News gathered 2024-05-01
(date: 2024-05-01 16:56:53)
Acalanes swimmers disqualified from NCS finals: “I’ve been working my entire high school career to get to this point”
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Coach’s entry form doesn’t reach NCS office, leaving 13 Acalanes swimmers out of section championships.
Cellist honors Japanese diplomat who helped Jews escape Holocaust
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
A Japanese diplomat’s act of defiance during World War II saved thousands of lives. It’s also the focus of an ongoing effort by an American musician to pay tribute to the “Japanese Schindler.” VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more from Skokie, Illinois.
San Jose: Construction underway on tiny home shelter site at Sobrato property
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Billionaire Silicon Valley developer John A. Sobrato agreed to lease the property to the city.
Highway collapse in southern China leaves at least 24 dead
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Parts of Guangdong province has seen record rains and flooding in the past two weeks, as well as hail. Some villages in Meizhou had flooded in early April, and the city had seen heavy rains in recent days.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/01/highway-collapse-in-southern-china-leaves-at-least-24-dead/
San Jose Earthquakes expect greatness from Diego Maradona’s great-nephew in Lionel Messi’s league
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Diego Maradona’s great-nephew Hernán López didn’t shy away from talking about the legendary footballer at his introductory press conference: “I wish to represent my uncle well”
Cemex case against state water board continued to summer
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
A lawsuit by the mining company with contracts to extract more than 50 million tons of aggregate from Soledad Canyon has been continued to July, according to court records. Cemex, a multinational building materials company, is suing the State Water Resources Control Board over the company’s application for the rights to use the Santa Clara […]
The post <strong>Cemex case against state water board continued to summer</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/cemex-case-against-state-water-board-continued-to-summer/
Port of Hueneme Delegation On-the-Move During Trade Mission to South Korea and Japan
date: 2024-05-01, from: Port Hueneme
A focus on Green Corridors and Economic Prosperity Download Press Release [Port Hueneme, CA – May 1] What is a more fitting way to usher in World Trade Week in Southern California than by having the Port of Hueneme complete a series of collaborative discussions, strategic meetings, and site visits during a whirlwind 10-day economic Read More
https://www.portofhueneme.org/korea-japan-delegation-2024/
Day one of Palestine protest at CSUN
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Students for Justice in Palestine and other CSUN organizations are working together to protest at CSUN. Located in front of Sierra Tower, pro-Palestine faculty and students are gathering to show…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181296/multimedia/watch/day-one-of-palestine-protest-at-csun/
Dreams come true during annual Bella Vida fundraiser
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Surf’s up! Residents and local sponsors caught waves and made their way over to the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center at Bella Vida for the annual Celebrity Waiter fundraiser, which this year was titled “California Dreamin’.” With a live performance by Surfin’— The Beach Boys Tribute Band, attendees could transport back in time to the […]
The post <strong>Dreams come true during annual Bella Vida fundraiser</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/dreams-come-true-during-annual-bella-vida-fundraiser/
House passes Garcia’s bipartisan bill on flood forecasting
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release Rep. Mike Garcia’s Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act passed the House on a bipartisan basis, the congressman’s office announced in a news release. This bill was included in H.R. 6093, the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2023, which was approved on a 394-19 bipartisan vote. It would improve the forecasting of atmospheric […]
The post House passes Garcia’s bipartisan bill on flood forecasting appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/house-passes-garcias-bipartisan-bill-on-flood-forecasting/
Kurtenbach: The A’s finally look worthwhile. It’s just another gut-punch for Oakland
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The A’s are jelling into a team that could stick around for the summer and perhaps longer. It’s a shame they won’t stick around in Oakland.
Harry and Meghan visiting Nigeria despite State Department’s advisory on travel there
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The U.S. government, along with the U.K., Canada and Australia, discourage travel to Nigeria right now, citing risks of violent crime, kidnappings and terrorist attacks.
Alameda County DA charges Oakland man who allegedly killed girlfriend, drove her body around to commit second homicide
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Amadi Monroe is now charged with murdering Brenda Diaz as part of a wild shooting spree that included two homicides and a nonfatal drive-by.
US Education Department Now Promising Three-Day Turnaround On Lingering FAFSA Applications
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The LAist
Education Department says issues are fixed, begs remaining students to submit.
https://laist.com/news/education/fafsa-submissions-department-education-campaign
Sick Brown Pelican Numbers Shoot Upward
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
“They’re coming in emaciated and dehydrated,” said Rachel Mattovich, SBWCN communications manager. “We still don’t know what the cause is.”
The post Sick Brown Pelican Numbers Shoot Upward appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/sick-brown-pelican-numbers-shoot-upward/
Schiavo to host youth and family festival
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, is scheduled Saturday to host a youth and family festival at College of the Canyons. The event is free to all and is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m. at COC’s Parking Lot 6, 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road, Valencia. In collaboration with CSUN’s StrengthUnited, COC and other local […]
The post Schiavo to host youth and family festival appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/schiavo-to-host-youth-and-family-festival/
Congressional Recount: Evan Low heads to November election as Joe Simitian is knocked off the ballot
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
After a contentious recount, the Assemblymember wins by 5 votes.
San Jose: After PG&E tiff and closures, family courthouse restores full power
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Family Justice Center Courthouse reconnects full-time electricity after making do with generators since March.
The Marshall Star for May 1, 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Marshall Prepares for Strategic Facilities Updates NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is getting ready for the next big step in the evolution of its main campus. Through a series of multi-year infrastructure projects, Marshall is optimizing its footprint to assure its place as a vibrant and vital hub for the aerospace community in the next […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/the-marshall-star-for-may-1-2024/
Some of 2024’s best horses will miss the Kentucky Derby as Churchill’s feud with Bob Baffert lingers
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
This year’s historic 150th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville will, once again, be absent of the biggest name in modern horse racing.
CSUN to Celebrate the Class of 2024 with Series of Ceremonies
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The cheers will be heard blocks away later this month as more than 11,000 graduating students cross the stage in front of California State University, Northridge’s iconic University Library as CSUN celebrates its 2024 commencement
https://scvnews.com/csun-to-celebrate-the-class-of-2024-with-series-of-ceremonies/
Honda Prologue Sales Kicked Off In The U.S. In April, Acura ZDX Starts Arriving Today
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Honda and its luxury brand are starting their Ultium-powered EV push.
https://insideevs.com/news/718127/honda-prologue-sales-us-april2024/
How “AI” is helping my writing process
date: 2024-05-01, from: Om Malik blog
People often talk about how AI will kill us, and take our jobs. It may do all that, but for now, I think of it as technology that augments my capabilities, and I see this play out every day in my life as a writer. For instance, yesterday I interviewed Matthew Prince, co-founder of CloudFlare. …
https://om.co/2024/05/01/how-ai-has-helped-my-writing-process/
The American Cancer Society Awarded $10,000
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Thanks to the community’s support, E.C. Loomis Insurance Associates has officially awarded a $10,000 donation to The American Cancer Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives, celebrating lives, and leading the fight for a world without cancer
https://scvnews.com/the-american-cancer-society-awarded-10000/
The Best Idea From Today’s Big Oil Hearing
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heatmap News
It was always a fantasy to think that the Senate Committee on the Budget’s hearing on oil disinformation would actually be about oil disinformation. It was still shocking, though, how far off the rails things ran.
The hearing concerned a report released Tuesday by the committee along with Democrats in the House documenting “the extensive efforts undertaken by fossil fuel companies to deceive the public and investors about their knowledge of the effects of their products on climate change and to undermine efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.” This builds on the already extensive literature documenting the fossil fuel industry’s deliberate dissemination of lies about climate change and its role in causing it, including the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt and a 2015 Pulitzer Prize-nominated series from Inside Climate News on Exxon’s climate denial PR machine. But more, of course, is more.
The new stuff in the joint congressional report includes evidence that fossil fuel companies accepted the validity of climate research internally while publicly attacking it, and that they hailed technologies like carbon capture and algae-based fuels while privately doubting they would ever achieve meaningful scale. The report also details how all six entities it investigated — fossil fuel companies Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP, plus the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — slow-walked the investigation, providing redacted documents in response to subpoenas and withholding others altogether.
“If the companies had fully complied in good faith,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House committee’s ranking Democrat, in his prepared remarks, “who knows what else we might have uncovered?”
The thing about these kinds of political exercises is that, well, they’re political. While there is indisputable value in investigating and recording the industry’s misdeeds, a congressional hearing is no venue for the earnest pursuit of truth.
The various members of the Senate Budget Committee took turns yanking Raskin off-message — and that included the Democrats. Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, went into full denial mode, speaking of “climate change alarmism” and concluding that “there’s literally nothing we can do about this other than adapt.” When Sen. Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, had his turn, however, he subjected Raskin to volleys of questions about forest fires and plastics, neither of which were a subject of the (to be clear, extensive) committee report.
My personal favorite moment in the hearing came after the break, when Raskin gave way to a panel of energy policy and disinformation experts including Sharon Eubanks, who led the Department of Justice case against Big Tobacco. In her opening statement, Eubanks stated plainly and clearly an idea she and others (both outside and inside the federal government) have been propounding for years.
“The similarities between the conduct of the tobacco industry and the petroleum industry form a solid and appropriate basis for investigating the petroleum industry,” she read into the congressional record. “Furthermore, we should not waste any more time wringing our hands about what can be done. There exists solid evidentiary basis to move forward with a request to the Department of Justice to investigate the actions of the fossil fuel industry.”
But that’s not even the good part.
Sen. Bernie Sanders was midway through a line of questioning about how such a prosecution might go down when he stumbled a bit asking about the damages paid in the tobacco case. “I don’t remember exactly what the settlement for tobacco was — it was huge,” he said, when Eubanks cut in.
“It wasn’t a settlement. I won,” she told Sanders. “The companies were forced to change the way they do business.” And that, she went on to say, is the point of all this — not extracting money, although that’s nice too, but rather to force companies to operate in a more open and honest fashion.
The companies, for their part, are unsurprisingly unruffled by this latest demonstration of their deceitful behavior. “These are tired allegations that have already been publicly addressed through previous Congressional hearings on the same topic and litigation in the courts,” an Exxon spokesperson told Bloomberg yesterday. “As we have said time and time again, climate change is real.”
In one thing, at least, Exxon isn’t wrong: These allegations are tired. I myself am not a lawyer, of course, but it might be time to listen to Eubanks. She seems to know what she’s talking about.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/oil-hearing-exxon-bp-chevron-shell
Over 40% of Americans see China as an enemy, a Pew report shows. That’s a five-year high
date: 2024-05-01, from: Associated Press, World News
A new Pew Research Center report shows that more than 40% of Americans now label China as an enemy, up from a quarter two years ago and reaching the highest level in five years.
Cameron Smyth: Free To Be Me at West Creek Park
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Imagine a day where barriers dissolve and possibilities unfold, a day dedicated to celebrating diversity and fostering inclusivity
https://scvnews.com/cameron-smyth-free-to-be-me-at-west-creek-park/
Does Carbon Removal Need to Be Dumb To Work?
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heatmap News
Most climate solutions are getting smarter. Solar panels can track the sun. Electric vehicles are equipped with the equivalent of an iPad and may soon be able to drive themselves (according to some people). Startups are inventing stoves with batteries that charge when energy is cheap and heat pumps that learn how you use your home and adjust accordingly.
But when it comes to permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the market is pushing in a different direction. There, it seems, there’s growing excitement for the dumbest, most primitive solutions companies can come up with.
The case in point this week is a $58 million agreement between Frontier, a fund started by tech companies to help grow the carbon removal market, and Vaulted Deep, a startup that collects food waste, poop, and other wet, sludgy, organic material and stashes it away underground. It’s the biggest deal Frontier has made to date, followed closely by a $57 million contract it signed in December with Lithos Carbon, which crushes up rocks and sprinkles the dust on agricultural fields. The rock naturally reacts with carbon dioxide in the air to form bicarbonate, which can essentially lock it away permanently.
There are at least 850 startups around the world trying to figure out the most effective, scalable, low-cost approach to cleaning up the legacy carbon pollution that’s warming the planet. Some of the most promising solutions have involved building big, energy-intensive systems that extract tiny amounts of carbon dioxide from the ambient air. One company I recently wrote about is manufacturing millions of tennis ball-sized sponges that will be stacked in trays, absorb carbon from the air, and then transferred into an oven to bake off the carbon.
Is it possible the answer could be as easy as pulverizing rocks and burying waste?
I ran my observation about the growing enthusiasm for dumb ideas past Hannah Bebbington, a strategy lead at Frontier, and she agreed — “totally,” she said, though she preferred the phrase “low-tech.” Compared to some of the earlier stars of carbon removal, Vaulted Deep and Lithos don’t require as much upfront capital investment or years and years of research and development. “At the end of the day, we are really excited about getting to gigaton scale carbon removal, and it doesn’t have to be the sexiest technology.”
So far, it seems, these lower-tech companies have been able to scale quickly. Vaulted Deep, for instance, launched at the end of August last year and has already delivered more than 2,400 tons of carbon removal. By comparison, the only operating direct air capture facility in the United States is capable of removing 1,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Vaulted Deep’s first project is in Kansas, where it is intercepting “woody waste” like grass clippings and tree trimmings that was destined to be incinerated. Once upon a time, when that food was a crop growing in a field, it sucked up carbon from the atmosphere. If the food waste had been burned, the carbon would have been released back into the air. By slurrifying the waste and injecting it into a deep well, hundreds of feet underground, Vaulted Deep disrupts the cycle, potentially for millennia.
One advantage of this approach is that the carbon capture work is done for free, courtesy of photosynthesis. (Trees, of course, do this too, but not permanently.) Another is that Vaulted Deep uses mature technology to turn the waste into a slurry that can be injected underground. The company was spun out of Advantek, a waste management business that pioneered slurry injection in the 1980s. Most of the substances we inject into the layers of rock underneath our feet are pure liquid or gas, Julia Reichelstein, the CEO of Vaulted Deep told me. Advantek’s technology enables the company to take solid waste and, with minimal processing and energy, get it injection-ready.
The company’s third advantage is being able to pump its waste into “class five” wells, a designation made by the Environmental Protection Agency. Class five is sort of a catch-all category, encompassing shallow wells used for stormwater drainage and septic systems, to deep wells used for geothermal power. Regulations vary by type and by state, but in general, these are much more common and easier to permit than the “class six” wells used for carbon dioxide sequestration. “There’s, you know, 20, 30 years of permit history now on best practices on how you permit a slurry injection well,” Omar Abou-Sayed, the company’s co-founder, told me. “We comply with or exceed all those regulations. So this isn’t a case of, like, move fast and break things.”
All of this allows Vaulted Deep to charge less for carbon removal than many of its peers — closer to $400 per ton, as opposed to upwards of $600. Bebbington, of Frontier, thinks there’s a promising path to bring costs down a lot further if the company can achieve economies of scale by buying the sludgy organic waste in bulk, or move its injection wells closer to where the material originates.
But any climate solution involving biomass raises a host of questions about where the material came from, and what might have been done with it otherwise. Reichelstein said the company’s internal research found that there was almost a billion tons of bio-sludge produced in the U.S. annually. If it could capture all of it, the company estimated, it could sequester more than 300 million tons of carbon away from the atmosphere each year, after taking into account the emissions involved in collecting, processing, and injecting all that waste.
And yet, “The definition of a ‘waste’ is highly contested,” Freya Chay, program lead at the nonprofit CarbonPlan, which analyzes the integrity of different carbon removal approaches, told me.
For example, some companies are eyeing the use of agricultural waste like corn stalks, which are often left to decompose in fields, but also add nutrients to the soil. If the corn waste is removed and processed and buried underground, will that increase the use of carbon-intensive fertilizer? What if the waste was going into a landfill? There, it would have broken down eventually, but much more slowly than if it had been burned.
These questions get more complicated as projects that utilize waste biomass scale up. Once there’s more of a market for the material, will those counterfactuals that support what Vaulted Deep is doing — like that the waste would have been incinerated — still hold? “It’s really hard to govern system-level risks with project-level rules, but that is the situation we are in,” said Chay.
At a second project location, in Los Angeles, Vaulted Deep is collecting sewage from the city’s wastewater treatment facilities that otherwise would have been trucked hundreds of miles out of the city and spread on farmland to decompose, releasing CO2 both during the transport and as it decays. The city has actually been paying Advantek to dispose of some of its sewage since 2008. But now, because of the Frontier deal, the company will drop its fee, allowing the city to divert even more of the waste for slurry injection.
Chay didn’t have any immediate concerns about Vaulted Deep’s biomass sourcing. In fact, she highlighted the co-benefits the company would provide. Oftentimes biomass waste is contaminated with toxic chemicals, and Vaulted Deep is preventing it from getting dumped in communities. “We should celebrate that,” she said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the type of
waste diverted for the Kansas project.
https://heatmap.news/technology/vaulted-deep-carbon-removal
SCV softball playoff preview
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Playoffs are here for softball with four local teams eyeing deep runs. While Valencia took the Foothill League title, the remaining playoff spots came down to the wire. Here’s everything you need to know for the upcoming CIF Southern Section postseason: Valencia earns bye The champs will have to wait a week to retake the […]
The post <strong>SCV softball playoff preview</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/scv-softball-playoff-preview-2/
LEVER TIME: Congress Wants To Make Sure Flying Still Sucks
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Lever News
In this episode of Lever Time, Lever reporter Katya Schwenk unpacks how a small line in a massive bill could quietly kill a consumer protection rule that was years in the making.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-time-congress-wants-to-make-sure-flying-still-sucks/
The Framers Get Ready to Hang at Shabang Festival
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Born in Isla Vista, The Framers’ album debuts this week, along with an appearance in San Luis Obispo.
The post The Framers Get Ready to Hang at Shabang Festival appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/the-framers-get-ready-to-hang-at-shabang-festival/
Harvey Weinstein to be retried after rape conviction overturned
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The worst thing about horse race reporting is that the election isn’t a horse race. The race actually won’t start until six months at which point the votes will be cast by mail and in person and then once you start counting, you could think of it as a race, but even then it’s not a race.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/biden-trump-election.html
The US just proposed 18 GW of new offshore wind sales
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
The US announced two proposals for offshore wind sales that could generate more than 18 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy – enough to power more than 6 million homes.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/us-offshore-wind-sales/
Arizona lawmakers vote to repeal 19th century abortion ban
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
phoenix — Democrats secured enough votes in the Arizona Senate on Wednesday to repeal a Civil War-era ban on abortions that the state’s highest court recently allowed to take effect.
Voting wasn’t complete but the Senate had the 16 votes it needed to advance the bill.
Fourteen Democrats in the Senate were joined by two Republican votes in favor of repealing the bill, which narrowly cleared the Arizona House last week and is expected to be signed by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.
The near-total ban, which predates Arizona’s statehood, permits abortions only to save the mother’s life — and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which says that anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.
If the repeal bill is signed, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s prevailing abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period when nearly all abortions would be outlawed because the repeal won’t take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, likely in June or July.
Several senators spoke about their motivations for voting as numbers were tallied on the repeal bill.
“This is a clear statement that the Legislature does not want the territorial ban to be enforceable,” said Democratic state Senator Priya Sundareshan, who voted yes to repeal.
There were numerous disruptions from people in Senate gallery, as Republican state Senator Shawnna Bolick explained her vote in favor of repeal, joining with Democrats.
Republican state Senator Jake Hoffman denounced Republican colleagues for joining with Democratic colleagues, calling it an affront to his party’s principles.
“It is disgusting that this is the state of the Republican Party today,” Hoffman said.
Advocates on both sides of the abortion issue arrived outside the Arizona Senate on Wednesday to emphasize their views. They included people affiliated with Planned Parenthood and faith-based groups opposed to abortion.
“I am expecting it will be repealed, but I am praying it won’t be,” said Karen Frigon, who was handing out brochures from the Arizona Right to Life.
Arizona is one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the next president. Former President Donald Trump, who has warned that the issue could lead to Republican losses, has avoided endorsing a national abortion ban but said he’s proud to have appointed the Supreme Court justices who allowed states to outlaw it.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022 though, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could again be enforced. Still, the law hasn’t been enforced while the case was making its way through the courts.
Advocates are collecting signatures for a ballot measure allowing abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions — to save the parent’s life, or to protect her physical or mental health.
Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
https://www.voanews.com/a/arizona-lawmakers-vote-to-repeal-19th-century-abortion-ban/7594094.html
Tesla’s next-gen Dojo AI training tile is in production
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla’s next-gen Dojo AI training tile is in production, according to supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC).
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/tesla-next-gen-dojo-ai-training-tile-production/
Montecito Hill House Owner and Architect to Break Down the Creative Process Behind the Architectural Innovation
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
VADA Talks presents a panel at Santa Barbara City College to discuss how “serious play” catalyzed the eccentric project.
The post Montecito Hill House Owner and Architect to Break Down the Creative Process Behind the Architectural Innovation appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
The Zeekr MIX Is Not The Next Waymo Self-Driving EV
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
The Geely SEA-M platform used on this car will be used for Waymo’s Robotaxi.
https://insideevs.com/news/718035/zeekr-mix-waymo-china-2024/
‘We Believe You Should Always Get a Double Scoop’
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Checking in with Santa Barbara’s homegrown McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams at 75 years young.
The post ‘We Believe You Should Always Get a Double Scoop’ appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/we-believe-you-should-always-get-a-double-scoop/
Russia breached global chemical weapons ban in Ukraine war, US says
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
washington — The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of violating the international chemical weapons ban by deploying the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine.
“The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the State Department said in a statement.
The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
German forces fired the gas against Allied troops during World War I in one of the first uses of a chemical weapon.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported the Ukrainian military as saying Russia has stepped up its illegal of use riot control agents as it presses its biggest advances in eastern Ukraine in more than two years.
In addition to chloropicrin, Russian forces have used grenades loaded with CS and CN gases, the Ukrainian military says. It says at least 500 Ukrainian soldiers have been treated for exposure to toxic substances and one was killed by suffocating on tear gas.
While civilians usually can escape riot control gases during protests, soldiers stuck in trenches without gas masks must either flee under enemy fire or risk suffocating.
The State Department said it was delivering to Congress its determination that Russia’s use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops violated the CWC.
Moscow’s use of the gas “comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison” the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018 with the Novichok nerve agent, the statement said.
Russia denied involvement in both cases.
The department also determined that Russia has breached the CWC’s prohibition on the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare, the statement said.
It said it was sanctioning three Russian state entities linked to Moscow’s chemical and biological weapons programs, including a specialized military unit that facilitated the use of chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.
Four Russian companies that support the three entities were also sanctioned, it said.
The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets belonging to the targeted entities and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.
Separately, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on three entities and two individuals involved in purchasing items for Russian military institutes involved in the country’s chemical and biological weapons programs.
The sanctions were among new measures announced by the United States on Wednesday targeting Russia over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The CWC bans the production and use of chemical weapons. It also requires the 193 countries that have ratified the convention, which include Russia and the U.S., to destroy any stocks of banned chemicals.
The State Department was expected to convey its determination that Russia has violated the CWC to the OPCW.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaching the treaty in OPCW meetings. But the organization says it has not been formally asked to open an investigation into the use of prohibited substances in Ukraine.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the use of banned chemical substances by either side.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What the DEA reclassifing marijuana means for Colorado cannabis.
https://www.denverpost.com/2024/04/30/colorado-marijuana-reclassify-dea-taxes/
In Memoriam: Diana Basehart 1934-2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Our community mourns the passing of an icon. Diana Basehart, longtime animal activist, actress, sculptor, and mother, passed away April
The post In Memoriam: <br> Diana Basehart <br> 1934-2024 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/in-memoriam-diana-basehart-1934-2024/
Why gas bikes just can’t compete with electric motorcycles in the summer
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
Summer is coming in hot, and the impending heat is set to once again break the prior year’s record-breaking temperatures. For gas motorcycle riders, a scorching hot planet isn’t the only immediate source of discomfort outside. The benefit of riding electric is two-fold…
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/electric-motorcycles-best-summer/
May 7: Assessor Reminds Businesses as Last BPP Deadline Nears
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The final Business Property Statement deadline is approaching fast, with payments need by May 7 to avoid penalties.
https://scvnews.com/may-7-assessor-reminds-businesses-as-last-bpp-deadline-nears/
COC Foundation launches bench dedication program
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release The College of the Canyons Foundation has launched a bench program to allow individuals the opportunity to dedicate a bench in honor of a loved one. Donors may sponsor one or more benches on the Valencia or Canyon Country campuses, which play host to numerous college and community events and activities. “Dedicating […]
The post COC Foundation launches bench dedication program appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/coc-foundation-launches-bench-dedication-program/
Could Running Around a ‘Wall of Death’ Help Astronauts Stay in Shape on the Moon?
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Short sprints on these cylindrical structures, long used by daredevil motorcycle riders, might promote muscle mass and bone density in low-gravity conditions
Botched US student aid application form rollout leaves many in limbo
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The last thing standing between Ashnaelle Bijoux and her college dream is the FAFSA form — a financial aid application that’s supposed to help students go to college but is blocking her instead. She has tried to submit it over and over. Every time, it fails to go through.
