Dr. Gladys West,
the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology,
has died. She passed away Saturday, surrounded by her loving family. She was 95.

Born into poverty on a Virginia farm during the Jim Crow era, West grew up in a segregated South where opportunity was scarce.

Through determination and extraordinary academic talent,
she graduated first in her high school class and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College (now Virginia State University).

She received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1952 and went on to earn a master’s degree in 1955.

In 1956, West began working as a mathematician at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia.

She was only the second African American woman hired at the base and one of just four African American employees at the time.

What followed was a career that would quietly change the world.

Over many years, Jane Plitt, founder and board chair of the Alexandria-based "National Center for Women’s Innovations" (NCWI), made it her mission to put Gladys West on the map
—quite literally.

West’s story became the centerpiece of NCWI’s inaugural work,
culminating in a lavish gala celebrating her 93rd birthday on October 27, 2023.

Emceed by Deborah Roberts, the evening showcased West’s extraordinary contributions,
with West herself declaring,
“This is the best day of my life.”

thezebra.org/2026/01/18/dr-gla…

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Dr. Gladys West, the pioneering mathematician whose work laid the foundation for modern GPS technology, has died. She passed away Saturday, surrounded by her loving family. She was 95

^{Mary Wadland (The Zebra--Good News in Alexandria)}

My guide for #discord with #nvda isn't finished yet, but I've laid out the new structure for where I want it to go. It's got more headings and lists to make jumping around with a screen reader easier. Sections that need more work are tagged in the unrendered markdown.

The guide focuses on the structure of the Discord desktop and web interface from the perspective of someone who knows screen reader basics and can move around a website but struggles with very complex web interfaces.

There's some useful info in there already. It'll take me a while to write up all the features, but if you know how something works and want to help fill it in or make a correction, feel free to make a PR on the rework branch!

github.com/PepperTheVixen/Disc…

GitHub - PepperTheVixen/Discord-With-NVDA at rework

This is a guide for using Discord on Windows with NVDA - GitHub - PepperTheVixen/Discord-With-NVDA at rework

^GitHub

*Update. RIM may work with screen readers other than JAWS.*
(Note: You will need to skip down several headings to find the beginning of the article)
I can't comment on this from a business perspective. But I do know that I have never been able to connect remotely to any of my computers, either from Windows to Windows or from Android or IOS to Windows, with any commercially made program for the purpose. The only one that works for me is NVDA Remote, which works on all three platforms, with Windows and the NVDA screen reader being a requirement. The limitation, however, is that I can't hear the sound on the controlled computer, nor can I transfer files between it and the controller. Fortunately, I don't really need these features and am happy just being able to control my machines at all. But for those who do need them, RIM allows this, but only for users of JAWS (which costs several hundred dollars/NVDA is free), and the last time I checked, it is also very expensive for an individual user who doesn't require it for work purposes. I'm also not sure if it is cross-platform, so it may only work with Windows. If anyone knows of a free, accessible solution that works with NVDA, please let me know.

Remote Incident Manager (RIM)

at-newswire.com/remote-inciden…
#accessibility #Android #blind #computers #IOS #JAWS #NVDA #RemoteAccess #Talkback #technology #Voiceover #W
indows

Remote Incident Manager (RIM) From Pneuma Solutions - AT-Newswire

Here, Aaron Di Blasi describes a familiar failure mode in enterprise remote support: organizations deploy “best-in-class” remote tools that work fine for most staff, but quietly shut out blind and low-vision technicians and users because the experien…

^{Aaron Di Blasi (AT-Newswire)}

this seems to have ben a oneoff, a fluke if you will, but have a look at the #NVDA error I got when trying to do insert q then telling it to restart NVDA.

Error dialog Couldn't terminate existing NVDA process, abandoning start: Exception: [WinError 5] Access is denied.

I could not post about #MLK Day today.

We so completely failed to manifest his legacy & to honor his terrible sacrifice.

