If you like TidBITS and Apple tech podcasts, take note: Adam Engst is
now a regular contributor to Allison Sheridan’s Chit Chat Across the
Pond podcast. For the inaugural episode, they talk about how to avoid
missing calendar and reminder notifications and a slew of related
topics.
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes
thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together.
This week, we discuss embargoes, research papers, terminology and epic
Reel pulls.
Prince
Harry’s olive branch to Pat Tillman’s mom at ESPYs doesn’t quiet
controversy
date: 2024-07-12, from: San Jose Mercury News
Social media lit up after Harry’s acceptance speech at the ESPYs,
with people still fiercely divided over whether the British royal should
have received an award named for an American war hero.
Pine64
Quartz64 Zero is a $15 single-board PC with RK3566 and 1GB RAM
date: 2024-07-12, from: Liliputing
Two years after launching the Quartz64 Model B single-board computer
with a Rockchip RK3566 processor and support for up to 8GB of RAM,
Pine64 has introduced a stripped down model with a much lower price tag.
The new Quartz64 Zero is an upcoming credit card-sized PC with a RK3566T
processor and a $15 price tag […]
New
Pac-12 bowl partnerships for 2024-25 are the same as the old Pac-12 bowl
partnerships (despite realignment)
date: 2024-07-12, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Rose Bowl will be part of the expanded CFP, but all other games
affiliated with the conference in recent years will continue to host the
12 schools.
New
Outlook set for GA despite missing some key features
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Classic Outlook for Windows shuffles a little closer to the end of the
road
The new Microsoft Outlook will hit General Availability on August 1, and
Microsoft is not backing down on the move away from COM (Component
Object Model) add-ins.…
Feelings about the economy have been sort of middling, with consumers
optimistic about jobs but pessimistic about prices. But there’s another
aspect of consumer surveys that doesn’t often get reported — sentiment
can skew heavily partisan. Today: how consumers see the world through
Republican or Democrat lenses. Plus, we’ll do the numbers on wholesale
prices, hear about a Marathon Oil pollution settlement and learn about a
downturn in TV and film production.
HPE
to build supercomputer to ‘enhance Japan’s AI sovereignty’
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Powered by Nvidia GPUs, natch, as GPU maker’s CEO talks up mega bitbarn
‘AI factories’
HPE is to build a supercomputer for Japan’s AIST research institution,
using thousands of Nvidia’s latest H200 GPUs to support large
foundational models for generative AI in research.…
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Snowflake? Snowflake
AT&T has admitted that cyberattackers grabbed a load of its data for
the second time this year, and if you think the first haul was big you
haven’t seen anything: This one includes data on “nearly all” AT&T
wireless customers - and those served by mobile virtual network
operators (MVNOs) running on AT&T’s network. …
Vivid
Portrait of Interacting Galaxies Marks Webb’s Second Anniversary
date: 2024-07-12, from: NASA breaking news
Two for two! A duo of interacting galaxies commemorates the second
science anniversary of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which takes
constant observations, including images and highly detailed data known
as spectra. Its operations have led to a “parade” of discoveries by
astronomers around the world. “Since President Biden and Vice President
Harris unveiled the […]
What you’ve
been making with the Raspberry Pi AI Kit
date: 2024-07-12, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
It’s been just over a month since we launched the Raspberry Pi AI Kit
and the Raspberry Pi community has responded with characteristic
quirkiness. Here are some of the things we’ve seen over the last few
weeks.
Physicists have ruled out a mundane explanation for the strange findings
of an old Soviet experiment, leaving open the possibility that the
results point to a new fundamental particle.
Poll:
60% of US adults support protection of access to in vitro
fertilization
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Relatively few Americans fully endorse the idea that a
fertilized egg should have the same rights as a pregnant woman. But a
significant share say it describes their views at least somewhat well,
according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research.
The new survey comes as questions grow around reproductive health
access in the continued fallout from the decision by the Supreme Court
to end federal abortion protections. The poll found that a solid
majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban as a rising number
support access to abortions for any reason.
But anti-abortion advocates are increasingly pushing for broader
measures that would give rights and protection to embryos and fetuses,
which could have massive implications for fertility treatments and other
areas of health care.
The poll suggests that when it comes to more nuanced questions about
issues such as in vitro fertilization — which may be affected by the
restrictive climate in some states, even though they were not previously
considered as part of “abortion” — there is general support for
reproductive health protections. But the poll also shows some
uncertainty, as Americans are faced with situations that would not have
arisen before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
According to the poll, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults support protecting
access to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, a type of fertility treatment
in which eggs are combined with sperm outside the body in a lab to form
an embryo. Views on banning the destruction of embryos created through
IVF are less developed, with 4 in 10 adults expressing a neutral
opinion.
“I believe that it’s a woman’s right to determine what she wants to
do with her pregnancy, and she should be cared for. There should be no
question about that,” said John Evangelista, 73. “And IVF, I mean, for
years, it’s saved a lot of people grief — because they want to have a
child. Why would you want to limit this for people?”
Earlier this year, Alabama’s largest hospital paused in vitro
fertilization treatments, following a court ruling that said frozen
embryos are the legal equivalent of children. Soon after, the governor
signed legislation shielding doctors from potential legal liability in
order to restart procedures in the state.
But the political damage was done. Democrats routinely cite IVF
concerns as part of a larger problem where women in some states are
getting worse medical care since the fall of Roe. They link delayed IVF
care to cases in states with abortion restrictions, where women must
wait until they are very sick to get care. Democrats say these issues
show how GOP efforts to overturn Roe have profoundly affected all facets
of reproductive care.
On the other hand, protections for IVF are supported by Americans
across the political spectrum: About three-quarters of Democrats and 56%
of Republicans favor preserving access to IVF, while about 4 in 10
independents are in favor and just under half, 46%, neither favor nor
oppose protecting access.
For some, their views have been shaped by personal experience with
the procedure.
“I’m about to go through IVF right now, and you’re trying to get as
many embryos as you can so you can have more chances at having one live
birth, or more than that, if you’re lucky,” said Alexa Voloscenko, 30.
“I just don’t want people to be having more trouble to access IVF; it’s
already hard enough.”
But the poll found that about 3 in 10 Americans say that the
statement “human life begins at conception, so a fertilized egg is a
person with the same rights as a pregnant woman” describes their views
on abortion law and policy extremely or very well, while an additional
18% say it describes their views somewhat well. About half say the
statement describes their views “not very well” or “not well at
all.”
This view is in tension with some aspects of IVF care — in
particular, fertility treatments where eggs are fertilized and develop
into embryos in a lab. Sometimes, embryos are accidentally damaged or
destroyed, and unused embryos may be discarded.
Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats or independents to
say that the statement about fertilized eggs having the same rights as a
pregnant woman describes their views extremely or very well. About 4 in
10 Republicans say that compared with about 2 in 10 Democrats and
independents.
And views are less clear overall on a more specific aspect of policy
related to IVF — making it illegal to destroy embryos created during the
process. One-quarter of U.S. adults somewhat or strongly favor banning
the destruction of embryos created through IVF, while 4 in 10 have a
neutral view and about one-third somewhat or strongly oppose it.
“Human life begins at a heartbeat,” said Steven Otey, 73, a
Republican who doesn’t believe created embryos should be destroyed.
“Embryos … can become babies, we shouldn’t be destroying them.”
About 3 in 10 Republicans and roughly one-quarter of Democrats favor
banning the destruction of embryos created through IVF. Four in 10
Republicans — and nearly 6 in 10 independents — have a neutral view.
EU
officials say X’s paid-for blue check deceives users and breaks law
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Preliminary findings also claim platform not compliant with DSA
requirements for transparency, research access
The European Commission says the blue checkmark system used by
micro-blogging platform X — formerly Twitter — effectively deceives
users and fails to comply with the newly introduced Digital Service
Act.…
Current conditions: Heavy rains triggered a deadly
landslide in Nepal that swept away 60 people • More than a million
residents are still without power in and around Houston • It will be
about 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Berlin on Sunday for the Euro 2024 final,
where England will take on Spain.
THE TOP FIVE
Biden administration announces $1.7 billion to convert auto plants
into EV factories
The Biden administration
announced
yesterday that the Energy Department will pour $1.7 billion into helping
U.S. automakers convert shuttered or struggling manufacturing facilities
into EV factories. The money will go to factories in eight states
(including swing states Michigan and Pennsylvania) and recipients
include Stellantis, Volvo, GM, and Harley-Davidson. Most of the funding
comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and it could create nearly 3,000
new jobs and save 15,000 union positions at risk of elimination, the
Energy Department said. “Agencies across the federal government are
rushing to award the rest of their climate cash before the end of
Biden’s first term,” The Washington Post
reported.
DOE
Tesla delays robotaxi unveiling
Tesla is delaying the much-anticipated unveiling of its robotaxi by
about two months until the prototype design can be improved and
finalized, Bloombergreported.
The initial date for the autonomous taxi to make its first public
appearance was August 8 but it’s looking more like October now. Tesla
shares fell about 8% on the news, bringing an end to an 11-day streak of
gains.
Study: Climate change shortening Northwest Passage shipping season
There’s a convenient theory that climate change will make Arctic
shipping routes more accessible as sea ice melts. But new
research
published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment
suggests the opposite is true. The authors found that between 2007 and
2021, the ice-free shipping seasons in the Northwest Passage – which
runs through northern Canada and connects the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans – actually shortened significantly because warmer temperatures
are causing some of the thickest, oldest Arctic sea ice to flow south
into the passage’s “choke points,” posing a high risk to ships. “The
variability of shipping season and, in particular, the shortening of the
season will impact not only international shipping but also resupply and
the cost of food in many Arctic communities, which require a prompt
policy response,” the authors wrote.
Broken sea ice in Baffin Bay, in the Northwest Passage.
Alison
Cook
Natural disasters cost China $13 billion already this year
Natural disasters have caused $13 billion in direct economic losses in
China just in the first six months of 2024,
according
to the Chinese government. That’s up from about $5 billion in losses
in the same period last year. The disasters run the gamut from floods to
drought to heavy snow to landslides, plus a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
The country’s weather bureau
warned
recently that climate change could raise maximum temperatures across the
country by 5 degrees Fahrenheit in the next 30 years. Rainfall is also
increasing. Earlier this month China evacuated a quarter of a million
people from the eastern provinces as torrential rain caused flooding.
The extreme weather is threatening production of food crops including
rice, wheat, soybeans, and corn.
Marathon and EPA reach record settlement over Clean Air Act
violations
Oil giant Marathon must pay a $64.5 million fine for violating the Clean
Air Act at its oil and gas operations in North Dakota as part of a
settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice
Department
announced.
The company also has to invest $177 million in cleaning up those
operations, which could result in the equivalent of 2.3 million tons of
reduced pollution over the next five years. The EPA accused Marathon of
violating the Clean Air Act at 90 facilities in the state, resulting in
huge amounts of methane emissions, as well as illegal pollution linked
to respiratory disease. The case is “the largest of 12 similar efforts
by the Biden administration to target emissions from the oil and gas
industry,”
according
toThe Associated Press.
THE KICKER
“We want to give future generations as much glaciological
knowledge as possible in case they need it.” –Douglas
MacAyeal, a professor of geophysical sciences with the University of
Chicago, who is part of a group of scientists
calling
for more research into whether glacial geoengineering could help
prevent catastrophic ice melt caused by climate change.
Australia is sometimes called a “migration nation,” as a third of its
population was born abroad. That said, people with disabilities are
often not welcome. Many foreigners with disabilities or serious medical
conditions are routinely denied an Australian visa. But there’s pressure
for policy change. Also on the show: A three-judge panel has concluded
that many U.S. college athletes are likely employees and may be
protected under federal minimum wage laws.
We first introduced support for dmabufs and graphics offload last
fall, and it is included in GTK 4.14. Since we last talked about, more
improvements have happened, so it is time for another update.
Transformations When you rotate your monitor, it changes its aspect from
landscape (say, 1920 x 1200 to portrait (1200 x 1920). …
Continue
reading “Graphics offload
continued”
From the BBC World Service: Colombia’s president says a lot of
the country’s problems would be solved and the country’s armed conflict
could end within a day if the United Nations declared cocaine legal
across the world. We’ll discuss. Then, China is constructing twice as
many solar and wind plants as the rest of the world combined, and many
foreigners with disabilities in Australia are denied visas.
Measuring the distance to truly remote objects like galaxies,
quasars, and galaxy clusters is a crucial task in astrophysics,
particularly when it comes to studying the early universe, but it’s a
difficult one to complete. We can only measure the distances to a few
nearby objects like the Sun, planets, and some nearby stars directly.
[…]
<p>This is the 46th edition of <em>People and Blogs</em>, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Andrew Stephens and his blog, <a href="https://sheep.horse">sheep.horse</a> 🐑🐎</p>
To follow this series subscribe to
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RSS feed.
If you’re enjoying the People and Blogs series and you want to see it
grow, consider supporting on
Ko-Fi.
Let’s start from the basics: can you introduce yourself?
My name is Andrew Stephens. As a child in 1980s small town New Zealand I
few in love with the 8-bit micro computers of the time which
delightfully allowed my own creations (mostly elaborate text adventures)
to be displayed on our TV screen. I never quite lost the thrill of
computing so a degree in Computer Science seemed a natural choice. I
joined the workforce just as the Internet was taking off and work
eventually brought me to Boston, USA where I live now.
My day job is programming C++ but I enjoy stretching myself with
projects at home in various media. But what I like most of all is
publishing something on the web where everyone can see it.
What’s the story behind your blog?
I first created a (long lost) web page back in 1996 during my student
days. I loved reading other people’s stuff on the web and wanted to
contribute my own content - it seemed only fair to give something back.
I am not sure when I first heard the word blog but I remember thinking
it sounded like a stupid idea; nevertheless sometime in the mid 2000s I
installed WordPress and started writing just in time to completely miss
the heyday of blogging.
My blog has never been popular. Occasionally something I write will get
some attention but it soon settles down.
The most modern iteration of my blog was created when I realized that I
should be the change I wanted to see. There is no point complaining
about the “old internet” fading when we all have the tools to create
whatever we want.
The sheep.horse domain name came about because the .horse top level
domain had just become available and I couldn’t resist such a stupid
offering. Of course all the good .horse domains were snapped up by
squatters but sheep.horse was available. According to family lore,
“sheep horse” was the first multiple word sentence I uttered as I beheld
a lama but it holds no other significance.
It has caused some awkward moments professionally though. “Great
interview question, I have a blog post on exactly this technical
subject” “Excellent, what is the URL?” “ummm, sheep dot
horse”
Thankfully it has never failed to get a laugh.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
I am a big proponent of letting my mind wander when doing something
mindless like cleaning or commuting. We spend so much effort minimizing
time spent in menial activity but I find such “unproductive” periods
both relaxing and useful for generating new ideas. Often times a thought
will hit me and rattle around in my head for a few days before I even
start to write. Sometimes it is just an opening phrase or a neat
metaphor and more than once I have started a piece arguing one side only
to talk myself around to the other side. Those pieces often get
abandoned - if I don’t feel strongly enough to hold an opinion then I
probably have little to say on the subject.
I am a slow writer (I don’t even touch-type properly) but I try to blat
everything out in a single evening. Then I let it sit for at least 12
hours to proof like a loaf of bread while I sleep. Then I read through
it again and make revisions, usually making it worse. My wife is a very
good proof reader and the best presented articles are the ones that she
has corrected.
I write almost all of my text in a plain text editor called TextMate (it
is what I am typing into now). Apart from checking my spelling it does
not get in the way with fancy features. I find “real” word processors
distracting.
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Also do you believe the
physical space influences your creativity?
