News gathered 2024-06-21
(date: 2024-06-21 06:31:05)
Redwood City man arrested on suspicion of unlawfully firing gun on New Year’s Eve
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Detectives found a .45-caliber handgun and ammunition during a search of the 23-year-old suspect’s home.
After Second Teen Is Killed, Montecito Neighbors Pressure Union Pacific to Block Party Access Point
date: 2024-06-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Ryan Chapman, 15, was attending a birthday when he was fatally struck by a train near Fernald Point on Wednesday.
The post After Second Teen Is Killed, Montecito Neighbors Pressure Union Pacific to Block Party Access Point appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Alleged crime ring shipped high-end bikes stolen in Silicon Valley to Mexico, sold them on Facebook
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Stolen-bike tracker Bryan Hance believes 60 to 100 bikes worth $2,000 to $10,000 have been stolen from Bay Area garages and apartments as part of the operation.
Cricket is having its moment in the Bay Area. What does the future hold?
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
The cricket scene in the Bay Area is buzzing as the United States men’s national team makes a historic, unprecedented run. Could this propel the sport moving forward?
Africa defense chiefs to gather in Botswana for US military conference
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
Gaborone, Botswana — Defense chiefs from 30 African countries will gather in Botswana next week for a two-day military conference to discuss the continent’s security and stability challenges. The meeting, organized by the United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM, will be the first to be held in Africa since the inaugural conference in 2017
“The aim [is] to tackle the pressing security challenges on the African continent and to find ways to work together for a safer, more secure Africa,” said Lt. Commander Bobby Dixon, a spokesman at AFRICOM. “From counterterrorism efforts to cyber threats and peacekeeping missions, this conference will cover it all. Experts and military leaders will share insights, strategies, and forge partnerships that will strengthen the collective defense capabilities for all of Africa. This is more than just a conference — it’s a significant step towards a unified approach in safeguarding the African continent.”
AFRICOM says the meeting will build on the success of previous conferences. Last year’s meeting held in Rome, Italy, attracted the highest turnout, with 43 countries in attendance.
“It is evident that Africa faces a series of challenges,” said Jakkie Cilliers, a political scientist at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria. “It is not always clear that the model that the U.S. presents is appropriate for Africa. In recent years, we have seen a variety of coups in Africa, sometimes executed by African forces that have been trained in the U.S., the U.K. and France. And it is also evident that a number of U.N. peacekeeping missions, such as that in the DR Congo and Mali, are withdrawing from Africa.
“On the other hand, the role of Russia and the so-called Africa Group [pls check the audio; it is usually called the Africa Corps] is expanding. So, it’s clear that Africa is facing a security challenge, and partners can and should do as much as possible to help.”
Cilliers added that there is a need for the Gaborone conference to come up with effective solutions to the continent’s security challenges.
“Are we seeing a new model developing where African governments are considering alternative security arrangements, mostly by other African countries?” he said. “And of course, the role of private companies is also increasing. These events occur at a time of significant shifts in the global balance of power, and Africa again is an area of competition. One hopes all these issues will be discussed at the upcoming conference in Gaborone, and that real solutions will come to the fore.”
In March, following its Peace and Security Council meeting, the African Union expressed “deep concern” over the scourge of conflicts on the continent and their impact on socioeconomic development.
How to escape VMware’s pricey clutches with Virt-v2v
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Or any other hypervisors that might hypothetically be acquired or suddenly get more costly
Devconf.cz Moving a VM from one host machine to another is easy. Moving VMs from one hypervisor to another is less trivial – but help is at hand.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/virtv2v_helps_you_move_vms/
Walters: California lawmakers fast-track restaurant exemption to hidden fees law
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
After hailing 2023 law as major reform, sponsors push new bill so restaurants can continue bait-and-switch tactics.
Vast redevelopment of San Jose golf course gains community support
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
A potential vast redevelopment of a shuttered San Jose golf course has drawn support from residents.
How Solar Is Helping Keep the Lights On This Summer
date: 2024-06-21, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: China issued a rainstorm warning for its already-sodden southern provinces • Two people were killed in severe storms in Moscow • America’s brutal heat wave will shift into the Mid-Atlantic this weekend.
THE TOP FIVE
- Solar to provide one-fifth of global electricity during peak summer
hours
During the sunniest hours of the longest days of the year, solar power can now provide about 20% of the world’s electricity, according to new estimates from energy think tank Ember. That’s up from 16% last year. Throughout the entire month of June, solar will account for roughly 8.2% of global electricity, up from 6.7% in the same month last year, and higher than the 5.5% annual average across the whole of 2023. The report underscores the rapid expansion of solar, which is now the fastest-growing source of electricity. “As solar continues to expand, it is poised to further transform the power sector and accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy,” the authors said.
EMBER
- Hawaii agrees to ‘groundbreaking’ settlement with youth climate
activists
The state of Hawaii has committed to decarbonizing its transportation system by 2045 as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by a group of young climate activists. The “groundbreaking” agreement, which can be enforced in court, also calls for a youth council to be created to advise the transportation department. The 13 plaintiffs – most of whom are Indigenous – filed their lawsuit in 2022, accusing Hawaii’s department of transportation of harming their health and infringing on their right to a clean environment, thus violating the state constitution. “You have a constitutional right to fight for life-sustaining climate policy and you have mobilized our people in this case,” said the state’s governor, Josh Green. Denise Antolini, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Hawaii Law School, told The Guardian the settlement is important because of its focus on transportation specifically, which is a huge source of emissions but “tends to get ignored.”
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
- Report connects climate change to recent Mexico heat wave
A report from World Weather Attribution concluded that the oppressive heat wave that baked Central America, Mexico, and some Southwestern states in recent weeks was made 35 times more likely due to climate change caused by burning fossil fuels. The analysis was packed with other statistics that tell an unsettling story:
- 125 – degrees Fahrenheit reached in the Sonoran Desert last week, the hottest day in Mexican history.
- 2.5 – degrees Fahrenheit by which climate change made the heat dome hotter.
- 3 – degrees Fahrenheit by which climate change increased nighttime temperatures during the heat wave.
- Every 15 years – the frequency with which this kind of extreme heat is now expected to occur.
- Every 60 years – the frequency with which this kind of extreme heat was expected to occur in the year 2000, when global temperatures were lower.
- 125 – number of people who are known to have died in the heat wave.
World
Weather Attribution
- Startup plans to use methane to make graphite
A California-based startup called Molten Industries is trying to transform natural gas into a key component for making lithium-ion batteries. The company has “developed a specialized technique to break methane into graphite and hydrogen, the latter of which can be used as a source of clean energy,” Bloomberg reported. Graphite is used to make batteries, but most of it comes from China, so Molten wants to onshore production at a competitive cost. The company says its graphite production was a sort of happy accident. “Our original focus was just to make the lowest-cost hydrogen with the most energy-efficient reactor possible,” said co-founder and CEO Kevin Bush. Molten announced this week a $25 million series A round of funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. It plans to use the money to build its first modular commercial reactor.
- Amazon to replace plastic ‘air pillows’ in packages with recycled
paper filler
Amazon announced this week it will stop using plastic “air pillows” to protect the packages it ships in North America and instead switch to recycled paper. The shift will be completed by the end of 2024, and will mean 15 billion plastic air pillows are removed from use each year. The move is driven in part by support among investors for cutting waste, but it’s helped by the fact that Amazon discovered recycled paper protects packages better than the plastic pillows anyway.
THE KICKER
A new study found that monkeys living on an island off Puerto Rico responded to the destruction from 2017’s Hurricane Maria by becoming less aggressive and more cooperative with one another in order to share scarce resources, and that this shift in social behavior helped boost their survival.
https://heatmap.news/climate/solar-power-summer-hawaii-lawsuit
Raspberry Pi at Open Sauce 2024
date: 2024-06-21, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
We’re just back from Open Sauce 2024. We’ve never seen so many makers, tech enthusiasts, and YouTubers all in one place before.
The post Raspberry Pi at Open Sauce 2024 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-at-open-sauce-2024/
Chippy the kitten stops highway traffic on Highway 1; CHP officers rescue wayward cat from engine of Prius
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
“A motorist saw the scared kitten and I was called to the scene,” said Officer Ryan Moore to the SPCA. “At first I stopped on the left hand side, but when I went to grab the kitten, she ran across the lanes. I immediately thought ‘oh gosh, please don’t get hit!’”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/21/spca-cares-for-kitten-saved-by-chp-officers-on-highway/
Paul’s Slide on Highway 1 near Big Sur opens Sunday
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
“The challenge at Paul’s Slide has always been to repair Highway 1 while movement continues within the slide location,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares in a press release. “The completion of repairs and the reopening of a 4.3-mile section of this scenic byway will begin to restore some normalcy for business owners and residents in the area.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/21/pauls-slide-on-highway-1-near-big-sur-opens-sunday/
At 84, Phil Lesh reflects on Terrapin, aging and playing at his sons’ Daydream festivals
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh will be headlining Sunday Daydream festivals in July and August with his Phil and Friends band. The outdoor shows at McNears Beach Park in San Rafael, produced by his sons, Grahame, 37, and Brian, 34, are aimed at reviving the community spirit of Terrapin Crossroads.
The spirit of Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads lives on at his sons’ Sunday Daydream festivals
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
“There’s a thousand different Grateful Dead offshoots, and this is our part of that,” Brian Lesh says.
Police link mother and her two children to Bay Area vehicle thefts
date: 2024-06-21, from: San Jose Mercury News
Authorities arrested three members of a San Rafael family who allegedly stole vehicles in separate cases.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/21/san-rafael-police-link-3-family-members-to-vehicle-thefts/
California’s New Educator Training Aims To Boost LGBTQ+ Student Safety
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The LAist
The state-mandated training for educators working with seventh to 12th grade students is coming in June 2025.
https://laist.com/news/education/lgbtq-los-angeles-california-la-lacoe-cde-prism-training-ab-5
Hubble Captures Infant Stars Transforming a Nebula
date: 2024-06-21, from: NASA breaking news
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents a visually striking collection of interstellar gas and dust. Named RCW 7, the nebula is located just over 5,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Puppis. Nebulae are areas rich in the raw material needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-captures-infant-stars-transforming-a-nebula/
The latest on that potential TikTok ban
date: 2024-06-21, from: Marketplace Morning Report
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has six months to divest or the U.S. plans to ban the app for national security reasons. But in a new court filing, ByteDance calls the U.S. government’s demands unconstitutional and says government officials have refused to seriously negotiate for two years. Also, AI comes for banking jobs. And later, what if your deepfake was circulating halfway across the world in China?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-latest-on-that-potential-tiktok-ban
John Boston | Going Nuts Over Donuts? Dough-nuts?
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
It all started from one innocent story in The Mighty Signal. In the June 11 issue of America’s most resplendent periodical, an article was apparently riddled with errors. It was […]
The post John Boston | Going Nuts Over Donuts? Dough-nuts? appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/john-boston-going-nuts-over-donuts-dough-nuts/
Thomas Oatway | Risky Medical Advice
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
I read the latest coronavirus nonsense opinion from Rob Kerchner (letters, May 26) with some apprehension due to his prior politicalization of this issue. He stated that the results of […]
The post Thomas Oatway | Risky Medical Advice appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/thomas-oatway-risky-medical-advice/
Derek Vineyard | There’s No Unifying
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
Valerie Bradford at it again. Ms. Bradford, president of the Santa Clarita Valley NAACP, expressing her disdain for the residents of the SCV, but she does it by means of […]
The post Derek Vineyard | There’s No Unifying appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/derek-vineyard-theres-no-unifying/
Qilin cyber scum leak data they claim belongs to London hospitals’ pathology provider
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
At least they didn’t get paid their $50 million ransom demand
The ransomware gang responsible for the chaos at London hospitals kept true to its word and released a trove of data that it claims belongs to pathology services provider Synnovis.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/qilin_cyber_scum_leak_the/
Joe Guzzardi | Biden’s Border Policy Safety Gamble
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
In a high stakes gamble with Americans’ safety and security at risk, President Joe Biden is rolling the dice again. Capitol Hill insiders confirm the administration is considering providing refugee […]
The post Joe Guzzardi | Biden’s Border Policy Safety Gamble appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/joe-guzzardi-bidens-border-policy-safety-gamble/
The World After Billionaire Media
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Lever News
David Sirota and Semafor’s Ben Smith dig into the journalism crisis and find signs of hope.
https://www.levernews.com/the-world-after-billionaire-media/
P&B: Jennifer Devastatia del Gato
date: 2024-06-21, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>This is the 43rd edition of <em>People and Blogs</em>, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Jennifer "💕 Devastatia 💕" del Gato and her blog, <a href="https://devastatia.com">devastatia.com</a></p>I think I have mentioned it before but I absolutely love her site because it’s precisely everything mine isn’t. My site is this super clean, super calm place, with no JS, no weirdness going on, and almost no images. Her site is a proper experience and you’ll understand what I mean when you click that link. And even though the containers are incredibly different we share an appreciation for a certain type of living the web which is why I’m very grateful to have her as a guest on this series.
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Let’s start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?
I was born and raised in the southern United States. I think I got a reasonably decent public education in an era just before the education system, both higher and lower, started becoming extremist indoctrination. You’ll find countless Gen Xers online these days reminiscing about the things we used to do as kids. There’s not much I can add to that as far as everyday life goes.
I became an avid fan of science fiction at an early age, and developed a fascination with history, science, electronics, and computers. The two latter were the same hobby back then, actually. You had to understand electronics to mess around with computers.
What’s the story behind your blog?
The funny thing is that I don’t really call my website a “blog” or consider myself to be a “blogger” per se. I didn’t really have a plan or goal for what I wanted to do with my personal website when I started it. I only knew that the social media paradigm wasn’t working for me, and I needed to do something else.
