News gathered 2024-06-18
(date: 2024-06-18 08:04:15)
Social-Media Influencers Aren’t Getting Rich—They’re Barely Getting By
date: 2024-06-18, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
<div class="known-bookmark">
<div class="e-content">[Sarah E. Needleman and Ann-Marie Alcántara at the Wall Street Journal]
“Earning a decent, reliable income as a social-media creator is a slog—and it’s getting harder. Platforms are doling out less money for popular posts and brands are being pickier about what they want out of sponsorship deals.”
For many kids, becoming an influencer has become the new becoming a sports star: in enormous numbers, it’s what they want to be. More broadly, if you dare to say that it’s not a real job, you’re likely to be drowned out by complaints and contradictions.
But it isn’t, and this article makes it clear:
“Last year, 48% of creator-earners made $15,000 or less, according to NeoReach, an influencer marketing agency. Only 13% made more than $100,000.”
Of course, some people really did shoot to fame and have been doing really well. But there aren’t many Mr Beasts or Carli D’Amelios of this world, and the lure of being famous has trapped less lucky would-be influencers in cycles of debt and mental illness.
This is despite having sometimes enormous followings: hundreds of thousands to millions of people, with hundreds of millions of views a month. The economics of the platforms are such that even at those numbers, you can barely scrape by.
I like the advice that, instead, you should cultivate a genuine expertise and use social media to promote offsite services you provide around that. It might be that a following can land you a better job, or help you build up a consultancy. Trying to make money from ads and brand sponsorships is a losing game - and thousands of people are losing big.
<p>[<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/social-media-influencers-arent-getting-richtheyre-barely-getting-by-71e0aad3?st=snqhy92nimb59t6">Link</a>]</p>
</div>
</div>https://werd.io/2024/social-media-influencers-arent-getting-richtheyre-barely-getting-by
Russia’s Fulbright scholars risk severe repercussions if they return home
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
In March 2024, the Russian government branded the Institute of International Education, which grants Fulbright scholarships, as an “undesirable” organization, banning it from operating in the country and making association with it potentially illegal. Now, Russian Fulbright scholars who are currently abroad could face repercussions when they return home. Maxim Adams has the story.
Saratoga residents concerned about hillside builder’s remedy application
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Development would include 25 housing units on narrow Pierce Road.
Summer in Saratoga means outdoor concerts, movies
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Downtown is the site of 13th annual car show July 28.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/18/summer-in-saratoga-means-outdoor-concerts-movies/
California has 6 of 10 ‘most vulnerable’ housing markets in US
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
California’s high-risk counties are less-populated regions to the north.
A teacher’s guide to teaching Experience AI lessons
date: 2024-06-18, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
Today, Laura James, Head of Computing and ICT at King Edward’s School in Bath, UK, shares how Experience AI has transformed how she teaches her students about artificial intelligence. This article will also appear in issue 24 of Hello World magazine, which will be available for free from 1 July and focuses on the impact…
The post A teacher’s guide to teaching Experience AI lessons appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/a-teachers-guide-to-teaching-experience-ai-lessons/
People reportedly throwing urine-filled balloons in Los Gatos
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
They were also throwing rocks.
Researchers find Meta’s withdrawal of misinformation tool hard to swallow
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
If the new system is so good, why not onboard everyone who accessed the old system?
Feature While Meta faces formal proceedings from the European Commission, academics and other researchers have criticized its provision for monitoring misinformation on its social media platforms.…
Big Oakland office complex flops into loan foreclosure and is seized
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
A big Oakland office complex has been seized through a foreclosure that slashed the building’s value to one-third of its prior price.
Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun
date: 2024-06-18, from: Quanta Magazine
European beech trees more than 1,500 kilometers apart all drop their fruit at the same time in a grand synchronization event now linked to the summer solstice.The post Across a Continent, Trees Sync Their Fruiting to the Sun first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/across-a-continent-trees-sync-their-fruiting-to-the-sun-20240618/
‘Sounds of Summer’ can be heard all over Los Gatos
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Concerts feature bluegrass bands, jazz quartet, wind symphony.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/18/sounds-of-summer-can-be-heard-all-over-los-gatos/
Man brandishes sharpened pencil at Campbell employees
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Kicks an officer during arrest.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/18/man-brandishes-sharpened-pencil-at-campbell-employees/
Another bad day for Boeing
date: 2024-06-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Yet another Boeing whistleblower is set to testify at a Senate hearing this afternoon, citing a failure to properly track defective parts in the company’s factories. Plus, the tragedy of errors and shortcuts that led to last year’s Titan submersible implosion.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/another-bad-day-for-boeing
Immigrant gay couple finds acceptance in US LGBTQ+ community
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the United States. In Los Angeles, celebrations include a festival and parade that are among the world’s largest LGBTQ+ events. VOA’s Genia Dulot talked to an immigrant couple about their lives in the United States and their struggle for acceptance back home.
https://www.voanews.com/a/immigrant-gay-couple-finds-acceptance-in-us-lgbtq-community/7660454.html
Justin Timberlake charged with DWI in the Hamptons after ‘partying’ at hotel: reports
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
The singer was arraigned Tuesday and released without bail.
Oakland A’s fans have a lot in common with Kansas City cousins when it comes to watching their team leave
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
The A’s franchise moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968 under similar circumstances to the ones driving them from the East Bay now.
Will this celebrated local music festival ever return to Oakland?
date: 2024-06-18, from: San Jose Mercury News
Oakland’s budget crisis could lead to a significant cultural squeeze.
Uncle Sam ends financial support to orgs hurt by Change Healthcare attack
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Billions of dollars made available but worst appears to be over
The US government is winding down its financial support for healthcare providers originally introduced following the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare in February.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/support_ends_change_healthcare/
Users ‘Jailbreak’ AI Video Generator to Make Porn
date: 2024-06-18, from: 404 Media Group
Luma Labs’ Dream Machine, an AI video generator that’s on the market before OpenAI’s Sora, can be tricked to generate explicit videos.
https://www.404media.co/users-jailbreak-ai-video-generator-to-make-porn/
Ocean-Based Carbon Removal Is About to Take a Big Step Forward
date: 2024-06-18, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Texas and Mexico • Parts of southwestern France were hit with large hail stones • The temperature trend for June is making climate scientists awfully nervous.
THE TOP FIVE
- Lengthy heat wave threatens nearly 80 million Americans
About 77 million people are under some kind of heat advisory as a heat wave works its way across the Midwest and Northeast. In most of New England, the heat index is expected to reach or exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit. What makes this heat wave especially dangerous is its “striking duration,” Jake Petr, the lead forecaster with National Weather Service Chicago, told The New York Times. Temperatures are projected to stay exceptionally high for several days before beginning to taper off only slightly over the weekend. According to The Washington Post, temperatures could be up to 25 degrees higher than normal for this time of year. And forecasters expect it to be unseasonably hot across the country for at least the next three weeks. Below is a look at the NWS HeatRisk projections today (top) and Thursday (bottom). The darker the color, the warmer the temperature and the higher the health risks.
Tuesday
HeatRisk
forecastNWS
HeatRisk
Thursday
HeatRisk
forecastNWS
HeatRisk
Meanwhile, about 30 groups (including health organizations, climate movements, and labor unions) have filed a petition urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to add extreme heat and wildfire smoke to the list of emergencies that are considered “major disasters.” Such a declaration could allow communities access to federal funds to prepare for heat and fire emergencies. It could also help pressure employers to provide better protections for workers who toil away in dangerously warm conditions.
- Crux is getting some powerful new backers
Crux, the New York-based startup that helps companies trade clean energy tax credits made transferable by the Inflation Reduction Act, announced this morning that it has secured strategic investments from some of the largest energy developers, including Clearway Energy, Intersect Power, Pattern Energy, and Électricité de France. “We had an opportunity to bring in some of the leading developers who collectively represent a pipeline of more than 100 gigawatts of power,” Alfred Johnson, Crux’s CEO, told Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer.
Let’s back up a bit. As Meyer explains, companies can claim money on their taxes by building zero-carbon electricity generation, new factories, buying electric vehicles, and more. But energy developers and utilities rarely need to use all the tax credits they generate from their projects. The IRA created a market for those tax credits, and Crux forecasts that $7 to $9 billion of these new “transferrable tax credits” will be sold in that new market this year (with huge potential for growth through 2030). Its product is a platform that lets developers, utilities, and manufacturing companies describe and sell their tax credits to buyers, with the goal being to make these transactions “efficient and standardized.” Crux has now raised more than $27 million in capital since its founding early last year.
3. Equatic to build first commercial-scale ocean carbon removal plant
Plans are underway to build North America’s first commercial-scale ocean-based carbon removal plant and have it up and running by 2027. The facility will be built in Quebec, Canada, by carbon removal startup Equatic in partnership with Deep Sky, a Canadian-based developer of carbon removal projects. Equatic uses electrolysis to remove carbon from seawater, freeing up space for the ocean to absorb more CO2 from the air. The process also creates clean hydrogen, which the company plans to sell, and use to power its own technology. Equatic already has two pilot plants – one in Los Angeles and another in Singapore. It says that in its first year, the commercial-scale plant will remove 109,500 metric tons of CO2 and produce 3,600 metric tons of green hydrogen, and help bring the cost of carbon dioxide removal down below the key benchmark of $100 per metric ton by 2030.
- Report warns Paris heat could put Olympians at risk
A group of Olympians have teamed up with academics to put out a new report warning that the Paris Olympics could be dangerously hot for athletes. The 2024 Games run from July 26 through August 11, the hottest part of the year in Europe. The 2024 “Rings of Fire” report found that July in Paris is 5.58 degrees Fahrenheit warmer now than it was in 1924 when the city last hosted the sporting event. Last year more than 5,000 people died in France due to excessive heat. The report has several recommendations, including scheduling events for cooler times of the day, but also includes suggestions from the athletes themselves, such as eliminating the stigma that may come with speaking out about heat risk, and weeding out fossil-fuel sponsorship in sports.
- Vermont clean energy mandate becomes law
Vermont’s House and Senate yesterday pushed through a law that will significantly shift the state’s utilities to renewable electricity within the next decade. The legislature voted to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of H.289, a bill that will require all electric utilities to get to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – a shift from the existing law that says utilities must hit 75% renewables by 2032.
THE KICKER
More than 800 coal plants in developing nations have the potential to be profitably decomissioned and transitioned to large-scale solar and storage systems, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
https://heatmap.news/technology/equatic-commercial-cdr-canada
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-06-18, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Current status
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112637660961444855
CentOS 7 holdouts thrown a support lifeline by SUSE
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Liberty Linux Lite to keep the updates coming for a few more years … for a fee
SUSE has unveiled a Liberty Linux Lite solution aimed at enticing CentOS 7 administrators facing the impending June 30 end-of-support deadline.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/centos_7_suse_support/
Half a million immigrants could get US citizenship under new plan from Biden
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
Crux Is Getting Some Powerful New Backers
date: 2024-06-18, from: Heatmap News
One of the least-noticed changes in the Inflation Reduction Act may be one of the most important.
For years, the government has encouraged developers, power utilities, and other companies to build clean energy by offering tax credits. But those tax credits were difficult to transfer to other companies, meaning that complicated financial instruments had to be created to allow them to share in the wealth.
The IRA continues to employ tax credits. But for the first time, it allows companies to buy and sell tax credits to each other.
A new crop of startups have appeared to help companies trade these new “transferable” tax credits. One of the largest is Crux, a New York-based startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Lowercarbon Capital.
On Tuesday, Crux announced that it has now brought some of the country’s largest energy developers into its fold. Clearway Energy, Intersect Power, Pattern Energy, and Électricité de France (commonly known as EDF) have all made strategic investments in Crux, the company announced. It had not previously disclosed their involvement in January’s $18.2 million Series A round.
“We had an opportunity to bring in some of the leading developers who collectively represent a pipeline of more than 100 gigawatts of power,” Alfred Johnson, Crux’s CEO, told me.
Crux has now raised more than $27 million in capital since its founding early last year. The offshore wind developer Orsted, as well as the energy developers LS Power and Hartree, have previously joined as strategic investors.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, as in the past, companies can claim
money on their taxes by building zero-carbon electricity generation, new
factories, buying electric vehicles, and more.
But energy developers and utilities rarely need to use all the tax credits that they generate from their projects. A $30 million solar farm might generate as much as $10 million of tax credits, for instance — far too much for most companies to use in a reasonable amount of time.
That meant that developers had to bring in a third-party firm — usually a bank or another financial institution — that could pay for the privilege of using those tax credits. Before the IRA passed, many clean energy projects were therefore structured as complicated “tax equity” deals, where the bank or tax credit “buyer” owned part of the project so that it could claim its tax credits. About $20 billion in tax equity deals happened last year, according to research from the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright.
The IRA aimed to make that process easier by, in essence, creating a market for tax credits.
Crux estimates that $7 to $9 billion of these new “transferrable tax credits” were sold in that new market last year. It believes that the opportunity will grow rapidly. The advisory firm Evercore has projected that the transferrable tax credit market could exceed $100 billion by 2030.
Crux is not the only company that hopes to capitalize on that burgeoning market, potentially speeding the energy transition at the same time. Basis Climate, another New York-based startup, is also trying to serve as a key platform in the space.
Ilmi Granoff is an expert on climate finance, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Law, and an advisor to Basis Climate. “The market is going to be diverse and large enough to support a number of pure play platforms that are specialists in this — and you’re going to have the banks moving in, consultancies, the tax advisors, and more,” Granoff told me. “For those looking for an environmental commodities market that really drives climate change, you can stop looking at the voluntary carbon market and just monetize the tax credit market for carbon solutions. It is going to be a very reliable market, backed by the government.”
Johnson, the Crux chief executive, also pointed to the scale of
climate-related investment on the horizon. “We just have to build so
much in the next 10 years. The level of infrastructure investments that
have happened up to this point — and the scale of what will be built —
is really, really dramatic,” Johnson said.
Crux’s product is a standardized platform where developers, utilities, and manufacturing companies can describe and sell their tax credits to buyers.
When a buyer first uses Crux, all tax credits available on the service are presented anonymously. They can then anonymously contact a specific seller. The buyer and seller can gradually reveal information to each other throughout the ensuing negotiation, culminating in a Crux-hosted “data room” where each teams’ accountants and lawyers can trade and view documents relevant to the sale.
“This is not a point and click transaction,” Johnson told me. “These are still complicated transactions with lots of moving pieces, with many underlying documents and lots of stakeholders at the table.” The goal of Crux, he said, is to make these transactions “efficient and standardized.”
The company says it’s already having some success speeding up the average sale. It recently facilitated a deal between an electricity utility, which was selling tax credits, and a Fortune 100 company, which was buying them, in just 22 days, Johnson told me. By contrast, a traditional tax equity deal would take six to nine months to structure and close, he said.
Many of the company’s leaders once helped shape high-level Democratic policy. Johnson, a former White House aide under President Barack Obama, was deputy chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen until 2022. He and Crux’s cofounder, Allen Kramer, previously cofounded the startup Mobilize, which helped organizations manage and recruit volunteers.
William Daley, a former Obama White House chief of staff and Commerce Secretary under President Bill Clinton, joined Crux as a senior advisor last week.
In an interview, Daley told me that — with the defense industry excepted — he could not remember the government investing in a strategic industry the way it is now investing in clean energy. “These are economic decisions that investors are making — they’re not just going out there and doing things that may or may not be financially rewarding,” he told me. “For every dollar the government puts forward in a subsidy or credit, the private sector is investing $5.”
https://heatmap.news/economy/crux-clearway-pattern-energy
From Hotel Rooms To Art Deco Icon: How City Hall Evolved Into That Big Downtown Tower
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The LAist
Plus, why L.A. actually has four city halls.
https://laist.com/news/politics/la-city-hall-los-angeles-history-san-pedro-van-nuys-westside
Closing a $50 billion tax loophole for the wealthy
date: 2024-06-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The Treasury and IRS announced a new initiative Monday to close a tax loophole for wealthy people that could raise more than $50 billion in revenue over the next decade. Plus, the evolving economics of “gayborhoods” in U.S. cities.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
DW's Podcast0 feed: My second podcast on Apple Podcasts. For some reason I'm kind of proud to conform to Apple's podcast rules. But of course the feed is available without help from Apple, as always.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-second-podcast/id1752527298?i=1000659386865
NHS boss says Scottish trust wouldn’t give cyberattackers what they wanted
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CEO of Dumfries and Galloway admits circa 150K people should assume their details leaked
The chief exec at NHS Dumfries and Galloway will write to thousands of folks in the Scottish region whose data was stolen by criminals, admitting the lot of it was published after the trust did not give in to the miscreants’ demands.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/nhs_dumfries_and_galloway_letter/
Putin heads to Pyongyang
date: 2024-06-18, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Russia’s Vladimir Putin is visiting North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un for the first time in 24 years, as the pair look to deepen their relationship in the face of international isolation. And: Wildfires forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the Greek island of Rhodes last year – now there’s a focus on how to make tourism more sustainable.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/putin-heads-to-pyongyang
India, US to strengthen high technology cooperation
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
New Delhi — Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his third term in office, India and the United States agreed to strengthen cooperation in high technology areas during a visit by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to New Delhi.
Sullivan met Modi, the Indian foreign minister and his Indian counterpart during the visit that reaffirmed both countries will pursue closer ties.
“India is committed to further strengthen the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership for global good,” Modi wrote on X after meeting Sullivan on Monday.
The main focus of Sullivan’s visit was to hold discussion with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on a landmark initiative launched by the two countries in January last year to collaborate more closely in high-technology areas including defense, semiconductors, 5G wireless networks and artificial intelligence.
The initiative, launched with an eye to countering China, marks a significant push in tightening the strategic partnership between the two countries.
“The visit by Sullivan in the early days of Modi’s new administration signals that the U.S. wants to maintain the momentum in the high technology partnership between the two countries,” according to Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.
A joint fact sheet by the two countries following Sullivan’s meeting with Doval said that they launched a new strategic semiconductor partnership between U.S. and Indian companies for precision-guided ammunition and other national security-focused electronics platforms.
They also agreed to co-invest in a lithium resource project in South America and a rare earths deposit in Africa “to diversify critical mineral supply chains” and discussed possible co-production of land warfare systems, according to the fact sheet.
Growing the domestic defense manufacturing sector remains a top focus for the Modi administration as it looks to lower its dependence on imported arms. Although India has diversified its imports of military equipment, it is still heavily reliant on Russia.
For India, the technology initiative is a top priority as it looks to strengthen the country’s security and build its capabilities in high technology areas.
