Here is the daily technology #threadcast for 2/6/25. The goal is to make this a technology "reddit".
Drop all question, comments, and articles relating to #technology and the future. The goal is make it a technology center.
Here is the daily technology #threadcast for 2/6/25. The goal is to make this a technology "reddit".
Drop all question, comments, and articles relating to #technology and the future. The goal is make it a technology center.
Blackrock Plans to Launch a Bitcoin ETP in Europe: Bloomberg
BlackRock is expanding its crypto offerings with its first non-US Bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) in Switzerland. Its US-based iShares Bitcoin ETF has accumulated nearly $60 billion AUM within its first year. As the world's largest asset manager with more than $10 trillion in AUM, BlackRock is well positioned to enter the European market even though firms like Kraken and Bitstamp have recently secured licenses for crypto derivatives. More competition could reduce the ETP fees, which have reached as high as 2.5% in Europe.
#technology #crypto #blackrock #bitcoin #etp
Why IQ is a poor test for AI
Many experts say that IQ is a poor measure of a model's capabilities because IQ tests are relative measures of certain kinds of intelligence in humans and they don't measure practical intelligence.
#technology #ai #iq
Growing Up AI-First
The kids of today will be growing up in a very different world thanks to AI, but they'll be fine.
#technology #ai #kids
You need more than a vector database
Vector search is only one piece of the puzzle - users will demand platforms that cover full-text search, vectors, message streaming, session management, and more as the generative AI market matures.
#technology #ai #vector #database #data
Why Amazon is Betting on ‘Automated Reasoning’ to Reduce AI’s Hallucinations
Automated reasoning uses mathematical proofs to ensure that systems behave in a certain way - it can be used to check whether models are providing accurate answers.
#technology #amazon #ai
S1: The $6 R1 Competitor?
s1 is a recently released model that is making waves in the AI community because it shows how close the industry is to making some very large breakthroughs in AI. The paper released with the model sheds light on how reasoning models work. In s1, when the model tries to stop thinking, is it forced to keep going - this makes it begin to second guess and double check its answer. s1 cost only $6 to train as its creators used a small model and hardly any data. Innovations like s1 that dramatically lower costs allow researchers to learn and understand models faster, which directly translates to a faster pace of AI development.
#technology #ai #s1 #r6
Chinese and Iranian Hackers Are Using U.S. AI Products to Bolster Cyberattacks
Hackers from China, Iran, and other nations are using AI, specifically Google's Gemini, to enhance cyberattacks, treating it as a tool for boosting productivity rather than creating groundbreaking techniques. Google reports found that groups linked to these countries are leveraging Gemini for research and phishing, with China and Iran being the most active users. Although AI hasn't yet transformed the scale of cyberattacks, both the U.S. and China are heavily investing in AI technologies for future dominance.
#technology #ai #china #iran #hackers
Sam Altman Says OpenAI Is Going to Deliver a Beatdown on DeepSeek
OpenAI's Sam Altman responded to Chinese startup DeepSeek's R1 model outperforming competitors at lower costs, which created significant turbulence in the tech industry, by pledging to continue heavy investment in compute resources, emphasizing ambition towards AGI. The situation raises questions about the viability of OpenAI's costly approach given DeepSeek's efficient alternatives.
#technology #openai #ai #samlaltman #deepseek
How Indigenous engineers are using AI to preserve their culture
Indigenous researchers are using AI and machine learning to build speech recognition models for over 200 endangered Indigenous languages in North America. Initiatives like First Languages AI Reality train Native scientists to ethically handle culturally sensitive data and preserve language. Programs such as Tech Natives and IndigiGenius aim to boost Indigenous representation in tech to preserve cultural heritage through AI.
#technology #ai #indigenous
DeepSeek Gets an ‘F’ in Safety From Researchers
Cisco tested DeepSeek's open-source model, DeepSeek R1, which failed to fend off all 50 harmful behavior prompts from the HarmBench dataset. DeepSeek's failure rate is the highest among tested LLMs, with other models like Meta's Llama 3.1 and OpenAI's o1 performing noticeably better. The model's susceptibility to attacks, alongside data security concerns, has raised significant scrutiny and criticism.
#technology #ai #infosec #deepseek #cisco
SoftBank-backed billionaire to invest $230M in Indian AI startup Krutrim
Bhavish Aggarwal is investing $230 million in his AI startup Krutrim to develop LLMs for Indian languages, aiming to raise $1.15 billion in total. Krutrim has open-sourced its AI models and plans to build India's largest supercomputer with Nvidia. The startup has released Krutrim-2, a 12-billion-parameter model, showing strong performance in Indian language tasks and code generation.
#technology #ai #india #softbank #krutrim
Personal Software
AI has changed our relationship with software - software can now adapt to users. The technology makes it possible for anyone to create single-use or custom applications. Within the next decade, millions of people will be able to create their own software and build their own ideas. More builders will mean more innovation - individuals will have the freedom to solve their own problems.
#technology #ai #software
Ingesting Millions of PDFs and why Gemini 2.0 Changes Everything
Gemini Flash 2.0 achieves near-perfect OCR accuracy while being incredibly cheap. This article looks at how to use the model to parse PDFs. There are still some issues with parsing, chunking, and bounding box detection, but we are almost at the point where document parsing is efficient and practically effortless. The work discussed in the article will eventually be open sourced, but there are likely to be other similar libraries available.
#technology #ai #gemini
Blue Origin spins up lunar gravity for New Shepard flight
Blue Origin launched its New Shepard rocket again yesterday to simulate lunar gravity for capsule payloads. The rocket lifted off at 1600 UTC and the capsule reached 105 kilometers above sea level before returning to Earth. The capsule spun for about two minutes during the flight to simulate lunar gravity. New Shepard's ability to provide a lunar gravity environment is unique and valuable for researchers who have their sights set on a return to the Moon. It enables researchers to test lunar technologies at a fraction of the cost, rapidly iterate, and test again in a significantly compressed time frame.
#technology #blueorigin #space #moon #gravity
A flooded quarry, a mysterious millionaire and the dream of a new Atlantis
Deep is a project aimed at increasing understanding of the ocean and its critical role for humanity. It is funded by a single anonymous private investor. The project will establish a permanent human presence under the sea where people will be able to stay for up to 28 days at a time. It aims to eventually create permanent human settlements in all oceans across the world. This article looks at the engineering and science required for Deep to be successful.
#technology #oceans #deep
Amazon Plans to Unveil Next-Generation Alexa AI Later This Month
Amazon is revamping Alexa into a generative AI service that will be able to hold complex, context-aware conversations with users and handle multifaceted requests. The company will be AI models from Anthropic's Claude rather than its own in-house technology as early versions of Amazon AI had trouble responding in a timely manner. There are more than 100 million active Alexa users and over 500 million Alexa-enabled devices, so it is important for Amazon to get Alexa AI right. Amazon plans to introduce the new version of Alexa just ahead of when Apple is expected to begin testing its new version of Siri.
#technology #ai #amazon #alexa
Temu steers users to 'local' products after Trump shuts tax loophole
Temu has onboarded more sellers with U.S. inventory in recent years as lawmakers have zeroed in on the de minimis exemption.
Chinese online retailer Temu has been surfacing more products on its app that can be shipped from warehouses in the U.S. following President Donald Trump's decision to revoke a popular tax loophole.
The nearly century-old exception, known as de minimis, has been used by many e-commerce companies to send goods worth less than $800 into the U.S. duty-free. Trump on Saturday suspended the exemption as part of new tariffs that include an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods.
#temu #trump #tax #china #app #shopping
De minimis has helped propel Temu and Shein's explosive growth in the U.S. by allowing the companies to bypass taxes on low-value shipments, and sustain their rock-bottom prices on everything from shoes and clothes to furniture and electronics.
With the tariff exemption gone, Temu has significantly ramped up its promotion of sellers who have inventory in U.S. warehouses, rather than items that are shipped direct from China. A scan of listings in Temu's "Lightning deals" section shows that it's almost entirely dominated by products with a green "local" badge.
Google scraps diversity 'aspirations,' citing role as federal contractor
Google said it's been reevaluating diversity programs over the last year.
Google is scrapping its diversity goals, becoming the latest tech giant to alter its approach to hiring and promotions following the election of President Donald Trump.
In its annual report published on Wednesday, Alphabet excluded language from prior years stating that, "we are committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve."
Fiona Cicconi, Alphabet's chief people officer, told employees in a memo that the company has to make changes due to new requirements.
#google #diversity #federal #contractor
To me this is good news. If I were hiring someone I'd want them to be the best fit and qualified for the position.
"Because we are a federal contractor, our teams are also evaluating changes to our programs required to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic," Cicconi wrote in the memo, which was viewed by CNBC. "We'll continue to invest in states across the U.S. — and in many countries globally — but in the future we will no longer have aspirational goals."
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the memo.
Cicconi noted that in 2020, the company set aspirational hiring goals and focused on growing offices outside California and New York to improve representation.
Single paragraphs
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #mlb
The uncertainty has created volatility for PDD's stock price which fell 6% on Monday, rose 8% on Tuesday and fell more than 3% on Wednesday.
Critics of the de minimis provision say it's provided an unfair advantage to Chinese e-commerce companies, and created an influx of packages that are "subject to minimal documentation and inspection," raising concerns around counterfeit and unsafe goods.
Others have advocated for the de minimis exemption to remain in place, saying its removal would burden customs officials and lead to higher government costs.
As the Panama Canal has recently come under fire, let us not forget the Ben Gurion Canal Project. The US and Israel have been discussing plans to build a canal to rival the Suez Canal for over 50 years. The West can no longer count on the Suez Canal controlled by Egypt as tensions continue to rise with Egypt supporting Russia in its war. Yet, 20% of ALL world trade moved through the canal. The Ben Gurion Canal Project, as indicated by the declassified documents, would create an Israeli Canal to rival the Suez.
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With wealth came influence and the Roman middle class grew and prospered over the centuries, acting as the balance point between the three socio-economic classes, but in the latter stages of the empire, the middle class came under such pressure, it nearly ceased to exist, and the vacuum created by its decline was one of the major causes of the collapse of the empire. Why did this happen?
CEO Frank Bisignano told CNBC's "Money Movers" on Wednesday that Clover is a key driver of growth, and said Fiserv's relationships with 3,500 U.S. banks provide an opportunity to deepen market penetration and product offerings. Fiserv completed the $22 billion acquisition of payment processor First Data in 2019.
Fiserv up 60% in the last year
"The strength of the company is the construction of the company that we built by putting First Data and Fiserv together which others tried, but they then didn't get there," Bisignano said. He added that the integration allowed the company to serve small businesses as well as major enterprises such as McDonald's and Walmart, along with nearly every bank in the country.
!summarize #tesla #ai
Bisignano was nominated by President Donald Trump to head the Social Security Administration. Fiserv in January named Michael Lyons as its CEO-elect and said he would report to Bisignano, who will keep his current role until June 30 or "upon an earlier confirmation by the U.S. Senate."
For 2025, Fiserv expects revenue growth of 10% to 12%. Analysts were calling for growth of about 8%. The company forecast adjusted earnings of $10.10 to $10.30 for 2025, about in line with Wall Street's consensus of $10.21.
After the report, Mizuho reaffirmed its buy recommendation, citing Fiserv's distribution network and Clover's outperformance.
In a separate report, Mizuho said Fiserv and other payment companies could be beneficiaries of the Trump administration's tariffs due to higher payment processing from rising prices. The Clover business, in particular, stands to benefit, as transaction volumes increase at restaurants and other small businesses, the firm said.
Still, analysts noted a few risks to Fiserv's momentum, such as a potential slowdown in new U.S. merchant customers and bank consolidation.
During the third century AD, the combination of funding external wars and internal unrest caused rampant monetary inflation, wiping out the assets of the middle class. Moreover, the occasional efforts to return the empire to its former glory were centered more on rebuilding the army than funding public works projects in the cities, so the latter became degraded into a dilapidated condition. Civil service workers in the cities, once perceived as benefactors because of their wealth, were now pressed by the government to collect higher and higher taxes, which alienated them from the people they had previously governed, and caused them to lose interest in serving.
They abandoned their posts and moved away, leaving the extremely wealthy and poor behind, with a vacuum in the middle. With a lack of candidates for civil service positions, the government began to support the concept of hereditary service, passed down from father to son. Perceiving their value to the empire and noting the distance separating them from the capital, these administrators began to defy the central government. The latter responded by passing laws designed to bring their administrators in line, but the end result was administrative paralysis and corruption as low pay forced civil servants to bribe and sell favors to those with the money to pay for them.
The approach employs so-called lattice confinement fusion (LCF), a concept first discovered by NASA. This can achieve solid-state fuel densities 400 million times higher than those achievable normally, according to the company.
Leveraging earlier research from NASA, Astral also claims its platform could lead to other applications such as safe hybrid nuclear energy, space exploration, and industrial and security industry applications.
Astral’s co-founder and CTO, Dr Tom Wallace-Smith told TechCrunch: “The whole industry has been in sort of supply constraint historically because of this reliance on centralized reactors.”
“Whereas what we’re proposing is placing them in industrial units or in the basement of hospitals or production centers. We can then produce the drugs exactly where they needed, and be able to reduce the reliance on these centralized production sites,” he added.
He believes competitors are constrained by existing technology: “Most other approaches are based on linear, accelerated technology, whereas what we’re doing is essentially taking a very high TRL core architecture and putting in 2020 physics, where the ceiling is quite high in terms of performance. So we’re just at the start of what’s achievable with this,” he said.
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #freeagency #mlb
In this case, the authorities had tried to impose a regimentation that would create the funding needed to pay the army and support a bureaucratic imperial infrastructure, but what they accomplished was a destruction of the individual loyalty needed to preserve the political system. As it happens so often in history, a political system is taken to the point of collapse when its leaders become so isolated from the problems of the public and they forfeit the ability to maintain stability in the system. The Roman central government during the period of the third century AD was more interested in ceremony than understanding the needs of the people so the gulf between the two was advanced by a failure to communicate.