My stock in trade has long been shitposting on “free speech” forums and social media. I have a habit of getting banned from social media sites because the normies don’t get my sense of humor. I’m not interested in making my opinions “advertiser-friendly,” nor in virtue-signaling to censorious, self-righteous ideologues. It’s popular amongst the simple-minded these days to label people as bigots on the basis of colorful remarks. In so doing, the self-appointed thought police often completely miss the point the writer was trying to make. As a feral Gen Xer, I don’t have the patience to walk on eggshells around thin-skinned people. If I can’t be honest and authentic, then why bother?
An essential aspect of my modus operandi is to always return to a “last known good” state when current conditions aren’t yielding favorable results. I’ve been on the World Wide Web since 1994, and have owned personal websites before. I mean that’s what everybody did when the Internet was first opened to the public. The ever-growing litany of creative constraints imposed by social media over the years more or less forced my return to the “real” Internet.
The name “Devastatia” was a nickname I made up for a cat I used to have. Audrey and her big brother Elvis liked to tear things up, as cats do, so I gave them the nicknames Dr. Destructo and his lovely assistant, Devastatia. It had a gothy ring to it, and since I’m a goth, I thought it’d make a catchy screen name.
I thought it would be funny to spoof social media “influencers” — low-talent midwits with swollen egos — so I built a sort of role-playing character around that idea. That’s how Devastatia was born.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
You’ve heard the expression, “The jokes write themselves,” right? Well, the Internet is basically one big lolcow for those of us who can see the humor in almost anything. Most of my social commentary and shitposting is in response to things I see online.
Nearly everything I write is my own opinion and shouldn’t be taken as fact. “Fact-checking” has acquired an unsavory connotation for me due to the way it’s ham-handedly rammed down our throats, sans nuance or context, by ideologues in the mainstream media and on social media. When I do research something, it’s usually just a quick Web search in which I choose a few links that have intriguing titles or summaries, not necessarily the “most relevant” results as decided by the search engines. Some of those links lead to fact-checking articles, but they’re not typically the agenda-driven kind.
I re-read and edit the crap out of an article after I publish it, usually for hours, and sometimes for days. I’m careful not to make spelling or grammatical errors, but some occasionally slip through. I catch most of them the same day by re-reading though. Most of my editing is done to improve the flow of a passage, to add content I forgot to include in the first draft, or to express something in a more picturesque way. Sometimes I’ll come up with a relevant joke hours later, and throw it in retroactively to liven the piece up.
I think the most glaring error I’ve made was a continuity error in one of my erotic short stories. A reader brought it to my attention months after the piece was published. A peripheral character, coincidentally named Manuel, was identified as the brother of a main character in one episode, but as his cousin in the following episode.
I write a lot about Web development because that’s what interests me. I decorate my pages with irrelevant naughty pictures because I like looking at them, and my readers tell me they do too. I aim to be nerdy, funny, and sexy at the same time. I think I mostly succeed at that.
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?
I just need for it to be reasonably quiet and dark. When I started messing with computers, everything was green or amber text in a fixed-width font on a black background — which, incidentally, is why my website resembles an old school terminal. I use a dark mode browser plugin on every site I visit. Staring at a page with a white background is like staring into a flashlight. Why would anybody do such a thing?
I usually don’t notice my physical surroundings at all once I get into the groove. I keep the temperature at around 77° Fahrenheit and wear as few clothes as possible, so I don’t even feel the air, really.
I’m also blind in my right eye and nearsighted in the left, so I sit pretty close to the monitor. Most of the items on my desk have dark colors, so I don’t really notice anything in my peripheral vision when there are no lights on nearby.
I use a 75% mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches, again because that’s what I’m used to from the early days of home computing. I detest touch screens and keyboards with short-travel switches.
A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech stack?
My basic tools are Geany, a coding text editor for Linux similar to UltraEdit or Notepad++ for Windows; FileZilla, an FTP client that’s ubiquitous on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs; and Firefox. If I happen to be in the terminal and need to take a quick look at something, I’ll open it in vim. I haven’t used Github that much since I left the corporate world. The tools I use now are the same ones I used when I first started making personal websites years ago.
All of my sites are hosted on SiteGround. Page loads are very fast, their tech support is prompt and effective, and their “grow big” plan gives me everything I need. I don’t remember where I registered my domain name. It’s registered either through SiteGround or DreamHost.
I absolutely hate reading other people’s code. When I worked as a professional developer, I became disenchanted with the emphasis on integrating third-party software over writing custom code. I’m not an integrator, and I’m definitely not a “coder.” I’m a programmer. That’s what I got into this racket to do, and now that I have full creative control, that’s what I do.
With the exception of a couple of PHP packages and some code snippets borrowed from Stack Overflow and elsewhere, everything on my site is hand-coded by me. I don’t use third-party frameworks or general-purpose libraries period, let alone a third-party CMS. Everything is written either specifically for its task or as a component that I can reuse for multiple similar tasks.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
I think the question presumes I have a purpose or goal in mind when I start something, which isn’t necessarily the case. I’ll oftentimes start working on something because I find the technology interesting, and the use case will present itself later.
That said, my current website is showing its limitations, and I’m slowly developing the next version. This is only my second single-page application (SPA), and the first in which I got everything working as expected. I’ve constantly added features over the past seven or eight months, and it’s reached the point where it’d be easier to rewrite most of it from scratch than to keep adding onto the existing platform.
I won’t change my domain name or the name of my site because it’s the name I’m known by. One doesn’t change a trademark that has achieved brand recognition without a good reason. Companies only do so when they get a bad reputation due to scandal. Well, I’m not overly concerned about my reputation. I mean I have a slutty online persona and write naughty stories, both by choice. Those things are fun for me, and I don’t believe that’ll ever change.
Financial question since the Web is obsessed with money: how much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate some revenue? And what’s your position on people monetising personal blogs?
It’d be difficult to separate the cost of running my personal site from the cost of running my other sites because they’re all on a single hosting plan. Moreover, the plan includes capabilities that aren’t available with the typical “basic” plan because, as somebody who compulsively tinkers with technology, I know I’ll use them. I also prefer traditional .com, .net, or .org domain names when available, which tend to cost a little more than some of the newer “personal website” top-level domains.
I have three sites at the moment, and will probably build others. As of now, simple division of the total cost by the number of sites yields an average cost of about 156 USD per year. That’s about what I’d pay for three domain names and individual hosting plans from the same company, and the per-site cost will decrease as I add more sites.
I don’t try to monetize my site, nor make any effort to promote it in the major search engines. This is a personal project that I work on for the fun of it. The Personal Web as a community has plenty of grassroots ways to help a website gain attention — webrings, listing sites, blog carnivals, etc. — from those who are interested in personal websites.
I don’t have anything against other people monetizing their blogs if they choose to do so, but it’s not for me. Again, this is all for fun and “at will.” I don’t want to be held to other people’s expectations regarding deadlines, messaging, or the type or quality of content I produce.
Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out? And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?
One of the most fascinating people I know on the Personal Web isn’t a blogger at all. Magill, or Fritzi as she’s known on the Personal Web, is a well-read 60s pop culture aficionado who, in addition to making charming little brochure sites, publishes erotic Beatles fan fiction on Archive of Our Own (AO3). Fritzi isn’t a professional Web designer, but you’d never guess it because she’s exceptionally talented.
And you’ll definitely want to interview Sara Jaksa. Sara is a brilliant woman whose correspondence I enjoy immensely. I’d love to hear from her more frequently, but I understand that her work keeps her very busy. What I like most about Sara is that she doesn’t give shallow answers, but considers things deeply before forming an opinion. It’d be interesting to read her answers to some of your questions.
Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?
I’m a blurter. Anything I want to share will most likely appear on my website the moment it wanders into my mind. I use my site the same way I’d use Twitter if I weren’t banned from there. I’m always throwing things at the wall to see what’ll stick.
As for projects, I’m working on a free RSS feed reader for personal website feeds called The Geekly Reader. Commercial readers making money from blogs that the authors themselves haven’t monetized just doesn’t sit well with me. In my view, they’re the same as low-effort YouTubers whose videos are nothing but a text-to-speech program reading a Reddit thread. The days of corporations profiting from other people’s free content need to end.
When I heard that 123Guestbook is shutting down in July, I started a project at Personal-Web.org to provide a replacement for static website owners who use 123Guestbook. Depending on how much utilization that service gets, I may provide other hosted widgets later.
This was the 43rd edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Devastatia. Make sure to follow her blog (RSS) and get in touch with her if you have any questions.
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Kenyans push back against new taxes
date: 2024-06-21, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Kenya’s government has been forced to drop some of its plans for new taxes, but widespread protests are continuing over its controversial finance bill. We’ll hear about the government’s intent behind the proposed new taxes, as well as which policies have now been scrapped. Also, what does a British court judgement on the climate impact of oil projects mean for future developments?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/kenyans-push-back-against-new-taxes
Guess how much stored data is ever used or accessed
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not a lot, says NetApp’s Matt Watts as he talks file classification, wastage, and power consumption
Interview NetApp’s Chief Technology Evangelist, Matt Watts, is worried about sustainability and data wastage, even as his employer withdraws third-party support from BlueXP classification.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/netapp_matt_watts_interview/
China’s top prosecutor urges officials to focus on illicit drug trafficking
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
BEIJING — China’s top prosecutor urged law enforcement officials across the country on Friday to focus efforts on combating drug trafficking, capping a week in which Beijing and Washington announced a rare joint counternarcotics investigation.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate published “six typical cases,” involving actions ranging from postal fraud to medical professionals selling illicit drugs on the side, and clarified the legal application standards to handle such cases.
The prosecutor said in a statement that the release was meant to show its “determination and attitude to intensify efforts to crack down on related crimes, while hoping that this batch of typical cases will serve as a warning to the society.”
The United States and China held high-level counternarcotics talks on Thursday following a breakthrough in bilateral cooperation this week in which both sides went after a major drug-linked money laundering operation.
The United States, where fentanyl abuse has been a major cause of death, has pushed China for deeper law enforcement cooperation, including tackling illicit finance and further controls on the chemicals that can be used to make fentanyl.
These chemicals are often shipped to the U.S. and other destinations from China using mail packages that have unverifiable addresses or are mislabeled, experts say. The U.S. Postal Service has for years struggled with the problem.
One of the examples highlighted in the prosecutor’s note on Friday involved a case of a Chinese buyer, surnamed Yan, purchasing date-rape drug triazolam from overseas and then selling it in China by mail using mislabeled packaging.
As a result, “the procuratorate issued a procuratorial suggestion to the postal administration department…urging the regulatory department to fulfill its main responsibility and perform its duties conscientiously.”
The postal administration then “urged the company to make timely rectifications,” the prosecutor said.
The note said “the procuratorate invited nearly 100 couriers and college students to attend the trial, focusing on the new characteristics and new forms of new drug cases to carry out anti-drug law publicity.”
Postal fraud was briefly mentioned in the opening remarks by Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who on Thursday held talks in Beijing with China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong.
Gupta said it was among the “areas where we’re both being negatively impacted,” listing it alongside illicit finance, “illegal drug trafficking and use, and the emergence of new and more dangerous drugs.”
The X Window System is still hanging on at 40
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Never underestimate the stickiness of legacy technology
It is 40 years since Robert W Scheifler ushered in the era of the X Window System, a windowing system that continues to stick around despite many distributions looking for alternatives.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/x_window_system_is_40/
Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky denies it’s a hazard after the US bans its software
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
You’re wrong, I’m right, and you’re hiding the data that proves it
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
There should be honor among techies, but it can be hard to admit error
On Call Few among us are faultless, but more often than not it’s users and managers who are in the wrong when IT goes awry. Which is why each Friday The Register offers a fresh instalment of On Call – the reader-contributed column in which you share stories of being asked to bail out bores, brats and blockheads.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/on_call/
FLTK 1.4.x Weekly Snapshot (master)
date: 2024-06-21, from: Fast Light Tool Kit
A new weekly snapshot of FLTK 1.4.x (master) is now available
https://www.fltk.org/articles.php?L1928
JS Party podcast: Polypane-demonium
date: 2024-06-21, from: Kilian Valkhof’s blog
I was invited to the JS Party podcast to talk about all things Polypane, from the business side of things to nitty-gritty features that I’ve been working on. I had a lot of fun and I think Nick and Jerod did as well. Polypane purveyor Kilian Valkhof joins Nick & Jerod to tell us all […]
The post JS Party podcast: Polypane-demonium first appeared on Kilian Valkhof.
https://kilianvalkhof.com/2024/web/js-party-podcast-polypane-demonium/
Since joining NATO, Sweden claims Russia has been borking Nordic satellites
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
If Putin likes jammin’, we hope NATO likes jammin’ too
Sweden says its satellites have been impacted by “harmful interference” from Russia ever since the Nordic nation joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) last March.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/sweden_russia_jamming/
How Europe can force Apple to support competition
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Open Web Advocacy report calls for these extensive changes to iGiant’s rules
Exclusive The results of the European Commission’s inquiry into Apple’s response to the continent’s competition rules are expected to surface soon – and reports indicate the regulators are less than enamored with Cook & Co.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/eu_apple_owa/
Escape velocity?
date: 2024-06-21, from: Enlightenment Economics
I’ve read Ray Kurweil’s jaw-dropping book, The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge With AI, so you don’t have to. He does literally believe we will be injected with nanobots to create an AI super-cortex above our own neo-cortex, plugged … Continue reading
http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.php/2024/06/escape-velocity/
Coding error in forgotten API blamed for massive data breach
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Australian telco Optus allegedly left redundant website with poor access controls online for years
The data breach at Australian telco Optus, which saw over nine million customers’ personal information exposed, has been blamed on a coding error that broke API access controls, and was left in place for years.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/optus_data_breach_faulty_api/
Micron mega-fab mildly endangered by definitely endangered American bats
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Like a bat out of hell they’ll be gone when November comes
Updated Micron is reportedly facing a new hitch to starting work on its proposed fabrication center in New York State: Endangered bats.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/21/micron_delays_bat/
GPT-5… now arriving Gate 8, Gate 9, Gate 10
date: 2024-06-21, from: Gary Marcus blog
The increasingly delayed countdown to GPT5
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/gpt-5-now-arriving-gate-8-gate-9
Rain could potentially ease or worsen New Mexico wildfire
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/rain-could-potentially-ease-or-worsen-new-mexico-wildfire/7664582.html
Meta warns bit flips, other hardware faults cause AI errors
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It’s no hallucination: ‘4 in 1,000 inferences inaccurate’ due to this alone, depending on the setup
Meta has identified another reason AI might produce rubbish output: Hardware faults that corrupt data.…
Call for Computers and Writing 2024 Session Reviews
date: 2024-06-21, from: Digital Rhetoric Collaberative
Attending Computers and Writing 2024? Be a Session Reviewer! The Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative is seeking reviewers for the 2024 Computers and Writing Conference. If you would like to be a session reviewer for C&W 2024, please visit this Google Spreadsheet to sign up for a session to review. After you sign up, you will […]US bans Russia’s Kaspersky antivirus software
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday banned Russia-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky from providing its popular antivirus products in the United States over national security concerns, the U.S. Commerce Department said.
