#San Antonio Valley

[wine-porn]

Marin Layer

When the 1% talk about Monterey County, they are always referring to Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot or Arroyo Seco Chard, or maybe Chalone grenache or the pockets of syrah located there. When the 99 talk about Monterey County, they are referring to the billions of gallons of watered-down, fairly low-varietally-correct plonk harvested from the thousands of acres of rolling flatland. But what if I…

[blurglesmurfklaine]

let’s play a game called “Do I actually want to move back home or did I just forget to take my antidepressants last night?” more at 8.

[sonyachristian]

San Diego - what's not to like...

[conandaily2022]

San Antonio, Texas teacher Stephanie Woods arrested, placed on administrative leave

Stephanie Woods, 28, is employed by the Northside Independent School District, which is headquartered in Leon Valley, Bexar County, Texas, United States. He is a biology teacher and a basketball and tennis coach at Warren High School in San Antonio, Bexar County.

[goalhofer]

Welcome to Cleveland, Michael Kelly.

[nemmennem]

sacrificial lamb [teen male reader x Hazbin Hotel Part Prologue]

1965

U.S.A

Texas

"Good morning miss, would you like to talk about God?"

Closed doors were your answer...

My name is Charlie, im 16 years old, i live in San Antonio, im 5'7, i have two younger sibling's, i have short blond curly hair and blue eyes, my favorite color is white... I belive in god, Catholic denomination to be precise. Im doing everything to get closer to him, avoiding sin, doing virtues, I also help convert others, although it is a bit intrusive.

I was walking home from spreading faith in god when i met them

Satanist... they multiplied like rabbits, There were more and more of them from week to week, It saddened me how many souls wandered away from God in this way

"hey lamb, you haven't gone too far from your flock"

"no"

I just walked by them in direction of my house

----------------------------------[Time skip]--------------------------------

the dinner your mother made was delicious

Now I had to threw the trash out... what could go wrong

I left house and walked to bin...

Then everything just went black...

May God take care of me

----------------------------------[Time skip]--------------------------------

I woke up in strange place, red and gray was dominant colors, on sky was big pentagram, scream's and explosions could be hear all time

I got up and looked around, my appearance had changed, my hair had a sheep's wool texture, my skin was a shade of gray, I had hooves instead of normal feet and my ears were sheep's

I was in some valley, i walked to the street...

Bloody hell... IM IN HELL!

There were demons and other devils walking the streets, that would explain the noises. Next to me there was a display of televisions, each of them was playing an advertisement. I don't want to be rude, but the quality of the recording was not the best and there was definitely room for improvement, the quality of the services that were advertised didn't seem to be the best either, but the type of services, that was already interesting, redemption from hell, I don't even know why I went to it, but the possibility of improvement and going to heaven… sounds appealing

I feel I will go visit this hotel

------------------------------[Time Skip]---------------------------------

Good grief how did i not die? Can you even die in hell?

I knocked on the door of the hazbin hotel

The door was opened by a cheerful woman, she had blonde hair, her pupils were red and her irises were yellow, she seemed nice

"Welcome to Hazbin hotel"

[fatehbaz]

Big week for news about “mountain lions wandering back into historic habitat where they were once persecuted to extinction” in February 2023.

---

Central Texas:

Headline and screenshots from: Priscilla Aguirre. “Potential mountain lion sighting in San Antonio area raises awareness.” My San Antonio. 14 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: Officials at the San Marcos Parks and Recreation Department are asking others and the surrounding areas to be cautious about potential mountain lions in Central Texas. Officials said the message comes after the department received a call about a potential sighting of a mountain lion at Upper Purgatory Creek Natural Area in San Marcos on Sunday, February 12. [...] In Central Texas, it’s extremely rare to see a mountain lion in person, according to a report from the San Antonio Express-News. [...] Only one mountain lion has been confirmed in Bexar County in the past decade, on November 24, 2013, according to TPWD. [End of excerpt.]

