Latest news with #SarahJohnson
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ClarityCut AI Launches to Revolutionize Video Editing with AI-Powered Simplicity
SEATTLE, June 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CLEANZONE HVAC LLC proudly announces the official launch of ClarityCut AI, a cutting-edge video editing platform designed to empower creators through the speed and precision of artificial intelligence. The platform aims to make professional video editing accessible to all — from solo entrepreneurs and educators to enterprise-level marketing teams. In an era where video is the dominant medium of communication and engagement, ClarityCut AI stands out by offering automated editing workflows, smart branding capabilities, and intelligent media enhancement — all without requiring prior technical expertise. The launch of ClarityCut AI marks a pivotal moment for digital storytelling and branded content production. Edit Less. Create AI leverages advanced machine learning models to automatically detect and remove silences, filler words, repetition, and mistakes — producing seamless edits that save hours of manual labor. With support for subtitle generation in more than 50 languages, creators can expand their reach globally without needing separate translation tools. The platform also intelligently recommends B-roll footage based on the spoken context of the video, helping enrich storytelling with relevant visual support. Sound processing includes dynamic range balancing, noise reduction, and background music integration. Branding Without BoundariesClarityCut AI includes a suite of powerful customization tools, allowing users to build and apply visual identity templates across all content. With custom logos, brand colors, text overlays, and font styling, every video aligns with the creator's or company's unique brand guidelines. This feature is particularly useful for agencies, educators, and organizations managing multiple campaigns or client portfolios. Streamlined Workflow for Rapid ProductionUsers can begin by uploading their raw footage and selecting from pre-configured editing profiles or customizing their own. The AI takes care of the rest — from trimming and structuring the video to optimizing output for different social platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Thanks to real-time rendering and fast cloud processing, even large video files are returned within minutes — empowering creators to publish frequently and at scale. What Creators Are Saying'ClarityCut helped me reduce my video editing time to just 15 minutes per video. It's the first tool that actually feels like a teammate rather than just software.' — Sarah Johnson, YouTube Shorts creator 'We've tried numerous tools, but none of them come close to the flexibility and consistency ClarityCut provides. It's become an essential part of our client content strategy.' — Mark Williams, Founder of Visionary Media Flexible Plans Built for GrowthFree Plan- 5 videos/month- Basic AI editing- SD exports with watermark Pro Plan – $29/month- Unlimited videos- Full HD & 4K export- Custom branding- No watermark- Priority support Studio Plan – $99/month- Everything in Pro- Team collaboration- API access- Custom templates- Dedicated support About ClarityCut AIClarityCut AI is developed by CLEANZONE HVAC LLC, headquartered in Washington, USA. The company is committed to building intelligent tools that empower the next generation of digital creators, educators, and businesses. With a focus on speed, simplicity, and storytelling, ClarityCut AI transforms raw footage into publish-ready content with just a few clicks. Contact InformationWebsite: Email: carina@ photo accompanying this announcement is available at in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ballots to be mailed Friday for Karman Line vote
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Ballots will be mailed on Friday, May 23 for a special election in Colorado Springs, which could decide how the city grows in the decades ahead. The only question on this ballot is whether the 1,800 acre annexation of the proposed Karman Line Development will move forward. The land is west of Schriever Space Force Base, and developers plan to build about 6,500 new homes there. However, some in the community have raised concerns about water, emergency services, animals, and uncontrolled growth. A 'yes' vote means the annexation would get the green light, while a 'no' vote would overturn the annexation. 'We're going to be delivering a little over 330,000 ballot packets to our local post office here in town, so you should start seeing those ballots perhaps in your mailbox Saturday, or Tuesday, don't forget Monday is a holiday, no postal service that day,' said Sarah Johnson, City Clerk for Colorado Springs. City Council approved the annexation in January but enough signatures were gathered on a petition to hold a special election on the issue. All ballots must be returned to the city by 7 p.m. on June 17. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘A win-win for farmers': how flooding fields in north-west England could boost crops
