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Weather: Sunny with a chance of showers. A chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 90s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent. Saturday Night: Mostly clear. A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly in the evening. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Wickline Park, 315 South 7th Street, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley: Not today. The commissioner is taking Labor Day weekend off.
Peps Art Walk, noon to 5 p.m. next to JT’s Seafood Shack, 5224 Oceanshore Blvd, Palm Coast. Step into the magical vibes of Unique Handcrafted vendors gathering in one location, selling handmade goods. Makers, crafters, artists, of all kinds found here. From honey to baked goods, wooden surfboards, to painted surfboards, silverware jewelry to clothing, birdbaths to inked glass, beachy furniture to foot fashions, candles to soaps, air fresheners to home decor and SO much more! Peps Art Walk happens on the last Saturday of every month. A grassroots market that began in May of 2022 has grown steadily into an event with over 30 vendors and many loyal patrons. The event is free, food and drink on site, parking is free, and a raffle is held to raise money for local charity Whispering Meadows Ranch. Kid friendly, dog friendly, great music and good vibes. Come out to support our hometown artist community!
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
 Keep Their Lights On Over the Holidays: Flagler Cares, the social service non-profit celebrating its 10th anniversary, is marking the occasion with a fund-raiser to "Keep the Holiday Lights On" by encouraging people to sponsor one or more struggling household's electric bill for a month over the Christmas season. Each sponsorship amounts to $100 donation, with every cent going toward payment of a local power bill. See the donation page here. Every time another household is sponsored, a light goes on on top of a house at Flagler Cares' fundraising page. The goal of the fun-raiser, which Flagler Cares would happily exceed, is to support at least 100 families (10 households for each of the 10 years that Flagler Cares has been in existence). Flagler Cares will start taking applications for the utility fund later this month. Because of its existing programs, the organization already has procedures in place to vet people for this type of assistance, ensuring that only the needy quality. |
Notably: In late 1960 when Dwight Eisenthower traveled to Europe, the MIddle East and Asia on a farewell tour, the last time an American president was welcomed everywhere he went with gushings of adoration, there was a stop in Rome and an audience with Pope John XXIII. The pope also gave an audience to reporters, as Gilbert Grosvenor, who was then reporting on the Eisenhower trip for National Geographic, wrote. Grosvenor quoted the pope, who spoke to reporters of “the lofty mission that the responsible newspaperman fulfills,” and, in Grosvenor’s paraphrase, “remarked that if St. Paul were alive today he probably would be a journalist, so that he could spread the doctrine of Christ.” Grosvenor then went back to quoting the pope directly: “If you will combine the propagation of truth with natural goodness and good will, then you will render a great service to the cause of peace in the world.” Grosvenor noted that “His words brought a glow of pride to all of us.” I write this in the days following Donald Trump’s return to Twitter, and with full knowledge that for all his photographic style and eminent years at National Geographic, Grosvenor was, like former Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, among the directors of the Ethyl Corporation, whose willful blindness to lead’s dangers delayed the removal of lead from products, gasoline included, for years.)
—P.T.
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The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Al-Anon Family Groups
Jake’s Women, By Neil Simon, at City Rep Theatre
East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board Meeting
Flagler County Commission Evening Meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
For the full calendar, go here.
It’s probably not a good idea to take too personal an interest in your microbes. Louis Pasteur, the great French chemist and bacteriologist, became so preoccupied with them that he took to peering critically at every dish placed before him with a magnifying glass, a habit that presumably did not win him many repeat invitations to dinner. In fact, there is no point in trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on and around you always, in numbers you can’t conceive. If you are in good health and averagely diligent about hygiene, you will have a herd of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains—about a hundred thousand of them on every square centimeter of skin. They are there to dine off the ten billion or so flakes of skin you shed every day, plus all the tasty oils and fortifying minerals that seep out from every pore and fissure. You are for them the ultimate food court, with the convenience of warmth and constant mobility thrown in. By way of thanks, they give you B.O.
–From Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)..
Ray W. says
According to Live Science, graphene, the wonder material I mentioned yesterday, might revolutionize computing.
Graphene, discovered in a university lab in 2004, earned the two researchers the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010.
Graphene is thought of as a 2D material because it is uniformly one atom thick, in a hexagonal shape.
Originally, it was thought commercially viable in paint. In powder form, instead of sheet form, graphene-infused paint is more waterproof than ordinary waterproof paints. According to what I read some 15 years ago, Navy trials found that the paint does not have to be as thick to protect any surface from corrosion from seawater. That meant less paint was applied to the hull and throughout the ship. That meant less weight. The paint caused less drag, so a ship could travel faster, if only slightly faster. Less drag means less fuel, extending range.
