Niouzes

Tech thought it was exceptional. Maybe it was all wishful thinking.

Birds have fallen silent at Whangamarino wetland. It is supposed to be a sanctuary but its poisoned waters are killing them.

Flooded strawberry fields in Pajaro, California, on Wednesday, March 15th, 2023.  | Image: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images An extremely wet winter has lifted much of California out of drought, and more rain is on the way. The deluge of rain and snowfall this season has “wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California” for the first time since 2020, according to a spring outlook published today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency forecasts more improvement throughout spring, with even more regions potentially seeing their drought conditions end. Even so, California’s recovery will be patchy, and it’ll take years to replenish some crucial water sources. And as recent storms have already shown, the state will continue to face new dangers from flooding. “Climate change is driving both wet and dry extremes” “Climate change is driving both wet and dry extremes, as illustrated by NOAA’s observations and data that inform this seasonal outlook,” NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. Maps from the US Drought Monitor illustrate the Golden State’s dramatic shift from parched to drenched over just a few months. In late December, near the start of the winter season, 100 percent of the state was at least “abnormally dry.” More than a third of California was colored bright red to show “extreme drought” conditions on the December 27th map on the left side of the slider below. On this week’s updated drought map, on the right side of the slider, there’s no red to be found. Now, just a little over half of the state is “abnormally dry.” Record snowfall has been a hallmark of the season, which also helps to ease drought. The state relies on melting snow to fill rivers and reservoirs during dryer seasons. The amount of water trapped in snowpack across the state was at 190 percent of average for early March, according to a recent assessment by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). While California needs the water, the way it has descended upon the state this season has been destructive. Communities have been repeatedly hammered by rain and snow from powerful storms arriving via a river of water vapor high up in the atmosphere. Heavy with snow, roofs have caved in over homes and grocery stores in mountain towns. The latest storm left more than 300,000 customers without power this week. It was the 11th atmospheric river storm to hit the state this season — and another could reach California by Sunday. More rain, coupled with melting snowpack, puts the state at risk of more flooding this spring, NOAA says in its outlook. It’s too soon to tell what the incredibly wet winter will mean for wildfires in California this year, state climatologist Michael Anderson said in a DWR briefing yesterday. That depends on a lot of factors, including how quickly snowpack melts, how rapidly the landscape dries, and the timing of spring plant growth and subsequent drying. California is coming off “three years of extraordinary drought, just on our rearview mirror,” Anderson said. Moving forward, water scarcity will still be an issue. The state’s groundwater basins, made up of underground aquifers, will need more than one wet season to replenish them. Moreover, Southern California gets a lot of its water from the Colorado River basin that’s been suffering from drought for more than 20 years and is still at the center of heated negotiations over how states will share its dwindling supply. “We’ve seen some pretty fantastic weather and we’ve seen conditions improve in a whole lot of places. We still have some lingering impacts that challenge California,” Anderson said in yesterday’s briefing.

Imran Khan le frère du procureur de la CPI Karim Khan qui vient de condamner V. Poutine de crimes de guerre pour avoir évacué des enfants d’une zone de guerre, avait été condamné pour pédophi…

Floating solar panels in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea, on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. More than 92,000 solar panels floating on the surface of a reservoir are able to generate 41 megawatts, enough to power 20,000 homes.  | Image: SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg via Getty Images Thousands of cities around the world could power themselves entirely with solar panels floating atop water reservoirs, according to new research. It’s a relatively easy way to generate renewable energy locally while also conserving water. Solar arrays suspended over water, or floatovoltaics, work similarly to those spread out over land. The panels sit on a raft instead of on parking lots, rooftops, or other grounded mounts. But they haven’t been deployed in many places around the world yet and only produced as much electricity as less than 1 percent of the world’s land-based solar farms in 2020. Now, a new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows just how much potential cities could tap into with this emerging technology. When it comes to problems that need to be solved quickly in a warming world, floating solar panels tick a lot of boxes Researchers found that 6,256 cities across 124 countries could, in theory, meet all their electricity demand from solar panels deployed on nearby water reservoirs. They would just need to cover about 30 percent of the water’s surface with floatovoltaics. The researchers analyzed 114,555 reservoirs around the world using multiple databases and then modeled potential power generation using realistic climate data. And since all those floating arrays would block enough sunlight to reduce evaporation, the researchers also projected major water savings. Cumulatively, the panels would conserve about as much water as 300 million people might use annually (or roughly 106 cubic kilometers per year). That would be incredibly helpful as droughts made worse by climate change suck reservoirs dry. In fact, when it comes to problems that need to be solved quickly in a warming world, floating solar panels tick a lot of boxes. Droughts curtail hydroelectricity generation as water levels drop. And heatwaves can reduce a solar panel’s efficiency by up to 25 percent, which means that it isn’t able to convert as much sunlight into electricity. Luckily, water has a cooling effect that can keep solar cells from overheating. Crucially, floating solar farms and hydroelectric dams working in tandem can boost power generation during hot summer days when people need more electricity for air conditioning. There are other practical benefits, too. On land, large solar farms might compete for space with other priorities like agriculture or habitat conservation. Floating on water reservoirs, photovoltaic panels can avoid those disputes. To be sure, developers will still need to assess each reservoir to limit any negative side effects. Covering too much of the reservoir with solar panels could result in less oxygen in the water, for instance, which could harm fish. Building on artificial reservoirs rather than natural bodies of water might be a less damaging option, the research notes. The study found the most potential for floatovoltaics concentrated in places where there are already many communities living next to water reservoirs. These tended to be smaller populations of less than 50,000 people, similar to a city the size of Burlington, Vermont, or Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Just 15 percent of the cities studied with populations bigger than 1 million people would be able to meet their entire electricity demand purely with floating solar farms. The United States is the country with the most suitable reservoirs, followed by China and Brazil. Some floating solar projects are starting to take off. The US army deployed its first floating solar array last June at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Floatovoltaics are already more popular in Asia. Above, you can see NASA’s satellite images of one of the world’s largest floating solar farms so far, which came online last year in Shandong province. And South Korea has more than 92,000 solar panels fashioned into the shape of plum blossoms floating atop a 12-mile reservoir in its Hapcheon County.

