduates Trump was preferred by about 37% of caucus-goers, compared to 28% for Haley and 26% for DeSantis.
38% percent of caucus-goers said the economy was the issue that mattered most in deciding who to vote for on Monday, compared to 34% who cited immigration, while the rest cited foreign policy or abortion.
14% said the most important quality a Republican presidential nominee should have is the ability to beat Biden, compared to 41% who said shared values mattered most.

Edison Research conducted the poll on behalf of the National Election Pool, a consortium of news organizations including Reuters.

https://www.voanews.com/a/most-iowa-republican-caucus-goers-say-trump-fit-to-be-president-if-convicted/7441803.html Save to Pocket

Can you dig it? Samsung buys chunk of a Canadian nickel mining company

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Korean giant wants a local source of the stuff needed to build batteries

Samsung’s battery unit may have found part of a solution to sourcing the raw materials needed for the products it packs into gadgets and cars: buy a nickel mine. Or part of a nickel mine, at least.…

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Six cases of JN.1 variant confirmed on Guam

date: 2024-01-16, from: Guam Daily Post

Six cases involving the JN.1 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19, were confirmed on Guam as of Jan. 6, according to a release from the Department of Public Health and Social Services. Eight people have been…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/six-cases-of-jn-1-variant-confirmed-on-guam/article_3830782a-b441-11ee-bb1d-bbd686cc4ceb.html Save to Pocket

Today in SCV History (Jan. 16)

date: 2024-01-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)

1926 – Newhall Community Hospital, est. 1922, opens in larger, more modern hospital building at 6th and Spruce streets. [story

https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-7/ Save to Pocket

Registration for the ETH Research Data Management Summer School 2024 is open

date: 2024-01-16, from: ETH Zurich Research Archives

This ETH Summer School furnishes early-career scientists with a comprehensive understanding of research data management. Following a practice-oriented approach, they learn the basics and the most important tools. Read more

https://rc-blog.ethz.ch/en/registration-for-the-eth-research-data-management-summer-school-2024-is-open/ Save to Pocket

Hidden Camera Title IX Case Drags to an End After 16 Months

date: 2024-01-16, from: The California Tech (Caltech student paper)

In a Title IX case characterized by incessant delays, non-disclosure agreements, and frustration, a conclusion was finally reached late last November.

https://tech.caltech.edu/2024/01/16/hidden-camera-title-ix-case/ Save to Pocket

Atari 400 makes a comeback in miniature form

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The only PC with a keyboard so dreadful it challenged the ZX80, now even less usable

Retro Tech Week  Judges pondering contenders for the title of “World’s Worst PC Keyboard, Ever”, seldom look too far beyond Sinclair’s ZX80, which offered a membrane that caused attached screens to flicker with every keystroke.…

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US: Nauru’s Decision to Break with Taiwan ‘Disappointing’

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — The United States said Monday that the government of Nauru’s severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan is “disappointing,” despite it being a sovereign decision.

The Pacific Island nation announced its decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China shortly after Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections.

“Taiwan is a reliable, like-minded, and democratic partner. The PRC often makes promises in exchange for diplomatic relations that ultimately remain unfulfilled,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement late Monday.  He was referring to People’s Republic of China.

Miller added: “We encourage all countries to expand engagement with Taiwan and to continue to support democracy, good governance, transparency, and adherence to the rule of law.”

The Republic of Nauru “will no longer recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a separate country but rather as an inalienable part of China’s territory,” said the Nauru government in an official statement on Monday.  

In Beijing, Chinese officials praised the move.

“China appreciates and welcomes the decision of the government of the Republic of Nauru,” said Mao Ning who is a spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The Nauru government’s decision of reestablishing diplomatic ties with China once again shows that the one-China principle is where global opinion trends” are, said Mao.  

She repeated China’s assertion that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory” during a briefing Monday.

