News gathered 2024-09-09
(date: 2024-09-09 11:01:10)
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Man, Mastodon's brand is anger.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108876812479980
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I know people like to shit on these LLM models, but these tools to improve writing are a boon for immigrants.
It is the ultimate accessibility tool.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108866148266187
Google’s “Assistance” Is Killing Journalism
date: 2024-09-09, from: The Lever News
California had a shot at making Big Tech pay for its stranglehold on local news — but instead it caved to industry pressure and strengthened tech firms’ grip.
https://www.levernews.com/googles-assistance-is-killing-journalism/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Craig is so relatable.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108851447088258
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
This new phone has the right amount of CPUs, GPUS and Neural cores.
Just what the doctor ordered.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108847373711134
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
brb - Shorting hearing aid stocks.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108832358648009
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
God I love those iPhone colors.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108829629884223
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
New iPhone, I am sold.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108827194400697
GenAI hype meets harsh reality as enterprises wrestle with business case
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nvidia, Equinix clearly making a killing over costs, confusion, and cold feet
Enterprises are still struggling with the business case for generative AI projects more than a year after the craze started, and we may have to wait until the end of 2025 to see if they’re seen through to completion.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/equinix_ai_business_case/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Trump threatens to jail adversaries in escalating rhetoric ahead of pivotal debate.
https://m.lasvegassun.com/news/2024/sep/08/trump-threatens-to-jail-adversaries-in-escalating/
Freed from Russian jail, American journalist is focused on colleagues still imprisoned
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
Washington — Being able to open a door whenever she wants is one of the many freedoms Alsu Kurmasheva is enjoying after months of wrongful detention in Russia.
“I’m enjoying freedom. I’m loving every minute of it,” the American journalist told VOA, just a few weeks after she was freed as part of a historic prisoner swap between the United States and Russia.
An editor with VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Kurmasheva was back in Washington late last month to accept an award from the National Press Club. The visit was the start of what she described as her “thank you tour.”
A dual U.S.-Russian national, Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May 2023 to visit her ailing mother in the Tatarstan city of Kazan. But authorities blocked her from leaving and later jailed her for more than nine months on bogus charges.
“What happened to me was so wrong, and it shouldn’t happen to any innocent person. It shouldn’t happen to any journalist,” Kurmasheva said. “I was jailed for 288 days, and every minute of it is suffering. It’s going through humiliation. And inmates in Russia and Belarus, they don’t have any rights.”
In prison, daily life was monotonous for Kurmasheva. “It was endless,” she said, adding that she forced herself to remain optimistic.
“I couldn’t write in my letters to my mom or to my husband or family or friends that I was falling apart, that I was collapsing, because I knew they were trying so hard to get me out,” she said.
Letters that she received from supporters from all over the world helped, said Kurmasheva, holding up some of the postcards she received from supporters in New York and Oregon.
“When my spirit was really low, I just opened my cards and letters, and I kept reading them,” she said.
At one point during her detention, Kurmasheva shared a cell with nine other women. There was more social interaction, she said, but that didn’t make the situation any easier.
“The doors were still locked, and every woman was there with her own bad luck and uncertain future,” she said.
When it was time for Kurmasheva’s release, her captors obscured that she was being freed, telling the journalist she was heading to a destination other than Moscow.
It wasn’t until she was hugging her husband and daughters at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington that reality set in. “Only then I felt it was real,” Kurmasheva said. “That was the moment I was dreaming of for months and months.”
Before returning home to Prague, Kurmasheva went to a military base in Texas, where she received care from doctors and psychologists.
The recovery process after wrongful detention varies greatly from person to person, according to Katherine Porterfield, a consulting psychologist at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma in New York.
“The experience of incarceration is one of loss of liberty, loss of agency, loss of freedom of movement, as well as lots of other disconnections,” Porterfield told VOA, speaking generally about how journalists and others are helped after a wrongful detention.
“It’s basically moving a person from powerlessness to a sense of agency again,” Porterfield said.
Throughout Kurmasheva’s imprisonment, press freedom groups criticized the State Department for not declaring her wrongfully detained. The designation — which The Wall Street Journal’s Gershkovich received within two weeks of his arrest — opens up extra resources and support for families and commits the U.S. government to secure their release.
The State Department in August said it had declared Kurmasheva wrongfully detained shortly before the prisoner swap took place.
“If any journalist is detained anywhere in the world doing their job, they should immediately be designated as wrongfully detained,” Kurmasheva said.
Kurmasheva’s own freedom feels bittersweet, she admits. At the top of her mind are her three RFE/RL colleagues who are still unjustly jailed.
Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik are jailed in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko is jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea. RFE/RL has condemned all three cases as politically motivated.
Kurmasheva isn’t sure whether she wants to stick with journalism or try something new, she said, but she does know that she wants to help free her jailed colleagues and other political prisoners.
“I feel the pain that their families are going through,” she said. “I feel the pain of those journalists.”
With Kurmasheva’s own family, she takes every opportunity to thank her daughters, as well as her husband, for fighting so hard to secure her release.
“They were the leaders of my advocacy group. It all started at home,” she said.
Noting how her daughters have matured significantly in the time Kurmasheva was in jail, she says she is relishing her newly reclaimed freedom and figuring out what comes next.
“I want to enjoy my life from now on,” she said.
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I’ll buy whatever pro phone they announced today, but really wished pro users were not penalized with the uninspiring colors.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113108613385209490
Avis alerts nearly 300k car renters that crooks stole their info
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
‘Insider wrongdoing’ to blame for the breach
Avis Rent A Car System has alerted 299,006 customers across multiple US states that their personal information was stolen in an August data breach.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/avis_data_breach_car_rental/
AppSumo: this week’s sponsor
date: 2024-09-09, from: OS News
AppSumo is a marketplace where software developers and other entrepreneurs can launch their products, giving special offers to early adopters. Many AppSumo deals offer lifetime licenses, so you can throw in your support for an up-and-coming product and be rewarded with a deal-for-life that will save you up to 95% compared to paying monthly. If you’re a developer, AppSumo is a great way to get attention for your launch, and quickly find a cohort of savvy paying customers. AppSumo deals are all limited-time offers, but this week they’re doing their “Last Call” event, where crowd favorite deals are brought back for a limited time (but only for members paying for the Plus tier).
https://www.osnews.com/story/140709/appsumo-this-weeks-sponsor/
1.7M potentially pwned after payment services provider takes a year to notice break-in
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Criminals with plenty of time on their hands may now have credit card details
Around 1.7 million people will receive a letter from Florida-based Slim CD, if they haven’t already, after the company detected an intrusion dating back nearly a year.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/slim_cd_breach/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Archie Bunker on Democrats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7fqCS7Y_kME
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-09, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
New Harris commercial about Trump's fitness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6oQXN2WNtU&t=60s
Black creatives band together to navigate fashion industry barriers
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
A lack of opportunities has resulted in underrepresentation of Black designers, stylists and other creatives in the fashion industry. It’s also created a new wave of Black entrepreneurs who are passing on lessons of the business. Tina Trinh reports. (Camera and Produced by: Tina Trinh)
Trump Touts Commitment to Child Care But as President He Worked to Slash It
date: 2024-09-09, from: Capital and Main
The former chief executive proposed deep cuts to child care and aid for low-income families while Project 2025 calls for the elimination of Head Start.
The post Trump Touts Commitment to Child Care But as President He Worked to Slash It appeared first on .
The dome-shaped Brandburg Massif near the Atlantic coast of central Namibia
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
The dome-shaped Brandburg Massif, near the Atlantic coast of central Namibia, containing Brandberg Mountain, the African nation’s highest peak and ancient rock paintings going back at least 2,000 years, is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 261 miles above. Image Credit: NASA
MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo is a 2.2 pound Lunar Lake laptop with a 13.3 inch, 2.8K OLED display
date: 2024-09-09, from: Liliputing
The new MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo (A2VMG) is a thin and light laptop with a big battery, a high quality display, and support for up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V processor. Unveiled during the IFA show in Berlin earlier this month, the 2.2 pound notebook is now available for pre-order for $1400. It’s […]
The post MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo is a 2.2 pound Lunar Lake laptop with a 13.3 inch, 2.8K OLED display appeared first on Liliputing.
