Wednesday, August 7
In The News
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Simone Biles wins silver medal in floor exercise, her fourth medal of the Paris Olympics and her 11th Olympic medal overall (More) | See latest medal count (More)
> "Deadpool & Wolverine" now second-highest grossing film of 2024 as it brings in $824M at the global box office; Disney becomes first studio of 2024 to top $3B in sales globally (More)
> Miss Michigan Alma Cooper, a US Army officer, crowned Miss USA 2024; Miss Kentucky Connor Perry and Miss Oklahoma Danika Christopherson named first and second runner-ups (More)
Science & Technology
> New study suggests Egypt's Pyramid of Djoser was built using primitive hydraulic technology to lift stones (More) | Ancient Egypt explained in under three minutes (More, w/video)
> Nobel Prize winner Tsung-Dao Lee dies at age 97; Lee shared the 1957 award for demonstrating a phenomenon known as parity violation, one of the few known instances of physics not exhibiting symmetry (More)
> New tool developed to track how psychedelic compounds begin to affect neurons within minutes after ingestion (More)
Business & Markets
> AI chip startup Groq raises $640M in funding round, valuing the Nvidia challenger at $2.8B (More) | Elon Musk revives federal lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging he was manipulated into cofounding the ChatGPT maker (More)
> Walmart, Amazon, and State Grid—Chinese state-owned utility giant—top Fortune Global 500 ranking of world’s largest companies by revenue (More)
> Vietnamese billionaire tycoon found guilty of defrauding stockholders of nearly $150M by inflating the value of his company ahead of an initial public offering in Vietnam; Trinh Van Quyet was sentenced to 21 years in prison (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> At least four people killed after Debby makes landfall on Florida's Big Bend coast on the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 1 hurricane before downgrading to a tropical storm (More) | Debby now heads to Georgia and South Carolina; see tracker (More) | See photos (More)
> Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigns, leaves country after historic 15-year rule following mass student protests; country's army chief says an interim government will be formed (More)
> Former Trump legal adviser Jenna Ellis agrees to cooperate with Arizona prosecutors in 2020 election interference case; attorney general drops felony charges against Ellis, allowing her to avoid potential jail time (More)
AI Humanoid Robots
- The general consensus is that robots will take over most jobs in the next 5-10 years which is 2029-2039.
- However, the 2020 World Economic Forum predicted that this would happen by 2025. It would appear that their timetable was off.
- Other experts are saying that only 30% of jobs will be lost to AI Robots by 2035.
Last year, China said the following:
China says humanoid robots are new engine of growth, pushes for mass production by 2025 and world leadership by 2027.
Elon Musk has also stated that he will start mass producing AI Humanoid Robots in 2025 as well.
It has been my experience that in some cases changes happen slower sometimes and in other cases changes happen faster. Which means that there is a 50/50 probability that the experts are both correct and incorrect.
My feeling just based upon what I have observed and read is that AI Humanoid Robots will be replacing jobs slowly at first, then the replacement will accelerate and when all is said and done, it will be at least 80% complete by 2030.
However, I am NO EXPERT...
But I agree with China when they say that robots are the engine of growth... so, along with other technology to push growth faster, if I was a businessman, I would want this change to take place as quickly as possible, if not sooner.
The sooner this happens the sooner increased revenues will be realized, and the human worker will be forgotten.
With this said, the world has about FIVE YEARS to prepare for this TRANSITIONAL CHANGE...
- What will you do if your job is replace by a robot?
- Will you go for some kind of re-training?
- What jobs can a robot not perform well?
- Where can you get this training?
- Have you got enough money saved?
- How much debt to you carry?
- Can you relocate?
Top Emerging Technologies
Top Emerging Technologies in 2024: We live in a digital era today, and embracing digitalization is no longer a choice; it’s a necessity. With the advent of new digital trends and technologies and their rapid advancements, we are evolving at an unprecedented pace, heralding a new era of development.
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Frontiers, has unveiled 10 groundbreaking technologies that have the “potential impact of addressing multiple global challenges, from advancements in materials science to transformative technologies in healthcare,” as noted in a WEF press release.
“It also spotlights technologies with immense potential for revolutionizing connectivity, addressing the urgent challenges of climate change and driving innovation across various fields,” Jeremy Jurgens, managing director, of the World Economic Forum and head of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, stated in the release. READ MORE...
