News gathered 2024-02-09

(date: 2024-02-09 08:19:09)

Three-dimensional modelling of cavitation bubble collapse using non-orthogonal multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method

date: 2024-02-15, from: ETH Zurich, recently added

Peng, Haonan; Fei, Linlin; He, Xiaolong; Carmeliet, Jan; Churakov, Sergey V.; Prasianakis, Nikolaos I.

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/657636 Save to Pocket

San Jose man charged with conspiracy to steal high-end bikes for resale in Mexico

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Nine bicycles were stolen from Bay Area homes between April 2020 and April 2021.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/san-jose-man-charged-with-conspiracy-to-steal-high-end-bikes-for-resale-in-mexico/ Save to Pocket

“The LightSound device was designed and developed in 2017 as a tool…

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043947-the-lightsound-device-was Save to Pocket

F-Droid now supports automatic background updates (Free and open source Android app store)

date: 2024-02-09, from: Liliputing

F-Droid maintains a repository of free and open source (FOSS) Android apps, and the F-Droid client for Android devices basically functions as an alternative to the default app store on most Android devices: the Google Play Store. But up until recently, F-Droid lacked one of the Play Store’s key features: the ability to automatically install updates […]

The post F-Droid now supports automatic background updates (Free and open source Android app store) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/f-droid-now-supports-automatic-background-updates-free-and-open-source-android-app-store/ Save to Pocket

‘Circular firing squad’: New allegations of murder and betrayal swirl with Aryan Brotherhood RICO case weeks away

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Two defendant have indicated that they will be forced to blame one another if forced to go to trial together, while prosecutors say they have evidence that two defendants plotted to have two others killed at various times over the last few years.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/circular-firing-squad-allegations-of-murder-and-betrayal-swirl-with-aryan-brotherhood-rico-case-weeks-away/ Save to Pocket

Stop and smell the roses — and dozens of other aromas — at the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Q&A with museum curator, perfumer and author Mandy Aftel,

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/stop-and-smell-the-roses-and-dozens-of-other-aromas-at-the-aftel-archive-of-curious-scents-in-berkeley/ Save to Pocket

250 million-plus reserved IPv4 addresses could be released – but the internet isn’t built to use them

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

A new chapter in the long saga of the 240/4 block is being written. If you want more and cheaper IPv4, maybe you should help

Activists are again lobbying for more than 250 million unused IPv4 addresses to be released for use, potentially tackling the IPv4 exhaustion problem. However, the proposal has been tried and failed before, and again faces formidable opposition.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/240_4_ipv4_block_activism/ Save to Pocket

Big East Bay office complex lands buyer in deal that tops $70 million

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

A big East Bay office complex whose main occupant is Clorox, a consumer and household products titan, has been bought.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/east-bay-pleasanton-real-estate-office-buy-sell-build-economy-clorox/ Save to Pocket

Teen under police protection after school board member falsely implies this girl is transgender, prompting threats

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

In a Facebook post, Natalie Cline, a member of the Utah State Board of Education, posted a photo of the high school basketball player and falsely implied the student is transgender, writing: “Girls’ basketball…”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/teen-under-police-protection-after-school-board-member-falsely-implies-this-girl-is-transgender-prompting-threats/ Save to Pocket

Fleet manager drops Tesla because ‘prices fluctuate too much’

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

A fleet manager for SAP, a large software company, says that it is dropping Tesla from its fleet because “their prices fluctuate more”.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/fleet-manager-drops-tesla-prices-fluctuate-too-much/ Save to Pocket

Accelerating green wheels: BYD’s EV lease deal with Arval will electrify Europe’s roads

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

A mere two years removed from its initial entry into new markets of Europe, Build Your Dreams (BYD) is looking to expedite its expansion with the help of Arval – a major vehicle leasing company overseas. The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding to become leasing partners and ensure more BYD passenger and light commercial EVs are available to drivers.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/byd-ev-lease-deal-arval-will-electrify-europe-roads/ Save to Pocket

Saratoga hotel guests arrested for defrauding an innkeeper

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Checked in using someone else’s credit card.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/saratoga-hotel-guests-arrested-for-defrauding-an-innkeeper/ Save to Pocket

You can’t use Windows Mixed Reality headsets with Windows 11 24H2

date: 2024-02-09, from: Liliputing

Late last year Microsoft announced it would be ending support for Windows Mixed Reality headsets (and associated software). Now the company has taken the first steps toward pulling the plug. Windows Insider Preview Build 26502 was released to members of the Windows Insider Preview program this week, and users running this build who plug in […]

The post You can’t use Windows Mixed Reality headsets with Windows 11 24H2 appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/you-cant-use-windows-mixed-reality-headsets-with-windows-11-24h2/ Save to Pocket

Zyn nicotine pouches are flying off shelves. Critics say they’re dangerous for kids

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Move over vapes, Americans appear to have a new addiction: Zyn, a tobacco-free nicotine pouch product, that has exploded in sales over the past year.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/zyn-nicotine-pouches-are-flying-off-shelves-critics-say-theyre-dangerous-for-kids/ Save to Pocket

Playing it safe

date: 2024-02-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report

We’ll hear from Ad Age’s Jeanine Poggi about this year’s Super Bowl commercials: why brand are trying to keep their campaigns controversy-free and what representation looks like for the country’s most-watched event. Plus, inflation data analysis with FHN Financial’s Chris Low and an update on nuclear fusion technology from Europe.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/playing-it-safe Save to Pocket

Walmart is rolling out its ‘coast-to-coast’ network of DC fast chargers

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

Walmart is kicking off plans to build and remodel hundreds of stores in the US – and those plans include installing DC fast chargers.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/walmart-coast-to-coast-network-dc-fast-chargers/ Save to Pocket

Jury awards $130 million to 5 people who had liver damage after drinking bottled water

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Real Water was sold for at least eight years, primarily in Central and Southern California, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Utah. It was also promoted on social media and sold online.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/nevada-jury-awards-130m-to-5-people-who-had-liver-damage-after-drinking-bottled-water/ Save to Pocket

Toyota bZ4X crashes into the ocean after the driver forgot to put the EV in park [Video]

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

Imagine getting out of your car to toss trash and returning to find it rolling into the ocean. A Toyota bZ4X drove itself off a pier and crashed into the ocean just north of Boston after the driver forgot to put the EV in park Wednesday.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/toyota-bz4x-drives-off-pier-crashes-into-ocean-video/ Save to Pocket

AI PC hype bubble swells, but software support lags marketing

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Resistance is futile, upgrades are inevitable and so is hardware margin inflation

AI hype is now infecting a computer industry that just months ago was still wrestling with how best to define an AI PC. It won’t come as a surprise that the biggest brands could be creating short-term customer expectations that go unfulfilled.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/ai_pc_gartner/ Save to Pocket

Wheel-E Podcast: Swimming electric motorcycle, Trek e-bike, more

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes new e-bike launches from Trek and Sixthreezero, a potential e-bike regulation bill in Congress, a new Gogoro electric scooter, CAKE’s bankruptcy, e-motorcycles going for a swim, and more.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/wheel-e-podcast-swimming-electric-motorcycle-trek-e-bike-more/ Save to Pocket

Los Gatos eateries cater to lovers of football, Fat Tuesday and fine dining

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Special offerings for Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/los-gatos-eateries-cater-to-lovers-of-football-fat-tuesday-and-fine-dining/ Save to Pocket

Moonquakes

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/02/09/moonquakes/ Save to Pocket

I bought Harley’s new electric motorcycle. Delivery was a hot mess, but still awesome

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

LiveWire, the all-electric motorcycle brand spun out of Harley-Davidson, is shaping itself into a force to be reckoned with in the still-evolving electric motorcycle industry. The company brings an interesting mix of high-tech startup energy and a lumbering century-old motorcycle legacy that results in both an impressive (and growing) range of electric motorcycles but also a series of growing pains. And I got to experience all of it as the proud new owner of a shiny indigo LiveWire S2 Del Mar Launch Edition electric motorcycle.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/i-bought-harleys-new-electric-motorcycle-delivery-was-a-hot-mess-but-still-awesome/ Save to Pocket

The New Hydrogen Rules Risk Opening the Door to Methane Offsets

date: 2024-02-09, from: Heatmap News

In late December, the Treasury Department proposed draft regulations to implement the Inflation Reduction Act’s generous hydrogen production tax credit. Under Section 45V of the tax code, eligible projects must show that their life cycle greenhouse gas emissions fall below exacting benchmarks. Treasury’s final rules will determine how hydrogen projects are allowed to calculate their emissions and direct the flow of tens of billions of tax dollars — or more.

Most of the discussion that followed focused on the draft rule’s proposed guardrails for green hydrogen, which is produced from water using clean electricity. The climate policy community in particular largely approved of Treasury’s approach, in part because it lays the groundwork for hourly emissions accounting in the electricity sector — essentially, making sure that clean energy is being made and used in real time, a foundational shift needed for deep decarbonization.

But when it comes to producing hydrogen from methane — which is how nearly all hydrogen is made today — Treasury’s draft was incomplete. In place of a concrete proposal, the draft regulations raised detailed technical questions about what should be allowed in the final rule. Among these was the suggestion that hydrogen production from fossil fuels might qualify for tax credits by using methane offsets. This, quite simply, would undermine the tax credit’s entire purpose.

If the final regulations authorize methane offsets, then the 45V tax credit could end up subsidizing fossil fuel projects, stifling the nascent green hydrogen industry and locking in emissions-intensive infrastructure for decades to come. Just as concerning, authorizing offsets for the hydrogen production tax credit would also pave the way for similar treatment in the upcoming implementation of technology-neutral clean energy production ( Section 45Y) and investment tax credits (Section 48E).

To understand how offsets could affect the strategic outlook for the hydrogen industry, we looked at how the Treasury Department calculates the life cycle emissions of hydrogen production from natural gas, which is essentially just methane. Treasury’s draft regulations propose to use a bespoke life cycle analysis model to determine whether hydrogen projects qualify for the tax credit, and if so, what level of support they will receive.

This model has several important features: It accounts for CO2 emitted in the process of producing hydrogen from methane, which is straightforward, as well as methane emissions from upstream gas production, processing, and pipeline transportation, which is not. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t include impacts from hydrogen, which itself is an indirect greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.)

The model’s treatment of methane emissions is particularly important. Although the academic literature suggests a national average above 2% and finds impacts above 9% in some cases, the model assumes that gas supply chains emit only 0.9% of the methane they deliver. Differences in methane emissions matter a lot, even when they look small. That’s because methane traps about 30 times as much heat as CO2 over a 100-year period, so its calculated CO2-equivalence is that much larger.

As a result, Treasury’s proposed approach undercounts the true climate impacts of hydrogen production, particularly hydrogen made from methane. Even so, fossil hydrogen production faces a narrow path to qualifying for the tax credit. For example, a fossil hydrogen project would have to capture more than 70% of its CO2 emissions and buy enough clean electricity to power all its operations — either directly as energy or indirectly as energy credits — even to qualify for the lower tiers of the tax credit. And even though projects’ actual methane emissions are likely to be undercounted, the model’s assumptions are enough to disqualify fossil projects from the highest tax credit tier, which is substantially more lucrative than any of the others.

Because of the difficulty of achieving high CO2 capture rates, some analysts have argued that fossil hydrogen projects will instead wind up applying for tax credits under Section 45Q of the IRA, which provides incentives for sequestering CO2 underground without the hydrogen tax credit’s exacting emissions standards.

But a fossil hydrogen project can claim totally different outcomes if it’s allowed to buy environmental certificates that claim to avoid methane emissions in the first place, a.k.a. methane offsets. The logic goes like this: If someone else was going to emit methane to the atmosphere, but agrees instead to capture and inject it into a gas pipeline network, then a hydrogen producer can buy a certificate from that other methane producer representing that same captured gas and potentially treat their own fossil gas as negative emissions.

For example, consider a large dairy that sends cow manure to uncovered manure lagoons, which produce significant methane emissions. Suppose the dairy installs a methane capture system and sells credits to a hydrogen producer, which then claims to have avoided the dairy’s methane emissions — even if these emissions could be avoided in other ways, like alternative manure management or flaring. Because methane is considered almost 30 times more impactful than CO2 over a 100-year period, the CO2-equivalence of avoiding methane emissions is larger than the project’s direct CO2 emissions, and therefore the resulting hydrogen production process gets a negative carbon intensity score.

If your head is spinning at this point, welcome to the world of offsets. Outcomes depend on counterfactual scenarios that can’t be measured or observed, burning fossil fuels can supposedly reduce pollution, and even the verb tenses are hard to parse.

Vertigo aside, the practical implications of methane offsets for the hydrogen production tax credit are enormous. Without methane offsets, fossil hydrogen projects couldn’t benefit much from the hydrogen tax credit; even with strict carbon capture and storage pollution controls, they can’t meet the life cycle requirements for the top tier and would likely prefer to claim a smaller carbon storage tax credit instead. But if projects can use methane offsets, they can easily reduce their calculated emissions to qualify for the top tier of the hydrogen production tax credit.

This would also mean these fossil projects could undercut truly clean hydrogen projects. Green hydrogen projects that comply with the draft guardrails will have to invest in novel electrolyzer technologies and new clean power sources. The top tier of the tax credit provides enough money to make clean hydrogen projects competitive, but methane offsets are a lot less expensive than electrolyzers. If fossil producers can qualify with cheap offsets, they can pocket the difference and outcompete clean producers who have to invest in costly infrastructure.

We set out to estimate the amount of methane offsetting needed to qualify fossil projects for the top production tax credit tier. You can review our calculations here; for the carbon intensity of putatively negative emissions feedstocks, we used a conservative estimate that is about half the level of what other researchers use.

Remarkably, a fossil hydrogen project without carbon capture could qualify for the top production tax credit by offsetting just 25% of its fuel use. And a fossil hydrogen project that abates 90% of its CO2 emissions could earn the top tier of the tax credit if it bought offsets for just 4% of its fuel use.

So far a lot of the discussion about negative carbon intensity scores has focused on methane captured from livestock manure, but Treasury’s draft regulations also make reference to the possibility of capturing “fugitive emissions,” which could include methane emitted from the oil and gas sector or even from coal mines. If methane offsets are made eligible across a wide range of fugitive emissions, the hydrogen tax credit — which was designed as a generous incentive to promote innovation in new technologies — could end up subsidizing incumbent emitters.

Treasury’s hydrogen regulations will also set an important precedent for how offsets are treated in other government policies. The last set of tax credits in the IRA, a pair of technology-neutral investment and production tax credits for clean electricity generation, are under development this year. It’s great news that soon the U.S. federal government will support a full range of clean technologies, not just solar and wind — but not if those policies encourage higher-emitting activities that claim to be clean through the use of offsets. There are a few existing markets for methane offsets already, and certain segments of the economy — particularly the dairy industry — are hungry for more.

At the end of the day, the Biden administration faces a similar set of issues when it comes to producing hydrogen from methane that it did with clean hydrogen produced from electricity and water. If the tax credits encourage green hydrogen projects in places where it is difficult to supply cheap and clean electricity, then those projects risk becoming stranded assets when the tax credits expire. Similarly, if the tax credits encourage hydrogen production from chemical feedstocks and methane offsets, they will prop up fossil fuel infrastructure that could keep operating long after the requirement to buy offsets expires.

For all the complexity, though, one thing is clear: We won’t get a true green hydrogen industry if the Treasury Department decides to subsidize methane offsets — which, when you put it like that, doesn’t make much sense in the first place.

https://heatmap.news/climate/hydrogen-tax-credit-final-methane-offsets Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

I was thinking, should I share my draft spec for what I intend to do for the Godot on iPad situation, or just blog when it is all said and done?

I am removing the top level menu and shuffling everything out. Wonder if there is any interested in the raw thought process.

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111902044686980754 Save to Pocket

Big San Jose regional shopping mall is slated to be sold by mid-year

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

The owner of the Westfield Oakridge shopping center has struck a deal to sell the south San Jose regional mall.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/09/san-jose-real-estate-store-retail-oakridge-valley-fair-buy-economy/ Save to Pocket

Fortinet’s week to forget: Critical vulns, disclosure screw-ups, and that toothbrush DDoS attack claim

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

An orchestra of fails for the security vendor

We’ve had to write the word “Fortinet” so often lately that we’re considering making a macro just to make our lives a little easier after what the company’s reps will surely agree has been a week sent from hell.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/a_look_at_fortinet_week/ Save to Pocket

TIL that Slack is an acronym: “Searchable Log of All Communication and…

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043949-til-that-slack-is-an Save to Pocket

Blocek text editor minor update

date: 2024-02-09, from: FreeDOS News

https://sourceforge.net/p/freedos/news/2024/02/blocek-text-editor-minor-update/ Save to Pocket

What Are The Cheapest EVs In 2024?

date: 2024-02-09, from: Inside EVs News

These are the most affordable EVs in the United States in 2024, with prices starting under $40,000.

https://insideevs.com/news/708112/cheapest-ev-2024-list/ Save to Pocket

Guam Marianas Training Center could lose Certified Nursing Assistant program

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

Guam’s nurse shortage problem could be compounded, as one of the island’s nursing education programs faces closure.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/guam-marianas-training-center-could-lose-certified-nursing-assistant-program/article_75410634-c6f8-11ee-8deb-efa978b3e93e.html Save to Pocket

100% of UOG nursing graduates pass licensure exam

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

Guam gained 17 more registered nurses as the graduates of the University of Guam Bachelor of Science in Nursing program achieved a 100% passing rate for the National Council Licensure Exam, the university announced recently in a press release.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/100-of-uog-nursing-graduates-pass-licensure-exam/article_8eeb7288-c6e7-11ee-8f27-6b3061176acc.html Save to Pocket

Detective: Informants assisted in tourist shooting investigation

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

Police used confidential informants during the search for suspects involved in the death of a Korean tourist in Tumon at the start of the year, a detective testified at trial.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/detective-informants-assisted-in-tourist-shooting-investigation/article_3f109e2c-c6f2-11ee-b0c2-47f3de02c79b.html Save to Pocket

OPA: Unauthorized expenses, other issues identified with GHURA credit card use

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

A $4,000 expense for a 60th anniversary brunch celebration, $5,000 in charges for explicitly prohibited contract services, untimely approval of purchase orders totaling $24,000, a lack of monitoring and oversight of credit card charges resulting in $1,000 of unnecessary finance…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/opa-unauthorized-expenses-other-issues-identified-with-ghura-credit-card-use/article_3373601a-c6f0-11ee-a5ea-1b28b6dce33a.html Save to Pocket

Food assistance program to be run by OHAPP

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

The Office of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention will soon take over providing food to island residents who are experiencing food insecurity, according to the director of OHAPP.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/food-assistance-program-to-be-run-by-ohapp/article_e8c8c312-c6df-11ee-871d-cb1386a1bd8f.html Save to Pocket

Murder suspect told police third party was involved in victim’s death

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

A man accused of murder told police during interviews that a third person, “a stocky guy with long hair and a drug seller from Dededo,” was involved in the death of Edwin Babauta Pirando.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/murder-suspect-told-police-third-party-was-involved-in-victims-death/article_03cf9948-c6ee-11ee-8d45-5f0369744559.html Save to Pocket

Man, 40, accused of raping teen in 2022

date: 2024-02-09, from: Guam Daily Post

A 40-year-old man was accused of raping a female minor during the summer before she started eighth grade.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/man-40-accused-of-raping-teen-in-2022/article_91908a7e-c641-11ee-bfa3-1b61115edff6.html Save to Pocket

NASA Expedition 71 Astronauts to Conduct Research aboard Space Station

date: 2024-02-09, from: NASA breaking news

Studies of neurological organoids, plant growth, and shifts in body fluids are among the scientific investigations that NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Tracy C. Dyson will help support aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 71. The crew members are targeting launch to the space station in February and […]

https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/nasa-expedition-71-astronauts-to-conduct-research-aboard-space-station/ Save to Pocket

John Boston | Rain, Babies & Running Like a Chimpanzee

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

I love the rain, I always have. Some of the more peaceful places I can return to are memories of the heavenly gift. This week was no different. Rain washes away soil and gold dust, character defects and things to be accomplished hour’s end. I was never really a cowboy, more of a ranch boy, which […]

The post John Boston | Rain, Babies & Running Like a Chimpanzee appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/john-boston-rain-babies-running-like-a-chimpanzee/ Save to Pocket

Arthur Saginian | Observations on SCOTUS Trump Case

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

I just finished listening to the Trump v. Colorado ballot case that was being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. My take on the exchanges between the counsels and the justices is that the court is not keen on one (or two, or three) state(s) creating political chaos for the entire country, especially since the […]

The post Arthur Saginian | Observations on SCOTUS Trump Case appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/arthur-saginian-observations-on-scotus-trump-case/ Save to Pocket

Ron Perry | How Convenient

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

How convenient that E. Jean Carroll should wait 20-plus years to report something that was so horrific to her. Twenty-plus years to report an episode that “changed” her life. What kind of joke is this? This is a woman who says she was raped by Donald Trump. This is a woman who would have you […]

The post Ron Perry | How Convenient appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/ron-perry-how-convenient/ Save to Pocket

Judy Reinsma | AT&T Hanging Up on Landlines

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

Recently I got a notice from AT&T that seems to state that they are considering dropping landline telephone service to customers in the 91390 area code.  This would be disastrous for many in this area. Cell service is either poor or entirely unavailable in some parts of this area. I live on San Francisquito Canyon […]

The post Judy Reinsma | AT&T Hanging Up on Landlines appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/judy-reinsma-att-hanging-up-on-landlines/ Save to Pocket

Will Immigrants Save US Economy as Baby Boomers Retire in Droves?

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

About 10,000 people born between 1946 and 1964 leave the workforce each day

https://www.voanews.com/a/will-immigrants-save-us-economy-as-baby-boomers-retire-in-droves-/7479858.html Save to Pocket

What to Expect From La Niña

date: 2024-02-09, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: California is getting a brief respite from the rain • Barcelona’s soccer club is reducing its water use as drought grips Spain • It will be chilly and windy in Las Vegas this weekend for Super Bowl LVIII.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Looming La Niña could make for more extreme weather

El Niño may be on the way out. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) yesterday issued a La Niña watch, saying there’s a 55% chance the weather pattern could emerge this summer. El Niño has contributed to above-average ocean temperatures and an intensification of extreme weather. La Niña typically cools the equatorial Pacific, but experts say it could bring stronger hurricanes, drought, and even trigger more tornadoes in the Midwest.

2. Famed climate scientist wins defamation suit

Climate scientist Michael Mann, most well-known for popularizing the “hockey stick” graph in 1998 that showed a spike in global temperatures, won a defamation lawsuit against two writers who were critical of his work. In 2012, Rand Simberg, a former adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, compared Mann to convicted child abuser Jerry Sandusky, writing that “except for instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data.” Steyn piled on Simberg’s comments and called Mann’s research “fraudulent.” A jury found the statements were written with “maliciousness, spite, ill will, vengeance or deliberate intent to harm,” and awarded Mann more than $1 million in damages. “I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech,” Mann said.

3. Researchers set new nuclear fusion energy record

European scientists have set a new record for the amount of energy produced from nuclear fusion: Researchers working at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in the U.K. – one of the most powerful fusion machines in the world – produced 69 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds, surpassing the 2021 record of 59 megajoules. That’s “enough energy to boil about 70 kettles,” according to the Financial Times’ calculation. While that might not seem like a lot, experts see it as a sign of progress toward harnessing the process that powers the sun for abundant clean energy. But that remains a long way off: The JET experiment used more energy than it produced, and “building a fusion power plant also has many engineering and materials challenges,” Aneeqa Khan, a research fellow in nuclear fusion at the University of Manchester, told CNN. This experiment is one of the last to be conducted at the JET facility, which is being decommissioned this year.

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4. Insurance industry taps scientists to help measure growing wilfire risks

The insurance industry is sponsoring research into how wildfires spread in urban areas, E&E News reported. The goal is to help insurers better gauge risk as wildfires fueled by a warming climate increasingly threaten buildings and cause billions in losses. Most of the costliest wildfires in U.S. history have struck in the last decade, and “global insured losses between 2011 and 2020 for wildfires alone were more than five times higher than losses in the previous three decades.” Not much modeling has been done around how fires jump from rural to urban areas, or about how different types of buildings withstand fires, and “the industry is working to get its arms around the issue so companies can more confidently do business in fire-prone areas — and incentivize homeowners to do what they can to draw down the risk.”

5. Rapid PFAS detection method discovered

Identifying “forever chemicals” lurking in our homes and the environment may soon get a lot easier. Chemists from the New Jersey Institute of Technology say they’ve found a way to detect traces of harmful PFAS in mere minutes. It could make it much easier for authorities to identify PFAS and clean them up. “The current testing methods are costly and time-consuming, taking hours for sample preparation and analysis in some cases,” said Hao Chen, the study’s corresponding author and NJIT chemistry professor. “What our study demonstrates is a much faster, sensitive and versatile method that can monitor our drinking water, land, and consumer products for contamination in minutes.” The team used its rapid detection method to identify two kinds of PFAS in just 40mg of soil. The process took less than three minutes.

THE KICKER

California Academy of Sciences

Ten African penguin chicks have hatched over the last 14 months at a San Francisco science museum, after four years with no new chicks.

https://heatmap.news/climate/la-nina-michael-mann Save to Pocket

Microsoft’s Notepad goes from simple text editor to Copilot conspirator

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

No guarantee it’ll come to Windows proper, but testers can give it a poke

Microsoft has confirmed that Copilot is on its way into Notepad, with a release of the application being rolled out to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels on Windows 11.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/copilot_notepad/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Me: opens Xcode

Me: “ok nerds, watch and learn”

Me: chat.OpenAI.com

“How do I remove duplicate rows from a table where the id matches in swift using the c SQLite api”

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111901757387378980 Save to Pocket

Tesla Cybertruck OTA Update Adds A Charging Reminder, But Autopilot Is Still Missing

date: 2024-02-09, from: Inside EVs News

Parking visualizations, which are Tesla’s substitute for parking sensors, are also nowhere to be found.

https://insideevs.com/news/708047/tesla-cybertruck-update-february-2024/ Save to Pocket

Senators grill big pharma execs on drug prices

date: 2024-02-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing yesterday for three pharmaceutical CEOS on “outrageous” drug prices when compared to other countries. Plus, Super Bowl ad trends ahead of the weekend’s big game and results from the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/senators-grill-big-pharma-execs-on-drug-prices Save to Pocket

As CSU Faculty Prepare For Vote On New Deal, Many Wonder If There’s A Better Option

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

California State University faculty will begin voting Monday whether to accept a new deal. Many don’t want to go back on strike, but others are ready to vote it down.

https://laist.com/news/education/california-state-university-faculty-vote-tentative-agreement-strike-2024 Save to Pocket

Global EV Sales Hit Record 1.5+ Million In December 2023

date: 2024-02-09, from: Inside EVs News

In 2023, plug-in electric car registrations exceeded 13.6 million, taking 16% of the global car market.

https://insideevs.com/news/707891/global-ev-sales-december-2023/ Save to Pocket

At Pink And Boujee, People Come For The Color — And Stay For The Tacos

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

A hued twist to traditional Mexican fare brings success to a taquería on 1st Street owned and operated by long-time Boyle Heights resident Yesenia Castro.

https://laist.com/news/food/pink-and-boujee-tacos-food-boyle-heights Save to Pocket

The Super Bowl (Of Chili): We Asked For Your Best Tricks And You Gave Us Your Spiciest Secrets

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

With the Super Bowl and cold weather in full swing this week, we’re craving a hot bowl of chili. From chocolate to Fritos, here are some tricks to make yours a winner.

https://laist.com/news/food/the-super-bowl-of-chili-we-asked-for-your-best-tricks-and-you-gave-us-your-spiciest-secrets Save to Pocket

Lunar New Year Starts Sunday. Here’s How To Celebrate The Year Of The Dragon In LA

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

It’s Lunar New Year, which kicks off with plenty of celebrations, and we’ve got you covered with various places to dine and other non-eating activities where you can still feel prosperous.

https://laist.com/news/food/lunar-new-year-starts-sunday-heres-how-to-celebrate-the-year-of-the-dragon-in-la Save to Pocket

Call for Pitches: Misinformation in Immigrant Communities

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Markup blog

Help us expand our coverage of how misinformation impacts immigrant communities

https://themarkup.org/inside-the-markup/2024/02/09/call-for-pitches-misinformation-in-immigrant-communities Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Great tip for Vision Pro users:

I can’t really use it in the bedroom when Laura goes to sleep. This solves the problem:

https://mastodon.social/@renegade/111898847184953042

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111901597670329045 Save to Pocket

Closure of Windows 10 upgrade path still catching users by surprise

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

That Windows 7 license is little more than a digital paperweight now

Microsoft’s decision to close pathways allowing Windows 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Windows 10 is still catching people out, months after the company took action.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/windows_10_upgrade_closure/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Bluesky Opens Up.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/06/bluesky-opens-up/ Save to Pocket

Hubble Spots a Galaxy Shrouded by Stars

date: 2024-02-09, from: NASA breaking news

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a densely packed field of stars laid upon a background of dust, gas, and light from more distant celestial objects. There are so many stars in this image’s field of view that it may be a little tricky to discern that you are in fact looking at a […]

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-spots-a-galaxy-shrouded-by-stars/ Save to Pocket

Farmers protests spread to Italy

date: 2024-02-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: Protests that started in Poland have spread across Europe and now Italian farmers are threatening to bring Rome to a standstill. They say they’re taking a stand against red tape, higher costs and competition from cheaper foreign imports. And, millions of people across Asia are getting ready for Lunar new year celebrations which start tomorrow. But amidst the fun, fears over the economy — particular in China — threaten to dampen the mood.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/farmers-protests-spread-to-italy Save to Pocket

HOW TO WRITE A COMIC NOVEL

date: 2024-02-09, from: Howard Jacobson blog

Part 1

https://jacobsonh.substack.com/p/how-to-write-a-comic-novel Save to Pocket

Not So Long Ago

date: 2024-02-09, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

Fascist Germany may feel like a lifetime ago, but it was actually during my lifetime. And yet many people old enough to remember seem to have forgotten the horrible lessons of that time. Many more have never been taught what happened, why, or how. So given the current state of the world, including the situation in our own country, this is as good a time as any for review and reminders.

https://steady.substack.com/p/not-so-long-ago Save to Pocket

P&B: Phil Gyford

date: 2024-02-09, from: Manu - I write blog

This is the 24th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Phil Gyford and his blog, gyford.com

Both Piper and Ana suggested Phil as a potential guest but he was already on my radar thanks to his incredible work on ooh.directory which is such a great site and an amazing tool for a project like P&B.

To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.

This was the 24th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Phil. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.

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4. suggest a person to interview next. I’m especially interested in people and blogs outside the tech/web bubble.

https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/PTIbVACr9bFgCYHQ Save to Pocket

Curious tale of broken VPNs, the Year 2038, and certs that expired 100 years ago

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

It’s not NTP. There’s no way it’s NTP. It was NTP

Interview  Back in late 2010, “Zimmie” was working in IT support for a vendor that made VPN devices and an associated operating system. He got a call on a Monday from a customer – a large specialty retailer in the US – about its VPN hardware that had stopped working over the weekend.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/it_incident_report_the_clock/ Save to Pocket

2024-02-09 Oddµ namespaces and live updating

date: 2024-02-09, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog

2024-02-09 Oddµ namespaces and live updating

It’s a slow morning. I had my two cups of coffee, ate my pancakes with plum jam, spent time online reading Mastodon, talked to my wife about wannabe-axe murderers on Swiss trains, looked up stuff about taxing the rich…

I’ve been working on Oddmu again. My goal is to be able to reproduce the Campaign Wiki setup:

• people can get a “space” for their site by signing up in some way
• they can make changes to the look and feel of their site (change the headers, footers, colours, i.e. make changes to both the HTML template and the CSS)
• feeds, list of changes and all that are limited to their site

Using Oddmu would also result in the following:

• sites are no longer publically editable (which isn’t a requirement for such spaces like role-playing game campaigns)

Oddmu now has the following features:

• when editing pages in a subdirectory, the index and changes page in the same directory are updated (instead of the root directory)
• when HTML templates exist in the same directory, those are used instead of the templates in the root directory (e.g. Oddµ)
• when uploading a HTML template, it is loaded immediately (no more server restart)

Once I had this implemented using a library that watches the filesystem for changes, I realized that I could use the same feature to index new pages. This brings me closer to having online and offline writing feature equivalence: Using the web site to create a page should be equivalent to writing a page elsewhere and uploading it to the site via rsync. (Offline you can use the oddmu notify command to add links to index, changes and hashtag pages.)

I think I’m getting close!

#Oddµ

https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-02-09-oddmu-namespaces Save to Pocket

Visualizations in code playgrounds

date: 2024-02-09, from: Anton Zhiyanov blog

Presenting playground output in a visual manner.

https://antonz.org/playground-visualizations/ Save to Pocket

Watch NE-5, the Raspberry Pi-powered robot, on TV

date: 2024-02-09, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)

Maker Keegan Neave turned his Johnny 5 homage into a TV star. Meet NE-5, the splendid Raspberry Pi-powered robot.

