Saturday, February 22
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Amazon MGM Studios gains creative control over James Bond film franchise (More) | Netflix to invest $1B in Mexico's cinema and television industry over next four years (More)
> San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama to miss rest of regular season due to blood clot in his shoulder (More) | MLB to experiment with automated ball-strike challenge system during spring training (More)
> Canada tops Team USA 3-2 in overtime to win 4 Nations Face-Off title (More) | PGA Tour leaders, including Tiger Woods, meet with White House officials to discuss possible merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf (More)
Science & Technology
> Rare genetic disorder known as spinal muscular atrophy treated in the womb for the first time; patient, now 2 years old, shows no signs of the progressive neurodegenerative disorder (More)
> Researchers outline method to measure consciousness in animals; approach combines anatomical features with behaviors to compare with what is known about humans (More) | See longer essay on topic (More)
> Inhalable gene therapy to treat cystic fibrosis begins trials in Europe; treatment delivers healthy copies of the gene responsible for mucus buildup in the respiratory and digestive tracts (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -1.0%, Nasdaq -0.5%) as investors question economic outlook amid looming tariffs (More)
> Amazon surpasses Walmart in revenue for the first time, bringing in $187B in Q4 (More) | Walmart shares close down over 6% after retailer says profits will slow for current fiscal year despite earnings and revenue rising for the quarter (More)
> OpenAI tops 400 million weekly active users, up 33% in less than three months, with paid business users crossing 2 million; user growth comes amid competition from China's DeepSeek model (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> IRS begins laying off roughly 6,700 employees, or over 6% of the agency's workforce; those who have worked for less than one or two years are primarily affected (More) | Federal judge rules Trump administration can proceed with mass government layoffs (More)
> New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) decides against removing New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) from office amid corruption case fallout, instead seeks increased oversight of City Hall (More)
> Hamas returns bodies of four people, including two child hostages who were the youngest abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack; Israel says one of the bodies does not belong to a known hostage (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Thinking for Ourselves
How many of us, think for ourselves these days, or rely on video games, or social media forums to do our thinking for us?
How many of our opinions are formulated by listening/reading both sides of the story before making our own decisions?
I visit two social media sites on a regular basis:
- Truth Social for conservative views
- Bluesky for liberal views
What I find is that neither site has the slightest inclination to consider what the other side is suggesting.
What does that tell me or anyone who does the same thing as I do?
It tells me that each side does not give a rat's ass as to what the other side is thinking.
That also means that each side is not thinking for themselves but allowing others to do the thinking for them.
From 1966 to 1974, I was a liberal student attending college. The dates suggest that I took a break and that is correct - a 4-year break. But, while I was in college as a liberal student, I DEMANDED that I know the conservative viewpoint so I could make up my own mind.
It does not seem like that is happening in 2016, 2020, or 2024, must less 2025.
Hidden Quantum World Inside the Proton
During a deeply inelastic collision with a proton, a relativistic electron (highlighted in blue) can emit a high-energy photon (purple here) that penetrates interior of the proton, where it ‘sees’ only a fraction of the entangled quarks, gluons, and virtual particles. The excited proton later decays in cascades of secondary particles. Credit: IFJ PAN, jch
Protons are far from simple particles — they are swirling cauldrons of quarks, gluons, and quantum entanglement. Scientists have used this entanglement to develop a universal model explaining how particles emerge from high-energy collisions.
Their predictions align with past experimental data, and future colliders will put their theory to the ultimate test, possibly reshaping our understanding of nuclear physics.
Peering Inside the Proton
The inside of a proton is one of the most dynamic yet elusive realms in physics. Within this tiny particle, quarks and gluons interact in a constantly shifting sea of virtual particles.
The inside of a proton is one of the most dynamic yet elusive realms in physics. Within this tiny particle, quarks and gluons interact in a constantly shifting sea of virtual particles.
Now, using quantum information theory and the concept of quantum entanglement, scientists have developed a new framework to describe these interactions with unprecedented clarity.
For the first time, this approach successfully explains data from all available experiments involving the scattering of secondary particles in deep inelastic collisions between electrons and protons. READ MORE...
For the first time, this approach successfully explains data from all available experiments involving the scattering of secondary particles in deep inelastic collisions between electrons and protons. READ MORE...
Friday, February 21
Pondering
Every morning, the first thing that I do after giving a treat to the cats make a cup of coffee using my Keurig coffee maker and a McCafe coffee pod. !2 ounces of coffee, followed by three heaping spoonsful of sugar free cappuccino mix.
It is not anywhere close to the Starbucks Vanilla Cappuccino that I purchase when I have a gift card, but it is close enough for me. With my coffee, I sit down in my lounge chair and begin to ponder. I ponder all sorts of stuff from theoretical physics to cosmology, astrology, ancient aliens, politics, the weather, my health, finances, to our next vacation.
When I am not pondering, I am watching the news, a cable TV series or movie (which is seldom because most of the new ones are garbage), maintaining my blogs (like this one) or writing on a novel.
Currently, I have completed 10 novels (100,000+ words each) and have 6 that I have started but stopped and started writing on another idea. I have decided to complete the ones I have started before attempting a new one again. Although, if I get an idea, I will write the idea down, so it is now forgotten.
