All posts tagged: growing

One fallen power line exposed a growing AI data center problem. Here’s how to fix it.

One fallen power line exposed a growing AI data center problem. Here’s how to fix it.

Published by skeptic

A power line went down outside of Washington, DC, this week. Normally, the grid would only need a few seconds to recover from such an event. But this one took more than 10 minutes because more than 3 gigawatts of data centers stopped drawing power nearly simultaneously. The event caused voltage across the PJM grid to spike from Northern Virginia to Chicago, according to data collected by Ting Labs, a startup that runs an IoT sensor network out of people’s electrical sockets. The event didn’t cause a blackout, but it did cause lights across the region to flicker. The incident demonstrated the effect that data centers can have on the grid — an outcome that experts believe will become more frequent. Northern Virginia, which is in PJM’s territory, is home to the highest concentration of data centers in the world. “It’s the canary in the coal mine,” Ricardo de Azevedo, CTO at ON.Energy, told TechCrunch. These sorts of events involving large loads like data centers are “happening more and more,” he added. The event echoes …

Vietnam is looking to restrict social media for kids; here are the growing number of other countries doing the same

Vietnam is looking to restrict social media for kids; here are the growing number of other countries doing the same

Published by skeptic

Vietnam is weighing the most unusual version yet of the youth social media bans that are sweeping the globe. Instead of kicking kids off platforms entirely, the country wants to let them stay logged in — just muted. Under a draft decree from Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, reported on Friday by Reuters, users under 16 would keep their social media accounts but lose the ability to post, comment, or react to content. The proposal would require social media accounts for children under 16 to be registered under a parent, who would then be responsible for monitoring the content the child accesses and their time spent on the platforms. The platforms themselves would be required to deploy technical measures to identify which of their users are children and restrict them to age-appropriate content. Deputy Culture Minister Phan Tam said the goal isn’t to ban or excessively restrict children’s access to social media, but to ensure they’re in an age-appropriate environment when they do use it. The decree hasn’t been finalized and could still …

Black American Buddhism is growing in visibility, scholarship

Black American Buddhism is growing in visibility, scholarship

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — When Pamela Ayo Yetunde began hospice volunteering with an organization that utilizes mindfulness to help patients confront their own deaths, she was already far removed from her Methodist upbringing and on a quest for “peace of mind.” At the same time, she was reading the book “Touching Peace” by the influential Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh. Shortly thereafter, she began sitting for meditation retreats. Those introductions to Buddhism changed the trajectory of her life. Yetunde has now been a Buddhist for 24 years and is an accomplished pastoral counselor, educator and author of several works, notably contributing to “Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom.” Yetunde told RNS that many Black people are increasingly drawn to deeply practiced Buddhism, in part because it lacks the “guilt and shame”-based practices and beliefs common in Christian traditions. Long overlooked and newly energized, “Black Buddhism” is emerging as a movement and academic field to rewrite the history of Buddhism in the U.S. — a history that has overlooked the …

A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (2026)

A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (2026)

Published by skeptic

Mushroom hunting is cool and fun, but you know what’s not cool and fun? Having slugs or other mushroom hunters discover your secret spot. Or, worst of all, accidentally collecting the wrong kind of mushroom that could make you quite sick—or worse. Ideally, you’d be able to grow your favorite kind of mushrooms safely in your own home or yard, whether that’s shiitakes, morels, or lion’s manes, just like you would vegetables. But like many gardening-adjacent pursuits, it’s not that simple. Mushrooms, like all fungi, need just three things to grow: spores, a food source, and a humid environment. However, because mushrooms are incredibly sensitive to light, heat, and contamination, it doesn’t take much to create a prohibitive growing environment. And then there’s the question of whether it’s possible to simulate the critical symbiotic relationships that many mushrooms, especially more coveted ones like porcinis and chanterelles, must maintain with tree roots to thrive. I am far from a mycology expert, but during the past year, I, a busy full-time-working parent, have engaged in five different …

