Sunday, March 13, 2022

PROVING GROUNDS: A New Net-Zero Community is A Test Bed for Climate and Economic Policies

Intro: Let's make this 'a teachable-moment' + a tale of two very different cities: Mesa, Arizona and New York City -- and a difference in time of 18 years --- for land-use planning.

Background from earlier archived posts on this blog:

GM ends its operations at Mesa test track

by Gary Nelson - Jun. 12, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

. . . there was an eastward-rolling tsunami of suburban sprawl. As early as the mid-'90s, developers were coveting GM's land and surrounding areas near the former Williams Air Force Base, now Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, for new housing projects. . . In 2004, GM sold the southern portion to Phoenix businessman William Levine. Two years later, the northern 5 square miles was sold to Scottsdale-based DMB Associates for $265 million.Featured in the article: Roc Arnett and Jack Sellers, a Chandler councilman at that time

Read more >> AZ Central Archives

DMB pursues Mesa subdivision projectJanuary 11, 2012
Article by Gary Nelson
. . . A zoning plan approved by Mesa for the property in 2008 allows up to 15,000 dwelling units of various kinds. Dea McDonald, DMB’s vice president for development, said the time had arrived to start building them. . . Eastmark is expected to evolve over the next three or four decades into a dense urban center closely tied to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Eventually, there could be high-rise business districts fronting the airport along Ellsworth Road. . . Macdonald says he expects DMB and “multiple” developers to close escrow in June, and that Mesa also will approve plans for their subdivisions about that time. McDonald said he cannot reveal the builders’ names until deals are finalized.
Mesa to Annex Two Chunks of Former GM Desert Proving Ground

Two items - 5-d with 52 acres - and (Item 5-e) are not getting a lot of attention:
ITEM 5-e PRELIMINARY PLAT 130-acre
Applicant: Eric Tune, Brookfield DMB
Owners:
DMB Mesa Proving Grounds, LLC
Queen Creek Unified School District
Eastmark Multi-Family, LLC
Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

=================

21 March 2021

WORK PLAN + A LIST: MAJOR LAND-USE PLANNING + STRATEGIC PLANNING GOALS FOR 2021 AND INTO THE FUTURE

What do we have in front of us for this week >

City of Mesa Planning & Zoning Board @ 3:00

Allotted time = one hour before a Public Hearing

Meeting Details and Attachment

CityLab

Environment

NYC’s First Net Zero Community Brings Housing to Storm-Ravaged Neighborhood

A rendering of the Arverne East development, which will be lined by a boardwalk on the south side.

(A rendering of the Arverne East development, which will be lined by a boardwalk on the south side. Credit: Bernheimer Architecture/Local Office Landscape & Urban Design

A swath of oceanfront land in the Rockaways will become a test bed for climate and economic policies, promising affordable housing and other amenities to a region hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy.

By Aysha Diallo

March 4, 2022, 12:00 PM UTC

"Along 116 acres of vacant oceanfront land, development has begun on what could become New York City’s first and largest community to reach a goal of net zero carbon emissions.

The roughly $1 billion project on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens could be a proving ground for a host of climate and economic policies. The development will incorporate geothermal heating, passive house design to optimize energy efficiency, and a plan to raise the storm surge elevation, given the land’s vulnerability to flooding. . ."

How dare a website try to determine what’s credible! Yeah! How dare a search engine try to determine quality results!

Let's get right to the heart of the matter in this excerpt from an article written by Mike Masnick on Friday 11 March 2022. ". . .the job of a search engine is to rank websites based on what that website thinks will provide the searcher with the most relevant information. It is, inherently, biased. It can’t not be. This is why the entire concept of “search neutrality” is nonsense.

A “neutral” search engine is a search engine that just returns random results, rather than useful results. Every search engine is biased, because that bias is what determines what results will be ranked first, second, third, etc. . ."

