News gathered 2024-08-12
(date: 2024-08-12 16:36:25)
Apple is coming to take 30% cut of new Patreon subs on iOS
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
You don’t get to be the biggest business in the world by being nice
Patreon today said Apple will soon take a 30 percent cut of new subscriptions bought via its iOS app.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/patreon_apple_ios/
Ken Striplin | Navigating School Traffic Safely
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
As the new school year approaches, the streets around our schools will once again be bustling with activity
https://scvnews.com/ken-striplin-navigating-school-traffic-safely/
Water official resigns, board to discuss options
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency governing board this week will decide on whether to appoint or hold a special election to fill the vacancy created by a longtime board […]
The post Water official resigns, board to discuss options appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/water-official-resigns-board-to-discuss-options/
Site of deadliest church shooting in US history is torn down over protests
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
sutherland springs, texas — Crews on Monday tore down a Texas church where a gunman killed more than two dozen worshippers in 2017, using heavy machinery to raze the small building even after some families sought to preserve the scene of the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history.
A judge cleared the way last month for the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs to tear down the sanctuary where the attack took place, which until now had been kept as a memorial. Church members voted in 2021 to tear it down, but some families in the community of less than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit hoping for a new vote on the building’s fate.
Authorities put the number of dead in the November 5, 2017, shooting at 26 people, including a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. After the shooting, the interior of the sanctuary was painted white and chairs with the names of those who were killed were placed there. A new church was completed for the congregation about a year and a half after the shooting.
John Riley, an 86-year-old member of the church, watched with sadness and disappointment as the long arm of a yellow excavator swung a heavy claw into the building over and over.
“The devil got his way,” Riley said, “I would not be the man I am without that church.”
He said he would pray for God to “punish the ones” who put the demolition in motion.
“That was God’s house, not their house,” Riley said.
For many in the community, the sanctuary was a place of solace.
Terrie Smith, president of the Sutherland Springs Community Association, visited often over the years, calling it a place where “you feel the comfort of everybody that was lost there.” Among those killed in the shooting were a woman who was like a daughter to Smith — Joann Ward — and Ward’s two daughters, ages 7 and 5.
Smith watched Monday as the memorial sanctuary was torn down.
“I am sad, angry, hurt,” she said.
In early July, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order sought by some families. But another judge later denied a request to extend that order, setting in motion the demolition. In court filings, attorneys for the church called the structure a “constant and very painful reminder.”
Attorneys for the church argued that it was within its rights to demolish the memorial while the attorney for the families who filed the lawsuit said they were just hoping to get a new vote.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that some church members were wrongfully removed from the church roster before the vote was taken. In a court filing, the church denied the allegations in the lawsuit.
A woman who answered the phone at the church said Monday that she had no comment then hung up.
The man who opened fire in the church, Devin Patrick Kelley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was chased by bystanders and crashed his car. Investigators have said the shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving Kelley and his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended services at the church but was not present on the day of the shooting.
Communities across the U.S. have grappled with what should happen to the sites of mass shootings. Last month, demolition began on the three-story building where 17 people died in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, it was torn down and replaced.
Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, and the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where racist mass shootings happened, both reopened. In Colorado, Columbine High School still stands, though its library, where most of the victims were killed, was replaced.
In Texas, officials closed Robb Elementary in Uvalde after the 2022 shooting there and plan to demolish the school.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta recently hired a team of professional pickpockets to…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045107-arsenal-manager-mikel-art
Earth hit by ‘severe’ solar storm
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The Earth was hit Monday by an intense solar storm that could bring the Northern Lights to night skies farther south than normal, a U.S. agency announced.
Conditions of a level-four geomagnetic storm — on a scale of five — were observed Monday from 1500 GMT, according to a specialized center at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
These conditions may persist for several hours but were not expected to increase further in intensity, NOAA added in a statement.
“A severe geomagnetic storm includes the potential for aurora to be seen faintly as far south as Alabama and northern California,” NOAA said in a statement, referring to the two U.S. states.
The new solar storm is caused by coronal mass ejections, which are explosions of particles leaving the sun. When these particles arrive on Earth, they disrupt the planet’s magnetic field.
“There are a lot of auroras now. … If it lasts until nightfall here, we might be able to see some,” Eric Lagadec, an astrophysicist at the Cote d’Azur Observatory in France, said on X, formerly Twitter.
On Sunday, NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick published on X a superb photo of the aurora borealis — or Northern Lights — taken from the International Space Station, where he is currently stationed.
But solar or geomagnetic storms can also trigger undesirable effects.
For example, they can degrade high-frequency communications, disrupt satellites and cause overloads on the electricity grid. Operators of sensitive infrastructure have been notified to put in place measures to limit these effects, NOAA said.
In May, the planet went through the most powerful geomagnetic storms recorded in 20 years. They caused auroras to light up the night sky in the United States, Europe and Australia, at much lower latitudes than usual.
This type of event has increased recently because the sun is currently close to its peak activity, as per its 11-year cycle.
https://www.voanews.com/a/earth-hit-by-severe-solar-storm-/7739842.html
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
The new rule is getting a great response on Threads, Mastodon.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a224354
After Difficult and Emotional Trial, Cora Vides Is Convicted of Attempted Murder
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The Santa Barbara jury will now decide if the former Laguna Blanca student is sent to state prison or a psychiatric hospital.
The post After Difficult and Emotional Trial, Cora Vides Is Convicted of Attempted Murder appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Always. Be. Knolling.
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/always-be-knolling-1
Lobero Anniversary Block Party Brings Smiling Santa Barbara Community Together
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Exuberant free show features Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Ozomatli.
The post Lobero Anniversary Block Party Brings Smiling Santa Barbara Community Together appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Businessmen Earl Minnis and the Berti Family Each Donate $100,000 bringing Total to $200,000 (to Date) for Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Treatment Centers at CADA
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, CA, August 12, 2024 – The Berti Family and Earl Minnis’ combined donation of $200,000 will support the Daniel Bryant
The post Businessmen Earl Minnis and the Berti Family Each Donate $100,000 bringing Total to $200,000 (to Date) for Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Treatment Centers at CADA appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Pacific Northwest tribes battered by climate change but fight to get money meant to help them
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
SEATTLE — Coastal tribes in the Pacific Northwest experience some of the most severe effects of climate change — from rising seas to severe heat — but face an array of bureaucratic barriers to access government funds meant to help them adapt, a report released Monday found.
The tribes are leaders in combating climate change in their region. But a report by the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative says as tribes seek money for specific projects to address climate change repercussions, such as relocating a village threatened by rising waters, they often can’t provide the matching funds that many grants require or the necessary staff or struggle with stringent application requirements. If they do get funding, it’s often a small amount that can only be used for very specific projects when this work is typically much more holistic, the report found.
“Trying to do projects by piecing together grants that all have different requirements and different strings attached, without staff capacity is a challenge,” Robert Knapp, environmental planning manager at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe in northwest Washington, said in the report.
The collaborative, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, spent two years holding listening sessions with 13 tribes along the Pacific Coast of Oregon and Washington, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Puget Sound. The communities face significant challenges from coastal flooding and erosion, rising stream temperatures, declining snowpack, severe heat events and increasing wildfire risk.
In addition to funding challenges, those interviewed also described not having enough staff to adequately respond to climate change as well as sometimes not being able to partner with state and local governments and universities in this work because of their remote locations. They also said it can be hard to explain to people who don’t live in their communities about the impact climate change has on the tribes.
But as they work to restore salmon habitats affected by warming waters or move their homes, funding gaps and complications were key concerns.
A representative from one anonymous tribe in the report said it was not able to hire a grant writer and had to rely on its biology department to navigate the maze of funding applications. Another talked about depending on 15 separate funders just to build a marina.
“This is a time of historic state and federal investment in climate action, and tribal priorities really need to be considered when making decisions around how we’re going to be directing this investment,” said Meade Krosby, senior author of the report.
“Hopefully this will help to inform how this work is being done, how these funds are being directed, so that they are actually responsive to the barriers that tribes are facing and helping to remove some of those barriers so the tribes can get the good work done.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Most of the tribes included in the report had completed publicly available reports on the impacts of climate change, and some had developed detailed plans for relocation as rising waters threaten buildings, or even entire villages.
The Quinault Indian Nation, in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, has a plan for relocating its largest village. The multimillion-dollar effort has relied on a piecemeal of federal and state grants and the constraints that come with them, Gary Morishima, Quinault’s natural resources technical adviser, explained in the report.
Other tribes brought up concerns about competing against other tribal nations for funding when collaboration is such a vital part of responding to climate change. Tribal lands share borders and coastlines, and the impacts of climate change on those lands do not stop at any border, the report pointed out.
Amelia Marchand, citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and another author of the report, explained that it comes down to the federal government fulfilling its trust responsibility to tribes.
“The treaty is supposed to support and uplift and ensure that what the tribes need for continued existence is maintained,” she said. “And that’s one of the issues with not having this coordinated federal response because different federal agencies are doing different things.”
Millions of dollars have gone to coastal tribes, and the report said much more is needed. It referenced a 2020 Bureau of Indian Affairs report that estimated that tribes in the lower 48 states would need $1.9 billion over the next half-century for infrastructure needs related to climate change.
Amid all the challenges, Pacific Northwest tribes are still leaders in climate adaptation and have plenty to teach other communities, Marchand said.
“Finding ways to make their progress happen for their nations and their communities despite those odds is one of the most inspiring and hopeful resilient stories,” she said.
SCV Water Completes Earl Schmidt Filtration Plant
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
SCV Water recently completed construction of the Wash Water Return and Sludge Systems Project at its Earl Schmidt Filtration Plant, located near Castaic Lake
https://scvnews.com/scv-water-completes-earl-schmidt-filtration-plant/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-12, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
When you are an Apple developer every day is Xmas, SwiftUI edition:
I just discovered that at some point onGeometryChange(for:of:action:) was introduced and this just made my life a thousands times easier.
Someone give a promotion to whoever did this:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swiftui/view/ongeometrychange(for:of:action:)-qbyx
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112951235938731728
Apple forces Patreon to charge Patreons 30% tax, or have its iOS application banned from the App Store
date: 2024-08-12, from: OS News
I have no contracts, agreements, or business with Apple, I do not use any Apple products, I do not rely on any Apple services, and none of my work requires the use of any of Apple’s tools. Yet, I’m forced to deal with Apple’s 30% tax. Today, Patreon, which quite a few of you use to support OSNews, announced that Apple is forcing them to change its billing system, or risk being banned from the App Store. This has some serious consequences for people who use Patreon’s iOS application to subscribe to Patreons, and for the creators you subscribe to. First: Apple will be applying their 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased in the Patreon iOS app, in addition to anything bought in your Patreon shop. ↫ Patreon’s website First things first: the 30% mafia tax will only be applied to new Patreons subscribers using the Patreon iOS application to subscribe, starting early November 2024. Existing Patreons will not be affected, iOS or no. Anyone who subscribes through the Patreon website or Android application will not be affected either. Since creators like myself obviously have no intention of just handing over 30% of what our iOS-using supporters donate to us, Patreon has added an option to automatically increase the prices of subscriptions inside the Patreon iOS application by 30%. In other words, starting this November, subscribing to the OSNews Patreon through the iOS application will be 30% more expensive than subscribing from anywhere else. As such, I’m pondering updating the description of our Patreon to strongly suggest anyone wishing to subscribe to the OSNews Patreon to do so either on the web, or through the Patreon Android application instead. If you’re hell-bent on subscribing through the Patreon iOS application, you’ll be charged an additional 30% to pay protection money to Apple. And just to reiterate once more: if you’re already a Patreon, nothing will change and you’ll continue to pay the regular amounts per tier. Second: Any creator currently on first-of-the-month or per-creation billing plans will have to switch over to subscription billing to continue earning in the iOS app, because that’s the only billing type Apple’s in-app purchase system supports. ↫ Patreon’s website This is Patreon inside baseball, but as it stands right now, subscribers to the OSNews Patreon are billed on the first of the month, regardless of when during a month you subscribe. This is intentional, since I really like the clarity it provides to subscribers, and the monthly paycheck it results in for myself. Sadly, Apple is forcing Patreon to force me to change this – I am now forced to switch to subscription billing instead, somewhere before November 2025. This means that once I make that forced switch, new Patreons will be billed on their subscription date every month (if you subscribe on 25 April, you’ll be charged every 25th of the month). Luckily, nothing will change for existing subscribers – you will still be billed on the 1st of the month. This whole thing is absolutely batshit insane. Not only is Patreon being forced by Apple to do this at the risk of having their iOS application banned from the App Store, Apple is also making it explicitly impossible for Patreon to go any other route. As we all know, Patreon won’t be allowed to advertise that subscribing will be cheaper on the web, but Apple is also not allowing Patreon to remove subscribing in the Patreon iOS application altogether – if Patreon were to do that, Apple will ban the application from the App Store as well. And with how many people use iOS, just outright deprecating the Patreon iOS application is most likely going to hurt a lot of creators, especially ones outside of the tech sphere. Steven Troughton-Smith did some math, and concluded that Apple will be making six times as much from donations to Patreon creators than Patreon itself will. In other words, if you use iOS, and subscribe to a creator from within the Patreon iOS application, you will be supporting Apple – a three trillion dollar corporation – more than the most likely small creator you want to encourage to keep making content, art, or whatever. That is absolutely, balls-to-the-wall, batshit insanity. Remember that ad Apple made where it crushed a bunch of priceless instruments and art supplies into an iPad – the ad it had to pull and apologise for because creators, artists, writers, and so on thought it was tasteless and dystopian? Who knew that ad was literal.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
When the New York Times lost its way.
https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/12/14/when-the-new-york-times-lost-its-way
Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win. “There are more than…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045105-republicans-will-refuse-t
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
https://politicalwire.com/2024/08/12/trump-campaign-then-and-now-2/
Before we put half a million broadband satellites in orbit, anyone want to consider environmental effects?
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
SpaceX ‘WasteX’ Starlink said to make up 60% of sats circling Earth
The US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), a federation of public interest advocacy groups, has asked the FCC to halt low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite launches until the environmental consequences of space pollution can be better managed.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/starlink_spacex_environment_review/
“S.W.A.T.” Among Four Productions Filming in SCV
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita’s Film Office has released the list of four productions currently filming in the Santa Clarita Valley for the week of Monday, Aug. 12 to Sunday, Aug.
https://scvnews.com/s-w-a-t-among-four-productions-filming-in-scv/
Apple’s next-gen Mac Mini will be faster, could also be (a lot) smaller
date: 2024-08-12, from: Liliputing
The Mac Mini has been Apple’s smallest, cheapest member of the Mac lineup for years. But soon it could be even smaller. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is on track to launch a next-gen Mac Mini later this year, and it could be about half the size of the current model, which has been around […]
The post Apple’s next-gen Mac Mini will be faster, could also be (a lot) smaller appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/apples-next-gen-mac-mini-will-be-faster-could-also-be-a-lot-smaller/
Scientists Drill Deeper Into Earth’s Mantle Than Ever Before, Probing for the Origin of Life on Earth
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The record-setting rock samples will provide insight into the chemical processes that may have kick-started life on our planet
Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame After Fire at Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
By Aldgra Fredly Contributing Writer Ukraine and Russia traded blamed on Sunday for a massive fire that erupted at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — in […]
The post Ukraine, Russia Trade Blame After Fire at Europe’s Largest Nuclear Power Plant appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Culinary Union Endorses Harris’ Proposal to End Tax on Tips, Weeks After Trump Proposed It
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
By Joseph Lord Contributing Writer The Culinary Workers Union in Nevada endorsed a plan by Vice President Kamala Harris to end taxes on tips for service workers two months after former […]
The post Culinary Union Endorses Harris’ Proposal to End Tax on Tips, Weeks After Trump Proposed It appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
The Van Gogh–Inspired ‘Colors of Love’ Comes to Downtown Santa Barbara
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Yulia Maluta directs a dance showcase at Center Stage Theater.
The post The Van Gogh–Inspired ‘Colors of Love’ Comes to Downtown Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Texas Officials Release Bodycam Footage from Uvalde’s Robb Elementary Shooting
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
By Zachary Stieber Contributing Writer Newly released body camera footage shows Texas law enforcement officers spending more than an hour outside an elementary school classroom after a man with a gun […]
The post Texas Officials Release Bodycam Footage from Uvalde’s Robb Elementary Shooting appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Helps Close the Information Gaps on Santa Barbara’s History
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Research as a form of activism with S.B. Public Library and S.B. Trust for Historic Preservation.
The post Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon Helps Close the Information Gaps on Santa Barbara’s History appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
US Sending Guided-Missile Submarine to Middle East
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
By Aldgra Fredly Contributing Writer Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday ordered the deployment of the USS Georgia guided-missile submarine to the Middle East amid mounting tensions between Israel and […]
The post US Sending Guided-Missile Submarine to Middle East appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/us-sending-guided-missile-submarine-to-middle-east/
Free Will Astrology
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Week of August 15.
The post Free Will Astrology appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/12/free-will-astrology-223/
Nancy Pelosi’s Art of Power, a short profile by David Remnick. My…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045104-nancy-pelosis-art-of-powe
Haiku gets tentative Firefox port
date: 2024-08-12, from: OS News
Haiku, the platform grossing in ported browsers while its native WebPositive browser languishes, has added another notch to its belt – and this time, it’s a big one. Firefox has been tentatively ported to Haiku, but it’s early days and there’s no package ready to download – you’ll have to compile it yourself if you want to get it running. It’s version 128, so it’s the latest version, too. Without the ability to easily test and run it, there’s not much more to add at this point, but it’s still a major achievement. I hope there’ll be a nice Haiku package soon.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140473/haiku-gets-tentative-firefox-port/
Intel’s microcode fix to save Raptor Lake chips may only work with default power settings
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
All those BIOS options that promise better performance? Enabling them might kill your processor
Owners of Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen Core processors may need to stick to the chip giant’s official power limits in order to safely use their CPUs.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/raptor_lake_cpu_microcode_patch/
Earthquake reported south of Pasadena, felt in SCV
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake rocked Los Angeles County, including the Santa Clarita Valley, on Monday afternoon, according to the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake was reported at 12:20 p.m. […]
The post Earthquake reported south of Pasadena, felt in SCV appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/earthquake-reported-south-of-pasadena-felt-in-scv/
Reports: Riders stranded, escorted off rollercoaster
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
Riders were stranded on a Six Flags Magic Mountain rollercoaster after it broke down on Sunday evening and were escorted off by personnel, according to media reports. Amusement park guests […]
The post Reports: Riders stranded, escorted off rollercoaster appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/reports-riders-stranded-escorted-off-rollercoaster/
HMNH nationally recognized for stroke care
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
News release Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus quality achievement award for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients […]
The post HMNH nationally recognized for stroke care appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/hmnh-nationally-recognized-for-stroke-care-2/
Mushroom Color Atlas: A Rainbow of Dye Colors
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/mushroom-color-atlas-a-rainbow-of-dye-colors
Shakespeare in the Park
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The play’s the thing at Santa Barbara’s Elings Park.
