Thursday, April 17
In The News
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "Good Night, and Good Luck," starring George Clooney, hauls in $3.7M to break its own weekly box office record for a Broadway play (More)
> Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium tapped as baseball venue for 2028 Summer Olympics as LA28 organizers unveil complete venue plan for Olympic Games (More)
> Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter accused in lawsuit of sexual assault; Carter has now been accused by four women of sexual assault (More)
Science & Technology
> OpenAI reportedly considering its own social media platform to compete with Elon Musk's X, tied to its newest image-generation feature (More) | Everything you want to know about OpenAI (1440 Topics)
> AI startup Anthropic's premium Claude chatbot now integrates with Google Workspace, enabling it to reference emails in Gmail, search documents in Google Docs, and schedule events in Google Calendar (More)
> Brain imaging study reveals dogs with elongated brains exhibit stronger connections in olfactory brain regions than dogs with rounder-shaped brains, impacting their sense of smell (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.0%) (More) | Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares rise 5% after activist Elliott Investment Management takes $1.5B stake (More)
> Johnson & Johnson says it expects $400M in tariff-related costs this year, mostly related to China (More) | Apple airlifted iPhones worth a record $2B from India last month as US tariffs loomed (More) | ... and China is reportedly ordering its airlines to stop accepting deliveries of Boeing jets in response to US import tariffs (More)
> Federal judge scraps US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule capping credit card late fees at $8, says rule prevents card issuers from imposing fees that are proportionate to violations (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Measles cases linked to Texas outbreak rise to 561, with 20 new infections confirmed over the last five days and at least 58 people hospitalized so far, per new data from Texas health officials (More) | See nationwide CDC data (More)
> Singapore dissolves Parliament, sets general elections for May 3; the People’s Action Party, which has ruled Singapore since the country's independence from Malaysia in 1965, is expected to maintain control (More)
> US Justice Department unseals drug trafficking charges against two leaders of Mexican drug cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization, offering up to $8M for information leading to their arrest (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Debt Free
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At the age of 62, my wife and I became debt free... that was 15 years ago in 2010. The only debt we had back then was our mortgage. While we used credit cards, we always paid off the amount before any interest was due. Back in 2000, we arranged it so that we had no vehicle debt either.
From 1975 until 2000, we were just like any other couple, struggling with our debt, deciding which bill to pay and which bill to let ride for another month... sometimes, working a second job to pay off the debt so we could live like we perceived other people lived.
The problem was that we were well educated but living in the south in a low wage jurisdiction which meant our desires exceeded our means.
One of the ways that one gets debt free is to reverse that concept and have one's means exceed one's desires.
That is typically easier said than done.
For us, it was cutting back on cost of a vehicle and the cost of a house, while working second jobs to pay down as much debt as we could as quick as we could.
For instance, instead of buying a $300,000 house, you buy $150,000 or 1200 square feet instead of 3000 square feet. Another example might be a $30,000 vehicle instead of a $50,000 vehicle.
One (or couple) must decide what's important... For us, we thought no debt and saving for retirement was more important that a fancy car and large house.
Today, the money that we have been able to save is now invested in a CD (not the stock market) and generates $4,000/month. This money along with our social security, gives us plenty of money to live like we want without having to do without anymore.
Boston Dynamics' next leap: Humanoids built for the real world
Boston Dynamics isn’t building humanoid robots because they’re flashy; they’re building them because they’re necessary. “We humans have designed our world around us,” Aaron Saunders said. “And until we redesign the world, the fastest way to bring robots into it… is to make them more like us.”
Aaron Saunders, CTO at Boston Dynamics, isn’t shy about the ambition behind the company’s latest innovations. “AI by itself on a cell phone is only so useful,” he said in his keynote for the Dutch National Congress on Autonomous Systems. “But if you put AI inside a robot, now you can interact with the physical world.” That’s where things get truly interesting.
Boston Dynamics has long been known for its dynamic robots: Spot, the dog-like robot, and Atlas, the humanoid that flips, dances, and runs. But today, the company is entering a new phase: moving from research icons to real-world applications. And the humanoid robot is at the center of that mission.
Wednesday, April 16
Robert Reich
Office Hours: What to do if your old friend becomes a Trumper and asks you to dinner?
Friends,
Today’s Office Hours involves a more personal question than most, but I decided to ask it because it may be one you’re struggling with as well.
An old college friend of mine will be in town next week. He just emailed and asked if we could get together for dinner.
We’ve been good friends over the years, but several months ago he emailed me to say he’d become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump. I was appalled, of course. But now that he’s coming to town and wants to have dinner with me, I frankly don’t know what to do.
I decided to share this conundrum with you and seek your advice because I suspect some of you might find yourself in a similar position with regard to old friends or even family members.
Here are the options I’ve considered:
At A Glance
See NASA's detailed image of a dying star.
Mapping the highest and lowest tax refunds by state.
Ranking the best states for older workers.
First woman competes in Army Ranger contest.
See miniature models of the city of London.
How scents influence our choice of friends.
Nonprofit provides solar-powered tricycles. (via YouTube)
Why we have wisdom teeth.
Clickbait: The case for no phone cases.
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
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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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 15
Robert Reich
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.”
At A Glance
... 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.
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?
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.
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