OK...then let's shift to hyper-local for two reasons;

(1) Duck Duck Go is based here in Arizona

(2) Reference in the content includes an election contest here in Arizona - a Peter Thiel-backed Senate candidate, Blake Masters, who is shocked, shocked, shocked, that a search engine might try to minimize false information

Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation

Overhype

from the you-want-what-now? dept

Fri, Mar 11th 2022 12:09pm - Mike Masnick

"DuckDuckGo, of course, is a popular “alternative” search engine, using Microsoft’s Bing as its underlying search engine but then doing a bunch of generally good stuff for the wider internet/public, such as not trying to collect as much information on you as possible for tracking based ads, but focusing instead of intention based ads around your search (like Google did in the early days). I regularly use it and appreciate the more privacy protective approach.

Like lots of internet companies over the last few weeks, apparently DuckDuckGo has been trying to figure out how to deal with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the concerted effort by certain sources to push a Russia-driven narrative about the invasion. A few days ago, DDG’s founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg announced on Twitter that the company was rolling out a search update that downranked “sites associated with Russian disinformation.”

In addition to down-ranking sites associated with disinformation, we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results (where they are seen and clicked the most) to highlight quality information for rapidly unfolding topics.
— Gabriel Weinberg (@yegg) March 10, 2022

Now, there are (of course!) reasonable questions to be asked about what any particular company considers to be “disinformation.” As we’ve spent years detailing, defining disinformation is a lot more difficult than most people think. It’s also prone to abuse by governments looking to censor. And, quite frequently, disinformation flows are really more closely related to the issue of confirmation bias.

See this >> "But… a whole bunch of overly performative Trumpists who must always play the victim, responded to Gabriel’s announcement by falling on their fainting couches to bemoan the fact that a search engine was downranking false information. This includes a Peter Thiel-backed Senate candidate, Blake Masters, who is shocked, shocked, shocked, that a search engine might try to minimize false information. . “I will determine for myself what is quality”

But there were lots more, and all seemed to be based on the idea that before this, DDG’s results were somehow… pure and untouched by any bias.

ROUND-UP OR REPORTS + ARTICLES FROM BLEEPING COMPUTER

Intro: First a featured post about actions taken by the Security & Exchange Commission with this prologue:

Timely disclosure to keep investors informed

These proposed amendments are designed to provide investors with timely notifications of security breaches affecting listed companies and better inform them regarding their cybersecurity risk management and strategy.

If the rules are revised as the SEC wants, the new regulations [PDF] would require disclosing the following information about breaches (if the information is available when the 8-K forms are filed):

When the incident was discovered and whether it is ongoing;
A brief description of the nature and scope of the incident;
Whether any data was stolen, altered, accessed, or used for any other unauthorized purpose;
The effect of the incident on the registrant's operations;
Whether the registrant has remediated or is currently remediating the incident.

However, companies affected by a breach are not expected to reveal technical information regarding their planned incident response or details on potential vulnerabilities to impact their response or remediation of the incident.

"Over the years, our disclosure regime has evolved to reflect evolving risks and investor needs. A lot of issuers already provide cybersecurity disclosure to investors," SEC Chair Gary Gensler added.

"I think companies and investors alike would benefit if this information were required in a consistent, comparable, and decision-useful manner.

"I am pleased to support this proposal because, if adopted, it would strengthen investors' ability to evaluate public companies' cybersecurity practices and incident reporting."

SEC wants public companies to report breaches within four days

Sergiu Gatlan

BleepingComputer

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed rule amendments to require publicly traded companies to report data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents within four days after they're determined as being a material incident (one that shareholders would likely consider important).

"In some cases, the date of the registrant’s materiality determination may coincide with the date of discovery of an incident, but in other cases the materiality determination will come after the discovery date," the Wall Street watchdog explained.

According to newly proposed amendments to current rules, listed companies would have to provide information in periodic report filings on policies, implemented procedures, and the measures taken to identify and manage cybersecurity risks on Form 8-K.

