News gathered 2024-03-28
(date: 2024-03-28 08:09:26)
Key factors to enhance efficacy of 3D digital environments for transformative landscape and urban planning
date: 2024-04-01, from: ETH Zurich, recently added
Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne; Fagerholm, Nora
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/649176
Post-earthquake structural damage assessment and damage state evaluation for RC structures with experimental validation
date: 2024-04-01, from: ETH Zurich, recently added
Zhang, Hanqing; Reuland, Yves; Shan, Jiazeng; Chatzi, Eleni
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/659625
We Tested Kids’ Smart Toys for Privacy. Here’s How You Can, Too
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Markup blog
All you need: your computer or smartphone, some free tools, and your child’s internet- or Bluetooth-connected toy
https://themarkup.org/privacy/2024/03/28/we-tested-kids-smart-toys-for-privacy-heres-how-you-can-too
Larry Magid: New Tesla offers lower price, upgraded tech
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Automaker’s software continues to stand out from the crowd
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/28/larry-magid-a-new-and-improved-tesla-plus-a-confession/
Ford Slashes Two-Thirds Of Its Workforce At F-150 Lightning Plant
date: 2024-03-28, from: Inside EVs News
Hundreds of workers are being reassigned to other plants to focus on gas trucks and SUVs.
https://insideevs.com/news/714218/ford-reduces-workforce-f-150-lightning-plant/
Check Out Rev’It’s New Tornado 4 H2O And Airwave 4 ADV Suits
date: 2024-03-28, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
One of them is adaptable for all types of weather, and the other one’s all about airflow.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713767/revit-tornado-airwave-4-adv-gear/
Zotac brings Meteor Lake chips with Intel AI Boost to its fanless mini PCs
date: 2024-03-28, from: Liliputing
Zotac has been selling small, fanless desktop computers under the ZBOX CI600 nano brand since 2018, but this year’s new ZBOX CI651 nano and ZBOX CI671 nano are the first to be branded as “AI PCs” thanks to their Intel Meteor Lake processors with Intel’s AI Boost NPUs baked in. Measuring 204x 129 x 68mm (8″ x […]
The post Zotac brings Meteor Lake chips with Intel AI Boost to its fanless mini PCs appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/zotac-brings-meteor-lake-chips-with-intel-ai-boost-to-its-fanless-mini-pcs/
How to motivate your lazy dog to get more exercise
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Like humans, dogs become susceptible to a whole host of health issues if they weigh too much. And too many pups do weigh too much.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/28/how-to-motivate-your-lazy-dog-to-get-more-exercise/
Algorithm
date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
An algorithm for content moderation for reducing the human contact trolls have.
If you notice an account that gets blocked by a lot of people who don’t follow them after they reply to one of their posts, then slow them down or throw out their replies in the bit bucket.
Eventually if it keeps up, you pretty much know it’s software, and you can delete the account.
I guess. Just thinking out loud. ;-)
http://scripting.com/2024/03/28/145124.html?title=algorithm
PeerJ Awards Winners at BLS8
date: 2024-03-28, from: PeerJ blog
The first International Bio-Logging Science Symposium was held in Tokyo in March 2003. The 2003 Symposium coined the term ‘Bio-Logging’ and spurred international collaborations among scientists working mainly on marine animals. Nearly 20 years had passed since then, and six BLS Symposia have been held worldwide (St. Andrews, Pacific Grove, Hobart, Strasbourg, Konstanz, and Honolulu). […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284889052/peerj-awards-winners-at-bls8/
Intel’s green dream is chips without any dips in Mother Nature’s health
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sustainability Summit pushes industry partners to reduce their environmental impact, including hamrful chemicals
Intel is seeking alternatives to harmful chemicals that the electronics industry has used for decades, amid growing concerns about the potentially negative impacts on the environment and human health.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/intel_sustainability_summit/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-28, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Looks like Microsoft threw a good operator under the bus, so they could hire give the title of ceo of AI to a guy with some baggage and none of the organizational chops.
Sometimes what is marketed as 4d chess is just coin flipping.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112173791332955126
Intermittent Fasting Linked to Higher Risk of Death From Heart Disease, Preliminary Study Finds
date: 2024-03-28, from: Smithsonian Magazine
New research challenges the idea that restricting eating to a limited time frame is beneficial—though the work has some notable limitations, such as a reliance on self-reported eating habits
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-28, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Great post from Meredith Whittaker, Signal’s President:
https://lpeproject.org/blog/social-media-authoritarianism-and-the-world-as-it-is/
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112173789223654591
Tesla (TSLA) delivery estimates are all over the place
date: 2024-03-28, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla (TSLA) is about to finish its quarter, and it is a confusing one for Wall Street. Delivery estimates are all over the place.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/28/tesla-tsla-delivery-estimates-all-over-the-place/
Ford drastically cuts workforce at F-150 Lightning EV plant amid ‘much slower’ demand
date: 2024-03-28, from: Electrek Feed
Starting April 1, one-third of the workforce will remain on-site at Ford’s Rouge EV plant in Michigan. Ford is drastically cutting its workforce at the facility where the F-150 Lightning is built, with demand “much slower” than expected.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/28/ford-drastically-cutting-workforce-at-f-150-lightning-ev-plant/
Scientific Journal Bans Images of ‘Lena,’ Researchers’ Favorite Centerfold
date: 2024-03-28, from: 404 Media Group
“Starting 1 April, new manuscript submissions will no longer be allowed to include the Lena image,” a message from IEEE to engineers announced.
https://www.404media.co/lena-test-image-ieee-policy/
Why do airlines charge so much for checked bags? This obscure rule helps explain why
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Five out of the six biggest US airlines have raised their checked bag fees since January 2024.
XPeng (XPEV) launches two EVs in Germany with plans to enter more EU nations later this year
date: 2024-03-28, from: Electrek Feed
Chinese EV automaker XPeng Motors is making good on its vow to enter new European markets this year, beginning with Germany. Beginning today, two all-electric XPeng models are available to German customers as the automaker targets an ambitious market share in a land home to several huge names in legacy OEMs and shows no signs of slowing down in its expansion through Europe.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/28/xpeng-xpev-launches-two-evs-germany-plans-to-enter-more-eu-nations/
Increasing rain in Bay Area expected by Friday as second storm system bears down on region
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
The second system is expected to drop rain through Saturday.
Goat farmers traveling from MN to CA got stuck in traffic in…
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044270-goat-farmers-traveling-fr
US, Argentina to Cooperate, Combat Illegal Chinese Fishing
date: 2024-03-28, from: VOA News USA
Panama City — Starting next month, the U.S. Coast Guard and Argentine Navy will begin conducting joint exercises aimed at combating illegal Chinese fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
Argentina, Chile and Peru have criticized Chinese-operated craft for large-scale invasive fishing in their territorial waters without regulation, which the South American countries say is depleting fish stock and damaging the natural biodiversity of the southwest Atlantic. It is a key nesting area for seabirds and feeding area for marine mammals.
The Coast Guard will send its destroyer, the USS James, to work with Argentine vessels to curb these fishing practices.
According to data from the NGO Global Fishing Watch, nearly 3,000 deepwater fishing boats operate under the Chinese flag globally, including about 400 in the southwest Atlantic, often targeting Argentine squid and Patagonian toothfish. The NGO says Chinese vessel activity in the southwest Atlantic increased from 61,727 hours per 500 square kilometers in 2013 to 384,046 hours in 2023.
Since 1986, Argentine authorities have seized 80 foreign-flagged boats fishing in their waters, including sinking Chinese and Taiwanese ships.
The upcoming joint U.S.-Argentina cruise to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated or IUU fishing, mainly by Chinese fishing vessels, is part of a global and ongoing effort to strengthen maritime security partnerships. In 2020, the United States launched a new strategy to combat IUU fishing, and the Coast Guard is spearheading that effort. In South America, it has already stepped-up cooperation with Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.
Analysts say the Coast Guard’s cooperation with Argentina — together with recent visits from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns — reflect a shift by Argentine President Javier Milei’s new government, elected in November, away from China and toward the United States.
“The producing provinces of Patagonia have warned about the serious situation of illegal fishing and President Milei has a very clear position in relation to China,” Gabriela Ippolito O’Donnell, a political science professor at the National University of San Martín in Argentina, told VOA Mandarin.
“President Milei is undoubtedly in tune with the USA, even more so if Donald Trump wins the elections. He has already shown signs of a 180-degree turn in foreign policy in all its aspects, including the military.”
O’Donnell said the decision to push back on Chinese illegal fishing practices was more than a symbolic move.
“There is an epochal change in Argentina’s foreign relations,” O’Donnell said. “Of course, the Argentine military and the political opposition will have a voice in this process of military rapprochement with the U.S. But the initiative today belongs to President Milei.”
In January, Milei authorized the U.S. military to enter Argentine territory — a stark contrast from three years ago, when U.S. patrols in the South Atlantic led to conflict with Argentina’s then-President Alberto Fernandez.
According to Michael Paarlberg, an assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, the decision is a deliberate way for Milei to break from his rivals, his direct predecessor Fernandez and former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who reached several military cooperation agreements with China.
“We are seeing a growing closer relationship between the U.S. and Argentina under the new Milei government, closer than it was under the more U.S.-skeptical Fernandez government,” Paarlberg told VOA Mandarin. “Military cooperation with the U.S. is a way for Milei to fulfill his promise to undo all of the policies of his predecessors.”
Analysts, however, say Milei’s actions do not represent a complete break between China and Argentina, but rather an interest in diversifying Argentina’s international relationships, with fishing in Argentina’s territorial waters providing the country with a bargaining chip. China remains Argentina’s largest trading partner.
“It is too soon to talk about a major overhaul of Argentina’s foreign policy under Javier Milei, particularly regarding its ties with the United States and China,” Fabricio Fonseca, an assistant professor of diplomacy at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, told VOA Mandarin. “There are other geoeconomic trends and events that we need to take into consideration before forecasting a permanent change in Buenos Aires’s relations with Beijing.”
Evie Steele contributed to this story.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-argentina-to-cooperate-combat-illegal-chinese-fishing/7547142.html
Three-Year Study of Young Stars with NASA’s Hubble Enters New Chapter
date: 2024-03-28, from: NASA breaking news
In the largest and one of the most ambitious Hubble Space Telescope programs ever executed, a team of scientists and engineers collected information on almost 500 stars over a three-year period. This effort offers new insights into the stars’ formation, evolution, and impact on their surroundings. This comprehensive survey, called ULLYSES (Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young […]
BeagleY-AI is a $70 Raspberry Pi-shaped PC with a 4 TOPS AI accelerator, WiFi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet
date: 2024-03-28, from: Liliputing
The folks at BeagleBoard.org are taking aim at the emerging AI space with a new single-board computer designed for computer vision and other “deep learning” applications. The new BeagleY-AI is a credit card-sized computer that’s about the same size and shape as a Raspberry Pi Model B, and even features a similar 40-pin connector, which means it […]
The post BeagleY-AI is a $70 Raspberry Pi-shaped PC with a 4 TOPS AI accelerator, WiFi 6 and Gigabit Ethernet appeared first on Liliputing.
EXCLUSIVE: Mountain Winery announces epic concert lineup for 2024
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Get tickets for Rod Stewart, Natalie Merchant, Parliament-Funkadelic, Chelsea Handler, Harry Connick, Jr. & more at Mountain Winery in Saratoga.
Ford’s $25,000 EV Platform Will Underpin Multiple Models: Report
date: 2024-03-28, from: Inside EVs News
One model could be an Escape-sized EV with the interior space of an Explorer.
https://insideevs.com/news/714142/ford-escape-ev-platform-cheap/
NASA Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Expedition 70 Science Highlights
date: 2024-03-28, from: NASA breaking news
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara is returning home after six months aboard the International Space Station. During her time on the orbiting laboratory, O’Hara contributed to dozens of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to prepare for future space exploration missions and generate innovations and benefits for humanity on Earth. Here is a look at some of […]
test test test
date: 2024-03-28, from: NASA breaking news
The ULLYSES program studied two types of young stars: super-hot, massive, blue stars and cooler, redder, less massive stars than our Sun. The top panel is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a star-forming region containing massive, young, blue stars in 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula. Located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, this is one […]
https://science.nasa.gov/uncategorized/test-test-test/
Daniel Kahneman dies; Nobel-winning psychologist, author of ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
He teamed up with Stanford’s Amos Tversky for groundbreaking work on decision-making.
The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync
date: 2024-03-28, from: Quanta Magazine
Our brain waves can align when we work and play closely together. The phenomenon, known as interbrain synchrony, suggests that collaboration is biological.The post The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-social-benefits-of-getting-our-brains-in-sync-20240328/
Pac-12 WBB: Previewing the Sweet 16 matchups as UCLA, Colorado stand in the way of Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese collision
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Pac-12 has five teams in the Sweet 16, and two of them, the Bruins and Buffaloes, plan to derail an Iowa-LSU showdown.
7 amazing Bay Area things to do this weekend, March 29-31
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Got your weekend plans? We have some nifty ideas, from great shows and concerts to delicious recipes. And chocolate!
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/28/7-amazing-bay-area-things-to-do-this-weekend-march-29-31/
Former state Controller Betty Yee announces campaign for California governor
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
The race to replace Newsom, who terms out in 2027, will be a Democratic free-for-all sure to attract the party’s top talent for the chance to lead the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fifth largest economy.
US critical infrastructure cyberattack reporting rules inch closer to reality
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
After all, it’s only about keeping the essentials on – no rush
America’s long-awaited cyber attack reporting rules for critical infrastructure operators are inching closer to implementation, after the Feds posted a notice of proposed rulemaking for the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA).…
Our Love of Fresh Food in Plastic = Tajiguas Mess
date: 2024-03-28, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The plastic container invasion of produce and prepared foods has taken over the fresh food aisles in all grocery stores countywide and the state.
The post Our Love of Fresh Food in Plastic = Tajiguas Mess appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/28/our-love-of-fresh-food-in-plastic-tajiguas-mess/
Stunning Echo of 800-year-old Explosion
date: 2024-03-28, from: NASA breaking news
In the year 1181 a rare supernova explosion appeared in the night sky, staying visible for 185 consecutive days. Historical records show that the supernova looked like a temporary ‘star’ in the constellation Cassiopeia shining as bright as Saturn. Ever since, scientists have tried to find the supernova’s remnant. At first it was thought that this could be the […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/stunning-echo-of-800-year-old-explosion/
4 people killed and 7 wounded in stabbings in Illinois, with a suspect in custody
date: 2024-03-28, from: San Jose Mercury News
Four people were killed and seven were hurt when a man went on a stabbing rampage Wednesday across multiple locations in a northern Illinois community, authorities said.
A Thought on Sixels
date: 2024-03-28, from: mrusme blog
In the age of visually stunning graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and interactive designs, there exists a timeless elegance in the simplicity of purely text-based interfaces. From command line interfaces (CLIs) to plain text file formats like Markdown, the beauty of text lies not only in its minimalistic aesthetic but also in the efficiency and clarity it brings to digital interactions.
https://xn--gckvb8fzb.com/a-thought-on-sixels/
‘IRL Fakes:’ Where People Pay for AI-Generated Porn of Normal People
date: 2024-03-28, from: 404 Media Group
A Telegram user who advertises their services on Twitter will create AI-generated porn of anyone for a price, and has also targeted minors.
https://www.404media.co/irl-fakes-where-people-pay-for-ai-generated-porn-of-normal-people/
BYD Launches Yuan Up Compact Crossover Starting At $13,400
date: 2024-03-28, from: Inside EVs News
The model is targeted at young people and might significantly boost sales volume.
https://insideevs.com/news/714132/byd-yuan-up-launch-13400usd/
Ample and ENEOS are bringing the first-ever EV battery swap stations to Japan
date: 2024-03-28, from: Electrek Feed
EV battery swap specialist Ample has announced it is bringing the first-ever modular swap stations to Japan with the help of partner ENEOS. The first Japanese swap stations will be erected in Kyoto and used by several local fleets.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/28/ample-eneos-bringing-first-ev-battery-swap-stations-to-japan/
Watch FIM’s Snowcross World Championship Racers Thrash Their Snowmobiles
date: 2024-03-28, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
They throw these snowmobiles around like lightweight dirtbikes and its nothing short of exhilarating.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713771/2024-fim-snowcross-world-championship/
How Is Flocking Like Computing?
date: 2024-03-28, from: Quanta Magazine
Birds flock. Locusts swarm. Fish school. From chaotic assemblies of life, order somehow emerges. In this episode, co-host Steven Strogatz interviews the evolutionary ecologist Iain Couzin about how and why collective behaviors arise.The post How Is Flocking Like Computing? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-is-flocking-like-computing-20240328/
Criminals Are Weaponizing Child Abuse Imagery to Ban Discord Servers
date: 2024-03-28, from: 404 Media Group
Criminals are deliberating uploading child abuse material to rival hacking and fraud related Discord servers to have them shut down.
https://www.404media.co/criminals-are-weaponizing-child-abuse-imagery-to-ban-discord-servers/
Arthur Saginian | A Troupe of Court Jesters
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Signal
In his Jan. 12 letter, Michael Molacek went after the “Democratic voice” of one Gary Horton, though Horton’s column is called “Full Speed to Port.” Horton, a successful Santa Clarita businessman, is also a liberal Democrat, or so he presents. Everyone has an eccentric side and nobody’s perfect — that’s my take on Horton as […]
The post Arthur Saginian | A Troupe of Court Jesters appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/arthur-saginian-a-troupe-of-court-jesters/
Thomas Oatway | A Take-Home Quiz
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Signal
I have devised a short test to identify how you stand on presidential politics. Here it goes: 1. Does anyone: A) who was indicted for crimes in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot deserve prosecution; or were they: B) American patriots who were there for a peaceful protest? 2. Was there: A) minimal fraudulent voting in […]
The post Thomas Oatway | A Take-Home Quiz appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/thomas-oatway-a-take-home-quiz/
“Ms. Sharr proposed that Olga move into their Cambridge home temporarily so…
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044273-ms-sharr-proposed-that-ol
Thank You, Experts, for Your Expert Input
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/03/28/thank-you-experts-for-your-expert-input/
How a single buck bought bragging rights in the battle to port Windows 95 to NT
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It reached the desktop and then …
A former Microsoft engineer has waxed lyrical about how he and a colleague made a sporting bet over how far a new build of Windows would get before crashing.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/plummer_windows_95_nt/
New England Will Soon Be Coal-Free
date: 2024-03-28, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Flood watches are in effect for the eastern half of North Carolina • Egg-sized hail smashed car windshields in eastern China • Europe is forecast to be unusually warm through April.
THE TOP FIVE
- New England to shutter last remaining coal plant
New England will soon follow the Pacific Northwest in becoming a coal-free region. Granite Shore Power, which owns the region’s last-remaining coal plant, said it will close Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, by 2028 at the latest. The move is voluntary, but is part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency over the facility’s excessive particulate matter emissions. Granite Shore Power says it will transform the plant, as well as Schiller Station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, into a “renewable energy park.” “The end of coal in New Hampshire, and for the New England region as a whole, is now certain and in sight,” said a statement issued by Tom Irwin, the vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation in New Hampshire. “Now we must vigorously push for the phaseout of other polluting fuels like oil and gas.” New Hampshire will be the 16th state to go coal free.
- Louisiana to get direct air capture hub
The Department of Energy is giving the green light to Project Cypress, a cluster of facilities in southwest Louisiana that will filter carbon dioxide directly from the air and store it underground. The agency will award the project $50 million for the next phase of its development, which will be matched by $51 million in private investment. But there is a long road ahead: The project’s four implementation phases will take several years, and members of the surrounding community near Lake Charles (home to some of the most contested energy projects in the country) are skeptical the project will benefit them. Once it’s fully operational, Project Cypress is designed to capture 1 million tons of carbon from the air per year. Louisiana alone releases more than 200 million tons annually. “Even if we scale this up, we’d have to scale it up orders of magnitude higher than will ever be possible,” one Louisiana activist told Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo.
- New York’s MTA paves the way for congestion pricing
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has approved a plan to start charging drivers $15 for entering Manhattan below 60th Street, “the most congested district in the United States.” The congestion charge is expected to result in 100,000 fewer cars entering that region every day, reducing gridlock and improving air quality. Research shows that low-emission zones and congestion charging zones, which have been rolled out in other cities across the world, are associated with health benefits, including lower rates of cardiovascular disease.
MTA
New York would be the first city in the United States to implement such a program, but the plan faces challenges from six lawsuits that need to be settled before it can go ahead. “I’m keeping my champagne on ice until the lawsuits are resolved (which stopped a version in 1980) and no acts of Congress passed to block it (which stopped tolls on East and Harlem river bridges in 1977) and the first car is charged,” traffic analyst Sam Schwartz told Gothamist.
- Biden administration finalizes crackdown on methane from oil and gas
The Biden administration finalized a rule yesterday requiring oil and gas companies to reduce methane emissions from their operations. The rule “will hold oil and gas companies accountable” by tightening restrictions on gas flaring on federal lands and requiring producers to find and prevent leaks. “By setting a ceiling on how much gas companies can vent and flare without paying royalties, the new rule is expected to generate more than $50 million in additional payments to the federal government each year,” The Washington Post reported. “It will also conserve billions of cubic feet of gas that might otherwise have been vented, flared, or leaked.”
- Volvo builds its last diesel car
Volvo
You’re looking at the last diesel car Volvo will ever make. The XC90 SUV rolled off the line at the carmaker’s plant in Torslanda, Sweden, this week, and will head straight to a museum, “where it will be on display for anyone wanting to ponder the noxious emissions of yore,” wrote Jennifer Mossalgue at Electrek.
As recently as 2016, diesel vehicles accounted for half the company’s sales. Noting the surprising speed of the EV revolution, Volvo credited “tightening regulations around tailpipe emissions, as well as customer demand in response to the climate crisis.” Volvo plans to be all-electric by 2030, “making it one of the first legacy carmakers to do so,” Mossalgue said.
THE KICKER
“The fact that we can say, ‘Look, this is slowing down the entire Earth’ seems like another way of saying that climate change is unprecedented and important.” –Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, whose new research suggests climate change might be affecting global timekeeping
https://heatmap.news/economy/new-england-coal-merrimack
Can A.I. Make Beer Taste Better? Scientists Test a Model That Recommends New Flavors
date: 2024-03-28, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Researchers spent three years developing a machine learning model that can predict how good beer will taste based on its chemical composition—and make suggestions for how to improve it
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
These 50 companies have donated over $23 million to election deniers since January 6, 2021.
https://popular.info/p/these-50-companies-have-donated-over
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Jon Stewart Deconstructs Trump’s "Victimless" $450 Million Fraud.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EDMinX6t1Zk
CARE4Paws Celebrates New Mobile Clinic
date: 2024-03-28, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Double surgery suite enables nonprofit to better meet immense demand.
The post CARE4Paws Celebrates New Mobile Clinic appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/28/care4paws-celebrates-new-mobile-clinic/
Sports betting platforms attempt to encourage safer gambling
date: 2024-03-28, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Seven of the largest U.S. sportsbooks, including FanDuel and DraftKings, are launching a trade group to promote responsible gambling. The move comes as legal sports wagers surge and as the NBA and MLB each investigate high-profile betting scandals involving athletes. Also on today’s show, we hear how the Baltimore bridge collapse is impacting workers there and look at proposed legislation aimed at tackling some of the burdens of medical debt.