---

Great Plains and Nebraska:

Headline and screenshot from: Damon Bennett. “Nebraska mountain lion now looking for a name after 700-mile journey.” Lincoln Journal-Star. 16 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: A Nebraska mountain lion that found itself in a sanctuary in Indiana after a 700-mile journey through four states is now looking for one last souvenir: a name. Back in the fall, the big cat made its way from the scenic Niobrara River valley all the way to suburban Springfield, Illinois, according to the GPS tracker that Nebraska Game and Parks had tagged it with a year prior. "A lot of people were watching him," said [the director of an “exotic feline rescue center”] in Center Point, Indiana, where the mountain lion has been since October. When the lion overstayed its welcome near Springfield, it was sedated by federal wildlife officials, who offered to return it to Nebraska. Nebraska declined.’ [...] "I'm incredibly impressed with this animal; he crossed both the Missouri and Mississippi rivers [...]." [End of excerpt.]

---

Ozarks and Missouri:

Headline and screenshot from: Julia Wilson. “Mountain lions in Missouri? We’re seeing more than usual this winter.” Columbia Missourian. 16 February 2023.

Excerpt from this article: Footage from a trail camera taken Jan. 3 confirmed that a roaming mountain lion made a rare appearance in northern Boone County. Since then, the Missouri Department of Conservation documented three additional sightings around the state last month — one in Callaway County, another in Montgomery County and a third that was hit by a vehicle south of St. Louis.  Reports of mountain lions, also known as cougars, pumas and panthers, have increased over the past decade in the state. Between 2013 and 2022, a total of 65 were counted around Missouri. Compare that to the years between 1994 and 2006, when only 12 were spotted. [...] The animals may come from an established colony in the Black Hills, cross Nebraska and wander into Missouri, according to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Missouri’s extensive forest coverage, which includes 35% of state acreage, then becomes an ideal destination for the animals. Mountain lions have roamed Missouri since pre-settlement times. Their range crosses the western hemisphere from Canada to southern Chile. [...] Although they are seen across the state, over half of all sightings have been documented within 40 miles of Mark Twain National Forest in southeast Missouri. [...] Trophy hunting by early colonists wiped out most of the population east of the Mississippi River. [...] Except for the recent encounter in Franklin County where a lion was hit by a vehicle, the last documented human contact occurred in December 2021 during another vehicle collision. [End of excerpt.]

---

For reference:

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This castle home was built in 1972 in Leon Valley, Texas. It’s fixer-upper, but it’s listed for $399K, which I thought was kind of expensive. See what you think.

The kitchen/dining area is very large and needs just about a total gut. You can’t even salvage the cabinets b/c some of the doors are missing. Plus, the owners took all the appliances, as well as the kitchen sink.

I have no idea what these rooms are.

I would say that this is the laundry room. Is that black mold?

The electric must be turned off, b/c it’s awfully dark in this bathroom.

But this is the cool part- the stone work, chandelier and castle doors. Look at the balcony, too.

The castle part looks more recently done.

This is really nice. It’s the stone work that makes the house. 

The house seems to have 2 sides to it, though. The castle side and then a regular contemporary side.

I can’t tell what this is, but it needs walls, a ceiling, and flooring.

Here’s another bath that needs help.

See how half the house is stone castle and the other half is a regular house. It looks like they were built separately and joined together.

This must be older construction b/c it’s in worse shape.

There’s a .98 acre of land.

Plus a pool and a fountain. Looks like the pool was recently cleaned out.

https://www.redfin.com/TX/San-Antonio/6617-Countess-Adria-St-78238/home/48781339

[wine-porn]

G18 to the G14

Those in the inner circle know my fascination with historic highways in California, so when I saw this label I HAD to have it. The county route G-roads were signed and numbered in the 70’s with G18 being a short east-west connector between El Camino Real (US101) and the much-longer G14 which runs North-South across San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties. This winery lies near the confluence of G18…

[unplaces]

38415 San Antonio Valley Rd, Livermore, California.

[dertaglichedan]

Today that number is over 5500

Another one bites the dust. 97 and counting.

