#Alarm Management System Market

[rohitpalan]

Evolving Customer Demands in Alarm Management

Alarm management system market revenues are expected to reach $2 billion by 2032. Due to increased need to handle alarm overload in manufacturing plants, sales in the market are expected to develop at an 11-13% CAGR over the forecast period.

Advanced alarm management systems are being utilised in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) for alert classification, prioritisation, and event notification. This is expected to improve alarm management system sales over the forecast period.

The need for efficient and accurate tools to handle SCADA is driven by the growing use of technologically advanced equipment, Big Data, and mHealth tools in the healthcare industry.

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Global Alarm Management System Market: Dynamics 

Alarm management systems reduce alarm flooding through near real time alerts, which is one of the major factors driving the growth of the market during. That apart, these systems help to keep processes safe and profitable through a DCS (Distributed Control System) which maintains and creates a master alarm database. Thus, this factor will also propel the growth of the alarm management system market over the projected period. Furthermore, these systems improve decision support, operator effectiveness and situation awareness.

This is another factor that will also contribute towards the growth of the alarm management system market during the forecast period. Increasing need to conform with current industry standards and best practices, such as EEMUA 191, ISA 18.2 and IEC 62682, will also create demand space for alarm management systems during the forecast period. However, some implementation and technical challenges, such as configuration issues, redefining KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and alarm philosophy development, are expected to restrain the growth of the alarm management system market during the forecast period.

Some other factors, such as implementation of dynamic alarming, need to keep alarm rationalization up to date, etc. are also likely to hinder the growth of the alarm management system market during the forecast period.

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Market Competition

Major players operating in the global alarm management system market include

Vocera Communications,

Masimo Corporation,

PAS Global LLC,

exida.com LLC,

Honeywell International Inc.,

Ascom Holdings,

Yokogawa India Ltd.,

KLAS Research,

GE Healthcare,

Spok Inc., and

Koninklijke Philips, among others.

Key players are improving their global presence by advancing their software and service and expanding their product portfolios. Furthermore, they are also entering into business agreements such as joint ventures and collaborations to improve their supply chain.

Global Alarm Management System Market: Regional Outlook 

Geographically, the alarm management system market can be segmented into North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan. 

North America is anticipated to be the major revenue generating region in the global alarm management market owing to the increasing usage of alarm management systems for clinical purposes. Moreover, increasing demand for integrated healthcare IT systems to ensure reliability and various initiatives being taken by government bodies to reduce alarm fatigue are other important factors driving the growth of the alarm management system market in this region.

The alarm management system market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at a significant rate owing to the growing usage of alarm management systems in manufacturing industries in this region. Countries, such as China, Japan and India, are expected to drive the growth of the market in this region.

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Key Segments Profiled in the Alarm Management System Market

Component:

Services

Software

Industry:

Oil and Gas

Chemical

Automotive

Agriculture

Research and Development

Region:

North America

Latin America

Western Europe

Eastern Europe

Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ)

Japan

Middle East & Africa

[kishorxox]

Public Safety and Security Market to Reach $514.1 Billion by 2031

Meticulous Research®—a leading global market research company, published a research report titled, ‘Public Safety and Security Market by Offering (Safety Devices, Safety Software, Safety Services), Technology (IoT, AI, Cloud Computing, ML), Application (Data Gathering, Mapping, and 3D Imaging), End Use (Warehouses & Depots, Workplaces, Shopping Malls & Retail Stores) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2031.’

According to this latest publication from Meticulous Research®, the global public safety and security market is expected to reach $514.1 billion by 2031 from an estimated $234.2 billion in 2024, at a CAGR of 11.9% during the forecast period. The growth of the public safety and security market is driven by the growing utilization of AI, ML, and analytics technologies in public safety and security applications, increasing awareness and initiatives for public safety and security, and government focus on managing the needs of the rising urban population. However, the significant initial investments required to implement public safety and security solutions restrain the growth of this market. The integration of cloud computing and big data analytics in public safety and security solutions and the rising incidence of terrorism and security breaches are expected to generate market growth opportunities. However, the complexities in implementing advanced public safety and security systems and the rising cases of data theft are major challenges for market stakeholders.

The global public safety and security market is segmented by offering, technology, application, end use, and geography. The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyses the country and regional-level markets.

Based on offering, the global public safety and security market is segmented into safety devices, safety software, and safety services. In 2024, the safety services segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the increasing demand for specialized safety services to address specific safety and security challenges. Safety services such as critical infrastructure security, emergency medical, firefighting, and disaster management services are critical in ensuring the safety and well-being of citizens and critical assets. Moreover, the safety services segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on technology, the global public safety and security market is segmented into the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning, cybersecurity, and other technologies. In 2024, the Internet of Things segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of the segment is attributed to the rising demand for real-time data insights and improved situational awareness. Moreover, the Internet of Things segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on application, the global public safety and security market is segmented into data gathering, mapping and 3D imaging, threat detection, security and incident management, monitoring, fire and explosion examination, network security, and other applications. In 2024, the security and incident management segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the need to respond effectively to emergencies, the increasing adoption of smart city technologies, and the integration of IoT devices. Moreover, the security and incident management segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on end use, the global public safety and security market is segmented into warehouses depots, workplaces, shopping malls & retail stores, schools & universities, hospitals & healthcare, residential, transportation, and other end uses. In 2024, the transportation segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of this segment is attributed to the growing concern of terrorist threats and passenger safety. Advances in contactless ticketing and facial recognition for identity verification are driving the adoption of modern transportation security solutions. Furthermore, the implementation of AI-based video analytics for crowd monitoring contributes to the growth of this segment. However, the hospitals and healthcare segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on geography, the public safety and security market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2024, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of this region is attributed to the rising adoption of digital technology and data due to the growing need for improving decision-making, promoting digital inclusivity and equity, creating a collaborative ecosystem, prioritizing citizen safety and health, establishing trust and transparency, and developing resilience and adaptability to manage change effectively. However, Europe is slated to register the highest growth at a CAGR during the forecast period.

Key Players

The key players operating in the global public safety and security market are Hexagon AB (Sweden), Fujitsu Ltd. (Japan), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Atos SE (France), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.) Saab AB (Sweden), Airbus SE (Netherlands), Siemens AG (Germany), Intel Corporation (U.S.), Fotokite AG (Switzerland), CityShob (Israel), 3xLOGIC (U.S.), L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), OnSolve (U.S.) and Haystax (U.S.).

Download Sample Report Here @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5661

Key Questions Answered in the Report:

Which are the high-growth market segments in terms of offering, technology, application, end use, and geography?

What is the historical market size for the public safety and security market across the globe?

What are the market forecasts and estimates for the period 2024–2031?

What are the major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in the global public safety and security market?

Who are the major players in the market, and what are their market shares?

How is the competitive landscape for the global public safety and security market?

What are the recent developments in the global public safety and security market?

What are the different strategies adopted by the major players in the market?

What are the key geographic trends, and which are the high-growth countries?

Who are the local emerging players in the global public safety and security market, and how do they compete with other players?

Contact Us: Meticulous Research® Email- sales@meticulousresearch.com Contact Sales- +1-646-781-8004 Connect with us on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-research

[thebibliosphere]

Hello! I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you have any thoughts on Howard Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain, Mind Body Syndrome, treating neuroplastic symptoms, etc.? I was just referred to a pain management group that centers around these concepts, and I'm having some Feelings about the whole thing.

Just wondering if you've had any experiences with this type of treatment, or thoughts about its effectiveness. Thanks!

Okay, so this is going to be long, and I'm going to need you to stick with me through the tangent. I promise it's relevant.

I haven't read Howard Schubiner's work directly, but his colleague Alan Gordon was a key speaker at the Migraine World Summit this year. I found his talk interesting enough to buy his book and do some more research on my own, and I found it worthwhile pursuing on my own.

I know enough from my mast cell disorder to know that the body develops 'bad habits' around pain.

In the case of anxiety, stress, or panic, mast cells become more reactive, and this can make pain worse. This is true for everyone*; it's just those of us with MCAS or some other type of mast cell disorder who have more alarming symptoms like idiopathic anaphylaxis.

So, unfortunately, if I, as someone with MCAS, experience an acute pain from an injury or illness, the inherent stress response of the pain and the out-of-balance response from my nervous system can make my mast cells degranulate. They're little fuckers like that.

Mast cells can also put your body on an inflammatory cycle that is counterproductive to healing. They can literally get trained to anticipate reactions and pre-emptively react, because again, they are little fuckers.

To give you an example of this for me: my major migraines, the ones that land me in the hospital, occur on the dot every ten days. There are no hormonal factors to this that can be found or other consistent triggers or stressors, but I was unknowingly being exposed to an MCAS trigger roughly every ten days for a while. When I realized, I removed the trigger, obviously. Problem solved, right? Unfortunatley no. By then, my mast cells had trained themselves into a new pattern, and the migraine now is both the response and the trigger. It's some bastard thing called Innate Immune Memory. But it's also, partly, my subconscious anticipating the event and priming my body for a reaction, which I am susceptible to because of my MCAS and dysautonomia, which is a type of nervous system disorder.

And this is where the neuroplasticity comes in.

I'm currently in the process of trying to unlearn this response and better regulate my nervous system, which unfortunately makes me sound like a TikTok girly with a link in bio to sell you cortisol healing tea, but I promise you the only thing I'm interesting in shilling is my smutty vampire books. (And this post will be how some people learn I write books)

Anyway, why am I bothering to explain mast cell dysfunction like this in relation to neuroplasticity?

Because, yeah, if a pain doctor handed me a leaflet about 'unlearning pain' and I didn't understand how my body is routinely sabotaging itself on a cellular level in response to acute and neuroplastic pain, I'd also be rolling my eyes and feeling like I've just been handed a bottle of snake oil in the market.

God knows I've been handed 'mindfullness' leaflets by enough shitty doctors who don't actually understand what it means when we say "stress affects the nervous system" and just assume the patient is inventing symptoms to be annoying.

Thankfully, that is not what this is. At least I am hoping the doctor sending you there doesn't think you are causing your own pain. What they are hopefully trying to do is introduce you to something that a lot of chronic pain patients are reporting helps them feel more in control of their lives after many years of feeling at the mercy of their pain.

I don't attend the sessions at my brain injury clinic (yet), but I do know they use neuroplasticity therapy to help amputees with the phantom pain they experience from missing limbs. My physical therapist spent an entire session singing its virtues to me while I was fighting for my life on a balance board. Which is also why I decided to look into it after I heard Gordon talking at the Migraine World Summit.

So, do I think Schubiner's methods are hokum?

No, I think there's a lot of merit to the things he talks about and explains, but I also know the only reason I think that is because of the insight I have into the brain-body bundle through the experiences of my mast cell disease that has taught me there is nothing the brain is incapable of fucking up.

Do I think targeting neuroplastic pain will work well for everyone?

No. I think you need to try it and see if it's a good fit for you.