Implications to the U.S. policy towards the Pacific Islands

Nauru is one of the members of the Pacific Islands Forum, or PIF, the premier political and economic policy-making body for the region. It comprises 18 member states, with Australia and New Zealand being the largest economies in the bloc. Neither the United States nor China is a full member.

Last September, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted leaders from this Pacific Islands bloc at a two-day summit in Washington, amid rising U.S. concerns about China’s growing military and economic influence in the region.

The shift in Nauru’s position means the next Pacific Islands Forum secretary general will be from a country that recognizes the government in Beijing, rather than the government in Taipei.

Some analysts believe Nauru’s move could make it more challenging for the PIF to resist overtures from China.

Last November, former Nauru President Baron Waqa was selected as the next PIF Secretary General, at a time when Nauru still maintained diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Waqa has reportedly resisted China’s pressure in the past. It remains to be seen whether he will continue as the PIF Secretary General.

According to Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, or FDD, Chinese offers to Nauru have been present for years, and the specifics of this deal were likely finalized before the Taiwan elections.

She suggested that Beijing might have delayed the announcement until after the Taiwan elections to “reinforce” the PRC’s narrative.

“U.S. policy in the Pacific Islands is not shining at the moment,” Paskal told VOA.

“Nauru has been asking for help with things like developing its port and protecting its waters for years - things that would help regional security as well.  The longer they wait, the more room for PRC operatives to say ‘they aren’t coming, you should cut the deal in front of you now, with us’.  The window for U.S. relevance is closing.”

UN resolution 2758

Monday, the State Department said the United States will continue to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community and deepen economic ties, consistent with Washington’s longstanding One China policy.

The U.S. does not take a position on Taiwan’s sovereignty. Under Washington’s One China policy, the U.S. acknowledges Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan but does not endorse them.

Washington and Taipei have held regular consultations to explore Taiwan’s participation in the United Nations system and other international forums, to address a range of global challenges, including public health, aviation safety and climate change.

In Beijing, Chinese spokesperson Mao Ning said, “There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” citing United Nations resolution 2758. 

On October 25, 1971, the U.N. General Assembly passed U.N. Resolution 2758, which replaced the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan’s formal name) with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a permanent member of the Security Council in the United Nations.

While the resolution stated the representatives of the PRC government were the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, it neither determined Taiwan’s status nor said Taiwan was part of China.

The PRC’s efforts to rewrite Taiwan’s status at the United Nations intensified during the 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with the island’s democratization, according to an analysis by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-nauru-s-decision-to-break-with-taiwan-disappointing-/7441760.html Save to Pocket

Trump Wins Iowa Caucus

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-wins-iowa-caucus-/7441757.html Save to Pocket

List of Top Emmy Award Winners

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

LOS ANGELES — List of the top winners of the prime-time Emmy Awards.

BEST DRAMA SERIES: “Succession”

BEST COMEDY SERIES: “The Bear”

BEST LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES: “Beef”

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES: Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES: Sarah Snook, “Succession”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES: Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES: Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES: Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES: Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

SCRIPTED VARIETY SERIES: “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE: Niecy Nash-Betts, “Dahmer, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”

REALITY COMPETITION SERIES: “RuPaul’s Drag Race”

TALK SERIES: “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah”

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE: Paul Walter Hauser, “Black Bird”

LIVE VARIETY SPECIAL: “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium”

ACTOR IN A LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Steven Yeun, “Beef”

ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES OR TV MOVIE: Ali Wong, “Beef”

https://www.voanews.com/a/list-of-top-emmy-award-winners/7441751.html Save to Pocket

‘Succession’ Dominates Drama Emmys, ‘The Bear’ Claims Comedy, Brunson Makes History

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

LOS ANGELES — “Succession” secured its legacy with its third best drama series award, “The Bear” feasted as the night’s top comedy, and the two shows about squabbling families dominated the acting awards at Monday night’s Emmys.

Historic wins also came for Quinta Brunson of “Abbot Elementary” and Steven Yeun and Ali Wong of “Beef” at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony that was finally held four months late after a turbulent year of strikes in Hollywood.

