Routine online activities like sharing photos to social media, uploading files to shared drives, or streaming TV shows produce a lot of digital data. And as that data production soars, so does the energy demand for storing and processing it. 

In 1876, the poet Stéphane Mallarmé published a poem entitled "The Afternoon of a Faun." He doubted anyone could set it to music successfully. But composer Claude Debussy did exactly that. The music runs only about nine minutes long, but it helped give birth to the modern era as we know it.

What you are hearing is a Described Video soundtrack on CBC Television. DV allows vision-impaired Canadians greater access to CBC Television programming by describing the scene and action during pauses in dialogue. The DV soundtrack is delivered on Secondary Audio Program or SAP which is an audio setting on your Television. To turn off the narration, you need to have your television audio set with the SAP feature off and stereo sound on.

Turning SAP on and off is done on most television sets through a menu using the remote control. Every television set is different, so the best way to do that is to follow the instructions in your owner's manual.

A Vancouver-based ad agency placed $3 million cash between the glass in a bus shelter, unguarded on the street - to demonstrate a point.

The LA singer’s voice remains an undeniably rich and powerful instrument.

Stellantis, the automobile conglomerate that owns Jeep, formed recently from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot, defended its use of the Cherokee name claiming "our vehicle names have been carefully chosen and nurtured over the years to honor and celebrate Native American people for their nobility, prowess and pride."  This argument echoes the same arguments used for decades by Daniel Snyder, the owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly the Redskins) and the owners of the Cleveland Indians (who have also recently agreed to change the team name after phasing out the offensive Chief Wahoo logo a few years ago).  For Stellantis, the Grand Cherokee is one of Jeep's most popular models selling more than 200,000 units in 2020.

Suzan Shown Harjo, long an activist fighting against cultural misappropriation and offensive use of American Indian imagery, is not buying the "honor" argument.  "Of course it's not an honor" states Harjo, "That’s the assumption that was made by so many people about our land, water, gold, silver, copper — name a mineral. Now it’s about our imagery, our names and our cultural icons . . . When does this thievery stop?"  

The Cherokee Nation describes itself as a sovereign tribal government. "Upon settling in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) after the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee people established a new government in what is now the city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A constitution was adopted on September 6, 1839, 68 years prior to Oklahoma’s statehood.  Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 380,000 tribal citizens worldwide. More than 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside within the tribe’s reservation boundaries in northeastern Oklahoma. . . . The Cherokee Nation is committed to protecting our inherent sovereignty, preserving and promoting Cherokee culture, language and values, and improving the quality of life for the next seven generations of Cherokee Nation citizens."

Whether Jeep drops the moniker will likely depend on whether the same kind of financial pressure is brought against Jeep and Stellantis similar to what was brought to bear on Daniel Snyder and the Washington Football Team and corporate entities like Aunt Jemima, Land-O-Lakes and Uncle Ben's.  Each of these entities have been persuaded to change/drop racist depictions and monikers because of the economic pressure of threatened boycotts and sponsorship withdrawals, particularly in light of the 2020 summer of protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

hat tip: Savannah Johnston, Arkansas Little Rock Bowen School of Law, 3L

images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A 92-year-old war widow who devotes her days to serving others has received a generous gift from local business owners who arranged to have her house repainted and she gave them a hand.

When the Soviets called their enemies “fascists,” they turned the word into a meaningless insult. Putinist Russia has preserved the habit: a “fascist” is anyone who opposes the wishes of a Russian dictator. So Ukrainians defending their country from Russian invaders are “fascists.” This is a trick that Trump has copied. He, like Vladimir Putin, refers to his enemies as “fascists,” with no ideological significance at all. It is simply a term of opprobrium. Putin and Trump are both, in fact, fascists. And their use of the word, though meant to confuse, reminds us of one of fascism’s essential characteristics. A fascist is unconcerned with the connection between words and meanings. He does not serve the language; the language serves him. When a fascist calls a liberal a “fascist,” the term begins to work in a different way, as the servant of a particular person, rather than as a bearer of meaning

By Fran Kritz, NPR

The ancient scourge of tuberculosis for years was the deadliest infectious disease. Then SARS-CoV-2 came along and grabbed the notorious title of #1 killer: In 2020, COVID-19 was responsible for 3.5 million deaths worldwide vs 1.5 million for TB.The 2024 Global Tuberculosis Report, published last week by the World Health Organization, puts TB back in the top slot with 1.25 million deaths in 2023 compared to 320,000 COVID-19 deaths. There's also been an increase of hundreds of thousands of new TB cases in 2023 compared to the year prior.

