News gathered 2024-08-22

In August 2023, we launched 404 Media with a novel idea: pay journalists to do journalism. Here we are, a year later.

Your SoCal Weather Report For Thursday, August 22: Cooler weather should last into the weekend

The Stopgap Sports Bundle

date: 2024-08-22, from: 500-ish blog, A collection of posts by M.G. Siegler of around 500 words in length.

Let the Clock Run Wild

Why I feel bad about Biden

Note: You can skip the first five minutes, it’s a long preamble on a different subject. I left it in because it’s interesting imho.

It’s possible that what happened to Joe Biden in the debate is like something that happened to me almost ten years ago when I was turning 60. I tell the story in this podcast. It’s still possible he was the best choice to go against Trump. We’ll know soon enough. But there’s something to learn here. No one wants their life to be over. No one wants to be thanked. They want you to let them keep going. The thing is that all through life people say you can’t do what you then go on to do. It happens over and over. One day, after a life of accomplishment, you realize everyone refers to you in the past tense, but you’re still here, you want to keep doing the stuff you do so well. But they won’t let you. That’s why I feel bad about what happened with President Biden, because I’ve had the experience myself. Anyway what’s done is done, we all have to get behind soon-to-be President Harris. And stand behind her as she is attacked, and they try to get rid of her.

Anyway, the substance of this podcast, which I recorded yesterday, doesn’t start until 5:25. Up until then it’s a rambling story about Fox News and how a little truth slipped out when they covered the assassination attempt on Trump a few weeks ago. You can skip over that part if you don’t find it interesting, but I hope you do listen to the part when I had an experience that may have been like Biden’s at the debate, and how it was probably just a panic attack – these things happen – our candidates are people, and they have bodies that do strange things sometimes. No matter what I feel for Biden and that’s the story I wanted to tell here.

PeerJ Award Winners at WSeS-11

The 11th Workshop of the Selenium and Sulfur Redox and Catalysis Network (WSeS-11) chaired by Dr. Agata Pacuła-Miszewska and Prof. Jacek Ścianowski was held in Torun, Poland, from 25 to 26 July 2024. The meeting gathered 80 participants from more than 10 countries and 4 continents. This 2-day event included plenary and invited lectures, oral presentations […]

AGI is on clients’ radar but far from reality, says Gartner

Controversial concept may not even be a useful goal in computing

Gartner is warning that any prospect of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is at least 10 years away and perhaps not certain to ever arrive. It might not even be a worthwhile pursuit, the analyst says.…

AMD says Microsoft’s next big Windows 11 update will improve Zen 5 CPU performance

AMD says Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 update will improve performance for its new Zen 5 CPUs. The Ryzen 9000 series launched earlier this month, and failed to live up to AMD’s performance promises in most reviews. After rumors of a Windows bug, AMD has revealed that AMD-specific branch prediction code will be optimized in Windows 11 version 24H2, which is expected to ship next month. ↫ Tom Warren at The Verge It’s wild how seemingly small things can have a major impact on the launch of a new processor (or GPU) line these days. The main culprit behind the disappointing benchmarks upon launch of the Ryzen 9000 series turned out to be the 9000’s new branch prediction method, the code for which is not yet available in Windows. However, AMD ran their tests in “Admin mode”, which yielded results as if such code was actually present. AMD has said the branch prediction code needed to unlock the full potential of Ryzen 9000 chips in Windows and yield benchmark results comparable to AMD’s own internal tests and PR promiseswill be released next month as part of “Windows 11, version 24H2 in preview through the Windows Insider Program (Release Preview Channel – Build 26100) or by downloading the ISO here“. AMD claims this update will benefit users of previous Zen 5 and Zen 3 processors as well, but to a lesser degree. No word on if this issue affects Linux users in any way.

Launch Considerations

One aspect your piece did not cover is the increasing awareness by airlines, ocean transport companies, and others, of the costly dislocations caused by the increase in commercial space launches.

State Street Is Alive

People gathered on the patios of nearby restaurants, hung out on benches, sat on curbs, and danced in the street.

DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II tablet sells for $149 and up

The DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II is a tablet with a 10.1 inch, 1920 x 1200 pixel touchscreen display, support for up to 16GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 128GB of eMMC 5.1 storage, and support for Ubuntu 24.04 or Android software. It’s also one of the first tablets powered by a SpacemiT K1 processor based on […]

The Stripped-Down Tesla Is Exactly What We Need

The independent Tesla-tracking website Not A Tesla App recently shared news of a subtle change to the Tesla Model 3 that’s offered in Mexico compared to those for sale in the U.S. In place of the vegan faux leather that had been the sole option for its seats, Tesla offered ordinary cloth fabric as a choice. Luxury touches such as the heated or cooled seats aren’t available in this version of the Model 3. Nor is the rear touchscreen for backseat passengers to control their own temperature settings, a key addition to the redesigned Model 3 that recently debuted.

These changes don’t knock a lot off the cost of the EV: This rear-wheel drive 3 still costs 749,000 pesos, or about $40,000. But the introduction of a more stripped-down Tesla could be a signal that, just maybe, a more affordable Tesla is around the corner.

There’s no getting around it: Money may be the biggest stumbling block for EVs in the United States — at least as range anxiety dissipates thanks to better battery technology, growing charger networks, and people simply having more exposure to electric vehicles. The gap may be closing, but, in general, new EVs remain pricier than entry-level gas cars. Meanwhile, high interest rates are depressing auto sales of every kind and making comparably expensive EVs seem out of reach.

Electrics are expensive because of the costs to make their enormous batteries, the need to retool assembly lines to build a whole new kind of car, and other reasons mostly related to manufacturing. But on top of all that, they’re expensive because of how they’re positioned as a product. To get people excited about electric cars and see them not just as wimpy golf carts, carmakers led by Tesla sold the EV as the tech-forward ride of tomorrow. The look of EVs became all touchscreens and LEDs, smartphone features that meant to have us equate “electric” with “future.”

That design approach, combined with an emphasis on the zoominess an electric powertrain can deliver, gave EVs a sheen of luxury, even though the spartan conditions inside a Tesla bear little resemblance to the cushy environs of a Mercedes-Benz. It allowed Tesla — and Rivian and Lucid — to keep their startup companies afloat by selling expensive cars at the outset to maximize revenue. (It didn’t hurt that the high sticker price provided some room to hide the cost of the battery.)

That worked for the first phase of the EV revolution, when early tech adopters and climate-focused drivers jumped in. But that era is over. As the next era begins, success or failure will rest with the millions of people who make their car decisions on dollars and cents. The declining cost of batteries as companies get better at building them will help the electric vehicle get cheaper. But the other side of the coin is for companies to start selling the EV as just a car — a better one than your dinosaur gasoline-burner, yes, but not some smartphone on wheels sent back from the future.

This isn’t an entirely foreign notion. Cars have long been sold with various “trim levels” that include different packages of features at different price tiers. They’re usually designated by the alphabet soup you see at the end of a vehicle name, like Toyota Corolla XSE or Ford F-150 STX. In the case of the F-150, the extra technology and performance packages can double the starting price of $37,000.

You might think this is an annoying way to buy a car. The system hooks buyers with the promise of a low starting price, only for many to realize the car they actually want is $15,000 more. At the very least, though, it gives you the option to buy the cheap car if you can live without the fancier wheels, heated seats, and advanced suspension.

Gasoline cars could stand to do better in this regard, but it’s especially important for electric vehicles. Today’s market abounds with crossover EVs that pass themselves off as luxurious to get away with a price that bloats into the low $40,000s. Even with a few vehicles coming in the $30,000s, like the basic trim level of the Chevy Equinox EV and the promised revival of the Chevy Bolt, the useful-but-simple EV is a rare thing.

An EV is still an EV if it’s unremarkable. It’s just as good for reducing greenhouse emissions if it looks like my old Ford Escort on the inside: plain cloth seats, chunky physical buttons, and an analog speedometer on the dash. In many ways, it’d be better.

Perhaps this is the pathway to what Tesla, Ford, and others envision when they promise us the $25,000 EV. You’ll probably give up a little in terms of battery size and range, and lose some of the amenities and creature comforts. But what you get, finally, is a truly affordable EV. As someone who grew up on dead-simple transportation, I’d welcome it.

Start of Pacific Coast Open Is Fabulous Day of Polo

On This Day

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-22, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Andorra

“Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell. The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is currently headed by two co-princes: the bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain and the president of France. Its capital and largest city is Andorra la Vella.”

Multiple Heat Records are Falling in Texas

Current conditions: The remnants of Hurricane Ernesto are headed toward Scotland • Unusually warm winter weather is raising wildfire risks in Australia • An August cold snap could bring snow to California’s Sierra Nevada this weekend.

THE TOP FIVE

Texas heat dome breaks multiple temperature records

Heat advisories remain in effect across most of the state of Texas. The National Weather service says “numerous new records” are being set as temperatures climb into the triple digits. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera counted at least four new monthly heat records in various cities, and one all-time high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Abilene:

The heat dome is expected to linger through the end of the week before things cool down slightly over the weekend. The heat will then move north, bringing some weather whiplash to the currently-cool Midwest and raising temperatures by up to 30 degrees by early next week.

Ford pumps the breaks on EV plans

Yesterday Ford announced it is canceling its much-anticipated three-row EV crossover and producing it only as a hybrid, and delaying the release of a new medium-sized electric pickup truck to 2027. The moves deal a substantial blow to the company’s future EV offerings and mean “the North American car market may not see the explosive growth of EV options — the kind of efflorescence already happening in Europe and China — until the end of this decade,” said Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer.

U.S. sales of electric vehicles actually reached a record high in the second quarter of 2024, hitting 330,463. That’s a 11.3% rise year-over-year, and a 23% jump compared to the first quarter. Ford’s quarterly EV sales were up 61% year-over-year. “The growth will, at times, be very slow, as all-time horizons in the automobile business are vast, but the long-term trajectory suggests that higher volumes of EVs will continue over time,” said Cox Automotive Industry Insights Director Stephanie Valdez Streaty. “As EV infrastructure and technology improve, and more models are launched, many shoppers sitting on the fence will eventually choose an EV.”

Climate activists protest Exxon Mobil at DNC event

Tensions were a little bit heightened at the Democratic National Convention yesterday after climate activists infiltrated an event hosted by Punchbowl News that featured conversations sponsored by fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil. The activists chanted “Exxon lies, people die” before being removed. Climate groups including Friends of the Earth, Climate Hawks Vote, and Oil Change U.S. released a statement slamming the event and warning that Big Oil is trying to “shape the policies of the Democratic Party.”

Study: Antarctica at risk of contamination as ice melts

A new study published in the journal Global Change Biology warns that Antarctica’s ecosystems may be at risk of contamination from man-made pollution and non-native species that float down from places like Australia, South Africa, and South America. The problem is made worse by the shrinking sea ice, which acts as a barrier. “If the recent decline in Antarctic sea ice continues, then living things floating at the surface, or attached to floating objects, could have an easier time colonizing the continent, which may have big impacts on ecosystems,” said Dr. Hannah Dawson, who led the study as part of her PhD at UNSW Sydney.

Carbon removal registry Isometric delivers first credits

Carbon removal registry Isometric today announced its first verified delivery of CO2 removal credits to companies including JPMorganChase, Stripe, and Shopify, which were purchased through bio-oil sequestration firm Charm Industrial. Isometric aims to “raise the bar for quality in carbon markets” by using robust monitoring, reporting, and verification measures to certify the credits after the carbon has been removed, rather than before. The verification is paid for by buyers instead of suppliers to avoid conflicts of interest. Buyers pay Isometric a flat fee, “ensuring one credit is always equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide durably removed from the atmosphere.”

THE KICKER

Renewables now make up 30% of total U.S. power generating capacity, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-08-22, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

“Genocide does not have a definition writ in stone. International law is international politics. Still, politics are made of human truths. This is a human truth. The Palestinians in this photo have no option but death. They have been driven there by Israel. Israel is genocidal.”

Ransomware batters critical industries, but takedowns hint at relief

Whether attack slowdown continues downward trend is the million dollar question that security researchers can’t answer

Critical industrial organizations continued to be hammered by ransomware skids in July, while experts suggest the perps are growing in confidence that law enforcement won’t intervene.…

Update on NASA Wallops Aircraft and Airfield Operations

The NASA Aircraft Management Advisory Board (AMAB), which manages the agency’s aircraft fleet, has decided to relocate the agency’s P-3 aircraft at Wallops to Langley Research Center. The decision is part of a long-running, NASA-wide aircraft enterprise-management activity to consolidate the aircraft fleet where feasible and achieve greater operational efficiencies while reducing our infrastructure footprint. […]

Gateway: Energizing Exploration

Discover the cutting-edge technology powering Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station.

From Commodity to Asset: The Truth Behind Rising House Prices

From cybercrime to terrorism, FBI director says America faces many elevated threats ‘all at once’

L.A. County has spent millions to recruit more court reporters, so why is a shortage dragging on?

L.A. County courts have 117 court reporter vacancies as of this week, which is about 26% of the total positions.

The Fed’s steering the economy. When will it change course?

The U.S. economy added 800,000 fewer jobs than originally thought between the first quarter of last year and this year, according to updated data from the Labor Department. It’s no crisis, but it does mean the labor market has been cooling faster than expected. It’s yet another reason people will be dissecting every signal they can from the Federal Reserve on when it might cut interest rates. Also, startups are increasingly a target for spies.

Microsoft resurrects Windows Recall for upcoming preview

Insiders get ready for Redmond’s second run at AI snoopware

Microsoft is testing its controversial Windows Recall technology again with a cautious release to Windows Insiders in the hope of nipping another security and privacy outcry in the bud.…

One of the U.K.’s most high-profile tech entrepreneurs confirmed dead

From the BBC World Service: British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s body has been recovered after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning. Then, Canada’s rail freight transport network is coming to a halt over a job contracts. And Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis due to soaring rents and property prices. It’s estimated that more than 120,000 people are now homeless.

