News gathered 2024-04-08
(date: 2024-04-08 08:11:43)
I co-wrote a book about the Virtual Boy for MIT Press
date: 2024-04-08, from: Vintage Computing
Platform Studies book from Zagal and Edwards launches May 14, 2024. Attention Virtual Boy fans! I co-wrote an MIT Press Platform Studies book called Seeing Red: Nintendo’s Virtual Boy with Dr. Jose Zagal for MIT Press, and it’s coming out May 14th of this year. You can pre-order it now on Amazon if you’re wild […]
Kia Wants To Step Up Its Hybrid And Plug-In Hybrid Game
date: 2024-04-08, from: Inside EVs News
The Korean automaker is not abandoning its all-electric vehicle plans but boosting its portfolio with more electrified models.
https://insideevs.com/news/715261/kia-hybrid-plug-in-hybrid-increase/
Jill On Money: What to do with your tax refund
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
But next year, think about keeping more of your money throughout the year
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/08/jill-on-money-what-to-do-with-your-tax-refund/
Big affordable housing project in San Jose could boost micro economy
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
The development of 700-plus affordable homes on a San Jose land site could spur an economic upswing locally.
Google is wrong to put AI search features behind paywall says HPC leader
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘A huge amount of responsibility to ensure that there is ethical management’
Interview You may have heard that Google is considering putting its latest AI search innovations behind a paywall, something that doesn’t sit well with Rosanne Kincaid-Smith, COO at German HPC firm Northern Data Group. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/google_search_paywall/
Watch This Dude Get Run Over By 376 Motorcycles And Set A World Record
date: 2024-04-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Add this to your list of pointless world records.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714880/pointless-world-record-video-motorcycles-run-over/
Here are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in April 2024
date: 2024-04-08, from: Electrek Feed
I’ve spent countless hours here at Electrek doing detailed hands-on testing of hundreds of electric bikes. Through thousands of miles of riding, I’ve learned these e-bikes inside and out, top to bottom and front to back. That dedication to real-world e-bike testing has helped me find the best electric bicycles on the market for just about any budget.
Below are some of the top e-bikes I’ve hand-tested for every price range, current as of April 2024. Spring is finally upon us (at least, here in the Northern Hemisphere) and riding season is gearing up! After an ultra-competitive e-bike selling year in 2023, we’re still seeing some great sales into early 2024. So check out the awesome e-bikes below, any one of which could become your next electric bike.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/here-are-the-best-electric-bikes-you-can-buy-at-every-price-level/
More space, bigger screens, and Ford power for next VW Transporter
date: 2024-04-08, from: Electrek Feed
Volkswagen first showed off a heavily camouflaged version of its next-generation Transporter van back in December – but new specs and interior pictures give us our best look at the new van until the wraps officially come off in September.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/more-space-bigger-screens-and-ford-power-for-next-vw-transporter/
Total solar eclipse inspires a special doughnut from Krispy Kreme
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
The doughnut chain’s promotion is tied to Monday’s rare celestial event that will temporarily darken much of the United States.
Puppies, kittens, data at risk after ‘cyber incident’ at veterinary giant
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
IT systems pulled offline for chance to paws and reflect
First, they came for hospitals, then it was charities and cancer centers. Now, cyber scumbags are coming for the puppies and kittens.…
Elon Musk talks Tesla Secret Plan Part 2, how it is going 8 years later
date: 2024-04-08, from: Electrek Feed
Elon Musk is back referencing his ‘Tesla Secret Master Plan Part 2’. Let’s take a look at how the execution is going 8 years later.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/elon-musk-tesla-secret-plan-part-2-how-going-8-years-later/
Hyundai US boss calls out the competition as the brand goes ‘all in’ on electric vehicles
date: 2024-04-08, from: Electrek Feed
As rivals including Ford and GM pull back, Hyundai is surging ahead in the US electric vehicle market. Hyundai’s US CEO, Randy Parker, is calling out the competition as the brand goes “all in” on EVs.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/hyundai-us-boss-calls-out-rivals-brand-goes-all-in-on-evs/
U.S.’ King Of Plug-In Hybrids Set Another PHEV Sales Record In Q1 2024
date: 2024-04-08, from: Inside EVs News
Stellantis’ PHEV sales almost doubled and its all-electric offensive is just around the corner.
https://insideevs.com/news/715209/stellantis-phev-sales-2024q1/
Butler Investments joins Atos rescue party
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Shares up 25% on the news
Shares in crisis-ridden French IT integrator Atos bounced by over 25 percent this morning as top shareholder Onepoint said it has a rescue plan involving investment firm Butler Industries.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/atos_rescue_plan/
Hatsune Miku Fans Furious Live Show Was Just a Flatscreen On Stage
date: 2024-04-08, from: 404 Media Group
The virtual pop idol did not appear in her full hologram form in two shows on her North American tour and fans are pissed.
https://www.404media.co/hatsune-miku-fans-furious-live-show-was-just-a-flatscreen-on-stage/
Wish You Were Here: Northern Lights and glacier hopping in Alaska
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Northern Lights and glacier hikes starred on this Alaska holiday.
Are hummingbird feeders to blame for two bird deaths in Palo Alto?
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Readers offer feedback and suggestions to recent columns about cats.
Renault and Volvo team up on next generation electric vans
date: 2024-04-08, from: Electrek Feed
The electric van market is heating up with new entries coming soon from Nissan, Mercedes, and even Kia – and now, even more players are getting into the market. A new JV between Volvo Trucks, Renault, and logistics provider CMA CGM promises a “revolutionary” new entry into the increasingly crowded field.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/08/renault-and-volvo-team-up-on-next-generation-electric-vans/
TasteFood: Let quinoa do the heavy lifting in this salad
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
This fast and easy recipe for Southwestern Quinoa Salad is packed with flavor.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/08/tastefood-let-quinoa-do-the-heavy-lifting-in-this-salad/
Travel Troubleshooter: Why won’t Airbnb cover my hotel expenses? They promised!
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
When David Tuttle’s Airbnb host moves him to a different rental, Airbnb offers to cover his hotel expenses, but a month has passed since. Where’s the money?
Alibaba Cloud slashes prices outside China
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Domestic customers saw their fees cut last January
Alibaba Cloud is cutting prices for international users of its core compute, storage, and database services, using offers similar to those it dangled before Chinese customers earlier this year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/alibaba_intl_price_cut/
The most spectacular new hotels in California, Hawaii and around the world
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Afar magazine’s list of top new hotels spans the globe, from the Kalahari Desert to Santa Barbara wine country
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/08/the-list-afars-top-new-hotels-around-the-world/
When college costs $100,000 a year
date: 2024-04-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
You may want to shield your eyes. No, we’re not talking about the solar eclipse — though please do wear the appropriate glasses. Today, we’re talking about eye-popping college costs. One such example? At Vanderbilt University, some students could see a sticker price of nearly $100,000 for the upcoming school year. Also on the show: President Joe Biden’s latest student loan forgiveness plan and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s “difficult conversations” in China.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/when-college-costs-100000-a-year
It’s Really a Very Bad Name
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/04/08/its-really-a-very-bad-name/
It’s Eclipse Day!
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: Jason Kittke’s blog
https://kottke.org/24/04/its-eclipse-day
to be a pilgrim
date: 2024-04-08, from: Ayjay blog
I’ve been teaching The Pilgrim’s Progress, something that always gives me great joy. I find it simply wonderful that so utterly bonkers a book was so omnipresent in English-language culture (and well beyond) for so long. You couldn’t avoid it, whether you loved it — as George Eliot’s Maggie Tulliver did, and lamented the sale […]
https://blog.ayjay.org/to-be-a-pilgrim/
Regretting coming to US, some illegal Chinese immigrants return home
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
Austin, Texas — Chinese migrants coming across the southern U.S. border say they made the treacherous journey to flee China’s authoritarian rule, to seek the American dream or escape growing political and economic uncertainty at home.
But the challenges do not end after they arrive, and some are deciding to return to China, while others have no choice.
Last April, Xia Yu arrived in the United States after traveling through more than 10 countries over a period of two months. Xia, a Chinese man in his 40s, asked to use a pseudonym so he could speak more freely with VOA Mandarin about his journey.
On his way to the U.S. border, he says, all his property was stolen, and his American dream did not come true: In immigration custody, he failed to pass the “credible fear interview” for asylum-seekers.
2023 surge
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, 52,700 Chinese immigrants arrived at U.S. borders without valid entry visas in fiscal 2023 — more than twice the number of just two years earlier. About half of them entered somewhere along the southern U.S. border where they were apprehended by Border Protection agents and sought asylum.
Individuals who pass the screening and establish that they have a credible reason to fear torture, persecution, or returning to their country, are allowed to stay in the U.S. to pursue their cases in immigration court.
Xia remained in the detention facility in the U.S. for months as he was processed for deportation, eventually landing at Shanghai Pudong Airport last August. Entering Chinese customs, he was fined $71 and had to sign a document admitting his crime of being deported after illegally entering another country. His passport was confiscated, and he was notified that he would be barred from leaving the country for three years.
The public security bureau in his hometown also questioned him about whom he encountered while on U.S. soil.
“They asked me to delete my foreign social media apps and foreign contacts,” he told VOA. “Then they told me not to contact these people because I would be deceived.”
Xia said he thinks his WeChat account is being monitored to prevent him from inciting others to emigrate illegally. He said spending tens of thousands of dollars without even staying in the U.S. is nothing to brag about, and that he’d rather not mention his experience again.
‘A full life at home’
At 33, Wang Zhongwei from China’s Anhui Province now lives in Los Angeles, where has become a vocal advocate for immigrants since entering the United States in May.
Many Chinese who have crossed the border or are attempting to do so reach out to him for advice. Wang tells VOA Mandarin that while most who make the journey across the border stay, there are those who return because of loneliness, deceit, or family pressure.
Wang’s friend, Liu Ming, from Sichuan Province, came to the United States in the second half of 2023. Liu, 31, first stayed in Los Angeles for a month or two and then moved to New York to find work. After a long wait, he found a job working for a Chinese boss, but the pay wasn’t good.
In January, Liu’s boss refused to pay him, so he had no choice but to call the police. After receiving his salary the following day, Liu immediately went to the airport, messaging Wang: “I’m at the airport now and about to go back to China. I don’t like it here. See you again if destiny has it.”
In March, when Wang contacted him again, he found that Liu had used the self-service kiosk when entering China and wasn’t even interviewed by government staff.
Within months, Liu had returned to a life in China much as he knew it before.
“I am now working in a restaurant in my hometown. I work eight hours and the food is super good,” he told Wang via WhatsApp. “I used to work 12 hours non-stop in a restaurant in the U.S., [where] I was bored and lonely … but I live a full life at home.
At one point, when he got sick in the U.S., he worried about dying in a foreign land. He also complained about not being able to meet women there.
“I don’t regret the trip to the U.S.,” Liu continued, allowing, however, that on getting sick he’d worried about dying in a foreign land, and that he’d found it difficult to meet women.
“What I saw in real life was different from what I saw online,” he concluded. “There are both good and bad things in America.”
Room for regret
Zhang Lin, who is in his 30s and asked to use an alias to protect his privacy, describes himself as a person of double regrets. He first regretted coming to the United States, and now he regrets returning to China.
Crossing the U.S. border, Zhang found a job as a massage therapist in Los Angeles because he had the training. There, he made about $150 a day, a substantial wage for an undocumented immigrant.
But after only a month he returned to China, where he now runs a foot spa in his hometown.
“There were so many things I wasn’t used to in the U.S., and I was lonely,” he said. “I felt very homesick, so I came back impulsively.”
When he went to the U.S., Zhang said, he’d hoped to make a lot of money and make his family the envy of his hometown neighbors.
But now, after returning to China, where he faced a 12-hour interrogation at customs but faced no penalties, he says he regrets his impulsive decision to return.
