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Local governments in developing countries are crucial for providing public services that promote human development and address challenges like extreme weather, unemployment and crumbling infrastructure. Yet, they often face difficulties in implementing cost-effective programs that meet citizens’ diverse needs, particularly in areas with significant socioeconomic inequalities. A recent study , published in World Development and led by University of Notre Dame researcher Krister Andersson , explored the impact of economic and social inequalities on local government performance in Chile (a country with very high socioeconomic inequalities). Specifically, the paper assessed the effectiveness of external policies to alleviate the negative effects of inequality on the quality of local public services. The study found that socioeconomic inequalities pose significant challenges for local governance, often trapping local governments in a cycle of limited resources, rising inequality and declining capacity to meet citizens’ needs. “Interventions to help local governments to deal with inequality seem to be most effective when they recognize a leadership role and some autonomy of local leaders,” said Andersson, a professor of sustainable development at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs . Using a dataset spanning 56 local government territories in Chile from 2000 to 2014, the study analyzed citizen satisfaction with local government performance. Multilevel modeling was used to assess how different policy approaches — top-down, sector-based support and bottom-up, demand-driven funding — influence satisfaction levels. The study evaluated four prominent national programs designed to address inequalities and citizen dissatisfaction. It found only one program to be effective, while the other three either had no impact or worsened the negative link between inequality and quality of local government services. As socioeconomic disparities widened, the study found that citizen satisfaction with local government programs declined significantly. Poorer territories experienced greater dissatisfaction while wealthier citizens were less affected, as they relied less on government services for daily needs. Extreme socioeconomic inequalities also constrained local governments’ ability to deliver effective services. Limited resources, inadequate personnel and insufficient infrastructure hindered their capacity to address diverse community needs. Despite significant investments by the Chilean national government to improve infrastructure and public services, many initiatives failed to bridge the gap. The study, Andersson said, highlights the necessity of strategic, targeted interventions to break the cycle of inequality and enhance public satisfaction with local governance. “These findings underscore the challenge faced by national governments trying to address inequalities. Simply increasing earmarked funding to local governments may not be sufficient. We see the importance of carefully designed policies and strengthened local governance structures to improve service delivery and address persistent socioeconomic inequalities,” he said. The research was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development in Chile. Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or [email protected]
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WASHINGTON — Walmart, the world's largest retailer , has started giving associates body cameras to wear as part of a pilot program at a few of its U.S. locations. A person familiar with the program said that these body cameras are specifically for the safety of employees and not designed for anti-theft measures. It's not clear how many stores are part of the program, but the company confirmed its being tested in just one market right now. Fox Business reports the pilot involves multiple stores in Denton, Texas, about 40 miles from Dallas, which have reportedly posted signage letting customers know body cameras are being used. A shopper in Denton also shared a photo with CNBC that showed an associate checking receipts while wearing a yellow and black body camera earlier this month. "While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry," Walmart said in a statement on Tuesday. "This is a pilot we are testing in one market, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions." A photo reportedly of Walmart body cameras in charging bays was posted on Reddit last month . The photo included instructions for how to use the camera to record "an event if an interaction with a customer is escalating." While Walmart's body camera pilot program is focused on employee safety, it comes after another national retailer rolled out body cameras to help curb shoplifting. TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores started having their stores' unarmed security guards wear body cameras late last year, parent company TJX revealed in an earnings call back in May . A company spokesperson said at the time that they hoped the body cameras would help de-escalate incidents, deter crime and demonstrate to our employees and customers that they take safety in stores seriously.Stunned Massachusetts educators, ADL call for MassCUE apology after ‘hateful’ anti-Israel and Holocaust rhetoric at conference
Roadzen Inc. Announces Closing of Public OfferingX-Bow to Receive Additional Funding for Expansion of DoD Contract for Hypersonic Solid Rocket Motor Development
