Uncontrolled wildfires can be powerful enough to generate their own weather.

The number of dairy herds infected with H5N1 Bird Flu doubled over the weekend. The count is now 34.

New data from Southern California children, teens and young adults show that rising rates of depression and anxiety increased further during the pandemic.

Although California dairy farmers anticipated a bird flu mortality rate of less than 2%, some say between 10% and 15% of infected cattle are dying.

An experimental program seeks to protect California almond trees from a pesky moth by using X-rays to sterilize the insects.

NASA probe launches aboard SpaceX rocket to search for the building blocks of life on Europa, Jupiter's icy ocean moon.

Just months after the Supreme Court limited abortion access, infant mortality rates rose significantly higher, according to a new study.

Berkeley chemists have created a reusable material that pulls carbon dioxide from the air and holds onto it until it can be stored.

The deaths of people such as Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison fuel the myth that musicians face an increased risk of death at age 27.

NBC and the NBC Sports Network have taken over Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore for extensive coverage of the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. There will be no shortage of coverage of the Kentucky Derby winner Orb, who many think is a legitimate Triple Crown threat.

In 1991, a young Atlanta Braves pitching sensation by the name of John Smoltz was 2-11 nearing the All Star break, and like with the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg, the baseball world was wondering what was wrong.

Ted Leonsis, the owner of Washington's NBA, NHL, and WNBA teams, could be stepping up to the plate in the bidding for the Washington Nationals.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reflected on last week’s bruising electoral defeats in which Republicans flipped four seats, giving them a 53-seat majority in the Senate, emphasizing Democrats must do a thorough autopsy to understand “the things we did wrong.”  “We have to understand the things we did wrong and we must change,” Schumer […]

Republican senators emerged Tuesday night from a candidate forum largely tight-lipped on which of their colleagues they would support to replace Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on the eve of a secret ballot vote and President-elect Donald Trump’s visit to Washington. Two hours of huddling behind closed doors with the trio of contenders fielding […]

Campus police are scanning hundreds of images and using facial-recognition technology to identify the attackers. Similar tools were used to identify Jan. 6 attackers.

Knee-jerk regulations of AI and privacy issues could end up serving the biggest companies and hurting consumers by stifling future competition.

The company said it formed a safety and security committee, which is expected to make recommendations within 90 days. The move comes after a number of controversies, including a dustup with actor Scarlett Johansson.

About a third of adults under 30 get their news from short, punchy videos on TikTok, and that's a big challenge for the Biden campaign.

Former President Trump is scheduled to headline fundraisers in San Francisco, Beverly Hills and Newport Beach next week after his felony convictions.

Taiwan, which makes one-fifth of the world's semiconductors, is facing a severe shortage of workers.

In the deeply Democratic Silicon Valley, there are some defectors. They're setting their sights — and their money — on Trump in the 2024 election.

Santa Clara chipmaker Nvidia has ridden the AI revolution to briefly vault over Microsoft and Apple and become the world's most valuable company.

Along with Google and Facebook, the company has done more than most to undo privacy as we once knew it, creating an economy built on our personal data.

Keke Palmer defends Angela Simmons after the reality TV star faces scrutiny for her promotional post featuring a video of her lounging in an Oreo-filled bathtub.

In a major blow to Google, a federal judge on Monday ruled that the tech giant maintained and abused a monopoly on web searches.

The 'de-extinction' company Colossal and the conservation group Re:wild found common ground in the potential of genetic technology to rescue today's disappearing creatures.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is closing its headquarters in San Francisco and moving some of its San Francisco employees to San José and Palo Alto. The departure is another blow to a city that has been buffeted by high-profile business departures.

A behind the scenes look at a film gala held in San Francisco that screened movies made with artificial intelligence.

A survey shows that most Americans have seen a deepfake in recent months, and most worry about AI-generated misinformation influencing elections.

L.A.-area startups received $1.8 billion in the third quarter, the highest quarterly amount for the region, according to CB Insights. Most of it went to a single company.

This is not goodbye for me; I’m only about to enter a two-week hiatus before joining the Washington Post on July 1 to continue doing what I’ve done for a long time: write about the Redskins, focusing heavily on analysis. Safe to say I can’t wait to get started; they’re putting me in position to improve the way I report.

New 3D blueprints that highlight tumor complexity reveal several new discoveries, some of which challenge existing theories of cancer progression.

This new system raises the bar in high-resolution, high-throughput 3D imaging for cells and organoids, providing researchers with faster, more detailed, and more accurate insights into biological processes.

A new algorithm detects when immunotherapies create surges of T cell responses in melanoma patients.

Specialized neurons in the brainstem and vagus nerve provide potential therapeutic targets for treating inflammatory disorders.

Agnès Lacreuse investigates cognitive aging and women’s health in nonhuman primates.

Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of a mold with antibacterial properties was only the first serendipitous event on the long road to penicillin as a life-saving drug.

Loss of the X chromosome increases with age and may have implications for health and disease risk.

Zymo Research believes that Qiagen’s lawsuit is part of a larger strategy to misuse litigation as a tool to stifle innovation and delay the adoption of groundbreaking technologies that benefit the scientific and medical communities.  

