The Delaware Forest Service is sending its wildfire crew to New Mexico as a steep increase in lightning-caused fires has pushed the National Preparedness Level to 5 on a 5-point scale, its highest level. Critical fire weather continues throughout the West. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the majority of the fire activity remains in Arizona and California, where over 1.5 million acres have burned. So far this year, more than 38,767 fires have burned 3.7 million acres. Delaware has trained more than 600 firefighters since 1996 and battled wildfires in numerous states, including: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. http://de.gov/wildfire

Delaware's wildfire crew is returning to the First State after successfully battling blazes on a 14-day assignment in Arizona and California. Delaware's 21-person team mobilized at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna on August 28. On August 30 they were assigned to the Griffin Fire, a 61,821-acre blaze in Arizona's Tonto National Forest in the U.S. Forest Service's Southwest Region. They subsequently took on the Rockhouse Fire, a 19,506-acre blaze on land managed by the San Carlos Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, located 22 miles southeast of San Carlos, AZ. On September 9, they were transferred to the Southern California Geographic Area and assigned to the Valley Fire, which has consumed 17,665 acres in the Cleveland National Forest and located 19 miles northeast of Chula Vista, CA. The crew is expected to arrive back at Blackbird State Forest in Smyrna, Delaware by Friday afternoon, September 18.

The Delaware Forest Service (DFS) is always looking for motivated recruits to join its wildland fire crew. There is no cost for training and no previous experience necessary. Candidates must be over 18 years, willing to learn, physically fit, and able to travel for at least two weeks at a time, usually in the summer months. In a typical year, the DFS would offer its in-person classes over several weekends in Dover. This year, all required courses for new firefighters will be offered online through the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) and Federal Emergency Management Agency websites. The complete list of courses and links to online training are at https://de.gov/firecrew

The Delaware Forest Service's 2021 VFA Grant program is open to all Delaware volunteer fire departments and can provide up to $4,500 in matching grants to acquire pumps, hoses, and equipment to respond to and suppress wildfires. More than $350,000 has been given to enhance wildfire response in the First State since the program's inception. Applications must be received by the Delaware Forest Service office by regular mail no later than June 20, 2021. No email submissions will be accepted.  Awards will be made within 7 business days so that awarded projects can begin. Details at de.gov/wildfire.

Delaware's Type 6 engine and three-man crew are part of 313 personnel currently fighting the Oil Springs Fire, located 20 miles south of Rangely, Colorado. The fire was started by lightning on June 18 and has grown to 12, 613 acres with only 18 percent containment. Delaware's crew is working on one of the fire's priority areas, Division D, which involves the continued protection of the Dragon Trail Compressor Site. The fire is spreading moderately in a mixture of  pinyon, juniper and sagebrush.  Delaware's crew is comprised of engine boss Samual Topper of Maryland, engine boss trainee Adam Keever of Newark, and FFT2 Bradley Melson of Milford. The crew mobilized from Blackbird State Forest last week and started work on Saturday, June 26.

Delaware's Type 2IA wildfire crew is headed to the Northern Rockies to join the national firefighting effort. The team of 20 firefighters departed Blackbird State Forest and is traveling by ground transportation to Montana for an eventual assignment in that region. This is the crew’s first assignment of 2021. Last year, Delaware sent a 20-person crew to fight blazes in Arizona and California. Delaware's team is a mix of veterans and rookies, drawn from both public agencies and the private sector, who completed their certification by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. After four days of travel, the crew will complete a planned 14-day assignment before returning to the First State.

Delaware's "Diamond State" Type 2IA crew is part of more than 200 personnel fighting the Harris Mountain Fire in Cascade County, Montana. Located in difficult and rugged terrain, the blaze was started by lightning on July 23 and is currently 19,103 acres in size. Managed by a Type 2 Incident Management Team (IMT), the fire is expanding in all directions and burning actively in deep drainages. Multiple crews, engines, dozers, water tenders and air resources are providing structure protection.  The Type 2IA crew from the First State is led by the Delaware Forest Service's Sam Topper and consists of 20 volunteer firefighters from the public and private sector. The group departed Blackbird State Forest on July 21 and will serve a 14-day assignment before returning to Delaware.

