News gathered 2024-03-22
(date: 2024-03-22 05:41:04)
Stanford hopes attitude adjustment gets them out of Maples Pavilion in NCAA Women’s Tournament
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Cardinal women about to find out if `re-establishing Stanford basketball’ will play off in NCAA Tournament.
Opinion: California can lead climate change fight by cutting industry pollution
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Ambitious state policies could put clean technology on factory floors, reward innovation and build new markets.
Opinion: More than 30 states have elected female governors. Will California join them?
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
It’s too early to size up a contest two years off, but the state’s voters could make history in 2026 in several ways
John Boston | Ellen? Please? Stop Making Brown TRPs!
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
Dear Mrs. Ellen Rubin Gordon, CEO, Tootsie Roll Pops, All Chocolate Division — Before I inquire about how your day is going, I must ask, with no malice: “What The Hell Is Wrong With You?” I’m a lifelong fan of most of your lollipop products, specifically, Grape, Cherry, Orange and Raspberry. When the moon […]
The post John Boston | Ellen? Please? Stop Making Brown TRPs! appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/john-boston-ellen-please-stop-making-brown-trps/
San Jose office tower conversion to housing project formally launches
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
A plan to convert a downtown San Jose office tower from offices to housing is officially underway.
NCAA Tournament preview: No. 5 Saint Mary’s takes on Grand Canyon
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
After their 3-5 start, the Gaels went on to win 23 of 25 games to finish the year.
Ron Perry | Guess Who Will Pay
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
According to Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute focusing on budget and taxes, the new budget will result in the highest taxes ever in the United States: “The highest peacetime burden in American history, as well as the highest sustained taxes in American history.” “Not only is the president raising taxes, but […]
The post Ron Perry | Guess Who Will Pay appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/ron-perry-guess-who-will-pay/
Arthur Saginian | Shortest Victory Parade Ever
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
On Dec. 30 (letters), Lois Eisenberg gave herself a pat on the back for eliciting reactions from some of The Signal’s readers. She gleefully proclaimed that she is always “truthful and factual” and took pride in “hitting the political funny bone of some of these writers who have a hard time grasping the truth and […]
The post Arthur Saginian | Shortest Victory Parade Ever appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/arthur-saginian-shortest-victory-parade-ever/
Diane Zimmerman | ‘Trump Girl’ Update
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
So, today at around 1:30 p.m., I had just gotten home from a lot of walking and I was tired. So I drove the couple of blocks to my little neighborhood post office to drop off some bills. Don’t put them in the drive-up post box anymore as, even in this, one of the safest […]
The post Diane Zimmerman | ‘Trump Girl’ Update appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/diane-zimmerman-trump-girl-update/
Dr. Gene Dorio | A Few Ideas for the Doughnut
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
Thank you for your recent article discussing the City Council study session on the Sunridge proposal. Several suggestions might be considered: 1) Build a new hospital that specifically treats pediatric in-patients — which the present hospital does not have — as well as adolescent mental health care so our children do not have to leave […]
The post Dr. Gene Dorio | A Few Ideas for the Doughnut appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/dr-gene-dorio-a-few-ideas-for-the-doughnut/
Lois Eisenberg | Way to Go, Brandon … and Lois
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
This nickname for President Joe Biden, “Let’s Go Brandon,” left the MAGA Cult Congress sitting on his left during his State of the Union with egg on their faces on March 8. The 81-year-old president showed the MAGA Congress Cult and America how vital he is, and left that MAGA group in shock. President Biden […]
The post Lois Eisenberg | Way to Go, Brandon … and Lois appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/lois-eisenberg-way-to-go-brandon-and-lois/
Fireworks planned for Giant Dipper’s 100th anniversary at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
To mark the 100th birthday of the Giant Dipper rollercoaster at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, a number of events are planned that includes a fireworks display in May.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/22/fireworks-planned-for-big-dippers-100th-anniversary/
Vodafone, Three hustle to tie knot before regulators crash wedding
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Price hikes and reduced competition in virtual network space raised as major concerns
Vodafone and Three UK have mere days to convince Britain’s competition authorities that a merger won’t harm consumers. Failure to do so will result in a deeper probe of the proposed corporate marriage.…
Inside El Paso’s Massive Migrant Processing Center
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has set up temporary centers to help expedite the processing of migrants entering the country. Cesar Contreras toured one of the facilities opened last year in El Paso, Texas, in this story narrated by Veronica Villafañe.
https://www.voanews.com/a/inside-el-paso-s-massive-migrant-processing-center/7538312.html
Four-bedroom home sells in Los Gatos for $2.1 million
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
A 1,633-square-foot house built in 1963 has changed hands. The property located in the 200 block of Howes Drive in Los Gatos was sold on March 8, 2024. The $2,060,000 purchase price works out to $1,261 per square foot.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/22/four-bedroom-home-sells-in-los-gatos-for-2-1-million/
Elias: Proof of California Prop. 1’s worth will be in its performance
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Only time will tell if the benefits of the measure narrowly passed this month to fight homelessness outweigh its $6.4 billion cost.
Kristof: Marginal military gains won’t stop a famine in Gaza
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
Israel must decide which targets to attack, and whether to focus on moving tanks or moving relief trucks.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/22/kristof-marginal-military-gains-wont-stop-a-famine-in-gaza/
P&B: Taylor Troesh
date: 2024-03-22, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>This is the 30th edition of <em>People and Blogs</em>, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Taylor Troesh and his blog, <a href="https://taylor.town/">taylor.town</a></p>To follow this series subscribe to the newsletter. A new interview will land in your inbox every Friday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read the interviews here on the blog or you can subscribe to the RSS feed.
Let’s start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?
Hello! I’m Taylor (mayor of taylor.town).
I collect hobbies, build things, incite chaos, and engage in elaborate tomfoolery. I work as a developer, designer, DB architect, and other things.
What’s the story behind your blog?
I created my first personal website to quickly teach myself how to make websites, because I fudged my resume and accidentally landed a job as a web developer before I was ready.
My website became a blog when I posted my digital notebooks online circa 2015. I maintained hundreds of markdown files on various topics and ideas, but I was too embarrassed to publish most of the actual notes, so I replaced the body of each file with “Coming soon!”. My private ideas.txt file sits at 110,427 words right now. This does not include hundreds of unfinished essays, papers, books, stories, games, gadgets, etc.
As I grew more specific and organized, my notes became easier to digest. In 2019, I started writing about my opinions, my fears, my inspirations, and my paradoxes.
But I didn’t start writing seriously until I stopped drinking in 2022. Writing was welcome respite from alcohol withdrawals. Without booze to fill my emptiness, I suddenly found myself with plenty of “boring” hours. So I kept writing. And now I can’t stop writing.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
I consume absurd amounts of books, small blogs, music, podcasts, and other internet media.
From there, my inspiration ferments in a 1Mb text file called ideas.txt. When I’m not doing chores, I start from the top of ideas.txt and work my way down, making small pseudoprose edits along the way. An idea usually sits at the top of the list for a few months before it’s ripe enough to publish.
Here’s an excerpt from the top of my list on Dec 7, 2023:
Krampus and negative punishment
- holiday alignment chart
- does negative punishment work?
- santa claus is not a god: https://brill.com/view/journals/jocc/8/1-2/article-p149_8.xml
- is santa effective? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0361476X84900031 santa
- visits rich sick children: https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i6355.abstract
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?
Countless creations die in the pursuit of Ideal Creative Environments. After hearing how much quality work Tyler Cowen completes while traveling, I taught myself how to scrounge for in-between time. Through that process, I made more time for creative pursuits via extinguishing notifications and bespoke time-tracking software.
Today, most of my creative process occurs on couches – just me and my laptop. When I need more real-estate, I use my battlestation. When my thoughts become tangled, I clean my home or play with my daughter or walk outside. When I draw, I use our makeshift art studio in the basement. And so on.
Everything in a home or office eventually becomes invisible gorillas. In my experience, physical propinquity is the fastest way to modulate creativity. Unsurprisingly, surrounding myself with healthy and supportive people was a really good way to become healthy and supported.
A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?
- All my writings are markdown files (with YAML frontmatter) in a GitHub repo.
- An ugly Elixir script converts each file into HTML and compiles an atom feed.
- All of these files are served to the public via Cloudflare Pages.
- Every few weeks, I copy/paste stuff into Buttondown for my email newsletter.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
- More doodles! I’m still working up the courage to share more of my drawings…
- People cannot spell “Troesh” from memory, so I’m glad I chose taylor.town over taylor.troe.sh. But I’ll never know if taylor.town was a better choice than taylor.land.
- If I started over, I probably wouldn’t write my build script in Elixir – maybe Haskell or Go or JS instead?
- I wasted a lot of time on essay ideas that were time-consuming but obviously worthless. I should’ve learned earlier to sort by difficulty vs. impact.
- I’m still unsure about Instagram, X, and other socials media. I love meeting strangers via email – am I missing cool people from other corners of the web?
Financial question since the web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost or does it generate some revenue? And what’s your position on people monetising personal blogs?
It costs $0 to host my blog on GitHub and Cloudflare. I spend $30/mo on Buttondown. I once hoped that my blog would land me some sweet consulting gigs. As of 2023, total consulting revenue is $0.
I aim to be worth $1/hour. Advertising is spooky, so I’ve been working on books and games and services to sell instead. But it’s hard to juggle making worthwhile art while working for an employer while publishing free content.
Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?
I support TodePond and Hundred Rabbits via Patreon.
I would also love to support Experimental History and Escaping Flatland, but I’m avoiding Substack for now.
Other people/blogs I follow: Derek Sivers, sonnet.io, BenKuhn, And now it’s all this, Beyond the Frame, Scope of Work, and Steph Ango.
Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?
Things I’ve made recently:
- flashcasts: audio flashcards in a private podcast feed
- scrapscript: a sharable programming language
- wigwam.directory: alternatives to bloat
- blogs.hn: a directory of small tech blogs
- the cheap web: small web manifesto
Ways to keep up:
This was the 30th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Taylor. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.
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158 Cherry Blossom Trees Will Be Cut Down in D.C. in Effort to Withstand Sea-Level Rise
date: 2024-03-22, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The National Park Service’s restoration project will reconstruct a protective seawall and plant 274 new cherry blossoms when work is complete
The spending bill is also kind of a border security bill
date: 2024-03-22, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The House is set to vote on a $1.2 trillion spending package Friday ahead of a partial government shutdown deadline. The proposed appropriations bill includes a significant bump in border security funding, including cash intended to more or less double the number of Border Patrol agents. We’ll also break down the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Apple and hear how the need for insurance is influencing major life decisions.
Do vasectomies really go up during March Madness? Urologists say it’s a ‘popular time’
date: 2024-03-22, from: San Jose Mercury News
A Boston-area urologist said he has been performing “a lot” of vasectomies ahead of March Madness.
Stay in bed and let RP2040 open the door for you
date: 2024-03-22, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Varun Patel built an RP2040-powered device to let guests into his dorm room without having to go to all the trouble of opening the door himself.
The post Stay in bed and let RP2040 open the door for you appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/stay-in-bed-and-let-rp2040-open-the-door-for-you/
US Congress Rushes To Approve Spending Bills Before Shutdown Deadline
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
Hubble Spots the Spider Galaxy
date: 2024-03-22, from: NASA breaking news
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the gauzy-looking celestial body UGC 5829, an irregular galaxy that lies about 30 million light-years away. Despite the lack of observations of this relatively faint galaxy, UGC 5829 has a distinct and descriptive name: the Spider Galaxy. Perhaps its distorted galactic arms with their glowing, star-forming […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-spots-the-spider-galaxy/
CNCF boss talks ‘irrational exuberance’ in an AI-heavy Kubecon keynote
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Kubecon? More like Queuecon as Paris-based show’s registration system fails
The European leg of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s (CNCF) Kubecon shindig kicked off this week with an AI-infused keynote and a broken registration system that left many attendees locked out.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/cncf_boss_kubecon_keynote/
Google Pays $10M in Bug Bounties in 2023
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Bruce Schneier blog
BleepingComputer has the details. It’s $2M less than in 2022, but it’s still a lot.
The highest reward for a vulnerability report in 2023 was $113,337, while the total tally since the program’s launch in 2010 has reached $59 million.
For Android, the world’s most popular and widely used mobile operating system, the program awarded over $3.4 million.
Google also increased the maximum reward amount for critical vulnerabilities concerning Android to $15,000, driving increased community reports.
During security conferences like ESCAL8 and hardwea.io, Google awarded $70,000 for 20 critical discoveries in Wear OS and Android Automotive OS and another $116,000 for 50 reports concerning issues in Nest, Fitbit, and Wearables…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/google-pays-10m-in-bug-bounties-in-2023.html
Say it ain’t so: BMW, Volkswagen, and Renault take aim at Europe’s ICE ban phase-out
date: 2024-03-22, from: Electrek Feed
The heads of BMW, Volkswagen, and Renault have spoken out against European Union’s emission targets in recent days, arguing that the phase-out rules put too much pressure on the industry and that consumers aren’t buying EVs fast enough. Next year, the policy will tighten ahead of the full ban of gas and diesel cars in 2035, leaving automakers to pay steep fines if they fall short.
The German national soccer team puts Adidas on the bench
date: 2024-03-22, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Nike is replacing Adidas as the sponsor of Germany’s national soccer team. Then, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pleading for more ammunition for Ukraine’s war efforts; German chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’ll back a plan to use money from frozen Russian assets to buy more weapons. And a Swedish pharmacy chain says it won’t sell anti-aging skincare products to kids under the age of 15.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-22, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2017: Chess champion to miss Saudi Arabia tournament over women's rights.
Whistleblower says database for registering UK nurses is ‘completely unacceptable’
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Regulatory body insists it’s on ‘a journey of improvement’
Exclusive The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has received a complaint detailing the mismanagement of personal data at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the regulator that oversees worker registration.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/nmc_database_whistleblower/
Wheel-E Podcast: New e-bikes from Lectric, Ampler, Biktrix, & more
date: 2024-03-22, from: Electrek Feed
This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes several interesting new electric bike launches such as the Lectric ONE, Biktrix Juggernaut FS XD, Ampler Curt Anyroad, a discussion about Rad Power Bikes’ new potted batteries, and more.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/22/wheel-e-podcast-new-e-bikes-from-lectric-ampler-biktrix-more/
What’s brown and sticky and broke this PC?
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nothing, according to its user. But the techie who tried to fix it found a sweet solution
On Call As another week ebbs away, The Register hopes that readers have a nice warm cup of whatever they fancy beside them as we present another instalment of On Call, our weekly reader-contributed tale of the trials and tribulations of tech support.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/on_call/
Blinken In Israel to Push for Gaza Cease-Fire
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-heads-to-israel-to-push-for-gaza-cease-fire-/7538155.html
The “current branch” in git
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: Julia Evans
https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/03/22/the-current-branch-in-git/
Senior sports staff’s March Madness predictions
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
It’s too late to change your men’s bracket, but it’s not too late to know what to expect.
The post Senior sports staff’s March Madness predictions appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/senior-sports-staffs-march-madness-predictions/
My mentor and friend, Ken Galbraith
date: 2024-03-22, from: Robert Reich on Substack
He gave me a great gift
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/my-mentor-ken-galbraith
Across enemy lines, down the interstate
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Unlikely but inseparable friends Ainsley Radell and Madi Kriz have reinforced beach volleyball for another title run.
The post Across enemy lines, down the interstate appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/204739/
An adieu to a golden age of women’s basketball
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The dissolution of the Pac-12 looms while it’s witnessing one of its strongest seasons.
The post An adieu to a golden age of women’s basketball appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/204773/
Redis tightens its license terms, pleasing basically no one
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
FOSS developers gotta eat, but users need certainty
Leading in-memory database vendor Redis is switching to a dual-license approach, imposing far more restrictive terms.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/redis_changes_license/
Classifieds – March 22, 2024
date: 2024-03-22, 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 22, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/classifieds-march-22-2024/
Today in SCV History (March 22)
date: 2024-03-22, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1875 – Construction begins on San Fernando Railroad Tunnel. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-22/
Tommy unmasked; the first man behind the Trojan armor speaks
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Neal Pecchenino was the first to don the suit 10 years ago, and he said it was an unforgettable experience.
The post Tommy unmasked; the first man behind the Trojan armor speaks appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/the-first-man-behind-the-trojan-armor-speaks/
There’s no place like home
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
JuJu Watkins’ home floor wasn’t always Galen Center.
The post There’s no place like home appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/204748/
Galen Center hosts March Madness
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Four teams travel to Los Angeles from around the country for the NCAA Tournament.
The post Galen Center hosts March Madness appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/galen-center-hosts-march-madness/
Cutting scholarships is a step in the wrong direction
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
USC is overlooking the negative effects of removing Academic Achievement Award and Exceptional Funding.
The post Cutting scholarships is a step in the wrong direction appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/cutting-scholarships-is-a-step-in-the-wrong-direction/
USC Musicians Club cures Monday blues
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The organization, founded in 2021, provides an outlet for musicians of all levels.
The post USC Musicians Club cures Monday blues appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/usc-musicians-club-cures-monday-blues/
SDA presents a reproduction of ‘Twelve Angry Jurors’
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The play invites the audience to think about justice in current-day society.
The post SDA presents a reproduction of ‘Twelve Angry Jurors’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/sda-presents-a-reproduction-of-twelve-angry-jurors/
Virtual learning: Here to stay, or ‘Zoom’-ing away?
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Students and faculty shared thoughts on virtual education four years after the coronavirus pandemic moved classes online.
The post Virtual learning: Here to stay, or ‘Zoom’-ing away? appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/zoom-reflections/
New emergency medicine club promotes health, safety knowledge
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Club members handed out $7,000 worth of Narcan after training passersby.
The post New emergency medicine club promotes health, safety knowledge appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/emergency-medicine-club-of-usc-gives-out-free-narcan/
Student organization offers free tax preparation assistance
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Marshall has an opportunity to support USC VITA’s Program.
The post Student organization offers free tax preparation assistance appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/student-organization-offers-free-tax-preparation-assistance/
Vibecheck on AI in college: The Battle over B-quality work
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Ramp up the integrative practice of new AI systems, listen to students and help keep your wise GE professor sane.
The post Vibecheck on AI in college: The Battle over B-quality work appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/22/vibecheck-on-ai-in-college-the-battle-over-b-quality-work/
March 21, 2024
date: 2024-03-22, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
In the past few weeks, Josh Kovensky of Talking Points Memo has deepened our understanding of the right-wing attempt to impose Christian nationalism on the United States through support for Trump and the MAGA movement. On March 9, Kovensky explored the secret, men-only, right-wing society called the Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), whose well-positioned, wealthy, white leaders call for instituting white male domination and their version of Christianity in the U.S. after a “regime” change.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-21-2024
Meta connects Threads to the Fediverse
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Doing things outside the walled garden is kinda hard, devs admit
Meta’s totally-not-a-Twitter clone, Threads, has joined the Fediverse.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/meta_threads_metaverse_connection/
Webcurios 22/03/24
date: 2024-03-22, from: Web Curios blog
Reading Time: 33 minutes THEY MADE FOOTBALL WOKE, ALAN! THEY ONLY WENT AND DID IT! (As ever, this is an INTENSELY-anglocentric opening line which I can only apologise to any non-UK readers for; although, honestly, for any North Americans reading this, it feels like a reasonable exchange for having to hear so much about that tedious fcuking anti-Apple case)…https://webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-22-03-24/
Vigorous US lobbying reportedly reversed India PC import license scheme
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Washington was most displeased and New Delhi knew it made a mistake
India was subjected to intense US lobbying after suddenly imposing a requirement that computer importers obtain a license, according to a news report on Thursday.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/us_lobbies_india_pc_license/
Vernor Vinge, first author to describe cyberspace and ‘The Singularity,’ dies at 79
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CompSci and math professor by trade, he envisaged a galactic Usenet, and was utterly brilliant
Obituary Science fiction author and academic Vernor Vinge has departed this life, aged 79.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/vernor_vinge_obituary/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-22, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
On TikTok I started seeing video snippets from Roy Casagranda’s lecture.