The post Shakespeare in the Park appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/12/shakespeare-in-the-park/
Apple Going After Patreon
date: 2024-08-12, from: Michael Tsai
Sarah Perez (MacRumors, Hacker News, Slashdot): Apple has threatened to remove crowdfunding app Patreon from the App Store if creators continue to use unsupported third-party billing options or disable transactions on iOS, instead of using Apple’s own in-app purchasing system. In a blog post and email to Patreon creators about upcoming changes to membership in […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/12/apple-going-after-patreon/
The Mac Is a Power Tool
date: 2024-08-12, from: Michael Tsai
John Gruber (Mastodon, tweet, Hacker News): The Mac is a platform where you need to be able to shoot yourself in the foot. Increased protections that make it less likely that you’ll shoot yourself in the foot are, obviously, a good idea. Many of them are downright necessary. But such protections are only undeniably good […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/12/the-mac-is-a-power-tool/
Apple Intelligence Foundation Language Models
date: 2024-08-12, from: Michael Tsai
Apple (PDF, Hacker News): We present foundation language models developed to power Apple Intelligence features, including a ~3 billion parameter model designed to run efficiently on devices and a large server-based language model designed for Private Cloud Compute. These models are designed to perform a wide range of tasks efficiently, accurately, and responsibly. This report […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/12/apple-intelligence-foundation-language-models/
Susan Wojcicki, RIP
date: 2024-08-12, from: Michael Tsai
Juliana Kim: Susan Wojcicki, a Silicon Valley visionary who helped shape Google and YouTube, died Friday after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer, according to her husband. She was 56.[…]In 1998, Wojcicki rented her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a pair of Stanford grad students on the cusp of building the […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/12/susan-wojcicki-rip/
Microsoft deprecates Paint 3D
date: 2024-08-12, from: OS News
Way back in the early before time, Microsoft thought it would be a good idea to brand Windows 10 entirely around the label “creators”, and one distinctly odd consequence of that was an application called “Paint 3D”, a replacement for the traditional Paint application that Microsoft had been shipping one way or another since 1985, when it included a simple bitmap editing program called “Doodle” with its mouse drivers for DOS. Doodle would be replaced shortly after by a whitelabel version of ZSoft Corporation’s PC Paintbrush, and once Windows 1.0 rolled around, it was rebranded as Paint, a name that has stuck until today. Paint 3D was supposed to replace the regular Paint, with a focus on creating and manipulating 3D objects, serving as an extension to Microsoft’s failed efforts to bring VR and AR to the masses. Microsoft even went so far as to list the regular Paint as deprecated, but after a lot of outcry, has since reneged and refocused its efforts on improving it. Paint 3D, however, is not officially going to be deprecated, and has been added to Microsoft’s list of deprecated Windows features. Paint 3D is deprecated and will be removed from the Microsoft Store on November 4, 2024. To view and edit 2D images, you can use Paint or Photos. For viewing 3D content, you can use 3D Viewer. ↫ Microsoft’s list of deprecated Windows features I don’t think anyone is going to shed a tear on this, but at the same time, as with everything Microsoft changes or removes from Windows, there’s bound to be at least a few people whose entire workflow heavily depends on Paint 3D, and they’re going to be pissed.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140467/microsoft-deprecates-paint-3d/
Former Sand Canyon detective charged in international extortion case
date: 2024-08-12, from: The Signal
Federal prosecutors alleged a now-retired homicide detective from Sand Canyon was part of a group hired to bully an Irvine man into signing away his multimillion-dollar interest in a company […]
The post Former Sand Canyon detective charged in international extortion case appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/former-sand-canyon-detective-charged-in-international-extortion-case/
Beyond the Playing Field
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Held at UC Santa Barbara, Sports Industry Academy opens scholars’ minds to a world of opportunities.
The post Beyond the Playing Field appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/12/beyond-the-playing-field/
@Robert’s feed at BlueSky (date: 2024-08-12, from: Robert’s feed at BlueSky)
This makes so much sense for political interviews.
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https://bsky.app/profile/rsdoiel.bsky.social/post/3kzkaujhh7o2b
Vote for the August 2024 Plus Post Topic
date: 2024-08-12, from: Computer ads from the Past
If you are a paid subscriber, voting is open for one week for this month’s topic
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/vote-for-the-august-2004-plus-post
DEF CON Franklin project enlists hackers to harden critical infrastructure
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Voting village reports have been so successful, says Jeff Moss, that the whole of DEF CON will now be included
Def Con With an average of 30,000 attendees per year at the DEF CON security conference in Las Vegas, it’s safe to assume at least one or two hackers attending have some necessary insights to secure critical infrastructure. Now a new initiative dubbed “Franklin” hopes to capture some of that infosec pro expertise in a policy-friendly format. …
Study: Gen Z Having Less Sex Due To Allure Of Leftovers At…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045102-study-gen-z-having-less
Tourist Carves His Family’s Initials Onto a Wall in Pompeii
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
In recent years, officials have seen a series of similar incidents at Italy’s most popular historic sites
COC Launching Clinical Lab Scientist Program in Fall 2024
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
College of the Canyons will launch its Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) certificate program in the fall 2024 semester, which begins on Aug.
https://scvnews.com/coc-launching-clinical-lab-scientist-program-in-fall-2024/
Americans’ Top Concern About Renewable Energy Projects
date: 2024-08-12, from: Heatmap News
Renewable energy’s biggest political liability? It may be the whales and tortoises, according to Heatmap polling.
Conflicts over the environmental impacts of energy transition technologies — some rooted in fact, others founded more in fear — have played out in myriad ways across America over the past few years, from residents of beach towns protesting against offshore wind in the name of whale safety to farm communities opposing solar and onshore wind over impacts to livestock and birds. While some of these fights have been seeded by anti-renewable interest groups, these outside actors have fertile soil to work with. Exclusive Heatmap polling conducted in April found the top concern both Democrats and Republicans have with renewable energy projects in their areas is the harm those facilities could inflict on wildlife.
Notably, almost half of all Democrats said consequences for wildlife from projects would elicit “strong concern” from them. Other big concerns for Republicans such as reliability during extreme weather and land use factors received nowhere near the same level of Democratic agreement.
It’s hard to say whether this is because people are really concerned about animals and species protection generally or because there’s a concerted public relations effort (funded in no small part by fossil fuel companies) to focus on the negative environmental effects of solar farms and wind turbines. But nevertheless, this polling result — which is being reported today for the first time — underscores a real vulnerability that energy projects labeled “clean” can face when a would-be host community is faced with information indicating they may produce pollution or harm to the environment.
It also helps explain a recent statewide poll of New Jersey residents conducted by researchers at Stockton University that found a sharp increase in the percentage of respondents opposed to offshore wind following a very public campaign to tie new offshore project development to a spate of whale deaths.
“These conflicts are real, I’m not going to say they aren’t. That’s why I say there are appropriate places to site and inappropriate places to site,” Matt Kirby, senior director of energy and landscape conservation for the National Parks Conservation Association, told me. “I hope that industry understands that it needs to have social license to operate, and it will only be able to get that if they’re a good player.”
The Jersey campaign
How this played out in New Jersey should be cause for concern to anyone trying to deploy more renewable energy.
In 2019, researchers at Stockton, a public university in the state, found broad bipartisan support for offshore wind development. Then came at least a dozen dead whales that washed onto the Atlantic coastline, an incident that lacks a known cause to this day … but also spurred a non-stop anti-offshore wind campaign driven by politicians and political media figures, including those with ties to fossil fuel-funded opposition groups.
There’s been no evidence to date that the offshore wind build-out off the Atlantic coast has harmed a single whale. But studies have shown that activities related to offshore wind could harm a whale, which appears to be enough to override the benefits for some people. When Stockton pollsters checked again in September 2023 to measure support for offshore wind, they found it had plummeted. More state residents supported wind farms than opposed them, still. But support had dropped 30%, to roughly half of all participants backing the projects. Only a third of those living on the coasts were for constructing new offshore wind.
Alyssa Maurice, one of the researchers involved in the recent poll, told me there’s multiple ways to read this data, including that it may have been driven by partisanship. The whale campaign had a lot of play on Fox News (and still does today). But there’s a very real chance the campaign to tie the whale deaths and other potential environmental harms to offshore wind worked: Nearly 44% of respondents said they believed offshore wind would impact marine life “a great deal,” a figure that rose to 62% when it came to people on the coast.
“There’s now this gap between shore communities and the state that wasn’t there before,” Maurice said. “[It’s] a really stark geographic divide.”
Climate vs. environment
Climate change is a major risk to wildlife habitat and imperiled species across the world — that much is plain as day. There’s a reason the survival of certain mammals, fish and fauna often described as “keystone species” are seen as bellwethers for planetary warming. When they go extinct from climate impacts to river temperatures or food availability, it portends harms that may befall other species too — including, maybe, humans.
But an unfortunate truth is that major industrial projects — even ones aimed at decarbonizing the global economy — will always impact the local environment. To build large-scale solar farms or lithium mines or sprawling CO2 pipelines, we may need to disrupt a substantial number of endangered species and their habitat, not to mention the livelihoods of countless people who make their livelihoods off the land, air, and sea, or who enjoy outdoor recreation and hunting.
These conflicts are the reason I gave a talk at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference this year explaining why I do not use the term “clean energy” without quotation marks — not for the derisive reasons climate deniers put scarequotes around the term, but in pursuit of accuracy and out of respect for the populations most impacted by new projects. Before I joined Heatmap, I spent years writing about mining for battery metals, and I heard countless complaints from individuals in frontline communities and human rights groups about how there’s nothing “clean” about a car made with cobalt mined by a child or lithium chemicals that sapped an aquifer dry.
That’s not to say focusing on the “clean” part of decarbonization is a bad thing — it’s just not what brings people together, according to the Heatmap poll. In fact, we found the most bipartisan agreement for supporting “clean” energy projects in two areas: job creation and reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign sources for oil and gas.
Reducing local air and water pollution? There was a 52 percentage point difference in support between Democrats and Republicans, with only a third of GOP respondents identifying it as a major driver of support. Combating climate change? That gulf widens to 66 percentage points, with only 16% GOP support.
Whether those who favor overlooking wildlife concerns in favor of deployment like it or not, these findings undergird an argument being made by the ecologically-focused segments of the climate advocacy world that planning through the transition can have a political upside.
Patrick Bigger, a senior researcher at the left-aligned Climate and Community Project, said he wasn’t surprised by Heatmap’s findings.
“Talking about conservation polls really well and talking about climate change polls really poorly” with some communities, Bigger said. “I think there’s this implicit sense by folks who care about climate action that clean and green are permanently symbiotically coded as good, and it’s very hard to break that habit until you’re confronted with the polling that this doesn’t actually play well with the communities you’re trying to reach.”
https://heatmap.news/climate/renewables-wildlife-impact
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
When the NYT makes Trump sound like a reasonable candidate that a sane person might vote for, remember this day.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a185536
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Speaking of which, I must’ve converted DocServer some time ago and didn’t test it well enough. It didn’t even load. Oy. It works now.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a184825
Santa Barbara Photographer Documents Indigenous Activism in New Photobook
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
A new photobook presents a decade-long collaboration between photographer Tristan Partridge and the Ancestral Community of San Isidro, a Kichwa-Panzaleo
The post Santa Barbara Photographer Documents Indigenous Activism in New Photobook appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Iconic ‘Double Arch’ Rock Formation Collapses in Utah
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Changing water levels and erosion from waves may have contributed to the collapse in the popular Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
Oct. 19: Annual Business for Artists Conference
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Join Santa Clarita Arts for the 3rd Annual Business for Arts Conference on Saturday, Oct. 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Canyon Country Community Center, located at 18410 Sierra Hwy
https://scvnews.com/oct-19-annual-business-for-artists-conference/
When Do Kids Go Back to School? It Depends on Where They Live
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
In some districts, students returned to their classrooms weeks before Labor Day
Carpinteria Surf ‘N’ Suds Beer Fest Hits Double Digits
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
More than 70 craft breweries and beverage makers gather to celebrate the festival’s 10th edition.
The post Carpinteria Surf ‘N’ Suds Beer Fest Hits Double Digits appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/12/carpinteria-surf-n-suds-beer-fest-hits-double-digits/
Cisco plans to slash 4,000 more jobs amid AI, cybersecurity push
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Cuts reportedly to come as soon as Wednesday’s earnings release
Networking goliath Cisco will reportedly slash thousands of jobs as it focuses on growing its cybersecurity business and capitalizing on AI demand.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/cisco_job_cuts/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
FBI, in private meeting with Trump, revealed new details about his would-be assassin.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-private-meeting-trump-revealed-new-details-assassin/story?id=112714355
This 10.95 inch dual-screen laptop has an Intel Core i3-1215U chip and a sub-$500 starting price
date: 2024-08-12, from: Liliputing
Asus and Lenovo have both introduced new dual-screen laptops that feature a second display in the spot where you’d normally find a keyboard. But the Asus Zenbook Duo and Lenovo Yoga Book 9i are both premium devices with prices that start at around $1500 and $2000, respectively. Meanwhile smaller Chinese companies like SZBOX and Topton […]
The post This 10.95 inch dual-screen laptop has an Intel Core i3-1215U chip and a sub-$500 starting price appeared first on Liliputing.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Polymarket Hires Nate Silver After Taking in $265M of Bets on U.S. Election.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/polymarket-hires-nate-silver-taking-154956290.html
Station Science Top News: August 9, 2024
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
Researchers tested a treatment on cartilage and bone tissue cultures subjected to compressive impact injury and found differences in the metabolites and proteins released by cells in space and on Earth along with partial improvement in both gravity conditions. The findings suggest the treatment is safe and could help ensure the health of crew members on future […]
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/station-science-top-news-august-9-2024/
‘We gotta be somewhere’: Unhoused Californians react to Newsom’s crackdown
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The LAist
Unhoused Californians and activists say authorities are cracking down harder on encampments after getting the green light from the Supreme Court and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/homeless-californians-react-to-crackdown
Webb Sees Gassy Baby Stars
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a phenomenon for the very first time. The bright red streaks at top left of this June 20, 2024, image are aligned protostar outflows – jets of gas from newborn stars that all slant in the same direction. This image supports astronomers’ assumption that as clouds collapse to […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/webb-sees-gassy-baby-stars/
US to resume sales of ‘offensive’ weapons to Saudi Arabia
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The United States said Monday it would resume sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, ending a yearslong suspension triggered by the kingdom’s bloody operations in Yemen.
With Saudi Arabia once again seen as a pivotal player for the United States as the Gaza war enters its 10th month, the State Department said it would return to weapons sales “in regular order with appropriate congressional notification and consultation.”
“Saudi Arabia has remained a close strategic partner of the United States, and we look forward to enhancing that partnership,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
President Joe Biden took office in 2021 pledging a new approach to Saudi Arabia that emphasizes human rights and immediately announced that the administration would only send “defensive” weaponry to the longtime U.S. partner.
The step came after thousands of civilians were estimated to be killed in Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen, including children, in a campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have taken over much of the country.
But geopolitical considerations have changed markedly since then. The United Nations, with U.S. support, brokered a truce in early 2022 that has largely held.
Since the truce, “there has not been a single Saudi airstrike into Yemen and cross-border fire from Yemen into Saudi Arabia has largely stopped,” Patel said.
“The Saudis since that time have met their end of the deal, and we are prepared to meet ours,” Patel said.
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-to-resume-sales-of-offensive-weapons-to-saudi-arabia-/7739488.html
Elon Musk to interview Trump on X social media network
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
washington — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is due to interview Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on the X social media network on Monday in an event that could inject more surprises into the turbulent U.S. presidential election.
The interview, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time (0000 Tuesday GMT), could provide the former president an opportunity to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is seen as sagging.
His Democratic rival for the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies.
The interview on Musk’s social media platform could allow Trump to reach a different audience than the conservative faithful who attend his rallies and watch his interviews on Fox News. However, similar events on the platform have been plagued by technical problems.
“Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on the platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The interview will be hosted live using Trump’s official X account, his campaign said on Sunday. Trump’s access to his account, @realDonaldTrump, was restored a month into Musk’s ownership of X after being suspended by the platform’s previous owners following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by his supporters.
Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social social media platform, which was launched in February 2022. On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting an ad that highlighted his claim that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.
His last X post before Monday was one in August 2023 appealing for donations and showing a mug shot after he was booked at an Atlanta jail in relation to felony charges tied to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
Musk could prove to be an unusual interviewer. The world’s richest person backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since and endorsed the Republican following the attempted assassination of Trump in July.
Musk, who heads electric car company Tesla, also started a fundraising organization to support Trump’s campaign. The political action committee is now under investigation in Michigan for possible violations of state laws on gathering voter information.
Trump, a longstanding critic of electric vehicles, shifted gears after Musk’s endorsement.
“I’m for electric cars. I have to be, because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice,” Trump said at an early August rally.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fein, campaigning in support of Harris, called Trump a “sellout.”
The Biden administration has worked to popularize electric vehicles through tax breaks and other support as part of its broader goal of reducing carbon emissions blamed for climate change.
Republicans in Congress have opposed those subsidies. Senator JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate, said the Biden policy merely subsidizes rich people who purchase the cars.
Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought it in 2022 and subsequently reduced content moderation that has resulted in a dramatic increase in hate speech, civil rights groups have said.
In the meantime, the entrepreneur has been involved in a swirl of additional controversies. He has falsely accused Biden and the Democratic Party of opening U.S. borders to undocumented immigrants in a ploy to boost the number of potential Democratic voters. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.
