News gathered 2024-09-11
(date: 2024-09-11 08:13:13)
How are markets responding to last night’s debate?
date: 2024-09-11, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The first — and potentially only — presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is officially in the books. Economic issues took up plenty of air time. We’ll unpack how markets appear to be digesting both candidates’ performances and policies. Plus, fresh Labor Department data shows that annual inflation cooled in August to 2.5% — the lowest rate since February 2021. How might Fed officials respond?
Historic Newspaper Uses Janky AI Newscasters Instead of Human Journalists
date: 2024-09-11, from: 404 Media Group
Hawaii’s The Garden Island newspaper is producing video news segments with AI. The union at its parent company calls it “digital colonialism.”
https://www.404media.co/historic-newspaper-uses-janky-ai-newscasters-instead-of-human-journalists/
In Photos: US honors fallen on 23rd anniversary of 9/11
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/in-photos-us-honors-fallen-on-23rd-anniversary-of-9-11/7780063.html
AI-Generated Deepfakes Pushed Taylor Swift to Endorse Kamala Harris
date: 2024-09-11, from: 404 Media Group
Taylor Swift is one of the most deepfaked women in the world, but AI-generated images showing her and her fans endorsing Donald Trump were her last straw.
https://www.404media.co/taylor-swift-endorses-kamala-harris-ai-generated-images-deepfakes/
SpaceX blasts being stuck in bureaucratic orbit as Starship approval slips
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Toys launched from pram as Musk’s rocketeers stamp feet over paperwork
Faced with months of waiting for approval for the next Starship launch, SpaceX has gone on the offensive regarding the red tape surrounding the process and the ongoing environmental assessment.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/spacex_starship_red_tape/
RP2350: the brains of Raspberry Pi Pico 2
date: 2024-09-11, from: Raspberry Pi News (.com)
Our ASIC Technical Director explains RP2350, the brains inside Pico 2.
The post RP2350: the brains of Raspberry Pi Pico 2 appeared first on Raspberry Pi.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/rp2350-the-brains-of-raspberry-pi-pico-2/
Chrome-based browsers highlight the risks of using third-party Firefox-based browsers
date: 2024-09-11, from: OS News
And the hits just keep on coming. After buying an ad tech company and working with Facebook to weaken Firefox’ privacy features, Mozilla is now integrating AI chatbots straight into Firefox with the recent release of Firefox 130. People are understandably big mad about this, and as such the calls for switching to alternatives is growing stronger. Considering the only true alternative to Firefox is Chrome and its various skins, those of us looking to send Mozilla a message are kind of relegated to trying out Firefox skins instead. Switching to what are essentially “Firefox distros” to collectively try and nudge Mozilla back to making more sensible decisions instead of AI hype chasing is an eminently reasonable one. There’s more reasons than just that. Part of the reason I use Firefox-based browsers rather than Chromium browsers is because I want to preserve some choice and diversity in browser engines. The existence of a choice of different Firefox derived browsers may allow space for experimentation in designing better browsers. In Chromium land, Arc has shown that there’s an opportunity for quite radically rethinking how browsers work. Same for Orion in Mac/iOS-land. This isn’t a detailed review of the different browsers, just a few comments and observations having tried them. ↫ Tom Morris I have my reservations about using Firefox skins, mostly because no matter what you do, you’re still entirely dependent on the choices Mozilla makes during the development of the venerable browser. If Mozilla keeps deviating from the traditional goals more and more, the amount of work these Firefox skins need to perform to reign the browser back in will start to increase, and who knows if they have the manpower, experience, and skills to do so? More worryingly, will they be able to keep up with Mozilla’s release schedule, including important bugfixes and security patches? My worries go beyond those basic things, though. Considerably fewer eyes will be going over any code changes these Firefox-based browsers make, and as recent history has shown us, infiltrating a small, understaffed open source project for nefarious purposes is a thing that happens. Another issue to consider is nebulous ownership of such Firefox versions, as are questions around who financially supports such efforts. Your browser is a massively important and crucial piece of software that holds and has access to a lot of your personal data, and you should be particularly careful about who owns your browser. This is not to say each and every one of them is bad – just that you have to be careful about who you trust. Several Chrome skins, like Brave and Opera, have time and time again shown to be shady, untrustworthy companies pushing crypto bullshit, ripping off websites, have shady owners, and more – don’t use Brave, don’t use Opera – and there’s no guarantees the same won’t happen with Firefox skins riding the wave of unhappiness with Mozilla. Please be mindful. I don’t have an answer for this issue, either – I just want to caution against throwing the browser out with the bath water and switching to a project you might not know a lot about.
Joining Thrive Capital
date: 2024-09-11, from: The Sephist blog
I’ve joined Thrive Capital as an EIR and advisor, working with the Thrive team to support our founders in understanding and deploying AI thoughtfully, while furthering my own research and explorations around AI interpretability, knowledge representations, and interface design.
August was my last month as a part of Notion’s AI engineering team.
It’s been a privilege at Notion to get to work with a world-class team at the frontier of applied LLM products. Notion was one of the first companies to preview an LLM product, even before ChatGPT. I’m grateful to have been a part of the many ways the team has grown in the last almost-two years, across product launches, generational leaps in models, and many orders of magnitude of scale. We learned alongside the rest of the industry about prompt programming, retrieval, agents, evals, and how people are using AI day-to-day in their schools, companies, meetings, and life.
Notion’s “AI team” is really a team-of-teams spanning product, design, engineering, partnerships, finance, marketing, sales, and growth across the company. With all the talented Notinos that have joined since my first days, Notion’s AI team is poised to build and share a lot of beautiful, useful products in the next months, I have no doubt.
As Notion brings all the ideas we’ve explored (and more) to the world, I’ve been feeling an urge to (1) take a step back and understand how the broader world is adapting to this new technology, and (2) spend much more time on my research agendas around interpretability and interfaces.
After a brief break, I joined Thrive earlier this month.
As I’ve gotten to know the Thrive team over the last couple years, I’ve been consistently impressed with the thoughtfulness, depth of partnership with founders, and clarity of conviction behind investments across stages and industries. They’ve generously granted me an ambitious remit to pursue both of my goals as a part of the team, and based on my first week I’ve got a lot to be excited about on both fronts.
I hope to share what I learn and build along the way, as I always have.
https://thesephist.com/posts/thrive/
So you paid a ransom demand … and now the decryptor doesn’t work
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
A really big oh sh*t moment, for sure
For C-suite execs and security leaders, discovering your organization has been breached, your critical systems locked up and your data stolen, then receiving a ransom demand, is probably the worst day of your professional life.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/ransomware_decryptor_not_working/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Sergey Brin says he's working on AI at Google 'pretty much every day.'
Zivilgesellschaft kritisiert Sicherheitspaket
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: Chaos Computer Club Updates
Die Zivilgesellschaft kritisiert das sogenannte Sicherheitspaket der Bundesregierung, das am Donnerstag im Bundestag in der ersten Lesung besprochen wird. Das Gesetzespaket enthält eine Vielzahl an neuen Befugnissen für Ermittlungsbehörden, welche die Grundrechte von Millionen von Bürger:innen einschränken und insbesondere die Rechte von von Rassismus betroffenen Menschen, Asylbewerber:innen und Geflüchteten, aushöhlen.
https://www.ccc.de/de/updates/2024/zivilgesellschaft-kritisiert-sicherheitspaket
NASA Stennis Set to Continue ASTRA Mission with Sidus Space
date: 2024-09-11, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, announced Wednesday it will continue its historic in-space autonomous systems payload mission aboard an orbiting satellite through a follow-on agreement with Sidus Space, Inc. “We are excited to report the historic ASTRA (Autonomous Satellite Technology for Resilient Applications) mission will continue,” said Chris Carmichael, chief, Stennis […]
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-stennis-set-to-continue-astra-mission-with-sidus-space/
Podcast: Fraudsters Say ‘We Know Where You Live’
date: 2024-09-11, from: 404 Media Group
The new wave of scary sextortion emails that include your address; the rise of right to repair for your body; and a years old Reddit mystery solved.
https://www.404media.co/404-media-podcast-we-have-your-address/
US inflation reaches 3-year low as Federal Reserve prepares to cut interest rates
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
Washington — The post-pandemic spike in U.S. inflation eased further last month as year-over-year price increases reached a three-year low, clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next week.
Wednesday’s report from the Labor Department showed that consumer prices rose 2.5% in August from a year earlier. It was the fifth straight annual drop and the smallest such increase since February 2021. From July to August, prices rose just 0.2%.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called core prices rose 3.2% in August from 12 months earlier, the same as in July. On a month-to-month basis, core prices rose 0.3% last month, a pickup from July’s 0.2% increase. Economists closely watch core prices, which typically provide a better read of future inflation trends.
For months, cooling inflation has provided gradual relief to America’s consumers, who were stung by the price surges that erupted three years ago, particularly for food, gas, rent and other necessities. Inflation peaked in mid-2022 at 9.1%, the highest rate in four decades.
Fed officials have signaled that they’re increasingly confident that inflation is falling back to their 2% target and are now shifting their focus to supporting the job market, which is steadily cooling. As a result, the policymakers are poised to begin cutting their key rate from its 23-year high in hopes of bolstering growth and hiring.
A modest quarter-point cut is widely expected next week. Over time, a series of rate cuts should reduce the cost of borrowing across the economy, including for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
The latest inflation figures could inject themselves into the presidential race in its final weeks. Former President Donald Trump has heaped blame on Vice President Kamala Harris for the jump in inflation, which erupted in early 2021 as global supply chains seized up, causing severe shortages of parts and labor. Harris has proposed subsidies for home buyers and builders in an effort to ease housing costs and backs a federal ban on price-gouging for groceries. Trump has said he would boost energy production to try to reduce overall inflation.
A key reason why inflation eased again in August was that gas prices tumbled by about 10 cents a gallon last month, according to the Energy Inflation Administration, to a national average of about $3.29.
Economists also expect the government’s measures of grocery prices and rents to rise more slowly. Though food prices are roughly 20% more expensive than before the pandemic, they have barely budged over the past year.
Another potential driver of slower inflation is that the cost of new apartment leases has started to cool as a stream of newly built apartments have been completed.
According to the real estate brokerage Redfin, the median rent for a new lease rose just 0.9% in August from a year earlier, to $1,645 a month. But the government’s measure includes all rents, including those for people who have been in their apartments for months or years. It takes time for the slowdown in new rents to show up in the government’s data. In July, rental costs rose 5.1% from a year ago, according to the government’s consumer price index.
Americans’ paychecks are also growing more slowly — an average of about 3.5% annually, still a solid pace — which reduces inflationary pressures. Two years ago, wage growth was topping 5%, a level that can force businesses to sharply raise prices to cover their higher labor costs.
In a high-profile speech last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that inflation was coming under control and suggested that the job market was unlikely to be a source of inflationary pressure.
Consumers have propelled the economy for the past three years. But they are increasingly turning to debt to maintain their spending and credit card, and auto delinquencies are rising, raising concerns that they may have to rein in their spending soon. Reduced consumer spending could lead more employers to freeze their hiring or even cut jobs.
Kamala Harris’ Big Oil Boast
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: Hurricane Francine is approaching Louisiana as a Category 1 storm • The streets of Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi are flooded after Typhoon Yagi, and the death toll has reached 143 • Residents of Nigeria’s northern Borno state are urged to watch out for crocodiles and snakes that escaped from a zoo due to flooding.
THE TOP FIVE
- Harris boasts about increased U.S. oil production during debate with
Trump
Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris squared off on the debate stage in Philadelphia last night. Here are some important climate and energy highlights from the evening:
- Harris reiterated that she does not want to ban fracking. But she also called for diversifying U.S. energy sources and boasted about increased domestic oil production under President Biden. “Whether or not this is something to brag about is something Democrats will have to decide amongst themselves,” wrote Heatmap’s Katie Brigham. “But for the purpose of this debate, Harris hopes it’s enough to assure swing state voters that she’s no climate absolutist – and that, as of now at least, oil and fossil fuels are far from dead.”
- Harris highlighted the clean energy investments under the Inflation Reduction Act, but didn’t mention the policy by name.
- Trump said he was a “big fan of solar” but complained about the amount of land he thinks solar farms occupy.
- He claimed the Biden-Harris administration is building Chinese-owned EV plants in Mexico (they are not) before launching into a rant about Biden (both Joe and Hunter). “You know, Biden doesn’t go after people because, supposedly, China paid him millions of dollars,” Trump said. “He’s afraid to do it between him and his son, they get all this money from Ukraine.”
- Wildfires blaze through Southern California
Three large wildfires – the Line fire, the Bridge fire, and the Airport fire – are burning in Southern California, fueled by intense heat and thick, dry vegetation. Already more than 100,000 acres have been scorched. The Line fire is closing in on the popular vacation destination Big Bear, and is threatening some 65,000 structures. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said the scale of the emergencies is straining firefighting resources, and FEMA is sending financial aid to the state. In neighboring Nevada, the Davis Fire has grown to nearly 6,000 acres and is burning toward ski resorts in Tahoe. Temperatures in the region started to cool yesterday after a long and brutal heat wave. The weather shift could help firefighters bring the blazes under control.
- White House launches American Climate Corps tour
The White House is launching an American Climate Corps national tour this fall to highlight the work being carried out by corps members in different communities and showcase important projects. The events will feature remarks from the administration and other officials, roundtable talks with ACC members, and swearing-in ceremonies. The tour began in Maine this week with a focus on climate resilience and urban forestry, and heads to Arizona next week. The rest of the schedule is as follows, with more dates to come:
- Sept. 19: Fairhope, Alabama – Ecosystem recovery, conservation, and coastal habitat restoration
- Sept. 22: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Urban forestry
- Sept. 24: Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina – Conservation
- Sept. 24 and 26: Manhattan and Queens, New York City – Urban agriculture, climate education
- Oct. 8 and 9: Duluth and Minneapolis, Minnesota – Low-carbon transportation, food systems solutions with the Fond du Lac Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa, low-carbon transportation
- Oct. 22: Detroit, Michigan – Climate resilience, environmental justice
- Nuclear industry needs more engineers
The number of students studying to become nuclear engineers is declining as demand for carbon-free nuclear energy is on the rise, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing data from the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the Journal reported that just 454 students in the U.S. graduated with a degree in the field in 2022, down 25% from a decade earlier. Meanwhile, the industry’s workforce is aging. “We need nuclear expertise in order to combat climate change,” said Sara Pozzi, professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at the University of Michigan. “We are at a crucial point where we need to produce the new generation of nuclear experts so that they can work with the older generation and learn from them.” The drop in new recruits comes down to nuclear’s image problem thanks to public disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Journal speculated.
- Nth Cycle produces nickel and cobalt MHP at new Ohio plant
Critical metal refining company Nth Cycle announced this week it has become the first company to produce nickel and cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) in the U.S. following the opening of its commercial-scale facility in Ohio. The company’s “Oyster” technology uses electricity to turn recyclable industrial scrap and mined ore into MHP, a key component in clean-energy technologies like batteries. “This revolutionary innovation replaces pyrometallurgy with one of the cleanest technologies in the world, and accelerates the net zero targets of the public and private sector,” the company said in a press release. It claims the Ohio unit can produce 900 metric tons of MHP per year, which would be enough to supply batteries for 22 million cell phones. The company says its process reduces emissions by 90% compared to traditional mining methods and can help EV manufacturers meet the IRA’s sourcing requirements.