The amended rules would also instruct companies to provide updates regarding previously reported security breaches.

The SEC wants public companies to share regular disclosures regarding their management's role in implementing cybersecurity procedures and policies, as well as on their board of directors' cybersecurity expertise and oversight of cybersecurity risk.

"We believe that the proposed requirement to file an Item 1.05 Form 8-K within four business days after the registrant determines that it has experienced a material cybersecurity incident would significantly improve the timeliness of cybersecurity incident disclosures, as well as provide investors with more standardized and comparable disclosures," the regulator said [PDF].

PLEASE NOTE THIS

Malware disguised as security tool targets Ukraine's IT Army

By Bill Toulas

March 10, 2022
03:26 PM

Ukraine IT Army hacker

A new malware campaign is taking advantage of people's willingness to support Ukraine's cyber warfare against Russia to infect them with password-stealing Trojans.

Last month, the Ukrainian government announced a new IT Army composed of volunteers worldwide who conduct cyberattacks and DDoS attacks against Russian entities.

This initiative has led to a outpouring of support by many people worldwide who have been helping target Russian organizations and sites, even if that activity is considered illegal.

Mimicking a real DDoS tool

As is common with malware distributors, threat actors are taking advantage of current events, such as the IT Army, to promote a fake DDoS tool on Telegram that installs a password and information-stealing trojan.

In a new report by Cisco Talos, researchers warn that threat actors are mimicing a DDoS tool called the “Liberator”, which is a website bomber for use against Russian propaganda outlets.

**The Liberator on its actual website** *(Cisco)*

While the versions downloaded from the real site are “clean”, and likely illegal to use, those circulated in Telegram hide malware payloads, and there’s no way to tell the difference before executing them as neither is digitally signed.

Russia bans Instagram, a week after blocking Facebook, Twitter

Russian Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor announced that Instagram will also be banned in Russia one week after blocking the Facebook and Twitter social networks.

Sergiu Gatlan
March 11, 2022
01:53 PM
0

Technology

DuckDuckGo down-ranks sites spreading Russian propaganda

The DuckDuckGo web search engine is now demoting websites known to spread Russian propaganda following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to the company's founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg.

Sergiu Gatlan
March 11, 2022
12:09 PM
5

Technology

Finnish govt agency warns of unusual aircraft GPS interference

Finland's Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, has issued a public announcement informing of an unusual spike in GPS interference near the country's eastern border.

Bill Toulas
March 11, 2022
10:55 AM
0

Security

New ONE PIECE anime episodes delayed after Toei cyberattack

Anime giant Toei suffered a weekend cyberattack causing delays in airing new episodes of popular anime series, including ONE PIECE and Delicious Party Precure.

Bill Toulas
March 11, 2022
10:09 AM
0

Security

Russian defense firm Rostec shuts down website after DDoS attack

Rostec, a Russian state-owned aerospace and defense conglomerate, said its website was taken down today following what it described as a "cyberattack."

Sergiu Gatlan
March 11, 2022
09:50 AM
1

ACTIVISM ON THE COURT: Clearly in Black-and-White from Two Different Persons Using Two Platforms

Intro: Stories are written in 'black-and-white' for foreground and background contrast at opposite ends of the color spectrum. In this post there is a juxtaposition of words and images taken from two stories appearing in The Guardian recently.

An interesting coincidence is that both somehow relate to Utah:

The first is a close-scoring game NBA game where the Texas Spurs defeated the Utah Jazz,( a sports franchise team owned by Ryan Smith who lives here in Mesa Arizona)

The second is a commentary on a speech made at a hotel in Salt Lake City.