Musk in November 2023 endorsed an antisemitic post on X that said members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people. He defended himself, saying the user was speaking “the actual truth.” Musk has also attacked the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that works to fight antisemitism, accusing it, without evidence, of being responsible for a drop in advertising on X.
https://www.voanews.com/a/elon-musk-to-interview-trump-on-x-social-media-network-/7739496.html
South Korean Nuclear Nonproliferation Pivot Points
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: RAND blog
The growing North Korean nuclear weapon force has created a pivot point for South Korea, where many are unsure that they can blindly depend on the U.S. nuclear umbrella to deter North Korea. A growing number of South Korean officials are calling for South Korea to build its own nuclear weapons.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/08/south-korean-nuclear-nonproliferation-pivot-points.html
What a glimpse inside the Black Hat NOC reveals about infosec pros’ security habits
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Basic Auth among web traffic? Possible flaw in a well-known commercial VPN product? ‘Security has to watch its own things’
Black Hat The large network that materializes along with legions of infosec professionals at Black Hat every year presents the perfect opportunity to see how well the security community practices what it preaches. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/black_hat_security/
Join Santa Clarita Arts for the 3rd Business for Artists Conference
date: 2024-08-12, from: City of Santa Clarita
Where Creativity Meets Business! Join Santa Clarita Arts for the 3rd Annual Business for Arts Conference on Saturday, October 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Canyon Country Community Center (18410 Sierra Hwy). This conference is designed to equip artists, creative professionals and non-profit organizations with the necessary tools to thrive in their […]
The post Join Santa Clarita Arts for the 3rd Business for Artists Conference appeared first on City of Santa Clarita.
If elected in November, Kamala Harris would be the first US president…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045100-if-elected-in-november-ka
Quake Prompts Barger to Remind Residents of Emergency Preparedness
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake shook Los Angeles County early Monday afternoon
https://scvnews.com/quake-prompts-barger-to-remind-residents-of-emergency-preparedness/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Hillary Clinton's 3AM and the phone is ringing ad from 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yr7odFUARg
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I listened to a bunch of podcasts this morning about how freaked out Trump is. If a president freaks out over something like this, how would he handle a Cuban Missile Crisis? Remember the phone call at 3AM? We saw what he did with COVID, he froze, like he’s freezing now.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a163833
Registration Still Open for WiSH Foundation’s College Webinar
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
If you join just one webinar, WiSH Education Foundation’s General College Overview, is the webinar to join - and it’s happening Wednesday, Aug. 21, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
https://scvnews.com/registration-still-open-for-wish-foundations-college-webinar/
Attacker steals personal data of 200K+ people with links to Arizona tech school
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nearly 50 different data points were accessed by cybercrim
An Arizona tech school will send letters to 208,717 current and former students, staff, and parents whose data was exposed during a January break-in that allowed an attacker to steal nearly 50 types of personal info.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/200k_with_links_to_arizona/
NOAA Forecasts Severe Geomagnetic Storm
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
August 12, 2024 NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) — a division of the National Weather Service — is monitoring
The post NOAA Forecasts Severe Geomagnetic Storm appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/12/noaa-forecasts-severe-geomagnetic-storm/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
A new rule for journalists. End the interview on the first egregious lie. Turn the lights out, switch off the recorder, get up and leave. And your report should state clearly that this is why the interview was terminated. It never should have been tolerated in the first place.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a162319
Scott Heiferman sold his dotcom company in 1999 and then went to…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045096-scott-heiferman-sold-his-
NatureTrack Foundation Awards Nancy Stearns Scholarship to Lompoc High School Student for the First Time
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Lompoc, CA – The NatureTrack Foundation is proud to announce Braiden Flaherty as the first student from Lompoc HS to
The post NatureTrack Foundation Awards Nancy Stearns Scholarship to Lompoc High School Student for the First Time appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-12, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
When Google tells you it’s easy to convert a site to HTTPS they’re wrong. It’s an insurmountable job for scripting.com. 30 years of writing is on that domain, lots of different runtimes on lots of different domains which would also have to be converted. Images in all the pages. All that breaks when you flip the switch. I can’t walk away from a big part of my life’s work. Sorry, not for Google. Every time someone assumes I’m to blame for this situation, that’s how Google has tricked you. I followed the rules. They broke them.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/12.html#a162013
NASA Retires Orbiting Telescope That Charted Asteroids for Over a Decade
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
NEOWISE, which looked for potentially hazardous objects in the solar system, received its last command on Thursday and will burn up when it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere
MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation Opens Mamava Lactation Pod
date: 2024-08-12, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
SANTA BARBARA, CA. (Thursday, August 9, 2024) – MOXI has opened a Mamava lactation pod to help breastfeeding parents in conjunction with National
The post MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation Opens Mamava Lactation Pod appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
CHP Announces New Executive Team Leaders
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California Highway Patrol Commissioner Sean Duryee announced Monday his appointments of the Department’s new Deputy Commissioner Ezery Beauchamp and Assistant Commissioner Rodney Ellison
https://scvnews.com/chp-announces-new-executive-team-leaders/
California Credit Union Foundation Seeking Innovative Santa Clarita Teachers
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
California Credit Union Foundation encourages Los Angeles County teachers, including those in Santa Clarita, who have an innovative class project idea to apply for a credit union grant through its Teacher Grant program.
https://scvnews.com/california-credit-union-foundation-seeking-innovative-santa-clarita-teachers/
One Year After a Devastating Fire, Lahaina’s 151-Year-Old Banyan Tree Is Healing
date: 2024-08-12, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Arborists didn’t know if the historic tree would survive, but they’ve been working to give it the best possible odds
Sols 4270-4272: Sample for SAM
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Friday, Aug. 9, 2024 The focus for this three-sol weekend plan is delivering a portion of the Kings Canyon drill sample to SAM for Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA), following on from a successful CheMin analysis. The CheMin and SAM analyses, coupled with APXS and ChemCam analyses, will tell us about the composition […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4270-4272-sample-for-sam/
That One Nice Week of August Is Here
date: 2024-08-12, from: Heatmap News
I come bearing good news for a change: Most of the United States will see reasonable summer temperatures this week! With, of course, a few exceptions …
Debby brings cooler days across the country
Hurricane Debby, which first made landfall in Florida last Tuesday, has set new weather trends in motion. After hitting Georgia and South Carolina, the storm continued north, reaching the Northeast last Friday. The wind and rainfall brought cooler, less humid air into the region, Reneé Duff, senior meteorologist at Accuweather, told me. Temperatures in the Northeast — which were several degrees below historical averages this weekend — will continue to be more comfortable this week compared to the recent past. Same goes for the northern Plains and Midwest.
In the Southeast, where the hurricane has caused the most destruction, temperatures will be near their historical averages — around the low 90s degrees Fahrenheit. While the cool-off will be good for those trying to recover after the storm, Duff told me that higher humidity levels with rounds of showers and thunderstorms in the region may still end up slowing cleanup efforts.
Despite Debby, the heat has found a way to stick itself to some states. Parts of Texas and New Mexico will see temperatures much higher than those expected for this time of the year, Tom Kines, senior meteorologist at Accuweather, told me. During the later part of the week, an intense heat wave will build across Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas. On Thursday, southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama will be under extreme heat risk alerts, according to data from the National Weather Service.
The rest of the country should “experience temperatures close to where they should be for this time of year,” Kines told me.
More updates on the Park Fire
Little progress has been made on containing the Park Fire since last week. The wildfire, which is now 38% contained, continues to grow aggressively. Climate scientist Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles, explained in a live briefing Thursday that while parts of the fire that had been burning through grass have been contained, in its northeastern flank, the fire is currently ravaging through timber plantations which burn more violently than natural forests. The fire has now also reached the Lassen National Forest, burning over 100,000 acres of the protected area.
- Some useful numbers: Ranking directly above the Park Fire among the largest wildfires in California’s history (for the moment) is the Mendocino Complex Fire of July 2018, which burned around 460,000 acres, but lasted 161 days. The Park Fire has already scorched almost 430,000 acres in less than 20 days. The largest fire in California’s history was the 2020 August Complex fire, which devoured more than a million acres over 87 days.
There is one tiny bit of good news: According to updates from Cal Fire, firefighters have been able to lift evacuation orders and warnings in Butte County.
Meanwhile, other wildfires have continued to pop up in California. On Tuesday, the Crozier Fire started in El Dorado County, and almost 2,000 acres have so far been burned. While not as powerful as the Park Fire, Crozier is also growing fast and in a more densely populated area, Swain said.
- Looking Ahead: The heat wave in California has broken, with near average — and maybe even lower — temperatures in store this week. The only issue is that the cooler weather comes from stronger winds, which are not ideal for containing a wildfire. Despite more forgiving temperatures, wildfire risk will remain high in California for the foreseeable future.
Alaska has been super weird
In late July, an especially long and intense heat wave settled over Alaska. On July 22, Fairbanks hit 90 degrees, breaking the previous record of 89 set last year. On that day, it was hotter in northern Alaska than it was in Atlanta.
The fact that such high temperatures are being seen so late into the summer in Alaska is particularly concerning, Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist for the NWS, told Scientific American. Peak temperatures usually happen much sooner, in June; by July, after the summer solstice, Alaska gets fewer hours of sunlight, so temperatures should start settling down. Alaskans’ housing and habits are all adapted to keep the cold away, so scientists are worried about the health risks of prolonged high temperatures in the state.
- Looking Ahead: While temperatures in Alaska dipped below average this weekend in the central and southern parts of the state, the mercury will soon start rising again. “If there is more record-breaking heat, the middle of the month would be the most likely time frame,” Duff told me. The possibility of record-breaking heat will decrease again starting at the end of August, but temperatures will continue to be warmer than average in the northern part of the state.
A heat wave in South Korea is killing livestock by the thousands
East Asian countries have been sizzling this summer, and South Korea is no exception. Following the end of the monsoon season in late July, Seoul has constantly seen temperatures of 89 degrees and up. Most of the country has seen temperatures 10 degrees higher than historical averages. The relentless heat has led to almost 2,000 heat-related illnesses and 17 fatalities since the start of the summer. In some regions, including Jeju, people are struggling to keep livestock alive, for example using fans and air conditioners to try to cool down the island’s rare black pigs. Over 300,000 livestock have died since mid-July.
“The heat is mostly due to a persistent area of high pressure over the Philippine Sea with the high’s axis reaching to the Korean Peninsula over the past week to 10 days,” Duff explained.
The country has opened 50,000 cooling shelters in response to the heat crisis, on top of smaller-scale counter-measures such as distributing umbrellas and salt tablets to try to keep people cool and hydrated.
- Looking Ahead: Despite some cloudiness and rain this past Friday, the scorching heat will prevail this week in the country. “A better chance for relief from the heat may come late next week or early the week of August 19,” Duff told me.
Extreme heat in northern Canada is making some miss the winter
Several communities in northern Canada broke heat records last week. Temperatures reached 95 degrees, breaking the record of 91 set last year. Inuvik, which saw its second ever recorded heat wave this summer, has been especially vulnerable to the recent heat. The region’s famous midnight sunsets means heat takes longer to dissipate, exacerbating the issues with low water levels in the Mackenzie River. Due to the dry and hot conditions, the community so used to ice and snow is now concerned about wildfires. Regions in Canada that have been historically shielded from major fire threats have been in the line of destruction in recent years, The Guardian reported.
- Looking Ahead: In Inuvik, temperatures will stay below 68 degrees for most of this week. While it seems like record-breaking heat is now behind northern Canada, it’s harder to say when drought conditions might improve. At least in the next 10 days, heavy precipitation is not predicted for the Northwest Territories.
Research corner:
- Over 70% of the global workforce is at risk from extreme heat-related death and injuries, according to a United Nations report — that’s almost 2.5 billion workers. While Africa leads as the region with the highest percentage of vulnerable workers, the report also points out that the number of those vulnerable in Europe is growing at the fastest rate.
- In Montana, Missoula County first responders teamed up with researchers at the University of Montana to investigate the most vulnerable group to extreme heat. After going through 911 calls, they found that those living in rural areas — which also tends to have older populations — were the ones that required most assistance during periods of intense heat. They also found that every 1 degree Celsius increase in average daily temperatures led to a 1% increase in 911 activity, i.e. hundreds of additional distress calls.
- A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that seven in 10 Americans have seen the impact of extreme heat on their electricity bills in the past year. In the past five years, according to the survey, 70% of Americans have been personally affected by extreme heat. Those in the West and South were more likely to report having been impacted by the hot weather than those in the Northeast.
https://heatmap.news/climate/summer-heat-2024-new-york-new-mexico
US officials to travel to China for economic meetings
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-officials-to-travel-to-china-for-economic-meetings/7739294.html
It’s all drying up: Microsoft to erase 3D Paint from digital store
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Unloved multi dimensional doodler set for axe as its predecessor gets an AI update
Microsoft has hammered home a final nail in the coffin of its Mixed Reality adventures with confirmation that Paint 3D is to be ditched once and for all in the not-too-distant-future.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/in_memoriam_microsoft_3d_paint/
NASA to Provide Coverage of Progress 89 Launch, Space Station Docking
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
NASA will provide live launch and docking coverage of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft delivering nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station. The unpiloted Progress 89 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 11:20 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 14 (8:20 a.m. Baikonur time, Thursday, Aug. 15), […]
The Next Full Moon is a Supermoon Blue Moon
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
The Next Full Moon is a Supermoon, a Blue Moon; the Sturgeon Moon; the Red, Corn, Green Corn, Barley, Herb, Grain, or Dog Moon; Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi Purnima; and Tu B’Av.
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/the-next-full-moon-is-a-supermoon-blue-moon/
Beelink GTi14 Ultra and GTi12 Ultra mini PCs have PCIe x8 connectors for external graphics cards
date: 2024-08-12, from: Liliputing
The Beelink GTi14 Ultra is a small desktop computer that measures 158 x 158 x 56mm (6.2″ x 6.2″ x 2.2″). It supports up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, up to 96GB of RAM, and up to two storage devices. But there are a few things that really help this little computer stand […]
The post Beelink GTi14 Ultra and GTi12 Ultra mini PCs have PCIe x8 connectors for external graphics cards appeared first on Liliputing.
The Geometric Tool That Solved Einstein’s Relativity Problem
date: 2024-08-12, from: Quanta Magazine
Tensors are used all over math and science to reveal hidden geometric truths. What are they?The post The Geometric Tool That Solved Einstein’s Relativity Problem first appeared on Quanta Magazine
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-geometric-tool-that-solved-einsteins-relativity-problem-20240812/
PeerJ Award Winner at EED 2024
date: 2024-08-12, from: PeerJ blog
James Malone PhD candidate at University of Oxford, UK. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your research interests? I’m a first year PhD student from the Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP. I studied biology for my undergraduate degree, but I have always had a strong interest in the more theoretical approaches towards the […]
https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284889559/peerj-award-winner-at-eed-2024/
Falling in Love With Wetlands
date: 2024-08-12, from: California Native Plants Society
Home to some of the state’s most unique and fascinating flora, California’s wetlands are critically important – and under threat again.
The post Falling in Love With Wetlands appeared first on California Native Plant Society.
https://www.cnps.org/flora-magazine/falling-in-love-with-wetlands-39537
Who would you trust to run the country … and this economy?
date: 2024-08-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
A recent survey shows a slightly larger percentage of Americans trust Vice President Kamala Harris to handle the economy over former President Donald Trump. It’s the first time the poll has found the Democratic nominee leading Trump on economic issues this year. We’ll dig in. Then, what are forecasters expecting from this week’s inflation readings? And we’ll also hear about temp gigs and the youth unemployment rate.
Mega money, unfathomable violence pervade thriving underground doxxing scene
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
It also attracts exactly the type of unempathetic people you would think it does
Black Hat Recently published interviews with known doxxers reveal the incredible finances behind the practice and how their extortion tactics are becoming increasingly violent.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/mega_money_and_unfathomable_violence/
The free healthcare for athletes in the Olympic Village shines a bright…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045099-the-free-healthcare-for-a
Earth Educators Rendezvous with Infiniscope and Tour It
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
At the Earth Educator’s Rendezvous, held July 15-19, 2024, NASA’s Infiniscope project from Arizona State University hosted a two-day workshop aimed at empowering Earth educators with the tools to design and build virtual tours (VTs). This hands-on session provided participants with a unique opportunity to experience first-hand how to create immersive virtual tours using Tour […]
I Gazed Lovingly Into Strangers’ Eyes on ‘Eyechat’
date: 2024-08-12, from: 404 Media Group
Neal Agarwal’s eyes-only video chat sets you up with a stranger’s eyes only.
https://www.404media.co/eyechat-video-chatting-with-strangers/
The Political “Center” Between Fascism and Democracy Is Fascism
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/the-political-center-between-fascism-and-democracy-is-fascism
the diaconal charism
date: 2024-08-12, from: Ayjay blog
Earlier today I read this conversation with David French about how he was made unwelcome at his church because of race and politics. I had read an earlier column by him on the subject, but I was especially attentive to this discussion because I just before I read it I had been walking Angus and […]
https://blog.ayjay.org/the-diaconal-charism/
2024-08-11 Serving bare git on the web
date: 2024-08-12, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-08-11 Serving bare git on the web
In the old days, I used cgit to render my git repositories
on the web. It’s simple to set up since it’s a CGI script. This is ideal
for URLs that get very few hits. When nobody is requesting the URL, the
CGI script isn’t running and no resources are being used. When a URL is
requested, however, the CGI script loads, the interpreter loads, the
libraries load, the script executes… It’s an expensive end-point! And
you know how it is. The web is full of leeches and bad bots, crawlers
and idiots. Having an expensive end-point means it needs protection.
For I while I thought that legit was the answer. It was
nice and fast and all that. But recently, git clone no
longer worked. It calls git upload-pack as an intermediate
workaround for
#1062. This
was failing for some reason, however. I tinkered with it for a while but
didn’t get anywhere.
Then I started thinking about
@Sandra’s post on
hosting git
repos. I made some changes to my Apache config and now git
clone works again.
The key is that you need a post-update hook that calls
git update-server-info. Each git repository already comes
with a post-update.sample hook containing the necessary
code, so I needed to loop over all the bare repositories I had and
rename the example hook.
Using the Fish shell:
for d in *.git
sudo -u git mv $d/hooks/post-update.sample $d/hooks/post-update
end
Sadly, this is not good enough.
In order to generate an index.html file for every
repository, I need a hook that regenerates it. If you know how to
determine whether regeneration can be skipped, I’d love to hear how to
that.
This hook also updates or adds the AddDescription lines I
need.
I prepared a hook that I wanted to install in every repository and saved
it as ~/post-update.