THE KICKER
A new nationwide poll of 1,000 registered U.S. voters found that 90% of respondents support President Biden’s federal clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, including 78% of respondents who said they were Trump voters.
https://heatmap.news/politics/harris-trump-debate-climate-energy
Research suggests more than half of VMware customers are looking to move
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Price rises, uncertainty after Broadcom takeover forcing users to look elsewhere for virtualization needs
Research published by Civo indicates that more than half of VMware customers are considering leaving the platform under Broadcom’s ownership.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/civo_vmware_research/
In Wake of Durov Arrest, Some Cybercriminals Ditch Telegram
date: 2024-09-11, from: 404 Media Group
Hackers, fraudsters, and drug dealers are all leaving the platform in one way or another. Some are worried that Telegram may start providing user data to the authorities.
https://www.404media.co/in-wake-of-durov-arrest-some-cybercriminals-ditch-telegram/
Gateway Space Station in 3D
date: 2024-09-11, from: NASA breaking news
Immerse yourself in the future of deep space science exploration and download a 3D model of Gateway. Click, drag, and explore the exterior of the lunar space station from multiple angles. International teams of astronauts will use Gateway, humanity’s first space station to orbit the Moon, to explore the scientific mysteries of deep space. Gateway […]
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/gateway-space-station-in-3d/
Childless Cat Lady Does Her Research
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/11/childless-cat-lady-does-her-research/
Windows 11 users still living in the past face forced update, like it or not
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
22H2 and 21H2 holdouts about to be dragged to 23H2
Microsoft has warned that a forced update is on the way for Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2 users still clinging to the past.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/microsoft_23h2_forced_update/
Affordable Care Act enrollment hits all-time high at 21 million people
date: 2024-09-11, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Over the last decade, nearly 50 million have been on an ACA plan at some point — that’s one in seven Americans. Plus, New York Fashion Week comes to a close today. It featured a pop-up shop from none other than Walmart and is part of the superstore’s attempt to lean into fashion. But first, the economy played a starring role in last night’s presidential debate. We’ll discuss.
Taxing times for China’s electric vehicle makers
date: 2024-09-11, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Like the U.S., the European Union recently slapped import duties on Chinese electric vehicles. It says it’s protecting European automakers from unfair competition, but not everyone — such as Spain’s prime minister and Belgian firm Umicore — agrees. Then, Kenya’s main airport is facing major disruption after workers staged a go-slow protest over a proposed 30-year lease deal with the Indian conglomerate, the Adani Group.
‘IT failure’ hits blood tests as another critical incident declared by NHS
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Unlike in London, foul play isn’t suspected
The UK’s National Health Service’s (NHS) capability to deliver pathology services is taking another beating, with a critical incident declared this morning at two hospitals in England.…
How $20 and a lapsed domain allowed security pros to undermine internet integrity
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
What happens at Black Hat…
While trying to escape the Las Vegas heat during Black Hat last month, watchTowr Labs researchers decided to poke around for weaknesses in the WHOIS protocol. They claim to have found a way to undermine certificate authorities, which the world trusts to keep the internet safe by verifying the identity of websites.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/watchtowr_black_hat_whois/
Israel says 2 soldiers killed in Gaza helicopter crash
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/israel-says-2-soldiers-killed-in-gaza-helicopter-crash-/7779808.html
Amazon to pour £8B into UK datacenters through to 2028
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
How kind. Now how about looking at the corporation tax bill…
Those kindly philanthropists at Amazon Web Services (AWS) plan to invest £8 billion ($10.4 billion) on datacenters in Britain between now and 2028, a move welcomed by the UK’s finance minister who tried to take credit and spin it as part of the country’s economic revival.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/amazon_uk_datacenter_investment/
Mind the talent gap: Infosec vacancies abound, but hiring is flat
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
ISC2 argues security training needs to steer toward what hiring managers want
The shortfall between the number of working security professionals and the number of security job openings has reached 4.8 million – a new high, according to cyber security non-profit ISC2.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/mind_the_talent_gap_infosec/
Hurricane Francine takes aim at Louisiana coast
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
BATON ROUGE, La. — Hurricane Francine barreled early Wednesday toward Louisiana and is expected to make landfall in coming hours as forecasters raised threats of potentially deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf coast.
Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters to jump from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday night. The National Hurricane Center said Francine might even reach Category 2 strength with winds of 155 to 175 kph before crashing into a fragile coastal region that still hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes since 2020.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry warned at midday Tuesday — when Francine was still a tropical storm — that residents around south Louisiana and in the heavily populated state capital of Baton Rouge and nearby New Orleans — should “batten down all the hatches” and finish last preparations before a 24-hour window to do so closed.
Once Francine makes landfall, Landry said, residents should stay in place rather than venture out into waterlogged roads and risk blocking first responders or utility crews working to repair power lines.
The governor said the Louisiana National Guard is being deployed to parishes that could be impacted by Francine. They are equipped with food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including possible search-and-rescue operations.
Francine was centered Wednesday morning about 395 kilometers southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 17 kph with maximum sustained winds of 90 150 kmh, the Miami-based hurricane center said. Some additional strengthening is expected Wednesday morning and then Francine is expected to weaken quickly after it moves inland.
A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron eastward to Grand Isle, about 80 kilometers south of New Orleans, according to the center. A storm surge warning stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Alabama-Florida border Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.
In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks on Tuesday to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA. CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers later in the day to people hoping to protect homes from possible flooding.
One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.
“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”
Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. There’s a danger of life-threatening storm surge as well as damaging hurricane-force winds, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.
There’s also the potential for 10 to 20 centimeters of rain with the possibility of 30 centimeters locally across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning, Reinhart said.
The hurricane center said parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were at risk of “considerable” flash and urban flooding starting Wednesday, followed by a threat of possible flooding later in the week into the lower Mississippi Valley and lower Tennessee Valley as the soggy remnants of Francine sweep inland.
Francine is taking aim at a Louisiana coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida.
A little over three years after Ida trashed his home in the Dulac community of coastal Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish – and about a month after he finished rebuilding – Coy Verdin was preparing for another hurricane.
“We had to gut the whole house,” he recalled in a telephone interview, rattling off a memorized inventory of the work, including a new roof and new windows.
Verdin, 55, strongly considered moving farther inland, away from the home where he makes his living on nearby Bayou Grand Caillou. After rebuilding, he said he’s there to stay.
“As long as I can. It’s getting rough, though,” he said.
Francine’s storm surge on the Louisiana coast could reach as much as 3 meters from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said. They said landfall was likely somewhere between Sabine Pass — on the Texas-Louisiana line — and Morgan City, Louisiana, about 350 kilometers to the east.
https://www.voanews.com/a/hurricane-francine-takes-aim-at-louisiana-coast/7779769.html
Keen to bring it on home? Private cloud appliance pitched at compliance-conscious
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Service with endless scalability, at least that’s the plan
Enterprises that need to worry about compliance have yet another fresh option, as Civo enters the appliance game with its FlexCore private cloud solution.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/civo_flexcore/
A Bloody Battle Depicted in ‘Braveheart’ Dealt a Devastating Blow to the English on This Day in 1297
date: 2024-09-11, from: Smithsonian Magazine
At the Battle of Stirling Bridge, William Wallace defeated the superior armies of Edward I, cementing his status as one of Scotland’s most iconic heroes
A Beginner’s Guide to the Interconnection Queue
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
Maybe you’ve never heard of it. Maybe you know it too well. But to a certain type of clean energy wonk, it amounts to perhaps the three most dreaded words in climate policy: the interconnection queue.
The queue is the process by which utilities decide which wind and solar farms get to hook up to the power grid in the United States. Across much of the country, it has become so badly broken and clogged that it can take more than a decade for a given project to navigate.
On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Jesse and Rob speak with two experts about how to understand — and how to fix — what is perhaps the biggest obstacle to deploying more renewables on the U.S. power grid. Tyler Norris is a doctoral student at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. He was formerly vice president of development at Cypress Creek Renewables, and he served on North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s Carbon Policy Working Group. Claire Wayner is a senior associate at RMI’s carbon-free electricity program, where she works on the clean and competitive grids team. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.
Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
Robinson Meyer: Can I interject and just ask why, over the past decade, the interconnection queue got much longer — but also over the past decade, 15 years, the U.S. grid did change in character and in fuel type a lot, right? We went from burning a lot of coal to a lot of natural gas. And that transition is often cited as one of the model transitions, one of the few energy transitions to happen globally that happened at the speed with which we would need to decarbonize. Obviously, switching coal to gas is not decarbonizing, but it is a model — it happened fast enough that it is a good model for what decarbonizing would look like in order to meet climate goals.
Evidently, that did not run into these kind of same interconnection queue problems. Why is that? Is that because we were swapping in within individual power plants? We were just changing the furnace from a coal furnace to a gas furnace? Is that because these were larger projects and so it didn’t back up in the queue in the same way that a lot of smaller solar or wind farms do?
Claire Wayner: I would say all the reasons you just gave are valid, yeah. The coal to gas transition involved, likely, a lot of similar geographic locations. With wind and solar, we’re seeing them wanting to build on the grid and in a lot of cases in new, rather remote locations that are going to require new types of grid upgrades that the coal to gas transition just doesn’t have.
Jesse Jenkins: Maybe it is — to use a metaphor here — it’s a little bit like traffic congestion. If you add a generator to the grid, it’s trying to ship its power through the grid, and that decision to add your power mix to the grid combines with everyone else that’s also generating and consuming power to drive traffic jams or congestion in different parts of the grid, just like your decision to hop in the car and drive to work or to go into the city for the weekend to see a show or whatever you’re doing. It’s not just your decision. It’s everyone’s combined decisions that affects travel times on the grid.
Now, the big difference between the grid and travel on roads or most other forms of networks we’re used to is that you don’t get to choose which path to go down. If you’re sending electricity to the grid, electricity flows with physics down the path of least resistance or impedance, which is the alternating current equivalent of resistance. And so it’s a lot more like rivers flowing downhill from gravity, right? You don’t get to choose which branch of the river you go down. It’s just, you know, gravity will take you. And so you adding your power flows to the grid creates complicated flows based on the physics of this mesh network that spans a continent and interacts with everyone else on the grid.
And so when you’re going from probably a few dozen large natural gas generators added that operate very similarly to the plants that they’re replacing to hundreds of gigawatts across thousands of projects scattered all over the grid with very complicated generation profiles because they’re weather-dependent renewables, it’s just a completely different challenge for the utilities.
So the process that the regional grid operators developed in the 2000s, when they were restructuring and taking over that role of regional grid operator, it’s just not fit for purpose at all for what we face today. And I want to highlight another thing you mentioned, which is the software piece of it, too. These processes, they are using software and corporate processes that were also developed 10 or 20 years ago. And we all know that software and computing techniques have gotten quite a bit better over a decade or two. And rarely have utilities and grid operators really kept pace with those capabilities.
Wayner: Can I just say, I’ve heard that in some regions, interconnection consists of still sending back and forth Excel files. To Tyler’s point earlier that we only just now are getting data on the interconnection queue nationwide and how it stands, that’s one challenge that developers are facing is a lack of data transparency and rapid processing from the transmission providers and the grid operators.
And so, to use an analogy that my colleague Sarah Toth uses a lot, which I really love: Imagine if we had a Domino’s pizza tracker for the interconnection queue, and that developers could just log on and see how their projects are doing in many, if not most regions. They don’t even have that visibility. They don’t know when their pizza is going to get delivered, or if it’s in the oven.
This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …
Watershed’s climate data engine helps companies measure and reduce their emissions, turning the data they already have into an audit-ready carbon footprint backed by the latest climate science. Get the sustainability data you need in weeks, not months. Learn more at watershed.com.
As a global leader in PV and ESS solutions, Sungrow invests heavily in research and development, constantly pushing the boundaries of solar and battery inverter technology. Discover why Sungrow is the essential component of the clean energy transition by visiting sungrowpower.com.
Antenna Group helps you connect with customers, policymakers, investors, and strategic partners to influence markets and accelerate adoption. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-s2-e5-interconnection-queue
Trump, Harris exchange barbs on debate stage
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
In the U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, clashed with his Democratic Party rival, Kamala Harris, Tuesday evening over issues such as abortion, immigration and foreign policy. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman has details from the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.
https://www.voanews.com/a/trump-harris-exchange-barbs-on-debate-stage/7779744.html
Online media outstrips TV as source of news for the first time in the UK
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Ofcom research shows TV remains more trusted news source in social media age
TV has lost its crown as the most popular source of news in the UK, according to research from Ofcom.…
AI has colonized our world – so it’s time to learn the language of our new overlords
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Brush up on your ‘Delvish’ – the lingo that flatters LLMs into a sort of submission
Despite growing evidence that generative AI creates more work for humans than it saves, organizations are deploying it in frontline roles like customer service chatbots and CV-screeners.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/delvish_llm_language/
Medical cannabis CTO says vendors would hang up when he called looking for a deal
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Alternaleaf now has an outsized tech team, a build-not-buy mentality, and a love of FOSS
When Myles Lawlor took the job as chief technology officer at Alternaleaf, Australia’s largest online alternative health clinic, he started calling industry contacts to talk about the startup’s tech needs – and they would hang up on him.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/medical_cannabis_vendor_worries/
The false dichotomy of systemic and individual behaviour change
date: 2024-09-11, from: Hannah Richie at Substack
Individuals aren’t going to solve climate change, but they are an important part of the system that will get us there.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/the-false-dichotomy-of-systemic-and
curl 8.10.0
date: 2024-09-11, from: Daniel Stenberg Blog
Numbers the 260th release18 changes42 days (total: 9,672)245 bugfixes (total: 10,804)461 commits (total: 33,209)0 new public libcurl function (total: 94)0 new curl_easy_setopt() option (total: 306)2 new curl command line option (total: 265)57 contributors, 28 new (total: 3,239)27 authors, 14 new (total: 1,302)1 security fixes (total: 158) Download the new curl release from curl.se as always. … Continue reading curl 8.10.0
https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2024/09/11/curl-8-10-0/
Robot enters Fukushima’s nuclear core to retrieve melted-down remains
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Trying for 3 grams, only 880 tons to go!
Video On Tuesday, a robot began entering the Unit 2 reactor at the defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant, in an attempt to retrieve a tiny piece of the fuel that melted down in 2011.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/robot_enters_fukushimas_nuclear_core/
Top takeaways from the Harris-Trump debate
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump faced off on Tuesday night in Philadelphia in a debate that comes less than two months before the presidential election.
The race is tight between the two candidates. Among registered voters, Harris leads Trump by 1 point — 49% to 48% — according to the latest PBS/NPR/Marist poll. That result falls within the margin of error.
The ABC debate marks the first face-to-face meeting between Harris, 59, and Trump, 78.
A former prosecutor, Harris is the first woman, Black American and South Asian American vice president. Trump, a businessman who has been criticized for his sexist and racist remarks, is the first convicted felon to run for president and, if elected, would be 82 by the end of his term.
During what could be their only debate, Harris and Trump sparred on issues ranging from the economy and immigration to democracy, abortion and the Israel-Hamas war.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the debate.
Economy
The economy was the debate’s first topic, with Harris saying she wants to create an “opportunity economy.” She cited her plan to increase the tax credit for starting new small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000.
“I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class,” she said, adding that Trump wants to help the rich with tax cuts.
Trump has said he will further reduce the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 15%. Harris wants to increase the rate to 28%. It was 35% before Trump’s 2017 tax bill.
Trump spent much of his answer on the economy talking about immigration. However, he also said he created one of the best economies in the United States, without offering specifics, and that he will do it again.
“Look, we’ve had a terrible economy, because inflation, which is really known as a country buster,” Trump said.
Immigration
Immigration has been one of the biggest issues in this presidential campaign. Throughout the debate, Trump lambasted the Biden administration’s handling of immigration – often when the moderators asked questions unrelated to immigration.
Trump repeated his false claims that immigrants are “taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently.” He also cited baseless conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating pet dogs and cats.
Harris criticized Trump for killing a bipartisan bill earlier this year that would have put 1,500 more border agents on the U.S. southern border. Harris has said she would support the bill.
Abortion
Trump and Harris grew increasingly combative when debating the question of abortion.
