Dallas County News Online

Thursday, 20 October 2022

Talk With Us About Elk Tuesday In Gaylord – Michigan (.gov)

Michigan’s thriving elk herd dates back to 1918, from seven elk brought from the western United States to Wolverine, in Cheboygan County, to help restore a population decimated in the late 1800s by unregulated harvest and lack of quality habitat. Successfully managing that population to provide excellent viewing and hunting opportunities, while sustaining long-term herd health, takes a lot of planning and partnership.

The state’s elk management plan has been revised and is now available for review.

Open revised elk plan ►

The Department of Natural Resources will host a public open house from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, at BJ’s Restaurant and Catering, located at 990 N. Center Ave. in Gaylord. DNR wildlife staff will be available during that time for discussion about elk management and the revised elk plan.

If you’re unable to attend the meeting, there are two options to share your feedback on the plan, through Nov. 11:

Provide comments via this brief form.
Send comments by email or traditional mail (DNR Wildlife Division, 1732 W. M-32, Gaylord, MI 49735).

Questions about the meeting? Contact Chad Stewart at 517-282-4810.

from
https://dallascountynewsonline.com/talk-with-us-about-elk-tuesday-in-gaylord-michigan-gov/

Instagram To Make It Easier To Avoid Trolls – Dunya News

(Reuters) – Instagram will enhance features that help users block the accounts of abusers and trolls on the social media platform, the Meta Platforms-owned (META.O) company said on Thursday.

Users will now be able to block all existing accounts of a person, expanding a feature launched last year that only allowed the blocking of any new accounts that they may create.

“Based on initial test results from this new change, we expect our community will need to block 4 million fewer accounts every week, since these accounts will now be blocked automatically,” Instagram said in a blog post.

The photo-sharing app has been doubling down on tackling hate speech and online abuse on its platform, which is more popular among teens and young adults than Meta s Facebook.

Instagram has also upgraded its feature that helps prevent users from viewing possibly abusive messages, by filtering offensive words to story replies, and said on Thursday it is expanding “nudges” designed to protect creators from harassment.

from
https://dallascountynewsonline.com/instagram-to-make-it-easier-to-avoid-trolls-dunya-news/

Wednesday, 19 October 2022

1,500 Poor Households To Get Technology Boost | News – Jamaica Gleaner

Flow Jamaica will start providing bundled package Internet, laptops and training at a subsidised rate to selected poor households as a means of spurring economic and social development.

The pilot will initially supply 1,500 households across Jamaica.

The data gathered from the pilot will inform Flow on steps to widen the project.

Households will pay $800 a month for the service worth at least five times more at market rates.

“The pilot will be rolling out in days,” stated Stephen Price, vice president and general manager at Flow Jamaica, at the launch on Wednesday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston.

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The households will receive devices, particularly a HP laptop, Internet connectivity and digital skills training.

Educational entities OneonOne Limited, an online platform, and the Caribbean School of Data, with its implementing partner Mona School of Business, will provide the training.

“From a cost perspective we are sharing the partnership in terms of education fees and digital literacy fees,” said Price in the question-and-answer session.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government issued some 40,000 laptops to students as a means of allowing them to conduct classes remotely.

It was aimed at stemming the spread of the virus.

The Flow project, called Jump, aims to hone in on vulnerable households that are likely to continue to fall behind in connectivity and education.

Price said that overtime he expects it to increase graduation rates, jobs, financial inclusion and overall economic growth.

“Jump is our new programme to bridge the digital divide,” he said and later explained about measuring the uptake and usage of the devices.

“We will be measuring success at every stage. So, we have a mark for three-months, six-months and so on, just to make sure we are collecting the data as we go,” said Price.

The launch was endorsed by Karl Samuda, Minister of Labour and Social Security, and Daryl Vaz, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology.

The 1,500 households will be chosen from a list under the Government’s Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) programme.

Steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.

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https://dallascountynewsonline.com/1500-poor-households-to-get-technology-boost-news-jamaica-gleaner/

US Busts Network Providing Technology To Russian Military – The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a round of criminal charges and sanctions related to a complicated scheme to procure military technologies from U.S. manufacturers and illegally supply them to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Some of the equipment was recovered on battlefields in Ukraine, the Justice Department said, and other nuclear proliferation technology was intercepted in Latvia before it could be shipped to Russia.

The Justice Department charged nine people in separate cases in New York and Connecticut, as well as two oil brokers for Venezuela. The defendants are accused of acquiring the military technology from U.S. companies and then laundering tens of millions of dollars for wealthy Russian businessmen and other sanctioned entities. Some of the defendants are also accused of brokering illicit oil deals for the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.

“As I have said, our investigators and prosecutors will be relentless in their efforts to identify, locate, and bring to justice those whose illegal acts undermine the rule of law and enable the Russian regime to continue its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

The five defendants charged in New York are all Russian nationals, and two have been arrested. All four defendants in the Connecticut case — three Latvians and one Ukrainian — were taken into custody months ago at the request of U.S. authorities.

The criminal charges complement the latest round of Biden administration sanctions targeting Russia.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions Wednesday against one of the men charged by the Justice Department, designating Yury Orekhov and two of his firms, Nord-Deutsche Industrieanlagenbau GmbH and Opus Energy Trading LLC, for procuring advanced semiconductors and microprocessors used in fighter aircraft and ballistic and hypersonic missile systems among other military uses.

