A quarter of California homes had no A/C this heat wave. It could stay that way for years

2022/09/10

Ceiling fans can be helpful, but for many of the 24% of California households across the state without A/C, the latest heat wave has been a misery and a health hazard. - Dreamstime/TNS/TNS

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In her Stockton apartment, Esther Johnson has been freezing pots of water overnight for relief from California’s historic heat. In the morning, she wraps them in towels, puts them at the foot of the couch and blasts them with fans to create some cool air.

It was 107 degrees outside on Tuesday, the day several cities broke all-time heat records. Inside, it was 96 degrees.

Californians blasted their air conditioning so much this week they nearly overwhelmed the state’s electricity grid. For many of the 24% of households across the state without A/C, each day has been a misery and a health hazard.

“You know when you go into a sauna? It’s like that,” said Johnson, 64, who is recovering from double knee surgery. Her A/C unit has been broken since June, and her landlord isn’t rushing to fix it. “My face is dripping and everything.”

California law and building codes require residential units to maintain temperatures of 70 degrees inside during cold weather. But there is no requirement for air conditioning or other cooling mechanisms to keep residents safe from the extreme heat, which is quickly becoming our routine heat.

Robert Brooke-Munoz, director of San Joaquin Fair Housing, said immediate help is needed for renters whose landlords aren’t fixing A/C units simply because the law doesn’t require them to.

“There’s got to be tighter laws and regulations on air conditioning especially because of the heat and our changing climate,” said Brooke-Munoz, who has been getting daily calls from tenants about broken cooling systems. “This is the worst I’ve seen it.”

Extreme heat is the most deadly symptom of climate change, primarily impacting low-income renters and the elderly. Despite California’s reputation as a strong regulator, the state has moved slowly to create temperature standards that would enforce cooling the same way it does heating.

A bill in the state legislature this year that would have set cooling standards was stalled by opposition from the California Apartments Association. Instead, the state is tasked with forming policy recommendations by 2025, a timeline that is almost sure to include more heat waves.

Jovana Morales-Tilgren, housing policy coordinator at the Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability in Fresno, which led the legislative push, said her organization hopes to move that complicated process along as quickly as possible.

“These issues are happening now and folks feeling it the most are vulnerable populations,” she said. “This heat wave is going to happen again, and who knows if it will be even hotter.”

Californians without cooling

Mario and Elvia Garcia have been buying ice every day to try and keep their five kids cool in Lamont outside Bakersfield.

They get back from school sunburned to a home that’s over 90 degrees inside. At night, they all sleep together on the living room floor, near the most powerful fan.

Fearing a rent hike, they haven’t asked their landlord for an A/C unit. But Mario said government officials need to “go back to the drawing board” and figure out solutions. Maybe solar panels, or subsidies for landlords to install cooling.

“They need to make it right so people feel comfortable in their home,” Mario said.

Extreme heat has become increasingly common in the Golden State with the onset of human-induced climate change. It is the most deadly weather event nationwide.

The percentage of households without air conditioning ranges across the state, as high as 54% in historically cooler San Francisco metro area and as low as 20% in Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Housing Survey.

An LA Times investigation last year found that California under counts the number of people who die from extreme heat, reporting that the recorded 599 deaths between 2010 and 2019 is likely six times higher.

A growing body research also shows that extreme temperatures disproportionately affect low-income people and people of color, particularly in underserved neighborhoods of denser urban areas.

New data from the Department of Energy show a disparity between single family homes and multifamily rentals too. In California, 67% of multifamily housing units in the state lack central A/C compared to 33% of detached single family homes, according to an analysis by UC Davis Professor C.J. Gabbe.

Making landlords sweat

AB 2597 by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, would have directed officials to create statewide standards for safe indoor temperatures.

The measure was opposed by the politically potent rental housing industry and other real estate interests, who would be on the hook for retrofits of existing buildings with air conditioning or other forms of cooling.

Any changes to the code for new buildings would also have to go through the Building Standards Commission at the Department of General Services, which adopts a new code only every three years.

Instead of passing the bill, lawmakers put $5 million in the state budget for the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop recommendations to the legislature to ensure that residential units can maintain a safe indoor air temperature.

A spokesperson for the department said “it is premature to comment at this time” when asked about plans to form recommendations.

In a statement on the original bill, California Apartment Association executive vice president Debra Carlton said that “changing the rules for existing buildings is not feasible in many cases.”

Older homes and apartments are not designed to allow for installation of new cooling system, she said, adding that new A/C systems would further strain the state power grid.

After releasing an extreme heat plan this April, California created an advisory committee to study its effects on California’s economy. It sent workplace safety standards, meant to prevent heat illness among outdoor workers, to Newsom’s desk.

New temperature standards are expected to vary across the state depending on local climate, as enforcement protocols are worked through and landlords figure out how to pay for it.

UCLA urban planning professor V. Kelly Turner pointed to the many ways buildings can keep residents cool other than A/C, like using trees and central plazas for shade. But the most important thing is that it gets done soon.

