Technological developments are consistently improving the tools technicians have to use.

Faced with the spread of militarized police training facilities known as "cop cities," grassroots activists are taking the call to #DefundPolice to cities nationwide.

I've contributed... won't you?

Do you remember Pesto the king penguin chick who reached stardom in September? Zookeepers say he is now entering his "awkward teenage phase".

Marketing guru Benjamin Ricciardi gives tips on how to grow your business leads during CAT season…are you ready? This is just a snippet of what Benjamin will share at this year’s Fall Experience and Trade Show! 

Environmentally conscious consumers are looking for packaging that uses fewer resources and less energy than other forms of packaging. Flexible packaging minimizes transport costs between the converter, packager/filler, retailer and end user.

Despite being surrounded in controversy, the U.S. cannabis industry is experiencing rapid growth. Experts estimate legal cannabis will grow from $7.3 billion to $24.5 billion between 2016 and 2020. Currently, 65 percent of cannabis sales stem from medical marijuana.

Until recently, most pharmaceutical manufacturers would buy blister foils pre-printed with product names, dosage information, and branding and use a basic in-line printing or embossing system to add a batch code and expiry date to the blister in human-readable text.

Changing consumer expectations are altering packaging and processing industry priorities. 

Chris Marshall of BOBST – a leading supplier of substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services for the label, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated board industries – talks about how the regulatory environment is coaxing some firms away from plastic and toward paper.

Andy Bell, Sander Rensen, Phil Wilkins, and Luis Weir are the authors of Implementing Oracle API Platform Cloud Service, now available from Packt Publishing, and as you'll hear in this podcast, they bring considerable insight and expertise to this discussion of what's happening in API management. The conversation goes beyond the current state of API management to delve into architectural implications, API design, and how working in SOA may have left you with some bad habits.

View the complete show notes.

Jim Grisanzio from Java Developer Relations talks with Stéphane Nicoll, a software engineer based in Belgium working on the Spring team. Stéphane talks about his experience becoming a Java developer, his observations seeing Java evolve and improve, and the importance of contributing to Java and Open Source generally. He's keen on building community by directly engaging engineers at events as well as mentoring contributors through the development process for issue reports and code changes. He said that "building our community is super important for us" as he outlined the process that he and his team uses to welcome new developers. That says it all.

Get Stéphane on Twitter @snicoll and get Jim on Twitter @jimgris

Growing digital dependencies, geopolitical tensions and the climate crisis have placed subsea cable infrastructure in increasing danger.

Read more: The growing need to address subsea cable security

Learn why contractors chose to install 82,000 square feet of McElroy Metal’s 24-gauge Medallion-Lok 16-inch standing seam metal roofing for a school district's eighth prototype building.

When it comes to the next generation of successful roofing contractors, Josey Parks says they need to draw largely from the Silicon Valley playbook.

Real-time data capture, printing, mobility and voice-directed solutions specialist Dakota Integrated Solutions has been ranked 79th in the latest Tussell Tech200 list of the top 200 fastest-growing public sector technology companies.

The DoseID Consortium, the membership-driven industry alliance advancing radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in pharmaceuticals, has rebranded to UnitVisID Alliance.

DHL has recently expanded its vast network of U.S. retail locations with a new company owned and operated retail shipping store in Bellaire, Texas

Autistic people and their families say they can't find adequate help in their communities before they reach a crisis point.

As the range and incidence of valley fever grows, public health officials are struggling to warn visitors of the risk.

Serving up four home runs and losing 15-0 in Cincinnati was an inauspicious Nationals debut for veteran Dan Haren. Four weeks later against the same Reds, Haren found himself in a pitcher-friendly park, aided by the force of a powerhouse team gathering momentum.

Panhandle Door Inc. started 25 years ago as a small mom-and-pop cabinet business in Naples, Idaho, about 6 miles south of Bonners Ferry in Boundary County…

Twickenham Primary School in Kingstanding is holding a Summer Fayre with a difference next Monday

Manos Nikolakis, GM, BIC Cello, said, "While e-commerce is growing significantly across the country, the landscape of the Indian market is still heavily reliant on traditional trade. Accordingly, this remains our main sales driver. The lack of digital penetration in semi-urban and rural areas can sometimes create a challenge in the e-commerce space, which means that e-commerce is mostly relevant in bigger cities with a more mature infrastructure."