“India wants to become one of the leading countries in cutting edge technologies and it is of great benefit for New Delhi to partner the U.S. which is the leader in these areas,” said Joshi. “The idea is to get into co-production, co-development, innovation and attract American companies to set up bases here.”
Sullivan also met Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, who has been retained as the external affairs minister in Modi’s new administration, signaling a continuation in the country’s foreign policy. “Confident that India-US strategic partnership will continue to advance strongly in our new term,” Jaishankar wrote on X.
In Washington, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told reporters Monday that India and the U.S. “share a unique bond of friendship and Mr. Sullivan’s trip to India will further deepen the already strong U.S.-India partnership to create a safer and more prosperous Indo-Pacific.”
New Delhi’s ties with Washington have expanded in recent years amid mutual concerns in both countries about an assertive China – India’s military standoff with Beijing along their disputed Himalayan borders remains unresolved four years after a clash between their troops.
As Sullivan visited India, an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, charged with trying to hire a hitman to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in the U.S., appeared in court in New York Monday following his extradition from the Czech Republic. The alleged plan was foiled.
Allegations by U.S. prosecutors of the involvement of an Indian government official in the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen, have raised concerns about a strain in bilateral ties.
The U.S. allegations followed accusations leveled by Canada in September of involvement of Indian nationals in the killing of a Canadian Sikh leader.
India, which views Sikh separatist groups overseas as security threats, has denied its involvement in both the killing in Canada and the alleged plot in the U.S. But it said it has set up an inquiry committee to examine the information provided by Washington.
Analysts in New Delhi say ties are unlikely to be adversely impacted by the alleged murder plot. “The U.S. is quite pragmatic on these matters. They are continuing to stress that ties with India are important, so I don’t think a failed conspiracy will derail ties,” Joshi said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/india-and-us-to-strengthen-high-technology-cooperation-/7660222.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Threads API docs.
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/threads
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The Threads API is finally here.
https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2024/06/18/the-threads-api-is-finally-here/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Threads finally launches its API for developers.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/18/threads-finally-launches-its-api-for-developers/
BT speaks out against Vodafone and Three’s mobile marriage plans
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Fears ‘MergeCo’ will snaffle disproportionate spectrum
Britain’s competition watchdog has published responses to its investigation of the proposed merger of the Vodafone and Three mobile networks, varying from welcoming the move as something that will boost competition, to fears it will have the opposite effect.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/cma_vodafone_three_responses/
Apple’s Macintosh 128K on a Pi Pico gets thumbs-up from Upton
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Just because you could definitely means you should
The Raspberry Pi has long been popular with retrocomputing enthusiasts, and its microcontroller – the RP2040 – can also be used for various emulation purposes, now including the original Apple Macintosh 128K.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/apples_macintosh_128k_on_a_pico/
The Saga of SunZia
date: 2024-06-18, from: Heatmap News
Two years ago, John Podesta met with Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. Secretary of Energy. Podesta, a longtime Democratic aide, had just started a new role in the Biden administration, overseeing the Inflation Reduction Act’s implementation, and he was going to meet with Granholm about high-priority clean electricity infrastructure.
First on the agenda was a list of transmission projects to ferry electricity from wind and solar farms to cities and suburbs where it would actually be used.
“Up pops the list,” Podesta told me later. The first project was a line called SunZia.
“My jaw dropped,” he said. “I thought we solved that in 2014!”
No, no, Granholm said. There had been twists and turns. But now it was back.
If you want to understand why the United States can’t build infrastructure, look at SunZia.
Envisioned as a roughly 550-mile high-voltage transmission line connecting a sprawling 900-turbine wind farm in central New Mexico to the growing cities of Arizona and California, SunZia is — according to its developer — one of the largest electricity projects in American history. When it’s finished, the line will deliver 4,500 megawatts of electricity to consumers. Only two power plants nationwide produce more: the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington, and the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia.
“It’s the largest clean energy project in America, and I think the largest clean energy project in the Americas,” Podesta told me. “It’s huge.”
For nearly two decades, SunZia has bounced through successive stages of regulatory review, financial restructuring, and litigation. It has been fought over, bought, sold, and at one point, forcibly relocated by the Department of Defense. Today, 18 years after it was first conceived, it is finally under construction. At least one outstanding lawsuit is contesting its right of way. If all goes according to the current plan, SunZia will begin to deliver power to consumers in 2026.
SunZia’s timeline would present an inconvenience — arguably an embarrassment — in any context. In this particular context, it could even invoke despair. “It’s a classic example of how we’ve gotten excellent at stopping things in America, and if we’re going to take the climate crisis seriously, we have to get excellent at building things in America,” Podesta said.
The stakes are far larger than electricity bills. The United States has pledged to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Reaching that target will require tripling the size of America’s power grid in the next 26 years, according to Princeton University’s Net Zero America study. If America were to power its grid entirely with renewable energy — a feat that many experts doubt is possible — then it would need a grid five times as large as what it has now.
Even if that study (led by my podcast co-host, Jesse Jenkins) overstates the need for new transmission, the mechanics of renewables dictate that the country must hook up its existing grid to the places where the sun shines brightest and the wind blows hardest. The Desert Southwest — and New Mexico specifically — features some of America’s richest solar and wind resources. To decarbonize America, that energy must be harvested and transported from these largely unpopulated areas to the dense urban centers where people actually live.
That is easier said than done. Although transmission projects are unusually important for climate change, they are also unusually difficult to build, especially compared to fossil fuel infrastructure. Or, well, not difficult to build, exactly — it’s just a big power line, and we know how to put those up — but difficult to get permission to build. Ultimately, that permission is in the hands of the government. But when it comes to long, linear infrastructure projects like power lines, there isn’t really a single “government” to talk about it with in the first place.
To build a transmission line, a developer has to secure permission from every state, county, city, and property owner along the route. If any of them denies the project, poison-pills it with endless requirements, or even sits on an application, then the entire project stalls. (Building a natural gas pipeline, by contrast, requires getting permission only from a single federal agency.) Electricity utilities don’t usually like transmission lines because they erode their local monopoly over power generation and distribution. Those utilities have such great influence at the state and local level — through outright lobbying and by funding local Little League teams, churches, and more — that they can often convince politicians and regulators to slow down or block a line.
For these reasons and more, America’s rate of new transmission construction has plummeted over the past few decades. In this history of stasis, though, SunZia presents a special case. SunZia is such a high-profile project that its enormous delays have terrified the rest of its small industry. If SunZia was defeated nearly 20 years after it was first proposed, then it could render the field un-investable, one investor confided to me.
Yet for all the hand wringing, SunZia is a success story. It has now fought off its most credible lawsuits, meaning that it is likely to get built. Within two years, huge amounts of climate-friendly electricity could be coursing through the American desert.
Earlier this year, I went to Arizona to examine more closely why SunZia has been so difficult to build and what finally allowed it to move forward. I spoke to the SunZia’s developer and the environmentalists who support the project — as well as those who oppose it. The question I was trying to answer: What did it get right? If America is going to reach its climate goals, learning those lessons — and learning them well — is going to be crucial. When SunZia is completed and running at full blast, it will generate roughly 1% of the country’s electricity needs. After that, to fully decarbonize the electricity sector, we will need to run it all back 99 more times.
The saga of SunZia begins in the summer of 2006, when representatives from utilities, developers, and government agencies from across the Southwest gathered to discuss expanding the region’s power grid. After looking at energy and economic data, the group decided that Arizona and New Mexico needed a powerful new transmission line to connect the swelling populations in the west with New Mexico’s abundant wind and solar potential.
The Southwest Power Group, a Phoenix-based energy company that had attended the conference, soon put together an ownership team of four utilities and stepped in to lead the project. They christened the line “SunZia,” after the setting sun on Arizona’s flag and the sign of the Zia people on New Mexico’s flag.
In June 2008, Southwest Power Group applied to the Bureau of Land Management, or the BLM, the national agency tasked with managing federal lands, for the right to build a major new transmission line across the two states. “Local, state, and federal permitting efforts will begin immediately,” the coalition announced in an optimistic press release.
The first phase of SunZia was expected to initiate commercial operation by 2013, the developers added.
Back then, when a developer tried to build a transmission line, they had a strong but not definitive sense of the route — in part because the federal government could ask them to change it if needed. Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the government must study how infrastructure projects — or, really, any federal action — affect the environment, inviting input from local governments, environmental groups, and nearby Native American nations. (That law does not require the government to protect the environment in any substantive way; it simply requires that it consult everyone and study a project’s impact.)
Heatmap
Illustration/Pattern Energy
Southwest Power Group knew that SunZia would begin in central New
Mexico, southeast of Albuquerque, and that it would eventually connect
to a large-scale renewable project there. (At the time, the vast wind
farm hadn’t yet been planned.) Then it would proceed due west, passing
below Albuquerque, before veering southwest and passing north of the
White Sands Missile Range. After that, SunZia would turn west again,
eventually crossing into Arizona. It would pass near Tucson, Arizona —
the exact route was uncertain — before finally turning north again and
terminating in a substation in Phoenix’s southeastern suburbs. From
there, the existing grid could ferry electricity into Phoenix or further
toward California.
This route presented many difficulties, but two river crossings dominated concerns over the project.
First, SunZia had to cross the Rio Grande. Although that river is best-known back East for forming the U.S.-Mexico border, it begins in the Colorado Rockies and flows in a southerly direction through New Mexico, bisecting the state. In other words, you cannot cross New Mexico without crossing the river.
The Rio Grande creates an environment in New Mexico unlike anywhere else in the United States: a high-desert wetlands, where hundreds of thousands of birds from across North America spend the winter. The BLM and the Southwest Power Group decided that SunZia would shoot through a small gap between two wildlife refuges — the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge to the north, and the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge to the south — that had been formed to protect these birds.
Second, SunZia would have to pass near Tucson, Arizona by one of three routes, each of which required some kind of sacrifice. The first option involved running the line alongside an existing 345 kilovolt transmission line that passed to the city’s south and west. But the city and county opposed that route, and it required securing a permit to cross the Tohono O’odham Nation’s land, which the tribe refused to allow.
That left two remaining routes. One option ran near the center of Tucson, passing very close to overwhelmingly poor and Latino neighborhoods. This route raised “environmental justice” concerns, the BLM said, in that it forced poor people of color who already live alongside energy infrastructure to bear even greater environmental costs for it. The other choice was to run SunZia east of Tucson and through the beautiful San Pedro Valley, one of the most pristine desert ecosystems remaining in Arizona. Although vast swaths of that valley are privately owned, Native American relics and cultural sites dot its landscape.
Forced to choose between harming civil rights or damaging the environment, the BLM reluctantly chose the latter. But to blunt some of the damage to the valley, the bureau directed the developers to follow existing pipelines or transmission lines for more than 40% of its mileage. It also ordered SunZia to commission studies of archeological sites along the route’s path so they could be mitigated or avoided entirely. (SunZia would later adjust its route to avoid some of the most archaeologically sensitive sites.)
Studying these options took much longer than the Southwest Power Group had ever imagined. The Bureau of Land Management published its final environmental study on SunZia in June 2013 — the same year SunZia was once due to begin operation. Southwest Power Group was finally ready to start construction. Then the Pentagon stepped in.
Scarcely a month after SunZia’s course was finalized through New Mexico, the Pentagon filed a formal protest. The approved route passed way too close to the White Sands Missile Range, the complaint said, and the BLM had “not adequately analyzed the significant risks to national security” that would result from building it.
The White Sands Missile Range is the country’s largest military installation and is vital to New Mexico’s economy. By suggesting that SunZia might imperil the base’s activities, the Pentagon was at risk of killing the project. But something about that claim didn’t sit right with Senator Martin Heinrich, a first-term Democrat and former Albuquerque city councilman. Heinrich was an engineer by training, and his father had been a utility lineman, giving him at least some familiarity with how the power grid worked. Why did a big power line threaten the military base miles away? He asked MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory to investigate whether the line would damage the base as much as the Pentagon said.
Six months later, in March 2014, the study was completed. According to news stories at the time, the classified study found that SunZia would impair the base’s activities, but that its effects could be mitigated. After months of intense negotiations with the White House, the Pentagon, the Department of the Interior, and Senator Heinrich’s office, Southwest Power Group agreed to bury five miles of the power line — an expensive solution, but one that would allow the project to move forward.
By that point, however, SunZia had captured the public’s attention and polarized New Mexicans. The state’s Republicans gleefully undermined the project in the press. As the Obama administration prepared to approve the line, a Republican congressman and former oil company CEO intoned that SunZia would “permanently damage” national security.
“Greenlighting the completion of SunZia along the chosen route is a reckless rush to judgment without thorough examination,” the congressman, Steve Pearce, said. (The federal government had, by this point, been studying SunZia for seven years.) He worried too that the line would “potentially destroy ancient Pueblo sites.”
In 2015, the Obama administration finally approved SunZia’s route. After nearly a decade, Southwest Power Group had the federal government’s permission to build SunZia.
But that was only the first step: Now, the company had to secure state and local permits. That would prove even more confounding.
The truth is that New Mexico’s environmentalists had never been comfortable with what SunZia would mean for the state’s wildlife. They hated the Rio Grande crossing. They were particularly stressed about what the structure might mean for sandhill cranes, a regal and crimson-headed bird that migrates to New Mexico from as far away as Alaska and Siberia. Few sights are more treasured by the region’s birders than the vast flocks of cranes that form in the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge each winter.
Birders imagined that SunZia’s towers and low-hanging wires could maim or kill the elegant cranes. If SunZia could bury the line to help White Sands Missile Range, people asked, why couldn’t they also bury it below the Rio Grande and save some birds? They whispered, too, that the line would transmit not wind-generated electricity as promised, but rather gas-fired electricity from a power plant owned by Southwest Power Group.
When Southwest Power Group applied for a state permit to cross the Rio Grande, the birders’ moment came. The developers were still finalizing construction details and didn’t seem to have a strong sense of where exactly the line would go. In 2018, New Mexico’s utility commission rejected the permit and asked the Southwest Power Group to come back with more information.
SunZia was flailing. Building the line had taken much longer than Southwest Power Group had ever envisioned. Burying the line, even for a few miles, had made it a much more costly project. Now environmentalists doubted that it would help fight climate change at all and were making increasingly expensive demands.
Then a new company came into the picture: Pattern Energy, a San Francisco-based energy developer partially owned by Canadian pension funds. Pattern promised to build a vast wind farm — comprising more than 900 turbines — at SunZia’s eastern end. It became the line’s “anchor tenant,” in the jargon of energy developers, and, more importantly, the project’s public face.
“They came in, and they were quite honestly pretty frustrated with the way that [the SunZia project] had approached community engagement and talking with environmental groups,” Jon Hayes, a wildlife biologist and the executive director of Audubon Southwest, told me. Up to that point, SunZia had been the story of an “industry just trying to push their lowest-cost alternative through sensitive areas,” he said.
But Pattern behaved differently. “Why it was a success is that Pattern acted and negotiated it in good faith with us,” Hayes said.
Pattern hired researchers to study how and where the cranes fly. It agreed to install infrared lights on SunZia’s towers as an “avian avoidance system” that will be visible to cranes and make the lines shimmer in the dark. It bought a nearby farm to create a sandhill crane reservation (the cranes also eat corn from the fields) and donated the water rights to local conservation organizations. When a coalition of environmentalists, including Audubon, asked it to study the benefits of burying SunZia, Pattern warned that doing so could permanently alter the project’s economics — but they studied it anyway. Burying the line would ultimately have been more disruptive than building lines, Hayes said.
Heinrich’s office continued its involvement in the negotiation and also helped move the process along. Environmental groups that had initially opposed the project switched their allegiance, Audubon Southwest included.
Pattern’s research led it to conclude that the line should be moved into Serivetta National Wildlife Refuge so it could be co-located with another transmission line. (Moving it inside the refuge would also, counterintuitively, avoid the largest bird populations.) When Pattern brought the new route to local environmentalists and the Audubon Society, the conservationists agreed. Pattern then took the extraordinary step of applying to the BLM for a new route through New Mexico. By adopting the new route, SunZia could also avoid the White Sands Missile Range entirely, avoiding the costly need to bury the line.
Cary Kottler, Pattern’s chief development officer, told me that the project’s pre-existing climate credentials incentivized it to find ways to make SunZia more environmentally sound. “I think we did figure out a way for environmental groups to support infrastructure, which has not always been the case in the past,” he said.
“Pattern being a company that was willing to have discussions with us in good faith — and that conversation happening before the re-permitting process — was, I think, really important,” Hayes agreed.
Heinrich echoed that thought in a statement. “I am especially proud of our work to engage local communities, conservation organizations, and other stakeholders to find pathways forward while securing strong economic and conservation benefits for New Mexico,” he told me. He also thanked the BLM, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Pattern Energy, for their “hard work and collaborative approach.”
“I firmly believe that when we work together, we can build big things in this country,” the senator said. “SunZia will have a massive economic impact in New Mexico while bringing us one major step closer to meeting our climate goals and conserving wildlife habitat.”
In 2020, Pattern entered into a deal with New Mexico’s Renewable Electricity Transmission Authority, a state agency meant to encourage long-distance power lines. The deal allowed New Mexico to reap some of the benefits of owning SunZia, and it spared SunZia from some scrutiny under state permitting law. It had taken 14 years, but SunZia was finally ready to build in New Mexico. It still had to tackle Arizona.
Pattern Energy bought SunZia outright from Southwest Power Group in 2021, and outside fundraising began to pile in. Last year, Pattern Energy announced that it had secured $11.5 billion in financing for the line, making SunZia the largest clean infrastructure project in dollar terms in American history.
But the line’s journey through Arizona — and specifically the San Pedro Valley — has remained controversial.
The
San Pedro
Valley.Robinson
Meyer
Throughout last year, a coalition of environmental groups, local property owners, and two tribes — the Tohono O’odham Nation and the San Carlos Apache Tribe — pushed for the project to avoid the San Pedro Valley, alleging that the BLM had failed to study how SunZia would affect the landscape’s cultural value to Native Americans. In November, the BLM ordered Pattern Energy to pause construction on SunZia so that it could consult with the tribes again; the groups held a series of meetings in the fall.
But the tribes deemed that effort insufficient. In January, the Tohono O’odham and San Carlos Apache Tribe, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest, sued BLM, alleging that it had not studied how SunZia would erode the valley’s cultural value.
Their argument turned on the interplay of two federal laws: NEPA, the law that governs the federal permitting process; and the National Historic Preservation Act, which says that the government must evaluate how its actions will affect archeological sites and Native American cultural sites.