( MENAFN - GlobeNewsWire - Nasdaq) Munster, Ind., Dec. 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finward Bancorp (Nasdaq: FNWD) (the“Bancorp” or“Finward”), the holding company for Peoples bank (the“Bank”), today announced that on December 20, 2024 the Board of Directors of Finward declared a dividend of $0.12 per share on Finward's common stock payable on February 3, 2025 to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 21, 2025. About Finward Bancorp Finward Bancorp is a locally managed and independent financial holding company headquartered in Munster, Indiana, whose activities are primarily limited to holding the stock of Peoples Bank. Peoples Bank provides a wide range of personal, business, electronic and wealth management financial services from its 26 locations in Lake and Porter Counties in Northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area. Finward Bancorp's common stock is quoted on The NASDAQ Stock Market, LLC under the symbol FNWD. The website ibankpeoples.com provides information on Peoples Bank's products and services, and Finward Bancorp's investor relations. Forward Looking Statements This Current Report on Form 8-K may contain forward-looking statements regarding the financial performance, business prospects, growth, and operating strategies of Finward. For these statements, Finward claims the protections of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this communication should be considered in conjunction with the other information available about Finward, including the information in the filings Finward makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Forward-looking statements provide current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance. The forward-looking statements are based on management's expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by using words such as“anticipate,”“estimate,”“project,”“intend,”“plan,”“believe,”“will” and similar expressions in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the Bank's ability to demonstrate compliance with the terms of the previously disclosed consent order and memorandum of understanding entered into between the Bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) and Indiana Department of Financial Institutions (“DFI”), or to demonstrate compliance to the satisfaction of the FDIC and/or DFI within prescribed time frames; the Bank's agreement under the memorandum of understanding to refrain from paying cash dividends without prior regulatory approval; changes in asset quality and credit risk; the inability to sustain revenue and earnings growth; changes in interest rates and capital markets; inflation; customer acceptance of Finward's products and services; customer borrowing, repayment, investment, and deposit practices; customer disintermediation; the introduction, withdrawal, success, and timing of business initiatives; competitive conditions; the inability to realize cost savings or revenues or to implement integration plans and other consequences associated with mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; economic conditions; and the impact, extent, and timing of technological changes, capital management activities, and other actions of the Federal Reserve Board and legislative and regulatory actions and reforms. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements are discussed in Finward's reports (such as the Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K) filed with the SEC and available at the SEC's Internet website ( ). All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning Finward or any person acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. Except as required by law, Finward does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statement is made. In addition to the above factors, we also caution that the actual amounts and timing of any future common stock dividends or share repurchases will be subject to various factors, including our capital position, financial performance, capital impacts of strategic initiatives, market conditions, and regulatory and accounting considerations, as well as any other factors that our Board of Directors deems relevant in making such a determination. Therefore, there can be no assurance that we will repurchase shares or pay any dividends to the holders of our common stock, or as to the amount of any such repurchases or dividends. ### MENAFN20122024004107003653ID1109018322 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.Years ago, comedy writer Mike McMahan got the opportunity of a lifetime — an interview to join the writing staff of a new Star Trek series, the first in over a decade. McMahan was a massive Trekkie and had recently made a splash with a parody Twitter account called “ TNG Season 8 ,” in which he summarized goofy, imaginary episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation . He’d even sold the idea to Simon & Schuster and written an entire episode guide for the bogus season. Now, he was getting a chance to work on the real thing... and he turned it down. McMahan had been working on a new animated series that had not yet premiered, but that he loved working on and didn’t want to walk away from. To hear McMahan tell it, the folks at Secret Hideout, Alex Kurtzman’s production company in charge of the new Trek spinoff, thought he was crazy. The show McMahan was working on was Rick and Morty , which went on to be a massive pop culture sensation. More confident than ever in McMahan’s instincts, Secret Hideout reached out again in 2018, this time to ask him what he wanted to do. McMahan answered with a pitch for an animated sitcom based in the Star Trek universe, a truly wild swing for the typically reverent and cerebral sci-fi franchise. This gamble paid off, too, as his series Star Trek: Lower Decks has become an overwhelming fan favorite with an appeal that has reached beyond the Starfleet faithful. As the series comes to a close after five seasons, Polygon caught up with McMahan about how his wacky passion project made its mark on one of American pop culture’s most cherished legacies. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Polygon: I just saw on Bluesky someone surfaced the preface to your collection of Star Trek Season 8 posts where you said, “I’m never going to write for Star Trek.” Mike McMahan: But even worse than that, I wrote those TNG Season 8 posts, and then I sold the idea to Simon & Schuster and wrote a fake guide to a fake season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . And in the intro to that book, I talked about never having a Star Trek show, so this book is going to be it. And people bring it up and I’m just like, Man, 10-years-ago Mike, what were you doing? No, I mean, it all worked out for you! It’s very aspirational, I’m sure, for a lot of fans thinking, This is something that can and has happened . Right? Yeah. It was cool because when I was becoming a writer in TV and writing my own stuff all the time, I was watching Star Trek with my wife, being like, “Man, I wish Star Trek was still around,” because it was in the in-between phase. And I remember being like, “I’m just gonna write Star Trek whether somebody pays me to or not.” And, eventually people saw me doing that — especially Aaron Baiers, who became the head of Alex Kurtzman’s company. He and I were assistants back in the day, and he saw me doing that on my own volition. And then when I worked on Rick and Morty , it became like a natural sort of thing. So, if you’re a big fan of stuff, what I would say is: Keep loving that stuff, but also work on all sorts of other stuff you love, and then it might converge. That was the lucky part, was the convergence of it. Sure. I mean, luck is usually something that only works in your favor if you’ve done a lot of hard work first, right? Yes. Did you ever write a Trek spec script, just like a proper a TNG script for fun? I never did because I always wanted it to be funny. And like, TNG is funny, but I wanted it to be Lower Decks funny. So, I had written things that were kind of like, not really TNG , but were basically like The Orville kind of versions. A thing that I appreciate about this whole new era of Star Trek is that each new series has pushed the boundaries of what Star Trek is, but in a different direction. In the early days, Discovery seemed to be aiming to be a Game of Thrones -y thing. And your project is almost in the exact opposite direction of that. So what I’d like to explore with you today is essentially the rules of the Lower Decks writers room, and how they evolved over five seasons. How did you come to define what this was both within and without the bounds of Star Trek? So, season 1, I went into it day one having actually like a bible written up for the show’s style guide for the artists and the writers. I knew that the show had to feel like it took place seven years after Star Trek: Nemesis , that we had to fit into the timeline both technologically and with design and with all of the character attributes that that would come with. So that we recognize this as kind of like the last of the TNG -era shows. When it comes to the narratives that we’re telling, every episode right off the bat had to have a big Star Trek story happening to the ship and the bridge crew that was affecting our Lower Deckers, but that their main storyline was a social, emotional, comedic story pulled from experiences people had at work or dating or in life in their 20s and 30s. So we always had two stories happening at the same time — the big sci-fi story and the “getting to know who you are in life” story. On top of that, the first season was all, Oh, I can’t believe I get to make a Star Trek. I’m going to play, I’m going to do the hits. We’re going to see a Klingon in the second episode. We’re going to have a trial episode. We’re going to have a big bad that has a metaphorical political social commentary at the end of the season . The first season it felt like we were Doing a Star Trek. And then the second season, we understood the characters better. We had spent a lot more time with the actors and finding stories with the characters. And that’s when we became “We’re doing a Lower Decks .” That’s when we were like, We want to incrementally move these characters forward. When they learn stuff, we don’t want to have them unlearn it the next episode, like a classic sitcom . And the main goal the whole time was that the big surprise of this show should be that it’s funny, but it’s also thoughtful Star Trek and that there’s different ways to do that. Like, I love the original animated series. I think it’s fascinating and I grew up watching it too, but I didn’t want Lower Decks to become that. I didn’t want Lower Decks to be an “asterisk” show, a show that, like, people probably had never heard of or didn’t care about. Our goal was, if you’re talking about your favorite Trek shows, you should at least admit that Lower Decks is one of the Trek shows. And I feel like we maybe overshot that a little bit, because a lot of people love Lower Decks . I think that of the crop of new shows, Lower Decks is the predominant favorite. Which is crazy! We must have lucked into that, because I think they did some amazing stuff on those other shows. And we’ve just been doing, you know, literally what we set out to do from day one. It feels very lucky that we got to do it, and that people respond to it feels lucky, too, because sometimes I feel like I’m making the show for me, whether or not other people are going to like it. So when they do, it’s a very nice surprise. I’m curious, when you were