Public Affairs Manager Gary Jordan
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
“It’s 2 a.m. in the morning on a Sunday. You have your headset in your hand. You’re about to walk into Mission Control. And you understand — in the darkness, the crickets chirping, the lights shining on the building — you understand where you’re going and what you’re a part of. “This is the building […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/public-affairs-manager-gary-jordan/
The Roman Siege of Masada May Have Lasted Weeks, Not Years
date: 2024-09-09, from: Smithsonian Magazine
New research suggests that the Romans defeated the Jewish rebels at Masada much more quickly than scholars previously assumed
BlueSCSI v2 (again!)
date: 2024-09-09, from: Tilde.news
Cluster II spacecraft reenters and burns up with a nod to its controllers
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Salsa’s final act: Reminding us it was the humans all along
The European Space Agency (ESA) has bid farewell to the Cluster II spacecraft with a final set of commands to show that engineers are indeed human.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/esa_cluster_salsa_farewell/
Onyx BOOX T10C is a slightly cheaper 10.3 inch E Ink color tablet
date: 2024-09-09, from: Liliputing
The Onxy BOOX T10C is an tablet with a 10.3 inch E Ink Kaleido 3 color display, support for pressure-sensitive pen input, and an Android 12-based operating system. In other words, it’s a lot like the Onyx BOOX Tab Ultra C and BOOX Tab Ultra C Pro tablets that launched late last year. But the new model […]
The post Onyx BOOX T10C is a slightly cheaper 10.3 inch E Ink color tablet appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/onyx-boox-t10c-is-a-slightly-cheaper-10-3-inch-e-ink-color-tablet/
Celebrate International Observe the Moon Night at NASA Goddard
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
The public is invited to celebrate International Observe the Moon Night on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 6 to 9 p.m. EDT at NASA Goddard’s Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. International Observe the Moon Night is a time to come together with fellow Moon enthusiasts and curious people around the world. The public is invited to […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/celebrate-international-observe-the-moon-night-at-nasa-goddard-3/
Like a Diamond in the Sky: How to Spot NASA’s Solar Sail Demo in Orbit
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
Now that its reflective sail has deployed fully open in orbit, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System can be seen in the night sky from many locations across the world! Stargazers can join NASA’s #SpotTheSail campaign by using the NASA app on mobile platforms to find out when the spacecraft will be visible at their location. The app, […]
https://www.nasa.gov/general/like-a-diamond-in-the-sky-how-to-spot-nasas-solar-sail-demo-in-orbit/
Where Tiafoe learned how to play tennis
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
For the first time in over 20 years, there were two American semifinalists in both men’s and women’s tournaments at the U.S. Open. One of them was Frances Tiafoe, an alumnus of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland. VOA Russian visited the center, where Tiafoe still trains between tennis tournaments. Rafael Saakov and Karina Bafradzhian have the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Sergii Dogotar.
https://www.voanews.com/a/where-tiafoe-learned-how-to-play-tennis-/7776992.html
Find Me on the Moon: NASA Lunar Navigation Challenge
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Artemis campaign is a series of lunar missions to further explore the lunar landscape to prepare for future missions to Mars. The Artemis missions will send humans to land on the moon and explore the lunar south pole. This will be NASA’s first human lunar landing since the Apollo missions over 50 years ago. […]
Why farmers are feeling so down
date: 2024-09-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Purdue’s Farmer Sentiment Index hit an 8-year low in August, and half of agricultural economists surveyed by the University of Missouri last month say the farm economy is in a recession. Input and borrowing costs are still high, while prices for commodities have been trending down. We’ll unpack, but first will mull how likely a government shutdown is before the election. And, will it be another rough week for markets?
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/why-farmers-are-feeling-so-down
Rapidus, rapidly running through funds, needs $700M for 2nm chip plant
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Japanese government has also earmarked $6.4B for the project
Japanese chip upstart Rapidus has only worked on its 2nm wafer fab in Hokkaido for a year, yet the company is reportedly already seeking ¥100 billion ($699 million) in additional funding for the project.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/rapidus_government_funding/
Mourners attend funeral for American activist witness says was shot dead by Israeli troops
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
NABLUS, West Bank — The Western-backed Palestinian Authority held a funeral procession Monday for a U.S.-Turkish dual national activist who a witness says was shot and killed by Israeli forces while demonstrating against settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of mourners — including several leading PA officials — attended the procession. Security forces carried the body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi which was draped in a Palestinian flag while a traditional black-and-white checkered scarf covered her face. The 26-year-old’s body was then placed into the back of a Palestinian ambulance.
Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oncu Keceli said Turkey was working on repatriating Eygi’s remains for burial in the Aegean coastal town of Didim as per her family’s wishes, but “because the land crossing from the Palestinian territories to Jordan was closed as of Sunday, the ministry was trying to have the body flown directly to Turkey.”
U.S. officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli peace activist who participated in Friday’s protest, said Israeli forces shot her on Friday in the city of Nablus while posing no threat, adding that the killing happened during a period of calm after clashes between soldiers and Palestinian protesters. Pollak said he then saw two Israeli soldiers mount the roof of a nearby home, train a gun in the group’s direction and fired, with one of the bullets striking Eygi in the head.
The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an “instigator of violent activity” in the area of the protest.
The West Bank has seen a surge of violence since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian militants on Israelis, and attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.
‘Celebrity Number Six’ Internet Mystery Is Solved
date: 2024-09-09, from: 404 Media Group
Spanish model Leticia Sardá is Celebrity Number Six.
https://www.404media.co/celebrity-number-six-internet-mystery-leticia-sarda-is-solved/
NASA’s Hubble, Chandra Find Supermassive Black Hole Duo
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
Like two Sumo wrestlers squaring off, the closest confirmed pair of supermassive black holes have been observed in tight proximity. These are located approximately 300 light-years apart and were detected using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. These black holes, buried deep within a pair of colliding galaxies, are fueled by infalling […]
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-chandra-find-supermassive-black-hole-duo/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
An MMT ray of light blesses the headlines for our European friends:
Via Stephanie Kelton and Warren Mosler:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113107931028777436
NASA Science for Your Classroom: Opportunities for Educators
date: 2024-09-09, from: NASA breaking news
The summer season for educators can be a time of rest and rejuvenation, but it can also offer opportunities for professional learning with new colleagues beyond your own school. The following programs from NASA’s Science Activation Program offer end-of-summer/early-fall curricular resources and connections with other educators that can help you bring new science ideas and […]
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Dark predicted our collective mood on the Apple launch
day:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113107895950563989
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113107905939268229
Kremlin-linked COLDRIVER crooks take pro-democracy NGOs for phishy ride
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
The latest of many attempts to stifle perceived threats to Putin’s regime
A pro-democracy NGO in Russia says it looks like the Kremlin-linked COLDRIVER group was behind last month’s hack-and-leak job that saw files and inboxes dumped online.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/russia_coldriver_ngo_phishing/
Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — One month after a judge declared Google’s search engine an illegal monopoly, the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintains a monopoly over the technology that matches online publishers to advertisers. Dominance over the software on both the buy side and the sell side of the transaction enables Google to keep as much as 36 cents on the dollar when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers, the government contends in court papers.
Google says the government’s case is based on an internet of yesteryear, when desktop computers ruled and internet users carefully typed precise World Wide Web addresses into URL fields. Advertisers now are more likely to turn to social media companies like TikTok or streaming TV services like Peacock to reach audiences.
In recent years, Google Networks, the division of the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that includes such services as AdSense and Google Ad Manager that are at the heart of the case, actually have seen declining revenue, from $31.7 billion in 2021 to $31.3 billion in 2023, according to the company’s annual reports.
The trial over the alleged ad tech monopoly begins Monday in Alexandria, Virginia. It initially was going to be a jury trial, but Google maneuvered to force a bench trial, writing a check to the federal government for more than $2 million to moot the only claim brought by the government that required a jury.
The case will now be decided by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton and is best known for high-profile terrorism trials including Sept. 11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. Brinkema, though, also has experience with highly technical civil trials, working in a courthouse that sees an outsize number of patent infringement cases.
The Virginia case comes on the heels of a major defeat for Google over its search engine. which generates the majority of the company’s $307 billion in annual revenue. A judge in the District of Columbia declared the search engine a monopoly, maintained in part by tens of billions of dollars Google pays each year to companies like Apple to lock in Google as the default search engine presented to consumers when they buy iPhones and other gadgets.
In that case, the judge has not yet imposed any remedies. The government hasn’t offered its proposed sanctions, though there could be close scrutiny over whether Google should be allowed to continue to make exclusivity deals that ensure its search engine is consumers’ default option.
Peter Cohan, a professor of management practice at Babson College, said the Virginia case could potentially be more harmful to Google because the obvious remedy would be requiring it to sell off parts of its ad tech business that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.
“Divestitures are definitely a possible remedy for this second case,” Cohan said “It could be potentially more significant than initially meets the eye.”
In the Virginia trial, the government’s witnesses are expected to include executives from newspaper publishers including The New York Times Co. and Gannett, and online news sites that the government contends have faced particular harm from Google’s practices.
“Google extracted extraordinary fees at the expense of the website publishers who make the open internet vibrant and valuable,” government lawyers wrote in court papers. “As publishers generate less money from selling their advertising inventory, publishers are pushed to put more ads on their websites, to put more content behind costly paywalls, or to cease business altogether.”
Google disputes that it charges excessive fees compared to its competitors. The company also asserts the integration of its technology on the buy side, sell side and in the middle assures ads and web pages load quickly and enhance security. And it says customers have options to work with outside ad exchanges.
Google says the government’s case is improperly focused on display ads and banner ads that load on web pages accessed through a desktop computer and fails to take into account consumers’ migration to mobile apps and the boom in ads placed on social media sites over the last 15 years.