While the fire seems insignificant, it's part of a much larger issue of a spate of "accidental fires," one by one, taking out America's food supply chain over the past year.

Here's a list of 97 so far:

1/11/21 A fire that destroyed a 75,000-square-foot processing plant in Fayetteville

4/30/21 A fire ignited inside the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Monmouth, IL

7/25/21 Three-alarm fire at Kellogg plant in Memphis, 170 emergency personnel responded to the call

7/30/21 Firefighters on Friday battled a large fire at Tyson's River Valley Ingredients plant in Hanceville, Alabama

8/23/21 Fire crews were called to the Patak Meat Production company on Ewing Road in Austell

9/13/21 A fire at the JBS beef plant in Grand Island, Neb., on Sunday night forced a halt to slaughter and fabrication lines

10/13/21 A five-alarm fire ripped through the Darigold butter production plant in Caldwell, ID

11/15/21 A woman is in custody following a fire at the Garrard County Food Pantry

11/29/21 A fire broke out around 5:30 p.m. at the Maid-Rite Steak Company meat processing plant

12/13/21 West Side food processing plant in San Antonio left with smoke damage after a fire

1/7/22 Damage to a poultry processing plant on Hamilton's Mountain following an overnight fire

1/13/22 Firefighters worked for 12 hours to put a fire out at the Cargill-Nutrena plant in Lecompte, LA

1/31/22 a fertilizer plant with 600 tons of ammonium nitrate inside caught on fire on Cherry Street in Winston-Salem

2/3/22 A massive fire swept through Wisconsin River Meats in Mauston

2/3/22 At least 130 cows were killed in a fire at Percy Farm in Stowe

2/15/22 Bonanza Meat Company goes up in flames in El Paso, Texas

2/15/22 Nearly a week after the fire destroyed most of the Shearer's Foods plant in Hermiston

2/16/22 A fire had broken at US largest soybean processing and biodiesel plant in Claypool, Indiana

2/18/22 An early morning fire tore through the milk parlor at Bess View Farm

2/19/22 Three people were injured, and one was hospitalized, after an ammonia leak at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont

2/22/22 The Shearer's Foods plant in Hermiston caught fire after a propane boiler exploded

2/28/22 A smoldering pile of sulfur quickly became a raging chemical fire at Nutrien Ag Solutions

2/28/22 A man was hurt after a fire broke out at the Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery

3/4/22 294,800 chickens destroyed at farm in Stoddard, Missouri

3/4/22 644,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland

3/8/22 243,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in New Castle, Delaware

3/10/22 663,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, MD

3/10/22 915,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Taylor, IA

3/14/22 The blaze at 244 Meadow Drive was discovered shortly after 5 p.m. by farm owner Wayne Hoover

3/14/22 2,750,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Jefferson, Wisconsin

3/16/22 A fire at a Walmart warehouse distribution center has cast a large plume of smoke visible throughout Indianapolis.

3/16/22 Nestle Food Plant extensively damaged in fire and new production destroyed Jonesboro, Arkansas

3/17/22 5,347,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Buena Vista, Iowa

3/17/22 147,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Kent, Delaware

3/18/22 315,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland

3/22/22 172,000 Turkeys destroyed on farms in South Dakota

3/22/22 570,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska

3/24/22 Fire fighters from numerous towns are battling a major fire at the McCrum potato processing facility in Belfast.

3/24/22 418,500 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska

3/25/22 250,300 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Franklin, Iowa

3/26/22 311,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

3/27/22 126,300 Turkeys destroyed in South Dakota

3/28/22 1,460,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Guthrie, Iowa

3/29/22 A massive fire burned 40,000 pounds of food meant to feed people in a food desert near Maricopa

3/31/22 A structure fire caused significant damage to a large portion of key fresh onion packing facilities in south Texas

3/31/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Osceola, Iowa

3/31/22 5,011,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Osceola, Iowa

4/6/22 281,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina

4/9/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/9/22 208,900 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/12/22 89,700 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina

4/12/22 1,746,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Dixon, Nebraska

4/12/22 259,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Minnesota

4/13/22 fire destroys East Conway Beef & Pork Meat Market in Conway, New Hampshire

4/13/22 Plane crashes into Gem State Processing, Idaho potato and food processing plant

4/13/22 77,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/14/22 Taylor Farms Food Processing plant burns down Salinas, California.