“Kaspersky will generally no longer be able to, among other activities, sell its software within the United States or provide updates to software already in use,” the agency said in a statement.
The announcement came after a lengthy investigation found Kaspersky’s “continued operations in the United States presented a national security risk due to the Russian Government’s offensive cyber capabilities and capacity to influence or direct Kaspersky’s operations,” it said.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said, “Russia has shown time and again they have the capability and intent to exploit Russian companies, like Kaspersky Lab, to collect and weaponize sensitive U.S. information.”
Kaspersky, in a statement to AFP, said the Commerce Department “made its decision based on the present geopolitical climate and theoretical concerns,” and vowed to “pursue all legally available options to preserve its current operations and relationships.”
“Kaspersky does not engage in activities which threaten U.S. national security and, in fact, has made significant contributions with its reporting and protection from a variety of threat actors that targeted U.S. interests and allies,” the company said.
The move is the first such action taken since an executive order issued under Donald Trump’s presidency gave the Commerce Department the power to investigate whether certain companies pose a national security risk.
Raimondo said the Commerce Department’s actions demonstrated to America’s adversaries that it would not hesitate to act when “their technology poses a risk to the United States and its citizens.”
While Kaspersky is headquartered in Moscow, it has offices in 31 countries around the world, servicing more than 400 million users and 270,000 corporate clients in more than 200 countries, the Commerce Department said.
As well as banning the sale of Kaspersky’s antivirus software, the Commerce Department also added three entities linked to the firm to a list of companies deemed to be a national security concern, “for their cooperation with Russian military and intelligence authorities in support of the Russian government’s cyber intelligence objectives.”
The Commerce Department said it “strongly encouraged” users to switch to new vendors, although its decision does not ban them from using the software should they choose to do so.
Kaspersky is allowed to continue certain operations in the United States, including providing antivirus updates, until September 29, “in order to minimize disruption to US consumers and businesses and to give them time to find suitable alternatives,” it added.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-bans-russia-s-kaspersky-antivirus-software-/7664564.html
USC student will not be charged in fatal stabbing of carjacking suspect — live updates
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
The 19-year-old was arrested for stabbing a man who was attempting to break into a car near the Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Tau Delta fraternity houses on Monday evening.
The post USC student will not be charged in fatal stabbing of carjacking suspect — live updates appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/06/20/usc-student-will-not-be-charged-in-fatal-stabbing/
High Court Blocks Anti-Tax Measure From California Ballot
date: 2024-06-21, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The LAist
The state Supreme Court takes a business-backed initiative to make it more difficult to raise taxes off the Nov. 5 ballot. Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders sued to kick it off.
https://laist.com/news/politics/high-court-blocks-anti-tax-measure-from-california-ballot
Brush fire in Canyon Country stopped at 10 acres
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
A brush fire that broke out Thursday afternoon between Canyon Country and Agua Dulce was stopped at 10 acres, according to L.A. County Fire Department officials. Firefighters were dispatched to […]
The post Brush fire in Canyon Country stopped at 10 acres appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/2-acre-brush-fire-breaks-out-in-canyon-country-2/
Border Patrol reports arrests down 25% since Biden announced asylum restrictions
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
washington — The number of arrests by Border Patrol agents of people crossing illegally into the United States fell in May to the third lowest of any month during the Biden presidency, while preliminary figures released Thursday show encounters with migrants falling even more in the roughly two weeks since the president announced new rules restricting asylum.
The figures are likely welcome news for a White House that has been struggling to show to voters concerned about immigration that it has control of the southern border. But the number of people coming to the border is often in flux, dependent on conditions in countries far from the U.S. and on smugglers who profit from global migration.
The Border Patrol made 117,900 arrests of people entering the country between the official border crossing points in May, Customs and Border Protection said in a news release. That’s 9% lower than during April, the agency said. The agency said preliminary data since President Joe Biden’s June 4 announcement restricting asylum access show arrests have fallen by 25%.
“Our enforcement efforts are continuing to reduce Southwest border encounters. But the fact remains that our immigration system is not resourced for what we are seeing,” said Troy A. Miller, the acting head of CBP.
The U.S. has also benefited from aggressive enforcement on the Mexican side of the border, where Mexican authorities have been working to prevent migrants from making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The figures are part of a range of data related to immigration, trade and drug seizures that the CBP releases monthly. The immigration-related figures are closely watched at a time of intense political scrutiny over who is entering the country and whether the Biden administration has a handle on the situation.
Immigration is a top concern for voters, with many saying Biden hasn’t been doing enough to secure the country’s borders. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has made immigration a cornerstone of his campaign by saying he’s going to deport people in the country illegally en masse and take other measures to crack down on immigration.
After Biden announced his plan to restrict asylum access at the southern border, opponents sued, saying it was no different from a similar effort under Trump.
Profuse Thanks to Bloomsday
date: 2024-06-21, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Bloomsday celebration at the James Joyce pub on Sunday, June 16, was so well curated as to give a sweeping yet profound sampling of Joyce’s genius.
The post Profuse Thanks to Bloomsday appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/20/profuse-thanks-to-bloomsday/
USC Health Center Pharmacy to close June 24 to June 28
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Daily Trojan (USC Student Paper)
Students are advised to contact the USC Medical Plaza Pharmacy or the CVS at University Gateway for prescription transfers.
The post USC Health Center Pharmacy to close June 24 to June 28 appeared first on Daily Trojan.
https://dailytrojan.com/2024/06/20/usc-health-center-pharmacy-to-close-june-24-to-june-28/
Deputies: Collision that killed 2 horses still under investigation
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
Residents are reeling from the loss of horses Norma Jean and Husband, after they were struck and killed by a driver at the intersection of Sand Canyon and Iron Canyon […]
The post Deputies: Collision that killed 2 horses still under investigation appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/deputies-collision-that-killed-2-horses-still-under-investigation/
A US veteran died alone; hundreds of strangers came to say goodbye
date: 2024-06-21, from: VOA News USA
AUGUSTA, Maine — Former U.S. Marine Gerry Brooks died alone at a nursing home in Maine, abandoned and all but forgotten. Then the funeral home posted a notice asking if anyone would serve as a pallbearer or simply attend his burial.
Within minutes, it was turning away volunteers to carry his casket.
A bagpiper came forward to play at the service. A pilot offered to perform a flyover. Military groups across the state pledged a proper sendoff.
Hundreds of people who knew nothing about the 86-year-old beyond his name showed up on a sweltering afternoon and gave Brooks a final salute with full military honors Thursday at the Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Augusta.
Patriot Guard Riders on motorcycles escorted his hearse on the 40-mile route from the funeral home in Belfast, Maine, to the cemetery. Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars paid tribute with a 21-gun salute. Volunteers held American flags next to the casket while a crane hoisted a huge flag above the cemetery entrance.
Some saluted while filing by. Others sang The Marines’ Hymn.
“It’s an honor for us to be able to do this,” said Jim Roberts, commander of the VFW post in Belfast. “There’s so much negativity in the world. This is something people can feel good about and rally around. It’s just absolutely wonderful.” He said Brooks’ son, granddaughter and son-in-law came to the funeral but did not speak during the service.
‘We will always be there’
The VFW is called a couple times a year about a deceased veteran with no family or with one that isn’t willing to handle the funeral arrangements, said Roberts. But “we will always be there.” Like other veterans helping out Thursday, he hadn’t known Brooks.
So many groups volunteered to take part in paying tribute that there wasn’t enough space to fit them into the 20-minute burial service, said Katie Riposta, the funeral director who put out the call for help last week.
“It renews your faith in humanity,” she said.
More than 8 million of the U.S. veterans living are 65 or older, almost half the veteran population. They are overwhelmingly men. That’s according to a U.S. Census Bureau report last year. As this generation dies, it said, their collective memory of wartime experiences “will pass into history.”
A master of ‘dad jokes’
Much about Brooks’ life is unknown.
He was widowed and lived in Augusta. He died on May 18, less than a week after entering a nursing home, Riposta said. A cause of death was not released.
The funeral home and authorities reached his next of kin, but no one was willing to come forward or take responsibility for his body, she said.
“It sounds like he was a good person, but I know nothing about his life,” Riposta said, noting that after Brooks’ death, a woman contacted the funeral home to say he had once taken her in when she had no other place to go, with no details.
“It doesn’t matter if he served one day or made the military his career,” she said. “He still deserves to be respected and not alone.”
The crowd on Thursday wasn’t all strangers — and it turned out Brooks hadn’t been one, either.
Victoria Abbott, executive director of the Bread of Life shelter in Augusta, said he had come every day to eat at their soup kitchen, always ready to crack “dad jokes” and make the staff smile. He had a favorite table.
“Your quintessential 80-year-old, dad jokes every day,” Abbott said. “He was really great to have around. He was part of the soup kitchen family.”
But most people there Thursday met him too late. The memorial book posted online by Direct Cremation of Maine, which helped to arrange the burial, had a few strangers’ good wishes.
“Sir,” one began, and ended with “Semper Fi.”
The two others, a couple, thanked Brooks for his service. “We all deserve the love kindness and respect when we are called home. I hope that you lived a full beautiful life of Love, Kindness, Dreams and Hope,” they wrote.
They added: “Thank you to all those who will make this gentleman’s service a proper, well-deserved goodbye.”
Linda Laweryson, who served in the Marines, said this was the second funeral in little over a year that she has attended for a veteran who died alone. Everyone deserves to die with dignity and be buried with dignity, she said.
Laweryson read a poem during the graveside service written by a combat Marine who reflects on the spot where Marines graduate from boot camp.
“I walked the old parade ground, but I was not alone,” the poem reads. “I walked the old parade ground and knew that I was home.”
Castaic school district projecting to be OK despite decline in funding
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
As school districts across the state continue to finalize their budgets for the upcoming school year, Castaic Union School District officials are confident that they will have no issues over […]
The post Castaic school district projecting to be OK despite decline in funding appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Wind reduction helps firefighters in Gorman
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
A reduction in wind helped firefighters keep the Post Fire within its 15,690-acre “footprint” as of Thursday, although hot spots remain in the south, according to Landon Haack, operations section […]
The post Wind reduction helps firefighters in Gorman appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/wind-reduction-helps-firefighters-in-gorman/
Planning OKs Promenade Flats with conditions
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
The city of Santa Clarita’s Planning Commission denied an appeal by opponents of Promenade Flats, a live-work apartment complex with retail space planned for a shared IHOP parking lot — […]
The post Planning OKs Promenade Flats with conditions appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/planning-oks-promenade-flats-with-conditions/
Greek-owned ship sinks in Red Sea after Houthi missile attack
date: 2024-06-21, from: The Signal
By Aldgra Fredly Contributing Writer The M/V Tutor, a Greek-owned bulk carrier, has sunk after being attacked by Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea, authorities said Wednesday. The Liberian-flagged ship was […]
The post Greek-owned ship sinks in Red Sea after Houthi missile attack appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/greek-owned-ship-sinks-in-red-sea-after-houthi-missile-attack/
Anthropic delivers Claude 3.5 model – and a new way to work with chatbots
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Fast, funny, visionary, sure … anything that knocks OpenAI down a peg will do
Video OpenAI challenger Anthropic has delivered its latest model — Claude 3.5 Sonnet — and claimed it outperforms rivals on many tasks.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/anthropic_claude_35/
US ‘sleepwalking’ into space disaster, lawmaker warns
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
washington — A key U.S. lawmaker warned Thursday that Russia is on the verge of ushering in the end of the Space Age with its new, nuclear anti-satellite weaponry.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, told an audience in Washington that allowing Russia to gain such an advantage would be catastrophic. He called on President Joe Biden to mount an aggressive response.
“This crisis is the Cuban missile crisis in space,” Turner said, comparing the moment to the 1962 confrontation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, which took both sides to the brink of nuclear conflict.
But in this case, Turner said, Russia could unilaterally impose high costs on the U.S. simply by detonating a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in orbit.
“This threat would mean that our economic, international security and social systems come to a grinding halt,” he said. “This would be a catastrophic and devastating attack upon Western economic and democratic systems.”
Turner, who accused Biden of “sleepwalking into an irreversible day zero,” called on the White House to immediately declassify all of its intelligence on the Russian program to make the world aware of the full extent of the threat.
The White House on Thursday rejected Turner’s accusations.