“Life in my hometown is really hopeless,” Zhang said, adding that he hopes to go to the U.S. illegally again. “When you go out, you realize that the outside world is different. Your mind is opened up.”
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Watch Live: 2024 total solar eclipse
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
California will get a partial eclipse Monday, but the total eclipse visible from Texas to Maine can be seen here online
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/08/watch-live-2024-total-solar-eclipse/
As development sprawls across the Bay Area, a 27-mile wilderness trail is a model for preserving open space
date: 2024-04-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
“It’s one of those places, I still remember, where you go for hours without seeing another soul. There’s no evidence of civilization in an area of 7.5 million people.”
How Amateur Performers Are Making Porn in the Apple Vision Pro
date: 2024-04-08, from: 404 Media Group
Damien and Diana Soft are making porn using Apple’s new VR device—and the headset stays on during sex.
https://www.404media.co/apple-vision-pro-porn/
E.C.D. Can Replace Clients’ Vehicles With An EV Powertrain
date: 2024-04-08, from: Inside EVs News
As the industry progresses towards cleaner forms of propulsion, electrifying classic cars might be a way to keep them relevant.
https://insideevs.com/news/714877/ecd-ev-platform/
Change Healthcare faces second ransomware dilemma weeks after ALPHV attack
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Theories abound over who’s truly responsible
Change Healthcare is allegedly being extorted by a second ransomware gang, mere weeks after recovering from an ALPHV attack.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/change_healthcare_ransomware/
Recall: 2023-2024 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-4R, ZX-4RR Could Have Spark Plug Damage
date: 2024-04-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Bikes with damaged spark plugs could have unstable idles and even possible engine stalling unless the problem is remedied.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714689/kawasaki-zx4r-zx4rr-sparkplug-recall/
Microsoft adds driver to Windows that prevents changing the default browser using the registry
date: 2024-04-08, from: OS News
There are various ways you can change the default browser and similar defaults on Windows, but oneof the ways many third-party tools do this is by editing the relevant registry strings. It turns out that Microsoft is not particularly happy with this, as they’ve recently introduced a new driver specifically designed to prevent this from happening, by blocking tools like regedit or PowerShell from editing a number of registry keys for setting default applications. The driver was discovered by Christoph Kolbicz. Microsoft implemented a driver based protection to block changes to http/https and .pdf associations by 3rd party utilities. The rollout was staggered and activated “randomly”, but in the meantime I got many reports – also from business or education environments (but not Server OS). Microsoft also updated the driver during my tests (from 2.0 to 2.1) and extended the deny list of executables. This means, they can change the behavior almost on the fly and add new tricks or block additional extensions/protocols! ↫ Christoph Kolbicz Digging further into what, exactly, this driver can do, Microsoft also made it so that even if you disable the driver, an additional scheduled task will run to re-enable the driver and revert the registry changes. It also seems this is somehow related to the changes Microsoft has to make to comply with the EU’s DMA, but the driver is also installed on systems outside of the EU, so it’s all a bit unclear at the moment.
Just how much faster are the GNOME 46 terminals?
date: 2024-04-08, from: OS News
Over the GNOME 46 cycle, VTE has seen a lot of performance improvements. Christian Hergert mentioned some of them in his blog posts about VTE and about his work in GNOME 46. But how much did the performance actually improve? What should you, the user, expect to feel after installing a fresh Fedora 40 update and launching your favorite terminal? Let’s measure and find out! ↫ Ivan Molodetskikh The short version is that the improvements are definitely noticeable during genera use – for the long version, read the actual article.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139192/just-how-much-faster-are-the-gnome-46-terminals/
What Electricity Providers Can Learn From the Eclipse
date: 2024-04-08, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Wildfire season has started one month early in Greece • A Russian oil refinery in Orsk paused operations after torrential rains caused a dam to burst • It will be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy in Glendale, Arizona, for the men’s NCAA basketball championship game between Purdue and UConn.
THE TOP FIVE
- Solar eclipse will offer power providers a ‘test run’
Happy eclipse day! The moon will block out the sun’s light for up to four minutes in some areas across the U.S. this afternoon. Millions have flocked to cities along the eclipse’s “path of totality,” which arcs diagonally across continental North America from Mexico’s Pacific coast up through eastern Canada, touching 15 states along the way. The eclipse is “offering power providers a test run for unpredictable sun-blocking events, such as winter storms and wildfire smoke so thick it blankets the sky,” Politico reported. Texas, for example, could lose more than 90% of its solar capacity during the celestial event. But customers are unlikely to have any problems with their electricity as a result.
Eclipse
cloud cover forecast.
NWS
Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking great for spectators. Most regions are expected to have at least some cloud cover. “Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Mainee. “At the very least, it won’t snow.”
- European human rights court to issue precedent-setting climate
rulings
The European Court of Human Rights will issue rulings on three major climate cases this week. “The verdicts will set a precedent for future litigation on how rising temperatures affect people’s right to a liveable planet,” reported Reuters. In all three cases, the plaintiffs claim governments breached their human rights by not protecting them from the damaging health effects of climate change. The three cases are all quite different: One involves a group of young people from Portugal, another is from older Swiss women, and the third involves a former French mayor. But “we all are trying to achieve the same goal,” said 23-year-old Catarina Mota, one of the Portuguese youths. “A win in any one of the three cases will be a win for everyone.” A ruling against even one government could put added pressure on all European countries to reconsider their emissions reductions schedules, and pave the way for similar cases.
- Greta Thunberg arrested in The Hague
Greta Thunberg was detained again over the weekend. The 21-year-old climate activist joined about 100 people from Extinction Rebellion in blocking a highway in The Hague to protest fossil fuel subsidies. Dutch police lifted Thunberg from her seated position on the ground and dragged her to a bus. Photos circulating from the arrest show her grimacing while being carried away, but Thunberg described the arrest as “peaceful.” Thunberg was arrested in London last year for blocking the entrance of a hotel. In February a judge found her not guilty of breaking the law in that case, and said the police had imposed “unclear” and “unlawful” conditions on protesters.
- Tesla wrongful death suit heads to trial
A wrongful death lawsuit involving Tesla’s Autopilot system goes to trial tomorrow. The jury will have to decide who is at fault for a 2018 crash that occurred while the driver, Walter Huang, was using the driver-assistance technology in his Tesla Model X. Huang died in the crash, and his family says the Autopilot feature was not safe and that Tesla oversold it in marketing materials. Tesla insists Huang is at fault for the crash because he was playing a video game. “If the Huangs prevail, the suit could represent a major financial liability for Tesla, potentially spurring additional cases that seek notable awards,” reported The Wall Street Journal. The ruling could also have ramifications for Tesla’s planned robotaxis, which would likely rely on Autopilot and Full Self-Driving tech. The company plans to unveil its robotaxi on August 8.
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- New ‘Elmer’ book will focus on climate change
The creator of the iconic children’s book character Elmer the patchwork elephant was working on an Elmer book about climate change before he died in 2022. Author David McKee left behind an early manuscript and sketches of his book “Elmer + White Bear,” in which Elmer meets a polar bear that has floated to the jungle a melting piece of ice. “I love where I live,” the bear says, explaining that global warming is making the world warmer and caused him to become lost in the jungle.
Before he died, McKee talked with his publisher about writing a book that helped parents talk to their kids about the climate crisis. “So many people have wanted to use Elmer as a mascot,” said McKee’s son, Chuck. “He never wanted that to happen, because Elmer belongs to everybody. So the idea of doing something, of making a statement with Elmer about climate change, was a first for him.”
Elmer and the White Bear will be published by Andersen Press next year.
THE KICKER
“A surge in earthquakes should be the absolute least of your worries when it comes to the warming planet.” –Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo investigates whether climate change causes earthquakes
https://heatmap.news/culture/eclipse-solar-power-electricity
Engine cover flies from Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 during takeoff
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
FAA investigation set to examine failure after aircraft fire in Texas last week
The engine cover on a Boeing 737-800 used by Southwest Airlines detached during takeoff from Denver on Sunday, prompting an investigation by aviation regulators.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/engine_cowling_boeing/
Biden administration announces $6.6 billion to ensure leading-edge microchips are built in US
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Biden administration pledged on Monday to provide up to $6.6 billion so that a Taiwanese semiconductor giant can expand the facilities it is already building in Arizona and better ensure that the most-advanced microchips are produced domestically for the first time.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the funding for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. means the company can expand on its existing plans for two facilities in Phoenix and add a third, newly announced production hub.
“These are the chips that underpin all artificial intelligence, and they are the chips that are the necessary components for the technologies that we need to underpin our economy,” Raimondo said on a call with reporters, adding that they were vital to the “21st century military and national security apparatus.”
The funding is tied to a sweeping 2022 law that President Joe Biden has celebrated and which is designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Known as the CHIPS and Science Act, the $280 billion package is aimed at sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and manufacturing while minimizing the kinds of supply disruptions that occurred in 2021, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when a shortage of chips stalled factory assembly lines and fueled inflation.
The Biden administration has promised tens of billions of dollars to support construction of U.S. chip foundries and reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, which Washington sees as a security weakness.
“Semiconductors – those tiny chips smaller than the tip of your finger – power everything from smartphones to cars to satellites and weapons systems,” Biden said in a statement. “TSMC’s renewed commitment to the United States, and its investment in Arizona represent a broader story for semiconductor manufacturing that’s made in America and with the strong support of America’s leading technology firms to build the products we rely on every day.”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. produces nearly all of the leading-edge microchips in the world and plans to eventually do so in the U.S.
It began construction of its first facility in Phoenix in 2021, and started work on a second hub last year, with the company increasing its total investment in both projects to $40 billion. The third facility should be producing microchips by the end of the decade and will see the company’s commitment increase to a total of $65 billion, Raimondo said.
The investments would put the U.S. on track to produce roughly 20% of the world’s leading-edge chips by 2030, and Raimondo said they should help create 6,000 manufacturing jobs and 20,000 construction jobs, as well as thousands of new positions more indirectly tied to assorted suppliers in chip-related industries tied to Arizona projects.
The potential incentives announced Monday include $50 million to help train the workforce in Arizona to be better equipped to work in the new facilities. Additionally, approximately $5 billion of proposed loans would be available through the CHIPS and Science Act.
“TSMC’s commitment to manufacture leading-edge chips in Arizona marks a new chapter for America’s semiconductor industry,” Lael Brainard, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters.
The announcement came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is traveling in China. Senior administration officials were asked on the call with reporters if the Biden administration gave China a head’s up on the coming investment, given the delicate geopolitics surrounding Taiwan. The officials said only that their focus in making Monday’s announcement was solely on advancing U.S. manufacturing.
“We are thrilled by the progress of our Arizona site to date,” C.C. Wei, CEO of TSMC, said in a statement, “And are committed to its long-term success.”
Yellen says US will not accept Chinese imports decimating new industries
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned China on Monday that Washington will not accept new industries being decimated by Chinese imports as she wrapped up four days of meetings to press her case for Beijing to rein in excess industrial capacity.
Yellen told a media conference that U.S. President Joe Biden would not allow a repeat of the “China shock” of the early 2000s, when a flood of Chinese imports destroyed about 2 million American manufacturing jobs.
She did not, however, threaten new tariffs or other trade actions should Beijing continue its massive state support for electric vehicles, batteries, solar panels and other green energy goods.
Yellen used her second trip to China in nine months to complain that China’s overinvestment has built factory capacity far exceeding domestic demand, while fast-growing exports of these products threaten firms in the U.S. and other countries.
She said a newly created exchange forum to discuss the excess capacity issue would need time to reach solutions.
Yellen drew parallels to the pain felt in the U.S. steel sector in the past.
“We’ve seen this story before,” she told reporters. “Over a decade ago, massive PRC government support led to below-cost Chinese steel that flooded the global market and decimated industries across the world and in the United States.”
