News gathered 2024-02-13

(date: 2024-02-13 08:45:35)

date: 2024-02-16, from: ETH Zurich, recently added

Popovova, Jeanette; Mazloum, Reza; Macauda, Gianluca; Stämpfli, Philipp; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Frühholz, Sascha; Scharnowski, Frank; Menon, Vinod; Michels, Lars

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/657634 Save to Pocket

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

Wallbox launches new Supernova 180 DC fast charger designed specifically for North America

date: 2024-02-13, from: Electrek Feed

Following successful DC fast charger launches in Europe, Wallbox has begun production on its third-generation EV charger, the Supernova 180. This UL-certified DC fast charger was explicitly designed for the North American market and can add 100 miles of EV range in ten minutes.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/13/wallbox-launches-new-supernova-180-dc-fast-charger-designed-specifically-for-north-america/ Save to Pocket

Two superstar Bay Area acts combine forces for major concert tour

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Santana and the Counting Crows to play Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View as part of the Oneness concert tour.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/two-superstar-bay-area-acts-combine-forces-for-major-concert-tour/ Save to Pocket

Flipper Zero takes to the big screen

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

RP2040-based Video Game Module brings game controller functionality and video output

A Video Game Module (VGM) containing a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller is out today for the Flipper Zero pentester multi-tool.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/flipper_zero_vgm/ Save to Pocket

SOPHGO SG2000 and SG2002 chips combine RISC-V, ARM, MCU, and NPU cores for small, cheap AI boards

date: 2024-02-13, from: Liliputing

SOPHON’s SOPHGO SG2000 and SG2002 chips are cheap, low-power solutions that leverage a bunch of different processor cores to provide a platform for running AI tasks and other applications. The chip supports a mix of RISC-V and ARM application processors as well as a microcontroller for managing input from cameras and other devices and an […]

The post SOPHGO SG2000 and SG2002 chips combine RISC-V, ARM, MCU, and NPU cores for small, cheap AI boards appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/sophgo-sg2000-and-sg2002-chips-combine-risc-v-arm-mcu-and-npu-cores-for-small-cheap-ai-boards/ Save to Pocket

Germany goes on defense

date: 2024-02-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Earlier this morning, the Senate approved a $95 billion aid package for Israel and Ukraine. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Europe’s defense industries must switch toward arms productions. Manufacturers are struggling to meet demand for ammunition, as the war in Ukraine continues and fears of what another Donald Trump presidency could mean for U.S.-Europe security ties are renewed. Also: inflation lingers, and Airbnb adds yet another fee.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/germany-goes-on-defense Save to Pocket

What to know about Alaskapox after officials report first known fatal case

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Experts say that the illness is often mild and that infections remain rare in humans, as the virus is primarily found in small mammal populations throughout Alaska.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/what-to-know-about-alaskapox-after-officials-report-first-known-fatal-case/ Save to Pocket

Quakes sign breakout Norwegian player to replace homegrown winger Cowell

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Pellegrino is the Norwegian league’s reigning player of the year.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/quakes-sign-breakout-norwegian-player-to-replace-homegrown-winger-cowell/ Save to Pocket

Public EV Chargers In U.S. Are Getting More Reliable But There Aren’t Enough Of Them

date: 2024-02-13, from: Inside EVs News

Level 2 chargers seem to have been left behind as the industry races to install more DC fast chargers.

https://insideevs.com/news/708414/public-ev-charger-reliability-availability-jd-power-q4-2023/ Save to Pocket

Clouds Over The Mines

date: 2024-02-13, from: David Rosenthal’s blog

In early December 2022 when I wrote skeptically about the economics of Bitcoin mining in Foolish Lenders the Bitcoin “price” was around $17K. It has now climbed 153% to around $43K and, below the fold I am still posting skeptically about the economics of mining.

Source

The first clue that the future for miners is clouded comes in Bitcoin Outlook Clouded by Falling Miner Reserves Ahead of April’s Halving by Sidhartha Shukla and David Pan:

Bitcoin miners are getting a jump on an anticipated decline in revenue from the so-called halving in April, when the blockchain’s network protocol will reduce rewards for verifying transactions by half.

Miner reserves — unsold Bitcoin held in digital wallets associated with the companies — have dropped by 8,400 tokens since the start of 2024 to 1.8 million, a level last seen in June 2021, according to data compiled by CryptoQuant. Analysts said the decrease indicates miners are selling tokens.

The somewhat misleading graph of the miners HODL-ings actually shows only a 2% drop in the number of BTC from the peak in August 2022. But the “value” of those HODL-ings has risen 75% from $44.8B to $78.5B. One way of looking at it is that the mining industry started August 2022 with 1.865M BTC and, in the 18 months since mined 821,250 BTC for a total of 2,686,250 but they now have only 1.825M BTC so they must have sold 861,250, or about 5% more than they mined. Nevertheless:

“Miners have begun to sell more of their coins to bolster balance sheets and fund growth capex ahead of tougher times for margins when block rewards are halved in April,” said Matthew Sigel, head of digital-asset research at VanEck. “After the halving, scale will matter even more.”

Before the great EFT pump, it was generally believed that the frantic efforts to pump BTC over $30K suggested that the mining industry’s break-even point was around $30K. On 6^th October BTC was $26K and the hash rate was around 412M TH/s. Lets assume that the industry was breaking even at BTC=$30K and a hash rate of 412MTH/s, so the industry’s costs were covered by 45K BTC/month or $1.35B/month. Assuming the increase in efficiency is roughly cancelled by less efficient operators entering, the hash rate is now 527 TH/s and so costs are around $1.73B. But income is around $1.94B/month so margins are around 12%.

After the halvening, income is 22.5K BTC/month. At BTC=$43K, this is $968K/month or 56% of current costs. To maintain a 12% margin, costs need to be cut to $852K/month, or 49% of current costs. Alternatively, if costs stay the same, the Bitcoin “price” needs to increase to $86 in April.

The industry isn’t going to halve its costs in the next three months, and even massive printing of unbacked Tether isn’t going to double the BTC “price”, so “tougher times for margins” are certainly among the clouds overhead.

Source

I am not the only skeptic. Short-seller J Capital Research investigated Hut 8, a large public miner, and on January 18^th published The Coming HUT Pump and Dump. As the chart shows, it was effective. The report featured a list of 22 different red flags, focused mainly on the recent merger between Hut 8 (HUT) and U.S. Bitcoin Corp. (USBTC) and asking:

Why then did HUT pay $745 mln to acquire this company and its planned payments?

This is a good question, given that:

One person highly familiar with USBTC told us, “without the merger, [USBTC] would have done a structured bankruptcy.”

It wasn’t as if Hut 8 didn’t have problems of its own:

Hut 8’s North Bay mining facility has been non-operational for an extended period of time, and problems at its Drumheller facility “have been causing miners to fail.”