“He’s just wrong. He’s just flat-out wrong,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We have absolutely taken this very seriously,” Kirby said. “We’ve been working this particular problem set from every possible angle, including through intense diplomacy with countries around the world and, obviously, through direct conversations with Russia.”
Russia has repeatedly denied the U.S. accusations, including last month when Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov dismissed concerns as “fake news.”
“The Americans can say whatever they want, but our policy does not change,” Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency, adding that Moscow, “always consistently opposed the deployment of strike weapons in low-Earth orbit.”
Turner first raised concerns about the prospect of a Russian anti-satellite weapons program in February, when he issued a statement warning of “a serious national security threat” and issued his initial call for the White House to declassify the relevant intelligence.
Biden responded by confirming that Russia was developing a space-based, anti-satellite weapons system but added there was no indication that Russia had decided to move ahead with the program and that there was no nuclear threat to anyone on Earth.
Concerns spiked last month when the U.S. accused Russia of using a May 16 space launch to deploy what the U.S. Defense Department described as an anti-satellite weapon “capable of attacking other satellites in low-Earth orbit.”
“Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite,” Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said at the time. “So, you know, obviously that’s something that we’ll continue to monitor.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-sleepwalking-into-space-disaster-lawmaker-warns/7664152.html
Google’s attempt to kill off child privacy app advertising lawsuit defeated
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Won’t somebody pleeease think of the … oh, right, they are
A lawsuit accusing Google of breaking America’s child privacy laws will proceed to trial as a judge denied the web goliath’s motion to throw out the case.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/google_child_privacy_lawsuit/
Fleeing war, Ukrainian student finds refuge in music in Chicago
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
The United Nations estimates as many as 6.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion in 2022. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh explores the story of one Ukrainian teenager seeking safety in music in Chicago.
Climate change intensifies US, Mexico heat wave, study finds
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/climate-change-amplifies-us-mexico-heat-wave-study-finds-/7663848.html
Is 2024 the year of Windows on the desktop?
date: 2024-06-20, from: OS News
It should be no secret to anyone reading OSNews that I’m not exactly a fan of Windows. While I grew up using MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x, the move to Windows XP was a sour one for me, and ever since I’ve vastly preferred first BeOS, and then Linux. When, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Wine community and Valve gaming on Linux became a boring, it-just-works affair, I said goodbye to my final gaming-only Windows installation about four or so years ago. However, I also strongly believe that in order to be able to fairly criticise or dislike something, you should at least have experience with it. As such, I decided it was time for what I expected was going to be some serious technology BDSM, and I installed Windows 11 on my workstation and force myself to use it for a few weeks to see if Microsoft’s latest operating system truly was as bad as I make it out to be in my head. Installing Windows 11 Technically speaking, my workstation is not supported by Windows 11. Despite packing two Intel Xeon E5 V4 2640 CPUs for a total of 20 cores and 40 threads, 32 GB of ECC RAM, an AMD Radeon Pro w5700, and the usual stuff like an M.2 SSD, this machine apparently did not meet the minimum specifications for Windows 11 since it has no TPM 2.0 security chip, and the processors were deemed too old. Luckily, these limitations are entirely artificial and meaningless, and using Ventoy, which by default disables these silly restrictions, I was able to install Windows 11 just fine. During installation, you run into the first problem if you’re coming from a different operating system – even after all these years, Windows still does not give a single hootin’ toot about any existing operating systems or bootloaders on your machine. This wasn’t an issue for me since I was going to allow Windows to take over the entire machine, but for those of used to have control over what happens when we install our operating systems, be advised that your other operating systems will most likely be rendered unbootable. The tools you have access to during installation for things like disk partitioning are also incredibly limited, and there’s nothing like the live environments you’re used to from the Linux world – all you get is an installer. In addition, since Windows only really supports FAT and NTFS file systems, your existing ext4, btrfs, UFS, or ZFS partitions used by your Linux or BSD installs will not work at all in Windows. Again – be advised that Windows is a very limited operating system compared to Linux or BSD. Once the actual installation part is done, you’re treated to a lengthy – and I truly mean lengthy – out of box experience. This is where you first get a glimpse of just how much data Microsoft wants to collect from its Windows users, and it stands in stark contrast to what I’m used to as a Linux user. On my Linux distribution of choice, Fedora KDE, there’s really only KDE’s opt-in, voluntary User Feedback option, which only collects basic system information in an entirely anonymous way. Windows, meanwhile, seems to want to collect pretty much everything you do on your machine, and while there’s some prompts to reduce the amount of data it collects, even with everything set to minimum it’s still quite a lot. Once you’re past the out of box experience, you can finally start using your new Windows installation – but actually not really. Unlike a Linux distribution, where all your hardware is detected automatically and will use the latest drivers, on Windows, you will most likely have to do some manual driver hunting, searching the web for PCI and vendor IDs to hopefully locate the correct drivers, which isn’t always easy. To make matters worse, even if Windows Update installs the correct drivers for you, those are often outdated, and you’re better off downloading the latest versions straight from the vendors’ websites. This is especially problematic for motherboard drivers – motherboard vendor websites often list horribly outdated drivers. Updating Windows 11 Once you have all the drivers installed and updated, which often requires several reboots, you might notice that your system seems to be awfully busy, even when you’re not actually doing anything with it. Most likely, this means Windows Update is running in the background, sucking up a lot of system resources. If you’re used to Linux or BSD, where updating is a quick and centralised process, updating things on Windows is a complete and utter mess. Instead of just updating everything all at once, Windows Update will often require several different rounds of updates, marked by reboots. You’ll also discover that Windows Update is not only incredibly slow both when it comes to downloading and installing, but that it’s also incredibly buggy. Updates will randomly fail to install for no apparent reason, and there’s a whole cottage industry of useless ML and SEO content on the internet trying to “help” you fix these issues. On my system, without doing anything, Windows Update managed to break itself in less than 24 hours – it listed 79 (!) driver updates related to the two Xeon processors (I assume it listed certain drivers for every single of the 40 threads), but every single one of them, save for one or two, would fail to install with a useless generic error code. Every time I tried to install them, one or two more would install, with everything else failing, until eventually the update process just hung the entire system. A few days later, the listed updated just disappeared entirely from Windows Update. The updates had no KB numbers, so it was impossible to find any information on them, and to this day, I have no idea what was going on here. Even after battling your way through Windows Update, you’re not done actually updating your system. Unlike,
https://www.osnews.com/story/139987/is-2024-the-year-of-windows-on-the-desktop/
55 Years Ago: One Month Until the Moon Landing
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
With the dress rehearsal completed during Apollo 10 in May 1969, only a few weeks remained until Apollo 11, the actual Moon landing mission to meet President Kennedy’s goal set in 1961. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin and their backups James A. Lovell, William A. Anders, and […]
https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-one-month-until-the-moon-landing/
Marshall Research Scientist Enables Large-Scale Open Science
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
By Jessica Barnett Most people use tools at work, whether it’s a hammer, a pencil, or a computer. Very few seek a doctorate degree in creating new tools for the job. Using that degree to make it easier for people around the world to access and use the vast amounts of data gathered by NASA? […]
https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/research-scientist-rahul-ramachandran/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
AIs are coming for social networks.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/18/24181196/butterflies-app-ai-chatbots-social-media
Crooks get their hands on 500K+ radiology patients’ records in cyber-attack
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Two ransomware gangs bragged of massive theft of personal info and medical files
Consulting Radiologists has notified almost 512,000 patients that digital intruders accessed their personal and medical information during a February cyberattack.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/radiology_information_loss/
US asks Vietnam to support Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The United States called on Vietnam Thursday to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity following Vladimir Putin’s one-day visit to Hanoi, part of the Russian president’s brief Asian tour seeking to shore up alliances in the face of mounting Western sanctions.
“We expect that any country, when it engages in conversations with the government of Russia, and especially when it hosts leaders from the government of Russia, will make clear their respect for the principles of the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty and territorial integrity, and convey that those principles must be upheld across the world,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told VOA during a briefing on Thursday.
US diplomat to Hanoi
Meanwhile, the State Department’s top diplomat for Asia is traveling to Hanoi to reaffirm ties after the U.S. and Vietnam upgraded their bilateral relationship last year.
Daniel J. Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, will travel to Hanoi, Vietnam, June 21 to 22, according to a State Department press release.
Kritenbrink will meet with senior Vietnam government officials “to underscore the strong U.S. commitment to implementing the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and to working with Vietnam in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” said the release.
Kritenbrink’s trip was planned “well before” Putin’s visit to Hanoi, said Miller.
Vietnam maintains three tiers of diplomatic relationship with other countries: Comprehensive Partnerships; Strategic Partnerships; and Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships. The United States, China and Russia are among the countries that maintain top-tier ties with Vietnam.
U.S. officials did not have an assessment, when asked by reporters, if there is any indication that Vietnamese companies or people are providing material support to Moscow for its war on Ukraine, or whether Washington has warned Hanoi against it.
At the White House, John Kirby, the National Security Council communications adviser, told reporters that the U.S. will “stay focused on continuing to deepen” the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Vietnam and “broaden it, improve it, for our own mutual benefit to each other and to the region.”
Putin’s visit to North Korea
Russia and Vietnam pledged Thursday to deepen ties during a state visit by Putin aimed at bolstering his alliances to counter Western efforts to isolate Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Russia and Vietnam “want to push up cooperation in defense and security, how to deal with nontraditional security challenges on the basis of international law, for peace and security in the region and the world,” Vietnamese President To Lam told reporters after talks with Putin.
Putin traveled to Vietnam, a close ally of Moscow since the Cold War, after talks in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Those two countries signed a mutual defense pact.
“It’s a significant visit,” said William Courtney, an adjunct senior fellow at the Rand Research organization about Putin’s trip to Vietnam amid Russia’s war on Ukraine and Russia’s growing isolation over that war.
“There’s no question Vietnam does depend on Russia for oil, for military equipment and some technology,” Courtney said. “But Vietnam appears to be now trying to broaden its aperture to look in other directions for military equipment as well. One reason might be that Vietnam has seen that a lot of Russian military equipment has performed poorly in Ukraine.”
In Washington, Republican Representative Mike Turner, who is the chairperson of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, voiced concerns over the possibility of Russia providing North Korea with technological assistance to improve its long-range ballistic missiles and their ability to directly target the United States.
“I think we’ve all sort of felt intuitively that China, Russia, North Korea, Iran are working together in both their development of capabilities and in their threats to the United States. These symbolic meetings, I think, should allow us to focus on this as a threat that has already been occurring,” Turner said during an event at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
VOA’s White House Correspondent Anita Powell, National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin and Kim Lewis contributed to this report. Some material in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
Dr. David R. Quincy, Family Medicine, Joins Cottage Primary Care – Santa Barbara
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA— David R. Quincy, MD, family medicine provider, has joined Cottage Primary Care – Santa Barbara where he will
The post Dr. David R. Quincy, Family Medicine, Joins Cottage Primary Care – Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
The Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara Awards $66K Grant to Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, CA – The Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara has provided a grant award of $66K to Santa Barbara
The post The Cancer Foundation of Santa Barbara Awards $66K Grant to Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Scholarship Foundation of Santa BarbaraReceives 12th Consecutive Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, CA — The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara has received its 12th consecutive four-star rating from nonprofit evaluator Charity Navigator.
The post Scholarship Foundation of Santa BarbaraReceives 12th Consecutive Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Donkey Kong: A Record of Struggle
date: 2024-06-20, from: Tilde.news
https://shmuplations.com/donkeykong/
Community Environmental Council Focuses On Plastic Pollution Solutions
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA, Calif (June 20, 2024) – Plastic is everywhere – more than 10 million metric tons of plastics enter
The post Community Environmental Council Focuses On Plastic Pollution Solutions appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Climate Activists Spray Stonehenge With Orange Paint
date: 2024-06-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Protesters with Just Stop Oil are demanding that the British government phase out fossil fuels by 2030
Summer Solstice Group Show at BE Gallery
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Photographer Broc Ellinger expands his gallery to include work from additional artists — including Jan Schmidtchen, Marie McKenzie, and Lauren Purves — for the June 22 exhibition.
The post Summer Solstice Group Show at BE Gallery appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/20/summer-solstice-group-show-at-be-gallery/
Biden bans Kaspersky: No more sales, updates in US
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Blockade begins July 20 on national security grounds as antivirus slinger vows to fight back
The Biden administration today banned the sale of Kaspersky Lab products and services in the United States, declaring the Russian biz a national security risk.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/us_bans_kaspersky_software/
Santa Ynez Man Found Guilty of Multiple Sexual Assault Charges Involving Minors
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Former yearbook salesman and youth sports coach Gregory Scott Ray, 57, was convicted on 37 counts against eight victims from 2007 to 2018.
The post Santa Ynez Man Found Guilty of Multiple Sexual Assault Charges Involving Minors appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Taking Sides
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
And lest we forget, this is the same Hamas that throws gay people off of roof tops as public punishment.
