Ars Technica – USPS sticks with decision to buy inefficient 8.6 mpg trucks

Feb 252022
 

Enlarge / The Next Gen Delivery Vehicle looks adorably goofy, but the vast majority of these new mail trucks will belch almost exactly as much carbon dioxide into the air as the old Grumman LLV trucks. (credit: USPS)
In February 2021, the United States Postal Service made a controversial decision to replace its fleet of aging and inefficient mail trucks with a new fleet made up almost entirely of new, inefficient diesel mail trucks. Although the vast majority of USPS delivery routes are ideally suited for electric vehicles, the USPS decided that a mere 10 percent of the planned order would be battery electric.
In early February 2022, that decision resulted in severe criticism…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1836404

 2022-02-25  Comments Off on Ars Technica – USPS sticks with decision to buy inefficient 8.6 mpg trucks

Internet Archive Blogs – A Long Bet Pays Off

Feb 252022
 

11 years ago, on the site longbets.org, a friendly wager was made between two mavens of the web: Jeremy Keith and Matthew Haughey. The bet, to be revisited a decade and a year later, would be whether the URL of their wager at Long Bets would survive to a point in the semi-distant future. That is, this day, February 22nd, 2022, (2/22/2022). As of this writing, the URL absolutely has survived. Therefore, the Internet Archive shall receive a $1,000 donation from Mr. Keith and Mr. Haughey ($500 apiece), provided from an escrow account that has held the funds since the day of the wager. (We shout out to the Bletchly Park Trust, a…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://blog.archive.org/2022/02/22/a-long-bet-pays-off/

 2022-02-25  Comments Off on Internet Archive Blogs – A Long Bet Pays Off

Boing Boing – This creepy baby-doll head is also a Theremin

Feb 252022
 

If you think the sound of a Theremin is spooky on its own, then check out the Baby Head Theremin. The person playing this instrument just has to move their hands around the evil little head with glowing red eyes to make sounds come out. — Read the rest

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2022/02/24/this-creepy-baby-doll-head-is-also-a-theremin.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-creepy-baby-doll-head-is-also-a-theremin

 2022-02-25  Comments Off on Boing Boing – This creepy baby-doll head is also a Theremin

TorrentFreak – TVAddons’ Adam Lackman Admits TV Show Piracy, Agrees to Pay US$19.5m

Feb 242022
 

Mid-June 2017 and in the wake of a lawsuit filed in the United States by broadcaster DISH Network, TVAddons – the largest third-party Kodi add-on repository at the time – disappeared from the Internet.
All signs pointed to the events being connected but by August 2017, a bigger picture was emerging.
On June 2, 2017, a coalition of Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, had filed a copyright complaint in Canada’s Federal Court against Montreal resident Adam Lackman, the man behind TVAddons.
The plaintiffs’ case against Lackman ran to 18 pages and contained claims that he communicated copyrighted TV shows including Game of Thrones, Prison Break,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-adam-lackman-admits-tv-show-piracy-agrees-to-pay-us14-5m-220224/

 2022-02-24  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – TVAddons’ Adam Lackman Admits TV Show Piracy, Agrees to Pay US$19.5m

Ars Technica – An asteroid killed dinosaurs in spring—which might explain why mammals survived

Feb 242022
 

An international team of scientists used synchrotron radiation to image and analyze fossilized fish from the Tanis deposit in North Dakota.
Some 66 million years ago, a catastrophic event wiped out three-quarters of all plant and animal species on Earth, most notably taking down the dinosaurs. The puzzle of why so many species perished while others survived has long intrigued scientists.
A new paper published in the journal Nature concludes that one reason for this evolutionary selectivity is the timing of the impact. Based on their analysis of fossilized fish killed immediately after the impact, the authors have determined that the extinction event occurred in the spring—at least in the Northern Hemisphere—interrupting the annual reproductive cycles of…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1835967

 2022-02-24  Comments Off on Ars Technica – An asteroid killed dinosaurs in spring—which might explain why mammals survived

Ballot Access News – North Carolina Files Brief in Support of its Right to Consider Whether Congressman Madison Cawthorn Meets Qualifications

Feb 242022
 

On February 22, North Carolina filed this brief in Cawthorn v Circosta, e.d., 5:22cv-50. This is the lawsuit over whether the state has the ability to make a decision on whether congressional candidates should be barred from a ballot because they don’t meet the qualifications listed in the Fourteenth Amendment, section three, concerning insurrection. The hearing is February 28.

