In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NBA postseason kicks off tonight with the Play-In Tournament; see full play-in schedule (More) | Dallas Wings take former UConn star Paige Bueckers with the top pick in the WNBA Draft; see complete draft results (More)

> Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Prize-winning Peruvian author, academic, and Latin American political leader, dies at age 89 (More)

> HBO reveals first actors cast for upcoming "Harry Potter" TV series (More) | Tony Award winner Leslie Odom Jr. to reprise role of Aaron Burr in Broadway's "Hamilton" this fall (More)


Science & Technology
> OpenAI releases GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and GPT‑4.1 nano, which can code and follow instructions; OpenAI claims the latest model, available via its API rather than through ChatGPT, outperforms other models (More) | Google launches new AI model to help researchers decode dolphin communication (More)

> Study finds Earth's atmosphere and the sun filter out fragile, carbon-rich meteoroids before they can reach the ground; answers long-running question about why carbon-rich meteorites, which are abundant in space, rarely reach Earth (More)

> Wearable AI system uses visual, audio, and haptic signals to help blind and partially sighted people navigate obstacles; walking distance and navigation time improved by 25% compared to using a cane (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.8%, Dow +0.8%, Nasdaq +0.6%) as tech shares rise after the US exempts electronics from import tariffs (More)

> Nvidia to mass-produce artificial intelligence supercomputer chips in the US for the first time; announces up to $500B investment in the US over the next four years, including in Texas and Arizona (More)

> Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the witness stand on first day of antitrust trial; federal regulators argue Meta—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—monopolized personal social networking services (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Trump administration freezes over $2.2B in funding to Harvard after the university rejected the administration's requests to overhaul its policies and processes, becoming first university to refuse to comply with such requests (More)

> Suspect charged with attempted murder, arson, and more after setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's (D) home; the 38-year-old man told investigators he would have beaten Shapiro with a hammer (More) | Jury selected in retrial of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) libel suit against The New York Times (More)

> Hungary approves constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ public gatherings; legislation was first proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (More)

SOURCE:  1440

Our LIFE

 

After 77 years of life, what have I learned...   and what might I have done differently?

LEARNED

I have maintained my own integrity in the sense that I never allowed myself to be told what to do, other than the six years I spent in the military.

I have always told the truth, kissed no one's ass and maintained loyalty to those who maintained loyalty to me.

So, through these actions, I have learned that self is the most important...  take care of self so that you can take care of those who are important to you.

Some may say that forgiveness is what we should learn and while that is important, one never really forgives...  over time, one simply sees that the action perpetrated against a person is no longer important.

DONE DIFFERENTLY

This one is difficult in that there are all sorts of things, actions, behaviors, etc., that we wished we had not done or done differently...  but that is the wrong way to look at it.

First of all, one must believe that there is some sort of creator out there, not necessarily our religious God.  For me, this is easy to believe because of the complexity of the universe...  that could not have happened randomly or by random chaos.  It had to have been designed.

With that in mind, it is relatively easy to believe that our future has already been seen, therefore, whatever we do, we were supposed to have done in order to get us to the point where we are now.

In other words, we have become that which we were supposed to have become from the getgo.

Somewhat Political

 

A Century-Old Cosmic Mystery Solved – Four Hidden Planets Found Near Earth

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four rocky planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, our nearest solitary stellar neighbor just six light-years away.

Using ultra-sensitive instruments, scientists detected subtle wobbles in the star’s light caused by the gravitational pull of these tiny worlds, each far smaller than Earth. These signals were buried under a noisy background of stellar jitters, but through advanced modeling and precise data analysis, researchers were able to separate the planet from the star.

A New Planetary Family Next Door
Astronomers have discovered four rocky planets, all significantly smaller than Earth, orbiting Barnard’s Star — the closest single star to our Sun and second closest overall, after the Alpha Centauri system.

READ MORE...

The Doobie Brothers - Listen To The Music (Reprise) [Live From The Beaco...

