Somewhat Political

 

In The News

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Harvey Weinstein to face retrial this fall after a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 rape conviction last week (More)

> Paul Auster, novelist best known for his "The New York Trilogy" series, dies at 77 (More) | Brian McCardie, actor known for roles in "Line of Duty" and "Rob Roy," dies at 59 (More)

> TV producer Dan Schneider files defamation lawsuit against "Quiet on Set" docuseries producers for implying he sexually abused children on the set of various children's TV shows (More)


Science & Technology
> Endurance exercise has noticeable impact on nearly all bodily tissues and roughly 35,000 biological molecules, even organs not associated with exercise; study is part of effort mapping exercise-related health benefits at the cellular level (More)

> Intel engineers demonstrate ability to read single electron qubits—the unit of information in quantum computers—in silicon; marks a key step toward high-throughput manufacturing of quantum computing devices (More) | How quantum computing works (More)

> Neuroscientists map brain circuit believed to play a critical role in human consciousness; network spans at least five regions of the brain (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 -0.3%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq -0.3%) as investors weigh latest round of economic data (More)

> Exxon Mobil Corp. reportedly reaches agreement with Federal Trade Commission over the oil giant's nearly $60B acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources; deal bars Pioneer's former chief executive officer from joining Exxon's board (More) | See previous write-up (More)

> Johnson & Johnson proposes paying $6.5B over 25 years to settle thousands of current and future US lawsuits that claim its baby powder and other talc-based products caused ovarian cancer (More)

Politics & World Affairs
> Arizona state lawmakers pass law repealing Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions; Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) to sign (More) | Florida law banning most abortions at six weeks of gestation takes effect (More) | See map of abortion laws by state (More)

> Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14) announces plan to force a floor vote next week to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA-4); Democrats have announced intention to side with Republicans to defeat the vote (More)

> Saudi women's rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi sentenced to 11 years in prison for online posts calling to loosen dress code and male guardianship laws (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

An Abundance of Churches

 Jefferson County, Tennessee 

• 314 square miles
• population is 56,727
• churches - 75+
• 756 people per church
• 4 square miles per church

Each one of the churches requires a building and a parking lot and no doubt each one of these churches has a paid minister and staff.  

Some of the larger churches have more buildings for Sunday School, and more than likely each church has a basement in which there is one large room, tables, and chairs, with a kitchen for lunches and other celebrations.  

If the weather cooperates, there is probably an outside picnic area with a concrete floor and roof.

With a church every 4 square miles, there is a lot of duplication that is taking place and a lot of church members have donated money for these duplications.  

Additionally, all the outreach programs and missionary programs are duplicated by the members of each church donating money.

There are 95 counties in the state of Tennessee and while some are smaller and some larger than Jefferson County, Jefferson County is of average size.

This means that there are approximately 7,000 churches in the state of Tennessee or more.

Our large cities like Johnson City, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis are going to have more churches than in the counties that surround them, because the population is greater as is the wealth.

It would seem like to me that if these churches really want to help the poor, that they will get together and combine churches into one large church that has several services throughout the day to accommodate all of the people...  which would mean one parking lot as well.

This way, more money could go to the poor.

Winning Shot

 

A Paradigm Shift in RAM

Your computer wouldn’t be very useful without RAM, which is short for random access memory. These chips function as the temporary storage for an operating system, and speed is of great importance, as they’re constantly needing to access bits of memory to keep everything running smoothly. 

For more than two decades, the most advanced version of this technology—magnetoresistive RAM, or MRAM—has been the go-to tech for the kind of intense computing necessary in industrial, military, and space applications.

Now, a new breakthrough discovered by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has illustrated how a mechanism in a laser beam can control the magnetic state in solids, which the scientists describe as a “paradigm shift” in our understanding of the behavior between light and magnetic materials. 

The results of the study were published earlier this year in the journal Physical Review Research.           READ MORE...