My home office is pretty comfortable but I have also written on trains
and flights with good results. There is something about writing that
puts me in my own world. When I was younger I used to work listening to
music but now I find the quiet works best for me. It doesn’t have to be
silence, just background noise without voices.
I find getting out into nature really helps with ideas but I have never
managed to write anything sitting outside.
A question for the techie readers: can you run us through your tech
stack?
I thought you would never ask. The most modern iteration of my blog is
statically generated by a python project of my own called gensite that
turns a directory structure of markdown files into modern html and
rsync’s the result to my server which is a DigitalOcean droplet. I even
wrote some custom markdown tags so that I could include asides and
footnotes. I was aiming for mostly text so I based the style of my blog
on Edward Tufte’s ideas on document formatting which I was very excited
about at the time.
If I was to be honest I would have to admit that I rent a server to run
a blog, and maintain a blog to give my server something to do. Writing a
static site generator was just to justify both and now I am in too deep
to stop now. The actual contents of my site is secondary.
On top of that I have a simple hit counter of my own design. I gradually
grew to hate the influence of Google Analytics and vowed not to include
it or anything similar on my site because I believe that chasing
eyeballs has led us to the state the Internet is in today. However, I am
a total hypocrite and found that I really wanted to know if anyone was
reading my stuff. So now I just count hits.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do
anything differently?
I am happy with the way everything works now - it suits me. But I could
not recommend my setup to anyone else. Honestly, the most important part
is putting your work somewhere people can access it with minimal fuss.
Hosted is fine although I will say that it is important to choose a
service that will allow you to migrate your work if you need to part
ways with your hosting provider, which is why I think WordPress is a
good choice to start with.
One thing I have learned is not to spend too much time futzing with the
aesthetics of your blog. Just pick a readable theme - the words are the
important part.
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?
I have never tried to monetize my work - part of me still considers
blogging to be contributing to the wacky ball of nonsense called the
internet. My total cost is about $10 a month for hosting and the domain.
Perhaps I could get cheaper but this is what works for me now.
Time for some recommendations: any blog you think is worth checking out?
And also, who do you think I should be interviewing next?
I love passion project single-subject blogs that go into great detail on
arcane matters. Matte
Shot has been a favorite of mine for a long time.
But I am really interested in the citizen journalists who do rigorous
reporting on topics they cover. I have been very interested in
cryptocurrency (very much on the “this is all a stupid idea” side of the
table) for over a decade and I admire the great reporting done by the
likes of David
Gerard and Amy Castor. And of
course, Molly White’s writing
is amazing as well. I have no idea how they can stay so focused on a
world they (rightfully) disdain and I would love to hear what motivates
them.
Final question: is there anything you want to share with us?
I recently went back to my roots and created a short but elaborate text
adventure with illustrations,
Voyage of the
Marigold. Its my love letter to 80s adventure gamebooks and Star
Trek, I get an enormous kick when people tell me they have played it.
This was the 46th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed
this interview with Andrew. Make sure to
follow his blog
(RSS) and get in touch with
him if you have any questions.
Awesome supporters
You can support this series on
Ko-Fi and all supporters
will be listed here as well as on the
official site of the
newsletter.
suggest a person to
interview next. I’m especially interested in people and blogs outside
the tech/web bubble.
<hr>
<p>Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.</p>
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Google
can totally explain why Chromium browsers quietly tell only its websites
about your CPU, GPU usage
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
OK, now tell us why this isn’t an EU DMA violation – asking for a friend
in Brussels
Running a Chromium-based browser, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft
Edge? The chances are good it’s quietly telling Google all about your
CPU and GPU usage when you visit one of the search giant’s websites.…
SAP’s
bid to woo open source community meets muted response
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
German software giant says open source is a ‘catalyst for innovation’
but is unlikely to release proprietary code
SAP’s bid to cast itself as an open source friendly company is being met
with some scepticism from the community, who suggest the projects are
largely based on the German software giant’s interests.…
Following up on my column about Peju Winery and one of its founders, HB
Peju: Peju Winery, in the person of Tony Peju, had fought Napa County
to run his […]
Stop
installing that software – you may have just died
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
They’re called role-playing games for a reason …
On Call Life on the frontlines of tech support can be
tough, which is why each Friday The Register brings you a fresh
instalment of On Call, our reader-contributed column in which you tell
your peers what you’ve endured in the name of work.…
Hungary’s
Orban, a NATO outlier on Ukraine, talks ‘peace mission’ with Trump
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Donald
Trump on Thursday and the pair discussed the “possibilities of peace,” a
spokesperson for the prime minister said as he pushes for a cease-fire
in Ukraine.
Trump and Orban met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida “as the
next stop of his peace mission,” Orban’s spokesperson said. “The
discussion was about the possibilities of peace.”
Nationalist leader Orban, a longtime Trump supporter, made surprise
visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in the past two weeks on a
self-styled “peace mission,” angering NATO allies.
His meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin in
particular vexed some other NATO members, who said the trip handed
legitimacy to Putin when the West wants to isolate him over his war in
Ukraine.
Orban traveled to Kyiv before visiting Moscow but did not tell
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his mission to Russia,
Zelenskiy said, dismissing Orban’s ambition of playing the
peacemaker.
“Not all the leaders can make negotiations. You need to have some
power for this,” Zelenskiy said earlier at a news conference at the NATO
summit.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, when asked about
Orban’s initiative, said Ukraine would be rightly concerned about any
attempt to negotiate a peace deal without involving Kyiv.
“Whatever adventurism is being undertaken without Ukraine’s consent
or support is not something that’s consistent with our policy, the
foreign policy of the United States,” Sullivan said.
Orban’s self-styled peace mission has also irked many members of the
European Union, whose rotating presidency Hungary took over at the start
of this month.
The Hungarian embassy in Washington declined to comment on the
planned meeting with Trump, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
Orban has been attending a NATO summit hosted by Democratic President
Joe Biden. Hungary’s delegation voiced opposition to key NATO positions,
while not blocking the alliance from taking action.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told Reuters on Wednesday that
Hungary believes a second Trump presidency would boost hopes for peace
in Ukraine.
Orban hoped to bring an end to the war through peace talks involving
both Russia and Ukraine, according to Szijjarto.
Trump has said he would quickly end the war. He has not offered a
detailed plan to achieve that, but Reuters reported last month that
advisers to the former president had presented him with a plan to end
the war in part by making future aid to Kyiv conditional on Ukraine
joining peace talks.
In the past several months, foreign officials have regularly sought
meetings with Trump and his key advisers to discuss his foreign policy
should he beat Biden in the November 5 election. Polls show Trump
widening his lead over Biden.
One adviser, Keith Kellogg, has met with several high-ranking foreign
officials on the sidelines of the NATO summit, Reuters reported this
week.
NATO frustration
Orban appeared isolated at the opening of a NATO meeting on Ukraine
on Thursday, sitting alone while other leaders talked in a huddle.
Two European diplomats told Reuters that NATO allies were frustrated
with Orban’s actions around the summit but stressed that he had not
blocked the alliance from taking action on Ukraine.
Multiple EU leaders made clear Orban was not speaking for the bloc in
his discussions on the war in Ukraine.
“I don’t think there’s any point in having conversations with
authoritarian regimes that are violating international law,” said
Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Hungary also diverged from its NATO allies on China, which the
alliance said is an enabler of Russia’s war effort and poses challenges
to security. Hungary does not want NATO to become an “anti-China” bloc,
and will not support it doing so, Szijjarto said Thursday.
Microsoft
365’s Chinese host uses just four percent renewable energy:
Greenpeace
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Red clouds are in no rush to go green
China’s major cloud computing and datacenter players aren’t going green
in a hurry, according to a Greenpeace study – leaving Microsoft tied to
a datacenter operator that uses just 4.35 percent renewable energy.…
Reading Time: 34minutes Welcome, one and all,
to the very first Web Curios EVER not to be written under a Conservative
government! What do you mean ‘it all looks dispiritingly familiar,
you’ve not even given the place a lick of paint ffs’?! Ok, so the
election wasn’t all good news – loads of people simply couldn’t be
bothered…
US,
South Korea sign nuclear guideline strategy to deter and respond to
North Korea
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. commitment to deterrence against North Korea is
backed by the full range of U.S. capabilities, including nuclear, U.S.
President Joe Biden told South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in a
meeting Thursday on the sidelines of a NATO summit.
The two leaders also authorized a guideline on establishing an
integrated system of extended deterrence for the Korean peninsula to
counter nuclear and military threats from North Korea, Yoon’s office
said.
The guideline formalizes the deployment of U.S. nuclear assets on and
around the Korean peninsula to deter and respond to potential nuclear
attacks by the North, Yoon’s deputy national security adviser Kim
Tae-hyo told a briefing in Washington.
“It means U.S. nuclear weapons are specifically being assigned to
missions on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said.
Earlier Biden and Yoon issued a joint statement announcing the
signing of the Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations
on the Korean Peninsula.
“The presidents reaffirmed their commitments in the U.S.-ROK
Washington Declaration and highlighted that any nuclear attack by the
DPRK against the ROK will be met with a swift, overwhelming and decisive
response,” it said.
DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea. ROK refers to South Korea’s formal name, the
Republic of Korea.
Cheong Seong-Chang, a security strategy expert at the Sejong
Institute and a strong advocate of South Korea’s own nuclear armament,
said the new nuclear guideline is significant progress that
fundamentally changes the way the allies will respond to a nuclear
threat from North Korea.
“The problem is, the only thing that will give South Korea full
confidence is a promise from the U.S. of an immediate nuclear
retaliation in the event of nuclear use by the North, but that is simply
impossible,” Cheong said.
“That is the inherent limitation of nuclear deterrence,” he said,
adding whether the nuclear guideline will survive a change in U.S.
administration is also questionable.
Yoon’s office said the guideline itself is classified.
North Korea has openly advanced its nuclear weapons policy by
codifying their use in the event of perceived threat against its
territory and enshrining the advancement of nuclear weapons capability
in the constitution last year.
Earlier this year, it designated South Korea as its “primary foe” and
vowed to annihilate its neighbor for colluding with the United States to
wage war against it, in a dramatic reversal of peace overtures they made
in 2018.
Both Seoul and Washington deny any aggressive intent against
Pyongyang but say they are fully prepared to counter any aggression by
the North and have stepped up joint military drills in recent
months.
Yoon reaffirmed South Korea’s support for Ukraine, pledging to double
its contribution to a NATO trust fund from the $12 million it provided
in 2024, his office said. The fund enables short-term non-lethal
military assistance and long-term capability-building support, NATO
says.
It made no mention of any direct military support for Ukraine. Yoon’s
office has said it was considering weapons supply for Kyiv, reversing
its earlier policy of limiting its assistance to humanitarian in
nature.
Singapore’s
banks to ditch texted one-time passwords
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Accessibility be damned, preventing phishing is the priority
After around two decades of allowing one-time passwords (OTPs) delivered
by text message to assist log ins to bank accounts in Singapore, the
city-state will abandon the authentication technique.…
COC
supporters question Van Hook’s dismissal, college’s future
date: 2024-07-12, from: The Signal
Supporters of College of the Canyons said they were left asking
questions after learning that Dianne Van Hook is set to be removed from
her position as chancellor of COC. […]
China’s
APT41 crew adds a stealthy malware loader and fresh backdoor to its
toolbox
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Meet DodgeBox, son of StealthVector
Chinese government-backed cyber espionage gang APT41 has very likely
added a loader dubbed DodgeBox and a backdoor named MoonWalk to its
malware toolbox, according to cloud security service provider Zscaler’s
ThreatLabz research team.…
washington — NATO set out Thursday to deepen relations with key
Indo-Pacific partners, meeting with leaders from Australia, Japan, New
Zealand and South Korea a day after all 32 NATO allies called out China
for its support of Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine in a sternly
worded communique.
During a working session, NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners
strengthened plans and developed strategies to face growing threats in
the Pacific region, including North Korean missile launches and China’s
steady stream of technology and raw materials to Russia that have
allowed President Vladimir Putin to replace his losses on the
battlefield.
U.S. officials said the Indo-Pacific partners’ attendance sent a
message to China that democratic alliances will stand up for the rule of
law, no matter where an aggressor tries to break it.
“NATO also recognizes that threats from the Indo-Pacific, whether
it’s the DPRK [North Korea] or the PRC [China] supporting Russia in
their aggression against Ukraine, we cannot avoid,” Jason Israel,
National Security Council senior director for defense policy, Israel
told VOA.
In a final communique signed by all 32 allies, NATO called China a
“decisive enabler” of Russia’s war and urged Beijing to cease its
support.
“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history
without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the
leaders wrote.
They also expressed concerns about Beijing’s space capabilities and
nuclear arsenal.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday told reporters
that “China is propping up Russia’s war economy” and “increas[ing] the
threat Russia holds to Europe and NATO security.”
“China provides dual-use equipment, microelectronics and a lot of
other tools which are enabling Russia to build the missiles, to build
bombs, to build the aircraft, to build the weapons they’re using to
attack Ukraine,” he added.
Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to
deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in
the news conference that Wednesday’s declaration was “the strongest
message that NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to
Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
Some allies on Thursday cautioned the alliance against using the
narrowly worded communique as a springboard to make NATO appear
“anti-China.”
“NATO is a defense alliance. … We can’t organize it into an
anti-China bloc,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told
Hungarian state television on the sidelines of the summit.
However, defense expert Bradley Bowman, the senior director for the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political
Power, said calling out China was long overdue for the bloc.
“Europeans are dying in Europe in a war of aggression from the
Kremlin with the support of Iran, North Korea and China, period,” he
said.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said NATO must counter Russia’s
ramping up of defense production — made possible by help from China,
North Korea and Iran — by continuing to invest more in Ukraine’s and
NATO’s own defense production.
“We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind,” Biden said.
China insists that it does not provide military aid to Russia,
despite maintaining strong trade ties with Moscow.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian accused
NATO of “breaching its boundary, expanding its mandate, reaching beyond
its defense zone and stoking confrontation.”
After meeting in closed session on Wednesday, July 10, the Santa
Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees announced its
unanimous decision to place Chancellor Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook on
administrative leave, effective Monday, July
Half
a million Houston-area homes, businesses still won’t have power into
next week
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
HOUSTON — About half a million Houston-area homes and businesses will
still be without electricity next week, the city’s largest utility said
Thursday, stoking the frustration of hot and weary residents and leading
a top state official to call the pace of recovery from Hurricane Beryl
“not acceptable.”
Jason Ryan, executive vice president of CenterPoint Energy, said
power has been restored to more than 1 million homes and businesses
since Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday. And the company expects to
get hundreds of thousands of more customers back online by Sunday. But
many more will wait much longer.
“We know that we still have a lot of work to do,” Ryan said during a
meeting of the Texas Public Utility Commission, the state’s utility
regulation agency. “We will not stop the work until it is done.”
Ryan said that the prolonged outages into next week would be
concentrated along the Gulf Coast, close to where Beryl came ashore.
During a news conference Thursday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed
CenterPoint to work faster to relieve residents who have been without
power for days and have been forced to seek air conditioning in
community cooling centers and meals from food and water distribution
points.
Compounding their discomfort was a new band of rainstorms that swept
through the Houston area Thursday. The rain provided brief relief from
the heat before temperatures were expected to creep back above 32
Celsius over the weekend.
“Folks, that is not acceptable,” that half a million customers could
still be without power a week after the storm, said Patrick, who is
acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is in Asia on an economic
development trip.
Patrick and Abbott have both promised that the state will investigate
the storm response. Texas has dealt with several major storms over the
past two decades.