The post Watch NE-5, the Raspberry Pi-powered robot, on TV appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/watch-ne-5-the-raspberry-pi-powered-robot-on-tv/ Save to Pocket

Joint European Torus experiments end on a 69 megajoules high

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Meanwhile ITER’s not slated to start deuterium-tritium ops until 2035

The Joint European Torus (JET) has bowed out with a final hurrah by setting a world record in energy output.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/jets_swansong_yields_fusion_record/ Save to Pocket

Trump came for their party but took over their souls

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>I thought I was beyond shockable, but this week has been profoundly shocking for me. I spent the bulk of my adult life on the right-wing side of things, generally rooting for the Republican Party, because I thought that party best served America. People like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump chased me out of the Republican orbit (gradually and then all at once), but I have still held out the hope that my many friends on the right are kind of like an occupied country. They have to mouth the Trumpian prejudices to survive in this era, but somewhere deep inside, the party of Reagan still lives in their souls.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/opinion/trump-came-for-their-party-but-took-over-their-souls/ Save to Pocket

12 dump truck loads needed to clear Kona encampment, tunnels

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>State Department of Transportation crews, joined by Hawaii Police Department Community Policing Officers, cleared out three drainage tunnels and another encampment in Kona on Wednesday, hauling away tons of trash.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/12-dump-truck-loads-needed-to-clear-kona-encampment-tunnels/ Save to Pocket

SoCal’s smog-cutting plan is failing and regulators would rather point fingers than fix it

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Government officials whose job it is to clean the nation&#8217;s worst smog from Southern California&#8217;s air should be embarrassed. Instead of working together to cut lung-damaging ozone pollution, they are wasting time pointing fingers at one another.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/opinion/socals-smog-cutting-plan-is-failing-and-regulators-would-rather-point-fingers-than-fix-it/ Save to Pocket

Hawaii’s high court cites ‘The Wire’ in rebuke of US Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>HONOLULU &#8212; A ruling by Hawaii&#8217;s high court saying that a man can be prosecuted for carrying a gun in public without a permit cites crime-drama TV series &#8220;The Wire&#8221; and invokes the &#8220;spirit of Aloha&#8221; in an apparent rebuke of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights nationwide.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/hawaiis-high-court-cites-the-wire-in-rebuke-of-us-supreme-court-decision-that-expanded-gun-rights/ Save to Pocket

‘We have to continue to remain vigilant,’ chief says; HPD releases disciplinary report

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Two Hawaii Police Department officers were fired in 2023, and nine &#8212; including one of the terminated officers &#8212; received suspensions ranging from one to 12 days.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/we-have-to-continue-to-remain-vigilant-chief-says-hpd-releases-disciplinary-report/ Save to Pocket

Upcoming moon mission has ties to the Big Island

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>What could be the first successful independent private commercial mission to the moon will take off next week with a small piece of Hawaii onboard.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/upcoming-moon-mission-has-ties-to-the-big-island/ Save to Pocket

Biden angrily pushes back at special counsel’s report that questioned his memory, handling of docs

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; A special counsel report released Thursday found evidence that President Joe Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen, including about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, but concluded that criminal charges were not warranted.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/biden-angrily-pushes-back-at-special-counsels-report-that-questioned-his-memory-handling-of-docs/ Save to Pocket

Judge: Effort to save native birds by using mosquitoes can proceed

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A state judge has ruled in favor of a plan to import mosquitoes to Maui to protect endangered native birds.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/judge-effort-to-save-native-birds-by-using-mosquitoes-can-proceed/ Save to Pocket

Girls basketball: HPA and Kohala meet again and KSH falls at state tourney

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>HONOLULU &#8212; The Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) girls basketball Division I and Division II semifinals concluded Thursday night, along with some of the consolation matches.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/girls-basketball-hpa-and-kohala-meet-again-and-ksh-falls-at-state-tourney/ Save to Pocket

Larsson scores 27 to lead No. 8 Arizona past Utah 105-99 in triple overtime

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) &#8212; Pelle Larsson had 27 points and eight assists to lead No. 8 Arizona to a 105-99 victory over Utah in triple overtime Thursday night.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/larsson-scores-27-to-lead-no-8-arizona-past-utah-105-99-in-triple-overtime/ Save to Pocket

No. 5 Ohio State wins 10th straight game, 71-47 over Minnesota

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) &#8212; Cotie McMahon had 13 points and nine rebounds, Jacy Sheldon shrugged off a tough shooting night with 12 points and six assists, and fifth-ranked Ohio State beat Minnesota 71-47 on Thursday for its 10th consecutive victory. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/no-5-ohio-state-wins-10th-straight-game-71-47-over-minnesota/ Save to Pocket

AP PHOTOS: Lunar New Year in the Philippines draws crowds to one of the world’s oldest Chinatowns

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>MANILA, Philippines &#8212; Crowds are flocking to Chinatown in the Philippine capital to usher in the Year of the Wood Dragon and experience lively traditional dances on lantern-lit streets with food, lucky charms and prayers for good fortune.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/ap-photos-lunar-new-year-in-the-philippines-draws-crowds-to-one-of-the-worlds-oldest-chinatowns/ Save to Pocket

Boys soccer: KSH survives state quarterfinals; Waiakea, Kealakehe and HPA fall

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WAIPAHU, O&#8216;ahu &#8212; Kamehameha Schools - Hawai&#8216;i was the only BIIF team to emerge victorious from the HHSAA boys soccer Division I and Division II state quarterfinals on Thursday at the Waipi&#8216;o Soccer Complex.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/boys-soccer-ksh-survives-state-quarterfinals-waiakea-kealakehe-and-hpa-fall/ Save to Pocket

BAC bill advances in Legislature

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A proposal to reduce the state&#8217;s blood alcohol concentration threshold for drunken driving charges has passed its first committee in the state Legislature.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/hawaii-news/bac-bill-advances-in-legislature/ Save to Pocket

Obituaries for February 9

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Ryan Harrison Kaleookalani Brown, 52, of Naalehu died January 10. Born in Honolulu, he was self-employed in construction. Celebration of life 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at Kualoa Ranch on Oahu. One-year memorial Friday, Jan. 10, in Naalehu. Details at a later date. Survived by wife, Robyn-ann Brown; parents, Audis Leinaala Brown-Dombrigues and Benjamin Brown; son, Ryder Brown; daughters, Rache (Royden) Esperon, Riley-ann Brown and Hailey Brown; brothers, Rance Brown and Bronson Brown; sisters, Lorilynn Pua and Breeanne Brown; two grandchildren; numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. Arrangements by Ballard Family Mortuary.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/obituaries/obituaries-for-february-9-10/ Save to Pocket

Under Bernie Sanders’ glare, pharmaceutical chiefs defend their prices

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; The CEOs of three major pharmaceutical companies defended the prices of their drugs in front of the Senate health committee Thursday, drawing them further into a confrontation with lawmakers and the Biden administration over the cost of some of the most widely used prescription medications.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/under-bernie-sanders-glare-pharmaceutical-chiefs-defend-their-prices/ Save to Pocket

Tucker Carlson urges Putin to release American journalist

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>In an interview released Thursday, Tucker Carlson urged President Vladimir Putin of Russia to release an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal who has been held in a notorious Moscow prison for nearly a year.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/tucker-carlson-urges-putin-to-release-american-journalist/ Save to Pocket

Trade deadline day: The Knicks took a big swing, and some shooters are now in the playoff race

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Bojan Bogdanovic left Detroit to join a now even-more-formidable contender in New York. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/trade-deadline-day-the-knicks-took-a-big-swing-and-some-shooters-are-now-in-the-playoff-race/ Save to Pocket

California governor to send prosecutors to Oakland to help crack down on rising crime

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) &#8212; California&#8217;s governor announced plans Thursday to send prosecutors to Oakland in his latest move to crack down on rising crime in the San Francisco Bay Area city where brazen robberies in broad daylight have drawn national attention.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/california-governor-to-send-prosecutors-to-oakland-to-help-crack-down-on-rising-crime/ Save to Pocket

Conspiracy theories swirl around Taylor Swift. These Republican voters say they don’t care

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>To hear some conservatives on cable news or on social media tell it, Taylor Swift is part of an elaborate plot to help Democrats win the November election.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/conspiracy-theories-swirl-around-taylor-swift-these-republican-voters-say-they-dont-care/ Save to Pocket

PHOTOS: BIIF baseball season to begin soon

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>By HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD STAFF</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/sports/photos-biif-baseball-season-to-begin-soon/ Save to Pocket

The Supreme Court seems poised to reject efforts to kick Trump off the ballot over the Capitol riot

date: 2024-02-09, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; The Supreme Court seems poised to reject attempts to kick former President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot, with conservative and liberal justices in apparent agreement in a case that puts them at the heart of a presidential election.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/09/nation-world-news/the-supreme-court-seems-poised-to-reject-efforts-to-kick-trump-off-the-ballot-over-the-capitol-riot/ Save to Pocket

Carl Kanowsky | Deep Purple Day at Craggy Range

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

On a visit to another winery when we were in New Zealand late last year, Terry and I joined about 1,000 of our closest Kiwi friends for a sumptuous party at Craggy Range Winery in the Hawke’s Bay wine region.  The folks at Craggy Range graciously invited us to join the legions of their fans […]

The post Carl Kanowsky | Deep Purple Day at Craggy Range appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/carl-kanowsky-deep-purple-day-at-craggy-range/ Save to Pocket

Putin Doubles Down on Spy Claim About Jailed Journalist Gershkovich

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/putin-doubles-down-on-spy-claim-about-jailed-journalist-gershkovich/7480598.html Save to Pocket

The Plan To Take Out Voting Rights

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Lever News

Conservatives are launching a new battle to destroy what’s left of the Voting Rights Act.

https://www.levernews.com/the-plan-to-take-out-voting-rights/ Save to Pocket

Billions lost to fraud and error during UK’s pandemic spending spree

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Watchdog orders a rethink in time for the next emergency

UK government must figure out how to share spending data across departments after up to £59 billion ($74.4 billion) in expenditure was lost to fraud and error early in the pandemic.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/nao_pandemic_fraud_data/ Save to Pocket

Biden’s brain, Trump’s brain

date: 2024-02-09, from: Robert Reich on Substack

And last night’s bombshell

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/bidens-brain-trumps-brain Save to Pocket

Lotus Emeya completes rigorous three year testing program ahead of deliveries this year [Video]

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

The consumer market is on the cusp of deliveries of the Lotus Emeya – the hypercar manufacturer’s first four-door model ever. Today, Lotus Cars shared winter test footage that caps off a three-year development program that spanned 15 countries. Check out the sleek Emeya tearing through the snow in the video below.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/09/lotus-emeya-completes-three-year-testing-program-deliveries-this-year-video/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Review: Chris Dixon's last ditch desperate attempt to sell us on his rancid snake oil dream. He lost, that doesn’t make him dead, but his dream is.

https://www.citationneeded.news/review-read-write-own-by-chris-dixon/ Save to Pocket

Please install that patch – but don’t you dare actually run it

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

This is a fine approach if you want great uptime stats. Security? Not so much

On Call  As Friday dawns with its promise of rebooting the working week, The Register presses the button to publish another instalment of On Call – our weekly, reader-contributed column that shares real-world tales of being flummoxed by the farces they’re asked to fix.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/on_call/ Save to Pocket

Classifieds – February 9, 2024

date: 2024-02-09, 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 – February 9, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/classifieds-february-9-2024/ Save to Pocket

10 African Penguin Chicks Hatch at San Francisco Museum

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

SAN FRANCISCO — A bounty of 10 African penguin chicks has hatched in just over a year at a San Francisco science museum as part of an effort to conserve the endangered bird.

The penguins began hatching in November 2022, ending a four-year period without any new chicks, and continued through January of this year, the California Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday.

African penguins have dwindled to 9,000 breeding pairs in the wild, the academy said in a statement.

Threats such as overfishing, habitat degradation and oil spills have reduced colonies of the charismatic black-and-white birds, said Brenda Melton, director of animal care and well-being at the museum’s Steinhart Aquarium.

“Every chick we welcome strengthens the genetics and overall population of the species in human care,” she said.

Chicks spend their first three weeks with their penguin parents in a nest box. They then attend “fish school,” where they learn to swim on their own and eat fish provided by biologists. Once ready, they are introduced to the colony.

The 21 penguins at the museum in Golden Gate Park have distinct personalities and are identifiable by their flipper bands, according to the academy’s website.

Opal is the oldest and, at age 36, has perfected the ability to catch fish in mid-air. Her partner, Pete, is a messy eater and a flirt.

Partners Stanlee and Bernie, who both like to bray, produced four of the 10 chicks, including Fyn, named for a type of vegetation found on the southern tip of Africa. Fyn is the youngest on exhibit and older sister to Nelson and Alice, both hatched in November.

Fyn often runs up to biologists when they enter the habitat and shakes her head at them — typical courtship behavior that chicks and juveniles commonly display toward people who have cared for them since hatching.

The youngest chick hatched January 12, and its sex has not yet been determined.

African penguins can live to be 27 years old in the wild, and longer in captivity.

https://www.voanews.com/a/african-penguin-chicks-hatch-at-san-francisco-museum-/7480668.html Save to Pocket

Today in SCV History (Feb. 9)

date: 2024-02-09, from: SCV New (TV Station)

1971, 6:01 a.m. – Sylmar-San Fernando Earthquake centered under Iron Canyon/Sand Canyon [WATCH

https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-feb-9/ Save to Pocket

With the new year comes a yearning for home

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

As Tet approaches, I am reminded of why it means so much to me and my family.

The post With the new year comes a yearning for home appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/with-the-new-year-comes-a-yearning-for-home/ Save to Pocket

More students should be in therapy

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

USC’s mental health services are important resources that more people should use.

The post More students should be in therapy appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/more-students-should-be-in-therapy/ Save to Pocket

Men’s basketball loses overtime bear fight

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

A second-half surge from Isaiah Collier could not lift the slumping USC over its rivals.

The post Men’s basketball loses overtime bear fight appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/mens-basketball-loses-overtime-bear-fight/ Save to Pocket

Sierra Sky proves she is anything but ‘Broken’

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

The senior’s new release empowers those who have endured a rough breakup.

The post Sierra Sky proves she is anything but ‘Broken’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/sierra-sky-proves-she-is-anything-but-broken/ Save to Pocket

Look to the stars for love

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Aquarius and earth sign energy will be bountiful come Valentine’s Day.

The post Look to the stars for love appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/look-to-the-stars-for-love/ Save to Pocket

African stories spotlighted in documentary

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

SCA alumni-produced film “Brief Tender Light” was shown at Broccoli Theater.

The post African stories spotlighted in documentary appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/african-stories-spotlighted-in-documentary/ Save to Pocket

The familial feel of tidal therapy is a force of nature

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

When faced with waves of emotions, there’s one place that knows just what to say.

The post The familial feel of tidal therapy is a force of nature appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/09/the-familial-feel-of-tidal-therapy-is-a-force-of-nature/ Save to Pocket

NASA finally launches PACE Earth science satellite

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

‘New era of ocean science’ hoped to follow debut of billion-dollar plankton-spotter

NASA has successfully launched PACE, its latest near-billion-dollar climate-monitoring satellite that will study how microscopic plankton and aerosol particles are impacted by global warming.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/nasa_pace_launches_ocean_science/ Save to Pocket

Cloudflare joins the ‘we found ways to run our kit for longer’ club

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Finds modest savings, but isn’t modest about ability to land big customers or sell AI

Cloudflare has joined the ranks of hyperscalers that have delayed replacement of their hardware, telling investors it’s found a way to operate its infrastructure for five years instead of four.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/cloudflare_q4_2023/ Save to Pocket

Webcurios 09/02/24

date: 2024-02-09, from: Web Curios blog

Continue reading →

https://webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-09-02-24/ Save to Pocket

Iran-Backed Militants Vow Vengeance After US Kills Commander in Iraq

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

Tensions were building in the Middle East on Thursday, a day after the US took out a commander of an Iranian-backed militant group in a drone strike in Baghdad. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more.

https://www.voanews.com/a/iran-backed-militants-vow-vengeance-after-us-kills-commander-in-iraq-/7480638.html Save to Pocket

India to make its digital currency programmable

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Reserve Bank also wants a national 2FA framework

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Thursday it would make its digital currency programmable, and ensure it can be exchanged when citizens are offline.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/india_programmable_money/ Save to Pocket

February 8, 2024

date: 2024-02-09, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog

I’m on the road again, and was happily writing away on a couple of interesting stories tonight when I saw my laptop battery was almost gone. Went to plug it in, and realized I did not pack my charger. Tonight, therefore, is an emergency picture. It’s miserable for this to happen mid-draft, but the good news is that there is no news that isn’t part of a much longer story, so nothing is breaking (and yes, I’m saying that even though I have read the entire 388-page report about President Biden’s handling of classified documents— that’s where the battery went).

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-8-2024 Save to Pocket

Crime gang targeted jobseekers across Asia, looted two million email addresses

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

That listing for a gig that looked too good to be true may have been carrying SQL injection code

Singapore-based infosec firm Group-IB has detected a group that spent the last two months of 2023 stealing personal info from websites operated by jobs boards and retailers websites across Asia.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/resume_looters_jobs_ads_malicious_code/ Save to Pocket

Biden Denies Claims of Poor Document Handling, Contrasts Case with Trump’s

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday pushed back on claims he incorrectly handled sensitive government documents, forcefully contrasting his case with that of former President Donald Trump – and drawing a contrast with Trump’s own high-stakes legal travails the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could remove Trump from the presidential race.

Biden, at turns defiant and bitterly jocular with the reporters called in for the last-minute remarks Thursday evening, strongly disputed that he “willfully” retained and shared classified materials, as was said in a report released earlier in the day.

“These assertions are not only misleading, they’re just plain wrong,” he said.

The report by special counsel Robert Hur concluded that no criminal charges should be brought, and that many of the classified documents found in Biden’s offices and home were kept by mistake.

In a statement earlier in the day, Biden said he was “pleased” the special counsel had “reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach — that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed.”

That evening, he parried questions over a section of the report in which the author described the 81-year old president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“I’m well-meaning and I’m an elderly man and I know what the hell I’m doing,” Biden replied to a reporter who asked after his memory and cited voters’ concerns over his age. “I’ve been president, I put this country back on its feet. I don’t need his recommendation.”

Bob Bauer, Biden’s personal lawyer, also pushed back on the report in a statement, accusing Hur of “trashing” the investigation’s subject “with extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.”

“The special counsel could not refrain from investigative excess, perhaps unsurprising given the intense pressures of the current political environment,” Bauer’s statement read. “Whatever the impact of those pressures on the final report, it flouts department regulations and norms.”

Biden’s detractors weighed in within the hour.

“The President’s press conference this evening further confirmed on live television what the Special Counsel report outlined,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “He is not fit to be President.”

Biden is not the only president to face criticism over his handling of documents. In 1973, a Washington Post reporter who had had lunch in 1970 with then-former President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote that “the ex-President came prepared with the goods in the form of stacks of papers marked TOP SECRET and TOP SECRET SENSITIVE. Over and over, he read from the various memoranda, letters and other documents to back up his positions.”

Trump faces 40 felony counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office.

Trump, in a statement, said the Biden case was “100 times different and more severe than mine.” He added: “I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more.”

Trump’s case is the first federal indictment of a U.S. president. He has pleaded not guilty.

https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-denies-claims-of-poor-document-handling-contrasts-case-with-trump-s/7480614.html Save to Pocket

Gemini PDA sans camera

date: 2024-02-09, from: Jirka’s blog

In the middle of the last year I have noticed that my Gamini PDA is not detecting it main camera. It wasn’t a big issue as I use the Gemini rarely (it’s Android 7 cannot be upgraded and many apps cannot be installed on this device at all) and the camera was quite bad.

http://jirka.1-2-8.net/20240209-0440_Gemini_PDA_sans_camera Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

President Bartlet: "Crime, boy, I don't know" – that's when I decided to kick your ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvXzkFUUrxA&t=157s Save to Pocket

How did China get so good at chips and AI? Congressional investigation blames American venture capitalists

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Capitalism made communism stronger

The US has gone to great lengths to stifle China’s fledgling semiconductor industry and deprive it of the tools to develop AI models. Yet a newly published congressional report has found that American venture capital firms are at least partially responsible for funding the Middle Kingdom’s explosive growth in these arenas.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/investigation_vcs_china/ Save to Pocket

Biden Says Israel’s Response in Gaza is ‘Over the Top’

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

white house — President Joe Biden on Thursday gave his sharpest criticism yet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign, which has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Gaza.

“I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza, in the Gaza Strip, has been over the top,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question at the White House.

Biden said he has been “pushing very hard” for a temporary cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas and freeing of Palestinians in Israeli jails. On Wednesday, Netanyahu rejected the deal, calling the terms proposed by Hamas “delusional.”

“I’ve been working tirelessly in this deal,” Biden said, adding that he believes it could be extended to a “sustained pause in the fighting.”

He said he has been pushing to increase humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

“As you know, initially, the president of Mexico, Sissi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in,” Biden said, mistakenly referring to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. “I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate. And talked to Bibi [Netanyahu] to open the gate on Israeli side.”

Biden said this during hastily scheduled remarks in response to a special counsel report released Thursday. The report concluded he willfully retained and disclosed classified military and national security information and cited his memory lapses – a concern for American voters ahead of the November presidential election.

Three-quarters of voters, including half of Democrats, say they have concerns about Biden’s mental and physical health, according to an NBC News poll released this week.

“My memory is fine,” Biden said.

Warning on Rafah

Earlier Thursday, the White House issued a stern warning to Israel, cautioning the Netanyahu government against carrying its military campaign into the city of Rafah along the border with Egypt, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people have taken shelter.

“Absent any full consideration of protecting civilians at that scale in Gaza, military operations right now would be a disaster for those people, and it’s not something that we would support,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby during a White House briefing.

His comments echoed those of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who warned earlier Thursday of the risk of a “gigantic tragedy” as the Palestinians crammed in Rafah “have nowhere to go.”

Kirby underscored the administration does not believe Israel is about to conduct imminent military operations in Rafah, saying it has not “seen any convincing plans” for such an advance.

This despite Netanyahu saying on Wednesday that his government had instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to “operate also in Rafah,” as well as Khan Younis, the two places he identified as the “two last strongholds of Hamas.”

Israel is unlikely to swiftly move into Rafah as long as the IDF continues fighting in Khan Younis and around its tunnels, where it thinks that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a native of Khan Younis, is hiding, said David Makovsky, the Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.

“I think Netanyahu and [Israeli Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant want to signal that Israel is not afraid of going into Rafah,” he told VOA. “But I think we are still talking about the signaling phase.”

As Palestinians in Rafah shelter in fear of a more intensive campaign and ground assault, Israeli forces bombed areas of the city, killing at least 11 people.

Cairo concerned

Cairo is concerned that an Israeli advance into Rafah could lead to a mass effort by Gazans to escape across the border, a spokesperson for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Washington also worries that the conflict could spread into Egypt, said Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

“What could happen here with the relationship with Egypt? What will happen if the Palestinians try and rush into Egypt? How are you going to deal with that? Those are the kinds of questions that are being asked [by the U.S. to the Israelis],” Rynhold told VOA.

Despite its increasingly blunt public warnings to Israel, the U.S. remains a staunch supporter of Israel’s military campaign to eliminate Hamas.

So far Biden has refrained from using Washington’s considerable leverage, said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with experience in Middle East peace negotiations under various U.S. administrations.

That leverage includes the possibility of reducing military aid or diplomatic support at the United Nations, where more than 150 countries have called for a cease-fire.

“Those levers have been available since the beginning of this crisis, but he hasn’t pulled any of them,” he told VOA.

Kirby pushed back against questions about why Biden would not do more to rein in Netanyahu.

The notion that the administration has not tried to influence the way the Israelis have been prosecuting military operations is “just not true,” Kirby told VOA during Thursday’s briefing. “And they’ve been receptive to many of our lessons learned and perspectives we share.”

Rynhold said Biden is likely withholding U.S. leverage for when he may need to restrain Israel from broadening the conflict, particularly against Lebanon.

Hezbollah-led forces have been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the Lebanon-Israel border on a near-daily basis since the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

Cease-fire

The White House said it is optimistic that there is still a path toward a temporary cease-fire, despite Netanyahu’s public dismissal of the plan that highlighted the divide between the two allies.

Kirby said that “conversations are still happening” and Biden is “optimistic.” Biden is set to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Washington next week as part of his push for a deal.

The Carnegie Endowment’s Miller warned that a deal may be elusive because “neither Hamas nor the Israelis right now are really interested.”

“There’s no urgency for either of them in a comprehensive sort of cessation of hostilities,” he said. “The only people that appear to be in a hurry is the Biden administration.”

Biden is facing intense backlash from Arab and Muslim Americans. In an effort to repair relations, his aides met Thursday with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan.

The state has a high percentage of Muslims, and their votes could determine whether the president can hold on to the crucial swing state in the November presidential election.

VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-says-israel-s-response-in-gaza-is-over-the-top-/7480608.html Save to Pocket

Christian McCaffrey named Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

In his first full season in San Francisco, McCaffrey helped lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/christian-mccaffrey-named-associated-press-offensive-player-of-the-year/ Save to Pocket

Quick Charge Podcast: February 8, 2024

date: 2024-02-09, from: Electrek Feed

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/quick-charge-podcast-february-8-2024/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Later, when I was a grad student in Madison, I lived in a house with nine roommates. We shared lots of stuff, including our record collections and all of a sudden new music worlds opened to me, including (memorably) Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat, Talking Heads and Saturday Night Fever (which I’m listening to as I write this).

http://scripting.com/2024/02/08.html#a030508 Save to Pocket

Election Countdown, 271 Days to Go: ‘Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?’

date: 2024-02-09, from: James Fallows, Substack

That’s what manager Casey Stengel asked about the hapless 1962 Mets. It’s a question worth asking about the 2024 GOP.

https://fallows.substack.com/p/election-countdown-271-days-to-go Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Climate change drives world to first 12-month spell over 1.5C. #boom

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/january-was-worlds-warmest-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-02-08/ Save to Pocket

Uncle Sam sweetens the pot with $15M bounty on Hive ransomware gang members

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Honor among thieves about to be put to the test

The US government has placed an extra $5 million bounty on Hive ransomware gang members – its second such reward in a year. And it also comes a little over 11 months since the FBI said it had shut down the criminal organization’s network.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/hive_leaders_bounty/ Save to Pocket

Hart district teachers putting pressure on as contract negotiations continue 

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

Teachers and other certificated personnel within the William S. Hart Union High School District are putting increased pressure on the district as the Hart District Teachers Association is working through month eight without a contract.  As part of an organized effort, 73 representatives from all schools within the district walked out of Wednesday’s governing board […]

The post <strong>Hart district teachers putting pressure on as contract negotiations continue</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/hart-district-teachers-putting-pressure-on-as-contract-negotiations-continue/ Save to Pocket

Hart district showcasing student artwork at Black History Month art show 

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

Student artwork celebrating Black History Month is scheduled to be on display at the William S. Hart Union High School District office on Tuesday.  The Hart district is set to put on its third annual Black History Month Art Show at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in the district board room. Students from across the district […]

The post <strong>Hart district showcasing student artwork at Black History Month art show</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/hart-district-showcasing-student-artwork-at-black-history-month-art-show/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Bused From Texas to Manhattan, an Immigrant Struggles to Find Shelter.

https://www.propublica.org/article/bused-from-texas-to-nyc-immigrant-struggles-to-find-shelter Save to Pocket

Hot-prowl, assault suspect held on $1M bail

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies Thursday arrested a man they said is responsible for an early-morning break-in at his neighbor’s home the previous day.  A Canyon Country woman living in the 16000 block of Goodvale Street in Sand Canyon called 911 around 5:25 a.m. Wednesday to report she had awoken to a man standing […]

The post Hot-prowl, assault suspect held on $1M bail  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/hot-prowl-assault-suspect-held-on-1m-bail/ Save to Pocket

Steph Curry goes ballistic from 3, Warriors complete 4-1 road trip with win in Indy

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Golden State Warriors complete strong five-game road trip

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/steph-curry-goes-ballistic-from-3-warriors-complete-4-1-road-trip-with-win-in-indy/ Save to Pocket

Citing the economy, more Republicans back child care spending

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

More Republicans have pledged to tackle the child care crisis this year. In Missouri, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Republican, said he hoped the Statehouse would focus less on culture war issues — like criminalizing drag shows and censoring library books — and more on expanding access to child care and school choice.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/citing-the-economy-more-republicans-back-child-care-spending/ Save to Pocket

Mitchell Baker logs off for good as CEO of Firefox maker Mozilla

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

HTTP 301 Moved Permanently

Mitchell Baker announced on Thursday she’s stepping down as CEO of Firefox maker Mozilla Corporation to resume her role as executive chair of the not-for-profit software house.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/mozilla_ceo_mitchell_baker_departs/ Save to Pocket

US Defends Airstrikes as Iraqi Anger Mounts

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

Pentagon — The United States is giving no indication of relenting after its latest airstrike in Iraq — targeting an Iranian-backed militia commander in downtown Baghdad — sparked renewed anger and fresh calls for the removal of U.S. troops from the country.

Instead, officials in Washington on Thursday defended Tuesday’s strike and warned that the U.S. would not hesitate to act again should its forces come under further attacks.

“We fully respect Iraq’s sovereignty,” White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. “But, look, if there were no attacks on our troops, who are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government, there would be no need for retaliatory strikes.”

Multiple U.S. military officials sent a similar message from the Pentagon.

“If you attack and you hurt our people, we know who you are, and we will find you,” said General Daniel Hokanson, the U.S. National Guard bureau chief, regarding the U.S. response to last month’s attack on a base in Jordan that killed three soldiers and injured 40 National Guard troops.

“There will be a bill to pay much greater than anything that was left on us,” he added.

The U.S. has blamed Iranian-backed militias, operating under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, for the deadly attack on the Tower 22 base in Jordan, as well as for many of the 168 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria dating to mid-October.

Washington’s gaze, in particular, has fallen on Kataib Hezbollah, with some Pentagon officials going as far as to say that the attack in Jordan “bears the hallmarks” of the prominent Iranian-backed group.

Tuesday’s airstrike targeted senior Kataib Hezbollah commander Wisam Mohammad al-Saedi.

Initial U.S. statements said al-Saedi was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.” But a U.S. official said Thursday that he was the top Kataib Hezbollah official for Syria, overseeing all operations in the country.

The strike killing al-Saedi followed a wave of airstrikes last Friday on seven locations used by the Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. defense officials now believe those strikes destroyed more than 80 individual targets and killed or wounded 40 militia members.

Yet the repeated strikes have stoked growing anger among Iraqi officials.

Iraqi military spokesman Yehia Rasool early Thursday called the strike that killed al-Saedi “a blatant assassination” that showed “no regard for civilian lives or international laws.”

“The trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict,” he said in a statement posted on social media.

A social media post from the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani likewise indicated it was time for U.S. troops, and those from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group, to leave.

The prime minister “highlighted Iraq’s enhanced capabilities in combating terrorism, leading to the decision to end the coalition’s mission as ISIS terrorist remnants no longer pose a threat to Iraq,” the post said, using an acronym for the Islamic State, also known as IS or Daesh.

The U.S. has about 2,500 troops in Iraq tasked with advising and assisting Iraqi Security Forces as they pursue the remnants of IS. Another 900 U.S. forces are stationed in Syria, charged with the same mission.

And while the U.S. has been in talks with Iraq about eventually reducing the U.S. military footprint and transitioning from the counter-IS mission, officials suggested Thursday that the time has not yet come.

“In Iraq and Syria, they are down, but they’re not out,” said Pentagon press secretary Major General Patrick Ryder. “And so, again, this work by an international coalition continues to try to prevent a resurgence.”

Ryder further called IS “insidious” when it comes to taking advantage of turmoil, adding, “It’s obviously not helpful when you have things like Iranian proxies attacking your forces that are there for that mission.”

U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence officials have estimated there are fewer than 2,000 IS fighters across Iraq and Syria, though some key allies have recently warned the terror group is resurging, carrying out more attacks while seeing its ranks grow.

It is a warning the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, repeated Thursday.

“We have seen a spike in movements of ISIS,” said SDF commander General Mazloum Abdi, talking to reporters in Washington by video link from his headquarters in northeastern Syria.

Abdi also warned that the group is “taking a benefit” from the constant attacks by the Iranian-backed militias, who have started targeting SDF positions in addition to their drone and missile attacks on U.S. forces.

“We do not have any protection measures against them,” he said through a translator, adding that the SDF has requested anti-drone defense systems from Washington.

One attack, against the SDF base at the Omar Oil Field this past Sunday, killed six SDF fighters.

Abdi said another drone attack came close to hitting a prison in Hasakah, one of dozens of facilities holding a total of about 9,000 captured IS fighters. He said one drone hit the prison’s roof, but that fortunately, U.S. forces downed the other three before they could do more serious damage.

Despite the precarious situation, the SDF commander said he was not worried U.S. forces would be leaving in the short term.

“We have been reassured by United States officials … there’s not going to be any withdrawal [from Syria] anytime soon,” Abdi said, warning that should the U.S. change course, the result would be chaos.

“Many actors, forces, will be trying to take advantage,” he said. “U.S. presence on the ground is a main factor maintaining balance here.”

VOA Pentagon Correspondent Carla Babb and White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-defends-airstrikes-as-iraqi-anger-mounts/7480564.html Save to Pocket

Super Bowl: Brock Purdy ‘pumped up’ after 49ers’ biggest practice of week

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Here is the latest news from the 49ers’ headquarters following Thursday’s practice for the Super Bowl against the Chiefs.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/super-bowl-brock-purdys-pumped-up-after-49ers-biggest-practice-of-week/ Save to Pocket

SBIFF Writers Panel to Feature Writers From ‘American Fiction’, ‘Maestro’, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, ‘May December’, ‘Poor Things’, ‘Past Lives’, and ‘The Holdovers’

date: 2024-02-09, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Event takes place Feb. 13 at the Arlington in Santa Barbara.

