What really happened and why was this festival so important to the Spartan race?
The script in the movie was over dramatized based on my reading of Herodotus, who states that a small Spartan force was purposely sent north to reconnoiter the Persians and provide psychological support for the Greek allies, whose resolve was wavering. The Spartans, from the beginning, intended to send the rest of their army as soon as the festival was over. Unmentioned was the fact that the allies were also constrained from sending full armies because the Olympic Games were going on at the same time.
Herodotus states that Greeks did not anticipate the rapid onset of hostilities or they would have waited before sending anyone. When the real danger became apparent to Leonidas and his associates, they convened a war council. Those from the Peloponnese (except the Spartans) proposed an orderly retreat. This idea was opposed by the Phocians and Locrians who feared their homeland would be overrun by the approaching enemy. Leonidas decided that the Spartans would stay, but he also sent out a request for reinforcements.
These models will be available via Alibaba Cloud's Model Scope and Hugging Face, a huge repository of AI models. They will be accessible to academics, researchers and commercial institutions globally.
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares closed nearly 5% higher.
Open-source AI tech has been thrown into the spotlight since Chinese firm DeepSeek rattled global markets in January, after claiming its artificial intelligence model was trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI players and on less-advanced Nvidia chips.
Chinese firms in particular have been pushing forward with open source models, Alibaba's and DeepSeek's now among the most popular used globally. Alibaba published its first open source model in August 2023, while Meta is leading the open source charge with its Llama models in the U.S.
Alibaba's stock has been on a tear this year, with the Hong Kong listing up 66% in 2025 to date due to factors including the company's improved financial performance, its perception as one of the key AI players in China and recent signals of further support from Chinese president Xi Jinping for the domestic private sector.
Tesla is reportedly recruiting and scouting showroom locations in the country, following a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tesla CEO Elon Musk earlier this month.
"One thing is for sure, Tesla is coming to India based on the recent news, and the government is also very serious about it," Puneet Gupta, Director for the Indian automotive market at S&P Global Mobility, told CNBC.
India introduced an EV policy last year that proposes to lower the import duties on EVs to 15% from about 70%, with the government set to start accepting applications under this policy before March-end, according to domestic news agency IANS.
It's unclear if Tesla's entry makes sense under India's investment scheme, with any plans the automaker might have likely to be rolled out slowly and in a measured way due to several entry barriers, Gupta and other analysts said.
Price and commitment issues
According to a recent research note by Bank of America, if Tesla were to enter this scheme, it would translate to minimum landed car prices of $40,000.
At this price, Tesla EVs would enter India's market at a very high price point, above what existing Indian OEMs cater to and implying a small addressable market, BofA said.
Under the planned EV scheme, Tesla would also need to follow a 3-year timeline for setting up manufacturing facilities in India, reaching a 50% domestic value addition within 5 years.
Analysts say jumping into this commitment would be premature for Tesla, based on their current price points.
A research note from BNP Paribas on Monday stated that local production in India won't make sense unless Tesla can reduce its vehicle prices to below $30,000 to allow for mass volumes in India.
Given the price and investment challenges, experts told CNBC that Tesla's India foray will start with exporting cars to the market to test the waters first.
"We expect Tesla's entry into India to be slow and measured, given the low average price point in the market," BNP Paribas said, noting that the company has plans to launch more affordable models later this year.
Meanwhile, S&P Global Mobility's Gupta said that Tesla will likely push India to tweak its EV tariff policy further, allowing it to start shipping to the country more easily before making any investment promises.
Super Micro also said in Tuesday's filing that a special committee of its Board overseeing its financial statements did not believe that EY's resignation was "supported by the facts" examined by the committee.
In December, Super Micro said a review found "no evidence of misconduct." At the same time, it removed its former chief financial officer, David Weigand. The company has not named a new CFO.
Still, the business has been growing rapidly because of soaring demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are used to develop artificial intelligence. Super Micro builds systems around Nvidia's GPUs, and Elon Musk's xAI is a customer.
According to the company's updated and audited financials, Super Micro's sales more than doubled in its fiscal 2024 to $14.99 billion.
Super Micro said it still faces risks related to its late financial reports, including litigation, reputational harm, and potentially lower credit ratings.
The stock has rebounded so far this year from a brutal last nine months of 2023. Before Tuesday's postmarket surge, it was up 52% so far in 2025.
