News gathered 2024-05-08
(date: 2024-05-08 08:40:38)
Scientists Use Ultrasound to Make Cold Brew Coffee in 3 Minutes Instead of 24 Hours
date: 2024-05-08, from: 404 Media Group
They have also invented something they are calling “cold espresso.”
Will My Electric Car Leave Me Stranded?
date: 2024-05-08, from: Inside EVs News
In this inaugural edition of our EV myth-busting series, we look at how often your car might actually run down to 0% and leave you stuck.
https://insideevs.com/news/718956/ev-myths-stranded-car/
May 7, 2024
date: 2024-05-08, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-7-2024-0a4
Fisker files bankruptcy equivalent in Austria to gain ‘breathing room’ amid Ocean production halt
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
It has been a turbulent couple of months since Fisker Inc. posted its Q4 2023 financial report and relayed concerns it could continue business in EVs. Fisker’s Austrian arm has reportedly filed for reorganization and court protection from creditors – the equivalent to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the US.
What Do You Think Of The New Ryvid Outset EV Moto?
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Parts are interchangeable with the Ryvid Anthem, so riders can transform their electric as needed.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718854/ryvid-outset-ev-scrambler-bike/
Oakland fans send strong message to John Fisher at Roots-Quakes game
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Oakland fans chanted “Sell the team” throughout the John Fisher-owned Quakes’ win over the Roots.
NASA’s planet hunter shakes off reaction wheel woes and gets back to work
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No more stress for TESS
NASA has confirmed that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has recovered from a reaction wheel problem and resumed making observations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/nasa_tess_safe_mode/
US blocks Intel and Qualcomm from selling chips to Huawei
date: 2024-05-08, from: Liliputing
The US government has blocked chip makers including Qualcomm and Huawei from selling any processors to Huawei, according to Bloomberg. On the one hand that could set back Huawei’s PC, smartphone, and tablet divisions in the coming years. On the other, Huawei’s been preparing for this for years and has already begun making chips and software […]
The post US blocks Intel and Qualcomm from selling chips to Huawei appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/us-blocks-intel-and-qualcomm-from-selling-chips-to-huawei/
US revokes some licenses for exports to China’s Huawei
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The United States has revoked certain licenses for exports to Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Commerce Department said, drawing opposition from Beijing on Wednesday.
The move came after criticism last month by Republican lawmakers, who urged President Joe Biden’s administration to block all export licenses to the company after it released a new laptop powered by a processor by U..S chip giant Intel.
“We continuously assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign policy interests, taking into consideration a constantly changing threat environment and technological landscape,” said a Commerce Department spokesperson.
“We are not commenting on any specific licenses, but we can confirm that we have revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei,” the spokesperson added in a statement to AFP.
Huawei has long been caught in an intense technological rivalry between Beijing and Washington, which has warned that the firm’s equipment could be used for Chinese espionage operations.
The company denies these claims.
Sanctions in 2019 restricting Huawei’s access to U.S.-made components dealt a major blow to its production of smartphones – and meant that suppliers need a license before shipping to the company.
Asked about reports that the U.S. government had revoked some companies’ licenses, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said Beijing “firmly opposes this.”
“China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese firms,” the spokesperson added.
The announcement of a new Huawei computer recently, powered by Intel technology, drew fire from Republican lawmakers in the United States.
A letter by policymakers Marco Rubio and Elise Stefanik charged that “licenses issued in 2020, at least some of which are active to this day, have allowed Huawei to collaborate with Intel and Qualcomm to keep its PC and smartphone segments alive.”
It criticized the allowance of US tech into Huawei’s new product.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-revokes-some-licenses-for-exports-to-china-s-huawei/7602898.html
2024 Fiat 500e EPA Rating Reveals Energy Consumption Of 3.4 Miles/kWh
date: 2024-05-08, from: Inside EVs News
The rating shows a 5% range loss with the switch from summer to all-season tires.
https://insideevs.com/news/718902/2024-fiat-500e-epa-range-energy-consumption/
New AI Tools Predict How Life’s Building Blocks Assemble
date: 2024-05-08, from: Quanta Magazine
Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold3 and other deep learning algorithms can now predict the shapes of interacting complexes of protein, DNA, RNA and other molecules, better capturing cells’ biological landscapes.The post New AI Tools Predict How Life’s Building Blocks Assemble first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/new-ai-tools-predict-how-lifes-building-blocks-assemble-20240508/
Climeworks’ Newest Direct Air Capture Plant Is Officially Live
date: 2024-05-08, from: Heatmap News
If one company has set the pace for direct air capture, it’s Climeworks. The Switzerland-based business opened its — and the world’s — first commercial DAC plant in 2017, capable of capturing “several hundred tons” of carbon dioxide each year. Today, the company unveils its newest plant, the aptly named Mammoth. Located in Iceland, Mammoth is designed to take advantage of the country’s unique geology to capture and store up to 36,000 tons of carbon per year — eventually. Here’s what you need to know about the new project.
- Mammoth is, well, huge
Mammoth is not yet operating at full capacity, with only 12 of its planned 72 capturing and filtering units installed. When the plant is fully operational — which could be late this year or next — it will pull up to 36,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually. For scale, that’s about 1/28,000th of a gigaton. To get to net zero emissions, we’ll have to remove multiple gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere every year.
In the context of where we need to go, in other words, Mammoth is almost nothing. But in the context of our current reality, it’s nine times the size of the next largest DAC facility: another Iceland-based Climeworks plant called Orca. And it’s a major stepping stone towards the company’s ultimate goal of capturing a million tons of CO2 yearly by 2030 and a billion by 2050.
- Construction happened quickly
Climeworks first broke ground on Mammoth in June 2022, and 18 months later the company announced that the “core pieces of the plant are built.” Now that the plant has started capturing CO2, Climeworks says the rest of 2024 will be devoted to installing the remaining CO2capture units and ramping toward full capacity.
Thus far in its history, Climeworks has largely avoided the construction delays that often plague first-of-its-kind projects. “They’re coming out with new projects every three to four years, which is a pretty wild timeline,” Erin Burns, executive director of the nonprofit Carbon180, told me.
- It runs on 100% zero-emission power
Through Climework’s partnership with Icelandic geothermal company ON Power, Mammoth is powered in full by geothermal energy — although the company has long been reticent about how much energy, exactly, it needs.
At any rate, Climeworks has committed to powering the direct air capture process as well as its storage process with 100% renewables in the long run.
- Climeworks has sold about a third of Mammoth’s lifetime capacity
Though the company hasn’t divulged Mammoth’s lifetime carbon removal capacity, a representative did tell me that a third has already been sold. Climeworks works with more than 160 organizations and has long-term offtake agreements with some major corporate buyers, including JPMorgan Chase, Boston Consulting Group and Microsoft. Some of these agreements span a decade or more and involve tens of thousands of tons of CO2 removal from current and future Climeworks projects. (The company also recently opened a marketplace, Climeworks Solutions, to package and sell “high quality” carbon credits from other DAC companies.)
Mammoth should help drive more investment, Dana Jacobs, chief of staff at the Carbon Removal Alliance, told me. “Having carbon removal projects that you can see and reach out and touch and understand is so critical,” she said.
- Mammoth is small potatoes compared to what’s next
Climeworks says that the lessons from its Mammoth project will help the company scale further as it enters the U.S. market through its participation in the Department of Energy-funded direct air capture hub, Project Cypress in Louisiana.
Climeworks is working on Project Cypress alongside developer Battelle and another direct air capture company, Heirloom. The project is designed to capture a million tons of CO2annually by 2030, and recently received an initial $50 million grant from the DOE to kickstart the project’s planning, design and community engagement processes.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/climeworks-mammoth-5-things-to-know
NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet
date: 2024-05-08, from: NASA breaking news
Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet atmosphere outside our solar system. Renyu Hu from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, is […]
Storms batter Midwest, including reported tornadoes that shredded FedEx facility
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
DETROIT — Severe storms barreled through the Midwest early Wednesday, a day after two reported tornadoes struck one Michigan city and destroyed homes and commercial buildings, including a FedEx facility.
Tornadoes were first reported after dark Tuesday in parts of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, while portions of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri were also under a tornado watch, according to the National Weather Service. The storms came a day after a deadly twister ripped through an Oklahoma town.
As the storms raged on in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh warned that a tornado in northeastern Ohio could cross into Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were also under a tornado warning.
Hancock County Schools in West Virginia closed schools Wednesday because of “extensive overnight weather issues” in the county. News outlets reported damaged buildings and power outages.
Hours earlier in southwestern Michigan, two reported tornadoes blitzed the city of Portage near Kalamazoo on Tuesday night, destroying homes and commercial buildings, including a FedEx facility that was ripped apart.
No serious injuries were immediately reported, but city officials said in a news release that the twisters knocked out power to more than 20,000 people. Most of them would be without power until late Wednesday, city officials said.
At one point, about 50 people were trapped inside the FedEx facility because of downed power lines. But company spokesperson Shannon Davis said late Tuesday that “all team members are safe and accounted for.”
More than 30,000 customers were without power in Michigan early Wednesday, and an additional 10,000 in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency for four counties.
“My heart goes out to all those impacted by tonight’s severe weather in southwest Michigan,” Whitmer said in a message on social media. “State and local emergency teams are on the ground and working together to assist Michiganders.”
National Weather Service crews were working Wednesday to survey storm damage in several counties in Michigan’s southwest Lower Peninsula to determine whether tornadoes touched down in those areas, including the two reported Tuesday night in the city of Portage, said meteorologist Mike Sutton with the weather service’s Grand Rapids office.
He said the Grand Rapids office had received a total of 11 reports of tornadoes from storm spotters, emergency managers and the public from late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night, but as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, it had not confirmed any tornado touchdowns.
Sutton said it could be a couple days before the storm surveys are completed and he stressed that some of the tornado reports could be duplicate reports passed along by people who saw the same storm.
“It’s quite possible those are multiple reports from the same tornado. The actual number of tornadoes may be lower depending on what they find when they’re out surveying,” he said.
Tuesday’s storms came a day after parts of the central United States were battered by heavy rain, strong winds, hail and twisters. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring.
Across the U.S., the entire week is looking stormy. The Midwest and the South are expected to get the brunt of the bad weather through the rest of the week, including in Indianapolis, Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis and Cincinnati — cities where more than 21 million people live. It should be clear over the weekend.
Oklahoma’s recent twisters
On Monday night, a deadly twister in Oklahoma tore through the 1,000-person town of Barnsdall. At least one person was killed. and another was missing. Dozens of homes were destroyed.
Aerial videos showed homes reduced to piles of rubble and others with roofs torn off. The twister tossed vehicles, downed power lines and stripped limbs and bark from trees across the town. A 160-acre (65-hectare) wax manufacturing facility in the community also sustained heavy damage.
It was the second tornado to hit Barnsdall in five weeks — a twister on April 1 with maximum wind speeds of 90 to 100 mph (145 to 161 kph) damaged homes and blew down trees and power poles.
At the Hampton Inn in nearby Bartlesville, several splintered two-by-fours were driven into the building. Chunks of insulation, twisted metal and other debris were scattered over the lawn, and vehicles in the parking lot were heavily damaged, with blown-out windows.
Hotel guest Matthew Macedo said he was ushered into a laundry room to wait out the storm.
“When the impact occurred, it was incredibly sudden,” he said.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who toured the twister’s damage Tuesday, said it was rated by weather researchers as a violent tornado with winds reaching up to 200 mph (322 kph). Stitt said he and legislative leaders have agreed to set aside $45 million in this year’s budget to help storm-damaged communities.
Areas in Oklahoma, including Sulphur and Holdenville, are still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month.
Someone tried to smuggle two Tesla Cybertrucks into Russia
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
The Lithuanian customs have detained two Tesla Cybertrucks, which they suspect were going to be smuggled into Russia.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/08/someone-smuggle-two-tesla-cybertrucks-into-russia/
A “good ol’ boys” culture at the FDIC
date: 2024-05-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
A new report from an independent law firm says that big changes are needed at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to address widespread allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination and that FDIC’s management’s response has been “insufficient.” We’ll discuss. Plus, there was a big slowdown of consumer credit growth in March. And can the “Las Vegas of the East” move away from gambling revenue to entertainment?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-good-ol-boys-culture-at-the-fdic
Here are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in May 2024
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
I’ve spent countless hours here at Electrek doing detailed hands-on testing of hundreds of electric bikes. Through thousands of miles of riding, I’ve learned these e-bikes inside and out, top to bottom and front to back. That dedication to real-world e-bike testing has helped me find the best electric bicycles on the market for just about any budget.
Below are some of the top e-bikes I’ve hand-tested for every price range, current as of May 2024. Spring is finally upon us (at least, here in the Northern Hemisphere) and riding season is gearing up! Just like the ultra-competitive e-bike selling year in 2023, this year has turned into the year of the e-bike sales. So check out the awesome e-bikes below, any one of which could become your next electric bike.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/08/here-are-the-best-electric-bikes-you-can-buy-at-every-price-level/
Man issues death threats after stealing candy bar from Campbell store
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Diners stick restaurant with $950 tab in separate incident.
iFixit hails replaceable LPCAMM2 laptop memory as a ‘big deal’
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
So long SODIMM? Only in new Thinkpad so far, but memory format may well spread across market
LPCAMM2 memory is getting the thumbs up from the team at iFixit, which hailed it as a return to the upgradeable laptop and reckons the writing is on the wall for models with soldered-down, non-serviceable memory.…
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-05-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
@palmin am I wrong or using your working copy “external” repository would work as a way of accessing files and pushing to GitHub in my Godot port?
Is there something I might not be understanding that might prevent that?
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112405888084732197
Blueprint for housing development in Los Gatos receives state approval
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Process took 7 drafts over more than a year.
Tesla is being probed by DOJ ‘securities or wire fraud’ over self-driving claims
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla is reportedly being probed by the Department of Justice over whether its self-driving claims could constitute “securities or wire fraud.”
https://electrek.co/2024/05/08/tesla-probed-doj-securities-wire-fraud-self-driving-claims/
NetBSD 8.3 released, marks the end of the 8.0 branch
date: 2024-05-08, from: OS News
NetBSD 10 and NetBSD 9.4 were only recently released, leaving one final branch to receive what will be its last update: NetBSD 8.3. NetBSD 8.0 was originally released in 2018, so this final release marks six years of updates, which is a good track record, especially now that two newer main releases are available to choose from. With 8.3 being the final release, this means no more regular or security updates, pkgsrc no longer supports the 8.0 branch either – so yeah, time to upgrade. NetBSD 8.3 brings various updates and bug fixes for libX11, xterm, tmux, and httpd, and the root name servers and time zone data have been updated to their latest iterations as well. There’s of course a full list of changes to peruse through if you want to know every little detail that’s changed. You can update your installation in-place, of course, or download the installation media for 8.3 from one of the many mirrors.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139613/netbsd-8-3-released-marks-the-end-of-the-8-0-branch/
Lectron NACS To CCS1 Adapter Recalled Because It Could Unlatch While Charging
date: 2024-05-08, from: Inside EVs News
It’s one of the first third-party adapters that enables authorized non-Tesla EVs to charge at Superchargers.
https://insideevs.com/news/718894/lectron-nacs-ccs1-adapter-recall-latch/
Johnson Celebrates AA and NHPI Heritage Month: Kimia Seyedmadani
date: 2024-05-08, from: NASA breaking news
A quest for innovative ideas and development processes led biomedical engineer Kimia Seyedmadani to NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) in 2018. After working for several years to design and develop cutting-edge medical devices, Seyedmadani became frustrated with resistance to innovative ideas and the regulatory processes with respect to a treatment for pancreatic cancer. “I got […]
One year on, universities org admits MOVEit attack hit data of 800k people
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nearly 95M people in total snagged by flaw in file transfer tool
Just short of a year after the initial incident, the state of Georgia’s higher education government agency has confirmed that it was the victim of an attack on its systems affecting the data of 800,000 people.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/georgia_state_education_moveit/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Options are a lottery ticket.
https://werd.io/2024/options-are-a-lottery-ticket
Just a bunch of scanners (JBOS?)
date: 2024-05-08, from: OS News
This is the story on how I spent far too much money and time getting a scanner to work over iSCSI so that I could prove “Chris O” wrong on StackExchange. The TL;DR is that yes scanners work fine over iSCSI. ↫ xssfox The next step is connecting a bunch of flatbed scanners to a disk array enclosure, but that turns out to be quite an expensive little exercise. Regardless, this is absolutely wild, and I love it when people go to great lengths just to prove that something pointless can actually be done. Bravo.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139611/just-a-bunch-of-scanners-jbos/
Water Rates Jump
date: 2024-05-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Our monthly fee for access to city water is just under $78 for a 1-inch line. The city proposes to increase this to just under $114 by 2028 — a 46 percent increase in four years.
The post Water Rates Jump appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/08/water-rates-jump/
Georgia appeals court agrees to review ruling allowing Fani Willis to stay on Trump election case
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.
Trump and some other defendants in the case had tried to get Willis and her office removed from the case, saying her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in March found that no conflict of interest existed that should force Willis off the case, but he granted a request from Trump and the other defendants to seek an appeal of his ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals.
That intermediate appeals court agreed on Wednesday to take up the case. Once it rules, the losing side could ask the Georgia Supreme Court to consider an appeal.
The appeals court’s decision to consider the case seems likely to cause a delay in a case and further reduce the possibility that it will get to trial before the November general election, when Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee for president.
In his order, McAfee said he planned to continue to address other pretrial motions “regardless of whether the petition is granted … and even if any subsequent appeal is expedited by the appellate court.” But Trump and the others could ask the Court of Appeals to stay the case while the appeal is pending.
Google Delists Sites Providing DIY Hormone Therapy at Behest of UK Government
date: 2024-05-08, from: 404 Media Group
“In the short term, they will be left with no healthcare at all. However, they will find alternatives, as they always have.”
