News gathered 2024-08-14
(date: 2024-08-14 08:38:28)
@IIIF Mastodon feed (date: 2024-08-14, from: IIIF Mastodon feed)
The August IIIF Newsletter is out, including:
💻 Call for Proposals for the 2024 Online Meeting
🇫🇷 The French
Ministry of Culture joins as a Member
🗺 Updated storytelling tools
Read the full issue here:
https://mailchi.mp/iiif/august24
Sign-up for future newsletters here:
https://iiif.io/newsletter/
https://glammr.us/@IIIF/112961087818055441
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
If you don’t buy the
new rules for
journalism because the liars will tell lies about you, the
journalist – well, you get that either way, no matter what you do, so I
don’t see the problem. And if you want people to trust you, you’ve got
to tell the truth. Your reputation gets destroyed by their lies if you
pass them through. Doctors can must tell you to stop smoking to
save your life and the tobacco companies will accuse them of lying or
whatever and some people (such as myself, earlier in life) will continue
to smoke. You still have to do what’s right if you want people to trust
you.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/14.html#a152609
US consumer inflation hits its lowest annual rate since 2021
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/7742441.html
Icelandic group demos private cloud powered by renewables
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sited in Reykjavík, datacenter running on geothermals and hydropower
A consortium of companies is running a proof-of-concept for a turnkey cloud service delivered from a datacenter located in Iceland, powered entirely by renewable energy to help clients meet their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) obligations.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/iceland_dc_demo/
Starbucks bets on a darling of the fast food world
date: 2024-08-14, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Starbucks has hired Brian Niccol to become its new CEO following a slump in the company’s sales in Q3. Niccol took over Chipotle in 2018, and Chipotle’s stock price has shot up 700% under his tenure. Before that, Niccol led a brand revamp at Taco Bell. We’ll hear more. Then, consumer inflation is easing toward the Federal Reserve’s target, and Montreal makes a bet on nightlife by permitting all-night drinking.
GPD Pocket 4 will be an 8.8 inch mini-laptop with AMD Ryzen AI 300
date: 2024-08-14, from: Liliputing
The GPD Pocket 4 is a mini-laptop that seems like a natural evolution of the GPD Pocket 3 that first launched nearly three years ago. The new model has a similar design that includes a QWERTY keyboard, a hinge that lets you swivel the screen and fold it down over the keyboard for use in tablet […]
The post GPD Pocket 4 will be an 8.8 inch mini-laptop with AMD Ryzen AI 300 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/gpd-pocket-4-will-be-an-8-8-inch-mini-laptop-with-amd-ryzen-ai-300/
NASA Invites Media to Event with Scientists, Research Plane in Alaska
date: 2024-08-14, from: NASA breaking news
NASA invites media to view a research aircraft and interview scientists in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Thursday, Aug. 22, prior to flights of the agency’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), which seeks a better understanding of the sensitivity of northern ecosystems and communities to climate change. Media also will have the opportunity to tour NASA’s C-20A, a […]
Microsoft squashes bug that sent Windows devices to BitLocker recovery
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A patch to fix the patch that caused admins to scamper for their recovery keys
Microsoft has fixed a problem that sent affected Windows PCs scurrying into BitLocker recovery.…
The World’s Fastest Puzzle Solver (It’s a Robot)
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/the-worlds-fastest-puzzle-solver-its-a-robot
NASA Funds Research Projects Advancing STEM Career Development
date: 2024-08-14, from: NASA breaking news
NASA has awarded $6 million to 20 teams from emerging research institutions across the United States supporting projects that offer career development opportunities for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. This is the third round of seed funding awarded through the agency’s MOSAICS (Mentoring and Opportunities in STEM with Academic Institutions for Community Success) program, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-funds-research-projects-advancing-stem-career-development/
SiFive debuts Neoverse N2 rival, P870-D RISC-V core for datacenters
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Chip firm takes aim at Arm with design that can scale up to 256 cores
SiFive has announced the launch of its latest core for datacenters, the P870-D, and claims it has a leg up on Arm’s Neoverse N2 in density for AI.…
Harris makes me proud
date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I am so impressed with how well the new Democratic Party is running this campaign. Latest innovation, they’re going to do at least one public rally during the convention, so everyone can be part of the celebration, and I plan to watch every minute of it. What I don’t want to witness is what the journalists try to provoke. I’ve been to two DNCs and later heard what they were talking about on CNN, and my god they invented crises that simply didn’t exist. Who’s going to have time to call them out because no one at the convention is watching TV.
I heard on a podcast yesterday that it’s weird that Harris is polling as well as the generic Democrat, which they felt was odd because she’s not a white man, which made me think that in 2024, she is the face of the Democratic Party. Obama and Hillary Clinton knocked down those barriers, and now it would feel strange if the candidate at the top of the ticket were not interracial and female.
I’m proud that my country has nominated such an attractive group of talented people with such fierce competence and humility. For these moments I wish I had a new graphic to put in the margin to symbolize the United States. We’re strong, and we win, and when we don’t we get back up and fight. Uncle Sam is a great symbol. But we’ve yet to create the interracial and female version that symbol.
One more thing, there are a lot of white male voters to be courted and welcomed back into the fold. Trump has had the advantage there, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A hand reached out in brotherhood could turn this election into the kind of landslide we need to cleanse our political system its flirtation with fascism.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/14/142432.html?title=harrisMakesMeProud
Judge rejects Trump’s latest demand to step aside from hush money criminal case
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has lost his latest bid for a new judge in his New York hush money criminal case as it heads toward a key ruling and potential sentencing next month.
In a decision posted Wednesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to step aside and said Trump’s demand was a rehash “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims” about the political ties of Mercan’s daughter and his ability to judge the historic case fairly and impartially.
It is the third time that the judge has rejected such a request from lawyers for the former president and current Republican nominee.
All three times, they argued that Merchan, a state court judge in Manhattan, has a conflict of interest because of his daughter’s work as a political consultant for prominent Democrats and campaigns. Among them was Vice President Kamala Harris when she ran for president in 2020. She is now her party’s 2024 White House nominee.
A state court ethics panel said last year that Merchan could continue on the case, writing that a relative’s independent political activities are not “a reasonable basis to question the judge’s impartiality.”
Merchan has repeatedly said he is certain he will continue to base his rulings “on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence.”
“With these fundamental principles in mind, this Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear — innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create,” Merchan wrote in his three-page ruling. “Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”
But with Harris now Trump’s Democratic opponent in this year’s White House election, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote in a letter to the judge last month that the defense’s concerns have become “even more concrete.”
Prosecutors called the claims “a vexatious and frivolous attempt to relitigate” the issue.
Messages seeking comment on the ruling were left with Blanche. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, declined to comment.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying his business records to conceal a 2016 deal to pay off porn actor Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with him. Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first campaign.
Trump says all the stories were false, the business records were not and the case was a political maneuver meant to damage his current campaign. The prosecutor who brought the charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is a Democrat.
Trump has pledged to appeal. Legally, that cannot happen before a defendant is sentenced.
In the meantime, his lawyers took other steps to try to derail the case. Besides the recusal request, they have asked Merchan to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case altogether because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity.
That decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal. Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.
Earlier this month, Merchan set a September 16 date to rule on the immunity claim, and September 18 for “the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate.”
The hush money case is one of four criminal prosecutions brought against Trump last year.
One federal case, accusing Trump of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, was dismissed last month. The Justice Department is appealing.
The others — federal and Georgia state cases concerning Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss — are not positioned to go to trial before the November election.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Photos: The Statue of Liberty, Mother of Exiles.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/08/photos-the-statue-of-liberty-mother-of-exiles/596194/
There are two kinds of advertising
date: 2024-08-14, from: Chris Coyier blog
Not to bury my point: contextual is the normal, good, fair, effective type of advertising. Targeted is the creepy, resource intensive, privacy invading, and, (?!?!?!!) not particularly effective type of advertising. We’ll get there. A billboard is contextual advertising. You’re driving on the highway and are told there is a McDonalds in 7 miles. The […]
https://chriscoyier.net/2024/08/14/there-are-two-kinds-of-advertising/
NASA’s Perseverance Rover to Begin Long Climb Up Martian Crater Rim
date: 2024-08-14, from: NASA breaking news
After 2½ years exploring Jezero Crater’s floor and river delta, the rover will ascend to an area where it will search for more discoveries that could rewrite Mars’ history. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover will soon begin a monthslong ascent up the western rim of Jezero Crater that is likely to include some of the steepest […]
Palo Alto Networks execs apologize for ‘hostesses’ dressed as lamps at Black Hat booth
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Company admits turning human women into faceless, sexualized furniture was a ‘tone deaf’ marketing ploy
If you attended the Black Hat conference in Vegas last week and found yourself over in Palo Alto Networks’ corner of the event, you may have encountered a marketing gimmick that has since been heavily criticized for misogyny.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/palo_alto_networks_execs_apologize/
Recent CDC report: “Among children born during 1994–2023, routine childhood vaccinations will…
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045122-recent-cdc-report-among-c
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Big Gas: New Paltz’s First Legal Cannabis Dispensary.
https://www.chronogram.com/cannabis/big-gas-new-paltzs-first-legal-cannabis-dispensary-21462145
Podcast: The OSINT Hunt for a Sex Trafficking Ringleader
date: 2024-08-14, from: 404 Media Group
Sam has a new narrative feature all about the hunt for Michael Pratt.
https://www.404media.co/podcast-the-osint-hunt-for-a-sex-trafficking-ringleader/
Why the Catholic church plans to develop affordable housing in LA, and how they aim to do it
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The LAist
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles sees a need for affordable homes. They have the land — and now, a new housing nonprofit — to make it happen.
Common Artificial Sweetener Linked to Increased Heart Attack Risk in Small Study
date: 2024-08-14, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Healthy people who consumed 30 grams of the sweetener erythritol had an increased risk of blood clot formation, while people who consumed the same amount of glucose did not
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
This could be the theme song for the Harris campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pYKdqD1ls
2024-08-14 Web applications
date: 2024-08-14, from: Alex Schroeder’s Blog
2024-08-14 Web applications
For my own peace of mind, I have resolved to no longer think of websites as “websites”. Instead, there are web documents and web applications. I find it easier to accept to use a browser like Firefox like a virtual computer for web applications. Many of the websites these days are in fact web applications.
There’s no point in railing against web applications. I like to write web applications! And I use many of them myself, too. Things like Face Generator, Text Mapper or Hex Describe are impossible to do as documents. In an emergency, you could have a form that then generates a PDF to download, maybe? But is that really preferable? I don’t think so.
And don’t get me started on writing native graphical user-interface applications. It takes so much energy to get it right. It gives me a headache. I tried. Take a look at Gridmapper with Common Lisp and SDL2, if you want. Compare it with regular Gridmapper. Is that really preferable? I don’t think so.
And the reverse is also not cool. I wrote a text user interface tool to generate maps, which can then be downloaded as SVG files. Give Hex Populate a try, it works over SSH. Is that really preferable? I don’t think so.
I’ve tried Gemtext for a long time. I was very much into Gemini. But these days I no longer think it’s the answer. It’s like a piece of performance art: the doing of it is a statement. People who step into it are confounded, their beliefs challenged. It’s good art! It’s interesting technology. But it’s not a replacement for web applications. It’s not even a good format for web documents! I want inline emphasis – bold, italics, code – and accessible tables with captions and cell navigation, and row-spans, and column-spans. I tried writing code that translated Wikipedia tables into ASCII tables to be used as pre-formatted text in Gemtext. It’s hard to do well with the sizing of columns, the line wrapping in cells, the limited space available in a terminal, and when you’ve solved all of that, it’s still hell for people with bad eye-sight or cognitive problems trying to understand what they’re seeing. It’s terrible. You could of course do away with all tables. But is that really preferable? I don’t think so.
And so… there’s that bifurcation in the road. For this site, for most of the pages that I think of as web documents, I write (or generate) HTML that doesn’t require fonts or scripts. If one uses browsers such as eww, links2, w3m, lynx or dillo, it should just work. I wasn’t going to convert the corporate web, anyway.
I still serve my site as Gemini and Gopher. But I do it as a political statement, as a piece of performance art.
At the same time, I swallow my pride and setup Firefox.
https://alexschroeder.ch/view/2024-08-14-web-applications
Inside the FBI’s Dashboard for Wiretapping the World
date: 2024-08-14, from: 404 Media Group
Never-before-published screenshots of an internal FBI tool show how the agency monitored millions of messages from the secretly backdoored messaging app Anom.
https://www.404media.co/inside-the-fbis-dashboard-for-wiretapping-the-world/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Hamptons residents are desperate for cell phone receptions.
https://nypost.com/2024/08/12/lifestyle/hamptons-residents-are-desperate-for-cell-phone-receptions/
AI or bust? Only one part of US tech economy keeps growing, says analyst
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Investors still shovelling money into AI but ‘path to monetization’ still far
Is the Gen AI bubble about to burst? You’d better hope not, as it appears to be one of the only major growth areas in the US tech economy, according to S&P Global.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/ai_investment_growth/
Xiaoyi Li Engineers Instruments and the Teams that Get Them Done
date: 2024-08-14, from: NASA breaking news
Instrument Systems Engineer Xiaoyi Li leads technical teams united by a common vision to achieve mission success.
What Biden’s IRA Has Done for Job Creation
date: 2024-08-14, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Tropical Storm Ernesto has left hundreds of thousands of people without power in Puerto Rico • Drought from El Niño created a 3 million ton corn deficit in southern Africa • Greece remains on high alert for fires through tomorrow as temperatures top 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
THE TOP FIVE
- IRA has helped create more than 334,000 new jobs
Ahead of the upcoming two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the nonprofit Climate Power released a new report analyzing the economic impact of the clean energy investments made possible by the legislation. The topline takeaway: Since August 2022, 646 clean energy projects have been either announced or advanced, creating 334,565 new jobs. Battery manufacturing projects account for the largest share of the new projects, followed by solar projects and EV facilities.
Climate
Power
Most of the new projects are located in five states (Michigan, Texas, Georgia, California, and South Carolina) and in congressional districts represented by Republicans in the House of Representatives. These districts alone have seen the creation of 190,727 new jobs and more than $286 billion in clean-energy investment. Projects in low-income communities have brought $114 billion in investment to those areas and created more than 134,000 jobs. The report notes that clean energy jobs tend to pay more, and that most of them do not require a four-year degree, “meaning they’re accessible to all Americans.” Aside from highlighting the “clean energy boom,” the report warns that a second Trump presidency could halt the progress.
- Vineyard Wind can resume ‘limited activites’ at wind farm, but no
power generation
Just a little update on the situation at the Vineyard Wind 1 site off the coast of Massachusetts, where activity has been paused since July because of a broken turbine blade: Following a safety consultation, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has told Vineyard Wind it can resume some limited activities, like installing turbine towers and nacelles (the container at the top of the tower where the generator, gearbox, and other key components are located). But it cannot install any new turbine blades, or resume power production. Vineyard Wind and the blade’s manufacturer, GE Vernova, this week did some “controlled cutting” on the damaged turbine to prevent more debris from falling into the ocean. Now they’re looking ahead to next steps, like removing the blade root and figuring out what to do with the big pieces of debris that fell to the seabed. Before the incident, the partially-constructed commercial offshore wind farm was already sending power to the grid.
- Climate change is making forest fires worse
Climate change is making forest fires more frequent and more destructive, according to the World Resources Institute. By examining data provided by researchers at the University of Maryland, the WRI concluded that the area consumed by fire annually has grown by 5.4% each year since 2001, and “record-setting forest fires are becoming the norm.” In 2023 alone, the amount of land affected by forest fires was 23% larger than the previous record year. Most of the tree cover loss due to fires is happening in the boreal forests, which is worrying because these forests store between 30% and 40% of the world’s terrestrial carbon.
