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Hurricanes and Power Grids: Eliminating Large-Scale Outages with a New Approach
Large scale-power outages caused by tropical cyclones can be prevented almost entirely if a small but critical set of power lines is protected against storm damages.
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Israeli Tech to Help Modernize Pacific Northwest Power Grid
Exodigo gets federal funding to help Pacific Northwest National Laboratory transition to underground electric power lines.
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Chicago Is the Latest City Rethinking Disputed Technology That Listens for Gunshots
More than 150 U.S. cities use ShotSpotter, but now Chicago has joined a growing list of cities that have cut ties with the controversial company that tries to reduce urban gun violence with 24/7 technology that listens for the crack of gunshots and immediately notifies police.
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Cybersecurity Software Wins a 2024 Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award
Lincoln Laboratory–developed Timely Address Space Randomization (TASR) was transferred to two commercial providers of cloud-based services.
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Indonesia Harnesses Chinese Capital and Innovation to Dominate World Nickel Production
Indonesia’s success in deploying Chinese capital and innovation to become the dominant force in the global nickel industry has been achieved in the face of concerted opposition from the European Union through the World Trade Organization.
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Will The EU Ban Russian Aluminum?
It is estimated that the European Union still imports the metal from Russia to the tune of 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) per year. The bloc also exports various aluminum products to Russia, worth some 190 million euros. About 85 percent of Russia’s aluminum business — including the lucrative construction and automotive industries – are so far untouched by sanctions. EU member states want to change that.
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New Contract Approved by Security Officers Represented by LEOS-PBA Will See Major Wage Increase
LEOS-PBA has successfully negotiated with Paragon Systems a new contract for union members in upstate New York, a contract which will see the highest wage increase ever given to Paragon Protective Security Officers (PSOs). The contract will see more than 30 percent wage increase over the next three years.
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Does Australia Have the Will to Develop the Next Critical Mineral at Scale?
The forces of demand driven by the global energy transition and supply limited by geopolitics are coalescing to make yet another mineral globally ‘critical’—uranium. Australia’s rich economic geology has endowed it with the world’s biggest uranium resources. Yet Australians have a long-term aversion to uranium mining.
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Shoring Up Ports to Withstand Cyberattacks
There are more than 300 ports in the United States, employing an estimated 31 million Americans, and contributing about $5.4 trillion to the country’s economy The White House is moving forward with reforms aimed at shoring up cybersecurity at U.S. ports, some of which may already be in danger of falling under the sway of hackers linked to China.
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Cybersecurity and Data Protection: Does ChatGPT Really Make a Difference?
Cybersecurity and data privacy have become central concerns, affecting business operations and user safety worldwide. A new analysis has looked at the various approaches to cybersecurity and data protection taken by key global players, namely the European Union, the United States, and China.
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NYC to Launch Debit-Card Pilot Program for Migrants
New York City announced it was launching what it described as a cost-saving pilot program to provide 500 migrant families with prepaid debit cards to buy food and baby supplies. The debit-cards will be loaded with an average of $12.52 per person, per day, for 28 days, and the city says the program will save $600,000 per month and $7.2 million annually relative to the current system of providing boxes with non-perishable food.
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NYC’s EBT System for Benefit-Delivery System: Backgrounder
In choosing to use the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system to deliver benefits to migrants, New York City has chosen a tried and proven benefits-delivery system. Over the past two decades, the EBT system has become the cornerstone of efforts by the federal, state, and local governments to deliver social benefits effectively, efficiently, and at a lower cost to the tax payer.
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Bolstering the Safety of the U.S. Network of Pipelines Carrying Hazardous Materials
More than a half million miles of pipelines are used to transport natural gas, crude oil, liquid carbon dioxide, refined petroleum products, and an array of other flammable, toxic, or corrosive gases and highly volatile liquids across the United States. New report assesses the need for new regulatory standards for automatic and remote-control shutoff valves on existing liquid and gas transmission pipelines.
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Using AI to Develop Enhanced Cybersecurity Measures
Using artificial intelligence to address several critical shortcomings in large-scale malware analysis, researchers are making significant advancements in the classification of Microsoft Windows malware and paving the way for enhanced cybersecurity measures.
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X Provides Premium Perks to Hezbollah, Other U.S.-Sanctioned Groups
The U.S. imposes sanctions on individuals, groups, and countries deemed to be a threat to national security. Elon Musk’s X appears to be selling premium service to some of them. An investigation identified more than a dozen X accounts for U.S.-sanctioned entities that had a blue checkmark, which requires the purchase of a premium subscription. Along with the checkmarks, which are intended to confer legitimacy, X promises a variety of perks for premium accounts, including the ability to post longer text and videos and greater visibility for some posts.
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More headlines
The long view
Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?
Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”
A Brief History of Federal Funding for Basic Science
Biomedical science in the United States is at a crossroads. For 75 years, the federal government has partnered with academic institutions, fueling discoveries that have transformed medicine and saved lives. Recent moves by the Trump administration — including funding cuts and proposed changes to how research support is allocated — now threaten this legacy.
Bookshelf: Preserving the U.S. Technological Republic
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
Critical Minerals Don’t Belong in Landfills – Microwave Tech Offers a Cleaner Way to Reclaim Them from E-waste
E-waste recycling focuses on retrieving steel, copper, aluminum, but ignores tiny specks of critical materials. Once technology becomes available to recover these tiny but valuable specks of critical materials quickly and affordably, the U.S. can transform domestic recycling and take a big step toward solving its shortage of critical materials.
Microbes That Extract Rare Earth Elements Also Can Capture Carbon
A small but mighty microbe can safely extract the rare earth and other critical elements for building everything from satellites to solar panels – and it has another superpower: capturing carbon dioxide.