working on that first season, what kind of conversations you were having with your fellow storytellers about the accessibility of the show versus We’re a bunch of fans and we want to see these things. We weren’t worried about the accessibility because the only people who think Lower Decks isn’t accessible to outside viewers are people who know a lot of Star Trek. And people who don’t know a lot of Star Trek are just meeting aliens that are not too complex to figure out for the episode. Like, when you meet a Klingon, you know who they are in the first 30 seconds. In Lower Decks , you don’t need to know who Kahless is. If a Klingon is talking about Kahless on Lower Decks , the lines are designed for you to understand the meaning it has to them, even if you don’t know all the apocrypha, just like you can watch any episode of Star Trek and not have to have seen them all. In Rick and Morty , we were creating pastiches of other sci-fi characters all the time that felt like it was world-building, but you didn’t have to know the backstory of the aliens they were meeting. That was the same way we were treating legacy species in Lower Decks . But luckily, with, say, the Cardassians, there are many episodes that define them for us. We just get to kind of give a slightly broader take on them. So for me, the stuff that a lot of people were railing on and worried about was not going to be a problem for me because all of the little legacy stuff, all of the design choices, the understanding that Mariner has seen the holologs of the things that we call episodes, that all of that stuff is to turn Star Trek into a world so that we can have comedy take place within it. It’s kind of like when I worked at Second City in Chicago, there were a lot of sketches where you kind of have to live in the city to get what they’re making fun of here, but they were doing it in a way that even if you’re in it from out of town, you’re still laughing in the scene. It just has a different kind of resonance for you. That is what the deep-cut stuff in Lower Decks usually plays as. Now, sometimes, just to be little stinkers, we’ll put in, like, an extremely deep cut that makes no fucking sense to you unless you’re way in. Like the Spock helmet. Yeah, the Spock helmet, or Mariner referencing Xon. That’s a character who never even ended up on screen. Those moments are for deep, deep fans. But in a way, I always talked about Lower Decks being sort of like a translator for all other Trek. Like, if you watch Lower Decks , you could go pop into any other Trek and you kind of get the gist because the Lower Deckers either encountered somebody or talked about it or we did an episode that sort of honored it. You know, you could pop into Voyager , you could pop into Enterprise or TOS . I mean, our characters literally popped into Strange New Worlds . Like, they should feel kind of like an “Every-Trek,” in a way. And I think that as a fan, you always worry — especially as a Star Trek fan — that somebody using the things you liked from before are gonna ruin them, or they’re gonna be the wrong version of them, or they’re gonna lessen the thing you liked about it. But we always talk about Star Trek as being like going to a national park. Like, when we’re writing and designing stuff, you have to enjoy it, to enjoy being there, but don’t change it so that the next person can’t enjoy what you liked about it. Right. You always want to be additive to what you’re working on. Yeah, additive and celebrating it. And originally, there wasn’t even a big drive to have legacy actors reprise their roles on the show. But, I had met Jonathan Frakes when I was shooting a Short Trek that I wrote, and he was directing an episode of Discovery . And I showed him the pitch that we were about to take out for Lower Decks , and he was cracking up and he made me promise him that we would have Riker show up in it . And that’s why Riker shows up at the finale of the first season, because I was like, Oh man, I promised Frakes we would do this, and we better get Marina [Sirtis] in there. And then, you know, we had Q show up for a quick bit. But that created the feeling of, like, Oh, I guess part of this show is having these characters come back. How are we going to do that? We’ve got to keep them funny. We’ve got to honor what they set up before. And everything on Lower Decks is really hard to write because it’s got to be funny, but also deeply thoughtful. So it sounds like you didn’t have to have anybody in the writers room who was just like a casual Star Trek fan who could be your test audience, like you could kind of just trust that it was going to work. You know, it was a mix. In the first season, it was me, Ben Rodgers, Brad Winters, David Wright, M. Willis. Like, the writers room was a mix of comedy writers, animation writers, and deep, deep Star Trek fans, but not somebody who had worked on Star Trek before. Brad Winters, my producer, has a brain that is so deep in Trek. Like, we can have a conversation when we have an episode written where he’ll be like, “You have the characters doing this here, but there’s an episode in the middle of Voyager that says this can’t happen. So let’s talk about why you wanted to do it and how we can fit it in.” So everything is always, when it comes to the Trek lore, guiding us to what we wanted to do, and then sometimes we just have to adjust. We also have Dr. Erin [Macdonald], who is our science advisor, and she’ll get every script, because part of what feels right about Star Trek is that the science actually makes sense, even if we’re doing something silly. She does a pass on every script to make sure that I’m not making stuff up that’s crazy. And then we have the Star Trek