This is what it looks like, using the Fish shell:
#!/usr/bin/fish
git update-server-info
# create index.html
set branch (git branch --show-current)
set template (cat /home/git/.readme.html | string collect)
set title (basename (pwd))
set body (git show $branch:README.md | cmark --to html | string collect)
printf "$template" "$title" "$body" "$title" > index.html
# update description
set description (cat description)
sed --in-place=~ --expression "/ $title/d" /home/git/.htaccess
printf "AddDescription \"$description\" $title\n" >> /home/git/.htaccess
(I need the title twice, once for the title and once for the reminder on how to clone.)
I turn Markdown into HTML using cmark. Common Mark is the
closest we have to a standard, I guess.
The template /home/git/.readme.html looks like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
<title>%s</title>
<style>
html { max-width: 70ch; padding: 1ch; margin: auto; }
body { hyphens: auto; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<nav>
<a href="https://src.alexschroeder.ch/">Source code repositories</a>
</nav>
<main>
%s</main>
<footer>
<h2>Clone</h2>
<pre>
<mark>git clone https://src.alexschroeder.ch/%s</mark>
</pre>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
So now I needed to distribute the post-update hook to every
repository and run it once. I wrote yet another Fish script,
~/recreate-index:
#!/usr/bin/fish
for d in /home/git/*.git
echo $d
cd $d
cp ~/post-update hooks/
chown git:git hooks/post-update
chmod 775 hooks/post-update
sudo -u git git hook run post-update
end
I’m currently hosting 95 repositories according to ls -d
/home/git/*.git | wc -l. Some of these don’t have a
README.md file. Should I ever touch them again, I’ll have
to investigate.
Now, for the Apache web server – I changed my site to the following:
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerAdmin alex@alexschroeder.ch
ServerName src.alexschroeder.ch
Include conf-enabled/blocklist.conf
SSLEngine on
DocumentRoot /home/git
<Directory /home/git>
Options Indexes
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
The /home/git directory has an .htaccess file
that starts out containing the following:
HeaderName .top.html
IndexOptions SuppressIcon SuppressSize FancyIndexing HTMLTable
IndexOrderDefault Descending Date
The .top.html file contains a fragment to add to the top of
the index:
<style>
body { max-width: 80ch }
td { padding: 0.5ex 1em 0 0; white-space: nowrap; overflow-x: auto }
</style>
<h1>Source code repositories</h1>
<p>
Hello!
</p>
<p>
I'm Alex Schroeder.
These are my source code repositories. You can find out more about me on
<a href="https://alexschroeder.ch/">my blog</a>. There, you'll also find a page
listing ways to <a href="https://alexschroeder.ch/view/Contact">contact me</a>.
</p>
<p>
As for the git repositories, you should be able to clone them as they are.
For example:
</p>
<pre>
git clone https://src.alexschroeder.ch/oddmu.git
</pre>
<p>
For more about this setup, see
<a href="https://idiomdrottning.org/hosting-git-repos">How to host git repos</a>
by <a href="https://idiomdrottning.org/users/Sandra">@Sandra</a> and my post,
<a href="https://alexschroeder.ch/edit/2024-08-11-bare-git">2024-08-11 Serving bare git on the web</a>.
</p>
#Butlerian Jihad #Git #Administration
2024-08-12. I wondered about links from the README to
local files. Right now, linking to images and files hosted in the same
repository doesn’t work since they don’t exist in the raw repository.
The question then becomes, as far as I am concerned, whether this README
is supposed to speak to developers or end-users? If it is for
developers, then pictures, screenshots, PDF files and all of that don’t
need to be linked from the repository. If you are interested in these
things, do a git clone –depth 1 and investigate locally.
If the repository is for the end users, however, things are harder. The
post-update hook should extract all the local files linked
to from the README. Something like the following, perhaps:
for file in (printf "%s\n" $body | /home/oddmu/oddmu links - | egrep -v '^(https?:|mailto:|/)')
set dir (dirname $file)
if test ! -d $dir
mkdir -p $dir
end
echo $file; sudo -u git git show $branch:$file > $file
end
This uses oddmu to extract the links from a Markdown file, creates the necessary directories and checks out the files.
But if the files are no longer linked from the README, they are not deleted. If a directory is linked from the README (I have done this! 🤦), the checkout won’t work.
I think the better way forward is to move this information elsewhere. The README is not the documentation.
And with that, I think I did it! Serving git repositories from static
files. A single directory per project containing the bare git data and a
single index.html file. No more gazillion end points for
crawlers to lose themselves.
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-08-11-bare-git
Twitter’s former chairman sues X over unpaid options
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Seeks $23 million in damages over Musk’s alleged reluctance to pay his bills
Elon Musk’s Twitter X is being sued by its former chairman for damages he alleges run to more than $23 million over unpaid stock options.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/twitters_former_chairman_sues_x/
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk’s estranged daughter, excoriates Walter Isaacson for his…
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045097-vivian-jenna-wilson-elon-
Co-Founder of DDoSecrets Was Dark Web Drug Kingpin
date: 2024-08-12, from: 404 Media Group
Thomas White ran the Silk Road 2.0 drug marketplace and was convicted of child abuse imagery-related crimes. He was also a co-founder of transparency activist organization Distributed Denial of Secrets.
https://www.404media.co/co-founder-of-ddosecrets-was-dark-web-drug-kingpin/
Mixing Business With Toxic Politics
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/08/12/mixing-business-with-toxic-politics/
Google-commissioned report claims early adopters already enjoying fruits of gen-AI labor
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
43% of the time, it really, really works 45% of the time
Analysis Although a lot is promised of generative AI, it has the potential to be expensive at scale, and the return on investment isn’t always clear. It’s understandable why some enterprises, big and small, may be hesitant to invest in the technology at this stage.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/google_ai_roi_report/
Researchers Created A Super Thin Solar Cell That Could Be ‘Painted’ Onto Surfaces
date: 2024-08-12, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Another tropical storm is brewing in the Atlantic and could bring more devastation to the Caribbean • In North Korea, Kim Jong Un has been visiting victims of recent catastrophic floods • July was California’s hottest month on record.
THE TOP FIVE
- Report: Many IRA manufacturing projects on hold
About 40% of the largest manufacturing projects made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips Act are delayed or paused, according to an investigation from the Financial Times. Some of the projects facing delays are a $1.3 billion lithium refinery in South Carolina, a $1 billion solar panel factory in Oklahoma, and LG Energy Solution’s $2.3 billion battery storage facility in Arizona. The companies point to a combination of factors, including overproduction of clean tech from China, macroeconomic pressures, policy confusion, and a drop in EV demand. “Everybody’s running into higher-than-expected costs just because of labor and supply chain,” said Craig MacFarland, mayor of Casa Grande, Arizona, where a semiconductor facility has been delayed by two years. The IRA marks its second anniversary this Friday.
- Large wildfires force evacuations near Athens
Large wildfires are raging on the outskirts of Athens in Greece, turning the skies an eerie shade of brown and prompting evacuations of at least 11 towns and several hospitals. More than 670 firefighters have been deployed to tackle blazes north of the capital city. Forty new fires ignited yesterday alone, and half the country is under a high-risk fire warning. Drought-stricken Greece is in the grips of its hottest summer ever recorded, and other parts of Europe are sweltering, too.
- Enthusiasm for COP29 is already wavering
This year’s COP29 global climate summit in Azerbaijan is expected to draw a smaller crowd than last year’s event in Dubai, according to Politico. Businesses are “wary of the event’s location and logistics, the oil-evangelizing autocratic regime running it and, perhaps most notably, the prospect of Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election just days before the November summit begins.” Anticipation is already growing for next year’s event in Brazil, where countries will be expected to submit their new and updated climate plans, or nationally determined contributions, which will outline how they plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts. In an article published today, the World Economic Forum insisted this year’s summit in Baku remains relevant because it will determine new goals for climate finance, and could finalize Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which sets out how countries can use international carbon markets. “With a nationally determined contribution update on the horizon, achieving a robust outcome at COP29 is critical to send a strong signal of progress,” the WEF post said.
- Researchers create thin film that could turn almost anything into a
solar-power surface
Researchers at Oxford University have created a new solar power-generating material that “is thin and flexible enough to apply to the surface of almost any building or common object.” The new perovskite film, which Tina Casey at CleanTechnica called a “paint-on solar cell,” matches the energy efficiency performance of a traditional single-layer silicon PV and is almost 150 times thinner than a modern silicon wafer. Could this replace silicon-based solar panels altogether? Not anytime soon, Casey wrote, but it could turn almost anything into a solar surface. “We can envisage perovskite coatings being applied to broader types of surfaces to generate cheap solar power, such as the roofs of cars and buildings and even the backs of mobile phones,” said Dr. Junke Wang, a Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Postdoc Fellow at Oxford University Physics. “If more solar energy can be generated in this way, we can foresee less need in the longer term to use silicon panels or build more and more solar farms.”
- Study: Older trees grow more wood to absorb rising CO2 emissions
Mature trees appear to be able to respond to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by increasing the amount of the greenhouse gas they can absorb. In a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers observed that a group of 180-year-old oak trees exposed to elevated CO2 emissions over a seven-year period made about 10% more woody biomass than trees that didn’t experience the emissions rise. The added wood locks away the gas for decades. The study is only about half-way done and will continue through 2031, but the researchers hope the initial results demonstrate the power of mature forests to act as a natural climate solution. “This is evidence in favor of careful management of established forests,” said Rob MacKenzie, director of Birmingham Institute of Forest Research and one of the study’s authors. “The old forest is doing a huge amount of work for us. What we definitely should not be doing is cutting it down.”
THE KICKER
“Certainly, neither despair nor complacency is any use to us. Conversely however, both acceptance and optimism are functionally necessary. Acceptance of our current circumstances is a precondition of effective action in the reality we actually inhabit, whilst hope that liveable futures are possible remains a precondition of necessary effort to bring them about.” –Jamie Bristow and Rosie Bell writing about navigating the messy middle paths of climate breakdown at DeSmog.
https://heatmap.news/technology/solar-cell-thin-oxford-breakthrough
Reviewing git contributions via email
date: 2024-08-12, from: Tilde.news
From Paris to Los Angeles: How the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
Los Angeles — It’s Los Angeles’ turn for the torch. Mayor Karen Bass accepted the Olympic flag at the Paris closing ceremony Sunday, before handing it off to a key representative of LA’s local business — Tom Cruise — who in a pre-recorded trek via motorcycle, plane and parachute kicked off the countdown to 2028.
The city will become the third in the world to host the games three times as it adds to the storied years of 1932 and 1984. Here’s a look forward and back in time at the Olympics in LA.
LA’s Olympic trilogy
Los Angeles got the 2028 games as a consolation prize when Paris was picked for 2024.
Back in 1932, LA hosted its first Olympics. The city was the only bidder for the games at a time marred by the Great Depression and the absence of several nations. Yet memorable sport moments came from athletes including American athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, who won golds in the new women’s events of javelin and hurdles.
Financial and cultural success gave 1984 a reputation as the “good” Olympics” which made seemingly every major world city want their own.
Emphasizing both the modern and the classical with a hand from Hollywood, the games opened with decathlon champion Rafer Johnson lighting the torch, a guy in a jetpack descending into the Memorial Coliseum and theme music by “Star Wars” maestro John Williams.
With Eastern Bloc countries boycotting, the U.S. dominated. Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton are among the athletes who became household names. A young Michael Jordan led the men’s basketball team to gold.
The games renewed, for a while, the global reputation of a city that had been perceived to be in decline.
“We want our games to be a modern games, youthful, full of the optimism that Southern California brings to the world and the globe,” Janet Evans, four-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and chief athlete officer for the LA 2028 organizing committee, told The Associated Press in Paris.
Passing the torch
Bass, who arrives back in LA Monday, spent these games in Paris along with organizers and city officials, learning what it takes to host the world’s largest sporting event.
Joining her were LA28 Chairperson Casey Wasserman, an entertainment executive, and LA councilmember Traci Park, chair of the city Olympic committee.
“As we’ve seen here in Paris, the Olympics are an opportunity to make transformative change,” Bass said at a press conference ahead of the closing ceremony.
Venues old and new, plus a swimming stadium
Amid a stadium-and-arena boom, LA will polish existing structures rather than erect new ones.
“It’s a no-build games,” Evans said.
After Paris’ innovative opening ceremony on the Seine River, LA plans to open with a traditional, stadium-based approach at SoFi Stadium in neighboring Inglewood that also incorporates the century-old Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles itself.
Home to two NFL teams, SoFi has hosted a Super Bowl and several Taylor Swift concerts since opening in 2020. It will become what organizers say is the largest Olympic swimming venue ever. Its opening ceremony role means swimming will come after track and field for the first time since 1972.
Intuit Dome, the soon-to-open Inglewood home of the NBA’s Clippers, would be the games’ newest major venue and is the planned home for Olympic basketball. The Lakers’ downtown Crypto.com Arena will host gymnastics.
The toxicity of swimming in the Seine became a serious issue in Paris. That could put renewed focus on the Long Beach area waterfront when it hosts marathon swimming and triathlon races. Its cleanliness history is mixed but its ocean waters got consistently high marks in a 2023 analysis by nonprofit Heal the Bay.
The Long Beach shore was home to the pre-recorded performances during Sunday’s ceremony of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, though it was easy to mistake for LA’s Venice Beach, where the journey of the flag begun by Cruise was shown ending moments earlier.
Trains, buses and traffic
A city that’s notoriously hard to traverse may seem like an odd fit for the Olympics, but it can work.
Bass said she plans to emulate the tactics of Tom Bradley, the mayor in 1984, whose traffic mitigations had some saying it was better than at non-Olympic times. They include asking local businesses to stagger workforce hours to reduce the number of cars on the road and allow work from home during the 17-day games.
Landing the Olympics under then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2017 gave the city an unusually long lead time for planning.
While it’s no Paris Metro, LA has built a subway since its last Olympics, with lines running past major venues.
In 2018, the city planned an ambitious slate of 28 bus and rail projects to transform public transit. Some were scrapped but others moved forward, including the extension of a subway line to connect downtown Los Angeles with UCLA, the planned home of the Olympic Village.
Another high-profile project is the Inglewood People Mover, an automated, three-stop rail line past major Olympic venues. It initially received a commitment of $1 billion in federal funding, but opposition from Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters led to a $200 million reduction, the Los Angeles Times reported. It’s unclear whether the line will be completed by 2028.
Metro recently received $900 million in funding through an infrastructure spending package and grants from the Biden administration, of which $139 million will go directly toward improving transportation by 2028 and the goal of a “car-free” Olympics.
“The biggest challenge is not waiting to 2028, but really taking the opportunity between now and 2028 to help Angelenos and visitors alike reimagine the transportation network as something that will be their first choice,” Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins said.
Crime, safety and perception
While crime rates were considerably higher in 1984 than today, the countdown to 2028 comes as the issue has gotten increased attention and cast a social-media-amplified shadow.
The Olympics are designated as a national special security event, which makes the U.S. Secret Service the lead agency tasked with developing a security plan, supported by significant federal resources.
LA city and county law enforcement sent officers to Paris to observe, learn and assist as they prepare for their own 2028 games.
There are many more encampments on city streets than there were in 1984, and it’s unlikely LA will have solved its homeless crisis in the next four years. As the Paris games ended, California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to withhold funding from cities unable to clear encampments.
Ahead of the Games in Paris, organizers relocated thousands of unhoused people, a practice also used for the 2016 Rio de Janiero games and criticized by activists as “social cleansing.”
Tourists and finances
LA is the “next logical destination” for the Olympics, said Adam Burke, president and CEO of the LA Tourism and Convention Board. “LA has emerged as really one of the world’s sports capitals.”
First though, the city will host a FIFA World Cup event and U.S. Women’s Open in 2026 and another Super Bowl in 2027.
The city’s hotel industry has continued to see growth, adding 9,000 new hotel rooms in the past four years with more to come over the next four.
LA28 organizers are banking on ticket sales, sponsorships, payments from the International Olympic Committee and other revenue streams to cover the games’ $6.9 billion budget. The committee has brought in just over $1 billion toward a goal of $2.5 billion in domestic corporate sponsorships.
Is it your child’s first day of school? Here’s our parent guide to getting involved
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The LAist
There are all kinds of ways to engage with your child’s education, whether you have only a little time or a lot.
https://laist.com/news/education/california-los-angeles-school-guide-parent-engagement-involvement
After fire struck Maui’s Upcountry, residents of one town looked to themselves to prep for next one
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
The costs of a brand new capital
date: 2024-08-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
This week, Nusantara is set to become Indonesia’s new planned capital, with a price tag of $33 billion. Egypt is also relocating its capital, with an estimated cost of $59 billion. While other governments have moved their seats of government, is all the expense worth it? Also: a preview of where consumers think inflation is headed and a look at how the presidential campaigns are diverging on Federal Reserve independence.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-costs-of-a-brand-new-capital
CrowdStrike president cheered after accepting ‘Epic Fail’ Pwnie award
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Michael Sentonas hopes trophy will remind staff that failure is unacceptable
DEF CON CrowdStrike’s president received commendations from DEF CON attendees after accepting the Pwnie Award for Most Epic Fail, following the recent global IT outage caused by the infamous Falcon sensor update.…
Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai loses appeal over pro-democracy protest conviction
date: 2024-08-12, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai has lost his bid at Hong Kong’s highest court to overturn his conviction on charges relating to unauthorized pro-democracy protests in 2019. We’ll discuss the fallout of his rejected appeal. Plus, global youth unemployment is at a low, though some regions are still feeling the impact of COVID-19. And how did South Africa turn around its electricity grid to stop rolling blackouts?
Americans’ refusal to keep paying higher prices may be dealing a final blow to US inflation spike
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The great inflation spike of the past three years is nearly spent — and economists credit American consumers for helping slay it.
Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains or just avoiding items they deem too expensive. Consumers aren’t cutting back enough to cause an economic downturn. Rather, economists say, they appear to be returning to pre-pandemic norms, when most companies felt they couldn’t raise prices very much without losing business.
“While inflation is down, prices are still high, and I think consumers have gotten to the point where they’re just not accepting it,” Tom Barkin, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said last week at a conference of business economists. “And that’s what you want: The solution to high prices is high prices.”
A more price-sensitive consumer helps explain why inflation has appeared to be steadily falling toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, ending a period of painfully high prices that strained many people’s budgets and darkened their outlooks on the economy. It also assumed a central place in the presidential election, with inflation leading many Americans to turn sour on the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the economy.
The reluctance of consumers to keep paying more has forced companies to slow their price increases — or even to cut them. The result is a cooling of inflation pressures.
