#network cost reduction

[cigarbands]

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[ableism]

I know i’m functionally a gay DARE officer at this point but I do in fact feel some sort of way about Cocaine being back in vogue. Surely I sound like a square + narc and I’ll concede ok do whatever you want, nobody can materially stop another person from using drugs if they really want to 🤷🏻 I don’t really care that it’s hip to do party drugs, moreso I want to articulate a general level of caution and concern that I never see a sidecar of harm reduction and safe using practices along with the commonplace clips of people straight up snorting coke I’ve seen for “brat summer!!!1!!”

You 🫵 are not immune to ingesting fentanyl or any number of other additives. Do you think drugs at the gay club are different than the drugs people are taking under bridges and in gutters? I promise they’re not! So if you want to use drugs and continue being alive, do your part to be safe. Protecting yourself protects others and your community.

Do not accept drugs from strangers. Test your drugs with fentanyl test strips. Carry narcan and know how to administer it. Never use alone. Have an exit strategy if you’re using drugs in a public space. Know the contact information for your local harm reduction groups, overdose emergency hotline, and if you need/want it, addiction treatment orgs. This is all the bare minimum for community care if you intend to be out in the world using drugs. Mainly I encourage you all to be buzzkills if it means you don’t have to die of an accidental overdose. Overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans under 40. I have a whole lot of social workers in my network and however bad you think the synthetic opioid crisis is, it’s worse. The war stories I’ve heard from my people on the ground are… The shit of nightmares. Don’t let it be you or anybody you love.

If you live in the state of Georgia, DM me for a longer list of resources.

Fentanyl information (harm reduction.org)

Get Narcan

How to use fentanyl test strips

Call 311 to find out where to get Narcan in your community at no cost to you

[reasonsforhope]

"A 1-megawatt sand battery that can store up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy will be 10 times larger than a prototype already in use.

The new sand battery will eliminate the need for oil-based energy consumption for the entire town of town of Pornainen, Finland.

Sand gets charged with clean electricity and stored for use within a local grid.

Finland is doing sand batteries big. Polar Night Energy already showed off an early commercialized version of a sand battery in Kankaanpää in 2022, but a new sand battery 10 times that size is about to fully rid the town of Pornainen, Finland of its need for oil-based energy.

In cooperation with the local Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö, Polar Night Energy will develop a 1-megawatt sand battery capable of storing up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy.

“With the sand battery,” Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, said in a statement, “we can significantly reduce energy produced by combustion and completely eliminate the use of oil.”

Polar Night Energy introduced the first commercial sand battery in 2022, with local energy utility Vatajankoski. “Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy,” Markku Ylönen, Polar Nigh Energy’s co-founder and CTO, said in a statement at the time. “The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.” ...

Sand—a high-density, low-cost material that the construction industry discards [Note: 6/13/24: Turns out that's not true! See note at the bottom for more info.] —is a solid material that can heat to well above the boiling point of water and can store several times the amount of energy of a water tank. While sand doesn’t store electricity, it stores energy in the form of heat. To mine the heat, cool air blows through pipes, heating up as it passes through the unit. It can then be used to convert water into steam or heat water in an air-to-water heat exchanger. The heat can also be converted back to electricity, albeit with electricity losses, through the use of a turbine.

In Pornainen, Paajanen believes that��just by switching to a sand battery—the town can achieve a nearly 70 percent reduction in emissions from the district heating network and keep about 160 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually. In addition to eliminating the usage of oil, they expect to decrease woodchip combustion by about 60 percent.

The sand battery will arrive ready for use, about 42 feet tall and 49 feet wide. The new project’s thermal storage medium is largely comprised of soapstone, a byproduct of Tulikivi’s production of heat-retaining fireplaces. It should take about 13 months to get the new project online, but once it’s up and running, the Pornainen battery will provide thermal energy storage capacity capable of meeting almost one month of summer heat demand and one week of winter heat demand without recharging.

“We want to enable the growth of renewable energy,” Paajanen said. “The sand battery is designed to participate in all Fingrid’s reserve and balancing power markets. It helps to keep the electricity grid balanced as the share of wind and solar energy in the grid increases.”"

-via Popular Mechanics, March 13, 2024

--

Note: I've been keeping an eye on sand batteries for a while, and this is really exciting to see. We need alternatives to lithium batteries ASAP, due to the grave human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by lithium mining, and sand batteries look like a really good solution for grid-scale energy storage.

--

Note 6/13/24: Unfortunately, turns out there are substantial issues with sand batteries as well, due to sand scarcity. More details from a lovely asker here, sources on sand scarcity being a thing at the links: x, x, x, x, x

[mitigatedchaos]

Election 2024

EigenRobot's opinion for you all this election eve.

I expect that whoever wins this election, I'm going to have to shift my writing towards the other side.

Unless Kamala suddenly becomes assertive and independent-minded, very much unlike what we've seen so far, and starts disciplining the left coalition, the capability of institutions is likely to continue to decline under a Harris administration, with something like an amnesty grant making direct future challenges less feasible. Today's left are off-the-charts conformist - I've never seen anything like it - and with this, there is a tremendous disregard for inconvenient reality in the face of social opinion. (It's anti-agentic, which is bad for the meta-rational thinking needed to update formal systems.)

Their selection criteria for personnel disregard merit in favor of credentials, and use credentials as political rewards. With each round the quality of personnel will get worse. This is not sustainable, so it will not be sustained - alternative institutions will have to grow in the shadow of declining state capacity.

If Trump wins, and they start cutting back on agencies, there is likely to be more economic growth, but Republicans don't have a good stack for actually replacing all of these agency personnel with highly agentic, highly intelligent, mission-driven individuals. In a sense, this limits the potential damage, as they'll have to continue hiring a lot of blues due to manpower shortages, just as they already do.