Canonical cracks down on crypto cons following Snap Store scam spree
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
In happier news, Ubuntu Pro extended support now goes up to 12 years
After multiple waves of cryptocurrency credential-stealing apps were uploaded to the Snap store, Canonical is changing its policies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/canonical_snap_store_scams/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Joe Lieberman, former U.S. senator and VP candidate, has died
https://ctmirror.org/2024/03/27/joe-lieberman-died/
Our new theory of change
date: 2024-03-28, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
One of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s core values is our focus on impact. This means that we are committed to learning from the best available evidence, and to being rigorous and transparent about the difference we’re making. Like many charities, an important part of our approach to achieving and measuring our impact is our theory…
The post Our new theory of change appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/theory-of-change-2024/
The Tiniest Nuclear Reactors Are Untried, Untested, and Gaining Legions of Fans
date: 2024-03-28, from: Heatmap News
When politicians tell the CEO of Radiant Nuclear that they love small modular reactors, he groans inwardly and just keeps smiling.
Doug Bernauer’s Radiant is not trying to make SMRs. His company — a VC-backed startup currently in the pre-application phase with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — is designing a portable nuclear microreactor, which is intended to replace diesel generators. The politicians don’t always know the difference, Bernauer told me.
The SMR-microreactor confusion is common outside the world of nuclear. While they are both versions of advanced nuclear technologies not yet built in the United States (all of our nuclear power comes from big, old-fashioned plants), SMRs and microreactors have different designs, power outputs, costs, financing models, and potential use cases.
Unlike SMRs, microreactors are too small to ever become key energy players within a full-sized grid. But they could replace fossil fuels in some of the hardest to decarbonize sectors and locations in the world: mines, factories, towns in remote locations (especially Alaska and northern Canada), military bases, and (ironically) oil fields. For those customers, they could also make power supply and prices more consistent, secure, and dependable than fossil fuels, whose fluctuating prices batter industrial sectors and the residents of remote towns without discrimination.
Perhaps even more importantly, microreactors’ small size and comparatively low price could make them a gateway drug for new nuclear technologies in the U.S., helping companies and regulators build the know-how they need to lower the risk and cost for larger projects.
Heatmap
Illustration/Radiant, IAEA, Getty Images
The big problem with this idea? No functional commercial nuclear
microreactor actually exists. Industry experts cannot say with
confidence that they know what the technological hurdles are going to
be, how to solve them, or what it’s going to cost to address them.
“My crystal ball is broken,” John Parsons, an economist researching risk in energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said when I asked him whether he believed microreactors would make it through the technical gauntlet. “I’m hopeful. But I’m also very open-minded. I don’t know what’s going to happen. And I really believe we need a lot of shots on goal, and not all shots are going to go through,” he said.
Recent advances in both technology and regulation indicate that in the next few years, we should have some answers.
Private companies are expecting to conduct their first tests in about two years, and they are in conversations with potential customers. Radiant is hoping to test at the Idaho National Laboratory in 2026; Westinghouse and Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation have contracts to test microreactors there as well. BWX Technologies is currently procuring the parts for a demonstration reactor through the Department of Defense’s prototype program — called Project Pele — and plans to test in about two years; X-energy signed an expanded contract in 2023 to build a prototype for Project Pele as well. Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska is commissioning a pilot microreactor. Schools including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Illinois have announced their interest as potential customers. Mining companies and other industry players in Alaska regularly express interest in embracing this technology.
The government is also quietly smoothing the way, removing barriers to make those tests possible. On March 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a new draft of licensing rules that will shape the future for these microreactors, and early March’s emergency spending bill included more than $2.5 billion repurposed for investment in a domestic supply chain of the type of nuclear fuel most advanced reactors will require.
“If we are truly committed as a nation to sticking to our climate goals, then we will absolutely get to a place where there are a bunch of microreactors replacing otherwise difficult to decarbonize sectors and applications,” said Kathryn Huff, the head of the office of nuclear energy at the Department of Energy.
Eric Gimon, a senior fellow at the nonprofit Energy Innovation, was a microreactor skeptic until about a month ago. His own recent research has made him far more optimistic that these microreactors might actually be technologically feasible, he told me when I reached out for an honest critique. “If they can make (the microreactors) work, it’s attractive,” he said. “There are a lot of industrial players that are going to want to buy them.”
“If your goal is to produce power at 4 cents per kilowatt hour, why would you buy any power that’s way more expensive than what you need? You do it because if that adds diversity to the portfolio and less variance, then you can get an overall portfolio that is lower cost or a lower risk for the same cost,” he told me.
Understanding the differences
Everyone I spoke to in the industry began our conversation with the same analogy: In the world of nuclear, full-size power plants are to airports what microreactors are to airplanes. Just as it’s easier to build and regulate an airplane than an entire airport, in theory the microreactors should be built in a factory, regulated and licensed in the factory, and then rented out to or sold to the end user. An airport requires approvals specific to the construction site, a huge team of people employed for a long time to construct it and then another team to maintain it, and complicated financing based on the idea that the airport could be used for 50 or more years; a full-scale nuclear plant is the same. An airplane can basically be ordered online; a microreactor should be the same.
“They are sized to be similar to that kind of scope, where you could really consolidate a lot of the chemical and manufacturing oversight to a single location rather than moving thousands of people to a construction site,” Huff told me.
Microreactors should produce relatively small amounts of power (a maximum of 10-20 megawatts) and lots of heat with a tiny amount of nuclear fuel. They are usually portable, and if they aren’t portable they require a limited amount of construction or installation. Because it should not be possible to handle the fuel once it leaves the factory (most of the proposed reactor designs set the fuel deep into a dense, inaccessible matrix), these reactors wouldn’t require the same safety and security measures on site as a nuclear power plant. They’re easily operated or managed by people without nuclear expertise, and their safety design — called passive safety — should make it technically impossible for a reactor to meltdown.
“The excess reactivity is so small that you actually can’t get the reactor hot enough that you could start damaging the fuel. That’s something unique about the microreactor that would not necessarily be true for other types of nuclear,” Jeff Waksman, the program manager for the Department of Defense’s Strategic Capabilities Office, told me.
Microreactors should also cost on the order of tens of millions of dollars, not hundreds. That’s low enough that a company, university, town, or other similarly-sized entity could buy one or more of them. Because they’re cheaper than traditional nuclear, they don’t require lenders to take big risks on money committed over a very long period of time. If a mining company wanted to replace a diesel generator with one of these, they should be able to finance it in exactly the same way (a loan from the bank, for example). This makes their financial logic quite different from SMRs, which can suffer from some of the same problems as full-size nuclear power plants (see: NuScale’s recent setbacks).
“All of the things that contribute to a faster innovation cycle are true for microreactors compared to larger reactors. So you can just — build one,” said Rachel Slaybaugh, a partner at DCVC and a board member at Radiant, Fervo Energy, and Fourth Power.
The cost problem
Because microreactors max out at around 20 megawatts of energy, the economies of scale that eventually bring down energy prices for full-scale nuclear power can’t be replicated. While Jigar Shah, the director of the loan programs office at the DOE, speculated in a recent interview that costs might eventually go just below 10 cents per kilowatt hour, Parsons is skeptical that anyone could provide a practical cost estimate. It’s absolutely going to cost more than either large reactors or SMRs, Parsons said.
But cost comparisons to other types of nuclear technology aren’t practical, according to Slaybaugh. “You are going to be able to command a cost parity with diesel generators. It’s easy to get to a point where they make financial sense,” she said. “You can see why someone would pick one: This is not making noise, it’s not making local air pollution, you don’t have to deal with the diesel logistics complexity. You sell it at price parity, and maybe the first few customers pay a premium because they are excited about it.”
That premium price for the initial technology is the largest hurdle raised by every single person I spoke with, from the DOE to analysts and researchers to the different microreactor companies.
But there is one customer already inclined to pay a substantial premium: the Department of Defense. The U.S. military has greater resiliency and security needs than other consumers when it comes to its power supply, making the cost of microreactors more palatable. (And it doesn’t hurt that the taxpayer already foots the bill for enormous defense contracts, including for aircraft carriers and submarines powered by nuclear reactors). It’s common for technological innovations (think the internet, GPS, advanced prosthetics) to begin with the military and then expand outward to the consumer. Project Pele and the requests for proposals at Eielson Air Force Base both indicate that the pathway might be one for microreactors, according to Parsons.
For the president of BWXT Advanced Technologies, the Department of Defense’s decision to commission his company’s microreactor for Project Pele removed his last doubts that these microreactors would eventually be built. “The DOD being the first mover has extreme advantage for the country, and for eventually the commercial industry,” Joseph Miller told me. “The first mover was the barrier, and now it’s just 1,000 things that we’re working on all day every day to make it real, and there’s no gotcha out there that I see. That wasn’t the case when we were doing the design work, but now we’re making procurements to be able to assemble and deliver the reactor.”
Regardless of whether Miller’s optimism is well-founded, the experience gained in trying to make them happen is invaluable for a nuclear industry that’s been stuck in the mud for far too long.
“I’ve been talking with the federal government about the fact that there’s broader value in terms of getting wins on the board for the nuclear sector and getting the industry more experienced with building new things in a way that isn’t quite so complicated,” Slaybaugh said. “Let’s have them build a thing that’s small and kind of cheap, and then they can go build a bigger thing that’s a little more expensive and a little more complicated. Let’s get some real reps in with microreactors.”
https://heatmap.news/technology/nuclear-microreactors-radiant-westinghouse-bwx-technologies
lEEt/OS: graphical shell and multitasking environment for DOS
date: 2024-03-28, from: OS News
lEEt/OS is a graphical shell and partially posix-compliant multitasking operating environment that runs on top of a DOS kernel. The latest version can be downloaded from this site. lEEt/OS is tested with FreeDOS 1.2 and ST-DOS, but it may also work with other DOS implementations. It can be compiled with Open Watcom compiler. 8086 binaries are also available from this site. ↫ lEEt/OS website I had never heard of lEEt/OS before, but it looks quite interesting – and the new ST-DOS kernel the developer is making further adds to its uniqueness. A very cool project I’m putting on my list of operating systems to write short ‘first look’ article about for y’all.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139027/leet-os-graphical-shell-and-multitasking-environment-for-dos/
China lifts Australian wine tariffs
date: 2024-03-28, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: There is good news for Australian wine producers: They’ll no longer face tariffs from their largest trading partner, China. Also in China, smartphone giant Xiaomi moves into the EV market. What’s behind the move? Plus, dates are often associated with the holy month of Ramadan and the breaking of fast. We take an examination of how supply chain stressors are affecting the economy of dates.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/china-lifts-australian-wine-tariffs
SIROTA’S SIGNALS: This Graph Explains The Discontent
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Lever News
Plus, a nonprofit health care system secretly becomes a debt collector, regulators may help you find cheaper credit cards, and Big Tech’s plan to keep preying on kids.
https://www.levernews.com/sirotas-signals-this-graph-explains-the-discontent/
ARM64EC (and ARM64X) explained
date: 2024-03-28, from: OS News
Probably the most confused looks I get from other developers when I discuss Windows and ARM64 is when I used the term “ARM64EC”. They ask is the same thing as ARM64? Is it a different instruction set than ARM64? How can you tell if an application is or ARM64 ARM64EC? This tutorial will answer those questions by de-mystifying and explaining the difference between what can be called “classic ARM64” as it existed since Windows 10, and this new “ARM64EC” which was introduced in Windows 11 in 2021. ↫ Darek Mihocka I’m not going to steal the article’s thunder, but the short of it is that the ‘EC’ stands for ‘Emulation Compatible’, meaning it can call unmodified x86-64 code. ARM64X, meanwhile, is an extended version of Windows PE that allows both ARM64 and emulated x86-64 code to coexist in the same binary (which is not the same as a fat binary, which is an either/or situation). There is a whole lot more to this subject – and I truly mean a lot, this a monster of an in-depth article – so be sure to head on over and read it in full. You’ll be busy for a while.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139025/arm64ec-and-arm64x-explained/
Writing GNOME applications with Swift
date: 2024-03-28, from: OS News
Swift is well-suited for creating user interfaces thanks to the clean syntax, static typing, and special features making code easier to write. Result builders, combined with Swift’s closure expression syntax, can significantly enhance code readability. Adwaita for Swift leverages these Swift features to provide an intuitive interface for developing applications for the GNOME platform. ↫ The Swift blog It seems the Swift project is actively trying to move beyond being the ‘Apple programming language’.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139022/writing-gnome-applications-with-swift/
Hardware Vulnerability in Apple’s M-Series Chips
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-26, from: Bruce Schneier blog
It’s yet another hardware side-channel attack:
The threat resides in the chips’ data memory-dependent prefetcher, a hardware optimization that predicts the memory addresses of data that running code is likely to access in the near future. By loading the contents into the CPU cache before it’s actually needed, the DMP, as the feature is abbreviated, reduces latency between the main memory and the CPU, a common bottleneck in modern computing. DMPs are a relatively new phenomenon found only in M-series chips and Intel’s 13th-generation Raptor Lake microarchitecture, although older forms of prefetchers have been common for years…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/03/hardware-vulnerability-in-apples-m-series-chips.html
Progress outbids private equity in offer for MariaDB plc
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
MySQL sibling saga continues as 40-year-old infrastructure software firm enters the fray
Progress Software has made a bid for MariaDB, offering a price that is less than a tenth of the beleaguered company’s value at its IPO launch.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/progress_mariadb_offer/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Magic Kingdom Authoritarianism.
INC Ransom claims responsibility for attack on NHS Scotland
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sensitive documents dumped on leak site amid claims of 3 TB of data stolen in total
NHS Scotland says it managed to contain a ransomware group’s malware to a regional branch, preventing the spread of infection across the entire institution.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/nhs_scotland_cyberattack/
The New EPA Car Standards Could Mean Even More Hybrids
date: 2024-03-28, from: Heatmap News
Last week, the Biden administration announced its final car emission standards, aimed at pushing the auto industry to create more zero-emission vehicles. While there’s plenty in the 1,200-page document for policy wonks, politicians, environmental advocates, and automakers to hem and haw over, there’s at least one thing no one seems too bothered about: The new emissions rules stand to boost plug-in and conventional hybrid sales, thanks in part to some small changes to how their emissions are considered within the mix of an automaker’s fleet.
To recap: The biggest headline change from the proposed rule to the final one is that automakers now have a slower ramp toward reducing their fleet-wide emissions by roughly 50% come 2032. A handful of sensational headlines notwithstanding, the new rules do not mandate that automakers build and sell only EVs. The point is to reduce tailpipe emissions. How automakers go about it is their business.
“Automakers may see it fit to introduce more hybrids and plug-in hybrids, along with some electrics,” Thomas Boylan, regulatory director at the Zero Emissions Transportation Association, told me. “Or if they can find the engineering capacity to create an internal combustion engine that doesn’t produce tailpipe emissions, that’s a viable pathway to these standards,” he added. That said, how automakers account for the emissions from their fleets — and specifically from hybrids and plug-in hybrids — is not open to interpretation.
When plug-in hybrids are running on battery power, the Environmental Protection Agency counts those as zero-emission miles. Historically, the EPA has assumed that everyone with a PHEV plugs it in every day and is therefore maximizing its battery-powered mileage, however more recent studies have shown that is probably not actually the case.
“There’s some mixed data out there in terms of how frequently people who own these [PHEV] vehicles plug them in, and that’s a big factor in how much compliance they should get,” Chris Harto, the senior policy analyst for transportation and energy at Consumer Reports, told me.
“How much compliance they should get” became a key question in how the new car emissions standards would account for PHEVs. The draft rule issued last year had proposed reducing the amount of compliance credit automakers would get for plug-ins starting in model year 2027 to account for the discrepancy in battery miles traveled. But the final rule delayed that phase-in until model year 2031, in order “to provide additional stability for the program, and to give manufacturers ample time to transition to the new compliance calculation.”
Hybrid and PHEV vehicle sales have been surprisingly robust over the past few years, as Jesse Jenkins pointed out on Heatmap’s Shift Key podcast. Hybrid electric sales were about on par with battery electric sales in 2023, at around 1.1 million vehicles each, Jenkins said, which is “way higher than what we expected.”
As of February, plug-in and traditional hybrid sales were growing five times faster than EV sales, Morgan Stanley reported. The Argonne National Laboratory also found that during the same month, PHEV and hybrid sales rose to more than 130,000 all together. To put that in perspective, last year’s record EV sales alone averaged just about 100,000 per month across all brands. These robust sales numbers, combined with the new EPA tailpipe emission rules, could continue to drive growth in hybrid and PHEV sales, even as EV sales growth cools.
“I think a lot of automakers underappreciated the big bump in hybrid sales that many people have rightly celebrated in 2023. That huge jump in hybrid sales coincides directly with a huge jump in EPA emission standards from 2022 to 2023,” Harto told me. In 2021, the Biden administration revised a Trump-era rule that sought to weaken vehicle emission standards. Those revised rules, which took effect for the 2023 model year, were 10% tighter than the year prior.
“These standards have a history of pushing automakers to deliver vehicles that save consumers money on fuel,” Harto said. “I don’t think we would have seen the jump in hybrid sales that we saw last year without the jump in emission standards in 2023.”
Still, he noted, “The more hybrids (or other gasoline efficiency improvements) and PHEVs automakers build, the fewer BEVs they will have to build to comply.”
This will likely slow the EV adoption curve, but if it leads to more and cheaper plug-in hybrids than we would have had otherwise, it could help U.S. consumers get more comfortable with the idea of plugging in rather than filling up their cars.
“I think the final rule reflects more of an understanding that there will be more hybrid electric vehicle penetration rates over the next few years,” Boylan told me. While the true cost and emissions savings are in fully battery electric vehicles, it might take consumers a minute to get there. “I think, ultimately, a PHEV offers an opportunity to educate a consumer on what an electric vehicle might be able to do to meet their personal needs, and that creates a pathway to a true BEV purchase, on the next vehicle.”
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/epa-car-rule-hybrids
PostgreSQL pioneer’s latest brainchild promises time travel to dodge ransomware
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Michael Stonbraker on the neat side effects of putting an operating system on top of a database
Database pioneer Michael Stonebraker is promising his new concept of putting the operating system on top of a database could help end ransomware.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/stonebraker_dbos/
Bill Miranda | Splash into spring fun at the Aquatic Center
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Signal
As a family-focused community, fun and unique events for our residents are what we do best. Whether it’s thousands of people at our Concerts in the Park series or hiking with friends out in our open spaces, engaging events that include everyone is what sets us apart from other communities. Speaking of which, get ready […]
The post Bill Miranda | Splash into spring fun at the Aquatic Center appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/bill-miranda-splash-into-spring-fun-at-the-aquatic-center/
Databricks claims its open source foundational LLM outsmarts GPT-3.5
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
In the AI gold rush, analytics outfit wants to provide the shovels
Analytics platform Databricks has launched an open source foundational large language model, hoping enterprises will opt to use its tools to jump on the LLM bandwagon.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/databricks_dbrx_llm/
Mini Observatory | The MagPi #140
date: 2024-03-28, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Finally having the time to focus on his hobbies led one maker to design and build a self-contained star-gazing setup.
The post Mini Observatory | The MagPi #140 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/mini-observatory-the-magpi-140/
The Trump integrity trap
date: 2024-03-28, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Once you work for him, you’re trapped
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-trump-integrity-trap
March 27, 2024
date: 2024-03-28, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
The news that NBC News reconsidered its invitation to former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel to become a paid contributor has buried the recent news about some of the other participants in Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-27-2024
These 17,000 unpatched Microsoft Exchange servers are a ticking time bomb
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
One might say this is a wurst case scenario
The German Federal Office for Information Security (BIS) has issued an urgent alert about the poor state of Microsoft Exchange Server patching in the country.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/germany_microsoft_exchange_patch/
Classifieds – March 28, 2024
date: 2024-03-28, 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 28, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/classifieds-march-28-2024/
Today in SCV History (March 28)
date: 2024-03-28, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1934 – Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam and reservoir, begins to fill with water. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-28/
AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them – even if potentially poisoned with malware
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Simply look out for libraries imagined by ML and make them real, with actual malicious code. No wait, don’t do that
In-depth Several big businesses have published source code that incorporates a software package previously hallucinated by generative AI.…
Sustainable Measures for Decarbonization
date: 2024-03-28, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Attempting to correct the imbalance in our modern carbon cycles.
The post Sustainable Measures for Decarbonization appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/28/sustainable-measures-for-decarbonization/
The power of ‘The Chosen One’
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Lebron James has led the change for social justice from the court to the community.
The post The power of ‘The Chosen One’ appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/the-power-of-the-chosen-one/
Down-ballot races should be at the top of your mind
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
If people choose not to vote because of their presidential choices, there may be consequences further down the ballot.
The post Down-ballot races should be at the top of your mind appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/down-ballot-races-should-be-at-the-top-of-your-mind/
Bass speaks on mayoral lessons learned
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Karen Bass discussed her experiences as mayor on campus Tuesday evening.
The post Bass speaks on mayoral lessons learned appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/karen-bass-campus-visit/
Chalk city: Week one of March Madness wraps
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The first weekend was crazy, but upsets became more rare as the games continued.
The post Chalk city: Week one of March Madness wraps appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/chalk-city-week-one-of-march-madness-wraps/
Social media is suppressing identity
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
We should become more aware of how social media influences our individuality.
The post Social media is suppressing identity appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/social-media-is-suppressing-identity/
‘Only the Young’ revisits Korean avant-garde
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
UCLA’s Hammer Museum explores the explosion of new ideas in Korean art.
The post ‘Only the Young’ revisits Korean avant-garde appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/only-the-young-revisits-korean-avant-garde/
Thornton Jazz Night gets crowd dancing
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Thornton musicians perform jazz classics, student compositions and the sounds of Cuba.
The post Thornton Jazz Night gets crowd dancing appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/thornton-jazz-night-gets-crowd-dancing/
Gould promotes interim dean effective April 1
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Tolson will be the first Black dean and the second female dean in Gould’s history.
The post Gould promotes interim dean effective April 1 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/franita-tolson-gould-dean/
Baseball welcomes the Pac-12’s finest
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Trojans will battle No. 2 Oregon State at yet another home venue this weekend.
The post Baseball welcomes the Pac-12’s finest appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/28/baseball-welcomes-the-pac-12s-finest/
Tips and Tricks with Statement Stone
date: 2024-03-28, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Create a distinguished look with statement stone.
The post Tips and Tricks with Statement Stone appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/28/tips-and-tricks-with-statement-stone/
Execs in Japan busted for winning dev bids then outsourcing to North Koreans
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Government issues stern warning over despot money-making scheme
Two executives were issued arrest warrants in Japan on Wednesday, reportedly for charges related to establishing a business that outsourced work to North Korean IT engineers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/japan_nk_arrests/
New beginnings with Nowruz
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Persian food, refreshments and a Haft-Sin arranged by the Iranian Student Club and faculty members were open to all in the Multicultural Center for a
The post New beginnings with Nowruz appeared first on .