“I feel overwhelmed and stressed out,” said Bijoux, 19. She came close to tears the last time she tried the form. “I feel like I’m being held back.”
Normally a time of celebration for high school seniors, this spring has been marred by the federal government’s botched rollout of the new FAFSA application. By May 1, students usually know where they’re headed to college in the fall. This year, most still haven’t received financial aid offers. Three months before the start of fall classes, many don’t know where they’re going to college, or how they’re going to pay for it.
“We’re asking them to make probably one of the biggest financial decisions — and decisions that will have the biggest implications on their lives going forward — without all of the information,” said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, went through a massive overhaul that was supposed to make it simpler and shorter. But a series of blunders by the Education Department made it harder than ever, delaying college decisions by months and raising fears that hundreds of thousands of students will forgo college entirely.
Across the United States, the number of students who have successfully submitted the FAFSA is down 29% from this time last year, and it’s even worse at schools with more low-income students, according to the National College Attainment Network.
The group’s CEO, Kim Cook, warned members of Congress this month about a potentially “catastrophic” drop in college enrollments that would make the decreases of the pandemic seem mild.
For Bijoux of Norwich, Connecticut, the FAFSA problems threaten to undermine the promise of higher education.
To her, college is a chance to seize the opportunities that weren’t available to her mother, who immigrated from Haiti to the U.S. as an adult. Bijoux hopes to become a therapist and set a positive example for her three younger brothers.
If her FAFSA goes through, she should be eligible for enough financial aid to help with the $13,000-a-year tuition at Southern Connecticut State University. If not, she might go to a local community college, but even that would require loans if she can’t complete the FAFSA.
“That’s why it hurts, because it’s like you work so hard to go somewhere and do something and make something of yourself,” Bijoux said. “I thought I would start at a four-year (college) and then work hard continuously, like I’ve been doing basically my whole life. But that’s not the case.”
The updated FAFSA form has one section filled out by students and another by their parents. But when Bijoux finishes her part, nothing shows up on her mom’s online account. She keeps trying, but nothing seems to change.
Similar problems have been reported across the country, along with numerous other bugs that the Education Department has scrambled to fix. Families who call for customer service have faced long wait times or say the call center hung up on them.
It “drains all the momentum” from families working to send their children to college, especially those navigating the process for the first time, said Anne Zinn, a counselor at Norwich Free Academy, where Bijoux goes to school.
“I can only say so many times, ‘Just be patient, just be patient,’ before they throw their hands up and they’re like, ‘Why am I doing this? I’m just going to go get a job,’” she said.
The rollout has attracted bipartisan criticism in Congress, and it’s being investigated at the request of Republicans. Last week, Richard Cordray, the federal student loan chief who oversaw the FAFSA update, announced he’s stepping down at the end of June.
For colleges, too, the delays pose a major threat.
Enrollment decreases like those being projected now could put many small colleges out of business or necessitate deep cuts in staff. Some colleges are pushing for emergency relief just to stay afloat, said Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
“If they don’t get checks from the federal government to basically get them through next year, they will not survive,” Pérez said.
FAFSA has been the linchpin of student financial aid for decades. It’s used to determine eligibility for the federal Pell grant, a scholarship for low-income students, and it’s required to receive federal student loans. Colleges and states also use FAFSA to distribute their own scholarships.
FAFSA had long been maligned for being tedious, difficult and intimidating to families without college experience. Congress passed legislation in 2020 meant to simplify the form. The Education Department was ordered to reduce the number of questions from more than 100 to about 40 and change the formula to expand aid to more students.
Problems started piling up as soon as the new form went online in December, already months overdue.
The first applications were incorrectly processed using an outdated calculation for inflation. Later, a federal contractor miscalculated a different formula on more than 200,000 applications. Each mistake added to delays, leaving students waiting longer to hear anything about financial aid.
Even more worrisome is a misstep that blocked students from finishing the form if they have a parent without a Social Security number. Advocates say the system locked out hundreds of thousands of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents but whose parents are not.
The Education Department on Tuesday said it’s giving those parents a new way to enter their tax information manually. But as recently as this week, some students said they were still blocked from submitting the form.
Federal education officials say they’re addressing lingering bugs but making progress. More than 8 million student applications have now been processed and sent to colleges, the agency said, and new applications are being processed within three days.
Still, the wait is far from over. It usually takes weeks for schools to prepare financial aid offers. Some colleges have extended decision deadlines to give students more time to weigh their options. But some stuck to May 1, forcing students to choose a college — and make a nonrefundable payment to hold their spot — without knowing all their scholarship options.
In Baltimore, Camryn Carter is waiting to find out if he’ll get a full ride to the University of Maryland or face tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
A top student and captain of his baseball and wrestling teams, Carter sees college as a step up in life. He thinks back to the times in the grocery store line when he had to put items back on the shelf because his mom couldn’t afford the bill. A college degree would give him the stability he didn’t always have, the 18-year-old said.
But when he looks at tuition, it’s intimidating. Along with Maryland, he’s also considering McDaniel College, a private school in Maryland. If he enrolls there, he expects to borrow almost $30,000 a year.
“I try to make the best decisions now so I can have a good future,” he said. “I’m a little nervous that things won’t work out. But I’m faithful.”
This Newly Deciphered Papyrus Scroll Reveals the Location of Plato’s Grave
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The mysterious site is mentioned in a text buried by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption 2,000 years ago
Library to celebrate Dia de los Niños, Día de los Libros
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release The Santa Clarita Public Library is scheduled Saturday to host a celebration in honor of Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros. The “day of the children” event, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library Branch, is a celebration that honors the value of childhood, education and […]
The post Library to celebrate Dia de los Niños, Día de los Libros appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/library-to-celebrate-dia-de-los-ninos-dia-de-los-libros/
NASA Selects BAE Systems to Develop Air Quality Instrument for NOAA
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected BAE Systems (formerly known as Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation) of Boulder, Colorado, to develop an instrument to monitor air quality and provide information about the impact of air pollutants on Earth for NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. This cost-plus-award-fee […]
The InsideEVs Daily Newsletter Is Back! Get Our Top Stories In Your Inbox Every Weekday
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Our daily roundup of top stories is back. Sign up for it to get the smart takes in in your inbox each weekday afternoon.
https://insideevs.com/news/718128/insideevs-newsletter-launch-the-update/
Anthropic goes after iPhone fans with Claude 3 chatbot app
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also adds a Teams plan that’s still under development
Anthropic, flush with funds from Amazon and Google, has made its Claude chatbot service available in an iOS app and introduced a business-oriented Teams plan.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/anthropic_claude_ios_teams/
Lilbits: Rabbit R1 handheld AI device runs Android (but its head is in the cloud), LastPass is an independent company again, and other tech news
date: 2024-05-01, from: Liliputing
The Rabbit R1 is the second major gadget to launch this year as basically a portable device for interacting with cloud-based AI features. Unlike the Humane Ai Pin, the Rabbit R1 has a display that provides visual information. And with a $200 price tag, it’s a lot easier for forgive its shortcomings than the $699 […]
The post Lilbits: Rabbit R1 handheld AI device runs Android (but its head is in the cloud), LastPass is an independent company again, and other tech news appeared first on Liliputing.
Santa Clarita Artists Association announces scholarship recipients
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release The Santa Clarita Artists Association has announced its 2024 scholarship award recipients. “These deserving individuals have shown excellence in their high school art education and shared their plans to continue their artistic endeavors,” the organization said in a news release. The recipients are: • Emily Kai, First Place, $2,000, Saugus High School. • Susanna […]
The post Santa Clarita Artists Association announces scholarship recipients appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/santa-clarita-artists-association-announces-scholarship-recipients/
Man arrested on suspicion of DUI and felony vandalism
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
A 58-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of DUI and felony vandalism Tuesday evening at the LA Fitness parking lot at The Old Road and Pico Canyon Road, according to Josh Greengard, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. According to Greengard, a 911 call was made to the Los Angeles Communications Center at 6:29 p.m. […]
The post <strong>Man arrested on suspicion of DUI and felony vandalism</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-dui-and-felony-vandalism/
Photos Syncing With iCloud Paused
date: 2024-05-01, from: Michael Tsai
I just ran into an iCloud issue I’d not seen before. Photos on my Mac now shows “Syncing with iCloud Paused. Optimizing System Performance” at the bottom of the photos grid. It’s not clear to me what this means because the Mac is essentially idle and not running on battery power. There’s a Sync Now […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/01/photos-syncing-with-icloud-paused/
The Joy of Shortcuts
date: 2024-05-01, from: Michael Tsai
Jarrod Blundy: I love building shortcuts. I have 579 of them in my personal library at the moment, and I’d guess that I built or modified about half of those at some point or another. Between my HeyDingus Shortcuts Library and my old home on RoutineHub, I’ve shared over 40 of them publicly, thinking that […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/01/the-joy-of-shortcuts/
Qi2 Battery Packs and Chargers
date: 2024-05-01, from: Michael Tsai
Christian Selig: Qi2 was supposed to be a glass of ice water to those in hell of Qi1, and I was hyped! Apple stopped making MagSafe battery packs themselves, and their old pack used Lightning instead of the newer USB-C, so I was excited to see third-parties bring MagSafe into the golden age of USB-C. […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/01/qi2-battery-packs-and-chargers/
Compelled to Unlock With Fingerprint
date: 2024-05-01, from: Michael Tsai
Jon Brodkin: The US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination does not prohibit police officers from forcing a suspect to unlock a phone with a thumbprint scan, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The ruling does not apply to all cases in which biometrics are used to unlock an electronic device but is a significant […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/01/compelled-to-unlock-with-fingerprint/
One transported in Soledad collision
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
A traffic collision on the intersection of Soledad Canyon Road and North Goldenrod Way in Saugus resulted in one patient being transported early Wednesday afternoon, according to Kaitlyn Aldana, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. According to Aldana, firefighters were dispatched at 12:19 p.m. and on the scene at 12:26 p.m. The […]
The post <strong>One transported in Soledad collision</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/one-transported-in-soledad-collision/
Advocates seek work permits for long-term undocumented immigrants in US
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
GPU cloud upstart CoreWeave gets $1.1B injection as AI hype train chugs on
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A $19B valuation sounds like a lot, but then you look at OpenAI
AI cloud firm CoreWeave scored $1.1 billion in a recent investment round, bringing its valuation up to $19 billion.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/coreweave_cloud_investment/
Four Zebras Escape From Trailer on Washington State Highway—One Is Still on the Loose
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The animals ran around residential areas before community members—including a former rodeo bullfighter—helped corral three of them
Federal judge strikes down some of North Carolina’s abortion pill restrictions
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Public Support Strong to Restore Vintage Aircraft Hangars
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Two buildings at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport are likely the last of their kind.
The post Public Support Strong to Restore Vintage Aircraft Hangars appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/public-support-strong-to-restore-vintage-aircraft-hangars/
Fourth SCV Jobfair Draws Biggest Crowd Yet
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Valleywide Jobfair Draws Biggest Crowd Yet
https://scvnews.com/fourth-valleywide-jobfair-draws-biggest-crowd-yet/
Santa Barbara’s Elite Stargazers Celebrate 10 Years
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Las Cumbres Observatory marks a decade of achievements and discoveries.
The post Santa Barbara’s Elite Stargazers Celebrate 10 Years appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/santa-barbaras-elite-stargazers-celebrate-10-years/
🙃 Making unnecessary and possibly horrible changes
date: 2024-05-01, from: Interesting, a blog on writing
Can you say no when you see a problem with the notes?
https://inneresting.substack.com/p/making-unnecessary-and-possibly-horrible
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Debugging tech journalism. (Yes, in all the years we were doing stuff with RSS, tech journalists never covered the products, only personalities.)
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/05/debugging-tech-journalism/
May 4: Celebrate Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros at the Santa Clarita Public Library
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Public Library is excited to announce its upcoming celebration in honor of Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros on Saturday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library Branch
Full Belly Files | Wine Week Starts Next Week
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A look at ‘The Indy’s’ second annual $10 by-the-glass promotion; plus, my recent excursions and food & drink events to come.
The post Full Belly Files | Wine Week Starts Next Week appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/full-belly-files-wine-week-starts-next-week/
Infosec biz boss accused of BS’ing the world about his career, anti-crime product, customers
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Intrusion investors went through Blount farce trauma, says SEC
Jack Blount, the now-ex CEO of Intrusion, has settled with the SEC over allegations he made false and misleading statements about his infosec firm’s product as well as his own background and experience.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/sec_blount_settlement/
Tesla Even Gives Up On Next-Gen Gigacasting: Report
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Tesla wanted to make its entire vehicle underbody with just one casting, but Reuters reports that it has given up on that effort.
https://insideevs.com/news/718125/tesla-single-piece-gigacasting/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Doc Searls: A dark review for United’s Boeing 787.
https://doc.searls.com/2017/09/16/787/
Kobo’s 2024 eReaders are user-repairable
date: 2024-05-01, from: Liliputing
Kobo launched three new eReaders in April, including the company’s first models with E Ink color displays. But that’s not the only thing that makes Kobo’s 2024 eReader lineup unusual. The company has also partnered with iFixit to offer detailed repair guides and spare parts, which means that users can perform repairs on out-of-warranty devices […]
The post Kobo’s 2024 eReaders are user-repairable appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/kobos-2024-ereaders-are-user-repairable/
ScienceCraft for Outer Planet Exploration (SCOPE)
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Mahmooda SultanaNASA Goddard Space Flight Center Missions to the outer solar system are an important part of NASA’s goals because these scarcely visited worlds, particularly the ice giants Neptune and Uranus, hold secrets about the formation and evolution of our solar system and countless others. However, due to the high cost, long travel time and […]
Flexible Levitation on a Track (FLOAT)
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Ethan SchalerNASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory We want to build the first lunar railway system, which will provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon. A durable, long-life robotic transport system will be critical to the daily operations of a sustainable lunar base in the 2030’s, as envisioned in NASA’s Moon to Mars plan […]
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/niac-studies/flexible-levitation-on-a-track-float/
Radioisotope Thermoradiative Cell Power Generator
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Stephen PollyRochester Institute of Technology In this project we will continue our Phase I efforts to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of a revolutionary power source for missions to the outer planets utilizing a new paradigm in thermal power conversion, the thermoradiative cell (TRC). Operating like a solar cell in reverse, the TRC converts heat […]
The Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths (GO-LoW)
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Mary KnappMIT Humankind has never before seen the low frequency radio sky. It is hidden from ground-based telescopes by the Earth’s ionosphere and challenging to access from space with traditional missions because the long wavelengths involved (meter- to kilometer-scale) require infeasibly massive telescopes to see clearly. Electromagnetic radiation at these low frequencies carries crucial information […]
US Federal Reserve keeps interest rates at 23-year high
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The U.S. Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a sixth straight meeting on Wednesday, keeping the level at a 23-year high to fight stubborn price increases.
At the end of a two-day meeting, central bank policymakers decided unanimously that the Fed would keep the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 5.25-5.50 percent, citing a “lack of further progress” toward its 2 percent inflation target.
“The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” said the Fed in a statement.
For months, the U.S. central bank has maintained interest rates at an elevated level to cool demand and rein in price increases — with a slowdown in inflation last year fueling optimism that the first cuts were on the horizon.
But price increases have accelerated, throwing cold water on hopes of a summer rate cut.
The Fed also announced on Wednesday that, starting in June, it would slow the pace of decline of its securities holdings, by “reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.”
As hope dwindles for rate reductions in the first half of the year, the Fed faces a growing possibility that eventual cuts will coincide with the run-up to November’s presidential election.
The timeline may prove uncomfortable given that the Fed, as the independent U.S. central bank, seeks to avoid any appearance of politicization.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-federal-reserve-keeps-interest-rates-at-23-year-high-/7593910.html
Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR): Shielded, Fast Transits for Humans to Mars
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Brianna ClementsHowe Industries The future of a space-faring civilization will depend on the ability to move both cargo and humans efficiently and rapidly. Due to the extremely large distances that are involved in space travel, the spacecraft must reach high velocities for reasonable mission transit times. Thus, a propulsion system that produces a high thrust […]
‘Gaza Solidarity Occupation’ at USC passes first week — live updates
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Protesters continue their occupation, demanding that USC take action against “the genocide in Palestine.” The Daily Trojan is live on the ground.
The post ‘Gaza Solidarity Occupation’ at USC passes first week — live updates appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/05/01/gaza-solidarity-occupation-at-usc-passes-first-week-live-updates/
Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Edward BalabanNASA ARC The future of space-based UV/optical/IR astronomy requires ever larger telescopes. The highest priority astrophysics targets, including Earth-like exoplanets, first generation stars, and early galaxies, are all extremely faint, which presents an ongoing challenge for current missions and is the opportunity space for next generation telescopes: larger telescopes are the primary way to […]
Mt. Pinos to Reopen Roads, Campgrounds, and Trails Damaged During Winter
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SOLVANG, Calif.— Los Padres National Forest officials announced that all roads, trails and recreation areas within the Mt. Pinos Ranger District
The post Mt. Pinos to Reopen Roads, Campgrounds, and Trails Damaged During Winter appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
BMC’s $1.6B victory over IBM is TKO on appeal
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Always read the terms and conditions carefully
IBM has managed to overturn a $1.6 billion judgment against it after an appeals court decided the IT giant was well within its rights to replace software on a customer mainframe belonging to rival BMC with its own code.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/bmc_ibm_appeal/
US issues sanctions targeting Russia, takes aim at Chinese companies
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday issued hundreds of fresh sanctions targeting Russia over the war in Ukraine in action that took aim at Moscow’s circumvention of Western measures, including through China.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on nearly 200 targets, while the State Department designated more than 80.
The U.S. imposed sanctions on 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong, following repeated warnings from Washington about China’s support for Russia’s military, including during recent trips by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the country.
China’s support for Russia is one of the many issues threatening to sour the recent improvement in relations between the world’s biggest economies.
“Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war, and the U.S. is imposing them today on almost 300 targets,” Yellen said in a statement.
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on thousands of targets since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine. The war has seen tens of thousands killed and cities destroyed.
Washington has since sought to crack down on evasion of the Western measures, including by issuing sanctions on firms in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Technology and equipment
The Treasury’s action on Wednesday sanctioned nearly 60 targets located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Slovakia it accused of enabling Russia to “acquire desperately needed technology and equipment from abroad.”
The move included measures against a China-based company the Treasury said exported items to produce drones — such as propellers, engines and sensors — to a company in Russia. Other China and Hong Kong-based technology suppliers were also targeted.
The State Department also imposed sanctions on four China-based companies it accused of supporting Russia’s defense industrial base, including by shipping critical items to entities under U.S. sanctions in Russia, as well as companies in Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia that it accused of shipping high priority items to Russia.
The Treasury also targeted Russia’s acquisition of explosive precursors needed by Russia to keep producing gunpowder, rocket propellants and other explosives, including through sanctions on two China-based suppliers sending the substances to Russia.
The U.S. on Wednesday also accused Russia of violating a global ban on chemical weapons by repeatedly deploying the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine.
The State Department also expanded its targeting of Russia’s future ability to ship liquefied natural gas, or LNG, one of the country’s top exports.
It designated two vessel operators involved in transporting technology, including gravity-based structure equipment, or concrete legs that support offshore platforms, for Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project.
Previous U.S. sanctions on Arctic LNG 2 last month forced Novatek, Russia’s largest LNG producer, to suspend production at the project, which suffered a shortage of tankers to ship the fuel.
Also targeted were subsidiaries of Russia’s state nuclear power company, Rosatom, as well as 12 entities within the Sibanthracite group of companies, one of Russia’s largest producers of metallurgical coal, the State Department said.
Washington also imposed sanctions on Russian air carrier Pobeda, a subsidiary of Russian airline Aeroflot.
The U.S. Commerce Department has previously added more than 200 Boeing and Airbus airplanes operated by Russian airlines to an export control list as part of the Biden administration’s sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions over Navanly
The State Department also targeted three people in connection with the death of late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, the best-known domestic critic of President Vladimir Putin. He died in February in a Russian Arctic prison.
Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies.
Wednesday’s action targeted the director of the correctional colony in Russia where Navalny was held for most of his imprisonment, as well as the head of the solitary confinement detachment and the head of the medical unit at the colony where he was imprisoned before his death.
The officials oversaw the cells where Navalny was kept in solitary confinement, the walking yard where he allegedly collapsed and died and Navalny’s health, including in the immediate aftermath of his collapse, the State Department said.
Two Small NASA Satellites Will Measure Soil Moisture, Volcanic Gases
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Two NASA pathfinding missions were recently deployed into low-Earth orbit, where they are demonstrating novel technologies for observing atmospheric gases, measuring freshwater, and even detecting signs of potential volcanic eruptions. The Signals of Opportunity P-Band Investigation (SNoOPI), a low-noise radio receiver, tests a new technique for measuring root-zone soil moisture by harnessing radio signals produced […]
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/two-small-nasa-satellites-will-measure-soil-moisture-volcanic-gases/
Santa Barbara City Police Declared Exemplary
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The numbers of use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints are down.
The post Santa Barbara City Police Declared Exemplary appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/01/santa-barbara-city-police-declared-exemplary/
CopprLink internal and external PCIe cables will support speeds up to 64 GT/s
date: 2024-05-01, from: Liliputing
The organization responsible for the PCIE Express standard has released a new specification for high-speed internal and external cables. The PCI-SIG says the new CopprLink Cable specification incorporates PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 6.0 capabilities at launch, but work is already underway on adding support for PCIe 7.0. While internal cables can measure up to 1 […]
The post CopprLink internal and external PCIe cables will support speeds up to 64 GT/s appeared first on Liliputing.
Miss your morning iPhone alarm? It’s not just you, and Apple is looking into it
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Dear _____, please excuse _____’s tardiness. Their alarm didn’t go off for (see below). Sincerely, The Register
iPhone failing to get you up on time lately? You’re not alone – reports have been spreading of just such an issue. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/miss_your_morning_iphone_alarm/
Celebrate Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros at the Santa Clarita Public Library
date: 2024-05-01, from: City of Santa Clarita
Bring the Whole Family for a Cultural Adventure! The Santa Clarita Public Library is excited to announce its upcoming celebration in honor of Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros on Saturday, May 4, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Canyon Country Jo Anne Darcy Library Branch. Día de los Niños, or Day […]
The post Celebrate Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros at the Santa Clarita Public Library appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
Hyundai U.S. EV Sales Continued To Expand In April 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
The Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 duo noted a 54% year-over-year increase to almost 5,000 units.
https://insideevs.com/news/718112/hyundai-us-ev-sales-april2024/
Save $729 on Hiboy’s Step-Thru e-bike at $850, Greenworks and WORX 1-day electric tool sales, and more
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
Today’s Green Deals feature more limited-time discounts than ever before, headlined by Hiboy’s latest sale that is taking up to $729 off EVs and bundles, led by the EX6 Step-Thru Fat-Tire e-bike at $850. It is joined by three tool-specific 1-day Best Buy deals, with the biggest of them being the Greenworks 80V 18-inch Cordless Electric Chainsaw dropping to a new $250 low, as well as the return of the NIU BQi-C3 Pro e-bike to its $1,300 low. Plus all of the other days’ Green Deals that are still going.
Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/hiboys-step-thru-e-bike-greenworks-and-worx-1-day-sales-and-more/
Man Finds John Lennon’s Forgotten Guitar in His Father’s Attic
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The 12-string instrument, which is going to auction in late May, spent 50 years hidden away in the British countryside
More US campus unrest erupts over war in Gaza
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/more-us-campus-unrest-erupts-over-war-in-gaza/7593844.html
India rejects Washington Post report on alleged plot to kill US-based Sikh activist
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
By Their Powers Combined
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
This April 20, 2024, image shows a first: all six radio frequency antennas at the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), carried out a test to receive data from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft at the same time. Combining the antennas’ receiving power, or arraying, lets the DSN collect […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/by-their-powers-combined/
Spring 2024 USU and Associated Students election results
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
After about two weeks, the spring 2024 University Student Union (USU) Board of Directors election has been decided for the 2024-2025 academic year. Four CSUN students have been elected to…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181279/news/spring-2024-usu-and-associated-students-election-results/
Google pulls RISC-V support from generic Android kernel
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not a great omen if you were hoping to own a future RV smartphone – tho web giant says it hasn’t totally given up
Support for RISC-V was dropped from Android’s Generic Kernel Image (GKI) thanks to a patch successfully merged today.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/riscv_support_android_pulled/
Negative views of China persist in US, report finds
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Washington — For the fifth year in a row, about eight out of 10 Americans have unfavorable views of China, with many saying limiting Beijing’s power is a top priority, according to a public opinion survey released Wednesday.
According to the Washington-based Pew Research Center, 81% of Americans have an unfavorable view of China, including 43% who hold a very unfavorable view of the country.
“Views of China across all Americans remain critical — pretty negative,” Pew research associate Christine Huang told VOA.
“China is becoming an increasingly powerful player on the international stage, and so it’s important for us to track how Americans and people around the world view China and its actions, and to see how public opinion will shape or not affect foreign policy of countries,” Huang added.
Political ideology and age were found to have a distinct impact on people’s perception of China.
“Not all Americans see China equally negatively. Some groups stand out for having especially negative views of China,” Huang said.
