In which our hero listens to the stories of the people that were a part of Clerks, too. With special guests Brian O'Halloran (Dante) and Scott Schiaffo (Chewlies Gum Guy). Recorded live at the SModcastle on July 11, 2021.

In which our hero listens to the stories of the people that were a part of Clerks, too. With special guests Betsy Broussard (Dental School Video Customer) and Kimberly Loughran (Heather Jones). Recorded live at the SModcastle on December 4, 2021.

In which our hero continues to listen to the stories of the people that were a part of Clerks, too. With special guests Kimberly Loughran (Heather Jones) and Grace Smith (Milk Maid). Recorded live at the SModcastle on December 4, 2021.

In which our hero listens to the stories of the people that were a part of Clerks, too. With special guest Mike Belicose (Customer with Diapers). Recorded live at the SModcastle on March 18, 2022.

In which our hero listens to the stories of the people that were a part of Clerks, too. With special guest Mike Belicose (Customer with Diapers) and Thomas Burke (Roofer/Blue Collar Man) . Recorded live at the SModcastle on March 18, 2022.

Trump tried to ban the social media platform the last time he was in the White House.

Overview of particle radiation effects on telecommunication systems

Reliability requirements for telecommunication systems affected by particle radiation

Quality estimation methods and application guidelines for mitigation measures based on particle radiation tests

Electromagnetic field strength inside and outside of electric vehicles using wireless power transfer technology

Narrowband hands-free communication in motor vehicles

Wideband hands-free communication in motor vehicles

Speech communication requirements for emergency calls originating from vehicles

Super-wideband and fullband stereo hands-free communication in motor vehicles

Functional architecture of network-based driving assistance for autonomous vehicles

Functional architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicle controllers using IMT-2020 networks

Applications of ITU-T G.9960, ITU-T G.9961 transceivers for Smart Grid applications: Advanced metering infrastructure, energy management in the home and electric vehicles
[Superseded]

HSTP-DIS-UAV - Use cases and service scenarios of disaster information service using unmanned aerial vehicles

FSTP.SS-OTA - Standardization survey for over-the-air updating in vehicles

Requirements for civilian unmanned aerial vehicles enabled mobile edge computing

Framework and requirements for civilian unmanned aerial vehicle flight control using artificial intelligence

Use cases and requirements for multimedia communication enabled vehicle systems using artificial intelligence

Requirements of coordination for civilian unmanned aerial vehicles

Vehicle domain service - General information and use case definitions

Requirements for inspection and examination services using civilian unmanned aerial vehicles

Guidelines and certification schemes for e-waste recyclers

Proposal of second draft of K.soft_ba "Overview of particle radiation effects on telecommunications systems"
Source: Fujitsu Limited, Xilinx Incorporation

After a tumultuous year filled with anxiety and a legal battle about its future in the U.S., TikTok may have just been thrown a lifeline by the man who was once its biggest foe: Donald Trump.

The president-elect, who tried to ban the social media platform the last time he was in the White House, has repeatedly pledged during his most recent campaign to oppose a ban on the short-form video app, which could happen as soon as mid-January if the company loses a court case that’s currently underway in Washington.

For months, TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance have been embroiled in a legal battle with the U.S. over a federal law that forces them to cut ties for national security reasons or stop operating in one of their biggest markets in the world. The measure, signed by President Joe Biden in April, gives ByteDance nine months to divest its stakes, with a possible three-month extension if a sale is in progress. If that happens, the deadline could be extended into the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.

The companies have claimed that divestiture is not possible, and the law, if upheld, would force them to shut down by January 19, just a day before Trump’s second inauguration. Attorneys for both sides have asked a federal appeals court reviewing the case to issue a ruling by December 6. The losing side is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority and could decide to take up the case, potentially dragging out the process even longer.

When reached for comment, the Trump transition team did not offer details on how Trump plans to carry out his pledge to “save TikTok,” as he said on a Truth Social post in September while encouraging people who care about the platform to vote for him. But Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the transition team, indicated in a statement that he plans to see it through.

