What’s at stake during Trump’s visit to Asia?
Thursday, October 23
Headlines
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Tesla profit falls despite record sales. The good news for Tesla: It sold a record number of cars last quarter as customers raced to get new EVs ahead of the expiration of a government tax credit, pushing its revenue up 12% from the same time last year to $28 billion. The bad news: Its costs soared too, leaving its profit 37% down compared to a year earlier. Nonetheless, Elon Musk looked toward the future, stressing to investors that he expects to build AI, humanoid robots, and fully self-driving cars. And despite the profit setback, Musk stressed that he should still get a new pay package that would give him $1 trillion and more control of the company, saying, “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have, at least, influence over it.”
US expands campaign against accused drug boats to the Pacific. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a video on X of a strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific that he said was “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling.” The strike, which killed two people on board, was the eighth one the Trump administration has carried out on a boat allegedly carrying drugs, but all the others were in the Caribbean Sea. Legal experts and members of Congress have questioned whether the strikes are lawful since they began last month, but the administration says it is relying on a legal opinion that it can treat drug traffickers like enemy combatants in a war rather than as criminals.
Meta cuts ~600 jobs in its AI unit. While AI jobs might seem like they should be the safest jobs out there, Meta is conducting mass layoffs in its AI unit even as it pours billions into the tech. But it’s not a sign the company is backing off on AI. Rather, Axios reports that Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t satisfied with its longstanding AI efforts, and has been reshaping its push by starting a new lab and luring talent from competitors with headline-making multimillion-dollar compensation packages. Reducing the size of the team will help get decisions made more efficiently, Meta’s chief AI officer Alexandr Wang—who was recently brought in himself through Meta’s $14.3 billion investment in his company—wrote in a memo to staff.—AR
Robert Reich
Perfectly Suited to this Second Gilded Age
Friends,
In the first Gilded Age, which ran from the 1890s through the 1920s, captains of American industry were dubbed “robber barons” for using their baronial wealth to bribe lawmakers, monopolize industry, and rob average Americans of the productivity of their labors.
Now, in a second Gilded Age, a new generation of robber barons is using their wealth to do the same — and to entrench their power.
The first Gilded Age was an era of conspicuous consumption. The second is an era of conspicuous influence.
The new robber barons are having their names etched into the pediments of the giant new ostentatious ballroom Trump is adding to the White House.
They already own — and influence — much of the news Americans receive. And they are eager to promote their views.
READ MORE...
At A Glance
What happens when AI consumes too much clickbait.Kids pick the best Halloween candy.
How much does our blood really cost? (w/video)
The pumpkin spice latte was likely invented by a famous singer.
... and watch an elephant family smash pumpkins.
The not-so-spooky origins of the word "ghost."
Witchy winemakers blend ancient rituals into modern pours.
No, Earth does not have two moons.
In partnership: Does your wardrobe need a fall reset? This should do it.*
Clickbait: Breathing through the butt might be medicine's next frontier.
Historybook: First National Women’s Rights Convention begins (1850); Comedian and "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson born (1925); Soccer legend Pelé born (1940); Suicide bombings at US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, kill 241 US military personnel (1983); 130 die in Moscow theater hostage crisis (2002).
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Hermès appoints Grace Wales Bonner as menswear division creative director, making her the first Black woman to lead design at major fashion house (More) | All US women's gymnasts advance to World Gymnastics Championships finals (More)
> California earmarks $342M in tax credits to boost big-budget film production, with record $43.9M for "Jumanji" franchise (More) | Netflix secures rights to "Catan" board game universe, developing film and TV adaptations (More)
> Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, a former child prodigy credited with helping to popularize the game, dies at age 29; cause of death undisclosed as of this writing (More)
Science & Technology
> OpenAI launches Atlas web browser built around its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT; product puts OpenAI in direct competition with Google Chrome and Perplexity AI's Comet browser (More)
> Dust samples from the moon’s far side reveal debris from rare, water-rich meteorites, offering new clues into how the moon and Earth were first seeded with water (More)
> Study of ultramarathon runners suggests biological limit to how many calories humans can burn over an extended period of time (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.0%, Dow +0.5%, Nasdaq -0.2%); Dow rises to new record (More) | Gold prices fall in biggest daily drop in more than a decade (More)
> Netflix shares fall in after-hours trading after missing revenue and earnings estimates, partly due to Brazilian tax dispute; company still records best-ever quarter for ad sales (More)
> Beyond Meat shares soar 146% after plant-based meat producer is added to meme exchange-traded fund, announces plans to expand distribution into Walmart stores (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> President Donald Trump shelves planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary following phone call between US and Russian diplomats (More) | Trump nominee to lead federal watchdog agency withdraws from consideration after offensive text messages are leaked, Republican senators pull support (More)
> North Carolina's state Senate advances a new congressional map expected to provide Republicans with one additional House seat in the 2026 midterms; Republican-led state House is expected to approve the map this week (More)
> Louvre heist loot is valued at $102M, per French public prosecutor; four unnamed suspects are under investigation (More) | See previous write-up (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Politics
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My politics are SIMPLE...
