(date: 2024-02-17 00:10:32)
date: 2024-02-17, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
At the Munich Security Conference, where leaders from more than 70 countries gather annually in Germany to discuss international security policy, Vice President Kamala Harris today responded to Trump’s recent attacks on America’s global leadership with a full-throated defense of global engagement.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-16-2024 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The semifinal contest between Santa Barbara and Don Bosco Tech came down to the final possesion.
The post Santa Barbara Falls Short at the Buzzer in 59-57 Semifinal Loss to Don Bosco Tech appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/santa-barbara-comes-up-short-at-the-buzzer-in-59-57-semifinal-loss-to-don-bosco-tech/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Rapid inflation, which has affected everything from groceries to online shopping, seemed like a recent phenomenon. Despite approaching double digits in the United States in June 2022, the latest data…
https://sundial.csun.edu/178449/opinions/lower-interest-rates-are-coming-how-to-benefit-from-the-decline/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Fordham-bound Ryan Pettis scores 22 points as the Serra Padres win their CCS Open Division Pool A opener in come-from-behind fashion.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/ryan-pettis-ignited-by-his-slam-dunk-leads-serra-to-ccs-playoff-win-over-sacred-heart-prep/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Contra Costa County Library said it is working on additional security measures.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/antioch-library-closed-due-to-repeated-dangerous-incidents/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Three pairs remain in the race as the only ticket featuring a drag persona and billed as staunchly anti-Greek life steps down.
The post Dacity, Nunis drop out of USG presidential election appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/dacity-nunis-drops-out-of-usg-presidential-election/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
“Best player on the court, and it wasn’t even close,” Campo coach says as Jalen Stokes leads Dublin to NCS playoff victory.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/ncs-basketball-jalen-stokes-brilliance-lifts-dublin-to-a-playoff-rout-of-campolindo/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Authorities said the defendant’s fingerprints were found on demand notes left at the scene.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/oakland-man-charged-in-series-of-east-bay-bank-robberies/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Results from the second round of the North Coast Section boys, girls basketball playoffs
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/ncs-basketball-playoffs-2024-fridays-results-updated-matchups/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Results from the first round/pool play of the Central Coast Section boys, girls basketball playoffs
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/ccs-basketball-playoffs-2024-fridays-results-updated-matchups/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/presidents-day-commemorates-achievements-contributions-of-us-presidents-/7491572.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Jessica Smith’s blog
Following on from my thoughts yesterday, where I was longing for a way to do friends-only blog posts on the open web,1 today I came across StatiCrypt , an open-source utility that lets you encrypt static HTML pages behind a password.
Basically, my thought process went like this: Currently, most Fediverse software is geared around short-form posts. There is software that lets you publish long-form blog posts, but those tend to display in followers’ timelines as a title and a link to the full post… which is not particularly compatible with access control, as it currently stands. And even if long-form posts did display in full, most client apps seriously mangle any formatting, which is also undesirable for a long post that probably does have formatting. So probably, what you really want is for readers to have to click a link to the full post, but also have to go through some kind of authentication process.
A related thought was: well, actually, this blog runs on Hugo, not
anything ActivityPub. I would probably prefer to keep all my
writing (certainly my long-form writing) unified on a single website –
this website – and keep using the Fediverse as more of a supplementary
thing. I don’t think you can use StatiCrypt on actual posts processed
and managed by
Hugo,2
but you could certainly upload encrypted HTML files to your
static/
subdirectory.
StatiCrypt even allows for shareable auto-decrypt links, so if you’re actually okay with a shareable link existing for your post, you could make use of that. Maybe you’d make a followers-only post on Mastodon all like, “Hey, I have a new blog post up about what’s been going on with me lately,” with an auto-decrypt link to your encrypted HTML page. (Better, I guess, if you’re using software like GoToSocial where you could restrict your posts to mutual followers, or Bonfire which lets you define “circles” for sharing content to. But you get what I mean.) Of course you can share links to such posts in any other way you share links too, but be careful how you do it. For example, Google in particular has been known to crawl emails sent to or from Gmail addresses to add them to their search engine. You do not want them to do that with an auto-decrypting link. You also need to consider how much you trust your friends or family (and their friends and family, and so on…) not to just spread links to your post like wildfire.
StatiCrypt also lets you encrypt multiple pages with the same password,
so it’s not like you need to give all your friends a new
password for each post (unless you want to). You could even
have a nice little subdirectory, where all your encrypted posts are
listed on an index.html
page for easy browsing. StatiCrypt
offers a “Remember me” feature so readers don’t have to re-enter the
password on every new page they navigate to (and your auto-decrypt links
can also be auto-“remember me”). You could just send, say, your mum a
link to your most recent protected post and she could catch up on all
the others without even being aware there is a password. And
you could have multiple subdirectories, with different passwords, for
different groups of friends who you want to see different selections of
posts (e.g. posts for family, versus posts you really do
not want family to see… 😂).
As I understand it, if you want to (or need to) invalidate all existing “remember me” sessions and auto-decrypt links, but keep all passwords the same for readers who actually know them, you could just change the “salt” in the config file that posts have been hashed with, and re-encrypt them. This could halt a “wildfire” situation stemming from an auto-decrypt link in its tracks, although you’d probably want to get to the bottom of how the post broke free of its intended audience in the first place.
There are some caveats to StatiCrypt:
Perhaps this post sounds a bit catastrophising, so just remember, even in a closed system like LiveJournal which handled user authentication for you, it was still possible for people to copy-paste or screenshot your posts! Nothing in life is guaranteed. The website itself says:
Disclaimer if you are an at-risk activist, or have extra sensitive banking data, you should probably use something else!
Like, exercise some judgement about what you post, even in an encrypted HTML page, OK? My goal here was to think of a way to do friends-only posts, not doxx myself for shits and giggles just because “it’s encrypted”. There is absolutely stuff sufficiently private that, if necessary, you should send it to specific friends via an encrypted messaging app, and not just post it on your website under password protection. However, for friends-only posts on the open web, it seems like this kind of encryption, with the ability to send auto-decrypt links via more secure channels to your friends (so they don’t actually have to fuck around remembering or storing passwords), seems like a good solution.
I guess this sounds like a strange contradiction in terms. By “open web” I mean “using open protocols, like ActivityPub, or just ordinary individual HTML/CSS/JS websites, not locked in a silo like Facebook”. Obviously not literally “open access to all”. ↩︎
Well I guess maybe you could, but it’d take a post-build script, and custom metadata on your protected posts to tell Hugo not to link to them or put them in feeds or sitemaps or anything, so it seems complicated… ↩︎
https://www.jayeless.net/2024/02/staticrypt.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
One of the reservists also described Card as a “gun nut” who spent $14,000 on a scope. The reservist added, “I don’t know what he’s capable of. I’m not insinuating anything. But I’m just saying he does have a ton of guns.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/in-video-maine-killer-says-reservists-were-afraid-of-him/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
When the woman reported Ronald Dupree’s alleged stalking to Vallejo police, she said she was told they’d look into it, according to authorities.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/vallejo-cop-allegedly-told-ex-girlfriend-he-knew-how-to-dispose-of-a-body-would-file-a-missing-persons-report-if-she-tried-to-hide/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
By Josef Federman, Wafaa Shurafa and Bassem Mroue | Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s defense minister on Friday said Israel is “thoroughly planning” a military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, signaling determination to move ahead despite growing international concerns about the safety of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians seeking refuge […]
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/israeli-military-planning-offensive-in-gaza-town-of-rafah/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: VOA News USA
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — President Joe Biden on Friday surveyed the federal cleanup in East Palestine, Ohio, more than a year after an explosive fire from a derailed train carrying hazardous chemicals, and saw up close the lingering hostility from victims still angry that he waited so long to visit.
The White House has said Biden was waiting for the right moment to visit. The mayor invited him.
Addressing residents, Biden said he wanted them to understand “that we’re not going home, no matter what, until this job is done, and it’s not done yet,” speaking of the federal government. He did not explain why it took more than a year for him to visit, nor did he address the community’s collective hurt.
He praised what he said were “Herculean efforts” by the federal, state and local governments to clean up after the derailment and fire and, announced federal grants from the National Institutes of Health to study the short- and long-term effects of what happened and blamed the derailment on greed by the railroad company, Norfolk Southern.
The derailment didn’t have to happen, Biden said.
“While there are acts of God, this was an act of greed that was 100% preventable,” Biden said after local officials briefed him on the cleanup and took him to the site of the derailment. “Let me say it again, an act of greed that was 100% preventable.”
Connor Spielmaker, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern, responded without addressing Biden’s claims of corporate greed. Spielmaker said the company promised to fix things in East Palestine and “we’re keeping our promises.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said last spring in its preliminary report that the derailment was likely caused by an overheating bearing on one of the railcars.
In his remarks, Biden also stressed that the federal government is holding Norfolk Southern accountable. He called on Congress to pass legislation sponsored by Ohio’s two U.S. senators that would require stronger protective measures for trains carrying hazardous material.
He also asked Congress to make sure that no one will have to pay federal taxes on any compensation they receive from Norfolk Southern.
Signs of the community’s still-hurt feelings were evident. Some people shouted profanity as Biden’s motorcade whisked him into town from an earlier stop in Darlington Township, Pennsylvania, where he greeted local officials and first responders. Others held derogatory signs, including one that named the president’s late son, Beau, who died of brain cancer.
Biden arrived at the derailment site and saw what resembled a construction site. Rigs, trucks, generators and covered metal tanks resembling above-ground swimming pools dotted the landscape. Local officials, including the mayor, briefed the president.
Mayor Trent Conaway, who does not support Biden, addressed the president, saying: “Your long-awaited visit to our village today allows us to focus on the things we agree with. Acknowledging this disaster should never have happened. Address the long-term health concerns and the economic growth of the village, and ensure this never happens again to another community.”
As Biden visited, between 50 and 75 people held a counter-rally in support of former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump won nearly 72% of the vote in Ohio’s Columbiana County, which includes East Palestine. He visited soon after the derailment.
Mike Young, the rally’s coordinator, described the grass-roots event as “anti-Biden.” He said he delivered water to the community after the disaster and said the president should have been an immediate presence on the ground.
“The sentiment from residents has been: ‘Where were you a year ago?’” Young said. “Too little, too late. And now Biden shows up at election time.”
Misti Allison, who lives with her family about a mile away from the derailment site, said she was really glad that Biden kept his promise to visit, especially one year in. The family evacuated the night after the accident and returned a week later. She said she worries about their exposure to the chemicals.
“Nobody asked for this to happen and we need to know that the federal government has our backs,” Allison said.
The Environmental Protection Agency engaged in an intense cleanup and says the community’s air, water and soil are now safe.
The agency removed more than 176,000 tons of hazardous waste. More than 49 million gallons of water, rainfall and snowmelt were removed or treated. The federal agency is also collecting 2,500 samples to ensure that the cleanup has succeeded.
Norfolk Southern said it has spent more than $1.1 billion in its response to the derailment. Since the fire began on February 3, 2023, and caused hazardous chemicals to mix, the company says it has invested $103.2 million in the community, including $21 million distributed to residents.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-praises-herculean-efforts-to-rebuild-site-of-ohio-train-derailment-/7491527.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, updated: 2024-02-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Google has open sourced Magika, an in-house machine-learning-powered file identifier, as part of its AI Cyber Defense Initiative, which aims to give IT network defenders and others better automated tools.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/17/google_ai_magika/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Video shows a fight involving adults occurred on court after Gunn’s dramatic league victory over Wilcox this week
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/brawl-unfolds-after-wilcox-gunn-basketball-game-ccs-to-beef-up-security-if-teams-meet-in-the-playoffs/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Reddit signs content licensing deal with AI company ahead of IPO, Bloomberg reports.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-signs-content-licensing-deal-with-ai-company-ahead-ipo-bloomberg-reports-2024-02-16/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, updated: 2024-02-17, from: Daring Fireball
When the CCP says device makers must jump to sell their products in China, Apple asks “How high?”
https://daringfireball.net/2024/02/eu_rcs_imessage Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: VOA News USA
pentagon — The United States carried out a cyberattack earlier this month against two Iranian military ships as part of its multipronged response to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iran-backed proxies, VOA has confirmed.
A U.S. official, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity because of operational sensitivities, said the MV Behshad was one of the targeted ships The Iranian military ship was collecting intelligence on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. A source with knowledge of the cyberattack said an Iranian frigate was also targeted.
The U.S. official said the cyberattack on the MV Behshad was to inhibit its ability to share targeting information with the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who have been firing missiles into international shipping lanes.
Earlier this month, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned of potential “unseen” retaliatory efforts “to send a very clear message that when American forces are attacked, when Americans are killed, we will respond, and we will respond forcefully.”
Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder declined to comment to VOA about the attack, which an official said occurred more than a week ago.
NBC News first reported the attack on the Iranian spy ship on Thursday but did not report the cyberattack on the Iranian frigate.
U.S. officials do not typically disclose covert operations, including cyberattacks.
In addition to the cyberattacks, the U.S. this month struck Iranian-backed proxies in seven locations across Syria and Iraq on February 2.
A day later, U.S. and allied forces struck dozens of Houthi targets at 13 locations in militant-controlled areas of Yemen.
A U.S. drone strike on February 7 in Baghdad killed a Kataib Hezbollah commander who the U.S. said was “responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region.”
There has not been an attack on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria or Jordan since February 4, according to the Pentagon.
U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan were attacked by Iran-backed militants more than 160 times since mid-October, shortly after Hamas’ assault on Israel. Most of the attacks caused few to no injuries or damages, but an attack in late January at the Tower 22 base in Jordan killed three American service members and wounded dozens of others.
Iranian-backed Houthi militants, however, have continued with their series of attacks targeting international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis say the attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. According to a U.S. defense official, the Houthis have attacked or threatened commercial vessels 48 times since mid-November.
The U.S. has carried out self-defense strikes against Houthi drones and missiles that have been fired into international shipping lanes or that were poised to conduct attacks. The U.S. and its partners also carried out attacks in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen last month, which they said took out key weapons used in the Houthis’ targeting of international ships.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-cyberattack-hit-2-iranian-military-ships-in-red-sea-/7491503.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: The Signal
Senior Lucas Spring has spent his entire schooling at Trinity Classical Academy. Now after spending most of his life in the school, his name will last forever in the record books. Spring, a four-year varsity player, broke Trinity boys’ basketball’s all-time scoring record in the team’s regular-season finale with Rio Hondo Prep. The senior broke […]
The post <strong>Spring ends Trinity career all over record books</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/spring-ends-trinity-career-all-over-record-books/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: The Signal
Strong defense and pitching by the Valencia Vikings was too much for the visiting Rio Mesa Spartans on Thursday. Eight innings wasn’t enough to declare a winner of the Easton Tournament game but the defensive battle was called early due to a lack of sunlight. Neither team could bring in runs in the 0-0 tie […]
The post <strong>Valencia defense shines in tie with Rio Mesa </strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/valencia-defense-shines-in-tie-with-rio-mesa/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: NASA breaking news
Scientists find that a glowing cloud that obscured a star was caused by a cataclysmic collision of two giant exoplanets.
https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/discovery-alert-glowing-cloud-points-to-a-cosmic-collision/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
City’s Self-Serve Sandbag Station is open Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Sandbag Station hours: Saturday, February 17 – 10:00 a.m.
The post City Sandbag Station is now Active appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/city-sandbag-station-is-now-active/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Robert Reich on Substack
He was never a successful businessman. He was always a con artist.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-trump-is-liable-for-fraud-even Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Despite the chiefs’ endorsements, the rank and file public safety people will go for Das, as will this household.
The post Politics and Pollution appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/politics-and-pollution/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The City of Goleta is pleased to announce that a familiar face is now the new City Librarian for the
The post Elizabeth Saucedo Promoted to City Librarian appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/elizabeth-saucedo-promoted-to-city-librarian/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The magic of photography lies in its containment.
The post The Weekly Frame: Framing appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/the-weekly-frame-framing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The Build Train Race program, now in its fifth year, has a full calendar of flat track and road racing in store for ’24.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/709042/royal-enfield-btr-2024-calendar/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Russ Buettner, reporter for NYT is on MSNBC. He has a lot of truth about Trump, but the host won’t let him finish the story.
https://www.nytimes.com/by/russ-buettner Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-17, from: The LAist
City and county stakeholders have done little to fix the deficiencies ahead of another round of strong winter storms.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/211-emergency-winter-shelter-long-wait-times Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
The latest figures shared with the Santa Clarita Valley Suicide Prevention, Postvention and Wellness Committee indicated there were 20 suicides last year compared to 33 in 2022, officials said. The local group, which started at College of the Canyons through a mental health grant about 10 years ago, works on outreach and events to support […]
The post Community group shares numbers on suicide, prevention outreach appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/community-group-shares-numbers-on-suicide-prevention-outreach/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
For over a decade, SCVi Charter School in Castaic has been known for its cutting-edge arts and aerospace programs
https://scvnews.com/new-grant-will-enable-ilead-scvi-to-grow-aerospace-pathways/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Environmental organizations celebrate the dismissal as the end of Exxon’s plan to revive offshore platforms.
The post ExxonMobil Dismisses Court Bid to Truck Oil in Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/exxonmobil-dismisses-court-bid-to-truck-oil-in-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
A Canyon Country man was arrested this week in connection with an alleged sexual assault that occurred two years ago involving a girl who was 16 years old at the time, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials. However, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office, the man will not face prosecution because […]
The post <strong>Canyon Country man arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting 16-year-old girl</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/canyon-country-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-sexually-assaulting-16-year-old-girl/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Raising the Curtain Foundation is hosting the ‘Masterclass Fundraiser and Performance – A Theatrical Journey Through Wicked,’ on Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March
https://scvnews.com/march-22-23-wicked-masterclass-fundraiser-performance/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
state department — The United States has reinstated sanctions on Yemen’s Houthi rebels effective Friday, following their continued attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, endangering maritime security.
The Houthis were first designated as a terror group three years ago and subsequently delisted due to humanitarian concerns. The relisting follows repeated demands from the U.S. and other countries for the Houthis to stop firing on commercial shipping.
