Day: December 29, 2024

Artificial Intelligence Helping F1 Teams Prepare For Competition  GM Authority
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SEATTLE — Animal news in Washington state has kept locals on their toes this year, with bizarre encounters and unexpected rescues making headlines.
Early in the year, a woman survived a cougar attack near Fall City when her friends jumped in to help. That was just the beginning for animal newsmakers in Washington state.
Here’s where things currently stand with some most attention-grabbing, animal-related stories of 2024:
On Sunday, April 28, the owner of four zebras who was transporting them from Winlock, Washington, to Anaconda, Montana, stopped just off Interstate 90 near North Bend area to fix a problem with the trailer. That’s when the zebras escaped and ran away.
Three of the four were captured within hours. The fourth, a mare named “Sugar,” ran wild in the North Bend and Snoqualmie Valley areas for days. She was frequently spotted by residents and passersby. 
On Friday, May 3, Sugar was safely captured near North Bend after private citizens teamed up with animal control officers from Regional Animal Service of King County and other law enforcement.
Animal services investigated the escape. The owner faced potential fines. However, the county ended up not fining or citing the owner, according to Cameron Satterfield, communications manager with the King County Department of Executive Services.
A kinkajou found at a rest stop in central Washington in June ended up going across the country for his new home.
On June 23, the nocturnal rainforest mammal was found at the Selah Creek Rest Area. State officials said it was unclear if the kinkajou was abandoned or escaped. 
With the help of Washington state Department of Transportation workers and a cardboard box, state troopers wrangled the kinkajou into a trooper’s vehicle. Fish & Wildlife officers then took it to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
While the kinkajou was undergoing tests, a national search was underway for a permanent home. The Point Defiance Zoo did not have a space that met the kinkajou’s needs. 
The kinkajou was moved to Millbrook School’s Trevor Zoo, about a two-hour drive from New York City. His new caretakers named him “Oscar.” He was described as being “a little grouchy,” which is how he got his name. 
In October, zoo staff were preparing to introduce Oscar to a female kinkajou, “Mira.” 
As of Dec. 24, zoo staff are still slowly introducing Oscar to Mira, according to Kylee Depew, the director of animal care at Trevor Zoo. 
“The two of them spend some limited time together daily and are moving towards being together full time,” wrote to KING 5. “Once they are comfortable being together full time, they will move on exhibit and be able to be viewed by the public. Oscar is curious and is engaging in basic training with our keepers.”
In July, Pierce County deputies were led on a wild kangaroo chase in the Parkland/Spanaway area. 
It all began when deputies and state troopers were called to a traffic hazard report the morning of Sunday, July 14. When they arrived, they encountered what was initially believed to be a wallaby. 
After “several attempts,” the animal was tackled by deputies. Body camera video shared by the department shows one of the attempts, where the animal can be seen hopping away from deputies after trying to corner it.
Following the capture, there was confusion over who actually owned the kangaroo. The sheriff’s department said the animal belonged to Debbie Dolittle’s Petting Zoo and was returned. In a Facebook post, however, the petting zoo said its kangaroo was at the Puyallup fairgrounds that morning for the “reptile expo.” 
KING 5 reached out to the sheriff’s department for an update. A public information officer spoke with deputies who were on site during the encounter, and they reported the kangaroo was returned to its owner. However, that was not documented in a police report as the case was not being investigated. Though the incident is documented in the system, no owner information has been added.
Around the end of September, a woman who lives near Poulsbo told law enforcement she couldn’t get into her home because of a raccoon invasion. 
Kevin McCarty, a spokesperson for the Kitsap County Sheriff, previously said the woman called deputies because about 100 raccoons outside her home were “demanding food.”
The woman told deputies she started feeding raccoons around her house about 35 years ago without any problems. 
Six weeks ago, the population of raccoons “exploded” and the animals surrounded her home day and night hoping for a meal.
Kitsap deputies responded to the woman’s home and were startled by what they saw.