Some people who attended the World Migraine Summit think it's snake oil/just another way for pain doctors to foist us off into the realm of mental health care. Conversely, other people won't shut up about how learning to break the cycle of fear and panic around their pain has been life-altering for them.

For me, it's been more subtle and is part of a broader spectrum of therapies and medical treatment I use to keep my nervous system in check. It certainly hasn't done me any harm. If anything, I found it quite validating to hear someone say, "Oh, the pain is in your head? Of course it is. Let's try to fix that," and then gave me actionable coping methods. They might not work profoundly in the long term. I'm still a sick bitch with multiple acute causes of my pain. But it's also not harming me the way mindfulness was (many chronic pain patients can find it traumatizing).

I will say, I am concerned that some doctors will use the treatment of neuroplastic pain to dismiss treating acute pain with physical causes.

Just like how mindfulness has been abused by an overworked, underfunded medical system not equipped to handle chronic patients, there's also the risk of neuroplastic therapy being tossed over the fence in a similar fashion as a last ditch Hail Mary to treat patients they don't have time for. But I don't think it's widespread enough yet for that to be the case.

I dunno. Give it a try. If it's not for you, it's not for you.

Personally, I hate anything that revolves around group therapy, but I did find the book "The Way Out" by Alan Gordon insightful in helping me figure some things out. Maybe see if your local library has it before you drop money on any sessions?

_ _ _

*There has also been more compelling evidence recently that suggests that chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia are also affected by wonky mast cells. Also arthritis.

[csuitebitches]

Things I Have to do for My Sanity

1. Wake up at the first alarm - no snoozing and no going lying around in bed. Getting up straight away and head to the bathroom. It’s going to suck initially but you’ll get used to it in a few days.

2. Mental self care: 30 minute meditation, brain games mental math, reading, news. Knowledge is sexy and don’t deny yourself sexiness.

3. Daily review in my diary at the beginning and end of my day: what went well, what didn’t, what I need to accomplish to achieve my goals. This has tremendously helped my goals and keeping my motivation more consistent, especially at work. Analysing and correcting incremental changes creates long term success.

4. Cleaning up before bed - clothes, shoes, organising my bag, etc. I set a timer for 5 minutes and try to get as much done as possible.

5. Pick out my clothes the night before and steam iron them for the next day.

6. Face masks twice a week, a hair mask once a week, I scrub the soles of my feet with that foot scrubbing thingy once a week. Manicures every month because my nail beds are too sensitive to do it biweekly, iron supplements so that I’m not a moody bitch. Matching underwear to feel good about myself. Lavender spray on my pillow before sleeping so that I don’t get weird dreams.

7. Reading biographies and autobiographies. My mentor had suggested this to me and it’s amazing how literally I don’t have a single original experience - everything I’ve felt or mistakes I’ve made have already been done by someone else.

I’m going to curate a list of business books that I feel that have helped me the most recently.

8. I write a short essay everyday in the language I’m currently learning. I also end my day by talking about my day for at least 2 minutes in that language and I record it in voice memos to keep a track of my progress. I want to be fluent to a level where I can think in this language.

✨

I don’t generally share a lot about my personal life - none of you know my name or where I’m based and I feel comfortable doing that. But I do want to start giving out more insights to what I’m doing personally in my career - the good, the bad, the ugly.

Being self aware and honest to myself has helped me improve a lot. I know that shame is my Achilles heel, so now I’m reading books to combat that. I’ve caved in and decided to try therapy for a bit to see if what I’m doing is useful or not. My first session is tomorrow. Staying disciplined was my initial hurdle but the systems I’ve set (waking up early + habit stacking) have helped me slowly overcome that.

Work side, I’ve started establishing myself publicly more. I don’t want to reveal too much about what I do exactly but the good news is that our biggest competitor has noticed my progress (a former employee of that company came to us for an interview and directly asked our top management about me). It’s been 4 months that I’ve been working here but I know that next year I really have to swing the bat and hit a home run. I’ve decided to work on the field more and less in the office to really understand people’s needs and create unique solutions.

The daily/weekly/quarterly diary is definitely credited to my recent wins. That’s the biggest change I’ve made in my routine and i can already see that it’s working well. I’m going to continue refining and implementing that method.

Recent work methods I’ve decided to start working on (I’m not required to do these but I do it for my growth):

1. I’ve started studying popular companies’ business and revenue models in detail. Everything is adoptable and adaptable, you just have to figure out how to tweak something for your company’s clients and needs. Now I’ve decided that I want to keep a track of our competitors, their business models, their owners names, pricing strategy, their target audience etc etc on an excel sheet so that I’m aware with what’s happening in the market. 

2. I’ve started making client profiles. Every time I meet a client, I note down their name, the company name, what they were like, anything specific they seemed to like or want, how much they had paid us for a service, what their paying capacity could be, etc. 

[covid-safer-hotties]

The next pandemic is inevitable. Australia isn’t ready - Published Sept 23, 2024

(Before you Americans yell at me, It's already the 23rd in Australia. This is very late-breaking)

I thought this was a really good breakdown of the current situation given the government-approved covid denial we live in. Long, but worth a read.

By Kate Aubusson and Mary Ward

Top infectious disease and public health veterans at the nerve centre of the state’s war against COVID-19 are sounding the alarm.

NSW is less prepared today to fend off a deadly pandemic despite the lessons of COVID-19, say top infectious disease and public health veterans at the nerve centre of the state’s war against the virus.

And we won’t have another hundred years to wait.

NSW’s gold standard Test-Trace-Isolate-Quarantine and vaccination strategies will be useless if a distrusting population rejects directives, refuses to give up its freedoms again, and the goodwill of shell-shocked public health workers dries up.

A panel of experts convened by The Sydney Morning Herald called for a pandemic combat agency akin to the armed forces or fire brigades to commit to greater transparency or risk being caught off guard by the next virulent pathogen and misinformation with the potential to spread faster than any virus.

“It’s inevitable,” says Professor Eddie Holmes of the next pandemic. A world-leading authority on the emergence of infectious diseases at the University of Sydney, Holmes predicts: “We’ll have less than 100 years [before the next pandemic].

“We’re seeing a lot of new coronaviruses that are spilling over into animals that humans are interacting with,” said Holmes, the first person to publish the coronavirus genome sequence for the world to see.

“People are exposed all the time, and each time we are rolling the dice.”

The independent review of NSW Health’s response to COVID-19 opened with the same warning: “No health system or community will have the luxury of 100 years of downtime.”

Pandemic preparedness needs to be a “permanent priority”, wrote the report’s author, Robyn Kruk, a former NSW Health secretary, “rather than following the path of those that have adopted a ‘panic and forget strategy,’ allowing system preparedness to wane”.

Why we don’t have 100 years to wait for the next pandemic The World Health Organisation has declared seven public health emergencies of international concern since 2014, including the current mpox outbreak.

Climate change is turbocharging the factors that coalesce to create the perfect breeding ground for a pandemic-causing virus, including population increases, bigger cities, and better-connected global markets and migration.

“Animals will be forced into more constrained environments, and humans that rely on those environments will be again constrained in the same environments. There will be more wet markets, more live animal trade that will just increase exposure,” Holmes said.

“It was clear that we weren’t ready [for COVID],” said Jennie Musto, who, after seven years working for the World Health Organisation overseas, became NSW Health’s operations manager for the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, the team responsible for NSW’s COVID-19 contact tracing and containment.

“Everyone had preparedness plans gathering dust on a shelf, but no one was actually ready to respond, and so everyone was on the back foot,” Musto said. “Perhaps none of us really thought this was going to happen. We were waiting 500 years.”

Who would willingly become the next doomed whistleblower? Eddie Holmes, known for his repeated assertion that SARS-CoV-2 did not come from a lab, is deeply concerned that when the next pandemic-causing virus emerges, chances are it will be covered up.

“My worry is that if the virus appeared in a small population, say, somewhere in Southeast Asia, the people involved wouldn’t blow the whistle now, given the fact that you would get blamed,” he said.

Li Wenliang, the Wuhan doctor who tried to raise the alarm about a virulent new virus, was reportedly reprimanded by police for spreading rumours and later died of COVID-19.

The global blame game, culminating in a deep distrust of China and accusations that the virus was grown in a Wuhan lab, is why Holmes believes “we’re in no better place than we were before COVID started, if not worse”.

“I work with a lot of people in China trying to keep the lines of communication open, and they’re scared, I think, or nervous about saying things that are perceived to counter national interest.”

From a vaccine perspective, our defences look strong. There have been monumental advancements in vaccine development globally, driven by mRNA technology. In Sydney this month, construction began on an RNA vaccine research and manufacturing facility.

“But the way I see it is that nothing has been done in terms of animal surveillance of outbreaks or data sharing. The [global] politics has got much, much worse,” Holmes said.

Combat force Conjoint Associate Professor Craig Dalton, a leading public health physician and clinical epidemiologist, called for a dramatic expansion of the public health workforce and the establishment of a pandemic combat force that would routinely run real-time pandemic simulations during “peacetime”.

“No one is upset with fire brigades spending most of the time not fighting fires. They train. A lot. And that’s probably how we need to move,” he said.

“We need exercise training units so that every major player in pandemic response is involved in a real-time, three to four-day pandemic response every three to five years at national, state and local [levels].”

The federal Department of Health and Aged Care recently ran a health emergency exercise focused on governance arrangements involving chief health officers and senior health emergency management officials, a spokeswoman for Health Minister Mark Butler said. The outcomes of this exercise will be tested later this year.

Dalton said desktop simulations and high-level exercises involving a handful of chiefs didn’t cut it, considering the thousands of people working across regions and states. He instead suggested an intensive training program run in the Hunter New England region before the 2009 H1N1 pandemic provided a good model.

“We were ringing people, actors were getting injections, just like a real pandemic,” said Dalton, who once ordered a burrito in a last-ditch effort to contact a restaurant exposed to COVID-19.

Our heroes have had it The expert panel was emphatic that our pandemic response cannot once again rely on the goodwill of the public health and healthcare workforce.

According to the Kruk review, what began as an emergency response ultimately morphed from a sprint into an ultra marathon and “an admirable (yet unsustainable) ‘whatever it takes’ mindset”.

They were hailed as heroes, but the toll of COVID-19 on healthcare workers was brutal. Workloads were untenable, the risk of transmission was constant, and the risk of violence and aggression (for simply wearing their scrubs on public transport in some cases) was terrifying.

“We got through this pandemic through a lot of people working ridiculous hours,” Dalton said.

“You talk to a lot of people who did that and say they could not do it again.”

Tellingly, several expert personnel who worked at the front lines or in the control centre of NSW’s pandemic defences were invited to join the Herald’s forum but declined. Revisiting this period of intense public scrutiny, culminating in online attacks and physical threats, was just too painful.

So long, solidarity Arguably, the biggest threat to our pandemic defences will be the absence of our greatest strength during COVID: the population’s solidarity and willingness to follow public health orders even when it meant forfeiting fundamental freedoms.