Gregg Popovich’s biggest win was making America confront uncomfortable truths

Image caption: Gregg Popovich became the all-time winningest head coach in the NBA with 1,336 victories. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Etan Thomas

the Guardian

"He’s now won more games than anyone in NBA history, but the Air Force veteran’s most important legacy will be speaking out on injustice, racism, police brutality to a red-state audience

With San Antonio’s 104-102 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night, longtime Spurs coach Gregg Popovich recorded his 1,336th regular-season win to pass Don Nelson for the most in NBA history. . .Under his leadership, the Spurs organization became the league standard for professionalism, respectability and doing things the “right way”, a reputation that rubbed off on San Antonio greats like David Robinson, Manu Ginobli, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott, LaMarcus Aldridge, Patty Mills, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and countless others.

But what makes Coach Popovich really special, as well as unique, is the way he used his voice and his platform to speak out on injustice, racism, police brutality and the rest of societal ills that plague American society, not only on a daily, personal basis, but a systemic basis. As a white man, in the state of Texas of all places, this not only requires a lot of courage but commands a lot of respect.

Pop had a knack for utilizing NBA press conferences and post-game interviews to express his thoughts and opinions on various topics, often without prompting or provocation.

After George Floyd was murdered, Coach Popovich’s heartfelt address said what a lot of people needed to hear.

“In a strange, counterintuitive sort of way, the best teaching moment of this recent tragedy, I think, was the look on the officer’s face, [during Floyd’s death]. For white people to see how nonchalant, how casual, just how everyday-going-about-his job, so much so that he could just put his left hand in his pocket, wriggle his knee around a little bit to teach this person some sort of a lesson – and that it was his right and his duty to do it, in his mind.

“I think I’m just embarrassed as a white person to know that that can happen. To actually watch a lynching. We’ve all seen books, and you look in the books and you see black people hanging off of trees. And you...are amazed. But we just saw it again. I never thought I’d see that, with my own eyes, in real-time.”

. . .Asked to reflect on the life of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and race relations in the country, part of Popovich’s answer focused on the country’s leadership.

“It seems like a lot of roll back in that regard, especially as we look at the race situation in our country. Everybody wants to forget about it but it should be there, front and center, constantly,” Popovich said.

“Race is still the unanswered dilemma that everyone continues to ignore. Dr. King did not ignore it, and it’s a big fear now that we have a group in power that is very willing to ignore it. It’s not just with their words, but their actions prove it, and that is scary.”

[. ]

Now. Coach Popovich wasn’t the first and definitely won’t be the last in sports to verbally spank the former US president or call out the blatant and the prevailing racism and bigotry that is currently running rampant not only throughout the Republican Party but America as a whole, yet he’s certainly one of the most important and unique for a number of reasons:

1) Coach Popovich is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and works in a military town.

2) The aforementioned standard that he and the Spurs organization has set would appear to be in direct opposition to his public chastisement of the America.

3) Coach Popovich was making these statements in the ultra-red state of Texas, arguably the most conservative of the conservative states based on the state legislature and the congressional delegation, one that has voted Republican in 10 straight presidential elections and saw 52.6% of voters punch for Trump.

For my book Police Brutality and White Supremacy: The Fight Against American Traditions, I interviewed former NBA player Rex Chapman, who is white. He spoke to the power of white people in particular speaking out on injustice.

“A big part of it makes me sad that we have to have white people speaking out in order for it to resonate with a lot of white America,” Chapman said. “It hurts my heart when I see my friends Steve Kerr, Steve Nash, Stan Van Gundy, Greg Popovich picking their spots, because they’re still in the NBA. I know the tightrope they do have to walk on some issues, but some of the stuff they’ve said Black people have been saying for decades. I’m proud of them for saying it now Proud to call them my friends. I’m proud to be of the group of white people who genuinely want to be allies in this fight.”

> The reality is, there are segments of people in America who will give one big collective eye roll to hearing any Black person talk about systemic racism, police brutality, white supremacy, and bigotry. Doesn’t matter if it’s LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, Barack Obama or anyone else. But they will hear it from someone like Coach Popovich. They will think about it. Reflect on it. And not be immediately offended or dismiss that he is ‘playing the race card’.