Those demands have been ignored, and attacks have continued despite a series of airstrikes by the U.S. and Britain aimed at taking out radar systems and launch sites used in the attacks.
Earlier on Friday, a missile was launched from Yemen, hitting the port side of the India-bound Panamanian-flagged M/T Pollux, which was transporting crude oil. The extent of the damage is presently unclear, but the M/T Pollux is continuing its journey south under its own power.
Houthi leaders have declared that the group will persist in its attacks in solidarity with the Palestinians, as long as Israel continues what the group termed its crimes against them.
A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department noted that on January 17, Washington announced its intention to relist the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, or SDGT, after 30 days, giving the Iran-backed rebels “the opportunity to scale down their attacks” and “to minimize de-risking across the industry.”
The spokesperson also accused Iran of aiding the Houthis in destabilizing the region.
“Iran has been deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea. This is consistent with Iran’s long-term materiel support and encouragement of the Houthis’ destabilizing actions in the region. Houthi forces have employed various Iranian-origin missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles against military and civilian targets throughout the region,” the spokesperson said.
U.S. officials said they have made concerted efforts to mitigate the impact of this designation on the Yemeni people. Washington has actively engaged the shipping industry, financial institutions, banks and humanitarian aid organizations to ensure comprehensive understanding of the broad exemptions associated with this designation.
In the waning hours of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration in January 2021, the Houthis were designated as both an SDGT and a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO.
In February 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delisted the Houthis as both a foreign terrorist organization and as specially designated global terrorists.
This action was taken as the Biden administration aimed to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the long-running civil war between the internationally recognized government of Yemen, based in the southern port city of Aden, and the Houthis, whose capital is Sanaa.
Additionally, the delisting aimed to make it easier to deliver food and humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen.
The two designations carry distinct penalties. Being named as a specially designated global terrorist empowers the U.S. Treasury Department to disrupt terrorists’ access to funds within the United States and across the international financial system.
On the other hand, designation as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department prohibits anyone from providing the group with “material support,” including fighting for the group, or providing financial assistance or training.
Members of foreign terrorist organizations who are not U.S. citizens are typically banned from entering the United States, except where there is a rare and high-level decision otherwise. The Houthis have not been relisted as an FTO at this time.
U.S. defense officials said the Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial vessels and naval vessels since mid-November, impacting citizens, cargo and vessels from more than 50 countries.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-reinstates-sanctions-on-yemen-s-houthi-rebels-effective-friday/7491150.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The FTC is moving to make not only the fraudulent AI impersonation of government and business folk illegal but is also now asking the American public if they’d like some protection too. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/ftc_ai_fakes/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Doc Searls (at Harvard), New Old Blog
On April 4, 1968, when I learned with the rest of the world that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, I immediately thought that the civil rights movement, which King had led, had just been set back by fifty years. I was wrong about that. It ended right then (check that last link). Almost […]
https://doc.searls.com/2024/02/16/assassinations-work/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: This week in Indie Web
From events.indieweb.org/archive:
<p>Join us online in Zoom for demos of personal sites, recent breakthroughs, discussions about the independent web, and meet IndieWeb community members! Homebrew Website club is for all levels and areas of IndieWeb interest, whether curious, creative, coder, or all the above.</p>
</div><div><img src="https://indieweb.org/this-week/images/2024-02-16/805c2c003fe50663ca856279ed587a519ab7e125.jpg" style="width:100%" class="u-photo"></div></div>
<p>HWC Nuremberg is a in-person meeting for everybody who is interested in setting up a personal website and talk about web-related issues.</p>
</div></div>
From events.indieweb.org:
<p>Join us online in Zoom for demos of personal sites, recent breakthroughs, discussions about the independent web, and meet IndieWeb community members! Homebrew Website club is for all levels and areas of IndieWeb interest, whether curious, creative, coder, or all the above.</p>
</div></div>
<p>Join us online in Zoom for demos of personal sites, recent breakthroughs, discussions about the independent web, and meet IndieWeb community members! Homebrew Website club is for all levels and areas of IndieWeb interest, whether curious, creative, coder, or all the above.</p>
</div></div>
<p>IndieWebCamp Brighton 2024 will be the seventh IndieWebCamp to held in Brighton, England.</p>
</div></div>
<p>HWC Nuremberg is a in-person meeting for everybody who is interested in setting up a personal website and talk about web-related issues.</p>
</div></div>
<p>HWC Nuremberg is a in-person meeting for everybody who is interested in setting up a personal website and talk about web-related issues.</p>
</div></div>
From news.indieweb.org:
New this week: the #IndieWeb community deployed a major modern update to the design, usability, and cross-device support of the https://indieweb.org/ home page and wiki in general! In brief:
From IndieWeb Wiki: New User Pages:
Created by Tsxyz.neocities.org on Saturday and edited 1 more time
Created by Playground.mallegolhansen.com on Monday
Created by Jak2k.schwanenberg.name on Saturday
From IndieWeb Wiki: New Pages:
stream.indieweb.org is a web view of a stream of public posts hashtagged #indieweb across various services, that are also shown in the #stream chat channel.
Created by Tantek.com on Thursday and edited 4 more times
From IndieWeb Wiki: New Pages:
Homebrew Website Club Europe/London: 2024-02-14
Homebrew Website Club - Pacific: 2024-02-14
From IndieWeb Wiki: Recent Changes:
https://indieweb.org/this-week/2024-02-16.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
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:
Using Oddmu would also result in the following:
Oddmu now has the following features:
index
and
changes
page in the same directory are updated (instead of
the root directory)
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!
Also, code complexity is through the roof, now. All the global maps
aren’t thread-safe so they need mutexes. There’s a weird Heisenbug I
have where I run the test suite and then view.html
is gone.
The next test run then fails, of course. Thinking it was related to the
order of tests, I started running go test -shuffle on
and
found a plethora of other bugs. And I’ve seen at least two
occasions where I noticed the disappearing view.html
bug,
noted the shuffle id, reran the test with that id, got the error again,
tried for a third time, and then tests passed. So… it must be a race
condition of some sort.
How aggravating.
Maybe something got lost, with that last set of changes.
I do feel, however, that I’ve found a lot of bugs… Just now, for example, to help prevent Oddmu from showing any directories or files with a path segment starting with a period…
2024-02-14. I need to think about an archive handler that allows you to get a zip file for the current directory. (I guess zip files are more accessible than .tar.gz files? Like, for Windows and macOS…)
And the archive needs to take ODDMU_FILTER into account!
Done. ✔️
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-02-09-oddmu-namespaces Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Democratic lawmakers once again have proposed legislation to ensure that the software source code used for criminal investigations can be examined and is subject to standardized testing by the government.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/black_box_government/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
GM paused sales of the Chevrolet Blazer EV. But at least the Cadillac Lyriq launch is going more smoothly.
https://insideevs.com/news/709032/cadillac-lyriq-update-march/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: TidBITS blog
Improves Zoom account reliability and detection of Microsoft Teams conference URLs. ($56.99 annual subscription, free update, 61.4 MB, macOS 11+)https://tidbits.com/watchlist/fantastical-3-8-12/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
A new electric supercar will hit the market next week. BYD will officially launch its new Yangwang U9 electric supercar on February 25. The new EV supercar can sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/byd-launching-yangwang-u9-electric-supercar/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Heatmap News
On the surface, it should be a triumphant moment for the Big Three, the triumvirate of traditional American automakers made up of Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
They survived the pandemic and inflationary surge of the early 2020s, and they settled their labor issues with the United Auto Workers. They even had a pretty good 2023, financially. Even as interest rates reached multi-decade highs, which should normally discourage big-ticket car and truck purchases, Ford and General Motors booked $4 billion and $12 billion in profit, respectively — slightly below 2022’s levels but more than might have been reasonably expected. Stellantis, which owns the Jeep and Dodge brands, posted a record profit.
Consumers and businesses are still buying millions of full-size pickups, SUVs, and vans each year. If interest rates start to fall this summer, and the economy holds out, then 2024 could be even bigger. Yet the companies are clearly increasingly worried. And they have good reason to be. They are entering a critical period: a time when they must make the EV transition, or die trying.
For the past decade, Detroit has supported itself partly off profits earned from selling SUVs, crossovers, and pickup trucks to North Americans. It essentially delegated the market for small cars and trucks to foreign automakers operating in the United States, like Toyota and Honda. You haven’t even been able to buy a Ford-badged sedan or hatchback in the United States since the pandemic, as the automaker has winnowed its car offerings here down to the Mustang.
That model worked in the post-Great Recession period when gasoline was generally cheap and the global auto market was stable and growing. But now those profits are coming under threat. The primary driver of that threat is the rise of Chinese automakers, who are chomping away at the Big Three’s shrinking market share in China and around the world.
In the coming weeks, more and more attention will be paid to this important shift. The Biden administration is reportedly so alarmed at the ability of Chinese-made cars to enter American markets that it is considering hiking tariffs on EVs and other clean-energy products further.
Here are three important aspects of this story to understand:
Each of the Big Three finds itself in a slightly different position in the EV transition than it expected to be — and while none of them is quite as weak as it may look at first, no automaker is doing particularly well.
Ford, for instance, seems to have nailed it with the Mustang Mach E, a family-friendly crossover that has outsold any individual electric model from Kia or Hyundai. But it has struggled to convince truck buyers to try out its all-electric F-150 Lightning, and it has slowed its EV investment plans. The company lost $64,731 on each electric car it sold last year — $4.7 billion on EVs overall — meaning that its electric division only survives because of its ample profits from selling gas-burning SUVs and trucks.
General Motors sells the Chevrolet Bolt, the country’s best-selling EV that isn’t a Tesla. But it has struggled to roll out its new Ultium battery platform, which it hopes will be the basis of all its new electric cars. It recalled the Chevrolet Blazer EV after test units literally left reviewers stranded by the side of the road.
Stellantis — the trans-Atlantic fusion of the Fiat, Dodge, Jeep, and Peugeot brands — is arguably in the best shape of the three, although you could argue that it barely counts as a member of the Big Three anymore. (It is headquartered in the Netherlands.) It turned a profit on its electric cars last year, but almost all of that came from European brands that aren’t offered here. Its American business remains slower and more pickup-dependent.
Since the pandemic, China’s position in the global auto market has completely changed. Last year, the country exported more cars than it imported for the first time ever. Although most of its auto exports are gas-burning vehicles — it has filled a gap in the Russian car market left behind by western automakers’ post-Ukraine withdrawal — electric cars make up a larger and larger share of its production.
The star of China’s EV market is BYD, which passed Tesla last year as the world’s No. 1 producer of electric cars. By leveraging China’s domination of the battery industry and facility with electronics manufacturing, BYD can sell EVs for under $12,000.
While BYD hasn’t started to sell cars in the United States yet, it is getting closer to the market. On Tuesday, the head of BYD’s operations in Mexico told Nikkei that the company is exploring opening a new factory in that country.
That could get BYD’s cars into the U.S. under the umbrella of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. Then, even if the federal government found a way to block the domestic sale of BYD cars, the company could still cut into U.S. automakers’ market share in Mexico and potentially Canada, which are both major markets for American manufacturers.
Even without North American factories, Chinese EVs have started to dribble into the United States. Volvo’s small new electric SUV, the XC30, is manufactured in China and will debut at $34,950 this year. That’s roughly the same price GM hopes to achieve with its American-made Chevrolet Equinox EV, a similarly sized SUV, which is due to go on sale later this year.
That Volvo is able to achieve price parity with General Motors is itself a testament to the Chinese sector’s advantage, as the price factors in the U.S.’s 25% tariff on car imports from China.
What’s tricky is that while China is objectively better than the rest of the world at building electric cars, its companies are also helped by a slowdown in its domestic economy.
China is suffering a multi-year economic slowdown due to the slow deterioration of its real estate and construction sectors. The slower domestic economy means that these products are cheaper. More than 70% of China’s exports have fallen in cost over the past year, according to Nikkei Asia, a phenomenon that economists describe as “exporting deflation.” In part because President Xi Jinping has been so reluctant to adopt policies that would increase domestic consumption, the country’s most sure-fire method of generating economic growth has been to export more products abroad.
Many of those products — such as EVs, solar panels, and batteries — are essential to global decarbonization. As the historian Adam Tooze has written, clean energy is now the primary driver of economic growth in China. As Chinese companies search for foreign markets to sell their climate-friendly products, they are driving prices down for those products globally. That could potentially undercut other automakers’ ability to find a path to making profitable EVs.
This is the difficulty of thinking through this issue: The Big Three have made legitimate missteps, Chinese firms have a legitimate advantage over American and European firms, and Chinese firms can enjoy lower costs due to problems in the Chinese economy. How do you sort through those factors? Whatever path you choose, one message emerges: The Big Three can only be protected from the EV revolution for so long. One way or another — whether by the law of the land or the law of the markets — it’ll come for them.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/ford-gm-stellantis-byd Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: TidBITS blog
Brings new and updated features to the Swiss Army knife of graphics programs. ($39.95 new, free update, 157.8 MB, macOS 10.13+)https://tidbits.com/watchlist/graphicconverter-12-1/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: TidBITS blog
Makes 14 previously paid features available to free users. (Free, 294.4 MB, macOS 10.14+)
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/evernote-10-76-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043990-cool-trippy-slitscan-vide Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: TidBITS blog
Maintenance release for the note-taking assistant. ($249 new, free update, 38.2 MB, macOS 11+)https://tidbits.com/watchlist/tinderbox-9-7-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/nyregion/trump-civil-fraud-trial-ruling.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: TidBITS blog
Updates the document and information manager with performance enhancements and bug fixes. ($99 new, free update, 140.6 MB, macOS 10.14+)
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/devonthink-3-9-5/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
VENTURA — College of the Canyons played its way to victory at the first Western State Conference (WSC) tournament of the season hosted by Ventura College at River Ridge Golf Course on Monday.
https://scvnews.com/cougars-victorious-in-wsc-opener/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Bruce Schneier blog
It uses black beans for color and seaweed for flavor.
As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.
Read my blog posting guidelines here.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/02/friday-squid-blogging-vegan-squid-ink-pasta.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The world’s first remote-operated robot space surgeon has been successfully tested, the team behind the device said this week.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/the_first_robot_space_surgeon/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
It’s refreshing that both very qualified opposition candidates Frank Troice and Lompoc’s Mayor Jenelle Osborn offer the voters in the redistricted 3rd District a choice this year of better representation.
The post Representation in the 3rd appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/representation-in-the-3rd/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
The CSUN faculty are apprehensive of the tentative agreement that was accepted by the CFA leadership last month after a one-day strike, as the vote to ratify the agreement is…
https://sundial.csun.edu/178443/news/csun-faculty-apprehensive-of-cfa-tentative-agreement/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Pretty sure mere mortals can’t ride a trials bike through the museum, but at least you can visit again.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/709036/honda-collection-hall-renovation-reopens/ Save to Pocket
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-16, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
One possible incarnation of the Project Settings, now working live against Godot.
Various paper cuts are still visible:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111943390728284654 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
new york — Donald Trump must pay $354.9 million in penalties for fraudulently overstating his net worth to dupe lenders, a New York judge ruled on Friday, handing the former U.S. president another legal setback in a civil case that imperils his real estate empire.
Justice Arthur Engoron also banned Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years.
Engoron canceled his ruling from September ordering the dissolution of companies that control pillars of Trump’s real estate empire, saying on Friday that this was no longer necessary because he is appointing an independent monitor and compliance director to oversee Trump’s businesses.
In the ruling, Engoron wrote that Trump and the other defendants in the case “are incapable of admitting the error of their ways.”
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron wrote. “Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”
The lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his family businesses of overstating his net worth by as much $3.6 billion a year over a decade to fool bankers into giving him better loan terms.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement that the ruling was a “manifest injustice” and “culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt” against him.
“This is not just about Donald Trump — if this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business,” Habba said, adding that she plans to appeal.
Trump and his adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, were defendants in the case. Don Jr. and Eric Trump were each ordered by the judge to pay $4 million.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and called the case a political vendetta by James, an elected Democrat.
The civil fraud case could deal a major blow to Trump’s real estate empire as the businessman turned politician leads the race for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
During defiant and meandering trial testimony in November, Trump conceded that some of his property values were inaccurate but insisted banks were obligated to do their own due diligence.
Engoron criticized Trump for his behavior during his trial testimony and wrote that the testimony hurt his cause.
“Donald Trump rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial,” the judge wrote. “His refusal to answer the questions directly, or in some cases, at all, severely compromised his credibility.”
Trump could be required to deposit his portion of the full judgment plus interest during an appeal, which is standard practice in similar cases.
Trump could also post a smaller amount with collateral and interest by securing a type of loan called an appeal bond. But he may have trouble finding a willing lender after Engoron found he lied to banks about his wealth.
It is unclear how much access to cash Trump has, and estimates of his fortune vary, with Forbes pegging his net worth at $2.6 billion. Trump testified in an April deposition that he had roughly $400 million in cash.
Friday’s ruling came after a contentious three-month trial in Manhattan. The case was decided by the judge without a jury.
Trump used his occasional court appearances as impromptu campaign stops, delivering incendiary remarks to reporters and insisting his enemies are using the courts to prevent him from retaking the White House.
Trump is leading by a wide margin in the race for the Republican nomination despite a host of other legal troubles.
He is under indictment in four criminal cases, including one in New York related to hush money payments he made to a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election. The judge overseeing that case on Thursday set a March 25 trial date over the objections of Trump’s lawyers, who sought to delay it due to Trump’s crowded legal and political schedule.
Trump has also been charged in Florida for his handling of classified documents upon leaving office and in Washington and in Georgia for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four cases.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-must-pay-354-9-million-barred-from-ny-business-for-3-years-/7491115.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Digital Rhetoric Collaberative
We are excited to share that the DRC has recently updated its Syllabus Repository with syllabi on artificial intelligence for composition, digital rhetoric, and tech comm classes! This is a great collection of resources for educators looking to integrate AI in their classes. You can access all the syllabi at this link: https://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/syllabus/artificial-intelligence/ Please share […]
https://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2024/02/16/syllabus-repository-update-ai-and-writing/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/16/alexei-navalny-dies-russia-putin/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
N.Y. judge orders Trump and executives to pay $364 million in civil fraud case.