The Windows® 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering (1996)

This uni thought it would be a good idea to do a phishing test with a fake Ebola scare

Needless to say, it backfired in a big way

University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) students may be relieved to hear that an emailed warning about a staff member infected with the Ebola virus was just a phishing exercise.…

Choose Your Own Adventure with Microsoft 365

You awake to find yourself in a dark room… with an empty wallet

Did you have a collection of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books? Microsoft offers something similar in the form of its subscription plan advisor, though it’s tricky to avoid one particular priced outcome.…

Dispute stops Canadian freight railroads, could cause US disruption

TORONTO — Both of Canada’s major freight railroads have come to a full stop because of a contract dispute with their workers, an impasse that could bring significant economic harm to businesses and consumers in Canada and the U.S. if the trains don’t resume running soon.

Canadian National and CPKC railroads both locked out their employees after the deadline of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Thursday passed without new agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference that represents some 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers.

All rail traffic in Canada and all shipments crossing the U.S. border have stopped, although CPKC and CN’s trains will continue to operate in the U.S. and Mexico.

Billions of dollars of goods each month move between Canada and the U.S. via rail, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“If rail traffic grinds to a halt, businesses and families across the country will feel the impact,” Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement. “Manufacturing workers, their communities and consumers of all sorts of products will be left reeling from supply chain disruptions.”

There will be other impacts as well, including on the more than 30,000 commuters in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal who will be scrambling to find a new way into work because their trains won’t be able to operate over CPKC’s tracks while the railroad is shut down.

Business groups had urged the government to intervene, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declined to force both sides into arbitration.

CN said it was waiting for a response on one final offer made late Wednesday when it locked the workers out. CPKC spokesperson Patrick Waldron said the union rejected its last offer that CEO Keith Creel made at the table in person. Both railroads have said they would end the lockout if the union agreed to binding arbitration.

“Despite the lockout, the Teamsters remain at the bargaining table with both companies,” the union said in a statement.

CN had been negotiating with the Teamsters for nine months while CPKC had been trying to reach an agreement for a year, the unions said.

Many companies across all industries rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products, so without regular rail service they may have to cut back or even close.

That’s why the U.S. government kept rail workers from going on strike two years ago and forced them to accept a contract despite their concerns about demanding schedules and the lack of paid sick time.

Canada’s railroads have sometimes shut down briefly in the past during contract negotiations — most recently CPKC was offline for a couple of days in March 2022 — but it is rare for both railroads to stop at the same time. The impact on businesses will be magnified because both CN and CPKC have stopped.

Both CN and CPKC had been gradually shutting down since last week ahead of the contract deadline. Shipments of hazardous chemicals and perishable goods were the first to stop, so they wouldn’t be stranded somewhere on the tracks.

As the Canadian contract talks were coming down to the wire, one of the biggest U.S. railroads, CSX, broke with the U.S. freight rail industry’s longstanding practice of negotiating jointly for years with the unions. CSX reached a deal with several of its 13 unions that cover 25% of its workers ahead of the start of national bargaining later this year.

The new five-year contracts will provide 17.5% raises, better benefits and vacation time if they are ratified. The unions that have signed deals with CSX include part of the SMART-TD union representing conductors in one region, the Transportation Communications Union, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and the Transport Workers Union. TCU President Artie Maratea said he’s proud that his union reached a deal “without years of unnecessary delay and stall tactics.”

Trudeau has been reluctant to force arbitration because he doesn’t want to offend the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and other unions, but he urged both sides to reach a deal Wednesday because of the tremendous economic damage that would follow a full shutdown.

“It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table,” Trudeau said to reporters in Gatineau, Quebec. “Millions of Canadians, workers, farmers, businesses, right across the country, are counting on both sides to do the work and get to a resolution.”

Trudeau said Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon met with both sides in the CN talks in Montreal on Tuesday and would be on hand for the CPKC talks in Calgary, Alberta. MacKinnon later said he wrapped up his meetings with the rail companies and the Teamsters.

’Workers, farmers, commuters and businesses can’t wait. Canadians need urgency at the table. The parties need to get deals done now,” he posted on the social platform X.

The negotiations are stuck on issues related to the way rail workers are scheduled and concerns about rules designed to prevent fatigue and provide adequate rest to train crews. Both railroads had proposed shifting away from the existing system, which pays workers based on the miles in a trip, to an hourly system they said would make it easier to provide predictable time off.

The railroads said their contract offers have included raises consistent with recent deals in the industry. Engineers make about $150,000 a year on Canadian National while conductors earn $120,000, and CPKC says its wages are comparable.

Similar quality-of-life concerns about demanding schedules and the lack of paid sick time nearly led to a U.S. rail strike two years ago until Congress and President Joe Biden intervened and forced the unions to accept a deal.

Manufacturing companies may have to scale back or even shut down production if they can’t get rail service, while ports and grain elevators will quickly become clogged with shipments waiting to move. And if the dispute drags on for a couple weeks, water treatment plants all across Canada might have to scramble without new shipments of chlorine.

Some companies would undoubtedly turn to trucking to keep some of their products moving, but there’s no way to make up for the volume railroads deliver. It would take some 300 trucks to haul everything just one train can carry.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepts Democratic Party VP nomination

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination as vice president during the third day of the Democratic National Convention. VOA Midwest Correspondent Kane Farabaugh has more from Chicago.

Will Harris Finally Kill Wall Street’s Infamous Tax Break?

Democrats have pledged to close a tax loophole benefiting private equity billionaires — but amid millions in Wall Street donations, the party has failed to do so for years.

HMD Skyline: The repairable Android that lets you go dumb in a smart way

date: 2024-08-22, updated: 2024-08-22, from: Liam Proven’s articles at the Register

Nokia custodian makes efforts to help you fight fondleslab fixation

HMD Skyline: The repairable Android that lets you go dumb in a smart way

Nokia custodian makes efforts to help you fight fondleslab fixation

HMD is the company that made the post-Microsoft Nokia Android devices. Now it’s going by its own name – and offering greater repairability.…

Marsha McLean | Get Active and Reconnect with Nature

By Councilwoman Marsha McLean One of my favorite parts about living in Santa Clarita is the abundance of recreational opportunities available for residents of all ages. From pickleball and hiking, […]

No Easy Answers When It Comes to Rates

Microsoft to stop telling investors about growth in server products

Shuffles financial metrics so Copilot Pro revenue ends up in a happier place

Today in SCV History (Aug. 22)

1891 – Future First Lady Lou Henry (Hoover), 17, poses for photo at R.E. Nickel’s Acton store. [story

All Decked Out

Cisco calls for United Nations to revisit cyber crime Convention

Echoes human rights groups’ concerns that it could suppress free speech and more

Networking giant Cisco has suggested the United Nations’ first-ever convention against cyber crime is dangerously flawed and should be revised before being put to a formal vote.…

Restraint

Walmart clears out its shares of Chinese e-tailer JD.com

That’s one way to mark the end of an eight-year partnership

Walmart has divested around $3.6 billion of stock in Chinese e-retailer JD.com, concluding eight years of partnership.…

DNC Day 3: Oprah, Pelosi, Clinton, and Tim Walz

Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, introduces himself to the nation

CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination for vice president Wednesday night, using his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re all here tonight for one beautiful, simple, reason: We love this country,” Walz said as thousands of delegates hoisted vertical placards reading “Coach Walz” in red, white and blue.

Walz described his upbringing in Nebraska and teaching and coaching football in Minnesota and told the crowd, “Thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.”

“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said. In a dig at his Republican counterpart, JD Vance, he added, “I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale.”

When Walz talked about the difficulty conceiving his daughter, Hope, she made a heart with her hands and held it over her chest. His son, Gus, wept watching his dad speak and at least once shouted, “That’s my dad!”

“I haven’t given a lot of speeches like this, but I’ve given a lot of pep talks,” Walz said.

Democrats gathered at Chicago’s United Center are hoping to build on the momentum Harris has brought since taking over the top of the party’s presidential ticket last month. They want to harness the Democratic exuberance that followed President Joe Biden stepping aside while also making clear to their supporters that they face a fierce battle with former President Donald Trump.

Many Americans had never heard of Walz until Harris made him her running mate. In his first weeks of campaigning, he’s charmed supporters with his background and helped to balance Harris’ coastal background as a cultural representative of Midwestern states whose voters she needs this fall.

But Walz also has faced scrutiny, including questions about embellishing his background. His wife this week clarified that she did not undergo in vitro fertilization, as Walz has repeatedly claimed, but used other fertility treatments. Republicans also have criticized Walz for a 2018 comment he made about carrying weapons in war. Though he served in the National Guard for 24 years, he did not deploy to a war zone.

Benjamin C. Ingman, one of Walz’s old high school students, introduced the man many speakers — and Harris at times — have referred to as “Coach Walz.” At Ingman’s prompting, many of Walz’s former players decked out in their red and white jerseys took the stage to help introduce him.

Walz’s speech followed former President Bill Clinton who returned to a place he knows well, the Democratic National Convention stage, to denounce Donald Trump as selfish and praise Kamala Harris as focused on the needs of Americans — firing up his party with his trademark off-the-cuff flourishes.

Clinton was meant to add heft to a third DNC night headlined by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz ’s introduction to a national audience.

“We’ve got a pretty clear choice it seems to me. Kamala Harris, for the people. And the other guy who has proved, even more than the first go-around, that he’s about me, myself and I,” Clinton said.

The nation’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, Clinton was once declared the “secretary of explaining stuff” by Barack Obama, whose reelection bid in 2012 was bolstered by a Clinton stemwinder at that year’s DNC.

Now 78 — the same age as Trump — Clinton’s delivery was sometimes halting, his movements slower and he mispronounced Harris’ first name twice. His left hand often shook when he wasn’t using it to grip the lectern.

Still, he delivered several memorable, homespun pronouncements including asking. “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the I’s.”

Oprah Winfrey, who long hosted her signature TV talk show from Chicago, picked up on one of Democrats’ favorite themes of late, scoffing at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance having once derided “childless cat ladies” as he argued that Americans should be having more children.

Winfrey said that if a burning house belonged to a “childless cat lady,” neighbors would still help and “try to get that cat out, too.”

“We are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery,” she said of Trump, before referencing a recent comment he made to supporters about only having to vote once more — for him — and never again.

“You’re looking at a registered independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again, because that’s what Americans do,” she said. “Voting is the best of America.”

The night’s theme was “a fight for our freedoms,” with the programming focusing on abortion access and other rights that Democrats want to center in their campaign against Trump. Speaker after speaker argued that their party wants to defend freedoms while Republicans want to take them away.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis used a prop that has become a convention staple, an oversized book meant to represent the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping set of goals to shrink government and push it to the right, if Trump wins. Polis even ripped a page from the ceremonial volume and said he was going to keep it and show it to undecided voters.

The former president has distanced himself from Project 2025, but its key authors include his former top advisers. His running mate, JD Vance, wrote the foreword for the Heritage Foundation CEO’s new book.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the story of a woman in her state, which enacted new abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, who was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.

Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and an openly gay woman, declared, “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi spoke about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He chaired a congressional committee that investigated the mob overrunning the Capitol, saying, “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.”

Trump bashed the convention as a “charade” and noted the fact that he has been a frequent topic of conversation. He also singled out his predecessor, Obama, for a highly critical convention speech Tuesday night, saying Obama had been “nasty.”

Democrats recognized the hostages still being held by Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed. Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought some in the arena to tears as they paid tribute to their son Hersh, who was abducted in the attack.

Freeing hostages “is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” Jon Goldberg-Polin said, adding that “in a competition of pain there are no winners.”

The Israel-Hamas war has split the Democratic base, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside the United Center and several speakers this week acknowledging civilian deaths in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. More than 40,000 people have died in Gaza, according to local health authorities.

Mexico to charge drug lord for delivering another drug lord to US

MEXICO CITY — The strange saga of how two Mexican drug lords were detained after landing in a plane in the United States in July just got stranger.

The Mexican government now says it is bringing charges against Joaquín Guzmán López, but not because he was a leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel founded by his father, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Instead, Mexican prosecutors are bringing charges against the younger Guzmán for apparently kidnapping Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada — an older drug boss from a rival faction of the cartel — forcing him onto the plane and flying to an airport near El Paso, Texas.

The younger Guzmán apparently intended to turn himself in to U.S. authorities, but may have brought Zambada along as a prize to sweeten any plea deal.

Federal prosecutors issued a statement saying “an arrest warrant has been prepared” against the younger Guzmán for kidnapping.

But it also cited another charge under an article of Mexico’s criminal code that defines what he did as treason. That section of the law says treason is committed “by those who illegally abduct a person in Mexico in order to hand them over to authorities of another country.”

That clause was apparently motivated by the abduction of a Mexican doctor wanted for allegedly participating in the 1985 torture and killing of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Kiki Camarena.

Nowhere in the statement does it mention that the younger Guzmán was a member of the “little Chapos” faction of the Sinaloa cartel, made up of Chapo’s sons, that smuggles millions of doses of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the United States, causing about 70,000 overdose deaths each year.

The federal prosecutors’ statement also included an unusually harsh and revealing description about evidence presented by prosecutors in the northern state of Sinaloa that has since proved to be false.

Sinaloa state prosecutors were apparently trying to distance the state’s governor, Rubén Rocha, from the killing of a local political rival, Hector Cuén, who was at a meeting that was used as a pretext for luring Zambada to the abduction site. Zambada has said he expected the governor to be at that meeting; Rocha has said he made a trip out of the state that day.

To play down reports of the purported meeting, state prosecutors published a video of an apparent shooting during what they claimed was a botched robbery at a local gas station. They said Cuén was killed there, not at the meeting site, where Zambada said Cuén was murdered.

While federal prosecutors stopped short of saying the gas station video was a fake, they earlier noted that the number of gunshots heard on the video didn’t match the number of gunshot wounds on Cuén’s body.

On Wednesday, the federal prosecutors went further, saying the video “is unacceptable, nor does it have sufficient value as evidence to be taken into account.”

Zambada has said that Guzmán, whom he trusted, had invited him to the meeting to help iron out the fierce political rivalry between Cuén and Rocha. Zambada was known for eluding capture for decades because of his incredibly tight, loyal and sophisticated personal security apparatus.