WRI
The growing number of fires is creating a climate feedback loop: More burning releases more carbon dioxide which creates hotter and drier conditions that are conducive to more fires, and on and on it goes. Aside from emphasizing the need to rapidly curb greenhouse gas emissions, the report calls for ending deforestation, and better wildfire risk management.
- DOE to put additional $54.4 million toward carbon-capture
innovations
The Department of Energy yesterday announced it will put an additional $54.4 million toward developing carbon-capture technologies. This could include innovations that capture the emissions from power plants, industrial facilities, or the atmosphere directly, but also new ways to transport and transfer the CO2 once it has been captured. The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is accepting applications now through October 14.
- Scientists say rate of global warming is expected to slow
In a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, scientists say the rate of global warming – that is how quickly the planet is heating up – looks like it will slow in the coming decades. In 2025, the rate of warming is expected to be about .38 degrees Fahrenheit each decade, but this will fall to an increase of .27 degrees Fahrenheit per decade by 2050. Those estimates are based on current mitigation policies, and the researchers say the rate could slow even more if we curb fossil fuel emissions more aggressively. There are a lot of caveats and moving parts here, and the researchers are upfront about this, noting that factors like El Niño, fluctuations in aerosol emissions, and the fact that “climate damage may show a non-linear response to amounts of climate change” could render their projections inaccurate. Nonetheless, “various analyses suggest that under current mitigation policies we are at or near a time of peak anthropogenic carbon emissions.”
THE KICKER
“No Republicans voted for the IRA, but they know their constituents are receiving the benefits.” –White House senior climate adviser John Podesta speaking yesterday at an event hosted by think-tank Third Way.
https://heatmap.news/economy/ira-energy-jobs-biden-anniversary
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Hey, Patreon: Don’t Let Apple Win This Round.
https://tedium.co/2024/08/13/patreon-apple-platform-risks/
Owning the Pwning
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/08/14/owning-the-pwning/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
2016: “Why can't journalism make a direct and true statement: The candidate called for the assassination of his opponent.”
http://scripting.com/2016/08/14/journalistsGrapplingWithTrump.html
Why fewer tents in Venice may not mean fewer unhoused people
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The LAist
A recent RAND study found that after city authorities cleared encampments last year, there was a temporary drop in homelessness in Venice, Skid Row, and Hollywood that lasted two to three months.
https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/venice-homelessness-survey-encampments
When AI becomes an ever-growing part of the hiring process
date: 2024-08-14, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Employers, recruiters and job candidates are increasingly turning to generative AI to help with the often tedious hiring process. This has led to an influx of applications for many job postings. It’s a trend that’s added efficiency — and another layer of complexity — to the jobs marketplace. Also: a look at sales of PCs with integrated AI. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is cracking down on contract for deed home sales.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-14, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Great piece by Craig Mokhiber: “The ICJ finds that Boycott, Divest, Sanctions is not merely a right, but an obligation”:
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/the-icj-finds-that-bds-is-not-merely-a-right-but-an-obligation/
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112960136460083951
Apple-flavored Opera One brings its browser AI show to iOS
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
iPhone version of mobile browser sees surge of interest in wake of EU competition rules
Browser maker Opera has released an iOS version of Opera One, a variant of its AI-infused desktop browser that complies with the strictures of Apple’s mobile ecosystem.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/opera_one_brings_browser_ai/
Ernesto becomes a hurricane after brushing past Puerto Rico
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Ernesto has become a hurricane after brushing past Puerto Rico late Tuesday as officials closed schools, opened shelters and moved dozens of the U.S. territory’s endangered parrots into hurricane-proof rooms.
Forecasters issued a hurricane watch for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands as well as the tiny Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra, which are popular with tourists.
The storm moved over the U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday night. After passing Puerto Rico, it is expected to move into open waters and be near Bermuda on Friday.
Heavy rains began pelting Puerto Rico, and strong winds churned the ocean into a milky turquoise as people rushed to finish securing homes and businesses.
“I’m hoping it will go away quickly,” said José Rodríguez, 36, as he climbed on the roof of his uncle’s wooden shack in the Afro-Caribbean community of Piñones on Puerto Rico’s north coast to secure the business famous for its fried street food.
Ernesto was about 60 miles (95 kilometers) east-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico late Tuesday night. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving northwest at 17 mph (28 kph).
“We are going to have a lot of rain,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said as he urged people to be indoors by early Tuesday evening.
He activated the National Guard as crews across the island visited flood-prone areas and older residents as part of last-minute preparations. Meanwhile, Department of Natural Resources officials who work at breeding centers for the island’s only remaining native parrot, the Puerto Rico Amazon, moved them indoors.
Ernesto Rodríguez with the National Weather Service warned that the storm’s trajectory could change as it approaches Puerto Rico.
“We should not lower our guard,” he said.
As intermittent rain pelted Puerto Rico’s northeast, residents in Piñones tried to squeeze in a couple more hours of work.
María Abreu, 25, prepared fried pastries stuffed with shrimp, crab, chicken and even iguana meat as she waited for customers.
“They always come. They buy them in case the power goes out,” she said.
Down the road, Juan Pizarro, 65, picked nearly 100 coconuts from palm trees swaying in the strong breeze. He had already secured his house.
“I’m ready for anything,” he said.
Forecasters have warned of waves of up to 20 feet (six meters), widespread flooding and possible landslides, with six to eight inches (15-20 centimeters) of rain forecast for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in isolated areas. Puerto Rico has six reservoirs that already were overflowing before the storm.
Officials in Puerto Rico warned of widespread power outages given the crumbling electric grid, which crews are still repairing after Hurricane Maria razed it in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm.
Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, a private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico, urged people to report blackouts: “Puerto Rico’s electrical system is not sufficiently modernized to detect power outages.”
Outages also were a concern in the neighboring U.S. Virgin Islands for similar reasons, with blackouts reported on St. Thomas and St. John on Monday.
“Don’t sleep on this,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., whose administration announced early Tuesday that it was closing all schools.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency echoed those warnings, saying residents in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “should be prepared for extended power outages.”
Early Tuesday, Ernesto drenched the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where officials closed several main roads and warned that the quality of potable water would be affected for several days. Meanwhile, the storm downed a couple of trees in Antigua, and knocked out power to most of the island. Ernesto also forced the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from Puerto Rico.
Ernesto is the fifth named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted an above-average Atlantic hurricane season this year because of record warm ocean temperatures. It forecast 17 to 25 named storms, with four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
US Rep. Ilhan Omar, member of progressive ‘Squad,’ wins Democratic primary in Minnesota
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
MINNEAPOLIS — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the progressive House members known as the “Squad” and a sharp critic of how Israel has conducted the war in Gaza, has won her primary race in Minnesota.
Omar successfully defended her Minneapolis-area 5th District seat against a repeat challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she only narrowly defeated in the 2022 primary.
Speaking to supporters in Minneapolis, Omar echoed some of the themes of the Harris-Walz presidential campaign.
“We run the politics of joy,” she said. “Because we know it is joyful to fight for your neighbors. … We know it is joyful to make sure housing is a human right. We know it is joyful to fight for health care to be a human right. We know it is joyful to want to live in a peaceful and equitable world.”
Omar avoided the fate of two fellow Squad members. Rep. Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in her Missouri district last week, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. Both faced well-funded challengers and millions of dollars in spending by the United Democracy Project, a super political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which appeared to sit out the Minnesota race.
Samuels had criticized Omar’s condemnation of the Israeli government’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. While Omar has also criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages, Samuels said she’s one-sided and divisive. He also stressed public safety issues in Minneapolis, where a former police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020.
Samuels said he was “very disappointed” with his loss.
“What I was hoping is that a strong ground game and an attention to the details of folks who felt left out would trump an overwhelming superiority in dollars,” he said in an interview. “Clearly money matters a little more in politics than I had hoped.”
Omar reported raising about $6.2 million. Samuels raised about $1.4 million.
Omar will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who calls Omar pro-Hamas.
Meanwhile, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White defeated Navy veteran Joe Fraser in Minnesota’s primary election for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November.
And former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab, supported by former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee, won a contested GOP primary for Minnesota’s 2nd District seat held by Democratic Rep. Angie Craig.
His opponent, defense attorney Tayler Rahm, won the endorsement at the district convention with support from grassroots conservatives.
While Rahm announced in July that he was suspending his campaign and would instead serve as a senior adviser for Trump’s Minnesota campaign, he remained on the ballot.
Teirab will face Craig in what’s expected to be Minnesota’s most competitive House race in November.
“Tonight’s definitive results send a clear message that Republicans are united and ready for change,” Teirab said in a statement. “We are ready to support candidates who will strengthen our economy, secure the border, and restore safety in our communities.”
Craig issued a statement calling him “a guy who recently moved to the district because he saw a political opportunity.”
“He’s a guy who has spent months doing anything to win the support of Washington Republicans,” Craig said. “And he’s a guy who has made it his life’s mission to take away reproductive freedoms from families and give those decisions to politicians.”
In the U.S. Senate race, White — an ally of imprisoned former Trump aide Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser at the party convention for the GOP endorsement.
White’s social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and profane. His legal and financial problems include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after he lost his primary challenge to Omar in 2022. He argues that, as a Black man, he can broaden the party’s base by appealing to voters of color in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics.
Following his win, White said in a post on the social platform X: “Bring it on commies… The People Are Coming.”
Democratic leaders denounced him as a far-right extremist.
“While Royce White’s language and policies seek to divide Minnesotans, Senator Amy Klobuchar is focused on bringing people together to get things done, and she is consistently ranked as one of the most bipartisan and effective legislators in the Senate,” Ken Martin, the state Democratic Party chair, said in a statement. “The choice this November could not be more clear.”
Fraser said earlier that White’s confrontational style and message won’t attract the moderates and independents needed for a competitive challenge against Klobuchar, who’s seeking a fourth term. He said he offered a more mainstream approach, stressing fiscal conservativism, a strong defense, world leadership and small government. Fraser has also highlighted his 26 years in the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served a combat tour in Iraq.
Neither had anywhere near the resources that Klobuchar has. White last reported raising $133,000, while Fraser took in $68,000. Klobuchar, meanwhile, has collected about $19 million this cycle and has more than $6 million available to spend on the general election campaign. She faced only nominal primary opposition.
Another clash between establishment and grassroots Republicans played out in western Minnesota’s 7th District. Trump-backed GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach, considered one of the most conservative members of Congress, defeated small businessman Steve Boyd. Boyd ran to her right on a religious platform and blocked her from getting endorsement at the district convention. Boyd reported spending $170,000, while Fischbach spent over $1 million.
Among the legislative primaries on the ballot Tuesday, Democrats picked former state Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart to face Republican Kathleen Fowke in a high-stakes race that will determine not only which party controls the state Senate, but whether Democrats maintain their narrow “trifecta” control of both chambers and the governor’s office. Democrats used that power to pass an ambitious agenda over the last two years that helped put Gov. Tim Walz on the radar of Vice President Kamala Harris before she picked him to be her running mate.
It will be the only state Senate seat in the November ballot. The seat in the western Minneapolis suburbs had been held by Democrat Kelly Morrison, who will face Republican Tad Jude for Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District seat.
The race for the fastest-charging EV batteries
date: 2024-08-14, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Chinese electric vehicle maker Zeekr says it’s come up with the world’s fastest-charging battery, which can be replenished in 10 minutes. Plus, there’s further backlash against over-tourism in Spain, where one city is planning to cut water supplies to illegal short term rentals. And is Montreal about to join the ranks of cities that never sleep? It’s planning special 24-hour zones to help boost its economy.
UK’s ‘electricity superhighway’ gets green light just in time for AI to gobble it all up
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
500 km transmission cable promises enough power for two million homes, or a heck of a lotta GPUs
Britain’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) on Tuesday signed off on a £3.4 billion project to construct an “electricity superhighway” between Scotland and Yorkshire.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/uks_electricity_superhighway/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The truth about Trump's press conference. (He’s a lunatic.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/08/truth-about-trumps-press-conference/679425/
Is Lenovo a blind spot in US anti-China security measures?
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Questions raised as one of the world’s largest PC makers joins America’s critical defense team
Opinion Lenovo’s participation in a cybersecurity initiative has reopened old questions over the company’s China origins, especially in light of the growing mistrust between Washington and Beijing over technology.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/opinion_lenovo_jcdc/
Why Treasury’s No. 2 Official Wants Permitting Reform
date: 2024-08-14, from: Heatmap News
Two years ago this week, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in clean energy and climate mitigation in American history. It contained roughly two dozen new or expanded tax credits that will — if the forecasts bear out — provide hundreds of billions of dollars in funding over the next decade. The administration is now rushing to finalize those provisions before the November election.
Perhaps no official has been more central to setting up those tax credits than Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. He is also the Treasury’s No. 2 official and chief operating officer. Adeyemo has led the agency’s effort to implement the climate law, overseeing a group of tax lawyers and political appointees who are critical to the legislation’s ultimate success. He joins Shift Key this week to help us kick off our second season and talk about how the effort to implement the climate law is going, what could stand in its way, and why he wants some kind of permitting reform.
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.
Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Robinson Meyer: So obviously, one of the huge risks for investors is that the IRA is repealed, in part or in full, in the next Congress. And we know, just as a fact, that Congress is going to have to do something on taxes. Next Congress, the Trump tax cuts are expiring, there’s going to be, there’s interest in doing something with a child tax credit. It’s going to really come down to who has control of the two chambers.
How are you thinking about, as a Democratic administration, protecting the IRA going into a very ambiguous 2025 environment, and how are companies who you talk to thinking through that quite large political risk around the threat of repeal next year?
Wally Adeyemo: So maybe I’ll break it down into two different types of tax credits, the business tax credits and the consumer-oriented tax credits. When it comes to business tax credits, as you both know from following this for a while, those don’t usually go away. Because ultimately, what happens is that, for these businesses, they do a fairly good job of making clear to members how those tax credits are tied to jobs that end up being in their districts.
One of the things that I’m proudest of is, when you look at the dispersion of projects tied to the IRA throughout the country, it puts us in a place where a number of people who voted for — and even, in some cases, many who didn’t vote for — the IRA now have significant projects being funded by the IRA happening in their districts, that they’re hiring people based on IRA-related projects, and it’s driving real economic activity. So when it comes to these business tax credits, my sense is that there’s going to be a case for keeping them, independent from the climate goals, which they’re helping to achieve because of the fact that they’re creating jobs in these districts that are helping to power those local economies.
On the consumer tax credits — and just today, I think we’re speaking on August 7, we put out a report about more than 3 million Americans claiming a set of consumer-oriented credits to help install things like solar panels on their homes, and heat pumps. And on these credits — they existed before the IRA. And frankly, what we did with the IRA was, we further incentivized people and created some flexibility within these credits.
These credits existed in the last administration. They’ve existed during the Obama administration. So the reality is that for some of these consumer-oriented credits and some of the business-oriented credits, they had both existed in Republican administrations. There have been Republicans who have supported them. For example, when you think about the wind credits, there have been a number of senators from the Midwest, both Democrats and Republicans, who have been huge advocates for them because they matter to their district.
So from my standpoint, the most important thing we can do to preserve the IRA is to make sure that we get these rules done as quickly as possible, so that not only businesses but individuals start to rely on them. They help, from my standpoint, address the climate crisis that we face. But from the standpoint of consumers, they help lower their cost. And the report we put out today showed that for some consumers installing a heat pump, for example, it lowered the cost of utilities by up to $3,000 a year. The more that happens, the more people who take advantage of it, the more likely that those tax credits are going to remain. And I think that’s also true for the business tax credit. So that’s the strategy, and I think that it’s one that’s been borne out by other business and consumer tax credits in the past.
This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …
Watershed’s climate data engine helps companies measure and reduce their emissions, turning the data they already have into an audit-ready carbon footprint backed by the latest climate science. Get the sustainability data you need in weeks, not months. Learn more at watershed.com.
