TIme

 

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First AI Flight Attendant

Would you fly AI?


Qatar Airways is adding virtual flight attendants as “digital human cabin crew” to assist customers at airports and onboard planes.

Named Sama 2.0, the female faux staffer was rolled out at this week’s massive ITB Berlin trade show. The airline demonstrated that a customer can speak into one’s phone with Sama answering on a large kiosk-like screen, video shows.

The airline claims that the virtual cabin crew member — also accessible through its metaverse, called the Qverse, and the Qatar app — is the first AI-powered customer assistance of its kind.    READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NCAA Women's Elite Eight matchup between Iowa and LSU hauled in 12.3 million viewers, the most ever for a women's college basketball game and the biggest basketball audience for ESPN since 2012 (More) | LSU star Angel Reese declares for WNBA Draft (More) | Iowa's Caitlin Clark wins Naismith Player of the Year for second straight season (More)

> Buffalo Bills trade four-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Stefon Diggs to the Houston Texans for 2025 second-round draft pick (More)

> James Beard Foundation announces 2024 James Beard Award finalists for America's best restaurants and chefs (More)



Science & Technology
In partnership with Eli Electric Vehicles

> Pig kidney transplant recipient discharged from hospital two weeks after procedure; success is a key advance in the field of cross-species transplants (More) | New mRNA drug shows success in early clinical trials in treating propionic acidaemia, a rare genetic disease affecting metabolic function (More)

> AI researchers find method to trick leading chatbots into violating ethics guidelines by repeatedly asking slightly different forms of the same question (More) | Read overview of the "many-shot jailbreak" approach (More)

> Microsoft and startup Quantinuum devise method to reduce the error rate for quantum computers by a factor of 800; marks a key step toward widespread adoption of the technology (More) | Quantum computing 101 (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq +0.2%); US private payrolls rise more than expected in March, while the Federal Reserve signals timing of interest rate cuts is uncertain (More)

> The Walt Disney Co. and Bob Iger defeat challenge from activist investor Nelson Peltz and his hedge fund as shareholders vote to reelect full board (More) | Former President Donald Trump sues two cofounders of Trump Media and Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social, for allegedly mismanaging the company (More) | Two men plead guilty to $22M insider-trading scheme tied to Trump Media (More)

> Private equity firm Silver Lake to take entertainment company Endeavor private for $27.50 per share, valuing the company at $13B (More) | Autism Impact Fund, a venture capital firm focused on autism, raises $60M (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Ukraine signs law lowering military draft age from 27 to 25 to replenish its depleted army amid war with Russia (More) | See war updates (More) | Uganda's constitutional court largely upholds the country's anti-LGBTQ law, which allows the death penalty for certain same-sex acts (More)

> Finnish police identify bullying as motive behind school shooting outside of Helsinki that killed one student and wounded two others (More) | See our previous write-up (More)

> Midwest, Northeast brace for snowstorm and blizzard conditions through today; parts of New England to see more than 2 feet of snow (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

On Being a Racist

Both my parents were racists and never tried to deny it and more than likely their parents were racists as well.

I grew up in an all white neighborhood and did not really experience people of color until high school.  However, I attended high school in Cairo, Egypt and the concept of racism never entered our minds nor was it ever discussed in any of our conversations.

Only after I graduated from high school, was I confronted with racism and began to become aware of people of color.

Most of the people of color, I came across in the 1960s were uneducated and as a result I formed conclusions and opinions that most black people were uneducated.

I also began to see that my blacks were not good workers, and most whites were not good athletes and again, opinions and conclusions were formed.

Unlike the blacks, I was never afraid of the police unless I was doing something wrong.  I had no idea that their fear, and rightly so, went much deeper than that simply because they were black.

In public I will not share my feelings and opinions of blacks out of respect for the people around me but have no problems sharing my feelings in other media outlets.

I will say this and my feelings are strong about it, the more that blacks DEMAND that something be done for them because they were born with the disadvantage of color, the more my resentment towards them grows.

There are numerous examples of people who were born in poverty who went on to become wealthy and respectable people...  and if, the blacks were willing to work to get there, they could do anything they wanted...

Determination and Discipline are the two keys to success along with persistence which is a part of being determined.

So, in closing one might refer to me as a racist because I don't bend over and kiss the ass of the blacks, and turn a deaf ear when they claim I am a white supremacist.  

Until the black population is increased, we will always have more whites in power than blacks. 