Other factors have also helped tame inflation, including the healing of supply chains, which has boosted the availability of cars, trucks, meats and furniture, among other items, and the high interest rates engineered by the Fed, which slowed sales of homes, cars and appliances and other interest rate-sensitive purchases.
Still, a key question now is whether shoppers will pull back so much as to put the economy at risk. Consumer spending makes up more than two-thirds of economic activity. With evidence emerging that the job market is cooling, a drop in spending could potentially derail the economy. Such fears caused stock prices to plummet a week ago, though markets have since rebounded.
This week, the government will provide updates on both inflation and the health of the American consumer. On Wednesday, it will release the consumer price index for July. It’s expected to show that prices — excluding volatile food and energy costs — rose just 3.2% from a year earlier. That would be down from 3.3% in June and would be the lowest such year-over-year inflation figure since April 2021.
And on Thursday, the government will report last month’s retail sales, which are expected to have climbed a decent 0.3% from June. Such a gain would suggest that while Americans have become vigilant about their money, they are still willing to spend.
Many businesses have noticed.
“We’re seeing lower average selling prices … right now because customers continue to trade down on price when they can,” said Andrew Jassy, CEO of Amazon.
David Gibbs, CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, told investors that a more cost-conscious consumer has slowed its sales, which slipped 1% in the April-June quarter at stores open for at least a year.
“Ensuring we provide consumers affordable options,” Gibbs said, “has been an area of greater focus for us since last year.”
Other companies are cutting prices outright. Dormify, an online retailer that sells dorm supplies, is offering comforters starting at $69, down from $99 a year ago.
According to the Fed’s “Beige Book,” an anecdotal collection of business reports from around the country that is released eight times a year, companies in nearly all 12 Fed districts have described similar experiences.
“Almost every district mentioned retailers discounting items or price-sensitive consumers only purchasing essentials, trading down in quality, buying fewer items or shopping around for the best deals,” the Beige Book said last month.
Most economists say consumers are still spending enough to sustain the economy consistently. Barkin said most of the businesses in his district — which covers Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and North and South Carolina — report that demand remains solid, at least at the right price.
“The way I’d put it is, consumers are still spending, but they’re choosing,” Barkin said.
In a speech a couple of weeks ago, Jared Bernstein, who leads the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, mentioned consumer caution as a reason why inflation is nearing the end of a “round trip” back to the Fed’s 2% target level.
Emerging from the pandemic, Bernstein noted, consumers were flush with cash after receiving several rounds of stimulus checks and having slashed their spending on in-person services. Their improved finances “gave certain firms the ability to flex a pricing power that was much less prevalent pre-pandemic.” After COVID, consumers were “less responsive to price increases,” Bernstein said.
As a result, “the old adage that the cure for high prices is high prices [was] temporarily disengaged,” Bernstein said.
So some companies raised prices even more than was needed to cover their higher input costs, thereby boosting their profits. Limited competition in some industries, Bernstein added, made it easier for companies to charge more.
Barkin noted that before the pandemic, inflation remained low as online shopping, which makes price comparisons easy, became increasingly prevalent. Major retailers also held down costs, and increased U.S. oil production brought down gas prices.
“A price increase was so rare,” Barkin said, “that if someone came to you with a 5% or 10% price increase, you almost just threw them out, like, ‘How could you possibly do it?’”
That changed in 2021.
“There are labor shortages, Barkin said. “Supply chain shortages. And the price increases are coming to you from everywhere. Your gardener is raising your prices, and you don’t have the capacity to do anything other than accept them.”
The economist Isabella Weber at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, dubbed this phenomenon “sellers’ inflation” in 2023. In an influential paper, she wrote that “publicly reported supply chain bottlenecks” can “create legitimacy for price hikes” and “create acceptance on the part of consumers to pay higher prices.”
Consumers are no longer so accepting, Barkin said.
“People have a little bit more time to stop and say, ‘How do I feel about paying $9.89 for a 12-pack of Diet Coke when I used to pay $5.99?’ They don’t like it that much, and so people are making choices.”
Barkin said he expects this trend to continue to slow price increases and cool inflation.
“I’m actually pretty optimistic that over the next few months, we’re going to see good readings on the inflation side,” he said. “All the elements of inflation seem to be settling down.”
India’s Bharti Enterprises now largest shareholder in UK’s BT Group
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Surprising move’ for Indian megacorp but less so for French seller Altice
India’s Bharti Enterprises has swooped in to buy the 24.5 percent stake in BT Group from Patrick Drahi’s Altice, at a stroke making it the biggest shareholder in the UK telecoms giant.…
anarchism as a spiritual discipline
date: 2024-08-12, from: Ayjay blog
Perhaps the most unusual element of my 2022 essay on anarchism is this: I present anarchism not as a political system but as a spiritual discipline. I don’t put the point quite that bluntly, but I come fairly close: The first target of anarchistic practice ought to be whatever it is in me that resists […]
https://blog.ayjay.org/anarchism-as-a-spiritual-discipline/
In celebration of Curiosity’s successful landing on Mars
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Forget the woes of Starliner with an audacious NASA landing on another planet that went very very right
While NASA might be struggling to get its Starliner crew home, it’s worth remembering that circa 12 years ago, the agency was celebrating the successful deployment of the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.…
Pentagon chief orders submarine to the Middle East, tells aircraft group to hasten its transit
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
LLM-driven C-to-Rust. Not just a good idea, a genie eager to escape
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Automatic for the people? Don’t mind if we do
Opinion Rust changes worlds. The iron ore we mine to feed the industrial age started out as iron atoms dissolved in oceans two billion years ago. Then photosynthesis happened, pouring out oxygen that rusted that iron out of the water into the solid minerals we’ve found so useful today. Much the same is happening with Rust the programming language, as it becomes the mechanism of choice for turning prehistoric C code into secure, performant material fit for the future.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/opinion_column/
verbose, verboser, verbosest
date: 2024-08-12, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
A key feature for a tool like curl is its ability to help the user diagnose command lines and operations that do not work the way the user intended them to. When I do XYZ, why does it not work? The command line option -v and its longer version –verbose have been supported by curl … Continue reading verbose, verboser, verbosest
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/08/12/verbose-verboser-verbosest/
Sols 4268-4269: Admiring Kings Canyon
date: 2024-08-12, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024 Curiosity is admiring our latest drill hole, “Kings Canyon.” Today’s plan is dedicated to continuing analysis of the drilled sample, including preconditioning for SAM evolved gas analysis (EGA) scheduled for the weekend. In planning today, the environmental (ENV), and the geology and mineralogy (GeoMin) theme groups planned two […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/sols-4268-4269-admiring-kings-canyon/
Cigarette break burned out a huge chunk of Africa’s internet
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A fake hacker trying to take credit didn’t help much, either
who, me? Welcome denizens of The Reg to another Monday morn, which means an instalment of Who, Me? – the column in which readers share tales of times their undoubted technical prowess fell just a little short.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/who_me/
Today in SCV History (Aug. 12)
date: 2024-08-12, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1944 – Newhall Refinery on Sierra Highway destroyed by fire (then rebuilt) [watch film
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-812/
Harris is pushing joy. Trump paints a darker picture. Will moods matter?
date: 2024-08-12, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket “joyful warriors.”
Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up,” and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.
“I think that our country is, right now, in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint,” Trump said Thursday.
Democrats are playing up their sunnier outlook, promoting the idea that voters can be inspired to support someone and not just cast their ballot against the other side. The Trump campaign argues their candidate is reflecting the dour mood of the country and dismisses the idea that a growing contrast in tone and upbeat attitude will decide the presidency.
Two-thirds of Americans reported feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about the state of politics, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from last month. Roughly 7 in 10 said things in the country are heading in the wrong direction.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, said people don’t care about “vibe checks.”
“That’s not making gas or food or housing less expensive,” Miller said.
Walz promotes positivity
Still, just how hard Harris is betting on the opposite approach is evident in her decision to pick Walz, whose personal story includes being on the coaching staff of a high school football team that had gone winless just a few years earlier to clinching a state championship in 1999.
The Minnesota governor’s relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum that Harris has built after President Joe Biden — facing mounting pressure from within his own party and increasingly pessimistic views about his chances in November — stepped aside and endorsed his vice president.
Walz spent his first week as Harris’ running mate traveling to swing states with Harris and underscored the point during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, celebrating what he said was “the ability to talk about what can be good.”
“This idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness, and a hand up when somebody needs it. And just the sense that people go through things and to be able to be there when they need it, that’s who we are,” he said. “It’s not about mocking. It’s not name-calling.”
Biden often ended his speeches saying he’d never been more optimistic. But he built his now-shuttered reelection bid around branding Trump an existential threat to democracy. The president offered dire predictions about the former president, suggesting he’d dismantle the nation’s founding principles should he retake the White House.
Harris’ campaign still relies on many of the same themes, decrying Trump as a threat to democracy, warning that he’ll impose draconian limits to abortion and voting and that he will follow Project 2025, a plan championed by top conservatives to remake large swaths of the federal government.
And despite Walz insisting that smiles were more powerful than insults, he and Harris have continued their share of denunciations, decrying Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 felony counts in a hush-money case and his being found liable for fraudulent business practices and sexual abuse in civil court.
Still, even before she named Walz her running mate, Harris was suggesting that she could help make politics fun again.
“We love our country. And I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” Harris declared in campaign speeches before picking Walz. She now tells crowds that she and her running mate “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”
Paula Montagna, who went to see Harris and Walz at a rally outside Detroit last week, highlighted the shift in messaging since Harris took over from Biden.
“Kamala is so positive, and it’s nice to hear positive instead of negative,” Montagna said.
Trump team says their candidate is reflecting reality
Trump’s senior campaign advisers counter that the mood of the country right now is sour over the economy, the state of the U.S.-Mexico border and turmoil in the Middle East and beyond. They see their candidate as reflecting that reality rather than what they believe is a temporary exuberance igniting the Democratic base after months of discouragement over their ticket.
Trump has tried to harness that with his repeated predictions of stock market crashes and war. His campaign appearances have included a long list of other warnings that have veered into the apocalyptic, saying that if he’s not elected, “we’re not going to have a country anymore,” that “the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me,” and that under a Harris administration, “Social Security will buckle and collapse” and “the suburbs will be overrun with violent crime and savage foreign gangs.”
During his Republican National Convention speech last month, where his advisers said Trump would seem changed and more personal after surviving an attempted assassination, the former president did strike a different tone — at least to start.
He said early on that he had “a message of confidence, strength and hope” and sought to “launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.”
But by the end, Trump had returned to predictions of doom, twice warning, “Bad things are going to happen.”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has drawn a sharp contrast with Walz. Vance has been cheered on the right for being an aggressive fighter on behalf of the former president, particularly when engaging with reporters.
“Right now, I am angry about what Kamala Harris has done to this country and done to the American southern border,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan. “And I think most people in our country, they can be happy-go-lucky sometimes, they can enjoy things sometimes, and they can turn on the news and recognize that what’s going on in this country is a disgrace.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, not himself known for a sunny disposition, offered much the same assessment Friday at a conservative conference in Atlanta hosted by radio host Erick Erickson.
“The country is obviously in a bad mood,” McConnell said.
Trump supporters waiting to see him at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, said they felt the former president’s campaign made them feel positive — even if his message often isn’t.
“Just looking at the state of the country now, I don’t think Kamala Harris’ campaign is one of joy and hope. I think that’s Trump’s campaign,” said Alex Lustig, a 23-year-old from Billings, Montana.
Fred Scarlett, a 63-year-old retiree from Condon, Montana, said that “everyone understands that we need to be here to support Trump because he has never let us down.”
“They shoot at him,” Scarlett said, “and he still keeps firing back.”
Former YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki, 56, succumbs to cancer
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A career and life so classically Silicon Valley
Susan Wojcicki, the architect of YouTube’s spectacular rise and one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures, has passed away at age 56 after a two-year battle with cancer.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/former_youtube_ceo_susan_wojcicki/
Trump campaign cites Iran election phish claim as evidence leaked docs were stolen
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Dots have been joined, but hard evidence is not apparent
Former US president Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has claimed it’s been the victim of a cyber attack.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/trump_campaign_hacked_iran_claim/
Alibaba Cloud claims K8s service meshes can require more resources than the apps they run
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Built its own replacement – Canal Mesh – that it says leaves Google’s Istio and Ambient eating dust
SIGCOMM 2024 Alibaba Cloud has claimed its home-grown service mesh for Kubernetes – Canal Mesh – significantly outperforms Google’s Istio and other rival tools.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/alibaba_microservices_mesh_canal/
Change blindness
date: 2024-08-12, from: One Useful Thing
21 months later
https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/change-blindness
The UN unanimously agrees that cybercrime is bad, mkay?
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Also: British nuke subs get code from Russia; and BlackSuit begs for $500M
Infosec in brief The United Nations often reaches consensus rather than complete agreement, but last week a proposal from Russia to cut down on cyber crime was unanimously approved.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/in_brief_infosec/
Chinese satellite broadband launch rocket breaks up into space junk
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: Vietnam’s PM leads chips push; Tesla backs out of Thailand; Drones fly trash off Everest; and more
Asia In Brief US Space Command last Friday warned that a Chinese Long March 6a rocket launched on August 6 broke up in orbit and created at least 300 pieces of debris.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/12/asia_tech_news_in_brief/
@Jessica Smith’s blog (date: 2024-08-12, from: Jessica Smith’s blog)
My sister just got back from two months in Europe and returned bearing gifts, including this adorable onesie for our baby in utero that I just had to share 😅 I couldn’t help but quip, “Ah, a country I’ve never been to!” (in good humour – it’s super cute, I was very appreciative!) but seriously, I guess I do have some Irish heritage, and therefore, so does our baby, so it still works. It’s a gorgeous onesie in any case 😂
https://www.jayeless.net/2024/08/ireland-baby-onesie.html
Reckoning: Part 1 — The Landscape
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Alex Russel’s blog
https://infrequently.org/2024/08/the-landscape/
Vector Stores Are Dumb
date: 2024-08-12, updated: 2024-08-12, from: Tom Kellog blog
“Is this magic?”
http://timkellogg.me/blog/2024/08/12/graph-ai
Santa Barbara Man’s Apple Watch Alerts Saved His Life With Early Detection
date: 2024-08-11, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The value of wearable tech pays off big time for Peter Moore.
The post Santa Barbara Man’s Apple Watch Alerts Saved His Life With Early Detection appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Photos: “Celebrate” series Japan
date: 2024-08-11, from: The Signal
The City of Santa Clarita had another successful “Celebrate” series installment highlighting the country of Japan on Friday evening at the Canyon Country Community Center with hundreds in attendance participating […]
The post Photos: “Celebrate” series Japan appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/photos-celebrate-series-japan/
“To See it All at Once”: Black Southern Placemaking Technologies with Zandria Robinson
date: 2024-08-11, from: Logic Magazine
<p>“I think that the Southern city, all Southern cities are places spatially, where you can see the collision of time, to the point where you’re like, ‘What time is it? What time am I in?’”</p>@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
A lot of people are thinking that Threads is the new “nice” version of The Original Twitter, but folks, that’s pure bullshit – remember who owns Threads and ask yourself if you want that dude to be in charge of our political organizing network. We need something better.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/11.html#a225416
Almost entire Nova Launcher team laid off
date: 2024-08-11, from: OS News
About two years ago, the very popular and full-featured Android launcher Nova Launcher was acquired by mobile links and analytics company Branch. This obviously caused quite the stir, and ever since, whenever Nova is mentioned online, people point out what kind of company acquired Nova and that you probably should be looking for an alternative. While Branch claimed, as the acquiring party always does, that nothing was going to change, most people, including myself, were skeptical. Several decades covering this industry have taught me that acquisitions like this pretty much exclusively mean doom, and usually signal a slow but steady decline in quality and corresponding increase in user-hostile features. I’m always open to being proven wrong, but I don’t have a lot of hope. ↫ Thom Holwerda Up until a few days ago, I have to admit I was wrong. Nova remained largely the same, got some major new features, and it really didn’t get any worse in any meaningful way – in fact, Nova just continued to get better, adopted all the new Android Material You and other features, and kept communicating with its users quite well. After a while, I kind of forgot all about Nova being owned by Branch, as nothing really changed for the worse. It’s rare, but it happens – apparently. So I, and many others who were skeptical at first as well, kept on using Nova. Not only because it just continued being what I think is the best, most advanced, and most feature-rich launcher for Android, but also because… Well, there’s really nothing else out there quite like Nova. I’m sure many of you are already firing up the comment engine, but as someone who has always been fascinated by alternative, non-stock mobile device launchers – from Palm OS, PocketPC, and Zaurus, all the way to the modern day with Android – I’ve seen them all and tried them all, and while the launcher landscape is varied, abundant, and full of absolutely amazing alternatives for every possible kind of user, there’s nothing else out there that is as polished, feature-rich, fast, and endlessly tweakable as Nova. So, I’ve been continuing to use Nova since the acquisition, interchanged with Google’s own Pixel Launcher ever since I bought a Pixel 8 Pro on release, with Nova’s ownership status relegated to some dusty, barely used croft of my mind. As such, it came as a bit of a shock this week when it came out that Branch had done a massive round of lay-offs, including firing the entire Nova Launcher team, save for Nova’s original creator, Kevin Barry. Around a dozen or so people were working on Nova at Branch, and aside from Barry, they’re all gone now. Once the news got out, Barry took to Nova Launcher’s website and released a statement about the layoffs, and the future of Nova. There has been confusion and misinformation about the Nova team and what this means for Nova. I’d like to clarify some things. The original Nova team, for many years, was just me. Eventually I added Cliff to handle customer support, and when Branch acquired Nova, Cliff continued with this role. I also had contracted Rob for some dev work prior to the Branch acquisition and some time after the acquisition closed we were able to bring him onboard as a contractor at Branch. The three of us were the core Nova team. However, I’ve always been the lead and primary contributor to Nova Launcher and that hasn’t changed. I will continue to control the direction and development of Nova Launcher. ↫ Kevin Barry This sounds great, and I’m glad the original creator will keep control over Nova. However, with such a massive culling of developers, it only makes sense that any future plans will have to be scaled down, and that’s exactly what both Barry and other former team members are saying. First, Rob Wainwright, who was laid off, wrote the following in Nova’s Discord: To be clear, Nova development is not stopping. Kevin is remaining at Branch as Nova’s only full time developer. Development will undoubtedly slow with less people working on the app but the current plan is for updates to continue in some form. ↫ Rob Wainwright Barry followed up with an affirmation: I am planning on wrapping up some Nova 8.1 work and getting more builds out. I am going to need to cut scope compared to what was planned. ↫ Kevin Barry In other words, while development on Nova will continue, it’s now back to being a one-man project, which will have some major implications for the pace of development. It makes me wonder if the adoption of the yearly drop of new Android features will be reduced, and if we’re going to see much more unresolved bugs and issues. On top of that, one has to wonder just how long Branch is for this world – they’ve just laid off about a hundred people, so what will happen to Barry if Branch goes under? Will he have to find some other job, leaving even less time for Nova development? And if Branch doesn’t go under, it is still clearly in dire financial straits, which must make somehow monetising Nova users in less pleasant ways come into the picture. The future of Nova was definitely dealt a massive blow this week, and I’m fearful for its future. Again.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140464/almost-entire-nova-launcher-team-laid-off/
Google Pixel 9 Overview
date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog
What do you know about the Pixel 9 from Google?
https://chatgpt.com/share/ac8f1461-9923-43da-87b9-b951ff2f32b2
The colors of GTK
date: 2024-08-11, from: Gtk Developer blog
Everything is better in color. Even better if it is HDR. In this post, we’ll provide an overview of what is happening with color in GTK, without diving too deeply into the weeds of colorimetry and color science. The high-level goals of this effort are to enable proper handling of HDR content and color-managed workflows. … Continue reading “The colors of GTK”
https://blog.gtk.org/2024/08/11/the-colors-of-gtk/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Idea for a neat product from Automattic or really anyone: Configure WordPress for writing a book, hook it up to an AI service that can always turn that site into prose, reorganized into chapters, however you’d like, on demand, in an instant. You could use an outliner to arrange the table of contents and it could automatically generate a back of the book index. Technologically I think today’s AI is ready to do this, just needs to be packaged. Charge a fair price for the service, esp at the beginning it would totally be worth it. Who knows where it would lead. I bet a lot of writers would use it, I certainly would.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/11.html#a222822
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I
carry two phones, an
iPhone 13 Pro
and a Pixel 6 Pro.
