Mexican Radio

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Mexican Radio

Rocky Raccoon

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Rocky Raccoon

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Bitter aftertaste: Taiwan’s leading baristas forced to compete at global coffee championship as ‘Chinese Taipei’

Decision by the World Coffee Championships has enraged members of Taiwan’s coffee community, including previous winners of the competition

Berg Wu remembers the pride he felt when he was crowned world barista champion. The stands that June day in Dublin were packed with cheering friends as he bested competitors from more than 50 countries to take first place at the 2016 World Coffee Championships (WCC).

The first Taiwanese person to win the competition, he draped the red, blue and white nationalist flag of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s official name – over his shoulders as he posed for pictures with his award.

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Ukraine war briefing: Strikes on Russia’s Primorsk oil port and ships

Zelenskyy says three ‘shadow fleet’ vessels hit along with guided missile corvette; Ukrainian drones menace Moscow and surrounds. What we know on day 1,531

Ukraine on Sunday launched a wave of strikes against Russian oil targets, hitting the key port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea and three ships that Ukraine alleges were illegally used to transport Russian crude. A night-time drone strike started a fire at the Primorsk port, the Russian regional governor confirmed. The port, operated by Russia’s state oil firm Transneft, is capable of handling hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. Primorsk, which was targeted multiple times in March, lies over 1,000km (620 miles) from Ukraine, between the Russian-Finnish border and Russia’s second-largest city of St Petersburg.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that as part of the operation against Primorsk port Ukrainian forces also hit a Karakurt guided missile corvette, a patrol boat, and a tanker belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow oil fleet used to evade western sanctions and price caps. “One more Russian carrier of Kalibr missiles is out of action,” said Ukraine’s president. Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had struck two more “shadow fleet” tankers near the entrance of the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Two people were killed and three others wounded as Russian drones struck Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight into Sunday, the Ukrainian emergency service reported. It said the attack damaged three residential building and drones also hit port infrastructure, causing a fire that was later extinguished by emergency teams. Night-time Russian strikes also wounded six people in the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, the agency said. A passenger bus transporting 40 children was damaged, but no one inside was injured, it added.

Overnight into Sunday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 269 drones and ballistic missiles, according to the Ukrainian air force, out of which 249 drones were countered or shot down. Hits from ballistic missiles and 19 drones were recorded in 15 locations, the air force said in a Facebook update.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike west of Moscow killed a 77-year-old man, the local governor said, near the town of Volokolamsk, about 120km (75 miles) from central Moscow. Six drones were shot down in the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital, the governor added. At least five more drones were downed on the approach to Moscow itself, according to the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.

Ukraine said there was also one death in the frontline Kherson region and another in an attack on the industrial city of Dnipro. Russian troops were inching towards the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s top army official said on Saturday.

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Fokke & Sukke

F & S

Metropolis

sz-da has added a photo to the pool:

Metropolis

Yebisu Garden Place Tower (恵比寿ガーデンプレイスタワー)

Looking towards some of the busiest places in Tokyo (Shibuya + Shinjuku)

two icons - karuizawa

xthylacine has added a photo to the pool:

two icons - karuizawa

Old post box + Coca Cola vending machine

Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

AI Cameras are Being Deployed Across the Western US for Early Detection of Wildfires

The Associated Press reports:

On a March afternoon, artificial intelligence detected something resembling smoke on a camera feed from Arizona's Coconino National Forest. Human analysts verified it wasn't a cloud or dust, then alerted the state's forest service and largest electric utility. One of dozens of AI cameras installed for the utility Arizona Public Service had spotted early signs of what came to be known as the Diamond Fire. Firefighters raced to the scene and contained the blaze before it grew past 7 acres (2.8 hectares).

As record-breaking heat and an abysmal snowpack raise concerns about severe wildfires, states across the fire-prone West are adding AI to their wildfire detection toolbox, banking on the technology to help save lives and property. Arizona Public Service has nearly 40 active AI smoke-detection cameras and plans to have 71 by summer's end, and the state's fire agency has deployed seven of its own. Another utility, Xcel Energy in Colorado, has installed 126 and aims to have cameras in seven of the eight states it serves by year's end... ALERTCalifornia is a network of some 1,240 AI-enabled cameras across the Golden State that work similar to the system in Arizona....

Pano AI, whose technology combines high-definition camera feeds, satellite data and AI monitoring, has seen a growing interest in its cameras since launching in 2020. They've been deployed in Australia, Canada and 17 U.S. states, including Oregon, Washington and Texas... Last year, its technology detected 725 wildfires in the U.S., the company said... Cindy Kobold, an Arizona Public Service meteorologist, said the technology notifies them about 45 minutes faster on average than the first 911 call.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Tanker voor de kust van VAE geraakt door onbekende projectielen

DUBAI (ANP) - Een tanker is voor de kust van de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten geraakt door onbekende projectielen. Dat meldt de Britse scheepvaartmonitor United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) maandag.

"Een tanker heeft gemeld geraakt te zijn door onbekende projectielen", aldus de UKMTO, die eraan toevoegde dat alle bemanningsleden veilig waren. Volgens de organisatie vond het incident op 78 zeemijl (circa 144 kilometer) ten noorden van de stad Fujairah in de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten plaats.

De UKMTO roept schepen op om "met de nodige voorzichtigheid" door de regio te varen terwijl de autoriteiten een onderzoek instellen.

De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft aangekondigd dat de VS vanaf maandag zullen beginnen met het begeleiden van schepen die vastzitten in de Straat van Hormuz.