News gathered 2024-05-13
(date: 2024-05-13 08:26:20)
Jerry Rice wants his son to prove NFL wrong with Harbaugh’s Chargers
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
The elder Rice was upset his son, Brendan, wasn’t drafted until the seventh round.
You OK, Apple? Seriously, your silicon lineup is … a mess
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
M4? The M3 is barely six months old, and what about all those Macs still stuck on the M2? When will they get some love?
Comment Apple seems to have skipped a few steps in its silicon roadmap.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/apple_silicon_roadmap/
Tesla Cybertruck Vs. Ram 2500 Diesel Tow Comparison Reveals Stark Difference
date: 2024-05-13, from: Inside EVs News
The two trucks were towing identical 8,000 trailers. One of them went less than 100 miles before needing a top-up.
https://insideevs.com/news/719434/tesla-cybertruck-awd-vs-ram-2500-diesel-tow-comparison/
Jill On Money: Two-tiered retirement
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
Waiting to claim Social Security is a great way to increase income later in life
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/13/jill-on-money-two-tiered-retirement/
49ers’ five biggest questions ahead of NFL schedule release
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
While the 49ers’ schedule will be fully revealed Wednesday, the NFL announced Monday that its September 5 opener will have the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Baltimore Ravens.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/13/49ers-five-greatest-mysteries-ahead-of-nfl-schedule-release/
The incredible shrinking stock market
date: 2024-05-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
This year, the Dow and S&P have repeatedly hit record highs. But even as the value of the stock market grows, the number of firms traded on the market is shrinking, and has been since the mid-1990s. And when fewer companies are public, it limits our understanding of what’s happening in the economy. Plus, a preview of wholesale inflation and retail sales, and a closer look at the impact of RTO mandates.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-incredible-shrinking-stock-market
Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla loses bid to end Martins Beach access suit
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
Billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla was dealt a new setback in his 15-year fight to block public access through his private property to a popular surfing spot near Half Moon Bay.
How ‘Idle’ Egg Cells Defend Their DNA From Damage
date: 2024-05-13, from: Quanta Magazine
How do immature egg cells maintain genetic quality for decades before they mature? Scientists find unusual safeguards in this quiescent cell that may inform research into fertility.The post How ‘Idle’ Egg Cells Defend Their DNA From Damage first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-idle-egg-cells-defend-their-dna-from-damage-20240513/
Lawmakers, diplomats battle on DC soccer pitch for youth sports fundraiser
date: 2024-05-13, from: VOA News USA
U.S. lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers, famous athletes and international diplomats came together for a full day of soccer activities in Washington. The event raised money for youth soccer programs in underserved communities. Saqib Ul Islam has more from Audi Field in the U.S. capital. Igor Tsikhanenka contributed.
Starlink suffers ‘degraded service’ from solar storm but emerges intact
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Unusually high activity from Sun may have also hastened Hubble’s demise
The geomagnetic storm that led to nighttime light shows over the weekend also caused problems for the Starlink satellite broadband service, disrupted GPS signals, and affected the orbit of the Hubble Space Telescope.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/starlink_solar_storm/
Tariffs Aren’t Going To Fix This
date: 2024-05-13, from: Inside EVs News
Are we losing our nerve as China speeds ahead on EVs? Plus, Mercedes faces a union vote and Tesla deals with a literal angry mob.
https://insideevs.com/news/719461/critical-materials-ev-tariffs-china/
Radxa Palmshell SLiM X2L pocket-sized PC with Celeron J4125 now available for $125
date: 2024-05-13, from: Liliputing
The Palmshell SLiM X2L is a pocket-sized computer with a 10-watt Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core processor, support for up to two displays, wired and wireless networking, LPDDR4x memory, eMMC storage, and an M.2 slot for user-replaceable PCIe NVMe storage. First unveiled earlier this year, the Palmshell SLiM X2L is basically a Radxa X2L single-board computer that’s been […]
The post Radxa Palmshell SLiM X2L pocket-sized PC with Celeron J4125 now available for $125 appeared first on Liliputing.
The surprising force stalling climate progress: California restaurants
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
When Berkeley became the first US city to ban natural gas in new buildings, the California Restaurant Association fought back, and won. Now gas companies are planning to leverage that victory nationally.
GM to phase out the Chevy Malibu as next-gen Bolt EV launch looms
date: 2024-05-13, from: Electrek Feed
Chevy Malibu production will end later this year as GM prepares to launch new EVs, including the highly anticipated new Bolt EV.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/13/gm-retire-chevy-malibu-next-gen-bolt-ev-launch-looms/
AI red-teaming tools helped X-Force break into a major tech manufacturer ‘in 8 hours’
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Hint: It’s the ‘the largest’ maker of a key computer component
RSAC An unnamed tech business hired IBM’s X-Force penetration-testing team to break in and search for security vulnerabilities in their networks. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/ai_xforce_red_penetration/
EV newcomer Xiaomi is already developing a second model to compete with the Tesla Model Y
date: 2024-05-13, from: Electrek Feed
Just over a month after launching its first-ever EV, smartphone specialist Xiaomi is reportedly well into the development of an encore model. Per the report, Xiaomi Automobile has already been benchmarking an all-electric SUV model against the Tesla Model Y and may be competing against it in the market sooner than you’d think.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/13/xiaomi-developing-second-ev-model-to-compete-with-tesla-model-y/
Man killed when SUV plunges to beach in Santa Cruz
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
Images from the scene showed the SUV overturned on the rocks at the ocean’s edge.
North West 200 Racer Flies 25-Feet Into the Air and Lives to Tell the Tale
date: 2024-05-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
A stark reminder of the realities of road racing ahead of the Isle of Man TT.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719299/north-west-200-crash-near-death/
Amazon Workers Use Bots to Claim Limited Supply of Time Off
date: 2024-05-13, from: 404 Media Group
Numerous bots on Github claim to allow Amazon workers to auto-collect voluntary time off work.
https://www.404media.co/amazon-workers-use-bots-to-snatch-fiercely-competitive-time-off/
San Jose woman wants to keep the squirrels in her yard, but ditch the rats
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
And a Walnut Creek reader wonders about a doe’s curious behavior around her dog.
Big San Jose office building is seized by lender as market wobbles
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
A big San Jose office building has been seized by its lender through a foreclosure.
TasteFood: A twist on risotto uses farro for bigger oomph
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
This rich, creamy dish takes the risotto concept and turns it into a Farrotto With Wild Mushrooms and Peas.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/05/13/tastefood-a-twist-on-risotto-uses-farro-for-bigger-oomph/
Arm to launch AI division with new chips by 2025
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus Foxconn defends Wisconsin efforts, Korea to spend on chips, and more
Asia in brief SoftBank-owned Arm is reportedly preparing to add AI chips to its product portfolio starting in 2025.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/apac_roundup_may13/
Police arrest 3 suspects in rural Monterey County shooting that killed 4 and wounded 7
date: 2024-05-13, from: San Jose Mercury News
Officials said a group of men in masks got out of a car and opened fire at an outdoor party in southern Salinas Valley farm country, and then sped off.
Oceans Day
date: 2024-05-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
To ensure that future generations can be instilled with the same wonder I felt as a child, we need to push for the expansion and continued protection of our Marine Protected Areas to guarantee that we are not just idly waiting for the inevitable collapse of California’s amazing coastline.
The post Oceans Day appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/13/oceans-day/
Ford Lost Over $100,000 Per EV In Q1. Now It’s Reportedly Cutting Battery Orders
date: 2024-05-13, from: Inside EVs News
The maker of the Mustang Mach-E is expecting its EV business to lose up to $5.5 billion this year.
https://insideevs.com/news/719453/ford-ev-losses-q1-2024-battery-orders-cut/
Is the long awaited Raspberry Pi flotation about to happen?
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Reports suggest an end of May IPO and a valuation of up to half a billion
A flotation of the company behind the Raspberry Pi computer could come sooner rather than later, according to reports.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/raspberry_pi_ipo/
Could This Suzuki Electric Scooter Patent Show Us The Future?
date: 2024-05-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
Produced in cooperation with Panasonic, the adorable last-mile machine keeps ease of battery access top of mind.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719318/suzuki-echoinori-battery-scooter-patent/
Blue screen of death or Eurovision’s Windows95man performance – what’s less annoying?
