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Day: 25 April 2023

Ex-Audi Exec pleads Guilty over ‘Dieselgate’

2023-04-25 /

AFP »

A former top executive at German carmaker Audi on Tuesday pleaded guilty over the “dieselgate” emissions-cheating scandal that rocked parent company Volkswagen, after a lengthy trial.

Wolfgang Hatz and two other colleagues had arranged the installation of banned software to rig emissions in diesel vehicles, his lawyer told the Munich district court.

Hatz is expected to receive a reduced sentence for confessing.

It is not yet clear whether former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler — the main defendant in the case, and the first auto boss in Germany to stand trial over the scandal — will also enter a guilty plea.

German car giant Volkswagen – whose brands include Porsche, Audi, Skoda and Seat – admitted in September 2015 that it had installed software to rig emissions in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide.

American-made vacuum tubes are poised to make a comeback

2023-04-25 /

As the rising prices charged for vacuum tubes manufactured in China and Russia increasingly cramps audiophiles, musicians and others seeking a particular audio quality, the Western Electric factory in Rossville, Georgia is preparing to bring tube-manufacturing back to the US.

Roy Furchgott, Wired »

Whitener owns Western Electric, the last US manufacturer of vacuum tubes, those glass and metal bulbs that controlled current in electric circuits before the advent of the transistor made them largely obsolete. Tubes are still prized for high-end hi-fi equipment and by music gear companies such as Fender for their distinctive sound. But most of the world’s supply comes from manufacturers in Russia and China, which after the transistor era began in earnest in the 1960s helped sunset the US vacuum tube industry by driving down prices.

Elsewhere » Hackaday

Notable celebrities who are still active [Updated]

2023-04-25 /

Wikipedia has a list of List of centenarians (musicians, composers and music patrons)

Last Updated on April 29, 2023

The effects of Noise on our Health

2023-04-25 /

Stephanie Dutchen, Harvard Medicine magazine »

… noise pollution not only drives hearing loss, tinnitus, and hypersensitivity to sound, but can cause or exacerbate cardiovascular disease; type 2 diabetes; sleep disturbances; stress; mental health and cognition problems, including memory impairment and attention deficits; childhood learning delays; and low birth weight. Scientists are investigating other possible links, including to dementia.

Is the USA still worth visiting?

2023-04-25 /

Andrew Mitrovica, Al Jazeera »

There is a big, brash and beautiful America brimming with kind and considerate people, many of whom are the unforgettable, eccentric characters you can only find in that country.

Then there is the angry, seething and scarred America where guns, hate and extremism are everywhere – ready, on a hair-trigger, to explode into violence and mayhem.

You can encounter both aspects of the country at any time, in any place, in America.

Last Updated on June 7, 2023

The Repo Man becomes more common as more people fall behind on car payments

2023-04-25 /

Claire Ballentine, Bloomberg »

It’s a major shift from the pandemic years, when relief measures for consumers meant repos largely dried up, leaving many agents out of a job. Now repossession companies are struggling to find enough workers to meet repo requests. “As the economy curves down, our industry curves up,” says Ben Deese, vice president at North Carolina-based Home Detective Co. and a member of the American Recovery Association, the industry group that hosted the Orlando conference. In March, the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bills was 5.3%, up from a seven-year low of 2.58% in May 2021 and higher than in 2009, the peak of the financial crisis, data from Fitch Ratings show. While not all of those borrowers will face repossessions, the risk is high.

Last Updated on June 7, 2023

Spying, sabotage, subversion, people-smuggling: The brave women who resisted Hitler’s armies through non-violence

2023-04-25 /

Marty Branagan, University of New England

Many people think Nazi Germany was beaten only through military violence, and mainly by men. As Barack Obama said in 2009: “Nonviolence could not have halted Hitler’s armies”. In fact, non-violent action was widely used in resisting Nazism. Brave women often led it. They later got little recognition, though this is now changing.

Women in nations such as France, Germany and Holland gathered intelligence, founded resistance groups, published underground media and coordinated people-smuggling operations. Some engaged in sabotage. Their networking and people skills were invaluable, and their lack of visibility under a sexist regime was an asset. Some of these brave women sacrificed their lives for the cause.

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