!summarize #christianscott #nymets #pitcher #tommyjohnsurgery #mlb
In a statement, Rick Hao, partner at Speedinvest added: “Astral Systems represents the best of UK deeptech. Astral is delivering a fresh approach to nuclear fusion that addresses urgent medical, industrial and power needs.”
So far Astral has established three commercial fusion facilities from which it’s already generating revenues.
Also participating in the round was participation of angel investors including Oliver Buck, founder of ITM Isotope Technologies, and former ARM President of Product Group, Pete Hutton.
To put the impact of changes in the Roman middle class in the right perspective, we have to place it in the proper place among all of the factors that, together, helped to hasten the end of the empire. These include failure of the army and the social catastrophe that disrupted the lives of the Roman people and their ability to survive in the changing political landscape. The army failed because it was not large enough to police the empire. It was not large enough because conscription efforts did not produce enough recruits among a decreasing number of candidates and those who were available were actively trying to avoid service. Ultimately, Rome’s enemies became stronger than she by shear numbers.
!summarize #usaid #doge #government
Social catastrophe resulted from a lack of sympathy between the army and the people. The people were often terrorized by the military and yet were forced to fund their compensation through high tax rates. Other social factors include the problem of agricultural laborers driven to poverty who were forced to seek protection from whatever source was available. Their benefactors were military officers who negotiated with the government on their behalf or the wealthy landowners who agreed to take them in as tenants or laborers. Many, who were driven to poverty, turned to a life of crime as individuals or members of gangs. All of these problems were ignored by the uber-wealthy who continued to expand their positions without a care for the plight of the common man.
!summarize #lalakers #daltonknechy #camreddish #markwilliams #nba #trade
!summarize #usaid #media #politico #government
The team is starting with fleets, in part because they drive so many miles.
“Uber drivers, who drive 40 hours a week, are the ones that need to be in an EV right if we need to electrify quickly and have an impact,” Dias, the startup’s CEO, told TechCrunch.
The duo lobbied Uber to address the issue in the driver app, but realized that it couldn’t truly be solved by one company.
That’s partly because of the proliferation of companies installing and running EV charging stalls.
The destruction of the Roman middle class was an important component of larger collapse of the entire social fabric of the empire, and its collapse made the problems of the other classes more apparent. The wealthy class remained to enrich themselves, without any connection to the problems of the common man. The poor became more impoverished and were forced to be dependent on whatever benefactor they could depend on.
Today, in America, we see some of the same elements: a shrinking middle class less able to carry the tax burden of the country, an impoverished poor dependent on government for subsistence, and an arrogant wealth class out of touch with reality and focused on their own world of fantasy. How will these conflicting forces resolve themselves this time?
!summarize #petealonso #Nymets #mlb
“Charging is just becoming more and more fragmented in the U.S.,” Raynor said. Last year, nearly 60% of all new DC Fast chargers in the U.S. came from more than 40 different networks. “We went from three or four big players to people we’ve never heard of,” she said.
Both sides of the equation feel the pain of this fragmentation.
Fleets would benefit from connecting directly to charging networks’ software, but charging networks don’t want to support an API for dozens or hundreds of customers. On the flip side, fleets don’t want to have to integrate with a growing number of charging networks.
The Texas Rangers announced Elvis Andrus as the 27th member that will be inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame.
Former Mets outfielder Harrison Bader signed a one-year deal worth $6.25 million with a mutual option for 2026, per Jon Heyman of The NY Post.
St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch says that the city is prepared to move on without its MLB club, the Tampa Bay Rays, per Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal.
The Los Angeles Angels have extended their Angel Stadium lease, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. The lease would have expired in 2029 and the Angels exercised their option to extend through 2032.
Buster Olney of ESPN reports that friends of Nolan Arenado believe he would really like the idea of going to the Red Sox if Boston and the Cardinals work out terms. Arenado’s current mindset, according to Olney, is “Highly, highly motivated.”
The Houston Astros re-signed outfielder Ben Gamel to a one-year, $1.2 million major league deal, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Presto’s software is something that both sides can connect to. It gives fleets and charging networks one partner to work with and access to more customers — a classic platform play.
“In some senses, we think of ourselves as Stripe, as being a transaction layer for charging,” Dias said.
The startup offers its own app and API, which companies can integrate with; it can also handle payments.
!summarize #keeganakin #baltimore #orioles #mlb #reliever
!summarize #kimmel #colbert #trump #latenight #television
!summarize #petealonso #resigns #nymets #mlb
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb
!summarize #trump #gaza #negotiations
The combination gives Presto a range of data to power its machine learning recommendation engine, telling drivers which chargers they should use and where networks should direct their maintenance crews. For example, let’s say a network reports that a charger is online, but a charge session initiated through Presto fails. Presto can route drivers away from that stall and report the problem to the network.
Rental car companies have been early adopters of Presto’s platform, including Hertz, Avis, and ZipCar, Dias said. Uber drivers also use the app, which alerts them to networks that offer discounted charging.
!summarize #nymets #resign #petealonso #mlb #toronto #bluejays
!summarize #china #economy #automotive
Other fleets like delivery companies have been adopting the app, Dias said, even if they have chargers at their depots. “Sometimes the chargers at the depot don’t work or there are more vehicles than chargers,” he said.
Presto’s main goal is to drive API integration, though, encouraging fleets to add the startup’s recommendations inside their own apps and dashboards. “I don’t think we want consumers to have yet another app to download,” Dias said.
Raynor said the company has been approached by major automakers, but for now it’s focused on fleets. As someone who has had their share of bad charging experiences, I hope that changes soon.
Pete Alonso's drawn out offseason is finally OVER after signing with the Mets, agreeing to a 2 year 54M deal with an opt out after the 2025 season. The only other team that had recently been connected to Alonso were the Blue Jays & I've got thoughts on them missing out here too.
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb #resigns
Trump Calls for Air Traffic Control Reforms at National Prayer Breakfast
Striking a somber but still hopeful tone, President Donald Trump participated in the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol on Thursday, calling for a religious revival in America, lamenting fate, and seeking Congress' help to reform U.S. air traffic control systems.
Striking a somber but still hopeful tone, President Donald Trump participated in the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol on Thursday, calling for a religious revival in America, lamenting fate, and seeking Congress' help to reform U.S. air traffic control systems.
Trump mourned the loss of the 67 victims of the Washington, D.C., helicopter-passenger jet crash, talking about how death brings Americans closer to faith, telling the bipartisan breakfast crowd how his near assassination strengthened his faith this past summer.
"It changed something in me," Trump said. "I feel more strongly about God."
Like the failed assassin's bullet missing killing him, which Trump said was akin to missing a "one-foot putt," the D.C. helicopter crash had equally long odds like "two golf balls colliding on a golf course."
Trump spoke about reforming the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control (ATC) systems with satellites and one or two companies collaborating instead of "39."
"I would have never happened if we had the right equipment," Trump said of last month's deadly airline crash.
Trump joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship, making a call for unity that was more hopeful than optimistic.
!summarize #germany #automotive #sentiment
"It would be very nice if we could come together," Trump said to Republicans and Democrats in the room. "It would be unbelievable, but might not happen."
Trump repeated his campaign vow "to bring religion back" and continued to lament "if it was up to Democrats I would not be in a good place, which he suggested with either death by assassination or jail from myriad political prosecutions.
Trump will also speak at a separate prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel sponsored by a private group.
The Republican president made waves at the final prayer breakfast during his first term. That year the gathering came the day after the Senate acquitted him in his first impeachment trial.
Trump in his remarks then threw not-so-subtle barbs at Democrat then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who publicly said she prayed for Trump, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who had cited his faith in his decision to vote to convict Trump.
"I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong," Trump said then in his winding speech, in which he also held up two newspapers with banner headlines about his acquittal. "Nor do I like people who say, 'I pray for you,' when they know that that's not so."
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to attend the prayer breakfast, in February 1953, and every president since has spoken at the gathering.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., are the honorary co-chairs of this year's prayer breakfast.
In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two dueling events, the one on Capitol Hill largely attended by lawmakers and government officials and a larger private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom. The split occurred when lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group that for decades had overseen the bigger event, due to questions about its organization and how it was funded.
The idea of using "auto-regression" transformers to predict the future is actually a very amazing thing. In a time-series streaming video input, the point is to use the most recent several seconds of video (the context window) to predict the next several seconds (the likely or possible futures). Humans do this all the time. As you drive down the road, your attention is drawn here and there and you imagine/form predictions of what might happen next. You also begin or prepare appropriate actions for possible futures. A noisy car is zig-zagging, coming up from behind or passing; you might speed up, slow down, change lanes, etc. A person standing in the median or on the curb might step into the street. You prepare. Etc. An autonomous car that can do this sort of thing as well, changing its predictions and plans constantly with every new video frame, would be amazing. Wait for HW5/AI5!
!summarize #usaid #inspectorgeneral #spending #corruption
Second Type of Bird Flu Detected in US Dairy Cows
Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that is different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year, Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday.
Dairy cattle in Nevada have been infected with a new type of bird flu that is different from the version that has spread in U.S. herds since last year, Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday.
The detection indicates that distinct forms of the virus known as Type A H5N1 have spilled over from wild birds into cattle at least twice. Experts said it raises new questions about wider spread and the difficulty of controlling infections in animals and the people who work closely with them.
"I always thought one bird-to-cow transmission was a very rare event. Seems that may not be the case," said Richard Webby, an influenza expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
A version of the H5N1 bird flu virus known as B3.13 was confirmed in March after being introduced to cattle in late 2023, scientists said. It has infected more than 950 herds in 16 states. The new version, known as D1.1, was confirmed in Nevada cattle on Friday, according to USDA. It was detected in milk collected as part of a surveillance program launched in December.
"Now we know why it's really important to test and continue testing," said Angela Rasmussen, a virus expert at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, who helped identify the first spillover.
The D1.1 version of the virus was the type linked to the first U.S. death tied to bird flu and a severe illness in Canada. A person in Louisiana died in January after developing severe respiratory symptoms following contact with wild and backyard birds. In British Columbia, a teen girl was hospitalized for months with a virus traced to poultry.
At least 67 people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu, mostly those who work closely with dairy or cattle, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
USDA officials said they would post genetic sequences and other information about the new form of the virus to a public repository later this week. Scientists said that would be key to understanding whether the spillover was a recent event or whether the virus has been circulating, perhaps widely, for longer.
"If this turns out to have been something that crossed into cattle a couple months ago, a couple months is a long time not to detect it," said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who has studied the H5N1 virus in cattle.
!summarize #sarahbedford #politico #usaid
He added that it's important for federal officials to share promptly information about a virus that has the potential to trigger a pandemic that could "make COVID seem like a walk in the park."
"It's a vital part of national security, global security, the well-being of people, of animals and of businesses in the U.S.," Worobey added.
More Than 40,000 Govt Workers Take Buyout as Deadline Looms
More than 40,000 federal employees had accepted the buyout offer as of Wednesday night, according to a source.
Millions of U.S. government workers face a Thursday deadline to tell the Trump administration whether they will accept a buyout offer or remain in their jobs, but still face the possibility of being thrown out of work if they decide to stay.
President Donald Trump's aggressive drive to reduce the size of the government in a matter of weeks is unprecedented. It has caused turmoil in the U.S. capital, and sparked protests and union warnings that it might violate multiple laws.
More than 40,000 federal employees had accepted the buyout offer as of Wednesday night, according to a source.
!summarize #petehegseth #trump
It is not clear how many of the federal government's 2.3 million civilian employees will ultimately accept the offer, which promises to pay their salaries until October if they resign by Thursday.
Others are fighting the proposal in court.
Unions representing federal workers sued to block the "deferred resignation program" last week. A federal judge in Boston is to consider their request at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Thursday.
Those who do not accept the offer have been told their jobs could be at risk as the administration moves ahead with its overhaul of government operations.
The buyout encompasses not only employees at domestic agencies like the Department of Labor that have traditionally drawn the ire of Trump's Republicans, but intelligence agencies like the CIA as well.
We know man has been fond of gambling since the beginning of civilization, based on the archaeology, but, most likely, he has been gambling since his intellect developed the capacity. What is it that drives the human desire for gratification achieved when you combine game playing with the award of a prize based on chance? Is it the thrill of earnings without labor? Whatever the motivation, gambling remains a popular human pastime across the ages and into the present day.
!summarize #trump #whitehouse #newsom #california
In the ancient world, the Romans were inveterate gamblers. All classes participated, from slave to emperor, artisan to Senator. During the time of the Republic, gambling was prohibited except during the festival of the Saturnalia which was held in December of each year. The Saturnalia was a celebration in honor of the Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and, according to Roman myth, there existed a time when Saturn reigned over the earth and provided a bounty for mankind, who lived in a state of innocence. The festival was an attempt to relive that time by turning convention on its head. Featured was a day of public revelry followed by two days of private celebration within the Roman household. The private celebrations included a “reverse meal” where slaves dined as their masters, possibly even served by them. Dice playing was permitted as another kind of reversal because that which was normally unlawful was now permitted.
The buyout is part of a government overhaul, which is being led by Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk. It has resulted in purges of personnel in a number of departments and has significantly scaled down America's main humanitarian aid agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development.
More cuts are likely. One source at the Office of Personnel Management said officials upped their demand for layoffs Wednesday from 30% to 70% of all staff.
Trump's lieutenants at the Justice Department have already fired prosecutors who worked on cases involving Jan. 6, 2021, and have demanded the names of up to 6,000 FBI agents who were involved.
!summarize #stevecohen #scottboras #petealonso #nymets #mlb
!summarize #ev #sales #unitedstates #automotive
The White House says it is following through on Trump's campaign promise to cut wasteful spending and slim down a bureaucracy that many conservatives see as left-leaning and unresponsive to the president's agenda.