NIO signs a new agreement with GAC Group to co-develop battery standards, charging, and swaps
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
Two weeks after signing a similar strategic cooperation agreement with Lotus Technology, NIO has announced an additional agreement with China’s GAC Group to collaborate on charging and swapping and implementing a new unified battery standard.
Water main break shuts down major boulevard in Richmond
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Fire officials were called to Carlson Boulevard and S. 43rd Street about 5 a.m., officials said.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/08/water-main-break-shuts-down-major-boulevard-in-richmond/
Exchange Server SE set to debut just before 2019 version breathes its last
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Administrators, start your engines
Microsoft has finally broken its silence on the fate of on-premises Exchange, and administrators will need to move quickly to keep their servers supported.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/microsoft_exchange_server_roadmap/
Toyota To Invest Record Profits Into Electric Vehicles And AI
date: 2024-05-08, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, Tesla wanted to unveil its robotaxi in China last month, and Daimler says the U.S. needs to invest in EV infrastructure for trucks.
https://insideevs.com/news/718951/toyota-profits-invest-evs-ai/
NASA, JAXA XRISM Spots Iron Fingerprints in Nearby Active Galaxy
date: 2024-05-08, from: NASA breaking news
After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the monster black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 4151. “XRISM’s Resolve instrument captured a detailed spectrum of the area around the black hole,” said Brian Williams, NASA’s project scientist for the mission at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center […]
Matter IoT standard now supports EV chargers, kitchen and laundry appliances, and more
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
Today Matter, the Internet of Things (IoT) standard developed by major players like Apple, Google, and Amazon, has been updated to version 1.3.
This release introduces support for a host of new device types, such as EV chargers and kitchen and laundry appliances, while also adding enhancements like energy tracking, upgraded TV features, and more.
Now’s Your Chance To Own An Actual Troy Bayliss Ducati Desmosedici GP3
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The bike is currently up for sale in the UK, but you’ll need to pony up a pretty penny to bring it home.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718829/bayliss-ducati-desmosedici-for-sale/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Did WordPress development get good?
https://rich.blog/did-wordpress-get-good/
Amazon and Epson accuse a bunch of traders of selling knockoff print ink
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Multiple Marketplace accounts sold fake bottles, cartridges for 2 years+, claim companies
Amazon and printer manufacturer Seiko Epson have filed a joint action against firms in Turkey and the UK which they claim sold counterfeit printer bottles and cartridges on the global online retailer’s platform.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/amazon_and_epson_bring_legal/
Podcast: Facebook is the ‘Zombie Internet’
date: 2024-05-08, from: 404 Media Group
How Facebook is even worse than dead; Pokemon Go players cheating by messing with maps; and how ticket resellers are transferring untransferable tickets.
https://www.404media.co/404-media-podcast-37-facebook-zombie-internet/
‘Age before beauty’? California bill seeks to ban sales of anti-aging cosmetic products to children
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
The “Sephora kids” trend fueled by social media has more children and teens trying adult skin care products.
Carvana trends report: Used EVs narrow price gap with ICE cars, triggering sales growth potential
date: 2024-05-08, from: Electrek Feed
Used vehicle online marketplace Carvana has posted a Q1 EV trends report outlining some encouraging metrics for electrification. According to the data gathered, Carvana saw that its used EV sales mix achieved new highs while the price margin compared to traditional combustion vehicles narrowed.
Synthetic Fuel Drops Horsepower and Torque Slightly
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Could be worse. We could lose combustion forever.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718838/synthetic-fuel-horsepower-torque-drop-evo-dyno/
1942: Engine Roars to Life in First Test at Future NASA Glenn
date: 2024-05-08, from: NASA breaking news
In a crowded control room on May 8, 1942, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) leaders George Lewis and John Victory pushed a button and spun a crank that activated a massive piston engine in the adjacent test cell of the Engine Propeller Research Building (EPRB). This commenced the first test conducted at the NACA’s […]
Meet The J2R Dynamics Smol Motorcycle, Which Is Just A Lil Electric Guy
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Smol enough for new riders; big enough for your commute?
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718675/j2rdesign-smol-electric-a2-motorcycle/
Opinion: Tom McEnery, Lewis Wolff call San Jose BART extension ‘municipal madness’
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
“This will likely leave us with an obsolete system in a brave new world,” say former mayor and former A’s co-owner, who were key players in city’s downtown redevelopment.
Tesla devotee tests Cybertruck safety with his own finger – and fails
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Faith in frunk flunks
We know that Tesla Cybertruck owners are very special, and their mothers love them very much, but perhaps the most special of all is the one who “broke” his finger attempting to demonstrate the safety of the “frunk” closing mechanism.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/tesla_cybertruck_finger_crush/
REV’IT!’s New Store In Colorado Will Let You Actually Try Gear On
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It’s the first of many new brick-and-mortar stores in the pipeline.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718679/revit-new-store-denver-colorado/
Compute Module 4 brings Sega Game Gear back to life
date: 2024-05-08, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is running RetroPie inside a salvaged Game Gear handset, giving the user access to as many classic games as they desire.
The post Compute Module 4 brings Sega Game Gear back to life appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/compute-module-4-brings-sega-game-gear-back-to-life/
Global Power Emissions Probably Already Peaked
date: 2024-05-08, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Wildfires in India have killed at least five people • A heat wave in Mexico caused rolling blackouts • Central states will get some relief from severe storms as the system weakens and begins moving east today.
THE TOP FIVE
- Global power sector emissions likely peaked last year as renewables
surge
I am delighted to start today with some uplifting news. A new Global Electricity Review from climate think tank Ember is positively brimming with encouraging data about the growth of renewables. The topline takeaway? Rapid expansion of wind and solar projects in 2023 likely brought the peak in global power sector emissions, and a “new era of falling fossil fuel generation is imminent.” Key findings and projections:
- Renewables – mainly solar and wind – provided more than 30% of the world’s electricity last year for the first time.
- Solar was the fastest-growing source of electricity generation. Wind and solar generation are growing faster than any electricity source in history. (A separate report out yesterday from the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that renewables – especially solar – will cover most of the nation’s electricity growth this year.)
- More than half of last year’s additions to solar and wind capacity were in China.
- Hydropower fell due to drought, boosting coal generation. Had this not been the case, emissions from the power sector would already have peaked.
- EVs, heat pumps, electrolysers, air conditioning, and data centers are key drivers of electricity demand growth.
- Power sector emissions are expected to fall in 2024. Clean energy growth is forecast to easily cover the expected rise in electricity demand in 2024.
“The renewables future has arrived,” said Dave Jones, Ember’s director of global insights. “Solar, in particular, is accelerating faster than anyone thought possible. The decline of power sector emissions is now inevitable. 2023 was likely the pivot point – peak emissions in the power sector – a major turning point in the history of energy.” But… clean electricity growth has to continue to speed up if we are to meet the COP28 goal of tripling renewables by 2030 to 60% of global supply. In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, “must go faster.”
Ember
- Vermont lawmakers approve 100% renewable electricity mandate
Vermont’s senate yesterday passed a bill that would require the state’s utilities be powered 100% by renewables by 2035. H.289 would double the amount of renewables utilities are required to build in state; require utilities to provide customers with additional, new renewable energy of any size from anywhere in the region; and yes, require utilities to provide customers with 100% renewable electricity (some by 2030, others by 2035 at the latest). Republican Gov. Phil Scott is expected to veto the bill, but the veto will likely be overturned by the state legislature. The law “represents the largest single move towards renewable electricity and away from fossil fueled power that Vermont has ever taken,” and its emissions-cutting potential would be equivalent to taking up to 250,000 cars off the road, the Sierra Club said in a statement.
- Venezuela loses its last glacier
Venezuela has become one of the first nations in modern times to lose all its glaciers to melting. The Humboldt glacier, also known as La Corona, was the last of six glaciers in the country. Five melted in 2011, and La Corona has shrunk so much that it’s no longer classified as a glacier, but as an ice field. “The loss of La Corona marks the loss of much more than the ice itself, it also marks the loss of the many ecosystem services that glaciers provide, from unique microbial habitats to environments of significant cultural value,” Caroline Clason, a glaciologist and assistant professor at Durham University, told The Guardian. Other countries that could soon be glacier free are Indonesia, Mexico, and Slovenia, according to climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.
- Mercedes backtracks on 2030 EV goals
Mercedes was expected to tell shareholders at its annual general meeting today that the group will abandon its plan to be fully electric by 2030 following sluggish EV sales, and that combustion-engine and hybrid vehicles will continue to be part of the mix “well into the 2030s.” “The transformation might take longer than expected,” CEO Ola Källenius said in prepared remarks, according to Bloomberg. The company’s EV deliveries fell by 8% in the first quarter of 2024. “With China not phasing out sales of new combustion-engines until 2060, luxury-car makers still see potential for their legacy products in the world’s biggest auto market,” Bloomberg noted.
- Austrian company creates ‘terracotta’ red solar panels
This is kind of cool: A company in Austria has created a “terracotta” solar panel that can match the coloring of the red tiles that sit atop many of the country’s buildings, including historic monuments. “We would like to make a contribution to ensuring that monument protection and sustainable energy production go hand in hand,” said Sonnenkraft’s Peter Prasser.
Sonnenkraft
And speaking of rooftop solar, a 450,000-square-foot GAF Energy manufacturing facility opened recently in Texas. The Timberline Solar factory will produce GAF’s nailable solar shingles – essentially solar panels that double as rooftop shingles. The new factory will increase GAF’s capacity by 500%, which Electrek estimates will make the company the world’s largest solar roofing producer.
THE KICKER
Beloved British naturalist, biologist, and broadcaster David Attenborough celebrates his 98th birthday today.
https://heatmap.news/ember-electricity-2023-power-emissions
Does Celebrini accelerate the Sharks’ rebuild? Plus other post-lottery thoughts
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Sharks are expected to take Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 overall selection at the NHL Draft next month in Las Vegas.
Walters: ‘Digital Democracy’ project penetrates California’s opaque political processes
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
CalMatters launches an immense, updated and user-friendly gold mine of political data that records every dollar and vote.
Google Cloud misconfiguration takes down Australian fund for a week
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
That pesky ‘previously unknown software bug’ strikes again
Australian superannuation fund UniSuper is lumbering back to life after an “unprecedented occurrence” at Google Cloud knocked its systems offline.…
A (Bud) light at the end of the tunnel?
date: 2024-05-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud Light, reported earnings this morning. The company has been slowly recovering since last year, when Bud Light became the target of a conservative boycott over a 45-second promotional video posted by a transgender influencer. We’ll delve into the backlash and get a taste of the light beer market. Also on the show: FTX investors might get their money back, and the Biden administration overhauls requirements for retirement planners.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-bud-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel
Goldberg: Senators need to stop the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
Bill would codify a definition of antisemitism that includes the rejection of Israel as a Jewish state
Fisker Files For Reorganization In Austria After Magna Pauses Ocean Production
date: 2024-05-08, from: Inside EVs News
It’s the rough equivalent of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. What’s next for the troubled startup?
https://insideevs.com/news/718875/fisker-reorganization-austria/
Opinion: Weinstein conviction reversal will create a chilling effect
date: 2024-05-08, from: San Jose Mercury News
High court decision deals a crushing blow to prosecutors and victims who seek justice in sexual assault cases
Report: Violence targeting US Jews up 103% in 2023
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the resulting war in Gaza led to a dramatic increase in antisemitism worldwide in 2023, a new report reveals. In the U.S., the Biden administration recommitted to the security of Israel and the safety of the Jewish community. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story.
https://www.voanews.com/a/report-violence-targeting-us-jews-up-103-in-2023/7602591.html
Polaris Recalls 600 Snowmobiles Due To Fuel Leak
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
High heat and leaky fuel make for a disastrous combo.
UK opens investigation of MoD payroll contractor after confirming attack
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
China vehemently denies involvement
UK Government has confirmed a cyberattack on the payroll system used by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) led to “malign” forces accessing data on current and a limited number of former armed forces personnel.…
Our New Insta360 X4 Has Unreal 4K Battery Life
date: 2024-05-08, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
I legit thought I was mistaken, or that it didn’t record properly. But no; it did!
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718667/insta360-x4-impressive-battery-life/
Two category theory books
date: 2024-05-08, from: Logic Matters blog
One of the best freely available sets of lecture notes on category theory available is the one by Paulo Perrone, which can be downloaded from the arXiv here. He has now turned these notes into a printed book, Starting Category Theory from World Scientific. There is a long added chapter on monoidal categories, but the […]
The post Two category theory books appeared first on Logic Matters.
https://www.logicmatters.net/2024/05/08/two-category-theory-books-and-7-5-million/
Archives II turns 30
date: 2024-05-08, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
Thirty years ago on May 12, 1994, the National Archives at College Park, MD, popularly known as “Archives II,” was dedicated. The 1.8-million-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, located just outside of Washington, DC, provides much-needed space for historically significant holdings of the National Archives. When the National Archives was created in 1934, the construction of the monumental … Continue reading Archives II turns 30
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/05/08/archives-ii-turns-30/
China’s close relationship with Serbia
date: 2024-05-08, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Chinese president Xi Jinping is in Serbia aiming to deepen political and economic ties. China has invested heavily in the Eastern European country as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Then, we take a closer look at how devastating rains have hit Kenya, where thousands have been displaced and crops ruined. We also head to Macau, where Chinese authorities want to see the territory diversify away from gambling.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/chinas-close-relationship-with-serbia
US paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., a senior administration official said Tuesday.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of U.S. concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war on Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
The U.S. has historically provided enormous amounts of military aid for Israel. That has only accelerated in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 in Israel and led to about 250 being taken captive by militants. The pausing of the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the administration of President Joe Biden, which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.
It also comes as the Biden administration is due to deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. laws designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war. A decision against Israel would further add to pressure on Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to Israel’s military.
Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.
U.S. officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which came as Biden on Tuesday described U.S. support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree.”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to square the arms holdup with Biden’s rhetoric in support of Israel, saying only, “Two things could be true.”
Israeli troops on Tuesday seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing in what the White House described as a limited operation that stopped short of the full-on Israeli invasion of the city that Biden has repeatedly warned against on humanitarian grounds, most recently in a Monday call with Netanyahu.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of 100,000 Palestinians from the city. Israeli forces have also carried out what it describes as “targeted strikes” on the eastern part of Rafah and captured the Rafah crossing, a critical conduit for the flow of humanitarian aid along the Gaza-Egypt border.
Privately, concern has mounted inside the White House about what’s unfolding in Rafah, but publicly administration officials have stressed that they did not think the operations had defied Biden’s warnings against a widescale operation in the city.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Israel described the operation along the Gaza-Egypt border in eastern Rafah as “an operation of limited scale and duration” aimed at cutting off Hamas arms smuggling, but also said the U.S. would monitor the fighting.
Just last month, Congress passed a $95 billion national security bill that included funding for Ukraine, Israel and other allies. The package included more than $14 billion in military aid for Israel, though the stalled transfer was not related to that measure.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.
The U.S. dropped the 2,000-pound bomb sparingly in its long war against the Islamic State militant group. Israel, by contrast, has used the bomb frequently in the seven-month Gaza war. Experts say the use of the weapon, in part, has helped drive the enormous Palestinian casualty count that the Hamas-run health ministry puts at more than 34,000 dead, though it doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians.
The U.S.-Israel relationship has been close through both Democratic and Republican administrations. But there have been other moments of deep tension since the founding in which U.S. leaders have threatened to hold up aid in attempt to sway Israeli leadership.
President Dwight Eisenhower pressured Israel with the threat of sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 in the midst of the Suez Crisis. Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel at a time of escalating violence in the Middle East. President George H.W. Bush held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories.
US commerce department yanks back Huawei export licenses
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Intel and Qualcomm reportedly among those cut off
Updated The US Commerce Department has revoked some of the licenses held by tech companies to supply Chinese megacorp Huawei.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/huawei_licenses_revoked/
Gary Horton | Vote Pragmatism in Our Policies
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Signal
I live in a nice, tree-lined neighborhood in Valencia. Carrie and I have lived in our Newhall Land-built home for 35 years now. We lived in a small house next to […]
The post Gary Horton | Vote Pragmatism in Our Policies appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/gary-horton-vote-pragmatism-in-our-policies/
Thomas Oatway | Some of My Friends Are Republicans
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Signal
Rick Barker (letters, March 15) has accused me of “ever present, nonstop fanatical hatred of Rep. Mike Garcia and anyone/anything that has the audacity to hold an opinion contrary to […]
The post Thomas Oatway | Some of My Friends Are Republicans appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/thomas-oatway-some-of-my-friends-are-republicans/
Just a bunch of scanners (JBOS?)
date: 2024-05-08, from: Tilde.news
https://sprocketfox.io/xssfox/2024/05/08/jbos/
First crewed test flight of new spacecraft delayed until at least May 17
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
Intel’s quantum leap in wafer-wide cryo-testing sets cool new standard
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Approach could help make forever upcoming tech more reliable
Intel says it has made two advancements towards realizing silicon-based quantum processors which involves optimizing a standard fabrication process and developing a means to test the quality of resulting individual devices across a full 300mm wafer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/intel_quantum_cryoprober/
Washington’s willingness to engage Pyongyang exposes a rare rift with Seoul
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s apparent willingness to engage North Korea is causing a rare public rift with one of Washington’s key allies in Asia over how to achieve Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
Last week, the two allies, on separate occasions, showed differences about whether to consider “interim steps” toward North Korea’s complete denuclearization.
South Korean national security adviser Chang Ho-jin said, “U.S. senior officials confirmed several times that there are no such thing as interim steps” toward denuclearization. He made the remarks in an interview with South Korean media outlet KBS, aired on April 27.
A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson confirmed in an email to VOA’s Korean Service on April 30 that “by saying that the United States is willing to consider interim steps, we are making clear that we recognize that building trust with the DPRK and making progress toward denuclearization will take time.”
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea’s official name.
In response to the NSC spokesperson’s comments, a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson told VOA Korean on May 1 that Chang’s remarks “reaffirm that the U.S. will not put aside complete denuclearization while it settles for a stopgap measure limiting [negotiations] to a nuclear freeze in return for sanctions relief.”