“It’s glaringly obvious that it’s insufficient when it’s illegal to rent a home that’s too cold, but perfectly legal to rent a home that’s too hot,” she said.

The results of this year’s legislative session are “a good step forward,” said Brian Augusta, a legislative advocate representing the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

“This week’s weather tells tells the story. We’re gonna see more events like this, and I think there will be increasing pressure to act more urgently but we’re on a path now.”

———

© The Sacramento Bee

‘Agape Boarding School should be closed.’ New Missouri AG filing says abuse is systemic

2022/09/09

Agape Boarding School, Stockton, Cedar County, Mo. Former students of Missouri Christian boarding schools say they were physically restrained by staff and other students as a form of punishment. - Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/TNS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Attorney General and state child welfare leaders filed an amended complaint Friday afternoon, saying students must be removed from Agape Boarding School because of a long pattern of abuse.

The complaint, filed in Cedar County Circuit Court, contained additional details that the AG’s office said provided explicit evidence of systemic abuse of students at the unlicensed school near Stockton that has gone on for years.

Those new details also include allegations that Agape provided “incomplete information” to the state in recent days. And it said multiple people still working at the school are appealing their substantiated findings from the Missouri Department of Social Services that they physically abused students. State law allows the staffers to keep working while they appeal the findings.

The Kansas City Star has independently learned that Agape director Bryan Clemensen is one of those who was notified by DSS that he had a substantiated report of abuse against him. Multiple sources also said that Scott Dumar, the school’s longtime medical coordinator, also is among those appealing a substantiated DSS finding. Dumar is also one of five staff members who were charged last year with physical abuse of students.

“Agape has failed over many years to stem the tide of abuse and neglect perpetrated at their school and ensure the health and safety of their students,” Friday’s filing said. “The culmination of all of these facts leads the Attorney General and the Department of Social Services to believe that Agape Boarding School should be closed.

“No other relief ensures the safety of the children residing at Agape.”

A hearing is set for 9 a.m. Monday in Cedar County Circuit Court before Judge David Munton.

The Attorney General’s Office filed the initial petition Wednesday during a drama-packed week that included Schmitt and DSS asking for an injunction to immediately close Agape and remove students, citing concerns about their safety.

The petition stated that on Wednesday, DSS added a current Agape staff member to the state’s Central Registry for Abuse/Neglect after the agency found by a preponderance of evidence that the staffer committed child abuse at Agape.

Munton signed an order Wednesday night for the school’s closure, only to put it on hold Thursday morning. He sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to Agape to determine whether the employee — who is referred to in court records as Staff A — was still working there.

Missouri law prohibits someone from working at a residential care facility if the person has a substantiated finding of child abuse or neglect or is placed on the registry.

“On September 8, 2022, Agape’s director Bryan Clemensen reported that Agape Staff A was fired ‘yesterday’ (September 7, 2022), but still resides on the Agape property in close proximity to children at Agape,” the new filing said.

After hearing that the employee had been fired on Wednesday, DSS obtained a roster Thursday of current Agape employees, individuals with access to children and those who reside on the property, according to the filing.

“Agape Staff A was included on the September 8, 2022 roster that Agape provided to DSS,” the filing said.

“Agape’s harboring of Agape Staff A, an individual who is listed on the state’s Child Abuse/Neglect Central Registry, presents an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape,” the document said. “... Agape employs and harbors other individuals who present an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape.”

Friday’s amended complaint also describes how, according to DSS, Agape has provided the child welfare agency with incomplete information about those at the school with access to the children and about the adults who live on the 500-acre campus.

“These new developments are sadly consistent with the dark pattern of behavior at Agape previously exposed by the Attorney General’s Office and DSS,” it said.

The Star reported Tuesday that DSS had confirmed 10 findings of physical abuse involving Agape staff. Those findings are final dispositions and the workers involved have been placed on the state’s Central Registry and do not currently work at any boarding schools in Missouri, DSS officials said.

Those 10 represent the number of abuse findings, DSS said, not necessarily the number of people investigated. In other words, one person could have multiple findings.

On Friday, DSS officials confirmed to The Star that with the Agape employee who was added to the Central Registry on Wednesday, that makes 11 substantiated findings related to the Cedar County boys boarding school.

The Star has investigated Agape and other boarding schools in southern Missouri since late summer 2020. Many men who attended the school in their youth said they were subjected to physical restraints, extreme workouts, long days of manual labor, and food and water withheld as punishment. And, they said, students endured constant berating and mind games, and some were physically and sexually abused by staff and other youth.

Prompted by stories of abuse at several unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, legislators successfully pushed for change in the state law to implement some oversight of those schools. That law, which went into effect in July 2021, requires schools for the first time to register with the state, conduct background checks on employees and undergo health, safety and fire inspections.

The law also gives DSS, the attorney general or the local prosecuting attorney the authority to petition the court to close a facility if there is an immediate health or safety concern for the children.