Republicans are far more likely to hold negative views of China than Democrats are, according to Pew. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to hold a very unfavorable view of China and to consider China an enemy of the U.S., the report said.
Conservative Republicans are more likely than moderate or liberal Republicans to hold negative views of China and view Beijing as an enemy. Meanwhile, older people are also more likely to be wary of China, with Americans over the age of 65 tending to hold more unfavorable views of Beijing.
Pew doesn’t look into why most Americans have negative views of China, but the study does examine perceptions of Chinese influence, according to Huang.
“Most people in America, for example, think that China’s power and influence has gotten stronger in recent years,” Huang said. “So there is a connection between the sense that it’s becoming more powerful and being more negative towards the country.”
Those views are particularly clear when it comes to considering China’s economic influence on the United States. More than 80% of Americans think China has at least a fair amount of influence on U.S. economic conditions, the report said.
Of the people who think Beijing has at least some influence on the U.S. economy, 79% think that influence is negative, compared to just 18% who think it’s positive, according to Pew.
Something that stood out in this year’s study, according to Huang, is American concern over China’s territorial disputes. Beijing has laid claim to large swathes of the South China Sea, for instance, despite strong pushback from countries like Vietnam and the Philippines.
About six out of 10 Americans, or 61%, say they are at least somewhat concerned about territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, including 20% who say they are very concerned, the report found.
“Americans are looking beyond just the immediate impact to themselves,” Huang said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/negative-views-of-china-persist-report-finds/7593827.html
United Methodist Church repeals ban on gay clergy, same-sex marriage
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
washington — The United Methodist Church, which has some 10 million members around the world, repealed on Wednesday a ban on ordaining gay clergy and same-sex marriage.
Church leadership, at a conference held in North Carolina, approved the moves in a 692-51 vote.
The church removed its 1984 ban on the ordination of clergy who are “self-avowing practicing homosexuals.”
It also decided that clergy who perform same-sex marriages will not be subject to any penalties. Neither will clergy or churches which refuse to hold same-sex weddings.
“Delegates and observers applauded after the vote,” the church news agency said.
“Many hugged and more than a few cried, in a mass release of joy for those who had pushed, some for decades, to make The United Methodist Church fully inclusive,” it added.
The LGBTQ moves have not been without controversy. Thousands of more conservative United Methodist congregations have left the denomination in the past few years over the issue.
About half of the church’s global membership is in the United States.
New US sanctions against Russia target weapons development, ban uranium imports for nuclear power
date: 2024-05-01, from: Associated Press, World News
The United States has imposed new sanctions on hundreds of companies and people tied to Russia’s weapons development program, as well as more than a dozen Chinese entities accused of helping Moscow find workarounds to earlier penalties.
https://apnews.com/article/sanctions-russia-ukraine-war-china-34fd287d8d814f9615b3606d490c5cc4
The Baltimore Bridge Collapse Is Also a National Security Problem
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: RAND blog
The accident in Baltimore is both a human tragedy and a reminder of how an adversary could seek to close critical waterways. By taking sustained actions to prevent and respond more effectively to obstructive attacks, the United States can help mitigate the risk and protect the maritime movements on which its security depends.
Toyota goes large on hydrogen with new US headquarters
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
Toyota today announced that it’s turning its R&D office in Los Angeles into its new North American hydrogen headquarters.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/toyota-hydrogen-us-headquarters/
Honda Finally Brings The NX500, CB500F, And CBR500R To The US
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It was only a matter of time, but now that time is here.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718063/honda-nx500-cb500f-cbr500r-america/
Conservative Republicans aim to remove US House Speaker Mike Johnson
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Tesla is pulling back Supercharger plans after firing team. #puzzling
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/tesla-pulling-back-supercharger-plans-firing-team/
US charges 16 over ‘depraved’ grandparent scams
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Vulnerable elderly people tricked into paying tens of thousands over fake car accidents
Sixteen people are facing charges from US prosecutors for allegedly preying on the elderly and scamming them out of millions of dollars.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/us_charges_16_grandparent_scammers/
HMD launches three new Nokia 200 4G series dumb phones
date: 2024-05-01, from: Liliputing
HMD may be ready to start selling smartphones under its own brand name, but the company that’s been responsible for most Nokia-branded phones to launch in recent years is keeping the Nokia name for its cheap dumb phones. Last month the company launched three new models that won’t be sold in the US (since they’re […]
The post HMD launches three new Nokia 200 4G series dumb phones appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/hmd-launches-three-new-nokia-200-4g-series-dumb-phones/
Bike Lock NYPD Insists Is ‘Industrial’ Protest Tool Is a Normal Lock Recommended by Columbia University
date: 2024-05-01, from: 404 Media Group
Columbia University allowed police to storm campus Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner accused student protestors of using an “industrial” chain to barricade doors.
https://www.404media.co/nypd-bike-lock-chain-kryptonite-columbia-university-protests/
National Archives Bans Employee Use of ChatGPT
date: 2024-05-01, from: 404 Media Group
The agency tasked with preserving the historical record is banning ChatGPT, citing the possibility that the tool would leak internal information.
https://www.404media.co/national-archives-bans-employee-use-of-chatgpt/
AWS customer faces staggering charges over S3 bucket misfire
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Open source tool fingered for 100 million PUT requests and $1,300 in a day
AWS looks set to intervene after a customer highlighted a flaw that allows S3 bucket owners to be stung with potentially massive charges for attempted accesses they have no control over.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/aws_s3_bucket_abuse/
The Challenge of Replacing “User” with More Precise Terms
date: 2024-05-01, from: TidBITS blog
This MIT Technology Review piece points out that relying too heavily on the term “user” exacts a cost in depersonalizing the relationships we have with the software that fills our lives. Let’s work to use more precise terms.
https://tidbits.com/2024/05/01/the-challenge-of-replacing-user-with-more-precise-terms/
Walmart’s new Onn 4K Google TV streamer is a $50 box with an upgraded processor, memory, storage, and ports
date: 2024-05-01, from: Liliputing
When Walmart launched its Onn 4K media streamer in 2021, the $30 box box was one of the cheapest Android TV devices available. The company followed up a few months later with an even cheaper 1080p model, and Walmart has released several updates since then that drop prices even lower, while adding support for new […]
The post Walmart’s new Onn 4K Google TV streamer is a $50 box with an upgraded processor, memory, storage, and ports appeared first on Liliputing.
Tesla maps out new territory in China with Baidu deal
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
U-turn necessary to comply with Chinese law
Despite Elon Musk’s insistence that high-definition maps aren’t necessary for self-driving cars, Tesla’s vehicles in China will technically rely on them now through a partnership with Baidu.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/tesla_map_backtrack_baidu/
Is DC Fast Charging Bad For Your Electric Car’s Battery?
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
The answer may surprise you. Myth discharged?
https://insideevs.com/news/717997/dc-fast-charging-good-bad-battery-life/
Elon Musk is throwing his weight around Tesla, comes in like a wrecking ball
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
We are getting more information on the ongoing layoffs at Tesla. Several employees describe the situation as Elon Musk “throwing his weight around” to solidify his status after being mostly absent over the last year.
But he is coming in like a dangerous wrecking ball.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/01/elon-musk-throwing-weight-tesla-wrecking-ball/
Here’s How Tesla’s FSD 12 Handles Manhattan Traffic
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” software did a decent job in one of America’s most chaotic driving environments.
https://insideevs.com/news/718113/tesla-fsd-v12-nyc-video/
Microsoft’s FOMO after seeing Google AI drove investment in OpenAI
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Historical email in antitrust case shows execs ‘very, very worried’ about capability gaps
A fascinating insight into Microsoft’s inner workings has been thrown up in some redacted document dumps related to the ongoing Google antitrust trial in the US.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/openai_microsoft_email/
Costco Auto is offering thousands off new EVs from Volvo, Chevy, Polestar, and more
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
For a limited time, Costco members can take advantage of notable deals on several all-electric models from some big names in automotive, including Volvo and Polestar. Learn more about the current EV deals from the Costco Auto Program below.
White orca Frosty, now 4, spotted off California with transient pod CA216
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Researchers have kept a close eye on the distinct orca, wondering if it would survive.
Selena Gomez hangs out with LA chefs in her new Food Network series
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
“Selena + Restaurant” will premiere Thursday, May 2, with an episode at Wolfgang Puck’s Beverly Hills steakhouse.
San Francisco homicide: Man shot in Bayview
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Officers went to the area of Third Street and Quesada Avenue because of a shot-spotter activation around 9:30 p.m. Monday.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/01/san-francisco-homicide-man-shot-in-bayview-15/
Qantas app glitch sees boarding passes fly to other accounts
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Issue now resolved and isn’t thought to be the work of criminals
Aussie airline Qantas says its app is now stable following a data breach that saw boarding passes take off from passengers’ accounts.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/qanta_app_glitch/
Miramonte tabs Mike Shaughnessy to be next head basketball coach
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Miramonte hires former Northgate coach Mike Shaughnessy to be its next head basketball coach.
A Whole 43% Of China’s New Cars Were Plug-Ins In March 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
The rechargeable car market expanded by 29% year-over-year to almost 750,000.
https://insideevs.com/news/718089/china-plugin-car-sales-march2024/
International pop stars are finally recognizing the world’s most populous country
date: 2024-05-01, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Hampered by insufficient infrastructure, famous musicians would often leave India out of their world tours. But the country’s massive, young population makes it a potentially lucrative market, and more musicians are opting to stop and perform there. Thanks to increased investment, it seems India’s live music industry is primed to take off. Also on the program: betting on skee ball and a look at fresh payroll data.
Blinken meets with Netanyahu in renewed push for Gaza cease-fire
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Jerusalem — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday as talks continue in Cairo to resolve details of an elusive bid for a cease-fire in Israel’s war with Hamas militants in Gaza.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken “emphasized that it is Hamas that is standing in the way of a cease-fire.” The militants so far have refused to accept a plan calling for a several-week halt in nearly seven months of warfare, along with Hamas failing to free hostages it is holding in exchange for the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
But even as Blinken blamed Hamas for the lack of a truce, Miller said the top U.S. diplomat told Netanyahu that the U.S. remains opposed to the Israeli leader’s call for a ground attack on the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where Israel says it plans to root out four remaining battalions of Hamas fighters.
“We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah, absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed and no, we’ve not seen such a plan,” Blinken said at a news conference in Ashdod, Israel. “And at the same time, there are other ways, and in our judgment, better ways of dealing with the real ongoing challenge of Hamas that does not involve or require a major military operation in Rafah.”
The U.S., the United Nations and numerous world officials have voiced opposition to an attack on Rafah because more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering there, many of them ordered by the Israeli military to flee there from their homes in northern Gaza during the earliest weeks of the war.
Netanyahu says the Rafah offensive is necessary to meet Israel’s goal of erasing Hamas control of Gaza, and that it will happen regardless of whether there is a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.
Blinken said, “Hamas has to decide whether it will take the deal and actually advance the situation for the people that it purports to care about in Gaza. There is no time for delay. There’s no time for further haggling. The deal is there. They should take it.”
He said that if Hamas does not agree to the cease-fire, “I think that’s further proof that it doesn’t care a bit about the Palestinian people.”
Cairo has been hosting talks involving U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators that have produced the latest cease-fire proposal.
Blinken also placed a continued emphasis on getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza to feed famished Palestinians.
“At the same time, even as we’re working with relentless determination to get the cease-fire that brings the hostages home, we also have to be focused on people in Gaza who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’ making,” Blinken said. He said that on Wednesday, for the first time, trucks with humanitarian aid traveled through Erez, a new Israeli entry point into northern Gaza.
The top U.S. diplomat has repeatedly called on Hamas to accept the cease-fire proposal during a trip to the region that included earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Blinken also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who said the return of hostages held by Hamas “is and should be the top priority of the international community.”
Following the meeting with Herzog, Blinken spoke with demonstrators outside who held signs and chanted slogans calling for the hostages in Gaza to be brought home.
Blinken told the demonstrators he had met with families of the hostages and told them, “Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.”
Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, along with the remains of about 30 others, after taking about 250 people hostage in the October 7 attack on Israel in which the militants killed 1,200 people.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Israel says the death toll includes several thousand Hamas militants it has killed.
Blinken met Tuesday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah II, before meeting with Sigrid Kaag, U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.
Blinken thanked Abdullah for Jordan’s leadership in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, including joint U.S.-Jordan airdrops that to date have delivered more than 1,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
The two leaders discussed joint efforts to expedite the flow of additional urgently needed aid to Gaza from Jordan through land routes. Blinken also commended the king’s commitment to economic modernization and vital public sector reforms.
Later Tuesday, Blinken met with Palestinians from Gaza at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs before meeting with Kaag. Blinken told Kaag he was anxious to hear directly from her, adding, “The entire team is doing extraordinary work to ensure that people in Gaza get the help and support and the assistance they need.”
VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems
date: 2024-05-01, from: Quanta Magazine
After years of false starts, a team of computer scientists has found a way to efficiently deduce the Hamiltonian of a physical system at any constant temperature.The post Scientists Find a Fast Way to Describe Quantum Systems first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/scientists-find-a-fast-way-to-describe-quantum-systems-20240501/
Wars in Israel, Ukraine trigger painful memories for Holocaust survivors in US
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and Institute on Aging and Trauma helps older adults with a history of trauma cope with depression and anxiety resulting from their horrific experiences. These days, the center is also helping Holocaust survivors deal with the trauma of two modern wars in Ukraine and Israel. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Vazgen Varzhabetian
South Bay eateries offer Cinco de Mayo tacos, Mother’s Day brunches
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Bywater in Los Gatos hosting Derby Day party May 4.
Ford Is Using Artificial Intelligence To Train Its Dealership Staff
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Ford University uses gamification to create an online experience that inspires dealership staff to use the system often.
https://insideevs.com/news/718057/ford-university-ai-dealership-training/
News Briefs – May 1, 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
8th Annual Speech Tournament: The Department of Communications Studies at Pierce College will be hosting its 8th Annual Speech Tournament—and the first one back on
The post News Briefs – May 1, 2024 appeared first on .
Pierce College Council talks crime and class options
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
The Pierce College Council discussed several issues on and around the campus on Thursday, April 25. One of those topics was the increase in crime
The post Pierce College Council talks crime and class options appeared first on .
Updates on Old Trapper’s Lodge
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
There’s a California Historical Landmark on the Pierce College campus—but most students don’t know about it, and many of those who do are not happy
The post Updates on Old Trapper’s Lodge appeared first on .
Helping the homeless through hygiene kit access
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Pierce College should make it a priority to be of service for college students who may be homeless, as well as homeless people in the
The post Helping the homeless through hygiene kit access appeared first on .
Earth Day Bash
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Each year, Earth Day takes place on April 22, and Pierce College students were among those who took part in the day’s education and celebration
The post Earth Day Bash appeared first on .
Aún no es noviembre, pero es hora de elegir a un presidente
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
To read this story in the original English, click here. Traducción por Delilah Brumer y Daniela Raymundo. — Pierce College ha tenido un presidente provisional
The post Aún no es noviembre, pero es hora de elegir a un presidente appeared first on .
Microsoft confesses April Windows update breaks some VPN connections
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Connection failures reported following installation
Microsoft admits that April’s Windows update can potentially cause VPN connection failures in both Windows 10 and 11.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/microsoft_windows_vpn_problems/
Kindness Carnival inspires children
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Hundreds of children in identical teal T-shirts reading “kindness is free” explored, created art and played carnival games on the Pierce College campus on Saturday.
The post Kindness Carnival inspires children appeared first on .
A blossoming escape
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Spending time in nature can provide benefits toward cognitive function, an overall improved mood and a decrease in stress, according to the American Psychological Association.
The post A blossoming escape appeared first on .
https://theroundupnews.com/2024/05/01/2634217/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2634217
It’s not yet November, but it’s time to pick a president
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Para leer el artículo en español, haga clic aquí. Pierce College has had an interim president for about two-and-half years, and come June, the position
The post It’s not yet November, but it’s time to pick a president appeared first on .
Brahmas go to the polls
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Round Up (Peirce College Student Paper)
Brahmas can now vote for their 2024-25 Associated Student Organization (ASO) officers and LACCD Student Trustee. Students and potential candidates for the positions gathered in
The post Brahmas go to the polls appeared first on .
Ducati’s Very Proud of The Panigale V4’s Origin Story
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A new exhibition gave enthusiasts a rare glimpse into the life story of one of the most desired sportbikes on the market.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718061/ducati-milan-design-week-2024/
Asian-American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
In honor of Asian-American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we recognize astronauts with Asian roots who have flown to the International Space Station and contributed to its assembly, operations and research activities. Other pioneers preceded them into space. The first person of Asian origin to reach space, Phạm Tuân of Vietnam spent eight […]
Volkswagen Group is shelling out close to $1B in bonuses to lean down staff, compete with China
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
One day after posting a significant drop in Q1 profits, Volkswagen Group is looking to trim down its administrative staff in Germany to bolster 2024 returns. Volkswagen said it is offering close to one billion dollars in bonuses for employees who opt to end their contracts early.
African-born bioengineer at UCLA develops new tuberculosis test
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
According to the World Health Organization, 1.3 million people died from tuberculosis in 2022. The disease is fully treatable but relies on timely diagnosis. Mireille Kamariza, a molecular bioengineer from the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a test that can detect the bacteria quickly, precisely and inexpensively. VOA’s Genia Dulot has the story.
The most iconic singers in Bay Area music history
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Bay Area has produced some of the world’s most iconic singers in every genre. Here’s a look back, from Johnny Matthis to other greats.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/01/the-most-iconic-singers-in-bay-area-music-history/
AMD datacenter sales surge 80% in Q1 despite market’s lukewarm reception
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Chip giant forecasts strong GPU growth amid mixed financial results
AMD’s datacenter revenue grew 80 percent and it hopes to make at least $4 billion from its GPUs this year, but shares took a hit as this failed to impress market analysts and the company reported a lackluster first quarter overall.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/amd_q1_2024/
Kia U.S. EV Sales Hit A New Record In April 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
For the first time in history, the company sold roughly 5,000 all-electric cars in a single month.
https://insideevs.com/news/718103/kia-us-ev-sales-april2024/
The Savvy Senior | What to Do About Medicare and Social Security When You Move
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Dear Savvy Senior, Next month I am moving to a different state so I can be near my daughter and grandkids. Do I need to notify Social Security and Medicare about the move? — Relocating Grandma Dear Relocating, Yes, if you’re a Social Security and Medicare recipient you definitely need to let these federal agencies know […]
The post The Savvy Senior | What to Do About Medicare and Social Security When You Move appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
MIT Still Working on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Motorcycles
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The team sees hydrogen as a viable alternative fuel source.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718062/mit-open-source-hydrogen-motorcycle-design/
How Biden’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tax Credits Will Work
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: It will be 107 degrees Fahrenheit in Kolkata as Southeast Asia’s heat wave continues • Kansas and Oklahoma are on alert for tornadoes and large hail • The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks this week.
THE TOP FIVE
- Biden administration outlines rules for sustainable aviation fuel
subsidies
The Treasury Department and IRS yesterday released new details about the subsidy program for producers of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which the Biden administration hopes will help cut emissions from the aviation industry while also supporting farmers. What makes SAF “sustainable” is that it comes from biomass (stuff like corn grain, wood mill waste, even manure) instead of petroleum. Burning SAFs for fuel still produces carbon dioxide, but their lifecycle emissions are lower than those of fossil fuels, and they can be used in existing planes, so they are seen as a quick way to cut aviation emissions in the short term.
Under the new guidance, refiners will be eligible for a credit of $1.25 per gallon if their fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to traditional jet fuel, and up to $1.75 per gallon if emissions cuts go beyond 50%. The announcement clarified that SAF made out of ethanol is eligible if corn farmers use “climate smart agriculture” such as cover cropping, no-till, and efficient fertilizer application to keep carbon in the soil. Reaction to the announcement has been mixed. Ethanol trade groups were pleased to be included but annoyed at the stringent farming requirements. Environmental groups worry crop-based biofuels will take up too much farmland and could lead to deforestation. “Powering planes with crop-based biofuels is anything but sustainable,” said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute. Commercial aviation accounts for 2% of U.S. carbon emissions.
- DOE finalizes water heater efficiency standards
More news from the government yesterday: The Department of Energy announced that most new electric water heaters will have to run on heat pump technology starting in 2029. Water heaters are some of the biggest energy hogs in the average American home. Making them more efficient could reduce consumers’ utility bills by approximately $100 per year, the DOE said. And the energy savings of the new standards are quite astonishing: 17.6 quadrillion British thermal units over 30 years of shipments, “the largest savings ever from a single DOE efficiency standard, representing more than the energy use of the entire U.S. residential building sector in a single year.” As for the climate, the DOE said the efficiency standards will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 billion metric tons over 30 years, which is roughly equivalent to taking 18 million gas-powered cars off the road.
- Microsoft teams up with Brookfield to power data centers with clean
energy
Microsoft is throwing significant financial backing behind renewable energy projects to be developed by Brookfield Asset Management that will help power data centers, the Financial Times reported. The wind and solar projects will be built between 2026 and 2030, and have at least 10.5 gigawatts of generating capacity, or enough to power 1.8 million homes. The tech giant will back the projects’ development to the tune of about $10 billion, “in a deal that underscores the race to meet clean energy commitments while satisfying the voracious energy demand of cloud computing and artificial intelligence,” the FT added.
4. Internal documents offer insight into fossil fuel companies’ climate strategies
Congressional Democrats released documents they say reveal how big oil companies have misled the public about their role in causing and fixing the climate crisis. The documents include internal communications from companies like Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP. In the exchanges, company representatives cast doubt on the feasibility of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, dismiss the idea that the Paris Agreement should be cause for changing course on fossil fuel production, and acknowledge the huge climate-warming potential of methane. “For decades, the fossil-fuel industry has known about the economic and climate harms of its products but has deceived the American public to keep collecting more than $600 billion each year in subsidies while raking in record-breaking profits,” said Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on the subject today.
- Tesla shares dip after Supercharger layoffs
Tesla shares are down by about 5% this morning following news that the company slashed its entire Supercharging unit. Sources told Electrek that Tesla has already pulled out of four leases on planned Supercharger locations in New York. CEO Elon Musk also confirmed on X that the company will slow construction of new charging stations.
THE KICKER
The North Atlantic broke its 420-day streak of record high sea surface temperatures this week.
X/https://heatmap.news/sustainable-aviation-fuel-tax-credit
How Americans Stopped Caring About Coal
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heatmap News
The future of coal played a starring role in the 2016 presidential election. As an industry, an energy supply, and a source of jobs and identity in many communities, coal was both a practical and symbolic issue, one that helped solidify Donald Trump’s support among white working class voters not just in coal country itself but around the nation. It stood in for a deep divide between the parties, one that cast Trump as the champion of what he called “the forgotten men and women of our country,” while Hillary Clinton and her party were supposedly cruel elitists ready to condemn those Americans to a future of deprivation in pursuit of a radical and ruinous environmental agenda.
Eight years later, the future of coal — or more specifically, the shape and speed of its demise — is being decided through administration policy and the workings of the market. But on the campaign trail, no one is talking about it. Coal has almost disappeared as a political issue.
To understand why, we have to begin in that 2016 campaign. In May of that year, Hillary Clinton came to Williamson, West Virginia to make amends. Less than two months before, she had said in a CNN town hall that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” generating enormous backlash despite the fact that she was touting her plan to “bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country.” Now, at a forum held just a couple of blocks from the famous Williamson Coal House (a building made entirely from coal), a former coal company employee asked her, “How you can say you are going to put a lot of coal miners out of jobs and then come in here and tell us how you are going to be our friends?”
Clinton insisted her remarks had been taken out of context. “I’m here because I want you to know whether people vote for me or not whether they yell at me or not, it’s not going to affect what I can do to help because I feel like that’s a moral obligation,” she said.
Trump was far less nuanced in his approach to what he called “beautiful clean coal.” His message was simple: Elect me, and all the lost coal jobs will return. “For those miners, get ready, because you’re going to be working your asses off,” he said at a rally in West Virginia. “I love the miners, and we’re going to put the miners back to work,” he said at another.
It worked: Trump’s biggest margins of victory came in the two states with the highest coal production, Wyoming and West Virginia.
And he certainly tried to save the coal industry. He withdrew from the Paris climate accords, rolled back environmental regulations on coal, installed coal industry executives and lobbyists in key administration positions, encouraged coal mining on federal lands, undid the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, and tried to bail out failing coal plants.
But none of that brought back the coal jobs. Total coal mining employment in the U.S. stayed at the same level for the first four years of his presidency — around 53,000 — then fell by 20%in his final year, during the Covid pandemic. Today that figure is around 43,000, a miniscule number given the size of our economy; more Americans work at the Cheesecake Factory than in the entire coal mining industry. That may be the first reason Trump isn’t talking about coal on the campaign trail: He didn’t keep his most high-profile promise.
Yet in coal country, Trump was not punished for his failure to bring back the coal jobs. Williamson, where Hillary Clinton made her 2016 mea culpa, provides a perfect example. With a population of 3,000, it’s the largest city in Mingo County, whose population has shrunk in every Census since the one in 1990. It’s a place with deep economic and health-care challenges, where coal is woven throughout the local identity and sense of place (the high school’s sports teams are called the Miners and Lady Miners).
