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UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The team looking for a missing Pennsylvania woman believed to have fallen into a sinkhole has determined that an abandoned coal mine is too unstable for people to safely search underground, authorities said Wednesday while still expressing hope Elizabeth Pollard will be found alive. Rescue workers continue to search for Elizabeth Pollard, who is believed to have disappeared in a sinkhole while looking for her cat, Wednesday in Marguerite, Pa. Emergency crews and others have been trying to find Pollard, 64, for two days. Her relatives reported her missing early Tuesday and her vehicle with her unharmed 5-year-old granddaughter inside was found about two hours later, near what is thought to be a freshly opened sinkhole above the long closed, crumbling mine. Authorities said in a noon update that the roof of the mine collapsed in several places and is not stable. The sinkhole is in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. “We did get, you know, where we wanted, where we thought that she was at. We’ve been to that spot," said Pleasant Unity Fire Chief John Bacha, the incident's operations officer. “What happened at that point, I don’t know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her one direction. There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened at.” Trooper Cliff Greenfield said crews were still actively searching for Pollard. “We are hopeful that she’s found alive,” Greenfield said. Searchers were using electronic devices and cameras as surface digging continued with the use of heavy equipment, Bacha said. Search dogs may also be used. Rescue workers search through the night in a sinkhole for Elizabeth Pollard, who disappeared while looking for her cat, Tuesday in Marguerite, Pa. On Wednesday afternoon, machinery was removing material from the area around the hole while police and other government vehicles blocked a clear view of the scene. Sinkholes occur in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity. Rescuers had been using water to break down and remove clay and dirt from the mine, which has been closed since the 1950s, but that increased the risk “for potential other mine subsidence to take place," Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said. Crews lowered a pole camera with a sensitive listening device into the hole, but it detected nothing. Another camera lowered into the hole showed what could be a shoe about 30 feet below the surface, Limani said. Searchers have also deployed drones and thermal imaging equipment, to no avail. Marguerite Fire Chief Scot Graham, the incident commander, said access to the immediate area surrounding the hole was being tightly controlled and monitored, with rescuers attached by harness. The top of a sinkhole is seen Tuesday in the village of Marguerite, Pa., where rescuers searched for a woman who disappeared. “We cannot judge as to what’s going on underneath us. Again, you had a small hole on top but as soon as you stuck a camera down through to look, you had this big void,” Graham said. “And it was all different depths. The process is long, is tedious. We have to make sure that we are keeping safety in the forefront as well as the rescue effort.” Bacha said they were “hoping that there’s a void that she could still be in.” Pollard's family called police at about 1 a.m. Tuesday to say she had not been seen since going out at about 5 p.m. Monday to search for Pepper, her cat. The temperature dropped well below freezing that night. Her son, Axel Hayes, said Pollard is a happy woman who likes going out to have fun. She and her husband adopted Hayes and his twin brother when they were infants. Hayes called Pollard “a great person overall, a great mother” who “never really did anybody wrong.” He said at one point Pollard had about 10 cats. “Every cat that she’s ever come in contact with, she has a close bond with them,” Hayes said. His mother worked for many years at Walmart but recently was not employed, he said. “I’m just hoping right now that she’s still with us and she’s able to come back to us,” he said. Police said they found Pollard's car parked behind Monday's Union Restaurant in Marguerite, about 20 feet from the sinkhole. Hunters and restaurant workers in the area said they had not noticed the manhole-size opening in the hours before Pollard disappeared, leading rescuers to speculate that the sinkhole was new. “It almost feels like it opened up with her standing on top of it,” Limani said. Searchers accessed the mine late Tuesday afternoon and dug a separate entrance out of concern that the ground around the sinkhole opening was not stable. “Let’s be honest, we need to get a little bit lucky, right?” Limani said Wednesday. “We need a little bit of luck on our side. We need a little bit of God’s good blessing on our side.” Pollard lives in a small neighborhood across the street from where her car and granddaughter were located, Limani said. The young girl “nodded off in the car and woke up. Grandma never came back," Limani said. The child stayed in the car until two troopers rescued her. It's not clear what happened to Pepper. In an era of rapid technological advancement and environmental