How to instantly be better at things
Thursday, August 14
Headlines
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European leaders express Ukraine optimism after call with Trump. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “there is hope for peace in Ukraine” after he, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and other European leaders spoke virtually with President Trump ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska tomorrow. Trump characterized the call as “very good,” adding, “I would rate it a 10.” He reportedly agreed that any peace plan must start with a ceasefire and would not be negotiated without Ukraine’s involvement. Trump has recently voiced his frustrations with Putin’s effort to prolong the war and threatened “severe consequences” for not agreeing to a ceasefire, though some allies are concerned he could soften his stance after meeting in person with the Russian leader this week.
The New York AG is picking up the fraud lawsuit against Zelle. NY Attorney General Letitia James announced she is suing Zelle for allegedly allowing scammers to steal from users. The CFPB filed a similar suit during the Biden administration, but it was dropped this year once Trump took office. James argued the payments platform “failed to adopt basic safeguards” to prevent more than $1 billion in funds from being stolen from 2017 to 2023. Zelle called the lawsuit “a political stunt to generate press.” Trump’s Justice Department recently opened an investigation into James, who has become one of the president’s most high-profile opponents in law enforcement.
Air Canada is canceling flights as attendants go on strike. The Canadian flagship airline plans to start canceling flights today and suspend operations completely on Saturday after the union representing its flight attendants voted almost unanimously to go on strike. The union has asked for increased wages and an end to all unpaid work, saying the airline is “not interested” in resolving the dispute. CNN reported that Air Canada offered a 38% compensation increase over four years, among other benefits, but couldn’t reach an agreement after eight months of negotiations. Air Canada operates about 430 flights each day between Canada and the US.—AE
Robert Reich
Bread and Butter and Hope
It’s not just Mamdani
Friends,
It’s fitting that today — on the 90th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing Social Security into law — we understand Zohran Mamdani’s remarkable win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary in his simple progressive message: New York City is in an affordability crisis and the wealthiest New Yorkers must help respond.
Mamdani’s three main proposals to help working families cope with it are to make city buses free, freeze the rent for stabilized apartments, and expand free child care.
Under Mamdani’s plan, the financial burden of paying for these policies would largely fall on wealthy taxpayers and businesses (a stance that has put Mamdani at odds with many corporate Democrats — more on this in a moment).
For example, Mamdani estimates that the price tag for universal child care for infants and toddlers until they reach kindergarten age would be between $5 billion and $8 billion. To pay for this, he would push the state to increase taxes on residents making more than $1 million a year and hike taxes on large corporations.
At A Glance
Forty gender-neutral baby names.
Farmer’s Almanac warns of long, cold winter for most of US.
The hardest-to-pronounce town name in every state.
... and the wealthiest suburbs of the US' biggest cities.
Ten-year-old girl is youngest female to beat a chess grandmaster.
Giant octopus grabs camera and films itself.
The mathematical way to cut an onion.
How sharks help forecast hurricanes. (w/video)
Clickbait: Toothpaste made from human hair.
Historybook: Steve Martin born (1945); Magic Johnson born (1959); Halle Berry born (1966); Blackout in the US and Canada affects 53 million (2003); US Embassy in Cuba opens for first time in 54 years (2015).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Taylor Swift announces her 12th studio album "The Life of a Showgirl"; Swift will appear on the "New Heights" podcast, cohosted by her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, tonight at 7 pm ET to discuss the album (More) | The rise of Taylor Swift (1440 Topics)
> UFC CEO Dana White says a fight night will take place at the White House next year on the Fourth of July as part of the recent streaming deal with Paramount (More)
> Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and his agent are accused in lawsuit of "sabotaging" $240M real estate project (More) | 2025 Little League World Series kicks off today; see complete bracket and schedule (More)
Science & Technology
> Elon Musk threatens lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company artificially boosts OpenAI's app in the App Store; Musk's xAI runs the Grok chatbot, a competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT (More)
> Seventy-year-old Parkinson's drug shows effectiveness in boosting the body's immune system against tuberculosis; the world's deadliest infectious disease, TB kills an estimated 1.3 million people per year (More)
> Remains of Dennis Bell, an Antarctic researcher who disappeared in 1959, discovered by Polish team studying a receding glacier on King George Island (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.1%, Dow +1.1%, Nasdaq +1.4%), with S&P 500 and Nasdaq notching record highs (More)
> US consumer price index held steady at 2.7% in July from a year earlier; core inflation—excluding food and energy—rose 3.1% year over year, above forecast of 3% and June's 2.9% annual rise (More) | See breakdown (More)
> Spirit Airlines warns it might not be able to survive without more cash; comes five months after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy (More) | How bankruptcy works (1440 Topics) | ... and Kodak warns the 133-year-old US film company may go out of business (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> DC National Guard troops arrest roughly two dozen people on first day of deployment to combat crime in the nation's capital; soldiers will not carry guns in most cases, per officials (More) | Mexico expels 26 high-ranking cartel figures wanted by US authorities in deal with Trump administration (More)
> Gunman who targeted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters Friday died by suicide after shooting roughly 200 rounds at CDC buildings (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee is arrested on corruption charges, including bribery; her husband, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, is jailed on insurrection charges after briefly declaring martial law in December (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Must have a Hobby
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It is absolutely necessary for you to have a hobby or something else in mind for you to do, once you are retired. My definition of being retired is not working any hours for compensation.