franchise team, like John Van Citters and Marian Cordry and Dayton Ward. Not only have they worked on so many episodes of Trek, but also on all of the side stuff, the comics and the books and everything. I’ll have them look at everything and make sure that it passes the sniff test with them too. So, like, we would have a lot of Star Trek fans, you know, watching the stuff and like, the reviews we always got were, “Oh, yeah, a new Lower Decks episode just came in!” You know what I mean? It felt like we were doing something right. Like in almost any show, but especially in comedy, there’s usually a period early on where the writers and the actors are all kind of figuring out the characters together. Like how it takes a season and a half for TNG to really find Will Riker as he gradually becomes more like Frakes. And I’m curious how the animation workflow affects something like this, going back and forth between writer, actor, and animator. It really does feel when you see interviews with Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid and Noël Wells and Eugene Cordero, that there’s so much of them in these characters. Yeah. Do you feel like you can pinpoint a moment where you all found your stride, and how did it come about? It kind of came about naturally. It was, you know, I had done a lot of direct, like, voice directing on Rick and Morty and on Solar Opposites . So, when we started recording Lower Decks , I just kind of put them through hell at first. Like, I would have Tawny do, like, 25 takes of each line, and then we found those characters together. And, over time, Brad, my producer, also was able to start voice directing the show primarily because over time, we all started to understand the characters together. Not only from watching the show together and performing the show together, but Tawny and Eugene were going to conventions and having really interesting conversations with fans of the show and with actors on other Star Trek shows. Like, at first there were no wrong answers. And then over time, as you start to learn the characters, it’s like, “Oh, Rutherford wouldn’t say that. What’s a Rutherford way to say that?” And you don’t have that at first because you don’t know Rutherford. But I think it just speaks to the patience and the talent of the cast. We really lucked out in some respects in casting, that we made some right choices right off the bat. Jack Quaid didn’t know anything about Star Trek coming in, but he’s an amazing actor and he’s super funny. And he wanted to know about Star Trek. He wanted to know what it means to be in love with Starfleet. Every actor had that desire. There wasn’t really any one miracle moment. It was just really loving to work with this cast, really believing in the scripts and the cast thinking they’re funny too. Nobody was at odds with each other and there was tons of communication. Anybody on the cast could call and ask questions beforehand or when we’re there, and we were never trying to force them into something. We were trying to find the best version all together from the very first episode. Well, now you’ve got sort of a legacy being built out of that experience. Tawny’s in the writers room for one Star Trek show and apparently developing another one, which I’m sure you can’t tell me anything about. I can’t, but Tawny’s a genius and everybody she’s working with seems amazing. Like, everybody on the show feels like a mega star I got before the rest of everybody else found out. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I would think Tawny can do literally anything that she wants to do in this world. And on top of that, just wrapping up here, can you tell me anything about Starbase 80? Starbase 80 smells really weird; its systems are very old. It’s like a mix of Enterprise , TOS , lots of stuff. Are we going to be going there again? I would love to go there again. There are no plans to go there again. I pitched a Starbase 80 spinoff to CBS like, three years ago, which is where a lot of this came from. I would love to go back to Starbase 80, but right now there are no plans to do it. Entertainment Q&A Sci-fi Star Trek TV
Last summer, Molly Kelley of Otsego discovered that innocent photos she posted on her private social media account had been altered into deep-fake pornographic images that were posted online by a family friend. “The stress of the discovery of seeing a hyper-realistic twisted version of myself that I had no part in creating was overwhelming,” said the mother of two, who spoke in support of the Take It Down Act, proposed federal legislation that would make non-consensual publication of explicit images on the Internet a federal crime. The bill combatting so-called “revenge porn ” is the byproduct of a rare bit of bipartisanship in Congress, spearheaded by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. The Senate unanimously passed the measure earlier this year, and now both lawmakers are pushing the House to approve it by the end of the year. “The fact that we are able to do this together is kind of a miracle in kind of a polarizing time,” said Klobuchar during a news conference Tuesday. But, she noted, “this issue is too important to ignore.” Kelley was among 85 women, many of them Minnesotans, who were affected by deep-fake images on social media that were posted by a man who she said has never faced any consequences. When she reported the images to law enforcement, the reaction “was inconsistent and, at times, dismissive.” Minnesota and other states have laws in place to prohibit the spread of such images, but both senators said a federal mandate would prove far more effective in combatting a growing problem. The proposed law calls for prison terms of up to three years for those convicted of posting nonconsensual intimate images. Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), said his agency has fielded more than 11,000 tips this year alone involving nonconsensual explicit images, some of which were being used to extort victims. The backing of the federal government in these cases would be an effective tool to combat the problem, he said. The images are sometimes altered using artificial intelligence, or are private photos that are disseminated, often by disgruntled partners or spouses. Celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lawrence, count themselves as victims. The majority of the images posted online are of women or teenage girls, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, an advocacy group. One of Tuesday’s speakers was Samantha McCoy, now a Texas attorney and advocate for sexual assault survivors, whose rape in college was posted online by her assailant. The proposed law would require social media companies and technology platforms to remove the images within 48 hours of the victim reporting them. Klobuchar noted that tech giants Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — as well as Microsoft and Snapchat have endorsed the bill. Kelley said the fake images, which were posted when she was six months pregnant, affected her physical and emotional health as well as her ability to work. “When the initial shock wore off, a persistent reality set in: these images will likely exist forever,” she said. “It is an intolerable weight.”Regal to Allow Moviegoers to Pay With USDC Stablecoin
NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope includes asteroids on its list of objects studied and secrets revealed. A team led by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge repurposed Webb’s observations of a distant star to reveal a population of small asteroids — smaller than astronomers had ever detected orbiting the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The 138 new asteroids range from the size of a bus to the size of a stadium — a size range in the main belt that has not been observable with ground-based telescopes. Knowing how many main belt asteroids are in different size ranges can tell us something about how asteroids have been changed over time by collisions. That process is related to how some of them have escaped the main belt over the solar system’s history, and even how meteorites end up on Earth. “We now understand more about how small objects in the asteroid belt are formed and how many there could be,” said Tom Greene, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and co-author on the paper presenting the results. “Asteroids this size likely formed from collisions between larger ones in the main belt and are likely to drift towards the vicinity of Earth and the Sun.” Insights from this research could inform the work of the Asteroid Threat Assessment Project at Ames. ATAP works across disciplines to support NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office by studying what would happen in the case of an Earth impact and modeling the associated risks. “It’s exciting that Webb’s capabilities can be used to glean insights into asteroids,” said Jessie Dotson, an astrophysicist at Ames and member of ATAP. “Understanding the sizes, numbers, and evolutionary history of smaller main belt asteroids provides important background about the near-Earth asteroids we study for planetary defense.” The team that made the asteroid detections, led by research scientist Artem Burdanov and professor of planetary science Julien de Wit, both of MIT, developed a method to analyze existing Webb images for the presence of asteroids that may have been inadvertently “caught on film” as they passed in front of the telescope. Using the new image processing technique, they studied more than 10,000 images of the star TRAPPIST-1 , originally taken to search for atmospheres around planets orbiting the star, in the search for life beyond Earth. Asteroids shine more brightly in infrared light, the wavelength Webb is tuned to detect, than in visible light, helping reveal the population of main belt asteroids that had gone unnoticed until now. NASA will also take advantage of that infrared glow with an upcoming mission, the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor . NEO Surveyor is the first space telescope specifically designed to hunt for near-Earth asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth. The paper presenting this research, “ Detections of decameter main-belt asteroids with JWST ,” was published Dec. 9 in Nature. The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). For news media : Members of the news media interested in covering this topic should reach out to the NASA Ames newsroom .SHAREHOLDER INVESTIGATION: The M&A Class Action Firm Continues to Investigate the Mergers of ARCH, USAP, CYTH, and BRKHNone