Tuesday, August 6
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Tennis star Novak Djokovic—all-time leader in men's Grand Slam tournaments—wins his first Olympic gold medal, beating rival Carlos Alcaraz (More) | American Scottie Scheffler edges Great Britain's Tommy Fleetwood and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama to take gold in men's golf (More)
> Aerosmith to retire from touring after announcing Steven Tyler's vocal injury is not recoverable (More)
> Devin Hester, Julius Peppers, and Patrick Willis headline 2024 class of seven members inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (More)
Science & Technology
> Reports suggest OpenAI has internal tool capable of detecting text generated by ChatGPT with 99.9% accuracy (More) | The history of OpenAI in three minutes (More, w/video)
> Researchers discover treatment effective against bacteria causing rare flesh-eating diseases; may lead to new drugs to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens (More)
> Scientists identify origins of the moon's thin atmosphere, attributing it to meteorites vaporizing the surface on impact; pressure of the lunar atmosphere is roughly 300 trillion times less than Earth (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close down Friday (S&P 500 -1.8%, Dow -1.5%, and Nasdaq -2.4%) on news of hiring slowdown, with mortgage rates dropping; see previous write-up (More)
> Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sells nearly 50% of Apple stock last quarter and raises cash holdings to record $277B amid concerns over high stock prices (More)
> Food giant Mars reportedly considers purchase of Kellanova, maker of Cheez-Its and Pringles, valued at $22B; deal could be among the largest ever for the packaged food industry (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Israeli airstrikes kill over 30 people at two schools in Gaza while rare Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank kill at least nine confirmed Hamas militants; see latest updates (More)
> More than 100 people arrested in the UK amid clashes, vandalization of a hotel hosting asylum seekers; anti-immigration protests fueled by online posts suggesting the suspect who killed three children last week was a Muslim migrant (More) | Officials say suspect was born in the British city of Cardiff; see overview (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revokes plea deal offered to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two coconspirators (More) | Maui residents reach $4B settlement with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) over last year's wildfires; half of the settlement to come from Hawaiian Electric (More)
Amateur Cook
Jamie Oliver is a celebrity chef from Great Britain, and I believe, if I recall correctly, that I discovered him on cable.
When I left cable, I lost sight of him but rediscovered him on ROKU with his own channel. What I remember from cable were his 30-minutes meals, now he is doing 15-minute meals.
The key to his time limit, is having all your food ready, all your spices ready, and all your pans as hot as you need them to be. Then it is just a matter of quick preparation and quick cooking.
So, if you want to cook a small steak medium, you can do that in 15 minutes but if you want it well done, then that is going to move you into the 30-minute meal.
The last time I watched his 15-minute meal program, he was added Basmati rice to tomato soup instead of cream to thicken it. I had never thought about that. However, I have been using diced potatoes to achieve the same type of consistency once you have mixed them up with a submersible blender.
Blending is the key to thickening which is what I learned on my own.
Why am I cooking???
When my wife and I retired in 2015, one of her rules was that she was only cooking a Thanksgiving and/or Christmas dinner along with maybe an occasional dessert and batch of cookies. If I wanted to eat, I had to cook my own meals.
I am not a chef and don't pretend to be. I am simply an amateur cook who seldom follows recipes and tries to cook everything in one pan (if I can) to minimize clean up.
I have cooked cakes, pies, casseroles, omelets, spaghetti, lasagna, breads, soups, a full turkey & chicken, quiche along with baked, fried, air-fried fish.
My focus is on turkey, chicken, lamb, fish, beans, and vegetables. I like to always include, if I can, bell peppers, onions of some sort, garlic, and mushrooms. I use a lot of sea salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley, basil, and rosemary.
I have used the oven, a gas stove, an electric stove top, a microwave, and a pressure cooker.
None of this would have happened had my wife not informed me of her desire to stop cooking
Evidence of Hydraulics in Ancient Pyramid
- A new study suggests that the first of seven key pyramids in Egypt, the Step Pyramid of Djoser, was built using a hydraulic lift.
- Dated to about 4,500 years ago, this would move up the introduction of major hydraulic systems from previous beliefs.
- The landscape, waterways, and interior architecture of the pyramid all point to the hydraulic system.
Hydraulic mechanics may have indeed been the driving force behind the construction of ancient Egyptian pyramids.
In a recent preprint paper, scientists concluded that the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt—believed to be the oldest of the seven monumental pyramids and potentially constructed about 4,500 years ago—offers a remarkable blueprint for hydraulic engineering.
The hydraulic-powered mechanism could have maneuvered the oversized stone blocks forming the pyramid, starting from the ground up. The research team says the Step Pyramid’s internal architecture is consistent with a hydraulic elevation mechanism, something that’s never been reported before at that place or in that time. READ MORE...