However, the reduction in agency power may lead to increased corporate power, leading to increased influence suppressing the re-emergence of agency power on a correct trajectory and lead to a cyberpunk dystopia. Today's US left aren't set up to even discuss how to prevent a cyberpunk dystopia, because they're all-in on censorship, to the point that they can't even consider the implications of the science fiction stuff happening all around them.

There are two big changes to the dimensions of human life coming down the pipes during the next 20 years.

The first is the obvious one, artificial intelligence. AI increases the dimensionality, the richness of the response, of machines in production systems. This makes capital, as controlled by AI, more like labor.

It is the opinion of Samo Burja that automation will not arrive fast enough to outpace tightness of labor supply caused by collapsing birthrates, which are falling all over the world.

The second big change is genetic engineering.

While people weren't paying attention, the FDA have approved multiple monogenic gene therapies. The costs are staggering now, running a range from around $500,000 to $3 million dollars, but if it's anything like gene sequencing costs, which fell from $100M to $1,000 per genome over about 25 years, it will fall rapidly towards the price of surgery.

If the price does fall, this means that a gene is no longer a life sentence. Something that's genetic will be more likely to be something that can be changed. Most major ideologies right now are based on the assumption that genes can't be changed. Gene therapy has not yet reached the periphery of people's social networks, so, mentally, people still treat it as "sci-fi."

So that's my assessment. The blue candidate is low-variance short-termism. The red candidate is high-variance medium-termism. You have to decide how comfortable you are with risk. You have to estimate what you think the current rate of burn is.

If you can't bring yourself to accept either of them, you can still vote and leave the "President" portion of the ballot blank.

The good news is, both vice presidential candidates are smarter and more civilized than both presidential candidates. For what it's worth, my read is that Vance is smarter and more focused on long-term issues than Walz.

[mariacallous]

The New Zealand government has been accused of waging a “war on nature” after it announced sweeping cuts to climate action projects, while making no significant new investments in environmental protection or climate crisis-related policy.

In its 2024/25 budget, handed down on Thursday, the rightwing coalition announced spending on law and order, education, health and a series of tax cuts, as the country struggles with inflation and cost-of-living pressures.

Finance minister Nicola Willis, who delivered the budget against the backdrop of a technical recession and widening government deficits, said it was a “fiscally responsible budget” that was “putting New Zealanders’ money where it can make the biggest difference”.

But absent from the budget documents was any meaningful new spending on the climate crisis. Instead, dozens of climate-related initiatives, including programmes in the Emissions Reductions Plan and funding for data and evidence specialists were subject to sweeping cuts.

In a media release, climate change minister Simon Watts said “responsible and effective climate related initiatives that support New Zealand to reduce emissions, and adapt to the future effects of climate change are a priority.”

He said the government would invest to reach those goals, including funding climate resilience projects such as stop banks and floodwalls through the Regional Infrastructure Fund, a $200m boost for the Rail Network Improvement Programme, and extending the reach of the Waste Disposal Levy to support a wider range of waste-related and environmental activities.

When asked by the Guardian if there was any significant new funding directed towards tackling climate change and environmental protection, Watts pointed to the resilience projects.

Meanwhile, the environment minister, Penny Simmonds, told the Guardian the increases to the waste levy “will mean a broader range of environmental projects can be funded”, including waste disposal in emergencies, cleaning up contaminated sites and freshwater improvement.

But critics said the government’s approach to protecting the environment and tackling climate change was backward looking, while climate resilience projects were the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff without future-facing climate mitigation plans.

Meanwhile, the rail improvement programme was understood to be focused on existing rail lines. It was unclear if it included new rail projects. Changes to the waste disposal levy involved mostly reallocating existing funds.

The Labour opposition called the budget a “catastrophe” that was “taking us backwards”.

The only new investment in the environment section of the budget was a $23m annual commitment to pushing through the government’s resource management changes, including a controversial fast-track bill that could see conservation concerns ignored and projects once rejected for environmental reasons given the green light.

The government says it has found $102m in savings and revenue per year across the environment sector through various cuts, including cutting climate change programmes, reducing spending on specialists that provide evidence and data including updates to environmental standards, monitoring and reporting and scaling back funding for the Climate Change Commission, which advises the government on climate change policy.

In conservation, another $33m a year will be cut. There is a $1m annual investment listed in the budget documents, but government officials could not explain where this money would go, citing “commercial sensitivities”.

The programmes and areas related to climate policy that are subject to cuts across government included:

Māori knowledge-based approaches to agricultural emissions reduction

Community-based renewable energy schemes

The Climate Change Commission

External and internal specialists who supply evidence and data on environmental monitoring and science

Freshwater policy initiatives

Native forest planting

Development of a circular economy, relating to recycling and reuse

Jobs for Nature, a programme creating jobs to benefit the environment

Reducing biosecurity monitoring

New Zealand is still rebuilding from massive destruction caused by 2023’s deadly Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, which killed 11 people and laid waste to large swathes of the North Island’s east coast.

Among the spending promises in the budget was $1bn to rebuild the regions hit by these disasters.

Human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones (though the overall number a year has not changed globally). This is because warming oceans provide more energy, producing stronger storms.

‘Head in the coal’

Green party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick described the government as a “coalition of cowards” that was allowing the climate crisis to “rage on unchallenged” and whose attack on the climate would ripple through future generations.

“The other day, government parties said, ‘drill, baby, drill,’ and today, they may as well have said, ‘burn, baby, burn’,” Swarbrick said, adding that the budget had seen funding from almost every major programme in the Emissions Reduction Plan gutted.

The government was “choosing to bury its head in the coal,” she said. “It has made the choice to put cynical politics ahead of people and planet, serving the short-term interests of wealthy donors over the wellbeing of all of us.”

The first budget from the rightwing coalition – made up of the centre-right National party, libertarian ACT party and populist NZ First – is a sharp departure from the previous Labour government’s commitments to protecting the environment. In 2017, Labour prime minister Jacinda Ardern said climate change was her generation’s nuclear-free moment and put climate policies high on her agenda.