“We are always going to have big storms in this area. … We have to be
sure they were prepared as they should have been,” Patrick said. “It’s a
terrible situation for people who are in this heat.”
Patrick and Abbott also sparred with the White House over the timing
of requests for federal declarations for the area, whether they would
delay help for storm cleanup and other emergency expenses.
The Category 1 hurricane — the weakest type — knocked out power to
around 2.7 million customers after it made landfall, according to
PowerOutage.us.
Residents have been frustrated that such a relatively weak storm
could cause such disruption at the height of summer.
Some have criticized the utility and state and city officials as not
ready for the storm, the slow restoration process, and that
CenterPoint’s online map has been woefully inaccurate, sometimes showing
entire neighborhoods as restored when they were still without power.
The company acknowledged that most of the 12,000 workers it brought
in to help the recovery were not in the Houston area when the storm
arrived. Initial forecasts had the storm blowing ashore much farther
south along the Gulf Coast, near the Texas-Mexico border, before it
headed toward Houston.
Ryan said the vast majority of outages were caused by falling trees
and tree limbs, and workers had to conduct damage surveys on some 13,700
kilometers of power lines.
Beryl has been blamed for at least eight U.S. deaths — one each in
Louisiana and Vermont, and six in Texas. Earlier, 11 died in the
Caribbean.
The storm’s lingering impact for many in Texas, however, was the
wallop to the power supply that left much of the nation’s fourth-largest
city sweltering.
Mallary Cohee said her duplex in New Caney, about 48 kilometers north
of Houston, has been without power since Monday. She said her “little
country neighborhood” is a “hot mess” of downed trees, so she’s staying
at a Houston hotel.
Cohee said she initially felt she could withstand the lack of air
conditioning because she managed to get by without it in summer while
serving a two-year prison sentence.
“I thought, ‘I can do this. I can ride it. If I can do time with no
heat, no AC in there, I could possibly make it,’” Cohee said. “But it’s
a whole different ballgame when you don’t even have a fan to plug
in.”
Clean water was also becoming an issue. More than 160 boil water
notices were in effect across the area, and more than 100 wastewater
treatment plants were offline Thursday, said Nim Kidd, chief of the
Texas Division of Emergency Management.
The Texas Hospital Association said a “vast majority” of hospitals in
the area are dealing with some kind of issue caused by Beryl, including
water and wind damage, power and internet connection problems, staffing
shortages or transportation problems.
Carrie Kroll, the association’s vice president of advocacy, public
policy and political strategy, said hospitals are getting an “extremely
high” number of people coming to emergency departments with symptoms of
heat stroke and injuries from cleaning up debris.
By Wednesday night, hospitals had already sent more than 100 patients
who couldn’t be released to homes with no power to a Houston sports and
event complex with an area set up to hold up to 250, Office of Emergency
Management spokesman Brent Taylor said.
Trump
lawyers lay out case for reversing hush money conviction
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
new york — Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday said Manhattan
prosecutors improperly relied on evidence of the former U.S. president’s
official acts in securing his conviction on criminal charges stemming
from hush money paid to a porn star.
In a court filing dated July 10 but made public on Thursday, defense
lawyers said the guilty verdict should be set aside following the U.S.
Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
They said evidence of official acts that were improperly shown to the
jury included Trump’s conversations with former White House aide Hope
Hicks and some of his Twitter posts while he was in office.
“The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the
federal Constitution,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
“The jury’s verdicts must be vacated.”
Justice Juan Merchan this month delayed Trump’s sentencing by two
months after defense lawyers said the justices’ July 1 ruling that
presidents cannot face criminal charges over official acts meant
prosecutors should not have shown evidence from Trump’s time in the
White House at trial.
They said that meant the Manhattan jury’s May 30 guilty verdict in
the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president could not stand.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office
have until July 24 to respond. They have previously called Trump’s
arguments meritless but agreed to push back the sentencing.
Legal experts said Trump faces steep odds of getting the hush money
conviction overturned because much of the case involves conduct before
his presidency and the evidence from his time in the White House has
more to do with private conduct.
The Supreme Court’s ruling stemmed from a separate case Trump faces
on federal charges involving his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss
to Joe Biden. It all but ensured Trump would not face trial in that case
before the November 5 election.
Trump’s lawyers are also seeking a pause in a third criminal case on
charges of mishandling classified documents because of the ruling. Trump
has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In the hush money case, Trump was found guilty of falsifying business
records to cover up his former lawyer’s $130,000 payment to adult film
star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a sexual encounter she says
she had with Trump. Prosecutors say the payment was designed to boost
his presidential campaign in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary
Clinton.
The Supreme Court’s decision said evidence of a president’s official
acts cannot be used in a prosecution on private matters.
Merchan has said he will decide on Trump’s arguments by September 6.
If the conviction is upheld, Trump will be sentenced on September 18,
less than seven weeks before the election.
Landfill
announces nearly $1M in relief; residents question eligibility
date: 2024-07-12, from: The Signal
Chiquita Canyon Landfill released the latest numbers from its community
relief fund Thursday and announced several more in-person meetings to
help residents, but the landfill is still taking heat from […]
Biden
rejects calls to quit the race, vows to ‘finish the job because so much
is at stake’
date: 2024-07-12, from: VOA News USA
washington — At his first solo news conference in eight months, U.S.
President Joe Biden spent most of an hour responding to questions about
the growing movement within his own Democratic Party to get him to step
aside because of concerns he may be in cognitive decline.
“I’ve taken three significant and intense neurological exams” as
recently as February, Biden said. “They say I’m in good shape.”
If any of his doctors “think I should have a neurological exam again,
I’ll do it,” he said.
Aging “creates a little bit of wisdom,” added Biden, who is 81,
maintaining he could handle the stress of the job for another term.
The president was asked what happened to his promise during the 2020
campaign to be a bridge candidate to a younger generation of Democrats,
which was interpreted at the time as indicating he would not run again
in 2024.
Biden replied, “What changed was the gravity of the situation I
inherited, in terms of the economy, our foreign policy and domestic
division.”
He also said if former President Donald Trump returns to the White
House for a second term, American democracy would be imperiled.
In his responses to questions from about a dozen reporters, Biden
touted his accomplishments in handling foreign crises and the economy.
But what will remain in the headlines after his latest public remarks
will be his response to the biggest crisis he currently faces, which
comes from within his own party.
Asked if he would stay in the race if his team presented data
indicating Vice President Kamala Harris had a better chance to defeat
Trump, the president said he would fight on unless his aides told him
“there’s no way you can win.” He then dramatically whispered from the
lectern: “No poll says that.”
“I think it was a good day for Mr. Biden, the best day he’s had in
quite some time. Will it change the course of the stream, or will it
just be a stone in the stream that diverts the current without
fundamentally changing its course? I don’t know,” William Galston, a
senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and who served as deputy
assistant for domestic policy to President Bill Clinton, told VOA.
There were a couple of gaffes during the nearly hourlong event.
He referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump” before saying he had
picked the former California senator as his running mate twice because
she’s ready to step in as president.
At another point, Biden said, “I’m taking the advice of my
commander-in-chief,” apparently referring to the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. As president, Biden himself is the
commander-in-chief.
Calls for Biden to drop out have expanded beyond at least 16
Democratic Party members of the House. The prominent actor George
Clooney on Wednesday, in an opinion piece in The New York Times, called
on Biden to be a hero for democracy again by dropping out of the rematch
against the Republican former president.
Clooney, who last month hosted the single largest fundraiser
supporting any Democrat ever, said the candidate who appeared at that
event was not the Joe Biden of 2016 or 2020, but “the same man we all
witnessed at the debate” against Trump on June 27.
Even many of the president’s most prominent supporters have
characterized that debate as a disaster for the incumbent. White House
and campaign officials have repeatedly insisted that it was just “a bad
night” for the veteran politician.
Hours before Thursday’s news conference, introducing Ukrainian
President Vladimir Zelenskyy at a NATO event, Biden announced to the
audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” referring to the
Russian leader who is waging a war against neighbor Ukraine.
“Going to beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy. I am so focused
on beating Putin,” Biden said while correcting himself. He made light of
that mistake when asked about it at the news conference.
Biden’s signature mix-ups were reminiscent of President Ronald
Reagan’s White House Rose Garden welcoming in 1982 for Liberian
President Samuel Doe. Reagan introduced him as “Chairman Moe.”
In a debate two years later with the Democratic Party nominee, Walter
Mondale, Reagan appeared lost for words and fumbled with his notes, but
he went on in November of 1984 to capture a second term with a landslide
victory over Mondale.
Reagan announced in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
disease but in the years after his death in 2004, one of his sons and
some former officials acknowledged there were clear signs of the
president’s cognitive decline in his second term.
Top officials at the United Auto Workers union met on Thursday to
discuss their concerns about Biden’s candidacy, the Reuters news agency
reported, attributing the information to three sources familiar with the
matter.
The 400,000-member union endorsed the Democratic Party incumbent in
January. It is especially influential in industrial states, including
the swing state of Michigan, which pollsters consider a must-win for
Biden if he hopes to be reelected.
“I know he can win Michigan,” Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow said
of Biden and her home state after the president’s senior advisers
earlier Thursday briefed Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill.
More Democrats held off making public assessments of their
incumbent’s suitability for a second term until after Thursday evening’s
presidential news conference and the end of the NATO summit, which Biden
hosted in Washington.
Immediately after the press event concluded, another Democratic Party
congressman – Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House
Intelligence Committee – added his voice to the rising chorus expressing
a loss of confidence in Biden’s ability to win reelection.
“The 2024 election will define the future of American democracy, and
we must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the
threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism,” Himes said in a
statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden.”
After Himes’ statement was released, another Democratic congressman,
Scott Peters of California, also called for Biden to exit the race.
“The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course. My conscience
requires me to speak up,” said Peters in a statement.
Referring to Biden’s several verbal stumbles at the news conference,
NPR Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon put it this way in a
social media posting while Biden was still talking: “Here’s the problem:
even if [Biden’s] verbal slips are quickly corrected and totally
understandable, people are listening for them now. Even scoring and
numbering them. What used to be dismissed and understood is certainly
heard differently.”
The president, in response to one reporter on Thursday, said there
are others in his party who could beat Trump as well, but this close to
next month’s Democratic Party nominating convention and November’s
election, “it would be hard to start from scratch.”
‘Gay
furry hackers’ say they’ve disbanded after raiding Project 2025’s
Heritage Foundation
date: 2024-07-12, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Ultra-conservative org funnily enough not ready to turn the other cheek
After claiming to break into a database belonging to The Heritage
Foundation, and then leaking 2GB of files belonging to the
ultra-conservative think tank, the hacktivist crew SiegedSec claims to
have disbanded. …
Santa Clarita is known, not only for its scenic open spaces and
family-friendly community, but also for its commitment to nurturing the
arts and fostering a thriving, dynamic environment where creativity can
flourish
The brush fire that began in Agua Dulce Wednesday afternoon had reached
98% containment as of Thursday afternoon, with its estimated acreage
revised downward from 150 acres to 86 acres […]
US
Coast Guard detects Chinese military ships near Alaska
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
By Jack Phillips Contributing Writer A U.S. Coast Guard ship on routine
patrol in the Bering Sea spotted several Chinese military ships about
124 miles from Alaska’s coast, according to officials. […]
In 2019, a startup called Nuvia came out of stealth mode. Nuvia was
notable because its leadership included several notable chip architects,
including one who used to work for Apple. Apple chips like the M1 drew
recognition for landing in the same performance neighborhood as AMD and
Intel’s offerings while offering better power efficiency. Nuvia had
similar goals, aiming to create a power efficient core that could could
surpass designs from AMD, Apple, Arm, and Intel. Qualcomm acquired Nuvia
in 2021, bringing its staff into Qualcomm’s internal CPU efforts.
Bringing on Nuvia staff rejuvenated Qualcomm’s internal CPU efforts,
which led to the Oryon core in Snapdragon X Elite. Oryon arrives nearly
five years after Nuvia hit the news, and almost eight years after
Qualcomm last released a smartphone SoC with internally designed cores.
For people following Nuvia’s developments, it has been a long wait. ↫
Chips and Cheese Now that the Snapdragon X Elite and Pro chips are
finally making their way to consumers, we’re also finally starting to
see proper deep-dives into the brand new hardware. Considering this will
set the standard for ARM laptops for a long time to come – including
easy availability of powerful ARM Linux laptops – I really want to know
every single quirk or performance statistic we can find.
Jess Weatherbed (Hacker News, Reddit): Design software developer
Serif has launched a new six-month free trial for its Affinity creative
suite, which is well regarded as being one of the few viable
alternatives to Adobe’s professional design apps. The offer is available
for Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher starting
today on Mac, Windows […]
Ricoh (Amazon): The newest flagship in the ScanSnap family is 33%
faster, giving you more time back in your day. Designed for everyday
use, the ScanSnap iX1600 gets documents digitized, organized and sent
anywhere—anytime—with minimal effort. The Fujitsu ScanSnap S500M was the
only document scanner that ever worked well for me. I’d been using it
[…]
Howard Oakley: The commonest error in deciding whether to use a UPS
is the argument that, because your Mac isn’t left on 24/7, it’s always
attended, so should anything go wrong with the power, you’ll be able to
deal with it. Even if you’re sat at your Mac, with instant reactions,
there’s no way that […]
Matthew Cassinelli: Overall, seeing updates to these Reminders
actions is a good sign for the Shortcuts ecosystem, as it’s the first
signal that Apple is updating their native Shortcuts actions with App
Intents-based replacements in iOS 18. Since the inception of many of
these actions in Workflow when Shortcuts was a third-party app, many
actions […]
Senate
Republicans block bill calling for restoration of Roe v. Wade
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
By Joseph Lord, Samantha Flom Contributing Writers Senate Republicans
on Wednesday blocked a bill put forward by Democrats expressing support
that Roe v. Wade should be restored as the law of […]
Panel:
Recent Supreme Court decisions mean more work for lawyers, judges
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
By Matthew Vadum Contributing Writer Legal experts told a panel on
Wednesday that two recent Supreme Court decisions on presidential
immunity and bureaucratic power will generate a great deal of work […]
COC
student debuts award-winning film at TCL Chinese Theater
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
Chase Olivera, an 18-year-old College of the Canyons student, began
exploring the world of animation in 2019 when he was just 14 years old.
Since then, he has created several […]
Jill
Biden takes initiative in White House and on campaign trail
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
washington — First lady Jill Biden is supporting her husband,
President Joe Biden, as he tries to salvage his reelection campaign
after a debate performance left a growing number of members of his own
party questioning his decision to stay in the race.
“She’s his biggest supporter and champion, because she believes in
him, and she fears for the future of our country if it goes the other
way,” Elizabeth Alexander, the first lady’s communications director,
said this week. “Just as he’s always supported her career, she supports
his.”
Jill Biden has been campaigning with her husband this week but also
on her own at several stops.
“For all the talk out there about this race, Joe has made it clear
that he’s all in,” she said at each of her solo campaign stops.
“That’s the decision he’s made. And just as he has always supported
my career, I am all in, too. I know you are, too, or you wouldn’t be
here today,” she told crowds in North Carolina, Florida and Georgia.
As first lady, Jill Biden has spearheaded initiatives for military
members and their families as well as cancer treatment. As a longtime
teacher, she also prioritized programs focused on education.
She has been involved in Joining Forces, a White House designed
initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers and
survivors, according to the White House website. Joining Forces focuses
on projects such as improving military spouse employment and military
child education. In her first two years as first lady, Biden visited 24
military installations.
