News gathered 2024-03-19
(date: 2024-03-19 08:42:29)
Tuesday’s primaries include a key Senate race in Ohio and clues for the Biden-Trump rematch
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Other races outside of the presidency could provide insight into the national political mood.
I love that Lil Nas X impulsively ran a half-marathon….
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044209-i-love-that-lil-nas
When life gives you Lemon, sack him
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CNN veteran publishes Musk interview that got his X show canceled
Comment Last year, two high-profile American news anchors lost their jobs. This year, CNN’s Don Lemon joined Fox News’s Tucker Carlson with a new show on Elon Musk’s X.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/musk_lemon_interview/
East Bay doctor sentenced to federal prison for improperly prescribing opioids
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
According to prosecutors, the doctor wrote medical prescriptions for opioids like Norco in exchange for street drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as cash payments.
Tesla hires semiconductor manufacturing expert to help with battery production
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has hired an experienced semiconductor manufacturing executive to help ramp up its battery cell production.
San Leandro man shot, house struck by round in Oakland
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
A motive has not been determined yet for the shooting of a San Leandro man in Oakland on Monday night.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/19/san-leandro-man-shot-house-struck-by-round-in-oakland/
Tech Today: NASA Helps Find Where the Wildfires Are
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
Globally, nearly all wildfires start with a human ignition source – not lightning strikes or wildlife encountering power equipment. Knowing humans can be a primary cause is an example of the sort of knowledge that helps predict and prevent wildfires, a challenge that NASA and the firefighting industry are undertaking together. As wildfires become more […]
https://www.nasa.gov/general/tech-today-nasa-helps-find-where-the-wildfires-are/
Expedition 69 Astronauts Tour NASA Goddard, Speak With Employees
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
A trio of astronauts visited with employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on March 18, 2024, to share their spaceflight experiences aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi all served as flight engineers on the Expedition 69 crew […]
Volkswagen’s ID.4 Plant In Tennessee Seeks To Unionize With The UAW
date: 2024-03-19, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, the U.S. will finalize changes to the EV efficiency rating rule and Blink will continue expanding despite EV adoption slowdown.
https://insideevs.com/news/712948/vw-uaw-tennessee-union-election/
Man pleads not guilty to attack on Bay Area Islamic center
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
The suspect is accused of discharging tear gas at the Islamic Center of North Marin.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/19/marin-man-pleads-not-guilty-to-islamic-center-attack/
49ers stars George Kittle, Deebo Samuel part of Netflix’s ‘Receiver’ docuseries
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
The 49ers’ George Kittle and Deebo Samuel are part of Netflix’s ‘Receiver’ docuseries due out this summer.
There is no EU cookie banner law
date: 2024-03-19, from: OS News
You know those modal screens that interrupt your groove when you are surfing? There are no laws forcing websites to use them. They use them because they choose to. ↫ Bite code! Cookie banners are not only not required, they’re not even needed, and most implementations you encounter today are illegal anyway. You can use session cookies and anonymous stats cookies without needing any user approval. Companies like to use these cookie banners because they want to make you mad at the law, not at them for tracking you up the wazzoo, and people who actually do know better trot out the cookie banners to enrage you at the government instead of at the corporations exploiting you. EU law only states that if a website wants to track you, they have to let you know. That’s it. Seems very reasonable to anyone who isn’t a corporatist.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138870/there-is-no-eu-cookie-banner-law/
The end of what’s on, when, and where
date: 2024-03-19, from: Doc Searls (at Harvard), New Old Blog
But not of who, how, and why. Start by looking here: That’s a page of TV Guide, a required resource in every home with a TV, through most of the last half of the 20th century. Every program was on only at its scheduled times. Sources were called stations, which broadcast over the air on […]
https://doc.searls.com/2024/03/19/the-end-of-whats-on-when-and-where/
Swift enters safe mode over gyro issue while NASA preps patch to shake it off
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Gamma-ray burst watcher almost two decades past use-by date
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has dropped into safe mode after one of the spacecraft’s three gyroscopes showed signs of degradation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/swift_enters_safe_mode/
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Owner Drove Almost 100,000 Miles. Battery Health Is 97%
date: 2024-03-19, from: Inside EVs News
That’s a lot of miles for a 21-month-old electric pickup truck.
https://insideevs.com/news/712417/ford-f150-lightning-high-mileage-battery-life/
Is Bajaj Already Working On A New Triumph 400cc Model?
date: 2024-03-19, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
After the resounding success of the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 X, Bajaj and Triumph are just getting started.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712292/triumph-400-rajiv-bajaj-plans/
More On Pig Butchering
date: 2024-03-19, from: David Rosenthal’s blog
Thankfully, pig butchering scams are getting attention. Three weeks after I posted Tracing The Pig Butchers, John M. Griffin and Kevin Mei posted How Do Crypto Flows Finance Slavery? The Economics of Pig Butchering:Through blockchain addresses used by ‘‘pig butchering’’ victims, we trace crypto flows and uncover methods commonly used by scammers to obfuscate their activities, including multiple transactions, swapping between cryptocurrencies through DeFi smart contracts, and bridging across blockchains. The perpetrators interact freely with major crypto exchanges, sending over 104,000 small potential inducement payments to build trust with victims. Funds exit the crypto network in large quantities, mostly in Tether, through less transparent but large exchanges—Binance, Huobi, and OKX. These criminal enterprises pay approximately 87 basis points in transaction fees and appear to have recently moved at least $75.3 billion into suspicious exchange deposit accounts, including $15.2 billion from exchanges commonly used by U.S. investors. Our findings highlight how the ‘‘reputable’’ crypto industry provides the common gateways and exit points for massive amounts of criminal capital flows. We hope these findings will help shed light on and ultimately stop these heinous crimes.
|
| Griffin & Wei Fig. 9 |
Below the fold, some commentary on this and other recent developments.
Note that these numbers are flows not the total revenue for the scammers, there is some double-counting involved as scammers move funds between their accounts at these exchanges. The $15.2B is likely much closer to revenue, because the scammers generally don’t want to move significant sums into Western exchanges.
Griffin and Wei start their tracing from a collection of the wallet addresses which the scammers used to receive funds from victims:
We start with 3,256 Ethereum addresses, 770 Bitcoin addresses, and 702 Tron addresses. Most addresses are used ten or more times, and 28% of addresses are used more than one hundred times. Of these initial sets, Ethereum addresses receive $5.8 billion in funds, compared to $389 million for Tron and $373 million for Bitcoin. Given that the Ethereum addresses represent approximately 88% of the total funds, we begin by examining Ether (ETH, the native cryptocurrency on Ethereum) and token (commonly known as ERC-20 tokens) transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
They then follow the way the scammers try to obscure their activites:
We trace victim funds in bulk and follow their paths to centralized exchange deposit addresses from January 2020 to February 2024. Figure 1 plots the resulting network for a three percent sample of nodes from the traced network and highlights many features.This reveals four main points:
-
The
sources
of the funds:
First, the figure shows how crypto often originates from large exchanges where investors commonly have accounts (Coinbase, Crypto.com, and Binance) and flows into the network.
The victims need to convert fiat into cryptocurrency using well-known, trusted exchanges. -
Where the scammers
move
the funds next:
Second, funds are often swapped for Tether (known as USDT) through Tokenlon.
Tokenlon is not a mixer, similar to Tornado Cash, but “a relatively obscure decentralized exchange”. The scammers’ goal is partly to obscure their tracks but also to avoid the volatility of cryptocurrencies by converting to stablecoins at the first opportunity. -
The scammers need to
find
an off-ramp to fiat:
Third, after circulating through various hops in the network, crypto exits the system through centralized exchange deposit addresses.
Even stablecoins won’t by the Lambo, so the scammers have to get their loot to somewhere that can convert it to fiat. -
Which exchanges are
useful
off-ramps?
Fourth, transactions in amounts above $100,000 and in particular $1 million commonly transfer funds to deposit addresses on Binance, Huobi, and OKX.
Obviously, they are the offshore exchanges that lack effective KYC/AML, and in particular the one that pled guilty.
But the $75 billion number was certainly a surprise, and it’s hit mainstream outlets including Time. I have to say I have some doubts about the number, particularly given other estimates have been in the low billions, but regardless, it’s clear that the pig butchering issue in crypto is a multi-billion dollar problem.But there are good reasons why Griffin and Wei would come up with much larger numbers for revenue than earlier tracing efforts; they are looking at a much larger fraction of the total scammer network. Zeke Faux’s article in Time starts:
Pig-butchering scammers have likely stolen more than $75 billion from victims around the world, far more than previously estimated, according to a new study.That is not what the paper says. It says they:
recently moved at least $75.3 billion into suspicious exchange deposit accountsThe paper points out that the $75.3B in flows includes some amount of double-counting:
If a network sent funds from say OKX to Binance, it would lead to the double-counting of funds. Additionally, the funds may be due to other activities of the criminal networks. … We examine the sources of funds that later enter into these potential scammer deposit addresses and find that $40.2 billion of the $75.3 billion can be attributed to exchanges.It is unlikely that all this movement from one exchange to another is between scammer accounts, so $35.1B is a conservative estimate.
The scammers do send small amounts to exchange deposit wallets:
Across all exchanges, the scammer network initiated 104,460 deposits to centralized exchanges for amounts below $10,000, most commonly in small amounts clustering at round numbers, such as $100, $200 or $500. The transaction patterns mirror the characteristics of inducement payments in pig butchering scams, which are small payments from scammers to victims used to build trust. … We find 83% of potential inducement payments are sent from addresses used in more than ten transactions, suggesting limited monitoring by crypto exchanges.There is a reason for “limited monitoring by crypto exchanges”. The 87 basis points the authors find on movements of $75.3B is $655M in fees over 4 years, enough to motivate turning a blind eye.
|
| Griffin & Wei Fig. 2a |
Edges that are concave up represent flows moving from left to right (e.g., the curve moves as if going from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock). Similarly, edges that are concave down represent flows moving from right to left (e.g., from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock). Nodes are colored by identity, … and their size is proportional to the total amount transacted. Edges are colored by transaction size and identity. Green edges are transactions from exchanges, while blue and purple are transactions to exchanges. Edges entering or exiting exchanges with darker colors represent larger transactions.What Figure 2a shows is that:
The victim sent funds to the left red node and were later transferred to the right red node, which swapped the funds into Tether.
|
| Griffin & Wei Fig. 2b |
Their next step was to find other flows into the collection node, as shown in Figure 2b. Even this one step into the network produces a large number of scammer wallet addresses, the addresses to which other victims were directed to send funds. By identifying these wallets the authors generate a huge number of additional “victim reports”.
|
|
Griffin & Wei Fig. 2c |
The off-ramps are at exchanges, so the authors need to find the scammers deposit addresses:
Since scammers are unlikely to return large sums of stolen funds, we consider deposit addresses that receive more than $100,000 as more likely to be scammer deposit addresses. These addresses are rarely associated with Western exchanges, but are common within Binance, Huobi, and OKX, as well as exchanges such as Kucoin, Bitkub, and MXC. The common feature of these exchanges is that they have loose KYC procedures and are perceived to be outside of U.S. jurisdiction. To more fully understand the scope of the network, we apply “deposit address clustering” by tracking addresses that send funds into these deposit addresses and finding other recipient deposit addresses associated with the same user. To avoid capturing payments made by criminals for things like inducement payments, we exclude all connections below $100,000 and only consider direct connections.This is where the $75.3B number comes from; it is the total inflow into deposit addresses at offshore exchanges believed to be controlled by scammers. Note again the potential for double-counting if scammers move funds between these exchanges. Deposit address clustering was published by Friedhelm Victor in Address clustering heuristics for Ethereum (Section 5.1):
To credit the assets to the correct account, exchanges typically create so-called deposit addresses, which will then forward received funds to a main address. As these deposit addresses are created per customer, multiple addresses that send funds to the same deposit address are highly likely to be controlled by the same entity. … The forwarded amount is often slightly less than what was received, as the exchange has to pay for the transaction costs. In most cases, deposit addresses are EOAs [Externally Owned Accounts], but they can also be smart contracts. When depositing tokens on the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken for example, users are instructed to send them to a given smart contract address, identical versions of which have been mass deployed in advance. This makes it trivial to identify all identical token deposit contracts deployed by Kraken. They are designed to forward received tokens automatically, thereby passing on the transaction costs to the user.
|
| Victor Fig 1 |
By analyzing the network graph they discover using these techniques, Griffin and Wei draw the following conclusions about money laundering:
Scammers extensively recirculate and swap funds across different addresses and cryptocurrencies. These transactions incur costs, but may help obfuscate the true source of their funds. We estimate that transaction costs for a network of this scale total to 87 basis points as a portion of outflows to exchange deposit addresses. In contrast, Soudijn and Reuter (2016) find costs of 7-16% to move physical Euro bills from Europe to Columbia and money laundering commission estimates range from 4-12% (US Treasury Department, 2002) and 10-20% (US Treasury Department, 2007). Cryptocurrencies thus appear to be a much more cost-effective channel for moving illicit funds across borders. In total, scammer swap transactions may constitute more than 58% of Tokenlon transactions since 2022. We observe large inflows from potentially Chinese victims in 2020; however, after the Chinese financial authorities banned cryptocurrency trading in late 2021, there appears to be a dramatic decrease in Chinese victims and a shift to US-based victims. Overall, in the set of addresses touched by the criminals, we find $1.172 trillion dollars of volume, 84% of which is in Tether.Griffin and Wei conclude:
This project highlights how large-scale tracing of tainted funds can help expose and understand criminal financial activity that can hopefully be used as a roadmap in other criminal contexts. There are several other practical implications of our study. First, organized or “legitimate” crypto exchanges serve as the on- and off-ramps for billions of dollars in criminal proceeds. Users with a crypto exchange account should realize that crypto exchange users are frequent targets of scams, and their funds are just a quick transfer away from being irreversibly lost—a risk that is far less prevalent for traditional investment accounts. Second, our findings indicate that the large players in the crypto space are likely not sufficiently protecting their customers from scams. Third, the Ethereum network appears to drastically reduce barriers for illicit financial flows of transnational organized crime. Fourth, romance scammers prefer the stablecoin Tether over other cryptocurrencies and the Ethereum network over Bitcoin. Fifth, decentralized exchanges also serve as large swapping points to exchange crypto and obfuscate funds. Crypto hedge funds and users (many based in the U.S. and Europe) who might purport to engage in “arbitrage” or “liquidity trading” (PWC, 2023) may simply be making profits by facilitating low-cost money laundering. Finally, the large centralized crypto exchanges located in jurisdictions with opaque regulatory environments (Binance, Huobi, OKX, and others) seem to be preferential potential exit points that can further finance extremely large amounts of criminal activities. Such activity has continued as of February 16, 2024, despite recent crackdowns.Other recent developments in pig-butchering include:
- John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on pig-butchering scams.
- Jim Browning’s Inside a Pig Butchering Scam with video from inside a Chinese pig-butchering operation in Dubai that occupies at least half of a campus of 8 8-storey office buildings.
- The Irrawaddy’s report Surrounded by Fighting, a Myanmar Crime Hub Is Oddly Unscathed about another Chinese campus including a major pig-butchering operation, this one in a war zone on the Myanmar/Thailand border which clearly pays off both sides. It is very similar to the one Zeke Faux visited on the Cambodia/Thailand border.
-
Zeke Faux’s
report
in Time, in which he writes:
Paolo Ardoino, the chief executive officer of Tether, called the report false and misleading. “With Tether, every action is online, every action is traceable, every asset can be seized and every criminal can be caught,” Ardoino said in a statement. “We work with law enforcement to do exactly that.”
This is more obfuscation from Tether. The paper clearly demonstrates that the scammers rapidly convert their takings to stablecoins, overwhelmingly Tether, and that they are able to use offshore exchanges as their off-ramps.
Tether has cooperated with authorities in some cases to freeze accounts tied to fraud. But often by the time the crime is reported, the scammers have already cashed out.
https://blog.dshr.org/2024/03/more-on-pig-butchering.html
New Study Reports Widespread Forced Labor Abuses
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/new-study-reports-widespread-forced-labor-abuses/7533793.html
San Francisco homicide: Woman dead in Potrero Terrace
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Police were called around 6 a.m. Sunday to the 100 block of Dakota Street, in Potrero Terrace public housing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/19/san-francisco-homicide-woman-dead-in-potrero-terrace/
XPeng Motors announces new AI-centric brand targeting EVs priced as low $14,000
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
Leading Chinese EV automaker XPeng Motors has publicly shared plans for a new EV brand to deliver affordable, AI-driven smart cars to young consumers. Targeting China’s A-class segment of EVs priced between RMB 100,000-150,000, XPeng’s new brand could help pave the way for more affordable EVs around the globe.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/19/xpeng-motors-announces-new-ai-brand-ev-china/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I
was looking around the old social web circa 2003 and found the blogroll
on my Radio UserLand
blog
home page. Screen shot to the right. It shows that the art was very
much still being practiced then. It looks cared-for. All themes designed
by Bryan Bell. I am going to set up a demo of the home page, because I
want to look at it as “live” as I can get it, and see if there are ideas
there I want to bring forward to 2024.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/19.html#a144801
Motorcyclist dies in Oakland crash
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Police said speeding appeared to be a factor in the collision but it is unknown if drugs or alcohol were also factors.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/19/motorcyclist-dies-in-oakland-crash-2/
US, Germany Partnering on Mission to Track Earth’s Water Movement
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-Continuity mission will extend a decades-long record of following shifting water masses using gravity measurements. NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR (German Aerospace Center) have agreed to jointly build, launch, and operate a pair of spacecraft that will yield insights into how Earth’s water, ice, and land masses […]
Austin: US, Free World ‘Will Not Let Ukraine Fail’
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
Ramstein, Germany — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin says the United States remains determined to provide Ukraine with the resources it needs to fight Russian aggression, even as a U.S. Congress has yet to approve new funding for Ukraine.
“The United States will not let Ukraine fail. This coalition will not let Ukraine fail, and the free world will not let Ukraine fail,” Austin said at the start of this month’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany.
This is Austin’s first international trip since he was hospitalized on January 1 due to complications from surgery to treat his prostate cancer in late December. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) brings together officials from more than 50 nations to coordinate their Ukraine efforts.
The U.S. has contributed about $44 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with allies and partners also committing more than $44 billion in that time frame.
But the U.S. military has run out of congressionally approved funds for replenishing its weapons stockpiles sent to Ukraine, and leadership in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has so far refused to bring new aid for Ukraine up for a vote.
“There isn’t a way that our allies can really combine forces to make up for the lack of U.S. support,” according to a senior defense official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the UDCG.
Not only is the U.S. military out of funds for Ukraine, the Defense Department has a funding shortfall from its efforts to provide military support to Ukraine that will grow to least $12 billion by the end of the fiscal year without additional funding from Congress, according to officials. The Pentagon previously acknowledged a funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine.
In addition to the $10 billion shortage for weapons replenishment, U.S. Army Europe and Africa currently has overspent its budget by about $500 million as it continues to pay for the training of Ukrainians and other Ukraine support mission necessities out of pocket, Col. Martin O’Donnell, the public affairs director for the Army’s forces across those two continents, told VOA.
That shortfall will grow to at least $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year without supplemental funding from Congress, he added.
Ukrainian forces have continued to fight back against Russian forces in the east while inflicting considerable damage to Russian forces in the Black Sea and downing Russian warplanes. However, Moscow— with the help of North Korea and Iran — has drastically ramped up its defense production capacity, forcing Ukraine to retreat from some battles due to ammunition shortages, the senior defense official added.
“Ukraine is heavily outgunned on the battlefield. We’ve received reports of Ukrainian troops rationing or even running out of ammunition on the front lines,” said the official.
Austin on Tuesday thanked members of the group for digging deeper to get vital security assistance to Ukraine, praising the Czech Republic for recently procuring 800,000 artillery shells for Kyiv. He also highlighted Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden for their new contributions.
Last week, the United States announced its first new round of military aid for Ukraine since late December, in what defense officials called an “ad hoc” package made possible through U.S. Army procurement savings.
The military assistance package is valued at up to $300 million and will provide Ukraine with immediate air defense, artillery and anti-tank capabilities, along with more ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers and 155-mm artillery rounds. But officials say it is unclear if there will be future procurement savings to produce another extraordinary package of aid.
“This is not a sustainable solution for Ukraine. We urgently need congressional approval of a national security supplemental,” the senior defense official said.
The emphasis on ammunition and air defense will likely be as strong as ever during this UDCG meeting. Officials say Ukraine’s forces need interceptors for a variety of their air defense systems, which they have been running out of as they try to defend against wave upon wave of attacks from Russia.
Coalition leadership group
To better organize how the UDCG provides Kyiv with military weapons and equipment, the group’s members have formed capability coalitions to identify ways to increase Kyiv’s efficiency and cut costs.
Defense officials say Secretary Austin will convene a meeting of the leads and co-leads of all the capability coalitions for the first time on Tuesday during a special coalition leadership group session.
Air Force capability is co-led by the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands. The armor capability is co-led by Poland and Italy. The artillery capability is co-led by France and the United States. De-mining is co-led by Lithuania and Iceland. Drone capability is co-led by Latvia and the United Kingdom. Information technology is co-led by Estonia and Luxembourg. Integrated air and missile defense capabilities are co-led by Germany and France, and maritime security is co-led by the United Kingdom and Norway.
Critics like Sean McFate, a professor at Syracuse University and author of “The New Rules of War,” told VOA the international community is putting its money into expensive military aid that falls short in modern warfare.
“It’s not conventional warfare that beat back Russia’s blitz. It was Ukrainian guerrilla warfare,” he said. “Ukraine was winning the unconventional fight. But then in fall of 2022, they decided to go conventional against Russia, which was strategically silly.”
McFate added that giving Ukraine more conventional war weapons was, in his view, “the strategic definition of insanity.”
Instead, he said Ukraine and its allies needed to think about unconventional ways where they can leverage their power to defeat Russia, such as guerilla operations and more direct actions deep inside Russia to build on the Russian population’s unfavorable opinions of the war.
“Use your conventional forces to hold the line, but don’t invest them to create an offensive which requires a lot more resources,” McFate told VOA.
“M1A1 Abram tanks and F-16 fighter jets … will win tactical victories on the battlefield, but we all know that you can win every battle, yet lose the war, because wars are won on the strategic level, not at the tactical level of warfare,” he said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/austin-united-states-will-not-let-ukraine-fail/7533740.html
Why Sports Illustrated’s buyer is keeping the print magazine around
date: 2024-03-19, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Sports Illustrated has a new publisher, which says it will keep producing the magazine’s print editions. We’ll look into the value of a print product in the digital age. But first, Congress still needs to vote on a deal to keep the government funded until September. How likely is it to pass? And later, streaming platform Showmax is ramping up production and boosting a roster of African-made programs.
Celebrating the community: Micah
date: 2024-03-19, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
We love hearing from members of the community and sharing the stories of inspiring young people, volunteers, and educators all over the world who have a passion for technology. With this latest story, we’re taking you to Leeds, UK, to meet Micah, a young space enthusiast whose confidence has soared since he started attending a…
The post Celebrating the community: Micah appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/celebrating-the-community-micah/
Thieves steal beauty products, cold medicine from Los Gatos businesses
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Sephora, Safeway hit.
Crypto wallet providers urged to rethink security as criminals drain them of millions
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Innovative Ethereum feature exploited as victims say goodbye to assets
Infosec researchers are noting rising cryptocurrency attacks and have encouraged wallet security providers to up their collective game.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/crypto_wallet_providers_urged_to/
Gemini VI Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford and Walter M. Schirra Jr.
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford (left), and Walter M. Schirra Jr., pose for the camera during suiting up exercises on Oct. 22, 1965. Stafford was selected among the second group of astronauts in September 1962 by NASA to participate in Projects Gemini and Apollo. In December 1965, he piloted Gemini VI, which made the first rendezvous […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/gemini-vi-astronauts-thomas-p-stafford-and-walter-m-schirra-jr/
NASA Study: Asteroid’s Orbit, Shape Changed After DART Impact
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
After NASA’s historic Double Asteroid Redirection Test, a JPL-led study has shown that the shape of asteroid Dimorphos has changed and its orbit has shrunk. When NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) deliberately smashed into a 560-foot-wide (170-meter-wide) asteroid on Sept. 26, 2022, it made its mark in more ways than one. The demonstration showed […]
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/dart/nasa-study-asteroids-orbit-shape-changed-after-dart-impact/
NCAA Tournament best bets: Dana Altman’s first-round perfection on the line with Oregon in underdog role
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Ducks coach Dana Altman has never lost in the round of 64 as his teams prepares to face No. 6 South Carolina.
NASA Administrator, Health Secretary to Host Cancer Moonshot Event
date: 2024-03-19, from: NASA breaking news
Media are invited to join NASA and Department of Health and Human Services leadership at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, March 21, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, to highlight how the agencies are making progress toward President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. During the event, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-administrator-health-secretary-to-host-cancer-moonshot-event/
BYD taps US chipmaking giant NVIDIA to power its next-gen EV fleet
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
US chip-making giant NVIDIA is expanding ties with several Chinese automakers, including BYD, as the race for the best software and features heats up. BYD will use NVIDIA’s Drive Thor to power its next-gen EV fleet.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/19/byd-taps-us-chipmaker-nvidia-power-next-gen-ev-fleet/
Suppliers to Intel and TSMC’s Arizona fabs now face build delays
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You know where plants are much cheaper to construct? Asia
Intel and TSMC face new hitches to their chip fabrication plants in Arizona with key suppliers encountering difficulties in building support facilities due to surging costs for building materials and labor.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/intel_and_tsmc_building_costs_up/
Opinion: The long goodbye to Lehigh Cement Plant and Quarry
date: 2024-03-19, from: San Jose Mercury News
Goodbyes are often hard. But there’s one goodbye I’m OK with: the day we finally say so long to the Lehigh Cement Plant and Quarry, a 3,500-acre property in the Cupertino foothills. That said, it will take awhile.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/19/opinion-the-long-goodbye-to-lehigh-cement-plant-and-quarry/
Top US Congressional Leaders Say Spending Deal Reached
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The top Republican and Democrat in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday said they had reached a deal to keep the government funded through the rest of the fiscal year that began in October, setting off a race to pass it before a weekend shutdown deadline.
The last sticking point was funding for the Department of Homeland Security, as a surge in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has become a major issue in the election rematch between Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer revealed the agreement in a pair of statements on Tuesday morning.
The actual legislative text of the agreement, which must be finalized before lawmakers can vote on it, is still being completed. Current House rules require that lawmakers have three days to consider legislation before bringing it to the floor.
The package was expected to cover about three-quarters of discretionary government spending, due to come in at about $1.66 trillion for the fiscal year ending September 30. It contains funding for functions that include the U.S. military, transportation, housing and food safety.
But more fights lie ahead as the nation’s $34.5 trillion national debt continues to grow. Biden and House Republicans earlier this month laid out proposed budgets for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, that offered sharply contrasting priorities.
Johnson so far has also refused to bring up for a vote a $95 billion foreign security aid package that includes money that advocates say is urgently needed for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The measure has been approved by the Senate with bipartisan support and is thought to have significant backing in the House if members were given a chance to vote.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been fighting since early last year on funding levels amid a push by hardline House Republicans to cut more spending than had been agreed to in a bipartisan deal enacted into law last June.
https://www.voanews.com/a/top-us-congressional-leaders-say-spending-deal-reached/7533750.html
That’s a Shame
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/03/19/thats-a-shame/
Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting
date: 2024-03-19, from: Quanta Magazine
Recent controversies bode ill for the effort to detect life on other planets by analyzing the gases in their atmospheres.The post Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting first appeared on Quanta Magazine
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
When they report on Trump’s financial situation they don’t take into account that the property, golf courses, buildings, etc are all mortgaged beyond the max, that’s what the NY trial was about, him lying about values for the purpose of getting loans on the property. So his equity in these investments is probably 0 or even negative (because of the fraud). No one is going to loan him anything on the properties, because he has no equity, and the story they tell about New York state liquidating his assets, there almost certainly is nothing to liquidate. Anyone who owns a home and has a mortgage can understand this, it works the same way even if the property is much more valuable than a family home. I asked jokingly what his credit rating must be, but it’s a good question to ask, would help regular people relate to the situation.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/19.html#a133030
Catch Java 22, available from Oracle for a limited time
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Latest release of coffee-themed programming language aspires to simplicity with a dozen new features
Oracle released Java 22 (JDK 22) on Tuesday, sporting a dozen new features for Java developers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/catch_java_22_now_available/
Fisker Hits Pause On Production With 4,700 EVs In Inventory, Bankruptcy Rumors
date: 2024-03-19, from: Inside EVs News
The maker of the Ocean SUV said it has a financing commitment of up to $150 million from a current investor.
https://insideevs.com/news/712953/fisker-production-halted/
The World’s Most Polluted Countries
date: 2024-03-19, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Flash floods inundated parts of northern Iraq • Fire weather watches are in effect across several states, from Iowa to Maryland • Today marks the official start of spring.
THE TOP FIVE
- Just 7 countries met WHO pollution limits in 2023
A region’s air should contain no more than 5 micrograms per cubic meter of the dangerous pollutant known as PM2.5, according to World Health Organization recommendations. In Bangladesh last year, the average concentration was 79.9 micrograms, making it the most polluted country in the world. Pakistan, India, Tajikistan, and Burkina Faso also had alarmingly high levels of PM2.5, which comes primarily from burning fossil fuels and is linked to 4 million premature deaths every year. The findings come from Swiss company IQAir, which uses 30,000 air quality monitors to understand pollution levels across the world. “The number of countries and regions with air quality monitoring has steadily increased over the past six years,” the company said in a press release.
IQAir
IQAir
In 2023 just seven countries had air quality that met the WHO guidelines: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius, and New Zealand. Average PM2.5 concentration across the U.S. was 9.1 micrograms, and Columbus, Ohio, was the most polluted major city in America.
- DOE expects geothermal boom by 2050
A report from the Department of Energy projects geothermal energy deployment in the U.S. will grow dramatically by 2050, so long as developers can bring down costs. The DOE says geothermal could account for up to a third of the additional clean energy the country will need by 2050 to hit President Biden’s emissions targets and meet growing electricity demand, E&E News explained. Geothermal energy harnesses the heat from beneath the Earth’s surface for around-the-clock clean energy. Innovations in drilling technology are expected to bring the price of geothermal power down from $100 per megawatt-hour to as low as $60 per megawatt-hour by 2030, which would put it roughly in line with other energy sources, the DOE said. And new geothermal sites will need to be tapped: The report said 18 states will likely have geothermal operations by 2050, up from seven now.
