News gathered 2024-03-17
(date: 2024-03-17 14:46:09)
Motorcyclist dies in Sunnyvale collision
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Police say they do not believe alcohol and drugs were a factor in the crash.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/motorcyclist-dies-in-sunnyvale-collision/
Antioch police find burned body
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Antioch Police Department is investigating after a burned body was found at the 2900 block of Melon Court on Saturday evening.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/antioch-police-find-burned-body/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Why people are falling in love with AI chatbots.
https://www.theverge.com/24092638/ai-dating-chatbots-romance-replika-tinder-decoder
Blinken Arrives in South Korea to Attend Democracy Summit
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
Seoul, South Korea — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Sunday in South Korea on the first stop of a brief Asia tour also including the Philippines, as Washington moves to reinforce ties with two key regional allies.
Blinken landed Sunday afternoon ahead of the third Summit for Democracy on Monday, an initiative of U.S. President Joe Biden, which Seoul is hosting this week.
Before arriving in Seoul, Blinken made a brief stop in Bahrain, where he spoke to King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa about efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza.
The summit, which runs from March 18-20 will bring together government officials, NGOs and civil society members.
Seoul is one of Washington’s key regional allies, and the United States has stationed about 27,000 American soldiers in the South, to help protect it against the nuclear-armed North.
Seoul’s conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol has boosted ties with Washington and sought to bury the historical hatchet with former colonial power Japan to better guard against Pyongyang’s threats.
Blinken will meet South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, the ministry said, for discussions that will cover how to boost the alliance, as Washington and Seoul explore how to improve their so-called “extended deterrence” against North Korea.
The democracy summit has attracted some criticism due to its selective invitation list, which excludes countries that consider themselves democratic, such as Thailand and Turkey.
After Seoul, Blinken heads to Manila, a trip that will reaffirm “our unwavering commitment to the Philippine ally,” according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
He will talk with local officials including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — issues with China including disputes over the South China Sea are likely to top the agenda.
The U.S. is redoubling efforts to improve longstanding ties with regional allies such as Manila, in an effort to counterbalance China.
Beijing recently accused Washington of using the Philippines as a “pawn” in the dispute over the South China Sea, after a series of clashes around bitterly-contested islets in the waters.
China claims almost the entire waterway, brushing aside competing claims from a host of Southeast Asian nations and an international ruling that has declared its stance baseless.
The South China Sea is strategically vital for several countries — including China — providing a key route for the import and export of essential fuel, food and other goods.
China has rapidly grown its naval forces in recent years, and snatched vast tracts of maritime territory, hoping to project its military and political power well beyond the country’s shores.
https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-arrives-in-south-korea-to-attend-democracy-summit/7531428.html
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
We have a 140-char limit, but offer an effortless way to see more.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a202118
As Trump Remarks Ignite New Controversy, Biden Reaches Fundraising Milestone
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
U.S. lawmakers reacted to a series of controversial remarks made by Republican presidential Candidate Donald Trump on Saturday. And while Democratic President Joe Biden wasn’t on the campaign trail over the weekend, his reelection bid also made headlines. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias explains.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
It’s
so funny, the editor of Wordle on a
podcast on
Friday, 1000th puzzle day, said there are some puzzles that you might
not solve in six moves not because of skill rather because of luck. I
was pretty sure when I took my second guess, but that’s just when the
cursing started. By the third guess I thought she’s screwing with us! I
should not have listened to the podcast.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a201646
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Through it all, news.scripting.com remains my most popular site.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a200924
Last day to access Blackboard is June 28, USC announces
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Brightspace, the new learning management system replacing Blackboard, is available for preview at brightspace.usc.edu.
The post Last day to access Blackboard is June 28, USC announces appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/17/last-day-to-access-blackboard-is-june-28/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Protests against Putin erupt at polls on last day of Russian election.
https://www.axios.com/2024/03/17/russia-putin-elections-navalny
Spring Break Camp 2024
date: 2024-03-17, from: City of Santa Clarita
Spring Break Camp 2024 By City Manager Ken Striplin Unlike our children who enjoy a week-long spring break, we adults no longer have that luxury. Which means, many parents are searching for an engaging experience for their children during the time off school. The City of Santa Clarita offers just that. Our Spring Break Camp […]
The post Spring Break Camp 2024 appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/03/17/spring-break-camp-2024/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
On Mastodon: I’ve done this before, starting 25 years ago. Find some new connection I can make because someone was wise enough to add an RSS interface. I get to have an aha! moment and a good laugh at how great this is and then write a freaking blog post about it, and people think man this web thing is pretty cool.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a194939
One man shot in Brentwood, suspect arrested
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
One man was shot in Brentwood Saturday night in what police are calling an isolated incident.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/one-man-shot-in-brentwood-suspect-arrested/
Kids Need Playtime Outdoors
date: 2024-03-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Perhaps every school faces issues with unhappy neighbors who rage against the activity and noise associated with learning, developing, and growing.
The post Kids Need Playtime Outdoors appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/17/kids-need-playtime-outdoors/
MsgFiler 4
date: 2024-03-17, from: Michael Tsai
Adam Tow (Mastodon): Since WWDC 2023, I was telling long-time MsgFiler customers that I would look into what I could do to support the product in this new era of Apple Mail sans plug-ins. Honestly, I was a bit bummed because I didn’t see a viable path for the app. […] A deep dive into […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/17/msgfiler-4/
Walmart Selling M1 MacBook Air for $699
date: 2024-03-17, from: Michael Tsai
Joe Rossignol: Walmart today announced that it has started selling the MacBook Air with the M1 chip in the U.S., with pricing set at a very reasonable $699. The laptop can be ordered now on Walmart.com, and it will be available soon at select Walmart stores. […] Apple first released the MacBook Air with the […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/17/walmart-selling-m1-macbook-air-for-699/
iOS Notarization’s Human Review
date: 2024-03-17, from: Michael Tsai
Apple: Notarization for iOS apps is a baseline review that applies to all apps, regardless of their distribution channel, focused on platform policies for security and privacy and to maintain device integrity. Through a combination of automated checks and human review, Notarization will help ensure apps are free of known malware, viruses, or other security […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/17/ios-notarizations-human-review/
Authorities says a suspect has been detained in New Mexico state police officer’s killing
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
A suspect in the shooting death of a state police officer was captured in a confrontation Sunday with law enforcement officers in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico State Police said.
Sonoma County high schools team up to host Best Buddies prom for students with special needs
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
For years, Sonoma County schools with Best Buddies programs have teamed up to put on massive sporting events — soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and track and field in the spring.