Sommet Russie-Afrique, “beaucoup de vérités vont sortir”. Publié le 18.3.2023 Sputnik rapporte que le futur forum Russie-Afrique sera une plaque tournante quant à la mise en œuvre du mo…

Les officiers du port de Nantes Saint-Nazaire reprendront leur grève ...  France 3 Régions

Quid après le tremblement de terre financier? Ces derniers jours, la planète finance a tremblé. Les secousses étaient de plus en plus rapprochées ces derniers mois. Faillite de FTX en novembre, bien sûr. Et, rien que sur ces 10 derniers jours, défaut d’un fond de créances d’immobilier commercial du géant Blackstone, faillite de la banque Silvergate Capital et enfin de SVB...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Saturday that the state will cut insulin costs by 90% and that it will start manufacturing naloxone, a nasal spray used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Guerre en Ukraine, en direct : le Kremlin veut élargir la conscription, selon le ministère de la défense britannique  Le Monde

One week after Jake Sullivan foolishly identified Joe Biden’s Burisma kickback scheme on Air Force Two, Eric Holder stood before an international audience in London and announced — at President Barack Obama’s direction — an anti-corruption effort that would help Ukraine recover its public money stolen by oligarchs like, well, Burisma’s Mykola Zlochevsky who had just surreptitiously put Hunter Biden on his board of directors as part of Joe’s kickback scheme. The post Obama’s Ukraine Corruption Was Hidden By Eric Holder appeared first on GreatGameIndia.

(Covidhub) Le virus Sars-CoV-2 sort probablement d’un labo chinois, les masques obligatoires n’ont eu aucune utilité et l’immunité naturelle est la meilleure protection. Ceux qui le disaient il y a…

Séismes en Türkiye et en Syrie : conférence des donateurs en ...  ONU France

Les conséquences de la grève des éboueurs, commencée le 6 mars, se font sentir – au sens propre du terme – dans les rues nantaises. Alors que les sacs poubelles jonchent les trottoirs de la cité des Ducs – pour le plus grand bonheur des rats -, la manifestation  qui a eu lieu jeudi soir […]

Avec pas moins de 47.561 ressortissants étrangers ayant acquis la nationalité Belge en 2022, la Belgique a atteint un nouveau record. Avec en tête, Marocains et Syriens. Ces 47.561 ressortissants étrangers qui ont reçu la nationalité belge l’année dernière représentent 20% de plus qu’en 2021, lorsque le nombre de «nouveaux Belges» était estimé à environ […]

ECB hawks press case for more rate hikes to fight dogged inflation ...  Investing.com

Brexit et crise sanitaire avaient placé Brittany Ferries au cœur d’une tempête, qui a bien failli valoir un naufrage définitif à l’armement breton. Lequel semble avoir retrouvé davantage de sérénité en 2022 avec un trafic fret et passagers en hausse, conférant un peu plus de stabilité financière à la compagnie maritime. Mais l’horizon n’est pas […]

TPMP : Gros clash entre Myriam Palomba et Laurent Alexandre sur ...  Il était une pub

More than 700 Indian students are facing deportation from Canada after the authorities in the North American country found their ‘admission offer letters’ to educational institutions to be fake. They received the deportation letters from the Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA) recently. The post 700 Indian Students Face Deportation From Canada As Admission Offer Letters Found Fake appeared first on GreatGameIndia.

Les images saisissantes de Paris sous dix mille tonnes de déchets  lalibre.beGrève des éboueurs à Paris: 10.000 tonnes de poubelles s'accumulent dans la capitale (photos)  Le SoirRéforme des retraites: le seuil des 10.000 tonnes d'ordures non ramassées franchi à Paris, «ce ne sont plus des tas de poubelles, mais des murs»  Sudinfo.beGrève des éboueurs : La Mairie de Paris indique une « stabilisation » du tonnage des déchets non ramassés  20 MinutesÀ Paris, la guerre des poubelles va continuer  Le Journal du dimancheVoir la couverture complète sur Google Actualités

Réforme des retraites : un samedi entre manifestations, piquets de ...  France Bleu