Agape now has 63 students, about half of the population the school had in early 2021 when the Missouri Highway Patrol and DSS launched an investigation into abuse allegations. That investigation led to low-level felony charges against five Agape staff members, accusing them of 13 counts of abusing students.

“There has been a long history of allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape, and those allegations have been recently coming to public attention and DSS’s attention,” the amended petition said. “Many child abuse and neglect allegations take years to come to light; a critical mass of allegations coming to light at the same time is sufficient to constitute an ‘immediate health or safety concern.’”

© The Kansas City Star

Buried deep in a time capsule for a century, a 1919 ‘Black Sox’ World Series baseball sees the light

2022/09/10

Developer Lee Golub stands on the 25th floor of Tribune Tower Residences on Aug. 24, 2022, while holding a baseball from the 1919 World Series featuring the Chicago White Sox. - Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

CHICAGO — For nearly a century, millions of words poured from the confines of the Tribune Tower in stories about crooked politicians, murderous lovers, civic giants, sports heroes, regular folks and big shots, charting all the joys and tragedies of the human condition. No longer home to a newspaper but to luxurious condominiums, the building now delivers a new and fascinating tale, of a baseball long buried, a baseball that some believe is worth $1 million or more.

The ball is a homely and bruised and beaten thing. It was discovered earlier this year when three time capsules were found during the remaking of the building.

The Tribune Tower was sold for $240 million in June 2016 to the CIM Group in partnership with Chicago-based Golub & Co. Its transformation began after all former tenants — including some 750 Chicago Tribune employees, WGN-AM 720 staff and equipment, a barbershop, restaurant, candy store and other businesses — were relocated and scattered across the city in June 2018.

“I love this building and this has been the most interesting and complicated project I have ever worked on,” says Lee Golub, the executive vice president at Golub & Co. “But there has been great joy in that, because I think this is the greatest building in the world.”

He is happy that two-thirds of the building’s 162 condominiums have been sold, for prices ranging from $700,000 to more than $8 million. He was happy and proud as he walked around the building with Tribune photographer Chris Sweda and myself, neither of us having visited since we left four years ago. Not to play architecture critic, but I was impressed by the transformation, a remake that was jarring but impressive. We saw some apartments with terraces, soaring ceilings and dramatic arch windows. We saw a space with all sorts of amenities, including a gym and swimming pool. We saw a landscaped exterior courtyard, meeting rooms, sundecks, outdoor terraces and grill stations. We saw much more and listened to Golub say, “It was important that we keep the history of the building intact,” and walked through a landmarked lobby cleaner than we had ever seen it. It sparkled.

But back to baseball.

The three battered and worn metal box time capsules — placed inside the cornerstones of the former printing press building, which rose in 1920; Tribune Tower, completed in 1925; and the WGN Radio building, completed in 1950 — contained more than 100 items.

Most of these were predictable time capsule knickknacks. There were yellowed copies of the Tribune newspaper, a 1907 political cartoon from Pulitzer Prize winner John T. McCutcheon, war cartoons from 1942 and motion pictures set to recordings of speeches from owner/publisher Robert McCormick, as well as all of the 263 submissions for the 1922 design competition that offered a $50,000 first-place prize, won by New York architects John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood, and a penny from 1847, the year the Tribune was founded.

It was noted as well that there was also a baseball, one reporter speculating that it was “possibly from the 1919 ‘Black Sox’ World Series.’ ”

The minute Golub saw the ball, he called his friend Grant DePorter. The pair have known one another for years. “I just knew he’d want to see this,” Golub says.

“I ran over the minute he called,” DePorter says.

DePorter is the CEO of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group, overseeing the operation of seven restaurants. He co-authored a 2008 book with Elliott Harris and Mark Vancil, “Hoodoo: Unraveling the 100-Year Mystery of the Chicago Cubs” (Rare Air Limited). Late in 2003, he paid $113,824.16 for what was known as the “Bartman Ball,” which was exploded early in 2004 in a nationally televised event from the restaurant, with money raised going to charity.

DePorter is also a passionate historian and the mere sight of the baseball compelled him to start digging. He was able to determine, with the help of FBI Special Agent and expert on memorabilia Brian Brusokas, that the ball was used in the 1919 World Series between the White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds.

“And it was a record-setting baseball,” DePorter says. “It is a baseball that struck out more batters in a row in a World Series than any baseball in history.”

The Cincinnati pitcher, his name long faded into history, was Horace “Hod” Eller. He pitched well, striking out nine batters, including a then-World Series record of six in a row during the fifth game, which was played in Comiskey Park in front of 34,379 fans.

“Eller was known for a shine pitch, a pitch that involved putting paraffin wax on one part of the ball and also in the stitches of the ball,” DePorter says, handing me a pile of his research. “Chemicals found in paraffin are used in solvents and also can burn. The ball has a mark where the paraffin shine was placed and the ball’s dark coloring would be attributed to the fact that it was placed in a time capsule for 100 years with paraffin present.”