The brief says the Socialist Party congressman from Wisconsin, Victor Berger, was unseated by the U.S. House in 1919 for violating the Espionage Act. The state cites this example to show that the amnesty acts passed in the 19th century for ex-Confederates did not eliminate the force of section three of the Fourteenth Amendment.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://ballot-access.org/2022/02/23/north-carolina-files-brief-in-support-of-its-right-to-consider-whether-congressman-madison-cawthorn-meets-qualifications/

 2022-02-24  Comments Off on Ballot Access News – North Carolina Files Brief in Support of its Right to Consider Whether Congressman Madison Cawthorn Meets Qualifications

Motherboard – Pentagon Says ‘Nintendo Generation’ Has Weak Skeletons

Feb 242022
 

According to a U.S. Army major, America’s youth are living a sedentary life that makes them fragile, prone to injury, and harder to successfully and easily transition from civilian life to the military. The news comes from an official press release posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, a hub of official pictures, videos, and news published by the Pentagon The article, titled “Why Today’s ‘Gen Z’ is at Risk for Boot Camp Injuries” interviewed Army Maj. Jon-Marc Thibodeau—a clinical coordinator in charge of medical readiness at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. When asked about the youth of today, Maj. Thibodeau was straightforward. “The ‘Nintendo Generation’ soldier skeleton is not toughened by activity prior to…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/88gk4p/pentagon-says-nintendo-generation-has-weak-skeletons

 2022-02-24  Comments Off on Motherboard – Pentagon Says ‘Nintendo Generation’ Has Weak Skeletons

TorrentFreak – TVAddons’ Adam Lackman Admits TV Show Piracy, Agrees to Pay US$14.5m

Feb 242022
 

Mid-June 2017 and in the wake of a lawsuit filed in the United States by broadcaster DISH Network, TVAddons – the largest third-party Kodi add-on repository at the time – disappeared from the Internet.
All signs pointed to the events being connected but by August 2017, a bigger picture was emerging.
On June 2, 2017, a coalition of Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, had filed a copyright complaint in Canada’s Federal Court against Montreal resident Adam Lackman, the man behind TVAddons.
The plaintiffs’ case against Lackman ran to 18 pages and contained claims that he communicated copyrighted TV shows including Game of Thrones, Prison Break,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-adam-lackman-admits-tv-show-piracy-agrees-to-pay-us14-5m-220224/

 2022-02-24  Comments Off on TorrentFreak – TVAddons’ Adam Lackman Admits TV Show Piracy, Agrees to Pay US$14.5m

Techdirt. – Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions ‘Actively Destructive To Video Game History’

Feb 232022
 

I’ve been banging on a bit lately about the importance of video game preservation as a matter of art preservation. It’s not entirely clear to me how much buy in there is out there in general on this concept, but it’s a challenge in this specific industry because much of the control over what can be preserved or not sits in the hands of game publishers and platforms compared with other forms of art. Books have libraries, films have the academies and museums, and music is decently preserved all over the place. But for gaming, even organizations like the Video Game History Foundation have to rely on publishers and platforms to let them do their work,…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20220218/09061748496/video-game-history-foundation-nintendo-actions-actively-destructive-to-video-game-history.shtml

 2022-02-23  Comments Off on Techdirt. – Video Game History Foundation: Nintendo Actions ‘Actively Destructive To Video Game History’

Hackaday – Winamp Reborn with the Adafruit PyPortal

Feb 222022
 

One look at the default Winamp skin is sure to reawaken fond memories for a certain segment of the community. For those who experienced the MP3 revolution first hand, few audio players stick out in the mind like Winamp and its llama whipping reputation. No, the proprietary Windows-only media player isn’t the sort of thing you’d catch us recommending these days; but it was the 1990s, and things were very different.
For those who want to relive those heady peer-to-peer days, [Tim C] has posted a tutorial on how to turn Adafruit’s PyPortal into a touch screen MP3 player that faithfully recreates the classic Winamp look. As you can see in the video below it certainly nails…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2022/02/20/winamp-reborn-with-the-adafruit-pyportal/