Taking interim steps toward denuclearization involves reciprocal concessions or corresponding measures that both sides are willing to make to reach that goal.
Interim steps toward denuclearization are not a new approach. The approach was tried and failed by the former Clinton and George W. Bush administrations when North Korea was engaged in negotiations with the U.S.
In March of this year, senior U.S. officials expressed Washington’s interest in considering “interim steps” amid talks that remained stalled with Pyongyang since October 2019.
A State Department spokesperson told VOA Korean in April that it made multiple attempts to communicate with North Korean officials, but that Pyongyang has not shown interest in engaging.
Experts said Seoul is concerned that Washington’s mention of interim steps and measures that could be included in those steps, especially threat reduction, could hinder Pyongyang from making a commitment toward complete denuclearization in future negotiations.
Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation chair in Korea Studies at Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies, said, “Seoul prefers not to engage in any diplomatic negotiations without a DPRK commitment to denuclearization and wants to appear resolute.”
“Washington has signaled to North Korea that it’s willing to be more flexible when it comes to restarting diplomatic engagement with North Korea. Seoul may not want to give the appearance of that flexibility so is perhaps denying any legitimacy behind an ‘interim steps’ approach,” he added.
Seoul has taken a tough stance on North Korea under President Yoon Suk Yeol since he took office two years ago by focusing on deterrence and alignment with Washington and U.S.-led trilateral security cooperation with Japan.
Evans Revere, a State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said some critics and officials in Seoul and Tokyo are worried that the U.S. will focus on other goals Washington mentioned such as confidence building and tension reduction rather than on denuclearization.
“There is also concern that Washington may be prepared to engage in arms control talks with Pyongyang — a move that would generate deep concern among U.S. allies, in large part because it would effectively accept North Korea’s nuclear arsenal as permanent,” he said.
Talks over arms control or “nuclear freeze” that Seoul said it is concerned about or “threat reduction” or “risk reduction” mentioned by U.S. officials in March — which could be included in the interim steps — are considered equivalent to accepting North Korea as a nuclear state and opposed by some officials and analysts.
At an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on March 3, Mira Rapp-Hooper, senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, said the U.S. will discuss threat reduction with North Korea as it considers interim steps on the “pathway to denuclearization.”
Also at an event by CSIS on March 18, Jung Pak, a U.S. senior official for North Korea, said Washington wants North Korea to take risk reduction steps and discuss sanctions and confidence-building measures.
Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at CSIS, however, said that Rapp-Hooper’s reference to “the formulation of interim measures to reduce the threat on the peninsula” in March “reflects the same pragmatic view that any negotiation has to start at step 1 — whether you call that interim measures or initial denuclearization.”
“As a former negotiator, I can say that any pragmatic implementation of denuclearization would have to include such steps, which I do not think would represent de facto acceptance of DPRK nuclear status — that is neither Washington, nor Seoul’s policy,” he said.
Cha formerly served as deputy head of delegation for the U.S. at six-party denuclearization talks.
Elon Musk Is Putting the EV Transition in Peril
date: 2024-05-08, from: Heatmap News
Tesla is now facing its worst crisis in years. Last week, CEO Elon Musk laid off the automaker’s roughly 500-person Supercharger team and what remained of its policy and new vehicle teams. Before that, it reported its first-quarter financial results — and they were even worse than the lackluster performance that investors were expecting.
Already this year, Tesla has cut around 10% of its employees. Now Musk is promising that it will shift toward becoming an “AI” company. And on Wednesday — after we recorded this episode — Reuters reported that the Justice Department is investigating Tesla for lying about its so-called Full Self Driving software to investors.
Does Tesla, long a stalwart of America’s EV transition, now pose a danger to it? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse discuss the automaker’s turn away from EVs, and why Musk’s decision to lay off the Supercharger team could throw the entire country’s EV transition off track. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.
Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Jesse Jenkins: I just want to note one thing you said there, which is the role of the [National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure] funding. So the government funding here required that any recipient of the federal infrastructure funding would be open to multiple automakers’ vehicles. So you could not, Tesla could not have kept its network closed and received any of the federal money.
And so it is interesting to think like, you know: If NEVI hadn’t existed, I’m not sure if Tesla would have made that pivot. So it’s interesting, this is an example of where government funding and requirements can really open up standards and, you know, kind of force change. So maybe it was they thought they had to do it in order to stay competitive, to get a chunk of that federal infrastructure funding. And maybe they would have been better off if they just kept a closed network and ignored the shiny pot of money that the federal government was out there … it’s hard to say, at this point.
Robinson Meyer: There’s a second aspect of this, though, that I think is also confusing, which is basically that if Tesla — over the next year, every American who drives an electric vehicle is going to encounter a Tesla Supercharger for the first time, whether or not they own a Tesla, right? Because they’re, the vehicle they own is going to be integrated into the Tesla network and they’re going to be able to charge.
That is such a sales opportunity for Tesla. Tesla needed to nail that integration, first of all, and execution, because these are not hard customers to convince to buy a Tesla. These are customers who already own an electric vehicle. And so if they’re coming to your Supercharger network, and they’re like, ‘This is an amazing network. This, like, works so much better than any other network. This works better than the chargers that my automaker wants to direct me to that aren’t Tesla, whether they be Electrify America or something else,’ that would have been an incredible marketing and sales opportunity for Tesla to convert drivers who already had chosen to go electric.
There’s not a better market out there. There’s not a more accessible market out there for them than people who already drive an EV and are thinking about their next EV purchase. And so it has now, if nothing else, guaranteed that the next year will feel chaotic. Maybe, through some miracle, the Supercharger network keeps working, and it keeps working pretty well. How they’re going to manage that with no remaining team, I don’t really understand — but let’s say it keeps working pretty well. They’ve really fumbled an opportunity to make Tesla seem like the easiest and most secure and most reliable, you know, value proposition out there for drivers.
And I think that’s just … that’s happened now. That’s water under the bridge. They’ve really screwed this up, no matter what else happens over the next year.
This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by…
Watershed’s climate data engine helps companies measure and reduce their emissions, turning the data they already have into an audit-ready carbon footprint backed by the latest climate science. Get the sustainability data you need in weeks, not months. Learn more at watershed.com.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/shift-key-episode-15-tesla-elon-musk
Jolie: the service-oriented programming language
date: 2024-05-08, from: OS News
Jolie crystallises the programming concepts of service-oriented computing as linguistic constructs. The basic building blocks of software are not objects or functions, but rather services that can be relocated and replicated as needed. A composition of services is a service. ↫ Jolie website Jolie is open source and available on GitHub.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139608/jolie-the-service-oriented-programming-language/
Uni staff fall back on Excel to work around mis-coded transactions in Oracle system
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Two years after going live, the project that left employees unpaid still needs work
Updated The fallout from Edinburgh University’s ill-fated Oracle HR and finance implementation continues with one department recording thousands of mis-coded transactions relating to more than £300,000 in spending.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/edinburgh_university_oracle/
The Savvy Senior | How to Find Affordable Internet Services
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Signal
Dear Savvy Senior, I was recently notified that the Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidizes my monthly internet bill, is about to end. What are my options for finding affordable […]
The post The Savvy Senior | How to Find Affordable Internet Services appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/the-savvy-senior-how-to-find-affordable-internet-services/
Boy Scouts of America to officially change name to Scouting America in 2025
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
Gaining skills and confidence: The impact of Code Club and CoderDojo
date: 2024-05-08, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Through Code Club and CoderDojo we support the world’s largest network of free informal computing clubs for young people. The clubs network reaches young people in 126 countries across the globe, and we estimate that the 4,557 Code Clubs and 771 CoderDojos are attended by more than 200,000 young people globally. All these clubs are…
The post Gaining skills and confidence: The impact of Code Club and CoderDojo appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/the-impact-of-code-club-and-coderdojo-annual-clubs-survey/
Office Hours: Is Biden focusing on the right issue?
date: 2024-05-08, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Did yesterday’s speech hit the target or miss the boat?
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/office-hours-is-biden-focusing-on
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
After 17 years of stagnation with Twitter, the new tweet-alikes continue the no new features tradition. When will one of them break out and try something new?
https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/08/bluesky-to-add-dms-video-support-and-in-app-custom-feed-curation/
Ten years since the first corp ransomware, Mikko Hyppönen sees no end in sight
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
On the plus side, infosec’s a good bet for a long, stable career
Interview This year is an unfortunate anniversary for information security: We’re told it’s a decade since ransomware started infecting corporations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/mikko_ransomware/
Russia launches wide attack on Ukrainian energy facilties
date: 2024-05-08, from: Associated Press, World News
Ukraine’s president says Russia has launched a massive nighttime attack on energy facilities across Ukraine, targeting seven regions with more than 50 missiles and drones.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-5-8-2024-e4b4507e3f17965a8ad69fdfb8dfa48d
Today in SCV History (May 8)
date: 2024-05-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1875 – John F. Powell, an Irish immigrant, becomes Justice of the Peace. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-may-8/
Add AI servers to the list of iDevices Apple Silicon could soon power
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Where have you been, Cupertino?
Analysis We can add Apple to the list of tech titans developing their own custom AI accelerators – at least that’s what unnamed sources are telling the Wall Street Journal.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/apple_ai_servers_rumor/
May 7, 2024
date: 2024-05-08, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
The past two days of former president Trump’s criminal trial for falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, to silence her before the 2016 election have been illuminating in different ways.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-7-2024
From infosec to skunks, RSA Conference SVP spills the tea
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Keynotes, physical security, playlists … the buck stops with Linda Gray Martin
Interview The 33rd RSA Conference is underway this week, and no one feels that more acutely than the cybersecurity event’s SVP Linda Gray Martin.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/rsa_conference_svp_interview/
Italy’s president says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can’t be solved by rewarding Moscow’s aggression
date: 2024-05-08, from: Associated Press, World News
Italy’s president says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can’t be solved by rewarding its aggression and peace can only come when Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored.
Narcotics detectives arrest man near elementary school after search
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Signal
L.A. County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau detectives arrested a Valencia man on suspicion of selling methamphetamine across the street from Old Orchard Elementary School last month, according to court records obtained […]
The post Narcotics detectives arrest man near elementary school after search appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/narcotics-detectives-arrest-man-near-elementary-school-after-search/
Local BMX rider qualifies for world championship
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Signal
AJ Martin is only 10 years old but is already making a name for himself in the world of BMX. A student at Emblem Academy, Martin is set to compete […]
The post Local BMX rider qualifies for world championship appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/local-bmx-rider-qualifies-for-world-championship/
US inquiry finds widespread sexual misconduct at FDIC
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation must make sweeping changes to address widespread sexual harassment and other misconduct, according to an independent report released on Tuesday that raises questions about the future of the banking regulator’s leadership.
The report, prompted by a Wall Street Journal investigation, cited accounts from more than 500 people, including some who alleged FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg had engaged in bullying and verbal abuse.
Overall, the report by law firm Cleary Gottlieb paints a picture of an agency at which sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bullying were pervasive at every level and tolerated by senior leaders for years, while complaints about misconduct were met with retaliation.
“For far too many employees and for far too long, the FDIC has failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct,” the report said, adding that those accused of misconduct were frequently reassigned new roles.
Underscoring the agency’s toxic culture, officials tasked with addressing the problems exposed by the WSJ reports were themselves the subject of misconduct claims, the Cleary Gottlieb report found.
The findings sparked renewed calls for the ouster of Gruenberg, a Democrat who has been a senior leader at the agency for nearly two decades.
Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, called for Gruenberg’s resignation following the report, saying it made clear the agency needs new leadership.
“The FDIC needs to be fixed. The women and men who work there deserve better,” Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “Chair Gruenberg must accept responsibility and must immediately work to make fundamental changes to the agency and its culture.”
Some employees described Gruenberg as “harsh” and “aggressive,” as well as prone to losing his temper, the report said. In speaking with investigators, Gruenberg said he never recalled acting inappropriately. The report said some employees reported positive interactions with him and saw his nature as more “prosecutorial.”
In a statement to staff, Gruenberg said the report was “sobering” and he vowed to implement its recommendations.
He said he was ultimately responsible for everything that happened at the agency and apologized for any shortcomings. “I again want to express how very sorry I am,” he added.
The report recommends the appointment of new officials devoted to changing the FDIC’s culture and hiring an independent third party to assist in the transition, although it did not consider whether top leaders should resign.
It also called on the agency to establish an anonymous hotline to report misconduct and abuse, develop a more timely and transparent process for handling complaints, and take steps to ensure victims are protected and supported.
While the report found that Gruenberg’s aggressive conduct was not a root cause of the more severe issues at the agency, it was skeptical of his ability to oversee the necessary dramatic overhaul.
“As the FDIC faces a crisis relating to its workplace culture, Chairman Gruenberg’s reputation raises questions about the credibility of the leadership’s response to the crisis and the ‘moral authority’ to lead a cultural transformation,” the report stated.
The departure of Gruenberg, who was appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022, could imperil the administration’s efforts to impose stricter financial rules, including a pending regulatory proposal on bank capital requirements, which has sparked a backlash from Republicans and industry representatives.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
If Gruenberg steps down or is removed, agency bylaws stipulate that FDIC Vice Chair Travis Hill, a Republican, take over, and the agency’s board would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-inquiry-finds-widespread-sexual-misconduct-at-fdic/7602405.html
UnitedHealth’s ‘egregious negligence’ led to Change Healthcare ransomware infection
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘I’m blown away by the fact that they weren’t using MFA’
Interview The cybersecurity practices that led up to the stunning Change Healthcare ransomware infection indicate “egregious negligence” on the part of parent company UnitedHealth, according to Tom Kellermann, SVP of cyber strategy at Contrast Security.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/unitedhealths_egregious_negligence/
College, SJP and JVP protestors announce agreement to consider divestment, encampment will come down
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Occidental News (Occidental College Student Newspaper)
May 7, Occidental president Harry J. Elam Jr. announced via email to the college community that the administration reached an agreement with Occidental Students for Justice in Palestine (Oxy SJP), Occidental National Jewish Voices for Peace (Oxy JVP) and other organizations to end their eight-day encampment supporting Palestine on the Academic Quad by May 10. […]
The post College, SJP and JVP protestors announce agreement to consider divestment, encampment will come down appeared first on The Occidental.
US holds up some arms to Israel, sources say
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has been holding up certain Boeing-made arms shipments to Israel, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what two of them said was an apparent political message to the close U.S. ally.
The shipments, which have been delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs.
The sources did not elaborate further, including on the political nature of the holdups. But they come at a time when Washington is publicly pressuring Israel to postpone its planned offensive in Rafah until after it has taken steps to avert civilian casualties.
The White House and Pentagon declined comment. The news of a delayed arms shipment was first reported by Axios over the weekend and Politico first reported on the types of arms delayed and the reasoning on Tuesday.
Without addressing whether there had been a holdup in arms shipments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reaffirmed that Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security was “ironclad.”
Still, when asked about the reports on the arms holdups, she added: “Two things could be true, in the sense of having those conversations, tough, direct conversations with our counterparts in Israel … in making sure citizens lives are protected … and getting that commitment.”
The Pentagon said on Monday that there had not been a policy decision to withhold arms from Israel, America’s closest Middle East ally.
Still, the delays appeared to be the first since Biden’s administration offered its full support to Israel following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were abducted. About 133 of them are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas has led to a seven-month-long military campaign that has killed a total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
The conflict has also left many of Gaza’s 2.3 million people on the brink of starvation and sparked protests in the U.S. demanding that universities and Biden withdraw support for Israel - including the provision of weaponry.
A senior Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not confirm any specific holdup in arms supplies but appeared to take the reports in stride: “As the prime minister has already said, if we have to fight with our fingernails, then we’ll do what we have to do.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-holds-up-some-arms-to-israel-sources-say/7602396.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Substack is trying to lure TikTok stars to its platform.
https://www.engadget.com/substack-is-trying-to-lure-tiktok-stars-to-its-platform-130052380.html
June 8: Bark in the Park at Castaic Lake
date: 2024-05-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Friends of Castaic Lake will host Bark in the Park on Saturday, June 8 10 a.m.-2 p.m
https://scvnews.com/june-8-bark-in-the-park-at-castaic-lake/
MITRE promises a cute little 17-PFLOPS AI super for the rest of Uncle Sam’s agencies
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
No child process left behind
Later this year, MITRE is getting its hands on a modest supercomputer and is planning to use it to divvy out AI computing time to US government agencies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/mitre_ai_computer/
Despite slim prospects, US optimistic on Israel-Hamas cease-fire
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. is expressing optimism that a cease-fire agreement in Gaza is within reach, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposed deal that Hamas said it had accepted. Israeli forces went ahead with a limited operation in eastern Rafah, prompting Hamas to warn there will be no cease-fire if that military action continues. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
US soldier detained in Russia; White House says 2nd American newly detained
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
PENTAGON — The U.S. Army has confirmed that a U.S. soldier was arrested last week during an unauthorized visit to the Russian far eastern port city of Vladivostok, one of two recently detained Americans in Russia.
Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Tuesday Staff Sergeant Gordon C. Black had been stationed in South Korea and signed out on permanent change of station leave on April 10 en route to Fort Cavazos, Texas. Instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew through China to Vladivostok for “personal reasons.”
“Black did not request official clearance, and [the Department of Defense] did not authorize his travel to China and Russia, Smith added.
U.S. officials told VOA he appeared to have traveled to Russia to see a woman whom he was romantically involved with.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Tuesday the Army is investigating the incident and that any leave to Russia was “strictly prohibited,” according to the Department of Defense’s foreign clearance guide.
The White House said on Tuesday it confirmed “two separate cases” of U.S. citizens being detained in Russia, without identifying the second detainee.
Russian officials identified the second American as William Russell Nycum. He was detained 10 days ago in Moscow on petty hooliganism and alcohol charges, according to the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti.
