Over the last three months, Delta Air Lines lost nearly $6 billion as the company's CEO said a slow, brief recovery in air travel has now stalled amid a big resurgence in coronavirus infections. Delta is the first U.S. airline to report second-quarter financial results; it is the first full quarter since the pandemic began, and the results are worse than anticipated. Delta flew 93% percent fewer passengers in April, May and June than it did in the second quarter last year. Revenue fell 91% compared with the same three-month period last year as the airline said it was losing close to $100 million a day at the start of the pandemic. Atlanta-based Delta said it is still burning about $27 million a day. Delta CEO Ed Bastian called the losses "staggering," adding that "it could be two years or more before we see a sustainable recovery." Bastian noted that in June and early July, there was "a small but welcome uptick in passenger volume, driven almost entirely by domestic leisure travelers

GA Supreme Court Asks For More Judicial Review Of Gun Rules At Atlanta Botanical Garden State Remains Dry, But More Fall-Like Weather On The Way Former Coastal Police Officer Found Not Guilty Of Manslaughter

In Atlanta today, President Trump will announce big changes to the regulations that govern one of the nation's most significant environmental laws. The aim is to speed up approval for major projects like pipelines and highways, but critics say it could sideline the concerns of poor and minority communities impacted by those projects, and discount their impact on climate change. The 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It requires federal agencies to consider the environmental effects of proposed projects before they are approved. It also gives the public and interest groups the ability to comment on those evaluations. The administration's new regulations are expected to reduce the types and number of projects that will be subject to review under the NEPA. An earlier version of the proposed rules truncated those reviews in an effort to streamline processes that can take years to complete. It also dropped a requirement

On a rare undeveloped point of the California coast, scientists are trying to repopulate shorelines with an endangered marine snail. This type of experimental conservation is becoming more necessary. This story first aired on All Things Considered on November 7, 2024.

Violence continues in Haiti, despite the appointment of a new prime minister. The international airport was shut down after shots were fired at a landing commercial flight.

Cincinnati's public water utility is on a years-long effort to replace its lead service lines. They began in 2016 following the crisis in Flint, Michigan.

No great departure for the B21 graduate, but an album with plenty of variety.

Using Skype to conduct interviews with guests for your podcast is fairly easy but potential inexperience of your guests can lead to sub-optimal audio quality. The following simple tips can significantly improve the audio quality of such an interview ensuring that you and your guest come across at your very best in the final podcast.

The post Podcast Skype Interview Guidelines for Guests appeared first on Richard Farrar.

Dear Readers: On Sept. 23, I published two letters from older adults struggling to find a connection (“Still Grieving” and “Wants a Connection”). I asked those of you who have successfully found friendship and romantic partnership at a later stage in life to write in.

United plans to connect all of its roughly 1,000 airplanes to Starlink.

The Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning Foundation has appointed Tricia Lines Hill to its Board of Directors. A spokesperson said, “With deep Bermuda roots and a passion for supporting education and community growth, Mrs. Lines Hill brings a wealth of knowledge in global marketing, corporate communications, and business development. “Mrs. Lines Hill holds a BA in […]

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources said they have “received reports of reckless boaters and swimmers trying to get close to whales” and added that it is ”strongly recommended that members of the public do not swim with any whales.” A Government spokesperson said, “The Department of Environment and Natural Resources [DENR] has received reports […]

Members of the Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda met to deliberate over the proposed MOU intended to bring the organization back to engagement with the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Program and “declined to ratify the MOU.” Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda: A spokesperson said, “On Tuesday, July 18th, Members of the Fishermen’s Association of Bermuda met to deliberate […]

For basic facts, see below. Thanks to AI and our Japanese colleagues, the study of Peru's mysterious Nazca lines has made a quantum leap forward. AI Revealed a New Trove of Massive Ancient Symbols The 2,000-year-old geoglyphs offer clues to ancient Nazca people and their rituals By Aylin Woodward, Science Shorts, WSJ (Nov. 6, 2024) […]

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis says he has recovered from being poked in the left eye by Toronto’s Jakob Poeltl, and his latest eye injury still hasn’t persuaded him to wear protective goggles

"Lines is my fifth novel, and it is the most formally challenging work I've written."