According to the most recent report from the state of West Virginia, in 2022 there were only 409 people working in coal in Mingo County, or about 3% of the working-age population. In 2016, Trump got 83%of the vote there. In 2020, despite not bringing back the jobs, he got 85%. Voters there didn’t seem to care that Trump didn’t revive the industry. Or maybe it was never really about anything so concrete and practical.
Which brings us to the second reason coal may be fading as a campaign issue: What it represents to the country as a whole has changed.
More and more, coal seems like yesterday’s news; total production has declined by nearly 50%since 2008. While environmental regulations have had an impact, the biggest reason is competition, first from natural gas and then from renewables, which are now cheaper than coal for electricity generation. While every last voter may not be aware of that fact, years of headlines to that effect — and the steadily increasing number of jobs in the renewables industry — may be penetrating into public consciousness.
Consider Trump’s promise to be “a dictator on day one” so he can do two things: round up immigrants, and “drill, drill, drill.” The latter idea is absurdly unnecessary even for the most fervent fossil fuel advocate, given that the U.S. produced more oil in 2023 than any country in history ever did. Nevertheless, Trump clearly believes it represents something compelling to voters, or at least his voters. But he’s not promising to be a dictator so he can “mine, mine, mine.”
For his part, President Biden touts his administration’s efforts to invest in struggling areas that used to rely on coal, but often in remarks and fact sheets that few voters see. His administration is addressing new concerns over black lung disease (which Trump’s refused to do). Biden spends a great deal of time talking about the government’s green investments, but doesn’t seem to be defensive about the effects the energy transition is having on coal, as so many Democrats have been in the past. Neither he nor others in his party are all that worried about repeating Hillary Clinton’s experience.
That’s despite the fact that the administration’s policies are going a long way toward bringing about the end of coal, or at least its transition to a minor supporting player in the nation’s energy mix. In the latest move toward his goal of a zero-carbon energy system, the EPA announced a new set of regulations affecting coal plants, including the most significant: Plants that plan to stay open past 2039 will have to cut or capture 90 percent of their emissions by 2032. The almost inevitable result will be an acceleration in the closing of coal plants.
When that plan was announced, there were predictable objections from industry and coal-friendly officials — outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin called the new EPA rule “death by a thousand cuts to America’s fossil fuel industry, especially coal” — but on the whole, the reaction was remarkably restrained. Trump did not send a dozen all-caps Truth Social posts denouncing the regulations. Republicans didn’t hold press conferences and suspend all other congressional business to make angry speeches about them. It almost had an air of resignation.
Yes, there will be lawsuits, and there’s a fair chance the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court will strike down the regulations. But as a political issue, it didn’t generate much heat.
That tells us that something important has changed. Coal is no longer a totem of identity and a cause for Republicans to get their own supporters to the polls and win over converts in the middle. National Democrats are overcoming the fear that a pro-coal backlash will turn their climate policies and advocacy into campaign headaches. Just as coal’s importance to the nation’s energy supply is inexorably diminishing, its political power is fading as well. Which makes further climate progress all the more likely.
https://heatmap.news/politics/coal-2024-election-trump-biden
PeerJ Award Winners at BEM 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: PeerJ blog
The Benthic Ecology Meeting Society (BEMS) is a non-profit organization established to run a yearly meeting to exchange scientific information focusing on marine benthic ecosystems (e.g., rocky intertidal, coral reef) and to foster the next generation of benthic biologists. The mission of the BEMS is to promote research in benthic ecosystems, support the exchange of […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284889188/peerj-award-winners-at-bem-2024/
AI boom is great news for the nuclear power dreamers
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Uranium is so hot right now, mining CEO is glowing with enthusiasm
Growing demand for power hungry AI datacenters has executives at Canadian uranium mine Cameco glowing with anticipation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/ai_nuclear_dc_uranium/
Chinese Tencent-owned Riot Games installs rootkit on every League of Legends players’ computer
date: 2024-05-01, from: OS News
With 14.9, Vanguard, Riot’s proprietary Anti-Cheat system will be deployed and active in League of Legends. This means that active enforcement of Vanguard will be in effect and working hard to make sure your queues are free from scripters, botters, and cheaters! We recently released a blog detailing the “why” behind bringing Vanguard to League that you can check out here. It’s a bit of a long read, but it does have some pictures. ↫ Lilu Cabreros in the League of Legends patch notes The basic gist is that Vanguard is a closed-source, kernel-level rootkit for Windows that runs at all times, with the supposed goal of detecting and banning cheaters from playing League of Legends. This being a rootkit designed specifically to inject itself into the Windows kernel, it won’t work on Linux, and as such, the entire League on Linux community, which has been playing League for years now and even at times communicated with Riot employees to keep the game running, is now gone. Interestingly enough, Riot is not implementing Vanguard on macOS, which League of Legends also supports – because Apple simply doesn’t allow it. This is probably the most invasive, disturbing form of anticheat we’ve seen so far, especially since it involves such a hugely popular game. It’s doubly spicy because Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese company, which means a company owned and controlled by the Chinese government now has rootkits installed on the roughly 150 million players’ computers all over the world. While we’re all (rightly, in my opinion) worried about TikTok, China just slipped 150 million rootkits onto computers all over the world. One really has to wonder where these increasingly invasive, anti-privacy and anti-user anticheat measures are going from here. Now that this rootkit can keep tabs on literally every single thing you do on your Windows computer, what’s going to be the next step? Anticheat might have to move towards using webcams to watch you play to prevent you from cheating, because guess what? The next level of cheating is already here, and it doesn’t even involve your computer. Earlier this year, hardware maker MSI showed off a gaming monitor that uses “AI” to see what’s going on on your monitor, and then injects overlays onto your monitor to help you cheat. MSI showed off how the monitor will use the League of Legends minimap to follow enemy champions and other relevant content, and then show warnings on your screen when enemies approach from off-screen. All of this happens entirely on the monitor’s hardware, and never sends any data whatsoever to the computer it’s attached to. It’s cheating that literally cannot be detected by anything running on your computer, rootkit or not. So, the only logical next step as such forms of cheating become more advanced and widespread is to force users to turn on their webcams, and point them at their displays. I fired up League of Legends today on my gaming computer – which runs Linux, of course – and after the League client “installed” the rootkit, it just got stuck in an endless loop of asking me to restart the client. I’ve been playing League of Legends for close to 14 years, and while I know the game – and especially its community – has a deservedly so bad reputation, I’ve always enjoyed the game with friends, and especially with my wife, who’s been playing for years and years as well. Speaking of my wife – even though she runs Windows and could easily install the rootkit if she wanted to, she has some serious doubts about this. When I explained what the Vanguard rootkit can do, her mouse pointer slowly moved away from the “Update” button, saying, “I’m not so sure about this…”
What Tesla’s Supercharger Cuts Could Mean For The NACS Revolution
date: 2024-05-01, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, more on Jeep’s electric plans, and why Toyota still isn’t giving up on hydrogen.
https://insideevs.com/news/718105/tesla-nacs-critical-materials/
San Jose is doubling down on RV safe parking lots for homeless people. Is it helping?
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The city opened one site last year and expects to launch another this fall.
Podcast: A Lost Media Mystery
date: 2024-05-01, from: 404 Media Group
The source of a long mysterious 17-second snippet of music; a service that scraped and sold Discord server messages; and influencers using fake, AI-powered livestream apps.
https://www.404media.co/podcast-a-lost-media-mystery/
Polestar Charged an EV Car in 10 Minutes, Says It’d Work for Bikes, Too
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
This could fix one of the biggest issues with EV bikes.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718059/polestar-storedot-ev-charging-10-minutes/
Lakehouse dam breaks after departure of long-time Teradata CTO
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Data warehousing giant abandons stance against hybrid analytics
Data warehouse stalwart Teradata has shook off its aversion to the lakehouse concept, embracing the idea of performing enterprise analytics on unstructured data – a situation it once argued against.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/teradata_embraces_otfs/
Walters: As California cracks down on groundwater, what about the fallowed farmland?
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
State bill would make it easier for affected farmers to convert their fields for solar power generation.
San Jose tower suffered poor upkeep, many units lacked heat, cooling: court papers
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
A troubled tower in downtown San Jose is engulfed in another lawsuit.
California’s great exodus finally slows as population increases after 3-year decline
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
But the overall population increase is a positive sign for the state that was much maligned for losing its residents to states with more affordable housing.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump backs surveillance and prosecution of women to enforce abortion bans.
https://popular.info/p/trump-backs-surveillance-and-prosecution
This BMW EV Motorcycle Uses a 3-Series’ Alternator for its Motor
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Who knew?
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718058/bmw-ce-o2-ev-motorcycle-alternator-motor/
Space insurers make record-breaking loss as orbit gets cramped
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Unsustainable’ losses neared $1B in 2023
The space above the Earth is getting increasingly crowded as launches become more frequent and satellites are squeezed closer together.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/space_insurer_record_loss/
See New Images of the Horsehead Nebula, Captured in Striking Detail by the James Webb Telescope
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The beautiful infrared imagery features one of the best known locations in space to study the evolution of stars and interstellar matter
A story about racism, DEI and the economics of college athletics
date: 2024-05-01, from: Marketplace Morning Report
A new Alabama law that restricts diversity, equity and inclusion curriculum in public institutions goes into effect Oct. 1. In response, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is calling on Black athletes to boycott playing sports at Alabama colleges and universities in hopes that the potential economic loss will lead to the law’s repeal. We’ll examine. Plus, the Federal Trade Commission is challenging patents on 20 brand-name drugs.
Pedego launches three new ‘groundbreaking’ e-bikes including Moto, Cargo, and Trike
date: 2024-05-01, from: Electrek Feed
Pedego, one of the earliest electric bike brands to enter the US market well over a decade ago, has announced one of its biggest new e-bike rollouts yet. The company launched three new models consisting of the Moto, Cargo, and Trike.
April 30, 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2024-f3a
The Mitt 808 Traveler Is A Harley Road Glide If You Squint Hard Enough
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A large fairing, built-in storage, and lots of chrome.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717915/mitt-808-traveler-cruiser-launch/
Intel, Ampere show running LLMs on CPUs isn’t as crazy as it sounds
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
If you lower you expectations, of course. Think more Llama2-7B, less GPT-4
Popular generative AI chatbots and services like ChatGPT or Gemini mostly run on GPUs or other dedicated accelerators, but as smaller models are more widely deployed in the enterprise, CPU-makers Intel and Ampere are suggesting their wares can do the job too – and their arguments aren’t entirely without merit.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/intel_ampere_show_running_llms/
EU scrutinizes Meta ahead of elections
date: 2024-05-01, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: The European Commission is investigating how Meta handles political content, including a suspected Russian influence campaign. That issue is particularly important with so many elections coming up around the world. Also, WhatsApp is banned in some countries, yet WhatsApp’s boss says millions are using workarounds to access it. Then, what has stopped many international music artists from touring in India, and why are things changing?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/eu-scrutinizes-meta-ahead-of-elections
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-01, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump threatens to prosecute Bidens if he’s re-elected unless he gets immunity.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/30/trump-second-term-abortion-immigration
Stop Watching FortNine’s Videos For Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
If you hint that people shouldn’t be wearing armor without giving a viable alternative, your channel deserves to take a hit this month.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717727/fort9-motorcycle-armor/
Former students at for-profit Art Institutes are approved for $6 billion in loan cancellation
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
How to Watch the Dazzling Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower, Bringing an Unusual ‘Outburst’ to Skies This Weekend
date: 2024-05-01, from: Smithsonian Magazine
This year’s spectacle will be more impressive than usual, as the Earth passes through a concentrated clump of 3,000-year-old comet debris
VMware by Broadcom blinks again – this time easing change for cloud service providers
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
As the rumor mill whispers about a breakup with AWS
VMware by Broadcom has made some fresh concessions to its cloud service provider community – and the customers who rely on it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/vmware_cloud_partner_changes/
Drone footage shows devastation in Ukraine’s strategic eastern city of Chasiv Yar as Russians near
date: 2024-05-01, from: Associated Press, World News
Drone footage exclusively obtained by The Associated Press shows months of Russian artillery pounding have devastated a strategic city in eastern Ukraine.
Gary Horton | Honor, Uphold the Intended Purposes
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Sidewalks are for walking. Streets are for driving. Parks are for playing and recreation. Libraries are for books and reading. Schools are for educating kids. Colleges and universities are for advanced learning. What I’m talking about is function and order in society. Specifically, using our public and private infrastructure for the purpose for which it […]
The post Gary Horton | Honor, Uphold the Intended Purposes appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/gary-horton-honor-uphold-the-intended-purposes/
John Dennis | A Beacon of Hope?
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
In the April 27 edition, Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, issued a news release on some proposed legislation aiming to expand access to abortion care in California. She states, “As attacks on women’s reproductive rights escalate in neighboring states … it’s essential that California remains a beacon of hope and a leader in protecting and advancing […]
The post John Dennis | A Beacon of Hope? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/john-dennis-a-beacon-of-hope/
Dr. Gene Dorio | Medical-Industrial Emancipation
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
My grandfather was forced to immigrate from Japan to Canada in 1910. As I learned, he owned many sake factories in Japan, which were nationalized in a government takeover of certain businesses. Governments do that. The family was heavily burdened, pressuring them to move across the Pacific. Over the next century, our family prospered under […]
The post Dr. Gene Dorio | Medical-Industrial Emancipation appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/dr-gene-dorio-medical-industrial-emancipation/
Gerald Staack | Can We Survive the Next 100 Years?
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
I wish the world would become more secular. Instead of fighting each other over fundamentalist ideology, I look forward to a planetary civilization that is scientific, multicultural and at peace. Just maybe, if we don’t kill each other off, we could all concentrate on building a sustainable life on our Earth. Up to now we’ve […]
The post Gerald Staack | Can We Survive the Next 100 Years? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/gerald-staack-can-we-survive-the-next-100-years/
May’s Night Sky Notes: Stargazing for Beginners
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Were you inspired by the solar eclipse to become an amateur astronomer? If so, here are some high-level tips on how to get started, from Night Sky Notes!
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/night-sky-network/may2024-night-sky-notes/
An update from the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre
date: 2024-05-01, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
It’s been nearly two years since the launch of the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre. Today, the Centre’s Director Dr Sue Sentance shares an update about the Centre’s work. The Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre (RPCERC) is unique for two reasons: we are a joint initiative between the University of Cambridge and the…
The post An update from the Raspberry Pi Computing Education Research Centre appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Bill advances to exonerate hundreds in Post Office Horizon scandal
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Their convictions wiped clean from the slate,’ minister promises
The mass exoneration of wrongfully convicted Post Office managers caught up in the Horizon IT scandal has come a step closer in the UK after MPs passed the third stage of a government bill.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/post_office_exoneration_bill/
Linux Mint: non-GNOME GTK desktop environments need to work together in the face of libadwaita
date: 2024-05-01, from: OS News
Anyone who has spent any time recently using non-GNOME GTK desktop environments, like Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce, has had to deal with the unfortunate reality of a lot of GTK applications becoming GNOME applications instead, using GNOME’s own libadwaita. These applications are hard to theme, and do not integrate at all with the proper GTK applications non-GNOME desktop environments ship with. With how popular GNOME is, this has meant that the number of non-GNOME GTK applications has been dwindling. Linux Mint, the popular Linux distribution that also develops the Cinnamon desktop environment, has long made a bundle of GTK applications called XApps – basically forks of various core GNOME 3.x applications to ensure they would have access to non-GNOME GTK applications. With GNOME effectively forking GTK into its own, unique, GNOME-specific style (like libaidwaita), other GTK environments have suffered, and XApps were intended to close that gap. That hasn’t really happened though, as XApps remained mostly a Mint-only thing, managed by Mint, as part of the Mint/Cinnamon GitHub projects. Other distributions and GTK desktop environments, such as Xfce, MATE, Budgie, and so on, didn’t really pick them up. The Linux Mint project intends to change that, and will ‘spin off’ the XApps into its own, dedicated, independent project to facilitate cross-distribution and cross-DE collaboration, decision-making and development, all in an effort to ensure the long-term viability of non-GNOME GTK desktop environments. They also intend to fork a lot more of the GNOME 3 applications, for the same reason I mentioned earlier: GNOME applications are no longer GTK applications, but GNOME applications – they look and feel horribly out of place in environments that don’t use the GNOME-specific libadwaita. As such, Celluloid, GNOME Calculator, Simple Scan, Baobab, System Monitor, GNOME Calendar, File Roller, and Zenity were recently downgraded in Linux Mint to their last GTK 3 versions, and will most likely be forked in the near future. In addition, the Adwaita theme, the default GNOME/GTK theme, will be removed from the list of available themes in Cinnamon 6.2. Adwaita, too, has become increasingly GNOME-only, and thus, increasingly broken on non-GNOME desktop environments. Flat-our removing Adwaita altogether is not possible, since it’s a GTK dependency, but hiding it from the theme selector is not an issue, of course. As project lead Clément Lefèbvre writes: libAdwaita is for GNOME and GNOME only. We can’t blame GNOME for this, they’ve been very clear about it from the start. It was made specifically for GNOME to have more freedom and build its own ecosystem without impacting GTK. We want to send a strong signal upstream and towards other projects. We cannot and will not support applications which do not support our users and environments. We can’t promote applications to our users which don’t support our users. The software manager will be vigilant towards that going forward and list compatible software by default. ↫ Clément Lefèbvre All of this is great news to hear. I’ve been making extensive use of Xfce on OpenBSD lately, and on the Fedora Xfce spin in the weeks before that, and the situation has become almost comical. If you install any GNOME application on Xfce, theming just breaks down completely, as most themes are either not made to support the massive headerbars GNOME uses, or they do support it but still look horribly out of place compared to the more sane titlebar plus menubar plus toolbar layout of traditional desktop environments like Xfce. I’ve long been saying that the non-GNOME GTK desktop environments need to work together to formulate an answer to the onslaught of libadwaita and the GNOME-ification of GTK, because each of them risks becoming entirely tied to whatever GNOME and libadwaita decides to do, for better or worse. It seems the Linux Mint team has finally realised this as well, and I really hope – and strongly suggest – Xfce, MATE, and others join them as well. If they don’t, there won’t be an Xfce in a few years. What’s the point in developing Xfce if you’re at the mercy of whatever choices GNOME makes?
Redox gets USB HID support
date: 2024-05-01, from: OS News
Another month, another detailed report about the progress made in Redox, the Rust-based operating system. A major improvements this month is support for USB HID, allowing USB keyboards and mice to work on Redox, but the project does note USB hubs are still problematic and might not work properly. Thanks to these USB improvements, Redox’ desktop environment Orbital now also ran on ARM64 in Qemu for the first time, which is a great step towards running it on real ARM64 hardware. A massive documentation pass has also taken place, fixing various errors and improving and simplifying the writing. More programs have been ported, of course, and various lower-level improvements and fixes, along with a number of other fixes and changes across the operating system.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139514/redox-gets-usb-hid-support/
Deno 1.43: Improved Language Server performance
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: Deno blog
Deno 1.43 enhances productivity with a faster language server,
improved npm compatibility, a new deno serve subcommand,
URL.parse() API, and announcements regarding Deno 2.
How NASA Continues Inspiring Engineer’s Future
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
Work at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, takes one site engineer back to a childhood memory, where a dream of being a member of the NASA team began. Now, Briou Bourgeois is working to launch a career with even bigger aspirations.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/how-nasa-continues-inspiring-engineers-future/
Tech industry sheds some light on the planet’s situation via LinkedIn
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Kyndryl exec ponders ‘fragility of the planet,’ as Intel and Amazon offer advice
Comment How did you celebrate or contribute to Earth Day? Sharing is caring so we wanted to highlight the thoughts and advice from Kyndryl, formerly IBM’s global tech infrastructure services outpost, and others.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/linkedin_earth_day/
Office Hours: Will Israel’s war in Gaza harm Biden in November? If so, what should Biden do now?
date: 2024-05-01, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends,
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-will-israels-war-in
Sign language translation glasses
date: 2024-05-01, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
These sign language translation glasses use Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and a camera to translate signs to speech in real time.
The post Sign language translation glasses appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/sign-language-translation-glasses/
The Homeowners’ Rebellion
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Lever News
Wall Street landlords face a heartland backlash that could set off a revolution.
https://www.levernews.com/the-homeowners-rebellion/
Google Search results polluted by buggy AI-written code frustrate coders
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Pulumi claims it has culled bad infrastructure-as-code samples
Analysis Google has indexed inaccurate infrastructure-as-code samples produced by Pulumi AI – a developer that uses an AI chatbot to generate infrastructure – and the rotten recipes are already appearing at the top of search results.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/pulumi_ai_pollution_of_search/
Today in SCV History (May 1)
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1927: First major competition, second annual rodeo, at new Baker Ranch arena (later Saugus Speedway). Overflow crowd more than fills 18,000-seat arena. Entire SCV population was ~3,000 [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-may-1/
Huawei’s woes really were just a flesh wound – profits just soared 564 percent
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The Chinese domestic market doesn’t care about sanctions
Huawei’s latest earnings filing revealed that despite US sanctions it still managed to grow its net profits a whopping 564 percent year-on-year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/huawei_profits_soar_q1/
Java 17 now developers’ favorite brew, with Eclipse Adoptium proving popular, too
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
New Relic report also sees accelerated uptake of freshly-ground JDK releases
The nearly three-year-old Java 17 has overtaken Java 11 as the most widely used long-term support (LTS) version of the programming language, according to app monitors at New Relic.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/java_trends_new_relic/
Gaza pier construction leads to concerns about US force protection
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
As Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu vows to enter Rafah to rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas, the United States military has started to build a pier off the coast in hopes of providing more aid to civilians trapped in the violence. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb explains why this has some lawmakers worried about what’s next.
AWS hits $100B revenue run rate, expands margins, delivers most of Amazon’s profit
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Growth is rather slower than cloudy rivals, but boss Andy Jassy can explain that
Amazon Web Services is on track to earn $100 billion of revenue in FY2024, has improved its margins, and provides the bulk of its parent company’s operating income.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/amazon_q1_2024/
The Moloch Trap of Environmental Problems
date: 2024-05-01, from: Hannah Richie at Substack
Zero-sum thinking will get us nowhere.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/moloch-trap
Massive Powerball win draws attention to a little-known immigrant culture in US
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
PORTLAND, Ore. — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.
“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
After the conflict as well as the Laotian civil war, when the U.S.-backed government of Laos fell in 1975, they fled by the thousands to avoid reprisals from the new Communist government, escaping by foot through the jungle and then across the Mekong River into Thailand, according to a history posted on the website of Iu Mien Community Services in Sacramento, California. More than 70% of the Iu Mien population in Laos left and many wound up in refugee camps in Thailand.
Thousands of the refugees were allowed to come to the U.S., with the first waves arriving in the late 1970s and most settling along the West Coast. The culture had rich traditions of storytelling, basketry, embroidery and jewelry-making, but many initially had difficulty adjusting to Western life due to cultural and language differences as well as a lack of formal education.
There are now tens of thousands of Iu Mien — pronounced “yoo MEE’-en” — in the U.S., with many attending universities or starting businesses. Many have converted to Christianity from traditional animist religions. There is a sizeable Iu Mien community in Portland and its suburbs, with a Buddhist temple and Baptist church, active social organization, and businesses and restaurants.
Cayle Tern, president of the Iu Mien Association of Oregon, arrived in Portland with his family in 1980, when he was 3 years old. He is now running for City Council. His father and uncle assisted American forces in Laos and he was born as his mother fled to a refugee camp in Thailand.
Many Iu Mien in the U.S. have similar stories, and Saephan’s Powerball win sheds light on the new lives they have made in Oregon and elsewhere after such trauma, he said. Tern knows all three of the Powerball winners, he said.
“You know, I think for me it’s more than just about the money. … We’ve been here since the late ’70s, but very little is known of us,” he said while sitting in his uncle’s restaurant in Troutdale, a Portland suburb.
“This attention that we’re getting — people are interested in what the community is, who we are, where we came from. That is to me is equally special.”
Saephan, 46, said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company.
He said Monday that he has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” he said, adding that he’d “find a good doctor for myself.”
The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize.
Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize.
The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose 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 and state taxes in Oregon.
The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth-largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.
The biggest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.
Amid pro-Palestinian protests, Jewish students sue Columbia University for failing to protect them
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Tensions on U.S. campuses enter a new phase as a Jewish student files a proposed class action lawsuit alleging students were displaced from Columbia University because its administration could not guarantee their safety. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
US and EU eye North Korea-Iran military cooperation
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The United States and the European Union say they are keeping their eyes on Pyongyang and Tehran for any possible military cooperation between the two as Iran confirms a North Korean delegation’s visit to the country.
The U.S. “will use all available tools, including interdiction and sanctions, to address such activities,” a State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on Friday.
An EU spokesperson on the same day told VOA Korean that it is also “following closely Iran-DPRK relations and their potential cooperation that could indeed be concerning on certain issues if it violates existing U.N. sanctions.”
