If you drive across Iowa, you’ll probably notice two things aside from the many farms: Trump signs and wind turbines.Iowa is Trump country. While the state was once considered politically purple, it decisively supported President Donald Trump in 2016, in 2020, and in 2024, when Trump won in 94 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Iowa’s governor and two senators are also Republicans, and, after some early friction, have fallen in line with Trump. Iowa is also a wind energy powerhouse. A remarkable 59 percent of the state’s energy in 2023 came from wind turbines, a larger share than any other state in the country. Texas is the only state that produces more wind energy than Iowa, though wind power makes up a much smaller portion of the Lone Star State’s energy mix. Wind turbines are now so common in Iowa that they appear on the state’s regular license plates. Related404 Not Found | VoxAt face value, wind energy and Trump don’t mix. Many of his supporters downplay or disregard climate science showing that fossil fuels are warming the planet far faster than it would naturally — a key fact underlying the value of wind energy and other power sources that don’t have significant carbon emissions. In some cases, Trump supporters, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also help elevate unproven claims that offshore wind turbines are killing whales.Annick Sjobakken for VoxTrump himself, meanwhile, is the most anti-wind-energy president in history. He’s been bad-mouthing wind power for over a decade, often relying on similarly spurious claims. “We’re not going to do the wind thing,” Trump said in a speech on Inauguration Day. “Big, ugly wind mills. They ruin your neighborhood.” And Trump has already made policy moves intended to slow growth in the sector — causing some developers to halt or totally abandon projects.On one hand, Iowa is a test case for the staying power of renewable energy. Wind farms have expanded in the state not because of climate concerns but because of economics. Wind energy is cheap in Iowa.But Iowa also highlights an important disconnect that exists across the country — between the anti-climate, “drill, baby, drill” rhetoric that helped get Trump elected and the reality facing much of his base living in states that benefit from renewable energy. The economics of wind energy are incredibly strong, experts told me, so the industry won’t just disappear. But Trump’s energy policies, if successful, could have harmful consequences for Republican strongholds like Iowa. A question now is if conservatives who rely on wind energy push back, will Trump soften his anti-wind stance? How wind took over Iowa, a Republican strongholdIf you want to learn about wind energy in Iowa, the person to talk to is Tom Wind. (Yes, his name is literally Tom Wind, and yes, people point it out a lot to him.) He’s a crop farmer and electrical engineer in Iowa who’s been working in the sector — first at a utility, then as a consultant, and now as a wind-farm manager — for decades.There are several reasons for Iowa’s ascendency to wind dominance, Wind told me. The simplest reason is that Iowa is windy. And while some Great Plains states like Nebraska and Kansas are technically windier, Iowa is closer to big population centers, like Chicago, that need lots of power.Annick Sjobakken for VoxIowa was also quick to adopt policies that benefited wind and other renewables. In fact, Iowa was the first state in the country to establish what’s called a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), in 1983. It required the state’s investor-owned utilities to contract out or own at least 105 megawatts of renewable energy, which is enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Iowa reached that goal by 1999, Wind said. When the RPS was enacted, the state legislature was run by Democrats, though it still wasn’t that controversial: Iowa lawmakers, including Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, saw an opportunity to make Iowa more energy independent in the wake of the 1970s energy crisis (an actual crisis, by the way, not the manufactured energy emergency Trump has conjured). The state has also never had a large fossil-fuel industry to lobby against pro-renewable legislation, Wind said.Later, state and especially federal tax incentives for renewable energy further propelled wind to dominance in Iowa. In the ’90s, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican, helped establish a federal tax credit for building wind farms. That ultimately helped earn Grassley the title of “father” of Iowa wind energy.MidAmerican Energy Company, the largest electric utility in Iowa and a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, was especially hungry for tax credits, Wind said, and has since built out an enormous amount of wind energy. (In reporting this story, Vox reached out to several Republican politicians and energy authorities in the state. Branstad, Grassley’s office, MidAmerican, and Berkshire Hathaway Energy all declined interview requests. Sen. Joni Ernst and Gov. Kim Reynolds did not respond to interview requests.)The state’s many farmers — a core section of Iowa’s economy that maintains a lot of political power — have also helped the wind industry take off. Farmers across Iowa have put turbines on their land as a way to earn more income. While crop prices and yields are volatile and at the whims of natural disasters, wind turbines offer a relatively stable source of revenue, on the scale of thousands of dollars per year, per turbine.Dave Johnson, a farmer who earns money from the turbine located on his property in Riceville, Iowa. Annick Sjobakken for Vox“It’s a real blessing for us,” said Dave Johnson, a livestock farmer in northern Iowa who leases his land to a utility that installed four turbines on his property. He earns about $30,000 a year from the four turbines combined, he told Vox. Johnson’s son also has turbines on his farm. Johnson, a Republican who says he voted for Trump, had the turbines installed primarily because he wanted his farm — where he raises cattle and hogs — to generate more value. “I never had a 401(k),” he said. “I farmed and stuck everything back into the farm. This is the 401(k) that I never had.” Fred Koschmeder, a corn and soybean farmer near Johnson’s farm, also has turbines on his land. “I don’t even look at it as a political thing,” Koschmeder, who also says he voted for Trump, said of wind energy. “It is economic development. If you’ve got a chance to participate in something that brings value, I think you’re kind of foolish not to do it. … It adds a lot of value to your farm and extra income, too.”Farming in Iowa has become more economically challenging in recent years, as the price of some crops like soybeans have dipped, and farm costs, such as tractor repairs, have spiked due to inflation. Climate change is also raising the risk of drought and flooding, according to government and academic researchers. Wind energy “is allowing farmers to stay on the farm,” Johnson said. “That helps rural America.”Annick Sjobakken for VoxAnnick Sjobakken for VoxBut even if you’re not a farmer, you likely benefit from wind turbines if you live in Iowa, said Steve Guyer, senior energy policy counsel at Iowa Environmental Council, a nonprofit green group. The state has stable energy bills that tend to be well below the national average in cost. Onshore wind is the cheapest source of energy with or without tax credits, as of 2024, according to the financial firm Lazard.