“The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said. “He will deliver.”

During a March interview with CNBC, Trump said he still believed TikTok posed a national security risk but opposed banning it because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he has continued to lambast over his 2020 election loss. He also denied changing his mind on the issue because of Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, a ByteDance investor who Trump, at the time, said he had only met “very briefly.” He said Yass “never mentioned TikTok” during their meeting.

Still, ByteDance—and groups connected to Yass—have been attempting to exert their influence. Lobbying disclosure reports show that this year, ByteDance paid veteran lobbyist and former Trump campaign aide David Urban $150,000 to lobby lawmakers in Washington in favor of TikTok. The company has also spent more than $8 million on in-house lobbyists and another $1.4 million on other lobbying firms, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets.

Meanwhile, in March, Politico reported that Kellyanne Conway, a former senior Trump aide, was being paid by the Yass-funded conservative group Club for Growth to advocate for TikTok in Congress. A spokesperson for the organization said Conway was hired as a consultant to conduct polling. Conway and Urban did not respond to requests for comment. TikTok, which has long denied it’s a national security risk, declined to comment.

If the courts uphold the law, it would fall on Trump’s Justice Department to enforce it and punish any potential violations with fines. The fines would apply to app stores that would be prohibited from offering TikTok, and internet hosting services who would be barred from supporting it. Leah Plunkett, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, said from her reading of the statute, the attorney general has to investigate violations but can decide whether or not to drag such companies to court and force them to comply.

Trump could do other things to prevent TikTok from disappearing.

He could issue an executive order to nullify the ban—which Plunkett believes would not be lawful—or urge Congress to repeal the law. That would require support from Congressional Republicans who have aligned themselves with Trump but have also supported the prospects of getting TikTok out of the hands of a Chinese company.

In a statement sent to the AP after the election, Republican Representative John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, said Trump’s “long-standing concerns” about TikTok align with the law’s requirement for divestment.

“The Trump Administration will have a unique opportunity to broker an American takeover of the platform,” he said.

ByteDance, though, has previously said it has no intention of selling the platform despite interest from some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Analysts say the company is even less likely to sell the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app. That means even if TikTok is sold to a qualified buyer, it is likely to be a shell of its current self and would need to be rebuilt with new technology.

Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, said it’s also possible that Trump could take the issue back to the drawing board and direct his administration to negotiate a new deal with TikTok.

TikTok said in 2022 that it presented the Biden administration with a draft agreement that would bolster protections for users and provide it more oversight over the company’s U.S. operations. But the administration has argued in court documents in recent months that it would be challenging to enforce the agreement due to the size and the technical complexity of the platform.

Trump hasn’t been privy to new intelligence material on the matter for a few years and it’s possible he could change his mind—and abandon his campaign promise—once he does, Kreps said.

Plunkett, the Harvard Law lecturer and author of Sharenthood: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online, said if she were counseling TikTok, she would advise it to come up with a divesture plan that is compliant with the law and as favorable to the company as possible, noting, “There is too much uncertainty about what a Trump administration is likely to do.”

—By Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press

“Friendship insecurity remains a final hurdle in how I interact in the world, but I’m realizing that if I want close, family-level friendships, I need to act as if I am already in them. Even if it brings me discomfort to text my friend an unprompted update about my life so they will feel more […]

Annual Dressage Stakeholder Meeting Highlights Technology-Assisted Judging, Rebuilding Trust  The Chronicle of the Horse

New technology could help reduce the need for high-speed vehicle pursuits in Rockford  Rockford Register Star

WVU researchers develop microwave technology that could extend the life cycle of plastics  WBOY.com