Coach Popovich said that it’s up to white people to call out racism no matter what the consequences and didn’t even really receive any backlash for his comments, not even in an ultra-conservative place like Texas. And that’s what makes him unique and special. Yes, Popovich’s coaching milestone is historic and worthy of celebration, but his activism off the court will endure longer as the standard for all white people who truly want to be allies in this fight against racism and white supremacy."

Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/12/gregg-popovich-legacy-ally-activism-injustice-racism

Clarence Thomas: supreme court could be ‘compromised’ by politics

Image caption: Clarence Thomas, associate supreme court justice, said the court could become ‘compromised’ by politics. Photograph: Erin Schaff/AP

Martin Pengelly

the Guardian

"The court is set to rule this year on divisive issues including abortion, gun control, the climate crisis and voting rights

The US supreme court could “at some point” become “compromised” by politics, said Clarence Thomas – one of six conservatives on the nine-member court after Republicans denied Barack Obama a nomination then rammed three new justices through during the hard-right presidency of Donald Trump.

“You can cavalierly talk about packing or stacking the court,” said Thomas, whose wife, Ginni Thomas, has come under extensive scrutiny for work for rightwing groups including supporting Trump’s attempts to overturn an election.

“You can cavalierly talk about doing this or doing that. At some point the institution is going to be compromised.”

NOTE: Thomas was speaking at a hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday.

“By doing this,” he said, “you continue to chip away at the respect of the institutions that the next generation is going to need if they’re going to have civil society.”

The court is set to rule this year on divisive issues including abortion, gun control, the climate crisis and voting rights. Conservative victories are expected. The conservative-dominated court has already ruled against the Biden administration on coronavirus mitigation and other matters.

The US constitution does not mandate that the court consist of nine justices. Some progressives and Democratic politicians have therefore called to expand it, in order to reset its ideological balance. Democrats in Congress last year introduced a bill to add four justices and Joe Biden has created a commission to study expansion.

Few analysts think expansion is likely to happen.

> Republican senators are currently attacking Biden for his campaign promise to nominate a first Black woman to the court, a promise he fulfilled by nominating Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace the retiring Stephen Breyer.

> Republican presidents have nominated justices on grounds of identity, most recently when Trump said he would pick a woman to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the liberal lion who died in September 2020.

> Ignoring their own claims about the impropriety of confirmations in election years, made in denying Merrick Garland even a hearing to replace Antonin Scalia in 2016, Senate Republicans installed Amy Coney Barrett, a hardline Catholic conservative, as Ginsberg’s replacement.

In Utah on Friday, Thomas also voiced a familiar conservative complaint about so-called “cancel culture”, the supposed silencing of voices or world views deemed unacceptable on political grounds.

He was, he said, “afraid, particularly in this world of cancel culture attack, I don’t know where you’re going to learn to engage as we did when I grew up.

“If you don’t learn at that level in high school, in grammar school, in your neighborhood, or in civic organizations, then how do you have it when you’re making decisions in government, in the legislature, or in the courts?”

Thomas also attacked the media for, he said, cultivating inaccurate impressions about public figures including himself, his wife and Scalia.

> Ginni Thomas has faced scrutiny for her involvement in groups that file briefs about cases in front of the supreme court, as well as using Facebook to amplify partisan attacks.

Thomas has claimed the supreme court is above politics – a claim made by justices on either side of the partisan divide.

Congress is preparing for confirmation hearings for Jackson. She will be installed if all 50 Democratic senators back her, via the casting vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris. Some Republicans have indicated they could support her too.

In Utah, Thomas recalled his own confirmation in 1991 as a humiliating and embarrassing experience. Lawmakers including Biden grilled Thomas about sexual harassment allegations from Anita Hill, a former employee, leading him to call the experience a “high tech lynching”. Biden has also been criticised for his treatment of Hill.