If an infrastructure project will destroy an archeological or cultural site, the National Historic Preservation Act says that the government must mitigate that harm, mapping the relics and preserving what it can from them. Pattern and the BLM say that they have followed this law. After mapping and mitigating archaeological sites along its route, they agreed to move the line to avoid some of the most sensitive areas.
But the tribes argue that the entire San Pedro Valley is a sensitive cultural area. The Tohono O’odham Nation has argued in court and in the press that SunZia abuses its cultural property not by destroying any one cultural site, but rather by entering the San Pedro Valley in the first place. In essence, the tribe is claiming that the entire valley is a cultural site unto itself.
They say that the BLM must do what’s called a “cultural landscape” study, investigating not only discrete archeological sites along the route but the cultural value of the San Pedro Valley as a whole. “The tribes have been trying to say that this [valley] has central cultural and religious importance,” Robin Silver, an Arizona resident and the cofounder of the Center for Biological Diversity, told me.
Their argument was legally daring. The federal government approved SunZia’s route through the San Pedro Valley under NEPA in 2015, meaning that the six-year statute of limitations for that decision had already expired. But the National Historic Preservation Act process only wrapped up last year. The tribes and the environmental groups argue that if that law’s process had been correctly followed, then the BLM would have been forced to change SunZia’s route — even though doing so would essentially re-open the NEPA process.
“Pattern Energy and the Bureau of Land Management, all they do is hire consultants that confuse hard archaeology with anthropology. So they go out and dig in front of the bulldozers and say everything’s fine,” Silver said. “The fact of the landforms having significant cultural and religious importance has been here as long as the tribes have been here. It’s just that when Manifest Destiny became the rule of law, tribal concerns were blown off, and they’re still being blown off.”
The coalition’s argument also raised the specter of old trade-offs — trade-offs that the tribe, by focusing on procedural and cultural matters, did not address in its lawsuit. The San Pedro Valley is incredibly beautiful, for instance, but it is not completely pristine: It is already home to a large natural gas pipeline and a few smaller transmission lines. When I asked Silver why the pipeline did not destroy the valley, but the transmission line did, he said in essence that the pipeline did not have the same visual impact as SunZia.
“There are no 200-foot large power lines going through the San Pedro Valley,” he said. “The gas pipeline doesn’t have 200 foot towers.”
I pointed out that this suggested fossil fuel projects would never face the same scrutiny as transmission lines. “We need to figure out a way to connect the sources of our new energy to the users, and our grid is woefully archaic. No argument,” he added. “But we don’t need to go up every single valley, we don’t need to sacrifice everything else, because of this mantra of climate change.”
Yet there is no way to upgrade the grid without building large transmission towers somewhere. Silver suggested that the line could be shifted back toward Tucson, but that would seemingly place it back into the low-income, majority-Latino neighborhoods that BLM had hoped to avoid in the first place. The other available route would be to run SunZia west of Tucson, but that would force the line onto Tohono O’odham Nation land. When I asked a tribal spokesperson if the tribe had lifted its decade-old ban on SunZia crossing its land, he didn’t respond.
In fact, the Tohono O’odham Nation has not responded to multiple emails and calls requesting comment beginning in March.
Two weeks ago, a district court judge in Arizona tossed the tribe’s lawsuit. She said that the statute of limitations had expired and SunZia’s route could no longer be altered. While BLM had once suggested that it would do a cultural landscape study on the San Pedro Valley, it did not do so in a way that would change its obligation to the tribes, she ruled. Silver told me that the coalition will appeal.
SunZia hasn’t made it out of the desert yet. It still has to clear at least one remaining legal challenge, a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies in Arizona state court. But with the federal lawsuit against it dismissed last month, SunZia now seems more likely than ever to become complete, making it a key piece of American zero-carbon infrastructure.
Which raises the inevitable question: Could SunZia have succeeded more quickly? SunZia required no fundamental technological leaps or engineering miracles; we have known how to build a power line of its size and length for years. Yet just the permitting has taken nearly two decades. If we finally get SunZia in 2026, that means that we could have had it in 2016. And that means that we could have burned less natural gas to meet the country’s electricity needs, or at least enjoyed more energy, for lower prices, with less pollution. America’s ponderous approach to building infrastructure is often described as an economic problem. But climate change transforms that regulatory torpor into an environmental challenge. What can we learn from SunZia such that we never have to go through this again?
You can see SunZia — as many in New Mexico now do — as a lesson in different approaches to building big new infrastructure projects. Many interests across the Southwest were unhappy with SunZia’s initial route in 2013. But in New Mexico, the Pentagon’s formal protest to that route led — quite happily — to Pattern Energy, Audubon Southwest, and environmental advocates working out a better plan for everyone involved. In Arizona, meanwhile, the old plans never changed, the same contentiousness remained, and they ultimately gave rise to a lawsuit.
You could also see it as a lesson in political power. Silver, the Center for Biological Diversity cofounder, told me SunZia succeeded in New Mexico for one reason: “Martin Heinrich.” Speaking with a mix of resentment and respect, Silver said that Heinrich pushed for negotiations between environmentalists, clean energy advocates, tribes, and the Defense Department, eventually nudging those groups to arrive at a mutually agreeable outcome. In Arizona, Silver said, national and state-level leaders have not taken the same hands-on approach, so the process has been much more acrimonious.
There’s some truth to each of these views. To get large-scale infrastructure projects done, it clearly helps to have a federal chaperone — someone who can spur cities, states, tribes, and conservation groups toward a final and constructive conclusion. The Biden administration is playing that role now for some projects, although it lacks local credibility, and Congress has helped to standardize the process by creating a “Fast 41” process where the government can prod along stalled infrastructure efforts.
But there is also something substantively different in New Mexico — you could call it high trust, good will, or a solutions-oriented approach to problem solving. It certainly helped that Pattern Energy was willing to work in good faith with local environmental groups. But that only works if all the other key stakeholders, including environmentalists themselves, respond in kind. The current tangle of state, local, and federal laws that dictate infrastructure permitting do not encourage this kind of constructive engagement, pushing opponents instead toward prolonged and costly legal battles. These laws also fail to substantively protect the environment, guaranteeing only that a process gets followed — not that the environment gets protected.
For decades, developers and conservationists have attacked each other over every project and prepared to fight bitter court battles over every detail. Developers assumed that conservation groups were out to block them at every turn and shut down, even when members of the public asked worthy questions. Environmentalists, meanwhile, suspected that any developers would destroy the land if given the opportunity, whether they were putting in oil pipelines or transmission lines, and would accept no protest to the contrary.
SunZia’s story repeats this old, messy tradition, while also laying the model for a new one — one in which clean energy builders and environmental protectors work together to find the best solution for the environment and the climate. We will need many more success stories like it if America is to meet its climate goals — 99 more, to be exact.
https://heatmap.news/economy/sunzia
A depressing catalogue
date: 2024-06-18, from: Enlightenment Economics
The depressing UK election campaign (albeit far less depressing than some others around the world) sent me back to a book whose subtitle is ‘Half a century of British economic decline’. It’s Russell Jones’s excellent and sobering The Tyranny of … Continue reading
http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2024/06/a-depressing-catalogue/
Ada and Zangemann: Fancy reading your kids a book about FOSS?
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It’s not every tech conference that has story-reading sessions… but maybe they should
Devconf.cz Free Software Foundation Europe president Matthias Kirshner’s picture book Ada and Zangemann explains the concepts of FOSS to school kids… and managers, marketing people, and victims of Windows-induced Stockholm Syndrome.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/ada_and_zangemann/
DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO THINK
date: 2024-06-18, from: Howard Jacobson blog
First the lunatics took over the asylum, now the children have taken over the playground. After the campus glamping and the race to see who knows least about Middle East politics – the Americans are still winning but Oxford’s coming up fast on the outside – we move on to the summer game of holier-than-thou in which celebrities with clout join activists with heart-on-sleeve consciences in pressuring the country’s leading literary festivals to shoot themselves in the foot.
https://jacobsonh.substack.com/p/dont-tell-me-what-to-think
Tiny solid-state battery promises to pack a punch in pocket gadgets
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
TDK tech envisioned as successor to button cells – if it works as promised
Japan’s TDK Corporation claims its new solid-state battery design has a hundred times the energy density of its previous products.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/tdk_solid_state_battery/
Today in SCV History (June 18)
date: 2024-06-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1945 – PFC Johnny Cordova of Castaic killed in action on Okinawa. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-june-18/
IMF suggests tax on AI’s CO2 emissions, but not AI itself
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Be afraid … be very afraid: AI could also revolutionize tax itself, money boffins argue
The International Monetary Fund has suggested one way to ameliorate the impact of AI: a tax on the carbon dioxide emissions created in generating masses of energy to power the computers that many hope will do some thinking for us.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/imf_ai_fiscal_policy_suggestions/
VMware by Broadcom warns of two critical vCenter flaws, plus a nasty sudo bug
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Specially crafted network packet could allow remote code execution and access to VM fleets
VMware by Broadcom has revealed a pair of critical-rated flaws in vCenter Server – the tool used to manage virtual machines and hosts in its flagship Cloud Foundation and vSphere suites.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/vmware_criticial_vcenter_flaws/
Tencent ponders banning infomercials hosted by ‘virtual humans’ on its flagship video service
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Beijing’s interest in generative AI has its limits
Chinese web giant Tencent has floated the idea of banning AI-generated videos on its Weixin Channel service, in the grounds that they are low–quality content.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/wechat_avatar_ban_policy_proposal/
BREAKING NEWS: LASD Responds to Shooting Death on Lyons Avenue
date: 2024-06-18, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide investigators are responding to a shooting death investigation on the 22900 block of Lyons Avenue, near the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Newhall. The incident was reported on Monday, June 17, at approximately 7:35 p.m
https://scvnews.com/breaking-news-lasd-responds-to-shooting-death-on-lyons-avenue/
Boston Celtics win 2023-24 National Basketball Association championship
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
NTT uses scattered monitors to trick your brain into seeing 3D images
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Because not everyone’s walking around wearing augmented reality goggles yet
Japan’s IT services and telecoms giant NTT Corporation has devised a tech that makes 3D images visible in augmented reality applications without requiring special equipment or even direct observation.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/ntt_3d_images_display_illusion/
Update: One person killed in shooting near DMV
date: 2024-06-18, from: The Signal
A man was shot and killed near the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Newhall on Monday evening, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. “We’ve got one victim down […]
The post Update: One person killed in shooting near DMV appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/deputies-investigating-shooting-near-dmv/
Biden hosts NATO chief ahead of Ukraine-focused summit of security alliance
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
The White House — President Joe Biden hosted NATO’s chief at the White House on Monday, less than a month before the newly enlarged security alliance convenes in Washington to tackle how allies will continue to support Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.
The aim at the July summit, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, is to “ensure predictable support to Ukraine for the long haul.”
But how to make that a solid and durable reality – amid the political baggage and diverse laws and systems of governance of all 32 NATO members – is likely to be a complex feat. Ukraine badly wants the one thing it most certainly won’t get at this three-day convening: to join.
Among the arguments against Ukraine’s NATO membership are that its fragile and developing institutions need more time to mature, and the fact that the nation is being currently invaded. The alliance’s most important tenet – Article 5 – says that an armed attack against one member is an attack on all. This has been invoked only once before, when members rushed to the U.S.’s defense after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Earlier Monday, VOA asked Stoltenberg how soon Ukraine would get its wish.
“It is difficult, of course, to invite Ukraine when there is a war going on,” he said. “On the other hand, it’s also hard to say that there is no way to do that as long as there is a conflict with Russia, because that (gives) Russia incentive to continue the conflict.
“So what we say is that we are going to move Ukraine closer by helping them to meet all NATO standards to be more and more interoperable with NATO by removing the requirements for Membership Action Plan, and also by deepening political cooperation in the NATO Ukraine Council, and then we will make a decision when the time is right,” Stoltenberg added.
And when pressed for when that time might be, he replied: “I don’t expect any dates. At the end of the day, this has to be negotiated among NATO allies and we are working on that language now. So that will be agreed when we meet in Washington in a few week’s time,” he said. “I expect that we will find an agreement on some language which sends a clear message about Ukraine’s membership perspectives and that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance.”
Biden, in welcoming Stoltenberg, hailed the 75th anniversary and touted what he cast as a victory: a “record number” of members, he said, are meeting NATO’s commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense.
“I think the lessons we’ve learned then, and about standing together to defend and deter aggression, have been consequential,” he said, seated beside Stoltenberg in the Oval Office. “And we’ve made NATO under your leadership larger, stronger and more united than it has ever been.”
Earlier Monday, Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister, said NATO allies have given “unprecedented” support to Ukraine. He estimates this will cost the alliance at least $45 billion per year going forward.
“At the (upcoming NATO) summit, I expect other leaders to agree for NATO to lead the coordination and provision of security assistance and training for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, speaking at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. “It is also why I proposed a long-term financial pledge with fresh funding every year. The more credible our long-term support, the quicker Moscow would realize it cannot wait us out and the sooner this war can end. It may seem like a paradox, but the path to peace is, therefore, more weapons for Ukraine.”
Analysts say these discussions set the stage for the major questions of the upcoming summit.
“The main issues, still, are what does the alliance say to Ukraine after pledges of support over the last few weeks? What is the nature of the NATO-Ukraine relationship going forward?” said Dan Hamilton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “NATO is taking over from the United States the military assistance and coordination of military training for Ukraine. That’s a major step that’s happening right now.”
Last week, Ukraine’s president praised a 10-year security agreement with the U.S., saying he believes it lays a path to NATO membership.
“The issue of NATO is covered through the text of the agreement,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “It states that America supports Ukraine’s future membership in NATO and recognizes that our security agreement is a bridge to Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”
Biden hosts NATO chief ahead of Ukraine-focused security alliance summit
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
U.S. President Joe Biden hosted NATO’s chief on Monday, less than a month before the newly enlarged security alliance converges in Washington for its annual summit. At the White House, the two leaders spoke of how they will “ensure predictable support to Ukraine for the long haul.” VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-18, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I didn't understand why Ghost was interested in ActivityPub until now. Not sure if it's going to work as well as they hope, but at least now I understand why.
https://www.augment.ink/ghost-substack-discoverability/
Vietnam’s internet again in trouble as three of five submarine cables go down
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Outages came a day after nation launched giveaway of .VN domains in pursuit of improved digital sovereignty
Internet connectivity between Vietnam and the rest of the globe has degraded yet again after three of the five submarine internet cables failed around June 15 and remain down.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/vietnam_internet_cables/
US cricket team’s historic run at T20 World Cup continues
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-cricket-team-s-historic-run-at-t20-world-cup-continues/7660084.html
Realtors Host FUNdraiser for Hugs For Cubs
date: 2024-06-18, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
On Thursday afternoon May 30th, the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors hosted a FUNdraiser for their 2024 charity recipient, the
The post Realtors Host FUNdraiser for Hugs For Cubs appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/17/realtors-host-fundraiser-for-hugs-for-cubs/
Arm security defense shattered by speculative execution 95% of the time
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘TikTag’ security folks find anti-exploit mechanism rather fragile
In 2018, chip designer Arm introduced a hardware security feature called Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) as a defense against memory safety bugs. But it may not be as effective as first hoped.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/arm_memory_tag_extensions_leak/
Post Fire up to 15,611 acres, 20% containment; Castaic still under evacuation warning
date: 2024-06-18, from: The Signal
The Post Fire that started in Gorman on Saturday has grown to 15,611 acres with 20% containment as of Monday evening, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Evacuation […]
The post Post Fire up to 15,611 acres, 20% containment; Castaic still under evacuation warning appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
A year after the Titan’s tragic dive, deep-sea explorers vow to pursue ocean’s mysteries
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
PORTLAND, Maine — The deadly implosion of an experimental submersible en route to the deep-sea grave of the Titanic last June has not dulled the desire for further ocean exploration, despite lingering questions about the disaster.
Tuesday marks one year since the Titan vanished on its way to the historic wreckage site in the North Atlantic Ocean. After a five-day search that captured attention around the world, authorities said the vessel had been destroyed and all five people on board had died.
Concerns have been raised about whether the Titan was destined for disaster because of its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to independent checks that are standard in the industry. The U.S. Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation into what happened, but officials said the inquiry is taking longer than the initial 12-month time frame, and a planned public hearing to discuss their findings won’t happen for at least another two months.
Meanwhile, deep-sea exploration continues. The Georgia-based company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic plans to visit the sunken ocean liner in July using remotely operated vehicles, and a real estate billionaire from Ohio has said he plans a voyage to the shipwreck in a two-person submersible in 2026.
The Titan dove southeast of Newfoundland. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Monday that there are other submersibles operating within Canadian waters, some of which are not registered with the country or any other.
Numerous ocean explorers told The Associated Press they are confident undersea exploration can continue safely in a post-Titan world.
“It’s been a desire of the scientific community to get down into the ocean,” said Greg Stone, a veteran ocean explorer and friend of Titan operator Stockton Rush, who died in the implosion. “I have not noticed any difference in the desire to go into the ocean, exploring.”
OceanGate, a company co-founded by Rush that owned the submersible, suspended operations in early July following the implosion. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment.
David Concannon, a former adviser to OceanGate, said he will mark the anniversary privately with a group of people who were involved with the company or the submersible’s expeditions over the years, including scientists, volunteers and mission specialists. Many of them, including those who were on the Titan support ship Polar Prince, have not been interviewed by the Coast Guard, he said.
“The fact is, they are isolated and in a liminal space,” he said in an email last week. “Stockton Rush has been vilified and so has everyone associated with OceanGate. I wasn’t even there and I have gotten death threats. We support each other and just wait to be interviewed. The world has moved on … but the families and those most affected are still living with this tragedy every day.”
The Titan had been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around the sunken ocean liner in yearly voyages since 2021.
The craft made its last dive on June 18, 2023, a Sunday morning, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. When it was reported overdue that afternoon, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the area, about 700 kilometers south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The U.S. Navy notified the Coast Guard that day of an anomaly in its acoustic data that was “consistent with an implosion or explosion” at the time communications between the Polar Prince and the Titan were lost, a senior Navy official later told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive technology.
Any sliver of hope that remained for finding the crew alive was wiped away on June 22, when the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found near the Titanic on the ocean floor. Authorities have since recovered the submersible’s intact endcap, debris and presumed human remains from the site.
In addition to Rush, the implosion killed two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Harding and Nargeolet were members of The Explorers Club, a professional society dedicated to research, exploration and resource conservation.
“Then, as now, it hit us on a personal level very deeply,” the group’s president, Richard Garriott, said in an interview last week. “We knew not only all the people involved, but even all the previous divers, support teams, people working on all these vessels — those were all either members of this club or well within our network.”