The public largely complied with statewide public health orders, including the stay-at-home directive that became the 107-day Delta lockdown, and other severe restrictions prevented many from being at the bedside of their dying loved ones, visiting relatives in aged care homes and attending funerals.

“My worry is that next time around when those sorts of rules come out, people may say, ‘Well, don’t worry about it.’ They relax it in the future. Why don’t we just not stick to the rules?” said Professor Nicholas Wood, associate director of clinical research and services at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

“I’m not sure we quite understand whether people [will be] happy with those rules again,” he said.

Dalton was more strident.

“I tend to agree with Michael Osterholm … an eminent US epidemiologist [who] recently said the US is probably less prepared for a pandemic now than it was in 2019, mostly because the learnings by health departments in the COVID pandemic may not make a material difference if faced with a community that distrusts its public health agencies,” he said.

“If H1N1 or something else were to spill over in the next couple of years, things like masks, social distancing and lockdowns would not be acceptable. Vaccination would be rejected by a huge part of the population, and politicians might be shy about putting mandates in.”

As for the total shutdown of major industries, people will struggle to accept it unless the next pandemic poses a greater threat than COVID, said UNSW applied mathematician Professor James Wood.

The risk of the virus to individuals and their families will be weighed against the negative effects of restrictions, which are much better understood today, said Wood, whose modelling of the impact of cases and vaccination rates was used by NSW Health.

“Something like school closure would be a much tougher argument with a similar pathogen,” he said.

A previous panel of education experts convened by the Herald to interrogate pandemic decision-making in that sector was highly critical of the decision to close schools for months during NSW’s Delta lockdown.

Greg Dore, professor of infectious diseases and epidemiology at the Kirby Institute, said the public’s reluctance to adhere to restrictions again may, in part, be appropriate.

“Some of the restrictions on people leaving the country were a bit feudal and too punitive,” he said. “Other restrictions were plain stupid, [for instance] limitations on time exercising outside.”

Meanwhile, the delays to publicly recognise the benefits of face masks and the threat of airborne transmission “ate away at trust”, Dalton said.

“We shouldn’t make those mistakes again,” he said.

Transparent transgressions Uncertainty is not something politicians are adept at communicating, but uncertainty is the only constant during a pandemic of a novel virus.

Vaccines that offered potent protection against early iterations of the COVID virus were less effective against Omicron variants.

“[The public], unfortunately, got hit by a rapid sequence of changes of what was ‘true’ in the pandemic,” James Wood said.

Political distrust can be deadly if governments give the public reason to suspect they are obfuscating.

The expert panel urged NSW’s political leaders to be far more transparent about the public health advice they were given before unilaterally enforcing restrictions.

There was a clear line between public health advice and political decision-making in Victoria. The Victorian chief health officer’s written advice was routinely published online.

In NSW, that line was blurred as Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant stood beside political leaders, most notably former premier Gladys Berejiklian, at the daily press conferences.

Public health experts said that they looked for subtle cues to determine the distinction between the expert advice and the political messaging during press conferences, paying attention to body language, who spoke when and who stayed silent.

“It is fine for public health personnel to have a different view to politicians. They have different jobs. What is not OK is to have politicians saying they are acting on public health advice [when they are not],” he said.

The ‘whys’ behind the decisions being made were missing from the daily press conferences, which created “a vacuum for misinformation”, said social scientist and public health expert Professor Julie Leask at the University of Sydney.

“The communication about what you need to do came out, and it was pretty good … but the ‘why we’re doing this’ and ‘what trade-offs we’ve considered’ and ‘what dilemmas we’ve faced in making this decision’; that was not shared,” Leask said.

The infodemic In the absence of transparency, misinformation and disinformation fill the vacuum.

“We had an ‘infodemic’ during the pandemic,” said Dr Jocelyne Basseal, who worked on the COVID-19 response for WHO in the Western Pacific and leads strategic development at the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute, University of Sydney.

“The public has been so confused. Where do we go for trusted information [when] everyone can now write absolutely anything, whether on Twitter [now called X] or [elsewhere] on the web?” Basseal said.

A systematic review conducted by WHO found misinformation on social media accounted for up to 51 per cent of posts about vaccines, 29 per cent of posts about COVID-19 and 60 per cent of posts about pandemics.

Basseal’s teenage children recently asked whether they were going into lockdown after TikTok videos about the mpox outbreak.

“There is a lot of work to be done now, in ‘peacetime’ … to get ahead of misinformation,” Basseal said, including fortifying relationships with community groups and teaching scientists – trusted and credible sources of information – how to work with media.

In addition to the Kruk review’s six recommendations to improve its pandemic preparedness, NSW Health undertook a second inquiry into its public health response to COVID-19, which made 104 recommendations.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said: “We are working hard to ensure the findings and recommendations from those reports are being implemented as quickly as possible.”

The expert panellists spoke in their capacity as academics and not on behalf of NSW Health or WHO.

The ‘As One System’ review into NSW Health’s COVID-19 response made six recommendations 1. Make governance and decision-making structures clearer, inclusive, and more widely understood 2. Strengthen co-ordination, communication, engagement, and collaboration 3. Enhance the speed, transparency, accuracy, and practicality of data and information sharing 4. Prioritise the needs of vulnerable people and communities most at risk, impacted and in need from day one 5. Put communities at the centre of emergency governance, planning, preparedness, and response 6. Recognise, develop and sustain workforce health, wellbeing, capability and agility.

[atinymekanie]

The Night We Met - Chapter 21: Home

|| Premise: What if Dawnbreaker's wish for one day and one night with the woman who lives only in his dreams... came true? ||

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Light shone down, shifting and moving, beams and rays striking through dark currents, getting closer and closer. A sense of rising, rushing, speeding through frigid water, that slowly became warmer, filled him as the doctor got ever closer to the source of light. Pressure grew in his chest, his lungs burning and aching as a force outside of himself sent Zayne headlong into the light.

_____________________________________

Zayne’s mind swam up from sleep slowly, the warm, red glow from beyond his eyelids beckoning him towards it, and for a moment, panic suffused him as he remembered where he had gone to sleep. Blinking and squinting against bright morning light, silence met Zayne’s ears. Blessed silence. No blipping, no beeping, no alarms… only silence. Silence and warmth.

His eyes flew open fully, ignoring the scratchy sting as sunlight from the windows in his bedroom shone into them, and Zayne felt the panicked pressure in his chest recede as his gaze landed on the face of the woman sleeping beside him. Relief the size of a tsunami flooded through his veins, his breath stolen by the sheer impact of the realization that he was home.

Home. Not the house, not the city, not the world nor the time nor the reality, but here. In her arms. A shudder ran through him then, as the vice grip his chest had been caught in was replaced with a fiercely sharp sensation – one that spoke of too many emotions to put a name to, and Zayne exhaled fully for what felt like the first time in ages. Or at least twenty-four hours.

As carefully as he could, Zayne pulled the woman toward him, though his arms were already wrapped around her, and enfolded her into his embrace. Burying his face in her hair, he breathed in the scent of her, his mind finally relaxing, the tension and fear and dread he had carried with him for the past day and night slowly filtering from his system. It bled from him in waves, with every breath he took, with every thrum of blood through his veins, and with every moment that passed that made Zayne realize he was safe. That this wasn’t a dream.

Deep breaths calmed him, each one making way for the next in an uneven rhythm that grew steadier the longer he felt her pressed against him, felt her warmth like that of the sun on a winter’s day, felt her hair brushing his face, and felt her chest rising and falling against his own. Zayne did his best to make sure he didn’t wake her, keeping the pressure of his arms around her as loose as he could manage, despite the need he felt to clutch her against himself.

Time passed slowly, every breath an eternity Zayne would have gladly held onto even as the next one began, and as his mind calmed, memories that were both his and not his began to strain through the sieve of his subconscious and into his waking thoughts. Scenes of waking up, getting dressed, eating breakfast, visiting the arcade, and walking in the park flitted through his mind. Images of the botanical garden, the food at the street market, and the view of the beach in the moonlight all paraded across Zayne’s consciousness, the constant in them the woman sleeping in his arms.

His brow furrowed deeply as these memories bled into him, confusion filling him as he realized that not one of these memories was familiar – not one of them was something he himself had experienced. Or were they? Each memory came with sensations, feelings, and emotions, ones Zayne was both used to and not, in a strange cocktail that made his head swim and his heart pound.

The scenes and images began to play faster, the day he had somehow experienced and missed at the same time moving in short order – the lights of the city, the metro, the walk from the station, the feeling of coming back to a foreign house that wasn’t foreign at all, the warmth of a shower, the expanse of her smooth skin, soft kisses that grew into— Zayne’s eyes snapped open, his chest constricting as the world screeched to a halt.

What…were those memories? When were those memories from? Whose were… Breathing became difficult for Zayne as the reality of when and where and how he had such memories crashed down over him. His eyes squeezed shut and his hands tensed against the fabric of the woman’s sleepshirt, the blood in his veins sluggishly chilled as ice pricked through his heart, making his limbs heavy and his breath catch.

Nonononono. Zayne could feel his Evol swirling to life inside his chest, his whirlwind of emotions making it rear its frigid head, its monstrous jaws enclosing his heart whilst dripping glacially cold saliva through his arteries. It was all Zayne could do to extricate his arms as quickly and carefully as possible from around the woman beside him, pulling his shaking limbs from her form as he sat up. Not far enough.

Fear ricocheted through him, and he slipped from beneath the covers, moving almost on autopilot as his mind drowned in sights he hadn’t seen and sensations he hadn’t felt, his body carrying him from the bedroom on stumbling feet. Zayne staggered into the living room, one hand pressed to his chest above his heart, his fingers curling into the fabric of his favorite pajamas, his eyes wide and staring as the temperature around him began to drop.

His knees hit the ground by the low coffee table, his other hand reaching for it, trying to steady himself as pain erupted in his chest, in his arms, in his heart. Each breath sent frost skittering through the fissures in Zayne’s lungs, the cold crawling through him like spiders along skeins of silk. The memories belonged to the hunter. Were they dreams, then? But if that were the case, why could he feel them? Dreams had no sensations. Zayne knew that for a fact, his dreams only ever consisted of images and vague emotions, but everything about these memories was in technicolor, as though he had experienced every single one. Even…

Zayne drew in a shuddering breath, his chest heaving as he tried to block out the wave of almost searing cold that froze the blood pumping through the ventricles of his heart, ice crystals slowly forming on his skin. Need to regain control. No matter what had happened, hurting her because he lost control of his Evol was not an option. He sucked in another breath, forcing it past the lump that had formed in his throat, the frigid air feeling like it was ripping the flesh from inside of his windpipe as it rushed into his lungs. Then Zayne forced himself to do it again. And again. And again.

Narrowing his focus to the piercing cold in his chest, he drew in breath after breath, each one making his hand grip the edge of the coffee table a little tighter, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. Slowly, Zayne began to pull his Evol back under his control, his breathing eventually steadying from gasps to more controlled inhalations, and the ice that had formed on his forearms began to recede.