The fact that he would knowingly leave that all behind to meet with Rocha means that Zambada viewed such a meeting as credible and feasible. The same goes for the idea that Zambada, as the leader of the oldest wing of the Sinaloa cartel, could act as an arbiter in the state’s political disputes.

The governor has denied he knew of or attended the meeting where Zambada was abducted.

Chicago Then and Now: From Swinging to Passing the Baton

A president who kept the faith, a warrior queen, and women who mean business spark joy at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Active Aging 2024 Edition

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally, march on Democratic convention’s 3rd night

CHICAGO — More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters marched Wednesday past a park where pro-Israel demonstrators had gathered earlier and toward the arena hosting the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

The demonstration, which stayed largely peaceful, came a day after violent clashes between police and protesters led to 56 arrests at a much smaller unsanctioned protest outside the Israeli Consulate.

Organizers of Wednesday’s demonstration drew on the Chicago area’s Palestinian community, one of the largest in the country, by bringing buses from suburban mosques.

Raed Shuk, 48, came with his children from the suburbs, including his 2-year-old son, who sat on Shuk’s shoulders ahead of the march. Shuk, whose parents are Palestinian, said they have come to so many rallies that his son knows the chants by heart.

“Everybody’s humanity needs to be equally addressed here and there,” he said of Gaza. “I want to help my children learn from this experience that you always like to stand up for your rights and always peacefully protest.”

The march, one of the largest anticipated demonstrations of the week, took on a festive tone at times as a drum line led marchers and a sea of Palestinian flags waved above the crowds. Some kids ate popsicles as they walked, and others were pushed in strollers or rode in wagons.

The crowd stopped outside a park that is roughly a block from the United Center and used megaphones and air horns to call out elected leaders, including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, for being “complicit” in the war in Gaza. The two-term Democrat, who was under consideration as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, criticized a cease-fire resolution Chicago approved in January.

The crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters included many families and people of different faiths. Small groups of Muslims gathered in prayer at a park just ahead of the march’s kickoff, using keffiyeh as prayer rugs. Rabbis were among the leaders of the march, and a small group marched through in the crowd holding a sign that said, “Christians for Ceasefire.”

Rabbi Brant Rosen, a founder of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, condemned Democrats for not speaking out about the war in Gaza at the convention.

“The word Palestine is not allowed inside the Democratic National Convention. The word cease-fire has barely been uttered,” he said. “This is a Hollywood-style coronation of a candidate. They assume they are entitled to our votes, but they are not entitled to our votes.”

Earlier in the day, police escorted pro-Israel demonstrators out of a park near the United Center as the area was blocked off ahead of the march of activists heading there.

The rally near the United Center was organized by the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, a Palestinian and Arab community-based organization. It was in stark contrast to the protest Tuesday night outside the Israeli Consulate. Protesters not affiliated with a coalition of more than 200 groups that have the city’s permission for demonstrations ended up in an intense standoff with Chicago police.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said those arrested Tuesday night outside the Israeli Consulate, about 3.2 kilometers from the United Center, “showed up with the intention of committing acts of violence, vandalism.” Snelling called the police response “proportionate.”

Thirty of the people detained by police were issued citations for disorderly conduct, according to Chicago police. One person was arrested on a felony charge of resisting police, while nine were charged with misdemeanors including disorderly conduct, resisting officers, battery, assault and criminal damage to property, police said.

Snelling said that two people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, one for knee pain and one with a finger injury. Two officers were injured, but they refused medical attention because they did not want to leave fellow officers, Snelling said. He said three journalists were among those arrested, but he did not have details on charges.

Hatem Abudayyeh, co-founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, put the onus on police to keep the peace when asked about the clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police. The police “only have one responsibility here,” he said. “They have the responsibility of not infringing on our First Amendment rights.”

The Israeli Consulate has been the site of numerous demonstrations since the war in Gaza began in October, and protests during the DNC have largely focused on opposing the Israel-Hamas war.

The largest protest so far, which attracted about 3,500 people on Monday, was largely peaceful and resulted in 13 arrests, most related to a breach of security fencing. Two were arrested Sunday night during another mostly peaceful march.

California announces new deal with tech to fund journalism, AI research

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California will be the first U.S. state to direct millions of dollars from taxpayer money and tech companies to help pay for journalism and AI research under a new deal announced Wednesday.

Under the first-in-the-nation agreement, the state and tech companies would collectively pay roughly $250 million over five years to support California-based news organization and create an AI research program. The initiatives are set to kick in in 2025 with $100 million the first year, and the majority of the money would go to news organizations, said Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who brokered the deal.

“This agreement represents a major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms and bolstering local journalism across California — leveraging substantial tech industry resources without imposing new taxes on Californians,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “The deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists but helps rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come, reinforcing the vital role of journalism in our democracy.”

Wicks’ office didn’t immediately answer questions about specifics on how much funding would come from the state, which news organizations would be eligible and how much money would go to the AI research program.

The deal effectively marks the end of a yearlong fight between tech giants and lawmakers over Wicks’ proposal to require companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content.

The bill, modelled after a legislation in Canada aiming at providing financial help to local news organizations, faced intense backlash from the tech industry, which launched ads over the summer to attack the bill. Google also tried to pressure lawmakers to drop the bill by temporarily removing news websites from some people’s search results in April.

“This partnership represents a cross-sector commitment to supporting a free and vibrant press, empowering local news outlets up and down the state to continue in their essential work,” Wicks said in a statement. “This is just the beginning.”

California has tried different ways to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing rapidly as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Wicks’ office.

The Wednesday agreement is supported by California News Publishers Association, which represents more than 700 news organizations, Google’s corporate parent Alphabet and OpenAI. But journalists, including those in Media Guild of the West, slammed the deal and said it would hurt California news organizations.

State Sen. Steve Glazer, who authored a bill to provide news organizations a tax credit for hiring full-time journalists, said the agreement “seriously undercuts our work toward a long-term solution to rescue independent journalism.”

State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire also said the deal doesn’t go far enough to address the dire situation in California.

“Newsrooms have been hollowed out across this state while tech platforms have seen multi-billion-dollar profits,” he said in a statement. “We have concerns that this proposal lacks sufficient funding for newspapers and local media and doesn’t fully address the inequities facing the industry.”

Senior US officials meet Dalai Lama in New York

washington — Senior US officials met with the Dalai Lama in New York on Wednesday, according to the State Department, in a rare high-level direct meeting between Washington and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The Dalai Lama, who is denounced by Beijing as a separatist, met with senior State Department official Uzra Zeya and White House National Security Council official Kelly Razzouk in New York, where he is visiting to receive medical treatment.

During the meeting, Zeya “reaffirmed the US commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct historical, linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage.”

Beijing imposes strict controls on Tibet, which it considers an inalienable part of its territory, and denounces the Dalai Lama – who advocates for greater Tibetan autonomy – as a rebel.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Zeya also discussed US “support for resuming dialogue between the PRC and His Holiness and his representatives,” the statement said, using an abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing on Thursday condemned the meeting, accusing the Dalai Lama of being “a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the guise of religion.”

“China firmly opposes any country allowing the Dalai Lama to visit under any pretext and strongly opposes any form of meetings between government officials of any country and the Dalai Lama,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.

The Dalai Lama, 89, received knee surgery in New York this year, and said he was recovering well in a statement released in July.

He stepped down as his people’s political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.

In July, China sanctioned a US lawmaker for “interference” over his support for Tibetans, a month after the US Congress passed a law strengthening support for Tibet and senior US lawmakers met with the Dalai Lama in India.

China took control of Tibet in 1951, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959.

Tibet had previously been largely autonomous following the fall of the Qing dynasty, which lasted three centuries.

Aug. 24: Gentle Barn’s 25th Anniversary Benefit

The Gentle Barn will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Saturday, Aug. 24 as it presents a fundraising benefit “Twilight Tails.”

China’s top Office clone copies Microsoft again – with an inconvenient outage

WPS Office took a long lunch on Wednesday, the day after its developer posted big profits

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Sept. 24: Shark Bites at Old Town Newhall Library

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Here’s the war memorial mixed up in OC fraud allegations

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Santa Clarita Ranked Eighth Safest City in U.S. by PropertyClub

The city of Santa Clarita has been ranked the “Eighth Safest City in the United States” by PropertyClub

On the genius design of Super Mario Bros’ World 1-1, which teaches…

New York man accused of spying on Chinese dissidents, DOJ says

WASHINGTON — A New York man was charged on Wednesday with operating as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in the United States, accusing him of spying on Chinese pro-Democracy activists and dissidents, the Justice Department said.

The DOJ alleges that Yuanjun Tang, 67, acted as a Chinese agent between 2018 and 2023 at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, its principal intelligence agency.

Tang gave to MSS intelligence officers information about individuals and groups viewed by China “as potentially adverse” to its interests, including prominent U.S.-based Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.

He helped MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.

Tang is also accused of making false statements to the FBI when he claimed he was no longer able to access an email account used to communicate with his MSS handler, the department said.

Tang is a former Chinese citizen who was imprisoned for his activities as a dissident, according to the department. He was granted political asylum in the U.S. and later became a citizen.

The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Tang.

Exploring Your Career Path: Vocational Training Vs. Traditional Degrees

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Decision looming for COC student housing project

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LG Electronics aims to become a datacenter cooling player, with aircon and immersion tech

2030 vision also calls for its appliances and televisions to turn you into a subscription cash cow

LG Electronics plans to expand its datacenter cooling business, to cash in on demand for AI.…

At least 2 hurt in four-vehicle crash in Saugus

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies and Fire Department personnel responded to a four-vehicle crash Wednesday in Saugus. The crash was reported at the intersection of Bouquet Canyon Road and […]

County Youth Commission Seeking New Commissioners

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Isometric Drawings of Japanese Bathhouses and Cafes

Schiavo gets two education bills to final hurdle

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Court sets new trial in Black and Blue shooting

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You probably want to patch this critical GitHub Enterprise Server bug now

Unless you’re cool with an unauthorized criminal enjoying admin privileges to comb through your code

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How Tech Startups Can Boost International Finances?

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8 Steps for Securing Scholarships and Grants

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California Announces $76M to Bolster Security for Nonprofits

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California is expediting the deployment of funds and is now accepting applications for $76 million in grant funding available to bolster safety and security for nonprofits that are at higher risk of hate-based crimes

New episodes from podcasts I subscribe to on my phone with PocketCasts, on the web. Lots of standards at work here, organized by FeedLand.

Ocean Water Warning for Aug. 21

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions residents who are planning to visit the below Los Angeles County beaches to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters

Microsoft confirms plans to kill Windows Control Panel… eventually

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Attorney for far-right Oath Keepers group pleads guilty to Capitol riot charges

WASHINGTON — An attorney who represented the far-right Oath Keepers pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including members of the extremist group.

Kellye SoRelle, who was general counsel for the anti-government group and a close associate of its founder, is scheduled to be sentenced on January 17 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C.

SoRelle, 45, of Granbury, Texas, answered routine questions by the judge as she pleaded guilty to two charges: a felony count of obstructing justice and a misdemeanor count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. The felony carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but her estimated sentencing guidelines recommend a maximum of 16 months behind bars.

SoRelle was arrested in Junction, Texas, in September 2022. Her case remained suspended for months amid questions about her mental health.

More than a year ago, medical experts concluded that SoRelle was mentally incompetent to stand trial. In November 2023, she reported to a federal Bureau of Prisons facility for treatment. Last month, Mehta ruled that SoRelle had recovered to an extent that she could understand the nature of her charges and could assist in her defense.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is serving an 18-year prison sentence for orchestrating a plot to keep Donald Trump in the White House after the 2020 presidential election. After Rhodes’ arrest, SoRelle told media outlets she was acting as the president of the Oath Keepers in his absence.

SoRelle, a former Texas prosecutor, was photographed with Rhodes outside the Capitol on January 6. As the riot erupted, she posted a chat message for other Oath Keepers that said, “We are acting like the founding fathers — can’t stand down. Per Stewart, and I concur.”

“Although SoRelle did not personally enter the Capitol Building on January 6, she understood the role those inside and outside the building, like herself, played in delaying the certification proceeding that had been taking place inside the Capitol,” said a court filing accompanying her guilty plea.

The night before the riot, she joined Rhodes in meeting with other extremist group members in an underground garage in Washington, D.C. The meeting also included former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio, who is serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in a separate plot to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden after the election.

Rhodes, a former U.S. Army paratrooper, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. The group recruits current and former military, police and first responders and pledges to “fulfill the oath all military and police take to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

During the trial for Rhodes and other Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy, jurors heard testimony that SoRelle had a romantic relationship with Rhodes.

SoRelle pleaded guilty to obstructing justice for encouraging others to destroy electronic evidence of their participation in the plot. Two days after the riot, Rhodes and SoRelle both sent messages from her cellphone encouraging Oath Keepers to delete any incriminating evidence.

She was indicted on other charges, including conspiring with Rhodes and other Oath Keepers to obstruct Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote. But she did not plead guilty to the conspiracy charge.

Also on Wednesday, a judge set a February 3 trial date for an Illinois man charged with firing a gun during the riot. John Banuelos climbed scaffolding outside the Capitol, took out his revolver and fired two shots into the air, according to prosecutors.

Banuelos, of Summit, Illinois, was arrested in March. U.S. District Judge Judge Tanya Chutkan refused on Wednesday to free Banuelos from pretrial custody. She ruled that he poses a flight risk and a danger to the public.

Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday borks dual-boot Linux-Windows PCs

Plus: Three-year-old ProxyLogon flaw added to CISA’s exploited bugs list

Microsoft says it’s investigating issues with a patch intended to plug a two-year-old flaw in the GRUB open source boot loader that is crashing some dual-boot computers running both Windows and Linux. In that crash users are aptly told: “Something went seriously wrong.”…

US official holds talks in Africa on responsible use of military AI

Abuja, Nigeria — A U.S. State Department official was in Nigeria this week to meet with local and regional authorities about the responsible use of artificial intelligence in military applications.