2024 intro: As NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley enters its 85 th year since its founding, join us as we take a look back at some of our highlights of science, engineering, research, and innovation from 2024. Ames Arc Jets Play Key Role in Artemis I Orion Spacecraft Heat Shield Findings Researchers at Ames were part of the team tasked to better understand and identify the root cause of the unexpected char loss across the Artemis I Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. Using Avcoat material response data from Artemis I, the investigation team was able to replicate the Artemis I entry trajectory environment — a key part of understanding the cause of the issue — inside the arc jet facilities at NASA Ames. Starling Swarm Completes Primary Mission After ten months in orbit, the Starling spacecraft swarm successfully demonstrated its primary mission’s key objectives, representing significant achievements in the capability of swarm configurations in low Earth orbit, including distributing and sharing important information and autonomous decision making. Another Step Forward for BioNutrients NASA’s BioNutrients entered its fifth year in its mission to investigate how microorganisms can produce on-demand nutrients for astronauts during long-duration space missions. Keeping astronauts healthy is critical and as the project comes to a close , researchers have processed production packs on Earth on the same day astronauts processed production packs in space on the International Space Station to demonstrate that NASA can produce nutrients after at least five years in space, providing confidence it will be capable of supporting crewed missions to Mars. Hyperwall Upgrade Helps Scientists Interpret Big Data Ames upgraded its powerful hyperwall system , a 300-square foot wall of LCD screens with over a billion pixels to display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments. The hyperwall is just one way researchers can utilize NASA’s high-end computing technology to better understand their data and advance the agency’s missions and research. Ames Contributions to NASA Artificial Intelligence Efforts Ames contributes to the agency’s artificial intelligence work through ongoing research and development, agencywide collaboration, and communications efforts. This year, NASA announced David Salvagnini as its inaugural chief artificial intelligence officer and held the first agencywide town hall on artificial intelligence sharing how the agency is safely using and developing artificial intelligence to advance missions and research. Advanced Composite Solar Sail System Successfully Launches, Deploys Sail NASA’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System successfully launched from Māhia, New Zealand, in April, and successfully deployed its sail in August to begin mission operations. The small satellite represents a new future in solar sailing, using lightweight composite booms to support a reflective polymer sail that uses the pressure of sunlight as propulsion. Understanding Our Planet In 2024, Ames researchers studied Earth’s oceans and waterways from multiple angles – from supporting NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, or PACE, mission to bringing students in Puerto Rico experiences in oceanography and the preservation of coral reefs . Working with multiple partners, our scientists and engineers helped inform ecosystem management by joining satellite measurements of Earth with animal tracking data . In collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey, a NASA team continued testing a specialized instrument package to stay in-the-know about changes in river flow rates . Revealing the Mysteries of Asteroids in Our Solar System Ames researchers used a series of supercomputer simulations to reveal a potential new explanation for how the moons of Mars may have formed : The first step, the findings say, may have involved the destruction of an asteroid. Using NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope, another Ames scientist helped reveal the smallest asteroids ever found in the main asteroid belt. Ames Helps Emerging Space Companies ‘Take the Heat’ A heat shield material invented and made at Ames helped to safely return a spacecraft containing the first product processed on an autonomous, free-flying, in-space manufacturing platform. February’s re-entry of the spacecraft from Varda Space Industries of El Segundo, California, in partnership with Rocket Lab USA of Long Beach, California, marked the first time a NASA-manufactured thermal protection material, called C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), ever returned from space. Team Continues to Move Forward with Mission to Learn More about Our Star HelioSwarm’s swarm of nine spacecraft will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS. The mission team continues to work toward launching in 2029. CAPSTONE Continues to Chart a New Path Around the Moon The microwave sized CubeSat, CAPSTONE , continues to fly in a cis-lunar near rectilinear halo orbit after launching in 2022. Flying in this unique orbit continues to pave the way for future spacecraft and Gateway , a Moon-orbiting outpost that is part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, as the team continues to collect data. NASA Moves Drone Package Delivery Industry Closer to Reality NASA’s uncrewed aircraft system traffic management concepts paved the way for newly-approved package delivery drone flights in the Dallas area. NASA Technologies Streamline Air Traffic Management Systems Managing our busy airspace is a complex and important issue, ensuring reliable and efficient movement of commercial and public air traffic as well as autonomous vehicles. NASA, in partnership with AeroVironment and Aerostar, demonstrated a first-of-its-kind air traffic management concept that could pave the way for aircraft to safely operate at higher altitudes. The agency also saw continued fuel savings and reduction in commercial flight delays at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport, thanks to a NASA-developed tool that allows flight coordinators to identify more efficient, alternative takeoff routes. Small Spacecraft Gathers Big Solar Storm Data from Deep Space BioSentinel – a small satellite about the size of a cereal box – is currently more than 30 million miles from Earth, orbiting our Sun. After launching aboard NASA’s Artemis I more than two years ago, BioSentinel continues to collect