Do What's Right.
GM CEO Mary Barra made the announced in an earnings call this morning.
The Verge » GM killed the Chevy Bolt — and the dream of a small, affordable EV
The Driven » GM to end production of its most successful and lowest cost EV
Barrons » The Chevy Bolt is ending. That could be a big mistake.
Last Updated on April 28, 2023
The ThinkPhone has a lot of the same stuff as a mainstream flagship phone, even though it’s priced just below the likes of the $799 Samsung Galaxy S23. It comes with a big 6.6-inch 1080p OLED with up to 144Hz refresh rate. Build quality is quite sturdy with an aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass on the front panel, and Lenovo’s signature textured aramid fiber back panel for a softer touch.
The whole device is IP68 rated for strong dust and water resistance, and it’s also MIL-STD-810H compliant to protect against falls and more extreme conditions. I can personally confirm it will survive a fall from your hand to the kitchen floor, which isn’t part of the MIL-STD-810H standard but is a chief use case for a clumsy person holding too many things.
A growing number of rural Americans, such as farmers and small business owners, are purchasing Japanese domestic market (JDM) small pickup trucks, also known as “Kei” trucks, because they suit their basic needs at a fraction of the price over larger trucks. For those who don’t know, Kei cars and trucks are ultra-compact vehicles that have been popular in Japan for years. Kei vehicles are typically right-hand-drive and are at least 25 years old due to US import laws (also known as the “Chicken Tax”) but it boils down to a simple factor: necessity.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of the anti-Putin resistance group Pussy Riot, was named a top enemy of Russia for speaking out against Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship throughout the last decade. In this inspiring talk, she tells the story of her imprisonment and exile, shares what motivates her resistance and delivers a powerful message to Putin himself.
1,902 years ago, on April 26, 121 AD, Marcus Aurelius was born.
The wise Emperor of Rome (161-180) was known as much for his philosophical writing as for his reign.
Marcus Aurelius didn’t believe a society should be divided by class or engage in slavery. He believed all men were equal and that the government’s purpose was to serve the people. He wrote, “Men exist for the sake of one another.”
“Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter. Cold or warm. Tired or well-rested. Despised or honored. Dying…or busy with other assignments. Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: “To do what needs doing.” Look inward. Don’t let the true nature of anything elude you. Before long, all existing things will be transformed, to rise like smoke (assuming all things become one), or be dispersed in fragments…to move from one unselfish act to another with God in mind. Only there, delight and stillness…when jarred, unavoidably, by circumstances, revert at once to yourself, and don’t lose the rhythm more than you can help. You’ll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep going back to it.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
If you’ve eaten a burger and fries recently, there’s a chance that the potatoes were picked by middle schoolers, working through the school day in a field in Idaho [or New Brunswick]. The steer that became the beef patty may well have been killed at a slaughterhouse where teenagers work, and the bone saws used to process the meat could easily have been cleaned by a 13-year-old, wearing a bulky hard hat and oversized gloves. It’s also quite possible that the burger was grilled, flipped and assembled by a child working at McDonald’s on a school night, far later than federal law allows.
Last Updated on June 7, 2023
This September, Sotheby’s London will host an expansive sale from the late pop superstar Freddie Mercury, with an estimated 1,500 items to be sold over the course of six auctions. It’s expected to bring in more than £6 million ($7.4 million)
Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg Opinion »
The leading companies in AI tend to be small, and many big ones will use it to get smaller.
Armenian Gevorg Margarian, 27, was nearing the end of a prison term in Russia when his family was informed by text message that he had died in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Human rights groups say migrants in Russian jails are deliberately targeted to fight in Ukraine.
Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has taken up three new roles at Harvard University, where she will study and speak on leadership, governance and online extremism.
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.
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.
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
Wikipedia has a list of List of centenarians (musicians, composers and music patrons)
Last Updated on April 29, 2023
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.
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
More at Aerogramme Writer’s Studio.
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
Moscow is rattling the nuclear saber, NATO just added 830 miles of territory on the Russian border, and tensions are higher than ever. Russia now sees NATO as its enemy and vice versa. But does that mean war is inevitable?
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.
Held for the first time last year, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands came together for the inaugural North Sea Summit in the Danish harbor town of Esbjerg, setting historic goals for offshore wind with the Esbjerg Declaration. It paved the way for making the North Seas a green power plant for Europe, as well as a major contributor to climate neutrality and strengthening energy security.
This Monday, nine countries will meet for the next North Sea Summit — this time in the Belgian town of Ostend — where France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway and the United Kingdom will also put their political weight behind developing green energy in the North Seas, including the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish and Celtic Seas. Together, we will combine and coordinate our ambitions for deploying offshore wind and developing an offshore electricity grid, putting Europe on the path toward a green economy fueled by offshore green power plants.
The Brussels Times » UK, Netherlands Announce Plans for Joint Power Cable
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