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/16/1226294071/trump-fined-fraud-trial-ny Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Screenwriters from some of the year’s best films talk about their trade, trials, tribulations, and triumphs at Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
The post A Satisfying Evening with the Scribes at SBIFF appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/a-satisfying-evening-with-the-scribes-at-sbiff/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Doc Searls: Cluetrain at 25.
https://doc.searls.com/2024/02/16/cluetrain-at-25/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Six home runs, including a grand slam, left the yard, 29 runs were scored on 30 hits, but in the end it was a one-run game as The Master’s University baseball team fell short to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 15-14 Thursday at Lou Herwaldt Stadium
https://scvnews.com/mustangs-come-up-short-in-slugfest/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
In 1994, a joint NASA and Department of Defense (DOD) mission called Clementine dramatically changed our view of the Moon. As the first U.S. mission to the Moon in more than two decades, Clementine’s primary objectives involved technology demonstrations to test lightweight component and sensor performance. The lightweight sensors aboard the spacecraft returned 1.6 million […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/30-years-ago-clementine-changes-our-view-of-the-moon/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043994-nyc-plans-6-new-waterfron Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Though the round stingray, named Charlotte, shares her aquarium tank with two male sharks, experts say it is impossible for a shark to impregnate a ray
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-female-stingray-that-hasnt-had-a-mate-in-eight-years-is-mysteriously-pregnant-is-a-shark-the-father-180983809/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Cory Doctorow’s blog
Today’s links How America’s oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale: Temporarily embarrassed millionaires aren’t born, they’re made. Come see me on tour!: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Boston, New York City, Toronto, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Chicago, Amherst, Torino, Tartu. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading How America’s oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale (permalink) Capitalism is a vibes-based system. Sure, we all know about Keynes’s “Animal Spirits” that see “bulls” and “bears” vying to set the market’s future, but beyond that, there’s just a hell of a lot of narrative. Writing for The American Prospect, Adam M Lowenstein reviews two books that tell the histories of the stories that are used to sell American capitalism to the American people – the stories that turn workers into “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”: https://prospect.org/culture/books/2024-02-16-stories-corporations-tell-williams-waterhouse-review/ The first of these books is Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation, by Kyle Edward Williams, a kind of pre-history of “woke capitalism”: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393867237 Taming is a history of the low-water marks for Big Business’s reputation in America, and how each was overcome through PR campaigns that declared a turning point in which business leaders would pursue the common good, even at the expense of their shareholders’ interests. The story starts in the 1950s, when DuPont and other massive firms had gained a well-deserved reputation as rapacious profit-generation machines that “alienated workers and pushed around small businessmen, investors, and consumers.” This prompted DuPont’s PR chief, Harold Brayman, to write a memo called “The Attack on Bigness,” where he set out a plan to sell America on a new cuddly image for corporate giants. For Brayman, the problem was that corporate execs were too shy about telling their social inferiors about all the good that businesses did for them: “The businessman is normally reluctant to talk out loud. He frequently shuns the spotlight and is content with plugging his wares, not himself.” This was the starting gun for a charm offensive by American big business that included IBM president Thomas Watson Jr (“I think there is a world market for about five computers”) going on a speaking tour organized by McKinsey & Co, where he told audiences that his company’s billion dollar annual profits had convinced it to assume “responsibilities for the broader public welfare.” This set the template for a nationwide mania of “business statesmanship” that Fortune celebrated with an editorial announcing “a great transformation, of which the world as a whole is as yet unaware” that put the “profit motive…on its last leg.” Fortune then spent the next seventy years recycling this announcement, every time the tide went out on business’s popularity. In 2019, Fortune platformed IBM president Ginni Rometty for an announcement that the company was orienting its priorities to the public good: “It’s a question of whether society trusts you or not. We need society to accept what it is that we do.” The occasion for Rometty’s quote was a special package on the Trump tax-cuts, a trillion-dollar gift to American big business, which lobbyists for the Business Roundtable celebrated with an announcement that American capitalism would now serve “stakeholders” (not just shareholders). Fortune celebrated this “change” as “fundamental and profound.” Fast forward five years and corporate leaders are still telling stories, this time about “stakeholder capitalism” and “ESG” – the dread “woke capitalism” that has right-wing swivel-eyed loons running around, hair afire, declaring the end of capitalism. For Williams and Lowenstein (and me), all this ESG, DEI, and responsible capitalism is just window dressing, a distraction to keep the pitchforks and torches in people’s closets, and to keep the guillotines in their packaging. The right-wing is doing a mirror-world version of liberals who freak out when OpenAI claims to have built a machine that will pauperize every worker – assuming that a PR pitch is the gospel truth, and then repeating it in criticism. Criti-hype, in other words: https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5 Think of ESG: the right is freaking out that ESG is harming shareholders by leaving hydrocarbons in the ground to appease climate-addled greenies. The reality is that ESG is barely disguised greenwashing, and it’s fully compatible with burning every critter that died in the Mesozoic, Cenozoic, and lo, even the Paleozoic: https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/15/sanctions-financing/#profiteers The reason this tactic is so successful is that Americans have also been sold another narrative: that American problems are solved by American individuals as entrepreneurs and businesspeople, not as polities or as members of a union (let alone the working class!). This is the subject of the second book Lowenstein reviews, One Day I’ll Work for Myself: The Dream and Delusion That Conquered America, by Benjamin Waterhouse: https://wwnorton.com/books/one-day-ill-work-for-myself/ A keystone of American narrative capitalism is the idea that the USA is a nation of small businesspeople, Jeffersonian yeoman farmsteaders of the US economy. But even a cursory examination shows that the country is ruled – economically and politically – by very large firms. Uber sells itself as a way to be your own boss (“No shifts. No boss. No limits.”) – even though it’s a system where the app is your boss, and thanks to that layer of misdirection, Uber gets to be the worst conceivable boss, while its workers have no recourse in labor law: https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men In labor fights, Uber represents itself as the champion of innumerable “small businesspeople” who drive its unlicensed taxis. In consumer protection fights, Amazon claims to be fighting for “small businesspeople” who sell on its platform. In privacy fights, Facebook claims to represent “small businesspeople” who buy its surveillance advertising. But large firms are actively hostile to small firms, seeing them as small-fry to be rooked or destroyed (recall that when Amazon targeted small publishers for bankruptcy-level discounts, they called the program “The Gazelle Project” and Bezos told his executives to tackle these firms “the way a cheetah pursues a sickly gazelle”). Decades of this tale have produced “a profound shift from a shared belief that individuals might come together to solve problems, into a collective faith in individual effort.” America’s long love-affair with rugged individualism was weaponized in the 1970s by corporations seeking to shed their regulatory obligation to workers, customers, and the environment. As with Big Tech today, the big business lobby held up mom-and-pop businesses as the true beneficiaries of deregulation, even as they knifed these firms. A telling anecdote comes from someone who worked for the Chamber of Commerce’s magazine Nation’s Business: when this editor pointed out that many of the magazine’s subscribers were small businesspeople and asked if they could start including articles relevant to mom-and-pops, the editor in chief said, “Over my dead body.” The neoliberal era has been an unbroken string of platitudes celebrating the small business and policies that annihilate their chances against large firms. Ronald Reagan’s dewy-eyed hymns to American entrepreneurship sounded nice, but what matters is that he attempted to abolish the Small Business Administration and refused to address the 20,000 attendee “White House Conference on Small Business.” In the years since, American has sacrificed its small businesses while pulling out all the stops – bailouts and tax cuts and elite bankruptcy – to keep its largest firms growing. New regulations like Dodd-Frank were neutered in the name of saving mom-and-pop shops, even though the provisions that were cut already exempted small businesses. Today, millions of Americans are treading water in a fetid stew of LLC-poisoning, rise-and-grind, multi-level-marketing, dropshipping and gig-work, convinced that the only way to get a better life is to pull themselves up by their bootstraps: https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/10/declaration-of-interdependence/ Narrative does a lot of work here. The American economy runs on bubbles, another form of narrative capitalism. Take AI, a subject I sincerely wish I could stop hearing about, not least because I’m certain that 99% of that thinking is being wasted on whatever residue remains after the bubble pops: https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/ AI isn’t going to do your job, but its narrative may convince your boss to fire you and replace you with a bot that can’t do your job. Like what happened when Air Canada hired a chatbot to answer customer inquiries and it started making shit up about bereavement discounts that the company later claimed it didn’t have to honor: https://bc.ctvnews.ca/air-canada-s-chatbot-gave-a-b-c-man-the-wrong-information-now-the-airline-has-to-pay-for-the-mistake-1.6769454 This story’s been all over the news for the past couple of days, but so far as I’ve seen, no one has pointed out the seemingly obvious inference that this chatbot probably ripped off lots of people. The victim here was extraordinarily persistent, chasing a refund for 10 weeks and then going to the regulator. This guy is a six-sigma self-advocate – which implies a whole bell-curve’s worth of comparatively normal people who just ate the shit-sandwich Air Canada fed them. The reason AI is a winning proposition for Air Canada isn’t that it can do a customer service rep’s job – it can’t. But the AI is a layer of indirection – like the app that is the true boss of Uber drivers – that lets Air Canada demoralize the customers it steals from into walking away from their losses. Nevertheless, the narrative that AI Will Change Everything Forever is powerful – more powerful than AI itself, that’s for sure. Take this Bloomberg headline: “Nearly all wealth gained by world’s rich this year comes from AI”: https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/nearly-all-wealth-gained-by-world-s-rich-this-year-comes-from-ai-124021600006_1.html Dig in and you find even more narrative. The single largest beneficiary of AI stock gains last year was Mark Zuckerberg ($161B!). Zuck is American Narrative Capitalism’s greatest practitioner: the guy who made billions peddling a series of lies, from “pivot to video” to “metaverse,” leaping from one lie to the next just ahead of the mass stock-selloffs that wiped out lesser predators. The Narrative Capitalism Cinematic Universe has a lot of side-plots like AI and entrepreneurship and woke capitalism, but its main narrative arc was articulated, ad nauseum, by Margaret Thatcher: “There is no alternative.” This is the most important part of the story, the part that says it literally can’t be otherwise. The only way to organize society is through markets, and the only way to organize markets is to leave them alone, no matter how much suffering they cause. This is a baffling story, because it’s so easily disproved. Zuck says the only way to have friends is to let him surveil you from asshole to appetite, even though he once ran Facebook as the privacy-forward alternative to MySpace, and promised never to spy on you: https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1128876 Likewise, the business leaders – and their chorus of dutiful Renfields – who insist that monopoly is the natural and inevitable outcome of any market economy just handwave away the decades during which anti-monopoly enforcement actually kept most businesses from getting too big to fail and too big to jail. I’m no champion of market efficiency – especially not as the best and final arbiter of social and economic questions – but when I hear my comrades repeating the Thatcherite claims that all forms of capitalism necessarily degrade into monopolistic quagmires, that there is no alternative, it sounds like more criti-hype. This is a frequent point of departure during discussions of enshittification: some people dismiss the whole idea of enshittification as “just capitalism.” But we had decades of digital services that either didn’t degrade, or, when they did, were replaced by superior competitors with a minimum of switching costs for users who migrated from the decaying incumbent to greener pastures. The reality is that while there are problems with all forms of capitalism, there are different kinds of capitalist problems, and some forms of capitalism are less harmful to working people and more capable of enacting and enforcing sound policy than others. Enshittification is what happens when the constraints on the worst impulses of companies and their investors and managers are removed. When a company doesn’t have competitors, when it can capture its regulators to trample our rights with impunity, when it can enlist those regulators to shut down would-be competitors who might free us from its “walled garden,” and when it can fire any worker who refuses to enact harm upon the users they serve, then that company will enshittify: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel A company can be made to treat you well, even if it is run by a wicked person who sees you as a mark to be fleeced – that mustache twirler just has to be constrained – by competition, regulation, self-help and labor. He may still hate you and wish you harm, but he won’t be able to act on it. As MLK said: It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, religion and education will have to do that, but it can restrain him from lynching me. And I think that’s pretty important also. And so that while legislation may not change the hearts of men, it does change the habits of men. And we see this every day. Come see me on tour! (permalink) My next novel is The Bezzle, a high-tech ice-cold revenge thriller starring Marty Hench, a two-fisted forensic accountant, as he takes on the sleaziest scams of the first two decades of the 2000s, from hamburger-themed Ponzis to the unbelievably sleazy and evil prison-tech industry: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle I’m taking Marty on the road! I’ll be visiting eighteen cities between now and June, and I hope you’ll come out and say hello, visit a beloved local bookseller, and maybe get a book (or two)! 21 Feb: Weller Bookworks, Salt Lake City, 1830h: https://www.wellerbookworks.com/event/store-cory-doctorow-feb-21-630-pm 22 Feb: Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, 19h: https://www.mystgalaxy.com/22224Doctorow 24 Feb: Vroman’s, Pasadena, 17h, with Adam Conover (!!) https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Cory-Doctorow-discusses-The-Bezzle 26 Feb: Third Place Books, Seattle, 19h, with Neal Stephenson (!!!) https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow 27 Feb: Powell’s, Portland, 19h: https://www.powells.com/book/the-bezzle-martin-hench-2-9781250865878/1-2 29 Feb: Changing Hands, Phoenix, 1830h: https://www.changinghands.com/event/february2024/cory-doctorow 9-10 Mar: Tucson Festival of the Book: https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?action=display_author&id=15669 13 Mar: San Francisco Public Library, details coming soon! 23 or 24 Mar: Toronto, details coming soon! 25-27 Mar: NYC and DC, details coming soon! 29-31 Mar: Wondercon Anaheim: https://www.comic-con.org/wc/ 11 Apr: Anderson’s Books, Chicago, 19h: https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1 12 Apr: RISD Debates in AI, Providence, details coming soon! 19-21 Apr: Torino Biennale Tecnologia https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia 2 May, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Winnipeg https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337 5-11 May: Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/ 6-9 Jun: Media Ecology Association keynote, Amherst, NY https://media-ecology.org/convention Calgary and Vancouver – details coming soon! Hey look at this (permalink) Zelle Is Using My Name and Voice without My Consent https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/01/zelle-is-using-my-name-and-voice-without-my-consent.html The 2023 Hugo Awards: A Report on Censorship and Exclusion https://file770.com/the-2023-hugo-awards-a-report-on-censorship-and-exclusion/ (h/t John Scalzi) Has Wired Given Up On Fact Checking? Publishes Facts-Optional Screed Against Section 230 That Gets Almost Everything Wrong https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/15/has-wired-given-up-on-fact-checking-publishes-facts-optional-screed-against-section-230-that-gets-almost-everything-wrong/ This day in history (permalink) #20yrsago Firsthand account of the gay marriage rush at San Fran city hall https://web.archive.org/web/20041010062123/http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/2004-02-15.html #20yrsago James Joyce’s descendants are copyright jerks https://web.archive.org/web/20040624141528/http://funferal.org/mt-archive/000514.html #15yrsago European Commission demands a single, standard phone charger https://www.telecompaper.com/news/ec-wants-one-mobile-phone-charger-for-all-brands–658155 #10yrsago AIDS deniers use bogus copyright claims to censor critical Youtube videos https://www.techdirt.com/2014/02/14/aids-denial-crazies-go-all-dmca-videos-educating-people-their-craziness/ #5yrsago Wyoming GOP Senator explains death-penalty vote by saying that being executed was good enough for Jesus, so it’s good enough for criminals https://trib.com/news/state-regional/govt-and-politics/wyoming-senate-defeats-death-penalty-repeal-bill/article_0603777b-4059-5101-ab92-3731036c4478.html #5yrsago Despite public pledges, leading scientific journals still allow statistical misconduct and refuse to correct it https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-019-3173-2 #5yrsago Yacht dealers rely on Instagram “yacht influencers” to flip their wares https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-lonely-life-of-a-yacht-influencer #5yrsago India’s e-waste recycling “markets” are toxic nightmares filled with child laborers https://theconversation.com/electronic-waste-is-recycled-in-appalling-conditions-in-india-110363 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 Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego), Feb 22 https://www.mystgalaxy.com/22224Doctorow The Bezzle at Third Place Books (Seattle), Feb 26 https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/cory-doctorow The Bezzle at Powell’s (Portland) Feb 27: https://www.powells.com/book/the-bezzle-martin-hench-2-9781250865878/1-2 The Bezzle at Changing Hands (Phoenix), Feb 29: https://www.changinghands.com/event/february2024/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 Wondercon Anaheim, Mar 29-31 https://www.comic-con.org/wc/ The Bezzle at Anderson’s Books (Chicago), Apr 17 https://www.andersonsbookshop.com/event/cory-doctorow-1 Torino Biennale Tecnologia (Apr 19-21) https://www.turismotorino.org/en/experiences/events/biennale-tecnologia Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Winnipeg), May 2 https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctorow-tickets-798820071337?aff=oddtdtcreator Tartu Prima Vista Literary Festival (May 5-11) https://tartu2024.ee/en/kirjandusfestival/ Media Ecology Association keynote (Amherst, NY), Jun 6-9 https://media-ecology.org/convention American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21 https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/ Recent appearances: From privacy to paper jams, a look at printer problems https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/2024-02-15/from-privacy-to-paper-jams-a-look-at-printer-problems Big Story Podcast https://thebigstorypodcast.ca/2024/02/13/a-story-about-how-anyone-yes-even-you-can-get-scammed/ Why Taylor Left Tiktok (Today, Explained) https://open.spotify.com/episode/62R2sJ6cEUOitIDPBdmwpy 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/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
The latest data reveals a 52% increase in volume compared to 2022.
https://insideevs.com/news/708996/us-ev-registrations-december2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will discuss recent science research and technology demonstrations aboard the International Space Station at 10:35 a.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 21, with astronauts living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory. During the Earth-to-space call, leadership and the crew will discuss a tech experiment demonstrating the performance of a small robot remotely controlled […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-administrator-to-discuss-science-with-crew-aboard-space-station/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
washington — Russian plans to launch a new, space-based anti-satellite weapon system that could potentially wreak havoc on Earth are not set in stone, according to U.S. President Joe Biden, who suggested Friday that there was a still a chance to persuade Moscow to change course.