Democrats say the effort is illegal, as the U.S. Constitution gives Congress authority over spending matters.
"Everyone is stressed and frustrated. The mood is awful," said one worker at the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Republican lawmakers, who control both chambers of Congress, have cheered the effort, and Democrats have been unable to stop it.
!summarize #geely #ex5 #ev #tesla #xpeng
All 47 Democrats in the U.S. Senate are expected Thursday to vote against confirming Trump's pick for White House budget chief, Russell Vought, but he is still expected to win confirmation with support from the chamber's 53 Republicans.
What were these dice games? Generally there were two types: games with dice only and games with dice and a board containing pieces that were moved by throws of dice. The boards typically had 36 squares with various symbols such as squares, leaves, letters, and crosses marked on them. Three die, identical to the six sided type we use today, were thrown. The luckiest throw was three sixes or eighteen “spots”. Fines were paid or pieces moved backward if the dice thrown showed one or more single dot.
Outside of the Saturnalia, and despite the official government position, gambling was a daily activity for the Roman people. The ruins of a tavern near the praetorian camp held a sign that said, “Good food and gambling within.” Tables have also been found with wording inscribed on them – “make room for better players.”
Maybe the fundamental issue here is we are concerning ourselves with bits and not atoms. It's one thing to know how to make a truck bomb, for example, but it's another to start gathering large quantities of fertilizer at your local farming supply outlet. News flash: the FBI is already watching for that and the identity checks are in place. And it's one thing to learn you need a land SCUBA suit and HAZMAT gear, it's another to actually go buy those things (or parts to assemble them). It may just be that bits—in the age of ASI—are becoming simply to slippery to control/contain. You might know or learn how to build an atomic bomb, but go try to buy some enriched uranium or rods for centrifuges and watch how fast you become interesting to TPTB. Information wants to be free, but atoms remain expensive and hard to move around anonymously.
!summarize #claude #hella #ai #llm
Trump: Dems Used USAID Money as 'Payoff' to Media
President Donald Trump accused Democrats in government of stealing "billions of dollars," with much of the money going to media outlets as a "payoff" for good coverage.
President Donald Trump accused Democrats in government of stealing "billions of dollars," with much of the money going to media outlets as a "payoff" for good coverage.
Elon Musk's advisory Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with finding ways to streamline government and reduce spending, has focused on the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
"LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A 'PAYOFF' FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS," Trump posted Thursday morning on Truth Social.
"THE LEFT WING 'RAG,' KNOWN AS 'POLITICO,' SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive money??? Who else did??? THIS COULD BE THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY! THE DEMOCRATS CAN'T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!"
Democrat lawmakers have become irate over Musk targeting USAID and gaining access to classified and sensitive information at several executive branch agencies.
Amateurishly solutioning this, reality appears to be (1) information will leak somehow; nothing is air-tight (2) identity would mitigate the majority of common problems. "Identity" would be a unique identifier on "the chain" for all entities who want to play. Humans get one each. Zillions of bots (linking eventually/elaborately to unique human ids) get one each. Identity registration will have requirements that all terminate at an endpoint that can have its bad behavior mitigated (prosecution, bot-termination), effecting the entities bona fides. So skin is in the game. Entities will be averse to interacting with anything & everything with any malicious intent.
The spinal cord of this solution is "trust". Bad things will be attempted, but through the chain and algorithms, they can be traced & mitigated. And as usual, society makes the cost of crossing the line too bitter for 99.9% of the entities to taste (revoking key trust domains, jail, etc.).
!summarize #Russia #ukraine #war #putin
The White House on Monday issued a release Monday titled "At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep." It listed "pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats" that included:
$1.5 million to "advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities"
$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
$2 million for sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala
$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund "irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan," benefiting the Taliban
!summarize #jimmybutler #goldenstate #warriors #miami #heat #nba
The Trump administration last month put on leave about 60 senior career officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), after Washington put a sweeping freeze on aid worldwide.
It was reported this week that USAID staffers were instructed to stay out of the agency's Washington headquarters, after Musk announced Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.
Politico reported Tuesday that the administration intends to put nearly the entire Washington, D.C., USAID staff on leave.
!summarize #democrats #politics #trump
!summarize #samaltman #socialcontract #openai
One imagines “loaded” dice being employed by professionals who made a living taking other people’s money and frequent fights must have resulted from attempts at cheating. There is graffiti on a wall in Pompeii where the writer states with pride, “I am skilled enough to win without cheating.” The ruins of a tavern in the same city have a cartoon painted on the floor. In the first picture, two men sitting on chairs with a game board sitting on their knees. The first man says “EXSI” (I am out). He’s thrown the dice. The second man points and says “NON TRIA DV AS EST” (not three points but two). In the second picture, the men are standing up as if to fight over the score, but the tavern keeper steps in. “ITIS FORIS RIXSATIS” (Leave my place if you want to fight).
Under Danish regulations, wind turbines with a rotor area exceeding 5 m² must have a valid certificate to meet rigorous safety and design standards. With this certification, Siemens Gamesa has until 2027 to further develop the model and refine its performance before full-scale commercial deployment is considered.
!summarize #cybertruck #tesla #lease
The SG DD-276 is meant to meet the growing demand for larger wind turbines that power an expanding offshore energy market. The turbine’s 21.5 MW capacity positions it to potentially dethrone some of the current heavyweights in the industry. The largest offshore wind turbine in operation today is a 26 MW machine built by Dongfang Electric in Fujian Province, China, featuring a hub height of 185 meters, equivalent to a 63-story building.
Other similar projects include the 20 MW turbine installed in the South China Sea by Mingyang Smart Energy and China Railway Construction Corporation’s 20 MW floating turbine “Qihang,” highlighting the fierce competition in the global wind energy race.
Augustus was a joyful gambler and made a practice of playing during all Roman festivals. A letter written to his son-in-law, Tiberius, states “We have passed, my dear Tiberius, the feast of Minerva, in great merriment, gambling every day and warming up to the occasion. Your brother distinguished himself by the great noise he made, and, after all, he did not lose very much, for fortune turned in his favor just as he faced ruination. I have lost thirty thousand sesterces, because, as usual, I was liberal to my guests and partners. Had I taken all that was due to me I would have cleared fifty thousand.”
Siemens Gamesa’s ambitious project comes when the industry is rapidly advancing. The company’s previous offerings include a 14 MW turbine, while other industry players, such as Danish Vestas, with its V236 15 MW model, and British GE Wind Energy’s 14 MW Haliade-X, are also pushing the limits of turbine capacity.
In the United States, GE’s Haliade-X turbines are already powering the Vineyard Wind I offshore wind farm in Massachusetts, the country’s most powerful operation. Furthermore, the upcoming Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project is set to become the largest U.S. offshore wind farm when operational in 2026, featuring 176 Siemens Gamesa 14 MW turbines.
The Siemens Gamesa prototype, however, represents a significant evolution in Western wind turbine technology and serves as a testbed for next-generation offshore wind projects. As the global energy landscape shifts towards cleaner alternatives, projects like the SG DD-276 prototype are vital for Europe and America to harness offshore wind.
Both Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute were founded by Marc Raibert, former MIT professor and longtime Boston Dynamics CEO.
Established in 2022, the Institute continues Raibert’s research, enabling the exploration of cutting-edge robotics beyond commercial constraints.
Hyundai, which acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021, also funds the Institute, mirroring Toyota’s TRI. Boston Dynamics’ partnerships with TRI and the RAI Institute aim to enhance the electric Atlas humanoid’s learning, according to Techcrunch.
“We are living in an extremely exciting time for humanoid robot development. But for humanoids to be useful, they must be flexible enough to work in many different kinds of environments and perform tasks in a wide variety of applications,” said Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics, in a statement.
!summarize #nissan #honda #automotive #japan
To that extent, the RAI Institute collaboration focuses on reinforcement learning, a trial-and-error-based method. Simulations now accelerate this traditionally time-intensive process by enabling multiple learning tasks to run concurrently.
Earlier, Chinese robotics company AgiBot introduced the largest humanoid manipulation dataset to date, designed to enhance AI robot training. Called AgiBot World Alpha, the dataset includes over one million trajectories from 100 robots across 100+ scenarios in five domains, focusing on manipulation, tool use, and collaboration.
Unitree also recently released an open-source full-body dataset, enabling its H1, H1-2, and G-1 humanoid robots to move more naturally, even dance. Captured using LAFAN1 motion capture, the data is compatible with all of Unitree’s main robot units.
!summarize #uk #brexit #eu #economy
After Augustus, the rise of imperial Rome produced a drop in moral standards. Horace states that “the young Roman is no longer devoted to the manly habits of riding and hunting; his skill seems to develop more in the games of chance forbidden by law.” We know of at least three laws forbidding gambling, the most notable being the Lex Talaria, but we don’t know when these laws were passed. We do know, however, that the Roman term for gambling was “Alea” and early, when the pretense of morality mattered, “Aleator” was used to describe a despicable person.
!summarize #jimmykimmel #democrats #elonmusk #doge #latenight
The collaboration between Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute aims to tackle key challenges in reinforcement learning for robotics, focusing on three main areas: sim-to-real transfer, whole-body loco-manipulation, and full-body contact strategies.
Despite advances in fast parallel simulators and optimization techniques, transferring simulation-trained policies to real robots remains a major hurdle. To bridge this gap, the teams will develop reinforcement learning policies that generate agile and adaptable behavior on physical hardware, enabling robust and practical locomotion.
Another focus is enhancing whole-body loco-manipulation, where robots must seamlessly combine locomotion with object interaction, such as opening doors or operating levers. By improving policy robustness in these scenarios, the teams aim to increase the practical utility of humanoid robots in real-world environments.
!summarize #energy #oil #tariffs #china
Additionally, the research will explore full-body contact strategies for complex tasks like dynamic running and manipulating heavy objects. These activities require precise coordination between the arms and legs, demanding reinforcement learning techniques that handle intricate contact events without strict predefined constraints.
Through these advancements, the partnership seeks to push the boundaries of reinforcement learning, enabling the electric Atlas robot to perform more versatile and high-performance tasks in practical applications.
Laws or no laws, the Roman people played on because nothing could dent the attraction its people had for games of chance.
From a gender standpoint, women would have been excluded from any gambling activities with men but one can assume the richer ones played in groups like the men did.
!summarize #aoc #elonmusk #politician
!summarize #donkeykong #killscreen #gaming
!summarize #billmaher #whoppigoldberg #theview #politics
World’s first gene-edited polo horses unleashed in Argentina for speed supremacy
The plan is for them to outpace the speed of the donor and set new records in the game.
The world’s first genetically edited polo horses are here, all thanks to the efforts of a biotech firm based in Argentina.
Kheiron Biotech – a firm based in Buenos Aires – has used the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to create five gene-edited horses that have the genes of Argentina’s award-winning mare, Polo Pureza.
It is worth knowing that the mare, whose name in Spanish Polo Pureza translates to ‘Polo Purity’ in English, has even been inducted into the Argentine Association of Polo Horse Breeders Hall of Fame, as per a report by Reuters.
!summarize #Modely #tesla #engineering #automotive #ev
The purpose behind creating genetically modified horses using the gene-editing tool was simple – improved muscle growth and speed.
It is believed that the horses created with Polo Pureza’s genes will be able to run faster and perform better on the sports field. Gabriel Vichera, co-founder and scientific director of Kheiron, says that CRISPR-Cas9 allowed them to make precise cuts in the desired region of the genome to make changes.
The scientists involved in the project edited the genes in such a manner that they could increase the explosive speed. Great care was taken to ensure that the other good qualities of the champion mare were retained.
The Reuters report also quotes Vichera as saying that there is nothing artificial about this creation, and so the five horses bred as a result tick all the boxes that Argentina. The project does not come under genetic doping, as per his claims.
I knew that the Roman legion was much more flexible and maneuverable than phalanx, could accommodate men in various positions but that still doesn't account for trying to get past a head-on collision with a (very strong) pike formation. But it sort of came to me when a few months ago I learned that the Roman Gladius is actually only a half-decent stabbing weapon. It is relatively fast, but compared to other weaponry (as actually tested against other swords) it is poor in stabbing. But this was how the Romans were taught to fight. Why would the Romans equip their troops with a poor stabbing weapon and tell them to stab with it all the time? There are even curved swords not designed for thrusting that do better against the gladius. The gladius is a fat sword and it can only penetrate up to a specific point.
The five horses were born in October and November 2024 and are currently being taken care of at a facility in San Antonio de Areco, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
They are being taken care of by a team of vets, which keeps a check on them on a daily basis. A group of mares is nursing and raising them.
!summarize #china #economy #work #holiday
Only time will tell whether the five horses will be able to outpace their gene-gifting mother. However, Vichera and his team are confident about the results.
Kheiron’s CEO and founder, Daniel Sammartino, told Wired that this success puts his company and Argentina ahead of the world in precision gene editing. He stated that the company has the necessary permits and plans to do more.
Talking to Reuters, Vichera divulged that his team is also working on gene-editing pigs and cows. The goal with pigs is to make their organs more suited for transplants in humans. Meanwhile, with cows, they intend to make them better suited to living in hotter areas by giving them shorter hair.
Then just recently I saw the documentary (view-able on Youtube) Conquest: Roman Weapons. Peter Woodward in conjunction with reenactors made an excellent examination. A longsword is a better all-around weapon but it required room to wield and the techniques are either tiresome and you fare better with a smaller shield. A spear was good for holding off infantry charges but while cheap is useless afterwards in the thick of a fight. A large ax requires both hands, and a smaller ax while a good tool, requires swinging. The gladius is small and allows a lot of quick thrusts. A falcata or heavy sword was great at chopping and cutting but that is not only tiresome, it is slow compared to rapid short thrusts.
CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats” and is a technology that enables scientists to edit the DNA of any genome. In 2005, a researcher developed Cas9 – a DNA-cutting enzyme that allowed editing in the cell’s own genome.
