Short Takes – 6-26-23

Why your flood risk could be a lot worse than you think. TheHill.com article. “The nonprofit found that 51 percent of Americans live in areas where their risks of going through a “1-in-100 year” flood are twice the official estimate, while 21 percent can expect to see such a severe storm every 25 years. (To see the climate risk to 2050 for any freestanding home, click here.)” A bit of an adverticle, see the third paragraph from the end.

Cranky Congress: House GOP hopes a holiday can ease its factional warfare. Politico.com article. Pull quote: “Republicans are eager for a fresh start when they return. The House will be tackling the biggest items on its annual to-do list, from that Pentagon policy bill to its annual spending bills. But those debates threaten to bring only more chaos unless McCarthy and his team can mollify much of the GOP’s right flank, which remains livid over the spending levels set out in the recent debt deal.”

Scammers Target Stores With Bomb Threats, Seeking Bitcoin and Gift Cards. WSJ.com article. Pull quote: “Businesses, entertainment venues and schools for years have dealt with bomb threats and phone scams, and hacking groups have tried to obtain information or money through cybersecurity attacks. Bomb threats demanding ransoms are unusual and appear to be a newer avenue of extortion targeting retailers that started earlier this year, security and industry experts said.”

“Forest bathing” might work in virtual reality too. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “Science is still divided on the mechanisms behind forest bathing itself. Some lend credence to the “biophilia” theory, popularized by Edward O. Wilson in the 1980s, which suggests that humans require interaction with nature because we are part of it ourselves. Another, called “attention restoration theory,” suggests that natural environments like forests offer people opportunities to recover from the tiring tasks of everyday life. Both theories might also apply in virtual forests.”

HOW TO BUILD A POWER GRID ON THE MOON. Spectrum.IEEE.org article. Pull quote: “The system we intend to build on the moon, dubbed LunaGrid, will consist of a network of solar-power generating stations, or nodes, connected by transmission cables. This grid is designed to deliver power where it’s needed via a fleet of robotic rovers. Astrobotic plans to demonstrate the first-generation system as early as 2026, with the first full LunaGrid becoming operational by 2028 at the lunar south pole.”