In 2022, her government unveiled the most significant announcement on climate change action in the country’s history – $4.5bn for a climate emergency response fund (CERF) to try to drive a low-emissions economy and prepare the country for the effects of climate collapse.

On Thursday, the government said $2.6bn of climate change initiatives previously funded by CERF would continue, including a public network of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, decarbonising public transport, and public transport concessions for community service card holders.

But the climate change minister also said the government would discontinue the practice of ring-fencing money raised through emissions trading for that climate fund, meaning the previous government’s ambitious fund would be absorbed into the usual budget process.

Environmental group Forest and Bird said the budget signalled another blow in the government’s “war on nature”, and singled out its funding of the fast track bill.

“The government’s biggest new investment in the environment is to implement reforms that are going to cause untold environmental harm through the fast track,” said Richard Capie, the organisation’s general manager for conservation.

“In the middle of a climate emergency, you don’t walk away from investing in climate action – this isn’t business as usual, and to call it such is head-in-the-sand stuff.”

[sergle]

i know u said u don't have insurance, but have u considered just buying your own insurance? surely that will be less than 23k (i imagine it will be roughly 700 per month). u could even get on a PPO plan from a state with good medical coverage like Massachusetts (blue cross). even the out of network out-of-pocket maximum will be way less than 23k minus the annual cost of coverage.

okay, so the plan is: buy my own insurance (easy) (will be done quickly) (easy), find a hospital/specialist that takes said insurance (easy) (the places covered by insurance will definitely give me good results) (having my choices narrowed down won't sacrifice quality), or check the surgeons I've rustled up myself (the insurance will def cover). then I'll get the reduction (this will be quick) (there will be no hoops to jump through) (I will not have to explore "other options" for a number of months / up to a couple years to assure I've ruled out other means of pain management) (I won't have to do a ~year of physio) (I will qualify) (I won't have to wait a long time) (I will not have to be a certain BMI) and get the amount of tissue/weight removed that I've been wanting (the coverage won't specify the amount I'm to have removed), and bing bang boom, my life is fixed

[rjzimmerman]

I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, so this story resonates deeply with me. Way too many of my high school friends died young from heart and lung diseases easily traceable to the crud in the air we all breathed for years.

Excerpt from this story from the Chicago Tribune:

The “Dirty Steel, Dangerous Air” report details the national and local health and economic costs of steel industry pollution. Industrious Labs released the report on Monday.

Industrious Labs is an environmental organization focused on cleaning up industries through network and capacity building, research and analysis, and data-driven campaigns, according to its website.

The 44-page report found that coal-based steelmaking contributes to an estimated $13.2 billion in health costs, 892 premature deaths and almost 100,000 lost school and work days annually, according to a news release from the organization.

“Steel communities have been sounding the alarm on harmful air pollution for years, and this report quantifies just how devastating and far-reaching the consequences are,” Hilary Lewis, steel director at Industrious Labs, said in the news release. “The EPA has consistently failed to safeguard the health of these communities from the dangers of coal-based steelmaking. It’s time for stronger regulations that recognize the opportunity of cleaner steelmaking technologies and tougher enforcement of penalties on polluters to truly protect public health.”

The report focuses on 17 facilities nationwide, including four plants in Northwest Indiana, each of which are owned by U.S. Steel or Cleveland-Cliffs.

In addition to steelmaking, the report looks at the harmful effects of coke, a processed form of coal used in steelmaking.

The steel industry accounts for more than 90% of the market demand for coke, according to the report, which called coke a “very dirty fossil fuel.”

The product is made by mixing coal with oil or water and heating it at 2,000 degrees for many hours. Coke requires dozens of large ovens to be made as well, according to the report.

Industrious Labs’ report also found that most residents in Gary are in the top 10% of U.S. residents most at risk for developing asthma and at risk of low life expectancy.

The city is home to U.S. Steel’s Gary Works facility, which could potentially receive $300 million for its blast furnace if a deal between the company and Nippon Steel is approved.

The $300 million investment will allow for higher steel production and reduced emissions, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said in a statement. The furnace should have its life extended by up to 20 years.

Some residents, including those who are members of Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, have concerns about the investment.

Carolyn McCrady, member of GARD, said the only way for the steel industry to grow in “a healthy way” is to get rid of blast furnaces. McCrady believes in the use of direct reduction furnaces, which she calls more environmentally and economically friendly.

Direct reduction furnaces could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by half and produce about 20% of steel nationwide, McCrady said.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, he began an ambitious and costly border militarization program, including the construction of over 450 miles of wall that severed wildlife corridors and fragmented ecosystems in some of the country’s most remote and biodiverse regions. With his second inauguration on Monday, environmentalists are bracing for any new phase of construction that could exacerbate the ecological toll of the border wall.

“It’s an absolute travesty and a disaster for border wildlife,” said Margaret Wilder, a human-environment geographer and political ecologist at the University of Arizona, regarding the environmental impact of the existing border wall and the prospect of renewed construction. She said the wall harmed efforts “after many decades of binational cooperation between the US and Mexico to protect this fragile and biodiverse region. I don’t think Americans realize what is at stake.”

What’s at stake is the historically unparalleled separation of wildlife populations along the more than 635 miles of pedestrian border wall – largely impassable to anything bigger than a jackrabbit – that has been built along the southern border. “This [the border wall] is a massive uncontrolled experiment in the evolutionary history of wildlife species in the borderlands,” said Laiken Jordahl, south-west conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The places that are still unwalled are some of the most remote, rugged, and important habitats for wildlife that we have left.”

A recent Wildlands Network and Sky Islands Alliance study showed the impact of the pedestrian border wall (30ft-high steel pillars 4in apart) on wildlife movement and habitat connectivity in the exceptionally biodiverse Sky Island region of Sonora Mexico and the south-western US. Motion-activated cameras placed along 100 miles of Arizona border showed an 86% decrease in wildlife crossings and a 100% reduction in crossing for large animals such as bears, pronghorns and jaguars.