India's paper market is experiencing rapid growth, with packaging paper and paperboard consumption rising at 8.2% in 2023-24. The market, driven by demand from FMCG, textiles, pharmaceuticals, e-commerce, and healthcare sectors, benefits from the ban on single-use plastics. Overall paper demand in India grows at 6-7% annually.

Roughly half of those surveyed say they are worse off financially than a year ago, and most disapprove of President Biden’s handling of inflation.

Matt Wright and Charlie Demers make waves in St. John’s, Newfoundland when they discuss if the Atlantic Ocean is superior to the Pacific Ocean. Then, Bree Parsons and Nikki Payne bring a wealth of wit when they decide if growing up poor makes you a stronger person.

The Women’s Resource Centre [WRC] announced the launch of Growing Together: Nutrition for Pregnancy, a new series of nutrition classes designed to “support pregnant women in making informed, healthy choices for themselves and their babies.” A spokesperson said, “Sponsored by the It Takes A Village Foundation [ITAV], these classes are a valuable addition to our […]

The right-wing populist party Motorists for Themselves, part of the Patriots for Europe group, has made significant gains, according to new polling data published by the Median agency. According to a poll conducted for the Czech News Agency, the Motorists could win 6% of the vote in the upcoming…

The clonal quaking aspen known as Pando is between 16,000 and 80,000 years old.

With TikTok going viral, it has become the perfect platform for musicians to showcase their talent and reach new audiences. No matter what genre you specialize in, this blog will provide you with all the tips and tricks to get noticed on TikTok and grow your fanbase. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get ... Read more

The post Musician’s Guide to TikTok: 6 Tips for Growing Your Fanbase appeared first on Star Two.

A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, like American carriers, would be a major jump for China, giving its navy a global reach.

Trump and his growing number of European allies threaten the European project Expert comment LToremark 8 November 2024

With Trump in the White House, a key challenge for Europe will be the growing transatlantic illiberal ties which risk undermining European unity.

As the US presidential election result became clear, European leaders followed a similar formula when congratulating President-elect Trump. They offered their congratulations, mentioned previous good working relations with the US (special points for a nod to long-standing relations), and – most importantly – emphasized the need for this to continue for the benefit of the citizens of both their country and the US.

The formula was a telling sign of the political bartering most European heads of state expect with Trump back in the White House. The exception, of course, were Trump’s European allies who were simply ecstatic.

Transatlantic illiberalism

Trump’s growing number of European allies and the increase of illiberalism and populism is perhaps the most worrying development for Europe. In 2016, some of Trump’s counterparts in Europe were Angela Merkel in Germany, Emmanuel Macron in France, Mark Rutte in the Netherlands, and Giuseppe Conte in Italy. Regardless of their record, they were moderates.

The picture looks very different today. Anti-war extremist parties Alternative for Germany and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance are on the rise in Germany. In France, pro-Russia Marine le Pen has been able to reduce support for Ukraine from €3 billion to €2 billion in the draft French budget. In the Netherlands, the far-right Freedom Party is the biggest coalition partner. In Italy, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni hails from a neo-fascist party. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s populist and illiberal playbook is being replicated across Europe. 

Meanwhile in Poland, moderate prime minister, Donald Tusk, is experiencing the difficulties of reversing damage done by the previous populist government.

What European populist leaders have in common is a deep-seated scepticism of the EU and a desire to erode it from within. And many of these leaders also welcome the return of Trump.

It is no coincidence that Orbán scheduled the European Political Community Summit, hosted by Hungary, to take place just days after the US election. The Trump win was an added bonus. This meant European heads of state travelled to Budapest for the summit still reeling from – or rejoicing at – the election result. 

Orbán would like to position himself as Trump’s man in Europe. He has spent the past four years building ties with the president-elect and the MAGA wing of the Republican party. Trump even namechecked Orbán – a Eurosceptic Putin-supporter – during the presidential debate.