Yellen added: “I’ve made it clear that President Biden and I will not accept that reality again.”
When the global market is flooded with artificially cheap Chinese products, she said, “the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question.”
Yellen said her exchanges with Chinese officials had advanced American interests and that U.S. concerns over excess industrial capacity were shared by allies in Europe, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and other emerging markets.
Pushback
China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, said in March the government would take steps to curb industrial overcapacity.
But Beijing says the recent focus by the United States and Europe on the risks to other economies from China’s excess capacity is misguided.
Chinese officials say the criticism understates innovation by their companies in key industries and overstates the importance of state support in driving their growth.
They also say tariffs or other trade curbs will deprive global consumers of green energy alternatives key to meeting global climate goals.
Trade curbs on Chinese electric vehicles would be disruptive to a growing industry and contravene World Trade Organization rules, the industry and information technology ministry said in a statement carried by state media CCTV and China Daily.
The ministry added that it was committed to support EV exports and would help “accelerate the overseas development” of the industry including planning for shipping and logistics and support for firms to innovate and meet global standards.
State news agency Xinhua quoted Li as saying the U.S. should “refrain from turning economic and trade issues into political or security issues” and view the topic of production capacity from a “market-oriented and global perspective.”
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao voiced more pointed objections during a roundtable meeting with Chinese EV makers in Paris, saying U.S. and European assertions of Chinese excess EV capacity were groundless.
Rather than subsidies, China’s electric vehicle companies rely on continuous technological innovation, perfect production and supply chain systems and full market competition, Wang said on his trip to discuss a European Union anti-subsidy inquiry.
Yellen said a possible short-term solution was for China to take steps to bolster consumer demand with support for households and retirement, and shift its growth model away from supply-side investments.
Yellen spoke about the issue at length with Premier Li Qiang and also met Finance Minister Lan Foan on Sunday. She met People’s Bank of China (PBOC) governor Pan Gongsheng and former vice premier Liu He on Monday.
In a CNBC interview after the meetings, Yellen said she was “not thinking so much” about trade curbs on China, as much as shifts in its macroeconomic environment. But she reiterated she would notrule out tariffs.
Dark Energy Could Be Evolving Over Time, Raising Questions About the Nature of the Cosmos
date: 2024-04-08, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The largest 3D map of the universe ever made hints that dark energy might not be a constant, though the findings must be backed up with more data
Women pay more for health care. It adds up.
date: 2024-04-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
According to a Deloitte study, employed women pay $15 billion more each year for out-of-pocket health care than men do. We’ll unpack the reasons why and the toll these extravagant costs can take. In other health news, federal officials are taking a closer look at the role of private equity in health care. Also, two lawmakers on Capitol Hill have proposed national standards on data privacy. We’ll discuss.
Brazil judge launches Musk inquiry
date: 2024-04-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: A Supreme Court judge in Brazil has launched an investigation into Elon Musk after he said he’ll defy a court order to block certain accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter. Also on the program: A chip giant looks to build a factory in Arizona, we take a closer look at seller fees on eBay, and small business owners react to TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/brazil-judge-launches-musk-inquiry
Security Vulnerability of HTML Emails
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-05, from: Bruce Schneier blog
This is a newly discovered email vulnerability:
The email your manager received and forwarded to you was something completely innocent, such as a potential customer asking a few questions. All that email was supposed to achieve was being forwarded to you. However, the moment the email appeared in your inbox, it changed. The innocent pretext disappeared and the real phishing email became visible. A phishing email you had to trust because you knew the sender and they even confirmed that they had forwarded it to you.
This attack is possible because most email clients allow CSS to be used to style HTML emails. When an email is forwarded, the position of the original email in the DOM usually changes, allowing for CSS rules to be selectively applied only when an email has been forwarded…
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/04/security-vulnerability-of-html-emails.html
A cheeky intern nearly turned MS-DOS into NSFW-DOS
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Easter egg in test build could have scrambled Microsoft’s reputation
More than 30 years before the xz backdoor became the near disaster of the week, an intern tried to sneak some unexpected code into MS-DOS. Not a backdoor, but potentially a bit silly.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/ms_dos_easter_egg/
Is The Yadea Kemper RC The Electric Sportbike We’ve Been Waiting For?
date: 2024-04-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It’s built atop Yadea’s Kemper electric naked bike platform.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714878/yadea-kemper-rc-electric-sportbike/
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W revives iconic red telephone | #MagPiMonday
date: 2024-04-08, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Dial M for Miles – Rob Miles to be exact. And when you do, don’t be surprised if he answers you on an iconic 20th century landline phone
The post Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W revives iconic red telephone | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-revives-iconic-red-telephone-magpimonday/
Huge crowds await a total solar eclipse in North America
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
MESQUITE, Texas — Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the U.S. to Canada eagerly awaited Monday’s celestial sensation — a total eclipse of the sun — even as forecasters called for clouds.
The best weather was expected at the tail end of the eclipse in Vermont and Maine, as well as New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.
“Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Maines explained at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Science Center on Sunday. “At the very least, it won’t snow.”
The cliff-hanging uncertainty added to the drama. Rain or shine, “it’s just about sharing the experience with other people,” said Chris Lomas from Gotham, England, who was staying at a sold-out trailer resort outside Dallas, the biggest city in totality’s path.
For Monday’s full eclipse, the moon was due to slip right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun’s outer atmosphere or corona visible, would be long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars and maybe even a comet to pop out.
The out-of-sync darkness lasts up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That’s almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.
Extending five hours from the first bite out of the sun to the last, Monday’s eclipse begins in the Pacific and makes landfall at Mazatlan, Mexico, before moving into Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and 12 other U.S. states in the Midwest, Middle Atlantic and New England, and then Canada. Last stop: Newfoundland, with the eclipse ending in the North Atlantic.
It will take just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon’s shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent.
Eye protection is needed with proper eclipse glasses and filters to look at the sun, except when it ducks completely out of sight during an eclipse.
The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers). Add in all the eclipse chasers, amateur astronomers, scientists and just plain curious, and it’s no wonder the hotels and flights are sold out and the roads jammed.
Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station’s seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.
What happened to agility and new business models? Cloud benefits have all gone to IT
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Orgs are missing a trick when it comes to the white fluffy stuff, survey says
The migration of IT workloads to the cloud is benefiting tech departments rather than the wider business, according to a McKinsey survey.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/cloud_mckinsey_survey/
Tele2 secure collaboration hub for public sector keeps Swedish data in Sweden
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Data sovereignty is eftersökt these days
A Swedish telco has rolled a collaboration platform for public sector organizations worried about sensitive data leaving Sweden.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/tele2_collaborate/
Alexey Morozov pushed to project branch main at Felix Oliver Friedrich / Ober…
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: Oberon A2 at CAS
Alexey Morozov (4871f64c) at 08 Apr 11:05
make entry and exit code sections reachable for referenced dependen…
https://gitlab.inf.ethz.ch/felixf/oberon/-/commit/4871f64cbb1bbab6c04a2eb1c4884888825939d3
Insights into students’ attitudes to using AI tools in programming education
date: 2024-04-08, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Educators around the world are grappling with the problem of whether to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom. As more and more teachers start exploring the ways to use these tools for teaching and learning computing, there is an urgent need to understand the impact of their use to make sure they do…
The post Insights into students’ attitudes to using AI tools in programming education appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Cloud vendor lock-in is shocking, but there’s a get out of jail card
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
We’ve done it once, we can do it again
Opinion The Sleepwalking Into Disaster klaxon is echoing through the corridors of power. Again. This time, the corridors are British and the klaxonner is the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital & Data Office.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/cloud_vendor_opinion_column/
The Total Eclipse of Donald Trump
date: 2024-04-08, from: Robert Reich on Substack
The cons will end, inevitably
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-full-eclipse-of-donald-trump
Windows 95 support chap skipped a step and sent user into Micro-hell
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Every byte, and executable, counted when trying to fix Redmond’s finest
Who, Me? Greetings, gentle reader, and welcome once again to Who, Me? in which Reg readers like yourself try to make each Monday a little less manic by sharing tales of foible and fallibility.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/who_me/
Where Nursing Homes Hide Their Profits
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Lever News
While industry leaders plead poverty to fight a proposed staffing standard, private equity owners are funneling cash into their affiliated real estate and management firms.
https://www.levernews.com/where-nursing-homes-hide-their-profits/
Classifieds – April 8, 2024
date: 2024-04-08, 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 – April 8, 2024 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/classifieds-april-8-2024/
Today in SCV History (April 8)
date: 2024-04-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1874 – Work completed at Lyon’s Station (now Eternal Valley) on first version of Pioneer Oil Refinery. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-april-8/
Folt’s campus is changing, and students are left behind
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Despite the University’s growth since major scandals, many students feel that it’s abandoning an essential part of its architectural identity.
The post Folt’s campus is changing, and students are left behind appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/folts-campus-is-changing-and-students-are-left-behind/
How one relationship reignited USC women’s basketball
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Guard McKenzie Forbes has played with Lindsay Gottlieb at two schools.
The post How one relationship reignited USC women’s basketball appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/how-one-relationship-reignited-usc-womens-basketball/
Native American Student Assembly celebrates past and future with second annual Popup Powwow
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Attendees gathered to dance and reconnect with their Native American heritage.
The post Native American Student Assembly celebrates past and future with second annual Popup Powwow appeared first on Daily Trojan.
Film festival celebrates student artistry
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Cinema and media studies students gathered at the Norris Cinema Theatre.
The post Film festival celebrates student artistry appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/film-festival-celerbrates-student-artistry/
Attendees vocalize frustration over USC links to fossil fuel industry at research forum
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Participants questioned the ethics of fossil fuel funding during the heated panel.
The post Attendees vocalize frustration over USC links to fossil fuel industry at research forum appeared first on Daily Trojan.
The future of women’s basketball, today
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
A star-studded McDonald’s All-American game featured three future Trojan players.
The post The future of women’s basketball, today appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/the-future-of-womens-basketball-today/
‘Monkey Man’ offers great action but poor writing
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Dev Patel’s feature-length screenwriting and directorial debut disappoints, failing to tie loose ends.
The post ‘Monkey Man’ offers great action but poor writing appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/monkey-man-offers-great-action-but-poor-writing/
JuJu’s freshman season highlights USC history
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Trojan legends lie behind the numerous USC records Watkins broke this season.
The post JuJu’s freshman season highlights USC history appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/08/jujus-freshman-season-highlights-usc-history/
April 7, 2024
date: 2024-04-08, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
In August 1870 a U.S. exploring expedition headed out from Montana toward the Yellowstone River into land the U.S. government had recognized as belonging to different Indigenous tribes. By October the men had reached the Yellowstone, where they reported they had “found abundance of game and trout, hot springs of five or six different kinds…basaltic columns of enormous size” and a waterfall that must, they wrote, “be in form, color and surroundings one of the most glorious objects on the American Continent.” On the strength of their widely reprinted reports, the secretary of the interior sent out an official surveying team under geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden. With it went photographer William Henry Jackson and fine artist Thomas Moran.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-7-2024-sunday
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Jerry Grote, Mets Catcher for 1969 World Series, Dies at 81.
Head of Israeli cyber spy unit exposed … by his own privacy mistake
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
PLUS: Another local government hobbled by ransomware; Huge rise in infostealing malware; and critical vulns
In Brief Protecting your privacy online is hard. So hard, in fact, that even a top Israeli spy who managed to stay incognito for 20 years has found himself exposed after one basic error.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/infosec_news_roundup/
Trump rejects national abortion ban, says up to states to decide
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-says-he-will-disclose-abortion-policy-on-monday/7560875.html
Biden to talk student debt relief in Wisconsin after primary voting delivers warning signs
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is traveling to Wisconsin to announce details of a new plan to ease student loan debt for millions, a trip that comes a week after primary voting in the Midwest battleground highlighted weaknesses for the Democratic president and Donald Trump, his Republican challenger.
