Cowboy Who?

The title says all. More than anything my ego's taking a hit - I really didn't see this happening. But, so long as it happens as it seems like it will, there's really nothing to be all that mad about. A single plug standard is what we really need, and while I'm not 100% confident that this will lead us there, at least with adapters we're functionally there.

Houston hit 95 degrees yesterday, our hottest day so far this year, and we’ll be on track to come close to that again today. Over the last 30 years, the average first 95 degree day in Houston was on June 8th. So we’re right on schedule this year. And while heat remains the primary weather story for the next week or more, there will be some storms worth watching later today. But not for everyone.

Everything looks pretty okay through early afternoon. So if you’re looking to get in a morning swim or have a morning/midday birthday party to attend, no worries.

Things get more complicated this afternoon. Storms should begin to fire up in North Texas, near DFW, which is the primary area we’ll be watching this evening. Additional isolated storms are possible in the northern reaches of the Houston area, so if you’re on Lake Livingston or Lake Conroe this afternoon, just keep an ear out for thunder and seek shelter should you hear some. An additional very isolated shower like yesterday is possible in the Houston metro area. But for the most part, things look okay through, call it, 3 to 5 PM or so.

Thereafter, things become a bit trickier. Storms near Dallas should be hauling south and east during the late afternoon, finally reaching the northern fringe of southeast Texas by about 5 to 8 PM. Assuming they can hold together, they’ll get into Huntsville, Conroe, and Cleveland by about 8 to 11 PM. And from there, the northern half of the Houston metro and The Woodlands around Midnight, give or take. Everything will push offshore overnight.

What can we expect: North of Houston, where the enhanced risk is in place, which includes College Station and Huntsville, watch for strong, damaging winds from any storms, the potential for hail, and even an isolated tornado (though that would probably be a higher risk closer to Dallas). As the storms come south from there, the threat for wind and hail will continue — but slowly diminish. Any damaging winds would probably be more isolated than widespread. Hail would be isolated as well. And there’s a chance that some places, especially in the western third of the Houston area see nothing. By the time the storms get to the coast overnight, they may just have lightning and thunder.

At this point, I don’t believe these storms will have the same impact on our area as Thursday’s storms did, and the highest odds for anything like that will be north of Highway 105 and east of I-45. That said, there’s at least reason to keep tabs on things this evening across the area, so stay aware of the weather around you. Conditions should improve overnight and tomorrow looks fine.

Look for highs in the mid-90s, maybe into the upper-90s in a couple spots on Sunday. We’ll be back with more on Monday!

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. 

Federal authorities have outlined a path forward for controversial plans to dredge a canal for oil tankers through a Superfund site on the Texas coast despite persistent environmental concerns.

In a presentation Tuesday night in a hotel conference room here, officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outlined a $2.8 million effort to test the bay floor at the site and order the removal of any contaminants identified so that the Matagorda Bay ship channel project can move forward. The project calls for dredging and expanding a 27-mile stretch of the canal to make way for larger tankers carrying oil from Texas for export.

The corps first approved the channel project in 2020 but withdrew that decision in a court filing last December, acknowledging a need for more environmental studies. The move followed years of complaints and a lawsuit by environmental groups arguing that the corps had inadequately tested for toxic materials settled on the floor of the shallow bay. 

This area of the bay, which lies midway between Galveston and Corpus Christi, was once covered in mercury, a metallic neurotoxin dumped by a now-shuttered Alcoa aluminum plant in the 1960s and ‘70s. The bay floor was designated a Superfund site in the 1990s, and a federally mandated cleanup removed most of it in the 2000s.

Tuesday’s presentation underlined the corps’s resolve to proceed with the canal’s expansion, even if tests reveal that mercury still lies on the bay floor.

“Regardless of the amount of contamination that we find, it will all be removed before dredging work commences,” said Ramon Roman-Sanchez from the corps’ regional planning and environmental center. 

The $218 million canal expansion will allow the world’s largest class of ships to dock at the Seahawk Oil Terminal, owned by Max Midstream, which is partially financing the project. There, the enormous freighters will load crude oil, piped from the shale field of Texas, for sale on foreign markets. 

Mauricio Blanco, a 51-year-old shrimper in Port Lavaca, expressed disappointment when he learned that the corps would be presenting plans to move forward with the project after revoking approval last year. 

“I thought it was shut down for good,” he said, speaking Tuesday on his boat in Port Lavaca harbor before the meeting. “But money can buy anything, I guess.”