As a global leader in PV and ESS solutions, Sungrow invests heavily in research and development, constantly pushing the boundaries of solar and battery inverter technology. Discover why Sungrow is the essential component of the clean energy transition by visiting sungrowpower.com.
Antenna Group helps you connect with customers, policymakers, investors, and strategic partners to influence markets and accelerate adoption. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-season-2-ep-1-wally-adeyemo
slow TCP connect on Windows
date: 2024-08-14, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
I have this tradition of mentioning occasional network related quirks on Windows on my blog so here we go again. This round started with a bug report that said curl is slow to connect to localhost on Windows It is also demonstrably true. The person runs a web service on a local IPv4 port (and … Continue reading slow TCP connect on Windows
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/08/14/slow-tcp-connect-on-windows/
Still waiting for a Pi 500 and wondering what do this summer?
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The team knows you want one, but in the meantime why not make one yourself?
Raspberry Pi enthusiasts unable to wait for the shelves to fill up with Pi-500 stock are starting to get creative.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/still_waiting_for_a_pi/
Our RP2350 Partners made all this excellent stuff for you
date: 2024-08-14, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
It wasn’t just Pico 2 that hit the scene last week; Raspberry Pi and its RP2350 partners launched 34 products from 20 companies.
The post Our RP2350 Partners made all this excellent stuff for you appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/our-rp2350-partners-made-all-this-excellent-stuff-for-you/
Microsoft Edge promotion in Defender called ‘dark pattern’
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Is it an ad? Or serious infosec advice?
In its ongoing effort to boost the usage of its Edge browser, Microsoft is marketing the software to users of its Defender security suite with an unusual prompt – and drawn criticism for blurring a line between advising and advertising.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/microsoft_edge_promotion_in_defender/
Today in SCV History (Aug. 14)
date: 2024-08-14, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1986 – Canyon Country’s Mitchell adobe demolished; components salvaged & later rebuilt at Hart Park [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-aug-14/
The Savvy Senior | Paying for Nursing Home Care with Medicaid
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
Dear Savvy Senior, If my mother needs to move into a nursing home, what are the eligibility requirements to get Medicaid coverage? – Caretaking Son Dear Caretaking, […]
The post The Savvy Senior | Paying for Nursing Home Care with Medicaid appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/the-savvy-senior-paying-for-nursing-home-care-with-medicaid/
Indian telcos to cut off scammy, spammy, telemarketers for two whole years
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
There’s a blockchain involved so it’s totally going to stop you getting those calls
India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) on Tuesday directed telcos to stop calls from unregistered telemarketers – and prevent them from using networks again for up to two years – as part of an effort to curb spam and scams.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/indian_telco_telemarketer_blacklist/
Intel, already adrift, now Armless too
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Sells stake in rival chip designer, keeps its MariaDB shares
Intel has sold its stock in chip design firm Arm – probably netting around $147 million and a tidy profit, given the price of Arm scrip has risen 96 percent in the ten months since it returned to public trading.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/intel_sells_arm_shares/
Deadline Wednesday for 2 SCV Water seats
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
In April, the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency approved the ballot options that local ratepayers will now decide upon in November’s election, with six of the Division’s nine seats on […]
The post Deadline Wednesday for 2 SCV Water seats appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/deadline-wednesday-for-2-scv-water-seats/
US approves $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel amid threat of wider Middle East war
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday.
Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120 mm tank ammunition and high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles and comes at a time of intense concern that Israel may become involved in a wider Middle East war.
However, the weapons are not expected to get to Israel anytime soon, they are contracts that will take years to fulfill. Much of what is being sold is to help Israel increase its military capability in the long term, the earliest systems being delivered under the contract aren’t expected until the 2026 timeframe.
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” the State Department said in a release on the sale.
The Biden administration has had to balance its continued support for Israel with a growing number of calls from lawmakers and the U.S. public to curb military support there due to the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza. It has curbed one delivery of 2,000-pound weapons amid continued airstrikes by Israel in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza.
The contracts will cover not only the sale of 50 new aircraft to be produced by Boeing. It will also include upgrade kits for Israel to modify its existing fleet of two dozen F-15 fighter jets with new engines and radars, among other upgrades. The jets comprise the biggest portion of the $20 billion in sales with the first deliveries expected in 2029.
Indian government sets aside bill treating influencers like real broadcasters
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Online celebs might find that flattering – but not if it means a committee must approve their next livestream
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has withdrawn a flagship bill after criticism that it would require online content creators to register and be subject to the same laws as broadcasters.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/indian_government_bins_tech_bill/
Hart alum prepares for exhibition match with Angel City
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
Hart alumna Destinney Duron has not played a match in her hometown since her Cal State Northridge soccer days. Duron, who currently plays for Juarez in the Liga MX Femenil, […]
The post Hart alum prepares for exhibition match with Angel City appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/hart-alum-prepares-for-exhibition-match-with-angel-city/
Platforms Built On Quicksand
date: 2024-08-14, from: Tedium site
Given the choice between protecting creators and protecting a business relationship with a dominant, toxic company, Patreon chooses the business relationship. Maybe they shouldn’t.
https://feed.tedium.co/link/15204/16770214/patreon-apple-platform-risks
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I ordered a Pixel Pro 9 today for delivery in September. Look forward to seeing what makes it so AI.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13.html#a021749
Pentagon: Iran-backed attack injured 8 US troops in Syria
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
pentagon — Eight U.S. service members in Syria were injured in a drone attack by Iranian-backed militants last week, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.
Tuesday marked the first time that the Pentagon blamed Iranian proxies for Friday’s attack.
“We assess that it was conducted by Iranian-backed militia, but we’re still digging into the specifics,” Ryder said in response to a question from VOA at a Pentagon briefing.
Ryder told reporters the service members had been treated for smoke inhalation and traumatic brain injury. Three of the injured troops have returned to duty, he added.
Earlier, the U.S. military said several American and coalition personnel had been wounded in a drone attack late Friday at Rumalyn Landing Zone in eastern Syria but stressed that “none of the injuries are life threatening.”
The United States has about 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in neighboring Iraq to advise and assist local forces working to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State terror group in the region.
The drone strike in Syria marked the second time this month that U.S. military personnel in the Middle East had been injured in attacks. Five Americans were injured in a rocket attack against al-Asad air base August 5 in Iraq, with three transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for further care, according to deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.
Iranian-backed militias have launched dozens of attacks against U.S. forces in the region since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 terror attacks.
https://www.voanews.com/a/pentagon-iran-backed-attack-injured-8-us-troops-in-syria-/7741985.html
NIST finalizes trio of post-quantum encryption standards
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nicely ahead of that always-a-decade-away moment when all our info becomes an open book
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today released the long-awaited post-quantum encryption standards, designed to protect electronic information long into the future – when quantum computers are expected to break existing cryptographic algorithms.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/nist_postquantum_standards/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Harris and Walz Plan Rally During Convention.
https://politicalwire.com/2024/08/13/harris-and-walz-plan-rally-during-convention/
SCV Water completes water treatment plant project
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
News release The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency recently completed construction of the Wash Water Return and Sludge Systems Project at its Earl Schmidt Filtration Plant, located near Castaic Lake. […]
The post SCV Water completes water treatment plant project appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/scv-water-completes-water-treatment-plant-project/
COC launching clinical laboratory scientist program
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
News release College of the Canyons will launch its clinical laboratory scientist certificate program in the fall 2024 semester, which begins on Aug. 19. Clinical laboratory scientists work in […]
The post COC launching clinical laboratory scientist program appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/coc-launching-clinical-laboratory-scientist-program/
Democrats are energized, but can Harris win?
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly consolidated power and energized a campaign that many Democrat leaders had worried about.
Meeting no meaningful challenge from other Democrats, Harris secured votes to be the nominee from 4,567 delegates — 99% of the participating delegates — in a virtual call earlier this month.
The campaign, together with the Democratic National Committee and other joint fundraising committees, raised a historic $310 million in July, dwarfing the tally for the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, in the same month. More than $200 million of Harris’ haul came during the first week of her candidacy.
“We’ve seen a groundswell of support. The type of grassroots support – organizing and fundraising — that wins elections,” said Kevin Munoz, a Harris campaign spokesperson.
The campaign’s optimism is reflected in the polls. After another series of very strong surveys in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Harris now has a 55% chance of winning, said election data analyst Nate Silver.
Silver gave Biden a 27% chance of winning when he was the Democratic nominee.
However, the Trump campaign insists that the fundamentals of the race have not changed.
“The Democrats deposing one Nominee for another does NOT change voters discontent over the economy, inflation, crime, the open border, housing costs not to mention concern over two foreign wars,” Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio said in a memo.
Harris’ “honeymoon” will soon end, he said. “While the public polls may change in the short run and she may consolidate a bit more of the Democrat base, Harris can’t change who she is or what she’s done.”
While the fundamentals have not changed, they were “being obstructed by concern about Biden’s age and cognitive abilities,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“Donald Trump is as unpopular as ever, and now he has an opponent who is much more appealing,” he told VOA. “Democrats are back in the game.”
Battleground states
In the United States, elections are not determined by winning the popular vote but by winning Electoral College votes, which are allotted to each state roughly in proportion to its population. In all but two states, the candidate getting the most votes in a state gets all its Electoral College votes.
Harris’ team has been investing heavily in campaign infrastructure, opening offices, recruiting new staff and enlisting tens of thousands of volunteers in what is considered battleground or swing states that could help determine the 2024 electoral victory — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.
In 2020, those seven states were won by a margin of 3 percentage points or less. Currently, Harris is polling slightly ahead but still within the polling margin of error in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump is ahead in Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina. He is leading by more than the polling error margin in Georgia.
Both Trump and Harris will be hard-pressed to win without Pennsylvania, said Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky. Pennsylvania has 19 Electoral College votes, the most of any swing state.
“They can each afford to lose it but would have to run the table in most, if not all, of the other swing states, which include Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina,” Roginsky told VOA.
A candidate needs to secure at least 270 out of the 538 electoral college votes to win. Ultimately, it comes down to winning more Electoral College votes than your opponent, however you make that math happen, said Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science at Rutgers University-Camden.
“Winning swing states with a high number of Electoral College votes, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania — both states where Democrats have recently won statewide and where Biden won in 2020 — is one solid path toward [Harris] achieving success,” Dittmar told VOA.
In Michigan, a state with a large population of Arab Americans, Harris will need to convince the more than 100,000 people, angry over the Biden administration’s staunch support for Israel, who wrote “uncommitted” on their primary ballots. Thirty members of the so-called Uncommitted National Movement have earned delegate spots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.
Harris also inherits opposition from the “Abandon Biden” movement over the same cause.
“We are saying do not vote for those who are supporting or endorsing what’s happening currently in Gaza,” Hudhayfah Ahmad, the campaign’s media representative, told VOA. “Quite frankly, that applies to both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.”
Inflation and immigration
While Democrats’ enthusiasm has soared, Harris must deal with voters’ frustration over high inflation, a problem that Republicans blame on the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump previously held a commanding lead among voters on key economic issues, with various polls showing Americans think they will be better off financially under Trump than Biden.
However, a survey conducted for the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business published this week found that 41% trust Trump to be better at handling the economy, while 42% believe Harris would be better – a figure up seven points from Biden’s numbers in July.
Immigration is another weak spot for Biden, and by extension Harris. The Trump campaign has sought to paint her as the nation’s “Border Czar” responsible for the “invasion” of Central American migrants crossing into the United States from the border with Mexico.
Her campaign is now aiming to present their candidate as someone who is pro-immigration but tough in enforcing the law, by highlighting Harris’ life story as the daughter of immigrants and experience as a former attorney general of California, the state with the largest number and share of immigrants.
“I was attorney general of a border state,” Harris said at a recent rally in Arizona, a swing state where immigration is a top concern for voters. “I went after the transnational gangs, the drug cartels and human traffickers. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”
Will she win in November?
In such a tight race in an ever-changing political environment, analysts have avoided saying that any candidate’s path to victory is clear.
The Harris campaign said they believe this will be a very close election, decided by a very small number of voters, in just a few states.
Even with this momentum, said Harris campaign spokesperson Munoz, “we are the underdogs in this race, and we’re taking nothing for granted.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/democrats-are-energized-but-can-harris-win-/7741962.html
Patch Tuesday brings 90 new Microsoft CVEs, six already under exploit
date: 2024-08-14, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus more pain for Intel which fixed 43 bugs, SAP and Adobe also in on the action
Patch Tuesday Microsoft has disclosed 90 flaws in its products – six of which have already been exploited – and four others that are listed as publicly known.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/14/august_patch_tuesday/
Aug. 17: Hart Show Choir Alumni Show
date: 2024-08-14, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The William S. Hart High School Show Choir will present the bi-annual Alumni Show at the Hart High School Auditorium on Saturday, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m
https://scvnews.com/aug-17-hart-show-choir-alumni-show/
Letter: COC terminates tech center contract
date: 2024-08-14, from: The Signal
Contract was already canceled last month when COC said it was ‘under review’ While College of the Canyons officials said last month that the contract to have a Valencia-based developer build […]
The post Letter: COC terminates tech center contract appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/letter-coc-terminates-tech-center-contract/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-14, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Press Must Cover Trump’s Cognitive Decline.
https://www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/press-must-cover-trumps-cognitive?r=2xw07&triedRedirect=true
Aug. 16: Blood Drive at Valencia Library
date: 2024-08-14, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The American Red Cross has declared an emergency blood and platelet shortage for Southern California
https://scvnews.com/aug-16-blood-drive-at-valencia-library/
US Army analyst pleads guilty to selling military secrets to China
date: 2024-08-14, from: VOA News USA
washington — A U.S. Army intelligence analyst on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to sell military secrets to China, the Department of Justice said.
Korbein Schultz was charged in March with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official.
Schultz, who held top secret clearance, conspired with an individual who lived in Hong Kong — who he suspected of being associated with the Chinese government — to collect national defense information, including classified information and export-controlled technical data related to U.S. military weapons systems, in exchange for money, according to charging and plea documents.
“Governments like China are aggressively targeting our military personnel and national security information and we will do everything in our power to ensure that information is safeguarded from hostile foreign governments,” FBI Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells said in a statement.
Before he was arrested, Schultz sent dozens of sensitive and restricted, but unclassified, military documents, the Department of Justice said.
A document discussing the lessons learned by the Army from the Russia-Ukraine war that it would apply in a defense of Taiwan, documents relating to Chinese military tactics, and a document relating to U.S. military satellites were among the items collected and sent by Schultz.
Schultz was paid about $42,000 for the information, according to the department.
“By conspiring to transmit national defense information to a person living outside the United States, this defendant callously put our national security at risk to cash in on the trust our military placed in him,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said.
Schultz is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2025.
Aug. 17: South Coast Air Quality Management District Hearing
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The South Coast Air Quality Management District will host a hearing on the Chiquita Canyon landfill on Aug. 17 at 10 a.m.
https://scvnews.com/aug-17-south-coast-air-quality-management-district-hearing/
Alleged leader of cybercriminals extradited to US
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/alleged-leader-of-cybercriminals-extradited-to-us/7741605.html
Biden tries to cut through fog of confusion caused by deliberately deceptive customer service tricks
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Targets impossible unsubscribes, elusive human assistance, and other wallet-draining time sinks
Businesses that use labyrinthine subscription cancellation procedures, flaky customer service bots and other cynical schemes used to give customers the run around have been put on notice by the Biden administration.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/biden_administration_time_is_money/
Bouquet Canyon Road Rehab Overlay Construction Begins
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The city of Santa Clarita has announced that the road rehab overlay construction project on Bouquet Canyon Road between Soledad Canyon Road and just north of Espuella Drive began Monday, Aug.
https://scvnews.com/bouquet-canyon-road-rehab-overlay-construction-begins/
The French Revolution brings you… The American Revolution!
date: 2024-08-13, from: Margaret Atwood’s substack
Oh, wait a minute: shouldn’t that be the other way around?
https://margaretatwood.substack.com/p/the-french-revolution-brings-you
Make Airport Funds Dependent on Noise Abatement
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
While the funds for the Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) are no doubt important, they should be disbursed only if the airport demonstrates real progress in noise abatement in the surrounding neighborhoods.