Italy’s Meloni, meanwhile, has so far worked with EU institutions and NATO rather than against them: she has supported EU and NATO resolutions for Ukraine and demonstrated opposition to Russia. But this may have been a strategic calculation. She likely looked at her country’s balance sheet and realized she needed the European Commission’s COVID-19 recovery funds. 

But with the fund coming to an end and given her history of Euroscepticism and pro-Russian views, the transatlantic illiberal ties mean she may now feel emboldened to revise her positions. She is already deploying the illiberal playbook domestically.

Policy implications for Europe of a second Trump term 

Despite some ideological similarities, Trump’s policies will not be good for his European allies. He has threatened to impose 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on all EU imports. For Italy and the Netherlands, the second and fifth largest EU exporters to the US, this would have direct negative impacts on their economies.

Increased tariffs on Chinese goods – Trump has threatened up to 60 per cent – would also have an impact on Europe’s economies. Rerouting of Chinese goods could see China dump overproduction in Europe, one of the few remaining relatively open markets, and make European products compete with cheaper Chinese goods in Europe and on the global market. 

Neither of these developments are positive for export-led European countries. In France, the EU’s fourth largest exporter to the US, Marine le Pen – previously a strong supporter of Trump – had a notably muted response to his victory due to concerns over a trade war.

Even European leaders who might have hoped for a different election outcome may seek to hedge their bets. There are two things that are clear about Trump: he is unpredictable and transactional. 

It is quite possible that some European states, in particular frontline states with genuine fears over Russia’s imperialist ambitions, will seek to buy Trump’s support through bilateral arms deals – despite their distaste for Trump’s position vis-à-vis Russia. These countries already have some of the highest defence spending in NATO, with Poland, Estonia and Latvia leading the way, so this will not irk Trump – arms deals would simply be an additional insurance premium.

Countries rushing to make bilateral deals with the US risks a similar uncoordinated race for American arms deals as during Trump’s first term. This would in turn undermine much-needed European defence industrial cooperation efforts. As the need to reduce dependencies on third countries – even for defence equipment from historically close allies – has become increasingly clear, this would be a problematic development.

The silver lining may be that it could galvanize the UK and the EU just enough to take action on UK-EU security and defence cooperation, of which the defence industrial piece is the most essential.

Europe disunited

The transatlantic link between populist, illiberal leaders should be a concern. Trump is no longer isolated in Europe, he is rapidly accumulating allies among European heads of state. These leaders agree on the perceived existential threat posed by migration, the need for so-called ‘traditional family values’ and ‘anti-wokeism’. But beyond that, they share and want to advance an illiberal view of the world, with ramifications from security and global trade to human rights – and directly threatening the European project.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has led to the proliferation of electronic devices and systems, resulting in an alarming increase in electronic waste (e-waste).  GenAI, in particular, requires substantial […]

The post The Growing E-Waste Footprint of GenAI appeared first on HPCwire.

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.

The Minnesota Star Tribune review found that similar to traditional district schools, the highest performing charters generally served wealthier families.

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.

To find out, we need to get down to the basics. Eric Schulze explains

A mesmerizing 10,000-shot video captures the dramatic life cycles of several species (Owen Reiser)

A researcher studying the rise of extremism in Atlantic Canada warns Ku Klux Klan Halloween costumes are just one example of an insidious effort by far-right groups to normalize hateful attitudes.

SOLIDWORKS design and COSMOS analysis software and technical support bring engineering fun, 3D CAD understanding to contests

Three OM Hungary team members share what they’ve learned while serving as teachers at the International Christian School of Budapest.

People in Talamanca, an indigenous reserve of Costa Rica with a history of witchcraft, share their problems with OM workers and receive hope in Christ.

Teachers coming from alternative programs leave the profession at higher rates than their traditionally certified peers, and that gap is growing, a study finds.

The latest episode of "Growing Impact" explores how a research team is using computer modeling and animations to visualize future flood and levee failure scenarios.

Proptech refers to the use of technology and software to assist the real estate market with its needs.

Mosbach, Germany :: New crewmembers participate in OM’s GO Conference in Mosbach, Germany before heading for the ship.