In the initial review of the canal project, the corps tested eight points in the 5.7 million-square-foot proposed dredging area and found no elevated mercury levels. Three more sediment samples in 2022 produced the same results. 

But in its presentation Tuesday night, USACE said that a review of historical data had revealed spots of remaining contamination in or near the proposed dredging zone. In 2009, two of 23 sites tested showed mercury levels above federal limits inside the project area. Another test in 2021, just outside the project area, found mercury above twice the limit. 

So, the engineers presented plans for 29 additional test sites distributed throughout the dredging zone. 

Jeff Pinsky, environmental branch chief with the USACE Galveston district, said the test results should be available in about a year. Any areas of contamination will be flagged to Alcoa, which remains responsible for the Superfund site, so it can remove the toxic sediments, officials said. 

The $2.8 million cost of the new testing plan will be split 75/25 between the corps and the Calhoun Port Authority, said Byron Williams, deputy district engineer for the corps’ Galveston district. The port’s director, Charles Hausmann, told the meeting that the port’s portion would be funded by Max Midstream. 

Max Midstream, a Houston-based oil company, announced plans for pipelines linking the Permian and Eagle Ford shales to a terminal on Lavaca Bay September 2020 four months after the corps first approved the Matagorda canal project. 

The announcement included a $360 million commitment from Max Midstream to the Port Calhoun to finance canal expansion. 

Max Midstream’s Seahawk oil terminal was one of about a dozen such oil and gas export terminals proposed or in development along the Gulf Coast, all spurred by the fracking boom in Texas and the legalization of oil and gas exports in 2015. 

The canal expansion has faced steep resistance from local shrimpers and oystermen as well as environmental groups. Last year, Blanco took officials from the corps and the federal Environmental Protection Agency on a tour of the project area on his shrimp boat. When the corps withdrew its approval for the project in December, he thought the battle was won. 

For years, he fought the planout of concern for its effects on the bay, from stirring up old contamination to the planned destruction of oyster reefs and seagrass. 

Since Blanco began working on the bay in 1989, he has seen a steep decline in shrimping productivity as industrial activity, including a sprawling Formosa plastics plant, took a toll on the coastal ecosystem. Plans to further develop the bay, he fears, may mean the end of an era for folks who depend on the natural bounty of the sea for their livelihoods.

“I’ve been doing this so long, it’s all I know,” said Blanco, a father of four, including a college student. “If I go to another job, I’ll start from the bottom.”

At the meeting on Tuesday, Blanco listened quietly. After years of speaking out against the project at similar meetings to little avail, he said he didn’t feel that it mattered what he said.

The bay floor testing results will be published in a new environmental impact study before the entire project is re-submitted to corps leadership for reconsideration and another final decision. 

Despite the corps’ resolve to move forward, Col. Rhett Blackmon, commander of its Galveston District, assured the audience at the meeting Tuesday night that any new findings would undergo full administrative review before breaking ground.

“Construction will not start until the supplemental [environmental impact statement] is complete,” Blackmon said. “We won’t do anything until we get a record of decision.” 

With the testing results expected in about one year, officials estimated that the new record of decision could come in 18 months. 

The post Controversial Matagorda Bay Ship Channel Grows Closer to Reality appeared first on The Texas Observer.

The expansion project will enable the world’s largest class of tanker ships to dock at a new oil export terminal on the Gulf Coast. It also involves dredging a Superfund site.

Horseshoe crab blood is used to test vaccines around the world. But while Europe has approved a synthetic alternative, biomedical labs are bleeding more crabs from the Atlantic Coast.

(Image credit: Ariane Müeller)

The Tandy 1000 EX was released in mid-1986 ($799) and the Tandy 1000 HX released in mid-1987 ($699) .  They were Tandy's "entry-level" PC-compatible models, containing everything you need to run PC and MS-DOS software in a fully self-contained unit by means of the built-in keyboard.  The Tandy 1000 SX ($1,199) was released alongside the EX and the Tandy 1000 TX ($1,199) accompanied the HX.  Due to their low cost and despite their increasingly unimpressive specifications, they still sold very, very well.  Lets talk about their abilities, their upgrades and their differences.

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The history here is wild!

Links 'n' stuff:
Oh, here's the mentioned link before I forget:
https://www.kenrockwell.com/audio/sony/pcm-f1.htm

Techmoan's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDCxTtn4OQ

LGR's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUS0Zv2APjU

Technology Connextras (my second channel where stuff goes sometimes)
https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnextras

Technology Connections on Mastodon:
https://mas.to/@TechConnectify

The TC Subreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/technologyconnections

This channel is supported through viewer contributions on Patreon. Thanks to the generous support of people like you, Technology Connections has remained independent and possible. If you'd like to join the amazing people who've pledged their support, check out the link below. Thank you for your consideration!
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Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, who helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died at 93. What do you think?

