Short Takes – 8-26-23

New Report Warns U.S., Allies of Two Front War with China, North Korea. USNI.org article. Pull quote: “For that two-front war to happen doesn’t require coordination between Beijing and Pyongyang if tensions over Taiwan escalate or North Korea launches an attack on Seoul, he said. The report emphasizes, “U.S. and allied capabilities, command-and-control arrangements, and posture (including forces, bases, and agreements with allies) are unsuited to prevent simultaneous conflict with the PRC and North Korea and/or a limited nuclear attack or provide robust military response options if they occur.””

NERC assessment identifies new risk to grid reliability: energy policy. UtilityDive.com article. Pull quote: “With increased legislative focus on decarbonization, decentralization, and electrification, energy policy is expected to drive rapid change, NERC’s report concludes. “There is an undeniable need to increase coordination and collaboration among all policy makers and regulators as well as on the owners and operators” of the bulk power system, it said.”

How chemists are tackling the plastics problem. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “Still, achieving that vision will take some tweaks. Polyethylene and polypropylene are simple chains of carbon and hydrogen, while some other plastics contain other elements, like oxygen and chlorine, that could pose a challenge to chemical recycling methods.”

As fires and floods rage, Facebook and Twitter are missing in action. WashingtonPost.com article. “Facebook and Twitter spent years making themselves essential conduits for news. Now that government agencies, the media and hundreds of millions of people have come to rely on them for critical information in times of crisis, the social media giants have decided they’re not so invested in the news after all.”

How Schools Can Survive (and Maybe Even Thrive) With A.I. This Fall. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “Last year, many schools tried to scare students away from using A.I. by telling them that tools like ChatGPT are unreliable, prone to spitting out nonsensical answers and generic-sounding prose. These criticisms, while true of early A.I. chatbots, are less true of today’s upgraded models, and clever students are figuring out how to get better results by giving the models more sophisticated prompts.”

The Wrong People Just Got Their Hands on an Elite Drone Unit. TheDailyBeast.com article. Pull quote: “Explosive drones have been some of the most lethal weapons used by cartels against Mexican authorities. That was made all too clear in November 2022, when a convoy from the Mexican military was attacked with explosive drones by henchmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as they approached the small town of Tepalcatepec in Michoacán. Four were killed and six others were injured in the incident, according to news reports.”

 

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