The government’s case “focuses on a limited type of advertising viewed on a narrow subset of websites when user attention migrated elsewhere years ago,” Google’s lawyers write in a pretrial filing. “The last year users spent more time accessing websites on the ‘open web,’ rather than on social media, videos, or apps, was 2012.”
The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is taking place in a courthouse that rigidly adheres to traditional practices, including a resistance to technology in the courtroom. Cellphones are banned from the courthouse, to the chagrin of a tech press corps accustomed at the District of Columbia trial to tweeting out live updates as they happen.
Even the lawyers, and there are many on both sides, are limited in their technology. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Google’s lawyers made a plea to be allowed more than the two computers each side is permitted to have in the courtroom during trial. Brinkema rejected it.
“This is an old-fashioned courtroom,” she said.
California’s Explosive Line Fire Forces Thousands to Evacuate
date: 2024-09-09, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Typhoon Yagi was downgraded to a tropical depression after tearing through northern Vietnam • Hollywood Bowl had to cancel a show on Sunday because excessive heat knocked out power to the venue • Forecasters are watching storm Francine in the Atlantic Basin that is likely to strengthen into a hurricane.
THE TOP FIVE
- California’s Line Fire doubles in size during heat wave
The fast-moving Line Fire in California’s San Bernardino County has burned more than 20,500 acres and prompted evacuation orders for thousands of people. The blaze started last week, but doubled in size between Saturday and Sunday as a heat wave on the West Coast sent temperatures soaring. The neighboring town of Riverside recorded a new daily record of 110 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday. Smoke from the fire is forming clouds and storm systems that are causing lightning strikes, which can spark even more fires. The blaze remains zero percent contained, with more than 36,000 structures in its path.
In Nevada, the Davis Fire, just south of Reno, scorched 6,500 acres and forced some 20,000 people to evacuate. Schools in the area are closed. Excessive heat warnings will remain in effect across southern California and the Southwest today.
- Harris and Trump prepare for 1st presidential debate
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are gearing up to face off in their first 2024 presidential debate tomorrow. Trump is reportedly already planning to call the ABC News event “rigged,” and has repeatedly attacked the network in recent days. He might also use the debate to draw attention to Harris’ previous call for a ban on fracking. In 2020, Harris was opposed to fracking, but has since changed her position. “We can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,” Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash recently. But like President Biden during his tenure, Harris has to balance the interests of several important demographics on climate and energy issues. “The Harris campaign is trying to avoid being pulled between environmentalists and the Pennsylvania oil and gas sector,” Kevin Book, a managing director at consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners, told E&E News.
- Massachusetts and Rhode Island select 3 new wind power projects
Massachusetts and Rhode Island on Friday selected 2,878 megawatts of wind power capacity from three projects – SouthCoast Wind (owned by Ocean Winds), New England Wind 1 (developed by Avangrid Inc.), and Vineyard Wind 2 (from Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ Vineyard Offshore). The selections were the result of a multi-state procurement collaboration, the first in the U.S., and amount to the largest offshore wind initiative New England has seen so far. Massachusetts secured most of the capacity, with 2,678 MW. Once online, this wind power will meet nearly 20% of the state’s electricity demand and result in emissions reductions equivalent to removing 1 million gas-powered cars from the roads. “The economic ripple effects of these projects will be massive,” wrote Michelle Lewis at Electrek. “New England’s ports in New Bedford, New London, Salem, and Providence are now booked with offshore wind tenants through 2032. These hubs will serve as launching points for wind turbines and other infrastructure that will transform the region’s energy landscape.”
- CEOs are thinking less about sustainability these days
CEOs planning their business strategies are prioritizing sustainability less now than they have over the last few years, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a new report out from Bain & Co. Executives are thinking more about issues like inflation, artificial intelligence, and geopolitical uncertainty, even as 60% of consumers (and especially Gen-Z consumers) say their own levels of climate concern have grown due to extreme weather events. A recent WSJ Pro analysis found that mentions of sustainability are high in company financial reports, but low in earnings calls and marketing materials. Meanwhile, just over a third of businesses are falling short of their Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets, and more than half are missing their Scope 3 targets.
- Study: Sharks abandoning coral reefs as oceans warm
A new study suggests sharks are abandoning coral reefs due to warming ocean waters caused by climate change. Grey reef sharks tend to stay close to shallow reef habitats in the Indo-Pacific, but the research team, led by marine scientists at Lancaster University, found that warmer waters are forcing the sharks to leave for extended periods of time. Their absence could further disrupt reef ecosystems. “Faced with a trade-off, sharks must decide whether to leave the relative safety of the reef and expend greater energy to remain cool or stay on a reef in suboptimal conditions but conserve energy,” said David Jacoby, a lecturer in zoology at Lancaster University and one of the authors on the study. “We think many are choosing to move into offshore, deeper and cooler waters, which is concerning.”
THE KICKER
Zion National Park in Southern Utah has replaced its propane shuttle buses with 30 all-electric buses. The National Park Service is working on similar zero-emission fleets at other parks including Grand Canyon, Acadia, Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, and Harpers Ferry.
NPS/Colton
Johnston
https://heatmap.news/climate/california-line-fire-heat-wave
Escape room monitoring system | #MagPiMonday
date: 2024-09-09, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
This Raspberry Pi-enabled creation allows for creepy check-ins from your escape room captor.
The post Escape room monitoring system | #MagPiMonday appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/escape-room-monitoring-system-magpimonday/
Authorities vow relentless search as manhunt for interstate shooter enters third day in Kentucky
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
LONDON, Ky. — As a grueling manhunt stretched into a third day Monday for a suspect in an interstate shooting that struck 12 vehicles and wounded five people, authorities vowed to keep up a relentless search as the stress level remained high for a rural area where some schools canceled classes.
Authorities have been searching a rugged, hilly area of southeastern Kentucky since Saturday evening, when a gunman began shooting at drivers on Interstate 75 near London, a small city of about 8,000 people located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.
The search was temporarily suspended once darkness fell Sunday night, but was set to resume Monday morning.
“We’re not going to quit until we do lay hands on him,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Sunday night.
Joseph A. Couch, 32, was named first as a person of interest and later as a suspect in the shooting after authorities said they recovered his SUV on a service road near the crime scene. They later found a semi-automatic weapon nearby that they believe was used in the shooting, said Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the local sheriff’s office.
On Sunday, as another day of searching was ending without any sign of the suspect, Acciardo acknowledged the frustration that law enforcement officers and people who live near the search area are feeling.
“As this continues, it becomes more stressful for the community, it becomes more stressful for the officers that are there because we’re looking … and we’re trying to find him, and we haven’t found him,” he said.
State police Master Trooper Scottie Pennington, a spokesman for the London state police post, said troopers are being brought in from around the state to aid the manhunt. He described the extensive search area as “walking in a jungle” with machetes needed to cut through thickets of woods.
Acciardo said it appears that the attacker planned the shooting for that location because it is very remote and the terrain is hilly, rocky and hard to navigate.
With the gunman still at large, numerous area school districts canceled classes for Monday. Pennington urged area residents to lock doors, keep porch lights on and monitor security cameras. The search was focused on a remote area about eight miles north of London.
Authorities sought to reassure residents that they believe the suspect will be found.
“We’re doing everything that we can do,” Root said, adding, ”Just be confident.”
Authorities said Couch purchased the weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition Saturday morning in London. Couch has a military background, having served in the National Guard for at least four years, said Capt. Richard Dalrymple of the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities initially said nine vehicles were struck by gunfire, but later increased that number to 12, saying some people did not realize their cars had been hit by bullets until they arrived home. They said the gunman fired a total of 20 to 30 rounds.
Couch most recently lived in Woodbine, a small community about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the shooting scene. Acciardo said authorities found his abandoned vehicle Saturday and then an AR-15 rifle on Sunday in a wooded area near a highway where “he could have shot down upon the interstate.” A phone believed to be Couch’s was also found by law enforcement, but the battery had been taken out.
Some residents of Laurel County were on edge as authorities searched with a drone, helicopter and on foot in a remote and sparsely populated wooded area near the busy interstate.
Cody Shepherd, sipping a bloody mary outdoors while waiting to watch a football game at the Pour Boyz Sports Lounge in London on Sunday, said locals were abuzz with speculation. A resident of London, he was at a party Saturday at a friend’s house about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of where the shooting occurred.
“We were listening to the police scanners all night,” he said, adding they heard sirens and saw a helicopter overhead.
On Sunday, several local churches canceled services. But Rodney Goodlett, pastor of Faith Assembly of God in London, was helping direct traffic as parishioners gathered for a morning service. He expected the search would hold down attendance.
“This is tragic, obviously, that somebody would randomly do violent acts,” he said. “You hear media things taking place all around our country, but then when it hits home, it’s a little bit of a wake-up call.”
Acciardo said authorities are being inundated with tips from the public and are following up on each one in case it could help them find the shooter. When the search has been suspended at night, specially trained officers have been deployed in strategic locations in the woods to prevent the gunman from slipping out of the area.
“We’ve got to get him,” Acciardo said.
