Tag: Local

Elizabethtown College sends used computer technology overseas to Ukrainian students in need | Local News

Audrey

Elizabethtown College sent a mix of 93 used computers, screens and mice off to Ukraine to help students without necessary technology for their education.

All levels of education in Ukraine have been greatly disrupted by the war, said Andrew Kinsel, founder and owner of the Ukranian nonprofit organization, Ukraine Protection and Development Fund. His organization is facilitating the donation of Elizabethtown College’s computers to Ukrainian students.

The students need donations to replace technology that is often stolen or damaged by Russian soldiers.

Kinsel said in an interview with LNP | LancasterOnline Thursday that a computer that might not be the top of the line in the U.S. is like “gold” for Ukranians – and, it’s a good method of recycling, “Ecologically it’s good… it’s taking junk and giving it to somebody that really needs it.”

Approximately 17 million people have been displaced, roughly 62,000 have died and more than 140,000 buildings have been destroyed in the war Russia waged against Ukraine since February 2022, according to Reuters news agency.


‘I want to cry’: 2 Lancaster County residents with ties to Ukraine react to Russia attack

In fact, the war has hindered education for 5.3 million children in Ukraine, according to UNICEF, and those who could flee could take very little with them – especially not a laptop or computer.

Students in Ukraine are attending school amid air raids and artillery fire, which can make study impossible, Kinsel said.

“I have been in schools in areas liberated from Russian occupation where the roof was damaged, walls shot or all the computers stolen,” Kinsel wrote in a Facebook post. “Universities have suffered rocket attacks and Ukrainian language books burned.”

Multiple efforts, one fund

Kinsel started the Ukraine Protection and Development Fund in May 2022, shortly after the current fighting broke out. Adopt a School, the program Elizabethtown College participated in, is one of the organization’s efforts.


Two Lancaster County men partner with an Ephrata church to provide aid for Ukrainian refugees

Though he’s not sure how many students the organization has helped specifically, Kinsel noted that one computer can help five to 10 students in Ukraine. In some parts of the country no more than five students can gather in one spot to prevent themselves from becoming targets of artillery fire.

Adopt a School is just one program of the Ukraine Protection and Development Fund. Through its other efforts – Generators for Life and Computers for the Front – the organization also donated more than 1,000 pieces of electronic equipment to soldiers on the front line, raised over $500,000 to supply body armor to military units and has donated over 100 electric generators to villages damaged by the Russians.

Kinsel has been living near Kyiv, Ukraine, since 1992. A Houston, Texas, native, Kinsel originally came to Ukraine while interning in the U.S. Embassy there during his time studying at American University in Washington, D.C.

He was planning to return to America that summer but instead, he began working with a startup media

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Biden counting on two little-utilized systems to struggle local weather alter

Audrey

The Biden administration this 7 days proposed a new rule that could go a prolonged way towards meeting the president’s ambitious climate goals. But it relies on two very little-applied technologies, which could make its targets complicated to achieve.

The new proposal lays out strict limits for earth-warming emissions from coal plants and some gas plants that would noticeably cut down their contributions to local climate transform.

It suggests coal crops that intend to continue being in operation past 2039 require to set up technology that cuts their carbon emissions by 90 percent by 2030. The major present pure fuel vegetation and any new types that open also would be expected to use engineering to slash their emissions 90 percent by 2035 or operate largely on low-carbon hydrogen electrical power by 2038. Crops that choose the hydrogen pathway would have to get 30 p.c of their electrical power from hydrogen by 2032 and 96 per cent from hydrogen by 2038.

But neither hydrogen nor the other engineering, regarded as carbon capture, is widely employed by the electricity sector — leading some experts to dilemma whether their use can be scaled up in time to meet the rule’s prerequisites

The only American plant that was using carbon capture shut down in 2020. The plant, identified as Petra Nova, shuttered amid falling oil costs, and it marketed the carbon it captured for use in oil recovery. Plans to restart it were lately introduced, nonetheless.

