The powerful geomagnetic storm that cast the northern lights’ vivid colors across the Northern Hemisphere over the weekend also caused some navigational systems in tractors and other farming equipment to break down at the height of planting season, suppliers and farmers said.
Many farmers have come to rely on the equipment, which uses GPS and other navigational technology and helps them to plant more efficiently and precisely by keeping rows straight and avoiding gaps or overlap. But over the weekend, some of those operations in the Midwest, as well as in other parts of the United States and Canada, temporarily ground to a halt.
In Minnesota, some farmers who had planned to spend Friday night sowing seeds were hamstrung by the outages. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this,” said Patrick O’Connor, the owner of a farm about 80 miles south of Minneapolis that mainly grows corn and soybean.
Mr. O'Connor said that after being rained out for two weeks, he got into his tractor around 5 p.m., hoping to spend the night planting corn. When he received a warning about his GPS system, he called a technical help line and was directed to a message saying there was an outage and nothing could be done to fix it.
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In Nebraska, another farmer told 404 Media, an online publication covering technology, that his operations had been shut down. “All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm,” said the farmer, Kevin Kenney. “No GPS,” he added. “We’re right in the middle of corn planting.”

Solar storms are caused by violent expulsions of charged particles from the sun’s surface. When directed toward Earth the material can interact with our planet’s magnetic field, resulting in a geomagnetic storm. The event this weekend was the strongest solar storm to reach Earth since October 2003.
Farm equipment suppliers had warned that the storm would result in disruptions. And on Saturday, Landmark Implement, which sells John Deere farming equipment across parts of the Midwest, said that the accuracy of some of its systems had been “extremely compromised” because of the event.
The company said in a statement that it was searching for a “tool to help predict this in the future so that we can attempt to give our customers an alert that this issue may be coming.” It described the storm as a “historic event” rather than something it would have to “continue to battle frequently.”
Terry Griffin, an associate professor in agricultural economics at Kansas State University, said that while infrequent, such storms still posed a threat to farming in the United States, where the majority of crops are planted using modern guidance systems.

​

“This was the first time we’ve had geomagnetic storms that were so strong, and we were reliant upon GPS,” he said, noting that among the worst times for a storm like this to occur was during the planting season, when precision is crucial. Alternative technologies, including systems that use machine vision and artificial intelligence, or a more localized navigation system that would not collapse in a solar storm, are being developed, Dr. Griffin added.
Mr. O’Connor, the Minnesota farmer, said that the outage had made him realize how reliant he was on a technology often taken for granted, and that if it stopped working again in the future, and for a longer period, he may have to “find ways to make do without.”
On Friday evening, instead of planting corn, Mr. O’Connor said he prepared a different field for planting, all while taking in the “phenomenal” colors of the sky. “It interrupted my evening, but I still was in the field,” he added.
“I was able to see the Northern Lights in all their glory.”

A task force established by Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird will educate Iowa officials in higher education, law enforcement and attorneys about antisemitism, Bird announced Friday.



During a news conference held at the Iowa Holocaust Memorial on the Iowa Capitol Complex, Bird said the state task force is needed to address a rise in antisemitism across the country since the military conflict that began with last year’s attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas.


The task force is comprised of 14 local leaders in state government, law enforcement and Iowa’s Jewish community, the Attorney General’s Office said. The full roster of task force members will be available next week, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office said.




According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 8,873 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2023, the most ever recorded by the advocacy organization. More than 5,200 of those incident were recorded after the start of the military conflict between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.


“It’s clear that hate and antisemitism have absolutely no place here in Iowa. We condemn that in the strongest possible terms,” Bird said during Friday’s news conference. “And we are going to do everything that we can to stand strong and make sure that Iowa is a beacon of light for the rest of the country to follow when it comes to getting rid of this anti-Jewish hate, the antisemitism that we are seeing creeping into our society.”




Bird said the task force will gather information, work with law enforcement, support positive changes and provide training on recognizing and addressing antisemitism to prosecutors, law enforcement, and college campus officials.


Christina Gish Hill, an Iowa State University professor, spoke at the news conference and described what she said were antisemitic actions during a recent protest on the campus. She said protesters called for intifada, which is a reference to Palestinian uprisings in the West Bank and Gaza strip aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of those territories.





Gish Hill said she agreed to speak at the news conference not as a representative of Iowa State University, but as an individual and educator.


“These slogans crossed the line from advocacy for and solidarity with Palestinians into incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis,” Gish Hill said. “My hope is that these student protesters at ISU are not fully aware of the meaning of their messaging. This is why bringing awareness to and combating antisemitism, using every tool we have, is so essential in our current environment. Iowa’s educational communities must not fail in the responsibility to speak out when free speech turns to hate and incitement.”