The post SBIFF Writers Panel to Feature Writers From ‘American Fiction’, ‘Maestro’, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, ‘May December’, ‘Poor Things’, ‘Past Lives’, and ‘The Holdovers’ appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/sbiff-writers-panel-to-feature-writers-from-american-fiction-maestro-anatomy-of-a-fall-may-december-poor-things/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Can America Survive a Party of Saboteurs?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/trump-republicans-border-ukraine.html Save to Pocket

LastPass Rip-Off Named ‘LassPass’ Made It Into the App Store

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: Daring Fireball

https://blog.lastpass.com/2024/02/warning-fraudulent-app-impersonating-lastpass-currently-available-in-apple-app-store/ Save to Pocket

Funds to Counter China in Pacific Missing From Senate Spending Package

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

Key funding to counter China in the Pacific is missing from a spending package under consideration on Capitol Hill. After weeks of being included in a tranche of emergency supplemental funding, $7 billion for the Compacts of Free Association was dropped from the bill. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports.

https://www.voanews.com/a/funds-to-counter-china-in-pacific-missing-from-senate-spending-package-/7480506.html Save to Pocket

SBIFF Honors Martin Scorsese and Justine Triet as Outstanding Directors of the Year

date: 2024-02-09, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Santa Barbara International Film Festival adds two more Academy Award standouts to the offerings.

The post SBIFF Honors Martin Scorsese and Justine Triet as Outstanding Directors of the Year appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/sbiff-honors-martin-scorsese-and-justine-triet-as-outstanding-directors-of-the-year/ Save to Pocket

Supreme Court Seems Skeptical of Colorado Effort to Remove Trump From Ballot

date: 2024-02-09, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/supreme-court-seems-skeptical-of-colorado-effort-to-remove-trump-from-ballot-/7480525.html Save to Pocket

Google silences Bard, restrings it as Gemini with optional $20-a-month upgrade

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Say Gemini again, I dare you. I double dare you. Say Gemini one more goddamn time

Google on Thursday said it is bringing Gemini Ultra – its most powerful large language model yet – to the world in the form of a rebranded subscriber-only Bard.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/google_gemini_ultra_llm/ Save to Pocket

Haley stumps for votes in California after Nevada snub

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m in this for the long haul,” Haley said to cheers during an indoor rally in Los Angeles’ historic Hollywood neighborhood, where she did not mention the embarrassing Nevada outcome.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/haley-stumps-for-votes-in-california-after-nevada-snub/ Save to Pocket

Multics + AS400: DPS8M on IBM PASE for i (OS/400)

date: 2024-02-09, from: OS News

Finally, you can run dozens of multiprocessing Multics instances along side your mission-critical IBM AIX (PASE) and IBM i (OS/400) workloads on IBM Power Systems hardware! This is the virtualization solution your IT department has been waiting for… well, perhaps it isn’t — but supporting this platform is a great demonstration of both the capabilities of the IBM PASE for i (Portable Application Solutions Environment) runtime for enabling OSS on IBM i, and the excellent compatibility and portability of the DPS8M simulator software. ↫ Jeffrey H. Johnson I understand some of this stuff. Some.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138558/multics-as400-dps8m-on-ibm-pase-for-i-os-400/ Save to Pocket

Santa Clarita man gets 20 years in child pornography case 

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

A former Navy SEAL from Santa Clarita was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison Thursday for three counts of production of child pornography.   Robert Quido Stella, 51, who previously was identified as a former chief of a Navy SEAL intelligence unit, was convicted of three counts last May that he used high-tech surveillance equipment […]

The post Santa Clarita man gets 20 years in child pornography case  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/santa-clarita-man-gets-20-years-in-child-pornography-case/ Save to Pocket

Laurene Weste | Find ‘Furever’ Friend at Castaic Animal Care Center

date: 2024-02-09, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Animals have always been a pivotal part of my life

https://scvnews.com/laurene-weste-find-furever-friend-at-castaic-animal-care-center/ Save to Pocket

Mozilla names new CEO as it pivots to data privacy

date: 2024-02-09, from: OS News

Mozilla Corp., which manages the open-source Firefox browser, announced today that Mitchell Baker is stepping down as CEO to focus on AI and internet safety as chair of the nonprofit foundation. Laura Chambers, a Mozilla board member and entrepreneur with experience at Airbnb, PayPal, and eBay, will step in as interim CEO to run operations until a permanent replacement is found. Baker, a Silicon Valley pioneer who co-founded the Mozilla Project, says it was her decision to step down as CEO, adding that the move is motivated by a sense of urgency over the current state of the internet and public trust. “We want to offer an alternative for people to have better products,” says Baker, who wants to draw more attention to policies, products and processes to challenge business models built on fueling outrage. “What are the connections between this global malaise and how humans are engaging with each other and technology?” ↫ Diane Brady for Fortune Mozilla is in such a tough spot. They basically have zero consumer appeal, have no recognisable products other than Firefox, and effectively exist by the grace of Google, of all companies. If Mozilla gets in even more trouble, a lot of OSNews readers are going to feel it – and the internet as whole will feel the repercussions even if they don’t realise it. Hearing so much talk about “AI” from Mozilla doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138556/mozilla-names-new-ceo-as-it-pivots-to-data-privacy/ Save to Pocket

49ers talk team hotel fire alarm that disrupted Thursday morning

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

“If you didn’t want to wake up at 6:00 in the morning, you sure did today,” Gipson said.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/49ers-talk-team-hotel-fire-alarm-that-disrupted-thursday-morning/ Save to Pocket

The Microsoft Graveyard

date: 2024-02-09, from: OS News

Microsoft Graveyard is the virtual graveyard for all products killed by Microsoft; a free and open source collection of dead Microsoft products built by a passionate and nostalgic community. Our objective as a community is to provide factual, historic information for the products listed here. If something is missing, inaccurate, or you have a suggestion, visit and contribute to the project on GitHub. ↫ Victor Frye Heavily inspired by Killed by Google, but definitely incomplete for now, especially the further back in time you go.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138554/the-microsoft-graveyard/ Save to Pocket

Jerome Powell: The fate of our economy is in his hands

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

We have narrowly avoided a severe inflation crisis, but the struggle to prevent dire economic conditions for Americans is ongoing. All eyes are on Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman,…

https://sundial.csun.edu/178292/opinions/jerome-powell-the-fate-of-our-economy-is-in-his-hands/ Save to Pocket

Prominent LA Eviction Lawyer Loses Defamation Trial Over Parody Twitter Account

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

One of L.A. County’s busiest tenant law firms prevailed this week when a jury ruled in their favor.

https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-dennis-block-daniel-bramzon-basta-eviction-attorney-tenant-twitter-libel-defamation-parody-verdict Save to Pocket

Donald Trump clinches win at US Virgin Islands caucus, which defied Republican Party rules

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving 73.98% of the votes and Nikki Haley 26.02%.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/donald-trump-clinches-win-at-us-virgin-islands-caucus-which-defied-republican-party-rules/ Save to Pocket

VirtualBox KVM public release

date: 2024-02-09, from: OS News

For the past few months we have been working hard to provide a fast, reliable and secure KVM backend for VirtualBox. VirtualBox is a multi-platform Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) with a great feature set, support for a wide variety of guest operating systems, and a consistent user interface across different host operating systems. Cyberus Technology’s KVM backend allows VirtualBox to run virtual machines utilizing the Linux KVM hypervisor instead of the custom kernel module used by standard VirtualBox. Using KVM comes with a number of benefits. ↫ Florian Pester, Markus Partheymüller Excellent news. Dealing with the VirtualBox and VMware kernel modules can be a hassle if you’re using newer or custom kernels, and having the VirtualBox UI for kvm instead of things virt-manager is not something I’m unhappy about.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138552/virtualbox-kvm-public-release/ Save to Pocket

West Ranch basketball advances, beats Edison

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

For the fourth straight year, West Ranch Wildcats boys’ basketball won its playoff opener.   The Wildcats took down the visiting Edison Chargers, 57-42, on Wednesday in the opening round of the CIF Division 1 playoffs.   West Ranch (15-13) got off to a hot start in both halves and led 9-2 right out of the gate. […]

The post <strong>West Ranch basketball advances, beats Edison</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/west-ranch-basketball-advances-beats-edison/ Save to Pocket

Following senior night, ice hockey heads to playoffs

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

Saturday night was an emotional one for CSUN ice hockey seniors. Prior to hosting UC Santa Barbara, the Matadors celebrated their senior night, which consisted of a celebration of the…

https://sundial.csun.edu/178287/sports/following-senior-night-ice-hockey-heads-to-playoffs/ Save to Pocket

Microsoft formally announces sudo for Windows

date: 2024-02-09, from: OS News

After earlier sightings, Microsoft has now formally announced sudo for Windows. We’re excited to announce the release of Sudo for Windows in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26052! Sudo for Windows is a new way for users to run elevated commands directly from an unelevated console session. It is an ergonomic and familiar solution for users who want to elevate a command without having to first open a new elevated console. We are also excited to announce that we are open-sourcing this project here on GitHub! We’re working hard to add more information about the project in the GitHub repo and will be sharing more details about our plans in the coming months! If you’re looking for additional functionality that Sudo for Windows does not provide, check out Gerardo Grignoli’s gsudo which has a number of additional features and configuration options. ↫ Jordi Adoumie on the official Windows blog In response to sudo coming to Windows, Theo de Raadt announced that Word is coming to OpenBSD.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138546/microsoft-formally-announced-sudo-for-windows/ Save to Pocket

Castaic boys’ basketball wins program’s first playoff game

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Signal

While Castaic Coyotes boys’ basketball will have to wait another year for its first Foothill League win, the program can now celebrate something even greater.  Castaic won its first-ever playoff game on Wednesday, defeating the hosting Cal Lutheran C-Hawks, 56-48, in the CIF Division 5AA opening round.  Castaic head coach Dominique Butler thought his team […]

The post <strong>Castaic boys’ basketball wins program’s first playoff game  </strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/castaic-boys-basketball-wins-programs-first-playoff-game/ Save to Pocket

Israeli strikes kill 13 in southern Gaza town of Rafah

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

“I wish we could collect their whole bodies instead of just pieces,” said Mohammed Abu Habib, a neighbor who witnessed the strike.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/israeli-strikes-kill-13-in-southern-gaza-town-of-rafah/ Save to Pocket

Feb.13: City Council Scheduled to Discuss Storage Services, Sidewalk Repairs

date: 2024-02-09, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The Santa Clarita City Council will hold a special meeting Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 5 p.m., followed immediately by the city council’s regular meeting at 6 p.m

https://scvnews.com/feb-13-city-council-scheduled-to-discuss-storage-services-sidewalk-repairs/ Save to Pocket

Letters: Garvey’s popularity | Measures A and B

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

East Bay Times Letters to the Editor for Feb. 9, 2024

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/letters-1602/ Save to Pocket

Friday 9 February, 2024

date: 2024-02-09, from: John Naughton’s online diary

Writing by candlelight In memory of E.P. Thompson. Quote of the Day I loathe writing. On the other hand I’m a great believer in money. S. J. Perelman Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Handel | Violin Sonata, Op.1 … Continue reading →

https://memex.naughtons.org/friday-9-february-2024/39110/ Save to Pocket

So Your Roof Developed A Leak During A Recent Storm — Here’s How To Handle It

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

From preventive maintenance to managing your insurance claims, we’ve got you covered.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/leaky-roof-guide-tips Save to Pocket

FBI: Give us warrantless Section 702 snooping powers – or China wins

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Never mind the court orders obtained to thwart Volt Typhoon botnet

Analysis  The FBI’s latest PR salvo, as it fights to preserve its warrantless snooping powers on Americans via FISA Section 702, is more big talk of cyberattacks by the Chinese government.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/09/fbi_volt_typhoon_section_702/ Save to Pocket

USC community holds vigil for Palestinians killed, urges University to divest from Israel

date: 2024-02-09, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

The event comes as Israel’s war in Gaza enters its fourth month.

The post USC community holds vigil for Palestinians killed, urges University to divest from Israel appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/vigil-memory-killed-palestinians-urges-usc-divest-israel/ Save to Pocket

Lady Cougs Remain Unbeaten with 5-3 Win at Bakersfield

date: 2024-02-09, from: SCV New (TV Station)

BAKERSFIELD — College of the Canyons had to beat the weather just to play its road match at Bakersfield College on Tuesday, finding just enough sunshine to emerge with a 5-3 conference victory and remain undefeated on the season

https://scvnews.com/lady-cougs-remain-unbeaten-with-5-3-win-at-bakersfield/ Save to Pocket

Letters: Swim center

date: 2024-02-09, from: San Jose Mercury News

Mercury News Letters to the Editor for Feb. 9, 2024

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/letters-1601/ Save to Pocket

The only tunnel you’ll need for your homelab

date: 2024-02-09, updated: 2024-02-09, from: Inlets.dev, cloud tunneling

You can now expose SSH, HTTPS and Kubernetes through a single tunnel from your homelab. I’ll show you how.

https://inlets.dev/blog/2024/02/09/the-homelab-tunnel-you-need.html Save to Pocket

AT&T seeks to shed landline obligations  

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

  After more than 140 years, Ma Bell — or, rather, Ma Bell’s successor — is looking to move on from landline service in most of California, and nearly all of the Santa Clarita Valley, according to a California Public Utilities Commission application from AT&T that compared the twisted copper wire-service to Kodak film and […]

The post AT&T seeks to shed landline obligations   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/att-seeks-to-shed-landline-obligations/ Save to Pocket

VIA gears up for Active Shooter Preparedness Update luncheon 

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

The Valley Industry Association Active Shooter Preparedness Update luncheon is scheduled to provide discussions regarding community safety and preparedness at the Hyatt Regency Valencia on Tuesday, Feb. 20, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m.  Presenters will include Jenny Ketchepaw, a vice president of talent engagement in the banking industry, as well as Capt. Justin Diez […]

The post VIA gears up for Active Shooter Preparedness Update luncheon  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/via-gears-up-for-active-shooter-preparedness-update-luncheon/ Save to Pocket

Disney Buys Partial Stake in Epic Games for $1.5 Billion

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Daring Fireball

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-and-epic-games-fortnite/ Save to Pocket

Caltrans Wants To Ban Storing Flammable Materials Under Overpasses After The 10 Freeway Fire

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

The recommendations come after Caltrans undertook a review of the sites following the 10 Freeway fire.

https://laist.com/news/transportation/caltrans-flammable-materials-under-freeways-recommendations Save to Pocket

macOS 14.3.1, iOS 17.3.1, and iPadOS 17.3.1 Fix WebKit Text Bug

date: 2024-02-08, from: TidBITS blog

https://tidbits.com/2024/02/08/macos-14-3-1-ios-17-3-1-and-ipados-17-3-1-fix-webkit-text-bug/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

There was also a local station that was like KFOG in the Bay Area, can’t remember its name. And of course like everyone everywhere I listened to Dr Demento.

http://scripting.com/2024/02/08.html#a231729 Save to Pocket

The Storm Left Behind Lots Of Potholes (Shocker). Here’s How You Can File A Claim For Car Damage

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-09, from: The LAist

If your car gets damaged by one of these asphalt craters, you could get money back for repairs.. But you’ll have to pay out of pocket first.

https://laist.com/news/transportation/los-angeles-pothole-storm-repair-fix-car-damage-claim Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

When I was your age, if you’re in your late teens or early 20s, there was nothing remotely like Apple Music or Spotify. If we wanted to listen to a specific album we’d have to buy a copy of the vinyl record at a music store. I used to go to a store called Mushroom Too, on Broadway and Zimpel in New Orleans. It was kind of like a head shop, smelled of incense, and they had a great sound system and they were always playing good music. It was on the second floor above a bar called The Boot that had the usual college stuff, beer, burgers, pinball. The record store had rows of racks of albums, like a library in a way, and you’d wander around looking for bands you knew or had heard about, and you’d stare at album covers, front and back and try to decide. Looking for “something good to listen to.” And you could only afford a certain number every year, so you listened to each album a lot. I don’t know if it works that way for young folk today. In 50 years when you’re looking back will you know the songs in the order they appeared on the album? I never bought singles, by the time I came along album rock was the thing, stations like WNEW and WPLJ in New York. I’d listen to the student station at Tulane, WTUL. They’d play longer songs, and not always the most popular song on an album. You got the sense that the DJ was being creative with the songs they chose. BTW, both Mushroom and The Boot are still there. What a trip.

http://scripting.com/2024/02/08.html#a230054 Save to Pocket

Our Missed Head Start on the Climate Crisis

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/our-missed-headstart-on-the-climate-crisis Save to Pocket

The world’s first semi electric truck with 1,000 kWh capacity is plowing snow in Norway like a boss

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

For the first time, Norway has used a semi electric truck with 1,000 kWh battery capacity to clear heavy snow on challenging mountain passes.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/worlds-first-semi-electric-truck-1000-kwh-battery-snow-norway/ Save to Pocket

Is 2024 The Year Of Dirt Domination For Triumph, Ducati, And Honda?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

Three manufacturers are all trying something new in different dirt championships. How will they fare?

https://www.rideapart.com/news/708016/triumph-ducati-honda-dirt-2024/ Save to Pocket

Lemon v2

date: 2024-02-08, from: mrusme blog

After nearly five years of inactivity, I decided to breath in new life into Lemon: Meet Lemon v2, a complete rewrite in Go!

https://xn–gckvb8fzb.com/lemon-v2/ Save to Pocket

Hoops: Saugus explodes in fourth quarter, beats Valley Christian

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

Saugus Centurions boys’ basketball had trailed for the majority of the game, and was dealing with some streaky shooting and tough defense in its playoff opener with the Valley Christian Defenders.   However, the Centurions turned the tides in the fourth quarter, exploding on both sides of the court en route to a 64-52 victory in […]

The post <strong>Hoops: Saugus explodes in fourth quarter, beats Valley Christian </strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/hoops-saugus-explodes-in-fourth-quarter-beats-valley-christian/ Save to Pocket

Former TMU Standout Stephanie Soares Signs WNBA Contract

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Former Lady Mustang Stephanie Soares has signed a contract with the Dallas Wings of the WNBA  to begin her professional career.

https://scvnews.com/former-tmu-standout-stephanie-soares-signs-wnba-contract/ Save to Pocket

Abarth unveils the 600e – its most powerful vehicle to date, in a limited ‘Scorpionissima’ edition

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Italian performance car specialist Abarth has just debuted a new all-electric model called the 600e as its bright purple “Scorpionissima” launch edition undergoes final testing ahead of a commercial shoot. Abarth shared its first image of the 600e, which promises to be its most powerful vehicle to date.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/abarth-unveils-600e-most-powerful-vehicle-to-date-limited-scorpionissima-edition/ Save to Pocket

Jaguar Land Rover delays two EVs as first electric Range Rover rolls out this year

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Jaguar Land Rover is pushing back the launch of two key electric models amid “surprising” demand for its plug-in hybrids. The announcement comes as the company is seeing strong interest in the first electric Range Rover after orders opened in December.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/jaguar-land-rover-delays-range-rover-discovery-evs/ Save to Pocket

A Short History of AMW by Fred Coury

date: 2024-02-08, from: Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop News

This article by Fred Coury (Advanced Architecture and Applications of Microcomputers) appeared in the January 1976 issue of Computer. Fred Coury was one of the 4 founders of AMW and originator of the notorious RAT session. We look forward to hearing from Fred at the AMW #50 in April 2024. Read here: Advanced Architecture and … Read more

https://amw.org/a-short-history-of-amw-by-fred-coury/ Save to Pocket

Project Lifesaver: Providing Peace of Mind for Families of Individuals Prone to Wandering

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Santa Barbara, Calif. – A missing man with dementia was recently reunited with his family after being missing for almost an

The post Project Lifesaver: Providing Peace of Mind for Families of Individuals Prone to Wandering appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/project-lifesaver-providing-peace-of-mind-for-families-of-individuals-prone-to-wandering/ Save to Pocket

La Biblioteca Pública de Santa Bárbara está organizando la Feria Eastside de Empleo para aquellos hispanos hablantes y bilingües que están en busca de empleo

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

La Biblioteca Pública de Santa Bárbara invita a todos aquellos que están en busca de empleo a la Feria Eastside

The post La Biblioteca Pública de Santa Bárbara está organizando la Feria Eastside de Empleo para aquellos hispanos hablantes y bilingües que están en busca de empleo appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/la-biblioteca-publica-de-santa-barbara-esta-organizando-la-feria-eastside-de-empleo-para-aquellos-hispanos-hablantes-y-bilingues-que-estan-en-busca-de-empleo/ Save to Pocket

Brilliant Labs Frame smart glasses are like Google Glass for the generative AI era (pre-order for $350)

date: 2024-02-08, from: Liliputing

The wearable computing space has changed a lot in the decade since Google Glass first debuted. While Google’s computer for your face never really took off, these days smartwatches are everywhere and the idea of sticking a device in front of your eyeballs is more mainstream than ever, thanks to the efforts of Meta, Apple, […]

The post Brilliant Labs Frame smart glasses are like Google Glass for the generative AI era (pre-order for $350) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/brilliant-labs-frame-smart-glasses-are-like-google-glass-for-the-generative-ai-era-pre-order-for-350/ Save to Pocket

Santa Barbara Public Library Hosts the Eastside Job Fair for Spanish and Bilingual Job Seekers

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

SANTA BARBARA, CA – February 8, 2024 Santa Barbara Public Library invites job seekers to the Eastside Job Fair on

The post Santa Barbara Public Library Hosts the Eastside Job Fair for Spanish and Bilingual Job Seekers appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/santa-barbara-public-library-hosts-the-eastside-job-fair-for-spanish-and-bilingual-job-seekers/ Save to Pocket

Hart boys’ soccer wins playoff opener, beats Carter

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

Hart Indians boys’ soccer was just a few minutes away from heading into overtime of its Division 1 playoff opener with the hosting Carter Lions on Wednesday.   Hart midfielder Marcos Garza opted to end the game in regulation and netted the game-winning goal in the 77th minute, breaking the scoreless tie of the defensive battle.  […]

The post <strong>Hart boys’ soccer wins playoff opener, beats Carter  </strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/hart-boys-soccer-wins-playoff-opener-beats-carter/ Save to Pocket

Rivian R1T And R1S Get New Standard, Standard+ Battery Options

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

The new range options lower the prices of entry-level Rivian R1 models.

https://insideevs.com/news/708015/rivian-r1t-r1s-get-more-range-options/ Save to Pocket

Teen Boy Arrested for Possession of Gun Near Carpinteria High School

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

An unloaded revolver was found in the backpack of a 15-year-old parked outside the campus on Wednesday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office says.

The post Teen Boy Arrested for Possession of Gun Near Carpinteria High School appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/teen-boy-arrested-for-possession-of-gun-near-carpinteria-high-school/ Save to Pocket

Rivian adds Standard battery pack option for R1T and R1S, plus a new option for even more range

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

One month from debuting its second all-electric line of vehicles, Rivian is expanding the configurator of its flagship R1T and R1S trucks to now allow the Standard pack as a selectable option to customers. Additionally, Rivian has introduced a fourth pack called Standard+, delivering more range at less cost. Here’s the latest.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/rivian-adds-standard-battery-pack-option-r1t-r1s-new-option-more-range/ Save to Pocket

Laurel Canyon Continues To Be A Sore Spot When It Rains

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The LAist

Historical photos show a pattern of damage during Southern California’s rain storms.

https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/laurel-canyon-rainfall-impact Save to Pocket

NASA Awards Inaugural Grants to Support Emerging Research Institutions

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

NASA has awarded $3.7 million to 11 teams to support new collaborations between the agency and United States institutions not historically part of the agency’s research enterprise. These are the first awards given through a new program from the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the science and […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-inaugural-grants-to-support-emerging-research-institutions/ Save to Pocket

Fake LastPass lookalike made it into Apple App Store

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

No walled garden can keep out every weed, we suppose

LastPass says a rogue application impersonating its popular password manager made it past Apple’s gatekeepers and was listed in the iOS App Store for unsuspecting folks to download and install.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/lastpass_lookalike_apple_app_store/ Save to Pocket

Patterns in philanthropy leave small newsrooms behind. Can that change?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

Before helping found the nonprofit Sierra Nevada Ally in 2020, Joe McCarthy had lived many lives — from serving in the Army, to running an arts center, to working as education director for the Nevada State Prison. At both the arts center and the Ally, where he’s publisher and chief revenue officer, McCarthy has had…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/patterns-in-philanthropy-leave-small-newsrooms-behind-can-that-change/ Save to Pocket

Microsoft releases preview of Sudo for Windows (run commands that require elevated privileges)

date: 2024-02-08, from: Liliputing

Microsoft is bringing another Linux feature to Windows… although it’s an optional feature aimed at power users. Sudo for Windows is a command line tool that works a lot like its Linux counterpart, allowing users to run commands that require elevated permissions on a case-by-case basis. In other words, you don’t need to right-click and […]

The post Microsoft releases preview of Sudo for Windows (run commands that require elevated privileges) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/microsoft-releases-preview-of-sudo-for-windows-run-commands-that-require-elevated-privileges/ Save to Pocket

First Cinematic Dance: Santa Barbara International Film Festival Opens with Heartwarming Doc ‘Madu’

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Opening-night film screens at the Arlington Theatre, kicking off 10 days’ worth of world cinema, celebrity galas, and more.

The post First Cinematic Dance: Santa Barbara International Film Festival Opens with Heartwarming Doc ‘Madu’ appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/first-cinematic-dance-santa-barbara-international-film-festival-opens-with-heartwarming-doc-madu/ Save to Pocket

Old Gambler Yells at Clouds

date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Karpf’s blog

Or, why I think we were better off in the shady days before DraftKings and FanDuel

https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/old-gambler-yells-at-clouds Save to Pocket

California Hammered by Heavy Rains, Mudslides in Devastating Atmospheric River Storms

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Some areas received as much as 13 to 15 inches of rain over a five-day period as storms felled trees, destroyed homes and killed nine people

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/california-hammered-by-heavy-rains-mudslides-in-devastating-atmospheric-river-storms-180983763/ Save to Pocket

Monumental Sculpture Reimagines ‘The Last Supper’ With Black Historical Figures

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Tavares Strachan’s “The First Supper” took four years to sculpt and is now on display at an exhibition in London

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/monumental-sculpture-reimagines-the-last-supper-with-black-historical-figures-180983756/ Save to Pocket

California Wine Festival Returns in 2024 at Four Picturesque Coastal Destinations

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Over two decades of golden grapes - a wine sampling extravaganza showcasing the finest wines the golden state has to offer.

The post California Wine Festival Returns in 2024 at Four Picturesque Coastal Destinations appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/california-wine-festival-returns-in-2024-at-four-picturesque-coastal-destinations/ Save to Pocket

Today’s Senate Hearing Was a Pretty Great Example of Climate Policy-Making

date: 2024-02-08, from: Heatmap News

In the sort of happy coincidence that is only possible in Washington, D.C., two consequential linguistic debates unfolded on Thursday morning within half a mile of each other. The first, in the Supreme Court of the United States, commanded the attention of major TV networks and political pundits, warranted a live blog from The New York Times, and aimed, in part, to differentiate between what constitutes an “insurrection” versus a mere “riot.”

A five-minute walk away, in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, a similar debate was unfolding — albeit after some live-stream technical difficulties and a brief protest by the climate group Third Act. The event didn’t elicit quite the same level of national intrigue as the hullabaloo on the other side of Constitution Avenue; in fact, I never saw more than 173 other people watching the feed along with me at any given point. The senators’ debate, though, was an important one, and it centered largely on the meaning of the word “pause.”

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Republicans on the House Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee had a similar debate earlier this week about the Biden administration’s pause on approving new permits for facilities to export liquified natural gas. But while that hearing had been a silly (and at times, infuriating) example of the GOP’s contorted defenses of the oil and gas industry, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on the LNG pause felt a little more meaningful. Ironically, that’s partially because nothing really was said.

Called by cantankerous West Virginia Democrat and committee Chairman Joe Manchin, the Senate hearing took place in two parts: The first and most interesting saw Deputy U.S. Energy Secretary David Turk make the first on-the-record defense of the export terminal pause by a Biden administration official. In contrast, the second part called as witnesses a European gas executive and an LNG industry advocate, each of whom made predictable noises about the threat of energy volatility in the face of revanchist Russia.

Though Manchin, in his opening remarks, said he “strongly” urged the Biden administration to reverse the export terminal permitting pause “immediately,” he and other skeptical senators appeared to be at least partially open to Turk’s opinion on everything from whether “it is wise to give our allies and partners and neutral parties across the world an excuse to do business with our enemies” to how long the DOE’s re-evaluation of what it means for a new export terminal to be “in the public interest” would take.

They appeared less satisfied with Turk’s unwillingness to give them firm answers, however. Regarding LNG export terminals supporting European energy security, Turk explained, “We need to look at how much we’ve already authorized, how much we’re already in the process of authorizing, and compare that to what our allies absolutely need.” When pressed about a timeline for the length of the pause and the DOE’s decision-making, he committed to “months, not years” but stressed “there are a lot of questions,” and rigorous analysis takes time. Later, James Watson, a witness and executive of Eurogas, suggested Turk had been unforthcoming because he’d been “asked to explain the unexplainable, which is not easy to do.”

In fact, Turk’s deferrals underscored why a pause is so necessary, something further drawn out during a rare back-and-forth between senators following a comment by Manchin. “If we were talking about considering a pause, this is a great, great panel for it. But you have an executive order doing a pause: that’s the difference,” Manchin said.

“I think it’s just the opposite, Mr. Chairman,” Maine Democrat Angus King pushed back. The DOE is “doing their job and their job is to see that these projects are in the public interest. There’s no way to do that without the data.”

“You can’t do the pause first, though,” Manchin said.

“Why not?” King responded. If you don’t pause first, “then you’re approving projects when you find out, five years from now, that it was a disaster.”

There are a lot of valid and complicated questions about LNG, which will take time to answer. But hot air loves a vacuum, especially in Washington, and Republicans have seized the opportunity to spin the pause as a “ban” or a “stop” — as in, “basically, you’re stopping things,” in the words of Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski. But “nobody’s talking about stopping,” King later pointed out during the second witness panel after Turk had left. “We’re talking about taking a period of time in order to do the necessary research.”

That, after all, is the unsexy truth of climate policymaking: It isn’t exciting. There aren’t cameras waiting outside for shouted questions. It’s not covered by liveblogs or cable news chyrons. Maybe only 173 people will even bother to take time out of their mornings to troubleshoot where the live stream has migrated to when it doesn’t appear on the committee website. So, while “pause” is an easy word to throw around and even easier to exaggerate, what it should mean in practice is to do the math and do it right.

Turk repeatedly said the DOE welcomes debate, including with a forthcoming public comment period on its findings. Even Manchin seemed to embrace the disagreements and nuances of the topic at hand. “I enjoyed that!” he exclaimed on a hot mic after Turk’s testimony and his back-and-forth with King.

That doesn’t mean anyone changed anyone else’s mind on Thursday; I don’t think Manchin was more dissuaded than when he woke up this morning that the Biden administration had “put the cart before the horse” even in simply taking a break on LNG approvals. But in a rare absence of political theater on the Hill, a government official said there’s still more to learn and debate, and everyone seemed to agree.

https://heatmap.news/politics/senate-lng-hearing-manchin-turk-debate Save to Pocket

YouTube Says a VisionOS App Is ‘On the Roadmap’, but I’m Not Sure I Care

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Daring Fireball

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/5/24062425/youtube-vision-pro-app-360-vr-video Save to Pocket

Iconic ‘Love Boat’ Cast Reuniting for Princess Cruises

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Princess Cruises, known for its integral role as the ocean-going co-star in the iconic “The Love Boat” series, has officially unveiled a second themed cruise, reuniting cast members from the original show

https://scvnews.com/iconic-love-boat-cast-reuniting-for-princess-cruises/ Save to Pocket

Juno: Christian Selig’s YouTube App for VisionOS

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Daring Fireball

https://christianselig.com/2024/02/introducing-juno/ Save to Pocket

Komatsu 3 ton electric mini excavator set for European debut in Paris

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Komatsu has announced plans to debut its new PC33E-6 3-ton class electric mini excavator to European equipment buyers at the Intermat 2024 fair in Paris this April.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/komatsu-3-ton-electric-mini-excavator-set-for-european-debut-in-paris/ Save to Pocket

Barger Urges Relocation Aid for Those Affected by Chiquita Canyon Landfill Odors

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Fifth District includes the Santa Clarita Valley, called on Chiquita Canyon Landfill Thursday to provide relocation assistance services to residents from surrounding communities who request it. 

https://scvnews.com/barger-urges-relocation-aid-for-those-affected-by-chiquita-canyon-landfill-odors/ Save to Pocket

Tesla Cybertruck Owners Are Flipping Them For $200,000 Or More

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

$275,000 for a Cybertruck? Maybe someone will bite.

https://insideevs.com/news/707815/tesla-cybertruck-flippers-are-here/ Save to Pocket

Santa Barbara Man Pleads Not Guilty to Multiple Sex Crimes

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Sheriff’s Office has released a photo of suspect William Trautwein Jr., 21, to aid survivors in identification.

The post Santa Barbara Man Pleads Not Guilty to Multiple Sex Crimes appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/santa-barbara-man-pleads-not-guilty-to-multiple-sex-crimes/ Save to Pocket

Iowa High School Students Visit China on Invitation of Xi Jinping

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Muscatine, Iowa — Muscatine, Iowa, High School student Cole Loos had never traveled beyond the United States when the question put before him in January was, “Would you like to go to China?”

“I was lucky I had my passport to go,” Loos explained to VOA. 

