The following links are just news items and opinions that pass my desk throughout the week. I don’t necessarily support or advocate any of the items, they are just interesting reads.
Chinese-Americans Are Pushing San Francisco Toward the Political Center – Phil Wong used to reliably back incumbents in this liberal city. But in 2022, he voted to recall three left-wing school board members and a progressive district attorney, and in November he plans to cast his ballot for a tough-on-crime challenger to the current mayor.
“I have a deep love for this city, what it was,” said the 46-year-old son of a Chinese immigrant. “I want to see what it can be again.”
Long a reliable voting bloc for the left, Chinese-Americans have been important drivers of a recent backlash against progressive policies in San Francisco, which has grown in support and been backed by tech industry money.
Members of the Chinese community, who make up one-fifth of this city of 810,000 and a slightly smaller percentage of registered voters, say they have been particularly incensed by incidents of anti-Asian violence, school policies they believe have emphasized equity over merit, and street homelessness. Many are also upset that property crime has long been higher in San Francisco than most other major cities, though it has dropped this year.
Chinese-Americans were among the most emphatic backers of ballot measures passed last month mandating drug screening for public welfare recipients and expanding police powers, as well as the 2022 recall of the three school board members and the district attorney, Chesa Boudin. Their margin of support for those efforts was 10 to 30 percentage points higher than the overall San Francisco voting population, according to an analysis of publicly available data by research firm Data Second. The firm is run by the husband of Marjan Philhour, a candidate for San Francisco Board of Supervisors running on a moderate platform.
Now, the Chinese-American community is being heavily courted by incumbent Mayor London Breed and her three most-prominent challengers in November’s election, which political analysts say will be one of the toughest mayoral races here in decades and could push the city further to the center. Read More > in The Wall Street Journal
Empty S.F. office tower formerly valued at $62 million sold for $6.5 million – Deeply discounted office towers have become the norm in San Francisco over the past year, but no recent deal has been as radical as one that closed in the city’s struggling Mid-Market neighborhood this month: An empty 16-story tower traded for just $6.5 million.
The $72 per square foot pricing for the tower at 995 Market St., which anchors the corner at 6th and Market streets, represents a 90% drop in value from when the building last sold in 2016, for roughly $62 million.
The April 18 sale comes after the tower’s former owner, Bridgeton Holdings, last year defaulted on a $45 million loan tied to the property. Public records show the building is now in the hands of Florida-based real estate investment firm LNR Partners, LLC — an affiliate of private real estate investor Starwood Capital Group.
LNR has been serving as the special servicer appointed to oversee the tower’s distressed loan, and has essentially been in control of the property for the past eight months. The building sold at a public auction, but real estate market participants with insight into the situation told the Chronicle LNR “took over the property beforehand.”
With office vacancy in San Francisco estimated at 36.6% four years after the pandemic, there is no shortage of deals to be had in the city. One office broker told the Chronicle last year that almost every office property in the city is “on sale.”
While waning demand for office space has pushed institutional investors into retreat, local buyers with “patient capital” — those who are not expecting to make a quick return on their investments — are stepping in. A number of once highly valuable San Francisco office buildings sold over the past year at discounts ranging from 50% to 75% of their pre-pandemic values to local, private investors and family offices. Read More > in the San Francisco Chronicle
California’s Exploding Rooftop Solar Cost Shift – There’s a lot of anger in California right now about rising electricity prices. Since 2020, residential rates of the two largest investor-owned utilities – PG&E and Southern California Edison – have risen, respectively, by 38% and 40% after adjusting for inflation. Inflation adjusted rates of San Diego Gas & Electric, the third largest, have only risen 11% during that time, but SDG&E was already the most expensive in 2020. The prices of all three are now more than double the national average. (There are going to be a lot of numbers in this post. If you want the details behind them, this link has a data appendix with the data and code for my calculations.)
There’s also been a lot of finger-pointing about the cause of these increases. Some have said it’s the greedy utilities. Others have pointed to the huge costs of addressing the impacts of climate change on California, particularly increased wildfire risk. Still others suggest that a major part of California’s strategy to slow climate change – decarbonizing our grid – is turning out to be exorbitantly expensive, though there is scant evidence of this.