change, American agriculture is undergoing a revolution that reaches far beyond the farm gate. From the food on consumer plates to the economic health of rural communities, the transformation of U.S. farming practices is reshaping the nation's landscape in ways both visible and hidden. explores how these changes impact everyone, whether they live in the heartland or the heart of the city. The image of the small family farm, while still a reality for many, is increasingly giving way to larger, more technologically advanced operations. According to the USDA, from 6.8 million in 1935 to about 2 million today, with the average farm size growing from 155 acres to 444 acres. This shift has profound implications for rural communities and the food system as a whole. Despite these changes, diversity in farming practices is on the rise. A , involving data from over 2,000 farms across 11 countries, found that diversifying farmland simultaneously delivers environmental and social benefits. This challenges the longstanding idea that practices boosting biodiversity must come at a cost to yields and food security. The adoption of precision agriculture technologies is transforming how farmers manage their land and resources. GPS-guided tractors, drone surveillance, and AI-powered crop management systems are becoming commonplace on many farms. These technologies allow farmers to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides with pinpoint accuracy, reducing waste and environmental impact while improving yields. However, the digital divide remains a challenge. More than lack reliable broadband internet access, hindering the widespread implementation of AI and other advanced technologies in agriculture. While technology offers new opportunities, farmers are also facing significant economic challenges. The projects a 4.4% decline in net farm income from 2023, following a sharp 19.5% drop from 2022 to 2023. This financial pressure is compounded by rising production costs and market volatility. Climate variability adds another layer of complexity. Extreme weather events, changing precipitation patterns, and shifting growing seasons are forcing farmers to adapt quickly. These factors could over the coming decades without significant adaptation measures. But adapting requires additional financial resources, further straining farm profitability. In the face of these challenges, many farmers are turning to diversification as a strategy for resilience and profitability. The Science study mentioned earlier found that farms integrating several diversification methods supported more biodiversity while seeing simultaneous increases in human well-being and food security. Agritourism is one popular diversification strategy. In 2022, 28,600 U.S. farms reported agritourism income, averaging from these activities. Activities like farm tours, pick-your-own operations, and seasonal festivals not only provide additional income but also foster a deeper connection between consumers and agriculture. The changing face of agriculture is directly impacting consumers. The rise of farm-to-table and local food movements reflects a growing interest in where our food comes from and how it's produced. If every U.S. household spent just $10 per week on locally grown food, it would generate billions of dollars for local economies. However, the larger challenges in agriculture can also lead to price fluctuations at the grocery store. The projects that food-at-home prices will increase between 1.2% and 2.2% in 2024. Looking ahead, several innovations are poised to reshape agriculture: The transformation of American agriculture affects everyone, from the food we eat to the health of our environment and rural communities. Consumers have the power to support sustainable and diverse farming practices through our purchasing decisions. As citizens, they can advocate for policies that support farmers in adopting innovative and sustainable practices. The challenges facing agriculture are complex, but they also present opportunities for innovation and positive change. By understanding and engaging with these issues, everyone can play a part in shaping a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable food system for the future. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Golden at-bat idea brings critics to the plate: 'Absolutely stupid and ridiculous'
Innodata's INOD short percent of float has risen 12.5% since its last report. The company recently reported that it has 2.77 million shares sold short , which is 10.26% of all regular shares that are available for trading. Based on its trading volume, it would take traders 1.39 days to cover their short positions on average. Why Short Interest Matters Short interest is the number of shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. Short selling is when a trader sells shares of a company they do not own, with the hope that the price will fall. Traders make money from short selling if the price of the stock falls and they lose if it rises. Short interest is important to track because it can act as an indicator of market sentiment towards a particular stock. An increase in short interest can signal that investors have become more bearish, while a decrease in short interest