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Those with a delicate constitution, look away now
It is rare that the world of vintage desktop operating systems and trashy Euro-pop collide, but on Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest they did, and the results were as baffling as they were explosive.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/windows96man_eurovision/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The canonical Knicks fan.
http://scripting.com/2014/03/03/theCanonicalKnicksFan.html
15 Years Ago: STS-125, the Final Hubble Servicing Mission
date: 2024-05-13, from: NASA breaking news
“Trying to do stellar observations from Earth is like trying to do birdwatching from the bottom of a lake.” James B. Odom, Hubble Program Manager 1983-1990. The fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, placed in orbit in 1990, took place during the STS-125 mission in May 2009. During the 13-day flight, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/15-years-ago-sts-125-the-final-hubble-servicing-mission/
Is Royal Enfield Getting Close To Launching The Guerrilla 450?
date: 2024-05-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
It’s no guarantee, but surely this new official model logo documentation filing isn’t nothing.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719294/royal-enfield-guerrilla-450-logo/
The UAW heads South
date: 2024-05-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Following a big union win last month at a VW plant in Tennessee, the United Auto Workers face a new test in the South: Workers at a Mercedes-Benz assembly-and-battery complex in Alabama begin voting on whether to join the UAW this week. Can the labor organizing momentum be sustained? Also: why a cap on credit card late fees is getting delayed and how to go into debt without anyone noticing.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-uaw-heads-south
Europol confirms incident following alleged auction of staff data
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Intelligence-sharing platform remains down for maintenance
Europol is investigating a cybercriminal’s claims that they stole confidential data from a number of the agency’s sources.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/europol_data_breach/
Ola Electric’s Motorcycle Patents Have a Few Company Firsts
date: 2024-05-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
We saw cool prototypes from the manufacturer last year, but these designs fill a commuter-shaped hole in its lineup.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719150/ola-electric-motorcycle-patent/
South Korea is chipping in a lot to help its semiconductor sector
date: 2024-05-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: With global demand high for the most advanced tech chips, the South Korean government plans to boost its sector with more than $7 billion investment. We’ll discuss where the funding is likely to be funneled and paint a picture of the U.S.-China tensions over chips that it butts up against. Also, the Russian army is hiring Cuban nationals for its war efforts against Ukraine.
Biden’s War on Chinese EVs is Heating Up
date: 2024-05-13, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Indonesia’s Mt. Ibu erupted this morning • Flash floods in Afghanistan killed at least 300 people • Gulf Coast states could see severe storms and hail today.
THE TOP FIVE
- Biden expected to announce 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs
President Biden is expected to announce tomorrow that tariffs on electric vehicles made in China will quadruple – from 25% to 100%. The move is an attempt to stop cheap EVs from flooding the U.S. market. The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal Friday, and reaction has been mixed:
- “A quadrupling of this tariff rate … would more effectively shield U.S. auto manufacturers from unfairly traded Chinese vehicles before they can gain a foothold in the US market.” –Wendy Cutler, a former trade official and vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, speaking to the Financial Times.
- “Instead of just de facto banning the competition from giving Americans access to affordable hot new EVs, the U.S. should instead try making affordable hot new EVs itself.” –Jameson Dow at Electrek.
- “The dearth of affordable electric vehicles in the U.S. is partly contributing to a slowdown in sales. And that could imperil Biden’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions attributable to transportation.” –Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor at The Verge.
- U.S.-China talks end with an agreement to collaborate on climate
issues
Despite the tensions on tariffs, talks between U.S. climate adviser John Podesta and his Chinese counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, concluded amicably last week. The nations agreed to “collaborate on phasing down coal consumption and boosting the deployment of renewable power,” Bloomberg reported. “Even as our overall relationship between our two countries has increasingly been characterized by fierce competition, we have an obligation to our citizens and the people of the world to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate where we can to tackle the climate crisis,” Podesta told reporters.
- Canadian wildfires prompt air quality alerts in Minnesota
The entire state of Minnesota is under an air quality alert today due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. The alert first went out yesterday as a band of very heavy smoke moved in, making the air quality unhealthy. Montana and the Dakotas were also affected. These are Canada’s first major wildfires of the season. Nearly 150 fires have spread over about 25,000 acres and prompted evacuations. Forty remain out of control as of this morning.
About
40 fires are out of control in
Canada.CIFFC
Half of Canada is in a drought, with dry conditions expected to persist in many regions through the month of May. B.C. Wildfire Service official Cliff Chapman told reporters that the fuels surrounding one of the fires are “as dry as we have ever seen.” “The prospect of another active wildfire season simply drives the point home: we must take more action to combat and mitigate climate change and adapt to its very real and costly impacts,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of environment and climate change. “This is not a future problem. It is here now.”
A report released earlier this year from research group First Street found that, by mid-century, 125 million Americans could be exposed to unhealthy air due to wildfire smoke.
- Report: Big banks have given $7 trillion to fossil fuel firms since
Paris agreement
In the eight years since the adoption of the Paris climate agreement, the world’s biggest banks have funneled nearly $7 trillion into the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report from a coalition of campaign groups. The 15th annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, published today, found that U.S. banks were the biggest financiers, accounting for 30% of the 2023 total of $705 billion. JPMorgan Chase was the biggest lender, both last year and since the Paris agreement. Japanese bank Mizuho came in second, and Bank of America came third. Many of the banks on the list responded by highlighting their investments in clean energy while also pointing to the need for ensuring energy security. One interesting trend in the report, as noted by the Financial Times, was an overall shift toward more financing for companies focusing on liquified natural gas. Campaign groups behind the report include the Sierra Club, the Rainforest Action Network, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and others.
- EU approves 2040 rule to cut heavy-duty truck emissions
Trucks produce a quarter of Europe’s road transportation emissions, but that will soon have to change. A new CO2 emissions rule approved by EU countries today means manufacturers will have to sell mostly zero-emissions heavy-duty trucks by 2040, Reuters reported. In the nearer term, manufacturers will have to cut their fleets’ emissions by 45% by 2030, and 65% by 2035. Also by 2035, all new city buses sold in the EU must have zero emissions.
THE KICKER
A new report finds that the growing regions for avocados could shrink by up to 40% by 2050 due to shifting climates.
https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/ev-tariffs-china-biden
BMW Should Bring The F 900 R and XR Sport Editions To The US
date: 2024-05-13, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
These M-inspired models are exclusive to the French market…for now.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719152/bmw-f900r-f900xr-sport-editions-france/
PeerJ Award Winners at ISTS42
date: 2024-05-13, from: PeerJ blog
The International Sea Turtle Society (ISTS) is the premier organization related to sea turtle research and conservation issues around the world. Among its many members, the Society claims world-renown sea turtle researchers, local community conservation organizations, members of governments, students, grass-roots non-governmental organizations, and many, many sea turtle enthusiasts. Each year for the past 42 […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284889214/peerj-award-winners-at-ists42/
Here’s every electric vehicle that currently qualifies for the US federal tax credit in 2024
date: 2024-05-13, from: Electrek Feed
As sales of electric vehicles continue to grow in 2024, many new and prospective customers have questions about qualifying for a federal tax credit on electric vehicles. Whether your vehicle qualifies or not is a simple yes or no question, but the amount you may qualify for varies by household due to a number of different factors. Luckily, we have compiled everything you need to know about tax credits for your new or current electric vehicle into one place.
https://electrek.co/2024/05/13/which-electric-vehicles-qualify-us-federal-tax-credit-ev-2024/
IBM Consulting bought into Microsoft’s Copilot – now it’ll help customers do the same
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It’s called Copilot Runway, not run away
IBM Consulting has boarded the Microsoft Copilot bandwagon with Copilot Runway, a service aimed at assisting businesses to integrate their own AI assistants into their workflows.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/ibm_consulting_copilot_runway/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Faced with RTO mandates, some top tech talent left instead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/12/rto-microsoft-apple-spacex/
UK public voice fear over security in NHS data systems
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
NHS England’s own survey also reveals suspicions that it would sell data to third parties
Four out of five patients worry NHS IT systems may be vulnerable to cyber attacks while around half are concerned that the world’s largest single health system will sell their data, according to a recent survey.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/uk_public_nhs_data_survey/
Aurora breaks the exaFLOP barrier but falls short of the final Frontier once again
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
With LLNL’s AMD-powered El Capitan on the horizon, time is running out for Intel’s Aurora to claim number 1 spot
ISC Argonne National Laboratory’s Aurora supercomputer has officially breached the exaflop barrier, but, once again, it’s fallen short of unseating Oak Ridge’s Frontier system for the number one spot on this spring’s Top500.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/aurora_breaks_the_exaflop_barrier/
Mac OS X State of the Union (2006)
date: 2024-05-13, from: Tilde.news
<p><a href="https://tilde.news/s/zlb0fd/mac_os_x_state_union_2006">Comments</a></p> @Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
ChatGPT and the like could free up coders to new heights of creativity.
China’s sweeping new e-bike battery rules could have a major impact in US
date: 2024-05-13, from: Electrek Feed
As electric bicycles continue to grow in numbers in the US, so too have concerns over the safety of their lithium-ion battery packs. A new safety standard just passed in China may soon have a considerable impact on e-bike fire safety.
You want us to think of the children? Couldn’t agree more
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
But breaking E2EE and blanket bans aren’t thinking at all
Opinion If your cranky uncle was this fixated about anything, you’d always be somewhere else at Christmas. Yet here we are again. Europol has been sounding off at Meta for harming children. Not for the way it’s actually harming children, but because – repeat after me – end-to-end encryption is hiding child sexual abuse material from the eyes of the law. “E2EE = CSAM” is the new slogan of fear.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/e2ee_comment/
Russia-Ukraine war: Army locked in ‘fierce’ border battles amid Russian assault, Zelenskyy says
date: 2024-05-13, from: Associated Press, World News
The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the U.S. and European partners arrives.