All indications show a continuation of Trump’s hardline approach to immigration and the southern border. Trump has criticized the Biden administration’s auctioning off border wall materials, describing the sales as “almost a criminal act” that would cost taxpayers millions of dollars when Trump resumes border wall construction. “They know we’re going to use it, and if we don’t have it, we’re going to have to rebuild it, and it’ll cost double what it cost years ago,” said Trump.

However, precise plans for the border wall remain unclear.

[the-mercy-workers]

Message of his holiness Pope Francis XXXII World Day of the Sick

“It is not good that man should be alone”. Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships

“It is not good that man should be alone” (cf. Gen 2:18). From the beginning, God, who is love, created us for communion and endowed us with an innate capacity to enter into relationship with others. Our lives, reflecting in the image of the Trinity, are meant to attain fulfilment through a network of relationships, friendships and love, both given and received. We were created to be together, not alone. Precisely because this project of communion is so deeply rooted in the human heart, we see the experience of abandonment and solitude as something frightening, painful and even inhuman. This is all the more the case at times of vulnerability, uncertainty and insecurity, caused often by the onset of a serious illness.

In this regard, I think of all those who found themselves terribly alone during the Covid-19 pandemic: the patients who could not receive visitors, but also the many nurses, physicians and support personnel overwhelmed by work and enclosed in isolation wards. Naturally, we cannot fail to recall all those persons who had to face the hour of their death alone, assisted by healthcare personnel, but far from their own families.

I share too in the pain, suffering and isolation felt by those who, because of war and its tragic consequences, are left without support and assistance. War is the most terrible of social diseases, and it takes its greatest toll on those who are most vulnerable.

At the same time, it needs to be said that even in countries that enjoy peace and greater resources, old age and sickness are frequently experienced in solitude and, at times, even in abandonment. This grim reality is mainly a consequence of the culture of individualism that exalts productivity at all costs, cultivates the myth of efficiency, and proves indifferent, even callous, when individuals no longer have the strength needed to keep pace. It then becomes a throwaway culture, in which “persons are no longer seen as a paramount value to be cared for and respected, especially when they are poor or disabled, ‘not yet useful’ – like the unborn, or ‘no longer needed’ – like the elderly” (Fratelli Tutti, 18). Sadly, this way of thinking also guides certain political decisions that are not focused on the dignity of the human person and his or her needs, and do not always promote the strategies and resources needed to ensure that every human being enjoys the fundamental right to health and access to healthcare. The abandonment of the vulnerable and their isolation is favoured also by the reduction of healthcare merely to a provision of services, without these being accompanied by a “therapeutic covenant” between physicians, patients and family members.

We do well to listen once more to the words of the Bible: “It is not good for man to be alone!” God spoke those words at the beginning of creation and thus revealed to us the profound meaning of his project for humanity, but at the same time, the mortal wound of sin, which creeps in by generating suspicions, fractures, divisions and consequently isolation. Sin attacks persons and all their relationships: with God, with themselves, with others, with creation. Such isolation causes us to miss the meaning of our lives; it takes away the joy of love and makes us experience an oppressive sense of being alone at all the crucial passages of life.

Brothers and sisters, the first form of care needed in any illness is compassionate and loving closeness. To care for the sick thus means above all to care for their relationships, all of them: with God, with others – family members, friends, healthcare workers – , with creation and with themselves. Can this be done? Yes, it can be done and all of us are called to ensure that it happens. Let us look to the icon of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:25-37), to his ability to slow down and draw near to another person, to the tender love with which he cares for the wounds of a suffering brother.

Let us remember this central truth in life: we came into the world because someone welcomed us; we were made for love; and we are called to communion and fraternity. This aspect of our lives is what sustains us, above all at times of illness and vulnerability. It is also the first therapy that we must all adopt in order to heal the diseases of the society in which we live.

To those of you who experience illness, whether temporary or chronic, I would say this: Do not be ashamed of your longing for closeness and tenderness! Do not conceal it, and never think that you are a burden on others. The condition of the sick urges all of us to step back from the hectic pace of our lives in order to rediscover ourselves.

At this time of epochal change, we Christians in particular are called to adopt the compassion-filled gaze of Jesus. Let us care for those who suffer and are alone, perhaps marginalized and cast aside. With the love for one another that Christ the Lord bestows on us in prayer, especially in the Eucharist, let us tend the wounds of solitude and isolation. In this way, we will cooperate in combating the culture of individualism, indifference and waste, and enable the growth of a culture of tenderness and compassion.

The sick, the vulnerable and the poor are at the heart of the Church; they must also be at the heart of our human concern and pastoral attention. May we never forget this! And let us commend ourselves to Mary Most Holy, Health of the Sick, that she may intercede for us and help us to be artisans of closeness and fraternal relationships.

[ironworked]

Only 41 scripted series will air in the fall lineups of the big five networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW — this year, marking a nearly 50% decline from a peak of 76 just seven years ago.

The contraction is particularly pronounced at Disney’s ABC, where just five scripted shows are set to debut before the new year — down from 11 two years ago — and only one night a week, Thursday, will include no unscripted titles in primetime.

It’s not unreasonable to suggest that the drop in scripted series is a lingering aftereffect of last year’s strikes and that the tally could rebound, at least partially, over the next couple of years, as writers continue to work on developing new projects. CBS, after all, is still producing almost as many dramatic series as ever, while NBC’s tally is the highest it’s been since before the pandemic.

But if reports on the ground in the industry are any indication, the chill in the content market has yet to show much evidence of thawing, as new overall deals remain elusive in the post-peak TV environment. Nor is this the only indication that the broadcast landscape may be undergoing a more permanent shift.

[...]

It wouldn’t be at all surprising to see broadcast networks become secondary windows for streaming content.