That 1919 World Series resulted in what DePorter and many others consider the biggest scandal in the history of sports, known as the Black Sox Scandal. It has been the subject of many books, the best of which is Eliot Asinof’s 1963 “Eight Men Out,” which gave birth to the 1988 film of the same name.

In short, the scandal involved eight members of the Sox being accused of throwing the series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a group of gamblers. The players’ names were: Arnold “Chick” Gandil, George “Buck” Weaver, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Charles “Swede” Risberg, Fred McMullin, Eddie Cicotte, Claude “Lefty” Williams and, most famously, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.

A Chicago grand jury indicted the players in late September 1920 and, though all were acquitted in a public trial on Aug. 2, 1921, baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis the next day permanently banned all eight for life from professional baseball.

Along with the baseball, DePorter found a letter.

“It was hidden in a pile of moldy documents,” he says. “It was written by Tribune sports editor Harvey Woodruff and the letter does not mention anything about any controversy tied to the series even though it was written and placed in the time capsule in May of 1920, seven months after the series.”

DePorter kept digging.

“When Woodruff wrote this letter he was the top choice to be the chairman of the National Baseball Commission and as such would have been the one to decide whether to investigate the rumors that the World Series was fixed,” DePorter says. “He had not written any negative story that would hint that gamblers might have fixed the games. He even told one of his reporters that he did not believe the series had been fixed.”

DePorter believes that had Woodruff been appointed chairman, it would have changed baseball history. He says, “It is also highly likely that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson would have been inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.”

The letter confirmed the ball’s vintage. “This baseball was used by Pitcher Horace (Hod) Eller of the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth game of the World’s Series baseball contests of 1919 against the Chicago White Sox,” Woodruff wrote.

Many of the items found in the time capsules are slated to have a new home in the Chicago History Museum but not that baseball. It will formally meet the public later this month at the Green Tie Ball, an annual event to benefit the nonprofit, public-private partnership that is Chicago Gateway Green, which is dedicated to the greening and beautification of the city. Golub and DePorter, whose father, Donald DePorter. started the organization in 1986, are co-chairs of the event. Golub will perform there, playing drums, with his band, Dr. Bombay.

The event takes place Sept. 17 at the Chicago Sports Museum. DePorter is the founder of the museum and that is where the old World Series baseball will be on display.

“We have a lot of great memorabilia there,” DePorter says. “But this baseball. … No piece of memorabilia has made me more insane, combing through archives, old newspapers, websites. It is hard to put a price on it, but a Mickey Mantle 1952 baseball card, not even in pristine shape, sold last week for $12.6 million. I think of this baseball as a treasure and it tells a great story.”

© Chicago Tribune

Survey finds cyberattacks on healthcare facilities increase patient mortality


The impact of cyberattacks on American healthcare facilities frequently result in higher patient mortality while also leading to millions of dollars in lost productivity, according to a new study published Thursday. File Photo by geralt/Pixabay

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The impact of cyberattacks on American healthcare facilities frequently result in higher patient mortality while also leading to millions of dollars in lost productivity, according to a new study published Thursday.

The report by Washington, D.C., think tank Poneman Institute found 24% of those interviewed said ransomware increased the mortality rate, while 21% said the same thing about a business email compromise attack.

Over 600 IT professionals across more than 100 U.S. healthcare facilities were interviewed for the study.

Two-thirds of those polled said a BEC attack disrupted patient care to some degree, while 59% said they increased the length of patients' stays at the facility.

The four most common types of attacks were a cloud compromise, ransomware, supply chain, and BEC or phishing, according to the report. More than 70% of organizations admitted they are vulnerable to the first three types, while 64% said they are vulnerable to a BEC incident.

The attacks occur with regularity.

Nine out of 10 organizations admitted to experiencing at least one cyberattack during the past 12 months. The average number of attacks was 43 among facilities in that group.

The financial impact of the attacks is also significant.

The average cost in lost productivity from a cyberattack worked out to $1.1 million.

Overall, the financial cost of the single-most expensive attack an organization suffered over the last 12 months equated to $4.4 million.

A lack of preparedness exists, despite the frequency of attacks. Only 51% of respondents say their organizations include prevention and response to an attack on these devices as part of their cybersecurity strategy.

"The attacks we analyzed put a significant strain on healthcare organizations' resources. Their result is not only tremendous cost but also a direct impact on patient care, endangering people's safety and wellbeing," Ponemon Institute chair Larry Poneman said in a statement.

"Most of the IT and security professionals regard their organizations as vulnerable to these attacks, and two-thirds believe that technologies such as cloud, mobile, big data, and the Internet of Things -- which are all seeing increased adoption -- further increase the risks to patient data and safety."

United Airlines spends $15M for 200 electric air taxis

United Airlines is investing $15 million to buy 200 vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles from Eve Air Mobility, the company confirmed on Thursday. Image by United Airlines

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- United Airlines is investing $15 million to buy 200 vertical take-off and landing electric vehicles, the Chicago-based company said in a statement on Thursday.