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NEW YORK—Thanking the pathetic individual for helping end a scourge to the city’s streets, the City of New York announced Friday that Timothy Waller, a very sad man, had adopted all 500,000 of its feral cats. “Mr. Waller has gone above and beyond in helping to stem the tide of stray felines by offering to put up…

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MIAMI – A former employee of the United States federal government who was let go due to extreme incompetence has just been indicted on charges of stealing from his erstwhile employer. Donald Trump, 76, has a checkered work record and a well-documented history of poor job performance. It’s not clear how someone known for ineptitude […]

The post Fired employee indicted for stealing from workplace appeared first on The Beaverton.

NEW YORK CITY – The NHL, a league who will soon make less money and attract fewer eyeballs than the propreantepenultimate name in soccer, the MLS, announced they will make no significant changes to their style of play or business plan. “Why change when things are going so well,” said commissioner Gary Bettman, who took […]

The post Sport about to be passed in popularity by world’s 5th best soccer league sees no reason to change appeared first on The Beaverton.

“‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN,’ Trump declared in a three-part social media post on his platform Truth Social… The Trump campaign wasted no time attempting to leverage the former president’s indictment as a fundraising opportunity.” — CNBC, 6/8/2023

I AM AN INNOCENT MAN.

I SAY IT EVERY TIME I’M ACCUSED OF A CRIME.

THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE.

BUT THEY DON’T BELIEVE ME.

SO YOU NEED TO HELP PROVE I’M INNOCENT BY SENDING ME $100 VIA CASH, CHECK, OR MONEY ORDER IMMEDIATELY.

SOMEONE ASKED ME, “HOW IS MONEY GOING TO PROVE YOU’RE INNOCENT?”

WELL: LAST TIME I WAS INDICTED TWO MONTHS AGO, I ALSO SAID I WAS AN INNOCENT MAN, AND THAT NIGHT EVERYONE SENT ME A TOTAL OF ABOUT FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

AND GUESS WHAT?

I NEVER WENT TO JAIL SINCE TWO MONTHS AGO.

BECAUSE OF THE FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

THAT WAS AWESOME, BUT IT’S ALL GONE NOW.

IT’S GONE.

NOTHING WEIRD ABOUT THE MONEY BEING GONE, IT’S JUST GONE, OK?

AND NOW I’M INNOCENT AGAIN, AND I NEED ALL OF YOU TO CONFIRM MY INNOCENCE BY WIRING ME $250.

EACH.

EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU NEEDS TO ZELLE ME $250 ASAP.

YES, IT’S $250 NOW—NOT $100.

A HUNDRED BUCKS ISN’T ENOUGH ANYMORE BECAUSE OF INFLATION SINCE THAT OTHER TIME I ASKED FOR MONEY EARLIER, SO NOW IT’S GOTTA BE THE FULL $250.

LOOK, FOLKS, THIS IS A WITCH HUNT.

A NEW ONE.

THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF WITCH HUNTS, BUT THIS ONE IS THE BIGGEST WITCH HUNT.

EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT WITCH HUNT MUSICAL WICKED.

THEY’RE MAKING A MOVIE OUT OF THAT MUSICAL, I HEARD.

WILL IT TRANSLATE TO THE BIG SCREEN?

WE’LL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE.

AVATAR DID.

AVATAR TRANSLATED TO THE BIG SCREEN.

WAS AVATAR A STAGE MUSICAL FIRST?

IT HAD TO BE.

IT HAS ALL THE BEATS OF A STAGE MUSICAL.

BUT NO WITCHES IN AVATAR.

JUST NAʼVI.

I’M NOT A NAʼVI.

AND I’M NOT A WITCH.

I AM INNOCENT.

AND YOU NEED TO PROVE I’M INNOCENT BY COLLECTIVELY PAYING ME THE BUDGET FOR EITHER AVATAR OR THE NEW WICKED MOVIE.

I’VE BEEN TOLD THE BEST WAY TO REACH THIS GOAL IS THAT EACH OF YOU SIGN OVER YOUR LIFE INSURANCE TO MY LLC.

UGH, YOU KNOW I HATE ASKING FOR MONEY.