[...] Indeed, cable networks’ fate in general may be a roadmap for the future of broadcast: Original scripted content shuttered post-peak TV, programming time filled by unscripted shows and recycled content, unique identities hollowed out in the name of cost savings. It may take time to arrive there, but broadcast’s journey down that road has already begun.

(That's basically the whole article, heh! but under the Read More, a very clear and concise explanation of what's happened with The CW)

The CW’s previous business model was built on co-owners Warner Bros. and CBS (now Paramount Global) producing shows for the network and leveraging the licensing rights to generate cash. The two companies struck a lucrative deal in 2016 to loan CW shows to Netflix, a pact Variety once described as “one of the richest TV output deals ever.”

But that all changed with the advent of the streaming wars. In 2019, Warners and Paramount ended the Netflix deal in order to retain CW shows for their own streaming platforms, cutting off the revenue stream that funded the series in the first place.

This led directly to a gutting of the network ahead of the Nexstar sale — in May of 2022, The CW canceled half its slate — and the station group took control later that year, with a mandate to take a more cost-conscious approach to programming.

[aviaposter]

Airbus A321 Air Canada Rouge

Registration: C-FJOU Type: A321-211 Engines: 2 × CFMI CFM56-5B3/3 Serial Number: 6873 First flight: Nov 13, 2015

Air Canada Rouge is a subsidiary of Air Canada, offering low–cost tourist flights. Rouge was founded in December 2012 to help the parent company compete better with rivals such as Air Transat and WestJet.

Air Canada operates several subsidiaries and Rouge is the largest and is a separate airline, but is fully integrated into the Air Canada network. Rouge is an affiliated member of the Star Alliance.

In July 2013, Rouge began operating flights, and the first destination was Kingston, Jamaica. The flight was operated from Toronto. At the time of launch, the airline's fleet consisted of four aircraft transferred by the parent company: two Airbus A319 and two Boeing 767. In the first 18 months, the Rouge fleet grew to 28 aircraft.

Since the spring of 2014, Air Canada Rouge has expanded its operations in Western Canada and began serving primarily tourist destinations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Honolulu, Maui and Anchorage. By September 2016, the company's fleet consisted of 19 Boeing 767 aircraft, and Rouge began operating seasonal flights, first to Japan and then to Europe.

The difficult years of the pandemic came, and the airline's rapid growth stopped. Air Canada has begun urgently decommissioning aircraft from its main fleet and the Rouge fleet. A total of 79 aircraft were decommissioned. As a result of the reduction, the airline lost all twenty-five Boeing 767s and two A319s. From February to September 2021, Rouge flights were suspended, in accordance with new official restrictions that reduced the volume of unnecessary movements.

Fortunately, Air Canada Rouge survived, despite the loss of long-haul international destinations to Europe and Japan. Currently, Rouge operates only narrow-body aircraft of the Airbus A320 family, with a total of 37 aircraft. The company serves tourist destinations in the Caribbean, Central America, and some destinations in Mexico and the United States.

Poster for Aviators aviaposter.com

[head-post]

Trump administration’s cuts halt vital agricultural research

President Donald Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has brought work to a standstill at a network of farm research laboratories located at land-grant universities across 13 states, impacting the scientific world, according to Reuters.

The closures mark another blow to US agriculture under President Donald Trump’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government, stalling research aimed at advancing seed and equipment technology and expanding international markets for US agricultural products.

Farmers are already grappling with disruptions to government food aid purchases, as well as delays in agricultural grants and loan programs. Land-grant universities, established on federal land donated to states, are at the heart of this research network.

Global research partnerships in jeopardy

The network of 17 laboratories, funded by USAID through the Feed the Future Innovation Labs programme, has been conducting research in collaboration with countries such as Malawi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and Rwanda. The research not only benefits partner nations but also supports US farmers by developing production practices that could be applied domestically and providing early warnings about pest threats.

David Tschirley, who leads a USAID-funded lab at Michigan State University and chairs the Feed the Future Innovation Lab Council, noted that the labs employ around 300 people and collaborate with as many as 4,000 international partners.

It presents an American face to the world that is a very appreciated face.

The reduction of USAID’s work also generated many accusations among European politicians and activists, as the programme supported initiatives including cooperation with European companies in scientific development. Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont expressed astonishment at the impact the closure of the US programme had on global science.

The new regime promoted by Trump, Musk, and Vance is not a democratic shift towards the radical right. It is much worse. It is an amendment to the democratic system driven by the Enlightenment, which linked knowledge with progress, equality, and freedom. Only in this way can one understand that the new American administration is putting scientific research under surveillance and cutting off its funding (one of the strengths of US global leadership). It is frightening to read the impact it is having on the scientific world when it has not even been a month since the administration was inaugurated…

Stop-work orders and layoffs

All 17 labs received stop-work orders at the end of January following President Trump’s freeze on most foreign aid. Since then, they have received no further guidance or responses to their queries from the State Department, which oversees USAID, Tschirley explained. Some labs are appealing to their host universities to cover costs, with varying degrees of success.

Michigan State University has allowed Tschirley’s lab to retain staff, anticipating that USAID will eventually approve the expenses. However, Peter Goldsmith’s Soybean Innovation Lab at the University of Illinois has not been as fortunate.

Goldsmith laid off all 30 staff members last week and plans to close the lab by 15 April. His lab had been providing technical support to African farmers planting soy and to companies building soy-processing plants.

According to a 2020 report on the lab’s website, its partners included major agribusiness firms such as Bayer, Corteva, BASF, and Archer-Daniels-Midland. Bayer, a global leader in crop seeds and chemicals, stated it is assessing the impact of the funding halt, while the other companies declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries.

Broader impact on US agriculture

The freeze on foreign aid is not the only Trump administration policy affecting US farmers. Tens of millions of dollars in US commodity purchases were temporarily halted after the 24 January order freezing most foreign aid.