- Report: Ford pivoting to small EVs
Ford is reportedly “pivoting” from big electric vehicles to smaller, cheaper EVs in an attempt to keep up with Chinese manufacturers like BYD. Bloomberg reported the company has put together a team to work on a new electric platform for its small EVs, with the first vehicle slated to arrive in 2026 and cost around $25,000. “Plans for an electric three-row SUV have been delayed,” Bloomberg added.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- Saudi Aramco CEO says fossil fuel phase out is a ‘fantasy’
In case you were wondering how things are going at CERAWeek, the big oil and gas conference taking place in Houston this week, Reuters reported that “top oil executives took to the stage … to vocally oppose calls for a quick move away from fossil fuels.” “We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately,” said Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco. His remarks were reportedly met with applause and echoed by leaders from Shell, Petrobras, and Exxon Mobil. Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates warned rushing the energy transition will create a “crisis that we will never forget.” Meg O’Neill, CEO of Woodside Energy, said the debate had become too “emotional,” and claimed the market for clean fuel technologies is some decades away. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pushed back, pointing to projections showing oil and gas peaking demand by 2030, and called the transition “an undeniable, inevitable, and necessary realignment of the world’s energy system.”
- Harvard pulls the plug on solar geoengineering experiment
Researchers at Harvard have abandoned a plan to conduct what would have been one of the first solar geoengineering experiments in the stratosphere. Solar geoengineering – also known as “solar radiation management” – involves reflecting sunlight back into space by spraying aerosols into the stratosphere in an attempt to cool temperatures on Earth. It has long been a somewhat fringe idea among scientific circles – a sort of option of last resort – but interest has grown as global emissions climb and the Earth gets hotter. While most solar geoengineering research has happened in labs, Harvard’s Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) was going to launch a high-altitude balloon to release aerosols and observe their behavior. But the project was controversial from the start and encountered multiple delays. In the end its lead investigator walked away. “The platform developed for SCoPEx is expected to be repurposed for basic scientific research in the stratosphere unrelated to solar geoengineering,” the university said in a statement.
THE KICKER
A new study suggests using virtual reality to depict worst-case environmental scenarios like mass coral bleaching events can help motivate people to support climate policies.
https://heatmap.news/climate/most-polluted-countries-2023
Facebook’s Algorithm Is Boosting AI Spam That Links to AI-Generated, Ad-Laden Click Farms
date: 2024-03-19, from: 404 Media Group
Viral ‘Shrimp Jesus’ and AI-generated pages like it are part of spam and scam campaigns that are taking over Facebook.
Please Resist Clapping Between Movements
date: 2024-03-19, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Ahem… a bit of a request to all future audiences during any classical music performance…
The post Please Resist Clapping Between Movements appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/19/please-resist-clapping-between-movements/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Developing great products is something like the NBA which they always say is a business, esp when a player you love is traded. Happened recently with a point guard, Immanuel Quickley, traded from Knicks to Raptors. He wasn’t the only heart of the Knicks, but he was one of them. He has a competitive grace you don’t see very often. Quickley was one of those guys you knew would be the starting point guard on some NBA team, he was that good. But he was unlikely to get there on the Knicks, so we can be happy for him because he is the starting point guard on the Raptors, but we lost something important there. But the business side, if done well, opens the door for bigger love. I love watching the Knicks win they way they are winning now. That’s what I want from developing software. I want to create a global team of truly independent developers, filling the void left by the predation of the silos. There won’t even be a business model for much of what we do, but there will be lots of teamwork and lots of fun, because the best accomplishment is when we do it as a team. We’re going to play a game we started to play in the mid-90s, and somewhere somehow forgot we could still play it. We can. I am old now, I feel it, I can’t produce end-user software much longer, but I don’t want to leave until we have this thing rebooted.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/19.html#a131401
TrueNAS CORE 13 is the end of the FreeBSD version
date: 2024-03-19, from: OS News
Bad news from BSD land – the oldest vendor of BSD systems is changing direction away from FreeBSD and toward Linux. NAS vendor iXsystems has been busy this year, but apart from some statements in online user communities, it hasn’t been talking about the big news. Back in 2022, we covered TrueNAS CORE 13, the new release of its FreeBSD-based turnkey OS for NAS servers, and in that article we mentioned its new product, the Debian-based TrueNAS SCALE, aimed at providing storage for Kubernetes users. Now it seems the company is betting its future on that Linux-based product, meaning the end is in sight for the FreeBSD offering. ↫ Liam Proven at The Register Very sad to read, as more monoculture is not exactly great, but at the same time, from a corporate perspective, it’s also not entirely unexpected to focus on the server operating system with by far the widest industry support. I hope the fork mentioned in the article gains some steam, because having competition in this space is crucially important.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138867/truenas-core-13-is-the-end-of-the-freebsd-version/
There’s A Brand New Tesla Cybertruck Foundation Series For Sale On Cars & Bids
date: 2024-03-19, from: Inside EVs News
The car has about 70 miles on the odometer and it’s completely stock.
https://insideevs.com/news/712890/tesla-cybertruck-for-sale-cars-bids/
AI researchers have started reviewing their peers using AI assistance
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
ChatGPT deems your work to be commendable, innovative, and comprehensive
Academics focused on artificial intelligence have taken to using generative AI to help them review the machine learning work of peers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/ai_researchers_reviewing_peers/
Penske and Hitachi just launched a big electric truck charging pilot
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
Hitachi and Penske Truck Leasing have launched a high-capacity electric truck charging pilot at a major commercial truck depot in California.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/19/penske-hitachi-electric-truck-charging-pilot/
First drive: Honda says its CR-V e:FCEV plug-in fuel cell hybrid is the future. Is it?
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
Honda invited us out to its US R&D Center in Torrance, California to drive the new fuel cell plug-in hybrid version of the CR-V, which gets released later this year. Is this first-ever hybrid between a battery EV and fuel cell EV the future of electric cars?
2024-03-19 Wiki as a service
date: 2024-03-19, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-03-19 Wiki as a service
By now I run Oddmu on various domains. Since Oddmu supports subdirectories, and since I delegate all permissions to Apache acting as the reverse proxy, and since it’s been pretty easy to do, there’s the possibility of me hosting a wiki for you and your friends, if you don’t have a web host of your own.
Transjovian is for melancholy space writing, for “a group of people living in the outer reaches of our system, beyond Jupiter. Out here, the light of the sun is dim and we must make due with what we have, watched over by the stern gods of the soil, of the sky, of the sea, of the underworld: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto… Here we are, in our ice mines, gene labs, in our generation habitats, and all we have is text over low bandwidth connections, with long delays.”
Community Wiki is for community organisation efforts, for “communities both online and offline: management, teaching, conflicts, mediation, and some tech talk mostly about tools used for online communities.”
Campaign Wiki is for role-playing games, i.e. for people who need to keep track of their games, their worlds, their characters.
Campaign Wiki is the only one with help pages…
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-03-19-wiki
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-19, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
First New England Visionaries user group meeting is a wrap.
We had demos on Godot/Vision, Actions, gesture detections, assorted RealityKit tips and tricks, generating 3D animated models with AI, a journaling app catching crime before it happens with minority report.
See you next month
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112122366954643455
Atos says Airbus flew off, no longer interested in infosec and big data biz
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Ailing tech integrator takes a hard hit… share price down by up to 20% this morning
Atos’ share price sank as much as 20 percent this morning on confirmation that Airbus is no longer interested in buying the big data and security (BDS) parts of the crumbling tech empire.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/atos_says_airbus_talks_off/
Mazda To Trademark The ‘6e’ Name And Logo In Europe, Maybe For Electric Sedan
date: 2024-03-19, from: Inside EVs News
Is the Mazda6 sedan coming back as an EV? A recent model name and logo trademark application in the EU seems to suggest it might.
https://insideevs.com/news/712898/mazda-6e-trademark-logo-application/
Triumph Pulls the Covers off the Latest Rocket 3 Storm Models
date: 2024-03-19, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
More horsepower and a record-breaking torque figure are exactly what this model needed, apparently.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712630/triumph-rocket-storm-3-2024/
New Banksy Mural Appears on a Building in London
date: 2024-03-19, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Located on a wall behind a bare tree, the work features towering streaks of green meant to look like foliage
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-banksy-mural-appears-on-building-in-london-180983969/
Virgin Media sets up ‘smart poles’ next to cabinets to boost mobile network capacity
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not the best looking street furniture in town
UK telco Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) says it can boost mobile services by sticking small cells on top of poles linked to its on-street fiber network cabinets.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/virgin_media_says_smart_poles/
The chips behind artificial intelligence are getting more powerful
date: 2024-03-19, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Nvidia is about as close to a rockstar as you can get in Silicon Valley currently. At a conference hosted in a sports arena, the company’s CEO introduced a new advanced chip that promises to be 30 times faster at some tasks than NVIDIA’s previously most advanced chip. We’ll also hear more about the Bank of Japan’s rate hike decision and discover how a housing justice video game was adapted for stage.
This retro desktop PC Raspberry Pi case is a nod at nostalgia for your desk
date: 2024-03-19, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
We like a bit of nostalgia here at Pi Towers, so we loved this Raspberry Pi case which makes our green board look like a tiny retro PC.
The post This retro desktop PC Raspberry Pi case is a nod at nostalgia for your desk appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
Japan finally raises interest rates
date: 2024-03-19, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Japan’s central bank has ended its policy of negative interest rates and raised the cost of borrowing for the first time in 17 years. Japan is the world’s fourth-largest economy, so there’s potential for global economic fallout. We’ll unpack the decision and its impacts. Plus, South African streaming service Showmax is making huge investments in original, African-made content, even while Amazon Prime scales back production investment there.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/japan-finally-raises-interest-rates
Article Spotlight: Plectronoceratids (Cephalopoda) from the latest Cambrian at Black Mountain
date: 2024-03-19, from: PeerJ blog
AI and the Evolution of Social Media
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-14, from: Bruce Schneier blog
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond. Now front pages are splashed with stories of social platforms’ role in misinformation, business conspiracy, malfeasance, and risks to mental health. In a 2022 survey, Americans blamed social media for the coarsening of our political discourse, the spread of misinformation, and the increase in partisan polarization.
Today, tech’s darling is artificial intelligence. Like social media, it has the potential to change the world in many ways, some favorable to democracy. But at the same time, it has the potential to do incredible damage to society…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/ai-and-the-evolution-of-social-media.html
This Carbon Removal Startup Is Eyeing a Major Price Milestone
date: 2024-03-19, from: Heatmap News
Pretty much every startup that’s building machines to suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stash it underground has claimed it will be able to get its costs down to less than $100 per ton — eventually.
But a new contender in the race, a San Francisco-based company called Spiritus, is making a compelling case that it could get there faster. On Tuesday, Spiritus announced plans to build its first direct air capture, or “DAC” project in central Wyoming, nicknamed Orchard One. The company will start small but ultimately wants to expand the facility to capture 2 million tons of CO2 per year.
Achieving that scale at the sub-$100 price point would be game-changing for direct air capture, which is still far too expensive to be a viable climate solution. Most companies in the field are cagey about revealing their current costs, but the industry-average price is believed to be between $600 and $1,000 per ton.
So what makes Spiritus different? Here are three reasons we’ll be keeping an eye on the company.
It’s making use of a potentially … fruitful new material
Spiritus’ project will not look anything like the industrial-style shipping containers full of fans that have become the defining form factor for DAC plants. The company’s central innovation is a squishy white ball that founder Charles Cadieu describes as an artificial lung.
“While it looks kind of simple, it’s actually a breakthrough material that has an incredible amount of surface area,” he told me over Zoom, while holding one up and squeezing it like a stress relief toy. “And it has holes all over it that allow the CO2 to go right inside.” Though it’s about the size of a tennis ball, its branch-like interior structure has a surface area equivalent to a tennis court, he said.
Courtesy
of Spiritus
The ball is made of a proprietary material that selectively attracts CO2 molecules. As air wafts through it, CO2 sticks to its interior surfaces like a magnet. Spiritus will manufacture millions of these balls, lay them out on trays, and stack the trays on tree-like rigs — hence the name Orchard One. Concept images depict a small colony of cylindrical structures that will house the trays, almost like miniature Wilco towers, sprouting up amid the Wyoming sagebrush.
Courtesy
of Spiritus
After a few hours exposed to the elements, the balls, which Spiritus prefers to call “fruits,” will be full of carbon. The company will then transfer them to a separate chamber and apply heat, causing them to expel the CO2. That stream of carbon will be compressed and delivered to an underground CO2 storage well, while the fruits will be returned to their towers to live the same day over and over again.
It requires a lot less energy
Though the concept is somewhat whimsical, the company is making serious claims about its cost and performance. The biggest expenses for direct air capture projects are materials and energy, and Spiritus has made significant improvements on both fronts. Cadieu told me they can manufacture their sorbent for a tenth of the cost of other, “state of the art sorbents that are out there today,” and that “furthermore, it’s 10 times as effective” at capturing carbon. In other words, Spiritus claims it can capture more carbon from the air at a time, using fewer, cheaper materials than other methods.
Since the capture part of the process is passive, the company doesn’t need to use energy-intensive fans to filter the air. Also, the temperature required for the second step, where heat is applied to the balls to release the CO2, is lower than 212 degrees Fahrenheit — low enough to be generated using electricity. Cadieu said Spiritus plans to procure energy from renewable sources so that the entire process has net-negative greenhouse gas emissions.
Spiritus isn’t the only company with a low-cost sorbent and passive capture method. Notably, the DAC process pioneered by Heirloom, which opened its first commercial-scale plant in California last year, shares those features, but it requires much higher temperatures — 1,650 degree Fahrenheit — to isolate the captured carbon.
Though Spiritus still has to prove this all works as promised in the real world, the company has earned an early vote of confidence from Frontier, the coalition of tech companies with a $1 billion fund to help carbon removal scale. Last year, Frontier paid Spiritus $500,000 to buy its first 713 removal credits, each of which represents a ton of carbon that will be permanently sequestered underground. (The money is more of a development grant than anything indicative of the company’s costs.)
“We look for companies that learn and iterate quickly, and we were impressed by what we saw from Spiritus when they applied,” Joanna Klitzke, the procurement and ecosystem strategy lead at Frontier, told me. “And actually, since then, the team has made really strong improvements and steady progress on both their sorbent and their process performance.”
According to the company’s application for funding from Frontier, Spiritus estimates that for the first phase of Orchard One — when the project is capturing less than 2,000 tons per year — its levelized cost per ton of carbon will be about $149, not including the cost of burying the carbon underground. By phase two, at a scale of about 500,000 tons per year, it expects to get that cost down to less than $100. And by phase three, at the full scale of 2 million tons per year, it expects to achieve sub-$75 capture.
Cadieu told me the company is already in talks with large buyers to purchase carbon removal from Orchard One for “far less” than the per-ton price Frontier paid.
It’s following the three rules of real estate: location, location, location
Spiritus doesn’t expect to have phase one of the project up and running until 2026. But it already has a running start. The land lease is locked down, the underground pore space where the company will inject the captured carbon has been identified, and a monitoring well is already scheduled to be drilled — according to its Frontier application.
Wyoming has proved to be a relatively welcoming place for this emerging industry. Orchard One is joining another direct air capture plant already under development in the southwest part of the state called Project Bison. Cadieu gave three reasons the project landed there: There’s a local workforce with relevant experience from the oil and gas industry, the state has the ideal geology to trap the captured carbon underground, and Wyoming has been at the forefront of developing clear regulations for carbon sequestration. It was one of the first states to gain authorization from the Environmental Protection Agency to permit carbon storage wells, and as of December had already permitted three. Another advantage in Wyoming is abundant renewable energy from wind farms.
Spiritus has yet to reveal exactly where in Wyoming Orchard One will be built, but Cadieu told me he has been in close contact with officials at the town, county, and state levels, and that the reception has been enthusiastic. He said the project will create “hundreds of jobs during construction” and “many dozens of jobs” when the facility is operating, and that the company will deliver a portion of its profits back into the community.
https://heatmap.news/technology/carbon-removal-orchard-one-spiritus
Justice At Last: Norton Pensions Scandal Victims Will Get Nearly $12M Back
date: 2024-03-19, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
After years of deliberation, the UK Fraud Compensation Fund has agreed to compensate the Norton Pensions Scandal victims.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712848/norton-pensions-victims-get-payback/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump is making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the White House.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-jan-6-pardons-2024-campaign-2401ead35cb1402a7b289c2c99761373
Jonathan Kraut | Upsetting New Changes to L.A. County Records
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
About two years ago, Sacramento County stopped providing case information about criminal convictions. This has made background checks in Sacramento County almost impossible to process. This was done by removing the date of birth verification portion at the court records search terminals. Now the same thing has just happened in Los Angeles County. In February, […]
The post Jonathan Kraut | Upsetting New Changes to L.A. County Records appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/jonathan-kraut-upsetting-new-changes-to-l-a-county-records/
Sophia Lee | Stoking the Fires of Discord
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
Even though I typically disagree with the folks you publish in your opinion section, I find them to be usually worth a read. Not so this morning. Mr. John Boston’s column (“Some See Dead People? I See Liberals,” March 15) contained no facts and instead was comprised of paranoia and anger. Misdirected angry articles like […]
The post Sophia Lee | Stoking the Fires of Discord appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/sophia-lee-stoking-the-fires-of-discord/
Hilmar Rosenast | What Does the Bible Say?
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
Re: “The Bible and Same-Sex Unions” (letters, Arthur Saginian, March 15). I read that letter and can’t resist making some comments: 1) Pope Francis NEVER approved allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex unions. It was first reported that he did and it did cause a great deal of controversy. However, reading the specifics, it becomes […]
The post Hilmar Rosenast | What Does the Bible Say? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/hilmar-rosenast-what-does-the-bible-say/
Steve Petzold | Cancel the Reveal
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
The following is a copy of a letter to Superintendent Mike Kuhlman and board President Linda Storli of the William S. Hart Union High School District re: Hart High School mascot decision. Attached is a copy of a letter that you sent to me on Feb. 20 with a copy to other board members. I […]
The post Steve Petzold | Cancel the Reveal appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/steve-petzold-cancel-the-reveal/
Voltron Data revs up hyper-speed analytics, leaves Snowflake in the dust
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
GPU-based system offers high performance off Parquet files
Analytics software startup Voltron Data claims to have completed the full TPC-H 100 terabyte scale factor on unsorted Parquet files directly from storage in less than an hour with only 6 TB of GPU memory.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/voltron_data_arrow/
Linux kernel 4.14 gets a life extension, thanks to OpenELA
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Could this be the first green shoot of enterprise vendors paying for long-term maintenance?
The Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) has stepped up to maintain Linux kernel version 4.14 - which went out of support in January - to the end of the year. But why that particular version?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/kernel_414_life_extension/
Top US Diplomat Affirms Washington’s ‘Ironclad’ Commitment to Philippines Security
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
Math Teachers’ Efforts Can Really Add Up
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: RAND blog
New RAND research reveals that teachers wield incredible influence in leveling the playing field in math class—and in helping students achieve their full potential.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2024/math-teachers-efforts-can-really-add-up.html
VMware by Broadcom offers a lifeline to small cloud service providers
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘White label’ program also means retaining customers
Exclusive VMware by Broadcom appears to have made concessions to some of the cloud service providers it has previously indicated it will spurn.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/vmware_by_broadcom_white_label/
Trump’s warnings of violence must not be ignored
date: 2024-03-19, from: Robert Reich on Substack
He is centering his entire campaign on the January 6, 2021 riot and his charge that the 2020 election was stolen.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-incitements-to-violence-must
Dell adds Nvidia’s next GPUs to its portfolio of AI platforms
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nvidia is a kingmaker, and who wouldn’t want to be king?
Dell has tied its AI flag firmly to Nvidia’s mast with its latest offerings, comprising a fully integrated end-to-end platform for enterprise customers looking to build and operate their own AI, plus updated server support for Nvidia’s upcoming GPUs, scalable storage and professional services.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/dell_adds_nvidia_gpus/
Classifieds – March 19, 2024
date: 2024-03-19, 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 – March 19, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/classifieds-march-19-2024/
The Supreme Court Case Designed To Legalize Bribery
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Lever News
Snyder v. United States could make it legal for public officials to accept rewards for their corrupt actions.
https://www.levernews.com/the-supreme-court-case-designed-to-legalize-bribery/
Today in SCV History (March 19)
date: 2024-03-19, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1875, 1:35PM – Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez hanged in San Jose. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-19/
[ENG/ESP] Bad Bunny makes history in Los Angeles
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Puerto Rican superstar performed for three nights at Crypto.com Arena.
The post [ENG/ESP] Bad Bunny makes history in Los Angeles appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/bad-bunny-makes-history-in-los-angeles/
AI can’t teach you Spanish
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Artificial Intelligence cannot hope to capture the complexity of human language and falls short as a teacher.
The post AI can’t teach you Spanish appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/ai-cant-teach-you-spanish/
USC announces discontinuation of Academic Achievement Award, Exceptional Funding scholarships
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The University extended the two scholarships’ original end dates on March 15.
The post USC announces discontinuation of Academic Achievement Award, Exceptional Funding scholarships appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/usc-announces-discontinuation-of-scholarships/
South Central youth deserve safe futures
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
A glaring lack of youth security and development programs around USC reveals the urgent need for University-community collaboration.
The post South Central youth deserve safe futures appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/south-central-youth-deserve-safe-futures/
Blackboard
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The post Blackboard appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/blackboard/
Beach volleyball goes undefeated on peninsula
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
USC cruised past four teams this weekend, extending its win streak to 12 duals.
The post Beach volleyball goes undefeated on peninsula appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/beach-volleyball-goes-undefeated-on-peninsula/
Men’s basketball ends underwhelming season
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Trojans tried to steal a bid but faltered in the tournament quarterfinals.
The post Men’s basketball ends underwhelming season appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/mens-basketball-ends-underwhelming-season/
Rolling Loud unleashes raw rap, rhythmic R&B performances
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The world’s largest hip-hop and rap festival took over Los Angeles for an incredible four-day bender.
The post Rolling Loud unleashes raw rap, rhythmic R&B performances appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/rolling-loud-unleashes-raw-rap-rhythmic-rb-performances/
Students donate period products
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Delta Phi Epsilon will send period products to the Downtown Women’s Center.
The post Students donate period products appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/students-donate-period-products/
LGBTQIA+ people should learn to fight for more than their rights
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
As anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments rise, LGBTQIA+ people should learn self-defense.
The post LGBTQIA+ people should learn to fight for more than their rights appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/19/lgbtqia-people-should-learn-to-fight-for-more-than-their-rights/
Apple to settle class action for $490 million after Tim overcooked China outlook
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CEO’s optimism was not reflected in the supply chain
Apple will cough up $490 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging CEO Tim Cook concealed plummeting iPhone demand in China from shareholders.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/cook_apple_settlement/
What do American households use electricity for?
date: 2024-03-19, from: Hannah Richie at Substack
It’s all about controlling temperature and humidity.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/american-electricity-use
March 18, 2024
date: 2024-03-19, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
It seems to me that the news tends to be slow on weekends during the Biden administration, while Mondays are a firehose. (In contrast, Trump’s people tended to dump news in the middle of the night, after Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity’s show was over, which may or may not have been a coincidence.)
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-18-2024
After 41 years, my first assembly program on my first computer, the Tomy Tutor
date: 2024-03-19, from: Old Vintage Computer Research
We got it in 1983, I think, so it only took me about 41 years to get around to it. This Tomy Tutor isn’t a replacement system I secondarily acquired, nor is it a Ship of Theseus Frankenstein rebuild. This is my actual first computer, in its original case, on its original components, with the Federated Group sticker still on the original box. And it still works.
The other reason is that there was never really a simple way to do it. Even when I found out what CPU was actually inside (incredibly a 16-bit TMS 9995, an evolved version of the TMS 9900 in the Texas Instruments 99/4 and 99/4A), there was never a Tomy assembler, and other than its small amount of scratchpad RAM (256 bytes) the entirety of the Tutor’s 16K of memory is tied up in the 9918ANL VDP video chip. That sort of architecture was typical for the family, but that also means that almost everything is stored in non-executable VDP RAM, so short of burning your own cartridge EPROMs there’s no way to actually create and run a machine language program on the Tutor. The first flashcart for the Tutor didn’t exist until around 2016 and it was still all ROM; furthermore, while the 99/4A could have its CPU-addressable RAM expanded (as well as the 99/8, its unreleased successor to which the Tomy Tutor is closely related), there wasn’t ever a Tutor RAM expansion cartridge either until very recently. But now there are multiple homebrew options even for obscure home computers like this one, and at last I’ve got my own assembly language program finally running on it.
Texas Instruments’ home computer series, including the famous TI 99/4A, was the logical consequence of TI’s “one company, one computer architecture” policy. Indeed, the 1976 TMS 9900 CPU was basically their 16-bit 990 minicomputer architecture in an ungainly 64-pin DIP chip package and quite possibly (the only alternative is the General Instrument CP1600) the first single chip 16-bit microprocessor commercially available. It was fabbed in NMOS on a 4.5 micron process with about 8,000 transistors and initially topped out at a respectable 3MHz, though its pervasively microcoded architecture required sometimes large cycle counts per instruction. The 9918 video display processor in the original 99/4 evolved with a new bitmap mode to become the 9918A in the 99/4A, and, outlasting its originator, was one of the most common video chips of the early home computer era (Sord, MSX, CreatiVision/Dick Smith Wizzard, ColecoVision/Coleco ADAM, and many, many more). The original 99/4 was the winning design of three internal home system efforts in 1979, but was derided for its “calculator” keyboard, lack of lower case and a high MSRP; the upgraded 99/4A débuted in 1981 with an improved keyboard, better video, more expansion options and a lower price.
But TI was first and foremost in the chip business, and at the time was the largest semiconductor manufacturer on the planet. TI realized that the physical size of the CPU was harming its commercial viability — though TI’s dubious management decisions were just as big a factor — and developed more conventional 40-pin versions, first as microcontrollers with on-board RAM and ROM, then with more typical 8-bit data buses. The most advanced of these was the TMS 9995 which had a few extra opcodes, a primitive pre-fetch facility, 256 bytes of on-chip RAM (we’ll get to why this is notable when we discuss assembly language programming) and an internal decrementer for timing and event counting. It was noticeably faster than the 9900 and TI planned to implement it in its next generation of home computers, the low-end black and white 99/2 intended to compete against systems like the ZX-81 and Timex Sinclair 1000, and the high-end 99/8 with more memory, built-in peripherals and a larger keyboard.
Before that could happen, however, TI got deep in the weeds against their old nemesis Commodore under Jack Tramiel and ended up cancelling both the 99/2 and 99/8 in 1983 (exiting the home computer market completely in 1984), though not before there were spinoffs. It’s not clear how Japanese toy manufacturer Tomy got involved but in 1982 Tomy adapted the in-development 99/8 architecture using the same 9995 CPU and 9918A VDP into their own home computer in Japan, manufactured by Matsushita (Panasonic) under contract. This computer was called the Tomy Pyuuta (ぴゅう太, also variously romanized as the Tomy Pyuta or Tomy Pyūta).
The Pyuuta wasn’t, and wasn’t intended as, a 99/8 clone. Unlike the 99/8’s higher-end aspirations, the Pyuuta was targeted explicitly at younger children, using a friendly yet durable large plastic case and spill-resistant rubber Chiclet keys. For cartridges Tomy licensed some of Konami’s arcade games like Frogger and Scramble and created a few of their own, and for peripherals they provided game controllers (included) and a cassette recorder (optional) for saving your work. Eventually they planned to release a modem, floppy disk, printer and speech synthesizer, all presumably using TI’s reference designs except the printer which was a modified Astor MCP-40 plotter.
The Pyuuta was a reasonable success in Japan and Tomy decided to export it to other markets by translating the OS and G-BASIC to English. This updated version was imported more or less directly by Adam Imports UK as the Grandstand Tutor, but reviewers were displeased with G-BASIC’s profound limitations and the machine was quietly withdrawn. As an upgrade TI must have provided (unwittingly or otherwise) the code for TI Extended BASIC to Tomy to port, since Tomy BASIC has similar to nearly identical tokens, memory usage and syntax, and a full BASIC based on it was released first as an add-on device for the Pyuuta and then built-in to the next generation system Tomy themselves intended to sell in the United States. This was the Tomy Tutor in 1983.
Like the Pyuuta, Tomy prominently touted the Tutor’s 16-bit processor, but provided no way to directly access it. A couple years earlier the Tutor might have been a compelling system and one of the “real” kids on the box even wrote me a few years back to mention he rather enjoyed the games, but the video game crash was in full swing by then and Tomy’s intentional toy aesthetic quickly became the kiss of death. No wonder Fred R. Rated was trying to get rid of them.
Tomy apparently lost so much money on the Tutor that they ended up producing very few peripherals for the system in either the United States or Japan. This picture shows the complete setup in the United States, namely a tape recorder with custom electronics, an Anglicized version of those disc-based joy controllers which made the Intellivision seem like a paragon of ergonomics, and a tough-as-nails single joystick sold as the Joy Stick (insert joke here). And that was it. The floppy disk drive, printer and speech synthesizer promised in both countries never appeared as other than a single picture in the Purcell pamphlet, the printer interface sold in Japan as part of the BASIC-1 add-on was never sold abroad, and most critically the “TI Adaptor” — nothing less than a Tomy rebadge of the TI Peripheral Expansion Box — that would have included additional memory and storage options was vapourware too.
The Tutor was also not an exact copy of the Pyuuta either, although the core silicon (the 9995 CPU, 9918A VDP video chip [9929A for PAL] and SN76489 DCSG sound chip) is the same, primarily differing in the BIOS ROM, the absence of a Japanese character set, the presence of Tomy BASIC, and slightly different memory banking logic. The systems are otherwise nearly totally compatible such that Japanese Pyuuta cartridges will generally run on American or PAL Tutors and vice versa, language support notwithstanding, with only one of the American cartridges — its sole explicitly educational title — being specific to the United States.
The Tutor, as with the Pyuuta before it, started with the TI 99/4A’s title screen but with animation, scrolling the colour bars vertically. It felt like a friendly computer from the moment you turned it on and the larger 32x24 text cells actually reinforced that somewhat (plus making it much easier to read on our little Panasonic colour TV).
