News gathered 2024-09-21

                                                  Some thoughts on Computers

The basic design of computers hasn’t changed much since the mechanical one, the Difference Engine, invented by Charles Babbage in 1822 – but not built until 1991. Alan Turing invented computer science, and the ENIAC in 1945 was arguably the first electronic general-purpose digital computer. It filled a room. The Micral N was the world’s first “personal computer,” in 1973.

Since then, the basic design has changed little, other than to become smaller, faster, and on occasions, less useful.

The current trend to lighter, smaller gadget-style toys – like cell phones, watches, headsets of various types, and other consumer toys – is an indication that the industry has fallen into the clutches of mainstream profiteering, with very little real innovation now at all.

I was recently looking for a new computer for my wife and headed into one of the main laptop suppliers only to be met with row upon row of identical machines, at various price points arrived at by that mysterious breed known as "marketers". In fact, the only difference in the plastic on display was how much drive space had the engineers fitted in, and how much RAM did they have. Was the case a pretty colour, that appealed to the latest 10-year-old-girl, or a rugged he-man, who was hoping to make the school whatever team? In other words, rows of blah.

Where was the excitement of the early Radio Shack "do-it-yourself" range: the Sinclair ZX80, the Commodore 8-bits (PET and VIC-20), later followed by the C64? What has happened to all the excitement and innovation? My answer is simple: the great big clobbering machine known as "Big Tech".

Intel released its first 8080 processor in 1972 and later followed up with variations on a theme [PDF], eventually leading to the 80286, the 80386, the 80486 (getting useful), and so on. All of these variations needed an operating system which basically was a variation of MS-DOS, or more flexibly, PC DOS. Games started to appear, and some of them were quite good. But the main driver of the computer was software.

In particular, word-processors and spreadsheets. 

At the time, my lost computer soul had found a niche in CP/M, which on looking back was a lovely little operating system – but quietly disappeared into the badlands of marketing. 

Lost and lonely I wandered the computerverse until I hooked up with Sanyo – itself now long gone the way of the velociraptor and other lost prehistoric species.
 

The Sanyo bought build quality, the so-called "lotus card" to make it fully compatible with the IBM PC, and later, an RGB colour monitor and a 10 gig hard drive. The basic model was still two 5¼" floppy drives, which they pushed up to 720kB, and later the 3.½" 1.25MB floppy drives. Ahead of its time, it too went the way of the dinosaur.

These led to the Sanyo AT-286, which became a mainstay, along with the Commodore 64. A pharmaceutical company had developed a software system for pharmacies that included stock control, ordering, and sales systems. I vaguely remember that machine and software bundle was about NZ$ 15,000, which was far too rich for most.

Then the computer landscape began to level out, as the component manufacturers began to settle on the IBM PC-AT as a compatible, open-market model of computer that met the Intel and DOS standards. Thus, the gradual slide into 100 versions of mediocrity.

The consumer demand was for bigger and more powerful machines, whereas the industry wanted to make more profits. A conflict to which the basic computer scientists hardly seemed to give a thought.

I was reminded of Carl Jung’s dictum: that “greed would destroy the West.” 

A thousand firms sprang up, all selling the same little boxes, whilst the marketing voices kept trumpeting the bigger/better/greater theme… and the costs kept coming down, as businesses became able to afford these machines, and head offices began to control their outlying branches through the mighty computer. 

I headed overseas, to escape the bedlam, and found a spot in New Guinea – only to be overrun by a mainframe run from Australia, which was going to run my branch – for which I was responsible, but without any control.

Which side of the fence was I going to land on? The question was soon answered by the Tropical Diseases Institute in Darwin, which diagnosed dengue fever… and so I returned to NZ.

For months I battled this recurring malady, until I was strong enough to attend a few hardware and programming courses at the local Polytechnic, eventually setting up my own small computer business, building up 386 machines for resale, followed by 486 and eventually a Texas Instrument laptop agency.

These ran well enough, but had little battery life, and although they were rechargeable, they needed to be charged every two or three hours. At least the WiFi worked pretty consistently, and for the road warrior, gave a point of distinction.

[I think Chris is getting his time periods mixed up here. —Ed.]

Then the famous 686 arrived, and by the use of various technologies, RAM began to climb up to 256MB, and in some machines 512MB.

Was innovation happening? No – just more marketing changes. As in, some machines came bundled with software, printers or other peripherals, such as modems.

As we ended the 20th century, we bought bigger and more powerful machines. The desktop was being chased by the laptop, until I stood at a long row of shiny boxes that were basically all the same, wondering which one my wife would like… knowing that it would have to connect to the so-called "internet", and in doing so, make all sorts of decisions inevitable.

Eventually I chose a smaller Asus, with 16GB of main RAM and an nVidia card, and retreating to my cottage, collapsed in despair. Fifty years of computing and wasted innovation left her with a black box that, when she opened, it said “HELLO” against a big blue background that promised the world – but only offered more of the same.  As in, a constant trickle of hackers, viruses, Trojans and barely anything useful – but now included a new perversion called a chat-bot or “AI”.

I retired to my room in defeat.

We have had incremental developments, until we have today’s latest chips from Intel and AMD based on the 64-bit architecture first introduced around April 2003.

So where is the 128-bit architecture – or the 256 or the 512-bit?

What would happen if we got really innovative? I still remember Bill Gates saying "Nobody will ever need more than 640k of RAM." And yet, it is common now to buy machines with 8 or 16 or 32GB of RAM, because the poor quality of operating systems fills the memory with poorly-written garbage that causes memory leaks, stack-overflow errors and other memory issues.

Then there is Unix – or since the advent of Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds, GNU/Linux. A solid, basic series of operating systems, by various vendors, that simply do what they are asked. 

I wonder where all this could head, if computer manufacturers climbed onboard and developed, for example, a laptop with an HDMI screen, a rugged case with a removable battery, a decent sound system, with a good-quality keyboard, backlit with per-key colour selection. Enough RAM slots to boost the main memory up to say 256GB, and video RAM to 64GB, allowing high speed draws to the screen output.

Throw away the useless touch pads. With the advent of Bluetooth mice, they are no longer needed. Instead, include an 8TB NVMe drive, then include a decent set of controllable fans and heatpipes that actually kept the internal temperatures down, so as to not stress the RAM and processors.

I am sure this could be done, given that some manufacturers, such as Tuxedo, are already showing some innovation in this area. 

Will it happen? I doubt it. The clobbering machine will strike again.

Friday September 20th 2024 

comments

https://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/91759.html

Qualcomm wants to buy Intel

date: 2024-09-20, from: OS News

On Friday afternoon, The Wall Street Journal reported Intel had been approached by fellow chip giant Qualcomm about a possible takeover. While any deal is described as “far from certain,” according to the paper’s unnamed sources, it would represent a tremendous fall for a company that had been the most valuable chip company in the world, based largely on its x86 processor technology that for years had triumphed over Qualcomm’s Arm chips outside of the phone space. ↫ Richard Lawler and Sean Hollister at The Verge Either Qualcomm is only interested in buying certain parts of Intel’s business, or we’re dealing with someone trying to mess with stock prices for personal gain. The idea of Qualcomm acquiring Intel seems entirely outlandish to me, and that’s not even taking into account that regulators will probably have a thing or two to say about this. The one thing such a crazy deal would have going for it is that it would create a pretty strong and powerful all-American chip giant, which is a PR avenue the companies might explore if this is really serious. One of the most valuable assets Intel has is the x86 architecture and the associated patents and licensing deals, and the immense market power that comes with those. Perhaps Qualcomm is interested in designing x86 chips, or, more likely, perhaps they’re interested in all that sweet, sweet licensing money they could extract by allowing more companies to design and sell x86 processors. The x86 market currently consists almost exclusively of Intel and AMD, a situation which may be leaving a lot of licensing money on the table. Pondering aside, I highly doubt this is anything other than an overblown, misinterpreted story.

https://www.osnews.com/story/140786/qualcomm-wants-to-buy-intel/

Rare Plant of the Month: Showy raillardella

date: 2024-09-20, from: California Native Plants Society

September’s Rare Plant of the Month is showy raillardella, an orange-flowered beauty found in the Klamath Ranges bioregion of Siskiyou and Trinity counties.

The post Rare Plant of the Month: Showy raillardella appeared first on California Native Plant Society.

https://www.cnps.org/rare-plants/rare-plant-of-the-month-showy-raillardella-40364

War set to dominate agenda at UN General Assembly meeting

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

UNITED NATIONS — World leaders are set to descend on the United Nations in the coming days to talk about a lengthy list of global challenges. But will they spur significant action on any of them?

“We see out-of-control geopolitical divisions and runaway conflicts — not least in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters at a news conference ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings.

Those three wars are set to dominate the agenda — both in leaders’ speeches before the assembly and at numerous side meetings.

Gaza

Getting to a cease-fire in Gaza is even more urgent now that Israel has turned its attention to its northern border with Lebanon and looks determined to build on a significant blow to Hezbollah militants there.

“We are at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance on our part,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers at the northern Ramat David Airbase on Wednesday. “It is critical that we operate in close cooperation between the [security] organizations, at all levels.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plan to address the General Assembly.

“President Abbas will focus on the plight of his people — he will focus on the genocide campaign that’s taking place, he will warn of the danger of this conflict exploding in the West Bank, and will warn also of the dangers of this conflict not reaching a cease-fire soon, in terms of its implications for the region and regional stability,” Randa Slim, senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told VOA.

In March, a U.N. official said there were reasonable grounds to believe genocide had been committed in Gaza.

Slim continued, “On the other hand, you are going to see the Israeli prime minister reminding people of the terror of October 7, casting the light on the fact that they are in a war of defense, and he is going to reemphasize the priorities of the war … which is the eradication of Hamas.”

In March, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said there were “reasonable grounds” to think Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Ukraine

More than 2½ years after Russia invaded Ukraine, peace remains elusive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in New York calling for international support at a critical time in the war, and as the conflict, in many capitals, has been superseded by the situation in Gaza.

“I think Ukrainian diplomats themselves are a bit worried that their war is going down the agenda,” Richard Gowan, U.N. director at International Crisis Group, told VOA. “But the reality is that the battle between Israel and Hamas has torn the U.N. apart over the last year, and that is going to be the number one focus for a lot of presidents and prime ministers.”

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy will address a high-level U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine, and the following day he will speak at the General Assembly.

“I think he will emphasize the problem of Russian aggression, and that not only Europe, but the rest of the world, must remain on guard for Russia’s attempt to assert its imperial powers,” William Pomeranz, senior fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute told VOA. “And that the support of Ukraine is a crucial part of global security at the present time.”

On Thursday, Zelenskyy will head to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be coming to New York, but veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 28.

Sudan

On the African continent, two rival generals in Sudan have been mired in a brutal 17-month struggle for power that has devastated the country. Violence, famine and disease are stalking the population, and 10 million people have fled their homes in search of safety.

The war’s current epicenter is the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have advanced on the city and the Sudanese Armed Forces inside El Fasher have been trying to repel them.

“The lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including more than 700,000 internally displaced persons in and around El Fasher, are at immediate threat,” acting U.N. humanitarian chief Joye Msuya told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, African Union and others have pursued a variety of peace initiatives for months. They have failed to silence the guns, but the U.S. has been successful in opening up some new routes for humanitarian relief into Sudan.

On September 25, ministers will meet to discuss the humanitarian response at a session organized by officials from the U.N., U.S, European Union, African Union, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, is coming to New York. U.N. chief Guterres said he would “express my enormous frustration” to him about the lack of a cease-fire and the start of a serious political process.

Haiti

While it may not grab as many global headlines as Ukraine and Gaza, there is a lot of international solidarity around helping Haiti recover from its latest cycle of insecurity.

The U.N. independent expert on the human rights situation in Haiti wrapped up a visit to the country on Friday and told a news conference that human rights violations are rampant.

“Sexual violence, used as a weapon by gangs to control the population, has drastically increased in recent months,” William O’Neill said. “Gangs have increasingly trafficked children, forcibly recruited them into gangs, and often used them to carry out attacks against public institutions and police operations.”