On Friday, Thomas said he held civility as one of his highest values. He said he learned to respect institutions and debate civilly with those who disagreed with him during his years in school.

> Based on conversations with students in recent years, he said, he does not believe colleges are now welcoming places for productive debate, particularly for students who support what he described as traditional families or oppose abortion.

> Thomas did not reference the future of Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion rights. The court on which he sits is scheduled to rule this year on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, concerning whether Mississippi can ban abortions at 15 weeks.

The court is expected to overturn Roe. While the justices deliberate, conservative lawmakers in Florida, West Virginia and Kentucky are advancing similar legislation."

Saturday, March 12, 2022

INDOOR AIR QUALITY: Yes you can fix it...there is one inexpensive indoor air quality monitor can only say, not do

Here's a recent article from The Verge yesterday that reviews products on the market. Please note -- If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission.

Amazon’s Smart Air Quality Monitor could be a lot smarter

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor keeps track of indoor air quality.

The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor keeps track of indoor air quality.

8 comments

This inexpensive indoor air quality monitor can only say, not do

By Jennifer Pattison Tuohy@jp2e Mar 11, 2022, 10:46am EST

"5 out of 10

A smart air quality monitor can not only give you a heads up when the air quality is going down so you can do something about it (open a window, turn on a fan, fire up an air purifier), but it should also do something about it without you needing to interfere, thanks to its connected nature.

For example, when particulate matter rises, a connected air quality monitor can tell a smart plug to turn on the fan connected to it or direct a smart thermostat to kick on the HVAC system to get the air moving or even trigger a smart air purifier to start cleaning the air.

Herein lies the problem with Amazon’s cute little $70 smart air quality monitor: it can’t do any of that.

What it can do is send an alert to your phone, announce over an Echo speaker, and indicate with its LED light when your air quality inside is poor. It can also turn on your heating or AC based on temperature, which could help move some air.

There’s no on-device screen to show you exactly what’s wrong (a feature on almost all the competition); instead, you need to have a nearby Echo Show to see your readings (or look in the app). The alert it sends just says the air quality is poor — no other info. Other monitors I’ve tested will send specific alerts — such as “CO2 levels are high, time to air this place out” or “Humidity is a bit high, consider running a dehumidifier.” While Amazon’s device does give you an early warning, that’s about it. But for people who don’t want to shell out a small fortune to monitor their air, this is a decent option.

Price is the biggest selling point for the Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor. It’s a much less expensive way to monitor your indoor air, with most competing products costing between $100 and $300.

The $300 Awair Element and Airthings View Plus are the leaders here for those who want to get serious about their air. On the less expensive side of things are the $99.99 Eve Room, which is HomeKit only, the Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor for $119.99, and the $45 Aqara’s TVOC Air Quality Monitor (which requires a hub starting at $30), both of these also work with Alexa and can connect to HomeKit.

The Amazon Smart AQ Monitor measures PM 2.5 (particulate matter small enough to penetrate the lungs), VOCs, carbon monoxide, humidity, and temperature. It’s missing a carbon dioxide monitor, which some competitors offer. This can help identify poor airflow in a room and potentially alert you to the risk of indoor COVID transmission. (High levels of CO2 can indicate that more of the air in a room is made up of other people’s breath — and whatever germs that breath carries.) But the Smart Monitor does offer more sensors than the similarly priced Aqara sensor, which doesn’t measure PM 2.5 or carbon monoxide.

As with most consumer IAQs, the Smart Monitor offers up an easy-to-read score of your air quality. Its onboard indicator light also turns green for good, yellow for moderate, red for poor. The score appears in the app on a scale of 100, with 0 to 35 being bad and 65 to 100 good. It’s likely based on the air quality index, developed by the EPA to help average users understand air quality (I’ve reached out to Amazon for confirmation of this). In my testing, my score hovered around 89, unless I was cooking on my gas stove when it nosedived to around 23.

