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Submission + - UPS MD-11 Lost No. 1 Engine On Takeoff, NTSB Confirms (aviationweek.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: The UPS Boeing MD-11 that crashed while taking off from Louisville International Airport Nov. 4 lost its No. 1 engine before the aircraft cleared the airport perimeter, the NTSB said in its first briefing on the accident.

“We have viewed airport CCTV security coverage, which shows the left engine detaching from the wing during the takeoff roll,” NTSB Board Member Todd Inman told reporters during a Nov. 5 briefing.

Photos of the airfield taken after the accident scene show what appear to be a heavily damaged GE Aerospace CF6-80C2 engine. Parts of the nacelle, including the inlet and fan cowl, are also visible in photos and appear to have detached during the accident sequence.

“We do believe that that is the engine from the left side of the plane,” Inman said. “It is actually on the airfield, so it’s not off the airport property.”

The engine appears to have come to rest on the right side of Runway 17 Right (17R), the aircraft’s departure runway, and an adjacent taxiway. The engine is about 8,700 ft. from the Runway 17R departure end, Aviation Week analysis of publicly shared images show.

“That correlates with the video that we’ve seen of it detaching from the airplane while it is in flight,” Inman added. “We also know that fire was occurring during that time, so we’re analyzing that.”

Comment Re:Nice forest... (Score 1) 19

by echo123 (#65775034) Attached to: Brazil Proposes a New Type of Fund To Protect Tropical Forests

shame if something was to happen to it! This has common sense written all over it - after all the UK for example used to be heavily forested and it seems hardly fair to make other countries freeze development at some arbitrary level/time. You just know this is just going to devolve into greenwashing and extortion though!

This is a serious plan to pay the state government to literally do nothing, and to value nature and habit, and to enforce this understanding into the future. This means the value of doing nothing is greater than the value of development which is only worthy of a short term valuation.

Submission + - Bank of America faces lawsuit over alleged unpaid computer boot-up time (hcamag.com)

Submitted by Joe_Dragon
Joe_Dragon writes: Bank of America is facing allegations that hundreds of hourly workers performed up to 30 minutes of unpaid computer setup work daily for years.

A former Business Analyst filed a class action lawsuit in federal court on October 23, claiming the banking giant systematically shortchanged remote employees who had to boot up complex computer systems before their paid shifts began.

Tava Martin, who worked both remotely and at the company's Jacksonville facility, says the financial institution required her and fellow hourly workers to log into multiple security systems, download spreadsheets, and connect to virtual private networks—all before the clock started ticking on their workday.

The process wasn't quick. According to the filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, employees needed 15 to 30 minutes each morning just to get their systems running. When technical problems occurred, it took even longer.

Here's how it worked: Workers turned on their computers, waited for Windows to load, grabbed their cell phones to request a security token for the company's VPN, waited for that token to arrive, logged into the network, opened required web applications with separate passwords, and downloaded the Excel files they needed for the day. Only then could they start taking calls from business customers about regulatory reporting requirements.

The lawsuit says Bank of America enforced a strict "phone ready" policy. Employees had to be prepared to handle calls the moment their scheduled shifts began. Anyone who clocked in but wasn't immediately available to take or make calls for too long risked poor performance scores and possible disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Yet the company allegedly discouraged workers from reporting any time outside their scheduled hours. Martin's paystubs routinely showed exactly 40 hours per week, or exactly 32 hours when she missed a day—suggesting the bank paid for scheduled time rather than actual work performed.

The unpaid work didn't stop at startup. During unpaid lunch breaks, many systems would automatically disconnect or otherwise lose connection, forcing employees to repeat portions of the login process—approximately three to five minutes of uncompensated time on most days, sometimes longer when a complete reboot was required. After shifts ended, workers had to log out of all programs and shut down their computers securely, adding another two to three minutes.

Martin earned $46.17 per hour through a third-party staffing agency, though Bank of America controlled her schedule, training, and employment conditions. Like many of her colleagues, she regularly worked full-time hours, meaning the uncompensated startup and shutdown time should have been paid at the overtime rate of one and a half times her regular wage.

The lawsuit points to 2008 guidance from the Department of Labor that specifically addresses call centers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That guidance explicitly states that an example of the first principal activity of the day for call center workers includes starting computers to download work instructions and applications. It also requires employers to keep daily or weekly records of all hours worked, including time spent in pre-shift and post-shift activities.

The filing suggests Bank of America either didn't bother to determine whether the computer time was compensable or knew it was but failed to pay for it anyway. The lawsuit notes the company has faced factually similar cases from other employees about time spent loading and logging into computer systems.