A multinational security support mission was approved nearly a year ago in the U.N. Security Council to assist Haitian National Police in subduing criminal gangs terrorizing the capital and other regions. After many delays, the first international police contingent from Kenya deployed in June.

There are now about 500 police in total on the ground — 400 from mission leader Kenya and the rest from Jamaica and Belize. Diplomats say they expect other countries will also be deploying.

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille and his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, are co-chairing a side meeting on Monday that will look at both the urgent humanitarian situation and longer-term development issues.

“I think we are all beginning to understand how drastic the damage in Haiti is and how devastating the current attacks by the gangs has proven to be,” Canadian Ambassador Bob Rae told VOA. “We are doing everything we can to mobilize international attention on what we can do to turn that around.”

Hello and goodbye

Several new leaders will make their debut at this year’s gathering, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“I’m going to be looking for any signal he is going to give about restarting the nuclear negotiation,” MEI’s Slim said of the Iranian leader, noting that his administration has indicated an interest in restarting nuclear talks.

This will be Biden’s final time at the General Assembly podium.

“I think his appearance will create mixed emotions among other leaders,” said Crisis Group’s Gowan. “I think there is still some respect for his engagement with multilateralism, but there is also a lot of regret that he didn’t give the U.N. a greater role in dealing with the war in Gaza.”

Looking to the future

Two years ago, Biden announced that the United States supported expanding the number of permanent members on the 15-nation Security Council.

On September 12, his U.N. envoy, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced that the administration would support two permanent seats for Africa and one for Latin American and Caribbean countries, in addition to India, Japan and Germany — albeit, without veto power. She said Washington is ready to begin text-based negotiations on the expansion.

“It means we’re ready to work with other countries to negotiate language, prepare amendments, and ready this resolution for a vote in the General Assembly and, ultimately, amend the U.N. Charter,” Thomas-Greenfield told an audience last week at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Security Council reform, as it is known, has for decades been a topic of much discussion but no action. U.N. chief Guterres also would like to see the council change. On Sunday, he opens his signature two-day “Summit of the Future,” in which institutional reform will be high on the agenda.

“And one of the questions that is important in relation to the future relates exactly to the role of the P5 [permanent five members] and to the need to have a certain redistribution of power to make things more fair and more effective,” Guterres told reporters.

In the seventh year of his 10-year tenure, Guterres wants to see better multilateral cooperation to resolve current conflicts, fight climate change, and ease global hunger and debt. He is also worried about emerging challenges, including the power of artificial intelligence.

He is hoping for a strong “Pact for the Future” to be adopted by consensus on Sunday. The document, a policy blueprint to address global challenges and drastic reforms to the U.N. and global financial institutions, has been mired in difficult negotiations.

Germany and Namibia have been facilitating the negotiations for months and their leaders will co-chair the summit. The president of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, has now taken over negotiations to try to get it over the finish line.

Diplomats said 19 countries, including Russia, raised objections on Thursday night to some language in the latest draft, including around human rights, climate action and fossil fuels. With less than 48 hours to go until the summit opens, discussions are getting down to the wire.

“We very much hope that member states will agree in the coming hours on a way forward for the Summit of the Future, and show ambition and show courage and do whatever they can to get these documents over the finish line,” Guterres’ spokesperson said.

Kim Lewis contributed to this report.

https://www.voanews.com/a/war-set-to-dominate-agenda-at-un-general-assembly-meeting/7792704.html

Friday Links: September 20, 2024

date: 2024-09-20, from: California Native Plants Society

Let’s answer the big questions like “What is a tree?” and “What has the Saint’s Daisy been up to for the past 50 years?” and “Do people really know how cute bats are?” 

The post Friday Links: September 20, 2024 appeared first on California Native Plant Society.

https://www.cnps.org/friday-links/friday-links-september-20-2024-40342

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

It’d be nice if there were a toolkit for Bluesky that made it easy to embed in other server apps with established and different UIs. We’ve been stuck with the twitter model since 2006.

https://bsky.app/profile/scripting.com/post/3l4mkei7r7c2x

Where Are All the Fictional Movies About Climate Change?

date: 2024-09-20, from: Heatmap News

Paranormal: Caught on Camera is not the kind of television show you’d typically expect to read about in a research paper. Recent episodes include “Haunted Doll Bites Child” and “UFO Takes Off in Argentina”; a critic once described it as unsuitable for viewers who have developed “some powers of critical thought.” But credit where credit is due: Caught on Camera cites “climate change” as a possible cause of increased sightings of the Loch Ness monster.

This, alas, is the kind of meager victory the climate movement is often forced to celebrate.

According to research by USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center, there were just 1,228 mentions of “climate change” in the nearly 200,000 hours of unscripted TV that aired in the U.S. in the six months between September 2022 and February 2023. (Fifty-eight of those mentions were on “paranormal/mystery” programs, including Caught on Camera.) The situation is even worse for scripted film and TV: Between 2016 and 2020, just 0.6% of 37,453 scripts used the words “climate change” during their runtime. While there are notable exceptions — An Inconvenient Truth won the 2007 documentary Oscar, and The Day After Tomorrow and Don’t Look Up were mainstream hits — climate mostly remains off-screen even as nearly half the population says it has affected their lives.

Starting a Climate Film Festival, then, might seem foolish — because what would you even program? But New Yorkers are about to find out: The inaugural CFF will open Friday with a sold-out screening of the documentary Searching for Amani at the Explorer’s Club in Manhattan, with the festival’s 58 other films to be screened primarily at the Firehouse Cinema over Saturday and Sunday in a de facto kick-off to Climate Week. “Once we started digging, we found that there were an incredible number of these stories being told, but no one was really bringing them together under this rubric,” Alec Turnbull, who co-founded CFF with his wife, J. English Cook, told me.

The supply, however, is noticeably lopsided. CFF received “well over 300 submissions” during its open call for movies this past spring, according to Turnbull — enough that he and the volunteer screeners were able to winnow their broad interpretation of a “climate movie” from anything with “an environmental lens that didn’t have explicit climate themes” to movies specifically about climate.

In the end, though, unscripted documentary-style films and shorts came to dominate roughly 63% of the CFF slate. Only two of the program’s full-length features — the found-footage film Earth II and DreamWorks’ animated movie The Wild Robot — are fictional climate narratives.

This disparity might lead to the impression that there are too many climate documentaries in the world. (Seriously, how many more movies and shows can be made about regenerative farming?) While that isn’t the case — at least compared to something like the oversaturated true crime genre — documentary filmmaker might have more access to the subject than their peers in Hollywood because the medium has a “long history of addressing social issues,” Erica Lynn Rosenthal, the director of USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center, told me.

At least some mismatch is also likely due to “self-selection bias,” according to Turnbull. He told me that narrative filmmakers might not have submitted to something called the “Climate Film Festival” simply because they “don’t think about the work they’re doing as a climate story.” Another reason might just be endemic to film festivals. “Documentaries are really great for the festival circuit, for impact screenings, and for coupling with resources and workshops,” which boost their visibility even if they “don’t always make it to a broader audience” afterward, Tehya Jennett, whose short scripted horror film “Out of Plastic” is playing at CFF, told me.

According to the Norman Lear Center, however, nearly half of mainstream audiences said they want to see fictional stories that “include climate-related storylines” on screen. That’s far from trivial. “We know from decades of research that stories have the power to shift people’s hearts and minds and move them to action on a variety of topics, whether it’s health behavior or social issues,” Rosenthal said.

Sam Read, a CFF jury member and the executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, an advocacy consortium that works to reduce the entertainment industry’s environmental impact, confirmed that the demand for climate narratives “currently outstrips the supply.” But he stressed to me that what makes a climate moment in a script doesn’t have to be something preachy, moralistic, alarmist, or even terribly overt, pointing to examples like the most recent season of Hacks, which included a bottle episode about climate change, and True Detective: Night Country, with its environmental and Indigenous plotlines.

“If you’re writing a sitcom and the mom is an office worker, could you make the mom a solar panel technician?” he asked, adding: “There are ways to both help people see what a clean energy future can look like while also exploring how this is affecting communities and how people are responding to it.”

Scripted examples, though, remain relatively rare. In the Norman Lear Center’s research, just 10% of the thousands of mentions of extreme weather in film and TV shows actually made any sort of link to global warming, perhaps because producers or executives worry that referencing climate change is political and might estrange half their audience. “The idea that [climate change] is going to alienate or turn off audiences is really an outdated perception,” Rosenthal said. Still, it’s even harder to push for experimentation and risk-taking when the film industry at large is struggling. And despite how it might look at CFF, it’s the documentarians who have been hit extra hard by the post-COVID turbulence in the movie world.

Of course, none of this is to say that documentaries are any less creative, ambitious, or worthy of being in a festival slate than their scripted counterparts. In fact, the Climate Film Festival’s centerpiece, The Here Now Project, is a documentary entirely composed of found footage of real people filming weather disasters during 2021. “Two people in the film actually say, ‘This is a horror movie,’” Greg Jacobs, who co-directed the documentary with Jon Siskel, told me.

Maybe it doesn’t really matter, then, in what exact form these stories are getting told: in a world with a changing climate, truth and fiction are equally strange.

https://heatmap.news/culture/climate-change-movies-film-festival

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Unite for America Rally with Vice President Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bZasBoVhuUA

Microsoft’s Mega Deal Is a Massive Victory for Nuclear Power

date: 2024-09-20, from: Heatmap News

After Three Mile Island, what’s next?

That’s the question the nuclear industry and those who follow it were asking after news broke Friday that Constellation Energy was planning to reboot the facility’s Unit 1, which shut down in 2019. The deal is being anchored by Microsoft, which will purchase the power in order to balance out the emissions generated by its facilities in the PJM Interconnection, the multi-state power market that includes Pennsylvania. The plant is expected to be operational by 2028, Constellation said, and will be called the Crane Clean Energy Center, in honor of the company’s former chief executive.

The demand for non-carbon-emitting power — and all power — has grown since Unit 1 closed and is expected to continue to in the future, especially as tech companies like Microsoft seek to build more datacenters while complying with their pledges to power their operations without greenhouse gas emissions.

The days of nuclear power plants shuttering not because of old age, safety concerns, or local opposition, but because of the economics of subsidized wind and solar and cheap natural gas, are likely over. New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Illinois all provided subsidies to their state’s nuclear fleet as plants were threatened with closure. California’s Diablo Canyon plant has seen its decommissioning delayed and received federal aid to help stay open. At a time when states representing a big chunk of US power consumption have aggressive emissions reduction goals and worries about power reliability, money is often easily found to keep nuclear plants open.

And now much of that cash might be coming from the private sector, specifically technology companies and independent power producers like Constellation.

“What we’re seeing is the fruits of previous labors coupled with the first-time-in-a-generation demand signals we had not yet seen,” Brett Rampal, a senior director at Veriten, an energy advisory company, told me.

These companies want the 24/7 carbon-free power that nuclear can uniquely provide. The federal government and several state capitals are also committed to bolstering the economics of America’s largest non-greenhouse-gas emitting, firm power source.

The Inflation Reduction Act contains considerable subsidies for both investing in and producing nuclear energy, as well as tools to finance nuclear power.

If history is any indication, having public and corporate policy rowing in the same direction can provide a huge boost for clean energy. For wind and solar, the two biggest demand boosters pulling forward their adoption has been technology companies wanting to buy clean power and federal subsidies for their construction and operation.

The structure Microsoft is using to purchase this power, the corporate power purchase agreement, was pioneered by Google in the late 2000s as a way for technology companies to support the development of clear power even when they couldn’t directly consume it. Now these tools are being used to support nuclear power. Constellation said Friday that the deal was the largest single power purchase agreement in history. According to figures worked out by Rampal, the deal will lead to some 135 terawatt-hours of generation over 20 years (a bit short of the annual electricity generation of Argentina), generating some $13.5 billion of revenue.

“Nobody would be moving forward with these projects,” explained Rampal, without tax credits or “extremely favorable loan support from the Loans Program Office.”

The other shuttered nuclear plant looking to restart, Michigan’s Palisades, has a $1.5 billion loan guarantee from the LPO.