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) blocked Amazon's bid to access more power from the Susquehanna nuclear plant for its Pennsylvania data center, citing grid reliability and consumer cost concerns. The Hill reports: In a 2-1 decision, the FERC found the regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection, failed to prove that the changes to the transmission agreement with Susquehanna power plant were necessary. The regulator's two Republican commissioners, Mark Christie and Lindsay See, outvoted Democratic chair Willie Phillips. The chair's two fellow Democratic commissioners, David Rosner and Judy Chang, sat out the vote. "Co-location arrangements of the type presented here present an array of complicated, nuanced and multifaceted issues, which collectively could have huge ramifications for both grid reliability and consumer costs," Christie wrote in a concurring statement. In a dissenting statement, Phillips argued the deal with Amazon "represents a 'first of its kind' co-located load configuration" and that Friday's decision is a "step backward for both electric reliability and national security." "We are on the cusp of a new phase in the energy transition, one that is characterized as much by soaring energy demand, due in large part to AI, as it is by rapid changes in the resource mix," Phillips wrote. Amazon purchased a 960-megawatt data center next to the Susquehanna power plant for $650 million earlier this year. Following the announcement, PJM sought to increase the amount of power running directly to the co-located data center. However, the move faced pushback from regional utilities, including Exelon and American Electric Power (AEP).

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Smart energy communities could be a ‘game-changer’ in the transition to renewables, says SETU’s Sean Lyons.

Read more: Why small energy parks are a smart piece of the clean-energy puzzle

Ken Kelly talks candidly about the real roots of his family roofing business, and relives some of the key steps he took to grow into the 2019 Contractor of the Year. 

The 2019 Residential Contractor of the Year shares how his company converted from a retail roofing outfit in a storm market, to a full-service storm response company in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Mycocycle, the biotechnology company using fungi to transform construction debris into reusable materials, received a new round of funding that will help it further scale its waste-to-value chain.

After Hurricane Milton, businesses face cleanup and rebuilding. Following OSHA safety guidelines is crucial to protect workers from hazards like floods, downed power lines, and debris.

Jabra ClearSpeech reduces background noise to improve speech accuracy for call centers.

In-vehicle voice assistant SoundHound Chat AI enhances the new Lancia Ypsilon's S.A.L.A. infotainment system.

El proyecto de construir un cementerio nuclear ha hecho aflorar el problema de los residuos radiactivos, hasta ahora silenciado. También ha puesto de manifiesto la contradicción de unos partidos que apoyan las nucleares, y se oponen a ellas al mismo tiempo.

El reportero estrella de 'The New Yorker' publica en España 'Cabeza de serpiente', una crónica sobre el poder de la mafia china y el lado más turbio del sueño americano Leer

El español del Kern Pharma concluye con éxito la fuga multitudinaria que se fue diluyendo hasta la llegada a Izki Leer

Pamela Falk, CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst, discusses a diplomatic deal reached to stop Iran from making a nuclear bomb and avoid a possible war with a regional power in the Middle East.

[Business Day Africa] Tanzania and the African Union (AU) jointly hosted a high-level side event at the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, aiming to place clean cooking at the forefront of the global climate agenda.

Mark Johnson, vice president of Federal Cloud at Oracle, joined host John Gilroy on this week's Federal Tech Talk to discuss the challenges federal information technology folks have in transitioning to the cloud.

The post Oracle: Helping federal agencies move to the cloud first appeared on Federal News Network.

By achieving a clean financial audit for the first time ever, the Marine Corps can provide accountability, transparency and validity for their spending.

The post The team effort that led to the Marines’ clean audit triumph first appeared on Federal News Network.

Targa Telematics – a tech-company specialising in the development of IoT solutions and digital platforms for connected mobility – has signed a strategic partnership with Ford to expand its range of connected car solutions, thanks to the integration of data from the car manufacturer's vehicles.

This week on Fed Access, Evan Lesser, founder and president of ClearanceJobs.com, joins host Derrick Dortch to give us an update on how the security clearance process is being affected by the federal restrictions put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The post Security clearances in the age of COVID-19: An update first appeared on Federal News Network.