“Succession,” the HBO saga of the dysfunctional generations of a maladjusted media empire, won the top prize for its fourth and final season. It also won best actress in a drama for Sarah Snook and best actor in a drama for Kieran Culkin.

“We all put our all into it and the bar was set so high,” Snook said.

“The Bear,” the FX dramedy about a contentious family and a struggling restaurant at the center of the life of a talented chef, won best comedy series for its first season. It also made a meal of its acting categories, with Jeremy Allen White winning best actor in a comedy, best supporting actress in a comedy for Ayo Edebiri winning best supporting actress, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach taking best supporting actor. All three were first-time nominees.

“This is a show about family and found family and real family,” Edebiri said from the stage as she accepted the first trophy of the night at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

Instead of the usual producer speeches, Matty Matheson, a real-life elite chef who plays a kitchen newbie and repairman on “The Bear,” spoke for the show near the end of the Fox telecast.

“I just love restaurants so much, the good and the bad, we’re broken inside,” Matheson said before getting a long kiss on the mouth from Moss-Bachrach.

Brunson won best actress in a comedy for the show she created, ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” becoming the first Black woman to win the award in more than 40 years and the first from a network show to win it in more than a decade.

“I am so happy to be able to live my dream and act out comedy,” Brunson said during her acceptance on the Fox telecast, fighting back tears. The writer-actor was among the stars with standout looks on the Emmys’ silver carpet.

“Succession” won six Emmys overall including best supporting actor in a drama for Matthew Macfadyen and best writing in a drama for show creator Jesse Armstrong. The only drama acting category it didn’t win was supporting actress, taken for the second time by Jennifer Coolidge of “The White Lotus.”

“The Bear” won in every category it was nominated for Monday night, and along with the four it had won previously at the Creative Arts Emmys, took 10 overall, the most of any show.

Landmark wins on TV’s big night

“Beef” won best limited series, while Steven Yeun and Ali Wong became the first Asian Americans to win in their categories – Yeun for best actor in a limited series and Wong for best actress. Creator Lee Sung won Emmys for writing and directing. It had eight Emmys overall after three wins at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Brunson had won a writing Emmy for “Abbott Elementary,” her mockumentary about a predominantly Black and chronically underfunded grade school in Philadelphia, but this is her first for acting. Isabel Sanford of “The Jeffersons” was the only previous Black woman to win the category in 1981.

The first hour of the show held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day saw three Black women win major awards: Brunson, Edebiri and Niecy Nash-Betts, who won best supporting actress in a limited series for “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.”

On the Netflix show, Nash-Betts played a neighbor of the serial killer whose complaints to authorities about his behavior go unheeded.

“I accept this award on behalf of every Black and brown woman who has gone unheard and over-policed,” she said.

“Everybody having fun at the chocolate Emmys tonight?” host Anthony Anderson said during the show. “We are killing it tonight! … This is like MLK Day and Juneteenth all rolled up in one!”

The tweaked awards calendar made for some oddities. Edebiri and White won their Emmy for the show’s first season eight days after after winning Golden Globes for the second season.

Baby talk amid ‘succession’ wins

Culkin outshined the older brother and the father to win the final lead actor Emmy for “Succession.”

He had twice been nominated for best supporting actor for “Succession” without a win. But in the final season, in which his character Roman Roy goes from sideline wisecracker to emotional disaster at the center of the show’s drama, he was put in the lead category and won over castmates Brian Cox, who played his father, and Jeremy Strong, who played his older brother.

He then shifted to his own family, getting big laughs during his speech when he told his wife Jazz Charton that their two young kids weren’t enough. “I want more,” he said. “You said if I won, we could talk about it.”

Snook took her first Emmy in three nominations for “Succession” and her fictional husband Macfadyen won the second Emmy of his career for playing Tom Wambsgans, the son-in-law that began the HBO series as a hanger-on and ended it as the closest thing it had to a victor on “Succession.”