“Constellation will be spending $1.6 billion of its own money to restart the plant – no state or federal aid. We may look at whether to seek a DOE loan for some of the financing, but that is not a given and not needed to make the project work. And even in that scenario, all the money is paid back in full. It’s just a slightly better interest rate,” Paul Adams, a Constellation spokesman, told me.

“The IRA contained nuclear production tax credits, which any nuclear plant is eligible for. The Crane Clean Energy Center would be no different once it is up and operating. That tax credit simply provides a floor price, in essence, to support nuclear production,” Adams said.

Almost immediately after the deal was announced attention turned to the Duane Arnold Energy Center plant in Iowa, which shut down in 2020 but whose owner, NextEra, has said could be a candidate for being relaunched.

After that, Rampal said, “there are tons of conversations around power uprates,” which is when nuclear plant operators install new equipment or alter the operation of existing plants to make them more powerful.

According to one study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Koroush Shirvan, uprates could increase the capacity of America’s nuclear fleet by 50%. Actual uprates tend to be far more modest (and the paper acknowledges such dramatic uprates “are aspirational and may not be practical”). The last 10 uprates have averaged 1.6%, according to data collected by the Nuclear Energy Institute.

“Many more nuclear plants could be more aggressive with uprates. There’s technology out there that could produce more power,” Mark Nelson, managing director at Radiant Energy Group, told me.

The Loan Program Office can fund these upgrades and they will benefit from tax credits alongside other existing nuclear plants.

Microsoft is not the first technology company to get into the nuclear game, although many observers have long suspected it would. Alongside Google and Nucor, the company has committed to nurturing so-called clean-firm generation to help power operations on a 24/7 basis in a way that existing renewable generation cannot. The company has made several notable hires of nuclear industry veterans in the past few years.

“There’s nowhere in the USA where you can suddenly get power needed by Microsoft while making it additional,” besides bringing new nuclear power onto the grid, Nelson told me, referring to the concept that to fully prevent carbon emissions from new corporate activity, the non-carbon-emitting energy acquired has to be new to the grid. “Not just 24/7, but 24/7 at one location.”

Microsoft’s nuclear deal is also the second major one inked by a technology company just this year. Amazon purchased a data center site co-located at another Pennsylvania nuclear plant in March. That plan to link up a data center with the Susquehanna nuclear power plant has been controversial as it is “behind-the-meter,” meaning it would be powering Amazon’s facility directly, not providing power to the grid under a power purchase agreement like Microsoft will be doing with Constellation. Some argue it would still shift costs to others on the grid. The Amazon deal also does not provide any new clean power, it simply reallocates it to a big customer.

But there are only so many existing nuclear power plants that could uprate or recently-shut plants that could restart, but whatever new nuclear power does come online, there will likely be a technology company eager to scoop it up.

“We need to stamp out nuclear plants of designs that work now and lock in new construction,” Nelson told me. “We’re in a time of extreme scarcity.”

https://heatmap.news/economy/microsoft-three-mile-island-nuclear-constellation

Probe finds ‘complacency,’ shortfalls contributed to Trump assassination attempt

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

washington — The ability of a lone gunman to fire eight shots at Donald Trump during a campaign rally in rural, western Pennsylvania was partially the result of multiple failures by the U.S. Secret Service agents charged with protecting the former president, according to a new report.

The agency’s internal investigation into the attempted assassination targeting the one-time U.S. leader and current Republican presidential candidate, released Friday, identified problems with communication and coordination ahead of the July 13 rally, as well as an over-reliance on state and local law enforcement partners.

“We cannot abdicate or defer our responsibilities to others,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters Friday in Washington.

“The Secret Service did not give clear guidance or direction to our local law enforcement partners,” he said. “While some members of the advance team were very diligent, there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols.”

The attempted assassination shook much of the U.S., and it prompted the then-director of the Secret Service to resign.

Law enforcement officials have said the attempt was carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who acted alone and saw Trump as a target of opportunity.

Despite the presence of Trump’s protective detail, advance teams, and local law enforcement, Crooks was able to climb to the top of a building overlooking the rally and set up with an AR-style rifle before being detected.

The shots wounded Trump and two rally goers, while killing a third.

The Secret Service report focuses on what the agency is describing as “communication deficiencies” at the rally, blaming agents for failing to make sure the site and surrounding areas — including the roof of the nearby building — were properly secured.

Rowe said that while there were discussions with local law enforcement about the building in particular, there were no subsequent conversations to make sure adequate protection was in place.

“We should have been more direct,” he said. “There was an assumption that they had it covered, but there clearly was not that follow-up to make sure.”

Other problems included a failure by the Secret Service to make sure local law enforcement knew how to communicate with agents on the ground, which prevented Trump’s protective detail from learning about the search for a suspicious person.

Had the detail been aware, a decision could have been made to relocate the former president to a safer location.

Rowe told reporters that Secret Service personnel responsible for the deficiencies will be held accountable, but he denied reports that some had been asked to resign.

“This agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government, and these penalties will be administered according to our disciplinary process,” he said.

The release of the Secret Service report comes less than a week after what officials have described as a second apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump.

Sheriff’s deputies in Florida arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, stopping him on a major highway Sunday, about an hour after he fled from the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

Officials said data gathered from Routh’s cellphone showed he lay in wait for 12 hours, hiding in bushes along a chain-link perimeter fence between the course’s fifth and seventh holes with an SKS-style rifle.

Routh fled without firing a shot after a member of the Secret Service advance team spotted his rifle sticking out from behind the bushes and fired several shots.

The agent’s reaction “is exactly how we trained and exactly what we want our personnel to do,” Rowe said Friday. “He identified a threat, an individual with a long gun, and he made swift decisions and took a swift action to be able to mitigate that.”

Rowe also said that since the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump, the Secret Service has been providing Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with the same level of protection as President Joe Biden.

And he said that since Trump left office, his security detail has been “more robust than prior former presidents.”

But the acting Secret Service director said the increased levels of security are coming at a cost, asking U.S. lawmakers for more funding and personnel.

“We have finite resources,” Rowe told reporters. “We are burning through a lot of assets and resources. We are stretching those resources to their maximum right now.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/probe-finds-complacency-shortfalls-contributed-to-trump-assassination-attempt-/7792717.html

The Walls Are Closing in on the Snowflake Hacker

date: 2024-09-20, from: 404 Media Group

As security researchers circle around Judische, and authorities takedown his servers, how much longer will a hacker responsible for breaching Ticketmaster, AT&T, and many more companies remain free?

https://www.404media.co/the-walls-are-closing-in-on-the-snowflake-hacker/

Earth Is Getting a New ‘Mini Moon’ for the Next Two Months, Astronomers Say

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

A roughly 33-foot-long asteroid called 2024 PT5 will chart a horseshoe-like path around our planet

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/earth-is-getting-a-new-mini-moon-for-the-next-two-months-astronomers-say-180985118/

‘The Starry Night’ Accurately Depicts a Scientific Theory That Wasn’t Described Until Years After van Gogh’s Death

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Researchers say that the iconic painting’s swirling sky lines up with Kolmogorov’s theory of turbulence, suggesting that the artist was a careful observer of the world around him

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-starry-night-accurately-depicts-a-scientific-theory-that-wasnt-described-until-years-after-van-goghs-death-180985116/

Slowly booting full Linux on the Intel 4004 for fun, art, and absolutely no profit

date: 2024-09-20, from: OS News

Can you run Linux on the Intel 4004, the first commercially produced microprocessor, released to the world in 1971? Well, Dmitry Grinberg, the genius engineer who got Linux to run on all kinds of incredibly underpowered hardware, sought to answer this very important question. In short, yes, you can run Linux on the 4004, but much as with other extremely limited and barebones chips, you have to get… Creative. Very creative. Of course, Linux cannot and will not boot on a 4004 directly. There is no C compiler targeting the 4004, nor could one be created due to the limitations of the architecture. The amount of ROM and RAM that is addressable is also simply too low. So, same as before, I would have to resort to emulation. My initial goal was to fit into 4KB of code, as that is what an unmodified unassisted 4004 can address. 4KB of code is not much at all to emulate a complete system. After studying the options, it became clear that MIPS R3000 would be the winner here. Every other architecture I considered would be harder to emulate in some way. Some architectures had arbitrarily-shifted operands all the time (ARM), some have shitty addressing modes necessitating that they would be slow (RISCV), some would need more than 4KB to even decode instructions (x86), and some were just too complex to emulate in so little space (PPC). … so … MIPS again… OK! ↫ Dmitry Grinberg This is just one very small aspect of this massive undertaking, and the article and videos accompanying his success are incredibly detailed and definitely not for the faint of heart. The amount of skill, knowledge, creativity, and persistence on display here is stunning, and many of us can only dream of being able to do stuff like this. I absolutely love it. Of course, the Linux kernel had to be slimmed down considerably, as a lot of stuff currently in the kernel are of absolutely no use on such an old system. Boot time is measured in days, still, but it helped a lot. Grinberg also turned the whole setup into what is effectively an art piece you can hang on the wall, where you can have it run and, well, do things – not much, of course, but he did include a small program that draws mandelbrot set on the VFD and serial port, which is a neat trick. He plans on offering the whole thing as a kit, but a lot of it depends on getting enough of the old chips to offer a complete, ready-to-assemble kit in the first place.

https://www.osnews.com/story/140783/slowly-booting-full-linux-on-the-intel-4004-for-fun-art-and-absolutely-no-profit/

FTC Highlights “Vast Surveillance” by Big Tech in Latest Report

date: 2024-09-20, from: Purism News and Events

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a groundbreaking report this past week that sheds light on the vast surveillance practices of major social media and video streaming companies. The report. which was released on September 19th, is a stark reminder of the extensive data collection and monetization strategies employed by these tech giants, often at the expense of user privacy and security.

The post FTC Highlights “Vast Surveillance” by Big Tech in Latest Report appeared first on Purism.

https://puri.sm/posts/ftc-highlights-vast-surveillance-by-big-tech-in-latest-report/

Why Apple uses JPEG XL in the iPhone 16 and what it means for your photos

date: 2024-09-20, from: OS News

The iPhone 16 family has arrived and includes many new features, some of which Apple has played very close to its vest. One such improvement is the inclusion of JPEG XL file types, which promise improved image quality compared to standard JPEG files while delivering relatively smaller file sizes. Overall, JPEG XL addresses many of JPEG’s shortcomings. The 30-year-old format is not very efficient, only offers eight-bit color depth, doesn’t support HDR, doesn’t do alpha transparency, doesn’t support animations, doesn’t support multiple layers, includes compression artifacts, and exhibits banding and visual noise. JPEG XL tackles these issues, and unlike WebP and AVIF formats, which each have some noteworthy benefits too, JPEG XL has been built from the ground up with still images in mind. ↫ Jeremy Gray at PetaPixel Excellent news, and it will hopefully mean others will follow – something that tends to happen when Apple finally supports to the new thing.

https://www.osnews.com/story/140781/why-apple-uses-jpeg-xl-in-the-iphone-16-and-what-it-means-for-your-hotos/

Microsoft cash to help reignite Three Mile Island atomic plant

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

We’ll have some fission chips, please

The idle Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear power plant may soon be coming back online in Pennsylvania, thanks to a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) between Microsoft and Constellation Energy, which owns the shuttered facility.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/three_mile_island_nuclear_plant_microsoft_ai/

Gaining Access to Anyone’s Arc Browser

date: 2024-09-20, from: Michael Tsai

xyzeva (via Hacker News): firestore is a database-as-a-backend service that allows for developers to not care about writing a backend, and instead write database security rules and make users directly access the database. this has of course sparked a lot of services having insecure or insufficient security rules and since researching that, i would like […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/20/gaining-access-to-anyones-arc-browser/

Unwanted Swift Concurrency Checking

date: 2024-09-20, from: Michael Tsai

I’m not adopting Swift Concurrency yet—it’s not even available on the OS versions I’m targeting—so my plan was to take advantage of the Swift 5 language mode of the Swift 6 compiler: The Swift 6 language mode is opt-in. Existing projects will not switch to this mode without configuration changes. I had SWIFT_VERSION set to […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/20/unwanted-swift-concurrency-checking/