Droplets of melted Evol ice and cold sweat dripped onto the grey rug beneath his knees, some from his hands and some from his forehead, as Zayne managed to rein in the winter inside his chest. Irises, the color of broken green agate, stared unseeing down at the rug as the cold inside him waned, as his Evol slowly seeped back into the background, leaving him shivering on his knees.

Sunlight from the tall windows was filtering in, and Zayne closed his eyes tightly, the light and the overwhelming sensations from his Evol acting up and the strange memories causing his head to pound. How could this have happened? How could she… Pressure wrapped around his chest once more, Zayne’s eyes stinging as he fought against the emotions pouring through him. There must have been a reason. Did she not realize? How could she not have realized? That it was the hunter, and not him.

Zayne released his death grip on the edge of the coffee table, slowly sitting back as he knelt on the ground in the living room, the familiarity of his surroundings bringing little comfort to the turmoil in his mind and heart. His hands shook as he brought them to his thighs, his fingers curling as they pressed into the fabric of his pajama pants, and he tilted his head back, breathing deeply through his nose in a desperate attempt to regulate the emotions streaming through him.

Rationality was all he had to cling to, and so Zayne did, forcing himself to sift back through the events of the day he hadn’t lived, and yet somehow had been a part of, all the same. Other emotions came to him then, bleeding into him as he roamed through the scenes – wonder and awe upon waking, then sheer panic, disbelief at being recognized, overwhelm upon leaving the house, amazement at the taste of food – all of these emotions and more imprinted upon Zayne as he relived the day through the hunter’s eyes, seeing and feeling and experiencing each moment.

Just as the one constant in the scenes of the day had been the woman who was currently asleep in the bedroom behind him, there was one constant emotion Zayne felt throughout every waking moment the hunter had experienced in his place. …Love. A kind of ache that ebbed and flowed as the day had passed, that thrummed and hummed each time the woman had looked at him, that zinged through his veins at every laugh and every touch from her.

The hunter…loved her? The thought appeared through the murky haze created by the feelings and sensations and visuals passing along Zayne’s synapses, wavering in the back of his consciousness and slowly boring its way through his mind as he relived the previous day. There was no mistaking it. As much as it seemed to make no sense, it felt akin in so many ways to what he felt whenever he was with her, but magnified to the -nth degree.

His eyes flickered open, his pupils dilating as the morning light shone into them, and something inside Zayne’s chest seemed to give, ever so slightly. The band around his ribcage eased as the memories dwindled, the last moments the hunter had experienced in the middle of the night, staring at the clock, dreading its advance, trickled through his thoughts and faded. Clenching his hands in the fabric of his pant legs, Zayne stared up at the high ceiling above him, his mind wandering through his own experiences of the past twenty-four hours, the ones he had spent in place of the hunter.

The familiar places in the old magazines.

The name, face, and info in the phone.

The medical drama on the TV.

The chocolates.

The jasmine.

The code on the door keypad…

Things began to click into place as Zayne thought back through the day he had spent in the hunter’s life and the items in the hunter’s tiny apartment, his mind spinning like a snowflake in a gale as neurons fired and connections were born inside his brain. Everything and nothing made sense. Right was up and left was down, backward was ahead and forward was behind. And yet…

Throughout all of his realizations, Zayne couldn’t shake off the memory of what the hunter had felt when seeing the woman, when she had touched his hand, or his cheek, or kissed him, or... It was exactly the same. The same as what he felt in those moments, but tinged with a lingering ache of longing and dread, a nameless shadow that haunted the entire day – the fear of losing a single moment, of being sent back.

It was the same love Zayne felt for her. He knew it without a shadow of a doubt, as certain as he knew that he loved her, as certain as the dawn breaking and the sun rising. The hunter loved her as he did. Because…

He and the hunter were the same. That was the only explanation for it, the only thing that tied all of it together, including the odd, seemingly out of place items the hunter kept in his apartment, the reason the hunter knew her birthday, the reason the hunter liked chocolates and jasmines and medical dramas and, and, and… The woman’s voice echoed through Zayne’s mind, the warmth and kindness and love within it apparent, even in memory.

But you’re still Zayne.

Because I love Zayne. And you – you’re Zayne.

I’d know you anywhere…

A deep, shuddering sigh left him then, Zayne’s shoulders slumping forward, his hands unclenching from his thighs and curling into loose fists atop them instead, his head bowing as his eyes closed. She had known. She had seen what he had not, what he had fought against realizing with every fiber of his being for the past day and night, perhaps longer. The hunter didn’t just have his face, and his name, and his likes and dislikes, his revulsion at killing, his fears, his anxieties... The love he felt for the woman in the next room. He had everything Zayne had. They were the same person, the same body, the same soul. She was right.

Part of him felt anguish at what he had seen in the memories of the past that he hadn’t lived, but that part was dwindling in the face of the realization he had made. It shrank in the face of the empathy he suddenly felt for the hunter – for the version of himself that was trapped, a world away, from the woman he loved. Zayne felt a burning sensation in his chest and the backs of his eyes at the thought of experiencing the same love he felt for her without the ability to have it reciprocated.

When he had been younger and Zayne’s feelings for her had been unrequited, when he had devoted his life and his career to cardiology, when he had focused everything on her, on taking care of her heart, on the woman that made his own heart sing – at least he had been able to dream of the day he would see her again. And it had happened. Against all odds, Zayne had found her again, and somehow, through some stroke of luck, through some miracle, she had loved him in return.

The hunter had none of that. None of the possibility, none of the hope, none of the joy of being loved in return. That Zayne, in whatever world or time or place, had none of that. Instead, he had a cold, empty, lifeless city fraught with danger and ever encroaching dread. It was too much to imagine, too much to bear. If the dreams had started for the hunter at the same time as they started for him… The thought of going not only months and years but over a decade without even the chance of having the love he felt returned made Zayne’s breath catch in his throat, the sound a barely stifled sob in the still air of the living room.

No wonder his apartment had been a mess. No wonder his refrigerator had held nothing but nutrient drinks. No wonder… Suddenly, Zayne realized that he could not fault the hunter for what he had done, for the day he had lived in his life, for the moments he had stolen with the woman he— The woman they loved. How could he?

To be given a chance like that, to be seen and known and loved, even just for one day… Zayne exhaled slowly, his hands lifting to cover his face as he shook his head. In his heart, Zayne knew he couldn’t have passed up such a chance either. Nor could he fault her. She had seen him, after all - seen what he could not, seen the same soul looking through the same eyes, seen the same love shining back at her. Zayne breathed in then, just as slowly, his heart rate beginning to steady, the trembling in his hands easing as his emotions calmed, but he stayed on his knees in the living room, not trusting himself to stand yet.

“Zayne?” A soft touch on his shoulder caused his head to jerk up, Zayne’s hands falling away from his face as he turned toward the source of the voice. Toward her. Always toward her. His eyes widened as he saw the woman kneeling beside him, her hand on his shoulder, her expression one of equal parts hope and worry.

“Darling…” Before he realized what he was doing, Zayne was pulling her into his arms, just as he had done when he had awoken, just as he had longed to do during every moment that he had spent in the nightmare that belonged to the other Zayne. The arctic tundra in his chest melted at her touch, the way it always did with her, as his arms wrapped around her, as he buried his face into her hair. He could feel her surprise at his sudden motion turn to relief in the way her arms came up around his neck, in the way she pressed close to him, in the way she nuzzled her face into the curve of his throat. “I’m here. I’m home.”

Finally. Home.

_______________________________________________ Tags: @callme-naomi @seris-the-amious @schnittled @punk-cat @criffininflight @justpassingdontworry

[lunalit-river]

Cultural difference [or, ME puzzled again] when I think of the term "Manipulate" when I read L's personality traits on DN wiki

I think this is a continuation of my notes on cultural differences when interpreting DN

Manipulation. (had to make this bigger)

Until recently, in our society, we only just started to understand what the hell PUA and gaslighting even are. But I suppose these concepts were much more familiar in the Western world? At least, I never once considered L manipulative. In fact—what does manipulation really mean?

When it comes to manipulation in the english meaning to us, it has this scienter meaning (in simple terms: you’re doing something wrong, and you know it, but you still do it on purpose). What comes to mind is market manipulation. But when you translate into 操縱 in Mandarin Chinese, 操作（そうさ）in Japanese, it doesn't accurated describe what the westerners are referring to.

Let’s look at some dictionary definitions. In Mandarin:

操縱:

To drive, to control (a vehicle or machine)

To command or direct → e.g., 「侯能操縱有法，賦辦而民不驚，其賢三也。」 (My crappy translation: “The Marquis commands methodically, assigns duties, and the people are not alarmed—that is his third virtue.”)

It’s a neutral term. It doesn’t imply toxicity.

And it’s similar in Japanese: 操作（そうさ） means operating a machine, a vehicle, or managing data, organizations, or systems. It’s strategic, yes, but not emotional.

They both convey the same message:

It is not typically used to describe emotional manipulation (e.g. gaslighting, PUA, coercion, guilt-tripping).

It doesn’t inherently imply malice, emotional abuse, or sociopathic cunning.

You wouldn’t use it to describe someone playing with another person’s feelings or trust.

In fact, “Manipulation” (操作, Sōsa) is the sixth chapter of the Death Note manga, mostly centered around Light. In Death Note 13: How to Read, Tsugumi Ohba says the chapter name "Manipulation" refers to Light’s experiments on Death Note victims. It’s much more like puppet-play. Once the victims’ names are written down, they lose self-consciousness. They become puppets, with strings controlled by Light. So here, manipulation clearly means control.

Now—when it comes to the image of a detective, it’s totally normal for them to be cunning. (Otherwise, how would they outsmart criminals?) This ties into a broader cultural ideology of “If you’re the best, you can do anything” (as I mentioned in my previous post). And yes—because he’s a man, it’s more accepted. The smartest and most powerful male being cunning? Society often calls that ambition.

Does L control and command? Yes, he is the lead investigator. He is cunning and he lies, which is acceptable (when we think of an image of a detective) and because he's the best, he's a male (yeah this does make a difference) We even think that a male play by fair means or foul to accomplish a goal is a sign of ambition (of course in modern days it depends on what circumstance, but if it's in business or profession, still acceptable) the term manipulation in Mandarin Chinese is almost Justified.

Let’s go back to examples of L being “manipulative” (I literally asked ChatGPT for help on this because I didn’t know where to even start looking).

The Fake L Broadcast (Episode 1 / Chapter 2) He used a death row inmate to bait Light into revealing something. Was it control? Not quite—Light still had his mind. It felt more like a basic trap, a little trick.

Placing Bugs in the Yagami Household (Episodes 3–4 / Chapters 6–9) Totally normal investigator behavior. Illegal surveillance, but no emotional manipulation.

The University Entrance Exam & Tennis Match L said, “I am L,” just to observe Light’s reaction. They were mind-gaming each other, but no psychological control.