Orekhov and the firms ultimately sent the materials to Russian end-users, including companies designated by various federal agencies, in violation of U.S. export controls.

The Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control worked in coordination to identify the Russian network.

Along with sanctions on members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner-circle, the U.S. has frozen Russian Central Bank funds and imposed aggressive export controls.

The latest effort is dedicated to preventing Russia from procuring military technologies.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement Wednesday that Russia has increasingly struggled to get the technologies it needs to sustain the war “thanks to the unprecedented sanctions and export controls imposed by our broad coalition of partners and allies.”

“We know these efforts are having a direct effect on the battlefield,” he said, “as Russia’s desperation has led them to turn to inferior suppliers and outdated equipment.”

Information from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, presented Friday at the Treasury Department, said Russia has lost more than 6,000 pieces of equipment since the beginning of the war in late February and is turning to Iran and North Korea for supplies.

Russia is reliant on foreign production machinery and ongoing banking sanctions have undercut the Kremlin’s ability to obtain financing for importing military equipment, the ODNI said.

from
https://dallascountynewsonline.com/us-busts-network-providing-technology-to-russian-military-the-associated-press/

Science News Roundup: Virgin Orbit To Launch First Satellite In Europe Within Six Weeks; Europe Plans First Ariane 6 Rocket Launch In Q4 Of 2023 And More – Devdiscourse

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Apollo, Gemini astronaut James McDivitt dies at age 93

James McDivitt, a former U.S. astronaut who commanded some of NASA’s earliest and most ambitious missions in space, died in his sleep last week at age 93, NASA said in a statement on Monday night. McDivitt, who was selected for NASA’s second astronaut class in 1962, was the commanding pilot for the U.S. space agency’s Gemini 4 mission in 1965 and Apollo 9 in 1969, a mission that helped pave the way for the first human lunar landing.

Genetic findings from Siberian caves give glimpse into Neanderthal life

Bone and tooth remnants from two Siberian caves are helping scientists for the first time decipher the social organization of our cousins the Neanderthals through genetic sleuthing, including on the remains of a father and his teenage daughter. Researchers on Wednesday described genomic findings from the remains of 13 Neanderthals – 11 from Chagyrskaya cave and two from Okladnikov cave in the Altai Mountains of Russia – in one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. The Paleolithic remains date to about 54,000 years ago.

Virgin Orbit to launch first satellite in Europe within six weeks – Branson

Richard Branson’s small satellite service provider Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc will be doing its first launch from European soil within the next six weeks, its founder said on Tuesday. “Virgin Orbit can launch satellites into space from anywhere in the world into any orbit at a days notice,” Branson said during a press conference in Milan.

Europe plans first Ariane 6 rocket launch in Q4 of 2023

Europe plans to launch the first Ariane 6 rocket, its next-generation space launcher, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Wednesday. The 22-nation agency had previously said it was delaying the first launch from 2022 to 2023 without giving details.

(With inputs from agencies.)

from
https://dallascountynewsonline.com/science-news-roundup-virgin-orbit-to-launch-first-satellite-in-europe-within-six-weeks-europe-plans-first-ariane-6-rocket-launch-in-q4-of-2023-and-more-devdiscourse/

Concerns Raised About AI Technology In Pubs And Pokies – ABC News

News Ticker

Posted 8 minutes agoWed 19 Oct 2022 at 7:08pm, updated 6 minutes agoWed 19 Oct 2022 at 7:10pm

Play Video. Duration: 1 minute 48 seconds — Facial recognition technology will be rolled out to every pub and club pokies room to identify banned problem gamblers, but concerns are being raised over its security.

Facial recognition technology will be rolled out to every pub and club pokies room to identify banned problem gamblers, but concerns are being raised over its security.

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https://dallascountynewsonline.com/concerns-raised-about-ai-technology-in-pubs-and-pokies-abc-news/

Use Of Appropriate Technology Fueling Optimism In Villages: Ministry – ANTARA English

Cirebon (ANTARA) – The Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Ministry has informed that the use of appropriate technology has led to villages looking at the future with more optimism.

“Technological innovation always acts as a spring, which makes countries, regions, and villages (advance) further, making the future (filled with) optimism,” the head of development and information at the ministry, Ivanovich Agusta, said at the “Nusantara Appropriate Technology Event” in Cirebon, West Java, on Wednesday.

Currently, villages have succeeded in changing the innovation diffusion curve, he noted. During the 2017–2018 period, the village innovation project managed to compile the names of more than 20 thousand innovation-producing villages, which account for 29 percent of villages in the country.

“The reality on the practice is definitely more than that,” he remarked.

Agusta said that villages have now succeeded in creating a vast opportunity for innovation by improving their innovation ecosystem.

He further noted that Wednesday’s event had brought inventors and the market together.

“Therefore, throughout the ‘Nusantara Appropriate Technology Event,’ a business meeting room will also be provided,” he said.

On the same occasion, Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration Minister Abdul Halim Iskandar said that currently, there has been an increase in the use of appropriate technology in villages, both for agriculture, animal husbandry, and aquaculture.

Thus, the use of appropriate technology could increase production and generate added value for people who live in villages, he added.

Iskandar said he expects the use of appropriate technology to enable rural communities to do their jobs.

“Technology can facilitate and benefit the village community, as well as raise the awareness of villagers to use appropriate technology to create added value,” the minister added.

from
https://dallascountynewsonline.com/use-of-appropriate-technology-fueling-optimism-in-villages-ministry-antara-english/