Livermore Approves Billion-Dollar Nuclear Fusion Research Facility Proposal

The facility would be located on 14 acres along West Jack London Boulevard. (City of Livermore)

LIVERMORE, CA — The Livermore City Council voted unanimously and enthusiastically to support a proposal for Pacific Fusion to build a billion-dollar fusion energy research facility on West Jack London Boulevard that is estimated to bring 250 high-paying jobs to the city.


Pacific Fusion, a new company devoted to helping achieve fusion energy, will now choose whether to build a facility in Livermore or competing cities like Alameda or Albuquerque.

“Could you think of a better city? Our city seal has the atom on it,” said Vice Mayor Evan Branning as he gestured toward the seal on the dais. “We aren't just looking to build you a box to put your technology in. Livermore is the city, the only city, that is going to support you not just through building this building, but for as long as you are here to make sure that this is the location to expand this technology.”

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FieldAI raises $405M to build universal robot brains

FieldAI, an Irvine, California-based robotics startup, has raised $405 million across multiple previously undisclosed rounds to develop what it calls “foundational embodied AI models” — essentially robot brains designed to help everything from humanoids to quadrupeds to self-driving cars adapt to new environments.

The company announced the funding Wednesday; the most recent round raised $314 million in August and was co-led by Bezos Expeditions, Prysm, and Temasek. FieldAI’s other backers include Khosla Ventures, Intel Capital, and Canaan Partners, among others.

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Blended Wing Body Horizon

Unlike the automotive industry, aviation still is stable in terms of who's doing what. In a nutshell, legacy makers of airplanes still own most of the market, even if at times their
products and methods fail miserably. 

But, just like the arrival of Tesla and Chinese carmakers upset the order in the automotive world, the same will likely happen in aviation in the coming years, thanks to the efforts made by the many startups that have come to be recently.

One such startup is called Natilus (like the Lincoln SUV, only misspelled), and it operates out of San Diego, California. It first came onto our radar a couple of years ago, when it announced plans to build a blended wing body (BWB) flying machine capable of carrying cargo.

A blended wing body design means the aircraft's design shows no clear distinction between its body and the wings, despite the fact that both elements are present there. Because of its layout, it offers significantly more interior space, making it ideal for use in cargo transport.     READ MORE...

Transforming Copper Wire into a Cosmic Furnace

Using a novel laser method, scientists mimicked the extreme environments of stars and planets, enhancing our understanding of astrophysical phenomena and supporting nuclear fusion research.

Extreme conditions prevail inside stars and planets. The pressure reaches millions of bars, and it can be several million degrees hot. Sophisticated methods make it possible to create such states of matter in the laboratory – albeit only for the blink of an eye and in a tiny volume. 

So far, this has required the world’s most powerful lasers, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California. But there are only a few of these light giants, and the opportunities for experiments are correspondingly rare.

A research team led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), together with colleagues from the European XFEL, has now succeeded in creating and observing extreme conditions with a much smaller laser. 

At the heart of the new technology is a copper wire, finer than a human hair, as the group reports in the journal Nature Communications.     READ MORE...

High Speed Railroad

The California High-Speed Rail Authority just received environmental approval to connect downtown Los Angeles to the Bay Area with a bullet train capable of reaching speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, KTLA5 reported.

KTLA5 called the approval "a historic milestone in a state notorious for holding up construction projects for environmental review."

The California High-Speed Rail system is an ambitious project that has technically been in the works for decades, but it has progressed in fits and starts. Recently, however, construction began on several parts of the system. The initial segment, connecting Merced to Bakersfield in the Central Valley, could be open as soon as 2030, with much more to follow, KTLA5 reports.

High-speed trains can sometimes get you from point A to point B faster than planes when you factor in the time it takes to move through an airport, with security and boarding. They also produce less noise pollution, lessening their negative impact on surrounding communities. And they are, of course, much cheaper for consumers.          READ MORE...