The latter is my main phone, and I prefer it to the Apple phone, not
sure why, it’s what I use for most things. I need the iPhone because I
use an Apple Watch. Lately there’s been some trouble with the screen on
the Pixel 6, on certain gestures, the right edge lights up in bright
green and then immediately returns to normal. I’m thinking the display
may be about to fail? It might be time for a new phone. So I went to the
Pixel site to see what they have that’s new and found that they’re
announcing a new phone, the
Pixel
9, on Tuesday. So I immediately, of course, dropped the idea of
buying an upgrade today, why not wait till the new version is out. I
looked over the teaser, guessing that AI figures big in this release.
Not sure how I feel about that because the last thing I want to do is
switch over to Google’s AI from my beloved ChatGPT. Kind of the same
thing I see happening with Threads re Twitter.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/11.html#a222419
Student Research Study on Depression
date: 2024-08-11, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Are you or someone you know 14-21 years old, experiencing sad or irritable moods, and considering antidepressant medication? We are currently
The post Student Research Study on Depression appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/11/student-research-study-on-depression/
Dead On A Friday
date: 2024-08-11, from: Tedium site
The Friday night death slot, and why Fridays carry such a hard-to-shake reputation as a place where good broadcast television goes to die.
https://feed.tedium.co/link/15204/16768162/friday-night-death-slot-history
Here are the Hacker Tools a DEF CON Hotel is Hunting For
date: 2024-08-11, from: 404 Media Group
Resorts World is searching rooms daily for hacker tools. 404 Media obtained the list of hunted items.
https://www.404media.co/here-are-the-hacker-tools-a-def-con-hotel-is-hunting-for/
Castaic Animal Care Center aims to clear the shelter
date: 2024-08-11, from: The Signal
Tucker, a three year old pup, was sitting still like a good boy with his foster, Julia Jones, at the main entrance of the Castaic Animal Care Center. He wore […]
The post Castaic Animal Care Center aims to clear the shelter appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/castaic-animal-care-center-aims-to-clear-the-shelter/
Reynolds-Lively husband and wife team wins weekend box office
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
New York — In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office showdown, both husband and wife came out as winners.
Reynolds’ Marvel Studios smash “Deadpool & Wolverine” remained the top movie in North American theaters for the third straight week with $54.2 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday. Worldwide, it’s now surpassed $1 billion.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” though, was closely followed by “It Ends With Us,” the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.
Together, the films created a kind of family edition of “Barbenheimer,” in which a pair of very different movies thrived in part due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. The films’ one-two punch wasn’t entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis’ “Die Hard 2” led the box office while Demi Moore’s “Ghost” came in second.
The weekend also featured a high-priced flop. “Borderlands,” the long-delayed $120-million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a paltry $8.8 million for Lionsgate. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, was shot all the way back in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally landed in theaters effectively dead-on-arrival; it scored just 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and seems likely to contend for one of the worst movies of the year.
Meanwhile, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which co-stars Hugh Jackman, continued its march through box-office records. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is only the second R-rated movie to reach $1 billion, following 2019’s “Joker.” In three weeks, it’s already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney’s other 2024 smash, “Inside Out” ($1.6 billion worldwide) among movies released this year.
Lively makes a cameo in “Deadpool & Wolverine” but she both stars
in and produced “It Ends With Us.” Adapted from the bestselling romance
novel by Colleen Hoover, Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a Boston florist
torn between two men, one from her present life (Justin Baldoni, who
also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon
Sklenar).
“It Ends With Us” cost a modest $25 million to produce, so it will turn a significant profit for co-financers Columbia Pictures and Wayfarer Studios. Like another female-skewing summer-release book adaptation from Sony, “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “It Ends With Us” could hold well through the typically slower August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.
Reynolds and Lively occasionally played up the convergence of their movies. Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a video of himself posing junket questions to Sklenar. The timing paid off especially for Lively, whose film doubled earlier opening-weekend forecasts.
Neon’s “Cuckoo,” a German Alps-set horror film by filmmaker Tilman Singer, opened with $3 million on 1,503 screen. It stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” $54.2 million.
“It Ends With Us,” $50 million.
“Twisters,” $15 million.
“Borderlands,” $8.8 million.
“Despicable Me 4,” $8 million.
“Trap,” $6.7 million.
“Inside Out 2,” $5 million.
“Harold and the Purple Crayon,” $3.1 million.
“Cuckoo,” $3 million.
“Longlegs,” $2 million.
https://www.voanews.com/a/reynolds-lively-husband-and-wife-team-wins-weekend-box-office/7738347.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Deadbeat Don: Why He's Not Holding Rallies. #plausible
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2024/8/11/2262167/-Deadbeat-Don-Why-He-s-Not-Holding-Rallies
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
From
now on, until further notice, when I feel like watching some
mind-numbing “news” program, I’m going to have a look at the
Kamala Harris
channel on YouTube. I don’t mind doing hard work, I just don’t want
to hear what the NYT-centered media has to say because it’s all
bullshit. If
I have to listen to nonstop bullshit, I’d rather hear from people who
tell me we can have a bright future, than the usual NYT-spawned
bullshit.
It’s just
bullshit.
I’m tired of
bullshit.
That’s all I have to say about
bullshit for
now at least. Have a nice day.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/11.html#a184725
Aug. 14: COC Trustees to Consider Timeline to Fill Second Open Board Seat
date: 2024-08-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will hold a business meeting Wednesday, Aug. 14, beginning at 4 p.m. in closed session with open session beginning at 5 p.m
https://scvnews.com/aug-14-coc-trustees-to-consider-timeline-to-fill-second-open-board-seat/
How I Created 175 Fonts Using Rust
date: 2024-08-11, updated: 2024-08-11, from: Robin Rendle Essays
https://robinrendle.com/notes/how-i-created-175-fonts-using-rust/
Gas pipeline players in talks to fuel AI datacenter demand
date: 2024-08-11, updated: 2024-08-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Utility tapped out? Why not build your own?
Proximity to natural gas lines could become just as desirable for datacenter operators as high-speed fiber-optic networks as they scramble to satiate AI’s ever growing thirst for power.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/11/pipeline_operators_ai_demand/
Guess who’s back
date: 2024-08-11, updated: 2024-08-11, from: Robin Rendle Essays
https://robinrendle.com/notes/guess-whos-back/
2025 BMW Z4 shifts onto the scene
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
The 2025 BMW Z4 M40i is a driver’s delight. With its new optional six-speed manual transmission installed, the rear-wheel-drive, two-seat roadster is keen for daily transportation. But it’s at its best on a winding country road, top down. It’s an automotive stress deflator.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/08/11/2025-bmw-z4-shifts-onto-the-scene/
The 2024 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab 4×4 TRD Off Road Pickup Truck
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
What is a Tacoma? A Tacoma is a midsize pickup truck built in the Guanajuato, Mexico assembly plant and sold worldwide by Toyota. Pickup trucks have a very long shelf life and the design and platform can easily last 15 to 20 years.
49ers’ Kyle Shanahan surrenders play-calling duties for a night — and probably won’t again
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
For the first time in 16 years, Kyle Shanahan isn’t the play-caller when his offense is on the field.
Review: Sabrina Carpenter wows in festival headliner debut at Outside Lands
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Sabrina Carpenter, one of pop music’s rising stars, prepped for upcoming concert tour with a winning set at Outside Lands festival.
Making the Strofara
date: 2024-08-11, from: Stavros Stuff
This is going to be pretty specific to a Greek audience, as it’s all based on a Greek meme video, but I’ll try to explain. Watch the video first so you know what I’m talking about while I describe it:
Two guys are driving on a road near a remote village
https://www.stavros.io/posts/making-the-strofara/
Rollercoaster week in US stocks leaves investors braced for bumps ahead
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
New York — A week of wild market swings has investors looking ahead to inflation data, corporate earnings and presidential polls for signals that could soothe a recent outbreak of turbulence in U.S. stocks.
Following months of placid trading, U.S. stock volatility has surged this month as a run of alarming data coincided with the unwinding of a massive, yen-fueled carry trade to deal equities their worst selloff of the year. The S&P 500 .SPX is still down around 6% from a record high set last month, even after making up ground in a series of rallies after Monday’s crushing selloff.
At issue for many investors is the trajectory of the U.S. economy. After months of betting on an economic soft landing, investors rushed to price in the risk of a more severe downturn, following weaker-than-expected manufacturing and employment data last week.
“Everybody is now worried about the economy,” said Bob Kalman, a portfolio manager at Miramar Capital. “We are moving away from the greed portion of the program and now the market is facing the fear of significant geopolitical risks, a hotly contested election and volatility that is not going away.”
Though stocks have rallied in recent days, traders believe it will be a while before calm returns to markets. Indeed, the historical behavior of the Cboe Volatility Index .VIX - which saw its biggest one-day jump ever on Monday - shows that surges of volatility usually take months to dissipate.
Known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, the index measures demand for options protection from market swings. When it closes above 35 - an elevated level that it topped on Monday - the index has taken 170 sessions on average to return to 17.6, its long-term median and a level associated with far less extreme investor anxiety, a Reuters analysis showed.
One potential flashpoint will be when the U.S. reports consumer price data on Wednesday. Signs that inflation is dropping too steeply could bolster fears that the Federal Reserve has sent the economy into a tailspin by leaving interest rates elevated for too long, contributing to market turbulence.
For now, futures markets are pricing in a 55% chance the central bank will bring down benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points in September, at its next policy meeting, compared with a roughly 5% chance seen a month ago.
“Slower payroll growth reinforces that U.S. economic risks are becoming more two-sided as inflation cools and activity slows,” said Oscar Munoz, chief U.S. macro strategist at TD Securities, in a recent note.
Corporate earnings, meanwhile, have been neither strong enough nor weak enough to give the market direction, said Charles Lemonides, head of hedge fund ValueWorks LLC.
Overall, companies in the S&P 500 have reported second-quarter results that are 4.1% above expectations, in line with the long-term average of 4.2% above expectations, according to LSEG data.
Walmart WMT.N and Home Depot HD.N are among companies reporting earnings next week, with their results seen as offering a snapshot on how U.S. consumers are holding up after months of elevated interest rates.
The end of the month brings earnings from chip giant Nvidia NVDA.O, whose shares are up around 110% this year even after a recent selloff. The Fed’s annual Jackson Hole gathering, set for Aug. 22-24, will give policymakers another chance to fine tune their monetary policy message before their September meeting.
Lemonides believes the recent volatility is a healthy correction during an otherwise strong bull market, and he initiated a position in Amazon.com AMZN.O to take advantage of its weakness.
The U.S. presidential race is also likely to ramp up uncertainty.
Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 42% to 37% in the race for the Nov. 5 presidential election, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday. Harris, the vice president, entered the race on July 21 when President Joe Biden folded his campaign following a disastrous debate performance on June 27 against Trump.
With nearly three months until the Nov. 5 vote, investors are braced for plenty of additional twists and turns in an election year that has already been one of the most dramatic in recent memory.
“While early events suggested a clearer picture of US Presidential and Congressional outcomes, more recent events have again thrown the outcome into doubt,” analysts at JPMorgan wrote.
Chris Marangi, co-chief investment officer of value at Gabelli Funds, believes the election will add to market volatility. At the same time, expected rate cuts in September could boost a rotation into areas of the market that have lagged in a year that has been dominated by Big Tech, he said.
“We expect increased volatility into the election but the underlying rotation to continue as lower rates offset economic weakness,” he said.
A’ja Wilson, US women hold off France to win eighth straight Olympic basketball gold medal
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
Paris — A’ja Wilson scored 21 points and the U.S. women’s basketball team survived the biggest challenge of its unprecedented run to eight straight Olympic gold medals with a 67-66 win over France at the Paris Games on Sunday.
No team had been able to push the Americans during this impressive streak of 61 consecutive wins. Only two of those victories had been by single digits before the game against France.
The eight straight golds broke a tie with the American men’s program that won seven in a row from 1936-68. The women’s victory came less than 24 hours after the U.S. men’s team also beat France in the title game. This was the first time in Olympic history that both gold medal games featured the same two teams.
Unlike the men’s game this one came down to the final minute and one last shot by France that was just inside the 3-point line.
The Americans were up 67-64 with 3.9 seconds left after Kahleah Copper hit two free throws. Marine Johannes brought the ball up the court to Gabby Williams who caught the ball just inside the 3-point line and banked in over the outstreched arms of Breanna Srewart for the final margin.
There was a brief delay before the officials signaled that it was a two-point shot, which led to the beginning of a celebration and a lot of happy hugs for the Americans and left the French players standing in disbelief as they fell just short.
Williams, who finished with 19 points, had hit a deep 3 a few seconds earlier to get France within one before Copper’s free throws.
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
At some point ChatGPT will imho be programmed to compile C apps to JavaScript, for example, even large ones with bugs.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/11.html#a160013
Fifty shades of people and their blogs
date: 2024-08-11, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>This past Friday the 50th interview of the People and Blogs series went live and we’re also about to close the first year for this series. As always, milestones are arbitrary but I thought it would be fun to take a moment to look back at the first 50 interviews.</p>First thing first, a big, big thank you to all the wonderful guests who took the time to answer my questions. I am technically the creator of this series but what matters are the people—and their blogs. So thank you 50x to all you wonderful folks, but also thank you to the people who have answered my questions already but whose interviews aren’t live yet. As I think I wrote before, I try to keep a buffer and so I always have a few interviews that are ready to go.
I’m sure the numbers are not actually correct because I did this very quickly but collectively, we wrote 91.141 words, 504.217 characters. The most used word is, unsurprisingly, I. Aside from the other usual suspects—a, the, to, etc—the most common word is, quite fittingly, blog.
The average interview is 1822 words with Derek Sivers and Matthew Graybosch at the two ends of the spectrum with 487 and 5666 words respectively. In terms of distribution, 5 guests wrote less than 1000 words, 30 are between 1000 and 2000, 9 are in the 2000 to 3000 range, 4 in the 3000 to 4000, 1—Riccardo Mori—is in the 4000 to 5000 bracket and as mentioned Matthew is so far the only guest over 5000 words. I don’t have rules when it comes to length and it’s always interesting to see how much people end up writing.
Also interesting how the overwhelming majority of guests spend a similar amount of money to run their blogs. I didn’t double-check this but I think almost everyone is in the 50$ to 150$ a year. I might do a deeper dive at some point and plot costs and techs used by the people interviewed. Maybe when we get to 100. That could be fun.
Since we’re talking numbers, how about the audience of the series? Crunching numbers is a bit hard since the interviews are delivered via newsletter, RSS, and can also be read on the blog and only the newsletter has some actual numbers. If I had to guess, probably a few thousand people are reading these interviews. But that’s just an educated guess. We’ll never know for sure.
What we do know for sure is that 74 people are currently very kindly supporting it on Ko-Fi and I have to give a shout-out to Jamie Thingelstad who decided to become a supporter even before the first interview went live. I appreciate the trust Jamie. I’m also particularly happy with the fact that a bunch of the supporters have been featured on the series. There are a couple of things I have planned and their feasibility is strictly tied to how many people support the series so if you do enjoy it, please consider becoming a supporter for as little as 1$ a month.
50 interviews, 50 people, and 50 blogs. I renewed the other day the domain name for another year so we’ll for sure get to 100 at least. Will we ever get to 500? How about 1000? Can I run this series for the next 20 years? Will people blog in 20 years? If you’re a time traveler get in touch because I’d love to know.
<hr>
<p>Thank you for keeping RSS alive. You're awesome.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:hello@manuelmoreale.com">Email me</a> ::
<a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/guestbook">Sign my guestbook</a> ::
<a href="https://ko-fi.com/manuelmoreale">Support for 1$/month</a> ::
<a href="https://manuelmoreale.com/supporters">See my awesome supporters</a> ::
<a href="https://buttondown.email/peopleandblogs">Subscribe to People and Blogs</a></p>
https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/bQcH9XzluIY1Z2Cs
‘He was screaming’…then it stopped: Witnesses detail Union City homicide by the railroad tracks
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Witnesses testified that 49-year-old Brandon Kong used a frying pan to beat his victim, before strangling the man as he cried for help.
US women edge France in a thriller to win eighth straight Olympic basketball gold medal
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Paris Olympics: A’ja Wilson leads United States as Americans overcome 10-point second-half deficit to beat France.