Additionally, farmers nationwide report delays in receiving payments from federal farm programs due to Trump’s directive to freeze federal loans and grants, which has since been blocked in court.

As the agricultural sector faces mounting challenges, the suspension of critical research and international partnerships further complicates the path forward for US farmers and their global counterparts.

Read more HERE

[tech4bizsolutions]

MedAI by Tech4Biz Solutions: Pioneering Next-Gen Medical Technologies

The healthcare industry is undergoing a seismic shift as advanced technologies continue to transform the way care is delivered. MedAI by Tech4Biz Solutions is at the forefront of this revolution, leveraging artificial intelligence and cutting-edge tools to develop next-generation medical solutions. By enhancing diagnostics, personalizing patient care, and streamlining operations, MedAI is empowering healthcare providers to deliver better outcomes.

1. AI-Driven Medical Insights

MedAI harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to analyze complex medical data and generate actionable insights. Its advanced algorithms can detect anomalies, predict disease progression, and recommend treatment pathways with unprecedented accuracy.

Case Study: A large medical center integrated MedAI’s diagnostic platform, leading to:

Faster identification of rare conditions.

A 30% reduction in misdiagnoses.

Enhanced clinician confidence in treatment decisions.

These capabilities underscore MedAI’s role in advancing clinical decision-making.

2. Personalized Patient Care

Personalization is key to modern healthcare, and MedAI’s data-driven approach ensures treatment plans are tailored to individual needs. By analyzing patient histories, lifestyle factors, and genetic data, MedAI offers more targeted and effective interventions.

Example: A chronic disease management clinic used MedAI to create personalized care plans, resulting in:

Improved medication adherence.

Decreased hospital readmission rates.

Greater patient satisfaction and engagement.

MedAI’s solutions allow providers to offer more precise, patient-centered care.

3. Enhanced Operational Efficiency

MedAI goes beyond clinical improvements by optimizing healthcare operations. Its automation tools reduce administrative burdens, freeing healthcare professionals to focus on patient care.

Insight: A regional hospital implemented MedAI’s workflow automation system, achieving:

A 40% reduction in administrative errors.

Faster patient registration and billing processes.

Streamlined appointment scheduling.

These improvements enhance overall operational efficiency and patient experiences.

4. Advanced Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics play a vital role in preventive care. MedAI’s algorithms identify patients at high risk of developing chronic conditions, enabling early interventions.

Case Study: A primary care network used MedAI’s predictive models to monitor high-risk patients, leading to:

Early lifestyle adjustments and medical interventions.

A 25% drop in emergency room visits.

Higher enrollment in wellness programs.

By shifting to proactive care, MedAI helps reduce healthcare costs and improve long-term outcomes.

5. Revolutionizing Telemedicine

The rise of telemedicine has been accelerated by MedAI’s AI-powered virtual care solutions. These tools enhance remote consultations by providing real-time patient insights and symptom analysis.

Example: A telehealth provider adopted MedAI’s platform and reported:

Improved diagnostic accuracy during virtual visits.

Reduced wait times for consultations.

Increased access to care for rural and underserved populations.

MedAI’s telemedicine tools ensure equitable, high-quality virtual care for all.

6. Streamlining Drug Development

MedAI accelerates the drug discovery process by analyzing clinical trial data and simulating drug interactions. Its AI models help identify promising compounds faster and improve trial success rates.

Case Study: A pharmaceutical company partnered with MedAI to enhance its drug development process, achieving:

Faster identification of viable drug candidates.

Shorter trial durations.

Reduced costs associated with trial phases.

These innovations are driving faster development of life-saving medications.

7. Natural Language Processing for Clinical Data

MedAI’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities extract insights from unstructured medical data, such as physician notes and discharge summaries. This allows for faster retrieval of vital patient information.

Insight: A healthcare system implemented MedAI’s NLP engine and experienced:

Improved documentation accuracy.

Quicker clinical decision-making.

Enhanced risk assessment for high-priority cases.

By automating data extraction, MedAI reduces clinician workloads and improves care quality.

8. Robust Data Security and Compliance

Data security is paramount in healthcare. MedAI employs advanced encryption, threat monitoring, and regulatory compliance measures to safeguard patient information.

Example: A hospital using MedAI’s security solutions reported:

Early detection of potential data breaches.

Full compliance with healthcare privacy regulations.

Increased patient trust and confidence in data protection.

MedAI ensures that sensitive medical data remains secure in an evolving digital landscape.

Conclusion

MedAI by Tech4Biz Solutions is redefining healthcare through its pioneering medical technologies. By delivering AI-driven insights, personalized care, operational efficiency, and robust security, MedAI empowers healthcare providers to navigate the future of medicine with confidence.

As healthcare continues to evolve, MedAI remains a trailblazer, driving innovation that transforms patient care and outcomes. Explore MedAI’s comprehensive solutions today and discover the next frontier of medical excellence.

For More Reachout :https://medai.tech4bizsolutions.com/

[reasonsforhope]

"Governor Janet Mills announced that Maine has, two years ahead of time, surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps by 2025, a milestone that represents significant progress in reducing Maine’s reliance on heating oil, lowering heating costs, and curbing harmful carbon emissions.

To continue Maine’s momentum, Governor Mills also unveiled a new target: installing another 175,000 additional heat pumps in Maine by 2027, thereby bringing the number of heat pumps installed in Maine homes, businesses, and public buildings during her time in office to 275,000.

If this target is achieved, Maine would have more than 320,000 heat pumps in total installed across the state.

Heat pumps can be thought of as temperature recycling machines. They are filled with refrigerant fluid and contain a compressor, and they work by extracting excess heat and moving it around, either in or out of a house depending on whether it’s hot or cold.

It’s believed they work best in hot weather, but in February, Maine’s temperatures in some places plummeted during a cold snap to -60°F. Efficiency Maine, which aided in the state’s adoption of heat pumps by organizing rebates for customers under the provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, did a survey of owners they had helped the previous year.