Using Misa Amane’s Confinement & Light’s Confinement Again—illegal confinement, yes. But no emotional strings being pulled.

The rest...no.

Now, what kind of behavior does fall into the modern definition of manipulation (the emotional control type)? Yes—Light's actions. (And I’m not saying this just because I’m an L fan. Or maybe I am. Never mind, I’m just rambling—don’t take me too seriously.)

Light’s manipulation is distinct:

He tricks Naomi Misora into giving up her real name.

He makes Misa do things by pretending to love her.

But does L manipulate the task force emotionally? No.

He has authority, yes—but he doesn’t force anyone to stay on the case. (Aizawa left. They tested everyone before revealing L’s identity.) He may push Matsuda to fetch coffee and run errands, but he’s never emotionally coercive. Everyone is free to leave. He even stops Aizawa from going out when Ukita dies. He feels loss. (Okay, now we’re getting back to L as a human.)

Let’s stop here and look at the bigger picture.

In modern terms like PUA and gaslighting, manipulation is about emotional control. But we’ve only recently become aware of this. Why? Because in our society, it’s normal to subtly make people do things without saying it directly.

Under our layers of politeness, we hint, we nudge, we expect others to “read the air” (空気を読む). This is true in Japanese too. We pressure others in silence. It happens in families, schools, workplaces—everywhere. It’s cultural. It’s the norm.

The West also has passive aggression and hints, of course. But they’ve talked about manipulation as a power issue much earlier. In a society where equality is a value, the power balance is watched more carefully.

Meanwhile, in many Asian countries, the hierarchy is still deeply embedded:

Parents > children

Teachers > students

Bosses > employees

Government > citizens

This imbalance is still normal. It’s expected. (And that's why our court decisions are making an effort in breaking such hierarchy)

Compare the timelines:

The U.S. Declaration of Independence, stating "All men are created equal"? 1776.

The French Revolution? 1789, with “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” already in place.

Now let’s look East:

In the 18th century, China was under the Qing Dynasty—absolute monarchy at its peak.

Japan? Still in the Edo period. Hierarchies everywhere. No equality. Toyotomi Hideyoshi banned Western preaching. Later, the Edo government banned more Western influence. So no Western ideology got in.

Japan borrowed ideology from China. And what was China exporting? Confucianism.

Confucianism is built on hierarchy and control. The emperor is elite and rules because of it. And the tool to control people isn’t law—it’s ethics.

I lost my train of thought again.

I guess my point is: I’m poisoned by East Asian Confucian ideology. And maybe that’s why I get culture shock when I see Westerners label L as “manipulative” in a negative sense. In a society that values strategy and hierarchy, L looks like a clever commander—not an emotional puppeteer. In Japanese, L is ずる賢い (cunning, smart in a sly way). But 操作 in an emotionally control meaning which is translated directly from the term "Manipulate" is not a term that would typically describe his actions.

[neung-so-hwa]

Korea is fine

Honestly, I barely got any sleep. This was something I could never have imagined. Martial law was declared, members of the National Assembly climbed over fences to enter the Assembly building, and in the dead of night, enraged citizens clashed with heavily armed special forces as they tried to storm the Assembly. For two hours, I watched everything unfold live on YouTube, trembling with anxiety and anger until the National Assembly passed a resolution to revoke martial law. I knew Yoon was disastrously foolish, but I’m still shocked that he thought declaring martial law in South Korea in 2024 would succeed, and he could do whatever we wanted.

Although I was alarmed, I still had faith in South Korea's rule of law and democratic system. What the president did was a blatant violation of the Constitution. There was no legitimate reason to declare martial law, and the military should never suppress the National Assembly. Moreover, if the Assembly demands the lifting of martial law, the president is constitutionally obliged to comply. The military also has no constitutional basis to follow an unlawful order from the president. For this reason, I didn’t think this crisis would last long. Such a scenario simply isn’t feasible in South Korea in 2024. Arresting citizens and lawmakers without warrants for defying martial law? That’s inconceivable. Yet, I can’t deny that seeing armed soldiers made me uneasy. What if they actually arrested lawmakers? What if they detained citizens after banning public gatherings? These concerns crossed my mind.

However, South Korean democracy and its citizens will never yield under pressure. Since the 1950s, we’ve fought tirelessly, shedding blood and sweat, to achieve democracy by the time we reached the 1990s. The public opinion toward martial law is resolute. Even when we see tanks and armed soldiers taking control of the capital, we feel not fear but rage. We’ve always stood up and resisted. We cannot be silenced. Historically, even during the era of absolute monarchy, Koreans openly criticized and chastised the king for not doing his job properly. Resistance against Injustice is in our cultural DNA. Recently in 2016, we experienced the impeachment of a president. Over the course of three months, from autumn to winter, a total of ten million citizens peacefully gathered in the streets, holding candlelight vigils. The protests were safe. Parents who wanted to teach their children about democracy brought strollers, and people sang impeachment songs, danced, and shared hand warmers. I was there too. I witnessed a historic moment where a peaceful citizen revolution succeeded and that memory remains vivid and powerful. That’s why I have faith in our democratic system. Sometimes, absurd things happen in politics, but we always manage to set things right. There is no way this unlawful martial law will succeed or that South Korean democracy will once again be trampled under the military's boots. Such an attempt cannot and will not persist for long.

Therefore, South Korea is fine. It is safe. A civil war will not break out. We are united, and our legal system functions properly. South Korea is not the kind of country you often see in international news—one plagued by frequent coups and internal conflicts. It is a developed democratic nation. This situation is as unsustainable as the House of Bourbon attempting a coup to reclaim the French throne, or a U.S. president declaring himself emperor and trying to turn the country into an empire.

Although last night’s events caused international media to stir, the Korean won to depreciate, concerns over capital flight to rise, and our credit rating and national prestige to take a hit, we will recover from this two-hour crisis. There is much work ahead—clearing the debris of this upheaval and restoring our nation’s dignity. But we will manage, so the world need not worry too much. Citizens will go about their daily lives, the markets will function smoothly, and everything will return to order.

Photos: Citizens blocking armed forces from entering the assembly last night

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Big Train managers earn bonuses for greenlighting unsafe cars

Tomorrow (November 16) I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.

Almost no one knows this, but last June, a 90-car train got away from its crew in Hernando, MS, rolling three miles through two public crossings, a ghost train that included 47 potentially explosive propane cars. The "bomb train" neither crashed nor derailed, which meant that Grenada Railroad/Gulf & Atantic didn't have to report it.

This is just one of many terrifying near-misses that are increasingly common in America's hyper-concentrated, private equity-dominated rail sector, where unsafe practices dominate and whistleblowers face brutal retaliation for coming forward to regulators.

These unsafe practices – and the corporate policies that deliberately gave rise to them – are documented in terrifying, eye-watering detail in a deeply reported Propublica story by Topher Sanders, Jessica Lussenhop,Dan Schwartz, Danelle Morton and Gabriel L Sandoval:

https://www.propublica.org/article/railroad-safety-union-pacific-csx-bnsf-trains-freight

It's a tale of depraved indifference to public safety, backstopped by worker intimidation. The reporting is centered on railyard maintenance inspectors, who are charged with writing up "bad orders" to prevent unsafe railcars from shipping out. As private equity firms consolidated rail into an ever-dwindling number of companies, these workers face supervisors who are increasingly hostile to these bad orders.

It got so alarming that some staffers started carrying hidden digital recorders, so they could capture audio of their bosses illegally ordering them to greenlight railcars that were too unsafe for use. The article features direct – and alarming – quotes, like supervisor Andrew Letcher, boss of the maintenance crews at Union Pacific's Kansas City yard saying, "If I was an inspector on a train I would probably let some of that nitpicky shit go."

Letcher – and fellow managers for other Tier 1 railroads quoted in the piece – aren't innately hostile to public safety. They are quite frank about why they want inspectors to "let that nitpicky shit go." As Letcher explains, "The first thing that I’m getting questioned about right now, every day, is why we’re over 200 bad orders and what we’re doing to get them down."

In other words, corporate rail owners have ordered their supervisors to reduce the amount of maintenance outages on the rail lines, but have not given them additional preventative maintenance budgets or crew. These supervisors warn their employees that high numbers of bad orders could cost them their jobs, even lead to the shutdown of the car shops where inspectors are prone to pulling dangerous cars out of service.

It's a ruthless form of winnowing. Gresham's Law holds that "bad money drives out good" – in an economy where counterfeit money circulates, people preferentially spend their fake money to get it out of their hands, until all the money in circulation is funny money. This is the rail safety equivalent: simply fire everyone who reports unsafe conditions and all your railcars will be deemed safe, with the worst railcars shipped out first. A market for lemons – except these aren't balky used sedans, they're unsafe railcars full of toxic chemicals or explosive propane.

When cataclysmic rail disasters occur – like this year's East Palestine derailment – the rail industry reassures us that this is an isolated incident, pointing to the system's excellent overall safety record. But that record is a mirage, because the near-misses don't have to be reported. Those near-misses are coming more frequently, as the culture of profit over safety incurs a mounting maintenance debt, filling America's rails with potential "bomb cars."

Rail mergers and other forms of deregulated, anything-goes capitalism are justified by conservative economists who insist that "incentives matter," and that the profit motive provides the incentive to improve efficiency, leading to lower costs and better service. But the incentive to externalize risk, kick the can down the road, and capture regulators rarely concerns the "incentives matter" crowd.

Here's an incentive that matters. Rail managers' bonuses – as much as a fifth of their take home pay – are only paid if the trains they oversee run on time. Inspectors have recorded their managers admitting that they have quotas – a maximum number of bad orders their facility may produce, irrespective of how much unsafe rolling stock passes through the facility.

Inspectors have caught their managers removing repair order tags from cars they've flagged as unsafe. Inspectors will log orders in a database, only to have the record mysteriously deleted, or marked as serviced when no service has occurred. Some inspectors have seen the same cars in their yard with the same problems, and repeatedly flagged them without any maintenance being performed before they're shipped out again.

Former managers from Union Pacific, CSX and Norfolk Southern told Propublica that they operated in an environment where safety reports were discouraged, and that workers who filed these reports were viewed as "complainers." Workers furnished Propublica with recordings of rail managers berating them for reporting persistent unsafe conditions the Federal Railroad Administration. Other workers from BNSF said that they believed that their bosses were told when they called the company's "confidential" work-safety tipline, setting them up for retaliation by bosses who'd falsified safety reports.

Whistleblowers who seek justice at OSHA are stymied by long delays, and while switching their cases to court can win them cash settlements, these do not get recorded on the company's safety record, which allows the company to go on claiming to be a paragon of safety and prudence.

The culture of retaliation is pervasive, which explains how the 47-cars worth of propane on the "bomb train" that rolled unattended over three miles of track never made the news. There is a voluntary Close Call Reporting System (operated by NASA!) where rail companies can report these disasters. Not one of America's Class 1 rail companies participate in it.