“All customers benefit from it,” said Guyer, who formerly worked for utilities in Iowa. “Although other costs may rise over time, the cost of the wind actually remains stable or lowers. When we factor that into the overall utility bill, it at least stabilizes the bill.”The wind industry also employs roughly 4,000 people across the state and draws billions of dollars in capital investments. Plus, it’s the No. 1 taxpayer in a third of Iowa counties, according to Mak Heddens, who runs a group called Power Up Iowa, a coalition of clean energy companies in Iowa.While wind energy projects have faced fierce opposition in several counties — anti-wind advocates often rely on misinformation to argue that turbines harm wildlife and threaten human health — the industry is popular on the whole. This likely has little to do with politics or concerns about climate change. People across the political spectrum like wind energy because it’s cheap, local, and generates money for the state’s economy. These are things Republicans really care about, said James McCalley, an electrical engineer and wind energy expert at Iowa State University. (McCalley identifies as Republican.)“We’re a red state, and we’ve embraced it, and I’m proud of that,” said Brent Siegrist, a Republican state representative in the western Iowa’s Pottawattamie County, where a large wind farm produces enough electricity to power up to 122,000 homes. “Maybe it’s the commonsense approach of Iowans: We need energy, and if we can do it renewably — and it’s not costing us a fortune — why wouldn’t we do it?”Are Iowa Republicans worried?There’s no doubt that wind energy is a massive part of Iowa’s economy — powering the bulk of homes and businesses in the state — and a boon to residents. Yet people who support Trump often don’t see his anti-wind position as much of a threat or expect it to shift. Johnson, the livestock farmer, says he doesn’t pay close attention to Trump’s comments on wind energy. “I know he just shoots his mouth off,” Johnson said. When asked about real policies Trump has put in place, including an executive order that pauses new approvals for wind projects, Johnson said he’s not worried because wind energy has a lot of support, even among Republicans. Siegrist, meanwhile, downplayed how much Iowa depends on wind energy, mentioning that the state still uses coal. And while Siegrist doesn’t think the federal government should be controlling what happens to wind development within states, he’s not worried about Trump’s anti-wind statements. “I’ve got enough things to do in Iowa to worry about Washington, DC,” he told me. Annick Sjobakken for VoxPaul Roeder, a Republican who owns a handful of wind turbines in Iowa, is similarly untroubled by the administration’s position. “I’m not so much worried about politics as I am about some of the other external factors that drive the price of energy,” Roeder told me. “The president doesn’t drive the price of energy.” Roeder says he voted for Trump but not because of the president’s stance on renewable energy. This raises a key point: Many Republicans support renewable energy, and they may even worry about carbon emissions, but energy simply isn’t as salient for them as other issues, such as immigration. That helps explain how someone like Grassley — the father of Iowa wind energy, remember — is a Trump ally, even though he’s previously called Trump’s comments about wind energy “idiotic.” Annick Sjobakken for VoxIt’s also worth pointing out that, more generally, people don’t often think about where their energy comes, as long as their lights turn on and their bills aren’t surging. I grew up in Iowa and have visited at least once a year since. But it wasn’t until recently — through my environmental reporting — that I realized how important wind energy is to the state. So it’s not shocking that Iowan’s don’t connect their energy to Trump. “They don’t necessarily make the connection to what the president is saying,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2, an association of business leaders, many of whom work in the clean energy industry.But there is real cause for concern. The strong economics of wind energy — what allowed turbines to proliferate in a conservative state — persist today, and so it’s reasonable to expect that the sector will still grow. Yet policies from the Trump administration could seriously dent the industry across the country, including in Iowa. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that aimed to curtail growth of the wind-energy industry. Among other things, it directed agencies to pause new and renewed federal approvals and leases for both onshore and offshore wind projects. Since Trump’s executive order from January 20, the administration has put in place or threatened additional tariffs on countries, such as China, that would substantially raise the cost of onshore turbines, some of which are manufactured in Iowa. Even turbines that are manufactured locally are typically built with at least some foreign parts.