Regardless of what is driving utility costs higher, their impact on rates is multiplied when customers install their own generation and buy fewer kilowatts-hours from the grid. That’s because those households – whether they are customers of the utility or of a community choice aggregator – contribute less towards all of the fixed costs in the system, such as vegetation management, grid hardening, distribution line undergrounding, EV charging stations, subsidies for low income customers, energy efficiency programs, and the poles and wires that we all rely on whether we are taking electricity off the grid or putting it onto the grid from our rooftop PV systems.
Since those fixed costs still need to be paid, rates go up, shifting costs onto the kWhs still being bought from the grid. This will be less true for systems registered after last April when compensation for new systems was made somewhat less generous, but that applies to almost none of the systems installed before 2024, which are the ones I am studying here.)
A decade ago, this was a small concern, because rooftop solar was barely a blip in the total supply picture. In 2014, the homes served by these three IOUs got less than 2% of their electricity off their roofs. Today they get about 20%. As fewer kWhs are sold from the grid, retail rates must rise even more in order to recover the fixed costs of the system.
The problem has become particularly acute in the last four years. During that time, solar capacity on houses has more than doubled at the same time that the utilities’ fixed costs have escalated dramatically due in large part to wildfires and the need for grid hardening against them. Read More > at Energy Institute at Haas
California officials debate Prop. 47 changes to curb crime. On the street, the answer isn’t that simple. – Recent rising crime — highlighted by tales and videos of shoplifting, robberies and “smash-and-grabs” — has reignited a policy debate among local and state elected officials, who are vowing to curtail retail crime.
Much of their focus is on whether to overhaul Proposition 47 — a voter-approved law in 2014 that lowered penalties for petty thefts and minor drug offenses.
But the proposed changes would only address a sliver of the concerns among many Californians: By primarily targeting petty crimes, they do not address robberies or other violent felonies, which some residents and business owners now confront more frequently. Without a clear answer in sight, they are considering different solutions.
Critics of Prop. 47 have long blamed it for a rise in crime, even though data on its effectiveness is far from conclusive. Statewide associations representing district attorneys, police chiefs and sheriffs — as well as mayors in San Francisco and San Jose — are backing a proposed ballot measure to roll back Prop. 47. Last week, the anti-Prop 47 campaign turned in 900,000 signatures, making it likely the measure will qualify for the November ballot.
Meanwhile, California’s top Democrats, reluctant to change Prop. 47, are instead pushing legislation that would create new crimes and toughen penalties for organized retail theft and repeat offenders. Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters earlier this month the legislation is necessary even though data on retail theft is mixed.
Those bills put legislative leaders at odds with more progressive Democrats, who argue that rehabilitation programs, not incarceration, are the solution to crime. Putting more people behind bars could send the state back to the 1980s and 1990s, when the prison population swelled so much that the California Supreme Court ordered the state to reduce it, they said. They also point to studies showing that the likelihood of getting caught, instead of the severity of punishment, is what deters people from crime. Read More > at CalMatters
Democrats back Republican effort to double fines for protesters in California – Lawmakers in California want to double the penalty for protesters who block highways, a sign of increased frustration among both Republicans and Democrats with demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war such as the one that recently snarled traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Legislation authored by a Republican cleared a key committee vote Monday at the Capitol with crucial support from four Democrats, who defied the committee chair to advance the bill.
The measure still has to pass the full Assembly and Senate and win the support of Gov. Gavin Newsom, but the vote signals a split among Democrats, who dominate the state Legislature and have been divided by the protests over the war that have roiled major cities and universities.
The bill by Assemblymember Kate Sanchez would double the fine for protesters who block a highway and prevent emergency vehicles from passing from $100 to $200. The penalty could rise to $1,000 for multiple offenses within three years.
“These highway blockings are becoming more frequent, more reckless and more dangerous,” Sanchez said. “We have already seen negative public health and safety outcomes because of this.” Read More > at Politico
It’s not just skyscrapers and high-density — ‘builder’s remedy’ is also bringing more urban sprawl – …Developers proposing these massive new subdivisions on the edge of the Bay Area are playing a card previously unavailable to them — the “builder’s remedy,” a penalty imposed on cities and counties that aren’t doing their part to build new housing. It allows developers to skirt local zoning, so long as 20% of the units qualify as affordable.