Over in China, a government official on Wednesday said Taiwan sought to give the island's semiconductor industry to the U.S. as a "souvenir" for use as leverage when seeking support from Washington.
Still, investors seemed to have brushed off escalating tension for now. The share prices of Hong Kong-listed companies jumped 2.5% on Wednesday with technology stocks surging 3.7%, having declined in the previous session.
Shares in mainland China similarly rose.
Elsewhere, U.S. Treasury yields rebounded from their weakest level in months after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives advanced Trump's $4.5 trillion tax-cut plan, giving his 2025 priorities a major boost.
A darkening economic outlook continued to linger in investor minds as they increased bets of more interest rate cuts this year from the Federal Reserve.
Fed funds futures point to more than 50 basis points worth of easing priced in by year-end, up from about 40 bps a week ago. That in turn undermined the dollar on Wednesday.
Key developments that could influence markets on Wednesday:
Nvidia earnings
Federal Reserve's Tom Barkin, Raphael Bostic speak
Trump Signs Healthcare Price Transparency Executive Order
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aiming to improve price transparency on healthcare costs by directing federal agencies to strictly enforce a 2019 order he signed during his first term.
The order directs the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to within 90 days come up with a framework to enforce Trump's 2019 executive order forcing health insurers and hospitals to disclose healthcare cost details.
This includes requiring the disclosure of actual prices and not estimates, updating existing guidance or proposing new regulations that ensure price information is standardized, and updating or issuing enforcement policies that guarantee compliance.
"You're not allowed to even talk about it when you're going to a hospital or see a doctor. And this allows you to go out and talk about it," Trump told reporters as he signed the order. "It's been unpopular in some circles because people make less money, but it's great for the patient."
Trump's initial 2019 order required hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for every single service a hospital provides.
It required health plans to post their negotiated rates with providers, their out-of-network payments to providers, and the actual prices they or their pharmacy benefit manager pay for prescription drugs; and to maintain a consumer-facing internet tool making price information accessible.
American Airlines Jet Avoids Close Call at DC Airport
An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller’s instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway.
Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”
Poll: S&P 500 to Rise Another 9% in 2025, Even Amid Volatility
The S&P 500 will finish 2025 up about 9% from now, but volatility will likely increase as a barrage of tariff announcements, job cuts and policy changes from President Donald Trump fuels uncertainty, according to equity strategists in a Reuters poll.
The year-end target of 6,500 for the benchmark S&P 500 , the median forecast of 54 equity strategists, analysts, brokers and portfolio managers collected February 13-25 is unchanged from a Reuters equity poll in November.
That is 9% above Tuesday's close of 5,955.25.
The index is up 1.3% so far in 2025 following two straight years of gains exceeding 20%, helped largely by gains in megacap tech companies like Nvidia dominating the race for artificial intelligence technology.
"What could derail some of that are the tariffs. That, to us, is the biggest known unknown for markets and investors," he said, noting that for now investors may be viewing the tariff announcements as "a negotiating tactic."
Trump has rolled out a new 10% levy on all Chinese imports and announced tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports. He said on Monday his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada were still set to start next week, and has said he plans to introduce 25% tariffs on autos, semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports.
More recently, worries about a slowdown have emerged. Data on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated at its sharpest pace in 3-1/2 years in February while 12-month inflation expectations jumped. Also, thousands of U.S. government workers have been fired in recent weeks as part of Trump's plan to reduce the federal workforce, although those losses have mostly not appeared yet in formal measures of the U.S. job market.
Still, she said, "policies are probably going to be less important than what's fundamentally happening," such as with earnings.
Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings growth of 11.1% in 2025, compared with 11.7% in 2024, with growth for the final quarter of 2024 set to be the highest since 2021, according to LSEG.
Even after a choppy start to 2025, the S&P 500 is trading at a multiple of about 22 times forward earnings, compared with a 10-year average price-to-earnings ratio of about 18, based on LSEG data.
Strategists continued to cite financials as among their top sector picks for 2025, partly because of prospects for deregulation under Trump. The poll has the Dow Jones industrial average finishing this year at 47,024, up from 46,600 in the Reuters November poll. The index closed at 43,621.16 on Tuesday.