“There is a certain level of nervousness in the market,” Manav Sharma, North America division CEO for Nordex Group, a wind turbine manufacturer that has a production facility in Iowa, told KCRG.In a statement, Alliant Energy, the third-largest utility owner and operator of regulated wind energy in the US, according to the company, said it will “continue to monitor the Trump Administration executive orders on national energy policy.” TPI Composites, a global company that manufactures wind turbine blades in Iowa, declined an interview request. Some wind advocates and lawmakers — including some conservatives — are also worried that the Republican-controlled Congress may stamp out tax incentives for clean energy that are part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Those incentives have largely benefitted Republican districts but are at risk of getting cut as Trump has vowed to repeal the IRA. “I think the subsidies are the biggest issue,” Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University who specializes in the Midwest, told Vox. “If they are reduced, will wind energy survive?” Annick Sjobakken for VoxAnnick Sjobakken for VoxEven if tax credits remain, the Trump administration may still weaken incentives, such as through efforts to shrink the IRS. “What could also happen is they cut the IRS workforce,” Wind said, adding that applications to get tax credits have to go through the agency. “If you start losing employees, things start slowing down. It just gets harder to do business with the IRS.”These concerns are especially pressing today as Iowa becomes a hot spot for energy-intensive data centers in step with the AI boom. It will need more energy quickly. Google, Meta, and Microsoft are all building out or operating data centers in the state, in part, because the state has affordable energy.Policies from the administration that harm renewable energy stand to harm Iowa, said Keefe of E2. This is true whether or not you care about climate change. “You don’t do this kind of damage to an industry, you don’t spin off this kind of market uncertainty, and things will be okay,” Keefe said. “The only way they’re going to be okay is if businesses and consumers stand up and demand that their lawmakers not take an energy source away from them that happens to be the cheapest energy we can develop right now.”“If I was one of those thousands of Iowans that work in the wind industry, or if I had family that worked in the industry, I would be calling my lawmaker today and saying, ‘Hey, recognize the risks that you are putting my community at — my family, these jobs, our economy,’” he said.See More:

As amazing as the Google Pixel 9 smartphone is — and we’ll most definitely get to all of its incredible features — there are definite downsides to paying for it month after month after month. But that’s exactly what you do when you one of the big cellular carriers entices you with a premium smartphone like the Google Pixel 9 and gets you to sign up for their service. The way around paying that monthly tribute to Big Cellular? Shop around for the plan that works best for you, and show up with your own fully owned and unlocked Google Pixel 9. The time to do that might be now, considering how Amazon just dropped $266 from the price of the 256GB version of this cutting-edge smartphone, bringing it down to $633. See at Amazon The Best Photo Smartphone? It’s beyond dispute that the Google Pixel 9 is one of the very best smartphones available if you’re looking for advanced photography features. It has Google’s most powerful camera system, with a 50 megapixel main camera and a new 48MP ultrawide camera with Macro Focus technology that delivers incredible detail even in huge landscape shots. Those elite-level cameras are combined with Google’s powerful AI photo editing features that let you change backgrounds, remove items or people, create group shots where everyone’s eyes are open with the Best Take feature, and even take a photo and also be in it with the Add Me feature. Google has brought a whole new level of photographic capabilities to the Pixel 9 smartphone that were unimaginable before the Magic Editor features were introduced in 2023. Premium AI Assistant The Pixel 9 is also loaded with Gemini, Google’s latest AI assistant, which comes with a huge raft of cutting-edge features just like the camera system. Gemini Live follows your conversations naturally, even maintaining the context as you switch topics. The new Gemini is so advanced that you can take a photo of your pantry or refrigerator and ask Gemini for recipe ideas based on what’s in the picture. And regardless of which app you’re using, all you need to do is circle an item or text and Gemini will do a fast, comprehensive search for you. The only way to improve on all of the advanced features of the Google Pixel 9 smartphone is to have them and have the freedom to bring the phone to any of the big carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Google Fi, and have them connect the Pixel 9 to your account after you find the plan that works best for you, without monthly installment plans that lock you into a carrier for years. Experience the power of the Google Pixel 9 and the freedom to choose with this Amazon deal on an unlocked 256GB Pixel 9 for just $633. See at Amazon

Everybody wants cinema-quality surround sound in their living room or home theater room, but nobody wants to drill into their walls to run wiring to all those speakers. (And even fewer people want to pay someone to do it for them.) So when a 820-watt surround-sound system with wireless speakers takes a 52% price nosedive at Amazon, that’s a big deal. Meet the JBL 9.1 Soundbar System, complete with detachable wireless speakers that can be placed wherever you need them for optimal sound quality. This high-end $1,200 sound system is just $570 at Amazon during this limited-time deal, just 50 cents more than its all-time lowest price. No drilling, no wires, no frustrating installation of any kind, just awesome sound with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D options to bring your movies, TV shows, sports events, and gaming to incredible new levels. See at Amazon A Moveable Feast for Your Ears Nothing’s forever, not even if you’ve wired it into your walls. The only thing harder than installing a hardwired sound system is moving it. But you could renovate your home, move entirely, or just decide to change things up. If you have the JBL 9.1 Soundbar System, here are the comprehensive instructions for relocation: Unplug the main soundbar and subwoofer from the power outlets, pick up the two wireless speakers, and move them. That’s it. The two wireless surround sound speakers are rechargeable, and all you need to do is attach them to the main soundbar. Their built-in batteries are good for 10 hours of prime listening time before you need to re-dock them to recharge. Moving the speakers and subwoofer to achieve the best possible sound is easy for more reasons than just the freedom of being wireless — the JBL 9.1 Soundbar System also has built-in calibration, so you really can’t miss. Power Without Wires Once you have everything set up within minutes of unboxing, the real treat begins, as you get to experience the powerful 820 watts of 3D surround sound, with ultra HD 4K pass-through with Dolby Vision so the visuals don’t fall behind the sound. That modestly sized subwoofer — just 10 inches tall — can be a mini-piledriver with deep, intense bass, or brought down to more mellow levels for Chromecast or AirPlay streaming with the built-in Wi-Fi. The enormous price break offered during this Amazon limited-time deal — over $600 off — is a little ironic considering how most people would pay extra to get cinematic 3D surround sound and not have to deal with punching holes in their walls for wiring and other potential installation nightmares. This $1,200 sound system is all incredible sound and convenience without any of that hassle. Check out the JBL 9.1 Soundbar System before it goes back to its normal price. See at Amazon