And the result of the merger is a company that:

has an industry-low efficiency rate and, post halving, will produce Bitcoin at a loss of close to $20,000 per Bitcoin at current spot prices.

In other words, the merged company can barely make money now and cannot survive when the industry’s income is halved in less than 3 months. This all looks like rats leaving the sinking ship with whatever they can carry. An impression reinforced by David Pan in Bitcoin Miner Hut 8 CEO Exits Three Weeks After Short-Seller Allegations :

Hut 8 Corp., one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies, named Asher Genoot to succeed Jaime Leverton as chief executive officer, three weeks after a short-seller released a report critical of its recent merger.

The transition is effective immediately. Genoot served as the chief operating officer and the president of US Bitcoin Corp. Miami-based US Bitcoin, which has large-scale mining facilities across the US including Texas, completed its merger with then-Canadian miner Hut 8 in late 2023.

The leadership transition comes amid increasing competition among the miners, a Bitcoin code update set to drastically reduce mining revenue in two months as well as the Jan. 18 report from short-seller J Capital Research alleging the merged company was a “pump and dump” waiting to happen. Hut 8 has disputed the claim.

Genoot has allegedly:

abandoned several failed start-ups.

His co-founder was USBTC’s CEO and is now HUT’s CSO/director and:

is a 30-year-old used-car salesman from Vancouver whose history is littered with involvement in SEC-defined pump-and-dumps, sporting share-price declines of 83%,

The key inputs for profitable mining are low-cost power and state-of-the-art chips to use it as effficently as possible. Clouds are gathering over both of them.

As regards access to cheap electricity, utilities are increasingly reluctant to provide it. Take, for example, Crypto mining company loses bid to force BC Hydro to provide power by Darryl Greer of The Canadian Press:

A cryptocurrency firm has lost a bid to force BC Hydro to provide the vast amounts of power needed for its operations, upholding the provincial government’s right to pause power connections for new crypto miners.

Conifex Timber Inc., a forestry firm that branched out into cryptocurrency mining, had gone to the B.C. Supreme Court to have the policy declared invalid.

But Justice Michael Tammen ruled Friday that the government’s move in December 2022 to pause new connections for cryptocurrency mining for 18 months was “reasonable” and not “unduly discriminatory.”

BC Hydro CEO Christopher O’Riley had told the court in an affidavit that the data centres proposed by Conifex would have consumed 2.5 million megawatt-hours of electricity each year.

In the US, David Pan’s US Bitcoin Miners Use as Much Electricity as Everyone in Utah shows that regulators are starting to worry:

Bitcoin miners in the US are consuming the same amount of electricity as the entire state of Utah, among others, according to a new analysis by the US Energy Information Administration. And that’s considered the low end of the range of use.

Electricity usage from mining operations represents 0.6% to 2.3% of all the country’s demand in 2023, according to the report released Thursday. It is the first time EIA has shared an estimate. The mining activity has generated mounting concerns from policymakers and electric grid planners about straining the grid during periods of peak demand, energy costs and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.

“This estimate of U.S. electricity demand supporting cryptocurrency mining would equal annual demand ranging from more than three million to more than six million homes,” the report said.

Globally, this increase in demand is part of a bigger picture that is concerning, as Eamon Farhat reports in Electricity Demand at Data Centers Seen Doubling in Three Years:

Global electricity demand from data centers, cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence could more than double over the next three years, adding the equivalent of Germany’s entire power needs, the International Energy Agency forecasts in its latest report.

There are more than 8,000 data centers globally, with about 33% in the US, 16% in Europe and close to 10% in China, with more planned. In Ireland, where data centers are developing rapidly, the IEA expects the sector to consume 32% of the country’s total electricity by 2026 compared to 17% in 2022. Ireland currently has 82 centers; 14 are under construction and 40 more are approved.

Overall global electricity demand is expected to see a 3.4% increase until 2026, the report found. The increase, however, will be more than covered by renewables, such as wind, solar and hydro, and all-time high nuclear power.

The first step towards stricter regulation is information collection which, as Kristoffer Tigue reports in Large cryptocurrency miners in US now have to report energy use to government has started:

The Biden administration is now requiring some cryptocurrency producers to report their energy use following rising concerns that the growing industry could pose a threat to the nation’s electricity grids and exacerbate climate change.

The Energy Information Administration announced last week that it would start collecting energy use data from more than 130 “identified commercial cryptocurrency miners” operating in the US. The survey, which started this week, aims to get a sense of how the industry’s energy demand is evolving and where in the country cryptocurrency operations are growing fastest.

“As cryptocurrency mining has increased in the United States, concerns have grown about the energy-intensive nature of the business and its effects on the US electric power industry,” the EIA said in a new report, following the announcement. “Concerns expressed to EIA include strains to the electricity grid during periods of peak demand, the potential for higher electricity prices, as well as effects on energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.”

Source

Bitcoin is not nearly as decentralized as advocates claim. It appears a third of the industry is in Texas and thus subject to both US regulators and concerns about Chinese ownership. Turner Wright reports that Bitcoin hash rate drops by 34% amid freezing temperatures in Texas:

A sudden freeze in Texas may have contributed to a 34% drop in the Bitcoin hash rate, as some miners were forced to curtail operations amid demand on the state’s energy grid.

Beginning on Jan. 14, temperatures in many parts of Texas dropped below freezing for one of the first times since a massive ice storm in February 2023. According to data from YCharts, the total Bitcoin network hash rate fell from more than 629 exahashes per second (EH/s) on Jan. 11 to roughly 415 EH/s on Jan. 15 — a 34% drop. The analytics site reported the hash rate increased to more than 454 EH/s on Jan. 16 as temperatures in Austin briefly rose above freezing during the day.

Source

It isn’t just that Texas has maybe a third of the industry, it is also that the US industry is growing much faster than anywhere else. Figures from Luxor Logistics show that in 2023 the US consumed nearly two-thirds of all new mining rigs. The figures come from Chinese Bitcoin Miners Find a New Crypto Haven in Ethiopia by David Pan and Fasika Tadesse:

Ethiopia has emerged as a rare opportunity for all firms that mine the original cryptocurrency, as climate change and power scarcity fuel a backlash against the $16 billion-a-year industry (at Bitcoin’s current price) elsewhere. But it holds special appeal for Chinese companies, which once dominated Bitcoin mining but have struggled to compete with local rivals in Texas, the current hub.

The haven isn’t without its own clouds:

It is also a risky gamble, for the companies and Ethiopia alike. A succession of developing countries like Kazakhstan and Iran initially embraced Bitcoin mining, only to turn on the sector when its energy use threatened to fuel domestic discontent. China’s reign as the epicenter of Bitcoin mining came to an abrupt end in 2021, when the government banned it. Dozens of companies were forced to leave.