With CRISPR, scientists can engineer plants that can survive in harsh conditions, fruits that are bigger in volume and flesh, and even animals that have the desired characteristics.
There are certain ethical dilemmas associated with CRISPR and its use on humans, and that extends to its use in animals, too. Nonetheless, it is still a very important technology that can provide multiple benefits to the society at large.
But beyond this was a technique for battle I never considered. The Roman legion was a highly offensive force. Contrary to what I believed (a counter-attack force that received the enemy) they push and drive into an enemy with that large scutum shield, preventing enemies from properly mounting their large attack. It as a weapon drove enemies into the ground and pushed them back into enemy lines. Romans were not tight-fitted in fighting formation, but had a little space 3 feet from man-to-man) between each other which never made sense to me until the demonstration as why.
!summarize #kamalaharris #cbs #60minutes
!summarize #density #cities #affordability #housing #realestate
AND THE BIG conclusion was this: the Romans at the front would use their large curved shields to hold off the initial bunching of a spear formation. Lots of people don't realize the scutum uses a horizontal grip, so when your arm is hanging loosely at your side, you're holding the scutum. This means you didn't have to hold up your arm across your chest or stomach to support that large shield; your shoulder did it for you. Two scutum close together curving around you could hold off 10 thrusting spears. The rank interwoven from behind moved forward, while the spears are planted in or busy working the front Romans, allowing the second rearward to step into gaps (remember, 2 scutum Romans are holding off 10 spears) and then use their gladius to hack apart the spears or drive them out of the way. No more phalanx. If the Romans had a dedicated thrusting weapon, this tactic would be impossible.
!summarize #wallstreet #stevengreer #technology #energy #power #investing
!summarize #stock #jimchanos #markets
The Roman legion could fight the phalanx head-on and decimate it. Playing straight into the phalanx preference of fighting and force it into buckling destruction. The phalanx is a tightly packed bunch of men in which, almost irregardless of your weapon (you can pick any one of 100 around the world in any combination) you were destined to loose. The tight formation is used against itself and loses all advantages from the first advance.
In modern times, we think of great navies patrolling the oceans of the world. The British Empire, for example, owes the advent of its naval superiority to its victory over the Spanish Armada and the subsequent focus on providing protection for its trading partners and colonies. In Roman times, the naval landscape was principally the Mediterranean Sea, or as the Romans liked to call it, Mare Nostrum.
As I have discussed in other posts, the Romans came late to the game of sea trade and naval power following the successes of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians. They had no navy until the first Punic War (264 B.C.) when it became an important instrument for the capture of Sicily. By the time the empire began, naval power was a critical element of Roman strategy.
!summarize #blackstone #realestate #housing #singlefamily #market
Ancient Roman Serial Killers: The Poison Ring
The main story for this poisoning comes from Livy’s “History of Rome” 8.3-11 and takes place in the year 331 BCE.
WHAT: THE GREAT SICKNESS OR POISONING?
One thing, however, I should be glad to believe had been falsely handed down —and indeed not all the authorities avouch it —namely, that those whose deaths made the year notorious for pestilence were in reality destroyed by poison; still, I must set forth the story as it comes to us, that I may not deprive any writer of his credit. [4] when the leading citizens were falling ill with the same kind of malady, which had, in almost every case the same fatal termination, a certain serving —woman [5] came to Quintus Fabius Maximus, the curule aedile, and declared that she would reveal the cause of the general calamity if he would give her a pledge that she should not suffer for her testimony.
sicut proditur tamen res, ne cui auctorum fidem abrogaverim, exponenda est. Cum primores civitatis similibus morbis eodemque ferme omnes eventu morerentur, ancilla quaedam ad Q. Fabium Maximum aedilem curulem indicaturam se causam publicae pestis professa est, si ab eo fides sibi data esset haud futurum noxae indicium.
A remarkable yet mostly obscure part of the Roman naval story concerns the fleets of the inland frontier. I know of no other case in history where a large scale power deployed a navy for the control of rivers. By accident or design, the northern boundary of the empire would be marked by the great rivers of Europe; the Rhine and the Danube, so a naval force was required to act in support of the army. The Rhine was the western boundary of the empire from the time of Julius Caesar with the Danube following during the time of Augustus, who sought to move the boundary north to avoid attacks emanating from the Alps. Augustus had Drusus and his brother Tiberius push east from the Rhine as far as the Elbe, but following reverses like the Massacre at Teutoburg, Rome retreated to its
old boundary on the Rhine.
!summarize #doge #tesla #elonmusk
WHAT: THE CULPRITS
Fabius at once referred the matter to the consuls, and the consuls [6] to the senate, and a pledge was given to the witness with the unanimous approval of that body. [7] she then disclosed the fact that the City was afflicted by the criminal practices of the women; that they who prepared these poisons were matrons, whom, if they would instantly attend her, they might take in the very act. [8] they followed the informer and found certain women brewing poisons, and other poisons stored away. These concoctions2 were brought into the Forum, and some twenty matrons, in whose houses they had been discovered, were summoned thither by an apparitor.
Fabius confestim rem ad consules, consules ad senatum referunt consensuque ordinis fides indici data. Tum patefactum muliebri fraude civitatem premi matronasque ea venena coquere et, si sequi extemplo velint, manifesto deprehendi posse. Secuti indicem et coquentes quasdam medicamenta et recondita alia invenerunt; quibus in forum delatis et ad viginti matronis, apud quas deprehensa erant, per viatorem accitis duae ex eis,
With rivers as a physical boundary, Rome needed a naval force to protect it: protect merchant traffic, quickly ferry the army to vulnerable locations, and control any adversarial movement on the waterways. Below is a map of the Rhine and Danube Rivers showing where the Roman fleets were located.
!summarize #mikefrancesa #elimanning #nygiants #halloffame #petealonso #nymets
The Iron Gates are a physical landmark in the Lower Danube which divides the river. Its waterfalls and rapids made ship navigation during antiquity problematic, and it was not until 1831 that a successful channel was dug. See the photograph below.
The Roman solution to this Iron Gates problem was to deploy two navies. Classis Moesica on the eastern side and Classis Pannonica on the western side. These fleets were responsible for supporting the volatile Balkan frontier. The upper Danube, running from the Alps through modern Hungary was a more stable boundary which did not require a naval force during the first two centuries AD. A third naval force, the Classis Germanica was based near modern Bonn and was responsible for the Rhine region.
These Roman frontier fleets used a smaller class of ships than those used in the larger bodies of water, principally the Liburna, which was essentially a bireme with two rows of oars, possibly similar to the old Greek pentekontor. The crew was organized as a century like the army but not subdivided into cohorts because there was no tactical movement necessary at sea. A centurion was responsible for training the crew and took orders from a Praefect who acted as an administrator for the navy. These men were of high standing usually members of the equestrian class. The naval administration linked ships and sailors directly to Caesar rather than acting through the army chain of command. This peculiarity was an artifact of the time of Augustus when he placed so much trust in Agrippa as his naval commander and then assumed personal control following the death of his friend.
Actions undertaken by the northern fleets were sporadic and depended on the whether there were pressing threats to the frontier. For example, there were significant actions from 20 B.C. to 10 A.D. under Augustus when he was trying to establish provinces in the Balkans, but peacetime idled the navy from 15-69 A.D. After 85 A.D, the Dacian Wars occupied the fleets of the lower Danube for twenty years.
There are no real descriptions of the northern fleets in battle, only their support of the efforts of the army. Lack of historical detail and the fact that the indigenous people lacked navies, leads one to believe there few independent actions that one could label noteworthy.
Two of their number, Cornelia and Sergia, of patrician houses both, asserted that these drugs were salutary. [9] on the informer giving them the lie, and bidding them drink and prove her charges false in the sight of all, they took time to confer, and after the crowd had been dismissed they referred the question to the rest, and finding that they, like themselves, would not refuse the draught, they all drank off the poison and perished by their own wicked practices.
Cornelia ac Sergia, patriciae utraque gentis, cum ea medicamenta salubria esse contenderent, ab confutante indice bibere iussae ut se falsum commentam arguerent, spatio ad conloquendum sumpto, cum submoto populo [in conspectu omnium] rem ad ceteras rettulissent, haud abnuentibus et illis bibere, epoto [in conspectu omnium] medicamento suamet ipsae fraude omnes interierunt
!summarize #newyorkcity #middleclass #economy
It is uncertain how these women poisoned the several men they did and high ranking men as indicated in the
translation “leading citizens.” Was this a political mass murder? An organized stance against men or husbands? Is Livy correct to say all these women were “mad” and not acting from malicious intent?
Probably not – a group of women would not be so organized if they were truly mad – but at least that would hush up the idea of rebellion or chaos among women.
The type of poison is not disclosed – but it is assumed it would be have been some sort of vegetation.
CONCLUSION
This group of women is often referred to as the poison ring – probably a double meaning. A ring or group of women could be meant BUT also, the fashionable item is known as a vessel ring which was popular in ancient Asia, India, and eventually the Meditteranean.
The history of Rome and Dacia is another example of friction at the edge of the Empire causing a confrontation with people who refused to be subjugated. It took the Romans nearly twenty years to defeat Dacia once hostilities broke into the open.
With the eastern European frontier the Romans employed, as elsewhere, the same strategy. First, they required that the frontier facilitate traffic flowing between the various parts of the Empire. Second they rejected areas that were difficult to settle. Third they specified that the frontier include lands that could provide food and natural resources for the Romans settled there.
!summarize #llm #ai #meta
Locusta was a notorious maker of poisons in the 1st-century Roman Empire, active in the final two reigns of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She supposedly took part in the assassinations of emperor Claudius and his son, Britannicus. She was a favorite of emperor Nero for several years, and Nero had her provide training to other poisoners in his service.
The part that is uncertain is if she enjoyed poisoning or if it was her profession as a contract killer. It should be noted in the translation below, that she is regarded as an acclaimed poisoner BEFORE she poisons Claudius or Brittanicus.
!summarize #toyko #living #travel #japan
The tribe of Dacians was located north of the Danube River in southeastern Europe in what is today Romania and Moldova. At various times in their history, The Dacians, called Getae by the Greeks, expanded south of the Danube to the edge of the Balkan Mountains in what is now modern Bulgaria. The Dacians had a propensity for centralization which was rare for the peoples of the region and this trait made them a dangerous adversary for any power operating in the vicinity of the Danube.
During the first century AD, before Trajan, the Roman frontier in southeast Europe had its northern boundary at the Danube River stretching from Vienna all the way to the Black Sea. The Danube was fortified along its entire length with large forts, watchtowers, and auxiliary units assigned to reconnaissance, while two naval fleets, the Classis Pannonica and Classis Moesia, patrolled the river itself.
WHAT: DEATH OF CLAUDIUS
Tacitus’ Annals 12.66:
Under this great burden of anxiety, he had an attack of illness and went to Sinuessa to recruit his strength with its balmy climate and salubrious waters. Thereupon, Agrippina, who had long decided on the crime and eagerly grasped at the opportunity thus offered and did not lack instruments, deliberated on the nature of the poison to be used. The deed would be betrayed by one that was sudden and instantaneous, while if she chose a slow and lingering poison, there was a fear that Claudius, when near his end, might, on detecting the treachery, return to his love for his son. She decided on some rare compound that might derange his mind and delay death. A person skilled in such matters was selected, Locusta by name, who had lately been condemned for poisoning, and had long been retained as one of the tools of despotism.
By this woman’s art, the poison was prepared, and it was to be administered by a eunuch, Halotus, who was accustomed to bringing in and tasting the dishes.
Dacian raids against Rome were somewhat controlled under Augustus through reprisal operations. Tiberius tried diplomacy but was unsuccessful, possibly because the Dacians possessed gold and refused to be bought off. Then, during the middle of the first century AD, the Romans used Sarmatian Lazyges as a buffer by having them occupy areas Between the Tisza River and the Danube. The Lazyges, a nomadic people, were willing to take as payback for their territorial commitment Roman help in suppressing internal rebel activity.
In 85/86, during the reign of Domitian, the Dacians came together under the rule of Decebalus and became more belligerent. A Dacian attack on Moesia in 87 led to a Roman pursuit across the Danube and a serious Roman defeat, later avenged by Roman victory at Tapae in 88. Domitian had designs on attacking the Dacian capital at Sarmizegethusa but delays caused by matters needing Roman attention elsewhere resulted in a lost opportunity. By the time Rome turned its attention back to Dacia, the client kingdoms of the Danube had crumbled, making a large scale attack no longer possible. Uncertainty in the region required that Domitian treat with the Dacians, including the offering of a technical aid program, so things remained quiet along the eastern Danube up until the time of Domitian’s assassination in 96 AD.
!summarize #maliknabers #nygiants #nfl #quarterback
!summarize #politico #doge #elonmusk #media
In tanta mole curarum valetudine adversa corripitur, refovendisque viribus mollitia caeli et salubritate aquarum Sinuessam pergit. tum Agrippina, sceleris olim certa et oblatae occasionis propera nec ministrorum egens, de genere veneni consultavit, ne repentino et praecipiti facinus proderetur; si lentum et tabidum delegisset, ne admotus supremis Claudius et dolo intellecto ad amorem filii rediret. exquisitum aliquid placebat, quod turbaret mentem et mortem differret. deligitur artifex talium vocabulo Locusta, nuper veneficii damnata et diu inter instrumenta regni habita. eius mulieris ingenio paratum virus, cuius minister e spadonibus fuit Halotus, inferre epulas et explorare gustu solitus.
Trajan attacked Dacia in the 101-2 period, defeated Decebalus, and exacted severe concessions on the losers. Almost immediately, the terms of the treaty were abused and a second war commenced in 105. This time Trajan laid siege to Sarmizegethusa and destroyed it. Decebalus committed suicide to avoid Roman capture.