She has also been a part of Cancer Moonshot, a program rejuvenated by
the Bidens. According to its website, the project is committed to
“ending cancer as we know it” by preventing more than 4 million cancer
deaths by 2047. According to the American Cancer Society, a little more
than 600,000 people died of cancer in 2021.
The goals of Cancer Moonshot include increasing access to screenings
and avoiding harmful environmental exposures.
In addition to being the U.S. first lady, Biden is also an educator.
Part of her focus while in the White House has been on academic
initiatives aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers and lowering
education costs.
When Joe Biden became vice president under President Barack Obama,
Jill Biden became the first-ever second lady to hold a paying job
outside the White House. As first lady she has continued to teach
writing at Northern Virginia Community College, just south of
Washington, where she taught full time while her husband was vice
president.
“Many of my students don’t know that I have two jobs,” she said in
2021.
Biden is very familiar with life in Washington, since her husband
spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president
under Obama.
Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory gave Jill Biden the distinction of
being the first presidential spouse to have earned a doctorate.
Dr. Biden, 73, was born in New Jersey and grew up in the northern
suburbs of Philadelphia. She earned her doctorate in education from the
University of Delaware.
Life with Joe Biden was complicated from the start. She was going
through a divorce. He was grieving, raising two young sons alone after
his wife and baby daughter died in a car crash. Jill and Joe married,
after Joe asked five times.
“And the fifth time, I finally said to her, ’Jill, my Irish pride has
gotten ahold of me. This is the last time I’m gonna ask you,” Biden said
on the “Rachael Ray Show.” “I said, ‘You don’t have to tell me when you
will marry me, just if you’ll marry me.’ She said yes.”
Four years later, Jill gave birth to a daughter, Ashley. Tragedy
would strike again in 2015 when Joe Biden’s 46-year-old son, Beau, died
of brain cancer.
“This is personal for me and my husband Joe,” she said.
She was the author of the 2020 children’s book Joey: The Story of Joe
Biden. It was about her husband’s early years, his competitiveness and
resilience after being mocked over his stutter.
She displayed that protective streak during a campaign rally in March
2023, using her body on two occasions to block a protester
from reaching her husband on stage.
Although they call the tiny Mid-Atlantic state of Delaware their
home, Jill Biden has followed her husband through his
career as U.S. senator, vice president and president. Now, she hopes to
see him in the White House for another four years.
NASA
Remembers Retired Astronaut, US Air Force Pilot Joe Engle
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
Retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Joe Engle died
July 10, surrounded by his family at home in Houston. Among his many
honors, he is the only astronaut to pilot both the X-15 and space
shuttle. He was 91. Engle became an astronaut at age 32 while flying the
X-15 for the […]
Gavin
Newsom for president? Tallying up his assets and liabilities
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
By Alexei Koseff and Yue Stella Yu CalMatters Writers In the nearly two
weeks since President Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance in a
televised debate, the Democratic freakout over whether he can […]
“Sagittarius Ponderosa,” an Open Wings Theatre Company production and
written by MJ Kaufman, directed by Skylar Reede, will begin its run at
The MAIN beginning Aug. 23 to Sept.
Iconography
of the X Window System: the boot stipple
date: 2024-07-11, from: OS News
For the uninitiated, what are we looking at? Could it be the Moiré
Error from Doom? Well, no. You are looking at (part of) the boot up
screen for the X Window System, specifically the pattern it uses as the
background of the root window. This pattern is technically called a
stipple. What you’re seeing is pretty important and came to symbolize a
lot for me as a computer practitioner. ↫ Matt T. Proud The X bootup
pattern is definitely burnt onto my retina, as it probably is for a lot
of late ’90s, early 2000s Linux users. Setting up X correctly, and more
importantly, not breaking it later, was almost an art at the time, so
any time you loaded up your PC and this pattern didn’t greet you, you’d
get this sinister feeling in the pit of your stomach. There was now a
very real chance you were going to have to debug your X configuration
file, and nobody – absolutely nobody – liked doing that, and if you did,
you’re lying. Matt T. Proud dove into the history of the X stipple, and
discovered it’s been part of X since pretty much the very beginning, and
even more esoteric X implementations, like the ones used by Solaris or
the various commercial versions, have the stipple. He also discovered
several other variants of the stipple included in X, so there is a
chance your memory might be just a tiny bit different. The stipple
eventually disappeared at around 2008 or so, it disappeared as part of
the various efforts to modernise, sanitise, and speed up the Linux boot
process on desktops. On modern distributions still using X, you won’t
encounter it anymore by default, but in true X fashion, the code is
still there and you can easily bring it back using a flag specifically
designed for it, -retro, that you can use with startx or your X init
file. There’s a ton more information in Proud’s excellent article, but
this one paragraph made me smile: I will remark that in spite of my job
being a software engineer, I had never spent a lot of time looking at
the source code for the X Server (XFree86 or X.Org) before. It’s really
nuts to see that a lot of the architecture from X10R3 and X11R1 still
persists in the code today, which is a statement that can be said in
deep admiration for legacy code but also disturbance from the power of
old decisions. Without having looked at the internals of any Wayland
implementation, I can sympathize sight unseen with the sentiments that
some developers have toward the X Window System: the code is a dead end.
I say that with the utmost respect to the X Window System as a
technology and an ecosystem. I’ll keep using X, and I will be really sad
when it’s no longer possible for me to do so for one reason or another,
as I’m extremely attached to it quirks. But it’s clear the future is
limited. ↫ Matt T. Proud We all have great – and not so great – memories
of X, but I am really, really happy I no longer have to use it.
Melting
Ice Reveals Body of American Mountaineer Missing for 22 Years in the
Peruvian Andes
date: 2024-07-11, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Bill Stampfl, Matthew Richardson and Steve Erskine went missing in an
avalanche on Huascarán on June 24, 2002. Climbers found Stampfl’s body
just weeks ago
Exclusive:
Iran struggled to arrange US ballot stations for presidential election
runoff
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
washington — Iran struggled to arrange absentee voting in the U.S.
for the second round of its presidential election Friday, as a VOA
investigation found that Tehran’s U.S. ballot stations suffered more
setbacks than those it organized for the election’s first round a week
prior.
Tehran declared relative moderate former Iranian Health Minister
Masoud Pezeshkian the winner of the July 5 runoff against
ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Iran’s interests section office in Washington began the absentee
voting operation on U.S. soil by setting up ballot stations for the
election’s first round on June 28.
That first-round operation suffered some setbacks, according to an
initial VOA investigation. Three of the 33 ballot station addresses
listed online by the interests section office just hours before voting
started quickly canceled their voting events under pressure from Iranian
American activists and protesters who oppose Iran’s authoritarian
Islamist rulers.
VOA’s new investigation found that Iran’s U.S.-based agents
encountered deeper problems with organizing ballot stations for the July
5 runoff. The findings conflict with Iran’s assertion, published by
state news agency IRNA, that those agents were able to “increase” the
number of ballot stations for the runoff, thanks to the “welcome” of
Iranians living in the U.S.
Almost half of the June 28 ballot stations were not relisted for use
in the runoff, indicating difficulties for the organizers in rebooking
some of the first-round venues.
VOA also assessed that for the runoff, the locations where voting was
canceled doubled, while ballot stations whose addresses were hidden to
keep protesters away increased. Those addresses were accessible only by
contacting a listed phone number or email address.
A VOA review of the July 5 ballot station list, which was updated
multiple times that day, found that it included street addresses of 32
venues. One additional venue near Boston had been exposed by activists
online after they apparently accessed its unlisted address via email.
The listed addresses included those of 16 hotels, six Islamic centers,
and a variety of other venues.
VOA assessed that voting events proceeded in at least 17 venues on
the July 5 list, based on verbal confirmations from venue staff who
answered phone calls that day and on images of the sites posted by
activists on social media and deemed to be credible.
Fifteen of the identified July 5 ballot station locations had not
been listed for the election’s first round, while 18 locations from the
first round were relisted for round two.
One of them was the main ballot station, in Iran’s Washington
interests section office. That is where a VOA Persian reporter observed
about 90 to 100 people entering the venue in a 10-hour period on July 5.
Three of them told the reporter that most of the visitors were filling
out passport applications or other paperwork rather than voting.
One man was at the office with his wife on July 5 specifically to
vote. He told the VOA Persian reporter that voting is a pillar of
democracy and could lead to positive change for Iran.
Many diaspora Iranians denounced Iran’s presidential election as a
sham, while the State Department called it neither free nor fair. The
Islamic republic’s ruling clerics permit only loyalists of Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to run for offices such as president and
parliament, which are subservient to him on key policy issues.
Iranian American activists opposed to Tehran’s U.S. ballot stations
protested peacefully on June 28 outside two venues that canceled voting
events, and those activist told VOA they successfully appealed to a
third to do the same. None of the three venues were relisted for the
July 5 vote.
One of them was the Congregational Church of Weston near Boston.
Pastoral Resident Megan Strouse told VOA in an interview that those who
rented the church on June 28 identified themselves as from Boston’s
Iranian American community.
“We thought their intention was to hold an election event for their
local community, for a board or something of that nature,” Strouse said.
“That morning, we realized what the event was, and our senior pastor
made the call to ask the renters to stop their event, as it did not
align with our mission and purpose as a religious organization.”
VOA emailed the independently owned Biltmore Hotel Oklahoma in
Oklahoma City on July 3, requesting confirmation of its use as a June 28
ballot station after Iran had identified it as such, and asking whether
the hotel would host a voting event for the runoff. There was no
response from the hotel, and it was left off the second-round ballot
station list published on July 5.
In another sign of the difficulties that Iran faced in its U.S.
ballot station operation for July 5, VOA determined that voting was
canceled in three of the 33 identified venues.
Hotel staff who answered the phones at the Embassy Suites by Hilton
Seattle North Lynnwood in Washington and at Marriott’s The Westin Tysons
Corner in Virginia confirmed that the runoff voting events were called
off following protest activity.
Protesters also found the unlisted address of a second-round mobile
ballot station that briefly operated out of a police station parking lot
in the Boston suburb of Woburn. They posted social media images
indicating the event was called off after they showed up at the
site.
Three additional U.S. cities initially appeared in Iran’s July 5 list
as numbered voting precincts, but they were removed in updated versions
of the list with no ballot station addresses having been displayed,
indicating that voting plans for those locations had been canceled as
well. These were Ontario, California; Oklahoma City; and Sterling,
Virginia.
Iran also hid the addresses of July 5 mobile voting stations that it
listed for three parts of Los Angeles and for New York’s Manhattan
borough and the Boston area, forcing both prospective voters and
protesters to use the listed contact information for those stations to
find their addresses. For the June 28 vote, only the mobile station for
Manhattan had an unlisted address.
U.S. advocacy group National Iranian American Council, which has
adopted a positive view of Pezeshkian, Iran’s incoming president,
decried what it called the protesters’ intimidation and harassment of
Iranian Americans who voted at U.S. ballot stations on June 28.
“We cannot be a community that stands for voter suppression and
attacks against Iranians who dare to express their political agency,”
NIAC said in a July 2 statement.
Andrew Ghalili, a senior policy analyst with National Union for
Democracy in Iran, an Iranian American advocacy group that opposes the
Islamic republic, told VOA that those who organized and participated in
the U.S. voting events were helping the Iranian government boost its
legitimacy at home and abroad.
But Ghalili said the boycott of the vote by most diaspora Iranians
and protest actions by some of them showed that they have lost faith in
the Islamic republic’s ability to reform itself through elections.
“Some of the protesters’ goals were accomplished, in terms of making
Iran struggle with its election messaging, so I think they should be
pleased with their efforts,” he said.
Soran Khateri of VOA’s Persian service contributed to this report
from Washington.
Newhall
Library to host ‘Symphony of Colors’ art show
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Signal
News release The city of Santa Clarita will feature local artist Zony
Gordon in “Symphony of Colors,” an art exhibition running July 19 to
Oct. 16 at the Newhall Library […]
Biden
throws $1.7B at automakers to prepare fading factories for EV
production
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Ice ICE, baby
The Biden administration’s electric vehicle ambitions are getting
another boost, this time in the form of $1.7 billion in public funding
to convert 11 at-risk and shuttered auto manufacturing plants into
electric vehicle (EV) factories. …
Local AI
on Windows: Explaining the Audio Editor app sample
date: 2024-07-11, from: Windows Developer Blog
Building Windows apps that leverage on-device AI models can seem like a
daunting task - there’s a lot of work that goes into defining your use
case, choosing and tuning the right models, and refining the logic
surrounding the models.
Astronomers
Spot Rare, Mid-Sized Black Hole in Our Galaxy
date: 2024-07-11, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The black hole, if confirmed, is in the star cluster Omega Centauri,
about 17,700 light-years away, and it could hold lessons about how such
structures are formed
Palestinians
say Microsoft unfairly closing their accounts
date: 2024-07-11, from: OS News
Palestinians living abroad have accused Microsoft of closing their
email accounts without warning – cutting them off from crucial online
services. They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and
job offers – and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to
contact relatives in war-torn Gaza. Microsoft says they violated its
terms of service – a claim they dispute. ↫ Mohamed Shalaby and Joe Tidy
at the BBC Checking up on your family members to see if they survived
another day of an ongoing genocide doesn’t seem like something that
should be violating any terms of any services, but that’s just me.
“Majority of
websites and mobile apps use dark patterns”
date: 2024-07-11, from: OS News
A global internet sweep that examined the websites and mobile apps of
642 traders has found that 75,7% of them employed at least one dark
pattern, and 66,8% of them employed two or more dark patterns. Dark
patterns are defined as practices commonly found in online user
interfaces and that steer, deceive, coerce, or manipulate consumers into
making choices that often are not in their best interests. ↫
International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network Dark patterns
are everywhere, and it’s virtually impossible to browse the web, use
certain types of services, or install mobile applications, without
having to dodge and roll just to avoid all kinds of nonsense being
thrown at you. It’s often not even ads that make the web unusable – it’s
all the dark patterns tricking you into viewing ads, entering into a
subscription, enabling notifications, sharing your email address or
whatever, that’s the real reason. This is why one of the absolute
primary demands I have for the next version of OSNews is zero dark
patterns. I don’t want any dialogs begging you to enable ads, no modal
windows demanding you sign up for a newsletter, no popups asking you to
enable notifications, and so on – none of that stuff. My golden standard
is “your computer, your rules”, and that includes your right to use ad
blockers or anything else to change the appearance or functioning of our
website on your computer. It’d be great if dark patterns became illegal
somehow, but it would be incredibly difficult to write any legislation
that would properly cover these practices.
A few days before they left Skylab on Feb. 8, 1974, the final crew to
occupy the station raised its altitude, hoping to keep it in orbit until
a future space shuttle could revisit it. But higher than predicted solar
activity caused the Earth’s atmosphere to expand, increasing drag on the
large vehicle, causing its […]
Amazon is offering discounts on a whole bunch of Prime Channels, letting
you catch up on British mystery shows, Anime, documentaries, movies, and
more with deals starting as low as $1 per month for the first 2 months.
The promotion runs through July 17th and it’s just the latest in a whole
bunch of deals […]
Trump
threatens to send Meta’s Mark ‘Zuckerbucks’ to prison if reelected
president
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
If you were wondering how the US White House race is going in 2024, it’s
going like this…
Florida Man Donald Trump has said that if elected President of the
United States again, he will jail “election fraudsters” – with a direct
warning to Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg. Or Zuckerbucks as Trump put it.…
Electrical
and Mechanical Technician Clifton Brown
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
“We have a group photo of my first project here, ASTRO-H, and that
one means a lot to me because I came [to that NASA project] fresh off
the street. I was super scared and intimidated. It was me and three
other [technicians], who were also all new, and a handful of very
seasoned scientists […]
OK, I’m going to say it: interaction bait is killing social media.