California law requires cities and counties to come up with plans every eight years for how they will accommodate residential growth projected for their area. By 2031, the Bay Area is meant to build 440,000 new units to make up for a years-long shortage, which has led to some of the nation’s highest rents and home prices and thousands of people living on the streets.
Bay Area cities and counties were supposed to submit their latest plans to the state in January 2023, but many blew the deadline. Now, they’ll face the consequence: developers can propose almost any project they want, including major subdivisions on unincorporated county land that doesn’t always have the infrastructure to support new growth.
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But Bay Area cities have largely resisted building new homes.
“The default scenario in California for decades has been to build housing on agricultural land or out in the periphery, because cities won’t allow you to build it within their boundaries,” said Matthew Lewis, communications director of California YIMBY, a pro-housing group.
Now, rather than being able to plan for where new houses go, the builder’s remedy is forcing new haphazard development, he said.
“It delivers the housing that the area needs, but it doesn’t give cities the ability to do the kind of planning that they should be doing,” Lewis said. That could involve rezoning areas near transit to accommodate more housing — not stretching out city boundaries farther. Read More > in The Mercury News
These are the California cities where $150,000 still buys you a home. Would you live here? – California’s soaring home values and its affordability crisis show no signs of easing.
But if you look hard enough, there are still a handful of cities where the median price of a home is less than $150,000.
Like so many California real estate deals, you have to journey off the beaten path, make compromises and have some imagination.
These affordable communities are far-flung and a long drive from the bustle of the city. But locals say the bargain prices and charms make the trade-offs worth it.
And because this is California, some wonder how long it will be before others discover what they have and move in.
For the last 30 years, Ann Epperly has lived in Trona, one of only nine California cities, towns and unincorporated areas tracked by Zillow with median home values under $150,000 in February 2024.
These towns represent islands of affordability in a state where the median home price is $789,000. California is home to 210 cities, towns and communities monitored by Zillow where the median home values are more than $1 million.
Some of the state’s lowest median home values — as low as $114,000 —are located near the Oregon border, in the towns of Dorris, Macdoel and Tulelake. Each town is home to less than 1,000 people and set amid agricultural fields. Read More > in the Los Angeles Times
California gas prices are spiking again, what’s going on? – Gas prices are spiking again in the Bay Area — as much as 20 to 30 cents a gallon higher than the California average and at least $2 a gallon more than the rest of the country, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).
The national average on Friday was $3.67 a gallon, compared to the Golden State’s $5.45, the highest in the U.S., according to AAA.
Bay Area drivers who are sometimes stuck paying close to $6 a gallon said they are suffering and finding alternate ways to get around.
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Tom Klosa, the head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said the Bay Area is ground zero when it comes to supply and demand, which has been impacted by recent refinery closures.
In 2020, Marathon closed its refinery in the Bay Area, and over the last year Phillips 66 stopped processing crude oil at Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo and Rodeo in Contra Costa County, Klosa said.
“Both companies idled their refineries and are concentrating on supplying renewable fuels such as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. Neither is making gasoline, and that leaves the area without a safety net. Should one of the remaining refineries (Chevron Richmond, Valero Benicia or PBF Martinez) have issues, supply can become very challenging,” Klosa said.
Another component of high fuel prices is the state’s high gas tax.
California has the highest gas tax in the country at 68 cents per gallon, compared to 39 cents for the national average, according to the American Energy Alliance.
The state also has a cap-and-trade program and low-carbon fuel standard that adds roughly another 46 cents a gallon, according to the group. Read More > in the East Bay Times
Updating California’s grid for EVs may cost up to $20 billion – California’s electric grid, with its massive solar production and booming battery installations, is already on the cutting edge of the US’s energy transition. And it’s likely to stay there, as the state will require that all passenger vehicles be electric by 2035. Obviously, that will require a grid that’s able to send a lot more electrons down its wiring and a likely shift in the time of day that demand peaks.
Is the grid ready? And if not, how much will it cost to get it there? Two researchers at the University of California, Davis—Yanning Li and Alan Jenn—have determined that nearly two-thirds of its feeder lines don’t have the capacity that will likely be needed for car charging. Updating to handle the rising demand might set its utilities back as much as 40 percent of the existing grid’s capital cost.