After the East Palestine disaster, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed the rail companies to join, but a year later, none have. It's part of an overall pattern with Secretary Buttigieg, who has prodigious, far-reaching powers under USC40 Section 41712(a), which allow him to punish companies for "unfair and deceptive" practices or "unfair methods of competition":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

Buttigieg can't simply hand down orders under 41712(a) – to wield this power, he must follow administrative procedures, conducting market studies, seeking comment, and proposing a rule. Other members of the Biden administration with similar powers, like FTC chair Lina Khan, arrived in office with a ranked-priority list of bad corporate conduct and immediately set about teeing up rules to give relief to the American public.

By contrast, Buttigieg's agency has done precious little to establish the evidentiary record to punish the worst American companies under its remit. His most-touted achievement was to fine five airlines for saving money by cancelling their flights and stranding their passengers. But of the five airlines affected by Buttigieg's order, four were not US companies. The sole affected US carrier was Spirit airlines, with 2% of the market. The Big Four US airlines – who have a much worse record than the ones that were fined – were not affected at all:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/ftc-noncompete-airline-flight-cancellation-buttigieg/

Rather than directly regulating the US transportation sector, Buttigieg prefers exacting nonbinding promises from them (like the Tier 1 rail companies' broken promise to sign up to the Close Call Reporting System). Under his leadership, the Federal Railroad Agency has proposed weakening rail safety standards, rescinding an order to improve the braking systems on undermaintained, mile-long trains carrying potentially deadly freight:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp

The US transportation system is accumulating a terrifying safety debt, behind a veil of corporate secrecy. It badly demands direct regulation and close oversight.

If you are interested in rail safety, I strongly recommend this episode of Well There's Your Problem, "a podcast about engineering disasters, with slides" – you will laugh your head off and then never sleep again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BMQTdYXaH8

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/15/safety-third/#all-the-livelong-day

[dovahhmonn]

Audrey Afton design completed!! Some info about her and William Afton in this AU below the cut! 💙🦋

Audrey & William Afton – Relationship & Working History Overview 

Audrey was hired as a mechanical engineer for Fazbear Entertainment. At the time, she was considered overqualified but underutilized—skilled in fine-tuned mechanics and custom hydraulics, but often brushed off by upper management due to her age and gender. William Afton, however, took a quiet interest in her.

They didn’t work together directly at first. Audrey would often attend to difficult animatronic maintenance and she gained a reputation for fixing problems without asking questions. William noticed her improvisations in maintenance logs, admiring how she treated machines like living systems. He began leaving anonymous blueprints and notes for her to follow, nudging her deeper into his corner of the mechanical world.

Eventually, he revealed himself as the one behind the notes. Their collaboration deepened. He was cold, precise, and invasive; she was bright, sharp-tongued, and wary. Their relationship was strictly professional, but simmering with quiet tension. He valued her mind, her hands, and the way she listened. She never trusted him fully—but part of her wanted his approval.

One night, Audrey was called to handle a security override for a malfunctioning animatronic. The override triggered a lockdown protocol, and the maintenance shaft beneath her gave way. Her legs were crushed between gears and a hydraulic press.

She nearly died. William was one of the first to reach her. While other staff panicked, he assessed the damage calmly. He made the decision not to call emergency services—instead, he took her to his workshop. No paperwork. No outside contact. He convinced her it was to protect her from liability avoidance.

What Audrey didn’t know at the time: the accident wasn’t entirely unplanned. She had gotten too close to figuring out his past. William had decided it was time to bring her in.

Audrey awoke in a back room, legs amputated mid-thigh. William greeted her like nothing had changed. “You’ll walk again,” he promised. But not as she had before.

He spent months designing her new legs—digitigrade, animalistic, a fusion of strength, efficiency and aesthetic. They ended in mechanical hooves. She hated them at first. But they worked. Better than anything on the market. She could run, climb, kick and crouch better than before. 

The process was invasive. Personal. He handled her body like a craftsman with a favorite sculpture—calculating, meticulous, intimate in the most uncomfortable ways. She came to rely on him. He encouraged that reliance. He whispered that she was meant to be more than human. That she had been chosen and that everything happens for a reason. 

She couldn’t leave. Not with her medical records missing. Not with the world thinking she was “on extended leave.”

She told herself she was staying because of the work.

Their first kiss happened late one night, after she had completed a modification to a new animatronic arm prototype he’d designed. Her fingers were slick with oil. She’d been awake for thirty hours. He approached to adjust her hair, gently brushing her ponytail over her shoulder. 

The silence was heavy. She looked up at him.

“I’m not your puppet,” she said.

He cupped her jaw. “You’re my masterpiece.”

She kissed him first. Angry, impulsive, needing to prove she had power in the equation. He kissed her back with an alarming gentleness.

Neither of them spoke about it afterward. But everything changed.

Weeks later, during a storm that cut power to the pizzeria, they were trapped in the basement together. She accused him of keeping her trapped. He accused her of pretending she didn’t enjoy being seen by him.

The argument dissolved into physicality.

Their first time was not romantic. It was tense, desperate, full of control games and unspoken resentment. He touched her like she was sacred and broken. She used him like he was a wound that needed reopening.

It was the first of many such nights.

Now, their relationship is a slow-burning war of intimacy and dominance. He doesn’t demand her love but he expects it to happen naturally, as if inevitable. She tells herself she’s manipulating him, but the truth is blurred. They’ve shared whispered secrets, stolen blueprints, and nights full of controlled chaos.

She still repairs for him. She’s never quite sure where her choices end and his design begins, but when she walks through the halls on her hooved legs, echoing like thunder, everyone else hears Afton’s genius. Only she knows they’re the sound of her own slow, deliberate damnation.

Though the pair of them aren't legally married, they often call eachother husband and wife.

[dertaglichedan]

From middle class to bottom feeder: What the hell happened to American construction?

Some of us are old enough to remember when being a contractor in America actually meant something special. Sure, it was hard work—but it was honorable, and a skilled tradesman could make a decent living. They were able to support their families and take pride in building something that would last for generations. It was a win-win.

However, it didn’t last…

Thanks to decades of globalist open-border policies, sketchy insider deals, and business-killing government regulations, the entire contractor system has now collapsed. And in yet another globalist turn, another path to the middle class has turned into a miserable dead end and a full-blown race to the bottom.

READ MORE: Netflix, the FBI, and a federal frame job that took down a wellness company…

In a recent piece from New York Magazine, one contractor’s story revealed just how bad the industry has gotten. His name is Ben Whelan, and his depressing story is the same sad tale that countless Americans in this once-thriving industry can relate to.

We’ll break the entire saga down for you, minus the liberal fluff, and show you exactly how America’s tradesmen are getting squeezed out of their own industry—and who’s really to blame.

READ MORE: Rabid, anti-Trump Massachusetts AG’s brother accused of raping at least 9 women…

So, when did the bottom start to fall out? It all started unraveling after the 2008 crash. A once-booming and very competitive field turned into a chaotic scramble for survival, and that’s when some very cutthroat underbidding and exploitation kicked into high gear.

The New York Times Magazine:

“It was alarming to start seeing that kind of activity on these jobs,” Whelan says. Everyone he knew in the business was struggling to find work, and the bidding wars drove the profits to new lows. Sometimes, when he learned the winning bid, he was stunned — he would have lost money at that price. The price of roofing work, in particular, plunged. BTW Construction used to work on a few roofs a year in the down time among their bigger jobs. But they could barely compete in the market after 2009. A job that he priced at $18,000 might be given to a company that charged only $10,000.

But make no mistake, this wasn’t just the market self-correcting—this was the start of contractors being priced out of their own trade by people who were breaking all the rules.

READ MORE: Mike Benz’s new theory about Trump’s would-be assassin changes everything…

So how do these sketchy companies manage to make these extremely low bids and still stay in business? Well, it’s simple: they use illegal labor, skate past payroll taxes, and call full-time workers “independent contractors” to beat the system. The NYT Magazine piece goes on:

In 2021, the Center for American Progress estimated that 23 percent of constructor workers — and 32 percent of roofers — were undocumented. […] Beginning in the 1980s, but accelerating since the Great Recession, builders slashed costs by subcontracting out almost every facet of their projects. Subcontractors, in turn, were favored for delivering the work at a lower price, which they often accomplished by illegally misclassifying full-time employees as independent contractors or simply paying them off the books. These maneuvers allowed employers to dodge mandatory expenses, like payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance, and to evade liability for on-the-job injuries.

It’s a really easy recipe, folks. This is what happens when you mix cheap illegal labor with no enforcement and regulators who are on the take.

And don’t think the entire world doesn’t see what’s happening.

The result of this downward spiral is American workers who are pushed out of the industry, quality standards that plummet, and any contractors left who are actually trying to play by the rules are left in the dust.

CONTINUED:

[kishorxox]

Public Safety and Security Market Size, Share, Forecast, & Trends Analysis

Meticulous Research®—a leading global market research company, published a research report titled, ‘Public Safety and Security Market by Offering (Safety Devices, Safety Software, Safety Services), Technology (IoT, AI, Cloud Computing, ML), Application (Data Gathering, Mapping, and 3D Imaging), End Use (Warehouses & Depots, Workplaces, Shopping Malls & Retail Stores) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2031.’

According to this latest publication from Meticulous Research®, the global public safety and security market is expected to reach $514.1 billion by 2031 from an estimated $234.2 billion in 2024, at a CAGR of 11.9% during the forecast period. The growth of the public safety and security market is driven by the growing utilization of AI, ML, and analytics technologies in public safety and security applications, increasing awareness and initiatives for public safety and security, and government focus on managing the needs of the rising urban population. However, the significant initial investments required to implement public safety and security solutions restrain the growth of this market. The integration of cloud computing and big data analytics in public safety and security solutions and the rising incidence of terrorism and security breaches are expected to generate market growth opportunities. However, the complexities in implementing advanced public safety and security systems and the rising cases of data theft are major challenges for market stakeholders.

The global public safety and security market is segmented by offering, technology, application, end use, and geography. The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyses the country and regional-level markets.

Based on offering, the global public safety and security market is segmented into safety devices, safety software, and safety services. In 2024, the safety services segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the increasing demand for specialized safety services to address specific safety and security challenges. Safety services such as critical infrastructure security, emergency medical, firefighting, and disaster management services are critical in ensuring the safety and well-being of citizens and critical assets. Moreover, the safety services segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on technology, the global public safety and security market is segmented into the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, machine learning, cybersecurity, and other technologies. In 2024, the Internet of Things segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of the segment is attributed to the rising demand for real-time data insights and improved situational awareness. Moreover, the Internet of Things segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on application, the global public safety and security market is segmented into data gathering, mapping and 3D imaging, threat detection, security and incident management, monitoring, fire and explosion examination, network security, and other applications. In 2024, the security and incident management segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the need to respond effectively to emergencies, the increasing adoption of smart city technologies, and the integration of IoT devices. Moreover, the security and incident management segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on end use, the global public safety and security market is segmented into warehouses depots, workplaces, shopping malls & retail stores, schools & universities, hospitals & healthcare, residential, transportation, and other end uses. In 2024, the transportation segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of this segment is attributed to the growing concern of terrorist threats and passenger safety. Advances in contactless ticketing and facial recognition for identity verification are driving the adoption of modern transportation security solutions. Furthermore, the implementation of AI-based video analytics for crowd monitoring contributes to the growth of this segment. However, the hospitals and healthcare segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on geography, the public safety and security market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2024, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global public safety and security market. The large share of this region is attributed to the rising adoption of digital technology and data due to the growing need for improving decision-making, promoting digital inclusivity and equity, creating a collaborative ecosystem, prioritizing citizen safety and health, establishing trust and transparency, and developing resilience and adaptability to manage change effectively. However, Europe is slated to register the highest growth at a CAGR during the forecast period.

