Friday, August 8
Headlines
Israeli soldiers near the border of Gaza.
Amir Levy/Getty Images
Israeli security cabinet approved military takeover of Gaza City. Early Friday morning, following a 10-hour meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement announcing that a majority of his security cabinet backed his proposal to take over Gaza City. Until this point, Israel has controlled about 75% of the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas, but the Israel Defense Forces largely avoided ground strikes in Gaza City because it believes that is where Hamas is holding the 20 surviving Israeli hostages. Hamas has previously threatened to execute the captives rather than see them rescued. Families of the hostages have protested against military expansion in Gaza. The statement from the PM’s office said that most security cabinet ministers rejected an alternative plan put forward by the military because they believed it “would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages.”
Trump will nominate Stephen Miran to fill Fed vacancy. On Truth Social, the president said Miran, the current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, would serve in the seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors vacated by Adriana Kugler, until the term expires on January 31, 2026. Trump wrote, “In the meantime, we will continue to search for a permanent replacement,” suggesting that Miran was not a shoo-in for a full 14-year term on the board beyond this caretaking period. Miran has been a critic of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The selection may raise concerns about political influence over the Federal Reserve, which has typically operated with independence in the modern era. Miran will require Senate confirmation to assume the role, which is not expected before September.
Paramount and Skydance finalized their merger. Out with the Redstones, in with the Ellisons. With the deal done early yesterday morning, Shari Redstone, formerly Paramount’s controlling shareholder, walked away from the company her father, Sumner, acquired in 1994. The new sheriff in town is David Ellison, the founder of Skydance, a movie producer, and the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who Variety said largely bankrolled the deal. That might have something to do with why David Ellison, the new CEO, has already pledged that “technology will transform every single aspect of this company,” particularly streaming, on which Paramount failed to capitalize in the past. David Ellison told the New York Times that his first meetings on the job were with employees from CBS News and 60 Minutes, where morale is low following the recent CBS settlement with President Trump.—HVL
Israeli security cabinet approved military takeover of Gaza City. Early Friday morning, following a 10-hour meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement announcing that a majority of his security cabinet backed his proposal to take over Gaza City. Until this point, Israel has controlled about 75% of the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas, but the Israel Defense Forces largely avoided ground strikes in Gaza City because it believes that is where Hamas is holding the 20 surviving Israeli hostages. Hamas has previously threatened to execute the captives rather than see them rescued. Families of the hostages have protested against military expansion in Gaza. The statement from the PM’s office said that most security cabinet ministers rejected an alternative plan put forward by the military because they believed it “would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages.” Trump will nominate Stephen Miran to fill Fed vacancy. On Truth Social, the president said Miran, the current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, would serve in the seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors vacated by Adriana Kugler, until the term expires on January 31, 2026. Trump wrote, “In the meantime, we will continue to search for a permanent replacement,” suggesting that Miran was not a shoo-in for a full 14-year term on the board beyond this caretaking period. Miran has been a critic of Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The selection may raise concerns about political influence over the Federal Reserve, which has typically operated with independence in the modern era. Miran will require Senate confirmation to assume the role, which is not expected before September. Paramount and Skydance finalized their merger. Out with the Redstones, in with the Ellisons. With the deal done early yesterday morning, Shari Redstone, formerly Paramount’s controlling shareholder, walked away from the company her father, Sumner, acquired in 1994. The new sheriff in town is David Ellison, the founder of Skydance, a movie producer, and the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who Variety said largely bankrolled the deal. That might have something to do with why David Ellison, the new CEO, has already pledged that “technology will transform every single aspect of this company,” particularly streaming, on which Paramount failed to capitalize in the past. David Ellison told the New York Times that his first meetings on the job were with employees from CBS News and 60 Minutes, where morale is low following the recent CBS settlement with President Trump.—HVL
Robert Reich
How to avoid a race to the bottom
Friends,
When Democrats gathered in Philadelphia eight years ago, Michelle Obama famously declared, “When they go low, we go high.”
But now that Texas’s Governor Greg Abbott — at the presumed direction of Trump, — has gone so low as to seek to super-gerrymander Texas’s congressional districts to come up with five additional Republican seats in order to maintain Republican control of Congress after the 2026 midterms, Democrats appear to be giving up the high road.
Good!
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is threatening to redistrict California.
Some fear this tit-for-tat will turn into a race to the bottom that will further erode American democracy. With control of Congress hanging in the balance and the Supreme Court giving its blessing to partisan gerrymandering, they see California’s move as dangerous.
At A Glance
Analyzing data from zoo animal escapes.
New Zealand conducts a high-risk medical evacuation from Antarctica.
Research finds some people lived in Pompeii ruins for decades.
Why the Golden Gate was once considered impossible.
How the Grand Canyon's glass bridge gets cleaned. (via YouTube)
Rare first edition of "The Hobbit" sells for over $57K.
Tips for finding new music without Spotify.
What super-agers have in common.
Clickbait: The gross things butterflies eat.