Garriott believes even if the Titan hadn’t imploded, the correct rescue equipment didn’t get to the site fast enough. The tragedy caught everyone from the Coast Guard to the ships on-site off guard, underscoring the importance of developing detailed search and rescue plans ahead of any expedition, he said. His organization has since created a task force to help others do just that.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to really correct, to make sure that we know exactly who to call and exactly what materials need to be mustered,” he said.
SCV NAACP celebrates Juneteenth
date: 2024-06-18, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley NAACP chapter held a weekend of fun, games and entertainment in celebration of the federal recognized holiday, Juneteenth, aimed to educate the community about its historical […]
The post SCV NAACP celebrates Juneteenth appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/scv-naacp-celebrates-juneteenth/
Community invited to chamber Business Expo
date: 2024-06-18, from: The Signal
News release The Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce is inviting the community to the chamber’s annual Business Expo, scheduled 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 27 at the Hyatt Regency […]
The post Community invited to chamber Business Expo appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/community-invited-to-chamber-business-expo/
Wiley, Bouquet canyon projects to be discussed
date: 2024-06-18, from: The Signal
The Planning Commission is expected to discuss the Wiley Canyon Project and the appeal of a project being eyed for Bouquet Canyon Road, next to a Cinema Drive business park. […]
The post Wiley, Bouquet canyon projects to be discussed appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/wiley-bouquet-canyon-projects-to-be-discussed/
Sols 4216-4218: Another ‘Mammoth’ Plan!
date: 2024-06-18, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Friday, June 14, 2024 At the start of this week, we did a preload test on the target “Mammoth Lakes,” the rightmost bright ellipse (DRT ellipse, so less dusty) on the workspace image above. The preload test shows the stability of the rock, making sure it doesn’t move and that it doesn’t […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4216-4218-another-mammoth-plan/
Washington, Seoul sound alarm over Putin’s visit to Pyongyang
date: 2024-06-18, from: VOA News USA
washington — Washington and Seoul have expressed alarm about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Pyongyang, while Beijing says it has no intention of interfering with the cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
Putin will pay a state visit to North Korea on Tuesday and Wednesday, the North’s official KCNA news agency announced on Monday. His trip to Pyongyang will be followed by a two-day state visit to Vietnam, where discussions will touch on trade and economic cooperation, the Kremlin said Monday.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said it opposes Moscow and Pyongyang deepening their military cooperation through Putin’s trip to the country.
“All cooperation and exchanges between Russia and North Korea will need to abide by relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and contribute toward the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula,” a spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Monday.
Putin’s visit to the country, the first in 24 years, comes amid increased military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.
North Korea has transferred approximately 10,000 containers that could hold nearly 5 million artillery shells to Russia to fight against Ukraine, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday.
All arms exports and imports by North Korea are sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council.
Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied any arms dealings between them.
Putin’s trip to Pyongyang is expected to increase military cooperation that officially kicked off when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia in September 2023. Kim invited Putin to Pyongyang during his visit to Russia.
“We discourage any government from receiving President Putin,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on June 12.
“If he is able to travel freely, it could normalize Russia’s blatant violations of international law and inadvertently send the message that atrocities can be committed in Ukraine and elsewhere with impunity,” the spokesperson said.
Deepening cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses concern for the Korean Peninsula as well as for Ukraine as it defends its “freedom and independence against Russia’s brutal war,” the spokesperson added.
After the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for Russia’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine since its unprovoked invasion of the country in February 2022, Putin is limited in his international travels to allied countries.
Since his new presidential term began in May, Putin has visited Belarus, China and Uzbekistan.
In the meantime, Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told VOA on Thursday that “China has no intention [of] interfer[ing] with the exchange and cooperation between two sovereign countries.”
He said, “Both DPRK and Russia are China’s friendly neighbors.” North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
China and Russia, both veto-wielding permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have supported North Korea at council meetings held in the past several years by opposing new U.S.-led resolutions condemning North Korea’s ballistic missile launches banned by the U.N.
In March, Moscow vetoed a resolution granting the annual extension of a U.N. panel of experts that monitors sanctions on North Korea while Beijing abstained.
Michael Kimmage, who served on the U.S. State Department’s Policy Planning staff on Russia and Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, said, “Putin wishes to forge a long-term relationship with North Korea, and this would be reflected” in his visit to Pyongyang.
“Not only does North Korea supply Russia with weaponry to use in its war against Ukraine, but a more radical North Korea will pin the resources of Russia’s archenemy, the United States, in East Asia, helping to create a third zone of difficulty for Washington, in addition to Europe and the Middle East,” Kimmage said.
Kimmage, currently the chair at Catholic University of America’s history department, added that Russia’s other partner, China, may not want Pyongyang to be more provocative and may not be pleased with deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Earlier this month, Putin threatened to arm the West’s adversaries with long-range missiles that could target the West in response to NATO members, including the U.S., allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons to target inside Russia.
Evans Revere, a former U.S. State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said Putin’s meeting with Kim in Pyongyang “could reveal the details of Russian support for North Korea.”
“Pyongyang is reportedly interested in missile guidance, engine and fuel technologies, avionics upgrades for its aircraft and assistance with its nuclear program,” he said.
Revere added, “Russia has a significant strategic and tactical interest in complicating the security calculus of the United States and its allies in Northeast Asia. Putin’s visit will soon demonstrate how far Moscow is prepared to go in pursuing that interest.”
VOA’s Soyoung Ahn contributed to this report.
https://www.voanews.com/a/washington-seoul-sound-alarm-over-putin-s-visit-to-pyongyang/7660049.html
45 Projects Receiving New NGI Zero Grants
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: nlnet feed
https://nlnet.nl/news/2024/20240618-Call-announcement.html
Get Kubernetes Ingress like Magic
date: 2024-06-18, updated: 2024-06-18, from: Inlets.dev, cloud tunneling
Learn how to expose Ingress from your Kubernetes cluster like magic without having to setup any additional infrastructure.
https://inlets.dev/blog/2024/06/18/magic-kubernetes-ingress.html
One year of solo dev, wrapping up the grant-funded work
date: 2024-06-18, from: Marginallia log
A year ago I walked out of the office for the last time. I handed in my corpo laptop, said some good-byes, and since then I have been my own boss. This first year has been funded by an NLnet grant, which I’m in the midst of wrapping up. As of now, the work is all done, the final request for payment has been sent. There’s a similar last-day-of-school levity to both these events.
https://www.marginalia.nu/log/a_107_nlnext/
Shoddy infosec costs PwC spinoff and NMA $11.3M in settlement with Uncle Sam
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Pen-testing tools didn’t work – and personal info of folks hit by pandemic started appearing in search engines
Two consulting firms, Guidehouse and Nan McKay and Associates, have agreed to pay a total of $11.3 million to resolve allegations of cybersecurity failings over their roll-out of COVID-19 assistance.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/guidehouse_nma_fined/
Santa Clarita Elks host Flag Day ceremony to educate youth
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Elks Lodge No. 2379 held a special ceremony and presentation on Friday evening for National Flag Day to educate the community and younger generations on the […]
The post Santa Clarita Elks host Flag Day ceremony to educate youth appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/santa-clarita-elks-host-flag-day-ceremony-to-educate-youth/
Manny Herrera Signs with TMU Baseball
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Manny Herrera has signed his National Letter of Intent to continue his baseball career at The Master’s University
https://scvnews.com/manny-herrera-signs-with-tmu-baseball/
Ex-boyfriend arrested after Bouquet Canyon shooting
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Signal
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office filed 13 felony charges against a man accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s Bouquet Canyon Road residence and firing a gun around children there, […]
The post Ex-boyfriend arrested after Bouquet Canyon shooting appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/ex-boyfriend-arrested-after-bouquet-canyon-shooting/
Time for a Change for Santa Barbara’s Short-Term Rental Policy?
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
City leadership reckons with the impacts of a growing number of illegally operating vacation rentals.
The post Time for a Change for Santa Barbara’s Short-Term Rental Policy? appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Railway ordered to pay Washington state tribe nearly $400M for trespassing
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
seattle — BNSF Railway must pay nearly $400 million to a Native American tribe in Washington state, a federal judge ordered Monday after finding that the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe’s reservation.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik initially ruled last year that the railway deliberately violated the terms of a 1991 easement with the Swinomish Tribe north of Seattle that allows trains to carry no more than 25 cars per day. The judge held a trial earlier this month to determine how much in profits BNSF made through trespassing from 2012 to 2021 and how much it should be required to disgorge.
The company based in Fort Worth, Texas, said in an email it had no comment on the judgment. The tribe, which has about 1,400 members, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The tribe sued in 2015 after BNSF dramatically increased, without the tribe’s consent, the number of cars it was running across the reservation so that it could ship crude oil from the Bakken Formation in and around North Dakota to a nearby refinery. The route crosses sensitive marine ecosystems along the coast, over water that connects with the Salish Sea, where the tribe has treaty-protected rights to fish.
Bakken oil is easier to refine into the fuels sold at the gas pump and ignites more easily. After train cars carrying Bakken crude oil exploded in Alabama, North Dakota and Quebec, a federal agency warned in 2014 that the oil has a higher degree of volatility than other crudes in the U.S.
Last year, two BNSF engines derailed on Swinomish land, leaking an estimated 3,100 gallons (11,700 liters) of diesel fuel near Padilla Bay.
The 1991 easement limited rail traffic to one train of 25 cars per day in each direction. It required BNSF to tell the tribe about the “nature and identity of all cargo” transported across the reservation, and it said the tribe would not arbitrarily withhold permission to increase the number of trains or cars.
The tribe learned through a 2011 Skagit County planning document that a nearby refinery would start receiving crude oil trains. It wasn’t until the following year that the tribe received information from BNSF addressing current track usage, court documents show.
The tribe and BNSF discussed amending the agreement, but “at no point did the Tribe approve BNSF’s unilateral decision to transport unit trains across the Reservation, agree to increase the train or car limitations, or waive its contractual right of approval,” Lasnik said in his decision last year.
“BNSF failed to update the Tribe regarding the nature of the cargo that was crossing the Reservation and unilaterally increased the number of trains and the number of cars without the Tribe’s written agreement, thereby violating the conditions placed on BNSF’s permission to enter the property,” Lasnik said.
The four-day trial this month was designed to provide the court with details and expert testimony to guide the judge through complex calculations about how much in “ill-gotten” profit BNSF should have to disgorge. Lasnik put that figure at $362 million and added $32 million in post-tax profits such as investment income for a total of more than $394 million.
In reality, the judge wrote, BNSF made far more than $32 million in post-tax profits, but adding all of that up would have added hundreds of millions more to what was already a large judgment against the railway.
Vallarta celebrates new HQ in Valencia
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Signal
Celebrating what Santa Clarita City Councilman Jason Gibbs called a “perfect example of the American Dream,” the Gonzalez family and the executive team for Vallarta cut the ribbon on the […]
The post Vallarta celebrates new HQ in Valencia appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/vallarta-celebrates-new-hq-in-valencia/
Youth Concerto Competition Deadline Extended
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Youth Concerto Competition sponsored by the Santa Clarita Symphony Orchestra is open to performers in the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding areas, and will result in a concert in October by the winning soloist performing live with the SCSO.
https://scvnews.com/youth-concerto-competition-deadline-extended/
Maryland governor pardons 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Subscribe to my PODCAST0 feed on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dws-podcast0-feed/id1752527298
In Latest Library Wars Chapter, Huntington Beach Set To Vote On Switching To Private Management
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The LAist
The proposal got only one bid. City officials say it could save taxpayers money but many questions remain.
https://laist.com/news/politics/huntington-beach-privatization-library-vote
Examining Apple Intelligence
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
Apple devoted a large part of its WWDC keynote to Apple Intelligence, a collection of new AI-driven features that it plans to introduce throughout the next year in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 Sequoia.
https://tidbits.com/2024/06/17/examining-apple-intelligence/
Cinnamon 6.2 released
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
Cinnamon, the popular GTK desktop environment developed by the Linux Mint project, pushed out Cinnamon 6.2 today, which will serve as the default desktop for Linux Mint 22. It’s a relatively minor release, but it does contain a major new feature which is actually quite welcome: a new GTK frontend for GNOME Online Accounts, part of the XApp project. This makes it possible to use the excellent GNOME Online Accounts framework, without having to resort to a GNOME application – and will come in very handy on other GTK desktops, too, like Xfce. The remainder of the changes consist of a slew of bugfixes, small new features, and nips and tucks here and there. Wayland support is still an in-progress effort for Cinnamon, so you’ll be stuck with X for now.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139983/cinnamon-6-2-released/
IceWM 3.6.0 released
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
Less than a month after 3.5.0, IceWM is already shipping version 3.6.0. Once again not a major, earth-shattering release, it does contain at least one really cool feature that I think it pretty nifty: if you double-click on a window border, it will maximise just that side of the window. Pretty neat. For the rest, it’s small changes and bug fixes for this venerable window manager.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139979/icewm-3-6-0-released/
Meta halts plans to train machine learning on Facebook, Instagram posts in EU
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
It seems that if you want to steer clear from having Facebook use your Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. data for machine learning training, you might want to consider moving to the European Union. Meta has apparently paused plans to process mounds of user data to bring new AI experiences to Europe. The decision comes after data regulators rebuffed the tech giant’s claims that it had “legitimate interests” in processing European Union- and European Economic Area (EEA)-based Facebook and Instagram users’ data—including personal posts and pictures—to train future AI tools. ↫ Ashley Belanger These are just the opening salvos of the legal war that’s brewing here, so who knows how it’s going to turn out. For now, though, European Union Facebook users are safe from Facebook’s machine learning training.
Vinix now runs Solitaire
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
Way, way back in the cold and bleak days of 2021, I mentioned Vinix on OSNews, an operating system written in the V programming language. A few days ago, over on Mastodon, the official account for the V programming language sent out a screenshot showing Solitaite running on Vinix, showing off what the experimental operating system can do. The project doesn’t seem to really publish any changelogs or release notes, so it’s difficult to figure out what, exactly, is going on at the moment. The roadmap indicates they’ve already got a solid base going to work from, such as mlibc, bash, GCC/G++, X and an X window manager, and more – with things like Wayland, networking, and more on the roadmap.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139985/vinix-now-runs-solitaire/
Derf’s Café, Santa Barbara Staple for 47 Years, Closing Its Doors This Week
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Nugget restaurant chain is in talks to take over the soon-to-be-vacated corner of De la Vina and Mission streets, says Derf’s owner Kent Storey.
The post Derf’s Café, Santa Barbara Staple for 47 Years, Closing Its Doors This Week appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
California firefighters gain ground against big wildfires after hot, windy weekend
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
LOS ANGELES — Firefighters increased their containment of a large wildfire in mountains north of Los Angeles on Monday after a weekend of explosive, wind-driven growth along Interstate 5.
The Post Fire was 8% surrounded after scorching more than 61 square kilometers (24 square miles) and forcing the evacuation of at least 1,200 campers, off-roaders and hikers from the Hungry Valley recreation area on Saturday.
“That 8% is good because it means we are increasing and bolstering our containment lines,” said Kenichi Haskett, a Los Angeles County Fire Department section chief.
Firefighters hoped to hold the fire at its current size, but further growth was still possible, especially towards the south, Haskett said.
The fire broke out as weather turned hot and windy in a region where grasses spawned by a rainy winter have long since dried out and easily burn.
The massive columns of smoke that marked the fire’s initial rampage were gone by Monday morning. But Sunday’s smoke drifted some 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest across the Mojave Desert to cast a slight haze in the Las Vegas area. Nevada air quality officials issued an alert advising children, older adults, and people with respiratory and heart disease to stay indoors.
In Northern California, a wildfire sparked Sunday prompted evacuation orders and warnings for a sparsely populated area near Lake Sonoma. Known as the Point Fire, it was 20% surrounded Monday after charring nearly 5 square kilometers (2 square miles) about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of San Francisco and destroying at least one structure.
Ben Nicholls, division chief of the Cal Fire district in the area covering the Point Fire, said Monday morning that fire activity subsided overnight.
“Forecasted winds are supposed to be less than we experienced yesterday, which should allow the resources assigned for this operational period to build and strengthen the control lines that were put in place yesterday,” Nicholls said in a video briefing.
The Southern California fire erupted Saturday afternoon near I-5 in Gorman, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Los Angeles. Two structures burned within the evacuated recreation area.
The majority of the 1,148 firefighters assigned to the blaze were focused on its southern edge, near popular Pyramid Lake, which was closed as a precaution on Father’s Day and again Monday. Officials also warned residents of Castaic, home to about 19,000 people, that they should prepare to leave if the fire pushed farther south.
“If you’re in a warning area, be prepared with a ‘go bag,’ with overnight clothes and your cell phone, your medicines, your glasses. Have your car fueled up,” said Haskett. “Be ready to evacuate.”
About 120 kilometers (75 miles) to the east, the nearly 5-square-kilometer (2-square-mile) Hesperia Fire was 30% contained after no overnight growth. The fire erupted Saturday and forced road closures and evacuation warnings in San Bernardino County.
After back-to-back wet winters, fire season has gotten off to a slow to near-average start, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles.
“These are not peak season fires either in scope or behavior, or in terms of where they’re burning,” Swain said in an online briefing. “In many ways, they’re classic, early-season fires since they’re primarily burning in grass and brush.”
Swain said he expects more fire activity to begin in July at lower elevations and August at higher elevations.
“And the bad news is that I think that the back half of this season is going to be much more active, with a lot more concerning level of wildfire activity in a lot of areas than the first half,” he said.
Registration Now Open for Annual COC Cross Country Summer Series
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Runners of all ages are invited to support the College of the Canyons cross country and track & field programs by participating in the 49th Annual Cross Country Summer Series sponsored by Fleet Feet on Thursday evenings from July 11 to Aug. 15,
https://scvnews.com/registration-now-open-for-annual-coc-cross-country-summer-series/
Biden to announce deportation protection, work permits for spouses of US citizens
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
washington — President Joe Biden is planning to announce a sweeping new policy Tuesday that would lift the threat of deportation for tens of thousands of people married to U.S. citizens, an aggressive election-year action on immigration that many Democrats had sought.
Biden is set to host a White House event to celebrate an Obama-era directive that offered deportation protection for young undocumented immigrants and will announce the new program then, according to three people briefed on the White House plans. The policy will allow roughly 490,000 spouses of U.S. citizens an opportunity to apply for a “parole in place” program, which would shield them from deportations and offer them work permits if they have lived in the country for at least 10 years, according to two of the people briefed. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the announcement publicly.
The White House on Monday declined to comment on the expected announcement.