As president, Trump appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped form the majority that overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. That decision laid the groundwork for states to impose restrictive rules on abortion around the country.
“The Supreme Court had great courage in doing it,” Trump said during the debate.
When asked if he would support a national abortion ban, he said: “No, I’m not in favor of abortion ban. But it doesn’t matter because this issue has now been taken over by the states.”
He also said he would not oppose abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. He also falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions “after birth.”
In response, Harris emphasized the importance of women’s reproductive rights.
“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government and Donald Trump certainly should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” she said. She added that she would support Congress passing a bill to codify federal abortion protections and, as president, sign it into law.
Rule of law, threats to democracy and Jan. 6
Harris was a prosecutor for a dozen years, first as San Francisco district attorney and then as California’s attorney general. A central component of Harris’ campaign has been portraying Trump as a threat to democracy.
During the debate, Harris highlighted Trump’s status as a convicted felon. Trump replied with the unsubstantiated accusation that Harris and the Biden administration are “weaponizing” the government to prosecute him
When asked by the moderator whether Trump would acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential election, he replied with the false claim that he actually won the election. On the Jan. 6 insurrection, Trump said, “I had nothing to do with that, other than they asked me to make a speech.”
“It’s time to turn the page,” Harris said.
“There is a place in our campaign for you to stand for our country, to stand for democracy, to stand for rule of law and to end the chaos and to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy,” she added.
Russia-Ukraine War and Israel-Hamas War
In addition to domestic policy, the moderators also pressed Harris and Trump on foreign policy issues, including the ongoing wars between Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Hamas.
On the Israel-Hamas war, Harris said the United States would defend Israel. She added that she supports a two-state solution. The war “must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out,” Harris said.
Trump claimed that “Israel will be gone” if Harris becomes president, which is unsubstantiated. Trump also repeated his claim that the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas in southern Israel would have never happened if he were president.
Trump said the Russia-Ukraine war would not have happened if he were president. When asked if he wants Ukraine to win the war against Russia, Trump would only say, “I want the war to stop.”
Harris replied: “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”
https://www.voanews.com/a/top-takeaways-from-the-harris-trump-debate-/7779682.html
Trump’s Odd Attack on German Energy Policy
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
In the closing minutes of the first presidential debate tonight, Donald Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris took an odd, highly specific, and highly Teutonic turn. It might not have made sense to many viewers, but it fit into the overall debate’s unusually substantive focus on energy policy.
“You believe in things that the American people don’t believe in,” he said, addressing Harris. “You believe in things like, we’re not gonna frack. We’re not gonna take fossil fuel. We’re not gonna do — things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not.”
“Germany tried that and within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants,” he continued. “We’re not ready for it.”
What is he talking about? Let’s start by stipulating that Harris has renounced her previous support for banning fracking. During the debate, she bragged that the United States has hit an all-time high for oil and gas production during her vice presidency.
But why bring Germany into it? At the risk of sane-washing the former president, Trump appears to be referencing what German politicians call the Energiewiende, or energy turnaround. Since 2010, Germany has sought to transition from its largest historic energy sources, including coal and nuclear energy, to renewables and hydropower.
The Energiewiende is often discussed inside and outside of Germany as a climate policy, and it has helped achieve global climate goals by, say, helping to push down the global price of solar panels. But as an observant reader might have already noticed, its goals are not entirely emissions-related: Its leaders have also hoped to use the Energiewiende to phase out nuclear power, which is unpopular in Germany but which does not produce carbon emissions.
The transition has accomplished some of its goals: The country says that it is on target to meet its 2030 climate targets. But it ran into trouble after Russia invaded Ukraine, because Germany obtained more than half of its natural gas, and much of its oil and coal besides, from Russia. Germany turned back on some of its nuclear plants — it has since shut them off again — and increased its coal consumption. It also began importing fossil fuels from other countries.
In order to shore up its energy supply, Germany is also planning to build 10 gigawatts of new natural gas plants by 2030, although it says that these facilities will be “hydrogen ready,” meaning that they could theoretically run on the zero-carbon fuel hydrogen. German automakers, who have lagged at building electric vehicles, have also pushed for policies that support “e-fuels,” or low-carbon liquid fuels. These fuels would — again, theoretically — allow German firms to keep building internal combustion engines.
So perhaps that’s not exactly what Trump said, to put it mildly — but it is true that to cope with the Ukraine war and the loss of nuclear power, Germany has had to fall back on fossil fuels. Of course, at the same time, more than 30% of German electricity now comes from wind and solar energy. In other words, in Germany, renewables are just another kind of “normal energy plant.”
https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-harris-debate-germany-normal-energy
India to train 5000 ‘Cyber Commandos’
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Minister reckons dedicated cops necessary to protect digital transactions
India has announced a plan to train a specialized wing of 5000 “Cyber Commandos” in the next five years, as part of its efforts to address cyber crime.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/india_cyber_commandos/
What Would Trump Do About Climate Change? Something about the Mayor of Moscow’s Wife.
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
Well, it happened — over an hour into the debate, but it happened: the presidential candidates were asked directly about climate change. ABC News anchor Linsey Davis put the question to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, and their respective answers were both surprising and totally not.
Harris responded to the question by laying out the successes of Biden’s energy policy and in particular, the Inflation Reduction Act (though she didn’t mention it by name). “I am proud that as vice president, over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy,” Harris noted.
The vice president immediately followed this up, however, by pointing out that gas production has also increased to “historic levels,” under the Biden-Harris administration. This framing, highlighting an all-of-the-above approach to energy, is consistent with Harris’s comments earlier in the debate, when she claimed to support fracking and investing in “diverse sources of energy.” Harris went on to reiterate the biggest wins of the Inflation Reduction Act, namely, “800,000 new manufacturing jobs,” and shouted out her endorsement from the United Auto Workers and its President Shawn Fain.
Trump, who earlier in the debate called himself “a big fan of solar” before questioning the amount of land it takes up, started off his response by once again claiming that the Biden-Harris administration is building Chinese-owned EV plants in Mexico (they are not). Then Trump veered completely off topic and rounded out his answer by ranting about Biden (both Joe and Hunter). “You know, Biden doesn’t go after people because, supposedly, China paid him millions of dollars,” Trump noted. “He’s afraid to do it between him and his son, they get all this money from Ukraine.”
Trump’s answer included no reference to climate or clean energy — but it did include a shout out to “the mayor of Moscow’s wife,” so there’s that.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-harris-debate-climate-change
Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris for president after debate ends
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift, one of the music industry’s biggest stars, endorsed Kamala Harris for president shortly after the debate ended on Tuesday night.
“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which included a link to a voter registration website.
Swift has a dedicated following among young women, a key demographic in the November election, and her latest tour has generated more than $1 billion in ticket sales. In a half hour, the post received more than 2.3 million likes.
She included a picture of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button, and she signed the message “Childless Cat Lady.” The remark is a reference to 3-year-old comments made by JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, about women without children not having an equal stake in the country’s future.
A Harris senior campaign official said the endorsement was not coordinated with the campaign. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, appeared to learn about the endorsement in the middle of a live interview on MSNBC. As Rachel Maddow read the text, Walz broke into a smile and patted his chest.
“That was eloquent. And it was clear,” Walz said. “And that’s the kind of courage we need in America to stand up.”
Swift wrote that her endorsement was partially prompted by Trump’s decision to post AI-generated pictures suggesting that she had endorsed him. One showed Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, and the text said, “Taylor wants YOU to VOTE for DONALD TRUMP.”
Trump’s posts “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter,” Swift wrote. She added that “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice.”
The Trump campaign dismissed Swift’s endorsement.
“This is further evidence that the Democrat Party has unfortunately become a party of the wealthy elites,” said spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
“There’s many Swifties for Trump out there in America,” she said, herself included.
Swift’s endorsement was not exactly a surprise. In 2020, she supported President Joe Biden, and she cheered for Harris in her debate against then-Vice President Mike Pence. She also was openly critical of Trump, saying he had stoked “the fires of white supremacy and racism.”
Swift is a popular figure nationwide, but especially among Democrats. An October 2023 Fox News poll found that 55% of voters overall, including 68% of Democrats, said they had a favorable view of Swift. Republicans were divided, with 43% having a favorable opinion and 45% an unfavorable one.
AP VoteCast suggests that a partisan divide on Swift was apparent as early as 2018. That’s the year Swift made her first political endorsement, supporting Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen for Senate over Republican Marsha Blackburn.
VoteCast found that among Tennessee voters that year, 55% of Democrats and just 19% of Republicans said they had a favorable opinion of Swift. Blackburn won by a comfortable margin in the deep red state.
Swift is the leading nominee at Wednesday’s MTV Video Music Awards. While it’s unclear whether Swift will attend the show in New York, she could use any acceptance speeches to elaborate on her support of Harris.
Trump Complains Solar Takes Up ‘400, 500 Acres of Desert Soil’
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
Former President Donald Trump has been warming up to the idea of electric vehicles in recent months, and he used the debate podium on Tuesday night to announce that “I’m a big fan of solar.” But don’t get too excited: He apparently can’t name three of their albums.
During a heated back-and-forth over Vice President Kamala Harris’ stance on fracking, Trump started to get worked up about what will happen if Democrats win the election. “They’ll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead,” he warned. “We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant?”
Trump went on: “By the way, I’m a big fan of solar, but they take 400, 500 acres of desert soil.”
Trump has a history of exaggeration, but this is neither particularly hyperbolic nor as concerning as Trump would have you believe. About 34,000 acres of public land are currently devoted to solar energy, and a common estimate is that the U.S. would need to expand solar to an additional 700,000 acres to meet 2035 renewable energy goals. That’s about 1,100 square miles, or 1,555 Trump-sized solar farms (or 0.031115% of the entire United States, per Clean Technica).
And while it’s true that most utility-scale solar photovoltaic facilities are only a handful of acres, it only takes about five to seven acres to generate a megawatt — so a project of Trump’s reckoning would generate about 65 megawatts, which, as Mads Rønne Almassalkhi, an associate professor of electrical and biomedical engineering at the University of Vermont, pointed out, isn’t all that shabby:
— (@)
The U.S. government also recently determined that some 31 million acres of public land in just 11 states are not on “protected lands, sensitive cultural resources, and important wildlife habitat” and are close to transmission lines or “previously disturbed lands,” and therefore hypothetically suitable for solar development. To put it in simpler terms, solar takes up a fair bit of land but: Desert big.
To be sure, there are absolutely valid concerns and debates to be had over siting and the environmental impact of solar farms in America, regardless of how small their ultimate relative footprint will be. And Trump could have raised those arguments. But from what he showed us on Tuesday, he doesn’t make a very convincing fan.
https://heatmap.news/sparks/trump-solar-400-500-acres-of-desert-soil
We Got a Real Conversation About Energy Policy at the Debate
date: 2024-09-11, from: Heatmap News
About 40 minutes into the first (and perhaps only) debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the vice president was asked about her changing stances on a variety of issues since her ill-fated 2019 run for president — in particular, her previous vow to ban fracking.
Debating in Pennsylvania, the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer, Harris stated that she no longer supports this ban. “I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States, and in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” she said, much as she put it on CNN recently. She went on, though: “My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil,” Harris said. “We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot rely on foreign oil.”
The Harris campaign capitalized on this moment to post a chart on X showing the increase in average monthly energy production under the Biden administration compared to Trump’s, citing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
— (@)
Trump wasn’t buying Harris’ about-face, though, claiming Harris will “never allow fracking in Pennsylvania.” He went on to say that when Democrats took over in 2020, they tried to “get rid” of oil production, tying this to the increase in gasoline prices.
The U.S. has been the world’s largest producer of natural gas since 2011 and the largest producer of petroleum since 2018. Biden’s presidency has seen a boom in all types of U.S. energy production, including renewables.
Since Harris joined the Biden ticket 2020, she has distanced herself from her previous stance on fracking, particularly her comment in a 2019 CNN town hall that “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”
Much of the increase in oil prices during the Biden administration came from supply chain disruptions in the wake of Covid, when demand and thus production plummeted, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which caused a price spike as Biden banned imports of Russian oil and natural gas. (Oil prices currently are near a three-year low.) Harris is correct that the IRA did indeed open up new leases for fossil fuels — the law now requires the government to hold auctions for millions of acres of onshore and offshore oil and gas leases prior to opening auctions for renewables. Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia and the deciding vote on the IRA, has even boasted that the legislation has allowed the U.S. to produce fossil fuels at record levels.
Whether or not this is something to brag about is something Democrats will have to decide amongst themselves. But for the purpose of this debate, Harris hopes it’s enough to assure swing state voters that she’s no climate absolutist — and that, as of now at least, oil and fossil fuels are far from dead.
https://heatmap.news/politics/trump-harris-debate-fracking
Wanna watch a movie? Sure! Lemme just park the lounge room
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Foxcon and Sharp imagine a sofa and television in a connected electric van
Japanese electronics giant Sharp and its majority stakeholder, Foxconn, have unveiled an electric vehicle that features, among other mod cons, an “extended living room.”…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/foxconn_sharp_ldk_plus/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Caine Mutiny: Paranoid Breakdown Scene.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KekChFdIe00
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-11, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Project Freedom LLC TV Spot, Think about Me When You Vote.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/fObV/project-freedom-llc-think-about-me-when-you-vote
China takes lead in critical technology research after ‘switching places’ with US
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
SINGAPORE — An Australian think tank that tracks tech competitiveness says China is now the world leader in research on almost 90% of critical technologies. In a newly released report, the research group adds there is also a high risk of Beijing securing a monopoly on defense-related tech, including drones, satellites and collaborative robots — those that can work safely alongside humans.
Analysts say the huge leap forward for China is the result of heavy state investment over the past two decades. They add that despite the progress, Beijing is still dependent on other countries for key tech components and lacks self-sufficiency.
The report from the government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, or ASPI, released last Thursday, says China led the way in research into 57 out of 64 advanced technologies in the five years from 2019-2023.
ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker ranks countries’ innovation capabilities based on the number of appearances in the top 10% of research papers. It focuses on crucial technologies from a range of fields including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cyber and defense.
The report found that “China and the United States have effectively switched places as the overwhelming leader in research in just two decades.”
China led in only three of the 64 technologies between 2003 and 2007 but has shot up in the rankings, replacing the U.S., which is now a frontrunner in just seven critical technologies.
Josh Kennedy-White is a technology strategist based in Singapore. He says China’s huge leap is a “direct result of its aggressive, state-driven research and development investments over the past two decades.”
He adds that the shift toward China is “particularly stark in fields like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and advanced aircraft engines, where China has transitioned from a laggard to a leader in a relatively short period.”
ASPI also determines the risk of countries holding a monopoly on the research of critical technologies. They currently classify 24 technologies as “high risk” of being monopolized — all by Beijing.
Ten technologies are newly classified as “high risk” this year, with many of them linked to the defense industry.
“The potential monopoly risk in 24 technology areas, especially those in defense-related fields like radars and drones, is concerning in the current and future geopolitical context,” Tobias Feakin, founder of consultancy firm Protostar Strategy, told VOA.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has sought to boost his country’s advanced manufacturing capabilities with the ambitious “Made in China 2025” initiative.
The policy, launched in 2015, aims to strengthen Beijing’s self-reliance in critical sectors and make China a global tech powerhouse.
Xi, according to Feakin, views advanced technologies as “strategic priorities for China’s development, national security and global competitiveness.”
He adds that technologies are seen as a “central component of China’s long-term economic and geopolitical goals.”
Beijing’s ambitions are being closely watched in Washington, with the Biden administration working to limit China’s access to advanced technology.
Last week, the U.S. introduced new export controls on critical technology to China, including chip-making equipment and quantum computers and components.
That announcement came shortly after U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan made his first ever visit to Beijing. He met with Xi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Sullivan told reporters that Washington “will continue to take necessary action to prevent advanced U.S. technologies from being used to undermine national security.”