 

Big Tongue

 

The Wealth of the ONE PERCENT (1%)

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. 


The wealth of the top 1% hit a record $44.6 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, as an end-of-year stock rally lifted their portfolios, according to new data from the Federal Reserve.


The total net worth of the top 1%, defined by the Fed as those with wealth over $11 million, increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter. All of the gains came from their stock holdings. The value of corporate equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 1% surged to $19.7 trillion from $17.65 trillion the previous quarter.

While their real estate values went up slightly, the value of their privately held businesses declined, essentially canceling out all other gains outside of stocks.

The quarterly gain marked the latest addition to an unprecedented wealth boom that began in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic market surge. Since 2020, the wealth of the top 1% has increased by nearly $15 trillion, or 49%. Middle-class Americans have also seen a rising wealth tide, with the middle 50% to 90% of Americans seeing their wealth increase 50%.  READ MORE...

A-10 Warthog

 

Free

 

Russia's Nuclear Influence Expands

Russia is continuing to build its nuclear arsenal as a deterrence method against potential adversaries, according to U.S. intelligence.

In its annual threat assessment released to the public on Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) stated that Moscow still holds "the largest and most diverse nuclear weapons stockpile" and that Russia views its atomic weapons as "necessary for maintaining deterrence and achieving its goals in a potential conflict against the United States and NATO."


The report comes as tensions between the West and Russia continue to rise amid the war in Ukraine, and as concerns swirl over Moscow's potential to use nuclear weapons against Kyiv or its neighboring NATO member states. Russia President Vladimir Putin has warned that Ukraine's allies risk starting a nuclear conflict if they expand their involvement in the Russian-Ukraine war.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The News

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Billie Eilish, Pearl Jam, and Nicki Minaj among group of 200 artists who penned an open letter to tech and digital music companies, expressing their concerns over the use of AI in music (More)

> Joe Flaherty, prolific actor and comedian, dies at age 82 (More) | Larry Lucchino, former president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, dies at age 78 (More)

> Chicago Symphony Orchestra taps Klaus Mäkelä, 28, as its next music director; will be youngest in the orchestra's 133-year history (More) | SiriusXM to launch Taylor Swift channel April 7 ahead of the release of her new album (More)


Science & Technology
> Amazon to phase out its "Just Walk Out" technology at Amazon Fresh stores; approach, which scanned and billed customers via cameras and sensors, to be replaced with carts that let users scan items while they shop (More)

> Left-handedness linked to specific genetic variation that controls the production of tiny structures known as microtubules; feature was found at almost three times the rate in lefties, who make up about 10% of the population (More)

> Prototype smart contacts for health monitoring and drug delivery demonstrated; devices are powered by light and electrolytes contained in tears (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.7%, Dow -1.0%, Nasdaq -1.0%) as US 10-year Treasury yield rises to highest level since November (More) | US crude oil prices surpass $85 per barrel, highest since October (More)

> Tesla shares close down 5% after Q1 electric vehicle deliveries drop 8.5% year-over-year, the first quarterly decline since 2020 (More) | General Electric completes split into three public companies as aerospace and energy businesses begin trading on New York Stock Exchange; healthcare business split off in January 2023 (More)

> Bernard Arnault and his family ($233B), Elon Musk ($195B), and Jeff Bezos ($194B) top Forbes annual list of the world's billionaires, which features 2,781 people, up from last year; Taylor Swift and Earvin “Magic” Johnson among first-timers on list (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

Understanding our Universe

How large is our universe?

Earth lives in the MILKY WAY GALAXY...

The Milky Way is about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 km (about 100,000 light years) across. One light year is 10064 earth years.

So, can you imagine how long it would take to cross our galaxy?  100X10,064=1,006,400 YEARS...  That's a frigging long time.

Now get this, the size of our universe is billions or billions of billions of Milky Way Galaxies across.  AND...  according to the Hubble Telescope, it is still expanding.

According to our religious friends, earth is the only planet in the Universe to having humans living on it which really speaks to the power of God....  In this vast universe of ours, God only created ONE EARTH.

In and of itself, that thinking is extremely foolish and highlights the believer of being intellectually uninformed.

Even if we had enemies on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy, it would take them 100,000 light years to get here or 10,064 earth years.  That is over 100 centuries.

How advanced do you think we would be in 100 centuries?

For many of us, understanding the size of our universe is difficult, especially when considering that it is still expanding.  AND...  since it is expanding, it must be expanding into SOMETHING...  right?