Families who would potentially benefit from Biden’s actions were expected to attend the White House event on Tuesday afternoon
For some time, administration officials have been deliberating various options to offer protections for immigrants who lack legal status in the U.S. but who have long-standing ties — even after the White House crafted a restrictive proposal that essentially halted asylum processing at the U.S-Mexico border.
Biden is invoking an authority that not only gives deportation protection and work permits but also removes a legal barrier to allow qualifying immigrants to apply for permanent residency and, eventually, U.S. citizenship. It’s a power that’s already been used for other categories of immigrants, such as members of the U.S. military or their family members who lack legal status.
“Today, I have spoken about what we need to do to secure the border,” Biden said at a June 4 event at the White House, when he rolled out his order to suspend asylum processing for many migrants arriving now at the U.S. border. “In the weeks ahead — and I mean the weeks ahead — I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just.”
Biden was also expected to announce a policy of making recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program eligible for visas, rather than the temporary work authorization they currently receive, according to two of the people briefed.
In Congress, a group of Democratic lawmakers called the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has advocated for a policy of making graduates of U.S. colleges who came to the country without authorization as children eligible for work visas as well.
The White House on Tuesday afternoon will mark the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was created by then-President Barack Obama to protect young immigrants who lacked legal status, often known as “dreamers.”
US Surgeon General wants cigarette-style health warning labels on social networks
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Something like … Side effects may include low self esteem, short attention span, and intrusive ads?
US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy today said official warning labels should be slapped on social media networks.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/us_surgeon_general_social_media/
NASA Awards Contract for Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Operations
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has awarded a contract to Vertex Aerospace, LLC of Madison, Mississippi, for labor support to ensure continuing safe operations of the Sonny Carter Training Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory Operations Contract II has a two-year base period that begins Oct. 1, followed by five option periods ranging […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-contract-for-neutral-buoyancy-laboratory-operations/
Public Health Announces Rise in L.A. County Mpox Cases
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is alerting residents and health care providers about a concerning increase in mpox cases, with 10 new cases reported in Los Angeles County in the past two weeks up from an average of less than two cases per week during the preceding several weeks
https://scvnews.com/public-health-announces-rise-in-l-a-county-mpox-cases/
Federal court upholds California’s ban on gun sales on state property
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Signal
By Nigel Duara CalMatters Writer You can talk about guns at California state fairgrounds. You can advertise guns there, too. You can even, in the words of a gun rights group, […]
The post Federal court upholds California’s ban on gun sales on state property appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/federal-court-upholds-californias-ban-on-gun-sales-on-state-property/
Construction Set to Begin for Bouquet Canyon Trail
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Calling all bicyclists, runners, walkers and more! Central Park is about to get a brand-new trail!
https://scvnews.com/construction-set-to-begin-for-bouquet-canyon-trail/
IDF general tells troops to continue Rafah operation until Hamas is defeated
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Signal
By Aldgra Fredly Contributing Writer The Israel Defense Forces vowed to continue military operations in Rafah until the Hamas terrorist group is defeated. This followed an explosion in southern Gaza that […]
The post IDF general tells troops to continue Rafah operation until Hamas is defeated appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Johnson Celebrates LGBTQI+ Pride Month: Meet Maya FarrHenderson
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
Maya FarrHenderson’s first day at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston involved the usual new hire setup and training tasks, but also something special: A tour of the CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) and HERA (Human Exploration Research Analog) habitats. “It was such a thrill to start my career at NASA standing in […]
The Home Page | A View from the Top, Plus Pups and Pops
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Happy Fathers Day, Happy Juneteenth, and more.
The post The Home Page | A View from the Top, Plus Pups and Pops appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/17/the-home-page-a-view-from-the-top-plus-pups-and-pops/
Casa Dorinda Celebrates Scholarship Recipients at Annual Ceremony
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Montecito, CA (June 13, 2024)— Casa Dorinda is hosting their Annual Scholarship Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, June 18, at 4
The post Casa Dorinda Celebrates Scholarship Recipients at Annual Ceremony appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Historic ocean liner SS United States ordered out of its berth in Philadelphia
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
PHILADELPHIA — The SS United States, a historic ship that still holds the transatlantic speed record it set more than 70 years ago, must leave its berth on the Delaware River in Philadelphia by September 12, a federal judge says.
The decision issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Anita Brody culminated a years-old rent dispute between the conservancy that oversees the 1,000-foot ocean liner and its landlord, Penn Warehousing. It stemmed from an August 2021 decision by Penn Warehousing to double the ship’s daily dockage to $1,700, an increase the conservancy refused to accept.
When the conservancy continued to pay its previous rate, set in 2011, Penn Warehousing terminated the lease in March 2022. After much legal wrangling, Brody held a bench trial in January but also encouraged the two sides to reach a settlement instead of leaving it up to her.
The judge ultimately ruled that the conservancy’s failure to pay the new rate did not amount to a contract breach or entitle Penn Warehousing to damages. But she also ruled that under Pennsylvania contract law, the berthing agreement is terminable at will with reasonable notice, which Penn Warehousing had issued in March 2022.
“The judge’s decision gives us a very limited window to find a new home for the SS United States and raise the resources necessary to move the ship and keep her safe,” Susan Gibbs, conservancy president and granddaughter of the ship’s designer, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Besides finding a new home, the conservancy also must obtain funds for insurance, tugs, surveys and dock preparations for a move.
“The best hope of everyone involved was that the conservancy could successfully repurpose the ship,” said Craig Mills, an attorney for Penn Warehousing. “But after decades of decay and delay, it is time to acknowledge the unavoidable and return Pier 82 to productive commercial service.”
Christened in 1952, the SS United States was once considered a beacon of American engineering, doubling as a military vessel that could carry thousands of troops. On its maiden voyage in 1952, it shattered the transatlantic speed record in both directions, when it reached an average speed of 36 knots, or just over 41 mph (66 kph), The Associated Press reported from aboard the ship.
On that voyage, the ship crossed the Atlantic in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, besting the RMS Queen Mary’s time by 10 hours. To this day, the SS United States holds the transatlantic speed record for an ocean liner.
It became a reserve ship in 1969 and later bounced to various private owners who hoped to redevelop it but eventually found their plans to be too expensive or poorly timed.
It has loomed for years on south Philadelphia’s Delaware waterfront.
Time Is Running Out for the Hudson Bay Polar Bears
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The southern and western subpopulations are on track to disappear as sea ice becomes too thin amid rising global temperatures
Suspected bosses of $430M dark-web Empire Market charged in US
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-18, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cybercrime super-souk’s Dopenugget and Zero Angel may face life behind bars if convicted
The two alleged administrators of Empire Market, a dark-web bazaar that peddled drugs, malware, digital fraud, and other illegal stuff, have been detained on charges related to owning and operating the illicit souk.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/empire_market_arrests/
Rumored Thinner Apple Devices
date: 2024-06-17, from: Michael Tsai
Tim Hardwick: Apple intends to slim down the MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone, with the new ultra-thin M4 iPad Pro a sign of the company’s new design trajectory, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.[…]Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says that like the iPad Pro, Apple is now focused on […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/17/rumored-thinner-apple-devices/
U.S. Sues Adobe Over Subscriptions
date: 2024-06-17, from: Michael Tsai
FTC (PDF, via Hacker News): The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against software maker Adobe and two of its executives, Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, for deceiving consumers by hiding the early termination fee for its most popular subscription plan and making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. […] According to the […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/17/u-s-sues-adobe-over-subscriptions/
EU to Charge Apple for Violating DMA
date: 2024-06-17, from: Michael Tsai
Joe Rossignol: The European Commission plans to charge Apple for violating the Digital Markets Act after determining that the iPhone maker is not complying with obligations to allow app developers to “steer” users to offers outside of the App Store without fees, according to the Financial Times, which cites three people familiar with the matter.It […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/17/eu-to-charge-apple-for-violating-dma/
Japan Passes Law to Allow App Marketplaces
date: 2024-06-17, from: Michael Tsai
Ryohei Yasoshima and Riho Nagao (Hacker News): Legislation slated to be sent to the parliament in 2024 would restrict moves by platform operators to keep users in the operators’ own ecosystems and shut out rivals, focusing mainly on four areas: app stores and payments, search, browsers, and operating systems.The plan is to allow the Japan […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/17/japan-passes-law-to-allow-app-marketplaces/
Apple to Discontinue Apple Pay Later
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
We’re not mourning the loss of the Apple Pay Later service for delaying payment on purchased items.
https://tidbits.com/2024/06/17/apple-to-discontinue-apple-pay-later/
Feds sue Adobe and execs for stinging subscribers with ‘hidden’ cancellation fees
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Graphic design giant slammed for using graphic design to bury T&Cs
The FTC has sued Adobe in federal court alleging the Photoshop titan and two of its executives deceived artists by concealing termination fees for its subscription software.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/adobe_sued_cancel_fees/
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2024-06-17, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
We're delighted to announce that Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) have joined the Consortium as associate members. Please read more about our newest members and their IIIF initiatives on the IIIF website: https://iiif.io/news/2024/05/31/CRKN-NFSA/
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/112633620746961686
Bouquet Canyon Trail Construction to Begin
date: 2024-06-17, from: City of Santa Clarita
Calling all bicyclists, runners, walkers and more! Central Park is about to get a brand-new trail! Construction on the Bouquet Canyon Trail is set to begin on June 24. This new Class I, shared-use trail will provide a safe, scenic route for bicyclists, runners and walkers, bypassing the traffic on Bouquet Canyon Road. The trail […]
The post Bouquet Canyon Trail Construction to Begin appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/06/17/bouquet-canyon-trail-construction-to-begin/
UC Santa Barbara’s Class of 2024 Graduates After Tumultuous Final Year
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The weekend’s commencement ceremonies saw no major disruptions or security threats.
The post UC Santa Barbara’s Class of 2024 Graduates After Tumultuous Final Year appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Microsoft starts beating the Windows 11 PR drum in face of reluctant Windows 10 users
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
I have a feeling Microsoft is really starting to feel some pressure about its plans to abandon Windows 10 next year. Data shows that 70% of Windows users are still using Windows 10, and this percentage has proven to be remarkably resilient, making it very likely that hundreds of millions of Windows users will be out of regular, mainstream support and security patches next year. It seems Microsoft is, therefore, turning up the PR campaign, this time by publishing a blog post about myths and misconceptions about Windows 11. The kind of supposed myths and misconceptions Microsoft details are exactly the kind of stuff corporations with large deployments worry about at night. For instance, Microsoft repeatedly bangs the drum on application compatibility, stating that despite the change in number – 10 to 11 – Windows 11 is built on the same base as its predecessor, and as such, touts 99.7% application compatibility. Furthermore, Microsoft adds that if businesses to suffer from an incompatibility, they can use something call App Assure – which I will intentionally mispronounce until the day I die because I’m apparently a child – to fix any issues. Apparently, the visual changes to the user interface in Windows 11 are also a cause of concern for businesses, as Microsoft dedicated an entire entry to this, citing a study that the visual changes do not negatively impact productivity. The blog post then goes on to explain how the changes are actually really great and enhance productivity – you know, the usual PR speak. There’s more in the blog post, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more and more of this kind of PR offensive as the cut-off date for Windows 10 support nears. Windows 10 users will probably also see more and more Windows 11 ads when using their computers, too, urging them to upgrade even when they very well cannot because of missing TPMs or unsupported processors. I don’t think any of these things will work to bring that 70% number down much over the next 12 months, and that’s a big problem for Microsoft. I’m not going to make any predictions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft will simply be forced by, well, reality to extend the official support for Windows 10 well beyond 2025. Especially with all the recent investigations into Microsoft’s shoddy internal security culture, there’s just no way they can cut 70% of their users off from security updates and patches.
McDonald’s not lovin’ its AI drive-thru experiment with IBM
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Automated voice ordering still on the menu for the future, though
McDonald’s is pulling out of its venture with IBM that brought AI to some of its drive-thrus.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/mcdonalds_ai_drivethru/
Preserved Fruit From the 18th Century Found at George Washington’s Estate
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
During a renovation project, archaeologists uncovered intact bottles containing preserved cherries and berries that are more than 250 years old
Mobile comms via satellite for backcountry and maritime safety
date: 2024-06-17, from: OS News
Stranded on a desert island; lost in the forest; stuck in the snow; injured and unable to get back to civilization. Human beings have used their ingenuity for millennia to try to signal for rescue. there’s been a progression of technological innovations: smoke signals, mirrors, a loud whistle, a portable radio, a mobile phone. With each invention, it’s been possible to venture a little farther from populated areas and still have peace of mind about being able to call for help. But once you get past the range of a terrestrial radio tower, whether it’s into the wilderness or out at sea, it starts to get more complicated and expensive to be able to call for rescue. In the next year or so, it’s going to become a lot simpler and less expensive. Probably enough to become ubiquitous. Hardware infrastructure is already in place, and the relevant software and service support is rolling out now. It’s been possible for decades for adventurers to keep in contact via satellite. The first commercial maritime satellite communications was launched in 1976. Globalstar and Iridium launched in the late 90s and drove down the device size and service cost of satellite phones. However, the service was a lot more expensive than cellular phone service, and not enough people were willing to pay for remote comms to be able to overcome the massive infrastructure costs, and both companies went bankrupt. Their investors lost their money, but the satellites still worked, so once the bankruptcies were hashed out they fulfilled their promise, as least technologically. On a parallel track, in the late 1980s International Cospas-Sarsat Programme was set up to develop a system for satellite aided search and rescue system that detects and locates emergency beacons activated by aircraft, ships and people engaged in recreational activities in remote areas, and then sends these distress alerts to search-and-rescue (SAR) authorities. Many types of beacons are available, and nowadays they send exact GPS coordinates along with the call for rescue. In the 2010s, the Satellite Emergency Notification Device or SEND device was brought to market. These are portable beacons that connect to the Globalstar and Iridium networks and allow people in remote areas not only to call for help in emergencies, but also to communicate via text messaging. Currently the two most popular SEND devices are the Garmin inReach Mini 2 and the Spot X. These devices cost $400 and $250 USD respectively, and require monthly service fees of $12-40. For someone undertaking a long and dangerous expedition into the backcountry, these are very reasonable costs, especially for someone who does it often. But for most people, it’s just not practical to pay for and carry a device like that “just in case.” In 2022, the iPhone 14 included a feature that was the first step in taking satellite-based communication into the mainstream. It allows iPhone users to share their location via Find My feature with new radio hardware that connects to the Globalstar service. So if you’re out adventuring, your friends can keep track of where you are. And if there’s an emergency, you can make an emergency SOS. It’s not just a generic Mayday: you can text specific details about your emergency and it will be transmitted to the local authorities. You can also choose to notify your personal emergency contacts. Last week, at WWDC, Apple announced the next stage: in iOS 18, iMessage users will be able to send text messages over satellite, using the same Globalstar network as its SOS features. Initially at least, this feature is expected to be free. With this expansion, iPhone users will have the basic functionality of a SPOT or inReach device, without special hardware or a monthly fee. SpaceX’s Starlink, which first offered service in 2021, has much higher bandwidth and lower latency than the Globalstar and Iridium networks. Starlink’s current offering requires a dinner plate sized antenna and conventional networking hardware to enable high bandwidth mobile internet. It’s great for a vehicle, but impractical for a backpacker. However, SpaceX has announced 2nd generation satellites that can connect to 1900MHz spectrum mobile phone radios, and T-Mobile has announced that it will be enabling the service for its customers in late 2024, and Apple, Google, and Samsung devices are confirmed to be supported. Initially, like Apple’s service, this will be restricted to text messaging and other low-bandwidth applications. Phone calls and higher bandwidth internet connectivity are promised in 2025. The other two big US carriers, AT&T and Verizon, have announced they will be partnering with a competing service, AST SpaceMobile, but it’s unlikely those plans will come to fruition very soon. Mobile phone users outside the US will also need to wait. Apple’s Message via satellite is only announced for US users, as is T-Mobile’s offering. So if you’re in the US, and have an iPhone, or are a T-Mobile subscriber with an Apple, Samsung, or Google device, you’ll soon be able to point your phone at the sky, even in remote areas, to call for help, give your friends an update on your expedition, or just stay in touch. Pretty soon, Tom Hanks won’t have to make friends with a volleyball when he crash lands on a deserted island, at least not until his battery dies.
https://www.osnews.com/story/139973/mobile-comms-via-satellite-for-backcountry-and-maritime-safety/
Abusing title reporting and tmux integration in iTerm2 for code execution
date: 2024-06-17, from: Tilde.news
Wrongful termination lawsuit accuses Neuralink of Herpes B-infected monkey business
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Forced to work through lunch, attacked by virus-carrying primates, and sacked for being pregnant – allegedly
Another week, another lawsuit for an Elon Musk-owned company, this one filed by a former Neuralink employee claiming she was twice scratched by lab monkeys carrying the Herpes B virus, which is potentially deadly to humans.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/neuralink_monkey_attack_lawsuit/
COC Launching Bachelor’s Degree Program
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons will launch its first bachelor’s degree program in January
https://scvnews.com/coc-launching-bachelors-degree-program/
How a Real Photo of a Flamingo Snuck Into—and Won—an A.I. Art Competition
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The photographer entered the image into a contest’s artificial intelligence category to “prove that human-made content has not lost its relevance”
Three Productions Filming in Santa Clarita
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita’s Film Office has released the list of three productions currently filming in the Santa Clarita Valley for the week of Monday, June 17 - Sunday, June 23.
https://scvnews.com/three-productions-filming-in-santa-clarita-3/
NASA Interns Blast Off for Their First Week at Goddard
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
Several hundred new faces walked through the gates of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the first time on June 3. Who is this small army of motivated space-enthusiasts? It’s Goddard’s 2024 summer intern cohort. Across Goddard’s campuses, more than 300 on-site and virtual interns spend the 10-week program contributing across all […]
Supreme Court decision keeps guns at center of US presidential race
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
The U.S. Supreme Court last week struck down a ban on a gun accessory that allows many semiautomatic weapons to fire like machine guns. The decision keeps guns and gun owners at the center of this U.S. presidential campaign. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story.
NASA Satellites Find Snow Didn’t Offset Southwest US Groundwater Loss
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data. Declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake and Lake Mead have been testaments to a megadrought afflicting western North America since 2000. But […]
Free Will Astrology
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Week of June 20.