Microfluidic chips that mimic the complex human cervical environment provide a platform to study the reproductive tract and associated infections like bacterial vaginosis.

The steps leading up to the Lincoln Memorial were vandalized with a message that read “Free Gaza” in red paint.

Dozens of beloved Washington restaurants closed this year, more than in 2022, according to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

The Nationals let another game slip away on Saturday afternoon and suddenly a frustrating first two months to the 2013 season is looking a lot worse.

More than a dozen people sustained injuries in an incident involving a Greyhound bus in Georgia, which local authorities said flipped on its side when one of the vehicle's tires blew out.

California will ticket a driver for violating the rules of the road, but for driverless vehicles, there is reportedly no mechanism to ticket the person responsible because of a loophole in some jurisdictions.

Former President Barack Obama encouraged coders to join the Biden administration's artificial intelligence team.

Both scientific ‘red herrings’ and flaws in human logic led to inaccurate ‘Pompeii effect’ hypothesis.

I was excited to see Microsoft bring the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) back from the dead this past year: At Build 2024 back in May, it announced that it would continue investing in this 20-year-old technology, starting with support for Windows 11 theming that would arrive as part of .NET 9. In fact, I was so excited about this that I brought my .NETpad project back from the dead as well, and I spent much of the summer modernizing my Notepad clone with the new features. I wrote 24 articles documenting this work, but I was stymied by the half-assed nature of the improvements.

Microsoft released exactly one WPF update during the several months of .NET 9 development, and it never added any of the features I discovered were missing. And so as we headed into today's release of .NET 9, my excitement was somewhat diminished. My assumption was that we wouldn't see those missing features implemented until .NET 10, if ever.

Well, Microsoft just released .NET 9. As part of that release, it published updated documentation for WPF (and all the other .NET technologies). And to my surprise, there are some updates to WPF that address at least one of those missing features.

So let's take a look.

To add support for Windows 11 theming to a WPF project, you need to add a reference to the new Fluent theme resource dictionary in its App.xml file. It looks like so:

<Application.Resources>
    <ResourceDictionary>
      <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary Source="pack://application:,,,/PresentationFramework.Fluent;component/Themes/Fluent.xaml" />
      </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
    </ResourceDictionary>
</Application.Resources>

But with the shipping version of .NET 9, there's a second, more elegant way to add Windows 11 theming support. Now, you can access a new Application.ThemeMode property of a new styling API to toggle the app's theme mode between Light, Dark, System, and None. And that's fantastic, because it addresses one of those missing features: To date, .NETpad has adapted itself to the system theme (Light or Dark), but there was no way to let the user pick a theme mode. (For example, if the system was set to Dark and the user wanted the app to use Light mode.) With this change, I can implement that feature.

Fortunately, .NETpad is ready for this change, too: If you followed along with my work this past summer, you may remember that I implemented the user interface for switching the app theme into its settings interface, but left the UI hidden because it didn't do anything. But I always felt that Microsoft would need to implement this features, so I left the code in there. Granted, I didn't think it would happen this quickly.

The shipping version of .NET 9 also adds explicit support for the Windows 11 accent color (as configured by the user in the Settings app in Personalization > Accent color). As it is, .NETpa...

The post Modernizing .NETpad: .NET 9 Arrives with a Few (More) Small Improvements for WPF (Premium) appeared first on Thurrott.com.

Sabrina Carpenter, Freakout Festival, and More by EverOut Staff

November is here, which means a deluge of holidays are coming your way, from Election Day to Veterans Day to Thanksgiving. Plus, it's Native American Heritage Month and the first round of festive winter events are coming down the pike. Of course, there's also the usual array of concerts, festivals, food & drink events, and tons more. As we do every month, we've compiled the biggest events you need to know about in every genre, from Sabrina Carpenter to Freakout Festival and from Gobble Up Seattle to Wicked.

Julio Torres: Color Theories
If you're keyed into comedy up-and-comers, you're probably already familiar with Julio Torres, the Salvadoran American SNL writer who also appeared in Search Party, Shrill, Los Espookys, and Fantasmas. Torres' A24 feature Problemista featured Tilda Swinton and a side of surreal quirk, following a Salvadoran toy designer whose work visa runs out as he toils as an assistant for an art-world weirdo. I'm a fan of Torres' thoughts on all things millennial—design aesthetics (wavy mirrors, Canva flyers), internship hell, and crushing student loan debt. This comedy set will continue to tap into the zeitgeist. LINDSAY COSTELLO
The Crocodile, Belltown (Nov 11–12)

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Welcome to hell week: Somehow, it's here. The 2024 election is tomorrow. If you haven't mailed yours in yet, do it today. Better yet, drop your ballot in a ballot box. Please do not drop any incendiary devices in ballot boxes. Tell your friends to vote. Tell your enemies to vote. Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like someone else's life depends on it. Then, take a nap or something. 

Scene setting: Wind and weather are turbulent today. Everything is astir. 

⚠️The next storm system will move into western WA Monday into Tuesday, bringing gusty winds, lowland rain, mountain snow, & high surf to the region. Details are highlighted below!