America’s second civil war? It’s already begun
date: 2024-05-13, from: Robert Reich on Substack
If Trump is elected, he’ll make it worse
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/americas-second-civil-war-has-already
CoreWeave plows £1B into UK HQ and datacenters as it eyes European expansion
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Ah, just nod and smile when they talk about Britain and Europe
American GPU cloud operator CoreWeave is expanding its operations across the pond, setting up a new European headquarters in London and revealing plans to build a pair of AI datacenters in the UK, all valued at £1 billion ($1.3 billion).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/coreweave_uk_expansion/
Today in SCV History (May 13)
date: 2024-05-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1825 – Town founder Henry Mayo Newhall born in Saugus, Mass. [read/watch
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-may-13/
CoolCoral: Raspberry Pi Pico coral cooling solution | #MagPiMonday
date: 2024-05-13, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
How do you cool ocean coral? A group of volunteers discuss this regularly and their current solution makes use of Raspberry Pi Pico.
The post CoolCoral: Raspberry Pi Pico coral cooling solution | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/coolcoral-raspberry-pi-pico-coral-cooling-solution-magpimonday/
AWS CISO tells The Reg: In the AI gold rush, folks are forgetting application security
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Everybody’s learning as they go. But there’s a rush to get these apps out’
RSAC As corporations rush full tilt to capitalize on the AI craze and bring machine-learning-based apps to market, they aren’t paying enough attention to application security, says AWS Chief Information Security Office Chris Betz.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/aws_ciso_ai_security/
One bank’s brilliant upgrade was another bank’s crash
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Who’s the more foolish: the fool, or the fool who follows him?
who, me? Monday again? It seems like only yesterday it was Sunday. Oh well, that means it’s time to kick off the working week with a dose of Who, Me? – The Reg’s weekly confessional, where readers share tales of tech mischief and misadventure.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/who_me/
Disregard Data.List
date: 2024-05-13, from: Typeclasses Haskell Blog
Lately I’ve started using streaming library by default instead of the utilities in Data.List. The standard manipulation functions for list are part of the Haskell Report and are a staple of every introductory Haskell tutorial, but I’m over it. I don’t think they’re very useful for everyday programming, and I don’t even think they’re great as an introductory topic either.
https://typeclasses.substack.com/p/disregard-data-list
May 12, 2024
date: 2024-05-13, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
I write a lot about how the Biden-Harris administration is working to restore the principles of the period between 1933 and 1981, when members of both political parties widely shared the belief that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. And I write about how that so-called liberal consensus broke down as extremists used the Reconstruction-era image of the American cowboy—who, according to myth, wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone—to stand against what they insisted was creeping socialism that stole tax dollars from hardworking white men in order to give handouts to lazy minorities and women.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-12-2024
What is a ‘third-party’ candidate?
date: 2024-05-13, from: VOA News USA
The United States has two main political parties – Democrat and Republican. A third-party candidate is a term used for someone who runs as a candidate for a party that forms outside of the two main political parties. A third party is most often discussed during a presidential campaign.
https://www.voanews.com/a/what-is-a-third-party-candidate-/7608595.html
Encrypted mail service Proton hands suspect’s personal info to cops again
date: 2024-05-13, updated: 2024-05-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: Google patches another Chrome security hole, and more
Infosec in brief Encrypted email service Proton Mail is in hot water again from some quarters, and for the same thing that earned it flack before: Handing user data over to law enforcement. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/13/infosec_in_brief/
Community protests Pomona College commencement at Shrine Auditorium
date: 2024-05-13, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The college moved its ceremony off campus after pro-Palestinian groups set up an encampment on the stage intended for the ceremony.
The post Community protests Pomona College commencement at Shrine Auditorium appeared first on Daily Trojan.
‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ reigns at the box office with $56.5 million opening
date: 2024-05-13, from: VOA News USA
LOS ANGELES — “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” reigned over the weekend box office with a $56.5 million North American opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, giving a needed surge to an uncertain season in theaters.
The film from 20th Century Studios and Disney that built on the rebooted “Apes” trilogy of the 2010s had the third highest opening of the year, after the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part Two” in early March and the $58.3 million domestic opening of “Kung Fu Panda 4” a week later.
The strong performance for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” — it played even better internationally with a global total of $129 million — comes a week after a tepid start for Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy” signaled that the summer of 2024 is likely to see a major drop-off after the “Barbenheimer” magic of 2023.
“Planet of the Apes” easily made more than the rest of the top 10 combined.
“The Fall Guy” fell to No. 2 with a $13.7 million weekend and a two-week total of $49.7 million for Universal Pictures.
Zendaya’s “Challengers” was third with $4.7 million and has earned $38 million in three weeks for Amazon MGM studios.
The opening for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” helmed by “Maze Runner” director Wes Ball, was the second best in the series, after the $72 million opening weekend of 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”
It’s the 10th movie in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise that began in 1968 with the Charlton Heston original with a twist ending.
“This franchise has never been allowed to lose its momentum,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There are very few franchises that have this kind of longevity.”
And it really is the property itself. The new film shares no central actors or characters with its predecessors.
“There’s just this love for the way it melds sci-fi with social commentary and straight-up popcorn entertainment,” Dergarabedian said.
“Kingdom” came with strong reviews and positive buzz (80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B” CinemaScore). It was especially praised for its visual effects and the way its CGI has caught up with its primates-on-horseback aesthetic even since the last film, 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes.”
Mark Kennedy of The Associated Press called it “thrilling” and “visually stunning.”
The shot in the arm is welcome for the movie business, but there is little certainty in the forthcoming summer.
The year so far, lacking an early Marvel movie like 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” is running 21% last year’s mid-May total.
While there are potential blockbusters that feel like safe bets including “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” in July, others like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” later this month and “Twisters” later in the summer feel like they could break either way.
Pixar once brought almost guaranteed hits, but June’s “Inside Out 2” may not thrive like the 2015 original.
“There used to be sure bets we cannot necessarily bank on anymore,” Dergarabedian said. “It is going to be a bit of a hit-or-miss slate.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $56.5 million.
“The Fall Guy,” $13.7 million.
“Challengers,” $4.7 million.
“Tarot,” $3.45 million.
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $2.5 million.
“Unsung Hero,” $ 2.25 million.
“Kung Fu Panda 4,” $2 million.
“Civil War,” $1.8 million.
“Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace,” $1.5 million.
“Abigail,” $1.1 million.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Martha My Dear.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RXawa90YU2s
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Ocasio-Cortez: State of US health care is ‘barbarism.’
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4659499-ocasio-cortez-state-of-us-health-care-is-barbarism/
A Loose Cannon
date: 2024-05-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
What all of us are witnessing is a preview of a second Trump administration, grinding the rule of law in an amoral meat grinder. Where the law is violated as a rule, not the exception. And the legal guard rails don’t just bend but break.
The post A Loose Cannon appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/12/a-loose-cannon/
Golden Valley Bath & Body Works victim of grand theft
date: 2024-05-13, from: The Signal
Approximately $1,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from the Bath & Body Works location at the Plaza at Golden Valley on Sunday afternoon, according to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s […]
The post Golden Valley Bath & Body Works victim of grand theft appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/golden-valley-bath-body-works-victim-of-grand-theft/
Leaders in Education Honored at 2024 AWC-SB Women of Achievement Awards
date: 2024-05-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Association for Women in Communications – Santa Barbara honors Katya Armistead, Yolanda Medina-Garcia, Susan Salcido, and Wendy Sims-Moten.
The post Leaders in Education Honored at 2024 AWC-SB Women of Achievement Awards appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Apple Vision Pro has the same effective resolution as Quest 3… Sometimes?
date: 2024-05-13, from: OS News
This article is a partial-rebuttal/partial-confirmation to KGOnTech’s Apple Vision Pro’s Optics Blurrier & Lower Contrast than Meta Quest 3, prompted by RoadToVR’s Quest 3 Has Higher Effective Resolution, So Why Does Everyone Think Vision Pro Looks Best? which cites KGOnTech. I suppose it’s a bit late, but it’s taken me a while to really get a good intuition for how visionOS renders frames, because there is a metric shitton of nuance and it’s unfortunately very, very easy to make mistakes when trying to quantify things. This post is divided into two parts: Variable Rasterization Rate (VRR) and how visionOS renders frames (including hard numbers for internal render resolutions and such), and a testbench demonstrating why photographing the visual clarity of Vision Pro (and probably future eye tracked headsets) may be more difficult than a DSLR pointed into the lenses (and how to detect the pitfalls if you try!). ↫ Shiny Quagsire I did it. I think I managed to find an article that isn’t just over my head, but also over most of your heads. How’s that feel?
