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A hot weekend leads to more records

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The overall weather pattern will remain in place for at least the next seen days with a potential of four days between today and Friday where new high temperature records will be set. Two of those will be today and tomorrow.Today's record high is 106° set in 2011An Excessive Heat Warning will be in effect today from 12 to 9 p.m. for high temperatures as hot as 107° and heat index values up to 111°. Blanco and Gillespie Counties are under a Heat Advisory for high temperatures up to 108° and heat index values up to 112°.Saturday's heat alerts start at noonIn addition to the heat alerts there is also a Red Flag Warning for much of Central Texas for south winds gusting 20 to 25 mph and relative humidity readings below 30%. (Fayette, Lee, and Milam Counties are not under this warning.)Wildfire danger this weekendThe forecast for the next seven days has high temperatures in the 104° to 108° range, making this week one of the hottest weeks of this heat wave. There have bee...

“Wolverines really need Colorado”: Federal decision looms over another reintroduction plan

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

The mountain devil can cross hundreds of miles of rough alpine terrain, tear into an elk carcass frozen for weeks and fend off predators several times larger than its 40-pound frame.And the elusive species might be coming back to Colorado.Wolverines — also called “mountain devils” and “skunk bears” — could be the next large mammal reintroduced in Colorado after wildlife officials implement the voter-mandated reintroduction of wolves by the end of the year.How and when wolverines could be introduced here hinges on an upcoming decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether the species should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. A decision is expected in the next few months and, depending on the way that goes, efforts to begin bringing in wolverines could begin again. Plans to reintroduce the species in Colorado have existed for more than a decade, but uncertainty around the federal listing decision kept wildlife officials from...

Scouting out the next wave of robot workers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

Digit drew a crowd, even here, in a convention center full of robot aficionados.A humanoid warehouse worker, Digit walked upright on goatlike legs and grabbed bins off a shelf with muscular arms made from aerospace-grade aluminum. It then placed the boxes on an assembly line and walked back to the shelf to search for more. The crowd, which had assembled at ProMat, the premier trade show for the manufacturing and supply chain industry, held up phones and watched, a little quiet, wondering if at some point the robot would teeter and fall. It did not.Digit, made by Oregon-based Agility Robotics, is the kind of technology that people have worried about for generations: a machine with the strength and adroitness to rival our own, and the ability to take our jobs, or much worse. Then ChatGPT came online, and suddenly the fear was of something smarter rather than stronger — malevolent bots rather than metallic brutes.The automaton is still coming. It might not be ready to take over t...

Researchers poke holes in safety controls of ChatGPT and other chatbots

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — When artificial intelligence companies build online chatbots, like ChatGPT, Claude and Google Bard, they spend months adding guardrails that are supposed to prevent their systems from generating hate speech, disinformation and other toxic material.Now there is a way to easily poke holes in those safety systems.In a report released in July, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the Center for AI Safety in San Francisco showed how anyone could circumvent AI safety measures and use any of the leading chatbots to generate nearly unlimited amounts of harmful information.Their research underscored increasing concern that the new chatbots could flood the internet with false and dangerous information despite attempts by their creators to ensure that would not happen. It also showed how disagreements among leading AI companies were creating an increasingly unpredictable environment for the technology.The researchers found that they could use a meth...

Newest Hall of Fame class covers all bases of Oakland A’s history, from Giambi to Tenace and beyond

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

If this is the penultimate class of the Oakland A’s Hall of Fame, the five inductees will be remembered for touching all of the bases in the franchise’s colorful history.Gene Tenace and Carney Lansford helped bring home World Series titles in the 1970s and 80s, respectively. Jason Giambi brought swagger and winning back to the Coliseum in the late 90s and early 2000s, only to see his rise to superstardom become the catalyst for the Moneyball era. And Roy Steele was behind the mic for all of it. Even Bob Johnson, a star of the Philadelphia era, fits right in with the current state of the Bay Area franchise: He made his debut with the A’s in 1933 as ownership was shedding its highest-paid stars to cut costs.The A’s Hall of Fame’s fifth class will be inducted before Sunday’s game against the Giants in the finale of this season’s Bay Bridge Series. The cloud of potential relocation to Las Vegas has enveloped the A’s all season, but team...