Mallory Stewart, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence and Stability, said her two-day visit with Nigerian officials from the regional bloc ECOWAS was part of the United States’ commitment to deepen security cooperation in Africa.

The U.S. government has been working with 55 nations, including African nations, “to agree upon responsible uses of AI in the military context, using AI in a manner consistent with international laws [and] recognizing inherent human bias,” Stewart told journalists Wednesday.

“We’ve learned the hard way [that there is] inherent human bias built into the AI system … leading to maybe misinformation being provided to the decisionmaker,” she said.

The goal, she continued, “is to hear from as many countries as possible that are at the stage of working in artificial intelligence to their military to see how we can minimize the risks.”

Last year, the Global Terrorism Index report named sub-Saharan Africa an epicenter of terrorism, accounting for nearly 60% of terror-related deaths. It is unclear whether the terror groups are using AI.

Nigerian authorities have been pushing for the integration of artificial intelligence in military operations, while acknowledging that adopting AI will require Africa-specific policies.

Security analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Consulting said the use of AI in military operations has advantages.

“Given the position of the U.S. in terms of its military capacity and technological advancement, it will definitely be in the position to support Nigeria’s desires, especially if it’s able to contextualize some of the peculiarities within the Nigerian security space,” Adamu said. “We can’t isolate ourselves from the international committee of nations. AI is embedded in security, so we have to do it. But we need to be cognizant of the supporting infrastructure for good technology. Power is one of them, culture.”

The founder of Global Sentinel online magazine, Senator Iroegbu, said that while AI has benefits, the technology still needs to be treated with caution.

“It limits casualties in terms of the number of soldiers that will be deployed, so you conserve your boots,” Iroegbu said. “It helps penetrate rough terrains, gather more intelligence. It’s good that there’s growing awareness of the issue of artificial intelligence, but Nigeria needs to first of all try to define its own policy and strategy with regards to artificial intelligence. More sensitization needs to be done, and more policy aspect of it needs to be developed.”

In June, African ministers unanimously endorsed landmark continental AI strategy to advance Africa’s digital future and development aspirations. And last week, the African Union approved the adoption of AI in public and private sectors in member states, including Nigeria.

Oct. 20: American Cancer Society BARK FOR LIFE Happy Halloween Fundraiser

Celebrate a Happy Howl-o-ween with your dog at the American Cancer Society’s fundraiser, BARK FOR LIFE, presented by Relay For Life of the Santa Clarita Valley

WalletHub: Santa Clarita Ranks in Bottom Third in National Real Estate Markets

With home values up around 3.3% in the past year and mortgage rates remaining high, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best Real Estate Markets in

Microsoft update breaks GRUB on dual-boot systems

Ah, secure boot, the bane of many running anything other than Windows. While it’s already been found to be utterly useless by now, it’s still a requirement for Windows 11, and ever since it became part of PCs about a decade or so ago, it’s been causing headaches for people who don’t use Windows. Yesterday, Microsoft released a patch for a two-year-old vulnerability in the GRUB bootloader, and while the company claimed it would only be installed on single-boot Windows machines, that clearly wasn’t the case as right after its release, people dual-booting Linux and Windows found their Linux installations unbootable. Tuesday’s update left dual-boot devices—meaning those configured to run both Windows and Linux—no longer able to boot into the latter when Secure Boot was enforced. When users tried to load Linux, they received the message: “Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation. Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation.” Almost immediately support and discussion forums lit up with reports of the failure. ↫ Dan Goodin at Ars Technica The fix is both easy and hilarious: disable secure boot, and you’re good to go. You can also get a bit more technical and remove the SBAT installed by this update, but while that will allow you to keep booting with secure boot enabled, it will leave you vulnerable to the issue the SBAT was supposed to fix. The efficacy of secure boot in home environments is debatable, at best, and while I’m not going to advise anyone to just turn it off and forget about it, I think most OSNews readers can make an informed decision about secure boot by themselves. If you’re using corporate machines managed by your employer’s IT department, you obviously need to refer to them. Microsoft itself has not yet commented on this issue, and is not responding to questions from press outlets, so we’re currently in the dark about how such a game-breaking update got out in the wild. Regardless, this once again shows just how annoying secure boot is. In many cases, the boot problems people trying out Linux run into caused by secure boot, but of course, the blame is placed squarely on Linux, and not on secure boot itself being a hot mess.

The Marshall Star for August 21, 2024

Hundreds Honored at Marshall, NASA Awards Ceremony NASA Chief Financial Officer Margaret Vo Schaus speaks to audience members and honorees Aug. 15 during the 2023 Agency/Center Honor Awards at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Activities Building 4316. In all, 332 Marshall team members were awarded this year for their outstanding work and dedication to […]

Ford’s Big Blow to the EV Transition

Ford Motor Company is canceling one of its most anticipated electric vehicles and delaying another EV project. The changes will cost at least $400 million — and as much as $1.9 billion — the company said Wednesday, and they signal that one of the biggest players in the American car industry still hasn’t yet found a workable EV strategy. With these new delays, the North American car market may not see the explosive growth of EV options — the kind of efflorescence already happening in Europe and China — until the end of this decade.

The primary car in question is Ford’s planned three-row EV crossover, possibly its most anticipated EV model. The new car, which was originally slated for release in 2023 before being bumped to 2025, will now be produced only as a hybrid. That fits in with Ford’s recent embrace of hybrids — by 2030, the company now says, it will offer a hybrid version of each vehicle in its line-up — but it deals a substantial blow to the company’s future EV offerings. Ford also announced that it will delay the release of a new medium-sized electric pickup truck to 2027. That truck, so far known only as “T3,” is meant to be the first product of the company’s California-based skunkworks staffed by Tesla alumni. That team is meant to help Ford develop a low-cost, globally competitive electric vehicle platform that could eventually undergird crossovers, trucks, and commercial vehicles.

Taken together, these changes mean that the company will offer no new electric vehicles in the consumer market for the next two years. Yes, the company’s outlook for EVs in the commercial market is a little brighter — Ford will begin selling an all-electric commercial van in 2026. But to entice the average buyer it will have to rely entirely on existing models — the Mustang Mach E and F-150 Lightning — to generate EV sales. The company will also cut back a quarter of its planned EV spending. It’s not an overstatement to say that Ford seems to be giving up on the consumer side of the EV transition until the back half of the decade.

“Ford has some improvements coming in 2026, but they’re basically throwing their hands up on the market,” Corey Cantor, an EV analyst at the market research firm BloombergNEF, told me. “They’re essentially ceding ground to other automakers in the U.S. market, and there’s a clear lack of plan for how they plan to stay competitive.

“There’s no way you can say it’s a good thing for the U.S. EV market,” he added.

Executives blamed the shifts on persistent challenges turning a profit in its EV unit, which has hemorrhaged money as it has spun up production, ultimately losing $130,000 on every EV that it sold during the first quarter of 2024.

“These vehicles need to be profitable, and if they’re not profitable based on where the customer is and the market is, we will … make those tough decisions,” John Lawler, Ford’s chief financial officer, told the Financial Times. The company could not figure out how to reconcile the cost of the large battery needed for the three-row SUV with the vehicle’s size and price in a way that could turn a profit within 12 months, he added.

Ford’s approach may reflect a canny understanding of consumer demand in the American market. Although EVs are far better for the climate than gasoline-burning vehicles, hybrids pollute somewhat less than conventional gas guzzlers. Over the past few years, as new EV models have trickled into the market, hybrid sales have boomed, and that is, all things considered, a good thing: Replacing America’s fleet of gasoline-burning SUVs and crossovers with a hybrid fleet will still work to reduce emissions, although it will not allow for the extremely rapid emissions reductions that could keep the 1.5 degree Celsius warming goal in sight.

More pertinently, perhaps, the shift also creates a strategic opening in the American EV market. Tesla has long dominated U.S. market share, and in the past few years, Ford has settled into a comfortable No. 2 position. But Tesla has struggled with its own dearth of new models: Except for the luxury Cybertruck, the automaker has no new cars or trucks in its pipeline. And now that Ford appears to be taking a step back, the combined effect could create an opening for other automakers — namely Hyundai, Kia, or the startup Rivian — to step into the breach in 2025 and 2026. If Ford’s timeline holds, for instance, then Rivian will begin selling its widely awaited $45,000 R2 crossover in 2026, a year before Ford can offer anything new.

The shift also vindicates decision making at Ford’s cross-town competitor, General Motors. While Ford sought to take an early lead by manufacturing a few buzzy standalone EV models (like the Mach E), GM has focused on developing a robust EV platform, the Ultium. Although its initial Ultium-based releases had big deficiencies, its latest cars look better, and the platform should allow it to begin manufacturing a diverse lineup of cars and trucks in a relatively brief period of time. “For all the knocking we did of GM, their thinking makes sense: First you spin battery manufacturing up, then you put it in a lot of models, then you find out which models work” in the broader market, Cantor told me.

But perhaps the change in plans is most ominous for Ford’s cost model: If it can’t get a three-row crossover to pencil out, how can it get any kind of non-F-150 to work financially? Despite Ford’s struggles to make its three-row SUV concept work, other companies have already brought their own three-row electric vehicles to market. At the high end, Rivian’s R1T has three rows, starts at $69,000, and is the company’s best-selling vehicle. But Kia’s three-row EV9 starts at about $55,000 before subsidies, and Hyundai is due to start selling its own three-row SUV, the Ioniq 9, later this year. Other companies have found a way to make EVs without breaking the bank. Why hasn’t Ford?

But if Ford and GM’s behavior makes more sense for the wealthier and more cautious American consumer — in a country where public fast charger installation is still lagging — then it indicates, too, just how much America has fallen behind other global auto markets. On the same day that Ford backed off its multi-year EV goals, the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi announced that it had already beaten its annual target for EV sales and turned a profit while doing it. Xiaomi, BYD, and other Chinese automakers are rushing into the EV market, seemingly capable of producing more EVs, more cheaply and profitably, than their American competitors. Ford’s retrenchment into gas cars means that it has now fallen even further behind the global standard.

Two Ancient Wells Discovered in England Suggest Even the Romans Used Trial and Error

After the first well collapsed, the local builders incorporated wooden planks to hold up the walls of the second

Field Notes, The Exabyte Edition

On My Mind Reminder: After decades of predicting and writing about the future, we end up looking either geniuses or idiots. This 1995 Newsweek article brushing off the internet as “useless” shows why it’s better to stay hopeful about the future and what it might bring. There will always be doubters who question what’s possible. …

British Government Places Export Ban on Alan Turing’s World War II-Era Notebooks

The mathematician took careful notes while working on a portable voice encryption system in the mid-1940s

Santa Clarita Invites Poets to Submit Works for 2025 Sidewalk Poetry Project

The city of Santa Clarita is excited to announce the call for entries for the 2025 Sidewalk Poetry Project

The most powerful political statement I've ever heard, from Michelle Obama last night.

Santa Clarita Invites Poets to Participate in 2025 Sidewalk Poetry Project

Join Us in Celebrating the Art of Poetry! The City of Santa Clarita is excited to announce the call for entries for the 2025 Sidewalk Poetry Project. This annual initiative invites residents and individuals with connections to Santa Clarita to contribute their short poems for a chance to be featured on the City’s sidewalks. All […]

Plan to regulate access to online porn in California dies quietly in Legislature

California’s Senate killed a bill, similar to laws enacted in conservative states, that would require porn sites to verify visitors are adults.

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-21, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Speaking of Michelle Obama, she made the most powerful political statement I’ve ever heard. “Who’s going to tell Trump the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs.” The way she said it made you think. Here we are, and one way or another, we have changed. America in 2024 is vastly different from the American of 2008. America is moving both toward self-acceptance and away from it at the same time. But here in the half of America my feet are planted in, we realize that there isn’t a black America and a white America, there’s just one America. We finally have come to accept ourselves as we have been all along.

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-21, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

Thinking about what Michelle Obama said last night in her fantastic DNC speech. “We don’t get to change the rules so we always win.” She was talking about Trump, but it also applies to Google. There should be opportunities for independent developers to create for the web without having big tech companies be our gatekeepers. The web is a public resource. Of course big companies will take whatever isn’t nailed down. It’s way past time to protect the open web.

Monument Valley 3 in Netflix Games

John Voorhees (Mastodon): Yesterday, during Gamescom’s opening night ceremonies, Netflix Games released a trailer for Monument Valley 3. The franchise’s sequel from Ustwo Games, which has been in development for five years, will be published exclusively on Apple’s App Store and Android by Netflix Games on December 10th. Monument Valley 1 and 2 are also […]

Moom 4

Many Tricks (release notes, tweet): Moom 4 has a completely revamped user interface designed to help you get the most out of Moom. Gone is the multi-tabbed non-resizable window, replaced with this new resizable window. […] The pop-up palette is both customizable and expandable, supporting up to 61 of your own custom actions. You can […]

Swift Imposter Syndrome Meme

Jacob Bartlett: While I recognise many of these words, I frankly didn’t know what most of these actually do. I don’t even know what these things are called.It turns out the term is “type attributes”. […] Today, we’re going to work together to understand type attributes in detail by recreating the meme step-by-step — you’re welcome to […]

Self-Hosted VPN App Rejected Due to IAP

Anders Borum (via Miguel Arroz): Patreon being forced to pay creators through in-app purchase reminded me of a cool app I made two summers ago.VPN clients on iOS lie on a spectrum between selling you out to data brokers or being expensive subscriptions.Having prior experience with Digital Ocean my app made it easy to spin […]

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-21, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

I use PocketCasts on my Android phone as my main podcast-listening app. I also have a website, dave.podcatch.com, that has the latest episodes from the podcasts I follow. I would love to hook up my subscriptions from PocketCasts to dave.podcatch.com, so that I could add to the website from my freaking phone. Make it really easy for me to pitch a great podcast feed to my friends. But I can only export my feeds, I can’t create a dynamic link between the two. If I ran a popular podcatch app like Pocketcasts, I would open up my outbound subscription list, and vie to be the default place people come to subscribe to podcasts. If a few of my users were geeks and visionaries, they could start telling other vendors they should hook up to my source lists, so they can use Pocketcasts to subscribe. One place to subscribe is way better than many. If you think things like that can’t happen, think again. How did you all come to use OPML for your subscription lists? It’s because someone volunteered to go first, and the users of that product demanded that other products support the format. It still amazes me that there’s an interchange format there, but we’ve barely begun to tap into the power there.