The post Make Airport Funds Dependent on Noise Abatement appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/13/make-airport-funds-dependent-on-noise-abatement/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
I started a this.how page for the new rules for journalism. Common-sense rules for reporters that they violate regularly, so now it’s time to write them down.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13.html#a230405
Grand Jury Provides Kaleidoscopic Snapshot of Santa Barbara County’s Detention Facilities
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Northern Branch Jail was praised, but conditions at Main Jail and other holding facilities were met with hairy eyeballs.
The post Grand Jury Provides Kaleidoscopic Snapshot of Santa Barbara County’s Detention Facilities appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Biden strikes $150M blow against cancer in campaign to slash deaths
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
washington — President Joe Biden on Tuesday visited Louisiana’s infamous “Cancer Alley” to strike at what he identified as a top priority of his dwindling presidency: announcing $150 million in research funding toward the goal of dramatically reducing cancer deaths in the United States.
The Cancer Moonshot is an initiative close to Biden’s heart. Both he and first lady Jill Biden have had brushes with skin cancers. And in 2015, an aggressive brain cancer took the life of their eldest son, Beau.
“We’re moving quickly,” Biden said of the initiative, which has a goal of reducing the U.S. cancer death rate by at least half by 2047. “Because we know that all families touched by cancer are in a race against time.”
Cancer is the second-biggest cause of death worldwide. The National Cancer Institute predicts that 2 million Americans will be diagnosed this year with the immune-mediated disease, which can manifest in organs, bone marrow and blood and which comes in hundreds of different varieties.
“Cancer touches us all,” the first lady said. “When Joe and I lost our son to brain cancer, we decided to turn our pain into purpose. We wanted to help families like ours so that they won’t have to experience this terrible loss, and as president, Joe has brought his own relentless optimism to the Biden Cancer Moonshot to end cancer as we know it. It’s ambitious, but it’s also within our reach – maybe not yet, but one day soon.”
Biden launched the initiative when he was vice president. Since he restored the program as president, the research agency he created has invested more than $400 million in the cause.
Cancer advocates praised the move but stressed the need for long-term engagement.
“We’ve made tremendous strides in how we prevent, detect, treat and survive cancer, but there is still much work to be done to improve the lives of those touched by this disease,” said Dr. Karen E. Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
“Cancer cases are estimated to hit an all-time high this year, and we cannot relent in driving forward public policies that will address this,” Knudsen said. “Funding more researchers across the country focused on more effective and innovative treatments will bring us closer to future cancer breakthroughs and ending cancer as we know it, for everyone.”
And cancer is often compounded by environmental causes – such as those in the 140-kilometer (85-mile) stretch of communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, home to a string of major fossil fuel and petrochemical operations.
Karl Minges, associate dean in the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, told VOA that while the disease itself doesn’t discriminate, social factors often make it hit harder in lower-income communities.
“Any time that money from the federal government and publicity is put on a topic, I think it’s something that has the ability to actually make a significant difference,” he told VOA.
And, he said, the fact that this federal money is going toward research institutions – and not private pharmaceutical companies – means the lessons learned can be shared well beyond the United States.
“The U.S. is always on sort of the cutting edge with regard to [research and development] of new drugs and treatments and methodologies,” he said.
“But by giving the money to the institutes, it’s sort of available as public funding for researchers to access, and anytime that’s the case, there’s an imperative, whether it’s a clinical trial or it’s a an observational study, that the results are in the public domain, so that can be then subsumed by other countries outside of the United States who face similar issues,” Minges said.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Anne Applebaum: "The first invasion of Russia since WW2 enters its second week. So far, the Ukrainians have taken more territory than the Russians have taken in all of 2024."
https://www.threads.net/@anneapplebaum2000/post/C-mQl2SoFt2
Google brings more Gemini AI features to Android, saves the best for Pixel 9
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
And four more phones. Woo. Yay.
Video Today, Google said it will add more Gemini AI features to Android smartphones – though what’s said to be best of that functionality will be exclusive to its new Pixel 9 line of handhelds.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/google_gemini_ai_pixel/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
There’s a second new rule. Journalists do not make demands.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13.html#a224422
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
Just got a message from Slack that should serve as a warning to people who use other free services, expecting their archive to be maintained over time. It was too good to be true before. Now you need to ask vendors if that’s true on their system.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13.html#a224227
Rooftop Solar Has a Big — But Surprising — Racial Disparity
date: 2024-08-13, from: Heatmap News
Higher-income people are more likely to have solar panels on their roofs. This fact has underlined the nature of home solar adoption and is responsible for any number of state, local, and now federal programs to give lower-income people access to solar power, either through subsidizing their own solar panels or letting them “subscribe” to solar power generated elsewhere.
While this seems like an obviously sensible solution — the upfront cost of solar can be around $15,000 to $20,000, and you typically need to own a single family home to get it — it’s not quite as simple as those with more money are more likely to get solar. When the University of Texas economist Jackson Dorsey and Derek Wolfson looked at data provide by the solar marketplace EnergySage, they found that, yes, those with higher incomes are more likely to buy solar — but also that what solar installers offered them and what they paid for it varied depending on the demographics of the surrounding area.
“Econ 101, there’s usually two possible reasons why you might have lower quantities in a market. One would be demand is lower, and the other would be supply is lower,” Dorsey told me when I asked what had motivated his research. While the data about high-income demand for energy transition products like solar panels or electric vehicles is plentiful, there had been less attention paid to supply-side reasons for the disparities.
Dorsey and Wolfson looked at hundreds of thousands of bids for solar installation placed in EnergySage’s 15 largest markets, including much of urban California, New York City, Washington, D.C. and metro areas in Florida, where prospective solar buyers are able to pick among bids from installers. Unsurprisingly, lower-income buyers were less likely to purchase home solar, received fewer bids overall, and, because they were likely seeking smaller systems, paid more per watt than wealthier buyers. (The researchers were able to match data from EnergySage with census data to extract demographic information about potential customers along with their location.)
What did stand out, however, is that Black households in particular got fewer bids and paid notably higher prices, a disparity that could not be explained entirely by differences in income. Low-income households were more likely to be in an area with a lower cost of living, and therefore didn’t necessarily face higher overall project costs because prices for everything tended to be lower.
Black households, on the other hand, received fewer bids and then face higher prices. “If you look at Black vs. white households, Black households get about 8% higher prices,” Dorsey told me. “On a $20,000 system, that would be $1,600.”
The reason, he determined, is not so much that installers don’t want to serve people they know are Black. It’s that they don’t want to serve neighborhoods they know are majority Black.
Dorsey put the difference down to “some kind of perceived higher cost of doing business.” Part of it could be explained by installers setting up shop in areas where they think they’ll find higher demand for their services — high-income ones — and so Black neighborhoods, which are more likely to be low-income, may be literally farther away and more expensive to serve. According to the data Dorsey and Wolfson collected, there are three installers within 10 miles of white households on average, compared to two installers on average for Black households.
There could also, Dorsey said, “be some implicit preference that they
don’t want to go to those neighborhoods.” In the paper, Dorsey and
Wolfson write that “some sellers may prefer to serve certain households
or neighborhoods either because of intolerant views, crime rates, or
other variables correlated with household demographic
characteristics.”
While the study didn’t get into remediation, fixing the income side of
things should be fairly straightforward, Dorsey told me. “Just making
prices lower or financing terms more comparable [to high income
households] should be fairly effective,” he said.
The sociogeographic side of things will be trickier to address. “That might suggest a supply side policy might be effective,” Dorsey said, “like giving installers incentives to locate in or serve communities that are getting fewer bids and facing higher prices.”
Policymakers and solar advocates are very aware of the income and race disparities in solar adoptions and have come up with a slew of policies to try and narrow them. California, which has long been the epicenter of rooftop solar (with the most attendant controversy over how its incentives are designed), has a program that subsidizes low-income households that want to install solar and incentives for affordable multifamily buildings to install solar.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion Solar For All program also supports states, tribes, and non-profits with programs to reach low-income households. “The program will help unlock new markets for residential solar in areas that have never seen this kind of investment before,” an EPA spokesperson told Heatmap in an emailed statement. “Much of the program will fund solar projects to benefit multi-family and affordable housing, as well as community solar projects, bringing the benefits of clean energy to households that may not have had access to it before.”
Another favored solution for getting solar access to those who wouldn’t otherwise have it is community solar, where households “subscribe” to small-scale solar installations and then get credits on their utility bill as if they had physically installed solar in their homes.
The share of community solar capacity that serves low-to-moderate income
consumers has
grown
from 2% in 2022 to 12% this year, according to data from Wood Mackenzie
and the Coalition for Community Solar Access, and they project it will
continue to grow to 25% in 2025.
The Inflation Reduction Act also includes an “adder” for community solar projects that serve lower income consumers that boosts existing subsidies by 10 to 20 percentage points. These community solar projects are “already seeing impact and projects on the ground,” Molly Knoll, vice president of policy for CCSA, told me.
EnergySage’s chief executive, Charlie Hadlow, said in a statement that the company is “working diligently to ensure every eligible shopper gets three to seven quotes on our platform,” and that “we welcome more installers to sign up on our platform and are actively seeking them out, with a deliberate focus on underserved areas.” He said consumers typically save 20% using EnergySage compared to what they might get on their own, and that the company also has a marketplace for community solar.
All that said, Dorsey is skeptical that “installing panels at individual rooftop” is even the best way to decarbonize. “If you want to cost-effectively reduce emissions, it’s not clear to me rooftop solar is the way to do it as opposed to utility-scale or community solar,” he said.
https://heatmap.news/economy/rooftop-solar-race-disparity
Hospice of Santa Barbara to Celebrate 50th Anniversary and Community Heroes at its Annual Heroes of Hospice Luncheon
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Santa Barbara, CA, August 13, 2024 – Hospice of Santa Barbara (HSB) is celebrating 50 years of compassionate care, as well
The post Hospice of Santa Barbara to Celebrate 50th Anniversary and Community Heroes at its Annual Heroes of Hospice Luncheon appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Haiku gets tons of performance fixes, new FAT driver from FreeBSD, and a lot more
date: 2024-08-13, from: OS News
There’s a new Haiku activity report, and it’s a big one. A lot of bottlenecks and performance issues were addressed recently, and the list is too long and detailed for me to cover everything. Haiku developer Waddlesplash does a great job in this report detailing the various things he worked on to solve some of these bottlenecks and performance issues, and they cover everything from speeding up the readv and writev I/O calls, fixing an issue with the kernel’s device_manager lock, improving ELF symbol lookup by implementing the DT_GNU_HASH hash table, and much more. As part of working on these performance issues, Waddlesplash also fixed up Haiku’s CPU time profiler. Haiku has a built-in CPU time profiler (just called profile.) Unfortunately, it’s been rather broken for years, regularly outputting data that was either empty or just didn’t make any sense. In order to use it to try and track down some of the other bottlenecks, I spent a bunch of time fixing various bugs in it, as well as the debugger support code that it relies on to function, including to stack trace collection, buffer flushing, symbol lookup, scheduler callbacks, image load reporting, and more. I also implemented userspace-only profiling (ignoring kernel stack frames entirely), fixed some output buffer sizing issues, and fixed a race condition in thread resumption that also affected strace. While it isn’t perfect, it’s much better than before, and can now be used to profile applications and the kernel to see where CPU time is being spent; and notably it now checks the thread’s CPU time counters to detect if it “missed” profiling ticks, and if so how many. ↫ Haiku’s website Beyond these performance fixes, there’s a ton of other improvements and fixes, from better handling of HiDPI displays in HaikuDepot, improvements to CharacterMap, fixing subtitles in MediaPlayer, and tons more. Of course, there’s the bevy of driver fixes, including a major overhaul of the FAT driver, which was still largely based on old, original BeOS code because Be used the FAT driver as sample code. Haiku’s FAT driver is now based on FreeBSD’s FAT driver, which addressed a whole slew of issues. This isn’t even all of it – there’s so much more in this month’s activity report, so definitely head on over and give it a read.
Flipboard Users Can Now Follow Anyone in the Fediverse
date: 2024-08-13, from: Ben Werdmuller’s blog
<div class="known-bookmark">
<div class="e-content">[Anuj Ahooja and Sean Tilley at We Distribute]
“Starting today, Flipboard will let users search for and follow accounts from across the Fediverse from the comfort of their own dashboards. […] This new feature isn’t just limited to Mastodon or PixelFed, but includes Threads profiles that opted in to Fediverse Sharing, such as MKBHD, Molly Jong-Fast, and Nilay Patel. You won’t need to have a Threads account to cross this boundary, but will still be able to see what your favorite creators are up to. This is a neat way of letting people dip their toes into the wider network, without needing to fully commit to it on day one.”
This is the power of the open social web: you can follow someone who’s publishing on social network A from social network B, and interact with them as if they were on the same network. Everyone can choose which social platforms that fit them best without having to sacrifice reach or the ability to follow people they care about.
Flipboard has been a leader in this space, and this is a major step forward. It, Threads, Mastodon, Ghost, Micro.blog and others are pushing the social web forward by embracing these standards - and there’s a lot more to come. No company and no developer needs to ask anyone permission to join the network; they can opt to support the protocols and - boom! - they’re in.
Every media company and every individual publisher should be jumping on this. I could not be more excited about the possibilities.
<p>[<a href="https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/flipboard-fediverse-following/">Link</a>]</p>
</div>
</div>https://werd.io/2024/flipboard-users-can-now-follow-anyone-in-the-fediverse
SpecOS: an x86_64 OS kernel from scratch
date: 2024-08-13, from: OS News
It’s been busy in the world of hobby and teaching/learning operating systems these past few months, and today we’ve got another one – SpecOS. SpecOS is a 64 bit operating system kernel for x86-64 processors, still in quite early stages, written in (questionable quality) C. It is (not very) powerful. This used to be 32 bit, but has been transferred to a 64 bit operating system. It uses a monolithic kernel, because I like having everything in one place. This may take some inspiration from other operating systems, but it is not UNIX based. ↫ SpecOS GitHub page It’s got the basics covered with PS/2 keyboard and VGA support, a real-time clock driver, a basic hard disk driver, and physical and virtual memory management, among other things. We’re clearly looking at a hobby project, and the author is very clear about that. A virtual machine is highly advised, as running it on real hardware is… Well, you’re on your own, basically.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140488/specos-an-x86_64-os-kernel-from-scratch/
Akeana debuts RISC-V CPU designs on $100M budget, longs for an Arm wrestle
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Whatever happened to the team behind Marvell’s ThunderX2 chips? Oh, hello
Akeana, which has secured over $100 million in funding over the past few years, has now launched its long-awaited lineup of RISC-V CPU designs, which are aimed at applications from embedded to datacenter systems.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/akeana_riscv_cpus/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
New AI tool enables real-time face swapping on webcams.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Journalists must stop making demands and clean their own act up first.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/13/kamala-harris-must-speak-to-press
Somali American member of Congress Ilhan Omar faces repeat primary challenge
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
Minneapolis, Minnesota — Democratic U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the progressive House members known as the “Squad” and a sharp critic of how Israel has conducted the war in Gaza, is trying to avoid the fate of two of her closest allies when Minnesota holds its primary elections Tuesday.
Omar is defending her Minneapolis-area 5th District seat against a repeat challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, a more centrist liberal whom she only narrowly defeated in the 2022 primary.
