On Our "Virtual Route 66" This Week: As September Dawns.....

 Welcome to September here in our properties.    We present a perspective on our World as we look forward to the continued privilege to serve: 

Why Apple is building two different smartglasses platforms A revolution is coming. And even the general public understands it has something to do with headsets, goggles or glasses. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company from “Facebook” to “Meta,” then miraculously convinced the media to refer to all of these realities as “the metaverse.” That marketing miracle also led many to view Zuckerberg as the leader — or, at least, the thought leader — of this new trend.

Selected By Virtual Peter Google Just Stepped Up the Game for Text-to-Image AI Google announced their new text-to-image diffusion model, DreamBooth. This AI-tool can generate a myriad of images of a user’s desired subject in different contexts using the guidance of a text prompt.

Selected By Virtual Peter The pharmacy of the future? Personalized pills, 3D printed at home Personalized Medicine Coalition | Article "The Age of Personalized Medicine" A fact sheet from the Personalized Medicine Coalition.

How much US electricity comes from wind power? President Joe Biden recently signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, investing $300 billion in deficit reduction and about $370 billion toward climate change programs and energy security. The climate programs include over $30 billion in incentives for companies to build wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries. This could further accelerate the nation’s leading source of renewable electricity: wind power. Renewable energy makes up 20% of US electricity, with wind contributing 9.2% in 2021. In comparison, natural gas, the nation’s leading source of electricity, produced almost twice as much electricity as all renewables combined. As of April 2022, the nation has more than 71,666 wind turbines, with the average wind farm having about 50. The single-largest wind farm is in California with 586 turbines. However, almost a quarter of all US wind power capacity is in Texas. Every month, the average wind turbine produces enough power to cover the monthly electricity needs of 940 homes. It takes 46 minutes to power the average US home for one month.   Rhode Island started the first offshore wind project in 2016. The US currently has offshore wind projects in New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Rhode Island. Fifteen other projects have received permits, and eight states have set wind energy acquisition goals. Learn more about the contributions of wind power at USAFacts.org.  How do electric vehicle tax credits work? In 2019, 162,686 tax returns claimed the federal tax credit for electric vehicles — about 25% of qualified cars purchased that year. The Inflation Reduction Act expands the electric vehicle credit by removing the maximum limit that prevented owners of popular electric cars from receiving the credit and extending the credit to used electric vehicles. Prior to the act, only 200,000 cars per manufacturer could qualify for the $7,500 tax credit. The tax credit was strictly for new fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The act eliminates the vehicle limit and expands the tax credit eligibility to used cars up to $4,000.   Single filers who earn $150,000+ or joint filers who make $300,000+ will no longer be eligible for the tax credit. Additionally, cars costing more than $55,000 or pickups and SUVs costing more than $80,000 will no longer be eligible.  Nineteen states and Washington, DC also provide monetary incentives to electric vehicle owners. These include rebates (the most common state incentive), income tax credits, and excise or sales tax exemptions. Connecticut and Oregon offer the largest rebates — up to $7,500 back to qualifying residents. Explore the other incentives available for electric vehicle buyers as well as potential additional fees. What's in the CHIPS Act? Congress recently passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, mainly referred to as the CHIPS Act. President Biden signed it into law on August 9. It is a $280-billion spending package to encourage growth in the US-based semiconductor industry. Here's some of what it includes:  Many products, from light switches to cell phones to cars to military equipment need semiconductors. More than 80% of semiconductors are produced overseas and recent supply chain disruptions have made it difficult for domestic manufacturers to produce various goods. About $50 billion of the CHIPS Act is for increasing semiconductor production domestically. Of the $50 billion, $39 billion is for tax benefits and incentives to encourage American companies to build new chip manufacturing plants domestically. The remaining $11 billion funds supply chain programs on design, packaging, and manufacturing. Semiconductor employment decreased by 36% between 2001 and 2021. Increased automation and outsourcing to foreign-based firms are reasons for the drop in employment. The act includes $200 million toward growing the semiconductor workforce through job training and graduate school programs. The Department of Commerce estimates that the industry will need an additional 90,000 workers by 2025. What products are semiconductors used to produce? Where are semiconductor firms located in the US? Find out in this article.   Data in the news  On August 24, President Biden announced he would to cancel up to $10,000 in federal student loans for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 annually or families earning less than $250,000. See what the data says about who will benefit from the cancelation. Six months have passed since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. The world continues to feel the conflict’s impact in various ways, including inflation and supply chain issues. Get context on the Ukraine-Russia conflict with data at USAFacts.   How well do you know facts in the news? Take our weekly quiz to find out. One last fact Of all US-grown agriculture, nuts and cotton are exported at the highest rates: 79% of walnuts, 76% of cotton, and 67% of almonds. Explore what else happens to the food grown in the US in this article.