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Pyongyang announced through its state-run KCNA that it sent a delegation led by its External Economic Relations Minister Yun Jong Ho to Iran on April 23.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that a North Korean delegation visited Tehran last week to discuss bilateral trade, according to Reuters.
But Kanaani dismissed any suspected cooperation on their missile programs, saying it is a “biased speculation” based on “untrue” reports.
The U.S. has accused Pyongyang, Tehran and Beijing of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Tehran has also been involved in conflict with Israel.
Iran attacked Israel on April 13 with more than 300 missiles and drones and said the assault was in retaliation against an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria. Israel responded by launching a counterstrike into Iran on April 18.
“It certainly is possible and even probable” that Pyongyang and Tehran are cooperating militarily in the current Middle East conflict, just as they have done since the 1980s, said Robert Peters, a research fellow for nuclear deterrence and missile defense at the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for National Security.
Iran is motivated to acquire missiles from North Korea “given Iran’s current approach of laying a siege [around] Israel using missiles supplied to its proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthis,” Peters said.
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are Iran-backed militant groups that base their operations in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and Yemen, respectively.
Pyongyang’s arms sales to Tehran began in the 1980s during Iran’s war with Iraq. Their cooperation on missile programs continued since then and expanded.
In January 2016, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Iranians for traveling to Pyongyang and collaborating on the development of North Korea’s 80-ton rocket booster. A few months later, North Korea said it had tested a new rocket engine that had a thrust of 80 tons and would be used in a new space launch vehicle.
North Korea has been accusing Israel of committing “terrorism” against Iran since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In December, the Israel Defense Forces said North Korean weapons have been turning up in Gaza.
Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo University in Texas, said arms transfers between Pyongyang and Tehran are “inevitable” regardless of any meeting between the two last week.
“Some of the weapons that North Korea has sent to Russia have gone to Iran first and then up to the Caspian Sea, and Russia has used those weapons in the Ukraine,” said Bechtol, the author of the book “North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa.”
He told VOA that Iran’s Emad medium-range ballistic missiles used in the attack against Israel earlier in the month were made based on the Shahab-3, which Iran first put into use in 2003. That, in turn, was developed from North Korean NoDong missiles that were sent to Tehran in the 1990s.
Bechtol said Iran’s Shahab-3 missiles were developed in a facility that North Korea built for Tehran in the early 2000s. He said Tehran is likely seeking to acquire Pyongyang’s Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Joeun Lee contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-and-eu-eye-north-korea-iran-military-cooperation/7593077.html
April 30, 2024
date: 2024-05-01, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
This morning, Time magazine published a cover story by Eric Cortellessa about what Trump is planning for a second term. Based on two interviews with Trump and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisors, the story lays out Trump’s conviction that he was “too nice” in his first term and that he would not make such a mistake again.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2024
AI and Copyright (for libraries)
date: 2024-05-01, from: Ed Summers blog, Inkdroid
A colleague in Slack (thanks Snowden) shared that the Coalition for Networked Information recently had a good session on Copyright and AI for librarians. It was run by Jonathan Band, who is an attorney for the Library Copyright Alliance, and Timothy Vollmer who does scholarly communications at Berkeley. The presentation is an hour long and worth watching, or listening to as you do something else, like walking your dog…as you do.
Below are the brief notes I jotted down afterwards.
Band helpfully pointed out that discussions about AI and copyright often center on the question of whether fair use applies, and that these discussions often tangle up three separate issues that are useful to think about on their own.
- Can ingestion for training AI constitute infringement?
- Can AI output infringe?
- Is AI output copyrightable?
For ingestion (1) it seems like the EU Copyright law and the new AI Act will (like the GDPR) have a lot of sway elsewhere around the world since businesses will want to operate their AI services in Europe.
AI companies will be required to disclose what content they used to build their models, and also to provide a way for publishers to opt out (e.g. robots.txt or newly developing standards) from having their content used to train generative AI models. There are also provisions in EU Copyright that protect non-commercial ingestion of copyrighted material.
However even if these legal instruments help shape how generative AI services get deployed, a law on the books in the EU can’t be used in a court case outside of the EU?
For 2 it seems like things are largely up in the air, and that the [NYTimes v Microsoft] case is something to watch, since they are arguing that OpenAI’s ChatGPT can generate near verbatim text from their copyrighted materials. Unlike other quasi AI tools (e.g. Google Search) ChatGPT doesn’t link to cited material (because it doesn’t know how to), which negatively impacts web publishers like the NYTimes since it deprives them of clicks (and revenue).
There are multiple other court cases testing the waters around 2, and apparently the same law firm seems to be representing many of them?
As for 3, the US Copyright Office has a report coming out later this year, but it’s likely that it will present the factors to consider, without providing explicit guidance. So questions about whether AI generated content can be copyrighted, and by who (the creators of the tool, the creator of the prompt, etc) will likely be decided in court cases. Band didn’t mention if there are any of these pending.
There was also some interesting points shared by Timothy Vollmer nearer the end about vendors who are making libraries sign contracts that prevent library patrons from ingesting content for research purposes, which is something that the EU Copyright explicitly allows. He had some good suggestions for how to push back on these by demanding alternate language in these contracts that doesn’t infringe on fair use.
I think some coordination amongst libraries for pushing for consistent legal language here would be helpful in making sure library patrons aren’t negatively impacted, and libraries aren’t held liable for breach of contract in cases where fair use should apply. I’m not sure where that work is happening, but presumably Vollmer would be a good person to reach out to, to find out.
All this prompted me to add a robots.txt file to this website, based on directives I saw in the NYTimes robots.txt. Band said that legal questions about ingestion may hinge on whether a publisher has indicated that they did not want their content used in generative AI tools. I don’t realistically expect to be suing any of these companies, but I decided to do it in solidarity because I’m pretty skeptical of this generative AI technology.
I’m really interested to hear if we get more declarative ways of controlling whether content is used for generative AI instead of bluntly blocking particular bots by User-Agent. Some companies may want to crawl a page once and repurpose content for different things (search index, llm, etc) without requiring multiple fetches from the multiple bots. I wonder what will happen over at the IETF in this area? The use of robots.txt has proven problematic for use cases around web archiving (crawl and replay) in the past, so a fresh approach would be helpful I think.
https://inkdroid.org/2024/05/01/ai-copyright/
Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters after takeover of Columbia University building
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
AI JAM: AI technology solve CSUN’s challenge
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
California State University, Northridge (CSUN) hosted the third annual Digital Equity Day on April 19, focusing on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Distinguished speakers Stephen Than and Deone Zell…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181221/multimedia/watch/ai-jam-ai-technology-solve-csuns-challenge/
Lawmakers Just Stole Air Travelers’ Right To Midflight Water
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Lever News
Politicians are helping airline lobbyists block passengers’ right to drinking water and human-sized airplane seats.
https://www.levernews.com/lawmakers-just-stole-air-travelers-right-to-midflight-water/
Imagine if Uber offered car loans, not just rides. Its Indonesian analog will do this soon
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Superapp GoTo has an angle on everything – even taming TikTok
Indonesian superapp provider GoTo will soon offer to take you for a ride – or loan you money to buy your own.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/goto_car_loans_q1_2024/
Three Immigrants. Three Journeys
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/three-immigrants-three-journeys/7593039.html
U.S. Department of State Open House at NASA Headquarters
date: 2024-05-01, from: NASA breaking news
This event was part of Space Diplomacy Week, focused on deepening bilateral relationships, specifically how international partnerships are strengthened by space exploration.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/u-s-department-of-state-open-house-at-nasa-headquarters/
Recall election targeting Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price could fall to November ballot
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Tim Dupuis, the county’s Registrar of Voters, cited a lengthy list of budgetary and logistical concerns in voicing his preference for delaying the recall question until November.
SF Giants blanked in Boston as Red Sox chase Logan Webb in fourth
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Logan Webb and the Giants opened longest road trip this season by getting shut out 4-0 against the Boston Red Sox.
CSUN baseball clinches sweep over Roadrunners, extends its winning streak to eight
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
CSUN wrapped up its three-game home series with a triumphant sweep over Cal State Bakersfield, extending its winning streak to eight. Outfielder Will Linberg’s exceptional performance set the pace during…
San Jose man arrested on suspicion of operating a brothel
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Two human-trafficking survivors were identified at the scene and received resources, police said.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/30/san-jose-man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-operating-a-brothel/
Large numbers of NYPD begin entering Columbia University campus
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Columbia University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors said faculty’s efforts to help defuse the situation have been repeatedly ignored by the university’s administration despite school statutes that require consultation. The group warned of potential conflict between police officers nearby and protesters on campus.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/30/columbia-issues-shelter-in-place-as-nypd-masses-near-campus/
COC schedules information sessions for prospective board candidates
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release Three seats on the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, which oversees College of the Canyons, will be up for election in November. To provide information about the election process and the role of the trustees well in advance of the candidate filing period, the college will host three information sessions […]
The post COC schedules information sessions for prospective board candidates appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/coc-schedules-information-sessions-for-prospective-board-candidates/
China’s state media support protests on US campuses but not at home
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
washington — State media in China, where social protest is strongly discouraged or punished, have been vocally supporting the pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses while decrying what they describe as a heavy-handed crackdown on free speech by authorities.
“Can blindly using violence to suppress students be able to quell domestic dissatisfaction with the government?” wrote Jun Zhengping Studio, a social media account operated by the News Broadcasting Center of the People’s Liberation Army, in an April 26 commentary.
“If American politicians really have a sense of democracy and human rights, they should stop supporting Israel, stop endorsing Israel’s actions, and do more things that are conducive to world peace. Otherwise, the only one who will suffer backlash is the United States itself.”
The People’s Daily, China’s state-owned newspaper, said in a video that American students are protesting because they “can no longer stand the double standards of the United States.”
On social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying echoed that comment and implied the U.S. government was cracking down on protests at home while supporting protests abroad.
She posted a clip of U.S. police arresting protesters with the question, “Remember how U.S. officials reacted when these protests happened elsewhere?”
The protests this month at scores of universities, including New York’s Columbia University and George Washington University in the U.S. capital, have opposed Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza over the large number of civilian casualties. The student protesters are demanding that their schools divest from companies with ties to Israel and are calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the protests are a symbol of American democracy, but he criticized the protesters for remaining silent on the attack by Hamas militants in October that killed more 1,200 Israelis and sparked the conflict.
Critics say antisemitic rhetoric emerged at some of the protests, and there have been clashes with police.
As of Monday, more than 900 students had been arrested, mainly for trespassing because of protest camps they erected on university property.
In an email to all faculty members and students, American University stated that the school’s policy of supporting free speech has not changed, but it explicitly prohibits “disruptive” behavior such as setting up camps.
“Any demonstration that continues to interfere with university operations or violate policies after engagement and de-escalation will not be permitted, and those responsible will face conduct actions, disciplinary sanctions, or arrest as appropriate,” the email said.
Reactions differ
The handling of the protests has been in stark contrast with the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on domestic dissent and any form of street protest.
China’s strict zero-COVID measures and censorship of critical voices during the pandemic spurred street protests in many Chinese cities in November 2022 that became known as the White Paper movement. Protesters would hold up blank sheets of white paper to symbolize support for the protests while not actually saying or doing anything, in hopes of not getting into trouble.
Nonetheless, Chinese police arrested and surveilled those caught holding up white paper. Chinese Ambassador to France Lu Shaye accused “external anti-China forces” of being behind the protests and called them a “color revolution.”
Critics were quick to point out Beijing’s double standard when Chinese state media backed U.S. college protesters.
Sean Haines, a British man who worked for Chinese state media from 2016 to 2019, told VOA that Chinese state media’s extensive coverage of Western demonstrations is a consistent policy.
“At Xinhua, when we chose the running order for news, foreign protests were always promoted,” he said, “especially if it was around election times. ‘Look how scary foreign democracies are, aren’t you glad China doesn’t have this?’”
He said footage of protests is easy to find in places with a free press, such as the United States and the West, while there are almost no images of protests in China, a one-party authoritarian state where public demonstrations are quickly stopped.
“It’s ironic.” he said. “China is using [the] West’s free speech, openness, right to protest — against itself.”
Although Chinese authorities have not declared support for any side in the Israel-Hamas war, they were reluctant to condemn the militants’ October attack and repeatedly blamed Israel and the U.S. for the conflict in Gaza.
At the same time, antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiments, including conspiracy theories, have been allowed on China’s highly censored social media.
A popular claim is that U.S. support for Israel is not because of history and democratic values but because a Jewish cabal secretly controls U.S. politics and business.
Hu Xijin, a special commentator and former editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times, posted on social media site Weibo on April 19 that all walks of life in the U.S. “cannot suppress the protests of college students everywhere, which shows that the Jewish political and business alliance’s control over American public opinion has declined.”
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
Salvation Army of SCV to host doughnut-eating contest
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release The Salvation Army Santa Clarita Valley Corps is scheduled June 7 to host its inaugural Donut Day event, including a doughnut eating contest. This new event takes place on National Doughnut Day, Friday, June 7, at 3:30 p.m. at The Cube (27745 Smyth Drive), with a ticketed VIP reception following at 5 […]
The post Salvation Army of SCV to host doughnut-eating contest appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/salvation-army-of-scv-to-host-doughnut-eating-contest/
SCV Education Foundation honors 55 local teachers
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Education Foundation celebrated the 40th annual Teacher Tribute ceremony, themed “Academy of the Stars,” and honored over 50 educators from all five local school districts for their outstanding service and contributions in the classroom promoting excellence in public education on Friday evening at College of the Canyons. Colleagues, students, community leaders […]
The post <strong>SCV Education Foundation honors 55 local teachers </strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/scv-education-foundation-honors-55-local-teachers/
Open source programming language R patches gnarly arbitrary code exec flaw
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
An ACE in the hole for miscreants
The open source R programming language – popular among statisticians and data scientists for performing visualization, machine learning, and suchlike – has patched an arbitrary code execution hole that scored a preliminary CVSS severity rating of 8.8 out of 10.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/r_programming_language_ace_vuln/
How exactly will a floating dock in the sea facilitate Gaza aid?
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
The relief is desperately needed, with the U.N. saying people in Gaza are on the brink of famine. But there are still widespread security concerns. And some aid groups say that with so much more needed, the focus should instead be on pushing Israel to ease obstacles to the delivery of aid on land routes.
Wilk’s illegal dumping legislation approved in Senate Public Safety Committee
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, announced his measure to combat illegal dumping, by increasing penalties and closing a loophole which has enabled the problem for years, was approved in the Senate Public Safety Committee. “The High Desert has been treated as a dump for too long, but it’s not a dump. It is […]
The post Wilk’s illegal dumping legislation approved in Senate Public Safety Committee appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
State Water Project increases projected allocation
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
News release The Department of Water Resources has announced an additional increase in the State Water Project water supply allocation forecast for 2024. The forecasted allocation has increased to 40%, up from 30% last month. The State Water Project provides water supplies to 27 million Californians and farmers served by 29 public water […]
The post State Water Project increases projected allocation appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/state-water-project-increases-projected-allocation/
COC holds resource fair for nonprofit awareness
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Nonprofits from across the Santa Clarita Valley met with students at College of the Canyons on Tuesday at the Community Resource Fair to show how these organizations can help them navigate college life. The event was held by COC’s Center for Civic and Community Engagement in collaboration with COC’s Golden Z Club, part of Zonta […]
The post <strong>COC holds resource fair for nonprofit awareness</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/coc-holds-resource-fair-for-nonprofit-awareness/
Developer announces Copper Hill Drive bridge work
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Roadwork is underway for the bridge widening on Copper Hill Drive between McBean Parkway and Avenida Rancho Tesoro, according to a message from the Newport Pacific Land Co. The widening, which is expected to result in portions of Copper Hill Drive being closed over the next year, will allow for three eastbound lanes, with two […]
The post Developer announces Copper Hill Drive bridge work appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/developer-announces-copper-hill-drive-bridge-work/
H-1B visa: Feds say they fixed loophole that opened way for massive fraud
date: 2024-05-01, from: San Jose Mercury News
Soon after the new system began, a number of employers started creating new companies and working together to submit multiple registrations for the same workers to up their lottery odds.
Jonny D. Wallis Park Closed Temporarily for Splash Pad Construction
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Construction of the long-awaited Splash Pad at Jonny D. Wallis Neighborhood Park (170 S. Kellogg) continues prompting some closures. Here
The post Jonny D. Wallis Park Closed Temporarily for Splash Pad Construction appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Schiavo Introduces Click to Cancel Bill to Protect Consumers
date: 2024-05-01, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo has announced the introduction of AB 2863, a bill aimed at protecting consumers and putting more money back in people’s pockets by simplifying the cancellation process for subscription services.
https://scvnews.com/schiavo-introduces-click-to-cancel-bill-to-protect-consumers/
Prep baseball playoffs begin Thursday for seven SCV teams
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
While the professionals are just getting their season started, the prep baseball season is beginning to wind down. Thursday marks the first round of the CIF Southern Section postseason — play-in games not withstanding — and there are seven Santa Clarita Valley teams aiming for a title. Hart and Saugus both landed home games in […]
The post Prep baseball playoffs begin Thursday for seven SCV teams appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/prep-baseball-playoffs-begin-thursday-for-six-scv-teams/
CSUN Women’s Basketball season ends with struggles
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
The Matadors concluded their season with a reasonable effort, but more was needed to secure a spot in the postseason conference tournament for the third consecutive year. Through the uphill…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181263/sports/csun-womens-basketball-season-ends-with-struggles/
Man arrested on suspicion of drug possession, child cruelty
date: 2024-05-01, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies arrested a 37-year-old man last week on suspicion of child cruelty and possession of a controlled substance for sale after a traffic stop led to a probation compliance check, station officials confirmed on Tuesday. Deputies conducted a traffic stop on April 23 near the intersection of Sierra Highway and […]
The post <strong>Man arrested on suspicion of drug possession, child cruelty</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-drug-possession-child-cruelty/
Scriptnotes, Episode 637: Love and Money, Transcript
date: 2024-05-01, from: John August blog
The original post for this episode can be found here. John August: Hello and welcome. My name is John August. Craig Mazin: My name is Craig Mazin. John: And this is Episode 637 of Scriptnotes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show, Cowboy Carter is the new […] The post Scriptnotes, Episode 637: Love and Money, Transcript first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/scriptnotes-episode-637-love-and-money-transcript
While their peers want alternatives, some young voters endorse Biden or Trump
date: 2024-05-01, from: VOA News USA
A majority of younger voters in this U.S. presidential election say they wish they had someone other than Joe Biden or Donald Trump to choose from. Some of that has to do with the candidates’ ages. But who are the younger voters backing one of the two? VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns reports.
Evolving the Go Standard Library with math/rand/v2
date: 2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-01, from: Go language blog
Go 1.23 adds math/rand/v2 and charts a course for the evolution of the Go standard library.
Organic Walnuts Linked to E. Coli Outbreak May Have Been Sold at Four Santa Barbara County Markets
date: 2024-05-01, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
FDA lists natural food and co-op stores in Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, and Solvang that may have received walnuts connected to a multistate outbreak.
The post Organic Walnuts Linked to E. Coli Outbreak May Have Been Sold at Four Santa Barbara County Markets appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Seeking consultancy: understanding joining obstacles for non-member journals
date: 2024-05-01, from: Crossref Blog
Crossref is undertaking a large program, dubbed ‘RCFS’ (Resourcing Crossref for Future Sustainability) that will initially tackle five specific issues with our fees. We haven’t increased any of our fees in nearly two decades, and while we’re still okay financially and do not have a revenue growth goal, we do have inclusion and simplification goals. This report from Research Consulting helped to narrow down the five priority projects for 2024-2025 around these three core goals:
Scope of the RCFS Program 2024-2025
GOAL: MORE EQUITABLE FEES
- Project 1: Evaluate the USD $275 annual membership fee tier and propose a more equitable pricing structure, which might entail breaking this down into two or more different tiers.
- Project 2: Define a new basis for sizing and tiering members for their capacity to pay
GOAL: SIMPLIFY COMPLEX FEES
- Project 3: Address and adjust volume discounts for Content Registration
- Project 4: Address and adjust backfile discounts for Content Registration
GOAL: REBALANCE REVENUE SOURCES
- Project 5: Reflect the increasing value of Crossref as a metadata source, likley increasing Metadata Plus fees
Work to date
As part of the RCFS program, we are working closely with our Membership & Fees Committee to discuss insights, gather feedback, and make recommendations to the Board. As a first step, we have surveyed and received responses from around 1000 of the current 8,000 Crossref members in our lowest membership fee tier ($275 USD). We are now starting to distill that data and will discuss it on our community call on May 8th and subsequently with the M&F Committee to inform recommendations for fee changes that may going into effect in 2025 or 2026.
Request For Information (RFI) about community consultation project
While we have useful data from existing Crossref members, we know that there are many thousands of journals that are not (yet) members, and we need to understand this group better, in particular, to document and address the financial obstacles as well as the technical or social challenges.
We are looking for community facilitation expertise, with multiple language skills, to conduct a series of focus groups with non-member journals, with a summary and insights report (in English) provided by the end of June 2024.
All the data and documentation will be available publicly on the dedicated RCFS Program website
As well as designing, conducting, and summarising the results of some focus groups (participants for which will be gathered via our own contacts and those of partners such as DOAJ, EIFL, and the Free Journal Network) we would like the consultant to review work such as the DIAMAS institutional publishing report, and identify data relevant to Crossref’s fee model.
If you would like to respond, please provide the following information and send it to Kora Korzec at feedback@crossref.org by 15th May:
- Your consultancy organisation and your role within it
- Examples of similar market research undertaken
- Languages spoken within your team
- Confirmation that the timeline is workable
- Approximate fee, likely range, or structure/basis for your fee
Equally, if you represent a journal or group of journals, such as Diamond Open Access journals, and are not yet using Crossref, please get in touch and we can include your group in the research.
Thank you!
Man arrested on suspicion of drug possession, intent to sell
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Signal
A crime saturation operation conducted last week in Castaic by Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station school resource deputies resulted in a 35-year-old man being arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance, station officials confirmed on Tuesday. Deputies doing a patrol check near the 31700 block of Castaic Road on April 23 noticed a […]
The post Man arrested on suspicion of drug possession, intent to sell appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/04/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-drug-possession-intent-to-sell/
Low Cost Spay/Neuter Mobile Clinic at Newhall Community Center
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
City of Santa Clarita residents can get low-cost spay/neuter services for your pets every Monday at the mobile clinic located in the parking lot of the Newhall Community Center
https://scvnews.com/low-cost-spay-neuter-mobile-clinic-at-newhall-community-center/
A Walmart employee allegedly called a 14-year-old ‘cute’ and got her number. Hours later she was missing from her East Bay home
date: 2024-04-30, from: San Jose Mercury News
The 31-year-old suspect now faces charges that he raped and molested the girl just a few hours after meeting her at the Walmart where he worked, and later arranging to pick her up at her family’s East Bay home.
Man shot to death Tuesday morning in Sunnyvale
date: 2024-04-30, from: San Jose Mercury News
Authorities did not announce any arrests or release a description of the suspect.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/30/man-shot-to-death-tuesday-morning-in-sunnyvale/
Branham athletic director saga: Landon Jacobs’ fight for old job hits another roadblock
date: 2024-04-30, from: San Jose Mercury News
Branham has narrowed its pool of candidates to replace Landon Jacobs as athletic director, sources say.
Two charged with cutting down famous tree in England
date: 2024-04-30, from: San Jose Mercury News
Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers were arrested in October and released on bail. It took authorities more than six months to bring charges against them.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/04/30/two-charged-with-cutting-down-famous-tree-in-england/
NASA Ames Astrogram – March/April 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches On April 23, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System CubeSat mission launched successfully aboard an Electron rocket launched by Rocket Lab and carried Ames’ payload from Māhia, New Zealand. The CubeSat was subsequently delivered to a Sun-synchronous orbit around Earth. Ames has pioneered the use of CubeSats and small […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/nasa-ames-astrogram-march-april-2024/
Cyber-bastard jailed for stealing psychotherapy files, blackmailing patients
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Vastaamo villain more than doubled reported crime in Nordic nation
A cyber-thief who snatched tens of thousands of patients’ sensitive records from a psychotherapy clinic before blackmailing them and then leaking their files online has been caged for six years and three months.…
May-October Fireside Nights at Vasquez Rocks
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Vasquez Rocks Natural Area invites you to an evening around the campfire at the Vasquez Rocks Interpretive Center. Live music, sing-alongs, animal meet and greets, storytelling, crafts, activities, show + tell tables, s’mores and more.
https://scvnews.com/may-october-fireside-nights-at-vasquez-rocks/
Angie Ned named head coach of CSUN women’s basketball
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
CSUN Athletic Director Shawn Chin-Farrell has announced that Angie Ned will be the next head coach for the women’s basketball team. Ned comes to Northridge from California Baptist University, where…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181258/sports/angie-ned-named-head-coach-of-csun-womens-basketball/
Strum Machine
date: 2024-04-30, from: Chris Coyier blog
I mostly play old time and bluegrass music. Particularly in old time and fiddle songs, the songs have a fairly rigid and repetitious structure. That’s not to say players don’t do interesting things with it, but unless a song is intentionally crooked, the structure of the song remains the same throughout. A typical structure is […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/04/30/strum-machine/
June 22: Howdown for Hope at Gilchrist Farm
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
It’s time to kick up your heels and head on over to Gilchrist Farm for the Hoedown for Hope event Saturday, June 22, 6-10 p.m
https://scvnews.com/june-22-howdown-for-hope-at-gilchrist-farm/
Daily Ev Recap: Record-breaking Tesla megapack
date: 2024-04-30, 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/2024/04/30/daily-ev-recap-record-breaking-tesla-megapack/
Lilbits: Another RISC-V laptop, a PCIe connector for the Raspberry Pi 5, and Arc browser comes to Windows 11
date: 2024-04-30, from: Liliputing
A Chinese chip design company called SpacemiT has unveiled a new laptop that will be powered by the company’s K1 processor, which is an octa-core processor that should offer better-than ARM Cortex-A55 performance, support for 4K video, and a 2 TOPS NPU for hardware-accelerated AI features. While the upcoming MUSE Book isn’t the first laptop with […]
The post Lilbits: Another RISC-V laptop, a PCIe connector for the Raspberry Pi 5, and Arc browser comes to Windows 11 appeared first on Liliputing.
