Saturday, August 2
Headlines
Christopher Furlong, Contributor/Getty Images
Trump says he repositioned nuclear subs after Russian official’s threats. In an escalation of tensions with Russia, President Trump said on social media yesterday that he had “ordered two nuclear submarines” to be moved into “appropriate regions.” The post came in response to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev saying online this week that the US making demands to force a ceasefire with Ukraine was a “step towards war.” Trump’s post stated: “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences. I hope this will not be one of those instances.” Medvedev’s comments came after Trump recently gave Russia a tight deadline to end its invasion of Ukraine or have the US put “secondary tariffs” on its trading partners.
Jury finds Tesla should pay $243m over fatal Autopilot crash. A Florida jury decided yesterday that Tesla’s self-driving software was partially to blame for a fatal 2019 crash, and that the EV-maker should pay the victim’s family and an injured survivor $243 million in damages. The decision represents the first major court loss for Tesla over its self-driving tech. The lead attorney for the plaintiffs said it “represents justice” and holds Elon Musk and Tesla “accountable for propping up the company’s trillion-dollar valuation with self-driving hype at the expense of human lives.” Tesla said it plans to appeal, “given the substantial errors of law and irregularities at trial.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will shut down due to federal funding cuts. The nonprofit that helps fund more than 1,500 local NPR and PBS stations said it will wind down its operations, with most staff being let go by the end of next month. The demise of the CPB, which Congress had funded for almost 60 years, comes after Republicans in Congress passed spending cuts requested by President Trump that included clawing back $1.1 billion that had been budgeted for the group. Trump had prioritized defunding public media, saying it was biased in an April executive order.—AR
Robert Reich
He hates facts. He rejects truth. He doesn’t want the public to know what’s really happening.
Friends,
Sorry to intrude again on your day, but this is urgent.
I spent much of the 1990s as secretary of labor. One unit of the Labor Department is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I was instructed by my predecessors as well as by the White House, and by every labor economist and statistician I came in contact with, that one of my cardinal responsibilities was to guard the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Otherwise, this crown jewel of knowledge about jobs and the economy would be compromised. If politicized, it would no longer be trusted as a source of information.
So what does Trump do? In one fell swoop on Friday he essentially destroyed the credibility of the BLS.
Bookkeeping
> 1,761 cubic feet: Size of the world's largest claw machine, found at an arcade in the Philippines.
> 33,740 degrees Fahrenheit: The temperature of a piece of gold superheated past its theoretical limit without melting.
Browse
> How texting too much can lead to arthritis.
> Michael Phelps is giving Baltimore Ravens players swim lessons.
> These jobs are least likely to be overtaken by AI.
> Gossip is good for you, according to a psychologist.
> Ranking every Marvel Studios movie and show, from worst to best.
Listen
> Why our brains fall for optical illusions.
Watch
> How airlines decide which plane to use.
> Ranking the world's stinkiest cheeses.
> Learn about your health through your poop.
Long Read
> Monkeys run this criminal enterprise.
> New research investigates whether single cells can learn and remember.
> Are GLP-1s—like Ozempic and Wegovy—really catch-all drugs?
Most Clicked This Week: See 31 of the US' most beautiful towns.