The conditional purchase agreement is with Eve Air Mobility, a subsidiary of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, and calls for 200 of the four-seat electric aircraft.

United also has an option to purchase a further 200 of the flying taxis, with the first deliveries expected to occur as early as 2026.

The two companies also intend to work together on future projects and develop the application of the aircraft for use in what the airline is terming the "urban air mobility (UAM) ecosystem."

This isn't United's first foray into the eVTOL space. Last month, the world's fourth-largest airline gave a $10-million deposit to California-based Archer Aviation for 100 similar aircraft, as it attempts to be at the forefront of the new technology. At the time, Archer called it a "watershed moment" for the entire industry.

The purchase is part of United's goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 without the use of traditional offsets.

The air taxis do not rely on traditional combustion engines. Instead, the aircraft use carbon-free electric motors, "to be used as 'air taxis' in urban markets."

Eve's particular design uses conventional fixed wings, rotors and pushers to operate.

The vehicles have a range of 60 miles and are 90% quieter than current conventional aircraft.

The company plans to begin conducting simulation tests next week in Chicago, beginning with ground tests and followed by passenger flights, using helicopters powered by Blade Air Mobility.

"United has made early investments in several cutting-edge technologies at all levels of the supply chain, staking out our position as a leader in aviation sustainability and innovation," Michael Leskinen, president of the company's innovation wing, United Airlines Ventures said in a statement.

"Today, United is making history again, by becoming the first major airline to publicly invest in two eVTOL companies. Our agreement with Eve highlights our confidence in the urban air mobility market and serves as another important benchmark toward our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 -- without using traditional offsets. Together, we believe our suite of clean energy technologies will revolutionize air travel as we know it and serve as the catalyst for the aviation industry to move toward a sustainable future."

‘It’s not just science fiction’: Zeva is taking its flying saucer concept to the next level

Alan Boyle - Friday - Geekwire

Eight months ago, Zeva Aero conducted a milestone flight test for an electric-powered flying saucer that would warm the heart of any sci-fi fan. Now the Tacoma, Wash.-based startup has changed the design ⁠— and although Zeva’s Z2 will look less like a UFO, it will look more real.


An artist’s conception shows Zeva’s Z2 electric air vehicle in horizontal flight. 

(Zeva Illustration)

“It’s not just science fiction,” Zeva CEO Stephen Tibbitts says.

Tibbitts explains what’s changed since January, and why, in the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, which focuses on the intersection of science and fiction.

The company’s first full-scale prototype, known as the Zeva Zero, was developed to compete in the GoFly Prize, a $2 million contest for single-person flying machines.

After Zeva put the Zero through its first untethered, controlled flight test in a pasture south of Seattle, Tibbitts and his team decided to change things around for the Z2. “We’re moving on to what we think solves some of the issues that the Zero has,” Tibbitts says.

Zeva’s goal for the Z2 is basically the same as it was for the Zero: to create a flying vehicle that takes off and lands vertically, but pivots for horizontal forward flight. Its range for flying a single person would be 50 miles, with enough power to hit a top speed of 160 mph.

The streamlined Z2 design still has something of a flying saucer look, but it calls for bigger, more efficient propellers that are mounted on four large motor pods. Zeva also plans to incorporate the latest in battery tech. The new design may not be as compliant with the GoFly Prize’s design specifications, but it’ll more stable on the ground for takeoff.

“We have not finished the prototype yet,” Tibbitts says. “We’re working on it. We have quite a bit of CAD [computer-aided design] work to do before we start cutting molds. But once we start cutting molds and making composite parts, it should go fairly quickly.”

Zeva is aiming to have a Z2 prototype ready for testing later this year.


Stephen Tibbitts is the co-founder and CEO of Zeva Aero. 

(Photo via LinkedIn)

Tibbitts is proud of how far his team has come since the company was founded in 2017. So far, Zeva has gotten its funding from founders, friends and family, plus an equity crowdfunding campaign that brought in more than $200,000. Tibbitts says the company currently has in the neighborhood of six “quasi-full-time” employees and 25 experts it can call upon for advice.

“The remarkable thing about Zeva, really, is that we’ve produced a 100% full-scale flying prototype over four and a half with a budget of $700,000,” Tibbitts says. Now Zeva is ramping up for what it hopes will be a multimillion-dollar Series A funding round.

Can Zeva keep up with much larger companies that are also working on electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing vehicles, or eVTOLs? Companies like Bell, Joby Aviation and Boeing-backed Wisk Aero? Tibbitts says Zeva can occupy a niche of its own.

“A lot of it has to do with focus,” he says. “We’re focused on trying to drive the technology down into the hands of people that just want to fly. Other companies are focused on urban air mobility. … I happen to believe that eVTOL technology has wide-ranging applications far outside the city.”


Artwork shows Zeva’s eVTOL parked in a driveway. 

(Zeva Illustration)© Provided by Geekwire

The way Tibbitts sees it, the first applications could include providing rapid-response air vehicles for first responders and law enforcement officials. He also notes that the U.S. military is looking at eVTOLs for a variety of applications.