The invitation, he learned, wasn’t for a date in the distant future. If he and 24 other students from his high school were to make the trip, they had less than 10 days to commit and prepare to fly.

“It was very spontaneous,” Loos said.

Spontaneous, but by no means an accident.

In 1985, Sarah Lande hosted a group from China visiting Muscatine for several days on an agricultural research tour of the United States. One of the participants was Xi Jinping, now president of the People’s Republic of China. Then, Xi was party committee secretary of Zhengding County, Hebei Province.  Lande helped organize his stay in Muscatine.

“Good things happen when you are a good friend to people, I guess,” Lande said during a recent interview in her Muscatine home, where in 2012, Xi — by then vice president of China — returned to visit his “old friends” from Iowa. 

“Old friend” is a common phrase China’s communist party uses as a tribute to foreigners considered helpful to their interests. It’s also an expression of nostalgia for longtime companions or acquaintances.

During Xi’s 2012 reunion with the “old friends” he met during his first trip to the U.S., they spent an evening in front of a warm fire in Lande’s living room remembering their eventful visit some 30 years earlier.

Then last November, Lande was invited to a dinner on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. In his remarks at the event, Xi expressed his desire to welcome thousands of American students to China, prompting Lande to follow up with a letter to her “old friend.” 

“And I got a reply to that letter,” she explained.

So, Lande took the opportunity to advocate for Muscatine.

“I hope Muscatine could be a part of this. So, that probably was the incentive for this invite,” she said.

In January, the China Daily reported that Xi was extending a personal invitation for students and staff from Muscatine High School to come to China. 

The invitation came with few strings attached to the all-expenses paid trip. They spent eight days visiting with local students, touring the Great Wall of China and other landmarks and cities, and participated in a conference for students learning the Mandarin language.

The trip comes amid increased tensions between the United States and China in the wake of tariffs imposed on the communist country during the Trump administration; the overflight of a Chinese observation balloon across the United States in early 2023; China’s warming relations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing war in Ukraine; and the country’s ongoing human rights abuses of the predominately Muslim Uyghur minority in China’s western territories.

“Both of our countries, you could say, are trying to be number one,” Lande says. “I think our challenge is to grow a curiosity and understanding and find ways to work together.”

She believes trips and culture exchanges build bridges and encourage dialogue that could lead to change.

“I hope if there are ways that we find that China is really transgressing, we can at least bring that up, so it will not lead to conflict,” she said.

Loos said it was hard to find any sign of U.S.- China tensions during their trip.

“You felt very special over there,” said Loos, who is in his second year of Mandarin language studies at Muscatine High School.  

“Actually, I’m very, very proud of them. Seems like they grew super-fast in a few days,” said Heidi Kuo, Loos’ Mandarin teacher. 

Kuo is originally from Taiwan and accompanied the students on the trip.  Of the many lessons they learned, she hopes one stands out. 

“The world is super big, not only us here,” she said.

Ann Edkin grew up in Muscatine, which has a population of about 23,000 and is situated along the banks of the Mississippi River. She now teaches physical education at Muscatine High School and was one of four staff members who made the trip to China. 

She thinks the connection between her small town and China’s leader is a baffling but welcome relationship.

“The fact that he came here, that’s cool,” she told VOA.  “But to have that ongoing relationship, it’s not just a blip, but a continuing relationship that makes it so unique and special.”

As more students prepare for more trips to China, Lande’s next goal is to encourage her “old friend” to return to Muscatine, which she thinks is a perfect location for a future summit with U.S. President Joe Biden. 

“We’re open,” she said. “Xi Jinping is open. He might be willing to come here. I think Biden would. Muscatine would welcome it!”

A potential venue could be the Muscatine home where Xi stayed in 1985, now preserved as a museum — mostly visited by Chinese tourists.

https://www.voanews.com/a/iowa-high-school-students-visit-china-on-invitation-of-xi-jinping-/7480000.html Save to Pocket

L.A. County Begins Initial Steps Toward Recovery Following Recent Storms

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Los Angeles County is preparing to begin the initial activities to support residents with their individual recovery efforts following the recent storms

https://scvnews.com/l-a-county-begins-initial-steps-toward-recovery-following-recent-storms/ Save to Pocket

Acer Chromebox Mini fanless mini PC with Intel Jasper Lake supports up to three 4K displays

date: 2024-02-08, from: Liliputing

The Acer Chromebox Mini is a new compact computer from Acer’s business division that’s marketed as a solution for digital signage. But with a 6-watt Intel Jasper Lake processor, support for up to 16GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, and support for up to three 4K displays, it could […]

The post Acer Chromebox Mini fanless mini PC with Intel Jasper Lake supports up to three 4K displays appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/acer-chromebox-mini-fanless-mini-pc-with-intel-jasper-lake-supports-up-to-three-4k-displays/ Save to Pocket

Dos Pueblos High School Student Wins Congressional App Challenge Award 2023

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Dos Pueblos High School student Eamon Gordon has been honored with the Congressional App Challenge Award 2023 by Congressman Salud

The post Dos Pueblos High School Student Wins Congressional App Challenge Award 2023 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/dos-pueblos-high-school-student-wins-congressional-app-challenge-award-2023/ Save to Pocket

Tesla adopts UWB connectivity on iPhone to improve Phone Key performance

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Tesla now supports the iPhone’s Ultra Wideband chip for improved Phone Key performance, at least on some cars. Apple started including the Ultra Wideband chip with the iPhone 11, allowing for better nearby interaction between an iPhone and other devices equipped with UWB technology.

more…

https://9to5mac.com/2024/02/08/tesla-ultra-wideband-iphone-phone-key/ Save to Pocket

The great list of all the blog platforms

date: 2024-02-08, from: Manu - I write blog

Pretentious title, I know. It’s obviously tongue-in-cheek but it’s at least partly what I’m gonna try to do with this post. Blogs are back. They never went anywhere but still, they’re back. Many people will—hopefully—ditch social media and start a blog in the near future. Almost as many people will ask themselves which tool/platform/incantation they should use to start said blog. I’m gonna do my part and try to collect here all the possible alternatives. I am 100% certain that this list won’t be exhaustive but it’s a start. If you have suggestions to improve it, email me.

As always, if you find what I do here useful or entertaining in any way you can hop on the 1$/mo bandwagon.

The following is a list of tools and platforms that are primarily designed to run blogs. Now, it goes without saying that you can build a blog using pretty much every CMS out there. Hell, you can make a blog without a CMS and just upload html files on a server. This is not going to be a list of all the possible ways you can make a blog, it’s a list of tools and services designed with blogs in mind. The list is in no particular order.

A note on the prices: most services usually offer a limited free plan. I decided to ignore those and list the price for the lowest tier available, paid monthly.

Micro.blog

• Site: micro.blog
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD/month

Ghost

• Site: github.com/tryghost/ghost/
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: Free

I’m linking to the GitHub repo because even though Ghost does have a self-hosted version the official site is heavily focused on the Pro, hosted version so things are a bit confusing.

Ghost(Pro)

• Site: ghost.org
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 11USD/mo

Wordpress

• Site: wordpress.org
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: Free

Wordpress.com

• Site: wordpress.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 11USD/month

Substack

• Site: substack.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: Free

Write.as

• Site: write.as
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 9USD/month

WriteFreely

• Site: writefreely.org
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: Free

Bear Blog

• Site: bearblog.dev
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD/month

Pika

• Site: pika.page
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 6USD/month

Mataroa

• Site: mataroa.blog
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 9USD/year

Smol Pub

• Site: smol.pub
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD (Paid once)

Blogger

• Site: blogger.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: Free

Medium

• Site: medium.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: Free

Tumblr

• Site: tumblr.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: Free

Prose.sh

• Site: prose.sh
• Type: Hosted
• Price: Free

Svbtle

• Site: svbtle.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 7USD/month

Blogkit

• Site: blogkit.dev
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 20USD/month

Blot

• Site: blot.im
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD/month

Hey

• Site: hey.com
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 99USD/year

Hey is a bit of an odd product because it’s primarily an email service but it also comes with a blog so it’s worth mentioning here.

Scribbles

• Site: scribbles.page
• Type: Hosted
• Price: TBA (They’re launching this year and they’re currently in early access)

Movable Type

• Site: movabletype.org
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: 499USD/once

Montaigne

• Site: montaigne.io
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD/month

Haven

• Site: havenweb.org
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: Free

Haven (Hosted)

• Site: havenweb.org
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 5USD/month

weblog.lol

• Site: weblog.lol
• Type: Hosted
• Price: 20USD/year

Known

• Site: withknown.com
• Type: Self-hosted
• Price: Free

This is all I have for now. Again, if you have suggestions send me an email and I’ll happily update this list.

https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/VHRhhuSJod33rsgs Save to Pocket

DEFCON 17: Failure (2009)

date: 2024-02-08, from: Tilde.news

Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1825zkmJVuE Save to Pocket

This Chinese electric truck will be as quick as Tesla’s Cybertruck with heavy loads

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Chinese EV maker Geely is launching a 4WD version of its Radar RD6 electric truck that will rival the Cybertruck. According to the brand’s CEO, it will have similar acceleration to Tesla’s Cybertruck while carrying heavy loads.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/chinese-electric-truck-quick-tesla-cybertruck/ Save to Pocket

With $1B to burn on green tech, HSBC seeks Google’s help

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

The clock’s ticking on those 2030 net zero climate goals

Europe’s largest bank, HSBC, has tapped Google Cloud to make sure a proposed $1 billion in investments go to green tech startups and don’t end up in the hands of scammers.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/hsbc_google_climate_fund/ Save to Pocket

Pluralistic: Big Tech disrupted disruption (08 Feb 2024)

date: 2024-02-08, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog

Today’s links Big Tech disrupted disruption: We don’t have to care, we’re the phone company. 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 Big Tech disrupted disruption (permalink) Before “disruption” turned into a punchline, it was a genuinely exciting idea. Using technology, we could connect people to one another and allow them to collaborate, share, and cooperate to make great things happen. It’s easy (and valid) to dismiss the “disruption” of Uber, which “disrupted” taxis and transit by losing $31b worth of Saudi royal money in a bid to collapse the world’s rival transportation system, while quietly promising its investors that it would someday have pricing power as a monopoly, and would attain profit through price-gouging and wage-theft. Uber’s disruption story was wreathed in bullshit: lies about the “independence” of its drivers, about the imminence of self-driving taxis, about the impact that replacing buses and subways with millions of circling, empty cars would have on traffic congestion. There were and are plenty of problems with traditional taxis and transit, but Uber magnified these problems, under cover of “disrupting” them away. But there are other feats of high-tech disruption that were and are genuinely transformative – Wikipedia, GNU/Linux, RSS, and more. These disruptive technologies altered the balance of power between powerful institutions and the businesses, communities and individuals they dominated, in ways that have proven both beneficial and durable. When we speak of commercial disruption today, we usually mean a tech company disrupting a non-tech company. Tinder disrupts singles bars. Netflix disrupts Blockbuster. Airbnb disrupts Marriott. But the history of “disruption” features far more examples of tech companies disrupting other tech companies: DEC disrupts IBM. Netscape disrupts Microsoft. Google disrupts Yahoo. Nokia disrupts Kodak, sure – but then Apple disrupts Nokia. It’s only natural that the businesses most vulnerable to digital disruption are other digital businesses. And yet…disruption is nowhere to be seen when it comes to the tech sector itself. Five giant companies have been running the show for more than a decade. A couple of these companies (Apple, Microsoft) are Gen-Xers, having been born in the 70s, then there’s a couple of Millennials (Amazon, Google), and that one Gen-Z kid (Facebook). Big Tech shows no sign of being disrupted, despite the continuous enshittification of their core products and services. How can this be? Has Big Tech disrupted disruption itself? That’s the contention of “Coopting Disruption,” a new paper from two law profs: Mark Lemley (Stanford) and Matthew Wansley (Yeshiva U): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4713845 The paper opens with a review of the literature on disruption. Big companies have some major advantages: they’ve got people and infrastructure they can leverage to bring new products to market more cheaply than startups. They’ve got existing relationships with suppliers, distributors and customers. People trust them. Diversified, monopolistic companies are also able to capture “involuntary spillovers”: when Google spends money on AI for image recognition, it can improve Google Photos, YouTube, Android, Search, Maps and many other products. A startup with just one product can’t capitalize on these spillovers in the same way, so it doesn’t have the same incentives to spend big on R&D. Finally, big companies have access to cheap money. They get better credit terms from lenders, they can float bonds, they can tap the public markets, or just spend their own profits on R&D. They can also afford to take a long view, because they’re not tied to VCs whose funds turn over every 5-10 years. Big companies get cheap money, play a long game, pay less to innovate and get more out of innovation. But those advantages are swamped by the disadvantages of incumbency, all the various curses of bigness. Take Arrow’s “replacement effect”: new companies that compete with incumbents drive down the incumbents’ prices and tempt their customers away. But an incumbent that buys a disruptive new company can just shut it down, and whittle down its ideas to “sustaining innovation” (small improvements to existing products), killing “disruptive innovation” (major changes that make the existing products obsolete). Arrow’s Replacement Effect also comes into play before a new product even exists. An incumbent that allows a rival to do R&D that would eventually disrupt its product is at risk; but if the incumbent buys this pre-product, R&D-heavy startup, it can turn the research to sustaining innovation and defund any disruptive innovation. Arrow asks us to look at the innovation question from the point of view of the company as a whole. Clayton Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma” looks at the motivations of individual decision-makers in large, successful companies. These individuals don’t want to disrupt their own business, because that will render some part of their own company obsolete (perhaps their own division!). They also don’t want to radically change their customers’ businesses, because those customers would also face negative effects from disruption. A startup, by contrast, has no existing successful divisions and no giant customers to safeguard. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain from disruption. Where a large company has no way for individual employees to initiate major changes in corporate strategy, a startup has fewer hops between employees and management. What’s more, a startup that rewards an employee’s good idea with a stock-grant ties that employee’s future finances to the outcome of that idea – while a giant corporation’s stock bonuses are only incidentally tied to the ideas of any individual worker. Big companies are where good ideas go to die. If a big company passes on its employees’ cool, disruptive ideas, that’s the end of the story for that idea. But even if 100 VCs pass on a startup’s cool idea and only one VC funds it, the startup still gets to pursue that idea. In startup land, a good idea gets lots of chances – in a big company, it only gets one. Given how innately disruptable tech companies are, given how hard it is for big companies to innovate, and given how little innovation we’ve gotten from Big Tech, how is it that the tech giants haven’t been disrupted? The authors propose a four-step program for the would-be Tech Baron hoping to defend their turf from disruption. First, gather information about startups that might develop disruptive technologies and steer them away from competing with you, by investing in them or partnering with them. Second, cut off any would-be competitor’s supply of resources they need to develop a disruptive product that challenges your own. Third, convince the government to pass regulations that big, established companies can comply with but that are business-killing challenges for small competitors. Finally, buy up any company that resists your steering, succeeds despite your resource war, and escapes the compliance moats of regulation that favors incumbents. Then: kill those companies. The authors proceed to show that all four tactics are in play today. Big Tech companies operate their own VC funds, which means they get a look at every promising company in the field, even if they don’t want to invest in them. Big Tech companies are also awash in money and their “rival” VCs know it, and so financial VCs and Big Tech collude to fund potential disruptors and then sell them to Big Tech companies as “aqui-hires” that see the disruption neutralized. On resources, the authors focus on data, and how companies like Facebook have explicit policies of only permitting companies they don’t see as potential disruptors to access Facebook data. They reproduce internal Facebook strategy memos that divide potential platform users into “existing competitors, possible future competitors, [or] developers that we have alignment with on business models.” These categories allow Facebook to decide which companies are capable of developing disruptive products and which ones aren’t. For example, Amazon – which doesn’t compete with Facebook – is allowed to access FB data to target shoppers. But Messageme, a startup, was cut off from Facebook as soon as management perceived them as a future rival. Ironically – but unsurprisingly – Facebook spins these policies as pro-privacy, not anti-competitive. These data policies cast a long shadow. They don’t just block existing companies from accessing the data they need to pursue disruptive offerings – they also “send a message” to would-be founders and investors, letting them know that if they try to disrupt a tech giant, they will have their market oxygen cut off before they can draw breath. The only way to build a product that challenges Facebook is as Facebook’s partner, under Facebook’s direction, with Facebook’s veto. Next, regulation. Starting in 2019, Facebook started publishing full-page newspaper ads calling for regulation. Someone ghost-wrote a Washington Post op-ed under Zuckerberg’s byline, arguing the case for more tech regulation. Google, Apple, OpenAI other tech giants have all (selectively) lobbied in favor of many regulations. These rules covered a lot of ground, but they all share a characteristic: complying with them requires huge amounts of money – money that giant tech companies can spare, but potential disruptors lack. Finally, there’s predatory acquisitions. Mark Zuckerberg, working without the benefit of a ghost writer (or in-house counsel to review his statements for actionable intent) has repeatedly confessed to buying companies like Instagram to ensure that they never grow to be competitors. As he told one colleague, “I remember your internal post about how Instagram was our threat and not Google+. You were basically right. The thing about startups though is you can often acquire them.” All the tech giants are acquisition factories. Every successful Google product, almost without exception, is a product they bought from someone else. By contrast, Google’s own internal products typically crash and burn, from G+ to Reader to Google Videos. Apple, meanwhile, buys 90 companies per year – Tim Apple brings home a new company for his shareholders more often than you bring home a bag of groceries for your family. All the Big Tech companies’ AI offerings are acquisitions, and Apple has bought more AI companies than any of them. Big Tech claims to be innovating, but it’s really just operationalizing. Any company that threatens to disrupt a tech giant is bought, its products stripped of any really innovative features, and the residue is added to existing products as a “sustaining innovation” – a dot-release feature that has all the innovative disruption of rounding the corners on a new mobile phone. The authors present three case-studies of tech companies using this four-point strategy to forestall disruption in AI, VR and self-driving cars. I’m not excited about any of these three categories, but it’s clear that the tech giants are worried about them, and the authors make a devastating case for these disruptions being disrupted by Big Tech. What do to about it? If we like (some) disruption, and if Big Tech is enshittifying at speed without facing dethroning-by-disruption, how do we get the dynamism and innovation that gave us the best of tech? The authors make four suggestions. First, revive the authorities under existing antitrust law to ban executives from Big Tech companies from serving on the boards of startups. More broadly, kill interlocking boards altogether. Remember, these powers already exist in the lawbooks, so accomplishing this goal means a change in enforcement priorities, not a new act of Congress or rulemaking. What’s more, interlocking boards between competing companies are illegal per se, meaning there’s no expensive, difficult fact-finding needed to demonstrate that two companies are breaking the law by sharing directors. Next: create a nondiscrimination policy that requires the largest tech companies that share data with some unaffiliated companies to offer data on the same terms to other companies, except when they are direct competitors. They argue that this rule will keep tech giants from choking off disruptive technologies that make them obsolete (rather than competing with them). On the subject of regulation and compliance moats, they have less concrete advice. They counsel lawmakers to greet tech giants’ demands to be regulated with suspicion, to proceed with caution when they do regulate, and to shape regulation so that it doesn’t limit market entry, by keeping in mind the disproportionate burdens regulations put on established giants and small new companies. This is all good advice, but it’s more a set of principles than any kind of specific practice, test or procedure. Finally, they call for increased scrutiny of mergers, including mergers between very large companies and small startups. They argue that existing law (Sec 2 of the Sherman Act and Sec 7 of the Clayton Act) both empower enforcers to block these acquisitions. They admit that the case-law on this is poor, but that just means that enforcers need to start making new case-law. I like all of these suggestions! We’re certainly enjoying a more activist set of regulators, who are more interested in Big Tech, than we’ve seen in generations. But they are grossly under-resourced even without giving them additional duties. As Matt Stoller points out, “the DOJ’s Antitrust Division has fewer people enforcing anti-monopoly laws in a $24 trillion economy than the Smithsonian Museum has security guards.” https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/congressional-republicans-to-defund What’s more, Republicans are trying to slash their budgets even further. The American conservative movement has finally located a police force they’re eager to defund: the corporate police who defend us all from predatory monopolies. (Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified) Hey look at this (permalink) ‘Enshittification’ is coming for absolutely everything https://www.ft.com/content/6fb1602d-a08b-4a8c-bac0-047b7d64aba5 Proposed Wage Theft Legislation Would Strip Violators of Their Ability to Do Business in New York https://www.propublica.org/article/wage-theft-law-new-york-violators-doing-business Bias, Skew and Search Engines Can Explain Online Toxicity https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1eangnb2s8fj5ssb4bscf/cacm-22-05-4261.pdf?rlkey=sdaad0vmnxfv2s4n7vn1bx907&dl=0 (h/t Henry Farrell) This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago Leveraging RSS at Disney ETCON talk https://craphound.com/rssetcon04.txt #20yrsago Tim O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology keynote https://craphound.com/timetcon04.txt #15yrsago Trough of No Value: the period when objects aren’t new and aren’t collectible https://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2009/02/the-trough-of-no-value.html #15yrsago Making a toaster from scratch, mining the raw materials https://web.archive.org/web/20090212194252/https://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2009/02/-thomas-thwaites-the-toaster.php #10yrsago NYT vs wget: technologically illiterate Snowden coverage https://www.techdirt.com/2014/02/10/new-york-times-uses-scare-quotes-to-highlight-how-they-dont-understand-how-snowden-copied-documents/ #5yrsago Vast majority of Americans and Europeans believe ad-targeting and feed customization are immoral https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/02/09/83-of-consumers-believe-personalized-ads-are-morally-wrong-survey-says/?sh=5d08570819f5 #5yrsago Trump’s properties routinely employed (and abused) undocumented Latino workers, including dozens from a single Costa Rican town https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/my-whole-town-practically-lived-there-from-costa-rica-to-new-jersey-a-pipeline-of-illegal-workers-for-trump-goes-back-years/2019/02/08/8cdbc1dc-2971-11e9-97b3-ae59fbae7960_story.html #1yrago Poor people pay higher time tax https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/10/my-time/#like-water-down-the-drain 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: What kind of bubble is AI? https://craphound.com/news/2024/01/21/what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/ Upcoming appearances: The Bezzle at Weller Book Works (Salt Lake City), Feb 21 https://www.wellerbookworks.com/event/store-cory-doctorow-feb-21-630-pm The Bezzle at Third Place Books (Seattle), Feb 26 https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow Tucson Festival of Books, Mar 9/10 https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=676 Enshittification: How the Internet Went Bad and How to Get it Back (virtual), Mar 26 https://libcal.library.ubc.ca/event/3781006 Media Ecology Association keynote, Jun 6-9 (Amherst, NY) https://media-ecology.org/convention American Association of Law Libraries keynote, Jul 21 (Chicago) https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/ Recent appearances: Decentralization, Digital Rights, and the Future of the Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsQuNbWbByA Enshittification: The Rise and Fall of Big Tech (Crash Course Economics) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7AxrFQ7jIM Generation of Lost Causes with Vass Bednar (Toronto Public Library) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rGj5VaJSDQ 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/2024/02/08/permanent-overlords/ Save to Pocket

Archaeologists Discover Rare Roman Funerary Bed Buried Beneath London

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The wooden bed was likely dismantled IKEA-style before being buried alongside a high-status individual

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-just-found-a-rare-roman-funerary-bed-buried-beneath-london-180983754/ Save to Pocket

Iowa High School Students Visit China on Invitation of Xi Jinping

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

A hastily arranged all-expenses-paid trip to China for students from the Iowa town of Muscatine is the start of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s effort to welcome as many as 50,000 U.S. students to his country. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh explores Muscatine’s historic connection to China’s leader.

https://www.voanews.com/a/iowa-high-school-students-visit-china-on-invitation-of-xi-jinping/7478996.html Save to Pocket

Speed Reads: January Sales Numbers And Ducati Commemorative Coins

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

Harley Q4 sales down; Royal Enfield January 2024 sales up; European 2023 new bike sales up; Brivio joins Trackhouse; Ducati art coins.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/708002/harley-enfield-europe-2023-sales/ Save to Pocket

US Regulator Bans AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Washington — The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday outlawed robocalls that contain artificial intelligence-generated voices, citing their capacity to misinform voters.

The ruling, which takes effect immediately, targets robocalls made with AI voice-cloning tools under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The 1991 law regulates junk calls that use artificial and prerecorded voice messages.

“Bad actors are using AI-generated voices in unsolicited robocalls to extort vulnerable family members, imitate celebrities, and misinform voters. We’re putting the fraudsters behind these robocalls on notice,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement announcing the unanimous decision.

The ruling will give state attorneys general new tools to target perpetrators behind these calls “and ensure the public is protected from fraud and misinformation,” Rosenworcel said in the statement.

The ruling comes after AI-generated robocalls that impersonated President Joe Biden sought to discourage people from voting in the New Hampshire primary election last month. The New Hampshire attorney general announced this week that the calls were traced to companies in Texas.

“We need to protect voters from deepfake AI technology disenfranchising them or manipulating their thought processes,” Theresa Payton, CEO of cybersecurity company Fortalice Solutions, told VOA.

“This is a step in the right direction, and I would like to see more debate and open discussion on what the guard rails for the usage of this technology should be,” added Payton, who previously served as the White House’s Chief Information Officer during the George W. Bush administration.

Under the new regulation, the FCC can fine companies that use AI voices in their calls or block the service providers that carry the calls.

The agency has previously used the law to hold robocallers accountable for election interference, including imposing a $5 million fine on two conservative hoaxers who used robocalls to try to reduce Black voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election.

Deepfake AI technology has also been used in attempts to influence voters around the world.

Just days before elections in Slovakia in September 2023, for instance, a deepfake audio circulated online imitating a politician who appeared to be discussing how to rig the election.

The FCC had been considering banning AI voices in robocalls due to a rise it saw in these types of calls. In January, a bipartisan group of 26 state attorneys general urged the FCC to go ahead with a ruling.

While the ruling is a positive development, according to Payton, she added that there still may be the threat of foreign forces using AI-generated robocalls in attempts to influence elections.

“This is going to be helpful as it relates to American political operatives, but I am not clear how this would be enforced against non-Americans that may choose to abuse this technology and interfere in our political process,” she said.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-regulator-bans-ai-generated-voices-in-robocalls/7479925.html Save to Pocket

Earth Clocks Hottest January on Record, Marking 12 Months Above 1.5 Degree Celsius Warming Threshold

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Though the world has not officially breached the Paris Agreement, the historic heat on land and at sea is a “significant milestone”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/earth-clocks-hottest-january-on-record-marking-12-months-above-paris-agreement-threshold-180983759/ Save to Pocket

The New Vocabulary of Cocktails, including “snaquiri” (a small daiquiri shot), “Bro-Nar”…

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043932-the-new-vocabulary-of-coc Save to Pocket

Is The Tesla Cybertruck Better Than A Home-Made Humvee EV?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

YouTuber JerryRigEverything puts the two zero-emissions behemoths to the test. Sort of…

https://insideevs.com/news/707908/tesla-cybertruck-vs-diy-humvee-ev-video/ Save to Pocket

NASA, SpaceX Join Forces to Study Earth’s Environment

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Two titans of space travel team up to study our planet’s health. Plus, a Russian cosmonaut breaks the record for the most time in space, and sky gazers in North America will get a treat in coming months. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.

https://www.voanews.com/a/nasa-spacex-join-forces-to-study-earth-environment/7479900.html Save to Pocket

Four NATO Defense Priorities for the Upcoming Washington Summit

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: RAND blog

The upcoming NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., offers an opportunity for the alliance to prioritize new and transformational capabilities. With them, NATO can continue to provide deterrence and defense for its member state populations into the future, just as it has done for the past seventy-five years.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/four-nato-defense-priorities-for-the-upcoming-washington.html Save to Pocket

Tesla to greatly expand Supercharging in Iceland with partnership with gas stations

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Tesla announced plans to greatly expand the Supercharger network in Iceland through a partnership with a gas station chain.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/tesla-expand-supercharging-iceland-partnership-gas-stations/ Save to Pocket

USC announces $59 million Institute for Public Policy and Government Service

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Dana Goldman, dean of the Price School of Public Policy, will step down July 1 to become the director of the institute.

The post USC announces $59 million Institute for Public Policy and Government Service appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/usc-announces-institute-for-public-policy-and-government-service/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

When I was competing with Swift, it drove me crazy just how good the brand was.

The name “Swift” alone carried much of the work: fast, nimble, out of your way.

I always go back to Lessig saying, “if you are explaining, you are losing, and we are doing a lot of explaining”

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111897579354367743 Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

The problem with the Gemini/Bard brand is that they are not match for “Copilot”.

The word “Copilot” already does a lot of the heavy lifting for you and sets expectations.

Google is launching a Zune “welcome to the social” in an iPod world.

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111897577961471194 Save to Pocket

Tucker Carlson Visit Gets Intense Coverage by Russian Media

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

News that American media personality Tucker Carlson was in Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin has received intense news coverage in Russia. Some have described it as a frenzy, one that’s giving insight into how the Russian state handles foreign and domestic journalists. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from VOA’ Moscow bureau.

https://www.voanews.com/a/tucker-carlson-visit-gets-intense-coverage-by-russian-media/7479821.html Save to Pocket

IUU Fishing: A Maritime Security Threat Requiring Unique Solutions

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: RAND blog

Fish depreciate, have tighter profit margins than drugs, and have a consumer base that can impact demand. Using the weak points in illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing business models to decrease profitability will not solve IUU fishing worldwide but it can decrease IUU fishing.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/iuu-fishing-a-maritime-security-threat-requiring-unique.html Save to Pocket

T-Pain has written a lot of country songs but doesn’t want to…

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043946-t-pain-has-written-a-lot Save to Pocket

This modular ‘pop-up solar canopy’ charges EVs off-grid

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Meet PairTree – a solar-powered canopy that charges EVs off-grid – that’s made by US-based solar charging infrastructure manufacturer Paired Power.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/this-modular-pop-up-solar-canopy-charges-evs-off-grid/ Save to Pocket

US Senate Advances Stand-Alone $95 Billion Foreign Aid Bill

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-senate-advances-stand-alone-95-billion-foreign-aid-bill/7479825.html Save to Pocket

January 2024 – Volume 64 Issue 6

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

Letter from the Editor: Issue 6 Volume 64 Yesterday’s News: Clippings capsule Power in Numbers: Calculating the quake The Essentials: How to be ready to rumble Technology: How Northridge rebuilt…

https://sundial.csun.edu/178269/print-editions/january-2024-volume-64-issue-6/ Save to Pocket

Yesterday’s News: Clippings capsule

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

These newspaper clippings were published by The Daily Sundial following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A reported 56 people, including two California State University, Northridge students, lost their lives that night….

https://sundial.csun.edu/178170/print-editions/print-stories/clippings-capsule/ Save to Pocket

New Sanlorenzo superyacht first to use Volvo Penta electric ready powertrain

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Superyacht builder Sanlorenzo will become the first ship-builder to integrate the new Volvo Penta “electric-ready” marine powertrain system into two new upcoming customer yachts.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/new-sanlorenzo-superyacht-first-to-use-volvo-penta-electric-powertrain/ Save to Pocket

We Breached 1.5 Degrees Celsius of Warming — Sort Of

date: 2024-02-08, from: Heatmap News

Somewhat fittingly, Heatmap’s first year in existence coincided with the planet’s first 12-month period with an average temperature more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a new report from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. This might not come as a surprise if you’ve been reading us for any amount of time. But still, the number is striking — it’s the target we’ve long heard about, the threshold that the Paris Agreement is trying to keep us under.

It might be easy, then, to look at this report with a bit of despair. I am here to tell you otherwise. Some things to keep in mind:

• For starters, this report does not mean we’ve missed the Paris Agreement’s target; Copernicus’ report covers average temperatures over one year, while the Paris Agreement’s targets operate on 20- or 30-year timescales.


• El Niño was also a factor. The warm ocean phenomenon tends to bring higher global temperatures, so it’s possible the average could dip back down in a La Niña year (which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says is probably on its way soon).


• This threshold is not a point of no return. As I wrote in my very first piece for Heatmap, humanity operates on stunningly compressed time scales compared to the rest of our planet. It didn’t take us very long to reach this point; similarly, the speed of our efforts to decarbonize will affect the speed at which we will return to more livable temperatures.

If anything, think of today’s number news as a call to action. The last year was a preview of what life could be like above 1.5 degrees C; the next few years will likely also be incredibly hot compared to pre-industrial levels, and we must do our best to mitigate the pain and loss to come.