SpaceX is angling to use its constellation of satellites to replace an aging ground-based communications system that facilitates the FAA’s text and voice communication, the sources said. The Verizon contract, awarded in 2023, was to update part of that system to a more modern standard relying on fiber optic cables.
Contracting records show that nearly $200 million in work has already been done on Verizon’s 15-year modernization effort to update the FAA’s communications system. A Verizon representative said the company is unaware that the contract is being amended or terminated.
The FAA announced on X on Monday that the agency is testing a Starlink terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska. Terminals are ground-based receivers that connect devices or computers to orbiting satellites.
Another FAA contractor, L3 Harris, confirmed it was responsible for acquiring and testing Starlink terminals for incorporation into the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure network. An L3 Harris spokesperson said the company has been working with SpaceX on the initiative for many months.
Bloomberg News reported earlier about the FAA installing Starlink terminals at its facilities.
Details about SpaceX employees deployed to work on the project are unclear, but three of its software developers appeared on a Trump administration list of government workers given “ethics waivers” to do work that could benefit Musk’s company.
The FAA contract is not Musk’s only conflict. His acolytes have also taken over many of the operations at the General Services Administration, which controls real estate and contracting for numerous government agencies.
GSA currently offers other agencies the ability to launch payloads through an existing SpaceX contract — putting the agency in a position to direct business toward Musk.
The Department of Transportation regulates aspects of SpaceX and his electric car company Tesla. NASA and the Department of Defense are major customers of SpaceX. His brain-computer interface company Neuralink has regulatory issues in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
!summarize #meghanmarkle #princeharry #hollywood #relationship
!summarize #meghanmarkle #williammorris #hollywood #actress
!summarize #meghanmarkle #latenight #hollywood #drama
!summarize #princewilliam #royalty #britain
!summarize #unitedstates #china #trade #economy
!summarize #colorado #avalanche #nhl
What really happened and why was this festival so important to the Spartan race?
The script in the movie was over dramatized based on my reading of Herodotus, who states that a small Spartan force was purposely sent north to reconnoiter the Persians and provide psychological support for the Greek allies, whose resolve was wavering. The Spartans, from the beginning, intended to send the rest of their army as soon as the festival was over. Unmentioned was the fact that the allies were also constrained from sending full armies because the Olympic Games were going on at the same time.
Herodotus states that Greeks did not anticipate the rapid onset of hostilities or they would have waited before sending anyone. When the real danger became apparent to Leonidas and his associates, they convened a war council. Those from the Peloponnese (except the Spartans) proposed an orderly retreat. This idea was opposed by the Phocians and Locrians who feared their homeland would be overrun by the approaching enemy. Leonidas decided that the Spartans would stay, but he also sent out a request for reinforcements.
!summarize #diddy #lawyer #crimes #sex
!summarize #synchronicity #life #patterns
!summarize #discrimination #asian #california #school
!summarize #tesla #tsla #stock
!summarize #marcorubio #jdvance
!summarize #house #budget #resolution #Trump
!summarize #surgepricing #disney #tianabayou #themepark
!summarize #elonmusk #doge #government #media
These models will be available via Alibaba Cloud's Model Scope and Hugging Face, a huge repository of AI models. They will be accessible to academics, researchers and commercial institutions globally.
Alibaba's Hong Kong-listed shares closed nearly 5% higher.
Open-source AI tech has been thrown into the spotlight since Chinese firm DeepSeek rattled global markets in January, after claiming its artificial intelligence model was trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI players and on less-advanced Nvidia chips.
Chinese firms in particular have been pushing forward with open source models, Alibaba's and DeepSeek's now among the most popular used globally. Alibaba published its first open source model in August 2023, while Meta is leading the open source charge with its Llama models in the U.S.
Alibaba's stock has been on a tear this year, with the Hong Kong listing up 66% in 2025 to date due to factors including the company's improved financial performance, its perception as one of the key AI players in China and recent signals of further support from Chinese president Xi Jinping for the domestic private sector.
Tesla is reportedly recruiting and scouting showroom locations in the country, following a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tesla CEO Elon Musk earlier this month.
"One thing is for sure, Tesla is coming to India based on the recent news, and the government is also very serious about it," Puneet Gupta, Director for the Indian automotive market at S&P Global Mobility, told CNBC.
India introduced an EV policy last year that proposes to lower the import duties on EVs to 15% from about 70%, with the government set to start accepting applications under this policy before March-end, according to domestic news agency IANS.