The continued efforts to curb China’s chip industry mean that Beijing must look further afield for advanced technology.
“Even though it leads in areas like artificial intelligence and 5G, China still depends on Taiwan, the U.S. and South Korea to produce high-end semiconductors”, Kennedy-White told VOA.
Describing this as China’s Achilles’ heel, Kennedy-White says the lack of self-sufficiency in the semiconductor industry could “stunt Beijing’s progress in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and military applications.”
As China continues its dominance in critical technology research, questions have been raised over exactly how the country is making these breakthroughs.
Last October, officials from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) issued a joint statement accusing China of stealing intellectual property. U.S. FBI director Christopher Wray described it as an “unprecedented threat.”
Kennedy-White, managing director of Singapore-based venture catalyst firm DivisionX Global, agrees with this assessment. He says China’s jump up the ASPI rankings is “not entirely organic.”
“There is a correlation between China’s rise in certain technologies and allegations of intellectual property theft,” he added.
ASPI also recommends ways for other countries to close the gap on China. It advises the AUKUS alliance of Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. to join forces with Japan and South Korea to try to catch up.
The report also highlights the emergence of India as a “key center” of global research innovation and excellence.
The South Asian nation now ranks in the top five countries for 45 out of the 64 technologies that are tracked by ASPI. It’s a huge gain compared with 2003-2007, when India sat in the top five for only four technologies.
Feakin says countries across the Asia-Pacific “will benefit from leveraging India’s growing technology expertise and influence.”
It will also provide a counterbalance to “overdependence on China’s technology supply chain,” he added.
Microsoft says it broke some Windows 10 patching – as it fixes flaws under attack
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
CISA wants you to leap on Citrix and Ivanti issues. Adobe, Intel, SAP also bid for patching priorities
Patch Tuesday Another Patch Tuesday has dawned, as usual with the unpleasant news that there are pressing security weaknesses and blunders to address.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/patch_tuesday_september_2024/
Congress bestows highest honor on 13 troops killed during Afghanistan withdrawal
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday presented Congress’ highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal — to 13 U.S. service members who were killed during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, even as the politics of a presidential election swirled around the event.
Both Democrats and Republicans supported the legislation to posthumously honor the 13 U.S. troops, who were killed along with more than 170 Afghans in a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport in August 2021. President Joe Biden signed the legislation in December 2021. On Tuesday, the top Republican and Democratic leaders for both the House and Senate spoke at a somber ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, hailing the lives and sacrifices of the service members.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the lawmakers gathered to “ensure the sacrifices of all our servicemembers were not in vain.”
“We must care for them and their families and defend the values of freedom and democracy they so nobly fought for,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
But rather than a unifying moment, the event took place against the backdrop of a bitter back-and-forth over who is to blame for the rushed and deadly evacuation from Kabul. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, scheduled the ceremony just hours before the first debate between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
“They lost their lives because of this administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Johnson said at a news conference minutes before the ceremony.
Then as the speaker opened the ceremony, he took another jab at how the Biden administration has defended its handling of the final months of America’s longest war.
“To the families who are here, I know many of you have yet to hear these words, so I will say them: we are sorry,” Johnson said. “The United States government should have done everything to protect our troops, those fallen and wounded at Abbey Gate deserved our best efforts, and the families who have been left to pick up the pieces continue to deserve transparency, appreciation and recognition.”
Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee also released a scathing investigation on Sunday into the withdrawal that cast blame on Biden’s administration and minimized the role of Trump, who had signed the withdrawal deal with the Taliban.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby on Monday criticized the House report as partisan and one-sided and said it revealed little new information and contained several inaccuracies. He noted that evacuation plans had started well before the pullout, and the fall of Kabul “moved a lot faster than anyone could have anticipated.”
He also acknowledged that during the evacuation “not everything went according to plan. Nothing ever does.”
“We hold ourselves all accountable for that,” he said of the deaths.
Top military and White House officials attended the ceremony Tuesday, including Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough and Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pentagon reviews have concluded that the suicide bombing was not preventable and suggestions troops may have seen the would-be bomber were not true.
Regardless, Trump has thrust the withdrawal, with the backing from some of the families of the Americans killed, into the center of his campaign. Last month, his political team distributed video of him attending a wreath-laying ceremony for the fallen service members at Arlington National Cemetery on the third anniversary of the bombing, despite the cemetery’s prohibition on partisan activity on the grounds as well as an altercation with a cemetery employee who was trying to make sure the campaign followed those rules.
Most assessments have concluded Trump and Biden share blame for the disastrous end to the 20-year war, which saw enemy Taliban take over Afghanistan again before the last American troops even flew out of the Kabul airport. Over 2,000 U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan.
The main U.S. government watchdog for the war points to Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. forces and military contractors as “the single most important factor” in the collapse of U.S.-allied Afghan security forces and Taliban takeover. Biden’s April 2021 announcement that he would proceed with the withdrawal set in motion by Trump was the second-biggest factor, the watchdog said.
Francine reaches hurricane strength, heads for US Gulf Coast
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/francine-reaches-hurricane-strength-heads-for-us-gulf-coast/7779554.html
Oracle to power 1GW datacenter with trio of tiny nuclear reactors
date: 2024-09-11, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Isn’t saying how much they’ll cost or when they’ll fire up
Oracle is going nuclear over growing demand for AI datacenters, and that’s not a metaphor for Larry Ellison’s mood.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/11/oracle_1gw_datacenter_smr_plan/
Mozilla extends Firefox support on unsupported Windows versions to March 2025
date: 2024-09-11, from: OS News
Not too long ago, Mozilla announced it was going to extend its support for Windows 7, and was mulling over extending support for Windows 8.x as well, without providing any time frames or details. Well, we’ve got the details now. According to the Firefox Release Calendar website, Firefox 115 ESR, the latest Firefox version with support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, will continue receiving updates until April 1, 2025. Firefox 115.21 ESR is expected on March 4, 2024, which means users with old Windows versions have at least seven more months of support from Firefox. ↫ Taras Buria at Neowin The same extension to March 2025 for Firefox 115 ESR also covers macOS 10.12-10.14. The reasoning behind the extension is simple: there’s still enough users on these older operating system version for Mozilla to dedicate resources to it, despite how difficult backporting security fixes to 115 ESR has become. Firefox is pretty much the only mainstream browser still supporting Windows 7 and 8, and that’s definitely commendable.
House speaker pushes funding bill that includes proof of citizenship mandate
date: 2024-09-11, from: VOA News USA
washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed Tuesday to press ahead with requiring proof of citizenship for new voters as part of a bill to avoid a partial government shutdown in three weeks, though the measure appeared likely to be voted down.
Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the measure. Enough Republicans were also coming out against the bill, though for different reasons, that its prospects of passing the House appeared dim. Even if it does pass the House on Wednesday, the bill would go nowhere in the Senate.
Johnson said the issue of election security is too critical to ignore, though research has shown that voting by non-citizens is extremely rare. It’s also clear that Republicans see value in making House Democrats take another vote on the issue. The House approved a bill with the proof of citizenship mandate back in July
“If you have a few thousand illegals participate in the election in the wrong place, you can change the makeup of Congress and you can affect the presidential election,” Johnson said. “The American people understand that.”
The first test for the stopgap spending bill came Tuesday with a 209-206 vote that kept it moving ahead. But some Republicans who have said they will oppose the bill on final passage allowed it to proceed.
The measure includes a six-month extension of federal funding to keep agencies and programs operating through March 28.
But Democrats want a shorter-term extension so that the current Congress will set full-year spending levels for fiscal 2025 rather than the next president and Congress. They also want the proof of citizenship mandate stripped out of the bill, saying it’s unnecessary because states already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain accurate voter rolls.
“Is it any surprise that the speaker’s purely partisan CR seems to be running into trouble?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, using Washington parlance for the short-term continuing resolution needed to prevent a shutdown. “The answer is very simple. The House should stop wasting time on a CR proposal that cannot become law.”
Schumer called on Johnson to consult with Democratic leaders and the White House on a bipartisan package that can pass both chambers.
A few House Republicans have also come out against the bill. Some won’t vote for any continuing resolution. They want Congress to return to passing the dozen annual appropriations bills individually. Others say the continuing resolution funds programs at levels they consider inappropriate at a time of nearly $2 trillion annual deficits.
“I’m a firm no on bankrupting the nation and a yes on election integrity,” said Representative Cory Mills in announcing his opposition.
Representative Tim Burchett said Republican leadership was asking him to vote for what he called “a Nancy Pelosi-Schumer budget.”
“I just think that’s a bad idea,” Burchett said.
Republicans can afford to lose only four votes from their ranks if every Democrat votes against the bill.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday seemingly encouraged a government shutdown if Republicans in the House and Senate “don’t get assurances on Election Security.” He said on the social media platform Truth Social that they should not go forward with a continuing resolution without such assurances.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell disagreed when asked about Trump’s post.
“Shutting down the government is always a bad idea, no matter what time of the year it is,” McConnell said.
House Republicans met behind closed doors Tuesday morning to discuss the path forward. Representative Jim Jordan, a co-founder of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told colleagues “this is the best fight we’ve ever had,” said Representative Kevin Hern.
By holding another vote on the proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration, House Republicans are making Democrats in competitive swing districts take another vote on the issue ahead of the election. Last time, five Democrats sided with Republicans in support of the requirement. And their votes this time will be highly scrutinized.
Lawmakers said no plan B was discussed for government funding and that Johnson was determined to hold a vote regardless of the likely outcome.
“This is important to him,” said Representative Ralph Norman. “This is the hill to die on.”
Announcing E-Maj 4.5.0.
date: 2024-09-11, from: PostgreSQL News
We are very glad to announce the 4.5.0 version of E-Maj.
E-Maj is a PostgreSQL extension which enables fine-grained write logging and time travel on subsets of the database.
This version brings the PostgreSQL 17 version compatibility. The emaj extension installation and uninstallation have been enhanced (Many thanks to David Wheeler for his valuable help on this topic). Aside a few bug fixes, it is now possible to monitor the changes recording activity with a new CLI command, emajStat.pl, and a new “Activity” page in the Emaj_web client.
E-Maj 4.5.0 is compatible with Postgres 11 to 17 versions.
The full documentation is available on line. The core extension is available at pgxn.org for installation or github.org for development.
The Emaj_web client is also available at github.org.
Have fun with E-Maj !
https://www.postgresql.org/about/news/announcing-e-maj-450-2930/
Margin’ up the Crater Rim!
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
To conclude its exploration of the mysterious margin unit before it ascends the rim of Jezero Crater, Perseverance made one last stop this past week to investigate these strange rocks at “Eremita Mesa.” Since beginning its steep drive up the crater rim, Perseverance has been traversing along the edge of the margin unit (the margin […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/margin-up-the-crater-rim/
US sanctions Iran over supply of ballistic missiles to Russia
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
The United States announced new sanctions on Iran Tuesday, over Tehran’s supplying of missiles to Russia for use in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
Alibaba Cloud struggles after blaze at Digital Realty Singapore datacenter
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Chinese giant claims lithium batteries exploded, now one server hall is waterlogged
At least a portion of Chinese web giant Alibaba’s online services have been disrupted by a fire at a Singapore datacenter following what’s said to be an Li-ion battery explosion.…
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
A quarter of Republicans think Trump should seize power even if he loses.
How do you solve a problem like Claremont?
date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Karpf’s blog
Some further notes for my professional association.
https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-claremont
Rust on illumos
date: 2024-09-10, from: OS News
With the recent Rust in Linux events in the last couple of days, it’s a good time to write up Rust in illumos. Both to spread the word a bit and also to set expectations for both sides (Rust and illumos/OpenIndiana devs) what is currently possible and what work would need to be invested to make things smooth. And also to let the Rust community know about what illumos people were talking about. What most of the talk currently is about, are the technical details. But we must not leave the social aspects out of it. Software distributions are not made by lone walkers but by groups of people. Bringing in a new language means facilitating change. And that means there are more topics to discuss than just API design. We are talking about impacts on the whole software lifecycle. ↫ Till Wegmüller (Toasty) I try to steer clear of all the Rust-related drama, mostly because it’s outside of my wheelhouse, but also because I don’t think anything I can highlight here will help anyone get anywhere or solve anything. In this particular case, there’s no drama, and it’s just a good ol’ discussion about what Rust as a programming language can contribute to the illumos community and code. I can’t program so here my useful contributions end.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140727/rust-on-illumos/
The future everyone wanted – in-car ads tailored to your journey and passengers
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Correction, no one wanted – well, except perhaps these patent filers at Ford
Someday soon, if Ford has its way, drivers and passengers may be bombarded with infotainment ads tailored to their personal and vehicle data. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/ford_patent_ads_pii/
US Assistant Secretary of State O’Brien: Georgia’s leadership is ‘in denial’
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
WASHINGTON — A controversial law on “foreign influence transparency” is heading toward full implementation in Georgia, even though the country aspires to join the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
September 2 was the deadline for Georgian nongovernmental organizations and media organizations receiving more than one-fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “organizations serving the interests of a foreign power.” Only 1.6% of the country’s organizations chose to do so. Many organizations expect they will be forced to register and fined for allegedly serving foreign interests.
Georgia’s so-called “foreign agent” law has been labeled a “Russian-style law” and heavily criticized by Georgia’s Western partners, who say it undermines the hope of most Georgians that their country will join European institutions. Georgia’s government, however, insists the law simply seeks to ensure “transparency.”
On October 26, Georgians will head to the polls to elect a new parliament, and the political opposition believes these elections will be a referendum on whether the country will continue to move toward integration with Europe. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien spoke with Voice of America’s Georgian Service about what the Biden administration will be most closely watching.
VOA: The Georgian government is moving ahead with implementation of the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, which has triggered criticism and the imposition of travel restrictions against Georgian government officials by the U.S. and a pause in aid by both the U.S. and the EU. What message does the Biden administration have now for the Georgian leadership? Will the process of implementing the law affect whether the October parliamentary election will be seen as free and fair?
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien: We want the Georgian people to be able to register their votes in a free and fair election. For that to happen, we need to see the whole process work well, all these organizations [being] able to work effectively over the next several months without fear of oppression or violence.
This law, as we’ve said repeatedly, is flawed fundamentally. There are ways that European states protect their election systems. This law does not do that. Having a government agency essentially force a registration and have access to all the data in that organization is at odds with modern European practice. … It’s caused an enormous amount of damage to Georgia’s prospects for joining the EU and NATO.
The elections need to be free and fair. It’s good that the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe will be able to have a mission to observe some parts [of the election], but it also depends on the community groups. All of that is one big system, and this law tries to kick one leg out from a three-legged stool. It doesn’t work. And so, I’m worried that it means the elections will not be free and fair, and they certainly won’t be seen as free and fair. Without that, Georgia can’t make the next step forward.
VOA: The U.S. and Georgia have been strategic partners for over three decades. The Biden administration has taken several steps, including visa restrictions, pausing aid and postponing joint military drills. What might the next steps be? What are the options on the table?
O’Brien: We’ve already put in place restriction on travel to the U.S. that’s affected dozens of people. We’re not allowed to say who exactly. But it’s a very significant step. We have suspended help, assistance to a range of the Georgian society. That’s a shame, but it’s necessary. And the EU’s said that the process of joining the EU is effectively suspended. We do not want to see a return to the kind of violence, harassment and oppression that we saw in the spring, where civil society groups, individuals were visited by often-thuggish groups with Russian accents, they were visited by members of the government. All of those things can’t happen.
VOA: Meanwhile, [ruling party] Georgian Dream leaders have promised to “ban opposition parties” following the elections. How does this sound coming from the leadership of a country aspiring to EU and NATO membership, and what concerns does it raise about the ruling party’s intentions?