“The State Department is actively seeking consular access to both individuals, neither of whom are in Russia on behalf or in affiliation with the U.S. government,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
A Russian Ministry of Interior official informed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on May 3 that Black was arrested a day earlier in Vladivostok for theft of personal property. Smith said the Army has no further information about the charge at this time and that Black will remain in a pretrial detention facility until his next hearing.
According to RFE/RL a TikTok account of Black’s romantic partner, Vladivostok native Aleksandra Vashchuk, contains numerous videos of the couple together in South Korea. In one video, Black is wearing his U.S. Army fatigues and kisses the camera of a woman, presumably Vashchuk, as she speaks in Russian.
RFE/RL says Vashchuk refers to Black as her husband and affectionately as “pindos,” a Russian slang word for Americans that roughly translates to “Yankee punk.”
The Associated Press reports that unnamed officials say Black is accused of stealing from his “girlfriend.”
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Michael McCaul, said he is “deeply concerned” by reports of the detainment.
“Putin has a long history of holding American citizens hostage,” McCaul said in a post shared on X. “A warning to all Americans — as the State Department has said, it is not safe to travel to Russia.”
Among those being held are journalists Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL and Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, who have been detained on charges that they, their employers and their supporters reject as politically motivated.
Also being held is Paul Whelan, who in 2020 was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which he and the U.S. government have repeatedly rejected.
Schiavo Announces Key Progress on Legislation Package
date: 2024-05-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, announced that 18 of her bills have successfully passed out of their respective Assembly policy committees, with most now moving to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
https://scvnews.com/schiavo-announces-key-progress-on-legislation-package/
Judge postpones Trump’s classified documents trial indefinitely
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The federal judge in Florida presiding over the classified documents prosecution of former President Donald Trump has canceled the May 20 trial date, postponing it indefinitely.
The order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon had been expected in light of still-unresolved issues in the case and because Trump is on trial in a separate case in Manhattan charging him in connection with hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election. The New York case involves several of the same lawyers representing him in the federal case in Florida.
In a five-page order, Cannon said on Tuesday that it would be imprudent to finalize a new trial date now, casting further doubt on federal prosecutors’ ability to bring Trump to trial before the November presidential election.
Trump faces dozens of felony counts accusing him of illegally hoarding at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, classified documents that he took with him after he left the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to get them back. He has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Trump faces four criminal cases as he seeks to reclaim the White House, but outside of the New York prosecution, it’s not clear that any of the other three will reach trial before the election.
The Supreme Court is weighing Trump’s arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution in a separate case from special counsel Jack Smith charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have also brought a separate case related to election subversion, though it’s not clear when that might reach trial.
Looking at People
date: 2024-05-08, from: Chris Coyier blog
At one time I got interested in the “eye contact”, or lack of it, on video calls. I was going to present at an online conference, and I wanted people watching to have it look like I was looking right at them. Plus, possibly even more importantly, one-on-one calls with people. I ended up buying […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/05/07/looking-at-people/
The Airlines’ Secret Billion-Dollar Refund Racket Is Set To End
date: 2024-05-08, from: The Lever News
Airlines won’t say how much they make from unused flight credits, but potential automatic refunds could hurt their massive windfall.
https://www.levernews.com/the-airlines-secret-billion-dollar-refund-racket-is-set-to-end/
Free Life Skills Classes for SCV Youth
date: 2024-05-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
A 10-week Life Skills course underwritten by the Old West Masonic Lodge No. 813 in Newhall will be offered free to Santa Clarita Valley youth
https://scvnews.com/free-life-skills-classes-for-scv-youth/
Santa Barbara County Declares May Bike to Work Month
date: 2024-05-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Tens of thousands of county residents ride their bikes “because it’s joyous” and fits their transportation needs, supervisors told on Tuesday.
The post Santa Barbara County Declares May Bike to Work Month appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/santa-barbara-county-declares-may-bike-to-work-month/
Pro-Palestinian student protests spread from US to Europe
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
The world is watching students on U.S. college campuses protest Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. Global reactions to the demonstrations, including to students’ arrests vary from pride and solidarity to alarm and condemnation. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
https://www.voanews.com/a/7602345.html
Dell to color-code staff based on how hybrid they really are in RTO push
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sources slam aggressive ‘back to school’ grading system as HR vows to track VPN use, badge swipes
Exclusive Dell has told workers it will track the onsite presence of hybrid employees – those who work part remotely, part in the office – using electronic badge swipes, VPN monitoring, and a rather creepy color-coding system.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/08/dell_return_office/
May 13: SCV Water Holds Special Board Meeting
date: 2024-05-08, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency will hold a special board meeting on Monday, May 13 at 6 p.m. Board meetings have been temporarily relocated to the SCV Water Agency Training Room location at 23780 Pine St., Newhall, CA 91321.
https://scvnews.com/may-13-scv-water-holds-special-board-meeting/
Caveats
date: 2024-05-08, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Regarding the $10 wine event, we tried a couple places last year that were on the list who said: “We’re
The post Caveats appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/caveats/
Despite setbacks, US sees Israel-Hamas cease-fire within reach
date: 2024-05-08, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/despite-setbacks-us-sees-israel-hamas-cease-fire-within-reach/7602347.html
Projets Libres Podcast With Lwenn Bussière
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: nlnet feed
https://nlnet.nl/news/2024/20240508-podcast.html
Call for Participants Summer of Nix 2024
date: 2024-05-08, updated: 2024-05-08, from: nlnet feed
https://nlnet.nl/news/2024/20240508-Summer-of-Nix24.html
Faking William Morris, Generative Forgery, and the Erosion of Art History
date: 2024-05-08, from: Maggie Appleton blog
https://maggieappleton.com/generative-forgery
GAF Energy’s new Texas factory is about to make a lot of nailable solar shingles
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
GAF Energy’s new nailable solar shingle factory in Texas is about to make the company the world’s largest solar roofing producer.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/gaf-energy-nailable-solar-shingle-factory-texas/
Biden calls out ‘ferocious surge’ of antisemitism
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
white house — President Joe Biden on Tuesday called out what he described as a “ferocious surge” of antisemitism, using a somber speech to tie together two grim anniversaries: his nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust, and the beginning of the seventh month of hostilities in Gaza.
“This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world,” Biden said as he delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony.
He spoke at the U.S. Capitol before a group of legislators and a few elderly survivors of Nazi Germany’s move to systematically exterminate 6 million Jews during World War II.
In his remarks, Biden sought to tie that event to militant Palestinian group Hamas’ stunning attack that killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7. The attack provoked a conflict that is ongoing to this day and has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
“We’ve seen a ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world,” since the October attack, said Biden. “Now here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting, already forgetting, that Hamas unleashed this terror.”
‘You belong’
Biden assured the Jewish community: “You belong. You always have, and you always will. … My commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, security of Israel, and its right to exist as an independent Jewish state is ironclad, even when we disagree.”
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, applauded Biden’s speech and said in a statement that antisemitism is everybody’s problem, not just one for Jews.
“Rising antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate are a threat that undermines each and every American’s safety and our core democratic norms and values,” Spitalnick said. “We’re grateful for President Biden’s clear moral leadership confronting this threat, including through the historic U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.
“We urge Congress to quickly move the Countering Antisemitism Act forward for a vote, support robust implementation of the National Strategy, and significantly increase funding for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate fully and address acts of antisemitism — and all civil rights violations — on campus. It’s time to make clear that just, inclusive societies are ones in which Jews and all communities are safe and free.”
Mounting pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. college campuses have raised questions about whether criticizing the world’s only Jewish state as it continues to besiege Gaza should be seen as antisemitic speech.
“It is perfectly OK to object to the policies of a state,” said Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “It is never OK to be a bigot. So, when the state of Israel conflates the two — conflates being Jewish with the policies of the state of Israel — it makes it significantly more difficult for people to object to the policies of Israel, because you don’t want to come across as being antisemitic. That is absolute nonsense.”
VOA asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre where the Biden administration draws that line.
“I shouldn’t have to talk about a line,” she replied. “It’s very clear. It presents itself in the most hateful, abhorrent way. And antisemitism is hate speech. It is just hate speech. I’m not going to stand here and give examples. That’s not something I’m going to do — it is obvious.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-calls-out-ferocious-surge-of-antisemitism-/7602010.html
LPCAMM2 memory is finally here
date: 2024-05-07, from: OS News
But today we got our hands on LPCAMM2 for the first time, and this looks like the future to us. LPCAMM2 is a totally modular, repairable, upgradeable memory standard for laptops, using the latest LPDDR chips for maximum speed and efficiency. So instead of overpaying (or under-speccing) based on guesswork about your future memory needs, you’ll hopefully be able to buy your next laptop and then install more RAM as needed. Imagine that! ↫ Carsten Frauenheim LPDDR memory, used in modern laptops, has been difficult – or impossible – to upgrade because its low power nature means it needs to be located as close to the processor as possible with short traces, since the longer the traces, the more power is needed to maintain signal integrity between the processor and RAM. This would defeat the entire purpose of low-power DDR memory to begin with. Originally developed by Dell and eventually adopted by JEDEC and the wider industry, LPCAMM2 solves this problem by using screw-down RAM modules located right next to the processor. These modules can, like regular memory modules, be replaced and upgraded when needed or desired. This is a great leap forward, and I really, really hope we’re going to see quick, widespread adoption.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139606/lpcamm2-memory-is-finally-here/
America’s War on Drugs and Crime will be AI powered, says Homeland Security boss
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Or at least it might well be if these trial programs work out, with some civil lib oversight etc etc etc
RSAC AI is a double-edged sword in that the government can see ways in which the tech can protect and also be used to attack Americans, says US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/dhs_ai_civil_liberties/
Problematic Campus Protests
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
No other justice movement in history has ever embraced language calling for the destruction of an actual country.
The post Problematic Campus Protests appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/problematic-campus-protests/
Santa Barbara County Approves Rezones for South Coast After Marathon Planning Effort
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Board of Supervisors chose 28 sites that could bring more than 5,000 units of housing to unincorporated areas of the county.
The post Santa Barbara County Approves Rezones for South Coast After Marathon Planning Effort appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
May 10: Keanu Reeves, Gina Prince Bythewood CalArts Graduation Honorees
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The 2024 California Institute of the Arts graduation ceremony will be held Friday, May 10 on the Valencia campus of CalArts. Honorary Degree recipients will include actor Keanu Reeves and director/writer/producer Gina Prince Bythewood
https://scvnews.com/may-10-keanu-reeves-gina-prince-bythewood-calarts-graduation-honorees/
Pitchess deputy arrested on suspicion of drug charge
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
In response to questions asked May 2 about the arrest of a deputy who worked at Pitchess Detention Center, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Tuesday issued a statement confirming the arrest […]
The post Pitchess deputy arrested on suspicion of drug charge appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/pitchess-deputy-arrested-on-suspicion-of-drug-charge/
China suspected of cyberattack on Britain’s military
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/china-suspected-of-cyberattack-on-britain-s-military/7601972.html
Carbajal Says Israel Risks Future Military Aid
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara congressmember joins with 85 other members of Congress to urge President Biden to put Prime Minister Netanyahu on notice.
The post Carbajal Says Israel Risks Future Military Aid appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/carbajal-says-israel-risks-future-military-aid/
International SWOT Mission Can Improve Flood Prediction
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
A partnership between NASA and the French space agency, the satellite is poised to help improve forecasts of where and when flooding will occur in Earth’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are like our planet’s arteries, carrying life-sustaining water in interconnected networks. When Earth’s water cycle runs too fast, flooding can result, […]
AI sharpens political targeting in US presidential race
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
In the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both using artificial intelligence to attract voters. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns reports on machine learning in this U.S. election.
https://www.voanews.com/a/ai-sharpens-political-targeting-in-us-presidential-race-/7601973.html
This company just launched red solar panels to match terracotta tiled roofs
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Austrian solar manufacturer Sonnenkraft has debuted its new “Terracotta” solar panel that matches red-tiled roofs and is historic-building compliant.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/red-solar-panels-sonnencraft/
Santa Barbara Supervisors Get Annual Report on Sheriff’s Use of ‘Military’ Equipment
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Sheriff’s Office discloses how often it used armored vehicles, bomb robots, large-caliber firearms, and more in 2023.
The post Santa Barbara Supervisors Get Annual Report on Sheriff’s Use of ‘Military’ Equipment appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
GCC 14.1 released
date: 2024-05-07, from: OS News
GCC 14.1 has been released, and it should come as no surprise that the new features are not exactly something I, someone who doesn’t program, can properly parse. So, here’s the three items GCC itself thought were important to list first. The C frontend when targeting standards newer than C89 now considers many non-standard constructs as errors that were previously only warnings. See https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-14/porting_to.html#warnings-as-errors for more details. C23 _BitInt Bit-precise integer types are now supported, for now only on IA-32, x86-64 and AArch64. The C++ frontend now implements several C++26 features, some missing C++23 bits and defect report resolutions. Diagnostics involving C++ templates now quote source from the instantiation context. The libstdc++exp.a library now includes all symbols for the Filesystem TS and the experimental symbols for the C++23 std::stacktrace class, so -lstdc++exp can be used instead of -lstdc++fs. The libstdc++_libbacktrace.a library is not longer installed. Improved experimental support for C++20, C++23, and C++26. Updated parallel algorithms that are compatible with oneTBB. ↫ GCC 14.1 release announcement GCC 14.1 is available for download, of course, but most of us will get it once it hits our distribution’s package repositories.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139604/gcc-14-1-released/
Lilbits: Nintendo’s next game console, AYANEO AG01 GPU Dock, and Raspberry Pi Connect
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
Since launching the Nintendo Switch in 2017, Nintendo has released a few variations of the popular hybrid game console including a Nintendo Switch Lite (which has built-in controllers rather than detachable ones) and the Switch OLED (which has a better display). But the underlying hardware hasn’t changed much in the past seven years. Now Nintendo […]
The post Lilbits: Nintendo’s next game console, AYANEO AG01 GPU Dock, and Raspberry Pi Connect appeared first on Liliputing.
Hart High School District Graduation Schedule
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Graduation season is around the corner for the graduating seniors of the William S. Hart Union High School District.
https://scvnews.com/wm-s-hart-union-high-school-district-graduation-schedule/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Wordle Now Lets You Go Back and Play Puzzles You May Have Missed.
https://gizmodo.com/wordle-now-lets-you-go-back-and-play-puzzles-you-may-ha-1851462166
Automobili Pininfarina honors its 1950s Lancia design language with the new quad-motor Battista Cinquantacinque
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
The Automobili Pininfarina Battista Cinquantacinque. It may not roll right off the tongue, but with four all-electric motors, it can definitely roll right off the starting line and then some. Today, the classic Italian automaker reborn for the electric age has introduced a new iteration of the Battista called the Cinquantacinque. It’s a nod to a 1955 Lancia model, the original Pininfarina brand designed but revamped for the modern age.
New US-China climate envoys to hold their first in-person talks in Washington
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
state department — The United States’ and China’s new climate envoys are holding their first in-person talks on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, leading a bilateral working group discussion to accelerate concrete climate action.
Some analysts caution that political and economic tensions between the world’s two largest emitters of carbon dioxide, or CO2, could hamper progress on the climate front.
This week’s talks will take place against the backdrop of the Biden administration’s probe into Chinese-made electric vehicles, or EVs, and calls to increase tariffs on the import of solar panels from China to protect domestic producers.
John Podesta, senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden for international climate policy, and Liu Zhenmin, the People’s Republic of China’s special envoy for climate change, along with relevant officials from both countries, will convene this week’s working-group talks.
“The meeting will focus on areas identified in the Sunnylands Statement, including energy transition, methane and other non-CO2 greenhouse gases, circular economy and resource efficiency, low-carbon and sustainable provinces/states and cities, and deforestation, among others,” according to the State Department.
Sunnylands statement
In November 2023, John Kerry, then-U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, and Xie Zhenhua, China’s former special envoy for climate change, met in Sunnylands, California, to reaffirm their commitments to jointly address the climate crisis.
The agreement focuses on many less competitive areas, according to analysts.
“For example, in a first, both sides agreed to include methane in their 2035 climate goals and the agreement highlighted a target of promoting at least five large-scale cooperative projects in carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS,” said Jennifer Turner, the director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum.
CCUS is a process that captures carbon dioxide emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and either reuses or stores it so it will not enter the atmosphere.
In the Sunnylands statement, the U.S. and China also said they are determined to end plastic pollution.
“The two countries have been meeting at the table for the Global Plastic Treaty but neither has made plastic a part of the bilateral talks. As is true in energy, we are also plastic waste superpowers and what actions we take in this space could also be game changing,” Turner told VOA on Tuesday.
Digitally connected vehicles and solar panels
However, the climate envoys are likely to steer clear of electric vehicles as an area for climate cooperation because they have become a huge area of tension.
The Biden administration has said it would investigate Chinese-made digitally connected vehicles, citing potential national security risks and concerns over their capability to collect sensitive information about American users. On February 29, Biden criticized what it called PRC’s unfair practices in its auto industry.
“China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security,” Biden said in a statement.
U.S. officials have also criticized China’s excess production in solar panels and lithium-ion batteries. In April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said China’s subsidizing of clean energy and industrial overcapacity “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
In October 2023, the European Commission, responsible for trade policy in the 27-nation European Union, launched an investigation into potential distortive subsidies for battery electric vehicles manufactured in China, possibly leading to additional tariffs.
The investigation is ongoing.
Chinese officials said the Biden administration’s actions are discriminatory. They have asked the U.S. to “stop overstretching the concept of national security” and “stop its discriminatory suppression against Chinese companies.”
“I would like to stress that Chinese-made cars are popular globally not by using so-called ‘unfair practices,’ but by emerging from the fierce market competition with technological innovation and superb quality,” said a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, on March 1 during a briefing in Beijing.
She called the U.S. investigation “trade protectionism” and said, “such acts of politicizing economic and trade issues will only hinder the development of the U.S. auto industry itself.”