 “They were shocked,” McCarty said. “They had never seen that many raccoons in one place. Nobody ever remembers being surrounded by a swarm of raccoons. This was a first.”
Fish & Wildlife took over the case following the initial response. 
On Oct. 9, a wildlife conflict specialist for Kitsap County met with the woman, according to Bridget Mire, coastal regional communications specialist for Fish & Wildlife. The woman told them she stopped feeding the raccoons. The raccoons had since left, “so there was no need for removal or euthanasia.”
“We are glad for a positive outcome to this case,” Mire told KING 5.
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How to make spicy Chicken Seek Kebabs at home
10 tips to make a healthy Pizza at home
10 national parks in India for an unforgettable New Year adventure
5 veggies one can easily grow in the balcony garden with ease (and how)
8 Interesting South Indian recipes that are worth trying
How to make South Indian-style Chicken Coconut Curry
10 oldest temples in India to visit for New Year’s blessings
10 diet habits to cleanse the liver
10 animals to see in Gir National Park other than Asiatic lions
How to use Coconut Milk to increase hair growth

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KYODO NEWS – 2 hours ago – 12:20 | Others
BREAKING NEWS: Death toll rises to 62 in South Korean plane accident: authorities <FULL STORY>
==Kyodo
2 hours ago | KYODO NEWS
Dec 28, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
Nov 1, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
Dec 27, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
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Dec 20, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
Nov 24, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
Nov 17, 2024 | KYODO NEWS
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Freehold Raceway’s final harness racing program included 11-races with increased purses. A large crowd gathered despite the misty rain that persisted throughout the day to say goodbye to Freehold Raceway.
Tyler Miller took the opener with Keep Us Happy (Keep It Real) for Jose Ramos. Ramos scored once more in third race with Dark Horse (I’m Gorgeous) owned by Norman Birenbaum and driven by Jim Marohn Jr.
Mark Herschberger led the colony in wins today, visiting the winner’s circle three times. Two of those wins were for John Urbanski, who scored with Bourbons Courage (Great Vintage) in race two at 4-1 odds, paying $10.00. The biggest win for the pair of Herschberger and Urbanski was in race four, the $14,000 NJ Owned and Sired pace for fillies and mares. The race was sponsored by the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey. Girl Almighty (Great Vintage), trained, bred and owned by Urbanski, raced like a 2-5 favorite should by going wire-to-wire.
Herschberger’s third win was also his most shocking. After getting away sixth from post six with Marco Beach (Somebeachsomewhere), he rallied late in the stretch to upset them all as the longest shot on the board at 27-1. Alexandra Goldin owns and trains the gelding. A win bet paid $56.00.
Marco Beach wasn’t the only horse to score at the highest odds in the field; Arnie’s Army (Hi Ho Silverheels) accomplished that feat in race nine at odds of 38-1. After getting away sixth from post eight, Jim Marohn Jr began his trek to the front after the half. When they turned for home, four horses battled down the stretch, all finishing within a head of Arnie’s Army who claimed victory. Sergio Lozada was the winning owner and trainer. Marohn Jr had a driving double for the day. A win bet paid a whopping $78.60.
John Calabrese and Grafenberg (Triumphant Caviar) won the American Harness Drivers Club final for $15,000. The pair prevailed as the odds-on favorite, despite being parked out for much of the way. Vincent Stallworth trains for Jaypaul Hoover. Joe Lee and Im The Muscle took the consolation, which was the first of two wins for trainer Veronica Spicer.
GRAFENBERG REPLAY

Iammrbrightside N (Julius Caesar) captured the 12-14 year-old pace for $8,200 in his final start of his career. In his 14 years, the Veronica Spicer trainee captured victory 56 times in 335 starts and earned over $675,000. The winning driver, Austin Siegelman was honored after race nine as the leading driver of 2024 at Freehold. He made 123 trips to the winner’s circle this year. Izzy Estrada was the track’s leading trainer with 61 wins.