Delaware's wildfire crew continues to battle the Harris Mountain Fire in the steep, rocky and mountainous terrain south of Cascade, Montana. The 31,345-acre blaze is currently 20 percent contained, with almost 300 personnel under a Type 2 Incident Management Team from the Northern Rockies to bring it under control According to crew boss Sam Topper, Delaware's 20-person Type 2IA crew has been constructing hotline on a critical piece of Division Z and has been working to keep the fire out of the head of Novak Creek. The crew has only four more shifts remaining before returning to the First State next week. The group departed Blackbird State Forest on July 21 and is serving a 14-day assignment. Delaware also has a new Type 6 engine crew fighting the Cedar Creek Fire, currently 52,030 acres and 25% percent contained, located in Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest.  The team of three firefighters is led by the Delaware Forest Service’s Todd Gsell and includes Todd Shaffer of Maryland and Andy Ney of Felton.

The Delaware Forest Service is looking for motivated recruits to enroll in its wildfire training classes. There is no cost for training and no previous experience necessary. Candidates must be over 18 years of age, willing to learn, physically fit, and able to travel for at least two weeks at a time, usually in the summer months. Completion of all classes is required for prospective firefighters to achieve certification from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG)

The Delaware Forest Service mobilized a 19-person wildfire crew from Blackbird State Forest to northern California. The crew will travel cross-country to join other wildfire crews to battle blazes as the number of wildfires in the area continue to grow, sparked by hot, dry, and windy weather combined with an unstable atmosphere, creating lightning-caused fires.

DNREC and DDA have determined that trail cameras for recreational use are no longer to be permitted on state wildlife areas, state parks, or state forests.

The Delaware Forest Service mobilized a 3-person wildland fire engine crew from Blackbird State Forest on July 28th for a fire assignment to Wawona, California. Working with the Yosemite National Park’s Emergency Communication Center and various agencies from all over the country, the crew will be working on patrolling and isolating new fire starts due to human activity and lightning strikes.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is working with the Delaware Department of Agriculture to execute a controlled burn at Brandywine Creek State Park in February or March. This prescribed burn will help manage nearly 30 acres of meadowland near the park’s nature center.

Wildfires in eastern Canada emitting particulate matter into the atmosphere continue to cause poor air quality.

Wildlife watchers in Delaware this time of year are apt to happen upon young animals, particularly deer fawns, that appear to have been left alone, even abandoned in their natural environment – and “So tiny, so helpless…so cute!”, they look very much like they need rescuing by a kind public hand or two. Almost always, that’s not the case – rather, these young’uns are waiting for a parent’s return from foraging or from a nearby vantage of keeping a close eye on them. Thus, DNREC's reminder: If you find them alone, leave them alone.

Wild River Technology (WRT), the leading supplier of signal integrity measurement and optimization test fixtures for high-speed channels at data rates of up to 224G, has announced the availability of a new advanced channel modeling solution that helps achieve extreme signal integrity design to 70GHz. Read the press release. The CMP-70 program continues the industry-first simulation-to-measurement collaboration with Cadence that was initially established with the CMP-50. Significant resources were dedicated to the development of the CMP-70 by Cadence and WRT over almost three years. The CMP-70 will be on display at DesignCon 2025 , January 28-30, in Cadence booth 827 to benchmark the Cadence Clarity 3D Solver . “I am not a fan of hype-based programs that simply get attention,” remarked Alfred P. Neves, WRT’s co-founder and chief technical officer. “Both Cadence and Wild River brought substantial skills to the table in this project as we continued our industry-first simulation-to-measurement collaboration. The result is a proven, robust and accurate platform that brings extreme signal integrity to 70GHz designs. This application package has also been instrumental in demonstrating the robust 3D EM simulation capability of the Cadence Clarity solver.” “We’re delighted to continue the joint development and validation program with WRT that started with the CMP-50,” said Gary Lytle, product management director at Cadence. “The skilled and experienced signal integrity technologists that both companies bring to the program results in a superior signal integrity solution for our mutual customers.” CMP-70 Solution Features The solution is available both in a standard configuration and as a custom solution for customer-specific stackups and fabrication. The primary target application is to support a 3D EM solver analysis modeling versus the time- and frequency-domain measurement methodologies. The solution features include: The CMP-70 platform, assembled and 100% TDR NIST traceable tested, with custom stands Material Identification overview web-based meeting including anisotropic 3D material identification A cross-section PCB report and structures for using as-fabricated geometries Measured S-parameters, pre-tested for quality (passivity/causality and resampled for time domain simulations) A host of novel crosstalk structures suited for 112G HD level project analysis PCB layout design files (NDA required) An EDA starter library including loss models with industry-first accurate surface roughness models Comprehensive training available for 3D EM analysis – correspondence, material ID in X-Y and Z axis for a host of EDA tools Industry-First Hausdorff Technique The WRT application package also includes an industry-first modified Hausdorff (MHD) technique , included as MATLAB code. This algorithmic approach provides an accurate way to compare two sets of measurements in multi-dimensional space to determine how well they match. The technique is used to compare the results simulated by the Clarity solver with those measured on the CMP-70 platform. The methodology and initial results are shown in the figure below, where the figure of merit (FOM) is calculated from 10, 35, and finally to 50GHz. The MHD algorithm requires a MATLAB license, but WRT also accommodates customer data as another option, where WRT provides the comparison between measured and simulated data. Additional Resources If you are attending DesignCon 2025 , be sure to stop by Cadence booth 827 to see WRT’s CMP-70 advanced channel modeling solution in action with the Clarity 3D Solver. Check out our on-demand webinar, " Validating Clarity 3D Solver Accuracy Through Measurement Correlation ." Learn more about the CMP-70 solution and the Clarity 3D Solver . For more information about Cadence’s full suite of integrated multiphysics simulation solutions, download our Multiphysics System Analysis Solutions Portfolio .