Protests dwindle to tiny numbers, subtle defiant acts at US college graduations
date: 2024-05-13, from: VOA News USA
Talk: The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI
date: 2024-05-13, from: Maggie Appleton blog
https://maggieappleton.com/forest-talk
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
NBA play-offs: Indiana Pacers beat New York Knicks to level series.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/articles/cg39qpp4yvno
Photos: A Salute to Moms
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
A day ahead of Mother’s Day, the Valencia Town Center mall hosted an event on Saturday in which participants could prepare flower bouquets and participate in activities to salute moms. […]
The post Photos: A Salute to Moms appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/photos-a-salute-to-moms/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Is WordPress As Easy As We Think?
https://neliosoftware.com/blog/is-wordpress-as-easy-as-we-think/
@Tomosino’s Mastodon feed (date: 2024-05-12, from: Tomosino’s Mastodon feed)
Little things that you do when you decide to stop being American… I just converted my historical weight tracking data from lbs to kgs
https://tilde.zone/@tomasino/112430595092122565
Computers Can Be Best Friends to Teachers of Young Children
date: 2024-05-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
If more than half of our elementary school children cannot read adequately, they will also fail at math.
The post Computers Can Be Best Friends to Teachers of Young Children appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/12/computers-can-be-best-friends-to-teachers-of-young-children/
Trump, one-time political fixer Michael Cohen meet in court
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
The Emacs window management almanac
date: 2024-05-12, from: OS News
Window management in Emacs gets a bad rap. Some of this is deserved, but mostly this is a consequence of combining a very flexible and granular layout system with rather coarse controls. This leaves the door open to creating and using tools for handling windows that employ and provide better metaphors and affordances. As someone who’s spent an unnecessary amount of time trying different approaches to window management in Emacs over the decades, I decided to summarize them here. Almanac might be overstating it a bit – this is a primer to and a collection of window management resources and tips. ↫ Karthik Chikmagalur I honestly had no idea Emacs was this… Advanced, complex, and feature-laden. I mean, I thought Emacs’ complexity was just a meme, but reading this article it seems the memes don’t do it justice.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139654/the-emacs-window-management-almanac/
Los Olivos Wastewater Meeting May 15
date: 2024-05-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
On May 15 the Los Olivos Community Services District will receive a new 30 percent basis of design estimate from REGEN that the district’s 391 property owners will end up paying for.
The post Los Olivos Wastewater Meeting May 15 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/12/los-olivos-wastewater-meeting-may-15/
Controlled demolition at Baltimore bridge collapse site postponed due to weather
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
Baltimore, Maryland — The controlled demolition of the largest remaining steel span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has been postponed because of weather conditions, officials said Sunday afternoon.
Crews have been preparing for weeks to use explosives to break down the span, which is an estimated 152 meters long and weighs up to 544 metric tons.
It landed on the ship’s bow after the Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns shortly after leaving Baltimore. Since then, the ship has been stuck amid the wreckage and Baltimore’s busy port has been closed to most maritime traffic.
Officials said the demolition had been tentatively moved to Monday evening. They said lightning in the area and rising tides Sunday prompted them to reschedule.
Six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths in the March 26 collapse. The last of their bodies was recovered from the underwater wreckage last week. All the victims were Latino immigrants who came to the U.S. for job opportunities. They were filling potholes on an overnight shift when the bridge was destroyed.
The controlled demolition will allow the Dali to be refloated and guided back into the Port of Baltimore. Once the ship is removed, maritime traffic can begin returning to normal, which will provide relief for thousands of longshoremen, truckers and small business owners who have seen their jobs impacted by the closure.
The Dali’s 21-member crew will stay onboard the ship while the explosives are detonated.
William Marks, a spokesperson for the crew, said they would shelter “in a designated safe place” during the demolition. “All precautions are being taken to ensure everyone’s safety,” he said in an email.
Officials said the demolition is the safest and most efficient way to remove steel under a high level of pressure and tension.
“It’s unsafe for the workers to be on or in the immediate vicinity of the bridge truss for those final cuts,” officials said in a news release Sunday.
In a videographic released last week, authorities said engineers are using precision cuts to control how the trusses break down. They said the method allows for “surgical precision” and the steel structure will be “thrust away from the Dali” when the explosives send it tumbling into the water.
Once it’s demolished, hydraulic grabbers will lift the resulting sections of steel onto barges.
“It’s important to note that this controlled demolition is not like what you would see in a movie,” the video says, noting that from a distance it will sound like fireworks or loud thunder and give off puffs of smoke.
So far, about 5,443 metric tons of steel and concrete have been removed from the collapse site. Officials estimate the total amount of wreckage at about 45,359 metric tons, about the equivalent of 3,800 loaded dump trucks.
Officials previously said they hoped to remove the Dali by May 10 and reopen the port’s 15.2-meter main channel by the end of May.
The Dali is currently scheduled to be refloated during high tide Tuesday, officials said Sunday. They said three or four tugboats will be used to guide the ship to a nearby terminal in the Port of Baltimore. It will likely remain there for a few weeks and undergo temporary repairs before being moved to a shipyard for more substantial repairs.
The Dali crew members haven’t been allowed to leave the vessel since the disaster. Officials said they have been busy maintaining the ship and assisting investigators. Of the crew members, 20 are from India and one is Sri Lankan.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FBI are conducting investigations into the bridge collapse.
Danish shipping giant Maersk chartered the Dali for a planned trip from Baltimore to Sri Lanka, but the ship didn’t get far. Its crew sent a mayday call saying they had lost power and had no control of the steering system. Minutes later, the ship rammed into the bridge.
Officials have said the safety board investigation will focus on the ship’s electrical system.
US vows to stay ahead of China, using AI for fighter jets, navigation
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Two Air Force fighter jets recently squared off in a dogfight in California. One was flown by a pilot. The other wasn’t.
That second jet was piloted by artificial intelligence, with the Air Force’s highest-ranking civilian riding along in the front seat. It was the ultimate display of how far the Air Force has come in developing a technology with its roots in the 1950s. But it’s only a hint of the technology yet to come.
The United States is competing to stay ahead of China on AI and its use in weapon systems. The focus on AI has generated public concern that future wars will be fought by machines that select and strike targets without direct human intervention. Officials say this will never happen, at least not on the U.S. side. But there are questions about what a potential adversary would allow, and the military sees no alternative but to get U.S. capabilities fielded fast.
“Whether you want to call it a race or not, it certainly is,” said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Both of us have recognized that this will be a very critical element of the future battlefield. China’s working on it as hard as we are.”
A look at the history of military development of AI, what technologies are on the horizon and how they will be kept under control:
From machine learning to autonomy
AI’s military roots are a hybrid of machine learning and autonomy. Machine learning occurs when a computer analyzes data and rule sets to reach conclusions. Autonomy occurs when those conclusions are applied to act without further human input.
This took an early form in the 1960s and 1970s with the development of the Navy’s Aegis missile defense system. Aegis was trained through a series of human-programmed if/then rule sets to be able to detect and intercept incoming missiles autonomously, and more rapidly than a human could. But the Aegis system was not designed to learn from its decisions and its reactions were limited to the rule set it had.
“If a system uses ‘if/then’ it is probably not machine learning, which is a field of AI that involves creating systems that learn from data,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Berardi, who is assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to assist with the Air Force’s AI development.
AI took a major step forward in 2012 when the combination of big data and advanced computing power enabled computers to begin analyzing the information and writing the rule sets themselves. It is what AI experts have called AI’s “big bang.”
The new data created by a computer writing the rules is artificial intelligence. Systems can be programmed to act autonomously from the conclusions reached from machine-written rules, which is a form of AI-enabled autonomy.
Testing an AI alternative to GPS navigation
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall got a taste of that advanced warfighting this month when he flew on Vista, the first F-16 fighter jet to be controlled by AI, in a dogfighting exercise over California’s Edwards Air Force Base.
While that jet is the most visible sign of the AI work underway, there are hundreds of ongoing AI projects across the Pentagon.
At MIT, service members worked to clear thousands of hours of recorded pilot conversations to create a data set from the flood of messages exchanged between crews and air operations centers during flights, so the AI could learn the difference between critical messages like a runway being closed and mundane cockpit chatter. The goal was to have the AI learn which messages are critical to elevate to ensure controllers see them faster.
In another significant project, the military is working on an AI alternative to GPS satellite-dependent navigation.
In a future war high-value GPS satellites would likely be hit or interfered with. The loss of GPS could blind U.S. communication, navigation and banking systems and make the U.S. military’s fleet of aircraft and warships less able to coordinate a response.
So last year the Air Force flew an AI program — loaded onto a laptop that was strapped to the floor of a C-17 military cargo plane — to work on an alternative solution using the Earth’s magnetic fields.
It has been known that aircraft could navigate by following the Earth’s magnetic fields, but so far that hasn’t been practical because each aircraft generates so much of its own electromagnetic noise that there has been no good way to filter for just the Earth’s emissions.
“Magnetometers are very sensitive,” said Col. Garry Floyd, director for the Department of Air Force-MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator program. “If you turn on the strobe lights on a C-17 we would see it.”
The AI learned through the flights and reams of data which signals to ignore and which to follow and the results “were very, very impressive,” Floyd said. “We’re talking tactical airdrop quality.”
“We think we may have added an arrow to the quiver in the things we can do, should we end up operating in a GPS-denied environment. Which we will,” Floyd said.
The AI so far has been tested only on the C-17. Other aircraft will also be tested, and if it works it could give the military another way to operate if GPS goes down.