Legalizing Human Composting by 2027

Guests sit in the gathering space looking at a shrouded mannequin in front of the threshold vessel at Recompose, a green funeral home specializing in human composting, also known as natural organic reduction, terramation, or recomposition at Recompose Seattle on October 06, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Recompose)




California has already voted to legalize the composting of human remains in 2027, but some residents are not willing to wait that long.

The Los Angeles Times wrote about California resident Blaire Van Valkenburgh being one of a growing number of residents composting the remains of their loved ones, "But this kind of burial — natural organic reduction — won’t be legal in California until 2027, so Van Valkenburgh paid to fly her husband’s body to Washington, the first state to legalize human composting in 2020."

Until 2027, it appears that there will be a budding industry of collaboration to facilitate compost burials for those who live in California. "[I]n the first of what will probably be other such collaborations, the family-owned Clarity Funerals and Cremation in Anaheim has partnered with Return Home to offer a package deal for people in Southern California who want to compost their loved ones in Washington," the LA Times wrote.     READ MORE...

How the First Cells on Earth Formed

The story of how life started on Earth is one that scientists are eager to learn. Researchers may have uncovered an important detail in the plot of chapter one: an explanation of how bubbles of fat came to form the membranes of the very first cells.


A key part of the new findings, made by a team from The Scripps Research Institute in California, is that a chemical process called phosphorylation may have happened earlier than previously thought.


This process adds groups of atoms that include phosphorus to a molecule, bringing extra functions with it – functions that can turn spherical collections of fats called protocells into more advanced versions of themselves, able to be more versatile, stable, and chemically active.  READ MORE...

Fusion Breakthrough to Create Computing Boom

NIF researchers achieved a nuclear fusion reaction that created more energy output than input, a historic first in energy research.

Peer review confirms the breakthrough, opening the door for developing practical fusion reactors capable of providing near-unlimited energy.

The availability of fusion energy could significantly accelerate progress in energy-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, potentially overcoming current energy bottlenecks.

A recent physics breakthrough that could serve as a proof-of-concept for the development of nuclear fusion reactors capable of producing near-unlimited energy has finally passed its official peer-review successfully.

On Dec. 5, 2022, a team of researchers at the United States National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California recorded data indicating that it had achieved a nuclear fusion reaction that created more energy than it took to produce. The reported results were the first of their kind.

In physics, this is sometimes colloquially referred to as a “free lunch,” meaning a nuclear fusion reactor could one day be scaled to the point where it is capable of producing near-unlimited energy.   READ MORE...

King Tides Swamp Pacific Coast

Mega high tides known as king tides are hitting beaches Feb. 9, giving a glimpse at what future sea level rise could mean for coastal towns and shorelines across California.

The California King Tides Project is asking for people to document the coast for a citizen-science project that aims to give decision-makers a look at how to address sea-level rise in future years.

Many beaches will be swallowed by salt water in the early morning hours Friday, Feb. 9, with tides reaching 6.6 feet high at about 8 a.m.     READ MORE...

Sea Otters Preventing Coastal Erosion

Sea otters are proving to be Mother Nature's solution to the prevention of coastal erosion, a recent discovery that further demonstrates how conservation efforts can help to restore an ecosystem as a whole.

Sea otters were nearly hunted to extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries for their pelts. But as populations begin to recover in California after decades of conservation efforts there, the marine mammals are helping to fortify the environment as they expand their range, according to a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.     READ MORE...

Grilled Cheese Dipping TACO

Some people can solve a Rubik's cube in seconds. Others are really good at sports. But my expertise is all things Taco Bell.

I've gone to the secret test kitchen at the chain's headquarters in Irvine, California, eaten a Crunchwrap Supreme while watching the waves at the world's most beautiful Taco Bell in Pacifica, California, and ranked everything from burritos to the Cravings Value Menu.

Why is this important for you to know? Because Taco Bell has a brand-new taco — and it's the best menu item the chain has released in years.

Trust me, I'm an expert.