Biden is slated to make the announcement Monday in Madison, the state’s liberal capital and home of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship campus.
The new federal rule paving the way for student debt relief is not expected to be issued by the time the president speaks, but Biden plans to highlight a plan the Department of Education started working on after the U.S. Supreme Court last year foiled his first attempt to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.
Immediately after the court said Biden needed Congress to approve his original plan, the president said the decision was a “mistake” and “wrong” and announced that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona would undertake a new process using his authority under the Higher Education Act to waive or compromise student loan debt in specific cases.
A fresh announcement on student loan relief, an important issue for younger voters, could help energize parts of Biden’s political coalition that have become disillusioned by his job performance. These are people whose support the president will need to defeat Trump in November.
In Wisconsin’s primary elections on April 2, nearly 119,000 Republicans voted for a GOP candidate other than Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee. And more than 48,000 Democratic voters chose “uninstructed” instead of Biden, more than double Biden’s narrow margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2020.
Nearly 15% of Democrats in Dane County, home to the University of Wisconsin and Madison, voted “uninstructed.” That is nearly double the statewide total of 8%.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who represents Madison in Congress, said he was struck that concerns about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza were top of mind among voters at five town halls over the past two weeks in more rural parts of his district.
“I was surprised to see the intensity on the issue of Gaza coming not from a student voice out of Madison, but older voters in more rural parts of the district,” Pocan said.
Pocan said the number of “uninstructed” votes shows the concern in Wisconsin and that Biden needs to address it. He said he planned to talk directly with Biden about it on Monday.
“I just want to make sure he knows that if we’re going to have a problem, that could be the problem in Wisconsin,” Pocan said.
Biden’s new plan would expand federal student loan relief to new yet-targeted categories of borrowers through the Higher Education Act, which administration officials believe puts it on a stronger legal footing than the sweeping proposal that was killed by a 6-3 court majority last year.
The plan is expected to be smaller and more targeted than his original plan, which would have canceled up to $20,000 in loans for more than 40 million borrowers.
The department laid out five categories of borrowers who would be eligible to get some or all of their federal loans canceled. The plan is focused on helping those with the greatest need, including many who might otherwise never repay their loans.
Among those targeted for help are people whose unpaid interest has snowballed beyond the size of the original loan. The proposal would reset their balances back to the initial amount by erasing up to $10,000 or $20,000 in interest, depending on their income.
Borrowers paying down their student loans for decades would get all remaining debt erased under the plan. Loans used for a borrower’s undergraduate education would be canceled if they had been in repayment for at least 20 years. For other types of federal loans, it’s 25 years.
The plan would automatically cancel loans for those who were in for-profit college programs deemed “low-value.” Borrowers would be eligible for cancellation if, while they attended the college, the average federal student loan payment among graduates was too high in relation to their average salary.
Those who are eligible for other types of cancellation but haven’t applied would automatically get relief. It would apply to Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Borrower Defense to Repayment, programs that have been around for years but require infamously difficult paperwork.
Under pressure from advocates, the department also added a category for those facing “hardship.” It would offer cancellation to borrowers considered highly likely to be in default within two years. Additional borrowers would be eligible for relief under a wide-ranging definition of financial hardship.
A series of hearings to craft the rule wrapped up in February, and the draft is now under review. Before it can be finalized, the Education Department will need to issue a formal proposal and open it to a public comment period.
The latest attempt at cancellation joins other targeted initiatives, including those aimed at public service workers and low-income borrowers. Through those efforts, the Biden administration says it has canceled $144 billion in student loans for almost 4 million Americans.
Use of India’s CBDC declines, but central bank presses ahead
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Work to make the digital rupee programmable has begun
India’s Reserve Bank deputy governor has revealed that transaction volumes using the nation’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) have trended downwards since December 2023 – and may even have been inflated by one-off uses of the currency.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/india_cbdc_decline/
A Family-Friendly Quick Trip to Temecula Valley
date: 2024-04-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Outdoor activities and culinary indulgences make this SoCal spot a good pick for the whole family — pups included.
The post A Family-Friendly Quick Trip to Temecula Valley appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/07/a-family-friendly-quick-trip-to-temecula-valley/
Cloud Software Group and Microsoft pledge another eight years of co-opetition
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Consortium will spend $1.65 billion on Azure, 365 – and of course some AI
Cloud Software Group (CSG) and Microsoft have renewed their alliance for another eight years, this time with a $1.65 billion commitment for the Group to use Redmond’s cloud, productivity tools, and AI.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/csg_citrix_azure_partnership/
Santa Barbara Sky Football Club Held Up
date: 2024-04-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Inaugural Santa Barbara Sky Season delayed until 2025
The post Santa Barbara Sky Football Club Held Up appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/07/santa-barbara-sky-football-club-held-up/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Great map of Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 Apr 08. I've been looking for this for weeks. I still wasn't going to drive to see the eclipse. I've seen a total eclipse. Imho its not magical. We have an eclipse every night at sunset. YMMV of course.
https://www.eclipsewise.com/solar/SEgmapx/2001-2100/SE2024Apr08Tgmapx.html
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Back in the day, many of the early writing tools were called Word-something. WordStar, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect.
http://scripting.com/2024/04/07.html#a035119
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I wrote four posts on micro.blog just before midnight. Probably some of the ideas will appare on Scripting News before too long.
http://scripting.com/2024/04/07.html#a034329
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The new science of death: ‘There’s something happening in the brain that makes no sense.’
Naver debuts multilingual HyperCLOVA X LLM it will use to build sovereign AI for Asia
date: 2024-04-08, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Because English isn’t the only language
Korean web giant Naver last week debuted a family of large language models named HyperCLOVA X, which it claimed perform better at cross-lingual reasoning in Asian languages than other models – and may therefore help the region to develop sovereign large language models.…
Different kinds of networks
date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
Somewhat-related notes about different kinds of networks, ActivityPub and RSS, various twitter-like systems, as the social web spreads out and tries out new ideas.
-
With
ActivityPub you know who’s following you and in RSS you don’t. This may
sound like a negative until you think about it from the user’s
standpoint: no spam, spyware, etc. Which is probably why Google didn’t
like RSS btw.
- It has been pointed out that some level of spying happens based on IP address, and I can testify to that, I get podcasts with ads for a local supermarket, kind of spooky but I guess ok. I can’t recall ever receiving spam as a result of subscribing to a feed, and I never get messages from them when I unsub begging me to come back. So it isn’t a huge problem in a real way at least for me, yet.
- I block spammers. In twitter-like systems, like Mastodon, spam means you attached a post to my post that is in no way responsive to it. You’re just trying to coast on the flow generated by other posts. I don’t abide that. Have a nice day.
http://scripting.com/2024/04/07/024505.html?title=differentKindsOfNetworks
Man arrested following domestic dispute in Castaic
date: 2024-04-08, from: The Signal
A man was arrested after a domestic dispute Sunday afternoon on Castaic Road, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. “The caller called at approximately 4:10 p.m., and we arrived at 4:18 p.m.,” said Deputy Adolfo Gonzalez. “Female adult called, stated she was assaulted by male adult. Male adult was arrested.” Any injuries sustained […]
The post Man arrested following domestic dispute in Castaic appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/man-arrested-following-domestic-dispute-in-castaic/
Daily EV Recap: Tesla Robotaxi unveiling & Lithium free batteries
date: 2024-04-08, 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/2024/04/07/daily-ev-recap-tesla-robotaxi-unveiling-lithium-free-batteries/
South Carolina finishes perfect season with NCAA championship, beating Iowa, 87-75
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
CLEVELAND — Kamilla Cardoso delivered once again for Dawn Staley and South Carolina.
A perfect finish. A dynasty. A team too big for Caitlin Clark and Iowa this time around.
Cardoso had 15 points and a career-high 17 rebounds, and South Carolina completed its perfect season with an 87-75 victory over Clark and the Hawkeyes in the NCAA championship game on Sunday.
With Staley directing a relentless attack from the sideline, the Gamecocks (38-0) became the 10th Division I team to go through a season without a loss. And they accomplished the feat after they lost all five starters from last season’s team that lost to Clark’s squad in the national semifinals.
“When young people lock in and have a belief, and have a trust, and their parents have that same trust, this is what can happen,” Staley said. “They made history. They etched their names in the history books.”
Clark did all she could to lead the Hawkeyes to their first championship. She scored 30 points, including a championship-record 18 in the first quarter. She rewrote the record book at Iowa (34-5), finishing as the career leading scorer in NCAA Division I history with 3,951 points.
She hopes her legacy isn’t defined by falling short in two NCAA championship games, but more by the millions of new fans she helped bring into the game and the countless young girls and boys that she inspired.
“I think the biggest thing is it’s really hard to win these things, I think I know that better than most people by now, to be so close twice really hurts,” Clark said.
As the final buzzer sounded, a stoic Clark walked off the court, through the confetti, and into the tunnel heading to the locker room.
“I personally want to thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport,” Staley said. “She’s going to lift that league (WNBA) up as well. Caitlin Clark if you’re out there, you’re one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”
South Carolina has won three titles in the last eight years, including two of the past three, to lay claim to being the latest dynasty in women’s basketball. Staley became the fifth coach to win at least three national championships, joining Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Tara VanDerveer.
The Gamecocks, who have won 109 of their last 112 games, became the first team since UConn in 2016 to go undefeated. South Carolina had a couple scares throughout the season, but always found a way to win.
With most of the team returning next year, Staley’s team is in a good position to keep this run going.
“This team, we’re going to be good. Coach Staley, we have the best coach, what, in the country, in the nation, in the whole wide world?” Raven Johnson said. “It’s no telling what she’s going to add to the pieces that’s already here. I just say be on the lookout.”
Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 19 points. Cardoso, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, also blocked three shots.
“Kamilla Cardoso was not going to let us lose a game in the NCAA Tournament,” Staley said. “She played through an injury, she played like one of the top picks in the WNBA draft, and her teammates did something that no teammates have done for somebody who went to the WNBA in our program. They send her off as a national champion. So this is history for us.”
Led by the 6-foot-7 Cardoso and Ashlyn Watkins, South Carolina enjoyed a 51-29 rebounding advantage. It also finished with 30 second-chance points.
The Gamecocks also showed off their impressive depth. Tessa Johnson helped the team to a 37-0 difference in points by reserves.
South Carolina trailed 46-44 late in the second quarter before going on an 11-0 run spanning halftime to open a 55-46 advantage early in the third quarter. Clark finally ended the run with a layup.
The Hawkeyes closed to 59-55 and had a chance to get even closer, but Hannah Stuelke missed a wide-open layup on a brilliant pass from Clark.
South Carolina responded with the next eight points, including two 3-pointers. The Gamecocks, who were 4 for 20 from behind the 3-point line during last season’s Final Four loss to Iowa, went 8 for 19 from deep against the Hawkeyes in the victory.
Iowa was down 80-75 after a three-point play by Sydney Affolter with 4:12 left. But the Hawkeyes were shut out the rest of the way.
Clark checked out with 20 seconds left when Iowa coach Lisa Bluder subbed in fellow senior Molly Davis, who hadn’t played since she got hurt in the regular-season finale against Ohio State.
Unlike the semifinals, when Clark struggled against UConn’s defense, she got going early against South Carolina. Clark scored 13 straight points, including another logo 3, for Iowa as the Hawkeyes were up 11 early. South Carolina cut it to 22-20 with 1:30 left in the period before Clark scored the final five points, including a 3-pointer over Cardoso.
Clark’s 18 points in the opening quarter set a championship game record, surpassing the 16 that Jasmine Carson of LSU had last year against the Hawkeyes.