Unlike the TI 99/4A which used serially addressed “GROMs” for BASIC and much other software (which on top of that can’t contain native code and are necessarily written in an interpreted bytecode called GPL), all of the Tutor ROMs and cartridges are directly connected to the bus and therefore tremendously faster. Although Tomy BASIC is also based on GPL, Tomy’s GPL dialect is a stripped-down variant specialized for this task, and the program text is directly accessible like any other data in ROM. All of this, plus the 9995’s prefetch, are why the Tutor’s (and Pyuuta’s) slightly slower clocked CPU runs so much more swiftly in practice than the 99/4A’s.
The Tutor’s GRAPHIC mode is a simple built-in paint program that takes full advantage of the 9918A’s 256x192 bitmap mode, offering two colours per line in each 8x8 cell — substantially better than systems like the C64 or ZX Spectrum with two colours per cell. A little rocket cursor moved with the arrow keys indicated the current location, and when you were at the desired cell, you could then edit it using the palette and the editing square on the lower right. GRAPHIC mode also supported four large 16x16 sprites — to hide the 9918’s limitation of no more than four sprites per scan line — which could be crudely moved or animated by GBASIC programs (no hyphen in the English name).
Still, the “sandbox” concept ended up being unsuccessful because a number of Tomy BASIC commands don’t bounds-check properly, and I remember very clearly crashing it multiple times one day trying to figure out how the COLOR keyword worked. (Alas, I was too young at the time to realize the significance of what I’d done.) Such bugs even facilitated a clever hack to enable sprites, though this hack unsurprisingly has notable limitations, and there was no way to directly access VDP registers for other features like high resolution or 40-column mode. BASIC was as much as you could do on a stock Tutor and other than a small user group in the Los Angeles area I didn’t know anyone else who had one. It wasn’t until several years later that I got the Tutor back, and by then I was knee-deep in Commodore programming, including handcoding 6502 machine language opcodes in the Epyx FastLoad monitor. The Tutor had been fun but I could do more with the Commodore 64 and the 128 we got after that.
It took five more years for the first true Tomy Tutor emulator, namely Ian Gledhill’s 2003 TutorEm with functional 9995 and 9918A emulation; it was very slow, very buggy, incomplete and Windows-only, but it really did work and finally opened the floodgates. Later that year MESS added a driver written by Raphael Nabet in 0.70 that I helped beta-test and it is still part of modern MAME. While I have since updated TutorEm and made many fixes for my tape-enabled Tutti II emulator, we’ll use MAME for debugging this entry because it is currently the only Tutor emulator that handles cartridge ROMs.
Tutti didn’t emulate the CPU because I didn’t know how its I/O worked and it would have been impossible to execute code in any performant fashion on the C64; even the relatively lightweight 6502-on-6502 emulator I maintain for the KIM-1 KIMplement emulator runs about 30 times slower or so than actual. I had done a little playing around with TMS9900 assembly on the 99/4A using the Editor/Assembler cartridge (“module”) on a friend’s machine, and I even had a basic 9900 programming book, so the 9995 wasn’t really an alien architecture to me — which makes a good transition into talking about the CPU itself.
For the TI 99/4 in 1979 (and later the 99/4A), TI determined that designing a full 16-bit system around the 9900 would have required new chips for its exclusively 16-bit bus, making the effort too expensive for a home computer. TI solved this problem by devising two buses. The most directly connected 16-bit bus hosted the lowest level system ROM with the GPL interpreter plus 256 bytes of “scratchpad RAM” which could store eight complete sets of registers, composed of two 128-byte 8-bit static RAMs wired as low and high bytes (the 9900 is big-endian) which the CPU could access in parallel. SRAM was expensive, however, so the remainder of the machine’s RAM was 16K of dynamic RAM given to the VDP, which has its own DRAM refresh circuitry. Unfortunately, although the VDP was on this 16-bit bus also, the VDP only supported byte accesses and ignores the lower half of the word, slowing DRAM reads further. Worse, everything else was behind the second “multiplexed” 8-bit bus, where a small circuit stalled out the CPU on reads until two 8-bit fetches could assemble the full 16 bits. While this meant less expensive 8-bit parts could be used, the cost reduction also cost a significant amount of performance.
The use of SRAM suggests that the 99/4 was originally intended to use a different chip that had RAM on-die, where refresh circuitry wouldn’t have been needed, but cost and market considerations apparently prevailed. The intended CPU may have been something like the 1979 TMS9940 with an on-chip CRU, 2K of ROM, a decrementer and 128 bytes of SRAM, or the later TMS9985 with 8K of ROM and 256 bytes of scratchpad, though neither would have been ready in time for the 99/4. As mentioned earlier, after the disadvantages of the 9900’s strict 16-bit data bus became more acute TI moved the multiplex circuitry on-chip and exposed only an 8-bit bus starting with the TMS9980 — but this also doubled access time to its external scratchpad RAM, condemning it to lower-performance applications like TI’s Silent 700 teletypes. TI’s first attempt was to turn the 9940 into the 9985 by adding the same multiplexer and bumping up the ROM and scratchpad RAM, which were both internal and thus avoided the bus problem. There was reportedly no market appetite for the 9985, so TI removed the ROM and reduced instruction latency further by using prefetch steps in the microcode which could be parallel with a preceding ALU operation. This is the 9995, released in 1981.
(A digression: how do you use the 9900 to implement a language like C? The simplest method is to just implement a stack, which is facilitated on the 990/9900 by its support for post-increment addressing. This is in fact the approach taken by the GCC port for the TMS9900, which treats the CPU more or less like a modern CPU with a link register [usually R11], defines an ABI for arguments and volatile/non-volatile registers, and reserves one of the registers as the stack pointer, in this case R10. R10 is a 16-bit register like all the others, so the stack can be as large as the addressing space, a significant improvement over C-hostile architectures like the 6502. Another way is to go “full Berkeley” and treat the WP as a means to implement register windows, a la SPARC: the WP can be moved to any word-aligned address, so a caller can move the WP down a few notches, set up its arguments, call the routine, capture the return value and set it back. However, the 9995 — and for that matter the stock 99/4(A) — doesn’t have CPU-addressable RAM other than the scratchpad, so in the base configuration neither system would have much capacity for function calls no matter how they were implemented. The Tomy BIOS gets around this by simply moving the WP or individual registers around by hand, which is space efficient, but also makes some individual routines or subsections more difficult to use because there is no standard calling convention.)
For our purposes, although the 9995 has a few extra instructions, we can treat it in practical terms as a faster 9900. The main difference at the assembly level is where the scratchpad RAM lives: since it’s external to the 9900, its location is wherever it gets decoded (e.g., in the $8000 range in the 99/4A), but in the 9995 the internal RAM always occupies $f000-$f0fb (for compatibility with the 9900 the last four bytes are seen at $fffc to $ffff and serve as the NMI vector). The 9995 also has an internal decrementer at $fffa but we won’t need to deal with that right now for this particular project. The only other concern is that the prefetch in the 9995 will affect self-modifying code if it changes the very next instruction which our example doesn’t do either. Otherwise, programming it is almost completely the same.
The Tomy BIOS obviously has support routines for displaying text and reading the keyboard, but we’re not going to use them for several reasons: first, I’m not particularly conversant in them, second, we can probably do it faster and more flexibly ourselves, third, it’s good education, and fourth, they kind of suck. For input, while we can’t do anything about the Tutor’s mushy Chiclets or its single SHIFT key, we certainly can improve upon the BIOS’ terrible key rollover. Additionally, the Tutor’s default character set is inconveniently organized for modern applications: wile you can apparently use the SCELL() (the Tomy equivalent of TI CALL HCHAR) command to store characters by their ASCII value directly into VDP screen memory, this is in fact an artifact of BASIC and not actually how the glyphs are laid out in VDP RAM. We would like to organize our character set to be exactly the same as true ASCII so that no translation is needed, as well as support the 9918A’s 40 column text mode which the Tutor BIOS never did. To do all of these things, we’ll devise our own library.
The homebrew hardware we’ll use is all from TeamEurope (hi Klaus!), who made one of the earliest Tutor flash multicarts. This is his newest unit which is the only currently available CPU RAM expansion for the Tomy Tutor and Pyuuta, providing 16K of CPU-accessible RAM in two 8K ranges as well as multiple 32K ROMs accessible by DIP switch from a 512K flash ROM. (This cartridge was actually conceived of first by tanam, but this unit is an expansion of that design.) We’ll explore this device more in a future entry. However, we don’t need the RAM nor the extra ROM capacity today and the device additionally requires a passive I/O port adapter for those extra addressing lines, so we’ll use one of his simpler items.
That simpler item is this one, his first. It has every USA and Japanese cartridge ROM except the very rare USA and Japanese Demonstration cartridges — with a little luck I’m hoping to rectify that soon. It also lacks the later “3-D” series (a misnomer, they weren’t 3D with the possible exception of Rescue Copter) which require the extra addressing line for 32K ROMs and are provided on a separate multicart.
The flash ROM itself is a socketed off-the-shelf 512K Microchip Technology SST39SF040. These chips are end-of-life but they’re still inexpensive and easy to find as DIPs or PLCCs, and by using Klaus’ board I don’t need to make one of my own. For this I started with another DIP 39SF040 that I got cheaply since we won’t need to do too many insertion cycles on the socket to get this simple program working. There is free space in the default cartridge loadout for four more 16K ROM images and we’ll use two of them.
For the cross-assembler, we’ll use the AS macroassembler, which is multi-architecture, cross-platform, open-source and has specific support for the 9995. It builds just fine on any modern OS, including Linux and macOS. The macroassembler will create an intermediate object which we then link with an included tool into the final executable.
The Tomy machines place their VDP ports at $e000 and $e002 in the 9995’s regular addressing space, while the keyboard and joy controllers (which share keyboard lines) are on the CRU bus at $ec00 through $ec70 with each group of eight lines separated by 16. The “little” 8K and “medium” 16K cartridges both are mapped to $8000-$bfff, where the Tutor expects to see two $55 bytes at $8000. If these two $55 bytes are present, the CARTRIDGE option is enabled in the menu, which triggers a jump to $8002. (There are other ways to signal its presence, but this method is the simplest and the one used by the majority of official Tomy cartridges.) So we’ll start off with this:
padding off
; vdp ports on the tutor
vdpwd equ 0e000h
vdpwr equ 0e002h
; CRU address for reading the keyboard
keycru equ 0ec00h
org 08000h
; cartridge signature word
word 05555h
The leading zeroes for these particular 16-bit values are a required quirk of AS. Since we’re using all our own routines, we don’t want any interference from the BIOS, so we’ll turn off all interrupts by setting the interrupt mask to zero and load the WP with the lowest address of the 9995’s built-in scratchpad RAM. (We’ll have more to say about interrupts later.)
limi 0
lwpi 0f000h ; don't even trust the Tomy OS here
The Tomy Tutor BIOS gives us literally nothing to work with anyway: before the cartridge is started, the registers are set to default values and the entire VDP RAM is cleared. That means there’s no screen matrix nor a character set, and we’ll have to write them to VDP RAM ourselves. (The expectation is that you’d call the BIOS’ own utility routines to set those up, and that’s indeed what regular Tomy cartridges do, but we’re not going to do that here.) To make working with the VDP a bit more convenient, we’ll construct a little utility subroutine.
vdpr ; write to VDP registers
; MSB of r0: command nybble + value (8r = register,
; 4x = MSB VDP RAM for write, 0x = for read)
; LSB of r0: new register value (xx) or LSB of VDP RAM address
; the swapping around gives enough time for the VDP to operate,
; and we have no IRQs on, so nothing will interfere
swpb r0
movb r0, @vdpwr
swpb r0
movb r0, @vdpwr
b *r11
Recall that the 9918A only has an eight-bit data bus, so we must communicate with it through byte-sized operations. This subroutine takes a single 16-bit argument in r0 that either encodes an absolute VDP RAM address for reading or writing, or encodes one of the eight VDP registers and the byte to store in it. (Because of the way these addresses are represented, i.e., either $4xxx to write or $0xxx to read, a “super 9918A” would need to implement some sort of bankswitching register to handle more than 16K. The only other supported RAM size for the 9918A is 4K.) The LSB goes out on the bus first and the 9995 is big-endian, so for each byte we swap them before sending it to the 9918A’s control register, exiting back to the caller through r11 as our link register. As a happy convenience the swap operation takes just long enough for the 9918A to handle the bus transaction and be ready for the next. With that, we can set the following:
; register 0 turn off bitmap and external video
li r0,08000h
bl @vdpr
; register 1
; - 16K mode
; screen off
; no IRQs
; no 40 column text mode (except if we asked for it?)
; no multicolour
; no bit 5
; normal 8x8 sprites
; normal sized sprites
li r0,08180h
bl @vdpr
; register 2: put screen table at 0800h
li r0,08202h
bl @vdpr
; register 3: put colour table at 0c00h
li r0,08330h
bl @vdpr
; register 4: put character set at 0000h
li r0,08400h
bl @vdpr
; register 5: put sprite attributes at 0000h
li r0,08500h
bl @vdpr
; register 6: put sprite pattern table at 1000h
li r0,08602h
bl @vdpr
; register 7: white text on green background
; (the only colours available for 40-column)
li r0,087f2h
bl @vdpr
The locations for the screen table, colour table, character set, sprites and so forth are encoded as multiples of particular alignments. For our character set, we’ll reorganize the Tutti one to match ASCII order (I told you we’d be coming back to that), add that to our binary and copy it in. We’re only using positions 32-127, so there is plenty of space for expansion if we want to add graphics characters or an alternate font weight (for this purpose I just added a reverse/inverse set). Once we set the VDP memory address, we can just keep sending data to the data port as the VDP’s address internally autoincrements with each write or read.
; load our font to >0000
li r0,04000h
bl @vdpr
li r1,fontt
lup movb *r1+,@vdpwd
ci r1,fontt+00800h
jne lup
We go on to clear our screen in the same way (by storing the appropriate number of space characters starting from the top left of screen memory), then set the colour matrix (if 32 columns), print our character set and display a welcome message in similar fashion.
Next, we want to accept keyboard input and echo it to the user. Despite the rubbery nature of the keycaps themselves and their non-standard layout, the keyboard matrix proper is actually pretty good quality: each key independently sets a particular bit in the matrix and some quick tests show there’s little to no shorting or ghosting. Reading it is a simple matter of requesting every key bit in groups of eight from the CRU at their specific addresses. However, like any keyboard handler, we’ll need to properly debounce the keys, and this is where the Tomy BIOS is particularly bad: if you type too quickly and multiple keys are down as you transition from one keys to the next, the keyscan routine will fail to make a match and the new key will be dropped. This makes the Tutor’s already somewhat mushy keyboard even worse to type on, an absolutely needless situation since the Tomy keyboard has all the hardware requirements to implement N-key rollover and is only let down by its software. The solution is to track each individual key bit using the debounce matrix to filter out key bits we already know were previously down. This is made a bit easier by the fact there’s only one modifier key to watch (i.e., SHIFT), but the principles are the same.
; scan keyboard
; needs 16 bytes of scratchpad RAM
keyzone equ 0f020h
keezc clr r0 ; clear debounce
mov r0,@keyzone+8
mov r0,@keyzone+10
mov r0,@keyzone+12
mov r0,@keyzone+14
keez clr r9 ; clear test
li r2,keyzone
li r12,keycru-16
keezl ai r12,00010h
clr r0
stcr r0,8
movb r0,*r2+
socb r0,r9 ; bitwise or
ci r2,keyzone+8
jne keezl
ci r9,0
jeq keezc ; clear debounce if nothing pressed
The “keyzone” block is our current matrix followed by the debounce matrix we’ll use to filter it. This section can be entered either from keezc to blank the debounce matrix, falling through to keez to read it. Reading from the CRU requires placing the CRU address (a parallel addressing space) into R12 and asking for the needed number of bits. We fetch in groups of eight bits which are in eight locations stored 16 CRU bytes apart, keeping a running logical-OR (which the 9900/9995 atypically calls soc/socb “Set Ones Corresponding” for non-immediate arguments). If the value of the running logical-OR was zero, then no key was pressed, we branch back to clear the debounce, and go scan the matrix again.
The simplest case is where the current state of the matrix exactly equals the last time (modulo the state of the SHIFT key). This can be checked for by exclusive-ORing with the debounce matrix, masking off the SHIFT bit. We then logical-OR all the resulting bits together and if it’s zero again, we go back to scanning — but leave the debounce matrix alone.
mov @keyzone,r2
mov @keyzone+2,r3
mov @keyzone+4,r4
mov @keyzone+6,r5
xor @keyzone+8,r2 ; xor current bits with last set
xor @keyzone+10,r3
xor @keyzone+12,r4
; clear shift bit (prevent "eeking" characters when releasing)
andi r5,0fbffh
xor @keyzone+14,r5
; if exactly equal (i.e., all zeroes), go back
soc r3,r2
soc r4,r2
soc r5,r2
jeq keez ; don't clear debounce
This is the block of code we’d use to set up key repeat, which as currently written this routine doesn’t support yet (an exercise for the future). Otherwise, we need to filter the debounce to remove any keys that are now up, filter the new matrix to remove any keys already present in the debounce (which may give us another zero matrix again, but our keyscan table doesn’t match an all zeroes matrix, so it’s “fine”), and update the debounce matrix with the new bits that are down while clearing the SHIFT flag. This heavily uses the oddball szc instruction, which is an inverted logical-AND (though, like soc and ori, there is a regular immediate andi that is not inverted, a curious non-orthogonality in the instruction set). I won’t show every store here but I’ll give the overall flavour — there’s probably a more efficient way to do it than I’ve done, but this is also pretty easy to follow conceptually:
; remove any bits in the debounce that aren't set currently
mov @keyzone,r0
inv r0
szc r0,@keyzone+8 ; inverted and
mov @keyzone+2,r0
inv r0
szc r0,@keyzone+10
[...]
; remove any bits in the new keyscan that were still set in debounce
; if we end up with a cleared keyscan, it doesn't matter since we
; won't be able to decode it anyway
mov @keyzone,r0
szc @keyzone+8,r0 ; inverted and
mov r0,@keyzone
mov @keyzone+2,r0
szc @keyzone+10,r0
mov r0,@keyzone+2
[...]
; update debounce, clearing shift
; add any new bits to debounce so they get masked off too
[...]
mov @keyzone+4,r0
soc @keyzone+12,r0
mov r0,@keyzone+12
mov @keyzone+6,r0
soc @keyzone+14,r0
andi r0,0fbffh
mov r0,@keyzone+14
Now with a clean set of keybits, we need to match them against a table. I organized a table of four words representing the eight matrix bytes in ASCII order so once you’ve found a matching set, the index into the table is the result. This table is stored at label keytab and looks like this:
[...]
; symbols and numbers, 32-64
; SPACE
word 00000h, 00000h, 00000h, 08000h
; !
word 00100h, 00000h, 00000h, 00400h
; "
word 00200h, 00000h, 00000h, 00400h
; #
word 00001h, 00000h, 00000h, 00400h
; $
word 00002h, 00000h, 00000h, 00400h
[...]
The Tutor does not have CONTROL or ALT keys, just SHIFT, nor does it have a backspace or delete. This lets us redefine our special keys (the cursor keys, MON and MOD) to generate indices in the control character range. Our table turns MOD into ^C (consistent with its use in Tomy BASIC as break), LEFT/UP/DOWN/RIGHT as ^H ^K ^M/CR ^L, RT (RETURN) as ^J/LF, and MOD as ^[/ESC. To round out other common ASCII points the default keyboard doesn’t generate, ^I/TAB is encoded as SHIFT-SPACE, backtick as SHIFT-UP, tilde as SHIFT-DOWN and ^?/DEL as SHIFT-LEFT. The pipe and backslash characters remain represented by flat and degree/handaku, which have the same ASCII value. The only key our matrix table does not handle is LOCK, which would be word 00000h, 00000h, 00000h, 00200h. I’d probably implement this as a conventional CAPS LOCK defaulting to up but we’ll exclude that from the logic for now. Anything not matched in the table gets a result of 0.
; decode key
; each table entry corresponds to CRUs >EC00-EC70
; use a custom table to generate a standard ASCII value
clr r6
li r1,keytab
dekodl mov *r1+,r2
mov *r1+,r3
mov *r1+,r4
mov *r1+,r5
ci r2,0ffffh ; no key here
jeq dekodn
; if the key matrix is an exact match, should be all zeroes
xor @keyzone,r2
xor @keyzone+2,r3
xor @keyzone+4,r4
xor @keyzone+6,r5
soc r3,r2
soc r4,r2
soc r5,r2
jeq dekodo
dekodn inc r6
ci r6,128
jne dekodl
b @keez
dekodo mov r6,r0 ; got a good key
Like the debounce comparator, this code XORs the current matrix value against the current table entry; if it gets all zeroes, we have a match. At the end the resulting character code is in R6 and R0. Parenthetically, the 9900 has a inct instruction that increments by two instead of just one with regular inc, useful for skipping words (you can also use an instruction like c r1+,r1+ to increment by four in one word).
Because we left the VDP memory pointer at the end of our “hello world” blurb, to print the character to the screen we could simply do swpb r0 to get it in the upper byte followed by movb r0,@vdpwd. This doesn’t scroll at the end as there’s no bounds-checking, and remember the Tutor doesn’t have a backspace (control characters are simply printed as blanks anyway), but it’s really really fast. However, we also want to display a cursor for we’ll use our reversed space character, so we’ll keep a rolling screen pointer in R7. We’ll additionally have RT clear the screen and as a convenience use MON to bail out to the Tomy title.
; check for mon - implemented as escape
ci r0,001bh
jeq bye
; check for RT - implemented as line feed
ci r0,000ah
jne putc
bl @clrscr
b @cursor
; otherwise print character using a cursor
; overwrite previous cursor character with new character
putc swpb r7
movb r7, @vdpwr
swpb r7
movb r7, @vdpwr
swpb r0
; MAME will actually allow a mov here but not the real machine
movb r0, @vdpwd
inc r7
; and print cursor
cursor li r0,0a000h
movb r0, @vdpwd
b @keez
The simplest way to go back to the title screen is to call the Tutor’s reset vector, but paradoxically the 9900’s built-in rset instruction is not what we want for this. There are a handful of TI-990 holdovers called external instructions which were used for special context switching operations, such as lrex to jump into front panel code. However, on the 9900/9995, most of the instructions with the possible exception of idle do nothing useful and in some cases could be potentially harmful depending on what’s listening on the bus.
Instead, we’ll use the low memory vectors. 9900 vectors consist of a pair of WP and PC words, with interrupt vectors starting at $0000. When an interrupt is triggered, or a vector is branched to using the blwp instruction, the WP and PC are loaded in order from those words (instantly saving the previous code’s registers, assuming there is no conflict) and the previous values of WP, PC and ST are placed in the new R13, R14 and R15 respectively. The rtwp instruction then reverses everything using those registers and thus returns to the prior execution context. Theoretically the TMS9900 can support up to 16 levels of interrupt, starting at $0000 with level 0 for resets through $003c for level 15, though the 99/4 and 99/4A just wire everything to interrupt level 1. In the 9900 memory map these vectors are followed by XOP vectors for up to 16 software-defined opcodes via the xop family of instructions.
However, the 9995 only implements seven distinct interrupt levels, two of which are actually software interrupts (and one of those doesn’t even work properly according to the manual errata). The highest level is level 0, connected to the reset pin, followed by the mid interrupt used for software opcodes, then NMIs, and then four numbered interrupts consisting of an external interrupt (1) on the INT1 pin, a not-reliably-functional arithmetic overflow interrupt (2), the on-chip decrementer (3) and another external interrupt (4) on INT2. These have their own vectors except for the MID interrupt and interrupt level 2 which share the same vector, and other than the NMI vector at $fffc all the rest come from low memory as well.
In this particular regard, the Tutor is no different from the 99/4A: a blwp 0 will jump into the reset vector at $0000, just as if you’d powered the machine on and allowing you to go back to the menu. While the Tutor also uses the same reset vector values for levels 1 and 2, level 3 (the decrementer) runs normally to service its regular tasks and the level 4 (external INT2 triggered) interrupt is used for triggering on tape reads. On the other hand, the Tutor uses the entire XOP vector range as part of a jump table, so it isn’t possible to use any XOP instructions on the Tutor with the standard ROMs (the 99/4A at least has a couple useful values there). Anyway, all this is to say that a simple blwp 0 will be sufficient.
That’s pretty much it, and we’re ready to assemble our first draft. I’ll get to the code in a minute, but let’s test it in MAME with mame tutor -skip_gameinfo -cart tello.rom. Our character set and welcome message appear beautifully though typing is a bit … messy.
The problem isn’t our code, it’s MAME’s default settings. You’ll find the same mojibake occurs while typing in regular BASIC as well. I mentioned that the keyboard matrix is shared with the joy controller lines (though that’s actually useful because it allows you to read some keys from GBASIC which wouldn’t ordinarily permit this), and because MAME defines some keys for the controller, you can’t type normally with the default keyboard settings. In my case, I have a Hyperkin Trooper 2 USB joystick I use for Tutor games because it has two buttons for SL and SR, so I removed the key equivalents for the joy controllers and set it to exclusively use the joystick. Now we can type normally.
And as hoped for, typing now flows beautifully. There is one more issue we need to solve, though:
I mentioned we would like this to also support the 9918A’s 40 column mode, something the Tutor BIOS doesn’t but would be very useful for productivity applications (the Tutor has a lot of great games but it’s time it achieved its potential, darn it). With a little tweaking we can turn on the 40 column bit in VDP register 1 and adjust our message and screen layout so everything ends up in the right place. However, the 9918A can’t display a 320-pixel-wide screen, so instead it displays a 240-pixel-wide screen using only the leftmost six columns of each character cell. The cells are still eight bits wide in memory; the rightmost two are simply not displayed. This sort of works for some of the characters — lowercase in particular, which makes me wonder if this was a consideration during the Tutor’s development — but clearly doesn’t for others.
Since the font started as a Commodore 64 character set, after all, we’ll go back into Ultrafont+ and start shrinking them down, leaving a bit of gutter space.
I used minipro to dump the current contents of the multicart ROM and wrote up a little Perl script to do an inplace overwrite on the resulting file with our new binaries. We generate two ROM files called tello.rom (32 column) and tello40.rom (40 column), which we splice in at locations 0x70000 and 0x74000 and then burn it to flash.
% make burn perl splice /home/censored/tutor.bin 0x70000 tello.rom 0x2000 successfully replaced 8192 bytes at offset 458752 in /home/censored/tutor.bin with tello.rom perl splice /home/censored/tutor.bin 0x74000 tello40.rom 0x2000 successfully replaced 8192 bytes at offset 475136 in /home/censored/tutor.bin with tello40.rom minipro -p SST39SF040 -z Found TL866II+ 04.2.131 (0x283) Pin test passed. minipro -p SST39SF040 -w /home/censored/tutor.bin Found TL866II+ 04.2.131 (0x283) Chip ID OK: 0xBFB7 Erasing... 0.40Sec OK Writing Code... 30.12Sec OK Reading Code... 4.30Sec OK Verification OK
The multicart DIP settings for the 32-column version are (1=on) 00011 if you use those addresses. The first time I tried, the hello message appeared but typing generated no output. This was because I had a mov r0,@vdpwd instead of movb r0,@vdpwd; MAME will accept either instruction but not a real Tutor. With that corrected, we’re in business!
For the 40-column version, set the DIP switches to 00010.
Now, what things could you do with better keyboard support, true ASCII and fast character display? Well, obviously this whole proof of concept is the start of doing something more practical with the Tutor. I’ll answer that question in a couple months once all the parts arrive. The first order of business will be installing a PLCC adapter in the multicart so I don’t have to pull the flash chip out repeatedly for testing.
As for the 9995, in the end it was only ever implemented in three systems: the Tutor/Pyuuta family, a PEB upgrade called the Myarc Geneve 9640 which was basically a new TI-compatible computer on a card, and the Powertran Cortex, a home and business computer first built at TI in the United Kingdom that never got released due to internal squabbles. Instead, its plans were published in the Electronics Today International magazine and a company called Powertran Cybernetics sold kits and fully assembled machines. The Cortex ran at a full 3MHz, had 64K of chip RAM (with a memory mapper supporting up to 1MB) and used a 16K PAL equivalent 9928/29 VDP for graphics, though the more advanced Yamaha/Maplin V9938 could also be substituted with up to 128K of VRAM. Floppy, serial and DMA were all supported along with a built-in BASIC and multiple operating system options, even a small v6 UNIX port called LSX. Although popular with enthusiasts, it was an obscure system then and now, and relatively few examples remain in operation.
While the 9995 was a much more tractable chip than its ancestors, the reliance of the 9900 series on RAM was what eventually stunted its technological evolution. In the days when it was taped out, CPU die space was expensive, so shifting register space onto cheaper RAM which often ran at a similar speed was a logical alternative. Indeed, tricks like 6502/6800 zero page are the same basic idea, using a special expanse of memory with faster access and special addressing as if it were CPU registers itself. As CPUs became substantially faster than memory, however, this architectural quirk became more of a liability and contemporary 16-bit CPUs like the Motorola 68000 and the Intel 8086 and 80286 eclipsed it. A chip like the 6502 only got away with it for as long as it did because it was incredibly cheap and incredibly common and even today still sells in quantity, neither advantage being one the 9900 or 9995 ever possessed. Today, modern CPUs have comparatively massive register files and caches as proof that the 9900 idea was a dead end. After the 99000 family, an upgraded 9900 with segmented memory only used in TI’s last range of minicomputers, TI abandoned further development of the architecture in 1983 for the TMS320 DSP series and the exceptionally swift TMS32010, a much more popular (and, especially for a DSP, more conventional) processor.
The source code for our demonstration project along with a Makefile, the character set binaries and the keyscan table are available on Github under a 3-clause BSD license.
https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2024/03/after-41-years-my-first-assembly.html
NWSL opening weekend recap
date: 2024-03-19, from: Matt Haughey blog
Women's pro soccer in the US finally kicked off their 2024 season this past weekend and I tried to watch all seven games, so here’s some quick thoughts on each.