Tonight we treat ourselves to a full lecture on YouTube.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112137135486320730
Indian court halts operations of government-run social media fact checker
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Rights groups protested potential for sneaky censorship of political rivals
India’s supreme court on Thursday halted a plan to activate a government-run fact-checking unit that would assess info posted about the nation’s government posted to social media platforms – the day after it was told to commence operations.…
Nikola inaugurates first HYLA modular hydrogen refueling station in Ontario, CA
date: 2024-03-22, from: Electrek Feed
Nikola, producer of fuel cell and battery electric semi trucks, held a grand opening for the first of its HYLA refueling stations. The goal is to build a hydrogen refueling network that can be rolled out quickly, and built up over time as fuel cell trucks become more common.
Japan’s NTT and NEC reckon they can boost optical network capacities 12x
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
First tests of manycore fibres hailed as success over oceanic distances
Japanese tech titans NTT and NEC reckon they’ve proven the performance of a novel fiber optic technology that could increase capacity of submarine cables by a factor of 12.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/nec_ntt_multicore_fibre_networks/
New York City’s largest public EV charging station is headed to JFK
date: 2024-03-22, from: Electrek Feed
New York City just announced it will build its largest publicly accessible EV charging station next to JFK Airport.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/new-york-citys-largest-public-ev-charging-station-is-headed-to-jfk/
45 Years Ago: Space Shuttle Columbia Arrives at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
date: 2024-03-22, from: NASA breaking news
On March 24, 1979, space shuttle Columbia arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the very first time. Following Presidential direction to build the space shuttle in 1972, Congress quickly approved and funded the program later that year. Construction of the first orbital vehicle, later named Columbia, began in 1975. Four years later, Columbia […]
Gloomy Youth Pull US, Western Europe Down Happiness List
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/gloomy-youth-pull-us-western-europe-down-happiness-list-/7538036.html
Impulse Music Co. holding RnB Night featuring Ivey Amour
date: 2024-03-22, from: The Signal
Fans of soul and R&B music can enjoy a night of entertainment at Impulse Music Co. on March 30 as St. Louis-based singer Ivey Amour is coming to Santa Clarita as part of her Haze Tour. The 23-year-old began performing when she was 9 years old and started recording music when she was 13. She […]
The post <strong>Impulse Music Co. holding RnB Night featuring Ivey Amour</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/impulse-music-co-holding-rnb-night-featuring-ivey-amour/
Friday 22 March, 2024
date: 2024-03-22, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Figures in a cloister Quote of the Day “I’ve been accused of vulgarity. I say that’s bullshit.” Mel Brooks Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news Liam O’Flynn | The Rocks Of Bawn Link Long Read of the Day A … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/friday-22-march-2024/39268/
US Official in Guatemala for Talks, Says Texas Migrant Law Unconstitutional
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
Guatemala city — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that a Texas law giving state authorities the power to arrest and deport migrants who have entered the country illegally is unconstitutional.
“It is our strongly held view as a matter of law that SB4 [the Texas law] … is unconstitutional and it is our hope and confidence that the courts will strike it down with finality,” Mayorkas said during a joint news conference with Guatemala President Bernardo Arevalo in the Guatemalan capital.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the Texas law Wednesday but did not rule. The law is on hold for now.
Mayorkas was in Guatemala to work on the U.S.-led regional strategy toward immigration. He described it as seeking to “build lawful, safe and orderly pathways for people to reach safety from their place of persecution and, at the same time, returning people to their countries as a consequence when they do not take advantage of those lawful pathways.”
Among those safe pathways is a U.S. effort to streamline the process for those seeking U.S. asylum in the region through so-called safe mobility offices. They allow migrants to start the process where they are rather than making the dangerous and costly journey to the U.S. border.
Guatemala’s safe mobility office, unlike some others like Colombia’s, is only open to Guatemalans seeking U.S. protection. One of the requests made by Mayorkas’ delegation was that Guatemala allow the safe mobility office to process requests for migrants from other countries, according to a Guatemalan official who requested anonymity because the issue was still under discussion.
Asked during the joint news conference if the U.S. government had asked Guatemala to sign a safe third country agreement, which Guatemala’s previous president had agreed to during the Trump administration, Mayorkas did not directly answer. Such an agreement would require migrants from other countries passing through Guatemala to seek protection from the Guatemalan government rather than at the U.S. border.
Asked again in the interview with the AP, Mayorkas said that Guatemala could be a safe destination for some migrants, but that he deferred to Arevalo’s administration on that.
The U.S. has sought to improve cooperation with countries along the migrant route, including Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, but Mayorkas acknowledged that it has been more challenging in Nicaragua and Venezuela, where the U.S. has strained relations with those governments.
Arévalo explained the talks in similar terms.
“We are operating under the principle that the immigration phenomenon is a regional phenomenon and that for that reason has to have answers framed in the collaborative efforts of different countries,” he said.
Mayorkas also offered words of support for the Guatemalan leader, whose election victory last year was challenged and whose party still faces prosecution from Guatemala’s attorney general.
“We know that the forces of corruption continue to seek to threaten democracy and the well-being of the people of Guatemala and beyond,” Mayorkas said. “The United States stands with President Arevalo and his fight for democracy against the forces of corruption and for the people of Guatemala.”
US Bolstering Philippines Amid Increasing Assertiveness by China
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
washington — The U.S. and Philippines will for the first time venture outside Manila’s territorial waters when they begin joint annual combat drills in April, a Philippines government spokesman said Thursday.
Colonel Michael Logico said elements of the Balikatan 2024 drills would be conducted about 22 kilometers (more than 12 nautical miles) off the west coast of Palawan, an island in the archipelago nation that faces a troubled region of the South China Sea.
Chinese ships this month blocked Philippine ships near the Second Thomas Shoal, a reef about 200 kilometers (120 miles) off Palawan that both sides claim.
“The message that we want to send is that we are serious about defending our territory and we have allies,” Logico said at a news conference, according to Philippine media.
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, all of which border the sea. An international tribunal at The Hague has rejected China’s claim.
Blinken visit
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Philippines this week to bolster relations between the two countries and underscore Washington’s commitment to Manila in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
Blinken on Tuesday cited China’s “repeated violations of international law and the rights of the Philippines: water cannons, blocking maneuvers, close shadowing, [and] other dangerous operations.”
China has been building up its military presence in the South China Sea by building on reefs, including the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which it effectively seized from the Philippines in 2012.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s government has defiantly sought to assert sovereignty over disputed areas by supplying troops and escorting fishing boats. He told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that he was not trying to start a conflict but “since the threat has grown, we must do more to defend our territory.”
The Philippines announced last week that it would build a new port with U.S. funding on its northern Batanes Islands, 200 kilometers (about 124 miles) from Taiwan.
While the port is expected to be for civilian use, analysts say it could also be used for military purposes and play an important role in defense — and not only for the Philippines.
Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor of politics at Australia’s University of New South Wales School of Humanities and Social Sciences, emailed VOA: “U.S. and Filipino forces in the northern Philippines would be able to monitor and strike Chinese forces in the event a conflict over Taiwan broke out.”
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must one day reunite with mainland China, by force if necessary, while the U.S. has vowed to defend Taiwan’s right to self-rule.
But the U.S. mainland is separated from the Taiwan Strait by about 11,000 kilometers (6,000 nautical miles), while mainland China is roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the democratic island.
‘Positive impact’ for Taiwan
Although the U.S. has military bases that are closer to Taiwan in Hawaii, about 8,150 kilometers (4,400 nautical miles); Guam, about 2,780 kilometers (1,500 nautical miles); and Okinawa, about 740 kilometers (400 nautical miles), analysts say the closer its military assets are to Taiwan, the faster they can respond and resupply in the event of a Chinese attack.
“While the Philippines may not change the situation in the Taiwan Strait, the greater interest in the Philippines by Washington and Tokyo will have a positive impact on Taiwan’s security,” said Thomas J. Shattuck, the senior program manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House, in an email to VOA.
“It will increase U.S. assets in Taiwan’s south,” Shattuck said. “It will make it harder for China to dominate in the ‘southern theater’ of a possible Taiwan conflict. But again, there is more work to be done in this regard.”
Marcos last year said the U.S. military would be allowed to use four new military bases in the Philippines, in addition to five where they are already allowed, for training, building infrastructure and pre-positioning supplies, though the access would not be permanent.
Although many countries in the Indo-Pacific region receive U.S. military assistance, the Philippines receives the most. From 2015 to 2022, Manila received more than $1.14 billion worth of aircraft, armored vehicles, small arms, equipment and training, $475 million of it in aid.
Blinken’s trip to the Philippines marks the second time a senior U.S. Cabinet official has visited the nation this month. On March 11, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced fresh investments from U.S. firms of more than $1 billion in the archipelago nation.
Despite China’s more assertive moves in the South China Sea, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Gregory Poling argues Beijing has lost momentum. Poling, who is senior fellow and director of CSIS’s Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, notes that since 2022, Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines have stopped giving ground to China.
At the same time, he writes in Eurasia Review, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have resumed development of infrastructure and oil and gas fields in the disputed region, despite China’s objections.
China’s provocative moves are one of the main topics expected to be on the agenda in April when President Joe Biden hosts a historic summit with Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Creature Named for Kermit the Frog Offers Clues on Amphibian Evolution
date: 2024-03-22, from: VOA News USA
washington — There definitely were no Muppets during the Permian Period, but there was a Kermit — or at least a forerunner of modern amphibians that has been named after the celebrity frog.
Scientists on Thursday described the fossilized skull of a creature called Kermitops gratus that lived in what is now Texas about 270 million years ago. It belongs to a lineage believed to have given rise to the three living branches of amphibians — frogs, salamanders and limbless caecilians.
While only the skull, measuring around 3 cm long, was discovered, the researchers think Kermitops had a stoutly built salamander-like body roughly 15-18 cm long, though salamanders would not evolve for another roughly 100 million years.
Amphibians are one of the four groups of living terrestrial vertebrates, along with reptiles, birds and mammals. The unique features of the Kermitops skull — a blend of archaic and more advanced features — are providing insight into amphibian evolution.
“Kermitops helps us understand the early history of amphibians by revealing there isn’t a clear trend of step by step becoming more like the modern amphibian,” said Calvin So, a George Washington University paleontology doctoral student and lead author of the study published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
The fossil was collected in 1984 near Lake Kemp in Texas and kept in the expansive collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington but was not thoroughly studied until recently.
Kermitops had a rounded snout, not unlike frogs and salamanders. Preserved in its eye sockets were palpebral bones, or eyelid bones, a feature absent in today’s amphibians. Its skull is constructed of roof-like bones, in contrast to the thin and strut-like bones of modern amphibians.
“The length of the skull in front of the eyes is longer than the length of the skull behind the eyes, which differs from the other fossil amphibians living at the same time. We think this might have allowed Kermitops to snap its jaws closed faster, enabling capture of fast insect prey,” So said.
The fossil record of early amphibians and their forerunners is spotty, making it difficult to figure out the origins of modern amphibians.
“Kermitops, with its unique anatomy, really exemplifies the importance of continuing to add new fossil data to understanding this evolutionary problem,” said National Museum of Natural History paleontologist and study co-author Arjan Mann.
Kermit the Frog was created by the late American puppeteer Jim Henson in 1955, and a Kermit puppet made in the 1970s is in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as an important cultural object.
Kermitops means “Kermit face,” a nod to the Muppet’s humorous look.
“We thought that the eyelid bones gave the fossil a bug-eyed look, and combined with a lopsided smile produced by slight crushing during the preservation of the fossil, we really thought it looked like Kermit the Frog,” So said.
Kermitops belonged to a group called temnospondyls that arose a few tens of millions of years after the first land vertebrates evolved from fish ancestors. The biggest temnospondyls superficially resembled crocodiles, including two that each were around 6 meters in length, Prionosuchus and Mastodonsaurus.
Temnospondyls are considered the progenitor lineage of modern amphibians, Mann said.
Kermitops existed about 20 million years before the worst mass extinction in Earth’s history and about 40 million years before the first dinosaurs. It lived alongside other members of the amphibian lineage as well as the impressive sail-backed Dimetrodon, a predator related to the mammalian lineage.
The environment in which Kermitops lived appears to have alternated between warm and humid seasons and hot and arid seasons.
“This environment would be similar to modern-day monsoons that take place in the Southwest U.S. and Southeast Asia,” So said.
Truck-to-truck worm could infect – and disrupt – entire US commercial fleet
date: 2024-03-22, updated: 2024-03-22, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The device that makes it possible is required in all American big rigs, and has poor security
Vulnerabilities in common Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) required in US commercial trucks could be present in over 14 million medium- and heavy-duty rigs, according to boffins at Colorado State University.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/22/boffins_tucktotruck_worm/
Nonprofit HomeFirst pulls out of South Bay homeless shelter after discrimination allegations
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
HomeFirst plans to continue running the 140-bed site through June, when another provider is expected to take over.
Immigrants aren’t stealing your jobs
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Americans need to reframe their view on immigration: It’s helping our economy.
The post Immigrants aren’t stealing your jobs appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/immigrants-arent-stealing-your-jobs/
SF Giants’ ‘aggressive, enthusiastic’ outfielder named Barney Nugent Award winner
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
OF Ismael Munguia was recognized by his teammates as the most deserving player in his first major-league camp.
TMU’s National Championship Hopes Dashed by Freed-Hardeman
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Battling back from a 12-point deficit, The Master’s University basketball team had the lead late but could not hold it, losing to the No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman 68-69 in the Round of 16 at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Men’s Basketball National Championship. With 19.1 seconds to play and trailing…
Joe Simitian pulls back into second, leading Evan Low by one vote
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
The race for second has had several lead changes over the last two weeks.
Driver arrested after inadvertent drop
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies arrested a man on suspicion of drug possession after a traffic stop apparently yielded evidence prior to a search. “Deputies were patrolling Canyon Country when they observed a vehicle with expired registration and no front license plate,” according to a post from the station’s Facebook page. “They conducted a […]
The post Driver arrested after inadvertent drop appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/driver-arrested-after-inadvertent-drop/
Michael Bloomberg shells out $500,000 to Super PAC backing former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo’s congressional bid
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Liccardo endorsed Bloomberg for president during the 2020 election.
Single family residence sells for $5.1 million in Palo Alto
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
A spacious house located in the 800 block of Moreno Avenue in Palo Alto has new owners. The 2,614-square-foot property, built in 1999, was sold on March 8, 2024. The $5,130,000 purchase price works out to $1,963 per square foot.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/21/single-family-residence-sells-for-5-1-million-in-palo-alto/
Feds toss case against Bouquet Canyon man; DA picks up charges
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
A Bouquet Canyon man is facing 11 weapons charges in L.A. County Superior Court next week, connected to a case that was dismissed from a federal courthouse after the defense raised questions about a search and how evidence was collected. About two weeks after the attorneys for the Department of Justice filed a motion Jan. […]
The post Feds toss case against Bouquet Canyon man; DA picks up charges appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/feds-toss-case-against-bouquet-canyon-man-da-picks-up-charges/
Appeals court order probe of juror bias in Boston marathon bombing
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
If the lower court’s investigation reveals either person should have been disqualified, the court should vacate Tsarnaev’s death sentence and hold a new penalty-phase trial to determine whether he should sentenced to death, the judges said.
Cougars Place Sixth at State Preview Tourney
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
GOLETA — College of the Canyons fielded two teams at the annual 3C2A State Preview event at Sandpiper Golf Course on Monday, with the Cougars finishing sixth and eighth in the field of 18 teams from around the state.
https://scvnews.com/cougars-place-sixth-at-state-preview-tourney/
‘We’re in this fight together’: Silicon Valley tech janitors rally for better working conditions
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
More than 200 janitors working at Silicon Valley’s largest businesses rallied for better working conditions.
BMW’s Neue Klasse EVs Aim To Be Profitable As Gas Engines Get More Expensive
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
At “high volume,” BMW’s new crop of EVs aim to make just as much money as ICE vehicles—which are not getting cheaper to build.
https://insideevs.com/news/713353/bmw-profit-neue-klasse-x/
NCAA Tournament: Oregon wins, Altman stays perfect and the second round awaits
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Ducks took down a higher seed as Dana Altman remained perfect in the first round during his Oregon tenure.
The Verge: ‘CarPlay Is Anticompetitive, Too, US Lawsuit Alleges’
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/21/24107976/apple-carplay-doj-lawsuit-anticompetitive-digital-key
Biden and Trump ask voters if they’re ‘better off’ than they were 4 years ago. It’s complicated
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Each candidate is hoping the answer skews in his favor — but the verdict may well hinge on whether people are reflecting back on the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of their pocketbooks or some broader sense of well-being.
US Regulators Urge Congress to Look Into Grocery Profits
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
New York — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recommended Thursday that policymakers look further into profits at grocery stores that remain elevated since the pandemic and promotions that consumer products makers offer retailers.
The FTC also is suing to block Kroger’s acquisition of smaller grocery store rival Albertsons, citing concerns the deal would hike prices for millions of Americans.
The FTC launched the study in 2021 when it ordered Walmart, Kroger, Procter & Gamble, grocery wholesalers and others to turn over detailed information relating to the supply chain crisis during the pandemic, which contributed to double-digit price increases on household necessities.
Big box and chain stores secured limited resources, leaving small independent grocers at a disadvantage, FTC Chairperson Lina Khan said on a public call to discuss the report. This harmed communities reliant on these smaller retailers and could have also strengthened market dominance of larger corporations, she added.
“If we end up finding that these types of practices violated any of the antitrust laws including the [Robinson-] Patman act, I’ll be very interested in making sure we take swift action,” she said without providing details.
The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 is a U.S. antitrust law preventing large franchises and chains from engaging in price discrimination against small businesses.
Several representatives of smaller grocery operators spoke on the call saying that during the pandemic, they faced shortages of toilet paper, cleaning products and pet supplies as manufacturers prioritized their biggest clients.
“It was a true test of survival for a lot of our customers,” said Brian Patterson, head buyer at Piggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Co.
Walmart and Kroger are among chains that have touted gaining U.S. grocery market share. Kroger’s most recent quarterly statements said it improved volume share consistently for the past five quarters. Walmart said it gained market share in “virtually every category,” citing its lower prices.
Walmart and Kroger did grow share from 2018 to 2022, but only modestly, according to Coresight Research data.
The FTC said it will pass the report onto lawmakers, “where there has been broad interest” from members of both parties.
U.S. President Joe Biden has taken aim at grocery chains this year.
“Today’s FTC report shows grocery retailers increased profits during the pandemic and have maintained or increased those margins even as their own costs have come down,” the White House said in an email to Reuters on Thursday.