How much electricity would we need for green steel? Some numbers from Chris Goodall’s new book
date: 2024-03-28, from: Hannah Richie at Substack
Maybe “hard-to-abate”, but not impossible.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/green-steel-goodall
Aiming for the playoffs: women’s basketball reflects on their season
date: 2024-03-28, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
With the season at an end and the towels hanging, the noises from the fans on the court seemed to diminish after the women’s basketball
The post Aiming for the playoffs: women’s basketball reflects on their season appeared first on .
China encouraged armed offensive against Myanmar government to protest proliferation of online scams
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Report claims Beijing is most displaced by junta’s failure to address slave labor scam settlements
The military junta controlling Myanmar has struggled to control all of its territory thanks in part to China backing rebel forces as a way of expressing its displeasure about cyberscam centers operating from the country.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/scam_centers_china_myanmar/
Group Trains Migrants to Help Solve US Construction Labor Shortage
date: 2024-03-28, from: VOA News USA
The United States is in dire need of construction workers, a builders’ industry group says. Nonprofits argue that the newly arrived migrants that have overwhelmed some U.S. cities in recent months could help. But not everyone agrees. Joti Rekhi reports from New York City.
Annual Summer Camp Guide 2024
date: 2024-03-28, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Summer has been waiting all year to welcome you back to creativity, learning, movement, the water, the outdoors, friendship, and more!
The post Annual Summer Camp Guide 2024 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/2024-summer-camp-guide/
Gou Miyagi Skates Very Mellow
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/gou-miyagi-skates-very-mellow
Talking Hot Dog gives new meaning to ‘Ham radio’
date: 2024-03-28, from: Jeff Geerling blog
Talking Hot Dog gives new meaning to ‘Ham radio’
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>...except it was a beef frank. Make your <em>wurst</em> jokes in the comments.</p>
What you see above is the remains of a hot dog after it has been applied to an AM radio tower operating in its daytime pattern, at around 6 kW.
A couple months ago, soon after we posted our If I touch this tower, I die video, a few commenters mentioned you likely wouldn’t die after touching a high-power AM tower—rather, you’d have serious RF burns.
I was trying to figure out a way to somewhat safely test the scenario: what would happen if someone walked up and touched the tower, while standing on the ground?
If reading’s not your thing, check out the short video we posted on Geerling Engineering:
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Jeff Geerling</span></span>
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/talking-hot-dog-gives-new-meaning-ham-radio
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I think micro.blog is going to get very interesting once the APIs for all these random social networks fill out.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a020223
Singapore improves the AI it uses to detect smokers
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Past versions struggled to spot a lungbuster – this time authorities think they’ve reduced false positives
Singapore has improved the AI it uses to detect smokers who light up in the many places where the practice is forbidden across the island nation, to help local law enforcement more efficiently stub out offenders.…
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Journalists
who say
AI
is just hype are wrong.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a015750
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I’m looking for evidence of useful federation with an open mind ready to become a believer.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a015735
HD Hyundai announces lithium phosphate battery pack for commercial trucks
date: 2024-03-28, from: Electrek Feed
HD Hyundai Infracore (HDI) is set to debut a new, 35 kWh lithium phosphate battery pack to power the next generation of electrified commercial equipment.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I tried the new Starbuck’s chicken sandwich. It was the worst thing I’ve ever had. Avoid.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a014811
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
My gods the Knicks are masters of the universe this year.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a014521
Road Snacks #1
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/road-snacks-1
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-28, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I wish I could send ChatGPT a pointer to a page I’m working on and ask it questions about my CSS. Or imagine ChatGPT running in Node, supervising my server app, looking for problems, odd usage patterns, and later looking for optimizations. And that’s just the beginning.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a014043
California Launches New Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign
date: 2024-03-28, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The California Department of Public Health launched the “Never a Bother” campaign, a youth suicide prevention public awareness and outreach campaign for youth, young adults, and their parents, caregivers, and allies
https://scvnews.com/california-launches-new-youth-suicide-prevention-campaign/
Yellen Warns She’ll Confront China on Its Energy Subsidies
date: 2024-03-28, from: VOA News USA
washington — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that Chinese subsidies for clean energy industries create unfair competition that “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
Yellen said that during a visit she has scheduled to China, she intends to warn China its national underwriting for energy and other companies is creating oversupply and market distortion, among other problems.
“I intend to talk to the Chinese when I visit about overcapacity in some of these industries, and make sure that they understand the undesirable impact that this is having — flooding the market with cheap goods — on the United States, but also in many of our closest allies,” Yellen said in a speech in Norcross, Georgia.
Yellen said she believes those subsidies will enable China to flood the markets for solar panels, electric vehicle parts and lithium-ion batteries, thus distorting production in other economies and global prices.
“I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also productivity and growth in the Chinese economy, as China itself acknowledged in its National People’s Congress this month,” Yellen said. “And I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue.”
Yellen is set for meetings in China in April, according to Politico. The Treasury has not yet confirmed her itinerary.
The secretary visited Georgia to see a newly reopened solar cell manufacturing plant, which according to the Treasury closed in 2017 because of competition from factories in China. It is reopening now, though, after tax credits in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act fueled increased anticipated demand for solar panels.
On Tuesday, China filed a complaint against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization, arguing the U.S.’s requirements for electric vehicle subsidies are discriminatory. Chinese officials did not comment on what prompted the decision.
Yellen said she hopes to have a “constructive” dialogue with Chinese officials about subsidies and oversupply issues. She said outreach to businesspeople and governments around the world had prompted her to issue this warning.
“These are concerns that I increasingly hear from government counterparts in industrialized countries and emerging markets, as well as from the business community globally,” Yellen said.
Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
https://www.voanews.com/a/yellen-warns-she-ll-confront-china-on-its-energy-subsidies-/7546754.html
Suspects Plead Not Guilty of Smuggling People From Canada to US
date: 2024-03-28, from: VOA News USA
Hyperfluorescent OLEDs promise more efficient displays that won’t make you so blue
date: 2024-03-28, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Novel design might also help reduce those annoying burn-in issues
A recent paper published in Nature demonstrates that hyperfluorescent OLEDs could significantly reduce the energy required to display the color blue – potentially mitigating, but not solving, screen burn-in.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/hyperfluorescent_oled_screen/
April 20: Santa Clarita Master Chorale’s Cabaret, Cabernet Fundraiser
date: 2024-03-28, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Master Chorale invites the community to “Let the Sunshine In,” a delightful evening of food, wine and song at the annual Cabaret & Cabernet fundraising benefit.
https://scvnews.com/april-20-master-chorales-cabaret-cabernet-fundraiser/
New US Sanctions Target North Korean Military Finances
date: 2024-03-28, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/new-us-sanctions-target-north-korean-military-finances-/7546730.html
Road closure scheduled as Every 15 Minutes comes to Vasquez High
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
News release The California Highway Patrol, in conjunction with Vasquez High School, will be conducting a simulated drunk driving traffic collision as part of the Every 15 Minutes program on Thursday. The collision will be staged on Red Rover Mine Road north of Escondido Canyon Road and will begin at approximately 10 a.m. The mock […]
The post Road closure scheduled as Every 15 Minutes comes to Vasquez High appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/road-closure-scheduled-as-every-15-minutes-comes-to-vasquez-high/
March 27 Ocean Water Warning
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions residents who are planning to visit the below Los Angeles County beaches to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters
https://scvnews.com/march-27-ocean-water-warning/
Microsoft’s new era of AI PCs will need a Copilot key, says Intel
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and AMD have all been pushing the idea of an “AI PC” for months now as we head toward more AI-powered features in Windows. While we’re still waiting to hear the finer details from Microsoft on its big plans for AI in Windows, Intel has started sharing Microsoft’s requirements for OEMs to build an AI PC — and one of the main ones is that an AI PC must have Microsoft’s Copilot key. ↫ Tom Warren at The Verge I lack the words in any of the languages I know to describe the utter disdain I have for this.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139020/microsofts-new-era-of-ai-pcs-will-need-a-copilot-key-says-intel/
Phil Spencer wants Epic Games Store and others on Xbox consoles
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
In an interview with Microsoft’s CEO of Gaming during the annual Game Developers Conference, Spencer told Polygon about the ways he’d like to break down the walled gardens that have historically limited players to making purchases through the first-party stores tied to each console. Or, in layperson terms, why you should be able to buy games from other stores on Xbox — not just the official storefront. Spencer mentioned his frustrations with closed ecosystems, so we asked for clarity. Could he really see a future where stores like Itch.io and Epic Games Store existed on Xbox? Was it just a matter of figuring out mountains of paperwork to get there? ↫ Chris Plante at Polygon The answer is yes, Spencer claims. I don’t know how realistic any of this is, but to me it makes perfect sense, and the gaming world has been moving towards it for a while now. At the moment, I’m doing something thought unthinkable until very recently: I’m playing a major Sony PlayStation exclusive, Horizon: Forbidden West, on PC, through Steam on Linux. Sony has been making its major exclusives available on Steam in recent years, and while seeing these games on Xbox might be a bit too much to ask, I wouldn’t be surprised to see storefronts from companies who don’t make game consoles pop up on the Xbox and PlayStation. Games have become so expensive to make that limiting them to a single console just doesn’t make any commercial sense. Why limit your audience?
https://www.osnews.com/story/139017/phil-spencer-wants-epic-games-store-and-others-on-xbox-consoles/
Daily EV Recap: An autonomous EV that can drift
date: 2024-03-27, 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/2024/03/27/daily-ev-recap/
SCVEDEC Asks For the Business Community’s Opinion on Santa Clarita
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
As an integral ingredient necessary to help the Santa Clarita Valley to flourish, feedback from the business community is the secret sauce for achieving great things
https://scvnews.com/scvedec-asks-for-the-business-communitys-opinion-on-santa-clarita/
Residents appeal plan for apartments on Bouquet Canyon
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
A longtime local business owner and landlord is trying to stop the plans for a mixed-use, four-story apartment complex-commercial building slated for 7,200 square feet of parking lot next door to her Cinema Drive business park. The Santa Clarita Plaza proposal calls for the 26 one-bedroom and four live-work units to be built next to […]
The post Residents appeal plan for apartments on Bouquet Canyon appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/residents-appeal-plan-for-apartments-on-bouquet-canyon/
Here’s how much money you’ll get with the Inflation Reduction Act
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a “free electric bank account with your name on it.” It’s packed with rebates and tax credits that will help Americans purchase everything from EVs to solar and electrical appliances to heat pumps. Check out this easy-to-use IRA savings calculator from Rewiring America that tells you what you get – and when.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/inflation-reduction-act-calculator/
Standardization could open door to third-party chiplets in AMD designs
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Domain-specific accelerators are ‘essential to progress’ it claims, and a chiplet ecosystem is one way forward
Video Future AMD processors could feature domain-specific accelerators – even some created by third parties, according to senior execs at the chip shop.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/amd_chiplets_future/
US Seeks Engagement With North Korea Amid Heightened Tensions
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
washington — The Biden administration has been making a diplomatic push for talks with North Korea with more explicit public proposals for engagement than at any other time since taking office.
“We want dialogue, and there are lots of valuable discussions” that could be had with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, said Jung Pak, the U.S. senior official for North Korea.
Those items for discussion could include sanctions, humanitarian cooperation and confidence-building measures, Pak said at a March 18 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.
She added that the U.S. wants North Korea to take risk-reduction steps to avoid miscalculation and inadvertent escalation. The U.S. also wants to see Pyongyang take interim steps toward denuclearization, Pak said at another event held by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on March 5.
Joseph DeTrani, who served as the special envoy for six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea from 2003 to 2006 during the George W. Bush administration, told VOA via email on Friday that the Biden administration is making this approach now as opposed to earlier in its term because “tension on the Korean Peninsula has increased exponentially, and all efforts must be made to stop this escalation and defuse this tension.”
Since the beginning of the year, Pyongyang has repeatedly called Seoul its “primary foe” and denounced unification while rallying North Korea to prepare to occupy South Korea if a war breaks out.
North Korea has launched multiple rockets and cruise missiles and conducted several artillery firing drills this year. In its latest test on March 18, North Korea conducted a drill involving “newly equipped super-large multiple rocket launchers” that could cause “disastrous consequences” if a war breaks out, its state-run KCNA news agency said.
Since its term began in 2021, the Biden administration has said it is open to denuclearization talks with North Korea without preconditions. But it has been silent on what it would offer Pyongyang or how it thinks denuclearization should proceed, although it has hinted at incremental steps toward that goal.
After completing a monthslong policy review on North Korea in April 2021, then-White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said the Biden administration sought a middle ground between “a grand bargain” and “strategic patience.”
Former President Donald Trump sought to strike “a grand bargain” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, pursued a policy approach dubbed “strategic patience,” which involved waiting to engage Pyongyang until it reduced tensions.
In an interview with VOA on March 18, Pak said, “Our policy is the same since we rolled out our policy review back in the spring of 2021, which is that we are absolutely looking for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
She continued, “When we talk about ‘interim steps,’ we’re making explicit what has always been implicit, which is a complete denuclearization will not occur overnight.”
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, told VOA in a telephone interview on Monday that “perhaps it was almost frustration” that prompted the Biden administration to make its approach to North Korea more explicit and public now.
U.S. officials “have tried many channels, including through third countries, trying to get messages to the North Koreans and indicating they’re willing to talk not only about denuclearization but about other nonnuclear issues, including risk reduction or confidence-building measures [and] humanitarian assistance,” Klingner said.
Mira Rapp-Hooper, special assistant to the president and senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the White House National Security Council, said at a CSIS-hosted virtual event on March 3 that North Korea “has not answered” multiple U.S. calls for dialogue made through “many channels.”
She continued, “This is increasingly problematic, of course, because we now see the DPRK taking increasingly escalatory behavior.”
Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said, “I was struck by the continued priority given ‘risk reduction’ as an initial discussion topic, which reflects, in my view, growing U.S. concerns about the escalatory situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
While North Korea increased missile launches and verbal hostilities toward South Korea, it has been making weapons shipments to Russia in defiance of international sanctions.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said at a press briefing on March 18 that Pyongyang has shipped about 7,000 containers of weapons to Russia since last year.
DeTrani said that is “all the more reason why we should be open and creative in getting North Korea back to negotiations.”
VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching contributed to this report.
SCV runners take on the L.A. Marathon
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Vincent Stella said he has trouble focusing. That, he said, is due to his autism. But when he’s running, he’s able to push that aside and just let his legs take him where he needs to go. “It allows me to calm down,” Stella said. “Running is how I practically work through my autism.” Stella […]
The post <strong>SCV runners take on the L.A. Marathon</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/scv-runners-take-on-the-l-a-marathon/
Fire Department simulates leak at HASA
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
L.A. County Fire Department officials conducted a drill, hosted by local pool chemical manufacturer HASA, to simulate a “worst-case scenario,” officials said Wednesday, as giant plumes of simulated smoke filled the sky above a rail car parked near the business. The three-hour drill that started around 9 a.m. was intended to help first responders, which […]
The post Fire Department simulates leak at HASA appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/fire-department-simulates-leak-at-hasa/
Jill Biden to Publish Children’s Book About White House Cat
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
washington — First lady Jill Biden will publish a children’s book in June called Willow the White House Cat — about her cat, Willow.
The publisher, Simon & Schuster, announced Wednesday that the book tells the story of Willow’s journey to the White House.
The short-haired tabby cat entered the Bidens’ life after she jumped on stage as the first lady was speaking at a Pennsylvania farm during President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. Soon after, Jill Biden adopted the cat and named it after her hometown, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.
“As Willow bounds from room to room, exploring history in her new home, she learns quickly about all of the incredible people who make the ‘People’s House’ run,” the first lady said in the publisher’s announcement.
“They welcomed Willow with love and care, just as they did Joe and me, the First Families who came before us, and all of the people who step foot into this home.”
The Bidens began their White House tenancy with Willow and several German shepherd dogs. However, one dog, Champ, died in 2021, and two others, Major and Commander, were sent away for aggressive behavior after biting security personnel and White House staff.
This makes 4-year-old Willow the only presidential pet currently residing at the White House.
Presidential pets have long been a source of public fascination. Willow now meows among the ranks of fellow famous felines such as President Bill Clinton’s black and white cat named Socks, who became iconic for her photo ops on the White House lawn.
Socks had her own book, written by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, called Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, which included fan mail address to Socks and her canine companion Buddy the chocolate labrador retriever.
First lady Barbara Bush also wrote a book about the family pet. Millie’s Book: As Dictated to Barbara Bush is a dog’s-eye view of the White House during the George H.W. Bush administration.
First lady Biden has previously written several children’s books, including Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops and Joey: The Story of Joe Biden. She published her memoir, “Where the Light Enters,” in 2019.
Proceeds from book sales will be given to charities that support military dogs.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
https://www.voanews.com/a/jill-biden-to-publish-children-s-book-about-white-house-cat-/7546359.html
Americans love Tesla wall chargers – and charging at home – study
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Charging at home is the most satisfying part of owning an EV, and Tesla’s wall-mounted charger is still the US favorite, according to a new study from J.D. Power.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/americans-love-tesla-wall-chargers-and-charging-at-home-study/
Council members OK 5% salary increase
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita City Council members approved a 5% pay hike for themselves at Tuesday’s council meeting. The raise was authorized for next year after the second reading and approval of a motion to increase council members’ salaries, which was initially approved at a March 12 hearing. The increase accounts for a 2.5% raise each year […]
The post Council members OK 5% salary increase appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/council-members-ok-5-salary-increase/
Do robot workers benefit the economy? Pro: Harnessing technology for the future
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Robots can’t catch COVID-19, so college campuses throughout the country used this to their students’ advantage during the pandemic. When working with students, from the
The post Do robot workers benefit the economy? Pro: Harnessing technology for the future appeared first on .
Do robot workers benefit the economy? Con: Overuse of technology comes at the expense of humanity
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
The technologies that shape the world are rapidly evolving, from generative artificial intelligence breakthroughs to improvements in robotics and manufacturing. Although it is important to
The post Do robot workers benefit the economy? Con: Overuse of technology comes at the expense of humanity appeared first on .
April 13: Sister Cities Zumba-thon Fundraiser
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Raise your heart rate while raising funds for the Santa Clarita Sister Cities Dollars-for-Desks campaign to provide school desks for students in Sariaya, Santa Clarita’s Sister City in the Philippines
https://scvnews.com/april-13-sister-cities-zumba-thon-fundraiser/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-27, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I saw these Sony buds advertised and I had to try them. They’re now my favorite way to listen to music and podcasts. Most ear buds in my experience don’t do very well with bass, and I love music with a strong beat. Sony makes great inexpensive headphones.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a225527
News Briefs – March 27, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
High school students get a glimpse of Pierce: Students from Cleveland High School, John R. Wooden High School and Taft High School visited Pierce College
The post News Briefs – March 27, 2024 appeared first on .
Henry Mayo warning of rise in early-onset colon cancer
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
It’s fairly common to be told to schedule a colonoscopy when approaching 50 years old, but new studies are showing that colon cancer rates are rising in younger people. According to Drs. May Lin Tao and Neel Mann with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, colon cancer rates are rising by 30% globally for people under 50. […]
The post <strong>Henry Mayo warning of rise in early-onset colon cancer</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/henry-mayo-warning-of-rise-in-early-onset-colon-cancer/
Saugus school board approves Santa Clarita Elementary committee
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Officials with the Saugus Union School District and governing board members on Tuesday heard what a typical “7-11” committee looks like before the board approved the formation of one to determine what to do with the property that includes Santa Clarita Elementary School. The board voted in November to close the oldest school in the […]
The post <strong>Saugus school board approves Santa Clarita Elementary committee</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/saugus-school-board-approves-santa-clarita-elementary-committee/
April 20: SCAA Western Perspectives Art Exhibit Opening Reception
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Artists’ Assocation is traveling back to the days of the Old West as the city of Santa Clarita hosts the Cowboy Festival at William S. Hart Regional Park April 20-21. The SCAA Wester Perspectivew Art Exhibit group show will share a window into life on the ol’ frontier with western landscapes, people and animals of the west
https://scvnews.com/april-20-scaa-western-perspectives-art-exhibit-opening-reception/
Louisiana Is Officially Getting a Direct Air Capture Hub
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heatmap News
The Department of Energy is giving the green light to Project Cypress, a cluster of facilities in southwest Louisiana that will filter carbon dioxide directly from the air and store it underground. The agency announced Wednesday that it will award the project $50 million for the next phase of its development, which will be matched by $51 million in private investment.
Before receiving any money, the Project Cypress team had to reach an agreement with the DOE regarding how they would engage with community and labor stakeholders. The result, also released Wednesday, was a series of commitments — for example, to assemble a community advisory board, to partner with local workforce development organizations, and to create a public website with project information.
The developers have yet to provide a list of more concrete, measurable benefits the project will bring to the community. This was more like a plan to make a plan that will have robust community input. That the project sits near Lake Charles, home to some of the most contested energy projects in the country, will not make the next steps easy, however.
The funding is part of a $3.5 billion program authorized by Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create four such “direct air capture hubs” around the country in an effort to help commercialize the nascent technology. This is the first award the DOE has handed out after selecting Project Cypress last August as one of two hubs it would consider supporting. A second hub under development by Occidental Petroleum in South Texas is still in negotiations with the agency and has yet to receive funding.
Once it’s fully operational, Project Cypress is designed to capture 1 million tons of carbon from the air per year, employing two different technological approaches to do so.
The first, developed by the Swiss startup Climeworks, uses fans to draw air into metal boxes containing a material called a sorbent that attracts carbon dioxide molecules. Then it heats the sorbent, which releases the CO2 so that it can be stored.
The second approach, pioneered by a California-based company called Heirloom, involves crushing and cooking limestone so that it becomes calcium oxide, a white powder that’s thirsty for CO2. Heirloom lays the powder out on trays, where it binds with carbon dioxide in the air. Then it bakes the powder in an electric kiln to remove the CO2.
Both companies say they will use renewable energy to power their respective processes. To lock the carbon away underground, they are partnering with a company called Gulf Coast Sequestration which has applied for permits to drill two CO2 storage wells on a vast, privately-owned cattle and horse ranch in West Calcasieu Parish. After the carbon is captured, it will be liquified and delivered by pipeline to a well, where it will be injected into porous sandstone about 10,000 feet below the Earth’s surface.
With this award, the project will enter the second of four implementation phases, during which the companies will finalize the project’s design, engage with area residents and stakeholders to complete a community benefits plan, and start on the permitting process.
Phase two will not be quick — it’s expected to last two to three years. Then the companies will begin negotiating with the DOE for funding for phases three — construction — and four — the ramp-up to full-scale operation. The DOE has structured the DAC Hubs program with off-ramps at the start of each phase, allowing the agency to deny additional funding to a project if it finds that it is not meeting previously agreed-upon objectives. But if all goes well, Project Cypress is eligible for up to $600 million.
The Carbon Removal Alliance, a group that lobbies for policies to support what it calls “high quality carbon removal,” sees this award as a “fresh start” for the Department of Energy in that it shows the agency moving beyond its traditional role of funding research and development to commercializing technologies.
