Sunday, August 3
In The NEWS
Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it will shut down.
The CPB subsidizes over 1,500 local media stations, including those affiliated with PBS and NPR; it was created by Congress in 1967 (see timeline of history). CPB announced Friday it will begin shutting down operations and cut the majority of its staff by Sept. 30. The move follows Congress' decision last month to claw back nearly $8B in previously authorized funding for foreign aid programs and $1.1B in funding for the CPB over the next two years.
"Fire clouds" over Arizona and Utah wildfires create their own climate.
Wildfires in the Grand Canyon and Monroe, Utah, are creating pyrocumulus and pyrocumulonimbus "fire clouds," which can generate their own dangerous weather, including strong winds that threaten to spread the fires rapidly. Pyrocumulus clouds are smoke- and ash-filled clouds formed by rising hot air from fires; if conditions allow, they grow into pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which are intense fire-driven thunderstorm clouds. The clouds have been observed for several days, with some producing fire tornadoes (see overview) and contributing to the hazardous conditions amid ongoing drought and extreme heat.
South African rhino horns turned radioactive to curb poaching.
The Rhisotope Project in South Africa has developed a safe method to embed low-level radioactive isotopes into rhino horns to combat poaching. The horns are detectable by radiation scanners at borders and ports worldwide, including through 40-foot shipping containers. The project aims to deter illegal wildlife trafficking by offering a tool to protect endangered rhino populations. Last year, 420 rhinos were killed in South Africa; see poaching stats here.
Pre-Incan tomb with 1,000-year-old remains unearthed in Peru.
Utility workers expanding underground gas networks in Lima, Peru, uncovered two pre-Incan tombs, one empty and the other containing the 1,000-year-old remains of an individual along with four clay vessels and three pumpkin shell artifacts. The discovery adds to over 2,200 archaeological findings made during more than 20 years of similar excavation work by the gas company, Cálidda, in a city known for having more than 400 archaeological sites from the Inca era or earlier periods.
Ghislaine Maxwell moved from Florida federal prison to Texas.
Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking minors tied to late financier Jeffrey Epstein, has been transferred from a Florida federal prison to a minimum-security facility in Texas. The move comes as Maxwell pursues a deal to lessen her sentence or obtain a pardon, reportedly negotiating with the Justice Department for potential revelations about Epstein and his associates.
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Robots and Purchasing Power
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What we must consider is that it is not just jobs that will be replaced but AI alone will demand, at the rate it is growing, twice our current electrical output.
Electric Vehicles will not grow as rapidly as predicted, but humanoid robots will.
It will all be over but the shouting by 2030 or earlier where just a year or two ago, experts were saying not until 2040 or beyond. Obviously, they were WRONG.
Without jobs, Americans CANNOT BUY much of anything unless the government provides them with a minimum level of income that is survivable. In order to do this appropriately, the wealthy will be forced to pay a lot more taxes and higher tariffs must be initiated.
This will screw up our international trade deals and make the US the enemy of the rest of the world.
However, the rest of the world will be in a similar situation because robots will be replacing their jobs as well.
Technology will PUSH US INTO A POSITION where the governments with the help of corporations will provide for the people even if the people do not work.
How can this happen?
If robots replace workers because it is cheaper to manufacture that way, then who will buy the product if the worker is not working - they will have no money.
So, why manufacture, if a majority of the people don't have the money to buy.
THEREFORE, somebody must provide the people with the means to buy as they are not working...
Somebody did not think this through very well.
In a first, quantum entanglement is made reversible with the help of unique battery
For more than a century, the laws of thermodynamics have helped us understand how energy moves, how engines work, and why time seems to flow in one direction. Now, researchers have made a similarly powerful discovery, but in the strange world of quantum physics.
Scientists have shown for the first time that entanglement, the mysterious link between quantum particles, can be reversibly manipulated just like heat or energy in a perfect thermodynamic cycle.
The researchers support their findings using a novel concept called an entanglement battery, which allows entanglement to flow in and out of quantum systems without being lost, much like a regular battery stores and supplies energy.
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.
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