Safety rails and pilot speak
Vista, the AI-controlled F-16, has considerable safety rails as the Air Force trains it. There are mechanical limits that keep the still-learning AI from executing maneuvers that would put the plane in danger. There is a safety pilot, too, who can take over control from the AI with the push of a button.
The algorithm cannot learn during a flight, so each time up it has only the data and rule sets it has created from previous flights. When a new flight is over, the algorithm is transferred back onto a simulator where it is fed new data gathered in-flight to learn from, create new rule sets and improve its performance.
But the AI is learning fast. Because of the supercomputing speed AI uses to analyze data, and then flying those new rule sets in the simulator, its pace in finding the most efficient way to fly and maneuver has already led it to beat some human pilots in dogfighting exercises.
But safety is still a critical concern, and officials said the most important way to take safety into account is to control what data is reinserted into the simulator for the AI to learn from.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
RSS Blogroll Network. 😀
https://alexsci.com/rss-blogroll-network/
Trump, Republicans ramp up criticism of Biden over suspension of some military aid to Israel
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
With the United States recently deciding to pause some military aid shipments to Israel, the war in Gaza has now become part of heated rhetoric on the U.S. presidential campaign trail. Donald Trump has joined other Republicans in criticizing his political rival, President Joe Biden, for Biden’s stance on the matter. Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the story.
Ransomware negotiator weighs in on the extortion payment debate with El Reg
date: 2024-05-12, updated: 2024-05-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
As gang tactics get nastier while attacks hit all-time highs
Interview Ransomware hit an all-time high last year, with more than 60 criminal gangs listing at least 4,500 victims – and these infections don’t show any signs of slowing.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/12/ransomware_negotiator_payments/
US nears decision point on security deal with Saudis
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-nears-decision-point-on-security-deal-with-saudis/7608146.html
Did student protesters affect Biden’s decision?
date: 2024-05-12, from: Robert Reich on Substack
Friends, This weekend, tens of thousands of students are graduating from American colleges and universities. Some graduation ceremonies have been cancelled or at least inconvenienced by student protests. Just so there’s no confusion, let me state clearly that I’m deeply opposed to Hamas. I was appalled by the atrocities it committed on October 7 that left 1,200 Israelis dead and took 134 people as hostages, including babies, children, women, and older people. And I firmly believe in Israel’s existence and its right to protect itself.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/student-demonstrators-and-bidens
Check Out This Tesla Cybertruck Wrapped In Rust
date: 2024-05-12, from: Inside EVs News
Rust wraps aren’t necessarily a new phenomenon, but the Cybertruck wears it surprisingly well.
https://insideevs.com/news/719352/cybertruck-rust-wrap-job-unique/
Lilbits: Cake wants to turn your Apple Watch into a phone, Dillo returns from the dead, and removing ads from Windows 11
date: 2024-05-12, from: Liliputing
Smartphones may be incredibly useful gadgets that let you do everything from banking to gaming to keeping up with friends. But they’re also incredibly distracting devices that can eat up way more of your time than you’d like, which is why we’ve seen a growing number of attempts to bring back “dumb phones” that just […]
The post Lilbits: Cake wants to turn your Apple Watch into a phone, Dillo returns from the dead, and removing ads from Windows 11 appeared first on Liliputing.
Ten Healthy Aging Tips for Older Americans
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
By Sandy Silverstein As part of Older Americans Month this Month, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) is offering 10 steps for healthy aging so that older adults can be […]
The post Ten Healthy Aging Tips for Older Americans appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/ten-healthy-aging-tips-for-older-americans/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
All Those Years Ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IQnBfuYK2I
2024 Trends in Home Decorating
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
With inflation raging and uncertainty ahead, the trends for home decorating in 2024 emphasize comfort and warmth, as well as recycle, renew, reuse. The post-pandemic euphoria of being able to […]
The post 2024 Trends in Home Decorating appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/2024-trends-in-home-decorating/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Huy Fong, maker of the sriracha everyone wants, is going dark again.
Looking Forward to Summer Film, Streaming, TV
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
Lingering effects from the Writer’s Guild and Screen Actors Guild strikes still stalk movie theaters, as well as television and streaming production. However, there are a few bright spots on […]
The post Looking Forward to Summer Film, Streaming, TV appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/looking-forward-to-summer-film-streaming-tv/
One dead following traffic collision in Canyon Country
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
One person was pronounced dead following a multi-vehicle traffic collision near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Sand Canyon Road in Canyon Country on Saturday night, according to California Highway […]
The post One dead following traffic collision in Canyon Country appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/one-dead-following-traffic-collision-in-canyon-country/
Fire destroys shopping center housing 1,400 outlets in Warsaw
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
WARSAW — A fire broke out Sunday morning in a vast shopping center housing 1,400 shops and service outlets in the Bialoleka district in Poland’s capital.
The fire brigade said more than 80% of The Marywilska 44 shopping complex was on fire, and 50 teams, including chemical and environmental rescue specialists, were carrying out rescue operations.
A police spokesperson told the news agency PAP there were no injuries reported. Authorities also sent a text message warning Warsaw residents about the fire and telling them to stay home with the windows closed.
Footage aired by private broadcaster TVN24 showed thick black smoke rising over the area.
Mirbud, an industrial construction company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, owns the shopping center.
Shopping centers and large shops are usually closed on Sunday due to a ban on trade imposed by the previous government which had close ties to the Catholic church, viewing it as a day of worship. Such outlets are exempt from the ban only about half a dozen Sundays a year, to allow people to shop ahead of Christmas, Easter and other events.
May 11, 2024
date: 2024-05-12, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-11-2024-9a7
2024 Tesla Model S: EPA Range And Energy Consumption Comparison
date: 2024-05-12, from: Inside EVs News
The entry-level version offers 402 miles of EPA range. The top version with 21-inch wheels is much quicker but has 20% less range.
https://insideevs.com/news/719347/2024-tesla-models-epa-range-energy-consumption/
Solar Storm Knocks Out Farmers’ Tractor GPS Systems During Peak Planting Season
date: 2024-05-12, from: 404 Media Group
The accuracy of some critical GPS navigation systems used in modern farming have been “extremely compromised,” a John Deere dealership told customers Saturday.
https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/
US semiconductor building boom means staff shortages and talent slipping away
date: 2024-05-12, updated: 2024-05-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
McKinsey’s solution? Reach out to middle schoolers
The US semiconductor industry is said to be struggling to hire as well as retain staff as the country cranks up its chipmaking capacity to reduce its reliance on foreign supplies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/12/worker_shortages_semiconductor/
Watch a Deputy Mayor Use a Jet Ski to Save a Drowing Horse
date: 2024-05-12, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
He’s got our vote.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719289/brazillian-floods-deputy-mayor-drowning-horse-jet-ski/
LEVER WEEKLY: What Is Their Ultimate Goal?
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Lever News
From airline refunds to tenants’ collectives, people are taking control — here’s all the news from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-youre-one-step-closer-to-getting-your-money-back/
Tariffs on China aren’t the way to win the EV arms race – getting serious on EVs is
date: 2024-05-12, from: Electrek Feed
News came out on Friday that President Biden is set to quadruple tariffs on Chinese EVs to protect the US auto industry from the rapid growth of Chinese EV manufacturing.
But instead of just de facto banning the competition from giving Americans access to affordable hot new EVs, the US should instead try making affordable hot new EVs itself.
Buy This Certifiably Rad Custom Yamaha Phazer Snowmoquad
date: 2024-05-12, from: Ride Apart, Electric Motorcycle News
The best of both worlds or just our redneck dreams? You decide.
https://www.rideapart.com/news/719282/custom-yamaha-phazer-snowmobile-atv-for-sale/
A comment on the Apple iPad ad controversy
date: 2024-05-12, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>I usually don’t write about this kind of stuff, primarily because I find these <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153113/apple-ipad-ad-crushing-apology">internet controversies</a> to be quite boring. The probably appropriate response to an Apple ad is “meh, whatever” and that was—and still is—my reaction. The ad is uninspiring but there’s one creative aspect of it that bothers me: I don’t understand the connection between the hydraulic press and the visual images of destroying everything to the alleged capabilities of the iPad. Like, I get what they’re trying to communicate but the visual metaphor they decided to use makes no sense to me. That’s the part I just don’t get. But as they say <em>there's no such thing as bad publicity</em>.</p> <hr>
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First patient to get gene-edited pig kidney transplant dies
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The first living patient to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died two months after the procedure, the US hospital that carried it out said.
“Mass General is deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Mr. Rick Slayman. We have no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant,” the Boston hospital said in a statement issued late Saturday.
In a world first, surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital in March successfully transplanted the genetically edited pig kidney into Slayman, who was 62 years old at the time and suffering from end-stage kidney disease.
“Slayman will forever be seen as a beacon of hope to countless transplant patients worldwide and we are deeply grateful for his trust and willingness to advance the field of xenotransplantation,” the hospital statement said.
Organ shortages are a chronic problem around the world and Mass General said in March that there were more than 1,400 patients on its waiting list for a kidney transplant.
The pig kidney used for the transplant was provided by a Massachusetts biotech company called eGenesis and had been modified to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes, according to the hospital.