“With official funding beginning to flow into states like Louisiana and backed by robust community benefits plans to ensure the highest standards, we’re about to see how technologies like direct air capture can provide positive benefits to our economies and environment,” said Giana Amador, the executive director of the Carbon Removal Alliance.
Members of the community, however, are skeptical that the project will benefit them.
The industrial history of Calcasieu Parish is both an asset and a curse for Project Cypress. The area is home to a high concentration of refineries, petrochemical plants, and liquified natural gas terminals. The developers chose the location because it had a local workforce with relevant skills and the right geology to trap carbon underground, but the residents’ trust will be hard-won after decades of living in one of the most polluted corridors in the country, where news of toxic spills and leaks is common. Many residents have spent the last few years furiously fighting the buildout of several new LNG plants that are expected to increase pollution even more.
One of those activists is James Hiatt, a former refinery worker based in Sulphur, Louisiana. About a year ago, Hiatt founded a group called For A Better Bayou because he wanted to build a grassroots movement to reimagine the future of Louisiana — to be for something, not just against heavy industry.
“I want people to really imagine and embrace an alternative future for ourselves,” he told me. But to him, direct air capture is not it. “I wish I was so sold on it, like this is the way forward and I could get behind it and we could be like oh yeah, let’s do this,” he told me. “But it just does not add up for me.”
When the project developers and the DOE held a meeting for stakeholders last November, Hiatt said, even attendees who worked in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries expressed doubts about the plan.
Hiatt shared a few videos from the meeting with me. One speaker questioned whether the jobs created would truly go to people from the area. This is not the first time a company has come in promising jobs and economic growth, only to hire workers from Alabama or Texas. Another speaker called the idea of a community benefits plan a way to “distract the community” from the risks of the project, which the companies have yet to define. (A preliminary list published Wednesday included things like increased traffic and noise during construction, risk of leakage during the transport or storage of the CO2, and energy and water use.) Others implored the companies not to seek property tax breaks, which divert revenue away from schools and social services.
When Project Cypress was first announced, the developers said it would create “approximately 2,300 quality jobs and generate a billion-dollar economic stimulus in the region, with increased opportunities for local contractors, suppliers, and small businesses.” The project also has a stated goal of hiring at least 10% of its workforce from the local fossil fuel and plastics industries.
But beyond that, its intentions are vague. The list of commitments published on Wednesday included lots of plans — i.e., a plan to create a “Site Labor and Workforce Development plan” which will “describe plans to provide equal access to jobs for local residents for construction and operations” — but few concrete actions or outcomes, yet.
Hiatt is especially skeptical that the carbon will stay underground and is worried about leaks. But perhaps more than that, the math of it all doesn’t make sense to him. Project Cypress might capture a million tons of CO2 from the air per year, but Louisiana alone releases more than 200 million tons annually, and is still approving new emissions-intensive facilities like those LNG plants. “Even if we scale this up, we’d have to scale it up orders of magnitude higher than will ever be possible,” he told me. “It doesn’t seem like it’s worth the time or the money to be doing this when we should be reducing the emissions to start with.”
There are many hurdles to scaling up direct air capture, but this cognitive dissonance is one of the trickiest. Ultimately, the goal of the project is not to offset Louisiana’s emissions. It’s to demonstrate a technology that could eventually, if we develop the right incentives to support it, clean up carbon that’s already in the atmosphere. But believing in that vision demands that people also see a world where emissions will start to decline — one that’s perhaps not yet apparent in Lake Charles.
https://heatmap.news/economy/project-cypress-climeworks-heirloom
Volvo’s Last Diesel Car Is Headed Straight To A Museum
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Volvo just hit a major milestone on its path to electric-only sales by 2030.
https://insideevs.com/news/714134/volvo-last-diesel-xc90/
Poetry Connection Celebrates National Poetry Month
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Our Poet Laureate offers a guide to celebrating 30 days of the joy, expressiveness, and pure delight of poetry.
The post Poetry Connection Celebrates National Poetry Month appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/poetry-connection-celebrates-national-poetry-month/
2024-03-27 Convert text file to PDF
date: 2024-03-27, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-03-27 Convert text file to PDF
I just couldn’t find a good way to turn a text file into a PDF. Within
Emacs, ps-print-buffer is hard to configure and my two
specific problems were the following:
- everything is turned into Latin-1 so I cannot use the EN dash;
- the line length was set too short so that I couldn’t print lines longer than 80 characters even though there was plenty of space left.
I wasted some time trying to write something in Bash, turned to Perl and wasted some more time trying to figure out why the encodings were all wrong except when the encodings were OK but Perl gave me a warning for every multi-byte character. So frustrating.
The solution ended up not being decoding and encoding the bytes in the
Perl script but to use the –encoding option for
weasyprint. In this case, it wasn’t Perl’s fault, it was my
fear of Perl’s encoding issues that led my down endless variations of
binmode, :utf8, decode_utf8 and
encode_utf8. But I think I have it, now.
But this is what I ended up with:
-
use
weasyprint; -
wrap it all in a
pretag.
I created a script called to-pdf with the following:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use Modern::Perl;
use File::Basename;
if (@ARGV == 0) {
die "Usage: to-pdf file.txt ...\n";
}
for (@ARGV) {
open(my $text, "<", $_) or die "Cannot read $_\n";
my ($name, $path, $suffix) = fileparse($_, ".txt");
open(my $html, "|-") || exec "weasyprint", "--encoding", "utf-8", "-", "$path$name.pdf";
print $html <<'BEG';
<!DOCTYPE html>
<body>
<pre style="font-family: Iosevka; font-size: 10pt">
BEG
for (<$text>) { print $html $_ }; # copy text
print $html <<'END';
</pre>
</body>
END
}
#Administration #Printing #PDF
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-03-27-to-pdf
Former Senator Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP Pick in 2000, Dead at 82
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
new york — Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in the disputed 2000 election and who almost became Republican John McCain’s running mate eight years later, has died, according to a statement issued by his family.
Lieberman died in New York City on Wednesday because of complications from a fall, the statement said. He was 82.
The Democrat-turned-independent was never shy about veering from the party line.
Lieberman’s independent streak and especially his needling of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential contest rankled many Democrats, the party he aligned with in the Senate. Yet his support for gay rights, civil rights, abortion rights and environmental causes at times won him the praise of many liberals over the years.
Lieberman came tantalizingly close to winning the vice presidency in the contentious 2000 presidential contest that was decided by a 537-vote margin victory for George W. Bush in Florida after a drawn-out recount, legal challenges and a Supreme Court decision. He was the first Jewish candidate on a major party’s presidential ticket and would have been the first Jewish vice president.
He was also the first national Democrat to publicly criticize President Bill Clinton for his extramarital affair with a White House intern.
Lieberman sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 but dropped out after a weak showing in the early primaries. Four years later, he was an independent who was nearly chosen to be McCain’s running mate. He and McCain were close friends who shared hawkish views on military and national security matters.
McCain was leaning strongly toward choosing Lieberman for the ticket as the 2008 GOP convention neared, but he chose Sarah Palin at the last minute after “ferocious” blowback from conservatives over Lieberman’s liberal record, according to Steve Schmidt, who managed McCain’s campaign.
Lieberman generated controversy in 1998 when he scolded Clinton, his friend of many years, for “disgraceful behavior” in an explosive speech on the Senate floor during the height of the scandal over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Yet Lieberman later voted against the impeachment of Clinton.
He defended his partisan switches as a matter of conscience, saying he always had the best interests of Connecticut voters at heart. Critics accused him of pursuing narrow self-interest and political expediency.
In announcing his retirement from the Senate in 2013, Lieberman acknowledged that he did “not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes” and felt his first responsibility was to serve his constituents, state and country, not his political party.
During his final Senate speech, Lieberman urged Congress to look beyond party lines and partisan rancor to break Washington gridlock.
“It requires reaching across the aisle and finding partners from the opposite party,” said Lieberman. “That is what is desperately needed in Washington now.”
Harry Reid, who served as Senate Democratic leader, once said that while he didn’t always agree with the independent-minded Lieberman, he respected him.
“Regardless of our differences, I have never doubted Joe Lieberman’s principles or his patriotism,” Reid said. “And I respect his independent streak, as it stems from strong convictions.”
Privately, some Democrats were often less charitable about Lieberman’s forays across party lines, which they saw as disloyal. He left his party and turned independent after a 2006 Senate primary loss in Connecticut.
Lieberman’s strong support of the Iraq War hurt his statewide popularity. Democrats rejected Lieberman and handed the 2006 primary to a political newcomer and an anti-war candidate, Ned Lamont.
Defying Democratic leaders and friends, Lieberman ran successfully for reelection as an independent and drew support from some Republican allies.
After his rebound reelection in 2006, Lieberman decided to caucus with Democrats in the Senate, who let him head a committee in return because they needed his vote to help keep control of the closely divided chamber.
Despite the decision of Democrats to let him join their caucus as an independent, Lieberman was an enthusiastic backer of McCain in the 2008 presidential contest.
Lieberman’s speech at the 2008 GOP presidential nominating convention criticizing Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, struck a deep nerve with many Democrats.
Lieberman was known in the Senate for his hawkish foreign policy views, his pro-defense bent and his strong support for environmental causes. He played a key role in the legislation that created the Homeland Security Department.
Lieberman grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, where his father ran a liquor store. Lieberman graduated from Yale University and Yale Law School in New Haven. As Connecticut’s attorney general from 1983 to 1988, he was a strong consumer and environmental advocate. Lieberman vaulted into the Senate by defeating moderate Republican incumbent Lowell Weicker in 1988.
After leaving the Senate in 2013, Lieberman joined a New York City law firm.
He is survived by his wife, Hadassah, and their four children.
https://www.voanews.com/a/former-us-senator-joe-lieberman-dies-at-82-says-family-/7546321.html
SCVEDC Company Spotlight: Drumming Up Big Business with Remo, Inc.
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Remo, Inc. is is the world’s leading manufacturer and developer of synthetic drumheads and shells. They’ve been in business for 60 years
https://scvnews.com/scvedc-company-spotlight-drumming-up-big-business-with-remo-inc/
Voices to address the silence
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
In a world where stigma often shrouds discussions of mental health, a presentation on ending the silence and fostering open dialogue, understanding and support was
The post Voices to address the silence appeared first on .
US House of Representatives Columbia Accident Documents
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
House Representative Statements The following are some of the statements made by Representatives regarding the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. February 1, 2003: Representative Sherwood Boehlert PRESS RELEASEDate Released: Saturday, February 01, 2003House Science Committee Boehlert Statement on Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy WASHINGTON, D.C. —House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) today released the following statement on […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/us-house-of-representatives-columbia-accident-documents/
New wave cinema, timeless humor
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
The Multicultural Center got a taste of 1960’s French New Wave cinema and even though it’s dated, the laughter from the audience proved that some
The post New wave cinema, timeless humor appeared first on .
Apple fans deluged with phony password reset requests
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Beware support calls offering a fix
Apple device owners, consider yourselves warned: a targeted multi-factor authentication bombing campaign is under way, with the goal of exhausting iUsers into allowing an unwanted password reset.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/apple_passcode_attack/
What Did You Learn How To Do This Year?
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/what-did-you-learn-how-to-do-this-year
Schiavo Introduces Bill to Prohibit ‘Derogatory’ School Mascot Names
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) and Assemblyman James Ramos (D-Highland) have introduced AB 3074 the “School or athletic team names: California Racial Mascots Act.”
https://scvnews.com/schiavo-introduces-bill-to-prohibit-derogatory-school-mascot-names/
US Muslims, Jews, Christians Overcome Threats, Gather Over Iftar Meal
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
Muslims, Jews and Christians gathered for a dinner marking the end of the daily fast for Muslims during Ramadan; the Fast of Esther for Jews; and the New Year (Nowruz), for those who celebrate it. VOA’s Nilofar Mughal reports from Potomac, Md. Narration: Bezhan Hamdard. Camera: Nilofar Mughal.
Cougars inch out win over Brahmas
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
The Pierce College softball team battled against the Cuesta College Cougars, taking the lead in the first inning of the game, before Cuesta came back
The post Cougars inch out win over Brahmas appeared first on .
Interim President updates Academic Senate about Welcome Center issues
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Interim President Ara Aguiar spoke about ongoing issues at the Welcome Center—which is still open but has been slightly restructured—during Monday’s Academic Senate meeting in
The post Interim President updates Academic Senate about Welcome Center issues appeared first on .
Brahmas take the block
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Building 600 is usually reserved for academic meetings, seminars and award ceremonies. But as the clock struck 5:30 p.m. last Friday, it transformed into a
The post Brahmas take the block appeared first on .
March 28: JCOD Incubation Academy Helps Grassroots Non-Profits For the Second Year
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Los Angeles County’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department in collaboration with Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles is proud to announce the 2nd Annual Pitch Competition for the cohorts of JCOD’s Incubation Academy
Lilbits: Another Linux laptop update, another Rockchip processor, another Pixel 9 leak
date: 2024-03-27, from: Liliputing
Google’s Pixel 9 series smartphones aren’t expected to launch until this fall, but details about the next-gen flagships started to leak earlier this year with a series of pictures that allegedly showed the Google Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. But according to a new report, those pictures actually showed the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel […]
The post Lilbits: Another Linux laptop update, another Rockchip processor, another Pixel 9 leak appeared first on Liliputing.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
In Godot, there is a panel to configure Importer settings, and the way that it works there is that you need to "Save" the values if you like it.
I am thinking that on iPad, I should automatically save, without asking the user. But in that case, perhaps I should add a "Reset to defaults"?
But that is going to ruin my pretty UI
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112169776786047531
Majority of Americans now use ad blockers
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
We’re dreaming of a white list, because we’re just like the ones you used to know
More than half of Americans are using ad blocking software, and among advertising, programming, and security professionals that fraction is more like two-thirds to three-quarters.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/america_ad_blocker/
The 2025 Volkswagen ID.7 Gets Two Trims, Both RWD And AWD, For U.S.
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Still no word on pricing or range yet.
https://insideevs.com/news/714095/2025-volkswagen-id7-trims/
NASA gives IXPE observatory the Ctrl-Alt-Del treatment to make it talk sense
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Hardware misbehaving in orbit? Time for a reset on the avionics
NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space observatory has had a problem, prompting engineers on the ground to hit the reset button.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/nasa_ixpe_reset/
Lies, Lies, and More Lies
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
None of the lies of the past remotely approach the magnitude of the lies Trump and Republicans are using to poison the narratives of our political discourse.
The post Lies, Lies, and More Lies appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/lies-lies-and-more-lies/
Porsche’s all-electric Boxster EV seen sporting production lights in new testing video
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
The fully electric Porsche Boxster is almost ready for its debut. Ahead of its official release, the Porsche Boxster EV was spotted wearing production headlights in a new testing video.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/porsche-boxster-ev-nears-production-lights-appear-new-video/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What an award-winning podcast taught me about podcasting.
A Contradiction of War
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Dear S.B. Dems: Your group strives to create a world “free from prejudice, hatred, exploitation, abuse, and reckless greed,” yet the party has not supported a transition away from the most dangerous industry: the war industry.
The post A Contradiction of War appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/a-contradiction-of-war/
‘Thousands’ of businesses at mercy of miscreants thanks to unpatched Ray AI flaw
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Anyscale claims issue is ‘long-standing design decision’ – as users are raided by intruders
Thousands of companies remain vulnerable to a remote-code-execution bug in Ray, an open-source AI framework used by Amazon, OpenAI, and others, that is being abused by miscreants in the wild to steal sensitive data and illicitly mine for cryptocurrency.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/ray_ai_framework_bug/
This Museum Needs Your Help Identifying the Subject of a 19th-Century Painting
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Nobody knows the name of the child in “The Black Boy,” but a museum in Liverpool is hoping someone will recognize him
The Return of State Street
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The property owners and those businesses that remain need an opportunity to survive and not languish while we equivocate.
The post The Return of State Street appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/the-return-of-state-street/
Home Charging Satisfaction Improves In The U.S., But Not Without Hiccups: Study
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Owners are increasingly getting Level 2 chargers more aligned with their EVs and their use cases, J.D. Power told InsideEVs.
https://insideevs.com/news/714106/home-charging-satisfaction-improves-in-amerca/
The Fisker Ocean EV Is Dirt Cheap. Don’t Buy One.
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heatmap News
I’ve been saying lately that a tipping point for EVs will be the electric family crossover that can compete on price with the emperors of suburbia, the ubiquitous Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, which both start around $30,000. Suddenly, there is one. Although I cannot in good faith recommend it.
The troubled electric vehicle startup Fisker has slashed the price of its basic Ocean EV to just $24,999 in a desperate bid to sell enough vehicles to stave off bankruptcy. The Ocean is now the cheapest EV on the American market. The high-end Ocean Extreme, with a dual motor setup and zero-to-60 time under four seconds, has been discounted from $61,499 to just $37,499.
Fisker might sell a few of these EVs to buyers looking for an offer they can’t refuse, and those sales might keep the lights on a little longer for a company that was recently shamed by historically bad reviews and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. But all the signs say the flashy electric vehicle startup will run out of juice at any moment.
This wasn’t Henrik Fisker’s first try. Back in 2007, the Danish car designer who made his name at legacy carmakers founded Fisker Automotive, a company that would produce the fish-mouthed Fisker Karma. That car was a luxury take on the range-extended EV, or a vehicle that uses an on-board gas-powered generator to refill the batteries, thus extending its range.
Karma had the looks. Many auto enthusiasts at the time heralded its design. (The car chaps at Top Gear loved it.) Fisker teased future models that would position it as a rival to Tesla, which was still selling small numbers in the days before the Models 3 and Y. But the company didn’t have the follow-through. A series of setbacks, including the bankruptcy of its battery supplier, sent Fisker Automotive on the road to bankruptcy.
Lapses in quality control didn’t help. In 2012, the Karma delivered to Consumer Reports for its car testing program broke down upon arrival, requiring a battery replacement before the car could be driven. It earned a failing grade because of “numerous shortcomings, not just a single or even few flaws.” While Fisker the company bit the dust in 2013, Fisker the man would carry on — though saddled with a reputation as a dreamer who, to put it generously, did not have the attention to detail for a startup company to succeed.
Things looked rosier for Fisker, Inc., the second-chance company he launched in 2016. Instead of an over-engineered range-extended plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, he announced a plain old EV. The Ocean promised whiz-bang features such as a roof lined with solar panels, two-way charging, and “California Mode” — a single button that opened all the glass panels, allowing the sea breeze to waft through the car as it cruised down the Pacific Coast Highway. Underneath the tech hype, though, was a simple proposition: a mid-size crossover EV listed at a price competitive with others in that popular category.
Once again, trouble found Fisker when the car got closer to reality. The new company went public in 2020, but according to Fortune, “a slew of software, supply chain and regulatory problems” prevented Fisker from moving the first Oceans until 2023. It delivered fewer than 5,000 of the EVs last year, despite building more than 10,000 of them.
Then came the testing. YouTube super-reviewer Marques Brownlee titled his video about the Ocean, “This Is the Worst Car I’ve Ever Reviewed” and spent 20 solid minutes outlining the weirdness of his driving experience, including the company asking him to hold off reviewing the car until it could rush out a software update. More than a decade after its disastrous experience with the Karma, Consumer Reports reported that the Fisker Ocean was “unfinished,” with a “bizarre delivery experience” and “disappearing safety features.”
This disastrous narrative arrived alongside reports of Fisker’s financial ruin. Fisker suspended production of the Ocean and tried to raise $150 million to keep the startup afloat, however a rumored last-second deal with Nissan fell apart and now, despite Henrik Fisker’s promise to press on, it appears the company has no clear lifeline to stave off oblivion.
Given the relatively high cost of current EVs, some buyers might be tempted by the fire-sale Fiskers. As The Autopian says, “the Fisker Ocean is a good car when it’s functional,” and if the company can manage to push out a software update, then perhaps it will be functional more often than not. The 231-mile range of the base model isn’t impressive by 2024 standards, but the Ocean Extreme’s reported 360-mile range is a steal at its steeply discounted price.
Still: This is a capital case of caveat emptor. Given Fisker’s long history of poor build quality and software bugs, it’d be a big risk to pony up even the clearance sale price of an Ocean. Not to mention the huge uncertainty of living with one. It can be hard enough to schedule service for a Tesla; now imagine trying to deal with hardware for software problems for an orphan EV whose company bit the dust.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/fisker-ocean-bankruptcy-price-cut
Why selling personal data is a bad idea
date: 2024-03-27, from: Doc Searls (at Harvard), New Old Blog
This post is for the benefit of anyone wondering about, researching, or going into business on the proposition that selling one’s own personal data is a good idea. Here are some of my learnings from having studied this proposition myself for the last twenty years or more. The business does exist. See eleven companies in […]
https://doc.searls.com/2024/03/27/why-selling-personal-data-is-a-bad-idea/
Central American, Mexican Families Mourn Missing Bridge Workers
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
AZACUALPA, Honduras — The construction workers who went missing in the Baltimore bridge collapse all hailed from Mexico or Central America before they settled in the Maryland area.
Police managed to close bridge traffic seconds before a cargo ship slammed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports early Tuesday, causing the span to fall into the frigid Patapsco River. There wasn’t time for a maintenance crew filling potholes on the span to get to safety.
At least eight people fell into the water and two were rescued. The other six are missing and presumed dead, but the search continued Wednesday.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 38, was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras along the border with Guatemala.
Eighteen years ago, he set out on his own for the United States looking for opportunities. He had worked as an industrial technician in Honduras, repairing equipment in the large assembly plants, but the pay was too low to get ahead, one of his brothers, Martín Suazo Sandoval, said Wednesday while standing in the dirt street in front of the family’s small hotel in Honduras.
“He always dreamed of having his own business,” he said.
Maynor entered the United States illegally and settled in Maryland. At first, he did any work he could find, including construction and clearing brush. Eventually, he started a package delivery business in the Baltimore-Washington area, his brother said.
Other siblings and relatives followed him north.
“He was the fundamental pillar, the bastion so that other members of the family could also travel there and later get visas and everything,” Martín Suazo Sandoval said. “He was really the driving force so that most of the family could travel.”
Maynor has a wife and two children, ages 17 and 5, his brother said.
The pandemic forced Maynor to find other work, and he joined Brawner Builders, the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge when it collapsed.
His brother said Maynor never talked about being scared of the work, despite the heights he worked at on the bridges. “He always told us that you had to triple your effort to get ahead,” Martín Suazo Sandoval said. “He said it didn’t matter what time or where the job was, you had to be where the work was.”
Things had been going well for him until the collapse. He was moving through the steps to get legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.
Even though Maynor had not been able to return to Honduras, he had financially supported various nongovernmental social organizations in town, as well as the youth soccer league, his brother said. The area depends largely upon agriculture — coffee, cattle, sugarcane — he said.
Maynor’s employer broke the news of his disappearance to his family, leaving them devastated, especially his mother, who still lives in Azacualpa, Martín Suazo Sandoval said.
“These are difficult moments, and the only thing we can do is keep the faith,” he said, noting that his younger brother knew how to swim and could have ended up anywhere. If the worst outcome is confirmed, he said the family would work to return his body to Honduras.