Ethiopian officials are wary of the controversy that accompanies Bitcoin mining, according to industry executives who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing government relations. Even after new generation capacity came online, almost half the population live without access to electricity, making mining a delicate topic. At the same time, it represents a potentially lucrative source of foreign-exchange earnings.
…
The reliance on abundant power is also a major vulnerability because it can put miners in competition for electricity with factories and households, exposing them to political backlash.

When Kazakzstan imposed fresh curbs and taxes on miners, “it basically killed the industry,” said Hashlabs co-founder Alen Makhmetov. Two years after the clampdown, his 10-megawatt facility there is still sitting idle.

And in an era when rising temperatures wreak havoc around the world, Bitcoin mining is increasingly seen as a contributor to global warming that doesn’t serve any productive purpose — even though miners have claimed they’re increasingly tapping clean energy. A study by United Nations University published in October estimated that two-thirds of the electricity used for Bitcoin mining in 2020 and 2021 was generated using fossil fuels.

Developing countries aren’t the only ones where miners face “domestic discontent”. Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine by Gabriel J.X. Dance reports on an example in Arkansas:

The Arkansas Data Centers Act, popularly called the Right to Mine law, offers Bitcoin miners legal protections from communities that may not want them operating nearby. Passed just eight days after it was introduced, the law was written in part by the Satoshi Action Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Mississippi whose co-founder worked in the Trump administration rolling back Obama-era climate policies.

The law ins’t popular:

A furious backlash has some lawmakers considering a statewide ban.

The Satoshi Action Fund over-reached:

Despite efforts to build bipartisan support, the Satoshi fund has succeeded predominantly in red states. But in Arkansas, where the state legislature is dominated by Republicans, it is conservatives who have led calls to repeal the law, including Senator Bryan King, a poultry farmer whose district includes a property purchased by one of the companies tied to the Chinese government. He said it was not fair that the Bitcoin operators received special protections under the law, which shields them from “discriminatory industry specific regulations and taxes,” including noise ordinances and zoning restrictions.

At least the Ethiopian mines don’t emit much CO2, they run on hydropower:

The opening of the GERD project increased Ethiopia’s installed generation capacity to 5.3 gigawatt, 92% of which comes from hydropower, a renewable energy source.

Once GERD is fully completed, Ethiopia’s generation capacity will double, according to Ethiopian Electric Power. It charges Bitcoin miners a fixed rate of 3.14 US cents per kilowatt hour for electricity drawn from substations, Marketing and Business Development Director Hiwot Eshetu said in an interview.

While that’s similar to the average in Texas, rates in the Lone Star State can swing wildly, Luxor’s Vera said, making profits there less predictable. In Ethiopia, the price will fall once miners connect directly to power plants, according to Hiwot.

But if the utility can make money selling power to the mines right by the dam they have little incentive to build out the grid than could get the power to the unserved half of the population.

As regards the longer-term issue of access to state-of-the-art chips, it is important to note that the best mining chips are sold by Bitmain, a Chinese company, but manufactured at TSMC in Taiwan. There are two major risks here. The first is that the US appears determined to prevent China importing leading-edge chips and the equipment to make them. China remains at least a generation and a half behind TSMC and Samsung, and reportedly has poor yields on its leading-edge process. These restrictions could well prevent Chinese mining companies acquiring leading-edge rigs, and might cause TSMC problems in fab-ing Bitmain products.

Second, there is the looming threat of a Chinese blockade or even invasion of Taiwan. Of course, difficulties for Bitcoin miners are hardly the major impact if these threats are made good. One might think that, even if supplies of new mining chips were cut off, existing rigs would continue working. In the short term they would, but there is a long history of rigs being obsolete after about 18 months. So they aren’t designed or operated for longevity.

https://blog.dshr.org/2024/02/clouds-over-mines.html Save to Pocket

Microsoft might have just pulled support for very old PCs in Windows 11 24H2

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Time to look elsewhere for an operating system for that ancient CPU

If you’re running a very old PC but have managed to persuade Windows 11 to boot, it looks like the rug could soon be pulled from under you, judging by a post claiming that Microsoft’s code will now require an instruction not found on old CPUs.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/microsoft_might_have_just_pulled/ Save to Pocket

Chrysler unveils radical Halcyon EV concept that will redefine the 100-year-old brand

date: 2024-02-13, from: Electrek Feed

An all-electric Chrysler that can drive itself with “unlimited” range? That’s what Chrysler is showcasing with the new Halcyon EV concept. The sleek sports car features futuristic tech, next-gen batteries, and a new design theme, giving us a glimpse into Chrysler’s all-electric future.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/13/chrysler-unveils-radical-halcyon-ev-concept-with-unlimited-range/ Save to Pocket

What’s inside the Senate’s $95 billion bill to aid Ukraine and Israel and counter China

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Now that the Senate has approved the emergency spending package, it is up to the Republican-led House to take it up, change it or let it die.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/whats-inside-the-senates-95-billion-bill-to-aid-ukraine-and-israel-and-counter-china-2/ Save to Pocket

How Quickly Do Large Language Models Learn Unexpected Skills?

date: 2024-02-13, from: Quanta Magazine

A new study suggests that so-called emergent abilities actually develop gradually and predictably, depending on how you measure them.

The post How Quickly Do Large Language Models Learn Unexpected Skills? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-quickly-do-large-language-models-learn-unexpected-skills-20240213/ Save to Pocket

High school boys basketball rankings Feb. 13, 2024: Bay Area News Group Top 20

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Sizzling Archbishop Riordan moves to No. 2, San Ramon Valley and Granada swap spots, Sacred Heart Prep, Serra, Clayton Valley Charter climb.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/high-school-boys-basketball-rankings-feb-13-2024-bay-area-news-group-top-20/ Save to Pocket

Service Jobs Now Require Bizarre Personality Test From AI Company

date: 2024-02-13, from: 404 Media Group

Paradox.ai, which is used by some of the biggest employers in the country, requires applicants to respond to dozens of confusing slides featuring a blue alien named Ash.

https://www.404media.co/low-paying-jobs-require-bizarre-personality-evaluation-from-ai-company/ Save to Pocket

Japanese Automakers Are Using Profits From Hybrids To Fund EVs

date: 2024-02-13, from: Inside EVs News

Plus, California lawmakers want a tighter grip on robotaxis and Cruise gets a new safety boss.

https://insideevs.com/news/708479/honda-toyota-mazda-hybrid-evs/ Save to Pocket

County adds new stop sign to Blossom Hill manor in Los Gatos

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Intended to improve traffic flow at Lavender and Orange Blossom lanes.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/county-adds-new-stop-sign-to-blossom-hill-manor-in-los-gatos/ Save to Pocket

Campbell woman says ex distributed explicit photos of her

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Incident violates restraining order.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/campbell-woman-says-ex-distributed-explicit-photos-of-her/ Save to Pocket

Do you need to rinse your chicken before you cook it?