valuable information for scientists trying to understand how solar radiation storms move through space and where their effects – and potential impacts on life beyond Earth – are most intense. In May 2024, the satellite was exposed to a coronal mass ejection without the protection of our planet’s magnetic field and gathered measurements of hazardous solar particles in deep space during a solar storm. NASA, FAA Partner to Develop New Wildland Fire Technologies NASA researchers continued to develop and test airspace management technologies to enable remotely-piloted aircraft to fight and monitor wildland fires 24 hours a day. The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project seeks to use drones and advanced aviation technologies to improve wildland fire coordination and operations. NASA and Forest Service Use Balloon to Help Firefighters Communicate The Strategic Tactical Radio and Tactical Overwatch (STRATO) technology is a collaborative effort to use high-altitude balloons to improve real-time communications among firefighters battling wildland fires. Providing cellular communication from above can improve firefighter safety and firefighting efficiency. A Fully Reimagined Visitor Center The NASA Ames Visitor Center at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, California includes a fully reimagined 360-degree experience, featuring new exhibits, models, and more. An interactive exhibit puts visitors in the shoes of a NASA Ames scientist, designing and testing rovers, planes, and robots for space exploration. Ames Collaborations in the Community NASA astronauts, scientists, and researchers, and leadership from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) met with cancer patients and gathered in a discussion about potential research opportunities and collaborations as part of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative on Oct. 4. During the visit with patients, NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle and former astronaut Kenneth Cockrell answered questions about spaceflight and life in space. Ames and the University of California, Berkeley, expanded their partnership, organizing workshops to exchange on their areas of technical expertise, including in Advanced Air Mobility, and to develop ideas for the Berkeley Space Center, an innovation hub proposed for development at Ames’ NASA Research Park. Under a new agreement, NASA also will host supercomputing resources for UC Berkeley, supporting the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola denied he has a “personal problem” with Kevin De Bruyne and insisted Tuesday the playmaker's absence from the team in recent weeks was down to his fitness issues. City has not won in seven games in all competitions — its worst run under Guardiola — and De Bruyne has featured only as a substitute in the last five of those matches after recovering from a pelvic injury. The Belgium midfielder was injured during City’s Champions League match with Inter Milan on Sept. 18 and hasn't started since. A number of prominent pundits, including former City defender and club ambassador Micah Richards, have questioned why De Bruyne has not been starting games amid the champions’ dramatic slump. Richards said on “The Rest is Football” podcast that it appeared “there’s some sort of rift going on” between De Bruyne and Guardiola. Guardiola responded in his news conference ahead of Wednesday's Premier League match against Nottingham Forest, saying: “People say I’ve got a problem with Kevin. Do you think I like to not play with Kevin? No, I don’t want Kevin to play? “The guy who has the most talent in the final third — I don’t want it? I have a personal problem with him after nine years together? He’s delivered to me the biggest success to this club, but he’s been five months injured (last season) and two months injured (this year). He’s 33 years old. He needs time to find his best, like last season, step by step. He’ll try to do it and feel better. I’m desperate to have his best.” Both De Bruyne and Guardiola have spoken since of the pain De Bruyne was in after his injury against Inter and the need to ease him back into action. De Bruyne is in the final year of his contract. “I’d love to have the Kevin in his prime, 26 or 27. He would love it too — but he is not 26 or 27 anymore," Guardiola said. “He had injuries in the past, important and long ones. He is a guy who needs to be physically fit for his space and energy. You think I’m complaining? It’s normal, it’s nature. He’s played in 10 or 11 seasons a lot of games and I know he is desperate to help us. He gives glimpses of brilliance that only he can have." AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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The U.S. Commerce Department announced on Friday the finalization of an award to Amkor Technology, amounting to up to $407 million. This funding aims to support the company's ambitious $2 billion plan to develop an advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Arizona. Set to become the largest facility of its kind on American soil, the Arizona plant will package and test semiconductors critical for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G technology, and expansive data centers. Its significance is poised to reshape the U.S.'s position in the global semiconductor industry. Notably, Apple and Taiwan's TSMC are key stakeholders, with Apple slated to be the plant's first and most substantial customer. Chips for Apple will be manufactured at TSMC's nearby facility, further enhancing the collaborative tech ecosystem emerging in the region. (With inputs from agencies.)
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