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Scientists look beyond climate change, El Nino for other factors that heat up Earth

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

Scientists are wondering if global warming and El Nino have an accomplice in fueling this summer’s record-shattering heat.The European climate agency Copernicus reported that July was one-third of a degree Celsius (six-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) hotter than the old record. That’s a bump in heat that is so recent and so big, especially in the oceans and even more so in the North Atlantic, that scientists are split on whether something else could be at work.Scientists agree that by far the biggest cause of the recent extreme warming is climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas that has triggered a long upward trend in temperatures. A natural El Nino, a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide, adds a smaller boost. But some researchers say another factor must be present.“What we are seeing is more than just El Nino on top of climate change,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said. LAPD officer arrested...

BT and His Binary Universe

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

BT and His Binary Universe: Grammy-nominated producer, composer, technologist, and songwriter BT has never considered himself a DJ, but he got started in music early on in life.“I studied piano Suzuki method starting at 4, went to the Washington Conservatory of music at 7 and Berklee School of music at 15,” he says. “As long as I can remember, music was the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”It’s hard to pin down a specific BT sound, as he works in everything from software design to film scoring.“My new album The Secret Language of Trees is a continuation of This Binary Universe series,” he says. “It contains everything from traditional orchestral writing to crazy coded digital signal process and sound design – to live field recordings.”BT feels that the current electronic music scene is a mixed bag.“I think a lot of electronic music is highly formulaic and will be replaced by large music AI models,” he says. &#...

Genetic sleuths capture the secret lives of Bay Area bears

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

In a landscape long empty of bears, the North Bay is now home to an increasing number of young and growing families, living lives full of drama and adventure.A remarkable new genetic study has found that Sonoma County-based matriarchs are raising healthy cubs, sometimes stashing them up in tall fir trees. Absentee fathers and restless sons are visiting and vanishing. Some siblings had a brief romance.Researchers also are collecting evidence left behind by bears exploring Marin County’s suburban yards, city playgrounds and the wilds of the western coast. The goal is to map their wanderings and teach residents how to live among bears safely, such as keeping garbage secure.The research — conducted by a large group of state agencies, nonprofit conservation groups, landowners and volunteers called the North Bay Bear Collaborative – boosts hopes that North Bay bear populations will continue their expansion into protected East Bay woodlands.“It’s giving us an idea of their rela...

49ers mailbag: New questions about Lance, Raiders’ Garoppolo in training camp

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

SANTA CLARA — Two weeks into training camp and the 49ers now find themselves in Las Vegas for this season’s team-bonding exercise. They’ll practice against the Raiders on Thursday and Friday, followed by Sunday’s preseason opener.Is this the start of the 49ers’ 2023 heater? Let’s get to social media questions we can immediately answer as we shuffle the deck for this 49ers mailbag:Will Lance get any playing time? (@liam_carpediem)Trey Lance should start Sunday against the Raiders, reprising a role that belonged to him until his fractured ankle in last year’s home opener. If Sam Darnold gets the nod, then that is a major blow to Lance in the QB2 battle, since he needs the experience out the gate. Brock Purdy, this regular season’s undisputed starter, is impressively healthy, but he’s doubtful to play against the Raiders, beyond practicing against them Thursday and Friday. So a heavy dose of Lance and Darnold is coming this preseason, wit...

SJSU hopes athletics center helps spur San Jose “family entertainment” zone

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

SAN JOSE — A new San Jose State University athletics center is poised to be a key building block for an emerging “family entertainment district” near the city’s downtown, a top SJSU official says.The $70 million Spartan Athletics Center, which seamlessly connects to CEFCU Stadium, has been officially unveiled and has the potential to be a game-changer for SJSU sports programs — as well as be an economic building block for the area.“The future is now,” SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said during a ribbon-cutting event for Spartan Athletics Center. “We are very excited about this.”Assistant Athletics Director for Communications and Broadcasting Sky Kerstein checks out the locker room at the new San Jose State University Spartans Athletics Center, July 2023. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)The direct impact of the 55,000-square-foot athletics complex is evident.The state-of-the-art facilities can be used to entice skille...