Given the state of the nation, posting a quote with his picture or some trite nonsense was just too utterly blasphemous.

#MartinLutherKing

"bash: yotune: command not found"

In case anyone was wondering, when you type "yotune" on a terminal, unless you map an alias, you will not get uptime.

Yotune is also not a really bad iTunes rip-off.

This PSA brought to you by me, sucking at typing.

I mean, at least when I type something wrong, it's really, really wrong..., like "gesrib" instead of "bridges" a couple of weeks ago.

The United States is a global superpower,
and its military trains for war in every domain.

During my years as a military educator, I saw American officers wrestle with any number of scenarios designed to challenge their thinking and force them to adapt to surprises.

One case we never considered, however, was how to betray and attack our own allies.

We did not ask what to do if the president becomes a threatening megalomaniac who tells one of our oldest friends, Norway,
that because the Nobel Committee in Oslo refuses to give him a trophy,
he no longer feels
“an obligation to think purely of Peace”
and can instead turn his mind toward planning to wage war against NATO.

As my colleague Anne Applebaum wrote today, Donald Trump’s threatening message to the Norwegian prime minister should, in any responsible democracy,
force the rest of the U.S. political system to act to control him.

The president is talking about an invasion that would require
“citizens of a treaty ally,” as she put it,
“to become American against their will,”
all because he
“now genuinely lives in a different reality.”

And yet neither Congress nor the sycophants in the White House seem willing to stop him.
theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/…

The U.S. Military Faces a Reckoning on Greenland

Attacking an ally would be a perversion of everything the armed forces have been trained to do.

^{Tom Nichols (The Atlantic)}

RE: mastodon.social/@Viss/11592310…

"We should stop using open source software written using 'AI'", I say

"That's impossible," people tell me. "There's no way you'll be able to tell the code was written using AI"

one of those perfect-storm winter driving days, when it's cold enough but the snow is coming down hard enough that your wipers just smear ice across the windshield.

very glad to be home. maybe not going out again until spring.

"Stormtroopers Who Killed Tatooine Farmers Feared for Their Lives"

hard-drive.net/stormtroopers-w…

Stormtroopers Who Killed Tatooine Farmers Feared for Their Lives

TATOOINE — Amidst galactic unrest, a group of stormtroopers who burned farmers Owen and Beru Lars alive on the desert planet Tatooine... Read the full masterpiece

^{Matt Fresh (Hard Drive)}

A weather report done in Trump speak. he even uses metric for a bit: Look, we have the best weather in Palm Beach, believe me. Everyone says it. It’s a beautiful night, absolutely spectacular. We have a temperature of 15°C, which is perfect, frankly, it’s much better than what they have in those other places—those cold, shivering places.

The sky is clear with periodic clouds, very high-end clouds, the best you’ve ever seen. We have a wind coming from the north at 11 mph—it’s a gentle wind, a very smart wind. The humidity is at 72%, very nice. 500 times better than other places. and the chance of rain? 0%. No rain, zero, that's 300% better. because we like to win, and we’re winning with this weather.

For the rest of Monday, January 19, 2026, it’s a total success:

High Temperature: A very strong 19°C.

Low Temperature: 8°C, very cool, very crisp.

Condition: Partly sunny, then clear. It’s going to be a beautiful situation.

Finally we have reached racial equality

rawstory.com/don-lemon-2674908…

Trump's DOJ plans to hit ex-CNN host Don Lemon with Ku Klux Klan Act charges

A top Justice Department official floated the idea Monday of charging ex-CNN host and journalist Don Lemon – who had reported on an anti-ICE demonstration at a Minnesota church Sunday – under an 1871 law designed to combat the Ku Klux Klan.

^{Alexander Willis (Raw Story)}

I try not to read any comments about the GC cuts (except for here), because people haaaaate public servants with a passion.

But I just saw someone say that they use ZERO service from the government and looool