Slayman, who suffered from Type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had received a transplanted human kidney in 2018, but it began to fail five years later.
When the hospital announced the successful transplant in March, Slayman said he had agreed to the procedure “not only as a way to help (him), but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”
In a statement posted on Mass General’s website, his family said while they were “deeply saddened about the sudden passing of our beloved Rick” they took “great comfort knowing he inspired so many.”
The family said they were “comforted by the optimism he provided patients desperately waiting for a transplant”.
More than 89,000 patients were on the national kidney waiting list as of March this year, according to a US health department website.
On average, 17 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant.
Slayman’s family also thanked the doctors “who truly did everything they could to help give Rick a second chance. Their enormous efforts leading the xenotransplant gave our family seven more weeks with Rick, and our memories made during that time will remain in our minds and hearts.”
“After his transplant, Rick said that one of the reasons he underwent this procedure was to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” the family added.
“His legacy will be one that inspires patients, researchers, and health care professionals.”
The transplantation of organs from one species to another is a growing field known as xenotransplantation.
About a month after Slayman’s procedure, surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York carried out a similar transplant on Lisa Pisano, who had suffered heart failure and end-stage kidney disease.
Pig kidneys had been transplanted previously into brain-dead patients, but Slayman was the first living person to receive one.
Genetically modified pig hearts were transplanted in 2023 into two patients at the University of Maryland, but both lived less than two months.
Mass General said Slayman’s transplant had been carried out under a policy known as “compassionate use” that allows patients with “serious or life-threatening conditions” to access experimental therapies not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
https://www.voanews.com/a/first-patient-to-get-gene-edited-pig-kidney-transplant-dies-/7607872.html
Superhuman?
date: 2024-05-12, from: One Useful Thing
What does it mean for AI to be better than a human? And how can we tell?
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/superhuman
Putin replaces Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in cabinet shakeup
date: 2024-05-12, from: Associated Press, World News
Putin signed a decree appointing Shoigu as secretary of Russia’s Security Council. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov as the country’s new defense minister.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-kharkiv-e1f9250d200999ea3e87e9b96b4710d6
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Jack Dorsey claims Bluesky is 'repeating all the mistakes' he made at Twitter.
David Hegg | Escaping the Cul-de-Sac
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
By David Hegg Today is Mother’s Day, and on behalf of all the loving, praying, and long-suffering mothers in my reading audience, I have decided to speak to those they […]
The post David Hegg | Escaping the Cul-de-Sac appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/david-hegg-escaping-the-cul-de-sac/
Things I remind myself when working with others
date: 2024-05-12, from: Blog by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti
People usually say that I’m a pleasure to work with and that I’ve a highly collaborative spirit. The fact that I’m good at teamwork doesn’t mean that it comes naturally to me. Quite on the contrary, being a good teammate is a skill that I constantly need to train and refine. The following are things I remind myself on a daily basis, à la Dune’s inner monologues, to be a better teammate at work.
https://passo.uno/tips-working-tech-writers-team/
Arthur Saginian | Astonishing Astonishment
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
I am astonished that anyone is astonished that Americans are sour on the economy despite the fact that the economy is doing great … if that is indeed the case. […]
The post Arthur Saginian | Astonishing Astonishment appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/arthur-saginian-astonishing-astonishment/
About yesterday’s European Song Contest 2024
date: 2024-05-12, from: Chris Heilmann
Yesterday was the final of Eurovision. Lots of people use this as an opportunity to post pictures of dead babies. I get it, we live in pretty rough times. But the ESC is not an official European vote, or political platform. So how about we concentrate on the real elections going on. We have enough […]
https://christianheilmann.com/2024/05/12/about-yesterdays-european-song-contest-2024/
What’s with AI boffins strapping GoPros to toddlers? We take a closer look
date: 2024-05-12, updated: 2024-05-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Turns out the See ’n Say folks might have been on to something
AI researchers looking for better ways to train large language models are turning to the masters of language acquisition – children – to find out how it’s done.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/05/12/boffins_hope_to_make_ai/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-05-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Four high-profile EV makers are having a rough quarter.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/lucid-tesla-rivian-and-fisker-bad-quarter-2024/
Dev Digest Issue 115 – password beefstew is not Strog/|n0FF
date: 2024-05-12, from: Chris Heilmann
Friday I released Issue 115 of the WeAreDevelopers Dev Digest Newsletter This time you learn how AI changes how code is taught, cryptography, the history of passwords, how the internet is declining and you can play Super Mario on a type writer. News and Articles Some cool new things to try out: The Netlify Image […]
https://christianheilmann.com/2024/05/12/dev-digest-issue-115-password-beefstew-is-not-strog-n0ff/
Failed SONDORS Metacycle motorcycle was never street legal, reveals employee
date: 2024-05-12, from: Electrek Feed
A former SONDORS employee has revealed new details regarding the Metacycle electric motorcycle sold by the now-defunct SONDORS e-bike company, describing the project as “a freight train wreck turned into a dumpster fire.”
Sunday caption: His thoughts?
date: 2024-05-12, from: Robert Reich on Substack
And last week’s winner
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-caption-his-thoughts
Dogs entering US must be 6 months old, microchipped to prevent rabies spread
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
New York — All dogs coming into the U.S. from other countries must be at least 6 months old and microchipped to help prevent the spread of rabies, according to new government rules published Wednesday.
The new rules require vaccination for dogs that have been in countries where rabies is common. The update applies to dogs brought in by breeders or rescue groups as well as pets traveling with their U.S. owners.
“This new regulation is going to address the current challenges that we’re facing,” said Emily Pieracci, a rabies expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was involved in drafting the updated regulations.
The CDC posted the new rules in the federal register on Wednesday. They take effect Aug. 1 when a temporary 2021 order expires. That order suspended bringing in dogs from more than 100 countries where rabies is still a problem.
The new rules require all dogs entering the U.S. to be at least 6 months, old enough to be vaccinated if required, and for the shots to take effect; have a microchip placed under their skin with a code that can be used to verify rabies vaccination; and have completed a new CDC import form.
There may be additional restrictions and requirements based on where the dog was the previous six months, which may include blood testing from CDC-approved labs.
The CDC regulations were last updated in 1956, and a lot has changed, Pieracci said. More people travel internationally with their pets, and more rescue groups and breeders have set up overseas operations to meet the demand for pets, she said. Now, about 1 million dogs enter the U.S. each year.
Dogs were once common carriers of the rabies virus in the U.S. but the type that normally circulates in dogs was eliminated through vaccinations in the 1970s. The virus invades the central nervous system and is usually a fatal disease in animals and humans. It’s most commonly spread through a bite from an infected animal. There is no cure for it once symptoms begin.
Four rabid dogs have been identified entering the U.S. since 2015, and officials worried more might get through. CDC officials also were seeing an increase of incomplete or fraudulent rabies vaccination certificates and more puppies denied entry because they weren’t old enough to be fully vaccinated.
A draft version of the updated regulations last year drew a range of public comments.
Angela Passman, owner of a Dallas company that helps people move their pets internationally, supports the new rules. It can especially tricky for families that buy or adopt a dog while overseas and then try to bring it to the U.S., she said. The update means little change from how things have been handled in recent years, she said.
“It’s more work for the pet owner, but the end result is a good thing,” said Passman, who is a board member for the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association.
But Jennifer Skiff said some of the changes are unwarranted and too costly. She works for Animal Wellness Action, a Washington group focused on preventing animal cruelty that helps organizations import animals.
She said those groups work with diplomats and military personnel who have had trouble meeting requirements, and was a reason some owners were forced to leave their dogs behind.
Today in SCV History (May 12)
date: 2024-05-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1958 – Juvenile probation Camp Joseph Scott opens at site of former New Era School in Bouquet Canyon. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-may-12/
Fans follow Taylor Swift to Europe for more affordable Eras Tour tickets
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
london — Thousands of ride-or-die Taylor Swift fans who missed out on her U.S. concert tour last year or didn’t want to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see her again found an out-of-the-way solution: Fly to Europe.
The pop star is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour in Paris on Thursday, and planeloads of Swifties plan to follow Miss Americana across the pond in the coming weeks. The arena where Swift is appearing said Americans bought 20% of the tickets for her four sold-out shows. Stockholm, the tour’s next stop, expects about 10,000 concertgoers from the U.S.
A concert might sound like an odd raison d’etre for visiting a foreign country, especially when fans can watch the Eras Tour from home via the documentary now streaming on Disney+. Yet online travel company Expedia says continent-hopping by Swift’s devotees is part of a larger trend it dubbed “tour tourism” while observing a pattern that emerged during Beyonce’s Renaissance world tour.
Some North American fans who plan to fly overseas for the Eras Tour said they justified the expense after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and resales in Europe made seeing Swift perform abroad no more costly — and potentially cheaper — than catching her closer to home.
“They said, ’Wait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room,” Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said.
That was the experience of Jennifer Warren, 43, who lives in St. Catharines, a city in the Niagara region of Ontario. She and her 11-year-old son love Swift but had no luck scoring what she considered as decently priced tickets in the U.S. Undeterred, Warren and her husband decided to plan a European vacation around wherever she managed to get seats. It turned out to be Hamburg, Germany.