For Decades, Switzerland Dumped Munitions Into Its Pristine Alpine Lakes. Now, It Wants Them Gone

Officials are offering cash rewards for the best strategies to safely remove the submerged weapons

Five-Foot-Long Ocean Sunfish Washes Ashore in Oregon, a ‘Relatively Small’ Size for Its Species

It’s the second sunfish to be found dead on the beach in a small region of northwestern Oregon this summer, following the discovery of an even rarer hoodwinker sunfish

📋 Assistants’ Advice to Showrunners

2025 Human Lander Challenge

In-space propulsion systems utilizing cryogenic liquids as propellants are necessary to achieve NASA’s exploration missions to the Moon, and later to Mars. In current state of the art (SOA) human scale, in-space propulsion vehicles, cryogenic liquids can be stored for several hours. For the planned HLS mission architecture to close, cryogenic liquids must be stored […]

UK tech pioneer Mike Lynch dead at 59 after yacht tragedy off Sicily coast

Tycoon’s demise follows US acquittal after years of legal battles with HP

Obit UK software tycoon Mike Lynch has been found dead two days after he went missing in a sailing tragedy off the coast of Sicily.…

Daily Deals (8-21-2024)

The Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL are available for pre-order now and expected to ship soon. Early reviews are largely positive: the design of the phones is good, performance is decent, and the cameras are some of the best available in a smartphone. The AI features that Google is promoting heavily […]

Nevada official sent angry messages to reporter before his murder, Las Vegas court told

IT tycoon Mike Lynch, daughter Hannah found dead

Italian divers reportedly recovered their bodies as search for missing continues

The bodies of former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah have reportedly been recovered from the wreck of the yacht Bayesian.…

Danny MacAskill Does a Wheelie

These USB dongles will bring WiFi 7 to your existing PC

WiFi 7 became an official standard this year, promising support for faster speeds, lower latency, and less congestion. But in order to actually get any of those benefits, you need at least two things: a WiFi 7 router and devices that support the new standard. When the first routers started to ship they were expensive, but […]

Germany Turns Former Nazi Bunker Into a Leisure Complex

Built as an air raid shelter in the 1940s, the massive structure now houses a hotel, restaurants and a rooftop park with lush greenery

For photos collages & crops, try Series

When I was looking to crop a landscape photo into a panorama, I discovered an app called Series. It’s a collage application that divides images for posting on Threads, Instagram’s microblogging platform. You can also use it to produce photos in sizes suitable for Twitter, Instagram, or other social media sites. On Threads, users can create a photo carousel. However, when images are precisely divided, users can reconstruct a complete wide-angle view that fills the screen. The panoramic effect becomes apparent as users move through the photos, producing …

NASA’s DART Team Earns AIAA Space Systems Award for Pioneering Mission

NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission continues to yield scientific discoveries and garner accolades for its groundbreaking achievements. The mission team was recently recognized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)with the 2024 Space Systems Award during this year’s AIAA ASCEND event, held July 29 to Aug. 2 in Las Vegas. The award, presented by the AIAA […]

Shein sues Temu over copyright infringements as legal feud heats up

@Dave Winer’s Scripting News (date: 2024-08-21, from: Dave Winer’s Scripting News)

My linkblog posts are once again flowing to WordPress. I had to generate a special password for this app because of 2FA.

These Spiders Use Captured Fireflies as Flashing Lures to Snare More Prey

A new study suggests orb-weaver spiders manipulate trapped male fireflies to emit female-like signals, which in turn draws more males into the web

Copernicus Trajectory Design and Optimization System

Copernicus, a generalized spacecraft trajectory design and optimization system, is capable of solving a wide range of trajectory problems such as planet or moon centered trajectories, libration point trajectories, planet-moon transfers and tours, and all types of interplanetary and asteroid/comet missions. Latest News Development The Copernicus Project started at the University of Texas at Austin […]

The best thing I've read about how the journo-class needs to get back to their job of reporting what happened instead of trying to stage-manage events.

110K domains targeted in ‘sophisticated’ AWS cloud extortion campaign

If you needed yet another reminder of what happens when security basics go awry

Updated It’s a good news day for organizations that don’t leave their AWS environment files publicly exposed because infosec experts say those that do may be caught up in an extensive and sophisticated extortion campaign.…

Latest Infrastructure Wins: Bridge Grants & Free Transit Passes

Latest Infrastructure Wins: Bridge Grants & Free Transit Passes Funding Infrastructure and Building Bridges The Department of Transportation recently awarded $26.5 million in planning grants under the Bridge Investment Program to fund 28 projects across 18 states. This includes $400,000 for the Pico Rivera Telegraph Road Bridge and $320,000 in funding for the […]

“We don’t get to change the rules so we always win,” she continued. “If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. We put our heads down. We get to work.”

US Pacific territories near status upgrade at islands summit

WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Pacific territories are moving closer to a status upgrade from observer to associate member, elevating their status within the region’s political and economic policy organization, the Pacific Islands Forum.

The PIF leaders’ meeting is set to open Monday in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa.

Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has confirmed there will be a vote on new associate members. “Guam and American Samoa have applied,” he told ABC Pacific recently. “We’ll be actually tabling a paper for the leaders to consider.”

Foreign ministers from the Pacific bloc reviewed the applications for associate member status from the two U.S. territories during their meeting on August 9. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown noted that there is “widespread support” for the applications.

On Tuesday, forum leaders will engage in talks with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, associate members and forum observers. A senior State Department official will represent the United States.

The Pacific Islands Forum has 18 member states, with Australia and New Zealand being the largest economies in the bloc. Neither the United States nor China is a full member, but both countries are dialogue partners.

Until recently, U.S. Pacific territories Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands held observer status for the forum.

In June, however, the U.S. government eased restrictions, allowing these territories to join the PIF as nonvoting associate members, provided they do not take foreign policy positions. This change modified a longstanding policy that had previously barred their participation in international organizations.

Although the French territories of French Polynesia and New Caledonia have become full PIF members, analysts currently do not anticipate that U.S. Pacific territories will be approved for full membership soon.

“It would be a bit like Nebraska voting at the United Nations,” Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

“The degree to which constituent parts of the U.S., such as Guam and American Samoa, can participate as full members in multilateral organizations is complex,” she said. “On one hand, the people of those islands understandably want to be represented in a forum that claims to speak for the region. On the other, they can’t legally sign up to foreign policy positions for the U.S.”

A State Department spokesperson told VOA that the United States has made broader and deeper engagement with the Pacific Islands a key priority of its foreign policy.

The spokesperson cited the U.S.-hosted summit meetings with Pacific Island leaders in Washington in September 2022 and 2023.

But neither the White House nor the State Department would confirm whether a third U.S.-Pacific Island Forum summit will take place this year.

In recent years, U.S. policymakers have recognized that U.S. presence and influence in the Pacific cannot be taken for granted, especially in the face of increased Chinese interest and engagement in the region, according to Kathryn Paik, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Paik recently wrote in a CSIS publication that Washington’s realization has led to a series of high-level visits, the opening of several new embassies, the return of the Peace Corps to the region, and numerous financial initiatives across the fisheries, health, law enforcement and economic sectors.

The life-changing magic of being in the groove. “Scientists have long known…

A Plan to Address Political Violence Before Election Day

As the presidential election nears, the threat of political violence looms large. What can be done to protect candidates, election workers, voters, and the electoral process at the heart of American democracy?

Talented Teams Tackle Toasty Planet

Exoplanets, look out! Two NASA-funded teams of amateur astronomers are tracking you with their backyard telescopes. These two teams, called UNITE (UNISTELLAR Network Investigating TESS Exoplanets) and Exoplanet Watch, have combined forces to confirm a new planetary discovery—a toasty “warm Jupiter”. “I pinch myself every day when I recall that I have made a meaningful scientific contribution to astronomy […]

A Windows security update leaves dual-boot computers unable to load Linux

Last week Microsoft released out a security update meant to address a vulnerability in the GRUB open source bootloader that could allow a malicious actor to bypass secure boot. But many users who had set up their computers to dual-boot Windows and Linux report that after installing the update, they’re unable to boot into Linux […]

"Think about a second Trump administration beginning from the images of Jan. 6, 2021. That is where Trump left us and that is where he would begin."

Microsoft rolls out one Teams app to rule them all

That annoying requirement to switch between home and work accounts has finally gone

Microsoft has released a unified Teams app, doing away with the requirement to have one app for work or education and another for personal use.…

Rancho Palos Verdes says it’s dealing with a much larger and faster moving landslide

The city report described the recently discovered movement as “a ‘bowl’ within a bigger ‘bowl.’”

“Third Things” Can Make Communication Easier

August 2024 Supermoon Rises Near NASA Marshall

A super blue Moon rises over Huntsville, Alabama, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Aug. 19. Visible through Wednesday, Aug. 21, the full Moon is both a supermoon and a Blue Moon. As the Moon reaches its closest approach to Earth, the Moon looks larger in the […]

ChatGPT slows down my programming, and that’s good

Sorry about the recording quality, I was in a large space with bad acoustics. I’ll try to remember not to do that in the future.

I’ve noticed I spend less time programming, I go more slowly and carefully because now I can know a lot more about each problem I’m solving, and use the packages I build on, jQuery, MySQL, Node, the browser, Bootstrap, Font-awesome, Frontier, to greater advantage. A new kind of programming is possible, and it’s better.

Interested in hearing similar stories from other developers using ChatGPT or something like it.

Convention Day 2: Obama Says Election Is About ‘Who Will Fight for You’

Santa Barbara’s Salud Carbajal hits Trump–Vance for “Insults” to military.

Never Can Say Goodbye: Gary Fruin Honored at Santa Barbara City Hall

The K-LITE early morning radio host was recognized on National Radio Day for his 34 years on air.

How Students Learn to Fly NASA’s IXPE Spacecraft

The large wall monitor displaying a countdown shows 17 seconds when Amelia “Mia” De Herrera-Schnering tells her teammates “We have AOS,” meaning “acquisition of signal.” “Copy that, thank you,” Alexander Pichler replies. The two are now in contact with NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-Ray Polarimeter Explorer) spacecraft, transmitting science data from IXPE to a ground station […]

Russia tells citizens to switch off home surveillance because the Ukrainians are coming

Forget about your love life too, no dating apps until the war is over

Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs is warning residents of under-siege regions to switch off home surveillance systems and dating apps to stop Ukraine from using them for intel-gathering purposes.…

A Logo on a Prosthesis Is Like a Tattoo You Didn’t Ask…

A big convention should bring big business … right?

A lot of Chicagoland restaurants were hoping for a shot in the arm courtesy of the Democratic National Convention this week. But so far, that hasn’t seemed to be the case for some businesses. We hear more. Then: a look at why Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s word choice in Jackson Hole will be so closely scrutinized. And later, older workers with disabilities have made gains thanks to remote work.

Hubble Peers Into the Center of a Star-forming Powerhouse

This view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope plunges into the center of spiral galaxy Messier 33 (M33), also known as the Triangulum Galaxy. Located within the triangle-shaped constellation Triangulum and about half the size of our Milky Way galaxy, M33 is the third-largest member of our Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda galaxy (M31) […]

Mathematicians Prove Hawking Wrong About the Most Extreme Black Holes

"You stopped feeding the troll. And science has proven over and over if you do that, the troll will go away."

Bulgarian beach bar sarcophagus turns out to be genuine Roman artefact. “Despite…

When it comes to cloud, it’s China against the world

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google dominate the west, but the Middle Kingdom plays by its own rules

The global cloud ecosystem shows a clear split, with China dominated by an almost completely different set of companies compared to the rest of the world - a divide as much due to political reasons as economic factors.…

Your SoCal Weather Report For Wednesday, August 21: Warm today, below normal temperatures into the weekend

Fannie Lou Hamer rattled Democratic convention 60 years ago with ‘Is this America?’ speech

The FTC’s noncompete agreements ban has been struck down

This is such a blow. Non-competes are already illegal in California; they’re inherently anti-worker and are also very clearly a hindrance to innovation.

Hopefully the FTC appeals. The judge’s argument that it would cause “irreparable harm” is nonsense: any business that has to protect itself by not allowing its workforce to go work for a competitor is obviously not competitive at what it does. Instead, businesses should seek to do good work and create conditions so that workers don’t want to leave in the first place. The solution is a better workplace, not legal restrictions that prevent people from finding a different employer.

Scientists have found liquid water on Mars, located in the planet’s outer…

Using AI to feed my toddler on a road trip

This past week I embarked upon two long car drives — from Philadelphia to Cape Cod and back again — with an almost-two year-old. He’s a remarkably good traveler who takes everything in his stride (as long as he has his puffy stickers and you agree to put Elmo on the radio from time to time).

The biggest challenge was finding places for him to eat well: restaurants that wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a toddler doing toddler things at the table, that also would have the kinds of food that he likes. (Yes, I packed snacks. But sometimes it’s time to sit down for a real meal.)

We made it work, but it was always a bit of a guessing game. Would X chain or Y mom-and-pop accommodate his needs? I found myself wishing that there was some kind of app that would just recommend somewhere to go — particularly as he could get hungry at a moment’s notice, and faffing around with restaurant reviews while I was driving was an impossibility.

So out of interest, once I returned, I asked ChatGPT for recommendations:

Find a restaurant suitable for attending with a toddler in Elkins Park, PA. Please just return the restaurant name and address; don’t share any other information.

It returns:

The Creekside Co-op
7909 High School Rd, Elkins Park, PA 19027

That’s pretty good! Creekside is a local marketplace and brewery near where I live that absolutely is suitable for hanging out with a toddler.

I tried it in a few locations. In the part of Cape Cod where we were staying, it suggested the Moonakis Cafe, which is a superb choice. In the part of Oxford, England, where I grew up, it suggested The Victoria Arms — again, no complaints whatsoever. I’d eat there with my little one in a heartbeat.