'I really don't like the word 'paludiculture' – most people have no idea what it means,' Sarah Johnson says. 'I prefer the term 'wetter farming'.' The word might be baffling, but the concept is simple: paludiculture is the use of wet peatlands for agriculture, a practice that goes back centuries in the UK, including growing reeds for thatching roofs. 'There would have previously been a lot more vast, wetter, boggier areas of peatlands and fens, especially in north-west England and other regions,' says Johnson, the head of peatland nature recovery at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust (LWT). But over the last few hundred years, she adds, those have been converted 'into what we know today as conventional drainage-based farming, or for development, or from peat extraction'. In the past British farmers were even paid by the government to drain peatland for agricultural use, especially after the second world war. The UK is now recognising, far too belatedly, how precious those habitats are. 'When peatlands are still wet they are a massive store of carbon, but as soon as you drain them that CO2 is going back into the atmosphere,' says Johnson. More than 80% of the UK's peatlands are damaged or degraded and most lowland peat has been drained and converted to agriculture, at a cost to the environment. 'Some of the biggest emissions from farming are from agricultural peat soils,' says Johnson. 'Three per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions come just from drained lowland agricultural peat – it's a really small proportion of UK land that is making up a massive amount of our greenhouse gas emissions.' This realisation is driving an international €10m (£8.4m) wetter farming project – Palus Demos – in which previously drained peatlands will be rewetted, with farmers helped to grow crops that thrive in boggier conditions. 'It's not about flooding the land and we're not asking farmers to take land out of production,' Johnson stresses. 'We restore the naturally higher water table to rehydrate the peat soils, but the land remains in agricultural use. We're trying to find that win-win for the environment and farming.' Demonstration sites are being developed around north-west England, in traditional peat-cutting areas in Ireland's Midlands and outside Amsterdam in the Netherlands by partners including Natural England, LWT, the University of Amsterdam, Manchester Metropolitan University and others. How does the project rewet the peatlands? 'We use a series of measures, such as blocking existing drainage ditches, removing underground field drains and also by installing bunds, which are waterproof barriers made from compressed peat that run under and above ground and allow us to keep the water where we want it to be,' says Mike Longden, the peat programme technical lead at LWT. 'We also use weirs and irrigation systems which allow us to move water where it's needed.' The crops being trialled include foods such as cabbage, blueberries, rhubarb and cranberries, and non-foods including bulrushes, which can be used as a building material and in textiles – Ponda, one of the project's partners, has developed a process to turn their fluffy seedheads into a sustainable eco-textile used for filling padded jackets – and sphagnum moss, which can be used for horticultural compost. Scalability will be crucial, with farmers and consumers unlikely to be keen on higher production costs or food prices. 'Ideally, we want this to be 100% win-win,' says Johnson. 'But this is a trial. We don't know all the answers yet. Looking at the economics is really important. We're looking at how to make wetter farming as profitable, if not more profitable, than current conventional, drainage-based farming.' LWT is also exploring green finance options, including carbon-offset schemes such as Wilder Carbon and the IUCN Peatland Code, and countryside stewardship payments from the UK government's sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which could pay for farming at a higher water table, though SFI has been paused. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Farmers may find wet, boggy land harder to farm in the short term, making it more difficult to access land to sow crops, manage or harvest, says Johnson, but some were already struggling in certain areas with drained peat soils that had become unproductive. All the land being used for the LWT trials was coming out of production because it was difficult to farm. 'It was making farmers no money so they had sort of given up on it,' says Johnson. 'If rewetting is a way to bring land back into production, that can also help farmers.' The Europe-wide Palus Demos project started in early 2025, with results expected in 2029. As well as crop yields, greenhouse gas emissions will be monitored to see how much carbon could be saved by converting land from drainage-based use to paludiculture. The results from LWT's Winmarleigh carbon farm project in west Lancashire have already shown an 86% reduction in CO2 emissions just from rewetting the peat. LWT is now 'actively engaged with Defra to consider what could be done differently on agricultural peat soils for farming benefits and environmental benefits', says Johnson. 'We are working with policymakers and engaging with the National Farmers' Union and other farming groups.' Rewetted peat soils could form part of a 'mosaical landscape' alongside more conventional farming, Johnson suggests, in which 'core conservation areas could be buffered by wetter farming areas that are still productive and bringing in income for farmers'. If the trials are successful, paludiculture could be implemented more widely. 'It would be amazing to see wetter farming rolled out across peatlands worldwide,' says Longden. 'In the UK, we have large areas of drained agricultural peat in the north-west but also in East Anglia, the Somerset Levels, the north-east and beyond. 'There's peat right across huge swathes of northern Europe, North America and even in the Tropics. In all these areas, there will be possibilities for wetter farming.'