Rivian Plans To Make Up To 155,000 R2 SUVs Annually In Illinois
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
That’s about triple Rivian’s sales last year.
https://insideevs.com/news/718851/rivian-r2-production-capacity-155000/
Striping Improvements in Old Town Starting Soon
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
GOLETA, CA, May 7, 2024 – In late May, the long-anticipated striping work to improve Hollister Avenue between Fairview Avenue and Kinman
The post Striping Improvements in Old Town Starting Soon appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/striping-improvements-in-old-town-starting-soon/
Watch out for rogue DHCP servers decloaking your VPN connections
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Avoid traffic-redirecting snoops who have TunnelVision
A newly discovered vulnerability undermines countless VPN clients in that their traffic can be quietly routed away from their encrypted tunnels and intercepted by snoops on the network.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/vpn_tunnelvision_dhcp/
Different facets of Associated Students President Katie Karroum
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
Katie Karroum initially came off as confident and self-assured. She is, as Chair of Elections Nikki Usares shared, “an old soul.” Karroum has one of those faces that carry 1,000…
in-need-of-adoption: I am dying and unable to continue work on any projects here. I am seeking folks to take them over
date: 2024-05-07, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/alt-text-org/in-need-of-adoption
@Tomosino’s Mastodon feed (date: 2024-05-07, from: Tomosino’s Mastodon feed)
context - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_into_Imagination_with_Figment
https://tilde.zone/@tomasino/112401978619422464
Saugus girls lacrosse finishes historic season
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
Saugus girls’ lacrosse entered the season as a young program, with no records above .500, no playoff experience nor postseason wins. Despite losing several collegiate-bound senior players last season, the […]
The post Saugus girls lacrosse finishes historic season appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/saugus-girls-lacrosse-finishes-historic-season/
HIGOLE is selling an RK3588 single-board computer + display kit
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
Chinese PC maker HIGOLE has a history of releasing small desktop computers with built-in touchscreen displays. And while most are powered by Intel processors, a few years ago the company launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a GOLE1 R mini PC with a 5.5 inch touchscreen display and a Rockchip RK3588 processor. The Kickstarter campaign […]
The post HIGOLE is selling an RK3588 single-board computer + display kit appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/higole-is-selling-an-rk3588-single-board-computer-for-less-than-40/
20 Years Ago: NASA Selects its 19th Group of Astronauts
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
On May 6, 2004, NASA announced the selection of its 19th group of astronauts. The group comprised 11 candidates – two pilots, six mission specialists, and three educator mission specialists – and included two women, two Hispanic Americans, and one African American. Three astronauts from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) joined the 11 NASA […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/20-years-ago-nasa-selects-its-19th-group-of-astronauts/
Man arrested on suspicion of DUI after I-5 collision
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
A 25-year-old man was arrested Monday night on suspicion of driving under the influence on northbound Interstate 5, north of Lake Hughes Road, according to Josh Greengard, spokesman for the […]
The post Man arrested on suspicion of DUI after I-5 collision appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-dui-after-i-5-collision/
US military completes construction of Gaza aid pier
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
washington — The U.S. military has finished construction of its Gaza aid pier, but weather conditions are making it unsafe to move the two-part facility into place, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The pier, which the U.S. military started building last month and which will cost at least $320 million, is aimed at boosting deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, which has been ravaged by seven months of Israeli operations against Hamas.
“As of today, the construction of the two portions of the JLOTS — the floating pier and the Trident pier — are complete and awaiting final movement offshore,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists, using an acronym for Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, the official name for the pier capability.
“Today there are still forecasted high winds and high sea swells, which are causing unsafe conditions for the JLOTS components to be moved. So the pier sections and military vessels involved in its construction are still positioned at the port of Ashdod,” in Israel, Singh said.
U.S. Central Command “stands by to move the pier into position in the near future,” she added.
The vessels and the under-construction pier were moved to the port because of bad weather last week. Once the weather clears, the pier will be anchored to the Gaza shore by Israeli soldiers, keeping U.S. troops off the ground.
Aid will then be transported via commercial vessels to a floating platform off the Gaza coast, where it will be transferred to smaller vessels, brought to the pier, and taken to land by truck for distribution.
Plans for the pier were first announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in early March as Israel held up deliveries of assistance by ground, and U.S. Army troops and vessels soon set out on a lengthy trip to the Mediterranean to build the pier.
Some two months later, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire. The United Nations said Tuesday that Israel had denied it access to the Rafah crossing, the key entry point for aid into the territory.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-military-completes-construction-of-gaza-aid-pier-/7601895.html
@Tomosino’s Mastodon feed (date: 2024-05-07, from: Tomosino’s Mastodon feed)
This song has been stuck in my head for about 35 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYhXa9FShoc
https://tilde.zone/@tomasino/112401907142416405
CalArts 2024 Character Animation Producers’ Show
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Members of the California Institute of the Arts community, industry representatives and friends and family journeyed to Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile neighborhood to celebrate Character Animation students’ films at the 2024 Character Animation Producers’ Show
https://scvnews.com/calarts-2024-character-animation-producers-show/
Kia teases first images of its production-ready EV3 and sets the date for its global premiere
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Kia has just posted some teaser images of its upcoming EV3 SUV – its latest all-electric model promising to be smaller, more affordable, and more “plant-based” than its current siblings in the “EV” portfolio. To mark the occasion, Kia has also shared the date and time for the global premiere of the new EV3, which will take place later this month.
Vermont just passed a 100% renewable electricity mandate
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Vermont today passed a bill that requires 100% renewable electricity across all the state’s utilities by 2035, and it’s expected to become law.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/vermont-just-passed-a-100-renewable-electricity-mandate/
Princess Cruises Announces Return to San Juan, Puerto Rico
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Princess Cruises, headquartered in Valencia, has announced it will return to San Juan, Puerto Rico after more than a decade, for a season of Southern Caribbean cruises onboard Grand Princess, from October 2025 through March 2026.
https://scvnews.com/princess-cruises-announces-return-to-san-juan-puerto-rico/
New roofs for Golden Valley, West Ranch planned as summer project
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
Roughly 20 years after the campuses were opened, West Ranch and Golden Valley high schools are set to get new roofs in time for the next school year. That project, […]
The post New roofs for Golden Valley, West Ranch planned as summer project appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/new-roofs-for-golden-valley-west-ranch-planned-as-summer-project/
Almost All People With Two Copies of This Genetic Variant Develop Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease, Study Finds
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The research focused on a variant called APOE4 and largely looked at people of European ancestry—risk levels are different for other groups, the authors say
Kurtenbach: Klay Thompson is flirting with other teams. The Warriors can’t pretend he’s bluffing
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Would Klay really leave the Warriors? You better believe it.
Crucial’s LPCAMM2 LPDDR5X memory modules are now available for purchase
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
In recent years PC makers had two choices when it came to laptop memory. They could include SODIMM slots with support for user-replaceable DDR memory or LPDDR memory which typically uses less power and takes up less space, effectively trading repairability and upgradeability for longer battery life and/or more compact designs. Now LPCAMM2 has arrived […]
The post Crucial’s LPCAMM2 LPDDR5X memory modules are now available for purchase appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/crucials-lpcamm2-lpddr5x-memory-modules-are-now-available-for-purchase/
NASA’s TESS Returns to Science Operations
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) returned to science operations May 3 and is once again making observations. The satellite went into safe mode April 23 following a separate period of down time earlier that month. The operations team determined this latest safe mode was triggered by a failure to properly unload momentum from the […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tess/nasas-tess-temporarily-pauses-science-observations/
Michelin adds 5 SoCal restaurants to its California guide as ‘new discoveries’
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Will these additions become Bib Gourmands or get elevated to stars?
East Bay pedestrian dead in suspected DUI crash
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
The crash was the first fatal one this year that Fremont police have investigated.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/07/east-bay-pedestrian-dead-in-suspected-dui-crash/
Alain Delon, Big Screened
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Riviera Theatre screens 4K restoration of neo-noir classic ‘Le Samouraï,’ adds a microfest of Alain Delon films.
The post Alain Delon, Big Screened appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/alain-delon-big-screened/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Top New York Times Editor Offers Stunning Defense of Coverage of Trump.
https://newrepublic.com/article/181353/new-york-times-editor-joe-kahn-defense-coverage-trump
IBM says these back-office, network edge Power 10 servers would be sweet for – yes, you guessed it – AI
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Short on cores, big on threads and matrix math
Not to be left out of the AI infrastructure game, on Tuesday IBM unveiled a pair of tiny Power 10 servers designed to preprocess data at the network edge.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/ibm_ai_edge/
San Jose: Bicyclist killed by truck driver at major intersection, police say
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
A pickup truck driver reportedly tried to flee after the major collision Tuesday morning at Senter Road and East Capitol Expressway.
ULI Round 7 Awards
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate solicited for a seventh round of University Leadership Initiative proposals in November 2022. The ULI Round 7 selections were announced in February 2024. Stress Testing and Hardening the NAS for Safe, Efficient, and Resilient Growth Principal Investigator: Mark Hansen (University of California – Berkeley) Co-Investigators: Raja Sengupta (UC Berkeley), Alexander Estes and […]
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/tacp/armd-tacp-ui/armd-tacp-ui-uli/uli-round-7/
Why adult children are finding benefits to traveling with their parents
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Adults taking trips with their parents is a growing trend. According to Meghan Hayes, an independent travel adviser, adult children traveling with their parents has grown to be nearly 25% of her business.
Folk Music Goes Orchestral, the Continuing Saga
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The unique Folk Orchestra of Santa Barbara, led by Adam Phillips, wraps up the current season with “Favorites!”
The post Folk Music Goes Orchestral, the Continuing Saga appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/folk-music-goes-orchestral-the-continuing-saga/
How Much Does A Lucid Cost?
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
The electric Air sedan costs $71,400 for 2024, and the Gravity SUV will cost around $80,000.
https://insideevs.com/news/718656/lucid-air-gravity-price/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Colorado River Indian Tribes sign historic water rights settlement.
What Happens in Texas When Summer Comes Early
date: 2024-05-07, from: Heatmap News
It’s getting hot in Texas. Forecast highs for Tuesday are 89 degrees Fahrenheit in Houston, 92 in San Antonio, and 90 in Dallas. ERCOT, which operates the energy market that covers around 90% of the state, issued an “extreme hot weather event” warning and a “weather watch” due to “unseasonably high temperatures” — and “high levels of expected maintenance outages.”
The whole country, but particularly Texas, is playing chicken with its existing fleet of natural gas-powered electricity infrastructure. While the weather-dependence of solar and wind are both obvious and well-known, gas, too, can be susceptible to nature’s fluctuations. High temperatures mean high demand, while very low temperatures can literally freeze whole gas production, distribution, and generation system, with catastrophic consequences.
Natural gas powers around 60% of Texas’ electricity. While Tuesday’s is far from the hottest weather the state will face this year, it comes at what can be a fragile time for the grid. This is the end of the spring maintenance season, when power plant operators have a window to schedule outages necessary to perform maintenance after winter and ahead of summer, when electricity demand spikes again — what ERCOT calls the “shoulder seasons.”
But weather increasingly does not conform to the plans of market regulators, with temperatures rising earlier in the year and falling later, impinging on that shoulder space. In April, ERCOT had to ask power plants to delay outages they had already planned due to high temperatures in parts of the state.
Shutting down a natural gas power plant can be fraught in Texas, where
authorities are wary of destabilizing the grid. Other than 2021’s Winter
Storm Uri, which caused days of blackouts and hundreds of deaths, one of
the state’s worst-ever
blackouts
happened in April 2006, when high temperatures coincided with —
you guessed it — planned outages for maintenance. Texas is not the only
place that gets hot in the summer, of course, but its grid is both
isolated from the rest of the country and is dealing with substantial
growth in power demand, which means it’s more likely to bump up against
its limits.
“We’ve had a couple of pretty hot days and have more hot weather this week,” University of Texas professor Hugh Daigle told me. “What’s happening is that we’ve been operating close to the limit of available supply at peak demand.”
While the grid in Texas has remained stable so far this spring — albeit with some wild price spikes at times — delaying planned outages risks future unplanned power failures if operators fall behind on maintenance. Those failures are most likely to occur during the summer months, when high demand from air conditioning adds to stresses caused by the heat and ERCOT is less likely to allow the plants to come offline. In the best case scenario, a strained grid “only” results in electricity prices spiking. In the worst, it leads to blackouts and deaths from extreme heat.
Along with three of his University of Texas colleagues, Joshua Rhodes,
Aidan Pyrcz, and Michael Webber, Daigle recently published a paper
showing that
as
Texas warms, the times when it’s “safe” to have a large number of
planned outages may shrink.
Average temperatures in the state rose 0.8 degrees Celsius from 1895 to 2021, and are projected to go up another whole degree by 2036. While that may sound like a small change, this would increase the number of 100 degree Fahrenheit days — which often mean record-breaking electricity usage — by some 40%.
While it may seem like a warming trend could have a symmetric and offsetting effect on the grid — hotter summer days that lead to record air conditioning demand but also warmer winter days that create less strain on electric heat — the researchers found that instead, the shoulder seasons were getting impinged on both sides. Compared to the 1950s, mild spring weather has been starting and ending earlier. At mid-century, spring started near the beginning of March; now it’s closer to the beginning of February. The start of fall, meanwhile, slid from the beginning of November later toward the middle of the month.
If maintenance in the spring shoulder season can just occur just from March to May, “maintenance periods will no longer coincide with periods of low expected demand,” Daigle told me. And if it’s just in the fall season, which could shrink to October and November, “it may be unreasonable to expect power plants to be able to forgo spring maintenance.”
“If you look at climate models and how average temperatures change,” Daigle said, “those two periods” — before the cold of winter and the heat of summer — “could merge into a single period in December and January.”
Just one shoulder season introduces extreme risks, Daigle explained. “We still do get winter storms. It’s December and January and you have a lot of stuff down for planned maintenance, and something like Uri comes through — we’re up a creek.”
https://heatmap.news/climate/texas-grid-summer-heat
May 15: SCV Chamber After Hours Mixer at Chronic Tacos
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Join the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, May 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., for the monthly After Hours Mixer, an evening of networking and fun at Chronic Tacos
https://scvnews.com/may-15-scv-chamber-after-hours-mixer-at-chronic-tacos/
Jeannie Epper dies at 83; ‘greatest stuntwoman who ever lived’ did Lynda Carter’s stunts on ‘Wonder Woman’
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
She did the stunts on many TV shows and films in the 1970s and ’80s, including “Bionic Woman,” “Romancing the Stone” and “Dynasty.” Her 70-year career began when she was 9.
Apple Unveils New iPad Air, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard
date: 2024-05-07, from: TidBITS blog
Everyone expected iPad announcements from Apple’s Let Loose event, and the company didn’t disappoint. It introduced new 11-inch and 13-inch models of the iPad Air and iPad Pro, alongside a new Apple Pencil Pro and redesigned Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro.
Rivian (RIVN) Q1 results – revenue beat, earnings miss, Q4 profit reaffirmed
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Rivian has released its Q1 2024 results, slightly beating analyst estimates on revenue, which grew sharply year-over-year, but with wider losses than expected and only slight gross margin improvement as it still hopes to turn some quarterly profit by the end of the year.
NASA Challenge Gives Artemis Generation Coders a Chance to Shine
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement selected seven student teams to participate in a culminating event for the 2024 App Development Challenge (ADC), one of the agency’s Artemis Student Challenges, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston from April 15-18, 2024. The coding challenge, celebrating its fifth year and a part of NASA’s Next Generation STEM […]
Woman arrested after allegedly stabbing her husband in Pleasanton
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Police said that the woman called them about 12:30 a.m. Monday and said she had stabbed her husband during an altercation.
New Proposals to Help NASA Advance Knowledge of Our Changing Climate
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has selected four proposals for concept studies of missions to help us better understand Earth science key focus areas for the benefit of all including greenhouse gases, the ozone layer, ocean surface currents, and changes in ice and glaciers around the world. These four investigations are part of the agency’s new Earth System Explorers […]
Oakland McDonald’s employees hold rally over rat invasion
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
“I have seen rat excrement in the paper that we use to wrap food, by the nuggets and in the sauce-packet containers by the drive through,” says a worker in a Cal/OSHA complaint.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/07/oakland-mcdonalds-employees-hold-rally-over-rat-invasion/
Second tornado in 5 weeks batters rural Oklahoma
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
First responders rescued about 25 people, including children, from heavily damaged homes where buildings had collapsed on or around them, Kelley said. About a half dozen people suffered injuries, including a firefighter who was taken to a hospital with chest pains, he said.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/07/second-tornado-in-5-weeks-batters-rural-oklahoma/
A Canaletto Masterpiece Stowed in a Mine During World War II Returns to Wales
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
“The Stonemason’s Yard” was one of many paintings that officials took from the National Gallery in London and moved underground to keep safe from Nazi forces
Toronto police investigate shooting outside Drake’s mansion
date: 2024-05-07, from: San Jose Mercury News
Toronto Police Inspector Paul Krawczyk said video of the shooting had been recovered and the guard who was wounded remains hospitalized.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/07/toronto-police-investigate-shooting-outside-drakes-mansion/
PhotoDesk manual updated for version 3.23
date: 2024-05-07, from: RiscOS Story
PhotoDesk is a comprehensive photo editing package dating back to the 1990s, when it was first released by Spacetech. These days, the software is in the hands of Netherlands-based X-Ample Technology (XAT) with R-Comp handling sales and updates. The latest version of the software is 3.23b, and R-Comp has now made a new version of the manual available to download – if you visit the PhotoDesk page on the R-Comp website, you’l find it along with a few other useful resources for the software. The new edition of the manual…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/photodesk-manual-3-23/
TrainTimes 2.05 released
date: 2024-05-07, from: RiscOS Story
Kevin Wells has updated another of his handy applications – this time TrainTimes, which now stands at version 2.05. This version of the application adds a couple of user interface improvements – one a small visual indicator, and the other an additional way to access some information. The visual indicator is that the mouse pointer now changes to a menu when it passes over a menu icon in the main and future station time table window. The new access method is on the station info window, where you can now…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/traintimes-2-05-released/
CISA’s early-warning system helped critical orgs close 852 ransomware holes
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
In the first year alone, that’s saved us all a lot of money and woe
Interview As ransomware gangs step up their attacks against healthcare, schools, and other US critical infrastructure, CISA is ramping up a program to help these organizations fix flaws exploited by extortionists in the first place.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/cisas_ransomware_warnings/
Light Gate lands in !Store
date: 2024-05-07, from: RiscOS Story
Originally given the working title Escape to the Light, with some of its inspiration coming from a strange recording found in a charity shop, the latest AMCOG Games title – Light Gate – is now available to purchase from !Store. When AMCOG’s Tony Bartram picked up the tape and went on to give it a listen, he could potentially have released demons and other malevolent spirits into our world, demonic possessions of those around him, in turn leading to a gory nightmare made real. That didn’t happen, though, and instead…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/light-gate-lands-in-store/
Lucid’s Upcoming Midsize Car Targets $48,000 Price, CEO Says
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
The mysterious smaller Lucid is slated to start production in late 2026.
https://insideevs.com/news/718837/lucid-motors-midsize-price-48000/
US-Iran sanctions swap deemed symbolic, ineffective by some analysts
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
May 9: Free Small Business Summit at Mission College
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Get ready to level up your small business game. The next Los Angeles Region Small Business Summit will be held Thursday, May 9 and features Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Los Angeles County Team Department of Economic Opportuntiy, city of Los Angeles and partners at Mission College in Sylmar.
https://scvnews.com/may-9-free-small-business-summit-at-mission-college/
French Bakers Set a New World Record by Making a 461-Foot-Long Baguette
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The previous world record was set by a group of bakers in Italy in 2019
Tesla Sales May Fall This Year, Analyst Says
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
If Q2 is as bad as it’s looking, Tesla could be in for its first year-over-year sales decline since the Model S launch in 2012.
https://insideevs.com/news/718825/tesla-deliveries-2024-forecast/
Connecting with Amanda Gorman at the Arlington
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The young poet inspired the audience to take stock and say “no” sometimes.