So what if I want to make this a simple app, starting on the web?

It turns out that you can replace the name of the location in the query with its GPS coordinates, which simplifies matters a great deal. You can get the user’s current location via the web geolocation API: you can then plug that straight into the query, make an API call, and forward the user directly to a Google Maps view for the restaurant. Reverse geocoding APIs, which take latitude and longitude and return a human-readable name, are also available, and might be useful — but they tend to cost money, and the API call to ChatGPT is already an expense.

More refinements are possible, of course. Most crucially, it would be helpful to know if a given restaurant is actually open; on a road trip, it would also be very useful to find restaurants that are close to the freeway. I wouldn’t mind seeing a top 3 or top 5 list with the relative merits of each one. And being able to plan a trip around toddler-friendly eating spots in advance would be gold.

What’s sort of neat about the technology is that this is all actually very feasible — in an hour or two. Using AI as an engine in this way cuts out a lot of development time, not to mention the need to gather your own database. There are obviously ethical issues related to how these models were trained, which are sure to be litigated for years to come. But here we’re not creating any new content or replacing an artist: we’re making it easier to find our way to a local business.

The next time I’m on a road trip with my little one and I see that he’s starting to get hungry, I’ll be able to hit a button on my phone and get directions to a nearby place that will probably be appropriate for him to sit down and eat at. I think that’s cool.

US Feds Are Tapping a Half-Billion Encrypted Messaging Goldmine

European cops hacked the encrypted phone provider Sky in 2021. More and more cases in the U.S. are using that mass of collected messages.

The Savvy Senior | How to Choose a Walk-In Bathtub

Dear Savvy Senior, Because of my back pain and mobility problems, I’m interested in getting a walk-in bathtub that’s safe and easy to get in and out of. What […]

Ticketmaster Used Revolving Barcodes to Control Ticket Resale Market and Surveil Customers, DOJ Alleges

“We now not only know the person that bought the ticket, but we’re going to know those three people that you are taking to the show, which we have not known historically.”

Automating ZFS snapshots for peace of mind

One feature I couldn’t live without anymore is snapshots. As system administrators, we often find ourselves in situations where we’ve made a mistake, need to revert to a previous state, or need access to a log that has been rotated and disappeared. Since I started using ZFS, all of this has become incredibly simple, and I feel much more at ease when making any modifications. However, since I don’t always remember to create a manual snapshot before starting to work, I use an automatic snapshot system. For this type of snapshot, I use the excellent zfs-autobackup tool – which I also use for backups. The goal is to have a single, flexible, and configurable tool without having to learn different syntaxes. ↫ Stefano Marinelli I’m always a little sad about the fact that the kind of advanced features modern file systems like ZFS, btrfs, and others offer are so inaccessible to mere desktop users like myself. While I understand they’re primarily designed for server use, they’re still making their way to desktops – my Fedora installations all default to btrfs – and I’d love to be able to make use of their advanced features straight from within KDE (or GNOME or whatever it is you use). Of course, that’s neither here or there for the article at hand, which will be quite useful for people administering FreeBSD and/or Linux systems, and who would like to get the most out of ZFS by automating some of its functionality.

Book note: Westerstähl, Foundations of Logic, I & II

Dag Westerstähl’s Foundations of Logic: Completeness, Incompleteness, Computability is, by some margin, the most attractively written book at its level that I have newly encountered for some years. The book is based on lecture courses give at Stockholm University and latterly at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and evidently reflects long teaching experience. Especially in the first […]

Podcast: How Taylor Swift Could Sue Trump for AI Images

We break down how Taylor Swift could sue Donald Trump for a fake, AI-generated endorsement of the presidential candidate; how the U.S. is tapping an intelligence goldmine of encrypted chats; and how we approach generating impact with our journalism.

Top companies ground Microsoft Copilot over data governance concerns

Securiti’s Jack Berkowitz polled 20-plus CDOs, and half have hit pause

Security and corporate governance concerns are weighing heavily on large enterprises as they try to work Microsoft Copilots into their organizations amid a complex web of existing tech products and access rights.…

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

So you want to build an embedded Linux system?

This article is targeted at embedded engineers who are familiar with microcontrollers but not with microprocessors or Linux, so I wanted to put together something with a quick primer on why you’d want to run embedded Linux, a broad overview of what’s involved in designing around application processors, and then a dive into some specific parts you should check out — and others you should avoid — for entry-level embedded Linux systems. ↫ Jay Carlson Quite the detailed guide about embedded Linux.

Juice probe scores epic fuel save after snapping selfies with Earth and Moon

Onward to Venus!

ESA’s Juice spacecraft has had close-ups with the Moon and Earth and is on its way to Venus, having snapped images with its monitoring cameras and collected scientific data as it passed.…

As Easy as Hacking a Bike

Why LAUSD is betting school wellness centers can keep students healthy — and in the classroom

When health researchers looked at the outcomes of students after they visited L.A. school health clinics, they found attendance stabilized or improved — particularly for students who sought mental health treatment.

How highways brought some SoCal animals to the brink

All that new AI-fueled datacenter space? Yeah, that’s mostly ours – cloud giants

Construction surged 70% … with 80% already snapped up

The number of bit barns currently under construction has exploded in the wake of the AI boom, surging nearly 70 percent in North America’s top markets over the past year to a record high of 3.87 gigawatts, according to a newly published CBRE report.…

What’s Going On with Coal Power in China?

Current conditions: Extreme storm warnings are in place across Europe • Large hail could terrorize the High Plains today and tomorrow • It will feel like 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Houston, Texas.

THE TOP FIVE

A quick climate roundup from the DNC

It’s Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. The Obamas took center stage last night. Now the focus shifts to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who will accept the vice-presidential nomination this evening. There are a few climate-specific events on the schedule today, including a meeting hosted by major environmental groups (some of which are behind a new $55 million climate ad push for Kamala Harris) to “present the latest on climate,” and a meeting of the Council on the Environment & Climate Crisis. Today’s events will also feature speeches from climate advocates Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Climate change threatens U.S. medical blood supply

The American Red Cross says that extreme weather events are pushing down attendance at its blood drives. In July alone, the organization experienced a shortfall of 19,000 donations and its blood inventory dropped by a quarter, in part because of heat waves. And so far in August, 60 blood drives have been canceled because of extreme weather. “That limits our ability to meet hospital requests for blood,” Rodney Wilson, the senior biomedical communications specialist for the American Red Cross, told The Guardian. “So as hospitals request blood to treat patients, we’ve had to limit our distributions of some of those key types that they need the most, because there isn’t enough for everybody.” The American Red Cross supplies 40% of the country’s donated blood.

NextDecade cancels carbon capture and storage plans for Texas LNG facility

Liquefied natural gas company NextDecade yesterday canceled its plans to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility on its $18.4 billion Rio Grande LNG export project in Texas, officially withdrawing its application from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The company had big plans for the Rio Grande facility, which will be one of the largest LNG facilities in the country once completed. It was touted as the first U.S. LNG project expected to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90% through CCS. FERC approved the export project, but a few weeks ago the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out that approval citing serious “procedural defects.” The court said FERC hadn’t sufficiently examined the project’s environmental impact. According to Gas Outlook, the Rio Grande facility will emit more than 8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year and be “the largest polluter in the Rio Grande Valley.”

Rivian VP of manufacturing departs

Rivian this week got approval to expand its plant in the city of Normal, Illinois, to build its upcoming R2 crossover SUV, Electrek reported. The R2 is expected to enter production in 2026, but the company needs to continue to expand its Normal operations first. The town council approved a whole new “R2” building and more square footage overall. In other Rivian news, the company’s vice president of manufacturing, Tim Fallon, is leaving to join Stellantis. Fallon is the latest in a wave of recent high-level departures for the company. “The exits highlight the volatility at the EV startup as it navigates production hurdles and a broader slowdown in demand for plug-in vehicles also afflicting its rivals,” explained Bloomberg.

China’s approvals for new coal power plants plummet

New analysis from Greenpeace East Asia finds that China cut approvals for new coal power operations by 80% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year, “marking a potential turning point in China’s energy transition, as wind and solar power capacity continues to expand.” However, while many fewer projects have been given the green light, those that have are quite large. China is the world’s top emitter of coal carbon emissions.

THE KICKER

Virtually the entire population of the United States has received at least one extreme weather alert since the beginning of May.

The legal fight over noncompete agreements

Noncompete agreements, where your employer has you sign a contract promising you won’t work for a competitor in the future, were originally used to protect intellectual property but now are so widespread that they can apply to fast food workers. The Federal Trade Commission wanted to ban noncompetes but a federal judge in Texas has blocked the ban. Also: Chicago’s economic landscape during the DNC and greater access to work permits for undocumented immigrants.

White House downplays Chinese concerns over possible US nuclear strategy change

Seoul, South Korea — White House officials on Wednesday appeared to downplay Beijing’s sentiment that it is “seriously concerned” after a report alleged the United States recently approved a secret plan to shift some of the focus of its nuclear strategy away from Russia to deal with Beijing’s nuclear weapons buildup.

“The guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat,” National Security Council Spokesman Sean Savett told VOA in response to emailed questions. “We have repeatedly voiced concerns about the advancing nuclear arsenals of Russia, [China] and [North Korea].”

“The most recent guidance builds on what was issued by previous administrations — there is far more continuity than change,” he said.

Savett did not provide details of the new strategy but noted that “while the specific text of the guidance is classified, its existence is in no way secret.”

Late Tuesday, The New York Times reported that U.S. President Joe Biden in March approved a new “nuclear employment guidance,” a highly classified document outlining how the U.S. would use nuclear weapons in a potential conflict.

The report said the document, updated every four years, reorients U.S. nuclear deterrent strategy to deal with China’s massive expansion of its nuclear arsenal. The document also orders U.S. forces to prepare for the possibility of “coordinated nuclear challenges” from China, Russia, and North Korea, according to the report.

Asked about the report during a press briefing Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson accused the United States of “peddling the China nuclear threat narrative” and “finding excuses to seek strategic advantage.”

“China is seriously concerned about the relevant report, and the facts have fully proven that the United States has constantly stirred up the so-called China nuclear threat theory in recent years,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.

For decades, U.S. nuclear policy has been primarily focused on Russia, the only other country with comparable nuclear weapons capabilities.

However, U.S. officials have increasingly warned that China’s nuclear buildup under President Xi Jinping is proceeding faster than previously expected.

In an unclassified document released late last year, the Pentagon estimated that the Chinese military had more than 500 operational warheads in its arsenal and will have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030.

That compares to the United States, which possesses a nuclear stockpile of about 3,700 active warheads, according to estimates compiled by the U.S.-based Arms Control Association.

Russia has roughly 4,380 nuclear warheads, including about 1,550 on strategic delivery systems, according to estimates cited by the group.

Given those numbers, Russia remains the “major driver” behind U.S. nuclear strategy, said Daryl G. Kimball, the director of the Arms Control Association, in a post on social media site X.

The Times report overstates the changes outlined in the U.S. nuclear weapons guidance document, according to Kimball, who insisted there has been no reorientation away from Russia toward China.

“Despite China’s nuclear expansion, Russia’s arsenal significantly exceeds that of China’s - even after Xi’s ambitious plan is complete. Until that changes, focus will remain on Russia’s arsenal,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

“But planning against China is increasing, as reflected in the document,” Kristensen added in a post on X.

U.S. officials have publicly referred to the nuclear weapons document at least twice, without offering much detail on its contents.

In June, Pranay Vaddi, the White House National Security Council’s senior director for arms control and nonproliferation, said the new guidance “emphasizes the need to account for the growth and diversity” of China’s nuclear arsenal, as well the need to deter Russia, China, and North Korea simultaneously.

According to Vaddi, the U.S. will continue to pursue nuclear arms restraints with Russia and China, but “without a change in the trajectory that Russia, [China], and North Korea are on,” the U.S. “will need to continue to adjust our posture and capabilities to ensure our ability to deter and meet other objectives going forward.”

Vipin Narang, an MIT nuclear security specialist who until recently focused on nuclear policy in the Pentagon, said earlier this month that Biden “recently issued updated nuclear weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries, and, in particular, the significant increase in the size and diversity of [China’s] nuclear arsenal.”

“It is our responsibility to see the world as it is, not as we hoped or wished it would be,” said Narang. “It is possible that we will one day look back and see the quarter century after the Cold War as ‘nuclear intermission’.”

U.S. and Chinese officials both frequently speak of the dangers of nuclear war, but efforts to hold dialogue on the issue have failed.

Last year, U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to negotiations on nuclear non-proliferation and arms control, ahead of a meeting between Biden and Xi. But China suspended the talks last month, citing U.S. arms sales to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

Many analysts are also concerned about growing military and diplomatic cooperation between Russia and China. In 2022, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a “no-limits” partnership and have recently expanded joint military exercises and other cooperation.

Earlier this year, Russia also restored a Cold War-era mutual defense treaty with nuclear-armed North Korea and hinted at further defense cooperation.

Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly issued thinly veiled threats about using nuclear weapons against Western-backed forces there.

VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this story from Washington.

It’s Shein versus Temu in court

From the BBC World Service: First on the program, Shein is suing Temu for copyright infringement. The court case comes as Shein itself fends off similar allegations from a host of brands and independent artists. Then, Australia has just approved plans for the world’s largest solar plant. And later, the search for six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily is now in its third day.

Prior UK goverment planned £485M four-year budget for Palantir-based healthcare system

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This Isn’t the Same Kind of Climate Election

Democrats are gathering in Chicago this week for their quadrennial convention and to celebrate Kamala Harris’s nomination for president. This year’s convention will look different from 2020’s for many reasons — but one of them is that we’re likely to hear far less about climate change. Unlike in 2020, when President Joe Biden described global warming as one of “four overlapping crises” confronting the country, Harris has been more subtle when discussing it.

So … is that a problem? Should we be freaked out? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse discuss the modern electoral politics of climate change. We talk about whether the electorate’s interest in climate issues has faded, how the Inflation Reduction Act could affect voting, and why a “quiet on climate” strategy might be okay. 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.