All is Well

VINCE

 

Brookings Brief

Treasury market dysfunction and the role of the central bank

Robert Reich

This week’s winners of the Joseph Welch and Neville Chamberlain awards
Harvard University gets the Welch. Seven big law firms get the Chamberlain.








Friends,

Today I’d like to announce award winners in two contrasting categories.

First is this week’s Joseph Welch Award.

As you may recall, Joseph Welch was the brave person who stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt at the Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954 — asking McCarthy, in front of the nation’s television cameras, “Have you no sense of decency?” — thereby precipitating McCarthy’s downfall.

This week’s Joseph Welch Award goes to Harvard University, which explicitly rejected policy changes demanded by the Trump regime — becoming the first university to directly refuse to comply with the regime’s demands.

The Trump regime threatened to revoke $256 million in federal contracts and an additional $8.7 billion in what it described as multiyear grant commitments unless Harvard agreed to “reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is ‘viewpoint diverse,’” among other steps.

Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, responded on Monday in a statement to the university that “no government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

READ MORE...

At A Glance

All of today's Tax Day food deals.

... and even ancient civilizations paid taxes.

... plus, how your tax rate actually works.

A 6,000-year-old "gummy bear" may have been a Stone Age amulet.

Are planes really falling from the sky?

How a funeral home became Warner Records.

Are twins allergic to the same things?

A German community's 1,500-year-old Easter egg tradition.

Clickbait: Florida café offers coffee and capybara cuddles.

Good Morning

Cheap And Healthy Meals For The Week, Done In 1 Hour

Quick Clips

 

In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "A Minecraft Movie" pulls in $80M at the box office in its second weekend to become 2025's biggest seller at the US domestic box office (More)

> WNBA Draft is tonight (7:30 pm ET, ESPN); see latest first-round mock draft (More) | Western Michigan tops Boston to win its first NCAA men's hockey national title (More)

> Don Mischer, 15-time Emmy-winning live events director, dies at age 85 (More) | Nicky Katt, actor best known for "Dazed and Confused" and "Boston Public," dies at age 54 (More)


Science & Technology
> Blue Origin to launch first all-female group spaceflight, with crew including pop star Katy Perry, TV host Gayle King, and others; launch window opens at 9:30 am ET, stream live here (More)

> Astrophysicists find half of the universe's hydrogen; the previously undetected, diffuse ionized gas partially accounts for the universe's "missing" normal matter (More)

> Scientists engineer bacteria capable of emitting signals that can be spotted almost a football field away; technique may aid in monitoring pollution, soil health, and more (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close up Friday (S&P 500 +1.8%, Dow +1.6%, Nasdaq +2.1%), closing tumultuous week following tariff uncertainty (More) | Ten-year US Treasury yield nears 4.5%, notches the biggest weekly jump since 2001 as investors grow anxious over US assets (More)

> President Donald Trump to exempt some major electronics, including smartphones and computers, from 10% global tariffs and additional 125% Chinese tariff (More) | How tariffs work (1440 Topics)

> India's JioHotstar passes 200 million paid subscribers, becomes the world's third-largest streaming service behind Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Trump administration confirms Maryland man mistakenly deported to Salvadoran prison is alive in the facility, declines to say whether it is complying with order to facilitate his return (More) | See case overview (More)

> At least 34 people killed, 80 others wounded following Russian attack on Ukrainian city of Sumy during Palm Sunday services (More) | Attack comes two days after US officials push Russian President Vladimir Putin to advance ceasefire process (More)

> Harvard faculty sue Trump administration over its effort to freeze and review nearly $9B in federal funding; federal officials previously ordered the school to end all DEI-related programs, among other demands (More) | Police investigating potential arson at Pennsylvania governor's mansion; no injuries reported (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Is Judas a HERO?

 

If you are a Christian or believe in the Christian Faith, you will instantly think that my title question is ludicris...  Judas betrayed Jesus - Jesus was arrested - convicted, and crucified...