In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said three Mexicans were on the bridge when it fell — one who was injured but rescued and two who were still missing. He said he wouldn’t share their names for the families’ privacy.
The tragedy illustrated the contributions that migrants make to the U.S. economy, Lopez Obrador said.
“This demonstrates that migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight. And for this reason, they do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States,” he said.
Guatemala’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that two of its citizens were among the missing.
El Salvador’s foreign minister, Alexandra Hill Tinoco, posted Wednesday on X that one Salvadoran citizen, Miguel Luna, was among the missing workers.
Federal and state investigators have said the crash appears to have been an accident.
Astronomers Capture Dazzling New Image of the Black Hole at the Milky Way’s Center
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The first image of the black hole taken in polarized light, the new view shows the supermassive structure’s magnetic fields and hints that it could be hiding an enormous jet
Poodle Hit by Car and Tells the Tale
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Riding bikes isn’t for sissies; it’s for everyone.
The post Poodle Hit by Car and Tells the Tale appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/poodle-hit-by-car-and-tells-the-tale/
Qualcomm quietly demos Baldur’s Gate 3 and Control on Snapdragon X Elite laptops
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
If you read my scoop last week, I bet you’ve been wondering — how well could a Snapdragon chip actually run Windows games? At the 2024 Game Developers Conference, the company claimed Arm could run those titles at close to x86/64 speed, but how fast is fast? With medium-weight games like Control and Baldur’s Gate 3, it looks like the target might be: 30 frames per second at 1080p screen resolution, medium settings, possibly with AMD’s FSR 1.0 spatial upscaling enabled. ↫ Sean Hollister at The Verge Those are some rough numbers for machines Qualcomm claims can run x86 games at “close to full speed“.
Amazon finishes pumping $4B into AI darling Anthropic
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-28, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Adds $2.75B to the ML sweepstakes ante and is counting on Claude
Amazon says it has concluded its investment in AI super-startup Anthropic, which now stands at $4 billion, a figure the e-commerce colossus committed to last year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/amazon_anthropic_billion/
Why x86 doesn’t need to die
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
Hackaday recently published an article titled “Why x86 Needs to Die” – the latest addition in a long-running RISC vs CISC debate. Rather than x86 needing to die, I believe the RISC vs CISC debate needs to die. It should’ve died a long time ago. And by long, I mean really long. About a decade ago, a college professor asked if I knew about the RISC vs CISC debate. I did not. When I asked further, he said RISC aimed for simpler instructions in the hope that simpler hardware implementations would run faster. While my memory of this short, ancient conversation is not perfect, I do recall that he also mentioned the whole debate had already become irrelevant by then: ISA differences were swept aside by the resources a company could put behind designing a chip. This is the fundamental reason why the RISC vs CISC debate remains irrelevant today. Architecture design and implementation matter so much more than the instruction set in play. ↫ Chips and Cheese The number of instruction sets killed by x86 is high, and the number of times people have wrongly predicted the death of x86 – most recently, after Apple announced its first ARM processors – is even higher. It seems people are still holding on to what x86 was like in the ’80s and early ’90s, completely forgetting that the x86 we have today is a very, very different beast. As Chips and Cheese details in this article, the differences between x86 and, say, ARM, aren’t nearly as big and fundamental as people think they are. I’m a huge fan of computers running anything other than x86, not because I hate or dislike the architecture, but because I like things that are different, and the competition they bring. That’s why I love POWER9 machines, and can’t wait for competitive non-Apple ARM machines to come along. If you try to promote non-x86 ISAs out of hatred or dislike of x86, history shows you’ll eventually lose.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139009/why-x86-doesnt-need-to-die/
NASA Astronaut Don Pettit to Conduct Science During Fourth Mission
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
During his fourth mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Don Pettit will serve as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 71/72 crew. After blasting off to space, Pettit will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare crew for future space missions. Pettit will launch on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-26 […]
SEC cleared to take securities beef against Coinbase to trial
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Judge says watchdog can HODL four of its five charges against crypto exchange
The SEC’s lawsuit accusing cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase of operating as an unregistered securities broker has survived its first legal challenge, opening the door for the case to go to trial.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/sec_coinbase_court/
CATL Could Be Tesla’s Secret Weapon For Its $25,000 EV
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
“Westernization” of Chinese battery tech is one way foreign battery companies can still cash in on America’s new appetite for cheap EVs
https://insideevs.com/news/714069/tesla-catl-battery-25000-car/
💍 The Grimm side of marriage
date: 2024-03-27, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
And other relationship advice.
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/the-grimm-side-of-marriage
The Marshall Star for March 27, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
Marshall Hosts 37th Small Business Alliance Meeting By Celine Smith NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center hosted its 37th Small Business Alliance meeting March 21 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center’s Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The event brought together hundreds of attendees from 39 states and 21 countries to network and learn about opportunities […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-march-27-2024/
Hyundai Ioniq 5 And 6 Are Profitable; Company ‘Studying’ Range Extenders, CEO Says
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Randy Parker, Hyundai Motor America’s CEO, says the Korean automaker wants to offer options but is “all-in on EVs.”
https://insideevs.com/news/714104/hyundai-range-extender-interview/
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite dares to game, reaching 30 FPS in Baldur’s Gate 3
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The bare minimum performance, but suggests a beefy integrated GPU
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite has some gaming and graphics prowess as seen in a demo where a reference laptop was shown to be running Baldur’s Gate 3 at 1080p resolution and around 30 frames per second.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/snapdragon_x_elite_gaming/
Trump Blasts Judge and His Daughter After Gag Order
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case.
In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter’s interests as a Democratic political consultant. He also made a claim — later repudiated by court officials — that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was “illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.” He said that Merchan, a veteran Manhattan jurist, was “wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement” by Democratic rivals.
Trump claimed that Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, whose firm has worked on campaigns for President Joe Biden and other Democrats, had recently posted a photo on social media depicting her “obvious goal” of seeing him jailed.
In a statement, a spokesperson for New York’s state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said.
The account on X, formerly known as Twitter, “is not linked to her email address, nor has she posted under that screenname since she deleted the account. Rather, it represents the reconstitution, last April, and manipulation of an account she long ago abandoned,” Baker said.
Messages seeking comment were left for Loren Merchan and Trump’s campaign.
Trump did not link to the purported photo, but an X account under the name “LM” showed a photo illustration of an imprisoned Trump as its profile picture Wednesday morning. It was later changed to an image of Vice President Kamala Harris as a child.
Loren Merchan’s consulting firm had linked to that account in its social media posts in past years, but it is now private with no posts displayed and states that it joined the platform in April 2023, after Baker said she deleted it. Usernames on X can be taken over by other users after they’re deleted.
The gag order, which prosecutors had requested, bars Trump from either making or directing other people to make public statements on his behalf about jurors and potential witnesses in the hush-money trial, such as his lawyer turned nemesis Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels. It also prohibits any statements meant to interfere with or harass the court’s staff, prosecution team or their families.
It does not bar comments about Merchan or his family, nor does it prohibit criticism of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the elected Democrat whose office is prosecuting Trump.
Trump’s post insinuating that Loren Merchan had posted the photo came after conservative commentator Laura Loomer posted a story online Tuesday claiming to have unearthed her X account.
“So, let me get this straight,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “the Judge’s daughter is allowed to post pictures of her ‘dream’ of putting me in jail … but I am not allowed to talk about the attacks against me, and the Lunatics trying to destroy my life and prevent me from winning the 2024 Presidential Election, which I am dominating?”
Bragg’s office declined to comment.
Trump’s three-part Truth Social post was his first reaction to the gag order. His focus on Merchan’s daughter echoed his lawyers’ arguments last year when they urged the judge to exit the case. The judge had also made several small donations totaling $35 to Democratic causes during the 2020 campaign, including $15 to Biden.
Merchan said then that a state court ethics panel found that Loren Merchan’s work had no bearing on his impartiality. The judge said in a ruling last September that he was certain of his “ability to be fair and impartial” and that Trump’s lawyers had “failed to demonstrate that there exists concrete, or even realistic reasons for recusal to be appropriate, much less required on these grounds.”
In a recent interview, Merchan told The Associated Press that he and his staff were working diligently to prepare for the historic first trial of a former president.
“There’s no agenda here,” Merchan said. “We want to follow the law. We want justice to be done.”
Trump’s hush-money case, set to be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial, centers on allegations that he falsely logged payments to Cohen as legal fees in his company’s books when they were for Cohen’s work during the 2016 campaign covering up negative stories about Trump. That included $130,000 Cohen paid Daniels on Trump’s behalf so she wouldn’t publicize her claim of a sexual encounter with him years earlier.
Trump pleaded not guilty last April to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. He denies having sex with Daniels and his lawyers have said that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses, not part of any coverup.
In issuing the gag order, Merchan cited Trump’s history of “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” remarks about people involved in his legal cases. A violation could result in Trump being held in contempt of court, fined or even jailed.
Though not covered by the restrictions, Merchan referenced Trump’s various comments about him as an example of his rhetoric. The gag order mirrors one imposed and largely upheld by a federal appeals court panel in Trump’s Washington, D.C., election interference criminal case.
Trump’s lawyers fought a gag order, warning it would amount to unconstitutional and unlawful prior restraint on his free speech rights.
Merchan had long resisted imposing one, recognizing Trump’s “special” status as a former president and current candidate and not wanting to trample his ability to defend himself publicly.
But, he said, as the trial nears, he found that his obligation to ensuring the integrity of the case outweighs First Amendment concerns. He said Trump’s statements have induced fear and necessitated added security measures to protect his targets and investigate threats.
Editor’s Note: This story updates a previous version from the Associated Press to note that Loren Merchan said she no longer owns the social media account Trump referenced and that it was taken over by someone else over a year ago.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-blasts-judge-and-his-daughter-after-gag-order/7546269.html
Eclipse Citizen Science for Educators
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
“Citizen” here refers to citizens of Planet Earth. These projects are open to everyone, regardless of country of birth or legal citizenship status. If you are not already familiar with NASA’s citizen science opportunities or specific projects related to the April 8 solar eclipse, we encourage you to read Contribute to NASA Research on Eclipse […]
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/eclipse-citizen-science-for-educators/
Contribute to NASA Research on Eclipse Day – and Every Day
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
NASA is celebrating the Sun during the Heliophysics Big Year, which extends through the end of 2024. You can get involved to help us learn more about our star and its influence on our planet. With exciting experiments happening during the total solar eclipse that will cross North America on April 8, to widespread investigations […]
Blinken to Discuss Ukraine, Gaza With Macron in Paris
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
Washington — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss support for Ukraine during talks in Paris next week with French President Emmanuel Macron, the State Department announced Wednesday.
France is among the major military suppliers to Ukraine, which is facing an onslaught of Russian attacks.
President Joe Biden’s request for billions of dollars in new U.S. military aid to Kyiv is held up in the House of Representatives, led by the rival Republican Party.
“Secretary Blinken will meet with French President Macron to discuss support for Ukraine, efforts to prevent escalation of the conflict in Gaza and a number of other important issues,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
France has advocated for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, whereas the United States, Israel’s main ally, recently let pass a U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for a cease-fire during the month of Ramadan.
It will be the first visit in nearly two years to France by Blinken, a fluent French speaker who grew up partly in Paris. Macron paid a state visit to Washington in December 2022.
After Paris, Blinken will head to Brussels for talks among NATO foreign ministers ahead of the alliance’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington in July.
Blinken will also hold a three-way meeting in Brussels with EU leaders and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has been seeking to branch out from his country’s historic alliance with Russia.
Blinken and the European Union will address “support for Armenia’s economic resilience as it works to diversify its trade partnerships and to address humanitarian needs,” Miller said.
Armenia was angered last year by Russia’s failure to prevent Azerbaijan from retaking the Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian rebels.
https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-to-discuss-ukraine-gaza-with-macron-in-paris/7546042.html
“MFA Bombing” Attacks Targeting Apple Users
date: 2024-03-27, from: Michael Tsai
Brian Krebs (MacRumors, Hacker News): Several Apple customers recently reported being targeted in elaborate phishing attacks that involve what appears to be a bug in Apple’s password reset feature. In this scenario, a target’s Apple devices are forced to display dozens of system-level prompts that prevent the devices from being used until the recipient responds […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/27/mfa-bombing-attacks-targeting-apple-users/
1Password.co Tracking Links
date: 2024-03-27, from: Michael Tsai
Cabel Sasser: PSA: 1Password uses “1Password.co” for email links — instead of their usual “1Password.com” domain. Craig Hockenberry: So the “phishing link” with the .co domain was a valid link and documented as such.But I still find it inexcusable.That link caused 30 minutes of complete panic. I know enough about how phishing works to know […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/27/1password-co-tracking-links/
Noncopyable Generics Walkthrough
date: 2024-03-27, from: Michael Tsai
Ben Cohen: Non-copyable generics aren’t for every-day code – but we’ve put a lot of care into making them stay out of your way until you need them, and then keeping them usable once you do. They will allow libraries to unlock more performance and safety for end users.[…]To help tie all these pieces together, […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/03/27/noncopyable-generics-walkthrough/
Polestar 4 electric SUV unveiled in the US as Tesla Model Y rival, prices start at $56,300
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
A new luxury electric SUV is hitting the US market to take on Tesla’s best-selling Model Y. Polestar revealed its second electric SUV, the Polestar 4, will have a starting price tag of $56,300 (including $1,400 destination fee) with up to 300 miles range.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/polestar-4-unveiled-us-tesla-model-y-rival-56k-price/
Bird Flu Confirmed in U.S. Dairy Cows for the First Time, but Milk Supply Is Unaffected, Officials Say
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Tests detected the virus at two farms in Texas and two farms in Kansas, but officials and scientists stress commercial dairy products remain safe to consume
NASA to shoot rockets at April solar eclipse to see how it messes with the atmosphere
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Boffins hope to better understand how phenomena disrupt comms tech in order to prevent future outages
There’s a total solar eclipse coming up in North America, and NASA plans to shoot some rockets at it to see how the ionosphere changes as the Sun is obscured by the Moon.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/nasa_eclipse_rockets/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Work/life balance:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112169069078860939
Diez maneras en que los estudiantes pueden prepararse para ser astronautas
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
¿Quieres ser astronauta, pero no sabes por dónde empezar? ¡Estas son algunas maneras en las que puedes comenzar tu viaje! Incluso si no aún no reúnes los requisitos para ser astronauta, mediante la Oficina de Participación STEM (ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas) de la NASA, u OSTEM, hay formas de participar en las misiones de […]
Red Hat tries on a McKinsey cap in quest to streamline techies’ jobs
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Some staff are worried – can’t think why
Mutterings of alarm are emerging from the cloisters of Red Hat after the world’s largest management consultancy was hired to help the IBM subsidiary focus engineers on their highest-value work.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/red_hat_hires_mckinsey/
Segway Max G2 e-scooter $300 off in today’s best Green Deals, EGO electric leaf blower, other EVs, more
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
We’re tracking a notable discount today on Segway’s Ninebot Max G2 electric scooter that, on top of being $300 off, stands out from the competition with Apple Find My integration for that extra peace of mind. Spring savings are also here to clearance out EGO’s Power+ 56V electric leaf blower at $153. This week also has tons of other deals on EVs of all varieies and so more.
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/2024/03/27/segway-ninebot-max-g2-spring-sale-more/
Dancing on My Own
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/dancing-on-my-own
A huge new 1.2 GW offshore wind farm is headed to New England
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Vineyard Offshore, which developed Vineyard Wind 1, has submitted a proposal for a 1.2 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind farm to three New England states.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/offshore-wind-farm-new-england-vineyard-wind-2/
Memorial University joins PeerJ’s Institutional Membership program to promote Open Access publishing
date: 2024-03-27, from: PeerJ blog
We are thrilled to announce that Memorial University has joined forces with PeerJ as the newest member of the Annual Institutional Membership (AIMs) program. This partnership exemplifies Memorial University’s commitment to advancing open access publishing and supporting its research community. As part of PeerJ’s AIMs program, Memorial University authors can publish in any of PeerJ’s […]
Racism, ‘Morbid Curiosity’ Drove US Museums to Collect Indigenous Remains
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — In December 1900, John Wesley Powell received “the most unusual Christmas present of any person in the United States, if not in the world,” reported the Chicago Tribune.
The gift for this first director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of Ethnology was a sealskin sack containing the mummified remains of an Alaska Native.
The sender was a government employee hired to hunt Indian “relics,” who said the remains had been difficult to acquire because “to come into the possession of a dead Indian is a great crime among the Indians.”
The report concluded that it was the only “Indian relic” of this kind at the Smithsonian and it was “beyond money value.”
As it turned out, it was not the museum’s only Alaskan mummy. In 1865, even before the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia, Smithsonian naturalist William H. Dall was hired to accompany an expedition to study the potential for a telegraph route through Siberia to Europe. In his spare time, he looted graves in the Yukon and caves on several Aleutian Islands.
After the U.S. sealed the deal with Russia, the San Francisco-based Alaska Commercial Company won exclusive trading rights and established more than 90 trading posts in Alaska to meet the U.S. demand for ivory and furs.
It also instructed agents “to collect and preserve objects of interest in ethnology and natural history” and forward them to the Smithsonian. Ernest Henig looted 12 preserved bodies and a skull from a cave in the Aleutians in 1874. He donated two to California’s Academy of Science and sent the remainder to the Smithsonian.
More than 30 years after the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act meant to return those remains, a ProPublica investigation last year estimated that more than 110,000 Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native ancestors remain in public collections across the U.S.
It is not known how many Indigenous remains are closeted in private or overseas collections.
“Museums collected massive numbers, perhaps even millions,” said anthropologist John Stephen “Chip” Colwell, who previously served as curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “Out of the 100 remains we [at the Denver museum] returned, I think only about five or seven individuals were actually even studied.”
So, what sparked this 19th-century frenzy for collecting human remains?
Reconciling science, religion
From the moment they first encountered Indigenous Americans, European thinkers struggled to understand who they were, where they came from, and whether they could be “civilized.”
The Christian bible taught them that all humans descended from Adam and that God created Adam in his own image. So why, Europeans wondered, did Native Americans, Africans and Asians look different?
Some Europeans theorized that all humans were created white, but dietary or environmental differences caused some of them to turn “brown, yellow, red or black.”
Other Europeans refused to accept that they shared a common ancestor with people of color and theorized that God created the races separately before he created Adam.
The birth of scientific racism
Presumptions that compulsory education and Christianization would force Native Americans to abandon their traditional cultures and become “civilized” into mainstream European-American culture proved untrue. So 19th-century scientists turned to advancements in medicine to “prove” the inferiority of Indigenous peoples.
“That’s when you see scientists like Samuel Morton, who invented a pseudoscience trying to place peoples within these social hierarchies based on their biology, and they needed bones to solidify those racial hierarchies,” said Colwell, who is editor-in-chief of the online magazine SAPIENS and author of “Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture.”
Morton was a Philadelphia physician who collected hundreds of human skulls of all races, mostly Native American, that were forwarded to him by physicians on the frontier. In his 1839 book “Crania Americana,” Morton classified human races based on skull measurements. Morton’s conclusions were used to support racist ideologies about the inferiority of non-white humans.
“They are not only averse to the restraints of education, but for the most part incapable of a continued process of reasoning on abstract subjects,” he wrote of Native Americans. “The structure of [the Native] mind appears to be different from that of the white man, nor can the two harmonise in their social relations except on the most limited scale.”
Despite Morton’s legacy as an early figure in scientific racism — ideologies that generate pseudo-scientific racist beliefs — his work earned him a reputation at the time as “a jewel of American science” and influenced the field of anthropology and public policy for decades.
In 1868, for example, the U.S. Surgeon General turned his attention away from the Civil War to the so-called “Indian wars” and instructed field surgeons to collect Native American skulls and weapons and send them to the Army Medical Museum in Washington “to aid in the progress of anthropological science.”
“For museums, especially the early years of collecting, it was a form of trophy keeping, a competition between museums,” Colwell told VOA. “And some of it was a competition between national governments to accumulate big collections to demonstrate their global and imperial aspirations.”
All the rest, he said, were fragments of morbid curiosity.
Mexican Government Acquires Rare Centuries-Old Aztec Manuscripts
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The 16th- and 17th-century artifacts provide historical accounts of events such as the founding of Tenochtitlán
March 26, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-26-2024-e8e
This Experimental Suzuki GSX-R1000R Will Run At The Suzuka 8 Hours
date: 2024-03-27, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
From fuel tank to fairings, it’s full of new sustainable bits that Team Suzuki CN Challenge is testing.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714093/suzuki-gsxr1000r-biofuel-suzuka-8-hour/
Kaby Lake-G chip back from the grave, now on modest firewall-router-NAS mobo
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Intel CPU that incorporated an AMD GPU into the processor package resurrected by Topton
Kaby Lake-G, the Intel CPU that incorporated an AMD GPU directly into the CPU package itself, was pronounced dead in 2019, but that hasn’t stopped one company from reviving it for a mini PC motherboard.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/failed_intel_processor_nas/
Chevrolet Equinox Plus Is A PHEV That’s Probably Headed To The U.S.
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Chevrolet’s forthcoming PHEV crossover will use a battery made by BYD.
https://insideevs.com/news/714064/equinox-plus-phev-china-beijing/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-03-27, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Gnome 45/46 retrospective by Christian Hergert:
https://blogs.gnome.org/chergert/2024/03/25/gnome-45-46-retrospective/
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112168825549657597
Investigators Find Black Box From Cargo Ship That Hit Baltimore Bridge
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
US, UK Impose Sanctions on Hamas-Aligned Fundraising Network
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-uk-impose-sanctions-on-hamas-aligned-fundraising-network/7545806.html
Kansas Is About to Pass the Most Extreme Age Verification Law Yet
date: 2024-03-27, from: 404 Media Group
The bill would make sites with more than 25 percent adult content liable to fines, and lumps homosexuality into “sexual conduct.”
https://www.404media.co/kansas-age-verification-porn/
Introducing “Wildflowers of California”: A Comprehensive Field Guide
date: 2024-03-27, from: California Native Plants Society
California Native Plant Society and Timber Press announce the release of “Wildflowers of California,” a comprehensive guide to the Golden State’s most commonly encountered wildflowers.
The post Introducing “Wildflowers of California”: A Comprehensive Field Guide appeared first on California Native Plant Society.
Just in: The 2025 VW ID.7 electric sedan is coming to the US in two trims
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
The first all-electric VW ID.7, Volkswagen’s “flagship model,” will be offered in two trims in the US – here are the details.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/2025-vw-id-7-electric-sedan-us-two-trims/
It’s electric! Metallica summer tour hits the road with Iveco electric power
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Iconic rock band Metallica is going to “ride the lightning” (sorry) in more ways that one this summer as they use battery electric and hydrogen-powered trucks from Iveco throughout their European tour.