Many tears, and one concerned mother

Emotions ran high from the start of the ceremony. Edebiri and Brunson were both quick to cry as they took the stage, and the first presenter, Christina Applegate, who said in 2021 that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, got a standing ovation as she came out using a cane, helped by Anderson. She struggled to get through the nominees and winner with the tears in her eyes.

Anderson told the nominees at the beginning of the night that instead of having their speeches cut off by music, his mother, actor Doris Hancox, sitting in the audience, would tell them when it was time to move on. But she more often shouted down her son in the running gag.

Older shows return to spotlight

Honoring TV history was the theme at the 75th Emmys. Anderson opened the show on a “Mr. Rogers” set and performed TV theme songs including “Good Times,” and several cast reunions were spread throughout the show.

Cast members including Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell from “Martin,” Ted Danson and Rhea Perlman from “Cheers,” and Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers from “All in The Family,” performed short bits from recreations of their sitcom sets before presenting awards.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunited to present an award in the form of their 2001-2005 “Weekend Update” team-up from “Saturday Night Live.”

“We’ve reached the stage in life where we’ll only present awards sitting down,” Fey said.

One notable appearance came from Katherine Heigl, who joined Ellen Pompeo and other former “Grey’s Anatomy” cast mates on a hospital room set after leaving the show, now about to start its 20th season, on not the best terms in 2010.

“Yes, there have been changes over the years,” Heigl said with a wry smile, “But the one constant is the amazing fanbase.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/succession-dominates-drama-emmys-the-bear-claims-comedy-brunson-makes-history/7441748.html Save to Pocket

India again backs down on its controversial PC import restrictions

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Desktops escape regulations, laptops and servers don’t, no reasons explained

India’s Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has announced that import restrictions targeting PCs will not include desktop computers, adding another twist to the strange saga of the nation’s plan to require import licenses for many types of computers.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/india_pc_import_restriction_backdown/ Save to Pocket

Grandpa vs. The Grifter

date: 2024-01-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Three key factors about the Biden–Trump rematch: The election no one wants.

The post Grandpa vs. The Grifter appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/01/15/grandpa-vs-the-grifter/ Save to Pocket

January 15, 2024

date: 2024-01-16, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog

Last night, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced they have agreed to another continuing resolution that will fund the government until March 1 and March 8. Schumer said he will begin the process of passing the continuing resolution when the Senate reconvenes tomorrow.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2024 Save to Pocket

See All The Red Carpet Looks From The 2024 Emmy Awards

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The LAist

See some of this year’s most memorable red carpet looks.

https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/red-carpet-looks-from-the-2024-emmy-awards Save to Pocket

Emmy Awards 2023: The Complete List Of Winners

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The LAist

Here are the winners of the major categories at the 75th annual Emmys.

https://laist.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/emmy-awards-2023-the-complete-list-of-winners Save to Pocket

Drill: ‘Run. Hide. Fight.’ 

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

LASD hosts annual active shooter training at Castaic High  Castaic High School’s campus was empty for the holiday Monday except for first responders, campus officials, student volunteers and site administrators from throughout the Santa Clarita Valley, who were there for a special lesson in how to respond to an active shooter.   The exercise is part […]

The post <strong>Drill: ‘Run. Hide. Fight.’</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/drill-run-hide-fight/ Save to Pocket

“Stray Pointers” interview

date: 2024-01-16, from: Ben Hoyt’s Tech Writing

Not technical writing, but Jim Lawless interviewed me on his “Stray Pointers” podcast. We discuss Forth, C, CGI, Python, Go, and AWK.

https://sites.libsyn.com/481983/discussing-programming-languages-with-ben-hoyt Save to Pocket

China’s gambling crackdown spawned wave of illegal online casinos and crypto-crime in Asia

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

‘Inaccessible and autonomous armed group territories’ host crooks who use tech to launder cash, run slave scam gangs, and more