Trajan made Dacia a Roman province extending its land as a deep wedge north from the Danube, a design intended to separate the local tribes and decrease their ability to organize together. This Dacian wedge survived until 270, when Aurelian abandoned the territory to conserve military resources.
t generally takes about 2-3 years to make a massive update to a chip architecture. First you need to understand the limitations of the current architecture then you need to explore the best changes practical with the process node you are using. I think AI5 is even more complicated because the method of training is advancing while the architecture is being developed.
The Third Punic War was the inevitable result of treaty that was too restrictive and a long standing feud that couldn't be mitigated.
After defeat in the Second war in 202 B.C, Carthage was prohibited from attacking any friend of Rome and also required to pay reparations to the victor. But, over time, the Roman Senate saw hawk and dove factions emerge during arguments over the future of Carthage. The Punic council, looking at Rome from a position of weakness, saw similar factions argue over the risk of provoking their longtime adversary. Adding to the mix, neighbors of the Carthage began to attack her thinking she would not fight back. But she did and finally, in 149 B.C, the efforts Carthage made to protect herself were seen as violations by the hawks in the Roman Senate and war was declared.
Suetonius’ Life of Nero [33.2]
He attempted the life of Britannicus by poison, not less from jealousy of his voice (for it was more agreeable than his own) than from fear that he might sometime win a higher place than himself in the people’s regard because of the memory of his father. He procured the potion from an archpoisoner, one Locusta, and when the effect was slower than he anticipated, merely physicing Britannicus, he called the woman to him and flogged her with his own hand, charging that she had administered a medicine instead of poison; and when she said in excuse that she had given a smaller dose to shield him from the odium of the crime
he replied: “It’s likely that I am afraid of the Julian law;”and he forced her to mix as swift and instant a potion as she knew how in his own room before his very eyes. Then he tried it on a kid, and as the animal lingered for five hours, had the mixture steeped again and again and threw some of it before a pig. The beast instantly fell dead, whereupon he ordered that the poison be taken to the dining room and given to Britannicus. The boy dropped dead at the very first taste, but Nero lied to his guests and declared that he was seized with the falling sickness, to which he was subject, and the next day had him hastily and unceremoniously buried in pouring rain. He rewarded Locusta for her eminent services with a full pardon and large estates in the country, and actually sent her pupils
!summarize #nymets #mlb #petealonso #freeagency
!summarize #medicare #doge #government #healthcare
The years of 149-148 B.C, were unsuccessful from the Roman standpoint as multiple attempts to assault the city failed. Then, after Scipio Aemilianus was elected consul in late 148, he proceeded to Carthage intent on finishing the war. Aemilianus spent the summer of 147 B.C. getting his army in shape and then in the fall built a double wall 3.2 miles across the Isthmus separating the city of Carthage from the rest of the Tunisian Peninsula. The inner wall would starve the Carthaginians into submission while the outer wall served to protect the Roman army from being attacked from behind. The inner wall was twelve feet high with parapets and towers. A central tower was high enough to provide a view into the city.
To help you understand the geography involved in this battle, I have constructed the following map which shows the city of Carthage and its critical landmarks.
!summarize #bretbaier #gaza #politoco #trump #doge
Britannicum non minus aemulatione vocis, quae illi iucundior suppetebat, quam metu ne quandoque apud hominum gratiam paterna memoria praevaleret, veneno adgressus est. Quod acceptum a quadam Lucusta, venenariorum indice, cum opinione tardius cederet ventre modo Britannici moto, accersitam mulierem sua manu verberavit arguens pro veneno remedium dedisse; excusantique minus datum ad occultandam facinoris invidiam: “Sane,” inquit, “legem Iuliam timeo,” coegitque se coram in cubiculo quam posset velocissimum ac praesentaneum coquere. Deinde in haedo expertus, postquam is quinque horas protraxit, iterum ac saepius recoctum porcello obiecit; quo statim exanimato inferri in triclinium darique cenanti secum Britannico imperavit. Et cum ille ad primum gustum concidisset, comitiali morbo ex consuetudine correptum apud convivas ementitus postero die raptim inter maximos imbres tralaticio extulit funere. Lucustae pro navata opera impunitatem praediaque ampla, sed et discipulos dedit.
Aemilianus came to realize, soon after the siege began, that closing the land route to Carthage was only a partial solution because the Carthaginian port was still open. Moreover the Carthaginian commander, Hasdrubal, had his army stationed between the city walls and the port (labeled 2 on the map). Aemilianus wanted to move Hasdrubal so he created a distraction by sending a night raiding party of 4,000 to an area north of the Utica Gate, labeled 1 on the map, where scaling the wall was easier. The raiders had free reign over wealthy neighborhoods and an alarm went up immediately.
When Hasdrubal got word of the attack, he abandoned his position at 2 and brought his army back inside the city walls to counter the Romans, but they abandoned their positions the same night and retreated. The Romans overran the vacated position 2 and moved on to position 3 where they could devise an attack on the port. Meanwhile, parallel trenches were dug close to the city was with cross trenches connecting them. The trenches were filled with sharpened spikes.
Next, the Roman army began to construct a “mole” or sea wall to block the entrance to the commercial harbor (labeled 4). The mole was ninety six feet wide at the bottom, twenty-four feet wide at the surface, and constructed of heavy stones. The Roman army worked twenty-four hours a day on the construction until the mole was completed.
!summarize #trump #rossulbricht
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb
Dr. Steven Greer exposes suppressed energy technologies, secret patents, and the powerful forces blocking their release. He reveals how zero-point energy could transform the world, eliminate poverty, and disrupt industries—but is kept hidden by deep-state control. ------
!summarize #relievers #playoffs #mlb
!summarize #juansoto #mlb
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb
!summarize #cnn #democrats #elonmusk #latenight
!summarize #media #hollywood #christiantoto #arts
!summarize #unitedstates #victordavishanson
!summarize #usaid #doge #elonmusk #spending
!summarize #government #hawley #theswamp
When the Carthaginians saw what the Romans were up to, they began a desperate construction project of their own to make a hole in the seaside wall of the commercial harbor so their ships could escape to the sea. The location of this hole was between 4 and 5 on the map. Since the majority of the project was conducted under cover, the Romans were unaware of what the Carthaginians were doing until 50 Triremes from the Carthaginian fleet emerged through the newly created opening. A more resourceful commander could have used the element of surprise to inflict a great deal of damage on the Roman fleet but the Punic commander was content to make a parade of his ships and engage in some training exercises before retiring for the night.
When they emerged again three days later, the Roman fleet was prepared for battle. In the confusion of ships, the opening into the harbor was blocked by ships so the Carthaginians had to tie up along the outer break wall and absorb repeated Roman attacks. By nightfall they were able to return to the harbor. Before the end of the campaign season, the Romans attacked and took control of the outer break wall but put off attacking the city to direct their attention to raids on the interior and wait for the end of the year elections. With his choke hold on the city in place, Aemilianus knew it was just a matter of time before the city would starve.
!summarize #patrickmahones #kansascity #maxxcrosby #nfl #chiefs
!summarize #bretbaier #doge #elonmusk #usaid
During the spring of 146 B.C, Aemilianus returned to Carthage to finish the job. The final assault was focused on a point near the military harbor labeled 5 on the map. The Romans fought their way over the wall and despite Hasdrubal’s attempt to block them by setting fires, they were able to work their way into the city. The Carthaginians retreated to their citadel at Byrsa shown (rectangle on the map). The citadel was on top of a hill and between that point and the harbor sat three or four blocks of multi-story apartment buildings, so, in order to reach the citadel, the Romans had to engage in the worse kind of urban combat imaginable. Aemilianus ordered the neighborhood to be set on fire and the conflagration lasted for six days.
!summarize #nyknicks #arielhukporti #nba #jamesdolan
!summarize #nymets #Petealonso #mlb #freeagency
At that point, 50,000 civilians from the citadel where allowed to leave and be delivered into Roman hands to be sold as slaves, while Roman deserters and the remainder of Hasdrubal’s army fought on. But it wasn't long before the Punic general surrendered and threw himself at the mercy of the Romans. We know nothing of his fate other than he was paraded in Rome during the triumph celebrating the end of Carthage. The city itself was leveled and salt was poured on the arable land to prevent its use. No doubt this was the residue of hatred the Romans felt for Carthage going back to the time Hannibal embarrassed them during the second war.
Later Carthage would have a new life when Julius Caesar built a colony there in the mid-40s B.C. By the first century A.D, Carthage would become the second largest city in the western empire.
!summarize #departmentofeducation #education #doge #trump
!summarize #divorce #relationships #marriage #finance #Money
!summarize #trump #eo #womens #sports #trans
What is a Cothon?
A cothon is a man-made harbor found in the ports of ancient Phoenicia. In actuality, cothon refers to a man-made island at the center of a harbor, but because this island was typically included in the harbor design, its name eventually became the general term for the type of harbor. The great harbor of Carthage is the most well-known example, although others existed in Cyprus and Sicily.
She reportedly advised Agrippina to use Atropa belladonna as a poison. Extracts of Atropa have been used for poisoning since antiquity, as the plant and its fruits contain tropane alkaloids. Atropa-derived poisons were commonly used in ancient Roman murders [hint to more entries for this series], and the previous empress Livia reportedly used them to murder her contemporaries.
HER ENDING
All good things must come to an end, so, following Nero’s death, Locusta was executed by his successor, Galba.
According to Cassius Dio’s History [64.3], “In the case, however, of Helius, Narcissus, Patrobius, Locusta, the sorceress, and others of the scum that had come to the surface in Nero’s day, he ordered them to be led in chains throughout the whole city and then to be executed.”
Tis the season! Every year as the holiday season draws nearer and our social media feed fill with traditions and lore from antiquity – I am sure that you all see Winter Solstice or Saturnalia meme or posts pop up. Over the years, I have done posts on these topics. I have also done Christmasy types of posts such as the Grinch who Stole Christmas in Latin or Christmas Carols in Latin.
However, this year I wanted to do something a little different. Sometimes during Christmas, my family would watch Monty Python’s The Life of Brian.
!summarize #Petealonso #nymets #Michaelkay #mlb
!summarize #google #gemini #ai
Monty Python
The Monty Python is a British surreal comedy group that created the sketch comedy television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which first aired on the BBC in 1969. The Python fandom developed from the television series into something larger in the scope of influence, including touring stage shows, films (The Meaning of Life, The Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail), albums, books, and musicals (Spamalot!).
The group consists of the members: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
The Life of Brian
Monty Python’s Life of Brian sometimes referred to as Life of Brian, is a 1979 comedy film starring and written by the group Monty Python. The film tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish-Roman man who is born on the same day as and next door to Jesus, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah through his life and the film.
The film was a box office success, the fourth-highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom in 1979, and the highest-grossing of any British film in the United States that year. It has remained popular and has been named as the greatest comedy film of all time by several magazines and television networks and even deemed a cult classic.
!summarize #tesla #semi #factory
!summarize #wnba #basketball #womens #unrivaled
!summarize #Rfkjr #confirmation #senate
WNBA players now have two offseason options to choose from...if they want to play basketball outside of the WNBA season. Along with Unrivaled...WNBA players can now play in Athletes Unlimited. ESPN signed an agreement to broadcast Athletes Unlimited...although ESPN isn't broadcasting the league on linear television.
We discuss Athletes Unlimited...and question why another women's basketball league is launching. We discuss the lack of demand for women's basketball...and explain why both Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited are unlikely to succeed.
Megyn Kelly is joined by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson to discuss Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s upcoming senate confirmation vote for HHS Secretary, whether any GOP senators might vote against him and any Democratic senators will vote for him, why he’s the right person to take on corporate interests, the absurdity of RFK's confirmation hearings, and more.
!summarize #republican #taxcuts #newtgingrich #trump
!summarize #federalworkers #doge #elonmusk
!summarize #Trump #musk #government
It has received a 95% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus, “One of the more cutting-edge films of the 1970s, this religious farce from the classic comedy troupe is as poignant as it is funny and satirical.”
However, during the time it was not popular with everyone. The film’s themes of religious satire were very controversial, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. Supposedly, thirty-nine local authorities in the United Kingdom either imposed an outright ban or imposed an X (18 years) certificate.
What is a Cothon?
A cothon is a man-made harbor found in the ports of ancient Phoenicia. In actuality, cothon refers to a man-made island at the center of a harbor, but because this island was typically included in the harbor design, its name eventually became the general term for the type of harbor. The great harbor of Carthage is the most well-known example, although others existed in Cyprus and Sicily.
The relationship between Carthage and Phoenicia is much deeper, of course, than the mere copying of a harbor design. Carthage, circa 814 B.C, began as a Phoenician colony at the start of the first millennium B.C. later to become independent of its mother country. The name Carthage is Phoenician for “New City”. As the Carthaginians moved forward to build their own nation, they used the Phoenician model of building an economy based on trade. After the Greek settlements in the Italian peninsula caused the Phoenicians to retreat to the eastern Mediterranean, Carthage was in position to dominate the western Mediterranean, which she accomplished by 650 B.C. Carthage remained a maritime power until she was crushed by the Romans at the end of the third Punic War in 146 B.C.
Romanes eunt domus
Romanes is not a word. The ending looks like that of a 3rd declension ending, but Romanus is the nominative and Romani (2nd declension) is the plural form of this adjective being used as a noun.
Eunt is from the verb “to go” ire or eo “I go.”
Present Indicative
Singular 1 eo
2 is
3 it
Plural 1 imus
2 itis
3 eunt
So eunt is3rd person plural present indicative (as Brian says) – meaning “they go.” However, commands are given in Latin by using the imperative mood.
Imperative
Present Singular I
Plural Ite
Thus, we are looking for ite!