We’ll be covering those efforts at Heatmap, as we always do, but if you’d like an idea of the various paths available to us for decarbonization, this Carbon Brief interactive is a good place to start.

https://heatmap.news/sparks/1-5-degrees-celsius-paris-record Save to Pocket

COC Names Aaliyah Garcia, Oscar Patron Athletes of the Week

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

College of the Canyons student-athletes Aaliyah Garcia (women’s basketball) and Oscar Patron (baseball) have been named the COC Athletic Department’s Women’s & Men’s Student-Athletes of the Week for the period running Jan. 29 to Feb. 

https://scvnews.com/coc-names-aaliyah-garcia-oscar-patron-athletes-of-the-week/ Save to Pocket

EcoFlow flash sale takes up to $948 off power stations, Pace 500.2 e-bike now $924, more

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Headlining today’s lineup of deals is the final 24-hour flash sale to closeout EcoFlow’s home backup sale for disaster preparedness, taking up to $948 off power stations, an expansion battery, and a solar panel. It is joined by Aventon’s Pace 500.2 Cruiser e-bike at $924, as well as a Greenworks 1,900 PSI Electric Pressure Washer at $120. Plus, all of today’s other best new Green Deals.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/ecoflow-flash-sale-takes-up-to-948-off-power-stations-pace-500-2-e-bike-now-924-more/ Save to Pocket

Meet Venus’s Newly Named Quasi-Moon: Zoozve

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/meet-venuss-newly-named-quasi-moon-zoozve Save to Pocket

Graffiti Artists Tag 27 Floors of Abandoned Skyscraper in Los Angeles

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The street art brought new attention to a $1 billion project that’s been stalled since 2019

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/graffiti-artists-tag-27-floors-of-an-empty-skyscraper-development-in-los-angeles-180983749/ Save to Pocket

AI Deepfakes Pose Threat to Elections Worldwide

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Four billion people worldwide have voted or are scheduled to do so in national elections through 2024. While the candidates and issues differ in each country, one common concern is the use of generative artificial intelligence in disinformation campaigns. VOA’s Valdya Baraputri has the story.

https://www.voanews.com/a/ai-deepfakes-pose-threat-to-elections-worldwide/7479738.html Save to Pocket

Daily Deals (2-08-2024)

date: 2024-02-08, from: Liliputing

Just in time for the Super Bowl, Paramount+ is offering a 1-month free subscription to new or returning customers who use the coupon JUNE at signup. If you opt for the Paramount+ with Showtime option you’ll be able to stream CBS for free, which will let you watch the game. Plus you can catch up […]

The post Daily Deals (2-08-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-2-08-2024/ Save to Pocket

County Regional Parks, Nature Centers Under Hard Closure Through Friday

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Due to the recent storms, Los Angeles County regional parks and nature centers, including Placerita Canyon Nature Center, Vasquez Rocks and Castaic Lake, will continue to be under a hard closure this week through Friday

https://scvnews.com/county-regional-parks-nature-centers-under-hard-closure-until-friday/ Save to Pocket

The world’s longest onshore wind turbine blade makes its debut

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

SANY Renewable Energy, a wind turbine manufacturer in China, has built the world’s longest onshore wind turbine blade.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/worlds-longest-onshore-wind-turbine-blade-sany/ Save to Pocket

Hyundai IONIQ T10 emerges as a potential electric pickup option

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Is the Hyundai IONIQ T10 the electric truck we’ve been waiting for? A new trademark filing for an IONIQ T10 suggests Hyundai could be aiming for Ford’s F-150 Lightning.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/hyundai-ioniq-t10-f-150-lightning-rival/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

What tool would you use to create and edit a blogroll?

https://github.com/scripting/Scripting-News/issues/292 Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

What tool would you use to create and edit a blogroll?

http://scripting.com/2024/02/08.html#a181604 Save to Pocket

Who Can Be US President? Here’s What the Constitution Says

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Casting doubts on his political rivals’ eligibility to run for the U.S. presidency is one of Republican frontrunner and former President Donald Trump’s key campaign strategies. Fellow candidate Nikki Haley is the latest target of what is known as “birtherism.” VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains how the Constitution lays out who can run for America’s top job.

https://www.voanews.com/a/who-can-be-us-president-here-s-what-the-constitution-says/7479756.html Save to Pocket

Sorry, scammers: The FCC says AI robocalls are definitely illegal

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Existing telemarketing abuse laws apply to AI voices, too, says Commission

The US Federal Communications Commission has finally formally declared AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal, and it didn’t even need a new law to get the job done.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/sorry_scammers_the_fcc_says/ Save to Pocket

Have Your Kids ‘Read to a Dog’ at Santa Clarita Public Library

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Foster your child’s love of reading with a ‘paws-itive’ activity and join the Santa Clarita Public Library for “Read to a Dog!”

https://scvnews.com/have-your-kids-read-to-a-dog-at-santa-clarita-public-library/ Save to Pocket

Special Counsel: Biden ‘Willfully’ Disclosed Classified Materials, But No Criminal Charges Warranted

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden “willfully” retained and disclosed highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, including documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan and other sensitive national security matters, according to a Justice Department report that nonetheless says no criminal charges are warranted for him or anyone else. 

The report from special counsel Robert Hur, released Thursday, represents a harshly critical assessment of Biden’s handling of sensitive government materials but also details the reasons why he should not be charged with the crime. 

The findings will likely blunt his ability to forcefully condemn Donald Trump, Biden’s likely opponent in November’s presidential election, over a criminal indictment charging the former president with illegally hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. 

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Hur wrote. 

Hur’s report says evidence suggests that many of the classified documents recovered by investigators at the Penn Biden Center, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.” 

Biden said in a statement that he was “pleased” the special counsel had “reached the conclusion I believed all along they would reach — that there would be no charges brought in this case and the matter is now closed.” 

He made a point of saying that he sat for five hours of in-person interviews over two days on October 8 and 9, “even though Israel had just been attacked on October 7th and I was in the middle of handling an international crisis.” 

“I just believed that’s what I owed the American people so they could know no charges would be brought and the matter closed,” Biden said. 

The report comes after a yearlong investigation into the improper retention of classified documents by Biden, from his time as a senator and as vice president, that were found at his Delaware home, as well as at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president. 

The investigation into Biden is separate from special counsel Jack Smith’s inquiry into the handling of classified documents by Trump after Trump left the White House. Smith’s team has charged Trump with illegally retaining top secret records at his Mar-a-Lago home and then obstructing government efforts to get them back. Trump has said he did nothing wrong. 

After Biden’s lawyers uncovered classified documents at his former office, Biden’s representatives promptly contacted the National Archives to arrange their return to the government. The National Archives notified the FBI, which opened an investigation. Biden made his homes available to agents to conduct thorough searches, and that is how the most sensitive documents came to the attention of the Justice Department. 

Hur assessed that the evidence did not support that Biden willfully retained some of the classified documents that were recovered — including the ones at the Penn Biden Center that sparked the probe. 

Biden could not have been prosecuted as a sitting president, but Hur’s report states that he would not recommend charges against Biden, regardless. 

“We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president,” the report said. 

Part of the report centers on Biden’s handling of classified documents about Afghanistan — specifically, the Obama administration’s decision to send additional troops there — that he retained in is Delaware home after he left office as vice president. Biden preserved materials documenting his opposition to the troop surge, including a 2009 classified handwritten memo to then-President Barack Obama. 

“These materials were proof of the stand Mr. Biden took in what he regarded as among the most important decisions of his vice presidency,” the report said. 

The documents have classification markings up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information Level and were found in a box in Biden’s Delaware garage “that contained other materials of great significance to him and that he appears to have personally used and accessed.” 

Photographs included in the report showed some of the classified Afghanistan documents in a worn cardboard box stored in his garage, apparently in a loose collection with other household items, including a ladder and a wicker basket. 

Classified documents from the Obama administration were also found in Biden’s basement den, according to the report. Classified documents from his time in the Senate in the 1970s and 1980s were also found in his garage. 

Despite signs that Biden knowingly retained and disclosed classified materials, Hur’s report said criminal charges were not merited for multiple reasons. Those include the fact that as vice president, and during his subsequent presidency when the Afghanistan records were found, “he had the authority to keep classified documents at his home.” 

As part of the probe, investigators reviewed a recording of a February 2017 conversation between Biden and his ghostwriter in which, referring to the 2009 memo to Obama, Biden said he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs.” Biden was renting a home in Virginia at the time and consolidated his belongings in Delaware when he moved out in 2019. Prosecutors believe Biden’s comment was a reference to the same classified records that FBI agents later found in his Delaware home. 

Although the best case for charges could involve his possession of the Afghanistan documents as a private citizen, prosecutors said, it was possible that Biden could have found those records at his Virginia home in 2017 and then forgotten about them soon after. 

“This could convince some reasonable jurors that he did not retain them willfully,” the report. 

The report said there was some evidence to suggest that Biden knew he could not keep classified handwritten notes at home after leaving office, citing his deep familiarity “with the measures taken to safeguard classified information and the need for those measures to prevent harm to national security.” Yet he kept notebooks containing classified information in unlocked drawers at home. 

“He had strong motivations to do so and to ignore the rules for properly handling the classified information in his notebooks,” the report said. “He consulted the notebooks liberally during hours of discussions with his ghostwriter and viewed them as highly private and valued possessions with which he was unwilling to part.” 

While the report removes legal jeopardy for the president, it is nonetheless an embarrassment for Biden, who placed competency and experience at the core of his rationale to voters to send him to the Oval Office. 

“Mr. Biden was known to remove and keep classified material from his briefing books for future use, and his staff struggled — and sometimes failed — to retrieve those materials,” the report states. “And there was no procedure at all for tracking some of the classified material Mr. Biden received outside of his briefing books.” 

In declining to prosecute Biden, Hur’s office also cited what it said was Biden’s “limited memory” both during his 2017 recorded conversations with the ghostwriter and in an interview with investigators last year. 

“Given Mr. Biden’s limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office, jurors may hesitate to place too much evidentiary weight on a single eight-word utterance to his ghostwriter about finding classified documents in Virginia, in the absence of other, more direct evidence. 

There is recent Justice Department precedence for criminal charges against individuals accused of sharing classified information with biographers or ghostwriters. General David Petraeus pleaded guilty to doing exactly that in 2015 and was sentenced to probation. 

Yet in this instance, prosecutors say, Biden could have plausibly believed that the notebooks were his personal property and belonged to him, even if they contained classified information. 

In an interview with prosecutors, the report said, Biden was emphatic with investigators that the notebooks were “my property” and that “every president before me has done the exact same thing.” 

White House lawyer Richard Sauber said Biden takes classified information seriously and “strives to protect it,” but making mistakes when packing documents at the end of an administration can be a common occurrence, as the report noted. 

“We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the special counsel’s report. Nonetheless, the most important decision the special counsel made — that no charges are warranted — is firmly based on the facts and evidence,” Sauber said. 

Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer accused the special counsel of violating “well-established’ norms and”trashing” the president. 

“The special counsel could not refrain from investigative excess, perhaps unsurprising given the intense pressures of the current political environment. Whatever the impact of those pressures on the final report, it flouts department regulations and norms,” he said in a statement. 

Trump responded to the report in a statement as he traveled to Nevada for Thursday evening’s Republican caucuses. “THIS IS A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE!” he said in a statement, claiming the Biden case was “100 times different and more severe than mine.” 

“I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal - He had 50 years of documents, 50 times more than I had, and”WILLFULLY RETAINED” them,” Trump added, once again claiming “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” 

White House lawyers and Biden’s personal attorney were given the opportunity to review and comment on the report. Biden chose not to assert executive privilege over any portion of the report, White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2023 named Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland, to handle the politically sensitive Justice Department inquiry in an attempt to avoid conflicts of interest. It is one of three recent Justice Department investigations into the handling of classified documents by politically prominent figures.

https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-won-t-seek-redactions-in-report-on-classified-documents/7479686.html Save to Pocket

Apple and Samsung tussle over whose gizmos are hardest to fix

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Chromebooks earn ‘Least Likely to Survive a Screwdriver’ award

The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has published a study showing that Apple has work to do to make its laptops more easily repairable. At the same time, Samsung snatched the bottom place when it comes to cellphone repairability.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/pirg_reparability_research/ Save to Pocket

Cheap solar panels from China are all over Europe – and everyone is freaking out

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Europe is installing more solar panels than ever before, thanks to a flood of cheap Chinese solar panels, driving installations by 40% last year. But it comes at a hefty cost: Local solar manufacturers are on the brink of a total collapse that could happen within weeks.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/cheap-solar-panels-from-china-are-all-over-europe/ Save to Pocket

On the Bulletpointization of Books. “A wide swath of the ruling class…

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043944-on-the-bulletpointization Save to Pocket

Find Your Furever Friend at the Castaic Animal Care Center!

date: 2024-02-08, from: City of Santa Clarita

Find Your Furever Friend at the Castaic Animal Care Center! By Councilmember Laurene Weste “Dogs don’t make judgments about physical appearance or abilities, and they don’t care how big your house is or what you can do for a living. They care about the quality of your character and your capacity to love.” – Elizabeth […]

The post Find Your Furever Friend at the Castaic Animal Care Center! appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.

https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/02/08/find-your-furever-friend-at-the-castaic-animal-care-center/ Save to Pocket

Matador motorsports host Spring Fest

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

CSUN FSAE hosted a Spring Fest in the Plaza Del Sol on January 25, to showcase their senior projects.

https://sundial.csun.edu/178267/multimedia/watch/matador-motorsports-host-spring-fest/ Save to Pocket

Returning to Monkey Island - Noclip Documentary

date: 2024-02-08, from: Tilde.news

Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdWzlDwxBmQ Save to Pocket

Apple hasn’t killed iTunes for Windows yet… but would rather you use Apple Music or TV for everything but podcasts and audiobooks

date: 2024-02-08, from: Liliputing

Apple’s iTunes hasn’t been a thing on Mac computers for years, but iTunes for Windows is still a thing. But Apple would clearly rather have you use its other apps for most of the functions that used to be exclusive to iTunes. Last year Apple released Apple Music, TV, and Devices apps to the Microsoft […]

The post Apple hasn’t killed iTunes for Windows yet… but would rather you use Apple Music or TV for everything but podcasts and audiobooks appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/apple-hasnt-killed-itunes-for-windows-yet-but-would-rather-you-use-apple-music-or-tv-for-everything-but-podcasts-and-audiobooks/ Save to Pocket

Raspberry Robin devs are buying exploits for faster attacks

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

One of most important malware loaders to cybercrims who are jumping on vulnerabilities faster than ever

Researchers suspect the criminals behind the Raspberry Robin malware are now buying exploits for speedier cyberattacks.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/raspberry_robin_bought_exploits/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Pistons trade Bojan Bogdanovic, Alec Burks to Knicks.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39484645/sources-pistons-finalizing-trade-alec-burks-knicks Save to Pocket

Can The Tesla Cybertruck Handle A 2,500-Pound Load In Its Truck Bed?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

Let’s load it up to find out.

https://insideevs.com/news/707645/tesla-cybertruck-2500-payload-test-video/ Save to Pocket

The Wrath of Steinbeck: John Steinbeck on the Press in Vietnam, 1967

date: 2024-02-08, from: National Archives, Text Message blog

On February 8, 1967, famed American author John Steinbeck, then in Bangkok, Thailand, sent Secretary of State Dean Rusk a letter.  In it, Steinbeck excoriated the performance of the press in Vietnam and criticized anti-war protesters.  Steinbeck is the author of major American literary classics such as Tortilla Flat (1935), Of Mice and Men (1937), … Continue reading The Wrath of Steinbeck: John Steinbeck on the Press in Vietnam, 1967

https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2024/02/08/the-wrath-of-steinbeck-john-steinbeck-on-the-press-in-vietnam-1967/ Save to Pocket

Gov. Gavin Newsom sending DOJ, National Guard attorneys to Alameda County to beef up prosecutions

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

The governor framed the move as a partnership in the same vein as his April 2023 decision to send prosecutors into San Francisco to combat fentanyl trafficking.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/gov-gavin-newsom-sending-doj-national-guard-attorneys-to-alameda-county-to-beef-up-prosecutions/ Save to Pocket

Anti-Noise Crusaders In Paris Want A Partial Motorcycle Ban

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

It’s just the latest battle over combustion-powered two-wheelers in the French capital.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707970/paris-motorcycle-scooter-ban-noise/ Save to Pocket

Europe’s deepest mine to become Europe’s deepest battery

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

2 MWh of energy storage using dirt, winches, and cables set to be installed in Finland

The deepest metal mine in Europe, unused since 2022, is set to host a giant underground gravity battery.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/europe_deepest_mine_battery/ Save to Pocket

GM taps former Tesla battery expert to help it deliver low-cost EVs at scale

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

As GM looks to deliver on its promise of EVs for everyone, the automaker is recruiting talent from the best. GM announced Thursday that it has hired Kurt Kelty, former Tesla executive and recognized battery expert, as it aims to launch low-cost EVs.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/gm-tesla-battery-expert-low-cost-evs/ Save to Pocket

Skylab 4 Recovery Ends Program

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

The crewmen of the third and final manned Skylab mission relax on the USS New Orleans, prime recovery ship for their mission, about an hour after their Command Module splashed down at 10:17 a.m. (CDT), Feb. 8, 1974. The splashdown, which occurred 176 statute miles from San Diego, ended 84 record-setting days of flight activity […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/skylab-4-recovery-ends-program/ Save to Pocket

Social Media Sites Are Metaphorical Aquariums

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/social-media-sites-are-metaphorical-aquariums Save to Pocket

Geely Plans To Introduce Zeekr to Mexico. Is The U.S. Next?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

Mexico could just be the first step, with the rest of Central and South America coming after. Could the US be on Zeekr’s long-term list?

https://insideevs.com/news/707832/zeekr-mexico-plans-china-geely/ Save to Pocket

NASA’s New Experimental Antenna Tracks Deep Space Laser

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

Capable of receiving both radio frequency and optical signals, the DSN’s hybrid antenna has tracked and decoded the downlink laser from DSOC, aboard NASA’s Psyche mission. An experimental antenna has received both radio frequency and near-infrared laser signals from NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it travels through deep space. This shows it’s possible for the giant […]

https://www.nasa.gov/technology/space-comms/deep-space-network/nasas-new-experimental-antenna-tracks-deep-space-laser/ Save to Pocket

How to Watch the Spectacular Total Solar Eclipse in April 2024

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The moon will appear to completely block the sun’s light across parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada on April 8—here’s how to make the most of this rare celestial phenomenon

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-to-watch-the-spectacular-total-solar-eclipse-in-april-2024-180983732/ Save to Pocket

Reruns

date: 2024-02-08, from: Innessential (Brint Simmons’ blog)

It’s not a bug in your RSS reader if recent articles in this feed all suddenly appeared as unread. You may even have seeming duplicates.

Sorry about that! It’s due to my changing settings in my blog generator. Pages now have a .html suffix where before they had none. This change impacts permalinks, which also changes the guids in my RSS feed — and NetNewsWire and other RSS readers use the guid property to identify articles, which means these will show up as new articles.

(Note: I’ve created redirects so that old links pointing in will still work.)

https://inessential.com/2024/02/08/reruns.html Save to Pocket

High heat harms workers in Southeast Asia

date: 2024-02-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Thousands of workers in Southeast Asia are forced to work in scorching temperatures. A recent study showed dangerous effects of constant heat on at-risk workers, including health problems. We’ll visit Cambodia’s brick kilns to learn more. Plus, Sen. Amy Klobuchar talks child internet safety, and KPMG’s Diane Swonk dissects the job market.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/high-heat-harms-workers-in-southeast-asia Save to Pocket

Leaked memo: Microsoft employees should be using Copilot too

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

It’s all part of a push to get more devs using AI tools

While blasting customers with the promise of AI, Microsoft is now telling its employees to tiptoe into the brave new world too.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/microsoft_copilot_internal_teams/ Save to Pocket

Protected: HH&P Document Page

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

https://www.nasa.gov/general/hhp-document-page/ Save to Pocket

Jury duty is self-government

date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News

Jury duty is an intensive bootcamp for American democracy.

The great thing about jury duty is you get a very clear sense of what self-government is about. It makes you feel empowered which can be even more uncomfortable than feeling powerless.

So much of the frenetic activity online is about that sense of powerlessness. So we give money to causes or we join in boycotts, but these aren’t as powerful as participating in governing. Jury duty is a very quick way to do that.

We have to act more like citizens and less like subjects. I think that’s the real message of the election of 2016. Subjects elect someone like Trump. People who think like citizens would elect someone very different.

I wrote this on Facebook on this day in 2017.

http://scripting.com/2024/02/08/161214.html?title=juryDutyIsSelfgovernment Save to Pocket

GM Just Poached Tesla’s All-Time-Great Battery Chief

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

Plus, China pledges to help globalization of its domestic EVs and the UAW calls for higher import tariffs.

https://insideevs.com/news/707924/gm-poaches-tesla-battery-chief/ Save to Pocket

LIVE: Supreme Court sounds broadly skeptical of efforts to kick Trump off ballot over Capitol attack

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Arguments are underway at the Supreme Court in former President Donald Trump’s appeal to remain on the 2024 ballot.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/supreme-court-arguments-begin-in-landmark-case-seeking-to-kick-trump-off-ballot-over-capitol-attack/ Save to Pocket

Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal is not as optimistic about Tesla’s Full Self-Driving

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Elon Musk’s brother Kimbal, who is also a board member at Tesla, is not as optimistic as his brother about Tesla delivering ‘Full Self-Driving’. He says: “maybe 5 years”.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/elon-musk-brother-kimbal-not-as-optimistic-tesla-full-self-driving/ Save to Pocket

Electrify America’s First Flagship Indoor Charging Station Has 20 Hyper-Fast Stalls

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

It can provide up to 350 kW for each connected car and it might just be the solution apartment dwellers were looking for.

https://insideevs.com/news/707860/electrify-america-indoor-charging-station-san-francisco/ Save to Pocket

Larry Magid: Microsoft Copilot and the AI Super Bowl

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Advertisements about and created by artificial intelligence will be on display

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/larry-magid-microsoft-copilot-and-the-ai-super-bowl/ Save to Pocket

Tracing The Pig Butchers

date: 2024-02-08, from: David Rosenthal’s blog

“Vicky”

I showed my phone to my friend and explained that I was stringing Vicky along because I’d heard about a new kind of investment fraud that often started with a random text message. I had a hunch that this was why “Vicky” was texting me. The scam was called “pig butchering” because the scammers liked to build up the victim’s confidence with a pretend romantic relationship and made-up investment gains before stealing all their money in one fell swoop—like how hogs are fattened up before their slaughter.

Source

My short-lived texting flirtation with Vicky confirmed something that I had suspected: The scammers were using Tether to move the money. I spoke with several other pig-butchering victims, and they said they’d been asked to send Tether too.
…
From the scammer’s perspective, Tether was a clear improvement on bribing bankers or money mules. It was instant, there was no recourse for refunds, and it didn’t ask for anyone’s name or address. And unlike other cryptocurrencies, its value didn’t fluctuate from hour to hour, making it less scary for potential victims and easier to manage for criminals.

News stories revealed that people were losing huge amounts of money. A project finance lawyer in Boston with terminal cancer handed over $2.5 million. A divorced mother of three in St. Louis was defrauded of $5 million. A twenty-four-year-old social media producer in Tennessee lost $300,000 she inherited from the sale of her childhood home.
…
I came across a group that claimed to be raising money dedicated to helping victims. It was called the Global Anti-Scam Organization. The group said it had helped a huge number of pig-butchering victims: 1,483 worldwide, who’d lost more than $250 million combined.

Icetoad and other volunteers from the Global Anti-Scam group told me that Tether refused to help them by freezing accounts or seizing stolen money, even when presented with evidence that an account held the proceeds of fraud.
…
In another exchange provided by Global Anti-Scam, Tether told a Hong Kong police official that it did have the ability to intervene. But the company still refused, saying the case was too small. “We must sometimes decline fraud cases involving relatively small amounts of stolen USDT,” the Tether representative wrote, using the ticker symbol for the cryptocurrency. It said they would only intervene if the case was “directly connected to acts of violence.”

a small dark circle represented Vicky Ho’s wallet. This was where I’d sent the eighty-one Tethers. Sanders explained that the wallet was active for about two months and received many deposits from addresses that were known to be associated with U.S. and Canadian Canadian crypto exchanges. There were transfers of $3,600, $180, $400, $500, and $9,774, always in Tether. These were other people who’d been scammed by the same operation, Sanders said. In other words, I wasn’t Vicky’s only love interest. Once Vicky Ho had collected the money, they sent it to another numbered address, represented on the screen by a larger white circle. This one was likely controlled by the scammers too, Sanders said, and it held $9.4 million in Tethers. From there, many of the Tethers were sent to addresses associated with the crypto exchange Binance, and to others that belonged to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.

most butchering scams were orchestrated by gangsters based in Cambodia or Myanmar. These bosses would lure young men and women from across Southeast Asia to move abroad with the promise of well-paying jobs in customer service or online gambling. Then, when the workers arrived, they’d be held captive and forced to work on online scams. Icetoad and his colleagues told me there were thousands of people who’d been tricked this way. Entire office towers were filled with floor after floor of people forced to send spam messages around the clock, under threat of torture or death. These were the people using Tether to move their money.

Workers who missed quotas were beaten, starved, made to hit one another. One said he’d seen people forcibly injected with methamphetamine to increase productivity. Two others said they’d seen workers murdered, with the deaths passed off as suicides. They said the bosses would buy and sell captive laborers like livestock.
…
Local news reports described a string of suspicious deaths near Chinatown—one body was found hanging at a construction site, and another corpse was dug up handcuffed from a shallow grave in a field nearby. A local vendor told a Cambodian outlet that there had been many suicides at the complex. “If an ambulance doesn’t go inside at least twice a week, it is a wonder,” he said.

Wang and cybercrime cop>

At a Thai police headquarters in October 2022, Chinese businessman Wang Yicheng congratulated one of Bangkok’s most senior cybercrime investigators on his recent promotion, presenting the official with a large bouquet of flowers wrapped in red paper and a bow.

Wang, the vice president of a local Chinese trade group, wished the new cybercrime investigator “smooth work and new achievements,” according to the group’s website, which displays photographs of the event.

Over the past two years, Wang has forged relationships with members of Thailand’s law-enforcement and political elite, the trade group’s online posts show. During that time, a cryptocurrency account registered in Wang’s name was receiving millions of dollars linked to a type of cryptocurrency investment scam known as pig butchering, a Reuters investigation has found.

In total, crypto worth more than $90 million flowed into the account between January 2021 and November 2022, according to registration documents and transaction logs reviewed by Reuters. Of that, at least $9.1 million came from a crypto wallet that U.S. blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs said was linked to pig-butchering scams. Two other major crypto-tracking firms also said the account received funds linked to such scams.
…
Lisa Wolk, a blockchain intelligence analyst at TRM, said the crypto account in Wang’s name “is a node in a money laundering network and not necessarily the ultimate recipient of funds.” Reuters was unable to determine whether anyone else benefited from the account or used Wang’s identity to open it.

The crypto account registered to Wang was held at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, according to three blockchain analysis firms. Asked about the account, Binance spokesperson Jessica Jung declined to comment on individual users or Reuters’ findings. In an August post on its website, the company said the number of reports of pig-butchering scams it had received this year was double that of 2022, an increase it attributed to an influx of inexperienced crypto investors and scammers looking to exploit them.
…
In April, the U.S. Department of Justice said it seized about $112 million worth of crypto linked to pig-butchering scams, without identifying suspects. A warrant that resulted in the seizure of more than half that amount specified a Binance account registered in Thailand.

The crypto account in Wang’s name was registered in November 2020, according to the financial records Reuters reviewed. The three blockchain-analysis firms determined the account was with Binance. The documents, which relate to the Binance account, span two years to November 2022. They show that the account was accessed mostly from Bangkok.

Deposits started arriving in the account in early 2021 and quickly increased in size to include sums of more than $100,000, the financial records show.
…
In 2022, the volume of crypto reaching the account in Wang’s name mushroomed to almost $79 million, a near six-fold increase on the previous year, the account records seen by Reuters show.

Coinfirm, the blockchain analysis firm that reviewed the transaction records for Reuters, said deposits from funds linked to pig-butchering scams it previously investigated began entering the account as early as February 2022. Stolen crypto was moved to the account via a “complex layering scheme,” involving multiple different wallets, Coinfirm’s then-head of fraud investigations Roman Bieda told Reuters in May. The crypto moved between “dozens” of wallets and was mixed with funds from other sources, he said.

More than $102,000 originating from fraudsters’ wallets that the California man identified were deposited into the account in Wang’s name between June 26 and Oct. 23, 2022, according to Coinfirm.

Nearly all of the crypto deposited in the Wang-registered account was moved to other wallets, the transaction records reviewed by Reuters show. Between January 2021 and October 2022, about $87.5 million was transferred to almost 50 other crypto wallets, including at least five registered at regionally based crypto exchanges, Coinfirm said.

Several scams connected to deposits made into the account in Wang’s name were run from an industrial park on the Myanmar-Thai border, one of the blockchain analysis firms told Reuters. Workers are trafficked to the area, known as KK Park, by gangs that force them to con people online, according to two former workers and groups that support workers or scam victims.

The world is experiencing an epidemic of online scams with at least tens of billions of dollars lost across dozens of countries. One particular class of scam known as “pig butchering” has grown dramatically and often involves the use of cryptocurrency both to collect funds from victims and to launder the proceeds. Here we are going to explore the use of cryptocurrency in pig butchering scams beginning with victims in both the People’s Republic of China and United States of America, and demonstrating the remarkable degree of similarity for cases that have no reason a priori to be similar at all.

Specifically we will show that scammers with victims in both these countries share cryptocur- rency addresses, use overlapping sets of money-laundering services, and are therefore likely parts of the same group or syndicate. Our analysis begins with reports from victims in both countries where we find source victim and scam wallet addresses. From there we are able to trace scam proceeds through the cryptocurrency ecosystem to prove these connections. Finally, a range of exchanges and other service providers are identified through a combination of on-chain and documentary research, to demonstrate the cross-border nature of modern scams leveraging cryptocurrencies, and highlight the challenges facing law enforcement agencies globally when it comes to such scams.

1. Similar simultaneously-run scams have victims in both China and the United States.
2. Funds taken from both jurisdictions flow through common service providers.
3. The sums involved range from the tens to possibly hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now we are going to connect a few more dots to argue that scamming and the laundering of scam proceeds was not just a use case for cryptocurrencies in Asia, but likely a major driver of flows through several well-known industry players.

This may well even be, empirically, crypto’s killer app.

FTX was involved in processing over US$250 million in flows downstream from scams and Bitkub, Thailand’s largest crypto exchange, was involved in over US$100 million.

Cambodia’s population is only 16 million, with a per capita GDP of about US$1,600 — it’s hard to imagine Cambodia driving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stablecoin flows.

Genesis Block’s head trader explicitly talks about scam proceeds leading to bank account freezes and how they actively manage this problem.

So Genesis Block were clearly a downstream service provider and knew that at least some of their clients were, or at least were dealing with, criminals.

With regards to Genesis Block’s Chinese client base, in a different interview the same person says:

We’ve been seeing a lot of our partners pretty much disappear…a lot of our friends over there are kind of in big trouble…it’s not really about crypto it’s more about the source of the RMB… [which was] a lot of pyramid schemes, a lot of scams.

Genesis Block were clearly dealing with people who were either criminals themselves, or service providers to criminals, and Genesis Block appeared comfortable talking about such activities on camera.

Genesis Block OTC was on the Signet client list, as were many of the other exchanges referenced in our earlier work.

A service provider that talked openly about dealing with criminals was active on a platform another commentator described as “a walled garden filled with snakes.”

That service provider (Genesis Block) was integrated with FTX/Alameda Research), which was both the largest recipient of new USDT and a major exchange operator with myriad, sometimes-remarkably-creative, schemes to access fiat currency.

it is entirely plausible that:

• Genesis Block’s client base included many of these scammers and/or crimionals;
• the outsized involvement of FTX was this flow; and/or
• so was the Bitkub flow, via Genesis Block or otherwise;

and this isn’t just plausible, it’s provable, because the illicit flows documented in our prior work were laundered by someone.

If it wasn’t this route it means there is at least one more multi-billion-dollar laundering pipeline connected to this activity we know nothing about.

That is possible of course, but seems unlikely.

Certainly the simplest explanation is that no second as-yet-undiscovered group of scammers or criminals exists and it’s all the same organization.

Now remember these actors specifically mentioned that the traditional financial system was blocking them and freezing their accounts.

We are looking at a gigantic amount of bad flow that was caught by banks and how cryptocurrencies were used to circumvent those controls.

The contents of those frozen accounts could have been, and at least partially would have been, sent back to the victims instead of being irreversibly exfiltrated.

So this may well be crypto’s real killer app — irreversible cross-border transfers for criminals.

• Tether, which refused to freeze wallets despite detailed blockchain evidence of pig-butchering even from law enforcement. Contrast this with Tether’s behavior in the case of The Victim documented by Patrick Tan, where a simple request from law enforcement with only suspicion froze a wallet.
• Major exchanges, including Binance, FTX, Huboi and many others, were on notice that they were handling funds from the pig butchers. Take Binance for example:
  

  Binance publicly said it assisted Thai police with a probe into “a significant pig butchering scam,” and that about $277 million of assets were confiscated.

  and they blamed the victims:
  

  the number of reports of pig-butchering scams it had received this year was double that of 2022, an increase it attributed to an influx of inexperienced crypto investors and scammers looking to exploit them.

  and they responded to a Dept. of Justice warrant about these funds.

Thus these businesses cannnot claim ignorance of the flow of pig-butchering funds, or of their scale. But they are clearly motivated to turn a blind eye to them whenever possible.

https://blog.dshr.org/2024/02/tracing-pig-butchers.html Save to Pocket

2024-02-03 Wieder im Wallis

date: 2024-02-08, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog

2024-02-03 Wieder im Wallis

Hier oben ist der Schnee nicht schlecht. #Pictures

The next day we went running but it was so steep that we rarely did run. It was more of a speed hike. 😅

We went skiing again. The view from Cry d’Er is amazing if you ignore the people, buildings, cables and masts that I conveniently cut off in these pictures.

We went down to the valley floor and walked from Salgesch to Sierre (and ate Raclette, there).

We went skiing again. It was colder, today.

https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-02-03-wallis Save to Pocket

Oral surgery at today’s Supreme Court

date: 2024-02-08, from: Robert Reich on Substack

They will dissect Section 3 of the 14th Amendment during oral argument

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/oral-surgery-at-todays-supreme-court Save to Pocket

Yay, Disney+ renewed Percy Jackson and the Olympians for a second season….