Bird was asked if she also considered a task force to address anti-Muslim sentiment, which also has spiked since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.


“No,” Bird said.


The Council on American-Islamic Relations reported last month that anti-Muslim incidents in 2023 increased 56 percent over the previous year, and called 2023 “one of the worst years of anti-Muslim hate recorded in (the organization’s) 30-year history.”


Other speakers at Friday’s news conference, including Jarad Bernstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, and former state legislator Charles Schneider, warned against inaction against antisemitism.


“The fact that we’re having this press conference in the shadow of the Iowa Holocaust Memorial is a vivid reminder of the tragedy and evil that can happen when people are silent in the face of antisemitism,” Schneider said. “The purpose of this task force is to be a voice against antisemitism, to make sure that we’re pushing back against it when we see it, and where we see it, and that we’re educating people what it is so that they too can identify it and know that they’ve got a place to turn if they feel threatened.”

With the season tipping off tomorrow, I was looking at the 2023 WNBA season. I had a mild understanding that the Aces were good, but I really had no feel or understanding on the other teams. While good teams don't get the #1 overall pick absent a trade, I guess I did not realize how much the deck is stacked against Indiana. Like, REALLY stacked against them. Aces were 34-6 in the regular season, and NY was 32-8. They played in the finals. Meanwhile, Indiana was 13-27, after going 5-31 in 2022. If Caitlin gets them in the playoffs, it would be a big deal. If they advance past the first round, then that would a wow. With all of that in mind, I am predicting 21-19, and a 5 seed in the playoffs. They get past one of the two teams they played in the preseason (Wings/Dream), and are eliminated in the second round by the fighting Kate Martins of Las Vegas.

We have been wanting some good news for a while and we ended up with GREAT news. Thank you Spencer Lee!

Ordered to put his boat out of sight behind a 6-foot-tall fence, a Seaside resident and his artistic neighbor decided to paint a photorealistic mural of the vessel on the fence.

The idea for the little jab at City Hall was sparked a year ago when Etienne Constable received a notice from the city of Seaside requesting that he comply with a municipal code regarding parking restrictions for non-passenger vehicles, such as boats.
More at the link...but the pic pretty much tells the story

'I'm going to pay you back': 3 teens dead in barrage of gunfire; 3 classmates face charges​

Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY

Three teenagers are dead and three others are facing charges following a shooting in South Carolina in what a local sheriff called a chaotic scene of revenge stemming from "a beef" two years ago.

The three teens killed, who were 16 and 17 years old, died at a hospital following Sunday's shooting, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said during a news conference in the state capital of Columbia on Monday.

A fourth shooting victim, who is 14, was also shot taken to a hospital and later released, Lott said.

"It's a sad day," Lott told reporters, saying the shooting was "over something stupid."

"Over something that happened a couple a years ago. Why?" he said. "Why can't these kids do something else besides just resort to violence and using guns?"

Coroner identifies victims, 3 other teens arrested:
The Richland County Coroner's office identified the victims as Caleb Wise, 16, JaKobe Fanning, 16, and Dre’von Riley, 17.

They died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds and their manner of death was homicide, coroner's spokesperson Jeffrey Lampkin told USA TODAY.

The sheriff's office announced Tuesday that they arrested two 17-year-old boys and a 14-year-old boy in connection with the shooting.

All three face charges of murder, attempted murder, possession of a weapon during a violent crime and possession of handgun under the age of 18, sheriff's office Deputy Veronica Hill said.

USA TODAY does not typically name minors facing charges unless they're being tried as adults. All the teenagers, Lott said, attended Alcorn Middle School and Eau Claire High School.

A mourning middle and high school​

JaKobe was in ninth grade; Dre'von was in 10th and Caleb was in 11th grade, said Karen York, a spokesperson for the Richland County School District.

"The Richland One family is grieving the loss of three young lives to senseless gun violence," District Superintendent Craig Witherspoon said in a statement Tuesday. "This is an unimaginable tragedy, and we ask everyone to keep the students’ families and the students and staff at Eau Claire High School in your thoughts and prayers."

He said crisis counselors were available to students and staff at the school and that there would be additional security on campus as a precaution.

A 'chaotic' scene part of a reported payback​

The four boys who were shot were sitting in front of a vacant house around 2 p.m. Sunday when two 17-year-olds approached them and unleashed a barrage of bullets on them, according to information from Lott and a redacted incident report obtained by USA TODAY.

"It was a chaotic scene with so many victims, so many gunshots being fired," Lott said.