COC International Animation Festival draws in global talent
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
College of the Canyons held its second annual International Animation Festival on Saturday with over 600 student-created animated films submitted from more than 70 countries. The festival also allowed local students interested in an animation career to connect with industry professionals. One hundred and fifty students trickled in and out of the theater rooms on […]
The post COC International Animation Festival draws in global talent appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/coc-international-animation-festival-draws-in-global-talent/
Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote a long piece about how conservative groups have “co-opted…
date: 2024-03-17, updated: 2024-03-17, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044202-nikole-hannah-jones-wrote
Photos: Dublin’s 40th St. Patrick’s Day Parade
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Residents and visitors enjoyed the 40th Dublin Lions Club St. Patrick’s Day Parade, on Saturday, March 16, in Downtown Dublin, with the parade route spanning from Dublin Boulevard and Amador Plaza Road to the Dublin Senior Center. Though it was a celebration of Irish folklore and history, many cultures came to celebrate.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/photos-dublins-40th-st-patricks-day-parade/
No arrests in stolen vehicle incident
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
No arrests have been made involving a stolen vehicle incident in Val Verde on Saturday night, according to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials. The incident originated in Val Verde at 8:16 p.m. involving a stolen Toyota Camry, said Johnny Gillespie, watch commander with the SCV Sheriff’s Station. Deputies lost sight of the suspect after […]
The post No arrests in stolen vehicle incident appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/no-arrests-in-stolen-vehicle-incident/
Some Landmarks Change But Stay the Same
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
A common refrain heard throughout the Santa Clarita Valley is: “Everything has changed so much in the last few years.” It is true that the addition of the Vista Canyon and Skyline Ranch projects have dramatically impacted the landscape of the SCV, as well as the countless changes in retail and restaurant businesses. Yet, many […]
The post Some Landmarks Change But Stay the Same appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/some-landmarks-change-but-stay-the-same/
Get Creative with Easter Sweets: Kid-friendly crafts that bring loved ones together
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
Holiday hams and deviled eggs may take center stage at Easter gatherings, but edible crafts offer a reminder of the magic of the season that’s found in moments spent together. Simple recipes that call for a dose of creativity are perfect ways to bring the kids to the kitchen, made even easier when all that […]
The post Get Creative with Easter Sweets: Kid-friendly crafts that bring loved ones together appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Time to Hit California’s Trails
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
The natural beauty of California is unsurpassed. It’s time to get outside and enjoy California’s dramatic coastline, majestic granite peaks, rushing waterfalls, the world’s tallest trees, sapphire blue lakes and stunning desert oases. Grab a water bottle, a bag of granola and your backpack. Lace up your hiking boots, put on your sunscreen and make […]
The post Time to Hit California’s Trails appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/time-to-hit-californias-trails/
The 2024 Volvo XC90 Recharge PHEV AWD Ultimate SUV
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
What is a XC90? The XC90 is a 3 row midsize luxury SUV built in the Torslanda, Sweden assembly plant and sold worldwide by Volvo. The XC90 is Volvo’s largest and safest vehicle they build, and is a solid and stylish choice in the midsize 3 row luxury SUV class. It seats 7 people inside a well designed, high quality, very nice interior.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/the-2024-volvo-xc90-recharge-phev-awd-ultimate-suv/
Misleading “zero emission vehicle” label is here to stay
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) are commonly understood to be modern vehicles that do not produce tailpipe emissions. The phrase “ZEV mandate” is now used to identify California’s effort to phase out the sale of internal combustion vehicles by 2035, and most people naturally assume that the ambitious new regulations will prohibit the sale of all vehicles powered by gasoline.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/misleading-zero-emission-vehicle-label-is-here-to-stay/
US Military Operations Across Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
DAKAR, Senegal — The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger’s junta said it was ending its yearslong military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials.
The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger that deploys flights over the vast Sahel region — south of the Sahara Desert — where jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.
Top U.S. envoy Molly Phee returned to the capital, Niamey, this week to meet with senior government officials, accompanied by Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s African Command. She had previously visited in December, while acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to the country in August.
The State Department said Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that talks were frank and that it was in touch with the junta. It wasn’t clear whether the U.S. has any leeway left to negotiate a deal to stay in the country.
Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training.
But that changed in July when mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president and months later asked French forces to leave.
The U.S. military still had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The Niger base is used for both manned and unmanned surveillance operations. In the Sahel the U.S. also supports ground troops, including accompanying them on missions. However, such accompanied missions have been scaled back since U.S. troops were killed in a joint operation in Niger in 2017.
It’s unclear what prompted the junta’s decision to suspend military ties. On Saturday, the junta’s spokesperson, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said U.S. flights over Niger’s territory in recent weeks were illegal. Meanwhile, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with their communications, criticized U.S. efforts to force the junta to pick between strategic partners.
“The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he told The Associated Press.
After her trip in December, Phee, the top U.S. envoy, told reporters she had “good discussions” with junta leaders and called on them to set a timeline for elections in return for restoring military and aid ties. But she also said the U.S. had warned Niamey against forging closer ties with Russia.
Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which have experienced two coups each since 2020, have turned to Moscow for security support. After the coup in Niger, the military also turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for help.
Cameron Hudson, who served with the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department in Africa, said the incident shows the diminution of U.S. leverage in the region and that Niger was angered by Washington’s attempt to pressure the junta to steer clear of Russia. “This is ironic since one mantra of the Biden Administration has been that Africans are free to choose their partners,” he said.
The U.S. delegation visit coincided with the start of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer for Muslims. Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, refused to meet them. A U.S. press conference at the embassy in Niger was canceled.
The junta spokesperson, speaking on state television, said junta leaders met the U.S. delegation only out of courtesy and described their tone as condescending.
Aneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official who specialized in African affairs and director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a risk advisory group, said the recent visit had failed and the U.S. needs to take a critical look at how it’s doing diplomacy not just in Niger but in the whole region.
“What’s going on in Niger and the Sahel cannot be looked at continuously in a vacuum as we always do,” she said. “The United States government tends to operate with blinders on. We can’t deny that our deteriorating relationships in other parts of the world: the Gulf, Israel and others, all have an influential impact on our bilateral relations in countries in West Africa.”
ASU basketball: Hurley’s future, Crow’s master plan, the unsigned contract and the historical standard for success
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Bobby Hurley’s program struggled this season while his contract extension went unsigned. Is there reason to expect a coaching change?
Nvidia CPU Tech show back in San Jose
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
The autonomous vehicle industry has reduced its speed. Its future is here, but it’s not quite as in focus as the next signpost. Even the most fervent believers have re-evaluated their enthusiasm for the human-free driving mode.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/nvidia-cpu-tech-show-back-in-san-jose/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Note to self, make a Chrome extension for my blogroll.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a160400
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
On this day in 1999. Not much happened in RSS. But I’m going to keep checking for the next couple of weeks.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/17.html#a160105
Technical writing in 2049
date: 2024-03-17, from: Blog by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti
A month ago, Lana Novikova asked me to imagine the future of software documentation. What will software technical writing look like in, say, 2049, when our profession will be a century old? Will we be writing markup in git repositories or use ÜberDITA in space? Will our job still exist? I’ve put my futurist hat on to picture the shape of our profession 25 years from now. Buckle up!
https://passo.uno/tech-writing-predictions-2049/
Old Tools, New Ideas
date: 2024-03-17, from: Om Malik blog
I have become a big fan of vintage fountain pens. When I saw this lovely Ebonized Pearl WASP Clipper, I immediately fell in love with it. This is quite a rare find. Most collectors won’t even take it out of the cabinet. I don’t buy things to put them in a case. For me, it …
https://om.co/2024/03/17/old-tools-new-ideas/
US military operations across the Sahel are at risk after Niger ends cooperation
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger’s junta said it was ending its years-long military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials.
Cockney Rebel singer Steve Harley, who had a hit with ‘Make Me Smile,’ dies at 73
date: 2024-03-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
British musician Steve Harley, whose glam-rock band Cockney Rebel had an enduring hit with the song “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me),” has died. He was 73.