Li and Jenn aren’t the first to look at how well existing grids can handle growing electric vehicle sales; other research has found various ways that different grids fall short. However, they have access to uniquely detailed data relevant to California’s ability to distribute electricity (they do not concern themselves with generation). They have information on every substation, feeder line, and transformer that delivers electrons to customers of the state’s three largest utilities, which collectively cover nearly 90 percent of the state’s population. In total, they know the capacity that can be delivered through over 1,600 substations and 5,000 feeders.
California has clear goals for its electric vehicles, and those are matched with usage based on the California statewide travel demand model, which accounts for both trips and the purpose of those trips. These are used to determine how much charging will need to be done, as well as where that charging will take place (home or a charging station). Details on that charging comes from the utilities, charging station providers, and data logs.
They also project which households will purchase EVs based on socioeconomic factors, scaled so that adoption matches the state’s goals.
Combined, all of this means that Li and Jenn can estimate where charging is taking place and how much electricity will be needed per charge. They can then compare that need to what the existing grid has the capacity to deliver.
It falls short, and things get worse very quickly. By 2025, only about 7 percent of the feeders will experience periods of overload. By 2030, that figure will grow to 27 percent, and by 2035—only about a decade away—about half of the feeders will be overloaded. Problems grow a bit more slowly after that, with two-thirds of the feeders overloaded by 2045, a decade after all cars sold in California will be EVs. At that point, total electrical demand will be close to twice the existing capacity. Read More > at ars Technica
63 Albertsons in California to be sold to C&S Wholesale if Kroger merger OK’d – Kroger and Albertsons Cos. on Monday, April 22 announced a revised plan to divest 579 stores, 63 of them in California, to C&S Wholesale Grocers as part of a proposed $26.4 billion merger.
New Hampshire-based C&S is paying $2.9 billion for the stores, according to a statement from Kroger and Albertsons.
Kroger and Albertsons added 166 stores to the divestiture list as they try to head off antitrust concerns by U.S. regulators. In February, the Federal Trade Commission and eight states sued to block the merger, saying it would eliminate competition and likely raise prices in the grocery industry.
On Monday, Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chief executive officer, pushed back, saying the sale to C&S means no stores would close and employees would keep their jobs.
“Importantly …all existing collective bargaining agreements will continue, and associates will continue to receive industry-leading health care and pension benefits alongside bargained-for wages,” he said in a statement.
Kroger and Albertsons did not specify which stores in California would switch to the C&S banner.
The two grocery titans agreed to merge in late 2022, saying the blended business model would help them compete with retailers including Walmart, Costco and Amazon..
Kroger, based in Cincinnati, operates 2,750 stores in 35 states and the District of Columbia, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Albertsons, based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states. Together they employ around 700,000 people. Read More > in The Mercury News
Costco faces a problem bigger than retail theft and inflation – Costco has a reputation for treating its employees well and has generally paid higher wages than its retail rivals do.
No protests were needed to get the warehouse club to pay $15 an hour as the chain hit that level as its minimum pay in 2019.
In general, Costco (COST) has been an industry leader when it comes to wages and it has viewed keeping its employees happy as a worthy investment that pays off. Former Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti, who stepped down in March after nearly 40 years with the company, talked about during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We look at the wages in a vacuum, and we want to do as much as we can for our employees,” he said. “And — and certainly, you know, there were several increases starting with the front-line-worker premium during the initial year of covid. We kept half of that in there, which you know, we kept one of those $2 an hour in there, which was like $400 million a year. Again, we’ve also benefited from stronger sales and productivity, so we were able to afford that.”
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Paying employees well has helped the company retain workers. Galanti said that Costco constantly reviews wages.
Despite that progressive approach to wages, Costco has faced a backlash from employees in some markets.
Costco has an “A” rating on Comparably’s tracking of companies’ retention of workers.
“Costco is in the top 10% of similar-sized companies in its ability to retain quality employees. 58% of employees would not leave Costco if they were offered a job for more money while 68% are excited to go to work each day,” Comparably said.
That has not protected the chain from a movement to unionize.
“Costco workers in Norfolk, Va., voted overwhelmingly yesterday to join Teamsters Local 822, marking the union’s first organizing victory at the wholesale retailer in two decades,” according to a statement from the Teamsters union. “The 238-worker group seeks strong representation to address years of concerns and improve working conditions.”