The post Connecting with Amanda Gorman at the Arlington appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/connecting-with-amanda-gorman-at-the-arlington/
Turkey poised to step in as analysts warn of US pullout of Syria
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
The US and Turkey have resumed security cooperation talks, and analysts say Turkish forces are poised to fill a vacuum should American forces pull out of Syria. Pentagon officials say there are no plans for a withdrawal, but analysts point to signs it may happen. Meanwhile, the speculation is causing concern among Kurdish forces in Syria. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
Apple unveils M4 chip with neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and some other kit
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh, right – there’s new iPad Pro and Air models, a pencil and some other stuff
Apple held its anticipated iPad event today, and the most attention-grabbing news wasn’t the new device models or the refreshed iPad Air lineup - it was the unveiling of Apple’s homegrown M4 chip with a surprisingly powerful neural processing unit (NPU). …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/apple_m4_ipad/
COC Men’s Golf Wins SoCal Title, Advances to State Championship
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons has captured the 3C2A Southern California Regional Championship, the ninth in program history, after turning its opening round lead into a four-stroke advantage over runner-up Cypress College on Monday, May 6 at Rio Bravo Country Club
https://scvnews.com/coc-mens-golf-wins-socal-title-advances-to-state-championship/
Google Pixel 8a launches for $499 and up
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
The Google Pixel 8a is official, and it’s… pretty much exactly what we were expecting. Google’s new mid-range phone is virtually identical to the Pixel 8 in most respects, but Google cut a few corners in order to keep the starting price at $499, making the list price for the Pixel 8a $200 lower than the […]
The post Google Pixel 8a launches for $499 and up appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/google-pixel-8a-launches-for-499-and-up/
SBART Press Luncheon: SBCC Swimming Takes Center Stage After Capturing State Championship
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Shams Jahangir-Arshad and Lily Carrick were honored as SBART Athletes of the week.
The post SBART Press Luncheon: SBCC Swimming Takes Center Stage After Capturing State Championship appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
BYD’s home city in China now has more supercharging plugs than gas pumps
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Shenzhen, the home of Chinese EV giant BYD, says it’s become the first in China to have more supercharging plugs than gas pumps.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/byd-home-city-in-china-supercharging-shenzhen/
Ellen Ochoa, Former NASA Astronaut and First Hispanic Woman in Space, Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The former Johnson Space Center director logged four space shuttle flights and 1,000 hours in orbit over her 30-year career
TikTok sues America to undo divest-or-die law
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nothing like folks in Beijing lecturing us on the Constitution
TikTok and its China-based parent ByteDance sued the US government today to prevent the forced sale or shutdown of the video-sharing giant.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/tiktok_bytedance_sue_usa/
Ten Thousand Steps in the Right Direction
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Alma Rosa’s annual “Peace of Mind” fundraiser brings critical dollars to mental health nonprofits.
The post Ten Thousand Steps in the Right Direction appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/ten-thousand-steps-in-the-right-direction/
Biden hosts Romanian leader at the White House to celebrate NATO partnership
date: 2024-05-07, from: Associated Press, World News
President Joe Biden has hosted Klaus Iohannis, the president of Romania, at the White House. The two leaders on Tuesday celebrated their joint cooperation on issues including international security, the economy and continued support for Ukraine.
May is Trauma Awareness Month, Blood, Platelet Donors Needed
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
When every second counts, blood products can provide lifesaving care. The American Red Cross asks the public to give blood or platelets during Trauma Awareness Month in May to keep hospitals prepared for all transfusion needs, including emergencies.
https://scvnews.com/may-is-trauma-awareness-month-blood-platelet-donors-needed/
Despite Elon’s foolishness, auto industry shouldn’t give up on Tesla’s NACS
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is causing chaos in the EV industry by firing Tesla’s entire charging team, which may lead some automakers to reconsider their plans to adopt the NACS plug. But NACS is just a better standard, and the industry should move forward on it, even if Tesla waffles with its commitment.
Legacy Art Santa Barbara’s Familial Roots
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Downtown space celebrates local artists, including the legacy of owner Crispin Barrymore’s family.
The post Legacy Art Santa Barbara’s Familial Roots appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/legacy-art-santa-barbaras-familial-roots/
Windows Insiders to fly solo while Copilot rollout frozen
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Perhaps just make sure the stuff that is already there works properly?
Microsoft will temporarily halt the rollout of Copilot features based on feedback from Windows Insiders.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/microsoft_copilot_windows_insiders/
CSUN softball storms back from behind to sweep the Tritons on Senior Night
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Sundail (CSUN student paper)
In a game of immense importance, CSUN staged a comeback in their final home game of the season on senior night, securing a significant victory over the Tritons of UC…
TikTok sues US to block potential ban
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/tiktok-sues-us-to-block-potential-ban/7601671.html
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
This April 1, 2018, enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The image is a combination of three separate images taken as Juno performed its 12th close flyby of the planet. The Great Red Spot, a swirling oval of clouds twice as wide as Earth, has been observed on […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/jupiters-great-red-spot-2/
Jeep Gladiator 4xe Plug-In Hybrid Coming In 2025
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
The plug-in pickup will likely use the same powertrain as its Wrangler 4xe sibling, which is America’s best-selling PHEV.
https://insideevs.com/news/718781/jeep-gladiator-4xe-plug-in-hybrid-confirmed-2025/
Save extra $100 on Juiced e-bikes, Jackery flash sale, 1-day Greenworks pressure washer sale, and more
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Headlining today’s Green Deals is Juiced Bikes’ Mother’s Day sale that is taking $100 off purchases over $500, including most e-bikes, like the RipRacer Fun-Sized Fat-Tire e-bike for $1,049. It is joined by a limited-time Jackery flash sale that is taking up to 42% off power stations, bundles, and accessories starting from $100, as well as a 1-day sale on the Greenworks 3,000 PSI Electric Pressure Washer Combo Kit at $429. Plus, more hangover Green Deals still alive and well.
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.
America’s first hydrogen garbage truck arrives in Las Vegas
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
New Way Trucks and the hydrogen fuel cell experts at Hyzon just revealed North America’s first hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric refuse truck at Waste Expo in Las Vegas.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/americas-first-hydrogen-garbage-truck-arrives-in-las-vegas/
Tesla announces 4-day shutdown of Gigafactory Berlin due to protests
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla announced that it will be shutting down Gigafactory Berlin for four days, but it is unclear if it has to or if it wants to.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/tesla-4-day-shutdown-gigafactory-berlin-protests/
Norbert E. Moniz Sr.: A life of service, leadership, and inspiration, dies at 93
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
Norbert E. Moniz, a longtime resident and former president of the Optimist Club in Canyon Country, has died at 93. Norbert had a wonderful, large and loving family, said a […]
The post Norbert E. Moniz Sr.: A life of service, leadership, and inspiration, dies at 93 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Scholarships Awarded to Graduating Seniors of Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Student Advisory Council
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CA – Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Susan Salcido awarded $5,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors who
The post Scholarships Awarded to Graduating Seniors of Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Student Advisory Council appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Supporting Mothers
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Victoria Project invites the Santa Barbara community to donate on the May 12 holiday.
The post Supporting Mothers appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/supporting-mothers/
21st Annual Student Art Show Celebrates Students’ Connection to the Santa Barbara Channel
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, CA—On May 2, the community gathered at Jodi House Gallery to honor inspiring young artists at a reception
The post 21st Annual Student Art Show Celebrates Students’ Connection to the Santa Barbara Channel appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Infineon trims financial forecast amid order slowdown
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Chipmaker outlines plans to save hundreds of millions and, hey presto, share price magically jumps
Infineon, maker of chips for the automotive and industrial sectors, told investors that it is embarking on a cost purge after lowering revenue estimates for the full financial year amid weakened demand.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/infineon_cost_cutting/
Russian hacker sanctioned by UK, US, Australia
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/russian-hacker-sanctioned-by-uk-us-australia/7601605.html
You Can Now Reserve Eli’s $11,900 Electric Microcar
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
It’s classified as a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV), which means it’s limited to 25 mph. But it can go up to 90 miles on a charge.
https://insideevs.com/news/718822/eli-zero-usa-reservations/
When Were Blue Jeans Invented? These Paintings Suggest the Fashion Trend Dates Back to the 1600s
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Ten paintings attributed to the “Master of the Blue Jeans” depict Italian peasants wearing the storied fabric
Paul Willis Strikes ‘Losing Streak’ with New Collection
date: 2024-05-07, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The former Santa Barbara Poet Laureate discusses his latest collection of work and will do an appearance at Chaucer’s Books on May 15.
The post Paul Willis Strikes ‘Losing Streak’ with New Collection appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/07/paul-willis-strikes-losing-streak-with-new-collection/
Arrested US soldier to be held for two months in Russia on theft charges
date: 2024-05-07, from: Associated Press, World News
Staff Sgt. Gordon Black flew to Russia to see his girlfriend, according to U.S. officials, and the Army confirmed that he had not sought clearance for international travel.
https://apnews.com/article/soldier-arrested-russia-korea-596c4e4601e0cf6679b9ff1a880d8678
May 6, 2024
date: 2024-05-07, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-6-2024-c2b
KTM Is Finally Bringing Back a Street Superbike With the 990 RC R
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
This is not a drill, people!
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718821/2025-ktm-990-rc-r-superbike-street-legal/
May 8: Bouquet Canyon Park Pickleball Courts Closed for Maintenance
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita has announced the pickleball courts at Bouquet Canyon Park will be closed on Wednesday, May 8, for necessary maintenance on the windscreens
https://scvnews.com/may-8-bouquet-canyon-park-pickleball-courts-closed-for-maintenance/
International SWOT Mission Can Improve Flood Prediction
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
A partnership between NASA and the French space agency, the satellite is poised to help improve forecasts of where and when flooding will occur in Earth’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are like our planet’s arteries, carrying life-sustaining water in interconnected networks. When Earth’s water cycle runs too fast, flooding can result, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/swot/international-swot-mission-can-improve-flood-prediction/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
1994: Apple vs Carl Sagan.
https://business.time.com/2013/07/10/isued-apples-greatest-legal-battles/slide/apple-vs-carl-sagan/
This Tesla Employee Got Their Work Visa a Month Ago. Then They Were Laid Off
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
Ex-Tesla engineer sheds light on production challenges and how international workers walk a tightrope between work visas.
https://insideevs.com/news/718815/production-teams-will-be-overburdened-tesla-employee/
Lightweight Dillo browser springs back to life, still doesn’t care about JavaScript
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
First new version in almost a decade now boasts TLS
The Dillo web browser has returned with a new release, version 3.1. It’s nearly nine years after version 3.05 appeared on the last day of June 2015.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/dillo_browser_v3_1/
LAUSD’s School Board Is Remaking Its Website, And Wants Public Input
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The LAist
The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education is getting a new website and wants the public’s help to shape it.
Medieval Squirrels and Humans May Have Spread Leprosy Back and Forth
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Archaeologists uncovered evidence of leprosy in a medieval red squirrel in England, and DNA evidence revealed the strain was similar to what was circulating in humans at the time
Russia bans US-funded rights group Freedom House
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
Moscow — Russia on Tuesday said it had declared U.S.-funded rights group Freedom House an “undesirable organization”, effectively banning anyone from working for or having links with the group.
Authorities in Russia have declared dozens of media outlets, think tanks and non-profit organizations “undesirable” since 2015, a label rights groups say is designed to deter dissent.
In a statement, Russia’s Prosecutor General said Freedom House had called for “comprehensive assistance to Ukraine to defeat Russia” and had “discredited” the Russian army.
“The organization provides information, financial, legal and other support to Russian opposition structures, pro-Western and LGBT activists, communities defending their interests, and persons convicted of terrorist crimes,” it said.
Freedom House says it supports and provides funding to local democracy activists and civil liberty groups in more than 30 countries, receiving much of its financing from the U.S. State Department.
It is best known for its “Freedom in the World” index that measures each country’s civil liberties and labels them “Free” or “Not Free”. Russia is labelled “Not Free”.
Since launching its offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has waged an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that rights groups have likened to Soviet-era mass repression.
Among other organizations labelled as “undesirable” in Russia are the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, Transparency International and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-bans-us-funded-rights-group-freedom-house/7601524.html
June 1: Inaugural California Adopt-a-Pet Day
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The California Animal Welfare Association, the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have announced the inaugural California Adopt-a-Pet Day will take place on Saturday, June
https://scvnews.com/june-1-inaugural-california-adopt-a-pet-day/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Can the ICC Actually Arrest Netanyahu?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/07/icc-arrest-warrant-israel-netanyahu-gaza/
Tesla China-Made EV Sales Decreased 18% In April 2024
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
Tesla appears to be losing steam in China this year.
https://insideevs.com/news/718737/tesla-china-ev-sales-april2024/
How Resellers Are Transferring Billie Eilish’s ‘Untransferable’ Tickets
date: 2024-05-07, from: 404 Media Group
Ticketmaster’s untransferable tickets can be—and are—transferred by ticket brokers all the time.
Apple doesn’t sell iPads with Home buttons, Lightning ports or headphone jacks anymore
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
Apple has dropped the price for the 10th-gen iPad Pro by $100, bringing the starting price for this 10.9 inch tablet with an Apple A14 Bionic processor down to $349. First launched in the fall of 2022, the tablet was the first model in Apple’s entry-level iPad family to ship without a Home button and […]
The post Apple doesn’t sell iPads with Home buttons, Lightning ports or headphone jacks anymore appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/apple-doesnt-sell-ipads-with-home-buttons-or-lightning-ports-anymore/
Why do left and right have political meaning?