The Verge The fall of Silicon Valley Bank, explained. On the last night of its existence, Silicon Valley Bank was hosting VC Bill Reichert of Pegasus Tech Ventures, who was giving a presentation on “How to Pitch Your WOW! to Investors” to about 45 or 50 people. Mike McEvoy, the CEO of OmniLayers, recounted the scene for me. “It was eerie over there,” he said. He saw a number of people exiting the building during the event, looking subdued. Roger Sanford, the CEO of Hcare Health and a self-described “professional Silicon Valley gadfly,” was also there. “Everyone was in denial,” he told me. “The band played on.” The next day, the emblematic bank of the tech industry was shut down by regulators — the second-biggest bank failure in US history, after Washington Mutual in 2008. What happened is a little complicated — and I’ll explain farther down — but it’s also simple. A bank run occurs when depositors try to pull out all their money at once, like in It’s a Wonderful Life. And as It’s a Wonderful Life explains, sometimes the actual cash isn’t immediately there because the bank used it for other things. That was the immediate cause of death for the most systemically and symbolically important bank in the tech industry, but to get to that point, a lot of other things had to happen first. What is Silicon Valley Bank? Founded in 1983 after a poker game, Silicon Valley Bank was an important engine for the tech industry’s success and the 16th largest bank in the US before its collapse. It’s easy to forget, based on the tech industry’s lionization of nerds, but the actual fuel for startups is money, not brains. Silicon Valley Bank provided that fuel, working closely with many VC-backed startups. It claimed to be the “financial partner of the innovation economy” and the “go-to bank for investors.” Among those banking at SVB: the parent company of this here website. That’s not all. More than 2,500 VC firms banked there, and so did a lot of tech execs. It fell in less than 48 hours. What happens to Silicon Valley Bank’s customers? Most banks are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a government agency that’s been around since the Great Depression. So of course, the accounts at Silicon Valley Bank were insured by the FDIC — but only up to $250,000. That’s how FDIC deposit insurance works. That might be a lot of money for an individual, but we’re talking about companies here. Many have burn rates of millions of dollars a month. A recent regulatory filing reveals that about 90 percent of deposits were uninsured as of December 2022. The FDIC says it’s “undetermined” how many deposits were uninsured when the bank closed. How bad could it get? Even small disruptions to cash flow can have drastic effects on individuals, companies, and industries. So while one very likely outcome is that the uninsured depositors will eventually be made whole, the problem is that right now they have no access to that money. The most immediate effect is on payroll. There are lots of people who are wondering if their next paycheck will be disrupted. Some people already know their paychecks will be; a payroll service company called Rippling had to tell its customers that some paychecks weren’t coming on time because of the SVB collapse. For some workers, that’s rent or mortgage payments, and money for groceries, gas, or childcare that isn’t coming. The problem is access to money This is especially rough for startups. A third of Y Combinator companies won’t be able to make payroll in the next 30 days, according to YC CEO Garry Tan. An unexpected mass furlough or layoff is a nightmare for most companies — after all, you can’t make sales if the salesforce isn’t coming into the office. Some investors are loaning their companies money to make payroll. Penske Media, the largest investor of this website’s parent company, Vox Media, told The New York Times that “it was ready if the company required additional capital,” for instance. That’s good, because Vox Media has “a substantial concentration of cash” at Silicon Valley Bank. Of course, one other problem is that a lot of investors were also banking at SVB, too. Payroll isn’t the only expense a company has: there are payments to software providers, cloud services, and so on, too. I’m just scratching the surface here. Update (3/13, 5:37PM ET): On Sunday, after this story published, the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC made a joint statement that depositors would have access to all of their money on Monday. Does this have something to do with crypto? SVB’s failure didn’t have anything directly to do with the ongoing crypto meltdown, but it could potentially worsen that crisis, too. Crypto firm Circle operates a stablecoin, USDC, that’s backed with cash reserves — $3.3 billion of which are stuck at Silicon Valley Bank. That stablecoin should always be worth $1, but it broke its peg after SVB failed, dropping as low as 87 cents. Coinbase stopped conversions between USDC and the dollar. On March 11th, Circle said that it “will stand behind USDC and cover any shortfall using corporate resources, involving external capital if necessary.” The stablecoin’s value mostly recovered. Oh, and bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi also has $227 million in funds stuck, too. So if SVB doesn’t exist anymore, what takes its place? In response to the collapse, the FDIC created a new entity, the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara, for all insured deposits for Silicon Valley Bank. It will open for business on March 13th. People who have uninsured deposits will be paid an advanced dividend and get a little certificate, but that isn’t a guarantee people will get all their money back. The FDIC’s job is to get the maximum amount from Silicon Valley Bank’s assets. That can happen a couple ways. One is that another bank acquires SVB, getting the deposits in the process. In the best-case scenario, that acquisition means that everyone gets all their money back — hooray! And that’s the best-case scenario not just for everyone who wants to get their paycheck on time, but also because the FDIC’s greater mission is to ensure stability and public confidence in the US banking system. If SVB’s assets can only be sold for, say, 90 cents on the dollar, it could encourage bank runs elsewhere. Okay, but let’s say that acquisition doesn’t happen. Then what? Well, the FDIC evaluates, then sells the assets associated with Silicon Valley Bank over a period of weeks or months, with the proceeds going to depositors. Uninsured deposits rank high on the pay-back scale, behind only administrative expenses and insured deposits. So even if a sale doesn’t happen soon, the odds are high that customers will get their money back, assuming they can stay afloat waiting for it. Update (3/13, 5:37 PM ET): In response to the collapse, the FDIC created a new entity, making depositors and borrowers customers of Silicon Valley Bank, N.A. On Monday morning, they had customer service and access to their funds by ATM, debit cards, or checks. The money for all of this is, for now, coming from the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund, which has said it will protect all depositors to the institution. While that leaves out shareholders and “certain” unsecured debt holders, it meant that the bank’s customers could mostly resume business on Monday. President Joe Biden commented on the situation in an attempt to reassure the public, saying the Silicon Valley Bank funds would still “be there when you need them” without requiring a taxpayer-funded bailout. The money being used doesn’t come from taxes, instead, it’s from insurance premiums paid by banks, and interest earned on money invested in US government obligations, according to the FDIC. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that FDIC officials told senators they planned to try to auction the failed bank again. According to the WSJ, declaring the bank’s failure “ a threat to the financial system” now allows for some extra flexibility that wasn’t there before. How did we get here? So this is actually bigger than startups and Silicon Valley VCs. To understand how this happened, we’ve gotta talk about interest rates. Since 2008, they’ve been pretty low, sparking a venture capital boom and some real silliness (see: WeWork, Theranos, Juicero). There’s been a lot of froth for a long time, and it got worse during the pandemic, when the money printer went brrr. Meme stocks? Crypto boom? SPACs? Thank Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, who settled on zero percent interest rate policy (ZIRP). So if you are, let’s say, a bank specializing in startups, do you know what ZIRP world does to you? Well, my children, according to the most recent annual filing from SVB, bank deposits grew as IPOs, SPACs, VC investment and so on went on at a frenetic pace. And because of all these liquidity events — congrats, btw — no one needed a loan because they had all this cash. This is sort of a problem for a bank. Loans are an important way to make money! So, as explained in more detail by Bloomberg’s Matt Levine, Silicon Valley Bank bought government securities. This was a fine and steady way for SVB to make money, but it also meant it was vulnerable if interest rates rose. A good old-fashioned bank run tipped SVB over, and there was no George Bailey to stop it Which they did! Powell started cranking up rates to slow inflation, and told Congress this week that he expects to let them get as high as 5.75 percent, which is a lot higher than zero. Here’s the problem for Silicon Valley Bank. It’s got a bunch of assets that are worth less money if interest rates go up. And it also banks startups, which are more plentiful when interest rates are low. Essentially, these bankers managed to put themselves in double trouble, something a few short-sellers noticed (Pity the shorts! Despite being right, they’re also fucked because it’ll be hard to collect their winnings). So did Silicon Valley just flunk the prisoner’s dilemma? Okay, this mismatch in risk in and of itself won’t tip a bank over. A good old-fashioned bank run did that. And at Silicon Valley Bank, there was no George Bailey to stop it. Here’s how it happened. When interest rates rose, VCs stopped flinging money around. Startups started drawing down more of their money to pay for their expenses, and SVB had to come up with cash to make that happen. That meant the bank needed to get liquidity — so it sold $21 billion of securities, resulting in an after-tax loss of $1.8 billion. It also came up with a plan to sell $2.2 billion in shares to help shore itself up. Moody’s downgraded the bank’s credit rating. Customers tried to withdraw a quarter of the bank’s total deposits on a single day In its slide deck explaining all this, Silicon Valley Bank talks about — I am not making this up — “ample liquidity” and its “strong capital position.” Now, recall, another bank called Silvergate had just collapsed (for crypto reasons). Investors, like horses, are easily spooked. So when Silicon Valley Bank made this announcement on March 8th, people bolted. Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund advised its portfolio companies to pull out, ultimately yanking millions. And you know how VCs love to follow trends! Union Square Ventures and Coatue Management, among others, decided to tell companies to pull their money, too. This bank run happened fast, in less than two days. Tech nerds can take credit for that one. It used to be that you had to physically go to a bank to withdraw your money — or at least take the psychic damage of picking up a telephone. That slower process gave banks time to maneuver. In this case, digitalization meant that the money went out so fast that Silicon Valley Bank was essentially helpless, points out Samir Kaji, CEO of investing platform Allocate. Customers tried to withdraw $42 billion in deposits on March 9th alone — a quarter of the bank’s total deposits on a single day. It was over the next day. The share sale was canceled. Silicon Valley Bank tried to sell itself. Then the regulators stepped in. Who was in charge here? Until shortly after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, its (now-former) CEO Greg Becker was a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. That’s one of the 12 banks overseen by the Washington Fed. While the bank run was ongoing, Becker told VCs, “I would ask everyone to stay calm and to support us just like we supported you during the challenging times.” As anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship knows, telling someone else to calm down is a way to ensure they lose their entire goddamn mind. I think it might have been possible to staunch the bleeding if Becker had been even halfway good at PR. Obviously, he’s not. But separately from Becker’s ill communication, he was the leader behind the spooky asset sale/share offering combo punch. In fact, Silicon Valley Bank had other options: it could have borrowed funds or tried to offer sweet deals to depositors who stayed. That’s not all. It turns out Becker also sold $3.6 million of shares in Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company on February 27th. This was a pre-arranged sale — he filed the paperwork on January 26th — but it does seem like curious timing! Becker was presumably aware of his own balance sheet, and a director of a regional Fed bank. He had to know the Fed was going to keep raising interest rates — I mean, if I knew it, he’d better have known it — and he had to know that would be bad news for Silicon Valley Bank. What does this mean for startupland? The venture capital ecosystem exists because once upon a time, banks wouldn’t loan startups money. Think about it: a 23-year-old nerd slapping together a startup in someone’s garage or whatever usually doesn’t own anything they can put up as collateral against a loan. One way that Silicon Valley Bank bolstered startups was by offering risky forms of financing. For instance, the bank lent against money owed to a business’ accounts receivables. Even riskier: the company lent against expected revenue for future services. Silicon Valley Bank also offered venture debt, which uses a VC investment as a way of underwriting a loan. And it worked! These kinds of products helped build Silicon Valley into the powerhouse it is now, says Jonathan Hirshon, who’s done high-tech PR for the last 30 years. One of SVB’s key problems: Silicon Valley is actually a small town The bank also would get slices of companies as part of its credit terms. That meant it made $13.9 million on FitBit’s IPO, for instance. More recently, Coinbase’s IPO paperwork revealed that Silicon Valley Bank had the right to buy more than 400,000 shares for about $1 a share. Coinbase’s shares closed at a price of $328.28 the first day it was listed. Startups aren’t the only ones who need to raise money. Venture capitalists do too — often from family offices or governments. Silicon Valley Bank invested in a number of VCs over the years, including Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock. This kind of gets us to one of SVB’s key problems: Silicon Valley is actually a small town. And while that meant SVB was the cool banker for the tech and life sciences startups here, that also meant its portfolio wasn’t very diverse. The incestuous nature of Silicon Valley startups means gossip is a contact sport, because everyone here is hopelessly entwined with everyone else. I don’t know if this is going to lead to bigger problems. It could! A lot of other banks are also losing money on their securities. But the gossipy nature of Silicon Valley, and the fact that so many of these firms are entwined, made the possibility of a bank run higher for SVB than it was for other places. Right now, rumors are flying in WhatsApp groupchats full of founders scrambling for cash. I suspect, too, that we’ll start seeing scammers attempting to target panicky technology brothers, to extract even more cash from them. I don’t know what’s going to happen now, and I don’t think anyone else does, either. I do know, though, that SVB’s leadership weren’t the only ones who fucked up. This was the second big bank failure in a single week, suggesting our regulators were asleep at the wheel. And who was the primary regulator for both banks? Why, our friends at the Fed, Update (3/13, 5:37 PM ET): Added details on the systemic risk exception established by regulators to protect depositors and allow customers access to their funds on Monday, as well as the ongoing attempts to sell Silicon Valley Bank.