In Thursday’s report, the FTC found that a measure of annual profits for food and beverage retailers “rose substantially and remains quite elevated.” The commission said revenues for grocery retailers were 6% over total costs in 2021, and 7% in the first nine months of 2023, higher than a peak of 5.6% in 2015.
“This casts doubt on assertions that rising prices at the grocery store are simply moving in lockstep with retailers’ own rising costs,” the FTC said, adding that elevated profit levels “warrant further inquiry” by both policymakers and the commission, which is tasked with protecting the public from unfair business practices.
The FTC also said trade promotions, payments by consumer goods companies to retailers for favorable product placement in stores and on e-commerce websites, “may warrant further study.”
The reduction in spending harmed traditional grocers that use a “high-low” pricing strategy with more frequent promotions, the FTC found.
Retailers that offer “everyday low pricing” with fewer promotions, like Walmart, benefited, according to the study.
Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FTC added that the report does not make claims of illegality.
“We’re shedding light on what we’re seeing in the market, which has broader relevance to policymakers beyond law enforcement.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-regulators-urge-congress-to-look-into-grocery-profits-/7537661.html
San Jose Mayor Mahan calls for Council to pass anti-displacement ordinance to combat gentrification
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
A new “tenant preference” policy would reserve 20% of affordable apartments for local low-income residents.
Silvers Goes for the Gold
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
New omakase sushi restaurant brings caviar dreams to the Santa Barbara Funk Zone.
The post Silvers Goes for the Gold appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/silvers-goes-for-the-gold/
Tesla Launches Cybertruck-Inspired CyberHammer
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Tesla will only make 800 of the cyberpunk sledgehammers. They’ll be available through the automaker’s referral program.
https://insideevs.com/news/713357/tesla-cyberhammer-referral-cybertruck-reward/
Mayor Cameron Smyth | Neon Nights Kicks Off SENSES Block Parties
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Did you know that each year, Main Street in Old Town Newhall undergoes countless makeovers for different events, such as Light Up Main Street and the Fourth of July Parade
https://scvnews.com/mayor-cameron-smyth-neon-nights-kicks-off-senses-block-parties/
Kuhlman Stepping Down as Hart District Superintendent
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Mike Kuhlman, superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District, will be leaving his post effective June 30, 2024, he announced in a district-wide email Wednesday night
https://scvnews.com/kuhlman-stepping-down-as-hart-district-superintendent/
Valencia girls lacrosse snaps Saugus win streak
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Valencia Vikings girls’ lacrosse had a total turn of the tides early on in its road league match with the Saugus Centurions. Valencia played tough defense and rode the hot stick of senior Olivia Fassino in the 10-6 win on Wednesday. Fassino outscored the Centurions (8-3-1, 1-1) and fired in seven goals — giving all […]
The post Valencia girls lacrosse snaps Saugus win streak appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/valencia-girls-lacrosse-snaps-saugus-win-streak/
Valencia students create local music festival
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Calling all music lovers in Santa Clarita: Valencia High School junior Elliott So, 16, along with other Valencia students, have founded the Heart Destruct Music Festival, with the purpose of shedding light on local performing acts and paying local bands. “This first started out as an idea that I had while I was running sound […]
The post <strong>Valencia students create local music festival</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/valencia-students-create-local-music-festival/
Flight of the Modern Marriners
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Joshua Bell–led Academy of St. Martin in the Fields features Vince Mendoza’s world premiere dedicated to late founder Sir Neville Marriner.
The post Flight of the Modern Marriners appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/flight-of-the-modern-marriners/
FAFSA Delays Prompt California to Extend Deadline for Financial Aid Applications
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Sacramento, California — The California Legislature on Thursday voted to give prospective college students more time to apply for two of the state’s largest financial aid programs after a glitch in the federal government’s application system threatened to block up to 100,000 people from getting help.
California had already extended the deadline for its financial aid programs from March 2 to April 2. On Thursday, the state Senate gave final approval to a bill that would extend it again until May 2. The bill now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Clearly, our students need our help,” Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat from Riverside who authored the bill, told lawmakers during a public hearing earlier this week.
California has multiple programs to help people pay for college. The biggest is the Cal Grant program, which gives money to people who meet certain income requirements. The state also has a Middle Class Scholarship for people with slightly higher incomes.
Students can apply for these state aid programs only if they first complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as FAFSA.
This year, a computer glitch prevented parents from filling out the form if they did not have a Social Security number. That meant many students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents but whose parents are not were blocked from completing the form and thus could not apply for California’s aid programs.
California has a large population of adults who are living in the country without legal permission. The California Student Aid Commission, the state agency in charge of California’s financial aid programs, estimates as many as 100,000 students could be affected by this glitch.
The U.S. Department of Education says it fixed the problem last week, but those families are now a step behind. Democrats in Congress raised alarms last month, noting that the delay could particularly hurt students in states where financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, including Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon and Texas.
Advocates fear that the chaos of this year’s process could deter students from going to college at all, especially those for whom finances are a key part of the decision.
The computer glitch is just one part of larger problems affecting FAFSA.
The notoriously time-consuming form was overhauled in 2020 through a bipartisan bill in Congress. It promised to simplify the form, going from 100 questions to fewer than 40, and it also changed the underlying formula for student aid, promising to expand it to more low-income students.
But the update has been marred by delays, leaving families across the country in limbo as they figure out how much college will cost.
The form is typically available to fill out in October, but the Education Department didn’t have it ready until late December. Even then, the agency wasn’t ready to begin processing the forms and sending them to states and colleges, which only started to happen this month.
The problems appear to have already reduced California’s application numbers. Through March 8, the number of California students who had completed FAFSA was 43% lower than it was at the same time last year.
“The data most concerning me seems to suggest that these drops are more acute at the schools that serve low-income students or large populations of students of color,” Jake Brymner, deputy chief of policy and public affairs for the California Student Aid Commission, told lawmakers in a public hearing earlier this week.
The issue has caused problems for colleges and universities, too. The University of California and California State University systems both delayed their admissions deadlines because so many prospective students were having trouble with FAFSA.
Lilbits: Android 15 Dev Preview 2, MediaTek chips with NVIDIA graphics, and Spellcheck for Notepad
date: 2024-03-21, from: Liliputing
Google has released the second developer preview of Android 15. As usual, since the company is initially targeting developers, the announcement is primarily focused on changes that app and game makers need to know. But also, as usual, observers have started to dig in and find other changes. Mishaal Rahman has posted some of his findings […]
The post Lilbits: Android 15 Dev Preview 2, MediaTek chips with NVIDIA graphics, and Spellcheck for Notepad appeared first on Liliputing.
Barger Issues Statement on FCC’s Proposed 9-8-8 Routing Changes
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Fifth District includes the Santa Clarita Valley, issued the following statement Thursday in response to an announcement by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel of a proposal to change how calls to the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline are routed
https://scvnews.com/barger-issues-statement-on-fccs-proposed-9-8-8-routing-changes/
FBI v the bots: Feds urge denial-of-service defense after critical infrastructure alert
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, they’re telling you why
The US government has recommended a series of steps that critical infrastructure operators should take to prevent distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/fbi_ddos_advice/
Daily EV Recap: Tesla Hackers win $200K & Model 3
date: 2024-03-21, 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/2024/03/21/daily-ev-recap-tesla-hackers-win-200k-model-3/
Early Chevy Blazer EV Buyers Can Get Reimbursed Up To $6,520
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Chevrolet dropped the price of its Blazer EV. Now it’s offering early buyers some money to make up the difference.
https://insideevs.com/news/713354/chevrolet-blazer-ev-reimbursement/
Hitt-Zuniga to represent COC in delegation to Iceland
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
News release Holly Hitt-Zuniga, an architecture and interior design instructor at College of the Canyons, has been selected to represent the college and the National Science Foundation’s Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education in Iceland as part of a 10-person delegation of educators participating in an international education program focused on clean energy and […]
The post Hitt-Zuniga to represent COC in delegation to Iceland appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/hitt-zuniga-to-represent-coc-in-delegation-to-iceland/
NASA’s Tiny BurstCube Mission Launches to Study Cosmic Blasts
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s BurstCube, a shoebox-sized satellite designed to study the universe’s most powerful explosions, is on its way to the International Space Station. The spacecraft travels aboard SpaceX’s 30th Commercial Resupply Services mission, which lifted off at 4:55 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 21, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. […]
https://science.nasa.gov/burstcube/nasas-tiny-burstcube-mission-launches-to-study-cosmic-blasts/
With Prop. 1 Passage, Gavin Newsom Again Changes How Californians with Mental Illness Get Help
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The ballot initiative voters approved this week will provide billions of dollars to fund housing and treatment facilities for mentally ill Californians.
The post With Prop. 1 Passage, Gavin Newsom Again Changes How Californians with Mental Illness Get Help appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
NASA Science, Hardware Aboard SpaceX’s 30th Resupply Launch to Station
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
Following a successful launch of NASA’s SpaceX 30th commercial resupply mission, new scientific experiments and technology demonstrations for the agency are on the way to the International Space Station, including studies of technologies to measure sea ice and plant growth in space. SpaceX’s Dragon resupply spacecraft, carrying more than 6,000 pounds of cargo to the […]
With Acute Hunger at ‘Record Levels,’ US Considers Aid Cuts
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/with-acute-hunger-at-record-levels-us-considers-aid-cuts/7537580.html
Deputies: Marijuana grower arrested on suspicion of weapons charge
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
A Lancaster marijuana grower was arrested Tuesday in Gorman on suspicion of carrying a weapon after patrol deputies found him driving a car with expired registration tags, according to a Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station official. Deputies on patrol performed a traffic stop on the vehicle being driven by a 44-year-old man after noticing […]
The post Deputies: Marijuana grower arrested on suspicion of weapons charge appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/deputies-marijuana-grower-arrested-on-suspicion-of-weapons-charge/
Microsoft faces bipartisan criticism for alleged censorship on Bing in China
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Redmond says it does what it’s told, but still thinks users are better off
Microsoft is the subject of growing criticism in the US over allegations that its Bing search engine censors results for users in China that relate to sensitive subjects the state wants blocked.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/microsoft_bing_china_criticism/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-21, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Hello Fediverse! I am also @migueldeicaza@threads.net
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112135768382671461
In case anyone is ever in the market for strange and cheerful…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044237-in-case-anyone-is-ever
Payload Adapter Testing: A Key Step for Artemis IV Rocket’s Success
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
A test version of the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s payload adapter is ready for evaluation, marking a critical milestone on the journey to the hardware’s debut on NASA’s Artemis IV mission. Comprised of two metal rings and eight composite panels, the cone-shaped payload adapter will be part of the SLS Block 1B configuration and […]
Firefighters handle trash truck fire on Highway 14
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded to reports of a trash truck on fire on the northbound Highway 14 near Placerita Canyon Road on Thursday afternoon, according to officials. The initial call came in at approximately 1:59 p.m. on Thursday for a vehicle fire, according to Geovanni Sanchez, a spokesman for the Fire Department. […]
The post Firefighters handle trash truck fire on Highway 14 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/firefighters-respond-to-reported-vehicle-fire-on-highway-14/
Wilk’s bill to study feasibility of new CSU campus clears Education Committee
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
News release Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, announced his bill to study the feasibility of a new California State University Campus in the Victor Valley passed out of the Senate Education Committee. “The High Desert is an oasis of affordability and growth in California, but there is still so much more potential worth tapping into,” […]
The post Wilk’s bill to study feasibility of new CSU campus clears Education Committee appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Audi is the latest automaker to reveal plans for a lower-cost EV
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Audi is joining the race as automakers gear up to introduce new, lower-cost EV models. The new entry-level EV will sit below the Q4 e-tron, which starts at just over $50,000.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/audi-latest-automaker-plans-lower-cost-ev/
Theft suspect stopped by store workers
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Loss prevention officers at Target helped Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies arrest a 19-year-old shoplifting suspect who’s being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. The woman was inside the retail store in the 19000 block of Golden Valley Road around 4 p.m. when deputies received a call that store employees were holding a felony […]
The post Theft suspect stopped by store workers appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/theft-suspect-stopped-by-store-workers/
‘Celebrate’ returning to Canyon Country Community Center
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
News release The Celebrate event series is back for its third year and offers insights into unique destinations from around the world, every second Friday of the month from April through September at the Canyon Country Community Center. Celebrate highlights different cultures, customs and culinary wonders featuring music, dance, food, art and educational experiences, according […]
The post ‘Celebrate’ returning to Canyon Country Community Center appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/celebrate-returning-to-canyon-country-community-center/
UC Santa Barbara Women’s Basketball Head Coach Bonnie Hendrickson Announces Retirement
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Hendrickson had a long and successful career coaching women’s basketball
The post UC Santa Barbara Women’s Basketball Head Coach Bonnie Hendrickson Announces Retirement appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
A Medieval Pilgrim May Have Carried This Basilisk Pendant to Guard Against Evil
date: 2024-03-21, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Found in Poland, the “pilgrim’s badge” was likely worn by a Christian traveler hundreds of years ago
Could Trump Scuttle the EPA’s New Car Rules?
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heatmap News
The D.C. Armory is big enough to fit an F-150 Lightning, a hybrid Jeep Compass, and a Cadillac Lyriq, with room to spare for an elephant.
That elephant was in the room on Wednesday when Michael Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, along with National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi announced the Biden administration’s finalized vehicle emissions standards, flanked onstage by plugged-in models from GM, Ford, and Stellantis. That element is the invisible, though nevertheless looming possibility of a second Trump administration.
Though climate advocates and environmental groups have celebrated the EPA’s rules for pushing the country closer to its net zero goals (while also lamenting that the rules didn’t go as far as planned), threats have been mounting. Perhaps none is more concerning than Trump’s potential return to the White House with the Project 2025 playbook in hand. The Heritage Foundation-authored blueprint for a Republican president explicitly describes dismantling the EPA and singles out as a priority reviewing “the existing ‘ramp rate’ for car standards to ensure that it is actually achievable.”
When Trump last took office, he replaced, eliminated, or otherwise undid more than 100 environmental rules, including Obama-era vehicle emissions standards. When I spoke to environmental lawyers at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, though, they stressed that the EPA’s regulations make it difficult for an unfriendly executive branch to shake them off.
If a future administration were to want to change the rules finalized this week, it would have to go through “a full rulemaking process,” Peter Zalzal, a member of EDF’s Domestic Climate and Air legal team, told me. That would include “a proposal that laid out the agency’s rationale for making those choices, and the facts supporting that rationale, and then hold a public comment process to incorporate stakeholder feedback.” Only after going through all that would it be able to take decisive action.
While it is possible that a Trump administration would attempt this, a senior advisor to the NRDC action fund who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity given the political nature of the question, stressed that groups like theirs would fight tooth and nail to halt such a rollback. There are plenty of stages in the EPA rulemaking process where environmental groups could intervene, including by taking the administration to court.
Trouble might start even sooner than January, though. By Thursday morning, there were already multiple reports of Republican attorneys general who had “warned the EPA against rolling out more aggressive tailpipe emissions standards,” and opponents in Congress had filed a bipartisan resolution to undo the rule. There’s even a world in which a decision could be punted up to the Supreme Court, whose recent decisions have been hostile toward the EPA’s regulatory powers. Additionally, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers trade group is planning a seven-figure ad spend across seven states “against the new rules heading into the 2024 election,” Kelley Blue Book reports, including an effort to brand them as a “gas car ban.”
The rules are definitively not a ban, and automakers are generally on board with them. “It’s just not a case that these standards require any kind of particular technologies,” Zalzal, from EDF, told me. “In fact, we’ve done modeling to show that manufacturers could meet these by selling very few battery electric vehicles.” (He added that, to be clear, that isn’t the expectation). Generally, experts seem to agree that the rules are on solid legal footing.
Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry. As my colleague Matthew Zeitlin has reported, California has quietly been working behind the scenes to get automakers to voluntarily comply with the regulations — and, in that way, sneakily “Trump-proof” the electrification push.
After all, that’s the one thing you can count on with elephants: You can see them coming.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-epa-car-rules
Things That Don’t Work. For instance: “Fixing relationship problems by having a…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044238-things-that-dont-work-for
Five Shocking Animal Hybrids That Truly Exist in Nature, From Narlugas to Grolar Bears to Coywolves
date: 2024-03-21, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The now-famous “virgin” stingray Charlotte is not having hybrid babies, scientists say. But in nature, distinct species sometimes interbreed to produce surprising offspring
Unite 5.2
date: 2024-03-21, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/unite-5-2/
Alfred 5.5
date: 2024-03-21, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/alfred-5-5/
What Biden’s New Car Emissions Rules Mean For You
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
The EPA’s tighter tailpipe emissions standards should save consumers billions in fueling and maintenance costs each year.
https://insideevs.com/news/713333/epa-tailpipe-emission-rules-biden/
BBEdit 15.0.2
date: 2024-03-21, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/bbedit-15-0-2/
Congress votes unanimously to ban brokers selling American data to enemies
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
At least we can all agree on something
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would prohibit data brokers from selling Americans’ data to foreign adversaries with an unusual degree of bipartisan support: It passed without a single opposing vote.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/congress_votes_unanimously_to_ban/
Apple Style Guide, March 2024 Edition
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
https://support.apple.com/guide/applestyleguide/welcome/web
Retrobatch 2.1
date: 2024-03-21, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/retrobatch-2-1/
U.S. Sues Apple Over iPhone Monopoly
date: 2024-03-21, from: Michael Tsai
David McCabe and Tripp Mickle (PDF, CourtListener, Hacker News, MacRumors): The Justice Department joined 16 states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, the federal government’s most significant challenge to the reach and influence of the company that has put iPhones in the hands of more than a […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/21/u-s-sues-apple-over-iphone-monopoly/
PopClip Leaving the Mac App Store
date: 2024-03-21, from: Michael Tsai
Nick Moore (via andy4222): PopClip’s almost 13-year journey on the Mac App Store has come to an end. The reason? I can’t update PopClip with new features on the Mac App Store any more. This is due to Apple’s sandboxing policy. […] The review team did also clarify that if I removed new features from […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/21/popclip-leaving-the-mac-app-store/
How to Bypass SwiftUI App Launch During Unit Testing
date: 2024-03-21, from: Michael Tsai
Jon Reid: For apps with an application delegate, I’ve written How To Switch Your iOS App Delegate for Improved Testing. This lets us set up a separate launch sequence for test runs that does only the bare minimum. Can we do the same thing for SwiftUI apps that use @main? Yes, we can.[…]Basically, this conditional […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/21/how-to-bypass-swiftui-app-launch-during-unit-testing/
Glassdoor No Longer Anonymous
date: 2024-03-21, from: Michael Tsai
cellio (via Hacker News, Reddit): Glassdoor now requires your real name and will add it to older accounts without your consent if they learn it, and your only option is to delete your account. They do not care that this puts people at risk with their employers. They do not care that this seems to […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/21/glassdoor-no-longer-anonymous/
Tesla Cybertruck resale market loses all momentum
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla Cybertrucks were getting more than twice their value on the resale market just a few weeks ago, but the electric pickup truck has now lost all its momentum in terms of resale value.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/tesla-cybertruck-resale-market-loses-all-momentum/
Girls Inc. of Carpinteria Presents Fuel Her Fire Event Honoring Community Leaders Sonia Aguila, Tim Cohen, and Junior Honoree Ellie Lou Olvera Ignite Success!