When I first became retired in 2015, I was still teaching classes at night for college students... therefore, I did not consider myself retired.
Being a volunteer is not considered working for compensation, either is playing golf, or helping someone build a deck; but those activities are temporary and short lived, and not really a hobby.
Hobby Ideas
- Scrapbooking
- Beekeeping
- Blogging
- Reading
- Writing
- Gardening
- Woodworking
- Pottery
- Painting
- Making things
I maintain two blogs daily that occupy about two hours of my day. I could double or triple that time by surfing the internet, getting ideas and material to put on my two blogs and maybe someday that is what I will do.
When my blogs are prepared, the rest of my day is spent writing novels, doing research for those novels, and researching ways to self-publish like on Amazon.
I lack 2-3 chapters of completing 13 novels during the nine and a half years of my retirement. If I concentrate, I probably could finish another 4 that have been partially written, giving me 17 in ten years or 1.75 each year. Again, if I hustle, I could probably have 20 completed novels in 11 years of retirement, almost two a year.
My novel writing is my hobby and so far I have not grown bored with it, although there was a time where I did not want to write anything for 6-9 months. I am not sure if I was burned out or had written too much too quickly. But now I am back on track and write each day when I feel like it which might be anywhere from 1-6 hours a day.
The rest of my day is spent on social media and watching TV Series and watch for how writers have put words in their mouths or directed their actions, and describe the situations unfold around them.
If my writing hobby dies then my focus will turn to painting, oils and acrylics more than likely, experimenting with colors and different types of brushes.
At my age, I doubt I will need a third hobby.
China’s 2027 fusion ambition leaves U.S. in the dust
China’s latest fusion project promises to generate five times more power than it consumes, setting a blistering pace unmatched by its American rivals. If successful, this could rewrite the playbook on fusion energy and edge the world closer to a carbon-free future.
At the heart of this endeavor lies the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak—BEST for short—a doughnut-shaped vessel where hydrogen isotopes collide at temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface. I still recall the first time I learned that fusion mimics the processes powering stars; it felt like peeking behind the universe’s curtain.
Thanks to superconducting magnets and advanced cooling systems, the BEST reactor is engineered to sustain plasma long enough to achieve a genuine net energy gain, rather than simply breaking even.
Wednesday, August 13
Headlines
Illustration: Emily Parsons/Google
Perplexity offered to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion. The unsolicited offer from the AI upstart, which reportedly includes several other investors, is nearly double its own $18 billion valuation. Per the Wall Street Journal, Perplexity’s offer may not be a serious attempt to acquire Chrome, but rather a move to convince a federal judge to force Google to sell the web browser by showing that there would be interested parties. After ruling last year that Google operated an illegal search monopoly, the judge, Amit Mehta, is now deciding on an appropriate remedy, including the possibility of ordering that the tech giant break up its empire. Google has resisted calls to sell Chrome, which is believed to be worth between $20 billion and $50 billion.
Trump threatened to sue Powell over Fed building renovations. Trump v. Powell could soon go from a political beef to the literal name of a court case after the president said he is considering allowing a lawsuit against the Fed chair over what he called the “horrible, and grossly incompetent” renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, DC. After months of President Trump hurling insults at Jerome Powell for not raising interest rates, the two butted heads in person last month when Trump toured the Fed building under construction. Standing next to each other in hard hats, Powell corrected Trump when the president claimed that the cost of the renovation had ballooned to $3.1 billion.
Spirit Airlines doubts it can stay in business much longer. The ultra-low-cost airline known for its bright yellow planes and barebones flying experience has “substantial doubt” it can continue to operate over the next 12 months, it told investors yesterday. Weak domestic demand for travel, in part caused by tariffs, has worsened Spirit’s losses—and unlike larger carriers, Spirit can’t offset them with luxury travel. The airline has tried adding more premium options, but that hasn’t been enough to stop the bleeding. It lost $246 million last quarter, up from a $193 million loss the year before.—AE
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