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Cooking poultry to the recommended internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the foolproof way to make sure you’re meeting food safety standards.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/do-you-need-to-rinse-your-chicken-before-you-cook-it/ Save to Pocket

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Sometimes life pushes you to entrepreneurship. Sometimes it’s my taxes and my garbage representation in congress:

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111924834223719897 Save to Pocket

Los Gatos ‘Mythbuster’ helps launch national STEM challenge

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Kari Byron’s nonprofit aims to get more students interested in the sciences.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/los-gatos-mythbuster-helps-launch-national-stem-challenge/ Save to Pocket

Career Journey: Building Strength as an Astronaut Fitness Trainer

date: 2024-02-13, from: NASA breaking news

NASA astronauts must prepare their bodies for the physical stresses of living and working in microgravity before they launch on a spaceflight. Fortunately, they get customized training programs and plenty of help from astronaut fitness trainer Corey Twine, who shares decades of strength and conditioning expertise with astronauts every day at NASA’s Johnson Space Center […]

https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/career-journey-building-strength-as-an-astronaut-fitness-trainer/ Save to Pocket

Rest in Peace, Kelvin Kiptum

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/02/13/rest-in-peace-kelvin-kiptum/ Save to Pocket

High school girls basketball rankings Feb. 13, 2024: Bay Area News Group Top 20

date: 2024-02-13, from: San Jose Mercury News

Mitty, San Ramon Valley and Carondelet remain in the Top 3, Heritage enters rankings after winning BVAL

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/13/high-school-girls-basketball-rankings-feb-13-2024-bay-area-news-group-top-20/ Save to Pocket

The World’s Biggest Tesla Supercharger Will Have Over 160 Stalls

date: 2024-02-13, from: Inside EVs News

The California EV charging station will also have 16 pull-though chargers that are designed to accommodate vehicles with trailers.

https://insideevs.com/news/708486/tesla-supercharger-largest-in-the-world-california/ Save to Pocket

LeVar Burton hosts an episode of Banned Book Rainbow, “where we talk…

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043963-levar-burton-hosts-an-epi Save to Pocket

Backblaze’s geriatric hard drives kicked the bucket more in 2023

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Failure rates are consistent with aging – something we can all relate to

Cloud backup and storage provider Backblaze has published a report on hard drive failures for 2023, finding that rates increased during the year due to aging drives that it plans to upgrade.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/backblaze_failure_rates/ Save to Pocket

How NASA Uses Simple Technology to Track Lunar Missions

date: 2024-02-13, from: NASA breaking news

NASA is using a simple but effective technology called Laser Retroreflective Arrays (LRAs) to determine the locations of lunar landers more accurately. They will be attached to most of the landers from United States companies as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) initiative. LRAs are inexpensive, small, and lightweight, allowing future lunar orbiters […]

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/how-nasa-uses-simple-technology-to-track-lunar-missions/ Save to Pocket

Sean O’Brien 100K Race Report (2024)

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: Educated Guesswork blog

https://educatedguesswork.org/posts/sob100k-2024/ Save to Pocket

MOVIES VS. CAPITALISM: 27 Dresses (w/ Erica Bitton)

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Lever News

The MVC team explores the wedding-industrial complex in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

https://www.levernews.com/movies-vs-capitalism-27-dresses-w-erica-bitton/ Save to Pocket

US Inflation Slows as Price Pressures Ease Gradually

date: 2024-02-13, from: VOA News USA

WASHINGTON — Annual inflation in the United States cooled last month yet remained elevated in the latest sign that the pandemic-fueled price surge is gradually and fitfully coming under control.

Tuesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the consumer price index rose 0.3% from December to January, up from a 0.2% increase the previous month. Compared with a year ago, prices are up 3.1%.

That is less than the 3.4% figure in December and far below the 9.1% inflation peak in mid-2022.

The latest reading is well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target at a time when public frustration with inflation has become a pivotal issue in President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, so-called core prices climbed 0.4% last month, up from 0.3% in December and 3.9% over the past 12 months. Core inflation is watched especially closely because it typically provides a better read of where inflation is likely headed. The annual figure is the same as it was in December.

Biden administration officials note that inflation has plummeted since pandemic-related supply disruptions and significant government aid sent it soaring three years ago. And a raft of forward-looking data suggests that inflation will continue to cool.

Still, even as it nears the Fed’s target level, many Americans remain exasperated that average prices are still about 19% higher than they were when Biden took office.

The mixed data released Tuesday could reinforce the caution of Fed officials, who have said they’re pleased with the progress in sharply reducing inflation but want to see further evidence before feeling confident that it’s sustainably headed back to their 2% target. Most economists think the central bank will want to wait until May or June to begin cutting its benchmark rate from its 22-year-high of roughly 5.4.

The Fed raised its key rate 11 times from March 2022 to July of last year in a concerted drive to defeat high inflation. The result has been much higher borrowing rates for businesses and consumers, including for mortgages and auto loans. Rate cuts, whenever they happen, would eventually lead to lower borrowing costs for many categories of loans.

In the final three months of last year, the economy grew at an unexpectedly rapid 3.3% annual rate. There are signs that growth remains healthy so far in 2024. Businesses engaged in a burst of hiring last month. Surveys of manufacturing companies found that new orders rose in January. And services companies reported an uptick in sales.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-inflation-slows-as-price-pressures-ease-gradually/7485559.html Save to Pocket

Brilliant Labs is selling a pair of fully open-source AI glasses called…

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: Jason Kittke’s blog

https://kottke.org/24/02/0043962-brilliant-labs-is-selling Save to Pocket

Recall: Multiple 2020-2022 Indian Bikes May Have Brake Light Issue

date: 2024-02-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

On affected models, incorrect ABS module software is causing brake lights to illuminate when riders aren’t braking.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/708389/indian-motorcycle-brake-light-recall/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

This is what I imagine we all yearn for, for someone to really know us before we die. Okay if it can’t be other people, at least let it be a machine. Something like preserving a brain. Wouldn’t it be great to know that when you’re gone, the essential you, even if it doesn’t include your consciousness, persists? You could visit a person like you visit a website. This is just evolutionary, and it’s obviously going to happen.

http://scripting.com/2024/02/13.html#a142420 Save to Pocket

Crooks hook hundreds of exec accounts after phishing in Azure C-suite pond

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Plenty of successful attacks observed with dangerous follow-on activity

The number of senior business executives stymied by an ongoing phishing campaign continues to rise with cybercriminals registering hundreds of cloud account takeovers (ATOs) since spinning it up in November.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/exec_accounts_phishing_campaign/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

The next hurdle for AI is to teach the software to learn about you. I think that’s what we all want. Start with the simplest things. This is my coding style, so give me all the example code you generate this way. Where does this end? No idea. But read Klara and the Sun, a truly great story, beautifully told, for a truly creative application.

http://scripting.com/2024/02/13.html#a141825 Save to Pocket

Flipper’s new Video Game Module is powered by Raspberry Pi

date: 2024-02-13, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)

Our friends at Flipper Devices have made a fantastic new video game accessory for their popular Flipper Zero, and it’s built on RP2040.