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
The divide between left and right is one of the most fundamental markers in politics. But have you ever stopped to think about why we use those directional terms to describe ideological camps? It may surprise you to learn that this terminology traces back to the seating arrangements of French revolutionaries over 200 years ago.
https://www.voanews.com/a/why-do-left-and-right-have-political-meaning-/7601468.html
Tesla Semi is getting into the hands of two more big customers
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla Semi is getting into the hands of two more big customers as the program finally appears to be ramping up.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/tesla-semi-hands-two-more-big-customers/
US State Department launches cyber and digital policy strategy
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Part of the race with Beijing to set standards and advance norms
RSAC The US State Department’s latest cybersecurity strategy will not be wildly different from current stances, but offers an alternative path to those presented by the country’s adversaries.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/us_cyber_strategy/
White Sands Propulsion Team Tests 3D-Printed Orion Engine Component
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
When the Orion spacecraft carries the first Artemis crews to the Moon and back, it will rely on the European Service Module contributed by ESA (European Space Agency) to make the journey. The service module provides electrical power generation, propulsion, temperature control, and consumable storage for Orion, up to the moment it separates from the […]
Met Gala AI Images of Katy Perry and Rihanna Show Relentless Spread of AI Junk
date: 2024-05-07, from: 404 Media Group
AI-generated images of Katy Perry and Rihanna show them in beautiful gowns at the Gala, which they both did not attend.
https://www.404media.co/generative-ai-stuns-and-fools-viewers-at-met-gala/
Porn actress Stormy Daniels describes 2006 sexual liaison with Trump
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
Republican Bill To End EV Tax Credits Gets Almost No Support From Carmaking States
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
A new Senate bill would end the federal EV tax credit. Not signing on: states that actually manufacture cars.
https://insideevs.com/news/718806/gop-tax-credit-bill-wyoming/
Order in the Court! – Records of Courthouses in the National Register of Historic Places
date: 2024-05-07, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
There are more than thirty five thousand records with the search term “courthouse” in the National Register of Historic Places records, including both the United States Supreme Court Building (National Archives Identifier 117691883), and the Oklahoma Cherokee Supreme Court Building (National Archives Identifier 86510854). “The Supreme Court Building, 1st and East Capitol Streets, NE, in … Continue reading Order in the Court! – Records of Courthouses in the National Register of Historic Places
Ken Carpenter: Ensuring Top-Tier Science from Moon to Stars
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
Today, Ken Carpenter is a scientist for NASA’s Hubble and Roman space telescopes, but in 1967 he was just a teenager at his local library out to fact-check a “Star Trek” episode. Name: Kenneth G. CarpenterTitle: Operations Project Scientist for Hubble Space Telescope; Ground System Scientist for Roman Space Telescope; and a NASA Innovative Advanced […]
The new iPad Air with Apple M2 comes in 11 and 13 inch sizes
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
Apple’s new iPad Air comes in two sizes for the first time. In addition to updating its mid-range tablet lineup with a new processor and twice as much memory for entry-level configurations, Apple is now offering iPad Air models with a choice of 11 inch or 13 inch displays Prices start at $599 and $799 […]
The post The new iPad Air with Apple M2 comes in 11 and 13 inch sizes appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/the-new-ipad-air-with-apple-m2-comes-in-11-and-13-inch-sizes/
Tesla layoff circus runs into fourth week with another round of cuts
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Musk continues quest to make Tesla leaner, meaner, more profitable
Another week, another round of layoffs at Tesla to report, and this time engineers are caught up in the mix. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/tesla_layoffs_continue/
It’s Brutal Out Here
date: 2024-05-07, from: John August blog
Why are things so rough in Hollywood right now? John and Craig look at the industry’s current contraction, its historical analogues, and offer suggestions for what might fix it. We also follow up on streaming ad breaks and New York accents, before answering listener questions on being paralyzed, whether it’s by your second draft or […] The post It’s Brutal Out Here first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/its-brutal-out-here
Fisker Ocean Production Halt Means 500 Magna Workers Laid Off
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
Plus, new rumors about Rivian and the Apple Car, and NHTSA is demanding Autopilot data from Tesla.
https://insideevs.com/news/718792/apple-car-rivian-rumors-cm/
Apple M4
date: 2024-05-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (Hacker News): Built using second-generation 3-nanometer technology, M4 is a system on a chip (SoC) that advances the industry-leading power efficiency of Apple silicon and enables the incredibly thin design of iPad Pro. It also features an entirely new display engine to drive the stunning precision, color, and brightness of the breakthrough Ultra Retina […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/07/apple-m4/
Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2 for iPad
date: 2024-05-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (Hacker News): Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 transforms iPad into a multicam production studio with Live Multicam, giving users the power to speed up their shoot by allowing them to connect and preview up to four cameras all at once, all in one place. To support Live Multicam, Final Cut Camera — an […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/07/final-cut-pro-2-and-logic-pro-2-for-ipad/
Apple Pencil Pro
date: 2024-05-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (MacRumors): A new sensor in the barrel can sense a user’s squeeze, bringing up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colors, all without interrupting the creative process. A custom haptic engine delivers a light tap that provides confirmation when users squeeze, use double-tap, or snap to a Smart Shape for […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/07/apple-pencil-pro/
iPad Pro (M4, 7th Generation)
date: 2024-05-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (MacRumors, keyboard, Hacker News, Slashdot): Available in silver and space black finishes, the new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: an expansive 13-inch model and a super-portable 11-inch model. Both sizes feature the world’s most advanced display — a new breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display with state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology — providing a remarkable […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/07/ipad-pro-7th-generation/
iPad Air (6th Generation)
date: 2024-05-07, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (MacRumors, Hacker News): Apple today announced the redesigned 11-inch and all-new 13-inch iPad Air, supercharged by the M2 chip. Now available in two sizes for the first time, the 11-inch iPad Air is super-portable, and the 13-inch model provides an even larger display for more room to work, learn, and play. […] The front-facing […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/05/07/ipad-air-6th-generation/
Cops finally unmask ‘LockBit kingpin’ after two-month tease
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev’s $10M question is answered at last
Updated Police have finally named who they firmly believe is the kingpin of the LockBit ransomware ring: Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev.…
A $175,000 CyberTrailer Camper That Can Charge Your EV Is In The Works
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
Made by California-based Living Vehicle, the Cybertruck-inspired trailer will be ready next year.
https://insideevs.com/news/718763/cybertrailer-camper-ev-charging/
Stack Overflow signs deal with OpenAI, bans users trying to alter answers
date: 2024-05-07, from: OS News
We’re all aware of Stack Overflow – it’s a place where programmers and regular users can ask technical questions, and get answers from anyone who thinks they know the answer. Stack Overflow has become so ubiquitous among programmers and developers, the concept of “I just copied the code off Stack Overflow” has become a consistent meme to indicate you don’t fully grasp how something works, but at least it works. If you’ve ever contributed answers to Stack Overflow, you might want to consider deleting them, altering them, or perhaps even go as far as request a GDPR removal if you’re in the European Union, because Stack Overflow has just announced a close partnership with “AI” company OpenAI (or, more accurately, “Open” “AI”). Stripped of marketing speak, the gist is exactly as you’d expect: OpenAI will absorb the questions and answers on Stack Overflow into its models, whether their respective authors like it or not. As much as you may want to try and delete your answers if you’re not interesting in having your work generate profit for OpenAI, deleting popular questions and answers is not possible on Stack Overflow. The other option is altering your answers to render them useless, but it seems Stack Overflow is not going to allow you to do this, either. Ben Humphreys tried to alter his highest-rated answers, and Stack Overflow just reverted them back, and proceeded to ban him from the platform. Stack Overflow does not let you delete questions that have accepted answers and many upvotes because it would remove knowledge from the community. So instead I changed my highest-rated answers to a protest message. Within an hour mods had changed the questions back and suspended my account for 7 days. ↫ Ben Humphreys Now that they’ve made what is most likely an incredibly lucrative deal with OpenAI that’s going to net Stack Overflow’s owners boatloads of money, they obviously can’t let users delete or alter their answers to lower the monetary value of Stack Overflow’s content. Measures to prevent deletion or alteration are probably one of the clauses in the agreement between Stack Overflow and OpenAI. So there’s likely not much you can do to not have your answers sucked into OpenAI, but you should at least be aware it’s happening in case of future answers you might want to contribute.
Apple’s new iPad Pro is the first device with an M4 chip
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
Since Apple transitioned its laptop and desktop computers from Intel to Apple Silicon a few years ago, the company has typically taken a PC-first approach toward launching new processors. But in a break from that tradition, the first device powered by Apple’s new M4 processor is an iPad. The 2024 iPad Pro lineup includes 11 […]
The post Apple’s new iPad Pro is the first device with an M4 chip appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/apples-new-ipad-pro-is-the-first-device-with-an-m4-chip/
Breaking the Scaling Limits: New Ultralow-noise Superconducting Camera for Exoplanet Searches
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
When imaging faint objects such as distant stars or exoplanets, capturing every last bit of light is crucial to get the most out of a scientific mission. These cameras must be extremely low-noise, and be able to detect the smallest quantities of light—single photons. Superconducting cameras excel in both of these criteria, but have historically […]
Tesla is finally going to release everything we want to know about Autopilot/FSD as NHTSA forces it
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Tesla is finally going to release everything we always wanted to know about Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), but it’s because NHTSA is forcing the automaker to do it.
Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check
date: 2024-05-07, from: Quanta Magazine
Perhaps dark matter is made of an entirely different kind of particle than the ones physicists have been searching for. New experiments are springing up to look for these ultra-lightweight phantoms.The post Dogged Dark Matter Hunters Find New Hiding Places to Check first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/dogged-dark-matter-hunters-find-new-hiding-places-to-check-20240507/
This Tool Shows Some Telegram Users’ Approximate Physical Location
date: 2024-05-07, from: 404 Media Group
The tool relies on Telegram’s opt-in “Find People Nearby” feature, but allows searches for Telegram users globally.
https://www.404media.co/this-tool-shows-some-telegram-users-approximate-physical-location/
VMware waves goodbye to AWS middleman as Broadcom takes the reins
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Customers brace for bumpy ride
Updated Broadcom has ended the right of Amazon Web Services to resell VMware Cloud on AWS, meaning customers will now have a direct relationship only with VMware by Broadcom, casting doubt over the long-term future of the product.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/broadcom_vmware_aws/
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2024-05-07, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
Just ONE week left to register for the #IIIF Annual Conference.
A link to register, full program, and travel details available at https://bit.ly/iiif-LA
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/112400233924562679
MINISFORUM AtomMan X7 Ti is a mini PC with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, OCuLink, 5 Gbit Ethernet, and a 4 inch touchscreen display
date: 2024-05-07, from: Liliputing
The MINISFORUM AtomMan X7 Ti is a mini PC that pushes the boundaries of what you can expect from a small form-factor desktop. Not only is it MINISFORUM’s first mini PC with an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H Meteor Lake processor, but this little PC also features a small touchscreen display on the cover, a built-in mic […]
The post MINISFORUM AtomMan X7 Ti is a mini PC with Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, OCuLink, 5 Gbit Ethernet, and a 4 inch touchscreen display appeared first on Liliputing.
US repatriates 11 citizens from camp for relatives of Islamic State militants
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
BEIRUT — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child — the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children — was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up — neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens — many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected Islamic State members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
Ryvid Outset launched as $5,995 US-built electric motorcycle
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Ryvid, the Southern California-based manufacturer of the popular Ryvid Anthem electric motorcycle, has just launched its second model based on the same platform. The new Ryvid Outset, priced at just $5,995, is set to become the most affordable highway-capable electric motorcycle in the US.
At the same time, the company announced a major price drop, lowering the Ryvid Anthem to just US $6,495 after moving into a new scaled-up production facility in San Bernadino, California.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/ryvid-outset-launched-as-5995-us-built-electric-motorcycle/
How political fundraisers increase contributions without going over the legal limit
date: 2024-05-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
How “joint fundraising committees” bring in hefty political donations without technically running afoul of contribution limits; plus, checking in on the Biden administration’s multi-billion-dollar plan to remove lead pipes — and improve drinking water safety — across the country.
Valve vexation: Boeing’s Starliner grounded again
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Problems with Centaur rocket keeps first crewed flight on terra firma
Boeing’s long-delayed Starliner crewed launch, which was scheduled for today, has been postponed yet again, this time due to a valve problem on the Centaur upper stage. Managers pushed back the next attempt to no earlier than May 10.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/boeing_starliner_delay/
How NASA’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
date: 2024-05-07, from: NASA breaking news
Astronomers have discovered black holes ranging from a few times the Sun’s mass to tens of billions. Now a group of scientists has predicted that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could find a class of “featherweight” black holes that has so far eluded detection. Today, black holes form either when a massive star collapses […]
What Happens To The Federal Money Tesla Won For Superchargers
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
Tesla is backing off from the Supercharging business after winning millions in government funding. We explain what happens next.
https://insideevs.com/news/718664/tesla-supercharger-nevi-charger-funding/
Nikola (NKLA) Q1 2024 by the numbers: Production and revenue down amid a keen focus on hydrogen
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Nikola Corporation has posted its Q1 2024 financial report ahead of a call with investors this morning, and the numbers detail a commercial vehicle developer growing amid setbacks that arose last year. Today’s update mainly focuses on hydrogen as Nikola looks to execute deliveries while making good on issues with its BEV trucks.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/nikola-nkla-q1-2024-numbers-production-revenue-down-hydrogen-bev/
Palantir’s CEO calls ‘woke’ a ‘central risk to Palantir, America and the world’
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh, and Alex Karp’s forecasts disappoint the market after strong revenue growth
Analytics platform biz Palantir saw its share price dip yesterday despite posting on-the-nose revenue growth of 21 percent year-over-year to reach $634 million in the first calendar quarter.…
You Can Put A Wet Towel On A Tesla Supercharger Handle To Get Faster Charging Speeds
date: 2024-05-07, from: Inside EVs News
The trick is most useful on older, V2 Supercharger stalls, but it can also come in handy on the newer V3 units.
https://insideevs.com/news/718718/tesla-supercharger-wet-towel-improve-charging-speed/
TSMC fully booked on advanced packaging until 2025
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
TrendForce warns of ‘potential crowding out effects on HBM’
TSMC’s advanced packaging capacity is fully booked for the next two years, thanks to Nvidia and AMD needs, according to reports that echo an earlier earnings call.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/tsmc_advance_packaging/
Running NetBSD on OmniOS using bhyve
date: 2024-05-07, from: OS News
I want to run GoToSocial on some *BSD system. Because I am who I am, I went for using NetBSD 10.0 . And because my hypervisor is running bhyve on OmniOS , you get the title of this blog post. Don’t get too anxious, it is quite straightforward. So let the journey begin. ↫ Joel Carnat Bhyve is a hypervisor originating from FreeBSD, while OmniOS is a distribution of illumos, a continuation of the last open source Solaris release from Oracle. GoToSocial, meanwhile, is an ActivityPub social network server, so it belongs in the same family as Mastodon, Glitch, Akkoma, and countless others. This guide makes this whole process look like a piece of cake, so if you’ve ever been interested in running your own ActivityPub server – read on. On a slightly related sidenote, there’s no OSNews AT instance, partly because I don’t want to deal with the moderation and costs, and partly because I’m incredibly happy being a member of Exquisite, a Glitch instance running on OpenBSD, managed by OpenBSD enthusiasts. Never say never, of course, but the odds of seeing an OSNews AT instance in the future are very slim.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139596/running-netbsd-on-omnios-using-bhyve/
After TikTok, Lawmakers Want to Ban Action Camera Company DJI
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Kiss all your drones goodbye.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718674/dji-action-camera-government-ban-tiktok/
Raspberry Pi Connect
date: 2024-05-07, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
We’re pleased to introduce the beta version of Raspberry Pi Connect: a secure and easy-to-use way to access your Raspberry Pi remotely, from anywhere on the planet, using just a web browser.
The post Raspberry Pi Connect appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-connect/
Steven H. Baron | Who’s Anti-America?
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
Could someone ask Gary Horton and Thomas Oatway and Lois Eisenberg if they counted the number of MAGA Republicans participating in the anti-Israel, anti-America, pro-Hamas rallies at multiple college campuses […]
The post Steven H. Baron | Who’s Anti-America? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/steven-h-baron-whos-anti-america/
Stephen Maseda | Does He See the Irony?
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
It seems a little rich for Mr. Gary Horton to criticize Pastor David Hegg (letters, April 23) for assertedly telling us what to think and how to act, given that […]
The post Stephen Maseda | Does He See the Irony? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/stephen-maseda-does-he-see-the-irony/
Arthur Saginian | The Mind of a True Believer
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
To Messrs. (Hilmar) Rosenast, (Peter) Beers, and (Stephen) Maseda, and those who feel likewise: What impresses me most is not your apparent knowledge of scriptural passages and their “proper” interpretations, […]
The post Arthur Saginian | The Mind of a True Believer appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/arthur-saginian-the-mind-of-a-true-believer/
Spanish startups say ‘no más’ to Microsoft cloud dominance
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Group alleges anticompetitive behavior
Updated Microsoft is facing a complaint over alleged anticompetitive practices in the Spanish cloud market.…
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-05-07, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Good morning fellow Strict Concurrency lovers.
Rethought my model and we are at 38 warnings down from 30,000.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112399796172895082
No One Knows Whether To Love or Hate the New MotoGP Regulations
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
They do agree, however, that water is wet. Though the sky’s color is still up for debate.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718662/motogp-2027-regulations-changes-motorcycle-racing/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I was asked on Threads what NY restaurant I miss the most. There are lots. But Ratner's is #1. Their food was fantastic, the ambience even better, and the waiters were wonderfully NY-grouchy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratner%27s
Mash Goes Big with Retro-Inspired FR750 Motorcycle
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A bargain option in the neo-retro segment in Europe.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718528/mash-fr750-launch-europe/
Ukraine says it foiled Russian plot to assassinate Zelenskyy
date: 2024-05-07, from: Associated Press, World News
Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators say they have foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-07, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Ozempic Is Repairing a Hole in Our Diets Created by Processed Foods.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/opinion/ozempic-weight-loss-drugs.html?smid=tw-share
Will 2024 Be Hotter Than 2023?
date: 2024-05-07, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Tornadoes terrorized Oklahoma overnight • Flash floods killed two people in China’s Guangxi region • It is 75 degrees Fahrenheit and clear in Rafah, where Israeli troops have seized the Gaza side of the border crossing with Egypt.
THE TOP FIVE
- April broke heat records, but wild temperatures could moderate
slightly soon
Temperature data for last month is rolling in, and the takeaway is that it was the hottest April on record for planet Earth. That marks 11 straight months of record heat, and researchers are starting to do some informed analysis on whether 2024 will displace 2023 as the hottest year. El Niño’s retreat could bring slightly cooler temperatures, and the data suggests that, while temperature records are still being broken, they’re not being absolutely shattered, which I suppose is good news? For example, September last year was 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the previest hottest September. Last month was only 0.1 or 0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous hottest April. “If 2024 continues to follow its expected trajectory, global temperatures will fall out of record territory in the next month or two,” wrote climate scientist Zeke Hausfather. Still, he puts the chances that this year will be hotter than last at about 66%. “If the latter half of 2024 ends up similar to 2023, we may end up closer to 1.6C for the year as a whole.”
- China and U.S. climate envoys to meet in Washington
Coming up this week: Climate envoys for China and the U.S. will meet in Washington Wednesday and Thursday to discuss solutions for “accelerating concrete climate actions this decade,” the State Department announced. Liu Zhenmin and John Podesta will discuss topics like the energy transition, methane emissions, resource efficiency, and deforestation. The U.S. and China are the world’s top two greenhouse gas emitters, and the sit-down marks the envoys’ “first formal face-to-face summit before global negotiations in Azerbaijan this November,” Bloomberg reported. China’s dominance in cheap green technology manufacturing will no doubt loom large over the talks, as well. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has criticized the country’s excessive output of products like solar panels, and recently called for “constructive” discussions to encourage China to reduce its manufacturing subsidies.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- World Bank recommends rich nations stop subsidizing livestock
farming
The World Bank published a new report this week examining how countries can cut emissions from their food sectors. “Simply changing how middle-income countries use land, such as forests and ecosystems, for food production can cut agrifood emissions by a third by 2030,” said World Bank Senior Managing Director Axel van Trotsenburg. One recommendation, spotted by Bloomberg, is that high-income countries stop subsidizing livestock farming and shift that financial support over to more environmentally friendly foods like fruits, vegetables, and poultry. “Globally, one-third of agricultural subsidies were directed toward meat and milk products in 2016,” the report said. But subsidies mask the true costs (environmental or otherwise) of these products. Cutting them could “lead to significant changes in consumption patterns and large emissions reductions.”