Clendaniel: Oakland A’s John Fisher: the worst owner in MLB history?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

I fully understand Oakland A’s fans frustration with John Fisher. He is a contender for worst owner in MLB history.I know a thing or two about bad professional sports owners, having worked as a sportswriter in the Northwest for several years while George Argyros wreaked havoc on the Seattle Mariners from 1981-89.Like Fisher, Argyros had a nasty habit of selling off his team’s best players and alienating fans at every turn. His teams never finished over .500 (the Mariners are still the only MLB team that has never appeared in a World Series) and never drew more than 1.1 million fans in a season.During the summer of 1983, in what would be a 102-loss season, a friend and I bought tickets at the Kingdome for a 1 p.m. game and sat three rows directly behind home plate without any other fans within 20 yards of us. The home plate umpire even responded to me between innings when I politely asked if a pitch he called a ball had been high or outside.Argyros’ baseball knowled...

Opinion: How California can fix its transmission lines bottleneck

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

California’s grid is stretched to its limits. Power lines in parts of the state are already at capacity. Housing developments and even a hospital in Humboldt County face indefinite waits to get connected. At the same time, record amounts of wind and solar power are being wasted  – almost $650 million worth in 2022 –– as the grid just does not have enough capacity to handle the supply. And new fast chargers for electric cars? Approving them takes years as sites often need more capacity than the transmission system can provide. All while demand for power is climbing to feed those new electric cars, trucks and heat pumps.The Golden State needs a staggering increase in transmission capacity.  Experts at Princeton forecast that the state will need to triple its grid capacity by 2050. The bulk of that long term increase will come from the decades-long process of planning, approving, and building new transmission lines. California cannot wait this long. The state has virtually no chance of...

Joshua fight canceled after Whyte’s doping test shows ‘adverse’ findings

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

LONDON (AP) — Dillian Whyte’s heavyweight rematch against Anthony Joshua was canceled after Whyte returned “adverse analytical findings” on a doping test, Matchroom Boxing said Saturday.The bout had been scheduled for Aug. 12 at London’s O2 Arena.“Today, the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) informed Matchroom, the Association of Boxing Commissions and the British Boxing Board of Control that Dillian Whyte had returned adverse analytical findings as part of a random anti-doping protocol,” Matchroom said in a statement.“In light of this news, the fight will be canceled, and a full investigation will be conducted.”___AP sports: https://apnews.com/sportsSource

Hegerberg benched to start in Norway’s 3-1 loss to Japan at Women’s World Cup

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Star forward Ada Hegerberg started on the bench and went on late in Norway’s 3-1 loss to Japan on Saturday in the round of 16 game at the Women’s World Cup.The former Ballon d’Or winner hadn’t played since Norway lost 1-0 to New Zealand in the tournament opener on July 20. She was named to start against Switzerland in the group stage but withdrew just before kickoff because of a groin injury.Norway coach Hege Riise kept Sophie Roman Haug up front. Haug scored a hat-trick in Norway’s 6-0 win over the Philippines to finish the group stage. Riise scored when 1995 World Cup winner Norway beat Japan 4-0 in their only previous World Cup meeting in 1999.Guro Reiten scored an equalizer for Norway in the 20th minute to cancel out Ingrid Syrstad Engen’s own goal five minutes earlier.Japan went ahead on Risa Shimizu’s 50th-minute goal and Hinata Miyazawa score the clincher for the 2011 champions in the 81st.Hegerberg went...

La FDA aprueba la primera píldora para la depresión posparto en EE.UU.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:50:02 GMT

(CNN) — La Administración de Medicamentos y Alimentos de EE.UU. (FDA) aprobó el medicamento zuranolona para el tratamiento de la depresión posparto, lo que la convierte en la primera píldora oral aprobada por la FDA en Estados Unidos específicamente para la depresión posparto, una enfermedad mental grave que puede desarrollarse en aproximadamente 1 de cada 7 nuevas madres después del partoEste viernes, la FDA anunció que el tratamiento, que se venderá bajo la marca Zurzuvae, ha sido aprobado como una pastilla que se toma una vez al día durante 14 días.“La depresión posparto es una afección grave y potencialmente mortal en la que las mujeres experimentan tristeza, culpa, inutilidad e incluso, en casos graves, pensamientos de hacerse daño a sí mismas o a sus hijos. Y, debido a que la depresión posparto puede alterar el vínculo materno-infantil, también puede tener consecuencias para el desarrollo físico y emocional del niño”, dijo la Dra. Tiffany R. Farchione, directora de la Di...