QuantumScape delivers Alpha-2 solid-state prototypes to EV automakers, moving closer to commercialization
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Solid-state battery developer QuantumScape has shared its latest milestone, delivering prototype samples to OEMs en route to commercialization and EV implementation one day. By delivering the Alpha-2 cells, the company has already fulfilled one of its 2024 goals, and it’s only March.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/quantumscape-delivers-alpha-2-solid-state-prototypes-ev-automakers/
Here’s How Difficult It Is To Clean A Tesla Cybertruck After A Long Road Trip
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
It’s far from the simple bucket, soap and rag that’s often used on painted cars.
https://insideevs.com/news/713736/cleaning-tesla-cybertruck-long-process/
Intel throws chips on the table, Microsoft plays the Copilot card in wild bet on AI PCs
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Does anyone actually want one?
Intel has muddied the AI PC waters by sharing some of Microsoft’s requirements while also claiming that its own take on the concept has Intel silicon at its heart.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/microsoft_ai_pc/
Chinese President Xi Meets With US Executives as Investment Wanes
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
BEIJING — China’s President Xi Jinping met American business leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, as the government tries to woo back foreign investors and international firms seeking reassurance about the impact of new regulations.
Beijing wants to boost growth of the world’s second-largest economy after foreign direct investment shrank 8% in 2023 amid heightened investor concern over an anti-espionage law, exit bans, and raids on consultancies and due diligence firms.
Xi’s increasing focus on national security has left many companies uncertain where they might step over the line, even as Chinese leaders make public overtures toward foreign investors.
“China’s development has gone through all sorts of difficulties and challenges to get to where it is today,” Xi said, according to state media.
“In the past, [China] did not collapse because of a ‘China collapse theory,’ and it will also not peak now because of a ‘China peak theory,’” he said.
Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder and CEO of private equity firm Blackstone, Raj Subramaniam, head of American delivery giant FedEx, and Cristiano Amon, the boss of chips manufacturer Qualcomm, were part of the around 20-strong all-male U.S. contingent.
The audience with Xi — organized by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, the U.S.-China Business Council and the Asia Society think tank — lasted around 90 minutes, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The source, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the media, had no immediate comment on what was discussed. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and Asia Society did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the meeting.
A statement from U.S.-China Business Council said the participants “stressed the importance of rebalancing China’s economy by increasing consumption there and encouraging the government to further address longstanding concerns with cross border data flows, government procurement, intellectual property rights, and improved regulatory transparency and predictability.”
The U.S. and China are gradually resuming engagements after relations between the two economic superpowers sank to their lowest in years due to clashes over trade policies, the future of democratically ruled Taiwan and territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Sipeed teases a tiny FPGA-based handheld game console
date: 2024-03-27, from: Liliputing
Over the past few years, Chinese hardware company Sipeed has launched a number of intriguing computers and development boards with RISC-V processors. Now the company says it’s working on something a little different. Sipeed plans to launch a small handheld game system with a 2 inch LCD display, built-in game controllers, and support for external […]
The post Sipeed teases a tiny FPGA-based handheld game console appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/sipeed-teases-a-tiny-fpga-based-handheld-game-console/
World’s first mass-produced 900V EV drive system rolls out with 5 minute fast charge
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
The first mass-produced 900V drive system rolled off the production line Wednesday. Chinese EV maker NIO’s (NIO) “Thunder” 900V electric drive system (EDS) can add over 150 miles (255 km) with five-minute fast charge.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/worlds-first-mass-produced-900v-ev-drive-system-rolls-out/
TSMC’s 3nm node powers up, setting stage for tech giants’ next-gen chips
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AMD, Apple, Intel throw weight – and cash – behind process technology
TSMC will see its 3nm node represent over 20 percent of its revenue this year as the node of choice for upcoming processors designed by AMD, Apple, and Intel.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/tsmc_3nm_revenue_growth/
Climate Change Is Breaking Time
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heatmap News
Thinking too hard about time is a little like thinking too hard about blinking; it seems natural and intuitive until suddenly you’re sweating and it makes no sense at all. At least, that’s how I felt when I came across an incredible new study published in Nature this afternoon by Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, suggesting that climate change might be affecting global timekeeping.
Our internationally agreed-upon clock, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), consists of two components: the one you’re familiar with, which is the complete rotation of the Earth around its axis, as well as the average taken from 400 atomic clocks around the world. Since the 1970s, UTC has added 27 leap seconds at irregular intervals to keep pace with atomic clocks as the Earth’s rotation has gradually slowed. Then that rotation started to speed up in 2016; June 29, 2022, set a record for the planet’s shortest day, with the Earth completing a full rotation 1.59 milliseconds short of 24 hours. Timekeepers anticipated at that point that we’d need our first-ever negative leap second around 2026 to account for the acceleration.
But such a model doesn’t properly account for the transformative changes the planet is undergoing due to climate change — specifically, the billions of tons of ice melting from Greenland and Antarctica every year.
Using mathematical modeling, Agnew found that the melt-off, as measured by gravity-tracking satellites, has again decreased the Earth’s angular velocity to the extent that a negative leap second will actually be required three years later than estimates, in 2029.
While a second here or there might not seem like much on a cosmic scale, as Agnew explained to me, these kinds of discrepancies throw into question the entire idea of basing our time system on the physical position of the Earth. Even more mind-bogglingly, Agnew’s modeling makes the astonishing case that so long as it is, climate change will be “inextricably linked” to global timekeeping.
Confused? So was I, until Agnew talked me through his research. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you get involved in researching this? I’d never have expected there to be a relationship between climate change and timekeeping.
Pure accident. I’m a geophysicist and I have an avocational interest in timekeeping, so I know all about leap seconds and the history of atomic clocks. I thought about writing a paper figuring out statistically what the next century would bring in terms of leap seconds.
When I started working on the paper, I realized there was a signal that I needed to allow for, which was the change induced by melting ice — which has been studied, there are plenty of papers on this satellite gravity signal. But nobody has, as far as I can tell, related it to rotation. Mostly because, from a geophysical standpoint, that’s not very interesting.
Interesting. Or, well, I guess not interesting.
I mean, there is geophysical literature on this, but it’s largely, Okay, we see this signal, and gravity doesn’t mesh with what we think we know about ice melt. Does it measure what we think we know about sea level change? How does the geophysics all fit together? And the fact that it changes Earth’s rotation is kind of a side issue.
I did not know about this when I got started on this project; it appeared as I was working on it. I thought, “Wait, I need to allow for this.” And when I did, it produced the — I don’t want to use the words “more important” because of the climate change part, but it produced a secondary result, which was that this potential for a negative leap second became clear.
Walk me through how the ice melting at the poles changes the Earth’s rotation.
This is the part that’s easy to explain. Ice melts. A lot of water that used to be at the poles is now distributed all over the ocean. Some of it is close to the equator. The standard picture for what’s called change of angular velocity because of moment of inertia — ignore all the verbiage — but the standard picture is of an ice skater who is spinning. She has her arms over her head. When she puts her arms out, she will slow down — like the water going from the poles to the equator. And that’s it. This is the simple part of the problem.
So what’s the hard part?
The hard part is explaining the part about the Earth’s core. If you have two things that are connected to each other and rotating and one of them slows down, the other one has to speed up. I have not been able to think of an ice skater-like-metaphor to go with that, but the simple one is if you were to put a bowl of water on a lazy Susan and you spin the bowl, then the water will start to spin. It won’t spin initially, but then it will start.
If you started stirring the water in the other direction, that would slow the Lazy Susan down. And that’s the interaction between the core and the solid part of the Earth.
And is that causing the negative leap second to move back three years?
That’s why the leap second might happen at all. On a very long timescale, what’s happening is that the tides are slowing the Earth down. The Earth being slower than an atomic clock means that you need a positive leap second every so often. That was the case in 1972, when they started using leap seconds. The assumption was that the Earth would just keep slowing down and so there would be more positive leap seconds over time.
Instead, the Earth has sped up, entirely because of the core, and that’s not something that people necessarily anticipated. When you take the effect of melting ice out, it becomes clear there’s this steady deceleration of the core; the core is rotating more and more slowly. If you extrapolate that — which is a somewhat risky thing to do, you can’t really predict what the core is going to do — then you discover that there is a leap second, in 2029. The ice melting is going in the other direction; if the ice melting hadn’t occurred, then the leap second would come even earlier. Is this all making sense?
I think I’m grasping it.
Just so you know, one of the two reviewers of this paper was someone in geophysics who said, “I know all this stuff. I wasn’t familiar with the rotation part. This paper has an awful lot of moving parts.”
So, it’s just a difference of a second. Why does this even matter?
We are all familiar with the problem of not being synchronized — we just went through it. If you forget that we did Daylight Savings Time, then you’re an hour off from everybody else and it’s bewildering and a nuisance.
Same problem with leap seconds, except for us, a second is not a big deal. For a computer network, though, a second is a big deal. And why is that? Well, for example, in the United States, the rules for stock markets say that everything that is done has to be accurately timed to a 20th of a second. In Europe, it’s actually to the nearest 1,000th of a second. If we were all just farmers or something, it wouldn’t be a problem, but there’s this whole infrastructure that’s invisible to us that tells our phones what time it is, and allows GPS to work, and everything else.
The easiest thing to do would be to not have a negative leap second. Indeed, there are plans not to have leap seconds anymore because for computer networks, they’re an enormous problem. They arrive at irregular intervals; some human being has to put the information into the computer; the computer has to have a program that tells it when the leap seconds are; and most computer programs can’t tell whether it’s a plus or minus second because there’s never been a minus before. From the computer network standpoint, it would be simplest to just not do this.
So, you ask, why are we doing this? In 1972, when leap seconds were instituted, there were two communities that cared about precise time. One was the people who cared about the frequency of your radio station and other kinds of telecommunications. They wanted to use atomic clocks with frequencies that didn’t change, but that didn’t mesh with what the Earth was doing.
Who cares about time telling you how the Earth is rotating? Well, the answer then was that there were people who used the stars for celestial navigation. Back then, celestial navigation was used not just for ships, but for airplanes — if you flew across the ocean, there was a guy in the cockpit, an actual navigator, who would use a periscope to look at the stars and locate the plane, if only as sort of a backup system. That community is now gone. Almost nobody uses celestial navigation as a primary, or even a secondary, way of finding out where they are anymore because of GPS.
My own personal view — and I can warn you, there’s a huge amount of dispute about this — is that we’d be fine if we just stopped having leap seconds at all.
Is there a … governing body of time? That forces us to do leap seconds?
There’s a giant tangle of international organizations that deal with this, but the rules were set by the people in charge of keeping radio stations aligned because radio broadcasts were how time signals were distributed back in 1972. So the rule was created. Who makes that decision is something called the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, which uses astronomy to monitor what the Earth is doing. They can predict a little bit in advance where things are going to be, and if within six months things are going to be more than half a second out, they will announce there will be a leap second.
Back to climate change: It seems pretty amazing that something like melting ice can throw things off so much.
All the stuff about negative seconds is important, but it’s only important because of this infrastructure, because we have all these rules. Strip all of that away and the most important result becomes the fact that climate change has caused an amount of ice melt that is enough to change the rotation rate of the entire Earth in a way that’s visible.
How do you talk to people about the gigatons of ice that Greenland loses every year? Do you talk about “water that could cover the entire United States to the depth of X” to get it into people’s minds? Yes, these are small changes in the rotation rate, but just the fact that we can say, “Look, this is slowing down the entire Earth” seems like another way of saying that climate change is unprecedented and important.
How do we proceed, then, if climate change is messing with our system?
There was a lot of resistance to even introducing atomic time. Time was thought of as being about Earth’s rotation and the astronomers didn’t want to give it up. In fact, in the 19th century, observatories would make money by selling time signals to the rest of the community. Then, in the 1950s, the physicists showed up, ran atomic clocks, never looked at the stars, and said, “We can do time better.” The physicists were right. But it took the astronomical community a while to come around to accepting that was how time was going to be defined.
If we get rid of leap seconds then we’d really have cut the connection between the way in which human beings have always thought of time as being, say, from noon to noon, or from sunrise to sunset, and we’d be replacing it with some bunch of guys in a laboratory somewhere running a machine. For some people, it’s very troubling to think of severing the keeping of time from the Earth’s rotation.
You lose a bit of the romance, I think. But clearly, tying our way of describing the linear passage of sequential events to the Earth’s rotation is going to be messy.
Exactly right. There’s a quote from, of all people, St. Augustine, saying, “I know what time is, but if somebody asked me, I can’t tell them.”
https://heatmap.news/climate/climate-change-is-breaking-time
Why Scientists Are Calling for the Moon to Be Better Protected From Development
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Only a few lunar sites are ideal for certain cutting-edge research—and they’re under threat from mining, satellites and bases, scientists argue
The Polestar 4 Aims To Be A $54,900 Electric Comeback Machine
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
The Polestar 4 could be a game-changer for the Swedish brand but remember that performance doesn’t come cheap.
https://insideevs.com/news/713959/polestar-4-electric-coupe-makes-north-american-debut/
FuryGpu: a hardware GPU implemented on an FPGA
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
FuryGpu is a real hardware GPU implemented on a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA, built on a custom PCB and connected to the host computer using PCIe. Supporting hardware features equivalent to a high-end graphics card of the mid 1990s and a full modern Windows software driver stack, it can render real games of that era at beyond real-time frame rates. ↫ FuryGpu A really cool project, undertaking by a single person – who also wrote the Windows drivers for it, which was apparently the hardest part of the project, as the announcement blog post details. Another blog post explains how the texture units work.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139007/furygpu-a-hardware-gpu-implemented-on-an-fpga/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-27, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Issues with feedland.com earlier in the day appear to be resolved. :-)
http://scripting.com/2024/03/27.html#a154325
Kara Swisher Interviews Margrethe Vestager
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Daring Fireball
https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/on-with-kara-swisher
Meta accused of snarfing people’s Snapchat data via traffic decryption
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
I ain’t afraid of no ghosts, but in this case…
To spy on rival Snapchat and get data on how the app was being used, Meta – when it was operating as Facebook – allegedly initiated a program called Project Ghostbusters, which intercepted data traffic from mobile apps. And it used that data to harm its competitors’ ad business.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/meta_snapchat_data/
Intel is trying to get developers to build apps for all those new “AI PCs”
date: 2024-03-27, from: Liliputing
Nearly much every new PC announced this year with the latest Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm processors is positioned as an “AI PC,” but companies have been pretty vague about what exactly that means until recently. Now Intel is spelling it out while trying to attract software developers to actually give users reasons to care. Intel […]
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https://liliputing.com/intel-is-trying-to-get-developers-to-build-apps-for-all-those-new-ai-pcs/
Big Bite Hot Dog Sparkling Water from 7-Eleven
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/big-bite-hot-dog-sparkling-water-from-7-eleven
Ghost ride the whip! Geely shows off AI chassis performing fully-autonomous drifting [Video]
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
While many are still skeptical about the plausibility of 100% autonomous vehicles, Geely Auto is showing that its new AI digital chassis can not only safely operate on snow and ice without a driver but can also pull off fully autonomous drifting. See the EV in action in the video below.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/geely-shows-off-new-ai-chassis-performing-fully-autonomous-drifting/
Rising Occidental Student Employees launch effort to unionize student workers on campus
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
As the academic year nears its end, Rising Occidental Student Employees (ROSE) is working to unionize student workers on campus. As of March 25, ROSE has held a launch event and a separate rally that led students to the upper level of the Arthur G. Coons (AGC) Administration building where ROSE called for President Harry […]
The post Rising Occidental Student Employees launch effort to unionize student workers on campus appeared first on The Occidental.
‘Unifier’ President Harry Elam reflects on his four-year tenure, from a tranquil tour to an unexpected departure
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
It is hard to imagine a day when President Harry J. Elam could walk around Occidental’s campus anonymously — on any given day, students can expect to snag his fist bump or catch a passing glimpse of his generous smile on the Academic Quad. But in 2019, when he was getting vetted for his presidential […]
The post ‘Unifier’ President Harry Elam reflects on his four-year tenure, from a tranquil tour to an unexpected departure appeared first on The Occidental.
A’s colorful — and winning — Oakland legacy will remain no matter when team leaves Bay Area
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
How much longer the A’s will be making memories in Oakland isn’t clear, but there is no question they have left an indelible mark on the Bay Area sports scene.
What Nvidia’s Blackwell efficiency gains mean for DC operators
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Air cooling’s diminishing returns on full display with Nv’s B-series silicon
Analysis Hotter and more power-hungry CPUs and GPUs were already causing headaches for datacenter operators before Nvidia unveiled its 1,200W Blackwell GPUs at GTC last week.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/nvidia_blackwell_efficiency/
Substandard Children’s Helmets Rear Their Ugly Heads In Malaysia
date: 2024-03-27, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
More than half of children’s motorcycle and bicycle helmets failed to meet safety standards.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713361/substandard-childrens-helmets-malaysia/
Tom Stritikus named Occidental’s 17th president
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
After a five-month search process, the Occidental College Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Tom Stritikus as Occidental’s 17th president, the Board announced in a campus-wide email March 26. Stritikus is currently the president of Fort Lewis College (FLC), a public liberal arts college located in Durango, Colorado. He will begin his term at Occidental July […]
The post Tom Stritikus named Occidental’s 17th president appeared first on The Occidental.
https://theoccidentalnews.com/news/2024/03/27/tom-stritikus-named-new-college-president/2911955
March Madness: The greatest contest in all of college sports
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
When you think of Occidental College, chances are you probably don’t think about our sports programs. We’d like to dispel that narrative. The March Madness college basketball tournament is in full swing. For bettors and casual fans alike, it’s a chance for fans of all schools involved to have something worth rooting for (and something to drink […]
The post March Madness: The greatest contest in all of college sports appeared first on The Occidental.
Maintenance, meets and Miatas with the Occidental Car Club
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Two students who own classic cars seek to bring together students who appreciate automotive ingenuity and save people money in the process. Max Manzare (senior) said that one of the reasons he and Malachi Curtis (senior) founded the Occidental Car Club was to assist fellow students with car maintenance. “We noticed a trend of our […]
The post Maintenance, meets and Miatas with the Occidental Car Club appeared first on The Occidental.
NELA residents reflect on the effects of the Regional Connector Project
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
The Regional Connector Project was completed June 16, 2023, bringing together the L (Gold), A (Blue), E (Expo), B (Red) and D (Purple) lines at the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. The project connected the L and A lines to the 7th Street/Metro Center Station, adding 1.9 miles of track and creating three new stations in Downtown LA: the […]
The post NELA residents reflect on the effects of the Regional Connector Project appeared first on The Occidental.
Lights, action, cameras, film crews return to campus
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
As classes took a pause for spring break, two film production teams made their way to Occidental’s campus for the first time since the SAG-AFTRA strikes ended in November. In a March 7 email addressed to Occidental students, staff and faculty, Assistant Vice President for Hospitality and Auxiliary Services Erik Russell said that the college […]
The post Lights, action, cameras, film crews return to campus appeared first on The Occidental.
Women’s lacrosse team has a positive outlook on the season
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Currently standing at fourth place in the SCIAC Conference with a 4-3 record, the Occidental lacrosse team is hoping to move up the ranks in the second half of the season, according to goalie Andie Angelacci (junior). Despite opening the season with a loss to Pomona-Pitzer, over spring break and the week leading up to it, the team […]
The post Women’s lacrosse team has a positive outlook on the season appeared first on The Occidental.
Unveiling The Oz: Occidental’s art and literary magazine
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
The Oz is Occidental’s student-run art and literary magazine. The publication receives submissions from the student body and provides an outlet for writing outside of class curriculum, according to the two editor-in-chiefs Hanna Lou Rathouz (sophomore) and Eran Karmon (sophomore). “We really wanted a space on campus [for] student creative writing,” Rathouz said. The Oz publishes […]
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Opinion: Red line, green line, is a formal deployment of NATO advisors to Ukraine beneficial?
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
Tensions spiked between the NATO alliance and Russia Feb. 26 when NATO member Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico claimed multiple NATO members were considering deploying troops to Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron has consistently said this idea is not off the table, drawing Putin’s ire in the form of renewed nuclear saber-rattling. Despite some members mulling over this prospect, NATO as a collective has […]
The post Opinion: Red line, green line, is a formal deployment of NATO advisors to Ukraine beneficial? appeared first on The Occidental.
The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds
date: 2024-03-27, from: Quanta Magazine
Russell Impagliazzo studies hard problems, the limits of cryptography, the nature of randomness and more.The post The Researcher Who Explores Computation by Conjuring New Worlds first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Why Americans are drowning in medical debt
date: 2024-03-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Medical debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in America. Throughout the week, we’ll hear portions of a recent “Marketplace Morning Report” event to better understand what’s behind some of these exorbitant costs and hear about potential solutions. Plus, rerouting ships away from the Port of Baltimore will take time and money. We look at the potentials costs and see what other ports stand to gain.
Hyundai reveals ambitious $50 billion investment to secure a top 3 spot in the EV market
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Hyundai announced a massive $50 billion (68 trillion won) investment to secure its position as the auto market transitions to EVs. The Korean automaker will hire 80,000 people in Korea to help it become a top-three EV maker by 2030.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/hyundai-reveals-ambitious-50b-investment-charge-up-ev-sales/
Two men shot in East Oakland
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
The shooting happened after a verbal altercation between one of the victims and the suspect.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/27/two-men-shot-in-east-oakland-6/
Boeing and subsidiary file trade secrets lawsuit against Virgin Galactic
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh, and there’s small matter of an alleged $26M in unpaid bills
Updated Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation have sued Virgin Galactic, alleging the space tourism company has misappropriated trade secrets.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/boeing_aurora_virgin_galactic/
Thank Toyota’s Lobbying For The New, Looser EPA Emissions Rules
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
Meanwhile, Hyundai plans a $51 billion new investment into EVs, and we look at Nissan’s plans for them as well.
https://insideevs.com/news/714024/toyota-lobbying-critical-materials/
Men’s NCAA Tournament best bets: Arizona’s work against the spread almost as impressive as its performance on the court
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Wildcats, who face Clemson, have covered the spread in 63 percent of their games this season.
Caofen F-80 Review: Electric 8kW dual sport is street-legal and Sondors-priced
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
We got the chance to test ride a street-legal plus off-road electric motorcycle that comes at a reasonable price point, something of an albatross since the Sondors Metacycle went under.
Richard Serra dies; San Francisco-born sculptor known for large metal structures
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
Considered one of his generation’s most preeminent sculptors, the San Francisco native originally studied painting at Yale University and turned to sculpting in the 1960s.
After unsuccessful IVF and multiple health issues, this Bay Area couple found unexpected happiness in Spain
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
While they adapted to the Spanish lifestyle quickly, there were some aspects that they found difficult to get used to.
“The suspect…told his probation officer about his activity. The probation officer tipped…
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044271-the-suspecttold-his-proba
Bad Basquiats
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/03/27/bad-basquiats/
YouTube Issues Cease and Desist to Bizarre Chinese YouTube Clone
date: 2024-03-27, from: 404 Media Group
Gan Jing World is linked to the Falun Gong, and has been cloning popular YouTube channels in the name of providing “wholesome content for all.”