For the week of March 11 through March 17, 2024, for example, Martin was paid for 40 regular hours but no overtime. With unpaid pre-shift, meal-period, and post-shift time of at least 20 minutes per shift over five shifts, she should have received an additional 100 minutes at her overtime rate of $69.25 per hour. Similar calculations apply to other pay periods cited in the complaint.

Business Analysts were interviewed by company hiring managers and assigned to Bank of America managers upon hire. The bank provided supervisors who oversaw their daily performance and gave them training and technical support. The company controlled work schedules and retained the ability to discipline and terminate employees. The positions were hourly, non-exempt jobs with rigid schedules requiring at least eight hours per day, on average five days per week, and up to 40 hours or more weekly.

Martin seeks to represent all current and former remote hourly Business Analysts who worked for the bank during the three years before conditional certification through judgment. She estimates the group includes hundreds, if not thousands, of workers who performed essentially the same tasks using the same or similar computer programs under the same timekeeping policies.

Many Business Analysts, including Martin, were employed through third-party staffing agencies but were required to comply with all Bank of America employee handbook policies, including those covering attendance, timekeeping, and overtime.

The case remains in early stages, with no court ruling yet on whether it will proceed as a class action or on the merits of the allegations.

Submission + - New Drug Kills Cancer 20,000x More Effectively With No Detectable Side Effects (scitechdaily.com) 2

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: SciTechDaily is reporting that researchers at Northwestern University have redesigned the molecular structure of a well-known chemotherapy drug, greatly increasing its solubility, effectiveness, and safety.

For this study, the scientists created the drug entirely from scratch as a spherical nucleic acid (SNA), a nanoscale structure that incorporates the drug into DNA strands surrounding tiny spheres. This innovative design transforms a compound that normally dissolves poorly and works weakly into a highly potent, precisely targeted treatment that spares healthy cells from damage.

When tested in a small animal model of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), an aggressive and hard-to-treat blood cancer, the SNA-based version showed remarkable results. It entered leukemia cells 12.5 times more efficiently, destroyed them up to 20,000 times more effectively, and slowed cancer progression by a factor of 59, all without causing noticeable side effects.

“In animal models, we demonstrated that we can stop tumors in their tracks,” said Northwestern’s Chad A. Mirkin, who led the study. “If this translates to human patients, it’s a really exciting advance. It would mean more effective chemotherapy, better response rates and fewer side effects. That’s always the goal with any sort of cancer treatment.”

Comment Re: Good (Score 1) 55

The US is about to take over Venezuela and its huge oil reserves, eliminating its dependence on Canada for oil.

While you might be correct about %$#@! 'US persons' desiring Venezula's oil, I do not think the US is in any way dependent upon Canadian oil.
 
...and don't get me started about the %$#@! 'logic' behind such a gross incursion as if no one ever learned anything ever. Oh wait, again I underestimated the overarching stench of the great orange turd.

Comment Re:allow me to hijack this thread (Score 1) 8

by echo123 (#65711742) Attached to: Anthropic and IBM Announce Strategic Partnership

Is is me, or are the big co's all choosing AI dance partners right now?
So this is my inflammatory point: this consolidation contributes to unfettered power by the biggest players.
There must be limits put on growth or size of companies, this current path leads to self destruction.

Senator Bernie Sanders commented on AI consolidation by the super-rich yesterday. "AI could wipe-out the working class"

Submission + - How Signal's CEO Remembers SignalGate: 'No Fucking Way' (wired.com)

Submitted by echo123
echo123 writes: The Signal Foundation president recalls where she was when she heard Trump cabinet officials had added a journalist to a highly sensitive group chat.

...In fact, Signal’s user numbers grew by leaps and bounds, both in the US and around the world. It’s growth that, Whittaker thinks, is coming at a time when “people are feeling in a much deeper, much more personal way why privacy might be important.”

Comment Re:The problem with swatting is not the callers (Score 1) 110

by echo123 (#65628170) Attached to: 'Swatting' Hits a Dozen US Universities. The FBI is Investigating

The main problem with swatting is not the people making the calls.

The underlying problem is the police can be wielded like a weapon that is likely to get someone killed.

If the police were trigger happy thugs, desperate to play soldier with military surplus toys while being almost completely immune from consequences, then there would be no swatting.

"but the swatters are guilty of attempted murder"

sure, but the real problem is the police are a ready tool of murder.

...but also it is very much probable that *much* of the swatting originates from nation states that will us harm. This is text book motivated mayhem for these entities.

I am currently too fatigued to provide citations.

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