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.

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Deadbeat dad faked his own death by hacking government databases

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Classifieds – August 21, 2024

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Former president Obama rallies Democrats for Harris in Chicago

Former President Barack Obama addressed Democrats in his home city of Chicago Tuesday, saying Vice President Kamala Harris is the right choice to take on Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election this November. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

Today in SCV History (Aug. 21)

1961 – CalArts grad (MFA ’92) and marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, creator of Spongebob SquarePants, born in Oklahoma; developed prototype for Spongebob while studying at CalArts in 1989. Estimated net worth in 2012: $90 million. Died 2018. [story

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Soccer’s BIG season is underway

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Creating a foundation for the future

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Summer does not slow down for unions at USC

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DNC’s Day 2: Double dose of Obama firepower, a doting spouse and a dance party

CHICAGO — The Democratic National Convention’s second night showcased a double dose of Obama firepower to validate Vice President Kamala Harris and deliver an unsparing indictment of Republican Donald Trump. The convention also served up a raucous roll call of states that was essentially one big dance party.

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, ducked out of Chicago to hold a rally just up the interstate in Milwaukee, wooing voters in battleground Wisconsin. It was a recognition that, regardless of whatever good vibes may exist at the convention, Democrats expect this presidential election to be razor-close.

If the Republican convention was all about Trump, the Democrats on Tuesday wanted to put Harris in a pantheon with past presidents.

The biggest validators of the night were former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. The latter linked Harris with her husband by telling the rapt crowd, “America, hope is making a comeback.”

Barack Obama, for his part, reached back to his own 2004 convention speech to tie Harris to his legacy. “I am feeling hopeful – because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where everything is possible,” he said.

It wasn’t just the Obamas making the case for the vice president. The grandsons of Jimmy Carter and John F. Kennedy also portrayed her as the natural heir of past Democratic leaders.

As groundbreaking as Harris’ candidacy is as the first woman of color to be her party’s nominee, these speeches by an ex-president and presidential progeny were all about linking her to a broader historical arc and evoking the excitement of Obama’s 2008 run that Harris hopes to replicate.

The Obamas did not hold back in lacing into Trump. Michelle Obama’s well-worn adage from years past that “when they go low, we go high” no longer seemed operative.

Barack Obama called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”

Michelle Obama also took a personal swipe, saying: “For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black.”

Playing off her famous line about Republicans going low, Michelle Obama suggested that Trump was going “small” and that “it’s unhealthy, and quite frankly, it’s unpresidential.”

Political conventions technically happen so that delegates can nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates.

This year, the Democrats took care of that job in advance. But that didn’t stop them from holding a ceremonial do-over and turning it into a raucous dance party.

DJ Cassidy strode on stage in a bright blue double-breasted suit and spun tunes for every state as they nominated Harris and Walz. Minnesota got “1999” by native son Prince, Kansas got “Carry on Wayward Son” by, well, Kansas. “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen played as New Jersey weighed in.

Usually it was governors or state party chairs calling out the votes, but some states passed the mic to make serious points. Kate Cox, who unsuccessfully sued her home state of Texas while seeking an abortion for a non-viable fetus, announced Texas’ votes. A survivor of the 2017 Las Vegas strip gun massacre announced Nevada’s votes.

The roll call highlight was when Atlanta rapper Lil Jon strode through the United Center to the beats of “Turn Down for What,” his song with DJ Snake, and rapped his support for Harris and Walz.

Democrats are eager to highlight how Harris’ ascension has energized the party. The roll call fit that vibe.

His convention speech Tuesday night focused on their love story and offered a personal glimpse meant to pull in voters, too. He dished on the deets of their first phone call, after he left her a rambling voicemail that she still makes him listen to every year on their anniversary.

“I love that laugh,” he said adoringly, a rebuttal to Trump’s criticism of Harris’ laughter.

As Harris flew back to Chicago from Milwaukee after her rally there, Air Force Two spent an extra 10 minutes in the air so she could watch her husband speak, according to an aide.

Emhoff said he “just fell in love fast” with Harris, adding that she finds “joy in pursuing justice” and “stands up to bullies.” It’s not how most husbands describe their partners, but, then, Emhoff is trying to convince voters that the woman he’s been married to for 10 years this Thursday knows how to take on Trump.

The Democrats are making a play for disaffected Trump voters — and they used one of his former White House staffers to make their case.

Stephanie Grisham worked in various roles in the Trump White House, including communications director and press secretary, allowing Democrats to argue that those who know Trump best have seen him at his worst.

“He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth,” Grisham said. “I couldn’t be part of the insanity any longer.”

Kyle Sweetser, a Trump voter from Alabama, told the convention the former president’s tariffs made life harder for construction workers like him. Republican Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona, also spoke about why he’s backing Harris. Giles sees Trump’s policies as hurting cities like his.

Leonard Leo’s Swing-State Voter Purge

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Obamas close DNC’s second night with rousing Harris endorsement

CHICAGO — Warning of a difficult fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were at times both hopeful and foreboding.

“America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.”

“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” Obama said of Trump.

Her husband, the nation’s first Black president pushing for America to elect its second, called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”

“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” he charged.

The fiery messages from two of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars underscored the urgency of the moment as Harris works to stitch together a broad coalition in her bid to defeat Trump this fall. She is drawing on stars like the Obamas and other celebrities, officials from the far left to the middle, and even some Republicans to boost her campaign.

And while the theme of the night was “a bold vision for America’s future,” the disparate factions of Harris’ evolving coalition demonstrated, above all, that they are connected by a deep desire to prevent a second Trump presidency.

Just ahead of the Obamas’ remarks, Harris addressed an estimated 15,000 people in battleground Wisconsin in the arena where Republicans held their convention last month. She declared that she was running “a people-powered campaign.”

“Together we will chart a new way forward,” the vice president said in remarks that were partially broadcast to the DNC. “A future for freedom, opportunity, of optimism and faith.”

Back in Chicago, Senators Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent beloved by progressives, both praised Harris. And in an appearance perhaps intended to needle Trump, his former press secretary Stephanie Grisham — now a harsh critic of her former boss — also took the convention stage.

Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth,” Grisham said. “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people. And she has my vote.”

A symbolic roll call in which delegates from each state pledged their support for the Democratic nominee turned into a party atmosphere. A DJ played a mix of state-specific songs — and Atlanta native Lil Jon ran out during Georgia’s turn to his hit song with DJ Snake, “Turn Down for What,” to the delight of the thousands inside the cavernous United Center.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who will become the nation’s first gentleman if his wife wins the presidency, shared personal details about his relationship with Harris — their cooking habits, their first date and her laugh, which is often mocked by Republican critics.

“You know that laugh. I love that laugh!” Emhoff said as the crowd cheered. Later, he added, “Her empathy is her strength.”

Trump, meanwhile, was out on the campaign trail as part of his weeklong swing-state tour during the Democratic convention. He went to Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday and stood aside sheriff’s deputies as he labeled Harris the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.

“Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said in one of many generalizations about an America under Harris.

Harris, meanwhile, cast the election in dire, almost existential terms. She implored Americans not to get complacent in light of the Supreme Court decision carving out broad presidential immunity, a power she said Trump would abuse.

She has also seized on Trump’s opposition to a nationally guaranteed right to abortion.

“They seemingly don’t trust women,” she said of Trump and his Republican allies. “Well, we trust women.”

The vice president’s speech evoked some of the same themes that underlaid Biden’s case for reelection before he dropped out, casting Trump as a threat to democracy. Harris argued that Trump threatens the values and freedoms that Americans hold dear.

Someone with that record “should never again have the opportunity to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States,” Harris said. “Never again.”

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Protesters arrested after clash with police outside Chicago’s Israeli consulate

CHICAGO — Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters charged a line of police in an intense standoff with hundreds of officers outside the Israeli consulate Tuesday on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

After the larger gathering began to disperse, splintering off into smaller groups, other interactions with police led to more than a dozen arrests. Officers called the demonstrations “an unlawful assembly.”

Earlier in the night, officers carrying wooden clubs shouted “move” and penned the demonstrators in on the street, preventing them from marching.

Some demonstrators set an American flag on fire in the street as the celebratory roll call for Vice President Kamala Harris took place inside the United Center about 3.2 kilometers away. Others carried Palestinian flags, while many others wore black and covered their faces.

As protesters regrouped and approached a line of police in riot gear in front of a Chicago skyscraper that houses the Israeli consulate, an officer said into a megaphone, “You are ordered to immediately disburse.” A woman in the front of the march shouted back with her own megaphone: “We’re not scared of you.”

A man in a Chicago Bulls hat, his face covered by a balaclava, called on protesters to “shut down the DNC.” The group, which is not affiliated with the coalition of over 200 groups that organized Monday’s protests, advertised the demonstration Tuesday under the slogan of “Make it great like ’68,” invoking the anti-Vietnam War protests that seized the city during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The atmosphere with rows of police in riot gear was a stark contrast to a day earlier when thousands of pro-Palestinian activists, including families pushing babies in strollers, marched near the convention site calling for a cease-fire.

Police kept protesters confined to a block of Madison Street, a normally bustling downtown thoroughfare where traffic was halted on both ends Tuesday evening.

Law enforcement had closed down most of the entrances to the building on Tuesday, allowing commuters to come in only one entrance where armed officers were also posted. Many of the building’s shops were closed. Martha Hill, a spokeswoman for the Metra commuter rail service, said train service was running as normal.

The consulate has been the site of numerous demonstrations since the war in Gaza began in October. It is in a building connected to the Ogilvie Transportation Center, a major commuter rail station.

Mohammed Ismail, a 29-year-old psychiatry resident who lives in Chicago, described the police presence as “excessive,” and questioned why the group had been blocked from marching. He said he joined the protest to urge Democrats to cease funding to Israel.

“It’s not right that we’re sending our tax money to fund an ongoing slaughter, an ongoing genocide,” Ismail said. “We’re a part of this conflict because our money is paying for it.”

Meanwhile, the sites of demonstrations from the previous night were largely quiet. Thirteen people were arrested during Monday’s protests, most them related to a “brief breach” of security fencing “within sight and sound of the United Center,” the city’s police superintendent said.

Israel supporters, including some relatives of people kidnapped by Hamas, gathered earlier in the day at a pro-Israel art installation not far from the consulate to call on U.S. leaders to continue backing Israel and pushing for the release of hostages. The art installation included giant milk cartons bearing photos of some of the hostages.

Elan Carr, CEO of the Israeli-American Council, condemned the pro-Palestinian protesters who have descended on Chicago this week, calling them “fringe crazies” and demanding that U.S. leaders “stand unequivocally with the state of Israel.”

More protests were planned throughout the week. However, attendance at the main rally on Monday was far below estimates of organizers who had predicted more than 20,000 would show up.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said Tuesday that the crowd was around 3,500 strong and that the vast majority of the protesters were peaceful.

However, some clashed with police, used pepper spray against them and threw water bottles at officers during the clash in the park where there was a breach in security fencing, Snelling said. He said officers did not use any chemical sprays.

“Our officers showed great restraint,” he said at a news conference. “We’re not going to tolerate vandalism and violence in our city. … We’re going to continue to protect the city.”

Snelling said with more protests planned, his department is prepared to de-escalate situations whenever possible.

“Again, we’re up to the challenge,” Snelling said. “The city is up to the challenge.”

The park where the most arrests were made, located a block from the convention arena, served as a destination point for a march of thousands calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. Several dozen activists broke off from the main group, breached the fencing, and were pushed back by police.

Authorities said the inner security perimeter surrounding the United Center was not breached and there was no threat to those attending the convention.

On Tuesday morning, an extra line of fencing was installed at the park and the tall metal barriers were reinforced to prevent protesters from lifting and removing the panels. No police officers or protesters were in the park early Tuesday.

The 13 people arrested during Monday’s protest were detained on charges ranging from criminal trespass and resisting and obstructing an arrest, to aggravated battery of police officers, Snelling said.

Snelling said he did not connect those who tore down the fence with the entirety of the march. He said the vast majority of participants were peaceful, and he praised his officers’ conduct in the moment.

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild said two of the people arrested were hospitalized. Snelling said they were not taken to the hospital for injuries, but “so they could be provided the treatment they needed when it came to their medications.”

Two people were also arrested on misdemeanor property damage and resisting arrest charges during a protest march Sunday night. As of Tuesday morning, 15 people had been arrested.

Most of the largest demonstrations have been organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC, which has focused on calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. But smaller protests have popped up around the city, during the convention’s welcome party at Navy Pier.

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Political criticism and controversy swirls ahead of China video game release

washington —  The release of a Chinese video game touted as the country’s first to meet Triple-A standards, has sparked a flurry of online criticism of the Chinese government.

Video games are given a AAA label when they are backed by big funds, highly developed and distributed by well-known publishers.

The Aug. 20 worldwide release of the Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong has been anticipated since its demo got more than 56 million views on the Chinese video-sharing website Bilibili in 2020.

On YouTube, which is banned in China, the game demo had more than 10 million views.

Developed by China-based Game Science, the game has players take on the role of the Monkey King, a character from the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, and defeat monsters wreaking havoc on the world.

Although the game has no direct connection to politics, Chinese commenters took to a U.S.–based gaming discussion board ahead of the release to criticize the Chinese government and President Xi Jinping.

The discussion board on Steam, a Washington state-based online gaming platform, was hit with a slew of comments in Chinese last week that directly and indirectly criticized Chinese authorities and Xi.

One mocked Xi’s unprecedented third term as leader, saying, “I will continue to be Jade Emperor in Black Myth: Wukong. Raise your hands if you oppose it.”

Most critical posts ranted against the Chinese government, in ways unrelated to the game.

“Overthrow the Communist Party of China and establish a democratic constitutional system where everyone has a vote,” read what appeared to be the first critical comment.

“Thank you to the party, thank you to our great chief accelerator, Xi Jinping,” another comment reads, mocking Xi’s policies as accelerating China’s economic decline.

Another post listed the timeline of the weeks-long 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests and the subsequent violent crackdown that occurred when Chinese troops used lethal force against student-led demonstrators, killing hundreds, perhaps thousands.