O’Brien: It doesn’t sound like a democracy. One party doesn’t get to decide what other party gets to compete. It’s for the citizens to decide what parties take their seats in parliament, according to fair rules that are understood in advance. So, I think that was a very revealing comment. And it suggests that this is not a government capable of bringing Georgia toward Europe.
VOA: Russian intelligence services are accusing the U.S. of plotting “regime change” in Georgia. Some Georgian Dream members also have accused U.S. organizations like the NDI or IRI [the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, both of which are American nongovernmental organizations funded by the U.S. government] of helping the opposition. What do you make of these accusations, and are you worried about possible Russian interference or malign influence in the Georgian elections?
O’Brien: Well, anyone who believes the Russian security services, I think, is fooling themselves. The American organizations are very transparent. It’s known who we work with, and we work to support the Georgian people so that they can organize themselves inside or outside government. That’s the full goal. We don’t pick winners and losers. We are for the Georgian people, most of whom, almost 90% of whom, want to move toward Europe, and it’s this government with its very bad legal drafting — like it’s just bad lawyering — that has caused this problem. And we would like them to fix it so that the Georgian people can organize themselves and could have a free and fair election.
If the government succeeds in … denying access to resources by all these groups, the only ones left standing will be Russian sources of information. So, whatever the case has been till now, what the government is doing [now] makes it much easier for Russia to dominate Georgia’s information space.
VOA: After so many high-level engagements with the Georgian authorities, and Prime Minister [Irakli] Kobakhidze speaking about the need for “resetting” the relationship, do you have any indication that they might be ready to change course?
O’Brien: No. And they’re in denial. They haven’t noticed we’ve suspended $95 million in assistance. The EU is suspending a proportionate amount: They are saying you don’t get to move toward Europe. And what Georgian Dream tries to tell its voters, and all Georgian citizens, is [that] everything is fine. It is not fine. Georgia wants to join the European Union. There are clear rules. The people responsible for those rules are saying you have made a mistake. You have written a bad law. They are on the verge of writing two new bad laws and those need to stop in order for the people of Georgia to get what they overwhelmingly want.
We’ve said again and again to the Georgian officials: The transparency you say you want is readily available. All the American organizations are transparent. The European organizations are transparent. There are ways to achieve that. But they’ve chosen to do it in a way that lets the [Georgian] Ministry of Justice control your local neighborhood organization. And that’s not democratic, and it’s not part of Europe. We want them to turn back so that the Georgian people can be part of Europe.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
The Failed Migration of Academic Twitter.
https://arxiv.org/html/2406.04005v1
As major web browser makers snuggle up to AI, these skeptical holdouts remain
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Chatbots, generative models ‘in many ways the next step in the surveillance economy’
Web browsers now commonly sport AI services provided by on-device or cloud-based models. However, a few holdouts remain convinced it’s a bad idea.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/web_browsers_ai_holdout_vivaldi/
Abortion-rights measure will be on Missouri’s November ballot, court rules
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — An amendment to restore abortion rights in Missouri will be on the ballot, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution is expected to widely undo the state’s 2022 near-total abortion ban if passed. Judges ruled hours before the Tuesday deadline for changes to be made to the November ballot.
Supreme Court judges ordered Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to put the measure back on the ballot. He had removed it Monday following a county circuit judge’s ruling Friday.
The order also directs Ashcroft, an abortion opponent, to “take all steps necessary to ensure that it is on said ballot.”
The court’s full opinion on the case was not immediately released Tuesday.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the campaign backing the measure, lauded the decision.
“Missourians overwhelmingly support reproductive rights, including access to abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care,” campaign manager Rachel Sweet said in a statement. “Now, they will have the chance to enshrine these protections in the Missouri Constitution on November 5.”
Mary Catherine Martin, a lawyer for a group of Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents suing to remove the amendment, had told Supreme Court judges during rushed Tuesday arguments that the initiative petition “misled voters” by not listing all the laws restricting abortion that it would effectively repeal.
The amendment is part of a national push to have voters weigh in on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Missouri banned almost all abortions immediately after that Supreme Court ruling.
Eight other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. Most would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability and allow it later for the health of the pregnant woman, which is what the Missouri proposal would do.
New York also has a ballot measure that proponents say would protect abortion rights, though there’s a dispute about its impact.
Voting on the polarizing issue could draw more people to the polls, potentially impacting results for the presidency in swing states, control of Congress and the outcomes for closely contested state offices. Missouri Democrats, for instance, hope to get a boost from abortion-rights supporters during the November election.
Legal fights have sprung up across the country over whether to allow voters to decide these questions — and over the exact wording used on the ballots and explanatory material.
In August, Arkansas’ highest court upheld a decision to keep an abortion rights initiative off the state’s November ballot, agreeing with election officials that the group behind the measure did not properly submit documentation regarding the signature gatherers it hired.
Seven states have previously had abortion questions on their ballots since Roe was overturned, and voters have sided with abortion-rights supporters each time.
Astronaut Frank Culbertson Letter from September 11, 2001
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
Editor’s Note:The following is the text of a letter from Expedition Three Commander Frank L. Culbertson (Captain, USN Retired), reflecting on the events of September 11. September 12, 2001; 7:34 p.m. I haven’t written very much about specifics of this mission during the month I’ve been here, mainly for two reasons: the first being that […]
https://www.nasa.gov/general/astronaut-frank-culbertson-letter-from-september-11-2001/
Watch Eels Make a Great Escape From a Fish’s Stomach After Being Swallowed Alive
date: 2024-09-10, from: Smithsonian Magazine
For the first time, scientists witnessed Japanese eels free themselves from the stomach of a predatory fish in X-ray video footage
Lilbits: PS5 Pro announced, KDE Slimbook 16 launched, Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 series leaked, and Flipper Zero gets firmware version 1.0
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
Samsung has dominated the premium Android tablet space in recent years, and if recent leaks are to be believed, this year’s tablets will bring more of the same… with an emphasis on more. The new Galaxy Tab Ultra, for example, will still be a 14.6 inch tablet with a flagship processor with up to 16GB of […]
The post Lilbits: PS5 Pro announced, KDE Slimbook 16 launched, Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 series leaked, and Flipper Zero gets firmware version 1.0 appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/lilbits-samsung-galaxy-tab-s10-kde-slimbook-16-and-ps5-pro/
How REI Built a Better Warehouse
date: 2024-09-10, from: Heatmap News
Almost by definition, warehouses are boring — spaces of pure industry and function with no aesthetic value.
Boring, though, is not very efficient. The Department of Energy keeps national statistics on warehouses (instead of the more obvious Department of Commerce), largely because it’s the purview of the U.S. Energy Information Administration to keep track of the energy consumption of buildings, and warehouses consume a lot. The transportation sector makes up about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a number that jumps to 11% when you factor in warehousing-related activities. There is an estimated 4.7 billion square feet of warehouse space in the country already — enough to cover Maine’s Acadia National Park more than twice over — and it’s growing rapidly.
Almost all the $1.1 trillion of U.S. e-commerce sales filters through warehouses at some point in the journey from clicking “purchase” on your screen to a package arriving at your front door. The trucks coming and going with goods from distribution centers spew nitrogen dioxide, which is linked to asthma and is 20% more prevalent on average in the air near industrial parks. Concrete monstrosities that they are, warehouses can even mess with local stormwater drainage due to the acres of ground cover, roads, and loading docks they require. And about a third of the ones in the United States are more than half a century old, meaning they’re not exactly at the state of the art of energy efficiency.
Until very recently, this was mostly an accepted fact. Customers never see the inside of warehouses, meaning there isn’t a lot of external pressure for companies to make them nicer. (Being out of sight and out of mind has also historically allowed them to become sites of rampant exploitation and safety violations.) As Andrew Dempsey, director of climate at outdoor recreation retailer REI Co-op, put it to me, “Folks are not thinking about their warehouses and distribution centers as opportunities for leadership.”
Late last year, REI opened the 10th warehouse in the country to earn a LEED v4 Platinum certification, a designation the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council reserves for projects that go above and beyond sustainability considerations. (Levi Strauss & Co. has one in Nevada, and the National Institute of Health has another in North Carolina, among others.) Located in Lebanon, Tennessee, near important transportation corridors for the business, the new REI warehouse still looks, at least from the outside, a little like the boring designs of the past: At some 400,000 square feet, it’s certainly blocky and large.
“With most of these types of projects, there is always going to be a tension between some of the impact goals you’re looking to achieve and some of the business objectives,” Dempsey added — that is to say, a warehouse still needs to house wares. But, he added, “Under certain constraints, you can get very creative.”
According to the DOE, lighting is one of the biggest energy-sucks in a warehouse. For the Lebanon project, REI partnered with Al. Neyer, a commercial real estate developer with experience designing and constructing LEED-certified buildings, and zeroed in on “design decisions that aren’t overly complex or necessarily bleeding edge,” Dempsey explained. For example, to light the space, the team simply installed 90 skylights, which not only allows in more sun (and thus, reduces the need for lightbulbs), it also helps workers keep an “understanding of the rhythms of the day.” Sensors that turn off lights and conveyor belts when not in use allow the warehouse to run on 30% less energy than code requires.
Solar panels are another common way for warehouses to go greener, and the Lebanon facility has them, too. However, REI also wanted to bring more zero-emission energy to the surrounding community, so it teamed up with Clearloop, a local start-up, to build a supplementary solar project nearby. In addition to keeping the warehouse at its 100% renewable energy goal, the solar facility will also help power several hundred surrounding homes.
Perhaps the biggest challenge REI took on is making the construction process — another traditionally high-emissions part of a building’s lifecycle — zero-waste, which occasionally led to some delightfully woo-woo material decisions. Trees cut down in preparation for construction at the site were recycled for interior design accents like stair barristers. An old barn on the property was likewise deconstructed and its wood repurposed for the warehouse’s atrium space. (The lobby and lounge have the same Restoration Hardware-chic style as many REI retail spaces.)
Many other materials came from “right outside the windows of the building,” Dempsey told me, “which I think is really important to give the folks working there a connection to the history of that land.” Even interior wayfinding elements were made more whimsical: Though there is no way to avoid pouring vast emissions-intensive concrete floors in a warehouse, a polished path on their surface mimics the nearby Cumberland River, and is meant to further blend the indoors with the outdoors.
Stefanie Young, the vice president of technical solutions at the U.S. Green Building Council, who has worked on a number of warehouse projects, told me environmental sustainability is not necessarily the only motivator for companies pursuing LEED certificates. “It’s also about the health and wellness for the occupants: ventilation, access to amenities, the ability to travel to and from the site,” she said, adding, “It might be minimal, but every person that comes into that building is important.”
And while the REI facility is still an oddball in the warehouse space, the advantages of a climate-friendly design are attracting interest from more and more developers. The attention is not necessarily all altruistic: “Clearly, the more efficient the facility is, the less their utility bills will be,” Young pointed out. Owners and developers are also looking for places to meet their ESG or carbon reduction goals, and warehouse upgrades help boost those bona fides. (REI, for example, aims to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.)
Warehouses will probably never actually be sexy. But it also doesn’t take groundbreaking innovations to make them a little more pleasant — at the end of the day, we’re still just talking about adding some skylights, drought-resistant landscaping, and a few electric forklifts to make them better for both the planet and workers. But these little things matter: “Customers won’t come into this space, but several hundred of our employees will,” Dempsey said. “And that alone merits us to create the best space possible.”
https://heatmap.news/economy/rei-leed-warehouse
Ex Samsung execs reportedly arrested for alleged IP theft in China chip caper
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Duo accused of stealing $3.2B of 20nm tech and secrets
Two former Samsung employees have reportedly been arrested in South Korea on suspicion they stole more than $3.2 billion in intellectual property to build their own chip factory in China.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/samsung_execs_china_chip/
Starship Super Heavy Breezes Through Wind Tunnel Testing at NASA Ames
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
NASA and its industry partners continue to make progress toward Artemis III and beyond, the first crewed lunar landing missions under the agency’s Artemis campaign. SpaceX, the commercial Human Landing System (HLS) provider for Artemis III and Artemis IV, recently tested a 1.2% scale model of the Super Heavy rocket, or booster, in the transonic […]
A Starry View
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has infrared vision that lets us peer through the dusty veil of nearby star-forming region NGC 1333. We can see planetary mass objects, newborn stars, and brown dwarfs; some of the faintest ‘stars’ in this mosaic image are in fact newly born free-floating brown dwarfs with masses comparable to those […]
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/a-starry-view/
Juno Tab 3 is an overpriced Linux tablet with an Intel N100 processor and 12GB RAM
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
The Juno Tab 3 is a tablet with a 12.1 inch, 2160 x 1440 pixel, 330 nit IPS LCD display, 12GB of LPDDR5-4800 memory, and an M.2 2242 SATA III SSD with at least 512GB of storage. It’s powered by a 6-watt Intel N100 quad-core processor based on Intel Alder Lake-N architecture. What sets it […]
The post Juno Tab 3 is an overpriced Linux tablet with an Intel N100 processor and 12GB RAM appeared first on Liliputing.
How to Spot NASA’s Solar Sail Demonstration Streaking Through the Night Sky
date: 2024-09-10, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Amateur astronomers can use NASA’s mobile app to find the ACS3 for themselves—a reflective satellite that could appear as bright as the star Sirius
SambaNova makes Llama gallop in inference cloud debut
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
AI infra startup serves up Llama 3.1 405B at 100+ tokens per second
Not to be outdone by rival AI systems upstarts, SambaNova has launched inference cloud of its own that it says is ready to serve up Meta’s largest models faster than the rest.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/sambanovas_inference_cloud/
Blinken, Lammy stress importance of Taiwan Strait status quo in US-UK talks
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy addressed Indo-Pacific security and highlighted the need to maintain the status quo on the Taiwan Strait during their U.S.-U.K. Strategic Dialogue, underscoring its global significance.
“We also discussed joint efforts to ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation and overflight of the South China Sea. For both of us, maintaining peace and stability, preserving the status quo is essential,” Blinken told reporters during a joint press conference with Lammy in London.
“It’s essential not just to us; it’s, again, essential to countries all around the world,” Blinken added.
U.S. officials have stressed the need to keep open high-level communication between Washington and Beijing to clear up misperceptions and prevent their competition from escalating into conflict.
Earlier this week, the United States and China held theater-level commander talks for the first time in an effort to stabilize military relations.
The video teleconference Monday, between Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and General Wu Yanan, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command, was aimed at preventing misunderstandings, particularly in regional hotspots like the South China Sea.
According to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral Paparo emphasized the Chinese military’s responsibility to adhere to international laws and norms to ensure operational safety.
“Paparo also urged the PLA to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond.”
In Beijing, China’s Ministry of National Defense issued a press release Tuesday stating the two commanders exchanged views on matters of mutual concern, but did not provide further details about the discussion.
Washington has been seeking to establish new channels for regular military communication with Beijing after relations hit a historic low when the U.S. downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.
The theater-level commander talks differ from the broader discussions between U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs, which cover all strategic issues impacting both nations, Ryan Haas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told VOA.
The theater-level talks provide a platform for more focused discussions on operational issues, crisis management, and deconfliction at an operator-to-operator level, added Haas, a former senior official on the White House National Security Council from 2013 to 2017.
The virtual meeting between Paparo and Wu followed a meeting last month in Beijing, where U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top military adviser agreed to the talks.