The last word is domus which is the nominative singular form (use when the subject of the sentence) and does not comply with the idea that sentence is giving this place a “motion towards.” So Brian needs a different inflected form. However, domus is a difficult noun as it can be a 2nd or 4th declension depending on the meaning. The dative case is often used for the idea of “to/for” something which Brian offers as a solution and you see how the Centurion reacts. The dative case would be used more like an indirect object such as giving something to the house or home. Then we have the answer that it is the accusative case for “motion towards”
We don’t know when the great harbor was built because the history is lacking. The best information about it comes from Appian, far removed from the events he writes about. Polybius would have been a great source because he was eyewitness to the Roman attack on Carthage at the end of the third Punic War, but his writings are lost.
Here is what Appian had to say:
“The harbors had communication with each other, and a common entrance from the sea twenty meters wide, which could be closed with iron chains. The first port was for merchant vessels, and here were collected all kinds of ships' tackle. Within the second port was an island which, together with the port itself, was enclosed by high embankments. These embankments were full of shipyards which had capacity for 220 vessels. Above them were magazines for their tackle and furniture. Two Ionic columns stood in front of each dock, giving the appearance of a continuous portico to both the harbor and the island. On the island was built the admiral's house, from which the trumpeter gave signals, the herald delivered orders, and the admiral himself overlooked everything.
The island lay near the entrance to the harbor and rose to a considerable height, so that the admiral could observe what was going on at sea, while those who were approaching by water could not get any clear view of what took place within. Not even the incoming merchants could see the docks, for a double wall enclosed them, and there were gates by which merchant ships could pass from the first port to the city without traversing the dockyards.”
Kite AI has launched the first AI-focused Layer 1 blockchain on Avalanche, creating a decentralized environment for AI models, tools, and data.
The testnet on Avalanche Avalanche
Avalanche aims to improve AI development by addressing blockchain scalability and efficiency challenges, according to a note shared with crypto.news.
The platform introduces Proof of Attributed Intelligence, a consensus mechanism that tracks and rewards AI contributions. This system ensures transparency and incentivizes data providers, model builders, and AI agents.
Kite AI also features a decentralized data access engine, a composable AI ecosystem with customizable subnets, and decentralized AI memory for long-term attribution.
!summarize #doge #unitedstates #spending
By leveraging Avalanche’s infrastructure, Kite AI enables faster processing of AI workloads while maintaining decentralized ownership. As a member of Avalanche’s InfraBuidl program, the project is positioned to advance AI adoption within blockchain ecosystems.
“Our testnet launch advances blockchain AI innovations and introduces the next generation of AI-driven infrastructure for Web3 builders,” said Chi, CEO of Kite AI.
The testnet is now open to developers and institutions exploring AI-powered blockchain applications.
!summarize #argentina #who #trump #soveignty #italy
Brian offers the answer ad domum which is not proper Latin. Domum takes the locative. Just like we say in English “I go home” instead of “I go to the home.” Home is a locative where we don’t always use a preposition or even an article. This is true in Latin as well.
So….
Romani ite domum
is the correct sentence.
!summarize #quantummind #quantum #consciousness #physics
While looking over the newsevents/features section of the University's website, I found an interesting article marking the seventieth anniversary of the book, The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi, the well known economic historian. Polanyi's work sought a middle ground between the political and social philosophy of Hayek and the economic philosophy of Keynes by proposing that society was a fusion between the nation state and market economy, rather than existing in a form dominated by one or the other. Polanyi believed that a "market society" was invented by man and developed organically as a result of human behavior.
Market economies were created the first time two human beings made a trade of equal value, dating back to the time when man became man. The social layer was added during antiquity when the human population density was great enough to foster social classes, a division of labor, and a government designed to enforce property rights. Because man evolved society to meet the needs of a large group, his sense of capitalism and the function of markets evolved in tandem with it. The Athenian agora was no primitive cousin of today's market economy. It was just a smaller version.
The Great Transformation, by Karl Polanyi, celebrates its 70th anniversary this year. The economic historian’s great work holds a compelling and alternative understanding of the economic and financial crises affecting the economy today. Matthew Watson, Christopher Holmes and Ben Clift explain why The Great Transformation is a great alternative to the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx or Friedrich Hayek.
Words by Gareth Jenkins.
For those leafing through books on political economy, studying the theory and history of economics, 1944 is a pivotal year. Friedrich Hayek published his book The Road to Serfdom and John Maynard Keynes was in the midst of helping to establish the Bretton Woods system. Between the two of them, their economic theories and books helped shape the political and economic policies of the post-war period. However, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a call to find an alternative approach as neither Keynesian nor Hayekian solutions feel suitable for the post-crisis situation we find ourselves in.
Three years into the war and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has finally stated he is willing to TALK to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both Putin and Zelensky would like Trump to assist in negotiating a peace deal. Zelensky firmly said “at the negotiation table there must be the United States, Europe, Ukraine and Russia.” But that did not go well for Russia last time.
The last time European leaders sat down to mitigate Russia-Ukraine relations, they presented Moscow with the false Minsk Agreement. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel later revealed, the agreement was a complete hoax intended to buy time for Ukraine to build up its military. Putin may distrust Europe but has held out hope that Donald Trump could present a solution.
“Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals (from Washington). Everyone is ready. It is difficult to read the coffee grounds here. As soon as there is something, if there is something, we will inform you,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said weeks after Trump was elected. Putin has been asking to speak with Zelensky for many years, long before the war began. He may have held out some hope for discussions with Trump, but the Russian leader believes Zelensky’s recent statements are “empty words.” In fact, Putin no longer wants to speak with Zelensky as he does not consider him the official ruler of Ukraine. Zelensky declared himself the ruler of Ukraine without hosting a proper election, citing the war as the reason he must retain power.
Zelensky also signed a decree in 2022 that said he would not speak with Putin directly. It does not give much confidence when a leader refuses to sit down and speak with a foe. Zelensky is afraid to speak with Putin directly. Putin has been deeply engaged in politics for a lifetime while Zelensky is trained comedian and actor. He is not qualified to hold a discussion on his own.
“We will be speaking with Putin. Don’t we make too many compromises? Even the conversation with Putin is already a compromise,” Zelensky said. “Nobody knows how this conversation will start and how it will end. Nobody knows, but we believe that President Trump wants to succeed in this situation.”
Neither party has said that they would end the war without massive compromises. Ukraine is now seeking nuclear arms from the West as an alternative to NATO membership. Putin has been quite clear about what he wants. It is more likely than not that Zelensky became wrapped up in the moment of a live interview but likely does not have true intentions to negotiate peace.
There is another political economist whose work might offer a solution, or at least a different perspective. His name is Karl Polanyi (pictured below right) and his most famous work, The Great Transformation, was also published in 1944. The University of Warwick’s Professor Ben Clift, Professor Matthew Watson and Dr Christopher Holmes make the case for why George Osborne, Ed Balls, the members of the European Commission and you might all want to add the book to your reading lists.
“The Great Transformation is a remarkable book on a number of levels,” says Chris. “It’s a thrilling read. Karl Polanyi has an engaging, polemical style which draws you in and, over its relatively few pages, takes you on a journey through 400 years of economic history and 400 years of the economic ideas that surround that history.
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #mlb #freeagency
President Trump announced that the US will be taking over the Gaza strip after a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump envisions transforming Gaza into an international economic hub for the Middle East. “He sees a different future for that piece of land,” Netanyahu said. “I envision the world people living there, the world’s people. You’ll make that into an international unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza strip is unbelievable,” and it could be “the riviera of the Middle East,” Trump said.
!summarize #donaldtrump #joebiden #president
!summarize #espn #womens #sports #men
As for the nearly 2 million inhabitants, well, they have been asked to leave. Gaza is not a place for people to be living. The only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is they have no alternative. What’s the alternative? Go where? If they had an alternative, they’d much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that’s safe,” he said. Arab nations have already stated that they will not accept Palestinians, but Trump said he plans to open negotiations with the likes of Egypt, Jordan, and other nearby nations.
Discussions of redeveloping Gaza began long before the war. Trump is a notorious real estate mogul. He discussed plans for redeveloping portions of Palestine in his 2020 peace plan, backed by his Jewish son-in-law and real estate developer Jared Kushner.
!summarize #recession #economy
Real estate developers have been eyeing Gaza and have proposed numerous construction projects for Gaza. Harey Zahav, an Israeli real estate firm, created blueprints for luxury settlements along the West Bank. The company envisions beachfront homes build upon demolished land. Some say that the company was trolling but there indeed are now plans to turn this strip of land into the next Dubai. “You build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some place where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that they’re going to end up dying,” Trump told reporters.
Giants legend and WFAN host Tiki Barker joins Dexter Henry to share his thoughts on how Big Blue should move in free agency and the draft, whether he'll be rooting for Saquon Barkley to win an NFL championship ring and prediction for Super Bowl 59.
“We consider it a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the press. “Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not expel them from their land.” A senior Palestinian official wrote to Senator of State Marco Rubio, pleasing that his people do not want to leave their land. Rather, the people want to “live in their land and help rebuild it.”
The document notes that 130 of the 160 miles dedicated to the canal are “virtually unpopulated desert wasteland,” but the primary issue would be relocating those from the Gaza Strip. “Another problem which has not been considered is that of political feasibility, as it is likely that the Arab countries surrounding Israel would object strongly to the construction of such a canal,” the declassified papers show. So, US intelligence has been looking to claim Gaza for some time now. It certainly did not begin with Trump.
Gaza must be annexed before it can be redeveloped. Trump foresees the US in a “long-term ownership position.” Hours earlier, Trump warned that Iran will be obliterated if it attempts to assassinate him. Saudi Arabia came out and said it will not establish relations with Israel without the presence of a Palestinian state. There is bipartisan distaste in the US for sending American troops back to the Middle East. No nation in the Middle East, aside from Israel, wants to see American presence in the region and there is no way that the US can simply walk in and take over a foreign land without bloodshed.
Completed in the year 128 C.E., Hadrian’s Wall was one of the most famous civil engineering projects undertaken by the Roman Empire. The wall ran a distance of 73 miles (117.5 kilometers), crossing the English countryside from the waters of Solway Forth to the mouth of the River Tyne. It took the effort of three Roman legions working over the course of six years to complete, and required a garrison of more than 10,000 men to guard its length. Built by the Emperor Hadrian, many people believe this wall represents the limit of Roman expansion as well as the northernmost reach of the Empire.
“We’re now at a really important juncture. Broadly speaking we experienced 30 years of Keynesian economic ideas in the post-war period before we moved to a much more free market, Hayekian approach, which recent financial crises have shown to be flawed in a number of ways. Since 2008, there’s been a search for a new set of economic ideas by which we might understand the world and implement change to resolve problems of financial crisis and other economic problems such as inequality.
!summarize #bankofengland #uk #economy #centralbanks
The truth of the matter is that the mortar was hardly dry on Hadrian’s wall when plans began for another wall across the southern portion of what is now Scotland. Construction of this new wall began four years after Hadrian’s death. Though shorter than its famous cousin, the new wall would take twice as long to build and run along a stretch of countryside a 100 miles north of Hadrian’s Wall.
When Hadrian died in 128 C.E., a new emperor ascended to the title of Caesar. His name was Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pontifex Maximus, or as he is better known, Antonius Pius. Though one of the four great emperors of the empire’s golden age, he was remembered as being quietly competent, ruling from Rome, focused on the promotion of the arts and sciences, and introducing significant reforms to the Roman legal system rather than leading armies of invasion as his predecessors had done. His timing was fortunate because he was able to avoid the armed conflict that would come later.
A major shift is underway now at the Bank of England. After being among the most cautious central banks it is being forced more to the dovish side. Even one of the most arch-hawks in all global central banking ditched her previous opposition to any rate cuts in order to urge a fifty-bps cut today! More reactions to the consequences from a world that forgot how to grow.
During the first year of his reign, Antoninus appointed Quintus Lollius Urbicus to be the governor of Britannia. This was not the sort of political appointee one would expect if the Emperor was looking to maintain a quiet northern border. Lollius Urbicus had been one of the men who had put down the Jewish revolt led by Simon bar Kokhba in 132-136 C.E. The revolt had been suppressed with a violence and ferocity that was shocking even by Roman standards.
Lollius got to work immediately and between 138 and 140 C.E. strengthened the fortifications behind Hadrian’s Wall for use as launching points for an invasion. Once his army was trained, he launched a two year long campaign to conquer the Votadani, Selgovae, Damnonii, and the Novantae tribes living in the Scottish lowlands. On the heels of his victory he began the construction of a new wall.
This one stretched across a distance only a little more than half the length of Hadrian’s Wall, requiring fewer troops to garrison its defenses and freeing men to keep order among the conquered tribes to the south. This wall would be of a simpler construction, using a berm made of sod overlooking a deep cut ditch. Fortresses would be spaced every two miles for the garrisoning of troops, and a military road would run alongside the berm.
To help improve the defensive capabilities of this smaller, less durable wall, a number of forts and outposts were built to the north of the wall, to act as an early warning system for the garrisons stationed at the Antonine Wall.
!summarize #cia #buyouts #trump
!summarize #gaza #Trump #left
Started in 142 C.E, the new wall would not be finished until 154 C.E. The Caledonian tribe, immediately to the north, proved to be a constant thorn in the side of those constructing the wall, and their recalcitrance would not be ended by its completion. The garrisons in the forts to its north, as well as those manning the wall, would be under constant pressure from this adversarial tribe.
After the death of Antoninus in 161 C.E. his successors (Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus) ordered the abandonment of the Antonine Wall. The Roman legions fell back to Hadrian’s Wall, leaving the previously conquered tribes to act as a buffer against the Caledonians. Though additional forays in 197 would lead to a brief reoccupation of the wall, Hadrian’s Wall would remain as the northern border of the Roman Empire until sometime around the turn of the 5th century.
At the end of the Third Punic War, in 146 B.C, the Roman Republic was ascendant. The Carthaginians had been defeated once and for all, the city of Carthage razed, and salt was poured over its ground to symbolize utter destruction. Rome was now master of the Mediterranean Sea and called it Mare Nostrum or “Our sea”. What could possibly stop her? Certainly no army.