RISC OS eXperience – 18th May
date: 2024-03-17, from: RiscOS Story
People in the United Kingdom who use RISC OS have plenty of opportunities to meet up with fellow users, with a number of user groups holding meetings on a regular basis, and a small number of main events – the shows, such as Wakefield and London. But what of our European friends? It’s possible for them to join some of the user group meetings when they’re held online and at a suitable time, as many are, but while doing so is an opportunity not to be missed where possible it’s…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/risc-os-experience-18th-may/
All Tesla Model Y Trims Will Cost $1,000 More On April 1, 2024
date: 2024-03-17, from: Inside EVs News
The company hints at the price increase and adds 5,000 miles of free Supercharging to boost its Q1 sales results.
https://insideevs.com/news/712684/tesla-modely-price-increase-april1-2024/
How to run an LLM on your PC, not in the cloud, in less than 10 minutes
date: 2024-03-17, updated: 2024-03-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cut through the hype, keep your data private, find out what all the fuss is about
Hands On With all the talk of massive machine-learning training clusters and AI PCs you’d be forgiven for thinking you need some kind of special hardware to play with text-and-code-generating large language models (LLMs) at home.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/17/ai_pc_local_llm/
Fuzzing Ladybird with tools from Google Project Zero
date: 2024-03-17, from: OS News
While Ladybird does an okay job with well-formed web content, I thought it would be useful to throw some security research tools at it and see what kind of issues it might reveal. So today we’ll be using “Domato”, a DOM fuzzer from Google Project Zero, to stress test Ladybird and fix some issues found along the way. The way this works is that Domato generates randomized web pages with lots of mostly-valid but strange HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I then load these pages into a debug build of Ladybird and observe what happens. ↫ Andreas Kling I have high hopes for Ladybird.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138853/fuzzing-ladybird-with-tools-from-google-project-zero/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump warns US will see ‘bloodbath’ if not re-elected.
LEVER WEEKLY: Bad Medicine
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Lever News
Big Pharma is using secret middlemen and corporate Democrats to poison the health care system, and other news from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-bad-medicine/
Passing on at ROUGOL – 18th March
date: 2024-03-17, from: RiscOS Story
What will happen to your computer gear when you’re no longer with us? Rather than a guest speaker, the next RISC OS User Group of London (ROUGOL) meeting – which will take place on 18th March (tomorrow) – will take the form of an open discussion, with Bernard Boase chairing the meeting. Inspired by a discussion on the Stardot forum entitled‘What happens to your collection when you pass?’, the aim of the meeting will be to explore the possibilities for what might happen to your computer equipment when you have…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/passing-on-at-rougol-18th-march/
‘I Will Always Love You’
date: 2024-03-17, from: Dan Rather’s Steady
A Reason To Smile
https://steady.substack.com/p/i-will-always-love-you
It’s March Madness, More People Can Legally Bet on Basketball Games
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
In the rush to build AI apps, please, please don’t leave security behind
date: 2024-03-17, updated: 2024-03-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Supply-chain attacks are definitely possible and could lead to data theft, system hijacking, and more
Feature While in a rush to understand, build, and ship AI products, developers and data scientists are being urged to be mindful of security and not fall prey to supply-chain attacks.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/17/ai_supply_chain/
Recall: Some 2024 BMW R 1250 RT And K 1600s May Have Front Strut Issue
date: 2024-03-17, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A small number of ESA front spring struts were not produced to correct specifications and must be replaced according to BMW.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712170/bmw-r1250rt-k1600-strut-recall/
Usher, Fantasia Barrino, ‘Color Purple’ Honored at 55th NAACP Image Awards
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
LOS ANGELES — Usher was named entertainer of the year at the 55th annual NAACP Awards on Saturday night, which highlighted works by entertainers and writers of color.
After Usher accepted his award at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the superstar R&B singer spoke about being thankful about the journey of his successful career that has lasted three decades.
He reeled off several of his recent big moments including his sold-out residency in Las Vegas, getting married, releasing his ninth studio album “Coming Home” and his Super Bowl halftime performance, which became the most-watched in the game’s history.
Usher beat out Colman Domingo, Fantasia Barrino, Halle Bailey and Keke Palmer.
“I don’t know how many people do that much stuff in one setting,” said the multi-Grammy winner, who was presented the award by Oprah Winfrey. After being surprised by Winfrey’s presence, he thanked those who have supported him throughout the years.
“This is for you, you, my number ones,” the singer said as the audience repeated his words back to him. The final words of his speech were recited lyrics from his popular song “Superstar” from his 2024 album “Confessions,” which has sold more than 10 million units in the U.S.
Earlier in the ceremony, Usher was honored with the President’s Award for the singer’s public service achievements through his New Look Foundation. He thanked the strong women in his life, including his mother and wife Jenn Goicoechea, whom he married after his Super Bowl halftime performance last month.
“The say behind or beside or with every strong man is a stronger woman,” he said.
Queen Latifah hosted the awards ceremony aired live on BET.
“The Color Purple” was awarded best motion picture. The musical film featured star-studded cast including Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Domingo, H.E.R., Danielle Brooks, Corey Hawkins and Bailey.
Barrino, who starred as Celie in the film, won for best actress in a motion picture.
“I didn’t prepare a speech, because I didn’t think I was going to win,” the singer-actor said. “I was afraid to play Celie, but I’m glad I did. Because I kept saying ‘If I don’t win an award, the awards that I will win will come from the people who watched ‘Color Purple’ and the women who will relate to her and feel like Oscars when they walk out.’”
New Edition was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. The induction is bestowed on individuals who are viewed as pioneers in their respective fields and whose influence shaped their profession.
“We stand here in brotherhood,” said Michael Bivins while his group members behind him. The Grammy-nominated group includes Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant, Ronnie DeVoe and Ricky Bell.
“You’ve seen our story. You know what we’ve been through,” said Bivins, who spoke about the group overcoming conflict and tension in their earlier years to now holding a residency in Las Vegas.
“But we call each other every day,” he continued. “We text each other every day. We check on our families. You watched us grow up. We’re still growing.”
Damson Idris won best actor in a drama television series for his role in “Snowfall.” Henson and Domingo took home best supporting roles in “The Color Purple.” Domingo also won best actor in a motion picture for his role in “Rustin.”
David Hegg | Please Control Yourself
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
By David Hegg Aristotle was the first philosopher to assert self-control as a virtue in any meaningful way. He put it this way: I count him braver who conquers his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is the victory over self. I suspect that, were this great philosopher to be […]
The post David Hegg | Please Control Yourself appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/david-hegg-please-control-yourself/
Ron Perry | Reminders for Voters
date: 2024-03-17, from: The Signal
The following letter was written prior to the March 5 Primary Election. I would like to remind every voter of a few things. 1. Your tax dollars are paying for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants. They get California CalFresh cards for food ($291 per month per person!); they mock our legal system, they have […]
The post Ron Perry | <strong><em>Reminders for Voters </em></strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/ron-perry-reminders-for-voters/
Some in Path of Deadly Tornadoes in Central US Face Long Recovery
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
Lakeview, Ohio — Residents in a swath of the central United States hit by deadly tornadoes were cleaning up, assessing damage and helping neighbors on Saturday. But it will be a long recovery from the storms that ripped through parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas.
Thursday night’s storms claimed three lives in the Indian Lake area of Ohio’s Logan County, one of the hardest-hit regions, and about 40 people were injured and dozens of homes damaged in one Indiana community. Tornadoes were also reported in Illinois and Missouri.
Samantha Snipes, 33, said that when she first heard the tornado warning, she called her father who lives seven minutes away and told him to take cover. He said he was trying get into the closet in her childhood home and then the phone cut out, she told The Associated Press.
She and her husband attempted to drive down the main road to get to him but couldn’t and had to get through the back way after the tornado passed.
“It looked like out of a movie, like Twister,” she said. “My dad’s garage was leveled. The back of his house is gone. Like everything’s gone.”
They climbed over everything screaming for him. When they found him, he wasn’t injured and he told them to stop crying, she said.
Her father, Joe Baker, had always told his children to hide in the closet if there was ever a tornado.
“We grew up here. Like this is our childhood home,” said Snipes who Saturday was throwing away things and figuring out what could be saved. “And you see it on the news. But you never imagine it’s going to happen to you.”
Steve Wills, a pastor who owns a vacation home down the road on Orchard Island, said Saturday he was bringing a family crew to finish cleaning up and cover a hole in the roof.
“We’re saddened for the families that lost people. There’s three deaths in our community. You know, that breaks our heart,” Wills said. “But it could have been so much more, so much more. Yeah, so I still have faith.”