can signal they have become more bullish. See Also: List of the most shorted stocks Innodata Short Interest Graph (3 Months) As you can see from the chart above the percentage of shares that are sold short for Innodata has grown since its last report. This does not mean that the stock is going to fall in the near-term but traders should be aware that more shares are being shorted. Comparing Innodata's Short Interest Against Its Peers Peer comparison is a popular technique amongst analysts and investors for gauging how well a company is performing. A company's peer is another company that has similar characteristics to it, such as industry, size, age, and financial structure. You can find a company's peer group by reading its 10-K, proxy filing, or by doing your own similarity analysis. According to Benzinga Pro , Innodata's peer group average for short interest as a percentage of float is 2.96%, which means the company has more short interest than most of its peers. Did you know that increasing short interest can actually be bullish for a stock? This post by Benzinga Money explains how you can profit from it. This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and was reviewed by an editor. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.SINGAPORE: In November, shocking news broke that the police were investigating teenage students from the Singapore Sports School for generating and circulating deepfake nude photos of their female schoolmates. Later that month, five ministers in Singapore and over 100 public servants across 31 government agencies received extortionary emails , demanding cryptocurrency payment in return for not publishing doctored images of them in compromising positions. These are Singapore’s latest cases of artificial intelligence (AI)-created deepfake sexual content – they will certainly not be the last, not here, not globally. In 2017, a Reddit thread offering fake videos of “Taylor Swift” having sex amassed 90,000 subscribers before being taken down eight weeks later. Last year in a small Spanish town, more than 20 young girls found their AI-generated nude photos circulating, created by teen boys accessing innocent photos off social media. AI may be trumpeted as the next big revolution, but the threat it poses is deeply nefarious. SINGAPORE TAKES ACTION Even before the Sports School incident, authorities in Singapore were girding against this new wave of online assault, with legislation passed or proposed along three prongs. The first is to regulate platforms where online content is accessed. The Broadcasting Act was amended in 2023, allowing the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to direct social media services – the gatekeepers of our cyber world – to block or remove egregious content within specified timelines and direct them to adhere to an online Code of Practice. Second, crimes in the analogue world but with a digital element can now be more effectively targeted, prevented and prosecuted. The Online Criminal Harms Act passed last year empowers authorities to issue directions to online service providers to restrict Singapore users’ exposure to online criminal content and activity. These include directions to prevent offending content from reaching, and restrict offending accounts from interacting with, persons in Singapore. WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS DOING But these would still not be a complete solution because the proliferation of deepfakes is a borderless problem. The international community needs to build consensus and cooperation on adopting and enforcing appropriate laws – to stem both the creation and spread of such content. Other nations have come at the problem from different angles. Australia has arguably the most developed governmental response to the online scourge, with an e-safety commission that was first established to tackle cyber harm against children. It passed a law on Nov 28 to ban children from social media until their 16th birthdays – the world’s first such legislation. While politically popular, a complete ban will be hard to enforce: It ignores that children today are digital natives. Virtual Private Network (VPN) access is an easy workaround. Bubble-wrapping kids is not the answer to developing resilient and discerning adults. The United Kingdom recently proposed measures to stop harmful deepfakes being created in the first place. For example, developers of AI models can apply filters to remove certain types of data from their training data sets and to prevent output with harmful content. A model can also be trained to reject prompt requests to create malicious or harmful deepfakes. These proposals pose their own challenges, including enforcement against rogue developers. China already has expansive rules requiring that manipulated material bear digital signatures or watermarks – while a potentially useful tool to help users identify AI-generated content, it offers cold comfort where pornographic deepfake content is circulated. BROADER IMPACT OF ONLINE HARMS Disturbingly, studies suggest that online harms are becoming increasingly normalised, with users thinking they are par for the course. In 2023, a survey by local non-profit SG Her Empowerment found that 20 per cent of respondents