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Girls Inc. of Carpinteria proudly announces Fuel Her Fire, previously known as Women of Inspiration, to be held on April
The post Girls Inc. of Carpinteria Presents Fuel Her Fire Event Honoring Community Leaders Sonia Aguila, Tim Cohen, and Junior Honoree Ellie Lou Olvera Ignite Success! appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Dawson’s Creek Stars James Van Der Beek, Kerr Smith Nearly Died on Jetskis
date: 2024-03-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The two used to ride jetskis while filming the show and got into all sorts of shenanigans, including almost dying.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713339/dawsons-creek-james-van-der-beek-kerr-smith-jetski/
At UN, Nations Cooperate Toward Safe, Trustworthy AI Systems
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
United Nations — The U.N. General Assembly adopted by consensus Thursday a first-of-its-kind resolution addressing the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate progress toward sustainable development, while emphasizing the need for safe, secure and trustworthy AI systems.
The initiative, led by the United States, seeks to manage AI’s risks while utilizing its benefits.
“Today as the U.N. and AI finally intersect, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to choose as one united global community to govern this technology rather than to let it govern us,” said U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “So let us reaffirm that AI will be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, safety and security, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The Biden administration said it took more than three months to negotiate what it characterized as a “baseline set of principles” around AI, engaging with 120 countries and incorporating feedback from many of them, including China, which was one of the 123 co-sponsors of the text.
While General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, they reflect the political consensus of the international community.
The resolution recognizes the disparities in technological development between developed and developing countries and stresses the need to bridge the digital divide so everyone can equitably access the benefits of AI.
It also outlines measures for responsible AI governance, including the development of regulatory frameworks, capacity building initiatives and support for research and innovation. The resolution encourages international collaboration to address the evolving challenges and opportunities AI technologies pose, with a focus on advancing sustainable development goals.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed adoption of the resolution, saying all nations must be guided by a common set of understandings on the use of AI systems.
“Too often, in past technological revolutions, the benefits have not been shared equitably, and the harms have been felt by a disproportionate few,” she said in a statement. “This resolution establishes a path forward on AI where every country can both seize the promise and manage the risks of AI.”
At the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, in January, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the risk of unintended consequences with “every new iteration of generative AI.” He said it has “enormous potential” for sustainable development but also the potential to worsen inequality.
“And some powerful tech companies are already pursuing profits with a clear disregard for human rights, personal privacy and social impact,” he said at the time.
The U.N. chief created an AI advisory body last year, and it will publish its final report ahead of the U.N.’s Summit of the Future in September.
https://www.voanews.com/a/at-un-nations-cooperate-toward-safe-trustworthy-ai-systems/7537491.html
RECORDATORIO: Las audiencias de rezonificación del elemento de vivienda comienzan la próxima semana
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Miércoles 27 de marzo de 2024 en el Centro Santa María Betteravia (sala de audiencias en 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy, Santa
The post RECORDATORIO: Las audiencias de rezonificación del elemento de vivienda comienzan la próxima semana appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
REMINDER: Housing Element Rezone Hearings Begin Next Week
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Wed. Mar. 27, 2024 at the Santa Maria Betteravia Center hearing room at 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy, Santa Maria and Mon. Apr. 1,
The post REMINDER: Housing Element Rezone Hearings Begin Next Week appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/reminder-housing-element-rezone-hearings-begin-next-week/
Brownell’s Four RBIs Propel Mustangs to Victory
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Cason Brownell had a bases-loaded double in the first and added a home run in the sixth to knock in all four runs The Master’s University needed in a 4-3 win over Westcliff Tuesday in Irvine
https://scvnews.com/brownells-four-rbis-propel-mustangs-to-victory/
Incredibly Well-Preserved Bronze Age Village Reveals a Snapshot of Early British Life Before a Fire
date: 2024-03-21, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Residents fled when flames burned through the Must Farm settlement, and now, archaeologists have unearthed its buildings and objects that were preserved in a riverbed
On Returning to Childhood Hobbies
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/on-returning-to-childhood-hobbies
World’s First Tesla Cybertruck Teardown Shows Botched Door Hinge Install
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Caresoft Global found plenty of cool details about the Cybertruck’s battery pack, steer-by-wire system, giga castings, and more.
https://insideevs.com/news/713343/first-tesla-cybertruck-teardown-caresoft-global/
Grow Your Business with Help from SCVEDC
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation plays a pivotal role in fostering business growth and prosperity within the region
https://scvnews.com/grow-your-business-with-help-from-scvedc/
Channelkeeper’s Blue Water Ball Celebrates Nonprofit’s Work to Protect and Restore Santa Barbara’s Watersheds
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Annual fundraiser brings more than 200 guests out for seaworthy support.
The post Channelkeeper’s Blue Water Ball Celebrates Nonprofit’s Work to Protect and Restore Santa Barbara’s Watersheds appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Microsoft’s first AI PCs Surface with Intel cores and a Copilot key
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Upgraded fondleslab and laptops limited to business buyers only, for now
At a virtual press conference on Thursday, Microsoft showed off the latest additions to its Surface hardware via an updated tablet and business laptops that Redmond assures us are built for using AI for just about everything.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/microsoft_ai_surface/
Custody Deputy Honored at Military Order of the World Wars Awards Luncheon
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, Calif. – On Wednesday, March 30, 2024, Custody Deputy Florice Soto was honored at the Military Order of the
The post Custody Deputy Honored at Military Order of the World Wars Awards Luncheon appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
The new System76 Lemur Pro is a 2.2 pound Linux laptop with Intel Meteor Lake
date: 2024-03-21, from: Liliputing
Linux PC company System76 is now selling its first laptop powered by an Intel Meteor Lake processor. The latest version of the System76 Lemur Pro is a thin and light laptop with a 14 inch FHD display and support for up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155U processor. It’s available now for $1399 and […]
The post The new System76 Lemur Pro is a 2.2 pound Linux laptop with Intel Meteor Lake appeared first on Liliputing.
A Rumble in the Jungle
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Exploring Peru with family and friends.
The post A Rumble in the Jungle appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/a-rumble-in-the-jungle/
Jason Snell on US v. Apple
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
https://sixcolors.com/post/2024/03/u-s-versus-apple-a-first-reaction/
Nations Pledge to Boost Nuclear Power to Fight Climate Change
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Paris — Representatives of 30 nations meeting in Brussels vowed to beef up nuclear energy Thursday as one solution to meet climate-fighting targets and guarantee reliable energy supplies. But the issue of nuclear power is divisive, and critics say it shouldn’t be part of the world’s approach to energy challenges.
The summit was the first of its kind, drawing leaders and delegates from the United States, Brazil, China and France, among others. The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, co-hosted the meeting and is promoting nuclear energy as a key way to reduce skyrocketing climate emissions.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said, “The heads of government, presidents, they believe that in the current context energywise, securitywise, nuclear has a very important contribution to make.”
Over 400 nuclear plants operate in about 30 countries, with another 500 planned or under construction. But overall, nuclear represents 10% of global electricity generation. In a statement, countries attending the meeting committed to increasing nuclear power’s potential, including by building new plants.
White House climate advisor John Podesta said, “I think what this summit will do, will put a marker down … that expansion of nuclear power is critical for tackling the climate crisis that is really beginning to disturb everyone across the globe.”
European Union countries such as France, which gets about 70% of its electricity from nuclear power, believe it can help meet ambitious European climate goals.
But the EU itself is divided. Some member states, including Germany, Austria and Spain, have safety and environmental concerns about nuclear energy, including the waste it generates.
So do groups such as Greenpeace, whose activists protested the Brussels summit.
Lorelei Limousin, the climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace EU in Brussels, said, “Nuclear power is too slow to tackle the climate emergency. Nuclear energy is also very expensive, and much more expensive than renewables today. Finally nuclear power remains dangerous today — with risks to health, environment, safety.”
Supporters say those risks can be managed — and they say that for now, increasing nuclear’s share of the power mix is essential if the world is to turn around a dangerous climate trajectory.
https://www.voanews.com/a/nations-pledge-to-boost-nuclear-power-to-fight-climate-change/7537385.html
See You at SENSES! Unveiling an Incredible Lineup of Block Parties
date: 2024-03-21, from: City of Santa Clarita
See You at SENSES! Unveiling an Incredible Lineup of Block Parties By Mayor Cameron Smyth Did you know that each year, Main Street in Old Town Newhall undergoes countless makeovers for different events, such as Light Up Main Street and the Fourth of July Parade? One event in particular, though, transforms the street with a […]
The post See You at SENSES! Unveiling an Incredible Lineup of Block Parties appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
Station Science 101: Cardiovascular Research on Station
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
Everyday physical activities keep the cardiovascular system healthy. The human cardiovascular system, which includes the heart and blood vessels, has evolved to operate in Earth’s gravity. When astronauts travel to space, their bodies begin to adjust to the microgravity of their spacecraft. Blood and other bodily fluids previously pulled downward by gravity now move toward […]
https://www.nasa.gov/general/station-science-101-cardiovascular-research-on-station/
NIO’s New ONVO And Firefly Brands Aim For Mass Volume In Europe
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
NIO’s CEO stressed that ONVO is a medium-tier brand meant for families.
https://insideevs.com/news/713278/onvo-firefly-nio-volume/
The Majesty of Cold Mountain
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/the-majesty-of-cold-mountain
COC Names Kaiya Cortinas, JT Saenz Athletes of the Week
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons student-athletes Kaiya Cortinas (women’s track and field) and JT Saenz (men’s track and field) have been named the COC Athletic Department’s Women’s and Men’s Student-Athletes of the Week for the period running March 11-
https://scvnews.com/coc-names-kaiya-cortinas-jt-saenz-athletes-of-the-week/
Electronic Protection Devices’ Electro-Clamp line
date: 2024-03-21, from: Computer ads from the Past
The Underrated Virtues of Plain Vanilla
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/electronic-protection-devices-electro
Local Homeschoolers Encouraged to Join ‘Home at the Library’
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Attention homeschoolers in Santa Clarita!
https://scvnews.com/local-homeschoolers-encouraged-to-join-home-at-the-library/
Inception Attacks
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/03/21/inception-attacks/
Microsoft launches Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Business (with Intel Meteor Lake chips)
date: 2024-03-21, from: Liliputing
The new Microsoft Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business are the company’s first PCs to feature Intel Meteor Lake processors with integrated NPUs for on-device AI features. They’re also the first with dedicated Copilot keys on the keyboard for activating Microsoft’s new AI assistant features. But in case the names didn’t make […]
The post Microsoft launches Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Business (with Intel Meteor Lake chips) appeared first on Liliputing.
First non-Tesla branded V4 Superchargers are being deployed
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Following Tesla’s foray as a charger hardware supplier, the first non-Tesla-branded V4 Supercharger stations are now being deployed.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/first-non-tesla-branded-v4-superchargers-are-being-deployed/
U.S. Department Of Justice Alleges That Apple CarPlay Is Anti-Competitive
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Lawyers for the federal government say Apple’s desire to take over your car is yet another instance of anti-competitive behavior.
https://insideevs.com/news/713331/us-doj-sues-apple-carplay/
Santa Clarita Sister Cities Hosting Students from Matsudo, Japan
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita, in partnership with Santa Clarita Sister Cities, is proud to host Matsudo, Japan through a youth delegation between the city of Santa Clarita, Santa Clarita Sister Cities, College of the Canyons, Academy of the Canyons (AOC) and the William S. Hart Union High School District
https://scvnews.com/santa-clarita-sister-cities-hosting-students-from-matsudo-japan/
Licensing labyrinth for Power Apps and Dynamics 365 must be clarified, warns expert
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Rules still unclear for Microsoft users making potentially costly decisions on enterprise applications
Microsoft needs to clarify licensing arrangements around its low-code Power Apps and Dynamics 365 software to prevent users from receiving unexpected bills for their projects.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/microsoft_dynamics_365_power_apps/
March 20, 2024
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-20-2024
Oregon Is Now Home to the World’s Largest Dark Sky Sanctuary
date: 2024-03-21, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary covers 2.5 million acres in the southeastern part of the state
If you bought a Chevy Blazer EV, you may be eligible for an up to $6,500 reimbursement
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
After GM drastically cut the starting price of the new Chevy Blazer EV, early buyers are now eligible for a reimbursement of up to $6,520.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/chevy-blazer-ev-buyers-eligible-6500-reimbursement/
New Extinct Species of Giant Dolphin Discovered in Peru From a 16-Million-Year-Old Skull
date: 2024-03-21, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Pebanista yacuruna is the largest freshwater dolphin ever found, but it is more closely related to today’s river dolphins of South Asia than those in the Amazon
Texas Sues xHamster and Chaturbate
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the porn sites after having also sued Pornhub, complaining that the sites are not complying with Texas’ age verification law.
https://www.404media.co/texas-sues-xhamster-and-chaturbate/
Sitting here in an old Patagonia fleece, I couldn’t feel aesthetically further…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044233-sitting-here-in-an-old
Learning from the War on Terror
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: RAND blog
What’s been happening in Gaza suggests that none of the lessons from 20 years of global counterterrorism conflicts were implemented there. In addition to the needless destruction and tragic loss of life in Gaza, from a military and intelligence perspective, all the hard-gained lessons from the global war on terror have been wasted.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/03/learning-from-the-war-on-terror.html
Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the All-New LiveWire S2 Mulholland
date: 2024-03-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
LiveWire’s latest is a sleek cruiser-inspired all-electric and we’re intrigued.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713337/2024-livewire-s2-mulholland-specs-price-motorcycle-ev/
Mentoring the Next Generation of Engineers and Improving Shock Testing Standards
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
The year 2023 was productive for the Loads & Dynamics (L&D) Technical Discipline Team (TDT). New shock and modal analysis techniques were developed and mentoring the next generation of NASA discipline experts continued. Additionally, NESC Technical Bulletin No. 23-3, New Transient Finite Energy Shock Prediction Methodology, was released. Early Career Community Nurtures Development of NASA’s […]
Schwinn e-bikes start from $590, Goal Zero power station $176, other EVs, more more
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Discounts keep rolling in during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale event, with today’s green deals headlined by Schwinn’s e-bike models receiving up to 46% off discounts, led by the Marshall Electric Hybrid Bike at $756. It is joined by Goal Zero’s Yeti 200X Portable Power Station falling to $176 alongside other models and bundles, as well as a one-day only sale on NIU’s KQi2 Pro Foldable Electric KickScooter for $380. 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/2024/03/21/schwinn-e-bikes-goal-zero-power-station-and-more/
Partner of Russian Businessman Accused of Violating Sanctions May Also Be In Violation
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Shuttle, Family Inspire NASA’s Cryogenic Technology Manager
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
By Daniel Boyette Jeremy Kenny squinted his eyes as he looked toward the brilliant light. Then came the deafening sound waves that vibrated his body. This was the moment he’d dreamed about since childhood. It was Nov. 16, 2009, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Kenny and his wife were watching space shuttle […]
High Insurance Costs On Chinese EVs Are Scaring Away UK Buyers
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Long repair times and parts scarcity are driving up rates, and the high premiums are scaring away buyers.
https://insideevs.com/news/713295/high-insurance-uk-chinese-byd/
Advent of Computing: Episode 127 - Nim
date: 2024-03-21, from: Tilde.news
https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-127-nim
SEAT Cupra CEO confirms Formentor EV and a new electric SUV are coming to the US
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
SEAT S.A. shared its full 2023 financial results earlier today while also outlining its plans for the future. Part of its strategy includes bringing its Cupra EVs over to the US market, beginning with the all-electric version of the Formentor crossover as well as a larger SUV.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/seat-cupra-ceo-confirms-formentor-ev-new-electric-suv-coming-to-us/
World’s first Neuralink patient enjoying online chess, long Civ 6 sessions
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
While excited by the implant, Noland Arbaugh says it’s not perfect and there’s still work to be done
Neuralink’s first human patient is now a public figure, with the company publishing a video yesterday showing him playing chess on a laptop and talking about how “freakin’ lucky” he is to be involved in the tests.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/first_human_neuralink_patient/
Diary Comics, Nov. 30-Dec.2
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/diary-comics-nov-30-dec2
The First Open Ocean Carbon Removal Project in the U.S. Just Got a Green Light
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heatmap News
When visitors flock to the beach this summer in Duck, North Carolina, a small, 6-mile long town on the Outer Banks, they may catch a glimpse of a climate experiment happening among the waves.
About 1,500 feet offshore, a company called Vesta will be pouring 9,000 tons of sand into the sea and watching carefully to see what happens next. This finely crushed rock will not be of the typical Outer Banks variety. Instead, it will consist of a mineral called olivine, which should enhance the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere — and lock it away for thousands of years.
That the experiment can go ahead at all marks a milestone for ocean-based carbon removal, a category of climate solutions that prod the ocean into sucking up more CO2. A big obstacle for the field has been the lack of a legal framework for permitting real-world trials — U.S. laws governing the ocean weren’t written with the prospect of intentionally altering its chemistry to address an existential environmental crisis in mind. But after an 18-month interagency review process, Vesta is now the first company with a federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deploy a stand-alone carbon removal test in U.S. waters.
Though 9,000 tons may sound like a lot, this is still a relatively small-scale pilot designed to assess how effective the olivine is in driving carbon removal, as well as observe any other changes in the environment and develop methods for tracking the movement of the sand in the water. These kinds of field trials are essential to establishing which marine carbon removal methods have potential and which don’t.
“We want to measure everything very carefully at this stage and make sure that we are fully understanding the safety profile and the carbon removal data from this project,” Tom Green, Vesta’s CEO, told me. But the company has big aspirations. If things go well, he said, maybe olivine could be used for beach nourishment projects all over the country, where sand is deposited along the shore to address erosion. “Imagine the carbon removal possibilities if we did that with olivine sand,” he said. “We could quickly become the largest technique for permanent carbon removal that’s out there.”
Scientists generally agree that stopping global warming this century will require both reducing emissions and taking carbon out of the atmosphere. The sheer size of the ocean and its natural ability to store vast amounts of carbon make it an enticing place to look for solutions.
Dumping thousands of tons of non-native sand into the ocean may not sound like the most convincing option — especially since the ocean is already “experiencing unprecedented destabilizing changes through massive warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and a host of resulting effects,” according to an open letter published last year and signed by hundreds of scientists. However, despite this — or perhaps because of it — the letter called for accelerating research to find out whether any of the proposed ocean-based carbon removal methods, including releasing large quantities of ground olivine, are viable.
Olivine is an abundant mineral with special properties. When it comes into contact with seawater, it drives a chemical reaction that converts CO2 gas into more stable forms of carbon that can’t readily return to the atmosphere. This in turn creates a deficit of CO2 in the surface waters, which triggers the ocean to take up more from the atmosphere in order to maintain equilibrium.
Reactions like this are happening constantly in the ocean already, but on very slow timescales. Vesta’s innovation is to speed up the process by crushing and deploying olivine strategically where the wind and waves can most efficiently weather it away.
The
site of an earlier Vesta test project in the
Hamptons.Courtesy
of Vesta
Olivine could address the harms of CO2 pollution in more ways than one. The ocean already absorbs about 30% of the carbon released into the atmosphere each year, which has made the water more acidic and less hospitable to many of its inhabitants. But when olivine triggers these reactions, it can act as a sort of antacid. This approach to carbon removal is also known as enhancing the ocean’s alkalinity and olivine is just one of a number of different ways to do it. Another company called Planetary is experimenting with adding a different mineral, magnesium hydroxide, to the ocean. Ebb Carbon, on the other hand, is sucking up seawater and running it through a membrane to increase its alkalinity, before returning it to the tides.