The Gamecocks trailed 46-44 in the final minute when Te-Hina PaoPao hit a 3-pointer and Raven Johnson stole the ball from Clark near midcourt and went in for a layup. South Carolina led 49-46 at the half.
fend - an arbitrary-precision unit-aware calculator
date: 2024-04-08, from: Tilde.news
https://printfn.github.io/fend/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Why is the Press Making Trump Seem More Normal?
Southwest Boeing 737-800 loses engine cover, prompts FAA probe
date: 2024-04-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — An engine cover on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 fell off Sunday during takeoff in Denver and struck the wing flap, prompting the U.S. FAA to open an investigation.
No one was injured and Southwest Flight 3695 returned safely to Denver International Airport around 8:15 a.m. local time Sunday and was towed to the gate after losing the engine cowling.
The Boeing aircraft bound for Houston Hobby airport with 135 passengers and six crew members aboard rose to an elevation of about 3,140 meters (10,300 feet) before returning 25 minutes after takeoff.
Passengers arrived in Houston on another Southwest plane about four hours behind schedule. Southwest said maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft.
The plane entered service in June 2015, according to FAA records. Boeing referred questions to Southwest.
The airline declined to say when the plane’s engine last had maintenance.
ABC News aired a video posted on social media platform X of the ripped engine cover flapping in the wind with a torn Southwest logo.
Boeing has come under intense criticism since a door plug panel tore off a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet at about 4.88 kilometers (16,000 feet) on Jan. 5.
In the aftermath of that incident, the FAA grounded the MAX 9 for several weeks, barred Boeing from increasing the MAX production rate and ordered it to develop a comprehensive plan to address “systemic quality-control issues” within 90 days.
Boeing production has fallen below the maximum 38 MAX planes per month the FAA is allowing. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the MAX 9 incident.
The 737-800 is in the prior generation of the best-selling 737 known as the 737 NG, which in turn was replaced by the 737 MAX.
The FAA is investigating several other recent Southwest Boeing engine issues.
A Southwest 737 flight aborted takeoff Thursday and taxied back to the gate at Lubbock airport in Texas after the crew reported engine issues. The FAA is also investigating a March 25 Southwest 737 flight that returned to the Austin airport in Texas after the crew reported a possible engine issue.
A March 22 Southwest 737-800 flight returned to Fort Lauderdale airport after the crew reported an engine issue. It is also being reviewed by the FAA.
https://www.voanews.com/a/southwest-boeing-737-800-loses-engine-cover-prompts-faa-probe/7560804.html
“No way to prevent this” say users of only language where this regularly happens
date: 2024-04-08, from: Ze Iaso’s blog
https://xeiaso.net/shitposts/no-way-to-prevent-this/CVE-2024-2511/
Wipro appoints new CEO: 32-year veteran and current US boss Srini Pallia takes over
date: 2024-04-07, updated: 2024-04-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: YouTube’s fake India election ad policy; Singtel not selling Optus; Do Chinese tech stalk former workers?
ASIA IN BRIEF Wipro on Friday named Srini Pallia as its leader, effective immediately, after previous boss Thierry Delaporte stepped down “to pursue passions outside the workplace.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/07/asia_tech_news_roundup/
Monday 8 April, 2024
date: 2024-04-07, from: John Naughton’s online diary
Light, shade and all that rot Quote of the Day ”Musk’s management philosophy for Twitter hasn’t so much been a random walk as a grasshopper lepping around on a hotplate.” Henry Farrell (Nice, especially Henry’s use of the derisive Irish … Continue reading
https://memex.naughtons.org/monday-8-april-2024/39332/
Episode 129 - ALGOL, Part I
date: 2024-04-07, from: Advent of Computing
ALGOL is one of those topics that’s haunted the show for a while. It comes up any time we talk about programming languages, and with good reason. Many of the features and ideas found in modern languages have their roots in ALGOL. Despite that influence, ALGOL itself remains somewhat obscure. It never reached the highs of a C or LISP.
In this series we are going to look at ALGOL from 1958 all up to 1968, keeping a careful eye on how the language evolved, how it’s problems were addressed, and how new problems were introduced.
Selected Sources:
https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/ALGOL/paper/Backus-Syntax_and_Semantics_of_Proposed_IAL.pdf - Backus, 1958 IAL report
https://algol60.org/reports/algol60_rr.pdf - ALGOL 1960 Report
https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/1060960.1060966 - Cleaning Up Algol
https://adventofcomputing.libsyn.com/episode-129-algol-part-i
Travel Back in Time at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival
date: 2024-04-07, from: City of Santa Clarita
Travel Back in Time at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival By City Manager Ken Striplin Each spring the City of Santa Clarita proudly showcases its cowboy culture and pays homage to its rich Western heritage during the one-of-a-kind Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. As you enter William S. Hart Park (24151 N. Newhall Avenue) on Saturday, […]
The post Travel Back in Time at the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/04/07/travel-back-in-time-at-the-santa-clarita-cowboy-festival/
Eric Musselman introduced as 24th USC men’s basketball Head Coach
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
In a press conference Friday, Musselman set the tone for the Trojans’ inaugural Big Ten season and beyond.
The post Eric Musselman introduced as 24th USC men’s basketball Head Coach appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/07/eric-musselman-introduced-as-24th-usc-mens-basketball-head-coach/
US, Britain, Australia weigh expanding AUKUS security pact to deter China
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
London — The U.S., Britain and Australia are set to begin talks on bringing new members into their AUKUS security pact as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved as a deterrent against China, the Financial Times reported.
The countries’ defense ministers will announce discussions Monday on “Pillar Two” of the pact, which commits the members to jointly developing quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology, the newspaper reported Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation.
They are not considering expanding the first pillar, which is designed to deliver nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, the Financial Times said.
AUKUS, formed by the three countries in 2021, is part of their efforts to push back against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. China has called the AUKUS pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.
U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to step up partnerships with U.S. allies in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, amid China’s historic military build-up and its growing territorial assertiveness.
Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador in Tokyo, wrote in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Japan was “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner.”
A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters on Wednesday that some sort of announcement could be expected in the coming week about Japan’s involvement but gave no details.
Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely discuss expanding AUKUS to include Japan when the president hosts the prime minister in Washington on Wednesday, a source with knowledge of the talks said.
Australia, however, is wary of beginning new projects until more progress has been made on supplying Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines, said the source, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Obstacles for Japan
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the FT report.
A Japanese foreign ministry spokesperson said the ministry could not immediately comment.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles has said they would “seek opportunities to engage close partners in AUKUS Pillar II” and any involvement of more countries would be decided and announced by the three partners, a spokesperson from his office said.
Britain’s defense ministry said it too would like to involve more allies in this work, subject to joint agreement.
While the U.S. is keen to see Japanese involvement in Pillar Two, officials and experts say obstacles remain, given a need for Japan to introduce better cyber defenses and stricter rules for guarding secrets.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, an architect of U.S. Indo-Pacific policy, said Wednesday the U.S. was encouraging Japan to do more to protect intellectual property and hold officials accountable for secrets. “It’s fair to say that Japan has taken some of those steps, but not all of them,” he said.
The United States has long said that other countries in Europe and Asia are expected to join the second pillar of AUKUS.
The senior U.S. official said any decisions about who would be involved in Pillar Two would be made by the three AUKUS members, whose defense ministers had been considering the questions for many months, based on what countries could bring to the project.
Campbell said that other countries had expressed interest in participating in AUKUS.
“I think you’ll hear that we have something to say about that next week and there also will be further engagement among the three defense ministers of the United States, Australia, and Great Britain as they focus on this effort as well,” Campbell told the Center for a New American Security think tank.
Campbell also said Wednesday the AUKUS submarine project could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing claims as part of China.
Biden, Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are to hold a trilateral summit Thursday.
Biden campaign reacts to Trump’s single-event fundraising record
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
In an interview with VOA, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign downplayed the new single-event fundraising record set on Saturday by Donald Trump’s campaign. Analysts point out, however, that money alone won’t secure either candidate’s return to the White House. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
There are relatively affordable rooms in Rochester NY, which is in the path of the full eclipse.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
'Ripley' returns in black and white — and is so much better for it.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/07/1243022580/ripley-netflix-black-and-white
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
House Republicans Are Amplifying Russian Propaganda. (This is hardly news. All the polling they do, wouldn't their time be better spent focusing on facts today, and forget about magic thinking and polling.)
https://politicalwire.com/2024/04/07/house-republicans-are-amplifying-russian-propaganda/
Microsoft blocks even more customization apps in Windows 11 version 24H2
date: 2024-04-07, from: OS News
Users recently noticed that third-party apps for customizing the user interface no longer work in the upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2. Not only does Microsoft not allow you to run those apps, but it even blocks you from upgrading to newer builds. StartAllBack, a popular tool for tweaking the taskbar and Start menu in Windows 11, was among the first to fail on 24H2. Sadly, it is not the only one. ExplorerPatcher also no longer works in Windows 11 24H2. ExplorerPatcher from Valinet is quite a popular app that lets you bring back the old Windows 10 taskbar in Windows 11, apply additional modifications to make Windows 11 slightly better, and restore some of its missing features. Windows 11 version 24H2 is now flagging ExplorerPatcher as incompatible due to “security or performance issues” with the following message. ↫ Taras Buria at Neowin I guess the taskbar and Start menu are incredibly important real estate for Microsoft, since it’s the absolute prime spot for showing ads. If users replace their taskbar and Start menu with something from a third party, that prime real estate is gone. Major conspiracy vibes, yes, and I know this isn’t the reason, but why else would they be blocking these applications? I can’t think of anything that makes more sense.
Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service
date: 2024-04-07, from: OS News
With Microsoft’s rollout of the new Outlook for Windows, it appears the company has transformed its email app into a surveillance tool for targeted advertising. Everyone talks about the privacy-washing campaigns of Google and Apple as they mine your online data to generate advertising revenue. But now it looks like Outlook is no longer simply an email service; it’s a data collection mechanism for Microsoft’s 801 external partners and an ad delivery system for Microsoft itself. ↫ Edward Komenda on the Proton blog Now, note that this is an article written by Proton, posted on the company blog, so of course they’re not going to be too kind towards their competitors. That being said, the article’s not wrong: the new Outlook web application, now the default in Windows, not only shared your data with around 800 partners, it also displays ads inside of the application. On macOS, it will even show yo fake emails that are, in fact, ads. Furthermore, once you add your accounts to this new Outlook web application, you’ll also be uploading your username and password to Microsoft, giving them access to your email accounts for advertising and data collection purposes, a shady practice a ton of email clients on mobile devices tend to do as well. Suffice it to say you really shouldn’t be using this new Outlook, and you should make sure friends and family don’t either. This is yet another nail in the coffin of Windows, now an advertising and data collection platform first, and operating system second.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139184/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service/
WinBtrfs: an open-source btrfs driver for Windows
date: 2024-04-07, from: OS News
WinBtrfs is a Windows driver for the next-generation Linux filesystem Btrfs. A reimplementation from scratch, it contains no code from the Linux kernel, and should work on any version from Windows XP onwards. It is also included as part of the free operating system ReactOS. ↫ WinBtrfs GitHub page If you’re running a distribution that defaults to Btrfs, or you actively choose to use it on other distributions, and you also happen to dual-boot Windows because your boss makes you use some garbage corpo software, this driver will make your setup a bit easier to manage.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139182/winbtrfs-an-open-source-btrfs-driver-for-windows/
@Chris Coyier blog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Chris Coyier blog)
The best bit of kids technology that we have, and this has been true from say age three to now six, is the Amazon Fire HD Kids. The operating system on it is fine. It loads up decently quickly. It’s locked down to only kids stuff. It’s not upselling stuff for the most part, there […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/04/07/11275/
‘Godzilla x Kong’ maintains box-office dominion in second weekend
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
New York — “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” easily swatted away a pair of challengers to hold on to the top spot at the box office for the second week in a row, according to studio estimates Sunday.
After its above-expectations $80 million launch last weekend, the MonsterVerse mashup brought in $31.7 million over its second weekend, a 60% drop from its debut.