4/14/22 99,600 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/15/22 1,380,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Lancaster, Minnesota

4/19/22 Azure Standard nation's premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire in Dufur, Oregon

4/19/22 339,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/19/22 58,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Montrose, Color

4/20/22 2,000,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Minnesota

4/21/22 A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Georgia

4/22/22 197,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/23/22 200,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota

4/25/22 1,501,200 chickens destroyed at egg farm Cache, Utah

4/26/22 307,400 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania

4/27/22 2,118,000 chickens destroyed at farm Knox, Nebraska

4/28/22 Egg-laying facility in Iowa kills 5.3 million chickens, fires 200-plus workers

4/28/22 Allen Harim Foods processing plant killed nearly 2M chickens in Delaware

4/2822 110,700 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

4/29/22 1,366,200 chickens destroyed at farm Weld Colorado

4/30/22 13,800 chickens destroyed at farm Sequoia Oklahoma

5/3/22 58,000 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Beadle S Dakota

5/3/22 114,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Lyon Minnesota

5/7/22 20,100 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

5/10/22 72,300 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania

5/10/22 61,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/10/22 35,100 Turkeys destroyed Muskegon, Michigan

5/13/22 10,500 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin

5/14/22 83,400 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/17/22 79,00 chickens destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/18/22 7,200 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/19/22 Train carrying limestone derailed Jensen Beach FL

5/21/22 57,000 Turkeys destroyed on farm in Dakota Minnesota

5/23/22 4,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

5/29/22 A Saturday night fire destroyed a poultry building at Forsman Farms

5/31/22 3,000,000 chickens destroyed by fire at Forsman facility in Stockholm Township, Minnesota

6/2/22 30,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania

6/7/22 A fire occurred Tuesday evening at the JBS meat packing plant in Green Bay.

6/8/22 Firefighters from Tangipahoa Fire District 1 respond to a fire at the Purina Feed Mill in Arcola

6/9/22 Irrigation water was canceled in California (the #1 producer of food in the US) and storage water flushed directly out to the delta.

6/12/22 Largest Pork Company in the US Shuts Down California Plant Due to High Costs

6/13/22 Fire Breaks Out at a Food Processing Plant West of Waupaca County in Wisconsin.

***This is from 2021 and 2022.. Can that total today be correct???

[mariacallous]

The COVID-19 pandemic’s sudden onset in 2020 and its persistent impacts in ensuing years posed new challenges for large U.S. cities and metropolitan areas.

Some of the initial challenges were related to the specific nature of the coronavirus and public health responses. In March 2020, residents of cold, dense cities seemed at greater risk of contracting the airborne illness than those in more spread-out, temperate communities where people could spend time outside year-round.1 More persistent challenges are related to the rapid adoption of remote work technologies, which enable certain kinds of work to be done anywhere with a high-speed internet connection, and not necessarily in big-city downtowns dominated by what today are increasingly vacant office buildings.

In an increasingly hyper-polarized country, some of these dynamics intersected with partisan politics. Republican-led states such as Florida and Texas positioned themselves as refuges for movers seeking escape from “Covid lockdowns” in Democratic-led states. In response to these and other political factors, Elon Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, and a prominent Chicago financier moved his hedge fund to Miami after his employees started working from a high-end hotel there during the height of the pandemic.

The housing market also played a role in fueling migration during this time. As more people worked from home, demand for homeownership rose, particularly for larger homes. For example, in San Diego County—which for many years had built little new housing—median home prices skyrocketed from $660,000 in January 2020 to $860,000 just two years later, according to Zillow. Prices also rose in more affordable, flexible markets, but much more modestly; in Houston over that same time, the median home price increased from $195,000 to $240,000.