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043942-yay-disney-renewed-percy- Save to Pocket

This $1b EV nickel plant will be North America’s largest

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Canada Nickel Co. is looking to spend US $1 billion to build a nickel processing plant in Ontario, which would be North America’s largest once it is completed.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/this-1b-ev-nickel-plant-will-be-north-americas-largest/ Save to Pocket

Cough? Sore throat? More US schools suggest mildly sick kids attend anyway

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

California, where 25% of students last year missed 10% of the school year, took a new approach to sick-day guidance this fall.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/cough-sore-throat-more-schools-suggest-mildly-sick-kids-attend-anyway/ Save to Pocket

Forget Super Bowl LIV — 49ers take lessons from last season’s blowout loss to Chiefs

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Humbled in their own stadium by Kansas City in Week 7 of 2022, the 49ers reeled off 10 straight wins to close out the regular season.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/decisive-home-loss-to-chiefs-last-season-is-still-on-the-minds-of-49ers/ Save to Pocket

Work to resolve binary babble from Voyager 1 is ongoing

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

You think your latency is bad? How about 45 hours to see if a command worked?

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has confirmed that work to resolve a data issue aboard Voyager 1 continues, almost two months since the spacecraft began spouting gibberish.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/engineers_work_to_revive_voyager/ Save to Pocket

Introducing Deno Deploy onboarding tutorials

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Deno blog

We revamped Deno Deploy’s onboarding to show you how easy it is to use Deno’s cloud primitives in your projects.

https://deno.com/blog/deploy-onboarding-tutorials Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Scott Chacon talk on Git tips and tricks from fosdem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aolI_Rz0ZqY

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111896567755829642 Save to Pocket

The Good and the Bad for Biden in Southeast Asia

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: RAND blog

Since entering office in 2021, one of the Biden administration’s foreign-policy priorities has been a more effective Indo-Pacific strategy to compete with China, especially in Southeast Asia. Three years on, the administration’s policy has bright spots, but still lacks a clear strategy for the region.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/the-good-and-the-bad-for-biden-in-southeast-asia.html Save to Pocket

Ryan Gosling finally summited the iconic WB water tower. “For whatever reason,…

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043941-ryan-gosling-finally-summ Save to Pocket

Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time

date: 2024-02-08, from: Quanta Magazine

The post Scientists Find Optimal Balance of Data Storage and Time first appeared on Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/scientists-find-optimal-balance-of-data-storage-and-time-20240208/ Save to Pocket

There Must be Some Misunderstanding

date: 2024-02-08, from: Gary Marcus blog

There must be some misunderstanding There must be some kind of mistake – Phil Collins / Genesis Great example last night from Denis O. on LinkedIn, that connects with pretty much everything have been writing about, from elephants on beaches to the lack of understanding in large language models

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/there-must-be-some-misunderstanding Save to Pocket

Listeria outbreak: What to know and how to protect yourself

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

In the United States, listeria is the third leading cause of death from foodborne illness, killing about 260 a year, according to the CDC.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/listeria-outbreak-what-to-know-and-how-to-protect-yourself/ Save to Pocket

BYD’s upcoming EV plans leak showing new Seal and Tesla Model Y rivaling SUV launching

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

BYD is rolling out new electric models in different segments as it looks to stay on top of the EV sales market. BYD’s latest EV plans leaked, showing a new electric SUV rolling out in April to compete with Tesla’s top-selling Model Y.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/byd-ev-plans-leak-tesla-model-y-rivaling-suv/ Save to Pocket

Telescopes Show the Milky Way’s Black Hole is Ready for a Kick

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

This artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A). As reported in our latest press release, this result found that Sgr A is spinning so quickly that it is warping spacetime — that is, time and the three dimensions of space […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/telescopes-show-the-milky-ways-black-hole-is-ready-for-a-kick/ Save to Pocket

Campbell, San Francisco restaurants make Yelp’s Most Romantic 100 list

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Three Northern California restaurants have scored spots on the list – in the country – for Valentine’s Day (or anniversary dinners or date nights).

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/campbell-sf-restaurants-make-yelps-most-romantic-100-list/ Save to Pocket

Microsoft embraces its inner penguin as sudo sneaks into Windows 11

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Linux users have enjoyed such functionality for decades

Microsoft has accidentally announced the arrival of sudo in Windows, bringing to an end fervent industry chatter about the tool emerging in the company’s flagship operating system.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/windows_11_sudo/ Save to Pocket

BYD Global Plug-In Car Sales Exceeded 200,000 In January 2024

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

The company increased its plug-in car sales by 34% year-over-year.

https://insideevs.com/news/707816/byd-global-plugin-car-sales-january2024/ Save to Pocket

NASA’s Hubble Traces ‘String of Pearls’ Star Clusters in Galaxy Collisions

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

Contrary to what you might think, galaxy collisions do not destroy stars. In fact, the rough-and-tumble dynamics trigger new generations of stars, and presumably accompanying planets. Now NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has homed in on 12 interacting galaxies that have long, tadpole-like tidal tails of gas, dust, and a plethora of stars. Hubble’s exquisite sharpness […]

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-traces-string-of-pearls-star-clusters-in-galaxy-collisions/ Save to Pocket

Nearly 13,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers still without power across Bay Area after punishing weekend storm

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

The storm brought strong winds that toppled trees across the Bay Area.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/nearly-13000-pacific-gas-and-electric-customers-still-without-power-across-bay-area-after-punishing-weekend-storm/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

I am in awe at how beautifully written this book review by @molly0xfff is. On my second reading, just to try to capture all those perfectly crafted phrases.

https://www.citationneeded.news/review-read-write-own-by-chris-dixon/

I would like one day to write something as perfect as this:

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111896395357174686 Save to Pocket

Tesla-Swapped Minivan Vs. Porsche 911 Turbo S Race Is Closer Than You Think

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

The Plaidessey goes against Cleetus McFarland and his upgraded 911 at the Freedom Factory.

https://insideevs.com/news/707929/tesla-swapped-minivan-vs-porsche-911-turbo-s-race-video/ Save to Pocket

Taste of Tri-Valley Restaurant Week starts Feb. 23

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

For 10 days starting later this month, restaurants in Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin, Danville and San Ramon will take the spotlight at the fourth annual Taste of Tri-Valley Restaurant Week celebration.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/taste-of-tri-valley-restaurant-week-starts-feb-23/ Save to Pocket

Fintech engineer grounded by crypto fraud caper, including $300m spoof trades

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Fourth conviction in South Africa-linked scheme

The head of financial engineering at fintech platform Hydrogen Technology has been convicted of manipulating the price of a security and scheming to defraud investors in the company’s cryptocurrency, HYDRO.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/hydrogen_technology_engineer_convicted/ Save to Pocket

7 awesome Bay Area things to do over Super Bowl weekend, Feb. 9-11

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

We have some awesome ideas for Super Bowl Sunday, and other fun stuff, too.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/08/7-awesome-bay-area-things-to-do-over-super-bowl-weekend-feb-9-11/ Save to Pocket

Hartmann Has Experience

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

I am writing to express my wholehearted support for Joan Hartmann for reelection as 3rd District representative to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors.

The post Hartmann Has Experience appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/hartmann-has-experience-2/ Save to Pocket

E-Bike Brand Velo De Ville Has Four New Models For The 2024 Riding Season

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

Cruise around in style with these premium urban runabouts.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707841/velo-de-ville-2024-ebikes-launch-europe/ Save to Pocket

Arts & Lectures Donors Dine with Renée Fleming

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Timothy Fisher lauds Arts & Lectures Programming

The post Arts & Lectures Donors Dine with Renée Fleming appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/arts-lectures-donors-dine-with-renee-fleming/ Save to Pocket

Our T Level resources to support vocational education in England

date: 2024-02-08, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)

You can now access classroom resources created by us for the T Level in Digital Production, Design and Development. T Levels are a type of vocational qualification young people in England can gain after leaving school, and we are pleased to be able to support T Level teachers and students. With our new resources, we…

The post Our T Level resources to support vocational education in England appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/t-level-resources-support-vocational-education-england/ Save to Pocket

This Guy Has Built an Open Source Search Engine as an Alternative to Google in His Spare Time

date: 2024-02-08, from: 404 Media Group

“I found it very weird that there essentially is no way to browse the web in an open manner. So that’s what I am trying to build,” the founder of Stract said.

https://www.404media.co/this-guy-is-building-an-open-source-search-engine-in-real-time/ Save to Pocket

Nonprofit news site Chalkbeat gets a shoutout on ABC’s hit show “Abbott Elementary”

date: 2024-02-08, from: Nieman Journalism Lab

Sometimes we can just have nice little things. Like this! Nonprofit education news site Chalkbeat got a shoutout in last night’s season 3 premiere of the ABC hit comedy “Abbott Elementary.” Did that really just happen? Yes, yes it did. Thank you @AbbottElemABC for the shoutout! We’re excited for potentially more people to “read about…

https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/nonprofit-news-site-chalkbeat-gets-a-shoutout-on-abcs-hit-show-abbott-elementary/ Save to Pocket

Toyota Says It’s Not ‘Anti-EV,’ It’s ‘Just Being Real’

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

Toyota is keeping diesels around in its global markets until EVs can match their prowess (or until regulations force them out).

https://insideevs.com/news/707794/toyota-not-anti-ev-australia/ Save to Pocket

Cybercrime duo accused of picking $2.5M from Apple’s orchard

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Security researcher buddies allegedly tag team a four-month virtual gift card heist at Cupertino tech giant

A cybersecurity researcher and his pal are facing charges in California after they allegedly defrauded an unnamed company, almost certainly Apple, out of $2.5 million.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/security_research_apple_fraud/ Save to Pocket

In Plain Sight / Shadowsmith

date: 2024-02-08, from: Care

            <p>Two poems by Shivangi Mariam Raj where she “gather[s] shards of ceramic washed under my scream and forgive” and where “Shadow precedes presence.”</p>

https://logicmag.io/policy/in-plain-sight-and-shadowsmith Save to Pocket

‘I did not kill Ed. He’s my friend’

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

During the trial of Jamie John Nededog, who is accused of murdering Edwin Pirando, 54, in October 2023, Nedeog’s mother, Jessica Nededog, testified Thursday morning in the Superior Court of Guam as a witness.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/i-did-not-kill-ed-hes-my-friend/article_1020279a-c620-11ee-a91c-3f49dbff9a4a.html Save to Pocket

University releases new 2024 calendars for fishers, gardeners

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

The University of Guam has launched two calendars for this year, focusing on facts and tips for fishing and planting.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/university-releases-new-2024-calendars-for-fishers-gardeners/article_9824c668-bb40-11ee-b41c-93e2ad87f0e4.html Save to Pocket

Typhoon recovery program to help those with ‘unmet needs’

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

The Office of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention has secured $1.8 million to help people who still need help to recover from Typhoon Mawar, according to its director.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/typhoon-recovery-program-to-help-those-with-unmet-needs/article_235ffcd0-c62b-11ee-9c08-c735c2634286.html Save to Pocket

Grass fire closes Cross Island Road

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

Guam Fire Department units responded to a grass fire on Cross Island Road by Our Lady of Peace Memorial Gardens cemetery at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/grass-fire-closes-cross-island-road/article_bbbcf4aa-c631-11ee-957b-036d5a0c3cb9.html Save to Pocket

Ex-football league owner who recruited local athletes arrested by FBI, indicted

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

A woman who announced she would start a professional women’s adult football league in the U.S., which prompted women football players on the island to relocate, is facing 38 federal counts of fraud in California.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/ex-football-league-owner-who-recruited-local-athletes-arrested-by-fbi-indicted/article_1556dcfe-c62a-11ee-bef3-ff9d9924daf2.html Save to Pocket

Speaker to seek reconsideration of hospital location, mining bills

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

Speaker Therese Terlaje said she will attempt to place Bill 116-37, Bill 184-37 and Bill 185-37 onto the agenda for reconsideration in the upcoming session. The speaker announced her intentions on Wednesday, as the legislative Committee on Rules began to…

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/speaker-to-seek-reconsideration-of-hospital-location-mining-bills/article_898786d8-c59d-11ee-8eb8-0bd625439ab7.html Save to Pocket

Lawmakers discuss increased taxes, fees for vaping products

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

Increases to proposed taxes and licensing fees were among the recommendations given to lawmakers Thursday morning during a public hearing on legislation proposing tax and licensing requirements for electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS products, also known as vaping products.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/lawmakers-discuss-increased-taxes-fees-for-vaping-products/article_0484ce96-c61a-11ee-8eac-af4ef30abbef.html Save to Pocket

New Pacific islands publication seeks submissions from writers

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

A new publication focused on the Pacific is looking for submissions for its inaugural issue, the Pacific Islands Development Program’s Pacific Islands Report announced in a press release.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-pacific-islands-publication-seeks-submissions-from-writers/article_41a0c0d6-c562-11ee-82e0-6f809a74eac3.html Save to Pocket

5 Marines Aboard Helicopter That Went Down Outside San Diego Confirmed Dead, Military Says

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

San Diego, California — Five U.S. Marines aboard a helicopter that went down during stormy weather in the mountains outside of San Diego are confirmed dead, military said.

Authorities say the CH-53E Super Stallion vanished late Tuesday night while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego after training at Creech Air Force Base, northwest of Las Vegas.

“It is with a heavy heart and profound sadness that I share the loss of five outstanding Marines from 3d Marine Aircraft Wing and the”Flying Tigers,” Maj. Gen. Michael J. Borgschulte, commander of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said in a statement.

The names of the Marines were not immediately released.

The craft was discovered Wednesday morning near the mountain community of Pine Valley, an hour’s drive from San Diego.

https://www.voanews.com/a/marines-aboard-helicopter-that-went-down-outside-san-diego-confirmed-dead-military-says/7479321.html Save to Pocket

Disney is (re)entering its video game era

date: 2024-02-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Disney announced it will take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games — the creator of popular game platform Fortnite — in an effort to diversify while its linear media struggles. The partnership means we can expect Epic-created games featuring Disney characters in the not-too-distant future. Plus, Federal Reserve higher-ups signal they will take their time on rate cuts and U.S. imports of Chinese goods fell last year.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/disney-is-reentering-its-video-game-era Save to Pocket

Earth Spent 12 Months Above the 1.5C Warming Limit

date: 2024-02-08, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: Forest fires are under control in Chile’s Viña del Mar, but continue to burn in other parts of the country • Los Angeles recorded at least 475 mudslides due to the atmospheric river • It’s 75 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in Naples, Florida, where a 9-acre beachfront retreat just hit the housing market for a record-breaking $295 million.

THE TOP FIVE

1. World exceeds 1.5C in warming for a full year

Temperatures on Earth have been more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for a year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). New data shows that from February 2023 through January 2024, the average global temperature was 1.52 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 baseline. Last month was also the warmest January ever recorded, C3S confirmed. In 2015, 196 nations adopted the legally binding Paris Agreement with the long-term goal of limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally below 1.5 degrees. A one-year breach doesn’t mean the target is bust, because it “refers to long-term warming – the IPCC uses 20 to 30 years – not annual temperatures that include the short-term influence of natural fluctuations in the climate, such as El Niño,” explained Carbon Brief. However, some experts, including the new chief of the World Meteorological Organization, believe the rate of warming is speeding up.

C3S

2. New EPA air pollution rules could save thousands of lives

In case you missed it: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rolled out new air pollution rules yesterday, cracking down on dangerous particulate matter. Previously, the EPA’s annual standard for concentrations of particulate matter was 12 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). Based on epidemiological research showing that this standard did not adequately protect public health, the agency has now lowered the standard to 9 µg/m3. The rules are expected to prevent 4,500 premature deaths per year by 2032. The EPA also updated its Air Quality Index in conjunction with the new rules, which could mean that even as the air gets cleaner, you might get more air quality alerts, reported Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo.

3. Monarch butterfly numbers drop sharply

Heat, drought, and pesticides and herbicides are taking a toll on the monarch butterfly population. Numbers of the iconic orange butterflies in Mexico, where they spend the winter, fell by 59% this year to their second lowest level ever recorded, The Associated Press reported. Extreme weather, logging, and chemical treatments are all hurting the insects’ natural habitat and killing the milkweed plant on which they lay their eggs. “It has a lot to do with climate change,” said Gloria Tavera, director of Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas. The monarchs’ migration path is the longest of any insect species known to science: They winter in Mexico and then head north to Canada. No single butterfly survives the entire trek; instead their offspring finish it for them, before turning around and heading back to Mexico to start the process over again.

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4. Orsted had a no good, very bad year

Danish energy developer Orsted said yesterday that it had lost a ton of money on its experiment trying to build wind farms in the United States, and planned to take on way less risk going forward. The figures are pretty grim, as Heatmap’s Matthew Zeitlin reported: Orsted had 9.6 billion Danish kroner worth of fees (about $1.4 billion) related to one New Jersey project, Ocean Wind 1, and had booked $4 billion of losses, most of which were due to Ocean Wind 1’s cancellation. Overall, it reported a loss of almost $3 billion in 2023. Orsted also said it was pulling out of Norway, Spain, and Portugal. In a call with analysts, the company’s chief executive Mads Nipper said that Orsted will spend far less money on projects before making the final approval to go forward with construction.

5. Study suggests thinking about future generations moves people to support climate policy

Convincing people to change their habits and beliefs is very hard, but when it comes to the climate crisis, widespread behavioral shifts are essential. A new “global megastudy” of more than 59,000 participants across 63 countries attempted to figure out which “interventions” can be most effective at shifting beliefs and getting people to support climate policy. The results, published in Science Advances, show that the act of writing a letter to future generations was “one of the top interventions tested.” Participants had to pen a note to a hypothetical child who will be turning 30 in the year 2055, detailing what they’re doing now to help keep the planet healthy. This exercise was the most effective intervention at nudging people toward supporting climate mitigation policies.

THE KICKER

Nima Sarikhani / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

“Ice Bed,” by Nima Sarikhani, is the winner of the 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year 59 People’s Choice Award. The picture shows a male polar bear drifting off to sleep on a small iceberg off the Svalbard archipelago. “I hope that this photograph also inspires hope,” Sarikhani said. “There is still time to fix the mess we have caused.” The competition is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.

https://heatmap.news/climate/year-warming-paris-agreement Save to Pocket

Heat pumps outsold gas furnaces in 2023—Here’s why

date: 2024-02-08, from: Distilled Earth blog

Five reasons and a whole lot of charts

https://www.distilled.earth/p/heat-pumps-outsold-gas-furnaces-in Save to Pocket

5G network slicing finally shown to be more than pipe dream

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Telcos demonstrate configuration in action at research facility. Now to find customers that want to buy one

Telco BT has demonstrated network slicing, long slated as a key element for providing full fat 5G networks promised to subscribers.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/bt_5g_network_slicing/ Save to Pocket

Watch this electric motorcycle ride battery deep through California flood waters

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

As Californians brace for record-setting rain and flooding in many areas, drivers are forced to be extra cautious on flooded roadways. In what may be a first for this particular bike though, we’re getting a look at a Ryvid Anthem electric motorcycle that was ridden battery-deep through flood waters and lived to ride back out.

The entire exercise underscores just how waterproof electric motorcycles can be, even riding underwater.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/electric-motorcycle-rides-battery-deep-through-california-flood-waters/ Save to Pocket

Google’s Gemini Advanced: Tasting Notes and Implications

date: 2024-02-08, from: One Useful Thing

And then there were two.

https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/google-gemini-advanced-tasting-notes Save to Pocket

Volvo Global All-Electric Car Sales Improved In January Thanks To EX30

date: 2024-02-08, from: Inside EVs News

Plug-in hybrid car sales continued to decrease year-over-year for the fourth consecutive month.

https://insideevs.com/news/707646/volvo-global-electric-car-sales-january2024/ Save to Pocket

Category Six

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/02/08/category-six/ Save to Pocket

Was This Villa Pliny the Elder’s Front-Row Seat to Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption?

date: 2024-02-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Researchers are wondering whether a newly discovered villa in southern Italy could be linked to the celebrated scholar

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-ancient-mansion-may-have-been-pliny-the-elders-front-row-seat-to-mount-vesuvius-eruption-180983736/ Save to Pocket

Dr. Gene Dorio | A Youngster Among Giants

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

The city of Santa Clarita is a youngster among giants. At only 36 years old, we are already the third largest city in Los Angeles County and still growing. As a longtime resident and practicing physician, I know I’ve been around for a while when I drive on roads and see buildings and parks named […]

The post Dr. Gene Dorio | A Youngster Among Giants appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/dr-gene-dorio-a-youngster-among-giants/ Save to Pocket

HackSpace magazine meets VEEB Projects

date: 2024-02-08, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)

Design duo Vanessa Bradley and Martin Spendiff, known as VEEB, create devices sometimes simple, sometimes complicated, but always beautifully clean.

The post HackSpace magazine meets VEEB Projects appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/hackspace-magazine-meets-veeb-projects/ Save to Pocket

European cloud providers locked in talks with Microsoft over licensing complaint

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Redmond has until end of this quarter to make ‘substantive progress’

A trade group representing 27 cloud businesses is back at the negotiating table in a bid to resolve the lawsuit it filed over Microsoft’s alleged anti-competitive licensing policies.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/microsoft_cispe_dispute_talks/ Save to Pocket

Prices fall in China

date: 2024-02-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: Consumer prices in China have seen their steepest fall since 2009, adding to deflation woes. In Pakistan, millions are heading to the polls to vote in a new government. And a study on working conditions in Cambodia’s garment and brick industries highlights the risks climate change poses to those already struggling in hot countries.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/prices-fall-in-china Save to Pocket

CFMoto Ibex 450 Ventures Into The US Market

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

It’s scheduled for availability in the fall of 2024.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707839/cfmoto-ibex450-launch-usa/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

La Terminal on Product Hunt:

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/la-terminal

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111895754423193999 Save to Pocket

On Software Liabilities

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-07, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Over on Lawfare, Jim Dempsey published a really interesting proposal for software liability: “Standard for Software Liability: Focus on the Product for Liability, Focus on the Process for Safe Harbor.”

Section 1 of this paper sets the stage by briefly describing the problem to be solved. Section 2 canvasses the different fields of law (warranty, negligence, products liability, and certification) that could provide a starting point for what would have to be legislative action establishing a system of software liability. The conclusion is that all of these fields would face the same question: How buggy is too buggy? Section 3 explains why existing software development frameworks do not provide a sufficiently definitive basis for legal liability. They focus on process, while a liability regime should begin with a focus on the product—­that is, on outcomes. Expanding on the idea of building codes for building code, Section 4 shows some examples of product-focused standards from other fields. Section 5 notes that already there have been definitive expressions of software defects that can be drawn together to form the minimum legal standard of security. It specifically calls out the list of common software weaknesses tracked by the MITRE Corporation under a government contract. Section 6 considers how to define flaws above the minimum floor and how to limit that liability with a safe harbor…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/02/on-software-liabilities.html Save to Pocket

#SuperbOwl: The Wise Owl Club

date: 2024-02-08, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog

Today’s post is an oldie but a goodie from our very own public affairs specialist Hilary Parkinson. While searching for images of owls in the National Archives Catalog for #SuperbOwl, I came across this curious photo of an owl wearing safety goggles. In the same search I found photographs of men shaking hands and showing off tiny owl … Continue reading #SuperbOwl: The Wise Owl Club

https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/02/08/superbowl-the-wise-owl-club/ Save to Pocket

LEVER TIME: The Anxious Generation, Brought To You By Smartphones

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Lever News

David Sirota speaks with researcher Zach Rausch about the myriad ways modern technology is rewiring childhood development.

https://www.levernews.com/lever-time-the-anxious-generation-brought-to-you-by-smartphones/ Save to Pocket

Microsoft seeks patent for tech to put words into your mouth

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Remember that satnav that spoke like Homer Simpson? Now imagine AI doing that in any language, on any device

Microsoft has filed a patent application for an “automatic dubbing” system that strips speech from media and inserts new voices in its place.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/microsoft_patent_speach/ Save to Pocket

Los Angeles Is Probably Too Good at Preventing Big Floods

date: 2024-02-08, from: Heatmap News

For the past few days, Southern Californians have found themselves living with a kind of weather one doesn’t typically associate with the region: rain. Days of rain. The kind of rain that, in the worst cases, causes flooding and landslides, and in the best cases enforces a kind of unwilling solitude. (A friend in the Los Angeles area recently sent me a video of her German Shepherd, yowling discontentedly at the falling water.) One gauge at the University of California, Los Angeles recorded more than a foot of rain in 24 hours, making it what the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration calls a “thousand-year” rainfall event.

The cause is a slow-moving atmospheric river that has essentially parked itself over the region. And yet, even with all that rain, California still won’t be able to escape the drought that’s gripped the West for years. California, it turns out, might be a bit too good at flood control.

Undeveloped floodplains act like natural speed bumps for fast-moving floods — the water spreads out over the plain, slows down, and eventually seeps into the dirt to become groundwater. But land is at a premium in Southern California, especially in the L.A. area, and for decades the prevailing wisdom was to contain rivers with concrete so they wouldn’t flood, opening the floodplains to housing development. What we still call the L.A. River is now, essentially, a concrete drain.

This creates two problems. First, there’s no natural barrier that can slow down flood waters during events like this week’s storms. And second, there’s nowhere for that water to go other than into the rivers and out to sea.

“Most of the rivers in Southern California are channelized, or concrete-lined, and most of the floodplains are developed,” Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at Arizona State University’s Global Futures Lab and a former member of the California State Water Board in Santa Ana and Los Angeles, told me. “When we built all that infrastructure, we really were thinking more about flooding and not thinking about saving that water.”

That’s because California has historically been pretty well-supplied with water from the Colorado River and Sierra Nevada snowpack that would melt in the spring and summer, delivering water through mountain streams. But as Ian James wrote in the Los Angeles Times last week, California is in a “snow drought,” with about only about half the historical average snowpack for this point in the season. While the storms might help shore up the Sierra Nevada snowpack a bit, it still won’t be enough.

Warmer air carries more water, but it also means that less snow falls at lower elevations than before — where once we might have seen a few inches of snow, we now see a few inches of rain. During an atmospheric river in particular, so much water is dumped over such a short time period that protecting people from flooding becomes the primary concern.

“It’s a difficult balance between protecting people against flooding, which I think we do a really good job at, and replenishing groundwater,” Famiglietti said. But, he told me, Californians need to start having some difficult conversations about the possibility of moving people off the floodplains — what planners called “managed retreat” — and returning riverbanks to their natural state so that floodwaters can spread out into the plains, slow down, and refill aquifers that the state can rely on throughout the year.

Managed retreat is a difficult topic — nobody ever wants to leave their home. And then there’s the problem of money; local, state, and federal government agencies would probably have to fund all those moves and the subsequent restoration of the rivers and floodplains. “We need to be spending a lot more money,” Famiglietti told me. “We’re talking trillions of dollars. And who pays for it, the federal government or the state? I don’t have the answer.”

There are some plans to reshape the L.A. River, spearheaded by none other than Frank Gehry — but Famiglietti says that instead of restoring the river’s banks and opening up floodplains, the plans call for even more development. A coalition of environmental groups opposes the plan, saying Gehry’s idea, which includes the construction of “platform parks” that would span over the canal, saying that it “stands to do particular ecological harm, create real estate speculation, and precludes future opportunities for climate resilience.”

Going in the opposite direction — less development and less concrete — is sort of antithetical to our ideas of progress. But the atmospheric rivers will keep coming, Famiglietti stressed, and it’s difficult to plan a city around unpredictable rain events.

“We did the right thing at the time [when we built flood infrastructure],” Famiglietti told me. “But now, in a sense, we have to be thinking about moving backwards.”

https://heatmap.news/climate/los-angeles-river-california-rain Save to Pocket

A Death Sentence: Native Americans Shut Out of the Nation’s Liver Transplant System

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Markup blog

Despite being more likely to die of liver disease, Native Americans are far less likely to make the transplant list than White people

https://themarkup.org/organ-failure/2024/02/08/a-death-sentence-native-americans-shut-out-of-the-nations-liver-transplant-system Save to Pocket

How We Investigated Racial Disparities in Liver Transplants

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Markup blog

We found Native Americans were listed for a transplant significantly less often than other racial groups compared with their number of deaths from liver disease

https://themarkup.org/show-your-work/2024/02/08/how-we-investigated-racial-disparities-in-liver-transplants Save to Pocket

US Political Campaigns Weigh Artificial Intelligence

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

The 2024 U.S. presidential election may look a lot like the 2020 vote, with the two major party nominations likely going to the same men, Joe Biden and Donald Trump. One big difference will be the use of artificial intelligence, which is playing a growing role in American politics.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-political-campaigns-weigh-artificial-intelligence-/7479043.html Save to Pocket

Saturnian moon Mimas: Crunchy on the outside, sub-surface ocean on the inside

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Data from Cassini suggests hidden depths beneath crater-ridden body

Mimas, a moderate-sized moon orbiting Saturn, is likely to possess liquid oceans hidden under its icy surface, according to a research paper published this week.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/mimas_subsurface_ocean/ Save to Pocket

Patriots long snapper Joe Cardona is the 2023 USAA Salute to Service award winner

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>LAS VEGAS &#8212; New England Patriots long snapper Joe Cardona is the USAA 2023 Salute to Service award winner. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/sports/patriots-long-snapper-joe-cardona-is-the-2023-usaa-salute-to-service-award-winner/ Save to Pocket

Boys basketball BIIF championship matchups set

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The stage is set for Friday&#8217;s KTA/BIIF boys basketball championship &#8212; where Hilo High and Kamehameha Schools - Hawai&#8216;i will settle their season-long rivalry in a fight for the BIIF Division I title, and reigning Division II state champion Kohala will take on underdog challenger Pahoa High for the BIIF DII crown.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/sports/boys-basketball-biif-championship-matchups-set/ Save to Pocket

BIIF football: Konawaena dominates All-Hawaii football awards

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>KAILUA-KONA &#8212; Football players from four Big Island Interscholastic Federation (BIIF) schools &#8212; Konawaena, Kamehameha Schools-Hawa&#8216;i, Hawaii Prep and Kea&#8216;au &#8212; were named to the ScoringLive Division I and II All-Hawaii first and second teams on Wednesday for their exceptional performances during the 2023 season.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/sports/biif-football-konawaena-dominates-all-hawaii-football-awards/ Save to Pocket

Kentucky WR transfer making smooth transition to Warriors football team

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>After signing the bulk of the 2024 recruiting class in December, the Hawaii football team will gain official commitments today from an offensive lineman, a defensive lineman and a linebacker.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/sports/kentucky-wr-transfer-making-smooth-transition-to-warriors-football-team/ Save to Pocket

Waiakea senior Ryder Ng signs with Linfield

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>With the BIIF golf season just around the corner, Waiakea High senior golfer Ryder Ng signed a letter of intent to golf for Linfield University on Tuesday.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/sports/waiakea-senior-ryder-ng-signs-with-linfield/ Save to Pocket

Las Vegas, where the party never ends, prepares for its biggest yet: Super Bowl 58

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>LAS VEGAS &#8212; Las Vegas proposed to the NFL in December 2021.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/las-vegas-where-the-party-never-ends-prepares-for-its-biggest-yet-super-bowl-58/ Save to Pocket

2024 starts off drier than normal for large swath of the island

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>In terms of precipitation, the Big Island in January was a tale of two halves. </p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/hawaii-news/2024-starts-off-drier-than-normal-for-large-swath-of-the-island/ Save to Pocket

From Uber Eats’ ‘Friends’ reunion to Bud’s Clydesdales, here are the buzziest Super Bowl ads so far

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>NEW YORK &#8212; If you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, you no longer have to wait until the big game to see what advertisers have in store for viewers.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/from-uber-eats-friends-reunion-to-buds-clydesdales-here-are-the-buzziest-super-bowl-ads-so-far/ Save to Pocket

Settlement reached in Hilo case involving DLNR officer: Assault will cost state $1.25M

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Companion bills in the state Legislature that appropriate money to settle claims against the state and its employees contain $1.25 million for a Hilo woman who was sexually assaulted when she was a teenager on a Hilo beach by a Department of Land and Natural Resources enforcement officer.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/hawaii-news/settlement-reached-in-hilo-case-involving-dlnr-officer-assault-will-cost-state-1-25m/ Save to Pocket

Proposal to establish shaka as state gesture clears committee

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>A proposal to establish the shaka as Hawaii&#8217;s state gesture made progress through the state Legislature on Wednesday after winning the approval of its first House committee.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/hawaii-news/proposal-to-establish-shaka-as-state-gesture-clears-committee/ Save to Pocket

Actor Gina Carano sues Lucasfilm and Disney over her firing from ‘The Mandalorian’

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>LOS ANGELES (AP) &#8212; Actor Gina Carano on Tuesday sued Lucasfilm and its parent The Walt Disney Co. over her 2021 firing from &#8220; The Mandalorian,&#8221; saying she was let go for expressing right-wing views on social media.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/actor-gina-carano-sues-lucasfilm-and-disney-over-her-firing-from-the-mandalorian/ Save to Pocket

Trump has edge over Biden in nationwide FAU poll. Many voters looking for an alternative

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Former President Donald Trump is slightly ahead of President Joe Biden in a nationwide poll released Wednesday by Florida Atlantic University.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/trump-has-edge-over-biden-in-nationwide-fau-poll-many-voters-looking-for-an-alternative/ Save to Pocket

Experts mixed on impact of Crumbley verdict, but some see message for parents

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>An Oakland County jury broke new ground Tuesday by holding the mother of a school shooter criminally responsible for her child&#8217;s actions, but Metro Detroit legal experts had mixed opinions about how the guilty verdict might influence other cases.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/experts-mixed-on-impact-of-crumbley-verdict-but-some-see-message-for-parents/ Save to Pocket

Hawaii lawmakers consider overruling regulator on solar energy program rates

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>The price that most Hawaii electrical utility customers pay for, or in some cases receive payment for, grid stability is being wrestled over at the state Legislature.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/hawaii-news/hawaii-lawmakers-consider-overruling-regulator-on-solar-energy-program-rates/ Save to Pocket

We Americans neglect our children

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Individually, we adore and pamper our children. We shuttle them from soccer practice to music lessons and then organize their play dates with meticulous fanaticism.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/opinion/we-americans-neglect-our-children/ Save to Pocket

Your Views for February 8

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Homelessness needs&#0010;to be addressed</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/opinion/your-views-for-february-8-5/ Save to Pocket

No time to govern: A Senate border deal worth taking, but far-right House GOP only cares of politics

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>After months of protracted negotiations, the Senate has finally unveiled a bipartisan border deal that the GOP had tied to Democrats&#8217; other legislative priorities, including needed funding for Ukraine. Speaker Mike Johnson immediately announced its status in the House: dead on arrival.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/no-time-to-govern-a-senate-border-deal-worth-taking-but-far-right-house-gop-only-cares-of-politics/ Save to Pocket

Willis seeks to kill subpoenas as battle over alleged wrongdoing continues

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>ATLANTA &#8212; District Attorney Fani Willis Wednesday sought to quash subpoenas that would require her and members of her staff to testify as part of a hearing to determine whether she committed misconduct and should be barred from prosecuting Fulton County&#8217;s election interference case.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/willis-seeks-to-kill-subpoenas-as-battle-over-alleged-wrongdoing-continues/ Save to Pocket

Supreme Court could toss Trump eligibility dispute to Congress

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>Supreme Court oral arguments Thursday could shed light on what&#8217;s at stake for Congress in a case about a Colorado decision to bar Donald Trump from appearing on the state primary ballot based on the 14th Amendment.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/supreme-court-could-toss-trump-eligibility-dispute-to-congress/ Save to Pocket

FTC, Amazon spar over antitrust lawsuit that could ‘alter’ the company

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>In the months since the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon over allegations of anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior, the two parties have debated the schedule, the scope and the rationale of the case itself.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/ftc-amazon-spar-over-antitrust-lawsuit-that-could-alter-the-company/ Save to Pocket

US drone strike in Baghdad kills high-ranking militia leader linked to attacks on American troops

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>BAGHDAD &#8212; A U.S. drone strike blew up a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing a high-ranking commander of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia who is responsible for &#8220;directly planning and participating in attacks&#8221; on American troops in the region, the U.S. military said Wednesday.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/us-drone-strike-in-baghdad-kills-high-ranking-militia-leader-linked-to-attacks-on-american-troops/ Save to Pocket

Senate Republicans block bipartisan border package, scuttling deal they had demanded from Democrats

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>WASHINGTON &#8212; Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border package Wednesday, scuttling months of negotiations with Democrats on legislation intended to cut back record numbers of illegal border crossings.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/senate-republicans-block-bipartisan-border-package-scuttling-deal-they-had-demanded-from-democrats/ Save to Pocket

Nikki Haley is trounced by the ‘none of these candidates’ option in Nevada’s Republican primary

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>LAS VEGAS &#8212; Nikki Haley was swamped in Nevada&#8217;s symbolic Republican presidential primary as GOP voters resoundingly picked the &#8220;none of these candidates&#8221; option on the ballot in a repudiation of the former U.N. ambassador who is the last remaining major rival to front-runner Donald Trump.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/nation-world-news/nikki-haley-is-trounced-by-the-none-of-these-candidates-option-in-nevadas-republican-primary/ Save to Pocket

Obituaries for February 8

date: 2024-02-08, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold

            <p>William Clovis Hudman, 74, of Kailua-Kona, Feb. 4 at home. Born in Amarillo, Texas, he was a retired superintendent for the former Hawaii Electric Light Co., U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran and member of American Legion. Visitation 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Kona Stake Center in Kailua-Kona. Funeral service at 7 p.m. Burial 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, at West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery. Casual attire. Survived by his wife, Arlene Hudman; daughters, Penny-Lee (Walter) Cho, Patty-Lin Medeiros, Paulene Choy, Pamela (Michael Jr.) Sanchis, Leaianuenue O&#8217;Callaghan, Aumekealoha Ha&#8216;awi okapuuwaikapuapauloa (Kalei) Pea; sons, Frank Choy and Joshua (Leesa) Hudman; brother, Ronald Hudman Sr.; sister-in-law, Crestita Hudman; 28 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren; nieces, nephews, and cousins. Arrangements by Dodo Mortuary.</p>
        

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/08/obituaries/obituaries-for-february-8-8/ Save to Pocket

Iraq Criticizes US Strikes After Baghdad Attack Killed Iran-Backed Militant Group Commander

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Pentagon — Iraq Thursday sharply criticized a U.S. drone strike that the U.S. military said killed a leader of an Iranian-backed militant group, with an Iraqi spokesman calling the attack “a blatant assassination” that showed “no regard for civilian lives or international laws.”