Word of the new Russian threat began spreading Wednesday after a top U.S. lawmaker issued a statement warning of “a serious national security threat,” and demanded Biden declassify the intelligence so the American public, Congress and U.S. allies could better formulate a response.
Suggestions the new Russian system made use of either nuclear power or nuclear weapons then sparked additional concern.
But Biden said such fears were overblown and that the danger was not imminent.
“There is no nuclear threat to the people of America or anywhere else in the world with what Russia is doing at the moment,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“There is no evidence that they have made a decision to go forward with doing anything in space,” he said.
“We found out there was a capacity to launch a system into space that could theoretically do something that was damaging,” Biden added. “Hadn’t happened yet, and my hope is it will not.”
‘Private engagement’
White House officials on Thursday described the Russian anti-satellite system as a capability that had not yet been deployed, and they pushed back against demands to release additional details.
“The intelligence community has serious concerns about a broad declassification of this intelligence,” said national security communications adviser John Kirby. “They also assess that starting with private engagement, rather than immediately publicizing the intelligence, could be a much more effective approach.
“We’ve reached out to the Russian side, but we have not secured actual conversations at this point,” Kirby added.
A report in Russia’s Tass news agency Friday, citing a Kremlin spokesperson, denied Washington had tried to talk to Russian officials.
Russia on Thursday dismissed the U.S. allegations as a “malicious fabrication,” with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accusing Washington of a ruse to get U.S. lawmakers to approve a bigger budget.
U.S. intelligence agencies have been warning for years that Russia and China have been pursuing “a full range of anti-satellite weapons,” noting that the development and use of such systems “could degrade U.S. intelligence-gathering abilities.”
One of the most recent declassified U.S. intelligence assessments warned that Moscow continues to “field new anti-satellite weapons to disrupt and degrade U.S. and allied space capabilities.”
Russia “is developing, testing and fielding an array of nondestructive and destructive counterspace weapons — including jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed-energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities and ground-based ASAT [anti-satellite] capabilities,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in its 2023 Worldwide Threat Assessment report.
Space-based advantages
Some analysts have likewise cautioned that any Russian advanced anti-satellite technology could have far-ranging impacts on the U.S., and U.S. troops in particular.
“Our military gets a lot of advantage from our space-based capabilities — things like GPS that allow us to navigate and conduct precision operations, put bombs exactly on targets very effectively,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who focuses on defense and space policy.
“[If] an adversary can take space away from us and deny us the ability to use those space systems, they would negate one of our biggest advantages,” Harrison told VOA.
But U.S. lawmakers briefed on the intelligence late Thursday voiced confidence in the U.S. approach.
“We all came away with a very strong impression that the administration is taking this very seriously and that the administration has a plan in place,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, whose statement sparked much of the tumult.
“We look forward to supporting them as they go to implement it,” he added.
VOA’s Patsy Widakuswara, Katherine Gypson and Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-suggests-russia-can-be-talked-out-of-launching-new-anti-satellite-system-/7491074.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Stephen Smith’s blog
Introduction “RISC-V Assembly Language Programming: Unlock the Power of the RISC-V Instruction Set” is my fourth Assembly Language programming book published by Apress, a division of Springer Nature. This book is part of their Maker Innovations Series. My first three books were on the three types of ARM instruction sets, namely 32-bit, 64-bit and thumb […]
https://smist08.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/risc-v-assembly-language-programming/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: CI View (CSCI Student Paper)
By Melisa Rodriguez
http://civiewnews.com/broadcasting/love-is-in-the-air-at-ci/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=love-is-in-the-air-at-ci Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-planning-offensive-on-gaza-s-rafah-despite-international-outcry/7491050.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/two-juveniles-charged-in-deadly-super-bowl-celebration-shooting/7491018.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is going to build the Sun Bear Solar Project, one of the US’s largest solar farms, in Colorado.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/native-american-ute-mountain-ute-tribe-solar-farm-colorado/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
Austin, Texas — As Washington and Beijing move cautiously to mend frayed relations, China is working to boost people-to-people ties, which saw a dramatic decline during the COVID pandemic.
Since last fall, China has hosted mayors from more than two dozen sister cities amid a renewed push to rebuild contacts with the 284 cities and states that Beijing says it maintains. The push kicked off with a visit by California Governor Gavin Newsom to China and began picking up steam around the time of last year’s meeting between President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.
Xi, the Chinese president, is also spearheading an effort to bring 50,000 students to China over the next five years.
Last month, a group of high school students from Muscatine, Iowa, visited China. Another group from Tacoma, Washington, will visit its sister city of Fuzhou in southern Fujian province in March.
Xi’s push for more sister-city engagement comes as the number of students studying in China dropped to just 350 in 2022 compared to around 15,000 six or seven years ago. The number increased slightly to 700 in 2023.
It also comes as foreign businesses in China are struggling with slumping confidence, a slowing economy and unpredictable official behavior including raids and the expansion of an anti-spy law.
Some worry that the push is part of an effort to regain control of the narrative and draw attention away from bigger concerns such as China’s military aggression toward Taiwan or in the South China Sea, or its human rights abuses and handling of Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
Others see it as a necessary part of keeping the lines of communication open and building understanding.
In October of last year, Kim Norton, the mayor of Rochester, Minnesota, joined one of the first groups to visit. He told VOA that memories of the trip are still fresh in his mind, and that many sister city relationships were rekindled during the visit.
“It was a great experience. Everyone we met was very nice to us,” Norton said. “I really enjoyed meeting the Chinese people, experiencing Chinese cities, and understanding the local culture and issues related to climate change.”
Others who participated in the visit included Jim Brainard, the retired mayor of Carmel, Indiana; Barbara Buffaloe, mayor of Columbia, Missouri; Lee Harris, mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee; Chokwe Lumumba, mayor of Jackson, Mississippi; and Robyn Tannehill, mayor of Oxford, Mississippi.
During the visit, which was organized by the United States Heartland China Association, a sister city contract was signed twinning Carmel, Indiana, with Xiangyang in Hubei Province.
The mayoral delegation visited five cities: Hong Kong, Wuhan, Nanjing, Suzhou and Shanghai; test-drove electric vehicles produced by China Lantu Company; met with students from Wuhan University; watched a performance of the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra; and participated in the China International Import Expo.
Jessica Bissett, director of leadership programs at the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said local government level exchanges have become a new trend. When U.S.-China relations are tense, state and provincial governments, especially municipal governments, have more leeway to decide what kind of exchanges and cooperation are best for local economic development.”
Governors, mayors, their biggest responsibilities are to grow their economies and to make sure that their constituents have enough jobs and that they can have the best quality of life as possible,” said Bissett.
“So … if U.S.-China economic relations would benefit their constituents, their towns, their states or their cities, then they’re going to look into potential opportunities.”
She said that for Chinese local governments, last year’s economic downturn has also created incentive for such exchanges. She added that the U.S. State Department is also happy to see this kind of active exchange between local governments.
“The State Department now has a special unit that is focusing on sub-national relations,” Bissett added. “I think they would be encouraging things that are happening right now.”
VOA’s Mandarin service reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for comments but did not receive a response.
Given the heightened national security concerns in both countries, pushing forward local government level cooperation has its challenges.
Li Jing, director of an investment institution in Shandong Province who requested that a pseudonym be used so he could speak more freely with VOA Mandarin, said that before the U.S.-China trade war, he often helped to invite U.S. local government officials, entrepreneurs, university scholars, and well-known young entrepreneurs visit Shandong Province.
He said he would help Chinese to make capital investments in American companies, and American companies to establish operations in China and participate in project development. Such delegations used to be held several times a year, he said.
Due to the U.S.-China trade war and the pandemic, such delegations were suspended for several years. Last year, he wanted to restart such activities but encountered many difficulties.
“Some [U.S.] companies were worried that after taking Chinese capital, their market development in the U.S. and other Western countries will be hindered, and they may even be sanctioned by the Western governments,” he said. “Some American university professors are also worried about the consequences of cooperation with China. It may affect their work in the U.S.”
He said that although most Americans he contacted were still interested in the Chinese market, they were also worried about the national security risks of cooperating with the Chinese government or accepting Chinese capital.
Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute think tank, believes that such exchanges should be stopped.
“China’s Communist Party is determined and relentless. It uses every point of contact with America to take down our country. That means every point of contact, no matter how innocent looking, is dangerous to us,” Chang said.
Some have already responded to those concerns.
Shortly after retired Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard visited China and signed a new sister city relationship with Xiangyang, the city’s new mayor Sue Finkham announced this month that it was withdrawing its membership from the United States Heartland China Association or USHCA, citing concerns about the group’s close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Carmel, however, has not ended its sister city relationship with Xiangyang.
USHCA declined to respond to several requests from VOA for comment.
Mayor Norton said that while international politics was not the focus of his visit to China, the delegation cooperated with the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in China, understood the matters that needed attention in international relations, and ensured that the relationship between the local governments of the two countries would not cause conflicts at the level of national interests.
Bissett said local governments should be cautious about cooperation in high-tech and intellectual property fields. However, she said the two countries shouldn’t use national security as an excuse to scrutinize everything.
“We need to give people more credit when they choose to engage with China and go on these trips and have faith in them that they can make the distinction for themselves,” she said.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin Service.
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-rekindles-sister-city-ties-as-relations-remain-strained-/7491035.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The wreck of the S.S. Arlington has finally been found—but it provides no answers about Captain Frederick Burke’s final moments
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/arlington-shipwreck-lake-superior-why-captain-remain-aboard-180983810/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043984-i-am-normally-a-pepsi Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Analysis Over the past few years we’ve seen a number of OEMs, including Dell, HPE, and others trying to make on-prem datacenters look and feel more like the public cloud.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/oxide_3000lb_blade_server/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Daring Fireball
https://developer.oculus.com/blog/introducing-app-lab-a-new-way-to-distribute-oculus-quest-apps/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
On the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla price changes and discounts, a controversial fatal Tesla crash, a Rivian R2 teaser, and more.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/podcast-tesla-prices-controversial-fatal-tesla-crash-rivian-r2-teaser/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
The new Kia EV9 is being marked up by dealers despite the brand specifically asking them not to. As demand picks, some dealers are marking up the electric SUV by up to $7,000 over MSRP.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/kia-ev9-marked-up-dealers/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Liliputing
The first developer preview of Android 15 is now available, giving us a first very early look at what to expect from the next major version of Android, which won’t officially launch until much later this year (probably in the fall). Android 15 Developer Preview 1 can be installed in an emulator or on a Google […]
The post Android 15 Developer Preview brings partial screen sharing, “notification cooldown” and other changes appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/android-15-developer-preview-brings-partial-screen-sharing-notification-cooldown-and-other-changes/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA – DoorDash today announced that 2 Santa Barbara social impact organizations will receive $10,500 in Project DASH Impact
The post Santa Barbara Social Impact Organizations to Receive $10,500 in Project DASH Impact Grants from DoorDash to Help Residents Access Food, Essential Items appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/santa-barbara-social-impact-organizations-to-receive-10500-in-project-dash-impact-grants-from-doordash-to-help-residents-access-food-essential-items/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
More than 200 of the world’s foremost producers gather Feb. 29-Mar. 2 at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara.
The post A Planet of Pinot Noir Descends on Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/a-planet-of-pinot-noir-descends-on-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The 28th Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival makes a triumphant return in 2024 to William S. Hart Park (24151 Newhall Avenue) on Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m
https://scvnews.com/special-events-tickets-for-santa-clarita-cowboy-festival-now-on-sale/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: RAND blog
As multinational corporations explore corporate crypto, anticipating its future evolution is rife with uncertainty. Nonetheless, given corporate crypto’s disruptive potential, it is crucial to consider the policy implications of this emerging technology.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/corporate-crypto-worth-taking-seriously.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-17, from: The LAist
New county letters obtained by LAist find that a nonprofit led by an O.C. supervisor’s 22-year-old daughter has failed to prove what it did with more than $4 million intended to feed needy residents during the pandemic.
https://laist.com/news/politics/oc-supervisor-daughter-viet-america-society-andrew-do Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/the-pixel-painter Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Discovered in England, the egg is thought to be the only one of its kind—and analysis of its contents could shed new light on its origins
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1700-year-old-roman-egg-found-in-the-uk-is-still-intact-180983784/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
An impromptu preview of the U.S. Spec Fiat 500e and chat with North American Fiat Lead Aamir Ahmed reveals the future plans for the struggling brand.
https://insideevs.com/news/708871/fiat-future-500e-beyond-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: City of Santa Clarita
TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FESTIVAL SPECIAL EVENTS General Festival Admission is Free! The 28th Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival makes a triumphant return in 2024 to William S. Hart Park (24151 Newhall Avenue) on Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. In addition to a weekend […]
The post Tickets on Sale Now for Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival Special Events appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/02/16/tickets-on-sale-now-for-santa-clarita-cowboy-festival-special-events-2/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has started to take orders for the new Powerwall 3 in the US and Elon Musk revealed that the new home energy storage system has an insane peak power output of 30 kW.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/tesla-opens-powerwall-3-orders-elon-reveals-30-kw-peak-power/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043995-matt-webb-wrote-an-ios Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: CI View (CSCI Student Paper)
By Ryanne Slagiel CI is a school full of hidden gems, with our rich history and bustling present-day university campus. One of these hidden gems […]
http://civiewnews.com/news/the-island-fox-cis-creative-arts-magazine/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-island-fox-cis-creative-arts-magazine Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
On Tuesday, Feb. 13, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced the Fulbright Top Producing Institutions for 2023-24, with California Institute of the Arts ranked as a top producer of student Fulbright recipients for master’s institutions
https://scvnews.com/calarts-ranked-among-top-producers-of-fulbright-scholars/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-make-no-mistake-putin-is-responsible-for-navalny-s-death-/7490895.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
General Motors (GM) has signed a multiyear deal with Quebec-based Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) to supply nearly 20,000 tons of active anode material per year.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/gm-sustainable-refined-graphite-nmg-canadian-miner/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: CI View (CSCI Student Paper)
By Miriam Packard In a world that often moves at a rapid pace, it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle […]
http://civiewnews.com/opinion/spreading-sunshine-embracing-random-acts-of-kindness-day-on-february-17th/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spreading-sunshine-embracing-random-acts-of-kindness-day-on-february-17th Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Rave reviews follow this connoisseur of clean jokes.
The post Stand-up Standout Brian Regan Stops in Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/stand-up-standout-brian-regan-stops-in-santa-barbara/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
“I don’t even see how we could even do that again,” said Fiat’s North American lead, Aamir Ahmed, told InsideEVs.
https://insideevs.com/news/709015/fiat-lease-deal-500e-never/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043982-some-common-programming-t Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s iconic “worm” logo and ESA’s (European Space Agency) insignia are painted on the Orion spacecraft’s crew module adapter in this image from Feb. 1, 2024. The adapter houses electronic equipment for communications, power, and control, and includes an umbilical connector that bridges the electrical, data, and fluid systems between the main modules. In October […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/signing-our-names/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Spotify Modifies Terms for Audiobook Rightsholders.
https://storyfair.net/spotify-modifies-terms-for-audiobook-rightsholders/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Michael Tsai
Chris Eidhof: We built this website to visually explain how the SwiftUI layout system works, and we hope you find it useful. To make the examples work, we ported large parts of SwiftUI’s layout system to TypeScript. While we’ve tested our implementation extensively, there might still be discrepancies between SwiftUI’s behavior and what you see […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/02/16/the-swiftui-field-guide/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Michael Tsai
Meta: To support the millions of small businesses that use boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram, advertisers can now go to Instagram.com and Facebook.com on mobile and desktop to boost their content and avoid a 30% Apple service charge.The Apple service charge is a result of updates Apple made to the App Store Review Guidelines. […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/02/16/meta-to-pass-along-fee-for-boosted-posts/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Michael Tsai
Mike Rockwell: Assistive Access gives you a simplified, focused interface with access to only the apps and features you choose to enable. It was designed for people with cognitive disabilities, but there are plenty of other uses. […] Some applications are built with Assistive Access in mind. Those applications offer an entirely different user interface […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/02/16/ios-17-assistive-access/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Michael Tsai
Brian Krebs: The Minnesota-based Internet provider U.S. Internet Corp. has a business unit called Securence, which specializes in providing filtered, secure email services to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies worldwide. But until it was notified last week, U.S. Internet was publishing more than a decade’s worth of its internal email — and that of […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/02/16/u-s-internet-leaked-years-of-e-mails/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Michael Tsai
Bert Hubert (via Hacker News): The really short version: the way we build/ship software these days is mostly ridiculous, leading to 350MB packages that draw graphs, and simple products importing 1600 dependencies of unknown provenance. Software security is dire, which is a function both of the quality of the code and the sheer amount of […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/02/16/on-the-insecurity-of-software-bloat/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Matt Mullenweg: Thoughts on Tech Employment.