The post Flipper’s new Video Game Module is powered by Raspberry Pi appeared first on Raspberry Pi.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/flippers-new-video-game-module-is-powered-by-raspberry-pi/ Save to Pocket

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-02-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Today would be the perfect day to ski at Belleayre or Hunter, if you can get out of NYC where all the snow is falling. I have work to do and was planning on skiing tomorrow, expecting 8 inches of fresh snow. We’re not getting much from this storm in the Catskills, NYC is getting the brunt. And any day you can’t get here from the city means not many people on the mountain. 😄

http://scripting.com/2024/02/13.html#a141546 Save to Pocket

Pluralistic: Kelly Link’s “Book of Love” (13 Feb 2023)

date: 2024-02-13, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog

Today’s links Kelly Link’s “Book of Love”: A deceptively quirky tale with rusty razors at its core. 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. Kelly Link’s “Book of Love” (permalink) Kelly Link is one of science fiction’s most important writers, a master of the short story to rank with the likes of Ted Chiang. For a decade, Kelly’s friends have traded whispers that she was working on a novel – a giant novel – and the rumors were true and the novel is glorious and you will love it: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-love-9781804548455/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239722/the-book-of-love-by-kelly-link/ It’s called The Book of Love and it’s massive – 650 pages! It is glorious. It is tricky. If you’ve read Link’s short stories (which honestly, you must read), you know her signature move: a bone-dry witty delivery, used to spin tales of deceptive whimsy and quirkiness, disarming you with daffiness while she sets the hook and yanks. That’s the unmistakeable, inimitable texture of a Kelly Link story: deft literary brushstrokes, painting a picture so charming and silly that you don’t even notice when she cuts you without mercy. Turns out that she can quite handily do this for hundreds of pages, and the effect only gets better when it’s given space to unfold. Hard to tell you about this one without spoilers! But I’ll tell you this much. It’s a story about three teenaged friends who return from death and find themselves in the music room at their high school, face to face with their mild-mannered music teacher, Mr Anabin. Anabin explains what’s happened in frustratingly cryptic – and very emphatic – terms, but is interrupted when a sinister shape-shifting wolf enters the music room. This is Bogomil, and whenever he speaks, Mr Anabin turns his back – and vice versa. Anabin and Bogomil appear to be rivals, and Bogomil may or may not have been the keeper of the land of the dead from which the three have escaped. There’s also a forth, a tattered shade who’s been dead so long they don’t remember who they are or anything about themselves. Bogomil would like to take the four back to the deadlands, but Anabin proposes a contest and Bogomil agrees – but no one explains the contest or its rules (or even its stakes) to the four dead teenagers. That’s the wind up. The pitch that follows is flawless, a long and twisting mystery about friendship, love, queerness, rock-and-roll, stardom, parenthood, loyalty, lust and duty. There’s a terrifying elder god of Lovecraftian proportions. There are ghosts upon ghosts. There are ancient grudges. There are sudden revelations that come from unexpected angles but are, in retrospect, perfectly set up. More than anything, there are characters. It’s impossible not to love Link’s characters, despite (because of) their self-destructive choices and their impossible dilemmas. They are so sweet, but they are also by turns mean and spiteful and resentful, like the pinch of salt that transforms a caramel from inedible spun sugar into something that bites even as it delights. These characters, so very likable, are often dead or at death’s door, and that peril propels the story like an unstoppable locomotive. From the very start, it’s clear that some of them can’t survive to the end, and Link is merciless in making you root for all of them, even though this means rooting against them all. This, in turn, creates moments of toe-curling, sublime horror. Link has built a complex machine with more moving parts than anyone has any business being able to keep track of. And yet, each of these parts meshes flawlessly with all the others. The book ends with such triumphant perfection that it lingers long after you put it down. I can’t wait to read this one again. Hey look at this (permalink) Apple Is Lobbying Against Right to Repair Six Months After Supporting Right to Repair https://www.404media.co/apple-is-lobbying-against-right-to-repair-again/ Blowing the Door Off Boeing’s ‘Epstein Deal’ https://prospect.org/justice/2024-02-09-boeing-max-doj-epstein-deal/ RSS Parrot https://rss-parrot.net/ This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago danah boyd’s social networks talk from ETCON https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2004/02/11/my_etech_talk_revenge_of_the_user.html#004027 #20yrsago Harlan Ellison’s AOL/Time-Warner suit https://web.archive.org/web/20040901000000*/http://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/2004/02/9th_circuit_wro.html #20yrsago Google is Harder Than it Looks ETCON talk notes https://craphound.com/googleetcon04.txt #20yrsago Emotional Design: The Principles ETCON talk notes https://craphound.com/normanetcon04.txt #20yrsago My ETCON talk, in the Public Domain https://craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt #15yrsago Apple sez jailbreaking iPhones is illegal and should be banned https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal #15yrsago RIP, Atomic Ed Grothus, curator and proprietor of the Black Hole of Los Alamos https://web.archive.org/web/20090213231519/http://wps.com/archives/EdGrothus/ #15yrsago Hard data on ebook piracy versus sales — slides from O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing panel https://archive.org/details/ChallengingNotionsOffree #15yrsago FDR: Time-travelling destroyer of economies https://prospect.org/article/country-run-idiots./ #15yrsago Kansas Representative introduces anti-netroots campaign finance reform bill https://web.archive.org/web/20090216145249/http://seantevis.com/weblog/story/my-response-to-house-bill-no-2244-aka-the-sean-tevis-bill/ #15yrsago EFF asks the FTC to protect the public from Digital Rights Management https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/DRM/drmcomments_final.pdf #15yrsago Neil Gaiman waxes sensible on Kindle Audiobooks and the redonkulous Author’s Guild https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/02/quick-argument-summary.html #15yrsago Salmonella Peanut CEO won’t eat his own peanuts, cites Fifth Amendment https://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/02/11/peanut-co-owner-refuses-to-testify-to-congress #15yrsago Why the EVE Online industrial espionage econopocalypse is “fun” https://www.raphkoster.com/2009/02/11/the-eve-upset/ #10yrsago Chinese-language Bing searches in the USA censored to match mainland Chinese results https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/11/bing-censors-chinese-language-search-results #10yrsago The Coruscant Tapestry: 30′ long Star Wars cross-stitchhttps://web.archive.org/web/20140222222211/https://nineteeneightyeight.com/products/aled-lewis-the-coruscant-tapestry #10yrsago Militant commander accidentally blows up dozens of trainee suicide bombers https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/suicide-bomber-kills-suicide-bomers #5yrsago Police lobbyist: cops will not be motivated to stop crime unless they are allowed to steal people’s stuff https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/taken/2019/02/03/sc-civil-forfeiture-police-defend-practice-say-funds-essential-law-enforcement/2746412002/ #5yrsago Courthouse shut after sheriff notices bedbugs “falling out of” lawyer’s clothes https://www.3newsnow.com/news/national/oklahoma-lawyer-with-bed-bugs-falling-out-of-clothing-causes-county-courthouse-to-close #5yrsago Thomas Piketty explains how Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax is American as apple pie https://www.lemonde.fr/blog/piketty/2019/02/12/wealth-tax-in-america/#xtor=RSS-32280322 #5yrsago After promising health care execs that Medicare for All was dead, Pelosi’s team plans toothless pharma deal https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/02/pelosi-advisor-proposes-non-binding-arbitration-road-lowering-drug-prices.html #5yrsago Netherlands court strikes down Dutch grifter’s patent claim over Ethiopia’s ancient staple grain teff https://qz.com/africa/1545111/ethiopias-teff-flour-is-no-longer-patented-as-a-dutch-invention #5yrsago Bank lobbyists are scared to meet with AOC because she might humiliate them on Twitter later https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-aoc/banks-weigh-whether-to-embrace-or-avoid-progressive-firebrand-ocasio-cortez-idUSKCN1PV27N/ #5yrsago Barefoot Engineers: rural women from Malawi, trained as solar engineers, who are electrifying their remote villages https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/gallery/2019/feb/11/barefoot-engineers-malawi-solar-power-in-pictures #5yrsago Amazon just bought mesh wifi company Eero. Oh, great. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/12/18221441/amazon-buying-eero-disappointing #5yrsago A short list of “all the bad things” about Uber and Lyft https://usa.streetsblog.org/2019/02/04/all-the-bad-things-about-uber-and-lyft-in-one-simple-list #5yrsago The WPA’s horseback librarians https://historydaily.org/female-librarians-on-horseback #5yrsago The most censored Wechat topics: US-China trade war, Canadian arrest of Huawei CFO, ZTE sanctions, more https://globalvoices.org/2019/02/11/censored-on-wechat-a-year-of-content-removals-on-chinas-most-powerful-social-media-platform/ #5yrsago Freedom EV: free/open replacement firmware for your electric vehicle — including a Tesla https://github.com/jnuyens/freedomev #5yrsago How to think about climate change and “cost-benefit analysis” https://progressivereform.org/cpr-blog/on-buying-insurance-and-ignoring-cost-benefit-analysis/ #5yrsago Artist Nan Goldin leads protests at the Guggenheim and the Met over their reputation-laundering of the Sacklers’ opioid epidemic fortunes https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/nan-goldin-leads-a-protest-at-the-guggenheim-against-the-sackler-family #5yrsago Addressing inequality is foreign policy, not domestic https://crookedtimber.org/2019/02/11/democracy-and-inequality-as-a-global-policy-agenda/ #1yrago After Ohio rail disaster, Buttigieg is silent on restoring the safety standards Trump repealed https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp Colophon (permalink) 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: Why Taylor Left Tiktok (Today, Explained) https://open.spotify.com/episode/62R2sJ6cEUOitIDPBdmwpy Online Platform Decay (Tim Ventura) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83SULjan-JM Decentralization, Digital Rights, and the Future of the Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsQuNbWbByA 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/2024/02/13/the-kissing-song/ Save to Pocket

