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What a blast to work at NASA. Space agency is sky-high again in latest survey of federal employees

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – The NASA moon rocket rolls back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center Sept. 27, 2022, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. In Washington, a city that revolves around the federal government, the annual Best Places to Work survey is a closely-watched annual event worthy of bragging rights, provided you’re one of the agencies like NASA or the Government Accountability Office who topped the survey. The survey, released Monday, May 20, 2024, uses information from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

By REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Exploring the cosmos makes for happy employees, federal workers like to work from home like everyone else, and an agency that has struggled with low morale is showing improvement.

Those are some of the highlights of a survey released Monday of more than a million federal workers.

In a city that revolves around the federal government, the annual Best Places to Work survey is a closely watched annual event worthy of bragging rights — provided you’re one of the agencies such as NASA or the Government Accountability Office who topped the survey.

The survey uses information from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and is produced by the Partnership for Public Service and the Boston Consulting Group. Continue reading

Overtourism Is Expected to Peak in 2024, While 95% of Destinations Remain Unexplored

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Emese Maczko | Wealth of Geeks undefined

Last year, Phuket, Thailand, was the most overcrowded tourist destination. For each of the island’s 416,000 inhabitants, 118 vacationers showed up, according to a study by MoneyTransfers.com.

In 2019, environmental tracking and analysis site Murmuration noted that 80% of the world’s tourists visit only 10% of global destinations. They predicted if this trend wasn’t reversed, by 2050, tourism would have doubled energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Has travel become a double-edged sword? On one hand, popular tourist destinations groan under the weight of traffic, transforming them into unbearably crowded spectacles. On the other, the allure of undiscovered places comes with the risk of turning them into mass tourism targets we seek to escape.

Is there a middle ground in travel that allows us to explore without exploitation, to enjoy without eroding? Are there destinations that offer the best of both worlds and manage visitors sustainably? Continue reading

Fine dining, at a new high. A Michelin-starred chef will take his cuisine to our upper atmosphere

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

Rasmus Munk, co-owner and chef of Alchemist restaurant, poses inside Alchemist’s kitchen, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday May 6, 2024. The Danish Michelin-starred chef has teamed up with the Florida-based startup Space Perspective to take fine-dining to our upper atmosphere in late 2025. Six guests are set to ascend to the stratosphere, where they will enjoy an immersive dining experience served up by chef Rasmus Munk. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

By JAMES BROOKS Associated Press

COPENHAGEN (AP) — Ever since humans have journeyed to space, their meals there have proved to be, well, nothing to write home about.

But that could change after a Michelin-starred chef teamed up with the Florida-based startup Space Perspective to take fine-dining to our upper atmosphere in late 2025.

Six guests are set to ascend aboard Spaceship Neptune to the stratosphere, where they will enjoy an immersive dining experience served up by Danish Michelin-starred chef Rasmus Munk.

Munk, 33, will travel with the guests and serve the meal himself, from a small kitchen. He says his menu will be inspired by the impact of space innovation.

“We want to tell stories through the food,” Munk says. “We … want to talk and highlight some of the research that’s been done through the last 60 years.” Continue reading

Illness took away her voice. AI created a replica she carries in her phone

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Alexis Bogan, whose speech was impaired by a brain tumor, uses an AI powered smartphone app to create a audible drink order at a Starbucks drive-thru on Monday, April 29, 2024, in Lincoln, R.I. The app converts her typed entries into a verbal message created using her original voice. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The voice Alexis “Lexi” Bogan had before last summer was exuberant.

She loved to belt out Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan ballads in the car. She laughed all the time — even while corralling misbehaving preschoolers or debating politics with friends over a backyard fire pit. In high school, she was a soprano in the chorus.

Then that voice was gone.

Doctors in August removed a life-threatening tumor lodged near the back of her brain. When the breathing tube came out a month later, Bogan had trouble swallowing and strained to say “hi” to her parents. Months of rehabilitation aided her recovery, but her speech is still impaired. Friends, strangers and her own family members struggle to understand what she is trying to tell them.

In April, the 21-year-old got her old voice back. Not the real one, but a voice clone generated by artificial intelligence that she can summon from a phone app. Trained on a 15-second time capsule of her teenage voice — sourced from a cooking demonstration video she recorded for a high school project — her synthetic but remarkably real-sounding AI voice can now say almost anything she wants. Continue reading

FTX will return money to most customers less than 2 years after catastrophic crypto collapse

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – The FTX logo appears on home plate umpire Jansen Visconti’s jacket at a baseball game with the Minnesota Twins on Sept. 27, 2022, in Minneapolis. Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, and some will get more than that, according to its reorganization plan. FTX said in a court filing Tuesday, May 7, 2024 that it owes about $11.2 billion to its creditors. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer

FTX says that nearly all of its customers will receive the money back that they are owed, two years after the cryptocurrency exchange imploded, and some will get more than that.

FTX said in a court filing late Tuesday that it owes about $11.2 billion to its creditors. The exchange estimates that it has between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion to distribute to them.