The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release, directed by Adam Wingard, has thus far outperformed any of the studio’s recent monster films except for 2014’s “Godzilla.”
But with $361.1 million worldwide in two weeks, “Godzilla x Kong” could ultimately leapfrog the $529 million global haul of 2014’s “Godzilla.” The latest installment, in which Godzilla and Kong team up, cost about $135 million to produce.
“Godzilla x Kong” extended its box-office reign as another primate-themed movie arrived in theaters. Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man,” an India-set revenge thriller released by Universal Pictures, opened in 3,029 North American theaters with an estimated $10.1 million.
That marked a strong debut for Patel’s modestly budgeted directorial debut in which he stars in a bloody, politically charged action extravaganza. “Monkey Man,” which cost about $10 million to make, was dropped by its original studio, Netflix, after which Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions swooped in.
The weekend’s other new wide release, “The First Omen,” from Disney’s 20th Century Studios, struggled to make a big impact with moviegoers. It came in fourth with an estimated $8.4 million in ticket sales in 3,375 theaters, while collecting an additional $9.1 million overseas. The R-rated horror film, which cost about $30 million to make, is a prequel to the 1976 Richard Donner-directed original starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick.
This version, directed by Arkasha Stevenson and starring Nell Tiger Free, Tawfeek Barhom and Bill Nighy, follows 2006’s “The Omen,” which opened to $16 million and ultimately grossed $119 million.
The tepid opening for “The First Omen” allowed Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” to take third place with $9 million in its third weekend of release. The sci-fi comedy sequel has collected $88.8 million domestically and $138 million worldwide.
Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part Two” continues to perform strongly. It added $7.2 million in its sixth week, dipping just 37%, to bring its domestic total to $264 million.
One of the week’s biggest performers was in China, where Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron” landed in theaters. The acclaimed Japanese anime is setting records for a non-Chinese animated film. After opening Wednesday, its five-day total surpassed $70 million, a new high mark for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
Estimated ticket sales are for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $31.7 million.
“Monkey Man,” $10.1 million.
“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” $9 million.
“The First Omen,” $8.4 million.
“Kung Fu Panda 4,” $7.9 million.
“Dune: Part Two,” $7.2 million.
“Someone Like You,” $3 million.
“Wicked Little Letters,” $1.6 million.
“Arthur the King,” $1.5 million.
“Immaculate,” $1.4 million.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-04-07, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
My spot to watch the eclipse tomorrow
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112231489767084786
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Ted Turner: I bet you’re all wondering what it feels like to be a billionaire. It’s disappointing really. I’ve learned that great wealth isn’t nearly as good as average sex.
http://www.quoteswise.com/ted-turner-quotes-2.html
Toyota U.S. Plug-In Car Sales Almost Doubled In Q1 2024
date: 2024-04-07, from: Inside EVs News
All-electric and plug-in hybrid car sales increased at a high rate.
https://insideevs.com/news/715196/toyota-us-plugin-car-sales-2024q1/
When will Americans start crediting Biden with a great economy?
date: 2024-04-07, from: Robert Reich on Substack
My estimate: 3 to 4 months from now
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/when-will-americans-start-crediting
Generative AI as Shakespearean tragedy
date: 2024-04-07, from: Gary Marcus blog
You may have read yesterday’s New York Times report by Cade Metz and others on how many of the biggest AI companies have been cutting ethical corners in a race to gather as much data as possible (“OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems”).
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/generative-ai-as-shakespearean-tragedy
The Race to Make Humans Obsolete
date: 2024-04-07, from: Pointers gone wild blog
I got up today, had my morning coffee, and was surprised to find that AI music is pretty much solved. Okay, there are still some audible artifacts, and you can argue that the song I linked to is generic if it makes you feel better. Still, as someone who’s dabbled with music and composition and […]
https://pointersgonewild.com/2024/04/07/the-race-to-make-humans-obsolete/
Three Ways You Can Boost Your Mental Health
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
Mental health issues have garnered considerable attention in recent years, but the scope of the global mental health crisis may be even greater than people realize. A recent study co-led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Queensland that was published in The Lancet Psychiatry in Fall 2023 concluded that one out […]
The post Three Ways You Can Boost Your Mental Health appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/three-ways-you-can-boost-your-mental-health/
Jonathan Bennett (1930-2024), Michael Tanner (1934-2024)
date: 2024-04-07, from: Logic Matters blog
The deaths have been announced of two Cambridge philosophers. Jonathan Bennett was here from 1956–1968, and I was and remain a huge admirer. His early little book Rationality is a masterpiece, and for a good few years I was much intrigued by his defence of a Gricean programme in the philosophy of language which comes […]
The post Jonathan Bennett (1930-2024), Michael Tanner (1934-2024) appeared first on Logic Matters.
https://www.logicmatters.net/2024/04/07/jonathan-bennett-1930-2024-michael-tanner-1934-2024/
From Artichokes to Zinfandels: Explore These California Culinary Trails
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
Spring is a wonderful time to explore California’s many culinary trails. From artichokes to Zinfandels there are many areas of the Golden State to explore, and to taste. A is for Artichoke Monterey County Artichoke Trail Info www.seemonterey.com/food-wine/features/artichoke-trail/ Embark on a culinary adventure along the Monterey County Artichoke Trail, a journey celebrating California’s cherished state vegetable. […]
The post From Artichokes to Zinfandels: Explore These California Culinary Trails appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Budget-Friendly Ways to Update a Wardrobe
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
An individual’s appearance can speak volumes. For many, that underscores the importance of having a wardrobe that presents the image they want to project. Unless you have unlimited funds, the process of curating a wardrobe can take time. Life brings with it many expenses, but it’s possible to update your wardrobe each season without breaking […]
The post Budget-Friendly Ways to Update a Wardrobe appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/budget-friendly-ways-to-update-a-wardrobe/
ResForge: Resource editor for macOS
date: 2024-04-07, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/andrews05/ResForge
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV U.S. Sales Stable In Q1 2024
date: 2024-04-07, from: Inside EVs News
The model represented more than 5% of the Mitsubishi’s total car sales.
https://insideevs.com/news/715189/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-us-sales-2024q1/
U.S.-India Ties Remain Fundamentally Fragile
date: 2024-04-07, updated: 2024-04-07, from: RAND blog
Despite widespread optimism about the future of the U.S.-India partnership, relations are considerably more fragile than they might appear. Indeed, the two countries continue to experience friction in several areas that, if left unaddressed, could ultimately undermine or even derail future cooperation.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/04/us-india-ties-remain-fundamentally-fragile.html
The Tyranny of Content Algorithms
date: 2024-04-07, from: Om Malik blog
Algorithms feed content, not creativity. How the campaign for clicks has drowned true artistry amidst the noise!
https://om.co/2024/04/07/tyranny-of-content-algorithms/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I can't recall ever receiving spam as a result of subscribing to a podcast feed, and I have never gotten messages when I unsub begging me to come back.
http://scripting.com/2024/04/07.html#a152522
Taiga Motors Lays Off 70 Workers, Cuts Production After Lackluster Winter
date: 2024-04-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The warmest winter in decades scuppers yet more livelihoods in the snowmobile sector.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714839/taiga-ev-snowmobile-layoffs-production-cuts-2024/
How my workday flows
date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
On
Bluesky, Andrew Hickey
explains
how hard it is for him to focus while construction is going on at his
house. I recognize the problem. I had major work done on the roof of my
house last summer, and lost focus for a good two months, even though I
had rented office space and at times an AirBnb to get away from the
chaos. It wasn’t until the work was over that I was able to start to get
back into my flow.
In my work, I start pretty much at the same time every day, and I get a good five or six hours before it’s time to do the next thing. The first hour is warming up. Then I go to the notes I left the night before about where I’m going next. By hour two, I’m not quite at my highest rate but getting there, by hours 3-5 I get monster stuff done, if I’m in a good groove. Hour six is iffy. All the while I’m taking short breaks to check email, tweets, whatever. All of it asynchronous. Waiting for my attention to be available, for a short period.
After 5-6 hours of this, I’m wiped out.
I can handle small interruptions, like a package delivery.
But if it involves the front of my brain for any real amount of time, if I have to shift my attention elsewhere, boom, it all drops out of my head. It doesn’t take much of a shift in attention to lose the whole thing, and basically have to start over the next day.
Try to imagine a professional tennis player. Do they talk about anything other than tennis during the game. Not with any focus. I’m sure of it. Their attention is fully on the sport. Same deal with intellectual achievement. If you’re doing something that few other people do well, you’re not only doing the complex things, and require multiple steps and a lot of detail, and memory, but you’re sometimes inventing things that no one has done before. All the levels interact and affect each other. And you’re doing a shitload of learning the whole time. Until you’re burned out for the day that is. Or your deck gets shuffled. ;-)
PS: People sending you emails saying how great your last thing was, they don’t interfere at all. ;-)
PPS: I wrote this post during one of my breaks. I won’t edit it until the evening, when I do lite work that doesn’t require much focus for any duration.
http://scripting.com/2024/04/07/145250.html?title=howMyWorkdayFlows
Lucid Air, Porsche Taycan, Tesla Model S Top The 10 Most Popular Luxury EVs
date: 2024-04-07, from: Inside EVs News
Rerev has compiled a list of the most popular luxury EV models based on Google search analytics.
https://insideevs.com/news/715211/top-luxury-ev-popular-2024/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Poor misunderstood Nazis.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/04/07/quote-of-the-day-3799/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The Washington press corps doesn’t have a freaking clue.
https://presswatchers.org/2024/04/the-washington-press-corps-doesnt-have-a-freaking-clue/
Good Morning!
date: 2024-04-07, from: Dan Rather’s Steady
A Reason To Smile
https://steady.substack.com/p/good-morning
Oregon Powerball player wins $1.3 billion jackpot
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
Des Moines, Iowa — A Powerball player in Oregon won a jackpot worth more than $1.3 billion on Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.
The single ticket matched all six numbers drawn to win the jackpot worth $1.326 billion, Powerball said in a statement.
The jackpot has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses to take a lump sum rather than an annuity paid over 30 years, with an immediate payout followed by 29 annual installments. The prize is subject to federal taxes, while many states also tax lottery winnings.
The winning numbers drawn early Sunday morning were: 22, 27, 44, 52, 69 and the red Powerball 9.
Until the latest drawing, no one had won Powerball’s top prize since New Year’s Day, amounting to 41 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner, tying a streak set twice before in 2022 and 2021.
The $1.326 billion prize ranks as the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history. As the prizes grow, the drawings attract more ticket sales and the jackpots subsequently become harder to hit. The game’s long odds for the weekend drawing were 1 in 292.2 million.
Saturday night’s scheduled drawing was held up and took place in the Florida Lottery studio just before 2:30 a.m. Sunday to enable one of the organizers to complete required procedures before the scheduled time of 10:59 p.m., Powerball said in a statement.
“Powerball game rules require that every single ticket sold nationwide be checked and verified against two different computer systems before the winning numbers are drawn,” the statement said.
“This is done to ensure that every ticket sold for the Powerball drawing has been accounted for and has an equal chance to win. Tonight, we have one jurisdiction that needs extra time to complete that pre-draw process.”
Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
https://www.voanews.com/a/oregon-powerball-player-wins-1-3-billion-jackpot/7560056.html
Why Did BMW Deny the Warranty On This Blown M 1000 RR Engine?
date: 2024-04-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A replacement engine set them back a whopping $15,000.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/714745/motomillion-bmw-m1000rr-engine-failure/
West Virginia University student union says fight against program cuts not over
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sophomore Christian Adams expected he would be studying Chinese when he enrolled at West Virginia University, with a dream of working in labor or immigration law.
He didn’t foresee switching his major to politics, a change he made after West Virginia’s flagship university in September cut its world language department and dozens of other programs in subjects such as English, math and music amid a $45 million budget shortfall.