Volvo makes its last diesel car and puts it in a museum
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Swedish automaker Volvo has rolled out its last diesel-powered passenger vehicle, after a 45-year relationship with the powertrain and cranking out millions of oil-burning cars. Between 2012 and 2016, diesel accounted for half of the company’s global sales. But those days are over now as the company moves toward an all-electric future.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/volvo-makes-its-last-diesel-car-and-puts-it-in-a-museum/
ESA, NASA Solar Observatory Discovers Its 5,000th Comet
date: 2024-03-27, from: NASA breaking news
On March 25, 2024, a citizen scientist in the Czech Republic spotted a comet in an image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, which has now been confirmed to be the 5,000th comet discovered using SOHO data. SOHO has achieved this milestone over 28 years in space, even though it was never designed […]
Miscreants are exploiting enterprise tech zero days more and more, Google warns
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Crooks know where the big bucks are
The discovery and exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities in enterprise-specific software and appliances appears to be outpacing the leveraging of zero-day bugs overall, judging by Google’s latest research.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/surge_in_enterprise_zero_days/
When Neighbors Turn in Neighbors
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
I think of these anonymous reporters as snipers. If somebody has an issue with me, come talk to me.
The post When Neighbors Turn in Neighbors appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/27/when-neighbors-turn-in-neighbors/
Texas’ Migrant Arrest Law on Hold for Now Under Latest Court Ruling
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
NEW ORLEANS — A Texas law that allows the state to arrest and deport migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. will remain on hold for now, a federal appeals court ruled.
The 2-1 ruling late Tuesday from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals followed a March 20 hearing by a three-judge panel of the court. It’s just the latest move in a seesaw legal case over Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s strict new immigration law that is not yet ended.
The Justice Department has argued that Texas’ law is a clear violation of federal authority and would create chaos at the border. Texas has argued that President Joe Biden’s administration isn’t doing enough to control the border and that the state has a right to take action.
Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump and a former aide to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, dissented with the majority decision.
Oldham wrote that the Biden administration faced a high bar to take sovereign power that Texas has to enforce a law its people and leaders want. The judge predicted the same 2-1 split when the merits of the case are considered while the legal challenge plays out.
“There is real peril in this approach. In our federal system, the State of Texas is supposed to retain at least some of its sovereignty,” Oldham wrote. “Its people are supposed to be able to use that sovereignty to elect representatives and send them to Austin to debate and enact laws that respond to the exigencies that Texans experience and that Texans want addressed.”
The law was in effect for several hours on March 19 after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way. But the high court didn’t rule on the merits of the case. It instead sent the case back to the 5th Circuit, which then suspended enforcement while it considered the latest appeal.
The latest ruling keeps the block in place.
Spokespersons for Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately return phone calls for comment Wednesday morning.
The law signed by Abbott allows any Texas law enforcement officer to arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally, but that brief window while the law was in effect revealed that many sheriffs were unprepared, unable or uninterested in enforcing SB4 in the first place.
Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland of Terrell County, which touches more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) of border, said during a gathering of about 100 sheriffs at the state Capitol last week said there’s no practical way for him to enforce the law.
Cleveland said he has no way to transport people, the county jail has space for just seven people and the closest port of entry is a drive of more than 2 1/2 hours away.
Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith, president of the Texas Sheriff’s Association, said the law will have little effect in his jurisdiction in East Texas, which is closer to Louisiana and Oklahoma than Mexico which is nearly 400 miles (644 kilometers) away.
Once in custody, migrants could either agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Migrants who don’t leave could face arrest again under more serious felony charges.
Texas did not announce any arrests during the brief time the law was previously in effect. Authorities have offered various explanations for how they might enforce the law. Mexico has said it would refuse to take back anyone who is ordered by Texas to cross the border.
The law is considered by opponents to be the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago that was partially struck down by the Supreme Court. Critics have also said the Texas law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.
Supporters have rejected those concerns, saying arresting officers must have probable cause, which could include witnessing the illegal entry or seeing it on video. They also say that they expect the law would be used mostly in border counties, though it would apply statewide.
Elon Musk says Tesla Optimus robot should cost ‘less than half of a car’
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Elon Musk says that Optimus, Tesla’s general-purpose humanoid robot, should cost “less than half the price of a car”.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/elon-musk-tesla-optimus-robot-cost-less-than-half-car/
Rain expected to return to Bay Area with two storm systems expected by Saturday
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
Two storm systems are descending from the Gulf of Alaska, according to the National Weather Service.
Sidecar Modern Tavern shutters in Los Gatos
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
Restaurant owners say pandemic led to long-term issues.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/27/sidecar-modern-tavern-shutters-in-los-gatos/
August Trial Date Set for Ex-Official Accused of Killing Vegas Journalist
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — A Nevada judge tentatively set an August 5 trial date for a former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing an investigative journalist.
But she acknowledged that more time might be needed to finish searching the slain reporter’s computers for possible evidence.
Robert Telles, a former Democratic county administrator of estates, has pleaded not guilty to stabbing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German to death in September 2022.
Telles, 47, has remained jailed since his arrest days after German’s body was found. Telles and his lawyer, Robert Draskovich, say he wants his murder trial to start as soon as possible.
Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt decided two weeks ago that a March 18 date was unrealistic. She agreed with prosecutors on Tuesday that August might also be too soon, but she said it was important to have a date to work toward.
Progress in the case stalled while arguments went to the state Supreme Court about opening German’s cellphone and computers, possibly exposing confidential information that is protected from disclosure under state and federal law.
Review-Journal employees are now reviewing those files, and attorneys say it might take months to finish.
German, 69, was found stabbed outside his home months after he wrote articles in 2022 that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct while he was in elected office.
Baseball fan promotions: 6 fun minor-league events for the 2024 season
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
From Ross & Rachel Night to Wet Nose Wednesdays, this is how you celebrate baseball, minor-league style
SF Giants fans and teammates pinning high hopes on hometown hero Kyle Harrison
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
‘The skies the limit,’ ace Logan Webb says of Kyle Harrison, the De La Salle High grad and Giants’ top pitching prospect
Pragmatic Semiconductor opens UK’s first 300mm wafer fab in Durham
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Facility to bring major leap in domestic chip production amid government support
UK chipmaker Pragmatic Semiconductor has officially opened its latest manufacturing facilities in Durham, just over a year after its CEO threatened to move the company out of the country over the government’s lack of support for the chip industry.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/pragmatic_opens_300mm_fab/
You might spot a mountain lion in California, but attacks like the one that killed a man are rare
date: 2024-03-27, from: San Jose Mercury News
Since 1890, there have been fewer than 50 confirmed attacks on people in California, and only six ended in deaths. While the prospect of attacks on people is frightening, humans kill far more cougars than the other way around.
Biden Just Approved Another Big Offshore Wind Project
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Freeze warnings are in place across Missouri • Tourists heading to Spain’s Canary Islands over the Easter holiday have been told to brace for extreme weather • It is 82 degrees Fahrenheit in Gaza today, marking the region’s first heat wave of the season.
THE TOP FIVE
- Biden approves another big offshore wind project
The Biden administration approved its seventh commercial-scale offshore wind project yesterday. Orsted’s Sunrise Wind project will be located about 16 nautical miles south of Marth’s Vineyard and have a capacity of 924-megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to power more than 320,000 homes per year. It will likely be completed in 2026. “The approval is the latest positive development for an industry that had been bogged down by inflation, higher borrowing costs and supply-chain woes,” said Bloomberg. The seven projects in total have the potential to provide more than 8 gigawatts of clean energy to power roughly 3 million homes, according to the Department of the Interior.
- Deadly Baltimore bridge collapse halts coal shipments
Six people are presumed dead after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed yesterday. The search continues for their remains. The disaster has halted the flow of ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore indefinitely, and this could have knock-on economic effects. It’s already throwing the U.S. coal market for a loop, reported Heatmap’s Matthew Zeitlin. The port plays a pivotal role in the energy trade, as it is the second largest coal export facility in the country. One coal shipping executive told Bloomberg the disruption could last more than a month. Shares of Consol Energy, which ships more than 10 million tons of coal annually through a terminal at the Port of Baltimore, were down 7% yesterday. In terms of its effects on the overall energy market, the port’s indefinite closure could be mild and may actually result in lower energy prices in the Northeast, as coal that would have been exported becomes, essentially, stranded stateside, Greg Brew, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, told Zeitlin. But even this effect may be muted, Brew explained, because the weather is warming up with the end of winter, meaning there’s less demand on natural gas for heating.
- Cocoa prices reach historic highs
Cocoa futures were trading above $10,000 a tonne yesterday for the first time, more than double their price from two months ago, the Financial Times reported. Prices dropped slightly later in the day, but the overall trend is not good: Cocoa has more than tripled in cost over the past year, according to CNBC. Two countries in West Africa – Ivory Coast and Ghana – produce around two-thirds of the world’s cocoa beans. Heavy rainfall followed by dry heat in the region has hurt crop yields, and many farmers are abandoning the trade for other crops. “It rains outside of the rainy seasons now,” one cocoa plantation owner in Ghana told the FT. “Dry seasons are hotter than they used to be.” Consumers could start to feel the pinch soon in the form of smaller chocolate bars for higher prices. Dark chocolate, which has a high cocoa content, will likely see the biggest price hike.
Price
of cocoa futures over the last five
years.CNBC
- Western U.S. hydropower dips due to drought
The amount of hydropower generated in the western U.S. plummeted last year because of drought, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Eleven states – Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, California, Oregon, and Washington – produce nearly 60% of the nation’s hydroelectricity. Between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, they produced 141.6 million megawatthours (MWh) of hydropower, 11% below the year prior, and the smallest amount since 2001. Drought and heat waves meant less rainfall and rapidly melting snowpack in the Pacific Northwest. Hydropower in Washington fell by 23% compared to the year before. California, on the other hand, saw hydropower grow thanks to repeated atmospheric rivers, but not enough to make up for the overall regional deficit. The EIA forecasts that western hydropower production will fall by another 12% this year. The Verge succinctly explained why a drop in hydropower is bad for the planet: “Drought reduces the amount of clean energy available from hydroelectric dams. To avoid energy shortfalls, utilities wind up relying on fossil fuels to make up the difference. That leads to more of the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, which makes droughts worse.”
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- Wisconsin utilities pledge to use union labor to build clean energy
infrastructure
Wisconsin’s major utilities this week announced a commitment to employing local union workers to build clean energy projects. The state is embarking on a major renewables expansion, including new solar installations, onshore wind, and battery storage. The projects will require about 19,000 construction jobs, and the biggest power providers in the state – Alliant Energy, Madison Gas & Electric, WEC Energy Group, and Xcel Energy – say they’ll rely on workers from five labor unions to fill those roles. The pledge “reflects the power of the federal Inflation Reduction Act’s tax incentives for large-scale renewable energy projects,” wrote Karl Ebert at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The IRA provides additional incentives for projects that are built with union labor or pay the local prevailing wage.”
THE KICKER
The first ever Global Summit on Extreme Heat will take place tomorrow.
https://heatmap.news/climate/orsted-sunrise-wind-approved
Book Talk – Unlocking the Digital Age: The Musician’s Guide to Research, Copyright & Publishing
date: 2024-03-27, from: Authors Union blogs
Join us for a book talk with ANDREA I. COPLAND & KATHLEEN DeLAURENTI about UNLOCKING THE DIGITAL AGE, a crucial resource for early career musicians navigating the complexities of the digital era. REGISTER NOW “[Musicians,] Use this book as a tool to enhance your understanding, protect your creations, and confidently step into the world of […]
America Is Finally Building a Nationwide EV Charging Network
date: 2024-03-27, from: Distilled Earth blog
The country’s EV charging network is growing quickly. Here’s why.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/america-is-finally-building-a-nationwide
2023 Fisker Ocean Now Priced From $24,999
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
The top-of-the-range 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme is now cheaper than a base Tesla Model Y.
https://insideevs.com/news/714043/2023-fisker-ocean-price-cuts-us/
Gravity’s 200kW Curbside Chargers Might Be A Gamechanger For Cities
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
The company says that EVs will be able to replenish 200 miles of range in 13 minutes.
https://insideevs.com/news/713927/gravity-curbside-chargers-200kw-power/
Podcast: The Shaky Science of License Plate Readers
date: 2024-03-27, from: 404 Media Group
On this week’s episode we talk about a shaky study into Flock; what people are doing now that Pornhub has pulled out of some states; and how we dug into the new owners of Deadspin.
https://www.404media.co/404-media-podcast-31-flock-shaky-science/
The Air Force Bought a Surveillance-Focused AI Chatbot
date: 2024-03-27, from: 404 Media Group
The chatbot, which has entered a test phase, is designed for intelligence analysts to ask questions about aerial and surveillance imagery.
https://www.404media.co/the-air-force-bought-a-surveillance-focused-ai-chatbot/
Fisker slashes MSRPs of Ocean trims by tens of thousands as it fights to stay in business
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Fisker Inc. is continuing a trying month of March as it claws at the hole it has found itself in, staring down the barrel of potential bankruptcy. With a potential shuttering of its doors looming, the American EV automaker is now pulling every lever to maximize revenues, including unprecedented discounts on its lone model, the Fisker Ocean.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/fisker-slashes-msrp-ocean-trims-fights-to-stay-in-business/
Is Yamaha Working On A New Electric Motocross Motorcycle?
date: 2024-03-27, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The new machine could feature a so-called torsion damper, providing a sudden boost of acceleration.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/713364/yamaha-electric-motocross-patent-motorcycle/
In-app browsers are still a privacy, security, and choice problem
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Regulators reminded that longstanding concerns haven’t been addressed
Competition cops in Europe and the United Kingdom have started paying attention to in-app browsers, a controversial mechanism for presenting web content within native apps.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/inapp_browsers/
Ford Explorer EV Goes On Sale In Europe With Up To 374 Miles Of WLTP Range
date: 2024-03-27, from: Inside EVs News
The MEB-based crossover is cheaper than a Mustang Mach-E. Oh, and it was also driven around the world.
https://insideevs.com/news/713990/ford-explorer-ev-europe-price/
Here’s a cat holding on for dear life to a pint of…
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/0044264-heres-a-cat-holding-on
The Web That Never Was
date: 2024-03-27, from: Tilde.news
https://youtu.be/9CSjlZeqKOc?si=sXV4f-Q_-ql-wOEj
Gary Horton | Unimaginable and Relentless Human Tragedy
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Mike Garcia, will you please twist Speaker Mike Johnson’s arm – and fast! Only the U.S. House of Representatives can prevent unimaginable human tragedy: Readers know of my friends, the Naumenko family from Irpin, Ukraine. Irpin is a suburb of Kyiv, and lately has been under nearly nightly attacks again. For two long years, Juliya […]
The post Gary Horton | Unimaginable and Relentless Human Tragedy appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/gary-horton-unimaginable-and-relentless-human-tragedy/
2024-03-27 Sick? Or Hayfever?
date: 2024-03-27, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-03-27 Sick? Or Hayfever?
Back from the trip to Locarno and I’m feeling sick. The nose, the frontal sinus cavity, ouch.
But strangely enough, the birch pollen season has also started. So what is it?
(Zürich is super dark red.)
The report says:
“Eschen und Birken blühen frühzeitig in der gesamten Schweiz, und für deren Pollen werden in den kommenden Tagen im Flachland und in mittleren Lagen mässige bis starke Belastungswerte erwartet.”
Ash and birch are in bloom earlier than usual.
I’ll take one of these Cetirizine-based hayfever pills, drink another cup of herbal infusion and go back to bed. Hopefully at least one of these things will help.
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-03-26-sick
Philip Wasserman | Staying Here in Cali
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
I’m not leaving. It seems everyone is leaving California. U.S. Census data reveals the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area saw a loss of population of 71,037 between 2022 and 2023. More than 800,000 Californians left in 2022, which is the most recent report I could find on migration out of our state. Those leaving […]
The post Philip Wasserman | Staying Here in Cali appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/philip-wasserman-staying-here-in-cali/
Héctor Hernández | Indefensible Inspections
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Part 3 of 3. In my previous letters, I wrote about the county’s ill-advised plan to recover defensible space inspection costs through Section 14902 of the California Health and Safety Code. In this letter, I’ll explain why I think the Fire Department is mistaken in its belief that California Public Resources Code, Section 4291, mandates […]
The post Héctor Hernández | Indefensible Inspections appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/hector-hernandez-indefensible-inspections-2/
Infinite Mac: turning to the dark side
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
About a year ago I came across the Previous emulator – it appeared to be a faithful simulation of the NeXT hardware and thus capable of running NeXTStep. While including it in Infinite Mac would be scope-creep, NeXT’s legacy is in many ways more relevant to today’s macOS than classic Mac OS. It also helped that it’s under active development by its original creator (see the epic thread in the NeXT Computers forums), and thus a modern, living codebase. Previous is the fifth emulator that I’ve ported to WebAssembly/Emscripten and the Infinite Mac runtime, and it’s gotten easier. As I’m doing this work, I’m developing more and more empathy for those doing Mac game ports – some things are really easy and others become yak shaves due to the unintended consequences of choices made by the original developers. Previous is available on multiple platforms and has good abstractions, so overall it was a pretty pleasant experience. ↫ Mihai Parparita By porting previous to WebAssembly/Emscripten, Infinite Mac now offers access to a whole slew of NeXTSTEP releases, from the earliest known release to the last one from 1997. There’s also a ton of applications added to make the experience feel more realistic. This makes Infinite Mac even more useful than it already was, ensuring it’s one of the best and easiest ways to experience old macOS and now NeXTSTEP releases through virtual machines (real ones, this time), available in your browser. I’ll be spending some time with these new additions for sure, since I’ve very little experience with NeXTSTEP other than whatever I vicariously gleamed through Steven Troughton-Smith‘s toots on the subject over the years. Mihai Parparita is doing incredibly important work through Infinite Mac, and he deserves credit and praise for all he’s doing here.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139000/infinite-mac-turning-to-the-dark-side/
Sunken British Warship That Left Crew Marooned for 66 Days Has Been Identified
date: 2024-03-27, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Found off the coast of Florida, the HMS “Tyger” left some 300 crew members stranded on Garden Key in 1742
Happy birthday APFS, 7 years old today
date: 2024-03-27, from: OS News
Seven years ago, on 27 March 2017, Apple introduced one of the most fundamental changes in its operating systems since Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah was released 16 years earlier. On that day, those who updated iOS to version 10.3 had their iPhone’s storage silently converted to the first release of Apple File System, APFS. Six months later, with the release of macOS 10.13 High Sierra on 25 September, Mac users followed suit. ↫ Howard Oakley The migration from HFS+ to APFS is still an amazing feat for Apple to have pulled off. Hundreds of millions devices converted from one filesystem to another, and barely anyone noticed – no matter how you look at it, that’s an impressive achievement, and the engineers who made it possible deserve all the praise they’re getting.
https://www.osnews.com/story/138998/happy-birthday-apfs-7-years-old-today/
$1 billion in relief for America’s child care crisis
date: 2024-03-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The child care system in the U.S. is in crisis. The latest government funding bill just approved by the White House included a $1 billion increase for programs focused on child care and early childhood learning. Advocates see the boost as a win but caution that it still isn’t enough. Then, we’ll discuss what you need to know about the stock market debut of Donald Trump’s Truth Social.
Belgian beer study acquires taste for machine learning
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Researchers reckon results could improve recipe development for food and beverages
Joining the list of things that probably don’t need improving by machine learning but people are going to try anyway is Belgian beer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/belgian_beer_machine_learning/
PeerJ Awards Winners at AMCA 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: PeerJ blog
The AMCA Annual Meeting is the premier education and networking event for researchers, educators, vector control professionals, industry representatives, and students in mosquito control. Every year since 1938, hundreds gather to hear the latest research, share ideas, and form collaborations. Our educational sessions and exhibit hall help to put attendees on the cutting-edge of this […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284889042/peerj-awards-winners-at-amca-2024/
Glenda Yakel | Community Concerns Disregarded
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Re: Letters, Ron Perry, March 23, “Defaming the Indians Again.” Your letter struck a chord with many of us, particularly regarding the ongoing debate surrounding the Hart High School mascot. As we reflect on the decision made on July 15, 2021, to retire the Indian mascot by June 30, 2025, it’s disheartening to witness the […]
The post Glenda Yakel | Community Concerns Disregarded appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/glenda-yakel-community-concerns-disregarded/
China’s aging population problem
date: 2024-03-27, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: China’s leaders are trying to find ways to battle what many economists have described as a demographic ticking time bomb. One in five people are over 60 there, making it the largest elderly population in the world. Plus, flying cars have long been a futuristic dream. A European company has developed — and successfully flown — its “AirCar” but just sold the technology to China.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/chinas-aging-population-problem
Security Vulnerability in Saflok’s RFID-Based Keycard Locks
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-26, from: Bruce Schneier blog
It’s pretty devastating:
Today, Ian Carroll, Lennert Wouters, and a team of other security researchers are revealing a hotel keycard hacking technique they call Unsaflok. The technique is a collection of security vulnerabilities that would allow a hacker to almost instantly open several models of Saflok-brand RFID-based keycard locks sold by the Swiss lock maker Dormakaba. The Saflok systems are installed on 3 million doors worldwide, inside 13,000 properties in 131 countries. By exploiting weaknesses in both Dormakaba’s encryption and the underlying RFID system Dormakaba uses, known as MIFARE Classic, Carroll and Wouters have demonstrated just how easily they can open a Saflok keycard lock. Their technique starts with obtaining any keycard from a target hotel—say, by booking a room there or grabbing a keycard out of a box of used ones—then reading a certain code from that card with a $300 RFID read-write device, and finally writing two keycards of their own. When they merely tap those two cards on a lock, the first rewrites a certain piece of the lock’s data, and the second opens it…
Street newspaper appears to have Big Issue with Qilin ransomware gang
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The days of cybercriminals having something of a moral compass are over
The parent company of The Big Issue, a street newspaper and social enterprise for homeless people, is wrestling with a cybersecurity incident claimed by the Qilin ransomware gang.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/big_issue_qilin_cyberattack/
The Federal Women’s Program
date: 2024-03-27, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
March is Women’s History Month. Visit the National Archives website for resources and virtual events related to women’s history. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, Title VII prohibited discrimination by certain employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. State and local governments, however, were exempt. In 1967 President Lyndon B. … Continue reading The Federal Women’s Program
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/03/27/the-federal-womens-program/
The pros and cons of using Markdown
date: 2024-03-27, from: Blog by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti
A few days ago I had an interesting conversation on the pros and cons of Markdown for technical documentation with Ed Marsh (Goldman Sachs) and Eric Holscher (Read the Docs) in a webinar hosted by Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler). Here are some of the things I said during the webinar, transcribed and edited for clarity.
https://passo.uno/pros-cons-markdown/
@Jessica Smith’s blog (date: 2024-03-27, from: Jessica Smith’s blog)
We’re looking after Patches, my brother-in-law’s dog, “for the long weekend” (until next Tuesday). He hasn’t met Gidget before, and got himself bapbapbapped when he tried to give her a customary canine friendly greeting (sniffing her bum). Gidget was FURIOUS! After some time apart they settled down, though. Patches took a nap, and Gidget decided beating him up could be deferred in favour of just watching him like a hawk, and now they’re both snoozing peacefully on the couch. What a relief 😅
https://www.jayeless.net/2024/03/looking-after-patches.html
Windows Format dialog waited decades for UI revamp that never came
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Temporary’ isn’t always
Windows has a built-in reminder of the perils of temporary solutions thanks to the 30-year-old porting efforts of former Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/windows_format_dialog_temporary/
Supporting Computing in England through our renewed partnership with Oak National Academy
date: 2024-03-27, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
We are pleased to announce that we are renewing our partnership with Oak National Academy in England to provide an updated high-quality Computing curriculum and lesson materials for Key Stages 1 to 4. New curriculum and materials for the classroom In 2021 we partnered with Oak National Academy to offer content for schools in England…
The post Supporting Computing in England through our renewed partnership with Oak National Academy appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/supporting-computing-in-england-with-oak-national-academy/
Greenlane announces LA to LV charging corridor for commercial trucks
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Daimler and BlackRock-backed Greenlane announces plans to build 280 mile long “EV corridor” for commercial trucks running from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
https://electrek.co/2024/03/27/greenlane-announces-la-to-lv-charging-corridor-for-commercial-trucks/
UK skies set for cheeky upgrade with hybrid airship
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Depending on planning permission being given for facility
The Airlander hybrid airship looks set to go into production within a few years, if its maker can get planning approval for a factory.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/airlander_10_hybrid_airship/
Mile High Illinois
date: 2024-03-27, from: Hooked on the Past blog
This is probably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous unbuilt project and, from a more personal point of view, the second-largest model I have ever made. The construction of this model was long and complex, all the floors are different, so for each of the 528 floors I had to create a unique polyline. For the…
The post Mile High Illinois appeared first on Hooked On The Past.
http://www.hookedonthepast.com/mile-high-illinois/
Big internet-connected button | HackSpace #77
date: 2024-03-27, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
One whack to send the magazine to press.