The post Free Will Astrology appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/17/free-will-astrology-216/
Blackbaud has to cough up a few million dollars more over 2020 ransomware attack
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Four years on and it’s still paying for what California attorney general calls ‘unacceptable’ practice
Months after escaping without a fine from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the luck of cloud software biz Blackbaud ran out when it came to reaching a settlement with California’s attorney general.…
State Department condemns China’s sentencing of 2 activists
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/state-department-condemns-china-s-sentencing-of-2-activists/7659273.html
Safety workshops held for US media amid rise in hostility
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Journalists reporting on the U.S. presidential election are facing significant physical and digital threats, says a media support group.
Data released by the International Women’s Media Foundation, or IWMF, found that with just five months to November 5, more than 37% of journalists have been threatened with physical violence and 30% say they were threatened online.
The data is taken from a survey of more than 350 local journalists covering politics in eight swing states in the country. Those represented had taken part in newsroom safety workshops that the IWMF provided.
The main areas of concern cited in the survey were threats, attacks or arrests at campaign rallies or protests, the survey found.
Another issue is digital violence from right-wing extremist groups, said Nadine Hoffman, deputy executive director at IWMF.
“Nearly 40 percent of the 350+ journalists we’ve trained in the U.S. this year reported threats of or experiencing physical violence; 30% reported digital threats and attacks; 27% experienced legal threats,” Hoffman told VOA via email.
To help newsrooms better prepare for election coverage, the IWMF provided safety training in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
“We have upcoming training planned in Illinois and California. We’ll also be offering safety training at journalism conferences across the country this summer,” said Hoffman.
The organization believes that newsroom leaders need to instill a culture of safety to protect their reporters — including freelancers — from a range of threats.
“Risk is not one size fits all, and editors need to have open and honest conversations before sending their reporters into the field about how best to mitigate the risk they face,” Hoffman said.
“For example, journalists of color, LGBTQI+ reporters, and women may face a greater risk of harassment both online and offline,” she added.
Data released by the Pew Research Center in June 2022 found more than a quarter of Black and Asian journalists and around a fifth of Hispanic journalists say they have experienced threats or harassment that centers on their race or ethnicity.
“I believe that press freedom depends on a diversity of voices and perspectives, and we need to offer more support to the journalists most at risk of being attacked based on their identities, so they are more likely to stay in the profession,” said Hoffman.
A rise in hostility toward the media in recent years led to workshops being offered on journalism safety for reporters inside the U.S.
“The journalists face threats all year round, which is why our training is necessary,” said Hoffman. She added that the IWMF is joining with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to include sessions on legal rights for media.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which since 2017 has collected data on arrests, attacks and threats to journalists in the U.S., has documented an increase in threats to the media during elections.
“Election season is not the only time when journalists face threats considering the profession but there is an increase in the intensity of threats like physical violence, targeted interference, and online harassment during this time,” said Harlo Holmes, head of digital security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation. The foundation oversees the Tracker, which was founded by a coalition of press freedom organizations.
“I believe that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, especially when it comes to the safety of journalists,” Holmes added.
News crews should have a plan for if a situation escalates or turns violent. And journalists should clean up their online footprints to make sure personal information isn’t easily available to trolls, Holmes said.
The IWMF’s Hoffman said newsrooms can better prepare with simple measures like the buddy system for teams, setting up a communications plan, and having crews check in at agreed-upon times with their editors when they’re on a potentially risky assignment like covering a protest or rally.
Emphasizing the risk to mental health of journalists, Hoffman further suggests that the newsrooms should take trauma seriously. Covering school shootings, civil unrest or police brutality takes a toll, she said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/safety-workshops-held-for-us-media-amid-rise-in-hostility/7659266.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
5 things to know about growing weed at home in New York.
https://www.silive.com/news/2024/06/5-things-to-know-about-growing-weed-at-home-in-new-york.html
Rare White Bison Calf Born at Yellowstone National Park
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A photographer spotted the calf on June 4. White buffalo are sacred to some Native American tribes, and the birth has been called a “blessing and a warning”
In homage to Jurassic Park, researchers store DNA in amber-like polymer
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Could be used to solve long term digital data storage problems too
Boffins at MIT have come up with an amber-like polymer that can be used to preserve DNA, which could allow it to be used for long term storage of information, such as genomes or digital data.…
Big Oil’s Plan To Criminalize Pipeline Protests
date: 2024-06-17, from: The Lever News
Fossil fuel companies and trade groups are using essential pipeline safety legislation to further criminalize pipeline protests.
https://www.levernews.com/big-oils-plan-to-criminalize-pipeline-protests/
UPDATE: Post Fire Grows to 15,611 Acres, 20% Containment
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Update: As of 6:30 p.m. Monday, the Post Fire has spread to 15,611 acres, with 20% containment, according to CAL FIRE.
https://scvnews.com/update-post-fire-grows-to-15611-acres-20-containment/
After Months of Glitches and Gradual Fixes, Voyager 1 Is Fully Operational Once Again
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Currently 15 billion miles away from Earth, one of NASA’s longest-tenured spacecraft is back from the brink after a technical failure last year put its future in question
Block SMS Text Spam with Nomorobo
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
SMS text spam was driving David Shayer crazy, and with the US election season heating up, the problem was only getting worse. After trying various strategies, he managed to rein in the problem with Nomorobo.
https://tidbits.com/2024/06/17/block-sms-text-spam-with-nomorobo/
Slow Your Student’s ‘Summer Slide’ and Beat Boredom With NASA STEM
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
The school year has come to an end, and those long summer days are stretching ahead like an open runway. Parents and educators often worry about the “summer slide,” the concept that students may lose academic ground while out of school. But summer doesn’t mean students’ imaginations have to stay grounded! Are you hoping to […]
https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/slow-your-students-summer-slide/
The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Running on one gyro, but still gazing at the sky
The Hubble Space Telescope has resumed science operations in single-gyro mode after one of its three remaining gyros was declared suspect.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/hubble_space_telescope_is_back/
You Probably Unwittingly Voted to Give Elon Musk a Huge Raise
date: 2024-06-17, from: 404 Media Group
The rise of passive investing in retirement has given firms like Vanguard a huge amount of power at companies like Tesla.
https://www.404media.co/you-probably-unwittingly-voted-to-give-elon-musk-a-huge-raise/
Thoughts on “Free” Software (1988)
date: 2024-06-17, from: Tilde.news
https://simson.net/ref/1992/Unipress_thoughts_on_free_software.pdf
A Twice-Looted Titian Masterpiece Once Discovered at a Bus Stop Hits the Auction Block
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The painting, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” could sell for as much as $30 million
postmarketOS 24.06 released: Linux-based OS supports dozens of phones, tablets, laptops and now just about any PC with an x86_64 processor
date: 2024-06-17, from: Liliputing
PostmarketOS is a Linux-based operating that got its start as a project to breathe new life into old phones by offering software that would continue to be updated long after phone makers end support for their devices. But the latest release isn’t just for smartphones. It also supports a number of tablets and single-board computers, […]
The post postmarketOS 24.06 released: Linux-based OS supports dozens of phones, tablets, laptops and now just about any PC with an x86_64 processor appeared first on Liliputing.
Mars Was Hit With a Solar Storm Days After Earth’s Aurora Light Show, NASA Says
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Studying this event could hold lessons for scientists about how to protect astronauts from radiation on future trips to the Red Planet
AMD says datacenter still king for profit margins amid AI buzz
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CFO talks GPU development, strategy and market dynamics at Nasdaq Investor Conference
AI PCs may be talk of the town right now but AMD’s chief financial officer reckons that the datacenter remains the chipmaker’s major profit engine, and CPU cores are still key for many workloads.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/amd_growth_datacenter/
How Raspberry Pi built a silicon design team | #MagPiMonday
date: 2024-06-17, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Lucy Hattersley of The MagPi meets Raspberry Pi’s ASIC design team to talk about chip design.
The post How Raspberry Pi built a silicon design team | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/how-raspberry-pi-built-a-silicon-design-team-magpimonday/
NASA space mission to launch artificial star into space
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/nasa-space-mission-to-launch-artificial-star-into-space/7659088.html
These Dutch Newlyweds Had Their Portraits Painted Nearly 400 Years Ago. But Who Were They?
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
A curator has finally figured out the identity of the couple painted by Frans Hals around 1637
Fiesta Traditions Call Out 2024
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Fiesta is right around the corner, and this year we want to focus on what makes Fiesta such an important
The post Fiesta Traditions Call Out 2024 appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/17/fiesta-family-traditions-call-out-2024/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Krugman: Trump’s Mental State Is Visibly Getting Much More Alarming.
https://newrepublic.com/article/182784/krugman-trumps-mental-state-visibly-getting-much-alarming
Zoom Workplace 6.1
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/zoom-6-1/
Arc 1.47
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/arc-1-47/
University of Michigan didn’t assess if Israel-Hamas war protests made environment hostile, feds say
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The University of Michigan failed to assess whether protests and other incidents on campus in response to the Israel-Hamas war created a hostile environment for students, staff and faculty, according to the results of an investigation by the U.S. Education Department announced Monday.
The department’s Office of Civil Rights investigated 75 instances of alleged discrimination and harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry and shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry. The investigation found that the university’s responses did not meet its Title VI requirements to remedy the hostile environment.
In one instance, when a Jewish student reported being called out for viewing a graduate student instructor’s social media post about pro-Palestinian topics, the university told the student that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time,” because the incident occurred on social media.
In another instance, when a student who participated in a pro-Palestinian protest was called a “terrorist,” the university said it held “restorative circles” to address the incident but did not take further action.
In its resolution agreement, the University of Michigan agreed to administer a climate assessment, implement additional training and revise its policies as necessary. It also agreed to monitoring by the Office of Civil Rights through the end of the 2026 school year, reporting its responses to future incidents of discrimination to the department.
It’s the first investigation to reach a conclusion among dozens launched by the Education Department since Oct. 7, the day Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.
Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have led to inquiries at more than 100 universities and school districts, including Harvard and Yale, community colleges and public schools from Los Angeles to suburban Minneapolis.
The complaints vary widely but all accuse schools of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin. Colleges and schools are required to protect students from discrimination, and when they don’t, the Education Department can invoke penalties up to termination of federal money.
Protests over the Israel-Hamas war upended the final weeks of the school year at many campuses across the country, with some cancelling graduation ceremonies or moving classes online after Pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments in campus spaces.
The protests have tested schools as they aim to balance free speech rights and the safety of students. The Education Department has issued guidance detailing schools’ responsibilities around Title VI, but the results of the agency’s investigations could provide a clearer line showing where political speech crosses into harassment.
Finding that boundary has been a struggle for colleges as they grapple with rhetoric that has different meaning to different people. Some chants commonly used by pro-Palestinian activists are seen by some as antisemitic.
Some of the federal complaints under investigation argue that those phrases should be barred, including “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “intifada revolution.”
Meanwhile, some complaints say Arab and Muslim students have faced abuses only to be ignored by campus officials. At Harvard, the Education Department is investigating separate complaints, one over alleged antisemitism and the other over alleged Islamophobia.
More investigations are expected to be resolved in the coming weeks, but Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said his agency is struggling to keep up with the influx of cases.
Republicans have rejected requests to increase money for the Office for Civil Rights in recent years, while the average case load increased to 42 per investigator in 2023. Without more money, that figure could increase to more than 70 cases per investigator, Cardona has said.
“We are desperately in need of additional support to make sure we can investigate the cases that we have in front of us,” Cardona told members of the House in May.
On average, cases take about six to eight months to resolve. The vast majority of the agency’s civil rights investigations end with voluntary resolutions. Schools usually promise to resolve any lingering problems and take steps to protect students in the future.
While the Education Department investigates, several colleges and school districts have separately been called before Congress to answer allegations of antisemitism. Republicans have held a series of hearings on the issue, grilling leaders accused of tolerating antisemitism.
The hearings contributed to the resignations of some college leaders, including Liz Magill at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Claudine Gay, who was also embroiled in accusations of plagiarism.
1Password 8.10.34
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/1password-8-10-34/
Little Snitch 6.0.1
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/little-snitch-6-0-1/
BusyCal 2024.2.5
date: 2024-06-17, from: TidBITS blog
https://tidbits.com/watchlist/busycal-2024-2-5/
ACEMAGIC F2A Review: Intel Meteor Lake Mini PC
date: 2024-06-17, from: Liliputing
The ACEMAGIC F2A is a mini PC with a choice of Intel Core Ultra 5 125H or Core Ultra 7 155H processors based on Intel Meteor Lake architecture, support for up to two displays, and the latest networking technologies including WiFi 7 and 2.5 GbE Ethernet. We wanted to know how those features perform in real-world settings, […]
The post ACEMAGIC F2A Review: Intel Meteor Lake Mini PC appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/acemagic-f2a-review-intel-meteor-lake-mini-pc/
curl user survey 2024 analysis
date: 2024-06-17, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
As tradition dictates, I have spent many hours walking through the responses to the curl user survey of the year. I have sorted tables, rendered updated graphs and tried to wrap my head around what all these numbers might mean and what conclusions and lessons we should draw. I present the results, the collected answers, … Continue reading curl user survey 2024 analysis
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/06/17/curl-user-survey-2024-analysis/
Law firms seek investors’ support in Teradata class action
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Claim analytics and data platform biz misled investors about size of public cloud forecast
Teradata faces the prospect of a class action suit relating to statements to investors.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/teradata_would_be_classactions/
The Fed says one thing, investors hear another
date: 2024-06-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Wall Street investors bet on extra rate cuts this year, in spite of Fed predictions that there will be just one. Plus, Megabus parent company Coach USA has filed for bankruptcy after ridership dropped during the pandemic and failed to recover. And for Baltimore firms, work on the Francis Scott Key Bridge reconstruction is personal.
The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes
date: 2024-06-17, from: Quanta Magazine
Making ice requires more than subzero temperatures. The unpredictable process takes microscopic scaffolding, random jiggling and often a little bit of bacteria.The post The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-enduring-mystery-of-how-water-freezes-20240617/
Investigating the Origins of the Crab Nebula With NASA’s Webb
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
New data revises our view of this unusual supernova explosion. A team of scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to parse the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. With the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), the team gathered data that is […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/investigating-the-origins-of-the-crab-nebula-with-nasas-webb/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-06-17, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I didn’t know Apple Maps
Now showed bike availability. This is
awesome.
(Timer starts for someone to tell me Android also has this starts…. Now!)
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112632291323193247
Um, what ever did happen with network automation?
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Is it lingering somewhere between fusion power and self-driving cars?
Systems Approach In thinking about the decade-plus worth of efforts to automate the configuration and operation of networks – of which intent-based networking may be the most well-known and ambitious example – are we actually any closer to the automation of networking that we were a decade ago?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/network_automation/
US aircraft carrier captain counters false Houthi claims on social media
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
Travel Troubleshooter: Airbnb host banned after spilling food in another host’s home
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Airbnb bans River Roberts after he accidentally spills food on his host’s sofa. Will he ever be able to book another rental on Airbnb?
Can a Vallejo bird lover do anything to protect a mourning dove nest from predators?
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
And a San Jose reader wonders about the plethora of lizards in his backyard.
TasteFood: Beat the heat with this gazpacho recipe
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
This summery recipe for gazpacho is easy to make and especially refreshing to enjoy on balmy nights.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/17/tastefood-beat-the-heat-with-this-gazpacho-recipe/
AI Images in Google Search Results Have Opened a Portal to Hell
date: 2024-06-17, from: 404 Media Group
Google image search results are turning up AI-generated images of celebrities and leading users to sites that host AI-generated nudes celebrities made to look like children.
https://www.404media.co/google-image-search-ai-results-have-opened-a-portal-to-hell/
Did your paycheck beat inflation? It’s a toss-up in California
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Average California wages rose 20.9% in four years vs. 19.5% inflation.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/17/did-your-paycheck-beat-inflation-its-a-toss-up-in-california/
Sharing Openly About ShareOpenly
date: 2024-06-17, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
<div class="known-bookmark">
<div class="e-content">“ShareOpenly breaks the door even wider than sharing to Mastodon, and I intend to be using it to update some of my examples listed above. Thanks Ben for demonstrative and elegant means of sharing.”
Thank you, Alan, for sharing!
There’s more to come on ShareOpenly - more platforms to add, and some tweaks to the CSS so that the whole thing works better on older devices or smaller phone screens. It’s a simple tool, but I’m pleased with how people have reacted to it, and how it’s been carried forward.
There are no terms to sign and there’s nothing to sign up for; adding a modern “share this” button to your site is as easy as following a few very simple instructions.
<p>[<a href="https://cogdogblog.com/2024/06/shareopenly/">Link</a>]</p>
</div>
</div>https://werd.io/2024/sharing-openly-about-shareopenly
Point Fire map: Evacuations in Sonoma County wine country
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
The approximate perimeter is indicated by the black line and the mandatory evacuation area by the red tint.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/17/point-fire-map-evacuations-in-sonoma-county-wine-country/
Milpitas: Locals petition against high-density friendly zoning in neighborhood
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
More than 550 community members living near Landess Avenue – located west of Interstate 680 – have signed a petition urging the City Council to reject plans to rezone the avenue as Neighborhood Commercial Mixed-Use.
Popular Pinole principal put on leave 90 minutes after graduation speech
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Months earlier, the West Contra Costa Unified School District board demoted Kibby Kleiman to teacher status without explanation, a decision that upset many parents and students.
Cops cuff 22-year-old Brit suspected of being Scattered Spider leader
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Spanish plod make arrest at airport before he jetted off to Italy
Spanish police arrested a person they allege to be the leader of the notorious cybercrime gang Scattered Spider as he boarded a private flight to Naples.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/scattered_spider_arrest/
What Happened to Running Tide?
date: 2024-06-17, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Flooding in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city, killed at least eight people • A heat advisory remains in effect across many Northeastern states • A “winter” storm could bring up to 15 inches of snow to parts of Montana and Idaho.
THE TOP FIVE
- At least 14 pilgrims die from extreme heat during Hajj trip to Mecca
At least 14 Jordanians died over the weekend from exposure to extreme heat during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Another 17 pilgrims are missing. The holy trip, which all Muslims are encouraged to make during their lifetimes, began Friday and will run until Wednesday. It is expected to attract nearly 2 million people. But temperatures this year are dangerously hot, reaching 110 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday and forecast to stay in that range through the rest of the week. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange explained last year, “because the dates of the annual Hajj are dictated by the lunar calendar, the pilgrimage season has fallen during Saudi Arabia’s hottest months since 2017 and won’t move out of them until 2026.”