That was an isolated case when it happened in January, but now another Costco location has joined the Teamsters.
Adding a union to the mix could increase costs for Costco. The company now has a another location that has joined the Teamsters union. Read More > at The Street
U.S. economic growth slows as consumers tighten their belts – U.S. economic growth slowed dramatically in first quarter of 2024, with inflation-weary consumers tightening their belts and spending less, the government reported on Thursday.
The figures published by the bureau of Economic Analysis showed gross domestic product rose at a 1.6% annualized clip during the first three months of the year, after increasing 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The government’s initial estimate fell well short of expectations, with economists surveyed by FactSet predicting GDP grew at a 2.2% rate last quarter.
“Growth momentum is evidently cooling off sharply from the stellar pace from the second half of last year and, while the U.S. exceptionalism story remains intact, we are starting to see cracks appear in the hard data.”
Personal spending climbed 2.5%, and a measure of underlying inflation rose 3.7% in its first quarterly increase in a year, the data showed.
The numbers come ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy session next week. With the central bank expected to maintain interest rates at their current two-decade high, the latest data could delay future cuts. Read More > at CBS News
Column: Sports gambling is exploding, and it’ll be even worse than you think – …Like cigarettes, gambling should never be presented as harmless — or as fun. It can be fun, which is why Hart makes a great pitchman. But legalized sports betting is no more harmless than selling sugar sticks shaped like cigarettes.
It’s not just the personal and societal devastation from out-of-control gambling that we need to fear. The sports industry is not prepared to navigate a world of legalized betting. Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter who is accused of stealing more than $16 million from the Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani to bet on sports, and Jontay Porter, who this week received a lifetime ban by the NBA for violating its gambling policy, are not unique.
Last year we learned more than 180 professional tennis players were part of a global match-fixing ring that started in 2014. It wasn’t even started by a player. According to the Washington Post, it began with a law student in Brussels who discovered how little tennis players made at the beginning of their careers. In some cases, winning a title brought home less than the kickback a player could get for purposefully dropping a set. Keep in mind this ring started after the sport was rocked by a gambling scandal involving a Top 10 player in 2007 who was believed to have mafia ties.
Cute commercials and “no sweat tokens” are one face of sports gambling — and are dangerous enough to the public — but there are more sides to this threat. Today it is believed gambling on tennis alone moves more than $50 billion around the globe. That too is a part of sports betting, and I don’t know how you prevent the two from bleeding into one another.
Athletes themselves can be tempted by the promise of easy money, but the LeBron Jameses and the Shohei Ohtanis are not the worry. The worry is the low-level player or trainer who is barely getting by and may be tempted to violate gambling rules for financial help with sustaining their careers. Or even officials on the periphery. Tim Donaghy, the NBA referee who had bet tens of thousands on games over two seasons before getting caught, was a glaring reminder just a few years ago. Read More > in the Los Angeles Times
Nippon Acquisition of U.S. Steel – Japanese steelmaker Nippon agreed in December 2023 to acquire U.S. Steel at a 40 percent premium to its stock price. It’s no surprise shareholders welcomed the proposal. But opposition to the deal immediately sprang forth from union bosses, the Biden administration, and politicians from both sides of the aisle. An all-out public relations war is goading regulators into blocking the acquisition.
Politicians salivate at the optics of “saving” a U.S. company. Lobbyists could earn a windfall bonus by torpedoing the proposal. Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs works behind the scenes and publicly to scuttle the deal. A U.S. Steel infused with new capital, equipment, and expertise would be a daunting competitor. In the wake of U.S. Steel rebuffing its prior offer, the Cleveland-Cliffs CEO is reportedly considering a new bid at $30 per share, a whopping 45 percent less than Nippon proposed.
Detractors falsely claim the Nippon buyout threatens U.S. national security, manufacturing, and jobs. In reality, blocking the deal will harm American workers, shareholders, and other businesses. Why wouldn’t we want to move money from Japan to right here in the U.S.?