Historybook: Declaration of Independence is signed (1776); American actress Myrna Loy born (1905); Alexander Graham Bell dies (1922); Author and activist James Baldwin born (1924); Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to Gulf War (1990).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Pro Football Hall of Fame to induct 2025 class tomorrow featuring Antonio Gates, Sterling Sharpe, Eric Allen, and Jared Allen (More) | ESPN cut ties with Shannon Sharpe after Sharpe settles sexual assault lawsuit (More)
> Justin Timberlake reveals Lyme disease diagnosis, which left the singer dealing with nerve pain and fatigue while in the middle of his world concert tour (More)
> Sean "Diddy" Combs requests conviction be overturned ahead of his October sentencing (More) | UFC star Conor McGregor loses appeal in civil sexual assault case; McGregor was found liable for sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 (More)
Science & Technology
> Google DeepMind unveils AlphaEarth Foundations, combining its AI models with observational data from satellites; platform allows researchers unprecedented detail in monitoring changes on the planet's surface (More)
> Modern potatoes originated from a chance cross-pollination between ancient tomato plants and a related plant species; event occurred roughly 9 million years ago near the Andes Mountains, per study (More)
> Neuroscientists pinpoint brain region that helps distinguish between solid objects and viscous fluids; findings shed light on how the brain evolved to interact with the physical world (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close down (S&P 500 -0.4%, Dow -0.7%, Nasdaq -0.0%) (More) | Core personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures costs consumers pay across a wide range of items, excluding food and energy, rose 2.8% year over year in June; figure matches May's upwardly revised rate (More)
> Figma shares more than triple in NYSE debut, valuing design-software maker at roughly $48B (More) | Reddit shares rise over 10% in after-hours trading after better-than-expected Q2 results (More) | Apple reports largest revenue growth since December 2021 (More)
> OpenAI reaches $12B in annualized revenue; reports 700 million weekly active users for its ChatGPT products (More) | ... and will build its first European AI data center in Norway (More) | Learn more about OpenAI (1440 Topics)
Politics & World Affairs
> Ukraine's parliament passes legislation restoring the powers of two anticorruption agencies after domestic protests; the new bill reverses a move last week to sideline the agencies over allegations they were filled with Russian agents (More)
> US Northeast braces for torrential rain and possible flash flooding, with states of emergency declared in New Jersey, New York City (More)
> Texas' Kerr County emergency management director tells state lawmakers he was out sick, asleep when the Guadalupe River began seeing catastrophic flooding early last month (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Morning Ritual
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Each morning or at least most mornings, I wake up between 7:00 am and 8:00 am, without relying on an alarm clock. There is a tendency for me to take a leak and go back to bed but I resist and just take the leak.
Our three cats are waiting at the door for it to open by one of the occupants inside, to give them their morning treat. It is usually me. Once their treat has been given, I take the can of cat food out of the frig to let it warm up. This can is for the outside cat that comes to visit every day... Go figure why??? lol
I then put treat in a bowl and take it outside for the stray cat that we call Little Boy but who only answers to Kitty Kitty.
My next task is to take my thyroid pill with water and prepare my first morning cup of using a McCafe Decaf Keurig K-cup and pressing the button for 12oz, diluting it even further.
There was a time when I could drink several cups of regular KONA coffee without cream or sugar.
Today, I drink decaf and further soften it down with 4 teaspoons (heaping) of Sugar Free Cappuccino Mix.
Fortunately for me, within 90 minutes (more often than not) the coffee does wonders with my bowels and I am usually in the bathroom.
My ritual continues with the daily preparing of two blogs. I post 1 newly written poem to my poetry blog and 20-30 items to my journal blog, along with drinking 2-3 more cups of 12oz coffees. These chores are accomplished while watching FOX News.
It is usually somewhere between 10:00 am and 11:00 am so it is time for breakfast. My breakfast, more often than not, consists of raisin bran cereal and sugar free yogurt.
Once breakfast is completed, I begin work on my novels which may require some research before writing. I like to research the names of streets and restaurants for instance to make sure they were operational in the year I am writing about. Or if in a foreign country, I research roads, landmarks, and what might be nearby.
Lunch is usually a sandwich with tuna salad and mayo or chicken salad on pita followed by 2 oatmeal cookies. Sometimes, while writing I also attend to making soup, or some kind of meal for dinner - usually a one-pot something that fits in 3-4 plastic containers that go in the frig.
Late afternoon, I watch a movie or two to three episodes of a series that has attracted my attention. While watching, I will eat something for dinner.
After the movie, I mess around with Facebook, X, Truth Social, or Bluesky until it is time to go to bed around 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm.