San Diego Wave vs. NY/NJ Gotham: Challenge Cup
In the past, the NWSL kicked off
https://a.wholelottanothing.org/nwsl-opening-weekend-recap/
Women’s basketball gets top seed for March Madness
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
USC will welcome Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to Galen Center in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The post Women’s basketball gets top seed for March Madness appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/18/womens-basketball-gets-top-seed-for-march-madness/
Ker-Splunk! Cisco closes $28 billion analytics acquisition
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Job one: Splunkify Talos threat intelligence, then do the same all over the Cisco portfolio
Cisco has closed its $28 billion acquisition of Splunk.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/cisco_closes_splunk_acquisition/
‘Lengthy Memoranda and Gobbledygook Language’
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Daring Fireball
https://archive.org/details/Maverick1944MemoAboutGobbledygook
Apple Is Working on the ‘Viral Hit’ Problem With the Core Technology Fee
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Daring Fireball
https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/112118127201793072
European Commission Holds ‘Apple DMA Compliance Workshop’
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Daring Fireball
https://twitter.com/KayJebelli/status/1769635526062043315
Santa Barbara County Supervisors Wrestle Greased Pig of Cannabis Taxation; Greased Pig Wins
date: 2024-03-19, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Cannabis growers and operators unite in opposition to a newly proposed tax scheme based on the square footage of their licensed space.
The post Santa Barbara County Supervisors Wrestle Greased Pig of Cannabis Taxation; Greased Pig Wins appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Biden to Host Japan PM Kishida, Philippines President Marcos
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a White House summit next month amid growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, provocative Chinese action in the South China Sea and differences over a Japanese company’s plan to buy an iconic American steel company.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement on Monday said the first-ever U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit is an opportunity to highlight the countries’ “growing economic relations, a proud and resolute commitment to shared democratic values and a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The three leaders have no shortage of issues to discuss.
The announcement came as North Korea’s state media reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire drill of nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea’s capital. The North Korean claim followed the South Korean and Japanese militaries reporting on Monday that they had detected North Korea firing multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast, adding to a streak of weapons displays that have raised regional tensions.
The U.S.-Japan relationship is facing a rare moment of friction after Biden announced last week that he opposes the planned sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan. Biden argued in announcing his opposition that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.”
Nippon Steel announced in December that it planned to buy U.S. Steel for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security.
Meanwhile, long-running Philippines-Chinese tensions have come back into focus this month after Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea.
The Chinese coast guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine coast guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.
A small Philippine marine and navy contingent has kept watch onboard a rusting warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has been marooned since the late 1990s in the shallows of the Second Thomas Shoal.
China also claims the shoal lying off the western Philippines and has surrounded the atoll with coast guard, navy and other ships to press its claims and prevent Filipino forces from delivering construction materials to fortify the Sierra Madre in a decades-long standoff.
Close U.S.-Philippines relations were not a given when Marcos, the son and namesake of the former Philippines strongman, took office in 2022.
But both Biden and Marcos have thrown much effort into strengthening the historically- complicated relationship between the two countries, with the two leaders sharing concerns about aggressive Chinese action around the region.
A U.S. appeals court in 1996 upheld damages of about $2 billion against the elder Marcos’ estate for the torture and killings of thousands of Filipinos. The court upheld a 1994 verdict of a jury in Hawaii, where he fled after being forced from power in 1986. He died there in 1989.
The elder Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972, a year before his term was to expire. He padlocked the country’s congressional and newspaper offices, ordered the arrest of many political opponents and activists and ruled by decree.
The younger Marcos made an official visit to Washington last year, the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years. The U.S. made the announcement of Marcos’ coming trip to Washington as Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Manilla.
Jean-Pierre said that in addition to the leaders’ summit Biden will hold one-on-one talks with Marcos. She said the leaders would discuss efforts to expand cooperation on economic security, clean energy, people-to-people ties, human rights and democracy.
Biden is set to honor Kishida a day before the leaders summit with a state visit. The White House announced the state visit in January.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-to-host-japan-pm-kishida-philippines-president-marcos-/7533369.html
India celebrates rapid adoption of its internet of livestock
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Latest piece of digital public infrastructure is positively beastly
India’s Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has celebrated rapid uptake of its effort to digitize the nation’s livestock.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/india_internet_of_cows/
Q&A: TikTok Owner Is Essentially ‘Subsidiary’ of China’s Communist Party, US Lawmaker Says
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
washington — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill March 13 that, if enacted into law, would give ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the TikTok social media app, 180 days to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban over concerns about national security, including Beijing’s ability to access Americans’ private information through the company
ByteDance denies it would provide such private data to the Chinese government, despite reports indicating such information could be at risk.
VOA sat down on the day the bill passed with Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations and related programs, and co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, to hear why he supported the bill and why he’s calling for faster military support for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of Congress’ enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act, which outlines nondiplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei in the wake of formal U.S. recognition of Beijing as the government of China. The act states that the U.S. must provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: The House just passed a bill that would require ByteDance to divest TikTok. Did you support this bill?
U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart: I absolutely did. … It has strong bipartisan support. And there’s also been a lot of misinformation about it. People say that it’s to ban TikTok. No, it’s basically saying you have to divest from, in essence, being controlled by the Communist Party of China.
We would have never allowed, during the Soviet empire, the Soviet Union to control, to own, one of the major networks in the United States - ABC, NBC, CBS. Why? Because it’s a threat to national security. In this case, it’s even more dramatic because they [the Chinese] have access not only to getting into people’s homes, but to actually get information from the American people. And they’ve been pretty good and very aggressive at doing that. And so TikTok needs to be divested. That’s the least that we should be requiring, and if so, then they can continue to function. But we cannot allow for this to function, getting information from the American people to an entity that is in essence a subsidiary of the Communist Party of China.
VOA: It is a consensus in Washington that if China invaded Taiwan, it would trigger a domino effect that could be catastrophic for the U.S. What are the most important actions the U.S. can take right now to prevent that from happening?
Diaz-Balart: The key is to avoid China doing something stupid, to avoid China being irresponsible in trying to intervene militarily with Taiwan. … And the way to do that is to make sure that Taiwan has the weaponry, everything it needs, so that China understands that trying to invade Taiwan is a very, very bad proposition.
VOA: The Biden administration last month approved a package of military equipment sales to Taiwan. Some analysts are worried this may not be sufficient to counter China’s aggression in the region. Do you think military sales to Taiwan are sufficient?
Diaz-Balart: I think military sales to Taiwan have to be done quicker. We have to be more aggressive … not only, obviously, directly, to help send the weaponry, sell the weaponry, and send the weaponry to Taiwan, but we also have to keep up with our defense spending domestically to keep the military industrial base alive and, well, with what we’ve seen, for example, going on Ukraine, [that] has demonstrated that we’re not where we need to be as far as our industrial base.
VOA: You visited Taiwan in January right after its election. What is your key takeaway from that trip?
Diaz-Balart: Taiwan is a very vigorous democracy. The press is very aggressive. That’s a good thing. … We made a point of obviously visiting with the president and the vice president-elect, also with the outgoing president. But we also met with the leadership of the other two parties, because it’s important to demonstrate that we cherish and that we love democracy and freedom. Taiwan is a beacon of freedom and democracy.
VOA: It is the bipartisan consensus to see China as one of the biggest geopolitical challenges for the U.S. in the coming decades. What should be the top priority the U.S. should tackle right now with China?
Diaz-Balart: We have to be a little bit more serious about understanding that China is a very dangerous player in the world. It is the largest fascist dictatorship on the planet, and the wealthiest fascist dictatorship on the planet. It has very ambitious goals. It has, you know, we see the cyberattacks that have taken place in this country that we know have come from Communist China. We also know that there have been thousands upon thousands of men, military-age males, coming from China across the southern border, which should frankly frighten all of us. …
That means utilizing every diplomatic and economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is: a growing threat to the United States and to the world. And you see, for example, in the region, how countries are very concerned about China’s aggressiveness, whether it’s the Philippines or India or even Vietnam. So there’s a growing concern in the world about this aggressive attitude of China. But we need to take real steps to confront that in a way to avoid war.
VOA: You’re also the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations and related programs. What kind of role would you like to see U.S. international broadcasting agencies like Voice of America play in countering Chinese Communist Party propaganda?
Diaz-Balart: The Voice of America has been a key player for decades in that cause of freedom and in getting real news, real information to people who don’t have access to it because of censorship. And so I’ve always been a strong supporter of it because of that. I think information is key. The first thing that happens in a dictatorship is that they close the ability for people to get real information, to get real news. And if we can be helpful to have people around the world get real information, real news, not only about what happens around the world but also what even happens in their own country, I think that is a service to humanity.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Book Talk: Unlocking the Digital Age
date: 2024-03-19, from: Internet Archive Blog
Join us for a book talk with ANDREA I. COPLAND & KATHLEEN DeLAURENTI about UNLOCKING THE DIGITAL AGE, a crucial resource for early career musicians navigating the complexities of the […]
https://blog.archive.org/2024/03/19/book-talk-unlocking-the-digital-age/
Do You Use It? Podcast Apps
date: 2024-03-19, from: TidBITS blog
This week’s Do You Use It? poll asks what podcast app you prefer, Apple’s Podcasts or one from an independent developer. Or do you not listen to podcasts at all?
https://tidbits.com/2024/03/18/do-you-use-it-podcast-apps/
US Says North Korea Shipped 10,000 Containers of Munitions to Russia
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
Jung Pak, the U.S. Senior Official for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, told VOA on Monday that there have been at least 10 instances where North Korean missiles have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine. Pak told VOA’s Nike Ching that the U.S. still assesses North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not currently planning an imminent attack on Washington’s allies, South Korea and Japan.
Smiles all around: Hart district hosts 12th annual Hart Games
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
He may not have been able to see it, but Golden Valley High School sophomore Uri Ambriz sure could hear the crowd at Valencia High School’s Paul A. Priesz Stadium. After opening the 12th annual Hart Games on Monday with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Ambriz’s excitement couldn’t be contained. Legally blind, Ambriz thanked […]
The post <strong>Smiles all around: Hart district hosts 12</strong><strong>th</strong><strong> annual Hart Games</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/smiles-all-around-hart-district-hosts-12th-annual-hart-games/
Austin Hosts First In-Person Ukraine Defense Contact Group of 2024
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
Ramstein, Germany — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that “Russia has paid a staggering cost” for President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, as a U.S.-led group of more than 50 nations met in Germany to coordinate their efforts to support Ukraine.
“Ukraine’s troops face harsh conditions and hard fighting, and Ukraine’s civilians endure a constant barrage of Russian missiles and Iranian drones,” Austin said as he opened the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) talks. “But Ukraine won’t back down, and neither will the United States. So our message today is clear: The United States will not let Ukraine fail. This coalition will not let Ukraine fail. And the free world will not let Ukraine fail.”
Austin highlighted new aid packages from the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden, calling them “investments in Ukraine’s just battle against Russian aggression” as well as global security.
“Ukraine’s survival is on the line, and all of our security is on the line,” Austin said.
While Ukrainian forces have continued to fight back against Russian forces in the east and inflicted “considerable damage” to Russian forces in the Black Sea, Russia — with the help of North Korea and Iran — has drastically ramped up its defense production capacity, forcing Ukraine to retreat from some battles due to ammunition shortages, according to a senior defense official, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity ahead of the UDCG.
“Ukraine is heavily outgunned on the battlefield. We’ve received reports of Ukrainian troops rationing or even running out of ammunition on the front lines,” said the official.
The U.S. has contributed about $44 billion in security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with allies and partners also committing more than $44 billion in that time frame.
But the U.S. military has run out of congressionally approved funds for replenishing its weapons stockpiles sent to Ukraine, and leadership in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has so far refused to bring new aid for Ukraine up for a vote.
Last week, the United States announced its first new round of military aid for Ukraine since late December, in what defense officials have called an “ad hoc” package made possible through U.S. Army procurement savings.
The military assistance package is valued at up to $300 million and will provide Ukraine with immediate air defense, artillery and anti-tank capabilities, along with more ammunition for HIMARS and 155-mm artillery rounds. But officials say it is unclear if there will be future procurement savings to produce another extraordinary package of aid.
“This is not a sustainable solution for Ukraine. We urgently need congressional approval of a national security supplemental,” the senior defense official said.
“There isn’t a way that our allies can really combine forces to make up for the lack of U.S. support,” the official added.
The emphasis on ammunition and air defense will likely be as strong as ever during this UDCG meeting.
“They need interceptors for a whole variety of their air defense systems, and over time, they keep running out as they try to defend against these wave upon wave of attacks that we’re seeing from Russia,” the senior official said.
Coalition leadership group
To better organize how the UDCG provides Kyiv with military weapons and equipment, the group’s members have formed capability coalitions to identify ways to increase Kyiv’s efficiency and cut costs.
Austin convened a meeting of the leads and co-leads of all the capability coalitions for the first time Tuesday, during a special coalition leadership group session.
Air Force capability is co-led by the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands. The armor capability is co-led by Poland and Italy. The artillery capability is co-led by France and the United States. De-mining is co-led by Lithuania and Iceland. Drone capability is co-led by Latvia and the United Kingdom. Information technology is co-led by Estonia and Luxembourg. Integrated air and missile defense capabilities are co-led by Germany and France, and maritime security is co-led by the United Kingdom and Norway.
Critics like Sean McFate, a professor at Syracuse University and author of “The New Rules of War,” told VOA the international community is putting its money into expensive military aid that falls short in modern warfare.
“It’s not conventional warfare that beat back Russia’s blitz. It was Ukrainian guerrilla warfare,” he said. “Ukraine was winning the unconventional fight. But then in fall of 2022, they decided to go conventional against Russia, which was strategically silly.”
McFate added that giving Ukraine more conventional war weapons was, in his view, “the strategic definition of insanity.”
Instead, he said Ukraine and its allies needed to think about unconventional ways where they can leverage their power to defeat Russia, such as guerilla operations and more direct actions deep inside Russia to build upon the Russian population’s unfavorable opinions of the war.
“Use your conventional forces to hold the line, but don’t invest them to create an offensive which requires a lot more resources,” McFate told VOA.
“M1A1 Abram tanks and F-16 fighter jets … will win tactical victories on the battlefield, but we all know that you can win every battle, yet lose the war, because wars are won on the strategic level, not at the tactical level of warfare,” he said.
Daily EV Recap: March 18, 2024
date: 2024-03-19, from: Electrek Feed
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and…
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/daily-ev-recap-march-18-2024/
VOA Interview: US Says North Korea Shipped 10,000 Containers of Munitions to Russia
date: 2024-03-19, from: VOA News USA
STATE DEPARTMENT — The United States disclosed Monday that North Korea has dispatched at least 10,000 containers loaded with military munitions to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine. This number surpasses the 7,000 containers estimated by the South Korean defense chief earlier in the day.
Jung Pak, the U.S. Senior Official for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), told VOA on Monday that there have been at least 10 instances where North Korean missiles have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine.
She expressed deep concern about the increasing ties between Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and the DPRK.
Earlier on Monday, North Korea launched several ballistic missiles into the sea for the first time in two months, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Seoul for the Summit for Democracy hosted by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Despite these “unfortunate” and “concerning” developments, Pak told VOA the U.S. still assesses North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not currently planning an imminent attack on Washington’s allies, South Korea and Japan.
The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
VOA: North Korea has fired several ballistic missiles at a time when South Korea is hosting the Summit for Democracy, and a few days after the U.S. and South Korea finished their military exercises. Do you still believe that a direct attack from North Korea against Japan and South Korea is not imminent?
Jung Pak, U.S. Senior Official for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: I still do. Ballistic missile launches are something that the DPRK has been doing: 69 in 2022, several dozen last year. And this is their latest set of launches. And it was unfortunate that they did it when the secretary was in Seoul for the Summit for Democracy.
We still assess that DPRK’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is not looking at an imminent attack or near-term attack. I think Kim Jong Un probably knows what that would likely mean in response. But we are very concerned about the level of activity, weapons advancements, and the increasing alignment with Russia over the past couple of years.
VOA: Just to clarify, does the U.S. not see any signs of North Korea planning some form of lethal military action against South Korea in the coming months?
Pak: We’re always on the lookout for any kind of dangerous activities. But I’ll also point out that these ballistic missile tests, various cruise missile tests, and this hostile rhetoric coming out of the DPRK, are of great concern to us. Regardless, we’re going to keep trying to see where we can engage with the DPRK, because diplomacy is the only way that we can get a sustained peace on the peninsula and discuss the issue of denuclearization.
VOA: Also on Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for his reelection. Meanwhile, South Korea’s defense chief says North Korea has supplied 7,000 containers filled with munitions to Russia. Can you talk about the closer ties between Moscow and Pyongyang?
Pak: It’s been a very concerning development to have a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council openly flout the Security Council resolutions that it signed up to, along with the rest of the international community, and that they’re engaging in weapons transfers. We know that there have been at least 10,000 containers that have gone from DPRK to Russia. And DPRK is not doing this for free. There are almost certainly things that DPRK wants in return. And we’re concerned about what might be going to the other side.
We also worry about what the DPRK could be learning from Russia’s use of these weapons and ballistic missiles on the battlefield, and how that might embolden and/or help the DPRK even further advance their weapons program. So, this is a really dangerous time.
VOA: Does the U.S. see new evidence that more ballistic missiles provided by North Korea to Russia have been fired at targets in Ukraine since 2024?
Pak: Yes, this is of course concerning to us, that we have a known proliferator in the DPRK selling weapons to Russia, and to be able to conduct their unlawful brutal attack on Ukraine, killing Ukrainian people, destroying Ukraine infrastructure, and just destroying lives. And so, we’re very much concerned about that.
There have been at least 10 instances where the DPRK missiles have been used on the battlefield. So, we’re absolutely concerned about what that means for proliferation going forward, and how this exacerbates the situation.
VOA: Does the U.S. see further evidence that Russia has agreed to and is helping North Korea with nuclear-capable missiles?
Pak: We think the DPRK is probably looking for ballistic missile technologies, or other advanced technologies, or surface-to-air missiles, or armored vehicles. We’ve observed a significant increase in exchanges across military, leadership, economic, and cultural levels. So, it’s pretty apparent that the two sides are getting closer and closer together.
VOA: You have said there would have to be interim steps toward ultimate denuclearization. Can you please elaborate on that? Is having “interim steps” to denuclearizing North Korea an official U.S. government policy?
Pak: Our policy is the same since we rolled out our policy review back in the spring of 2021, which is that we are absolutely looking for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. And so that goal has not wavered for us at all.
When we talk about “interim steps,” we’re making explicit what has always been implicit: which is a complete denuclearization will not occur overnight. So, there are valuable discussions that we can have with the DPRK on reducing the potential for military risk, and other substantive discussions as we work toward complete denuclearization.
VOA: Isn’t it a departure from seeking complete denuclearization?
Pak: It is not a departure. As I mentioned, this is not something that’s going to happen overnight. There are going to have to be substantial discussions that will need to take place.
Election Results: Local Races Updated as of Monday, March 18
date: 2024-03-19, from: The Signal
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk announced the 10th post-Election Night ballot count update for the March 5 Presidential Primary. The update includes 1,034 ballots processed since the ninth Post-Election Night update. The total election results count is now 1,639,492, which is 28.86% of registered voters. The estimated of outstanding ballots to be processed is 4,000, which includes 2,500 mail-in ballots and […]
The post Election Results: Local Races Updated as of Monday, March 18 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/election-results-local-races-updated-as-of-monday-march-18/
Linkblogs work differently
date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
Linkblogs work differently in blogrolls. When I click a link it takes me to the site the blog linked to, not to the blog.
So.. When you click the link in the screen shot below it takes you to a Metacritic review of the program
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18/001042.html?title=linkblogsWorkDifferently
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-19, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I just updated dave.podcatch.com to use the latest tech.
Debugging the Voyager 1 From a Light Day Away
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Daring Fireball
What strange beauty is this? Microsoft commits to two more non-subscription Office editions
date: 2024-03-19, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Just the apps, none of the cloud, forever – for one payment
Microsoft has cooked up fresh versions of its Office suite that will be sold under a perpetual license – and promised it will do so again in future.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/office_2024_microsoft/
PostgreSQL JDBC 42.7.3, 42.6.2, 42.5.6, 42.4.5, 42.3.10, 42.2.29 Released
date: 2024-03-19, from: PostgreSQL News
The JDBC team has release minor versions for all supported versions.
This release fixes 2 things.
1. Make sure we handle boolean types in
simple query mode.
2. Released new versions of 42.2.29, 42.3.10,
42.4.5, 42.5.6, 42.6.2 to deal with NoSuchMethodError on
ByteBuffer#position when running on Java 8
See full release notes
Many thanks to all who contributed.
The project is located in our Github Repo
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/postgresql-jdbc-4273-4262-4256-4245-42310-42229-released-2828/
PGConf NYC 2024 - Call for Presentations (CFP) and Sponsors!
date: 2024-03-19, from: PostgreSQL News
PGConf NYC 2024 (September 30 - October 2, 2024, New York City) is packed with user stories and best practices for how to use PostgreSQL. Join us in New York City and connect with other developers, DBAs, administrators, decisions makers, and contributors to the open source PostgreSQL community!
The call for papers open until June 5, 2024! We want to hear your PostgreSQL stories.
We’re looking for talk submissions for a wide variety of PostgreSQL users, from app developers, DBAs, operations engineers, decision makers, and PostgreSQL contributors. The PGConf NYC 2024 audience ranges from people who are new to PostgreSQL to advanced users. We welcome submissions on introductory topics to advanced concepts, and everything in between!
Even if you’ve never presented at a PostgreSQL event before, we’d love to hear your ideas and can provide help on getting your presentation ready!
You can submit your talk ideas here:
https://2024.pgconf.nyc/callforpapers/
PGConf NYC 2024 is not possible without the generous support of our sponsors. PGConf NYC takes place in one of the largest markets of PostgreSQL users. Your sponsorship lets you connect with decision makers, developers, DBAs, and PostgreSQL contributors, helps keep ticket prices low, and helps grow the PostgreSQL community. For more information on sponsorship, please visit the below link:
https://2024.pgconf.nyc/sponsors/
Can’t wait to participate in PGConf NYC 2024? Early bird registration is available.
We look forward to seeing you in New York this fall!
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgconf-nyc-2024-call-for-presentations-cfp-and-sponsors-2827/
Spinning Worlds, Seasickness, and Dealing with Vestibular Neuritis
date: 2024-03-19, from: Maggie Appleton blog
https://maggieappleton.com/spinning
★ My 2023 Apple Report Card
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: Daring Fireball
My (admittedly belated) remarks on Apple’s year.
https://daringfireball.net/2024/03/my_2023_apple_report_card
US Bans Last Form of Asbestos in Use
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-bans-last-form-of-asbestos-in-use-/7532983.html
Rosewood Miramar’s Over-Large Expansion
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A billionaire and his associates are offering the undeniably good deal of low to moderate income housing under the caveat that they couple it with more boutique shops with luxury apartments above the proposed shops.
The post Rosewood Miramar’s Over-Large Expansion appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/18/rosewood-miramars-over-large-expansion/
Santa Barbara Organizations to Receive $1.7 Million in Funding for Community Services
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Community Development Block Grants and Human Services funds go toward childcare, homelessness, and family resources.
The post Santa Barbara Organizations to Receive $1.7 Million in Funding for Community Services appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Cougars Notch First Win at Mike Gillespie Field
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons notched its first victory at the newly named Mike Gillespie Field on Saturday, winning its second straight conference series, this time over visiting Bakersfield College, by a 6-4 final score.
https://scvnews.com/cougars-notch-first-win-at-mike-gillespie-field/
The (High) Price of Humiliation
date: 2024-03-18, from: Dan Rather’s Steady
Don’t look now, but are the polls moving?
https://steady.substack.com/p/the-high-price-of-humiliation
No Miramar Mini-Mall
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Multiple meet-ups by the neighbors who surround the Miramar revealed that nine out of 10 are extremely opposed to the new expansion.
The post No Miramar Mini-Mall appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/18/no-miramar-mini-mall/
Supreme Court Extends Block on Texas Law Allowing Migrant Arrests
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
washington — The Supreme Court on Monday continued to block, for now, a Texas law that would give police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. Meanwhile, the legal battle the law sparked over immigration authority continues to play out.
A one-page order signed by Justice Samuel Alito indefinitely prevented Texas from enforcing a sweeping state immigration enforcement law that had been set to take effect this month. The language of the order strongly suggested the court would take additional action, but it was unclear when.
The order marked the second time Alito has extended a pause on the law, known as Senate Bill 4, which the Justice Department has argued would step on the federal government’s immigration powers. The extension came a few minutes after a 5 p.m. deadline the court had set for itself, creating momentary confusion about the measure’s status.
Opponents have called the law the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court.
The office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said the state’s law mirrored federal law and “was adopted to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border, which hurts Texans more than anyone else.”
The Biden administration sued to strike down the measure, arguing it would usurp core federal authority on immigration, hurt international relations and create chaos in administering immigration law. Civil rights groups have argued the law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.
A federal judge in Texas struck down the law in late February, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals quickly stayed that ruling, leading the federal government to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Arizona law, often referred to by opponents as the “show me your papers” measure, would have allowed police to arrest people for federal immigration violations. In 2012, the divided high court found that the impasse in Washington over immigration reform did not justify state intrusion and struck down key parts of the law.
The battle over the Texas immigration law is one of multiple legal disputes between Texas officials and the Biden administration over how far the state can go to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border and prevent illegal border crossings.
Several Republican governors have backed Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts, saying the federal government is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration laws.
The case is unfolding as record numbers of asylum-seekers arrive in the United States and immigration emerges as a central issue in the 2024 election.
Mustangs Advance to NAIA Sweet 16
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Master’s University hit 20 3-pointers, one shy of the program record in a game, to defeat the St. Thomas Bobcats 122-91 in the second round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Men’s Basketball National Championship tournament
https://scvnews.com/mustangs-advance-to-naia-sweet-16/
Santa Barbara Police Arrest Suspected Jewelry Store Thief with Loaded Gun
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Jewelry and the gun believed to have been used in a jewelry store robbery were found during the suspect’s arrest, police say.
The post Santa Barbara Police Arrest Suspected Jewelry Store Thief with Loaded Gun appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Jim Morouse and Peter Schuyler Selected as 81st Persons of the Year
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Tickets for 81st Person of the Year awards luncheon on sale now.
The post Jim Morouse and Peter Schuyler Selected as 81st Persons of the Year appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Michael Baker named CEO of the Year for Coastal Area Council
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA, CA- Michael Baker was awarded the Chief Executive Officer of the year award by the Coastal Area Council of
The post Michael Baker named CEO of the Year for Coastal Area Council appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/18/michael-baker-named-ceo-of-the-year-for-coastal-area-council/
Biden Voices New Concerns to Netanyahu About Israel’s Conduct of War on Hamas
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
US Holds Out Hope for Partnership with Niger
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
Pentagon — The United States is not ruling out a continued military presence in Niger, despite a statement by the country’s ruling military junta that it was ending an agreement allowing for the presence of American forces engaged in counterterrorism missions.
U.S. defense officials said Monday the U.S. has yet to withdraw any of its approximately 1,000 military personnel from Niger and, along with officials from the White House and the State Department, said conversations with Nigerien officials are continuing.
“We remain in contact,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday, adding that Niger’s military junta has yet to share information on a possible deadline for U.S. forces to leave the country.
“We have different lines of communications at all levels of government with Niger and our government,” she said. “Again, we want to see our partnership continue if there is a pathway forward.”
At the State Department, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said most of the talks, for now, have been centered through the U.S. Embassy.
“We continue to have our ambassador and our embassy team there, and we’re continuing to discuss with them [Nigerien officials],” he said.
“We believe our security partnerships in West Africa are mutually beneficial and they are intended [to] achieve, I should say, what we think to be shared goals of detecting, deterring and reducing terrorist violence,” Patel added.
A spokesperson for the ruling military junta announced Saturday that it had revoked, effective immediately, the status of forces agreement that allowed U.S. forces to operate in the country and cooperate with the Nigerien military against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror group.
Colonel Amadou Abdramane said the decision was based, in part, on what he called a “condescending attitude” by U.S. officials in a high-level delegation that met with Nigerien officials in the capital of Niamey last week.
“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,” he said.
U.S. officials, in contrast, described last week’s talks, as “direct and frank,” providing U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander and U.S. Africa Command’s General Michael Langley a chance to express Washington’s concerns while also hearing from Nigerien military and civilian officials.
“We were troubled on the path that Niger is on,” the Pentagon’s Singh told reporters Monday, admitting that some of the concerns centered on Niger’s “potential relationships with Russia and Iran.”
Iran hosted Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine in January and voiced a willingness to help Niger cope with international sanctions levied following the July 2023 coup.
But Niger’s military junta bristled at what it said were “misleading allegations” by U.S. officials that Niger had struck a secret deal to provide Tehran with uranium.
The junta also defended its relationship with Moscow, saying Russia partners with Niger to provide its military with equipment needed in the country’s fight against various terrorist groups.
U.S. officials, though, have previously expressed concerns about Russian defense officials making visits to Niger following the July coup.
And a top U.S. lawmaker Monday, suggested Russian influence may have played a role in the military junta’s announcement.
“Part of this is Russia’s attempt to insinuate themselves in the region dramatically and to cause us [the U.S.] problems,” said Senator Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Reed, a Democrat, told a virtual meeting of the Washington-based Defense Writers Group that Niger’s ruling junta has been sending the U.S. signals for months that it might seek to evict U.S. forces.
“We will have to counter that … by repositioning forces and capabilities so we can still have observation and influence in that area of the Sahel,” Reed said, noting that U.S. military officials have been considering other options.
U.S. military officials confirmed last August, following the coup, that a search for alternative sites was underway. But the Pentagon refused to say Monday how much progress had been made.
There are also concerns about getting other allies or partners in the region to agree to host a significant U.S. presence, and whether the location can provide the same kind of quick and easy access to terrorist targets, like the U.S. bases in Niger.
Most U.S. forces in Niger are currently located at Air Base 201 in the Nigerien city of Agadez, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
The base, built about six years ago at a cost of $110 million, allowed the U.S. to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism missions with a fleet of U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones.
But the U.S. suspended all counterterrorism missions from the base following the July 2023 coup, saying personnel have been limited to conducting operations only for the purpose of protecting U.S. forces.
https://www.voanews.com/a/7532921.html
Motorola Edge 50 Pro will be one of the first Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 phones (slightly cheaper flagships)
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor is basically slightly cheaper, slightly less powerful version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The chip maker says it’s designed to offer a nearly the same level of performance as the company’s flagship mobile processor in more affordable devices. And one of the first devices that will use the […]
The post Motorola Edge 50 Pro will be one of the first Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 phones (slightly cheaper flagships) appeared first on Liliputing.