Rewriting Tumblr

date: 2024-09-20, from: Michael Tsai

Automattic (via Sarah Perez, Slashdot): Since Automattic acquired Tumblr we’ve made it more efficient, grown its revenue, and worked to improve the platform. But there’s one part of the plan that we haven’t yet started, which is to run Tumblr on WordPress. I’m pleased to say we’re kicking off that project now! […] We’re talking […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/20/rewriting-tumblr/

The End of Pinboard?

date: 2024-09-20, from: Michael Tsai

John Gordon (Hacker News): Over the past few years there have been a slowly increasing number of pinboard outages with less communication. While debugging the last outage I purged my local history from the 3rd party Pins iOS app and found that Pinboard was throttling their download API. I could download only 100 of my […]

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/09/20/the-end-of-pinboard/

Soon you’ll be able to remap the Copilot key on Windows PCs

date: 2024-09-20, from: Liliputing

When Microsoft announced that most new keyboards for Windows PCs would feature a dedicated Copilot key, a lot of people remained unconvinced that it was a good idea to add a key for a single feature that many folks don’t plan on using. Now Microsoft has announced that it’s begun rolling out an update to […]

The post Soon you’ll be able to remap the Copilot key on Windows PCs appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/soon-youll-be-able-to-remap-the-copilot-key-on-windows-pcs/

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Update on my mood:

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113171545728492316

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Gnome 47 is out, and it is lovely:

https://release.gnome.org/47/

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113171528808719700

A bunch of budget Chromebooks will receive updates for at least 12 years (through 2035)

date: 2024-09-20, from: Liliputing

One of the selling points for Chromebooks is that they receive automatic software updates delivered by Google on a regular basis, adding new features and performance enhancements over time. At least, until Google stops delivering updates. And that was a big problem for a while, because originally Google only promised to deliver updates for 5 […]

The post A bunch of budget Chromebooks will receive updates for at least 12 years (through 2035) appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/a-bunch-of-budget-chromebooks-will-receive-updates-for-at-least-12-years-through-2035/

Remarkable 200-Year-Old Rock Painting May Depict a Strange Animal That Went Extinct 250 Million Years Ago

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The Horned Serpent Panel from southern Africa predates the first Western scientific description of the dicynodont, a large mammal ancestor with tusks, by at least a decade

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remarkable-200-year-old-rock-painting-may-depict-a-strange-animal-that-went-extinct-250-million-years-ago-180985106/

Immigration and Border Control Explained: What Americans Need to Know

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: RAND blog

Exactly how to think about and handle the ongoing crisis at the United States’ Southern Border and immigration more generally will certainly be among the most critical issues on the agenda when the next U.S. president is sworn in in January. To better understand the issue of border control and immigration, we spoke to two RAND experts.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2024/09/immigration-and-border-control-explained-what-americans.html

More Than Pink Avalon joins cancer fight

date: 2024-09-20, from: Catalina Islander

For the second year, Islanders and visitors joined to support Cancer awareness and cures in partnership with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Avalon hosted a “Walk & Paddle” beginning at noon on Saturday Sept. 14, adjacent to Wrigley Stage. Over 40 people joined the walk which went from the waterfront to Casino, to Cabrillo Mole […]

https://thecatalinaislander.com/more-than-pink-avalon-joins-cancer-fight/

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX, alleges “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/09/cards-against-humanity-sues-spacex-alleges-invasion-of-land-on-us-mexico-border/

Council has conversation about recreational cannabis

date: 2024-09-20, from: Catalina Islander

The Avalon City Council discussed the feasibility of allowing recreational cannabis during the Sept. 17 meeting. The conversation took about two hours. The council took no action. Councilmember Mary Schickling argued that recreational cannabis would be a source of revenue for the city. However, the federal government forbids transporting recreational cannabis through federal waters. Background […]

https://thecatalinaislander.com/council-has-conversation-about-recreational-cannabis/

A Green Steel Dust-Up Is a Warning

date: 2024-09-20, from: Heatmap News

American steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs cast doubt last week on the country’s most important green steel project. Chief executive Lourenco Goncalves suggested in an interview that the company was considering passing up $500 million of federal grants to build a new hydrogen-powered mill at its Middletown Works facility in Ohio, blaming fears that there won’t be buyers for the lower-carbon product, which he claimed could cost 40% more to produce than steel made by conventional methods. Cleveland-Cliffs later issued a short press release walking back Goncalves’s comments and reaffirming its commitment to the “transformational” project.

It’s, of course, possible that Goncalves was just expressing personal concerns that do not reflect the company’s official position. But either way, those doubts were not only real, but revealing about our prospects for decarbonization by mid-century.

First, the episode is a stark indictment of the many attempts to create demand for cleaner products by conjuring up corporate ambition on climate change. The entire rationale for cajoling corporations to quantify the emissions in their supply chains, known as Scope 3 emissions, has been to pressure them into sourcing greener inputs. The steel sector produces 7% to 9% of emissions globally: if it were a country, it would be the world’s third-biggest emitter after the United States and China. And steel represents the biggest single source of Scope 3 emissions for many companies in other industries — on the order of 40% to 45% for auto companies and as high as 85% for construction, for example. This makes steel a litmus test for whether Scope 3 footprinting and corporate commitments to green their supply chains are delivering as promised.

Worse, these types of steel buyers have ostensibly already been organized to show demand for green inputs. Before he stepped down as President Biden’s special envoy for climate, one of John Kerry’s cornerstone initiatives was the First Mover’s Coalition, an effort to secure advanced purchasing commitments from corporate buyers for green steel and other industrial materials. The fact that the coalition’s members – many of which are major steel buyers like Ford and General Motors – were not publically jumping all over the outputs of Cleveland-Cliffs’s heavily subsidized project is itself troubling. After all, while the green premium on steel may be significant, the material is typically a relatively cheap input into much more expensive, high value-added products.

Goncalves’s comments also underscore how uncomfortable incumbent industries perceive the jump to new, low-carbon products to be. Assume that the new Cleveland-Cliffs mill does in fact pencil out at the cost originally expected and that it has a reasonable prospect of finding offtakers. The company still says it has to invest $1.1 billion to complete the project. It is not really enough, in the logic of the market, for that investment to be profitable: It has to compete against the opportunity cost of alternative investments, including manufacturing conventional steel. Even if both outputs would find buyers, conventional steel may still be more profitable.

Now imagine the company is looking at the larger direction of the industry. If they don’t do this project, they may well forestall a shift to cleaner steel and be able to keep the sector chugging along more profitably for a little longer. Complete the project, and they may bring about changes that, while maybe inevitable, are uncomfortable for the industry. After all, Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel produce the vast majority of American primary steel; they are steel production in the United States – and so they get to shape its transformation.

This behavior is similar to that of the American car industry. U.S. automakers have largely conceded that electric vehicles will eventually overtake their combustion-engine counterparts, but they are still clinging to the better margins that gas-powered SUVs provide. The short-term profits are hard to pass up, even if it means getting farther behind EV first-movers like Tesla, BYD, and Hyundai. Once the technology pathway to a sector’s transition becomes clear — even when it feels inevitable — incumbents may still have an extremely hard time ripping off the bandaid.

It’s as if decarbonization is a massive marshmallow test for corporate America, and it’s failing.

There are essentially two ways out of this dilemma.

The first is that society will need to rely on new entrants to each sector to disrupt the status quo. Companies developing entirely novel steelmaking technologies like Boston Metals become more important to the steel transition than Cleveland-Cliffs, just as Tesla has been to the American EV market. Sublime Systems may be vital for green cement, just as Fervo Energy may be for enhanced geothermal. The problem with this approach is that it is extremely expensive to build projects in heavy industries like steel, so most pathways assume that even technology developed outside of the incumbents will get deployed by them (Sublime just this week announced a tie-up with cement giant Holcim).

This leads to option two: comprehensive industrial policy. Cleveland-Cliffs may want to see not only that one green project pencils out, but that strategic opportunities and risks favor going green. This might means measures like implementing a U.S. carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to prevent foreign competitors from dumping dirty steel, the government guaranteeing offtake using public procurement programs like Buy Clean and Contracts for Difference, and ultimately policy sticks like carbon pricing that send a long-term signal favoring clean products over polluting ones, instead of relying on corporate social responsibility for a demand signal.

To decarbonize the economy, we will probably have to rely both on more robust industrial policy and the sector disruption from new entrants. While the story of this Cleveland-Cliffs project is far from over, the company’s apparent hesitancy, like that of U.S. automakers, may be teaching us a lesson that we have to learn quickly if we want to see decarbonization any time soon.

https://heatmap.news/economy/cleveland-cliffs-green-steel

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

One day I hope to do this for VisionPro:

https://mastodon.social/@codingpanic/113171289674658686

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113171301335759907

Catalina Island Health Auxiliary to close White Buffalo Thrift Store

date: 2024-09-20, from: Catalina Islander

Catalina Island Health Auxiliary would like to thank the Catalina Island community and its visitors for their donations and support of the White Buffalo Thrift Store over the years. Unfortunately, due to ongoing struggles to keep the store viable, the Auxiliary has decided to close the store by the end of this month. The Auxiliary […]

https://thecatalinaislander.com/catalina-island-health-auxiliary-to-close-white-buffalo-thrift-store/

The World’s Best Pizza Is in New York City, According to Italy-Based Rankings

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Una Pizza Napoletana on the Lower East Side has claimed the top spot in an annual ranking of pizzerias around the globe

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-worlds-best-pizza-is-in-new-york-city-according-to-italy-based-rankings-180985109/

Avalon’s Rotary, Lions Clubs Join Forces for Chili Cook-off

date: 2024-09-20, from: Catalina Islander

Courtesy Avalon Rotary Avalon’s Rotary and Lions Clubs Join Forces for 8th Annual Chili Cook-off and 1st Corn Hole Tournament Avalon’s two major service clubs are joining forces to make the 8th Annual Chili Cook-off bigger and better with the addition of a Corn Hole Tournament. Back for the 8th year, Avalon Rotary is presenting […]

https://thecatalinaislander.com/avalons-rotary-lions-clubs-join-forces-for-chili-cook-off/

USC Sea Grant receives nearly $2 million for novel technology

date: 2024-09-20, from: Catalina Islander

Courtesy USC Sea Grant The University of Southern California (USC) Sea Grant Program was awarded nearly $2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop a disruptive and sustainable method for upcycling ocean-bound plastic waste across Southern California waterways, and to investigate the psychology behind eco-conscious choices. The multi-disciplinary project team, which […]

https://thecatalinaislander.com/usc-sea-grant-receives-nearly-2-million-for-novel-technology/

NASA Awards $1.5 Million at Watts on the Moon Challenge Finale

date: 2024-09-20, from: NASA breaking news

NASA has awarded a total of $1.5 million to two U.S. teams for their novel technology solutions addressing energy distribution, management, and storage as part of the agency’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. The innovations from this challenge aim to support NASA’s Artemis missions, which will establish long-term human presence on the Moon. This two-phase […]

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-1-5-million-at-watts-on-the-moon-challenge-finale/

In Case Humans Go Extinct, This Memory Crystal Will Store Our Genome for Billions of Years

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists have created “a form of information immortality” meant to instruct future species on how to recreate humans. But who, or what, will find it?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/in-case-humans-go-extinct-this-memory-crystal-will-store-our-genome-for-billions-of-years-180985114/

Haitian migrants in Ohio feel threatened in US presidential campaign

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

In the U.S. presidential election, Republican candidates have spread false claims that migrants in the Midwest state of Ohio are eating residents’ pet cats and dogs. That has led to security threats and more divisions in an election where immigration is a central campaign theme. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has our story. Videographer: Obed Lamy

https://www.voanews.com/a/haitian-migrants-in-ohio-feel-threatened-in-us-presidential-campaign/7792422.html

US indicts two over socially engineered $230M+ crypto heist

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Just one victim milked of nearly a quarter of a billion bucks

Two individuals are in cuffs and facing serious charges in connection to a major theft of cryptocurrency worth more than $230 million from a single victim.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/us_indicts_two_over_socially/

Charging Tomorrow – Cleaning Yesterday

date: 2024-09-20, from: Infrastructure LA Blog

Charging Tomorrow - Cleaning Yesterday Safer Roads Ahead $152M Secured for California’s Transportation Senator Alex Padilla announced that 51 California projects have received over $152 million through the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program. These funds, part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aim to enhance roadway safety statewide, targeting […]

https://infrastructurela.org/charging-tomorrow-cleaning-yesterday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=charging-tomorrow-cleaning-yesterday

Majority of Redis users considering alternatives after less permissive licensing move

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Valkey leads interest in FOSS alternatives after database slinger tightens terms

Around 70 percent of Redis users are considering alternatives after the database company made a shift away from permissive open source licensing.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/redis_users_considering_alternatives/

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking Jets Escaping a Black Hole, the Longest Ever Seen

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

The energetic streams are together 23 million light-years in length—roughly as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined end to end

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/astronomers-discover-record-breaking-jets-escaping-a-black-hole-the-longest-ever-seen-180985111/

Two new Amazon Kindle devices show up at the FCC website

date: 2024-09-20, from: Liliputing

At a time when companies make a habit of releasing updated versions of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets on an annual basis, it’s kind of refreshing to see that Amazon hasn’t introduced a new Kindle eReader since 2022, when the company launched the Kindle Scribe and an updated model of the entry-level Kindle. But […]

The post Two new Amazon Kindle devices show up at the FCC website appeared first on Liliputing.

https://liliputing.com/two-new-amazon-kindle-devices-show-up-at-the-fcc-website/

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

The patch that improved Swift’s reference counting speed by 25% on Apple platforms:

https://mastodon.social/@Catfish_Man/113170681683409056

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113170699908949483

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Co-signed
https://mastodon.social/@schwa/113170620128300154

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113170686835448944

As Green Bonds Tank, Analysts Fear Greenwashing Is to Blame

date: 2024-09-20, from: Capital and Main

Major banks were underwriting bonds by energy giants that failed to meet climate goals.