In the finale race, John Ahle got away fourth from post four with T’s Raider II (Rockin Image). Gapped nine lengths off of the lead at the quarter-pole, the pair was patient for the perfect time to strike. In the third turn, they followed cover to the second-over position and eventually moved three-wide to clear to the lead by the time they reached the three-quarter pole in 1:26.1. They were home free after that and went on to win by more than five lengths in a time of 1:55.4. Owned by trainer Rachelle Morris and Howie Gluck, the six-year-old was patient as everyone lingered in the winner’s circle, trying to make the moment last as long as possible, not yet ready to say goodbye.
T’S RAIDER II REPLAY

Freehold Raceway would like to thank the fans, horsemen, and employees for their many years of dedication to the Afternoon Delight. We hope you cherish the memories made here for years to come.
For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.
by Katie Eick, for Freehold Raceway

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Magic Eden Airdrop: 17,250 ME Up for Grabs  Bybit
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At the airports one sees a ‘Prayer Room.’ It doesn’t say which religion it belongs to. One could go in and pray according to one’s religious practice. This is the model which human society will have to adopt if we are to prevent internecine disputes over religious places in future.
Recently we witnessed a frenzy of court cases with petitioners claiming mosques and dargahs having being built upon temples. Had the Supreme Court not intervened and put a stop on the process there would have been no end to this process in which monuments like Taj Mahal would have followed religious places. But this is only a temporary relief. Right now the Places of Worship Act 1991 has come to rescue. But irrespective of what Mohan Bhagwat is saying about Ayodhya being a matter of faith and people should not go looking for a Shivling in every mosque, after all some people may be motivated by faith in other structures and by now we should have learned our lesson that Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries speak in different voices and RSS mouthpiece ‘Organiser’ has already come out with a statement that knowing the history of disputed sites is important for ‘civilisational justice,’ the BJP led union government is perfectly capable of doing away with the Places of Worship Act just as it made Article 370 of the Constitution related to Jammu and Kashmir redundant or enacted the blatantly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act in complete violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. Then the floodgates will open once again.
Hence the only solution to this vexatious problem is to agree that people believing in God, if they concur that God is one, must come around to accepting all religious places as universal places of worship. This implies that all places of worship should allow followers of all religions to come in and perform their religious rites or worship according to the practice of their respective religion. In principle, everybody is praying that one God in their own manner under one roof. People will have to be just tolerant to others following different ways of worshiping. In fact, that would be a truly spiritual sight to see people worshiping in different ways in harmony with each other. After all, the objective of religion is to bring tranquility on earth where human society is in peace within and with the outer world.
However, slowly we must move towards a model in practice at the Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Anandwan in Warora, Maharashtra set up by the late Baba Amte, where there are no public religious places. Everybody is free to follow their religion inside their homes. After death everybody is buried under the earth, irrespective of their religion, and a tree is planted at their burial site. No tomb is allowed to be built.
Then the question is what would happen to the existing religious structures? All religious places would be converted into places from where welfare programmes would be run. Langars at Gurudwaras are an excellent example of a service being provided by a religious place. The beauty of the langars is that this service is open to all. It is not restricted to the followers of Sikhism. In fact, Sikhs go out of the way to provide the service of langars to all without discrimination based on religion, race, caste or gender, So, we saw Khalsa Aid set up langars in Bangladesh to cater to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and langars were set up on Poland border for people fleeing Ukraine when Russia attacked it. There is no significant Sikh population in Bangladesh or Ukraine-Poland. The point is when it was required the langar service was pressed into action. The farmers movement on the Delhi borders sustained for 13 months because of the langars in which contributions were pouring in from villages of Punjab and Haryana. Families from villages has come and taken responsibility for running the kitchens of langars. This spirit of service is the essence of religion and followers of other religion need to learn from Sikhism. Hence, all places of worship must become places from where some human welfare work is performed. It could be a education programme, a health care programme, a women empowerment programme or simply a langar. As the essence of religion is service, there can be no better use of religious places than run human welfare programmes from their premises.