You know what I’m talking about. Those posts that are designed to get
you to comment, like, or share. They’re everywhere, and they’re getting
more and more annoying. I never cared much about timelines. Almost all
my social media interaction is posting things, […]
Climate
change, population growth may threaten global food security
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
nairobi, kenya — The combination of climate change and a growing
world population may threaten global food security. As the United
Nations marks World Population Day, changes in agriculture, especially
in Africa, may be the only way forward.
The global population is expected to grow over the next 60 years,
from 8.2 billion today to 10.3 billion in the 2080s. Much of that growth
will occur in Africa, where many countries still have high fertility
rates.
The United Nations Population Fund said climate change is expected to
exacerbate global inequalities and trigger national and international
migration.
U.N. agencies say 1 billion of the 1.3 billion people living in
Africa struggle to afford healthy diets and hunger worsened between 2019
and 2022.
Food needs grow, farmland shrinks
Africa’s farmland has been shrinking because of persistent drought,
while the growing population leaves less space to farm.
Chris Ojiewo, principal scientist at the International Maize and
Wheat Improvement Center, said African farmers need to produce a lot of
food in small spaces to feed the growing population.
“We cannot even think of a human way … or ethical way to stop
population growth, so let it grow but let us people able to produce more
within a small area,” said Ojiewo. “For example, where we are able to
produce only one ton of maize per hectare, why don’t we work and that is
what we are doing to improve this productivity to go beyond 1 ton to 2
to 3 to 4 to 5 to 10 tons per hectare, considering developing varieties
but also production systems that enable us to produce in the intensified
system but also to produce even when there is drought.”
Speaking at a conference in Mexico this week, Ann Vaughan, deputy
assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development, said scientific research and technology can help farmers
cope with climate change and assist them in cultivating diverse
crops.
“To help make sure we are accelerating smart innovations so that
farmers are getting access so even in the face of horrific drought, they
are still able to produce food for themselves and their families,” said
Vaughan. “… what that looks like is making sure we have the right
science, the right seeds, the right private sector partners who are
pulling and creating a demand for these types of seeds, diversifying so
that you are not just growing maize but you are also growing cowpeas and
other things which are more resilient to climate change and the brighter
type of practices so that you are mixing intercropping and having less
tilt.”
Initiative promotes sustainable practices
In 2010, the U.S. government launched Feed the Future, an initiative
aimed at addressing the causes of hunger and poverty in developing
countries worldwide.
The program improved African agriculture systems by promoting
sustainable practices that considered climate challenges. That helped
increase economic opportunities, employment and trade.
In some African countries, the dominance of maize crops as the
primary source of food has worried experts. The crop relies on rain, and
climate change is causing unpredictable rainfall patterns.
African farmers must change when and what they grow to produce enough
food, said Ojiewo.
“Ensuring that production and productivity continue, whether in
season or off-season, does not necessarily mean relying 100 percent on
rain-fed agriculture,” said Ojiewo. “Diversification, as I mentioned
here, does not mean overlying on one single crop for population
survival. I know many countries are relying on maize in terms of cereals
and ignoring some of the other crops that will fit into these
systems.”
Due to increasing drought in several African countries, farmers are
urged to cultivate crops such as cassava, sorghum, pigeon peas, and
pearl millet, which are resilient to unpredictable and harsh
conditions.
By Mayor Pro Tem Bill Miranda Santa Clarita is known, not only for its
scenic open spaces and family-friendly community, but also for its
commitment to nurturing the arts and fostering a thriving, dynamic
environment where creativity can flourish. The arts play a pivotal role
in enhancing our City, offering a medium for expression, dialogue […]
Miniproca
is a Ryzen 9 6900HX mini PC with a flip-up 7 inch touchscreen display
(crowdfunding)
date: 2024-07-11, from: Liliputing
The Miniproca is a small desktop computer with a 45-watt AMD Ryzen 9
6900HX processor, DDR5-4800 memory and an M.2 2280 slot with support for
PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage. But what really makes this mini PC stand out is
the 7 inch display on top of the case. It’s a touchscreen display that
can be flipped […]
On
Sudan and the Interminable Catastrophe: A Conversation with Bedour
Alagraa
date: 2024-07-11, from: Care
<p>Bedour Alagraa in conversation with J Khadijah Abdurahman about the history, present, and future of Sudan and its diaspora in the wake of the one year anniversary of the war.</p>
View From
the Nuba Mountains: An Interview with Kuna
date: 2024-07-11, from: Care
<p>An interview with Kuna (a pseudonym for her protection), a Nuba diaspora returnee currently displaced within Sudan due to the ongoing war between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces.</p>
House
rejects GOP effort to fine Attorney General Garland for refusal to turn
over Biden audio
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The House rejected a GOP effort Thursday to fine
Attorney General Merrick Garland $10,000 a day until he turns over audio
of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case as a
handful of Republicans resisted taking an aggressive step against a
sitting Cabinet official.
Even if the resolution — titled inherent contempt — had passed, it
was unclear how the fine would be enforced as the dispute over the tape
of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur is now playing out
in court.
The House voted 204-210, with four Republicans joining all Democrats,
to halt a Republican resolution that would have imposed the fine,
effectively rebuffing the latest effort by GOP lawmakers to assert its
enforcement powers — weeks after Biden asserted executive privilege to
block the release of the recording.
“This is not a decision that we have reached lightly but the actions
of the attorney general cannot be ignored,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna,
R-Fla., the resolution’s lead sponsors, said during debate Wednesday.
“No one is above the law.”
The House earlier this year made Garland the third attorney general
in U.S. history to be held in contempt of Congress. But the Justice
Department said Garland would not be prosecuted, citing the agency’s
“longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials
who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of
executive privilege.
Democrats blasted the GOP effort as another political stunt. Rep. Jim
McGovern, D-Mass., said that the resolution is unjustified in the case
of Garland because he has complied with subpoena.
“Their frustration is that they can’t get their hands on an audio
recording that they think they could turn into an RNC attack ad,”
McGovern said in reference to the Republican National Committee. “When
you start making a mockery of things like inherent contempt you diminish
this institution.”
Garland himself has defended the Justice Department, saying officials
have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the
committees about Hur’s classified documents investigation, including a
transcript of Biden’s interview. However, Garland has said releasing the
audio could jeopardize future sensitive investigations because witnesses
might be less likely to cooperate if they know their interviews might
become public.
House Republicans sued Garland earlier this month in an attempt to
force the release of the recording.
Republicans have accused Biden of suppressing the recording because
he’s afraid to have voters hear it during an election year. The White
House and Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have slammed Republicans’
motives for pursuing contempt and dismissed their efforts to obtain the
audio as purely political.
The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur’s report in
February, which found evidence that Biden willfully retained and shared
highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the
special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted.
Republicans, incensed by Hur’s decision, issued a subpoena for audio
of his interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice
Department turned over only some of the records, leaving out audio of
the interview with the president.
Beyond the bitingly critical assessment of Biden’s handling of
sensitive government records, Hur offered unflattering characterizations
of the Democratic president’s memory in his report, sparking fresh
questions about his competency and age that cut at voters’ most
deep-seated concerns about the 81-year-old seeking a second term.
New
lawsuit aims to stop LA leaders from further ‘thwarting’ Venice homeless
housing project
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The LAist
The suit alleges two top city elected officials have covertly and
illegally thwarted a housing proposal for a city-owned lot that’s 800
feet from the beach in Venice. The officials, including the L.A. city
attorney, did not have comment.
The
IRA Might Survive a Republican Trifecta — But Not as a Climate Law
date: 2024-07-11, from: Heatmap News
The Biden administration has shoveled money from the Inflation Reduction
Act out the door
as
fast as possible this year, touting the many benefits all that cash
has brought to Republican congressional districts. Many — in Washington,
at think tanks and non-profits, among developers — have found in this a
reason to be calm about the law’s fate. But this is incorrect. The IRA’s
future as a climate law is in a far more precarious place than the
Beltway conventional wisdom has so far suggested.
Shortly after the changing of the guard in Congress and the White House,
policymakers will begin discussing
whether
to extend the Trump-era tax cuts, which expire at the end of
2025. If they opt to do so, they’ll try to find a way to pay for it —
and if Republicans win big in the November elections, as recent polling
and Democratic fretting suggests could happen, the IRA will be an easy
target.
Yes, the law has created a
ton
of jobs in states and congressional districts controlled by
Republicans. Sure, some in the GOP have
moderated
on climate and stopped denying the science behind the warming of
our planet. Absolutely, the IRA is the kind of all-carrot and no-stick
approach to energy that
Republicans
tend to like, and there would be legal and political challenges
to accomplishing anything of consequence in today’s polarized and
chaotic Congress.
But while some lawmakers may be evolving on climate, the broader GOP
under Trump’s control has grown far more willing to spurn its
pro-business past and give industries heartburn in pursuit of other
ideological or cultural objectives.
“The Republican Party’s traditional views on climate and business are
both changing and result in competing pressures,” Alex Flint, a longtime
Senate Republican energy staffer, told me. Flint now runs the
pro-business climate group Alliance for Market Solutions. “There is less
climate denialism. And less support for business. So on the one hand,
more Republicans are comfortable supporting climate policies like those
in the IRA, but are less responsive to the businesses that want to
defend those programs.”
What that means is that, in the event of a big GOP victory, anything
impossible to fully repeal may be fiddled with, whether through
legislative or administrative means. On top of all the energy and
climate regulations that would be targeted in that event, the nation’s
transition away from fossil fuels could lose significant federal policy
tailwinds.
It wouldn’t take full repeal to kneecap the IRA
On the legislative side, there is already broad GOP support for:
repealing the
consumer
electric vehicle and
charging
station benefits, nixing
the
methane fee, killing the national “green bank” program, and
eliminating any money
labeled
“environmental justice.” Broader programs with immense
importance to decarbonization such as the “clean electricity” investment
and production tax credits could be diminished or gutted at the urging
of the party’s rightward flank. (See: this GOP committee chair’s
IRA
repeal bill, which targeted the investment and production tax
credits, specifically.)
Anything that cannot be repealed — as the Heritage Foundation’s
Project
2025 instructs — Republicans will attempt to modify. Mike
Faulkender, a former Trump official at the Treasury Department who is
now chief economist for the America First Policy Institute, explained to
me for
an
Axios story last October that if
Trump wins, “We are going to review every rule, every notice, everything
the administration has done in its implementation of that statute.”
Demonstrating his seriousness, Faulkender also pointed to the IRA’s
credit
for carbon removal. “The dollar values on this are extraordinary
… I would go through that statute and see how we, through the rulemaking
process, can narrow it as much as possible.”
It is possible to take these threats with a grain of salt. Kimberly
Clausing, a former Biden official for the Treasury Department, told me
that while she can imagine “one or two elements” of the law being
revisited if they’re political priorities, it would require “too many
lawyer man-hours” to “justify that kind of wholescale implementation
pivot.”
Industries would also lobby heavily to avoid their credits going away.
Going after the tech-neutral ITC and PTC, for example, could spark an
immense backlash among a swath of energy sectors Republicans do support,
including nuclear energy. Same for incentives to advanced manufacturing.
Not to mention there are substantial logistical realities to repealing
the IRA or changing its programs, as with Obamacare in the past. Such an
effort would require organizing GOP lawmakers at a time when infighting
has undermined even seeming slam dunks like a
ban
on gas stove bans.
But seasoned political veterans and D.C. industry pros I spoke with for
this story noted that Republicans may be more receptive to tweaking
programs in a selective fashion, going after industries
like
solar and
offshore
wind that some have long-standing grievances with. For example,
it may be too difficult to repeal the “tech-neutral” electricity credits
in their entirety, but legislators could try to limit their reach for
these less-favored sectors — as some have
proposed
doing for solar projects on farmland — in the name of saving the
government money or helping other favored interests.
Energy lobbying veteran Frank Maisano put it to me this way: “Businesses
will support many things that they have their tentacles into and
Republicans will support many things that are going on in their
districts that constituents like. The reality is, if you’re going to try
to repeal it, you’re going to have to do it through Congress and a lot
of the action in the energy transition is in Republican districts. It
becomes a constituent issue.”
Or, in plain English: If it’s a successful project in
a GOP constituent district and their specific voters like
it, that will be what has the most sway.
That won’t stop Republicans from claiming that the renewable sector as a
whole is flagging. In
an
interview with E&E News’ Kelsey Brugger,
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise responded to the question of whether
the jobs created by the IRA would put Republicans in a tough spot on
repeal by — dubiously — downplaying the figures. “Overall, there haven’t
been many projects built,” Scalise said. “We’re scrutinizing all of it.”
There’s a reason for this: It creates an opening to point to real
market
struggles (though possibly in a
selective
fashion) as a predicate for squeezing benefits to renewables.
It’s easy to imagine a world where the impacts of
tariffs
on domestic solar or hurdles
facing
offshore wind are used as rationale for paring back credits and
other federal supports. You might not be hearing much about this right
now as the GOP is quietly letting Democrats knife themselves, but it’ll
be worth watching the Republican National Convention next week to see if
anyone spills the tea on plans for the IRA next year.
“Which of [these] forces prevail on any specific IRA program and on the
totality of the IRA package is impossible to predict,” said Flint,
“because members – Republicans who acknowledge the need to address
climate – may be aligned with companies that receive those subsidies.
But on the other hand, populists not closely aligned with business
interests may be willing to criticize those programs without regard to
their climate benefits. So what happens to climate policies and all of
the IRA is a test case for the future of the Republican Party.”
Fast isn’t fast enough
Developers are starting to ask questions about the durability of IRA
programs, Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries
Association, told me. Hopper’s optimistic that the marketplace will
continue to favor solar. But she is clear-eyed about the risks ahead for
certain aspects of the IRA – naming bonuses and the transferability of
credits — that may not survive in their current form.
“People ask me all the time about, ‘How do I make educated opinions, not
prognostications?’” she said. “There is this kind of built in
uncertainty because of the partisanship that clean energy has
unfortunately [had] imposed upon us … I am in agreement that the pace of
decarb is going to be impacted by these elections and policy decisions.
[But] I am not persuaded that we’re going to stop these efforts.”
To Hopper and others, at most risk is any unspent money or unused
spending authority left over at agencies at the conclusion of Biden’s
first term. Those supports face “probably the highest risk of clawback
or not being spent,” she said.
Some agencies are still moving at a brisk pace that has reassured those
in industry and advocacy spaces. The Treasury Department has signaled it
may complete implementation of several key IRA credits —
including
the “clean electricity” investment and production tax credits — before
Jan. 20, 2025. And the Environmental Protection Agency’s been quite
successful at doling out dollars that would otherwise be targeted in a
future GOP-controlled Congress, such as those the IRA provided for the
Solar For All program and the green bank initiative. These dollars will
live on independent of who remains president because once they’re given
to states or nonprofits, those parties get to decide how to spend them.
But there are still billions that may wind up in Trump’s control should
he win in November. One example is the Department of Energy’s
home
electrification rebates, which received $8.8 billion. Despite
almost all states applying for at least some of the funding, per
DOE’s
own tracker, only five have been accepted, and only one – New
York – had made those rebates available as of this week.
“I’m under the assumption that if it’s not going out in January 2025,
then it’s not going out the door,” Harrison Godfrey, who works for
energy policy shop Advanced Energy United, told me. “If the dollars get
out the door, then the story of ’25 is that regardless of who’s
president, the states are in the driver’s seat.”