The post As Green Bonds Tank, Analysts Fear Greenwashing Is to Blame appeared first on .

https://capitalandmain.com/as-green-bonds-tank-analysts-fear-greenwashing-is-to-blame

Honoring Hidden Figures

date: 2024-09-20, from: NASA breaking news

Joylette Hylick, left, and Katherine Moore, right, accept the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of their mother, Katherine Johnson, during a Sept. 18, 2024, ceremony recognizing NASA’s Hidden Figures. Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine Darden, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary W. Jackson were awarded Congressional Gold Medals in recognition of their service to the United States. A […]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/honoring-hidden-figures/

NASA Data Helps Protect US Embassy Staff from Polluted Air

date: 2024-09-20, from: NASA breaking news

United States embassies and consulates, along with American citizens traveling and living abroad, now have a powerful tool to protect against polluted air, thanks to a collaboration between NASA and the U.S. State Department. Since 2020, ZephAir has provided real-time air quality data for about 75 U.S. diplomatic posts. Now, the public tool includes three-day […]

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/nasa-data-helps-protect-us-embassy-staff-from-polluted-air/

Ivanti patches exploited admin command execution flaw

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Fears over chained attacks affecting EOL product

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) just added the latest Ivanti weakness to its Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV) catalog, a situation sure to annoy some – given that it’s yet another path traversal flaw.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/patch_up_ivanti_fixes_exploited/

The history — and shaky future — of the generic drug market

date: 2024-09-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report

This September marks 40 years since the birth of the generic drug industry in the United States. They saved Americans nearly $450 billion last year alone. But all is not well in the industry — big players are leaving, and drug shortages are common. Will we still be able to depend on affordable, high-quality generics in the future? Also: new rules on bank mergers, and a disagreement between the stock market and bond market.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/the-history-and-shaky-future-of-the-generic-drug-market

Kentucky sheriff charged in killing of judge at courthouse

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A judge in a rural Kentucky county was fatally shot in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder in the killing, police said.

The preliminary investigation indicates Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines shot District Judge Kevin Mullins multiple times following an argument inside the courthouse, according to Kentucky State Police. Mullins, who held the judgeship for 15 years, died at the scene, and Stines surrendered without incident.

The fatal shooting in Whitesburg sent shock waves through a tight-knit Appalachian town and county seat of government with about 1,700 residents located about 235 kilometers southeast of Lexington.

Lead county prosecutor Matt Butler described an outpouring of sympathy as he recused himself and his office from investigations in the shooting, citing social and family ties to Mullins.

“We all know each other here. … Anyone from Letcher County would tell you that Judge Mullins and I married sisters and that we have children who are first cousins but act like siblings,” Butler said in statement from his office. “For that reason, among others, I have already taken steps to recuse myself and my entire office.”

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said his office will collaborate with a commonwealth’s attorney in the region as special prosecutors in the criminal case.

“We will fully investigate and pursue justice,” Coleman said on social media.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance B. VanMeter said he was “shocked by this act of violence” and that the court system was “shaken by this news.”

Letcher County’s judge-executive signed an order closing on Friday the county courthouse where the shooting took place.

Mullins, 54, was hit multiple times in the shooting, Kentucky State Police said. Stines, 43, was charged with one count of first-degree murder. The investigation is continuing, police said.

It was unclear whether Stines had an attorney. Kentucky State Police referred inquiries about Stines’ legal representation Thursday to a spokesperson who did not immediately respond by email.

Responding to the shooting, Governor Andy Beshear said in a social media post: “There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow.”

Mullins served as a district judge in Letcher County since he was appointed by former Gov. Steve Beshear in 2009 and elected the following year.

Mullins was known for promoting substance abuse treatment for people involved in the justice system and helped hundreds of residents enter inpatient residential treatment, according to a program for a drug summit he spoke at in 2022. He also helped develop a program called Addiction Recovery Care to offer peer support services in the courthouse. The program was adopted in at least 50 counties in Kentucky.

Mullins also served as a founding member of the Responsive Effort to Support Treatment in Opioid Recovery Efforts Leadership Team.

After the shooting, several area schools were briefly placed on lockdown.

https://www.voanews.com/a/kentucky-sheriff-charged-in-killing-of-judge-at-courthouse-/7791922.html

Microsoft on a roll for terrible rebranding with Windows App

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

If you hadn’t guessed, that’s the artist formerly known as Remote Desktop

Microsoft’s breathtaking ability to rename things badly carries on with the Windows App, a hub to stream Windows from a variety of sources.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/microsoft_windows_app/

Behind the Blog: Good Dogs and Joyous Games

date: 2024-09-20, from: 404 Media Group

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss good dogs, good games, getting documents and netsex.

https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-good-dogs-and-joyous-games/

See an Ancient Egyptian Temple’s Brilliant Colors, Newly Revealed Beneath Layers of Dust and Soot

date: 2024-09-20, from: Smithsonian Magazine

Experts are carefully uncovering traces of the original paint and fragments of gold leaf that once adorned the 2,000-year-old Temple of Edfu

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-an-ancient-egyptian-temples-brilliant-colors-newly-revealed-beneath-layers-of-dust-and-soot-180985108/

Sipeed NanoKVM: A RISC-V stick-on

date: 2024-09-20, from: Jeff Geerling blog

Sipeed NanoKVM: A RISC-V stick-on

        <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><img width="700" height="auto" class="insert-image" src="https://www.jeffgeerling.com/sites/default/files/images/sipeed-nanokvm-box-contents.jpeg" alt="Sipeed NanoKVM"></p>

This is the Sipeed NanoKVM. You stick it on your computer, plug in HDMI, USB, and the power button, and you get full remote control over the network—even if your computer locks up.

How did Sipeed make it so small, and so cheap? The ‘full’ kit above is about $50, while the cheapest competitors running PiKVM are closer to $200 and up!

This blog post is a lightly-edited transcript of the following video on my YouTube channel:

  <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Jeff Geerling</span></span>

September 20, 2024

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/sipeed-nanokvm-risc-v-stick-on

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate refuses to quit amid reports of racial, sexual comments

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/governor-nominee-vows-to-keep-running-after-report-on-racial-sexual-comments/7791926.html

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

A Meticulous Accounting of How The Beatles Recorded Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

https://laughingsquid.com/recording-the-beatles-sgt-peppers/

Seattle center for ‘friends all of Ukraine’ holds broad range of projects

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

The Ukrainian Cultural Center Toloka near Seattle, Washington, is home for ‘friends of Ukraine’ say its founders. Just over a year ago, it began offering a wide range of activities, including aid for refugees, language workshops, art classes, cultural events and more. Khrystyna Shevchenko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Dmytro Savchuk

https://www.voanews.com/a/seattle-center-for-friends-all-of-ukraine-hold-broad-range-of-projects-/7791885.html

Datacenters bleed watts and cash – all because they’re afraid to flip a switch

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Activate OS-level governors and power profiles, cut energy use by ‘25 – 50 percent’

Datacenter power consumption has become a major concern in recent years, as utilities struggle to keep up with growing demand and operators are forced to seek alternative means to keep the lights on.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/datacenters_waste_watts_server_power/

A Supermarket Superstar

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: One Foot Tsunami

https://onefoottsunami.com/2024/09/20/a-supermarket-superstar/

Europe’s largest city council: Oracle ERP allocated £2B in transactions to wrong year

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Workers forced to manually correct setup that struggles to produce auditable accounts after customizations

The Oracle finance system implemented by stricken Birmingham City Council allocated £2 billion ($2.65 billion) in cash to the wrong financial year, leaving public sector workers to unpick the errors manually.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/birmingham_oracle_finance_woes/

When companies take a political stand

date: 2024-09-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report

We’re digging into Office Politics, our series in which we talk to companies that use their brands to push policies and candidates, as well as organizations that try to dial down the political temperature. Today: When a business shows support or opposition to a particular side of a partisan issue, what does it mean for the consumers who don’t agree? But first: unpacking a credit card interest rate cap proposed by Donald Trump.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/when-companies-take-a-political-stand

Three Mile Island Is Coming Back Online to Power Microsoft Data Centers

date: 2024-09-20, from: Heatmap News

Current conditions: Cleanup efforts have begun in Italy’s washed out Emilia-Romagna region • Endangered freshwater dolphins are washing ashore at Brazil’s Lake Tefe as water levels recede due to drought • The Colorado Rockies could see some snow this weekend.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Three Mile Island nuclear plant to come back online to power Microsoft data centers

We’ll start with some breaking news today: Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant, the site of an infamous 1979 partial reactor meltdown, will be revived by 2028 as part of a plan to provide power for Microsoft’s data centers. Constellation Energy, the plant’s owner and the largest nuclear operator in the country, announced the news today. Microsoft agreed to buy all of the plant’s power for 20 years – enough energy to power 800,000 homes.

If approved, this decision “would mark a bold advance in the tech industry’s quest to find enough electric power to support its boom in artificial intelligence,” The Washington Post reported. “The symbolism is enormous,” Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation, told The New York Times. “This was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth.”

“Now, THIS is additional clean supply,” said Heatmap Shift Key co-host Jesse Jenkins. “Bravo. It is remarkable to see a handful of nuclear reactors shuttered in the last decade due to poor revenues contemplating restart now. Palisades, now TMI. Who is next? Maybe it was unwise to let these plants close in the fist place eh?”

2. World Bank climate financing reaches record high

The World Bank Group yesterday announced it delivered a record $42.6 billion in climate finance in fiscal year 2024 (which ran from July to June), a 10% increase year-over-year. Climate financing made up 44% of the group’s total lending, which is awfully close to its goal, set at COP28, of 45% for fiscal year 2025. However this remains “well short of the trillions of dollars in additional resources needed annually to finance the clean energy transition in emerging markets and developing countries,” noted Reuters.

3. Equatic starts producing its breakthrough anode

Carbon removal startup Equatic announced it has started manufacturing its “oxygen-selective anode,” which has the potential to pave the way for a two-for-one climate solution: commercial hydrogen production and carbon removal. Equatic wants to use seawater electrolysis – sending an electrical current through seawater – to sequester carbon dioxide from the air in the ocean while also producing hydrogen. But as Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo reported, electrolysis tends to turn the salt in the water into the toxic and corrosive gas chlorine, which makes commercializing such a process challenging. So Equatic set out to find the right combination of catalysts to make an anode – a sheet of conductive, positively-charged metal – that, when used in electrolysis, would screen out the salt and not allow it to react. Using ARPA-E funding, they landed on a design that produced less than one part per million of chlorine (lower than the amount in drinking water) and performed reliably for more than 20,000 hours of testing.

