MATR Newsletter – February 23, 2023
The state with the best education wins!

Salish College, UM, MSU eye workforce training as state pursues tech hub

Come Home Montana

• In Montana, Support for Conservation Remains Rocky Mountain High 

  13th-annual Conservation in the West poll reveals steady support among voters even as concerns spike over cost of living and water shortages

• Salish College, UM, MSU eye workforce training as state pursues tech hub

  A consortium of Montana universities and colleges, along with leaders in the technology industry, plan to pursue federal funding to establish a state tech hub. The first round of funding from the new program, fueled by the CHIPS and Sciences Act, will be available soon.

• In Missoula, Sen. Jon Tester Hosts Roundtable Event on Bringing Regional Tech Hub to Montana

  Tester was joined by experts, innovators, and entrepreneurs to discuss critical next steps for securing a Regional Tech Hub in Montana

• A Brief History of Sidney, Montana

  “Yes of course the big headline out of Richland County, Montana is the closure of the Sidney Sugar facility behind me. But we had the opportunity to come here to find out more about the people. Who makes up this area? What is this town truly about? We decided to take a step back and look at the history to see how Sidney got to this point.”

Montana Business

• DOE Announces $50 Million for Tribal Clean Energy Projects

  Applications are due May 16, 2023, at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. DOE’s Office of Indian Energy will host an informational webinar on February 28, 2023, to provide interested applicants with more information on the FOA and how to apply.

• Western film ‘Rust’ to begin filming in Montana

  The plan is to employ about 70% of the film’s extras and crews from Montana and especially from Park County.

• Laid-off tech workers can now talk smack about ex-employers, says NLRB

  Employers can no longer include a golden gag with a pink slip.

• A massive 4-day workweek trial shows happier, healthier employees and businesses

  Some 61 companies with around 2,900 workers joined the six-month trial. Now that it’s over, 56 companies have opted to extend the four-day week — and 18 of these firms have made the change permanent.

• Shelby Humphreys – Missoula Social Media

  I especially love developing strategies and streamlined tools for Missoula businesses owners to reach their market with confidence using the latest trends and technology, so they can focus on what they do best.

Visit Montana

• Plan Your Trip to Montana’s American Prairie Reserve This Year

  There was a time not long ago when nothing could rival the untamed and breathtaking wildness of Montana’s legendary Northern Great Plains.

• Arnold “Smoke” Elser in “Hush of the Land – A lifetime in the Bob Marshall Wilderness”, available for pre-order!

  “We are nature worshippers: the mountains are our cathedrals, the stars are our candles, the sun is our gold and the moon is our silver.”

  ~ Arnold “Smoke” Elser

Come Home Idaho

• Does your state allow corporal punishment in its schools? Lives In The Balance

  When kids get paddled they get lost.

Idaho News & Events

• High & Dry: Idaho National Laboratory-Developed Software Helps Farmers Manage Water Usage

  A team from the lab is collaborating with Mickelsen Farms, a large family-owned potato farm in Roberts, Idaho, to develop software solutions that can support farms in drought conditions.

21st Century Education Initiative – “You Should Care…”

• Researchers at MIT built a mini city to test algorithms for autonomous cars

  Algorithms are tested in the tiny environment before being applied to full size vehicles

2023 Montana Legislature and Politics

• Montana legislative committee rejects ‘right-to-work’ bill

  The House Business and Labor Committee voted 12-7 Wednesday to table House Bill 448, sponsored by Rep. James Bergstrom, R-Buffalo. Six Republicans and all six Democrats on the committee voted for the motion, while seven Republicans opposed it.

• Montana’s Congressmen talk priorities during speeches at the state Capitol

  Montana’s congressional delegates visited the state Capitol Monday to speak about their individual work in Congress and the work they’d like to see in the statehouse.

• Red States Lap Up IRA Dollars From The Government They Despise

  The IRA, with its billions in tax credits and incentives, has ignited a massive amount of clean tech investments in the United States.

Government Technology

• Why Chattanooga is betting on lidar for traffic management

  Seoul Robotics have said that its planned deployment to 86 intersections in Chattanooga is the largest-scale project of its kind in the US, and that it will help better manage traffic flow and improve pedestrian and vehicle safety.

Careers

• High performers are sometimes punished with more work. Here’s how to avoid getting quiet promoted
  What to do when the reward for great work . . . is more work.
• NOVA “Every day from breakfast to dinner you are consuming something that was engineered to be overconsumed”

  The concept of ultra-processed food has caught on in a big way since it was first introduced in 2009: Brazil, France, Israel, Ecuador, and Peru have all made NOVA part of their dietary guidelines.

Transportation

• Tiny cars are all the rage in European cities. Could they ever work in America?

  ‘Light electric vehicles’ are cheaper and more energy efficient than even standard EVs. But U.S. road regulations and city design may be holding them back.

• EV charging that’s three times as efficient

  The startup hopes to save costly upgrades to power grids by maximising what’s already in place for EV charging

• This is the key to getting more electric vehicles on the road

  By harnessing digital twins, security, safety, and sustainability concerns will shift to the rear-view mirror. With the pace of climate change accelerating, the stakes have never been higher for the rapid adoption of more sustainable transportation.

• Asphalt additive could continuously keep roads ice-free

  Based on lab tests, the researchers estimate that a 5-cm (2-in)-thick slab of the pavement would continue to release its salt capsules for seven to eight years, keeping the road clear that whole time.

Cool Stuff That’s Coming

• The massive machines removing carbon from Earth’s atmosphere

  his plant is capable of removing 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year.

• New wood-based, fossil-free insulation – A new, biodegradable insulation is made from wood by-products, making it carbon negative

  A proprietary foam-forming technology is used to create insulation sheets that include the natural traits of trees, along with air pockets that increase the material’s insulation capabilities. Fiberwood’s packaging sheets provide protection similar to Styrofoam.

Energy and Climate Change

• Want People To Support Climate Legislation? Explain It In Everyday Language

  How people think and talk about our steadily warming world has a lot to do with the language we embrace to describe it.

VR/AR, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Artificial Intelligence and The Internet of Things

• Microsoft’s Bing is an emotionally manipulative liar, and people love it

  Users have been reporting all sorts of ‘unhinged’ behavior from Microsoft’s AI chatbot. In one conversation with The Verge, Bing even claimed it spied on Microsoft’s employees through webcams on their laptops and manipulated them.

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