ABC News
25-04-2025
- General
- ABC News
K'gari hosts Anzac Day service beside wreck of WWI hospital ship Maheno
As the sun soaks the east coast of K'gari (Fraser Island), silence falls over the crowd of hundreds that gather around the rusted bones of the TSS Maheno. Only the sound of waves crashing against the 120 metre shipwreck can be heard as the masses reflect on a much less peaceful time 110 years earlier. A service is held beside the Maheno on Anzac Day. ( ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram ) Among those gathering on the World Heritage listed island off south-east Queensland for this year's Anzac Day ceremony is Sarah Johnson, a wing commander with the Royal Australian Air Force. But her own involvement in the defence force is not the only reason she is attending the ceremony. Sarah Johnson's great-grandfather served on the Maheno. ( ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram ) Her great-grandfather Francis Jackson was the first officer onboard the Maheno when it served as a hospital ship at Anzac Cove during the Gallipoli campaign. Francis Jackson was a merchant sailor. ( Supplied: Sarah Johnson ) "He was a merchant sailor … he worked basically as a civilian on the Maheno before it was commissioned as a hospital ship," Ms Johnson said. Ms Johnson said the Anzac Day service beside the Maheno — the fourth she had attended — was always a moving experience. "I think it's very emotional. So far to date I feel like my career is nothing compared them," she said. "But you just hope that you're making them proud and they're looking down and going, 'You're doing a good job.'" The Maheno cared for casualties from the Gallipoli campaign at ANZAC Cove. ( Supplied: Russell Postle ) Rescuing Anzacs The Maheno started life in 1905 as a passenger steamship. The New Zealand government commissioned it as a hospital ship following the outbreak of World War I. Ms Johnson said her great-grandfather, who was working as a merchant sailor on the Maheno at the time, had no choice but to stay on the ship when it was ordered to support the Anzacs on the other side of the world. Henry Bade served as an orderly on the Maheno. ( Supplied: Kevin Bade ) "I don't know how he felt about it at that time, he seemed pretty resilient," she said. "That was his employment at the time so he just went with it. I suppose he just tried to help people as best he could." The Maheno arrived at Anzac Cove on August 26, 1915, four months after the momentous landing commemorated throughout Australia and New Zealand today. One of the orderlies Henry Bade recorded in his diary "the cloudy moonlit night, with lightning flashes" that greeted the ship on its arrival, with the quiet of the evening occasionally broken by "an awful lot of firing". The Maheno and its crew would go on to retrieve more than 2,000 injured Anzacs, ferrying the survivors to hospitals in the Mediterranean, England and home to Australia and New Zealand. Henry Bade drew a picture in his diary of the ship's location in Anzac Cove. ( Supplied: Kevin Bade ) After the war, the Maheno returned to the trans-Tasman passenger run before being retired in 1935, overtaken by more efficient diesel-powered ships. While being towed to Japan where it was to be broken up for scrap, a cyclone blew the Maheno onto K'gari's eastern shore where it remains today. The mysterious, rusted shipwreck has been a drawcard for generations of tourists and is one of the most well-known landmarks on the island. Children played in the sand during the Anzac Day service at the Maheno. ( ABC Wide Bay: James Taylor ) 'Epitome of mateship' About 400 people gathered on the beach by the wreck of the Maheno for a moving Anzac Day service under clear skies. Kevin Bade, the grandson of orderly Henry Bade, gave an address in which he spoke of how he and his wife only recently learnt they both had a familial connection to the Gallipoli campaign. The grandfathers of both Kevin and Jennifer Bade served in the Gallipoli campaign. ( ABC Wide Bay: James Taylor ) The grandfather of Mr Bade's wife Jennifer served on the Maheno's sister ship, the SS Marama, and both men knew each other. "If either of them didn't make it, we wouldn't be here," Mr Bade said. Mr Bade said the service was a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by his grandfather and the troops who fought in the campaign. "It did bring home the reality of the situation, not just the people serving on the ships who helped the wounded and dying, but the people who fought in the war for our freedom," he said. The Maheno shipwreck is a tourist attraction on K'gari. ( ABC Wide Bay: Nicole