So, what do you think it is expanding into?

 

Horses

 

Understanding Humanoid Robots

Robots made their stage debut the day after New Year’s 1921. More than half-a-century before the world caught its first glimpse of George Lucas’ droids, a small army of silvery humanoids took to the stages of the First Czechoslovak Republic. They were, for all intents and purposes, humanoids: two arms, two legs, a head — the whole shebang.

Karel Čapek’s play, R.U.R (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti), was a hit. It was translated into dozens of languages and played across Europe and North America. The work’s lasting legacy, however, was its introduction of the word “robot.” The meaning of the term has evolved a good bit in the intervening century, as Čapek’s robots were more organic than machine.

Decades of science fiction have, however, ensured that the public image of robots hasn’t strayed too far from its origins. For many, the humanoid form is still the platonic robot ideal — it’s just that the state of technology hasn’t caught up to that vision. Earlier this week, Nvidia held its own on-stage robot parade at its GTC developer conference, as CEO Jensen Huang was flanked by images of a half-dozen humanoids.  READ MORE...

Before the Big Bang

 

The Next Global Superpower

 

Humans Thrived - Neanderthals Perished

Why did humans take over the world while our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, became extinct? It's possible we were just smarter, but there's surprisingly little evidence that's true.

Neanderthals had big brains, language and sophisticated tools. They made art and jewellery. They were smart, suggesting a curious possibility. Maybe the crucial differences weren't at the individual level, but in our societies.


Two hundred and fifty thousand years ago, Europe and western Asia were Neanderthal lands. Homo sapiens inhabited southern Africa. Estimates vary but perhaps 100,000 years ago, modern humans migrated out of Africa.


Forty thousand years ago Neanderthals disappeared from Asia and Europe, replaced by humans. Their slow, inevitable replacement suggests humans had some advantage, but not what it was.     READ MORE...

Elephant

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Caitlin Clark leads No. 1 seed Iowa to Elite Eight victory over No. 3 seed LSU; No. 3 seed Connecticut tops No. 1 seed USC to join No. 3 seed NC State and No. 1 seed South Carolina in the Final Four (More) | See Final Four bracket and schedule (More)

> Formula 1 owner Liberty Media purchases MotoGP's parent company Dorna in deal valuing the motorbike series at $4.5B (More)

> Vontae Davis, two-time NFL Pro Bowl cornerback, found dead at his Florida home at age 35 (More) | Barbara Rush, Golden Globe-winning actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years, dies at age 97 (More)



Science & Technology
> Health officials confirm human case of avian influenza A—or H5N1, also known as the bird flu—after coming in contact with infected cattle; case is the second in the US, risk to public remains low (More) | More than 82 million poultry have been infected since 2022; see stats here (More)

> Archaeologists uncover what is believed to be a 130,000-year-old stingray sculpture; artifact would be the oldest known example of humans sculpting depictions of other animals (More)

> Physical activity lengthens the time of non-REM sleep phases at night, increasing the overall quality of rest; study adds quantitative support to anecdotal link between exercise and sleep (More)



Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.6%, Nasdaq -0.1%) as investors consider last week's inflation data (More) | Gold prices retreat from record high (More)

> Trump Media and Technology Group shares close down 22% after the Truth Social owner reports $58M net loss and $4M revenue in 2023 (More) | Sam Altman removed from ownership structure of OpenAI Startup Fund, the ChatGPT maker's venture capital arm (More)

> Microsoft to unbundle Teams and Office worldwide following scrutiny from European regulators and rival Slack over antitrust concerns (More) | Google to destroy browsing data of 136 million users to settle class-action lawsuit accusing the tech giant of secretly tracking users of Chrome's private mode (More)

Politics & World Affairs
In partnership with Tangle

> Florida's Supreme Court upholds 2022 15-week abortion ban, allowing a separate 2023 six-week ban to take effect in 30 days; court also allows proposed amendment codifying the right to an abortion in the state constitution to appear on November ballot (More) | Former President Donald Trump posts $175M bond in New York civil fraud case, avoiding asset seizure during appeals process (More)

> Severe thunderstorms sweep across central and eastern US, bringing floods, hail, and tornadoes through today (More) | Section of California's Highway 1 near Big Sur remains closed after weekend storm causes part of roadway to crumble (More)

> Germany legalizes possession of small amounts of cannabis for recreational use, effective yesterday; Germany becomes third European Union member to legalize recreational use of cannabis after Malta and Luxembourg (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News