There are aspects of the IRA that
could
survive even a Republican trifecta. The law’s support for
low-carbon fuels enjoys
apparent
bipartisan backing because of the lifeline it can offer
corn-based ethanol as the federal renewable fuel standard
wanes
in relevance. And
despite
grousing about Biden’s implementation of the hydrogen tax
credit, it’s easier to imagine industry lobbying for a rule change under
Trump than it is a full-scale repeal of a credit that could be a boon to
the oil and gas sector.
Meanwhile, the administration and other industry groups continue to
sound an optimistic note.
“The Inflation Reduction Act credits have spurred a clean energy boom in
communities across the country and markets have responded
overwhelmingly,” Treasury spokesperson Michael Martinez told me in a
statement. Jason Ryan, a spokesperson for American Clean Power, said
that “with the new tax credits in place,” more than $488 billion
investments have been announced, including new or expanded utility-scale
manufacturing plants, and that “with over a third of those manufacturing
facilities already up and running or under constructions, these numbers
translate to real-world positive impacts.”
But even if some of the IRA remains, without regulations to drive demand
for decarbonization solutions, its climate benefits would be
substantially undermined. One must look only at
research
from Clausing and others, who found even a partial IRA repeal combined
with weakened EPA regulations could significantly harm odds of meeting
the current administration’s goal of slashing emissions in half by 2030.
In other words, deep breaths! It’s only four months until the election
and six months until the tax conversation begins.
Cal
State Fullerton promised a big space for Native American repatriation,
then removed the leaders planning it
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The LAist
Part of a university library was to be used to house Native American
cultural artifacts and human remains. Now they’re in the basement of an
academic building.
FCC:
US telcos a long way off, several billions short of removing Chinese
kit
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Just 12% of providers have completed rip and replace of ZTE, Huawei
Updated The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
has reiterated to Congress that more cash is needed if smaller broadband
providers are to be compensated for removing Chinese telecoms kit deemed
a security risk.…
Paint the
Ice at The Cube Before Temporary Closure!
date: 2024-07-11, from: City of Santa Clarita
Paint the Surface of the Ice at The Cube for FREE! Have you ever wanted
to paint the surface of an ice rink? Now’s your chance! The community is
invited to bring their friends and family to a Paint the Ice event at
The Cube – Ice and Entertainment Center | Powered by FivePoint Valencia
[…]
NASA
Barge Preparations Underway for Artemis II Rocket Stage Delivery
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
Team members are installing pedestals aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge to
hold and secure the massive core stage of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch
System) rocket, indicating NASA barge crews are nearly ready for its
first delivery to support the Artemis II test flight around the Moon.
The barge will ferry the core stage on a 900-mile […]
Cannonball!
Swimming Pools in the National Register of Historic Places
date: 2024-07-11, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
In the month of July, when the temperature is hot, people will find
relief in swimming pools all over the country. Did you know there are a
number of pools that are on the National Register of Historic Places,
including the Pawnee Municipal Swimming Pool and Bathhouse in Pawnee,
Oklahoma (National Archives Identifier 86511880), which …
Continue
reading Cannonball! Swimming Pools in
the National Register of Historic Places
@Miguel de
Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-07-11, from: Miguel de Icaza
Mastondon feed)
When you have an iPad sitting next to a Mac, if you push your cursor
with the trackpad on the edge, it can move to the iPad.
The question is: what sorcery is MacOS using to figure out in which side
the iPad is sitting? I did not tell MacOS this at all, and it just
figured it out.
Supes
Boost Housing Support for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
date: 2024-07-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The number of young people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles
County is steadily persisting, and the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors are tackling the problem head on.
As summit
wraps, Russia increases pressure on NATO
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
With massive missile attacks on Ukraine this week and an announcement
that it is resuming production of long-range missiles, Moscow is raising
pressure on NATO allies as leaders of the alliance meet in Washington.
Marcus Harton narrates this report by Ricardo Marquina.
This
2.8 inch computer has an Intel N95 processor with dual display, dual
Ethernet support, sells for $129 and up
date: 2024-07-11, from: Liliputing
The SZBOX ZX01 is a tiny desktop computer that measures 72 x 72 x 44.5mm
(2.83″ x 2.83″ x 1.75″). But inside that small case is a full-fledged
computer with a 15-watt Intel N95 quad-core processor based on Alder
Lake-N architecture, 8GB of LPDDR5-4800 memory soldered to the mainboard
and an M.2 2242 slot with support […]
Remember Kamala Harris laughing throatily on the phone to Biden after
they’d dumped Trump in 2020? ‘We did it, Joe. We did it. You’re gonna be
the next President of the United States.’ Erotic, I thought. The hottest
words a woman could ever speak to a man. ‘We did it, Joe.’
Take
a Summer Cosmic Road Trip With NASA’s Chandra and Webb
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
It’s time to take a cosmic road trip using light as the highway and
visit four stunning destinations across space. The vehicles for this
space get-away are NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space
Telescope. The first stop on this tour is the closest, Rho Ophiuchi, at
a distance of about 390 light-years from […]
A Senate committee is set to hold a hearing later this month on a new
bill that would ban stock trading by members of Congress and their
families. The legislation was unveiled yesterday. Some lawmakers are
outperforming the market — and that’s spurred copycat funds ordinary
investors can jump into. But first, inflation this morning came in lower
than expected. And later: why the FTC is taking a closer look at
pharmacy benefit managers.
For a long time, it has both bugged and bemused me that, though the
first webcam ran for 10 years taking photos of our departmental coffee
pot, there are almost no original images saved from the millions it
served up to viewers around the world! I had one or two. Then, suddenly,
in a recent
Continue
Reading
Acting
Center Chief Technologist Dr. Phillip Williams
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
“I did not know that NASA Langley was right here in my own backyard.
I was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and NASA Langley is in
Hampton, about 45 minutes away. All throughout elementary school, I
didn’t know that NASA was here. I always thought NASA was in Florida or
Texas or somewhere. “I […]
I was tempted, just for a moment, to preface all that abstract nonsense,
all those higher ramblings, with καὶ παίζειν ὅτε καιρός, ἐπαίξαμεν•
ἡνίκα καιρὸς οὐκέτι, λωιτέρης φροντίδος ἁψόμεθα. When it was time for
play, we played. Now that is no longer we will apply ourselves to higher
thoughts. So writes Philodemus, the final two […]
Voyagers
of Mars: The First CHAPEA Crew’s Yearlong Journey
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
When the first humans travel to the Red Planet, they will need to
know how to repair and maintain equipment, grow their own food, and stay
healthy, all while contending with Earth-to-Mars communication delays.
They must also find ways to build comradery and have fun. The first
all-volunteer CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog)
[…]
Google:
We’re still working to defeat Microsoft’s ‘anticompetitive’ cloud
policy
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Yesterday’s settlement between MS and Euro cloud providers shouldn’t
‘fool’ you, says Alphabet arm’s cloud boss
Google says Microsoft’s confidential settlement with a group of European
cloud providers is merely about using its financial muscle to make
complaints about software licensing costs vanish.…
3
men accused of murdering New Zealand tourist at California mall make
first court appearance
date: 2024-07-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
3 LA County men accused of carrying out an attempted armed robbery at
mall in which a 68-year-old New Zealand woman was dragged to her death
under a getaway car.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, an early player in the Apple blogosphere
that has been defunct for a decade, has been revived as an AI-powered
site that rewrites content from other sites. iLounge suffered the same
fate. Avoid both sites from now on.
Oil
tanker held by Iran for over a year heads toward international
waters
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An oil tanker held by Iran for over a
year after being seized amid tensions between Tehran and the United
States was sailing Thursday toward international waters, tracking data
showed.
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet traveled toward
the Strait of Hormuz, where it was seized in April 2023 by Iran’s navy
while carrying $50 million worth of oil from Kuwait for Chevron
Corporation. That’s according to tracking data analyzed by The
Associated Press, which also listed the vessel’s destination at Khor
Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, which has been the first port of
call for other vessels leaving Iranian detention.
Iran did not acknowledge the ship’s departure. It came after an
Iranian court on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay over $6.7
billion in compensation over a Swedish company stopping its supply of
special dressings and bandages for those afflicted by a rare skin
disorder after Washington imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s government initially said it seized the Advantage Sweet
because it hit another vessel, a claim not supported by any evidence.
Then Iranian officials linked the Advantage Sweet’s seizure to the court
case that was decided Thursday.
A report by the state-run IRNA news agency described the $6.7 billion
order as being filed on behalf of 300 plaintiffs, including family
members of victims and those physically and emotionally damaged. IRNA
said about 20 patients died after the Swedish company’s decision.
Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic condition that causes
blisters all over the body and eyes. It can be incredibly painful and
kill those afflicted. The young who suffer from the disease are known as
“butterfly children” as their skin can appear as fragile as a
butterfly’s wing.
The order comes as U.S. judges have issued rulings that call for
billions of dollars to be paid by Iran over attacks linked to Tehran, as
well as those detained by Iran and used as pawns in negotiations between
the countries — something Iran has responded to with competing lawsuits
accusing the U.S. of involvement in a 2017 Islamic State group attack.
The United Nations’ highest court also last year rejected Tehran’s legal
bid to free up some $2 billion in Iranian Central Bank assets frozen by
U.S. authorities.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S.
from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, apparently sparking the
Swedish company to withdraw from the Iranian market. Iran now says it
locally produces the bandages.
Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has maintained that the
Advantage Sweet was “seized under false pretenses.” It has since written
off the cargo as a loss.
The U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on
vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone
attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew
members in 2021.
Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war
between Iran and the West has played out in the region’s volatile
waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The
last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and
held them until November of that year.
NASA’s
Hubble Traces Dark Matter in Dwarf Galaxy Using Stellar Motions
date: 2024-07-11, from: NASA breaking news
The qualities and behavior of dark matter, the invisible “glue” of
the universe, continue to be shrouded in mystery. Though galaxies are
mostly made of dark matter, understanding how it is distributed within a
galaxy offers clues to what this substance is, and how it’s relevant to
a galaxy’s evolution. While computer simulations suggest dark […]
I think you can figure out a lot about a person if you know what books
have had the most impact on them. At one point or another, each of these
books was my current favorite. They all had a lasting impact on me. I’d
love to see your list.
Tracy has smartly split hers up into categories. I’ll do the same here.
And just as Lou said, I’d love to see your list!
Formative Books
These books disproportionately influenced me when I was a much younger
adult, and helped contribute to the way I saw the world in a hundred
ways, from my sense of what was possible to my sense of humor.
Constellations:
Stories of the Future — a mind-blowing collection of science fiction
short stories, some of which became episodes of The Twilight
Zone and so on. Jerome Bixby’s It’s a Good Lifeand Fritz
Leiber’s A Pail of Air are standouts for me.
Something Wicked
This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury — There’s a warm, beating heart at
the center of this story, and that’s what draws me in every time (and
I’ve reread it countless times). There are better Bradbury books which
have probably aged better — you’re probably thinking of them right now —
but at the time, it resonated.
Maus, by Art
Spiegelman — It was much later until I really understood how my own
family was affected by WWII, but I connected to this hard. It was also
the first graphic novel that made me really think about the
possibilities of the form: something that was clearly far beyond
superheroes and fantasy.
The Handmaid’s Tale,
by Margaret Atwood — Practically a documentary at this point, but
it’s always been a riveting work of speculative fiction that does what
that genre does best: help us grasp with elements of our present. To
most of us, it’s a warning. To the Heritage Foundation, I guess it’s a
manual.
1984, by George
Orwell — It’s hard to imagine a more culturally influential science
fiction novel. I love it: although it has a lot to say, I find it to be
a page-turner. If you haven’t read Sandra Newman’s follow-up,
Julia, run to
get it: it’s an impressive work of fiction in its own right that
reframes the story in brilliant ways.
Microserfs, by
Douglas Coupland — Coupland sometimes reads like a funnier Bret
Easton Ellis (which is to say zeitgeisty but hollow —
Shampoo
Planet and The
Rules of Attraction are cousins), but at his best he captures
something real. Microserfs gave me that first taste of the community and
camaraderie around building software together: it’s set in an earlier
version of the industry than I got to be a part of, but its depiction of
those early years is recognizable. Even the outlandish characters don’t
feel out of place. I don’t think it’s probably aged at all well, but it
resonated with me hard in my early twenties.
Motivating External Change
These books helped me think about how we need to change, and what we
might do.
The Ministry for the
Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson — There’s a very silly passage in
this book about the role of blockchain in solving climate change (come
on), as well as quite a bit in favor of climate engineering,
which I think is highly dubious bordering on terrifying. But at the same
time, the novel succeeds at painting a visceral picture of what the
effects of the climate crisis could be.
Caste: The Origins
of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson — A key to understanding
America. There’s a lot spelled out here that I simply didn’t know,
running the gamut from the details of peoples’ everyday lived
experiences to the chilling fact that Hitler based his Nazi caste system
on Jim Crow.
Books That Changed Me
These books either left me a different person somehow or touched
something in me I didn’t know existed.
Kindred, by Octavia
Butler — I wish I’d discovered Butler earlier. Her work is immediate
and deeply human, and while it shouldn’t have had to change a whole
genre, it absolutely did.
Parable of the
Sower is seismic, of course, and rightly famous. (It’s also getting
to be a harder and harder read in the current climate.) But it was
Kindred that opened the doors to a different kind of science fiction to
me, and through it, all kinds of possibilities.
How High We Go in
the Dark, by Sequoia Nagamatsu — I have never read a more effective
metaphor for grief and change. I read it when I was in the depths of
grief myself, and the way this book captures the nuance, the brutality,
and the beauty is poetry. I still think about one chapter almost daily.
(It’s the rollercoaster. If you know, you know.)
The Color Purple, by
Alice Walker — A breathtaking example of a modern novel: a
masterclass in form as well as content. Not a word is wasted in bringing
the lived experiences of her characters to life (and through them, so
many more). I’ve read this many times, and I’ve never made it through
without absolutely weeping.
Bird by Bird: Some
Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott — So often
recommended to writers for really good reasons, Bird by Bird is
not just the best book I’ve ever read about writing but also about
embarking upon any large project. It’s hopeful, nourishing,
actionable, and lovely. Its lessons still motivate me.
Do you have a list of your own that you would like to
share? Let me know!
Prices
in US fell in June for the first time since the start of the
pandemic
date: 2024-07-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
The better-than-expected inflation report further bolstered hopes
that a Federal Reserve rate cut could come sooner than later and help
make borrowing money less expensive.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center civil servant retirees are invited to
attend the 2024 Summerfest! Wednesday, Aug. 7, 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Along Taylor Road at Lewis Field For more information or to RSVP,
contact Kathy Clark at 216–433–8354 or kathy.m.clark@nasa.gov
Registration closes: July 26
Advance
Auto Parts: 2.3M people’s data accessed when crims broke into our
Snowflake account
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Letters from CISO Ethan Steiger suggest the data related to job
applications
Advance Auto Parts’ CISO just revealed for the first time the number of
individuals affected when criminals broke into its Snowflake instance –
a hefty 2.3 million.…
Current conditions: More than 10 inches of rain
fell over nine hours in southwestern China • Wildfires are spreading in
Canada, with at least 140 burning as of yesterday afternoon • The
streets of Cape Town in South Africa are under water after severe storms
caused widespread flooding.
THE TOP FIVE
Wind and solar surpass nuclear in U.S. electricity generation
More electricity was generated by wind and solar than by nuclear plants
in the first half of 2024 for the first time ever in U.S. history,
Reutersreported,
citing data from energy think tank Ember. Solar and wind farms generated
401.4 terawatt hours (TWh) compared to 390.5 TWh generated from nuclear
reactors, setting 2024 on pace to be the “first full year when more U.S.
electricity will come from renewables than from any other form of clean
power.” It’s helpful to compare these numbers to the same period last
year, when nuclear generated 9% more power than solar and wind. Solar
saw the greatest gains, with output 30% higher in the first half of 2024
compared to 2023; wind generation was up 10% and nuclear was up just
3.4%. Between 2018 and 2023, installed capacity grew by 168% for utility
solar and 56% for wind. Meanwhile, nuclear generation capacity dropped
by 4%.