The filing said that after paying claims in full, the plan provides for supplemental interest payments to creditors, to the extent that funds still remain. The interest rate for most creditors is 9%. Continue reading

French cyberwarriors ready to test their defense against hackers and malware during the Olympics

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Cyber-security experts work at the Yves du Manoir stadium, Friday, May 3, 2024 in Colombes, outside Paris. Cyber-security teams working to protect the Paris Games from hackers and other attackers aren’t willing to divulge too much detail about their work. But they no doubt that cyber-criminals are going to keep them busy. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Just like the Olympic athletes, the cyberwarriors that will be crucial for the success of the Paris Games are deep into training for the big event.

They have turned to friendly hackers to probe their cyberdefenses, like boxers who use sparring partners to ready them for a championship fight. They have studied and analyzed the strengths, tactics and weaknesses of their opponents. Those could be anyone from teenage showoffs and ransomware gangs to Russian military hackers with a track record of malicious cyberattacks.

But unlike the 10,500 Olympians who will converge on France’s capital in July, the cybersecurity engineers behind the Games are hoping to stay out of the spotlight. For them, the equivalent of a medal will be getting through the Olympics – and Paralympics – without a major incident. It would mean that their layers of digital defenses stand up to attempts to paralyze computer and information systems vital for the Games.

“My dream for the Olympics is that technology and cybersecurity aren’t talked about, because that will mean it was a non-issue,” said Jérémy Couture, who heads the Paris Games organizers’ cybersecurity hub. Its job of spotting, analyzing and responding to cyberthreats is so sensitive and critical to the Games’ success that event organizers keep its location secret. Continue reading

Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, an FBI report says

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – An FBI seal is seen on a wall on Aug. 10, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. The FBI says scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year. An FBI report released Tuesday shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to an FBI report released Tuesday that shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings.

Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI’s report. Investigators are warning of a rise in brazen schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims.

“It can be a devastating impact to older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money,” said Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “People lose all their money. Some people become destitute.” Continue reading

New study calculates climate changes economic bite will hit about 38 trillion a year by 2049

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – People watch the sunset at a park on an unseasonably warm day, Feb. 25, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. A new study says climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

Climate change will reduce future global income by about 19% in the next 25 years compared to a fictional world that’s not warming, with the poorest areas and those least responsible for heating the atmosphere taking the biggest monetary hit, a new study said.

Climate change’s economic bite in how much people make is already locked in at about $38 trillion a year by 2049, according to Wednesday’s study in the journal Nature by researchers at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. By 2100 the financial cost could hit twice what previous studies estimate.

“Our analysis shows that climate change will cause massive economic damages within the next 25 years in almost all countries around the world, also in highly-developed ones such as Germany and the U.S., with a projected median income reduction of 11% each and France with 13%,” said study co-author Leonie Wenz, a climate scientist and economist. Continue reading

Would you like a cicada salad? The monstrous little noisemakers descend on a New Orleans menu

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

Zach Lemann, curator of animal collections for the Audubon Insectarium, prepares cicadas for eating at the insectarium in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The insectarium plans to demonstrate ways to cook cicadas at the little in-house snack bar where it already serves other insect dishes. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

By KEVIN McGILL Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As the nation prepares for trillions of red-eyed bugs known as periodical cicadas to emerge, it’s worth noting that they’re not just annoying, noisy pests — if prepared properly, they can also be tasty to eat.

Blocks away from such French Quarter fine-dining stalwarts as Antoine’s and Brennan’s, the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans has long served up an array of alternative, insect-based treats at its “Bug Appetit” cafe overlooking the Mississippi River. “Cinnamon Bug Crunch,” chili-fried waxworms, and crispy, cajun-spiced crickets are among the menu items.

Periodical cicadas stay buried for years, until they surface and take over a landscape. Depending on the variety, the emergence happens every 13 or 17 years. This year two groups are expected to emerge soon, averaging around 1 million per acre over hundreds of millions of acres across parts of 16 states in the Midwest and South. Continue reading

Record Store Day celebrates indie retail music sellers as they ride vinyl’s popularity wave

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Jeff Maimon, of Chicago, checks out some vinyl at Tracks In Wax record shop, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Phoenix. Special LP releases, live performances and at least one giant block party are scheduled around the U.S. Saturday as hundreds of shops celebrate Record Store Day amid a surge of interest in vinyl and the day after the release of Taylor Swift’s latest album. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

By ANITA SNOW Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Special LP releases, live performances and at least one giant block party are scheduled around the U.S. Saturday as hundreds of shops celebrate Record Store Day during a surge of interest in vinyl and the day after the release of Taylor Swift’s latest album.

There were no announced Record Store Day specials for the arrival of Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, but her fans always anxiously look forward to the new albums and accompanying collectible LPs.

In suburban strip malls and big city downtowns, indie record stores are often the first to recognize and promote emerging artists. Years before Swift was setting Grammy records and selling out concerts in Japan, Bull Moose Music in Portland, Maine, was giving away one of her autographed guitars in an enter-to-win contest.

“We were carrying her music before all the big stores. We always knew she would be a star,” said Chris Brown of employee-owned Bull Moose and a co-founder of Record Store Day. Continue reading