Kuwait, Bahrain respond to Iranian attacks amid growing escalation

Kuwait, Bahrain respond to Iranian attacks amid growing escalation

Published by Sam Flores

The risk of a wider war in the Middle East is growing after authorities in Bahrain and Kuwait said they intercepted missiles and drones launched from Iran. Air raid sirens also sounded in Jordan’s capital, Amman, while Israel said it detected Iranian missiles targeting the coastal city of Aqaba. The escalation comes after the US Embassy in Jordan urged American citizens, in a social media post, to avoid Aqaba’s airport and seaport because of a specific and credible threat. Teaching Fellow in US politics and international security at University of Portsmouth, Dafydd Townley, shares his insights. Keywords for this article Source link

5 Strengths People Often Develop After Growing Up With Parents Who Rarely Noticed Them | Jonice Webb

5 Strengths People Often Develop After Growing Up With Parents Who Rarely Noticed Them | Jonice Webb

Published by Jenni Sidey

Truth be told, people who grew up feeling emotionally neglected or totally unnoticed by their parents are some of the strongest adults I have ever met. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but there is a bright side to growing up emotionally ignored. As a psychologist who specializes in childhood emotional neglect, I’d like to highlight the particular strengths you likely have as an adult if you grew up this way. People with parents who rarely noticed them usually have these adult strengths:  1. They are fiercely independent Perfect Wave / Shutterstock Growing up, you knew, even though it was perhaps never said out loud, that you were essentially on your own. Problem with a teacher? You solved it. Conflict with a friend? You figured it out yourself. Your childhood was a training ground for self-sufficiency. Now, as an adult, you prefer to do things yourself. Because you’re so very competent, the great thing is that, for the most part, you can. When a child’s emotional needs are consistently unmet, they tend to learn that relying on …

Freedom to leave or change religion under growing threat, Pew data shows – Humanists UK

Freedom to leave or change religion under growing threat, Pew data shows – Humanists UK

Published by Sam Flores

A new global study by Pew Research Center has documented a sharp rise in the number of countries where violence or the threat of violence is being used to enforce religious norms. Humanists UK says the findings show why freedom of religion or belief must always include the rights of the non-religious: freedom to hold no religious belief, to leave or change a religion, to criticise religious ideas, and to live according to one’s own conscience without coercion. Religious conservatism linked to violence The Pew report documents a sharp rise in the number of countries where violence or the threat of violence is being used to enforce religious norms. In 2023, such enforcement was recorded in 94 countries, up from 76 the previous year, meaning that in nearly half the countries studied, people faced intimidation or violence for failing to conform to the religious expectations of those around them. At the same time, 45 countries, nearly one in four, maintain government restrictions on converting from one religion to another. These restrictions in practice also criminalise …

ESA report highlights Europe’s growing role in space economy

ESA report highlights Europe’s growing role in space economy

Published by skeptic

The European Space Agency (ESA) has published its latest Space Economy Report, providing a detailed assessment of the trends, investment patterns and market dynamics shaping the global and European space economy in 2025. The report is designed to give policymakers, industry leaders and investors a clearer understanding of the current state of Europe’s space sector. Drawing on data from organisations including the OECD, Eurostat, Eurospace, Novaspace and the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), it examines public spending, private investment, industrial competitiveness and commercial market activity. Among the report’s key findings, European public space budgets increased by 12% to €13.5bn in 2025 despite a slight decline in global government investment. The analysis also highlights continued growth across commercial satellite services, stronger market performance by European manufacturers, and an expanding reliance on space technologies across the wider economy. European space economy shows resilience The report places Europe’s performance within a broader global context, showing that governments worldwide invested €119bn in space programmes during 2025. This represents a modest 3% decrease compared with the previous year, largely reflecting …

Japan: Growing number of young workers revive culture of corporate machismo

Japan: Growing number of young workers revive culture of corporate machismo

Published by Sam Flores

In Japan, a new generation of office workers is reviving a bygone corporate culture. Around the world, Gen-Z has garnered a reputation as delicate, even reticent employees. A growing cohort of young Japanese salarymen – and women – are embracing a work culture some are calling “corporate machismo” – a hard-charging, zealous approach to business that some see as the key to the country’s post-World War 2 economic boom. Keywords for this article Source link