For the first time, Taco Bell fans can try the chain's new slow-braised shredded beef. Taco Bell has spent two years perfecting the recipe, which I first got to try when I visited its test kitchen in October.

Liz Matthews, Taco Bell's chief food innovation officer, said the rich and spicy flavors traditionally found in birria were "a major point of inspiration" for the Grilled Cheese Dipping Taco.

"By combining slow-braised shredded beef with the two dipping sauces, our fans can enjoy a new range of flavors they may have never had from Taco Bell before," Matthews said in a statement sent to Insider. "This Mexican-inspired dish represents an evolution of what fans typically expect from Taco Bell."  READ MORE...

Orange Skies Are Our Future

These wildfire smoke episodes are disasters as serious as hurricanes, floods or heat waves, and come with a steep human toll. Whether in the East or in the West, they are just one tragic example of how climate change is coming.

The choking siege of smoke over much of the Eastern U.S. from wildfires in Canada has exposed millions of Americans to dangerous levels of lung-damaging pollution. 

Wednesday was by far the nation’s worst day in recent history for wildfire smoke pollution, with more people exposed to higher levels of soot than any day since 2006, according to a rapid analysis by Stanford University scientists.

That’s hardly a surprise to people from New York to Minnesota who have been suffering under this acrid, life-threatening pall. And it’s the type of in-your-face environmental health crisis that Californians know too well, with authorities urging people to stay inside and filter the air they breathe and canceling outdoor activities, and large numbers of people almost certainly getting sick or dying. 

The second-worst smoke day, after all, was in September 2020, when the haze from an explosion of climate-fueled wildfires up and down the West Coast blotted out the sun, shrouding San Francisco in an apocalyptic orange and contributing to potentially thousands of early deaths.

The otherworldly veil that has hung over some of the nation’s most densely populated areas is the latest illustration of the fact that an overheating planet knows no human-made boundaries, and that as much as we try, no one will be spared the impacts. Everyone, after all, has to breathe.     READ MORE...

Wealthy To Pay More

California will soon become the first state to determine residents’ electricity fees based on their income as part of a new effort to spur households toward full electrification and bring down the state’s soaring electricity costs for low-income Californians.

Electricity bills are made up of fixed costs as well as fees that vary based on the amount of electricity residents use. Last year, the state passed a law giving the California public utilities commission a 1 July 2024 deadline to determine a fixed charge for household electric bills based on people’s income.

The new income-based electricity bills could hit residents’ mailboxes as soon as 2025. Based on proposals currently under consideration, residents who make more than $180,000 a year could pay about $500 more annually on their electricity bills, while Californians who make less than $28,000 annually could save up to $300 a year. The law is part of the state’s answer of how to equitably transition away from carbon as an energy source.

But state officials are already facing backlash from higher-income residents who don’t want to see their bills increase. The proposals have so far received more than 250 public with large number opposing the law.  READ MORE...

Faster Than A Human Construction Crew

California-based startup Built Robotics has unveiled a huge autonomous construction robot that speeds up the creation of utility-scale solar farms — accelerating the transition to a clean energy future and making workers safer, too.

The challenge: Electricity generation is responsible for more than 30% of the US’s carbon emissions, so transitioning the grid away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, such as solar, is essential to combating climate change. Not only that, we’ll need to generate a lot more electricity as we increasingly electrify cars, machines, and industry.

To meet the demands of the future, automation is gonna be key in the construction world.

JUSTIN RUSSELL

Constructing a utility-scale solar farm is a major undertaking, though: once a company goes through the potentially years-long process of finding a site and securing permits, it can still take another couple of years to build the solar farm.


Moreover, as solar panels have gotten dramatically cheaper, an increasingly large share of the cost of solar power is coming from things other than the panels themselves, like construction and labor. If we’re going to keep pushing the price of solar down, we’ll have to get more productive at those things, too.

The construction robot: Built Robotics has now unveiled RPD 35, an autonomous construction robot that accelerates an important part of building a utility-scale solar farm: installing solar piles.