Yehia Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said the U.S.-led coalition that has operated in Iraq to counter the Islamic State group “consistently deviates from the reasons and objectives for its presence on our territory.”

“The trajectory compels the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of this coalition, which has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict,” Rasool said in a statement.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the strike on Tuesday killed a commander of the militant group Kataib Hezbollah who was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”

Two U.S. officials confirmed to VOA that the commander was operations officer Wisam Mohammad al-Saedi. Photos on social media allegedly showed his Iraqi identification card that was pulled from his body.

VOA had earlier reported the U.S. military was involved in an airstrike against a high-value target in the Middle East but had not identified al-Saedi by name.

Video shared on social media shows a vehicle engulfed in flames on a Baghdad highway.

The U.S. strike was in response to the almost 170 drone, rocket and missile attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East since mid-October, one of which killed three U.S. service members and wounded dozens more in northern Jordan last week.

A wave of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on Friday pounded targets associated with Iranian-backed militias responsible for the attacks. The strikes targeted three locations in Iraq, as well as another four in Syria, and they destroyed more than 80 individual targets, ranging from command-and-control centers and intelligence hubs to missile and drone storage facilities, according to the latest U.S. assessments.

But while U.S. officials have defended the strikes as necessary following a drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers at a base in Jordan last month, Iraqi officials have voiced increased anger, summoning the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Baghdad to protest. They have charged that some of the U.S. strikes hit elements of Iraq’s own security forces.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that Iraq was not given any warning but added the U.S. strikes should not have come as a surprise.

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said Monday the U.S. had no plans for a long-term military campaign against the militias in Iraq and Syria, but he noted the U.S. response to the killing of its service members was “not complete.”

The U.S. has about 2,500 troops in Iraq tasked with advising and assisting Iraqi security forces as they pursue the remnants of the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS or Daesh.

And while talks between the U.S. and Iraq are under way to eventually reduce the U.S. military footprint and transition from the counter-IS mission to what officials describe as more traditional military-to-military relationship with Baghdad, the process has been complicated by the attacks.

The United States has also been carrying out strikes in response to attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen who have threatened key Red Sea shipping lanes.

U.S. Central Command, which overseas U.S. forces in the region, said Thursday it conducted two separate strikes late Wednesday against Houthi cruise missiles that were prepared to launch.

A CENTCOM statement said the missiles “presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.”

The Houthis have said their Red Sea attacks are in solidarity with the people of Gaza and have vowed to continue them.

https://www.voanews.com/a/iraq-criticizes-us-strikes-after-baghdad-attack-killed-iran-backed-militant-group-commander/7479154.html Save to Pocket

Blinken Heads Home Without Israeli-Hamas Cease-Fire or Hostage Release

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

State Department  — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Washington from the Middle East on Thursday with no new deal in hand for a cease-fire in the four-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza or release of any more hostages held by the militants.

Blinken and other U.S. officials said they remained optimistic a halt in the fighting can be achieved and 100 or so remaining hostages freed. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu derided a Hamas plan that would leave the militants in control of the Gaza Strip as “delusional” and said Israeli forces would fight to win “absolute victory.”

Meanwhile, the White House announced that President Joe Biden would host Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington on Monday for talks on resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Blinken wrapped up a four-nation Mideast trip by meeting with Netanyahu’s war cabinet, including former military chiefs Benny Gantz and Gabi Eisenkot. The top U.S. diplomat said he would focus on “the hostages and the strong desire that we both have to see them returned to their families, the work that’s being done to that end.”

But late Wednesday, Blinken acknowledged sharp differences between a cease-fire plan offered by Israel, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt that would last several weeks and free hostages and Hamas’ response calling for an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, an end to its bombardment of Gaza and the right for Hamas to govern the territory and rebuild its military capability.

“Clearly there are things that Hamas sent back that are absolute non-starters,” Blinken said at a news conference. “But, at the same time, we see space to continue to pursue an agreement.”

“And these things are always negotiations,” he said. “It’s not flipping a light switch. It’s not ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ There’s invariably back and forth.”

A senior Hamas official said a Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Thursday to continue negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari officials. 

The United States has been Israel’s staunchest ally in its fight against Hamas following the militants’ shock October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people. But Netanyahu was dismissive of Blinken’s assessment that the Hamas’ plan could at least serve as a starting point for cease-fire discussions.

“We are on the way to an absolute victory. There is no other solution,” Netanyahu said at a news conference after meeting with Blinken. He said Israel’s war effort would take months, not years. 

The Israeli leader also appeared to dismiss concerns from the U.S. and others about expanding Israel’s military operations in southern Gaza, particularly in Rafah on the Egyptian border, where more than a million Palestinians have fled at Israel’s demand to escape fighting further to the north.

Blinken said, “On all of my previous visits here and pretty much every day in between, we have pressed Israel in concrete ways to strengthen civilian protection, to get more assistance to those who need it. And over the past four months, Israel has taken important steps to do just that,” he said. “And yet … the daily toll that its military operations continue to take on innocent civilians remains too high.”

In rejecting the Hamas cease-fire plan, Netanyahu also called for the dismantlement of the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, the main distributor of international humanitarian assistance in Gaza, after allegations that a dozen of its employees took part in the Hamas October attack. 

Blinken appealed to Netanyahu and other Israelis not to let vengeance dictate their continued response.

“Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7,” he said. “And the hostages have been dehumanized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.”  

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says Israel’s counter-offensive has killed more than 27,500 people and displaced about 2 million Palestinians in Gaza from their homes. 

In its proposal, Hamas called for three 45-day phases, first releasing all remaining women and children, as well as older and sick men, in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. 

The Hamas plan calls for Israel to withdraw from populated areas and end its aerial bombardment while also allowing far more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and permitting Palestinians to return to their homes, including in devastated northern Gaza. 

The second phase, to be negotiated during the first, would include the release of all remaining hostages, mostly soldiers, in exchange for all Palestinian detainees over the age of 50, including senior militants, to be freed by Israel.

Israel would release an additional 1,500 prisoners, 500 of whom would be specified by Hamas, and complete its withdrawal from Gaza. 

In the third phase, the sides would exchange the remains of hostages and prisoners. Israel says it believes more than two dozen of the remaining 130 or so hostages in Gaza have already died or been killed. 

Blinken’s trip to the Mideast was his fifth since the war started.

He has reiterated the U.S, stance that creation of a Palestinian state is the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and greater integration for the region. According to the State Department, Blinken also emphasized the urgent need to lower tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and prevent the conflict from expanding. 

Critics have attacked Netanyahu for having no definitive plan for governing Gaza after the war ends. 

He said Wednesday, “The day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas.”

Netanyahu has rejected any arrangement that would leave Hamas in full or partial control of Gaza. He also said Israel is the “only power” capable of guaranteeing security in the long term.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-israeli-officials-discuss-efforts-to-free-hostages-held-in-gaza-/7479145.html Save to Pocket

When red flags are just office decoration: Edinburgh Uni’s Oracle IT disaster

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Management either weren’t told about risks or ignored them, report finds

Before Edinburgh University went live with its disastrous Oracle finance and HR system rollout, senior managers either didn’t get the message about “red” risks or ignored it, an independent report has found.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/edinburgh_university_oracle_report/ Save to Pocket

Getting Wall Street out of our houses

date: 2024-02-08, from: Robert Reich on Substack

The Street is a major buyer of single-family housing — driving up prices. Here’s a way to get our houses back.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/getting-wall-street-out-of-our-houses Save to Pocket

Einride partners with Heineken to support electric trucks moving precious beer through Europe

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Einride has announced it is helping world-renowned brewery Heineken electrify its freight operations between the Netherlands and Germany. Heineken put several electric trucks into operation last month as it looks to deploy Einride’s entire ecosystem across its fleet operations in the future.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/08/einride-partners-heineken-electric-trucks-moving-beer-through-europe/ Save to Pocket

Classifieds – February 8, 2024

date: 2024-02-08, 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 – February 8, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/classifieds-february-8-2024/ Save to Pocket

In its tantrum with Europe, Apple broke web apps in iOS 17 beta, still hasn’t fixed them

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

PWAs demoted to OWB: Operating Within Browser

Apple has argued for years that developers who don’t want to abide by its rules for native iOS apps can always write web apps.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/apple_web_apps_eu/ Save to Pocket

Happy 97th birthday to Les Tanner

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

Submitted by the family of Les Tanner  Although to many, this might not seem like a milestone, but to us, every year is a milestone birthday with our dad.  He turned 97 on Feb. 5 and has been an avid reader of The Signal and part of this community since 1963.  Many have known him […]

The post Happy 97th birthday to Les Tanner appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/happy-97th-birthday-to-les-tanner/ Save to Pocket

Laurene Weste | Find Your Furever Friend at the Castaic Animal Care Center!

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

“Dogs don’t make judgments about physical appearance or abilities, and they don’t care how big your house is or what you can do for a living. They care about the quality of your character and your capacity to love.” – Elizabeth Eiler  Animals have always been a pivotal part of my life. As someone who […]

The post Laurene Weste | Find Your Furever Friend at the Castaic Animal Care Center! appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/laurene-weste-find-your-furever-friend-at-the-castaic-animal-care-center/ Save to Pocket

Research Collection only partially available

date: 2024-02-08, from: ETH Zurich Research Archives

Currently there are problems with the Research Collection.We are working urgently on solving the problem. Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions, please contact research-collection@library.ethz.ch.

https://rc-blog.ethz.ch/en/research-collection-only-partially-available/ Save to Pocket

Today in SCV History (Feb. 8)

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

1990 – Rock ‘n’ Roller Del Shannon, whose hit “Runaway” topped the charts in April 1961, found dead at home in Sand Canyon. [story

https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-feb-8/ Save to Pocket

914 Olive Street: A Home Full of Mysteries

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The name engraved in the concrete near this home tells a story from its past.

The post 914 Olive Street: A Home Full of Mysteries appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/08/914-olive-street-a-home-full-of-mysteries/ Save to Pocket

Women’s basketball looks to exorcize Sun Devils

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Coming off of two wins in Northern California, USC will face the Pac-12’s worst.

The post Women’s basketball looks to exorcize Sun Devils appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/200274/ Save to Pocket

Free STI testing to roll out next week at Engemann

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Testing will coincide with Wellness Week activities and informational booths.

The post Free STI testing to roll out next week at Engemann appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/free-sti-testing-to-roll-out-next-week-at-engemann/ Save to Pocket

P1Harmony’s new album is ‘Killin’ It’

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

K-pop band P1Harmony released its first full-length album with a smashing music video.

The post P1Harmony’s new album is ‘Killin’ It’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/p1harmonys-new-album-is-killin-it/ Save to Pocket

Shane Gillis and the myth of cancellation

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

The once-canceled comedian is now set to host “Saturday Night Live” Feb. 24.

The post Shane Gillis and the myth of cancellation appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/shane-gillis-and-the-myth-of-cancellation/ Save to Pocket

Women’s golf looks to continue its momentum into spring

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

USC fought hard in a match play format at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge.

The post Women’s golf looks to continue its momentum into spring appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/200268/ Save to Pocket

‘Pretentiousness’ is often misused

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

‘Pretentious’ is taking on a new meaning, discouraging us from being passionate.

The post ‘Pretentiousness’ is often misused appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/pretentiousness-is-often-misused/ Save to Pocket

Downey Way Entrance closed Thursday

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

USC expects traffic at the Watt Way and McClintock Avenue entrances to rise.

The post Downey Way Entrance closed Thursday appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/downey-way-entrance-closed-thursday/ Save to Pocket

Delegates, conventions and Nikki Haley’s uphill battle

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Presidential party nominations require delegates, and most are still up for grabs.

The post Delegates, conventions and Nikki Haley’s uphill battle appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/delegates-conventions-and-nikki-haleys-uphill-battle/ Save to Pocket

A champion on and off the tennis court

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)

Billie Jean King’s influence on women’s sports and gender equality is unmatched.

The post A champion on and off the tennis court appeared first on Daily Trojan.

https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/08/200279/ Save to Pocket

Yamaha Invests In EV Startup River To Boost Presence In India

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

The move is part of Yamaha’s goal of achieving carbon-neutrality by 2050.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707838/yamaha-invests-river-electric-scooters-india/ Save to Pocket

Boys Basketball Playoffs: Santa Barbara Advances to Second Round with 72-48 Victory Over Viewpoint

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Santa Barbara supporting cast shined against Viewpoint.

The post Boys Basketball Playoffs: Santa Barbara Advances to Second Round with 72-48 Victory Over Viewpoint appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/07/boys-basketball-playoffs-santa-barbara-advances-to-second-round-with-72-48-victory-over-viewpoint/ Save to Pocket

NASA Launches New Climate Mission to Study Ocean, Atmosphere

date: 2024-02-08, from: NASA breaking news

NASA’s satellite mission to study ocean health, air quality, and the effects of a changing climate for the benefit of humanity launched successfully into orbit at 1:33 a.m. EST Thursday. Known as PACE, the Plankton, Aerosol, Climate, ocean Ecosystem satellite, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-launches-new-climate-mission-to-study-ocean-atmosphere/ Save to Pocket

Rust can help make software secure – but it’s no cure-all

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Security is a process, not a product. Nor a language

Memory-safety flaws represent the majority of high-severity problems for Google and Microsoft, but they’re not necessarily associated with the majority of vulnerabilities that actually get exploited.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/rust_software_memory_safety/ Save to Pocket

Arm share price bulges after AI pumped revenue to a new record

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Smartphones surge, but chip design champ isn’t ready to predict its cloudy future

Brit chip designer Arm has posted its highest-ever quarterly revenue and seen its share price soar, thanks to a little tech that readers may recall having read the occasional story about of late: Artificial intelligence.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/arm_q3_2023/ Save to Pocket

CERN is training robot dogs to spot radiation hazards at Large Hadron Collider

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

CERNquadbot can go off the rails – unlike science org’s existing inspector bots

Vid  A four-legged robot dog has successfully performed a radiation protection test at CERN by patrolling and inspecting equipment in a small section of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/cern_is_training_robot_dogs/ Save to Pocket

February 7, 2024

date: 2024-02-08, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog

Amidst the Republican meltdown in Washington, a disturbing pattern is emerging. Under pressure from former president Donald Trump, Republican senators today killed the $118 billion Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act that provided funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and humanitarian assistance for Gaza and also included protections for the border that Republicans themselves had demanded.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-7-2024 Save to Pocket

Alibaba Cloud posts modest growth, mostly thanks to other Alibaba business units

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Customers from beyond the Chinese giant are being let go if they’ve signed for low-margin contracts

Chinese tech giant Alibaba revealed on Wednesday its own operations are a better source of growth for its public cloud business than third-party customers.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/alibaba_q3_2023/ Save to Pocket

The French Revvie, Part V: Off With Her Head!

date: 2024-02-08, from: Margaret Atwood’s substack

You thought the “Left” was always in favour of the Rights of Women? Not in the French Revvie.

https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/the-french-revvie-part-v-off-with Save to Pocket

China-Linked Hackers Lurk in Critical US Systems

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

washington — China-linked hackers targeting key sectors of the U.S. economy appear to have been hiding in key computer systems and networks for at least five years, according to a new warning from the United States and key allies, who urge companies to take urgent action to mitigate the risk. 

The cybersecurity advisory issued Wednesday by multiple U.S. agencies, including the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), states that a cyberthreat group known as Volt Typhoon has been “positioning itself to launch destructive cyberattacks that would jeopardize the physical safety of Americans.” 

In particular, the advisory warns that China-linked Volt Typhoon hackers have successfully infiltrated the computer networks of private companies linked to critical sectors of the U.S. economy, including communications, energy, water and wastewater, and transportation. 

The advisory further warns that Volt Typhoon hackers have been “maintaining access and footholds within some victim IT environments for at least five years.” And CISA acknowledged the penetrations may be more extensive than is currently known. 

Officials said other industries, including construction, information technology and education are also being targeted. 

“What we’ve found to date is likely the tip of the iceberg,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a statement. “CISA teams have found and eradicated Volt Typhoon intrusions into critical infrastructure across multiple sectors.” 

In addition to the FBI and CISA, the advisory — and its findings — were endorsed by the U.S. National Security Agency, as well as cyber officials from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who said that their own critical infrastructure could also be at risk. 

One CISA official called the advisory “a stark warning to critical infrastructure organizations.” 

“The information that we are releasing with this advisory is reflecting a strategic shift in PRC [People’s Republic of China] malicious cyber activity from a focus on espionage and IT theft,” said Eric Goldstein, CISA executive assistant director for cybersecurity. 

“Our evidence strongly suggests that these PRC actors are positioning to launch future disruptive or destructive cyberattacks that could cause impact to national security, economic security or public health and safety,” he told reporters, adding he expects the number of victims to grow. 

Goldstein and other U.S. officials said that so far, there are no indications that hackers with Volt Typhoon have attempted to launch any sort of disruptive attacks on critical infrastructure. But they also said the way the Chinese-linked cyber actors infiltrated critical networks means it is likely just a matter of time. 

“This stealthy access increases our concern that they are lurking, waiting for the right moment to cause devastating impacts,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Cynthia Kaiser.  

Kaiser also warned that Volt Typhoon “is certainly not the only Chinese group conducting this type of activity.” 

She said the FBI has identified additional threats by using surveillance capabilities authorized under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a controversial law that allows the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies to gather electronic data of non-Americans without first obtaining a warrant.

“In fact, we only know about many critical infrastructure entities compromised by the Chinese because of FBI FISA 702 collection,” she said.

The latest warning comes just a week after top U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials told lawmakers that they are bracing for a “cyber onslaught” from China. 

“The risk that poses to every American requires our attention — now,” FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party last Wednesday. “China’s hackers are positioning on American infrastructure in preparation to wreak havoc and cause real-world harm to American citizens and communities, if or when China decides the time has come to strike.” 

China has repeatedly denied such allegations. 

“The Chinese government has been categorical in opposing hacking attacks and the abuse of information technology,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA via email after last week’s hearing. “We urge the U.S. side to stop making irresponsible criticism against other countries on the issue of cyber-security.”

But officials in Washington have been steadfast in their warnings, saying they believe Beijing would have few reservations about carrying out an attack on U.S. critical infrastructure in the event of a conflict. 

Specifically, they cite the possibility of such attacks in the event China decides to invade Taiwan as a way to damage Washington’s ability to provide military assistance. 

The just-released U.S. cybersecurity advisory urges companies to fix security vulnerabilities that could allow hackers, like those with Volt Typhoon, to infiltrate and hide — a tactic known as “living off the land.” 

It also encourages companies to search their systems in case hackers have already broken through. 

But officials admit there are significant challenges, pointing to a just-disrupted Volt Typhoon malware campaign, which targeted common computer routers used by homes and small businesses across the United States to access critical infrastructure. 

“These devices were no longer patched by the manufacturers, making them vulnerable,” said the FBI’s Kaiser. “That’s why the FBI recommends that network owners remove and replace any end-of-life devices to minimize the risk of the device being compromised again by Volt Typhoon or other malicious cyber actors.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/china-linked-hackers-lurking-in-us-systems-for-years/7479048.html Save to Pocket

Residents question county Public Health report on Chiquita Canyon  

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

A consultant hired by L.A. County Public Health shared his firm’s report Wednesday on its study of air quality samples taken in and around Chiquita Canyon Landfill.   The information on a six-week study between the end of October and the middle of December was shared with the community in a Wednesday evening meeting at College […]

The post Residents question county Public Health report on Chiquita Canyon   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/residents-question-county-public-health-report-on-chiquita-canyon/ Save to Pocket

With trade rumors swirling, Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson deliver in Philadelphia

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

“See Steph Curry, see Draymond. Go home, check our playoff record as a trio and what we have. Champions. I believe.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/with-trade-rumors-swirling-andrew-wiggins-and-klay-thompson-deliver-in-philadelphia/ Save to Pocket

Take A Look At Benelli’s 2024 Offerings In The US Market

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

The TRK 702 is yet another enticing offering in the middleweight ADV segment.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707837/benelli-2024-models-us-market/ Save to Pocket

Man arrested in connection with Gilroy bank robbery

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Authorities identified the suspect as a 53-year-old resident of Garden Grove.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/man-arrested-in-connection-with-gilroy-bank-robbery/ Save to Pocket

Grass fire closes Cross Island Road

date: 2024-02-08, from: Guam Daily Post

The Guam Fire Department responded to a grass fire by Our Lady of Peace cemetery on Thursday morning.

https://www.postguam.com/news/grass-fire-closes-cross-island-road/article_7d704282-c63c-11ee-acfd-6ffdb404dd44.html Save to Pocket

Children rally for a ceasefire in Gaza

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)

Nearly 400 people gathered at Oceanview Park in Santa Monica to rally for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The event was led by Palestinian-American kids and teens in…

https://sundial.csun.edu/178243/multimedia/watch/children-rally-for-a-ceasefire-in-gaza/ Save to Pocket

@Jessica Smith’s blog (date: 2024-02-08, from: Jessica Smith’s blog)

The only thing I don’t like about the song “Julia Take Your Man Home”  is that the line I could’ve sworn is “…and some guy he keeps saying is middle class” is apparently “…and some guy he keeps saying is made of glass”. The line is a million times funnier if you assume he’s singing “middle class”. Or am I the only one who spent all of uni hanging out with people who denounced the middle class at every turn?

https://www.jayeless.net/2024/02/julia-take-your-man-home.html Save to Pocket

Vikings get nine wrestlers past league finals 

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

Valencia High School wrestling coach Brian Peterson couldn’t have asked for a better start to the postseason for his Vikings.  Saturday at Camarillo High School, four Vikings earned titles at the Coastal Canyon League finals and nine total are moving on to the next stage of the individual postseason.  “We definitely performed,” Peterson said in […]

The post <strong>Vikings get nine wrestlers past league finals</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/vikings-get-nine-wrestlers-past-league-finals/ Save to Pocket

Japan’s second-ranked mobile telco to buy convenience store chain from Mitsubishi

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

KDDI wants to snack on data about who buys what at which of Lawson’s 14,600 stores

Japan’s second-largest convenience store will be taken private by its second-largest mobile carrier, which will operate it as a joint venture with Mitsubishi and try to cash in on a combination of shopping and location data.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/kddi_lawson_acquisition_mitsubishi/ Save to Pocket

Sulphur Springs district ‘remains committed’ to Skyline Ranch school site 

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

The Sulphur Springs Union School District wants a new school built in Skyline Ranch and is completing all of the necessary paperwork to do so, but the land has yet to be transferred to the district, according to district Superintendent Catherine Kawaguchi.  The district first discussed the new school site, meant to be built along […]

The post <strong>Sulphur Springs district ‘remains committed’ to Skyline Ranch school site</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/sulphur-springs-district-remains-committed-to-skyline-ranch-school-site/ Save to Pocket

Golden Oak hosting info session on phlebotomy class 

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

Golden Oak Adult School is offering a free information session on Monday for anyone interested in learning about the new phlebotomy class being offered at the school.  The online session is scheduled to run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and the registration form can be found at tinyurl.com/2uujywtv. Attendees will learn about the program, course […]

The post <strong>Golden Oak hosting info session on phlebotomy class</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/golden-oak-hosting-info-session-on-phlebotomy-class/ Save to Pocket

Why the 49ers use this type of formation more than anyone

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Kyle Shanahan has leaned on condensed formations in 2023 more than ever

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/why-the-49ers-use-this-type-of-formation-more-than-anyone/ Save to Pocket

US High Court to Hear Arguments on Trump’s Eligibility to Regain Presidency

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

The United States Supreme Court hears oral arguments Thursday to determine whether former president and likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is ineligible for the office and must be excluded from states’ ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara brings this preview.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-high-court-to-hear-arguments-on-trump-s-eligibility-to-regain-presidency-/7479066.html Save to Pocket

Stars, Athletes Plan to Flock Las Vegas for Super Bowl Events

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

LOS ANGELES — Las Vegas will be flooded with so many pre- Super Bowl events that Shaquille O’Neal lowered the prices to his popular carnival-themed “Shaq’s Fun House.”

Instead of raising the rate, O’Neal decided to offer potential attendees more bang for their buck to the NBA legend’s sixth annual event planned for Friday in Sin City. He made the decision to lower the rates after purchasing an expensive suite at the Formula One that cost nearly five times more than normal to watch the racing event in Las Vegas last year.

“We’re not going to do that to the people,” said O’Neal, who said the going rate for Fun House starts at $99 but will increase as the event nears. He’ll bring back Lil Wayne, Diplo and himself under his name DJ Diesel to perform during his over-the-top festival — which features several attractions including a Ferris wheel, circus performers and premium bar.

“We could’ve done $200, $250 or $300,” said O’Neal whose event will take place XS Nightclub at the Wynn — a hotel that will host Rob Gronkowski ’s Gronk Beach in Encore on Saturday afternoon and Sports Illustrated’s The Party in XS Nightclub later that night. “But I don’t like taking advantage of people. We want to have the best party with the best rides, performers and just hanging out.”

Along with O’Neal’s event, the days leading up to the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will include concerts from some of the biggest stars including Travis Scott, Green Day, Killer Mike, Kelly Clarkson, Ice Spice, Future and David Guetta. The week will include some comedy too.

Here’s a look at some of the invite-only and public events during a busy Super Bowl week:

Fanatics Party

Michael Rubin is known for his exclusive summer bashes in the Hamptons — which bring out stars like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck and Kendall Jenner.

Now, Rubin, the founder and CEO of Fanatics, will host his invite-only daytime event at Marquee Dayclub at the Cosmopolitan the day before the Super Bowl. His event will feature performances by Travis Scott, The Chainsmokers, Ice Spice, A$AP Ferg, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, Fabolous, Ludacris, Ne-Yo and Kid Laroi.

Madden Bowl

After Killer Mike collected three Grammys during his arrest-shortened night, the Atlanta-based rapper is expected to be one of the performers at the EA Sports’ The Madden Bowl.

Rock group Green Day will headline the Friday night event at House of Blues. It will also feature Big Boi of OutKast and Breland.

“Las Vegas isn’t ready for the show we’re about to bring,” Big Boi said.

In addition to the music performances, the event will include the Madden NFL 24 Championship Series in front of a live audience — where two of the world’s best players will travel to Las Vegas for their share of the $1 million prize pool and title of Ultimate Madden Bowl champion.

Kevin Hart and O’Neal’s production companies will hold a star-studded, stand-up comedy showcase.

Actor Deon Cole will host the two-night show called the All Star Comedy Jam with performances by D.L. Hughley, Earthquake, Desi Banks and Aida Rodriguez. The event will be held inside the Resorts World Theatre’ 5,000-capacity venue on Friday and Saturday night.

Gospel Celebration

Cedric the Entertainer and Tichina Arnold will help bring the gospel to Sin City.

The stars of the CBS show The Neighborhood will host the Super Bowl Soulful Celebration at the Palms Casino Resort on Wednesday night. The lineup includes some of gospel’s best from Earth, Wind & Fire, Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Robin Thicke and the NFL Players Choir including Tully Banta-Cain and Bryan Scott, who played in the league.

“I want people to feel empowered walking away from this show,” Arnold said. “You should never walk way feeling drained. You should walk way feeling loved.”

CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson, a former NFL player, will receive the Lifetime of Inspiration award. He will be the sixth person to receive the honor the show’s 25-year history.

Previous recipients include Tony Dungy, Ray Lewis, Tim Brown, Troy Vincent and Deion Sanders.

Gronk Beach

Despite being retired, Rob Gronkowski keeps making his presence felt during the NFL’s championship week. 

The four-time Super Bowl winner — who views himself the “MVP of Fun” — will host a music festival called “Gronk Beach” the day before the big game. The beach-themed party will feature a performance by DJ Afrojack.

“It’s all about going there and having a good time. Just losing your mind in a great and positive way,” Gronkowski said. “You can dance free, be yourself freely and just enjoy yourself with great company around you.”

Gronkowski placed his tickets starting at $74.

Billy Idol

Instead of riding his motorcycle on Super Bowl Sunday, Billy Idol will be strolling on stage a few hours before kick off to perform during a pre-game concert.

The legendary British rocker will perform Sunday just outside Allegiant Stadium, where the NFL’s two best teams face off. He’s expected to perform a 35-minute set on two different stages at On Location’s Club 67 and Touchdown Club in front of nearly 9,000 guests.

Idol said he’s stoked about the setup being arranged by One Location — a premium hospitality provider of the NFL. The hospitality company offers various packages including Idol’s performance, attendance at NFL Honors and postgame field access.

Maluma & SiriusXM

Colombian superstar Maluma will take his vibrant Latin music vibes into Las Vegas with the help of SiriusXM.

