Guardian USA
NFL roundup: Hurts leaves injured as Eagles’ win streak ended by Washington

  • Commanders stun Eagles 36-33 as Hurts leaves injured
  • Lions beat Bears 34-17 for franchise-record 13th victory

After Jalen Hurts left with a concussion, Jayden Daniels threw five touchdown passes while running at will in the rookie quarterback’s latest masterful performance, and the Washington Commanders ended the Philadelphia Eagles’ winning streak at 10 by rallying to defeat the NFC East leaders 36-33 on Sunday.

Daniels’ heroics culminated with a 57-yard touchdown drive in the final 1:58, finding Jamison Crowder in the end zone with 6 seconds left. He bounced back from throwing an interception on the previous possession and led the Commanders (10-5) back after they fell behind by 14 points seven minutes into the game and trailed by 14 going into the fourth quarter.

They are now on the verge of making the playoffs after handing Philadelphia (12-3) its first loss since 29 September. The Eagles played without Hurts for the vast majority of the game and failed to clinch the division and one of the conference’s top two seeds despite Saquon Barkley running for 109 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone.

Daniels was the primary reason for that, beating the Eagles a month after losing to them on the road. He was 24 of 39 for 258 yards with a pair of TDs to Crowder and Olamide Zaccheaus and one to Terry McLaurin – and Daniels was Washington’s leading rusher with 81 yards on nine carries.

That was enough to overcome Brian Robinson Jr losing two fumbles in the first half and Dyami Brown another early in the third quarter and Marshon Lattimore getting flagged three times for pass interference.

The Commanders also found a solution for Barkley, who was held to 41 yards after the first. Philadelphia’s offense stagnated with the drop-off from Hurts to backup Kenny Pickett, who threw an interception to Frankie Luvu in his first meaningful NFL action in more than a year.

Luvu leveled the hit on Hurts that knocked Philadelphia’s starting QB out of the game just a few minutes in. Hurts’ head also bounced off the ground at the end of his previous run, and he was ruled out after two trips to the medical tent on the sideline and the concussion evaluation that followed.

Hurts’ status is a question that will linger for the Eagles into their final two games of the regular season as the Super Bowl contenders eye a long playoff run. Pickett was 14 of 24 for 143 yards in relief, throwing a touchdown pass to AJ Brown and the interception.

Continue reading...

Guardian USA
More than 170 snowboarders and skiers rescued after Colorado ski lift cracks

Officials investigate cause of crack after ski patrolers use rope to lower 174 people to ground at Winter Park Resort

A crack in a Colorado ski lift forced the evacuation of more than 170 stranded skiers and snowboarders on Saturday, with people riding the gondolas lowered down by ropes over the course of hours.

Officials are still investigating what cause the gondola lift at Winter Park Resort, about 70 miles (113km) west of Denver, to crack. The lift automatically stopped when it detected the crack in a structural piece of the lift just after noon on Saturday, resort spokesperson Jen Miller said.

Continue reading...