reported being “unaffected” because online harms were a “normal part of life”, while 66 per cent have taken to self-censorship. Instead of fighting the playground bully, people are staying away from the sandpit, and not understanding the harm being inflicted. If the internet brings with it the promise of equality through education and engagement, we are stumbling in our march of progress because of threats in cyberspace. And this is before we start to count the cost in mental health terms suffered by victims who find deepfake videos of themselves, no matter how speedily removed. From a gender perspective, the story is even bleaker. It is estimated that 95 per cent of deepfake porn is of women. Women are being disproportionately targeted online, potentially setting back progress made in gender equality. LAW ENFORCEMENT CAN ONLY GO SO FAR Law enforcement, by definition, comes in after the offending action – and the harm – has occurred. Enforcement is tough – creators of harmful content may be out of the territorial reach of our authorities and enjoy the anonymity the internet facilitates. Prevention is obviously even more challenging. What can individuals and the community do? First, the big DON’T – never share an offensive post even if it is to denounce it. Every repost is a fresh assault on the victim. Second, as a community we need to signal what are appropriate behaviours. The teenagers who created the deepfake nudes may well consider it a mere lark, without a real appreciation of the enormity of the harm. It is not enough to say “boys will be boys” – that simply avoids accountability. We need to have more conversations and agree, as a community, the boundaries of respectful conduct towards one another. Just as importantly, we need to think about what restorative justice would look like here. What kind of corrective training would be effective for perpetrators? Finally, victims should not be afraid to call out the perpetrator. Where a crime has been committed, report it to the authorities. If you know someone who has been the target, encourage them to take action. Survivors should not feel embarrassed; it is important that they take back control. While it looks like AI is here to stay, the true measure of society's progress is not in technology, but how we treat each other. Let's educate ourselves and act decisively before more victims become statistics in this alarming trend. Stefanie Yuen Thio is Joint Managing Partner and Stephanie Chew is Associate Director at TSMP Law Corporation.
A developer is cutting down trees again in the privately owned Lemay Forest in St. Norbert, which residents have long fought to save. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * A developer is cutting down trees again in the privately owned Lemay Forest in St. Norbert, which residents have long fought to save. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? A developer is cutting down trees again in the privately owned Lemay Forest in St. Norbert, which residents have long fought to save. Crews began clearing the area around 8 a.m. Monday. The planner for a potential housing project at the site said the owner received a permit to remove the trees in October. MAGGIE MACINTOSH / FREE PRESS FILES Crews began clearing the privately owned Lemay Forest in St. Norbert on Monday morning. “The landowner... (has) no intention of owning a wood lot. He doesn’t want to own a wood lot. It is private property and he’s removing the trees,” said John Wintrup. City council rejected a development plan for the site in September after municipal planners deemed it too big for the property. Tochal Development Group still wants to build its proposed 5,000-bed, 2,500-unit assisted-living facility on the property and has filed an appeal. The Manitoba Municipal Board will hear that appeal soon, said Wintrup. “It’s going to become Lemay Meadows. The landowner has no interest in owning a wood lot to provide an amenity for the surrounding neighbourhood. That’s not why people buy and own land,” he said. Initially, the developer asked government officials to determine if they were interested in buying the land to preserve the trees before concluding any offers fell far short of market value. The developer began chopping down trees in the forest in September, but stopped after the city issued a cease-and-desist order. At the time, city officials said a bylaw prohibited the removal of soil or vegetation from the land without a permit. Wintrup said the city granted the permit a few weeks later. He argues a desperate need for housing trumps demands to preserve the trees. “My client and I are housing advocates... And if it means removing trees to provide housing, it means removing trees,” he said. In an email, a city spokesman confirmed a permit to allow tree removal was issued on Oct. 18. “The city had previously issued a cease-and-desist order as that work was proceeding without a permit. As a result of the permit being issued, the cease-and-desist order was cancelled at that time,” said spokesman Adam Campbell. The city also expects the municipal board appeal will be heard in early 2025, he noted. Coun. Janice Lukes said the city doesn’t have a bylaw that protects trees on private land but council expects to vote on one next