The 1.25 million TB deaths in 2023 is down from 2022’s number of 1.32 million (which that year was second to the COVID toll). But it's still indefensibly high, say public health leaders.

“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a statement issued on October 29.

According to the report, approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 — the highest number since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 and a “notable increase” from 7.5 million people newly diagnosed in 2022.

TB sleuths are trying to figure out the reasons behind the increase. Anand Date, global TB branch chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says population growth may account for the increase in cases last year -- and that it may take until the 2024 to find out if that is so or if the leap in 2023 reflects an undercount of annual TB totals during the pandemic.

“Disruptions to TB programs during the height of the pandemic led to more people going undiagnosed and untreated for TB. [And] guidance to shelter in place may have also limited the spread of TB, says Yogan Pillay, who heads efforts to improve TB program delivery at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which is a funder of NPR and this blog).

COVID-19 did trigger a new setback in the effort to control TB. But most of the reasons the infection persists are frustratingly well-known, says Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership. There's too little money for research, treatment. and patient care needs. And there's stigma that can keep the most common victims of TB, impoverished people including migrants and sex workers, from seeking help or being offered treatment.

In addition, health conditions like malnutrition, diabetes and smoking that can exacerbate TB and keep medications from being fully effective, says Luke Davis, a TB and HIV specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. “TB is unusual,” says Davis, in that most people who are exposed to the bacteria won’t progress to infectious TB. Only about 10% do, and they are usually among the world’s poorest people often with poor health to begin with, which exacerbates their condition.”

So what's the solution?

And that brings us to the Tedros point. The world knows how to vanquish TB — but is not doing a good job.

Money reigns as perhaps the biggest obstacle to conquering tuberculosis. A spokesperson for WHO tells NPR: “Compared with global funding targets for TB set at the 2023 U.N. high-level meeting on TB, there are large funding shortfalls for TB research as well as prevention, detection and treatment services. To close these gaps, more funding is needed from both domestic sources in the countries most impacted by TB and from international donors.”

Global funding for TB prevention and care decreased in 2023 from $6 billion in the three previous years to $5.7 billion and remains far below the yearly target of $22 billion, according to WHO.

What would more money bring? WHO cites expanded rapid diagnostic testing as critical. Then treatment can start sooner. And people wouldn’t have to travel long distances to a clinic then wait for days for the results.

Increased funding would also help reimburse families for lost wages and food and travel expenses incurred as they go for treatment. Those costs keep some patients and their families from seeking care.

The WHO report and other investigations also say that countries burdened by TB also have to step up and spend more money on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. A report by MSF/Doctors Without Borders published last month, for example, found that, only 5 out of 14 countries have adapted their guidelines — based on WHO recommendations -- to initiate TB treatment in children when symptoms strongly indicate TB disease, even if bacteriological tests are negative.

And increased funding would speed up the pace of research says the CDC’s Date. Funding for TB research has stagnated at around $1 billion per year, constraining progress, according to WHO. The target at the U.N. meeting: $5 billion per year by 2027. “The world also has the most promising R&D pipeline of new TB tools in decades,” says Pillay. “What’s needed now is greater investment to deliver on the promise of that pipeline and ensure patients and those at risk of TB have affordable and equitable access to these tools when they are available.”

Vaccines in the works

Pillay says there are more than a dozen TB vaccine candidates in clinical trials, including one whose late stage (stage 3) clinical trial is sponsored by the Gates Medical Research Institute. The trial began recruiting patients last March. That vaccine candidate is called M72/AS01E and if proven effective would be the first new TB vaccine in 100 years. The lone TB vaccine available now is not predictably effective in adults, and can cause a false positive result on TB skin tests.

But even an effective vaccine won’t do that much good if there aren’t funds to purchase it for countries impacted by TB. Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of the Global Health Policy Program at the Center for Global Development, based in Washington, D.C., says that while Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, pays for [a variety of] vaccines in some of the poorest countries such as Afghanistan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some countries with high rates of TB are middle income countries, like Indonesia, and no longer eligible for support. Ahead of a TB vaccine’s approval, says Keller, there needs to be a better match of policy and funding.

“Often it seems that when we find a way to help vanquish TB,” says Lucica Ditiu, “we also find another barrier.”

Fran Kritz is a health policy reporter based in Washington, D.C., and a regular contributor to NPR. She also reports for the Washington Post and Verywell Health. Find her on X: @fkritz

It's no secret that Spotify pays total garbage when it comes to royalties. Apple Music certainly does better by artists, but still – both combined aren't putting a roof over […]

Steph Curry and Kevin Durant both didn't include Nikola Jokic among their candidates for the next face of the NBA after their generation. But Jokic, even after winning a championship heightened his exposure, is happy to just be the class clown anyway.