“If you look at what the Navy’s asking for, they’re asking for a small, compact aircraft that can launch itself,” Tibbitts says. “They want to be able to store a bunch of these in a container ship … and then be able to launch them to either go ship-to-shore or ship-to-ship, and just supply goods. Not necessarily hauling humans around.”

Once Zeva gets its design figured out, the business plan calls for setting up a pilot production line, most likely in the Puget Sound region. “I would be so bold to say it also could be the site for the future Gigafactory — if we’re following the Tesla model, in terms of being able to set up a factor to stamp these things out and make lots of them,” Tibbitts says.

Zeva is planning on an initial price tag of $250,000.

“I think there’s margin in there for us at that price,” Tibbitts says. “But I also would want to be able to drive it down to a lower cost point eventually — five, six, seven years from now — into something that’s attainable for the consumer. So, you’d have your choice: You can buy a Lamborghini, or you can buy a Zeva.”


In this artist’s conception, a Zeva eVTOL is parked on the side of a building at a SkyDock. 

(Zeva Illustration)

Tibbitts admits that he’s been inspired by the flying cars of science fiction, going back to the bubble car that was featured in “The Jetsons” and the magnetic air car that popped up in the Dick Tracy comic strip starting in the ’60s. But he says the real-life flying machines due to emerge in the decades ahead will look a lot different.

“The ultimate goal, I think, for the next 20 years is to combine eVTOL technology with high-speed, cross-country travel,” Tibbitts says. “Everybody wants a business jet that can land and take off vertically, and there’s actually some Air Force work going on in that area.”

In February, the Air Force selected 11 companies to move ahead with high-speed eVTOL concepts. One of those companies is Jetoptera, which is based in Edmonds, Wash. Another company on the list, VerdeGo Aero, was co-founded by Bainbridge Island resident Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.

Zeva may not have made the Air Force’s list this time around, but Tibbitts clearly has high-speed flights in his sights. “That’s the next big phase — to get to a point where you’ve got a machine that can land and take off virtually anywhere, but can also go 300-plus miles an hour and get you to your destination very quickly,” he says.

So, if Zeva stays in business long enough, make a note to watch the skies as the Z10 zips by.

Check out the original version of this item on Cosmic Log for Tibbitts’ top recommendation when it comes to far-out science fiction. 

Burning Man highlights the primordial human need for ritual

The Conversation
September 10, 2022

Burning Man (Shutterstock)

At the end of each summer, hordes of people flock to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to erect a makeshift city the size of the Italian town of Pisa. They call it Black Rock City. A few days later, they will burn it to the ground, leaving no trace.

During their time together, they partake in an extravaganza of unique experiences. Wearing wild costumes and riding carnivalesque vehicles, they attend colorful parades, spectacular light displays and interactive art installations.

Since its inception in 1986, attendance has increased from a few dozens of individuals to over 70,000 — and hundreds of thousands in various regional versions around the world.

In surveys, Burners, as they call themselves, report experiencing strong feelings of connection during the event. Over three-quarters say that their experience was transformative, over 90% say that these transformative effects lasted beyond their stay, and over 80% say that they made a permanent impact on their lives. The great majority return again, many of them every year.

What makes this bizarre event so meaningful to so many people?

The ceremonial experience

The overwhelming majority of Burners identify as nonreligious, yet the deeply spiritual experiences they report resemble those of religious groups. Indeed, the similarities with religion are no accident.

Burning Man, as the event became known, started as a solstice get-together by a handful of friends on Baker Beach in San Francisco. In 1986, they decided to build a wooden effigy and then torch it. Co-founder Larry Harvey called this a “spontaneous act of radical self-expression.” As people started gathering to watch, they realized they had created a ritual. The next year, they put up fliers and drew a bigger crowd. It has been growing ever since.

Harvey was an avid reader of anthropological theories of religion. He was particularly interested in the role of ritual in creating meaningful experiences. These experiences, he argued, address a primordial human need: “The desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence.”

As an anthropologist of ritual myself, I can see that ceremony is at the essence of Burning Man. It begins as soon as Burners walk through the gate. Upon entering, people signal their arrival by ringing a bell. They hug and greet each other by saying “Welcome home!” That home is treated as sacred, symbolically demarcated and protected from the polluting influence of the “default world,” as they call the outside. Upon their departure, they will perform a purification rite, removing all “matter out of place” – anything that doesn’t belong to the desert, from plastic bottles to specs of glitter.

Leaving their default name behind them, they use their “playa name.” It is a name gifted to them by another Burner and used to signify their new identity in the playa (the desert basin). They also abandon many of the comforts of the outside world. Monetary transactions are not allowed, and neither is bartering. Instead, they practice a gift economy, modeled on traditional ceremonial customs.

Anthropologists have noted that such ceremonial exchange systems can have important social utility. Unlike economic exchanges that produce equivalent outcomes, each act of donation creates feelings of gratitude, obligation and community, increasing both personal satisfaction and social solidarity.