Le «tribunal pour l'Ukraine» ou la chasse aux sorcières à l ...  Connectionivoirienne.net

Mes chères impertinentes, chers impertinents, Je n’en reviens toujours pas, je vous assure, de notre Bruno lumière de Bercy de la « vista » légendaire. « Il n’y a aucun risque de contagion », et pouf, le lendemain… contagion. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Franchement, le pauvre, ce doit être difficile comme métier. Comme disait ma mamie, passer pour un imbécile n’a jamais […] The post « Bouée de sauvetage pour Crédit Suisse. 1ère grande banque aidée depuis 2008 ». L’édito de Charles SANNAT appeared first on Insolentiae.

Covid-19 : Le livre "Les apprentis sorciers" va-t-il ouvrir le débat ...  Doctissimo

À Groningen, aux Pays-Bas, une troupe venue jouer 'En attendant Godot' s'est fait déprogrammer pour manque d'inclusivité...

A record-breaking number of American women are single these days.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge FTX’s failure revealed the flaws and risky financial strategies that fueled the recent crypto and NFT boom. On January 1st of 2022, one Bitcoin would cost you about $46,000. By November 8th, that same coin went for about $18,500. And that’s when the year’s most dramatic crypto story was just starting: the collapse of the FTX exchange, which brought yet another round of existential threats to the crypto industry as a whole. Now the traditional financial system is showing signs of fragility, and two major crypto banks (Silvergate and Signature) are among the three US banks that shut down within the space of one week. 2022 looked like death by a thousand scandals for crypto. There was the Luna / Terra crash, which wiped out billions in value practically overnight. There was Axie Infinity, the once-hot NFT game that lost $625 million in a hack. Celsius collapsed. Three Arrows Capital collapsed. Remember when NFTs were cool and people thought their JPGs were worth millions? All this happened, of course, as the overall economy began to crash back down to earth after a pandemic-created spike in stock prices — which also dampened society’s overall tolerance for chaotic, nonsensical gambling on internet money. As the economy began to even out and our collective risk tolerance went down, crypto went for many investors from a fun plaything to a dangerous bet. Here’s all our coverage from the ongoing crypto winter:

Après de nombreux rebondissements, le Commission intègre finalement le nucléaire dans sa proposition pour une industrie européenne décarbonée et autonome. Les défenseurs de l’atome saluent un « signal politique positif », mais restent très vigilants sur la substance réelle de cette reconnaissance.

Grèce | Manifestation de réfugiés contre les refoulements de migrants  La Presse

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is “winding down” its work with NFTs on Facebook and Instagram, Meta commerce and fintech lead Stephane Kasriel said in a Twitter thread on Monday. The decision means Meta will end its tests of minting and selling NFTs on Instagram as well as the ability to share NFTs on Instagram and Facebook in the coming weeks, Meta spokesperson Joshua Gunter confirmed in an email to The Verge. “Across the company, we’re looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus,” Kasriel said. “We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses.” Instead, the company is focusing on “areas where we can make impact at scale,” like messaging and monetization on Reels and on improving Meta Pay. Some product news: across the company, we're looking closely at what we prioritize to increase our focus. We’re winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses. [1/5]— Stephane Kasriel (@skasriel) March 13, 2023 The NFT integrations seem to be one casualty of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s drive to make 2023 the “year of efficiency,” along with the Reels Play bonus program. But their end also follows the shutdowns of the Meta-backed cryptocurrency Diem and Meta’s Novi digital wallet last year. Still, even as Meta exits NFTs, other companies are rushing into a market that collapsed in 2022 and shed billions in value after stratospheric levels of hype in early 2021. Reddit continues to promote its “digital collectible” avatars that are NFTs, Starbucks recently sold out a selection of 2,000 $100 NFTs in its Odyssey customer loyalty program, and Sesame Street just announced an NFT collaboration. Update March 13th, 6:09PM ET: Added information from a Meta spokesperson.