The community has been really helpful, Snipes said.
The school superintendent was dropping off food, clothes and diapers on Friday. The night of the tornado, neighbors on her dad’s street were going house to house shutting off the gas, she said.
“Everybody on this road is safe. You know neighbors helping neighbors is what it’s been,” Snipes said.
Sunday caption contest: The race is on!
date: 2024-03-17, from: Robert Reich on Substack
And last week’s winner
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-contest-the-race-is
Today in SCV History (March 17)
date: 2024-03-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1927 – Newhall telephone exchange, est. 1900, now serves 100 phones. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-17/
Biden Jokes About His Opponent’s Age — and His Own — at DC Roast
date: 2024-03-17, from: VOA News USA
washington — The big news this week, U.S. President Joe Biden said at a weekend Washington roast, was that two candidates had clinched their party’s nomination for president. But one was too old, too mentally unfit for the job, he said.
“The other’s me,” Bidden quipped.
The digs against Republican Donald Trump kept coming from the president at the annual Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner, as Biden deflected ongoing criticism that his memory is hazy and he appears confused, instead highlighting moments when the 77-year-old Trump has slipped up, too.
“Don’t tell him, he thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” said Biden, 81, who also quipped that he was staying up way past his bedtime.
It was the first time Biden has attended the dinner during his presidency, and comes as the 2024 election looms and the rematch between Biden and Trump heats up. The annual bacchanalia, now in its 139th year, traces its history to 1885 — the year President Grover Cleveland refused to attend. Every president since then has come to at least one Gridiron.
Biden veered quickly into the somber, though, highlighting what he sees as a real threat to democracy should Trump — who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen — return to the White House. The speech had echoes of Biden’s campaign remarks, criticizing Trump as well as too soft on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We live in an unprecedented moment in democracy,” he said. “An unprecedented moment for history. Democracy and freedom are literally under attack. Putin’s on the march in Europe. My predecessor bows down to him and says to him, ‘do whatever the hell you want.’”
Biden then introduced the Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
“We will not bow down. They will not bow down, and I will not bow down,” he said.
Biden, dressed in white-tie attire as is the custom, brought his daughter Ashley.
The dinner has a reputation as a night of bipartisan mirth, and was jam-packed with politicians and who’s-who of Washington, including Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff, at least eight other Cabinet members, at least five members of Congress, five governors and at least five ambassadors. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who’s in town for St. Patrick’s Day, also attended.
Also speaking at the dinner were Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Utah Goveror Spencer Cox, a Republican.
Biden closed out the dinner speaking about the importance of a free press. Although he may not agree with everything the news media prints, he said, he understands the necessity of journalism and said he was still working to bring home journalists Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice, one held in Russia, the other who disappeared during a reporting trip in Syria.
“Good journalism holds a mirror up to society,” he said. “We need you.”
Biden and Harris were seated at the head table along with other administration officials and the foreign leaders, plus Gridiron president Dan Balz of The Washington Post. Also seated at the table were Balz’s bosses, the Post’s Executive Editor Sally Buzbee and the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos.
The dinner was held at the Grand Hyatt. No photos or TV were allowed.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-jokes-about-his-age-during-washington-event-/7531032.html
March 16, 2024 (Saturday)
date: 2024-03-17, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
I’m posting a different sort of picture tonight from my friend Peter Ralston: a painted sign listing Maine town names. It jumped out to me when he sent it because I am on the road again— in New Orleans tonight— where I have been meeting with dear old friends and special new ones.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-16-2024-saturday
Blobs
date: 2024-03-17, from: Ed Summers blog, Inkdroid
On the one hand, all the models that are available for
download on Hugging Face seem pretty much like programming language
compilers and interpreters that we download and use to write software.
You don’t try to open and read /usr/bin/python3 in your
text editor. You trust that it works. Simon Willison says
these models are like an “opaque blob that can do weird and interesting
things”, and the same analogy seems to hold for the binary executables
we run too.
But the big difference is that, once you get various dependencies assembled correctly, you can build the Python binary. The build depends on other opaque blobs being set up, like gcc, which in turn can be built by bootstrapping using a lower level language. There are layers of abstraction at work that can be tested, and reasoned about, which lead us to having some confidence that things are working correctly. It might get complicated but we can debug them when they don’t work correctly.
This is not true of the opaque blob Large Language Model (LLM). We don’t have access to the source code that was used to create it. Compiling it can require a huge investment in time and resources. There’s no way to debug its logic. If you’re lucky there may be a paper about how it was built, but some don’t because it is deemed too dangerous.
So while it feels the same, it’s really not. I just don’t understand why people would like to integrate LLMs into applications, for generating database queries, or API calls. It seems to me like we would want to be able to reason about these things, and that we lose the ability to do that when using an LLM. Why does anyone think this is a good idea?
And if this style of programming were really to catch on with a new generation of programmers, would we lose our ability to understand SQL or REST? Are these really useless abstractions like Assembler that we want to forget? Won’t our ability to reason about our applications atrophy? The state of software is already kind of bad, and it seems like some people are dreaming up ways of making it even worse.
https://inkdroid.org/2024/03/17/blobs/
A Clean-Sheet Introduction to the Scientific Method
date: 2024-03-17, updated: 2024-03-17, from: Ron Garret
About twenty years ago I inaugurated this blog by writing the following:“I guess I’ll start with the basics: I am a scientist. That is intended to be not so much a description of my profession (though it is that too) as it is a statement about my religious beliefs.”I want to re-visit that inaugural statement in light of what I’ve learned in the twenty years since I first wrote it. In
https://blog.rongarret.info/2024/03/a-clean-sheet-introduction-to.html
Trump is out of his mind and desperate
date: 2024-03-17, from: Robert Reich on Substack
His speech today in Ohio shows it
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trump-is-out-of-his-mind-and-desperate
Full Circle Weekly News 357
date: 2024-03-17, from: Full Circle Magazine
-
NixBSD develops a variant of NixOS with a kernel from FreeBSD:
-
Linux Mint develops new chat app after shutting down HexChat:
-
Bruce Perens published a draft version of the Post-Open license:
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-357/
WAL-G 3.0.0 released
date: 2024-03-17, from: PostgreSQL News
WAL-G team is happy to announce the release of WAL-G 3.0.0
WAL-G is a tool for archival database restoration for PostgreSQL, GreenplumDB, MySQL/MariaDB, MongoDB, etcd and several other databases.
Noteworthy Changes
- Every database engine can now benefit from failover storage. This technique can save the day if one of the storage systems goes down. However, do not forget to monitor them anyway.
- For Postgres, we have a WAL archiving daemon available. Its primary purpose is to improve the efficiency of parallel archiving.
- Additionally, WAL-G supports the partial restoration of a cluster. If you have large, unnecessary tables, you can exclude them from the restoration process, the Postgres will skip over the WAL records for these tables. See docs for details.
- Greenplum’s PITR (Point-in-Time Recovery) is undergoing its maturation process. Partial restore is supported in a similar way to Postgres. We now have tools to verify the integrity of AOfiles in storage without actually restoring backups.
WAL-G v3.0.0 is available for download on our GitHub releases page.
Have a nice day!
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/wal-g-300-released-2826/
First drive in the Maserati Grecale Folgore SUV: Italian luxury is going all-electric and we love it
date: 2024-03-16, from: Electrek Feed
Italian luxury automaker Maserati is now entering its fourth year of its 100% electric strategy and sits on the precipice of launching its second BEV model – the Grecale Folgore SUV. I got invited to Southern Italy to take the Grecale Folgore to the road (and off the road) to see if the famed automaker’s niche for power and luxury translates to the all-electric age.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/16/first-drive-maserati-grecale-folgore-suv-italian-luxury-all-electric/
Why Mickey Mouse Is So Famous
date: 2024-03-16, updated: 2024-03-16, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_tT3R-Qrgw
Niger Revokes Military Accord With US, Junta Spokesperson Says
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
Niamey, Niger — Niger’s ruling military junta has revoked a military accord that allows military personnel and civilian staff from the U.S. Department of Defense on its soil, junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.