Up to 100,000 extraordinary species, from spiders and beetles to salamanders and fish, live in subterranean caves and cracks. They aren’t as safe down there as we thought

A survey found 66 species of insects making their homes in cobbled pavements on the streets of Berlin, and greater biodiversity near insect-friendly flower gardens

African giant pouched rats proved adept at detecting four commonly trafficked products derived from endangered species including rhino horn and elephant ivory

An army of tadpoles and a stretching lynx are just some of the incredible photos winning accolades at the annual competition

Up to 100,000 extraordinary species, from spiders and beetles to salamanders and fish, live in subterranean caves and cracks. They aren’t as safe down there as we thought

Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada and Mexico is already worsening air quality in the US, but some signs suggest clearer skies than last year

In the western US, the average maximum growth rate of fires has more than doubled over the past two decades

Title: Wildfire Smoke Could Raise Odds for Preterm Delivery
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2021 12:00:00 AM

The cast regulars (Anna Marie, Chris and Kelley) are joined by Robert and newcomer Corey to discuss this week's news. A heated debate about free-to-play mechanics breaks out as the crew is split on Genshin Impact and other mobile titles while Chris eats chocolate covered almonds. Three weeks to go until Extra Life!

The post RPG Cast – Episode 560: “Kmart Breath of the Wild” appeared first on RPGamer.

Online interactions are based on trust, since there are few definitive ways to certify the identity of the person with whom one is communicating. Naturally, this situation can lead to deception and manipulation, as it has—to tormenting effect—for Tegan and Sara, the popular indie rock duo whose lives have been turned upside down by a mysterious bad faith actor who, for more than a decade, has impersonated Tegan with fans, friends, and business partners.

Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is an investigation into the myriad means by which the internet can be wielded to nefarious ends. More than that, though, it’s an anatomy of a crime and the complicated wreckage wrought by it, not just for the famous artists but also for the innocent admirers who were tricked into believing that fiction was reality.

Premiering on Hulu on Oct. 18, following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Erin Lee Carr’s documentary is a chilling snapshot of the unholy marriage of corrosive fandom and online duplicity. At its center are Tegan and Sara, the identical twin songstresses who began making a name for themselves in the early 2000s both for their talent and for being openly gay. This earned them a loyal fanbase of queer women and men who saw themselves reflected in Tegan and Sara, and that bond was strengthened by the siblings’ active interest in interacting with fans in person—Tegan would chat with show attendees in line and at the merch table—and on LiveJournal and other budding message-board platforms that afforded a previously unavailable degree of contact.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

From developers Cannibal Interactive, the creators of Purgatory Dungeoneer, springs forth a new labyrinth game. This one is called Labyrinth of Wild Abyss: LayeRedux and it has labyrinths. Except the labyrinths don't just have single paths to their centres, but tube monsters covered in eyes who'll stalk you slowly and methodically as you meander. Personally, it's not the vibe I'm after when I sit down in the evening and I think, "I would like to play a video game that makes me feel somewhat pleasant". But hey, it might be for you.

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Stroll on down to Uncle Capcom's garage, girls and boys, because it's time to meddle with a cat's voicebox, ride a combat peacock and meticulously injure a vast, blubbery teddybear. By which I mean, the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is now live on Steam through to 4th November at 2.59am GMT. That's 2.59am sharp. If you're hurrying along at 3am on Monday absolutely desperate to polish the aesthetics of a small enslaved catperson, you can sod off and play Dragon Age: The Veilguard instead.