Canada also has a plant utilizing the technological innovation, and the Environmental Security Company (EPA) rule factors to some added illustrations of where it has been in use.

But carbon capture has a way to go prior to it turns into mainstream. 

“In the electrical power generation marketplace, bringing new systems to that scale, we commonly want to see a quantity of complete-scale demonstrations prior to calling it commercial-completely ready,” explained Brandon Delis, director of investigation and enhancement for era sector environmental investigation at EPRI, a nonprofit study corporation. 

“I assume there’s continue to far more to find out, there’s even now much more work to do, and we want to study about items like operational problems, maintenance challenges, how to improve the system … before you’re deploying this technology universally across the fleet,” Delis additional. 

Julia Attwood, head of sustainable elements at analysis provider BloombergNEF, also introduced up a logistical challenge — getting carbon seize accepted. 

She called prevalent adoption of carbon seize “technically feasible” but described a “backlog” for finding governing administration acceptance, declaring it can get about 6 many years to get a allow now. 

She also claimed transporting and storing the carbon that is captured results in a obstacle. 

“It’s quite tough to locate plenty of people today who have the knowledge to look at these proposals and decide them. Most of the folks who recognize underground geology like that function for oil companies,” she reported. 

“The present transportation and storage web pages are generally clustered around petrochemical and oil creation due to

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Biden’s most recent large local climate rule will relaxation on not often used technological know-how

Audrey

The latest proposal arrives as EPA continues alongside an formidable regulatory agenda to sharply ramp down the use of oil, pure gasoline and coal in motor vehicles and the power sector in purchase to minimize U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The agency proposed the nation’s strongest-at any time restrictions on cars and trucks’ greenhouse gas pollution earlier this thirty day period, with the aim of spurring a large surge in income of electric powered automobiles.

“We’ve been encouraged by what we have listened to from EPA” about the electric power plant proposal, “and what we have seen from them in other principles,” explained Lissa Lynch, director of the federal lawful group for the Purely natural Assets Protection Council.

The power plant rules stand to be much more stringent than EPA’s past two makes an attempt to control the sector’s carbon emissions — produced under the Obama and Trump administrations.

And they seem to be more powerful than what EPA signaled earlier this 12 months.

In March, days ahead of the rule was submitted to the OMB, EPA Administrator Michael Regan hinted that his agency was eyeing a standard that would need new electric power crops to be developed with the skill to use carbon seize at a afterwards date. But people today next the proposals say the administration is now planning to release draft policies that would involve new gasoline plants to hire carbon capture a lot more swiftly.

Not just about every coal- and gas-fired electric power plant will have to fulfill the rules’ most stringent benchmarks. The greatest facilities would be essential to make the deepest, earliest cuts to their carbon emissions, according to 1 man or woman briefed by EPA. Coal vegetation that are scheduled to retire and gasoline units that operate at situations of peak need will deal with laxer specifications. New gasoline plants will be given a plan by which they need to begin applying carbon capture devices or fulfill an option conventional centered on hydrogen.

Obama’s 2015 energy plant rule would have pushed utilities to switch from coal to cleaner resources of ability, but federal courts blocked it just before it could just take effect, and the Supreme Court turned down it previous yr. The justices mentioned in June that EPA lacked the lawful authority to command this sort of a sweeping transform in how the United States generates electricity.

Greens say the 2022 selection, historic as it was, leaves sufficient place for EPA to control power plant carbon aggressively.

“They will need to recognize the systems that are adequately shown and charge-fair at the facility stage, and that can make a transformation,” reported 1 human being who is common with the proposal.