Affaire Pierre Palmade: Fabien Fleury, qui avait accusé l'humoriste de détenir des images pédopornographiques,  Sudinfo.beAffaire Palmade : l'homme qui accuse l'humoriste de pédopornographie condamné à un an de prison ferme  Le FigaroPierre Palmade : son accusateur écope d'un an de prison ferme  Le PointAffaire Pierre Palmade : le dénonciateur du comédien écope de deux ans de prison pour trafic de drogue  Le Journal du dimancheAffaire Pierre Palmade : son accusateur condamné à un an de prison ferme  CNEWSVoir la couverture complète sur Google Actualités

Leaders of Kosovo and Serbia meet under EU mediation in Ohrid, North Macedonia, on Saturday (18 March) to discuss the implementation of a deal on normalising ties agreed in principle last month, essential for their hopes of joining the EU.

Turkey and Hungary announced on Friday (17 March) that they will greenlight Finland's NATO bid, but are likely to leave Sweden - which applied to join the defence alliance at the same time - to the side for the time being.

Noninvasively monitoring blood glucose is a whole other ballpark.

L'Égypte et la Grèce avancent sur le projet d'interconnexion électrique  Atalayar

The groups charge BLM with failing to consider the project's impacts on lands used for subsistence by Alaska Natives and argue the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly consider Willow's potential impacts on endangered species such as polar bears.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is going to let thousands more creators include multi-language audio tracks with their videos. The company was already testing the feature with a small number of creators, and beginning Thursday, many more will be able to include multi-language dubs with their videos to make them accessible to broader audiences. If you want to try this feature for yourself, check out this video on MrBeast’s YouTube channel. If you click on the gear icon, you’ll see an option for “audio track,” and if you click that, you’ll see the different language options available. Videos will also default to a user’s preferred language. In its early tests, YouTube says that, as of January, “we’ve already seen over 3,500 multi-language videos uploaded in over 40 languages.” Multi-language dubbed videos apparently see increased watch time, with 15 percent coming from “views in the video’s non-primary language” in January. And multi-language dubbed videos also mean that creators may not have to maintain separate channels just to host videos in other languages; instead, they can just dub a video on their main channel. The expansion arrives as YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is stepping down, with chief product officer Neal Mohan taking her place as the new head of the platform.

Images shared on Twitter have captured an Emirates Airbus A380 sporting a subtly different livery design, with changes primarily… The post Is Emirates introducing a new livery? appeared first on AeroTime.

Many on the market are taking a portfolio approach, investing in a wide range of promising solutions and minimizing risk.

Réforme des retraites : les étudiants organisent la lutte, et se ...  France 3 Régions

Dans l’émission progressiste «Quotidien», la ministre des Sports prend soin de ne pas reprendre complètement à son compte la notion de «masculinité toxique», pour mieux ensuite se ranger du côté de ceux qui défendent l’idéologie du genre et tous ses poncifs. Gageons qu’elle va nous préparer des JO de Paris 2024 inclusifs...

MISE À JOUR : Trump confirme dans un post sur Truth Social qu’il sera ARRÊTÉ mardi. Publié le 18.3.2023 Hier, on a appris que le président Donald Trump pourrait être inculpé dès la semaine pr…

ECB likely to keep boosting interest rates: ECB's Wunsch By Reuters  Investing.com

Guerre en Ukraine : visite surprise de Vladimir Poutine en Crimée  Le HuffPost

par Martina Frei, infosperber Les sociétés pharmaceutiques Moderna et Pfizer ont jusqu'à présent gagné plus de 100 milliards de dollars avec leurs vaccins Covid. C'est 20 fois plus que le budget de…

Selon Juncker, «les riches et les pauvres s'éloignent de plus en plus»  Luxemburger Wort - Edition Francophone

Lozère : soutien politique et financier aux grévistes de l'usine ...  Midi Libre

Photo: Getty Images YouTube has lifted restrictions on former President Donald Trump’s YouTube account. YouTube announced on Twitter that the channel is no longer restricted and can upload new material. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election,” it said via the YouTubeInsider account. “This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube.” Trump was suspended from YouTube after the January 6th, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. The site removed a video that it said violated its policies against inciting violence, and it banned Trump from uploading new content — first for a one-week period and then indefinitely. However, YouTube remained equivocal about whether the ban would be permanent. In May of that year, CEO Susan Wojcicki said the ban would be lifted after the risk of further violent incitement abated. 1/ Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content. We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 17, 2023 YouTube’s tweet alludes to the fact that Trump is now an official candidate for the 2024 Republican primary, a role that will put him in the spotlight after years of (very) relative reclusiveness. Its decision comes well after Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all lifted their suspensions on the account. Trump has stuck in recent months to posting on Truth Social, where he signed a social media exclusivity deal that he’s reportedly trying to wind down. But he resurrected his YouTube account soon after the ban was lifted, posting an 11-second video titled “I’M BACK!” with a news clip from around his victory in the 2016 presidential election. Trump posted the same video to Facebook. Update 4:45PM ET: Added news that Trump had posted to his newly restored YouTube account.