The post Taking Sides appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/20/taking-sides/
Car dealer software bigshot CDK pulls systems offline twice amid ‘cyber incident’
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Downtime set to crash into next week
The vendor behind the software on which nearly 15,000 car dealerships across the US rely says an ongoing “cyber incident” has forced it to pull systems offline for a second time in as many days.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/cdk_global_offline/
Pirate Ship Reduces Shipping Cost and Complexity
date: 2024-06-20, from: TidBITS blog
If shipping packages via USPS or UPS frustrates you, check out Pirate Ship. It offers steeply discounted shipping rates, an elegant interface with many shortcuts, and bits of humor.
https://tidbits.com/2024/06/20/pirate-ship-reduces-shipping-cost-and-complexity/
NASA Releases Updated Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience Plan
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
NASA joined more than 20 federal agencies in releasing its updated Climate Adaptation Plan Thursday, helping expand the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to make federal operations increasingly resilient to the impacts of climate change for the benefit of all. The updated plans advance the administration’s National Climate Resilience Framework, which helps align climate resilience investments across […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-releases-updated-climate-change-adaptation-resilience-plan/
Ticketmaster Crashes During Olivia Rodrigo Presale—Here’s Why
date: 2024-06-20, from: 404 Media Group
Specialized web browsers for ticket brokers combined with overwhelming fan demand is overwhelming Ticketmaster’s infrastructure.
https://www.404media.co/ticketmaster-crashes-during-olivia-rodrigo-presale-heres-why/
Musk ropes Dell, Supermicro into xAI supercomputer project
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Oh, Mike, what have you got yourself into now
Dell Technologies and Supermicro have been confirmed as the computer makers building an Nvidia-powered AI supercomputer for Elon Musk’s xAI startup.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/musk_dell_supermicro_grok/
Dinosaur With Giant, Loki-Like Horns Has the ‘Craziest, Coolest’ Headgear—and Could Be a New Species
date: 2024-06-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The discovery sheds light on the evolution of a surprisingly diverse group of horned dinosaurs in the western United States
How We Made the Deno Language Server Ten Times Faster
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: Deno blog
When a customer reported performance issues with the Deno language server, we began a performance investigation that resulted in reducing auto-completion times from 6-8 seconds to under one second in large codebases. This is how we did it.
https://deno.com/blog/optimizing-our-lsp
NASA, Partners Conduct Fifth Asteroid Impact Exercise, Release Summary
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
For the benefit of all, NASA released a summary Thursday of the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in partnership with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State Office of Space Affairs, convened the tabletop exercise to inform and assess our […]
Surfrider Battalion ROTC Cadets from UC Santa Barbara Receive Gold Bars at Beachside Ceremony
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The June 14 ceremony at Goleta Beach saw the 13 cadets, now bound for officer training or active duty, commissioned to the rank of second lieutenant.
The post Surfrider Battalion ROTC Cadets from UC Santa Barbara Receive Gold Bars at Beachside Ceremony appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Carbon Capture Heads Out to Sea
date: 2024-06-20, from: Heatmap News
If the global shipping industry were its own nation, it would be the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, belching about a billion tons of the stuff into the atmosphere every year. And not to state the obvious, but the sector isn’t going anywhere. Not only is cargo shipping the means by which 80% of global trade is carried out, but transporting goods via ship is actually much more fuel-efficient than the alternatives.
That means that slashing shipping emissions, which account for nearly 3% of the global total, is 100% necessary for a decarbonized future. But unlike most other industries, there’s a global regulatory body — the International Maritime Organization — that can set goals and mandates to ensure that decarbonization happens on schedule. The IMO is targeting net-zero shipping emissions by 2050, with a 40% reduction in the carbon intensity of international shipping by 2030 compared to 2008. And while these goals aren’t binding, forthcoming measures set to be developed and adopted late next year will be.
Shipping decarbonization is still in its early infancy though, meaning the pathway to net zero remains highly unclear — and that there’s lots of room for technological innovation. One company that’s gained traction in the past few years is aiming more at the “net” than the “zero” part of that equation — rather than develop clean fuels, UK-based startup Seabound is retrofitting ships with onboard carbon capture devices. The process uses a technology called calcium-looping that allows the company to capture carbon from the ship’s exhaust system, essentially locking it up in a limestone rock, and then process it later on land.
Though it’s relatively unproven, onboard carbon capture has the potential to gain ground quickly if it can be shown to work at scale. But precisely because the technology is unproven, the industry is far from unified in the idea that it will play a consequential role in the final decarbonization picture. “Alternative fuels are probably going to be the dominant solution,” Aparajit Pandey, shipping decarbonization lead at the think tank RMI, told me.
Indeed, low and zero-carbon fuels made from green methanol or ammonia (which are themselves made from green hydrogen) are widely considered the leading contenders in this space — while methanol does produce some CO2 when burned, it’s much cleaner than fossil fuels due to its low carbon and high oxygen content, and ammonia contains no carbon at all. But it could take a while to ramp up production to meet the industry’s ravenous fuel demand. Plus, repowering an existing ship with ammonia or methanol requires an expensive and time-consuming engine retrofit, and turning over the entire global fleet could take decades.
Other ideas and approaches abound. Biofuels? They come with a familiar host of concerns, plus fuel production is inherently limited by the amount of biomass that’s available. Solar-powered ships? Folks are trying, but current panels aren’t nearly energy dense enough to power a freighter on their own. Electrifying ships? It definitely makes sense for smaller vessels like ferries and tugboats, but batteries also take up a lot of space that could otherwise be used for freight. They also need to be either charged or swapped, requiring infrastructure that just doesn’t exist yet.
“Carbon capture is probably the only way that you can get a meaningful amount of emissions reduction in any near term way,” Clea Kolster, partner and head of science at Lowercarbon Capital, told me, referring to the cargo shipping industry. Lowercarbon led Seabound’s $4.4 million seed round two years ago.
This is not a zero sum calculation, however. Seabound CEO Alisha Fredricksson told me that she believes both methanol and ammonia fuels have a significant role to play. “They’re just taking a long time to develop. And so we won’t have sufficient supply for another 10, 20 years or so.”
Seabound’s system works by reacting the CO2 in a ship’s exhaust gas with calcium oxide to form solid calcium carbonate (aka limestone). This essentially locks the carbon away in small pebbles, which are unloaded when the ship docks. Because Seabound doesn’t purify or compress the CO2 onboard, the company says its system requires “negligible” amounts of additional fuel to operate. Once on land, the plan is for Seabound to either sell the limestone for use as a building material or to separate the CO2 and calcium oxide; the latter could then be reused to capture more carbon, while the former could either be used to produce methanol shipping fuel or geologically sequestered.
There are other companies attempting onboard carbon capture: Value Maritime, Mitsubishi, and Wartsila, among others, all of which rely on amine-based systems, a well-proven technology for carbon removal on land. But Fredricksson told me that miniaturizing these systems to work on ships is much more capital and energy intensive than Seabound’s decoupled approach, which allows the company to capture the CO2 at sea and process it later on land. This older tech also produces liquified CO2, which she says ports are less equipped to handle than a solid material like limestone.
Seabound completed its maiden voyage earlier this year, leaving from Turkey and traveling around the Middle East in a months-long trip that put their tech to the test in the real world for the first time. The system was installed on a freighter from Lomar Shipping, and was able to capture carbon at 78% efficiency and sulfur, a pollutant that can cause respiratory problems and acid rain, at about 90% efficiency while it was running.
Fredricksson and the company’s backers deemed the voyage a great success. “We hit the results we were looking for,” she told me. But in the grand scheme of things, the pilot was still quite small-scale. Seabound’s system only captured about 1 metric ton of carbon per day, a tiny percent of the ship’s overall emissions. That’s because the system was only running for a total of around 100 hours during the two months it was at sea. The objective, Fredricksson told me, was not to capture as much CO2 as possible, but to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the system and prepare for future scale-up.
Ultimately, the company hopes to capture up to 95% of a ship’s carbon emissions. But similar to batteries, this involves a space-related tradeoff. A larger, more effective carbon capture system would mean less room for cargo. “So I think the main goal for our engineering team over time will be to increase the efficiency to pack more and more tons of CO2 into each container,” Fredricksson told me. Right now, she says that 10- to 14-day voyages are Seabound’s sweet spot, given the size of its systems. The company hopes to build its first full scale system by the end of this year and start delivering to commercial customers in 2025.
The degree of interest in Seabound’s systems will depend in no small part on forthcoming directives from the IMO. As of now, there’s a rule mandating that ships calculate their energy efficiency and report it to the organization. Fredricksson says it’s already getting harder to sell ships with lower ratings. Pandey said he thinks future regulations could resemble the FuelEU initiative, which requires a steady decrease in the emissions intensity of shipping fuels over time, from 2% in 2025 to up to 80% by 2050.
While it’s unclear how a rule like this would incorporate onboard carbon capture into its framework, Pandey told me that if Seabound can prove out its tech on a larger scale, the approach is promising. “Of the carbon capture solutions that are out there, they’re probably the most innovative,” he told me. But he’s not sure that the company’s aim to commercialize by next year is realistic. “From now to prove it out to scale, who knows? Five years, six years, seven years, something like that,” Pandey guessed, “I think it could be viable, but it’s so early.”
A recent report on the potential of onboard carbon capture from DNV, an organization that maintains technical standards for ships, agrees that a longer timeline is more likely, stating that, “With the wider [carbon capture, utilization, and storage] infrastructure in development, scaling up of the maritime carbon capture network will take time and is expected to reach a broader uptake after 2030.”
Since returning from its first voyage, Seabound has reconfigured its system to fit into modified shipping containers that are intended to reduce retrofit time and costs. Now, if a shipowner wants to use Seabound’s system, the primary modification involves installing pipes to route exhaust from the ship’s smokestack or funnel to the company’s carbon capture device. Fredricksson estimates installation costs will be on the order of $100,000 per ship, though that will vary greatly depending on vessel size and type.
But if that estimate is in the right ballpark, it would be orders of magnitude cheaper than retrofitting a ship with an engine built for ammonia or methanol fuels. And yet Pandey isn’t so sure ship operators will be keen on either upgrade. “My strong guess is if they’re not going to retrofit a vessel for a new engine, they’re also not going to retrofit it for carbon capture,” Pandey told me.
Fredricksson expects Seabound will raise a Series A round later this year or early next, to help get its first commercial units off the line. And apparently, there’s been loads of investor interest. “Shipping and maritime is new for the climate tech ecosystem,” Fredricksson told me, meaning there’s lots to be gained by moving quickly and early. “There is so much CO2 out there being emitted by ships,” Fredricksson said, “and not a lot of solutions yet going after them.”
https://heatmap.news/technology/seabound-shipping-carbon-capture
Pocket 386 is a mini laptop for retro computing with support for DOS and Windows 95
date: 2024-06-20, from: Liliputing
The Pocket 386 is a tiny laptop computer with a 7 inch display, a QWERTY keyboard, and a body that’s small enough that you might actually be able to fit it into a (large) pocket. It’s also a device specifically designed for retro computing. The Pocket 386 gets its name from its 386 SX compatible processor, and […]
The post Pocket 386 is a mini laptop for retro computing with support for DOS and Windows 95 appeared first on Liliputing.
IBM, Kyndryl again once sued for age discrimination – this time by its own VPs
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
More big blues at Big Blue … And of course El Reg coverage is cited in the lawsuit
Once again, IBM has been sued for age discrimination, this time alongside spin-off Kyndryl, for allegedly cutting the jobs of older workers while creating similar positions for younger ones.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/ibm_and_kyndryl_again_sued/
Tesla’s tight grip on repairs sparks courtroom showdown
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Class action allowed to continue with EV maker’s ‘tying’ practices the focus
A judge has ruled that Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging the electric car manufacturer denies customers and third parties the right to repair its vehicles.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/tesla_right_to_repair/
Aid entering Gaza again via US-built temporary pier
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/aid-entering-gaza-again-via-us-built-temporary-pier/7663854.html
Moscow awaits US response to prisoner swap proposal
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/moscow-awaits-us-response-to-prisoner-swap-proposal/7663846.html
Young Men Of Color Struggle To Enroll In College. This Advising Program Says Its Approach Works
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The LAist
USC’s College Advising Corps is turning perceived deficits of young men of color into strengths to get them enrolled in education after high school.
https://laist.com/news/education/young-men-of-color-college-enrollment-usc-advising-corps
Rules for upcoming US presidential debate include mic muting and no live audience
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
Talented Young Tech Workers Should Be Hired by Uncle Sam
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: RAND blog
With tech giants tightening their belts, this year’s computer science graduates are facing a job market that’s lost some of its luster. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for the federal government to level up its tech workforce.
NASA’s Hubble Celebrates 21st Anniversary with “Rose” of Galaxies
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble’s eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-hubble-celebrates-21st-anniversary-with-rose-of-galaxies/
Safe Superintelligence Inc.
date: 2024-06-20, from: Michael Tsai
Ilya Sutskever et al. (via Hacker News): Building safe superintelligence (SSI) is the most important technical problem of our time. We have started the world’s first straight-shot SSI lab, with one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence. […] We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/20/safe-superintelligence-inc/
SuperDuper 3.9 Beta
date: 2024-06-20, from: Michael Tsai
Dave Nanian: We’re happy to announce Beta 2 of SuperDuper! v3.9, our initial cut at a Sequoia compatible release.[…]SuperDuper v3.9 includes Dark Mode support, and banishes our old textured window to the land of shadows.[…][W]e’ve turned on our ability to copy local Cloud files, while intelligently skipping the files and folders that have local “stubs”. […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/20/superduper-3-9-beta/
MicroMac: a Macintosh for Under £5
date: 2024-06-20, from: Michael Tsai
Matt Evans (via Hacker News): A Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller (on a Pico board), driving monochrome VGA video and taking USB keyboard/mouse input, emulating a Macintosh 128K computer and disc storage. The RP2040 has easily enough RAM to house the Mac’s memory, plus that of the emulator; it’s fast enough (with some tricks) to meet […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/20/micromac-a-macintosh-for-under-5/
OmniFocus 4.3
date: 2024-06-20, from: Michael Tsai
Ainsley Bourque Olson (release notes): Focus Filters, configurable in the Focus section of the Settings app, allow you to customize what app data is displayed when a Focus mode is enabled on your device. With OmniFocus 4.3, you can now set device Focus Filters to automatically filter out any OmniFocus content which is not relevant […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/06/20/omnifocus-4-3/
Russian American woman faces prison for Ukraine charity donation
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
Corruption and the Russian Government Reshuffle
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: RAND blog
As recent arrests of government officials show, allegations of corruption are a precursor to a change of management in Russia. But corruption in Russia is not a problem that can be eradicated by a change of policy or personnel; it is a function of the system itself. What can we expect now?