Both already have field trials up and running, but instead of trying to conduct stand-alone experiments in the open ocean they’ve hitched onto existing ocean dumping permits. Ebb, for example, has set up at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s facility in Sequim, Washington, where it is releasing treated seawater into wastewater that flows into the bay. Similarly, Planetary is conducting pilot projects at the wastewater outflows of a water treatment facility and power plant in Canada. Other ocean carbon removal companies, such as Los Angeles-based Captura, have opted to move abroad for their early projects and avoid the U.S. permitting puzzle altogether.
Vesta went to Duck because it is among the most studied stretches of coastline in the country. The town is home to an Army Corps coastal field research center known for its long-term data set on the surrounding waters. “Few locations on the globe provide a better archive of wave, water, bathymetry and other forces that shape nearshore conditions,” according to the Army Corps’ website. (“Bathymetry” is the topography of the seafloor.) That means Vesta will be able to get a more accurate picture of any changes the olivine is responsible for.
When Drew Havens, the town manager in Duck, first heard about Vesta’s plans, he was skeptical. “You’re dumping something into the ocean, people automatically go to, well, is it going to harm humans? Is it going to be harmful to wildlife or other living organisms?” he told me.
Though some in the town are still nervous, Havens said he has become more comfortable with the idea as the project has been rigorously reviewed by environmental protection regulators at the federal and state level. Vesta’s scientists also engaged with the town council, did an open house for members of the public, and have generally invited questions and open dialogue.
Just because regulators have determined that the risks of this pilot project are low, however, doesn’t mean using olivine for carbon removal is risk-free. For one, the rock has to be mined — in this case, from a quarry in Norway, although it is also found in the U.S. — and transported to the project site. That’s likely to produce some environmental impacts, though the company estimates that the project will ultimately remove about 10 times more CO2 from the atmosphere than the emissions associated with running the experiment, including the mining and shipping of olivine.
But the biggest risk with mined olivine is that it contains nickel, said Jaime Palter, an associate professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who has no affiliation with Vesta. Nickel can act as both a nutrient and a toxin for phytoplankton, she told me, so it’s important to study whether putting olivine in the ocean will result in adverse effects.
Vesta has been closely examining that possibility. In fact, the project in Duck will be the company’s second U.S. field trial. In the summer of 2022, Vesta got permission from the town of Southampton in Long Island to spread olivine on the beach as part of a larger sand replenishment project that was already in the works. Vesta’s scientists worked with local academic partners at Cornell, SUNY Stony Brook, and Hamilton College to do extensive monitoring both before and after the sand was placed, collecting data on more than 20 indicators of the effects on the water, sediment, and ecology.
The company has since published two annual reports on the project. It is still awaiting analysis of many of the samples, but so far, the results have been promising, Green said. There has been no sign of trace metal accumulation in Eastern Oysters, a species known to accumulate pollutants from their environment, for instance. There was also no significant difference in water quality between control areas and the sites with olivine, and trace metal concentrations were below the relevant EPA water quality guidelines. The area’s benthic macrofauna — critters like clams and small crustaceans that live on or near the seafloor — were as abundant and various as before.
Notably, the tests also showed evidence of an increase in alkalinity in the waters of the olivine-treated area, which is the key reaction that leads to carbon removal. But Green said there’s more work to be done in terms of calculating where and when removal may have happened.
There’s also more work to be done to understand the effects of olivine in different environments, which brings us back to Duck. There, it will be deposited in 25-foot deep water instead of on the beach, helping Vesta to further refine its data and measurement methods. The plan is to continue testing and collecting data at the site for at least two years. The company declined to comment on the budget for the project. Vesta is funded primarily by venture capital investors but also raises money for research through an affiliated nonprofit.
Vesta may have been the first to get a federal permit to run a marine carbon removal test, but it definitely won’t be the last. Nikhil Neelakantan, a senior project manager at Ocean Visions, which is a nonprofit that advocates for ocean-based climate solutions, told me there are a number of other domestic projects in the pipeline, including more than a dozen government-funded research projects. The White House also recently set up a marine carbon removal fast track action committee with the mandate to create recommendations for policy, permitting, and regulatory standards for both research and implementation.
Neelakantan said there is work to do on clarifying the role of different agencies in regulating ocean carbon removal, and which laws apply to each method.
“This is an early first step, and it’s exciting to see that it’s finally going to come to fruition,” he said, of Vesta’s project in Duck. “I think there’s momentum with this federal task force. It’s going to be the first of many others that will happen soon.”
https://heatmap.news/technology/ocean-carbon-removal-vesta
Isuzu’s D-MAX BEV Is The Compact Electric Truck You Really Want
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
The battery pack is just 67 kWh, and it launches in Europe in 2025.
https://insideevs.com/news/713216/isuzu-dmax-bev-pickup-truck/
Artificial Intelligence and Biotechnology: Risks and Opportunities
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: RAND blog
Machine learning is helping scientists make sense of the genetic keys that could unlock new crops, new drugs, and vaccines. But policymakers may not be prepared for the impact those two fields could have together. To make the most of the opportunities to come, and to avoid the dangers, that has to change.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/articles/2024/artificial-intelligence-and-biotechnology-risks-and.html
Bajaj Is Gearing Up To Launch First CNG Motorcycle
date: 2024-03-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
CNG-powered vehicles pose lower costs and improved efficiency versus their gasoline-powered siblings.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712318/bajaj-cng-motorcycle-coming-2024/
Boston Hospital Performs First Successful Pig Kidney Transplant to Human
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Santa Clarita Sister Cities Hosts Matsudo, Japan
date: 2024-03-21, from: City of Santa Clarita
SANTA CLARITA SISTER CITIES HOSTS MATSUDO, JAPAN Promoting Cultural and Student Exchange Across the Globe The City of Santa Clarita, in partnership with Santa Clarita Sister Cities, is proud to host Matsudo, Japan through a youth delegation between the City of Santa Clarita, Santa Clarita Sister Cities, College of the Canyons, Academy of the Canyons […]
The post Santa Clarita Sister Cities Hosts Matsudo, Japan appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/03/21/santa-clarita-sister-cities-hosts-matsudo-japan/
Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup – Sunday, March 24th at 1:00 PM EDT
date: 2024-03-21, from: Tilde.news
https://iffybooks.net/event/permacomputing-march-24
Building a Community of Practice
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
The Thermal and Fluids Analysis Workshop (TFAWS) is an annual event cosponsored by the NESC’s Thermal Control & Protection, Environmental Control & Life Support, Aerosciences, and Cryogenics Technical Discipline Teams in collaboration with the TFAWS Steering Committee. It is well known for a diverse set of events and remains a model for Community of Practice […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/nesc/building-a-community-of-practice/
A Tranquil Sunrise
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
A fast boat crosses the waters several hours after NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 splashdown on March 12, 2024. The SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft landed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. The Crew-7 members spent nearly six months in space as part of Expedition 70 on the International Space Station. Throughout their […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/a-tranquil-sunrise/
California Set Aside Money For Children Orphaned By COVID. Now The State Just Has To Find Them
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The LAist
Starting next year, California will set up trust funds for kids in low-income families who lost a parent to COVID. The state doesn’t know who all those kids are, though.
Green Bubble Vindication: DOJ Antitrust Lawsuit Says Apple Is Causing Android Users ‘Social Stigma’
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
“This social pressure reinforces switching costs and drives users to continue buying iPhones—solidifying Apple’s smartphone dominance not because Apple has made its smartphone better, but because it has made communicating with other smartphones worse.”
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Scripting News: Why we're lucky WordPress is here and other topics.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/21/125505.html
BYD expands reach in Europe with best-selling Atto 3, Seal EV launching in Greece
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
China’s leading EV maker, BYD, is expanding its presence in Europe by launching its best-selling Atto 3 and Seal in Greece. BYD said more models are launching soon.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/byd-expands-europe-atto-3-seal-ev-launch-greece/
Advancing Human Spaceflight Safety
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
As NASA continues to pursue new human missions to low Earth orbit, lunar orbit, the lunar surface, and on to Mars, the NESC continues to provide a robust technical resource to address critical challenges. The NESC Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), Crew Systems, and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) discipline is led by the NASA […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/nesc/advancing-human-spaceflight-safety/
Making Connections
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/making-connections
NASA, Health and Human Services Highlight Cancer Moonshot Progress
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
During an event at NASA Headquarters in Washington Thursday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra united to note progress their respective agencies are making in space and on Earth toward President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. “We go to space not […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-health-and-human-services-highlight-cancer-moonshot-progress/
Big Oil Is Unhappy With The EPA’s New Rules
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, Ford lets dealers list EVs below MSRP, and a recall for many Hyundai and Kia vehicles is here.
https://insideevs.com/news/713270/big-oil-upset-epa-ruling/
Like Water
date: 2024-03-21, from: Chris Coyier blog
Shaw with some helpful advice on live audio: A friend explained it to me like water. Gain is controlling how much water to let in, and Level is controlling how much water to let out. Lower gain means less sound picked up overall (which helps with feedback) and the level will control how much you […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/03/21/like-water/
Cloud Software Group snubs GPL obligations, say critics
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Spawn of Citrix and Tibco ‘no longer able to support the community edition of JasperReports Server’
Even if you decide to stop offering free editions, you don’t get to stop providing the source code to FOSS, users of JasperReports Server are complaining.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/csg_fails_to_honor_agpl/
United States files antitrust lawsuit against Apple
date: 2024-03-21, from: OS News
For many years, Apple has built a dominant iPhone platform and ecosystem that has driven the company’s astronomical valuation. At the same time, it has long understood that disruptive technologies and innovative apps, products, and services threatened that dominance by making users less reliant on the iPhone or making it easier to switch to a non-Apple smartphone. Rather than respond to competitive threats by offering lower smartphone prices to consumers or better monetization for developers, Apple would meet competitive threats by imposing a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions in its App Store guidelines and developer agreements that would allow Apple to extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience, and throttle competitive alternatives. It has deployed this playbook across many technologies, products, and services, including super apps, text messaging, smartwatches, and digital wallets, among many others. Apple’s conduct also stifles new paradigms that threaten Apple’s smartphone dominance, including the cloud, which could make it easier for users to enjoy high-end functionality on a lower priced smartphone—or make users device-agnostic altogether. As one Apple manager recently observed, “Imagine buying a Android for 25 bux at a garage sale and it works fine … And you have a solid cloud computing device. Imagine how many cases like that there are.” Simply put, Apple feared the disintermediation of its iPhone platform and undertook a course of conduct that locked in users and developers while protecting its profits. Critically, Apple’s anticompetitive conduct not only limits competition in the smartphone market, but also reverberates through the industries that are affected by these restrictions, including financial services, fitness, gaming, social media, news media, entertainment, and more. Unless Apple’s anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct is stopped, it will likely extend and entrench its iPhone monopoly to other markets and parts of the economy. For example, Apple is rapidly expanding its influence and growing its power in the automotive, content creation and entertainment, and financial services industries–and often by doing so in exclusionary ways that further reinforce and deepen the competitive moat around the iPhone. ↫ DoJ antitrust lawsuit vs. Apple The United States Department of Justice is filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138900/united-states-files-antitrust-lawsuit-against-apple/
HOW THINGS TURN OUT
date: 2024-03-21, from: Howard Jacobson blog
This post is for paid subscribers. Sorry. But needs must. You would make my day were you to consider becoming a paid subscriber yourself. Heres a taster of what, among much else, you’d be getting … ‘Who’s the funniest writer you’ve ever read?’ a woman asked me the other day in a hotel in Tenerife where I’d gone to recuperate from a London chest infection. I always seem to be recuperating from something these days. But I guess that beats dying from it.
https://jacobsonh.substack.com/p/how-things-turn-out
Pennsylvania’s largest solar farm will replace its largest coal plant
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Pennsylvania’s largest solar farm has been awarded $90 million and will sit on 2,700 acres of the shuttered Homer City coal plant’s land.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/pennsylvanias-largest-solar-farm-will-replace-its-largest-coal-plant/
Merrick Garland’s Remarks on the Lawsuit Against Apple’s Supposed Monopoly
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
Why I don’t write dev posts
date: 2024-03-21, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>There are some 400 or so blog posts on this site. I could be wrong but I think I wrote precisely 1 dev focused post. I wrote a few blog posts here and there that are tangentially work-related because they’re about projects I worked on but that’s about it.</p>There’s a reason why I don’t write about dev stuff. And it’s not because I find it boring or uninspiring. Quite the contrary. I love learning about web stuff. I love reading Robin’s The Cascade for example. There’s always something new happening on the web, especially in the frontend space. And as a—former?—designer I love learning about front-end stuff.
The reason why I don’t write about dev stuff it’s because, like many others, I suffer from impostor syndrome. I’ve been working on the web for more than 12 years. I’m still convinced I don’t know shit. I scroll through minimal.gallery or OPL, see the work of all those great designers and developers, and reinforce this idea that there are, in fact, countless people out there who are better than me.
Don’t get me wrong, the rational part of me knows that’s not entirely true. Of course there are people that are better than me. There will always be people better than me at literally everything. Still, this sensation of not knowing shit keeps following me around and it’s the reason why I don’t write about web stuff. This is also the reason why I said no when I was offered the possibility to teach. I know, it’s probably stupid but it is what it is. Dealing with my mind is a tough job.
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A nice remembrance of Lisa Lane, perhaps an inspiration for The Queen’s…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044230-a-nice-remembrance-of-lis
Figuring out how ipsec transforms work in Linux
date: 2024-03-21, from: James Bottomley’s blog
I’ve had a couple of reasons recently to wonder about ipsec: one was doing private overlay networks in confidential VMs and the other was trying to be more efficient than my IPv4 openVPN when I’m remote on an IPv6 capable network. Usually ipsec descriptions begin with tools like raccoon or strong/open/libreswan; however, I’m going to […]
https://blog.hansenpartnership.com/figuring-out-how-ipsec-transforms-work-in-linux/
Updates 2024/Q1
date: 2024-03-21, from: mrusme blog
Project updates from the current consecutive three-month period, with info on the current status of my projects and next steps. You might find this interesting in case you’re using any of my open source tools.
https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/updates-2024-q1/
Rivian is offering attractive R1T, R1S lease deals starting as low as $559 per month
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
If you’ve had your sights set on a Rivian electric vehicle, now could be the perfect opportunity. Rivian is offering attractive EV lease deals on the R1T and R1S, starting as low as $559 per month.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/rivian-offering-r1t-r1s-ev-lease-deals-as-low-as-559-mo/
Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire launches first electric cruiser motorcycle, S2 Mulholland
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
LiveWire, the all-electric motorcycle company spun out of Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle division, has just unveiled its latest electric motorcycle. The new LiveWire S2 Mulholland is the brand’s first cruiser electric motorcycle, and in fact the first cruiser of any major electric motorcycle maker.
Blake Snell brings something different to SF Giants’ rotation
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
In a pitching department that has prioritized two things — strikes and sinkers — Snell is a novel subject.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/21/blake-snell-brings-something-different-to-sf-giants-rotation/
Yacht dealer to the stars attacked by Rhysida ransomware gang
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
MarineMax may be in choppy waters after ‘stolen data’ given million-dollar price tag
The Rhysida ransomware group claims it was responsible for the cyberattack at US luxury yacht dealer MarineMax earlier this month.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/luxury_yacht_dealer_rhysida/
Shell Is Closing 1,000 Gas Stations To Focus On EV Charging
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Shell, which is preparing for an electric future, says gas will only play a “backup role” in the future.
https://insideevs.com/news/713296/shell-closes-1000-gas-stations-to-focus-on-ev-charging/
US Takes On Apple in Antitrust Lawsuit
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued Apple, the first major antitrust effort against the iPhone maker by the Biden administration, alleging it monopolized smartphone markets.
Apple joins a list of major tech companies sued by U.S. regulators, including Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com across the administrations of both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
“Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”
The Justice Department alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and merchants.
The civil lawsuit accuses Apple of an illegal monopoly on smartphones maintained by imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access from, developers.
Apple has already been subject to antitrust probes and orders in Europe, Japan and Korea, as well as lawsuits from corporate rivals such as Epic Games.
One of Apple’s most lucrative businesses - its App Store, which charges developers commissions of up to 30% - has already survived a lengthy legal challenge under U.S. law by Epic. While the lawsuit found that Apple did not violate antitrust laws, a federal judge ordered Apple to allow links and buttons to pay for apps without using Apple’s in-app payment commission.
In Europe, Apple’s App Store business model has been dismantled by a new law called the Digital Markets Act that went into effect earlier this month. Apple plans to let developers offer their own app stores - and, importantly, pay no commissions - but rivals such as Spotify and Epic argue Apple is still making it too hard to offer alternative app stores.
The rulings on Apple’s App Store forced the Justice Department to look at Apple’s other practices for the basis of a complaint, such as how Apple allows outside firms to access the chips and sensors in the iPhone.
Consumer hardware firms, such as smart-tracker maker Tile Inc, have long complained that Apple has restricted the ways in which they can work with the iPhone’s sensors while developing competing products that have greater access.
Apple began selling AirTags - which can be attached to items like car keys to help users find them when they are lost - several years after Tile had been selling a similar product.
Similarly, Apple has restricted access to a chip in the iPhone that allows for contactless payments. Credit cards can only be added to the iPhone by using Apple’s own Apple Pay service.
And Apple has also faced criticism over its iMessage service, which only works on Apple devices.
Apple has long argued that it restricts access to some user data and some of the iPhone’s hardware by third-party developers for privacy and security reasons.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-takes-on-apple-in-antitrust-lawsuit/7537016.html
A plant that’s everywhere is fueling a growing risk of wildfire disaster
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
The West is most at risk, where more than two-thirds of the homes burned over the last 30 years were located. Of those, nearly 80% were burned in grass and shrub fires.
The sights and sounds of various video game systems being switched on,…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044231-the-sights-and-sounds-of
To Understand the EPA’s Car Rules, Look to China
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heatmap News
On Wednesday, the Biden administration finalized sweeping new rules that will sharply limit how much carbon pollution new cars and trucks can emit into the atmosphere. The rules — which rank as one of Biden’s most important climate moves — are aimed at accelerating the country’s transition to electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, requiring most new cars sold in 2032 to burn little gasoline or none at all.
My colleague Emily Pontecorvo has an excellent explainer on how the new rules work. But I want to focus on one more aspect: Why they are able to do so much more than previous tailpipe regulations.
The new rules are not the Environmental Protection Agency’s first foray into regulating climate-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes. Since 2010, the EPA has periodically tightened new limits on the amount of climate-warming pollution that cars and light-duty trucks can emit. The new rules are in some ways merely the next evolution of that approach.
But they also go much further than the agency ever has before. Where previous regulations essentially required automakers only to sell some conventional hybrids and electric vehicles, by the beginning of next decade, the lion’s share of cars sold in the United States must be electric vehicles or hybrids, the EPA now says.
Why is that ambition possible? One reason is that the United States has a more aggressive climate law on the books now than it has had during past rulemakings. Biden’s climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, will subsidize the purchase, leasing, and manufacturing of electric vehicles. Because of how the EPA calculates the costs and benefits of its proposals, these subsidies will significantly cut the projected cost of even an ambitious rule — in this case by as much as $65 billion. (The agency calculates that consumers will save even more money — up to a staggering $230 billion — by paying less gasoline tax because they will be buying less fuel.)