My colleague William H. Frey was among the first to document significant migration away from big metro areas during the pandemic. His analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showed accelerated domestic out-migration from large, coastal metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle between 2020 and 2021. Domestic in-migration, meanwhile, remained strong in Sun Belt metro areas such as Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa, Fla., San Antonio, and Raleigh, N.C. Frey’s subsequent analysis showed these trends moderated through 2022 and 2023 as the initial impacts of the pandemic subsided.

Even if they are temporary in some respects, these recent migration patterns could have lasting impacts. Richard Florida, for instance, points to the rise of “meta cities”—large U.S. metro areas distant from each other yet linked closely by the ties of remote work and Covid-era movers, such as New York and Miami (finance), the Bay Area and Austin (tech), and Los Angeles and Nashville, Tenn. (entertainment). The Economic Innovation Group chronicled a loss of high earners from major urban centers such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. during the first two years of the pandemic. The home listing service Redfin, meanwhile, noted rising housing demand in affordable markets proximate to major metro areas (e.g., New Haven, Conn. outside New York; Richmond, Va. outside Washington, D.C.; Worcester, Mass. outside Boston), suggesting the growing prominence of hybrid (versus fully remote) work arrangements. How these dynamics play out could have significant implications for the economic and social health of cities, and for America’s urban hierarchy in the 21st century.

To better understand these dynamics, this report analyzes data from the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Statistics of Income program on U.S. population migration at the county level. The data tracks individual income tax filers who changed addresses from one year to the next, and reports the number of tax filers moving between counties (a proxy for households), the number of personal exemptions among those filers (a proxy for individuals), and the total adjusted gross income reported on their returns (a proxy for household income). While the IRS migration data is only currently available through 2022 (versus 2023 in Census Bureau migration data), it has the advantages of tracking movements between specific counties and revealing something about the economic status of migrating households.2

This report uses the IRS county-level migration data to track movement before and after the pandemic’s onset among U.S. metropolitan areas, which are collections of counties that approximate regional economies and labor markets.3 The analysis assigns each county in the dataset to its corresponding metro area based on the latest Census Bureau metropolitan delineations.4 An important limitation of the IRS data is that it suppresses county-to-county flows of fewer than 20 tax filers to protect taxpayer privacy. In 2021-22, for instance, the data reflects a total of 7.6 million U.S. filers moving to metropolitan counties, with the source county indicated for 5.8 million of them. This means that the county-to-county data misses 1.8 million households (or 23% of all households) moving to metropolitan counties in 2021-22. Many of these households likely moved from small, non-metropolitan counties, but the flows among metro areas charted here inevitably miss moves occurring between smaller counties in metro areas of all sizes.

Despite this limitation, the IRS data is useful for answering basic questions about domestic migration and the possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the nation’s metropolitan areas, this analysis specifically asks if and how the pandemic may have altered the:

Overall level of migration within and among metro areas

Key metropolitan origins and destinations of movers

Economic character of movers, and/or their sending/receiving communities

In general, the analysis confirms that the pandemic made an impact on metropolitan migration patterns, but also finds that these changes did not significantly alter the demographic or economic trajectory of metro regions. The analysis concludes with thoughts on the implications of these patterns as the economy returns to a “new normal” in the pandemic’s aftermath.

[scotianostra]

The mineralogist and archeologist William Niven was born on October 6th 1850 in Bellshill.

Niven emigrated to the United States in 1879, where he became heavily involved in mineralogy and mining.

In 1911 Niven discovered ancient ruins buried beneath volcanic ash near Azcapotzalco in the Federal District, just north of Mexico City. He devoted the next two decades of his life to archeological exploration in the Valley of Mexico and through an arrangement with the Mexican government was able to fund his digging by the sale of artifacts. Niven established a private museum in Mexico City with more than 20,000 exhibits.

He recovered the first in a series of unusual stone tablets bearing pictographs from his digs at San Miguel Amantla, Azcapotzalco, and elsewhere in the Valley of Mexico in 1921. This discovery eventually totalled more than 2,600 tablets.

