Drones in the sky

Dan Nuñez pulls up a video feed on his computer. “Can you see that?” he asks, pointing to some rolling, foggy hills in rural Oregon. The footage was captured seven minutes before Nuñez opened up his browser. Barely perceptible on the screen is a rising plume of smoke. “I would not have caught that,” Nuñez said after hitting replay. “But the AI does.” The artificial intelligence Nuñez is referring to comes from Pano AI, a California startup that makes high-definition cameras to detect, track and manage flames. As the manager of wildfire planning and analytics at Portland General Electric, Nuñez is responsible for doing everything possible, as early as possible, to find and put out fires. A cottage industry in fire detection technology has taken root, especially in the western US, as fires have become more frequent, larger and financially ruinous. PGE so far has installed five Pano cameras, with plans to add 17 more across Oregon this summer. The hardware offers minute-by-minute … [Read more...] about Tech companies want more eyes in the sky for wildfire season

(From left) Yap, Low, Musa, Zheng Le and Lyu in the topping out ceremony. - A + A PETALING JAYA (June 24): Kuala Lumpur Metro Group (KL Metro) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) Malaysia commemorated the topping out of Imperial Lexis Kuala Lumpur and Grandview Residence on June 22 to mark the completion of the five-star hotel and luxury residences respectively. The single tower 53-storey mixed-use development project has a total gross floor area of 3,700 sq m (about 40,000 sq ft), with a height of 231 meters (about 2,500 sq ft). Imperial Lexis Kuala Lumpur features a private pool in each of its 275 suites, and is from Levels 13 and above, while Grandview Residence has 164-unit luxury residences from Levels 36 to 49. Both Imperial Lexis KL and Grandview Residence will be managed by Lexis Hotel Group. Some of the facilities of the hotel and residence are swimming pool, gym, spa facility, an open-air satellite bar on the rooftop at the … [Read more...] about KL Metro Group marks topping out of Imperial Lexis KL and Grandview Residence

High inflation and worries about economic contraction are stunting the markets but proving to be catalysts for growth in one area: an interest in striking and unionizing. advertisement advertisement The number of strikes between January and May 2022 is double that of last year, according to data from the Cornell-ILR Labor Action Tracker , a database that tracks labor protest activity across the U.S. During that time frame, there were 153 strikes around the country comprising 73,500 workers, compared to 78 strikes involving 22,500 workers between the same months in 2021, according to Johnnie Kallas, a former labor organizer and the director of the ILR Labor Action Tracker. The increase in strike activity appears to be moving in lockstep with a sudden push in unionization among American workers, too. Recently, workers have voted to form unions at Amazon warehouses , Starbucks cafés , and Apple stores . Some Google employees unionized last … [Read more...] about Labor strikes have doubled in the past year. Is high inflation part of the reason?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin After the victims have been recovered. After power has been restored and roads cleared. After The New York Times and “Good Morning America” move on to other stories. After visits from the governor and First Lady, towns recovering from a natural disaster face a grueling, monotonous, years-long effort of cleanup, recovery and rebuilding outside the spotlight. There are, after all, no shortage of immediate crises to draw the country’s attention. Bowling Green, Kentucky is past its “attention” phase following a pair of tornados which hit the area on December 11, 2021, resulting in 16 deaths. One other Warren County resident would die shortly after from a heart attack suffered during initial cleanup efforts. The historic storms resulted in 77 deaths statewide and 90 across multiple states during a terrifying outbreak which led national news broadcasts for days. “We have transitioned out of that emergency response … [Read more...] about How Visitors To Bowling Green, KY Can Help Community Still Recovering From Deadly Tornados

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Recently I reported on the San Francisco Fire dept. being upset at how a Cruise robotaxi coming the other direction couldn’t clear out of that lane when the fire engine was blocked by a stopped garbage truck. Discussion suggest there was concern over whether cars like the Cruise were ready for driving on a road with emergency vehicles. While there may be some small issues to resolve, emergency crews should take heart. A future is possible where they will be able to respond to emergencies far better than they can today, thanks to robocars and other future technologies like e-VTOL aircraft. Robotaxi developers build simulations of situations on the road, including encountering emergency vehicles. They do thousands of variations of those situations to try to make sure their car will do well. When it doesn’t, they fix it. They may not get everything, but they will constantly improve as they learn — and one of the ways they … [Read more...] about Forget SFFD Being Upset At Cruise, The Future For Emergency Vehicles With Robocars & e-VTOL Is Super Positive