Shares of the company were down 39% at $1.8 after the bell. The stock has fallen nearly 80% this year, while the S&P 500 passenger airlines index jumped 52%. The ultra-low cost carrier is in advanced discussions with bondholders to hammer out a bankruptcy plan that would have support from a…

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (Reuters) -- Vietnam Airlines will issue a request for proposal to aircraft manufacturers next year to purchase 50 narrowbody jets, its CEO said on Wednesday. The carrier last year signed a provisional deal with Boeing BA for 50 737 MAX planes that has yet to be…

US prohibits airlines from flying to Haiti after planes were shot by gangs PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot three planes and the United Nations also Tuesday temporarily suspended flights to…

A new trailer for Marvel Animation's animated anthology "What If…?" Season 3 has landed

I’m a year and a half into the development of a new web application for managing complex data sets. Our boss has never been able to provide proper specifications for what he needs, just a flood of vague ideas with no real detail and constantly changing scope.

My job is to try and turn this into a comprehensible list of tasks that the dev team can actually follow. Each month, I have a planning session with the boss where we hash out the next period of work. Each session, I remind him that changing the scope means adding more time.

We agree and sign off the work to be delivered by the end of the month. So far, we’ve hit every deadline.

I thought we had a pretty good system in place until:

Boss: “I can’t believe we’re so far behind and how poorly you’ve managed this project.”

Me: “What do you mean? Haven’t we met all the agreed deadlines throughout the project?”

Boss: “I’ve made a spreadsheet of all the dates I wanted each feature done by. So far, you’ve missed every single one of them.”

Me: “Excuse me? We’ve always delivered what’s been agreed on time. Where have these new dates come from?”

Boss: “This is how long I thought the work should take and I made up my own timeline.”

Me: “I’ve never seen these dates before, let alone agreed to them. At a glance, many of them seem extremely optimistic.”

That’s business talk for “f****** mad”.

Me: “We agreed at the start this would be at least a three-year project.”

Boss: “Well, I decided it should take less time and you’re late. I’m going to have to pull the plug on this project if you can’t have everything wrapped up within the next month.”

I politely remind the boss that there was at least another year and a half of work left to complete the project. I’ll probably be looking for a new job shortly.

REEES/Slavic Grad Film Series Bordenlens: Queer Outlines of Geography and Gender Organized by Sofia Guerra Sponsored by the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Humanities Council, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. All Films Shown with English Subtitles

Passengers who bug airline staff by breaking boarding protocol will be met with an alarm

A recent article on Chow.com identifies a trend in American aviation catering: The surprisingly high demand for ginger ale on America’s planes. Why ginger ale, and not Coke, 7UP, or Bloody Mary mix? The most popular theory among flight attendants is that it relieves nausea. “If [passengers] have motion sickness, it settles their stomach,” says Elizabeth […]

Sure, some airlines let you work in a free stopover. But Turkish Airlines goes one step further and offers up a free city tour on a stopover as short as six hours. Maybe getting into a shuttle bus and tooling around Istanbul after seven hours on an Airbus isn’t your cup of tea, but if […]

Tamar Geiger
Mar 1, 2012; 11:M111.014050-M111.014050
Special Issue: Prospects in Space and Time

Battle lines being drawn over online freedoms in Asia Expert comment NCapeling 22 March 2021

Social media giants are increasingly clashing with Asian governments over free expression and censorship as the region lurches towards digital authoritarianism.

Freedom of expression was subject to significant restrictions in Asia even before the pandemic, with several governments having enacted laws that stifle online debate. But since COVID-19, restrictions have increased even further due to a rash of so-called ‘emergency measures’ introduced by governments across the region.

Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam have all put new laws into place, and many restrictions are already being applied in a draconian fashion, such as in the Philippines and Bangladesh.

As outlined in a new Chatham House research paper, one inspiration behind this trend is China, home to the world’s most sophisticated and restrictive system of internet control. The Chinese government’s restrictive online regime, which has tightened further under COVID-19, relies on a combination of legal regulations, technical controls, and proactive manipulation of online debates.

This model was an inspiration for Vietnam’s cybersecurity law, as well as Myanmar’s new draft cybersecurity bill, proposed by the Military-run State Administration Council in the wake of the military coup last month, which would give the military there extensive powers to access individuals’ data, restrict, or suspend access to the internet.

This ‘sovereignty and control’ model of internet governance is also gaining impetus through China’s ‘Digital Silk Road’ initiative, under which the Chinese government is exporting both its technology – such as through the establishment of smart cities, the installation of AI, and surveillance technology – and its vision of how the internet should be governed.

In November 2020, Xi Jinping pledged to further deepen cooperation with ASEAN through the Digital Silk Road, and the pandemic has expanded the appeal of Chinese surveillance technologies and data collection platforms to governments both in Asia and beyond. China’s Health Silk Road, which aims to promote global health cooperation, is centered on the Chinese government’s high-tech model under which civic freedoms are sacrificed in the name of public health.