Niven was a founding member of the New York Mineralogical Club, an honorary life member of the American Museum of Natural History, a member of the Scientific Society Antonio Alzate in Mexico, and a fellow in the American Geographic Society of New York and the Royal Society of Arts in London. In 1929 he moved to Houston, where he donated a large number of Mexican artifacts to the new Houston Museum and Scientific Society and served on its board of trustees. In 1931 he moved to Austin. He died there on June 2, 1937, and was buried in Mount Calvary cemetery.

[anonsally]

Day 6 in Chile: wine tasting tour

A guide took us to 3 different wineries in the Casablanca and San Antonio valleys, and we tasted some nice wines and ate an abundant and delicious lunch at one of the wineries.

It was raining when we left, but it started clearing up at the second winery, and it was beautiful by mid-afternoon when we ate lunch. We had a good view of lawns and a pond from our table, and I spotted a couple of new birds (a grey-hooded Sierra finch, which is mostly yellow!, and my fourth kind of cinclodes: dark-bellied) in addition to several birds we'd seen before. But I definitely overate at lunch and felt a bit uncomfortable afterwards.

However, I think I have a bit of post-nasal drip. It isn't a sore throat (yet?), but my throat feels congested and I have a little of the nausea that sometimes comes with that. That is... not ideal. The conference starts Sunday night and my talk is on Monday. Plus we have to move to the conference hotel tomorrow.

[fragile-practice]

Week in Review

October 23rd-29th

Welcome to Fragile Practice, where I attempt to make something of value out of stuff I have to read.

My future plan is to do longer-form original pieces on interesting topics or trends. For now, I'm going to make the weekly reviews habitual and see if I have any time left.

Technology

OpenAI forms team to study ‘catastrophic’ AI risks, including nuclear threats - Tech Crunch; Kyle Wiggers

OpenAI launched a new research team called AI Safety and Security to investigate the potential harms of artificial intelligence focused on AI alignment, AI robustness, AI governance, and AI ethics.

Note: Same energy as “cigarette company funds medical research into smoking risks”.

Artists Allege Meta’s AI Data Deletion Request Process Is a ‘Fake PR Stunt’ - Wired; Kate Knibbs

Artists who participated in Meta’s Artificial Intelligence Artist Residency Program accused the company of failing to honor their data deletion requests and claim that Meta used their personal data to train its AI models without their consent.

Note: Someday we will stop being surprised that corporate activities without obvious profit motive are all fake PR stunts.

GM and Honda ditch plan to build cheaper electric vehicles - The Verge; Andrew J. Hawkins

General Motors and Honda cancel their joint venture to develop and produce cheaper electric vehicles for the US market, citing the chip shortage, rising costs of battery materials, and the changing market conditions.

Note: What are the odds this isn’t related to the 7 billion dollars the US government announced to create hydrogen hubs.

'AI divide' across the US leaves economists concerned - The Register; Thomas Claburn

A new study by economists from Harvard University and MIT reveals a significant gap in AI adoption and innovation across different regions in the US.

The study finds that AI usage is highest in California's Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area, but was also noted in Nashville, San Antonio, Las Vegas, New Orleans, San Diego, and Tampa, as well as Riverside, Louisville, Columbus, Austin, and Atlanta.

Nvidia to Challenge Intel With Arm-Based Processors for PCs - Bloomberg; Ian King

Nvidia is using Arm technology to develop CPUs that would challenge Intel processors in PCs, and which could go on sale as soon as 2025.

Note: I am far from an NVIDIA fan, but I’m stoked for any amount of new competition in the CPU space.

New tool lets artists fight AI image bots by hiding corrupt data in plain sight - Engadget; Sarah Fielding

A team at the University of Chicago created Nightshade, a tool that lets artists fight AI image bots by adding undetectable pixels into an image that can alter how a machine-learning model produces content and what that finished product looks like.

Nightshade is intended to protect artists work and has been tested on both Stable Diffusion and an in-house AI built by the researchers.