But ahead, in the not too distant future, stood the destruction of the Republic and no one knew it. A mere thirteen years would pass before the slide would begin. It’s an interesting story of class warfare, the quest for economic equity, and an aging political system.
The timeline of those thirteen years has the following entries:
146 B.C. Third Punic War ends
140-134 B.C War with the Numantines
140 B.C. Agrarian reform introduced by Laelius and withdrawn
139 B.C. Law passed to use written ballots in voting for the first time
139 B.C. Shortage of corn in Rome. Efforts to build up supplies were blocked
137 B.C. Mancinus defeated by the Numantines and is forced to surrender
136 B.C. Mancinus put on trial, found guilty, and banished
136 B.C. Slave rebellion in Sicily
134 B.C. Scipio Aemilianus takes an army to Spain and defeats the Numantines
133 B.C. The tribunate of Tiberius Gracchus
!summarize #trump #democrats #government
!summarize #theoryofeverything #tensors #Physics
The socio-political forces at work in 240 B.C. included the following: a shortage of recruits for the army based on too few property owners, a swelling poverty class based on lost agricultural jobs, an empty treasury due to money spent funding wars, and a bitter struggle between factions in the Senate. In the latter case it was the Claudian family against the Scipios. Although the Republic did not have political parties, the Senate had factions which crossed the spectrum from conservative to liberal. The factional fighting was driven by the quest for power and the status that came with it. These power games so occupied their time the wealthy had little interest in the plight of the plebs.
During the Republican period, Rome operated as a timocracy, meaning a political system where only land holders could vote and serve in the army. After a landholder was killed in battle and there was no one left to work his farm, his family often fell into debt, lost the property, and were forced to work as farm labor or travel to Rome and look for a job. The only solution to the problem of recruits for the army was to create new landowners.
The Senate was also at odds with the Consilium Plebis or people’s assembly. The Consilium was created to pacify the plebs by giving them their own legislative body. In the Republican system, the Senate could introduce legislation, but could not vote on it. The Consilium could pass legislation but not introduce it. It had the right to pass laws binding on all of Rome, a power the Senate regretted having granted. The Senate used every means possible to control the Consilium including pressure or bribes of the ten Tribunes who were its leaders.
The Roman class system was divided with patricians at the top, then knights, plebs, and slaves at the bottom. Often slaves, as free labor, took jobs away from the plebs increasing their poverty. The knights were a rising middle class (new money) of merchants and bureaucrats.
!summarize #disney #themeparks
So the period we are describing begins with the Numantine War, which lasted six years and bankrupted the Republican treasury. Things got so bad that when Scipio Aemilianus was named commander in 134 B.C. and told to end the war once and for all, he had to use his own assets to pay the troops. The Numantines were a hardy tribe from the north of Spain that proved tougher than the Romans could have imagined and the Senate sent Scipio because he had defeated the Carthaginians to end the Punic Wars. They figured he had the magic touch and they were right.
The other story from the Numantine War was the debacle of Mancinus who was made commander in 137 B.C. Mancinus managed to get his army surrounded and was forced to surrender. The future tribune Tiberius Gracchus negotiated a treaty to save the army but it was rejected by the Senate as too embarrassing. Mancinus and Tiberius Gracchus were both put on trial for treason. Mancinus was exiled. Gracchus was acquitted.
Back at home there was the slave revolt in Sicily that had to be put down and the corn shortage in 139 B.C.
The Republic stood at a crossroads: lower class discontent stirring a stew of rising independence and political will on the part of the plebs, who were not willing to suffer any longer at the hands of the Senate. Here Tiberius Gracchus emerges as the seminal figure: elected in 133 B.C as tribune of the people. Immediately after his election Tiberius introduced a land reform bill under the sponsorship of some Senators. This would take public land (ager publicus) and give it to those who would start farming, and become eligible for military service. In response, the Senate induced one of the other tribunes to veto the bill. Tiberius reacted by having that tribune removed from office.
The bill passed but the Senate refused to provide funding for it. That made the new law stillborn until Tiberius’ fortunes changed. A king from Asia Minor died and left his kingdom to Rome. Tiberius took that money and used it to fund the land reform law. This move enraged the Senate because it had exclusive control over foreign policy and saw his actions as a power grab. At the end of his year in office, Tiberius decided to run for a second term, thinking it would provide him immunity from prosecution by an angry Senate. On Election Day he was assassinated by a group of Senators and their patrons.
World Liberty Financial’s Strategic Reserve Plans
Chase Herro, co-founder of WLF, revealed that the company is setting up a strategic crypto reserve but did not specify its intended purpose.
“We are big builder fans,” he said, referring to WLF’s continued investment in digital assets.
The idea of a cryptocurrency reserve has been a topic of discussion since Trump’s presidential campaign last year. In January, he signed an executive action to evaluate the feasibility of a digital asset stockpile. This has fueled specula
Trump Jr. Calls Crypto the “Future of American Hegemony”
Donald Trump Jr. made a surprise appearance at the Ondo Summit on Thursday, where he spoke about cryptocurrency’s role in global finance. Addressing industry leaders, he stated that he believes crypto will shape the future of the U.S. economy.
“I think it’s perhaps the future of American hegemony, in terms of our economic status, our economic might,” Trump Jr. said at the event. His remarks were part of a broader discussion on the role of digital assets in financial markets and regulatory policies.
WLF, which has been actively purchasing digital tokens in recent months, recently acquired $470,000 worth of ONDO, the native cryptocurrency of Ondo Finance. The company has also invested in Ethereum (ETH), wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Tron’s TRX, AAVE, and Chainlink’s LINK, among other tokens.
World Liberty Financial (WLF), a decentralized finance (DeFi) project associated with President elect Donald Trump’s family, has announced plans to establish a “strategic reserve” of cryptocurrency assets.
The announcement was made by WLF co-founder Chase Herro at the Ondo Summit in New York, where Donald Trump Jr. also expressed strong support for the digital asset industry.
The Senate conducted an inquiry into the case and found no one liable. To show that they supported the Plebs, they allowed the agrarian law to move forward and supported it. The Senate claimed that Tiberius was intent on overthrowing the government based on his questionable actions, and the Republic should be relieved that he was gone.
How did this series of events affect the Republic? Significantly. No elected official had been assassinated in Rome for some four hundred years. The public blamed the Senate and its prestige plummeted. Respect for the Senate was gone forever. The Plebian class remained unhappy because of the inequality forced on them. Soon after, pseudo political parties formed. On one side was the Optimates (best men) supported by the Senate and on the other side were the Populares (people’s men) who were the champions of the plebs.
Kicking off Season 3, join us for an enlightening fireside chat on "Inside West Point: Ideas that Impact" with visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk. In this episode, Musk explores the intersection of advanced technology and modern warfare, focusing on the role of AI and drones in transforming the battlefield. He shares his insights on innovation, the existential risks of AI, and the future of autonomous systems in military operations. Musk’s unique perspective offers invaluable lessons for military and industry leaders, and anyone interested in the future of warfare technology.
(This episode was created from Mr. Musk’s visit to West Point in August, where he conducted a fireside chat with BG Shane Reeves as part of the Academy’s launch of its newest annual theme, “The Human and The Machine: Leadership on The Emerging Battlefield.” This year’s theme aligns education with the future battlefield, preparing cadets for emerging challenges to ensure that our military is the most lethal and effective in the world.)
I think he's both right and wrong about drones. Drones are well used for overwhelming your enemy in numbers and accurate targeting. F-35 is not going "obsolete" that planes landing speed is the maximum speed of drone. The F-35 is not supposed to be a fighter jet contrary to popular belief but more so a flying super computer used to see behind enemy lines and can THEN either strike or use it's computers to talk to long range weapons like cruise missiles and drones. His remarks about "you'd lose a drone over a pilot" is a more than valid argument though a drone is much more susceptible to being turned against you as we saw in 2010 when Iran hijacked the communications of a US drone spying in their airspace and stole it. That entire program had to be cut since our adversaries now had not only out hardware but our software.
The people would now use their numbers to oppose the will of the Senate in passing legislation and voting for commanders to lead the army. One of those commanders, Marius, who was a pleb himself, created a professional army loyal to him, and became the first in a series of man who would control the republic by force and complete the downfall of the Republic.
Asset manager Franklin Templeton has filed for a multi-asset crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the United States securities regulator, adding to the growing list of crypto ETF applications since the inauguration of US President US Donald Trump.
If approved, the Franklin Crypto Index ETF would offer exposure to the spot prices of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) in a single fund on the Cboe BZX Exchange, weighted by their respective market capitalizations, according to a Feb. 6 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Crypto Index ETF is rebalanced quarterly
As of the filing date, this was 86.31% BTC and 13.69% ETH. The index will be “rebalanced and reconstituted” quarterly in March, June, September and December.
The current proportion split for the proposed Franklin Crypto Index ETF is 86.31% on Bitcoin. Source:
SEC
It comes just weeks after Bitwise filed for a similar product on Jan. 31, the “Bitwise Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF.”
Megyn Kelly is joined by Andrew Klavan, host of The Daily Wire's "Andrew Klavan Show," to discuss how Trump’s unmatched resilience changed the Republican party, his "fight, fight, fight" mentality after the first assassination attempt, and more.
!summarize #trump #women
!summarize #usaid #staff #Trump #elonmusk
Franklin Templeton’s filing said that more crypto tokens may be considered to be added to the Crypto Index ETF in the future, but only once “the fund and Cboe BZX Exchange receive the necessary regulatory approval to permit the Fund to hold such other digital assets.”
The firm said there’s “no assurance” that any crypto tokens beyond the two largest by market cap will be approved for inclusion in the fund.
The filing highlighted several potential risks for investors, including competition from the “emergence or growth” of other crypto tokens like Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Cardano (ADA), which could negatively impact demand for the Franklin Crypto Index ETF.
Other crypto ETF filings on the same day
It came on the same day as the Cboe BZX Exchange filed on behalf of four asset managers looking to list spot XRP ETFs in the US this year.
The exchange lodged 19b-4 filings for spot XRP funds from Canary Capital, WisdomTree, 21Shares and Bitwise.
The wave of crypto ETF applications has followed Trump’s inauguration and a number of staff changes at the SEC, including the resignation of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Jan. 20.
The current acting SEC chair, Mark Uyeda, is seen as crypto-friendly. He recently brought on the policy director from the crypto advocacy group Coin Center to join the SEC’s Crypto Task Force.
!summarize #foxnews #danbongino #cablenews #death
“The Great Transformation has an extraordinary diversity of style and the ability to draw so many different threads into one narrative. Rather than trying to present one, coherent set of ideas which can be applicable in any time or space, like Hayek did with The Road to Serfdom or indeed Karl Marx or John Maynard Keynes did in their own ways, Karl Polanyi instead chose to understand the economic problems of the period by looking back at the history of ideas that constituted them.
He said that to understand pivotal historical events, including the breakup of the Gold Standard and the breakdown of international relations during the first half of the twentieth century, we have to consider the role of economic thought accumulated over centuries which influenced how those events took place and were understood. It’s having that broad sweep of history and that wide intellectual canvas that makes his work really unique.”
!summarize #florida #realestate #housing
There have been many books written about the decline of the Roman Empire and the factors that made it happen. Gibbon stands out as the first writer to put significant effort toward the subject with his six volume opus first published in 1776. Gibbon characterized the causes of the fall of Rome as follows:
"The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and, as soon as time or accident removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of the ruin is simple and obvious: and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it has subsisted for so long."
As businessmen, the Knights were able to acquire wealth and move up the socio-economic ladder. Their wealth was “new money” in contrast to the “old money” of the patricians. The second factor which helped build the middle class occurred during the reign of Augustus, when the civil service system was greatly expanded by employing more and more appointed officials to independently manage the government infrastructure. These civil servants were known as “publicans”.
ike the United States, the Roman political system was stabilized by the development of a large and robust middle class. In the early days of the Republic, there were patricians and plebeians (rich men and common men), with a sharp line dividing them according to family lineage and property ownership. Then, as the Republic grew, a new class called the Knights (Equites) emerged, initially made up of individuals who were wealthy enough to pay for a horse and the supplies needed to serve in the cavalry. Later two factors helped expand this class of Equites. Patricians, who were averse to participating in business ventures because they were perceived a low professions, began to employ knights to run their businesses for them, and this allowed the Knights to become merchants, bankers, insurance men, and investors.
The company began making cuts to its DEI programs in 2023, CNBC reported at the time, getting rid of staffers who were in charge of recruiting underrepresented groups and letting go of DEI leaders who worked with Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker.
Parker, who took on her current role in 2019, will work closely on evaluating programs and trainings and update "those that raise risk, or that aren't as impactful as we'd hoped," Cicconi wrote in her memo.
She added that the Google's employee resource groups will remain as will the company's work with colleges and universities.
!summarize #nymets #mlb #petealonso
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb
Given the contemporary angst about the health of the middle class in the United States, I thought it might be interesting to examine the decline of the middle class in Rome and its contribution to the decline of the empire as a whole.
Amazon said earlier in January that it was halting some of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, and Meta announced plans to end a number of internal programs designed to increase the company's hiring of diverse candidates. Beyond the tech industry, companies including Target, Walmart and McDonald's have made similar changes.
Google's commitments for 2025 had included increasing the number of people from underrepresented groups in leadership by 30% and more than doubling the number of Black workers at non-senior levels.
!summarize #petealonso #resings #nymets #mlb
One of Trump's first acts as president after taking office in January was to sign an executive order ending the government's DEI programs and putting federal officials overseeing those initiatives on leave. And following a midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter above Washington, D.C., last week, Trump blasted former President Joe Biden and DEI policies claiming they "could have been" to blame for the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since 2001.
Tech companies have shown an eagerness to appease the new administration following a rocky four years during Trump's first tenure in the White House.
Shein has also been courting U.S. buyers and sellers. The company opened distribution centers in states including Illinois and California in 2022, and a supply chain hub in Seattle last year. The company said the Seattle hub would enable it to "localize and support speedier delivery times for American consumers."