You can see the score in the device’s dashboard in the Alexa app or on an Echo Show. Here you also get a breakdown of what’s contributing to it and what, if anything, is making it worse. Each of the five sensors has its own line, highlighted in green, yellow, or red, indicating its status. . .

The Smart Monitor is a nice-looking device. It has a rectangular puck-like design, with rounded corners, matte white plastic, and a small grille for the air to move through. It’s also significantly smaller than most of the competition and won’t look out of place in a living room or kitchen. It does have to be plugged in via a micro-USB cable and wall plug (included); there’s no battery backup.

The monitor is easy to set up — plug it in, open the Alexa app, and, if you are not prompted to pair the monitor, tap “Add Device.” You need to grant access to Bluetooth and your device’s camera (to scan the setup code), agree to the Alexa and Alexa Devices Terms of Use, and then scan the QR code on the back of the device. Alexa will then find the device and connect it to your Alexa account. Next, add it to a room or group.

The monitor takes seven minutes to calibrate before it shows an IAQ score, and Amazon says it can take about two days to adjust to your air. Because of the calibration time, it’s not really suited to moving around your home, as you have to unplug it, which resets the calibration. Interestingly, all the competitors have the option to just use battery power, which helps with portability, but most also need time to adjust to properly read your air. . .

You can also ask Alexa for an update on your air by saying “Alexa, what is the indoor air quality?” Responses include poor, fair, and good, along with your air quality score. (Note: if you say “Alexa, what is the air quality,” you’ll get a report from AirNow.gov of the outdoor air quality index score in your location, no monitor required.) You can also ask what the indoor temperature or humidity is, but you can’t get CO, PM, or VOC readings by voice.

Amazon tells me you can also ask for the readings in a specific room if you add the device to a Group in the app. This would be useful if you had a couple of these in various rooms around your house. But in my testing I kept getting the response “That’s not supported yet.”

. . .If the Smart Monitor could also act on humidity, VOCs, CO, and particulate matter, it would be much easier to recommend. Amazon has said it is working on adding this functionality, but until it arrives, this device is limited as a smart air quality monitor. . .

If you have an Amazon Smart Thermostat or similar, an Echo Show, and an interest in how high your particulate matter is, you may get some use out of the Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor. Otherwise, there is no compelling reason to pick this up as it doesn’t do much — yet.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

See our ethics statement.

FREEDUMB FOR ARIZONA STATE SENATOR WENDY ROGERS

Hmmm...Here's something that says it all: "Wendy, honey, typing a name on Twitter of someone notoriously not here makes me think that you wouldn't know how to use a search engine anyway.— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) March 11, 2022

GOP State Senator's Desperate Plea To Donald Trump Goes Mockingly Awry

Critics spotted some fatal flaws with Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers' request to the former president.

By Lee Moran Reporter, HuffPost

HuffPost

"Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers faced a barrage of mockery on Friday after she pleaded with Donald Trump on Twitter to create a new search engine “we can TRUST.”

President Trump, please make a real Search Engine we can TRUST.
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) March 11, 2022

Critics took great delight in reminding Trump apologist Rogers that the former president has not actually been on Twitter since January 2021, when he was booted from the platform for inciting the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. Others asked how his reportedly underwhelming Truth Social network was coming along.

Newsflash: Trump is permanently banned from Twitter, so he can’t see this tweet.

> He’s too busy fundraising for a new plane because he can’t afford it due to taking out a $100 million loan last week to pay off his last $100 million loan

— Snarky Blonde (@Orvieto2016) March 11, 2022

(P.S. - He’s apparently not posting on Truth Social, so he won’t see it there either.

--- SELMa (@iamaxian) March 11, 2022

If it's anything like Truth Social, you'll type in the search, hit enter, wait 6 hours and get one wrong answer.
— Carlos Rosado (@crosado1968) March 11, 2022