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/06/corruption-and-the-russian-government-reshuffle.html
Kennedy fails to meet criteria to join Biden, Trump on debate stage
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
Get Ready for the Soundtrack of Summer at Concerts in the Park!
date: 2024-06-20, from: City of Santa Clarita
By Councilmember Jason Gibbs Every summer, Santa Clarita’s very own Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road) transforms into a premiere venue for live musical performances where friends, families and neighbors come together to sing and dance the night away. With the evenings beginning to feel longer and warmer, it brings me great joy to welcome […]
The post Get Ready for the Soundtrack of Summer at Concerts in the Park! appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
This Man Brewed Beer Using 3,000-Year-Old Yeast and a Recipe From an Ancient Egyptian Papyrus
date: 2024-06-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Utah homebrewer Dylan McDonnell created his ‘Sinai Sour’ in his backyard
NASA Invites Media to ‘NASA in the Park’ June 22
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Media are invited to attend a celebration of space and the Rocket City during NASA in the Park on Saturday, June 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT at Big Spring Park East in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA and partners will pack the park with exhibits, music, food vendors, and hands-on activities for all ages. This event is free […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-nasa-in-the-park-june-22/
Augmented Reality Speeds Spacecraft Construction at NASA Goddard
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Technicians armed with advanced measuring equipment, augmented reality headsets, and QR codes virtually checked the fit of some Roman Space Telescope structures before building or moving them through facilities at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’ve been able to place sensors, mounting interfaces, and other spacecraft hardware in 3D space faster and […]
Why Scientists Are Intrigued by Air in NASA’s Mars Sample Tubes
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Tucked away with each rock and soil sample collected by the agency’s Perseverance rover is a potential boon for atmospheric scientists. Atmospheric scientists get a little more excited with every rock core NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover seals in its titanium sample tubes, which are being gathered for eventual delivery to Earth as part of the […]
These Badges Shed New Light on the Enslaved Workers Who Built Charleston
date: 2024-06-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The Smithsonian has acquired a collection of 146 slave badges from between 1800 and 1865
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/slaves-built-charleston-these-badges-are-proof-180984571/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-06-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Lovely find from Hacker News.
Blending Swift and Node:
https://github.com/kabiroberai/node-swift
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112650253295892530
NASA CubeSats Loaded for Launch
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Eight CubeSats that are part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative have been integrated into Firefly Aerospace’s deployment hardware and are ready to be encapsulated into the payload fairing of Firefly’s Alpha rocket. The launch, named “Noise of Summer,” will lift off early this summer from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-cubesats-loaded-for-launch/
Donald Sutherland, ‘M.A.S.H.’ and ‘Hunger Games’ actor, dies at 88
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Donald Sutherland, the prolific film and television actor whose long career stretched from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88.
Kiefer Sutherland, the actor’s son, confirmed his father’s death Thursday. No further details were immediately available.
“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” Kiefer Sutherland said on X. “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.”
The tall and gaunt Canadian actor with a grin that could be sweet or diabolical was known for offbeat characters such as Hawkeye Piece in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”
Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s.
Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — parts in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”
More recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films and the HBO limited series “The Undoing.” He never retired and worked regularly up until his death.
“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”
He received an honorary Oscar in 2017.
https://www.voanews.com/a/donald-sutherland-m-a-s-h-and-hunger-games-actor-dies-at-88/7663720.html
Crypto exchange Kraken accuses blockchain security outfit CertiK of extortion
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Researchers allegedly stole $3M using the vulnerability, then asked how much it was really worth
Kraken, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has accused a trio of security researchers of discovering a critical bug, expoliting it to steal millions in digital cash, then using stolen funds to extort the exchange for more.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/kraken_certik_crypto_dispute/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Donald Sutherland Dead: 'MAS*H,' 'Hunger Games' Actor Was 88.
In US, fake news websites now outnumber real local media sites
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/in-us-fake-news-websites-now-outnumber-real-local-media-sites/7663647.html
Submission Period Open for Youth Grove at Central Park
date: 2024-06-20, from: City of Santa Clarita
Release Forms Due July 12 for Inclusion in 2024 Evening of Remembrance Event The City of Santa Clarita is now accepting names for the Youth Grove in Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road). This project honors Santa Clarita youth, aged 24 years and younger, who have tragically lost their lives in traffic-related incidents. Youth must […]
The post Submission Period Open for Youth Grove at Central Park appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
https://santaclarita.gov/blog/2024/06/20/submission-period-open-for-youth-grove-at-central-park-2/
Dev Home Preview v0.15 Release
date: 2024-06-20, from: Windows Developer Blog
Welcome to the latest release of Dev Home, where we’ve been working to deliver your top asks. Dev Home is available by default and is open source on GitHub. Let’s dive into what‘s new!
Mach
The post Dev Home Preview v0.15 Release appeared first on Windows Developer Blog.
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2024/06/20/dev-home-preview-v0-15-release/
X boss Elon Musk tries to make nice with world at ad biz conference
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Where we’re at in 2024: Billionaire says he didn’t mean to tell everyone to ‘go f%$k themselves’
Just seven months ago, Elon Musk told an interviewer: “If someone’s going to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/x_boss_elon_musk_ad_talk/
With eight speakers, the Lenovo Tab Plus is basically a portable audio device that’s also an 11.5 inch Android tablet
date: 2024-06-20, from: Liliputing
Most smartphones, tablets, and laptops have built-in speakers. And most of them aren’t great, because it’s difficult to cram a decent set of speakers into thin and light designs that are common these days. The speakers often feel like an afterthought. That’s not the case with the new Lenovo Tab Plus. Its eight built-in speakers are […]
The post With eight speakers, the Lenovo Tab Plus is basically a portable audio device that’s also an 11.5 inch Android tablet appeared first on Liliputing.
A ‘Major Lunar Standstill’ Is Happening This Year—and Friday’s Full Moon Offers ‘Dramatic’ View
date: 2024-06-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine
From now through much of next year, the moon will periodically rise and set at its most extreme points, thanks to a rare celestial phenomenon that only occurs every 18.6 years
When Robots Aggregate
date: 2024-06-20, from: Tedium feed
The mess between Forbes and Perplexity AI highlights how soulless and extractive aggregation can be in the wrong hands. It’s the wrong direction for LLMs.
https://feed.tedium.co/link/15204/16720747/perplexity-forbes-ai-aggregation-risks
systemd 256.1: Now slightly less likely to delete /home
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Fixes catastrophic data loss, er, bug, er poorly
documented feature… user error
Following closely after systemd version 256 comes 256.1, which fixes a
handful of bugs. One of these is emphatically not
systemd-tmpfiles recursively deleting your entire home
directory. That’s a feature.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/systemd_2561_data_wipe_fix/
GPD Duo is a dual-screen laptop with two 13.3 inch OLED displays that unfold vertically
date: 2024-06-20, from: Liliputing
The GPD DUO is an upcoming laptop with a 35-watt processor, a 13.3 inch OLED display, and a second 13.3 inch OLED display that can be extended upward to give you more screen space when you need it. GPD says it’s like having a tall display that measures 18 inches diagonally. GPD’s upcoming laptop is powered by […]
The post GPD Duo is a dual-screen laptop with two 13.3 inch OLED displays that unfold vertically appeared first on Liliputing.
Ted Cruz Wants Platforms To Be Liable for Deepfakes
date: 2024-06-20, from: 404 Media Group
The bill, introduced this week, is called the “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (TAKE IT DOWN) Act.”
MicroJournal is a distraction-free writing tool with Cherry MX hot-swap keys
date: 2024-06-20, from: Liliputing
MicroJournal is a small, distraction-free writing device that combines a 2.8 inch, 320 x 240 pixel LCD display with a 48-key mechanical keyboard featuring hot-swap sockets. It’s powered by an ESP32 processor and designed to offer a way to get some writing done on the go… and not much else. Developer Un Kyu Lee has […]
The post MicroJournal is a distraction-free writing tool with Cherry MX hot-swap keys appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/microjournal-is-a-distraction-free-writing-tool-with-cherry-mx-hot-swap-keys/
Afghan evacuees in limbo: Humanitarian parole leaves 1,000s facing uncertainty in US
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — In 2021, the United States began one of its biggest humanitarian evacuations in history as it withdrew from Afghanistan, resettling more than 80,000 Afghans fleeing Taliban rule in the initial weeks of Operation Allies Welcome. However, they were brought into the U.S. through the humanitarian parole process that gives temporary immigration status to the displaced persons. But how has this temporary status affected Afghan evacuees in the U.S.?
Upon arrival in the United States, more than 70,000 evacuees were granted humanitarian parole for two years, a temporary immigration status with no path to permanent residency. Uncertainty around the humanitarian parole status has had several concrete effects on aspects of the evacuees’ lives, including financial, employment, housing, and mental health.
This process has come with many challenges for the resettled men, women and children from Afghanistan.
Masi Siddiqi, who came to the United States after the Taliban took control over Kabul, was granted admission to the prestigious Columbia University in New York. However, his status hindered his ability to secure funding through loans to continue his studies.
“I was admitted to Columbia University for the fall of 2023, and I did attend one semester. I thought that I may be able to afford it at first because I had my family’s support. But after doing one semester I found out that I was financially not able to do it because I did not qualify for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), for federal loans, for federal aid, grants, funds and for none of the benefits that a U.S. citizen or non-citizen would qualify for,” Masi said.
Safiullah Rauf, founder of Human First Coalition, an organization providing aid primarily to Afghanistan and Afghans, leads a team of hundreds to provide food, medical care and resettlement services to more than 15,000 Afghans in need. The organization has helped evacuate more than 7,000 people, including 1,400 U.S. nationals, since the Taliban seized control of the country.
Rauf is visiting communities in the United States to gather support for Congress to do more to support Afghans in the U.S., including in the form of draft legislation known as the Afghan Adjustment Act.
“[The] Afghan Adjustment Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation that was introduced in 2022 to help those allies we brought to the U.S. in 2021,’’ Rauf told VOA. ’’There are over 80,000 allies that were brought to the U.S., and many came with the humanitarian parole. They had a two-year visa to stay in the U.S. and their future was uncertain though the parole was extended for another year; but they still face an uncertain future. The Afghan Adjustment Act makes sure that all who came in 2021 go through a vetting process and after that they will become a productive member of the society.
“In the United States, passing of any kind of legislation is a huge hurdle and you have to move mountains to approve any law, especially right now where [the] Senate and the House is most divided,’’ Rauf said. ‘’Because this bill is somewhat related to immigration, the Republicans are very much against any immigration bills right now. However, this bill is different than a normal immigration bill. This bill is for those allies who supported the U.S. for over 20 years in Afghanistan and their life will be in danger and it is a certain death if they go back to Afghanistan. So they must be given a permanent residency here.’’
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, legal assistance resources and immigration processing are experiencing extreme delays that could span years.
Laila Mangal, who is working for LLS resettlement agency as a case manager and cultural liaison in the state of Virginia, told VOA Deewa about the challenges faced by the Afghans who came to the U.S. on short notice and in chaotic circumstances. She expressed that the unclear nature of evacuees’ immigration status for the near future, has posed a critical structural barrier to their well-being and, ultimately, their success in the U.S.
“When their legal case is in the process and it takes longer, the refugees go through stress and pressure,’’ Mangal said. ’’Sometimes this legal battle drains their mental health.”
Masi, the student, calls on the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act so the displaced Afghans can be categorized as U.S. permanent residents.
“As the U.S. officials say ‘we stand by our Afghan allies,’ we do expect them to stand by their allies because I personally believe that they have not yet stood by their Afghan allies,’’ Masi said. ‘’Not only with the ones that are left behind but also the ones that are currently facing the immigration limbo here in the U.S.; just like my family and myself. I really appreciate that the senators and the representatives from my state and from the other states should support the Afghan Adjustment Act. I think the social media slogans are not enough by themselves. They must push the majority leaders to bring the act to the floor because with bipartisan support, we can have the act pass.’’
Like other resettled immigrants, Afghans were encouraged to find jobs quickly and felt the pressure to do so given the high costs of living, limited aid available, and, for some, the large families they’re supporting. Many found low-wage jobs in manufacturing, hospitality, retail, food processing, trucking, or ride sharing to support themselves and their families.
But with the pending expiration of employment authorization documents this fall, employment stability is at risk for some. Stakeholders shared that because of the expiration date, some employers have begun notifying people they will lose their jobs later this year or that they are now no longer needed.
This story originated in VOA’s Deewa service.
The DJI Drone Ban: A Uniquely American Clusterfuck
date: 2024-06-20, from: 404 Media Group
Lawmakers are trying to ban a Chinese company on “surveillance” grounds to benefit American competitors powering U.S. police surveillance.
https://www.404media.co/the-dji-drone-ban-a-uniquely-american-disaster/
Half of Dell US staff reportedly opted for remote work
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Reduced promotion prospects for those involved, and some already eyeing up the exit route
Return to office (RTO) mandates don’t work, at least not for a reported 50 percent of Dell staff in the US, some of whom are prepared to let go of promotion hopes and start looking for alternatives that offer more flexibility.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/half_of_dell_us_staff_wfh/
Cal Fire crews make progress on Aero Fire, other state wildfires
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Crews also are expected to battle a heat wave that is supposed to hit the interior of the state starting Friday.
I Will Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again
date: 2024-06-20, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
<div class="known-bookmark">
<div class="e-content">“This entire class of person is, to put it simply, abhorrent to right-thinking people. They’re an embarrassment to people that are actually making advances in the field, a disgrace to people that know how to sensibly use technology to improve the world, and are also a bunch of tedious know-nothing bastards that should be thrown into Thought Leader Jail until they’ve learned their lesson, a prison I’m fundraising for.”