May 6: Catholic Relic of St. Jude Makes Stop at St. Kateri
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
A relic of Saint Jude has left Italy for the first time on an extended tour of the United States. Treasures of the Church, an evangelization ministry of the Catholic church, will present the Tour of the Relic of St. Jude the Apostle. The relic of St. Jude will be hosted Monday, May 6 at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church
https://scvnews.com/may-6-catholic-relic-of-st-jude-makes-stop-at-st-kateri/
Microsoft boss charms Indonesia with $1.7B AI, cloud injection
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Promises to train 850,000 workers and build datacenters
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says the company will invest $1.7 billion in expanding its presence and building datacenters in Indonesia.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/microsoft_indonesia_investment/
May 3 Vote Could Be the Beginning of a Housing Crisis Turnaround
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Finding a balance between state mandates, business interests, and what the community needs.
The post May 3 Vote Could Be the Beginning of a Housing Crisis Turnaround appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
More big city newspapers drag Microsoft, OpenAI hard in copyright lawsuit
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Publishers want ChatGPT models destroyed after ML tech trained ‘unlawfully’ on articles
Eight big-city American newspapers have banded together to sue Microsoft and OpenAI, claiming the tech duo unlawfully used the publishers’ copyrighted articles to train AI models.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/newspapers_microsoft_openai/
EDD Reminds Californians to Beware of Scammers
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SACRAMENTO – The Employment Development Department (EDD) continues to urge Californians to guard against fraud. The latest round of text-message schemes
The post EDD Reminds Californians to Beware of Scammers appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/30/edd-reminds-californians-to-beware-of-scammers/
UC Santa Barbara Students Create ‘Liberated Zone’ in Solidarity with Gaza
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
UCSB Divest leads teach-ins and demonstration calling for divestment from companies involved in Israeli defense.
The post UC Santa Barbara Students Create ‘Liberated Zone’ in Solidarity with Gaza appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Tesla’s Identity Crisis Gets Hardcore
date: 2024-04-30, from: Heatmap News
Chaos at Tesla is nothing new. But the company now appears to be going through something of an identity crisis, with its future at war with its past.
Let’s just recap the past few weeks: First, Tesla released first-quarter delivery numbers that came up well short of even analysts’ most cynical predictions, followed by first-quarter earnings that were, in a word, poor. In between those two events, Reuters reported that Tesla had canceled a long-promised sub-$30,000 electric vehicle (a report CEO Elon Musk denied … sorta), and the company laid off more than 10% of its workforce.
All of which brings us to today and reports of further layoffs at Tesla, this time in the company’s Supercharging division. To just about everyone who follows the company, this was shocking news. Tesla’s Supercharging network isn’t just a competitive advantage, it’s the de facto national standard for EVs in the United States. Major automakers — Ford, Toyota, General Motors — and EV startups like Rivian have signed deals with Tesla to use its charger design, known as the North American Charging Standard and designed their new vehicles (or sent adapters) so their drivers can access the network.
The Supercharging network was, however, consistent with
what might now be called the “old” model of Tesla — a company that tried
to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” as the
company’s mission statement put it, by getting as many electric cars
(ideally, but not solely, its own) on the road as possible. But that
model seems to be on its way out. As Musk told investors on the earnings
call, Tesla should be thought of “thought of as an AI or robotics
company” — not, anymore, as merely a car company.
Those Supercharging partnerships weren’t an act of charity. BloombergNEF, Bloomberg’s in-house energy research group, estimated that Tesla’s charging business could generate three-quarters of a billion dollars of profits by 2030. While it doesn’t seem like Tesla is going to rip the Superchargers from the ground, a now-former Tesla employee said on X that “further improvements to standards and engagements across the industry will suffer.” Already the company has pulled out of four planned new Supercharger locations in New York, according to Electrek.
“Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations,” Musk tweeted (after the market close) Tuesday afternoon.
If the future of the growth of the Supercharging network is in doubt, Tesla’s expansion of its self-driving efforts (which are still well short of rivals like Waymo’s) is full steam ahead. Close Tesla-watchers have speculated that the future of Tesla’s charging infrastructure will change as the company advances further towards truly autonomous driving and its much-heralded “robotaxi,” which Musk has promised to reveal by August 8. All of this seems to have pleased investors, who responded to the announcement by sending Tesla shares up 10% in aftermarket trading. That share price jumped again Monday, after news that Musk had paved the way for Full Self-Driving to be deployed in China.
One would think that reports of Tesla further tightening its focus on artificial intelligence and automation would have delighted these investors. The company’s burned some $2.5 billion of cash in the first quarter thanks to both its extravagant spending on developing its AI capabilities and the fact that it made too many cars for what turned out to be a soft electric vehicle market. “Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk wrote in an email to staff about the Supercharging layoffs, according to The Information. “While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.” And yet shares were down 5.5% by the time the market closed on Tuesday.
The investment community can’t seem to decide whether it wants Tesla to be the type of company that will devote its resources to a mass market car or throw them at a much more exciting — though by no means assured — autonomous driving play.
In its earnings presentation, Tesla said that new models were coming, but not on a whole new platform, which meant that there would less capital expenditure for a new production line. For some analysts, it was all they needed to hear, Morningstar’s Seth Goldstein wrote a note titled “Our Long-Term Growth Thesis Is Confirmed as Affordable Vehicle Still in Development.”
And some in the the analyst community were also jazzed by Musk’s China jaunt. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas, a longtime Tesla bull, hailed the trip, writing “whether Tesla’s CEO is sleeping on a floor or on a plane … the message is clear: he’s back.” Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, another Tesla optimist, said approval for FSD in China was “a watershed moment for the Tesla story.” As recently as Tuesday morning, Axios cautiously declared that the company “may be steadily regaining investor confidence after a rough patch.”
Tesla is also working on wireless charging, as was confirmed last year in a video hosted by, of all people, Jay Leno. Tesla’s design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, told Leno that “we are working on inductive charging. You don’t even need to plug anything in at that point. You just drive over the pad in your garage and you start charging.” It’s obvious why this type of charging would be more conducive to autonomous driving than the company’s exist Superchargers, as all they would require is driving over them.
Even the multiple rounds of deep layoffs are a sign to some Tesla optimists that Musk’s attention is now fully devoted to the company. When asked by an analyst on the earnings call to “talk about where your heart is at in terms of your interests,” Musk said that Tesla “constitutes a majority of my work time,” adding: I’m going to make sure Tesla is quite prosperous.”
If investors are sending mixed messages, Musk, certainly, has made his preference clear. Tesla will become a autonomous driving company or die trying — at least until he changes his mind again.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/tesla-supercharger-layoffs
Asus ExpertCenter PN65 mini PC with Intel Meteor Lake now available
date: 2024-04-30, from: Liliputing
The Asus ExpertCenter PN65 is a small desktop computer with support for up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H Meteor Lake processor, up to 96GB of DDR5 memory, and up to three storage devices. First unveiled in January, the computer is now available for purchase from the Asus website for $759… although the purchase page […]
The post Asus ExpertCenter PN65 mini PC with Intel Meteor Lake now available appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/asus-expertcenter-pn65-mini-pc-with-intel-meteor-lake-now-available/
Pro-Palestinian protesters take over Columbia building, demand university divest from Israel
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Ive Drives Icons
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
Louie Mantia (Mastodon): It’s been 15 years since the original and 12 years since the sequel. Volume 3 contains a staggering 125 hard drive icons, comprising of 25 metal colors (most—if not all—of Apple’s modern product colors), with 5 varieties of each. Beautiful external drive icons up to 1,024×1,024. I’m not sure whether there’s a […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/ive-drives-icons/
iPadOS Also a Digital Gatekeeper in EU
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
Tim Hardwick (Hacker News): EU antitrust officials on Monday identified iPadOS, Apple’s operating system for iPads, as a significant digital gatekeeper under the EU’s new tech regulations, which carry strict requirements that aim to promote fair competition and expand options for consumers. […]“Apple’s business user numbers exceeded the quantitative threshold elevenfold, while its end user […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/ipados-also-a-digital-gatekeeper-in-eu/
Swift Proposal: Synchronous Mutual Exclusion Lock
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
SE-0433: Not all code may be able (or want) to adopt actors. Reasons for this can be very varied, for example code may have to execute synchronously without any potential for other tasks interleaving with it. Or the async effect introduced on methods may prevent legacy code which cannot use Swift Concurrency from interacting with […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/swift-proposal-synchronous-mutual-exclusion-lock/
Losing Screen Time Settings
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
Craig Grannell: Needed to turn off Screen Time temporarily. Apple: “bollocks to you, then”. Infers the set-up is wiped and has me start from scratch. I go through the set-up, and it merges the new one with what was already there. But the block set-ups have been randomly wiped.[…]It’s astonishing that this is the way […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/losing-screen-time-settings/
Hearing for Apple Violating Epic’s Injunction
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
games fray (PDF, via Michael Love): Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who presided over the 2021 Epic v. Apple trial and made the ruling in question, has now reached the preliminary conclusion that Apple is presently out of compliance with the injunction, which could […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/hearing-for-apple-violating-epics-injunction/
Google Lays Off Python Team
date: 2024-04-30, from: Michael Tsai
Sarah Perez (Reddit): Ahead of Google’s annual I/O developer conference in May, the tech giant has laid off staff across key teams like Flutter, Dart, Python and others, according to reports from affected employees shared on social media. zem: in addition to contributing to upstream python, wemaintained a stable version of python within google, and […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/04/30/google-lays-off-python-team/
US wind generation fell in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Annual US power generation from wind turbines declined in 2023 for the first time since the mid-1990s – here’s why.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/us-wind-generation-2023/
Sols 4171-4172: Scoot Over!
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Monday, April 29, 2024 On this two sol-planning day, the Curiosity science team logged in and found ourselves face to face with ‘Pinnacle Ridge’ (pictured above), part of the upper Gediz Vallis Ridge (uGVR). We saw two types of rocks in our workspace: light-toned layered rocks and darker toned rocks. Rocks that […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4171-4172-scoot-over/
Community over Celebrity
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A children’s soccer match should epitomize innocence and the love of sport, but a celebrity’s heedless urge to win became an ugly factor at Girsh Park recently.
The post Community over Celebrity appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/30/community-over-celebrity/
California Has One Fast Charging Station For Every Five Gas Stations
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
The state is home to about half a million home charging stations too.
https://insideevs.com/news/718038/california-fast-chargers-gas-stations/
Paying sources for news stories raises alarms
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
At former U.S. President Donald Trump’s trial in New York, an ex-tabloid publisher testified about his efforts to help then-candidate Trump by buying negative stories about him and suppressing them. “Catch and kill” is part of a practice known as checkbook journalism. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi explains.
https://www.voanews.com/a/paying-sources-for-news-stories-raises-alarms/7592482.html
State Grant to Help Get Low-Income Riders on E-Bikes in Santa Barbara
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
BCycle and City Hall get $1.5 million grant to add 50 e-bikes and 100 bike docks in downtown-adjacent neighborhoods and provide vouchers.
The post State Grant to Help Get Low-Income Riders on E-Bikes in Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Australian Museum Removes Mummified Body Parts From Display
date: 2024-04-30, from: Smithsonian Magazine
“We have become so accustomed to seeing them on show that we often forget they once belonged to living people,” says Melanie Pitkin, a senior curator at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Mrs. Met is among the oldest of the MLB's mascots.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Met
Free Will Astrology
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): The world’s record for jumping rope in six inches of mud is held by an Aries.
The post Free Will Astrology appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/30/free-will-astrology-209/
Cuyama Buckhorn Makes Santa Barbara’s High Desert a Dining Destination
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
This timeless roadside resort makes taste buds sing just a short drive away.
The post Cuyama Buckhorn Makes Santa Barbara’s High Desert a Dining Destination appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
You can’t just assume UTF-8
date: 2024-04-30, from: OS News
Humans speak countless different languages. Not only are these languages incompatible, but runtime transpilation is a real pain. Sadly, every standardisation initiative has failed. At least there is someone to blame for this state-of-affairs: God. It was him, after-all, who cursed humanity to speak different languages, in an early dispute over a controversial property development. However, mankind can only blame itself for the fact that computers struggle to talk to each other. And one of the biggest problems is the most simple: computers do not agree on how to write letters in binary. ↫ Cal Paterson For most users, character encoding issues are not something they have to deal with. Programmers and other people who deal with the lower levels of computing, however, deal with this way more often than they should.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139508/you-cant-just-assume-utf-8/
Tesla Has Already Canceled Four Planned Supercharger Sites In New York City
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
Although Musk said Supercharger growth will continue following today’s layoffs, some sites are already set to be canceled, InsideEVs has learned.
https://insideevs.com/news/718045/nyc-tesla-supercharger-sites/
May the 4th Be With Brew at the Annual Buellton Brew Fest
date: 2024-04-30, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The 11th annual Buellton Brew Fest is set to return on Star Wars Day, May 4.
The post May the 4th Be With Brew at the Annual Buellton Brew Fest appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/04/30/may-the-4th-be-with-brew-at-the-annual-buellton-brew-fest/
LinuxFest Northwest 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: Stephen Smith’s blog
Introduction LinuxFest Northwest is an annual gathering of open source enthusiasts held in Bellingham halfway between the major cities of Vancouver, BC and Seattle, Washington. Sadly, the last proper event was held in 2019, then during COVID they tried running a virtual event with limited success and then when COVID ended they were going to […]
https://smist08.wordpress.com/2024/04/30/linuxfest-northwest-2024/
COC Film Instructor to Attend Marche du Film at Cannes Film Festival
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons film instructor Bavand Karim will attend Marche du Film, one of the largest film markets in the world, at the Cannes Film Festival in May to promote the launch of a new film slate by CINE & Lost Winds Entertainment.
https://scvnews.com/coc-film-instructor-to-attend-marche-du-film-at-cannes-film-festival/
Blinken says ‘time to act is now’ for Hamas to accept cease-fire deal
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Amman, Jordan — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed determination Wednesday to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that includes the release of hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza, and said the only reason that goal would not be achieved “is because of Hamas.”
“There is a proposal on the table, and as we’ve said, no delays, no excuses, the time is now,” Blinken said as he met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.
Blinken said the meeting would also include discussion of humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“At the same time, even as we’re working with relentless determination to get the cease-fire that brings the hostages home, we also have to be focused on people in Gaza who are suffering in this crossfire of Hamas’ making.”
The top U.S. diplomat has repeatedly called on Hamas to accept the cease-fire proposal during a trip to the region that included earlier stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
Herzog said the return of hostages held by Hamas “is and should be the top priority of the international community.”
Following the meeting, Blinken spoke with demonstrators outside who held signs and chanted slogans calling for the hostages in Gaza to be brought home.
Blinken told the demonstrators he had met with families of the hostages and told them, “Bringing your loved ones home is at the heart of everything we’re trying to do.”
Hamas is believed to still be holding about 100 hostages, along with the remains of about 30 others, after taking around 250 people hostage in the October 7 attack on Israel in which the militants killed 1,200 people.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,500 people, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Blinken met Tuesday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and King Abdullah II, before meeting with Sigrid Kaag, U.N. senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza.
Blinken thanked Abdullah for Jordan’s leadership in facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, including joint U.S.-Jordan airdrops that to date have delivered more than 1,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.
The two leaders discussed joint efforts to expedite the flow of additional urgently needed aid to Gaza from Jordan through land routes. Blinken also commended the king’s commitment to economic modernization and vital public sector reforms.
Later Tuesday, Blinken met with Palestinians from Gaza at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs before meeting with Kaag. Blinken told Kaag he was anxious to hear directly from her, adding, “The entire team is doing extraordinary work to ensure that people in Gaza get the help and support and the assistance they need.”
US, Saudi talks
In Riyadh earlier this week Blinken said the United States is close to finishing a security agreement with Saudi Arabia that would be offered if the country makes peace with Israel.
“The work that Saudi Arabia, the United States have been doing together in terms of our own agreements, I think, is potentially very close to completion,” Blinken told an audience at the World Economic Forum on Monday.
He added the two nations have done intensive work together over the last month on Israeli-Saudi normalization.
Blinken disclosed that he was scheduled to be in Saudi Arabia and Israel on October 10 last year to focus specifically on the Palestinian part of the normalization deal because that is an essential component. But it did not happen because of the Hamas terror attack on Israel.
“In order to move forward with normalization, two things will be required: Calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” Blinken said.
U.S. officials have said creating a pathway to a Palestinian state with security guarantees for Israel is key to lasting peace and security in the Middle East and to Israel’s integration in the region.
The Saudis have demanded, as a prerequisite, to see an Israeli commitment to the two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the two-state solution and the return of the Palestinian Authority to control Gaza, demands that are widely supported by the international community.
Nimrod Goren, a senior fellow for Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute, told VOA in an email, “Saudi Arabia has been gradually opening towards Israel for a decade. Significant progress was made in the months prior to the Hamas attack of October 7, with the hope of linking an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement to a pre-presidential election, U.S.-Saudi defense pact. The war stalled the process, but talks are continuing and are at a decisive phase.”
If Netanyahu’s opposition to the two-state solution remains unchanged, Goren added, he might struggle to secure normalization with Saudi Arabia.
VOA’s Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks Successfully Test 1,000 kW EV Charging
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
The Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 semi will have a range of up to roughly 300 miles.
https://insideevs.com/news/718026/mercedes-1000kw-ev-charging-test/
NASA Balloons Head North of Arctic Circle for Long-Duration Flights
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA is set to begin launch operations mid-May for the 2024 Sweden Long-Duration Scientific Balloon Campaign. Four stadium-sized, scientific balloons carrying science missions and technology demonstrations are scheduled to lift off from Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center, situated north of the Arctic Circle near Kiruna, Sweden. The campaign will continue through early July. “NASA’s […]
June 6-8: Mission Opera Performances of ‘The Merry Widow: Madonna’
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Santa Clarita’s opera company, Mission Opera has been selected to present ‘The Merry Widow: Madonna’ as part of the OPERA America National Conference and World Opera Forum, being held in Los Angeles in early June.
https://scvnews.com/june-6-8-mission-opera-presents-the-merry-widow-madonna/
UnitedHealth CEO: ‘Decision to pay ransom was mine’
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Congress to hear how Citrix MFA snafu led to massive data theft, $870M+ loss
Updated UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty will tell US lawmakers Wednesday the cybercriminals who hit Change Healthcare with ransomware used stolen credentials to remotely access a Citrix portal that didn’t have multi-factor authentication enabled.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/unitedhealth_ceo_ransom/
Was Musk’s decision to fire the entire supercharging team good or bad
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
https://electrek.co/poll-post/is-musks-decision-to-fire-the-entire-supercharging-team-good-or-bad/
US DEA proposes significant shift in marijuana policy
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
A few facts about POSIX
date: 2024-04-30, from: OS News
Over 35 years ago, these problems with software portability led to the emergence of the first POSIX standard in 1988. The acronym was coined by Richard Stallman, who added “X” to the end of Portable Operating System Interface. It’s meant to provide a specification of the interface that different Unix operating systems should have in common, including programming languages and tools. It’s important to note that the interface is portable, and not the implementation. ↫ vorakl While POSIX certainly isn’t perfect, and support for it in various operating systems claiming to support POSIX even less so, there’s no denying its success. Even if the dream of 100% source code portability isn’t possible under POSIX for applications that are a little more complex than basic CLI tools, there’s enough portability that platforms like Linux, the various BSDs, macOS, and others, can share quite a bit of code. One of my favourite things about POSIX is that it shows up in the most unexpected of places. Windows, for instance, has had various options for POSIX compatibility, some of which straight from Microsoft itself, like the currently well-known Windows Subsystem for Linux, but also mostly forgotten options like the Microsoft POSIX subsystem that shipped with Windows NT until Windows 2000, or the very rudimentary POSIX compatibility in the Windows C Runtime Library and Windows Sockets API. OS/2 had POSIX compatibility as well, through EMX (Eberhard Mattes eXtender). It gave OS/2 – and MS-DOS – a POSIX API, and even provided access to native OS/2 APIs as well, and could run 32bit applications. You’d be surprised by how many more operating systems offered forms of POSIX compatibility, either out of the box or through first or third party add-ons.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139506/a-few-facts-about-posix/
Northridge Review promotes creative expression among students
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
It’s an evening full of both excitement and nervousness. Over a dozen people filled auditorium chairs, talking and laughing with one another. Within a few minutes, the room suddenly became…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181241/news/northridge-review-promotes-creative-expression-among-students/
NASA Showcases Innovations at the 2024 FIRST Robotics World Championships
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA engaged with fans, student robotics teams, and industry leaders at the 2024 FIRST Robotics World Championships held April 17-20, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The exhibit highlighted the future of technology and spaceflight, attracting over 50,000 participants from across the United States and worldwide. The FIRST Robotics World Championships was […]
This Historic Photograph May Depict the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic
date: 2024-04-30, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The image, which sold for $22,000 at auction this week, was taken aboard a recovery vessel days after the famous ocean liner went down
Princess Cruises Reroutes Global Voyages Due to Middle East Uncertainty
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Given the ongoing uncertain situation in the Red Sea and surrounding area and following extensive consultation with global security experts and government authorities, Princess Cruises, which is headquartered in Valencia, is revising the itineraries for its two 2025 World Cruises, which will no longer visit the Middle East or Asia, and now instead, will offer new port stops in Africa and Europe.
https://scvnews.com/princess-cruises-reroutes-global-voyages-due-to-middle-east-uncertainty/
Raspberry Pi-powered ShaRPiKeebo pocket computer is almost ready to ship (two years after crowdfunding)
date: 2024-04-30, from: Liliputing
The ShaRPiKeebo is a pocket-sized computer board with a display, keyboard, game controller keys, and an incredibly geeky design: it’s basically a printed circuit board with tacked-on keys, ports, and buttons. And the board is meant to be powered by a Raspberry Pi Zero, which acts as the brains of the portable computer kit. When the developers […]
The post Raspberry Pi-powered ShaRPiKeebo pocket computer is almost ready to ship (two years after crowdfunding) appeared first on Liliputing.
Here’s Why BYD Is Charging Twice The China Price For EVs Sold Abroad
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
BYD wants to rake in the big bucks by adding significant markup to its EVs sold in Europe or the Americas.
https://insideevs.com/news/718036/byd-major-ev-markup-prices/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2016: How Font Awesome 5 Became Kickstarter’s Most Funded Software Project.