BP forecasts that oil demand will peak next year
In its latest
energy
outlook report, fossil fuel giant BP forecasts that global demand
for oil will peak in 2025, and the related carbon emissions will, too.
The analysis is based on current climate policies and pledges, growing
efficiency standards for the internal combustion engine and a rise in
electric vehicles, and rapid expansion of renewables. By 2050, oil’s
share of the energy mix is predicted to fall to about 25%, and that
would decrease even more, to just 10%, if nations strengthen (and follow
through on) their climate pledges to better align with the Paris
Agreement.
BP
The report notes that energy demand is rising, and says the world must
enter an “energy substitution” phase in which clean energy supply
increases quickly to keep up while also allowing for fossil fuels to be
phased out. “The longer it takes for the world to move to a rapid and
sustained energy transition, the greater the risk of a costly and
disorderly adjustment pathway in the future,”
wrote
Spencer Dale, BP’s chief economist.
Intense U.S. heat wave kills least 28 people, breaks temperature
records
More than 160 million Americans have been under excessive heat warnings
this week. The heat is particularly oppressive in the West, where
temperature records have been falling and heat-related deaths are
rising. At least
28
people have died due to heat in the last week, and that number is
expected to climb, especially as the heat wave persists into next week.
NWS/NOAA
Las Vegas recorded five days a row where temperatures soared above 115
degrees Fahrenheit, breaking a record of four days set in 2005. On
Sunday the city hit 120 degrees, a new record for the hottest day. It
will be 118 degrees there today. “This is the most extreme heatwave in
the history of record-keeping in Las Vegas since 1937,” Nevada National
Weather Service meteorologist John Adair
toldThe Associated Press. In California, the weather has
been so hot that emergency rescue helicopters are
struggling
to fly.
Human-caused climate change is
making
heat waves more intense and more frequent. “While this summer is likely
to be one of the hottest on record, it is important to realize that it
may also be one of the coldest summers of the future,”
wrote
climate scientist Mathew Barlow and meteorology professor Jeffrey Basara
in an essay for The Conversation.
Report: Biden ‘made progress’ on most climate commitments since 2020
Climate change advocacy group Evergreen Action reviewed President
Biden’s record of following through on
climate
actions over the last four years. In 2020, the group put forward a
comprehensive
set of policy recommendations for Biden to use as a roadmap. The new
analysis finds that the administration has “made progress” on 85% of
those recommendations, including implementing new clean power policies,
advancing environmental justice, the creation of the American Climate
Corps, and trying to restrict liquefied natural gas exports. “The
Biden-Harris administration has done more on climate than any president
before,” Evergreen said. It’s worth reviewing the
entire
list of recommendations.
Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:
Google-linked carbon removal startup signs deals worth $40 million
A carbon capture company named
280
Earth has signed agreements worth $40 million to remove 61,600 tons
of the greenhouse gas between now and 2030, Bloombergreported.
The company emerged from Alphabet’s moonshot factory and recently
launched direct air capture operations at its plant in Oregon. The plant
is located next to a Google data center and can use excess heat from
that center to “improve its efficiency, while cutting the center’s
cooling costs,” according to Bloomberg. The company’s
website says it plans to build more facilities across the United States.
It recently raised $50 million from private investors in a Series B
round.
THE KICKER
“Biden’s tremendous climate legacy rests on whether he can sell
his accomplishments to the public and win the 2024 election. And that
ability is faltering, to say the least.”
–Heatmap’s
Robinson Meyer
Oakland
B’s launch community investment campaign, paving way for fan
ownership
date: 2024-07-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
The Oakland Ballers announced on Thursday that they are launching a
community investment campaign, one that will offer fans both economic
rights and decision-making power
Bay
Area traffic stop of suspected stolen car leads to fiery crash,
death
date: 2024-07-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
A man suspected of stealing a car in San Francisco died in a
collision following a failed traffic stop and pursuit initiated by the
Vallejo police, marking the fourth traffic fatality within the city this
year.
Fast
Company’s View of the Internet in 1994, Expanded by “Internet Explorer’s
Kit for Macintosh”
date: 2024-07-11, from: TidBITS blog
Curious about what the Internet was like 30 years ago, in 1994? Fast
Company has published an article looking at 15 websites from that year,
but for a much more comprehensive (and amusing) view, check out the
“Internet Explorer’s Kit for Macintosh” book by Adam Engst and Bill
Dickson, now available online.
Bay
Area beekeepers plead guilty to misdemeanor in employee death
date: 2024-07-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Employee Carlos Del Toro was crushed between a cage and forklift
while exiting a Bobcat, according to the California Division of
Occupational Safety and Health. His death was ruled accidental.
European
Commission accepts Apple’s ‘tap and go’ promises
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Makes third-party wallets getting iOS NFC access a ‘legally binding’
thing
Apple has avoided a potential hefty fine and an antitrust case in Europe
after making concessions that include opening up access to iPhone
hardware needed for “tap and go” applications.…
How
to help children understand the Indigenous land they live on
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The LAist
In recent years, a number of institutions have adopted land
acknowledgements. But for young children, settler colonialism might be
hard to grasp. Here’s how to help children understand.
When
Government Bureaucracy Fails Them, a Collective of Indigenous Migrants
Figure It Out Themselves
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Markup blog
The Concejo de Pueblos Originarios combats vaccine misinformation,
translates for fellow migrants in court, and works with linguists to
create new Indigenous words.
Colectivo
de inmigrantes indígenas se organiza ante la falta de servicios
gubernamentales
date: 2024-07-11, from: The Markup blog
El Concejo de Pueblos Originarios combate la desinformación sobre las
vacunas, realiza traducciones para las y los compañeros migrantes en la
corte, y trabaja con lingüistas para crear nuevas palabras
indígenas.
We love hearing from members of the community and sharing the stories of
amazing young people, volunteers, and educators who are using their
passion for technology to create positive change in the world around
them. In our latest story, we’re heading to London to meet Yang, a
Manager in Technology Consulting at EY specialising in…
The closely-watched consumer price index is slated to be released later
this morning. Despite agita over continued rising prices, incomes have
continued to outpace inflation. But consumer sentiment and spending can
be fickle things. We’ll hear more. Plus, does Citibank have a problem
with its safety systems? Regulators seem to think so. Also: Be wary of
that unsolicited job offer. If it seems too good to be true, it probably
is.
Boeing’s
Starliner set for extended stay at the ISS as engineers on Earth try to
recreate thruster issues
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
We all know the pain of reproducing that one pesky problem in test
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is set to spend a little longer attached
to the International Space Station (ISS) as engineers on the ground work
to recreate the oddities seen in orbit.…
From the BBC World Service: Indigenous leaders in Brazil are
asking the United Nations to pressure President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva to stop illegal mining on their Amazon lands. We’ll hear the
latest. Then, a potential rival group may soon rival the Economic
Community of West African States. And later, Greece imposes regulations
to limit the areas on beaches that bars and restaurants can use after
complaints by locals.
Privacy
expert put away for 9 years after ‘grotesque’ cyberstalking
campaign
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Scumbag targeted many victims – and those who tried to help them
A scumbag who used to work as a privacy consultant has been put behind
bars for nine years for a “grotesque” cyberstalking campaign against
more than a dozen victims.…
Firefox 128
bumps system requirements for old boxes
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Get comfortable, it’ll be here for a while
Firefox 128 is out with a relatively modest feature set – but it will
also be the latest Extended Support Release (ESR) release, meaning that
the end for Firefox 115 is coming into view.…
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: Deno blog
Deno 1.45 introduces workspaces and monorepo support, improved
Node.js compatibility, updates to deno install, the new
deno init --lib command, deprecation of
deno vendor, Standard Library stabilization, upgrades to V8
12.7 and TypeScript 5.5.2, and more.
Speed
limiters arrive for all new cars in the European Union
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Driving a new car in the EU? Get ready for a cacophony of beeps and
whistles if you’re a bit heavy on the go pedal
It was a big week for road safety campaigners in the European Union as
Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology became mandatory on all
new cars.…
Trump’s
Likely VPs All Have Different Bad Ideas About Climate
date: 2024-07-11, from: Heatmap News
Donald Trump will announce his running mate any day now, and according
to multiple reports his choice has come down to Florida Senator Marco
Rubio, Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
All erstwhile critics of Trump, they now share a fervent admiration for
the former president they once scorned. But where do they stand on
climate change?
Opinions on climate within the Republican Party are
complex,
and these three men reflect the divisions. According to
Pew
Research Center polls, 47% of Republicans over the age of 65
believe that human activity contributes a great deal or some to climate
change, but a full 79% of Republicans under 30 think so. Yet only a tiny
number of them feel any urgency around climate: In
a
Pew poll earlier this year, only 12% of Republicans said climate
should be a top priority for the president and Congress, the lowest
score of the 20 issues they asked about. (59% of Democrats said it
should be a top priority.)
That leaves room for Republican politicians to take a variety of
positions, as long as they agree that the ideas favored by climate hawks
are bad. For many, the optimal position is a kind of malign neglect:
They’ll admit that warming temperatures are bad, but somehow find their
way to opposing all measures to address the problem. With one partial
exception, that describes all of Trump’s likeliest running mates.
Doug Burgum
Burgum can be a little tough to pin down on climate, in large part
because of how he shrewdly avoids talking about the issue in the
culture-war terms so many in his party prefer. At the start of his
second term he
set
a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 — but without
regulation or any reduction in fossil fuel production. Instead, Burgum
wants the state to become a center for carbon capture, calling the room
underground to store large amounts of carbon the state’s “geologic
jackpot.”
As part of that project, Burgum has advocated the construction of a
pipeline to carry CO2 into the state from other Midwest states, which he
touts as simply a money-making proposition. “This has nothing to do with
climate change,”
he
said in March. “This has to do with markets.” He has
touted
environmental, social, and governance-related investing, which focuses
on companies with strong environmental records, as an opportunity for
the state to lure capital — but has also
joined
with other Republican governors to condemn it.
Burgum has close ties with the oil industry, so much so that he has
become
Trump’s key liaison to the industry and its
billionaire
magnates; he has also been mentioned as a possible energy
secretary if he is not Trump’s running mate, which would make him the
administration’s chief fossil fuel advocate.
In other words, Burgum seems to be on multiple sides of the climate
issue. He’s a fossil-fuel promoter and
critic
of electric vehicles who wants to make his state carbon neutral. And you
will look in vain for any statement where Burgum says exactly what kind
of threat he believes climate change poses, or even if he thinks it is
happening at all; in technocratic style, he shifts any question on the
issue to economic and practical concerns.
Marco Rubio
With its frequent hurricanes and dramatic sea level rise, Florida sees
direct and repeated effects of climate change as much as any state in
the country. Yet it took Marco Rubio many years to arrive at his current
position: In the early part of his career he was a clear climate denier,
but lately he has taken something more like the prevailing Republican
view, which is that while climate change is happening and human activity
may be contributing to it, we shouldn’t actually do much about it. At
the very least, we shouldn’t do anything that comes with even the
smallest cost in dollars or convenience.
During his first run for Senate in 2010, Rubio
said,
“The climate is always changing” — a common dodge among climate deniers,
used to make them sound like they aren’t completely oblivious while they
refuse to acknowledge the causes and consequences of
post-industrialization warming. But “I don’t think there’s the
scientific evidence to justify” the idea that humans have anything to do
with it, he added.
He continued to hold that position for years. “I do not believe that
human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way
these scientists are portraying it,”
he
said in 2014. But over time, Rubio became less hesitant about
admitting the reality of warming, even if he
steered
away from talking about the cause. He
proposed
modest measures to increase climate resilience, while always pairing
them with
attacks
on more aggressive action as an attempt by leftist radicals to destroy
the economy.
Today, Rubio is a member of the bipartisan
Senate
Climate Solutions Caucus, which has occasional meetings but
steers away from taking any positions on particular legislation or
regulations, making it mostly a way for senators to say “I care” without
committing themselves to action.
J. D. Vance
When Vance talks about climate, it’s in the terms of a culture warrior,
heaping contempt on liberals and their goals for a safer and cleaner
environment. His 2022 Senate campaign against Democrat Tim Ryan featured
substantial discussion of climate issues, with Vance regularly
condemning efforts to reduce emissions and lamenting the decline of
coal. “All of this ‘bring American manufacturing back’ from the
Democrats is fake unless we stop the green energy fantasy,”
he
tweeted that July. “Solar panels can’t power a modern
manufacturing economy. That’s why the Chinese are building coal power
plants, something Tim Ryan’s donors won’t let America do.”
“If you want to make our environment more clean, the way to do it is to
invest in Ohio natural gas,”
he’s
said. Or as
he
told Fox News, “The obsession Democrats have with eliminating
fossil fuels is crazy.”
Like Trump, Vance has emphasized his loathing for electric vehicles.
“Even if there was a climate crisis, I don’t know how the way to solve
it is to buy more Chinese manufactured electric vehicles,”
he
said on a radio show in 2022 in response to the EV incentives in
the Inflation Reduction Act (which in fact requires that to qualify for
subsidies vehicles must be mostly American-made with domestic materials;
the
requirements are complicated, but no Chinese vehicles qualify).
“The whole EV thing is a scam, right?”
Always attuned to the value of a PR stunt, Vance
introduced
a bill he called the “Consequences for Climate Vandals Act,” meant to
crack down on the scourge of climate activists throwing soup on
paintings. Fox News was
pleased,
but the bill went nowhere, leaving America dangerously vulnerable to
art-based climate protests.
This is the common thread running through Vance’s comments on climate:
Unlike Rubio, who may have no choice but to discuss the effects of
warming given the state he represents, Vance almost never mentions these
effects. He turns any discussion of climate into an attack on liberals,
environmentalists, and Democrats for their supposedly ruinous ideas to
address the problem. If Burgum’s response to climate is Can we
make money off this? and Rubio’s is It’s serious, but
let’s not be hasty, Vance’s could be summed up as Go
to hell, libs.
No matter who Trump picks, his vice president is unlikely to be anything
but the most tentative voice of reason in the administration’s climate
policy, even in the best of circumstances. None of these three has given
us much reason to think he would risk his own position by standing in
the way of what will no doubt be a determined effort to remove
regulations on the fossil fuel industry, undo the carrot-based approach
of the Biden administration to encouraging a green transition, and
generally let the emissions rip. Or even that they’d want to.
You
had a year to patch this Veeam flaw – and now it’s going to hurt some
more
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
LockBit variant targets backup software - which you may remember is
supposed to help you recover from ransomware
Yet another new ransomware gang, this one dubbed EstateRansomware, is
now exploiting a Veeam vulnerability that was patched more than a year
ago to deploy file-encrypting malware, a LockBit variant, and extort
payments from victims.…
Santa Clarita is known, not only for its scenic open spaces and
family-friendly community, but also for its commitment to nurturing the
arts and fostering a thriving, dynamic environment where […]
July
12-14: ‘The Lincolns of Springfield’ at Colony Theatre
date: 2024-07-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Premier Theatrical Productions have announced a limited engagement of
the critically acclaimed musical, “The Lincolns of Springfield,” at the
Colony Theater in the Burbank Town Center.