The decision, which takes effect immediately, follows a visit this week by U.S. officials led by Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and included General Michael Langley, commander of the U.S. Africa Command.
Abdramane, speaking on television in the West African nation, said the U.S. delegation did not follow diplomatic protocol and that Niger was not informed about the composition of the delegation, the date of its arrival, or the agenda.
He added that the discussions were around the current military transition in Niger, military cooperation between the two countries and Niger’s choice of partners in the fight against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
Since seizing power in July of last year, the Niger junta, like the military rulers in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, have kicked out French and other European forces, and turned to Russia for support.
“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” Abdramane said.
“Also, the government of Niger forcefully denounces the condescending attitude accompanied by the threat of retaliation from the head of the American delegation towards the Nigerien government and people,” he added.
The U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There were about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger as of last year, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases including a drone base known as Air Base 201, built near Agadez in central Niger at a cost of more than $100 million.
Since 2018, the base has been used to target Islamic State militants and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the Sahel region.
Abdramane said the status and presence of U.S. troops in Niger was illegal and violated constitutional and democratic rules because, according to the spokesperson, it was unilaterally imposed on the African nation in 2012.
He said Niger was not aware of the number of U.S. civilian and military personnel on its soil or the amount of equipment deployed and, according to the agreement, the U.S. military had no obligation to respond to any request for help against militants.
“In light of all the above, the government of Niger, revokes with immediate effect the agreement concerning the status of United States military personnel and civilian employees of the American Department of Defense on the territory of the Republic of Niger,” Abdramane said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/niger-says-announces-end-to-military-cooperation-with-us/7530719.html
I love this
date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I love that I can read Mastodon posts in my freaking blogroll.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/16/215021.html?title=iLoveThis
What Makes People Happy? California Lawmakers Want to Find Out
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Assemblyman Anthony Rendon likes to spend his spare time away from the Capitol in Sacramento with his 4-year-old daughter at home near Los Angeles. Last weekend, he took her ice skating and afterward to an indoor playground, then let her get a donut after she agreed to ride her scooter on the way there.
“Those are the types of things that make me happy,” he said this week in an interview outside the state Assembly chambers, where he’s served as a lawmaker for a dozen years.
Now Rendon, a Democrat who was one of the longest-serving Assembly speakers in California history, is spending his last year in office trying to make happiness more central to policymaking. He created a first-in-the-nation group to study the issue, called the Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes, which held its first public hearing this week.
It would be “silly” for lawmakers to not study how they can make people happier, Rendon said.
“Because if we have everybody clothed, everybody housed, everybody has a job and they’re miserable, then we’ve failed at what we’re trying to do,” he said, adding that lawmakers should think about happiness as a priority in policymaking.
In California, three-quarters of adults say they are “very happy” or “pretty happy,” while 26% say they are “not too happy,” according to a September 2023 survey from the Public Policy Institute of California. Adults aged 18 to 34, people who are renters, those without a post-high school degree, and Californians with an annual household income of $40,000 or lower tend to be less happy than others.
California is breaking new ground in the United States. At least 12 state legislatures in the nation have committees focused on mental health and substance abuse issues, but no other state legislature has a committee devoted to happiness, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
But the idea to consider happiness in public policy isn’t unprecedented: The landlocked country of Bhutan in South Asia prioritizes happiness as a goal of public policy, measuring it through something written into its constitution called the Gross National Happiness Index. The country surveys residents on their level of happiness, and officials work to increase happiness by providing residents with free health care and education, protecting cultural traditions, and preserving forests, said Phuntsho Norbu, consul general of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United States.
The government cannot make every person happy, but it should “create the right conditions that will allow people to pursue happiness,” Norbu said.
Lawmakers on California’s new committee heard this week from experts about the things that make people happy, what public officials can do to help and what role state and local government can play. The committee isn’t set on any solutions yet but plans to release a report with its findings after lawmakers adjourn for the year at the end of August, said Katie Talbot, Rendon’s spokesperson.
Assembly member Pilar Schiavo, a Democrat representing part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, hopes the committee’s work can address poor mental health among youth in California, which her 11-year-old daughter has told her is a big issue in her class at school.
“It’s a true crisis that we have on our hands right now,” Schiavo said. “This is really getting to the heart of what that crisis is about.”
Research demonstrates that leisure activities, social relationships and life circumstances contribute to a person’s happiness, said Meliksah Demir, a professor of happiness at California State University, Sacramento. Public officials can work toward improving happiness by investing in mental health resources, making green spaces more accessible and teaching about the value of happiness early on in schools, Demir said.
Happiness has wide-ranging benefits that include making people more likely to vote, more creative and healthier, he said.
The Public Policy Institute of California’s September survey found that 33% of adults overall say they are very satisfied with their job, 31% say they are very satisfied with their leisure activities and 44% are very satisfied with their housing.
Californians’ level of happiness decreased during the pandemic, but experts are still researching the decline, said Mark Baldassare, the group’s survey director.
California, which is often ahead of other states on issues such as climate policy and civil rights, is behind many parts of the world in prioritizing happiness in policymaking, Rendon said. He was inspired to create the happiness committee in part by a report on happiness released annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Last year’s report said that how people view the effectiveness of government — including how well it raises money, delivers services and avoids civil war — can influence their happiness. The United States was 15th in a world happiness ranking based on a three-year average from 2020 to 2022, according to the report. Scandinavian countries, including Finland and Iceland, ranked the highest.
Rendon’s decision to create the happiness committee aligns with his approach to making state policy that focuses on “bigger picture” social issues, longtime labor lobbyist Kristina Bas Hamilton said. People have different perspectives on government involvement in their lives, but the creation of the committee evokes the ultimate purpose of government, she said.
“Government’s role is to provide for its people,” Bas Hamilton said. “The goal is to have happy citizens. That’s the goal of all public policy.”
Alt-Burger?
date: 2024-03-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
I searched your article about burgers, and although everything looked tasty, I was hoping to see the restaurants include a delicious plant-based burger alongside their meat.
The post Alt-Burger? appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/16/alt-burger/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
New Children's Crusade: The Christian Right is Radicalizing Young People.
https://www.texasobserver.org/christian-youth-radicalization-nationalism-texas/
Friends gather support for beloved retired CalArts instructor
date: 2024-03-16, from: The Signal
Some friends are a call away, while others create GoFundMe pages. In the case of Darrell Walters and Marie Mingoia’s friendship, the latter occurred. Walters, who contracted pneumonia in August to find a mass in his lungs after a PET and CT scan, was readmitted to the hospital in January after excruciating back pain to […]
The post <strong>Friends gather support for beloved retired CalArts instructor</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/friends-gather-support-for-beloved-retired-calarts-instructor/
America Is Getting Green for Its Largest St. Patrick’s Day Parades
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — St. Patrick’s Day parades across the U.S. are going on Saturday, promising to turn a river green in the Midwest, commemorate a big anniversary in the South and put forth the first female leader of a major beer company as a grand marshal of the New York parade that predates the nation’s founding.
The holiday commemorates Ireland’s patron saint and was popularized largely by Irish Catholic immigrants. While St. Patrick’s Day falls on March 17, it’s being observed with major parades a day early, so it doesn’t land on Sunday, a day of worship for the Christian faithful.
Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which dates to 1762, is one of the world’s largest Irish heritage festivities. So many people march the 2.4-kilometer route up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue that the parade is expected to last more than five hours.