- Ocean carbon removal company Running Tide shuts down
Carbon removal startup Running Tide is shutting down and laying off all its remaining employees, citing a lack of demand for the voluntary carbon market. The Portland-based company was founded in 2017. Its technology involved sinking biomass to speed up the ocean’s CO2-capturing capabilities, and with 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide removed and 21,000 credits delivered, it was “the largest company in the world to trap carbon without taking it directly from the air or point of emission,” the Portland Press Herald reported. In March of last year, Running Tide signed a deal with Microsoft to remove 12,000 tons of CO2e over two years. Shopify was also a partner. But the startup began laying off employees in November after offset prices began to plummet and questions arose about the environmental benefits of the voluntary carbon market. CEO Marty Odlin told the Press Herald that a lack of investment from the U.S. government also stunted the company’s growth. “This was still at research scale,” he said. “This needs to be a thousand times larger at industrial scale and it’s going to take a ton of government leadership to get us there.”
- CEO of NextEra criticizes Biden’s China tariffs
Rebecca Kujawa, the CEO of NextEra Energy Resources, which is the largest renewables developer in the U.S., told the Financial Times that President Biden’s tariffs on Chinese clean energy technologies create uncertainty that can hinder development, hike costs, “and make it more difficult to get some of the clean energy goals that the Biden administration has over the finish line.” The White House has a goal for the U.S. of 80% renewable energy generation by 2030 and 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035. Biden imposed a new round of tariffs last month in an effort to protect U.S. manufacturers from cheap Chinese imports of things like solar panels and EVs. The FT noted the tariffs “underscore the difficult balancing act facing the Biden administration as it vies to green the world’s largest economy while building out a supply chain for clean technologies, the bulk of which are produced in China.”
- Study finds climate change strongly affects fireflies
Long-term weather patterns are some of the most important factors when it comes to the health of fireflies in North America, according to a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The researchers used machine learning models to analyze data from more than 24,000 surveys of firefly behavior and rank the importance of certain risk factors (like pesticides, light pollution, land cover, topography, and weather/climate patterns) on the insects’ populations. Their results point to more frequent hot days as one of the most “predictive” variables, meaning that firefly populations seem more vulnerable to changes in climate than to other factors like chemical sprays or artificial light. The researchers say that, “given the significant impact that climactic and weather conditions have on firefly abundance, there is a strong likelihood that firefly populations will be influenced by climate change, with some regions becoming higher quality and supporting larger firefly populations, and others potentially losing populations altogether.”
- EU approves ‘Nature Restoration Law’
The European Union this morning approved a landmark environmental policy, paving the way for it to become law. The long-awaited “Nature Restoration Law” aims to restore ecosystems, bolster biodiversity, and help the bloc achieve its climate objectives. More than 80% of Europe’s habitats are in poor condition. The new law will require member states to restore at least 20% of their land and seas by 2030, with the aim of restoring all struggling ecosystems by 2050. Some countries opposed the measure due to concerns it will slow the expansion of new energy projects.
THE KICKER
“You’ll never find an insurer saying, ‘I don’t believe in climate change.’” –John Neal, chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, the world’s largest insurance marketplace
https://heatmap.news/politics/running-tide-carbon-shut-down
With rents on the decline, he decided to look for a new place. What could he find in the East Bay for $2,000?
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
Bay Area man’s quest ends with three apartments to pick from. Here’s which one he chose, and why.
Is it time to treat social media like cigarettes?
date: 2024-06-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has called for cigarette-style warning labels aimed at young users of social media platforms, citing social media’s significant contributions to the mental health crisis among adolescents. Plus, a surge in secondhand shopping among consumers, and a look inside the world of gender-affirming vocal coaching.
Microsoft resumes rollout of Windows 11 24H2 to Insiders
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Everything is fine, despite Recall setting fire to the house that Gates built
And just like that, Windows 11 24H2 is back.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/windows_11_24h2/
Surgeon general calls for social media warning labels, like those on cigarettes
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
LAUSD Might Ban Smartphones During School Day (For Real This Time)
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The LAist
The Los Angeles Unified board will consider directing staff to create a policy that would ban student phones and social media use from bell to bell.
https://laist.com/news/education/lausd-los-angeles-unified-cellphone-ban
Single family residence in Milpitas sells for $2.2 million
date: 2024-06-17, from: San Jose Mercury News
A spacious house located in the 600 block of Stemel Court in Milpitas has new owners. The 2,097-square-foot property, built in 1978, was sold on May 28, 2024, for $2,215,000, or $1,056 per square foot.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/17/single-family-residence-in-milpitas-sells-for-2-2-million/
Asda IT staff shuffled off to TCS amid messy tech divorce from Walmart
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Infrastructure teams have ‘eye on door’ as SAP migration enters critical phase
Exclusive Asda is transferring more than 100 internal IT workers to Indian outsourcing company TCS as it labors to meet deadlines to move away from IT systems supported by previous owner Walmart by the end of the year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/asda_tupe_tcs/
To Win a Climate Election, Don’t Say ‘Climate’
date: 2024-06-17, from: Heatmap News
Earlier this month, an odd little ad began appearing on TVs in Michigan. On first watch, it plays like any other political advertisement you’d see on television this time of year. In it, Michigan governor and Biden surrogate Gretchen Whitmer touts the high-paying electric vehicle manufacturing jobs that the Democratic administration has brought to her state. Watch the spot a few times, though, and it soon becomes clear what it’s missing.
Climate change.
The 30-second ad by Evergreen Action, an advocacy group linked to Washington Governor Jay Inslee, promotes “electric cars that power our economy and our future,” “training Michigan workers for high-paying jobs,” and policies that are “good for our economy.” This is all clearly referencing programs in the Inflation Reduction Act, arguably the most significant piece of climate legislation ever enacted in the United States, and yet the spot doesn’t once mention the one big upside all these upsides have in common. According to new polling that Third Way, a center-left think tank, shared exclusively with Heatmap News, that’s a good thing.
“Climate, as a message, is not going to drive turnout,” Emily Becker, the deputy director of communications for Third Way’s Climate and Energy team, told me.
While most Americans believe the planet is warming due to human activity and overwhelmingly want the government to do something about it, “climate change” — at least in those words — is almost never their most important issue. According to prior polling by Third Way and confirmed in issue polls run by firms like Pew, voters who say the economy is their No. 1 priority make up a plurality of the electorate, while “climate-first” voters represent a much smaller (and typically, whiter, older, and wealthier) subsection.
The new poll, conducted in mid-May and released on Monday, was done in partnership with Impact Research, a progressive polling firm that also works directly with Biden. What Third Way wanted was a better understanding of when and where climate becomes a make-or-break issue. The results show that just over half of Americans (54%) would back a candidate who views clean energy as a priority. When presented with the hypothetical of picking between a candidate who wants immediate climate action and one who “feels we must address inflation before combating climate change,” the numbers dip; just 40% of respondents said they’d vote for the former candidate, and 47% picked the inflation-busting latter.
Of course, this is a made-up scenario. For one thing, the clean energy build-out is inflation-busting, and lest we forget, the 2024 election is between a candidate who passed the most substantial climate legislation in U.S. history and one who still claims climate change is a hoax. But inflation is the heavy-weight issue in America right now. “People are going to prioritize anything that impacts them personally,” Anat Shenker-Osorio, a strategic communications consultant and the host of the podcast Words to Win By, told me.
Shenker-Osorio said she interprets the candidate question as a victory for climate advocates. Sure, when forced to make a binary, zero-sum choice between climate and inflation, the respondents to this poll chose the latter — but only by 7 points, and with a margin of error of 3.1. Climate advocates have done an “extraordinary job to bring voters into a place where they’re only 7 points underwater on this make-believe question, where somehow tackling corporate price gouging and raising people’s wages can’t be done if we are also tackling climate change,” Shenker-Osorio told me.
Shenker-Osorio did agree, however, that the word “climate” needs to be used carefully, at risk of confusing or alienating voters. “I’m not arguing that the winner here is to say ‘climate change’ over and over and over again,” she said. “I also don’t use that in my messaging. It’s way too abstract.” Shenker-Osorio pointed to phrases like “damage to our climate” instead, and stressed to me that it is important for Democratic candidates and their surrogates to “present a positive vision, which is: the clean energy future is ours for the taking.”
Becker, of Third Way, acknowledged that the question presented a blatantly artificial scenario, but argued that “using measures that can be imperfect can still be revelatory in terms of how individuals think about this issue.” For example, while emissions reduction is an obvious upside of clean energy — it’s literally emphasized in the name! — the polling confirmed that centering discussions of things like solar power and EVs on the high-paying jobs and cost-saving upsides was more productive than opining about saving the planet.
Finding the right balance might not seem too hard, but when you have a 30-second ad spot running in living rooms across Michigan, every single word needs to be high impact. And manufacturing electric cars because they “power our economy and our future?” That’s an upside everyone can agree on.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/climate-inflation-poll
Railbiking Is Catching On Across the Nation—Here’s Where to Try It Yourself
date: 2024-06-17, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Sit back, relax and pedal your way along historic railroad tracks
AWS is pushing ahead with MFA for privileged accounts. What that means for you …
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The clock is ticking – why not try a passkey?
Heads up: Amazon Web Services is pushing ahead with making multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory for certain users, and we love to see it.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/aws_mfa_roll_out/
How the National Archives Became NARS
date: 2024-06-17, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
On June 19, 1934, the National Archives was created as an independent agency. But just 15 years later, on June 30, 1949, Congress passed legislation moving the National Archives to the newly created General Services Administration (GSA) and renamed it the National Archives and Records Service (NARS). Today we’re looking at the events that led … Continue reading How the National Archives Became NARS
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/06/17/how-the-national-archives-became-nars/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-17, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Biden Unloads on Trump In New Ad.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/06/17/biden-unloads-on-trump-in-new-ad/
French President launches election campaign amid challenge from far right
date: 2024-06-17, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Emmanuel Macron has kicked off a fortnight of frenetic election campaigning as he gambles everything to stave off a big challenge from the far right. German sportswear giant Adidas is investigating what it calls ‘potential compliance violations in China’ after reports that senior managers at the Chinese branch allegedly received bribes from suppliers. The European Soccer Championship has kicked off and it offers significant branding opportunities — this year, Nike is outspending its rivals, securing 37.5% of the visibility with nine team deals.
UK’s Total Fitness exposed nearly 500K images of members, staff through unprotected database
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Health club chain headed for the spa on choose-a-password day
Exclusive A cybersecurity researcher claims UK health club and gym chain Total Fitness bungled its data protection responsibilities by failing to lock down a database chock-full of members’ personal data.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/uks_total_fitness_exposed_nearly/
Globetrotting NASA Research Model Increases Accuracy
date: 2024-06-17, from: NASA breaking news
NASA and its international partners are using the same generically shaped wing design to create physical and digital research models to better understand how air moves around an aircraft during takeoff and landing. Various organizations are doing computer modeling with computational tools and conducting wind tunnel tests using the same High Lift Common Research Model […]
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/research-model-increases-accuracy/
US soldier tells Russian court he did not threaten to kill his girlfriend
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
Nearly 20% of running Microsoft SQL Servers have passed end of support
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
That beige box running a server is easily forgotten … until it goes wrong
Exclusive IT asset management platform Lansweeper has dispensed a warning for enterprise administrators everywhere. Exactly how old is that Microsoft SQL Server on which your business depends?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/outdated_sql_server/
Spending on nuclear weapons hit $91.4 billion in 2023, watchdog finds
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
GENEVA — The world’s nine nuclear-armed states together spent $91.4 billion last year, or nearly $3,000 per second, as they “continue to modernize, and in some cases expand their arsenals,” according to a report issued Monday by ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
“This money is effectively being wasted given that the nuclear-armed states agree that a nuclear war can never be won and should never be fought,” Alicia Sanders-Zakre, co-author of the report, told journalists in Geneva last week in advance of the report’s publication.
For example, she said, $91.4 billion a year “could pay for wind power for more than 12 million homes to combat climate change or cover 27 percent of the global funding gap to fight climate change, protect biodiversity and cut pollution.”
The report shows the nuclear-armed states spent $10.7 billion more on nuclear weapons in 2023 compared with 2022, with the United States accounting for 80% of that increase.
ICAN reports the United States spent $51.5 billion, “more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.” It says the next biggest spender was China at $11.8 billion with Russia spending the third largest amount at $8.3 billion.
The report notes that the United Kingdom’s “spending was up significantly for the second year in a row,” with a 17% increase to $8.1 billion, just behind Russia.
The combined total of the five other nuclear powers, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea, amounted to $11.6 billion last year.
The authors of the report say companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons received new contracts worth just less than $7.9 billion in 2023. Analysis of data gathered over the past five years shows that the nuclear-armed states collectively spent $387 billion on their nuclear arsenals.
“There has been a notable upward trend in the amount of money devoted to developing these most inhumane and destructive of weapons over the past five years, which is now accelerating,” Sanders-Zakre said. “All this money is not improving global security. In fact, it is threatening people wherever they live.”
Arms control experts share these concerns and warn of the dangers of a new arms race as the nuclear powers build up their arsenals in defiance of the spirit of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.
A report in the May issue of Foreign Affairs magazine cites Washington’s concerns about China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal. According to Pentagon estimates, “Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing is on track to amass 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, up from around 200 in 2019.”
A 2023 report by the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States insists that China’s nuclear expansion should prompt U.S. policymakers to “re-evaluate the size and composition of the U.S. nuclear force.”
The commission also expressed disquiet at Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior, “including the unprecedented growth of its nuclear forces, diversification and expansion of its theater-based nuclear systems, the invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and subsequent full-scale invasion in February 2022.”
International anxiety about an accidental or deliberate tactical nuclear attack by Russia was on display this past weekend at the G7 summit in Italy and at the peace summit for Ukraine in Switzerland.
In their final communique, the G7 leaders condemned Russia’s “blatant breach of international law” affirming that “in this context, threats by Russia of nuclear weapons use, let alone any use of nuclear weapons by Russia in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine, would be inadmissible.”
This sentiment was mirrored in a final declaration signed by most of the 100 countries that attended the Ukrainian peace conference. Notable holdouts included India, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ICAN Executive Director Melissa Parke warned, “This war has increased nuclear tensions between Russia and the West to their highest level since the Cold War and there is now a real threat of nuclear conflict as a result of Russia’s numerous overt and tacit nuclear threats.”
ICAN’s report, which profiles 20 countries involved in the production, maintenance and development of nuclear weapons, notes that “Altogether there is $335 billion in outstanding contracts related to nuclear weapons work.”
While the report shows significant growth in nuclear spending over the last five years, Susi Snyder, ICAN’s program coordinator and report co-author, observes “there also has been growth in global resistance to these weapons of mass destruction.”
“The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has signatures from nearly 100 countries. One-hundred-eleven investors representing about $5 trillion in assets stated their support for the treaty,” she said.
“They demanded that more efforts be made to exclude the nuclear weapons industry from their business until these countries stop doing things prohibited by the treaty,” she said, noting the treaty is “a clear pathway forward.”
“It is a way to reduce tensions, to condemn threats, and to stop this new nuclear arms race that we have illustrated here before it surges any further out of control,” she said.
Indian suspect in plot to kill Sikh separatist extradited to US
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON/PRAGUE — An Indian man suspected by the U.S. of involvement in an unsuccessful plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil has been extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic, the Czech justice minister said on Monday.
Nikhil Gupta has been accused by U.S. federal prosecutors of plotting with an Indian government official to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. resident who advocated for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India.
Gupta traveled to Prague from India last June and was arrested by Czech authorities. Last month, a Czech court rejected his petition to avoid being sent to the U.S., clearing the way for the Czech justice minister to extradite him.
“On the basis of my decision on (June 3), the Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta, who is suspected of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire with intent to cause death, was extradited to the U.S. on Friday (June 14) for criminal prosecution,” Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek said on social media platform X.
The comments confirmed an earlier Reuters story reporting on the extradition that cited the federal Bureau of Prisons website and a source familiar with the matter.
An inmate search by name on the Bureau of Prisons website showed on Sunday that Gupta, 52, was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, a federal administrative detention facility.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. Gupta’s U.S.-based lawyer, attorney Jeffrey Chabrowe, had no immediate comment.
The discovery of alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists in the U.S. and Canada has tested relations with India, seen by Western nations as a counter to China’s rising global influence. India’s government denies involvement in such plots.
Canada said in September its intelligence agencies were pursuing allegations linking India’s government to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 in Canada.
In November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Pannun, who is a U.S. and Canadian citizen. Gupta is accused of involvement in that plot.
Pannun told Reuters on Sunday that while the extradition was a welcome step, “Nikhil Gupta is just a foot soldier.”
India’s government has dissociated itself from the plot against Pannun, saying it was against government policy. It has said it would formally investigate security concerns raised by Washington.
The Problem With Climate Finance Targets
date: 2024-06-17, from: Heatmap News
Goodhart’s Law tells us that “when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The disagreements climate diplomats were having last week highlight why.
Last week, climate negotiators sparred in Bonn, Germany, over a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance. The NCQG, as it’s labeled, is a new target for how much money governments must mobilize to meet global climate investment needs consistent with goals set down in the United Nations’ landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. Reaching a consensus on the NCQG is the biggest item on negotiators’ plates between Bonn and COP29, the annual United Nations-led conference on climate change, happening this fall in Baku, Azerbaijan. But, true to Goodhart, the global climate targets negotiators are deadlocked over are not good measurements of progress, let alone ones that developed countries measured up to.
In 2009, at COP15 in Copenhagen, developed countries set a goal of mobilizing $100 billion annually for climate investments in developing countries by 2020. In 2015, as part of the Paris Agreement, the world’s climate diplomats agreed to set an updated goal — the NCQG — before 2025. In the interim, developed countries achieved their original goal, although years later than planned and amidst allegations that some of their grants and loans were merely existing sources of development financing dressed up as climate finance. That there is no fixed definition of the term “climate finance” makes the $100 billion target doubly fuzzy: Upon closer inspection, some spending classified as climate finance doesn’t really seem like it should count, while other spending seems to have circled back to donor country governments, consultants, and nonprofits.
Despite these measurement issues, negotiators at Bonn pressed for an ambitious updated target. There was consensus that the NCQG could not be less than $100 billion annually — but that is where agreement ended. While negotiators from developing countries ― particularly those from African and Asian governments ― called for an NCQG as high as $1.4 trillion annually over the next five years, developed country negotiators refused to commit to a figure, choosing instead to argue over which countries should be expected to pay. Held up over this disagreement, Bonn ended without a resolution even on what a range of possible NCQGs could look like.
Whatever its size, this target means nothing without a plan to deliver it. What’s more, the back-and-forth over the size of the bill and who foots it took up so much time last week that two other long-standing debates were neglected: The first over what type of financing the NCQG should prioritize ― a measurement issue ― and the second about the obstacles (or “disenablers,” as negotiators called them) in the way of achieving that level of financing — a target issue.