Broker That Sold Abortion Clinic Data Contracted with Air Force for ‘Targeting’

date: 2024-02-13, from: 404 Media Group

New documents show that SafeGraph, a company that previously sold location related to abortion clinics, was contracted to explicitly help the Air Force with “targeting” in “contested geographies.”

https://www.404media.co/safegraph-abortion-clinic-data-contracted-with-air-force-for-targeting/ Save to Pocket

Hiring prohibition for official misconduct conviction vetoed

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has vetoed Bill 30-37, the measure that would prohibit employment in the government of Guam for individuals convicted of official misconduct.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/hiring-prohibition-for-official-misconduct-conviction-vetoed/article_e4522a6e-ca20-11ee-8177-17aef6f84240.html Save to Pocket

Suspect arrested in fatal July 2023 crash

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

The driver of a Jeep involved in a three-car accident that authorities said resulted in the death of a 16-year-old passenger has been arrested and charged.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/suspect-arrested-in-fatal-july-2023-crash/article_099cfdb6-c9fa-11ee-a1eb-9fc998ce22ce.html Save to Pocket

Southern High JROTC wins Honor Unit with Distinction

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

The Southern High School JROTC program was awarded the Honor Unit with Distinction and the top three cadets of the Knight Battalion were recognized by the U.S. Army Command’s 8th Brigade last month.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/southern-high-jrotc-wins-honor-unit-with-distinction/article_2467d7ce-ca18-11ee-bab0-ffe35f930f1a.html Save to Pocket

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

Editor’s note: This article initially stated that the Superior Court of Guam decided that a local abortion ban essentially has no effect today. The article has been corrected to say Supreme Court of Guam.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/testimony-heard-bill-amending-abortion-informed-consent-laws/article_ab9d3298-c991-11ee-918d-1b634681a347.html Save to Pocket

OAG, defense argue theories as Nededog murder trial ends

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

Jurors in the trial of Jamie John Nededog have heard all the evidence and arguments presented by attorneys to determine whether Nededog is guilty or not guilty of killing Edwin Pirando.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/oag-defense-argue-theories-as-nededog-murder-trial-ends/article_6cfb7b2c-ca21-11ee-a636-a3c4ddde29b1.html Save to Pocket

Cardiologists envision better heart health for Guamanians

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

Heart disease is the leading cause of death on Guam, accounting for 33.9% of total deaths in 2015. Getting those numbers down is a collaborative effort, one that was recognized by the Guam Legislature on Monday.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/cardiologists-envision-better-heart-health-for-guamanians/article_13843fde-c968-11ee-9616-474f60792d3b.html Save to Pocket

Student, 18, allegedly went to school drunk

date: 2024-02-13, from: Guam Daily Post

An 18-year-old student was charged after allegedly being intoxicated at school.