year. “This new tree protection bylaw can’t come soon enough... I’m fully supportive of more housing. We have to do more housing but we (also) have to find that balance between old trees and development,” said Lukes (Waverley West). The councillor noted she had urged the city to buy and preserve Lemay Forest in 2016 but the city didn’t budget money to do so. “We really need something in place to deal with this. (This developer’s) got every right to take those trees down,” said Lukes. Many residents had lobbied the three levels of government to step in to save the trees. Cat Macaulay Gauthier, a spokeswoman for the Coalition to Save Lemay Forest, said residents were surprised to see workers with chainsaws chop down more trees on Monday. “If you go outside, you can hear the large crack of massive trees coming down. It was all a surprise to everyone... This is just completely vindictive. It makes no sense,” said Macaulay Gauthier. She believes city planners were correct to find the proposal far too large for the site and had hoped trees would remain in place at least for now, since no development has been approved. “Our world, now more than ever, needs biodiverse green space for climate (mitigation)... for a growing city and all the benefits that a mature forest gives,” said Macaulay Gauthier. The city councillor whose ward includes Lemay Forest said it was disappointing to see tree-clearing resume now. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. “I’m concerned there’s no plan in place for development yet trees are being decimated,” said Coun. Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River). Chambers declined further comment, noting he’s been accused of bias related to the project. Wintrup said crews will continue to remove trees over the next two to four weeks, weather permitting, with the exception of some holiday breaks. joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca X: @joyanne_pursaga Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the before joining the in early 2020. . Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the before joining the in early 2020. . Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement Advertisement
Apple accused of spreading 'fake news' about Luigi Mangione READ MORE: iPhone users say iOS 18.2 RUINED their battery life By ELLYN LAPOINTE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 22:16, 17 December 2024 | Updated: 22:38, 17 December 2024 e-mail View comments Apple has been accused of spreading fake news about Luigi Mangione. The British Broadcasting Cooperation ( BBC ) has filed a complaint after the tech giant's new Apple Intelligence generated a misleading summary of a BBC news article about the alleged assassin. The summary suggested that Mangione had shot himself. It read: 'Luigi Mangione shoots himself; Syrian mother hopes Assad pays the price; South Korea police raid Yoon Suk Yeol's office,' in reference to three articles that had supposedly been published by the BBC. The summarized notifications feature is a part of Apple Intelligence, Apple's new AI system which launched in the UK on December 11. Notification summaries appear at the top of a stack of notifications from the same app and are supposed to give the user an overview of things they missed. After identifying the error, a spokesperson for the BBC contacted Apple 'to raise this concern and fix the problem,' according to the broadcaster. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate Mangione is alive and in jail in Pennsylvania, awaiting an extradition hearing after being charged with shooting and killing UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson. The British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) has filed a complaint to Apple after the tech giant's AI generated a false headline stating Luigi Mangione shot himself The notification read: 'Luigi Mangione shoots himself; Syrian mother hopes Assad pays the price; South Korea police raid Yoon Suk Yeol's office,' in reference to three articles that had supposedly been published by the BBC 'BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world,' said the unnamed BBC spokesperson . 'It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications.' Apple did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. The BBC pointed out that this isn't the first time Apple Intelligence has given misleading summaries of news articles. On November 21, the New York Times suffered from a similar mistake. The AI grouped three articles together in one notification, with the first part reading 'Netanyahu arrested,' referring to the Israeli prime minister. This wrongly summarized a New York Times report about the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. The prime minister has not been arrested, nor did the newspaper incorrectly report that he has been. The New York Times has not publicly acknowledged the error and declined to comment to BBC news. At this time, whether the paper contacted Apple about this matter remains unclear. The mistakes appear to be relatively widespread. Numerous iPhone users have shared screenshots of notification summaries that are inaccurate and sometimes nonsensical. The New York Times suffered from a similar mistake in November. The AI