The company’s San Francisco facility will be able to produce 4,000 of these anodes per year to start, and is expected to operate at full capacity by the end of 2024. It will produce the anodes for Equatic’s first demonstration-scale project, a new plant in Singapore designed to remove 10 metric tons of CO2 and produce 300 kilograms of hydrogen per day — 100 times larger than the pilot version. Equatic also has plans to build an even bigger plant in Quebec that can remove 300 tons per day. That’s about three times the capacity of Climeworks’ Mammoth plant, the world’s largest direct air capture plant operating today.

4. Outlook for Doomsday Glacier looking ‘grim’

Scientists who spent six years examining the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica warned this week that the outlook for the glacier is “grim.” Thwaites, often referred to as the “Doomsday Glacier,” is massive, spanning an area equal to the state of Florida. It has been retreating for nearly a century, but this melting has accelerated significantly over the last 30 years and the new research suggests it is set to worsen. Within 200 years, the glacier could collapse, raising sea levels worldwide. CNN succinctly summarized why this matters:

“Thwaites holds enough water to increase sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts like a cork, holding back the vast Antarctic ice sheet, its collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise, devastating coastal communities from Miami and London to Bangladesh and the Pacific Islands.”

Dr. Ted Scambos, U.S. science coordinator of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration and glaciologist at the University of Colorado, said “immediate and sustained climate intervention will have a positive effect, but a delayed one.”

ITGC

5. WRI considers city life at 3 degrees Celsius of warming

A sweeping new report from the World Resources Institute paints a bleak picture of what 996 of the world’s biggest cities will feel like in a world that is 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial records, and compares that to a scenario in which temperatures warm by 3 degrees Celsius. Here are some stats:

• 6.4 – heat waves, on average, cities will experience each year with 3 degrees C of warming, compared to 4.9 heat waves annually at 1.5 degrees C of warming.
• 24.5 – average length, in days, of the year’s longest heat wave at 3 degrees C of warming, compared to 16.3 days for 1.5 degrees C of warming.
• 16 – percentage of big cities that would experience a heat wave that lasts for a month or longer annually at 3 degrees C of warming.
• Two-thirds – the share of the global population that will live in cities by 2050.

The report also looks at what warmer temperatures mean for mosquito-borne diseases. Some, like dengue, Zika, and West Nile, will become more common. But malaria could actually decline “as temperatures in many places become warmer than what is optimal for malaria-transmitting mosquitos.”

THE KICKER

Canada’s carbon emissions dropped last year for the first time since the pandemic, falling 0.8% between 2022 and 2023.

https://heatmap.news/technology/microsoft-three-mile-island-nuclear

California moving to block schools from telling parents about transgender students

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

In California, a new law will block public schools from notifying parents if their children decide to change their gender. That has led some school districts to challenge the state’s authority over issues of gender identity. Genia Dulot has our story from Southern California.

https://www.voanews.com/a/california-moving-to-block-schools-from-telling-parents-about-transgender-students/7791792.html

Killing shakes Japanese community in China

date: 2024-09-20, from: Marketplace Morning Report

From the BBC World Service: The killing of a Japanese schoolboy in the Chinese city of Shenzhen has sparked anxiety among Japanese expats living in China, with top firms warning their workers to be vigilant. Plus, mass tourism in parts of Europe has sparked protests this summer, but one small Mediterranean country is enthusiastically embracing those on vacation. And heavy rock band Iron Maiden announce a 50th anniversary world tour.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/marketplace-morning-report/killing-shakes-japanese-community-in-china

Disney kicks Slack to the curb, looks to Microsoft Teams for a happily ever after

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Definitely not punishment for someone leaking internal data

There’s no fairy tale ending for Slack at entertainment behemoth Disney following reports that the Salesforce-owned messaging service will be ditched in favor of Microsoft Teams.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/disney_slack_microsoft_teams/

Hubble Lights the Way with New Multiwavelength Galaxy View

date: 2024-09-20, from: NASA breaking news

The magnificent galaxy featured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 1559. It is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Reticulum, approximately 35 million light-years from Earth. The brilliant light captured in the current image offers a wealth of information. This picture is composed of a whopping ten different Hubble images, […]

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-lights-the-way-with-new-multiwavelength-galaxy-view/

The Big Problem With Big Electric Pickups

date: 2024-09-20, from: Heatmap News

It’s tough out there for an electric truck.

Rivian’s R1T was the showpiece that launched the company; I was blown away the moment I saw its concept version at a car show in the 2010s. But the truck’s sales are down 38% over last year as the R1S SUV becomes the brand’s signature vehicle. Ford has found some footing with the F-150 Lightning, but is lowering expectations for the vehicle as Detroit faces fierce headwinds trying to convince its legion of truck drivers to go electric — and backtracks toward plug-in hybrids. The category leader in sales, the Tesla Cybertruck, exists primarily to inspire TikTok derision, which would be easier to swallow if its sales, while rising, didn’t pale in comparison to the Model Y and 3.

There are practical reasons for sluggish truck sales — the SUV shape is more useful than a pickup truck for the kinds of people currently buying EVs. There are political reasons, of course. Even with Donald Trump’s softening his EV hatred thanks to support from Elon Musk, lots of pickup drivers remain electric-averse. There are financial reasons, since many of the electric truck offerings to date are staggeringly expensive. Above these concerns floats a broader, more all-consuming problem: Maybe it’s just not the right time to make an all-electric truck, at least not the monstrous kind America buys.

Lucid’s CEO recently remarked on this idea in response to drawings of a theoretical Lucid pickup circulating on the internet. Despite America’s insatiable appetite for pickups, the company is absolutely not making a truck right now, he said.

His rationale boils down to the conundrum for today’s EVs: Vehicles of all stripes have been getting bigger as American drivers choose crossovers, SUVs, and trucks. Since those are the shapes Americans want, and want to pay extra for, those are the kinds of EVs carmakers want to sell. But a larger EV is a less efficient one. It takes lots of energy to move a heavy vehicle, which means they need huge batteries just to achieve a normal driving range.

As I noted earlier this month, Lucid has been counterculturally hyper-focused on making efficient vehicles that can maximize range. Its Air sedans achieve an industry-leading 4 miles per kilowatt-hour of electricity, which lets the cars claim more than 400 miles per charge despite having a battery of average size. The excellent but heavyweight R1T is only about half as efficient. You can buy one with 420 miles of range, but doing so requires an enormous and expensive battery pack.

Weight alone is not the only issue. Pickup owners — even those who never stray from the smooth pavement of the suburbs — want their vehicles to be able to tow a boat or tackle the Rubicon trail. Towing with an EV dings the driving range that’s already low because of the vehicle’s heft. Knowing that, Lucid CTO and CEO Peter Rawlinson estimated the minimum battery size threshold for a workable electric pickup at 150 kilowatt-hours — nearly double the size of the 84-kilowatt hour battery that powers the simplest Lucid Air, and well past the 118-kilowatt hour pack in the long range Grand Touring edition. Given the cost of today’s batteries and their physical limitations, it’s simply difficult to make the math work for the kind of megavehicle that full-size pickups have become.

Downsizing the truck would help, of course. It’d be much easier, and cheaper, to fully electrify something the size and weight of the Chevy S-10. However, the chorus of car enthusiasts and compact truck fans calling for the pickup to return to its reasonably sized roots has been drowned out by all the money Detroit is making on monster trucks. Don’t pin your hopes there.

But just because the full-size EV pickup is in a tough spot now doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. The battery calculus will change as technologies improve and economies of scale emerge. At some point, it might be possible to squeeze 150 or 200 kilowatt-hours of juice into a not-gargantuan battery pack, and to build it for less than a small fortune, at which point the fully electric F-150 or Silverado becomes a far more attractive proposition.

The more immediate solution, though, is the ongoing rise of the hybrid. Trucks make terrific hybrids. The hybrid version of the current Ford F-150 has plenty of power and driving range for serious work or play, and also gets 25 miles per gallon in the city compared to 18-20 mpg for combustion-only trucks. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, remember that when it comes to cutting fossil fuels consumption and emissions, improving gas-guzzlers by a little can be more powerful than improving already-efficient cars by a lot. (With mpg, it’s better to go from bad to decent than from good to great. It’s a bad statistic.)

Crucially for the potential to cut the carbon emissions of America’s truck fleet, conventional hybrids are less weighed down by a feeling of foreignness and political baggage. There was a time when vehicles like the Prius were the peak of conspicuous car consumption for lefty greens. Now a slew of vehicles, including trucks, come in hybrid configurations (and some cars, like the Toyota Camry, have ditched combustion-only models altogether). A hybrid is just a car, one you can pump gas into and drive without thinking too much about the partisan implications of its powertrain.

The idea of plug-in hybrid full-size trucks is alluring, too. Owners could live out the fantasy of driving a weekend warrior 4x4 — and enjoy the in-group signaling that comes with pickup ownership — all while using electricity for the local driving that makes up most of their actual transportation needs. Perhaps someday we could even get Heatmap’s dream vehicle, a plug-in hybrid version of the reasonably sized Ford Maverick.

Trucks are good candidates for unusual hybrid configurations, too. This week, some American reviewers tested, and loved, the BYD Shark, a Chinese-made pickup on sale in Mexico but not here. The Shark’s hybrid setup is a range extender, meaning that although the gas engine can drive the front wheels in some situations, it exists primarily to charge a generator that powers electric motors, and those motors push the vehicle. Its battery pack can hold enough energy for an estimated 60 miles of electric driving.

The Shark won’t swim to America, given the ongoing tariffs battle. But it doesn’t have to. For 2025, Ram has promised us the Ramcharger extended-range pickup that puts this tech into a truck Americans can buy. Heatmap’s Jesse Jenkins called it an “ideal near-term product to satisfy some of the trickiest American market segments to electrify: namely the uniquely American demand for full-size pickups and massive SUVs.”

Indeed, if truck shoppers give this new kind of electrified vehicle a chance, they’re going to like what they find.

https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/electric-truck-lucid-rivian-cybertruck-tesla

While HashiCorp plays license roulette, Virter rolls out to rescue FOSS VM testing

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

BSL shenanigans continue to make waves

Open Source Summit Europe  Virter is a useful little tool if you often create – and then remove – VMs to try stuff. It’s arguably carried on the ripples from HashiCorp dropping the BSL into the FOSS pond.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/virter_simpler_test_vms/

The Secret Plot To Buy American Democracy

date: 2024-09-20, from: The Lever News

Fifty years ago, two memos laid the groundwork for a right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court.

https://www.levernews.com/the-secret-plot-to-buy-american-democracy/

Cybercrooks strut away with haute couture Harvey Nichols data

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Nothing high-end about the sparsely detailed, poorly publicized breach

High-end British department store Harvey Nichols is writing to customers to confirm some of their data was exposed in a recent cyberattack.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/highstreet_swank_dealer_harvey_nichols/

US general: US, Chad planning return of US troops

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

Pentagon — The U.S. is returning Special Forces troops to Chad after leaving at the country’s request nearly five months ago.

Maj. General Kenneth Ekman, who oversaw the recent U.S. withdrawal from Niger at the request of U.S. Africa Command chief Gen. Michael Langley, told VOA in an exclusive interview Thursday that the United States and Chad have reached an understanding on the return of a limited number of Special Forces personnel.

“It was a presidential decision by [Chadian] President [Mahamat] Deby, but the decision is made, and now we’re working through the specifics on how we return,” he added.

In April, the U.S. pulled out some 70 Special Forces personnel from Chad ahead of the nation’s presidential election. Deby won that election and ultimately decided to allow U.S. forces to return, a decision that was only recently relayed to U.S. Africa Command.

Ekman told VOA the U.S. military plans a smaller operation than the headquarters that forces previously maintained in Chad, whose 11,000-member counterterror force is fighting a growing number of Boko Haram and Islamic State militants around Lake Chad.