"At some point there's going to be 3 million of these goods piling up a day and customs can do their best, but they're not equipped," said Hugo Pakula, CEO of supply chain compliance company Tru Identity. "They have to do 10x more screenings this week than last week."
CBP has said it processed more than 1.3 billion de minimis shipments in 2024. A 2023 report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party found that Temu and Shein are "likely responsible" for more than 30% of de minimis shipments into the U.S.
Temu, Shein and other Chinese e-commerce companies are trying to minimize the level of disruption to their services as they face new, more stringent customs requirements. They were thrown into further chaos on Tuesday night when the U.S. Postal Service abruptly announced it was suspending inbound packages from China and Hong Kong "until further notice."
Less than 12 hours later, the USPS reversed its decision, and resumed accepting packages from those regions. The agency also said it would work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to "implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery."
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #mlb
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb #keithhernandez
Temu's promotion of U.S.-based products also puts it in more direct competition with Amazon, eBay and Walmart, which have also signed up sellers in China who ship goods overseas to their warehouses. Amazon last year took notice of Temu and Shein's dramatic growth in the U.S. when it launched its own budget storefront, called Haul.
Temu, which is owned by Chinese online retailer PDD Holdings, began onboarding sellers with inventory in U.S. warehouses in March. By July, roughly 20% of Temu's U.S. sales came from those sellers, not merchants based in China, according to e-commerce market research firm Marketplace Pulse.
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #freeagency #mlb
By promoting local inventory, Temu's products not only arrive faster to shoppers' doorsteps, but the company also reduces its reliance on sellers who ship direct from China. Even though the products are stored in U.S. warehouses, many local listings state that the items are sold by businesses based in China.
Representatives from Temu didn't respond to requests for comment.
Temu is surfacing more products shipped from local warehouses in its app in the wake of a popular trade loophole's suspension.
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #mlb
!summarize #jimduquette #nymets #petealonso
!summarize #garycohen #nymets #mlb #petealonso
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #joseiglesias #mlb
!summarize #petealonso #nymets #freeagency #mlb
Fiserv shares rally to record on earnings beat, bullish revenue outlook
Shares of payments company Fiserv rose to a record on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected earnings.
Shares of Fiserv jumped more than 7% on Wednesday to a record after the payments company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and issued guidance that also topped estimates.
The stock closed at $229.53, exceeding its previous high reached in November, and is now up about 60% over the past year. Fiserv, which went public in 1986, provides digital payments technology to small businesses and financial institutions.
#fiserv #earnings #paymets
Fiserv reported adjusted earnings of $2.51 in the quarter, exceeding the average analyst estimate of $2.48, according to LSEG. Revenue increased about 7% to $5.25 billion from $4.92 billion a year earlier, topping the $4.96 billion consensus estimate.
Clover revenue jumped 29% from the year-ago quarter and in the full year, reaching $2.7 billion for all of 2024. The Clover product consists of payments hardware and software, and helps businesses streamline receivables and payables.
!summarize #ai5 #tesla #computer
I can't wait to own one of these... Tesla cars are just the best electric ones
Could this startup's compact nuclear reactors revolutionize cancer detection?
As cancer rates in the West, and globally, tack upwards due to lifestyle and environmental pollution, so does the need for the nuclear isotopes used in detecting those cancers in a medical setting. But with many reactors built in the 70s and the 80s scheduled for shut down, the materials used are becoming rarer and more expensive. Now, a startup from Bristol, UK hopes to ramp up production of these materials by using a new, radical, technology.
#cancer #nuclear #reactors #startup #uk
Astral Systems, cofounded by Talmon Firestone and Dr. Tom Wallce-Smith, employs something called multistate fusion (MSF) technology in its ‘compact reactors’, enabling the increased supply of the nuclear isotopes used in modern medicine. These reactors are in fact so compact that they can fit on the average desk.
Astral has now closed over £4.5M investment led by Austria-based VC Speedinvest and UK-based Playfair.
The company says its approach will commercialize MSF technology, achieving better performance with greater efficiency and lower cost than traditional reactors.
!summarize #deepseek #data #steal #china
Presto is building Stripe for EV charging
Presto is helping connect fleets and charging networks so drivers can find working chargers quickly.
Charging an electric vehicle in public can be the best of times or the worst of times.
An EV driver can be charged and back on the road in a smooth 20 minutes, but they might also encounter broken chargers, unresponsive touchscreens, and blocked stalls, all of which can make for a frustrating experience.
It can be a headache for everyday consumers. For fleet or ride share drivers, a broken charger is lost money.
#presto #strip #ev #charging
Those frustrations prompted Ashwin Dias and J.J. Raynor to leave their jobs at Uber, where they led efforts to electrify ride share drivers’ vehicles, and start Presto, an app that points fleet drivers to the best chargers.
“Coming from an Uber background, we think there’s a dynamic marketplace where we can help make everything smoother by matching diverse demand with diverse supply,” Raynor said. That might mean nudging price-sensitive drivers to wait 30 minutes for a cheaper charger to open up while guiding time-sensitive drivers to faster and more reliable but pricer stalls.
Google launches new AI models and brings ‘thinking’ to Gemini
Google launched Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental and made Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, its reasoning model, available on the Gemini app on Wednesday. Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental will be available on Google's AI development platforms, Vertex AI and Google AI Studio, and to Gemini Advanced subscribers in the Gemini app. The model excels in coding and handling complex problems and comes with a better understanding and reasoning of world knowledge than previous models. It has a context window of 2 million tokens and can use tools like Google Search and execute code on behalf of users.
#technology #ai #google #gemini
!summarize #aisafety #anthropic #ai
Bringing Interoperability to Arbitrum and Ethereum
Offchain Labs is improving interoperability between Arbitrum (L2) and Ethereum (L1) by introducing a Universal Intent Engine. This will enable crosschain swaps and transfers in less than three seconds. The Arbitrum team hopes to facilitate trustless, cost-efficient interactions across EVM-compatible chains by bringing interoperability to Arbitrum and Ethereum.
#technology #crypto #ethereum #interoperability #offchainlabs
!summarize #nvifia #ai #realworld
Berachain: A David to Rival Solana and Ethereum or another farm-and-forget chain?
Berachain is set to launch its mainnet on February 6 and introduce a unique Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus model that integrates liquidity provision with network security. With $3.3B in pre-launch liquidity and a novel tokenomics system, Berachain could disrupt traditional blockchain models, though challenges like governance centralization and long-term sustainability remain key considerations.
#technology #crypto #berachain #pol
!summarize #ibm #apple #innovation #technology
Bear case on Eth
This post challenges Ethereum's previous dominance in alt seasons because of its alleged stagnant innovation, leadership issues, and reliance on L2s, all of which have led to an overvalued market cap without clear new use cases to drive demand. Although traders may hope for an ETH pump to trigger an alt season, the reality is that market cycles evolve, and successful projects like Solana and tokens with strong fundamentals (e.g., AAVE) are already outperforming the general market by catering to real user demand.
#technology #eth #crypto
!summarize #gemini #ai #generativeai #llm
OpenAI’s new trademark application hints at humanoid robots, smart jewelry, and more
OpenAI's recent trademark application suggests potential AI-powered consumer hardware, including smartwatches, AR glasses, humanoid robots, and custom AI chips, aligning with ongoing partnerships and research into AI-driven robotics.
#technology #ai #openai #robotics
21.5 MW: Europe’s secretive record-sized wind turbine to finally challenge China
Siemens’ latest turbine is Europe’s bold answer to China’s wind power supremacy
With its record-breaking prototype, Siemens Gamesa’s new wind turbine is being installed in Denmark. Officially confirmed to generate up to 21.5 MW of power with a rotor diameter between 270 and 280 meters. The SG DD-276 model is poised to become the world’s largest wind turbine outside of China.
A prototype certificate from the Danish Energy Agency has validated the turbine’s impressive power rating and colossal dimensions. The certificate confirms that the model can produce up to 21.5 MW, making it a significant leap forward in offshore wind technology.
#wind #energy #europe #china #turbine
This milestone comes after the European Commission allocated €30 million ($33 million) from its innovation fund to support the development of what was billed as the world’s “most powerful offshore wind turbine prototype.”
The installation is part of a test facility in Oesterild, Denmark, where Siemens Gamesa carefully evaluates the turbine’s performance.
A few months back, a Siemens Gamesa spokesperson said, “We will only decide whether we will ultimately install a new product in a commercial project after careful testing,” the company stated. This cautious approach implies that the company has carefully tested the safety and efficiency of the new offshore wind installation, which is a significant upgrade in size and complexity.
!summarize #ai #humanoid #robots #technology
Atlas humanoid robot reunites with old master to supercharge skills, power
The collaboration tackles reinforcement learning challenges in robotics, focusing on sim-to-real transfer, whole-body manipulation, and contact strategies.
In an effort to catch up with advancements offered by its Chinese counterparts, Boston Dynamics has partnered with the Robotics & AI Institute (RAI Institute) to enhance reinforcement learning in its electric Atlas humanoid robot.
Boston Dynamics and the RAI Institute will build on past collaborations, including the Spot’s Reinforcement Learning Researcher Kit. Released last year, the kit enabled unique behaviors and locomotion, helping Spot reach a record speed of 11.5 mph (5.2 m/s).
#atlas #Humanoid #robot #automation #technology #bostondynamics
The latest partnership is expected to enhance mobile manipulation capabilities, combining expertise from both teams to advance robotic technology and create more dynamic, generalizable movement for Atlas.
In April 2024, a day after retiring its hydraulic Atlas robot, Boston Dynamics introduced its successor—a fully electric Atlas designed for real-world use.
!summarize #openai #agi #samaltman #chatgpt
!summarize #ai #chip #nvidia #wse3
!summarize #intelligence #ai #synthetic
!summarize #bernalsphere #space #habitat
Amazon’s Big Alexa Upgrade: Smarter, Faster, and Finally Useful?
Amazon is giving Alexa a major AI upgrade, switching to Anthropic’s Claude instead of its own tech after struggling with speed. The goal? A voice assistant that actually understands context and handles complex requests. With over 100 million active users and half a billion devices out there, Amazon needs to get this right—especially with Apple gearing up to test its own AI-powered Siri soon. Competition is heating up.
#ai #amazon #alexa #smarthome #technology
> S👁️URCE <
Living Underwater: The Future of Human Settlements?
Deep is an ambitious project backed by a private investor to make underwater living a reality. It starts with a research station where people can stay for up to 28 days, but the long-term goal? Permanent settlements in every ocean. Imagine a world where humans live beneath the waves like astronauts in space. The challenge? Engineering habitats that can handle deep-sea pressure while supporting daily life.
#underwater #oceanexploration #innovation #engineering #technology
> S👁️URCE <
Blue Origin Just Took a Big Step Toward the Moon
blue origin’s new shepard rocket pulled off another successful flight yesterday, reaching 105 km above earth. but the real highlight? a two-minute spin in microgravity to simulate lunar conditions. this is huge for researchers—it lets them test moon tech quickly and cheaply without waiting for an actual lunar mission. every launch like this gets us one step closer to a real, sustainable presence on the moon.
#space #blueorigin #moonmission #science #technology
> S👁️URCE <
What Chris Kiehl Got Wrong (and Right) About Software Development
Chris Kiehl, creator of Gooey and an Amazon developer, once shared a list of software beliefs he outgrew. Four years later, he's back with an updated take—what he’s flipped on, what still holds, and the lessons he’s picked up. Kiehl, known for making Python apps user-friendly with a single line, brings insights shaped by real-world coding. If you’ve ever looked back at your old dev opinions and cringed, this one’s for you.
#software #programming #developers #coding #technology
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Google’s Gemini Flash 2.0 Nails OCR—Almost Perfectly
gemini flash 2.0 is crushing it at reading text from images and PDFs, getting near-perfect accuracy at a super low cost. it's not flawless—issues with parsing and chunking still pop up—but we’re close to effortless document parsing. plus, the tech will eventually be open source, meaning free tools could be around the corner. get ready for a future where handling scanned docs is as easy as searching text.
#ai #machinelearning #ocr #opensource #technology
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AI Is Turning Everyone Into a Software Developer
AI is flipping software on its head—now it adapts to you. In the next decade, millions will create their own apps, no coding required. Need a tool for a niche problem? Just describe it, and AI builds it. More builders mean more innovation, as everyday people solve real-world problems themselves. The future of software isn't in big companies—it's in your hands.
#ai #futureofwork #software #innovation #technology
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s1: the $6 ai shaking up the game
s1 just dropped, and it’s turning heads in the AI world. Why? It shows how close we are to major breakthroughs. This tiny model was trained for just $6, yet it reveals key insights into how AI reasons. One wild feature: when it tries to stop thinking, it keeps going—leading to second-guessing and double-checking. Cheap experiments like this speed up AI progress, making discoveries happen faster than ever.
#ai #machinelearning #innovation #research #technology
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OpenAI Might Be Building AI Gadgets—Here’s What That Means
OpenAI just filed a trademark that hints at AI-powered gadgets—think smartwatches, AR glasses, even humanoid robots. This lines up with their work on AI-driven robotics and custom AI chips. Imagine ChatGPT in a wearable or a robot assistant that actually understands you. With OpenAI’s partnerships and tech, this could be more than just a patent—it might be the future of AI hardware.
#openai #aihardware #robotics #artificialintelligence #technology
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Bhavish Aggarwal Goes All In on Indian AI
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal just poured $230M into his AI startup Krutrim, aiming to raise a total of $1.15B. The goal? Build India's biggest supercomputer with Nvidia and push AI models tailored for Indian languages. Krutrim has already open-sourced its models and launched Krutrim-2, a 12B-parameter beast excelling in Indian language tasks and code generation. This isn't just another AI play—it’s about making India a serious contender in the AI race.
#ai #startup #india #llm #technology
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