Tuesday, October 29
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Los Angeles Dodgers take 2-0 lead over New York Yankees in 2024 World Series with Game 3 tonight (8 pm ET, Fox); Dodgers may be without star Shohei Ohtani, who injured his shoulder in Game 2 (More)
> California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announces plan to increase state's film and TV tax incentives from $330M to $750M (More) | David Harris, actor best known for role in "The Warriors," dies at age 75 (More)
> The 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Round One kicks off; see complete postseason bracket and schedule (More)
Science & Technology
> Google to unveil "Jarvis" AI agent in December; tool is reportedly capable of controlling web browsers to complete tasks like shopping, scheduling, and more (More)
> Ancient cicadas evolved to escape ancient predatory birds between the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods roughly 145 million years ago; findings shed light on competitive evolution between species (More)
> Engineers develop portable device to extract water from humid air; prototype uses 50% less energy than existing technologies (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed Friday (S&P 500 -0.0%, Dow -0.6%, Nasdaq +0.6%) (More) | Nvidia temporarily overtakes Apple as world's most valuable company, briefly passes $3.53T in market value Friday (More)
> Russia's central bank raises benchmark interest rate to 21%, highest since 2003, amid inflation fueled by military spending (More)
> Delta Air Lines sued cybersecurity company CrowdStrike last week for July outage it says caused thousands of flight cancellations, costing the company $500M (More) | UnitedHealth Group last week confirmed February ransomware attack compromised personal data of 100 million people (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> The 2024 US election polls indicate tight race in lead-up to Election Day, with turnout in swing states expected to prove decisive (More) | See key states' polling averages (More)
> Republic of Georgia's pro-Russian ruling party declares victory; pro-West opposition party disputes results amid reports of voter intimidation, calls for protests (More) | Bulgaria holds seventh snap election in three years, results expected today (More)
> Tropical Storm Trami makes landfall in Vietnam after landslides and flooding kill dozens of people in the Philippines (More)
Not That Keen on Sports
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During my adolescent and teenage years, I was heavily involved with sports. I played in little league baseball until I aged out. My position was first base.
As a teenager, I played baseball, softball, football, basketball, and field & track where I threw the javelin, discuss, and shot put. First base again in both baseball and softball. For football, I wanted to be a fullback, but I could not hold onto the ball, so I was placed as a defensive linebacker and was on all the special teams.
At home, my parents watched on our television everything that was related to sports but were especially interested in football and tennis. So naturally, I watched them as well until I got old enough to date and then I was gone most of the time.
After high school, there were a few years of college, then the military where involvement in watching sports was damn near mandatory if you wanted to fit in with the crowd.
Once, I got married, I watched very little sports except during the holidays when the parents came over to our house, our we went over to their house. Both sets of parents were heavily focused on football. Politely, I watched.
Divorced and married a second time five years later, my second wife liked football and tennis but especially tennis. I very seldom watched tennis with her, but we did watch football together and basketball when Michael Jordan was playing with the Chicago Bulls.
When Michael Jordan retired, she went back to concentrating on tennis, but we would always watch the super bowl, even though we did not care which team won. Usually, the super bowls were the best games to watch.
I have no idea why, after being a very athletic person, and winning lots of awards and metals, that I lost interest in sports. It could be that too much was pushed on me when I was young, but that does not explain my choice to watch later.
I used to go the baseball games of the Washington Senators before they moved to Baltimore and remember how excited I was to be there. I always got a program and was taught how to keep track of how each team performed each inning. But later in life, baseball just moved too slowly for me.
I never really understood the rules of soccer, but it was a fast-moving pace as was rugby but never got interested in either of them.
- Nowadays, it is just too damn expensive to get a ticket to any sporting event, and yet when seeing them on television, the arenas and stadiums always look full.
Fusion Plant Design
A fusion energy firm has revealed the first details of its pilot plant design. Tokamak Energy claims that its pilot plant will be capable of generating 800 megawatts (MW) of fusion power and 85MW of net electricity.
This will reportedly be enough to power and heat more than 70,000 American homes.
Initial designs specify an aspect ratio of 2.0, a plasma major radius of 4.25 meters, and a magnetic field of 4.25 Tesla, as well as a liquid lithium tritium breeding blanket, according to Tokamak Energy. READ MORE...
Monday, October 28
Deranged Trump Syndrome