Key Players

The key players operating in the global public safety and security market are Hexagon AB (Sweden), Fujitsu Ltd. (Japan), Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Atos SE (France), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.) Saab AB (Sweden), Airbus SE (Netherlands), Siemens AG (Germany), Intel Corporation (U.S.), Fotokite AG (Switzerland), CityShob (Israel), 3xLOGIC (U.S.), L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), OnSolve (U.S.) and Haystax (U.S.).

Download Sample Report Here @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5661

Key Questions Answered in the Report:

Which are the high-growth market segments in terms of offering, technology, application, end use, and geography?

What is the historical market size for the public safety and security market across the globe?

What are the market forecasts and estimates for the period 2024–2031?

What are the major drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in the global public safety and security market?

Who are the major players in the market, and what are their market shares?

How is the competitive landscape for the global public safety and security market?

What are the recent developments in the global public safety and security market?

What are the different strategies adopted by the major players in the market?

What are the key geographic trends, and which are the high-growth countries?

Who are the local emerging players in the global public safety and security market, and how do they compete with other players?

Contact Us: Meticulous Research® Email- sales@meticulousresearch.com Contact Sales- +1-646-781-8004 Connect with us on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-research

[posttexasstressdisorder]

WhatMatters

Your guide to California policy and politics

By Lynn La

July 15, 2025

Presented by Dairy Cares, California Water Service, Community Access National Network and California Housing Consortium

 

 

Good morning, California.

A tiny invasive species is a big threat to CA water

Golden mussels on a jar lid at Thermalito Forebay in Oroville on June 20, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

When thimble-sized mussels were first detected last year in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, biologists quickly rang the alarm over how severely this invasive species could threaten the state’s water supply systems. 

Now, nine months after the mollusks’ appearance near Stockton, officials are in a race to rein in golden mussels as their larvae spread through the state’s network of pumps, pipes and canals, reports CalMatters’ Rachel Becker.

Native to China and Southeast Asia, these freshwater mussels can attach themselves to underwater surfaces and form “reefs” that can grow as fast as 150 miles a year. The mollusks have already infiltrated California’s two major water systems that send Delta water south to 30 million people and millions of acres of farmland.

To curb their spread, some water managers are requiring inspections that include quarantining and decontaminating boats before they can enter certain lakes and reservoirs. California’s fish and wildlife agency also has a handful of dogs trained to detect the mollusk.

But the wildlife department is understaffed, and the recently passed state budget includes no funding to combat the mussels. Oversight is also patchy, leaving many lakes with no protection. The federally-managed Shasta Lake, for example, is the biggest reservoir in the state and frequented by boaters — but it does not have a mandatory inspection program. 

Read more here.

In other environmental news: To save an estimated $499 billion within the next decade, President Donald Trump signed a sweeping budget bill earlier this month that included changes to federal tax incentives that could dampen California’s clean-energy ambitions.

As CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo explains, developers of wind and solar projects now face a shorter deadline for securing tax credits, and companies that rely on China for machine parts are barred from accessing the credits. In the face of these new rules, nearly a dozen solar projects across California could be delayed or canceled.

Read more here.

CalMatters’ 10-year anniversary drive: Safeguard CalMatters’ independent, nonpartisan and fearless journalism for California’s future. Give now and donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our board of directors. 

Other Stories You Should Know

CalPERS recovers from Trump tariffs — for now

The state Public Employees’ Retirement System logo on a plaque at the regional office in Sacramento on June 26, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

At a board meeting Monday, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System reported that it has exceeded its investment targets and has rebounded from the economic hit it took from the pandemic, writes CalMatters’ Adam Ashton.

CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund, and finances the retirement plans of about 2 million people. As of Monday evening, it is worth about $556 billion. CalPERS set out to gain 6.8% on its investments this past financial year, and instead reported that it made 11.6%.

The gains come after a dramatic loss in its portfolio in April, when Trump’s inconsistent rollout of new tariff policies caused a $6.6 trillion stock market wipeout. By May the pension fund recovered from its April low of $508 million, but it still remains underfunded since it’s worth less than what it owes over time to government workers and retirees.

During the meeting, CalPERS leaders also received a number of comments from the public urging the fund to divest from the electric car company Tesla. Though calls to divest from Tesla aren’t new, the involvement of its CEO, Elon Musk, in Trump’s administration — such as his time leading the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency — has sparked renewed pressure to divest.

Read more here.

 

CA sues Trump over frozen school funds

Students being taught a science lesson at the Keyes Elementary School in Keyes on Nov. 15, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Joining a coalition of 23 other states, California is suing the Trump administration over its withholding of $6.8 billion dollars in educational funding weeks before the start of the new school year.

Citing that nearly $940 million of federal funding has been frozen for California, Attorney General Rob Bonta unveiled the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education on Monday. He and three other state attorneys general at a news conference argued that withholding the money undermines Congress’ authority over the budget. 

Bonta: “Our states are owed the billions in federal funding that Trump and (U.S. Secretary Linda) McMahon have frozen, and we're going to court to see that it's reinstated.”

Congress had already set aside the money for schools in March, which schools took in consideration for their own budgets. But rather than the federal education department releasing the funds on July 1 as expected, the department instead notified schools that it was reviewing the money. Among other services, the money goes toward teacher professional development and after school programs.

Monday’s announcement marks the 31st lawsuit the state has filed against the current Trump administration. In another lawsuit, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can fire federal workers at the education department, clearing a path to dismantle the agency completely.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The Los Angeles Times’ compelling deep dive into how the homelessness crisis arose in L.A. County explores housing patterns, economic upheaval and more.

Just as California passes new laws to spur more housing, federal immigration policies would make scarce the labor force tapped to build such housing, writes Nils Gilman, chief operating officer and executive vice president of the Berggruen Institute.

Other things worth your time:

 

Some stories may require a subscription to read.

 

The federal government is retreating from student lending // The Wall Street Journal

Buffeted by change, CA charter schools continue to grow amid scrutiny // EdSource

CA reaches new record clean energy milestone // The Mercury News

Reparations bill, amid headwinds, could skirt CA’s affirmative action ban // Los Angeles Times

This is the real doom loop that will change everything about life in the Bay Area // San Francisco Chronicle

SF, Oakland cops illegally funneled license plate data to feds // The San Francisco Standard

ICE detentions force more Central CA undocumented residents to self-deport // The Fresno Bee

Troops, terror and tears in LA as ICE raids show no sign of slowing // The Guardian

Local police, increasingly present at ICE raids, walk tightrope to stay out of immigration enforcement // The San Diego Union-Tribune

Despite three 911 calls, two homebound disabled men died in the Eaton Fire awaiting rescue // LAist

 

See you next time!

Tips, insight or feedback? Email whatmatters@calmatters.org. Subscribe to CalMatters newsletters here. Follow CalMatters on Facebook and Twitter.

 

     

 

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CalMatters 1017 L Street #261 Sacramento, CA 95814 United States

[newstfionline]

Monday, October 21, 2024

Billions in election bets raise the stakes of the presidential race (Washington Post) Scott Owens, an amateur watchmaker in Madison, Wis., waited years for a chance to legally bet money on U.S. politics. Earlier this month a federal court opened the way, by ruling that federal financial regulators could not block New York start-up Kalshi from accepting such wagers. A few days later, Owens put down about $100 on several potential outcomes in the popular vote and electoral college from the presidential ballot on Election Day. Tarek Mansour, CEO of Kalshi, said in an interview this week that the site’s user base has been “doubling day over day” since the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia early this month ruled against a Commodity Futures Trading Commission order banning bets on politics. Around $2 billion in cryptocurrency has been wagered on predicting the next president on Polymarket as of Friday. As of Friday, pricing on Polymarket suggested former president Donald Trump had a 60 percent chance of winning the presidency and Kamala Harris had a 40 percent chance. On Kalshi, Trump was trading at 56 percent and Harris at 44 percent.

Halloween: Retail Monstrosity (NYT) On Nov. 1, 1876, The New York Times declared Halloween “departed,” destined for the grave. In 2024, consumers are expected to spend $11.6 billion celebrating the holiday, up from $3.3 billion in 2005. Halloween has transformed from a pagan feast to a celebration with lovingly homemade costumes and treats to one of the largest consumer spending holidays in the United States. Every October—or even earlier—millions of Americans are spending on costumes, decorating their homes and lawns with garish skeletons and spiders and doling out candy bars to little superheroes and witches. Halloween is a marketer’s dream, said Tom Arnold, a finance professor and retail expert at the University of Richmond. It falls on the same day every year, Halloween items are largely consumable (candy needs to be replenished every year and kids outgrow costumes), and pop culture trends can help predict which costumes will be the must-haves each season.

Cuba Suffers Second Power Outage in 24 Hours, Realizing Years of Warnings (NYT) The experts had warned for years: Cuba’s power grid was on the verge of collapse, relying on plants nearly a half-century old and importing fuel that the strapped Communist government could barely afford. On Friday morning their dire predictions came true, as the entire island plunged into the most prolonged blackout it has suffered in the three decades since its former benefactor and steady fuel supplier, the Soviet Union, collapsed. Cuban energy officials managed to get power back up briefly to some parts of the island on Friday night. But early Saturday the state’s utility company reported another “total disconnection” of the system, the second in less than 24 hours.

Historic Droughts in South America (NYT) Electricity cuts across an entire nation. A capital rationing water. A mayor encouraging people to shower together to save precious drops. The world’s largest river system, the Amazon, which sustains some 30 million people across eight countries, is drying up. A record-breaking drought that is well into its second year is punishing much of South America, including the Amazon rainforest, upending lives and local economies and providing an alarming glimpse into the future as the effects of climate change become more apparent. In Brazil, wildfires fueled by searing heat and prolonged dry conditions have consumed vast swaths of forest, wetlands and pastures, with smoke spreading to 80 percent of the country. It has led to canceled classes, hospitalizations and a black dust coating the inside of homes. To the south, in Paraguay, the Paraguay River has hit new lows. Ships are stranded and fishermen say their most valuable quarry—including the enormous surubí catfish—have all but disappeared, forcing many people to look for work elsewhere to feed their families. With much of South America dependent on hydropower, electricity production has plunged. In Ecuador, people are enduring energy cuts of up to 14 hours per day, knocking out the internet and sapping the country’s economy.