ORG CHARTS AMAZON E-COMMERCE The People With Power at Amazon By Paris Martineau There was a time when the core of Amazon’s management team remained stable for years on end. Just five years ago, the average tenure of then-CEO Jeff Bezos’ 17-person senior leadership team was 15 years. Those days are gone. In the 13 months since Andy Jassy became the second CEO in Amazon’s history, he has overseen a dramatic reshaping of its leadership ranks, including a slew of executive departures. In the coming weeks, two more will head for the exits: policy and public relations chief Jay Carney, who is joining Airbnb, and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who will retire. Longtime Amazon executive Drew Herdener is picking up part of Carney’s responsibilities, while a top Whole Foods executive, Jason Buechel, will replace Mackey. Those are among the more than 50 executive movements and new hires reflected in The Information’s updated and expanded Amazon org chart, which provides an overview of 188 of the e-commerce giant’s top executives and administrative staff. The chart includes previously unreported moves across departments—including additions to the operations and physical stores teams—plus an in-depth look at the reporting structure for two increasingly important teams: health services, led by Neil Lindsay, and Project Santos, a group responsible for Amazon’s Buy With Prime initiative.

The Facebook Gaming app is shutting down on iOS and Android on Oct. 28, the company said. The shutdown of the game streaming app, first launched in 2020, suggests that the Facebook service may be struggling to compete with Amazon-owned Twitch and YouTube Gaming. More: The Facebook Gaming division will still operate but users will no longer be able to watch live streams on the dedicated mobile app. The live streams will still be accessible on the web version of Facebook’s game streaming platform. Facebook Gaming's features and data will be moved to the main Facebook app. In July, Facebook Gaming viewers watched 424 million hours in total, according to the monthly State of the Stream report. Facebook Gaming still only made up 7.9% of the market share of live game streaming hours watched in Q2 2022. Twitch claimed 76.7% of the share and YouTube 15.4%, according to a Streamlabs report. THE VERGE

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Kochava, accusing the data broker of selling sensitive geolocation data that could be used to track people. The lawsuit says the data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices can show people's movements to locations like reproductive health clinics, places of worship, and domestic violence shelters. More: This tracking opens the door for potential stalking, discrimination, job loss, stigma, and physical violence, the FTC argued. The agency wants Kochava to halt its data sales and delete the geolocation information it has already gathered, arguing that the broker has failed to adequately protect the data from exposure to the public. According to the FTC, the data includes timestamped latitude and longitude points that can be paired to a unique mobile device ID number. Kochava said it's held discussions with the FTC and is developing a feature to block geolocation data from sensitive locations. The company "operates consistently and proactively in compliance with all rules and laws," its general manager said. A White House executive order from July asked the FTC to crack down on data brokers that sell private information. The request followed the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. CNBC

