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NASA technology can spot wine grape disease from the sky. The world’s food supply could benefit

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

Grace Toohey | (TNS) Los Angeles TimesCutting-edge NASA imaging technology can detect early signs of a plant virus that, if unaddressed, often proves devastating for wineries and grape growers, new research has found.While the breakthrough is good news for the wine and grape industry, which loses billions of dollars a year to the crop-ruining disease, it could eventually help global agriculture as a whole.Using intricate infrared images captured by airplane over California’s Central Valley, researchers were able to distinguish Cabernet Sauvignon grape vines that were infected but not showing symptoms — before the point at which growers can spot the disease and respond.The technology, coupled with machine learning and on-the-ground analysis, successfully identified infected plants with almost 90% accuracy in some cases, according to two new research papers.“This is the first time we’ve ever shown the ability to do viral disease detection on the airborne scale,”...

In Splash Zone, Orioles fans aren’t fazed by prospect of chilly fall games: ‘You can always wear a wetsuit’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

At the end of August, sitting in Camden Yards’ Section 86, Kathy Glass wore a clear rain poncho over her orange Orioles T-shirt to keep at least partially dry from the spray of “Mr. Splash.”“He’s gotten so much crazier with the water,” Glass, 54, said. “You get a lot more wet.”Glass, a season ticket holder, normally sits nearby in Section 85. It was her third time venturing over to the Bird Bath Splash Zone this season as she watched the team defeat Chicago’s White Sox, 9-0, on Aug. 28.In the Splash Zone, fans like Glass have come to expect a deluge of water no matter the weather, as the section’s mascot hoses them down anytime the Orioles hit doubles, triples and home runs (or whenever the mood strikes).Love for the section has remained steady through the summer — and Splash Zone enthusiasts don’t plan on receding to drier sections come fall. Instead, cooler temperatures may inspire some creativity.“You c...

The biggest ideas and pettiest rages in Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

Matt Pearce | Los Angeles Times (TNS)Walter Isaacson’s newest book, “Elon Musk,” about the temperamental corporate executive who runs Tesla, SpaceX and the company formerly known as Twitter, goes on sale this week.Musk is already one of the most well known and extensively covered leaders in American corporate life (and one of its most unavoidable figures on the service he has renamed X). Isaacson’s biography is a Musk agonistes: a portrait of a (largely) self-made, emotionally volatile entrepreneur from South Africa who has a tortured relationship with his father and an addiction to crises of the self-inflicted variety.Musk is tormented, erratic and rude, over and over againMusk’s moods are variously described as cycling through “light and dark, intense and goofy, detached and emotional, with occasional plunges into what people around him call ‘demon mode’”; he’s “childlike, almost stunted,” “a drama magnet,” “not bred for domest...

Gunmen kill Mexico Attorney General’s delegate to southern state of Guerrero

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen killed the representative of Mexico’s Attorney General’s office in the southern state of Guerrero on Tuesday, according to authorities.Fernando García Fernández was attacked in his vehicle near his office in the state capital of Chilpancingo. The Guerrero state prosecutor’s office confirmed García’s killing and said it had opened an investigation. The killing came just days after a regional prosecutor for the Guerrero state prosecutor’s office was killed in Coyuca de Catalan. He had left the region known as Tierra Caliente that borders the state of Michoacan months ago due to threats and had recently returned. He was killed Saturday.Guerrero is an impoverished state long at the mercy of multiple criminal gangs that traffic drugs and extort residents.Christopher Sherman, The Associated Press

Israeli Supreme Court hears first challenge to Netanyahu’s divisive judicial overhaul

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Supreme Court heard the first challenge Tuesday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, deepening a showdown with the far-right government that has bitterly divided the nation and put it on the brink of a constitutional crisis.Netanyahu’s coalition, a collection of ultranationalist and ultrareligious lawmakers, unveiled the overhaul earlier this year, saying it was necessary to rein in an unelected judiciary they believe wields too much power. Critics say the plan — which would weaken the Supreme Court — is a profound threat to Israeli democracy and that it would concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies. They say the court is a key counterweight on majority rule in a country with an otherwise weak system of checks and balances — with just one house of parliament where the governing coalition is headed by the prime minister. The country’s president has largely ceremonial powers, and there is no firm, writ...