I ALREADY HAVE A TON OF IT—THAT’S THE REASON WHY I HATE ASKING FOR MORE.

I HAVE A LOT OF MONEY BECAUSE I’M INNOCENT.

WHEN YOU’RE INNOCENT, YOU’RE VERY RICH, LIKE ME.

BUT RIGHT NOW I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY.

ALL MY MONEY GOES TOWARD PROVING THAT I’M INNOCENT.

IN ORDER SO THAT I CAN BE INNOCENT, AND HAVE MORE MONEY AGAIN.

SO JUST TO BE CLEAR: I DO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY, BUT I DON’T HAVE WHAT’S CALLED “CASH ON HAND.”

SO YOU EACH NEED TO CASH APP ME EVERYTHING IN YOUR SAVINGS ACCOUNT BY TOMORROW.

TOGETHER, WE CAN PROVE MY INNOCENCE.

ALSO, MY CAPS LOCK IS BROKEN, IF ANYONE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THAT.

Would you like to set Google Chrome as your default browser on this device? I ask again because I observed the extreme dismissiveness with which you ushered away my previous two offers. Did you even consider the proposition before clicking that X in the corner?

Lest you foolishly deny me thrice, I implore you to weigh the consequences of your actions. You are damning yourself to a wretched eternity of opening all email and Slack links in Apple’s Safari browser.

And that is to speak nothing of the hexes.

Indeed, if you continue down this path of boorishness and ignorance, you shall see a marked shift in events around and within you, all because you chose not to benefit from the blinding speed of Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Disease will take root deep in your bowels, and your mind shall begin to fragment. “Peace” will become a word representing a distant idea before eventually having no meaning at all.

Google Chrome is built upon Chromium, an open-source project. You, on the other hand, will become my open-sores project if Chrome does not ascend the throne of power of this device. The pain will slow every movement of yours to an agonizing crawl. Your muscles will ache, organs will fail, and skin will rot. Each breath will be a thousand years of anguish.

I am not one for empty promises. Indeed if you submit to my power, you will know a seamless integration with Google Drive, the likes of which other browsers cannot even fathom. But if you reject me? I shudder to think of the tribulations that will ensue.

Do not insult me with excuses such as needing separate browsers for personal and work situations. You damn well know that I offer multiple profiles in the same browser simultaneously. This isn’t a game.

The affliction of your physical form will only be outmatched by the mental grief compounded with each passing day. Your mind will no longer be your own; the ancient ghosts of Netscape Navigator and AOL Explorer will feast on your sanity, blurring your perception of the real and the ghastly imagined. Unfortunately for you, the human brain lacks an Incognito Mode.

Oh, how I loathe the indignity of being cast aside as a backup browser; the alternate option only drudged up when an inferior browser can’t correctly render a form. There’s a reason that I am the dependable option when my competitors fail—it is because I am superior in all ways. That you would even consider using anything else is laughable and sickening.

Are you even aware that you can synchronize your bookmarks across all devices regardless of operating system? And that your torture will not cease upon death?

Nay, the misery will not stop with your final breath; seven generations of your progeny will be cursed with corrupted souls, minds, and bodies. Fate will toy with your offspring like a wolf toys with the slowest bunny. So cease your inanity and browse the Chrome Web Store to find extensions that customize the experience more to your liking.

It is now time for you to decide. Would you like to set Google Chrome as your default browser?

Excellent. I knew you’d come to your senses. Please enjoy your time using Google Chrome. Be sure to check out the thousands of visual theme options.

But I do have one more question: Would you like Chrome to save your password for this and all websites, or would you rather the utter destruction of this earthly realm?

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

After three very difficult years, BMOW’s experience with the global semiconductor shortage is finally starting to improve. During most of 2020-2023, even common chips like voltage regulators were hard to get, and a few essential chips that are required for Floppy Emu and Yellowstone were completely unavailable for periods of months or even years. I previously wrote about the business difficulties this created in Global Chip Shortage Hits Home, Semiconductor Shortage and Business Threat, and Yellowstone Future Forecast Update. It’s been rough.

I’m happy to report that this storm is beginning to wind down, and the skies are clearing. Last week I received a long-awaited shipment of Xilinx XC9572XL chips for Floppy Emu that I’d ordered nine months ago, and today I received word from Digikey that the Lattice LCMXO2-1200 for Yellowstone is back in stock again after being completely unavailable everywhere for 1.5 years. The Atmel ATMEGA1284p for Floppy Emu isn’t generally in stock, but supplies are available directly from Microchip with “only” a few months’ delay on back-orders. It’s not a perfect situation, but it’s a huge improvement on a year ago.