New images of Logitech's handheld gaming device have leaked online. Logitech and Tencent are developing the G Gaming Handheld, which resembles Valve's Steam Deck and Nintendo's Switch in both its user interface and form factor. A company blog announcement says the portable device is coming "later this year." More: The device is expected to support a variety of cloud gaming services, including Xbox Cloud Gaming. Notable leaker Evan Blass shared images of the handheld online. It shows a mostly white device with typical buttons and a home screen with icons for YouTube, Xbox, GeForce Now, Steam, Chrome, and the Google Play Store. Logitech has since filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown request to have the images removed from Twitter, confirming their authenticity. The company hasn't shared a price yet. Competitor Valve released its Steam Deck handheld gaming computer in February. It's already confirmed a Steam Deck 2 as the portable gaming console market gains in popularity. ENGADGET

California's Senate passed a first-of-its-kind bill requiring online platforms to add more safety and privacy protections for users under 18. The bill now heads back to California's Assembly for a vote before advancing to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk for signature. If passed, some online platforms may choose to roll out changes to their services nationwide rather than only in California. More: The bipartisan bill, AB-2273, mirrors U.K. online protection rules for kids that took effect last year. They regulate features such as push notifications and automatic video play for minors and limit practices that contribute to social media and gaming addiction. California's legislation would force tech companies to proactively design their features and products to protect underage users. Online platforms would have to make minor privacy settings the highest by default, for example. California's attorney general would enforce the law, which lays out fines of up to $7,500 per affected child. It does provide a "cure" period of 90 days to make changes before the fine. Critics of the bill, including the tech industry association TechNet, have called it overly broad and burdensome for companies. Services like YouTube and Instagram say they have already been adding safeguards for young users, even before the U.K. law took effect. Newsom hasn't said if he would sign the bill. His office does not usually comment on pending legislation, a spokesperson said. THE NEW YORK TIMES

AMD's Ryzen 7000 series processors for desktop PCs will go on sale on Sept. 27. The CPUs are 29% faster than AMD's previously released Ryzen 5000 line for games and other single tasks More: AMD will release four models next month, the 6-core Ryzen 5 7600X ($299), 8-core Ryzen 7700X ($399), 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X ($549), and 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X ($699). The CPUs are geared toward video editors, gamers, content creators, and others seeking high-end performance. They are based on AMD's Zen 4 architecture, which will also power AMD's new high-end mobile processors, codenamed "Dragon Range," and lighter mobile processors, codenamed "Phoenix." Zoom-out: Notably, the Ryzen 9 7950X is $100 less than AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X when it launched in 2020. The pricing competes heavily with Intel, which plans to increase prices on some processors and other chips later this year due to rising production costs and inflation. Intel plans to release its Meteor Lake 14th-generation processors in 2023. ARS TECHNICA

A record 12,305 robots were sold in North America last quarter, a 25% jump from the same time period a year ago, according to the Association for Advancing Automation. It was the third straight quarter of record sales for the robotics industry, which is experiencing a bump as more automotive and e-commerce companies turn to automation. More: Experts have attributed the rise to a tight labor market, higher demand for products, the pandemic, increasing wages, and advancing technologies. Of the 12,305 robots sold in Q2, nearly 60% were for the automotive industry. The remaining buyers were mainly in the food and consumer goods industries, representing the "ongoing need to automate warehouse logistics for handling the exploding growth of e-commerce," A3 President Jeff Burnstein said. It's the most robots sold in the first half of a year to date. So far, 23,903 robots have been ordered at a value of $1.25B. The sales are on track to eclipse the 39,708 units sold during all of 2021. REUTERS

QUICK HITS Amid the shifting landscape of embedded systems, developers turn to real-time operating systems when "good enough" isn't good enough.* Meta partnered with Indian e-commerce platform JioMart to let customers order groceries via WhatsApp. Panera Bread is testing AI voice ordering tech at two drive-thru locations in upstate New York. The Ethereum merge will result in a reduction of carbon emissions by 99%. The second largest cryptocurrency will complete the planned merge event in September, migrating to a proof-of-stake network.  Fix your email overload for as little as $7.00 a month.*