Voyager 1 Team Accomplishes Tricky Thruster Swap
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
The spacecraft uses its thrusters to stay pointed at Earth, but after 47 years in space some of the fuel tubes have become clogged. Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters, which keep the distant explorer pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands, send […]
Childhood Snow Days Transformed Linette Boisvert into a Sea Ice Scientist
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
Linette Boisvert turned a childhood love of snow into a career as a sea ice scientist studying climate change. Name: Linette BoisvertTitle: Assistant Lab Chief, Cryospheric Sciences Branch, and Deputy Project Scientist for the Aqua SatelliteFormal Job Classification: Sea Ice ScientistOrganization: Cryospheric Science Branch, Science Directorate (Code 615) What do you do and what is most interesting […]
Apple Denies Evidence of Hiding Browser Choice Setting
date: 2024-09-10, from: Michael Tsai
Hartley Charlton: Apple faces allegations of misleading the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over a user interface issue in iOS related to changing the default browser, Open Web Advocacy reports. […] Now, in a formal response to the CMA, Apple has denied that this issue ever existed. […] Apple has not provided an explanation […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/10/apple-denies-evidence-of-hiding-browser-choice-setting/
EU iOS Envy
date: 2024-09-10, from: Michael Tsai
Allison Johnson: Whining about stuff is a treasured American pastime, so allow me to indulge: the iPhone is more fun in Europe now, and it’s not fair. They’re getting all kinds of stuff because they have cool regulators, not, like, regular regulators. Third-party app stores, the ability for browsers to run their own engines, Fortnite, […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/10/eu-ios-envy/
Apple’s DMA Compliance, Summer 2024
date: 2024-09-10, from: Michael Tsai
Damien Geradin: Apple took everyone by surprise by announcing on 25 January 2024 how it intended to implement the app store-related provisions of the DMA in advance of the 7 March 2024 deadline. However, it became immediately clear to app developers that Apple’s implementation failed to comply with the DMA. This led Apple to make […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/10/apples-dma-compliance-summer-2024/
What to Do With Unwanted Political Spam Texts
date: 2024-09-10, from: Michael Tsai
John Gruber (Mastodon): For several months this year — while receiving, I’d say, around half a dozen such messages per day, every day, every week — I tried using Messages’s “Delete and Report Junk” feature. As far as I can tell it didn’t do a damn thing. Now that I see Apple’s own documentation, I can see why. Using […]
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/10/what-to-do-with-unwanted-political-spam-texts/
MNT unveils MNT Reform Next
date: 2024-09-10, from: OS News
Earlier this year, I reviewed the excellent and unique MNT Reform laptop, an (almost) fully open source, very hackable laptop. MNT has just unveiled the upcoming follow-up to the Reform, called the Reform Next. Being highly performant, modular, and upgradeable, MNT Reform Next gives you more freedom than any other laptop. Swap modules, print your own case, customize your keyboard. Since we are committed to open hardware, all sources are public. While Classic MNT Reform is a portable device, we felt like a sleeker, more lightweight design would increase portability and make for a more flexible laptop. ↫ MNT website The focus seems to have been on both performance and size, and I think the latter is especially important for a lot of people who might not have been too enamored with the original Reform’s chunky, brutalist design. The device has been made thinner by splitting the motherboard up into several connected, separate boards, that also happen to improve the repairability and upgradeability of the device. The battery pack has been redesigned for a smaller physical size, too, and the trackball option is no longer available – it’s trackpad-only. The Reform Next is compatible with MNT’s latest processor module, the RK3588, and as such, packs a bigger punch. This SoC has four ARM Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.4 Ghz, and four power-efficient ARM Cortex-A55 cores up to 1.5 Ghz. This SoC is also available as an upgrade for the MNT Reform and the MNT Pocket Reform, and ships with either 16 or 32 GB of RAM and an ARM Mali G610 MP4 GPU. Of course, the Reform Next will be as open as humanly possible, both software as well as hardware-wise, and it’s looking like a worthy successor to the MNT Reform. I’m incredibly delighted that MNT seems to have found a niche that works for them, and enabling them to keep developing and releasing hardware that goes against every trend in the industry, giving us entirely unique devices nobody else is making.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140725/mnt-unveils-mnt-reform-next/
US senator blocks promotion of top aide to Defense Secretary Austin
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
washington — Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking the quick promotion of the top military aide to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over concerns that he and other senior staff did not immediately notify President Joe Biden when Austin was hospitalized with complications from cancer treatment earlier this year.
Biden in July nominated Lieutenant General Ronald Clark to become commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific. But Clark has faced criticism from Republicans over his role as one of Austin’s top aides when the defense secretary was in the hospital in January and did not tell Biden or other U.S. leaders.
Republicans said the fact that Biden was kept in the dark about Austin not being in command for days could have meant confusion or delays in military action, even though decision-making authorities had been transferred to the deputy defense secretary.
Tuberville’s hold comes a year after he came under intense criticism from colleagues in both parties for holding up hundreds of military promotions over a Pentagon abortion policy. The Senate finally approved 425 military promotions and nominations in November after Tuberville relented.
Republican colleagues said they agreed with Tuberville on the abortion policy but openly pressured him to drop the holds, voicing concern about military readiness and the toll it was taking on service members and their families who had nothing to do with the regulations.
A spokeswoman for Tuberville, Hannah Eddins, said Tuesday that the senator has concerns about Clark’s role during Austin’s hospitalization, including that he did not inform Biden. She said that Tuberville is waiting on an a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general that will review the matter.
“As a senior commissioned officer, Lieutenant General Clark’s oath requires him to notify POTUS when the chain of command is compromised,” Eddins said, using an acronym for the president of the United States.
Majority Democrats could still bring Clark’s nomination up for a vote, but Tuberville’s hold likely delays his confirmation because several days of floor time would be needed to confirm him. The nomination will expire with the end of the congressional session and the next president would have to renominate Clark or someone else to the post if he is not confirmed by early January.
Pentagon spokesperson James Adams said that Tuberville’s new hold, which was first reported by The Washington Post, “undermines our military readiness.”
“Lt. Gen. Clark is highly qualified and was nominated for this critical position because of his experience and strategic expertise,” Adams said in a statement. “We urge the Senate to confirm all of our qualified nominees.”
Austin has come under bipartisan criticism for initially keeping Biden in the dark about his health issues and hospitalization. Austin was admitted to intensive care for complications from prostate cancer surgery on January 1, but the White House was not told until January 4. Austin’s senior staff were notified on January 2.
The defense secretary later said he takes full responsibility and had apologized to Biden. Still, Austin insisted that there were no gaps in control of the department or the nation’s security because “at all times, either I or the deputy secretary was in a position to conduct the duties of my office.”
An earlier Pentagon review of the matter blamed privacy restrictions and staff hesitancy for the secrecy, and called for improved procedures, which have been made.
The White House also laid out a new set of guidelines to ensure it will be informed any time a Cabinet head cannot carry out their job. The new guidelines include a half-dozen instructions for Cabinet agencies to follow when there is a “delegation of authority,” or when secretaries temporarily transfer their authority to a deputy when unreachable due to medical issues, travel or other reasons.
15 Years Ago: Japan launches HTV-1, its First Resupply Mission to the Space Station
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
On Sept. 10, 2009, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched its first cargo delivery spacecraft, the H-II Transfer Vehicle-1 (HTV-1), to the International Space Station. The HTV cargo vehicles, also called Kounotori, meaning white stork in Japanese, not only maintained the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo but also resupplied the space station in general with […]
Darth Vader Didn’t Come Alive Until James Earl Jones Gave Him a Voice
date: 2024-09-10, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The prolific American actor, who died on September 9, recorded his dialogue for the first “Star Wars” film in less than three hours
Daily Deals (9-10-2024)
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
Amazon’s Fire HD 8 tablet is on sale for more than 50% off, bringing the price for a model with 64GB of storage down to $60 for the most recent version of Amazon’s 8 inch tablet. Just keep in mind that the latest release is about two years old, so I wouldn’t be surprised to […]
The post Daily Deals (9-10-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/daily-deals-9-10-2024/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Ok, in retrospect it was there all along:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113114745991922286
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
WHOA! I just discovered this.
If you press Commnand-Shift-H on Xcode, it opens the Human Interface Guidelines web page.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113114731814561420
Make your own read-only device with NetBSD
date: 2024-09-10, from: OS News
For certain use cases, it’s advisable to set up a read-only root file system, which ensures better reliability in case of system issues. Think of scenarios like a router (critical for network access) or a caching reverse-proxy, such as the one described in my series “Make your own CDN“. While FreeBSD natively supports this configuration and some Linux distributions offer custom solutions (e.g., Alpine Linux), NetBSD stands out as an excellent choice for such devices. It supports nearly all embedded devices, is lightweight, and its stability minimizes the need for frequent updates. ↫ Stefano Marinelli Exactly what it says on the tin. Friend of the website (a new term I just made up and will use from here on out for some people) Stefano Marinelli, fresh from his series about making your own CDN using the various BSDs, explains how to set up a NetBSD system with a read-only root filesystem for the special use cases where this makes sense.
https://www.osnews.com/story/140723/make-your-own-read-only-device-with-netbsd/
Pentagon has little to show for two decades of GPS modernization work
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Not even the venerable expertise of the US Space Force is enough to push progress
Despite more than two decades of work, the US military’s GPS modernization efforts are still so muddled that uninterrupted operation of a secure network of GPS satellites could be at risk. …
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/gps_modernization_us_gao/
Sols 4300-4301: Rippled Pages
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Monday, Sept. 9, 2024 With today’s plan, Curiosity completes its most southerly planned exploration of the Gediz Vallis channel. From here, our rover will head north and climb out of the channel to explore terrain to the west. Our planned drive to the “Tungsten Hills” rocks, named for a famous mining district […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4300-4301-rippled-pages/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Ok, completed my tasks for the day.
Time to go rest
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113114612018887493
The National Museum of American History Collects Mariska Hargitay’s Costume From ‘Law and Order: SVU’
date: 2024-09-10, from: Smithsonian Magazine
The Smithsonian museum accepted a detective suit and badge worn by the actress’ character, Olivia Benson, on the long-running procedural
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Podcast: After the debate, the candidate herself, in her own name, should become a persistent quotable voice on the twitter-like social web. This 12-minute podcast explains why.
https://shownotes.scripting.com/scripting/2024/09/10/twitterPresidentKamala.html
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and the politics of cursing.
Burning of Zozobra tradition in Santa Fe, New Mexico, turns 100
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
Thousands of revelers gathered in New Mexico to set ablaze a 15-meter-tall effigy stuffed with personal regrets and gloomy thoughts. Gustavo Martínez Contreras has our story from Santa Fe, where the festive conflagration turned 100 years old.
https://www.voanews.com/a/burning-of-zozobra-tradition-in-santa-fe-new-mexico-turns-100/7778708.html
Mainframes aren’t dead, they’re just learning AI tricks
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-11, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Kyndryl survey suggests there’s life in big iron yet
Even mainframes can’t escape the AI bug, with a report finding that big iron is becoming a prime candidate to host and run AI workloads, while enterprises are increasingly integrating their mainframes with modern infrastructure rather than seeking an off-ramp.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/kyndryl_mainframe_survery/
Vietnamese immigrants and their children divided on US border policy
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
More than 1.2 million Vietnamese immigrants live in the United States, many of them having settled after the Vietnam war. More recently, a new wave of Vietnamese migration has sparked debate in the community about immigration and has become one of the main talking points this election season. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details from Texas, the state with the second-largest Vietnamese immigrant population in the country.
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Podcast: Harris must become president of Twitter before becoming president of the United States.
https://shownotes.scripting.com/scripting/2024/09/10/podcastTwitterPresidentKamala.html
The Painting That Inspired the Term ‘Impressionism’ Debuts in America
date: 2024-09-10, from: Smithsonian Magazine
Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” anchors an exhibition commemorating the birth of the artistic movement 150 years ago
UNIX Review Magazine Interviews Larry Tesler
date: 2024-09-10, from: Computer ads from the Past
They discuss Tesler’s involvement with Xerox, Apple and office automation with Unix.
https://computeradsfromthepast.substack.com/p/unix-review-magazine-interviews-larry
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
I need to start a TikTok channel about being a trad programmer.
One that writes code without sprints, stories, epics, reviews, specs.
Just sit down with my keyboard and compiler and watch the build output scroll by.
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113114277896321943
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Tragic, one of my favorite diners in Boston, the one I had been going to since I moved here in 2000:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113114222152999229
Huawei Mate XT is the first smartphone with a tri-fold display
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
Most of the phones with foldable displays that have shipped so far are designed to fold in half like a book. But the the new Huawei Mate XT is the first commercially available phone with a tri-fold display. That means instead of having a crease in the middle that lets you fold the phone in half, […]
The post Huawei Mate XT is the first smartphone with a tri-fold display appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/huawei-mate-xt-is-the-first-smartphone-with-a-tri-fold-display/
To Win Nevada, Harris Must Turn Infrastructure Jobs Into Votes
date: 2024-09-10, from: Capital and Main
Reno’s building trades unions are mobilizing their members to support the Democratic nominee.
The post To Win Nevada, Harris Must Turn Infrastructure Jobs Into Votes appeared first on .
https://capitalandmain.com/to-win-nevada-harris-must-turn-infrastructure-jobs-into-votes
Private equity commits MariaDB takeover transaction
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Post-IPO chapter ends after SQL biz shed jobs, products in bid to find buyer
A private equity biz has succeeded in its takeover of MariaDB 18 months after its disastrous IPO.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/maria_db_buyout/
Harris Debe Tornar Los Empleos En Infraestructura En Votos Para Ganar Nevada
date: 2024-09-10, from: Capital and Main
Los sindicatos de la industria de la construcción de Reno movilizan a sus miembros en apoyo a la candidata demócrata.
The post Harris Debe Tornar Los Empleos En Infraestructura En Votos Para Ganar Nevada appeared first on .
As New Mexico Shakes, State Cancels Dozens of Planned Wastewater Injection Sites
date: 2024-09-10, from: Capital and Main
Study uncovers thousands of undocumented quakes, underscoring the link between injection sites and seismic activity.
The post As New Mexico Shakes, State Cancels Dozens of Planned Wastewater Injection Sites appeared first on .
US imposes sanctions on Iran over supply of ballistic missiles to Russia
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
London — Washington is imposing new sanctions on Iran over its supply of missiles to Russia for use in Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday.
The U.S. State Department said the sanctions aimed to further constrain “Iran’s destabilizing activities” and target individuals and businesses based in Iran and Russia, including Iran’s flagship airline, Iran Air, which the U.S. said was involved in the weapons transfer.
Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder confirmed that Iran had transferred shipments of Fath-360 close-range ballistic missiles to Russia, and that they could be employed against Ukraine “within weeks.” Prior to the transfer, Russian military personnel were trained in Iran to use this system, he said.
Ryder called Iran’s transfer of the short-range missiles, which can hit targets up to 120 kilometers away, a “concerning development” that deepens Russia’s military arsenal.
“One has to assume that if Iran is providing Russia with these types of missiles, that it’s very likely it would not be a one-time deal [and] that this would be a source of capability that Russia would seek to tap in the future,” he added.
Speaking in London, Blinken said the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran “threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran’s destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East.”
“For its part, Russia is sharing technology that Iran seeks,” Blinken told reporters. “This is a two-way street, including on nuclear issues, as well as some space information.”
Blinken added that Russian President Vladimir Putin was now relying increasingly on help from Iran and North Korea to get weapons, a clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, and was also getting aid from China.
“One of the reasons that Putin is able to continue this aggression is because of the provision of support from the People’s Republic of China, the biggest supplier of machine tools, the biggest supplier of microelectronics, all of which are helping Russia sustain its defense industrial base.”
Without specifically identifying ballistic missiles, Moscow confirmed Monday that Russia and Iran are cooperating in the “most sensitive” areas.
“Iran is our important partner,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a phone call. “We are developing our cooperation and dialogue in all possible areas, including the most sensitive ones.”
When Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy visit Kyiv this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will likely push for the Western allies to allow Kyiv to use their long-range missiles on targets inside Russia, said analyst Garret Martin, co-director of the Transatlantic Policy Center at American University in Washington.
“Generally, the U.K. has been often more at the forefront, maybe more at the vanguard, of being more supportive of Ukraine,” he told VOA. “So, it’s a question here — especially if you’re thinking about the debates over long-range strikes — are they able now to come up on a sort of similar position?”