Kyiv launches more than 100 drones over Russia as a missile strike on Ukraine injures 17 (AP) Russian air defenses shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones Sunday over Russia’s western regions, Moscow officials said, while 17 people were injured in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih in a ballistic missile attack. The Russian Defense Ministry said 110 drones were destroyed in the overnight barrage against seven Russian regions. Many targeted Russia’s border region of Kursk, where 43 drones were reportedly shot down. Social media footage appeared to show air defenses at work over the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod region, close to a factory producing explosives.

Moldova votes in election, EU referendum in shadow of alleged Russian meddling (Reuters) Moldovans cast their ballots on Sunday in a presidential election and EU referendum at a pivotal moment that could bolster the small agricultural economy’s drive to join the European Union, after allegations of Russian election meddling. As the war in Ukraine rages to the east and turns the political and diplomatic spotlight on the former Soviet republic, it has accelerated its push to escape Moscow’s orbit and embarked on the long process of EU accession talks. Polls show pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu has a comfortable lead over her 10 rivals on the ballot, though the race will go to a Nov. 3 run-off if she fails to reach the 50% threshold to win outright. The campaign has been overshadowed by election-meddling allegations. The police have accused Ilan Shor, a fugitive tycoon who lives in Russia, of trying to pay off a network of at least 130,000 voters to vote “No”. And law-enforcement agencies said they had uncovered a programme in which hundreds of people were taken to Russia to undergo training to stage riots and civil unrest.

Japan’s beloved former Empress Michiko marks her 90th birthday as she recovers from a broken leg (AP) Japan’s beloved former Empress Michiko received greetings from her relatives and palace officials to celebrate her 90th birthday Sunday as she steadily recovers from a broken leg, officials said. Michiko is the first commoner to become empress in modern Japanese history. Catholic-educated Michiko Shoda and then-Crown Prince Akihito married on April 10, 1959. The couple retired after Akihito abdicated in 2019 as their son, Emperor Naruhito, ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne and his wife, Masako, became empress. Since then, Akihito and Michiko have largely withdrawn from public appearance to enjoy their quiet life together, taking daily walks inside the palace gardens or occasionally taking private trips, hosting small gatherings for book reading and music. The couple broke with traditions and brought many changes to the monarchy: They chose to raise their three children themselves, spoke more often to the public, and made amends for war victims in and outside Japan. Their close interactions have won them deep affection among Japanese.

Indonesia swears in Prabowo Subianto as the country’s eighth president (AP) Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated Sunday as the eighth president of the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, completing his journey from an ex-general accused of rights abuses during the dark days of Indonesia’s military dictatorship to the presidential palace. The former defense minister, who turned 73 on Thursday, was cheered through the streets by thousands of waving supporters after taking his oath on the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in front of lawmakers and foreign dignitaries. Banners and billboards to welcome the new president filled the streets of the capital, Jakarta, where tens of thousands gathered for festivities including speeches and musical performances along the city’s major throughfare.

Lebanese Christians caught in crossfire (Washington Post) While much of southern Lebanon falls under the de facto control of Hezbollah, the ancient valleys here hold a scattering of towns and villages that are predominantly Christian, Druze or Sunni Muslim. None of them have rallied to support Hezbollah. Their neutrality largely protected them during the first 11 months of the conflict, but now the war is creeping quickly toward them. While most residents have evacuated, people in some Christian towns—and their priests—are refusing to leave their homes again. Their reasons are a kaleidoscope of defiance, resolve and generational trauma. Some say they can’t afford to relocate. Some believe their presence deters attacks on their lands. Some fear they won’t be able to return. For many across the country, this war in particular has brought feelings of complete helplessness: Lebanon’s five-year-long economic crisis has left them unable to escape the danger zone of a war they do not even support.

Fighting Rages in Gaza and Lebanon, Despite Killing of Hamas Leader (NYT) Israeli forces pounded targets in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya on Saturday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of others in the bombardment, a Palestinian emergency services group said. Israel has surrounded Jabaliya for a week as it seeks to root out Hamas fighters who it says have reorganized in the area. Since Friday, approximately 20,000 Palestinians have fled the neighborhood, according to UNRWA, the main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians in Gaza, amid Israel’s bombardment. Fighting also escalated in Lebanon on Saturday, as the Israeli military targeted several areas outside of Beirut in airstrikes that covered the area in clouds of dust. The resurgence in attacks, after several days of relative calm, came after Hezbollah warned of “a new and escalating phase” in the conflict with Israel. In Gaza, the Gazan Health Ministry reported that Israeli forces had targeted the entrance of the laboratory at Kamal Adwan Hospital, a major facility near Jabaliya, killing one person and injuring several others. The ministry has warned of a crisis in Gaza’s hospitals, citing fuel shortages and a lack of essential medicines and medical supplies.

Dog spotted atop ancient Egyptian pyramid delights paragliders (Washington Post) An Egyptian dog found viral fame after it was filmed frolicking atop one of the pyramids at Giza, spotted by a group of paragliders. Marshall Mosher, one of the paragliders, said he had flown over the pyramids several times but it was his first sighting of a dog at the summit, hundreds of feet from the ground. “We really didn’t know what it was at first—this thing running back and forth along the top,” he told The Post. “So, that was hilarious and unexpected.” Social media users fell in love with the adventurous animal, as videos taken by the event participants accumulated more than a million views.

[mastergarryblogs]

Sound Recognition Market Disruption: How Audio Tech Is Taking Over IoT

Pioneering the Future of Sound-Driven Intelligence

The global sound recognition market is undergoing a rapid transformation, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and edge computing. As sound becomes a new frontier for data interaction, industries are leveraging sound recognition technologies to redefine safety, automation, and user experience. With an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 71.1% from 2024 to 2031, the sound recognition market is poised for exponential expansion across sectors such as security, healthcare, automotive, and smart living.

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Strategic Sound Recognition Market Dynamics and Growth Drivers

Surge in IoT and Edge AI Deployments

The proliferation of IoT devices has catalyzed the integration of sound recognition capabilities at the edge. Devices now possess the intelligence to locally process audio signals, minimizing latency and enhancing real-time responsiveness. This shift is crucial in applications such as smart homes and surveillance systems, where immediate sound-triggered actions are vital.

Advanced AI Algorithms Powering Accuracy

Modern sound recognition systems utilize deep neural networks trained on massive datasets to distinguish between a broad spectrum of audio inputs—ranging from verbal cues and environmental sounds to physiological indicators. The result is enhanced accuracy in noisy or variable acoustic environments, increasing the reliability of use cases in both consumer and industrial domains.

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Application Ecosystem: Industry-Wise Impact

Automotive Safety and Autonomous Navigation

The automotive sector is at the forefront of sound recognition deployment. Vehicles are now equipped with advanced audio sensors capable of:

Detecting emergency vehicle sirens and alerting the driver.

Identifying fatigue in drivers through vocal strain patterns.

Enhancing autonomous vehicle decisions by interpreting contextual audio data.

These features contribute to proactive safety, aligning with global mandates for intelligent transport systems.

Smart Homes: Voice-Powered Automation

Smart home environments leverage sound recognition for seamless control and enhanced security:

Voice-activated assistants (e.g., Google Assistant, Alexa) manage daily tasks.

Devices detect abnormal sounds like glass breaking, smoke alarms, or intruders.

Integration with home automation platforms offers real-time alerts and system responses.

Healthcare and Fitness: Audio Biometrics in Patient Monitoring

Wearables and smart medical devices utilize sound recognition for health diagnostics:

Continuous cough and breath monitoring for chronic respiratory patients.

Detection of snoring and apnea events for sleep health.

Real-time alerts in eldercare environments upon identifying distress sounds.

The scalability of AI models allows personalized monitoring, transforming how care is delivered.

Security and Surveillance: Real-Time Threat Detection

In public infrastructure, commercial facilities, and urban surveillance systems:

Gunshots, screams, and explosion sounds are detected and classified.

Law enforcement and emergency services receive instant alerts with geolocation.

Sound analytics bolster visual surveillance systems, creating multi-sensory defense layers.

Device Integration: A New Paradigm of Smart Technology

Smartphones & Tablets

Devices now come preloaded with audio recognition features enabling:

Voice commands and smart assistants.

Emergency sound detection (e.g., crash or scream alerts).

Accessibility features for users with visual or motor impairments.

Smart Speakers & Home Devices

Core to the home automation ecosystem, these devices:

Act as central hubs for voice-controlled environments.

Respond to contextual commands (e.g., ambient noise level).

Detect unrecognized or alarming audio events.

Connected Cars & Hearables

Automotive and wearable tech continue to push boundaries:

Cars recognize external cues (e.g., police sirens, honks).

Hearables suppress ambient noise and isolate important cues.

Smart wristbands monitor user health via sound-derived insights.

Regional Insights: Global Sound Recognition Market Footprint

North America

As the most mature market, the region drives innovation through robust R&D and early tech adoption. The U.S. dominates in AI sound analytics, healthcare integration, and smart home devices.

Asia-Pacific

The fastest-growing region, fueled by consumer electronics manufacturing, urban infrastructure development, and rapid digitization. China, Japan, India, and South Korea are key contributors.

Europe

Home to regulatory-driven innovation in automotive and industrial IoT, with countries like Germany and the UK leading in autonomous and secure technology integration.

Middle East & Africa

Growing investment in smart cities and public safety systems is stimulating demand for AI-based surveillance and real-time monitoring solutions.

South America

Emerging adoption in urban security and healthcare applications, with Brazil leading the regional transformation.

Key Companies Shaping the Sound Recognition Landscape

Apple Inc. – Integrating sound recognition into iOS and health-focused wearables.

Audio Analytic – Pioneers in machine learning-based sound classification.

Analog Devices, Inc. – Providers of high-performance audio signal processors.

Renesas Electronics – Specialized in embedded systems with audio capabilities.

Wavio & Abilisense – Focused on environmental sound interpretation and accessibility solutions.

MicrodB & iNAGO Inc. – Innovators in industrial and consumer-grade acoustic intelligence.

These companies invest heavily in R&D, data annotation, and strategic partnerships to maintain competitive differentiation.

Sound Recognition Market Forecast and Future Outlook (2024–2031)

The sound recognition industry is expected to expand aggressively, with technological advancements, AI democratization, and cross-sector integration acting as primary enablers. From voice-first computing to environmental safety systems, sound will emerge as a principal interface for machine-human interaction.

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Conclusion

We are entering an era where sound recognition is not merely a feature, but a foundational layer of intelligent environments. Its fusion with AI and IoT is revolutionizing how machines perceive and respond to the world, making it an indispensable component across diverse sectors. Stakeholders investing in this transformative technology stand to gain not only competitive advantage but also contribute to a safer, more intuitive, and connected global ecosystem.

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