On Saturday, Heineken CEO Maggie Timoney plans to serve as grand marshal of the Manhattan parade, according to organizers. Originally from Ireland, she is the first female CEO of a major beer company.
New York City has multiple parades on various dates around its five boroughs — including, on Sunday, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade allowing LGBTQ+ groups to march on Staten Island.
Mayor Eric Adams last month announced the plan for the new, privately organized celebration, arranged after a local organization asked for years to join the borough’s decades-old parade. That longstanding event, which does not allow groups to march under LGBTQ+ banners, happened earlier this month.
The Manhattan parade began allowing LGBTQ+ groups and symbols in 2015, after decades of protests, legal challenges and boycotts by some politicians.
The Chicago Plumbers Union once again turned the Chicago River green. Organizers say the tradition, started by the union, uses an environmentally friendly powder once used to check pipes for leaks.
In Savannah, Georgia, organizers expect a historic crowd to participate in the parade, which started in 1824. Ahead of the bicentennial, Georgia’s oldest city had nearly 18,000 hotel rooms booked for the weekend.
Santa Barbara Environmental Groups Look to Expand California’s Proposed Fracking Ban
date: 2024-03-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Environmental Defense Center and Sierra Club are pushing to add widespread steam injection and flooding methods to the state’s proposal.
The post Santa Barbara Environmental Groups Look to Expand California’s Proposed Fracking Ban appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Happy 1st Birthday, GPT-4
date: 2024-03-16, from: Gary Marcus blog
Ten birthday observations
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/happy-1st-birthday-gpt-4
March 15, 2024
date: 2024-03-16, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
March 15, 2024
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-15-2024-6ad
Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta v12 finally rolls out – get your minds blown
date: 2024-03-16, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla is finally starting to roll out Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta v12 to customers — another “mind-blowing” update, according to CEO Elon Musk.
However, as usual, everyone should be really careful when using FSD Beta.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/16/tesla-full-self-driving-beta-v12-finally-rolls-out/
Full Belly Files | Inside Santa Barbara Burger Week 2024
date: 2024-03-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The story of the past and present of our annual burger bash; plus stories you may have missed.
The post Full Belly Files | Inside Santa Barbara Burger Week 2024 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/16/full-belly-files-inside-santa-barbara-burger-week-2024/
A swinging time: Mint Canyon celebrates opening of inclusive playground
date: 2024-03-16, from: The Signal
The Mint Canyon Community School Roadrunners started their Friday morning with an exciting celebration before their last day of the school week, as staff, students and parents participated in the unveiling of its brand-new inclusive playground in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Mint Canyon Community School celebrated the opening of the new inclusive playground for the school’s […]
The post <strong>A swinging time: Mint Canyon celebrates opening of inclusive playground </strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
New Kind of Hospital Coming to Rural America, Without Inpatient Beds
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
NYC legal weed: Why legal stores are few and far between.
https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/weed-nyc-travel-agency-legal-cannabis.html
‘Friday Night Lights’: Temple Beth Ami hosts country-themed Shabbat
date: 2024-03-16, from: The Signal
Photos by Dan Watson/The Signal Country music artist Joe Buchanan, a Jewish convert, performed his country-themed “Friday Night Lights” Shabbat service at Temple Beth Ami last week. Rabbi Mark Blazer rocked a cowboy hat during the service, and told The Signal in a previous story that he and Buchanan have been in contact for a […]
The post ‘Friday Night Lights’: Temple Beth Ami hosts country-themed Shabbat appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/friday-night-lights-temple-beth-ami-hosts-country-themed-shabbat/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Om: Why I redesigned my home page.
https://om.co/2024/03/16/why-i-redesigned-my-home-page/
Post-Pandemic, Young Chinese Seek Studies Abroad, Just Not in US
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — In Shanghai, two young women seeking an education abroad have decided against going to the United States, a destination of choice for decades that may be losing its shine.
For Helen Dong, a 22-year-old senior studying advertising, it was the cost. “It doesn’t work for me when you have to spend 2 million [yuan] [$278,000] but find no job upon returning,” she said. Dong is headed to Hong Kong this fall instead.
Costs were not a concern for Yvonne Wong, 24, now studying comparative literature and cultures in a master’s program at the University of Bristol in Britain. For her, the issue was safety.
“Families in Shanghai usually don’t want to send their daughters to a place where guns are not banned — that was the primary reason,” Wong said. “Between the U.S. and the U.K., the U.K. is safer, and that’s the biggest consideration for my parents.”
With an interest in studying abroad rebounding after the pandemic, there are signs that the decadeslong run that has sent an estimated 3 million Chinese students to the U.S., including many of the country’s brightest, could be trending down, as geopolitical shifts redefine U.S.-China relations.
“International education is a bridge”
Cutting people-to-people exchanges could have a lasting impact on relations between the two countries.
“International education is a bridge,” said Fanta Aw, executive director of the NAFSA Association of International Educators, based in Washington. “A long-term bridge, because the students who come today are the engineers of the future. They are the politicians of the future; they are the business entrepreneurs of the future.
“Not seeing that pipeline as strong means that we in the U.S. have to pay attention, because China-U.S. relations are very important.”
Aw said the decrease is more notable in U.S. undergraduate programs, which she attributed to a declining population in China from low birthrates, bitter U.S.-China relations, more regional choices for Chinese families and the high costs of a U.S. education.
But graduate programs have not been spared. Zheng Yi, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, has seen the number of Chinese applicants to one of the school’s engineering programs shrink to single digits, compared with 20 to 30 students before the pandemic.
He said the waning interest could be partly due to China’s growing patriotism that nudges students to attend Chinese institutes instead.
Andrew Chen, chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based WholeRen Education, which has advised Chinese students in the U.S. for the past 14 years, said the downward trend is here to stay.
“This is not a periodic wave,” he said. “This is a new era.” The Chinese government has sidelined English education, hyped gun violence in the U.S., and portrayed the U.S. as a declining power. As a result, Chen said, Chinese families are hesitant to send their children to the U.S.
China’s criticisms of the U.S.
Beijing has criticized the U.S. for its unfriendly policy toward some Chinese students, citing an executive order by former President Donald Trump to keep out Chinese students who have attended schools with strong links to the Chinese military.
The Chinese foreign ministry also has protested that a number of Chinese students have been unfairly interrogated and sent home upon arrival at U.S. airports in recent months. Spokeswoman Mao Ning recently describing the U.S. actions as “selective, discriminatory and politically motivated.”
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said fewer than “one tenth of 1%” of Chinese students have been detained or denied admission.
Another State Department official said Chinese students selected for U.S.-funded exchange programs have been harassed by Chinese state agents. Half of the students have been forced to withdraw, and those who participated in the programs have been faced with harassment after returning to China, the official said, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity.
The U.S.-China Education Trust acknowledged the predicament facing Chinese students. “Students from China have been criticized in the U.S. as potential spies, and in China as too influenced by the West,” the organization said in a report following a survey of Chinese students in the U.S. between 1991 and 2021.
Still, many young Chinese, especially those whose parents were foreign educated, are eager to study abroad. The China-based education service provider New Oriental said the students hope degrees from reputable foreign universities will improve their career prospects in a tough job market at home, where the unemployment rate for those 16 to 24 stood at nearly 15% in December.
But their preferences have shifted from the U.S. to the U.K., according to EIC Education, a Chinese consultancy specializing in international education. The students like the shorter study programs and the quality and affordability of a British education, as well as the feeling of safety.
Wong, the Shanghai student now studying in the U.K., said China’s handling of the pandemic pushed more young people to go abroad. “After three years of tight controls during the pandemic, most people have realized the outside world is different, and they are more willing to leave,” she said.