https://ma.tt/2024/02/thoughts-on-tech-employment/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Catalina Islander
On Sunday, Bleu World hosted a record-setting cleanup in partnership with Love Catalina, Scuba By Design, the Avalon Rotary and Interact Clubs, the city of Avalon, and the Catalina Island Conservancy. Thanks to the Interact Club high school students, the event had a large turnout with 16 volunteers gathering to make a difference. Together they […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/avalon-cleanup-makes-biggest-haul-yet/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
As NASA works to develop all the systems needed to return astronauts to the Moon under its Artemis campaign for the benefit of all, the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket will be responsible for launching astronauts on their journey. With the liquid oxygen tank now fully welded, all of the major structures that will form […]
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/esdmd/common-exploration-systems-development-division/space-launch-system/rocket-propellant-tanks-for-nasas-artemis-iii-mission-take-shape/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Catalina Islander
For the Islander Catalina CoEd Softball took the field last night, and these intrepid players did not let unexpected scattered showers stop them from playing. Game one was between Luau Larry’s and Coyote Joe’s. Luau Larry’s came out hot and scored three runs on three base hits and two walks. Luau Larry’s added another run […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/luau-larrys-straight-up-builders-win-in-softball-play/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Catalina Islander
The Catalina Islander went traveling with the Catalina Woman’s Golf Club, consisting of Carol, Nancy, Anni, Pamela, Suzie, Elizabeth Ellen, Elena Alison and Val. They were welcomed by Marsha and her club the road runners of Borrego Springs. They had a rousing game of bunco on Wednesday. Thursday we played a Scramble with the other […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/catalina-golf-club-plays-road-round-at-cedar-creek/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Stennis Space Center and Sidus Space, Inc., marked another milestone February 15 for the Center’s first-ever in-flight autonomous systems software mission as a payload rider on the Sidus Space LizzieSatTM small satellite. “Each step brings us a step closer to deployment of ASTRA (Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications) in space,” said Chris Carmichael, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-stennis-celebrates-milestone-for-historic-autonomous-systems-mission/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
News release The Valley Industry Association of Santa Clarita is scheduled May 16 to host the VIA Workforce Development Conference 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Valencia. The conference will feature keynote speaker Seth Mattison, an internationally recognized thought leader, author and advisor. Mattison will address the topic of “The Future of Work: Strategies for […]
The post VIA Workforce Development Conference set for May 16 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/via-workforce-development-conference-set-for-may-16/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Japan’s Rakuten Mobile says it plans to offer a satellite-based mobile service that will support standard smartphones starting from 2026, although the satellites to provide this capability have yet to be launched.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/rakuten_mobile_space_cell_service/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
Headlining today’s top deals is the RadRover 6 Plus Fat-Tire e-bike falling to a new $1,199 low. It is joined by the Greenworks Presidents’ Day sale that is taking 25% off a huge lineup of outdoor power tools, as well as the last of EcoFlow’s 24-hour flash sales that is offering up two bundle options starting from $469. 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.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/radrover-6-plus-greenworks-sale-and-more/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Catalina Islander
Last week the City Council unanimously authorized the city manager to request proposals for a vendor to operate the snack bar at Joe Machado Field. This was a Consent Calendar item. The entire Consent Calendar was approved collectively, without any item being considered separately. Mayor Anni Marshall said it seemed like the city hadn’t had […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/avalon-seeks-proposals-for-machado-field-snack-bar/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
News release Jessper Maquindang has successfully completed the requirements to obtain the certification of certified executive coach and mentor through the Management and Strategy Institute. “Graduates of Management and Strategy Institute certification programs demonstrate a commitment to their professional development by acquiring new skills and certifying those skills via examination,” according to a news release […]
The post Maquindang achieves executive coach and mentor certification appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/maquindang-achieves-executive-coach-and-mentor-certification/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Rupert blog
I’ve read the entire internet so you don’t have to and here’s some links I found. Is this the start of a newsletter? 🤷♂️ I tried this two years ago. Anyways. Here’s some links.
my-switch:state(flipped)
contenteditable
useful
adoptedStylesheets
.
https://daverupert.com/2024/02/week-links-1/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Catalina Islander
Avalon School is turning 100 years old in December and the school is gearing up for a blowout celebration and reunion. All former students are invited to join the event, being billed as the school’s “Centennial Gala and Multi-Class Reunion.” Planning has already been in the works for months and tickets are set to go […]
https://thecatalinaislander.com/avalon-school-turning-100-hosting-gala-celebration/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
News release The Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce is scheduled 8 a.m. March 6 to host its 5th Annual Health & Wellness Forum. This year’s forum will spotlight the transformative impact of artificial intelligence in health care and its implications for businesses across all sectors. Led by keynote speaker Dr. Khan Nguyen, assistant […]
The post Chamber Health & Wellness Forum to focus on artificial intelligence appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/chamber-health-wellness-forum-to-focus-on-artificial-intelligence/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043988-john-graham-cumming-tries Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
New EV registrations in the US were up 23% in December as adoption continues to grow. Although Tesla’s 11% growth lagged behind the market, the automaker still dominated with 56% of US EV registrations in 2023. Meanwhile, several smaller players, including Hyundai and Rivian, saw promising growth.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/tesla-led-2023-us-ev-registrations-rivian-hyundai/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Liliputing
Best Buy is running a Presidents’ Day Sale through Monday, with discounts on a wide range of products. Among other things, you can save up to $100 on an iPad, iPad Air or iPad mini. While you can also score the same prices at Amazon right now, Best Buy is sweetening the deal by throwing […]
The post Daily Deals (2-16-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-2-16-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/23/20881032/facebook-ctrl-labs-acquisition-neural-interface-armband-ar-vr-deal Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
Carmakers are laser-focused on transforming into tech companies. Getting there is proving harder than expected.
https://insideevs.com/news/709004/auto-software-tesla-gm-volkswagen/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Editor’s note: The Master’s University (previously Los Angeles Baptist College) is nearing its 100th year as an institution. As it approaches the milestone in 2027, this is the first in a series of stories about men and women used mightily by the Lord in the school’s history. https://scvnews.com/tmu-features-pete-reese-in-series-highlighting-schools-100-years/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Heatmap News
If I told you there was a chicken named Potato who was going to teach our kids about climate change, would you think I was kidding? Either way, I’m here to inform you that Future Chicken, an “ECOtainment platform” co-created by Catherine Winder and Annabel Slaight, launched last year, including original content like a TV show that airs on CBC and YouTube, games, and a podcast, all aimed at warding off climate doom and instead highlighting climate solutions.
Winder and Slaight have, to put it mildly, impressive resumes, with Slaight having been an executive producer of The Big Comfy Couch and Winder a force behind multiple Angry Birds movies. The show’s premise is fun, and was actually thought up by kids. The main character is a chicken (named Potato) from the year 2050, a time when climate change has seemingly been solved. She travels back and forth between the future and the present, sometimes talking about the solutions of her time.
As one of Heatmap’s resident Climate Dads, the question of how and when I should talk to my kids about climate change actually vexes me a lot, so I’m always open to new media on the subject. A couple years ago, being a millennial parent, I reached out to one of my own childhood bards (and longtime climate advocate) Raffi, of “Baby Beluga” fame, for his advice.
Here’s what he told me:
Wait. Wait until the child asks you about climate change. And then, depending on the child’s age, your response can be brief and not alarming. You don’t want to get into a long climate-data talk. Keep it brief, don’t say too much. If and when the child returns for more, then say more. We want to comfort, not add to the child’s anxiety. Comfort comes in knowing that many are engaged in climate action, and we’re in this together.
Future Chicken, from what I’ve seen, follows similar guidance. In one episode, Future Chicken introduces us to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe (for a quick second her on-screen name reads Katharine Play-Dough), a “planet protector who helped us build a better future.” She talks about how individual actions like reducing food waste or walking or biking to school affect others. “When we talk about them with other people,” she says, “that’s how we catalyze change.”
When I showed Future Chicken to my kids, my seven year old son was most drawn to an episode featuring a video game influencer named Mackenzie Turner, who emphasized trying to get outside and away from screen time. (The show playfully called it getting more “green time.”) As an avid videogamer, my son didn’t quite see eye to eye with her on this one, but it led to a good conversation about the importance of nature.
My almost-five year old daughter really liked the episode with Robin Greenfield, a climate activist famous for trying to reduce waste in every way possible, which has resulted in stunts like wearing all the trash he produced in a month.
I asked my daughter what she learned from the episode.
“I learned that there are leaves that grow out of your butt.”
“That doesn’t happen,” I gently explained. “The guy talked about wiping his butt with leaves.”
“That’s what I meant,” she said.
Future Chicken is no Bluey, a.k.a. the “best kids show of our time.” But it did keep my kids’ attention for the three 11-minute episodes we watched.
The real test will be if they ask to watch it tomorrow – or if my daughter asks me to fetch her some fresh leaves.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/future-chicken-youtube-climate-change Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said Friday that he is not running for president, according to his spokesperson Jon Kott. For months Manchin, a centrist Democrat, had been flirting with a campaign that threatened to complicate the 2024 presidential race.
Manchin announced his decision in a speech at West Virginia University billed as “The Future of American Politics.”
He often bucked his party’s leadership and while considering a run for the presidency had said he thought it would be clear by March if there was a path for a third-party candidate this year.
Manchin is not running for reelection in 2024. His Senate seat in a heavily Republican state is expected to be a prime pickup opportunity for the GOP.
The West Virginia senator has had talks with No Labels, a centrist group that has been looking into fielding a possible centrist ticket.
Democrats feared a Manchin presidential bid would likely peel off moderate voters as its looking more likely that November’s election will present a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
https://www.voanews.com/a/west-virginia-senator-manchin-won-t-seek-us-presidency-in-2024-/7490711.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Using data from a retired NASA mission, researchers identified unique signs of water molecules on two space rocks, unlocking new insight into how water may have arrived on Earth
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-detect-water-on-the-surface-of-asteroids-for-the-first-time-ever-180983801/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The spacecraft, which finally launched on February 15, is expected to touch down on February 22
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-mission-to-bring-jeff-koons-art-to-the-moon-launches-successfully-180983804/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
It may be more expensive than the $40,000 price point that was tossed around, but the Volkswagen Group has big plans for Scout Motors.
https://insideevs.com/news/708999/scout-motors-ev-price/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I asked ChatGPT to explain.
I couldn’t improve on that, so I published it as-is.
http://scripting.com/2024/02/16/174119.html?title=whatIsABlogroll Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/0043991-alexei-navalny-galvanizin Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed Friday 168 new cases and no additional deaths from COVID-19 in the Santa Clarita Valley within the last week
https://scvnews.com/weekly-covid-19-roundup-l-a-county-indicators-continue-to-drop/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Russian developer Maxim Dounin has announced a new fork of the Nginx web server and caching proxy, aimed at avoiding the corporate control of owner F5.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/freenginx_fork/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Digital Antiquarian
While the broth of Ultima Online was slowly thickening, not one but two other publishers beat EA and Origin Systems to the punch by releasing graphical persistent virtual worlds of their own. We owe it to them and to ourselves to have a look at these other POMG pioneers before we return to the more […]
https://www.filfre.net/2024/02/the-rise-of-pomg-part-3-competition-and-conflict/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Care
<p>A Tamil translation of Agnee Ghosh’s piece.</p>
https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/agnee-ghosh-translation Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Liliputing
Big changes are coming to the way iPhones work in the European Union this year. In response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple says that starting with iOS 17.4, the iPhone operating system will support third-party app stores and browser engines, among other things… even if the company bends over backward to discourage […]
The post Apple drops support for iOS Home Screen web apps, blames the EU’s Digital Markets Act appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/apple-drops-support-for-ios-home-screen-web-apps-blames-the-eus-digital-markets-act/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Care
<p>An interview with anti-caste scholar Murali Shanmugavelan.</p>
https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/may-the-myth-of-castelessness-die Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Care
<p>Caste-oppressed gig workers contend with uncertain working conditions and algorithmic wage discrimination from the platforms they rely on to match with clients.</p>
https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/if-you-have-an-enemy-then-buy-them-a-car-gig-workers-vs-multinational Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Care
<p>A Tamil translation of Murali Shanmugavelan’s interview.</p>
https://logicmag.io/supa-dupa-skies/murali-translation Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The latest units should give riders some much-needed versatility and bridge the gap between stem and handlebar mounts.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/708868/quad-lock-m8-handlebar-clamp-mount/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-15-2024-b01 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/02/the-age-of-realistic-ai-generated-video-is-here Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: 404 Media Group
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we talk about our first jobs, personality tests, and what it means to be “profitable.”
https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-personality-tests-first-jobs-and-profitability/ Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
This Guy Has Built an Open Source Search Engine as an Alternative to Google in His Spare Time.
https://www.404media.co/this-guy-is-building-an-open-source-search-engine-in-real-time/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A Ukrainian cybercrime kingpin who ran some of the most pervasive malware operations faces 40 years in prison after spending nearly a decade on the FBI’s Cyber Most Wanted List.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/zeus_icedid_malware_kingpin_guilty_plea/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: RAND blog
Men tend to have fewer and less diverse social relationships than women. It’s time to break down the societal barriers that prevent men from forming close bonds with other men and start valuing the power of social connections for their health and well-being.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/why-a-guys-ski-weekend-could-be-good-for-your-husbands.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
Lopez-Galvan, a beloved DJ in Kansas City, was celebrating the Chiefs’ victory with her husband, son and daughter, when she was fatally shot. Twenty-two others, including children at the parade, were injured.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/taylor-swift-donates-100000-to-family-of-woman-killed-at-kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
As we get closer to the official debut of Rivian’s more affordable R2, we are finally getting a better idea of what to expect. After teasing the model for the first time yesterday, Rivian’s R2 was reportedly spotted filming in downtown LA shortly after.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/rivians-affordable-r2-electric-suv-spotted/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Liliputing
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is a dual-screen laptop with two 13.3 inch, 2880 x 1800 pixel OLED touchscreen displays, including one in the space where you’d find a keyboard on a more traditional laptop. The multi-function computer features a 360-degree hinge allowing you to use it as a tablet, and the Yoga Book 9i also comes […]
The post Lenovo Yoga Book 9i 2024 now available (13″ dual-screen OLED laptop with Intel Meteor Lake) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/lenovo-yoga-book-9i-2024-now-available-13-dual-screen-oled-laptop-with-intel-meteor-lake/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
Read this release in English here. En una ceremonia celebrada el jueves 15 de febrero en la sede de la NASA en Washington, Uruguay se convirtió en el trigésimo sexto país en firmar los Acuerdos de Artemis. El administrador de la NASA, Bill Nelson, participó en la ceremonia de firma por parte de la agencia, y […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/la-nasa-recibe-al-ministro-de-relaciones-exteriores-de-uruguay-para-la-firma-de-los-acuerdos-de-artemis/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
What do you bring to Pokemon Go Tour in LA? Extra batteries and water are a must but leave a few items at home
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/a-last-minute-guide-to-pokemon-go-tour-sinnoh-in-los-angeles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
2024 is “the year of execution” for GM, CEO Marry Barra said.
https://insideevs.com/news/708951/gm-ev-push-guided-by-the-consumer/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
The suit targets Charu Goyal, the father of 4-year-old Mayala Chavez and ex-boyfriend of Llaneth Chavez, who drowned in a pool in Goyal’s backyard on the day Mayala was to meet her dad for the first time.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/family-sues-man-whose-daughter-ex-girlfriend-drowned-in-blackhawk-pool-on-the-day-4-year-old-was-supposed-to-meet-him/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Microsoft, the owner of Xbox, announced on Thursday that it’s bringing several previously Xbox exclusive games to rival consoles. More could be coming. Playstation and Nintendo have historically used games that can only be played on their gaming consoles to help drive console sales. So what’s behind the shift in strategy for Xbox? Also on the show: closer examinations of wholesale prices and the Biden administration’s latest attempt at student loan cancellation.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/when-xbox-games-dont-require-an-xbox Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
NASA is seeking applicants to participate in its next simulated one-year Mars surface mission to help inform the agency’s plans for human exploration of the Red Planet. The second of three planned ground-based missions called CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) is scheduled to kick off in spring 2025. Each CHAPEA mission involves a […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/martians-wanted-nasa-opens-call-for-simulated-yearlong-mars-mission/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The LAist
The striking glass and wood structure opened in 1951 and was designed by Lloyd Wright. Church officials say they are “extremely devastated” by the decision.
https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/historic-wayfarers-chapel-has-closed-to-the-public-citing-accelerated-land-movement Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Rows of tables took over California Institute of the Arts’ Main Gallery on Tuesday, Feb. 13, with students from the programs in Experimental Animation and Character Animation weaving around them, eager to showcase their work to studios for Portfolio Day.
https://scvnews.com/studios-meet-calartians-at-2024-portfolio-day/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Gary Marcus blog
Some thoughts on what it all means for AGI
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/soras-surreal-physics Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
Leading global EV maker BYD’s electric pickup was recently spotted testing in Australia, suggesting the new model could be launching overseas soon.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/byd-electric-pickup-truck-headed-overseas/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
The 2023-24 recruiting cycle just ended. What better time to look ahead to next winter?
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/pac-12-recruiting-examining-the-12-priority-prospects-in-the-class-of-2025/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft snagged 121.6 grams of material from asteroid Bennu – the largest quantity ever retrieved by such a mission.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/osiris_rex_asteroid_sample/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
The girls reportedly made “animal sounds” while applying the makeup, the TikTok user posted.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/shameful-white-teen-girls-at-boston-sephora-reportedly-use-dark-makeup-for-blackface/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has offered Cybertruck reservation holders to accelerate their delivery through an award in its referral program. It sold out in hours.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/tesla-offers-accelerate-cybertruck-delivery-referral-program-sold-out-in-hours/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Quanta Magazine
Explore a universe of numbers and arithmetic in our new and improved interactive math game, Hyperjumps!The post Quanta Relaunches Hyperjumps Math Game first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/quanta-relaunches-hyperjumps-math-game-20240216/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Quanta Magazine
Play Quanta Magazine’s daily interactive math game, Hyperjumps!The post Hyperjumps Math Game first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/hyperjumps-math-game-20240216/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons student-athletes Lexy Angulo (softball) and Colin Yeaman (baseball) have been named the COC Athletic Department’s Women’s & Men’s Student-Athletes of the Week for the period running Feb. 5-
https://scvnews.com/coc-names-lexy-angulo-colin-yeaman-athletes-of-the-week/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
The developer of a downtown San Jose housing and office project is pushing ahead with revamped plans for the site.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/san-jose-house-home-apartment-office-real-estate-build-economy-tech/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
Dashcam video from a passing car showed Christopher Solis’ tuck appear to swerve around another car and then out of view, followed by a volley of screams as the pickup veered onto the sidewalk filled with pedestrians.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/man-guilty-of-3-charges-for-plowing-into-downtown-fullerton-crowd/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
In the dawn of the Space Age, a group of scientists and engineers from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) had their eye on a new frontier: the uncharted expanse of space. Project Vanguard, initiated in 1955, aimed to launch the first American satellite into Earth orbit as part of the International Geophysical Year (July 1957 […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/nasa-goddards-beginnings-in-project-vanguard/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
“I was born and raised in Kenya and come from a very humble background. I’m one of nine kids and the third born, meaning that I started responsibilities very early because we had to help our mother. Almost every two to three years, she had a baby, so you can imagine she was a very, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/atmospheric-science-branch-chief-dr-charles-gatebe/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Electrek Feed
Jeep and Chrysler owner Stellantis – hardly a hero in our EV adoption story – says that it is finally turning a profit on EVs. But that’s in no part due to US sales, since the company doesn’t sell any EVs in the country – but that is changing with a lineup on its way this year.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/16/this-legacy-automaker-says-it-just-turned-a-profit-on-evs/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
Shobhana Gupta is a physician scientist and currently serves as the Open Innovation and Community Applications manager with Earth Science Division’s Applied Sciences Program at NASA Headquarters. Shobhana manages crowdsourcing activities including prize competitions to invite talents and experiences outside of the NASA community for the discovery and development of applications of Earth observations for decision-making. She […]
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/stmd-prizes-challenges-crowdsourcing-program/center-of-excellence-for-collaborative-innovation-coeci/coeci-news/solver-spotlight-shobhana-gupta/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
Caller asked for personal info to ‘block fraudulent transaction.’