“You get out, you get to see the world, and you get to see your favorite artist or performer at the same time, so there are a lot of wins to it,” said Warren, who works as the director of research and innovation for a mutual insurance company.
The three VIP tickets she secured close to the stage — “I would call it brute-force dumb luck” — cost 600 euros ($646) each. Swift subsequently announced six November tour dates in Toronto, within driving distance of Warren’s home. “Absolute nose-bleed seats” already are going for 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,194) on secondary resale sites like Viagogo, Warren said.
Trend reflects hunger for ‘experiences’
Hard-core fans trailing their favorite singer or band on tour is not a new phenomenon. “Groupie” emerged in the late 1960s as a somewhat derogatory word for the ardent followers of rock bands. Deadheads took to the road in the 1970s to pursue the Grateful Dead from city to city.
More recently, music festivals such as California’s Coachella and England’s Glastonbury, and concert residencies in Las Vegas by the likes of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Adele, have attracted travelers to places they wouldn’t otherwise visit, Fish noted.
Travel and entertainment analysts also have spoken of a pent-up consumer demand for “experiences” over material objects since the coronavirus pandemic. Some think the willingness of music lovers to broaden their fandom horizons is part of the same mass cultural correction.
“It does seem like it’s more than a structural shift, maybe a personality transformation we all went through,” said Natalia Lechmanova, the chief Europe economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute.
As Swift hopscotches across Europe, Lechmanova expects restaurants and hotels to see the same boost that Mastercard observed within a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) radius of concert venues in the U.S. cities she visited in 2023. The U.S. dollar’s strong value against the euro may also increase retail spending on apparel, memorabilia, beauty products and supplies for the friendship bracelets fans exchange as part of the Eras Tour experience, the economist said.
Former college roommates Lizzy Hale, 34, who lives in Los Angeles, California, and Mitch Goulding, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, already had tickets to see the Eras Tour in Los Angeles last summer when they decided to try to get ones for Paris, London or Edinburgh, Scotland, too. They saw a Europe concert trip as a makeup for travel plans they had in May 2020 to celebrate Goulding’s birthday but had to cancel due to the pandemic.
Goulding managed to secure VIP tickets for one of Swift’s three Stockholm shows. He, Hale and two other friends scheduled a 10-day trip that also includes time in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
“As people who enjoy traveling and enjoy music, if you can find an opportunity to combine the two, it’s really special,” said Hale, who is pregnant with her first child.
Eras Tour creates ‘Swiftonomics’
The local economic impact of what the zeitgeist has termed “Swiftonomics” and the “Swift lift” can be considerable. It’s no wonder the exclusive arrangement Singapore’s government made with Swift to make the city-state her only tour stop in Southeast Asia earlier this year aroused regional jealousy.
No European governments have complained of their countries not being among the dozen selected for the Europe leg of the Eras Tour, although some fans have expressed surprise that Gelsenkirchen, a city with a population of about 264,000 is one of the three cities in Germany that made the cut.
Airbnb reported Tuesday that searches on its platform for the U.K. cities where Swift is performing in June and August — Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London — increased an average of 337% when tickets went on sale last summer.
Not to be outdone when it comes to trend-spotting, the property rentals company cited the demand as an example of “passion tourism,” or travel “driven by concerts, sports and other cultural events.”
In Stockholm, 120,000 out-of-towners from 130 countries — among them 10,000 from the U.S. — are expected to swarm Sweden’s capital this month, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Carl Bergqvist said. Stockholm is the only Scandinavian city on Swift’s tour, and airlines added extra flights from nearby Denmark, Finland and Norway to bring people to the May 17-19 shows, he said.
The city’s 40,000 hotel rooms are sold out even though prices skyrocketed for the tour dates, Bergqvist said. Concert visitors are expected to pump around 500 million Swedish kroner, or more than $46 million, into the local economy over the course of their stays, an estimate that does not include what they paid for Swift tickets or to get to Sweden, he said.
“So this is going to be huge for the tourism sector in Sweden and Stockholm in particular,” Bergqvist said.
Clubs, bars cater to Swifties
Nightclubs, restaurants and bars are seizing the opportunity to cater to fans with Taylor Swift-themed events, such as karaoke, quizzes and after-concert dance parties.
Houston resident Caroline Matlock, 29, saw Swift more than a year ago when the Eras Tour came to the Texas city. Now she’s making more friendship bracelets and trying to learn a few words of Swedish as she prepares to see the 3 1/2-hour show in Stockholm. The idea of seeing Swift in Europe was her friend’s, and Matlock needed some persuading at first.
“I was like, ‘I only want to go if it’s a country I haven’t been to. I’ve seen Taylor Swift,’” she said.
Visiting the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Gothenburg is on their itinerary. The concert is the last night of the trip and Matlock looks forward to interacting with Swifties from other countries: “Americans tend to have a very obsessive culture, especially Taylor Swift-related, so I’m curious if the crowd will be more toned-down.”
It remains to be seen if the music tourism trend has legs as long and strong as Swift’s and Beyoncé’s, and if it will carry over to Billie Eilish, Usher and other artists with world tours scheduled next year. Expedia’s Fish thinks other big-name artists in Europe this summer will prove that booking a foreign trip around a concert is catching on.
Kat Morga, a travel consultant based in Nashville, a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, isn’t so sure. Morga saw Swift perform in Nashville last year and helped two clients with school-aged children book European family vacations this summer that include seeing Swift in concert. But she thinks the difficulty of navigating ticket purchases through language barriers, currency conversions, international banking regulations and the risk of cancellations will limit the appeal of regular gig getaways.
“I think this is an anomaly,” Morga said. “People aren’t typically going to build their $20,000 huge family vacation only because Taylor Swift is there. She’s the one-off. She’s special.”
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, whose company operates Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak and OpenTable, is even less enthusiastic about concert tours as a tourism instigator. The Swift Effect causes a “little blip” when the superstar goes to smaller destinations, but for the worldwide travel industry, “one star touring around does not make a difference,” he said.
“It may just shift it a little bit. A person was going to go to the Caribbean for a week vacation. Instead that person (says), ‘Let’s travel to the Taylor Swift thing,’” Fogel said. “It doesn’t increase it. It just moves it from here to there.”
Kings of the valley and CIF, West Ranch sweeps Valencia in title match
date: 2024-05-12, from: The Signal
The previous losses against Valencia Vikings boys’ volleyball didn’t matter, West Ranch wanted this one. West Ranch overcame its two losses earlier in the season and ascended to victory in […]
The post Kings of the valley and CIF, West Ranch sweeps Valencia in title match appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/05/kings-of-the-valley-and-cif-west-ranch-sweeps-valencia-in-title-match/
Aurora Visible from Inland Santa Barbara County
date: 2024-05-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Photograph captures the Northern Lights in Central California.
The post Aurora Visible from Inland Santa Barbara County appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/05/11/aurora-visible-from-inland-santa-barbara-county/
Technology crushing human creativity? Apple’s new iPad ad strikes nerve online
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — A newly released ad promoting Apple’s new iPad Pro has struck quite a nerve online.
The ad, which was released by the tech giant Tuesday, shows a hydraulic press crushing just about every creative instrument artists and consumers have used over the years — from a piano and record player, to piles of paint, books, cameras and relics of arcade games. Resulting from the destruction? A pristine new iPad Pro.
“The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest,” a narrator says at the end of the commercial.
Apple’s intention seems straightforward: Look at all the things this new product can do. But critics have called it tone-deaf — with several marketing experts noting the campaign’s execution didn’t land.
“I had a really disturbing reaction to the ad,” said Americus Reed II, professor of marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “I understood conceptually what they were trying to do, but … I think the way it came across is, here is technology crushing the life of that nostalgic sort of joy (from former times).”
The ad also arrives during a time many feel uncertain or fearful about seeing their work or everyday routines “replaced” by technological advances — particularly amid the rapid commercialization of generative artificial intelligence. And watching beloved items get smashed into oblivion doesn’t help curb those fears, Reed and others note.
Several celebrities were also among the voices critical of Apple’s “Crush!” commercial on social media this week.
“The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” actor Hugh Grant wrote on the social media platform X, in a repost of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s sharing of the ad.
Some found the ad to be a telling metaphor of the industry today — particularly concerns about big tech negatively impacting creatives. Filmmaker Justine Bateman wrote on X that the commercial “crushes the arts.”
Experts added that the commercial marked a notable difference to marketing seen from Apple in the past — which has often taken more positive or uplifting approaches.
“My initial thought was that Apple has become exactly what it never wanted to be,” Vann Graves, executive director of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, said.
Graves pointed to Apple’s famous 1984 ad introducing the Macintosh computer, which he said focused more on uplifting creativity and thinking outside of the box as a unique individual. In contrast, Graves added, “this (new iPad) commercial says, ‘No, we’re going to take all the creativity in the world and use a hydraulic press to push it down into one device that everyone uses.’”
In a statement shared with Ad Age on Thursday, Apple apologized for the ad. The outlet also reported that Apple no longer plans to run the spot on TV.