US commits to freeing Americans held by Taliban in Afghanistan
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
Islamabad — The United States has promised to make every effort to secure the release of three Americans whom it says are being held “unjustly” by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
Ryan Corbett, Mahmood Habibi, and George Glezmann were taken captive in separate incidents in Kabul in 2022, roughly a year after the Taliban stormed back to power in the Afghan capital.
“My thoughts and prayers are with Ryan Corbett, Mahmood Habibi, and their families today,” Thomas West, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, said on X, formerly Twitter, marking the two-year anniversary of the capture of the two men.
“We will and we must continue every effort to bring them and George Glezmann home to their families,” he wrote Sunday.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, in separate remarks posted on X, said that the three “have been held for far too long and their families have endured unimaginable pain.”
Corbett is a humanitarian worker who had lived with his family in Afghanistan for years. He was evacuated during the August 2021 Taliban takeover following the withdrawal of U.S.-led Western troops.
Corbett returned to Afghanistan in 2022 and was detained by the Taliban but has not been charged with any crimes, according to his family.
Glezmann was visiting Kabul as a tourist lawfully traveling in Afghanistan when he was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services on December 5, 2022, “without just cause or formal charge,” according to the Foley Foundation, working to secure freedom for Americans held unjustly captive abroad.
Separately on Saturday, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI, released a statement seeking information into the disappearance of Habibi, saying he was taken from his vehicle near his home in the Afghan capital, along with his driver, on August 10, 2022.
The FBI stated that the Afghan-American businessman worked as a contractor for Asia Consultancy Group, a Kabul-based telecommunications company. “It is believed that Mr. Habibi was taken by Taliban military or security forces and has not been heard from since his disappearance,” the agency noted.
Habibi was detained by the Taliban reportedly on suspicion that his company was involved in a July 31 U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the fugitive al-Qaida network chief. The FBI said that de facto Afghan authorities had also briefly detained 29 other employees of the Asia Consultancy Group.
The Taliban have officially not responded to the latest U.S. calls for releasing the three Americans.
While de facto Afghan authorities have publicly disclosed that Corbett and Glezmann are among “several foreign nationals” imprisoned in Afghanistan for allegedly violating local immigration and other laws, they refuse to acknowledge holding Habibi.
On Sunday, an Afghan television station quoted Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, claiming that they have imprisoned only two American citizens and are not holding Habibi.
He reiterated that Kabul would release the prisoners in exchange for Afghans in U.S. custody, the Ariana News network reported on its website.
“We don’t have anyone named Habibi in our prisons. But the investigation is ongoing to find out what happened in this regard,” Mujahid stated.
The Taliban announced last month for the first time that they had discussed a possible prisoner exchange in direct talks with U.S. officials on the sidelines of an international conference in Doha, Qatar, hosted by the United Nations.
“During our meetings, we talked about the two American citizens who are in prison in Afghanistan,” Mujahid told reporters after the meeting.
“But they must accept Afghanistan’s conditions. We also have prisoners in America, prisoners in Guantanamo. We should free our prisoners in exchange for them,” he said without elaborating.
Last week, the U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in Washington that U.S. officials have raised the detainees’ fate in every meeting with the Taliban.
Matthew Miller stated that Corbett and Glezmann “are wrongfully detained,” according to the U.S. legal determination. “That’s not a determination we have yet made with respect to Mahmood Habibi, which is not to say we’re not working to try and secure his release,” he explained.
“Oftentimes, we can’t make a wrongful detention determination because we don’t have access to certain types of information or because the situation is unclear. There can be other factors as well,” Miller explained.
History Happy Hour in downtown Campbell looks at Joaquín Murrieta
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Ainsley House hosts discussion of the 1850s bandido, folk hero.
Incumbents to run unopposed for two Saratoga City Council seats
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Fitzsimmons, Walia to run for re-election in November.
Oasis Makers Fair returns to Sunnyvale hotel
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Aug. 21 event to focus on health and beauty products.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/08/11/oasis-makers-fair-returns-to-sunnyvale-hotel-2/
San Jose neighborhood celebrates centennial Aug. 24
date: 2024-08-11, from: San Jose Mercury News
Burrell Park was originally developed as affordable housing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/08/11/san-jose-neighborhood-celebrates-centennial-aug-24/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
VP Kamala Harris & Gov. Tim Walz Campaign in Las Vegas.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?537545-1/vp-kamala-harris-gov-tim-walz-campaign-las-vegas=undefined
Verso: a browser using Servo
date: 2024-08-11, from: OS News
I regularly report on the progress made by the Servo project, the Rust-based browser engine that was spun out of Mozilla into its own project. Servo has its own reference browser implementation, too, but did you know there’s already other browsers using Servo, too? Sure, it’s clearly a work-in-progress thing, and it’s missing just about every feature we’ve come to expect from a browser, but it’s cool nonetheless. Verso is a web browser built on top of Servo web engine. It’s still under development. We dont’ accept any feature request at the moment. But if you are interested, feel free to help test it. ↫ Verso GitHub page It runs on Linux, Windows, and macOS.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140462/verso-a-browser-using-servo/
Wayland merges new screen capture protocols
date: 2024-08-11, from: OS News
Nearly three years in the making, the ext-image-capture-source-v1 and ext-image-copy-capture-v1 protocols have been merged into the Wayland Protocols repository for vastly improving screen capture support on the Wayland desktop. The ext-image-capture-source-v1 and ext-image-copy-capture-v1 screen copy protocols build upon wlroots’ wlr-screencopy-unstable-v1 with various improvements for better screen capture support under Wayland. These new protocols should allow for better performance and window capturing support for use-cases around RDP/VNC remote desktop, screen sharing, and more. ↫ Michael Larabel A very big addition to Wayland, as this has been a sore spot for many people wishing to move to Wayland from X. One of the developers behind the effort has penned a blog post with more details about these new protocols.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140459/wayland-merges-new-screen-capture-protocols/
Debby finally moves out of the US, some flooding risk and power outages remain
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
World Elephant Day
date: 2024-08-11, from: National Archives, Pieces of History blog
Today’s post comes from Thomas Richardson, an expert archives technician at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. They’re the largest land animals, have the longest gestation period for land animals, are hard workers, are the core of many religious beliefs, and have done everything from going to war to protecting the … Continue reading World Elephant Day
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2024/08/11/world-elephant-day/
@Hans Otten’s, Pascal for small machines (date: 2024-08-11, from: Hans Otten’s, Pascal for small machines)
Additions to the Jim Welsh pages, Queen’s University Belfast and Emerate Professor at The University of Queensland Brisbane, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering – 1900 Pascal User’s Guide,- Sources of 1900 Pascal Compiler MK 2. As explained in the next Summary, the CDC compiler was ported in a number of steps to the […]
http://pascal.hansotten.com/2024/08/11/2643/
USOPC says it will appeal decision forcing US gymnast Jordan Chiles to return her bronze medal
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
Paris — U.S. Olympic officials say they will appeal a court ruling that resulted in American gymnast Jordan Chiles being asked to return the bronze medal she won in the Paris Olympics floor exercise.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) voided an on-floor appeal by Chiles’ coach that vaulted her to third, saying the appeal came 4 seconds beyond the 1-minute time limit for scoring inquiries.
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said Saturday night it would respect the court’s decision and elevate Barbosu to third. The International Olympic Committee confirmed the ruling Sunday, announcing that it was reallocating the bronze from last Monday’s women’s floor final to Romanian Ana Barbosu.
“We firmly believe that Jordan rightfully earned the bronze medal, and there were critical errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed,” the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee statement said.
CAS ruled Saturday that Team USA coach Cecile Landi’s appeal to have 0.1 added to Chiles’ score came outside the 1-minute window allowed by the FIG. The ad hoc committee wrote that Landi’s inquiry came 1 minute, 4 seconds after Chiles’ initial score was posted.
The IOC said in a statement it will be in touch with the USOPC regarding the return of Chiles’ bronze and will work with the Romanian Olympic Committee to discuss a reallocation ceremony honoring Barbosu.
“The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and the second error was during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision,” said the USOPC statement, which was released Sunday.
It was unclear the exact process the appeal would take first. The two potential places the USOPC could take the appeal would be to Switzerland’s highest court, the Swiss Tribunal or the European Court of Human Rights.
CAS wrote Saturday that the initial finishing order should be restored, with Barbosu third, Romanian Sabrina Maneca-Voinea fourth and Chiles fifth. The organization added the FIG should determine the final ranking “in accordance with the above decision,” but left it up to the federation to decide who would get the medal behind gold winner Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and silver medalist Simone Biles of the U.S.
The FIG said it was the IOC’s call on whether to reallocate the medal. The IOC confirmed Sunday it would respect FIG’s decision and seek to have Chiles’ medal returned.
The rapid turn of events adds another layer to what has been a difficult few days for all three athletes.
Romanian gymnastics legend and 1976 Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci feared for Barbosu’s mental health because of the wrenching sequence in which she went from bronze medalist to fourth-place finisher.
“I can’t believe we play with athletes mental health and emotions like this… let’s protect them,” Comaneci posted on X earlier in the week.
Comaneci, at the same time, criticized the judges for the way they scored Maneca-Voinea’s routine — the gymnast was docked 0.1 points for stepping out of bounds, but viral replays showed she narrowly stayed inbounds. Comaneci urged the Romanian Olympic Committee to protest, which it did, but CAS denied that appeal.
Chiles hinted at the decision in an Instagram story on Saturday, indicating she is heartbroken and is “taking this time and removing myself from social media for my mental health, thank you.”
Jazmin Chiles, Jordan’s sister, said on Instagram that Chiles was stripped of a medal “not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.”
U.S. teammates offered support to Chiles, a two-time Olympian.
“Sending you so much love Jordan,” American star Simone Biles posted on Instagram. “Keep your chin up ‘Olympic champ’ we love you.”
“All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?” six-time Olympic medalist Sunisa Lee added on Instagram. “Completely unacceptable, this is awful and I’m gutted for jordan.”
USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Saturday it is “devastated” by the ruling.
“The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” the organization wrote.
Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea were left outside the medals in the floor final after finishing with matching scores of 13.700. Barbosu thought she had won bronze over Maneca-Voinea via a tiebreaker — a higher execution score — and began celebrating with a Romanian flag.
Chiles was the last athlete to compete and initially given a score of 13.666 that placed her fifth, right behind Maneca-Voinea. Landi called for an inquiry on Chiles’ score was announced.
“At this point, we had nothing to lose, so I was like ‘We’re just going to try,’” Landi said after the awards ceremony. “I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen, but when I heard her scream, I turned around and was like ‘What?’”
Judges awarded the appeal, leapfrogging Chiles past Barbosu and Maneca-Voinea.
Barbosu made it a point after returning home to Romania that she had no problem with Chiles.
“I only want for everybody to be fair, we don’t want to start picking on other athletes of any nationality,” Barbosu told reporters. “We as athletes don’t deserve something like that, we only want to perform as best as we can and to be rewarded based on our performance. The problems lie with the judges, with their calculations and decisions.”
Chiles’ mother, Gina Chiles, called out the critics in a post, writing she was “tired” of the derogatory comments being leveled at Jordan.
“My daughter is a highly decorated Olympian with the biggest heart and a level of sportsmanship that is unmatched,” Gina Chiles posted. “And she’s being called disgusting things.”
The uncertainty also tinges what had been a beautiful moment on the medal stand, when Chiles and Biles knelt to honor Andrade after the Brazilian star won her fourth medal in Paris.
“It was just the right thing to do,” Biles said about a moment that soon went viral, with even the Louvre itself suggesting it might be worthy enough for a spot somewhere in the vicinity of the Mona Lisa.
That memory now carries a complicated and emotional postscript.
https://www.voanews.com/a/american-gymnast-chiles-must-return-bronze-medal-ioc-says/7738025.html
Today in SCV History (Aug. 11)
date: 2024-08-11, from: SCV New (TV Station)
2018 – Big Oaks Lodge in Bouquet Canyon burns down [video
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-aug-11/
US abortion numbers rise since Roe was overturned, study finds
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-abortion-numbers-rise-since-roe-was-overturned-study-finds/7733298.html
Farmers honor ‘Peanuts’ creator with corn mazes in US, Canada
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Visitors to corn mazes across the country are finding a familiar and joyous figure in the winding labyrinth of tall stalks. Snoopy.
More than 80 farms in the U.S. and Canada have teamed up with Peanuts Worldwide to create “Peanuts”-themed mazes to celebrate the beloved strip’s 75th birthday this summer and fall.
A massive Snoopy rests on top of his doghouse in a maze at Dull’s Tree Farm in Thorntown, Indiana, and he’s depicted gleefully atop a pumpkin at Downey’s Farm in Caledon, Ontario.
“All of these events helps keep my dad’s legacy alive,” says Jill Schulz, an actor and daughter of “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz.
“As someone who can’t even keep houseplants alive, the fact that they can do that with a corn maze and get the artwork right and create a fun experience for all ages is pretty incredible,” she adds, laughing.
The mazes — which span 35 states and provinces, from California to New York, Ontario to Texas — are expected to attract more than 2 million visitors. Farmers are signing up for the free service because the mazes are part of the customer lure, in addition to things like hay rides, fresh produce and pumpkin carvings.
Each maze is designed for the size of the farm — from 1.5 acres to 20 acres — and are mostly corn but also sunflowers. They’re custom created by the world’s largest corn maze consulting company, The MAiZE Inc.
The Utah-based Brett Herbst, who leads the company and who launched his first corn maze in 1996, says technology has only somewhat changed the way corn mazes are made.
“The first year we did it, we just used a weed whacker with a saw blade on it when the corn was fully grown,” he says. “Now we do it when it’s short and we go in and either mow it or rototill it. We design it all on a computer, but most of it we actually just go draw it out on the ground by hand.”
He and his team have over the years designed mazes with everything from the faces of presidential candidates, Oprah Winfrey, zombies, John Wayne and Chris LeDoux. Charlie Brown and Co. just work well, he says.
“It’s very nostalgic and just seemed like a very natural fit from the get-go to embrace that with ‘Peanuts,’” he says. “It’s harvest time. It’s kind of become this iconic thing.”
There’s an art and a science to maze building, a balance between maintaining the integrity of the image, but also making it a true maze where people can actually get lost in. “That’s definitely a challenge there,” says Herbst. “You want to accomplish both as much as possible.”
“Peanuts” made its debut Oct. 2, 1950. The travails of the “little round-headed kid” Charlie Brown and his pals eventually ran in more than 2,600 newspapers, reaching millions of readers in 75 countries.
The strip offers enduring images of kites in trees, Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, tart-tongued Lucy handing out advice for a nickel and Snoopy taking the occasional flight of fancy to the skies. Phrases such as “security blanket” and “good grief” are a part of the global vernacular. Schulz died in 2000.
There’s something timeless about corn mazes, and that’s what excites Jill Schulz so much. They offer kids a chance to disconnect from their online life and celebrate something their parents did.
“It’s great to have an opportunity to just bring kids to events that are old school, because it’s also important for parents and grandparents to introduce something they loved to do as a child,” she says.
“I think we all need a little innocence for our children right now with all the technology out there. We need a little ‘put down your phone and go out and have some good old fashioned, old school family time.’ I think that’s important.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/farmers-honor-peanuts-creator-with-corn-mazes-in-us-canada/7734366.html
Here’s what to know about NASA astronauts’ delayed return to Earth
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA is wrestling over how and when to bring two astronauts back from the International Space Station, after repeatedly delaying their return aboard Boeing’s troubled capsule.
Do they take a chance and send them home soon in Boeing’s Starliner? Or wait and bring them back next year with SpaceX?
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been up there since early June, their planned eight-day mission at the two-month mark and possibly surpassing eight months.
Testing continues, with Boeing expressing confidence in its spacecraft but NASA divided. A decision is expected next week.
What’s wrong with Boeing’s Starliner?
This is Boeing’s first time launching astronauts, after flying a pair of empty Starliners that suffered software and other issues. Even before Wilmore and Williams blasted off June 5, their capsule sprang a leak in propulsion-related plumbing. Boeing and NASA judged the small helium leak to be stable and isolated, and proceeded with the test flight. But as Starliner approached the space station the next day, four more leaks erupted. Five thrusters also failed.
The capsule managed to dock safely, and four of the thrusters ultimately worked. But engineers scrambled, conducting thruster test-firings on the ground and in space. After two months, there’s still no root cause for the thruster malfunctions. All but one of the 28 thrusters seem OK, but the fear is that if too many conk out again, the crew’s safety could be jeopardized. The thrusters are needed at flight’s end to keep the capsule in the right position for the critical deorbit burn.
Are the two astronauts stranded?
NASA bristles at suggestions that Wilmore and Williams are stranded or stuck. NASA has stressed from the get-go that in an emergency at the space station — like a fire or decompression — Starliner could still be used by the pair as a lifeboat to leave. A former NASA executive said Thursday the astronauts are “kind of stuck,” although certainly not stranded. They’re safe aboard the space station with plenty of supplies and work to do, said Scott Hubbard.
If NASA decides to go with a SpaceX return, Starliner would be be cut loose first to open up one of two parking spots for U.S. capsules. Before that happens Wilmore and Williams would fashion seats for themselves in the SpaceX Dragon capsule currently docked at the space station. That’s because every station occupant needs a lifeboat at all times. Once Starliner’s docking port is empty, then SpaceX could launch another Dragon to fill that slot — the one that Wilmore and Williams would ride.
Why might they have to wait until next year?
Like Boeing’s Starliner, SpaceX’s Dragon is meant to carry four astronauts. To make room for Wilmore and Williams, NASA said Wednesday it could bump two of the four astronauts due to launch to the space station next month with SpaceX. The empty seats would be reserved for Wilmore and Williams, but they would have to remain up there until February. That’s because station missions are supposed to last at least six months. Some have lasted a year. Two Russians up there right now will close out a yearlong stint when they return in a three-seat Soyuz capsule in September alongside a NASA crewmate. There’s no thought given to ordering up a special SpaceX express, and the Dragon at the station now is the ride home next month for four residents.
This isn’t the first time a U.S. astronaut has had their stay extended. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio and his two Russian crewmates ended up spending just over a year in space after their docked Soyuz capsule was hit by space junk and leaked all its coolant. An empty Russian capsule was sent up to bring them back last September.
What do the astronauts think about all this?
Wilmore and Williams are both retired Navy captains and longtime NASA astronauts who already have long space station missions behind them. Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, said going into this test flight that they expected to learn a lot about Starliner and how it operates. At their only news conference from space in July, they assured reporters they were keeping busy, helping with repairs and research, and expressed confidence in all the Starliner testing going on behind the scenes. There’s been no public word from them yet on the prospects of an eight-month stay.
