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Opinion: Global heat records are falling. A little panic might be in order

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

Modern humans generally think of panic as unhelpful, triggering stampedes at concerts, collapses at cookouts and endless hours of therapy. But our species evolved panic as a kind of superpower to avoid being eaten. In certain circumstances, and in measured doses, a little existential dread can still be helpful.Take our rapidly changing climate. The planet could easily set a record-high average temperature in 2023, especially with an El Niño weather pattern kicking in later this year. We have already suffered through the hottest early June on record, with global land temperatures briefly touching 1.5C above the pre-industrial average. Ocean temperatures this spring have been the hottest ever at this time of year, in records going back 174 years.Many people, including myself, have warned against panicking about such stunning new highs, given the temporary nature of El Niño’s boost. Even if we temporarily hit 1.5C of warming this year, it will still be theoretically possible to avoid l...

Here’s what James Cameron has said about diving to the Titanic wreckage

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

James Cameron isn’t just one of Hollywood’s most successful directors ever, he’s also a lover of deep sea exploration.Those paths have crossed in two of his biggest hits, “Avatar” and “Titanic.”While Cameron has not publicly commented on the current search for the Titanic tour OceanGate submersible with five people on board, he has personally made 33 dives to the wreckage site.CNN has reached out to representatives of Cameron for comment.Here’s what the director has said in the past about the deep sea exploration.His motivation for making ‘Titanic’Cameron told Playboy in 2009 that it wasn’t a love story aboard the doomed Titanic that inspired him to make his hit 1997 film.“I made ‘Titanic’ because I wanted to dive to the shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie,” he told the publication.“The Titanic was the Mount Everest of shipwrecks, and as a diver I wanted to do it right,” he said. “When I learned some other guys had dived to the Titanic to make an IMAX movi...

Titanic explorer says two likely disaster causes are survivable, one is not

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

By Danielle Bochove | Bloomberg The submersible vessel that vanished during a dive to the Titanic shipwreck may have experienced one of the so-called trinity of disasters that all such expeditions seek to avoid: a hull breach, a fire or an entanglement.The first of those outcomes isn’t survivable, said Joe MacInnis, the renowned Canadian explorer and physician who has been to the Titanic site four times and is a close friend of one of the passengers aboard the missing Titan.“A hull failure is catastrophic,” MacInnis, 86, said in an interview Tuesday. “There is this kind of implosion, and it’s terrible.”However, the second two disasters can be managed. Crew train for fire emergencies and although challenging, all good subs have firefighting capabilities. And MacInnis has himself experienced what it’s like to be trapped by the doomed passenger ship — and to break free — more than 30 years ago.“It was my second dive to the Titanic,” he said. He was inside a Russian Mir submersible when...

Temecula councilmember walks off dais over LGBTQ Pride Month proclamation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

When Temecula Mayor Zak Schwank started reading, City Councilmember Jessica Alexander started walking.Alexander, an outspoken Christian conservative, walked off the council dais during a recent meeting as the mayor began to read a proclamation honoring LGBTQ Pride Month in the city.Before she left, Alexander decried what she described as sexually explicit LGBTQ flags, including one she said promotes pedophilia.The proclamation, declared by the city’s Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Commission and presented to high school clubs supporting LGBTQ rights, is inappropriately aimed at children, said Alexander, who opposes the seven-member commission and criticized the Temecula City Council’s Pride Month proclamation in 2022.“Where is your moral and ethical line for each one of you as a city council member?” Alexander said to her colleagues during the council’s Tuesday, June 13, meeting.“If you don’t oppose this proclamation being given to minors, we are celebrating and encouraging s...

Opinion: Why baseball fans should root for gambling’s expansion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

The next time your favorite baseball team negotiates a nine-figure deal for an injury-prone pitcher, blame the oddsmakers. They’ll soon be the source of cash upon which baseball depends to sustain the sport’s lofty pay packages.Both Major League Baseball and media companies are vying to control the next wave of sports gambling, integrating betting into streamed broadcasts of games. The expansion of betting will make some baseball traditionalists queasy. But wary fans should consider the alternative — higher costs to watch or attend games as both teams and media companies grasp for new sources of revenue.For years, baseball and other sports leaned upon regional television networks to pay them billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast games to the home fans. Now, cord-cutting is choking off that lucrative pipeline.The question over who should benefit from the switch became more urgent two weeks ago, when a court ordered Diamond Sports Group, a Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary...