As to the type of financing, the share of total official development assistance sent from G7 governments and the European Union to African countries is at its lowest in 50 years, making it possible to conclude, as did an EU negotiator at Bonn, that “public resources alone will not suffice” to meet the NCQG. The growing scale of the climate challenge, weighed against this apparent (if arguably self-imposed) inadequate public spending by developed countries, has prompted policymakers to advocate for greater private-sector involvement in meeting global climate finance targets. The United States in particular has placed heavy emphasis on the need to “mobilize private capital.” This agenda has prompted Global North governments and the World Bank to attract private investors to decarbonization projects in developing countries.
Developing country negotiators and civil society advocates, meanwhile, have long criticized the fact that the majority of the climate financing we know about has come in the form of loans and not grants, and that most of the loans ― some of the ones from the public sector and all of the private loans ― are issued on market-rate rather than “concessional” terms. In other words, all this so-called help places an undue burden on the balance sheets of developing countries, especially as global interest rates stay high.
Some negotiators are looking to incorporate these arguments into the NCQG as a measure of the quality of the financing developing countries receive. And this is where the conversation around the obstacles begins.
One can argue that loans of any kind are better than nothing at all; long-term investments require long-term debt financing. But market-rate loans in the Global South carry prohibitively high interest rates, reflecting the greater risks that private investors think they face when investing. The International Energy Agency confirms that “the cost of capital for a typical solar PV plant in 2021 was between two‐ and three‐times higher in emerging and developing economies than in advanced economies and China.” While policymakers, particularly at the World Bank, are developing tools to “derisk” these investments such that they can be profitable at market interest rates, it’s still not clear that private sector creditors will respond with enthusiasm. Under these conditions, many climate-vulnerable communities are liable to be locked out of capital markets.
Debt, after all, is not inherently bad. High debt-to-GDP ratios don’t mean anything in and of themselves — indeed, taking on debt to finance crucial investments can (and should!) be prosperity-enhancing and increase a country’s future borrowing capacity.
But today’s global economic system is structured in such a way that debt places a needlessly heavy burden on developing countries, contributing to a “crowding out of crucial development spending,” per findings of the UN Development Programme. Almost 40% of developing countries are setting aside over 10% of their governments’ total revenues to cover interest payments; 62% of developing countries’ external public debt is owed to private creditors (again, at market rates). And these figures don’t include the debt that individual firms take on to finance, say, energy infrastructure. Even that requires the governments of developing countries and development banks to derisk low-return projects across much of the Global South, a process which can plant “budgetary time bombs” on those governments’ balance sheets. Where decarbonization is concerned, private balance sheets are also public liabilities.
Developing country governments and firms also face interest rate and foreign exchange shocks, as higher U.S. interest rates and the concomitant threat of currency depreciation strain their abilities to service external debts. The perverse effect is to prioritize hoarding dollars earned through exports as potential shock absorbers rather than channel them toward domestic investment goals. Loans become a millstone around a government’s policy goals, rather than a measurement of its ambitions.
These liquidity risks loom over climate-vulnerable countries. Take Egypt, where this summer is expected to be brutally hot enough to force its government to import more grain and more gas ― putting increased pressure on the already-volatile Egyptian pound ― and to seriously threaten labor productivity. Egypt’s latest Nationally Determined Contribution, its national climate plan, states that it needs approximately $35 billion per year between now and 2030 to meet its climate targets. Yet the International Monetary Fund expects Egypt to spend $50 billion a year on interest payments in that same period, all while Egypt’s recent bailout agreement with the IMF commits to “put debt firmly on a downward path.”
This debt-climate nexus or climate risk doom loop, exemplifies why developing country negotiators and civil society advocates have hesitated to embrace loan-based climate finance. Debt today need not “crowd out” debt-financed climate spending tomorrow. But that’s exactly what’s happening.
So where does that leave us? For all diplomats’ focus on the NCQG target, how they measure it does matter. As it stands, $100 million of climate finance in the form of market-rate loans to developing countries might seriously threaten their debt sustainability. But developed countries, the multilateral development banks, and the International Monetary Fund can change the nature of debt finance. They can commit to making debt easier to bear by offering lower interest rates and extending loan terms. They can issue more of this concessional debt, of course, displacing the panoply of private lenders that currently play in sovereign bond markets. They can reform their lending standards such that they no longer penalize borrowers for carrying high debt-to-GDP ratios when huge debt-financed investment is precisely what staving off climate change requires. And they can set up dollar swap lines to provide developing countries with the resources to manage interest rate and currency value shocks.
These strategies, if fleshed out in practical detail, can sidestep fickle private investors, contribute to an investment-friendly reform of the global macroeconomic architecture, and kickstart a virtuous cycle of green development around the world. That’s the target. Can we measure up to it?
https://heatmap.news/economy/cop29-bonn-climate-finance
Heat wave, heavy rain or snow each threaten parts of US
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
PHOENIX — Heat and cold extremes are expected this week in the U.S. Officials warned Southwest residents to take precautions as a heat wave moves east, while heavy rains and flooding could drench the Gulf states and snow threatens parts of the Rockies and Northwest.
Extreme heat spread across Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas, Colorado and Kansas as severe weather swept across many parts of the U.S. on Sunday. There was unseasonable cold in the Pacific Northwest, snow headed to the northern Rocky Mountains and heavy rainfall forecast from the northern Plains to the Upper Midwest.
The National Weather Service estimated more than 63 million people were under heat advisories on Sunday, stretching from the Southwest northward up through Denver and into Chicago.
Temperatures in Phoenix, which hit 44.4 Celsius on Saturday, eased slightly on Sunday to 43.3 Celsius. Weather service forecasters say the first two weeks of June in Phoenix have been an average of about 3 degrees Celsius hotter than normal, making it the hottest start to June on record.
“We have already seen some pretty significantly high temperatures in our area,” said Ted Whittock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “We are recommending that everyone reduce their time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., stay hydrated and wear light, looser fitting clothing.”
The heat in metro Phoenix will ease a bit Monday through Wednesday, with the highs pushing back up as the week progresses, likely prompting another excessive heat warning, Whittock said.
The heat has been especially dangerous in recent years in metro Phoenix, where 645 people died from heat-related causes in 2023, a record.
The city and Maricopa County have adopted additional measures this year in hopes of keeping people safer, including two new overnight cooling centers where people can rest in air conditioning after the sun goes down. There are more than 100 other cooling centers that have been open since May 1 where people can get cold water and sit in a cool space during daytime hours.
In neighboring New Mexico, a heat advisory was in effect over the weekend for the Chavez County plains including Roswell, where the high was forecast to hit 41.6 degrees C on Monday. The high for Albuquerque reached 37 C on Sunday and is forecast to cool slightly to 36 C on Monday. The high Sunday was 40 C in El Paso, Texas, which opened five cooling centers.
Temperatures in Colorado ranged from near 32.2 C in areas of metropolitan Denver Sunday to 37.7 C in the southern city of Pueblo, with temperatures expected to surpass 37.7 C Monday in the southern reaches of the state.
The heat wave was moving eastward Sunday into the Plains and the Great Lakes area and was expected to arrive in the Northeast by Tuesday. The threat of thunderstorms with potential high winds and heavy rainfall increased in the Chicago area, even as heat indices were forecast to reach near 37.7 C through the middle of the week.
As the heat wave spreads eastward, temperatures in Washington and the rest of the mid-Atlantic, as well as New England, were likely to see highs in the mid- to upper-30s C as the week progresses, with excessive humidity making it feel even more oppressive.
The U.S. last year saw the most heat waves, consisting of abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days, since 1936.
While much of the country swelters, late season snow was forecast for the northern Rockies on Monday and Tuesday. Parts of Montana and north-central Idaho were under a winter storm warning, with as much as 15 centimeters of heavy, wet snow expected in the mountains around Missoula, Montana. As much as 51 centimeters was predicted for higher elevations around Glacier National Park.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of tropical moisture will bring an increasing threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to the central Gulf Coast late Sunday into Monday. Heavy rain is expected to start Monday morning, with the moisture shifting toward the Gulf Coast by Tuesday.
The intense flooding from heavy rains continued to dissipate in southern Florida, where some areas in and around Miami and Fort Lauderdale were left underwater in recent days as storms dumped up to 50 centimeters.
That unnamed storm system coincided with the early start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory.
https://www.voanews.com/a/heat-wave-heavy-rain-or-snow-each-threaten-parts-of-us/7658677.html
Can platform-wide AI ever fit into enterprise security?
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You know what they say about headlines that end in a question mark
Opinion AI – loud, confident, and wrong. That’s not talking about generative AI’s ability to hallucinate, although why not? Rather, it’s about the big picture, the platform-wide Recall from Microsoft and, oh dear, Apple Intelligence.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/opinion_platformwide_ai_security/
Chatkontrolle: Kuhhandel, während niemand hinschaut
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: Chaos Computer Club Updates
Der belgische Vorsitz im Rat der EU will die Chatkontrolle am Mittwochn den 19. Juni, abstimmen lassen. Nach einem weiteren Hütchenspielertrick, den massenhaften Angriff auf Verschlüsselung nicht als solchen erscheinen zu lassen, wackelt nun der Widerstand Frankreichs. Der CCC erinnert daran, dass sich an der Verordnung nichts Nennenswertes geändert hat.
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2024/chatkontrolle-kuhhandel-wahrend-niemand-hinschaut
Techie installed ‘user attitude readjustment tool’ after getting hammered in a Police station
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Measure twice, trust never
Who, Me? Welcome once again, gentle readerfolk, to the corner of The Reg we call Who, Me? where each Monday morning we share a reader-submitted tale of tech support gone not-quite-right.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/who_me/
Today in SCV History (June 17)
date: 2024-06-17, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1890 – The 18-day murder trial of Castaic’s W.C. Chormicle and W.A. Gardner ends in acquittal. [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-june-17/
Notorious cyber gang UNC3944 attacks vSphere and Azure to run VMs inside victims’ infrastructure
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Who needs ransomware when you can scare techies into coughing up their credentials?
Notorious cyber gang UNC3944 – the crew suspected of involvement in the recent attacks on Snowflake and MGM Entertainment, and plenty more besides – has changed its tactics and is now targeting SaaS applications…
Review | Vampire Weekend’s ‘Only God Was Above Us’ Tour
date: 2024-06-17, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The East Coast indie rockers played a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl with a genre-blending, instinctive set blurring cohesion and experimentation.
The post Review | Vampire Weekend’s ‘Only God Was Above Us’ Tour appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/16/review-vampire-weekends-only-god-was-above-us-tour/
China’s Big Tech companies taught Asia to pay by scanning QR codes, but made a mess along the way
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A push for interoperability is accelerating, but maybe not fast enough to stop biometrics taking over
Feature From Bangalore to Beijing, when Asians go out to shop, they seldom use a credit or debit card and instead pay using their smartphone to scan a QR code.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/asia_qr_code_obsession/
List of winners at the 2024 Tony Awards
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Winners at the 2024 Tony Awards, announced Sunday.
Best Musical: “The Outsiders”
Best Play: “Stereophonic”
Best Revival of a Musical: “Merrily We Roll Along”
Best Revival of a Play: “Appropriate”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Maleah Joi Moon, “Hell’s Kitchen”
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Jonathan Groff, “Merrily We Roll Along”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Sarah Paulson, “Appropriate”
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Jeremy Strong, “An Enemy of the People”
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Daniel Radcliffe, “Merrily We Roll Along”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Kecia Lewis, “Hell’s Kitchen”
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Will Brill, “Stereophonic”
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Kara Young, “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch”
Best Direction of a Play: Daniel Aukin, “Stereophonic”
Best Direction of a Musical: Danya Taymor, “The Outsiders”
Best Original Score: “Suffs,” music & lyrics: Shaina Taub
Best Book of a Musical: “Suffs,” Shaina Taub
Best Choreography: Justin Peck, “Illinoise”
Best Costume Design of a Play: Dede Ayite, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”
Best Costume Design of a Musical: Linda Cho, “The Great Gatsby”
Best Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick, “Merrily We Roll Along”
Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Tom Scutt, “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club”
Best Scenic Design of a Play: David Zinn, “Stereophonic”
Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Hana S. Kim and Brian MacDevitt, “The Outsiders”
Best Lighting Design of a Play: Jane Cox, “Appropriate”
Best Sound Design of a Play: Ryan Rumery, “Stereophonic”
Best Sound Design of a Musical: Cody Spencer, “The Outsiders”
https://www.voanews.com/a/list-of-winners-at-the-2024-tony-awards/7658614.html
Crypto-failure Terraform Labs to cough up $4.5B and then liquidate itself
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
South Korean outfit that sparked ‘Crypto Winter’ will melt away after SEC order
Terraform Labs, the outfit behind the $40 billion crash of the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sibling Luna (LUNA) tokens, will pay $4.5 billion to creditors and authorities, then wind itself up.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/terraform_labs_payment_closure/
‘Stereophonic’ wins Tony for best play; women win director, score honors
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — “Stereophonic,” the play about a Fleetwood Mac-like band recording an album over a turbulent and life-changing year, got a lighters-in-the-air cheer at the Tony Awards on Sunday, winning best new play while theater history was made for women as Broadway directors and score writers.
“Stereophonic,” the most-nominated play in Tony Awards history, is a hyper-naturalistic meditation on the thrill and danger of collaborating on art — the compromises, the egos and the joys. It was written by David Adjmi with songs by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler.
“Oh, no. My agent gave me a beta-blocker, but it’s not working,” Adjmi said. He added that the play took 11 years to manifest.
“This was a very hard journey to get up here,” he said. “We need to fund the arts in America.” He dedicated it to all the artists out there.
Danya Taymor — whose aunt is Julie Taymor, the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a musical — became the 11th woman to win the award. She helmed “The Outsiders,” a gritty musical adaptation of the classic American young adult novel.
“Thank you to the great women who have lifted me up,” she said, naming producer Angelina Jolie among those on her list.
Then Shaina Taub, only the second woman in Broadway history to write, compose and star in a Broadway musical, won for best score, following such writers as Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori. Taub, the force behind “Suffs,” won for best book earlier in the night.
Her musical is about the heroic final years of the fight to allow women to vote, leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment.
“If you are inspired by the story of Suffs, please make sure you and everyone you know have registered to vote and vote, vote, vote!” she said. Taub also said the win was for all the loud girls out there: “Go for it,” she urged.
Earlier, Alicia Keys electrified the show when she teamed up with superstar Jay-Z on their hit “Empire State of Mind.” Keys appeared at the piano on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center as the cast of her semi-autobiographical musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” was presenting a medley of songs. She began singing her and Jay-Z’s 2009 smash before leaving the stage to join the rapper on some interior steps to wild applause.
Host Ariana DeBose kicked off the telecast with an original, acrobatic number, and Jeremy Strong took home the first big award of the night as Broadway’s biggest party opened its arms to hip-hop and rock fans.
Strong, the “Succession” star, landed his first Tony for his work in the revival of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 political play “An Enemy of the People.” The theater award for best lead actor in a play will sit next to his Emmy, Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe.
The play is about a public-minded doctor in a small town who discovers the water supply for the public spa is contaminated, but his efforts to clean up the mess pit his ethics against political cowards.
“This play is a cry from the heart,” he said.
Kara Young, the first Black performer to be nominated for a Tony three consecutive years in a row, won this time as best featured actress in a play for “Purlie Victorious,” the story of a Black preacher’s scheme to reclaim his inheritance and win back his church from a plantation owner.
“Thank you to my ancestors,” she said, adding thanks to her mom and dad, brother, partner, cast, her co-star Leslie Odom Jr. and her director, Kenny Leon. She saved her last thanks to playwright Ossie Davis and his star Ruby Dee, who originated the role.
“Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe cemented his stage career pivot by winning a featured actor in a musical Tony, his first trophy in five Broadway shows. He won for the revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical that goes backward in time.
“This is one of the best experiences of my life,” Radcliffe said, thanking his cast and director. “I will never have it as good again.” He also thanked his parents for playing Sondheim in the car growing up.
Kecia Lewis, who plays a formidable piano teacher in “Hell’s Kitchen,” took home her first Tony. The 40-year veteran made her Broadway debut at 18 in the original company of “Dreamgirls” and endured amazing moments and heartbreak.
“This moment is the one I dreamed of for those 40 years,” she told the crowd. “Don’t give up!”
“Appropriate,” Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play — centered on a family reunion in Arkansas where everyone has competing motivations and grievances — was named best play revival. Jacobs-Jenkins in his remarks thanked Davis, saying there would be no “Appropriate” without “Purlie Victorious.”
Three-time Tony-honored Chita Rivera got a tribute by Tony winners Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Bebe Neuwirth. Images of her work in “Chicago,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “West Side Story” were projected while dancers mimicked her hit numbers. DeBose, who won an Oscar in Rivera’s old “West Side Story” role of Anita, also joined in.
That didn’t take long: Replacement for SORBS spam blacklist arises … sort of
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also: Online adoption cyberstalker nabbed; Tesla trade secrets thief pleads guilty; and a critical ASUS Wi-Fi vuln
Infosec in brief A popular spam blocklist service that went offline earlier this month has advised users it is down permanently – but at least one potential candidate is stepping up to try to fill the threat intelligence void.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/infosec_news_in_brief/
Mexico: Travelers from 177 nations crossed country toward US
date: 2024-06-17, from: VOA News USA
MEXICO CITY — Around 1.39 million people from 177 countries traveled through Mexico so far this year trying to reach the United States without entry papers, the Mexican government said Sunday.
The vast majority were men or women traveling alone, while almost 3,000 were unaccompanied minors, the National Migration Institute said, providing figures for January through the end of May.
The figure of 177 countries of origin represents almost the whole world – the United Nations has 193 member states.
By country, the largest number of would-be migrants at nearly 380,000 came from Venezuela, which has endured severe economic hardship for years, followed by Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Haiti, all of which are hard hit by gang and drug-trafficking violence.
Others attempting the dangerous trek through Mexico in search of a better life in the United States came from as far afield as China, India, Mauritania and Angola, the institute said.
In 2023 alone more than 2.4 million people crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without the required documentation, according to U.S. figures.
The flow hit a record of 10,000 people per day in December although it has fallen as both countries cracked down on such crossings.
https://www.voanews.com/a/mexico-travelers-from-177-nations-crossed-country-toward-us/7658583.html
Japan’s space junk cleaner hunts down major target
date: 2024-06-17, updated: 2024-06-17, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: Australia to age limit social media; Hong Kong’s robo-dogs; India’s new tech minister
Asia in brief The space junk cleaning mission launched by Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully hunted down one of its targets.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/asia_tech_news_roundup/