Maluma will headline a special concert at The Theater at Virgin Hotels on Thursday night for SiriusXM subscribers and Pandora listeners. He’s expected to perform songs from his latest album Don Juan including Según Quién and COCO LOCO along with other fan favorites such as Hawái.

Future and David Guetta are expected to perform at the invite-only h.wood Homecoming Weekend pop up bash on Friday followed by another show with Jack Harlow and Kaytranada performer the next night at a custom venue on the Las Vegas Strip across from the Wynn.

On Saturday night, Zach Bryan will headline the Bud Light Backyard Tour.

Tiësto will headline a show at LIV at Fontainebleau on Saturday while 21 Savage and 50 Cent are expected to perform the same night.

Lil Wayne will hit the stage once again but this time with T-Pain as a co-headliner at the Alex Morgan and Dan Marino-hosted Michelob ULTRA Country Club at Topgolf on Saturday night. Bryan and Leon Bridges will perform at The Chelsea in The Cosmopolitan on Friday.

On Sunday, Guy Fieri will host his Guy’s Flavortown Tailgate, a free and family-friendly event that he expects will draw more than 10,000. Diplo will perform.

GQ will hold Super Bowl party Friday at the The Nomad Library and sports agent Leigh Steinberg will host an event Saturday morning at Ahern Luxury Boutique Hotel.

https://www.voanews.com/a/stars-athletes-plan-to-flock-las-vegas-for-super-bowl-events-/7479064.html Save to Pocket

$118 Billion Bipartisan Security Agreement Fails in US Senate

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

The US Senate considered a $95 billion foreign aid bill Wednesday after Senate Republicans earlier blocked a $118 billion bipartisan agreement on border security and aid to Ukraine and Israel. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports.

https://www.voanews.com/a/billion-bipartisan-security-agreement-fails-in-us-senate/7479065.html Save to Pocket

Mayor pledges to work toward public investment in clean energy, reject fossil fuels

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Hernandez-Thorpe said other mayors must join together to fight climate change at the city level.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/mayor-pledges-to-work-toward-public-investment-in-clean-energy-reject-fossil-fuels/ Save to Pocket

County Releases Findings of Community Air Quality Impacts from Chiquita Canyon Landfill Odor Incident

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

Los Angeles County today released findings from an independent health risk evaluation of the short, and potential long-term health impacts to nearby residents from exposure to landfill gases created by the odor incident at Chiquita Canyon Landfill

https://scvnews.com/county-releases-findings-of-community-air-quality-impacts-from-chiquita-canyon-landfill-odor-incident/ Save to Pocket

Chinese-Born Man Arrested in California for Theft of Trade Secrets

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — A Chinese-born U.S. researcher has been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets, including technology used to detect nuclear missile launches, the Justice Department said Wednesday. 

Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested on Tuesday, the department said in a statement.

Gong, who became a US citizen in 2011, is accused of transferring more than 3,600 files from the research and development company where he briefly worked to personal storage devices.

The company was not identified.

According to court documents, the files included blueprints for infrared sensors used in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The files also allegedly included blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Gong “had previously sought to provide the People’s Republic of China with information to aid its military.”

“We know that foreign actors, including the PRC, are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers,” Estrada said.

According to court documents, Gong worked at the unidentified company from January 2023 to April 2023 as a circuit design manager for infrared sensors.

The Justice Department said meanwhile that two Iranians have been charged in another case involving sensitive technology.

Abolfazi Bazzazi, 79, and his son Mohammad Resa Bazzazi, 43, were indicted in New York on charges of violating export laws by conspiring between 2008 and 2019 to export equipment used in the aerospace industry to Iran.

“The Bazzazis devised an intricate scheme to evade US export laws in obtaining U.S. equipment and technology to be exported to Iran and for the Government of Iran,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.

“The defendants allegedly attempted to obtain commercial and military aircraft items from multiple U.S. companies that supply the military, aerospace and firefighting industries,” Peace said.

The Bazzazis reside in Iran and remain at large.

https://www.voanews.com/a/chinese-born-man-arrested-in-california-for-theft-of-trade-secrets/7479063.html Save to Pocket

Marianne Williamson suspends presidential campaign, ending long-shot challenge to Biden

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

She won just 2% of the vote in South Carolina and about 3% in Nevada.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/marianne-williamson-suspends-presidential-campaign-ending-long-shot-challenge-to-biden/ Save to Pocket

Further Trouble in Hinton City

date: 2024-02-08, from: Gary Marcus blog

More on storage and the shallow understanding of Generative AI

https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/further-trouble-in-hinton-city Save to Pocket

Oakland police launch investigation into racist statements allegedly made by probationary officer

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Authorities said the person has been released from their duties and is no longer employed by the city.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/oakland-police-launch-investigation-into-racist-statements-allegedly-made-by-probationary-officer/ Save to Pocket

Wiggins, Thompson bounce back as Warriors drub Philadelphia 76ers

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Golden State Warriors rout Philadelphia 76ers playing without Joel Embiid

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/wiggins-thompson-bounce-back-as-warriors-drub-philadelphia-76ers/ Save to Pocket

Israel Rejects Hamas Hostage Proposal, Calling It ‘Delusional’

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

After holding talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected as “delusional” a counterproposal by Hamas to a hostage deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the U.S. State Department.

https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-rejects-hamas-hostage-proposal-calling-it-delusional-/7479022.html Save to Pocket

CFB National Signing Day: Why Bay Area’s top running back chose Utah State over SEC, Big 12, Air Force and Army

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Herschel Turner signs with Aggies over a slew of other offers: “They checked all the boxes.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/cfb-national-signing-day-why-bay-areas-top-running-back-chose-utah-state-over-sec-big-12-air-force-and-army/ Save to Pocket

Mexico Overtakes China as Leading Source of Goods Imported to US

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than two decades, Mexico last year surpassed China as the leading source of goods imported to the United States. The shift reflects the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing as well as U.S. efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home.

Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department show that the value of goods imported to the United States from Mexico rose nearly 5% from 2022 to 2023, to more than $475 billion. At the same time, the value of Chinese imports imports tumbled 20% to $427 billion.

The last time that Mexican goods imported to the United States exceeded the value of China’s imports was in 2002.

Economic relations between the United States and China have severely deteriorated in recent years as Beijing has fought aggressively on trade and made ominous military gestures in the Far East.

The Trump administration began imposing tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018, arguing that Beijing’s trade practices violated global trade rules. President Joe Biden retained those tariffs after taking office in 2021, making clear that antagonism toward China would be a rare area of common ground for Democrats and Republicans.

As an alternative to offshoring production to China, which U.S. corporations had long engaged in, the Biden administration has urged companies to seek suppliers in allied countries (“friend-shoring’‘) or to return manufacturing to the United States (“reshoring’‘). Supply-chain disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic also led U.S. companies to seek supplies closer to the United States (“near-shoring’’).

Mexico has been among the beneficiaries of the growing shift away from reliance on Chinese factories. But the picture is more complicated than it might seem. Some Chinese manufacturers have established factories in Mexico to exploit the benefits of the 3-year-old U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which allows for duty-free trade in North America for many products.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said this week that the trade status gives Mexico new leverage, saying it would make it hard for the U.S. to close the two countries’ border to limit immigration, as suggested in negotiations on a border bill in the U.S. Senate.

“The negotiation is proposing closing the border,” he said. “Do you think Americans, or Mexicans, but especially the Americans, would approve that? The businesses wouldn’t take it, maybe one day, but not a week.”

Some industries — especially auto manufacturers — have set up plants on both sides of the border that depend on each for a steady supply of parts.

Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noted that the biggest drops in Chinese imports were in computers and electronics and chemicals and pharmaceuticals — all politically sensitive categories.

“I don’t see the U.S. being comfortable with a rebound in those areas in 2024 and 2025,” Scissors said, predicting that the China-Mexico reversal on imports to the United States likely “is not a one-year blip.’’

Scissors suggested that the drop in U.S. reliance on Chinese goods partly reflects wariness of Beijing’s economic policies under President Xi Jinping. Xi’s draconian COVID-19 lockdowns brought significant swaths of the Chinese economy to a standstill in 2022, and his officials have raided foreign companies in apparent counterespionage investigations.

“I think it’s corporate America belatedly deciding Xi Jinping is unreliable,” he said.

Overall, the U.S. deficit in the trade of goods with the rest of the world — the gap between the value of what the United States sells and what it buys abroad — narrowed 10% last year to $1.06 trillion.

https://www.voanews.com/a/mexico-overtakes-china-as-leading-source-of-goods-imported-to-us-/7479038.html Save to Pocket

What is B-right/V release 4.5?

date: 2024-02-08, from: OS News

What if I told you there is an immensely popular operating system that you likely used it at least once, but did not realise what it was? In fact, it is so popular and important there is an IEEE standard based on it. It is uncanny how immensely popular AND immensely obscure this system is. It is scary that until today I have never even heard of its reference desktop implementation. The system is called “TRON”. ↫ Nina Kalinina This Mastodon thread is OSNews bait. Delicious.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138543/what-is-b-right-v-release-4-5/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Freshly Baked NYC Debuts Legal Weed Delivery in Long Island City, Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/freshly-baked-nyc-debuts-legal-161800799.html Save to Pocket

OpenAI latest to add ‘Made by AI’ metadata to model work

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Content Credentials: It’s better than nothing™

Images emitted by OpenAI’s generative models will include metadata disclosing their origin, which in turn can be used by applications to alert people to the machine-made nature of that content.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/openai_is_adding_a_watermark/ Save to Pocket

Beyond the 1 MB barrier in DOS

date: 2024-02-08, from: OS News

Last month, we covered Julio Merino’s article about going from 0 to 1 MB in DOS, and now they’re back for breaking beyond that 1 MB barrier. I know I promised that this follow-up article would be about DJGPP, but before getting into that review, I realized I had to take another detour to cover three more topics. Namely: unreal mode, which I intentionally ignored to not derail the post; LOADALL, which I didn’t know about until you readers mentioned it; and DOS extenders, which I was planning to describe in the DJGPP article but they are a better fit for this one. So… strap your seat belts on and dive right in for another tour through the ancient techniques that DOS had to pull off to peek into the memory address space above the first MB. And get your hands ready because we’ll go over assembly code for a step-by-step jump into unreal mode. ↫ Julio Merino What’s amazing is that I don’t even remember having to deal with any of this while using MS-DOS back in the day. Games tended to use DOS extenders automatically (DOS/4G!), but I don’t remember if I ever had to set up any of the DOS above-640k stuff manually.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138541/beyond-the-1-mb-barrier-in-dos/ Save to Pocket

Special Counsel Completes Biden Classified Documents Investigation

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

washington — The Justice Department special counsel investigating President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents has completed his inquiry and is expected to make a report soon to Congress and the public, Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers in a letter Wednesday. 

Garland did not detail the conclusions of the report from special counsel Robert Hur, but said he was committed to disclosing as much of the document as possible once the White House completes a review for potential executive privilege concerns. That process is expected to be completed by the end of the week, said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office. 

The yearlong investigation centered on the improper retention of classified documents by Biden from his time as a U.S. senator and as vice president. Sensitive records were found at his Delaware home and at a private office that he used in between his service in the Obama administration and becoming president. 

The resolution of the investigation arrives in a pivotal year for the president as he pursues reelection in a deeply polarized political time. Though the probe’s outcome is expected to lift a legal cloud over Biden, criticism of his handling of classified records could blunt his ability to attack Donald Trump - his presumptive opponent in November - over a pending indictment charging the former president with hoarding top-secret files at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing FBI efforts to get them back. 

Challenge likely

Trump and other Republicans are likely to challenge the legitimacy of the investigation by noting that it was launched by the Biden Justice Department. 

But Garland sought to insulate the department from claims of bias and conflicts of interest by last year appointing Hur, a former U.S. attorney for Maryland during the Trump administration, to handle the Biden investigation and by naming a different special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee investigations into Trump. 

While the Trump investigation resulted in dozens of felony charges against the ex-president last year, the outcome of the Biden probe is expected to be different. Justice Department policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president and, unlike in the Trump investigation, no evidence has emerged to suggest that Biden engaged in comparable conduct or willfully held on to records he wasn’t supposed to have. 

Even so, the White House’s response to the discovery of classified documents early last year was delayed and incomplete. 

The White House did not disclose the Justice Department’s investigation until January 2023, when it acknowledged the discovery two months earlier of a “small number” of classified documents by Biden lawyers as they closed an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank affiliated with the Ivy League school. Biden has said he was surprised by the initial trove discovered by his lawyers. 

The FBI subsequently conducted a 13-hour, top-to-bottom check of his Wilmington, Delaware, home, where agents located documents with classified markings from his time as a vice president and senator and took possession of some of his handwritten notes. Biden’s personal lawyers have also revealed that they had found a document bearing classified markings while searching the Wilmington property but said they had not found others during a separate inspection of his Rehoboth Beach home. 

The looming conclusion of the investigation had been foreshadowed last fall when Biden sat for a voluntary interview at the White House with Hur’s team. Interviews of key subjects in an investigation are often done near the end. 

Justice Department regulations require Congress to be notified of any investigative steps or proposed actions by a special counsel that were rejected by department leadership. There were no such actions, Garland wrote.

https://www.voanews.com/a/special-counsel-completes-biden-classified-documents-investigation/7479021.html Save to Pocket

Bishop Diego Football Stars Sign Letters of Intent to Play at Cal Poly

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

Seniors Misa Paiau and Tristan Fui accept full scholarships in a Signing Day ceremony on Wednesday.

The post Bishop Diego Football Stars Sign Letters of Intent to Play at Cal Poly appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/07/bishop-diego-football-stars-sign-letters-of-intent-to-play-at-cal-poly/ Save to Pocket

Assault in Antioch parking lot ends in gunfire, car crash

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

At least one person was injured in the collision Tuesday at East 18th Street and Hillcrest Avenue.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/assault-in-antioch-parking-lot-ends-in-gunfire-car-crash/ Save to Pocket

AG: Investigation into Biden document handling is done

date: 2024-02-08, from: San Jose Mercury News

Justice Department regulations require Congress to be notified of any investigative steps or proposed actions by a special counsel that were rejected by department leadership. There were no such actions, Garland wrote.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/07/ag-investigation-into-biden-document-handling-is-done/ Save to Pocket

The Greenfield in-browser Wayland compositor is fast enough for gaming

date: 2024-02-08, from: OS News

While there are a lot of Wayland compositors out there that aren’t too different from each other in terms of features, one of the more unique ones is Greenfield. The Greenfield Wayland compositor has been out there for a few years now as an in-browser HTML5-based solution that is continuing to prove itself capable and even fast enough for handling Linux gaming. ↫ Michael Larabel A rather genius idea for a Wayland compositor.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138539/the-greenfield-in-browser-wayland-compositor-is-fast-enough-for-gaming/ Save to Pocket

Microsoft uses giant four-page popup to push Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11

date: 2024-02-08, from: OS News

Windows 10 users started seeing full-screen pop-ups after installing a cumulative update release in May 2023. Now, the pop-up is back again on our Windows 10 PC after installing the optional update released in January 2024, and it gouges the eyes. No one expects a gigantic multi-slide advert using their PCs (web browsers are a different story). ↫ Abhishek Mishra Windows is an advertising platform first, operating system second. You should be expecting ads.

https://www.osnews.com/story/138537/microsoft-uses-giant-four-page-popup-to-push-windows-10-users-to-upgrade-to-windows-11/ Save to Pocket

My “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” Dream

date: 2024-02-08, from: Jessica Smith’s blog

A few months ago I had this funny dream, which has come back into my mind a few times since and I figure I might as well share. Basically I was back at high school, but Penny Wong was our dictatorial principal, and I was in her office getting castigated for something stupid (probably shooting my mouth off in class; that would’ve been very in-character for me at that time). Anyway, she assigned me to some cleaning detail in punishment for what I’d done, which is where I think you can see the influence of my novel coming in because that’s a pretty standard punishment in the world of that story.¹

So, there I was, miserably scrubbing windows and removing cobwebs and whatnot, when I looked into one of the buildings and saw another detention going on, an in-classroom detention, and who should I see in detention but VIVIAN, my now-partner, mucking around with some mates. But it wasn’t Vivian as I know him now, it was Vivian as I’ve seen him in photos of his high school days, packing a bit too much weight and sporting a crazy afro. So I decided to sneak away from my detention, and went up to him in class, where he turned to me with a blank, confused look in his eyes.

“You don’t know me in this universe, do you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Uh, I mean, that’s correct, I don’t know you.” (This is exactly how he answers negative tag questions in real life; it’s so annoying.)

“Well,” I said, “in another universe, you know me very well.”

And I walked away again, leaving it at that. As I did, he kind of went back to mucking around with his mates, but it was with half an eye on me as I went, wondering what could’ve been.

https://www.jayeless.net/2024/02/my-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-dream.html Save to Pocket

Budget uncertainty prompts layoffs at JPL 

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

The director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena this week shared bad news with her team regarding layoffs being forced upon the rocket science facility and its contractors.  The news is expected to have at least some impact in the Santa Clarita Valley, where past reports have indicated that hundreds of JPL employees live […]

The post <strong>Budget uncertainty prompts layoffs at JPL</strong>  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/budget-uncertainty-prompts-layoffs-at-jpl/ Save to Pocket

Cool tools to boost your browser

date: 2024-02-08, from: Om Malik blog

I gave up on Google’s Chrome a long time ago and switched to Brave before it started getting flak for doing questionable things. Then Josh Miller, the co-founder of The Browser Company (whom I met during his Branch.com days), offered me a chance to try out Arc, their new, clean, and refreshing take on a …

https://om.co/2024/02/07/tools-to-boost-your-browser/ Save to Pocket

US High Court Hears Arguments on Trump’s Eligibility to Regain Presidency

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

washington — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday about whether likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is ineligible for the office and must be excluded from states’ ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On that day, a mob of the former president’s supporters who believed his rhetoric that the November 2020 election was stolen stormed the Capitol to try to prevent lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.

Earlier this week, a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s claim that he has “absolute immunity” from prosecution on criminal charges in a separate election interference case, United States of America v. Trump.

That case was brought by special counsel Jack Smith in U.S. District Court in Washington, resulting in four indictments in connection with Trump’s widespread efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is likely to also appeal this case to the Supreme Court. He maintains the various criminal and civil lawsuits brought against him are part of Biden’s “witch hunt” to eliminate a political opponent — a claim the White House and Democrats deny.

Trump v. Anderson

Trump v. Anderson, to be brought before the Supreme Court on Thursday, addresses whether Trump must be barred from participating in the Colorado primary election under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The case began as Anderson v. Griswold, filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on behalf of Norma Anderson, a former Republican lawmaker in Colorado, with five other Republican and independent voters, against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

Both cases look at whether Trump is an insurrectionist who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power and whether under Section 3 he should be barred from holding office again.

Section 3 was written in 1866 after the end of the Civil War to keep former Confederates — officials from the 11 Southern states that seceded from the United States to protect the institution of slavery — from returning to power.

It provides: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

Trump’s lawyers argue that Section 3 does not apply to presidents, that January 6 was not an insurrection, and that Trump was only exercising his free-speech rights.

In November, a Colorado judge ruled that Trump engaged in insurrection. But she ruled against blocking him from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, finding that Section 3 did not apply to the president. That part of her ruling was appealed and later reversed by the Colorado Supreme Court.

Amicus briefs

Various scholars, election officials, lawmakers and other political figures have filed amicus — “friend of the court” — briefs to share their views in support of or against Trump.

One of them is Mark Graber, Regents professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a leading expert in constitutional law on insurrections and the 14th Amendment. His brief argues that the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling is consistent with how the legal community understood insurrection at the time Section 3 was framed, and that it correctly ruled an insurrection occurred.

“Donald Trump incited that insurrection,” Graber told VOA.

“He was told his tweets were inspiring violence against election workers. He responded by intensifying his tweets. He was told there were people in the crowd with weapons who intended to invade Congress. He responded by saying, ‘When there’s fraud, you don’t use the usual means. You fight — you fight like hell,’” he said. “A reasonable person could say given Trump’s behavior, he intended to inspire an insurrection and participate.”

In response to another central question in this case — whether the 14th Amendment applies to the president — Graber said the answer was “obvious.”

“Every member of Congress who used the phrase ‘officer of the United States’ in the 39th Congress said that the president was included,” he underscored.

Others argue that enforcement of the 14th Amendment is for Congress to determine, including Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who filed a brief with 26 other Republican attorneys general.

“Section 3 is not self-executing textually,” he said during a Wednesday event hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He argued that under Section 5 that provides, “Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article,” lawmakers should determine how the 14th Amendment is to be enforced.

Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter professor of law at Harvard Law School who defended Trump during his Senate impeachment trial, supports this argument.

“In the absence of congressional action, I don’t believe the 14th Amendment is self-enforcing,” he told VOA. “Otherwise, why would you need Article 5 of the 14th Amendment that explicitly gives Congress the power to make these decisions?”

A group of 25 leading historians, including Allan J. Lichtman, distinguished professor of history at American University, argued in their brief that Section 3 covers Trump and does not “require another act of Congress or a conviction” of insurrection.

Lichtman told VOA it’s clear that Section 3 is designed to guard against “not just ex-Confederates but future insurrectionists.”

“They wanted an amendment that would last in perpetuity and couldn’t be tampered with by future congresses because it’s part of the Constitution,” Lichtman said.

Legal questions aside, the American people should have the right to choose their president, not judges, said Rokita. “Voters will lose all confidence if judges decide that voters cannot even consider one of our nation’s two leading presidential candidates,” he warned.

Far-reaching impact

Although the Supreme Court will only decide on the Colorado case, the impact would be far-reaching, including for the state of Maine, whose secretary of state ruled in December that Trump should be taken off the state’s primary ballot, and pending cases in 11 other states that challenge his electoral eligibility, as well as others in the future.

The Supreme Court could uphold the Colorado ruling, which would be a devastating blow to Trump’s reelection bid. Or it could rule that Trump cannot be disqualified under Section 3 and put him back on the ballot.

The justices could also decline to make a final decision and leave it to lawmakers - for example, let Congress decide whether to certify Trump’s victory should he win in November.

Six of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents, including three by Trump. But since the question has almost no legal precedent, it’s difficult to predict the justices’ individual rulings based on their ideology.

It will be difficult for the justices to “contradict the historical evidence,” said Lichtman. However, given the political magnitude, the Supreme Court is likely to “take a technical off-ramp” and “punt on this issue.”

Dershowitz agreed, predicting the justices would either “say the 14th Amendment just doesn’t apply absent congressional action, or they will figure out some way of putting off the ultimate issue.”

He underscored the importance of a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.

“A split decision would keep the country very divided,” he said. “That means we’re likely to see a narrow decision that doesn’t decide broad issues.”

It is unclear how long the Supreme Court will take to rule. In the coming months, the high court also will likely deliberate on Trump’s appeal of the election interference case prosecuted by Smith, which was rejected Tuesday by a federal appeals court.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-high-court-to-hear-arguments-on-trump-eligibility-to-regain-presidency/7478991.html Save to Pocket

Huntington Beach Librarians Begin Reviewing Kids’ Books For ‘Sexual Content’

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The LAist

Librarians moved books out of the children’s section Wednesday to comply with a city council resolution to restrict access to books deemed to have sexual content. Some of the books are about subjects such as puberty.

https://laist.com/news/politics/huntington-beach-library-sexual-content-review Save to Pocket

Cisco, Nvidia expand collab to push Ethernet into AI clusters

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

InfiniBand dominates in GPU-boosted servers while Big E gains steam

At Cisco Live in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the enterprise networking goliath announced a series of hardware and software platforms in collaboration with Nvidia tailored to everyone’s favorite buzzword these days: AL/ML.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/cisco_nvidia_expand_collab/ Save to Pocket

County Launches Homeless Services Division To Reduce Veteran Homelessness

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

The Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs  will officially launch its Homeless Services Division

https://scvnews.com/county-launches-homeless-services-division-to-reduce-veteran-homelessness/ Save to Pocket

Feb. 11: Anti-Racism Coalition Hosts Sunday Forum with Santa Clarita NAACP

date: 2024-02-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)

As part of its celebration of Black History Month, the Anti-Racism Coalition of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church will welcome members of Santa Clarita’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to their 10:30 a.m. worship service on Sunday, Feb. 

https://scvnews.com/feb-11-anti-racism-coalition-hosts-sunday-forum-with-santa-clarita-naacp/ Save to Pocket

Tesla improves Cybertruck handling, charging, and more in new update

date: 2024-02-08, from: Electrek Feed

Tesla has released the first major software update for the Cybertruck, and it improves the electric pickup’s handling, charging, and more.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/07/tesla-improves-cybertruck-handling-charging-new-update/ Save to Pocket

Journalists Criticize Tucker Carlson Over Putin Interview

date: 2024-02-08, from: VOA News USA

Washington — Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlon’s announcement on Tuesday that he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin has been met with disapproval from an array of journalists, some of whom say the Kremlin may use the interview for propaganda purposes.

In a video posted on the social media platform X, Carlson said he wanted to interview the longtime Russian leader because “Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in.”

In mid-March, Russia is set to hold presidential elections, which Putin is all but guaranteed to win. Putin likely agreed to the interview with Carlson because he thinks it will help his campaign, according to Mikhail Rubin, deputy editor-in-chief of the Russian investigative outlet Proekt Media.

Carlson “needs to understand that he’s a part of the presidential election campaign, and he’s going to help [Putin], unfortunately,” Rubin told VOA.

Rubin added that Carlson’s interview is likely to be used to paint Moscow in a positive light.

“The most important is to show that Putin is open and that American journalists can work inside Russia because Russia is an open and free country,” Rubin said.

But that narrative is plainly false, said Rubin, who fled the country in 2021 for safety reasons.

“If I go to Russia, as far as I understand, I will be arrested the next day,” said Rubin, who is now based in Washington. “I’m not sure that I will ever see my father again.”

Other Russian journalists shared similar critiques on social media.

“I am like hundreds of Russian journalists who have had to go into exile to keep reporting about the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. The alternative was to go to jail,” said Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats on X. Meanwhile, Carlson was “shooting from the $1,000 Ritz suite in Moscow,” she said.

Carlson also drew criticism for appearing to ignore the poor state of press freedom in Russia, which has led to the arrests of scores of reporters inside the country and forced many others into exile.

“Quite something to complain about how not enough American journalists are reporting on the Russian side of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine when two of them — Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva — are in jail right now for doing just that,” Max Seddon, Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times, said in a post on X.  

The Wall Street Journal’s Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny.

Kurmasheva, an editor at VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was jailed in October 2023 and is facing charges for failing to register as a “foreign agent” and spreading false information about the Russian military. She and her employer reject the charges.

Besides Kurmasheva and Gershkovich, at least 20 other journalists were jailed in Russia as of the end of 2023, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the interview was recorded on Tuesday.

The interview will likely be published Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. Carlson said it will be uploaded live and unedited to X, where he launched a show after he was abruptly fired from the conservative channel Fox News last year.

The right-wing television personality hosted a prime-time show on Fox News from 2016 until his firing in 2023. Carlson’s departure came shortly after Fox News agreed to pay over $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit over false election claims, many of which Carlson himself propagated.

The Tucker Carlson Network did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

After accusing U.S. media of “fawning pep session” interviews with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Carlson went on to claim that “not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country in this conflict, Vladimir Putin.”

Journalists took to social media to criticize that claim, as well.

“Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine?” CNN’s Christiane Amanpour said in a post on X. “It’s absurd — we’ll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now.”

Even the Kremlin fact-checked that claim from Carlson.

“No, Mr. Carlson is wrong. In fact, he cannot know this,” Peskov, the spokesperson, said, adding that the Kremlin receives many requests for interviews with Putin.

https://www.voanews.com/a/journalists-criticize-tucker-carlson-over-putin-interview/7478972.html Save to Pocket

Honda Stylo 160 Is Team Red’s New Modern Classic Scooter

date: 2024-02-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

You want that 160cc engine with a classic look? Say no more.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/707835/honda-stylo-160-scooter-introduced/ Save to Pocket

Representing the 3rd

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

We are so fortunate to have Joan Hartmann as our representative; she has consistently proven herself to be honest, creative, hard-working, and responsive to all of the 3rd District.

The post Representing the 3rd appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/07/representing-the-3rd/ Save to Pocket

Canyon girls soccer wins in PKs, advances out of wildcard

date: 2024-02-08, from: The Signal

The Canyon Cowboys girls’ soccer season came down to the wire in the wildcard round of the CIF Division 3 playoffs on Tuesday.   The Cowboys went through two scoreless halves and a pair of overtime periods before heading to penalty kicks with the hosting Valley View Eagles. Canyon coach Leonardo Neveleff knew his team could […]

The post Canyon girls soccer wins in PKs, advances out of wildcard  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/canyon-girls-soccer-wins-in-pks-advances-out-of-wildcard/ Save to Pocket

IT suppliers hacked off with Uncle Sam’s demands in aftermath of cyberattacks

date: 2024-02-08, updated: 2024-02-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Plan says to hand over keys to networks – and report intrusions within eight hours of discovery

Organizations that sell IT services to Uncle Sam are peeved at proposed changes to procurement rules that would require them to allow US government agencies full access to their systems in the event of a security incident.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/08/us_tech_industry_changes/ Save to Pocket

John Densmore Opens the Door on the Real Story at Santa Barbara Museum of Art

date: 2024-02-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News

The Doors drummer riffs on his new book, ‘The Doors Unhinged.’

The post John Densmore Opens the Door on the Real Story at Santa Barbara Museum of Art appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

https://www.independent.com/2024/02/07/john-densmore-opens-the-door-on-the-real-story-at-santa-barbara-museum-of-art/ Save to Pocket

Replication Data for White Paper on Acceptance of Swiss Urban Densification

date: 2024-02-08, from: ETH Zurich, recently added

Wicki, Michael; Wehr, Malte; Kaufmann, David

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/658389 Save to Pocket

PostgreSQL 16.2, 15.6, 14.11, 13.14, and 12.18 Released!

date: 2024-02-08, from: PostgreSQL News

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group has released an update to all supported versions of PostgreSQL, including 16.2, 15.6, 14.11, 13.14, and 12.18. This release fixes one security vulnerability and over 65 bugs reported over the last several months.

If you use GIN indexes, you may need to reindex after updating to this release. Please see the release notes for more information.

For the full list of changes, please review the release notes.

Security Issues

CVE-2024-0985: PostgreSQL non-owner REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW CONCURRENTLY executes arbitrary SQL

CVSS v3 Base Score: 8.0

Supported, Vulnerable Versions: 12 - 15.

One step of a concurrent refresh command was run under weak security restrictions. If a materialized view’s owner could persuade a superuser or other high-privileged user to perform a concurrent refresh on that view, the view’s owner could control code executed with the privileges of the user running REFRESH. The fix for the vulnerability makes is so that all user-determined code is run as the view’s owner, as expected.

The PostgreSQL project thanks Pedro Gallegos for reporting this problem.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

This update fixes over 65 bugs that were reported in the last several months. The issues listed below affect PostgreSQL 16. Some of these issues may also affect other supported versions of PostgreSQL.

• Fix memory leak when performing JIT inlining that could lead to out-of-memory conditions.
• Several query planner fixes.
• Align MERGE behavior with UPDATE when updating a partition key column and skip firing AFTER UPDATE ROW trigger and other post-update actions.
• Fix problems with duplicate token names in ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION … MAPPING commands.
• Fix DROP ROLE with duplicate role names.
• Properly lock the associated table during DROP STATISTICS to prevent errors if ANALYZE is running concurrently.
• Fix function volatility checking for GENERATED and DEFAULT expressions.
• Ensure collation matches when matching an existing index to a new partitioned index.
• Avoid failure if a child index is dropped concurrently with REINDEX INDEX on a partitioned index.
• Fix for locking during cleanup of GIN indexes. For this case, if multiple processes tried to clean the same GIN index page, there was a chance of index corruption. If you believe you were affected by this issue, reindex your GIN indexes after installing this update.
• Avoid failure with partitioned SP-GiST indexes.
• Several ownership fixes for large objects.
• In EXPLAIN (BUFFERS), change name of I/O timing data “shared/local” to “shared”.
• Ensure durability of the CREATE DATABASE command if a system crash occurred during or shortly after execution.
• Add more logging messages when starting and ending recovery from a backup.
• Revert a change that made the walreceiver process unresponsive to SIGTERM while waiting for a replication connection to be established.
• Several fixes for logical replication.
• Fix incompatibility with OpenSSL 3.2.
• Fix PL/pgSQL to allow CREATE FUNCTION/CREATE PROCEDURE SQL commands that use SQL-standard function bodies.
• Fix for error handling in libpq pipeline mode.
• Ensure initdb always uncomments postgresql.conf entries for the lc_ family of parameters.
• In pg_dump, don’t dump RLS policies or security labels for extension member objects.

This release also updates time zone data files to tzdata release 2024a for DST law changes in Greenland, Kazakhstan, and Palestine, plus corrections for the Antarctic stations Casey and Vostok. Also historical corrections for Vietnam, Toronto, and Miquelon.

Updating

All PostgreSQL update releases are cumulative. As with other minor releases, users are not required to dump and reload their database or use pg_upgrade in order to apply this update release; you may simply shutdown PostgreSQL and update its binaries.

If you use GIN indexes, you may need to reindex after updating to this release. Please see the release notes for more information.

Users who have skipped one or more update releases may need to run additional post-update steps; please see the release notes from earlier versions for details.

For more details, please see the release notes.

Links

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• PostgreSQL 16 Release Announcement
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If you have corrections or suggestions for this release announcement, please send them to the pgsql-www@lists.postgresql.org public mailing list.

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