Friday, March 21
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> March Madness kicks off in earnest today with the first round of the men's tournament; see complete tourney preview (More) | ... and the women's "First Four" matchups wrap up tonight (More)
> Trump administration suspends $175M in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over the participation of a transgender athlete on Penn's swim team (More) | Columbia University faces deadline today to make a wide range of policy changes or lose $400M in federal funding (More)
> Global music streaming revenue topped $20B in 2024, a 7% increase over 2023; Taylor Swift was biggest-selling global artist for third straight year (More)
Science & Technology
> Federal appeals court rules copyright can only be granted to artworks originally created by humans; case centered on a dispute over AI-generated, "Star Trek"-themed poetry (More)
> Humans and parrots share common brain circuitry for complex vocalizations, new study finds; species known as budgerigars are the only animals known to share the trait (More)
> Genetic study suggests modern humans descended from two separate populations that split around 1.5 million years ago, but intermixed again roughly 300,000 years ago (More)
Business & Markets
> European regulators announce antitrust charges against Google, warn Apple of violations under the Digital Markets Act (More)
> Yum Brands partners with chipmaker Nvidia to accelerate its use of AI in operations; parent company is owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, among others (More)
> Nissan to cut 20% of top managerial positions; timing coincides with arrival of new CEO Ivan Espinosa (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> US Institute of Peace sues to block efforts by Department of Government Efficiency; DOGE staff required local police to enter property earlier this week, IOP officials argue the group is an independent nonprofit (More)
> President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold hourlong call on plan toward ending Russia's war in Ukraine; discussion comes one day after a separate call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (More)
> Historians begin to examine new trove of roughly 63,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, released by President Donald Trump Tuesday (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Novel Writing
I have ten pages more to write to complete my twelfth novel, leaving four unfinished to completed. Two of the six start but not finished novels were 70% so it did not take me long to finish. However, the other four are only 20% finished or less, so I am planning on a couple of months for each one.
With persistence, I should have the remaining four completed by the end of 2025 or the end of my tenth year of retirement. So, it took me ten years to write 16 novels.
Bear in mind that each novel is over 100,000 words in length or about 200, 8X10 pages. The general rule of thumb is to divide by 20 and multiply that answer by 30... however, what it really depends upon is the type and font size and the margins that are being used.
With 11 novels written all of which are over 100,000 words, for those 11 novels, I have written over a million and a half words. For me that is quite a lot of words.
I use Grammarly to check my spelling and sentence structure, although sometimes I have to override the corrections because I want to use slang expressions in my dialogues.
I also have Microsoft 365 which comes with CoPilot and this service can be used to rewrite your entire novel. However, it is only good at rewritten a page at a time. You might as well depend on adding a week to your time if you decided to use CoPilot at the end.
I have not used CoPilot yet, but if I do, it will be used from the very beginning where I write a page or two, then use CoPilot to rewrite. I usually take my time and write 3-5 pages each day.
China achieves quantum supremacy
he latest iteration of Zuchongzhi includes 105 transmon qubits — devices made from metals like tantalum, niobium, and aluminum that have reduced sensitivity to noise. (Image credit: D. Gao et al.
Researchers in China have developed a quantum processing unit (QPU) that is 1 quadrillion (10¹⁵) times faster than the best supercomputers on the planet.
The new prototype 105-qubit chip, dubbed "Zuchongzhi 3.0," which uses superconducting qubits, represents a significant step forward for quantum computing, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei said.
It rivals the benchmarking results set by Google's latest Willow QPU in December 2024 that allowed scientists to stake a claim for quantum supremacy — where quantum computers are more capable than the fastest supercomputers — in lab-based benchmarking.
Researchers in China have developed a quantum processing unit (QPU) that is 1 quadrillion (10¹⁵) times faster than the best supercomputers on the planet.
The new prototype 105-qubit chip, dubbed "Zuchongzhi 3.0," which uses superconducting qubits, represents a significant step forward for quantum computing, scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei said.
It rivals the benchmarking results set by Google's latest Willow QPU in December 2024 that allowed scientists to stake a claim for quantum supremacy — where quantum computers are more capable than the fastest supercomputers — in lab-based benchmarking.
Thursday, March 20
Age & Experience
We have two political parties here in the US of A, a liberal party and a conservative party and there are all sorts of feelings in between those two extremes.
Pure and simple, we need both parties and both parties need us.
Americans have changed over the years and that is good because on the whole they have gotten smarter and also on the whole they have learned to voice their opinions in order to strongly influence outcomes.
What Americans have not learned yet is that what goes around ALWAYS comes back around at a time you least expect it or want it.
Not only that but Americans have yet to grasp the UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES of their actions, oftentimes creating a worse situation than before, although it took 2-3 years to get here.
What amazes me is that most of this confusion comes about as a result of YOUNG AMERICANS who lack the experience and the wisdom of that experience.
When they finally realize that EDUCATION does not make one SMART then they begin to alter the way they look at life and what they expect to get out of life.