Dangerous Places

 

Solar Panels

 

Israel's Headless Humanoid

Israel’s Mentee Robotics has just unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled household chore robot, Menteebot. After two years of research and development, the new robot certainly looks impressive.

Developed by Amnon Shashau (the former founder of Mobileye), Professor Shai Shalev-Shwartz, and Professor Lior Wolf, the new robot is gearing up for official orders in the first quarter of 2025. The unit’s price is still a mystery, but it is being marketed as “affordable.”

“We are on the cusp of a convergence of computer vision, natural language understanding, strong and detailed simulators, and methodologies for transferring from simulation to the real world,” explains Mentee Robotics.

“Menteebot represents a significant leap forward in humanoid robotics, designed for comprehensive functionality across diverse environments,” Mentee Robotics explains in a promotional video on LinkedIn.  READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "Hell's Kitchen" and "Stereophonic" haul in 13 nominations apiece for the 2024 Tony Awards (June 16); see complete list of nominations (More)

> UEFA Champions League semifinal kicks off; see full preview and match schedule (More) | The US and Mexico drop out of contention to jointly host 2027 Women's World Cup, will instead focus on 2031 bid (More)

> Taylor Swift claims a record-breaking top 14 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; Swift also charted 32 of the top 100 spots, a record for a female artist (More)


Science & Technology
> Environmental Protection Agency bans consumer use of methylene chloride, a cancer-causing compound typically found in paint stripper (More) | Breast cancer screenings should begin at age 40 for women, down from 50, per recommendation from national advisory panel (More)

> Researchers demonstrate first fetus-to-fetus kidney tissue transplant; carried out using kidney tissue in rats, experiment may lead to treatments for human fetuses with fatal developmental conditions (More)

> Primordial black hole capture may explain the lack of pulsars—highly magnetized neutron stars—at the center of the Milky Way, new study suggests (More) | See 1440's new video explainer on the different types of black holes and how they're created (More, w/video)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -1.6%, Dow -1.5%, Nasdaq -2.0%) following higher-than-expected US wage data ahead of Federal Reserve's interest rate decision today (More)

> Starbucks shares fall over 11% in after-hours trading after missing revenue and earnings estimates, reports 4% quarterly drop in same-store sales (More) | Amazon tops revenue and earnings expectations as AI boom boosts cloud-computing unit (More) | Eli Lilly shares close up nearly 6% after beating revenue and earnings estimates, raises 2024 revenue forecast by $2B (More)

> WeWork strikes $450M restructuring deal to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy by end of May, rejecting financing bid from founder and former CEO Adam Neumann (More)


Politics & World Affairs
In partnership with International Intrigue

> US Drug Enforcement Administration reportedly set to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule III drug, easing federal restrictions on the substance; will require sign-off from White House Office of Management and Budget (More) | Drug scheduling 101 (More)

> House Democratic leadership announces they will vote to keep House Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA-4) in his role if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, GA-14) forces a vote to oust Johnson (More) | Former President Donald Trump fined $9K for violating gag order nine times in criminal hush money trial in New York (More)

> Indonesia's Mount Ruang volcano erupts again, less than two weeks after its first eruption since 2002; latest eruption forces 12,000 people to evacuate, prompts tsunami warning (More) | See previous write-up (More)

SOURCE:  1440 News

The World Learned From Us

 

You may find what is going on in the USA disturbing...  but I do not.

I am not talking about all the shit that is happening on college campuses per se but how organized it is.

After WWII, the rest of the world had been literally destroyed by all the bombing that took place while the USA, except for Pearl Harbor WAS UNTOUCHED.

Consequently, the USA rebuilt the rest of the world and because of that our government got very egotistical about itself...  that is to say that the US government made the decision that only the USA knows what is best for the rest of the world.

We pushed our BRAND OF DEMOCRACY on the rest of the world whether they wanted it or not.  Most of these countries DID NOT WANT our brand of democracy.  That did not matter to us because we pushed it on them anyway.