Microsoft exec warns of business functions being sacrificed on the altar of AI
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Too many IT modernization projects? Not enough budget? Something will have to give
Arun Ulag, Microsoft corporate vice president for Azure Data, reckons that, in a world of constrained or finite IT budgets, something will have to give if new projects are to thrive.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/microsoft_arun_ulag_ai/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-09, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Me this morning:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113107672540154666
Hiding Starlink on a US Navy Ship
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/09/hiding-starlink-on-a-us-navy-ship/
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin waves bye bye to October 13 ESCAPADE
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Mars adventure postponed to 2025. Perhaps
NASA has decided the two ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft planned to be launched on the maiden flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will not be fueled and will instead take a ride to Mars next year. Maybe.…
Boeing reaches a deal
date: 2024-09-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report
After a rough year, Boeing was facing a possible strike to add to its list of problems. But no longer. The aerospace company has reached a tentative deal with its largest labor union, with the hopes of averting a strike. We’ll hear more. Plus, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to square off in their first debate tomorrow evening. We’ll do some math on their fiscal proposals.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/boeing-reaches-a-deal
A 9/11 anniversary tradition is handed down to a new generation
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
New York — A poignant phrase echoes when 9/11 victims’ relatives gather each year to remember the loved ones they lost in the terror attacks.
“I never got to meet you.”
It is the sound of generational change at ground zero, where relatives read out victims’ names on every anniversary of the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when al-Qaida hijackers crashed four jetliners into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in southwest Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
Some names are read out by children or young adults who were born after the strikes. Last year’s observance featured 28 such young people among more than 140 readers. Young people are expected again at this year’s ceremony Wednesday.
Some are the children of victims whose partners were pregnant. More of the young readers are victims’ nieces, nephews or grandchildren. They have inherited stories, photos, and a sense of solemn responsibility.
Being a “9/11 family” reverberates through generations, and commemorating and understanding the Sept. 11 attacks one day will be up to a world with no first-hand memory of them.
“It’s like you’re passing the torch on,” says Allan Aldycki, 13.
He read the names of his grandfather and several other people the last two years, and plans to do so on Wednesday. Aldycki keeps mementoes in his room from his grandfather Allan Tarasiewicz, a firefighter.
The teen told the audience last year that he’s heard so much about his grandfather that it feels like he knew him, “but still, I wish I had a chance to really know you,” he added.
Allan volunteered to be a reader because it makes him feel closer to his grandfather, and he hopes to have children who’ll participate.
“It’s an honor to be able to teach them because you can let them know their heritage and what to never forget,” he said by phone from central New York. He said he already finds himself teaching peers who know little or nothing about 9/11.
When it comes time for the ceremony, he looks up information about the lives of each person whose name he’s assigned to read.
“He reflects on everything and understands the importance of what it means to somebody,” his mother, Melissa Tarasiewicz, said.
Reciting the names of the dead is a tradition that extends beyond ground zero. War memorials honor fallen military members by speaking their names aloud. Some Jewish organizations host readings of Holocaust victims’ names on the international day of remembrance, Yom Hashoah.
The names of the 168 people killed in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City are read annually at the memorial there.
On Sept. 11 anniversaries, the Pentagon’s ceremony includes military members or officials reading the names of the 184 people killed there. The Flight 93 National Memorial has victims’ relatives and friends read the list of the 40 passengers and crew members whose lives ended at the rural site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The hourslong observance at the 9/11 Memorial in New York is almost exclusively dedicated to the names of the 2,977 victims at all three sites, plus the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. All are read by relatives who volunteer and are chosen by lottery.
Each is given a subset of names to render aloud. Readers also generally speak briefly about their own lost kin, frequently in touching detail.
“I think often about how, if you were still here, you would be one of my best friends, looking at colleges with me, getting me out of trouble with Mom and Dad, hanging out at the Jersey Shore,” Capri Yarosz said last year of her slain uncle, New York firefighter Christopher Michael Mozzillo.
Now 17, she grew up with a homemade baby book about him and a family that still mentions him in everyday conversation.
“Chris would have loved that” is a phrase often heard around the house.
She has read twice at the trade center ceremony.
“It means a lot to me that I can kind of keep alive my uncle’s name and just keep reading everybody else’s name, so that more of the upcoming generations will know,” she said by phone from her family’s home in central New Jersey. “I feel good that I can pass down the importance of what happened.”
Her two younger sisters also have read names, and one is preparing to do so again Wednesday. Their mother, Pamela Yarosz, has never been able to steel herself to sign up.
“I don’t have that strength. It’s too hard for me,” says Pamela Yarosz, who is Mozzillo’s sister. “They’re braver.”
By now, many of the children of 9/11 victims — such as Melissa Tarasiewicz, who was just out of high school when her father died — have long since grown up. But about 100 were born after the attacks killed one of their parents, and are now young adults.
“Though we never met, I am honored to carry your name and legacy with me. I thank you for giving me this life and family,” Manuel DaMota Jr. said of his father, a woodworker and project manager, during last year’s ceremony.
One young reader after another at the event commemorated aunts, uncles, great-uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers whom the children have missed throughout their lives.
“My whole life, my dad has said I reminded him of you.”
“I wish you got to take me fishing.”
“I wish I had more of you than just a picture on a frame.”
“Even though I never got to meet you, I will never forget you.”
Afghan children are paying the price of an economic crisis
date: 2024-09-09, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Afghanistan is facing a food crisis. Some 3.2 million children under the age of 5 are malnourished, and health services do not have the resources to cope. Plus, South Korea is removing pictures of soldiers from the armed forces communications network amid concerns over sexually explicit deepfake manipulation. Then, some runners are willing to pay others to notch up an impressive time on the fitness app, Strava.
Ubuntu Noble updates on hold while 20th anniversary teaser bears retro-styled gifts
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
22.04 to 24.04 upgrade temporarily withdrawn, but will be back
Ubuntu 24.04.1 is still available, but for now you can’t update to it from Jammy Jellyfish until a bug is sorted. To compensate, there are some fun goodies coming in 24.10.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/ubuntu_noble_updates_on_hold/
Ubuntu Noble updates on hold while 20th anniversary teaser bears retro-styled gifts
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: Liam Proven’s articles at the Register
22.04 to 24.04 upgrade temporarily withdrawn, but will be back
<p>Ubuntu 24.04.1 is still available, but for now you can't update to it from Jammy Jellyfish until a bug is sorted. To compensate, there are some fun goodies coming in 24.10.</p> Openreach pitches its tent as Ofcom preps review of broadband market rules
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Nation’s dominant broadband plumber keen to fend off any efforts to restrict it
Openreach wants Reg readers to know that the UK’s fixed telecoms market is coming along just fine, and is imploring regulators to not spoil it by, for example, listening to what competitors say.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/openreach_review_ofcom_prep/
Linux’s bedtime routine
date: 2024-09-09, from: OS News
How does Linux move from an awake machine to a hibernating one? How does it then manage to restore all state? These questions led me to read way too much C in trying to figure out how this particular hardware/software boundary is navigated. ↫ Jacob Adams So this is a lot deeper of a dive than I expected, and it blows my mind just how complex sleep, hibernating, and waking a computer really is. Instinctively you know this, but seeing it spelled out like this really drives that point home – and this only covers going into hibernation. It also highlights how hard it must be for the developers involved to keep this working at all, especially on the wide variety of machines and hardware combinations Linux runs on. It wasn’t too log ago that pretty much the only platform where sleeping and waking worked reliably was Mac OS X with its controlled, small hardware selection, so it’s kind of remarkable this works at all on Linux now. I haven’t had to worry about sleeping and waking with Linux for quite a while now, and it’s one of those things that “just works” so I never have to think about it. This definitely wasn’t always the case, though, and on both Linux and Windows I would just turn the whole feature off since it rarely worked reliably, especially on desktops. I’m sure it still breaks for people, but for me, it’s been rock solid, and reading through the linked article, I’m even more amazed about this than I already was.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140700/linuxs-bedtime-routine/
KDE to focus on improving developer experience, input methods
date: 2024-09-09, from: OS News
The KDE project is currently having its yearly conference – Akademy – and at the conference, the project announced its goals for the coming years. The KDE community has charted its course for the coming years, focusing on three interconnected paths that converge on a single point: community. These paths aim to improve user experience, support developers, and foster community growth. ↫ Farid Abdelnour on the KDE Blogs First, the project intends to make it easier for developers to build KDE applications. They want to do this in various ways, but most notably they want to improve the developer experience for people writing KDE applications in languages other than C++, such as Rust or Python. This is a very welcome goal, as I feel there’s definitely a bit of a lack of new KDE applications, and as any other open source project, KDE can always use more developers. Second, KDE is going to focus on improving the input experience, as in the various ways you interact with your computer. Accessibility, and the more complex input methods people with accessibility needs require, are also part of this goal, but it also covers simpler things like mice with tons of buttons, drawing tablets, 2-in-1 laptops, and so on. I’m assuming this also includes controlling the various RGB stuff found in every keyboard and mouse these days, as this is something KDE has already been making inroads into. The third and final goal is one strongly related to the first goal, as it involves community outreach to attract new contributors. This covers not just individual contributors, but also support from institutions, organisations, and I’m guessing companies, too. With Valve opting for KDE for its Steam Deck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some more involvement from that direction, too, which meshes well with the input goal mentioned above. If you all keep becoming Patreons and donating to us, I might be able to actually go to Akademy next year and be a fly on the wall for some more in-depth reporting from such a conference. I can’t guarantee anything – especially since I have two small children, live far away from everything here in the Arctic, and have serious anxiety problems to take into account, but it’s definitely a goal for me for next year.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140697/kde-to-focus-on-improving-developer-experience-input-methods/
CrowdStrike hopes legal threats will fade as time passes since it broke the world
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CFO says company hasn’t been sued by any customers – yet
CrowdStrike has yet to face a lawsuit over July’s global IT meltdown, according to CFO Burt Podbere.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/crowdstrike_legal_threats/
Upgrading Linux with Rust looks like a new challenge. It’s one of our oldest
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
From the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever built. Not even a kernel
Opinion The Rusting of Linux proceeds apace. Of course there are problems, some technical, some very human. Last week saw one of the leading Rusties sign off from the project, quoting “non-technical” barriers to progress. That’ll be people, then.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/opinion_column_rust_linux/
Python script saw students booted off the mainframe for sending one insult too many
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Come and see the violence inherent in the system!