It's unclear if Tesla's entry makes sense under India's investment scheme, with any plans the automaker might have likely to be rolled out slowly and in a measured way due to several entry barriers, Gupta and other analysts said.
Price and commitment issues
According to a recent research note by Bank of America, if Tesla were to enter this scheme, it would translate to minimum landed car prices of $40,000.
At this price, Tesla EVs would enter India's market at a very high price point, above what existing Indian OEMs cater to and implying a small addressable market, BofA said.
!summarize #mining #ev #energy
Under the planned EV scheme, Tesla would also need to follow a 3-year timeline for setting up manufacturing facilities in India, reaching a 50% domestic value addition within 5 years.
Analysts say jumping into this commitment would be premature for Tesla, based on their current price points.
A research note from BNP Paribas on Monday stated that local production in India won't make sense unless Tesla can reduce its vehicle prices to below $30,000 to allow for mass volumes in India.
!summarize #elonmusk #doge #government #kevinoleary
Given the price and investment challenges, experts told CNBC that Tesla's India foray will start with exporting cars to the market to test the waters first.
"We expect Tesla's entry into India to be slow and measured, given the low average price point in the market," BNP Paribas said, noting that the company has plans to launch more affordable models later this year.
Meanwhile, S&P Global Mobility's Gupta said that Tesla will likely push India to tweak its EV tariff policy further, allowing it to start shipping to the country more easily before making any investment promises.
Super Micro also said in Tuesday's filing that a special committee of its Board overseeing its financial statements did not believe that EY's resignation was "supported by the facts" examined by the committee.
In December, Super Micro said a review found "no evidence of misconduct." At the same time, it removed its former chief financial officer, David Weigand. The company has not named a new CFO.
!summarize #etf #leverage #investing #inverse #money #finance
Still, the business has been growing rapidly because of soaring demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units, or GPUs, which are used to develop artificial intelligence. Super Micro builds systems around Nvidia's GPUs, and Elon Musk's xAI is a customer.
According to the company's updated and audited financials, Super Micro's sales more than doubled in its fiscal 2024 to $14.99 billion.
Super Micro said it still faces risks related to its late financial reports, including litigation, reputational harm, and potentially lower credit ratings.
The stock has rebounded so far this year from a brutal last nine months of 2023. Before Tuesday's postmarket surge, it was up 52% so far in 2025.
!summarize #aaronglenn #nyjets #nfl #headcoach
!summarize #china #economy
Over in China, a government official on Wednesday said Taiwan sought to give the island's semiconductor industry to the U.S. as a "souvenir" for use as leverage when seeking support from Washington.
Still, investors seemed to have brushed off escalating tension for now. The share prices of Hong Kong-listed companies jumped 2.5% on Wednesday with technology stocks surging 3.7%, having declined in the previous session.
Shares in mainland China similarly rose.
Elsewhere, U.S. Treasury yields rebounded from their weakest level in months after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives advanced Trump's $4.5 trillion tax-cut plan, giving his 2025 priorities a major boost.
!summarize #ai #promptengineering
A darkening economic outlook continued to linger in investor minds as they increased bets of more interest rate cuts this year from the Federal Reserve.
Fed funds futures point to more than 50 basis points worth of easing priced in by year-end, up from about 40 bps a week ago. That in turn undermined the dollar on Wednesday.
Key developments that could influence markets on Wednesday:
Nvidia earnings
Federal Reserve's Tom Barkin, Raphael Bostic speak
Trump Signs Healthcare Price Transparency Executive Order
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aiming to improve price transparency on healthcare costs by directing federal agencies to strictly enforce a 2019 order he signed during his first term.
The order directs the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to within 90 days come up with a framework to enforce Trump's 2019 executive order forcing health insurers and hospitals to disclose healthcare cost details.
This includes requiring the disclosure of actual prices and not estimates, updating existing guidance or proposing new regulations that ensure price information is standardized, and updating or issuing enforcement policies that guarantee compliance.
!summarize #modely #tesla #jumiper #fsd
!summarize #kathleenkennedy #starwwar #disney #hollywood
"You're not allowed to even talk about it when you're going to a hospital or see a doctor. And this allows you to go out and talk about it," Trump told reporters as he signed the order. "It's been unpopular in some circles because people make less money, but it's great for the patient."