World
Bank/Recipe for a Livable Planet report
Investment in overhauling agrifood will need to rise by $260 billion annually to halve emissions by 2030, the World Bank report said. But the cost benefits in terms of health, economic, and environmental outcomes are projected to surpass $4 trillion in 2030, which the report noted is a 16-to-1 return on investment costs.
- Lula calls for national climate disaster plan after floods devastate
Brazil
The flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state has prompted President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to call for a national plan to be put into place for preventing and dealing with climate disasters, The Washington Post reported. He instructed top environmental lieutenant Marina Silva to start putting together a strategy. “We have to stop just running after disaster,” Lula told the Post. “We have to start preparing for what can happen from disasters. … We and the world need to prepare every day with more plans and resources to deal with extreme climate occurrences.” At least 83 people are known to have died in the floods but the death toll is likely to climb. More than 20,000 people have lost their homes. Hospitals are without power. Inmates have been released from flooded prisons. Looting has begun. “This is war; that is the word,” said journalist Kelly Matos. “It’s hopelessness, civil unrest. … The tsunami is here.”
A
flooded hospital entrance in Porto
Alegre
Max Peixoto/Getty Images
- Texas grid begins drawing power from new large solar and storage
facility
A large solar farm capable of powering 41,600 homes has been completed in Texas. The Zier facility in Brackettville, developed by Cypress Creek Renewables, has 208-megawatts of solar capacity and 80 megawatt hours of storage, and it’s already connected to and being used by the Texas grid “to ease supply strain in a time of increased demand,” Cypress Creek said in a news release. The company has 24 projects in construction or development in the state, one of which is a 100 megawatt hour battery storage facility that should be up and running next month.
Cypress
Creek Renewables
THE KICKER
“The worst thing for the energy transition is that it is perceived as being done by and for the elites.” –Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency
https://heatmap.news/climate/2024-warmest-year-2023
The truth about KEV: CISA’s vuln deadlines good influence on private-sector patching
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
More work to do as most deadlines are missed and worst bugs still take months to fix
The deadlines associated with CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog only apply to federal agencies, but fresh research shows they’re having a positive impact on private organizations too.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/cisas_vulnerability_deadlines/
The economic — and personal — impacts of paid sick leave
date: 2024-05-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
In the absence of federal paid sick leave, some states work to fill the gap. Plus, a new report on the looming Social Security and Medicare budget shortfalls, and what to expect from Reddit’s first earnings report since its March IPO.
Milei defends radical austerity plan
date: 2024-05-07, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Argentina’s president has cut public sector jobs, reduced energy and transport subsidies and devalued the country’s currency in the five months since he became leader — but Javier Milei denies ordinary Argentines are paying for the stringent measures. Also: What does a butter-free croissant say about France’s changing food and agriculture industries?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/milei-defends-radical-austerity-plan
Roman-Era Ship Was Carrying Jugs Full of Fish Sauce When It Sank 1,700 Years Ago
date: 2024-05-07, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Discovered in the summer of 2019, the Ses Fontanelles wreck likely ran aground sometime during the fourth century
EV-maker Eli launches its $11,900 electric micro ‘car’ in the US
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Eli Electric, the manufacturer of the popular Eli ZERO electric microcar, announced this morning the opening of reservations in the US.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/07/ev-maker-eli-launches-its-11900-electric-micro-car-in-the-us/
KC HiLiTES’ New Gravity Titan Light Pod Bar Are Here To Destroy the Night
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Thee are banished, night!
https://www.rideapart.com/news/716482/kc-hilites-gravity-titan-light-pod-lightbar/
Gaza protesters face speech restraints and legal consequences
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/gaza-protesters-face-speech-restraints-and-legal-consequences/7600983.html
Brit security guard biz exposes 1.2M files via unprotected database
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Thousands of ID cards plus CCTV snaps of suspects found online
Exclusive A UK-based physical security business let its guard down, exposing nearly 1.3 million documents via a public-facing database, according to an infosec researcher.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/uk_security_company_breach/
AI Whitewashing
date: 2024-05-07, from: Status-Q blog
Yesterday, I asked: Here’s a question, O Internet: If I buy full-fat milk and dilute it 50/50 with water, do I effectively have semi-skimmed milk, or is there something more sophisticated about the skimming process? And if I then dilute it again, do I get skimmed milk… for one quarter of the price? Now, the Continue Reading
https://statusq.org/archives/2024/05/07/12062/
A tale of two Chinas: Our tech governance isn’t perfect, but we still get to say no
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Too many folks who should know better saying info-slurping tactics of Big Tech are just as bad
Opinion Which China do you want? The innovative good global citizen, adding to the storehouse of knowledge while making better products and services? Or the autocracy, determined to advance the interests of the leadership through any and all means, untrammeled by legal safeguards within its borders and, wherever possible, outside them?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/opinion_china_tech/
First 9front release of the year is called DO NOT INSTALL
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Possibly its most helpful codename yet
9front, the most active project continuing development of the sequel to Unix, Plan 9 from Bell Labs, emitted a new version. We did not follow its advice.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/9front_do_not_install/
Stand up to Trump and Bibi
date: 2024-05-07, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Judge Merchan must jail Trump, Biden must stop sending weapons to Netanyahu
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/standing-up-to-trump-and-bibi
Council claims database pain forced it to drop apostrophes from street names
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What next, trouble at tmill?
A row in the UK has locals and council members at odds over apostrophes, and yes – this does actually have a tech angle. …
May 6, 2024
date: 2024-05-07, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
In the New York Times today, Amy Qin and Patricia Mazzei reported on the new Florida law that prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying property in Florida, especially near important infrastructure like airports, refineries, and military installations. Qin and Mazzei note that more than three dozen states either have enacted or are crafting laws to restrict the purchase of land, businesses, or housing by Chinese nationals, even if they have legal residence in the United States. The justification for the laws is that Chinese investment in the U.S. is a national security risk, although Chinese nationals own less than 400,000 acres in the United States.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-6-2024
Today in SCV History (May 7)
date: 2024-05-07, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1861 – Andres Pico and partners granted state franchise to build toll road and cut 50-foot-deep cleft through (Newhall) Pass; they failed; Beale later succeeded. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-may-7/
Report: Apple mulling potential partnership with Rivian
date: 2024-05-07, from: Electrek Feed
Earlier this year, Apple canceled its decade-long Project Titan electric car initiative, but a new report from DigiTimes says that Apple’s electric vehicle ambitions might not be over. According to the story, Apple is “assessing the possibility of teaming up with a certain US EV startup, and Rivian is a very likely candidate.”
https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/06/apple-rivian-partnership-report/
Daisy Bates, Johnny Cash statues represent Arkansas in Statuary Hall
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
Pro-Palestinian protesters break through barricades to retake MIT encampment
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Pro-Palestinian protesters who had been blocked by police from accessing an encampment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Monday broke through fencing, linked arms and encircled tents that remained there, as Columbia University canceled its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests.
Sam Ihns, a graduate student at MIT studying mechanical engineering and a member of MIT Jews for a Ceasefire, said the group has been at the encampment for the past two weeks and that they were calling for an end to the killing of thousands of people in Gaza.
“Specifically, our encampment is protesting MIT’s direct research ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” he said.
Protesters also sat in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue, blocking the street during rush hour in the Boston area.
The demonstrations at Columbia have roiled its campus and officials said Monday that while it won’t hold it’s main ceremony, students will be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.
The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.
Columbia’s decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.
“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” officials said.
Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 8 kilometers (5 miles) north at Columbia’s sports complex, officials said.
Speakers at some of Columbia’s still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.
Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.
Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.
The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.
Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan’s ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University’s commencement in Fenway Park.
Emory’s ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university’s Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.
“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Fenves wrote. “It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses.”
The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its “core demands” and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
“Cease-fires are temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. “There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here.”
At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared an encampment and arrested more than 64 people, including 40 students.
The University of California, Los Angeles, moved all classes online for the entire week due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of an encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.
Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters “amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges” if they moved.
“Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest,” the school said. “Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students.”
A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.
Other universities took a different approach.
Harvard University’s interim president, Alan Garber, warned students that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face “involuntary leave.” That means they would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.
Ransomware crooks now SIM swap executives’ kids to pressure their parents
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Extortionists turning to ‘psychological attacks’, Mandiant CTO says
RSAC Ransomware infections have morphed into “a psychological attack against the victim organization,” as criminals use increasingly personal and aggressive tactics to force victims to pay up, according to Google-owned Mandiant.…
Local elementary student signs copies of her book, donates proceeds back to school
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
While most students at Pico Canyon Elementary were showing off their campus to their families or enjoying the food trucks at open house last week, 11-year-old Ruby Jiang was hard […]
The post Local elementary student signs copies of her book, donates proceeds back to school appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Saugus school district set to approve final list of classified employee layoffs
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
The final list of classified employees within the Saugus Union School District who are set to be laid off at the end of the school year is expected to be […]
The post <strong>Saugus school district set to approve final list of classified employee layoffs</strong> appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Met Gala in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among stars
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
New York — It’s Met Gala time and the fashion parade of A-listers Monday included a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet surrounded by foliage. Jennifer Lopez went for silver leaves in a second-skin goddess gown and Zendaya was all vamp and fantasy.
Both are co-chairs of the annual fundraiser at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And both received cheers from the crowd of fashion enthusiasts packed behind barriers outside.
Flowers were everywhere, in line with this year’s theme: “The Garden of Time.” Lopez (in Schiaparelli) was all va-va-voom in a near-naked gown that hugged like a second skin. She’s got the Meta Gala down: It’s her 14th.
This year’s theme is inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name.
Zendaya put on her fashion face in hues of blue and green, with a head piece to match and leaf accents.
It’s been five years since Zendaya last attended the Met Gala. Her look, in peacock colors, was by Maison Margiela. Lopez went with Tiffany & Co. diamonds, including a stunning bird motif necklace with a diamond of over 20 carats at its center.
Mindy Kaling is sure to make the best-dressed lists in sand-colored swirls that towered over her head at the back. No worries about dinner. The back was removable. Her look was by Indian couturier Gaurav Gupta.
Fashion kings and queens … and a good witch
Gigi Hadid brought the drama in a look by the drama king himself, Thom Browne. her white look was adorned with 2.8 million microbeads with yellow flowers and green thorns. She was high glam in a wavy bob and crimson lips.
If there’s a queen of the Met Gala besides the evening’s mastermind, Anna Wintour, it’s Sarah Jessica Parker. The long-time attendee takes each year’s theme seriously, researching every detail. This year she was in an Alice in Wonderland dress with a lavender overlay and a Philip Treacy topper on her head. The dress was by Richard Quinn. Her long hair tumbled behind her back in beachy waves, a look that built into a beauty trend of the evening.
Serena Williams took metallic gold to another level in a shining one-shoulder statement look. Ariana Grande was all Glinda the Good Witch, making the most of her pale-colored strapless look with 3D eyelashes at the side of each eye. She arrived with her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo, dressed in black with pink petals in a darker, edgy look.
Cardi B., who has THE most fun at the Met Gala, struck a pose or three in statement black with a huge tulle train. She paired the look with green jewels and a high black turban. She needed multiple helpers to move her dress up the stairs
Channeling Sleeping Beauty and the garden
Penelope Cruz, meanwhile, went goth in black by Chanel. It had a bustier top and a Sleeping Beauty-like off-shoulder silhouette. There was another Sleeping Beauty-ish guest: Kendall Jenner in a Givenchy look done by Alexander McQueen in 1999.
Kendall’s sister, Kylie Jenner, was more Old Hollywood than storybook in a chic low-cut strapless look, a white bloom in her clicked-back updo and a train behind. Oddly, older sister Kim Kardashian tightly covered up her gorgeous silver corset look with a leaf motif by Maison Margiela with a lumpy gray sweater.
Dua Lipa was a whole different kind of princess. She went full rock ‘n’ roll in black by Marc Jacobs, who accompanied her.
The princess vibes were in apparent reference to the Met’s spring exhibition that the gala kicks off. It’s called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” While it doesn’t actually have to do with Disney, or even princesses, some of the 400 guests went there.
Demi Moore stuck to the garden in a Harris Reed look with huge wings encircled by arrows and handpainted with pink and white blooms.
Diesel broke through on the gala red carpet on Dove Cameron. It was about as unlike Diesel as it gets, also going for the garden. The look had sleeves attached to her train.
Finding deeper meaning in the theme
Lily Gladstone went for black by Gabriela Hearst.
“We wanted me to feel draped in the power of my ancestors,” she said. “For Kiowa and Blackfeet, our ancestors are the stars, that’s where we come from. … I feel like it’s so long overdue that we have so much Indigenous representation and this sort of upper echelon world of high luxury fashion, because that is our aesthetic, you know, Natives have always loved luxury.”
Floral looks and a special plus-1
Colman Domingo donned a white jacket with a cape and extra-wide trousers, holding a bouquet of white calla lilies, while Tyla chose a gown made to look like sand using actual sand on the fabric. She needed help with the hourglass she held as she made her way up the museum stairs. Domingo’s designer was Willy Chavarria.
Sam Smith wore silver and gold metal roses tucked into the waist of a jacket, and Jack Harlow also channeled florals, but subtly with a silver and pearl floral boutonniere.
Wintour wore a black coat adorned with multicolored flowers. Her fellow co-chair Bad Bunny donned all black. A pregnant Lea Michele wore Rodarte, inspired by the brand’s 2012 spring/summer collection.
“I’m honored to be here and bring my baby with me,” Michele said. ““I don’t think I was allowed a plus one, but I’m bringing” one, she said with a laugh. “I’m so grateful. I feel really beautiful, you know, in this pregnancy.”
Looking to follow along? Here’s a quick primer on what you need to know about the palooza of A-list celebrities from film, fashion, music, sports, politics and social media.
Among those who had way BIG fun with the nature and garden theme was Lana Del Rey. She walked up the museum steps as an actual tree, her face shrouded by fabric held up by her branches.
How to watch the Met Gala
That’s tricky. Vogue has the exclusive livestream, which starts at 6 p.m. Eastern at Vogue.com. The feed will also be available on Vogue’s digital platforms, including TikTok and YouTube.
Tons of other media will be on site, too. Catch the action on E!, also starting at 6 p.m., with livestreams on X, TikTok, Instagram and Peacock.
The Associated Press will be live outside the Mark Hotel, where many celebs get ready before heading to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for their walk up the grand staircase. That livestream will begin at 4:45 p.m. Eastern and will be available on YouTube and APNews.com.
Only the event’s stacked red carpet is watchable — the gala’s cocktail hour and dinner are notoriously private events.
What’s the point of the Met Gala?
It’s a party, for sure, with cocktails and dinner for about invited 400 guests, but it’s also a huge fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, the only department at the museum required to pay for itself. Last year, the gala raised about $22 million. Wintour, a Met trustee for whom part of the institute has been renamed, organizes the whole shebang. No phones are allowed, adding to the allure.
It also promotes the museum’s exhibit, which this year is called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” It includes 250 items from The Costume Institute’s permanent collection, including some garments very rarely seen in public and so fragile they need to be under glass. Curators wanted to engage all the senses, including smell.
The exhibit opens to the public Friday and runs through Sept. 2.
Washington urges Gaza cease-fire deal amid Israeli plans for Rafah assault
date: 2024-05-07, from: VOA News USA
Reports of possible progress on a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas are happening against the backdrop of Israel’s plan for a military incursion into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. In Washington, President Joe Biden lunched with Jordan’s king and spoke to Israel’s leader by phone in an apparent effort to soothe tensions. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
Daily EV Recap: Tesla Consolidates Leadership
date: 2024-05-07, 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/2024/05/06/daily-ev-recap-tesla-consolidates-leadership/
Meta, Spotify break Apple’s device fingerprinting rules – new claim
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
And the iOS titan doesn’t seem that bothered with data leaking out
Updated Last week, Apple began requiring iOS developers justify the use of a specific set of APIs that could be used for device fingerprinting.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/apple_fingerprinting_rules/
MotoGP Postpones Grand Prix Of Kazakhstan Due To Heavy Flooding
date: 2024-05-07, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Severe flooding has displaced thousands of residents causing a national weather emergency.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/718678/motogp-kazakhstan-postponed-weather-crisis/
Dear Stack Overflow denizens, thanks for helping train OpenAI’s billion-dollar LLMs
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Microsoft-backed super-lab gets direct access to answers – and code forum gets its own AI
Stack Overflow, a community-driven Q&A site, and OpenAI, maker of AI models, have agreed to work to improve each other’s products, the latest deal in a series of tie-ups to feed machine learning models’ thirst for data.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/07/stack_overflow_openai/
Judge tops prosecutor request in fentanyl sentence
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
In the first Santa Clarita Valley case from the Sheriff’s Department’s Opioid Overdose Response Task Force to go to trial, a federal judge Monday meted out a 188-month sentence, more […]
The post Judge tops prosecutor request in fentanyl sentence appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/judge-tops-prosecutor-request-in-fentanyl-sentence/
Former water official dies at 92
date: 2024-05-07, from: The Signal
Former local water official Ed Dunn Jr., who served on the governing board for both the former Newhall County Water District and the now-defunct Castaic Lake Water Agency — and […]
The post Former water official dies at 92 appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/former-water-official-dies-at-92/
Radically Open Security Donates 1 Million Euro to NLnet
date: 2024-05-07, updated: 2024-05-07, from: nlnet feed