Many of [the heat pump owners] reported they were comfortable and warm, and offered to bring up the fact that by February they had already saved hundreds of dollars on home heating systems, over boilers, gas furnaces, and heating oil.

“We are setting an example for the nation,” said Mills at the announcement event. ​“Our transition to heat pumps is… curbing our reliance on fossil fuels, and cutting costs for Maine families, all while making them more comfortable in their homes—a hat trick for our state.”

The transition began in 2019 with bipartisan support of the Legislature, when Governor Mills enacted laws setting ambitious targets for transitioning to renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

-via Good News Network, July 31, 2023

[mariacallous]

Falling water levels in reservoirs that supply the Attica region, which includes the Greek capital, must be tackled as a matter of urgency due to a prolonged drought, the head of the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company, EYDAP told BIRN.

While conceding that there is no water shortage currently in Attica, as is the case in many Greek islands, EYDAP’s president Giorgos Stergiou, told BIRN: “We have had long enough to plan ways to deal with the prolonged drought in Attica, depending on the different scenarios.”

Greece’s Ministry of the Environment and Energy on August 27 announced that in collaboration with EYDAP, it has prepared a ‘road map’ to be implemented within four years to secure Attica’s water supply.

In the last two years, reserves in Attica have dropped from 1.158,million cubic metres in August 2022 to 703,339 million cubic metres today, an average loss of about 225 million cubic metres per year.

“Because the level in the reservoirs has dropped, as much as possible we have to ensure the rational and optimal treatment of water resources, to ensure the uninterrupted… supply of very high-quality drinking water for the Attica basin, for as long as is necessary or at least until climatic conditions change for the better,” Stergiou said.

The ministry said that it “will choose the best solutions that are realistic to implement”.

Solutions include the reduction of losses in the water supply networks, the partial diversion of water from rivers that end up in the artificial lake at Kremasta, new reservoirs, use of recycled water for irrigation and industry, the enrichment of underground aquifers with recycled water, better stormwater management, desalination and using green energy resources.

But all these solutions involve high initial investment costs or high operating costs, Stergiou warned.

“In any case, a long-term project has to be done, as the issue of climate change will not end tomorrow; the issue is how fast you have to do it and what costs you are willing to take,” he said.

In the meantime, EYDAP has implemented various measures to conserve water, either through the activation of boreholes or the reactivation of Yliki Lake, an important source of drinking water for Attica, Stergiou noted.

At the same time, the construction of a treatment centre of sediment in eastern Attica, where an agricultural network is being developed for the Mesogieon plain, is underway.

The revival of Hadrian’s aqueduct, which was built 2,000 years ago and is still operational, will also help to meet irrigation and gardening needs in eight municipalities of Attica. Chalandri municipality already uses it.

EYDAP is also implementing a large investment programme that will gradually replace aging pipelines to reduce leaks; it has already replaced mechanical meters with digital ones to offer a real-time consumption picture and timely notification of leaks to consumers.

“We are also running a public awareness campaign to reduce the consumption of potable water in cases such as when we shave or wash balconies or cars, etc. This is a quantity of water that… is wasted. Obviously, it will not solve the problem. However, it can affect consumption,” Stergiou said.

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

50+ Good Things from the Biden Administration

Just a list of 50+ good things the Biden Administration has done in the last 4 years because I’ve been hearing too much rhetoric that it doesn’t matter who you vote for. It does make a difference. 

Increased access to healthcare and specifically codified protections for LGBTQ+ patients against discrimination. (x) 

Strengthened women's reproductive rights by increasing access to reproductive health care, improving confidentiality to protect against criminalization for patients receiving reproductive care, and revoked Medicaid waivers from states that would exclude providers like Planned Parenthood, and more. (x)

Expanded healthcare and benefits for veterans through the PACT Act (x)

Cemented protections for pregnant and postpartum workers through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. 

Improved access to nursing homes for those who receive Medicaid services and established, for the first time, a national minimum staffing requirement for nursing homes to ensure those in their care receive sufficient support.  (x) 

Lowered healthcare costs for those with Medicare which capped insulin for seniors at $35 a month, made vaccines free, and capped seniors’ out of pocket expenses at the pharmacy through the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Fully vaccinated 79% of American adults against COVID-19 (I know this is old news now this is a big deal) 

Banned unfair practices that hide housing fees from renters and homebuyers when moving into a new home (x) 

Reduced the mortgage insurance premium for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages and clarified that inflated rents caused by algorithmic use of sensitive nonpublic pricing and supply information violate antitrust laws. (x) 

Increased protections for those saving for retirement from predatory practices. (x)

Helped millions of households gain access to the internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program. (x) 

Restored net neutrality (net neutrality is a standard which ensures broadband internet service is essential and prohibits interna providers from blocking, engaging in paid prioritization, and more.) (x)

Increased protections for loan holders as well as increased access to loans (x)

Cut fees that banks charge consumers for overdrawing on their accounts. (x)

Reaffirmed HUD’s commitment to remedy housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (which was– surprise, surprise– halted under the Trump administration). (x)

Rejoined the Paris Climate Accords.  

Listed more than 24 million acres of public lands across the country as environmentally protected and has channeled more than $18 billion dollars toward conservation projects. (And revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline amongst others). 

Invested $369 billion to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote clean energy technologies through the Inflation Reduction Act. Through the tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, renewable energy (such as wind, solar, and hydropower) has surpassed coal-fired generation in the electric power sector for the first time, making it the second-biggest source of energy behind natural gas. (x)

Strengthened protections against workplace assault through the Speak Out Act. (x) 

Increased protections for workers during the union bargaining process (x)

Is making it easier for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their bags, or fail to provide extra services when purchased. (x)  

Invested $1.2 trillion into roads, waterlines, broadband networks, airports and more allowing for more bridges, railroads, tunnels, roads, and more through the Inflation Reduction Act (which also added 670,000 jobs). (idk about you but I like driving on well maintained roads and having more rail options).  

