Saving for Vocational School Through 529 Plans cbeaty Tue, 11/15/2022 - 15:39

China’s latest fiscal announcements seem aimed at addressing medium-term structural impediments to economic growth from strained local government finances, but are unlikely to immediately boost or offset deflationary risk, Fitch Ratings said. It expects a budget deficit of 7.1 per cent of GDP this year. It believes fiscal stimulus will remain incremental and responsive to downside risks.

Musculoskeletal injuries constitute the majority of industrial claims. Claims professionals will review many medical reports written by physicians who report their findings as they treat and evaluate injured workers. This…

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What did NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on the asteroid moon, Dimorphos, teach astronomers about altering the trajectory o

Sophia Antipolis, 24 May 2024

Speakers at the 10th ETSI/IQC Quantum Safe Cryptography Conference have called on organizations to prepare their cybersecurity infrastructures to address the challenges of a post-quantum world.

Organized by ETSI and the Institute for Quantum Computing, this year’s conference was hosted from 14-16 May by the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), National University of Singapore (NUS), in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore. The event attracted an impressive 235 onsite delegates from 27 countries, reflecting fast-growing interest worldwide in the critical importance of quantum-safe cryptography in today’s cybersecurity strategies.

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The Conversation Africa has published an oped by Joachim De Weerdt and Jan Duchoslav analyzing the food security situation in Malawi, which has been put at severe risk by the drought brought on by the El Niño weather pattern. 

The post Post Office jobs at risk under restructure plans appeared first on Personnel Today.

To err is human—and in this hour, we explore humanity in all its imperfections. Lost baggage, Kool Aid mishaps, and not eating enough fruit. This episode is hosted by Jay Allison, producer of The Moth Radio Hour.

Storytellers:

Maxie Jones gives in to peer pressure and faces the wrath of his mother.

Kate Oliver's determination to impress her partner's family backfires and leaves her in distress.

James Fitzgerald is hell bent on watching Power Rangers.

At the age of 24, Beau Davis prepares himself for his first airplane journey.

Diana Thompson finds herself in a Scottish dancing group, at her mother’s insistence.

Earlier this year, AIAG released updated APQP and Control Plan reference guides, available at www.aiag.org. This release includes the stand-alone control plan document for completing control plans.

The city of Las Vegas and NV Energy have announced a new partnership that, upon approval of a filing to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and ratification by the Las Vegas City Council, will dedicate to city operations a portion of energy produced by a local solar facility currently in development.

The joint venture will distribute Samsung ductless products in the U.S. and Canada as well as products branded “Lennox powered by Samsung,” which will be sold through Lennox stores and its direct-to-dealer network.

ALDI aims to become the most sustainable grocer in the U.S., by committing to transition to natural refrigerants in all stores by 2035.

The startup, Pascal, plans to build a better heat pump based on solid refrigerants that will deliver higher efficiencies at lower costs, while eliminating all refrigerant emissions.”

The government has announced plans to make it illegal to smoke outside schools and hospitals, and in children's playgrounds in England. They have also said that some outdoor places could become vape-free.

Mr Trump will announce his wider plans for his government in due course, but here are some of the big issues he talked about during the election campaign.

Company has temporary office space available and intends to have its Service, Engineering, Sales, IT and Administration departments set up and operating by January 5.

Orlando Science Center has discounted on $12 Day, set for April 16.

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell’s departure from Comcast on Sunday for “inappropriate conduct” will not affect the company’s ongoing and upcoming theme park projects.

Resolution 91 - (Rev. Geneva, 2022) - Enhancing access to an electronic repository of information on numbering plans published by the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector

Presentation of national numbering plans

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

Apple Watch users could soon see a unique activity challenge celebrating the device’s tenth anniversary. According to recently discovered code in the iOS 18.2 beta, Apple may introduce a “Ten Year Celebration” activity achievement for users. This new challenge could encourage Apple Watch owners to stay active while commemorating a decade of the popular wearable. […]

Apple is planning a significant AI upgrade for Siri, according to recent developer documentation. The company has introduced new APIs designed to make Siri more context-aware. These changes will allow Siri to interact directly with content displayed on a user’s screen. Part of Apple’s broader AI initiative, Apple Intelligence, this upgrade aims to make Siri […]

City of Westfield exploring plans to build a new science, technology and space campus  FOX 59 Indianapolis

Plans released for science and technology campus in Westfield  WRTV Indianapolis

The innovative biotech company plans to hire 60 people over the next five years.

Read more: Mayo biotech Ovagen raises €2m and plans to hire 60

Expleo’s research indicates that larger Irish firms are prioritising company culture investment amid efforts to attract and retain talented employees.

Read more: Irish businesses to spend nearly €8bn on company culture plans

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Sweden has vetoed plans for 13 offshore windfarms in the Baltic Sea, citing unacceptable security risks. The country's defence minister, Pal Jonson, said on Monday that the government had rejected plans for all but one of 14 windfarms planned along the east coast. The decision comes after the Swedish armed forces concluded last week that the projects would make it more difficult to defend Nato's newest member. The proposed windfarms would have been located between Aland, the autonomous Finnish region between Sweden and Finland, and the Sound, the strait between southern Sweden and Denmark. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is only about 310 miles (500km) from Stockholm. Wind power could affect Sweden's defence capabilities across sensors and radars and make it harder to detect submarines and possible attacks from the air if war broke out, Jonson said. The only project to receive the green light to was Poseidon, which will include as many as 81 wind turbines to produce 5.5 terawatt hours a year off Stenungsund on Sweden's west coast. "Both ballistic robots and also cruise robots are a big problem if you have offshore wind power," Jonson said. "If you have a strong signal detection capability and a radar system that is important, we use the Patriot system for example, there would be negative consequences if there were offshore wind power in the way of the sensors."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.