The shooting suspects then followed the victims as they fled to the backyard and continued firing, according to the incident report. It was unclear how the 14-year-old who was arrested was tied to the shooting.

Although the shooting remained under investigation Tuesday, the suspected motive stemmed from a “beef” Lott said occurred two years ago over a burglary.

“A beef that just continues to grow and then young people decide that they’re going to solve it by shooting,” Lott said. "You have three teens who will never see adulthood just because of what? A disagreement? 'I don't like you, you did something to me so I'm going to pay you back, so I'm going to kill you."

He did not share any other details about the previous dispute.

'It takes a village'​

During Monday's press conference, Lott was joined by Witherspoon, Richland County Councilwoman Gretchen Barron, State Rep. Kambrell Garvin, and local pastor Aaron Bishop "to discuss the importance of coming together to stop senseless tragedies like this," the department posted on Facebook.

“It takes a village to raise a young person,” Lott said. “We have a strong village of educators, community leaders, and elected officials, but we need everyone to come together to help save our young people. We are losing too many.”

Pro-Hamas group is upset but she's 100% correct here regarding the protestors acumen on these issues:

"They don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or, frankly, about history in many areas of the world, including our own country," Clinton recently said.

Specifically, Clinton pointed to an offer her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made to then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he was in office.

"They don’t know that…an offer was made to Palestinians for a state on 96% of the existing territory occupied by the Palestinians," Clinton said, "with 4% of Israel to be given to reach 100% of the amount of territory that was hoped for."

There were the rumors once again of BOTH A.J Ferarri and Gable being at Iowa next year, as they hyped up a potential matchup between A.J and Carter Starocci on their recent show.

Playing hypotheticals here, and coming from an Ohio State fan who doesn’t quite know all the specifics…. What would a full Iowa lineup under it’s best case scenario (obviously including those two) be, and what would Penn State’s vice versa now that both Starocci and Kerk have announced their intentions of returning?

TIA to whomever has the time.

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/05/12/many-iowa-rivers-are-brimming-with-nitrate/

“This is one of the biggest nitrate leaching events in 11 years,” said David Cwiertny, director of the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination at the University of Iowa.

A 10-foot-wide house was built 'out of spite' on a leftover piece of land in Florida and is selling for $619,000​

What was once an empty residual lot used as a garden by a neighbor is now a 1,547-square-foot home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida — only 10 feet wide.

The two-story house sits on a 25-foot wide lot (with a lot of depth) and even has space for a garage.

The listing agent, Ryan Wetherhold of Oceanside Real Estate, and builder, John Atkins, regularly build on these leftover lots and anticipated having a little more space for a home.

"What you can do on these smaller lots is you can go in front of a board of adjustment, and they'll allow you to build more than the building code is allowed," Wetherhold told Business Insider.

If the neighborhood had its way, there wouldn't be a house there at all. The neighborhood attended the public hearing voicing concerns — mainly from a next-door neighbor who used the untouched lot as a garden — and persuaded the board to disallow any adjustments.

"And to be honest, the builder almost built this out of spite just because of that fact, 'Oh, you don't think we can build, hold my beer,'" Wetherhold said.

They were stuck building a 10-foot-wide home instead of a 15-foot-wide home, but they still managed to attract buyers.

She had 12 points on 4 of 12 shooting iirc and 8 rebounds and 6 assists. I didnt watch the game but watched a 6 minute youtube of last part of the game and Clark had a big shutdown defensive coverage on a guard trying to get off a last second trey to tie it up.

You choose

Not sure how many of you remember this game or were alive. Back in 1971 Chiefs against the Dolphins on Christmas Day. Ed had 350 total yards, a record and game last 3 1/2. Still the longest game ever played. Stensrud miss field goal, Dolphins win.

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Her voice is nails on chalkboard.

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On now, hosted by Dan Abrams. A little like Live PD but not quite. Kind of interesting to watch. No political talk, just following agents, etc.

Hit the PLAY button.

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I must have missed all the media headlines on this action. Strange.

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From the "Times of Israel"

When she stepped out on stage, at every phase of the contest, she knew she would be facing hostility inside the hall, and would reasonably have been worried that something more dangerous than booing might be directed at her. Outside, both on the day of her semifinal and the final, thousands of people demonstrated to denounce her presence, despicably accuse Israel of genocide, and seek the elimination of her country. From the map, that is, not merely the competition.

Several of her fellow competitors also sought to have her and Israel banned, disparaged her, and dissociated from her. Several competing countries did much the same.

Throughout this ordeal, Golan maintained her self-composure — including under sometimes unpleasant questioning at press conferences.

He was 59 here. Still moves around pretty well! The Flying Dutchman.


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Spencer Lee is going to Paris!!