YES...  all true...

BUT...  without his crucifixion, Jesus would not have DIED FOR OUR SINS ON THE CROSS...  which is a fundamental foundation of Christianity.

NOW...

We believe that God controls all.

We believe that God is responsible for the birth of Jesus.

We know God gave Jesus the ability to decline to be crucified but he did not go that route.

Did Jesus make that decision or did God?

Similarly...

Did Judas betray Jesus or did God create the situation where Judas had no choice but to obey God and do what he needed to do?

SIMPLY PUT...

God needed Jesus to die on the cross in order for HIS WILL TO BE DONE.

The whole of Christianity revolves around GOD'S WILL BEING DONE on earth as it is in HEAVEN.

Christians are given the choice whether to believe or not believe...

Is today's life on earth the consequence of Christians not really believing what they claim to believe?

Are we like Judas?

Somewhat Political

 

He Vanished Into a Cave for 63 Days—And Emerged With a Scientific Breakthrough No One Saw Coming

In the summer of 1962, a young French geologist named Michel Siffre descended into a glacial cave in the French Alps with no clock, no calendar, and no contact with the outside world. When he emerged 63 days later, he didn’t know the date, couldn’t estimate how much time had passed, and described himself as feeling like a “half-crazed, disjointed marionette.”


What had started as a geological expedition became a pioneering experiment in human biology, laying the foundation for the scientific field of chronobiology—the study of the body’s internal clock. Siffre had originally planned to study a newly discovered glacier in Scarasson, a remote and icy cave system located 130 meters below the surface.

His initial goal was to spend just fifteen days underground. But after further reflection, he decided that two weeks would be insufficient for a meaningful investigation. He expanded the expedition to a full two months, designing what would become one of the most extreme self-experiments in scientific history.

READ MORE...

Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show - Cover Of The Rolling Stone (Austrian TV, ...

All the Best

 

Lara Logan

 

Robert Reich

The American oligarchy is petrified by Trump’s economic chaos but careful not to criticize him directly







Friends,

As tens of millions of Americans hussle to pay their taxes, Trump has put the entire global economy into chaos. 401(k)s are tanking, savings are shrinking, treasury bonds are losing value, supply chains are convulsing.

Even America’s oligarchs are petrified. They contributed millions to Trump’s inauguration. Many invested heavily in his campaign. They lavished praise on the new president and have supported his every move — in order to benefit from his promised big tax cut.

But the chaos he’s unleashed on the world economy is causing many of them to go public with their worries.

“Obviously,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, said in a conference call with reporters, “the China stuff is significant. We don’t know the full effect.”

But we do know that global investors are fleeing Treasury bonds, which had been the safest place to put money in the world. That may not be the full effect, but it’s a huge and frightening one.

READ MORE...

At A Glance

The unique items in Uber's lost and found.

How to snag a reservation at the 17 toughest dinner spots.

Residents fight to reclaim Brownsville, Pennsylvania.

The most popular language to learn in each country.

America's hottest neighborhoods in 2025.

... and how old churches can solve the country's housing crisis.

Can we use depleted uranium for everyday batteries?

The science of cordyceps, the parasitic costar of HBO's "Last of Us" (w/video).

Clickbait: Experts debate cats' fear of cucumbers.

Good Morning

 

Healthy Weeknight Meals Done In 30 Minutes

Quick Clips

 

Explore the Founding Generation

The American Revolution in happiness

The founding figures of the United States placed happiness at the center of good governance. This podcast explores the central place human flourishing played in the revolution, highlighting the influence of Greek and Roman moral philosophy on the founders’ constitutional ideas. Expert Jeffrey Rosen weighs in with surprising tidbits. Listen here.


Shays’ Rebellion: the revolt against the revolution

The Revolutionary War led to independence as well as significant debt for most states. In 1786, a group of veterans and farmers from western Massachusetts protested against the state government’s increased taxes. Led by Daniel Shays, the group attempted to capture an armory in Springfield but failed—and two men were hanged. Watch this video for more.