Environmentalists say carbon capture has been sufficiently demonstrated even even though it has not been commonly deployed. And they stage to expanded incentives under last year’s local weather expending regulation, identified as the Inflation Reduction Act, to argue that it is economical. That regulation provides providers $85 for

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A bipartisan invoice to bolster point out and local technological know-how governance

Audrey

From cyber attacks to overseeing hundreds of billions in federal shelling out, point out and community governments deal with expanding technology troubles. A new bipartisan Senate bill would reform a 50 percent-century-previous law to enable federal companies to offer technological innovation aid to point out and neighborhood associates and really encourage greater cooperation involving governing administration companies.

Under the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968, Congress authorized the govt branch to strengthen coordination with state, regional, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) governments to enable administer federal courses and grants by technical guidance. 

Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have introduced the Bettering Intergovernmental Cooperation and Cutting down Duplication Act to modernize the regulation. In unique, the monthly bill updates the definitions beneath the 1968 legislation to provide them in line with our fashionable technologies landscape. Also, the invoice will demand the Workplace of Administration and Finances (OMB) to issue new programs and policies for how to employ the regulation: 

“The bill necessitates the OMB Director and [Office of Intergovernmental Affairs] to build a strategic system to enhance intergovernmental cooperation to boost coordination concerning federal and SLTT governments, boost performance, and decrease charges to taxpayers. The legislation would demand the OMB director to update the much more than 50-year-outdated assistance on intergovernmental cooperation to guarantee much more helpful shipping and delivery of federal companies at all levels of govt.”

The invoice would also update the Typical Services Administration’s (GSA) authorities to provide “specialized and technological services” to SLTT governments. In other terms, these governments would have the selection to accessibility GSA’s shared products and services, which are now only provided to federal organizations, to strengthen govt effectiveness and details technological innovation administration. In addition to GSA, all other federal agencies that have been authorized to develop or obtain unique IT or cyber capabilities, such the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, would also be allowed to increase individuals companies immediately to SLTTs.

For condition, nearby, territorial, and tribal governments, the bipartisan initiative has the potential to supply required support from Washington at a time when they experience growing cyber threats and rising challenges simply just administering govt plans. 

Numerous condition and area governments are functioning to handle cyber threats connected to prospective ransomware attacks, which contain hackers stealing or encrypting sensitive information and demanding payment. These governing administration companies often have confined methods, together with personnel with cybersecurity knowledge, to employ finest practices to protect against these and other disruptions. Much better intergovernmental coordination with federal businesses would make it possible for point out and nearby companions to obtain federal engineering tools and contracts to save time and resources whilst bettering safety. 

By an expanded Intergovernmental Cooperation Act, the federal govt could present practical technological innovation expert services, this kind of as Login.gov, without the need of duplicating endeavours or demanding state and local governments to obtain or develop their very own technology answers. GSA could also supply SLTT government companions obtain to federal contracts aimed to response the

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Local weather Technology Company Sensible Weather conditions SECURES $12M Series A

Audrey

Funding will accelerate progress of climate chance system and partnerships with industry-leading vacation and hospitality manufacturers

LOS ANGELES, May well 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sensible Weather conditions, a local weather chance technologies corporation, these days declared its $12M Collection A funding spherical, bringing its overall funding to over $20M. The round was led by San Francisco-based Infinity Ventures with participation from Certares Ventures, Derive Ventures, and existing investors Surprise Ventures and Team1001.

Smart Weather conditions is a local weather chance technological know-how organization that de-dangers weather for tourists and journey models. (PRNewsfoto/Reasonable Weather conditions)

The new money will make it possible for Wise to increase its deep pool of top engineering and scientific talent, accelerate advancement of its proprietary weather info and danger analytics platform, and develop its Climate Warranty providing into global markets.

“Embedded finance is a large and expanding market place, and Smart has demonstrated fast traction in the house by combining proprietary local weather analytics and fintech to build new value for shoppers,” stated Jay Gantara, associate, Infinity Money. “In the very same way extended warranties give buyers protection on products they’ve obtained, Sensible’s novel Weather conditions Guarantee service handles experiential buys like vacation reservations and occasion tickets with a new type of warranty protection.”