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/phony-paypal-rep-steals-almost-500-from-saratoga-resident/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
Art and science merge as teams add the NASA “worm” logo on the SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters and the Orion spacecraft’s crew module adapter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the agency’s Artemis II mission. The iconic logo was introduced in 1975 by the firm of Danne & Blackburn as […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/teams-add-iconic-nasa-worm-logo-to-artemis-ii-rocket-spacecraft/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
Sandra Le, 55, of San Francisco, will serve 20 months in federal prison and pay restitution, federal prosecutors said.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/ucsf-administrator-sentenced-for-diverting-1-5-million-in-tuition-payments/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: San Jose Mercury News
Police said the victim was screaming when he walked out of the apartment. According to court documents, one neighbor heard the commotion and saw the victim covered in blood.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/02/16/police-dispute-over-xbox-console-causes-volusia-county-man-to-stab-friend-with-samurai-sword/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Quantum technology outfit IonQ has cut the ribbon on its Seattle manufacturing facility, claimed as the first factory for quantum systems on US soil. The move comes shortly after a report claimed that investors have halved the venture capital funding going to quantum companies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/ionq_us_factory/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Associated Press, World News
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests, died in prison Friday, Russian authorities said.
https://apnews.com/live/alexei-navalny-death-russia-updates Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
Series production will first begin in South Korea. The new plant in Arizona will follow.
https://insideevs.com/news/708862/lges-4680type-batteries-coming-soon/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: RAND blog
If Israel is to succeed in its war against Hamas, then it needs to embrace the fact that it is responsible for Gaza’s more than two million civilians and ensure their welfare.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/is-israel-losing-sight-of-its-long-game.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Rupert blog
“UI is a function of state” is a pretty popular saying in the front-end world. In context (pun intended), that’s typically referring to application or component state. I thought I’d pull that thread a little further and explore all the states that can effect the UI layer…
Every application whether it’s a to-do list or a shopping cart or some radically complex app will have some state. State isn’t uniform and typically exists at a variety of different levels. We’ll start at the top and drill down…
Data stores and feature gating that typically happens at the application level.
Vince Speelman’s wonderful Nine States of Design do a great job summing up all the states that a page or component might exist in.
fetch
is happening
Vince’s list is perfect to me and keeps being relevant after all these years, I would add two items.
In my experience both the page and each component will contain some mixture of these states as well as being reactive to global state changes.
Individual elements can (and will) have their own states. At this layer, features of HTML, CSS, and ARIA start to reveal themselves.
default, pointer, wait, text, move, grab, crosshair, zoom-in,
zoom-out
, … etc
z-index
::backdrop
hidden, visible
dir, lang
contenteditable, draggable, invoketarget
inert, open, popover
lazy, eager
:hover, :active, :focus, :focus-visible,
:focus-within
:autofill, :checked, :disabled, :valid, :invalid,
:user-valid, :user-invalid, :required
, … etc.
:fullscreen, :modal, :picture-in-picture
:dir(), :lang()
:link, :visited, :target
, … etc.
:playing, :paused
aria-current
aria-expanded
aria-pressed
aria-hidden
The user of the application and their device, peripherals, and browser have a lot of say in how the final application renders. This is by design and built into the foundations of the web.
Surprise! Not all users live in US-West-2.
ltr, rtl
horizontal-tb, vertical-lr, vertical-rl
A user’s device has a lot of variation and customization and may be your biggest unknown bottleneck for rendering to glass.
height, width, initial-scale,
horizontal-viewport-segments, vertical-viewport-segments,
viewport-segment-width, viewport-segment-height
, … etc.
safe-area-inset-
,
titlebar-area-
, keyboard-inset-*
(e.g,
iPhone Notch,
rounded corners,
installed
apps)
inline, immersive-vr, immersive-ar
Users aren’t uniform in how they interact with their devices and may be using one or any combination of inputs and outputs all at once.
Finally, a user’s browser choice and preferred plugins determines a lot about how they experience (or would prefer to experience) your UI and your application can be responsive to some of those preferences.
@support
or polyfills
beforeinstallprompt
Thus far we’ve talked about technology, now let’s consider the actual human being at the other end of the transaction. A user’s physical or mental state impact their cognitive or literal bandwidth to enjoy your experience.
Third parties have an outsized impact on the user experience of a UI.
The status/availability/uptime of other servers is the biggest surface area for failure for a UI.
Third-party script injections are the biggest contributor to performance degradation on a UI. Some services even take over the user experience of an application. This is often out of your control.
You haven’t truly lived life until one of these unchecked services takes down an application.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten whole categories of state. I haven’t even gotten
into the hundreds of CSS properties and the thousands of values and
their potential conflicts. I didn’t talk about the intricacies of
styling form controls or building dropdowns with the required ARIA
property combinations. I didn’t touch on
the
decision matrix required to put an image on the page. Nor does this
get into setting all the
proper tags in the head
in the right order.
Nor does this discuss
microformats for SEO or all the
code you need to properly setup a UI to send analtyics data.
In closing, hire people who are good at UI.
Edit 2/16/24
loading="lazy|eager
to HTML attributes.
https://daverupert.com/2024/02/ui-states/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
If a candidate doesn’t care about a community before getting elected, why would they care about it once elected?
The post Hartmann Shows Up appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/hartmann-shows-up/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: RAND blog
Israel reportedly has offered to allow Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas commanders safe passage into exile in return for the release of all the Israeli hostages. The circumstances are very different but the offer recalls past resolutions of hostage crises.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/02/free-hamas-leaders-to-free-hostages-the-bangkok-solution.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
Police have opened a homicide investigation into the death of Edwin Pirando following the acquittal of Jamie John Nededog, who was charged with murder in connection to Pirando’s death.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/pirando-homicide-investigation-open-following-nededog-acquittal/article_c1897f52-cc80-11ee-a471-df319a71e659.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
A charter school that aims to be aligned with Guam’s workforce needs is a step closer to reality, according to officials with the prospective school.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/new-charter-high-school-seeks-approval/article_dc23ea5a-cc76-11ee-8332-3ba2f62f1eac.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
An islandwide manhunt is underway for two men suspected of shooting a woman at a Thai restaurant in Tamuning on Wednesday night.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/islandwide-search-underway-for-tamuning-shooting-suspects/article_f9ff42e2-cc74-11ee-ab71-238913761fbd.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
The Guam Police Department is seeking the community’s assistance in an auto-pedestrian fatality and a missing person investigation which may be linked.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gpd-missing-person-traffic-fatality-from-2020-may-be-connected/article_1f1fb830-cc71-11ee-a86e-c354be135ef5.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
The recent six-year district-level accreditation of the Guam Department of Education doesn’t mean improvements cease, in fact, the accreditation team found as many strengths as areas where improvements are needed in its assessment of the public school system.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/wasc-findings-direct-gdoe-on-where-to-improve/article_47082bb8-cc83-11ee-a32f-17b649bdc8a1.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
Following last month’s petition from the Guam Power Authority, the Guam Waterworks Authority also has petitioned the Consolidated Commission on Utilities to approve its plan to adjust salaries in order to “incentivize and retain top-performing employees and reduce turnover rates.”
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/gwa-petitions-ccu-to-ok-strategic-pay-plan/article_86bfb964-cc66-11ee-9e96-cf7570e51454.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Guam Daily Post
Nicholas Moore will be allowed to buy groceries and put gas in his car despite being on house arrest pending trials for cases in which he is charged with aggravated assault and murder.
https://www.postguam.com/news/local/judge-moore-allowed-to-get-basic-necessities-while-on-house-arrest/article_d0b82a8e-cc65-11ee-b382-53913561b226.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Russian activist and Putin critic Alexei Navalny dies in prison.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/russian-activist-and-putin-critic-alexei-navalny-dies-in-prison?CMP=share_btn_tw Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
Families of a number of American veterans killed or wounded in Ukraine met with US Congress members in late January to appeal to lawmakers to continue providing assistance to Ukraine. Katerina Lisunova and Irina Shynkarenko have the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera and edit: Oleksii Osyka
https://www.voanews.com/a/families-of-us-volunteers-killed-in-ukraine-address-congress/7490293.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/02/16/youre-responsible-for-your-chatbot/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Authors Union blogs
Computational research techniques such as text and data mining (TDM) hold tremendous opportunities for researchers across the disciplines ranging from mining scientific articles to create better systematic reviews, or curated chemical property datasets to building a corpus of films to understand how concepts of gender, race, and identity are shared over time. Unfortunately, legal uncertainty, […]
https://www.authorsalliance.org/2024/02/16/fair-use-week-webinar-fair-use-in-text-data-mining-and-artificial-intelligence/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
In our quest to limit the destructive potential of artificial intelligence, a paper out of the University of Cambridge has suggested baking in remote kill switches and lockouts, like those developed to stop the unauthorized launch of nuclear weapons, into the hardware that powers it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/boffins_propose_regulating_ai_hardware/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Rush hour commutes in the Midwest could be snarled by snow today • The whole of England and Wales is under a weather warning for heavy rain and floods • February temperatures in parts of the Atlantic Ocean are nearing highs normally seen in July.
The vast majority – 81% – of new utility-scale electricity generating capacity expected to come online this year will be in the form of solar and battery storage, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The agency’s latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory shows projects with 62.8 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity are in the pipeline, a 55% increase over the 40.4 GW added last year. More than half of that will be solar, and about a quarter will be battery storage. “We expect U.S. battery storage capacity to nearly double in 2024,” the report said. Electrek also noted that “2024 will see the least new natural gas capacity added in 25 years.”
The Republican-controlled House voted yesterday to pass a bill reversing President Biden’s pause on approvals of liquified natural gas (LNG) exports. The vote was 224-200, with nine democrats voting in favor. While the bill is unlikely to get the green light in the Senate, its passage “could embolden House Republicans to include language easing the pause in future government funding legislation,” Bloomberg said. This particular bill would end the Department of Energy’s (DoE) power to approve exports, handing it instead to the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Biden paused approval of new export terminals recently until the DoE can study their environmental impact, earning praise from activists who claim LNG may be worse for the climate than coal, but scorn from many Republicans who say the move compromises energy security.
The world’s largest group aimed at leveraging investor power to pressure corporations to prioritize climate change lost some of its biggest members this week. JPMorgan Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) said yesterday they are leaving the Climate Action 100+ (CA100) group, and BlackRock Inc. said it will no longer be affiliated. CA100 partners with more than 700 investors – which collectively manage about $70 trillion in assets – to pressure oil giants, shipping firms, airlines, and other big companies “that are critical to the net-zero emissions transition.” It initially focused on encouraging companies to make climate disclosures but recently decided to go further and start pushing them to actively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. It seems this was a step too far. The departures remove nearly $14 trillion in assets from the climate group, and follow intense political pressure from Republicans targeting ESG investing. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more defections,” Lance Dial, a Boston-based partner at law firm K&L Gates LLP, told Bloomberg.
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In more news from the financial world, America’s third-largest state pension fund is scaling back its investment in some oil and gas companies. The New York State Common Retirement Fund, which holds about $260 billion in assets, will divest about $27 million from seven firms including Exxon Mobil Corp. following a review of the companies’ preparedness to shift to a low-carbon economy. The move is “a compromise measure” between the fund and environmentalists who want to see full divestment, Reuters said. “The decision could deal another blow to Exxon’s reputation,” reported Inside Climate News, but the fund will still maintain $500 million worth of Exxon shares.
Switzerland wants the United Nations to create a group of experts dedicated to studying solar geoengineering, according to Climate Home News. The panel would “examine risks and opportunities” of solar radiation management (SRM) techniques, which are “hypothetical technologies that could, in theory, counteract temperature rise by reflecting more sunlight away from the Earth’s surface,” as Carbon Brief explained. Reactions from scientists are mixed, with some suggesting more research is warranted, but others concerned about “the risks of opening a Pandora’s box.” Governments will vote on the proposal next week.
The Royal Family’s first-ever electric vehicle, King Charles III’s 2018 Jaguar I-Pace, is up for auction and could go for up to $88,000. The king once called the car “silent but deadly.”
https://heatmap.news/economy/solar-and-battery-storage-2024 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
The company’s new, smaller, and more affordable EV will debut on March 7.
https://insideevs.com/news/708894/rivian-r2-suv-spy-photos-leak/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: NASA breaking news
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is teeming with color and activity. It features a relatively close star-forming region known as IRAS 16562-3959, which lies within the Milky Way about 5,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 make up this image. Its detailed nuance of color […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-views-a-massive-star-forming/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Inside EVs News
However, the results are still lower than two years ago.
https://insideevs.com/news/708787/plugin-car-sales-germany-january2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The LAist
Hundreds of tech support workers are now stationed at 43 county libraries to help reach people who don’t have easy access to computers or the internet.
https://laist.com/news/digital-divide-la-county-library-support Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Our poet laureate introduces us to Stephanie Barbé Hammer.
The post Poetry Connection | Connecting with a New Poet in Town appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/16/poetry-connection-connecting-with-a-new-poet-in-town/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission banned robocalls that use voices generated by artificial intelligence. This comes after New Hampshire voters received phone calls during that state’s primary, which used AI to imitate President Joe Biden and discourage people from heading to the polls. Today, we hear how generative AI is being used to manipulate and what consumers can do to protect themselves. Also: a disappointing snapshot of the manufacturing economy.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-fcc-takes-aim-at-ai-robocalls Save to Pocket
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-02-16, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Benedict has written previously on regulators doing software design. Good follow up today:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/111941195988804935 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
FOSDEM 2024 There are vital lessons to be learned from the history of Unix, but they’re being forgotten. This is leading to truly vast amounts of wasted effort.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/what_is_unix/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Aviation was responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions last year, according to the International Energy Agency, and the industry is under pressure to develop greener engines. But the boss of Airbus, one of the world’s biggest airplane makers, doesn’t think progress is speedy enough. Plus, political drama and a tax investigation ahead of India’s elections and an exploration of dynamic pricing.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/airbus-boss-says-theyre-too-slow-going-green Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The murder of 16-year-old schoolgirl Brianna Ghey has kickstarted a debate around limiting children’s access to the dark web in the UK, with experts highlighting the difficulty in achieving this.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/dark_web_kids_limit_uk/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Manu - I write blog
This is the 25th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Peter Rukavina and his blog, ruk.ca
I don’t remember how I stumbled on Peter’s blog to be honest with you. It might have been on Hacker News or maybe someone sent it to me. I remember loving its very personal nature. His blog is the type of personal blog I enjoy the most: just an endless stream of content spanning across an array of topics. Also, he has quite the history on that site considering the oldest post is from 1999 but the archive contains also content from the early to mid 90s as well as some pieces of digital media from the 60s! That’s an eternity in the digital world.
To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.
Let's start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?
I am an inveterately curious person, with a lifelong passion for words (writing them, reading them, typesetting them, binding them together). In the mid-1980s, after an aborted attempt at college, where I never found my mojo, I set off on a career as a coder and a graphic designer. I apprenticed in the composing room of a daily newsletter. I designed posters for a modern dance company. I learned to design books. I created database systems for apartment buildings, for a palæontologist, and for a tire store.
When the web came along in the 1990s, I embraced it, and was part of the very early efforts in organizing and displaying government information to the public, along the way becoming interested in open source software and open data, and becoming an advocate for both. Professionally, I settled into a position maintaining the infrastructure of Almanac.com, the website of The Old Farmer’s Almanac, a platform that gave me great latitude to explore whatever the web frontier of the moment was, working with a venerable publication to help it chart its course beyond print.
About a decade ago, while continuing digital work, I started to become interested in letterpress printing—an embrace of print in its purest form. I run a small letterpress shop, Queen Square Press, based in a church basement, and let my creativity take me where it leads me, producing posters, broadsides, cards, and ephemera, mostly to scratch my own itches.
This year, after thinking about it for a long time, I decided to step away from digital work altogether. It was a hard decision: I’d been working with a great team, on interesting projects, for more than 25 years. I was well-paid, in control of my own schedule. I had no complaints. But I knew in my heart of hearts that I wanted to try something else. What? I don’t know.
This decision to transition can, in part, be explained by my being four years a widower, being the father of a 23 year old autistic trans woman, and, recently, burgeoning stepfather to a delightful 12 year old, and partner to her mother, a fascinating, creative, woman who challenges and delights me every day. All of this change swirling around me has opened me up and allowed me to relax into new possibilities.
What's the story behind your blog?
In 1999 I found myself writing an “about” page for my tiny web business, then called Digital Island. I watched myself falling into familiar “about page” tropes — “Digital Island is a leading provider of innovative solutions for… blah blah blah…” — and thought, inspired by early bloggers who were emerging around the time, perhaps I’d, instead, create a place to write about myself, my interests, my work, my life. I wrote a tiny CMS in PHP, and made my first post in May 1999, a simple announcement that I was changing my company name.
I started off slowly, making only 13 posts the first year, but gradually developed an approach, and a style, and a notion of “the kinds of things I blog about” (travel, personal projects, my family, local businesses, my eccentricities), to the point, almost 25 years later, where it’s become interwoven into my emotional life, a way of organizing my thoughts about things, of explaining things to myself by way of explaining them to my readership.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
I generally write in real time: an idea occurs to me, and the idea takes on a life of its own, gets “called to be written about,” and I try to carve out the time to do so right away. I don’t find the process of writing onerous; generally words flow out of me, and while I will go back and edit the words, finessing the meaning, correcting errors, what emerges is generally fairly close to what I wrote down in the first place.