Mengzi NSAU Bookstore of Librairie Avant-Garde / ZAO/standardarchitectureSave this picture!© Ziling WangLibrary, Retail•Mengzi, China Architects: ZAO/standardarchitecture Area Area of this architecture project Area:  894 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2023 Photographs Photographs:Ziling Wang, Qingshan Wu More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Located in Honghe, Yunnan province, approximately 250km south east from Kunming, Mengzi is a border town with a relatively glory history. The Avant-garde Bookstore sits by the Southlake of Mengzi, a beloved public park today, while dating back to WWII, it was the campus of the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU), a prestigious academic group that nourished numerous scholars during the war.Save this picture!Save this picture!There was originally a group of concrete taverns and a bell tower on the site. ZAO/standardarchitecture selectively preserved part of the buildings and renovated the facades with gray bricks.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The design of the new building is characterized by a rolling serpentine loop—rising from the lakeshore, climbing up the existing hall and bell tower, and coming down back to the lake with a huge horizontal opening.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The journey entwines the existing urban context and the landscape with a simple but spatially diverse sequence.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Entering the courtyard, visitors are led to the roof terrace by an inviting ramp, where a spectacular panoramic view of the city is revealed with the rise and falls of the geometry.Save this picture!Save this picture!The use of the rough concrete and the natural wood are woven from outdoor to indoor, blurring exterior and interior with sensible sensations.Save this picture!Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Nanhu Park, Mengzi, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this office Published on April 22, 2025Cite: "Mengzi NSAU Bookstore of Librairie Avant-Garde / ZAO/standardarchitecture" 22 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029258/mengzi-nsau-bookstore-of-librairie-avant-garde-zao-standardarchitecture&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save想阅读文章的中文版本吗?西南联大先锋书店 / 标准营造是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

"Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams" Opens in Seoul with Exhibition Design by OMASave this picture!"Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams" Installation Views. Image © Kyungsub ShinOMA has unveiled its latest exhibition design for "Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams" in Seoul, South Korea. Held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), the exhibition marks the fifth collaboration between OMA and Dior. Previous designs include Dior: From Paris to the World at the Denver Art Museum (2018) and Dallas Museum of Art (2019), as well as Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2022). The Seoul exhibition presents over 80 years of Dior's creative history and the cultural heritage of Korea. Save this picture!The exhibition reinterprets the history of Dior through a Korean lens, integrating local cultural references, materials, and spatial strategies. Unlike previous iterations held in traditional museum galleries, the Seoul edition takes advantage of DDP's Art Hall 1, an expansive, column-free volume, to present a unified, continuous exhibition narrative rather than a sequence of discrete rooms.Save this picture!The spatial organization draws inspiration from the traditional Korean hanok, centering the exhibition around "The Garden," a large open space that functions as the madang, or courtyard, with smaller galleries unfolding around it. The design of "The Garden" is conceived as a large-scale, inhabitable moon jar, referencing the porcelain vessel traditionally created by separately throwing and joining hemispherical halves. Inside the 12-meter-tall vessel, a dynamic projected dome meets a textured hanji forest landscape created by the artist Hyun Joo Kim.  Related Article Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 Opens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Thematic rooms continue this dialogue by translating culturally significant Korean objects and techniques into spatial elements. "Dior Legacy" traces the timeline of the House's creative directors through a single curving ribbon, crafted using the jogakbo textile technique, suggesting both distinction and continuity across eras. In the "Lady Dior" room, traditional red lacquerware cabinetry informs a modular and sculptural display system.Save this picture!New materialities and display strategies introduced in other rooms aim to enhance the relationship between the viewer, object, and space. Layered scrims, mirrored louvers, suspended toiles, and metal cables introduce visual permeability and reflection, offering multiple perspectives of garments, artworks, and artifacts. These elements contribute to an immersive experience, emphasizing the evolving and multifaceted history of Dior.Save this picture!OMA's recent work includes the design for the New Museum's expansion in New York, which will double the gallery space, improve circulation alongside the existing SANAA-designed flagship. In Jeddah, the firm designed the scenography for the Islamic Arts Biennale, crafting a spatial narrative that enhances the visitor experience; the exhibition runs until May 25, 2025. Other notable projects include the renovation of the Gallery of the Kings at the Museo Egizio in Turin and the ongoing renovation of the heritage-listed Perth Concert Hall in Australia. Image gallerySee allShow less About this authorReyyan DoganAuthor••• Cite: Reyyan Dogan. ""Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams" Opens in Seoul with Exhibition Design by OMA" 22 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1029343/christian-dior-designer-of-dreams-opens-in-seoul-with-exhibition-design-by-oma&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