The Burning Man Temple is yet another testament to the power of ritual. When sculptor David Best was invited to build an installation in 2000, he erected a wooden structure without any use in mind. But when a crew member died in a motorcycle accident, visitors started bringing mementos of people they had lost, and later gathered to watch it burn at the end of the event.

Since then, the temple has become a symbol of mourning and resilience.

Its walls are covered with thousands of notes, photographs and memorabilia. They are reminders of things people wish to leave behind: a personal loss, a divorce, an abusive relationship. It is all consumed by the fire on the final night as onlookers gather to watch silently, many of them in tears. Such a simple symbolic act seems to have surprisingly powerful cathartic effects.


The 2006 installation, which was called ‘Temple of Hope,’ is set on fire at Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
AP Photo/Ron Lewis

The weeklong event culminates with the ceremonial destruction of the two largest structures looming at the center of the ephemeral city. On the penultimate night, a wooden effigy known as “the Man” is reduced to ashes. And in the final act, everyone gathers to watch the burning of the temple.

The human thirst for ritual

The oldest known ceremonial structures, such as Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, predate agriculture and permanent settlement. Although they took enormous effort to build, they too, like Black Rock City, were only used by ephemeral communities: groups of hunter-gatherers who traveled long distances to visit them.

It is not until hundreds of years later that evidence of settlement in those areas was found. This led archaeologist Klaus Schmidt to propose that it was the thirst for ritual that led those hunter-gatherers to permanent settlement, paving the way for civilization.

Whether this radical hypothesis is historically true is hard to know. But phenomena like Burning Man could confirm the view that the human need for ritual is primeval. It both predates and extends beyond organized religion.

Burning Man defies a strict definition. When I asked Burners to describe it, they used term such as movement, community, pilgrimage or social experiment. Whatever it might be, Burning Man’s unprecedented success, I believe, is due to its ability to create meaningful experiences for its members, which reflect a greater human yearning for spirituality.

Dimitris Xygalatas, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

RIP

Bernard Shaw, pioneer anchor at CNN for 2 decades, dies at 82


CNN's Bernard Shaw holds an ACE award for Best Newscaster during the Academy of Cable Excellence Awards at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles on January 14, 1990.

 File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Bernard Shaw, a pioneer Black broadcast journalist who was a staple on the anchor desk at CNN for two decades and provided numerous memorable on-air moments, died due to complications from pneumonia. He was 82.

Shaw died in a Washington, D.C., hospital on Wednesday, officials at the cable news network said on Thursday.

A constant presence on the air for CNN, Shaw had a distinguished journalism career for more than four decades.


A graduate of the University of Illinois, Shaw started his career at WNUS radio (now WGNB) in Chicago in 1964 before moving on to the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, where he eventually served as chief White House correspondent.

Shaw spent three years with ABC News before moving on to his renowned stint at CNN when the network launched in 1980. He retired at CNN in 2001 but continued to appear on the network on various occasions as recently as 2020.

"Even after he left CNN, Bernie remained a close member of our CNN family providing our viewers with context about historic events as recently as last year," CNN Chairman and CEO Chris Licht said in a statement Thursday. "The condolences of all of us at CNN go out to his wife Linda and his children."

There was no shortage of memorable or important moments over Shaw's lengthy career in news. He first gained widespread notice on March 30, 1981, for his continuous coverage of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.

During the coverage, Shaw made multiple key observations on the air -- including "a very shaken" Secretary of State Alexander Haig after he appeared before the White House press corps and infamously declared, "I am in control here."

At one point in the continuous live coverage, Shaw and journalist Daniel Schorr were closely examining video footage of the shooting when Shaw pointed out that Reagan appeared to have been hit by the bullet a split second before he was shoved into the presidential limousine. It was later determined that the bullet had indeed struck Reagan at precisely the moment Shaw pointed to.

A decade later, Shaw again was noted for his live coverage of the start of the Gulf War in Iraq. He reported on the air for the network -- along with John Holliman and Peter Arnett -- from a Baghdad hotel even though they were in a very dangerous war zone, with rockets and gunfire exploding close enough to the team to be heard on the air.

"Clearly I've never been there, but this feels like we're in the center of hell," said at one moment during the coverage.

Shaw distinguished himself during other high-profile events, including the Tiananmen Square conflict in 1989 and the recount that followed the 2000 presidential election.

Shaw's family said funeral services will be private, but there will be a public memorial in the near future

USPS releases new stamp celebrating NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

Officials unveil the James Webb Space Telescope stamp at the

 Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington on Thursday.

 Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A new postage stamp celebrating NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, which is the most powerful scope ever put in space, was released on Thursday.

The U.S. Postal Service and NASA celebrated the new stamp at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington.


The image on the stamp is an artist's depiction of the groundbreaking telescope -- and the words "Webb Space Telescope" appear in white along its bottom edge. It's a "forever" stamp, meaning it will be good to send postage at any time in the future.