Astronomers Discover Mysterious Radio Pulsing White Dwarf
A Team of astronomers have made a fascinating discovery that forces us to rethink our understanding of how dead stars behave. Using the powerful Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands, the team have found a white dwarf star that's doing something completely unexpected, sending out bright radio pulses in a strange, rhythmic pattern.
The star system, officially called ILT J163430+445010 (or J1634+44 for short), is located over 3,500 light years from Earth. What makes it extraordinary isn't just that it's sending radio signals, it’s how those signals behave. Every 14 minutes, this dead star emits radio pulses that have a bizarre twist, some waves spin in circles while others vibrate in straight lines. This rapid switching between different types of polarization has never been seen before in any white dwarf.
Friday, August 1
Headlines
Jason Redmond/Getty Images
Microsoft is the second company ever to be worth $4 trillion. The company that brought you Clippy has now joined Nvidia in the $4 trillion market cap club, and, like Nvidia, it has AI to thank. Microsoft hit the milestone yesterday as investors digested its earnings report, which showed 18% revenue growth. The company also reported that annual revenue from its Azure cloud computing unit jumped 34% from its previous fiscal year, taking in more than $75 billion. But as with the rest of Big Tech, investing in AI requires a lot of cash, and Microsoft said it plans to spend $30 billion on AI infrastructure next quarter.
Apple’s quarterly revenue grew by the most since December 2021. With iPhone sales up by 30% and sales in China rising 4%, Apple blew past Wall Street’s expectations when it reported its Q3 earnings yesterday, as overall sales hit $94 billion, about 10% higher than in the same period a year ago. Though tariffs cost Apple $800 million, they also helped spur sales as consumers raced to buy new tech before higher prices kick in. The other member of the Magnificent Seven to report earnings yesterday, Amazon, didn’t leave investors impressed. Amazon also reported better-than-expected numbers, with revenue and profit both up. But the e-commerce giant’s stock fell in after-hours trading because its cloud business wasn’t growing as rapidly as its rivals’, leaving investors worried its AI investments weren’t paying off enough.
Figma jumps more than 250% in trading debut. Sometimes you lose a $20 billion merger opportunity but still win in the end. Design software-maker Figma’s stock soared on the NYSE after it sold $1.2 billion worth of shares for $33 each in an IPO, giving it a value above the amount it had agreed to sell itself to Adobe for before the deal fell apart in 2023. The stock rose so fast that trading had to be halted for volatility. The company’s success is a good sign for the tech IPO market, which had been in a lull for the past few years but has seen a few other buzzy debuts recently, like Circle and Chime.—AR
Robert Reich
No!
Friends,
Some people tell me that I should be talking more about the climate crisis than the crisis of democracy.
But you know something? We can’t deal with the climate crisis unless our democracy is saved.
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, just announced that the Trump administration will revoke the scientific determination that underpins the government’s legal authority to combat climate change — the “endangerment finding” of 2009, which concluded that planet-warming greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health.
That simple finding has allowed administration after administration to set strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, power plants, and other industrial sources of pollution.
At A Glance
(7/9/2025) What happens when you flush an airplane toilet.
(7/14/2025) Girl's note to home residents found on empty toilet paper roll.
(7/7/2025) Roughly 1,500 bikers show up to accompany bullied teen to prom.
(7/15/2025) Housekeeping reveals the dirtiest parts of a hotel room.
(7/8/2025) A guide to America's loneliest road.
(7/11/2025) Why Dairy Queen can't legally sell "ice cream."
(7/9/2025) Earth is spinning unusually fast today.
(7/22/2025) A potential fix for America's public bathroom crisis.
(7/3/2025) See a ranking of the best hot dog brands.
(7/7/2025) Study reveals six factors determining what makes someone cool.
Clickbait: World's richest woman opens a medical school.
Historybook: "Moby-Dick" author Herman Melville born (1819); American frontierswoman Calamity Jane dies (1903); Sniper kills 14, wounds 31 at University of Texas (1966); MTV launches with "Video Killed the Radio Star" as first video (1981).
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