Over the years, other countries started sending students to US for college education and gradually we taught them what we had been doing to them.  Some of the countries like those belonging to OPEC used the economics we taught them and raised the price of oil based upon our demand.

Our countries learned our military tactics while others learned our technologies.  These foreign students would return home to their countries and started building products and selling them to us cheaper than we could make them in the USA.

Government leaders HAD NO CLUE as to what was going on.

Between 1970-2000, we would use black operations to influence the elections in other countries...  these operations not only included staging riots and protests but influence local media to print stories that were not true, hoping to influence public opinion.

China and Russia are currently involved in the same practice here in the USA that came to light in the 2016 Presidential election.

The protests that are taking place on college campuses are funded by wealthy people and foreign countries to change the social dynamics in the USA...

We as a WHOLE SOCIETY are stupid in that we think what we are seeing is a bunch of spoiled brat college students.  It goes much deeper than that.  Much of this nonsense is controlled by the progressive wing of the Democratic party.

Since 2016, I have come to realize that whatever the Democrats accused the Republicans of doing, it is really them that are doing it, not the republicans.  What helps sell this concept is the liberal media that supports only the Democratic Party.

Wake up before it is too late.

The Canoe Race

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people paddling and 1 person steering, while the American team had 7 people steering and 2 people paddling.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were paddling

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the paddling team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 2 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 2 people paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder . It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program, with meetings, dinners and free pens for the paddlers.

There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses. The pension program was trimmed to 'equal the competition' and some of the resultant savings were channeled into morale boosting programs and teamwork posters.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off one paddler, halted development of a new canoe , sold all the paddles, and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses.

The next year, try as he might, the lone designated paddler was unable to even finish the race (having no paddles), so he was laid off for unacceptable performance, all canoe equipment was sold and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, the End.

Here's something else to think about:

GM has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US claiming they can't make money paying American wages.

TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US.

The last quarter's results:

TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while GM rack s up 9 billion in losses.

GM folks are still scratching their heads, and collecting bonuses....

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE IT MIGHT BE FUNNY.

China is Developing Space Weapons

 China is developing anti-satellite weapons as part of a “breathtaking” military expansion, US defense experts have warned Gen Stephen Whiting.

Get info without leaving the page., the head of the US Space Command, said Beijing had “tripled the number of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance satellites on orbit” in just six years.

“Frankly, the People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities,” Gen Whiting said.


Counter-space attacks range from disruption of GPS signals or spoofing, to destroying a satellite by detonating a missile in space.

Experts have long warned of Beijing’s misuse of anti-satellite weapons and the need to clean up space from an environmental perspective. Debris still lingers in space from the ballistic missile China fired in 2007 to destroy an orbiting satellite.  READ MORE... 

Waiting for a Friend

 

Senator Kennedy Warns

 

Russian Typhoon-class Submarines

Summary: Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" features the Soviet Typhoon-class submarine, chosen for its formidable size and capabilities, which outstripped even America's Ohio-class in terms of terror potential. These submarines, built for absolute destruction, were equipped with nuclear and conventional armaments, and featured unique designs like saunas and swimming pools for crew comfort. 

Portrayed as a doomsday weapon in the film, the Typhoon-class represented the pinnacle of Soviet naval engineering, embodying the Cold War era's fears and strategic dynamics. Decommissioned in 2021, they've since been replaced by the more advanced Borei-class submarines.

“British intelligence obtained these pictures two days ago. She’s the Red October. The latest Typhoon-class,” Jack Ryan explained, laying out the grainy black-and-white surveillance images of the latest Soviet undersea behemoth. 

“She’s a big son of a b----!” Admiral Greer huffed, as he reviewed the blurred images splayed across the square oak able in his office on the seventh floor at CIA headquarters in Langley. “Twelve meters longer than the standard Typhoon. Three meters wider.” Ryan continued matter-of-factly.   READ MORE...