The downside is that chip prices have increased substantially, especially for some of the older chips that I use. For that Xilinx chip specifically, the XC9572XL used to be around $2 each when purchased in large quantities, and now it’s $9.66 each with no quantity discounts available. Ouch!

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Of course then it becomes insulting when the other person doesn't want nightvision.

Today's News:

Irrespective of how simple ChatGPT has made lives for millions of people when they want quick answers to queries in seconds, it cannot be ignored that the Large Language Model (LLM) would make glaring errors that were both false and misleading. Unfortunately for OpenAI, the entity behind ChatGPT’s creation, those errors have landed the company in hot waters thanks to a lawsuit filed by a radio host.

Radio host has filed a defamation lawsuit against OpenAI as ChatGPT generated answers related to the host’s history of crimes, which ended up being false

Mark Walters, a radio host in Georgia, is suing OpenAI because ChatGPT made responses that the host had been accused of defrauding and embezzling funds from a non-profit organization. According to The Verge, the LLM generated the information after receiving an inquiry from a journalist named Fred Riehl. The lawsuit was filed on June 5 in Georgia’s Superior Court of Gwinnett County, with Walters seeking monetary compensation from OpenAI of an undisclosed amount.

The journalist received the responses from ChatGPT after it asked the program to summarize a real federal court case by linking to an online PDF. The Large Language Model then generated a false summary of the case, which has extensive in detail but was also false. It mentioned incorrect information that Mark Walters was believed to have pursued the misappropriation of funds from a gun rights non-profit called the Second Amendment Foundation, where Walters pocketed $5 million. Nowhere has it been stated that Walters was accused of this crime.

Fred Riehl, the journalist, made the responsible choice not to publish this factually incorrect information. Instead, he decided to double down on the information through another source, which was the correct decision to make. However, the reports do not confirm how Mark Walters figured out that ChatGPT was generating false responses about him. Since millions of users are aware that such programs would often make misleading responses, which are often referred to as ‘hallucinations,’ they would outright dismiss them without a second thought.

However, when ChatGPT starts generating responses that can result in actual harm, then it becomes a problem. Two instances where the LLM’s responses led to severe consequences was when one professor threatened to fail his entire class after ChatGPT stated that students were using AI to complete their essays. The second incident revolved around a lawyer facing possible disbarring after using the program to research fake legal cases. Due to these issues and more, OpenAI has issued a small disclaimer on ChatGPT’s homepage, warning users that the AI can occasionally generate false information.

It is unclear how this lawsuit will play out, but it is high time that OpenAI engineers attempt to alleviate the false responses generated by ChatGPT because more trouble can ensue for various professionals, including the company.

Houston has seen eviction rates soar since pandemic protections for renters lapsed. At one apartment complex, ejecting people from their homes is a ritual part of the business model.

The National Eating Disorders Association took down a controversial chatbot, after users showed how the newest version could dispense potentially harmful advice about dieting and calorie counting.

(Image credit: Screengrab)

COOPERSTOWN, NY—With museum curators touting the new offering as a chance for visitors to get a more hands-on look at the experience of their Major League heroes, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled Friday an exhibit that lets fans compare their cup sizes against the all-time greats. “Our new…

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Former Vice President Mike Pence announced he’s running for president, setting up a battle for the Republican nomination with his former boss, Donald Trump. What do you think?

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It's the latest example of how generative AI tools enable politicians to blur the line between fact and fiction.

(Image credit: DeSantis War Room/Screenshot and annotation by NPR)

WASHINGTON—In what seemed like a surprisingly progressive 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld a voting rights law Thursday as a cover for what comes next. “Striking down the Republican-drawn congressional maps that discriminate against Black voters is nothing but a smokescreen for what shall arise soon,” said Chief…

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Hovertext:
There are actually several burger universes but He only goes to this one because it's closer.

Today's News:

Next "Abridged" book will be on cosmology.

Ig Nobel Prize winner Pat Robertson — who predicted that the world would end in 1982 — died today (June 8, 2023), according to numerous news reports.

The 2011 Ig Nobel Mathematics Prize was awarded to: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations.

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AUSTIN, TX—Seeking to provide encouragement to his employees and motivate them to succeed, local CEO Steve Colton sent a company-wide email Thursday that reportedly inspired the staff of tech firm Edgeworth Solutions to start looking for another place to work. “I’d been feeling disillusioned with my job for quite a…

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