I write a lot of posts via email, a capability that has allowed me to take my writing out of “sitting in front of a laptop” and, really, anywhere I’m struck. Writing on a tiny iPhone SE isn’t the best and most natural environment (though voice-to-text helps), but the benefit of being able to “strike while the iron is hot” outweighs the fussiness of the tool. These days perhaps half of what I write is on the phone.
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?
My blogging flourishes, as does my life, when I’m on the road. I love writing about my travels, of seeing new things, meeting new people. And so “away” is the ideal creative environment. That said, as I’ve been remaking my days, stepping away from an office with a desk and a chair, what “away” means can be as close as the public library or coffee shop up the street.
A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?
After running my home-brew PHP blogging engine for many years, I eventually migrated to using Drupal, and have been using Drupal ever since. This was partly for professional reasons — Almanac.com is a Drupal site, so I’ve wanted to “eat my own dogfood” on my personal site — and partly because I found Drupal a nice balance of canned and extendable.
My ability to blog-by-email is enabled by Postmark, which fires a web hook upon receiving email to a dedicated email address; the web hook fires some custom code on my server that uses the Drupal API to create a new post.
The site is hosted on an AWS EC2 instance, running MySQL and Apache.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
As I’m stepping away from coding professionally, I find myself at a crossroads: I’ve always believed deeply in owning and managing as much of my own technology stack as possible (I only migrated away from running my own mail server in recent memory), and I like the flexibility of “I’ll just code up a Drupal module to do that.”
But I’m trying to spend less time at the keyboard, and things that fascinated me at one point I now find technical drudgery, to the point where I might go looking for a home for my writing that I don’t need to care and feed so frequently, a place where I can just focus on writing.
But rewinding back to the beginning, no, I don’t think I’d do anything differently. I’ve loved my blog, and writing, for a long time; it’s part of me.
Financial question since the web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost or does it generate some revenue? And what's your position on people monetising personal blogs?
In the early days of Google Adsense I ran ads on the blog, and because the web was smaller, and I had a deep archive with good organic SEO, I made good money doing so.
But I gradually became uncomfortable with my own words, often deeply personal words, being surrounded by ads for who-knows-what, and so eventually turned off the ads entirely, and I’ve been ad-free (and analytics, and tracking free) ever since. I feel confident in this decision.
I generally read other blogs with an RSS reader (currently Readwise Reader, which I love; formerly FreshRSS and, like everyone else, Google Reader before that), I almost never see advertising on blogs, so it’s opaque to me.
It costs me about $50/month to host my blog on AWS; I’ve got a long-festering to-do list item to optimize and lower this, but it has yet to rise to the top of the list.
Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?
Some friends with blogs:
Longtime favourites:
Some recent lovely discoveries:
Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?
Podcasts:
YouTube videos:
Side projects of mine:
This was the 25th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Peter. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.
You can support this series on Ko-Fi and all supporters will be listed here as well as on the official site of the newsletter.
If you like this series and want to help it grow, you can:
https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/fojuvNtOmkqh6rk8 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/patients-wait-for-life-saving-medications-/7490139.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Julia Evans
https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/02/16/popular-git-config-options/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
NASA has concluded its Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment (Saffire) with a test onboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft after it departed from the International Space Station (ISS).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/nasa_fire_experiment/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
Hard to believe, but up until the late 1970s, we had two sheriff’s deputies here in Santa Clarita who worked — full-time and then some — on the livestock rustling beat. Prior to 1965, most of the crimes investigated on their detail were for cattle thievery. As the Santa Clarita Valley became more yuppie-fied, cow […]
The post John Boston | McD’s, Cow Rustlin’ and the Upside to Re-Electing Gascón appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/john-boston-mcds-cow-rustlin-and-the-upside-to-re-electing-gascon/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
My name is Liam Miller and I am a Boy Scout in the Saugus-based Troop 228. From kindergarten through sixth grade, I attended Golden Oak Community School in Canyon Country, along with my brother who is still enrolled at the school. During my time there, I’ve noticed there has never been a crossing guard keeping […]
The post Liam Miller | Crossing Guard Needed appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/liam-miller-crossing-guard-needed/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
A special unit of the Israeli Defense Force, specializing in hostage-rescue missions, burst into a second-floor apartment in the center of the border town of Rafah, in southern Gaza on Sunday. It was 1:49 a.m. Israel time, when this secret counter-terrorism unit successfully secured the freedom of two Israeli men, Fernando Marman, 61, and Louis […]
The post Gary Curtis | Hostage Rescue Begs Questions appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/gary-curtis-hostage-rescue-begs-questions/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
The Signal editorial board again moved to support one district attorney candidate out of emotive appeal, but failed to cite the sources for all the assessments it lays at the feet of incumbent George Gascón. That makes their position impossible to research or to refute. How very crafty. They even got David Hegg to sneak […]
The post Christopher Lucero | An Endorsement of Emotive Appeal appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/christopher-lucero-an-endorsement-of-emotive-appeal/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KAILUA-KONA — Hawai‘i golfers will have an exciting opportunity to showcase their skills to the rest of the world this spring.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/the-village-course-to-host-u-s-womens-open-qualifier/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>TAMPA, Fla. — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday he will retire when his current term ends in January 2029. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/rob-manfred-says-he-will-retire-as-baseball-commissioner-in-january-2029-after-14-years/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>BOSTON — With back-to-back Super Bowl victories for the hometown Chiefs, Kansas City football fans gathered for another championship parade and a second celebratory pep rally in a row. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/championship-parades-likely-to-change-in-wake-of-shooting-at-chiefs-super-bowl-celebration/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Pickleball players of all ages and skill levels can register for an upcoming tournament this March in Kailua-Kona.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/ambassadors-cup-pickleball-tournament-coming-to-kona/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The brackets for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) Division I boys basketball state playoffs was released on Wednesday night.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/boys-di-basketball-state-brackets-released/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>LAHAINA, Maui — The Maui Invitational is returning to the Lahaina Civic Center for the first time since wildfires devastated the area and killed 101 people. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/maui-invitational-returning-to-lahaina-civic-center-following-deadly-fire-in-2023/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK — Two presidential campaigns ago, Donald Trump faced a brewing sex scandal that threatened to derail his bid for the White House.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/judge-sets-a-march-25-trial-for-trumps-criminal-hush-money-case/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Keaau woman charged with abusing her two children</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/keaau-woman-charged-with-abusing-her-two-children/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A 56-year-old Ka‘u man once charged as being an accomplice to the 2009 shooting death of a 21-year-old rodeo champion was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the murder.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/kau-man-sentenced-for-role-in-2009-murder/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A case charging former President Donald Trump and his allies with trying to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia took a detour Thursday into the details of the prosecutors’ romantic and financial lives — their sleeping arrangements, vacations and private bank accounts — in an unusual and highly contentious hearing.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/da-denies-improper-relationship-with-special-trump-prosecutor/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Kawamoto Swim Stadium in Hilo was vandalized Sunday night.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/vandalism-theft-at-kawamoto-swim-stadium/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A Honokaa roofing contractor sustained life-threatening injuries last week in a freak accident in Southern California.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/honokaa-man-electrocuted-impaled-in-bizarre-accident/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>A fiery object seen over Maunakea last week is believed to have been the remains of a falling satellite, astronomers say.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/camera-on-maunakea-captures-image-of-blazing-space-debris/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>MIAMI — Manuel Rocha was well known in Miami’s elite circles for an aristocratic, almost regal, bearing that seemed fitting for an Ivy League-educated career U.S. diplomat who held top posts in Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba and the White House. “Ambassador Rocha,” as he preferred to be called, demanded and got respect.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/red-flags-missed-clues-how-accused-us-diplomat-turned-cuban-spy-avoided-scrutiny-for-decades/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Hawaii is a special place, and it’s the people who make it a compassionate community. We show aloha for our family, friends, neighbors and even complete strangers. All of us at one time or another, have benefited from the care of others.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/opinion/stop-underfunding-hawaiis-critical-nonprofits/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Since the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, gun safety advocates, national news outlets and public officials from city councils to the White House have repeated the claim that gun violence has overtaken car accidents to become the leading cause of death for school-aged children in the United States. But according to CDC data, this is only true for Black children. Even then, gun violence is more prevalent among at-risk teenagers in certain historically segregated neighborhoods.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/opinion/solving-gun-violence-requires-a-different-lens/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>The Biden administration is suing the state of Texas over a new state law that would empower state and local police officers to arrest migrants who cross from Mexico without authorization.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/a-legal-showdown-on-the-border-between-the-us-and-texas-what-to-know/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK (AP) — A state’s lawyer said in closing arguments Thursday at a civil trial claiming former National Rifle Association executives wildly misspent millions of dollars on private flights, vacations and other lavish perks that the gun rights group and its ex-CEO were caught “with their hands in the cookie jar.”</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/trial-over-lavish-nra-spending-nears-jury-wayne-lapierres-lawyer-calls-it-a-political-witch-hunt/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>Almost a decade ago, California became the first state in the United States to ban single-use plastic bags in an effort to tackle an intractable plastic waste problem.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/california-tried-to-ban-plastic-grocery-bags-it-didnt-work/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON — A White House spokesperson said Thursday that antisatellite technology being developed by Russia had not been deployed and posed “no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/russias-antisatellite-technology-poses-no-immediate-threat-white-house-says/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI informant has been charged with lying to authorities about a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/fbi-informant-charged-with-lying-about-joe-and-hunter-bidens-ties-to-ukrainian-energy-company/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s economy is now the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/japan-slips-into-a-recession-and-loses-its-spot-as-the-worlds-third-largest-economy/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, said Thursday that a shooting that tore through the city’s Super Bowl celebration, killing one person and wounding nearly two dozen others, appeared to have stemmed from an argument between several people.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/nation-world-news/shooting-at-kansas-city-super-bowl-rally-probably-stemmed-from-argument-police-say/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>DOHA, Qatar (AP) — China’s Pan Zhanle backed up his world record in the relays with a victory all his own Thursday, while American Claire Curzan became the first swimmer to claim two individual gold medals on a starring night for teenagers at the World Aquatics Championships. </p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/sports/teenagers-shine-at-world-aquatics-championships-as-chinas-pan-american-curzan-take-golds/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Hawaii Tribune Harold
<p>NEW YORK — A New York judge ruled Friday against Donald Trump, imposing a $364 million penalty over what the judge ruled was a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated the former president’s wealth.</p>
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/02/16/hawaii-news/trump-ordered-to-pay-364-million-penalty-in-new-york-civil-case/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
We began our New Zealand adventure in Auckland, staying at the Hilton Auckland, sitting right on the wharf where, of all things, Princess Cruises’ ships dock. (The ship, when docked, was less than half of a football field from the balcony of our room. In the morning, surprise roommates!) Both the North and the South Islands are […]
The post Carl Kanowsky | Chardonnay reigns on Kumeu River appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/carl-kanowsky-chardonnay-reigns-on-kumeu-river/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
If some of you think management started to tighten the screws on return to office this year then you aren’t alone – three in five workers say they are feeling the squeeze too.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/return_to_office/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Chaos Computer Club Updates
Der Schutz personenbezogener Daten ist uns wichtig. Deshalb haben wir mal wieder ein Unternehmen freundlich auf ein massives Datenleck hingewiesen – ungeachtet der möglichen juristischen Konsequenzen durch den Hacker-Paragraphen.
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2024/dubidoc Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Robert Reich on Substack
A big part of why the public isn’t crediting Biden
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/corporate-soaring-profits-are-from Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The center will support the research goals of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force.
The post New center tackles brain-inspired computing research appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/joshua-yang-air-force/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The count will reveal where homelessness appears most prevalent in Los Angeles.
The post LA community concludes homeless count appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/los-angeles-homeless-count/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
On Call The Register understands that by Friday afternoon readers may reasonably contemplate a drink or two. So to give you something to talk about should you visit a pub in search of such libations we therefore present a fresh instalment of On Call, the column in which you share your stories of tech support jobs that left you a little worse for wear.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/on_call/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, 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 16, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/classifieds-february-16-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
2000 – Rancho Camulos designated a National Historic Landmark [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-feb-16/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Valentine’s Day had me thinking about my flawed perspective on competitive multiplayer games.
The post Looking past the toxicity of ‘League of Legends’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/201351/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
A closer look at the 11 candidates running for USG senate.
The post 2024 USG senatorial candidate profiles appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/2024-usg-senatorial-candidate-profiles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
USG president Divya Jakatdar and vice president Michelle Lu discuss the tenure of their term and what lies ahead.
The post Year In Review: Incumbents talk making students’ lives easier appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/year-in-review-making-students-lives-easier-jakatdar-and-lu-reflect/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Instead of supporting hostile architecture, governments must support the houseless.
The post Hostile architecture isn’t helping anybody appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/hostile-architecture-isnt-helping-anybody/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Daily Trojan Spring 2024 Editorial Board interviewed and evaluated each of the four executive tickets.
The post The Daily Trojan endorses Fernandez and Sanchez appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/the-daily-trojan-endorses-fernandez-and-sanchez/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Trojans see Saturday’s match as an opportunity to boost their confidence.
The post Women’s water polo seeks win against Anteaters appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/womens-water-polo-seeks-win-against-anteaters/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The retired technophobe comes out with a new lease on tech optimism during the rise of artificial intelligence.
The post The path from technophobe to techno-optimist appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/the-path-from-technophobe-to-techno-optimist/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Sony’s latest production fails to meet expectations and is painfully devoid of any substance.
The post ‘Madame Web’ fails as a superhero film appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/madame-web-fails-as-a-superhero-film/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Beach volleyball was born on the public beaches of Los Angeles, and continues to carry the spirit of coastal California.
The post Bumming and balling: The sport of the city appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/bumming-and-balling-the-sport-of-the-city/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Four new Trojan defensive staff members spent time with the media Thursday.
The post Defending USC football’s defense appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/in-defense-of-usc-footballs-defense/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The post 2024 USG presidential candidate profiles appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/02/16/2024-usg-presidential-candidate-profiles/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Apple confirmed on Thursday it will not support Home Screen web apps – commonly referred to as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) – on iOS devices in European Union member states under its forthcoming iOS 17.4 release.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/apple_web_apps/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Microsoft has promised to splash €3.2 billion (£2.7 billion, $3.4 billion) on AI infrastructure and datacenters in Germany over the next two years.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/microsoft_germany_ai/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Web Curios blog
Reading Time: 35 minutes HELLO AGAIN CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT BEING DEAD! (Presuming, of course, that you do in fact consider continued existence to be a general positive – I’m currently ambivalent) It’s a lovely day here in London and I would quite like to spend at least some of it not staring into the digital abyss – so you’re…https://webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-16-02-24/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Cinema Vanguard Award fetes the Academy Award nominated actor with Valentine’s Day celebration of his work.
The post Paul Giamatti Blows Us All Sideways with a Peek at Himself appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/15/paul-giamatti-blows-us-all-sideways-with-a-peek-at-himself/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
India’s government has created a project it hopes will result in creation of a city-scale digital twin to help the nation improve future urban planning.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/india_sangam_digital_twin/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
washington — The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said on Thursday.
The intelligence came to light on Wednesday after Representative Mike Turner, Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, issued an unusual statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”
A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Washington had new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities and attempts to develop a space-based weapon, but added that the new Russian capabilities did not pose an urgent threat to the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed this view on Thursday, saying “this is not an active capability.”
Analysts tracking Russia’s space programs say the space threat is probably not a nuclear warhead but rather a high-powered device requiring nuclear energy to carry out an array of attacks against satellites.
These might include signal-jammers, weapons that can blind image sensors, or – a more dire possibility – electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that could fry all satellites’ electronics within a certain orbital region.
“That Russia is developing a system powered by a nuclear source … that has electronic warfare capabilities once in orbit is more likely than the theory that Russia is developing a weapon that carries a nuclear explosive warhead,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group.
A 2023 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said Russia is developing an array of weapons designed to target individual satellites and may also be developing “higher-power systems that extend the threat to the structures of all satellites.”
The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed a warning by the United States about Moscow’s new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a “malicious fabrication.”
The nuclear threat
Non-nuclear anti-satellite weapons have existed for years.
Russia in 2021 followed the United States, China and India by testing a destructive anti-satellite missile on one of its old satellites, blasting it to thousands of pieces that remain in Earth’s orbit.
Exploding a nuclear weapon in space would be another matter entirely.
Brian Weeden, an analyst at the Secure World Foundation, said Russia would undermine its credibility if it detonated a nuclear weapon in space, a possibility with profound implications for both military and commercial satellites.
“The Russians have spent 40 years in the U.N. bashing America about wanting to weaponize space, and place weapons in space and pledging that they would never do it,” Weeden said.
“If they do [detonate a nuclear device in space], they’d lose everything. All the countries that are supporting them on Ukraine and getting around sanctions, boom,” he added.
James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, said for Russia to put a nuclear weapon in orbit would be a “blatant violation of the Outer Space Treaty.”
The 1967 treaty, to which the United States and Russia are parties, bars signatories from placing “in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.”
Violating the treaty, Acton said, would further undercut efforts to revive U.S.-Russian arms control after Russia’s 2023 decision to suspend participation in the New START treaty, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads each can deploy.
Analysts said anti-satellite weapons could cripple military and commercial communications, undermining the armed forces’ ability to operate as well as global positioning systems (GPS) that everyone from Uber drivers to food delivery services use.
“The Russians think we’re blind if we don’t have access to our satellites and it’s probably true,” said a former U.S. intelligence official. “Our ability to rely on satellites is a major advantage in a potential confrontation but also a major vulnerability.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-highly-unlikely-to-put-nuclear-warhead-in-space-analysts-say/7490049.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Lever News
A declassified government report says documents about alleged atrocities have gone missing — and officials are flouting recordkeeping rules.
https://www.levernews.com/is-the-pentagon-hiding-war-crimes/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
The State Department — The United States does not see signs of an “imminent” war by North Korea despite “incredibly dangerous” activities in recent months and its refusal to engage in diplomatic talks with the U.S., a top U.S. official told reporters Thursday.