Robert Reich -The biggest upward transfer of wealth in history
Friends,
Donald Trump believes his tariffs will bring so much money to the U.S. treasury that the U.S. will be able to afford another giant Trump tax cut.
But Trump’s tariffs — and the retaliatory tariffs already being imposed on American exports by the nation’s trading partners — will be paid largely by the American working class and poor.
And the people who will benefit most from another giant Trump tax cut are America’s wealthy.
It will be a giant upward transfer of wealth.
Trump has made astronomical estimates about how much money tariffs can raise.
“We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before,” he said during his recent joint address to Congress. “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again.”
Last Sunday on Air Force One, Trump was even more ebullient. “We’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,” he said.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that if Trump’s already-announced tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada went into effect, they’d bring about $120 billion a year into the U.S. treasury, and $1.3 trillion over the course of 10 years.
Among Trump’s first actions at the outset of his second term was to order the treasury to establish an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariff revenue that would enable the U.S. to pay down its debt and reduce taxes.
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s secretary of commerce, said on Fox News in late February that the goal of the External Revenue Service “is very simple: to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay.”
At A Glance
Does wearing a hat cause baldness?
Meet the man who stole billions in crypto. (via YouTube)
How being antisocial could hurt your health.
Go back in time with this spring break time machine.
Dolphins welcome NASA astronauts back to Earth.
The stats on why people bet on March Madness.
What happens if you shoot a gun in space.
Clickbait: New Zealand celebrates the world's ugliest animal.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Luke Combs, and Tyler, the Creator among headliners tapped to perform at 2025 Lollapalooza in Chicago (July 31-Aug. 3); see full festival lineup (More)
> "Fire & Rain" stage musical using James Taylor's music in development (More) | "Happy Gilmore" sequel sets July 25 release date on Netflix (More)
> NCAA men's basketball tournament kicks off with "First Four" matchups; see latest bracket (More) | ... and women's tournament begins tonight; see "First Four" schedule (More) | NCAA to allow athletes to negotiate name, image, and likeness deals with schools before their enrollment (More)
Science & Technology
> Meta reports global downloads of its open-source Llama AI model tops 1 billion (More) | How generative AI works (1440 Topics)
> China's BYD says it has developed electric vehicle charging platform capable of recharging cars as quickly as filling a gas tank (More) | How EVs work (1440 Topics)
> New study finds cells lining organs and skin generate electricity when injured; discovery may lead to new wound-healing therapies (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets resume sell-off (S&P 500 -1.1%, Dow -0.6%, Nasdaq -1.7%) following two days of gains (More) | Tesla shares drop 5.3%, down 53% since all-time peak in December (More)
> Google to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32B, the largest acquisition in company history; also marks the largest-ever cybersecurity acquisition (More) | Google 101 (1440 Topics)
> Pharma giant Pfizer sells remaining stake in British healthcare group Haleon, maker of brands including Advil, Sensodyne, and more (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin hold hourlong call; Putin agrees to 30-day suspension of attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure (More) | Chief Justice John Roberts makes rare public statement rebuking Trump for calls to impeach federal judge who paused deportations (More)
> Paris police remove hundreds of migrants from downtown theater following monthslong occupation of venue (More)
> Family of Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old student who disappeared while on spring break in the Dominican Republic, acknowledge she likely drowned (More) | Development of story captured public attention; see overview here (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
DOGE
Trump's Department of Government Efficiency is locating and recommending to Congress that waste and redundancy be removed from government spending. On the surface, no one should object, however, that is exactly what is happening.
The Democratic Party is using Democratic Appointed Judges to issue injunctions to slow down and possibly stop what DOGE is doing.
Why?
The Democrats claim that:
- DOGE is using a chainsaw rather than a scalpel
- DOGE has no plan of attack
On the other side of the coin, DOGE is finding billions of dollars of wasted spending and thousands of employees that are simply not needed and are removing them.
Can you imagine our government spending 50% less of what they are currently spending and what that would do to the taxes we are currently paying?
Additionally, let suppose we save 50% in spending but keep our same level of taxes, then our government should be able to offer FREE HEALTHCARE TO EVERYONE or come damn close to doing that.
I don't waste my money, and I don't want our government to waste my tax dollars either.
Square waves: The deadly chessboard pattern threatening sailors
People on a fishing boat in the Aegean Sea had an unsettling experience when they noticed square waves creating a chessboard-like pattern all around them. This phenomenon, which quickly drew concern, is an unusual sight in the ocean.
Square waves, also known as a cross sea, are caused by two interacting wave systems traveling at different speeds and trajectories.
This activity was examined by Dr. Silvio Davison from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR) in Venice, Italy.
Understanding waves – the basics
Ocean waves are nature’s way of keeping the sea in constant motion. Wind blows across the surface, transferring its energy to the water and creating waves that can travel thousands of miles.
The size and strength of a wave depend on three things: wind speed, how long the wind blows, and the distance it travels over open water (also called fetch). The longer and stronger these forces act, the bigger the waves get.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)