Who, Me? The Register does not particularly like Mondays, but rather than shoot the whole day down we prefer to brighten it with a fresh instalment of Who, Me? in which Reg readers share tales of times the silicon chips inside their heads got switched to overload.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/who_me/
MI6 and CIA using generative AI to combat tech-driven threat actors
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Spook bosses use first-ever joint article to bemoan how Russia and China use tech to mess with the world
CIA director Bill Burns and UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) chief Richard Moore have for the first time penned a joint opinion piece in which the two spookmasters reveal their agencies have adopted generative AI.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/mi6_cia_genai/
Scientists find a common food dye can make a live mouse’s skin transparent
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Do try this one at home, using a chicken breast and a recipe
Scientists have discovered a common food colorant has a remarkable property - making the skin of live mice transparent, so the organs beneath become visible.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/food_dye_skin_transparent/
US Congress takes up a series of bills targeting China, from drones to drugs
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — How to curb and counter China’s influence and power — through its biotech companies, drones and electric vehicles — will dominate the U.S. House’s first week back from summer break, with lawmakers taking up a series of measures targeting Beijing.
Washington views Beijing as its biggest geopolitical rival, and the legislation is touted as ensuring the U.S. prevails in the competition. Many of the bills scheduled for a vote this week appear to have both Republican and Democratic support, reflecting strong consensus that congressional actions are needed to counter China.
The legislation “will take meaningful steps to counter the military, economic and ideological threat of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Michigan Republican. “There’s a bipartisan goal to win this competition.”
Advocacy groups worry about the impact, warning against rhetoric that hurts Asian Americans and could create “an atmosphere of guilt by association or fuel divisiveness,” said Christine Chen, executive director of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the legislation “new McCarthyism” that hypes the tensions in an election year. If passed, the bills “will cause serious interference to China-U.S. relations and mutually beneficial cooperation, and will inevitably damage the U.S.’s own interests, image and credibility,” spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a statement.
Among the bills are efforts to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese biotech companies, ban Chinese EVs and drones, restrict Chinese nationals from buying farmland, toughen export restrictions and revive a program to root out spying on U.S. intellectual property.
If approved, the measures would still need to clear the Senate. Here’s a look at the key legislation:
Targeting Beijing-linked biotech
A bill seeks to ban a group of five biotechnology companies with Chinese ties from working with anyone that receives federal money.
The companies include those that work to help doctors detect genetic causes for cancer or do research and manufacturing for American drugmakers, considered a key step in developing new medications.
America’s biotech companies have said the bill would disrupt their partnerships with Chinese contractors, resulting in delays in clinical trials for new drugs and higher costs.
Supporters say the legislation is necessary to protect U.S. health care data and reduce the country’s reliance on China for its medical supply chain.
“American patients cannot be in a position where we rely on China for genomic testing or basic medical supplies,” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican who sponsored the bill. He called it “the first step” in protecting Americans’ genetic data.
BGI, one of the Chinese companies named in the bill, called it “a false flag targeting companies under the premise of national security.” The company, which offers genetic sequencing for research purposes in the U.S., said it follows the law and has no access to Americans’ personal data.
Banning Chinese drones
Another bill would dub drones made by the Chinese company DJI, which dominates the global drone market, “an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security” and cut its products from U.S. communications networks over data security concerns.
The bill would protect Americans’ data and critical infrastructure, said Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who introduced it. “Congress must use every tool at our disposal to stop” China’s “monopolistic control over the drone market,” she said.
DJI argues that users have to “opt in” to share data such as flight logs, photos and videos with the company. If users don’t do so, the company said it won’t have data to share with any government when compelled. It also has rejected allegations that it is a Chinese military company and has aided the persecution of members of ethnic Muslim minorities.
Adam Bry, co-founder and CEO of major U.S. drone maker Skydio, told a congressional committee in June about losing business to China, where “the Chinese government has tried to control the drone industry, pouring resources into national champions and taking aim at competitors in the U.S. and the West, tilting the playing field in China’s favor.”
Protecting intellectual property
A challenge is likely against an attempt to revive a Trump-era program described as a way to stop Chinese efforts to steal intellectual property and spy on industry and research.
The bill would direct the Justice Department to curb spying by Beijing on U.S. intellectual property and academic institutions and go after people engaged in theft of trade secrets, hacking and economic espionage.
The Trump-era program, called the China Initiative, ended in 2022 after multiple unsuccessful prosecutions of researchers and concerns that it had prompted racial and ethnic profiling. Critics also say it chilled cooperation between the U.S. and China in science and technology meant to benefit the greater good.
“Our colleagues in the Republican Party sought to reinstate this failed program because they wanted to look like they were solving problems. But in reality, they were only stoking fear and hatred,” several Democratic lawmakers said in a statement in March, when they fought off another effort to restart the program.
Restricting farm sales
Another bill, which says it will protect U.S. farmland from foreign adversaries, has raised concerns about discrimination.
It would add the agriculture secretary to the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews the national security implications of foreign transactions. The bill also flags as “reportable” land sales involving citizens from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.
“Food security is national security, and for too long, the federal government has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to put our security at risk by turning a blind eye to their steadily increasing purchases of American farmland,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state, who introduced the bill.
The National Agricultural Law Center estimates 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The interest emerged after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.
AI bills can blow out by 1000 percent: Gartner
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Preventing that is doable, but managing what happens when AI upsets people is hard
Organizations adopting AI need to learn how to manage the emotional and monetary costs the tech creates, while also worrying about capturing productivity benefits, according to analyst firm Gartner.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/gartner_synmposium_ai_opinion/
Presidential debates that sparked change
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
President Joe Biden’s poor performance during the debate against Donald Trump in June led to his withdrawal from the race and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Here’s a look at other presidential debates in history that shifted the direction of the campaign.
https://www.voanews.com/a/presidential-debates-that-sparked-change/7776588.html
Predator spyware updated with dangerous new features, also now harder to track
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: Trump family X accounts hijacked to promote crypto scam; Fog ransomware spreads; Hijacked PyPI packages; and more
Infosec in brief After activating its chameleon field and going to ground following press attention earlier this year, the dangerous Predator commercial spyware kit is back – with upgrades.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/predator_spyware_trump_crypto/
Republicans fault Biden administration in new report about Afghanistan withdrawal
date: 2024-09-09, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives committee issued a report Sunday criticizing the Biden administration for the chaotic August 2021 U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal from Afghanistan after a nearly 20-year war.
The report faulted President Joe Biden for failing to “mitigate the likely consequences of the decision” to withdraw, while ignoring warnings that Taliban fighters were seizing key cities in Afghanistan faster than U.S. officials expected.
In the last days of the withdrawal, a suicide bombing attack by an Islamic State terrorist killed 13 U.S. soldiers and about 170 Afghan civilians at the Kabul airport. Many Afghans clinging to the underbellies of departing aircraft leaving Afghanistan fell to their deaths.
Former President Donald Trump initiated the withdrawal process in February 2020 by signing an agreement with the Taliban, a pact that Biden honored as he looked to end America’s longest war.
The fateful withdrawal also played a role in Biden’s political fortunes. Until that time, Americans in national surveys approved of Biden’s performance during the first seven months of his presidency.
But his approval rating dipped into negative territory after the chaotic troop withdrawal and the deaths of the 13 soldiers and has never again advanced into a favorable standing.
The report from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee followed a three-year investigation and includes accusations that the Biden administration did not have adequate plans or security in place to safely carry out the withdrawal.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said the Biden administration “had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate U.S. personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies.”
Previous investigations have faulted multiple U.S. administrations, including a 2023 report by the U.S. government watchdog for the U.S. in Afghanistan which cited both Trump’s and Biden’s determination to go forward with the withdrawal despite the Taliban breaking key commitments the militants made in the 2020 agreement.
Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a letter to colleagues that Republicans “cherry-picked witness testimony to exclude anything unhelpful to a predetermined, partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal.”
In a lengthy statement, the U.S. State Department said, “There are valid and important criticisms of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan and how it concluded.” But the country’s top diplomatic agency said it “has remained focused on evolving and growing from this moment, learning important lessons and making sustainable changes to crisis operations.”
The State Department said the U.S. government successfully evacuated 120,000 Americans, Afghans, and third-country nationals from Afghanistan in the final two weeks of August 2021 and has resettled 165,000 Afghans across the U.S.
The State Department said it “stands ready to work alongside” lawmakers who have a “serious interest” in finding legislative and administrative solutions to avoid the chaos of the withdrawal from the Afghan war zone. But the State Department said it would “not stand by silently” as the agency and “its workforce are used to further partisan agendas.”
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Huawei debuts triple-folding Mate XT smartphone
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: 550MW more DCs for India; Australia poised to use decryption powers; Indonesia creates cyber warfare unit
Asia In Brief Huawei has revealed an image of the Mate XT, the world’s first tri-folding smartphone – and that was apparently enough to spark over a million orders for the device.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/09/asia_tech_news_roundup/
RISC Laptops of the 90s and early 2000s
date: 2024-09-09, from: OS News
Paul Weissmann’s OpenPA, the invaluable archive on anything related to the HP’s PA-RISC architecture, devices, and operating systems, has branched off for a bit and started collecting information on RISC laptops. Technical computing in the 1990s was mostly done on RISC workstations with Unix operating systems and specialized applications. For mobile use cases, some of the popular RISC vendors built RISC Laptops for mobile Unix use in the 1990s. Often based on contemporary Unix workstations, these RISC laptops were often marketed for government and military uses such as command, technical analysis and surveillance. ↫ Paul Weissmann at OpenPA OpenPA has always had content beyond just PA-RISC (like HP’s Itanium machines), so this is not entirely surprising, and it also happens to be something that’s sorely needed – there’s remarkably little consolidated information to be found on these RISC laptops, and it’s usually scattered all over the place and difficult to find. They were expensive and rare when they were new, and they’re even rarer and often more expensive today. What we’re talking about here are laptops with PA-RISC, SPARC, (non-Apple) PowerPC, and Alpha processors, running some variant of UNIX, like HP-UX, SunOS/Solaris, AIX, and even Windows NT. A particularly interesting listing at the moment is the Hitachi 3050RX/100C, a laptop based on the Hitachi PA/50L PA-RISC processor that ran something called HI-UX/WE2, a UNIX from Hitachi I can’t find much information about. The most desirable laptop listed is the amazing Tadpole Viper, which was the most powerful SPARC laptop Tadpole ever made, and I’m pretty sure it’s the most powerful SPARC laptop, period. It was powered by a 1.2Ghz UltraSPARC IIIi processor, and was also sold as the Sun Ultra 3, in 2005. I would perform some seriously questionable acts to get my hands on one of these, but they’re most likely virtually impossible to find. Anyone who can help Weissmann find more information – feel free to do so.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140693/risc-laptops-of-the-90s-and-early-2000s/
Share your feedback about developing with Go
date: 2024-09-09, updated: 2024-09-09, from: Go language blog
Help shape the future of Go by sharing your thoughts via the Go Developer Survey
https://go.dev/blog/survey2024-h2
Pgpool-II 4.5.4, 4.4.9, 4.3.12, 4.2.19 and 4.1.22 released.
date: 2024-09-09, from: PostgreSQL News
What is Pgpool-II?
Pgpool-II is a tool to add useful features to PostgreSQL, including:
- connection pooling
- load balancing
- automatic failover and more.
Minor releases
Pgpool Global Development Group is pleased to announce the availability of following versions of Pgpool-II:
- 4.5.4
- 4.4.9
- 4.3.12
- 4.2.19
- 4.1.22
This release contains a security fix.
When the query cache feature is enabled, it was possible that a database user can read rows from tables that should not be visible for the user through query cache (CVE-2024-45624).
All versions of Pgpool-II older than 4.5.4, 4.4.9, 4.3.12, 4.2.19, 4.1.22, and all older versions that has the query cache feature (the query cache feature was implemented in 3.2) are affected by the vulnerability.
It is strongly recommend to upgrade to Pgpool-II 4.5.4, 4.4.9, 4.3.12, 4.2.19 and 4.1.22 or later. Or you should better turn off the query cache feature.
Please take a look at release notes.
You can download the source code and RPMs.
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/pgpool-ii-454-449-4312-4219-and-4122-released-2929/
Redox OS 0.9.0
date: 2024-09-09, from: Redox OS News
Overview It’s been quite a while since we had our last release, but we have been heads-down working hard this whole time, and Release 0.9.0 is packed with new features, improvements, bug fixes and cleanup. We would like to thank all maintainers and contributors whose hard work has made this release possible. Here are just a few of the highlights! Much improved process/thread lifecycle and signaling, thanks to funding from NLnet Massive performance and stability improvements Now featuring COSMIC Files, Editor and Terminal from the COSMIC Desktop!
https://www.redox-os.org/news/release-0.9.0/
Full Circle Weekly News 382
date: 2024-09-09, from: Full Circle Magazine
-
The OpenBSD project has made changes to the entire code base:
-
Microsoft hands over Mono project development to Wine community:
-
Linux From Scratch 12.2 and Beyond Linux From Scratch 12.2 Released: and here
Credits
- Host: @bardictriad, @zaivala
- Bumper: Canonical
- Theme Music: From The Dust - Stardust
- https://soundcloud.com/ftdmusic
- CC BY 4.0
https://fullcirclemagazine.org/podcasts/podcast-382/
Code of Conduct Committee Seeking New Volunteers
date: 2024-09-09, from: PostgreSQL News
This message is being sent from the Community Code of Conduct Committee, with the approval of the Core Team. As part of the Community CoC policy, the Committee membership is to be refreshed on an annual basis. We are seeking up to 4 volunteers to serve on the Committee for the coming year, October 1, 2024 - September 30, 2024.
We are seeking people who reflect the diversity of the PostgreSQL community, with the goal to have members from multiple countries and varied demographics. The time commitment for Committee involvement varies, based on internal administrative work and the number of active investigations. We estimate an average of 5 to 10 hours per month, but that could increase if there is an increase in the number of incident reports.
If you are interested, please complete the questionnaire below, and email your responses to the Committee at coc@postgresql.org no later than September 15, 2024 at 05:00 PM UTC.
The Questionnaire
Your name:
Current employer:
Current country of residence:
(We ask for employer and residence because one of the goals of the Committee is to have representation from a variety of geographical areas. We also want to avoid a concentration of members from one company.)
- What interests you about being on the CoC Committee?
- Have you been on another CoC Committee, or had a similar role at another organization? (Prior experience is not required, it’s just helpful to know everyone’s background.)
- What else do you want to tell us about yourself that is helpful for us to know about your potential involvement with the CoC Committee?
Please be sure to send your reply to the CoC email listed above.
Thank you!
Regards, Chris Travers Chair PostgreSQL Community Code of Conduct Committee
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/code-of-conduct-committee-seeking-new-volunteers-2931/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
An Interactive Guide to Flexbox in CSS.
https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/interactive-guide-to-flexbox/
Tropical system to drench parts of US Gulf Coast, may strengthen
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
Houston, Texas — A tropical disturbance in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico was forecast to bring significant rainfall to parts of Texas and Louisiana this week and was expected to develop into a tropical storm and possibly even a hurricane, the National Weather Service says.
The system was forecast to drift slowly northwestward during the next couple of days, moving near and along the Gulf coasts of Mexico and Texas, the weather service said Sunday.
“A tropical storm is expected to form during the next day or so,” the weather service said Sunday afternoon.
Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said during a weather briefing Saturday night that parts of Southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana should expect a “whole lot” of rain in the middle and later part of this week.
“Definitely want to continue to keep a very close eye on the forecast here in the coming days because this is something that could develop and evolve fairly rapidly. We’re looking at anything from a non-named just tropical moisture air mass all the way up to the potential for a hurricane,” Jones said.
Warm water temperatures and other conditions in the Gulf of Mexico are favorable for storm development, Jones said.
“We’ve seen it before, where we have these rapid spin-up hurricanes in just a couple of days or even less. So that is not out of the realm of possibility here,” Jones said.
An Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft was scheduled to investigate the tropical disturbance later Sunday and gather more data.
The tropical disturbance comes after an unusually quiet August and early September in the current Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30. The season was set to peak Tuesday, Jones said.
So far, there have been five named storms this hurricane season, including Hurricane Beryl, which knocked out power to nearly 3 million homes and businesses in Texas — mostly in the Houston area — in July. Experts had predicted one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record.
In a report issued last week, researchers at Colorado State University cited several reasons for the lull in activity during the current hurricane season, including extremely warm upper-level temperatures resulting in stabilization of the atmosphere and too much easterly wind shear in the eastern Atlantic.