Historybook: Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph (1876); Writer Shirley Jackson dies (1965); President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (1974); Roger Federer born (1981); Olivia Newton-John dies (2022).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> ESPN signs five-year deal with the WWE for streaming rights to WrestleMania and other major live events; deal averages $325M per year (More)
> The PGA Tour's FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off today; read about the playoff format, including its bonus prize pool of $100M with the overall champion earning $10M (More)
> "Hamilton" to get US theatrical release on Sept. 5, five years after its initial premiere on Disney+, which purchased the rights to the filmed version of the Broadway hit for $75M (More)
Science & Technology
> Replenishing the brain's natural supply of lithium appears to reverse memory loss and neurological signs of Alzheimer's, new study suggests; researchers identify lithium orotate as potentially protecting against onset of the disease (More) | What we know about Alzheimer's (1440 Topics)
> OpenAI to offer the enterprise version of ChatGPT to federal agencies beginning next year at a cost of $1; move seen as a bid to beat competitors in adoption into government workflows (More)
> Ancient stone tools more than 1 million years old discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi; suggests human relatives made a major sea crossing prior to the use of boats (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.7%, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +1.2%) as corporate earnings continue rolling in and the Trump administration's new trade tariff deadline looms (More)
> Apple to invest an additional $100B on domestic manufacturing; Apple previously announced plans to spend $500B in the US over the next four years (More) | How Apple became a $3T company (1440 Topics)
> Accessories retailer Claire's files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for second time since 2018 amid debt load and changing consumer preferences; follows second bankruptcy of teen retailer Forever 21 in March (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> President Donald Trump imposes an additional 25% tariff on India over its Russian oil purchases, raising combined levies to 50%; takes effect Aug. 27 and comes as new tariffs kick in for dozens of trading partners today (More)
> Texas Democrats who left the state in protest of a redistricting bill were temporarily evacuated from an Illinois hotel following a bomb threat (More) | US Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) enters race to replace outgoing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R), pledging to push forward Trump's agenda (More)
> United Airlines grounds flights nationwide for several hours amid technical issue with its weight calculation system (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Our Purpose Revisited
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Human Beings were put on earth for what purpose?
This has been a question that has been asked by Philosophers ever since there were philosophers.
The only answer that they have been able to agree on is that no one knows for sure our purpose.
Some think our purpose is to serve God because we are all born with sin, and if we spend our days on earth serving his will, we will be rewarded in heaven for all eternity. When we die, unless we are born into another body, we turn into spirits, a whisp of energy that carries our essence. We will not know what life is like as an essence of energy until we die.
Others think our purpose could be:
- to earn as much money as we can
- to earn as much power & control as we can
- perpetuate the race by having babies
- to treat others as we want to be treated
- that we have no purpose at all except to live
No one knows who is right or who is wrong, and no one will know until we experience death.
What sticks in my head is the fact that our universe is ENDLESS so what's the point of the Human Race living only 80-100 years. Seems rather pointless when one thinks about eternity.
What can we possibly learn about life in 80-100 years?
I do not subscribe to the religious point of view for a couple of reasons:
1. We currently have 12 major religions in the world today, so which one of them is the correct one in which to believe. I ask this because each of the twelve think they are right and the rest are wrong. That's impossible unless all these twelve religions are somehow supposed to be combined.
2. What about the millions of people who are born each year and none of them will ever be exposed to religion their entire lives. If religion was the key, then why are these people left out because of lack of exposure. That makes no sense either.
Another problem is TECHNOLOGY. Each year technology advances forward, never backwards and in so doing will take the earth and its inhabitants into areas no one ever dreamed possible. This steady advancement was planned or not?
Is it our purpose to advance to the point that we create machines or conquer death with medicines so that no one ever dies?
The universe is large enough to accommodate no one ever dying once we get to that point... or will the universe destroy itself before that happens or after that happens?
This is an interesting dilemma or maybe even a paradox because EVERYTHING HAS ENTROPY.
- Human beings
- Machines
- The Universe
Is our ultimate purpose nothing more than to move towards entropy and everything else is irrelevant and meaningless?
We've discovered a door to a hidden part of reality – what's inside?
The discovery of a new door to a hidden part of reality, as described in a recent New Scientist article, could potentially reveal new particles or even deeper insights into the fundamental nature of reality. While the exact contents of this hidden realm are unknown, physicists speculate it might house particles like axions or non-Abelian anyons, which could be crucial for understanding dark matter or developing quantum computing.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
New Particles:
The article highlights the possibility of finding new particles, possibly like those predicted by theoretical physics but not yet observed in experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), according to New Scientist.
Deepening Our Understanding of Reality:
Beyond specific particles, this discovery could shed light on the fundamental nature of reality, challenging existing theories about what constitutes a "particle" and potentially revealing deeper layers of the universe's structure.
Quasiparticles:
The article mentions quasiparticles, which are emergent properties of many-body systems that behave like particles. Non-Abelian anyons, a type of quasiparticle, are particularly interesting because of their potential to be used in quantum computing.
Dark Matter and Dark Energy:
The discovery might also offer clues about dark matter and dark energy, mysterious components of the universe that make up a significant portion of its mass and energy but remain largely unknown.
Speculative Imagination:
The search for these hidden realms and their potential contents relies on a combination of theoretical predictions, experimental data, and imaginative thinking.
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