The State Department issued 86,080 F-1 student visas to Chinese students in the budget year ending in September, up nearly 40% from the year earlier. Still, the number remains below the pre-pandemic level of 105,775.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Saying the web misses Google Reader is like saying the United States misses President Trump. Why do I think that? Think of the mess Google left behind when they dumped the web. Putting all our cards in one basket in software is a very very very very bad idea. As everyone who misses The Orange Feed Reader is evidence of. It’s like someone rips you off bad and all you can think about is how much you miss them. You, sir or madam, need to get your head examined.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/16.html#a165506
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
An
upgrade idea for the web. I’d like to have a bit of JavaScript code ask
to be notified when the user clicks on a link on my page that gets them
a 404. I’d like a chance to do some looking around and seeing if I can
find the thing they wanted. This comes up when you look at the archive
of this blog for March
1999. Back then my server was a Macintosh which had a
case-insensitive operating system. A few years later I moved all the
stuff to Amazon S3, much less hassle, and probably cheaper too. But over
there the filesystem is case-sensitive. I must’ve been typing in URLs by
hand and not caring about case, because why should I, my server didn’t
care. Except now it does care and when I click links to pages I know
are
there, but
can’t
be found, I get depressed. I wanted to read the damn thing, that’s why I
clicked on it. Not to see some cute
404 page
(although it is pretty nice). Even better would be a way to tell Amazon
to serve this bucket without regard to case.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/16.html#a164134
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Brian Lehrer interviews Tracy Bennett who edits Wordle at the NYT.
https://www.wnyc.org/story/1000-wordles-later
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
It’s Time to Unleash Kamala Harris—to Trigger Trump.
https://link.motherjones.com/public/34705173
Hyundai Motor Global EV Wholesale Sales Hit The Brakes In February 2024
date: 2024-03-16, from: Inside EVs News
The volume decreased by almost half year-over-year.
https://insideevs.com/news/712520/hyundai-motor-global-ev-sales-february2024/
An actual look at Microsoft OS/2 2.0
date: 2024-03-16, from: OS News
This release marks the last time that Microsoft would release an OS/2 beta to developers, instead with the runaway success of Windows 3.0, Microsoft would remove resources from the constrained OS/2, and refocus both on Windows 3.1, and Windows NT. Thanks to one of my Patrons – Brian Ledbetter, the much-sought Microsoft OS/2 2.0 Pre-Release 2 is now available! So obviously the first thing to do was to re-create the original magical screenshot. ↫ neozeed at VirtuallyFun We already talked about this rediscovered release, but this article contains even more detailed information, this time from the person who bought the copy off eBay.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138842/an-actual-look-at-microsoft-os-2-2-0/
Tesla warns of Model Y price increase as new end-of-quarter incentive
date: 2024-03-16, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has announced that it will increase Model Y prices by $1,000 on April 1st, as a new end-of-quarter incentive.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/16/tesla-warns-model-y-price-increase-end-quarter-incentive/
The Good Ole Days
date: 2024-03-16, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Just a fellow traveler who was wondering if any of the locals miss the old Santa Barbara? And by old I mean maybe 10 years ago.
The post The Good Ole Days appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/16/the-good-ole-days/
The big picture
date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
As I complete a big project I like to re-center, to remind myself what I’m working for.
My goal is to create a social web that includes blogs and twitter-like systems. To set a new baseline where titles, simple styling, links, enclosures and the ability to edit are tools writers can use.
Somehow twitter pushed writing into a tiny little box. If we work together we can dig ourselves out of this box.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/16/133139.html?title=theBigPicture
YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: An End To The Judge Shopping Spree
date: 2024-03-16, from: The Lever News
Plus, Apple’s favorite repair restriction may soon be banned, college athletes score a historic labor win, and the tide may be turning on anti-LGBTQ bills.
https://www.levernews.com/you-love-to-see-it-an-end-to-the-judge-shopping-spree/
Are Brabus And KTM Working On A New 1400 R Based On The 1390 Super Duke?
date: 2024-03-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Multiple patent filings seem to suggest that this is the case.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712172/2024-brabus-ktm-1400r-super-duke-1390/
I Used ChatGPT as a Reporting Assistant. It Didn’t Go Well
date: 2024-03-16, from: The Markup blog
The AI tool ignored basic instructions about sourcing and citations. But it’s a pretty good newsroom coding partner.
Weird Alibaba: Anybody want an electric airplane stair truck?
date: 2024-03-16, from: Electrek Feed
Remember how the Bluth family drove that airplane staircase truck in the TV series Arrested Development? My apologies if not, since that’s a bit critical to the lead image gag above. But either way, you can surely appreciate how ridiculous it would be to actually own and drive one of those as a real vehicle. And now thanks to Alibaba, you might not have to purely imagine it anymore.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/16/weird-alibaba-anybody-want-an-electric-airplane-stairs-truck/
Suzuki’s Just Dropped the Dates for Its 2024 Motorcycle Demo Tour
date: 2024-03-16, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Everything from the V-Strom to the all-new GSX-8R will be available for test rides.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712005/usa-suzuki-demo-tour-2024/
Batteries, Green Energy Sources Combine for Major Climate Solution
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
Home Price Key Reason Some Voters Frustrated by US Economy
date: 2024-03-16, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Lori Shelton can’t fathom ever having the money to buy a home — and that’s a major reason why so many voters feel down on the economy ahead of this year’s presidential election.
Shelton, 67, drives an Uber to help pay rent in Aurora, Colorado. An advance on her pay covered her apartment’s security deposit. But it also cut into her next paycheck, leaving her bank account dangerously low when the rent was due — a cycle that never seems to end.
“I’m always one step behind,” said Shelton, her voice choking up. “It’s a nightmare, it’s a freaking nightmare right now.”
The United States is slogging through a housing affordability crisis that was decades in the making. At the root of this problem: America failed to build enough homes for its growing population. The shortage strikes at the heart of the American dream of homeownership — dampening U.S. President Joe Biden’s assurances that the U.S. economy is strong and underscoring the degree to which Republican Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive GOP nominee for 2024, has largely overlooked the shortage.
The lack of housing has caused a record number of renters to devote an excessive amount of income to housing, according to a Harvard University analysis. Not enough homes are for sale or being built, keeping prices elevated. Average mortgage rates have more than doubled and further worsened affordability.
In fact, the Census Bureau reported that homeownership fell slightly at the end of last year in an otherwise solid economy. If it wasn’t for shelter costs, inflation — Biden’s most pronounced economic problem — would be running at a healthy and stable 1.8%. Instead, it’s hovering around 3.2%.
Administration officials are confident that shelter inflation will soon cool, but the damage across several years is apparent to advocates and economists.
“I’ve been doing housing work for 30 years — the housing affordability challenge is the worst I’ve ever seen in my career,” said Shaun Donovan, a former secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama years who now leads the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners.
Donovan noted that this is an increasingly bipartisan challenge that could bring the political parties together. Expensive housing was once the domain of Democratic areas such as New York City and San Francisco. It’s now moved into Republican states as places such as Boise, Idaho, grapple with higher prices.
“It is a first-tier issue almost everywhere,” he said. “And that is changing the national politics around it in a way that I think is quite different than I’ve ever seen.”
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that the outcome of the November election could ultimately depend on the path of 30-year mortgage rates.
Rates currently average about 6.74%. If they dropped closer to 6%, the odds of a Biden victory would increase. But rates moving near 8% might enable Trump to prevail, Zandi said.
“Given the current housing affordability crisis, higher rates will make owning a home completely out of reach for nearly all potential first-time homebuyers,” he said. “Since homeownership is a key part of the American dream, if it appears unattainable, this will deeply impact voters’ sense of the economy.”
Biden, a Democrat, acknowledged the pain many are feeling in his State of the Union address earlier this month and in his budget proposal released on Monday.