The impact of coffee on revolutionary America

In colonial America, coffee and politics were inextricably intertwined. Coffeehouses had long been places for revolutionary thinkers to gather, and the colonies were no exception: Boston’s Green Dragon coffeehouse was known as the “Headquarters of the Revolution” because Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty used it as a meeting place. Read here.


Peggy Shippen, the highest-paid spy of the American Revolution

Few names conjure up the idea of betrayal more than Benedict Arnold, the notorious American military officer who was caught attempting to hand over West Point to the British during the Revolutionary War. This podcast episode dives into the key role his wife, wealthy spy Peggy Shippen, played in the plot. Listen to the full episode here.


Who were the Sons of Liberty?

The radical, patriotic Sons of Liberty were born in response to British taxation in the American colonies during the 1760s. Its members included major revolutionary figures Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, and their resistance efforts led to the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 and the broader revolution. Read about this key revolutionary group here.


A virtual tour of Philadelphia’s American Revolution Museum

Philadelphia’s Old City hosts one of the largest museums on the American Revolution. This virtual tour allows you to view the museum’s exhibits as if you were really there by zooming in on descriptions, browsing images, and learning about artifacts, portraits, and more. Travel back in time with this high-quality set of exhibits.

Selling Your Vehicle

My wife and I purchased a leased 2015 Toyota Venza XLE in 2016 and when the vehicle reached 100,000 miles in 2025, we decided to sell it.  The bluebook value for our vehicle was right around 12K with a retail value of 15K.  The dealer wanted to give us 9.5K and we sold it ourselves for 11.5K.

Our vehicle is in excellent shape to be 10 years old with only 102,000 miles on the odometer which averages to 10K/year.  We had the vehicle maintenanced according to the Toyota recommended schedule and the vehicle has never been in an accident.  We kept it almost spotless inside.

The main reason that we want to get a new vehicle was not because it was 10 years old, or it was out of style, or no longer comfortable, but because as I get older, my driving skills have dimenished and I need a warning light on my side mirror which the 2015 did not have.  I have been honked at numerous times for unsafely changing into my left lane.

My wife and I designed an advertisement that we posted on Facebook's Marketplace and we had an offer in less than 3 hours.  While we could have held out for more money, it is doubtful that we would have gptten much above 12K, and our buyer was willing to pay cash...  that we had checked at the bank to make sure all bills were legit.

Two items here to think about.

One - use Facebook Marketplace when selling or buying

Two - maintenance your vehicle according to the recommended schedule and keep it clean, in case you want to resell.  

Somewhat Poitical

 

Rogueclassicism

Rogueclassicism is a movement or blog that brings the study of the ancient world, particularly Greece and Rome, to a wider audience beyond the academic setting. It aims to make classical studies accessible to the incarcerated, veterans, and underprivileged children, offering "intellectual life-lines". The movement also explores unconventional topics and interpretations within the field of Classics, as exemplified by a blog post about the rarity of stories about animal ghosts in ancient Greece and Rome.


Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Breaking Down the Academy:
Rogueclassicism seeks to move Classics out of the ivory tower of academia and into the lives of people who may not have access to formal education or are in challenging situations.


Reaching Underprivileged Groups:
The movement focuses on individuals who may be incarcerated, veterans, or children with limited access to quality education.


Exploring Unconventional Classics:
Beyond its focus on accessibility, Rogueclassicism also tackles topics that are not traditionally considered part of Classics, such as the depiction of animal ghosts in ancient Greek and Roman culture.


Origin and Evolution:
The term "rogueclassicism" originated in the late 1990s as a signature file on a Classics listserv. With the rise of blogging, the movement was resurrected, with the blog becoming a platform for exploring various aspects of the classical world.

Foghat - I Just Want to Make Love to You (live 1974)