But graphene held other unique properties. It is a superconductor of electricity. With less conductive resistance comes less heat, the enemy of computing. If graphene technology could be applied to chips, a chip could be made with faster computing speeds and need less cooling demand.
Researchers know that silicon has limitations. “[T]he physical constraints of silicon mean we are reaching the limits of how small these components can be.” They sandwiched layers on graphene around a layer of chromium triiodide and created a “magnetic tunnel junction” that can store data. They found that 2D magnets “can be polarized to represent binary states — the 1s and 0s of computing data — paving the way for highly energy-efficient computing.”
“The scientists created the 2D van der Waals (chromium triiodide) magnets, then layered atomically thin flakes of graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and chromium triiodide on top of each other to form tunnel junction devices — which they chilled to near absolute zero. They simultaneously passed an electric current through the material and measured it using a sourcemeter in 16-millisecond bursts.
“They noted that the voltage underwent random switching between the levels, corresponding to the spin-parallel and spin-anti-parallel states within the chromium triiodide, with the switching direction determined by the polarity and amplitude of the current. The duration for each magnetic state was typically 10 milliseconds, while the switching time between the two states was in the order of microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second.)
“These states are not exactly stable. … What actually happens is that the current goes from one state to another, back and forth stochastically, but the average of time it stays more in one state or another, depending on the voltage. This gives us two states that we can select deterministically.
“The two states, which can be used as logic gates, enable operation at a much smaller scale than was previously possible. Using this technology, manufacturers could create computer chips with greater processing power. But the need for near absolute-zero operating temperatures means implementing futuristic devices practically would be challenging.
“What makes this kind of work different is that it looks like the energy needed to go from one state to another is a magnitude lower than in conventional magnetic tunneling junctions. … With new technologies like generative AI, which increase power consumption tremendously, it won’t be possible to keep up, so you need devices that are energy efficient.”
Make of this what you will. Me? A chip that is smaller, faster, less-energy consumptive? Would such positive computing values be worth investment in more research of this type of technology, despite the current problem with near-zero operating temperatures?
Maybe it is pie-in-the-sky. Then again, in college, the class computer I used had 8k memory, period, with punch cards. It was huge. The room was kept quite cold, because of the heat generated by computing at such slow speeds. Don’t tell me we can’t overcome technological barriers. My first home desktop for the family was 450 hertz, quite advanced at the time. The Pentium 386 was the industry standard.
Ray W. says
In an article that does not mention graphene, Live Science reports that a University of Minnesota interdisciplinary research team (physics, materials science and engineering, computer science and engineering, modeling and benchmarking, and hardware creation), funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Cisco, has been working since 2003 to develop a completely new type of computer chip that combines computing functions and memory functions in one device.
In traditional computers, data constantly moves between a CPU and a RAM chip, which consumes electrical energy. AI computational models require huge amounts of energy, compared to non-AI applications. According to the EIA, AI energy usage will more than double from 460 terawatt-hours in 2022 to 1000 TWh in 2026 — “equivalent to Japan’s total electricity consumption.”
The team’s new memory device, called “computational random-access memory” (CRAM) “performs computations directly within its memory cells, eliminating the need to transfer data across different parts of a computer.”
In a peer-reviewed study, the University researchers proved that CRAM performs “key AI tasks like scalar addition and matrix multiplication in 434 nanoseconds, using just 0.47 microjoules of energy.” For comparison, conventional computers using separate logic and memory devices consume 2,500 times more energy to complete the same tasks.
The breakthrough, in part? The device does not use transistors to store bits of data in either a 1 or 0 (on or off) format. Instead, the team harnessed the ability to control the spin of electrons, either positive on spin or negative on spin (never off), using a device called a “magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ).” An MTJ makes memory storage “faster, more energy-efficient and able to withstand wear and tear better than conventional memory chips like RAM.”
My comment above, to which this comment is attached, came from an article that referred to a breakthrough in MTJ technology, which were called “logic gates.”
The next step is to develop the breakthrough by combining with semiconductor manufacturers to develop a scalable product.
Make of this what you will. Me? If there was ever a time for a Green New Deal, this is it.
A 21-year interdisciplinary team research effort, funded both by several government departments and by one private enterprise, has produced a new computational method that combines both computing power and memory into one device, using positive on and negative on, instead of either on or off. The device actually works. It performs computations using 2500 times less electricity than do conventional computers.
God help us all if the party of stupid obstructs the further development of this technology, or worse, via political hysteria, manages to cede the entire computational field to China, Japan, Korea, and elsewhere.
Ed P, you have it backwards. The Green New Deal can be our future, if only we manage it properly, without overreach, hyperbole, or hysteria.
Ray W. says
CNN issued a fact check on a new Trump campaign ad on immigration.