An alternative model

This ‘sovereignty and control’ model is increasingly at odds with the more ‘human-centric’ model of tech governance favoured by many democratic states, Western social media companies, and international institutions, especially the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU).

Although this emerging model also involves regulation, it is regulation which aims to be inclusive, risk-based, and proportionate – balancing the need for protection against online harms with the need to preserve freedom of expression. It is a multi-stakeholder, rights-based approach which brings together not just governments but also representatives of the private sector, civil society, and academia. The EU’s draft Digital Services Act and the UK’s proposals for an Online Safety Bill are both reflective of this approach.

Western social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have recently introduced new policies which seek to identify and mitigate online harms, such as hate speech and disinformation. Industry bodies such as the Global Network Initiative, independent oversight bodies such as the Oversight Board established by Facebook, and civil society advocacy and initiatives such as the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation are also an important part of the picture.

Admittedly, these various digital governance initiatives are in some cases embryonic, and are by no means a silver bullet solution to the complex problem of online content moderation, which continues to be hotly debated in democratic societies. But they are at least underpinned by the same philosophy – that international human rights law standards must continue to apply even during emergencies such as COVID-19. With the Biden administration in the US prioritizing tech governance in its policy agenda, there is added momentum to the international leadership behind this model.

A clash of ideology

These conflicting philosophies are playing out in debates on technology governance at the UN, with one group of countries led by China and Russia advocating for greater government control of the internet, and many Western democracies emphasizing the need for an open, global internet that protects human rights.

These differing ideologies are also creating tensions between Western social media companies operating in Asia and the various governments in that region which have increased restrictions on online expression. And the gulf between the two appears to be widening.

In 2017, the Thailand government threatened Facebook with legal action unless it agreed to remove content critical of Thailand’s royal family and, in 2020, Facebook announced it had been ‘forced to block’ such material. Also in 2020, the Vietnam government pressured state-owned telecom companies to throttle internet traffic to Facebook, effectively restricting access to the platform, until Facebook agreed to take down content the government deemed to be anti-state.

Platforms refuse to silence legitimate criticism

However, Silicon Valley’s social media companies have also been pushing back. Facebook restricted the accounts of Myanmar’s military on the basis of ‘spreading misinformation’ in the wake of the military’s imposition of an internet shutdown that blocked access to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And Twitter resisted requests by the Indian government to block accounts involved in protests by farmers.

Twitter stated that while it would block any accounts which it felt incited violence, it would not take action on accounts belonging to news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians because it believed that would ‘violate the fundamental right to free expression under the Indian law’. The Indian government responded by fast-tracking stringent new social media regulations heavily criticized by rights groups for increasing government power over content on social media platforms, including online news.

So how can social media companies find avenues for operating in Asia and beyond without being co-opted into the lurch towards digital authoritarianism? There are no easy answers here, but collaboration is key. Cooperation between tech companies and local civil society partners can help companies better understand risks to human rights in the country concerned and how they might be mitigated. And tech companies are more effective in alliance with each other than acting on their own, such as the refusal by Facebook, Google, Telegram, and Twitter to hand over data on protestors to the Hong Kong police.

The fact that in many countries in Asia there are no alternatives to Western social media companies – unlike China, where platforms such as WeChat are part of the government’s internet control apparatus – gives the companies concerned some leverage. In February 2020, Facebook, Google, and Twitter together – through the Asia Internet Coalition – threatened to leave Pakistan in response to the government’s draconian proposals to regulate social media. Along with pressure and lawsuits from civil society, this forced the government into retreat, although the tussle over the new rules, introduced in November, continues.

At a time when illiberalism was already on the rise in Asia (including in democracies – Freedom House has just downgraded India’s status from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’), COVID-19 has made tighter state control of online freedom of expression even more attractive to many governments. As it seems increasingly unlikely that restrictions enacted under the guise of pandemic-related emergency measures will be repealed once the COVID-19 crisis ends, it is even more important that tech companies work with civil society on the ground to minimize the censorship of citizen voices.