Yet the IRA is not the only reason — or even the main reason — these rules can go so much further than what was previously imagined. If the United States can pursue such an ambitious standard now, that’s because it’s following on the heels of electric vehicle policy passed in other jurisdictions: China, California, and the European Union. These state and national policies have set the pace for the EV transition around the world, setting new market expectations or significantly cutting the costs of building an electric car.
They also created a sense of inevitability around electric vehicles. “The future is electric. Automakers are committed to the EV transition,” John Bozella, the president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a car-industry trade group in Washington, said in a statement Wednesday on the EPA rules.
Corey Cantor, an analyst at the market research firm BNEF, summed it all up. “What is different this time — compared to say, where the world was in 2016 — is that there is now a thriving global EV market, versus a nascent one,” he said. There are also a handful of global companies poised to profit from a global EV transition, regardless of what Ford, Toyota, General Motors, and other legacy auto brands do.
Even before Biden asked the EPA to issue new regulations, in other words, these policies had changed the metaphorical game board — and changed how far the agency could push the rules.
These global policies don’t all take the same form. California and the European Union already require that all new cars sold in 2035 must be electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids, although the EU has carved out an exception for a theoretical zero-carbon gasoline replacement.
Due to a longstanding provision in the Clean Air Act, other U.S. states can opt into California’s stricter air pollution laws. So far, 14 in total — making up more than 40% of America’s light-duty car market — have adopted California’s 2035 zero-emissions vehicle mandate.
China, meanwhile, has not set a requirement that all cars must plug in by a certain year. Instead, it will require that “new energy vehicles” — a category that can include EVs and plug-in hybrids, but also conventional hybrids — must make up half of all car sales by 2035. But Chinese companies have raced ahead of this target. Wang Chuanfu, the CEO of the massive Chinese automaker BYD, estimated this weekend that 50% of China’s car sales could be new energy vehicles as soon as June.
All together, these mandates added up to a strong market signal. By last year, more than half of the global auto market was already covered by some form of clean vehicle rule — even before the EPA did anything final. Now, if the new EPA rules are enforced as written, then more than 60% of the world’s car market will be subject to some kind of emissions mandate.
This reflects, at least in part, a recognition that the global car market is changing beyond the ability of Washington politicians to influence it. “If we’re talking 10 years from now, policy probably won’t be needed, at least in leading markets. EVs will have just naturally taken over the market,” Stephanie Searle, who leads research programs at the International Council on Clean Transportation, told me.
Over the past year, a parade of cheap new EVs from Chinese automakers — including the BYD Seagull, a sub-$10,000 hatchback that gets up to 251 miles of range — have stunned the automotive industry. Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, told investors last month that the company was reorienting its strategy to combat the rise of Chinese electric-car makers, such as BYD and Geely.
“If you cannot compete fair and square with the Chinese around the world, then 20% to 30% of your revenue is at risk,” Farley said at an industry conference last month. He disclosed that Ford had set up a secret internal “skunkworks” engineering team to make an affordable electric vehicle that could compete head-to-head with Chinese models on cost. The company has delayed the release of a new electric three-row SUV in order to produce three roughly $25,000 models, according to a Bloomberg report last week.
“Automakers see the future is electrified, and they see that Chinese companies will eat their lunch if they don’t get going,” Searle, the clean transportation researcher, said. “There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.”
But China’s dominance was not inevitable — it was itself the result of ambitious industrial policies. Roughly 15 years ago, China identified the electric vehicle industry as a sector where it could eventually become a global leader in export markets, Benjamin Bradlow, a Princeton professor of sociology and international affairs, told me.
Since then, the country’s leaders have targeted the EV sector with generous subsidies far beyond what Americans lawmakers considered for the IRA, he said. They have also encouraged the EV industry’s geographic spread across China and required automakers to sell a certain percentage of EVs across their vehicle fleet.
“It’s a very different style of policymaking” from what America has done with the IRA, Bradlow said, although like that law it also aimed to lower the cost of technologies. “[China] is targeting a sector and it’s being very specific about being at the technological and price frontier — it’s very export-oriented.”
These policies have succeeded beyond imagining. China is now the world’s largest exporter of cars, and it has become a goliath in the EV industry. The country has achieved what hippies and renegades have long claimed is possible: a thriving and cutthroat electric vehicle industry, where consumers are willing to buy EVs without significant subsidies. (Indeed, China’s electric-car makers have been locked in a price war over the past year, driving even greater adoption as prices fall.)
These Chinese industrial policies — along with American and European-funded R&D — have cut tens of thousands of dollars from EV prices. Over the past three decades, the cost of manufacturing a battery has fallen by 97%, and by 2027 manufacturing a new EV battery is projected to cost less than $100 a kilowatt-hour, a long-theorized benchmark at which an electric vehicle will be competitive with a gasoline vehicle.
In the United States, mandates and subsidies in achieving mass EV adoption have not been quite as enthusiastically received. Some 7% of new cars sold in the United States last year were EVs, an all-time high. Plug-in and conventional hybrids made up an additional 8% of new car sales, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Those sales shares will need to double repeatedly in the years ahead for American automakers to meet the EPA’s new standards. And they point to at least one form of success that has alluded American policymakers so far: creating a robust, popular EV industry that can win over consumers on its own terms.
“The ultimate success of the policy and transition overall is a mix between policy, consumer adoption, and the automakers themselves,” Cantor, the BNEF analyst, told me.
For the first time ever, in other words, “automakers who fall behind may pay a far higher cost for failure to transition,” Cantor said. And that — above anything else — is what makes these EPA rules different from any that have come before.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/epa-rules-china-eu-california
How Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Helps Neural Networks Compute
date: 2024-03-21, from: Quanta Magazine
Large language models do better at solving problems when they show their work. Researchers are beginning to understand why.The post How Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Helps Neural Networks Compute first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Tesla hackers win $200k and Model 3 for finding new vulnerability
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla hackers have won $200,000 and a brand-new Model 3 for finding a new vulnerability in the automaker’s system.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/tesla-hackers-win-200k-model-3-finding-new-vulnerability/
Uncle Sam, 15 US states launch antitrust war on Apple
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Lawsuit alleges iGiant rips off fans, stifles dev innovation, makes it tough to dump iOS for rivals
The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple, accusing the iMaker of stifling innovation and undermining competitors through its App Store guidelines and developer agreements.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/apple_antitrust_doj_battle/
DoJ, 15 states sue Apple for anti-competitive behavior
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Complaint alleges iGiant uses policies to overcharge customers, stifle dev innovation, make it hard to ditch iOS
breaking news The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple, accusing the iMaker of stifling innovation and undermining competitors through its App Store guidelines and developer agreements.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/doj_15_states_sue_apple/
NASA’s Chandra Identifies an Underachieving Black Hole
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
This image shows a quasar, a rapidly growing supermassive black hole, which is not achieving what astronomers would expect from it, as reported in our latest press release. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) and radio data from the NSF’s Karl G. Jansky’s Very Large Array (red) reveal some of the evidence for this quasar’s disappointing impact on its […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-chandra-identifies-an-underachieving-black-hole/
Larry Magid: Doing your taxes doesn’t have to be taxing
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Many online resources and filing sites can provide many of the services you need
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/21/larry-magid-doing-your-taxes-doesnt-have-to-be-taxing/
Bell’s Broozer Helmet Gains ECE 22.06 Certification
date: 2024-03-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A versatile, retro-themed lid that doesn’t skimp on safety one bit.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/712375/2024-bell-broozer-ece-2206/
It’s time California schools teach landmark desegregation case, say the sisters at the heart of it
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Sylvia Mendez and Sandra Mendez Duran testified before an Assembly committee in Sacramento, imploring legislators to help teach their story.
Reddit finally goes public
date: 2024-03-21, from: Marketplace Morning Report
On Thursday, Reddit debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RDDT. The social network is valuing itself at $6.4 billion. But we wondered: Why go public now? Plus, the Congressional Budget Office says that the national debt will be smaller than previously thought, citing less government spending and more immigration. And we look at why we may end up with higher interest rates over the next few years.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/reddit-finally-goes-public
1600-Person Pub Choir Sings Radiohead’s Creep
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/1600-person-pub-choir-sings-radioheads-creep
Best of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (mobile tech deals and more)
date: 2024-03-21, from: Liliputing
Amazon is running its first ever Big Spring Sale, which sort of positioned as yet-another Prime Day-like sale over the past few weeks. But now that it’s here, it looks like there are some good deals… but they vary depending on the product category, brands, and specific items you’re looking at. That said, the Samsung […]
The post Best of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (mobile tech deals and more) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/best-of-amazons-big-spring-sale-mobile-tech-deals-and-more/
Hiroshima Statue That Survived Nuclear Explosion Stands in Manhattan
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Following the Hollywood success of Christopher Nolan’s biopic of Robert Oppenheimer, a more obscure but no less interesting memory from the atomic age can be found in Manhattan, not too far from one of Oppenheimer’s boyhood homes. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Max Avloshenko
U.S. Department of Justice Sues Apple, Accusing It of Illegally Abusing an iPhone Monopoly
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/technology/apple-doj-lawsuit-antitrust.html
Here’s the U.S. Government’s Antitrust Case Against Apple
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
Here are the court documents for the DOJ’s antitrust case against Apple.
https://www.404media.co/us-government-antitrust-case-against-apple-documents/
Apple sued in a landmark iPhone monopoly lawsuit
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
It’s the largest in a recent string of Big Tech companies to face antitrust complaints from the US government, which is cracking down on the massive industry, whose power has gone largely unchecked over the past several decades.
Contract Specialist Dr. Danielle May
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
“Not only was I going to school, raising a family, and working a full-time job, but I was also the state director for my sorority [and was responsible for] over 1,200 members at one time. And I think it comes down to perseverance. At the end of the day, you’re going to do what needs […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/contract-specialist-dr-danielle-may/
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2024-03-21, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
🗞 Now Available: March IIIF Newsletter, including:
🔹 Preliminary Program for the 2024 IIIF Conference
🔹 New Map
projects
🔹 Updated tools
Read the full issue: https://mailchi.mp/iiif/mar24
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/112134172026434805
Meta, Microsoft, X, Match pledge selves to Epic battle against Apple App Store
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You have my sword … and my bow … and my axe!
Meta, Microsoft, X, and Match Group are piling on Apple in support of Epic Games’ ongoing legal battle over the Cupertino giant’s stranglehold on its App Store.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/meta_microsoft_x_match_pledge/
Five Tips from NASA for Photographing a Total Solar Eclipse
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
A total solar eclipse creates stunning celestial views for people within the path of the Moon’s shadow. This astronomical event is a unique opportunity for scientists to study the Sun and its influence on Earth, but it’s also a perfect opportunity to capture unforgettable images. Whether you’re an amateur photographer or a selfie master, try […]
https://www.nasa.gov/science-research/five-tips-from-nasa-for-photographing-a-total-solar-eclipse/
Heatmap Is Hiring a Senior Reporter
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heatmap News
The climate media startup Heatmap News is looking for a veteran,
ambitious reporter to lead its coverage of the intersection of renewable
energy projects and politics.
This writer will report to the editor-in-chief and be tasked with reporting on how local and national politics are helping or hindering clean energy projects across the country. They should be well-sourced, deft at navigating data, and able to traverse government websites and polls to extract insights. They should also be knowledgeable about tax incentives and permitting issues — words like 45x and the interconnection queue should mean something.
The salary minimum is $80,000 and the maximum is $110,000. Competitive benefits, unlimited paid time off, and a generous equity plan, which gives employees a real stake in the company, are also offered. This position is remote.
Interested candidates should send a brief cover letter and resume to editors@heatmap.news.
Heatmap News is a new media platform with a team of alums from The Week, The Atlantic, Vox, Grid, and Grist focused on the biggest story of our time: climate change.
Heatmap News is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
To sample Heatmap’s work, poke around the site and sign up for our newsletter:
https://heatmap.news/heatmap-is-hiring-a-senior-reporter
It seems like there’s going to be a third Downton Abbey movie….
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044229-it-seems-like-theres-goin
Spring showers expected to end Bay Area’s sunny spell
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
The weather service issued a winter storm watch for the Sierra Nevada above 5,000 feet.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/21/spring-showers-expected-to-end-bay-areas-sunny-spell/
Fisker Ocean Slammed By Consumer Reports For Being An ‘Unfinished’ Product
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
That’s despite the EV running the latest software version.
https://insideevs.com/news/713280/fisker-ocean-consumer-reports-review-unfinished-product/
Tesla expands referral program rewards with free premium connectivity
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla has expanded its owner’s referral program rewards with the addition of free premium connectivity.
The automaker has been stacking up incentives at the end of the quarter.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/tesla-expands-referral-program-rewards-free-premium-connectivity/
From the octagon to the mat: Why MMA fighters are succeeding as high school wrestling coaches
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
“I think the rise of MMA has contributed to a once dying sport,” St. Francis girls wrestling coach Joey Bareng says.
Micron bounces back as AI drives up memory prices
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Our HBM is sold out for calendar 2024,’ trills CEO
Micron is basking in a market bounceback, crediting the surge of interest in AI for a jump in the company’s revenue, even though buyers face the prospect of rising memory prices for the year ahead.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/micron_bounces_back_to_profit/
NASA’s Hubble Finds that Aging Brown Dwarfs Grow Lonely
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
It takes two to tango, but in the case of brown dwarfs that were once paired as binary systems, that relationship doesn’t last for very long, according to a recent survey from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Brown dwarfs are interstellar objects larger than Jupiter but smaller than the lowest-mass stars. They are born like stars […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-that-aging-brown-dwarfs-grow-lonely/
Volkswagen’s Cupra Brand Is Coming To The U.S. With Two EVs: CEO
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
By the decade’s end, the VW Group will plan a bigger electric U.S. expansion with SEAT’s Cupra brand and “a new distribution model.”
https://insideevs.com/news/713290/volkswagen-seat-cupra-usa/
A team at NASA is trying to reestablish communication with Voyager 1…
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044227-a-team-at-nasa-is
Hermes makes Birkin bags too hard to buy, California shoppers claim in suit
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Hermes won’t sell the rare bags to just anyone, and it requires potential buyers to purchase thousands of dollars of other products just for the chance they’ll get access to the coveted leather totes, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday seeking class-action status.
Hyundai and Kia to recall 147,000 EVs in the US including the IONIQ 5, EV6
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Hyundai Motor Group, including Kia and Genesis, is set to recall over 147,000 EVs in the US due to potentially damaged charging units.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/hyundai-kia-recall-147k-evs-us-ioniq-5-ev6/
SAP users aren’t keen on upping spending right now
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cloud and upgrade conversions remain steady if sluggish, according to ERP spending bellwether DSAG
The German-speaking SAP user group has released data showing the region’s appetite for budget increases in spending is diminishing, casting a shadow over the prospects for cloud transformation projects.…
Meta, Microsoft, X band together against Apple’s App Store plans
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
In a rare joint filing, the companies said Apple’s plan “comports with neither the letter nor the spirit” of a 2021 ruling which found iPhone maker in violation of California unfair competition laws and required it to allow app developers to direct users to their own payment systems.
7 terrific Bay Area things to do this weekend, March 22-24
date: 2024-03-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Got your weekend plans? We have some nifty ideas, from cool exhibits and shows to a fun-packed Yountville getaway.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/21/7-terrific-bay-area-things-to-do-this-weekend-march-22-24/
Four Electric Pickup Trucks Were Driven Until They Died. Only One Met Its Advertised Range
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
The Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Chevrolet Silverado EV were driven at 70 MPH until they ran out of juice.
https://insideevs.com/news/713220/eletric-pickup-range-test-video/
Deadspin Is Becoming a Gambling Referral Site
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
“We aim to be able to support delivery of this via partnerships within the sports betting industry.”
https://www.404media.co/who-owns-deadspin-now-lineup-publishing/
The Experience AI Challenge: Find out all you need to know
date: 2024-03-21, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
We’re really excited to see that Experience AI Challenge mentors are starting to submit AI projects created by young people. There’s still time for you to get involved in the Challenge: the submission deadline is 24 May 2024. If you want to find out more about the Challenge, join our live webinar on Wednesday 3…
The post The Experience AI Challenge: Find out all you need to know appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/the-experience-ai-challenge-find-out-all-you-need-to-know/
Majority of Tesla Giga Berlin workers vote against union, but IG Metall still makes progress
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
A majority of Tesla Gigafactory Berlin workers voted against union representatives of IG Metall in their new work council, but the union has still made significant progress.
How do you verify that?
date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Rupert blog
Hank Green posted a video about four lies he believed. It’s a great video because it’s embarrassing to be wrong on the internet and here is smart person™️ Hank Green admitting he believed some bullshit. As you travel through the internet you’re constantly working against a lot of personal biases, like confirmation bias or the overconfidence bias, and it’s easy to slip up. It’s (biologically) difficult to correct your understanding as new facts invalidate what you believed true.
One simple question I’ve started asking a lot is: “How do you verify that?”
I’ve seen some compelling demos where LLMs take a jumble of text and spit out compelling artifacts like an image, some b-roll, a spreadsheet, a website, or an entire daily news podcast. It’s incredible… until my buzzkill brain starts asking questions. Images are easy to verify: does image look correct or does it contain phantom limbs and have five rows of teeth? Text summary or expansion, also within possibility to verify. A website? I mean… I can tell you if it’s an okay website code-wise but I’m probably an outlier here. Validating the accuracy of a larger corpus of data that got summarized, keyworded, and categorized? Oof. This is where the scales tip for me because it seems improbable. Or at least time consuming. Perhaps as time consuming as it takes to do the work yourself?
To be fair to the robots (why would I ever say this?) I think it’s worth pointing the question at myself. I’ve been thinking about my “old world” method of verifying facts and determined I have the following routine.
- I consume a lot
- I experiment
- I ask experts
When I say “consume a lot”, I mean I read hundreds – sometimes thousands – of articles and watch hundreds of videos each week (cf. novelty seeking, information addiction) as well as my book habit. To make that theoretical knowledge more practical, I prototype and experiment to answer questions. With a basic understanding established, I often ask experts for their perspective. For web tech, that’s lots of open questions or DMs to people I know care about a specific technology. I’ll then sometimes have those people on my podcast to prod them some more.1
Like loose change and shells rattling inside a coffee can, I collect all those informational tidbits and filter them through my years of experience and how my brain works. That produces an outcome I’m generally satisfied with, informed yet potentially wrong. It’s not too different from an LLM where the outputs are only as good as their inputs.
My inputs are sometimes flawed. If Books Could Kill… is a podcast where the hosts do takedowns of my favorite books: self-help pop-psychology airport books. They do an incredible job at on-the-fly fact checking, reading criticisms, scrutinizing every assertion, asking “Hey wait, is that true?” on every page and have nearly ruined the entire genre for me. I assume you learn this brand of skepticism in journalism school and the trade-off is that you’ll never enjoy a book again in your life. But I need to remind myself the goal of a book isn’t to get to the last page, it’s to expand your thinking.
I wish I did better at this (so I don’t repeat falsehoods) but collecting factoids makes me feel smart and I like feeling smart so now they’re insulated inside a little blanket of my personal biases. Fact-checking in realtime doesn’t tickle the ol’ grey matter. It doesn’t have the same dopamine response.