“We still do anticipate an above-normal season overall, however, given that large-scale conditions appear to become more favorable around the middle of September,” according to the report.
Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updated its outlook but still predicted a highly active Atlantic hurricane season. Forecasters tweaked the number of expected named storms from 17 to 25 to 17 to 24.
Israel-Hamas war claims more lives as US hints at more detailed cease-fire proposal
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
The Israel-Hamas war continues to claim lives as analysts warn that the suffering won’t end unless a cease-fire deal is achieved. Although a truce is still elusive, the United States hinted that a more detailed peace proposal will be made in the coming days. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
WordPress Community on Mastodon.
https://wp-community-on-mastodon.wptoots.social/
Tethered
date: 2024-09-08, from: Tedium site
On the freedom that cellular modems gave to consumers—and how mobile companies tried to claw it back during the iPhone era.
https://feed.tedium.co/link/15204/16798520/smartphone-tethering-cellular-modem-history
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Autocracy in America podcast.
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/autocracy-in-america/
Sinner, of Italy, sweeps US Open title for second Grand Slam triumph
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
New York — Jannik Sinner beat Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 with a relentless baseline game to win the U.S. Open men’s championship on Sunday, less than three weeks after being exonerated in a doping case.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner, a 23-year-old from Italy, won the second Grand Slam trophy of his nascent career — the other was at the Australian Open in January — and prevented No. 12 Fritz from ending a major title drought for American men that has lasted 21 years.
Andy Roddick’s triumph at Flushing Meadows in 2003 was the last Slam title for a man from the United States. The last before Fritz, a 26-year-old from California, to even contest a final at one of the four biggest tournaments in tennis also was Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
Sinner extended his current winning streak to 11 matches and improved to 55-5 with a tour-high six titles in 2024. That includes a 35-2 mark on hard courts, the surface used at both the Australian Open and U.S. Open, and he is the first man since Guillermo Vilas in 1977 to win his first two Grand Slam trophies in the same season, something such greats as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Federer never accomplished.
Less than a week before competition began at Flushing Meadows, the world found out that Sinner had tested positive twice for anabolic steroids in March but was cleared because his use was ruled unintentional — the banned substance entered his system via a massage from a team member he later fired.
As expected, Fritz enjoyed something of a home-court advantage on a cool afternoon under a nearly cloudless sky. In a celebrity-filled crowd that included Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, some spectators occasionally engaged in chants of “U-S-A!” between games or rose to their feet whenever he managed to pick up what felt in the moment like a crucial point.
Fritz is not the sort to show much in the way of emotion, often greeting those instances with a little shake of his neon-colored racket. When he was broken in the match’s first game, an inauspicious start that included a bad miss of a smash, Fritz grinned sarcastically.
Sinner showed some jitters, too, and when he played a loose game that included a double-fault and other misses, that helped Fritz break back to eventually lead 3-2 after 20 minutes.
That was pretty much the last significant highlight for Fritz or his fans until 3-all in the third set, when he smacked an overhead winner to get to 15-30, punched the air and screamed, “Let’s go!” People in the stands rose, applauding and shouting. After Fritz deposited a volley winner to earn a break point a minute later, he celebrated in the same fashion, and thousands around him went wild. Sinner then double-faulted, putting Fritz in front 4-3.
But when he tried to serve out the set at 5-4, Fritz buckled enough to let Sinner pull even by breaking. Sinner used a drop shot to lure Fritz to the front court, then slid a passing shot that Fritz volleyed into the net. Fritz bounced off his racket off the court. Sinner loped to the towel box, not even smiling.
About 10 minutes later, the victory was Sinner’s thanks to a closing four-game run. When it was over, Sinner raised his arms, threw his head back and closed his eyes.
He generally asserts himself during matches in what perhaps is best described as a rather casual way. His style is less spectacular than solid, less magical than metronomic. Either way, it was masterful, using his long limbs and squeaking, sliding sneakers to get to everything before aiming high-speed shot after shot right near lines — and usually succeeding.
Neither player seemed all that interested in venturing forward Sunday unless forced to, instead content to ply their forehands and backhands from the back of the court.
That’s decidedly Sinner’s territory.
By the end, Sinner, the second Italian to win a singles title at the U.S. Open, joining 2015 women’s champion Flavia Pennetta, had an impressive ledger: just 21 unforced errors, 13 fewer than Fritz, and 23 winners.
Going in, the matchup appeared to be one Fritz would only have a chance of keeping competitive provided he demonstrated his absolute best, particularly when serving. If that’s so, the opening set turned out to be something less than an ideal for him.
He put 36% of his first serves in, delivered only two aces — a total exceeded in the initial game of the second set alone — and wound up with more than twice as many unforced errors (12) as winners (five).
Those sorts of stats would improve from Fritz’s side, but he did not figure out a way to consistently put Sinner in trouble. Few can these days.
https://www.voanews.com/a/sinner-sweeps-to-us-open-title-for-second-grand-slam-triumph/7776208.html
Margot Comstock Interview at Apple II Reunion (2015)
date: 2024-09-08, from: Tilde.news
https://archive.org/details/2015_06_Margot_Comstock_Interview
US volunteer delivers aid, helps fortify trenches for Ukraine’s military
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
American Benjamin Hoerber says he has discovered his calling helping Ukraine’s military. He initially helped transport humanitarian aid. Now he also volunteers at a forge, making supports for trenches. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Sergiy Rybchynski
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-volunteer-makes-metal-staple-for-ukraine-s-military-/7776086.html
Thank Goodness I’ve Written Some Ad Music
date: 2024-09-08, from: Cobel Sasser’s blog
This summer, a new video game came out that changed the way we think about comedy in games, becoming an instant smash hit in the process. That’s right, I’m talking about Thank Goodness You’re Here! from Coal Supper. Ok, yeah, sure, I work for Panic and we published the game, so I was contractually required […]
https://cabel.com/2024/09/08/thank-goodness-ive-written-some-ad-music/
For many leaving China, it’s Japan — not the US — that’s the bigger draw
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
TOKYO — One by one, the students, lawyers and others filed into a classroom in a central Tokyo university for a lecture by a Chinese journalist on Taiwan and democracy — taboo topics that can’t be discussed publicly back home in China.
“Taiwan’s modern-day democracy took struggle and bloodshed, there’s no question about that,” said Jia Jia, a columnist and guest lecturer at the University of Tokyo who was briefly detained in China eight years ago on suspicion of penning a call for China’s top leader to resign.
He is one of tens of thousands of intellectuals, investors and other Chinese who have relocated to Japan in recent years, part of a larger exodus of people from China.
Their backgrounds vary widely, and they’re leaving for all sorts of reasons. Some are very poor, others are very rich. Some leave for economic reasons, as opportunities dry up with the end of China’s boom. Some flee for personal reasons, as even limited freedoms are eroded.
Chinese migrants are flowing to all corners of the world, from workers seeking to start businesses of their own in Mexico to burned-out students heading to Thailand. Those choosing Japan tend to be well-off or highly educated, drawn to the country’s ease of living, rich culture and immigration policies that favor highly skilled professionals, with less of the sharp anti-immigrant backlash sometimes seen in Western countries.
Jia initially intended to move to the U.S., not Japan. But after experiencing the coronavirus outbreak in China, he was anxious to leave and his American visa application was stuck in processing. So he chose Japan instead.
“In the United States, illegal immigration is particularly controversial. When I went to Japan, I was a little surprised. I found that their immigration policy is actually more relaxed than I thought,” Jia told The Associated Press. “I found that Japan is better than the U.S.”
It’s tough to enter the U.S. these days. Tens of thousands of Chinese were arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past year, and Chinese students have been grilled at customs as trade frictions fan suspicions of possible industrial espionage. Some U.S. states passed legislation that restricts Chinese citizens from owning property.
“The U.S. is shutting out those Chinese that are friendliest to them, that most share its values,” said Li Jinxing, a Christian human rights lawyer who moved to Japan in 2022.
Li sees parallels to about a century ago, when Chinese intellectuals such as Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, moved to Japan to study how the country modernized so quickly.
“On one hand, we hope to find inspiration and direction in history,” Li said of himself and like-minded Chinese in Japan. “On the other hand, we also want to observe what a democratic country with rule of law is like. We’re studying Japan. How does its economy work, its government work?”
Over the past decade, Tokyo has softened its once-rigid stance against immigration, driven by low birthrates and an aging population. Foreigners now make up about 2% of its population of 125 million. That’s expected to jump to 12% by 2070, according to the Tokyo-based National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
Chinese are the most numerous newcomers, at 822,000 last year among more than 3 million foreigners living in Japan, according to government data. That’s up from 762,000 a year ago and 649,000 a decade ago.
In 2022, the lockdowns under China’s “zero COVID” policies led many of the country’s youth or most affluent citizens to hit the exits. There’s even a buzzword for that: “runxue,” using the English word “run” to evoke “running away” to places seen as safer and more prosperous.
For intellectuals like Li and Jia, Japan offers greater freedoms than under Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s increasingly repressive rule. But for others, such as wealthy investors and business people, Japan offers something else: property protections.