These heavy steel beams are about 15 feet long, and during solar farm construction, they’re driven about eight feet into the ground — the part of the pile that remains exposed then serves as the foundation for a solar array.  READ MORE...

Why Are People Moving Out of California?

California houses a lot of iconic sites, great scenery, luxurious infrastructure, dreamy beaches, and unique employment opportunities. In addition, its economy ranks 5th in the world. But the question is, why then are lots of people moving out of California?

A recent study by UC Berkeley revealed that over half of the residents of California are looking into moving.

The state’s population has been reducing because of national migration since 2000; however, natural population increase and international migration have kept California’s population growing at a 0.35% rate as of 2016.

Below are our best estimations of what a California resident could consider when planning a move, and where the calculation might land them.

Almost 700,000 people relocate out of California just last year. There are different reasons for even permanent residents of California to leave the state and move out of it.

1. High Cost of Living
California is an expensive place to live. The cost-demanding moving candidates start from people in financial issues to those on a constant income, such as retirees and a new group formed in the pandemic time – an employee who can work remotely.

Consider what an interstate ‘price parity’ cost of living index of California from the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reveals to us about affordable moving possibilities, it shows the state is expensive to live.

2. Rising State Taxes
The marginal income tax rate is currently at 13.3% but legislators want to increase it to almost 17%. The move would not just affect rich residents of California but also small entrepreneurs, most of whom are facing challenges related to COVID-19 lockdowns and shutdowns. The sales tax is more than 7% already and there is a $0.50 gas tax.

Furthermore, residents of California are not even allowed to deduct most of their state taxes from their federal taxes all thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act by President Trump. Even though taxes in other states are high, California is one of the two states with a tax rate of more than 10% (the other is Hawaii). What that means in real life is highlighted below:

Simply put, someone who makes $50,000 per annum would be paying $9,679 in state and federal taxes. Someone who makes $100,000 per year would have to spend $28,923. Those that make $500,000 per annum would be paying a huge $210,949.

To complicate the matter, state legislators in California are now discussing retroactive taxes as well as an exit tax for rich residents of the state who leave California for another state. AB2088 doesn’t only seek to create a wealth tax in California but also force rich old California residents to pay the tax for nearly 10 years after they’ve left.

3. Political Problems
A lot of residents of California are in support of the policies of their state. However, a lot of conservative and even reasonable voters feel that California is moving too far to the left. Ben Shapiro, a conservative journalist talked about his personal decision to move out of state, stating increasing union influence, limitation on law enforcement officials, looting, and the stop to standardized testing in state universities as some of the factors that aid his decision to relocate to another state.

Others mentioned that they feel that their votes in California don’t count while others still complain that politicians focus on the needs of large cities while leaving the needs and wishes of residents of rural areas unattended. COVID-19 restrictions in the state have placed an extra strain on residents. 19 percent of California workers had filed for unemployment as of April 2020.

Even though some industries have resumed operation, others are affected by continued restrictions. Restricted businesses include gyms, restaurants, personal care services, bars, hospitality, and the tourism industry. Other states don’t have so many COVID-19-related lockdowns as California does, which causes many business owners to seriously look into leaving the state to another one where they have hope of attaining success in their business.

4. Unemployment
Not everyone considering a move is just being cost-conscious. Job opportunity and wage levels are huge factors for others who know that highly affordable states usually come with lesser incomes. To calculate opportunities, We considered the annual average wages from the second quarter of 2020, making a national pay scale.

The maximum national average wages were seen in Massachusetts at $81,640, then $79,040 in New York. California ranked 3rd at $76,336 and is an important reason many people stay. On the fourth position was Washington at $74,048, Connecticut at $73,164, and New Jersey at $71,552. Many factors affect the value of those incomes.