Mustangs Drop Three Games to Menlo
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Master’s University baseball team lost a trio of 1-run games Saturday against the Menlo Oaks in Atherton, Calif
https://scvnews.com/mustangs-drop-three-games-to-menlo/
Follow These Steps to Clear Space on Your Mac
date: 2024-03-18, from: TidBITS blog
Apple no longer makes it easy to tell precisely how much free space is available on your Mac, but you know when you don’t have enough. Adam Engst offers (and explains) 21 simple steps to clear space quickly.
https://tidbits.com/2024/03/18/follow-these-steps-to-clear-space-on-your-mac/
Beautify Goleta Volunteers have a Spring in their Step
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
GOLETA, CA, March 18, 2024 – Thirty-two amazing volunteers participated in the Beautify Goleta spring event this past Saturday morning, March 16.
The post Beautify Goleta Volunteers have a Spring in their Step appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/18/beautify-goleta-volunteers-have-a-spring-in-their-step/
Cleaning Up California’s Oil Graveyards
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara Assemblymember Gregg Hart announces bill to make oil operators plug their idle wells.
The post Cleaning Up California’s Oil Graveyards appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/18/cleaning-up-californias-oil-graveyards/
Sanitation District discusses outreach for rate increases
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District on Tuesday debated how to inform ratepayers of significant rate hikes that will be necessary over the next five years due to increases in its operating costs. The fee increases, which are expected to be brought back to the Sanitation District board in May for a rate approval, […]
The post Sanitation District discusses outreach for rate increases appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/sanitation-district-discusses-outreach-for-rate-increases/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Endangered Firefox?
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3714345/endangered-firefox.html
Ford’s ‘Skunkworks’ EV Project Includes $25,000 Truck, Compact SUV: Report
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The first model is coming in 2026, and it will be powered by an LFP battery.
https://insideevs.com/news/712872/ford-skunkworks-project-includes-compact-suv-truck/
Tesla helps cancer patient get a Cybertruck sooner
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has helped a cancer patient and Cybertruck reservation holder get his electric pickup sooner – going against its own policy.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/tesla-helps-cancer-patient-get-cybertruck-sooner/
LACDA’s Emilio Salas Appointed to National Planning Advisory Committee
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Los Angeles County Development Authority is excited to announce that its executive director, Emilio Salas, has been appointed to a two-year term to serve as a member of the national Strategic Planning Advisory Committee for the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO)
https://scvnews.com/lacdas-emilio-salas-appointed-to-national-planning-advisory-committee/
Ford plans affordable small electric pickup and SUV, starting around $25,000
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Amid a flood of new competition, Ford is shifting plans to build more affordable electric vehicles. Ford is developing a new low-cost EV platform to power a small electric pickup and SUV, with starting prices around $25,000. However, due to the pivot, plans for its three-row electric SUV have been put on the back burner.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/ford-plans-affordable-ev-pickup-suv-starting-25000/
Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival Live Music Performers Announced
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The 28th Annual Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival is back with your favorite musical performers and an exciting lineup of new acts
https://scvnews.com/santa-clarita-cowboy-festival-live-music-performers-announced/
Skanska is piloting this electric compaction roller on an LA megaproject
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Skanska is piloting a Wirtgen Group electric compaction roller, one of just five pre-production models in North America.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/skanska-piloting-electric-compaction-roller/
Don’t be like these 900+ websites and expose millions of passwords via Firebase
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Warning: Poorly configured Google Cloud databases spill billing info, plaintext credentials
At least 900 websites built with Google’s Firebase, a cloud database, have been misconfigured, leaving credentials, personal info, and other sensitive data inadvertently exposed to the public internet, according to security researchers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/google_firebase_cloud_security/
Cougars Earn Top-10 Finishes at Redlands Invitational
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
REDLANDS — College of the Canyons track and field recorded a dozen top-10 finishes and established 30 new personal records while competing at the University of Redlands Invitational on March 15.
https://scvnews.com/cougars-earn-top-10-finishes-at-redlands-invitational/
Student-Built Robots Clash at Competition Supported by NASA-JPL
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
Hand-crafted robots, constructed over the past two months by 44 high school teams, duked it out at the FIRST Robotics Los Angeles regional competition. Student-made contraptions of a metal and a little magic battled each other in front of cheering and dancing high schoolers at the annual Los Angeles regional FIRST Robotics Competition over the […]
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Finally got to see the last season of Happy Valley. It was as good as the reviews said it was.
https://www.metacritic.com/tv/happy-valley/
NASA’s Swift Temporarily Suspends Science Operations
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
On March 15, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory entered into safe mode, temporarily suspending science operations due to degrading performance from one of its three gyroscopes (gyros), which are used to point the observatory for making observations. The rest of the spacecraft remains in good health. Swift is designed to successfully operate without one of […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-temporarily-suspends-science-operations/
NASA Administrator Pays Tribute to Space Pioneer Thomas Stafford
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Monday’s passing of Thomas Stafford, a lifelong space exploration advocate, former NASA astronaut, and U.S. Air Force general: “Today, General Tom Stafford went to the eternal heavens, which he so courageously explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut as well as a peacemaker in […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-administrator-pays-tribute-to-space-pioneer-thomas-stafford/
Golden Valley softball spoils Hart field opener
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
Golden Valley Grizzlies softball was just an out away from a historic win over Hart. Grizzlies catcher Aliyah Clarke took it upon herself to find the last out — and threw out the would-be game-tying run stealing second. Clark threw a dime to shortstop Layla Moreno, who made the tag securing the historic win last […]
The post <strong>Golden Valley softball spoils Hart field opener</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/golden-valley-softball-spoils-hart-field-opener/
City’s 2024 ‘Celebrate’ Lineup Released
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
There is so much to learn from different customs and cultures and you don’t need a plane ticket to experience it all
https://scvnews.com/citys-2024-celebrate-lineup-released/
Is Apple Out of the Generative AI Game?
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Daring Fireball
https://mas.to/@carnage4life/112116603751149754
Apple Researchers Publish ‘Breakthrough’ Paper on Multimodal LLMs
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Daring Fireball
NASA Wallops Supports Rocket Lab Launch for NRO From Virginia
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia will support commercial launch provider Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket launch no earlier than March 21 at 2:40 a.m. EDT. The four-hour launch window runs through 6:30 a.m. The mission, named NROL-123, is a dedicated launch for NRO (National Reconnaissance Office). The 59-foot-tall Electron rocket will lift off from Launch […]
Gillespie memorialized at COC
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
College of the Canyons assistant baseball coach Len Mohney took to the podium and spoke about the late great coach Mike Gillespie. “I once heard a person dies twice,” Mohney said in his speech on Saturday. “Once when they pass and once when they stopped talking about them. Well let me tell you, Mike Gillespie’s […]
The post <strong>Gillespie memorialized at COC</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/gillespie-memorialized-at-coc/
US, Japan Urge Nations Not to Deploy Nuclear Weapons in Orbit
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The United States and Japan on Monday proposed a U.N. Security Council resolution stressing that nations should comply with a treaty that bars putting nuclear weapons in space, a message that appeared aimed at Russia.
Washington believes Moscow is developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon whose detonation could cause havoc by disrupting everything from military communications to phone-based ride services, a source familiar with the matter has said.
Russia, a party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that bars putting “in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction,” has previously said it opposes deploying nuclear weapons in space.
Russia’s defense minister has also denied it is developing such a weapon. Deploying a nuclear weapon in orbit is barred by the treaty; developing one, however, is not prohibited.
In their resolution seen by Reuters, the United States, the only nation to use a nuclear weapon in war, and Japan, the only nation attacked with one, urged countries bound by the treaty not to place such weapons into space and also not to develop them.
Reports about possible Russian development emerged after a Republican lawmaker on February 14 issued a cryptic statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”
The clearest public sign Washington thinks Moscow is working on such a weapon was a White House spokesman’s February 15 comment that the lawmaker’s letter was related to a space-based anti-satellite weapon that Russia was developing but had not deployed, and that would violate the Outer Space Treaty.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-japan-urge-nations-not-to-deploy-nuclear-weapons-in-orbit/7532822.html
Castaic baseball sweeps Golden Valley
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
Castaic Coyotes baseball completed the sweep on Friday after defeating the visiting Golden Valley Grizzlies for the second straight game. Castaic saw a ton of hitting from the middle of the order while its No. 2 pitcher shined on the hill. Coyotes junior Chad Kober threw a complete-game shutout and neutralized the Grizzlies with five […]
The post <strong>Castaic baseball sweeps Golden Valley</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/castaic-baseball-sweeps-golden-valley/
Announcing Departure of Rachel Brooke, Authors Alliance Senior Staff Attorney
date: 2024-03-18, from: Authors Union blogs
Dear Authors Alliance Members, Friends, and Allies, It is with a heavy heart that I am announcing my departure from Authors Alliance. For me, the development is bittersweet—in a few weeks, I will be starting a new job at a law firm where I’ll focus on litigation and developing my advocacy skills in a new […]
Compete for Chance to Open Shaquille O’Neal Chicken Restaurant
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Big Chicken, the star-powered fast casual chicken concept, which has a location in Santa Clarita, is fueling the mania for the Big Tournament with a nationwide Big Bracket Challenge
https://scvnews.com/compete-for-chance-to-open-shaquille-oneal-chicken-restaurant/
Fujitsu reveals malware installed on internal systems, risk of customer data spill
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sneaky software slips past shields, spurring scramble
Fujitsu has confirmed that miscreants have compromised some of its internal computers, deployed malware, and may have stolen some customer information.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/fujitsu_malware_data_breach/
Nvidia turns up the AI heat with 1,200W Blackwell GPUs
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Five times the performance of the H100, but you’ll need liquid cooling to tame the beast
For all the saber-rattling from AMD and Intel, Nvidia remains, without question, the dominant provider of AI infrastructure. With today’s debut of the Blackwell GPU architecture during CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote, it aims to extend its technical lead – in both performance and power consumption.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/nvidia_turns_up_the_ai/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I think it could be reported as fact that trump threatens democracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/18/pences-refusal-back-trump-points-larger-problem/
Legendary Casting Director Deborah Aquila to Speak at CSUN
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California State University, Northridge’s Spring 2024 Cinematheque series will pay tribute to Hollywood casting director and producer Deborah Aquila, executive vice president and head of casting at Paramount Television Studios and CBS Studios, to mark the end of Women’s History Month on Wednesday, March
https://scvnews.com/legendary-casting-director-deborah-aquila-to-speak-at-csun/
US Supreme Court Weighs NRA Free Speech Fight With New York Official
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday grappled with whether a New York state official can be sued for violating the National Rifle Association’s constitutional free speech rights by allegedly pressuring banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the influential group due to its gun rights advocacy.
The NRA is seeking to revive its 2018 lawsuit accusing Maria Vullo, a former superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services, of unlawfully retaliating against it following a mass shooting in which 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
The justices heard arguments in the NRA’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to throw out its suit against Vullo. At issue is whether Vullo wielded her regulatory power to coerce New York financial institutions into cutting ties with the NRA in violation of free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Some questions posed by the justices aimed at distinguishing permissible government advocacy from unlawful pressure.
“How do you define when it goes too far?” conservative Justice Samuel Alito asked David Cole, a lawyer with the ACLU civil rights advocacy group that represented the NRA.
Cole argued that Vullo and other New York officials abused their authority in violation of the First Amendment, telling the justices: “There’s no question on this record that they encouraged people to punish the NRA.”
Vullo in 2018 called upon banks and insurers to consider the “reputational risks” of doing business with gun rights groups following the Parkland shootings.
She later fined Lloyd’s of London and two other insurers more than $13 million for offering an NRA-endorsed product called “Carry Guard” that Vullo’s office found was in violation of New York insurance law. The product provided liability coverage for policyholders who caused injuries from gunfire, even in cases involving the wrongful use of a firearm.
The insurers agreed to stop selling NRA-endorsed products that New York considered illegal.
The NRA’s lawsuit, seeking unspecified monetary damages, accused Vullo of unlawfully retaliating against the group for its constitutionally protected gun rights advocacy by targeting it with an “implicit censorship regime.” The suit alleged that the state’s “blacklisting” campaign sought to deprive the NRA of basic financial services and threatened its advocacy work.
Ephraim McDowell, the Justice Department lawyer representing President Joe Biden’s administration, urged the justices to let the NRA pursue its lawsuit, arguing that the group had plausibly alleged that Vullo had violated its First Amendment rights.
McDowell focused on the NRA’s claim that Vullo met with insurance executives at Lloyd’s, presenting her views on gun control and suggested going easy on regulatory infractions if the company stopped providing insurance for the NRA.
“That’s an explicit threat,” said McDowell, an assistant to the U.S. solicitor general.
‘A bit jarring’
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh pressed attorney Neal Katyal, representing Vullo, to explain why the Biden administration backed the NRA given the government’s interest in protecting its right to advocate its point of view.
“It’s a bit jarring, I guess for me, that the solicitor general is on the other side of you on this case,” Kavanaugh said.
Vullo said in court papers her statements encouraging financial institutions to examine their ties to pro-gun organizations following the Parkland shooting had not “crossed the line between permissible persuasion and unconstitutional coercion.”
Katyal accused the NRA of “seeking to weaponize the First Amendment and exempt themselves from the rules that govern you and me simply because they’re a controversial speaker.”
“When you’re in a situation like this of conceded illegality,” Katyal said, “there is an obvious alternative explanation for what Ms. Vullo was doing here, which was enforcing the law.”
A federal judge in 2021 dismissed all claims apart from two free speech claims against Vullo. The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 said those also should have been dismissed, prompting the NRA’s Supreme Court appeal.
The NRA originally also named Vullo’s department and then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, as defendants but the case was subsequently narrowed. Vullo was sued in both her official and personal capacities. The 2nd Circuit found that Vullo would be protected from suit under the legal defense of qualified immunity that shields officials from civil litigation in certain circumstances.
The NRA, the largest and most powerful gun rights organization in the United States, has been instrumental in thwarting Democratic-backed gun restrictions in the U.S. Congress. It is a nonprofit group organized under the laws of New York state, with its main offices in Virginia.
Its appeal heard Monday was the latest case to come before the Supreme Court involving the NRA, a group closely aligned with Republicans that has opposed gun control measures and backed pivotal lawsuits that have widened U.S. gun rights.
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has taken an expansive view of gun rights.
A ruling is expected by the end of June.
Iceland Volcano Spews Lava in Fourth and Most Powerful Eruption in Three Months
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Officials detected signs of an eruption only 40 minutes before fountains of lava burst from the ground
Christopher Nolan tells Stephen Colbert he has “no guilt about being a…
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044205-christopher-nolan-tells-s
NIO Switches Its Standard 75-kWh Battery From Hybrid-Cell LFP/NCM To All-LFP
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The move is expected to reduce costs.
https://insideevs.com/news/712821/nio-standard-75kwh-battery-lfp/
Help Ukraine Win—or Risk Kicking Off a U.S. Losing Streak
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: RAND blog
Continued assistance to Ukraine is critical if the United States is to retain its position as the world’s indispensable nation and the many benefits Americans enjoy as a result. Failing to support Ukraine now might kick off an American losing streak that could take decades to overcome.
PiBoy DMGx kit turns a Raspberry Pi 5 into a handheld game console
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Experimental Pi sells several kits that let you transform a Raspberry Pi single-board computer into a handheld game console, including a PiBoy DMG kit that’s been available for around 4 years and has a design that takes heavy inspiration from Nintendo’s Game Boy. But that kit was designed for the Raspberry Pi 4. Now Experimental […]
The post PiBoy DMGx kit turns a Raspberry Pi 5 into a handheld game console appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/piboy-dmgx-kit-turns-a-raspberry-pi-5-into-a-handheld-game-console/
Here are all the used EVs that qualify for a $4,000 tax credit
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
January 1, 2023, kicked off a fresh start of new tax credits for vehicles, both new and used. Since then, much of the dust has settled on the Capitol as it continues to implement qualifying terms for tax credits, continuously shifting what used EVs do and do not qualify. Here’s the latest list.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/here-are-all-the-used-evs-that-qualify-for-the-new-4000-tax-credit/
Pentagon: US Warned Niger About Russia, Iran Ties Before Junta Revoked Accord
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials traveled to Niger last week to express concerns about the country’s potential development of ties to Russia and Iran before the ruling junta Saturday revoked an accord governing the roughly 1,000 U.S. military personnel there, the Pentagon said Monday.
The Pentagon added it was seeking clarification about the way ahead. Niger said Saturday it had revoked “with immediate effect” its military accord with the United States that had allowed Pentagon personnel to operate on its soil.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said the U.S. government had “direct and frank” conversations in Niger ahead of the junta’s announcement and was continuing to communicate with Niger’s ruling military council known as the CNSP.
“The U.S. delegation was there to raise a number of concerns. … We were troubled (about) the path that Niger is on. And so, these were direct and frank conversations, to have those in person, to talk about our concerns and to also hear theirs,” Singh said.
“U.S. officials expressed concern over Niger’s potential relationships with Russia and Iran.”
Since its July 2023 coup, the military junta that seized power in Niamey has kicked out French and European forces and quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc. Like juntas in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, it has also strengthened military ties with Russia.
High-level Russian defense officials including Yunus-bek Yevkurov, Russia’s deputy defense minister, have visited the country and met with the junta leader.
The prime minister of the ruling junta, Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine, visited Iran in January.
In its statement Saturday, the ruling junta said it rejected what it called false allegations by the U.S. delegation that Niger “would have signed a secret agreement on uranium with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Singh did not elaborate on U.S. concerns regarding Iran.
The U.S. delegation to Niger on March 12-13 included U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander and the top U.S. general for the region, General Michael Langley.
The U.S. State Department said Tuesday those talks were meant to address “Niger’s return to a democratic path and the future of our security and development partnership.”
After the coup, the U.S. military consolidated its forces in Niger, moving troops from Air Base 101 in the capital of Niamey to Air Base 201 in the city of Agadez.
The base had been a core part of the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in the region and was once used to target Islamic State militants and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, an al-Qaida affiliate, in the Sahel.
Since the coup, the U.S. forces have been carrying out operations for force protection only, Singh said.
Singh did not rule out a resolution that would allow U.S. military presence to remain in Niger, saying, “We want to see our partnership continue, if there is a pathway forward.”
Genesis GV60 electric SUV spotted rocking a sleek new facelift with updated headlights
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
The all-electric Genesis GV60 electric SUV is due for a refresh. Ahead of its official debut, the Genesis GV60 was spotted with a new facelift, including sleek new headlights.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/genesis-gv60-electric-suv-spotted-sleek-new-facelift/
A Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait Is at the Center of a New Exhibition on the ‘Art of the Selfie’
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The National Museum Cardiff is encouraging visitors to snap photos with the 1887 artwork, which is on view in Wales for the first time
The moment USC became the No. 1 seed at 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Trojans earned the top spot for the first time since 1986. Sports editor Leila MacKenzie captured the historic moment.
The post The moment USC became the No. 1 seed at 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament appeared first on Daily Trojan.
YouTube creators must now ’fess up to using AI in vids
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not everything requires tagging so feel free to maintain unrealistic beauty standards
YouTube has warned content creators that, beginning today, certain uses of AI in their videos must be clearly labeled.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/youtube_ai_tagging/
World’s largest solar panel maker to slash thousands of jobs
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
China’s LONGi Group is laying off up to 30% of its workers to accelerate cost-cutting, according to Bloomberg.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/worlds-largest-solar-panel-maker-to-slash-thousands-of-jobs/
Daily Deals (3-18-2024)
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Anker’s Soundcore Space A40 true wireless earbuds feature active noise-cancellation and ridiculously long battery life when you use the included charging case. I picked up a pair almost a month ago and I’ve used them to listen to an audiobook and a half, plus a fair amount of music and I have yet to recharge […]
The post Daily Deals (3-18-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-3-18-2024/
Gurman: ‘Apple in Talks to License Google Gemini’
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Daring Fireball
Waffle House’s Magic Marker System
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/waffle-houses-magic-marker-system
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Can you imagine what Trump's credit rating is?
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/18/1239242523/trump-bond-civil-fraud-case
More than 133,000 Fortinet appliances still vulnerable to month-old critical bug
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A huge attack surface for a vulnerability with various PoCs available
The volume of Fortinet boxes exposed to the public internet and vulnerable to a month-old critical security flaw in FortiOS is still extremely high, despite a gradual increase in patching.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/more_than_133000_fortinet_appliances/
Nick Heer on the MacOS 14 Sonoma Typography Palette
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Daring Fireball
https://pxlnv.com/linklog/typography-palette-sonoma/
Bolstering Ukraine’s Irregular War Against Russia
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: RAND blog
As Ukrainian forces assume a more defensive posture, Kyiv’s irregular warfare behind enemy lines becomes even more important. Ukrainian irregulars are already active, even striking distant targets in Russia. With Western support and technology, these silent warriors could become even more potent.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/03/bolstering-ukraines-irregular-war-against-russia.html
8 Down-Ballot Races That Could Shape America’s Climate Future
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heatmap News
In 2015, just one state had a goal of reaching 100% clean energy; today, over half the American population lives in states that do. That progress is thanks in large part to voters, who’ve prioritized electing candidates that support renewable energy, electric vehicles, climate justice, and other green policies.
And who’s making those policies? The people at the bottom of the ticket — candidates for the kind of local and state-level offices that do most of the nitty-gritty climate policymaking in this country. Here is a representative, albeit far from exhaustive, list of eight I’ll be keeping my eye on this year.
Anchorage, Alaska’s mayoral race
Who’s running: There are 10 candidates in Anchorage’s nonpartisan mayoral election, but the ones you need to know are Republican incumbent Mayor David Bronson; Democratic Party-endorsed Suzanne LaFrance, who helped pass the city’s Climate Action Plan while in the State Assembly; former state legislator and Democratic Party-endorsed Chris Tuck; and the Republican Party-endorsed former president and CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation Bill Popp.
State of the race: Bronson led with 35% of the vote in polls a month out from election day on April 2, but that wouldn’t put him over the 45% hump he needs to win without a runoff. LaFrance holds around 25% of the potential vote, and experts say she’d likely beat Bronson if it goes to a runoff.
Why it matters: Southcentral Alaska, home to half the state’s population, gets most of its energy from wells owned by Hilcorp in Cook Inlet. Hilcorp, however, has warned that it won’t commit to signing new contracts, which begin to expire next year, due to natural gas shortages. Mayors in the region, including Anchorage’s Bronson, recently formed a coalition to address the looming energy crisis, with solutions ranging from importing liquified natural gas from out of state, abroad, or Alaska’s North Slope 800 miles away; to new drilling (Bronson’s proposal); to finding an “alternative” source of energy (LaFrance’s stance). Whatever way you cut it, though, the next mayor of Anchorage is likely to have an outsized role in determining the state’s energy future, with organizations like The Alaska Center, which advocates for renewable energy, and Lead Locally, which champions climate leaders, rallying behind LaFrance.
Arizona’s Senate seat
Who’s running: Democratic Representative Ruben Gallego and “MAGA darling” Kari Lake are fighting for outgoing Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s seat.
State of the race: It’s a true toss-up, although early polls show Gallego with the edge.
Why it matters: Sinema’s replacement could determine which party controls the Senate once the dust settles on November 5. In one corner is Lake, who has blamed heat-related deaths in the state on meth and, while “not opposed to some of the green energy,” has said she’d block renewable mandates. Gallego, by contrast, is endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund in part for having paid special attention to public lands and waters and clean energy jobs while in Congress. He also co-sponsored the CHIPS and Science Act.
Arizona’s Salt River Project Board of Directors
What it is: The Salt River Project is the biggest public power company in the country by generation, serving the Phoenix metropolitan area. Its board and council are chosen through a confusing and dubiously democratic “acreage-based voting system” on the first Tuesday in April in even-numbered years.
State of the race: A coalition of 14 clean energy candidates is attempting to flip the SRP board and council to make it more solar-friendly. However, only half of SRP’s customers are eligible to cast a vote — renters, for example, are not allowed — and less than 1% of those who are eligible actually do.
Why it matters: Currently, less than 4% of SRP’s energy comes from solar, compared to almost 10% for other local utilities. Incumbents on the council and board — some of whom have had SRP seats in their families for more than a century — have voted to keep using coal and penalized rooftop solar, with six-time elected official Stephen Williams telling the local NBC affiliate that the “sun doesn’t shine at night” — which, while true, does not typically prohibit solar energy from being generated during the daytime. In addition to pushing for more solar, the Clean Energy candidates also want to protect the local watershed, an issue likely to become increasingly critical in the heat-baked state.
The California Oil and Gas Well Regulations Referendum
What it is: A vote on whether or not to overturn Senate Bill 1137, which prohibits new oil and gas wells from being built within a half-mile of homes, schools, nursing homes, jails, and hospitals, and requires additional safety measures like leak detection.
State of the race: Big-money campaigns have killed progressive bills in California before, and the oil industry is poised to dump a lot more money into defeating the regulations. The campaign to overturn Senate Bill 1137 has already spent $20 million, while California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and Jane Fonda have rallied to support the bill.
Why it matters: The California referendum is set to be one of a handful of cases of voters deciding directly on legislation related to oil, gas, and emissions this November. Oil interests are already tailoring their arguments to sway California’s liberal constituency, arguing that the law’s limits are arbitrary and that it will be worse for the environment in the long run by forcing the state to import oil from places with less stringent regulations. Proponents of the bill, however, say it is a cut-and-dry case of environmental justice, given that many of the more than 2 million Californians who live within a mile of an oil or gas well in the state are people of color. That hasn’t stopped oil interests from undertaking some confusing shenanigans, even as some experts say gas interests just want the referendum to cause a delay “until they figure out what they’re going to do next.”
Michigan’s 7th Congressional District
Who’s running: Former Democratic State Senator Curtis Hertel Jr., who is endorsed by the LCV, is running against former Republican State Senator Tom Barrett.
State of the race: The Cook Political Report has called Michigan’s 7th district, representing Lansing and the surrounding area, “the most competitive open seat in the country.”
Why it matters: “Climate won the Michigan midterms,” the Sierra Club wrote in 2022 after voters elected a “pro-environment majority” to the state legislature. Having control of both chambers allowed Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer to make speedy and impressive progress on the energy transition locally, while at the national level, Democrats took seven of the state’s 13 House seats. The advantages are slim, though, and going into November, Congressional Democrats face threats in MI-03, MI-08, and most notably, MI-07, which Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin has vacated to run for Senate. Notably, Democrats need to win five more House districts nationally to regain control of the chamber, which means every close district race is essential. It’s important locally, too; the race for Slotkin’s open seat is among the most competitive in the country, and green groups have hit Barrett for his poor environmental voting record and opposition to clean energy jobs.
Montana’s Senate seat
Who’s running: Incumbent Democrat Jon Tester will face the winner of the Republican primary — likely former Montana Secretary of State and Public Service Commission Chair Brad Johnson, a Libertarian, or ex-Navy SEAL and entrepreneur Tim Sheehy, who was endorsed by Trump as an “American hero.”
State of the race: It’ll be a nail-biter. Tester “will likely have to convince one out of every six Trump voters to cross over for him” on a split ballot in November, RealClearPolitics notes. Still, polls show the Democrat with an early edge in potential Republican match-ups.
Why it matters: Unlike Arizona, which has turned purple in the last two elections, Montana is still a solidly conservative state, which Trump won by more than 16 points in 2020. At the same time, Montana is becoming a “must-watch climate battleground,” balanced between its cheap and ample supply of coal and its deep-rooted pride in its natural landscape. But while Tester’s environmental record isn’t perfect, the opposition looks much worse: Johnson has scaremongered about the reliability of renewable energy and EVs stressing the grid, while Sheehy quietly deleted references to sustainability and climate change from the website for his aerial firefighting company, seemingly to boost his credibility with MAGA voters.
North Carolina’s gubernatorial race
Who’s running: North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein will face the state’s Republican Lieutenant Governor, Mark K. Robinson.
State of the race: Either a toss-up or a slight lean Democratic, depending on who you ask. Early polls show Stein and Robinson neck and neck.
Why it matters: When I spoke to LCV’s senior vice president of campaigns, Pete Maysmith, he cited the North Carolina race as one of the advocacy group’s top 2024 priorities. Term-limited outgoing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper had long been an ally of green policymakers, setting strong EV goals for the state and making a (thwarted) push for offshore wind. Stein has vowed to keep up his predecessor’s work. Robinson, on the other hand, is one of the most flagrant deniers of climate change on any 2024 ballot: He’s called climate research “junk science” and misleadingly alleged there are “more polar bears on Earth now than ever.” Electing Stein wouldn’t just keep a climate denier out of office; with Cooper’s seat, Republicans could seize a trifecta in the state if, as expected, they keep control of the House and Senate. With no remaining opposition, they could start rolling back more of Cooper’s work.
Washington State’s gubernatorial race
Who’s running: There are currently 13 candidates in the nonpartisan primary for outgoing Governor Jay Inslee’s seat, but leading the polls are Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat endorsed by Inslee; moderate Democratic State Senator Mark Mullet; former moderate Republican Representative Dave Reichert; and former Richland school board member Semi Bird, the first Black Republican to run for governor in the state.
State of the race: Likely Democrat; the state last elected a Republican governor in 1985. Still, a November poll that pitted Ferguson against Reichert showed the Republican with a 2-point lead over his opponent.
Why it matters: Inslee’s apparent departure from politics will leave a gaping hole not just in the state’s climate leadership but also in the nation’s — as governor, Inslee made Washington an example for other states with its aggressive clean energy goals, phase-out of new gas-powered cars and trucks, heat pump requirement for new buildings, and local Climate Corps. That progressive trajectory is under threat from Republicans, who’ve successfully gathered signatures for potential initiatives that would chip away at “radical” policies like the state’s cap-and-invest program — a repeal of which both Reichert and Bird support. But Washington’s governor race could be consequential even if a Democrat wins. While Ferguson has called “climate change” a top priority and under Inslee opposed building a methane gas pipeline through the state, Mullet has taken a somewhat more moderate stance, expressing concerns about gas “affordability” for families.
https://heatmap.news/politics/8-climate-races-election-2024
2600.network [idle]
date: 2024-03-18, from: Tilde.news
Python Meat Could Be a Sustainable, Nutritious Food Source, Scientists Say
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The snakes may be some of the most resource-efficient animals to farm on the planet, a new study suggests
Grok-1 chatbot code released – open source or open Pandora’s box?