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday ahead of the visit to Kyiv, Blinken said that U.S. President Joe Biden is “not ruling out” allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike targets inside Russia.
Ukraine has had “what it needed, when it needed it, to be effective in repelling the Russian aggression,” Blinken said.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Biden in Washington Friday, with Ukraine and the Middle East at the top of the agenda.
“Particularly for Ukraine and for the Middle East, the next few weeks and months are critically important,” Starmer told the BBC on Sunday. “And therefore, it’s important for me to speak to President Biden about our shared response, the response of our allies to the pressing, immediate issues, but also to the more strategic long-term issues.”
Last week, Britain announced the suspension of some arms sales to Israel over concerns its attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza breach humanitarian law, which Israel denies. The U.S. is continuing to supply weapons and says it does not believe Israel is breaking international law.
Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
UGREEN NASync DXP480T Plus Review: A speedy NAS with 10 GbE networking and four M.2 SSD slots
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
UGREEN is a company that’s best known for making PC and mobile accessories like power banks, USB hubs, docks and cables. But earlier this year the UGREEN announced plans to launch a line of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices featuring Intel Alder Lake or Alder Lake-N processors. The company initially launched its NASync family through […]
The post UGREEN NASync DXP480T Plus Review: A speedy NAS with 10 GbE networking and four M.2 SSD slots appeared first on Liliputing.
We know ‘Linux is a cancer’ but could CentOS chaos spell opportunity for Microsoft?
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Analyst suggests Redmond’s internal distro may one day fly the coop
Azure Linux is Microsoft’s take on the open source operating system. It is primarily used for internal purposes, but could it become (yet another) distribution option?…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/azure_linux_directions_on_microsoft/
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Oh, @asymco is hosting the "Apple Worldwide Investor Conference", this event looks sweet.
I am having big FOMO, as I am tied up with kid related activities that day:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113113839945298973
MNT Reform Next is thinner, lighter modular, open source laptop
date: 2024-09-10, from: Liliputing
The makers of the MNT Reform and Pocket Reform line of modular, customizable, and open source laptops have unveiled plans for a new model they’re calling the MNT Reform Next. While it has a lot of the same features as existing models, including support for the same removeable, replaceable processor modules, the MNT Reform Next […]
The post MNT Reform Next is thinner, lighter modular, open source laptop appeared first on Liliputing.
https://liliputing.com/mnt-reform-next-is-thinner-lighter-modular-open-source-laptop/
The economic mood is cooling
date: 2024-09-10, from: Marketplace Morning Report
Yesterday, we talked about surveys of farmers, which showed a growing economic pessimism in that sector. Today, survey data from the National Federation of Independent Business show a decline in optimism among small businesses generally in August. So what exactly is behind the souring mood among investors, consumers and others? We’ll discuss. Also this morning’s program: a closer look at the business of manifesting.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-economic-mood-is-cooling
Crypto scams rake in $5.6B a year for cyberscum lowlifes, FBI says
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Elderly people report the greatest losses
The FBI just dropped its annual report examining the costs of crypto-related cybercrime, painting a predictably grim picture as total losses in the US exceeded $5.6 billion in 2023 – a 45 percent year-on-year increase.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/crypto_scams_rake_in_56/
What will the candidates say about AI in tonight’s debate?
date: 2024-09-10, from: Gary Marcus blog
AI policy should be front and center
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/what-will-the-candidates-say-about
NASA to Test Telemedicine, Gather Essential Health Data with Polaris Dawn Crew
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
NASA researchers will soon benefit from a suite of experiments flying aboard a new fully-commercial human spaceflight mission, strengthening future agency science as we venture to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The experiments are flying as part of the Polaris Dawn mission which launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket earlier today. […]
Apple owes billions in back taxes over Ireland state aid rule break
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Final judgment handed down by Court of Justice of the European Union
Following an eight-year legal tussle, Europe’s highest court has ruled in a “final judgment” that Apple benefited from massive tax breaks after Ireland contravened EU state aid rules.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/apple_owes_billions_in_back/
ServiceNow moves its backend off MariaDB to homebrew Postgres
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Xanadu release also adds a Pro tier, along with lots more AI
SaaSy workflow vendor ServiceNow has opted for a different database to back its applications, and will introduce it this week along with the new “Xanadu” release.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/servicenow_xanadu_postgres_raptordb/
Oracle reports rising top line as it hooks up database service to AWS
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Plus: CTO Larry says Big Red uses hardware ‘efficiently’ but ‘labor sparingly because labor is a security risk’
Oracle beat investment analysts’ estimates with a Q1 revenue haul of $13.3 billion, up 7 percent year-on-year, a feat one market watcher chalked up to “several large deals being signed” in the period.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/oracle_q1/
Google Locks in Carbon Removal at a Milestone Price: $100 a Ton
date: 2024-09-10, from: Heatmap News
Direct air capture companies are in a race to prove they can reduce the cost of removing carbon from the atmosphere down below $100 per ton. Now, one is closing in on the prize with a first-of-its-kind deal.
On Tuesday, Google announced it will pay the startup Holocene $10 million to remove 100,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere, to be delivered “by the early 2030s.” The tech giant said the price point was made possible by the federal tax credit for carbon sequestration, and its own willingness to cough up the bulk of the funds upfront.
There’s no question the deal is risky on both sides. Today, most estimates place the cost of direct air capture at upwards of $600 per ton. Bringing the cost down is essential if the tech is ever going to play a meaningful role in tackling climate change. But even the companies that are farthest along, like the Swiss pioneer Climeworks, aren’t sure they will be able to offer a price of $100 per ton by 2030. Holocene has yet to build a commercial plant, so its ability to remove carbon for $100 per ton is pure projection at this point.
But for Google, the goal is more to catalyze a potentially important climate solution than to clean up its carbon footprint.
“The point of our program is to help Google reach net zero in whatever way most helps the world reach net zero,” Randy Spock, the company’s carbon credits and removals lead, told me in an email. “So this deal is an example of us identifying what the planet needs (long-term cost reduction for Direct Air Capture) and then doing what we can to help it take a step in that direction.”
Though Holocene is relatively new to the direct air capture market, it was started by veterans. Co-founders Anca Timofte and Tobias Rüesh spent roughly six years working in research and development at Climeworks back in its early days, when the company was building its first prototypes. Timofte left in 2020 to get an MBA at Stanford, and while there, came across some exciting research out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory that described a new approach to removing carbon from the ambient air — one that seemed to have distinct advantages. Seeing the potential, Timofte decided to start Holocene with Rüesh and another Stanford classmate and, in 2023, licensed the Oak Ridge technology.
“The chemistry from Oak Ridge is special,” Timofte told me. “It’s different than all other chemistries, we think, in direct air capture.”
Most direct air capture systems fall into one of two categories, liquid or solid, and each approach has trade-offs. Liquid systems typically have simpler engineering and can capture CO2 continuously, but require more heat, and therefore more energy. Solid systems have lower heat requirements, but work sort of like cartridges that get “charged” with CO2 and have to be “discharged,” and therefore capture CO2 in batches rather than in perpetuity.
Timofte described Holocene’s process as the “best of both worlds.” It captures CO2 in water and operates in a continuous loop, but requires relatively low heat — between 70 to 100 degrees Celsius (158 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit) — which could potentially come from a source of waste heat like a data center. The enabling discovery was the use of two chemicals — an amino acid and a compound called guanidine — that attract CO2 and then further concentrate it within the water, making it easier and less energy-intensive to isolate so that it can be stored securely underground.
After licensing the tech, Holocene moved quickly. Within a year, the team had built a small pilot plant in Knoxville, Tennessee that’s capable of capturing about 10 tons of CO2 annually. That’s, of course, a totally insignificant amount, but it’s enough for the team to demonstrate its approach to potential funders and to keep testing variations on the basic chemistry to refine the system, Timofte told me.
Timofte said the company has made it this far with just over $6 million in grants and prizes from the Department of Energy, Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, and Frontier Climate, a coalition of carbon removal buyers that includes Google in addition to other tech companies. The $500,000 that Holocene got from Frontier was technically a pre-purchase of 332 tons of removal, which would put the current cost per ton at roughly $1,500.
Frontier’s pre-purchases are not a precise indicator of price as they are meant to “pressure-test the viability of novel CDR solutions,” and are granted with the expectation that some ventures will fail. Still, even with a fresh influx of cash from Google and the prospect of a $180 per ton tax credit from the federal government, the company has a steep climb ahead. Timofte told me the team is beginning to fundraise to build their next project — a 2,000- to 5,000-ton per year demonstration plant. When asked about how it reached the $100 per ton deal with Google, she stressed that having a delivery date past 2030 was crucial to the deal.
The industry’s fixation on achieving $100 per ton is somewhat arbitrary. A 2019 National Academies of Sciences report found that estimates of the cost of capturing CO2 via direct air capture spanned “an order of magnitude, from $100 to $1,000” per ton. In 2021, the Biden administration’s Department of Energy set a goal to bring the cost of all kinds of carbon removal below $100 per ton, which seemed to solidify the goal across the field. In 2022, the nonprofit CarbonPlan surveyed carbon removal buyers, suppliers, and brokers, and found that $100 per ton was a common benchmark. “If cost were $100/ton, demand would be practically unlimited,” one supplier said. “Bringing down cost to $100/ton for CDR would be the sweet spot,” said a buyer. CarbonPlan pointed out, however, that the responses weren’t consistent on whether $100 per ton was the desired break-even point for carbon removal companies or the desired price for buyers.
“I think we focus too much on the cost of DAC,” Erin Burns, the executive director of the nonprofit Carbon180 told me when I asked her if $100 per ton was a meaningful goal. “Sure, DAC should and will get cheaper. But we need to also be thinking, right now, about things like renewable energy availability, infrastructure, and reducing emissions as quickly as possible.”
Finding clean sources of power for direct air capture is becoming more of an issue as companies try to scale. At the end of August, a startup called CarbonCapture Inc. announced it would try to relocate a commercial-scale project it had planned to build in Wyoming because it was struggling to procure enough clean energy to power the plant due to competition with data centers and cryptocurrency miners.
Timofte agreed that “clean electrons are hard to come by,” but added that Holocene’s potential to use waste heat might make it a little easier for the company.
“I don’t want to dismiss the challenge. I think this is the challenge that everyone faces. We each have to solve it, and the solutions are going to be individual.”
https://heatmap.news/technology/google-carbon-100-ton
The DEA Really Didn’t Want to Release Records About Its Retirement Medals for Some Reason
date: 2024-09-10, from: 404 Media Group
A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request over some frivolous records shows how agencies are increasingly refusing to release details on what the U.S. government spends its money on.
Louisiana Braces for Tropical Storm Francine
date: 2024-09-10, from: Heatmap News
Current conditions: A year’s worth of rain fell in just two days in southern Morocco • A single dropped Cheetos bag disrupted the delicate ecosystem of a large cave at New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park • It will be about 75 degrees Fahrenheit and clear this evening in Philadelphia, where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will take the stage for the first 2024 presidential debate.
THE TOP FIVE
- Louisiana braces for Francine
A hurricane warning is in effect for parts of the Louisiana coast as Tropical Storm Francine approaches. The storm is expected to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane today and make landfall in Louisiana tomorrow. It could bring 10 feet of storm surge and up to 12 inches of rain, triggering flash floods in the state, as well as in Texas and Mississippi. Several towns along the Louisiana coast have issued evacuation orders. Oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico are evacuating their staff from offshore platforms. The storm follows a similar path to that of Hurricane Beryl, which knocked out power to millions of Texans for days. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which peaks today, has been less active in recent weeks than forecasters had expected despite incredibly warm ocean temperatures. Some meteorologists worry climate change is making it harder to make long-term hurricane predictions.
NOAA
- Fervo says enhanced geothermal well test showed ‘record-breaking
commercial flow rates’
The enhanced geothermal startup Fervo said today that it had “achieved record-breaking commercial flow rates,” a measure of how much water can move through an enhanced geothermal system, at its Utah site, Cape Station. According to Fervo’s announcement, the project generated 10 megawatts over a 30-day test, which substantially outpaces targets set for enhanced geothermal energy as far out as 2035. The Cape Station site is scheduled to have 400 megawatts of capacity by 2028, with power beginning to flow to customers – including Southern California Edison, which this summer contracted with Fervo for 320 megawatts over 15 years – in 2026. Fervo also announced that it had raised $100 million from X-Caliber Rural Capital for the project.
Enhanced geothermal borrows fracking techniques from oil and gas drilling, pumping fluid underground to create or expand fissures in hot rocks, thus creating the hot fluid necessary for geothermal energy production. This process could vastly expand the potential for generating geothermal energy beyond existing pools of underground hot water and steam. In February, the company announced it had reduced its drilling time by 70% in the past year, a key step to making the process more economical.
- Lawmakers say fossil fuel companies won’t cooperate in Trump ‘quid
pro quo’ investigation
A group of Democratic lawmakers said oil and gas companies have not been cooperating with a congressional investigation into an alleged “quid pro quo” offer from former President Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg. The probe is looking into an April meeting at Mar-a-Lago where Trump reportedly offered to roll back environmental rules as a favor to fossil fuel companies in exchange for $1 billion in donations to his 2024 presidential campaign. In letters made public today, leaders of the Senate budget and finance panels and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability said companies including Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, and others had given “woefully inadequate” responses to inquiries in the investigation.
- Report finds climate change is disrupting education world wide
Since 2022, more than 400 million students across the globe have missed school because of extreme weather linked to the climate crisis, according to a report from the World Bank. The problem is especially acute in low-income countries, where children miss 18 school days each year on average because of events like drought, floods, and extreme heat. That’s compared to 2.4 days lost each year in wealthier nations. The report points to the link between education and overall awareness of the climate crisis and its causes. It finds that education makes people more climate aware, more adaptive, more likely to engage in pro-climate behavior, and more likely to change mindsets in their communities with conversations around climate change. And of course, it says education is essential for training people in the skills needed for the green transition. The analysis calls for governments to invest in helping schools adapt, and says such efforts could cost as little as $18.51 per student.
- Cities make their own stormy weather, research suggests
The built-up environments of cities affect the local weather, according to a new study. Specifically, the research found that urban areas receive more rain in a year than surrounding rural landscapes, and this effect is stronger in cities that are hotter, more populated, and more polluted. “Cities can make a storm on steroids,” Dev Niyogi, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the study’s authors, told Bloomberg. About 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050. The new findings can help inform urban planners as they look for ways to upgrade infrastructure in a changing climate.
THE KICKER
A 10-year-old in 2024 will experience 36 times more heat waves over the span of their life compared to a 10-year-old in 1970.
https://heatmap.news/climate/francine-hurricane-louisiana-texas
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
Via @squillace, Matt Stoller on the hearing aid cartels (I didn’t know this was a thing), Biden breaking them up, which leads to Apple’s hearing aid announcement yesterday:
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/silencing-the-competition-inside
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113113246587887620
Nurse, Rub Some Doritos on There Before Placing the IV
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: One Foot Tsunami
https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/10/nurse-rub-some-doritos-on-there-before-placing-the-iv/
How inflation has transformed our dining and tipping habits
date: 2024-09-10, from: Marketplace Morning Report
The restaurant industry has been through a lot in recent years — hemorrhaging workers during the pandemic and struggling to bring them back; grappling with inflation that’s up and foot traffic that’s down. Then, there’s the transformation of tipping. We’ll check in on some of the latest trends impacting restaurants. Then, U.S. tech giants owe billions in taxes and fines to Europe, and we’ll examine misinformation about illegal voting by non-citizens.