Autistic, Black and Proud: An interview with David Adam Tucker
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
In this divisive year of 2024, many are divided between race, party and neurodiversity. These topics came to a head on March 9, 2024, as 15-year-old Ryan Gainer of Apple…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181234/news/autistic-black-and-proud-an-interview-with-david-adam-tucker/
Musk axes two more senior Tesla leaders, guts public policy team – report
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It’s not like you need wonks to put driverless robotaxis on public roads or anything
The organizational tree at Tesla keeps shedding leaves, and a surprising number keep falling from the top with two more high-profile executives reportedly leaving the firm. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/musk_tesla_layoff/
Extremely Rare Blue Rock Thrush Spotted in Oregon Might Be the First Ever in the United States
date: 2024-04-30, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Amateur photographer Michael Sanchez captured photos of the blue-and-chestnut bird on a beach—but he didn’t realize just how special the “mind-bending” encounter was, until later
RISC-V support in Android just got a big setback
date: 2024-04-30, from: OS News
Although Google has shown significant progress in recent weeks in improving RISC-V support in Android, it seems that we’re still quite a bit away from seeing RISC-V hardware running certified builds of Android. Earlier today, a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Google who, according to their LinkedIn, leads the Android Systems Team and works on Android’s Linux kernel fork, submitted a series of patches to AOSP that “remove ACK’s support for riscv64.” The description of these patches states that “support for risc64 GKI kernels is discontinued.” ↫ Mishaal Rahman Google provided Android Authority with a statement, claiming that Android will continue to support RISC-V. What these patches do, however, is remove support for the architecture from the Generic Kernel Image, which is the only type of kernel Google certifies for Android, which means that it is now no longer possible to ship a certified Android device that uses RISC-V. Any OEM shipping a RISC-V Android device will have to create and maintain its own kernel fork with the required patches. This doesn’t seem to align with Google’s statement. So, unless Google intends to add RISC-V support back into GKI, there won’t be any officially certified Android devices running on RISC-V. Definitely an odd chain of events here.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139504/risc-v-support-in-android-just-got-a-big-setback/
Johnson Celebrates New Opportunities for Space Industry in Texas
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Johnson Space Center was recently involved in two major announcements with important implications for the future of space exploration and the aerospace industry. On Feb. 29, 2024, NASA announced that the American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation (ACMI) signed an agreement to become a tenant at Johnson’s 240-acre Exploration Park. ACMI will lease a […]
May 4: Schivo to Host Youth, Family Festival
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo will host an upcoming Youth and Family Festival, a day packed with fun, learning and community engagement. This event is free to all and will bel held on Saturday, May 4 from noon to 4 p.m. at the College of the Canyons
https://scvnews.com/may-4-schivo-to-host-youth-family-festival/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Tesla conducting more layoffs, including entire Supercharger team.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/29/tesla-conducting-more-layoffs-including-entire-supercharger-team/
Daily Deals (4-30-2024)
date: 2024-04-30, from: Liliputing
The Acer Predator Triton 14 is a gaming laptop with a 14 inch display, discrete graphics, and a compact design: it measures less than 0.8 inches thick and weighs less than four pounds. While this portable gaming notebook may not get as much attention as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, right now it’s got at […]
The post Daily Deals (4-30-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-4-30-2024/
This Neolithic Monument Found in France Has No Equal
date: 2024-04-30, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A trio of interlocking enclosures, the structure may date to the time of the Bell Beaker culture, but experts are unsure of its exact age and purpose
Snapcycle 2024 R1 Pro e-bike sees first discount to $1,799 (Save $200), Anker SOLIX C800 Plus bundle $698, more
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Today’s Green Deals are led by the first official discount on the new Snapcycle 2024 R1 Pro All-Terrain e-bike for $1,799, with a bundle option also being available. It is joined by the Anker SOLIX C800 Plus Portable Power Station bundled alongside a 100W solar panel for $698, as well as the AeroGarden Bounty Basic Indoor Garden falling to $144. Plus all of the other days’ Green Deals that are still going.
Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/snapcycle-2024-r1-pro-e-bike-anker-solix-c800-plus-bundle-and-more/
NASA’s Hubble Pauses Science Due to Gyro Issue
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
Updated April 30, 2024 Editor’s note: On April 30, 2024, NASA announced it restored the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope to science operations April 29. The spacecraft is in good health and once again operating using all three of its gyros. All of Hubble’s instruments are online, and the spacecraft has resumed taking science observations. Published April 26, 2024 NASA […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2024-04-30, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
Join us Wed. May 8 at 1pm PT / 4pm ET / 9pm GMT for our next #IIIF Community Call. We'll welcome the team from Systemik Solutions to present Glycerine Image Annotation Workbench.
Zoom info: iiif.io/community
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/112361418766510286
IBM quantum system elbows into Arm-powered Fugaku supercomputer
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Slotting in the module for ambitious next-generation compute goals
Japan’s Arm-based Fugaku supercomputer is to be paired with a newly developed quantum system from IBM as part of a project to research and develop future computing systems.…
April 29, 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-29-2024-aaa
Daimler is helping decarbonize logistics with expanded use of EVs
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
In an effort to decarbonize its own logistical operations, Daimler Trucks North America is expanding the use of electric trucks across multiple regions, including Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, and the Carolinas.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/daimler-is-helping-decarbonize-logistics-with-expanded-use-of-evs/
NASA Grants Support Academic Collaborations for STEM Student Success
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has awarded $3.9 million to 13 teams at under-resourced academic institutions across the country, to support collaborative projects with NASA that offer students mentorship and career development in science, technology, engineering, and math. This is the second round of seed funding awards given through the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Bridge Program, which was […]
Do You Like These AI Images of Dying, Mutilated Children? Facebook Algorithm Wonders
date: 2024-04-30, from: 404 Media Group
Facebook’s recommendation engine, which is core to the company’s business model, is injecting grotesque images of AI-generated child gore into people’s feeds.
https://www.404media.co/ai-images-of-dying-drowning-mutilated-children-go-viral-on-facebook/
Tesla Axing Its Supercharger Team Puts The Entire Industry In The Dark
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
Most of Tesla’s Supercharger team was caught up in recent layoffs, leading to countless questions about the future of EV charging.
https://insideevs.com/news/718025/tesla-charging-layoffs-2024/
California’s Plug-In Car Sales Continued To Increase In Q1 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
The volume exceeded 105,000, but the growth rate was alarmingly slow.
https://insideevs.com/news/717907/california-plugin-car-sales-2024q1/
NSA guy who tried and failed to spy for Russia gets 262 months in the slammer
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Tried to sell top secret docs for the low, low price of $85K
A former NSA employee has been sentenced to 262 months in prison for attempting to freelance as a Russian spy.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/nsa_employee_guilty_sentence/
Oxy SJP and Oxy JVP stage encampment for Palestine, plan to stay ‘as long as possible’
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
April 29, 4 a.m., Occidental Students for Justice in Palestine (Oxy SJP) and Occidental Jewish Voice for Peace (Oxy JVP) assembled an encampment of 17 tents on the Academic Quad, below the steps of the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Building, to show solidarity with Palestinians against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the conflict […]
The post Oxy SJP and Oxy JVP stage encampment for Palestine, plan to stay ‘as long as possible’ appeared first on The Occidental.
Automobili Pininfarina is selling 1,900 hp electric hypercars inspired by billionaire Bruce Wayne aka Batman [Video]
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
If Batman’s true identity, Bruce Wayne, existed in real life, what car would you think he’d drive? Boutique electric hypercar builder Automobili Pininfarina has teamed up with Wayne Enterprises – a luxury brand based on the Batman franchise developed by Warner Brothers, to create four different bespoke EVs that will be produced in limited quantities and sold to consumers with pockets as deep as master Wayne’s.
Tech Today: Stay Safe with Battery Testing for Space
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA battery safety exams influence commercial product testing
And the lion shall lie down with…?
date: 2024-04-30, from: Status-Q blog
From our “this may help you win a bet in the pub” collection… If you know the quiz show ‘QI’, you might imagine Stephen Fry asking “With whom will the lion lie down?”, and Alan Davies sheepishly responding “The lamb?”… before the claxons start, indicating a wrong answer. Because if you look at Isaiah chapter Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2024/04/30/12054/
ChatGPT Plus remembers everything you forgot you told it to remember
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Unless you live in Europe or Korea
OpenAI’s Memory feature is now broadly available for ChatGPT Plus users, meaning many more can feel vaguely uncomfortable about how much the chatbot is “remembering” about their preferences.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/openai_chatgpt_memory/
Stellantis sees Q1 2024 drop in revenue, but EV sales were up
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Stellantis Q1 2024 revenue fell 12%, but global EV sales were up, and it’s optimistic about growth and profitability in H2 2024.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/stellantis-sees-q1-2024-drop-in-revenue-but-ev-sales-were-up/
Democrats say they will save Speaker Mike Johnson’s job if Republicans try to oust him
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — House Democrats will vote to save Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s job should some of his fellow GOP lawmakers seek to remove him from the position, Democratic leaders said Tuesday, avoiding a repeat of when eight Republicans joined with Democrats to oust his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy.
Johnson, R-La., has come under heavy criticism from some Republicans for moving forward with aid for Ukraine as part of a $95 billion emergency spending package that passed this month. It would take only a handful of Republicans to remove Johnson from the speakership if the Democratic caucus went along with the effort.
But Democratic leaders took that possibility off the table.
“At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction,” said a statement from the top three House Democrats, Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar. “We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”
Greene, R-Ga., earlier this month filed a resolution with the House clerk — called a motion to vacate — that would remove Johnson from office if approved by the House. And while Greene did not force the resolution to be taken up immediately, she told reporters she was laying the groundwork for future consideration. She had two co-sponsors, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.
Johnson was quick to distance himself from Democrats on the issue, saying he had no conversations with Jeffries or anyone else about saving his job.
“I was laser-focused on getting the supplemental done,” Johnson said, referring to the aid package. “I’ve had colleagues from both parties come up to me on the floor, of course, and say we won’t stand for this. … I’ve not requested assistance from anyone. I’m not focused on that at all.”
Many House Republicans are eager to move past the divisions that have tormented their ranks ever since taking the majority last January. At a closed-door session Tuesday morning, much of the discussion focused on how to create unity in the party heading into the November elections.
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said Republicans heard from Michael Whatley, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, who emphasized that Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, wants to unify the majority in the House. He said that’s a message that certainly helps Johnson.
“What he wants is a unified Republican majority, so my message is singing from the same song sheet as President Trump,” Barr said.
Still, Greene indicated she may still move forward with the effort to remove Johnson, tweeting on X that she believes in recorded votes to put “Congress on record.” She also called Johnson “officially the Democratic Speaker of the House” and questioned “what slimy deal” he made for Democratic support.
“Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!” Greene tweeted. “Uniparty” is a derisive term some Republicans use to describe cooperation between some fellow Republicans and Democrats.
Comedian in the Cross-Hairs: The FBI Investigation into Mort Sahl
date: 2024-04-30, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
Today’s post was written by Gregory Tavormina, Archivist with the Special Access and FOIA Program (RF) at the National Archives in College Park, MD. Mort Sahl was considered one of the first “modern” comedians. A contemporary of Lenny Bruce, he greatly influenced later stand-up comics ranging from George Carlin and Richard Pryor to Woody Allen … Continue reading Comedian in the Cross-Hairs: The FBI Investigation into Mort Sahl
Volvo EX30: 9 Things You Might Hate About This Compact Electric SUV
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
There’s a lot to love about the EX30, but it does have some negatives too.
https://insideevs.com/news/717750/volvo-ex30-9-things-hate-electric-suv/
Tesla Semi spotted being used by another customer
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
A Tesla Semi was spotted being used by a customer that is not PepsiCo or Tesla as the electric semi truck program continues to expand.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/tesla-semi-spotted-used-another-customer-sysco/
What Characters Know
date: 2024-04-30, from: John August blog
John and Craig investigate what characters know and how we know they know what they know. It’s something that can be as confusing as that last sentence was, but they offer clear guidance on building informed characters, audience expectations, and how to get everybody on the same page. We also look at how ad breaks […] The post What Characters Know first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/what-characters-know
Judge holds Trump in contempt of court for violating gag order
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
FBI: Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to an FBI report released Tuesday that shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings.
Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI’s report. Investigators are warning of a rise in brazen schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims.
“It can be a devastating impact to older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money,” said Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “People lose all their money. Some people become destitute.”
The FBI received more than 100,000 complaints by victims of scams over the age of 60 last year, with nearly 6,000 people losing more than $100,000. It follows a sharp rise in reported losses by older Americans in the two years after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, when people were stuck at home and easier for scammers to reach over the phone.
Barnacle said investigators are seeing organized, transnational criminal enterprises targeting older Americans through a variety of schemes, like romance scams and investment frauds.
The most commonly reported fraud among older adults last year was tech support scams, in which criminals pose over the phone as technical or customer service representatives. In one such scam authorities say is rising in popularity, criminals impersonate technology, banking and government officials to convince victims that foreign hackers have infiltrated their bank accounts and instruct them that to protect their money they should move it to a new account — one secretly controlled by the scammers.
Federal investigators saw an uptick between May and December of scammers using live couriers to take money from victims duped into believing their accounts had been compromised, according to the FBI. In those cases, scammers tell victims that their bank accounts have been hacked and that they need to liquidate their assets into cash or buy gold or other precious metals to protect their funds. Then the fraudsters arrange for a courier to pick it up in person.
“A lot of the the fraud schemes are asking victims to send money via a wire transfer, or a cryptocurrency transfer. When the victim is reluctant to do that, they’re given an alternative,” Barnacle said. “And so the bad guy will use courier services.”
Earlier this month, an 81-year-old Ohio man fatally shot an Uber driver he thought was trying to rob him after receiving scam phone calls, according to authorities.
The man had been receiving calls from someone pretending to be an officer from the local court who demanded money. The Uber driver had been told to retrieve a package from the man’s home, a request authorities say was possibly made by the same scam caller or an accomplice.
The staggering losses to older Americans are likely an undercount. Only about half of the more than 880,000 complaints reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Compliance Center last year included information on the age of the victim.
AI Hardware is experimental & it’s okay!
date: 2024-04-30, from: Om Malik blog
Tech’s past tells us that the future doesn’t unfold along a predetermined timeline. Despite the rocky starts of Humane’s AI Pin & Rabbit’s R1 device, we’re heading to a promising era where invisible information interfaces become as commonplace as screens.
https://om.co/2024/04/30/the-reality-optimism-of-ai-hardware/
Enterprise browser maker Island says it’s now worth $3B
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Big rise in valuation… for browser that won’t let you Control-V any data copied inside it
Insta-unicorn Island, with its browser built for the enterprise, has some interesting funding news: it just hit a $3 billion valuation in an era where it’s AI or bust in the VC world. …
FIREBAT A8 is a Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC
date: 2024-04-30, from: Liliputing
The FIREBAT A8 is a compact desktop computer with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor featuring 8 Zen 4 CPU cores, Radeon 780M graphics with 12-core RDNA 3 graphics, and a Ryzen AI NPU with up to 16 TOPS of AI performance. It also features dual 2.5 GbE LAN ports and support for up to four […]
The post FIREBAT A8 is a Ryzen 7 8845HS mini PC appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/firebat-a8-is-a-ryzen-7-8845hs-mini-pc/
Survey: US consumer confidence at lowest level since 2022
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Washington — U.S. consumers appear less optimistic about the jobs market and more worried about future financial conditions, bringing a closely watched confidence metric to its lowest level since July 2022, a survey showed Tuesday.
The consumer confidence index fell to 97.0 in April, said The Conference Board, significantly below the 104.0 reading that analysts anticipated.
This marks the third straight month consumer confidence has worsened, the report said, and comes as President Joe Biden struggles to boost perceptions about the economy as his reelection campaign ramps up.
“Consumers became less positive about the current labor market situation, and more concerned about future business conditions, job availability, and income,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board.
But she added that despite the slip, “optimism about the present situation continues to more than offset concerns about the future.”
The biggest worries surrounded “elevated price levels, especially for food and gas,” said Peterson.
Meanwhile, politics and global conflicts were “distant runners-up,” she added.
While consumers rated current business conditions “positively,” their views of the labor market weakened with more reporting that jobs are hard to get, said The Conference Board.
Consumers also became less upbeat about their families’ financial situations, both currently and in the future.
“Perceptions about the labor market deteriorated even as job growth remains robust, and the unemployment rate is historically low,” noted Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
“A deteriorating trend in sentiment could persist,” she cautioned.
This risks bogging down spending and growth, given that inflation remains persistent and interest rate cuts are “not imminent,” she said.
Car Tracking Can Enable Domestic Abuse. Turning It Off Is Easier Said Than Done
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Markup blog
Internet-connected cars allow abusers to track domestic violence survivors after they leave
Razer made to pay $1.2M over ‘N95’ face mask that wasn’t
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Customers to get their light-up cyberpunk respirators refunded
Remember when Razer, better known for overpriced peripheral hardware with RGB blinkenlights aimed at gamers, released an overpriced “N95-grade” face mask?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/ftc_razer_face_mask/
NASA’s Commitment to Safety Starts with its Culture
date: 2024-04-30, from: NASA breaking news
NASA works on projects that often have never been done, or perhaps the way they are being done has never been tried. Living on the edge of innovation requires a high degree of risk. After organizational silence led to the loss of space shuttle Challenger and its crew in 1986, NASA vowed to change the […]
What do future business leaders learn about climate change?
date: 2024-04-30, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Corporations play a major role in emitting climate-altering greenhouse gases, and businesses need to be fully on board if the world is going to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. But lessons on climate change’s effects on business aren’t always taught in MBA programs. Now, a group of educators is trying to change that. Plus: a major FCC fine for cell companies and a preview of the Federal Reserve’s meeting this week.
Men Use Fake Livestream Apps With AI Audiences to Hit on Women
date: 2024-04-30, from: 404 Media Group
“I downloaded this app called Parallel Live which makes it look like you have tens of thousands of people watching. Instantly, I became the life of the party.”
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Gogoro Eeyo: An ultralight ebike that rides like nothing else.
Florida Democrats hope abortion, marijuana issues draw young voters
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — Jordan Vassallo is lukewarm about casting her first presidential ballot for President Joe Biden in November. But when the 18-year-old senior at Jupiter High School in Florida thinks about the things she cares about, she says her vote for the Democratic incumbent is an “obvious choice.”
Vassallo will be voting for a constitutional ballot amendment that would prevent the state of Florida from prohibiting abortion before a fetus can survive on its own — essentially the standard that existed nationally before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional protections to abortion and left the matter for states to decide.
Passage of the amendment would wipe away Florida’s six-week abortion law, which Vassallo says makes no sense.
“Most people don’t know they are pregnant at six weeks,” she said.
Biden, despite her reticence, will get her vote as well.
In Florida and across the United States, voters in Vassallo’s age group could prove pivotal in the 2024 election, from the presidency to ballot amendments and down-ballot races that will determine who controls Congress. She is likely to be among more than 8 million new voters eligible to vote this November since the 2022 elections, according to Tufts University Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
While some of those voters share Vassallo’s priorities of gun violence prevention and abortion rights, recent protests on college campuses about the war between Israel and Hamas, including at some Florida campuses, have thrown a new element of uncertainty into the mix. In Florida and elsewhere, observers across the political spectrum are looking on with intense interest.
Florida Democrats hope young voters will be driven to the polls by ballot amendments legalizing marijuana and enshrining abortion rights. They hope the more tolerant views of young voters on those issues will reverse an active voter registration edge of nearly 900,000 for Republicans in Florida, which has turned from the ultimate swing state in 2000 to reliably Republican in recent years.
According to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the electorate, about 8 in 10 Florida voters under age 45 in the 2022 midterm elections said the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade had an impact on their decision to vote and who to support. The youngest voters, under age 30, appeared more likely than others to say the decision was the single most important factor in their votes, with about 3 in 10 saying that, compared with about 2 in 10 older voters.
Nathan Mitchell, president of Florida Atlantic University’s College Republicans, questions how impactful abortion will be in the election.
According to AP VoteCast, relatively few Florida voters in the 2022 midterms believed abortion should be either completely banned or fully permitted in all cases. Even among Republicans, just 12% said abortion should be illegal in all cases. About half of Republicans said it should be banned in most cases.
Voters under 45 were slightly more likely than others to say abortion should always be legal, with 30% taking that position.
Mitchell said while abortion is a strong issue, especially for women, he doesn’t think it will drive many younger voters to the polls.
“I think other amendments will probably do that, especially the recreational marijuana amendment,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s going to bring out a lot more voters than abortion will.”
The AP VoteCast survey lends some credence to his thinking. About 6 in 10 Florida voters in the 2022 elections favored legalizing the recreational use of marijuana nationwide, the survey found. Among voters under 45, that was 76%. Still, it’s unclear how important that issue is for younger voters compared with other issues.
The big question is whether other issues can override Biden’s enthusiasm problem among young Florida voters and elsewhere.
Six in 10 adults under 30 nationally said in a December AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they would be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic Party nominee in 2024. About 2 in 10 said in a March poll that “excited” would describe their emotions if Biden were reelected.
Young voters were crucial to the broad and racially diverse coalition that helped elect Biden in 2020. About 6 in 10 voters under 30 backed Biden nationally, according to AP VoteCas. A Pew Research Center survey showed that those under age 30 made up 38% of new or irregular voters in that election.
In Florida, Biden won 64% of young voters — similar to his national numbers.
New issues that concern young voters have emerged this year. Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has sparked protests at college campuses across the country, and Biden’s inability to deliver broad-based student loan forgiveness affects many young voters directly. Concern about climate change also continues to grow. AP-NORC data from February shows that majorities of Americans under 30 disapprove of how Biden is handling a range of issues, including the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, immigration, the economy, climate change and abortion policy.
But in Florida, it will be abortion rights and marijuana that give voters actual control over issues beyond a presidential rematch most did not want but got anyway, said Trevian Briskey, a 21-year-old FAU student.
Tony Figueroa, president of Miami Young Republicans, said the abortion issue is important to many young voters, regardless of where they stand. He noted, however, that Florida “is a very conservative state.” That means some of the young voters motivated by the issue favor stricter abortion laws.
“Given how Florida has become so much more red over the past couple of years, really it’s more of a way to galvanize or mobilize young voters where this is an important issue for them,” Figueroa said. “It’s really a way to get them to come out in droves.”
Matheus Xavier, 21, who studies biology at Florida Atlantic University, said he considered voting for Trump at some point, but changed his mind since Biden fell more in line with the things he cares about, including the preservation of abortion rights.
“At the end of the day, you got to go with what you support,” he said. “I guess Biden kind of shows more of that. If there was another option that was actually good, I’d probably go for that.”
EU duties might not be enough to hold off flood of Chinese EVs
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
15 to 30% won’t touch the sides… 50%? Now you’re talking
Import duties of 40 to 50 percent will be needed to shield the European auto industry from China-based producers, according to a new report.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/report_eu_duties_electric_vehicles/
‘Hardcore’ New Tesla Layoffs Leave You Wondering What Tesla Even Is Anymore
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving gets tentative approval for China and NHTSA requires cars to have automatic emergency braking by 2029.
https://insideevs.com/news/717981/tesla-new-layoffs-supercharging-team/
Mercedes-Benz’s Q1 2024 report shows revenues are down, but its share of EV sales is growing
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Mercedes-Benz joins a growing list of EU-based automakers publishing their Q1 2024 financial reports today, and the German brand is relaying a similar story of staggering profits.
https://electrek.co/2024/04/30/mercedes-benz-q1-2024-report-revenues-down-share-of-ev-sales-growing/
Tesla Megapack to power new massive record-breaking 1.3 GWh battery system
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla Megapack has been selected to power a massive new record-breaking 1,3 GWh battery system from Neoen in Australia.
Even Chinese EV Companies Are Struggling
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
BYD’s first-quarter profits were down 47% thanks to a serious EV price war in the Chinese market.
https://insideevs.com/news/717977/china-byd-ev-sales-struggling/
To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random
date: 2024-04-30, from: Quanta Magazine
Four mathematicians broke a 75-year-old record by finding a denser way to pack high-dimensional spheres.The post To Pack Spheres Tightly, Mathematicians Throw Them at Random first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-pack-spheres-tightly-mathematicians-throw-them-at-random-20240430/
Satellite of love: SES and Intelsat finally tie the knot in $3.1B acquisition
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Second time lucky as competition from Starlink and pals increases
Satellite operator SES is to acquire Intelsat for $3.1 billion, creating an entity with more than 100 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 26 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/ses_intelsat_acquisition/
Article Spotlight: Carnivore coexistence without competition
date: 2024-04-30, from: PeerJ blog
Mercedes Says ‘No Thanks’ To The Apple CarPlay Takeover
date: 2024-04-30, from: Inside EVs News
But that’s only part of the story. In a new interview, Mercedes’ CEO explains where the German automaker’s software game is headed.
https://insideevs.com/news/717991/mercedes-carplay-apple-ceo-interview/
Open Source world’s Bruce Perens emits draft Post-Open Zero Cost License
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Software doyen hopes to achieve a third impossible thing
Interview Bruce Perens believes he can do three impossible things, having already accomplished two of them.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/bruce_perens_post_open_license/
Ultraviolette’s F77 Mach 2 EV-Moto Should Come to the US
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
We sure hope it makes its way to other markets soon.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717769/ultraviolette-f77-mach2-launch-india/
Volkswagen Group’s profits dropped 20% in Q1, but it remains confident in hitting 2024 targets
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Volkswagen Group released its financial numbers for Q1 2024 today, following similar trends from other EU-based automakers. The numbers detail a slowing of sales and a drop in profits. Despite a 20% decrease, the Group remains optimistic that it will end the year at its financial targets.
3D printing a Raspberry Pi 5 in resin
date: 2024-04-30, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
The first job for our new resin 3D printer was an oversized Raspberry Pi 5, naturally. Here’s how we went about it.
The post 3D printing a Raspberry Pi 5 in resin appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/3d-printing-a-raspberry-pi-5-in-resin/
Elon Musk’s latest brainfart is to turn Tesla cars into AWS on wheels
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
There are many reasons why this is likely more trouble than it’s worth
EV carmaker Tesla is considering a wonderful money-making wheeze – use all of that compute power in its vehicles to process workloads for cash, like a kind of AWS on wheels.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/tesla_ai_workloads/
Bagnaia And Marquez Dueling In Spain Is Exactly Why We Love MotoGP
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It doesn’t get any more top-notch, edge-of-your-seat than this matchup. Brilliant.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717917/bagnaia-marquez-spanish-motogp-2024/
European Commission starts formal probe of Meta over election misinformation
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Europe takes action after Facebook parent withdraws monitoring tool
The European Commission has launched formal proceedings against Meta, alleging failure to properly monitor distribution by “foreign actors” of political misinformation before June’s European elections.…
Did Elon Musk Just Sack Tesla’s Entire Supercharger Team?
date: 2024-04-30, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Floods in Saudi Arabia forced some schools to close • Nearly 50 fires were reported in Greece over 24 hours • Tornado alley could see more severe storms this afternoon.