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I didn’t get much further in the extremely popular beta for the haute-couture-asaurus action of Monster Hunter Wilds than perfecting the exact orange-to-white ratio of my cat. Not because I wasn’t having fun, but because I immediately started looking up GPU prices after playing for ten minutes. As such, I didn’t spend enough time with the combat to get a proper feel for it. Cultural osmosis has once again allowed me to form an uneducated take, however, and I’m getting the sense there’s been some mixed reactions re: bonk quality. According to a clip shared on X by user Blue Stigma, there's a good reason for those misgivings. It's all about frames, you see.

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I've spent quite a lot of today trying to figure out why, exactly, some of the monsters in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta looked like bundles of copulating pyramids slathered in crocodile gravy. Nic clued me in on this reddit thread earlier, which cites unnamed Chinese players who've allegedly data-mined the beta's monster models, and learned that they are extremely large, encompassing hundreds of thousands of polygons.

If every monster in Monster Hunter Wilds were that fancy all of the time, your computer would become a volcano. As such, the game resorts to loading-on-demand systems to ensure that you only see those gorgeous details when the monsters are close by and, as the case may be, angrily sitting on you. When they're further afield, the flourishes fall away to free up memory and processing power. The popular Redditor explanation for the presence of monsters that look like Henry Moore sculpture is basically that the LOD systems are being forgetful, and neglecting to load the additional polygons at proximity.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Firefighters say they are making some progress battling the wildfires in Northern California. In all, the fires have consumed more than 220,000 acres, an area larger than New York City.

More than 5,700 structures have been destroyed. And at least 41 people have died, making it the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history.

The wine industry and the tourism business connected with it are trying to take stock. More than $50 billion in California’s economy comes from the wine business. And nearly 24 million people visit the region for that reason every year.

Special correspondent Joanne Jennings reports from Napa County.

JOANNE JENNINGS, Special Correspondent: The Mayacamas mountain range creates a natural barrier between Sonoma and Napa Counties. And it is here where the massive Nuns fire is posing a tough challenge for some 11,000 firefighters who are taming the blaze with aircraft and units on the ground.

CAPT. MARK BRENNERMAN, Viejas fire Department: We’re going around and making sure none of these fires that are still smoldering and smoking, we’re not going to get another big fire out of them.

JOANNE JENNINGS: Even as firefighters are battling shifting winds, owners and workers in Wine Country are trying to determine just how much damage has been done.

The tony Highlands gated community was among the first to be consumed by flames when the Atlas fire raced through this canyon, leaving several mansions in rubble. Down the hill, at the Silverado resort, charred remnants of the Safeway PGA Tour remain. The major golf event had just wrapped up last Sunday afternoon, a few hours before flames engulfed tents and grandstands, forcing spectators and athletes to evacuate.

MAN: Do you see how it burned right up to the retaining wall here?

JOANNE JENNINGS: Silverado resident Steve Messina stayed behind and shot video of fire crews containing the flames, which consumed some condos. Within minutes, flames raced three miles down Silverado Trail, home to several storied hillside vineyards.

Most wineries in the region have been spared the worst. But hundreds suffered some damage. And at least eight vineyards have been significantly damaged or destroyed.

Pierre Birebent, who has been making wines for the family-owned Signorello estate for 20 years, rushed to his winery as quickly as he could.

PIERRE BIREBENT, Signorello Estate Vineyards: I jumped right in my truck, came down, and then when I was riding down, I saw the hill all flaming.

JOANNE JENNINGS: Two vineyard workers joined him to help save the estate’s tasting room.

PIERRE BIREBENT: But the smoke was getting very thick, and the wind was very strong. And after an hour, we couldn’t breathe anymore. At the moment, I was so upset. It was rage to see that I couldn’t do anything. But it was like fighting a giant.

JOANNE JENNINGS: The tasting room, which also housed the winery’s office and a dining room, burned to the ground. But Birebent says he wants to focused on what survived.

Fortunately, he said, the fire stopped short of reaching the vineyard, the crush pad, or any of the barrels of wine stored on site; 95 percent of this year’s grapes were already picked.

But, to be on the safe side, Birebent is taking these samples to a lab to make sure the juice is not too acidic for winemaking. If the crops are OK, a staff of 25 employees will have jobs to return to.

As the fires begin to recede and the smoke clears, people here are beginning to wonder when the tourists, who fuel much of the economy, will return.

It’s a serious concern for Andrew and Jeni (ph) Schluter, who are self-employed and are raising a young family.

ANDREW SCHLUTER, Andrew’s Tours and Transportation: I do wine tours and transportation for people. And my business started to do really, really well. I was on track to have the best month ever.