SpaceX aims high with Polaris Dawn mission
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Altitude record within grasp and in-house spacesuits to be put through their paces
SpaceX has launched the Polaris Dawn mission, which is set to surpass the altitude record set by Gemini 11 and feature a commercial spacewalk using SpaceX-designed Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/spacex_polaris_dawn_launches/
A bad day for tech giants in Europe
date: 2024-09-10, from: Marketplace Morning Report
From the BBC World Service: Two long-running legal cases concluded in Europe today — a $14 billion tax dispute for Apple and a $2.6 billion antitrust fine for Google. Both companies lost out. We’ll hear about the latest developments Plus, do you believe you can get what you want through positive thinking? If so, you may be part of the increasingly valuable manifesting movement.
https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/a-bad-day-for-tech-giants-in-europe
Google loses final EU court appeal against $2.7 billion fine in antitrust shopping case
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
London — Google lost its final legal challenge on Tuesday against a European Union penalty for giving its own shopping recommendations an illegal advantage over rivals in search results, ending a long-running antitrust case that came with a whopping fine.
The European Union’s Court of Justice upheld a lower court’s decision, rejecting the company’s appeal against the $2.7 billion penalty from the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.
“By today’s judgment, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal and thus upholds the judgment of the General Court,” the court said in a press release summarizing its decision.
The commission’s punished the Silicon Valley giant in 2017 for unfairly directing visitors to its own Google Shopping service to the detriment of competitors. It was one of three multibillion-dollar fines that the commission imposed on Google in the previous decade as Brussels started ramping up its crackdown on the tech industry.
“We are disappointed with the decision of the Court, which relates to a very specific set of facts,” Google said in a brief statement.
The company said it made changes in 2017 to comply with the commission’s decision requiring it to treat competitors equally. It started holding auctions for shopping search listings that it would bid for alongside other comparison shopping services.
“Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services,” Google said.
At the same time, the company appealed the decision to the courts. But the EU General Court, the tribunal’s lower section, rejected its challenge in 2021 and the Court of Justice’s adviser later recommended rejecting the appeal.
European consumer group BEUC hailed the court’s decision, saying it shows how the bloc’s competition law “remains highly relevant” in digital markets.
“Google harmed millions of European consumers by ensuring that rival comparison shopping services were virtually invisible,” director general Agustín Reyna said. “Google’s illegal practices prevented consumers from accessing potentially cheaper prices and useful product information from rival comparison shopping services on all sorts of products, from clothes to washing machines.”
@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-10, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)
The night before, Israel dropped a 2,000 lb bomb on tents while civilians slept. They killed some 60, maimed another:
https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113112996055133143
Top US, British diplomats meet with Ukraine, Gaza on agenda
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/top-us-british-diplomats-meet-with-ukraine-gaza-on-agenda-/7778287.html
Cassandra redesigns indexing, storage management for 5.0 release
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Users warned to get off 3.x releases as support ends
The Apache Software Foundation Cassandra project has released the 5.0 iteration of the wide-column store database boasting new features to improve vector search, a Java update and enhanced performance.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/cassandra_5_point_zero/
Top EU court crushes Google appeal against $2.65B Shopping antitrust ruling
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
After years of legal wrangling, judges say Chocolate Factory played dirty
The European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ) has dismissed Google’s appeal of a €2.4 billion ($2.65 billion) 2017 antitrust ruling, finding it had abused its dominance in favor of its own Google Shopping service, diverting traffic that would otherwise have gone to rival comparison services.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/eu_denies_google_shopping_appeal/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
New Harris ad, this one is funny. 😀
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlOC0tc7x88&feature=youtu.be
The AI Blues
date: 2024-09-10, from: O’Reilly Radar
A recent article in Computerworld argued that the output from generative AI systems, like GPT and Gemini, isn’t as good as it used to be. It isn’t the first time I’ve heard this complaint, though I don’t know how widely held that opinion is. But I wonder: Is it correct? And if so, why? I […]
https://www.oreilly.com/radar/the-ai-blues/
Down and out: Aegon’s pension pothole and TfL’s mystery ‘maintenance’
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
When is maintenance maintenance, and when is it ‘we’ve been pwned’?
Sometimes, an extended period of “maintenance” can mean a cyber incident. Other times, it can mean an IT team is struggling to make one system talk to another. The travails of Transport for London (TfL) and pensions manager Aegon are examples at both ends of the spectrum.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/aegon_tfl_maintenance/
UK Lords push bill to tame rogue algorithms in public sector
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Peer says government needs to learn lessons from Post Office scandal
The UK Parliament’s second chamber is set to launch a bill designed to regulate the use of algorithms and automated decision-making by public bodies.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/uk_lords_algorithms_bill/
Top US, Chinese military brass hold first call to stabilize ties
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
BEIJING — The United States and China held theater-level commander talks for the first time on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, amid efforts to stabilize military ties and avoid misunderstandings, especially in regional hot spots such as the South China Sea.
Washington seeks to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing since ties sank to a historic low after the United States downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.
Admiral Sam Paparo, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, held a video telephone call with his counterpart Wu Yanan of the Southern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s areas of responsibility include the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, two hot spots for regional tension that are also flashpoints in U.S.-China bilateral ties.
Both sides had an “in depth exchange of views on issues of common concern,” the Chinese defense ministry said in a readout.
Paparo urged the PLA “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond,” the Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that described the exchange as “constructive and respectful.”
He also stressed the importance of continued talks to clarify intent and reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation.
The call followed a meeting in Beijing last month between U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s leading military adviser, at which the talks were agreed.
U.S. and Chinese troops were also taking part in large-scale military exercises led by the Brazilian Armed Forces this week in the Brazilian city of Formosa in the state of Goiás.
American and Chinese troops had not trained side by side since 2016, when Beijing participated in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or Rimpac, led by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Most two-way military engagements between the U.S. and China were suspended for almost two years after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022.
“I certainly worry about an unintended conflict between our military forces, an accident, an accidental collision,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, told the magazine Foreign Policy in an online interview.
Later this week, the United States plans to send a senior Pentagon official to a major security forum in China.
Francine gains strength, expected to be hurricane when it reaches US Gulf Coast
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
BATON ROUGE, La. — Tropical Storm Francine churned in the Gulf of Mexico with increasing strength and was expected to reach hurricane status on Tuesday before reaching landfall in Louisiana.
A storm surge warning was in effect for an area stretching from just east of Houston to the mouth of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans, according to the National Hurricane Center. Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry urged residents “not to panic, but be prepared” and heed evacuation warnings. Forecasters said Francine’s landfall in south Louisiana was expected Wednesday afternoon as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 155-175 kph.
“We do not want people to wait to the last minute to get on the road and then run out of fuel,” Landry said. “We put a lot of information throughout the summer, throughout hurricane season, so that people can be prepared. The more prepared we are, the easier it is for us.”
Francine is taking aim at a Louisiana coastline that has yet to fully recover since hurricanes Laura and Delta decimated Lake Charles in 2020, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida. Over the weekend, a 22-story building in Lake Charles that had become a symbol of storm destruction was imploded after sitting vacant for nearly four years, its windows shattered and covered in shredded tarps.
Francine’s storm surge on the Louisiana coast could reach as much as 10 feet (3 meters) from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said.
“It’s a potential for significantly dangerous, life-threatening inundation,” said Michael Brennan, director of the hurricane center, adding it could also send “dangerous, damaging winds quite far inland.”
He said landfall was likely somewhere between Sabine Pass — on the Texas-Louisiana line — and Morgan City, Louisiana, 350 kilometers to the east.
Louisiana officials urged residents to immediately prepare while “conditions still allow,” said Mike Steele, spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
“We always talk about how anytime something gets into the Gulf, things can change quickly, and this is a perfect example of that,” Steele said.
Residents of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, began forming long lines as people filled gas tanks and stocked up on groceries. Others filled sandbags at city-operated locations to protect homes from possible flooding.
“It’s crucial that all of us take this storm very seriously and begin our preparations immediately,” Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said, urging residents to stock up on three days of food, water and essentials.
A mandatory evacuation was ordered for seven remote coastal communities by the Cameron Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness. They include Holly Beach, a laid-back stretch dubbed Louisiana’s “Cajun Riviera,” where many homes sit on stilts. The storm-battered town has been a low-cost paradise for oil industry workers, families and retirees, rebuilt multiple times after past hurricanes.
In Grand Isle, Louisiana’s last inhabited barrier island, Mayor David Camardelle recommended residents evacuate and ordered a mandatory evacuation for those in recreational vehicles. Hurricane Ida decimated the city three years ago, destroying 700 homes.
Officials warn that flooding, along with high winds and power outages, is likely in the area beginning Tuesday afternoon through Thursday.
In New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell urged residents to prepare to shelter in place. “Now is the time to finalize your storm plans and prepare, not only for your families but looking out for your neighbors,” she said.
City officials said they were expecting up to 15 centimeters inches of rain, gusty winds and “isolated tornado activity” with the most intense weather likely to reach New Orleans on Wednesday and Thursday.
The hurricane center said Francine was last about 205 kilometers south-southeast of the mouth of the Rio Grande, and about 690 kilometers south-southwest of Cameron, with top sustained winds of about 100 kilometers per hour. It was moving north-northwest at 7 kph.
As rain fell Monday in northern Mexico, more than a dozen neighborhoods in Matamoros — across the border from Brownsville, Texas — flooded, forcing schools to close Monday and Tuesday. Marco Antonio Hernandez Acosta, manager of the Matamoros Water and Drainage Board, said they were waiting for Mexico’s federal government to provide pumps to drain affected areas.
The storm was expected to move in north-northeast motion through Monday evening and then accelerate to the northeast beginning Tuesday before nearing the upper Texas and Louisiana coastlines Wednesday.
AMD deprioritizing flagship gaming GPUs
date: 2024-09-10, from: OS News
I had a chance to speak to Jack Huynh, AMD’s senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group, during IFA 2024 in a question and answer session. Due to speculation that AMD won’t launch flagship GPUs for its next-gen lineup, I pressed Huynh for information regarding the company’s plans for the high-end GPU market with the RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 8000-series. His comments sketch out a plan focused specifically on gaining market share in the GPU market above all else, and this strategy deprioritizes chasing Nvidia’s highest-end gaming cards — at least for now. ↫ Paul Alcorn at Tom’s Hardware Reading through the actual comments, it seems that AMD is not going to chase the very, extreme high-end that NVIDIA serves, like the 4090 level of GPUs. Honestly, I’m completely okay with that – those high-end GPUs are insanely expensive, and unlike what YouTube and tech websites might suggest, nobody buys these GPUs. Consistently, for more than a decade now, it’s the xx60-xx70 levels of cards that dominate the market, and it’s smart of AMD (and Intel) to focus on that segment if you want to sell as many GPUs as possible. The very top of the GPU market just doesn’t make a lot price/performance sense. You pay considerably more for a 4090 compared to a 4080, but the price increase does not correspond to a similar increase in performance. It simply makes a lot more sense to save that money and spend it elsewhere, such as on a better CPU, more RAM, more storage, or a new display. I’d rather AMD not waste time and energy on making these high-end GPUs nobody buys, and instead focus on improving the GPUs people actually buy. And of course, AMD just hasn’t been able to match NVIDIA at the top end, and that’s probably not going to change any time soon. Releasing a high-end, expensive GPU, only to be trounced by your one competitor every single time is not a good look, so why even try?
https://www.osnews.com/story/140718/amd-deprioritizing-flagship-gaming-gpus/
We’re in the brute force phase of AI – once it ends, demand for GPUs will too
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Gartner thinks generative AI is right for only five percent of workloads
AI techniques that require specialist hardware are “doomed,” according to analyst firm Gartner’s chief of research for AI Erick Brethenoux – who included GPUs in his definition of endangered kit.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/brute_force_ai_era_gartner/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
“Are You Saying No to Elon Musk?”: Scenes from the Slash-and-Burn Buyout of Twitter.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/elon-musk-twitter-buyout
Master Plan, Ep 5: How Corporations Became People
date: 2024-09-10, from: The Lever News
Our fifth episode examines a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases that laid the groundwork for PACs, Citizens United, and money-as-speech.
https://www.levernews.com/master-plan-ep-5-how-corporations-became-people/
Sols 4297-4299: This Way to Tungsten Hills
date: 2024-09-10, from: NASA breaking news
Earth planning date: Friday, Sept. 6, 2024 Curiosity completed an impressive 60-meter drive (about 197 feet) across the channel floor within Gediz Vallis and parked along the edge of a shallow linear depression. Just about 20 meters (66 feet) away, an intriguing dark, textured rock named “Tungsten Hills” is the destination for our weekend drive […]
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4297-4299-this-way-to-tungsten-hills/
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be gone in ten years – for chump change
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
$7.5 billion needed, the kind of cash Apple makes without trying
Video After six years of sea trials, environmental group The Ocean Cleanup claims it has proved that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a floating mass of plastic waste twice the size of Texas – could be cleaned up in ten years using current technology, at a cost of a mere $7.5 billion.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/great_pacific_garbage_patch/
Harris, Trump set for Tuesday debate
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
https://www.voanews.com/a/harris-trump-set-for-tuesday-debate-/7778157.html
Thanks, Edward Snowden: You propelled China to quantum networking leadership
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Beijing aimed research at immediate needs – like blocking leaks – while the US sought abstract knowledge
China has an undeniable lead in quantum networking technology – a state of affairs that should give the US pause, despite its lead in quantum computing.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/china_quantum_innovation_itif_report/
US spends CHIPS Act cash to explore Indian chipmaking collabs
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Starting with an analysis of what India has to offer, which is plenty
The US has decided to partner with India and its Semiconductor Mission (ISM) to grow and diversify global chip supply chains.…
Malaysia’s plan to block overseas DNS dies after a day
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Minister orders regulator to slow down following immediate backlash
Malaysia’s telecom regulator has abandoned a plan to block overseas DNS services a day after announcing it, following a sharp backlash and accusations of government overreach.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/malaysias_dns_blocking_plan_paused/
US sets reporting requirements for AI models, infrastructure operators
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
Washington wants to know what the biggest model-makers are up to
The US Commerce Department has proposed a fresh set of reporting requirements for developers of cutting-edge AI models and those renting the infrastructure required to train them.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/us_ai_reporting/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Jan. 6 can’t be denied in federal court
https://apnews.com/projects/january-6-cases/
7th fatality since July 31 occurs at Grand Canyon National Park
date: 2024-09-10, from: VOA News USA
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Arizona — There has been another fatality at Grand Canyon National Park, authorities announced Monday.
Park officials said Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colorado, was on the 10th day of a noncommercial river trip along the Colorado River and was discovered dead by members of his party Saturday morning.
Officials said the National Park Service was investigating Horton’s death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Horton was believed to have been the seventh person to die at the canyon since July 31 and the 15th this year.
Park officials reported 11 fatalities in 2023 and say there are usually about 10 to 15 deaths per year.
Google insists the ad tech business ain’t broke, urges Washington not to fix it
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)
As its other monopoly trial - the one brought by the DoJ and eight states - begins in Virginia
Google defended its advertising technology businesses in the court of public opinion on Sunday, just as its attorneys prepared similar arguments against US antitrust allegations now being heard in a Virginia courtroom.…
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/google_ad_tech_antitrust_trial/
@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-10, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)
Pixel Watch 3 review: Google finally got it right, especially with the battery life.
New Stack Maps for Wasmtime and Cranelift
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: Bytecode Alliance News
As part of implementing the WebAssembly garbage collection proposal in Wasmtime, which is an ongoing process, we’ve overhauled the stack map infrastructure in Cranelift. This post will explain what stack maps are, why we needed to change them, and how the new stack maps work.
https://bytecodealliance.org/articles/new-stack-maps-for-wasmtime
Secure, efficient private npm registries with Cloudsmith and Deno
date: 2024-09-10, updated: 2024-09-10, from: Deno blog
Deno can use private npm registries with Cloudsmith, which offers additional security features, analytics into module usage, and more. Here’s how to do it.