THE TOP FIVE
- Biden finalizes permitting reform rule
The Biden administration today finalized changes to an old environmental law, a move that could speed up the arduous permitting process for new clean energy projects. The 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that all major federal infrastructure projects undergo an environmental review, but these reviews can run thousands of pages long and take years to finish, explained Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer, adding that “it takes 4.5 years on average to finish an environmental-impact statement.” Through the new Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule, Biden seeks to make the process more efficient by:
- setting one- and two-year deadlines by which agencies must complete environmental reviews
- introducing page limits for the reviews
- creating a unified federal review process
- establishing one lead agency for handling reviews
The new rule says federal agencies must consider a project’s impacts on climate change, as well as environmental justice. It also reverses a 2020 overhaul carried out by former President Trump that the Biden administration called “legally questionable.” Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said the changes “will help speed infrastructure and permitting, but without losing sight of the environmental and health benefits we need to protect.”
- Report: Tesla eliminates entire Supercharger team
Two weeks after announcing it would slash 10% of its global workforce, Tesla appears to be making more cuts. According to The Information, CEO Elon Musk sent an email to senior staffers last night with the news that several high-level employees would be departing. Among them is Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of EV charging, along with her 500-person Supercharger team. Tinucci led the rollout effort of Tesla’s Supercharger network, positioning it as the predominant charging infrastructure in North America. Daniel Ho, director of vehicle programs and new product initiatives, is also out, and the public policy team is no more.
“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk reportedly wrote in the email. “While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.”
“It makes absolutely no sense to lay off the Supercharger team,” said Jameson Dow at Electrek. “Supercharging is an incredible opportunity for Tesla, especially now that everyone else has adopted NACS. … This move, alone, would erode any confidence I had left in Tesla’s CEO – if I still had any.”
- Major UK mortgage lender will deny home loans over flooding
A prominent mortgage lender in the United Kingdom will no longer offer loans on homes that are at risk of flooding, Bloomberg reported. Nationwide Building Society is UK’s the second-biggest mortgage provider, and is worried that flood-prone homes will become uninsurable and therefore unsellable. Weather-related insurance claims have been on the rise in the UK as climate change brings more frequent storms and severe flooding. The last 18 months have been the UK’s wettest on record. A new report finds that harvests of crops like wheat, barley, and oats in the country could drop by a fifth this year due to excessive rainfall.
- Plastic treaty talks end with no production cap in sight
The latest meeting on a global plastics treaty has come to an end in Canada. While there was some meaningful progress on the draft text of an agreement (which must be finalized by the end of the year), deep divisions remain over whether the final text should include a cap on how much plastic can be manufactured. Environmental groups point out that plastic production has doubled in just 20 years and is set to triple in coming decades. Fossil fuel companies and oil-producing nations, naturally, prefer to promote plastic recycling instead of plastic reduction. As AFP explained, “plastic production is a significant driver of global warming because most plastic is made from fossil fuels.”
- G7 nations tentatively agree to phase out coal plants by 2035
Energy and climate ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy nations have agreed to shut down their coal-fired power plants by 2035. The deal is expected to be finalized in Turin, Italy, today. It could afford some wiggle room to countries that remain heavily reliant on coal, allowing them to propose a timeline that is “consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5 Celsius temperature rise within reach.” Still, the move is seen as historic. “To have the G7 nations come around the table and send that signal to the world, that we, the advanced economies of the world, are committing to phasing out coal by the early 2030s is quite incredible,” said the UK’s Minister for Nuclear and Renewables Andrew Bowie. As CNN noted, G7 decisions often “trickle down or influence the wider G20, which includes other big emitters, like China and India, as well as major fossil fuel producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.”
THE KICKER
The land that makes up the Permian Basin, America’s biggest oil field, has subsided by as much as 11 inches since 2015 due to extraction operations.
https://heatmap.news/tesla-supercharger-layoff-elon-musk
Spy Shots: This Could Be the 2026 Triumph Street Triple
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Forget your SuperDukes and Panigales because in the real world, what’s more exciting than a new Street Triple?
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717723/spied-2026-triumph-street-triple/
The long history of student divestment protests
date: 2024-04-30, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Students nationwide are pushing colleges and universities to sell off investments in companies they say profit from the war in Gaza. We’ll chart the history of calls for divestment, including student protests more than 30 years ago demanding colleges cut ties with any company that did business in apartheid South Africa. Also, new federal regulation is expected to save hundreds of lives each year, and inflation indexes aren’t one size fits all.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Killington is the East’s largest ski resort. A developer wants to expand on that in a big way.
Millions Rely on an Affordable Internet Subsidy. It Ends This Month
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Markup blog
Roughly half of Affordable Connectivity Program recipients are military families, one in four live in rural communities, and one in five are households with people who are 65 or older
Dakar Will No Longer Feature ATVs
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
After decades of riding, the series says goodbye.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717895/dakar-atv-ban-quad/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-04-30, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Threads aims to be as spam-infested as Twitter.
HOG Rally Aims to Be Harley -Davidson’s European Sturgis
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Tons of music, bikes, food, and fun.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717792/2024-european-hog-rally-additonal-details/
Xubuntu 24.04: A minimal install that does what it says on the tin
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
This nearly Snap-free Ubuntu remix may be about about to win friends and influence people
Xubuntu 24.04 is out, and offers a minimal installation option that is considerably more minimal than the other official flavors.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/xubuntu_2404_snapless_ubuntu/
Columbia University threatens to expel student protesters occupying building
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
DJI’s New Avata 2 FPV Drone Is Ready To Capture Your Daringest Rides
date: 2024-04-30, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It comes with DJI Goggles 3 and RC Motion 3 for a fully immersive flying experience.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/717767/new-dji-avata2-fpv-drone/
#ArchivesGames: Bowling and the National Archives
date: 2024-04-30, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
On May 3, 2024, we’re having another #ArchivesHashtagParty with this month’s focus on #ArchivesGames. Today we’re rolling in with a post on bowling and the National Archives that we hope is right up your alley. So we don’t cross the line, we promise to spare you of any more bowling puns! National Archives employee organizations … Continue reading #ArchivesGames: Bowling and the National Archives
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/04/30/archivesgames-bowling-and-the-national-archives/
China’s EV price war hits BYD profits
date: 2024-04-30, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Tesla’s China-based rival BYD became the world’s best-selling electric vehicle maker in January, but has since seen profits drop as slower demand and more competition take a bite. We’ll hear more. Also on this morning’s program: How will England’s Premier League soccer competition — home to giants like Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea — change if it adopts a proposed squad spending cap?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/chinas-ev-price-war-hits-byd-profits
Novel vitrimer plastics promise greener PCBs
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Even the least recyclable part of the process could be recovered 91 percent of the time
A recent study proposes that vitrimer could potentially be used for making printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are much more repairable and recyclable than the ones we use today.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/pcb_vitrimer_recycling/
Teaching a generation of AI innovators in Malaysia with Experience AI
date: 2024-04-30, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Today’s blog is from Aimy Lee, Chief Operating Officer at Penang Science Cluster, part of our global partner network for Experience AI. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world at an incredible pace, and at Penang Science Cluster, we are determined to be at the forefront of this fast-changing landscape. The Malaysian government is actively…
The post Teaching a generation of AI innovators in Malaysia with Experience AI appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Serbia’s new government to include US-sanctioned ex-intelligence chief with close ties to Russia
date: 2024-04-30, from: Associated Press, World News
Serbia’s new government will include a former intelligence chief who has fostered close ties with Russia and is sanctioned by the United States.
https://apnews.com/article/serbia-government-us-sanctions-russia-eb7e3e620ce3f038dddd2dbf26f5396e
Oracle Fusion rollout costs 15 times council’s estimates in SAP rip-’n-replace
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-05-01, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No it’s not Birmingham this time. West Sussex County Council ERP replacement price to hit £40M
Updated A local authority on the southern coast of England expects the cost of swapping its ERP system from SAP to Oracle to go from £2.6 million ($3.26 million) to nearly £40 million ($50 million), as the council seeks a new implementation partner for a project that began nearly five years ago.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/uk_council_sees_cost_of/
Vantage enters crowded Irish datacenter market with new Dublin site
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
On-site generation plant aims to ‘alleviate pressure on energy demand from the grid’
Vantage Data Centers is joining the crowded Irish datacenter market with its first site in the Emerald Isle due to come online in 2024. In view of ongoing power constraints in the country, the project is to include on-site power generation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/vantage_dublin_datacenter/
What to say to a Republican who complains about the federal debt.
date: 2024-04-30, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends, Republicans are attacking Biden for expanding the federal debt, and the House “Freedom Caucus” is livid that Speaker Mike Johnson has agreed to more funds for Ukraine, claiming it will expand the debt even further. Can we just have some sanity here?
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/what-to-say-to-a-republican-who-complains
Apple’s ‘incredibly private’ Safari is not so private in Europe
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Infosec eggheads find iGiant left EU iOS 17 users open to being tracked around the web
Apple’s grudging accommodation of European antitrust rules by allowing third-party app stores on iPhones has left users of its Safari browser exposed to potential web activity tracking.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/apple_safari_europe_tracking/
Today in SCV History (April 30)
date: 2024-04-30, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1973 – Watergate figure H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, a former CalArts board member, resigns from Nixon White House. [link
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-april-30/
China to launch sample return mission to the far side of the Moon – maybe next week
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
And hatches 2030 plan to beat US for Mars rock retrieval
China’s space program will next week launch mission that aims to land on the Moon, take samples, and bring them back to Earth.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/chang_e6_china_moon_mission/
Politicians call for ban on ‘killer robots’ and the curbing of AI weapons
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘This is the Oppenheimer moment of our generation’
Video Austria’s foreign minister on Monday likened the rise of military artificial intelligence to the existential crisis faced by the creators of the first atomic bomb, and called for a ban on “killer robots”.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/kill_killer_robots_now/
Issue 9 – April 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Letter from the Editor: Issue 9 Volume 64 Staff Highlight: The students who make the Sundial possible Sundial Alumni Advice: Where they are and how they got there Passionately accessible:…
https://sundial.csun.edu/181223/print-editions/issue-9-april-2024/
April 29, 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
In December 2020, when the pandemic illustrated the extraordinary disadvantage created by the inability of those in low-income households to communicate online with schools and medical professionals, then-president Trump signed into law an emergency program to provide funding to make internet access affordable. In 2021, Congress turned that idea into the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and made it part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-29-2024
Here’s another thing AI can do: Return Samsung’s memory biz to profit
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
HBM will help too. Foundry biz? On track for 2nm but bruised
Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions unit reported on Tuesday a 68 percent year-on-year increase in sales for Q1 2024, largely thanks to its memory sales – a result that confirms what many had predicted: an AI and server boom has brought the chip shop out of the lows experienced in 2023.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/samsung_q1_2024/
Netanyahu says Rafah offensive will happen with or without cease-fire and hostage release deal
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters hold ground on both US coasts
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
Campus protests of the war in Gaza continue, despite college administrations’ warnings — and new ones are being launched. VOA Natasha Mozgovaya reports from an encampment set up Monday at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Australia to fund $620M quantum computer claimed to be first at ‘utility-scale’
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
PsiQuantum’s coming home
Australian researchers pioneered the development of solar panels, but the nation now imports them in huge quantities – a situation that’s become emblematic of the nation’s poor record of turning local innovation into jobs and profits across the supply chain.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/australia_psiquantum_investment/
Without Israel-Hamas cease-fire, Washington pursues humanitarian aid, hostage deal
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
While Washington has so far failed to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire in the Gaza conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Middle East on Monday to try to improve the humanitarian situation and lay the groundwork for what happens in Gaza — and the region — after the war ends. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-04-30, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112357825714391011
Gogoro announces major partnership to help accelerate global expansion
date: 2024-04-30, from: Electrek Feed
Gogoro, the global leader in battery-swapping for light electric vehicles like scooters and motorcycles, just can’t seem to slow down. After a week full of major news, the company is back with perhaps its biggest announcement lately: a plan for a major partnership that will see the company greatly expand the use of its swappable battery standard.
Oh, and not just for light electric vehicles anymore.
The hiring frenzy is over at India’s services giants
date: 2024-04-30, updated: 2024-04-30, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Headcounts are down for the first time in ages, margins are up, and CEOs are happy
When India’s top four outsourcers – Wipro, HCL Tech, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – announce their results, they often mention plans to hire thousands of new workers to both grow headcount and replace departed workers. But across 2023 and into 2024, that changed.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/hcl_tcs_wipro_infosys_results/
Rolling Stones show no signs of slowing down as they begin their latest tour
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
houston — Time marches on and all good things must come to an end. But don’t tell that to The Rolling Stones.
What many believe to be the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon as they kicked off their latest tour Sunday night at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The Stones have been touring for more than 60 years. Frontman Mick Jagger and lead guitarist Keith Richards are both 80, with guitarist Ronnie Wood not far behind at 76. Their tour is being sponsored in part by AARP.
But during a vibrant two-hour show, the Stones played with the energy of a band that was on tour for the first time.
“It’s great to be back in the Lone Star State,” Jagger told the packed stadium, filled with longtime fans, many wearing faded concert shirts from previous tours.
Jagger often strutted up and down the stage with seemingly boundless energy while Richards and Wood played many familiar guitar riffs beloved by fans. Jagger often led the audience in sing-alongs.
“The energy level is up and it’s always up with them. The age doesn’t show,” Dale Skjerseth, the Stones’ production director, said Friday before the concert.
The Stones have hit the road to support the release of their latest album, “Hackney Diamonds,” the band’s first record of original music since 2005.
Houston was the first stop on the band’s 16-city tour across the U.S. and Canada. Other cities on the tour include New Orleans, Philadelphia and Vancouver, British Columbia. The tour ends on July 17 in Santa Clara, California.
During Sunday’s 18-song concert set list, the Stones played several tracks off the new record, including the lead single, “Angry.” They also played classics including “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Start Me Up.”
After playing “Beast of Burden,” Jagger said that concertgoers in Houston had voted to include it on the set list.
“You can’t go wrong with that,” one man in the audience could be heard screaming.
The Stones also played some unexpected choices, including “Rocks Off,” from their 1972 double album “Exile on Main St.” and “Out of Time,” a 1966 song that Jagger said during the concert had not ever been played by the band in the U.S.
With the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts, the Stones are now comprised of the core trio of Jagger, Richards and Wood. On Sunday, they were backed by various musicians including two keyboardists, a new drummer, backup singers and a brass section.
While the stage was surrounded by a large collection of video screens projecting images throughout the show, the main focus of the concert was the band and their songs.
Before Sunday’s concert, Jagger spent time on Friday touring NASA’s Johnson Space Center in suburban Houston, posting photos on his Instagram account of him with astronauts inside Mission Control.
“I had an amazing trip to the space center,” Jagger said.
When asked if the band might be thinking about retiring, Skjerseth said he doubts that will happen.
“This is not the end. They’re very enthused,” he said.
Campus Gaza protests are new political flashpoint in US
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/campus-gaza-protests-are-new-political-flashpoint-in-us/7590047.html
Columbia suspends pro-Palestinian protesters after encampment talks stall
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian activists who refused to dismantle a tent encampment on its New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing protest.
University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
The crackdown at Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the U.S. in recent weeks, came as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally.
Columbia sent a letter on Monday morning warning that students who did not vacate the encampment by 2 p.m. ET and sign a form promising to abide by university policies would face suspension and become ineligible to complete the semester in good standing.
“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus,” said Ben Chang, a university spokesperson, at a briefing on Monday evening.
“The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams,” Chang said.
Earlier, Shafik said Columbia would not divest from finances in Israel, a key demand of the protesters. Instead, she offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and make Columbia’s direct investment holdings more transparent.
Protesters have vowed to keep their encampment on the Manhattan campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.
“These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians. We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or we are moved by force,” leaders of the Columbia Student Apartheid Divest coalition said in a statement read at a news conference following the deadline.
Hundreds of demonstrators, many wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, marched in circles around the exterior of the encampment chanting, “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop, we will not rest.”
Shafik faced an outcry from many students, faculty and outside observers for summoning New York City police two weeks ago to dismantle the encampment.
After more than 100 arrests were made, students restored the encampment on a hedge-lined lawn of the university grounds within days of the April 18 police action.
Since then, students at dozens of campuses from California to New England have set up similar encampments to demonstrate their anger over the Israeli operation in Gaza and the perceived complicity of their schools in it.
The pro-Palestinian rallies have sparked intense campus debate over where school officials should draw the line between freedom of expression and hate speech
Students protesting Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, including some Jewish peace activists, have said they are being censured as antisemitic merely for criticizing the Israeli government or for expressing support for Palestinian rights.
“The movement itself is not antisemitic,” said Nicholas Fink, a freshman history major at Columbia who has not participated in the protests.
He is among a few dozen Jewish students who met privately with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson during a campus visit by Republican members of Congress last week. Johnson and other congressional Republicans have claimed that Columbia and other universities have turned a blind eye to antisemitic hostility and harassment on campus.
Some Jewish groups argue that anti-Israel rhetoric frequently delves into or feeds overt forms of anti-Jewish hatred and calls for violence, and thus should not be tolerated
Student protests abound
At the University of California, Los Angeles, where opposing sides clashed over the weekend, pro-Israeli activists set up a large screen and loudspeakers to play a tape loop of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants. The video appears aimed at countering pro-Hamas chants that seeped into campus protests in support of Palestinian civilians besieged in Gaza.
UCLA also stepped-up security around a pro-Palestinian encampment, consisting of more than 50 tents surrounded by metal fencing near the main administration building on campus.
Civil rights groups have criticized law enforcement tactics on some campuses, such as Atlanta’s Emory University and the University of Texas at Austin, where police in riot gear and on horseback moved against protesters last week, taking dozens into custody before charges were dropped for lack of probable cause.
Protests, and arrests, flared anew on the Austin campus on Monday.
Campus police backed by Texas state troopers attempted to break up a large student protest using pepper spray and flash-bang charges, arresting at least 43 people, according to defense attorney George Lobb, who said he confirmed the number with court and jail staff processing the detentions.
Video posted on social media showed police pulling individual students from a gathering on a grassy area where demonstrators sat and locked arms, some of them shouting, “Let them go!” State troopers in riot gear stood guard behind the uniformed police.
Virginia Tech said on Monday that 91 protesters arrested on Sunday night at a student-led encampment had been charged with trespassing. Video posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting, “Shame on you” as some were taken into custody.
Winner of $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot is an immigrant from Laos who has cancer
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
SALEM, Oregon — One of the winners of a $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot this month is an immigrant from Laos who has had cancer for eight years and had his latest chemotherapy treatment last week.
Cheng “Charlie” Saephan, 46, of Portland told a news conference held by the Oregon Lottery on Monday that he and his 37-year-old wife, Duanpen, are taking half the money, and the rest is going to a friend, Laiza Chao, 55, of the Portland suburb of Milwaukie. Chao had chipped in $100 to buy a batch of tickets with them. They are taking a lump sum payment, $422 million after taxes.
“I will be able to provide for my family and my health,” he said, adding that he’d “find a good doctor for myself.”
Saephan, who has two young children, said that as a cancer patient, he wondered, “How am I going to have time to spend all of this money? How long will I live?”
After they bought the shared tickets, Chao sent a photo of the tickets to Saephan and said, “We’re billionaires.” It was a joke before the actual drawing, he said, but the next day they won.
Chao, 55, was on her way to work when Saephan called her with the news: “You don’t have to go anymore,” he said.
Saephan said he was born in Laos and moved to Thailand in 1987, before immigrating to the U.S. in 1994. He wore a sash at the news conference identifying himself as Iu Mien, a southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China. Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers and assisted American forces during the Vietnam war; after the conflict, thousands of Iu Mien families fled to Thailand to avoid retribution and eventually settled in the U.S.
Tens of thousands of Iu Mien people live along the West Coast, with a sizeable and active community in Portland.
Saephan graduated from high school in 1996 and has lived in Portland for 30 years. He worked as a machinist for an aerospace company.
In the weeks leading up to the drawing, he wrote out numbers for the game on a piece of paper and slept with it under his pillow, he said. He prayed that he would win, saying, “I need some help — I don’t want to die yet unless I have done something for my family first.”
The winning Powerball ticket was sold in early April at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Portland, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months. The Oregon Lottery said it had to go through a security and vetting process before announcing the identity of the person who came forward to claim the prize.
Under Oregon law, with few exceptions, lottery players cannot remain anonymous. Winners have a year to claim the top prize.
The jackpot had a cash value of $621 million before taxes if the winner chose 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 and state taxes in Oregon.
The $1.3 billion prize is the fourth-largest Powerball jackpot in history, and the eighth largest among U.S. jackpot games, according to the Oregon Lottery.
The biggest U.S. lottery jackpot won was $2.04 billion in California in 2022.
US, Mexican presidents discuss illegal migration
date: 2024-04-30, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-mexican-presidents-discuss-illegal-migration/7590378.html
Daily EV Recap: US to phase out coal by 2030s
date: 2024-04-30, 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/2024/04/29/daily-ev-recap-us-to-phase-out-coal-by-2030s/
pgvector 0.7.0 Released!
date: 2024-04-30, from: PostgreSQL News
pgvector, an open-source PostgreSQL extension that provides vector similarity search capabilities, has released v0.7.0. This new release includes many new functional and performance features for supporting vector similarity search workloads in PostgreSQL.
This latest version of pgvector adds new vector types, including
halfvec (2-byte floats; indexing up to 4,000 dimensions)
and sparsevec (indexing up to 1,000 nonzero dimensions),
and includes indexing support for binary vectors using the
bit type (indexing up to 64,000 dimensions). Additionally,
this release adds support for quantizing vectors using expression
indexes, including from 4-byte to 2-byte floats and binary quantization
using binary_quantize function. pgvector 0.7.0 also adds
new distance functions, including hamming_distance and
jaccard_distance for bit vectors, and now
supports HNSW indexing for L1 distance operations. pgvector 0.7.0 also
includes additional support for SIMD with CPU dispatching for Linux
x86-64 architectures.
For more information, please see the CHANGELOG for 0.7.0:
https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#070-2024-04-29
For more information about pgvector, including how to get started, please visit the project repository on GitHub:
https://github.com/pgvector/pgvector
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgvector-070-released-2852/
PGConf.dev 2024 - Registration selling out - please register ASAP!
date: 2024-04-30, from: PostgreSQL News
PostgreSQL Development Conference 2024 (PGConf.dev 2024) (May 28, 2024 - May 31, 2024; Vancouver, Canada) is where users, developers, and community organizers come together to focus on PostgreSQL development and community growth. Meet PostgreSQL contributors, learn about upcoming features, and discuss development problems with PostgreSQL enthusiasts!
Given the overwhelming support from the PostgreSQL community, we’re already almost at the capacity of our venue for this year and are close to selling out. If you have not already registered for PGConf.dev 2024, please do so today:
https://2024.pgconf.dev/registration/
Once we have reached our registration capacity, we will open up a first-come, first-serve waitlist.
We’re thrilled to have a wonderful lineup of talks that highlight topics on PostgreSQL development and community growth, featuring stories from users, developers, and community organizers. You can find out more about the PGConf.dev 2024 schedule here:
https://www.pgevents.ca/events/pgconfdev2024/schedule/
PGConf.dev 2024 is not possible without the generous support of our sponsors. Sponsorship helps us bring together the worldwide PostgreSQL community to focus on upcoming development and community building topics. You can find out more about sponsorship opportunities here:
https://2024.pgconf.dev/sponsor-levels/
We look forward to seeing you in Vancouver in May!
Datasentinel 2024.04 released
date: 2024-04-30, from: PostgreSQL News
We’re pleased to announce that the latest edition of Datasentinel for PostgreSQL is now available
Role Based Access Enhancement
Administrators can now assign multiple roles to Datasentinel users either directly through the UI or programmatically via the API. This enhancement significantly simplifies user management, especially in large-scale environments with hundreds of PostgreSQL instances.
Datasentinel 2024 Updates
Datasentinel’s 2024 updates include full compatibility with PostgreSQL 16 and the introduction of I/O Insights, a new feature that uses the pg_stat_io view to provide detailed I/O metrics. Additionally, we have enhanced our agentless service startup, ensuring quicker launch times and improved performance. This is particularly beneficial in large-instance environments during system boots or post-upgrade reboots. Together, these enhancements further bolster Datasentinel’s robust PostgreSQL monitoring capabilities
Refer to Release Notes for more details.
Datasentinel team
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/datasentinel-202404-released-2843/
This Month in Redox - April 2024
date: 2024-04-30, from: Redox OS News
April was a very exciting month for Redox! Here’s all the latest news. Donate to Redox If you would like to support Redox, please consider donating or buying some merch! Donate Merch Self-Hosting Improvements Jeremy fixed a “copy-on-write” bug in his recent RedoxFS performance optimizations, where small data chunks could truncate records. This was causing page faults on small executables built inside of Redox (like a Hello World program).