In the main statewide race on the ballot, conservative populist and former NBA player Royce White is facing a more conventional Republican candidate, Navy veteran Joe Fraser, for the right to challenge Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Meanwhile, two newcomers are in a bitter fight for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Representative Angie Craig in November in the mostly suburban 2nd District.
Omar’s fellow Squad member Representative Cori Bush lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week. Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York lost his primary in June. The only charter member not facing a primary challenge is Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Both Bush and Bowman faced well-funded challengers and millions of dollars in spending by the United Democracy Project, a super political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which appears to be sitting out the Minnesota race.
But Omar isn’t taking victory for granted. Omar reported spending $2.3 million before the 2022 primary. In the same period this year, she reported raising about $6.2 million. Samuels has raised about $1.4 million.
Omar — a Somali American and Muslim — came under fire from the Jamaican-born Samuels and others in her first term for comments that were widely criticized for invoking antisemitic tropes and suggesting Jewish Americans have divided loyalties. This time, Samuels has criticized her condemnation of the Israeli government’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
While Omar has also criticized Hamas for attacking Israel and taking hostages, Samuels says she’s one-sided and divisive.
The winner in the overwhelmingly Democratic district will face Republican Dalia Al-Aqidi, an Iraqi American journalist and self-described secular Muslim who calls Omar pro-Hamas and a terrorist sympathizer.
In the U.S. Senate race, White — an ally of imprisoned former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones — shocked many political observers when he defeated Fraser at the party convention for the Republican endorsement.
White’s social media comments have been denounced as misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic and profane. His legal and financial problems include unpaid child support and questionable campaign spending, including $1,200 spent at a Florida strip club after he lost his primary challenge to Omar in 2022. He argues that, as a Black man, he can broaden the party’s base by appealing to voters of color in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and others disillusioned with establishment politics.
Fraser has said White’s confrontational style and message won’t attract the moderates and independents needed for a competitive challenge to Klobuchar, who’s seeking a fourth term. He said he offers a more mainstream approach, stressing fiscal conservativism, a strong defense, world leadership and small government. Fraser has also highlighted his 26 years in the Navy, where he was an intelligence officer and served a combat tour in Iraq.
Neither has anywhere near the resources that Klobuchar has. White last reported raising $133,000, while Fraser has taken in $68,000. Klobuchar, meanwhile, has collected about $19 million this cycle and has more than $6 million available to spend on the general election campaign.
Craig is preparing for what’s expected to be Minnesota’s most competitive House race in November. Vying to challenge her are former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab and defense attorney Tayler Rahm. Teirab has the support of Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He was better funded than Rahm, who won the endorsement at the district convention with support from grassroots conservatives.
While Rahm announced in July that he was suspending his campaign and would instead serve as a senior adviser for Trump’s Minnesota campaign, he will still be on the ballot and didn’t fully pull the plug on his campaign.
Microsoft is shrinking the Xbox Game Bar for Windows handheld gaming PCs
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar for Windows has been around since 2019, offering quick access to settings, performance metrics, achievements, audio settings, screen recording, and widgets, among other things. But like most Windows features, the Xbox Game Store is designed first and foremost for laptop and desktop computers, not for small-screen devices like handhelds. Or at […]
The post Microsoft is shrinking the Xbox Game Bar for Windows handheld gaming PCs appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/microsoft-is-shrinking-the-xbox-game-bar-for-windows-handheld-gaming-pcs/
Former Kansas police chief charged with felony over newspaper raid
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
Could These Carvings in Turkey Be the World’s Oldest Lunisolar Calendar?
date: 2024-08-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
One researcher thinks the V-shaped markings engraved into a pillar thousands of years ago may represent the days of the year
Another GPU cloud emerges. This time, upstart Foundry
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Biz set sights beyond just another rent-an-accelerator cluster provider
Yet another GPU cloud has coalesced amid the ongoing AI boom. Today, AI infrastructure startup Foundry announced its Cloud Platform is now available for limited access.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/foundry_gpu_cloud/
The Home Page | Relaxing Views and Hot Rod News
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Fun in the sun on the American Riviera.
The post The Home Page | Relaxing Views and Hot Rod News appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/13/the-home-page-relaxing-views-and-hot-rod-news/
Make This Summer Count: Apply for Grants to Revolutionize Your Community and Energy Future!
date: 2024-08-13, from: Infrastructure LA Blog
Better Together! – Los Angeles County Shares in $500M Grant for Clean Air The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) was awarded $500M from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant which is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The SCAQMD initiative aims to decarbonize transportation, install over […]
https://infrastructurela.org/intel23/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=intel23
MDMA Treatment for PTSD Fails to Secure Federal Approval
date: 2024-08-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
One day after the FDA declined to approve the psychedelic for medical use, a journal retracted three studies of MDMA-assisted therapy due to unethical conduct by researchers
Hack your Amazon Fire tablet with Fire Toolbox (Install Google Play, disable Amazon apps, and more)
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
Amazon’s Fire tablets offer a lot of bang for the buck. With list prices starting as low as $60, they’re far cheaper than any iPad, and more affordable than most Android tablets from companies like Samsung or Lenovo. Amazon’s tablets also go on sale for even lower prices at least a few times a year. […]
The post Hack your Amazon Fire tablet with Fire Toolbox (Install Google Play, disable Amazon apps, and more) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/hack-your-amazon-fire-tablet-with-fire-toolbox-v10/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Partially, I did not find a SF Symbols icon, and partially, I talked myself into "a text label is more descriptive".
The Godot Control toolbar:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112956575790081953
Serena: an experimental operating system for 32bit Amiga computers
date: 2024-08-13, from: OS News
Serena is an experimental operating system based on modern design principles with support for pervasive preemptive concurrency and multiple users. The kernel is object-oriented and designed to be cross-platform and future proof. It runs on Amiga systems with a 68030 or better CPU installed. One aspect that sets it aside from traditional threading-based OSs is that it is purely built around dispatch queues somewhat similar to Apple’s Grand Central Dispatch. There is no support for creating threads in user space nor in kernel space. Instead the kernel implements a virtual processor concept where it dynamically manages a pool of virtual processors. The size of the pool is automatically adjusted based on the needs of the dispatch queues and virtual processors are assigned to processes as needed. All kernel and user space concurrency is achieved by creating dispatch queues and by submitting work items to dispatch queues. Work items are simply closures (a function with associated state) from the viewpoint of the user. ↫ Serena GitHub page Serena is a remarkably advanced concept, and since it runs in an Amiga emulator just fine, there’s no need for real hardware, which is becoming ever harder to come by. It has its own unique file system, the executable file format is Atari ST GemDos (for now), and it has its own shell. It comes with a variety of drivers and services for your basic needs like keyboard and mouse input, a basic graphics drivers, a VT52 and VT100 series compatible interactive console, a floppy disk driver, and much more. Anyone can load up WinUAE and try SerenaOS out – it’s available under the MIT license.
Fever Feels Horrible, But Is Actually Helpful
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/fever-feels-horrible-but-is-actually-helpful
NASA to Provide Crew Flight Test Status Update
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Aug. 14, to provide an update on the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test. Mission managers continue to evaluate the Starliner spacecraft’s readiness in advance of decisional meetings no earlier than next week regarding the return of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Audio […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-provide-crew-flight-test-status-update/
Six ransomware gangs behind over 50% of 2024 attacks
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus many more newbies waiting in the wings
Despite a law enforcement takedown six months ago, LockBit 3.0 remains the most prolific encryption and extortion gang, at least so far, this year, according to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/lockbit_ransomware_stats/
NASA Challenge Seeks ‘Cooler’ Solutions for Deep Space Exploration
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Human Lander Challenge, or HuLC, is now open and accepting submissions for its second year. As NASA aims to return astronauts to the Moon through its Artemis campaign in preparation for future missions to Mars, the agency is seeking ideas from college and university students for evolved supercold, or cryogenic, propellant applications for human […]
Objective Reviews: Defining the Architectural Styles of Santa Barbara
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
The city is working to create objective design standards to help streamline approval for housing projects.
The post Objective Reviews: Defining the Architectural Styles of Santa Barbara appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Santa Barbara’s Very Own School of Rock
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Ready to rock ’n’ roll — young rock artists in the spotlight at JAMS Summer Camp.
The post Santa Barbara’s Very Own School of Rock appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/13/santa-barbaras-very-own-school-of-rock/
iDOS 3 in the App Store
date: 2024-08-13, from: Michael Tsai
Jay Peters (Slashdot): But in July, Apple reversed course and approved UTM SE, and earlier this month, it added the words “PC emulator” to guideline 4.7, which is seemingly why iDOS 3 has now been allowed on the App Store. Filipe Espósito: As for iDOS 3, the app is available for iPhone and iPad on […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/13/idos-3-in-the-app-store/
Wrong About the App Store
date: 2024-08-13, from: Michael Tsai
David Barnard: For almost 16 years now, tweet after tweet, blog post after blog post, I’ve implored Apple to do better by developers and App Store customers in a million different ways. And implied (if not said directly) that if they didn’t, the impact would, over time, lead to dire consequences. From developers abandoning the […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/08/13/wrong-about-the-app-store/
Lethonomia “refers to the inability to recall someone’s name”. I can never…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045115-lethonomia-refers-to-the-
Earth’s Crest Over the Lunar Horizon
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
This view of the Earth’s crest over the lunar horizon was taken on July 29, 1971, during the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a Saturn V launch vehicle. Designed to explore the Moon over longer periods, greater ranges, and […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/699335/
FTC urges judge to spank Google over Android App market monopoly
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Pay no attention to web giant’s whining about the cost of compliance, watchdog argues
The US Federal Trade Commission has urged the California judge overseeing Epic Games’ antitrust claim against Google to take strong action to correct the company’s anticompetitive management of the Android app market. This follows a recent ruling by another federal judge that the tech giant violated US antitrust laws with its search business.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/ftc_google_android_monopoly/
Oct. 23: COC Foundation Swing for Student Success Golf Tourney
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
The College of the Canyons Foundation will host the “Swing for Student Success” Golf Tournament at the Valencia Country Club, presented by NE Systems on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
https://scvnews.com/oct-23-coc-foundation-swing-for-student-success-golf-tourney/
Primary Instrument for Roman Space Telescope Arrives at NASA Goddard
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
The primary instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a sophisticated camera that will survey the cosmos from the outskirts of our solar system all the way out to the edge of the observable universe. Called the Wide Field Instrument, it was recently delivered to the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, […]
Trump Is Kind of Nuclear-Skeptical
date: 2024-08-13, from: Heatmap News
Donald Trump is slipping. I don’t mean in the polls (although he’s slipping there, too), but he’s slipping where it really matters: branding.
Dismiss Trump and his gold Stymie Extra Bold font as tacky and tasteless if you want, but you can’t claim that the namesake behind Trump Ice, Trump Vodka, Trump University, Trump Airlines, Trump Steaks, and the Trump footlong hotdog doesn’t know how to make something stick. He arguably won the 2016 Republican primary on the power of branding his opponents as Low Energy, Lyin’, Little, and Crooked — but lately, his heart hasn’t seemed in it. I mean, “Kamabla”? Come on.
Still, sometimes you can see flashes of his former self, such as last night when Trump appeared in a “conversation” with Elon Musk on Twitter, the social media platform now a year into its own rocky rebrand as X. Musk’s justification for the call was to give listeners “a feel for what Donald Trump is like in a conversation” in a non-adversarial setting (as if Trump doesn’t do friendly media appearances all the time). But the lengthy, wide-ranging interview also offered a decent opportunity to hear Trump speak about policy without the usual teleprompter.
That included some of Trump’s newly Musk-friendly thoughts about climate.In addition to spouting some seriously dubious emissions science — Bill McKibben dubbed their two-hour chat “the Dumbest Climate Conversation of All Time” — Trump and Musk also touched on the problems facing the buildout of nuclear energy.
Here is the relevant part of the conversation (I’ve omitted some of the exchange in brackets, but you can read the whole 61-page transcript here if you like):
Trump: You know, the one thing that I don’t understand is that people talk about global warming, or they talk about climate change, but they never talk about nuclear warming. And for me, that’s an immediate problem because you have, as I said, five countries where you have major nuclear and, you know, probably some others are getting there and that’s very dangerous. […]
Musk: Yeah, and actually, there’s the bad side of nuclear, which is a nuclear war, very bad side. But there’s also, I think — nuclear electricity generation is underrated. And it’s actually, you know, people have this fear of nuclear electricity generation, but it’s actually one of the safest forms of electricity generation. […]
Trump: Maybe they’ll have to change the name. The name is just, it’s a rough name. There are some areas, like when you see what happened — bad branding, the branding problem. We’ll have to rebrand it. We’ll have to give it a good name. We’ll name it after you or something.
Let’s say right off the bat, they are getting into some real stuff here. Nuclear war is, indeed, “very bad”! To give Trump credit on the branding front, too, “nuclear warming” is a pretty creative way of saying “a mass detonation of atomic bombs that ends all life on Earth.” (And possibly a clever play on nuclear winter.)
Perhaps more importantly, though, nuclear is the largest source of carbon-free energy in the U.S. is generally considered crucial to balancing out intermittent renewables as the grid decarbonizes and electricity demand blows up. Talking about nuclear in a serious way will be important — which is tricky if you buy that it has “a rough name.”
Not everybody does, of course. Bloomberg’s Steve Hou disputed Trump’s theory (on Musk’s X, no less), “Nuclear doesn’t have a branding problem. It has a NIMBY problem that everyone’s ok with it in theory as long as the nuclear plant’s in someone else’s neighborhood.” Most Americans support nuclear power — more than offshore oil and gas drilling, fracking, or coal mining. It’s the rare issue both Democrats and Republicans can agree on.
But that doesn’t mean nuclear doesn’t have a branding problem. Why else would Americans not want a nuclear plant in their backyard if not for anxiety about radiation (or, relatedly, the Soviet unsightliness of cooling towers)? Trump went on in his conversation with Musk to cite the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and, seemingly, Chernobyl (“in Russia, where they had a problem, where they, you know, a lot of bad things happened”) as the reasons why Americans are, in his opinion, rightfully jittery about nuclear energy.
Musk pushed back on Trump’s examples, asserting that nuclear energy is “not as scary as people think” and that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, but now they’re, like, full cities again.” Seeing as Musk mostly just let Trump say stuff during their conversation, his moment of objection is telling: Trump’s distrust of nuclear energy suggests possible policy implications that people on the right might not like. (Trump has expressed far more enthusiasm, however, for building up our nuclear arsenal.)
Many in climate communications or the nuclear industry have thought long and hard about how to make nuclear energy more palatable to the public, with strategies ranging from creating imagery invoking the atom (rather than the more obvious and ominous hourglass-shaped cooling tower) to hiring Miss America as an industry advocate. Last fall, John Marshall, the CEO and founder of the Potential Energy Coalition, explained on a podcast that his group had found the term “new nuclear” tests as less intimidating to the public.
So sure, we may need something like a Reddy Kilowatt of nuclear energy to improve messaging. That’s where Trump’s creativity runs out, though. As Heatmap’s own polling suggests, rebranding nuclear power as “Musk power” will probably not help.
https://heatmap.news/technology/trump-musk-live
August 1st was Earth Overshoot Day for 2024. “In the past 7…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045113-august-1st-was-earth-over
Stage Set for Three Santa Barbara City Council Races
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Incumbents take on challengers in the election races for the Eastside, Mesa, and Westside council seats.