The release on Thursday came nine months after the telescope was launched into space.

"The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the sun about a million miles away from our planet. Now it will travel the United States mail system, with the launch of this new Forever stamp," Anton Hajjar, U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors vice chairman, said in a statement.

"The Webb telescope is sending truly astounding images, I'm sure you will agree! The telescope itself, which we celebrate in this stamp, is an engineering marvel, decades in the making."

The $10 billion telescope is composed of 18 hexagonal mirrors that are 21 feet across. The JWST sent its first dazzling images back to Earth in July.

This image, which was one of the first to be sent back to Earth from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, shows the edge of a young, star-forming region, NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula

. Photo by NASA/UPI

The telescope's infrared vision can peer 13.5 billion years into the universe's past -- seeing the light of the first stars and galaxies as they formed after the Big Bang. Unlike the Hubble Telescope, which orbits the Earth, Webb is floating at a certain location in space known as a Lagrange point, nearly 1 million miles away from Earth.

The telescope, which was first conceived in the 1990s as a successor to Hubble, is a joint venture by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency. Northrop Grumman started building the giant piece of equipment in California in 2004.

NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana said in a statement Thursday that he'd like the new stamps to elicit the same excitement that the JWST does.

"When anyone who uses these stamps looks at this telescope, I want them to see what I see: its incredible potential to reveal new and unexpected discoveries that help us understand the origins of the universe, and our place in it," Cabana said.

Google, Amazon employees protest $1.2 billion deal with Israel


Employees of Google and Amazon are protesting the company's contract to provide cloud services to Israel. 

File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Hundreds of employees of Google and Amazon will hold protests on Thursday outside the companies' headquarters, in opposition to the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus deal with the Israeli government and military.

The #NoTechForApartheid movement announced that the protests would be held in San Francisco, New York and Seattle. The movement is seeking to prevent Israel from using technology to surveil Palestinians.

"Technology can bring people together -- but when these tools are used to harm communities, they make the world less safe for us all," the movement's website said. "That's why workers at Google and Amazon are urging their employers to walk their talk on human rights.''

In April 2021, the two major tech companies signed a contract with the Israeli government and military to provide them with cloud technology.

In the wake of that agreement, the #NoTechForApartheid movement was founded to push back against the deal. The movement says that Amazon and Google are complicit in Israel's May 2021 assault on Gaza, roadblocks that restrict Palestinians from traveling, and the destruction of Palestinian homes in the West Bank.

The movement also cited instances of Amazon's technology being used to help ICE deport immigrants, and Google selling artificial intelligence to the Department of Defense to make its drone strikes deadlier.

Ahmad Abu Shammalh, a computer scientist in Gaza, said that Silicon Valley has limited the cellular connection of Palestinians.

"Silicon Valley's tech giants show deliberate and systematic censorship of the Palestinian narrative, which borders on a denial of our very existence," Shammalh said in a statement on the movement's website. "These companies support a living apartheid."

Google has said the deal is directed at everyday work that is not highly sensitive or classified.

"We are proud that Google Cloud has been selected by the Israeli government to provide public cloud services to help digitally transform the country," Google spokeswoman Newberry said, according to TechCrunch. "The project includes making Google Cloud Platform available to government agencies for everyday workloads such as finance, healthcare, transportation and education, but it is not directed to highly sensitive or classified workloads."

GRIFTER IN CHIEF
Federal grand jury investigates Trump's Save America PAC


Former President Donald Trump holds a "Save America" hat before speaking to supporters during a rally on Aug. 5, 2022. A federal grand jury is investigating former President Donald Trump's Save America political action committee. File Photo by Alex Wroblewski/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 8 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has opened a probe into a political action committee opened by former President Donald Trump following his loss in the 2020 presidential election.

A federal grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol has issued subpoenas to several individuals seeking information about Trump's Save America PAC, ABC News, The New York Times and Politico reported.

The subpoenas showed the Justice Department is interested in the inner workings of Save America, specifically seeking to understand the timeline of its formation, fundraising activities and how it receives and spends money.

Save America's statement of organization filing to the Federal Election Commission says the committee was established days after the 2020 election and is affiliated with the Trump campaign and Trump Make America Great Committee. The small-dollar-focused, joint-fundraising committee between the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee has sent out donor solicitation emails on behalf of Save America.

The PAC can only accept donations of up to $5,000 per donor, well below the more than $800,000 donations previously raised by Trump Victory a high-dollar joint fundraising committee between Trump's campaign and the Republican Party.

Trump and his allies have regularly used claims about fraud in the 2020 election and investigations into Trump's actions surrounding the election and the Capitol riots, as well as his business dealings to solicit donations for Save America.

Following the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home last month, Save America sent out a fundraising email urging the former president's supporters to "rush in a donation IMMEDIATELY to publicly stand with me against this NEVERENDING WITCH HUNT.

During a hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said the campaign raised $250 million after the election by claiming they were combatting election fraud.

"Throughout the committee's investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off," Lofgren said. "Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did."