And he certainly didn’t expect to be studying — or teaching fellow students — about community organizing.
But the cuts, denounced as “draconian and catastrophic” by the American Federation of Teachers, catalyzed a different kind of education: Adams is co-founder of The West Virginia United Students’ Union. The leading oppositional force against the cuts, the union organized protests, circulated petitions and helped save a handful of teaching positions before 143 faculty and 28 majors ultimately were cut.
Disappointed, they say their work is far from done. Led by many first-generation college students and those receiving financial aid in the state with the fewest college graduates, members say they want to usher in a new era of student involvement in university political life.
“Really, what it is for WVU is a new era of student politics,” Adams said.
The movement is part of a wave of student organizing at U.S. colleges and universities centering around everything from the affordability of higher education and representation to who has access to a diverse array of course offerings and workplace safety concerns.
The university in Morgantown had been weighed down financially by enrollment declines, revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing debt load for new building projects. Other U.S. universities and colleges have faced similar decisions, but WVU’s is among the most extreme examples of a flagship university turning to such dramatic cuts, particularly to foreign languages.
The union called the move to eliminate 8% of majors and 5% of faculty a failure of university leadership to uphold its mission as a land-grant institution, charged since the 1800s with educating rural students who historically had been excluded from higher education. A quarter of all children in West Virginia live in poverty, and many public K-12 schools don’t offer robust language programs at a time when language knowledge is becoming increasingly important in the global jobs market.
As the school continues to evaluate its finances, the union plans to keep a close eye on its budget, mobilize against any additional proposed cuts and prepare alternative proposals to keep curriculum and faculty positions in place.
Another key goal is monitoring and influencing the school’s search for its new president after university head E. Gordon Gee retires next year. Gee, the subject of symbolic motions from a faculty group that expressed no confidence in his leadership, said last year the curriculum cuts came at a time of change in higher education, and that WVU was “leading that change rather than being its victim.”
Higher education nationwide has become “arrogant” and “isolated,” he said, warning that without change, schools face “a very bleak future.”
Union Assembly of Delegates President and Co-Founder Matthew Kolb, a senior math major, said his group doesn’t want a new president who believes running the school as a corporate or business entity is the only option for getting things done properly.
“We know, when push comes to shove, the results of that are 143 faculty getting shoved off a cliff with one vote,” he said.
Adams, a north central West Virginia native who was the first in his family to attend college immediately after high school, said he could transfer to another institution and continue his studies in Chinese. But much of the reason he chose WVU was because of a commitment to the state and a desire to improve its socioeconomic outlook.
“A lot of West Virginians feel trapped in West Virginia and feel like they have to leave — not a lot of people choose to stay here,” Adams said. “I made the conscious decision to go to WVU to stay here to help improve my state.”
The cuts meant reaffirming that commitment, “despite basically being told by my state’s flagship university that, ‘Your major is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter, it’s not worth our time or money to teach.’”
Student union organizations have existed for hundreds of years worldwide. Commonly associated in the U.S. with on-campus hubs where students access dining halls, club offices and social events, in the United Kingdom the union also takes on the form of a university-independent advocacy arm lobbying at the institutional and national level.
Members say they envision the West Virginia United Students’ Union similar to those in the U.K., and it’s a concept they want to help grow.
That has meant a lot of work behind the scenes, strategizing to keep students interested and engaged and building relationships with the university campus workers union, student government and other organizations.
That work with the union helped keep up student morale as they watched faculty scramble to find new jobs and rewrite curriculum, student Felicia Carrara said.
An international studies and Russian studies double major from North Carolina, Carrara said she and many of her peers chose West Virginia University because it was affordable.
“The fact that we would now have to pivot to try and find the scholarships and other money to be able to afford an education anywhere else, or just not get a degree at all or get a degree that’s really bare bones. It’s just really disheartening,” she said.
“When you come to higher ed, you think things are going to be better than they were in high school and in middle school,” she said. “And it’s very sad finding out that they’re not.”
Andrew Ross, a senior German and political science double major, will be the last graduate to major in the language.
A 31-year-old nontraditional student who transferred to WVU in 2022 after earning an associate’s degree, Ross learned about the proposed cuts days after he returned home from a summer program in Germany he attended with the help of a departmental scholarship.
Ross, now the student union’s assembly of delegates vice president, said the cuts “felt like getting slapped in the face.” The university told him to drop the German major. He’s proud of his effort to finish the degree after twists and turns, but it’s bittersweet.
“In some ways and it makes me sad because I hope there isn’t someone who is still growing up that can’t have this experience — we all deserve it,” he said. “This university isn’t just failing me, it’s failing the state.”
Industrial robots make people feel worse about jobs and themselves
date: 2024-04-07, updated: 2024-04-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Study finds workers’ sense of meaningfulness and autonomy declines with automation
Robots may make companies more productive, as some studies have suggested, but they make people feel that their jobs have less meaning.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/07/industrial_robots_morale/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe.
David Hegg | Your Happiness Can Hurt You
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
By David Hegg “What makes me happy sets me free.” While watching NCAA March Madness, I heard this jingle in a commercial, and it set my mind on fire because it is a lie. Freedom, defined as the ability for individuals to do what “makes them happy,” is called chaotic anarchy. Freedom is never about […]
The post David Hegg | Your Happiness Can Hurt You appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/david-hegg-your-happiness-can-hurt-you/
Brian Richards | Good Attention and Bad Attention
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
Recently four presidents were in New York City. Three of them were for a fundraiser, but one was not. As President Donald Trump has done his entire adult life, he was paying his respects to a police officer who was murdered by someone with 21 prior convictions, including for attempted murder. The death of this […]
The post Brian Richards | Good Attention and Bad Attention appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/brian-richards-good-attention-and-bad-attention/
Rob Kerchner | Plastic vs. Control
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Signal
Environmentalists have required that every California household receive a plastic tub so their food waste can be collected in plastic bags each week instead of simply going down the disposal becoming sewer treatment compost, fertilizing crops. How is more plastic and more hassle better for the environment? It’s not. Rather, it’s about control. After all, […]
The post Rob Kerchner | Plastic vs. Control appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/rob-kerchner-plastic-vs-control/
Sunday caption contest: Gallery
date: 2024-04-07, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends, Please submit your caption in the Comments section. Winners will be announced next Sunday. For consideration, please post your caption by Monday at 9 pm PT, 12 midnight ET. Last week’s winner: “It’s gotta be Biden — he believes in the Hatch act.”
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-contest-gallery
Why Are Biden’s Economic Poll Numbers So Bad?
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Lever News
Economic policy has been erased from the political discourse, which is a problem for Biden — and for democracy.
https://www.levernews.com/why-are-bidens-economic-poll-numbers-so-bad/
Today in SCV History (April 7)
date: 2024-04-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1835 – Outlaw and Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center, Vasquez High School namesake Tiburcio Vasquez born in Monterey, Calif. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-april-7/
Biden to host leaders of Japan, Philippines in trilateral summit
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
washington — U.S. President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a White House summit set to bolster trilateral maritime cooperation in the South China Sea, a major move to counter Beijing.
The first-of-its-kind gathering by the United States and its two Asian allies is set for Thursday. It’s part of Biden’s strategy to stitch together existing bilateral alliances into broader “mini-laterals” to amplify U.S. influence in Asia.
The U.S.-Japan-Philippines trilateral focuses on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Last year, Biden hosted a similar meeting with Japan and South Korea to deal with the threat from North Korea.
Manila is keen to firm up trilateral maritime cooperation, namely plans for joint naval patrols by the three countries, a move that would likely trigger a strong reaction from Beijing.
“Joint patrols are something that we’ve already discussed extensively with Japan and the United States,” Philippines Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez told reporters in a briefing last week. “And I think that we’re hoping that this will come into fruition very soon.”
The White House declined to confirm such plans, reiterating only that the leaders would have much to discuss in their meeting.
“Certainly, the tensions in the South China Sea are not going away,” said national security spokesperson John Kirby in response to VOA’s question during a White House briefing Thursday. “That was an issue that was raised in the president’s call with President Xi [Jinping of China] just a couple of days ago.”
Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder also declined to confirm, telling VOA only that the goal of trilateral efforts in the South China Sea is to “ensure that the Indo-Pacific region remains free, it remains open and that there is security and stability throughout the region.”
However, an announcement on joint naval patrols is “widely expected” at the summit, said Gregory Poling, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. Following increased Philippine naval activities with regional partners including the United States, Japan and Australia, the trilateral naval patrol “is an obvious next step,” he told VOA.
The meeting and expected announcement will come amid ramped-up tension in the South China Sea, where for weeks Chinese coast guard ships have deployed water cannons against Philippine vessels to block a resupply mission to the Second Thomas Shoal.
Since 1999, Philippine soldiers have guarded a wrecked ship left on the shoal to maintain the country’s sovereignty claims over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The Philippines is a U.S. ally under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which means skirmishes between Manila and Beijing in the Spratlys are a problem for Washington.
“While we’re focused on Taiwan for obvious reasons, conflict between the U.S. and China remains more likely in the South China Sea,” Poling told VOA. “The ceiling on that might be lower; we’re not going to escalate into a general war in the South China Sea. But a lower-level military conflict is uncomfortably possible.”
More robust Japan role
The South China Sea is a vital passageway for Japan’s global supply chains, a reaffirming factor for Tokyo as Washington draws it into a more robust military role in the region.
“There is tremendous expectation for Japan,” said Shihoko Goto, director of the Indo-Pacific Program at the Wilson Center.
Tokyo is “at the heart of regional security,” she told VOA, considering its involvement in the two trilateral formations and in the quadrilateral strategic security dialogue among Australia, India, Japan and the United States, also known as the Quad.
For Japan’s Kishida, the summit will be another chance to flex his country’s diplomatic muscles as it stands beside Washington, its strongest ally.
Kishida wants to showcase the transformation of Japan’s bilateral alliance with Washington that serves peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific to a “global partnership that stands as the cornerstone of international liberal order,” said Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the East Asia Program and director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center.
The key deliverables, she told VOA, include plans for a modernized alliance command and control and plans for a consultative body for defense industrial cooperation.
Japan has been an anchor of various U.S. regional alliances and partnership in the region. Ahead of the summit, Tokyo and Manila are already in talks on a Reciprocal Access Agreement that would enhance shared military operations and training.
US lagging on building prosperity
While many analysts applaud Biden on his strong and coordinated security approach for the region, they say Washington is lagging Beijing when it comes to building regional prosperity.
“We’re not seeing as much leadership on the economic front,” Goto said. “That will be something that there will be greater demand for.”
In previous meetings with Biden, Kishida reiterated Japan’s calls for Washington to join the 2018 Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The 11-country bloc representing one of the largest free-trade areas in the world is a reincarnation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement pushed in 2015 by then-President Barack Obama and then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the TPP in 2017.
Kishida and Biden are also likely to discuss Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel. Ahead of the American presidential election in November, the potential deal has become embroiled in protectionist campaign rhetoric.
Biden sees steel as critical to national security and has said the company should remain domestically owned. His prospective opponent, Trump, has promised to block the $14 billion deal if he is elected again.
Trilateral aside, Biden will honor Kishida, whom he last met at the G7 summit in Hiroshima last year, with an official visit Wednesday. He will meet separately with Marcos on Thursday, a repeat of the Philippines leader’s White House visit last May.
Analysts say the frequent meetings with the leaders underscore Biden’s desire for the U.S. to remain a Pacific power, despite the president’s focus being pulled toward the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Carla Babb and Paris Huang contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this report misspelled Gregory Poling’s last name. VOA regrets the error.
Biden to host leaders of Japan, Philippines in trilateral summit
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Japan and the Philippines Thursday. The first trilateral summit between Washington and its two Asian allies is set to launch initiatives including bolstering maritime cooperation in the South China Sea. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.