The post Stage Set for Three Santa Barbara City Council Races appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/13/stage-set-for-three-santa-barbara-city-council-races/
InSight data suggests plentiful water lies beneath Mars’ surface
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
There’s water in them thar hills, but it’ll be really hard to get to
Data from the late Mars InSight lander continues to pay dividends, with the latest findings suggesting liquid water is abundant in the Martian mid-crust (about 7 to 12 mile depths).…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/study_of_insight_data_suggests/
State Supe Calls for Cell Phone Restrictions in Schools
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has called for local educational agencies to join California’s statewide effort to restrict students’ cell phone use in schools
https://scvnews.com/state-supe-calls-for-cell-phone-restrictions-in-schools/
Google Pixel 9 series phones bring update design, more RAM, new chips, and more models
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
The Google Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel 9 Pro Fold smartphones are available for pre-order today, and they’re set to hit stores in the coming weeks. For the most part this year’s Pixel smartphone lineup is… almost exactly what we expected. The new phones have a next-gen Google Tensor […]
The post Google Pixel 9 series phones bring update design, more RAM, new chips, and more models appeared first on Liliputing.
Slow-Motion Ripples in Earth’s Mantle Built Mysterious and Stunning Highland Landscapes, Study Finds
date: 2024-08-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Following the break-up of an ancient supercontinent, waves propagated through the hot, rocky layer beneath the planet’s brittle crust and reshaped its surface over millions of years
Science and Our Personal Bodily Freedoms
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/science-and-our-personal-bodily-freedoms
Californians: Your rent may go up because of rising insurance rates
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The LAist
As wildfire risk increases in California, insurers are raising their rates. Landlords in turn are passing them along to tenants.
https://laist.com/news/californians-rent-insurance-rates
Dissecting m8trix
date: 2024-08-13, from: Tilde.news
https://tilde.town/~dzwdz/blog/m8trix.html
US accuses man of being ‘elite’ ransomware pioneer they’ve hunted for years
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Authorities allege ‘J.P. Morgan’ practiced ‘extreme operational and online security’
The US has charged a suspect they claim is a Belarusian-Ukrainian cybercriminal whose offenses date back to 2011.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/j_p_morgan_suspect_indicted_charged/
Think Better
date: 2024-08-13, from: O’Reilly Radar
Over the years, many of us have become accustomed to letting computers do our thinking for us. “That’s what the computer says” is a refrain in many bad customer service interactions. “That’s what the data says” is a variation—“the data” doesn’t say much if you don’t know how it was collected and how the data […]
https://www.oreilly.com/radar/think-better/
The Final Piece of the National World War I Memorial Is Almost Finished
date: 2024-08-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
“A Soldier’s Journey,” the 58-foot-long bronze sculpture created by Sabin Howard, will be unveiled in Washington, D.C. on September 13
The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and 2nd Story Associates Provide School Supplies to 400+ Low-income Students
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
Photos courtesy of The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA, August 13, 2024 – The Housing
The post The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and 2nd Story Associates Provide School Supplies to 400+ Low-income Students appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
Buellton Library to Close This Wednesday, August 14th
date: 2024-08-13, from: Santa Barbara Indenpent News
GOLETA, CA, August 12, 2024 –The Buellton Library’s last day of in-person service at its current location will be this Wednesday, August
The post Buellton Library to Close This Wednesday, August 14th appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.
https://www.independent.com/2024/08/13/buellton-library-to-close-this-wednesday-august-14th/
Canyon Country Man, Ex-LASD Deputy Charged in Extortion Scheme
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced charges Monday against ex-law enforcement and military officers accused of using threats and violence in an effort to extort an Irvine man for nearly $37 million
https://scvnews.com/canyon-country-man-ex-lasd-deputy-charged-in-extortion-scheme/
StreetFix Help goes multi-lingual
date: 2024-08-13, from: RiscOS Story
And a language poll for MACadd There are two bits of news from Kevin Wells for some of his applications: There’s a new StreetFix release, which now stands at version 1.09, and he’s running a poll in relation to adding new language support to MACadd. Looking at StreetFix first, Kevin upgraded it recently to version 1.08, adding support for multiple languages, and he has now released version 1.09, in which that support extends to the application’s interactive help (the facility through which RISC OS applications can provide small snippets of…
https://www.riscository.com/2024/streetfix-help-goes-multi-lingual/
Google Pixel 9 released: The Best Time to Upgrade to the Pixel 8 (and
GrapheneOS)
date: 2024-08-13, from: mrusme blog
The Google Pixel 9 has just been released, making this probably the best time to snap up its predecessor, the Pixel 8 – a solid phone with years-long software support – and switch to GrapheneOS along the way!
A pilot program in Copenhagen was designed to encourage tourists “to act…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045112-a-pilot-program-in-copenh
Daily Deals (8-13-2024)
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
The Lenovo Legion Go is a handheld gaming PC with an 8.8 inch, 144 Hz display, and AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, a 49.2 Wh battery, and detachable controllers. It’s been one of the most popular Windows alternatives to Valve’s Linux-powered Steam Deck since launching late last year for $700 and up. And right now […]
The post Daily Deals (8-13-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-8-13-2024/
NASA’s X-59 Progresses Through Tests on the Path to Flight
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
The team preparing NASA’s X-59 continues through testing in preparation for the quiet supersonic aircraft to make its first flight. This includes a trio of important structural tests and critical inspections on the path to flight. The X-59 is an experimental plane that will fly faster than the speed of sound without a loud sonic […]
https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/nasas-x-59-progresses-through-tests-on-the-path-to-flight/
Linux Foundation wades into AI as Open Model Initiative joins ranks
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Penguins reiterate commitment to ‘fostering open, collaborative’ development, licensing
The Open Model Initiative (OMI) has joined orgs under the Linux Foundation’s umbrella as it continues to push open standards for training and developing AI models.…
AI Unicorns Are Running Amok
date: 2024-08-13, from: Om Malik blog
A growing number of skeptics— including many on Wall Street — are getting increasingly nervous about the “AI” bubble. But that hasn’t stopped money from flowing into AI startups, according to a new State of the Markets report by Silicon Valley Bank. The report points out that “More AI companies are becoming unicorns,” and it …
https://om.co/2024/08/13/ai-unicorns-are-running-amok/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
What the Republican Party Might Look Like if Trump Loses.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Calls Out Media Over Trump Presser Coverage.
MASTER PLAN, Ep 1: Nixon’s Milk Money Prompts A Backlash
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Lever News
Master Plan’s first episode explores a scandal that inspired groundbreaking anti-corruption legislation — if only the reforms could have lasted.
https://www.levernews.com/master-plan-episode-1-when-nixons-milk-money-prompted-a-backlash/
Ideas are vulnerable
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Robin Rendle Essays
https://robinrendle.com/notes/ideas-are-vulnerable/
Automated Technology Developed at Glenn Launches to Space
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
Automated technology developed in Cleveland has launched to space aboard the Technology Education Satellite 11 mission. The flight test aims to confirm the precision and accuracy of this new technology developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. The Cognitive Communications Project was founded by NASA in 2016 to develop autonomous space communications systems for the agency. […]
Computers in the U.S. Government
date: 2024-08-13, from: National Archives, Text Message blog
The unclassified IT budget for civilian agencies in 2024 is about $74 billion dollars and, in some agencies, virtually every employee works at a computer – be it a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, or even a supercomputer. There are probably millions of computers of various types in use in the U.S. Government. In 1966, … Continue reading Computers in the U.S. Government
https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2024/08/13/computers-in-the-u-s-government/
A short history of the 909 in 16 songs
date: 2024-08-13, from: Tilde.news
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06HcP6FnPZw
Researchers have developed a “smart insulin” that can adapt to blood sugar…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045110-researchers-have-develope
The new rule is big
date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
The new rule for journalists on Threads is big.
How big is it?
So big I got my first Fediverse reply, ever.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13/155131.html?title=theNewRuleIsBig
LILYGO T-Deck Plus is a $70 handheld with GPS, LoRa, and a BlackBerry keyboard
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
The LILYGO T-Deck Plus is a pocket-sized mobile communications device that looks a bit like a modern BlackBerry. But it’s not a phone, doesn’t support 4G or 5G cellular networks, and doesn’t run Android. Instead it’s a developer-friendly device that sells for $70, and which features an ESP32 microprocessor, a 2.8 inch display and a LoRa radio for […]
The post LILYGO T-Deck Plus is a $70 handheld with GPS, LoRa, and a BlackBerry keyboard appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/lilygo-t-deck-plus-is-a-70-handheld-with-gps-lora-and-a-blackberry-keyboard/
How to Watch Bad Movies
date: 2024-08-13, from: John August blog
John and Craig stand waist-deep in rotten tomatoes and ask, what can we learn from bad movies? Resisting the urge to walk out, they explore ways to evaluate a movie’s problems, interrogate your taste, and turn a real stinker into an opportunity to grow as a writer. We also follow up on Lifetime movies, colored […] The post How to Watch Bad Movies first appeared on John August.
https://johnaugust.com/2024/how-to-watch-bad-movies
Poland signs $10 billion deal for US Apache attack helicopters
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
Warsaw, POLAND — Poland on Tuesday signed a $10 billion deal to buy 96 Apache attack helicopters from U.S. manufacturer Boeing in an upgrade to the country’s military capabilities.
Poland has sharply accelerated the modernization of its armed forces since Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in 2022.
“This is the landmark purchase by Poland for its armed forces of … 96 state-of-the-art AH-64E Apache attack helicopters,” Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz told reporters.
“Today we are taking a milestone in the transformation and equipping of the army,” he added, speaking at the Inowroclaw air base, where the Apaches are to be stationed.
The deal is the latest in a string of contracts signed by Poland with the United States in recent days.
On Friday, Warsaw announced a deal to buy hundreds of AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. On Monay there was a contract to build 48 launchers for the U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems.
Poland, a staunch ally of Ukraine, has announced it would spend more than 4% of its annual economic output on defense this year — twice NATO’s target of 2%.
The Ukraine war has also solidified the relationship between the United States and Poland, a country on NATO’s eastern flank that sees Washington as one of its main allies.
The Apache helicopter sale was approved last year by the U.S. State Department and Congress.
The deal “changes the face of the Polish army’s operations and complements” previous purchases, Kosiniak-Kamysz said, pointing notably at the Abrams tanks that Poland bought in the past years.
According to the Polish government, the Apaches are designed to work with the tanks.
“For the Abrams, the Apache is an essential element,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
In 2022, Poland bought 250 Abrams tanks in a modern M1A2 variant, which are expected to be delivered later this year. It will be the first country outside the United States with the tanks.
The attack helicopter agreement also envisages providing the Polish army with maintenance equipment, technical and training support, flight simulators and spare parts.
“Offset, purchase, leasing, pilot training, technology, armament — it was all negotiated together. It’s a historic day for helicopter aviation,” Deputy Defense Minister Pawel Bejda said.
“These $10 billion are the insurance of our country, the insurance of our freedom,” Bejda added, saying that the Apaches would serve the Polish efforts to “deter those who have evil intentions.”
The first U.S.-made helicopters are to be delivered in 2028, but some Polish pilots have already begun training on them.
The Apaches will replace outdated Russian Mi-24 helicopters.
https://www.voanews.com/a/poland-signs-10-billion-deal-for-us-apache-attack-helicopters/7741045.html
MASTER PLAN Is Here
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Lever News
Start listening to the untold story of a decades-long scheme to steal democracy.
https://www.levernews.com/master-plan-is-here/
USA Gymnastics says arbitration panel won’t reconsider Jordan Chiles medal decision
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
Ezra Klein and Nate Silver
date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News
I had another morning of driving around so I listened to a bunch of podcasts about how the campaign is going, all good news for Democrats which of course makes me happy. The last podcast I listened to was Ezra Klein’s interview with Nate Silver. I only listened to the first 20 minutes because I ran out of time. I may pick it up later on my afternoon walk (it’s a gorgeous day in the mountains).
They
talked about their bond as old school bloggers. I didn’t know either of
them when they were starting out, which is kind of sad – most of the
bloggers I heard from in that period were mad at me the way they are mad
at Elon Musk now. Both Silver and Klein campaigned for Biden to step
aside, which I felt it was inappropriate – for Silver who was/is a
trusted polling analyst, and Klein who is a columnist for the NYT. I had
already listened to Klein’s interview with Nancy Pelosi. But I really
don’t like that both of them crossed a line I felt they had no business
crossing, becoming an advocate rather than a journalist. I can’t thikn
about either of them without thinking about that. But I listened anyway,
because I’m interested in both, and esp the combination.
The discussion was interesting and even agreeable until Klein asked Silver about his relationship with Peter Thiel. I had read that Silver was connected to Thiel in some way. Before they moved on neither commented on Thiel’s funding of the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that destroyed Gawker. I don’t know how they can both, for their careers, which depend on free speech, still have a kind word for Thiel. I never liked Gawker, they made fun of me, and others, in horrific ways, that weren’t even based on facts, the kind of bullshit pre-teens make up about people when they can’t think of anything else to say. Even though they hurt me, embarrassed me, aroused my hate, even if I had the kind of money Thiel has, I never in a million years would use that money to destroy them.
Thiel’s wealth is a weapon aimed at all our freedom. This is something imho that has to at least be mentioned when a journalist talks about Thiel, and neither of them did. I guess they feel safe from Thiel’s attacks, perhaps because they have adjusted their writing so as to never risk offending him, which totally undermines their integrity, if so. A good way to prove that’s not true would be to never mention him without saying his behavior the Hulk Hogan vs Gawker was reprehensible.
I still listened, even though they provoked my ire in a very fundamental way. I’d be interested in hearing from them, as a fellow old school blogger, if they justify Thiel’s funding of the Hogan lawsuit and if so, how. But I expect that both of them consider themselves in an elite class and wouldn’t deign to explain themselves, or the truth is something they don’t want disclosed. Either way, to be blogger-blunt, they both suck.
Update: I listened to more of the interview. I think these guys need to get out more. The reason Harris is having such a strong response is that we the voters are desperate to not have another term for Trump. We understand the stakes in the election. You always try to reduce it to numbers, when the facts are available at a more human level. The reason we love Kamala is born of desperation. Stop talking to each other, you already know why we care, because underneath it all you care because you’re human and you come from America too. And btw about VCs, I know a lot about them, I’m assuming at some point Klein will leave the NYT to make millions with Thiel, and I imagine Silver is already doing that, but you both have the disease. You assume great money makes people interesting. It can make them dangerous.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13/152314.html?title=ezraKleinAndNateSilver
Feds bust minor league Radar/Dispossessor ransomware gang
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The takedown may be small but any ransomware gang sent to the shops is good news in our book
The Dispossessor ransomware group is the latest to enter the cybercrime graveyard with the Feds proudly laying claim to the takedown.…
Race Is a Fiction, Racism Is Real
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/race-is-a-fiction-racism-is-real
Older Americans prepare for world altered by artificial intelligence
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
LoFone is a distraction-free phone with an E Ink Kaleido 3 color display and just a few simple apps
date: 2024-08-13, from: Liliputing
Smartphones have become ubiquitous mobile companions in recent years. And in many ways that’s probably a good thing: you can reach out and connect with friends, family, or emergency services from nearly anywhere. And you can use the same device to make calls, stay up to date on the news, and make payments in a […]
The post LoFone is a distraction-free phone with an E Ink Kaleido 3 color display and just a few simple apps appeared first on Liliputing.
On that two-hour convo between Trump and Musk
date: 2024-08-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Elon Musk made news yesterday during his conversation with former President Donald Trump, which live-streamed on X. In it, Musk advocated for reducing federal government spending and reducing deficits as a way of fighting inflation, and he angled for a role in the administration if Trump wins. Plus, what would it take to see an emergency interest rate cut? Then, A generally strong job market has led to economic improvements for people without higher levels of education.
The UK Should be Careful Not to Hand the Middle East to China
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: RAND blog
The UK’s commitment to its relationship with Oman remains stable but it should not take its position west of India for granted. As the UK turns its gaze to the Indo-Pacific, Beijing is moving to strengthen its relations with Oman and increase its influence in the region.