JOANNE JENNINGS: Andrew just bought this new SUV, which has been idle in his driveway collecting ash. Jeni is a personal trainer and has family who lost their homes in the fires. She’s just not sure how they’re going to make ends meet.

WOMAN: I think we’re just overwhelmed, you know? And uncertainty is kind of scary.

ANDREW SCHLUTER: We will hopefully get by for awhile, but we might make — have to make some hard decisions shortly.

JOANNE JENNINGS: While fires burn nearby, some vineyards are already open to tourists. At the Raymond Vineyard, workers are crushing grapes at a feverish pitch. The tasting room is open for the first time since the fires started.

Jeremy and Erika Moore arrived from Tennessee yesterday. They considered canceling their trip, but decided the best way they could help people here is to give them their business.

JEREMY MOORE, Tourist: On the one hand, a few hundred yards from here, you can see them shuttling up with the helicopters fighting fires, but then here it’s beautiful. They are doing some great tastings, and they are working outside on the crops. So, it’s a weird combination of tragedy, but then at the same time business must go on, too.

JOANNE JENNINGS: Proprietor Jean-Charles Boisset owns several wineries in California, France and Canada, but like many other people here, he and his family had to evacuate their home when the flames came dangerously close.

Still, he is bullish about the future of the wine industry in this region.

JEAN-CHARLES BOISSET, Boisset Collection: Napa has been one of the most amazing agricultural places in California for a long time, so it will survive those fires. What I love, as a Frenchman here in California, is that amazing American positive attitude.

We will recover. We will walk again, run again, and we will welcome all our guests and give them the dreams of fine wine.

JOANNE JENNINGS: For the PBS NewsHour, I’m Joanne Jennings in Napa Valley, California.

The post California wine country tries to get back to business despite wildfire destruction appeared first on PBS NewsHour.

The future and all that is possible was on full display this week at MWC Barcelona 2024 in Hall Six of Gran Via, the site of an innovation zone that featured hands-on and immersive demos of things ranging from devices that enhance the growing of fruit to what has been described as the “world’s first […]

Police were in pursuit for half an hour down narrow country lanes

Georgia's loss to Ole Miss Saturday brought a wild shakeup to the college football rankings, and the Bulldogs find themselves out of the playoff picture.

In his latest book, The Blue on Fire: Hawaii, photographer Enzo Barracco hopes to inspire the world to protect the ocean.

More blazes break out where wild land and urban areas overlap.

New studies suggest smoke from western megafires may be damaging bird health and leading to strange behavior

Humans perfected how to identify wild animals over millennia, and now biologists are rediscovering the exceptional worth of the tracks and marks left behind

Saddle up, space cowboys. It may get bumpy for a while.

Wildfires have been raging in New York and New Jersey. People in some areas have been asked to prepare for possible evacuations.

A Kenora, Ont., resident says she wants to see more resources for people who encounter sick or injured animals after seeing a deer in her yard with a tomato cage stuck on its head. Here's how the community has responded to the incident, and what we know about the deer's status.

UPDATE: An emergency situation has been declared after wild storms left a trail of destruction on the Sunshine Coast. Brisbane residents have also described what was “like a tidal wave” hitting their homes.

Born on May 28, 2015, Obi was the first of Zoo Knoxville�s gorilla babies. She�s a natural gymnast who loves to climb. Obi�s name means �heart.� Ubuntu arrived on June 2, 2015. He's all boy and particularly enjoys pestering his half-sister Obi.

Hennessy V.S new ad creative celebrates the true story of Auguste Piccard, the first man to reach the stratosphere, and his son Jacques, the first man to reach the deepest depths of the ocean.

The US Department of Homeland Security is trialling chemical sensors that detect the first whiff of smoke in the air and alert fire crews while a potential blaze is still smouldering

In the western US, the average maximum growth rate of fires has more than doubled over the past two decades

Anime airs Mondays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. EST

The Wild Hunt conducted a presidential poll in the Pagan community. Here are the findings.

Continue reading Pagan Community Voices Election Concerns in The Wild Hunt Poll at The Wild Hunt.

"There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."

Billowing menace, acrid scents  Old growth, saplings charring together  While out of sight, fawns distressed race And the owl’s perch succumbs.  Golden hordes breaching firebreaks  Rapine alight windswept, rapacious, desiccation stoked   Consuming canopies, no quarter given While rooted tributaries blazing course underfoot.  Slight deluges, drawn from placid lakes Lofted by fraught metaled battalions Plunge pityingly […]

The post Wildfires Of No Consequence  appeared first on Waiter Rant.