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What hasn’t been released by Elon Musk’s xAI is also of note
As promised, Elon Musk has released the model behind the xAI chatbot, Grok-1.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/grok_chatbot_code_released/
This is a perfect New Yorker Talk of the Town piece: now-divorced…
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044207-this-is-a-perfect-new
Feds Probe Ford BlueCruise Following Fatal Crash
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The Mustang Mach-E involved in the crash is equipped with Ford’s Level 2 driver assistance system, BlueCruise.
https://insideevs.com/news/712806/ford-bluecruise-ntsb-probe-crash/
Audi unveils Q6 e-tron: a new standard for next-gen premium EVs
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Today, Audi is unveiling the Q6 e-tron, a next-gen electric vehicle based on the new PPE platform co-developed by Audi and Porsche.
It is going to compete in the highly popular midsize SUV segment, and when it comes to specs and design, I think the German brand has a winner. But pricing is not available yet.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/audi-unveils-q6-e-tron-a-new-standard-for-next-gen-premium-evs/
How Biden Can Get Tough on Netanyahu
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: RAND blog
President Biden has not yet proved willing to challenge Israel in a meaningful way, but there are signs that he is becoming increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. If the president wants to get tough with Netanyahu, he has an array of options, which could become more feasible as the war’s death toll rises and starvation spreads in Gaza.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/03/how-biden-can-get-tough-on-netanyahu.html
Watch This Guy Build A Turbo Hayabusa Quad From Scratch
date: 2024-03-18, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Believe it or not, this is his second Hayabusa-powered Raptor, so he’s doing things a little differently.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712650/turbo-hayabusa-raptor-quad-video-build/
The 2025 Audi Q6 E-Tron In-Car Tech: PlugShare, Video Games, OTA Updates And More
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
After several delays, the Volkswagen Group says its software revolution is ready for prime time. We try it out on the new Audi Q6 E-Tron.
https://insideevs.com/news/712859/audi-q6-etron-tech-impressions/
2025 Audi Q6 E-Tron: Audi’s High-Tech Flagship Has Arrived
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
Audi’s new 300-mile electric SUV showcases a bunch of brand-new technology and aims straight at the extremely popular Tesla Model Y.
https://insideevs.com/news/712853/2025-audi-q6-etron-debut/
Save $400 on Velotric T1 ST e-bike at $1,099, level 2 Tesla/EV charger starts from $449, more
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Kicking off this week’s green deals is the addition of the Velotric T1 ST e-bike to the company’s spring sale at a return $1,099 low. It is joined by the Wallbox Pulsar Plus Level 2 EV Charger that starts from its $449 low, as well as a one-day discount on the Greenworks 80V 16-inch String Trimmer and Axial Blower Combo for $270, the lowest price we’ve seen since 2022. Plus, all of the other best new Green Deals landing this week.
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/2024/03/18/velotric-t1-st-e-bike-wallbox-level-2-ev-charger-and-more/
Canoo (GOEV) stock surges after OKC EV facility gets key approval
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Shares of American EV startup Canoo (GOEV) are surging after its Oklahoma City facility received approval as a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ). The approval will help improve Canoo improve profitability as it scales production.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/canoo-goev-stock-soars-okc-ev-facility-key-approval/
GOG partners with Amazon Luna to let users stream games to TVs, tablets, and other devices
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
GOG sells over 9,000 DRM-free PC games including new releases and classic titles (GOG used to stand for Good Old Games), including titles that are playable on Windows, Mac and Linux. But now the company plans to get into game streaming, allowing users to play some games on a smart TVs, phones, tablets, and other […]
The post GOG partners with Amazon Luna to let users stream games to TVs, tablets, and other devices appeared first on Liliputing.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
This is amazing. Some of my friends at Automattic quickly put together a toolkit for WordPress that allows it to host my blogroll. There are still some missing pieces and some CSS glitches. But this is exactly where I hoped we would be at this point.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18.html#a173451
Investment advisors pay the price for selling what looked a lot like AI fairy tales
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
SEC bags $400K in settlements
Two investment advisors have reached settlements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly exaggerating their use of AI, which in both cases were purported to be cornerstones of their offerings.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/sec_investment_advisors_ai/
Stile Antico, “Byrd: Mass for Four Voices - V. Agnus Dei”
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/stile-antico-byrd-mass-for-four-voices---v-agnus-dei
Blinken, Marcos to Discuss Economic Cooperation, South China Sea Dispute
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
Manila — Meetings between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Philippine officials are planned to center around economic cooperation between the two countries and finding ways to maintain peace in the disputed South China Sea, according to a recent State Department briefing.
Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Manila Tuesday for a two-day visit meant to reaffirm Washington’s commitment to the Philippines amid Manila’s increasing confrontation with China in the territorially disputed South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. Washington supports the position of the Philippines, its treaty ally.
Blinken will meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo on Tuesday, in his second visit to the country since Marcos was elected in 2022.
Unlike his predecessor, Marcos sought a closer alliance with the U.S., ramping up bilateral cooperation.
“The broadening and deepening of cooperation in the economic sphere will be high on the agenda,” the Philippines foreign ministry said in a statement.
Blinken’s visit comes just a week after the first-ever U.S. presidential trade mission in Manila led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, where she announced plans by U.S. companies to invest more than $1 billion in the Philippines.
No major economic deals are to be signed during the Blinken visit, according to a U.S. government spokesperson.
For President Marcos, managing the tense conflict in the South China Sea will be a priority in the meeting.
“All of these discussions are really — as far as the Philippines is concerned — it is concerned with the maintenance of peace in the South China Sea,” Marcos said in a joint news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel last week.
The remarks came following the latest high-seas confrontation between Manila and Beijing near the contested Second Thomas Shoal.
On March 5, a Chinese Coast Guard ship and a Chinese militia boat confronted a Philippine supply boat. In the skirmish that followed, the Philippine boat was hit by a Chinese water cannon, shattering its windshield and injuring four Filipino sailors.
While the two countries have been involved in cat-and-mouse games in the past, this was the first time personnel were injured in an incident.
This week’s meetings will be held “with an eye not to winning any kind of conflict but really just to maintain the peace and to continue to defend the sovereignty and the sovereign rights of the Philippines,” Marcos said.
Trilateral meeting
A trilateral meeting between Blinken, Manalo and Japan Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa was planned for this week but ultimately cancelled, according to Manila officials. Leaders of the three countries may meet next month as part of a standalone summit that observers believe is meant to build deterrence to counter China’s aggressive actions in the region.
Discussions and preparations for the meeting of U.S. President Joe Biden, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Marcos in April are ongoing, according to a Philippine official, who asked not to be named.
Japan and the Philippines are currently negotiating a reciprocal agreement that would allow troops to be deployed to each other’s territory, while Manila and Washington have an existing visiting forces agreement.
Sodium-ion batteries put to the test in Komatsu pilot program
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
This electric forklift concept by Japanese equipment giant Komatsu is powered by sodium-ion batteries and promises safer, cheaper operation than the competition.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/sodium-ion-batteries-put-to-the-test-in-komatsu-pilot-program/
No Brain Injuries Among ‘Havana Syndrome’ Patients, New Study Finds
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
Washington — An array of advanced tests found no brain injuries or degeneration among U.S. diplomats and other government employees who suffer mysterious health problems once dubbed “Havana syndrome,” researchers reported Monday.
The National Institutes of Health’s nearly five-year study offers no explanation for symptoms including headaches, balance problems and difficulties with thinking and sleep that were first reported in Cuba in 2016 and later by hundreds of American personnel in multiple countries.
But it did contradict some earlier findings that raised the specter of brain injuries in people experiencing what the State Department now calls “anomalous health incidents.”
“These individuals have real symptoms and are going through a very tough time,” said Dr. Leighton Chan, NIH’s chief of rehabilitation medicine, who helped lead the research. “They can be quite profound, disabling and difficult to treat.”
Yet sophisticated MRI scans detected no significant differences in brain volume, structure or white matter — signs of injury or degeneration — when Havana syndrome patients were compared to healthy government workers with similar jobs, including some in the same embassy. Nor were there significant differences in cognitive and other tests, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
While that couldn’t rule out some transient injury when symptoms began, researchers said it’s good news that they couldn’t spot long-term markers on brain scans that are typical after trauma or stroke.
That “should be some reassurance for patients,” said study co-author Louis French, a neuropsychologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who treats Havana syndrome. “It allows us to focus on the here and now, to getting people back to where they should be.”
A subset, about 28%, of Havana syndrome cases were diagnosed with a balance problem called persistent postural-perceptual dizziness, or PPPD. Linked to inner-ear problems as well as severe stress, it results when certain brain networks show no injury but don’t communicate properly. French called it a “maladaptive response,” much like how people who’ve slouched to alleviate back pain can have posture trouble even after the pain is gone.
The Havana syndrome participants reported more fatigue, posttraumatic stress symptoms and depression.
The findings are the latest in an effort to unravel a mystery that began when personnel at the U.S. embassy in Cuba began seeking medical care for hearing loss and ear-ringing after reporting sudden weird noises.
Early on, there was concern that Russia or another country may have used some form of directed energy to attack Americans. But last year, U.S. intelligence agencies said there was no sign a foreign adversary was involved and that most cases appeared to have different causes, from undiagnosed illnesses to environmental factors.
Some patients have accused the government of dismissing their ailments. And in an editorial in JAMA on Monday, one scientist called for more research to prepare for the next such health mystery, cautioning that NIH’s study design plus the limits of existing medical technology could have missed some clues.
“One might suspect that nothing or nothing serious happened with these cases. This would be ill-advised,” wrote Dr. David Relman of Stanford University. In 2022, he was part of a government-appointed panel that couldn’t rule out that a pulsed form of energy could explain a subset of cases.
The NIH study, which began in 2018 and included more than 80 Havana syndrome patients, wasn’t designed to examine the likelihood of some weapon or other trigger for Havana syndrome symptoms. Chan said the findings don’t contradict the intelligence agencies’ conclusions.
If some “external phenomenon” was behind the symptoms, “it did not result in persistent or detectable pathophysiologic change,” he said.
The State Department said it was reviewing NIH’s findings but that its priority was ensuring affected employees and family members “are treated with respect and compassion and receive timely access to medical care and all benefits to which they are entitled.”
March 17, 2024
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-17-2024-954
U.S. EV Registrations Accounted For 7.8% Of The Car Market In January 2024
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The year-over-year growth rate slowed down to 15%.
https://insideevs.com/news/712685/us-ev-registrations-january2024/
Construction Worker Stumbles Upon Mysterious Roman Statue Hidden Beneath a Parking Lot in England
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Found near a lavish historic estate, the nearly 2,000-year-old artifact has baffled researchers
Unjust Termination and the Preservation of Black Families: A Conversation with Angela Burton
date: 2024-03-18, from: Care
<p>Unjustly terminated for doing what she was hired to do: advocate against the destruction of Black families, Burton states how all Black people want is to be left alone and collectively self-determine their lives.</p>https://logicmag.io/policy/unjust-termination-and-the-preservation-of-black-families
“I was fully in the first time, but the second time, even…
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044187-i-was-fully-in-the
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-18, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I am coming back to RealityKit and VisionPro; this is just part of the natural process of shaving a yak.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112117700228526794
Cyber baddies leak 70M+ files online, claim they’re from AT&T
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Telco reckons data is old, isn’t from its systems
More than 70 million records, allegedly stolen from AT&T in 2021, were dumped on a cybercrime forum at the weekend.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/att_alleged_data_leak/
Rivian gains access to Tesla’s Supercharger network, free adapter coming
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Rivian has officially gained access to Tesla’s Supercharger network and announced that it will start shipping an adapter to its owners for free next month.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/rivian-gains-access-tesla-supercharger-network-free-adapter-coming/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-18, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Shortly before I got obsessed with Godot on iPad, I was working on a game for VisionPro.
I found myself lacking a Cocos-like action framework for RealityKit. So I built one.
I will be talking about it today at the Vision users group:
https://github.com/migueldeicaza/RealityActions
Event details:
https://partiful.com/e/5toXav8jAEO7DlHi5T3a
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112117678217972832
Red Is the New Green
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/03/18/red-is-the-new-green/
Movie Posters Perfected. “A live, cloud-based library of over 3,500 curated movie…
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044200-movie-posters-perfected-a
Mercedes-AMG teases first look at its sporty electric supercar poised to rival Porsche, Lucid
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Mercedes-AMG is officially previewing its upcoming electric supercar. Shown drifting across a frozen lake during testing, the sporty Mercedes-AMG EV will rival the new +1,000 hp Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and +1,200 hp Lucid Air Sapphire.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/mercedes-amg-teases-first-look-sporty-electric-supercar/
HashiCorp reportedly considering sale amid growing challenges
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Who would want to snap up Terraform?
HashiCorp is the subject of furious industry talk which indicates the company is contemplating a sale amid an increasingly challenging marketplace.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/hashicorp_sale_report/
Pine64’s PineVox smart speaker is a hacker-friendly smart speaker with a microphone kill switch (under development)
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Pine64 is a company that sells single-board computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches that are designed as hacker-friendly devices capable of supporting GNU/Linux and/or other free and open source software. Now the company is branching out into the smart speaker space. The PineVox is a work-in-progress smart speaker designed to run open source voice assistant and/or […]
The post Pine64’s PineVox smart speaker is a hacker-friendly smart speaker with a microphone kill switch (under development) appeared first on Liliputing.
Trump’s Lawyers Say Impossible for Him to Post Bond Covering $454 Million Civil Fraud Judgment
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
New York — Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court Monday that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
The former president’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented.”
With interest, Trump owes $456.8 million. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557 million, Trump’s lawyers said.
A state appeals court judge ruled last month that Trump must post a bond covering the full amount to pause enforcement of the judgment, which is to begin on March 25.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.
Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, to do business.
Trump is asking a full panel of the state’s intermediate appellate court to stay the judgment while he appeals. His lawyers previously proposed posting a $100 million bond, but appeals court judge Anil Singh rejected that. A stay is a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals.
A real estate broker enlisted by Trump to assist in obtaining a bond wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that few bonding companies will consider issuing a bond of the size required.
The remaining bonding companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities).”
“A bond of this size is rarely, if ever, seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the broker, Gary Giulietti, wrote.
Trump appealed on Feb. 26, a few days after the judgment was made official. His lawyers have asked the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction.
Trump wasn’t required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has said that she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s unable to pay the judgment.
Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he’s now exercising, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount.
Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about $400 million in cash, in addition to properties and other investments.
In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump recently posted a bond covering that amount while he appeals.
That’s on top of the $5 million a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year.
Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers With AI-Generated Text
date: 2024-03-18, from: 404 Media Group
The ChatGPT phrase “As of my last knowledge update” appears in several papers published by academic journals.
https://www.404media.co/scientific-journals-are-publishing-papers-with-ai-generated-text/
Gumroad Celebrates Sales Spike While Adult Creators Panic
date: 2024-03-18, from: 404 Media Group
Gumroad has banned anything that can be “understood as being primarily for sexual purposes,” and while it bragged about a revenue spike, adult creators hustled to add flash sales to their shops.
https://www.404media.co/gumroad-adult-content-creators-policy-nsfw-ban/
The EPA May Finalize Tough New Rules To Boost EV Sales This Week
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The ruling is expected to be America’s toughest crackdown on gas car sales while promoting a broader EV adoption.
https://insideevs.com/news/712831/tough-new-epa-rules-to-boost-ev-sales/
Is It Better to Save Your Solar, or Sell It?
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heatmap News
The early adopters of DIY solar had to pay a premium to put panels on their rooftops, sure — but at least they had a simple way to recoup that investment. Every kilowatt of self-generated sun power was one they didn’t have to buy from the power company. And for houses with big solar setups, so big they could satisfy their own needs and then some, selling their excess electricity back onto the grid could even be lucrative.
This strategy, called net metering, turned lots of homeowners and businesses into little power plants. These days, though, utilities are pushing back. New rules and laws in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, and even sun-drenched Arizona and California have throttled back on how much they’ll pay individual solar generators. Some mandated a lower price be paid to homeowners, making it less worthwhile to get a large home solar setup in the first place.
That presents a dilemma for homeowners generating more solar power than they can use: Where does it all go? The answer, it turns out, is more complicated than simply selling excess kilowatts back to the power company.
Arguments against the old-school way of net metering, where people essentially earn back the full price of energy they sell, lean on economic fairness. People who don’t pay for electricity or even make money back via their solar panels don’t pay for the grid maintenance that’s built into the price of electricity, and therefore pass it on to everyone else (although the size of this effect is in dispute). There’s also a design question: Grid systems were built to direct electricity from the power company to homeowners. When energy starts to flow in both directions, things can get unstable.
Whether rooftop solar is even good for the climate, actually, remains a confounding question. The counter-argument, as expounded by Jesse Jenkins on a recent episode of Heatmap’s Shift Key podcast, is that rooftop solar replaces utility-scale solar capacity that could’ve been built at lower cost, thus slowing down the clean energy transition.
Nevertheless, homes are installing solar, and their excess energy has to go somewhere, lest those kilowatt-hours be wasted. But if not onto the grid, then where? That’s the question I asked Steven Low, a professor and clean energy expert at the California Institute of Technology. (Disclosure: My full time job is as a communications editor at Caltech.)
“If you have significant feedback from [photovoltaic solar panels] to the grid then you may trigger protections, and that will screw up the operation of the grid,” he said. If only a few homes have solar, “that is probably not a big issue. But if you have more and more such PVs generating power that will affect the grid, then this will be a problem.”
For now at least, the best solution can be summed up in a single word: batteries. Low and his colleagues are collaborating with the power department in Pasadena, California to test batteries that can store and release excess power automatically to stop voltage from becoming unstable. In Hawaii, which has a high percentage of households with solar, Hawaiian Electric has a program to pay customers who put in a home battery system alongside their solar setup. The logic is twofold: First, a stash of backup power makes homes more resilient in case of a blackout, and storing solar power in a big battery is climate-friendlier than firing up a diesel generator. Second, from the utilities’ point of view, more storage means less uncertainty on the grid.
A problem, of course, is that batteries aren’t cheap — and they’re in high demand. “The battery at this point, especially since EV is taking off, is still usually much more valuable for transportation than for electricity service,” Low told me. Home batteries don’t need to be as big because appliances don’t use as much energy as a car flying down the freeway. Tesla’s powerwall has a capacity of 13.5 kWh, for example, less than a quarter as much as the battery in a standard-range Tesla Model Y. Multiple batteries can be stacked in a group, but the cost adds up quickly. Low speculated that perhaps used EV batteries will find a second life as home backup batteries once their capacity falls so far that they’re no longer useful for road trips.
Helpfully, a grid-connected home battery can move energy in multiple ways. A solar home could stash extra clean energy during the day to use in the dark of night. People who live under a virtual power plant can engage in “energy arbitrage” — the buy low, sell high practice of storing energy when it’s cheap and selling it back onto the grid when it’s expensive. (Technically, you don’t even need the solar panels to do this, although the emissions reduction would be far smaller.)
The idea of electricity moving in every direction — not just from the electric company to you — leads to the promise of the microgrid, the energy-sharing gold standard where neighbors can share power. The school district in Santa Barbara, California, for example, is developing a solar-powered microgrid to reinforce the resilience of an area that’s particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and other grid disruptions. If the grid goes down, a neighborhood, company, or organization with a microgrid that can “island” itself is able to keep the lights, on as homes and businesses that can make or store extra energy sell it to their neighbors.
Before any of that can happen, though, “there needs to be some incentive structure for me to provide power to my neighbor, also using the grid that belongs to the utility,” Low said. That last part is the trickiest. It’s not just the technical and financial infrastructure needed to share electricity across the cul-de-sac. The utility must agree to let energy flows in this way over infrastructure that it owns. And somebody has to oversee such a complex energy web.
“Let’s say you have a lot of households and businesses install PV,” Low said. “They have their storage, and they want arbitrage because they can be profitable selling waste.” But you also want to make sure people are maximizing their own storage for stability’s sake. “Who’s going to do that coordination? A natural way is for utilities to do that, but then that will require the utility to either control or at least communicate with each household,” which would in turn require complex data-sharing infrastructure.
As Tim Hale of Scaled Microgrids told me, it’s not easy for people to decide whether all that trouble is worthwhile because there’s no simple way to put a price tag on making a company or a community more resilient against power disruptions.
“It’s a very complex thought exercise for people to go through,” he said “Generally speaking, there are companies and entities and people that value resilience and there are people that don’t. Right? And the people who value resilience are the people that build microgrids.”
https://heatmap.news/lifestyle/net-metering-grid-batteries
US Supreme Court Skeptical of Curbing Government Contact With Social Media Firms
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
Washington — A majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical on Monday of efforts to impose restrictions on federal government efforts to curb misinformation online.
Both conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member court appeared reluctant to endorse a lower court’s ruling that would severely limit government interactions with social media companies.
The case stems from a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, who allege that government officials went too far in their bid to get platforms to combat vaccine and election misinformation, violating the First Amendment free speech rights of users.
The lower court restricted top officials and agencies of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content.
The ruling, which the Supreme Court put on hold until it heard the case, was a win for conservative advocates who allege that the government pressured or colluded with platforms such as Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, to censor right-leaning content under the guise of fighting misinformation.
Representing the Justice Department in the Supreme Court on Monday, Principal Deputy Solicitor General Brian Fletcher said there is a “fundamental distinction between persuasion and coercion.”
“The government may not use coercive threats to suppress speech, but it is entitled to speak for itself by informing, persuading or criticizing private speakers,” he said.
The lower court, Fletcher said, “mistook persuasion for coercion.”
Justice Samuel Alito, a conservative, said the record showed that government officials had engaged in “constant pestering of Facebook and some of the other platforms,” treating them “like their subordinates.”
“I cannot imagine federal officials taking that approach to the print media,” Alito said.
But Chief Justice John Roberts, also a conservative, said the federal government does not speak with one voice.
“The government is not monolithic,” Roberts said. “That has to dilute the concept of coercion significantly, doesn’t it?”
Fletcher said interactions between health officials and social media platforms at the heart of the case needed to be viewed in light of “an effort to get Americans vaccinated during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.”
“There was a concern that Americans were getting their news about the vaccine from these platforms and the platforms were promoting bad information,” Fletcher said, adding that “the platforms were moderating content long before the government was talking to them.”
‘No place in our democracy’
J. Benjamin Aguinaga, the solicitor general of Louisiana, denounced what he called “government censorship,” saying it has “no place in our democracy.”
“The government has no right to persuade platforms to violate Americans’ constitutional rights, and pressuring platforms in backrooms shielded from public view is not using the bully pulpit at all,” Aguinaga said. “That’s just being a bully.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a liberal, pushed back, saying “my biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways.”
“Some might say that the government actually has a duty to take steps to protect the citizens of this country.” she said.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, asked whether it would be coercion if someone in government calls up a social media company to point out something that is “factually erroneous information.”
The lower court order applied to the White House and a slew of agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department, the Justice Department as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The decision of the lower court restricted agencies and officials from meeting with social media companies or flagging posts.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry hailed the lower court’s “historic injunction” at the time, saying it would prevent the Biden administration from “censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans” on social media.
He accused federal officials of seeking to “dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government and more.”
Some experts in misinformation and First Amendment law criticized the lower court ruling, saying that authorities needed to strike a balance between calling out falsehoods and veering toward censorship or curbing free speech.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Read this on Threads. The thing that’s great about this moment is that people are just beginning to get the possibility of not being locked into silos. They don’t know how to parse my posts and screen shots, because I can do something they never thought they’d be permitted to do. Well we’ve got some visionary and lovable techies at Masto and Blueski who want you and I to be able to do that. And we’ve been building on that. And will continue to do so, Murphy-willing.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18.html#a152042
Donald Trump is unable to make $464 million bond in civil fraud case, his lawyers tell court
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
By Kara Scannell | CNN Former President Donald Trump can’t find an insurance company to underwrite his bond to cover the massive judgment against him in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case, his lawyers told a New York appeals court. Trump’s attorneys said he has approached 30 underwriters to back the bond, which […]
UK tech titan Mike Lynch’s US fraud trial begins today
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
13-year saga continues as jury set to hear claims on both sides of HP’s Autonomy acquisition disaster
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s criminal trial kick off today in San Francisco in a case alleging accounting fraud charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/autonomy_mike_lynch_us_trial/
UK tech titan Mike Lynch’s US fraud trial begins tody
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
13-year saga continues as jury set to hear claims on both sides of HP’s Autonomy acquisition disaster
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s criminal trial kick off today in San Francisco in a case alleging accounting fraud charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/autonomy_lynch_us_trial/
The 15 Greatest Documentaries
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/the-15-greatest-documentaries
San Jose: DUI arrest after driver fatally hits man on I-280 offramp
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
The fatal collision was reported late Friday near Vine Street, according to the CHP.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/18/san-jose-dui-arrest-after-driver-hits-man-on-i-280-offramp/
Jill On Money: Is the labor market turning and are we measuring inflation correctly?
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Credit card debt may be behind the sour outlook of many consumers
Finally, Suzuki Motor USA Brings Its ATV Business Wholly Into the Fold
date: 2024-03-18, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
SMAC, Suzuki’s ATV manufacturing facility, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Suzuki Motor USA.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/711855/suzuki-consolidates-atv-manufacturing-and-sales/
Tesla Roadster won’t really be a car, says Elon Musk
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made new comments about the upcoming next-gen roadster and went as far as saying that it’s “not even really a car.”
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/tesla-roadster-wont-be-a-car-says-elon-musk/
QNAP TS-216G is a 2-bay NAS with 2.5 GbE LAN and an NPU for image recognition
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Network Attached Storage company QNAP has unveiled a system that it’s positioning as its cheapest dual-bay NAS with a 2.5 GbE port for high-speed data transfer over a local network. The new QNAP TS-216G is also likely to be the company’s cheapest dual-bay model with an integrated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for hardware-accelerated AI features […]
The post QNAP TS-216G is a 2-bay NAS with 2.5 GbE LAN and an NPU for image recognition appeared first on Liliputing.
How Sahan Journal grew into a vital source of news and information for Minnesota’s immigrant communities
date: 2024-03-18, from: Nieman Journalism Lab
Changes are coming to Sahan Journal — a mark of the award-winning digital newsroom’s success and its lasting impact on the media ecosystem in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Mukhtar Ibrahim, the pioneering founder, is stepping down as founding publisher and CEO. After building a robust, award-winning nonprofit news site covering immigrant communities, Ibrahim announced in…
Oracle Park will have a new voice this season: SF Giants, Renel Brooks-Moon part ways
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
After 24 seasons, the Giants and their longtime public address announcer “mutually and amicably” separated.
Five Fascinating Science Projects Using the Total Solar Eclipse to Illuminate New Discoveries
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The NASA-supported experiments are mobilizing legions of researchers and volunteers to capture wide-ranging observations during totality, from amateur radio operations to elusive solar plumes to unusual animal behavior
Charlie Jane Anders on why she stopped loving Captain Kirk. “Kirk is…
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044204-charlie-jane-anders-on-wh
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Blogroll fix. The blogroll was grabbing the up and down-arrow and Return for keyboard navigation, one of my favorite blogroll features. Put the cursor where you want, and arrow through the list. Press Return to expand, and again to collapse. Then down-arrow and repeat. But sometimes you want to use these keys for other functions. So I changed it so you have to click the blogroll to set the focus. Its border turns blueish, and the keys work as described. Press the Tab key or click outside the blogroll to take the focus off the blogroll.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18.html#a143125
US CHIPS Act set to electrify semiconductor scene with billions
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
National Strategy focuses on four goals for silicon heaven
The US government has dropped details on its National Strategy on Microelectronics Research, outlining top goals and actions for the next five years to boost the semiconductor industry with CHIPS Act investment.…
Former Tesla worker settles discrimination case, ending appeals over lowered $3.2 million verdict
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Tesla and a Black man who worked at the company’s Fremont factory have settled a long-running discrimination case that drew attention to the electric vehicle maker’s treatment of minorities.
A California superbloom is springing to life and the best is yet to come
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
California will soon be decorated with a rainbow of wildflowers after drenching winter rain set the stage for a spectacular spring superbloom.
Fisker (FSR) stock falls after failing to make an interest payment, pauses EV production
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
EV startup Fisker (FSR) is pausing EV production for six weeks as its financial struggles worsen. Fisker looks to get its finances in order after failing to make an interest payment. The EV maker did get a commitment for up to $150 million in financing, but will it be enough?
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/fisker-fsr-pauses-ev-production-missing-interest-payment/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I’m
working with developers again, thank goodness. I once thought I could
make server products or toolkits for people I called “poets” – motivated
writers. I have given up on that, at least for the time-being. I think a
properly motivated intelligent writer could get developer-like results,
I’ve seen it happen (Brent Simmons, Dan MacTough). They make really good
developers because they understand the user perspective so well, it
still lives inside them. The problem seems to be motivation, and a poet
knowing that they need to be super-motivated and have the time, to get
anything technical to work. If they knew what was required, my
2024 theory goes, and had studied for it, the way they studied for their
degree, they could not only be successful, but they could contribute to
the developer process. Analogously, we all have to learn a little
cooking just to get through life, but only a few people are chefs.
Julia Child, a
hero of mine, believed she could teach anyone to be a good-enough cook.