Begin with being able to keep a job. Consider the average unemployment rates from 2015 to 2019 and you find North Dakota as the state in which you don’t have many risks of losing a job with a median 2.7% unemployment rate. Hawaii was the next and New Hampshire at 2.8%, Nebraska and Vermont were at 3%, followed by Iowa and South Dakota at 3.1%. 

TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER FIVE REASONS, CLICK HERE...

California Sets Record

First, the good news: The amount of planet-warming gases Californians released into the atmosphere in 2020 was 9% less than the previous year — a record decline mostly because of motorists driving less amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Now, the bad news: The quantity of carbon dioxide spewed by record-setting wildfires that same year effectively erased almost two decades of emission reductions on the part of the world’s fifth — and soon to be fourth — largest economy.

Those two findings — both released in a little more than a week’s time this month — have painted a grim and confusing portrait of California’s efforts to curb global warming. They also come as a U.N. report finds that global greenhouse gas reduction efforts are “highly inadequate.”  READ MORE...

Young Professionals Leaving California and New York

Young professionals who make more than $100,000 have started to flee California and New York, and the prices that go with them.

Instead, they’re going home, according to a study done by SmartAsset. In fact, analysis by the Census Bureau and Harvard University earlier this year found that 80% of young adults now live less than 100 miles from where they grew up.

Looking at adults under 35 who earn $100,000-plus per year, SmartAsset examined the inflow and outflow of wealthy young professionals from state to state between 2019 and 2020: 

Where did they leave? 

And where did they go?

It’s time to cue up the map app and take a closer look.

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Texas
In 2019-2020, Texas ranked the most popular destination. Roughly 15,000 came into the state and only about 11,200 left for a net inflow of about 3,800, according to SmartAsset.  READ MORE...

California's Economy Declining

California officials are sounding the alarm after recent statistics showed that fewer corporate and start-up activity in the state was leading to a decline in tax revenue, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

This year, just nine companies based in the state had held initial public offerings (IPOs), which is when a company first lists shares for sale on the stock market – considered a milestone in its growth after strong activity and high valuation, the report revealed. 

In 2021, California – whose start-up ecosystem in ‘Silicon Valley’ is considered the most prodigious in the world – saw 81 companies conduct IPOs, making 2022 a year of a nine-fold decrease.

Moreover, the value of these IPOs was far lower than in the past, raising merely $177 million, or 2% of the total amount of money raised by U.S. companies that went public in 2022. 

By contrast, in 2021, California’s share of the revenue generated by IPOs was 39%, by far the largest of any state.  READ MORE...

Wind Turbines A Reality Soon

CNN — The Department of Interior on Tuesday announced it will hold a lease sale for wind energy off the coast of Central and Northern California, bringing the Biden administration’s dream of a massive West Coast wind farm one step closer to reality.

The Pacific has enormous potential to generate wind energy, Biden administration officials told reporters in a call last month, and this yet-untapped potential is a major part of President Joe Biden’s clean energy goals. 

Floating offshore wind turbines could unlock up to 2.8 terawatts of clean energy in the future – more than double the country’s current electricity demand, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm estimated during the September call.

The department will open five lease areas for companies to bid on near Morro Bay and Humboldt County on December 6. The space that will be offered is more than 373,000 acres, which Interior said could produce over 4.5 gigawatts of energy when fully developed – enough to power more than 1.5 million homes.  READ MORE...

Wildfires Wipe Out 20 Years of Greenhouse Emissions Reductions

California's catastrophic wildfires in 2020 put twice as much greenhouse gas emissions into the air as the state's reductions in those same gases over nearly 20 years – erasing gains going back to 2003, according to a new study.

It's part of a positive feedback loop that's very negative, say the researchers.

"Climate change is creating conditions conducive to larger wildfires. And the wildfires are adding to the greenhouse gases that cause climate change," said lead author Michael Jerrett, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The historic megafires of 2020 released an estimated 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air. That compares to the 65 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions California was able to reduce between 2003 and 2019, the study, published in this month's edition of the journal Environmental Pollution, showed.  READ MORE...