Global crime networks have set up shop in autonomous territories run by armed gangs across Southeast Asia, and are using them to host physical and online casinos that, in concert with crypto exchanges, have led to an explosion of money laundering, cyberfraud, and cybercrime across the region and beyond.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/un_asia_tech_crime_report/ Save to Pocket

Understanding the Raspberry Pi Pico’s Memory Layout

date: 2024-01-16, from: Peter Warden

A few months ago I started updating TensorFlow Lite Micro for the Raspberry Pi Pico board, which uses the RP2040 microcontroller. I ran into some baffling bugs that stopped me making progress, but eventually I tracked them down to my poor understanding of the memory layout. Since I had to do a deep dive, I […]

https://petewarden.com/2024/01/16/understanding-the-raspberry-pi-picos-memory-layout/ Save to Pocket

In Early Results, Trump Projected Iowa Caucus Winner

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/in-early-results-trump-projected-iowa-caucus-winner/7441671.html Save to Pocket

Marching against violence: City, NAACP celebrate MLK day with Unity Walk 

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Signal

Valerie Bradford spoke about the violence that can be seen across the United States today. That, she said, is not what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have wanted his country to look like.  Monday saw people across the U.S. celebrate King’s legacy with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, including at Central Park in […]

The post <strong>Marching against violence: City, NAACP celebrate MLK day with Unity Walk</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/01/marching-against-violence-city-naacp-celebrate-mlk-day-with-unity-walk/ Save to Pocket

I used Netscape Composer in 2024

date: 2024-01-16, from: OS News

Netscape Composer was my first introduction to web development. As a kid, I created my first web pages using it. Those pages never made it online, but I proudly carried them around on a floppy disk to show them off on family members’ and friends’ computers. This is likely how I got the understanding that websites are just made of files. Using Netscape Composer also taught me basic web vocabulary, such as “page” and “hyperlink”. Of course, the web landscape has evolved immensely since then. I was curious to try out that dated software again and see what its limitations were, and what the code it produces looks like from a 2024 perspective. The first thing I needed was a goal. I decided to try and reproduce the home page of my personal website as closely as the application allowed it. That seemed like a sensible aim as my website has a rather minimalistic design, with very little that should be completely out of reach for an antiquated tool. ↫ Pier-Luc Brault What a fun exercise.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138335/i-used-netscape-composer-in-2024/ Save to Pocket

Setting up Nix on macOS

date: 2024-01-16, from: OS News

I recently bought a Macbook because more and more people are asking me how to use Nix in certain situations under MacOS. In this article, we walk through installing Nix on MacOS and see how pleasant the experience is these days. After that, we show how to go declarative on MacOS with nix-darwin to enable compilation for Linux and Intel Macs, as well as some other nice features. ↫ Jacek Galowicz You can’t click on a single link without tripping over people talking about nix.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138333/setting-up-nix-on-macos/ Save to Pocket

Google shamelessly tries to rebrand gambling as “real-money gaming”

date: 2024-01-16, from: OS News

As a platform, we strive to help developers responsibly build new businesses and reach wider audiences across a variety of content types and genres. In response to strong demand, in 2021 we began onboarding a wider range of real-money gaming (RMG) apps in markets with pre-existing licensing frameworks. Since then, this app category has continued to flourish with developers creating new RMG experiences for mobile. ↫ Karan Gambhir, director of “Global Trust and Safety Partnerships” at Google “Real-money gaming” is the most obvious and blatant rebranding of “gambling” I have ever seen. Google, this is gambling. You’re making it easier for scumbags to target the poor and swindle them out of the little money they have. This is a shameless attempt at increasing Google’s revenue by making it easier to scam people into gambling. Everything about this post – and (mobile) gambling – is disgusting.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138331/google-shamelessly-tries-to-rebrand-gambling-as-real-money-gaming/ Save to Pocket

Election Countdown, 295 Days to Go: Fortune-Telling vs Reporting.

date: 2024-01-16, from: James Fallows, Substack

It can be a golden age for people telling the stories of our times. If we can stop talking about messaging and polls!

https://fallows.substack.com/p/election-countdown-295-days-to-go Save to Pocket

Menendez’s Wife Asks for Separate Trial From Husband

date: 2024-01-16, from: VOA News USA

washington — The wife of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez on Monday sought to sever the government’s corruption case against her from that of her husband, according to a court document. 