grouped three articles together in one notification, with the first part reading 'Netanyahu arrested' Numerous iPhone users have shared screenshots of notification summaries that are inaccurate and sometimes downright nonsensical The notification summaries feature will summarize texts, too, sometimes with alarming inaccuracy 'Big fan of Apple Intelligence's summary feature—mainly because it turns every boring notification I wouldn't previously read into a cute little mystery to unwrap,' one X user posted with a screenshot of an Apple News summary. Read More iPhone users SLAM the iOS 18.2 update - as one vents Apple has made the Mail app 'nearly unusable' The summarized notification read: 'Love salmon might not be a good idea; polar bears are back in Britain.' This feature doesn't just summarize news articles. It can also summarize your messages, sometimes with alarming inaccuracy. Another X user posted a screenshot of Apple Intelligence's attempt to summarize a text from their mom. It read: 'Attempted suicide, but recovered and hiked in Redlands and Palm Springs,' when the actual message apparently read: 'That hike almost killed me!' These screenshots are unverified, but they are among many other reports of similar issues with the Apple Intelligence feature. While some of them may be easy to laugh at, there are dangers associated with misreporting facts in this way. Prof Petros Iosifidis, a professor in media policy at City University in London, told BBC News that there are potential advantages to this type of feature, 'but the technology is not there yet and there is a real danger of spreading disinformation.' 'I can see the pressure getting to the market first, but I am surprised that Apple put their name on such demonstrably half-baked product,' he said. Apple has not stated whether they are working to fix the feature. So for the time being, iPhone users will have to be wary of information conveyed in these summaries. Luigi Mangione New York Times Share or comment on this article: Apple accused of spreading 'fake news' about Luigi Mangione e-mail Add commentPlayStation CEO says ‘preserving the human touch’ is vital as AI proliferates - Polygon
S&P/TSX composite index slightly up Wednesday, U.S. stock markets also rise
NASA's 2 stuck astronauts face more time in space with return delayed until at least late MarchHELSINKI — Two Chinese astronauts completed a record-setting extravehicular activity outside Tiangong space station Tuesday. Shenzhou-19 commander Cai Xuzhe, wearing a Feitian extravehicular activity suit marked with red, exited the Wentian experiment module hatch of the Tiangong space station at 11:51 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 16 (0451 UTC, Dec. 17). Cai attached himself to Tiangong’s robotic arm and retrieved equipment needed for the EVA from the airlock, assisted by crewmate Song Lingdong. Song, in a suit with blue markings, exited Wentian at 1:32 a.m. Dec. 17 (0632 UTC) to perform his tasks, according to China Central Television (CCTV). Signatures from previous users of the spacesuits are visible on the Fetian primary life support systems in video of the spacewalk. Crewmate Wang Haoze assisted operations from inside Tiangong’s Tianhe module, while the operation also received support from the ground. Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong returned to the Wentian module and closed the hatch at 8:57 a.m. Eastern (1357 UTC), according to China’s human spaceflight agency, CMSEO. The astronauts carried out installation of space debris protection devices, the inspection and handling of external equipment and facilities. The installation of protective panels was described as to protect cables and pipelines of the thermal control equipment outside the Tianhe module from debris, CCTV reported, citing a researcher from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which built and launched the space station modules. The #Shenzhou19 crew members, who are currently aboard #China 's space station, successfully completed their first extravehicular activity (EVA) after more than nine hours, setting a new record for the duration of an EVA conducted by Chinese astronauts. https://t.co/6Vj9MGcc33 pic.twitter.com/IHkgSiI9ac — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 17, 2024 The EVA duration of 9 hours, 6 minutes appears to surpass the previous record for a spacewalk of 8 hours, 56 minutes set by NASA astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms during the STS-102 mission in 2001. Notably, the China National Space Administration has previously stated that Feitian suits are designed to support a working time of eight hours, while having a service life of three years and can be used 15 times. CMSEO and Chinese state media Xinhua reported the EVA as a record duration of extravehicular activities by Chinese astronauts. The spacewalk was the first of the Shenzhou-19 mission. CMSA announced the event would take place “in the near future” Dec. 16. It is the 17th spacewalk outside of Tiangong. China’s first spacewalk took place in 2008 during the Shenzhou-7 mission. The Shenzhou-19 spacecraft arrived at Tiangong Oct. 29 for a six-month-long stay aboard the space station. It is Cai’s second mission to space, following his participation