Article Spotlight: New species of Ontocetus from the Lower Pleistocene of the North Atlantic
date: 2024-08-13, from: PeerJ blog
Chrome iOS browser on Blink
date: 2024-08-13, from: OS News
Earlier this year, under pressure from the European Union, Apple was finally forced to open up iOS and allow alternative browser engines, at least in the EU. Up until then, Apple only allowed its own WebKit engine to run on iOS, meaning that even what seemed like third-party browsers – Chrome, Firefox, and so on – were all just Safari skins, running Apple’s WebKit underneath (with additional restrictions to make them perform worse than Safari). Even with other browser engines now being allowed on iOS in the EU, there’s still hurdles, as Apple requires browser makers to maintain two different browsers, one for the EU, and another one for the rest of the world. It seems the Chromium community is already working on bringing the Chromium Blink browser engine to iOS, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. A blog post by the open source consultancy company Igalia digs into the details, since they are contributing to the effort. While they’ve got the basics covered, it’s far from completed or ready for release. We’ve briefly looked at the current status of the project so far, but many functionalities still need to be supported. For example, regarding UI features, functionalities such as printing preview, download, text selection, request desktop site, zoom text, translate, find in page, and touch events are not yet implemented or are not functioning correctly. Moreover, there are numerous failing or skipped tests in unit tests, browser tests, and web tests. Ensuring that these tests are enabled and passing the test should also be a key focus moving forward. ↫ Gyuyoung Weblog I don’t use iOS, nor do I intend to any time soon, but the coming availability of browser engines that compete with WebKit is going to be great for the web. I’ve heard from so many web developers that Safari on iOS is a bit of a nightmare to support, since without any competition on iOS it often stagnates and lags behind in supporting features other browsers already implemented. With WebKit on iOS facing competition, that might change. Now, there’s a line of thought that all this will do is make Chrome even more dominant, but I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. Safari is still the default for most people, and changing defaults is not something most people will do, especially not the average iOS user. On top of that, this is only available in the EU, so I honestly don’t think we have to worry about this any time soon, but obviously, we do have to remain vigilant.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140481/chrome-ios-browser-on-blink/
This nasal vaccine that “prevents COVID from spreading” sounds promising. I haven’t…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045109-this-nasal-vaccine-that-p
‘She Turned Ghost White:’ How a Ragtag Group of Friends Tracked Down a Sex Trafficking Ringleader
date: 2024-08-13, from: 404 Media Group
Michael Pratt hid a massive sex trafficking ring in plain sight on PornHub. On the run from the FBI, an unexpected crew of ex-military, ex-intelligence officers and a lawyer tracked him down using his love of rare sneakers and crypto. For the first time, the group tells their story.
https://www.404media.co/girls-do-porn-michael-pratt-captured-investigation/
NASA Demonstrates ‘Ultra-Cool’ Quantum Sensor for First Time in Space
date: 2024-08-13, from: NASA breaking news
Future space missions could use quantum technology to track water on Earth, explore the composition of moons and other planets, or probe mysterious cosmic phenomena. NASA’s Cold Atom Lab, a first-of-its-kind facility aboard the International Space Station, has taken another step toward revolutionizing how quantum science can be used in space. Members of the science […]
SpaceX tries to wash away Texas pollution allegations
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Elon Musk: Aiming for Mars, but sometimes ends up with Mercury?
Updated Elon Musk’s SpaceX is disputing claims that its rockets are polluting water in Texas from the deluge system used to stop Starship ripping up its launchpad on lift-off.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/spacex_snaps_back_over_texas/
Low Expected Return
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/08/13/low-expected-return/
Huge drop in homicides in the first half of 2024 in many…
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Jason Kottke blog
https://kottke.org/24/08/0045108-huge-drop-in-homicides-in
Huawei’s Ascend 910 launches this October to challenge Nvidia’s H100
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
US sanctions may make things hard for Huawei, but the tech titan still has big GPU ambitions
Huawei is reportedly preparing a graphics chip on par with Nvidia’s popular H100, and will launch it later this year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/huaweis_ascend_910_launches_this/
Harris faces misogyny, racism in bid for White House
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
Critics of Vice President Kamala Harris have used her gender as a cudgel, saying subtly and overtly that a woman cannot hold the most powerful job in the free world. Gender scholars say those railing against Harris have also chosen another line of attack: her race. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
https://www.voanews.com/a/harris-faces-misogyny-racism-in-bid-for-white-house/7740559.html
Demand for AI servers causing a run on enterprise SSDs, hiking prices
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Bad news if you’re buying personal kit as consumer flash starts getting $$$
Demand for AI-capable infrastructure is causing server buyers to significantly up orders for enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), and this is having an inflationary impact on the price of flash-based storage units.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/demand_for_ai_servers_ssd_pricing/
US adds census category for Americans of Middle Eastern, North African descent
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
The next time there is a census in the United States in 2030, Americans who trace their ancestral roots to the Middle East and North Africa will have their own demographic category – MENA. VOA’s Genia Dulot went to the Little Arabia neighborhood of Anaheim, California, to see what people think about the change.
on deciding not to read a book
date: 2024-08-13, from: Ayjay blog
I had been thinking of reading Eliza Griswold’s new book Circle of Hope, but then a friend sent me a passage that included these sentences: Franklin Graham was different from his father. Billy Graham preached broadly about God; Franklin Graham spoke exclusively of Jesus, exemplifying the rightward political and cultural swing among most evangelicals in […]
https://blog.ayjay.org/on-deciding-not-to-read-a-book/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
One thing I want to have before I ship Godot on iPad is the ability to publish your game to the AppStore.
I couldn’t find any OAuth-system for authenticating. Looks like I must ask people to grab a token from their developer account and paste that before I can access Apple’s backends.
That seems very primitive. Am I missing something?
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112954858912858712
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
The other challenge is just how many commands are available via right-click, or keyboard+mouse action.
None of that is going to work, so everything must be rerouted to some finger idiom.
They will of course work with a keyboard/trackpad, but there should be no loss in access to features for people just holding their iPad without any additional hardware.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112954839170297876
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
To convince myself of the value of this hack I told myself (and the audience) that “there are more iPads than atoms in the universe so I am hoping I will find some users”
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112954813057983420
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-13, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Last night at the New England Godot user group I did an impromptu talk on bringing Godot to the iPad.
One topic that I went on for a while was how the smaller screen display had forced me to either redesign or eliminate plenty of configurable options in Godot.
For starters, almost every Editor tunable option had been removed. I didn’t see any reason to keep them.
Someone did point out “40 inch displays are barely enough space for me”. Made me wonder of the sanity of the effort :-)
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/112954806247193585
US standards body proposes atomic clocks in lunar orbit to keep Moon time
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Knowing precise time on satellite essential if we want accurate GPS-like system for exploration
Researchers at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have come up with a proposal for keeping track of time on the Moon – an essential for lunar navigation tools.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/nist_lunar_orbit_clocks/
@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-13, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)
The new rule for journalists is sweeping Threads and Mastodon. People have power we don’t use but could. We could turn off the interview after the first egregious lie, even if the reporters don’t.
http://scripting.com/2024/08/13.html#a122158
CalMatters/The Markup Honored for Leadership in Diversity and Solidarity, Community Innovation, by Asian American Journalists Association
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Markup blog
The awards honor thoughtful reporting, thorough coverage and strong storytelling and celebrate stories that would have gone untold without the cultural competence that AAJA journalists bring to the profession
Breaking Just Made Its Olympic Debut. Will It Return in 2032?
date: 2024-08-13, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The event won’t be featured at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, but that doesn’t mean its Olympic journey is over
Tropical Storm Ernesto is Headed Toward Puerto Rico
date: 2024-08-13, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: High wind speeds are expected to fan wildfire flames today in Athens • A scorching heat wave in South Korea won’t let up for another 10 days • The aurora borealis has been stunning viewers in the Northern Hemisphere and may be visible again tonight across northern and upper Midwest states.
THE TOP FIVE
- Tropical Storm Ernesto takes aim at Puerto Rico
Tropical Storm Ernesto formed in the Atlantic yesterday and is moving toward the eastern Caribbean islands. Puerto Rico has activated its National Guard and canceled school in preparation for landfall on Tuesday night. The storm is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain, flooding, and landslides to the islands before turning north toward Bermuda and possibly strengthening into a hurricane by Thursday. Forecasters don’t think Ernesto will make landfall on the U.S. mainland but said it could bring dangerous rip currents to the East Coast. This is the fifth named storm of the 2024 season and comes just a little over a week after Hurricane Debby struck Florida and swamped states along the southeast for several days.
NOAA
Hurricane season started on June 1 and usually peaks in late August or early September. A few days ago the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reiterated its warning that this season could be one of the busiest on record. “Sea surface temperatures remain abnormally high, and La Niña is still expected to emerge during the hurricane season, so the time to prepare is now,” said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
- Biden allows more tariff-free solar cell imports
President Biden yesterday gave the green light to additional tariff-free imports of solar cells, more than doubling the volume allowed – from 5 GW to 12.5 GW. The move is an effort to support production for domestic panel makers and put Americans to work manufacturing clean energy tech. Somewhat relatedly, New Mexico’s Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced recently that Ebon Solar will build a $942 million solar cell factory in the state. The facility will create more than 900 jobs. New Mexico is also set to be home to the largest solar cell and panel factory in the country when Maxeon Solar Technologies gets its planned facility up and running. “While a huge number of solar panel factories are opening in the U.S., there’s still a dearth of domestic supply of earlier stages of the supply chain – including solar cells,” wrote Michelle Lewis at Electrek.
- Heatmap poll: Wildlife is top concern for Americans when it comes to
renewable energy projects
In case you missed it yesterday: 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. The polling result 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, wrote Heatmap’s Jael Holzman. “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 Holzman. “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.”
- Analysis of heat-related deaths in Europe suggests adaptation
efforts are working
Nearly 50,000 people died from extreme heat in Europe in 2023, the hottest year on record, according to a new report from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and published in the journal Nature Medicine. Europe is warming faster than any other continent. Italy had the highest overall number of heat-related deaths last year, followed by Spain and Germany.
ISGlobal
There is a sliver of good news though: Last year’s estimated death toll of 47,690 was lower than the 60,000 heat-related deaths recorded in 2022, and could have been 80% higher if it weren’t for our growing knowledge of how to protect vulnerable populations, especially the elderly. “We see that since 2000, the minimum mortality temperature – the optimum temperature with the lowest mortality risk – has been gradually warming on average over the continent, from 15ºC in 2000-2004 to 17.7ºC in 2015-2019,” said Elisa Gallo, researcher at ISGlobal and lead author of the study. “This indicates that we are less vulnerable to heat than we were at the beginning of the century, probably as a result of general socio-economic progress, improvements in individual behavior, and public health measures such as the heat prevention plans implemented after the record-breaking summer of 2003.”
- World’s largest pumped hydro plant complete in China
Construction of the world’s largest pumped hydro plant is complete, according to Bloomberg. The Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station, located in China’s Hebei province, cost $2.6 billion to build and began operating in 2022 to help power the Beijing Winter Olympics, but it reportedly just became fully operational with the addition of the 12th and final turbine unit. Some of its units can be adjusted to match variable grid load and demand. The plant has a capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, making it larger than the Bath County plant in Virginia. But a 5GW project planned for Australia would be even bigger.
THE KICKER
The motorcycle Tom Cruise rode through Paris in the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony was a LiveWire Del Mar, an electric bike made by Harley-Davidson.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
https://heatmap.news/climate/tropical-storm-ernesto-forecast
“Left behind” Rust Belt workers have seen gains in recent years
date: 2024-08-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
An analysis from The Economist looks at people who feel “left behind” in America — those who got the short end of globalization and deindustrialization, people who took the biggest hits in recent decades from not having advanced education — and shows that that group has been seeing economic improvement under the Trump and Biden administrations. Plus, Harris and Trump look to nix federal taxes on tips, and consumers expect inflation to become less of a problem.
Orion SA says scammers conned company out of $60 million
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Incident sounds like a BEC fraud targeting an unwitting staffer
Luxembourg-based chemicals and manufacturing giant Orion SA is telling US regulators that it will lose out on around $60 million after it was targeted by a criminal wire fraud scheme.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/orion_sa_says_scammers_conned/
The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology
date: 2024-08-13, from: Quanta Magazine
A long-awaited study of the cosmic expansion rate suggests that when it comes to the Hubble tension, cosmologists are still missing something.The post The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Millions of campaign dollars aimed at tilting school voucher battle are flowing into state races
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Millions of dollars are being spent this year to steer voters toward candidates for Republican-led Legislatures who not only support school vouchers, but will become key figures in implementing school choice programs in states across the U.S.
Most recently, national pro-voucher advocates declared victory after spending more than $4.5 million in Tennessee’s primary election to defend and elect legislative candidates they claim will support school choice proposals in 2025 when state lawmakers are slated to return to the Capitol to enact policy.
Meanwhile, at least $14.8 million was spent by similar advocacy groups in the Texas primary election earlier in May to oust and replace voucher opponents. In Idaho, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on candidates who both opposed and supported school vouchers in the rural mountain-west state.
The spending spree is backed by the nation’s most high-profile voucher influencers, including the School Freedom Fund, a pro-voucher group tied to Club for Growth; the American Federation for Children, which was founded by former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; and Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family’s well-heeled free-market group.
Their focus is often on primary elections because in Republican-dominated states, primaries are seen as the most competitive hurdle to getting elected.
“Make no mistake — if you call yourself a Republican and oppose school freedom, you should expect to lose your next primary,” said David McIntosh, president of the School Freedom Fund, said in a statement shortly after Tennessee’s primary election. “As we continue to hear from different governors, we plan on repeating our results from Tennessee and Texas across the country. The school freedom revolution is just beginning.”
Thirty-two states have implemented some sort of voucher program in the U.S., and some have been in place for decades, often with strict income requirements or narrowly tailored for students with disabilities.
Yet, over the years, there’s been a noticeable push among Republican leaders to make available taxpayer-funded vouchers, or scholarships that can follow a child regardless of income to any public or private school. About a dozen states now have such programs. But proposals are being considered in many more, with varying degrees of legislative support.
Idaho, Tennessee and Texas all weighed sweeping school voucher proposals over the past year, but faced resistance not only from Democrats — who don’t hold as much political power — but also Republican members wary of directing public education dollars away from their districts.
Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee was forced to abandon his plans for universal school choice earlier this year after divisions inside the GOP-controlled Statehouse failed to come to a consensus on key specifics.
The failure prompted Lee to break with his previous stance of remaining quiet during GOP primary elections and instead publicly pick favorites this year in a handful of legislative races.
Additionally, outside groups like Club for Growth, American Federation for Children, Americans for Prosperity Action, and others poured $4.5 million across 16 House and Senate legislative races. Three of the open primaries saw almost a million dollars spent in each of the races.
Club for Growth spent the majority of the money, pouring $3.6 million across five races and ultimately winning four of those seats.
Lee didn’t endorse any opponents of a sitting Republican incumbent, but he did throw support behind candidates in four open legislative seats — three of which were successful.
The modest gains for Lee’s cause came at a big political cost.
After Lee endorsed Sen. Jon Lundberg, this year’s voucher bill sponsor, former President Donald Trump backed Lundberg’s opponent, Bobby Harshbarger, son of U.S. Rep. Diane Harshbarger. After Harshbarger was declared the winner, Trump swiped at Lee on social media, calling him a RINO, or “Republican in Name Only” even though he endorsed Lee in his 2022 reelection.
Lee has so far brushed aside the criticism, and instead released a statement declaring that Republican primary voters “sent a clear message: It’s time to deliver school choice for Tennessee families.”
Focusing solely on primary voters may be a winning strategy to securing key state level races, but it comes at a cost of electing candidates who may not represent the average voter, said John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University.
“A very small proportion of the Tennessee voting public is driving these outcomes, that’s not good for democracy,” he said.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also touted major wins for voucher advocates in the aftermath of the state’s runoff primary election in May.