Citing onscreen to a Center for Immigration Studies “quote”, the ad carried in print the message:
“Harris’ amnesty imposes large cost on Social Security.”
The ad carried this narrated message:
“Attention seniors: Kamala Harris has promised amnesty for the 10 million illegals she allowed into the country as border czar, making them eligible for Social Security. Studies warn this will lead to cuts in your Social Security benefits.”
CNN wrote:
“Facts First: The ad’s claims are false. Harris has not made any promise to grant legal status to all of the migrants who have crossed the border during her vice presidency. Though she has expressed support for a pathway to citizenship for some unspecified group of undocumented people, she has never said that recent migrants should be included. And Harris’ name does not appear in the actual Center for Immigration Studies quote about the likely cost of ‘amnesty’ to Social Security; the center says it hasn’t analyzed a specific 2024 amnesty proposal from Harris because it hasn’t seen her make a specific proposal.”
CNN also pointed out that Harris was never a “border czar.” She was a diplomat focused on the “root causes” of migration from three Central American countries.
CNN also pointed out that 10 million migrants allowed into the country is an exaggeration. There have been 10 million “encounters” at all of the nation’s borders, which includes Canada, seaports, and airports, but some were “kicked out of the country” immediately. And since a person can be kicked out, she can repeatedly try again, resulting in multiple “encounters” by one person.
According to Michelle Mittelstadt, cited by CNN, the number is actually around six million individual person encounters, including Ukrainians and Afghans, and others who enter legally from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (via Florida?)
What candidate Harris did say during her convention speech, per CNN, was:
“I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.”
In 2019, Harris proposed a pathway for citizenship for “Dreamers”, but I think dreamers are defined as children brought here years ago who have grown up in this country. Under current immigration law as I understand it, they now have to leave the country and apply for reentry, a process that can take years. Recently, a court ruled against an executive order issued by President Biden permitting certain Dreamers (those who have lived here more than 10 years) to seek citizenship status. A prosecutor in another state who married an American and has children was interviewed. He said he was devastated. He, an undocumented immigrant for more than 10 years, had started the process. Now, he will have to leave his job and family and move to a country he has never seen as an adult and reapply to enter.
When CNN contacted the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt sent back an e-mail:
“Kamala supports amnesty. She always has! Has she said otherwise? NO!”
Make of this what you will. Me? It seems clear the Vice President Harris supports some type of “pathway to citizenship.” Whether it is of the complete type of amnesty that President Reagan granted to millions of undocumented immigrants in the 80s, or some kind of pathway that requires people to meet certain criteria before they can apply for citizenship, I just don’t know. We may learn specifics at the debate, or during speeches, or during interviews.
But CNN has found zero instances in which candidate Harris has promised amnesty or even used the term. Therefore, the use of the term in “quote” form in the ad, raises questions about the intellectually dishonesty displayed by Karoline Leavitt, in particular, and the Trump campaign, in general; it does not speak well of their character.
Nietzsche, once again, seems apropos:
“I am not upset that you lied to me. I am upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Ray W. says
More facts on graphene.
When mixed into concrete, the result is lighter and stiffer concrete that is four times more water resistant. When strength is measured, it is 150 times stronger than steel; it is the strongest material ever measured. Due to its unusual conductivity, certain batteries charge in as little as five seconds.
I mentioned its hexagonal shape in a previous post. Graphene is a carbon-based molecule chemically derived from graphite. I am not a chemist, but I know that carbon has two electrons in its inner ring and four electrons in its outer ring, which means it easily combines chemically with other atoms to make various compounds and molecules. Silicon, directly below carbon on the periodic chart, also has four electrons in its outer ring, but eight more electrons in a middle ring. The idea that carbon might replace silicon in some applications in computing is physically possible. Whether it can be done economically is another question.
When manufactured, graphene forms a flat hexagonal (honeycomb) bond between its atoms that is one-atom thick. This property allows it to be described as a “semi-metal.” It conducts electricity and heat across its 2D plane in such a way that it can be called superconductive.
Ray W. says
A Jerusalem Post editorial column poses the idea that reconstruction of Gaza should be financed by developing the Gaza Marine natural gas field located 36 km. off the coast of Gaza at a depth of 2000 feet. The field is estimated to contain more than one trillion cubic feet of natural gas. British Gas discovered the field in 2000, but for whatever reason, it was never developed.
I pass no comment on the following: The editorial proposes stationing 15 to 30 thousand American troops on the Philadelphi corridor between Gaza and Egypt, akin to our having troops in South Korea to maintain that border.
A trust should be implemented, with the trustees to manage the development and operation of the field, complete with a mandate to employ Gazans in the project and to direct profits toward reconstruction. Hamas is to be isolated and bypassed, so it cannot pilfer the proceeds.