in the 2022 Shenzhou-14 mission, during which he embarked on an EVA. It is the first mission to space for Song and Wang. The Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft arrived at the orbital outpost Nov. 15 to deliver supplies, fuel and experiments. Shenzhou-19 is China’s 14th crewed spaceflight mission to date. The crew will conduct a number of extravehicular activities and will carry out 86 science experiments and projects, according to CMSEO. A number of these are related to life sciences, including studying fruit flies in a sub-magnetic facility. China approved its Tiangong space station plan in 1992. It began building the three-module, T-shaped low Earth orbit outpost in 2021. It was completed in late 2022. CMSEO is preparing to expand Tiangong in the coming years.
Amazon now makes some of its chips: “ Amazon ’s cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services Tuesday announced plans for an “Ultracluster,” a massive AI supercomputer made up of hundreds of thousands of its homegrown Trainium chips, as well as a new server, the latest efforts by its AI chip design lab based in Austin, Texas. The chip cluster will be used by the AI startup Anthropic, in which the retail and cloud-computing giant recently invested an additional $4 billion.“ -WSJ Apple to use its own modem on some products: “ Apple will release its own modem next spring as it looks to replace technology from rival Qualcomm, Bloomberg reports, citing anonymous sources. The in-house modem, code-named Sinope, will debut in the iPhone SE, Apple’s entry-level smartphone.” – LinkedIn News What is going on? After years of neglect, companies are now looking for how hardware will catch up with software. Yes, the advancement of software systems is multiples ahead of hardware, even though there is a limitation for any software system, bounded by hardware. In other words, to advance those clicks, you have to have the hardware to process and compute them, and when there is a limitation on hardware, software underperforms. Nvidia picked that construct and touched the face of alpha-wealth. Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025 ) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts. Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here. Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and i nvest in Africa’s finest startups here . However, Nvidia chips are very expensive and that will limit participation of many companies and countries in the productive part of AI development and evolution, over mere acceleration of consumerism. The question becomes: how do you solve the hardware problems, and tap into the opportunities? You need to recruit, train and deploy the capabilities of young people. Interestingly, in the next decade, that broad electronics and microelectronics domain will be a huge career opportunity in tech as hardware will take years to evolve to support the AI era. Nigeria has a massive opportunity in this space. There was a time we exported software engineers via Andela, etc, the next age will be hardware guys! If Nigeria’s National Universities Commission can offer a small waiver, to give a temporary license, to run and operate a focused technical university*, on presentation of fund availability of N5 billion, Tekedia Capital will work with partners to set up such a school in Nigeria. Upon the presentation of this license, takeoff will happen within 24 months. But the requirement to build a campus before a license is issued does not work with our US institutional technical partners. Our vision is not to ask students to pay full tuition, but pay when they start work, and we plan to help on job placements. Who can help to make this happen for that license? *this has to be a university to attract the smartest kids. Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here .
Justin Trudeau taking the time to reflect following Freeland departureSmart Aquaculture - Water Quality Online Monitoring System
It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. "The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more," Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. "There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie," said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction." In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation, did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the "no-fault findings," as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report, Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist "saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities." But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's "decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable." A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug "then entered the market through illegal channels," he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles," Li said. "The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice." This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. "Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated," he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. "It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. "Which clearly it has not." Get local news delivered to your inbox!None