AI, Layoffs Fuel Surge in Job Scams By John P. Mello Jr. April 22, 2025 5:00 AM PT ADVERTISEMENT Proven Customer Acquisition Strategies for SMB Software Firms Discover proven tactics for scaling products, winning customers, and staying ahead. Get your free copy of the SMB Software Playbook for Expansion & Growth. Download Today. The times couldn’t be better for job scammers. Layoffs in the tech and public sectors, coupled with the malicious use of artificial intelligence, are fueling strong growth in fraud aimed at job seekers. Scams aimed at job seekers can come in a variety of forms, among them: Hire and Fire Scams — where a job seeker is quickly hired, works, and is fired before collecting a paycheck. Fake Recruiters — where a fraudster harvests sensitive information from a job seeker as part of the application process. Pay-to-Work Offers — where job seekers are told they’ve been hired, but they have to first make some upfront payments for training or equipment. “Asking for money or asking you to purchase something with the promise of a reimbursement is a scam that has been around for a long time,” said Julia Toothacre, chief career strategist at Resume Templates. “These are companies that appear legitimate and sometimes even have a website, but their purpose is to scam people out of money,” she told TechNewsWorld. “Job seekers need to be on their toes when it comes to scams,” she added. “If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.” Robust Scam Economy Growth in job scams isn’t surprising since scam activity has been generally growing globally. “The scam economy is blowing up. In some parts of the world, it’s up 3000% year-over-year,” declared Joshua McKenty, CEO and co-founder of Polyguard, provider of a solution for defending against deepfakes and AI fraud, in New York City. Job seekers in volatile labor markets will attract scammers, he continued. “When we’ve seen big waves of layoffs in tech, especially, then scamming for workers becomes really attractive because there are lots of job seekers to target,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The same is true when hiring starts to pick up again,” he said. “A lot of hiring means a lot of targets.” He explained that AI is also contributing to job scam growth. “All of the scam economy is powered by AI right now — everything from effortless translation to scam texts, emails, and job postings that all look legitimate.” AI helps scammers pass the “smell test,” added Joshua Planos, vice president of marketing at the Better Business Bureau in Lincoln, Neb. “For a scammer, that is the ultimate goal — to give off the impression that what you are providing is real,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It stands to reason that with how much AI and chatbots are being used for everything from marketing materials to internal documents, it would have an impact on employment or job market scams,” he said. Why Job Seekers Are Prime Scam Targets Scam growth is also being driven by vulnerable job seekers, added Erich Kron, a security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla. “An unstable world economy has created a level of concern for many people, especially when it comes to their employment and personal finances,” he told TechNewsWorld. “This uncertainty has people who would otherwise not be interested in other employment considering their options,” he continued. “Bad actors know this, and they leverage that fear and uncertainty to meet their goals.” “A fragile labor market and desperation have created the perfect storm,” added Sam Wright, head of partnerships and operations at Huntr, an online AI-powered resume builder and job search platform. “Many job seekers apply to dozens of listings a week with little feedback, so when something promising appears, they jump,” he told TechNewsWorld. AI can contribute to that fear and uncertainty, too. “Many individuals have concerns about AI replacing their roles, so they are more open to possible career changes than in the past,” Kron said. “This concern about career obsolescence is also a tool exploited by bad actors.” New Workers Targeted by AI-Powered Scams The ease of being able to post on multiple platforms, the ability to use AI to create legitimate-looking job posts, the growth in remote work, and the sensitive data shared in job scams have all fueled their growth, noted Mona Terry, chief operating officer and head of victim services at the Identity Theft Resource Center, in San Diego, a nonprofit organization devoted to minimizing risk and mitigating the impact of identity compromise and crime. Scammers are also taking advantage of job-seeking newbies. “Many individuals are looking for remote work, and for those who have not worked remotely before, or those new to the job market after having been employed for a number of years, the interview process may be new,” Terry told TechNewsWorld. “Asking for interviews on nontraditional platforms is a red flag for those in the know, but not for the average person,” she explained. “Scammers ask for information that is traditionally asked for after hiring as proof of eligibility to work — social security numbers, driver’s license, bank account numbers for direct deposit, etc. — before hiring.” Dean Boerner, a data scientist with Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence company in New York City, noted that one reason fake job postings and phishing emails work is the vast and growing number of job postings on the internet and job seekers’ inability to sufficiently vet all those that might be of interest to them. “Just to give you an idea of the scale here, at any given time, hundreds of millions of open job postings are represented in our data, and these vary in terms of their likelihood of leading to an actual hire,” he told TechNewsWorld. “While not really a scam, the prevalence of ghost job postings contributes to the apparent multitude of opportunities, and these have proliferated as economic uncertainty has grown,” he said. “For instance, we’ve seen the ratio of hires per job postings fall from about 0.75 to below 0.5 in recent years. Part of this is also from a shortage of talent employers deem as truly qualified, and some of it may be from companies wanting to present as growing without actually growing.” How To Spot and Avoid Employment Scams For job seekers who wish to protect themselves from scammers, Diana Rothfuss, global solutions strategy director for risk, fraud and compliance at SAS, an analytics and artificial intelligence software company, in Cary, N.C. recommends that promising positions posted on a job board be cross-referenced on the company’s website to vet their legitimacy. “Only apply for jobs via the company’s website,” she told TechNewsWorld. “Very often, the scammer’s end goal is to collect sensitive personal