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/student-18-allegedly-went-to-school-drunk/article_ba39753e-c949-11ee-8090-87078b4373ee.html Save to Pocket

Tesla releases new yoke steering wheel with normal horn

date: 2024-02-13, from: Electrek Feed

Tesla has started to deliver a new version of its yoke steering wheel and it now features a normal horn.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/13/tesla-releases-new-yoke-steering-wheel-with-normal-horn/ Save to Pocket

Kipp Mueller | California Must Help Its Small Businesses

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Signal

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and the backbone of our communities. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses account for 64% of new jobs in America and employ nearly half of the American workforce. About 44% of U.S. economic activity comes from small businesses, the reason for America’s robust middle class. […]

The post Kipp Mueller | California Must Help Its Small Businesses appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/kipp-mueller-california-must-help-its-small-businesses/ Save to Pocket

Jeff Solomon | Happy 105th to The Signal

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Signal

Congratulations on serving our community for 105 years. That’s an accomplishment! As a longtime Santa Clarita resident of over 35 years, I’ve been a subscriber for a few of those years. With print newspapers being so challenged these days, it’s a blessing to have a community paper that does a great job covering what’s happening […]

The post Jeff Solomon | Happy 105th to The Signal appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/jeff-solomon-happy-105th-to-the-signal/ Save to Pocket

Maria Wright | An Education on Sexual Assault

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Signal

This is in reply to Mr. Ron Perry’s farcical depiction of what happened to E. Jean Carroll and the ultimate outcome of the trial (letters, Feb. 9). First of all, he states that she was “raped” by the former president. The verdict clearly indicates that Donald Trump was found liable for “sexual assault.” Whereas the […]

The post Maria Wright | An Education on Sexual Assault appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/maria-wright-an-education-on-sexual-assault/ Save to Pocket

Rick Barker | An Even Deeper Dive

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Signal

In re: Gary Horton, commentary, “A Deeper Dive Into Immigration,” Feb. 7. Perhaps Mr. Horton just failed to dive deep enough in the above-referenced letter to see that there is a HUGE difference between legal and illegal residents who are not citizens of the United States legally obtaining work permits. An even deeper dive than […]

The post Rick Barker | An Even Deeper Dive appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

https://signalscv.com/2024/02/rick-barker-an-even-deeper-dive/ Save to Pocket

Kia EV8 Coming In 2026 As Electric Stinger Replacement: Leaked Docs

date: 2024-02-13, from: Inside EVs News

Codenamed GT1, the electric sedan will offer up to 603 hp and over 400 miles of range, according to a leaked production schedule.

https://insideevs.com/news/708433/kia-ev8-electric-stinger-2026/ Save to Pocket

How COVID-19 Changed US Office Fashion

date: 2024-02-13, from: VOA News USA

Hybrid work relaxed office fashion, but formal attire might be making a comeback

https://www.voanews.com/a/how-covid-19-changed-office-fashion/7484394.html Save to Pocket

Tesla’s Cybertruck may not be so stainless after all

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

‘Literally bulletproof’ but needs constant cleaning to stave off corrosion

It’s only been a few months since Tesla’s long-awaited Cybertruck made its way to those at the front of the queue, but the arrival has been tarnished for some.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/tesla_cybertruck_rust/ Save to Pocket

Dutch police found a way to test e-bike power on the side of the road

date: 2024-02-13, from: Electrek Feed

Dutch police have a new weapon in their battle against high-speed and high-power electric bicycles: a roadside testing platform to catch hot-rodded e-bikes.

more…

https://electrek.co/2024/02/13/dutch-police-found-a-way-to-test-e-bike-power-on-the-side-of-the-road/ Save to Pocket

Everybody Is Mad About Biden’s Offshore Lease Plans

date: 2024-02-13, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: New York City is expecting six inches of snow • Intense flooding has been recorded across Oman • Parts of southeastern Australia are facing the worst bushfires in four years.

THE TOP FIVE

Oil industry and environmentalists are mad about Biden’s offshore lease plans

The Biden administration’s decision to dramatically reduce the number of offshore drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico is proving to be unpopular with the oil industry and environmentalists. The plan is to hold just three lease sales between 2025 and 2029, a record low and far below the 47 proposed during the Trump administration. This week both the American Petroleum Institute (the fossil fuel industry’s biggest trade group) and Earthjustice (an environmental group) filed separate lawsuits over the plan “in a sign of the political tightrope policymakers must walk when rulemaking in the U.S. climate and energy sector,” explained the Financial Times. The oil group wants more lease sales, and accused the government of forcing Americans to rely on foreign energy sources; Earthjustice wants fewer lease sales (or none at all) and said the administration was ignoring public health impacts for frontline communities. “The oil and gas industry is already sitting on 9mn acres of undeveloped leases. They certainly are not entitled to more,” said Brettny Hardy, an Earthjustice attorney.

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Chinese battery giants team up on solid-state commercialization

China’s leading carmakers and battery manufacturers are joining forces to turbocharge commercialization of solid-state electric vehicle batteries. The China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform (CASIP) includes six of the top 10 global battery makers, reported Peter Johnson at Electrek, including would-be rivals BYD and CATL. Solid-state batteries are “a kind of holy-grail technology,” explained Patrick George at Heatmap. They can cut charging times and increase EV range compared to lithium-ion batteries, so carmakers are eager to bring a solid-state battery to market. But mass production is still very difficult. The Chinese project “pools academia and industry leaders,” Johnson said, and “could revolutionize the EV market.”

Study chronicles 30 years of ice melt on Greenland

Over the last three decades, Greenland has lost about 11,000 square miles of its ice cover due to global warming, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. The researchers, from the University of Leeds, analyzed high resolution satellite images to understand historical melting trends. They found that as the ice disappears, plants are spreading – the amount of land with some vegetation on it more than doubled in three decades. Greenland is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The melting ice creates a feedback loop – exposed rock absorbs more heat, therefore raising the temperature of the land. And the permafrost is melting, too, releasing carbon dioxide and methane.

University of Leeds

China’s emissions could peak sooner than expected

Experts think China’s greenhouse gas emissions will peak earlier than originally anticipated, reported The Wall Street Journal. The turning point could even come this year. China is the biggest annual greenhouse gas emitter, but it is rapidly scaling up renewable energy. Just last year its solar power capacity increased by 55%, “more than 500 million solar panels and well above the total installed solar capacity of the U.S.,” the Journal report explained. And it installed more wind energy than the rest of the world combined. “An early peak would have a lot of symbolic value and send a signal to the world that we’ve turned a corner,” said Jan Ivar Korsbakken, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research.

Debate rages on over hypothetical Category 6 hurricanes

Two climate scientists have sparked debate in their field by suggesting the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, which is used to determine a hurricane’s category, is insufficient in describing the risks posed by stronger storms in the age of climate change. The scale currently goes from 1 to 5, but Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and James Kossin of the First Street Foundation pondered whether a Category 6 was needed. This was more than a week ago, and the debate is still going. The main objection from other climate experts is that adding a new category “increases the chance of people underestimating the risks from storms that are lower than the highest category,” ABC News explained. After all, the category only focuses on wind speed and doesn’t tell residents much about other deadly hazards like storm surge and rainfall, which account for most storm-related deaths. “It is not evident how having an additional category on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale would improve preparation or decisions,” said AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jon Porter.