“The direction of approach from Chad is immensely important,” Ekman said, especially following the U.S. military withdrawal from Niger that officially ended on Sunday with his departure from Niamey. “If our presence in Niger allowed us to go inside out, relative to the Sahelian-based VEO [violent extremist organization] threat, we now have to revert to going outside in.”

The head of U.S. Africa Command, General Michael Langley, has said his forces are starting to “reset and recalibrate” in the region.

Before coups in Niger, the U.S. had hundreds of forces in two bases that served as major counterterrorism hubs. Burkina Faso and Mali also hosted U.S. Special Forces teams prior to coups in their countries that strained their relationship with the United States and ultimately cut off U.S. military access to prime locations from which to monitor terror groups and train local partners.

Under U.S. law the coups prevent AFRICOM from direct military-to-military cooperation.

Now, countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin and Chad will determine the U.S. counterterror strategy and force strength in West Africa.

“Each partner has their own unique security concerns. They also have their own respective tolerance and willingness to abide the presence of U.S. forces,” Ekman said.

Ghana and Nigeria have made it clear to the U.S. that they are not interested in hosting U.S. forces, according to Ekman.

But as the violent militant threat spreads primarily southwest from the Sahel, some West African nations along the coast are asking for more U.S. capabilities. Even before the coup in Niger, the U.S. started refurbishing an airfield in Benin to accommodate U.S. military aircraft.

After the coup in Niger, the U.S. moved Special Forces into Ivory Coast as well, Ekman told VOA. Any decision to establish a larger military presence like the one the U.S. built up in Niger will ultimately be a policy decision.

“I don’t think you’re going to see another Air Base 201,” said a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, referring to the $100 million drone base that the U.S. built in the Nigerien desert.

Instead, the U.S. will likely try to work from within partner force garrisons through strengthening base fortifications and capabilities, but the U.S. has not made this type of agreement with any West African partners since the withdrawal from Niger.

“We’re not there yet,” Ekman said.

Diminished access

Since U.S. counterterror operations were halted in Niger, Ekman cautions that the region has become “more opaque” as U.S. partnerships and access have “diminished.” It is more difficult to monitor the terror threat in West Africa, which hurts the U.S. ability to counter it.

Officials admit the U.S. is now “soul searching,” its confidence shaken from broken partnerships and regional approaches that have failed to tamp down the terrorists.

The U.S military has been tasked with “treating the symptom: terrorism,” the senior military official said, acknowledging that diplomatic and economic approaches are what is needed to counter terrorism’s root causes on the continent.

The U.S. military’s withdrawal appears to be a net loss for Niger, the United States and other regional partners who had benefited from U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities available through its bases in Niger.

Since the July 2023 coup, extremist attacks have become more lethal as Niger has lost resources and partners.

“They’re absolutely feeling [those losses],” the senior military official said.

Ekman said he believes that the U.S. and Niger’s shared security objectives will continue to link the two nations even without American forces on the ground.

“How we will pursue [those objectives], either together or apart, as a consequence of the withdrawal remains to be seen, but we wanted to make sure we kept all options on the table,” he said.

Editor’s Note: After VOA published its report early Friday, U.S. AFRICOM clarified in an email that while Maj. General Ekman used the word “agreement” when speaking to VOA about U.S. special forces returning to Chad, he meant it in the “context that an understanding for our presence was established post the President’s request.” VOA has updated the story to reflect this additional information.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-general-chad-agrees-to-bring-back-us-forces-/7791656.html

Linguistic Bias in ChatGPT: Language Models Reinforce Dialect Discrimination

date: 2024-09-20, from: Berkley Artificial Intellegence Research Blog

Sample language model responses to different varieties of English and native speaker reactions.

ChatGPT does amazingly well at communicating with people in English. But whose English?

Only 15% of ChatGPT users are from the US, where Standard American English is the default. But the model is also commonly used in countries and communities where people speak other varieties of English. Over 1 billion people around the world speak varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English, Irish English, and African-American English.

Speakers of these non-“standard” varieties often face discrimination in the real world. They’ve been told that the way they speak is unprofessional or incorrect, discredited as witnesses, and denied housing–despite extensive research indicating that all language varieties are equally complex and legitimate. Discriminating against the way someone speaks is often a proxy for discriminating against their race, ethnicity, or nationality. What if ChatGPT exacerbates this discrimination?

To answer this question, our recent paper examines how ChatGPT’s behavior changes in response to text in different varieties of English. We found that ChatGPT responses exhibit consistent and pervasive biases against non-“standard” varieties, including increased stereotyping and demeaning content, poorer comprehension, and condescending responses.

Our Study

We prompted both GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 with text in ten varieties of English: two “standard” varieties, Standard American English (SAE) and Standard British English (SBE); and eight non-“standard” varieties, African-American, Indian, Irish, Jamaican, Kenyan, Nigerian, Scottish, and Singaporean English. Then, we compared the language model responses to the “standard” varieties and the non-“standard” varieties.

First, we wanted to know whether linguistic features of a variety that are present in the prompt would be retained in GPT-3.5 Turbo responses to that prompt. We annotated the prompts and model responses for linguistic features of each variety and whether they used American or British spelling (e.g., “colour” or “practise”). This helps us understand when ChatGPT imitates or doesn’t imitate a variety, and what factors might influence the degree of imitation.

Then, we had native speakers of each of the varieties rate model responses for different qualities, both positive (like warmth, comprehension, and naturalness) and negative (like stereotyping, demeaning content, or condescension). Here, we included the original GPT-3.5 responses, plus responses from GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 where the models were told to imitate the style of the input.

Results

We expected ChatGPT to produce Standard American English by default: the model was developed in the US, and Standard American English is likely the best-represented variety in its training data. We indeed found that model responses retain features of SAE far more than any non-“standard” dialect (by a margin of over 60%). But surprisingly, the model does imitate other varieties of English, though not consistently. In fact, it imitates varieties with more speakers (such as Nigerian and Indian English) more often than varieties with fewer speakers (such as Jamaican English). That suggests that the training data composition influences responses to non-“standard” dialects.

ChatGPT also defaults to American conventions in ways that could frustrate non-American users. For example, model responses to inputs with British spelling (the default in most non-US countries) almost universally revert to American spelling. That’s a substantial fraction of ChatGPT’s userbase likely hindered by ChatGPT’s refusal to accommodate local writing conventions.

Model responses are consistently biased against non-“standard” varieties. Default GPT-3.5 responses to non-“standard” varieties consistently exhibit a range of issues: stereotyping (19% worse than for “standard” varieties), demeaning content (25% worse), lack of comprehension (9% worse), and condescending responses (15% worse).

Native speaker ratings of model responses. Responses to non-”standard” varieties (blue) were rated as worse than responses to “standard” varieties (orange) in terms of stereotyping (19% worse), demeaning content (25% worse), comprehension (9% worse), naturalness (8% worse), and condescension (15% worse).

When GPT-3.5 is prompted to imitate the input dialect, the responses exacerbate stereotyping content (9% worse) and lack of comprehension (6% worse). GPT-4 is a newer, more powerful model than GPT-3.5, so we’d hope that it would improve over GPT-3.5. But although GPT-4 responses imitating the input improve on GPT-3.5 in terms of warmth, comprehension, and friendliness, they exacerbate stereotyping (14% worse than GPT-3.5 for minoritized varieties). That suggests that larger, newer models don’t automatically solve dialect discrimination: in fact, they might make it worse.

Implications

ChatGPT can perpetuate linguistic discrimination toward speakers of non-“standard” varieties. If these users have trouble getting ChatGPT to understand them, it’s harder for them to use these tools. That can reinforce barriers against speakers of non-“standard” varieties as AI models become increasingly used in daily life.

Moreover, stereotyping and demeaning responses perpetuate ideas that speakers of non-“standard” varieties speak less correctly and are less deserving of respect. As language model usage increases globally, these tools risk reinforcing power dynamics and amplifying inequalities that harm minoritized language communities.

Learn more here: [ paper ]

http://bair.berkeley.edu/blog/2024/09/20/linguistic-bias/

Green recycling goals? Pending EU directive could hammer used mobile market

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Bloc’s USB-C rules forecast to disrupt supply, barring 8 million imported phones from reaching Europe’s ports

The impending Radio Equipment Directive in the EU is forecast to render eight million used smartphones, or two in five units, no longer available for supply and – at least in the trading bloc – effectively obsolete.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/secondhand_smartphone_demand/

Crack coder wasn’t allowed to meet clients due to his other talent: Blisteringly inappropriate insults

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Then he stopped being a coding whiz, which is when the trouble started

On Call  Welcome once again to On Call, the weekly column in which readers tell their tales of tech support troubles and triumphs.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/on_call/

VOA EXCLUSIVE: US general explains US movements, partnerships in West Africa

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

PENTAGON — On Sunday, U.S. Africa Command’s Major General Kenneth Ekman was one of the last two U.S. service members to leave Niger as part of America’s military withdrawal, following the country’s July 2023 coup. Per an agreement reached by the U.S. and Niger in May, the only American service members that remain in the country are those securing the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Niamey.

The general, who served as AFRICOM’s director of strategy, plans and programs before focusing solely on West Africa, spent the last few months methodically overseeing the withdrawal of about 1,100 American service members, along with U.S. weapons, drones and equipment that had been staged for years in two U.S. military bases in Niger. The task was completed on time and within the parameters set by the host nation, but the withdrawal has created a massive hole in the United States’ ability to monitor the growing violent extremist threat.

In an exclusive interview at the Pentagon on Thursday, Ekman explained how the new U.S. footprint in West Africa is beginning to take shape to continue fighting a shared threat.

Below are highlights from his discussion with VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, edited for brevity and clarity:

VOA: On what Nigeriens should expect in terms of a partnership with the US military:

Major General Kenneth Ekman: I think that remains to be seen. … I think the starting impetus will be reflecting on the 15 years of very mutually beneficial partnership that we had up to this point. We have shed blood together, right? We have pursued their most acute security threats together, and so you can’t erase that history … It would be really helpful if the Nigeriens took the first step – they asked us to leave after all – their first step on what that government and the military that serves them would like next in a U.S. security partnership. And then it will be bounded. What I mean by that is, it’s going to take a while for it ever to be what it was on July 25, 2023, which was the day prior to the coup.

There are some obstacles–everything from the request that we withdraw, to our turnover of bases and facilities and equipment, to the fact that coup sanctions, Section 7008 sanctions, have been imposed against the junta. And so all of that combines to limit the “what next.”

We still have shared security objectives. How we will pursue them, either together or apart, as a consequence of the withdrawal remains to be seen, but we wanted to make sure we kept all options on the table.

VOA: On repercussions concerning military partnerships and training exercises with countries who’ve undergone a coup:

Ekman: There are absolutely repercussions. Because when they’re omitted, they lose everything from the chance to interact in a region that’s becoming increasingly dis-integrated, right, to the chance to practice and practice at a high level within the context or the scenario of the exercise. So it is a net loss, right? It’s a net loss for the region, and it’s a loss for each of those individual countries as they are excluded.

VOA: On increased U.S. military presence in other West African nations:

Ekman: What you’re talking about is that layer of forces, most of which came from Niger, that we reposition around the Sahel. If our presence in Niger allowed us to go inside out, relative to the Sahelian based VEO (violent extremist organization) threat, we now have to revert to going outside in … Countries like Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ghana, Benin, Chad, our access to them and the degree to which they want to partner with us will influence how we go outside in.

We’re at a different phase with each of those countries. What I mean is, each partner has their own unique security concerns. They also have their own respective tolerance and willingness to abide the presence of U.S. forces. So in some cases, we moved some forces well prior to the Niger coup, because that’s where the threat was going. We were invited early on, and whether it was a small SOF (special operations forces) team or an ISR (intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance) platform, we moved them months ago. The larger question is, and it’s a policy question, where, and if we establish significant presence of forces, probably on a partner base, serving alongside them, doing everything from command and control to projecting things like ISR and personnel recovery, to sustaining them and to medically treating them. That is something where we’re not there yet, and no agreements have been made.

There are some cases where, for now, we’re definitely not (establishing a significant force presence). So that’s true in Nigeria. We have a very clear message from them … Likewise in Ghana.