Education advocates push to lower high US visa denial rate for African students
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
washington — Education and immigration advocates say African students face high denial rates when seeking visas to study in the United States, and they are pushing for changes.
Visa rejection rates are higher than elsewhere in regions of the Middle East, South America and Africa, with Africa experiencing the highest levels of disproportionate refusals, according to a Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration report released in July 2023.
“Whenever we see that sort of data for any country, let alone a region of the world, it gives us pause,” said Fanta Aw, executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
Aw told VOA that NAFSA and other institutions met a few times with U.S. State Department officials in 2023 to ask questions and push for visa adjudication changes. She said an investigation still is needed to understand what is happening.
They are expected to meet again in the coming months.
“They’re very committed … and do not want to see inconsistencies in different parts. … We had conversations about staff training at the country level and consular affairs level, and we had assurances that these things are being constantly monitored,” she said.
Data collected through public records requests show that in 2022, half of the students from African countries who applied for a student visa were denied.
In 2023, the trend continued. Ethiopian students had a 78% denial rate, followed by Nigeria at 75%, Kenya at 74%, Congo at 69%, Ghana at 63%, Zimbabwe at 47%, and South Africa at 17%.
“What is the root cause here?” Aw said. “There needs to be assurance that [consular officers] on the ground are fully trained in the way they make determinations around this, that there is consistency in that. We need more visa appointment slots, because with the demand, if people are not even able to get a visa appointment, and when they get the rejection is this high, you can imagine the compounding effect of that.”
In European countries, for instance, one in 10 students was denied a visa during the same time frame.
The student visa, or F-1 visa, allows international students to enroll full time in U.S. government-certified institutions, and it is required for all international students.
“For the past few years, we’ve been tracking this,” Washington-based immigration lawyer Leon Fresco told VOA. “And we happened to notice there’s this weird African disparity here. … Is this happening by inertia? Is this happening because [U.S. officials] wanted it to happen? … We just want people to know there’s this disparity. … [And] start the process of fixing it.”
Word goes around
Advocates say a high rate of visa denials discourages students from applying to U.S. institutions.
“Word goes around, ‘Don’t bother, because you’re never going to make it,’” Aw said. “And that is not the message any of us want to see. … International education is one of the most effective bridge-building, because these are future engineers, future business, future scientists, future artists, future politicians.”
Aw said countries like China and India are actively recruiting in parts of the African continent, and the United States is losing talent.
“Don’t get me wrong — if students want to go to China or India, there’s nothing wrong with that or any other place. But it shouldn’t be because they couldn’t get here,” she said.
Top priority
U.S. officials told VOA that international students are a top priority for the Department of State and that all visa applications are processed on their individual merits according to U.S. immigration law.
A State Department spokesperson told VOA that EducationUSA, a network supported by the U.S. government, is actively promoting U.S. higher education in Africa.
“Demand for student visas has skyrocketed across many regions in recent years. Our missions in Africa, South and Central Asia, and the Western Hemisphere all issued more student and exchange visitor visas in [fiscal year] 2023 than ever before,” a State Department official wrote in an email. “With sharp increases in demand, a commensurate increase in denials is expected.”
Aw recognizes that U.S. officials are working on visa adjudications. She praised the change announced in December by the State Department, which waived in-person interviews for student visa renewals.
Students can now apply for renewal without traveling to their home country, as long as their visa was issued within 48 months and they meet other criteria such as never having been refused a visa.
“We were pleased. … We see progress. … But even with that, it’s at the discretion of the consular affairs [official],” Aw said.
In 2023, more students from Africa got visas to study in the U.S. than ever before, the State Department says.
Compared to 2019 — before the pandemic — there is a 61% increase. Countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Eswatini, Ivory Coast and Madagascar saw the highest number of student visas issued in the past 20 years.
In a January letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, some congressional leaders urged greater attention toward equity in student exchange programs and visa adjudication. They emphasized its pivotal role in fortifying diplomacy and bolstering the U.S. economy.
“Because of these benefits, it is critical that foreign students from Africa are treated similarly to foreign students from other parts of the world. There should be no reason that the State Department data should reflect such disparities among similarly situated countries,” they wrote.
The next report on international student visa issuance and denials is expected in October.
April 6, 2024 (Saturday)
date: 2024-04-07, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
Took the day off and am taking the night off, too. Still traveling around the U.S.; still seeing something amazing just about everywhere we turn. Will be back at the laptop tomorrow. [Photo by Buddy Poland.]
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-6-2024-saturday
What you need to know about Assembly Bill 928
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
The Associated Students Senate recently held a meeting to discuss Assembly Bill 928, convening last month in the Grand Salon at the University Student Union. Assembly Bill 928, or the…
https://sundial.csun.edu/180120/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-assembly-bill-928/
An overdue letter to my grief
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Dear grief, You took some of the best parts of me when you took her and didn’t let me say goodbye. It wasn’t a goodbye I would ever be prepared…
https://sundial.csun.edu/180114/opinions/an-overdue-letter-to-my-grief/
2024-04-06 Travelling
date: 2024-04-07, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-04-06 Travelling
The last ten years, travels – even holiday travels! – have made me more and more nervous. I used to be so cool about travel. We lived abroad and travelled so much. And now I’d prefer to just stay in Switzerland all the time. But my wife still loves to travel and once I’m there, wherever it is, I feel OK again.
I can’t say what it is. A vague anxiety about everything. From the smallest thing like it’s spring and I’m going to miss the next two weeks of flowers, and the bees are all emerging from their reed tubes and I hope our friend is OK with watering the gazillion plants we have and I hope we didn’t forget anything and I hope security checks are going to be OK and foreign dictatorship and secret services are going to stay out of our lives and out of our phones and I hope we have enough money for tips and how much does one tip again?
Back when I was about thirty I argued that equipped with a credit card nothing else mattered. I’d just buy whatever I was missing. These days we start our “packing mound” days beforehand.
Look how happy I am about the bees!
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-04-05-travel
US, China need ‘tough’ conversations, Yellen tells Chinese Premier Li
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday that the ability to have difficult conversations has put the two economic superpowers on “a more stable footing” over the past year.
As they began a meeting in Beijing, Li responded that the two countries needed to respect each other and should be partners, not adversaries, adding that “constructive progress” had been made during Yellen’s trip.
Yellen said Washington and Beijing had a “duty” to responsibly manage the complex relationship, as she brought her case for reining in China’s excess factory capacity to the Chinese leadership.
“While we have more to do, I believe that, over the past year, we have put our bilateral relationship on more stable footing,” Yellen said. “This has not meant ignoring our differences or avoiding tough conversations. It has meant understanding that we can only make progress if we directly and openly communicate with one another.”
Yellen has made the threat of China’s excess production of electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and other clean energy products to producers in the U.S. and other countries a focus of her second visit to China in nine months.
She visited Beijing in July 2023 to try to normalize bilateral economic relations after a period of heightened tension caused by differences over issues ranging from Taiwan to COVID-19’s origins and trade disputes.
In a further sign of the ties stabilizing, U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to manage tensions over the South China Sea in a nearly two-hour call on Tuesday, their first direct talks since a summit in November.
U.S. and Chinese military officials met their Chinese counterparts last week for a series of rare meetings in Hawaii focused on operational safely and professionalism.
Balanced growth
On Saturday in the southern export hub of Guangzhou, Yellen and her main economic counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, agreed to launch a dialogue focused on “balanced growth.” Yellen said she intends to use the forum to advocate for a level playing field with China to protect U.S. workers and businesses.
“As the world’s two largest economies, we have a duty to our own countries and to the world to responsibly manage our complex relationship and to cooperate and show leadership on addressing pressing global challenges,” Yellen told Li.
The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts China’s battery manufacturing capacity will outpace demand by a factor of four by 2027, as its EV industry continues to grow.
Beijing’s support for battery-powered rides has helped homegrown champions like BYD and Geely grab share in the world’s biggest car market, and turn China into the world’s largest auto exporter.
But rapid growth has also meant China has created excess manufacturing capacity that could be between 5 and 10 million EVs per year, according to consultancy Automobility.
Still, far from curbing investment in manufacturing, China has doubled down on Xi’s new mantra of unleashing “new productive forces,” by investing in cutting-edge technology including EVs, commercial spaceflight and life sciences – areas where many U.S. firms hold advantages.
Throughout her visit, Chinese state media have pushed back against Yellen’s message on excess capacity.
State news agency Xinhua on Sunday quoted Premier Li saying the U.S. should “refrain from turning economic and trade issues into political or security issues” and view the issue of production capacity from a “market-oriented and global perspective.”
The development of China’s clean energy sector, where overcapacity concerns are felt most acutely, will support the global energy transition, Xinhua quoted Li as saying.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Tens of Thousands Rally Against Netanyahu.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/04/06/tens-of-thousands-rally-against-netanyahu/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I imported Molly White's OPML file into FeedLand, here's the resulting feed list. Tomorrow I'll get it to display as a blogroll. Interop is the best.
https://feedland.com/?subscriptionlist=https://www.mollywhite.net/blogroll.opml.xml
US presidential candidates report campaign cash hauls
date: 2024-04-07, from: VOA News USA
wilmington, delaware — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee said Saturday that they raised more than $90 million in March and ended the year’s first quarter with $192 million-plus in cash on hand, further stretching their money advantage over Donald Trump and the Republicans.
The Biden campaign and its affiliated entities reported collecting $187 million from January through March and said that 96% of all donations were less than $200.
That total was bolstered by the $26 million-plus that Biden reported raising from a March 28 event at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan that featured former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Trump and the Republican party announced earlier in the week that they raised more than $65.6 million in March and closed out the month with $93.1 million. As the incumbent in 2020, Trump had a huge campaign treasury when he lost to Biden.
Trump’s campaign said it raised $50.5 million from an event Saturday with major donors at the Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson, setting a single-event fundraising record.
Campaign fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission detailing donations from Saturday’s event are not expected until a mid-July filing date.
Biden’s campaign says the pace of donations has allowed it to undertake major digital and television advertising campaigns in key states and to work with the DNC and state parties to better mobilize would-be supporters before the November election.
The campaign said the $192 million-plus as of March 31 was the highest total ever by any Democratic candidate. About 1.6 million people have donated to the campaign since Biden announced in April 2023 that he was seeking a second term. The campaign raised more than $10 million in the 24 hours after the president’s State of the Union speech in early March.
“The money we are raising is historic, and it’s going to the critical work of building a winning operation, focused solely on the voters who will decide this election – offices across the country, staff in our battleground states, and a paid media program meeting voters where they are,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. She scoffed at “Trump’s cash-strapped operation that is funneling the limited and billionaire-reliant funds it has to pay off his various legal fees.”
Trump campaign officials have said they do not expect to raise as much as the Democrats but will have the money they need. The Biden campaign says its strong fundraising shows enthusiasm for the president, defying his low approval ratings and polls showing that most voters would rather not see a 2020 rematch.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-presidential-candidates-report-campaign-cash-hauls-/7559962.html
The Weekly Frame: Macro
date: 2024-04-07, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Getting real close.
The post The Weekly Frame: Macro appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/04/06/the-weekly-frame-macro/
Misguided Oversight
date: 2024-04-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara City Council’s most glaring faux pas to-date is the misguided oversight of our historic main thoroughfare, State Street.
The post Misguided Oversight appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/06/misguided-oversight/
Sharing the best of my photos as wallpapers
date: 2024-04-07, from: Ze Iaso’s blog
https://xeiaso.net/blog/2024/wallpapers/
Full Circle Weekly News 360
date: 2024-04-07, from: Full Circle Magazine
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After TrueNAS CORE 13.3, the FreeBSD-based branch will be put into maintenance mode:
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Starting with Ubuntu 14.04, support for LTS releases will be increased to 12 years:
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A backdoor was discovered in the xz/liblzma library that allows entry via sshd:
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0