The post Big internet-connected button | HackSpace #77 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/big-internet-connected-button-hackspace-77/
Why a Climate Startup Is Building the World’s Biggest Airplane
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heatmap News
Radia is a $1 billion climate tech startup with an unusual pitch: It is trying to build the world’s largest airplane. Its proposed aircraft, the Radia Wind Runner, would be as long as a football field, nearly as wide as a New York city block, and capable of carrying 12 times the volume of a Boeing 747. Such a plane could ferry massive wind-turbine blades, unlocking what the company calls “gigawind” — the ability to build offshore-sized wind turbines on land.
Why is that important? Because the larger the wind turbine, the more electricity that it generates — and the less wind it needs to work with. Radia says that its “gigawind” farms could profitably go into places with slower wind speeds, such as the Northeast or Mississippi Delta. They could also be built in the existing Wind Belt, potentially doubling current output.
In this week’s episode, Rob and Jesse talk to Radia’s chief executive officer, Mark Lundstrom. (Jesse’s consulting firm did some research for Radia while it was in stealth mode, in 2020 and 2023.) We discuss why the world needs a bigger plane, how such a new aircraft gets licensed, and why massive wind turbines could be such a big deal for renewable electricity. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a Princeton professor of energy systems engineering.
Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Jesse Jenkins: I’m here in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at Princeton, so we’ve got a lot of students excited about new aerospace applications. I have a six-year-old kid, as well, and he’s also excited about anything that goes fast and is big, so I’m sure he’ll get excited about the eventual Lego kit for the WindRunner that we’ll have to get out in the world. But talk through the size of this aircraft compared to, say, something we’re used to, like a 737 or more conventional aircraft.
Mark Lundstrom: Sure. So before understanding the size, one has to understand the fundamental mission requirements. And so the goal, Radia’s goal is to be able to move up to a 105 meter long object that could weigh up to 75 tons. Now we can also move multiple smaller blades, so two 95s, or three 85s, or four 75s. So the vehicle is quite versatile.
In terms of sheer size, it’s about 12 times the volume of a 747. So it’s very, very large compared to the 747. It’s about nine times the volume of the Antonovs. And yet what’s very different about it —
Jenkins: And the Antonov, that’s the largest plane built to date, right?
Lundstrom: Yes, the largest volumetric plane right now. There’s about 14 or 15 of them left in the world, usually Russian or Ukrainian operated.
Robinson Meyer: I was going to say, I remember the biggest plane in the world being destroyed right at the beginning of the Ukraine War and was wondering how that compared to the to the WindRunner vehicle.
Lundstrom: So the Antonov 225, there was one of them. WindRunner is six times bigger in volume than that airplane was, and it’s nine times bigger in volume than the remaining Antonov 124s that are still out there. And so, and what’s additionally unusual about it, in addition to the size, is its ability to land on dirt.
Meyer: Wow.
Lundstrom: Things like Antonovs, 747s, etc., they need to land on about 9,000 feet of steel reinforced concrete, typically. And we designed the WindRunners so we could land on relatively short dirt strips, so just over a mile of a semi-prepared field. And that allows us to bring the payload into a wind farm, and be able to get a very large aircraft out of the wind farm. It’s probably the first time that an aircraft has been designed to optimize around volume, as opposed to mass.
Usually when an aircraft design team starts off, they’ll start off thinking about how much mass has to be moved. We really started off thinking about how much volume has to be moved. So there are aircraft that move larger mass than the WindRunner. There’s absolutely no aircraft that comes close to moving larger volumes and being able to land that volume on a relatively short dirt strip.
This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by…
Advanced Energy United educates, engages, and advocates for policies that allow our member companies to compete to power our economy with 100% clean energy, working with decision makers and energy market regulators to achieve this goal. Together, we are united in our mission to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy in America. Learn more at advancedenergyunited.org/heatmap
KORE Power provides the commercial, industrial, and utility markets with functional solutions that advance the clean energy transition worldwide. KORE Power’s technology and manufacturing capabilities provide direct access to next generation battery cells, energy storage systems that scale to grid+, EV power & infrastructure, and intuitive asset management to unlock energy strategies across a myriad of applications. Explore more at korepower.com.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-episode-9-radia-windrunner
Students march for hostages in Gaza
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The demonstration marks 171 days since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Southern Israel.
The post Students march for hostages in Gaza appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/students-march-for-hostages-in-gaza/
Folt presents 2024 State of the University
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The president celebrated advancements in athletics, sustainability and the arts.
The post Folt presents 2024 State of the University appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/2024-state-of-the-university/
USG approves 2024-25 executive cabinet appointees
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Hundreds of students used USG shuttle service to the airport during spring recess.
The post USG approves 2024-25 executive cabinet appointees appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/usg-approves-executive-cabinet-appointees/
Gocycle unveils new images of its premium, lightweight belt-drive cargo electric bike
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
Gocycle, a premium British electric bike maker known for its lightweight commuter e-bikes featuring exotic materials and designs, is now setting its sights on the growing market of cargo e-bikes. And the company has just shared the first photos of its upcoming CXi and CX+ cargo electric bikes.
Lenovo scores deal to build supercomputer at UK’s Hartree Center
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Liquid cooled, 44.7 Petaflops and with unspecified GPUs
The UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has picked Lenovo to build and install a 44.7-Petaflops liquid cooled supercomputer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/lenovo_hartree_supercomputer/
Office Hours: NBC fires Ronna McDaniel, former RNC chair. Does the Republican Party have a future?
date: 2024-03-27, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends, Ronna McDaniel’s tenure at NBC lasted four days. It ended last night, after network anchors and reporters blasted NBC’s decision to hire her last Friday. They argued that hiring her gave a green light for election deniers to spread lies as paid contributors.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-the-end-of-the-republican
Classifieds – March 27, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, 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 27, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/classifieds-march-27-2024/
The Savvy Senior | Who Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer?
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
Dear Savvy Senior, Who should be screened for lung cancer and how it’s covered by Medicare? I used to smoke but quit many years ago and am wondering if I need to be tested. — Just Turned 65 Dear Just Turned, Even if you haven’t touched a cigarette in decades, you could still be due […]
The post The Savvy Senior | Who Should Be Screened for Lung Cancer? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/the-savvy-senior-who-should-be-screened-for-lung-cancer/
March 26, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
At about 1:30 this morning, local time, the Dali, a 985-foot (300 m) container ship operating under a Singapore flag, struck the steel Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, that spans the lower Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor. The bridge immediately collapsed.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-26-2024
Today in SCV History (March 27)
date: 2024-03-27, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1847 – Probable birth date of Pico Canyon oil driller Charles Alexander Mentry. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-march-27/
CEO of UK’s National Grid warns of datacenters’ thirst for power
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Predicts 500 percent increase in consumption over a decade and suggests 800 kilovolt fix
John Pettigrew, the CEO of Britain’s National Grid, warned on Tuesday that datacenter power consumption is on track to grow 500 percent over the next decade.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/ceo_of_uks_national_grid/
Ivy League decorum, working-class grit
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Manhattan Beach’s own Jack St. Ivany is the best of both worlds on the ice.
The post Ivy League decorum, working-class grit appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/ivy-league-decorum-working-class-grit/
‘Margo’ explores intergenerational conflict
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The APIDA-led SCA student film highlights mother-daughter relationships.
The post ‘Margo’ explores intergenerational conflict appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/margo-explores-intergenerational-conflict/
FAFSA errors leave college dreams in limbo
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
New changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid could leave many students unable to pay for college.
The post FAFSA errors leave college dreams in limbo appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/fafsa-errors-leave-college-dreams-in-limbo/
Men’s swim and dive gears up for NCAAs
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The Trojans will compete against powerhouses for a title at IU Natatorium.
The post Men’s swim and dive gears up for NCAAs appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/mens-swim-and-dive-gears-up-for-ncaa-championships/
Student playwright blends goth and gay for New Works Festival
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
“Somewhere Someone is Traveling Furiously Towards You” by Marilyn Schotland observes queerness from a dark yet meaningful lens.
The post Student playwright blends goth and gay for New Works Festival appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/student-playwright-blends-goth-and-gay-for-new-works-festival/
Being a music fan shouldn’t be inaccessible
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Ticket platforms and artists should be held accountable for their outrageous prices.
The post Being a music fan shouldn’t be inaccessible appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/ticketmaster-sucks-but-sometimes-the-artists-do-too/
curl 8.7.0 and 8.7.1
date: 2024-03-27, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
Numbers the 255th and 256th releases5 changes56 days (total: 9,504)162 bug-fixes (total: 10,050)246 commits (total: 31,931)0 new public libcurl function (total: 93)0 new curl_easy_setopt() option (total: 304)0 new curl command line option (total: 258)92 contributors, 56 new (total: 3,133)37 authors, 15 new (total: 1,252)4 security fixes (total: 155) Versions I first released 8.7.0, but immediately … Continue reading curl 8.7.0 and 8.7.1
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/03/27/curl-8-7-0/
Placing a bet on me (and you)
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
In my own version of “75 Hot,” I am vowing to reconnect to my fashion roots, and I want you to do the same.
The post Placing a bet on me (and you) appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/03/27/placing-a-bet-on-me-and-you/
US Supreme Court Hears Case on Access to Abortion Pill
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could significantly restrict access to the drug mifepristone, which is used in medication abortions. Deana Mitchell has our story.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-supreme-court-hears-case-on-access-to-abortion-pill/7543669.html
Winless Lottery Streak Ends: Someone Wins $1.12B Mega Millions
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
DES MOINES, Iowa — Someone in New Jersey overcame the odds Tuesday night and won the $1.12 billion Mega Millions jackpot, breaking a winless streak that dated to last December.
The numbers drawn were: 7, 11, 22, 29, 38 and 4. The winning ticket was sold in New Jersey, according the the Mega Millions website.
Until the latest drawing, no one had matched all six numbers and won the Mega Millions jackpot since Dec. 8. That amounted to 30 straight drawings without a big winner.
It’s tough to win the Mega Millions jackpot because the odds are so long, at 1 in 302.6 million.
The prize is the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history.
The $1.12 billion jackpot is for a winner who is paid through an annuity, with an initial payment and then 29 annual payments. Most winners choose a cash payout, which would be $537.5 million.
The next big U.S. lottery drawing will be Wednesday night for an estimated $865 million Powerball jackpot. No one has won that prize since New Year’s Day, making for 36 drawings without a winner.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball also is played in those states as well as Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
https://www.voanews.com/a/winless-lottery-streak-ends-someone-wins-1-12b-mega-millions/7545232.html
The French Revvie Part VII: Dialogues of the Rationalites
date: 2024-03-27, from: Margaret Atwood’s substack
The uproar between 1789 and 1799 was in large part a three-pronged religious civil war.
https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/the-french-revvie-part-vii-dialogues
BBC exterminates AI experiments used to promote Doctor Who
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Finally, a power greater than ML hype: Angry fandom
Pics The BBC has decided to exterminate its experiments using generative AI to promote venerable sci-fi show Doctor Who.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/bbc_ends_doctor_who_ai_experiments/
Bishop Diego Sweeps Cate 27-25, 25-14, 25-13 in Crucial Tri-Valley League Match
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Cardinals are 4-3 in Tri-Valley League play.
The post Bishop Diego Sweeps Cate 27-25, 25-14, 25-13 in Crucial Tri-Valley League Match appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Santa Barbara Unified Staff Seeing Pink
date: 2024-03-27, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The school district community raises concerns over looming cuts to positions and hours.
The post Santa Barbara Unified Staff Seeing Pink appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/03/26/santa-barbara-unified-staff-seeing-pink/
Search to Resume for Six Workers Presumed Dead after Baltimore Bridge Collapse
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
XenServer is back, with a rebranded Citrix Hypervisor and a tasty three-host freebie
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Per-socket licensing regime may explain years of ups and downs
XenServer, the Cloud-Software-Group-owned server virtualization spinout from Citrix, has debuted its new/old product, XenServer 8.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/xenserver_8_returns/
Top US Officials Warn Israeli Defense Minister Against Invading Rafah
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
Top Biden administration officials urged Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to abandon plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinian civilians seek safety, as U.S.- Israel tensions brewed over Israel’s conduct in its 6-month-old war against Hamas. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Brutal Lyon 25 Stair, Destroyer of Action Sport Dreams
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/brutal-lyon-25-stair-destroyer-of-action-sport-dreams
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-03-27, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Mastodon issues 30-day ultimatum to Trump’s social network over misuse of its code.
Paris Waiters Race Run for the First Time in 13 Years
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/03/paris-waiters-race-run-for-the-first-time-in-13-years
Alibaba bins listing for its Cainiao logistics limb
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Already backed away from cloud spinout, now gradually breaking up with its own breakup plan
Chinese tech giant Alibaba has decided not to spin out its logistics limb, Cainiao, and will instead buy back shares in the outfit and integrate it more deeply with its e-commerce operations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/27/alibaba_cans_cainiao_ipo/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-03-27, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
YouTube TV lets you watch Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and BBC on one screen.
http://scripting.com/2024/03/26.html#a011909
Morphotrophic
date: 2024-03-27, from: Greg Egan’s feed
My new novel, MORPHOTROPHIC, can now be preordered.
https://www.gregegan.net/MORPHOTROPHIC/00/MorphotrophicExcerpt.html
The Talk Show: ‘Less Space Than a Nomad? Lame’
date: 2024-03-27, updated: 2024-03-27, from: Daring Fireball
https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2024/03/26/ep-397
Massive Liebherr mobile electric crane lifts 300 tons in the Netherlands
date: 2024-03-27, from: Electrek Feed
The first massive Liebherr LHM 800e mobile electric harbor crane just reached the Hartel Terminal in Maasvlakte, the Netherlands, and the crew at Marcor Stevedoring has wasted no time putting it to work.
Top US Officials Warn Israel’s Gallant Against Invading Rafah
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Top Biden administration officials urged Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to abandon plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinian civilians seek safety, as U.S.-Israel tensions brew over Israel’s conduct in its six-month-old war against Hamas.
In meetings Monday and Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel’s right to defend itself while reiterating opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned ground offensive to target Hamas in Gaza’s southernmost city on the border with Egypt.
“Our goal [is] to help Israel find an alternative to a full-scale and perhaps premature military operation that could endanger the over 1 million civilians that are sheltering in Rafah,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday, briefing on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon.
A major ground operation in Rafah would further jeopardize the welfare of Palestinian civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday. He added that Blinken underscored to Gallant that “alternatives exist” that would both better ensure Israel’s security and protect Palestinian civilians.
Amid a looming famine in Gaza, Austin warned of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Palestinian enclave, describing civilian casualties as “far too high” and aid deliveries as “far too low.” His remarks echoed Blinken’s calls for Israel “to immediately surge and sustain” more aid.
The Netanyahu government has denied accusations by international aid agencies and the United Nations that Israel is blocking aid and provoking famine in Gaza as part of its strategy to root out Hamas.
Similar admonitions were likely being conveyed by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. In a sign of potentially complicated talks, Sullivan’s meeting with Gallant, originally scheduled for Monday, was extended an extra day.
“They believed it was important to continue the conversation,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Sullivan told reporters last week that President Joe Biden himself had warned Netanyahu an invasion in Rafah would be a mistake and urged him to have a “coherent and sustainable strategy” to defeat Hamas.
‘Don’t do it’
Netanyahu insists that the goal of “total victory” against Hamas cannot be achieved without going into Rafah, where Israel says there are four Hamas battalions composed of thousands of fighters.
Initially, the Biden administration said they would not support a Rafah offensive without sufficient protection of civilians.
Now, they’re telling Israel, “Don’t do it,” said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former U.S. negotiator in Middle East peace talks.
“It’s not now a question of making sure that the population is somehow safeguarded,” he told VOA. “They just don’t want the Israelis to do it.”
Despite the pressure piled on Gallant this week, the decision on Rafah would have to be taken by the Israeli War Cabinet, whose members in addition to Gallant include Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, former minister of defense and deputy prime minister, as well as two observers — opposition politician Gadi Eisenkot and Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s close adviser.
Gallant’s meetings have been the main high-level consultation mechanism between the U.S. and its ally, as Netanyahu abruptly canceled plans for a visit by a separate Israeli delegation.
That was done in protest of Washington’s abstention at the U.N. that allowed the adoption of a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Netanyahu accused the U.S. of shifting from its prior position of conditioning the cease-fire call on the release of hostages, which the administration denies.
More weapons
Gallant, a security hawk who supports a ground operation in Rafah, had aimed to use his Washington visit to ramp up the transfer of American weapons. In remarks ahead of his meeting with Austin, he said he wants to “ensure Israel’s military edge and capabilities.”
Israel needs U.S. arms not only for the campaign in Gaza but also to prepare for further escalation in the north of the country with Hezbollah in Lebanon, said Brian Finucane, senior adviser for the U.S. Program at the International Crisis Group. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, the two sides have exchanged fire through thousands of rocket and missile launches.
“The U.S. has real leverage here,” Finucane told VOA. “The best-case scenario would be if the U.S. actually did use its abundant leverage, both unilaterally and multilaterally, to try to bring about a cease-fire.”
While Biden has begun using his diplomatic leverage by abstaining at the U.N., he is unlikely to condition or restrict military aid to Israel as he aims to keep the conflict from spreading.
“The last thing he should want to do is to send an unmistakable signal to Hezbollah and Iran that we’re not prepared to back the Israelis, if, in fact, there is an escalation in the Israeli northern border,” said Miller.
The most fundamental goal for Biden right now, he said, is reaching a deal in the cease-fire negotiations in Qatar. Hamas says it will release hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war, while Israel says it will discuss only a temporary pause.
US arms for Israel
The U.S. has committed to provide Israel with nearly $4 billion a year in aid through 2028, most of it in the form of military assistance. Approximately $3.3 billion per year is given under the Foreign Military Financing program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services.
Since the Gaza war began, the administration has quietly delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel. The arms transfers were processed without public debate because the administration broke up the sales packages in amounts below the threshold that requires them to notify Congress, according to a defense official who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter.
Under pressure from Democratic lawmakers, last month the White House released a National Security Memorandum requiring the U.S. secretary of state to “obtain credible and reliable written assurances” from foreign governments that U.S. weapons are used in accordance with international and humanitarian law.
Gallant delivered Israel’s required written assurances ahead of the deadline on Sunday. Under the memorandum, the State Department has until early May to formally assess and report to Congress whether those assurances are “credible and reliable.” Without it, Biden has the option of suspending further U.S. arms transfers.
So far, Biden has not indicated any willingness to do so. In his call with Netanyahu last week, the president “didn’t make threats,” Sullivan said. “Each of them recognizes that we are at a critical moment in this conflict.”
Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/top-us-officials-warn-israel-s-gallant-against-invading-rafah/7544133.html
Daily EV Recap: Possible Tesla vans
date: 2024-03-27, 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/2024/03/26/daily-ev-recap-possible-tesla-vans/
Wednesday 27 March, 2024
date: 2024-03-27, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Picasso’s guitar? No, mine, viewed through a distorting lens. Quote of the Day ”The McDaniel hiring speaks to a long-running poverty of imagination at television’s news divisions. Network bosses have come to believe that the news is a river that … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/wednesday-27-march-2024/39286/
British Judges Want Guarantee Wikileaks’ Assange Won’t Face Death Penalty
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
Britain’s high court has ruled the United States must guarantee that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not get the death penalty if he is extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges. Assange’s lawyers are fighting to allow a full appeal against his extradition on accusations related to Wikileaks’ publishing of stolen military files. For VOA, Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
Fire Department hosting HAZMAT drill Wednesday
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
L.A. County Fire Department officials don’t want residents to be alarmed if they see any activity or hear any alarms on Wednesday coming from HASA Inc., the longtime pool chemical manufacturer in Saugus. It’s just a drill. The agency’s Hazardous Materials Response Team is conducting a drill from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to simulate […]
The post <strong>Fire Department hosting HAZMAT drill Wednesday</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/fire-department-hosting-hazmat-drill-wednesday/
Q&A: How social media affects mental health
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Social media is a big part of our everyday lives which can affect our mental health both positively and negatively. Social media can cause a number of mental health concerns,…
https://sundial.csun.edu/179840/opinions/qa-how-social-media-affects-mental-health/
Forecast calls for rain, again, possible thunder
date: 2024-03-27, from: The Signal
A wet winter is carrying into the spring, with the Santa Clarita Valley expected to stay dry during the week and then get another round of rain throughout the weekend. Even considering the rain the SCV has had this year, it’s a little unusual to get rain this late, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robbie […]
The post <strong>Forecast calls for rain, again, possible thunder</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/03/forecast-calls-for-rain-again-possible-thunder/
US Seeks to Seize Former Mongolian Prime Minister’s New York Apartments
date: 2024-03-27, from: VOA News USA
Remembering Simon Riggs
date: 2024-03-27, from: PostgreSQL News
The PostgreSQL Core Team is deeply saddened by the loss of our long-time friend and colleague Simon Riggs on the 26th of March, 2024.
Simon was responsible for many of the enterprise features we find in PostgreSQL today, including point in time recovery, hot standby, and synchronous replication. He was the founder of 2ndQuadrant which employed many of the PostgreSQL developers, later becoming part of EDB where he worked as a Postgres Fellow until his retirement. He was responsible for the UK PostgreSQL conferences for many years until he passed that responsibility to PostgreSQL Europe last year.
Simon’s last community contribution was the presentation of the keynote at PostgreSQL Conference Europe 2023 in Prague, which you can watch on YouTube.
Simon will be sorely missed by everyone that knew him, and the PostgreSQL Project offers its deepest sympathies to his family and friends at this time.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/remembering-simon-riggs-2830/