In the document, Nadine Menendez’s lawyers said a joint trial would prejudice her right to defend herself at a fair trial. They added that a joint trial would force the married defendants to make a Hobson’s choice “as exercising their right to testify in their own defense may necessitate waiving their privilege against providing testimony adverse to their spouse.” 

“Ms. Menendez’s interests in both maintaining the confidentiality of her privileged marital communications and exercising her spousal testimonial privilege without sacrificing her ability to testify in her own defense collectively support a finding of a ‘serious risk’ that a joint trial will compromise her ‘specific trial rights,’” the lawyers said. 

The pair pleaded not guilty in October after they were charged with taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen. 

In charging the senator last September, prosecutors said investigators had found gold bars and envelopes stuffed with cash inside jackets in the New Jersey Democrat’s apartment. 

They also said businessman Wael Hana had arranged meetings between Menendez and Egyptian officials, who pressed the senator to sign off on military aid. 

In return, Hana put Menendez’s wife on the payroll of a company he controlled, prosecutors said. 

Earlier this month, prosecutors accused Menendez of helping a New Jersey businessman seek an investment from a Qatari company with ties to the Middle Eastern country’s government. 

The latest allegations, which accused him of acting as a foreign agent, add pressure on the embattled senator, who has resisted calls to resign from members of his own party.

https://www.voanews.com/a/menendez-s-wife-asks-for-separate-trial-from-husband-/7441622.html Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-01-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Matt Mullenweg: Data Liberation in 2024.

https://wordpress.org/news/2024/01/data-liberation-in-2024/ Save to Pocket

Matadors bounce back, defeat head coach Andy Newman’s former team in thriller

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

After a disappointing blowout loss to UC Davis on the road, the Matadors (13-4, 4-1 Big West) returned home focused on grabbing a win, with head coach Andy Newman coaching against his former team, Cal State Fullerton (8-9, 1-4 Big West). Forward Jasman Sangha gave the team energy from the jump as he finished with…

https://sundial.csun.edu/177858/sports/matadors-bounce-back-defeat-head-coach-andy-newmans-former-team-in-thriller/ Save to Pocket

Warning Of Higher Grocery Prices, Washington AG Sues To Stop Kroger-Albertsons Merger

date: 2024-01-16, updated: 2024-01-16, from: The LAist

“Shoppers will have fewer choices and less competition, and, without a competitive marketplace, they will pay higher prices at the grocery store,” Washington state attorney general Bob Ferguson said.

https://laist.com/news/warning-of-higher-grocery-prices-washington-ag-sues-to-stop-kroger-albertsons-merger Save to Pocket

Caleb Williams declares for 2024 NFL Draft

date: 2024-01-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

The 2022 Heisman winner is expected to be the No. 1 overall pick after revitalizing USC football over two seasons.

The post Caleb Williams declares for 2024 NFL Draft appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/01/15/caleb-williams-declares-nfl-draft/ Save to Pocket

Hidden Camera Title IX Case Drags to an End After 16 Months

date: 2024-01-16, from: The California Tech (Caltech student paper)

In a Title IX case characterized by incessant delays, non-disclosure agreements, and frustration, a conclusion was finally reached late last November.

https://tech.caltech.edu/2024/hidden-camera-title-ix-case/ Save to Pocket

Bluesky 2023 Moderation Report

date: 2024-01-16, from: Bluesky web news

We have hired and trained a full-time team of moderators, launched and iterated on several community and individual moderation features, developed and refined policies both public and internal, designed and redesigned product features to reduce abuse, and built several infrastructure components from scratch to support our Trust and Safety work.

https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/01-16-2024-moderation-2023 Save to Pocket