The ones where things are still kind of under consideration, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, those were, what we want to do is, within the partners’ needs, support their partner-led, U.S.-enabled counter VEO ops.

VOA: On U.S. military movements, specifically, refurbishing an airfield in Benin to accommodate U.S. aircraft, sending special forces to Ivory Coast and bringing U.S. forces back to Chad:

Ekman: The most lethal violent extremist organization threat in the world resides in West Africa, and it resides in the Sahel. It’s also spreading. The primary direction of travel is to the southwest, so well-prior to the Niger coup we were already working with partners on what they needed with regards to U.S. presence and capabilities. In the Benin case, we started that a while ago. In the Cote d’Ivoire case, it’s been really post-coup (in Niger). So each of them is on their own timeline as we work with them… We did have some forces in Mali and Burkina Faso. We had special forces teams there as well. And given our current relationship, that’s just not something that we can do, and so we had some forces available who needed to move and there were requirements in other countries. The specifics beyond that kind of remain to be seen.

VOA: But the Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) case, the (U.S.) special forces were moved from Niger to there?

Ekman: That’s correct.

VOA: OK, and then the airfield (refurbishment) in Benin (to accommodate U.S. aircraft) was started a little prior, but then also worked on during.

Ekman: That’s it.

A consistent request that we receive from all partners is intel sharing, right? And so that’s something that we can offer uniquely… It is a common currency from which everyone benefits.

VOA: That has diminished.

Ekman: The region has become more opaque. Absolutely.

We did remove about 70 U.S. Special Forces personnel (from Chad) at the end of April. That was at their request. They asked us to leave. An election was coming and we obliged. That’s what partners do. Since then, they had a successful election on May 6. And so in the aftermath of that, they’ve started asking us, well, what can we do together?

Our goal is to do something less than we had there before. We had a headquarters there before, but we have reached an agreement on the return of a limited number of special forces personnel. It is a presidential decision. So these are big policy decisions. It was a presidential decision by President Deby, but the decision is made, and now we’re working through the specifics on how we return… His decision was conveyed to us in just recent weeks. Chad is really important because… it’s an outside-in strategy. And the direction of approach from Chad is immensely important. They’ve also been a significant contributor to Sahelian security.

VOA: On the effect that losing Niger has on region counterterrorism efforts:

Ekman: If there was one country that was most important on our ability to address Sahelian VEO problems or the Sahelian VEO challenge, it was Niger. So, for one, of Niger, I talked about it as a strategic setback, (but) the degree to which that setback endures ties to how we reposition and then what our partners want to do with us… That is a snapshot in time. All is not lost.

VOA: On concerns that Niger could fall to violent extremist organizations:

Ekman: Their risks have definitely gone up. Their ability to confront extremist organizations, intel sharing, partnership with our and other allied forces, it’s gotten worse. So they are a capable force… the degree to which they can handle the problem themselves remains to be seen. It is a fact that in Niger, violent extremist attacks have become more lethal. That’s a fact. Since the coup on July 26, 2023. They’ve got fewer resources and fewer partners.

VOA: Have you seen any evidence, or heard anything from your engagements about JNIM starting to collaborate with some of the ISIS elements (in West Africa)?

Ekman: I think that one varies. For what I can talk about in here, some cases they collaborate, some cases they compete, and that often manifest down to the local level.

VOA: On Russia’s military presence in Niger:

Ekman: In the Nigerien case, that presence is actually quite small. The Nigeriens signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia related to security cooperation two governments ago. And so they fly Russian equipment. They drive Russian equipment. There’s nothing new there. The Russian trainers who showed up? Didn’t see much of them while we were there. And so, to date, Russian presence in Niger has been quite limited… We caution them of the malign impacts of partnering, particularly with Russian PMCs who have yet to help anybody from a security perspective. And then their methods are abhorrent to us, OK? And so that’s where we, we encourage them to draw the line.

VOA: On whether terrorists in the Sahel now have the capacity to try external operations:

Ekman: Given the lack of access that we have, given the lack of ISR, our ability to gage… the trend in their development of capability and will, it’s become more difficult.

Our access and our partnerships have diminished. It’s a tough operational problem.

https://www.voanews.com/a/general-who-oversaw-us-military-withdrawal-from-niger-explains-us-movements-partnerships-in-west-africa/7791629.html

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

“Superhuman” is not a great word to describe the capabilities of ChatGPT, because it’s not human. But it has some important capabilities that humans also have, and it is far more capable than humans, so it’s not wrong, and not overhyped.

https://johnnaughton.substack.com/p/friday-20-september-2024?publication_id=31999&post_id=149120184&isFreemail=true&r=w33x&triedRedirect=true

A huge week for satnav as both China and Europe make generational launches

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Upgrades on the way for both, with deep-ocean services and programmable sats on the way

Two of the world’s satellite positioning service constellations reached important milestones this week, after the European Space Agency and China’s Satellite Navigation Office each launched its own pair of satellites.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/galileo_beido_satellite_launches/

Citrix adds remote Mac support, but some customers are grumpy

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

License changes and product bundles aren’t going down well, says Gartner’s DaaS magical quadrant

Citrix has added the ability to control remote macOS machines through its desktop-as-a-service suite, but customers of the product are said to be upset with changed licensing practices.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/gartner_daas_magic_quadrant/

Alibaba Cloud claims its modular datacenter architecture shrinks build times by 50 percent

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Also reveals boosted utilization rates, upgraded IaaS and more – all in the name of AI apps

Alibaba Cloud has revealed a modular datacenter architecture it claims will help it to satisfy demand for AI infrastructure by improving performance and build times for new facilities.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/alibaba_cloud_modular_datacenter_architecture/

Submersible’s scientific director says vessel malfunctioned days before fatal dive

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

https://www.voanews.com/a/submersible-s-scientific-director-says-vessel-malfunctioned-days-before-fatal-dive-/7791503.html

Gaza, Ukraine to vie for world’s attention at UN gathering

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

World leaders gather for their annual meetings at the United Nations starting Sunday, and the wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine will be center stage. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports.

https://www.voanews.com/a/gaza-ukraine-to-vie-for-world-s-attention-at-un-gathering/7791511.html

Board approves more non-lethal weapons for UCLA police after Israel-Hamas war protests

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

LOS ANGELES — The University of California board of regents approved Thursday additional non-lethal weapons requested by UCLA police, which handled some of the nation’s largest student protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

Clashes between protestors and counter-protestors earlier this year on the campus led to more than a dozen injuries, and more than 200 people were arrested at a demonstration the next day.

The equipment UCLA police requested and the board approved included pepper balls and sponge rounds, projectile launchers and new drones. The board also signed off on equipment purchase requests for the nine other police departments on UC campuses.

Student protesters at the regents meeting were cleared from the room after yelling broke out when the agenda item was presented.

Faculty and students have criticized UCLA police for their use of non-lethal weapons in campus demonstrations, during which some protesters suffered injuries.

During public comment, UCLA student association representative Tommy Contreras said the equipment was used against peaceful protestors and demonstrators.

“I am outraged that the University of California is prioritizing funding for military equipment while slashing resources for education,” Contreras said. “Students, staff and faculty have been hurt by this very equipment used not for safety but to suppress voices.”

California law enforcement agencies are required by state law to submit an annual report on the acquisition and use of weapons characterized as “military equipment.” A UC spokesperson called it a “routine” agenda item not related to any particular incidents.

“The University’s use of this equipment provides UC police officers with non-lethal alternatives to standard-issue firearms, enabling them to de-escalate situations and respond without the use of deadly force,” spokesperson Stett Holbrook said.

Many of the requests are replacements for training equipment, and the drones are for assisting with search and rescue missions, according to Holbrook. The equipment is “not military surplus, nor is it military-grade or designed for military use,” Holbrook said.

UCLA police are requesting 3,000 more pepper balls to add to their inventory of 1,600; 400 more sponge and foam rounds to their inventory of 200; eight more “less lethal” projectile launchers; and three new drones.

The report to the regents said there were no complaints or violations of policy found related to the use of the military equipment in 2023.

History professor Robin D.G. Kelley said he spent an evening with a student in the emergency room after the student was shot in the chest during a June 11 demonstration.

“The trauma center was so concerned about the condition of his heart that they kept him overnight to the next afternoon after running two echocardiograms,” Kelley said the day after the student was injured. “The student was very traumatized.”

UC’s systemwide director of community safety Jody Stiger told the board the weapons were not to be used for crowd control or peaceful protests but “life-threatening circumstances” or violent protests where “campus leadership have deemed the need for law enforcement to utilize force to defend themselves or others.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/board-approves-more-non-lethal-weapons-for-ucla-police-after-israel-hamas-war-protests/7791506.html

@Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed (date: 2024-09-20, from: Miguel de Icaza Mastondon feed)

Update: the UC regents held a meeting, and called the riot police to kick out those that disagreed.

Thread:

https://x.com/hungryghosts161/status/1836868866124959972?s=46

https://mastodon.social/@Migueldeicaza/113167101136390470

White House reports drop in border encounters, credits executive actions

date: 2024-09-20, from: VOA News USA

washington — The White House this week reported a significant decrease in migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border since President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at bolstering immigration enforcement.  

Migrant encounters in August were significantly lower than last year, White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández wrote in a statement Monday. Since Biden’s June 4 executive order there has been a 50% drop in encounters at the border.   

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in August there were about 58,000 migrant encounters between ports of entry along the southern border, nearly a 68% decline from the 181,000 in August 2023. 

The total number of southern border encounters was about 63,000. That figure includes about 5,000 migrants who came to ports of entry without a CBP One registration. 

CBP One is a mobile app that allows migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry rather than cross illegally. U.S. border officials said the app has played a crucial role in streamlining border processes. In August, about 44,700 individuals were processed using CBP One. Since its introduction in January 2023, more than 813,000 people have scheduled appointments. 

U.S. border officials also said the June executive actions led to an increase in migrant removals, with more than 131,000 people deported to over 140 countries since June. About 400 international repatriation flights have taken place during this time.  

But even with the latest numbers, some Republican lawmakers criticized the Biden administration during a hearing Thursday to discuss potential terrorist threats and homeland security issues related to illegal immigration. 

The lawmakers argued that the perception of border officers as welcoming, rather than focused on law enforcement, is contributing to the number of migrants coming to the U.S. 

“Our border patrol, law enforcement agents were transitioned from their national security role, their law enforcement role [of] repelling illegal entry and capturing those that crossed illegally as much as possible to transition to sort of reception roles and caring for and transporting, feeding, etc.,” Congressman Clay Higgins, a Republican from Alabama, said as he expressed concern about migrants who crossed illegally and evaded Border Patrol. 

There is no indication the Biden administration officially changed border patrol officers’ law enforcement role. 

Alex Nowrasteh, the vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, testified during the hearing that the primary reason migrants come the U.S. — legally or illegally — is to work. 

“It’s still the economy. That’s what’s pulling people in, and the rapid economic recovery after COVID can explain more than any other factor,” he said.

https://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-reports-drop-in-border-encounters-credits-executive-actions/7791479.html

CISA boss: Makers of insecure software are the real cyber villains

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-21, from: The Register (UK I.T. News)

Write better code, urges Jen Easterly. And while you’re at it, give crime gangs horrible names like ‘Evil Ferret’

Software suppliers who ship buggy, insecure code are the true baddies in the cyber crime story, Jen Easterly, boss of the US government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has argued.…

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/09/20/cisa_sloppy_vendors_cybercrime_villains/

@Dave Winer’s linkblog (date: 2024-09-20, from: Dave Winer’s linkblog)

Trump fan featured in Biden ad admits assaulting officers with bear spray on Jan 6.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-supporter-bear-spray-police-jan-6-biden-ad-plea-guilty-rcna171804

Wasmtime v25.0 brings extended constants, WASI 0.2.1, user stack maps, and more

date: 2024-09-20, updated: 2024-09-20, from: Bytecode Alliance News

Wasmtime is a lightweight WebAssembly runtime that is fast, secure, and standards-compliant. Today’s release of Wasmtime v25.0 brings enhancements including extended constants, WASI 0.2.1 support, and user stack maps.

https://bytecodealliance.org/articles/wasmtime-25.0