The president wants to fund the building and preservation of 2 million housing units — a meaningful sum, but not enough to solve the shortage. He also proposed a tax credit worth up to $10,000 to homebuyers. Over the past three years, he has increased rental assistance to 100,000 households.
“The bottom line is we have to build, build, build,” Biden said Monday in a speech to the National League of Cities. “That’s how we bring down housing costs for good.”
Rapidly climbing home prices were also a festering problem under Trump, who first achieved celebrity status as a real estate developer. While president, Trump called for limiting construction in the suburbs. He claimed during the 2020 election that Biden’s policies to spur building and affordability would “destroy your neighborhood.”
During the 2018 to 2020 years of Trump’s presidency, the country’s housing shortage surged 52% to 3.8 million units, according to the mortgage company Freddie Mac.
The Associated Press contacted Trump’s campaign for his policy plans but did not get a response. The America First Policy Institute, a think tank promoting Trump’s vision, said the key is to cut government borrowing to reduce mortgage rates. The former president has pledged to reduce deficits, but an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget shows that his policies in office will have likely added more than $8 trillion to the national debt.
“The best way for us to improve access to homeownership for young people is to get interest rates back down, not to provide subsidies that cause housing unaffordability to worsen,” said Mike Faulkender, chief economist at the institute.
Lower rates might play well with voters, but most economists say they would at best offer temporary financial relief. Purchase prices would likely adjust upward in response to greater demand from falling rates.
Construction, the more enduring solution, would take years to achieve and require new rules by states and cities. The administration is trying to incentivize zoning changes, but the major choices are outside the White House’s control.
“Even as incomes are going up and the economy is doing well and inflation is coming down, people can’t buy homes,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at the brokerage Redfin. “That’s like the biggest problem for Biden because it’s not one that he can solve.”
The general rule of thumb is that people should pay no more than 30% of their income on rent or a mortgage. A typical household looking to buy a home would have to devote 41% of its income to mortgage payments, according to Redfin.
There are far-reaching economic risks because of this. High housing costs can lead people to cut back spending elsewhere. Advocates said it enables landlords to neglect their properties since there is always a ready tenant.
Evictions can worsen health and educational outcomes for children and exact an even wider cost on society, said Zach Neumann, a Denver-based lawyer who provides more than $30 million annually in rental assistance through the nonprofit Community Economic Defense Project.
The cumulative costs of evicting poorer renters are “$20,000 to $30,000 a year when you include shelter nights and emergency room visits,” Neumann said. “It’s really overwhelming when you think about the total numbers and these folks are fighting to have a roof over their heads.”
While there is bipartisan agreement on the need for more housing, there has yet to be a significant plan that has passed the House and Senate. Biden has proposed housing aid throughout his administration that never materialized.
“Had Congress passed some of the investments that the president has called for since the beginning of the administration, had they done that three years ago, as he was advocating, we’d have affordable units coming online right now,” said Daniel Hornung, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council.
But Mark Calabria, who was director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency during the Trump administration, said that many of the federal tools to increase housing such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit could further push up demand without adding enough construction.
“My worry would be we’ve done a number of things that increased demand when the problem is supply,” said Calabria, now an adviser with the libertarian Cato Institute.
But for renters such as Lori Shelton in Colorado, the debate about how to add housing supply is cold comfort when she owes rent now. She’s previously dealt with the threat of eviction and late fees. She gets some rent money from her son, but she has also relied at times on her church to cover the $2,399 a month.
“I don’t think the majority of us have that savings account,” she said. “If you spend that much on your rent and your groceries and your car and your bills, you don’t have much for a fallback.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/home-price-key-reason-some-voters-frustrated-by-us-economy/7529578.html
Ahead of IPO, Reddit blends advertising into user posts
date: 2024-03-16, updated: 2024-03-16, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
As FTC starts asking questions about that mega-deal with Google to train AI
Ahead of its stock market debut, Reddit has said it’s going to make it easier for advertisers to craft normal user posts and run them as ads on the social network.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/16/reddit_promoted_posts/
The Billionaire Takeover of America? | The Coffee Klatch, Saturday, March 16, 2024
date: 2024-03-16, from: Robert Reich on Substack
with Heather Lofthouse (and Yours Truly)
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-billionaire-takeover-of-america
Today in SCV History (March 16)
date: 2024-03-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
2003 – Lifesize sculpture honoring heroes of St. Francis Dam disaster unveiled in Santa Paula. [video
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-16/
March 15, 2024
date: 2024-03-16, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
Today, open opposition to Trump’s return to power spread as another prominent Republican rejected him as the apparent Republican presidential nominee. Trump’s vice president Mike Pence said he would not endorse Trump for president. Three years ago, I wrote about a similar effort in the 1850s that brought a coalition together to stop a small group of men from taking over the country.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-15-2024
Giving a pill to a cat vs. a dog
date: 2024-03-16, from: Matt Haughey blog
Our pets have small ailments right now and we're giving pills to both a cat and dog and there is a difference in how that goes.
Tricking a cat into eating a pill is like sitting down to chess with a world-ranked grandmaster.
👨🏻 pspspsps hey buddy,
https://a.wholelottanothing.org/giving-a-pill-to-a-cat-vs-a-dog/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
So please, dear reporters and editors, try to factor actual proven facts into the context of your reporting.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/15/135259.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
March 1999 was the month when RSS became a phenomenon. A lot of that documented in the archive of Scripting News for that month. 25 years ago.
http://scripting.com/1999/03.html
Parallels Desktop 19.3
date: 2024-03-16, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/parallels-desktop-19-3/
Little Snitch 5.7.4
date: 2024-03-16, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/little-snitch-5-7-4/
Audio Hijack 4.3.2
date: 2024-03-16, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/audio-hijack-4-3-2/
Piezo 1.9
date: 2024-03-16, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/piezo-1-9/
Walmart Sells M1 MacBook Air for $699
date: 2024-03-16, from: TidBITS blog
The M1 MacBook Air is back! After seemingly being dropped by Apple after the launch of the M3 MacBook Air, Walmart has picked up the base model of the M1 MacBook Air to sell at a low price.
https://tidbits.com/2024/03/15/walmart-sells-m1-macbook-air-for-699/
Four things about threads.net
date: 2024-03-16, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
Four things.
- We’re selling ourselves out by letting Facebook own a new social network and not putting that energy into building something that preserves our choice.
- I understand that Facebook’s claims of supporting the Fedisphere won’t amount to anything. They will end up controlling what interop means, which means we end up with yet another app store, with all the nonsense that comes with. Welcome to CyberDisneyland.
- You know all this, as well as I do. But we have decided not to care.
- This is exactly how we snookered ourselves into using Twitter for 17 years.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/15/015719.html?title=fourThingsAboutThreadsnet
Morphotrophic / Morphotrophic excerpt
date: 2024-03-16, from: Greg Egan’s feed
Read an excerpt from my new novel, MORPHOTROPHIC
https://www.gregegan.net/MORPHOTROPHIC/00/MorphotrophicExcerpt.html
TMU Men’s Volleyball Sweeps Benu in Arizona
date: 2024-03-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
In the first of three matches on consecutive nights in Arizona, The Master’s men’s volleyball team defeated Benedictine-Mesa in three sets 27-25, 28-26, 25-
https://scvnews.com/tmu-mens-volleyball-sweeps-benu-in-arizona/
Longtime COC Women’s Basketball Coach Herrick Enshrined in Hall of Fame
date: 2024-03-16, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Greg Herrick, the former longtime College of the Canyons women’s basketball head coach who recorded 611 career wins while winning 16 conference titles, was inducted into the California Community College Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (CCCWBCA) Hall of Fame during the organization’s annual Banquet of Champions at Mt. San Antonio College on March
https://scvnews.com/longtime-coc-womens-basketball-coach-herrick-enshrined-in-hall-of-fame/