information that can be used to commit other frauds, including identity theft.” “Don’t click the link in the job posting,” she warned. “Open the company’s website in another browser to ensure you haven’t been directed to a phishing site.” Beware of urgency, cautioned John Wilson, a senior fellow for threat research at Fortra, a cybersecurity services company in Eden Prairie, Minn. “While some jobs may be urgently needing a candidate, no legitimate company will hire anyone who has not been background checked — they can get in legal trouble — and this takes time,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Whenever you feel pressured to act quickly, slow down and check things out,” he said. “Urgency is a known persuasion technique used to influence people.” The best way to avoid these scams is to be cautious with unsolicited job offers, advised Paul Farnsworth, president of Dice, a career website for technology and engineering professionals in Centennial, Colo. “Always research the company thoroughly, be wary of any job that asks you to pay a fee upfront, and steer clear of any offers or setups that seem too good to be true,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Don’t forget the classic phishing red flags: double-check inconsistencies in email address domains, don’t share sensitive personal info, and look out for anything suspicious.” “With AI getting smarter, an uncertain economy, and the fact that these scams are low-risk and potentially high-reward for the people running them, chances are they’ll perpetuate and grow,” he said. John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Leave a Comment Click here to cancel reply. Please sign in to post or reply to a comment. New users create a free account. Related Stories More by John P. Mello Jr. view all More in Cybersecurity

L-tyrosine, also simply known as tyrosine, is an amino acid and a building block our bodies use to produce protein. Though our bodies make tyrosine from another amino acid called phenylalanine, it has become a popular and trendy dietary supplement due to a wide range of purported health benefits.What are L-tyrosine Supplements?Tyrosine supplements are slated with a wide range of cognitive benefits, particularly in stressful situations, as a memory aid, to help with sleep, lift moods, and boost motivation. There are also claims that it can be used to treat conditions such as depression and ADHD. It’s even been dubbed an “over-the-counter Adderall.” Many of these benefits are fueled and spread via social media, such as TikTok, heightening the hype further with celebrity backers and its appearance in the trend “dopamine menus.”But experts say that caution is needed when assessing many of these claims. Research to back them up is lacking, and studies focused on the effects of supplementing L-tyrosine thus far show mixed results, says Julia Zumpano, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition.What L-tyrosine Supplements Are Used ForL-tyrosine is a component of important neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. It also plays an important role in the body’s production of melanin. The amino acid’s role in producing mood regulators means it could be associated with depression, for example. But studies investigating this have mostly included animals, says Zampano. “Researchers think that this could be the case in humans, but that’s not for certain,” she says.That applies to those who take it to alleviate stress as well. Studies suggest that supplementing with L-tyrosine may help improve cognition when under stress. That may be because when stressed, the body can’t make enough tyrosine. One study, published in 2013, found that taking L-tyrosine supplements helped improve participants’ memory when carrying out a mentally taxing challenge.But the use of supplements to tackle stress is not recommended, according to another paper, and more research is needed. Similarly, athletes often take L-tyrosine supplements because it is believed to boost performance and endurance, particularly in hot or cold conditions. Again, however, research has come up with mixed results, leaving its overall effectiveness unclear.Zampano adds that, in general, there isn’t yet concrete data to definitely say whether people need to supplement with tyrosine or not. “I would say, definitely, err on the side of caution,” she says, with more research needed to investigate many of L-tyrosine’s supposed benefits and also better understand the long-term effects of supplementation.Potential Side Effects of Taking L-tyrosine Supplements First and foremost, anyone concerned about any health-related symptoms or considering taking L-tyrosine supplements should consult a medical professional first, she says. That’s a recommendation that extends to other supplements as well.“We know supplements are a huge industry, and not all of them are safe, so it's very important to make sure you're taking good, high-quality supplements that are third-party tested,” she says. “I think it's important to understand what your purpose would be to take it, since we can make it on our own,” she adds.Some people with a serious health condition called phenylketonuria, which means their bodies cannot process phenylalanine, may have to take supplements, though this is not part of routine clinical practice, as its efficacy is unclear. Treatment for this condition usually involves a low phenylalanine diet and avoiding certain foods. But for most people, as our bodies make L-tyrosine, deficiencies are unlikely.A wide range of foods are a source of L-tyrosine, including cheese, sesame seeds, meat and poultry, fish, some soy products, and nuts.Though supplementing with L-tyrosine is generally considered safe, it can have side effects, particularly if someone consumes more than the recommended daily dose.  Those effects can include headaches, insomnia, stomach upset, and vomiting.“You could easily increase the tyrosine in your food sources and try to see if that helps,” Zampano says. “But I wouldn't jump to supplements, especially not without guidance from a medical professional.”This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Psych Central. Does L-Tyrosine Help ADHD Symptoms?Mount Sinai. TyrosineFrontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. Working Memory Reloaded: Tyrosine Repletes Updating in the N-Back TaskNIH. PhenylketonuriaCochrane Database of Systematic reviews. Tyrosine supplementation for phenylketonuriaSean Mowbray is a freelance writer based in Scotland. He covers the environment, archaeology, and general science topics. His work has also appeared in outlets such as Mongabay, New Scientist, Hakai Magazine, Ancient History Magazine, and others.