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 3, 2024

To make everything worse: The sun is dead. It isn't coming back until spring. Say goodbye to long days. Go to an antique store and buy a lamp. I went to the Antique Mall of West Seattle this weekend and bought myself one. It's saving me. We all deserve soft, buttery warm light this winter. 

Starting tonight, the sun will set in the 4 pm hour every night until Jan. 25.

Seattle area vampires, rejoice! ????

— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) November 3, 2024

Iowaaaaat? Cross your fingers and hold your breath for this next part. The poll by respected pollster and possible soothsayer Ann Selzer commissioned by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 47% to 44% in Iowa. The state has voted staunchly red and resolutely for Trump. Back in June, Trump led President Joe Biden (before he decided he should lay down and take a nap instead of running for re-election) by 18 points. Even as recently as September, Trump led Harris in Iowa by 4 points. Apparently, the tables are turning and women are the ones doing the spinning. Particularly, older and independent women voters. Abortion is soooo on the ballot and Iowan women are not taking their futures lightly. If this poll is right, Harris wouldn't just win Iowa, she'd win it in a landslide. 

Trump says "actually, no:" Famous fact-lover Donald Trump says the Iowa poll is wrong and we are all mistaken. According to Trump, the truly accurate poll is the one from Emerson College that shows him up 53% to Harris' 43%. 

Someone who will not get to see if the Iowa poll is accurate: Music legend Quincy Jones died on Sunday. He was 91. 

Don't look a gift poll in the mouth: The knock-on-wood-worthy polling isn't just for national politics. In local news, a Northwest Progressive Institute poll found that in the Seattle City Council Position 8 race, Alexis Mercedes Rink leads incumbent Tanya Woo 52% to 28%. Remember how U2 slipped its album "Songs of Innocence" into everyone's iTunes libraries back in 2014? That's basically how it feels having the council-selected Woo, who knows nothing about anything, in a position of power. Seems as though Seattle is rejecting Woo the same way everyone rejected "Songs of Innocence"—moving her straight to the trash where we hopefully will never have to listen to her again. 

Not worried about the election? Must be nice. But, also maybe you should be. Gov. Jay Inslee clearly is. He signed a letter activating the National Guard in the event of civil unrest after the election.

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee is activating the state's National Guard, directing personnel to make preparations in case they need to respond to “civil unrest” related to the election. pic.twitter.com/26JGFkv03a

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) November 2, 2024

Bad news for Peanut: Tragedy struck the squirrelly saga of Peanut, the social media sensation plucked from his owner's care last week by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Apparently, after removing Peanut, the DEC then euthanized him to "test for rabies." The squirrel who often donned tiny cowboy hats will only do so now from heaven. Rest easy, Peanut. 

Roaming police: City officials mysteriously placed Tacoma's police chief on a brief administrative leave back in September. Now, we know why. Chief Avery Moore was gabbing too much while on vacation. Moore racked up a $1,082 bill on his city-issued cellphone while he was in Sweden. Most of the charges appear to be international usage charges, but I like to imagine Moore couldn't stop gossiping on the phone while touring fjords. 

Work stoppage for NYT tech guild: The "over 600 software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers" keeping the New York Times website up and running went on strike at 12:01 this morning, in the latest attempt to win a union contract with the media company. The work stoppage comes at a pivotal time for the NYT; Election Day coverage on the ~newspaper of record~ requires a lot of tech. Maybe this squeeze will give these workers the contract they're asking for. In the meantime, don't cross the digital picket line. No Wordle. No Connections. Just solidarity. 

Have you seen this prayer wheel? Capitol Hill Himalayan restaurant Annapurna needs helping finding the handmade Tibetan prayer wheel that normally sits outside its front entrance. Someone nabbed the prayer wheel last week. Last time a business's prayer wheel went missing, someone found it in Lake Washington. 

WA GOP's sexist, racist, anti-LGBTQ text campaign: In Washington's 14th legislative district, the texts are getting out of hand. The Spanish texts spread lies about Latina Democratic candidates, saying they "support chemical castration of children at school," they want to "eliminate the Spanish language," and they "hate your family, they hate God, and they hate the truth." Washington GOP chair Jim Walsh confirmed the organization footed the bill for these texts. The Democrats are pissed and believe these texts are defamatory and broke campaign finance laws. They'll be taking legal action.  

The Washington State GOP is sending out these texts in an increasingly Latino state senate district (14), per a source who sent these along.

(I speak French, not Spanish, so these translations are not my own).

Demographic data on the district here, which is held by 3… pic.twitter.com/ZLy0TCf3As

— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) November 2, 2024

Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia: Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted at around midnight Monday. The hot ash shot as high as 6,500 feet into the air and hit several villages, burning down several houses, including a convent of Catholic nuns. Ten people are dead so far. 

South Africa's Steve Irwin died: Dingo Dinkelman, 44, was a wildlife content creator and a conservationist. Dinkelman died from a venomous snake bite after spending a month in an induced coma. 

Something to take your mind off the election: Make this chili.