When it comes to politics, I belong to neither party because neither party had ever done what they promised... this goes back to 1966 when I first got interested in politics. We have the same problems today that we had in 1966 and neither the Republicans or the Democrats have done anything to change that and both parties have had several opportunities when they controlled the house and senate. This lack of progress and unfulfilled promises leaves me wondering why we have a congress at all except to provide careers to some politicians.
Living in East TN, we experience fairly mild winters and even though we have some cold days, maybe snow and ice or sleet, our winters never last very long anymore. In fact, today is probably going to be the transition day from winter to spring as we have a gradually increase in temps so that by next Tuesday, we are in the 60s.
In case you are wondering, I drink McCafe with sugar free cappuccino mix all day long... stopping around 6:00 pm.
Helen Zughaib - Artist
Helen Zughaib (/zəˈɡeɪb/ zə-GAYB; born 1959) is an American painter and multimedia artist living in working in Washington, D.C. She was the daughter of a State Department civil servant. Her family left Lebanon in 1975 due to the outbreak Lebanese Civil War, and moved to Europe as a teenager, attending high school in Paris. She studied at Northeast London Polytechnic School of Art.
She moved to the United States to study visual and performing arts at Syracuse University graduating in 1981 with her BFA. She first learned about gouache paints at SU and continues to use gouache as her primary medium, but also creates mixed media installations. Her themes are centered around hopefulness, healing, and spirituality, using visual arts to shape and foster positive ideas about the Middle East.
She has served as cultural envoy to Palestine, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia. She has also been selected for the 2021-2023 inaugural social practice residency by the John Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
In The News
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Team USA hockey takes on Canada in 4 Nations Face-Off Final tonight (8 pm ET, ESPN) (More) | Hockey great Bobby Hull had Stage 2 chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the time of his death in 2023, reports suggest (More)
> Former Vice President Kamala Harris signs with talent firm Creative Artists Agency; CAA signed former President Joe Biden to a similar deal two weeks ago (More) | "Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo tapped to host 2025 Tony Awards (More)
> Seven men charged for roles in a string of robberies at athletes' homes, including Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Joe Burrow (More) | Los Angeles Chargers tapped to host Week 1 matchup in NFL's second-ever game in São Paulo, Brazil (More)
Science & Technology
> Nvidia and the Arc Institute release largest-ever AI model for biology, trained on the genomes of more than 100,000 animals; platform may identify disease-causing mutations, design new genomes, and more (More)
> Static electricity buildup in different materials depends on their history of being touched, study reveals; despite being a well-known phenomenon, the physics behind charge buildup in regular materials remains elusive (More)
> Paleontologists discover 120-million-year-old fossils of apex carnivores previously found in South America in Australia; the landmasses were connected in the early Cretaceous via Antarctica (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +0.1%) as investors digest Federal Reserve's meeting minutes; S&P 500 notches another record close (More) | Palantir shares close down 10% on reports the Trump administration is eyeing defense budget cuts (More)
> Tapestry to sell footwear brand Stuart Weitzman to Caleres—owner of brands like Sam Edelman and Famous Footwear—in $105M all-cash deal; sale allows Tapestry to focus on its handbag brands Coach and Kate Spade (More)
> Europe’s largest lender HSBC announces share buyback of up to $2B, reports annual profit in 2024 rose 6.5% (More) | Buybacks 101 (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Transportation Department rescinds approval of New York City’s congestion pricing program, which went into effect in January (More) | Judge hears arguments in Justice Department-led request to dismiss corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) (More)
> Tensions rise between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the two leaders trade barbs over Ukraine-Russia war (More) | See war updates (More)
> Pope Francis has pneumonia in both lungs and remains hospitalized in Rome after suffering from bronchitis and a mix of respiratory infections, Vatican says (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Humanoid ROBOTS with AI
What is our future with humanoid robots with AI?
Whether we like it or not, humanoid robots with AI will be taking over some of our jobs... there is no way of getting around that.
Some of those jobs are:
TransportationTaxi and truck drivers
Couriers
Manufacturing
Assembly-line workers
Customer service
Customer service representatives
Office work
Receptionists
Data entry clerks
Bookkeepers
Other jobs
Market research analysts
Phone operators and telemarketers
Market research analysts
Phone operators and telemarketers
NOTE: This list created by AI
Why are humanoid robots with AI replacing jobs?
ANSWERS
- American wages/benefits are high
- Robots don't get sick
- Robots don't need vacation
- Robots don't take breaks
- Robots don't smoke or overeat (health)
- Robots don't have attitude issues
- Robots don't reduce productivity
- Robots constantly add value
I am sure that the govt will put some sort of tax on robots to offset the cost of taking care of all the unemployed workers.
Experts say that robots will create more jobs than they take, but I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT... Every time experts tell you not to worry that is exactly when you should start worrying.
Largest Structure in the Universe
Is it possible to understand the universe without understanding the largest structures that reside in it? In principle, not likely. In practical terms? Definitely not. Extremely large objects can distort our understanding of the cosmos.
Astronomers have found the largest structure in the universe so far, named Quipu after an Incan measuring system. It contains a shocking 200 quadrillion solar masses.
Astronomy is an endeavor where extremely large numbers are a part of daily discourse. But even in astronomy, 200 quadrillion is a number so large it's rarely encountered. And if Quipu's extremely large mass doesn't garner attention, its size surely does.
The object, called a superstructure, is more than 400 megaparsecs long. That's more than 1.3 billion light-years. READ MORE...
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