A Sarva Dharam Sadbhav Trust has been created in Ayodhya with the Mahant of a Ram-Janki temple, a Muslim activist, a Dalit scholar from Bihar, a Transgender and this writer, an atheist, as its trustees. This trust wishes to create such model religious places for future. A beginning has been made from Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh. A temple has been renovated in Aseni village which displays on outside wall that people of all caste and religion are welcome to the temple and everybody is free to worship according to their method of worshiping. We hope more such places would come up soon. This is the only hope for a peaceful and friendly world.
Sandeep Pandey is General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)
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Security eases at Lahaina Impact Zone  KHON2
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Burpee Museum celebrates holiday dedicated to Ice Age animals  MyStateline.com
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What does quantum computing mean for bitcoin?
In recent days there has been a mini media firestorm surrounding Google’s announcement about Willow, its new quantum computer, and a perceived threat to bitcoin. Most of the analysis reveals a remarkably surface-level understanding of how quantum computing will change cryptography, as well as how bitcoin remains resilient to these kinds of technological advancements. We’re going to take a deeper look at quantum computing and the threat it poses to bitcoin. It will get technical at certain points, but this is necessary to scratch the surface and truly understand the state of play.
In short, quantum computing will certainly necessitate a change to bitcoin’s protocol within the next few years, similar to the computer upgrades triggered by Y2K. It will be an expensive and time consuming exercise, but not an existential threat to bitcoin itself. And it won’t only be bitcoin that’s affected, since what we are really talking about is the ability of quantum computers to crack every kind of cryptography we use today across finance, commerce, banking, and more.
It’s hard not to wonder whether some of this alarmism about the end of bitcoin stems from a kind of “sour grapes” dynamic. Critics who have long eschewed bitcoin – whether because they don’t believe it could ever work, resent its challenge to government control, or simply regret not investing when it was cheaper – are seizing on Google’s quantum computing news to predict bitcoin’s downfall. These reactions often say more about the biases of the skeptics than the vulnerabilities of the bitcoin itself.
Google’s Willow quantum computer can make calculations with 105 qubits, and its output is believed (as of now) to be relatively accurate. Although 105 qubits is a large step up in processing power from previous quantum computers, breaking bitcoin’s encryption would require 200 to 400 million qubits. To reach this capability within 10 years, quantum computation would have to rise over 324% annually, which is far outside expectations.
Nonetheless, quantum computing is a threat to bitcoin that must be taken seriously. Bitcoin’s protocol will need be updated to be quantum resistant, and sooner than later. Conversations in the bitcoin developer community about when and how to do this have already begun. Once these ideas are more solidified, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, or BIP, will be posted online for continued debate and experimentation. If and when any particular solution is chosen by the community, it will take effect once a majority of bitcoin nodes adopt it.
The changes coming to bitcoin to meet this challenge pale in comparison to what will be required of millions of other secure computing protocols and networks. The effort to upgrade the entire world’s cryptographic protocols will be an order of magnitude more complex than preparing for Y2K.
Focusing on how quantum computing will affect cryptocurrency misses the much more important point: The end of encryption is not just a bitcoin problem, it’s an everything problem. The transition to a post-quantum world will be a fundamental challenge to modern civilization’s backbone.
Encryption is the bedrock of modern life, underpinning virtually every aspect of tech-enabled society. Financial systems rely on RSA encryption to secure online banking transactions, ensuring that sensitive details like credit card numbers and account credentials are safe from theft. Without encryption, there is no banking system.
E-commerce platforms use the same principles to protect payment data as it moves between buyers and sellers. Without encryption, there is no e-commerce.
Hospitals and medical providers rely on encryption to move electronic health records around and process payments. Without encryption, there is no modern medical system.
Government agencies use encryption to secure classified communications, shielding national secrets from potential adversaries. Without encryption, there is no national security.