L'adrénochrome, "drogue des élites à base de sang d'enfant" ? Un ...  Sudinfo.be

Aux Pays-Bas, une révolte électorale paysanne vient de bousculer un monde politique jugé trop woke pour gouverner les classes moyennes et ouvrières. Sa principale bénéficiaire, Mme van der Plas, a fait campagne contre le plan azote gouvernemental...

Sam Neill has written a new memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, in which he opens up for the first time about his cancer diagnosis

You’re not hallucinating. Ozempic is everywhere. The diabetes medication, which can also be used for long-term weight management, has become a near-overnight sensation, moving from hushed Hollywood diet aid to the mainstream. Ozempic is now on the cover of magazines, the lips of comedians, and in TV ads and unpaid social media posts. This week, the injectable medication made its way to New York City subways via an ad campaign from telehealth company Ro, which recently started offering Ozempic to its patients online. [Photo: Ro] Ozempic and other medications of its type—called GLP-1 agonists or semaglutides—were approved by the FDA in 2020, intended for adults with type 2 diabetes. But they have become popular for their off-label use as appetite suppressants, with celebrities from Elon Musk to Kim Kardashian (reportedly) using them for rapid weight loss in a short time period. No long-term studies have been done on the off-label use of the drugs, and some experts say the risks of taking them may outweigh their benefits for people who do not have obesity. The side effects of Ozempic and the semaglutide Wegovy include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. That hasn’t stopped teleheath companies and others from cashing in on the drugs’ pop-culture ubiquity. The vetting process for a Ozempic prescription at Ro is robust: Patients fill out forms about their medical history and goals before taking an at-home metabolic health lab test (this can also be completed at a Quest Diagnostics location). Ro says the metabolic health lab test gives its doctors a more accurate picture of a patient’s health than the Body Mass Index number that most providers use to measure if a patient meets the threshold for prescription. Qualifying patients can get a prescription, and Ro works with their insurance to get it covered. If they don’t qualify, they might be able to get a prescription for Plenity, a weight-loss pill (also available on Ro’s platform) that makes patients feel fuller during a meal when they take it before eating. Taglines on the Ro posters in New York City’s subway stations read, “A Weekly Shot to Lose Weight” with “coaching care, and healthy lifestyle changes to make it last.” Other copy mentions that the medication is only for qualifying patients but doesn’t specify the conditions necessary to get a prescription: “Medication for weight loss is not cheating. It’s not a shortcut. And it’s nothing to feel guilty about. It’s a medication for a condition, and if it’s right for you it could be life changing.” Ro is not the only telehealth company capitalizing on Ozempic’s new fame. Other companies that offer semaglutides, including Calibrate, Plushcare, and Next Medical, have used paid Google ads that show up when users type “Ozempic weight loss” into their search bar. Even weight-loss stalwart WeightWatchers says that it is planning to start offering Ozempic prescriptions via telehealth consultations. The company recently acquired telehealth platform Sequence, which connects patients with doctors who can prescribe the drugs. Telehealth companies could see a big windfall from offering semaglutide prescriptions. Patients often take the medications, which include Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro, for life, giving companies a recurring revenue source. Ro sells other medication for chronic conditions, including erectile dysfunction and acne. Dr. Heather Martin, medical director of the primary care program at K Health, another telemedicine company, has seen an uptick in interest in Ozempic, thanks to word of mouth and social media. “Ozempic can be viewed as a shortcut to weight loss; that’s why patient education is important,” she says, adding that the benefits of the drug do not outweigh the risks for patients who do not qualify for the FDA-approved use. That hasn’t deterred many people in Hollywood from using—and talking up—the drug. While the body-positivity movement has made strides, and plus-size models are currently on the cover of British Vogue, thinner bodies were on full display on the champagne carpet at the Oscars last Sunday. Host Jimmy Kimmel even included a joke in his opening monologue: “When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, ‘Is Ozempic right for me?'”

Le projet européen n’est pas de nature à nous rassurer quant aux nouvelles menaces qui nous assaillent. Analyse...

Deux solutions pour sortir de la crise politique actuelle, le retrait de la réforme et la dissolution ou le vote de la motion de censure et la dissolution. Si lundi , le président n’a pas retiré la réforme, il ne … Lire la suite →

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge ChipMixer, a cryptocurrency mixing service with ties to the hacks targeting FTX and Axie Infinity, has been pulled offline by the FBI, Europol, and other international authorities. In a press release published Wednesday, the Justice Department says authorities seized $46 million worth of cryptocurrency along with the service’s domains and GitHub account. Crypto mixing services like ChipMixer make it more difficult for third parties, such as law enforcement, to trace crypto transactions, as they funnel different payments into a single pool of crypto before splitting up each amount and sending them to designated recipients. According to law enforcement, unlike crypto services registered to operate in the US, it naturally didn’t collect identifying information about its users, either. According to the DOJ, ChipMixer laundered over $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency between 2017 and the present day. Some of its criminally-inclined customers include the North Korean hacking group who stole over $600 million from the Axie Infinity blockchain app, along with the thieves who drained millions from the now-shuttered FTX crypto exchange. The DOJ also charged Minh Quốc Nguyễn, the owner of the service, with money laundering, identity theft, and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. ChipMixer isn’t the only crypto mixer that the government has targeted due to criminal activity. Last year, the US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the mixer Tornado Cash and punished Blender.io for helping North Korean hackers launder the funds involved in the Axie Infinity hack. Not to mention the government’s increasing scrutiny of crypto as a whole following the collapse of FTX. “ChipMixer facilitated the laundering of cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin, on a vast international scale, abetting nefarious actors and criminals of all kinds in evading detection,” Jacqueline Romero, a US attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, says in a statement. “Platforms like ChipMixer, which are designed to conceal the sources and destinations of staggering amounts of criminal proceeds, undermine the public’s confidence in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.”