Family and friends of the late Victor Hallcy Sr. released balloons and doves on Sunday in Denver in a bittersweet Father’s Day tribute. Hallcy died on Easter Sunday in a two-vehicle crash when the vehicle he was in was hit by a driver who allegedly ran a red light. “He was a great man, lovable man,” said Ebony Walker, of Oklahoma, who came to Denver to honor her dad. Hallcy, 60, was in a Lincoln SUV with his son, Victor Hallcy Jr., when another driver allegedly ran a red light and hit the SUV. Victor Hallcy Jr. survived the crash. His father died at the scene. “While my brother was able to crawl out of the vehicle, our father was not so lucky,” Walker said. Victor Hallcy Sr. was already a survivor In recent years, Hallcy Sr. experienced health issues, including a long hospital stay — 93 days — in which he went into a coma for 29 days. He was, however, in recovery, working with a support network of family, friends and professionals, walking and enjoying being a … [Read more...] about Denver man survived 29 days in a coma. 3 years later, he was killed when a vehicle ran a red light

Jermyn Prado —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Jermyn Prado mixed talent with strategy on Thursday to bag her third gold medal in the PhilCycling National Championships for Road in Tagaytay City. The 27-year-old Prado stayed in step with the lead pack through the early flat routes of the 114-kilometer race before attacking the climb back to the Praying Hands Monument with rising standout Mathilda Krogg. The two stayed ahead and controlled the race until Prado prevailed in a friendly sprint to the finish en route to her third victory after the criterium on Tuesday and individual time trial on Wednesday. “Like I said, I don’t stop training,” said Prado, who clocked three hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds. The 19-year-old Krogg finished with the same time for the silver. She took the gold in the under-23 division of the race for her second victory in her age-group after also winning the criterium. Prado was a former teammate of Krogg at the Philippine Navy-Standard Insurance team of Standard … [Read more...] about Prado nails third gold after ruling road race

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut's 'Accidental Napalm', taken 50 years ago on June 8, became the defining image of America's war in Vietnam. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly via Wikimedia Commons) “Photographs cannot create a moral position, but they can reinforce one” — Susan Sontag Only in America the anniversaries of terrible and indescribable destruction are celebrated with a zest that perhaps equals, in the huge space and big pile of bytes wasted in the media, the fury and madness of the sordid original act. Some years from now, America, in whatever shape it survives the divisions and discord that is pulverising its society, will, in photo galleries and on websites, raise a toast to what the country’s follies and foolishness wrought in Afghanistan. Instead of building a liberal society—Americans think of democracy as a takeaway pizza shop where, once the joint is set up, you can come and carve out slices according to your appetite and take them home and … [Read more...] about 50 years on, ‘Accidental Napalm’ still fills us with horror

On May 28, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said it had unearthed a heroin trafficking network with the arrest of eight people and seizure of about 35 kg of narcotics. In February, the apex agency for drug law enforcement arrested 22 suspects, including software engineers, a financial analyst, an MBA graduate and one of its personnel. With that drug bust, it claimed to have uncovered a pan-India trafficking ring that used the darknet, or anonymous proxy networks, and cryptocurrency to traffic narcotic substances. READ | Gujarat: 56 kg of cocaine, worth Rs 500 crore, seized from container near Mundra port The federal anti-drug agency has been in the news recently not just for high-profile cases, but also a spike in narcotic seizures. Call it effective enforcement or increase in drug consumption, there has been an exponential rise in seizures. The NCB registered 684 cases in 2021 and 245 until May this year compared to 412 cases in 2020. Compared to 343 kg of heroin … [Read more...] about India’s top narcotics cop: Drug trafficking and use have increased significantly

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin If you’ve pumped gas, bought groceries, traveled or dined out in recent months, you don’t need me to tell you that inflation is having a significant impact on your purchasing power. While many of today’s workers have never seen inflation this high during their lifetimes, most people in or nearing retirement age remember it well. In fact, I was just beginning my career as a wealth advisor the last time we experienced rates this high. Yet, the current rate of 8.3% pales in comparison to the rates we saw in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By 1980, inflation had topped 14%, and unemployment was over 7.5%, based on historical data from the Federal Reserve (Fed). While most economists do not expect broad inflation measures to reach double-digits, the current environment has been challenging for many individuals and families trying to find creative ways to make their budgets stretch further. Because the forces behind inflation are … [Read more...] about Debunking 6 Inflation Myths