IBM's NorthPole chip runs AI-based image recognition 22 times faster than current chips - Tech Xplore; Bob Yirka

NorthPole combines the processing module and the data it uses in a two-dimensional array of memory blocks and interconnected CPUs, and is reportedly inspired by the human brain.

NorthPole can currently only run specialized AI processes and not training processes or large language models, but the researchers plan to test connecting multiple chips together to overcome this limitation.

Apple’s $130 Thunderbolt 4 cable could be worth it, as seen in X-ray CT scans - Ars Technica; Kevin Purdy

Note: These scans are super cool. And make me feel somewhat better about insisting on quality cables. A+.

The Shifting Web

On-by-default video calls come to X, disable to retain your sanity - The Register; Brandon Vigliarolo

Video and audio calling is limited to anyone you follow or who is in your address book, if you granted X permission to comb through it.

Calling other users also requires that they’ve sent at least one direct message to you before.

Only premium users can place calls, but everyone can receive them.

Google Search Boss Says Company Invests to Avoid Becoming ‘Roadkill’ - The New York Times; Nico Grant

Google’s senior vice president overseeing search said that he sees a world of threats that could humble his company at any moment.

Google Maps is getting new AI-powered search updates, an enhanced navigation interface and more - Tech Crunch; Aisha Malik

Note: These AI recommender systems are going to be incredibly valuable advertising space. It is interesting that Apple decided to compete with Google in maps but not in basic search, but has so far not placed ads in the search results.

Reddit finally takes its API war where it belongs: to AI companies - Ars Technica; Scharon Harding

Reddit met with generative AI companies to negotiate a deal for being paid for its data, and may block crawlers if no deal is made soon.

Note: Google searches for info on Reddit often seem more effective than searching Reddit itself.  If they are unable to make a deal, and Reddit follows through, it will be a legitimate loss for discoverability but also an incredibly interesting experiment to see what Reddit is like without Google.

Bandcamp’s Entire Union Bargaining Team Was Laid Off - 404 Media; Emanuel Maiberg

Bandcamp’s new owner (Songtradr) offered jobs to just half of existing employees, with cuts disproportionately hitting union leaders. Every member of the union’s eight-person bargaining team was laid off, and 40 of the union's 67 members lost their jobs.

Songtradr spokesperson Lindsay Nahmiache claimed that the firm didn’t have access to union membership information.

Note: This just sucks. Bandcamp is rad, and it’s hard to imagine it continuing to be rad after this. I wonder if Epic had ideas for BC that didn’t work out.

Surveillance & Digital Privacy

Mozilla Launches Annual Digital Privacy 'Creep-o-Meter'. This Year's Status:  'Very Creepy' - Slashdot

Mozilla gave the current state of digital privacy a 75.6/100, with 100 being the creepiest.

They measured security features, data collection, and data sharing practices of over 500 gadgets, apps, and cars to come up with their score.

Every car Mozilla tested failed to meet their privacy and security standards.

Note: It would be great if even one auto brand would take privacy seriously.

EPIC Testifies in Support of Massachusetts Data Privacy and Protection Act -Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Massachusetts version of ADPPA.

Note: While it may warm my dead heart to see any online privacy protections in law, scrambling to do so in response to generative AI is unlikely to protect Americans in any meaningful way from the surveillance driven form of capitalism we’ve all been living under for decades.

Complex Spy Platform StripedFly Bites 1M Victims - Dark Reading

StripedFly is a complex platform disguised as a cryptominer and evaded detection for six years by using a custom version of EternalBlue exploit, a built-in Tor network tunnel, and trusted services like GitLab, GitHub, and Bitbucket to communicate with C2 servers and update its functionality.

iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple's promises otherwise - Ars Technica

A privacy feature which claimed to hide the Wi-Fi MAC address of iOS devices when joining a network was broken since iOS 14, and was finally patched in 17.1, released on Wednesday.

Note: I imagine this bug was reported a while ago, but wasn’t publically reported until the fix was released as a term of apple’s bug bounty program.

What the !#@% is a Passkey? - Electronic Frontier Foundation

Note: I welcome our passkey overlords.