But I bet she was frustrated by human reality. 😄
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18.html#a141955
Who’s winning the dollar store wars?
date: 2024-03-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
As shoppers remain price-conscious, why is one U.S. dollar store chain thriving while another one flounders? Plus, SpaceX builds spy satellites for the Pentagon, and environmental protests impact operations at Tesla’s EV factory in Germany.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/whos-winning-the-dollar-store-wars
Rivian R1X Name Trademarked, Hinting At Possible High-Performance EV
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
Is Rivian working on a new flagship EV based on the R1 platform?
https://insideevs.com/news/712812/rivian-r1x-trademark/
Sorry, Siri: Apple may be eyeing Google Gemini for future iPhones
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Famous for keeping everything in-house, Apple may be carving AI-shaped door in its garden wall
Apple is reportedly working on a deal with Google to bring the Chocolate Factory’s Gemini AI to iDevices, suggesting its own efforts to develop a suitable generative AI model have stalled.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/apple_google_gemini_iphone_reports/
NASA Wallops Offers Career Inspiration to Delmarva Students
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, partners, and area employers joined forces on a mission to inspire more than 4,500 eighth-grade students seeking answers to all questions “career” at the 2024 Junior Achievement (JA) Inspire event. The annual career-exploration event was held March 12-13 at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland, featuring more than […]
Back to the Moon - Part 1
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
After the Apollo program ended, the US took a long hiatus from lunar exploration. What happened during this time, and what has NASA been doing? This documentary by the Voice of America’s Russian service explores the multiple attempts to return to the Moon, the space developments that laid the foundation for future concepts, and the birth of the Artemis lunar program.
https://www.voanews.com/a/back-to-the-moon-part-1/7532120.html
VinFast to invest hundreds of millions to implement own global line of branded EV chargers
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
VinFast’s founder has announced a new arm called V-Green to build EV chargers, focused on bolstering global access while prioritizing sessions for VinFast drivers, accelerating the Vietnamese automaker’s expansion into new markets.
Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy
date: 2024-03-18, from: Quanta Magazine
Electroconvulsive therapy is highly effective in treating major depressive disorder, but no one knows why it works. New research suggests it may restore balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain.The post Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/brains-background-noise-may-explain-value-of-shock-therapy-20240318/
How to stop ants from repeatedly swarming a cat food bowl in an Inverness home
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Here’s why putting your pet food bowl in a tray of water doesn’t work – and what to try instead.
Blinken Warns Democracy Summit of Dangers of Disinformation
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-warns-democracy-summit-of-dangers-of-disinformation/7532171.html
For Car Companies, It’s ‘Damned If You, Damned If You Don’t’ With Investors
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, car dealers, who never wanted to sell EVs anyway, are extra down on them lately, and Tesla settles a racial discrimination lawsuit.
https://insideevs.com/news/712804/volkswagen-investors-tesla-dealers/
getting started with libcurl
date: 2024-03-18, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
I am doing another webinar on March 28 2024, introducing newcomers to how to Internet transfers using the libcurl API. Starting at 10am Pacific time. 17:00 UTC. 18:00 CET. Agenda The plan is to spend about 30 minutes going through the topics in the agenda and then take as long as necessary to let the … Continue reading getting started with libcurl
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/03/18/getting-started-with-libcurl/
July trial set for East Bay woman accused of 2021 killing in Fairfield
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Kamaria I. D. Strange, a previously convicted felon, had earlier pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and second-degree robbery for the killing of Michael Vincent Lopretta, 19, of Benicia.
TasteFood: Make minestrone for winter, spring and in between
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
This Italian Minestrone is a soup for all seasons.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/18/tastefood-make-minestrone-for-winter-spring-and-in-between/
Travel Troubleshooter: What’s a Delta SkyMile worth in the case of a refund?
date: 2024-03-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
After American Queen Voyages changes Terrance Hardy’s arrival port, the cruise line agrees to cover his additional flight expenses. But more than a year later, there’s still no refund. What’s going on?
Here’s What a Polaris RZR Mounted to Two Jetskis Looks Like Riding the Waves
date: 2024-03-18, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Death? Nah. Fun? Yes.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712811/heavy-d-sparks-polaris-rzr-jetskis-video/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Now that I have ChatGPT around, my Lorem Ipsum text for testing can be slightly more interesting.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/18.html#a132657
Here Come the EPA’s New Tailpipe Rules
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Freeze warnings are in place across many states in the south east • Troplical Cyclone Megan made landfall in Australia • A neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro reportedly recorded a temperature of 144 degrees Fahrenheit as Brazil swelters in an extreme heat wave.
THE TOP FIVE
- EPA’s new tailpipe emissions rules expected this week
The Environmental Protection Agency this week is expected to officially announce new tailpipe emissions rules that will dramatically reshape the transportation sector over the coming years. If carmakers are to meet the EPA’s new rules, electric vehicles would need to make up a much larger share of car and light truck sales by 2030 than they do now. Last year EVs accounted for about one-tenth of sales. The end goal is to see that rise to two-thirds by 2032, but the nearer-term targets have shifted in response to anger and pressure from carmakers and the United Auto Workers union who argued EVs remain too costly and that the transition should be more gradual. Transportation is America’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the Biden administration sees reducing this pollution as instrumental to the U.S. fulfilling its Paris Agreement commitment of cutting emissions in half by 2030.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- ‘Super Bowl of energy’ conference kicks off in Houston
One of the world’s biggest oil and gas conferences is happening in Houston this week. More than 7,000 people will attend CERAWeek – which has earned the nickname the “Super Bowl of energy” – where industry executives will hear from major producers about market outlooks. The main focus is expected to be energy security, Reuters reported, but “climate concerns are reflected in the conference sessions on carbon sequestration technology and hydrogen fuels, which have become two of the oil industry’s favorite means of addressing global warming.” Natural gas – and President Biden’s pause on new LNG export projects – will be high on the agenda. The Houston Chronicle reported that geothermal is also a “hot topic.” And several sessions will focus on the role of nuclear power going forward. Last Energy, a company that builds micro-scale nuclear power plants, apparently plans to hang one of its “nuclear islands” from a crane outside the venue.
- South Sudan closes all schools, braces for extreme heat wave
South Sudan has shuttered all schools “indefinitely” and told parents to keep kids indoors ahead of a two-week heat wave expected to bring temperatures as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The east African country is no stranger to heat, but temperatures have rarely exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to The Associated Press. “This extreme weather condition poses serious health hazards to children, particularly young learners and adults with underlying health conditions,” said the Ministry of Health. “During the closure of the schools, parents are advised to stop their children from playing outdoors.” South Sudan is one of the five most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, according to the UN Environment Programme, and has over the years seen temperatures rise and floods become more common.
- Ocean temperatures break records for full year
Global sea surface temperatures have been at record highs for at least 365 days now, the Financial Times reported. On Wednesday of last week ocean temperatures set a new all-time high at 21.2 degrees celsius, or 70.16 degrees Fahrenheit. “This exceptional heat has bleak implications,” the FT said. Some ecosystems, including coral reefs, are already showing signs of devastation. And scientists are increasingly worried about a strong upcoming Atlantic hurricane season. On a macro level, there’s “a lot of concern” that a key ocean current conveyor belt known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could slow due to an influx of fresh meltwater, “with unknown consequences for habitable conditions on Earth.”
- China begins construction on major clean energy transmission line
China has reportedly broken ground on an ultra-high-voltage transmission line that will span 664 miles and help the country integrate growing amounts of clean energy. China is the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, but the country is rapidly expanding its renewable capacity: Last year it installed more new solar panels than the total built by any other country, and its wind installation climbed, as well. Solar installations are expected to rise another 7% this year. But the grid has struggled to keep up. The new $3.9 billion transmission project will serve three provinces, be fed by solar and wind power, and store energy in mountain reservoirs, Bloomberg reported.
THE KICKER
“Kitten season” – the warmer months when cats are most fertile and begin to reproduce – is starting earlier and lasting longer as the climate warms, putting added pressure on animal rescue shelters.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/epa-tailpipe-rule-ceraweek
Cyberattack gifts esports pros with cheats, forcing Apex Legends to postpone tournament
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Virtual gunslingers forcibly became cheaters via mystery means
Updated Esports pros competing in the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Pro League tournament were forced to abandon their match today due to a suspected cyberattack.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/cyberattack_gifts_esports_pros_with/
Ampler launches sleek new lightweight on and off-road commuter electric bikes
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Ampler Bikes, an Estonian e-bike company that prides itself on high-quality, local European manufacturing, has announced new e-bike models that expand the brand’s focus past the bike lanes and onto the trails.
Here’s Your Chance To Own The First GMC Hummer EV Pickup EarthCruiser Camper
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
The all-electric pop-up camper was developed in cooperation with GM as the ultimate off-grid, zero-emissions adventure vehicle.
https://insideevs.com/news/712799/gmc-hummer-ev-pickup-earthcruiser-camper-auction/
Watch Pol Tarrés Break Another Guinness World Record on His Yamaha
date: 2024-03-18, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Tarrés put himself into the Guinness Book of World Records for a second day in a row by riding his Tenere 700 to 21,909 feet.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712171/pol-tarres-breaks-record-tenere-700/
Microsoft reseller Bytes says more than 100 undisclosed share trades linked to ex-CEO
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Surprise resignation of chief exec happened after FCA probe began, claims filing
One of Micrsoft’s largest cloud and tech licensing resellers, Bytes Technology Group (BTG), today gave the London Stock Exchange an update on the investigation surrounding the abrupt resignation of its CEO and an ongoing probe by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/bytes_lse_filing/
NASA Selects Winners of the Wildfire Climate Tech Challenge
date: 2024-03-18, from: NASA breaking news
NASA selected its Wildfire Climate Tech Challenge winners, awarding three teams $100,000 for their diverse, innovative approaches to address the escalating effects of wildfires and climate change. The challenge combined the expertise of Minority Serving Institutions – including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and others – with NASA resources […]
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
No One Likes the January 6th Rioters.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/03/18/no-one-likes-the-january-6th-rioters/
What Makes Pasadena’s ‘Bungalow Courts’ So Special? A Fan Of Historic Places Explains
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The LAist
The How to LA team visits Gartz Court with Etan Rosenbloom, an Angeleno who documents historic places on social media.
https://laist.com/news/la-history/pasadena-bungalow-courts-historic-places
Book Banning Attempts Are at Record Highs
date: 2024-03-18, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A new report from the American Library Association found that the number of challenged titles increased by 65 percent in 2023
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/book-banning-attempts-are-at-record-highs-180983964/
A video game where the only violence is in the economics
date: 2024-03-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Made in Detroit, the interactive video game Dot’s Home takes users through a generations-long cycle of housing discrimination. Plus, Apple is in talks with Google for a potential AI integration.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Justice Breyer, Off the Bench, Sounds an Alarm Over the Supreme Court’s Direction.
TrueNAS CORE 13 is the end of the FreeBSD version
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Debian-based TrueNAS SCALE is the future primary focus
Bad news from BSD land – the oldest vendor of BSD systems is changing direction away from FreeBSD and toward Linux.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/truenas_abandons_freebsd/
Meet the Raspberry Pi Store’s Tim Stenning | #MagPiMonday
date: 2024-03-18, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
The Raspberry Pi Store is filled with people knowledgeable and passionate about what they do – including Tim, one of the original store employees.
The post Meet the Raspberry Pi Store’s Tim Stenning | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/meet-the-raspberry-pi-stores-tim-stenning-magpimonday/
Drones and the US Air Force
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-14, from: Bruce Schneier blog
Fascinating analysis of the use of drones on a modern battlefield—that is, Ukraine—and the inability of the US Air Force to react to this change.
The F-35A certainly remains an important platform for high-intensity conventional warfare. But the Air Force is planning to buy 1,763 of the aircraft, which will remain in service through the year 2070. These jets, which are wholly unsuited for countering proliferated low-cost enemy drones in the air littoral, present enormous opportunity costs for the service as a whole. In a set of comments posted on LinkedIn…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/drones-and-the-us-air-force.html
Russell Lee’s Coal Survey Exhibit
date: 2024-03-18, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
On Saturday a new exhibit opened in the National Archives Building, Power & Light: Russell Lee’s Coal Survey. It will run in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery until July 6, 2025. This exhibit features more than 200 of Russell Lee’s photographs of coal miners and their families. Russell Lee (1903–86) was a photographer who spent … Continue reading Russell Lee’s Coal Survey Exhibit
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/03/18/russell-lees-coal-survey-exhibit/
Why you might be charging your EV wrong – and what to do instead
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Many EV drivers carry over habits from driving gasoline cars when they charge EVs, but that leads to wasted time, inconvenience, and range anxiety, according to a new study.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/18/why-you-might-be-charging-your-ev-wrong-and-what-to-do-instead/
Putin retains Kremlin power
date: 2024-03-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: As Western nations condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin’s election win, what does a fifth term of his leadership mean for the country’s economy? Also: Tesla Germany faces eco-protests.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/putin-retains-kremlin-power
Microsoft promises Copilot will be a ‘moneymaker’ in the long term
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Exec tells investors to ‘temper’ expectations as mission to convince customers of price tag continues
Microsoft is asking investors to “temper” expectations for quick financial returns from Copilot amid efforts to convince customers that paying “substantial” sums each month is actually worth it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/microsoft_copilot_moneymaker/
Which AI should I use? Superpowers and the State of Play
date: 2024-03-18, from: One Useful Thing
And then there were three…
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/which-ai-should-i-use-superpowers
Giving your app a temporary public URL with VS Code port forwarding
date: 2024-03-18, from: Chris Heilmann
VS Code now has port forwarding. If you want to share what you are working on with the world, open folder in terminal, run your server and forward the port. Set it to public and Bob’s your uncle! This is great for some testing and showing people what you do, but of course should not […]
The last mile’s at risk in our hostile environment. Let’s go the extra mile to fix it
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The web doesn’t work ’cos the vandals used a candle
Opinion Most of us, from time to time, have grievances with our network operators. We complain, we leave bad reviews, we rage-post. But some aren’t content with just whinging verbally. They take it up a notch and cut cables, lift street access covers and pour in petrol, they burn down masts.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/opinion_networks/
Season 6 of the Hello World podcast is here
date: 2024-03-18, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Through the Hello World podcast, we help to connect computing educators around the world and share their experiences. In each episode, we expand on a topic from a recent Hello World magazine issue. After 5 seasons, and a break last year, we are back with season 6 today. Episode 1: Do kids still need to…
The post Season 6 of the Hello World podcast is here appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/hello-world-podcast-season-6-computing-education/
Dev Digest 107 – and the OSScar goes to…
date: 2024-03-18, from: Chris Heilmann
Last Friday, I released the 107th edition of WeAreDevelopers DevDigest. It celebrated the 35th birthday of the World Wide Web, we had a video of me interviewing the founders of Daytona about going open source, we covered the news around Devin, the first AI software engineer and went to space in a Yugo. All strapped […]
https://christianheilmann.com/2024/03/18/dev-digest-107-and-the-osscar-goes-to/
Why D.C. Is Hot for Geothermal
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heatmap News
The political coalition that has been assembled in support of advanced geothermal is bipartisan, but uni-regional: If you drew a broad strip from Las Vegas to Albuquerque and then dragged it north to the Canadian border, you would envelop Utah and Idaho (not to mention Arizona and big chunks of Wyoming and Montana). This stretch of John McPhee country includes some of biggest swaths of federal land — and some of the hottest rocks beneath it — in the country.
And so Senators Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Mike Lee of Utah, and James Risch of Idaho have found themselves crossing party lines, working together on a bill to encourage more production of geothermal energy, which the unique contours of this area make (potentially) especially abundant.
The Geothermal Energy Optimization Act, introduced last week, is a kind of test case for how a bipartisan energy policy could work. It combines deregulation with support for a non-carbon energy resource that leans heavily on expertise in the oil and gas industry while also not committing to any new spending.
But the bill isn’t just a victory for bipartisanship, it’s also a victory of geology. Thanks to tens of millions of years of plates sliding beneath each other and mountains collapsing, “you have a relatively thin crust before you get to that heat,” as Ben Serrurier, head of government affairs at Fervo, the enhanced geothermal startup, told me. (Fervo has operations in both Nevada and Utah.)
The bill would establish a “categorical exclusion” from environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act for some geothermal activity, including exploration, i.e. the drilling of wells to see whether a particular site is suitable for a geothermal project.
The law would both expand a provision of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which established a categorical exclusion for some oil and gas projects, and write up a new one especially for geothermal. The bill would also require the Bureau of Land Management to have regular geothermal lease sales.
The 2005 bill was written at a time when an oil-industry-friendly White House wanted to make the country more energy self-sufficient, and deregulation oil and gas activities was an obvious way to do so. The GEO Act comes during another period of intense interest in energy policy, but not one in which the paramount goal is smoothing away obstacles to hydrocarbon extraction. Today, the United States is the biggest oil and gas producer in the world (thanks to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, technology that’s used in “enhanced” geothermal energy projects) and both the White House and the Democratic Party are friendly to non-carbon energy.
But while existing tax credits have been successful in boosting wind and
solar deployment, there is still need for so-called
“clean
firm” technologies, energy resources that can provide power at all
hours of the day, no matter the weather.
By speeding up and adding some certainty to the permitting process, the bill’s provisions would “enable us to raise capital and move forward with more projects on a faster timeline,” explained Serrurier. “We already face challenges trying to raise project finance,” he said. “Then we show them the permitting timeline.”
The bill would also create a “strike team” within the BLM that could advise field offices and staff on how to process and deal with geothermal permits. “The agency needs to implement it — and care about implementing — for it to work out well,” Aidan Mackenzie, a fellow at the Institute for Progress, told me.
The bill is a small-bore example of the biggest yawning gap in post-Inflation Reduction Act energy policy: permitting reform. While it’s often discussed in the context of building new transmission lines necessary to connect IRA-subsidized clean energy projects to energy consumers, permitting reform would also be a boon to emerging energy resources like geothermal.
In an emailed statement, Senator Heinrich touted New Mexico’s geothermal progress. “Accelerating the adoption of geothermal energy nationwide is key to unlock a clean energy independent future, lower costs for working Americans, and create more high-quality jobs that New Mexicans can build their families around,” he said.
In theory, at least, the GEO Act seems like something that could actually pass in this Congress. After all, Republicans tend to support removing regulatory fetters from energy projects, especially energy projects involving drilling, and Republicans in the Mountain West really, really like telling the BLM not to raise too many hackles when it comes to drilling.
“Geothermal has been kinda bipartisan for a while,” Mackenzie said. “Bipartisan in the sense that everyone kinda supports it and no one is willing to take it along.” But that may be starting to change. “Recent news has made it feel a bit more real to folks,” he said. “Like, it’s a real industry that could be in our state.”
https://heatmap.news/politics/geothermal-energy-bill-new-mexico
Rivian R1S And R1T Owners Can Now Charge At Tesla Superchargers (Updated)
date: 2024-03-18, from: Inside EVs News
Plug & charge works, too, and owners don’t even need the Tesla smartphone app.
https://insideevs.com/news/712748/rivian-r1s-r1t-tesla-supercharger-access-open/
Russian Opposition Activists in Seattle Remember Navalny as Putin Claims Victory
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
In Seattle, there were no polling stations for Russian citizens to join the worldwide movement known as “Noon Against Putin,” a symbolic protest of the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, they commemorated opposition leader Alexey Navalny and wrote letters to the growing list of political prisoners in Russia. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
Yes, I did just crash that critical app. And you should thank me for having done so
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Quick thinking turned poor judgement into genius proactivity
Who, Me? Welcome once again, dear reader, to the well-trodden path that is Who, Me? – The Register’s weekly column dedicated to the tales and travails of readers who strayed, but found their way back.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/who_me/
The biggest contrast in the upcoming election (other than democracy vs. “bloodbath” fascism)
date: 2024-03-18, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Please spread the word
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-biggest-contrast-in-the-upcoming
Infosec teams must be allowed to fail, argues Gartner
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
But failing to recover from incidents is unforgivable because ‘adrenalin does not scale’
Zero tolerance of failure by information security professionals is unrealistic, and makes it harder for cyber security folk to do the essential part of their job: recovering fast from inevitable attacks, according to Gartner analysts Chris Mixter and Dennis Xu.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/gartner_infosec_failure_advice/
Today in SCV History (March 18)
date: 2024-03-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1919 – Fire destroys abandoned second Southern Hotel, built 1878 in Newhall (corner Main and Market). [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-18/
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 with Eye-of-Sauron camera
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Wherever you go, whatever you do, your phone is watching
Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, pitched as a more affordable version of its flagship smartphone platform that keeps key features such as the support for on-device generative AI processing, and an always-sensing camera.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/qualcomm_unveils_snapdragon_8s/
Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 for (slightly) cheaper flagship phones
date: 2024-03-18, from: Liliputing
Qualcomm is adding a new segment to its Snapdragon 8 line of processors for flagship-class smartphones and tablets. The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a slightly stripped-down version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that the company launched in October. It shares many of the same core technologies, but scales back a few features […]
The post Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 for (slightly) cheaper flagship phones appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-8s-gen-3-for-slightly-cheaper-flagship-phones/
Filipino police free hundreds of slaves toiling in romance scam operation
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
875 workers liberated after falling for promises of lucrative work, nine arrested
Filipino police rescued 875 “workers” – including 504 foreigners – in a raid late last week on a firm that posed as an online gaming company but in reality operated a forced labor camp that housed romance scam operators.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/phillipines_cyberslavery_gang_busted/
Matadors suffer heartbreak as Tritons come into town
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
After suffering defeat in San Diego on Thursday night, CSUN (9-10, 0-2 Big West) yet again lost to UC San Diego (11-10, 3-2 Big West) in a reverse sweep, which…
https://sundial.csun.edu/179656/sports/matadors-suffer-heartbreak-as-tritons-come-into-town/
UC Santa Barbara Baseball Sweeps Long Beach State to Open Big West Conference Play
date: 2024-03-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Gauchos will travel to Cal poly for the opener of a three-game series on Friday.
The post UC Santa Barbara Baseball Sweeps Long Beach State to Open Big West Conference Play appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
UC Irvine prevails over CSUN in women’s water polo clash
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
A Big West match between UC Irvine and CSUN on Friday afternoon unfolded. The Anteaters showcased their dominance both offensively and defensively and their command in the pool was palpable,…
https://sundial.csun.edu/179650/sports/uc-irvine-prevails-over-csun-in-womens-water-polo-clash/
People’s CDC COVID-19 Weather Report
date: 2024-03-18, from: Peoples CDC blog
This is the @PeoplesCDC weekly update for March 18, 2024! This Weather Report from the People’s CDC sheds light on the ongoing COVID situation in the US.
https://peoplescdc.org/2024/03/18/peoples-cdc-covid-19-weather-report-71/
Elevating Manufacturing Flexibility: Rapid Prototyping to Large-Scale Production
date: 2024-03-18, from: Elevated Materials, upcycled carbon fiber
In the manufacturing space, agility and adaptability are paramount. Companies need to be able to pivot from rapid prototyping to large-scale production seamlessly, meeting the demands of a dynamic market. Elevated Materials excels in this arena, offering unmatched manufacturing flexibility that sets it apart from the competition. Rapid Prototyping Excellence At Elevated Materials, we understand…
The post Elevating Manufacturing Flexibility: Rapid Prototyping to Large-Scale Production appeared first on Elevated Materials.
Uber Australia to pay $178M to settle cabbies’ class action
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-19, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nice payday for some, but plenty of Australians still pay extra to help drivers
Uber’s Australian wheel has agreed to pay AU$272 million ($178 million) to settle a class action brought by cab drivers who claimed their incomes were impacted by the rideshare giant’s scofflaw debut down under.…
March 17, 2024
date: 2024-03-18, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
On Friday, journalist Casey Michel, who specializes in the study of kleptocracy, pointed out that reporters had missed an important meeting last week. Michel noted that while reporters covered Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to former president Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, they paid far less attention to the visit Orbán paid to the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Heritage Foundation on Friday, March 8. There, Orbán spoke privately to an audience that included the president of the organization, Kevin Roberts, and, according to a state media printout, “renowned U.S. right-wing politicians, analysts and public personalities.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-17-2024
Daily EV Recap: March 17, 2024
date: 2024-03-18, from: Electrek Feed
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and…
https://electrek.co/2024/03/17/daily-ev-recap-march-17-2024/
ChatGPT side-channel attack has easy fix: Token obfuscation
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also: Roblox-themed infostealer on the prowl, telco insider pleads guilty to swapping SIMs, and some crit vulns
Infosec in brief Almost as quickly as a paper came out last week revealing an AI side-channel vulnerability, Cloudflare researchers have figured out how to solve it: just obscure your token size.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/chatgpt_sidechannel_attack_has_easy/
VK One
date: 2024-03-18, from: Om Malik blog
A few days ago, Vinod Khosla got into a war of words with Marc Andreessen. Or was it Elon? It was an argument over OpenAI and “open” AI. It might have felt like a bunch of capitalist leviathans butting their big heads, but for me, this was classic Vinod. Always speaking his mind, and batting …
https://om.co/2024/03/17/vk-one/
First Charter Flight With US Citizens Fleeing Haiti Lands in Miami
date: 2024-03-18, from: VOA News USA
MIAMI — A charter flight carrying dozens of U.S. citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed Sunday in Miami, U.S. State Department officials said.
More than 30 U.S. citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in the Miami International Airport after the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged U.S. citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti.
Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed following gang attacks that have raged through Haiti for weeks, pushing many people to the brink of famine. Government and aid agencies this weekend reported looting of aid supplies as the situation worsened.
The State Department announced Saturday that it would offer limited charter flights for American citizens from the less chaotic northern city of Cap-Haïtien.
Officials said they could not provide ground transportation to Cap-Haïtien and that U.S. citizens should consider the charter flights “only if you think you can reach Cap-Haïtien airport safely.”
“We encourage U.S. citizens still in Haiti who seek to depart to contact the Department of State using the crisis intake form on our website if they have not already done so,” the agency said.
People taking the U.S. government-coordinated flights must sign a promissory bill agreeing to reimburse the government.
The State Department said government officials in Miami were helping the newly arrived evacuees to determine their next steps.
The U.S. military last week flew in additional forces to bolster security at the U.S. Embassy, which is in a neighborhood largely controlled by gangs.
Monday 18 March, 2024
date: 2024-03-18, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Cue Wordsworth… Quote of the Day ”If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’” Ely Devons … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-18-march-2024/39250/
India quickly unwinds requirement for government approval of AIs
date: 2024-03-18, updated: 2024-03-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also: US woos Thailand, Philippines, for tech trade; China’s Fukushima rage glows; Alibaba targets South Korea
Asia in brief India’s government has stepped back from its plan to require government approval for AI services before they come online.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/18/apac_tech_news_roundup/
SCV celebrates St. Patrick’s Day
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Valley residents donned their greenest clothes and celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in venues across the city, including Pocock Brewing Company & Pizzeria, which held its St. Patrick’s Weekend Festival throughout the holiday weekend. “We always do it on St. Patrick’s Day weekend,” said owner Todd Tisdell. “We’ve been doing it since the day […]
The post SCV celebrates St. Patrick’s Day appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/scv-celebrates-st-patricks-day/
SCV Food Pantry hosting bowling event
date: 2024-03-18, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry will host its first-ever bowling event on May 18 at the Santa Clarita Lanes in Saugus from noon to 2 p.m. to further support the organization’s services: alleviating hunger for local Santa Clarita residents. The SCV Food Pantry, the oldest local food bank serving approximately 6,000 local families a […]
The post SCV Food Pantry hosting bowling event appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/scv-food-pantry-hosting-bowling-event/
How to Escape From the Iron Age?
date: 2024-03-18, from: Low-tech magazine
Trapped in the Iron Age
In 1836, Danish antiquarian and curator Christian Jürgensen Thomsen distinguished three prehistorical eras based on the dominant materials used for weapons and cutting implements: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.1 Thomsen’s classification refers to the past, but according to his criteria, we have never evolved beyond the Iron Age. Even in the 21st century, iron remains the dominant material, not just for weapons and cutting implements but for about every modern technology.
We now use most iron in the form of steel. However, according to Thomsen’s criteria, we cannot speak of a “Steel Age.” First, steel is merely an alloy of iron (>98%) and carbon (<2%). Second, humans have been producing steel since the beginning of the Iron Age. That is a little-known fact in the Western world, where steel production only took off in the nineteenth century with fossil fuels. However, Asian and African metallurgists developed high-quality steels much earlier, and this knowledge eventually allowed Europeans to do the same – on a much larger scale.2
By 2021, the global iron and steel output reached 1,950 million tonnes (Mt). That is 22 times larger than the combined aluminum and copper output (88 Mt). The global iron and steel output corresponds to five times the global plastics output (391 Mt) and dwarfs the worldwide production of silicon (8.5 Mt) and lithium (0.1 Mt).34 Steel is the fundamental material of industrial societies. Without plastics, lithium, or silicon, we would still be in an industrial society. Without iron and steel, we would be thrown back 3,000 years into the Bronze Age.
Where is all that steel?
The massive presence of steel in industrial society is not so obvious.5 At home, we find several steel appliances such as the refrigerator, washing machine, water boiler, bathtub, and cooking, heating, and cooling appliances. However, only 2-3% of total steel production ends up in domestic appliances.678 Outdoors, there’s a lot of steel in the form of vehicles. These are especially passenger cars that use around 10% of all steel globally (20% in rich countries). Busses, trucks, trains, and ships add another 4-5%. Altogether that is still less than 20% of the global steel output.
Most steel is embedded in other materials, located underground, or far away from residential areas.
Most steel is embedded in other materials, located underground, or far away from residential areas. More than half of global steel production goes into construction, which includes buildings (residential, commercial, industrial) and infrastructures (bridges, tunnels, harbors, canals, runways, oil rigs, refineries, pipelines, power plants, transmission lines, railways, subways, and so on). Much of that steel is embedded in concrete. Reinforced concrete is the world’s primary building material, and concrete is the only material that can match the output of steel (1,819 Mt in 2021).
Roughly 15% of global steel production serves to make machinery, including machine tools, industrial equipment, electrical hardware, and construction, mining, and farming machines. Even products made of other materials – such as other metals, plastics, and wood – are shaped by steel tools.5 The final 15% of steel production ends up in a variety of objects, from screws over food packaging to furniture and shipping containers.678
The environmental footprint of the steel industry
Steel is often presented as one of the most sustainable materials. Unlike plastics, steel can be recycled without any loss in quality. The steel industry has made great advances in energy efficiency, more so than many other industries. Making one ton of crude steel now requires roughly 20 gigajoules (GJ) of primary energy on average – three times less than in 1950.9 This compares very favorably to other materials such as aluminum (175 GJ/t), plastics (80-120 GJ/t), or copper (45 GJ/t).7 Unlike plastics, steel is a biodegradable material.10 Finally, iron ore is not in short supply. It makes up 5 percent of the Earth’s crust and is fourth in abundance among the elements.11 For comparison, copper only makes up 0.01%.5
However, despite all these advantages, the global iron and steel industry consumes more energy and produces more carbon emissions than any other industry. The total primary energy use of crude steel production was 39 exajoules (EJ) in 2021, which corresponds to 7% of all energy used worldwide in that year (595 EJ). The greenhouse gas emissions are even higher because around 75% of energy use comes from coal – the fuel with the highest carbon emissions. In 2021, the iron and steel industry produced 3.3 Gt of carbon emissions, roughly 9% of global emissions (36.3 Gt).12 The concrete industry follows closely with 8% of global emissions.