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Tor Myhren, the company’s vice president of marketing communications, told Ad Age. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
Cupertino, California-based Apple unveiled its latest generation of iPad Pros and Airs earlier this week in a showcase that lauded new features for both lines. The Pro sports a new thinner design, a new M4 processor for added processing power, slightly upgraded storage and incorporates dual OLED panels for a brighter, crisper display.
Apple is trying to juice demand for iPads after its sales of the tablets plunged 17% from last year during the January-March period. After its 2010 debut helped redefine the tablet market, the iPad has become a minor contributor to Apple’s success. It currently accounts for just 6% of the company’s sales.
US dedicates $60 million to saving water along the Rio Grande
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — The U.S. government is dedicating $60 million over the next few years to projects along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas to make the river more resilient in the face of climate change and growing demands.
The funding announced Friday by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland marks the first disbursement from the Inflation Reduction Act for a basin outside of the Colorado River system. While pressures on the Colorado River have dominated headlines, Haaland and others acknowledged that other communities in the West — from Native American reservations to growing cities and agricultural strongholds — are experiencing the effects of unprecedented drought.
Water users and managers can’t afford to waste one drop, Haaland said, sharing the advice her own grandmother used to give when she and her cousins would carry buckets of water to their home at Laguna Pueblo for cooking, cleaning and bathing.
“She was teaching us how precious water is in the desert,” Haaland said, standing among the cottonwoods that make up a green belt that stretches the length of the river from the Colorado-New Mexico border south into Texas and Mexico.
Haaland noted that parts of the river have gone dry through the Albuquerque stretch in recent years. In fact, a decades-long drought has led to record low water levels throughout the Rio Grande Basin.
“When drought conditions like this strike, we know it doesn’t just impact one community, it affects all of us,” she said, pointing to the importance of investing in water projects throughout the basin.
One of the longest rivers in North America, the Rio Grande provides drinking water for millions of people and supplies thousands of farmers with water for crops. Management of the river has sparked legal battles over the decades, with the most recent case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court as New Mexico, Texas and Colorado seek approval of a settlement that will help ensure they have more flexibility in the future.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat, said improving sustainability along the Rio Grande will help the state meets obligations under a decades-old compact to deliver water downstream to Texas and ultimately Mexico.
Irrigation districts in southern New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, will work with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to develop projects that will benefit the river and endangered species that inhabit the basin.
The work will range from capturing more stormwater runoff to improving existing infrastructure. Officials said the savings could result in tens of thousands of acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is roughly enough to serve two to three U.S. households annually.
In all, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $4 billion for mitigating drought in 17 western states, with the priority being the Colorado River Basin. However, the legislation also carved out $500 million for water management and conservation projects in other basins that are experiencing similar levels of long-term drought.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said funding for other basins will be announced later this year, with the goal of putting the money to use over the next four years.
On the Rio Grande, prolonged drought and heavy reliance on groundwater pumping has reduced surface water supplies, resulting in decreased efficiency and lost wildlife habitat.
By capturing more stormwater and increasing storage, officials said they could recharge aquifers and reduce irrigation demands.
Some of that work already is happening in the Elephant Butte Irrigation District, which serves about 5,000 farmers in southern New Mexico. Near the farming village of Rincon, officials are working to slow down runoff and keep sediment from clogging channels that feed the river.
It’s among several projects that the irrigation district has proposed to federal officials to save water, protect communities from seasonal flooding and restore habitat.
Irrigation district manager Gary Esslinger and Samantha Barncastle, a water attorney who represents the district, traveled to Albuquerque on Friday to participate in a briefing with Haaland and other officials. They described the efforts as “re-plumbing” the West with irrigation and flood control systems that can accommodate the changing conditions.
“It’s quite a large vision,” Barncastle said, “but it’s what everyone should be doing — thinking big is the only way to resolve the climate crisis.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-dedicates-60-million-to-saving-water-along-the-rio-grande-/7607773.html
It’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit Florida, but when, forecasters say
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
SANFORD, Florida — With the start of hurricane season less than a month away, U.S. officials who predict, prepare for and respond to natural disasters had a message for Floridians on Friday: It’s not a matter of if a hurricane will hit, but when.
The 2024 hurricane season is expected to be busier than average. To ensure that people everywhere are prepared, officials visited residents in Sanford, a landlocked city in the middle of the Sunshine State.
Even if they don’t live on the coast, the officials told residents, they need to know the potential danger hurricanes pose to their property, such as flooding; and put together an emergency plan that includes a supply kit.
“Everybody in Florida is at risk,” said Michael Brennan, director of the National Hurricane Center.
As if to punctuate Florida’s vulnerability to damaging weather, wind gusts of 114 kph, just shy of hurricane force, were recorded early Friday in Tallahassee, where mangled metal and other debris from damaged buildings littered parts of the state’s capital city.
The officials in Sanford brought along two “hurricane hunter” planes used in the daredevil business of flying into the middle of storms to gather data about their intensity and direction.
The WP-3D, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the WC-130J, flown by the U.S. Air Force Reserve, fly straight into the storms’ eyewall, usually three times during a flight. The aim of the hair-raising trips is to gather information that can help officials on the ground make decisions such as when to order people to evacuate.
NOAA’s propeller plane typically has 11-17 people on board during flights through hurricanes, including the crew and scientists. Since flights usually last eight hours, the crew members bring plenty of snack food, and there is a microwave, refrigerator and a hot plate for cooking more elaborate meals.
Although the rides can be very bumpy, sometimes they aren’t as turbulent as expected and crew members don’t realize that they already are in the eye of a hurricane, said William Wysinger, a NOAA flight engineer who has flown on a dozen missions through hurricanes.
“I liken it to riding an old wooden roller coaster during the worst of times,” Wysinger said.
The National Hurricane Center is predicting that the upcoming Atlantic and Gulf season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, will exceed the yearly average of seven tropical storms and seven hurricanes, and that three of the storms will be major. Not all hurricanes make landfall.
Floridians would be wise to remember 20 years ago when four hurricanes made landfall consecutively in just a matter of weeks, crisscrossing the state and carving paths of disaster, said David Sharp, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida.
“Many remember the ravages of the Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne — blue tarps and pink insulation everywhere, along with displaced lives,” Sharp said. “Scars upon the land but also scars upon the psyche of our people.”
Hundreds of thousands of new residents have arrived in Florida since the last hurricane season, and it’s important that they know what to expect and how to prepare, said Robbie Berg, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.
“Talk to your neighbors,” Berg said. “A lot of people in Florida have experienced these storms and they can help you through a storm if you’ve never been through one before.”
One-of-a-kind Black American quilting tradition collides with retailer Target
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/7607771.html
May 11, 2024
date: 2024-05-12, from: Heather Cox Richardson blog
If you google the history of Mother’s Day, the internet will tell you that Mother’s Day began in 1908 when Anna Jarvis decided to honor her mother. But “Mothers’ Day”—with the apostrophe not in the singular spot, but in the plural—actually started in the 1870s, when the sheer enormity of the death caused by the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War convinced writer and reformer Julia Ward Howe that women must take control of politics from the men who had permitted such carnage. Mothers’ Day was not designed to encourage people to be nice to their mothers. It was part of women’s effort to gain power to change society.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-11-2024
Small pro-Palestinian protests emerge at US college commencements
date: 2024-05-12, from: VOA News USA
Apple II DeskTop currently testing 1.4 alpha releases
date: 2024-05-12, from: OS News
Disassembly and enhancements for Apple II DeskTop (a.k.a. Mouse Desk), a “Finder”-like GUI application for 8-bit Apples and clones with 128k of memory, utilizing double hi-res monochrome graphics (560×192), an optional mouse, and the ProDOS 8 operating system. ↫ Apple II DeskTop GitHub page The goal of this project is to reverse-engineer Apple II DeskTop, and fix bugs and enhance it in the process. I didn’t actually know that the Apple IIgs initially shipped with this instead of the 16 bit GS/OS, which is the operating system I personally associate with the IIgs. Apple II DeskTop was largely 8 bit, and built on top of ProDOS 16, and didn’t really take full advantage of the IIgs hardware. It wasn’t until version 4.0 of the system software that the IIgs switched over to GS/OS. The latest release is v1.4-alpha9, released a few days ago. Apple II DeskTop is still entirely compatible with Apple II machines and clones from before the IIgs, as well, and it runs in emulators, too. We actually already covered this project a few years ago, but a reminder that this exists never hurt anyone.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139650/apple-ii-desktop-currently-testing-1-4-alpha-releases/
Hello World on SSD1306 using Arduino
date: 2024-05-12, from: Lloyd Rochester Blog
Hello World on SSD1306 using Arduino After looking through numerous libraries and examples to control the SSD1306 with Arduino, I’ve found nothing simple. There are some really powerful libraries with lots of support. In this post I’ll post the simplest possible “Hello World” example on an SSD1306 using an Arduino Due. Note, if you need to draw shapes, lines, movement you’ll have to extend this example. Code Used in Arduino IDE.
https://lloydrochester.com/post/hardware/ssd1306-arduino-hello-world/
Full Circle Weekly News 365
date: 2024-05-12, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0