Such critical comments of China’s government and leaders are not allowed on China’s internet, where an army of censors frequently scrubs websites and discussion boards of comments that do not follow the Chinese Communist Party’s line.

Observers were surprised to find by the afternoon of Aug. 16, many of the critical posts on Steam’s U.S. discussion board had similarly been removed.

Li Ying, a Chinese social media influencer and government critic known online as Teacher Li, posted his opposition to the removal on Aug. 14 on X with screenshots of the original posts.

“Steam is inherently a free platform, with a wide variety of games here, and players are free to express any opinions and opinions about the game,” he wrote on X.

Steam’s China-based website does not have a discussion board, and the U.S.-based discussion board is only available to users outside China. Those inside China need to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, which helps users bypass controls to access internet content outside the country that is blocked.

VOA reached out to Steam seeking comment about why the posts were deleted but did not receive a reply. Steam’s discussion board rules do not explicitly prohibit political posts but say that users are not allowed to post “disrespectful” content and to avoid posting content unrelated to the topic.

While the game is not directly connected to the Chinese government, it did receive some official help and praise. The city government of Hangzhou, where Game Science is located, gave the game a grant in 2022. State media in the province, Zhejiang, described the game as “one of the most important explorers in the history of AAA games in China – an explorer that deserves applause and encouragement.”

Feng Ji, the founder and CEO of Game Science, in a Weibo post last year lamenting the difficulties in development, used words with erotic connotations and compared his desire for expanding development to oral sex.

Yang Qi, the game’s artistic director, remarked as early as 2013 on Weibo that they would not pander to female players in the game’s production.

“I don’t need the reverse drive of female players. I don’t take care of those lewd insects who come to pick up girls; some things are made for pure men,” he wrote.

In response, a female influencer posted on the gender-focused WeChat account Orange Umbrella, urging Game Science to respect female gamers.

“As a fellow player, I know how much hard work and dedication it takes to make a game, and Black Myth: Wukong’s dedication and seriousness in the production are commendable,” she wrote. “However, don’t let the backward gender consciousness push players who are also full of expectations for the game in the opposite direction more and more.”

When Western media, including IGN, one of the most influential U.S. online news sites for video games, reported last year on the controversial comments, nationalist Chinese commenters called the coverage an attempt to impose western values and put down China’s gaming industry.

“Judging the Chinese game with the politically correct stance of the West is really biased for the media,” a review article reads. The article said whether the developers’ remarks constituted sexism “depends on the perspective.”

On Weibo, one commenter called IGN a “clown” and wrote, “In order to suppress the rise of Chinese games, the gender card is unsurprisingly played again.”

Despite the controversies, gaming industry experts expect Black Myth: Wukong to be a big hit.

Daniel Camilo, a game industry consultant based in southern China’s Shenzhen city, noted to VOA that sexism in the gaming industry is not new and has little impact on commercial success.

“Hardcore gamers and fans that actively discuss these issues and are aware of them usually represent a very small [loud] minority online that accounts for a small residual amount of those who actually buy games,” he said.

IGN gave the game an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 on Aug. 16, calling it a “great action game with great fights and exciting and powerful opponents, albeit with a few bugs.”

The Chinese version of IGN gave the game a perfect score of 10, writing, “This is a truly competitive domestic game in the global market, and I believe it will be a strong contender for this year’s Game of the Year.”

Camilo noted the high quality of the homegrown game has given Chinese players something to be proud of that might even help improve China’s international image.

“Black Myth will change perceptions people have regarding Chinese games and, to some extent, China and its cultural output and soft power really,” he said.

US appeals court revives Google privacy class action lawsuit

How to Build Your Reputation While Still in College

When you start building your career, you’ll need to focus on developing your professional reputation. Your reputation is something that will build and accumulate naturally over time as you make…

Fediverse Governance Drop

This is an impressively in-depth report by Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi, which has some important conclusions about how moderation can work in a federated system (including the not-insignificant conclusion that it can work). There’s room for more tooling, and better communication between instances - but this is all doable stuff.

AI in Journalism Futures 2024

In other words, while many people in journalism see that this set of technologies may transform their industry, and are potentially excited or terrified that it will, they have no idea how that will happen. This is the very definition of hype: one can imagine people proclaiming that blockchain, or push notifications, or RealMedia, or WebTV might do the same.

It’s not that there are no uses for AI (just like it’s not that there are no uses for blockchain). It will find its way into end-user applications, underpin newsroom tools, and power data-driven newsroom investigations, without a doubt. But the hype far exceeds that, and will eventually, inevitably, deflate.

In the meantime, journalists are not as worried about the technologies themselves as who controls them:

Technologists, in turn, were blind to these power dynamics, while simultaneously predicting more dramatic changes. There’s a fundamental truth here: it’s ultimately about money, and who controls the platforms that allow readers to read about the world around them.

Same as it ever was: that’s been the struggle on the web since its inception. AI just shifts the discussion to a new set of platforms.

US says classified nuclear strategy not response to single country, threat

WASHINGTON — A classified nuclear strategic plan approved by President Joe Biden this year is not a response to a single country or threat, the White House said on Tuesday, after the New York Times reported it reoriented the U.S. deterrence strategy to focus on China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal for the first time.

The U.S.-based Arms Control Association said it understood U.S. nuclear weapons strategy and posture remained the same as described in the administration’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, and there had been no reorientation away from Russia and toward China.

The New York Times said the White House never announced that Biden approved the revised strategy, titled the “Nuclear Employment Guidance,” but an unclassified notification to Congress of the revision is expected to be sent before Biden leaves office.

The newspaper said that in recent speeches, two senior administration officials were allowed to allude to the strategy revision. It said the strategy is updated every four years or so.

Asked about the report, White House spokesperson Sean Savett said: “This administration, like the four administrations before it, issued a Nuclear Posture Review and Nuclear Weapons Employment Planning Guidance.

“While the specific text of the Guidance is classified, its existence is in no way secret. The Guidance issued earlier this year is not a response to any single entity, country, nor threat.”

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, said that while U.S. intelligence estimates suggest China may increase the size its nuclear arsenal from 500 to 1,000 warheads by 2030, Russia has about 4,000 nuclear warheads “and it remains the major driver behind U.S. nuclear strategy.”

Kimball cited June remarks by one of the officials referred to in the Times report, White House Senior Director for Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation Pranay Vaddi.

According to those remarks, U.S. strategy was to pursue nuclear arms restraints with China and Russia, but if China continued on its current trajectory and if Russia exceeds New START limits, the U.S. at some point in the future may need to consider adjustments to the size and makeup of its nuclear force, Kimball said.

“My understanding is that the point at which the current administration thinks it might want to consider such changes won’t come until 2030, or some time after,” he said.

Trump campaigns in Michigan with ‘Make America Safe Again’ speech

HOWELL, Michigan — Former President Donald Trump pledged Tuesday to “Make America Safe Again” while campaigning in Michigan as Democrats gathered in Chicago to nominate Kamala Harris.

As part of a battleground campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention, Trump stood alongside sheriff’s deputies in the city of Howell and tarred Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, as the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.

“Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Trump said in one of many generalizations about an America under Harris. “You’ll see levels of crime that you’ve never seen before. … I will deliver law, order, safety and peace.”

Trump has sought in recent weeks to blunt the enthusiasm that Harris has attracted since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her. That has involved both dark predictions about what electing Harris would mean for the country and efforts by Trump’s advisers to set up events where he can try to draw specific policy contrasts. On Tuesday in Michigan, the subject was crime and public safety.

In excerpts released before his speech, Trump’s campaign also said he would call for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers; he did not mention that during his remarks.

The event was the latest billed as focused on a specific issue. But on these occasions, Trump has spent considerable time attacking Harris personally and taking shots at Biden, and the same was true after their appearances Monday at the Democratic convention.

“I watched last night in amazement as they tried to pretend everything was great,” Trump said, singling out inflation and the U.S.-Mexico border as topics Democrats glossed over. “We have a fool as president,” he said of Biden.

Trump presented a bleak portrait of life in the U.S. and the threat of a Harris presidency, though he was short on specifics and heavy on hyperbole.

“It’s just insane,” Trump said. “You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread. You get shot, you get mugged, you get raped, you get whatever it may be. And you’ve seen it, and I’ve seen it, and it’s time for a change.”

Trump making such claims, surrounded by supportive law enforcement officers, stood in stark contrast to the Democrats’ convention. Speaker after speaker found ways Monday night in Chicago to remind Americans that Trump is the first former president ever convicted of felony crimes, has been found civilly liable for sexual assault, and still faces multiple indictments, including for his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden.

Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas skewered Trump on Monday night as “a career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star,” a reference to his payments to an adult film actress at issue in his New York conviction for business fraud.

The derision reached its peak as Hillary Clinton, whom Trump defeated in 2016, stood back from the podium and smiled as delegates chanted: “Lock him up! Lock him up!” — a turnabout from Trump supporters’ chants about Clinton eight years ago despite the former secretary of state never having been charged with any crime.

Brush fire breaks out in Newhall

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Chipmaker Microchip reveals cyber attack whacked manufacturing capacity

Defense contractor gets hacked – what’s the worst that could happen

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Chiquita Canyon attorneys express concern over AQMD abatement modifications

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City won’t challenge ruling on solar panels

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SOhO So Good

I was delighted to see SOhO and the owners on the cover of the Independent’s August 15 edition.

County mandates Castaic school district’s Measure QS tax rate be raised

Property owners in the Castaic Union School District’s boundaries will have a higher tax rate under the fourth issuance of the district’s Measure QS bond authorization that voters approved in […]

Aug. 24: Author Claudia Donally to Meet Readers at The Open Book

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Dustin Roberto, L.A. County Fire firefighter, dies

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Exploring the Future of Global Education: Opportunities and Trends

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COC soliciting applications for vacant board seat

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Hotel gunfire incident related to apparent mental health incident

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News gathered 2024-08-22

What We Learned In Our First Year of 404 Media

Your SoCal Weather Report For Thursday, August 22: Cooler weather should last into the weekend

The Stopgap Sports Bundle

Let the Clock Run Wild

Why I feel bad about Biden

PeerJ Award Winners at WSeS-11

AGI is on clients’ radar but far from reality, says Gartner

Controversial concept may not even be a useful goal in computing

AMD says Microsoft’s next big Windows 11 update will improve Zen 5 CPU performance

Launch Considerations

State Street Is Alive

DC-ROMA RISC-V Pad II tablet sells for $149 and up

The Stripped-Down Tesla Is Exactly What We Need

Start of Pacific Coast Open Is Fabulous Day of Polo

On This Day

Andorra

Multiple Heat Records are Falling in Texas

THE TOP FIVE

Texas heat dome breaks multiple temperature records

Ford pumps the breaks on EV plans

Climate activists protest Exxon Mobil at DNC event

Study: Antarctica at risk of contamination as ice melts

Carbon removal registry Isometric delivers first credits

THE KICKER

Ransomware batters critical industries, but takedowns hint at relief

Whether attack slowdown continues downward trend is the million dollar question that security researchers can’t answer

Update on NASA Wallops Aircraft and Airfield Operations

Gateway: Energizing Exploration

From Commodity to Asset: The Truth Behind Rising House Prices

From cybercrime to terrorism, FBI director says America faces many elevated threats ‘all at once’

L.A. County has spent millions to recruit more court reporters, so why is a shortage dragging on?

The Fed’s steering the economy. When will it change course?

Microsoft resurrects Windows Recall for upcoming preview

Insiders get ready for Redmond’s second run at AI snoopware

One of the U.K.’s most high-profile tech entrepreneurs confirmed dead

The Windows® 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering (1996)

This uni thought it would be a good idea to do a phishing test with a fake Ebola scare

Needless to say, it backfired in a big way

Choose Your Own Adventure with Microsoft 365

You awake to find yourself in a dark room… with an empty wallet

Dispute stops Canadian freight railroads, could cause US disruption

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepts Democratic Party VP nomination

Will Harris Finally Kill Wall Street’s Infamous Tax Break?

HMD Skyline: The repairable Android that lets you go dumb in a smart way

Nokia custodian makes efforts to help you fight fondleslab fixation

HMD Skyline: The repairable Android that lets you go dumb in a smart way

Nokia custodian makes efforts to help you fight fondleslab fixation

Marsha McLean | Get Active and Reconnect with Nature

No Easy Answers When It Comes to Rates

Microsoft to stop telling investors about growth in server products

Shuffles financial metrics so Copilot Pro revenue ends up in a happier place

Today in SCV History (Aug. 22)

All Decked Out

Cisco calls for United Nations to revisit cyber crime Convention

Echoes human rights groups’ concerns that it could suppress free speech and more

Restraint

Walmart clears out its shares of Chinese e-tailer JD.com

That’s one way to mark the end of an eight-year partnership

DNC Day 3: Oprah, Pelosi, Clinton, and Tim Walz

Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, introduces himself to the nation

Mexico to charge drug lord for delivering another drug lord to US

Chicago Then and Now: From Swinging to Passing the Baton

Active Aging 2024 Edition

Pro-Palestinian protesters rally, march on Democratic convention’s 3rd night

California announces new deal with tech to fund journalism, AI research

Senior US officials meet Dalai Lama in New York

Aug. 24: Gentle Barn’s 25th Anniversary Benefit

China’s top Office clone copies Microsoft again – with an inconvenient outage

WPS Office took a long lunch on Wednesday, the day after its developer posted big profits

Sept. 24: Shark Bites at Old Town Newhall Library

Here’s the war memorial mixed up in OC fraud allegations

Santa Clarita Ranked Eighth Safest City in U.S. by PropertyClub

On the genius design of Super Mario Bros’ World 1-1, which teaches…

New York man accused of spying on Chinese dissidents, DOJ says

Exploring Your Career Path: Vocational Training Vs. Traditional Degrees

Sacred Sites. “From Machu Picchu to the Louvre — the book journeys…

Decision looming for COC student housing project

LG Electronics aims to become a datacenter cooling player, with aircon and immersion tech

2030 vision also calls for its appliances and televisions to turn you into a subscription cash cow