Illinois appeals court hears arguments on Jussie Smollett request to toss convictions

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Jussie Smollett’s lawyers told an Illinois appellate court Tuesday it should toss the former “Empire” actor’s convictions for staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself in 2019 and then lying about it to Chicago police, arguing that anger over the case led to properly dismissed charges being improperly restored. Smollett, foregoing his usual three-piece suits in favor of a casual jacket and jeans — slipped into court for the hour-long oral arguments Tuesday and sat on spectator benches. He seemed to listen intently, leaning forward to follow the debate before the three-judge panel.One of his lawyers, Nenye Uche, told the panel that “public outrage” should not be allowed to override “the rule of law.” He said many of the issues surrounding the appeal boil down to the question: “Is it fair?”If the appeal before the Chicago-based First District Appellate Court fails, Smollett will have to finish a 150-day stint in jail that his trial judge orde...

How to help those affected by the Morocco earthquake and Libya flood

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — International aid groups have mobilized in Morocco, where a 6.8 magnitude earthquake Friday night has killed 2,681 and injured more than 2,500, and Libya, where thousands are reported dead and more than 10,000 still missing from weekend flooding. Donors, both big and small, are also mobilizing to support those relief efforts.Experts say the most direct way to provide aid to those affected in both countries is to donate to organizations that already have operations on the ground in those countries.In Morocco, where the earthquake was centered in the Atlas Mountains, that takes on additional importance because so far the Moroccan government has accepted governmental aid from only four nations — Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates — as it tries to avoid a “counterproductive” lack of coordination.In Libya, where Mediterranean storm Daniel dumped nearly 16 inches of rain on Eastern Libya and caused two dams near the city of Derna to fail, many worry the fac...

Book Review: ‘Elon Musk’ offers a revealing but not surprising portrait of tech mogul

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

For those who have been paying attention to Elon Musk for at least the past couple years, Walter Isaacson’s biography of the tech billionaire doesn’t feel that surprising.Isaacson’s biography “Elon Musk” does a good job hammering home the portrayal of the SpaceX founder and now owner of X — formerly Twitter — as a visionary but mercurial figure who’s given to mood swings and self-destructive behavior.It’s a familiar descriptor for Musk’s fans and detractors, but Isaacson’s biography still offers plenty of revealing details about the tech mogul.In the opening pages of the book on Musk’s childhood, he’s described as someone “not hardwired to have empathy,” a characteristic that comes into play throughout his work endeavors and personal life.What Isaacson doesn’t conclude is whether those characteristics are propelling Musk’s success or undoing it.The Musk biography is a fitting addition to Isaacson’s works c...

Zimbabwe’s newly re-elected president appoints his son and nephew to deputy minister posts

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Newly re-elected Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa swore in a new Cabinet on Tuesday after appointing one of his sons and one of his nephews to deputy minister posts.Mnangagwa’s Cabinet was largely made up of loyalists from his ruling ZANU-PF party. The move to appoint his 34-year-old son David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa as deputy finance minister and nephew Tongai Mnangagwa as deputy tourism minister was criticized by the opposition.Mnangagwa, 80, did not include any members of the main opposition Citizens Coalition for Change party, which has rejected his victory in elections last month.The credibility of the vote was also questioned by both Western and African observers.Mnangagwa retained many of his old ministers in his new Cabinet while also including several younger members of ZANU-PF.The opposition CCC said Mnangagwa appointing family members was “particularly worrying.”“Rather than think of the national plight, Mr. Mnangagwa has set up an infras...

UN says Nicaragua’s human rights violations and persecution of dissidents are on the rise

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua has increased human rights violations and persecution of the opposition as it ratchets up its efforts to stifle dissent, a United Nations group of experts monitoring the country said Tuesday.The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, that the government continues increasing pressure on human rights defenders to force them to leave the country.That persecution has extended to the education sector, where the government has systematically cancelled the legal status of private universities and seized their campuses.“We have observed the intentional and severe deprivation of economic and social rights, in particular the right to education and academic freedom,” said Jan-Michael Simon, chair of the group. “Today, the university sector of Nicaragua as a whole no longer has independent institutions. Nicaragua is being stripped of its intellectual capital and critical voices, leaving the country’s pro...