Because its start early this calendar year, Sensible has offered thousands of Weather Guarantees via its escalating roster of hospitality and outside recreation companions. Customers acquire Weather Ensure security when scheduling journey reservations and ticketed points of interest online and if a climate function, such as rain, is forecasted to come about through the covered expertise, Sensible immediately sends a reimbursement. Assurance payments are processed quickly, primarily based on the variety of several hours the knowledge is negatively impacted by weather.

“With Weather conditions Assure attach charges approaching 50% in early lover channels, we are converting at about 5x greater than common travel insurance plan,” stated Nick Cavanaugh, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Reasonable Weather conditions. “We are doubling down on our investments in this new embedded fintech support to speed up our plans of driving ancillary income for partners and boosting the in-location working experience for vacationers. With local weather more and more impacting vacations and out of doors ordeals, Sensible’s Weather conditions Guarantees delivers shoppers peace of thoughts when scheduling reservations on line by providing them the option to recoup their experiential losses when poor temperature interferes with designs.”

As a system business, Sensible’s Climate Assurance is the to start with of numerous products and solutions currently being produced on its climate motor, a high-performance facts, analytics and risk evaluation platform, to address the bigger local weather insurance policies industry. Every single of Sensible’s constituent factors are designed to exacting SaaS criteria and are meant to be use-scenario agnostic, enabling the company to cater to the two shoppers and firms across a extensive vary of industries impacted by local climate.

About Smart Weather
Reasonable Climate is a local climate danger technological innovation

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TechScape: Will the online video video games marketplace at any time confront its carbon footprint? | Local climate crisis

Audrey

When a corporation attempts to cut its carbon footprint, how much need to it forged the net? Is it responsible for the decisions of its prospects? What if it sells something that doesn’t have a carbon footprint at all – until finally the 2nd it is made use of?

For some businesses, flush with income, the reply is uncomplicated enough. Microsoft, for occasion, has committed to starting to be carbon damaging by 2030, and in the long run taking away from the atmosphere all the carbon it has ever emitted by 2050. In that accounting, it’s even accepting the price of downstream use of its merchandise: if you have driven an Xbox on a diesel generator, or charged a Zune making use of coal electrical power, Microsoft will offset all those emissions.

Indicator up for our weekly engineering publication, TechScape.

But for other people, the decisions are trickier. The video games field, in some approaches, faces the purest distillation of this dilemma. It produces a leisure products, which exists practically entirely in software, and can, depending on decisions made by the developer, use as a lot electrical energy as boiling a kettle or as very little as powering a wristwatch. So what does it indicate to be a local weather-aware match developer?

This weekend, I put in some time at the WASD celebration in London, hoping to come across an reply. Tamara Alliot, the main government of recreation developer Nerial – and a previous sustainability supervisor in advance of she moved into games – factors out that there are plenty of techniques that a developer can tackle its footprint just before even needing to pay back interest to the trickier philosophical points.

“The impact of taking part in the online games is one of the impacts of the industry, but it’s not the only detail,” she states. “I believe we have to admit that there is a online video recreation provide chain, and a components lifecycle. The daily life of the components, the electricity and the products made use of to make the computer systems by themselves – that’s a thing every person requires to consider some accountability for.”

In regular carbon accounting, the largest expenditure for a little indie studio like Alliot’s is almost certainly vacation, in accordance to Graeme Struthers, the co-founder of publisher Devolver, who will publish Nerial’s forthcoming Card Shark. “A whole lot of organizations are likely to be going through the process of seeking to lower their emissions and locating the that, for the reason that they are quickly largely distant, they just cannot – and they should not – be likely into any employee’s lifestyle and expressing ‘you want to place a jumper on! You require to switch down the heating!’ And so since of that, it’s vacation to situations like [WASD] that is the largest piece of the puzzle.”

Large fish, minor fish, cardboard box

Some developers have produced big alterations in the areas that are underneath their regulate. Athletics Interactive,

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