Consumer tip: How to recognize text message scams

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

Scammers have expanded their schemes from emails to text messages, hoping their ease of use and speed of response will be too hard for potential victims to resist. The scammers are relying on you to not pay attention to details in these texts and respond with less thought. The scam texts usually have one thing in common — they impersonate a known entity like a bank or delivery service.Related ArticlesTechnology | Opinion: Daniel Ellsberg legacy inspires whistleblowers and truth-tellers Technology | Hackers threaten to leak Reddit data if company doesn’t pay $4.5 million, change pricing policy Technology | Oakland hit with class-action lawsuit over ransomware attack The Federal Trade Commission reports that in 2022 the top 5 text scams were copycat bank fraud prevention alerts; fake “free” gift offers that involved significant costs; fake package delivery problems; phony job offers; and false security alerts from Amazon. The response to...

Celebrate National Tequila Sunrise Day where it has important Bay Area roots

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

Wednesday is National Tequila Sunrise Day. Who knew? Certainly not me, at least not until recently, and I’m the one who wrote the original comprehensive history of that drink when I wrote for National Geographic Assignment in 2012, as well as the IJ.The history of that drink is now pretty well documented. The name was invented at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel by Gene Sulit, but it was Billy Rice and Bobby Lozoff, two bartenders at the Trident restaurant in Sausalito, that reinterpreted that name into the drink that we know today.Premiered this year by Santo Spirits — Red Rocker Sammy Hagar’s tequila/mezquila company — the Sunrise and rock ‘n’ roll connection comes almost like an awareness slap to the head. But, of course, because it was the Rolling Stones that originally brought the drink to national attention.“We trademarked ‘National Tequila Sunrise Day’ but are also having a love affair with the cocktail’s versatility and multigenerational appeal,” says Sausalito’s Kate Palmer, regi...

San Quentin inmates lack water or functional toilets after pipe failure

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

A failed water pipe at San Quentin State Prison has left 1,698 inmates without drinking water or functional toilets in their cells for days.Prison Lt. Guim’Mara Berry said that the staff became aware of the problem at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday when “flooding from the outside of the San Quentin State Prison perimeter toward the visiting building and lower parking lot” was reported.“As a precautionary measure, movement was limited at the institution until the flooding situation was under control,” Berry said. “All areas were checked for flooding, and necessary measures were taken to address the issue.”Berry said that all leaks and flooding were controlled by 9:30 a.m. Saturday.“They are investigating the flood. I can only confirm that there is a busted pipe underground,” she said.Tyler Silvy, a spokesperson for the Marin Municipal Water District, said his agency dispatched a service crew to the area at about 7 a.m. Saturday. Silvy said workers confirmed that the pipe failure occurred w...

Winnebago: Fiscal Q3 Earnings Snapshot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — Winnebago Industries Inc. (WGO) on Wednesday reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $59.1 million.On a per-share basis, the Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company said it had net income of $1.71. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were $2.13 per share.The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.74 per share.The recreational vehicle maker posted revenue of $900.8 million in the period, which fell short of Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $950.6 million._____This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on WGO at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WGOSource

Condenan a un ex agente de Policía de Nueva York y a otras dos personas por acechar a una familia de Nueva Jersey en nombre del Gobierno chino

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:14:55 GMT

(CNN) — Un jurado federal en Nueva York condenó a tres hombres este martes por acosar a una familia de Nueva Jersey en nombre del Gobierno chino.Los acusados son Michael McMahon, de 55 años; Zhu Yong, de 66 años; y Zheng Congying, de 27 años. Todos fueron declarados culpables de cargos de conspiración y acoso relacionados con el complot tras un juicio de tres semanas. McMahon, ex sargento del Departamento de Policía de la ciudad de Nueva York, y Yong también fueron condenados por actuar ilegalmente como agente de la República Popular China.Los veredictos de culpabilidad son la primera victoria en un juicio en los esfuerzos del Departamento de Justicia de EE.UU. para combatir la Operación Fox Hunt, la supuesta campaña anticorrupción internacional del Partido Comunista Chino dirigida a aquellos que el gobierno chino considera fugitivos, a menudo exfuncionarios o personas ricas sospechosas de cometer delitos económicos.Otros tres acusados se han declarado culpables en relación co...