Slashdot
'Human Vs. Autonomous Car' Race Ends Before It Begins

A demonstration "race" between a (human) F1 race car driver Daniil Kvyat and an autonomous vehicle was just staged by the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League. Describing the league and the "man vs. machine" showdown, Ars Technica writes, "Say goodbye to the human driver and hello to 95 kilograms of computers and a whole suite of sensors." But again, racing is hard, and replacing humans doesn't change that. The people who run and participate in A2RL are aware of this, and while many organizations have made it a sport of overselling AI, A2RL is up-front about the limitations of the current state of the technology. One example of the technology's current shortcomings: The vehicles can't swerve back and forth to warm up the tires. Giovanni Pau, Team Principal of TII Racing, stated during a press briefing regarding the AI system built for racing, "We don't have human intuition. So basically, that is one of the main challenges to drive this type of car. It's impossible today to do a correct grip estimation. A thing my friend Daniil (Kvyat) can do in a nanosecond...." Technology Innovation Institute (TII) develops the hardware and software stack for all the vehicles. Hardware-wise, the eight teams receive the same technology. When it comes to software, the teams need to build out their own system on TII's software stack to get the vehicles to navigate the tracks. In April, four teams raced on the track in Abu Dhabi. As we've noted before, how the vehicles navigate the tracks and world around them isn't actually AI. It's programmed responses to an environment; these vehicles are not learning on their own. Frankly, most of what is called "AI" in the real world is also not AI. Vehicles driven by the systems still need years of research to come close to the effectiveness of a human beyond the wheel. Kvyat has been working with A2RL since the beginning. In that time, the former F1 driver has been helping engineers understand how to bring the vehicle closer to their limit. The speed continues to increase as the development progresses. Initially, the vehicles were three to five minutes slower than Kvyat around a lap; now, they are about eight seconds behind. That's a lifetime in a real human-to-human race, but an impressive amount of development for vehicles with 90 kg of computer hardware crammed into the cockpit of a super formula car. Currently, the vehicles are capable of recreating 90-95 percent of the speed of a human driver, according to Pau. Those capabilities are reduced when a human driver is also on the track, particularly for safety reasons.... The "race" was to be held ahead of the season finale of the Super Formula season... The A2RL vehicle took off approximately 22 seconds ahead of Kvyat, but the race ended before the practice lap was completed. Cameras missed the event, but the A2RL car lost traction and ended up tail-first into a wall... Khurram Hassan, commercial director of A2RL, told Ars that the cold tires on the cold track caused a loss of traction.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guardian USA
NFL round-up: Hurts leaves injured as Eagles’ win streak ended by Washington

  • Commanders stun Eagles 36-33 as Hurts leaves injured
  • Lions beat Bears 34-17 for franchise-record 13th victory

After Jalen Hurts left with a concussion, Jayden Daniels threw five touchdown passes while running at will in the rookie quarterback’s latest masterful performance, and the Washington Commanders ended the Philadelphia Eagles’ winning streak at 10 by rallying to defeat the NFC East leaders 36-33 on Sunday.

Daniels’ heroics culminated with a 57-yard touchdown drive in the final 1:58, finding Jamison Crowder in the end zone with 6 seconds left. He bounced back from throwing an interception on the previous possession and led the Commanders (10-5) back after they fell behind by 14 points seven minutes into the game and trailed by 14 going into the fourth quarter.

They are now on the verge of making the playoffs after handing Philadelphia (12-3) its first loss since 29 September. The Eagles played without Hurts for the vast majority of the game and failed to clinch the division and one of the conference’s top two seeds despite Saquon Barkley running for 109 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone.

Daniels was the primary reason for that, beating the Eagles a month after losing to them on the road. He was 24 of 39 for 258 yards with a pair of TDs to Crowder and Olamide Zaccheaus and one to Terry McLaurin – and Daniels was Washington’s leading rusher with 81 yards on nine carries.

That was enough to overcome Brian Robinson Jr losing two fumbles in the first half and Dyami Brown another early in the third quarter and Marshon Lattimore getting flagged three times for pass interference.

The Commanders also found a solution for Barkley, who was held to 41 yards after the first. Philadelphia’s offense stagnated with the drop-off from Hurts to backup Kenny Pickett, who threw an interception to Frankie Luvu in his first meaningful NFL action in more than a year.

Luvu leveled the hit on Hurts that knocked Philadelphia’s starting QB out of the game just a few minutes in. Hurts’ head also bounced off the ground at the end of his previous run, and he was ruled out after two trips to the medical tent on the sideline and the concussion evaluation that followed.

Hurts’ status is a question that will linger for the Eagles into their final two games of the regular season as the Super Bowl contenders eye a long playoff run. Pickett was 14 of 24 for 143 yards in relief, throwing a touchdown pass to AJ Brown and the interception.

Continue reading...

Chinese Dictionary
刀 dāo

knife / blade / single-edged sword / cutlass / CL:把[ba3] / (slang) dollar (loanword) / classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper) / classifier for knife cuts or stabs (HSK 3)

Guardian USA
Joe Manchin warns Democratic party is ‘toxic’ as he steps down from US Senate

Lifelong Democrat who became independent gives series of warnings to former party and predicts US ‘is not going left’

US senator Joe Manchin, a lifelong Democrat who left the party earlier this year to become an independent and is now stepping down from the Senate after 15 years, issued a series of warnings on Sunday to members of his former party.