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Everything on Earth, in our solar system, our galaxy, and beyond is contained within the universe. So how much does  science tell us about the all-encompassing, four-dimensional cradle that holds all of space time? A lot. Philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers across cultures and centuries have long debated and theorized about the night sky. But in the early 1920’s, building on the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt and others, astronomer Edwin Hubble produced the first clear evidence that the swirling clusters visible through telescopes were actually distant galaxies, comparable to our own Milky Way. By capturing  detailed, long-exposure images of space features like pulsing, Cepheid variable stars, Hubble confirmed the true nature of the Andromeda Nebula and others. These weren’t just nearby gas clouds, but far away islands of worlds and stars.  In the century since, our ability to see clearer and farther out into space has dramatically improved. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most advanced ever launched, and it routinely provides remarkable imagery from across the universe. Using data from space telescopes and other instruments, astronomers, cosmologists, and astrophysicists are able to deduce and predict many things about the universe’s shape, rate of change, and character. Here’s what we know, and what we don’t. How big is the universe? Let’s get the disappointment out of the way early: “There is physically, absolutely zero way that we will ever know,” how large the universe is, Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, tells Popular Science. However, we do know that the universe is larger than 93 billion light-years across. This is the diameter of the sphere of the “observable universe” that we find ourselves at the center of. Our ability to look out and measure the stars is limited by the age of the universe and the speed of light. The only light we can see is light that’s been able to travel to us in the time since the big bang, which happened about 13.8 billion years ago. Therefore, light that’s traveled 13.8 billion light-years is the oldest we can see. However, the observable universe extends farther than 13.8 billion light-years in every direction because, for all the time space has existed, it’s also been expanding. That expansion means that light from 13.8 billion years ago has actually traversed 46.5 billion light-years to reach our eyes and telescopes.  This composite image features one of the most complicated and dramatic collisions between galaxy clusters ever seen. Known officially as Abell 2744, this system has been dubbed Pandora’s Cluster because of the wide variety of different structures found. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (red) show gas with temperatures of millions of degrees. In blue is a map showing the total mass concentration (mostly dark matter) based on data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the VLT (Very Large Telescope), and the Subaru telescope. Optical data from Hubble and VLT also show the constituent galaxies of the clusters. Astronomers think at least four galaxy clusters coming from a variety of directions are involved with this collision. CREDIT: NASA, ESA, J. Merten (Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Heidelberg/Astronomical Observatory of Bologna), and D. Coe (STScI) “It means, in theory, that space is actually expanding faster than the speed of light, when we add it all up– which really conceptually hurts your brain,” says Webb. “The nothingness of space and time doesn’t really abide by the laws for matter and physical things.”  And though we don’t have firm evidence of the universe’s total size, Webb thinks it’s quite possibly infinite. “There’s no reason that it should be bounded. There’s no reason why there should be an edge here or there,” she says. The existence of edges remains a question mark, but astrophysicists generally agree on the universe’s shape: it’s flat, though perhaps not in the way you’d imagine. Flat doesn’t mean our universe is two-dimensional (space-time exists in 4D, after all). However, it does mean that traveling forward without changing direction in the universe will never get you back to where you started. Instead of a doughnut, a sphere, or a Pringle, the universe is most probably a four-dimensional sheet of paper, says Webb.  How can we know the universe is expanding?  Using theories and measurements about light coming from distant stars, multiple astronomers in the early 1900’s suggested that the universe was expanding. In 1924, Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark,found the first observational evidence for universe expansion. Hubble’s work confirmed these findings in 1929. These early observations relied on a phenomenon called red shift, which is the visual version of the doppler effect. Think about how sound waves from a passing ambulance siren change pitch with the vehicles’ position and speed: sounding higher on approach and lower once the ambulance is speeding away. Similarly, our perception of light waves is also impacted by the lights’ movement and velocity. A light moving towards you will appear more blue , and one moving away will appear redder as the peaks and troughs of the wave are compressed and stretched respectively. Hubble and others noted that the galaxies they were discovering all appeared red from Earth, with more distant galaxies exhibiting the greatest red shift. This suggests that all galaxies are moving away from us. The more distant galaxies appear to be speeding off into space faster because there is more nothingness between us and them to expand.  The history of the universe is outlined in this infographic. CREDIT: NASA In addition to red-shift observations, astronomers past and present also rely on “standard candles” to assess the size and speed of the universe. Standard candles are nifty cosmological markers of known brightness that can be used to observe how light is traveling and changing through space and time, says Abigail Lee, an astronomer and PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. The first type of standard candles discovered were Hubble’s Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that emit bright light in a regular, periodic pattern, which can be used to deduce their distance from Earth.  