 2022-02-22  Comments Off on Hackaday – Winamp Reborn with the Adafruit PyPortal

jwz – Robot war dogs hunting migrants now

Feb 172022
 

Dystopian robot dogs are the latest in a long history of US-Mexico border surveillance:Each is embedded with different types of cameras (thermal, night vision, long-range) and sensors (chemical, weapons detection). DHS praised the device’s ability to cross multiple terrains — including sand, rocks and hills — and its durability in high heat and cramped spaces.DHS’ choice of vendor sparked additional concern. While most police departments leased their pups from Boston Dynamics, which forbids customers weaponizing any of their tech, DHS chose Philadelphia-based Ghost Robotics. Late last year, the company debuted a version of its robot dogs equipped with long-range guns capable of hitting targets at a reported 1,200 meters.DHS’s oddly cheery blogpost also implied the robots…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2022/02/robot-war-dogs-hunting-migrants-now/

 2022-02-17  Comments Off on jwz – Robot war dogs hunting migrants now

jwz – Today is the end of mask mandates, which is why my tests finally arrived.

Feb 172022
 

Got my 4 squares of toilet paper in the mail today! I signed up 30 days ago, on Jan 18. I gather that I must share these with the other 150+ people who live in my building, since only one of us was allowed to order them. But today is also the day that San Francisco dropped its masking requirements, against the guidance of the CDC and WHO. Because if we’re all just over it then that means it’s over, right? That’s how it works, right?But I guess Maskless Mayor Breed is just following the political winds and doing what the people want, right? Oh wait, strike that, reverse it.And in case you hadn’t tried it…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.jwz.org/blog/2022/02/today-is-the-end-of-mask-mandates-which-is-why-my-tests-finally-arrived/

 2022-02-17  Comments Off on jwz – Today is the end of mask mandates, which is why my tests finally arrived.

Deeplinks – Not Just San Francisco: Police Across the Country are Retaining and Searching DNA of Victims and Innocent People

Feb 162022
 

This week we learned that San Francisco Police used a woman’s own DNA—collected years earlier as part of an investigation into her sexual assault—to charge her for an unrelated property crime. What’s worse—it appears the S.F. police routinely search victims’ DNA in criminal investigations.
This practice is possible because San Francisco has been storing DNA gathered from rape survivors in the same local database where it stores DNA from rape assailants and other suspects. The San Francisco District Attorney stated the database potentially includes thousands of victims’ DNA profiles, with entries over “many, many years.”
This is not the first time San Francisco has had problems with its DNA crime lab. In 2010, the SF Weekly reported…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/not-just-san-francisco-police-across-country-are-retaining-and-searching-dna

 2022-02-16  Comments Off on Deeplinks – Not Just San Francisco: Police Across the Country are Retaining and Searching DNA of Victims and Innocent People

The Onion – Boston Dynamics Dog Unstoppable At Puppy Bowl

Feb 142022
 

GLENS FALLS, NY—Breaking its own record after scoring a touchdown to rack up its 600th point within the first quarter, the Boston Dynamics dog appeared unstoppable at the Puppy Bowl, sources confirmed Sunday. “It looks like Nacho is headed into the end zone, and—oh no, another brutal tackle from Spot, the robotic…

Read more…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://www.theonion.com/super-bowl-boston-dynamics-dog-unstoppable-at-puppy-bow-1848516968

 2022-02-14  Comments Off on The Onion – Boston Dynamics Dog Unstoppable At Puppy Bowl

Planet PostgreSQL – Hubert ‘depesz’ Lubaczewski: How much disk space you can save by using INT4/INT instead of INT8/BIGINT?

Feb 132022
 

Lately there have been couple of discussions on IRC, Slack, and Reddit that showed that people assume that by using int4/integer they use 4 bytes less than they would in case of int8/bigint. This is not really the case. Let me explain why. First quick test. On my computer, which is running some Ryzen processor, … Continue reading “How much disk space you can save by using INT4/INT instead of INT8/BIGINT?”

External feed Read More at the Source: https://postgr.es/p/5fT

 2022-02-13  Comments Off on Planet PostgreSQL – Hubert ‘depesz’ Lubaczewski: How much disk space you can save by using INT4/INT instead of INT8/BIGINT?
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