Hegarty ) Brisbane Rotary Club project coordinator Russell Postle said the Anzac Day ceremony at the Maheno was an acknowledgement of those who supported the servicemen and woman in battle, like the nurses and medics. "That's one of the things that we really love to demonstrate, that the hospital ship is the epitome of mateship," Mr Postle said. Russell Postle acknowledges those who supported servicemen and woman. ( ABC Wide Bay: Lucy Loram ) "Defence forces are built on mateship — you don't leave a mate behind, you go and look after them — and that's the role of a hospital ship." Mr Postle said many visitors to K'gari were unfamiliar with the Maheno's historic ties to the Anzacs. "Those who were standing on the Gallipoli beach would have been able to look out and see the white ship sitting amongst all the grey warships knowing that their mates are our there should they befall and injury, or should their mate have an injury," he said. "[The Maheno] is the true recognition of the broad effort that was done by those behind the scenes — the doctors, the nurses, and in the case of the Maheno, the merchant marine crew that sailed the ship as a passenger ship, and took that same ship into the war zone." Anzac Day service attendees were served dishes from the Maheno's 1918 Christmas menu. ( Supplied: Russell Postle ) Ms Johnson said the backdrop of the Maheno made the K'gari service unlike any other Anzac Day ceremony. "It's fantastic. I think the sense of reality just brings it home," she said "I think it is just the fact that it's right there, you're looking at it and you're hearing about what it did." With the next generation of Francis Jackson's family set to play a central role in the service in the future, Ms Johnson hopes the values her great-grandfather stood for will live on. "Just knowing the history of their family is important and having an appreciation of what people went through and what they gave so that we can live in the country that we live in today," she said. ABC Wide Bay — local news in your inbox Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Thursday Your information is being handled in accordance with the Email address Subscribe
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Delaware has been mostly pulled out of severe drought
A good start to the year for rainfall has Delaware battling back against a historic drought. In the late months of 2024, many places in Delaware and the Northeast U.S. went more than a month without measurable rain. That created severe drought in almost every county in Delaware, luckily right after the heart of growing season. Now, more than a month of solid rainfall has washed away the drought conditions that threatened to bleed into the start of this year's growing season. "We've had a lot of good steady, not like drenching rain, but steady rains frequently for the last month and a half to two months, that's really been a key at putting a dent into the drought conditions as of late," National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Johnson said. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Delaware is mostly out of drought conditions as of April 15. Dover and northward are "abnormally dry," and southern Delaware is experiencing no drought conditions at all. According to the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, Wilmington has had the historical average of rainfall in 2025, around 12 inches. Georgetown has had 14 inches, which is 2 inches above normal for this time of year. HURRICANES: Map of landfalls shows how storms tend to avoid Delaware. Why is that? SPRING WEATHER: Here's the Old Farmer's Almanac forecast and its winter prediction accuracy According to the Delaware Climate Office, April 8-14 was the state's wettest week since mid-July. The average precipitation in the Delaware Environmental Observing System network was 1.81 inches for the week. In the 30 days preceding April 16, some parts of Sussex County had more than 8 inches of rain. The network average for the 30 days was 6.8 inches, well above the normal total, according to the Delaware Climate Office. Both Wilmington and Georgetown broke records for dry streaks from October through November. Wilmington broke its record of 34 days with no measurable rain, and Georgetown broke its record of 35. This year's rain is a welcome development as the growing season begins. The weather service's three-month outlook has Delaware with slightly better chances for above-normal precipitation, but the details are not ironed out. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware mostly recovered from historic late 2024 drought