I enjoyed this very much.
Here’s the thing, though: I don’t think what Nikhil wants will happen.
I mean, don’t get me wrong: it probably should. The author is a leader in his field, and his exasperation at the hype train is well-earned.
But it’s not people like Nikhil who actually make the decisions, or invest in the companies, or make the whole industry (or industries) tick over. Again: it should be.
What happens again and again is that people who see that they can make money out of a particularly hyped technology leap onto the bandwagon, and then market the bandwagon within an inch of everybody’s lives. Stuff that shouldn’t be widespread becomes widespread.
And here we are again with AI.
This is exactly right:
“Unless you are one of a tiny handful of businesses who know exactly what they’re going to use AI for, you do not need AI for anything - or rather, you do not need to do anything to reap the benefits. Artificial intelligence, as it exists and is useful now, is probably already baked into your businesses software supply chain.”
And this:
“It did not end up being the crazy productivity booster that I thought it would be, because programming is designing and these tools aren’t good enough (yet) to assist me with this seriously.”
There is work that will be improved with AI, but it’s not something that most industries will have to stop everything and leap on top of. The human use cases must come first with any technology: if you have a problem that AI can solve, by all means, use AI. But if you don’t, hopping on the hype train is just going to burn you a lot of money and slow your actual core business down.
<p>[<a href="https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/">Link</a>]</p>
</div>
</div>https://werd.io/2024/i-will-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again
California YIMBY group endorses Silicon Valley billionaire’s California Forever project
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
The group, while noting some concerns with the plan, still supports the vision overall. The decision marks one of the first statewide groups to support the Solano County-based initiative.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/20/statewide-yimby-group-endorses-california-forever/
Stephanie Duchesne: Leading with Integrity and Openness for CLDP
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Of all the lessons learned throughout her NASA career, the importance of relationship and personal integrity is one that has been repeatedly reinforced for Stephanie Duchesne, a Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program (CLDP) project executive. “Each person you work with has their own unique perspectives and concerns, and in order to solve a problem […]
First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Alignment of bipolar jets confirms star formation theories For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area (seen at the upper left) of this […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/first-of-its-kind-detection-made-in-striking-new-webb-image/
The extra long lag of the Fed’s interest rate hikes
date: 2024-06-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report
In the U.S., the Federal Reserve has decided to keep rates elevated for a year now. The Fed’s goal is to hit a 2% inflation target, but that last mile has been difficult. And part of it has to do with how we are able to lock in debt at times of lower rates in the U.S. We’ll discuss. We’ll also hear about RV sales, then the Europe and China’s tit-for-tat trade battle.
San Jose Earthquakes winless streak stretches to seven after Timbers rally with late goal
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Wingers Cristian Espinoza and Jeremy Ebobisse started Wednesday’s match, extending their MLS-leading consecutive games played streaks to 93 and 92, respectively.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What the web looked like in 1994.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91140068/how-the-internet-went-mainstream-in-1994
Los Gatos council pulls back support for specific sales tax hike
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Council members doubtful that super majority of voters would approve ballot measure.
Semiconductor industry navigating choppy waters with sunnier climes ahead
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Despite dip in equipment revenue, analysts predict robust rebound
Chipmaking equipment suppliers haven’t had the greatest start to the calendar year, collectively reporting a sales slump in the opening three months of 2024, according to analyst figures.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/semiconductor_industry_counterpoint/
7 amazing Bay Area things to do this weekend, June 21-23
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Got your weekend plans? We have some nifty ideas, from cool Sonoma day trips to free music and amazing rooftop dining.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/20/7-amazing-bay-area-things-to-do-this-weekend-june-21-23/
6 summer cocktail recipes to soothe the California heat
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
We asked for bartenders for their favorite summer drink recipes, and they delivered some delights.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/20/6-summer-cocktail-recipes-to-soothe-the-california-heat/
Berkeley’s old Westbrae Biergarten reopens as Headlands Brewing
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
The former family-favorite beer garden has new landscaping, live music and a menu of traditional beer-hall bites.
These California employees moved across the country for work, then Disney canceled the project. Now they’re suing.
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Two employees are suing the Walt Disney Company, saying the company moved their jobs from California to Florida, only for Disney to cancel the project and move them back, hurting them financially and emotionally.
California lost 222 big employers in 4 years, 3rd-most in the US
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Still, California had 21,123 of these 100-plus-employee workplaces – the biggest count in US.
How Is Science Even Possible?
date: 2024-06-20, from: Quanta Magazine
How are scientists able to crack fundamental questions about nature and life? How does math make the complex cosmos understandable? In this episode, the physicist Nigel Goldenfeld and co-host Steven Strogatz explore the deep foundations of the scientific process.The post How Is Science Even Possible? first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-is-science-even-possible-20240620/
Oracle Java license teams set to begin targeting Oracle users who don’t think they use Oracle
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
IP address of downloads offers crumb trail to orgs who should be ready for Big Red, says licensing expert
Organizations that do not consider themselves Oracle customers, but who use Java, can expect a call from the Big Red in the next three to nine months, according to a software licensing specialist.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/oracle_java_licence_teams/
Electric flying taxi firm preps aviation web to slash Bay Area commutes
date: 2024-06-20, from: San Jose Mercury News
Archer Aviation has revealed plans for an “urban mobility network” that could slash Bay Area commute times.
NASA Preserves Its Past at Kennedy While Building Future of Space
date: 2024-06-20, from: NASA breaking news
Current and former employees of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida gathered recently to celebrate the installation of a Florida Historical Marker cast in bronze at the location of the spaceport’s old headquarters building. The first of its kind inside the center’s secure area, the marker is the latest example of the center’s commitment to […]
Lack of legal framework complicates policing political deepfakes
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
Voters in this U.S. presidential election are vulnerable to bad actors using artificial intelligence to create disinformation that benefits rival politicians or promotes the interests of foreign governments. VOA’s Ivanna Pidborska looks at the use of AI in Election 2024 in this report narrated by Carolyn Presutti. Camera and edit: Kostiantyn Golubchik, Dmytro Melnyk
Summertime, and the Weather Is Crazy
date: 2024-06-20, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: A dust storm is headed for New Mexico • Torrential rains flooded the French city of Nantes • Tourists are being turned away in Sicily due to water shortages and extreme heat.
THE TOP FIVE
- U.S. plagued by wild weather as summer officially begins
The U.S. (along with the rest of the world) is experiencing a bunch of different extreme weather events all at the same time: an early and unusually long heat wave through the Midwest and East Coast, a tropical storm and the potential for 20 inches of rain in Texas, massive wildfires in New Mexico followed almost immediately by heavy rain and flash flooding, late-season snowfall in the Rockies. Oh and don’t forget that last week parts of Florida were under two feet of water. Almost every corner of the country has been subjected to some kind of weather-related threat in recent days. Of course, America is a big place, with lots of different landscapes and microclimates, and pinpointing the exact role climate change plays in extreme weather events can be hard. But there’s just no denying that things feel … strange. And, as I seem to keep hearing, “it’s only June!”
Flooding
in Surfside Beach, Texas, from Tropical Storm
Alberto.Brandon
Bell/Getty Images
Today marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere and the official start of summer 2024. With global temperatures still at record highs, what we’re experiencing now is probably just a preview of what’s to come in the following months and years. “These days I think it’s much more appropriate to call it ‘global weirding’” than global warming, climate professor Katharine Hayhoe told Bloomberg. “Wherever we live, our weather is getting much weirder.”
- Warm temperatures send U.S. power generation soaring
The warm temperatures across the U.S. are driving up power generation and putting a strain on the grid. Natural gas-fired power generation is up 6% so far this year compared to 2023, and in fact is at its highest since 2021, Reuters reported. While clean power output is also set to rise, natural gas is expected to remain the top fuel source in the U.S. “In turn, U.S. power sector emissions from gas use will likely also climb to new highs in 2024, potentially accelerating the climate warming trends that are fuelling increased higher gas demand in the first place,” Reuters added. The heat wave sweeping east prompted New England’s power grid operator to declare a level 1 emergency this week, and briefly pushed electricity prices up near $2,000 per megawatt-hour, “more than 10 times the day-ahead cost for the hour,” Bloomberg reported. Back-up oil generation came online Tuesday.
- Fossil fuel use and emissions reached record highs in 2023
Global fossil fuel use hit a record high last year as energy consumption rose, according to a report from the Energy Institute. Coal demand rose, oil consumption “rebounded strongly” after a pandemic dip, and crude oil consumption exceeded 100 million barrels per day for the first time ever. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.1% and broke the record set the year before. Emissions from energy have increased by 50% since the year 2000, the report found. At the same time, renewable power generation reached a record high last year and accounted for about 15% of the global energy mix, and fossil fuel consumption for energy dropped ever so slightly (by 0.4%). The report sheds light on huge regional contrasts: “In advanced economies, we observe signs of demand for fossil fuels peaking, contrasting with economies in the Global South for whom economic development and improvements in quality of life continue to drive fossil growth,” Energy Institute Chief Executive Nick Wayth said.
- Utility-scale wind farm opens in Mississippi
Mississippi’s first utility-scale wind farm got up and running this week, marking a point of progress in the Southeast, where “wind energy development has long been stuck in the doldrums,” said Maria Gallucci at Canary Media. The 184-megawatt Delta Wind farm will provide power to Amazon for its regional data centers. One interesting detail is that this farm features some of the tallest onshore turbines in the country, manufactured to make the most out of the top wind speeds. Developers hope this will be “a catalyst for accelerated renewable energy and economic development throughout the South.”
- Climate activists target Stonehenge
Activists from Just Stop Oil sprayed parts of the ancient Stonehenge monument with orange cornflour powder yesterday and called for an end to new fossil fuel use and extraction. Their actions were immediately and widely condemned and have sparked a national conversation about just how far climate protesters should go for their cause. The group said the powder will wash away with the rain, “but the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not.” This morning the group also spray painted private jets at a London airport.
Meanwhile, also in the UK, the Supreme Court there today ruled that, before new oil drilling projects can commence, companies must disclose and consider the environmental impacts of the resulting emissions. The decision “could put future UK oil and gas projects in question,” reported the BBC.
THE KICKER
A new UN climate survey covering more than 70 countries representing most of the global population found that 80% of people worldwide want their governments to do more to address the climate crisis.
https://heatmap.news/climate/summer-wild-weather-heat-climate
Russia’s cyber spies still threatening French national security, democracy
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Publishing right before a major election is apparently just a coincidence
A fresh report into the Nobelium offensive cyber crew published by France’s computer emergency response team (CERT-FR) highlights the group’s latest tricks as the country prepares for a major election and to host this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/russias_cyber_attacks_france_report/
Article Spotlight: Using bioluminescence as a tool for studying diversity in marine zooplankton and dinoflagellates
date: 2024-06-20, from: PeerJ blog
Battery electric vehicles lose their spark in Europe as hybrids steal the show
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Germans cooling on proper EVs, according to auto industry group
The market share of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is declining in Europe while hybrid electric cars are proving more popular.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/bev_market_share_eu/
Latent Expertise: Everyone is in R&D
date: 2024-06-20, from: One Useful Thing
Ideas come from the edges, not the center
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/latent-expertise-everyone-is-in-r
When each state has “its own unique cannabis industry”
date: 2024-06-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Cannabis is now legal — for medical or recreational use — in 38 states, plus D.C. But marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, meaning there are stringent rules governing the transportation of cannabis. That can leave some parts of the industry stranded, sometimes on literal islands. Today, we travel to Martha’s Vineyard to hear how those hurdles have impacted one dispensary. Plus, a look at fossil fuel use and the effort to reopen a criminal case against Boeing.
Inside 22,734 Steam games
date: 2024-06-20, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
About a year ago I blogged about games that use curl. In that post I listed a bunch of well-known titles I knew use curl and there was a list of 136 additional games giving credit to curl. Kind of amazing that over one hundred games decided to use curl! At the time, lots of … Continue reading Inside 22,734 Steam games
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/06/20/inside-22734-steam-games/
China goes tit for tat on tariffs
date: 2024-06-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Chinese carmakers are urging Beijing to slap import taxes of up to 25% on some European cars, following the European Union’s confirmation that it will place tariffs of up to 38% on electric vehicle imports from China. Then, global fossil fuel use and carbon emissions hit record highs last year, despite growing energy production from wind and solar. And charities are worried about the impact of some G7 governments’ slashing foreign aid budgets.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/china-goes-tit-for-tat-on-tariffs
Introducing a computing curriculum in Odisha
date: 2024-06-20, from: Raspberry Pi (.org)
We are working with two partner organisations in Odisha, India, to develop and roll out the IT & Coding Curriculum (Kaushali), a computing curriculum for government high schools. Last year we launched the first part of the curriculum and rolled out teacher training. Read on to find out what we have learned from this work.…
The post Introducing a computing curriculum in Odisha appeared first on Raspberry Pi Foundation.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/introducing-a-computing-curriculum-in-odisha/
Jim de Bree | Election from an Investor’s Perspective
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
On June 18, my investment advisor conducted a webcast for its clients about the 2024 elections from an investor’s perspective. Although the presenters discussed the election primarily in the context […]
The post Jim de Bree | Election from an Investor’s Perspective appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/jim-de-bree-election-from-an-investors-perspective/
Richard Bussell | A Letter Writer’s Chutzpah
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
It takes some chutzpah to chide Rep. Mike Garcia, a combat veteran, for patriotic failings (Thomas Oatway, letters, June 13). By criticizing the FBI, Mr. Garcia ran afoul of Mr. […]
The post Richard Bussell | A Letter Writer’s Chutzpah appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/richard-bussell-a-letter-writers-chutzpah/
Bill Lyons | Hidden Consequences
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
President Joe Biden’s plan to raise corporate taxes has two hidden consequences. The first is companies will be forced to raise prices to cover the increased expense. Consumers, already reeling […]
The post Bill Lyons | Hidden Consequences appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/bill-lyons-hidden-consequences/
Byron York | Democrats Turn Lawfare Into Campaign Ads
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has released a new ad that synopsizes the Democratic effort to use criminal charges and lawsuits against former President Donald Trump. “In the courtroom, we […]
The post Byron York | Democrats Turn Lawfare Into Campaign Ads appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/byron-york-democrats-turn-lawfare-into-campaign-ads/
Qilin: We knew our Synnovis attack would cause a healthcare crisis at London hospitals
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cybercriminals claim they used a zero-day to breach pathology provider’s systems
Interview The ransomware gang responsible for a healthcare crisis at London hospitals says it has no regrets about its cyberattack, which was entirely deliberate, it told The Register in an interview.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/qilin_our_plan_was_to/
Study employs large language models to sniff out their own bloopers
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What if it’s LLMs all the way down?