Valid concerns certainly arise with foreign direct investments (FDI) from hostile powers. China, for instance, poses a threat—notably but not exclusively in the tech space…
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Far more importantly, Japan is our leading source of FDI, with $289 billion invested in 2016-2021 and more than $700 billion in aggregate—close to $8,000 per family of four. More than 900,000 Americans are employed at U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates of Japanese companies. Half of these investment dollars from Japan flow to the manufacturing sector.
In continuation of this long partnership, the two nations signed a new trade agreement in 2019 further reducing or eliminating tariffs and aiming to diminish barriers to investment. Enhancing trade and investment with one of our closest democratic allies mutually enhances our security and economies.
Perhaps the most easily recognizable contribution to our own economy from Japanese FDI are the 14 automobile assembly plants operated across seven states. This automobile manufacturing renaissance followed the malaise and even bankruptcy brought upon domestic counterparts succumbing to financially unsound agreements and underfunded pensions pushed by organized labor year after year. Japanese FDI breathed life into this sector, with their factories having churned out more than 2.8 million vehicles in the United States in 2022. Read More > at The Heritage Foundation
FTC votes to ban noncompete agreements – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 on Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements that prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job.
From fast food workers to CEOs, the FTC estimates 18 percent of the U.S. workforce is covered by noncompete agreements — about 30 million people.
The final rule would ban new noncompete agreements for all workers and require companies to let current and past employees know they won’t enforce them. Companies will also have to throw out existing noncompete agreements for most employees, although in a change from the original proposal, the agreements may remain in effect for senior executives.
The new rule is slated to go into effect in 120 days after it’s published in the Federal Register. But its future is uncertain, as pro-business groups opposing the rule are expected to take legal action to block its implementation. Read More > at The Hill
Michigan takes foster kids’ federal benefit money and reimburses itself for their care – Michigan has been cashing in federal benefit money paid to children in foster care to cover some of its own child welfare costs. It is one of 44 states that received an ‘F’ grade because of the practice from the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law.
Children are not supposed to pay for their own foster care: That’s the government’s job. But the state has been taking disability benefits as well as survivor benefits and Veterans Affairs benefits meant for children whose parents have died, ostensibly to pay for just that.
Emily Reinig, a consultant who worked on the institute’s report, called the practice of taking foster kids’ benefit money shameful, predatory, and a violation of due process and equal protection rights.
It’s also routine. In 2020, 42 states reported using $251 million in benefits to offset child welfare agency costs, according to a child welfare financing report produced by Child Trends.
Agencies in many states have even applied for survivor and disability benefits themselves without notifying the child or their relatives or passing along the money, according to a 2021 investigation undertaken by National Public Radio and The Marshall Project.
That reporting estimated that 25,000 children are affected nationally; around 10% of children in foster care are entitled to Social Security benefits totaling, on average, more than $700 per month.
In Michigan, the benefit money received by DHHS amounted to $3.2 million in fiscal year 2022-2023. The department says 100% of the funds are being used to reimburse the state for the cost of caring for kids in the child welfare system. Read More > in the Detroit Free Press
America’s fight to save handwriting from extinction as IQs begin to fall for first time ever and teachers warn some 20-year-olds can’t sign checks anymore – Several US states are trying to prevent handwriting from going extinct as classrooms increasingly swap pen and paper for tablets and computers.
The US government removed the skill from the core curriculum in 2010 due to claims it was time consuming and would not be useful in the age of technology which meant schools could instead focus on typing classes.
Handwriting is considered a fine motor skill that stimulates and challenges the brain, but with schools turning to technology instead, some teachers are complaining students can barely hold a pencil but can swipe and double-click on their devices.
Students with learning disabilities like dysgraphia – when children can read but have trouble writing letters – can also be affected because methods of overcoming the disability requires them to practice writing by hand.
Previous studies have revealed that IQ scores have dropped for the first time in a century and indicated that technology could be to blame.
Teachers, parents and experts who DailyMail.com spoke to said they were seeing kids and young adults who don’t know how to sign their name or read cursive.