I don't support the Democrats,
I don't support the Republicans,
I don't support the Liberals,
nor do I support the Socialists.
This is what I support:
- Low taxes
- Small government
- strong military
- State's rights
- Abortion/Trans
- Equality under the law
- Legalized marijuana
- No DEI/WOKE
- Right to work
- No illegal immigrants
- Term Limits for congress/supreme court
- No tax shelters for wealthy
- Large non-profits pay taxes
RIGHT NOW - until we pass term limits for congress and the supreme court, our elected officials will only do what they MUST DO to get re-elected... and we need our elected officials to do what is right FOR THE PEOPLE...
While we have many areas of SOCIALISM in our country today, PURE SOCIALISM will never work here. It will not work here because CAPITALISM is what supports our socialistic programs.
Anything that is labeled PUBLIC is a form of socialism, like:
public education
public transportation
Public parks and recreation
Unemployment
Social Security
NOTE: if you question this, then ask AI on your phone, tablet, ipad, or laptop to provide you with examples of socialism currently taking place in the USA...
PURE SOCIALISM is the government OWNING everything... examples of this might be, the government owning:
- Microsoft
- Ford
- Hollywood
- Netflix
- Exxon
- Amazon
I think we can tolerate some socialism in the USA but that's it. Perhaps, if we set term limits and removed tax shelters from the wealthy, then those extra tax dollars would pay for:
- Healthcare
- Education
- Housing
It is said that if you tax the wealthy then they will not invest in new products, new companies, new ideas, etc., but I think that is a bunch of BS...
The wealthy will not like paying more taxes but they like making money more and nothing will stop them from doing that.
AI Uncovers Hidden Hand in Raphael’s Masterpiece
In the art world, the authenticity of masterpieces has always been a subject of intense scrutiny and debate. Recently, the advent of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) has offered new tools to art historians and critics.
A recent study has spotlighted how AI can discern details in paintings that are often missed by the human eye. In a landmark discovery, researchers have used AI to analyze a famous painting by Raphael, the Madonna della Rosa, revealing that at least one face in the composition may not have been painted by the master himself.
This revelation raises questions about the painting’s provenance and the broader implications of AI in art authentication.
Wednesday, October 22
Wonderings 19
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Lucky for us we have Artificial Intelligence that we can ask to answer that question for us.
According to AI, the chicken came first because of evolution and other birds and because there can be no egg without a chicken to lay it...
So, which came first, the universe or time?
There would be no time without a universe, and the universe would not have been created until the right time.
This also begs the question, did time exist before the universe was created?
Now... if you believe God created the Universe and everything in it in SIX DAYS, then there had to have been time before God began his work.
That is to say that God and time are one and the same perhaps?
Or, can God exist without their being time?
If God is outside of time, then how did God come about?
Did God just think himself into existence... assuming that God is MALE.
Is Life only available when there is time?
In order for any of this to make sense, SOMETHING FROM NOTHING WAS CREATED...
Either the universe was created from nothing, or God was created from nothing.
Both possibilities seem rather illogical.
Headlines
OpenAI
OpenAI launched a web browser. That sound you just heard was Google executives waking up in a cold sweat. OpenAI announced its own web browser yesterday, ChatGPT Atlas, which incorporates the company’s signature AI chatbot. “With Atlas, ChatGPT can come with you anywhere across the web...all without copying and pasting or leaving the page,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. The browser, which directly competes with Google’s Chrome, is only available on macOS for now, but is “coming soon” to iOS, Windows, and Android. Shares of Google parent company Alphabet dropped by a few points following the announcement.
The Trump–Putin meeting was called off. Less than a week after announcing that President Trump would soon meet with Vladimir Putin in Hungary to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the White House said the rendezvous is not happening any time soon. According to ABC News, a White House official argued that the meeting was no longer necessary after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “had a productive call.” Russia has not budged from its maximalist position that the “root causes” of the war must be addressed before it agrees to a ceasefire.
Netflix posts rare earnings miss due to Brazilian tax dispute. The streaming giant fell short of both Wall Street’s and its own expectations in Q3 after it had to pay $619 million to settle a dispute with Brazilian authorities, dampening what otherwise might have been another strong quarter for the company. Netflix said it would have exceeded projections for its operating income without the tax dispute and does not expect it to impact future results. The wildly popular animated film KPop Demon Hunters helped power Netflix to more than $11.5 billion in revenue last quarter despite the hiccup in South America.—AE
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