Xen
Project in a pickle as colo provider housing test platform closes
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-12, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Admits it may struggle to fund and implement replacement infrastructure
Updated The Xen Project – creator and manager of the
open-source Xen hypervisor and associated tools – has warned its
community of potential problems flowing from the imminent closure of the
colocation facility it uses.…
Xen
Project in peril as colo provider housing test platform closes
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Admits it may struggle to fund and implement replacement infrastructure
The Xen Project, creator and manager of the open-source Xen hypervisor
and associated tools, has warned its community of potential problems
flowing from the imminent closure of the colocation facility it uses.…
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: Chaos Computer Club
Updates
Einmalpasswörter werden oft per SMS versendet. Sicherheitsforscher
des CCC hatten nun Live-Zugriff auf 200 Millionen solcher SMS von mehr
als 200 betroffenen Unternehmen.
Japanese
space agency spotted zero-day attacks while cleaning up attack on
M365
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Multiple malware attack saw personal data acessed, but rocket science
remained safe
The Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) discovered it was under
attack using zero-day exploits while working with Microsoft to probe a
2023 cyberattack on its systems.…
NATO,
Ukrainian leaders to meet Thursday at Washington summit
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — NATO and Ukrainian leaders are to meet Thursday in
Washington, a day after NATO allies bolstered support for Ukraine to
join the alliance.
The NATO summit’s final day will also include talks with leaders from
Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the European Union
addressing security challenges and cooperation.
A NATO communique released by the 32-member bloc Wednesday said
Ukraine’s path to NATO membership is “irreversible.”
“It’s not a question of if, but when,” NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday.
The United States was once deeply concerned about whether Ukraine was
ready for NATO membership but now appears resolved to ensure Kyiv
eventually joins the alliance.
“We’re providing that bridge to membership for Ukraine. It’s really a
significant deliverable,” Michael Carpenter, the senior director for
Europe at the National Security Council, told VOA.
Stoltenberg said that when fighting stops in Ukraine, NATO will need
to ensure that halt will be the final end to violence there.
The way to ensure it stops for good, Stoltenberg said, is NATO
membership for Ukraine. Otherwise, he said, Russia could continue its
aggression.
Unlike the European Union, which began negotiations with Ukraine to
join its ranks on June 25, there is no consensus yet about Ukraine
joining NATO.
F-16 transfer under way
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the first
American-made F-16 fighter jets are currently being delivered to Ukraine
and are expected to patrol Ukrainian skies in coming weeks.
“The transfer of F-16s is officially under way, and Ukraine will be
flying F-16s this summer,” he said at the summit.
In a statement Wednesday, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Danish
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and U.S. President Joe Biden announced
that the Dutch and Danish governments were providing the F-16s, while
Belgium and Norway had committed to send more aircraft to Ukraine.
NATO member heads of state held their first working session of the
summit Wednesday as they sought to boost the alliance’s support for
Ukraine and enhance their own defense and deterrence efforts.
At the start of the session, Biden said Russia was ramping up its
defense production with Chinese, North Korean and Iranian help.
To counter their efforts, he said, NATO members must continue to
invest more in defense production.
“We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind,” Biden said.
China called out
In the NATO communique, all 32 allies on Wednesday also called on
China to cease its support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv,
including its transfer of dual-use materials, such as weapons
components, equipment and raw materials that aid Russia’s defense
sector.
“The PRC cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history
without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the
leaders wrote.
Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to
deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in
the press conference that Wednesday’s declaration is “the strongest
message that NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to
Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
A spokesperson for China’s mission to the European Union rejected the
NATO statement, calling it “filled with Cold War mentality and
belligerent rhetoric.”
NATO allies invited Indo-Pacific partners from Japan, South Korea,
Australia and New Zealand to also attend this week’s summit. Officials
say their inclusion reflects their importance during growing Chinese,
North Korean, Russian and Iranian aggression.
Iulia Iarmolenko contributed to this report. Some information for
this report was provided by Reuters
Las
Vegas hits record of fifth consecutive day of 46.1 Celsius or
greater
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive
day of temperatures sizzling at 46.1 Celsius or greater amid a
lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into
the weekend.
The temperature climbed to 46.1 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid
International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days
set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by
the weekend.
Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest
city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling
it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began
keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.
Already the city has broken 16 heat records since June 1, well before
the official start of summer, “and we’re not even halfway through July
yet,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That includes an
all-time high of 48.8 C set on Sunday, which beat the previous 47.2 C
record.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has felt the hottest in the 15 years she
has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day
if she can help it.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live
your life.”
It’s also dangerously hot, health officials have emphasized. There
have been at least nine heat-related deaths this year in Clark County,
which encompasses Las Vegas, according to the county coroner’s office.
Officials say the toll is likely higher.
“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat
illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said
Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health
District.
For homeless residents and others without access to safe
environments, officials have set up emergency cooling centers at
community centers across southern Nevada.
The Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three
separate occasions this summer, totaling about 12 days of dangerous heat
with little relief even after the sun goes down, Stessman said.
Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at a Las Vegas
park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and
Stanley.
“If I don’t get out by 8:30 in the morning, then it’s not going to
happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in
the grass.
More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts
Wednesday, especially in Western states, where dozens of locations tied
or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so
all week.
Oregon has seen record daily high temperatures, with Portland
reaching 39.4 C and Salem and Eugene hitting 40.5 C on Tuesday. The
number of potentially heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10,
according to the state medical examiner’s office. The latest two deaths
involved a 54-year-old man in Jackson County and a 27-year-old man in
Klamath County.
On the other side of the nation, the National Weather Service warned
of major-to-extreme heat risk over portions of the East Coast.
An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the
Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey.
Temperatures were around 32.2 C for most of the region, and forecasters
warned the heat index could soar as high as 42.2 C. The warning was due
to expire at 8 p.m. Wednesday, though forecasters said there may be a
need to extend it.
The heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend in
Death Valley National Park. At Death Valley on Tuesday, tourists queued
for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 48.9 C.
Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned RV
to experience a midday blast of heat that would be unthinkable back
home.
“I wanted to experience what it would feel like,” Pell said. “It’s an
incredible experience.”
At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was investigating the
third hiker death in recent weeks. Temperatures on parts of some trails
can reach 49 C in the shade.
An excessive heat warning continued Wednesday in many parts of
southern and central Arizona. Forecasters said the high in Phoenix was
expected to reach 45.5 C after it hit 46.6 C Tuesday, tying the previous
record for the date set in 1958.
Authorities were investigating the death of a 2-year-old who was left
alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police
said. At Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died from heat-related complications
Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.
The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was a
record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight
month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial
times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat,
trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from
greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas,
scientists say.
Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the
region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “polar
pods,” devices filled with water and ice to cool a person exhibiting
symptoms of heat stroke or a related medical emergency.
Extreme heat in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels
wildfires.
A blaze burning in northern Oregon, about 178 kilometers east of
Portland, blew up to 28 square kilometers by Wednesday afternoon due to
hot temperatures, gusty wind and low humidity, according to the Oregon
State Fire Marshal. The Larch Creek Fire closed Highway 197 and forced
evacuations for remote homes.
In California, firefighters were battling least 19 wildfires
Wednesday, including a 117-square-kilometer blaze that prompted
evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara
County.
College of the Canyons Chancellor Dianne Van Hook will be placed on
administrative leave, effective Monday, Santa Clarita Community College
District board President Edel Alonso announced Wednesday night after a
[…]
Ukraine,
China front and center of NATO 75th anniversary summit
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
NATO allies on Wednesday pledged to support Ukraine on an
“irreversible” path to integration while calling on China to cease all
support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv. This as new fighter jets
are set to patrol the skies of Ukraine. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla
Babb has the details.
China’s
homebrew openKylin OS creates a cut for AI PCs
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Devs of OS named for a mythical beast join in the ‘local models will
will deliver legendary productivity’ trope
China has jumped on the AI PC bandwagon, with the team behind local OS
openKylin creating a cut of its Linux-based software that can run AI
models on the desktop.…
July
24: ‘Water Matters’ Webinar to Explore Water Quality in SCV
date: 2024-07-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Interested in learning more about the quality of water in the Santa
Clarita Valley? Don’t miss an opportunity to engage with an SCV Water
expert and dive deeper into a crucial topic during the upcoming “Water
Matters” webinar: Exploring the 2024 Consumer Confidence Report and
Addressing Water Quality in the
US
plan to boost Pacific air power seen as counterbalance to China
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
washington — A U.S. plan to boost its Pacific air power is seen by
analysts as an effort to reinforce deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and
counterbalance China’s attempt to gain dominance in the region.
The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade more than 80 fighter jets
stationed at Japanese bases over the next several years as part of a $10
billion program to modernize its forces there.
The Defense Department announced the plan last week, saying it aims
to enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance and bolster deterrence in the
Indo-Pacific.
“This is a necessary upgrade that has been planned for some time. And
combined with Japan’s own investments, it will help maintain some degree
of air power balance between the allies and China’s progress in air
force modernization,” said James Schoff, senior director of the
U.S.-Japan NEXT Alliance Initiative at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation
USA.
“Without it, the credibility of U.S. deterrent capacity would be much
weaker, which could cause Beijing to doubt U.S. seriousness about
protecting the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and prompt more
aggressive Chinese behavior,” Schoff said.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it spotted 37 Chinese aircraft
near Taiwan on Wednesday as they headed to the Western Pacific for
drills with the Shandong aircraft carrier.
Chinese jets and warships have frequently made dangerous maneuvers
around the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as a part
of its own territory.
Former U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander John Aquilino told the Senate
Armed Services Committee in March that China could soon have the world’s
largest air force.
China is currently the third-largest air power in the world, behind
the United States and Russia.
China’s rapid military modernization efforts have led it to possess
more than 3,150 aircraft, of which about 2,400 are combat aircraft,
including fighters, strategic and tactical bombers, and attack aircraft,
according to the Pentagon’s 2023 report on China’s military power.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington,
told VOA on Monday that “U.S.-Japan relations should not target or harm
other countries’ interests and should not undermine regional peace and
stability.”
Upgrade designed to help defend Japan
In addition to protecting Taiwan, the upgrade — which includes the
advanced F-35 jets — also will help U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) deter North
Korea and defend Japan’s Southwest Islands, said James Przystup, a
senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Japan has a territorial dispute with China over what it calls the
Senkaku Islands and what China calls the Diaoyu Islands.
Japan and Russia also have a dispute over islands off Hokkaido, which
Japan calls the Northern Territories and Russia calls the Kuril
Islands.
The U.S. aircraft upgrade plan is to modify several deployed F-35B
jets stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi
prefecture south of Hiroshima.
The Misawa Air Base in Japan’s northern Aomori prefecture will see 36
F-16 aircraft be replaced with 48 F-35A jets.
Aircraft will be rotated
At Kadena Air Base in Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, 48 F-15 C/D
jets will be replaced with 36 new F-15EX jets. During the upgrades,
fourth- and fifth-generation tactical aircraft will be dispatched on a
rotational basis, according to the Pentagon.
“The upgrades will provide qualitative and quantitative boosts to the
USFJ inventory, which will also enhance the U.S.-Japan alliance’s
readiness against China, North Korea and Russia,” said Ryo
Hinata-Yamaguchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo and a
nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific
Security Initiative.
“Benefits will be seen not only in aerial operations but also
guarding U.S. and Japanese capabilities for naval and amphibious
operations. The platforms are not simply about technological superiority
for combat, but also more advanced electronic warfare capabilities to
penetrate weaknesses of China, North Korea and Russia,” he said.
China often conducts joint air drills with Russia over the waters
near South Korea and Japan. In December, Chinese and Russian jets
entered South Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone, prompting Seoul
to scramble fighter jets in response.
David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific
Strategy, said, “Russia has been conducting some combined operations
with China on a limited basis recently, so if Russia operates in the
Indo-Pacific, it will certainly indicate these systems will contribute
to the defense of U.S.-allies’ interests.”
Maxwell said U.S. bases in Japan give the U.S. “a lot of operational
flexibility to be able to deal with multiple contingencies, either on
the Korean Peninsula or in the South China Sea, or really, anywhere in
Asia.”
Okinawa is about 740 kilometers (459.8 miles) from Taiwan and 990
kilometers (615.1 miles) from South Korea’s southern port city of Busan.
Kadena, which the U.S. calls “the keystone of the Pacific,” is the
largest U.S. installation in the Indo-Pacific.
Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who
served as special assistant to the principal deputy undersecretary of
defense for policy during the George W. Bush administration, said
rotating aircraft presence at Kadena during the upgrade transition helps
the U.S. disperse them in case of an attack.
“Kadena Air Base is under greater threat than it’s been in decades,”
from a range of Chinese capabilities, both ballistic and cruise
missiles, he said. “There are a couple of options for how to deal with
that. One is for the U.S. to disperse its forces more so that if there
was an attack, there would be less concentration of U.S. forces.”
Anonymous
‘ask me anything’ chat app NGL ordered to knock it off targeting
kids
date: 2024-07-11, updated: 2024-07-11, from: The Register (UK I.T.
News)
Hitting youngsters with faked texts and calling them suckers is a bit of
a no-no, watchdog sniffs
The US Federal Trade Commission has thrown the book at NGL Labs and its
founders for allegedly breaking a depressing amount of child internet
safety law.…
NATO calls
Ukraine’s path to membership ‘irreversible’
date: 2024-07-11, from: VOA News USA
washington — The United States and its NATO allies have agreed that
Ukraine’s path to membership in the organization is “irreversible,”
according to a communique released by the 32-member bloc during this
week’s summit in Washington.
“It’s not a question of if, but when,” NATO Secretary-General Jens
Stoltenberg told reporters Wednesday.
The United States was once deeply concerned about whether Ukraine was
ready for NATO membership but now appears resolved to ensure Kyiv
eventually joins the alliance.
“We’re providing that bridge to membership for Ukraine. It’s really a
significant deliverable,” Michael Carpenter, the senior director for
Europe at the National Security Council, told VOA.
Stoltenberg explained that when fighting stops in Ukraine, NATO will
need to ensure that it stops for good.
The way to ensure that, he added, is to secure NATO membership for
Ukraine. Otherwise, he said, Russia could continue its aggression.
Unlike the European Union, which began negotiations with Ukraine to
join its ranks on June 25, there is no consensus yet about Ukraine
joining NATO.
F-16 transfer under way
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the first
American-made F-16 fighter jets were being delivered to Ukraine and were
expected to patrol Ukrainian skies in the coming weeks.
“The transfer of F-16s is officially under way, and Ukraine will be
flying F-16s this summer,” he said at the summit.
In a statement Wednesday, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Danish
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and U.S. President Joe Biden announced
that the Dutch and Danish governments were providing the F-16s, while
Belgium and Norway had committed to send more aircraft to Ukraine.
NATO member heads of state held their first working session of the
summit Wednesday as they sought to boost the alliance’s support for
Ukraine and enhance their own defense and deterrence efforts.
At the start of the session, Biden said Russia was ramping up its
defense production with the help of China, North Korea and Iran.
To counter them, he said, NATO members must continue to invest more
in defense production.
“We cannot allow the alliance to fall behind,” Biden said.
China called out
In the NATO communique, all 32 allies also called on China to cease
its support for Russia’s war effort against Kyiv, including its transfer
of dual-use materials, such as weapons components, equipment and raw
materials that serve as inputs for Russia’s military sector.
China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history
without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” the
leaders wrote.
Asked by VOA whether the statement was a strong enough message to
deter China from continuing to support Russia, Stoltenberg replied in
the press conference that Wednesday’s declaration was “the strongest
message that NATO allies have ever sent on China’s contributions to
Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine.”
NATO allies invited Indo-Pacific partners from Japan, South Korea,
Australia and New Zealand to attend this week’s summit. Officials said
their inclusion relayed the importance of these partners amid growing
aggression from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.
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date: 2024-07-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
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