THE KICKER

882 private jets landed in Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend, the second highest number ever for the event, and just below last year’s total of 931.

https://heatmap.news/politics/biden-offshore-lease-lawsuit Save to Pocket

Honda’s Winner X Is Gunning For Victory In The Philippines

date: 2024-02-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News

The Winner X is the newest player in the premium “underbone” category.

https://www.rideapart.com/news/708395/honda-winner-x-launch-philippines/ Save to Pocket

Real Estate Mogul, Others Pour $1M To Defeat Progressive LA City Councilmember Nithya Raman

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The LAist

Raman faces two challengers in the hotly contested primary race for Council District 4.

https://laist.com/news/politics/real-estate-mogul-others-pour-1m-to-defeat-progressive-la-city-councilmember-nithya-raman-in-2024-election Save to Pocket

At the Swiftposium, Scholars Gather to Analyze a Superstar’s Astonishing Influence

date: 2024-02-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The University of Melbourne welcomed academics from all over the world for its Taylor Swift conference

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/swiftposium-scholars-analyze-taylor-swift-astonishing-influence-180983780/ Save to Pocket

Use Our Game Safety Buddy to Protect Your Kids and Yourself on Gaming Consoles

date: 2024-02-13, from: The Markup blog

Our tool and advice can help you navigate the overwhelming number of settings on today’s game platforms.

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2024/02/13/use-our-game-safety-buddy-to-protect-your-kids-and-yourself-on-gaming-consoles Save to Pocket

US Senate Approves Aid Package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan

date: 2024-02-13, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-senate-set-for-final-foreign-aid-bill-vote/7485440.html Save to Pocket

The Chrysler Halcyon Concept Is A Sleek Cruiser With Wireless Charging

date: 2024-02-13, from: Inside EVs News

The Chrysler Halcyon concept is Stellantis’ newest take on EVs. It’s sleek, open-focused, and aimed solely at comfort and ease of driving.

https://insideevs.com/news/708465/chrysler-halcyon-concept/ Save to Pocket

Infosys enjoyed a boom in UK government invoices in 2023

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Linked to the prime minister’s wife, the Indian firm achieves contract wins in open and fair process

Tech services biz Infosys enjoyed a 49 percent increase in its invoices from the UK government for 2023, according to research figures.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/infosys_uk_government_contracts/ Save to Pocket

The uglier sides of an industry centered on beauty

date: 2024-02-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report

Modeling may seem glamorous, but the realities of the industry can be far from picture-perfect. Today, as part of our Econ Extra Credit series, we take a hard look at what is being done to protect models and hold the agencies that sometimes recruit and exploit them accountable. Also: the most watched program in U.S. history and a brief, planned Valentine’s Day strike among ride-share drivers.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-uglier-sides-of-an-industry-centered-on-beauty Save to Pocket

PeerJ Awards Winners at SESBE 2024

date: 2024-02-13, from: PeerJ blog

Set against the backdrop of Málaga, much like its predecessors, the IX Biennial Meeting of the Spanish Society for Evolutionary Biology (SESBE), held between the 17th and the 19th of January 2024, was a dynamic platform that hosted over 150 participants, not only from Spain, but from other 6 countries. The inherently interdisciplinary nature of […]

https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284888837/peerj-awards-winners-at-sesbe-2024/ Save to Pocket

Farmers threaten protests in India

date: 2024-02-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: Police in Delhi banned all public gatherings after farmers threatened major demonstrations in India’s capital. Polish farmers stopped several Ukrainian trucks and emptied some of their grain cargo to protest what they say is unfair competition. And couples in the United Kingdom planning to grab takeout for a cozy Valentine’s night in may be disappointed as thousands of delivery drivers plan to go on strike.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/farmers-threaten-protests-in-india Save to Pocket

Molly White Reviews Blockchain Book

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-12, from: Bruce Schneier blog

Molly White—of “Web3 is Going Just Great” fame—reviews Chris Dixon’s blockchain solutions book: Read Write Own:

In fact, throughout the entire book, Dixon fails to identify a single blockchain project that has successfully provided a non-speculative service at any kind of scale. The closest he ever comes is when he speaks of how “for decades, technologists have dreamed of building a grassroots internet access provider”. He describes one project that “got further than anyone else”: Helium. He’s right, as long as you ignore the fact that Helium was providing LoRaWAN, not Internet, that by the time he was writing his book Helium hotspots had long since passed the phase where they might generate even enough tokens for their operators to merely break even, and that the network was pulling in somewhere around $1,150 in usage fees a month despite the company being valued at $1.2 billion. Oh, and that the company had widely lied to the public about its supposed big-name clients, and that its executives have been accused of hoarding the project’s token to enrich themselves. But hey, a16z sunk millions into Helium (a fact Dixon never mentions), so might as well try to drum up some new interest!…

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/02/molly-white-reviews-blockchain-book.html Save to Pocket

Stormy Times Ahead

date: 2024-02-13, from: Dan Rather’s Steady

I noticed Donald Trump will spend more time in front of a judge this week than in front of potential voters. It’s his new normal. Trump’s schedule looks like a litigious hellscape. And his calendar for the foreseeable future is more of the same. It’s all so antithetical to my belief about what kind of person should lead our great nation.

https://steady.substack.com/p/stormy-times-ahead Save to Pocket

ChatGPT? Sure, I’ve heard it. But is AI coming for my job?

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Some users will pay for AI tools, but more worry about their future employment prospects

What a difference a year makes. Analysts at Jefferies have run a survey showing that nearly all US office workers have heard of ChatGPT - up from just over half a year ago - yet the flipside is that some now fear automation is coming for their jobs.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/chatgpt_survey/ Save to Pocket

Even With Trump, Kim Jong Un May Spurn Talks, Analysts Warn

date: 2024-02-13, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/even-with-trump-kim-jong-un-may-spurn-talks-analysts-warn/7485399.html Save to Pocket

RIP John Walker, software and hardware hacker extraordinaire

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Creator of the Hacker Diet and sponsor of pre-Web hypermedia system Xanadu

Obit Polymath, pioneering developer of software and hardware, a prolific writer, and true old-school hacker John Walker has passed away.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/john_walker_obit/ Save to Pocket

Unit4 software’s budget bungle leaves schools counting the cost

date: 2024-02-13, updated: 2024-02-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

MP calls on council to ensure education teams can plan their financial futures

A letter from a former government minister to the head of education for one of the UK’s largest local authorities reveals the financial disruption caused by the implementation of a Unit4 HR, finance, and payroll system.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/unit4_surrey_county_council/ Save to Pocket