Somewhat Political

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> French actor Gérard Depardieu to face criminal trial in October in France over alleged sexual assault on a film set in 2021; Depardieu has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct (More)

> English Premier League clubs agree in principle to salary cap; plan could become official this summer (More) | Mike Tyson's boxing match with YouTube influencer Jake Paul (July 20) to be classified as a sanctioned, professional fight (More)

> US actress Lily Gladstone, French actress Eva Green, and six others join filmmaker Greta Gerwig for competition jury at 2024 Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) (More)


Science & Technology
In partnership with NativePath

> OpenAI strikes deal with UK news publisher the Financial Times; deal allows OpenAI to use content to train models, provide Financial Times content in ChatGPT responses (More)

> James Webb Space Telescope captures highest resolution of the Horsehead Nebula to date; interstellar dust cloud sits about 1,400 light-years away in the Orion constellation (More) | Zoom into the Horsehead Nebula (More, w/video)

> Researchers discover mechanism in fetal mice that heals damaged cartilage cells; discovery may lead to new treatments for joint and bone damage in humans (More)

Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.3%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq +0.4%); Dow set to finish April down nearly 4%, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq down nearly 3% (More)

> Paramount CEO Bob Bakish steps down as Paramount weighs merger with Skydance Media; Bakish will be replaced by trio of executives (More) | Royal Philips shares close up 27% after the Dutch medical devices giant agrees to pay $1.1B to settle US lawsuits over its recalled sleep apnea machines (More)

> Tesla shares close up 15% after China clears way for electric vehicle maker to deploy its advanced self-driving software (More) | US Supreme Court declines to hear Elon Musk's appeal over settlement agreement requiring US Securities and Exchange Commission to vet Musk's social media posts (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Four officers killed, four others wounded in Charlotte, North Carolina, while serving arrest warrant; suspect found dead (More) | Federal court rules North Carolina and West Virginia's state healthcare plans are discriminatory for excluding certain care for transgender people; cases likely headed to Supreme Court (More)

> Roughly 50 people killed in western Kenya after dam collapses following heavy rain and flooding; more than 100 people have been killed due to flooding in Kenya in the past month (More)

> Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he will not resign after announcing last week he was considering stepping down amid a corruption probe against his wife, Begoña Gómez (More)

SOURCE:  1440  News

Computer RIP OFF

 

Nowadays, if you are going to function in society at all, you need a smart phone and/or a computer:  laptop, ipad, or desktop...  although desktops are usually business oriented not for personal use at home since most of us are extremely mobile.

If you buy GEEK SQUAD protection at Best Buy, that service is only good for non-hardware related issues, primarily viruses and/or hacking issues.  So, if you want hardware protection, then you must sign another deal with the manufacturer.

And this is where the BIG RIP OFF OCCURS...

First of all, not all virus protection software will safe you from all hacking situations, therefore, you are put into a bind and forced to get GEEK SQUAD protection.  The alternatives are more expensive.

Just a few years ago, when you purchased a laptop, there was seldom a problem with the hardware, so GEEK SQUAD protection was all that you needed.

BUT...  the last three laptops that I have purchased, I have had keyboard issues.  Fortunately, these keyboard issues arrived when the laptops were almost three years old so it was time to replace anyway.  However, my latest laptop, a Dell Vostro, was purchased from DELL ONLINE and in less than a year, the laptop started developing keyboard issues.

Keyboard issues can be solved by attaching an external keyboard, but that sorta defeats the purpose of having a laptop...   the whole point of a laptop is because most of us are mobile and like to have a computer with us wherever we go and don't want to carry around an external keyboard.

So, it seems that not only do you need GEEK SQUAD protection from hackers and viruses, you now need hardware protection because the damn computer was not manufactured that well from the getgo.

Hardware protection for the first year came from Dell, so I am covered but I purchased an extended warranty for a year in order to keep my laptop protected...  mainly because I am not sure what else might CRAP OUT.

After two years, I don't give a shit because it is tim to upgrade anyway.

BUT THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY HAS THE CONSUMER BY THE BALLS AND THEY KNOW IT...  AND IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THEY DON'T CARE...

Bath Time