Researchers in computing and linguistics have devised a new way to detect errors in large language models, which relies on employing more LLMs.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/llm_hallucination_study/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Scripting News: The next patriotic kitten.
http://scripting.com/2024/06/19/125500.html
Microsoft’s new Surface Laptop 7 has arrived. The recovery images have not
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nice computer. Shame if anything happened to it
Shiny new Surface 7 devices are starting to arrive, but a lack of recovery media is causing problems for some users.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/surface_laptop_7_recovery/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Wikipedia is essential, but it hallucinates as does journalism as does ChatGPT. Tim Bray, who I’ve known many years, defends Wikipedia, and quotes me, unfortunately without a link.
https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/06/15/Wikipedia-Pain
Laser-cut business card necklace
date: 2024-06-20, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
This laser-cut aluminium business card necklace means you never need to panic about running out of traditional cards ever again.
The post Laser-cut business card necklace appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/laser-cut-business-card-necklace/
Jason Gibbs | Get Ready for the Soundtrack of Summer at Concerts in the Park
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
Every summer, Santa Clarita’s very own Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road) transforms into a premiere venue for live musical performances where friends, families and neighbors come together to sing […]
The post Jason Gibbs | Get Ready for the Soundtrack of Summer at Concerts in the Park appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Get Bizzzzy with a HIVE
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Time blocking + accountability + deep work = a HIVE.
The post Get Bizzzzy with a HIVE appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/20/get-bizzzzy-with-a-hive/
Today in SCV History (June 20)
date: 2024-06-20, from: SCV New (TV Station)
2002 – “Legacy: Santa Clarita’s Living History” series debuts on SCVTV with “Placerita Gold” episode. [watch
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-june-20/
AI-assisted automation for clouds and networks climbs Gartner’s hype cycles
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Yes, AI will volunteer to run your IT estate. You might be a fool to trust it
Analyst firm Gartner has published its annual hype cycles for cloud tech and enterprise networking, and both suggest cooling your jets rather than rushing towards AI-assisted tools to operate your tech.…
South Africa beats US in Super Eight playoffs at the T20 World Cup
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
NORTH SOUND, Antigua — South Africa had to work hard to earn an 18-run win over the fast-improving United States in the opening game of the Super Eight at the Twenty20 World Cup on Wednesday.
Co-host the West Indies also lost it first match in the Super Eight stage Wednesday, beaten by eight wickets by defending champion England. Jack Salt scored 87 runs to lead England.
Andries Gous made an unbeaten 80 off 47 balls for the U.S. — against the country of his birth — to move atop the batting charts at the World Cup before South Africa restricted the Americans at 176-6.
Fast bowler Kagiso Rabada claimed 3-18 and spinner Keshav Maharaj got the prized wicket of U.S. captain Aaron Jones for a duck — no runs — to finish with 1-24.
Quinton de Kock had earlier made a rampant 74 off 40 balls and Heinrich Klaasen provided the perfect finish with 36 not out in the South African total of 194-4 after Jones won the toss and elected to field.
“Pretty happy with the performance as a whole,” South Africa captain Aiden Markram said. “A couple of overs here and there we need to tidy up … but the wicket definitely changes and gets a bit slower.”
De Kock and Markram (46 off 32 balls) dominated both spinners and the pacers as they raised a solid 110-run stand after Saurabh Netravalkar (2-21) had provided the early breakthrough by getting the wicket of Reeza Hendricks in his second over.
“We’ve had some tricky wickets so it was nice to spend some time in the middle today,” de Kock said. “The USA put us under pressure towards the end. It was a great game.”
Netravalkar, who bowled a sensational Super Over in the United States’ historic win over heavyweights Pakistan in the group stage, struck immediately in his return spell when Markram was brilliantly caught by diving Ali Khan at deep backward point off a full-pitched ball.
But Klaasen used all his T20 experience in the last five overs and struck three sixes while Tristan Stubbs also hit two fours in his 16-ball unbeaten 20 which lifted the South Africa total.
“Hard to take a defeat after coming so close,” Jones said. “We did lack discipline in the bowling at times, (but) once we play good cricket we can beat any team in the world. We need to be a lot more disciplined.”
England beats the West Indies
At Gros Islet, St Lucia, Salt carried his bat for 87 and Jonny Bairstow made an unbeaten 48 as defending champion England beat the West Indies by eight wickets in a match between two-time World Cup champions.
It was the West Indies’ first loss of the tournament and their first defeat in eight Twenty20 internationals.
The West Indies made 180-4 batting first on the same pitch on which they made 218-5 against Afghanistan in the final match of the group stage on Monday.
The fireworks came at the end and from England as Salt made his 87 runs from 47 balls with seven fours and five sixes and Bairstow added his 48 from 26 deliveries. England reached 181-2 with 15 balls to spare.
Salt provided a solid foundation for the England run chase, initially in a 67-run opening partnership with Jos Buttler.
Salt scored 30 runs — three sixes and three fours — from the 16th over bowled by Romario Shepherd.
“I’m not looking too far ahead at the minute, just glad that I could contribute to a good team win,” Salt said. “It was a little bit tougher in the middle overs with the spin.”
The pitch may have been a little slower than on Monday but England captain Buttler also used his bowlers well and the West Indies innings included 50 dot balls.
A capacity crowd in the first night match of the Super Eight stage was out to party but the match really didn’t come alive until the end.
The West Indies started well but were disrupted in the six-over power play by the loss of Brandon King who retired hurt after 4.3 overs with a side or groin strain. King had just hit the first six of the match, a 103-meter (338-foot) blow that flew over the grandstand and out of the stadium.
He made 23 from 13 balls and was setting the early pace of the innings when he was forced to retire with the West Indies at 40-0. There was no immediate word on the seriousness of King’s injury.
“Credit has to be given to the England bowling unit. You can see they had clear plans and executed them well,” West Indies captain Rovman Powell said.
Samsung Korea warns many apps won’t run on its Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
FWIW Microsoft says ‘your apps run great’ even when emulated on Arm
Samsung has debuted Copilot+ PCs running on Qualcomm processors, but warned buyers in South Korea – and seemingly only that nation – that they won’t run many common applications.…
Australian billionaire wins right to sue Facebook in the US over scam ads
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Andrew Forrest has spent five years railing against promos that falsely claim he’s found the route to crypto riches
Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has won the right to sue Meta over ads it carried that falsely depict him endorsing cryptocurrencies and other financial services products.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/andrew_forrest_meta_scam_ads_case/
A Golden Celebration for a Golden Anniversary
date: 2024-06-20, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara Summer Solstice shines bright at 50.
The post A Golden Celebration for a Golden Anniversary appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/06/19/a-golden-celebration-for-a-golden-anniversary/
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s new startup aims to create ‘safe superintelligence’
date: 2024-06-20, updated: 2024-06-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
He’s in competition with – and critical of – his former workplace
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever – who last month quit the GPT creator – has unveiled his next gig: an outfit dubbed Safe Superintelligence Inc. that aims to produce a product of the same name – without the “Inc.”…
Riders recount collision that killed 2 horses
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
What started out as an early-evening trail ride on horseback ended tragically for Marcela De Vivo and her daughter Isabelle Andrew, 14, who are both recovering from the collision on […]
The post Riders recount collision that killed 2 horses appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/riders-recount-collision-that-killed-2-horses/
New Data: Longer Trains Raise Derailment Risk, But Regs Are Stalled
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Lever News
While funneling campaign cash to lawmakers, rail lobbyists convinced Biden officials to brush off workers’ demand for safety limits.
https://www.levernews.com/new-data-longer-trains-raise-derailment-risk-but-regs-are-stalled/
Families of Boeing MAX crash victims seek nearly $25 billion fine, prosecution
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Families of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims on Wednesday asked U.S. authorities to impose a fine of up to $24.8 billion on the aviation giant and proceed with criminal prosecution.
The move comes a day after Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun acknowledged the gravity of the company’s safety problems and assured a U.S. congressional panel that it was making progress on the issue.
Sitting behind him in the audience were relatives of victims of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashes in 2018 and 2019, who held up victims’ photos.
“Because Boeing’s crime is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history, a maximum fine of more than $24 billion is legally justified and clearly appropriate,” Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The 32-page document explains the calculations behind the amount sought, saying Boeing “should be fined the maximum — $24,780,000,000 — with perhaps $14,000,000,000 to $22,000,0000,000 of the fine suspended on the condition that Boeing devote those suspended funds to an independent corporate monitor and related improvements in compliance and safety programs as identified below.”
It added: “And Boeing’s Board of Directors should be ordered to meet with the families.”
The families also believe the government should promptly “launch criminal prosecutions of the responsible corporate officials at Boeing at the time of the two crashes.”
The case relates to crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that together claimed 346 lives and comes as Boeing faces intensifying scrutiny following recent manufacturing and safety problems.
The aviation giant has again been in the public spotlight since a January 5 incident in which a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out midflight.
Coroner IDs victim in Newhall shooting
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
Medical examiners with the L.A. County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office released the name of the man killed in a shooting Monday night in Newhall. Fernando Bernabe, 31, of Newhall, died around […]
The post Coroner IDs victim in Newhall shooting appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/coroner-ids-victim-in-newhall-shooting/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-06-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2020: Trump suggests US slow virus testing to avoid bad statistics.
Deputies arrest 2 suspects in separate arson investigations
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials on Wednesday confirmed two suspects who are each believed to be connected to separate arson investigations are in custody, mentioning proactive patrols and public […]
The post Deputies arrest 2 suspects in separate arson investigations appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/deputies-arrest-2-suspects-in-separate-arson-investigations/
OpenAI Co-Founder Launches New Startup
date: 2024-06-20, from: Om Malik blog
It might as well be an episode from “Days of Our (AI) Lives. Ilya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, who left the company earlier this spring, is back in action with a new startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI). Daniel Gross, former AI lead at Apple, and researcher Daniel Levy are co-founders of the company. Sutskever is a well-respected and revered researcher who was part of Geoffrey Hinton’s core research group and also at Google. …
https://om.co/2024/06/19/openai-co-founder-launches-new-startup/
Pilar Schiavo | Reduce Parking Ticket Fees
date: 2024-06-20, from: SCV New (TV Station)
This weeks Edition of Pilar’s Pocketbook focuses on ways to help reduce fees and pay for piling parking tickets.
https://scvnews.com/pilars-pocketbook-reduce-parking-ticket-fees/
COC to launch first bachelor’s degree program in building performance
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
News release College of the Canyons will launch its first bachelor’s degree program in January 2025. The bachelor of applied science in building performance program is an extension of COC’s […]
The post COC to launch first bachelor’s degree program in building performance appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/coc-to-launch-first-bachelors-degree-program-in-building-performance/
Louisiana requires public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments
date: 2024-06-20, from: VOA News USA
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — Louisiana has become the first U.S. state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, the latest move from a Republican-dominated legislature pushing a conservative agenda under a new governor.
The legislation that Republican Governor Jeff Landry signed into law on Wednesday requires a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.
Opponents questioned the law’s constitutionality and vowed to challenge it in court. Proponents said the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the language of the law, the Ten Commandments are “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
The posters, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.
Under the law, state funds will not be used to implement the mandate. The posters would be paid for through donations.
The law also “authorizes” but does not require the display of other items in K-12 public schools, including: The Mayflower Compact, which was signed by religious pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and is often referred to as America’s “First Constitution”; the Declaration of Independence; and the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory — in the present day Midwest — and created a pathway for admitting new states to the Union.
Opponents vow to challenge law
Not long after the governor signed the bill into law at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School in Lafayette on Wednesday, civil rights groups and organizations that want to keep religion out of government promised to file a lawsuit challenging it.
The law prevents students from getting an equal education and will keep children who have different beliefs from feeling safe at school, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation said in a joint statement Wednesday afternoon.
“Even among those who may believe in some version of the Ten Commandments, the particular text that they adhere to can differ by religious denomination or tradition. The government should not be taking sides in this theological debate,” the groups said.
The controversial law, in a state ensconced in the Bible Belt, comes during a new era of conservative leadership in Louisiana under Landry, who replaced two-term Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards in January. Republicans hold a supermajority in the legislature, and Republicans hold every statewide elected position, paving the way for lawmakers to push through a conservative agenda.
Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has succeeded in making the bills law.
Similar law ruled unconstitutional
Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are not new.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
‘Rhythm & Soul’ at the SCAA Gallery
date: 2024-06-20, from: The Signal
News release Santa Clarita Artists Association’s Gallery is showcasing “Rhythm & Soul” in a new exhibit running through July 14, with a free artists’ reception scheduled Saturday. The reception is scheduled […]
The post ‘Rhythm & Soul’ at the SCAA Gallery appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/06/rhythm-soul-at-the-scaa-gallery/
Teardown 2024
date: 2024-06-20, from: Modos Blog
We’re excited to share that we’ll be at Teardown 2024!