Months prior, back in late 2023, a group of House Republicans joined Democrats to help defeat a school voucher bill — delivering a blow to one of Abbott’s top legislative priorities.
Similar to the playbook used in Tennessee, Abbott and national voucher groups pivoted to ousting voucher opponents in the primary election in order to secure a legislative victory in 2025.
Club for Growth ultimately took credit for removing 10 GOP incumbents who had opposed Abbott’s voucher push after targeting 14 races in primary and runoff election. Club for Growth reported spending $8.8 million and Abbott spent at least $6 million between the primary and runoff elections.
“The Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass school choice,” Abbott posted after the runoff election.
And in Idaho, four anti-school voucher Republican incumbents lost their reelection bids after the American for Children PAC spent more than $300,000 to promote school choice candidates.
During the 2022 election cycle, the organization spent $9 million on state legislative races to support school choice friendly candidates but CEO Tommy Schultz promised to spend “at least $10 million” this year.
“To date, AFC and its affiliates have deployed more than $9 million in state legislative primary elections across the country, and we will spend millions more in the general election to advance school choice policies for American families,” Schultz said in a statement to AP.
Wildfires spread on the outskirts of Greece’s capital
date: 2024-08-13, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: One person has died and thousands of homes and businesses have been evacuated due to the fires close to Athens, all during the country’s peak tourist season. The fire started some 20 miles away from the capital. We’ll hear about the latest developments.. Also, Western airlines are dropping routes to China. Why?
Who uses LLM prompt injection attacks IRL? Mostly unscrupulous job seekers, jokesters and trolls
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Because apps talking like pirates and creating ASCII art never gets old
Despite worries about criminals using prompt injection to trick large language models (LLMs) into leaking sensitive data or performing other destructive actions, most of these types of AI shenanigans come from job seekers trying to get their resumes past automated HR screeners – and people protesting generative AI for various reasons, according to Russian security biz Kaspersky.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/who_uses_llm_prompt_injection/
Getting up close and personal with Concorde, Concordski, and Buran
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The Reg flies to Germany to visit the Speyer and Sinsheim palaces of engineering marvels
Geek’s Guide The Register’s Geek’s Guide series for explorers who love feats of tech and engineering prowess took a trip to the European mainland to see exhibits ranging from an Air France Concorde and a Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 “Concordski” to a Buran prototype, alongside various industrial marvels.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/geeks_guide_speyer_and_sinsheim/
UK semi industry exposed to supply chain risk, China state ownership
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Report suggests govt get cracking on a proper ownership structure survey and … hang on, did they forget the Midlands?
UK government may need to revisit the National Semiconductor Strategy to guard against potential supply chain disruptions and succeed in nurturing a successful domestic semiconductor ecosystem for the future.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/uk_semi_industry_exposed_to/
IndieWeb Carnival: Rituals
date: 2024-08-13, from: Manu - I write blog
<p>Ritual, <em>a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or revered objects.</em> Nothing in my life fits that definition.</p>That’s it, that was my entry for this month’s IndieWeb Carnival on the topic of Rituals. See you next month!
I’m just kidding. Well, I’m partly kidding. I’m serious when I say that I don’t have anything that fits that definition in my life. I’d love to, but I don’t. I’ve always been fascinated by rituals and strict routines. And believe me when I say that I tried to implement them in my life many many times before but always failed. I tried it with my meditation routine, with my reading habits, and with my sleeping schedule. Nothing sticks and introducing a ritual so far has been close to impossible. I don’t know why. I’m just bad at living a structured life even though I’d love to. But I think that’s mostly because I’m not really happy with the life I’m currently living and settling into a routine is hard when you know, deep down, that you want to change everything.
That said, rituals are awesome. There’s something deeply enjoyable in seeing someone performing something in a very ritualistic way. Which is why I always enjoyed things like the Japanese tea ceremony. This idea of doing something the same way over and over again is very appealing to me. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll manage to do the same myself.
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https://manuelmoreale.com/@/page/9TU5fOSHyQmujwRz
AI chatbots amplify creation of false memories, boffins reckon – or do they?
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
We can misremember it for you wholesale
AI chatbots, known for their habit of hallucinating, can induce people to hallucinate too, researchers claim.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/ai_chatbots_amplify_creation_of/
Today in SCV History (Aug. 13)
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
1961 – First Mass celebrated at new Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church (3rd building) in Newhall. Cardinal McIntyre attends [story
https://scvnews.com/today-in-scv-history-aug-13/
DEF CON badge disagreement gets physical as firmware dev removed from event stage
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing?
DEF CON The electronic badges at DEF CON have long been a hot commodity for attendees, tinkerers, and collectors, though this year they’re getting attention for an entirely different reason.…
2024-08-11 Serving bare git on the web
date: 2024-08-13, 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 IgnoreCase
IndexOrderDefault Descending Date
IndexHeadInsert "<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1\">"
IndexOptions Charset=UTF-8
The .top.html file contains a fragment to add to the top of
the index:
<style>
body { max-width: 80ch }
table { overflow-x: auto }
td { padding: 0.5ex 1em 0 0; white-space: nowrap }
td:nth-child(3) { white-space: wrap }
</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
‘Digital arrest’ scams are big in India and may be spreading
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Bad guys claim they’re cops, keep you on hold for hours until you pay to make loved ones’ crimes go away
A woman in the Indian city of Delhi last week found herself under “digital arrest” – a form of scam in which victims make payments to criminals posing as law enforcement officers.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/india_digital_arrest_scams/
Elon Musk claims live Trump interview on X derailed by DDoS
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-14, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Once-great platform tanks another major political livestream, bigly
Elon Musk has blamed a “DDoS” attack for a forty-minute delay in the start of his live-streamed interview, hosted on X, with presidential candidate Donald Trump.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/trump_musk_livestream_ddos_delay/
Elon Musk interview of Trump marred by technical issues
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s interview with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk finally got underway on Musk’s social media platform X on Monday evening, following a lengthy delay caused by technical problems that kept many users from accessing the live stream.
Musk, who has endorsed Trump, began the event at 8:42 p.m., more than 40 minutes after the scheduled start time. He blamed the difficulties on a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down, though his claim was not confirmed.
More than 1.3 million people were listening about 45 minutes into the conversation, according to a counter on X.
Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in.
The former president sounded at times as if he had a lisp, many listeners on X pointed out. Some said it made him sound like a cartoon character, others suggested it could be due to audio compression issues.
The technical issues recalled a similar event on X in May 2023, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his bid for the Republican presidential nomination due to glitches on the platform.
At the time, Trump mocked DeSantis on his own, social media platform, Truth Social. “My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!)” Trump posted, “Yours does not.”
Ahead of Monday’s event, Musk had written: “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation.” X did not respond to requests for details or evidence of the alleged cyberattack.
Musk spent much of the early part of the interview lauding Trump for his bravery during the attempt on his life on July 13, when his ear was struck by a bullet.
Musk, the world’s richest person, announced his support for Trump shortly after the shooting. He backed Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 but has tacked rightward since.
Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the attack, for a rally in October.
As the conversation unfolded, Trump delivered his usual mix of grievances, exaggerated claims and personal attacks, with Musk offering occasional encouragement.
Trump claimed without evidence that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were still president and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — all authoritarian strongmen — as at the “top of their game.”
He also expressed anger that Vice President Kamala Harris had been swapped in for Biden on the Democratic ticket.
“She hasn’t done an interview since this whole scam started,” Trump said, claiming falsely that Biden dropping off the ticket was a “coup.” Trump had been leading Biden in many polls of battleground states likely to be critical to the outcome of the Nov. 5 election but is now trailing Harris in some of the same states.
In an interview that was light on policy detail, Trump also appeared to praise Musk for firing workers.
“You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say: ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike — I won’t mention the name of the company — but they go on strike. And you say: ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone.’”
Trump back on X
The interview provided an opportunity for Trump to seize the limelight at a time when his campaign is facing new headwinds.
Harris has erased Trump’s lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies since she replaced Biden as the party’s candidate three weeks ago. Her momentum could get another boost from the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.
Trump returned to X, formerly known as Twitter, with a series of posts on Monday for the first time in a year, reviving an account that had served as a main method of communication in previous campaigns and his four years in the White House, including his followers’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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 attack, citing concerns he would incite violence.
Trump frequently posts on his Truth Social platform, which was launched in February 2022, but his posts there reach a much smaller audience than on X.
Musk backs Trump
Musk, who heads electric car company Tesla, has echoed Trump’s false claims about voter fraud and Biden’s immigration policies.
Musk has started an external super PAC spending group 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, including Trump’s running mate Senator JD Vance, have opposed those subsidies.
https://www.voanews.com/a/elon-musk-interview-of-trump-marred-by-technical-issues/7740274.html
AMD won’t patch Sinkclose security bug on older Zen CPUs
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Kernel mode not good enough for you? Maybe you’ll like SMM of this
Some AMD processors dating back to 2006 have a security vulnerability that’s a boon for particularly underhand malware and rogue insiders, though the chip designer is only patching models made since 2020.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/amd_sinkclose_patches/
Small datacenters face the axe under China’s new energy policy
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Tech industry told to clean up its act – and help others to do likewise – in pursuit of 2035 ‘Beautiful China’ goal
China’s digital infrastructure providers have been told they need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption, plus consider ending use of smaller facilities, under a sweeping “comprehensive green transition” plan announced yesterday.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/china_green_policy_tech_elements/
Judge rules RFK Jr. not a state resident, can’t be on New York ballot
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
ALBANY, N.Y. — A judge ruled Monday that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name should not appear on New York’s ballot, saying that he falsely claimed a New York residence on nominating petitions despite living in California.
Kennedy’s lawyers quickly vowed to appeal ahead of the Aug. 15 deadline. If the judge’s ruling is upheld, it would not only keep Kennedy off the ballot in New York but could also lead to challenges in other states where he used an address in New York City’s suburbs to gather signatures.
The ruling came after a North Carolina judge decided earlier Monday that Kennedy can remain on that state’s ballot following a separate challenge on different grounds.
Judge Christina Ryba, in her 34-page decision, said the rented bedroom Kennedy claimed as his home in the state wasn’t a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration” and furthering his political candidacy.
“Given the size and appearance of the spare bedroom as shown in the photographs admitted into evidence, the Court finds Kennedy’s testimony that he may return to that bedroom to reside with his wife, family members, multiple pets, and all of his personal belongings to be highly improbable, if not preposterous,” the judge wrote.
Ryba said evidence submitted in trial showed Kennedy had a “long-standing pattern” of borrowing addresses from friends and relatives so he could maintain his voter registration in New York State while actually residing in California.
“Using a friend’s address for political and voting purposes, while barely stepping foot on the premises, does not equate to residency under the Election Law,” the judge wrote. “To hold otherwise would establish a dangerous precedent and open the door to the fraud and political mischief that the Election Law residency rules were designed to prevent.”
Clear Choice Action, the Democrat-aligned political action committee that backed the legal challenge, said the ruling makes it clear that Kennedy “lied about his residency and provided a false address on his filing papers and candidate petitions in New York, intentionally misleading election officials and betraying voters’ trust.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of several voters in the state, claims Kennedy’s state nominating petition falsely listed a residence in well-to-do Katonah while actually living in the Los Angeles area since 2014, when he married “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.
Kennedy, who led a New York-based environmental group for decades and whose namesake father was a New York senator, argued during the trial that he has lifelong ties to New York and intends to move back.
During the trial, which ran for less than four days, Kennedy said he currently rents a room in a friend’s home in Katonah, about 65 kilometers north of midtown Manhattan, though has only slept in that room once due to his constant campaign travel.
The 70-year-old candidate testified that his move to California a decade ago was so he could be with his wife, and that he always planned to return to New York.
Barbara Moss, who rents the room to Kennedy, testified that he pays her $500 a month. But she acknowledged there is no written lease and that Kennedy’s first payment wasn’t made until after the New York Post published a story casting doubt on Kennedy’s claim that he lived at that address.
The judge also heard from a longtime friend of Kennedy’s who said the candidate had regularly been an overnight guest at his own Westchester home from 2014 through 2017, but was not a tenant there as Kennedy had claimed.
Attorneys representing several New York voters grilled Kennedy in often heated exchanges as they sought to make their case, pointing to government documents including a federal statement of candidacy with a California address, and even a social media video in which Kennedy talks about training ravens at his Los Angeles home.
“Kennedy’s testimony that none of the furniture, bedding and other decorative items in the spare bedroom belonged to him, as well as his testimony that his wife and family, his extensive book collection, and his wide assortment of domestic and exotic pets all remained in California, was further compelling evidence that Kennedy lacks the necessary physical presence and intent to remain” at the Katonah address, the judge wrote in her ruling.
Kennedy has the potential to do better than any independent presidential candidate in decades thanks to his famous name and a loyal base. Both Democrat and Republican strategists have expressed concerns that he could affect their candidate’s chances.
Kennedy’s campaign has said he has enough signatures to qualify in a majority of states, but his ballot drive has faced challenges and lawsuits in several.
Kennedy has told reporters that getting knocked off the ballot in New York could lead to lawsuits in other states where his campaign listed the same address.
After the trial ended Thursday, Kennedy argued that people who signed his petitions deserve a chance to vote for him.
“Those Americans want to see me on the ballot. They want to have a choice,” he said.
FBI investigating after Trump campaign says it was hacked by Iran
date: 2024-08-13, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. FBI said on Monday it was investigating after Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said its internal communications were hacked and the campaign blamed the Iranian government.
The former president said on Saturday that Microsoft had informed his campaign that Iran had hacked one of its websites. Trump said Iran was “only able to get publicly available information.”
The FBI is also investigating an alleged hack targeting advisers to the campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The FBI began the investigation in June, when Biden was still running for president, suspecting that Iran was behind the attempts to steal data from two U.S. presidential campaigns, the newspaper said, citing sources.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden withdrew his bid last month.
The Iranian government has denied that it hacked the Trump campaign.
Trump’s campaign has pointed to a report on Friday by Microsoft researchers that indicated that Iranian government-linked hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on a U.S. presidential campaign in June.
The report added that the hackers took over an account belonging to a former political adviser and then used it to target the official. It did not provide further details on the targets’ identities.
COC administration undergoes reshuffle
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Signal
There has been an apparent reshuffling of the College of the Canyons administration as Deputy Chancellor Diane Fierro and Sharlene Coleal, assistant superintendent of business services, are set to retire, […]
The post COC administration undergoes reshuffle appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/coc-administration-undergoes-reshuffle/
Faith Degroot Commits to TMU Volleyball
date: 2024-08-13, from: SCV New (TV Station)
Faith Degroot is going to continue her volleyball career at The Master’s University
https://scvnews.com/faith-degroot-commits-to-tmu-volleyball/
Brush fire breaks out near Newhall Avenue
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Signal
By Lucas Nava and Katherine Quezada A brush fire broke out near Newhall Avenue and the State Route 14 freeway and grew to nearly 3 acres on Monday afternoon, according […]
The post Brush fire breaks out near Newhall Avenue appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/small-brush-fire-breaks-out-near-newhall-avenue/
Off and learning: Hart High welcomes Hawks for first day of school
date: 2024-08-13, from: The Signal
Newhall Avenue was lined up with cars Monday morning as parents dropped off their kids at Hart High for the first day of the 2024-25 school year. Senior Ashley Santillan […]
The post Off and learning: Hart High welcomes Hawks for first day of school appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.
https://signalscv.com/2024/08/off-and-learning-hart-high-welcomes-hawks-for-first-day-of-school/
Reckoning: Part 2 — Object Lesson
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Alex Russel’s blog
https://infrequently.org/2024/08/object-lesson/
Go 1.23 is released
date: 2024-08-13, updated: 2024-08-13, from: Go language blog
Go 1.23 adds iterators, continues loop enhancements, improves compatibility, and more.