Editorial: New PG&E wildfire safety strategy requires scrutiny

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

State regulators must carefully scrutinize PG&E’s wildfire-safety strategy shift.The giant utility has a long and criminal history of putting profits before safety. And the state has an equally long, ugly history of failing to perform its oversight role. This time regulators must get it right.Lives depend on it. PG&E is responsible for more than 100 wildfire deaths in the past six years. Northern Californians are sick and tired of paying some of the highest utility rates in the nation for substandard and life-threatening service.Now, the utility is cutting back on its troubled tree-trimming program and instead increasing installation of devices that shut down power immediately when branches strike lines or there is an electrical fault on a line.PG&E says its initial efforts in 2022 to rely on the devices resulted in fewer and smaller fires despite dry conditions. The utility also plans to continue its work to bury power lines underground and replace power poles in ...

California regulators seek replacement of tire chemical linked to fish kills

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

Tires line a section of Chileno Valley Road near Tomales after being removed from Stemple Creek Wednesday, August 14, 2019. It was part of the County’s clean-up efforts from illegal dumping in West Marin. (Marin Independent Journal file) State regulators are requiring tire manufacturers to seek alternatives to a chemical preservative linked to fish kills in the Pacific Northwest and detected in California waters.Under the new rule by the California Department of Toxic Substances that takes effect in October, manufacturers will need to evaluate replacements for the preservative known as 6PPD. The preservative is used to prevent tires from cracking and crumbling.“6PPD plays a crucial role in the safety of tires on California’s roads and, currently, there are no widely available safer alternatives,” department deputy director Karl Palmer said. “For this reason, our framework is ideally suited for identifying alternatives to 6PPD that ensure the continued safety of the tires on Cal...

Sexually violent predator’s ‘transient release’ to Santa Cruz County denied

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

SANTA CRUZ — After months of back-and-forth, a superior court judge denied requests Tuesday to release a sexually violent predator from a state hospital without a designated address.The ruling came after the latest hearing in which a state-contracted firm, Liberty Healthcare, provided an update on its efforts to secure housing in Santa Cruz County for 71-year-old Michael Cheek.“Liberty really has shown its work this time and detailed many, many release situations,” Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Syda Cogliati said. “They explained in detail, essentially, why none of them at this time appear to be workable.”Among the options under discussion was to place Cheek, convicted of two separate violent rapes in the early 1980s, in a recreational vehicle. Ruby Marquez, of the Santa Cruz County County Counsel’s Office, described information she had provided to Liberty about options on county-owned land, naming challenges such as zoning restrictions and county-controlled space within ot...

Opinion: How California’s landscape was transformed to fit European perceptions

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

More than 30 people have died in the under-reported wildfires in Algeria, while blazes in Greece and Italy have made headlines. Top concerns in these disasters have been the future of tourism.All of these countries are considered to have a so-called Mediterranean climate, as does California. But, are they all the same in their Mediterraneanness?A Mediterranean climate has been identified in Chile, Australia, South Africa, California and, of course, around the Mediterranean. Characterized by cool wet winters, hot dry summers and endemic plants that thrive under such conditions, they are considered among the most endangered ecosystems on the planet due to their restricted geographical area. Interestingly, most environmentalists and scientists seem to be concerned about forest fires in these regions, not about the scrubby plants that predominate the coastal areas and that tend to be the ones most endangered, not even so much by fire, but by urban encroachment.It’s time now, though, we ...

Opinion: California cities should not impose cable-era taxes on streaming

Published Thu, 06 Feb 2025 10:05:46 GMT

Over the past 10 years, consumers have voted with their feet — and their remotes — abandoning expensive cable bundles and subscribing by the millions to innovative new streaming services.Offering incredible choice, options and diversity with subscriptions priced well below the market price, it’s no surprise that streaming is winning the war for eyeballs. A CNN headline last year rightly noted “The cord has been cut. Streaming is more watched than cable.”But too many regulators don’t seem to know a good thing when they see one, and are introducing new rules, taxes and regulations all over the country that would undermine streaming by treating it like cable. Aristotle said “treat like things alike,” and the reverse is also true: different things should be treated differently. Rules and policies designed for 1980s-era cable systems are a terrible fit for 2020s-era internet-based streaming services.In California, a group of towns and cities from Glendale to Redondo Beach to ...