New legislative bills have been passed in states like California and New York requiring students aged six to 12 years old to learn cursive writing, but others are still advancing in state legislature while some are still hesitant to revert back including Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Read More > at the Daily Mail
Is This the End for Human Fighter Pilots? – In the April 18, 2024 issue of The Telegraph, journalist Cameron Henderson published an article titled “History made as U.S. Military conducts first ever human vs AI dogfight”, and reported something that profoundly disturbs me. He wrote that in September 2023, a USAF F-16 fighter pilot went through a series of engagements with another F-16 controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI). He said: “Travelling at speeds of up to 1,200 miles per hour, the two jets practised both defensive and offensive scenarios as well as within-visual-range combat, known as dogfighting. At one point they came within 2,000 feet (610 metres) of each other.” This is the first time that an AI pilot has flown in the air against a human pilot, and sadly I think it just could be the beginning of the end for human fighter pilots.
People have predicted that humans would eventually be replaced by computers in the cockpit for decades, but until now it has only happened in simulators. Henderson said that back in 2019, a dogfight between a human USAF fighter pilot and an AI pilot in a simulator resulted in 5-0 victory for the machine. After that, much alleged progress has been made: “Since it was first built in December 2022, the [AI] jet has been taken out on at least 21 test flights, totalling more than 17 hours of flight time and the first-time machine-learning has been used to pilot a fighter jet. During flight, the AI algorithm on the jet analyses data and makes real-time decisions, a process called machine learning, that mirrors the way in which fighter pilots hone their instincts over years of practice. Carrying out a dogfight between an AI-powered jet and a human marks a ‘transformational moment in aerospace history’, DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] said in a statement.”
The article did not actually come out and say the AI pilot won any engagements this time, which could be very good news, but nevertheless the USAF is apparently very pleased with this development. This is disturbing to people like me, who see good reason to be sceptical about AI, especially the potential to replace human beings in various occupations. On the other hand, the fact that the USAF apparently did not release any information about who won the dogfight could be very telling. Perhaps the man or woman won, and if so, they can keep their jobs, for now. Read More > at Real Clear Defense
Children Need Neighborhoods Where They Can Walk and Bike – Congress, the White House and policy experts have started debating “family policy” in recent years, rattled by an epidemic of childhood anxiety and plummeting birthrates. Child-care subsidies, marriage penalties and maternity care all deserve attention, but one government action that would greatly help today’s parents is almost entirely local—and involves concrete, grass and some crosswalk paint. American cities and towns need to reorient infrastructure to make it easier for kids to walk and bike freely around their neighborhoods.
Children today are more car-dependent than in past generations, which makes childhood less healthy and less fun, and parenthood more exhausting. In 1969, more than four in 10 American schoolchildren walked or biked to school. The Transportation Department’s most recent National Household Travel Survey, in 2017, found that figure is down to only one in 10.
While Americans of all ages are less physically active today than years ago, the biggest drop-off is in walking by adolescents. Boise State kinesiologist Scott Conger compiled data from wearable devices like pedometers and Fitbits and found that today’s average teenager walks 5 miles less per week than in the 1990s.
Getting chauffeured around, or sitting at home more, seems to be bad for kids’ physical and mental health. Many studies have found that children living in more walkable neighborhoods experience less obesity, in part because when they are outdoors more, they are more likely to have games of pickup basketball, tag or wiffle ball. Researchers using data from a massive study of children in the 1990s found that a more sedentary childhood could be connected to a greater risk of heart disease as an adult. The study pointed specifically to the importance of “light-intensity physical activity” like walking. Read More > in The Wall Street Journal
“Our urine is worth its weight in gold,” says researcher – Water, milk, and soft drinks find their way through our bodies and into the toilet bowl.
This makes researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) shake their heads.
“Our urine is worth its weight in gold,” says researcher Divina Gracia P. Rodriguez.
What exactly are we flushing down the drain?
Our urine contains what the body wants to dispose of.
“But it can also put food on our table,” says Rodriguez.
The yellow liquid contains nitrogen and phosphorus. In other words: superfood for plants.
Currently, farmers spend a lot of money on synthetic fertilisers to ensure the growth of crops like grains and tomatoes.
“Our urine is completely free,” the researcher says.
While the thought of using urine might be unappealing, its benefits are undeniable.
“Think about all the fertiliser we’re missing out on now,” Rodriguez says.
An adult man or woman flushes around 500 litres of urine a year. That can turn into between four and six kilos of fertiliser.
We already use cow dung on the fields without being disgusted by it.
“It’s high time we start collecting and utilizing our own waste,” she says. Read More > at Science Norway
Romick in Oakley 