Encrypted commands secure Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from connected cars to smart home systems, preventing malicious actors from taking control of everyday technology. Without encryption, there are no smart devices.
Although we could still be years or even decades away from the end of conventional encryption methods, preparation for quantum supremacy has already begun in light of the “harvest now, decrypt later” threat.
One of the key features of encryption is that it allows you to send secure messages over an insecure channel. For instance, when you log into your bank account on your home computer, your password is encrypted before being sent over the internet to your bank. Along the way, it may pass through numerous servers, which could theoretically save and store it. However, since the password is encrypted, they would be saving a string of gibberish. If you were a bad actor, you could not decipher the password, so saving it would be pointless.
That is, unless you save it for years or decades, waiting for the day that you can decrypt the data using a quantum computer that is yet to be invented.
That might not make sense for a bank password. Like a lot of other encrypted data, it would probably be irrelevant beyond a certain time horizon, even if it were decrypted decades later. Passwords get changed, accounts are closed, people pass away, and companies cease to exist. However, in some domains, encrypted data may be useful years or even decades after it is saved – data like state secrets or master lists of passwords that are reused across platforms.
If quantum computing is expected to crack encryption in a few years or decades, attackers in sensitive domains like defense and intelligence would (and surely do) collect encrypted data now, even if it is currently indecipherable and useless. Therefore the groundwork for the transition to post-quantum cryptography has already begun to be laid down.
While quantum computers will eventually crack today’s methods of encryption, they could also be used to develop even more advanced cryptographic algorithms. Said a different way, quantum computing doesn’t signal the end of cryptography itself, but rather a shift from today’s cryptographic algorithms to newer, quantum-resistant ones.
This transition is already underway. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is an active field of research, producing promising advancements that aim to secure systems against future quantum threats while preserving the fundamental principles of cryptographic security. Bitcoin, and everything else, will need to make use of advancements in PQC to maintain its integrity.
The foundation of PQC lies in mathematical problems that quantum computers are not well-suited to solve. Unlike today’s cryptography, which relies on the discrete logarithm problem and integer factorization – both of which could be efficiently tackled by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer – PQC algorithms are built on different mathematical frameworks. These include lattice-based cryptography, multivariate polynomial equations, and hash-based signatures, all of which show significant promise in resisting quantum attacks.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been at the forefront of this effort, coordinating a global initiative to standardize quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. After years of rigorous evaluation, NIST announced a set of candidate algorithms for post-quantum cryptographic standards in 2022, focusing on practical implementation and broad applicability across industries.
While the transition to PQC will be complex, it is already taking shape. National Security Memorandum 10 (NSM-10) set a target date of 2035 for migrating federal systems to quantum-resistant cryptographic methods. However, certain systems with long-term confidentiality needs, such as government communications or secure financial transactions, may require earlier adoption due to their heightened risk profiles. The NIST recommends prioritizing quantum-resistant key-establishment schemes in protocols like TLS and IKE, which underpin secure communications on the internet.
The path forward for PQC involves not only updating cryptographic standards but also ensuring compatibility with existing systems. This is a daunting task, given the diverse applications of encryption across industries, but it is essential to maintaining trust in a connected, digital world. As NIST continues to work with academia, industry, and governments, the widespread adoption of PQC represents a vital step in future-proofing the internet.
Our digital lives will need to be upgraded to be quantum-resistant, one protocol at a time. There are so many protocols relying on encryption that there will inevitably be some mistakes and hacks as they are upgraded to be quantum resistant. Bitcoin being a single protocol so critical to global finance, there is little doubt that it will be one of the first out of the gate.
The transition to post-quantum cryptography may be challenging, but the fact that it’s necessary is exhilarating – it signals that we are entering the era of quantum computing. This transformative technology promises breakthroughs in fields ranging from medicine to advanced materials, unlocking possibilities and innovations that we can scarcely imagine today.

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