One person was killed and another was injured in a crash on Colorado 93 in Jefferson County near Arvada on Wednesday afternoon.

Rocky Flats Stewardship Council met regularly to monitor testing data at former nuke weapons site.

What's on your essential Denver eats list? Here are our 30 picks.

Colorado hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities would be required to come up with plans to reduce violence against their staffs under a bill in the legislature that also would require stronger responses to incidents.

A few of our favorite shows from the '90s.

Get your just desserts at Le Clare's, La Creperie d’Audrey and Sweet NOLA Snoballs.

Playwright Micheal Shayan as his mother Roya welcomes you to Tehran-geles, CA in the one-mother show “Avaaz” at the Denver Center.

It’s about time, sometime in our lifetime, that the Nuggets win an NBA title, or a conference title, or finish first again in the division, or, egads, even get back to the postseason.

A white balloon-like machine resembling a giant jellyfish, wafting over metro Denver and northeastern Colorado Friday morning, turned a few heads.

Voice actors say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent.

“Denver’s a deliciously unpretentious place in which to engage in art making,” said Lighthouse Writers program director Andrea Dupree.

Modern day poetry.

#BlackLoveGoals

SMH. This video might go viral.

The incomparable Fantasia takes us to church!

after James Tate the size of shovels. They looked like silver oars in the lamplight, which made the dirt a chocolate ice cream. “This is so sweet,” you said behind me, pretending too. We rowed that way through the darkest soil, through the worms and the roots, the tiny gems in the jetsam. All night …

Read more "We Dug That Tunnel with Spoons "

The post We Dug That Tunnel with Spoons  first appeared on Timothy Green.

When it comes to any form of entertainment, you have to always expect the unexpected. From the ever-popular Korean-originated mukbang streaming to soap cutting and kinetic sand videos, there are trends we might initially brush off as strange, only... Tagged as:

The CIA from the very first days of the Trump administration, even before he was inaugurated, devoted themselves to sabotaging the administration because Donald Trump questioned just a few of their pieties. And that can't be done in Washington. Whoever does that must be destroyed. And so the CIA and the Deep State operatives became heroes of the liberal left, the people who support the Democratic party. They're now in a full union with the neocons, the Bush Cheney operatives, the CIA, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street. That is the union of power along with mainstream media outlets that are fully behind the Democratic party, which is likely to at least take over one branch of government, if not all of them, with the coming election, and that is a very alarming proposition because they're authoritarian, they believe in censorship, and they believe in suppression of information that exposes them in any kind of a critical light. Continue reading →

The real threat is collusion. When journalists strike secret alliances with the very people they're supposed to be holding accountable, we are in deep trouble. Lies go unchallenged.  Democracy cannot function. And that's what we're watching right now. Continue reading →

COVID-19 antibodies have been found in blood samples as early as September, 2019. China knew about the virus' transmission to humans months before it announced such to the world. Why has the media and our government not investigated this gross negligence, if not mass murder? Continue reading →

I’ve been following the press and social media coverage of Apple’s pricey new Vision Pro Augmented Reality headset, which now totals hundreds of stories and thousands of comments and I’ve noticed one idea missing from all of them: what would Steve (Jobs) say?  Steve would call the Vision Pro a “hobby,” just as he did with the original Apple TV. You know I’m correct about this. And the fact that Apple hasn’t gone for the H-word and no other writers are suggesting it is the topic of this column, not the Vision Pro, itself. It would appear that nobody at Apple has the balls to call the Vision Pro a hobby, which is to say it is not expected to make a profit for the […]

The post Apple’s Vision Pro headset is a hobby. Why won’t Tim Cook say that? first appeared on I, Cringely.






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

REVIEW – It’s a punch-to-the-gut, sinking, black hole feeling to reach into a pocket, pack, or purse and find your missing wallet. Adding a SwitchBot Wallet Finder is a remedy to a common problem that fits the pocketbook – pun intended!  ???? What is it? The SwitchBot Wallet Finder card is a Bluetooth device that […]

In the latest episode of their quartz-festooned podcast, Ken and Robin talk TPKs, RCMP misconduct, crystals, and The Mandalorian.

In the latest episode of their dark and stormy podcast, Ken and Robin talk Gothic F20, Elon Musk's pig brain implants, and a contactless edition of Ken's Bookshelf.

The implication of that



View Comic!

Full Article