Guerre en Ukraine : la Russie accepte l'extension pour seulement 60 jours de l'accord sur les céréales ukrainiennes  franceinfo

A plane in Washington, DC, on February 16th, 2023. | Image: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Delta Air Lines laid out a new plan to wean its planes off fossil fuels in an effort to address climate change. The goal, the airline said, is for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to make up at least 95 percent of its fuel consumption by 2050. SAF is made from waste or crops through a process that’s supposed to cancel out much of the greenhouse gas emissions a plane produces. It’s not a perfect system and could create new environmental problems. And with very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to hit its 2050 target. Nevertheless, SAF is largely seen by the industry as the most viable alternative to fossil fuels for now. With very little SAF produced today, it’s going to be an uphill climb for Delta to hit its 2050 target SAF is a biofuel made from plant or animal material. A plane running on SAF will still produce planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, but the aim is to cancel out a lot of that pollution in the way the fuel is produced. If it’s made from plants like corn or soybean, the climate benefit is supposed to come from photosynthesis. The plants absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which is supposed to remove some of the pollution that comes from burning fuel. When SAF is made with food waste or other organic matter in trash, the climate benefit is supposed to come from avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions that would have resulted from that food or waste ending up in landfills. Airlines also like the idea that SAF can be used like traditional kerosene, without many changes to aircraft or fueling infrastructure. That’s not the case with electric planes or hydrogen jets. Aircraft running on hydrogen would have to be redesigned to accommodate larger fuel tanks. And batteries today are too heavy for electric planes to fly with them over long distances. Delta is looking into those technologies, too. It’s partnering with Airbus to develop a hydrogen-powered plane and with Joby Aviation on electric air taxis for short-range flights. Delta says “revolutionary aircraft” should make up 25 percent of its fleet by 2050. Still, Delta says in its new sustainability plans announced yesterday that SAF “is at the forefront” of its midterm strategy. Delta has so far committed to 200 million gallons worth of SAF offtake agreements with around 50 corporate customers. That’s still a drop in the bucket. The world doesn’t produce enough SAF currently to fuel Delta’s operations for even a single day, the airline said in its announcement. The company has set incremental milestones on its way to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. By the end of the decade, Delta expects SAF to make up 10 percent of its fuel consumption and says that it’s already “halfway” to that goal. SAF usage reaches 35 percent by 2035 under Delta’s plan. Then, it has to make a big leap to more than 95 percent SAF by 2050. The company hedges by saying it will need the help of policymakers and the rest of the industry for sustainable aviation fuels to take off. Building up supply chains for SAF and making it more affordable than traditional jet fuel will require more investment and demand. All of these challenges make aviation one of the hardest sectors to clean up On the other hand, skyrocketing demand for SAF could have detrimental side effects for the environment. Without reducing demand for air travel, feedstocks for biofuels could use up an area about as big as 19 percent of the world’s cropland today. That has some environmental advocates worried about how SAF could contribute to deforestation in the future. All of these challenges make aviation one of the hardest sectors to clean up. Delta generated roughly 27 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2021, according to its latest ESG report. That’s about how much climate pollution 68 gas-fired power plants might create in a year. Jet fuel alone is responsible for 98 percent of Delta’s emissions, the company says. Until recently, airlines including Delta have relied heavily on carbon offset schemes to deal with their pollution. With carbon offsets, companies typically pay to support forestry or other conservation projects to atone for their emissions. The idea is that trees and plants will capture climate pollution through photosynthesis. The bad news is that carbon offset projects, often because of poor planning and management, consistently fail to actually reduce the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere. In light of those failures, other airlines, including JetBlue, Air France, and easyJet, have also started to prioritize a transition to SAF.

Momotchi répond aux questions sur le magnétisme, le Bluetooth, Andreas Noack et le brevet chinois pour nous éclairer.

«Le dictateur en nous était fort.» Un journaliste du Spiegel critique son propre magazine pour ses rumeurs liées à «l'hystérie corona». Alexander Neubacher ne mâche pas ses mots contre l'

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning about dangerous counterfeit pills being sold at pharmacies in Mexico that often contain fentanyl. The travel alert posted Fr…

Virgin Orbit, the satellite-launching arm of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson’s business empire, is suspending operations for a… The post Virgin Orbit temporarily suspends operations, furloughs staff appeared first on AeroTime.

The Senate Majority Leader called the GOP's opening pitch to ease permitting rules a "nonstarter."

Peut-on parler de revanche du monde rural sur la ville hors-sol ? La nette victoire du Mouvement Citoyen-Paysan (BBB) lors des élections provinciales cette semaine aux Pays-Bas témoigne dans les urnes de la colère du monde agricole néerlandais, un secteur prépondérant dans l’économie nationale. Élections aux Pays-Bas : revers pour Thierry Baudet Les élections provinciales […]

It is absolutely insane that the people who helped unleash the horror that was the Iraq War upon the world are not only not in prison, but are actively uplifted and celebrated on the most influential platforms in the West. Listen to a reading of this article: By Caitlin Johnsto