One more story and I’ll let you go. In an effort to not be a total fucking grandpa all the time I’m trying to use AI more while keeping an open mind. It’s been… challenging. But the other day I needed a fact checked – something one of my investors mentioned during our YCombinator application process that was noodling around in my head – and a regular search didn’t return any results, so I tried a trending AI search tool that provides citations.
- First it told me “Yes, this was true” but cited the wrong reasons.
- So I hit it with an “Are you sure?” and it changed its answer to “No, it’s not true” but cited a random Hacker News comment that asserted the opposite.
- So I said “Your source says the opposite” and it KFC doubledown’d and said “No, it’s not true.”
- So I copy-pasted the text from their own source into the prompt and it said “Yes, this was true.”
That’s a… complex user journey. And it happens to me a lot. I wonder if this tech falls victim to its own compelling demos. The “Time to First Demo” is so short and often so profound, we fill in the possibilities with our own projections and science fiction. It’s harder to question the quality or veracity when our imaginations and our biases get wrapped up in the idea because it might mean questioning ourselves… which is not something humans are biologically engineered to do well.
Okay, this is the last bit I promise. There’s one line from that Hank Green video that stands out to me in this whole self-fact-checking debacle…
I was fine with having the [mis]information put into my head, but when I put it into someone else’s head, I felt a little weird about it so I went to check just in case.
That seems like a humane approach to sharing information. Be liberal in what you accept, fact-check on the way out. I hope I can get better at that.
-
Asking experts isn’t limited to tech either, if I share an area of interest with someone and they recommend an album, movie, coffee, book, or menu item; I’ll take them up on it. I’ll implicitly trust them to guide my experience. In Japan this is omakase and it’s transcendent. ↩︎
https://daverupert.com/2024/03/lies-damned-lies-and-stochastics/
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Discriminates Against Short Kings, Gamers Lose Their Minds
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
A 690 posts-long Steam discussion accuses players of pedophilia and “woke subversion.”
https://www.404media.co/dragons-dogma-2-discriminates-against-short-kings-gamers-lose-their-minds/
The FBI Charged a Man With Cyberstalking Nude Erotic Wrestlers
date: 2024-03-21, from: 404 Media Group
A man allegedly called one victim over 500 times from dozens of phone numbers, and sent messages saying “I’m going to keep harassing you until the day I die.”
https://www.404media.co/the-fbi-charged-a-man-with-cyberstalking-nude-erotic-wrestlers/
BMW unveils the Vision Neue Klasse X as the conduit to its future range of electric SUVs
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
One week after teasing camouflaged images of the next chapter in its “Neue Klasse” EV design strategy, BMW has publicly unveiled the Sport Activity Vehicle to the public. The Vision Neue Klasse X is BMW’s latest entry into the SAV segment and represents the all-electric DNA of a new model that will begin production next year.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/bmw-unveils-vision-neue-klasse-x-future-range-electric-suv-ev/
One rack. 120kW of compute. Taking a closer look at Nvidia’s DGX GB200 NVL72 beast
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
1.44 exaFLOPs of FP4, 13.5 TB of HBM3e, 2 miles of NVLink cables, in one liquid cooled unit
GTC Nvidia revealed its most powerful DGX server to date on Monday. The 120kW rack scale system uses NVLink to stitch together 72 of its new Blackwell accelerators into what’s essentially one big GPU capable of more than 1.4 exaFLOPS performance — at FP4 precision anyway.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/nvidia_dgx_gb200_nvk72/
Tesla Giga Texas 4680 Battery Cell Production Reached A New Record
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
Every week, Tesla produces enough cells for over 1,000 Tesla Cybertrucks.
https://insideevs.com/news/713173/tesla-texas-4680-battery-production-record/
Watch an 800HP Twin-Turbocharged Hayabusa-Powered Go-Kart Scream To Life
date: 2024-03-21, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The compound-turbo beast is almost ready to rip.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713051/800hp-suzuki-hayabusa-go-kart-video-watch/
FreeWire’s new program offers free, custom EV chargers and its first client may surprise you
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
FreeWire Technologies continues to bring out-of-the-box thinking to a vital segment of EV charging infrastructure. Today, FreeWire announced a clever new Accelerate Program that essentially installs and manages its EV charger technology at no cost to businesses, making profits elsewhere while speeding up the adoption rate on new installations. The program’s first business to sign up is surprising but encouraging.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/freewire-new-program-free-custom-ev-charger-first-client/
Why the GOP Is Mad at the IEA
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Minneapolis is expecting snow tonight. Less than a month ago it was 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the Twin Cities • More than 100 people were evacuated from the small Australian town of Borroloola ahead of severe flooding • It is cloudy in Copenhagen where global climate leaders are meeting to hash out a plan for COP29.
THE TOP FIVE
- EPA unveils final auto emission rules
The Biden administration announced final new emissions standards for cars yesterday, significantly curtailing both the carbon dioxide and the toxic soot and chemicals that spew from the tailpipes of the nation’s light- and medium-duty vehicles. The rules tighten pollution limits gradually over six years, and are slightly watered down compared to the version released last April: While automakers will still have to achieve the same emissions standard by 2032 as what was originally proposed, they will now be able to transition more slowly, explained Emily Pontecorvo and Robinson Meyer at Heatmap. Administration officials argue that giving automakers, dealers, and labor unions more time in the near-term will make for a sturdier rule, and that the cumulative emissions benefits of the final standard converge with the original proposal. The EPA now estimates that EVs may make up anywhere between 30% and 56% of new light-duty sales from model years 2030 to 2032, and by 2032, the light-duty fleet on offer from automakers will emit half as much carbon as vehicles on the market in 2026.
- GOP lawmakers accuse IEA of undermining energy security
A group of senior Republican lawmakers penned a letter to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, accusing the group of “undermining energy security” and being a cheerleader for the “energy transition” (quotes theirs). The letter suggests the IEA has lost its credibility as a reliable and objective source of information on fossil fuel markets, and has focused too heavily on clean energy developments and too little on “the things that matter most to policymakers.” The letter is signed by House energy committee chair Cathy McMorris-Rodgers and Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy panel, among others.
As Axios noted, the attack “has real-world stakes. The agency’s work is constantly cited by policymakers, academics, journalists and civil society groups.” The IEA’s forecasts that oil demand could peak by 2030 have perturbed fossil fuel producers. OPEC sees growth continuing at least through 2045. Earlier this week the CEO of Saudi Aramco called a fossil fuel phase-out a “fantasy.”
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- Otis and Dora retired as hurricane names
The names Otis and Dora have been retired from the list of potential hurricane names because of their links to devastating extreme weather events. The World Meteorological Organization has six lists of names for northeast Pacific hurricanes that it uses over and over again, so it’s not uncommon for two different storms occurring years apart to have the same name. But a name is removed if a storm is “so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity.” Hurricane Otis struck Acapulco in October last year, killing 51 people and causing $3 billion in damage. Dora played an “indirect meteorological role” in Maui’s massive wildfires, which killed more than 100 people and caused at least $4 billion in damages. Otis and Dora will be replaced with the names Otilio and Debora. Climate change is warming the oceans, resulting in stronger hurricanes.
- Brush fire smoke hurts D.C.’s air quality
The smell of smoke lingered over Washington, D.C., yesterday, and the air quality dropped as haze from brush fires burning in Virginia and Maryland drifted over the region. Strong winds and dry weather made for ideal fire conditions, and the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for the area in the evening. This photo, apparently taken in the Bergton area of Virgina, shows thick smoke coming from the fires:
- Biden administration proposes another offshore wind auction for Gulf
of Mexico
The Biden administration wants to hold another offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico as it pushes ahead with its goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade. Yesterday the Interior Department proposed the sale – which would be the second auction in the region – for sometime this year, though the date hasn’t been nailed down. More than 400,000 acres would be up for grabs for development, paving the way for enough wind energy to power 1.2 million homes. The first sale, held last year, resulted in just one lease, “underscoring the middling interest in building wind farms in the region, where wind gusts aren’t very powerful and electricity is already cheap from prolific oil and gas production,” as E&E News explained. The administration plans to hold four sales in the Gulf this year.
THE KICKER
“While changes in governments may well affect the pace of energy transitions — accelerating them in some cases, slowing them in others — they won’t alter the fundamental direction of travel.” –IEA executive director Fatih Birol writing in the Financial Times
https://heatmap.news/politics/iea-gop-letter-energy-security
Why we’re lucky WordPress is here and other topics
date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I spent some time this week reviewing the UI of Radio UserLand, released in 2002. It was both a feed reader and a writing tool.
One would have thought, btw, that from that start that all subsequent blogging tools would have the same connections, even if the functionality was not all in the same product. But then came Twitter and Facebook, and they said they weren’t blogs, and presumably would start a new tradition with new user expectations. And that worked. The new blogging platforms were silos.
So the integration opportunities were limited, something that took me 11 years to fully appreciate, and to give up on. I was in a intellectual cloud, not thinking straight.
Meantime, the tradition of blogging was preserved by WordPress. As a blogging tool, it supported the same connective features that Radio did. There were some it couldn’t cover because Radio was a desktop app, not a web app (though it looked like a web app, you installed a piece of software on the desktop).
This was the Fractional Horsepower HTTP Server idea realized.
So for example, we had upstreaming, which was a one-way Dropbox, a number of years before Dropbox existed. This meant that the link between the CMS and the server went through the file system. The product didn’t live long enough to fulfill the potential of that feature. The idea was that you could use any editor you wanted to write something that was posted to the blog, you could choose to have it rendered through the site template, or uploaded as-is.
The editor we supplied with Radio was one of those tiny little text boxes, but I hoped that better editors would emerge. I wanted to make one myself, combining the outliner in Frontier with scripting, to drop posts into the folder structure that Radio expected.
Years later I tried to do it with Dropbox itself, with a product called Fargo. Dropbox was so incredibly close to the ideal user-owned storage server system, but they wouldn’t go the final step, in creating a class of content that could be shared with two or more apps but not all apps. So the user didn’t have enough control for it to work.
The idea of multiple apps working on the same data would be revolutionary. How do I know? Because that’s how computers worked before the web. So to make the thing I want to do work, now, in 2024, I’m going to have to create my own storage system for the user, and I will pay for it, at least to start.
Hopefully at some point I’ll be able to turn that over to Automattic and have them run it, or if they don’t want to, maybe someone else will. But it has to be there for the web as a runtime environment to support the same diversity of software that the PC and Mac did in the generation before the web.
Technology does go backwards, a lot – we lose valuable things without any thought, when we could keep them.
BTW, that’s why it’s good to keep some old people around, we might remember the things that were lost. I’m trying to make sure the really good ideas, the keepers, get another chance.
Another
random morning bit – something subtle in the blogroll you might not have
noticed. It has no trouble dealing with titled or untitled posts. Blog
posts typically have titles, social media posts do not.
RSS is opinionated
about this – it
says
you should support both views. But the feed reader folk ignored that
guidance. My little blogroll shows you how to do it, it’s pretty simple.
If it doesn’t have a title use the description.
Think of it this way. What if motorcycles, cars, trucks and bikes couldn’t all use the same roads? What kind of way would that be to run a civilization. Same thing with feeds.
There’s a screen shot of the blogroll to the right, with Scripting News highlighted and expanded. Some of those posts have titles and some don’t. You and I as developers care about that, but we shouldn’t show that difference that in the user interface. The users don’t care and rightly so. It’s confusing and takes their attention away from the writing.
Another topic. Something I noticed in WordPress’s RSS feeds. If I start a post out with an empty title, it uses the post ID to form the URL for the post. That’s the right thing to do imho. But then if I add a title, which can happen, it changes the URL to use the title. But URLs shouldn’t change. It also changes the guid, so a feed reader will think there were two posts when there was just one. Now I don’t know if they can change it at this late date, I imagine there are workarounds out there. But I noticed this the other day, and thought I should mention it. Why not just use the post ID for the guid, esp since it says the guid is not a permalink? And use it in forming the URL. I totally understand the benefit of using the title in the URL. But you can’t depend on the title being there.
Finally, to answer the question raised by the title of this piece – WordPress is, among other things, a perfect time capsule of open technologies from the early days of innovation on the web, and widely deployed and able to deliver all their benefits, if we widen our view of social media to be a social web, and simply create places where posts with and without titles are equally supported. It’s that simple. Without WordPress we would have to build all that, and wait for it to deploy in numbers, to matter in the market. All we have to do now is make the connections.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/21/125505.html?title=whyWereLuckyWordpressIsHereAndOtherTopics
Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance?
date: 2024-03-21, from: Economics from the Top-Down
Yes,
the Bitcoin network uses loads of energy. But so does mainstream
finance. So which system is more energy intensive? In this post, I do
the math.
The post Is Bitcoin More Energy Intensive Than Mainstream Finance? appeared first on Economics from the Top Down.
UN: E-waste is growing 5x faster than it can be recycled
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Right to Repair should be the Obligation to Repair, if we want to avoid drowning in trashed electronics
We’re creating electronic waste almost five times faster than we’re recycling it using documented methods, according to a United Nations report released on Wednesday.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/ewaste_grows/
Expect rate cuts — just not quite yet
date: 2024-03-21, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its meeting this week, though it’s penciling in three rate cuts at some point this year. But what does the Fed need to see before it’ll actually lower rates? We’ll discuss. Then, Hermès faces a class-action lawsuit over Birkin bag sales. And the mining of metals beneath our feet is vital to the green energy transition but is often complicated.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/expect-rate-cuts-just-not-quite-yet
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
On Cloudfest, hosts and WordPress.
https://poststatus.com/cloudfest-hosts-wordpress/
حجب، حذف، ورفض: هناك أكثر من مجرد ”حظر الظل“ على الإنستغرام
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Markup blog
وجد تحقيق أجرته ”ذا مارك آب“ أن منصة الإنستغرام حجبت صور متعلقة بالحرب على غزة، وحذفت التسميات التوضيحية دون سابق إنذار، وحرمت المستخدمين من خيار الاستئناف.
https://themarkup.org/automated-censorship/2024/03/21/instagram-shadowban-investigation-arabic
Einride opens largest charging station for heavy-duty EVs, powered by Voltera
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Electric freight mobility specialist Einride has opened its first Smartcharger station in the US, launching as the largest operational charging site for heavy-duty EVs on the continent. The new station is strategically located in a busy freight corridor, providing electric truck drivers with 65 charging piles powered by Voltera.
Santa Barbara Architects Make Poodle Twitch
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara architects put the “wow” back on State Street.
The post Santa Barbara Architects Make Poodle Twitch appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/santa-barbara-architects-make-poodle-twitch/
Hop on the magic bus: VW debuts souped-up AWD ID. Buzz GTX with 335 hp
date: 2024-03-21, from: Electrek Feed
Lovers of the retro VW bus can get a sporty, all-wheel-drive, all-electric version with 335 hp – the most powerful ID. Buzz to date. Today, Volkswagen has followed up the recently announced ID.3 GTX and ID.7 GTX with the debut of its high-performance microbus Volkswagen ID. Buzz GTX.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/21/hop-on-the-magic-bus-vw-debuts-souped-up-awd-id-buzz-gtx-with-335-hp/
US Congress Releases $1.1 Trillion Spending Package to Avert Shutdown
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Washington — After days of delay, U.S. congressional leaders unveiled a $1.1 trillion bipartisan spending measure for defense, homeland security and other programs early on Thursday, giving lawmakers less than two days to avert a partial government shutdown.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives will vote on the sprawling package on Friday, leaving the Democratic-majority Senate only hours to pass the package of six bills that covers about two-thirds of the $1.66 trillion in discretionary government spending for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.
“These final six bills represent a bipartisan and bicameral compromise,” the two top Senate negotiators - Patty Murray, a Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Republican - said in a statement.
“They will invest in the American people, build a stronger economy, help keep our communities safe, and strengthen our national security and global leadership.”
The Congressional Budget Office warned that U.S. deficits and debt will grow considerably over the next 30 years, forecasting that the nation’s $34.5 trillion national debt, which currently represents about 99% of GDP, could grow and rise to 166% of GDP by 2054.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is “hopeful” Congress can avert a shutdown if Democrats and Republicans in his chamber work together.
The compressed schedule raised the risk of at least a brief partial shutdown after a Friday midnight deadline, unless Schumer can reach agreement with Senate Republicans to expedite the bill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson touted what he called a series of wins for Republicans, from higher spending for U.S. defense and border security to a cutoff of U.S. funding for the main United Nations relief agency that provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
“This FY24 appropriations legislation is a serious commitment to strengthening our national defense by moving the Pentagon toward a focus on its core mission,” Johnson said in a statement released along with the text of the legislation.
Democrats said they blocked some Republican cuts and policy measures and touted funds aimed at lowering childcare costs, supporting small businesses and fighting the flow of the opioid fentanyl.
“We defeated outlandish cuts that would have been a gut punch for American families and our economy - and we fought off scores of extreme policies that would have restricted Americans’ fundamental freedoms, hurt consumers while giving giant corporations an unfair advantage, and turned back the clock on historic climate action,” said Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Two weeks ago, Congress narrowly avoided a shutdown that would have affected agricultural, transportation and environmental programs.
The text unveiled on Thursday fills in the details of an agreement in principle between Johnson and Schumer, which Democratic President Joe Biden has pledged to sign into law.
With a slim 219-213 House Republican majority, Johnson will have to rely on Democratic votes to get the spending bill to the Senate.
Many House Republicans are still expected to oppose the legislation, including hardliners who want steeper spending cuts.
Besides the departments of Homeland Security and Defense, the bill would fund agencies including the State Department and the Internal Revenue Service as it girds for its April 15 taxpayer filing deadline.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Hey Joe, don’t forget that four years ago we had Roe v. Wade.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-bloodbath-better-off-f569346d886a2b4725b2f90d243d303d
UK council won’t say whether two-week ‘cyber incident’ impacted resident data
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Security experts insist ransomware is involved but Leicester zips its lips
Leicester City Council continues to battle a suspected ransomware attack while keeping schtum about the key details.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/shock_uk_councils_recovery_from/
Kosovo urged to drop Serbian cash ban
date: 2024-03-21, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: The Balkan state Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in 2008 after a bitter civil war in the late 1990s, currently doesn’t accept transactions in the Serbian dinar. But some Serb-majority areas are still reliant on the currency. We’ll hear more. But first, a Chinese-funded port in Pakistan was attacked by militants. We’ll detail what exactly happened.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/kosovo-urged-to-drop-serbian-cash-ban
Public AI as an Alternative to Corporate AI
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-17, from: Bruce Schneier blog
This mini-essay was my contribution to a round table on Power and Governance in the Age of AI. It’s nothing I haven’t said here before, but for anyone who hasn’t read my longer essays on the topic, it’s a shorter introduction.
The increasingly centralized control of AI is an ominous sign. When tech billionaires and corporations steer AI, we get AI that tends to reflect the interests of tech billionaires and corporations, instead of the public. Given how transformative this technology will be for the world, this is a problem.
To benefit society as a whole we need an …
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/public-ai-as-an-alternative-to-corporate-ai.html
Can a Raspberry Pi Pico act as a GPU for gaming?
date: 2024-03-21, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Clem from element14 was tasked with exploring the possibility of turning a Raspberry Pi Pico into a GPU capable of rendering super-smooth graphics in-game.