On beyond “Detect and Respond” and “Secure by Design”

Co-fractionation MS (CF-MS) is a technique with potential to characterize endogenous and unmanipulated protein complexes on an unprecedented scale. However this potential has been offset by a lack of guidelines for best-practice CF-MS data collection and analysis. To obtain such guidelines, this study thoroughly evaluates novel and published Saccharomyces cerevisiae CF-MS data sets using very high proteome coverage libraries of yeast gold standard complexes. A new method for identifying gold standard complexes in CF-MS data, Reference Complex Profiling, and the Extending 'Guilt-by-Association' by Degree (EGAD) R package are used for these evaluations, which are verified with concurrent analyses of published human data. By evaluating data collection designs, which involve fractionation of cell lysates, it is found that near-maximum recall of complexes can be achieved with fewer samples than published studies. Distributing sample collection across orthogonal fractionation methods, rather than a single high resolution data set, leads to particularly efficient recall. By evaluating 17 different similarity scoring metrics, which are central to CF-MS data analysis, it is found that two metrics rarely used in past CF-MS studies – Spearman and Kendall correlations – and the recently introduced Co-apex metric frequently maximize recall, whereas a popular metric—Euclidean distance—delivers poor recall. The common practice of integrating external genomic data into CF-MS data analysis is also evaluated, revealing that this practice may improve the precision and recall of known complexes but is generally unsuitable for predicting novel complexes in model organisms. If studying nonmodel organisms using orthologous genomic data, it is found that particular subsets of fractionation profiles (e.g. the lowest abundance quartile) should be excluded to minimize false discovery. These assessments are summarized in a series of universally applicable guidelines for precise, sensitive and efficient CF-MS studies of known complexes, and effective predictions of novel complexes for orthogonal experimental validation.

Protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) play key roles in cellular signal transduction, cell cycle regulation, cell division, and cell differentiation. Dysregulation of PTK-activated pathways, often by receptor overexpression, gene amplification, or genetic mutation, is a causal factor underlying numerous cancers. In this study, we have developed a parallel reaction monitoring (PRM)-based assay for quantitative profiling of 83 PTKs. The assay detects 308 proteotypic peptides from 54 receptor tyrosine kinases and 29 nonreceptor tyrosine kinases in a single run. Quantitative comparisons were based on the labeled reference peptide method. We implemented the assay in four cell models: 1) a comparison of proliferating versus epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated A431 cells, 2) a comparison of SW480Null (mutant APC) and SW480APC (APC restored) colon tumor cell lines, and 3) a comparison of 10 colorectal cancer cell lines with different genomic abnormalities, and 4) lung cancer cell lines with either susceptibility (11-18) or acquired resistance (11-18R) to the epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib. We observed distinct PTK expression changes that were induced by stimuli, genomic features or drug resistance, which were consistent with previous reports. However, most of the measured expression differences were novel observations. For example, acquired resistance to erlotinib in the 11-18 cell model was associated not only with previously reported upregulation of MET, but also with upregulation of FLK2 and downregulation of LYN and PTK7. Immunoblot analyses and shotgun proteomics data were highly consistent with PRM data. Multiplexed PRM assays provide a targeted, systems-level profiling approach to evaluate cancer-related proteotypes and adaptations. Data are available through Proteome eXchange Accession PXD002706.

A flight of Florida-based Spirit Airlines was hit by gunfire while attempting to land in Haiti with a crew member that sustained "minor injuries."

What if you could take something as tiny as a grain of sand — and as common as a glass bottle — and use it to tackle the climate crisis? Waste alchemist Franziska Trautmann shares how the spark of an idea turned into a large-scale operation helping restore the eroded shores of Louisiana and beyond. (Created in collaboration with Ignite Talks)

Writing in dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said a lower court had disrupted state property tax revenue for schools and other government services.

The justices declined to hear the appeal of the Ferguson-Florissant district over its at-large board elections, which lower courts invalidated as violating the Voting Rights Act.

Teachers in the nation's third-largest school system are fighting for salary increases, class-size caps, and a written commitment for more nurses, social workers, and librarians—as well as investments some say are outside the scope of collective bargaining.

The court declined to take up an appeal backed by school groups of a ruling allowing some property taxpayers challenge their assessments in federal court.

Ever the media gadfly himself, the pop artist was fascinated by newspapers, especially the tabloids, as explored in a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Read more at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Bringing-Andy-Warhols-Shadows-to-the-Hirshhorn.html

Stephanie Yuill spent five weeks visiting First World War sites across Europe on a bike she bought from the grocery store. 

Bo Levi Mitchell is a CFL all-star for the third time. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback and East Division finalist for the CFL's outstanding player award was named to the 2024 all-star squad on Thursday.

Engineers Use 3D CAD and Simulation To Customize Products With Quick Modifications, Testing, and Demonstrations

Visual Effects Pioneer Will Share Stories of Overcoming Daunting Technical and Business Challenges

Investment improves coordination and accuracy

Apple's update for Find My in iOS 18.2 will let users share the location of AirTags with other people, which could help airlines track down your lost luggage faster.