Strengthened overtime protections for federal employees (x)

Raised the minimum wage for federal workers and contractors to $15. (x)

Strengthened protections for farmworkers by expanding the activities protected from retaliation by the National Labor Relations Act and more. (Previously anti-retaliation provisions under the National Labor Relations Act applies mostly to only U.S. citizens) (x)

Invested $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, audit the wealth, modernize its technology, and more. Additionally, created $300 billion in new revenue through corporate tax increases. (x) 

Lowered the unemployment rate to 3.5% — the lowest in 50 years. 

Canceled over $140B of student debt for nearly 40 million borrowers. (x)

Strengthened protections for sexual assault survivors, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students in schools through an updated Title IX rule. This updated rule strengthens sexual assault survivors rights to investigation– something that had been gutted under the Trump administration, strengthens requirements that schools provide modifications for students based on pregnancy, prohibits harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and more. (x)

Revoked an order that limited diversity and inclusion training. (x)

Cracked down on for profit colleges. (x)

Reaffirmed students’ federal civil rights protections for non-discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender in schools. Specifically, the Department of Education made clear students with disabilities’ right to school, limiting the use of out of school suspensions and expulsions against them. (x) (x) 

Enhanced the Civil Rights Data Collection, a national survey that captures data on students’ equal access to educational opportunities. These changes will improve the tracking of civil rights violations for students, critical for advocates to respond to instances of discrimination. 

Provided guidance on how colleges and universities can still uphold racial diversity in higher education following the Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action. (x) 

Issued a federal pardon to all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. Additionally, the DEA is taking steps to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance instead of a Schedule I, limiting punishment for possession in the future. (x) 

Changed drug charges related to crack offenses, now charging crack offenses as powder cocaine offenses. This is a big step towards ending the racial disparity that punishes crack offenses with greater severity than offenses involving the same amount of powder cocaine. (x) 

Lowered the cost of local calls for incarcerated people through the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act as well as increased access for video calls (especially impactful for incarcerated people with disabilities). (x) 

Enacted policing reforms that banned chokeholds, restricted no-knock entries, and restricted the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. (x)

Established the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) which will better track police officer misconduct. This database will vet federal law enforcement candidates who have a history of misconduct from being rehired and will make it easier and faster to charge police officers under the Death in Custody Reporting Act. (x) 

Added disability as a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. Under the law, police officers are prohibited from profiling people based on these characteristics. …It sadly happens anyway but now there’s an added legal protection which means a mechanism to convict police officers should they break the law. (x) 

Required federal prisons to place incarcerated individuals consistent with their chosen pronouns and gender identity. (x) 

Expanded gun background checks by narrowing the “boyfriend” loophole to keep guns out of the hands of convicted dating partners, strengthening requirements for registering as a licensed gun dealer (closing the “gun show loophole”), and more through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.  (x) 

Increased mental health programs within police departments to support officers experiencing substance use disorders, mental health issues, or trauma from their duties. (x)

Lifted Trump era restrictions on the use of consent decrees. The Justice Department uses consent decrees to force local government agencies (like police departments) to eliminate bad practices (such as widespread abuse and misconduct) that infringe on peoples’ civil rights. (x) 

Improved reporting of hate crimes through the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (x) 

Nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court 

Confirmed 200 lifetime judges to federal courts, confirming historic numbers of women, people of color, and other judges who have long been excluded from our federal court system. (64% are women, 63% are people of color) 

Designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) status for immigrants from Cameroon, Haiti, ​​El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sudan, and more. (x) 

Ended the discriminatory Muslim and African bans (x). 

Provided a pathway to citizenship for spouses of U.S. citizens that have been living in the country without documentation. (x) 

Expanded healthcare to DACA recipients (x) 

This one is… barely a win but not by fault of the Biden Administration. The Department of Homeland Security as of Feb 2023 has reunited nearly 700 immigrant children that were separated from their families under Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy. From 2017-2021, 3,881 children were separated from their families. About 74% of those have been reunited with their families: 2,176 before the task force was created and 689 afterward. But that still leaves nearly 1,000 children who remain tragically separated from their families from under the Trump Administration. (x)

(okay this one is maybe only exciting for me who’s a census nerd) Revised federal standards for the collection of race and ethnicity data, allowing for federal data that better reflect the country’s diversity. Now, government forms will include a Middle Eastern/ North African category (when previously those individuals would check “white”). Additionally, forms will now have combined the race & ethnicity question allowing for individuals to check “Latino/a” as their race (previously Latine individuals would be encouraged to check “Latino” for ethnicity and “white” for race… which doesn’t really resonate with many folks). (x) (I know this sounds boring but let me tell you this is BIG when it comes to better data collection– and better advocacy!).

Rescinded a Trump order that would have excluded undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census which would have taken away critical funds from those communities. 

Required the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages by passing the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.

Reversed Trump’stransgender military ban. 

Proposed investments in a lot of programs including universal pre-k, green energy, mental health programs across all sectors, a national medical leave program for all workers and more. (x) 

Last… let’s also not forget all the truly terrible things Trump did when he was in office. If you need a reminder, scroll this list, this one mostly for giggles + horror, for actual horror about what a Trump presidency has in store, learn about ‘Project 2025’ from the Heritage Foundation. I know this post is about reasons to vote FOR Biden but let’s not forget the many, many reasons to vote for him over Trump. 

So, there it is, 50+ reasons to vote for Biden in the 2024 Election. 

Check your voter registration here, make a plan to vote, and encourage your friends to vote as well. 

All in all, yeah… there’s a lot of shitty things still happening. There’s always going to be shit but things aren’t going to change on their own. And that change starts (it certainly doesn’t end) with voting. 

Go vote in November.