Jung Pak, the State Department’s senior official in charge of North Korea affairs, said U.S. officials “are always watchful for any kind of activity” by Pyongyang and will continue to work with Japan and South Korea to bolster extended deterrence, aiming to shape North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “calculus” regarding the initiation of direct military action.
“Fundamentally, I don’t think Kim’s posture has changed. We don’t see any signals of any direct action, military action,” Pak said.
“I don’t see an imminent or direct attack at this point,” she said.
Earlier this week, North Korea carried out its fifth cruise missile launch of the year, which came just days ahead of a joint U.S.-Japan missile defense training exercise scheduled for next week.
In Tokyo, a Japanese official issued a cautionary statement regarding North Korea’s escalating capabilities.
“By launching missiles from various platforms such as submarines and vehicle-mounted launch pads, we believe North Korea is making it difficult to identify and detect signs [of its activities] to strengthen its surprise attack capabilities,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a Thursday press conference.
Last month, Pyongyang said it test-fired a solid-fuel intermediate-range missile, equipped with a hypersonic warhead, into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
State Department official Pak said the U.S. estimated there were 69 ballistic missile tests by North Korea in 2022, and 30 ballistic missile tests last year.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-sees-no-imminent-war-by-north-korea-despite-dangerous-activities-/7490042.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
India’s drive to become a semiconductor superpower is likely to result in the creation of just five chip fabs by the year 2029, and the most sophisticated output from those facilities will be chips built on a 28nm process, according to US think tank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/india_semiconductor_insufficient/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, 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.
https://electrek.co/2024/02/15/quick-charge-podcast-february-15-2024/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Mark your calendars for August 9 to 11 as the WorldSBK heads over to Portimao for the Summer Fest.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/708875/2024-wsbk-portimao-sunset-race/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
The historic run isn’t over yet in Stevenson Ranch. Another strong defensive performance powered West Ranch girls’ basketball to victory as the Wildcats beat the Immaculate Heart Pandas, 51-36, in the CIF Division 4A quarterfinal matchup at L.A. City College. West Ranch led by just two at halftime but an 8-0 run in the third […]
The post <strong>West Ranch girls’ basketball advances to CIF semis</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/west-ranch-girls-basketball-advances-to-cif-semis/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
Trinity Knights boys’ basketball had its CIF playoff run end in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The top-seeded El Segundo Eagles took down the Knights, 66-52, in the CIF Division 5AA quarterfinals. The Eagles (22-9) had more height and length with some solid outside shooters, giving the Knights (23-8) a tough assignment on defense. El Segundo […]
The post <strong>Trinity basketball run ends in quarterfinals</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/trinity-basketball-run-ends-in-quarterfinals/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
Hart Indians girls’ soccer saw its tremendous season end on Wednesday. The Indians were dropped from the CIF Division 1 quarterfinals at home by the Roosevelt Mustangs in a game that quickly got away from Hart. Roosevelt won the match, 4-1, despite not scoring until midway through the second half. The scoring frenzy snowballed against […]
The post <strong>Roosevelt girls’ soccer takes down Hart</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/roosevelt-girls-soccer-takes-down-hart/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
President Donald Trump revisited on Thursday his remarks that if elected, he would not defend NATO members who don’t meet defense spending targets — more evidence of how two American presidents and their constituents are divided over America’s role in the world. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-biden-nato-spat-reflects-divide-on-america-s-role-worldwide/7490022.html Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Hero shakes up India’s premium segment with the Mavrick 440, derived from the Harley-Davidson X440.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/708873/hero-mavrick-440-everything-we-know/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
Today House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) canceled tomorrow’s votes and sent the House of Representatives into recess until February 28. Before recessing, Johnson refused to take up the national security supplemental bill the Senate passed early Tuesday morning, providing aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Gaza. Johnson said the House must “work its own will” rather than vote on the bill at hand because the measure did not include border security measures.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-15-2024 Save to Pocket
@Jessica Smith’s blog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Jessica Smith’s blog)
I wish there was a federated, ActivityPub-based LiveJournal. I know there’s stuff like write.as but it’s not really what I’m envisioning. What I basically want is a blog, where I can make occasional friends-only posts (not private or password-protected posts), and take advantage of ActivityPub for authenticating my friends. A Dreamwidth-like distinction between true “friends” and more distant “subscribers” wouldn’t go amiss, either. And “access list” posting, if you only want certain subsets of your friends to see.
Maybe this is something for which one could look to Bonfire ? I mean, its ideas about “Circles” are pretty similar to what I’m thinking of. It’s still a bit more “social media” and less “journal/blog” than I’m thinking, but I guess this blog is already like that anyway… 😅 Maybe I should make an account on their test instance and play around.
https://www.jayeless.net/2024/02/wishing-for-a-federated-livejournal.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Bluesky and Mastodon users are having a fight that could shape the next generation of social media.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/14/bluesky-and-mastodon-users-are-having-a-fight-that-could-shape-the-next-generation-of-social-media/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
As the weather warms up and CSUN winter sports come to an end, America’s favorite pastime returns to the Valley. On Friday, Feb. 16, CSUN baseball takes on visiting Utah…
https://sundial.csun.edu/178435/sports/csun-baseball-looks-to-utilize-last-seasons-momentum-to-chase-2024-big-west-crown/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
UCLA Health experts will be hosting a Demystifying Cancer event on Thursday, April 18, from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center at College of the Canyons. The discussion will demystify and debunk misconceptions regarding the meaning of a cancer diagnosis, as well as notify attendees of any “world-class treatment […]
The post UCLA Health to hold Demystifying Cancer event appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/ucla-health-to-hold-demystifying-cancer-event/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The new national security threat that sent some in Washington into a tizzy and sparked calls urging Americans not to panic, is a new Russian anti-satellite capability, the White House confirmed Thursday, again emphasizing there is no immediate threat to life or limb.
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby declined to go into details about the emerging Russian capability but said that U.S. intelligence agencies have been tracking Russia’s pursuit of such systems for a while, and that Washington has been reaching out to allies on next steps.
“This is not an active capability that’s been deployed,” Kirby told reporters. “And though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”
“We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth,” he added.
The explanation, and the effort to reassure the public, came just more than 24 hours after a leading U.S. lawmaker took to social media, demanding U.S. President Joe Biden declassify intelligence so the American public and U.S. allies could formulate a response.
Republican Representative Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement Wednesday warning of “a serious national security threat.”
“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond,” Turner added.
But both the White House and Pentagon on Thursday downplayed the need for that type of urgency, while conceding the Russian advancement is cause for concern.
“We’re taking this potential threat very, very seriously,” Kirby said, adding that U.S. intelligence agencies have been aware of Moscow’s pursuit of what he described as a “space-based” anti-satellite capability for “many, many months, if not a few years.”
“But only in recent weeks now has the intelligence community been able to assess with a higher sense of confidence exactly how Russia continues to pursue it,” he said.
U.S. defense officials, likewise, emphasized the emerging Russian capability does not come as a surprise.
“We are tracking what this is,” said Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “is part of the national security team that’s been briefing the president,” Ryder told reporters, adding that there is still a gap between Russia’s ambitions in space and what it is currently capable of doing.
“It’s not an immediate threat. It’s not an active capability. It has not been deployed,” he said.
For its part, Russia on Thursday dismissed the U.S. allegations about an anti-satellite capability as a “malicious fabrication.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of engaging in a ruse to get U.S. lawmakers to spend more funds.
“It is obvious that the White House is trying, by hook or by crook, to encourage Congress to vote on a bill to allocate money, this is obvious,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
Despite some consternation among some White House officials and members of Congress about the way the public was alerted to the threat, there is general agreement in the U.S. that the danger is real.
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Jim Himes, said Wednesday the threat is “a significant one.” And the leading Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee noted they have been tracking developments “rigorously,” describing the matter as serious.
Some arms control experts warn that the ramifications of a new Russian anti-satellite capability could be far-reaching.
“This would affect the global economy, the society writ large,” said Daryl Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association.
“China would be deeply concerned. India would be extremely concerned — countries that Russia has better relationships with than they do with us,” Kimball told VOA. “So, I think there would be stinging rebuke. That might be enough to encourage Russia to back down.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have been warning for years that Russia and China have been pursuing “a full range of anti-satellite weapons,” noting that the development and use of such systems “could degrade U.S. intelligence gathering abilities.”
One of the most recent declassified U.S. intelligence assessments warned that Moscow continues to “field new anti-satellite weapons to disrupt and degrade U.S. and allied space capabilities.”
Russia “is developing, testing, and fielding an array of nondestructive and destructive counterspace weapons — including jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based ASAT [anti-satellite] capabilities,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in its 2023 Worldwide Threat Assessment report.
But U.S. officials appear to acknowledge that the new Russian capability takes those ambitions a step further.
The NSC’s Kirby, while briefing reporters at the White House, said the capability the Kremlin is pursuing “would be a violation of the Outer Space Treaty to which more than 130 countries have signed up, including Russia.”
That treaty, which entered into force in 1967, prohibits nations from placing into space “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction,” and further bans the installation of such weapons on celestial bodies.
For now, Kirby says the White House intends to keep most of the information classified, while working with allies on how to respond.
He said the U.S. has also reached out to Moscow, though there have yet to be any real conversations on Russia’s attempts to achieve the new space-based anti-satellite capability.
As for the U.S. lawmaker who ignited the initial clamor, he said after being briefed by top White House, Pentagon and intelligence officials late Thursday that he is satisfied, for now, with the U.S. approach.
“We all came away with a very strong impression that the administration is taking this very seriously and that the administration has a plan in place,” Turner said. “We look forward to supporting them as they go to implement it.”
Still, top U.S. officials warned of a possible fallout from Turner’s decision to take his concerns public, saying that intelligence agency sources and methods may have been compromised.
“We’re asking ourselves that very question right now,” said Kirby. “We’re working our way through that analysis right now with the intelligence community.”
Some information in the report came from Reuters.
VOA’s Katherine Gypson and Anita Powell contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-confirms-russia-pursuing-space-based-anti-satellite-system-/7489975.html Save to Pocket
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-02-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Journalism Needs Leaders Who Know How to Run a Business.
https://niemanreports.org/articles/journalism-needs-leaders-who-know-how-to-run-a-business/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: Daring Fireball
It’s ridiculous for the CEO of Xbox to argue that iOS should have similar rules and policies to Windows, when Xbox — another platform from the same company — has rules that are, if anything, more restrictive and exclusive than iOS.
https://daringfireball.net/2024/02/phil_spencer_puts_apples_money_where_his_mouth_is Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
washington — The Biden administration is now focusing on implementing its goals for the Indo-Pacific, said analysts, as a White House strategist who initiated policies for the region moves to the State Department.
Kurt Campbell, who served as Indo-Pacific coordinator for the White House National Security Council, initiated strategies that moved allies and partners to cooperate on challenges across the region, from counterbalancing China’s rise to offsetting North Korea’s threats. He is going to a new position at the State Department.
He takes on the role of the deputy secretary of state, a position vacant since July when Wendy Sherman retired. The Senate confirmed Campbell on February 6 after President Joe Biden nominated him for the position in November.
Campbell’s position as the Indo-Pacific coordinator will be left unfilled, the Financial Times reported on February 6. Experts said that if the Biden administration did not fill the Indo-Pacific position, it would be a signal that Washington was now focusing on implementing the strategies Campbell set in place.
“Important initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific strategy and the Camp David summit are among the results of the decision by the incoming Biden administration to create a brand-new position of Indo-Pacific coordinator,” said Daniel Russel, who served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs during the Obama administration.
“Now that those and other initiatives have been launched and that interagency coordination on Indo-Pacific policy has matured, the administration’s challenge is in implementation and the need for a ‘coordinator’ in the White House has diminished,” Russel said Tuesday via email. He is the vice president for International Security and Diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Biden appointed Campbell as the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator in January 2021. Creation of the position came amid China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.
Campbell was instrumental in bringing together South Korea and Japan for a summit with the U.S. at Camp David in August. The two moved beyond their historical animosity and agreed to work together against China’s regional aggression and North Korea’s missile launches.
Campbell led the inaugural meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group held in July in Seoul to strengthen the bilateral alliance and reassure South Korea of U.S. nuclear deterrence in the region.
He also revamped the informal transregional agreement known as the QUAD among Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. in March 2021 and played a key role in creating a trilateral security partnership among Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., or AUKUS, in September 2021. China views both as security ties threatening its rise to dominance in the region.
Patrick Cronin, the Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, said via email on Tuesday that Campbell’s “central role over the past three years in defining strategies to compete [with], cooperate [with], and confront China marks a clear path for engaging allies and partners, dealing with China, and helping the U.S. negotiate from strength.”
Cronin continued, “His absence as Indo-Pacific coordinator will be significantly mitigated by his presence at the State [Department] and the outstanding team he has left at the White House to help carry out a vision he helped to mold.”
But concerns remain about the unfilled position for a region fraught with rising threats from North Korea and coercive moves by China, according to some analysts.
Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asia at the White House’s National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, said via email, “The Biden administration should reconsider its decision not to keep the position at a time when there is so much uncertainty about North Korea and China’s intentions.”
North Korea’s state media KCNA said on Thursday that the country tested new surface-to-sea missiles under the supervision of leader Kim Jong Un the day before. It was the regime’s fifth cruise missile test this year as Pyongyang threatens to take more aggressive moves against South Korea.
China continues to antagonize its neighbors in South China Sea with maritime maneuvers to assert its claim of sovereignty over disputed territories.
Aside from security issues, Wilder, currently a senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, said, “A major priority left undone in the Biden Indo-Pacific strategy is trade policy.”
Wilder said via email on Wednesday, “The IPEF [Indo-Pacific Framework] attempt to deal with this issue is stalled by congressional resistance because of concerns over the labor, human rights and climate change policies of partner nations. The administration must find a way to balance the robust security alliances and partnerships with an equally effective set of regional economic policies.”
The IPEF includes four pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. Biden launched the IPEF in Tokyo in May 2022 to set up sustainable common standards among countries in the region. The IPEF partners including South Korea and Japan account for 40% of the global economy.
China, not an IPEF member, perceives it as an ineffective effort to reduce its economic influence. He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the official Global Times in 2023, “The IPEF is neither a trade agreement nor an economic community. It’s just a framework, meaning that it will have no real efficacy.”
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date: 2024-02-16, from: VOA News USA
Russia is developing an anti-satellite weapon, the White House confirmed Thursday, after a lawmaker sounded an alarm over what he described as a serious national security threat. While White House officials say it could land Moscow in violation of a treaty banning weapons of mass destruction in space. They said it is not an urgent threat, and urged Americans not to panic, as lawmakers met behind closed doors to discuss the issue. Anita Powell reports from Washington.
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date: 2024-02-16, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/autc04/Retro68 Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay almost $5 million to settle allegations it illegally dumped protected health information – and hazardous waste – at its facilities across California.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/16/quest_diagnostics_california_settlement/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita City Council members unanimously approved a staff recommendation to assume the design of a bridge for Vista Canyon, a mixed-use transit-friendly development on the east side of town. During the discussion Tuesday before the City Council, City Manager Ken Striplin, who’s been with the city since 1996, acknowledged he couldn’t recall a precedent […]
The post City OK’s taking over Vista Canyon bridge plans appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/02/city-oks-taking-over-vista-canyon-bridge-plans/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The library’s recent experience might be seen as a “canary-in-the-coal mine” signal of the false economies from bids awarded based on lowest cost.
The post Yes on Measure A appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
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date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Dating back to the early 20th century, Santa Clarita has stood as a favored filming destination with silent movie productions seeking the region’s scenic backdrop for their films. The vast expanses of rugged mountains, sprawling ranches and iconic canyons provided filmmakers with a versatile canvas for their storytelling. Stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Harry Carey and William S. Hart were among the first to be featured in films that showcased Santa Clarita’s captivating scenery
https://scvnews.com/cameron-smyth-a-journey-through-the-silver-screen/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
A bill introduced in the California Legislature would further restrict the use of rat poison and allow members of the public to sue over illegal use and sale of rodenticides in the state
https://scvnews.com/rat-poison-bill-ramps-up-restrictions-allows-public-enforcement/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, updated: 2024-02-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Elon Musk’s X has been accused of flouting US sanctions by providing verified accounts to individuals and entities affiliated with Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, Houthi rebels, and other personae non gratae.…
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date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons Baseball battled with visiting Cosumnes River College for the better part of 12 innings before Frankie Malagon delivered a pinch hit, RBI-sacrifice fly that put the Cougars ahead 2-1 and gave head coach Chris Cota his 500th career win
https://scvnews.com/cota-gets-500th-career-win-in-extra-innings-walk-off/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Westmont’s immersive theater experience brings Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers to the party at Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop.
The post Party with Romeo and Juliet at ‘The Capulet Black & White Ball’ appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/02/15/party-with-romeo-and-juliet-at-the-capulet-black-white-ball/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons Men’s Golf played its way to victory at the first Western State Conference tournament of the season hosted by Ventura College at River Ridge Golf Course.
https://scvnews.com/canyons-golf-swings-to-victory-in-wsc-opener/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Rory Rory Cellan-Jones has been one of my favourite journalists ever since I was the Observer’s TV critic in the 1980s and 1990s. On Wednesday afternoon he was in Cambridge at his alma mater Jesus College, and when we were … Continue reading
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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
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date: 2024-02-16, from: PostgreSQL News
The pgmoneta community is happy to announce version 0.9.0.
New features
pgmoneta
pgmoneta is a backup / restore solution for PostgreSQL 12+.
Read our getting started guide to setup pgmoneta for your backup needs.
Features
Learn more on our web site or GitHub. Follow on Twitter.
pgmoneta is released under the 3-clause BSD license.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgmoneta-09-2810/ Save to Pocket
date: 2024-02-16, from: PostgreSQL News
The pgexporter community is happy to announce version 0.5.0.
New Features
Features
pgexporter
pgexporter is a Prometheus exporter for PostgreSQL.
Read our getting started guide to setup pgexporter for your monitoring needs.
Features
Learn more on our web site or GitHub.
pgexporter is released under the 3-clause BSD license.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgexporter-05-2809/ Save to Pocket