The post Can a Raspberry Pi Pico act as a GPU for gaming? appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/can-a-raspberry-pi-pico-act-as-a-gpu-for-gaming/
Qualcomm infuses AI support into Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 platform
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Boosted on-device generative AI’s not just for the flagship smartphone kids
Qualcomm is pushing out its second smartphone platform within a week, in this case an extension of its Snapdragon 7 series for high-end devices that are built to a lower price point than flagship premium smartphones.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/qualcomm_infuses_ai_support_into/
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 brings a performance boost and WiFi 7 support to mid-range devices
date: 2024-03-21, from: Liliputing
A few days after introducing the new Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 processor designed for slightly cheaper flagship phones and tablets, Qualcomm is launching another new chip. This time instead of a less-powerful Snapdragon 8 series processor, it’s a more powerful Snapdragon 7 series chip for mid-range and sub-flagship devices. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 […]
The post Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 brings a performance boost and WiFi 7 support to mid-range devices appeared first on Liliputing.
Nominet to restructure, slash jobs after losing ‘major deal’
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Prices also set to rise after being frozen since 2020
Nominet is cutting staff on the back of market pressure, including the loss of a government cyber contract and is considering a domain registration price increase, according to an update from its CEO.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/nominet_set_for_job_losses/
Modeling Extremely Large Images with xT
date: 2024-03-21, from: Berkley Artificial Intellegence Research Blog
As computer vision researchers, we believe that every pixel can tell a story. However, there seems to be a writer’s block settling into the field when it comes to dealing with large images. Large images are no longer rare—the cameras we carry in our pockets and those orbiting our planet snap pictures so big and detailed that they stretch our current best models and hardware to their breaking points when handling them. Generally, we face a quadratic increase in memory usage as a function of image size.
Today, we make one of two sub-optimal choices when handling large images: down-sampling or cropping. These two methods incur significant losses in the amount of information and context present in an image. We take another look at these approaches and introduce $x$T, a new framework to model large images end-to-end on contemporary GPUs while effectively aggregating global context with local details.
Architecture for the $x$T framework.
Why Bother with Big Images Anyway?
Why bother handling large images anyways? Picture yourself in front of your TV, watching your favorite football team. The field is dotted with players all over with action occurring only on a small portion of the screen at a time. Would you be satisified, however, if you could only see a small region around where the ball currently was? Alternatively, would you be satisified watching the game in low resolution? Every pixel tells a story, no matter how far apart they are. This is true in all domains from your TV screen to a pathologist viewing a gigapixel slide to diagnose tiny patches of cancer. These images are treasure troves of information. If we can’t fully explore the wealth because our tools can’t handle the map, what’s the point?
Sports are fun when you know what’s going on.
That’s precisely where the frustration lies today. The bigger the image, the more we need to simultaneously zoom out to see the whole picture and zoom in for the nitty-gritty details, making it a challenge to grasp both the forest and the trees simultaneously. Most current methods force a choice between losing sight of the forest or missing the trees, and neither option is great.
How $x$T Tries to Fix This
Imagine trying to solve a massive jigsaw puzzle. Instead of tackling the whole thing at once, which would be overwhelming, you start with smaller sections, get a good look at each piece, and then figure out how they fit into the bigger picture. That’s basically what we do with large images with $x$T.
$x$T takes these gigantic images and chops them into smaller, more digestible pieces hierarchically. This isn’t just about making things smaller, though. It’s about understanding each piece in its own right and then, using some clever techniques, figuring out how these pieces connect on a larger scale. It’s like having a conversation with each part of the image, learning its story, and then sharing those stories with the other parts to get the full narrative.
Nested Tokenization
At the core of $x$T lies the concept of nested tokenization. In simple terms, tokenization in the realm of computer vision is akin to chopping up an image into pieces (tokens) that a model can digest and analyze. However, $x$T takes this a step further by introducing a hierarchy into the process—hence, nested.
Imagine you’re tasked with analyzing a detailed city map. Instead of trying to take in the entire map at once, you break it down into districts, then neighborhoods within those districts, and finally, streets within those neighborhoods. This hierarchical breakdown makes it easier to manage and understand the details of the map while keeping track of where everything fits in the larger picture. That’s the essence of nested tokenization—we split an image into regions, each which can be split into further sub-regions depending on the input size expected by a vision backbone (what we call a region encoder), before being patchified to be processed by that region encoder. This nested approach allows us to extract features at different scales on a local level.
Coordinating Region and Context Encoders
Once an image is neatly divided into tokens, $x$T employs two types of encoders to make sense of these pieces: the region encoder and the context encoder. Each plays a distinct role in piecing together the image’s full story.
The region encoder is a standalone “local expert” which converts independent regions into detailed representations. However, since each region is processed in isolation, no information is shared across the image at large. The region encoder can be any state-of-the-art vision backbone. In our experiments we have utilized hierarchical vision transformers such as Swin and Hiera and also CNNs such as ConvNeXt!
Enter the context encoder, the big-picture guru. Its job is to take the detailed representations from the region encoders and stitch them together, ensuring that the insights from one token are considered in the context of the others. The context encoder is generally a long-sequence model. We experiment with Transformer-XL (and our variant of it called Hyper) and Mamba, though you could use Longformer and other new advances in this area. Even though these long-sequence models are generally made for language, we demonstrate that it is possible to use them effectively for vision tasks.
The magic of $x$T is in how these components—the nested tokenization, region encoders, and context encoders—come together. By first breaking down the image into manageable pieces and then systematically analyzing these pieces both in isolation and in conjunction, $x$T manages to maintain the fidelity of the original image’s details while also integrating long-distance context the overarching context while fitting massive images, end-to-end, on contemporary GPUs.
Results
We evaluate $x$T on challenging benchmark tasks that span well-established computer vision baselines to rigorous large image tasks. Particularly, we experiment with iNaturalist 2018 for fine-grained species classification, xView3-SAR for context-dependent segmentation, and MS-COCO for detection.
Powerful vision models used with $x$T set a new frontier on
downstream tasks such as fine-grained species classification.
Our experiments show that $x$T can achieve higher accuracy on all downstream tasks with fewer parameters while using much less memory per region than state-of-the-art baselines*. We are able to model images as large as 29,000 x 25,000 pixels large on 40GB A100s while comparable baselines run out of memory at only 2,800 x 2,800 pixels.
Powerful vision models used with $x$T set a new frontier on
downstream tasks such as fine-grained species classification.
*Depending on your choice of context model, such as Transformer-XL.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
This approach isn’t just cool; it’s necessary. For scientists tracking climate change or doctors diagnosing diseases, it’s a game-changer. It means creating models which understand the full story, not just bits and pieces. In environmental monitoring, for example, being able to see both the broader changes over vast landscapes and the details of specific areas can help in understanding the bigger picture of climate impact. In healthcare, it could mean the difference between catching a disease early or not.
We are not claiming to have solved all the world’s problems in one go. We are hoping that with $x$T we have opened the door to what’s possible. We’re stepping into a new era where we don’t have to compromise on the clarity or breadth of our vision. $x$T is our big leap towards models that can juggle the intricacies of large-scale images without breaking a sweat.
There’s a lot more ground to cover. Research will evolve, and hopefully, so will our ability to process even bigger and more complex images. In fact, we are working on follow-ons to $x$T which will expand this frontier further.
In Conclusion
For a complete treatment of this work, please check out the paper on arXiv. The project page contains a link to our released code and weights. If you find the work useful, please cite it as below:
@article{xTLargeImageModeling,
title={xT: Nested Tokenization for Larger Context in Large Images},
author={Gupta, Ritwik and Li, Shufan and Zhu, Tyler and Malik, Jitendra and Darrell, Trevor and Mangalam, Karttikeya},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.01915},
year={2024}
}
http://bair.berkeley.edu/blog/2024/03/21/xt/
Volkswagen ID. Buzz GTX Is A Hot Electric Van With 335 HP And AWD
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
VW’s go-fast people mover comes with a dual-motor setup, two wheelbase options, and two battery sizes.
https://insideevs.com/news/713137/vw-id-buzz-gtx-debut-specs-details-photos/
Glenda Yakel | Why Won’t They Discuss Mascot?
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
The following letter was written before Hart High School’s new mascot, the Hawks, was announced, but it was not received in time to be published before Tuesday’s announcement. Regarding the recent William S. Hart Union High School District meeting of March 13, I would like to express my gratitude to board member Joe Messina for […]
The post Glenda Yakel | Why Won’t They Discuss Mascot? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/glenda-yakel-why-wont-they-discuss-mascot/
Peter Beers | Letting the Bible Speak for Itself
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
As an encouragement to those who may have read the March 15 letter by Arthur Saginian, “The Bible and Same-Sex Unions,” I would encourage all to seriously question any of the conclusions Mr. Saginian has come to regarding what the Bible teaches, especially because, by his own words, “I believe none of it.” To the […]
The post Peter Beers | Letting the Bible Speak for Itself appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/peter-beers-letting-the-bible-speak-for-itself/
Stephen Maseda | Sloppiness or Mischaracterization?
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
I would not have chosen Mr. Arthur Saginian, a self-proclaimed agnostic, to provide Biblical interpretation. His letter (March 15) is based on the premise that Pope Francis has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, which he mistakenly asserts allows priests to bless same-sex marriage. He then proceeds to assert that Jesus set aside the Torah, […]
The post Stephen Maseda | Sloppiness or Mischaracterization? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/stephen-maseda-sloppiness-or-mischaracterization/
Why France this week fined Google €250M over web news
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Google pulls a few coins from the sofa and says whatever, just clarify who needs to be paid for what
The French Competition Authority (FCA) on Wednesday fined Google €250 million ($272 million, £214 million) for breaking its promise to figure out a payment plan with French news publishers for using their articles.…
Cameron Smyth | See You at Senses! Unveiling an Incredible Lineup of Block Parties
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Did you know that each year, Main Street in Old Town Newhall undergoes countless makeovers for different events, such as Light Up Main Street and the Fourth of July Parade? One event in particular, though, transforms the street with a new theme from 7 to 10 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month through […]
The post Cameron Smyth | See You at Senses! Unveiling an Incredible Lineup of Block Parties appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
BMW Vision Neue Klasse X: Seriously Upgraded Battery And Tech, Controversial Looks
date: 2024-03-21, from: Inside EVs News
The first series-production electric SUVs based on this design will hit the streets next year.
https://insideevs.com/news/712985/bmw-vision-neue-klasse-x-electric-suv-concept/
Why Boeing is such a shitty company (continued)
date: 2024-03-21, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends, On Friday, machinists at Rogue Valley International Airport in Medford, Oregon, discovered that a United Airlines plane that had landed from San Francisco was missing an external panel (see photo, above). The plane was manufactured by Boeing. It was carrying 139 passengers and 6 crew. No one was injured, thank heavens. The missing panel went unnoticed during the flight.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-boeing-is-such-as-shitty-company
NRO Mission Launches from NASA Wallops on Electron Rocket
date: 2024-03-21, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility supported the successful launch of a Rocket Lab Electron rocket at 3:25 a.m. EDT, Thursday, March 21, from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. The rocket carried three collaborative research missions for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The mission, dubbed NROL-123, was the first NRO mission to fly on […]
Classifieds – March 21, 2024
date: 2024-03-21, 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 21, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/classifieds-march-21-2024/
Euro-cloud consortium CISPE calls for investigation of Broadcom
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Claims members will be bankrupted by new VMware licensing regime, and vital services disrupted
Lobby group CISPE – a collective representing Cloud Infrastructure Providers in Europe – has called for regulators to investigate VMware by Broadcom’s software licensing arrangements, which it claims will bankrupt some of its members and hurt end-users.…
Parking Reform Is Happening Across America
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Changes to urban parking are starting to make our cities more livable.
The post Parking Reform Is Happening Across America appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/21/parking-reform-is-happening-across-america/
Today in SCV History (March 21)
date: 2024-03-21, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1927 – Baker Ranch Rodeo owners announce they’ll award $4,000 in cash prizes at first major event (2nd annual rodeo at future Saugus Speedway). [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-21/
It’s time to blame desks rather than our bodies
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Plus-size students face a lack of size-inclusive desks, threatening their well-being.
The post It’s time to blame desks rather than our bodies appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/its-time-to-blame-desks-rather-than-our-bodies/
Roski student debuts first solo show
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Alex Carmen’s anticipated exhibit “Trees with Holes in Them” opened Wednesday.
The post Roski student debuts first solo show appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/roski-student-debuts-first-solo-show/
Chief campus health officer discusses opioid epidemic
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Student Health distributed Narcan for free at the weekly Trojan Farmer’s Market.
The post Chief campus health officer discusses opioid epidemic appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/chief-campus-health-officer-discusses-opioid-epidemic/
Exciting albums coming this spring
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Get your earbuds ready for these blockbuster drops from fan-favorite artists.
The post Exciting albums coming this spring appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/exciting-albums-coming-this-spring/
Baseball to face rival UCLA in Westwood
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
USC enters Jackie Robinson Stadium as victor of three of its last four matchups.
The post Baseball to face rival UCLA in Westwood appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/baseball-to-face-rival-ucla-in-westwood/
Casey Phair continues Angel City’s youth movement
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The youngest player to ever feature in a World Cup became the next jewel in ACFC’s crown during the offseason.
The post Casey Phair continues Angel City’s youth movement appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/casey-phair-continues-angel-citys-youth-movement/
New students should consider Thematic Option
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Reasons to join T.O. range from small class sizes to free trips in the L.A. area.
The post New students should consider Thematic Option appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/new-students-should-consider-thematic-option/
Researchers track ongoing destruction in Ukraine
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Associate professor Sylvain Barbot published a study on the impact of the war.
The post Researchers track ongoing destruction in Ukraine appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/21/ukraine-destruction-study/
Exposed: Chinese smartphone farms that run thousands of barebones mobes to do crime
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Operators pack twenty phones into a chassis – then rack ’em and stack ’em ready to do evil
Chinese upstarts are selling smartphone motherboards – and kit to run and manage them at scale – to operators of outfits that use them to commit various scams and crimes, according to an undercover investigation by state television broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) revealed late last week.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/china_smartphone_farms/
March 20, 2024 (Wednesday)
date: 2024-03-21, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
While Republicans on the House Oversight Committee continue to insist that President Joe Biden has committed crimes, testimony today by a former associate of Trump’s disgraced ex-lawyer Rudolph Giuliani was so damning not for Biden but for Republicans that Representative Stephen Lynch (D-MA) told his colleagues: “When you review the entire record of evidence of these hearings going back over a year, you’ve actually provided more evidence to impeach Donald Trump for a third time than you have in so much as laying a glove on Joe Biden.”
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-20-2024-wednesday
It’s 2024 and North Korea’s Kimsuky gang is exploiting Windows Help files
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
New infostealer may indicate a shift in tactics – and maybe targets too, beyond Asia
North Korea’s notorious Kimsuky cyber crime gang has commenced a campaign using fresh tactics, according to infosec tools vendor Rapid7.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/kimsuky_chm_file_campaign/
Hong Kong promises its latest national security law is not a ban on social media
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Trust us – we’re the government
On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s legislature unanimously passed the city’s latest controversial national security legislation, otherwise known as Article 23.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/hk_article_23/
Kuhlman to leave Hart district after school year
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
Mike Kuhlman will be leaving his post as superintendent of the William S. Hart Union High School District on June 30, he announced to district staff in an email sent on Wednesday evening. “I’m writing this evening to share the news that I have made the difficult decision to leave the Hart district at the […]
The post <strong>Kuhlman to leave Hart district after school year</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/kuhlman-to-leave-hart-district-after-school-year/
Apple Support: ‘Manuals, Specs, and Downloads’
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: Daring Fireball
https://support.apple.com/en-us/docs
A Poet of Word and Image
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Mary Heebner melds myths and materiality into uniquely joyful creations.
The post A Poet of Word and Image appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/20/a-poet-of-word-and-image/
Honoring transgender voices on March 31
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Queer advocates and allies are honoring Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31 and taking the time to celebrate the lives and triumphs of trans
The post Honoring transgender voices on March 31 appeared first on The Roundup.
Pierce should offer personal financial workshops
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
College students have a lot on their minds, such as work, school, family and food. This leaves students with little time to manage their money
The post Pierce should offer personal financial workshops appeared first on The Roundup.
French Bulldogs Remain Most Popular US Breed in New Rankings
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/french-bulldogs-remain-most-popular-us-breed-in-new-rankings/7536500.html
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-21, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Or April New England Visionaires user group meeting, getting the invite out early this time:
https://partiful.com/e/RDjyPo8cAFlJx5503VI9
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112131254075663963
Relay dinner recognizes caregivers and survivors
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
With each table uniquely decorated at the Santa Clarita Elks Lodge No. 2379, cancer survivors and caregivers gathered at the Relay for Life Survivor and Caregiver Dinner on Saturday. Santa Clarita’s Relay for Life, with this year’s theme being “May the Cure Be with You,” benefiting the American Cancer Society, will take place on May […]
The post Relay dinner recognizes caregivers and survivors appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/relay-dinner-recognizes-caregivers-and-survivors/
Valencia Library turns into space
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
In a galactic world right at the heart of the Valencia Public Library, children could suit up and go to space on Saturday thanks to the Hope Theatre Arts’ performance of “Astronaut School!” In the third installment of Hope Theatre Arts’ space-themed series, children could learn about teamwork, participate in activities and crafts, or even […]
The post Valencia Library turns into space appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/valencia-library-turns-into-space/
ServiceNow goes to Washington DC, with a suitcase full of AI
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Claims the tech has brought 38 percent improvement to its own dev cycle time
ServiceNow has released its “Washington DC” platform update, and done the very 2024 thing of adding generative AI features. It’s also done a slightly less 2024 thing by not just hyping the tech, but sharing the benefits it has enjoyed by actually using it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/servicenow_washington_dc_release/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Spray chalk. What a great idea.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-21, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Reddit IPO: Share sale values social media firm at $6.4bn.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68610711
Dos Pueblos High Rock Band Still Jamming After 12 Years
date: 2024-03-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
They’ve all got other gigs, but local band The Caverns return to Santa Barbara for monthly shows.
The post Dos Pueblos High Rock Band Still Jamming After 12 Years appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/20/dos-pueblos-high-rock-band-still-jamming-after-12-years/
Even Before Latest Violence, Thousands of Haitians Fled for US
date: 2024-03-21, from: VOA News USA
Thousands of Haitians fled their country’s economic and political instability even before the latest outbreak of violence. The first stop for many is South America, where some try to work before heading for the United States. VOA’s Austin Landis met with one man on the Colombia-Panama border preparing to cross the treacherous Darien Gap. Camera: Jorge Calle
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-21, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I can’t stop giggling at this
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112130985206537440
Hart district holding virtual parent forum on sleep
date: 2024-03-21, from: The Signal
The William S. Hart Union High School District’s Wellness Department is scheduled to host a virtual parent forum on March 28 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. to inform parents on the benefits of sleep. “The connection between sleep and health is real,” reads a flyer promoting the event. “Join us for our March Parent Forum […]
The post <strong>Hart district holding virtual parent forum on sleep</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/hart-district-holding-virtual-parent-forum-on-sleep/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-21, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Today I had no garlic
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112130819541766638
Nutanix catapults IP theft sueball at DBaaS startup Tessell
date: 2024-03-21, updated: 2024-03-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Claims former staff ripped off IP and even did demos for their new company on Nutanix computers
Nutanix has brought a lawsuit against database-as-a-service startup Tessell, an outfit founded by three of its ex-employees, alleging the upstart’s products are rip-offs of Nutanix’s own Era database management product.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/nutanix_tessell_lawsuit/