A report by investment migration firm Henley & Partners says nearly 14,000 millionaires left China last year, the most of any country in the world, with Japan a popular destination. A major driver is worries about the security of their wealth in China or Hong Kong, said Q. Edward Wang, a professor of Asian studies at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
“Protection of private property, which is the cornerstone of a capitalist society, that piece is missing in China,” Wang said.
The weakening yen makes buying property and other local assets in Japan a bargain.
And while the Japanese economy has stagnated, China’s once-sizzling economy is also in a rut, with the property sector in crisis and stock prices stuck at the level they were in the late 2000s.
“If you are just going to Japan to preserve your money,” Wang said, “then definitely you will enjoy your time in Japan.”
Dot.com entrepreneurs are among those leaving China after Communist Party crackdowns on the technology industry, including billionaire Jack Ma, a founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, who took a professorship at Tokyo College, part of the prestigious University of Tokyo.
So many wealthy Chinese have bought apartments in Tokyo’s luxury high-rises that some areas have been dubbed “Chinatowns,” or “Digital Chinatowns” — a nod to the many owners’ work in high-tech industries.
“Life in Japan is good,” said Guo Yu, an engineer who retired early after working at ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Guo doesn’t concern himself with politics. He’s keen on Japan’s powdery snow in the winter and is a “superfan” of its beautiful hot springs. He owns homes in Tokyo, as well as near a ski resort and a hot spring. He owns several cars, including a Porsche, a Mercedes, a Tesla and a Toyota.
Guo keeps busy with a new social media startup in Tokyo and a travel agency specializing in “onsen,” Japan’s hot springs. Most of his employees are Chinese, he said.
Like Guo, many Chinese moving to Japan are wealthy and educated. That’s for good reason: Japan remains unwelcoming to refugees and many other types of foreigners. The government has been strategic about who it allows to stay, generally focusing on people to fill labor shortages for factories, construction and elder care.
“It is crucial that Japan becomes an attractive country for foreign talent so they will choose to work here,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier this year, announcing efforts to relax Japan’s stringent immigration restrictions.
That kind of opportunity is exactly what Chinese ballet dancer Du Hai said he has found. Leading a class of a dozen Japanese students in a suburban Tokyo studio one recent weekend, Du demonstrated positions and spins to the women dressed in leotards and toe shoes.
Du was drawn to Japan’s huge ballet scene, filled with professional troupes and talented dancers, he said, but worried about warnings he got about unfriendly Japanese.
That turned out to be false, he said with a laugh. Now, Du is considering getting Japanese citizenship.
“Of course, I enjoy living in Japan very much now,” he said.
Wildfire east of LA threatens thousands of homes and forces evacuations
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Thousands of homes and buildings were threatened Sunday by an out-of-control wildfire burning in the foothills of a national forest east of Los Angeles, amid a days-long heat wave that pushed temperatures into the triple digits across the region.
State firefighters said 8,733 structures were threatened, including single and multi-family homes and commercial buildings.
The so-called Line Fire was burning along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 105 kilometers east of LA. As of Sunday morning, the blaze had charred about 70 square kilometers of grass and chaparral, leaving a thick cloud of dark smoke blanketing the area.
County officials declared an emergency Saturday evening.
“Extreme temperatures, wind and lightning strikes have allowed the fire to grow rapidly,” the county said in a statement.
More firefighters were expected to arrive Sunday. State officials said vegetation is critically dry in the area and temperatures reached more than 38 degrees Celsius on Saturday with relative humidity dipping to provide ideal conditions for fire growth.
The fire began Thursday evening, and the cause is under investigation.
About 500 firefighters were battling the blaze, supported by water-dropping helicopters that hovered over homes and hillsides, along with aircraft.
The fire produced coiling clouds of dense smoke, and flames could be seen cresting hillside ridges.
No injuries were reported, and no homes or other structures had been damaged or destroyed.
The National Weather Service said downtown Los Angeles hit a high of 44 degrees Celsius Friday, which marked the third time since 1877 that a temperature that high has been reached there.
Lilbits: Intel scraps 20A node, AMD Z2 Extreme chip for handhelds is coming next year
date: 2024-09-08, from: Liliputing
Intel’s next chips will likely be most likely be built by TMSC. AMD is teasing plans for a next-gen chip for handheld gaming PCs. There’s a new Linux laptop on the market (that looks a lot like the previous-gen version of the same laptop). And Spec5’s new NOMAD handheld device is a Raspberry Pi 5-powered […]
The post Lilbits: Intel scraps 20A node, AMD Z2 Extreme chip for handhelds is coming next year appeared first on Liliputing.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is a 3.2 pound Lunar Lake laptop with a 15.3 inch, 2.8K display
date: 2024-09-08, from: Liliputing
Up until a few years ago I didn’t find myself writing about laptops with screen sizes large than 13 or 14 inches very often, because the whole point of creating a website called Liliputing was to focus on Lilliputian (little) computers. But a growing number of PC makers have been cramming big displays and high-performance […]
The post Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is a 3.2 pound Lunar Lake laptop with a 15.3 inch, 2.8K display appeared first on Liliputing.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Peering is a special kind of interop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peering
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
BlueSky has a 300 character limit, which is less than the other services I cross-post to. This will be a problem when we eventually get peering working across twitter-like systems.
https://bsky.app/profile/scripting.com/post/3l3njg5jhft2k
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-08, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
I'm trying to understand "flex" in CSS, but it seems to be one of those things you have to understand before you can read about it. I'm interested because ChatGPT has told me to use it to solve some of my layout problems, and it's suggestions work, even though I don't understand how they work.
https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/
As US colleges raise stakes for protests, activists are weighing new strategies
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-08, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Fascinating development in face of Milei’s austerity economics:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/argentine-currency-launched-offset-milei-110000323.html
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113102162386019173
Boeing Seattle workers reach tentative pay deal, avert strike
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/boeing-seattle-workers-reach-tentative-pay-deal-avert-strike-/7775922.html
Xockets rockets Nvidia: Blackwell debut threatened by DPU patent claims
date: 2024-09-08, updated: 2024-09-08, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
GPU giant accused of colluding with Microsoft, RPX to sideline startup
Nvidia is embroiled in an antitrust’n’patent lawsuit, which alleges the GPU giant colluded with Microsoft and the intellectual property risk management firm RPX to rip off the data processing unit (DPU) developer Xockets’ designs.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/08/xockets_dpu_patent_nvidia_microsoft/
WordPress to Eleventy tool
date: 2024-09-08, from: Tilde.news
https://github.com/mattl/wordpress-to-eleventy
LEVER WEEKLY: This Corporation Is Bullying You
date: 2024-09-08, from: The Lever News
A “bonkers” political memo, a corporate lunchroom bully, and more from The Lever this week.
https://www.levernews.com/lever-weekly-this-corporation-is-bullying-you/
US immigration weekly recap, September 1-7
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-immigration-weekly-recap-september-1-7-/7775856.html
Ukraine Needs a New Storyline
date: 2024-09-08, updated: 2024-09-08, from: RAND blog
Wars have simple strategic storylines. Ukraine, lacking a clear narrative, needs one to sustain Western support. The recent Kursk counteroffensive offers a reset, but Kyiv must articulate a plan.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/09/ukraine-needs-a-new-storyline.html
Belarusian Sabalenka defeats America’s Pegula to win US Open women’s title
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
NEW YORK — Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka beat American sixth seed Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in the U.S. Open women’s final on Saturday.
Sabalenka blocked out the wild cheers of the home crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium to break Pegula in the final game and win her first title at Flushing Meadows.
A year after coming up short in the final, the second seed fought back from a break down in both sets to claim victory and fell to the court in her moment of triumph.
The 30-year-old Pegula had waited a long time to reach her first major final but could not match her opponent’s raw power despite the noisy backing of the New York crowd.
The roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium was closed because of heavy rain, and the players traded breaks twice as they settled into the stormy affair in front of a celebrity-packed house.
Sabalenka held her serve through a four-deuce 11th game and fought through a spine-tingling 12th, mixing precision at the net with her usual power from the baseline before breaking her opponent on the fifth set point.
Pegula struggled with her rackets throughout the match, complaining to her coaches as she seemed unable to find the right tension on her strings, and it looked as though she would not put up a fight in the second set when Sabalenka went 3-0 up.
But the American found another level and brought the fans to their feet when she won the next five games in a furious fight back.
Sabalenka leveled when she sent over a forehand winner that just kissed the line on break point in the 10th game and sought to bring a swift end to the contest, holding serve and then applying pressure from the baseline in the final game.
The tears flowed immediately for Sabalenka as she claimed her third Grand Slam title after winning the Australian Open twice, and she high-fived fans as she ran up the stands to share a joyful celebration with her team.
Search for Kentucky highway gunman resumes at daybreak
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/active-shooter-reported-near-us-highway-numerous-people-shot/7775766.html
Yellen ‘probably done’ when Biden ends term, might meet Chinese counterpart soon
date: 2024-09-08, from: VOA News USA