Lee explains it with an illuminating analogy. Imagine a 40 watt incandescent lightbulb. All lightbulbs of shared wattage are the same intrinsic brightness. However, if you look at the lightbulb from 100 feet away, it will appear dimmer than it does at a distance of 10 feet. That relative dimness can be used to calculate how far away the bulb is. It’s the same with Cepheids in space. Other standard candles used for the same purpose include certain types of supernovae (i.e. exploding stars), “tip of the red-giant branch” stars, and carbon stars. “We know that these stars have the exact same intrinsic luminosity, and so we can use that property to measure distance,” Lee tells Popular Science.  We can approximate the distance between Earth and other galaxies by looking for nebulae that contain these standard candles. In 2011, three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for  demonstrating that not only is the universe expanding, but dark energy is accelerating that expansion.  Dark energy is a mysterious and repulsive force pushing space matter and objects apart. The expansive forces of dark energy are generally thought to be uniform across the entire universe, pushing against all objects equally. However, expansion itself is not uniformly observable. Within our planet, solar system, and galaxy, the attractive force of gravity keeps things relatively bound and less subject to dark energy. And the expansion rate itself is not fast enough to be readily observed on the small-scale. To detect it, you have to observe very distant objects.  How fast is the universe expanding? Based on his early observations, Hubble first proposed that the universe was expanding at a rate of about 500 kilometers per second per megaparsec (Mpc), where a megaparsec is equal to 3.26 million light-years. The speed of universe expansion came to be known as the Hubble Constant (H0), despite the fact that the titular astronomer’s initial estimate turned out to be pretty far off. We now have a clearer sense of the expansion rate. Scientists generally agree H0 is between 65-75 km/sec/Mpc. If that sounds complicated, it’s because it is. The rate of universal expansion is dependent on both time and distance. It’s larger across bigger areas of space and longer durations. And the question of the exact speed remains unresolved. Depending on who you ask and how one measures, calculations for the true H0 vary. Broadly, two different approaches to quantifying the H0 routinely yield different results. This discrepancy is known as the “Hubble Tension”.  By one set of measurements, which rely on relatively close-by standard candle calculations, H0 is 73 +/- 1 kilometers per second per megaparsec. By a different type of analysis, which relies on measurements of cosmic background radiation, H0 is 67 +/- 1. “Both measurements have such precise uncertainties that there’s no room for error,” says Lee. For a time, astronomers thought that more accurate instruments might resolve the tension, bringing these measured values closer together, but that hasn’t been the case. “People are getting better technology, but this tension isn’t really improving.” she adds. The most up-to-date calculations, based on JWST data, still haven’t brought H0 estimates any closer together.[ Related: The hunt for the first stars in the universe. ] “Dark energy is in crisis at the moment, because nothing really agrees, even though all of the science that has been done is incredibly rigorous,” says Webb.  It’s possible the discrepancy is still due to measurement errors. However, it’s also possible that something larger is going on. Perhaps, Webb suggests, the dark energy forces thought to cause universal expansion aren’t entirely uniform. Maybe we need a new theory of physics to unify these observations. Scientists are working on the problem from all sides, considering ways to improve measurements as well as formulating potential big-picture explanations. “The complementary approaches are good,” says Lee. “Maybe we can stop looking for errors if people find a physics theory that ties everything together, and maybe they can stop if we find a big measurement error,” she says. Yet all of this research relies on continued funding and federal investment. The massive proposed cuts to NASA’s budget would cancel several major missions, including the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. This next space telescope was specifically built to probe the mysteries of dark energy and universe expansion. After years of development, it is nearly ready for launch–ahead of schedule and under budget. Now, there’s a chance it will never reach space, leaving a black hole where new discoveries could have been illuminated.  This story is part of Popular Science’sAsk Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you’ve always wanted to know?Ask us.

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News Animals How science can help you train your puppy Young dogs’ cognitive abilities may predict behavioral traits in adulthood Scientists have linked certain cognitive abilities in puppies with desirable adult dog behaviors. Awareness of those links could help pet owners determine the best training for their puppies. Daniel Garrido/Moment/Getty Images Plus By Joshua Rapp Learn 14 seconds ago A puppy’s thinking ability may indicate how responsive the dog will be to training and whether it’ll grow up to be well-behaved. Traits such as impulsivity, ability to follow gestures and reaction to unsolvable tasks in 3- to 7-month-old puppies were linked with desirable behaviors in those dogs in adulthood, researchers report in the May Applied Animal Behaviour Science. The findings from these cognitive tests could help pet owners determine the best way to train their dogs and what kinds of activities the animals may enjoy as they age, the team says. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.