The iron and steel industry consumes more energy and produces more carbon emissions than any other industry.
The estimates above come from the World Steel Association and the International Energy Agency. These data are available for all metals and have been documented over a long period, allowing for historical comparisons. However, they only refer to the smelting of the metal. They do not include the energy use and carbon emissions for mining and transporting iron ore, coal, limestone, scrap, and steel products. Nor do they include the energy and emissions for coke production and ore preparation – all essential to the steel production process.7
Scientific studies that have set wider boundaries for the iron and steel industry conclude that the energy cost of steel production increases by 50% to 100%.13 One report concludes that the methane emissions from metallurgical coal mining alone could increase emissions by 27%. Another study estimates that seaborne transport of iron ore and steel adds 10-15% extra emissions.1415 Iron and steel production also create other environmental problems, such as high water use, solid waste production, and significant air and water pollution.
The carbon footprint of the iron and steel industry is incompatible with current ambitions to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050, even less so because steel production is very likely to expand further. Steel production grew tenfold since 1950 and doubled between 2000 and 2020, growing faster than many researchers had predicted.16 Furthermore, efficiency gains have decreased, and there is a scientific consensus that current technologies have reached their thermodynamic limits.7917 During the last two decades, the average energy use for the production of 1 ton of steel has remained around 20 GJ/t.918
How to make steel without fossil fuels?
There are two ways to make steel, and one is much more sustainable than the other.19 On the one hand, there is the blast furnace or basic oxygen furnace, in which steel is made from iron ore and coal. This technology is – in its essential form – 2000 years old.2 On the other hand, there is the electric arc furnace, in which steel is made from steel scrap and electricity. The electric arc furnace, which is a relatively new technology, consumes much less energy than the blast furnace, makes use of a recycled resource (no need to mine iron ore), and works without the direct use of coal or other fossil fuels (the electricity can be supplied by solar, wind, or atomic power).
The most energy-efficient electric arc furnaces now consume less than 300 kilowatt-hours of electricity per ton of steel produced.920 Hypothetically, if we had produced all steel in 2021 (1,950 Mt) in such furnaces, the total power consumption of the global iron and steel industry would have been only 585 terawatt-hours (Twh). That corresponds to just one-third of all electricity generated by wind turbines worldwide in the same year (1,848 Twh). Unfortunately, more than 70% of global steel output was made in blast furnaces fed by coal and iron ore.920 A blast furnace consumes twenty times more energy and cannot be operated by electricity because coal is both the fuel source and the chemical reductant. The combustion of coal produces carbon monoxide that reduces the iron from its ore.7
Not enough scrap available
The solution seems obvious: let’s produce all that steel in electric arc furnaces. However, this is impossible. First, there’s not enough scrap available: the continuous growth of the global steel output makes a circular flow of resources impossible.21 It takes decades before most steel becomes available for recycling. For example, there is 543 Mt of steel stocked in ships.22 The scrap available for recycling in 2021 corresponds to the production level of 1965 when global steel production was less than one-quarter of what it is today (450 Mt).9101523 Consequently, the other three quarters need to be produced in blast furnaces using coal and freshly mined iron ore.
Nowadays, China produces roughly half of the steel in the world and does that almost exclusively (+90%) in blast furnaces using coal and iron ore. Many other steelmaking nations have a higher share of electric arc furnaces. However, it makes little sense to point the finger at China. First, the US and Europe have outsourced many of their industries to China since the 2000s, a trend that corresponds neatly with the growing steel output in that country. Furthermore, twenty to forty years ago, China hardly used any steel. Consequently, there is almost no scrap available. China has no other choice than to use blast furnaces.24
Ever higher grades of steel
A second obstacle is the continuous development of higher grades of steel. There are now over 2,500 different types of steel with a variety of properties, such as increased strength, tolerance to high temperatures, or corrosion resistance.792325 Although these higher quality steels can be produced in electric arc furnaces, they are not made from scrap, and they have much higher energy use.
Steel available for recycling forms a mix of steel grades. That mix is suitable for making plain carbon steel but not highly alloyed steels, which require scrap with similar qualities. However, that scrap is not available. For example, stainless steel, the most produced special steel grade, has a recycling rate of only 15%. Almost 60 Mt of stainless steel was produced in 2021, compared to only 4 Mt in 1980.26 The traditional use of stainless steel was in cutlery, surgical tools, and medical and food processing equipment. However, it is now also used in the construction of tunnels and outdoor furniture, wastewater treatment, seawater desalination, nuclear engineering, and the production of biofuels.7
The low recycling rate and the need for the extraction of additional elements such as chrome and nickel make higher grades of steel more energy-intensive to produce. For example, stainless steel production requires almost 80 GJ per ton, four times more than the production of plain carbon steel.723 The continuous development of higher-grade steels is stimulated by environmental legislation (such as the use of lighter steel in cars) and by competition from other materials, mainly aluminum and plastic composites.792325 Ironically, the competition with these materials, which consume even more energy, makes steel less and less sustainable.
Steel and renewable energy
The steel industry is heavily dependent on the energy supply, but the energy supply is also heavily dependent on the steel industry. Almost 10% of the global steel output goes into building and maintaining energy supply infrastructure. That amount corresponds to the entire steel output in 1950. A great share of that steel goes to gas and oil infrastructure.27. Oil and gas mining, production, and transportation require steel for offshore drilling platforms, pipelines, refineries, tankers, and storage tanks. Coal mining depends on steel for cutters, loaders, conveyors, excavators, and trucks.7
Unfortunately, the planned switch to low-carbon energy sources and the electrification of heating and transport technologies will not decrease our dependency on the steel industry – on the contrary. A low-carbon power grid requires much more steel (and other materials) than an infrastructure based on fossil fuels. Wind and solar power are very diffuse power sources compared to fossil fuels. Therefore, it takes much more materials (and land) to produce the same energy. In jargon, wind and solar have low “power density” or high “material intensity.”2829303132
A low-carbon power grid requires much more steel than an infrastructure based on fossil fuels.
The “steel intensity” of thermal gas and coal power plants is between 50 and 60 tonnes of steel per megawatt of installed power.33 Hydroelectric power plants have a lower steel intensity, with 20-30 tonnes of steel per MW.733 Atomic power’s steel intensity is also lower at between 20 and 40 tonnes of steel per installed MW.3334 On the other hand, solar PV requires between 40 and 170 tonnes of steel per installed MW.3335 Although there is little or no steel in the solar panels themselves, it’s the material of choice for the structures that support them.
Steel and wind power
The most steel-intensive power source – by far – is the modern wind turbine. The steel intensity of a wind turbine depends on its size. A single, large wind turbine requires significantly more steel per megawatt of installed power than two smaller wind turbines.36 For example, a 3.6 MW wind turbine with a 100-meter tall tower requires 335 tons of steel (83 tons/MW), while a 5 MW wind turbine with a 150-meter tall tower needs 875 tons of steel (175 tons/MW).37 The trend is towards taller wind turbines and a higher steel intensity.
Steel consumption further increases for offshore wind turbines. Onshore wind power plants rely on reinforced concrete for their foundations, but offshore wind turbines need massive steel structures such as monopiles and jackets.38 The steel intensity for offshore wind turbines is calculated to be around 450 tonnes per MW for a 5 MW turbine – eight times higher than the steel intensity of a thermal power plant.36. As these wind turbines get taller and move into deeper waters, their steel use further increases.
The most popular offshore wind turbine nowadays has a capacity of 7 MW, while the largest ones have a capacity of 14 MW.36 If we make a conservative estimate based on the data above (the steel intensity doubles for every doubling of the power capacity), a 14 MW offshore wind turbine would require 1,300 tons of steel per MW or 18,200 tonnes in total. Such a wind turbine thus consumes 24 times more steel than a coal or gas power plant of the same power capacity.
Shorter life expectancy
The difference between renewable power sources and fossil fuels becomes even larger if the steel intensity is calculated per unit of energy rather than power (MWh instead of MW). In contrast to coal and gas power plants, the output of wind and solar power plants depends on the weather, and they do not always produce their maximum power capacity. Therefore, replacing 1 MW of fossil electricity generation capacity requires the installation of (on average) 4 MW of solar power or 2 MW of wind power.39 A 14 MW offshore wind turbine thus has a steel intensity that is almost 50 times higher than a fossil fuel power plant for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced.40
A 14 MW offshore wind turbine has a steel intensity that is almost 50 times higher than a fossil fuel power plant for every kilowatt-hour of electricity produced.
Solar and wind power plants also have shorter lifetimes (20-30 years) compared to thermal power plants (30-60 years).31 While this does not affect the steel intensity per MW of power installed, it again increases the steel intensity per unit of energy produced over time. That does not always lead to a doubling of steel use because foundations for offshore wind turbines and structures for solar panels may have longer lifetimes than the power sources they support and could thus be reused.41
Power transmission infrastructure
The data above only include the steel used in the power plants themselves. For fossil fuel power plants, they do not include the steel used in the pipelines, oil rigs, coal excavators, and the like. However, the same goes for the low-carbon power sources. Because they need much more resources than thermal power plants (steel but also other metals and materials), they depend on a global mining and transport infrastructure that is just as steel-intensive as the supply chain for fossil fuels.
Furthermore, because they are more diffuse power sources with intermittent and unpredictable power production, often located far away from energy consumption centers, renewable power plants drive the expansion of transmission infrastructure. That infrastructure is also based on steel – from switchyard equipment over towers to conduction cables.282930313242
Finally, low-carbon power sources also have a high need for special grades of steel, which are more energy-intensive to produce. Steel for off-shore wind turbines should resist corrosion, and stainless steel is increasingly used for solar panel support structures.43 Electrical lamination steel (iron-silicon) is indispensable for transformers in the power network.7 Nuclear power plants may have a relatively low steel intensity but are completely built up of energy-intensive specialty steels. For example, cladding the fuel elements containing fissionable uranium requires zirconium steel, while all structural elements contain austenitic stainless steel.744
Low carbon grid cannot be made from recycled steel
The high steel intensity of low carbon power sources confronts us with a so-called “catch-22”, a situation in which there seems to be no escape from a problem no matter what we do. We need much more steel if we replace thermal power plants with renewable ones. Because there is not enough steel scrap available, we can only produce that extra steel from iron ore in blast furnaces burning fossil fuels. To address climate change, we need to build low-carbon sources quickly and in great numbers. However, to achieve circular material flows and build low-carbon power sources from scrap and renewable electricity, we would have to do the opposite: slow down the development of a low-carbon power grid.
A well-cited study from 2013 concluded that if wind and solar power would supply 25,000 Twh of electricity – which corresponds to total global electricity demand in 2021 – we need about 3,200 Mt of steel to build the power plants alone.3345 Global electricity demand is projected to grow to between 52,000 and 71,000 terawatt-hours in 2050, which would increase the extra steel demand to between 6,400 and 8,960 Mt.46 Spread out over the lifetime of solar panels and wind turbines (25 years), we would have to produce 256 to 358 Mt extra steel per year to make wind turbines and solar panel structures – comparable to the steel demand for passenger cars (195 Mt) and other transportation modes (98 Mt) combined.
That is still a very optimistic estimation. Electricity demand only makes up around 20% of total energy demand. If the total energy demand (177,000 Twh in 2021) would be supplied by wind and solar, we would need 22,400 Mt of steel. That’s an extra 896 Mt steel per year – as much as the global production in the early 2000s. You could argue that electricity can be used more efficiently than fossil fuels, for example, in cars and heating systems. However, at the same time, total energy demand is expected to rise further, countering the gains made by increased energy efficiency.
The high-tech solutions
The steel industry counts on technological solutions to make steel production carbon neutral. One option is to replace coal by gas, an approach that is already common in the Middle East and North America. Gas-based steelmaking results in somewhat lower carbon emissions, but they are still much higher than in the case of the electric arc furnace. Therefore, most attention goes to hydrogen, which can replace purified coal (coke) as a reducing agent in a direct reduction shaft furnace.47 However, hydrogen-based steelmaking does not offer an escape from the catch-22 because it further increases the need for a steel-intensive infrastructure.
The production of hydrogen is energy-intensive. It takes 50-55 kilowatt-hour to make 1 kg of hydrogen and 60 kg of hydrogen to make 1 ton of steel.47 The production of 1 ton of steel from hydrogen thus consumes 3,000 kWh of electricity, which is ten times higher than the electricity use of an electric arc furnace making steel from scrap. Consequently, hydrogen-based steelmaking requires roughly ten times more wind turbines and solar panels than scrap-based steel production – and thus ten times more steel. On top of this comes the steel for building the pipelines and storage tanks that are part of the hydrogen infrastructure.
Carbon capture and storage, in which the carbon emissions of steelmaking plants are captured and then stored underground, faces the same problems. It requires a steel infrastructure and extra energy, thus indirectly raising the use of fossil fuels. Reverting to older, preindustrial steelmaking processes is not the answer either. Today’s blast furnace is essentially still the blast furnace from earlier centuries, only much more energy efficient.7
The low-tech solutions
The picture painted above seems to offer little hope for carbon-neutral steelmaking and power production. However, there is a low-tech solution that could achieve it. We could adjust steel production to the available scrap supply both in quantity and quality. That would allow us to produce all steel from scrap in electric arc furnaces, dramatically reducing energy consumption and eliminating almost all carbon emissions. Of course, the intent should not be to replace steel with plastic composites and aluminum because they are even more energy-intensive to produce. The only solution is to reduce material use overall.
We could adjust steel production to the available scrap supply both in quantity and quality.
Reducing the steel output and using more common steel grades would not bring us back to the Bronze Age. As noted, global end-of-life ferrous scrap availability was approximately 450 Mt in 2021, which would allow us to produce roughly one-quarter of the current steel output. Furthermore, the scrap supply will continue to rise for the next 40 years, enabling us to produce more and more low-emission steel each year. By 2050, scrap availability is expected to rise to about 900 Mt, almost half of today’s global steel production.48 All that extra steel could be invested in expanding the low-carbon power grid without raising emissions first.
There is a lot of room to reduce the steel intensity of modern society. All our basic needs – and more – could be supplied with much less steel involved. For example, we could make cars lighter by making them smaller. That would bring energy savings without the need for energy-intensive high-grade steel. We could replace cars with bicycles and public transportation so that more people share less steel. Such changes would also reduce the need for steel in the road network, the energy infrastructure, and the manufacturing industry. We would need fewer machine tools, shipping containers, and reinforced concrete buildings. Whenever steel intensity is reduced, the advantages cascade throughout the whole system. Preventing corrosion and producing steel more locally from local resources would also reduce energy use and emissions.1014
The continuous growth of the steel output – the increasing steel intensity of human society – makes sustainable steel production impossible. No technology can change that because it’s not a technological problem. Like forestry can only be sustainable if the wood demand does not exceed the wood supply, steel is sustainable or not depending on the balance between (scrap) supply and (steel) demand. We may not be able to escape the Iron Age, but we have an option to escape the catch-22 that inextricably links steel production with fossil fuels.49
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Thomsen, Christian Jürgensen. “Cursory View of the Monuments and Antiquities of the North.” Guide to Northern Archaeology by the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen (1848): 25-104. See also: Eskildsen, Kasper Risbjerg. “Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (1788–1865): Comparing Prehistoric Antiquities.” History of Humanities 4.2 (2019): 263-267. And: Briggs, C. Stephen. “From Genesis to Prehistory: the archaeological Three Age System and its contested reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland. By Peter Rowley-Conwy. 226mm. Pp xix+ 362, 55 b&w ills. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 9780199227747.£ 65 (hbk).” The Antiquaries Journal 88 (2008): 474-478. ↩︎
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Forthcoming article, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine. Subscribe to Low-tech Magazine’s newsletter. ↩︎ ↩︎
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Idoine, N. E., et al. “World mineral production 2017-21.” (2023). https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/534316/1/WMP_2017_2021_FINAL.pdf ↩︎
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Katz-Lavigne, Sarah, Saumya Pandey, and Bert Suykens. “Mapping global sand: extraction, research and policy options.” (2022). https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/1428b3/183490cc.pdf ↩︎
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Colás, Rafael, and George E. Totten, eds. Encyclopedia of iron, steel, and their alloys (Online version). CRC Press, 2016. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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https://www.steelonthenet.com/consumption.html. Meanwhile the data on this page have been updated for 2023. ↩︎ ↩︎
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Smil, Vaclav. Still the iron age: iron and steel in the modern world. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2016. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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“Steel in buildings and infrastructure”, World steel association. https://worldsteel.org/steel-topics/steel-markets/buildings-and-infrastructure/ ↩︎ ↩︎
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Conejo, Alberto N., Jean-Pierre Birat, and Abhishek Dutta. “A review of the current environmental challenges of the steel industry and its value chain.” Journal of environmental management 259 (2020): 109782. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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Between 25 and 33% of the annual steel production is destroyed once in service by corrosion. See: Iannuzzi, M., and G. S. Frankel. “The carbon footprint of steel corrosion.” npj Materials Degradation 6.1 (2022): 101. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41529-022-00318-1.pdf ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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“Iron”, Encyclopedia Britannica ↩︎
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The potential of hydrogen for decarbonising steel production. European Parliament: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/641552/EPRS_BRI(2020)641552_EN.pdf ↩︎
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Lenzen, Manfred, and Christopher Dey. “Truncation error in embodied energy analyses of basic iron and steel products.” Energy 25.6 (2000): 577-585. & Oda, Junichiro, et al. “International comparisons of energy efficiency in power, steel, and cement industries.” Energy Policy 44 (2012): 118-129. Both found in: Smil, Vaclav. Still the iron age: iron and steel in the modern world. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2016. ↩︎
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“Pedal to the metal”, Caitlin Swalec, Global Energy Monitor, June 2022. https://globalenergymonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GEM_SteelPlants2022.pdf ↩︎ ↩︎
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Yellishetty, Mohan, P. G. Ranjith, and A. Tharumarajah. “Iron ore and steel production trends and material flows in the world: Is this really sustainable?.” Resources, conservation and recycling 54.12 (2010): 1084-1094. ↩︎ ↩︎
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See, for example: Hatayama, Hiroki, et al. “Outlook of the world steel cycle based on the stock and flow dynamics.” Environmental science & technology 44.16 (2010): 6457-6463. This paper predicted steel demand to reach 1.8 billion tonnes only by around 2025. ↩︎
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De Beer, Jeroen. Potential for industrial energy-efficiency improvement in the long term. Vol. 5. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. ↩︎
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Wang, R. Q., et al. “Energy saving technologies and mass-thermal network optimization for decarbonized iron and steel industry: A review.” Journal of Cleaner Production 274 (2020): 122997. ↩︎
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About 5% of global steel is produced by a third method: gas-based direct iron reduction. These furnaces use gas instead of coal and have therefore lower carbon emissions. However, emissions are still much higher than in the case of the electric arc furnace. Gas-based steelmaking mainly happens in the Middle East and North America. ↩︎
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He, Kun, and Li Wang. “A review of energy use and energy-efficient technologies for the iron and steel industry.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 70 (2017): 1022-1039. This source gives a value of 1-1.5 GJ/ton of crude steel. ↩︎ ↩︎
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This also holds true for many other materials. See: “How circular is the circular economy?”, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine, November 2018. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/11/how-circular-is-the-circular-economy/ ↩︎
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Kong, Xianghui, et al. “Steel stocks and flows of global merchant fleets as material base of international trade from 1980 to 2050.” Global Environmental Change 73 (2022): 102493. ↩︎
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ODPADKA, PROIZVODNJA JEKLA IZ JEKLENEGA. “Scrap-based steel production and recycling of steel.” Materiali in tehnologije 34.6 (2000): 387. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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In the West, the expansion of steel use happened over a period of 150 years, in tandem with technological evolution. In contrast, China compressed this technological evolution in just a few decades: shipping and railways, electrification, steel buildings, the car and the airplane, the internet, and renewable power technologies. There are still large parts of the world where the steel intensity of society is very low, such as India and Africa. There is thus still a lot of room for the growth of the steel output. Source: Smil, Vaclav. Still the iron age: iron and steel in the modern world. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2016. ↩︎
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AHHS Application Guidelines, WorldAutoSteel. ahssinsights.org/news/intro ↩︎ ↩︎
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Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik, and Anna Hulda Olafsdottir. “Assessing the long-term global sustainability of the production and supply for stainless steel.” BioPhysical Economics and Resource Quality 4 (2019): 1-29. ↩︎
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Conseil, Laplace. “Impacts of energy market developments on the steel industry.” 74th Session of the OECD Steel Committee, Paris, France (2013). Found in: Smil, Vaclav. Still the iron age: iron and steel in the modern world. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2016. ↩︎
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Deetman, Sebastiaan, et al. “Projected material requirements for the global electricity infrastructure–generation, transmission and storage.” Resources, Conservation and Recycling 164 (2021): 105200. ↩︎ ↩︎
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How (Not) to Run a Modern Society on Solar and Wind Power Alone, Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine, September 2017. https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2017/09/how-not-to-run-a-modern-society-on-solar-and-wind-power-alone/ ↩︎ ↩︎
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Kleijn, René, et al. “Metal requirements of low-carbon power generation.” Energy 36.9 (2011): 5640-5648. ↩︎ ↩︎
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Weißbach, Daniel, et al. “Energy intensities, EROIs (energy returned on invested), and energy payback times of electricity generating power plants.” Energy 52 (2013): 210-221. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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Chen, Zhenyang, Rene Kleijn, and Hai Xiang Lin. “Metal requirements for building electrical grid systems of global wind power and utility-scale solar photovoltaic until 2050.” Environmental Science & Technology 57.2 (2022): 1080-1091. ↩︎ ↩︎
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Vidal, Olivier, Bruno Goffé, and Nicholas Arndt. “Metals for a low-carbon society.” Nature Geoscience 6.11 (2013): 894-896. The data are in the supplementary info: https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1993#Sec5 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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“Energy”, American Iron and Steel Institute. https://www.steel.org/steel-markets/energy/ ↩︎
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“Steel is the power behind renewable energy”, Arcelor Mittal. https://constructalia.arcelormittal.com/en/news_center/articles/steel-is-the-power-behind-renewable-energy#:~:text=Steel%3A%20a%20key%20material%20in%20a%20less%20carbon%2Dintensive%20world&text=Without%20steel%2C%20none%20of%20the,Schrijver%2C%20CEO%20of%20ArcelorMittal%20Projects. ↩︎
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Topham, Eva, et al. “Recycling offshore wind farms at decommissioning stage.” Energy policy 129 (2019): 698-709. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
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Gervásio, Helena, et al. “Comparative life cycle assessment of tubular wind towers and foundations–Part 2: Life cycle analysis.” Engineering structures 74 (2014): 292-299. & Rebelo, Carlos, et al. “Comparative life cycle assessment of tubular wind towers and foundations–Part 1: Structural design.” Engineering structures 74 (2014): 283-291. ↩︎
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Assessing the significance of steel to the global wind industry, S&P Global, Commodity Insights. December 2021. https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/ci/research-analysis/assessing-the-significance-of-steel-to-the-global-wind-industry.html ↩︎
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Bolson, Natanael, Pedro Prieto, and Tadeusz Patzek. “Capacity factors for electrical power generation from renewable and nonrenewable sources.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119.52 (2022): e2205429119. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2205429119 ↩︎
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This result corresponds well with Vidal, Olivier, Bruno Goffé, and Nicholas Arndt. “Metals for a low-carbon society.” Nature Geoscience 6.11 (2013): 894-896. The data are in the supplementary info: https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1993#Sec5 ↩︎
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For off-shore wind turbines, the lifetime of the foundations is estimated to be 100 years, so in principle they could serve for replacement wind turbines of the same size. On the other hand, it is not self-evident that these steel foundations will eventually be recycled. First, only around 10% of decommissioning costs can be recovered by recycling the metal, meaning that it is not economically and perhaps even energetically interesting to do it. Second, in some cass marine life has flourished around the foundations. The four offshore wind farms that had been decomissioned in 2019 lasted for 15, 18, 20 and 26 years. Source: Topham, Eva, et al. “Recycling offshore wind farms at decommissioning stage.” Energy policy 129 (2019): 698-709. ↩︎
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https://www.fedsteel.com/insights/steels-role-in-the-us-power-infrastructure/ ↩︎
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https://industry.arcelormittal.com/products-solutions/Products_in_the_spotlight/magnelis ↩︎
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Maziasz, Philip J., and Jeremy T. Busby. Properties of austenitic stainless steels for nuclear reactor applications. Oak Ridge National Lab.(ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States), 2012. ↩︎
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Part of this has already been built. The researchers start from the solar and wind power production in 2013, which was 400 Twh, while both power sources produced 2,894 Twh in 2021. ↩︎
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Electricity consumption worldwide from 2000 to 2022, with a forecast for 2030 and 2050, by scenario. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1426308/electricity-consumption-worldwide-forecast-by-scenario/#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20recent%20forecast,on%20the%20energy%20transition%20scenario ↩︎
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Bhaskar, Abhinav, et al. “Decarbonizing primary steel production: Techno-economic assessment of a hydrogen based green steel production plant in Norway.” Journal of Cleaner Production 350 (2022): 131339. ↩︎ ↩︎
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Scrap use in the steel industry, World Steel Association. May 2021. https://worldsteel.org/wp-content/uploads/Fact-sheet-on-scrap_2021.pdf ↩︎
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Another motivation for reducing the steel intensity of modern society is to limit the consequences of geopolitical conflicts. The more steel we produce for peaceful purposes, the more steel becomes available for war and destruction. Remarkably, the production of military equipment is absent from modern steel statistics, and if mentioned, its share is very low. However, in times of war, steelmaking facilities switch to producing steel for military purposes. The steel industry can thus be converted into a weapons industry at any moment, and there is now a lot more steel production capacity available than there has ever been in history. ↩︎
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/03/how-to-escape-from-the-iron-age/
Mending Chesterton’s Fence: Open Source Decision-making
date: 2024-03-18, from: Crossref Blog
When each line of code is written it is surrounded by a sea of context: who in the community this is for, what problem we’re trying to solve, what technical assumptions we’re making, what we already tried but didn’t work, how much coffee we’ve had today. All of these have an effect on the software we write.
By the time the next person looks at that code, some of that context will have evaporated. There may be helpful code comments, tests, and specifications to explain how it should behave. But they don’t explain the path not taken, and why we didn’t take it. Or those occasions where the facts changed, so we changed our mind.
Some parts of our system are as old as Crossref itself. Whilst our process still involves coffee, it’s safe to say that most of our working assumptions have changed, and for good reasons! We have to be very careful when working with our oldest code. We always consider why it was written that way, and what might have changed since. We’re always on the look out for Chesterton’s Fence!
Leaving a Trail
We’re building a new generation of systems at Crossref, and as we go we’re being deliberate about supporting the people who will maintain it.
When our oldest code was written, the software development team all worked in an office with a whiteboard or three, and the code was proprietary. Twenty years later, things are very different. The software development team is spread over 8 timezones. Thanks to POSI, all the new code we write is open source, so the next people to read that code might not even be Crossref staff.
Working increasingly asynchronously, without that whiteboard, we need to record the options, collect evidence, and peer-review them within the team.
So for the past couple of years the software team has maintained a decision register. The first decision we recorded was that we should record decisions! Since then we have recorded the significant decisions as they arise. Plus some historical ones.
These aren’t functional specifications, which describe what the system should do. It’s the decisions and trade-offs we made along the way to get to the how. Look out for another blog post about specifications.
By leaving a trail of explanations as we go, we make it easier for people to understand why code was written, and what has changed. We’re writing the story of our new systems. This makes it easier to alter the system in future in response to changes in our community, and the metadata they use.
Difficult Decisions
There are some fun challenges to building systems at Crossref. We have a lot of data. Our schema is very diverse, and has a vast amount of domain knowledge embedded in it. It’s changed over time to accommodate 20 years of scholarly publishing innovations. Our community is diverse too, from small one-person publishers with a handful of articles, through to large ones that publish millions.
What might be an obvious decision for a database table with a thousand rows doesn’t always translate to a million. When you get to a billion, things change again. An initially sensible choice might not scale. And a scalable solution might look over-engineered if we had millions of DOIs, rather than hundreds of millions.
The diversity of the data also poses challenges. A very simple feature might get complicated or expensive when it meets the heterogeneity of our metadata and membership. What might scale for journal article or grant metadata might not work for book chapters.
The big decisions need careful discussion, experimentation, and justification.
2NF or not 2NF
One such recent decision was how we structure our SQL schema for the database that powers our new ‘relationships’ REST API endpoint, currently in development.
The data model is simple: we have a table of Relationships which connect pairs of Items. And each Item can have properties (such as a type). The way to model this is straightforward, following conventional normalization rules:
We built the API around it, and all was well.
We then added a feature which lets you look up relationships based on the properties of the subject or object. For example “find citations where the subject is an article and the object is a dataset”. This design worked well in our initial testing. We loaded more data into it, and it continued to work well.
And then, the context changed. Once we tested loading a billion relationships in the database, the performance dropped. The characteristics of the data: size, shape and distribution, reached a point where the database was unable to run queries in a timely way. The PostgreSQL query planner became unpredictable and occasionally produced some quite exciting query plans (to non-technical readers: databases are neither the time nor the place for excitement).
This is a normal experience in scaling up a system. We expected that something like this would happen at some point, but you don’t know when it will happen until you try. We bounced around some ideas and came up with a couple of alternatives. Each made trade-offs around processing time, data storage and query flexibility. The best way to evaluate them was to use real data at a representative scale.
One of the options was denormalisation. This is a conventional solution to this kind of problem, but was not our first choice as it involves extra machinery to keep the data up-to-date, and more storage. It would not have been the correct solution for a smaller dataset. But we had the evidence that the other two approaches would not scale predictably.
By combining the data into one table, we can serve up API requests much more predictably, and with much better performance. This code is now running with the right performance. Technical readers note that this diagram is simplified. The real SQL schema is a little different.
Without writing this history down, and explaining what we tried, someone might misunderstand the reason for the code and try to simplify it. Decision record DR-0500 guards against that.
But one day, when the context changes, future developers will be able to come back and modify the code, because they understand why it was like that in the first place.
https://www.crossref.org/blog/mending-chestertons-fence-open-source-decision-making/