“The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of – it’s just, it’s toxic,” Manchin told CNN, saying he had not been able to consider himself a Democrat “in the form of what Democratic party has turned itself into”.

Continue reading...

HACKADAY
3D Printed Forklift Is A Cute Desk Toy

Many of us grew up with dreams of piloting a forklift one day. Sadly, most warehouses take a dim view of horseplay with these machines, so few of us get …read more

Guardian USA
Louisiana holds people in prisons past their release date, DoJ lawsuit alleges

State accused of ‘systemic overdetention’ that violates inmates’ rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year

Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds people weeks and months after they have completed their sentences, the US justice department alleged in a lawsuit filed on Friday. The suit against the state of Louisiana follows a multi-year investigation into what federal officials say is a pattern of “systemic overdetention” that violates inmates’ rights and costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

The justice department alleges that since at least 2012, more than a quarter of the people due to be released from Louisiana prisons have instead been held past their release dates. The DoJ warned Louisiana officials last year that the state could face a lawsuit if it didn’t fix the problems – but lawyers for the department say the state’s “marginal efforts” to address the issues were “inadequate” and showed a “deliberate indifference” to the constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals.

Continue reading...

Slashdot
Energy Prices Drop Below Zero In UK Thanks To Record Wind-Generated Electricity

Long-time Slashdot AmiMoJo quotes this report from EcoWatch: Record wind-generated electricity across Northern Ireland and Scotland Tuesday night pushed Britain's power prices below zero. Wind output peaked at a record high 22.4 gigawatts (GW), breaking the previous high set [last] Sunday evening, the national system operator said, as Bloomberg reported. The record output provided more than 68 percent of the country's power. From 5:30 to 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the half-hourly price fell to 6.57 pounds per megawatt-hour, according to data from European power exchange Epex Spot. "Setting another clean electricity generation record just four days after the previous high shows the pivotal role wind is playing in keeping the country powered up during the festive season," said Dan McGrail, chief executive of RenewableUK, as . "This is also demonstrated by today's official figures which reveal that renewables have generated more than half our electricity for four quarters in a row." The article adds that energy prices with negative numbers "have been recorded for 131 hours in the UK this year, an increase of 45 hours over 2023... "Wind power was the largest source of energy in the UK from January to September of 2024."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guardian USA
Trump reiterates anti-immigration promise at rightwing convention rally

In speech president-elect doubles down on idea that his clear but relatively narrow victory was in fact a landslide

Donald Trump used a Sunday morning speech at a rightwing convention in Phoenix, Arizona, as a victory lap, doubling down on the idea that his clear though relatively narrow victory was in fact a landslide – and impressing upon his base the idea that he enjoys an overwhelming mandate.

“Our movement not only won a mandate,” said Trump, who won the popular vote in November’s election by about half a percentage point while clinching the electoral college 312-226. “We’ve built majorities all over the place that will define our country’s future.”

Continue reading...

Slashdot
Apple Reportedly Plans a Doorbell That Unlocks Your Door With Face ID

Engadget reports: Apple is developing a smart doorbell and lock system that would use Face ID to unlock the door for known residents, Mark Gurman reports in the Power On newsletter. The face-scanning doorbell would connect to a smart deadbolt, which could include existing HomeKit-compatible third-party locks, according to Gurman. Or, Apple may "[team] up with a specific lock maker to offer a complete system on day one." The Power On newsletter also reports that Apple is testing "health" features like heart rate monitoring and temperature sensing for its AirPods Pro earbuds...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Guardian USA
Oregon officials condemn letter telling residents to track down ‘brown people’

Anonymous note in Lincoln county told people to write license numbers to find those who may be undocumented

Law enforcement officials in Lincoln county, Oregon, have condemned an anonymous letter encouraging residents to track down and report “brown people” in the Pacific coast community, particularly those believed to be undocumented.

The letter, titled brown round-up part 1, told recipients to write down the license plate numbers of cars driven by people of color in order to identify people who might not have permanent legal status, the New York Times reported. It instructed readers to send that information to the Department of Homeland Security after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Continue reading...

« prev :: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: next »