Is there enough food, water and air?
Wilmore and Williams’ suitcases were removed from Starliner before liftoff to make room for equipment urgently needed for the space station’s urine-into-drinking-water recycling system. So they made do with spare clothes already up there. A supply ship finally arrived this week with their clothes, along with extra food and science experiments for the entire nine-person crew. More supplies are due in a few more months. As for air, the space station has its own oxygen-generating systems. Despite the fat reserves, NASA would like to get back to normal as soon as possible. Besides Wilmore and Williams, there are four other Americans and three Russians on board.
Why is NASA sticking with Starliner?
NASA deliberately hired two companies to get its crews to and from the space station, just as it did for delivering cargo. The space agency considered it an insurance policy of sorts: If one crew or cargo provider was grounded, the other could carry the load. ’You want to have another alternative both for cost reasons and for safety reasons and options. So NASA needs Boeing to be successful,” said Hubbard, who served on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003.
Even with the latest setbacks, NASA insists it wants to keep using Boeing Starliners for astronaut rides. The goal is to send up one Dragon and one Starliner every year with crews, six months apart, until the station is retired in 2030. SpaceX has been at it since 2020.
What does Boeing say?
Boeing insists its capsule could still safely bring the astronauts home. But the company said Wednesday it would take the steps necessary to bring the capsule back empty if that’s NASA’s decision. Last week, the company posted a list of all the tests that have been done on the thrusters since liftoff.
“We still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale.” the company said.
A longtime space contractor, Boeing has had to overcome multiple Starliner problems over the years. The company had to launch an empty Starliner twice before committing to a crew, repeating the initial flight test because of bad software and other issues. The delays have cost the company more than $1 billion.
Hubbard questions whether NASA and Boeing should have launched the crew with the original helium leak, which cascaded into more.
“Whatever happens with the Starliner, they need to find out what the problem was and fix it,” he said, “And give everybody confidence they are still in the aerospace business in a major way.”
AP-NORC poll finds extreme heat is impacting most Americans’ electricity bills
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
Washington — During the summer, Levena Lindahl closes off entire rooms, covers windows with blackout curtains and budgets to manage the monthly cost of electricity for air conditioning. But even then, the heat finds its way in.
“Going upstairs, it’s like walking into soup. It is so hot,” Lindahl said. “If I walk past my attic upstairs, you can feel the heat radiating through a closed door.”
Lindahl, 37, who lives in North Carolina, said her monthly electricity bills in the summer used to be around $100 years ago, but they’ve since doubled. She blames a gradual warming trend caused by climate change.
Around 7 in 10 Americans say in the last year extreme heat has had an impact on their electricity bills, ranging from minor to major, and most have seen at least a minor impact on their outdoor activities, according new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
As tens of millions of Americans swelter through another summer of historic heat waves, the survey’s findings reveal how extreme heat is changing people’s lives in big and small ways. The poll found that about 7 in 10 Americans have been personally affected by extremely hot weather or extreme heat waves over the past five years. That makes extreme heat a more common experience than other weather events or natural disasters like wildfires, major droughts and hurricanes, which up to one-third of U.S. adults said they’ve been personally affected by.
Sizable shares of Americans – around 4 in 10 – report that extreme heat has had at least a minor impact on their sleep, pets or exercise routine.
Jim Graham, 54, lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and worries about the safety of his dog’s paws when going on walks outside, especially when it gets above 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). To protect her feet, they head out for walks at 5:30 a.m. “This year it seems hotter than usual,” said Graham. His single-level home has central air conditioning and even setting the thermostat to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) runs him over $350 a month in electricity bills, a big jump from what he used to pay about a decade ago.
He’s not the only one watching the dollars add up: About 4 in 10 Americans say they’ve had unexpectedly expensive utility bills in the past year because of storms, flood, heat, or wildfires, including nearly half of homeowners.
Like Lindahl, many see a link to climate change. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults who have experienced some type of severe weather events or weather disasters in the last five years say they believe climate change was a contributing factor. Three in 10 think climate change was not a cause.
Last year Earth was 2.66 degrees Fahrenheit (1.48 degrees Celsius) warmer than it was before pre-industrial times, according to the European climate agency Copernicus. Some might perceive that increase as insignificant, but temperatures are unevenly fluctuating across the planet and can be dangerous to human health. Several regions of the U.S. set all-time temperature records this summer, and Las Vegas reached a scorching 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) on July 7.
According to the poll, about 1 in 10 Americans say that extreme heat has had a major impact on their sleep in the past year, while about 3 in 10 say it’s had a minor impact and 55% say it’s had no impact. Hispanic Americans are more likely than white Americans to say their sleep has been affected, and lower-income Americans are also more likely than higher-income Americans to report an effect on their sleep.
The effects of extreme heat are more widely reported in the West and South. About half of people living in the West say their sleep has been impacted at least in a minor way by extreme heat, while about 4 in 10 people living in the South say their sleep has been impacted, compared to about 3 in 10 people living in the Midwest and Northeast. People living in the West and South are also more likely than those in the Northeast to say their exercise routines have been affected.
Other aspects of daily life – like jobs and commutes, the timing of events like weddings and reunions, and travel and vacation plans – have been less broadly disrupted, but their impact is disproportionately felt among specific groups of Americans. About one-quarter of Americans say that their travel or vacation plans have been impacted by extreme heat, with Hispanic and Black Americans more likely than white Americans to say this.
Even simply enjoying time outside has become more difficult for some. The poll found that about 6 in 10 Americans say extreme heat has impacted outdoor activities for themselves or their family.
In general, people who don’t believe climate change is happening are less likely to report being affected by various aspects of extreme heat compared to people who do. For instance, about 8 in 10 Americans who believe that climate change is happening say extreme heat has had at least a minor impact on their electricity bills, compared to half of Americans who aren’t sure climate change is happening or don’t think it’s happening.
Mario Cianchetti, 70, is a retired engineer who now lives in Sedona, Arizona. His home has solar panels and heat pumps, which he installed because he was interested in lowering his electricity bills to save money. “When you retire, you’re on a single fixed income. I didn’t want to have to deal with rising energy costs,” said Cianchetti, who identified himself as a political independent.
Cianchetti noted that temperatures feel unusually warm but said installing sustainable technologies in his house was a matter of finance. “It’s not that I don’t believe in climate change, yeah I believe we’re going into a hot cycle here, but I don’t believe that it’s man-caused.”
When it comes to general views of climate change, 70% of U.S. adults say climate change is happening. About 6 in 10 of those who believe climate change is happening say that it’s caused entirely or mostly by human activities, while another 3 in 10 say it’s caused equally by human activities and natural changes to the environment and 12% believe it’s primarily caused by natural environmental change. Nine in 10 Democrats, 7 in 10 independents and about half of Republicans say climate change is happening.
Those numbers are essentially unchanged from when the question was last asked in April and have been steady in recent years, although about half of Americans say they have become more concerned about climate change over the past year.
(The poll of 1,143 adults was conducted July 25-29, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.)
Snake hunters will wrangle invasive pythons during Florida’s 10-day challenge
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Friday marked the start of the annual Florida Python Challenge, where hunters head into the Everglades to track down invasive Burmese pythons in hopes of grabbing a share of $30,000 in prizes.
The annual 10-day hunt, which started more than a decade ago, promotes public awareness of issues with invasive species in Florida while engaging the public in Everglades conversation, said Sarah Funck, the wildlife impact management section leader with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“They are a well-established invasive species across much of South Florida, unfortunately, in our natural areas,” Funck said of Burmese pythons. “A huge part of this challenge is to make sure that people understand about this issue and understand that in general, when you have a non-native species present in the state for whatever purpose, don’t let it loose, that can be really detrimental to our environment.”
Over the past decade, the python challenge has grabbed headlines for its incentive-based, only-in-Florida style of hunting as well as celebrity participation. This year, more than 600 people registered for the event, with two coming from Canada and 108 from other states.
During the challenge, hunters will linger around designated areas spanning through western Broward County to the Tamiami Trail in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area, including other management areas like Southern Glades, Holey Land and Rotenberger.
The goal for the competition is to bring an incentive for hunters to remove Burmese pythons from the environment, especially in the late summer when python eggs hatch. The competition is also meant to educate the public about pythons and their danger to Florida’s ecosystem, because they affect native snakes, can spread diseases among native animals and have high mercury levels that could be dangerous for native animals and for human consumption, said Zachary Chejanovski, an interagency python management coordinator with the Florida Wildlife Commission.
“The python problem, it’s a big problem,” Chejanovski said. “We want to make sure to get the word out as much as possible, because we can’t do this alone.”
Each category has its own prizes, with $2,500 going to the person or team that kills the most pythons, $1,500 going to the runner-up for most kills and $1,000 going to whoever kills the longest python. The grand prize for the most kills in all categories gets a $10,000 prize.
Each person can only win one prize, so if someone is tops in two categories, they will end up with the highest-valued prize and the next qualifying hunter gets the remaining prize.
During the competition, participants must turn in humanely killed Burmese pythons to any of the competition’s three check stations in South Florida. Hunters can also choose if they want to get the snake carcass back after the contest’s judging if they’d like to use the skin to make wallets, belts or bags.
Michael Huckabee and Jay Kattalikis attended the safety training Friday morning, after driving in from Mississippi to participate in the Florida Python Challenge. Kattalikis said this is his first time doing the state’s python challenge, but that he’s not worried since he and Huckabee are used to “wrangling gators” and handling copperheads and rattlesnakes.
Kattalikis said he and Huckabee came here on a whim after another friend told him about it, and he gave Huckabee only 15 minutes to get ready before driving down to South Florida.
“All I could think was, ‘Holy crap, this is what I’ve lived doing my entire life, and there’s a tournament doing it. I want to do this,’” Kattalikis said.
In 2017, the South Florida Water Management District and the state began hiring contractors to handle its invasive python problem year round. According to the wildlife agency’s website, through 2023, more than 11,000 pythons have been removed by these contractors.
Last year’s challenge brought in 209 pythons and the grand prize winner was Paul Hobbs, who bagged 20 pythons. Also during 2023, Florida wildlife agency and district contractors removed about 2,200 pythons.
Amy Siewe, the self-named Python Huntress, won a prize last year for catching a Burmese python measuring 3.27 meters. This year, she won’t be participating in the challenge due to a knee surgery but said she’s not a fan of the annual challenge.
Siewe, who used to work as a state contractor catching invasive pythons, said she believed the initial intent of the challenge was to bring awareness to the issue. Now, it’s drawing large crowds of hunters, potentially scaring off pythons and potentially killing native snakes they mistake as pythons, like corn snakes, brown water snakes or cottonmouths.
“Pythons don’t take on their normal behavioral pattern because there’s so much traffic and they’ll come up and then they’ll go back into the swamp,” Siewe said. “I feel for myself, it’s counterproductive.”
Participants are required to undergo an online training, including information on how to identify Burmese pythons versus other snakes, Funck said. She said there’s also an additional optional in-person training participants can attend to properly identify Burmese pythons.
“That’s a huge part of what we do, is try to get the word out on how to identify these pythons, how to safely and humanely capture it,” Funck said.
Sinaloa cartel cofounder claims he was forced to come to US
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, cofounder of the Sinaloa drug cartel, claims he was kidnapped and is sitting in a U.S. federal prison cell in Texas because he trusted Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the “Los Chapitos,” the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, his cartel cofounder.
Zambada made the claim in a Saturday statement from U.S. federal detention sent to VOA and other news organizations by his lawyer, Frank Perez.
Zambada has pleaded not guilty to seven federal charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Most of the charges involve drug trafficking, use of firearms and homicide. Guzman Lopez, who surrendered to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI on July 25, has pleaded not guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago on narcotics, money-laundering and firearms charges.
“The Justice Department has taken into custody two additional alleged leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most violent and powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on July 25, the night they landed in a private airplane at Santa Teresa, New Mexico, in the border area near El Paso, Texas.
“I did not turn myself in, and I did not come voluntarily to the United States. Nor did I have any agreement with either government. To the contrary, I was kidnapped and brought to the U.S. forcibly and against my will,” Zambada wrote in the statement. Zambada is waiting to be moved to New York, where the Justice Department transferred the case.
Why Guzmán López would come to the U.S., reportedly voluntarily, and forcibly bring Zambada to with him is not known. Both men face years in prison in the United States.
DEA sources have said Guzman Lopez had been coordinating his surrender for some time.
“I was ambushed,” Zambada wrote in his statement, recounting a meeting at the Huertos del Pedregal ranch on the outskirts of Culiacán, the Sinaloa state capital, to resolve differences between political leaders to which he said he had been invited. The political leaders were Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who has denied being at the ranch and has distanced himself from knowing Zambada, and Héctor Melesio Cuen Ojeda, a former federal deputy, mayor of Culiacán and rector of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
“A group of men assaulted me, knocked me to the ground, and placed a dark-colored hood over my head. They tied me up and handcuffed me, then forced me into the bed of a pickup truck.”
Cuen Ojeda was killed that night allegedly in a robbery attempt, something Zambada disputes. “They killed him at the same time and in the same place where they kidnapped me,” he wrote.
Zambada, until now untouchable, accuses Guzman Lopez of physical abuse. He said in his statement that Guzman Lopez hurt his back, knee and wrists as he forced him onto the private airplane.
Guzman Lopez “removed the hood from my head and bound me with zip ties to the seat,” Zambada said, adding, “No one else was aboard the plane except Joaquin, the pilot, and myself.”
The United States has stated that no resources from its government were used in this operation, according to U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar.
“This was an operation between the cartels where one handed over the other,” he said at an August 9 press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, without giving details.
The Justice Department has made clear both men will face justice as the Sinaloa cartel is being singled out as the largest distributor of synthetic drugs in the U.S.
“Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, and the Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member, and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable” Garland said in his statement the night of the arrests.
Zambada has asked the governments of Mexico and the United States for transparency about the events.
https://www.voanews.com/a/sinaloa-cartel-cofounder-claims-he-was-forced-to-come-to-us-/7737979.html
US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
City officials release audio and video recordings from 2022 Texas school shooting
date: 2024-08-11, from: VOA News USA
DALLAS — As law enforcement officers hung back outside Khloie Torres’ fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde, Texas, she begged for help in a series of 911 calls, whispering into the phone that there were “a lot” of bodies and telling the operator: “Please, I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.”
At one point, the dispatcher asks Khloie if there are many people in the room with her.
“No, it’s just me and a couple of friends. A lot of people are,” she says, pausing briefly, “gone.”
Calls from Khloie and others, along with body camera footage and surveillance videos from the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School, were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by Uvalde city officials on Saturday after a prolonged legal fight.
The Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information. The massacre, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
The delayed law enforcement response to the shooting has been widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 130 kilometers west of San Antonio.
Brett Cross’ 10-year-old nephew, Uziyah Garcia, was among those killed. Cross, who was raising the boy as a son, was angered that relatives weren’t told the records were being released and that it took so long for them to be made public.
“If we thought we could get anything we wanted, we’d ask for a time machine to go back … and save our children, but we can’t, so all we are asking for is for justice, accountability and transparency, and they refuse to give this to us,” he said.
Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jacklyn Cazares was killed in the shooting, said the release of information Saturday reignited festering anger because it shows “the waiting and waiting and waiting” of law enforcement.
“Perhaps if they were to have breached earlier, they would have saved some lives, including my niece’s,” he said.
The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with them to go in.
The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school at 11:33 a.m., first opening fire from the hallway, then going into two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms. The first responding officers arrived at the school minutes later. They approached the classrooms, but then retreated as Ramos opened fire.
At 12:06 p.m., much of the radio traffic from the Uvalde Police Department was still focused on setting up a perimeter around the school and controlling traffic in the area, as well as the logistics of keeping track of those who safely evacuated the building. They’ve had trouble setting up a command post, one officer tells his colleagues, “because we need the bodies to keep the parents out.”
“They’re trying to push in,” he says.
At 12:16 p.m., someone with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state law enforcement agency, called police to let them know a SWAT team was en route from Austin, about 100 kilometers away. She asked for any information the police could give about the shooting, the suspect and the police response.
“Do you have a command post? Or where do you need our officers to go?” the caller asks.
The police representative responds that officers know there are several dead students inside the elementary school and others still hiding. Some of the survivors have been evacuated to a building nearby. She doesn’t know if a command post has been set up.
At 12:50 p.m., a tactical team enters one of the classrooms and fatally shoots Ramos.
Among criticisms included in a U.S. Justice Department report released earlier this year was that there was “no urgency” in establishing a command center, creating confusion among police about who was in charge.
Multiple federal and state investigations have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Some of the 911 calls released were from terrified instructors. One described “a lot, a whole lot of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher cried before hanging up.
Just before arriving at the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. He then took a pickup from the home and drove to the school.
Ramos’ distraught uncle made several 911 calls begging to be put through so he could try to get his nephew to stop shooting.
“Everything I tell him, he does listen to me,” Armando Ramos said. “Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in,” he added, his voice cracking.
He said his nephew, who had been with him at his house the night before, stayed with him in his bedroom all night, and told him that he was upset because his grandmother was “bugging” him.
“Oh my God, please, please, don’t do nothing stupid,” the man says on the call. “I think he’s shooting kids.”
But the offer arrived too late, coming just around the time that the shooting had ended and law enforcement officers killed Salvador Ramos.
Two of the responding officers now face criminal charges. Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A Texas state trooper in Uvalde who had been suspended was reinstated to his job earlier this month.
In an interview this week with CNN, Arredondo said he thinks he’s been “scapegoated” as the one to blame for the botched law enforcement response.
Some of the families have called for more officers to be charged and filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle the gunman used.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Spotify created then killed the podcast boom in Latin America. #stolenvalor
https://restofworld.org/2024/spotify-podcast-crash-latin-america/
Vehicle fire quickly extinguished
date: 2024-08-11, from: The Signal
Personnel with the Los Angeles County Fire Department quickly extinguished a vehicle fire that occurred on the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 and State Route 14 interchange on Saturday afternoon. […]
The post Vehicle fire quickly extinguished appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/vehicle-fire-quickly-extinguished-2/
Full Circle Weekly News 378
date: 2024-08-11, from: Full Circle Magazine
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-378/
Xecast Episode 2: Conferences, homelabs, and AI
date: 2024-08-11, from: Ze Iaso’s blog