Trump's initial 2019 order required hospitals to maintain a consumer-friendly display of pricing information for up to 300 shoppable services and a machine-readable file with negotiated rates for every single service a hospital provides.
It required health plans to post their negotiated rates with providers, their out-of-network payments to providers, and the actual prices they or their pharmacy benefit manager pay for prescription drugs; and to maintain a consumer-facing internet tool making price information accessible.
!summarize #bretttolman #justicesystem
American Airlines Jet Avoids Close Call at DC Airport
An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller’s instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway.
Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”
Poll: S&P 500 to Rise Another 9% in 2025, Even Amid Volatility
The S&P 500 will finish 2025 up about 9% from now, but volatility will likely increase as a barrage of tariff announcements, job cuts and policy changes from President Donald Trump fuels uncertainty, according to equity strategists in a Reuters poll.
The year-end target of 6,500 for the benchmark S&P 500 , the median forecast of 54 equity strategists, analysts, brokers and portfolio managers collected February 13-25 is unchanged from a Reuters equity poll in November.
That is 9% above Tuesday's close of 5,955.25.
The index is up 1.3% so far in 2025 following two straight years of gains exceeding 20%, helped largely by gains in megacap tech companies like Nvidia dominating the race for artificial intelligence technology.
!summarize #tesla #semi #elonmusk #tranportation
"What could derail some of that are the tariffs. That, to us, is the biggest known unknown for markets and investors," he said, noting that for now investors may be viewing the tariff announcements as "a negotiating tactic."
Trump has rolled out a new 10% levy on all Chinese imports and announced tariffs on global steel and aluminum imports. He said on Monday his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada were still set to start next week, and has said he plans to introduce 25% tariffs on autos, semiconductors and pharmaceutical imports.
More recently, worries about a slowdown have emerged. Data on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer confidence deteriorated at its sharpest pace in 3-1/2 years in February while 12-month inflation expectations jumped. Also, thousands of U.S. government workers have been fired in recent weeks as part of Trump's plan to reduce the federal workforce, although those losses have mostly not appeared yet in formal measures of the U.S. job market.
!summarize #house #congress #budget
Still, she said, "policies are probably going to be less important than what's fundamentally happening," such as with earnings.
Analysts expect S&P 500 earnings growth of 11.1% in 2025, compared with 11.7% in 2024, with growth for the final quarter of 2024 set to be the highest since 2021, according to LSEG.
Even after a choppy start to 2025, the S&P 500 is trading at a multiple of about 22 times forward earnings, compared with a 10-year average price-to-earnings ratio of about 18, based on LSEG data.
Strategists continued to cite financials as among their top sector picks for 2025, partly because of prospects for deregulation under Trump. The poll has the Dow Jones industrial average finishing this year at 47,024, up from 46,600 in the Reuters November poll. The index closed at 43,621.16 on Tuesday.
!summarize #whitehouse #press
SpaceX is angling to use its constellation of satellites to replace an aging ground-based communications system that facilitates the FAA’s text and voice communication, the sources said. The Verizon contract, awarded in 2023, was to update part of that system to a more modern standard relying on fiber optic cables.
Contracting records show that nearly $200 million in work has already been done on Verizon’s 15-year modernization effort to update the FAA’s communications system. A Verizon representative said the company is unaware that the contract is being amended or terminated.
The FAA announced on X on Monday that the agency is testing a Starlink terminal at its facility in Atlantic City and two terminals at “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska. Terminals are ground-based receivers that connect devices or computers to orbiting satellites.
!summarize #china #ccp #government #economy
Another FAA contractor, L3 Harris, confirmed it was responsible for acquiring and testing Starlink terminals for incorporation into the FAA’s telecommunications infrastructure network. An L3 Harris spokesperson said the company has been working with SpaceX on the initiative for many months.
Bloomberg News reported earlier about the FAA installing Starlink terminals at its facilities.
Details about SpaceX employees deployed to work on the project are unclear, but three of its software developers appeared on a Trump administration list of government workers given “ethics waivers” to do work that could benefit Musk’s company.
!summarize #trump #maine #governor #federal #law
The FAA contract is not Musk’s only conflict. His acolytes have also taken over many of the operations at the General Services Administration, which controls real estate and contracting for numerous government agencies.
GSA currently offers other agencies the ability to launch payloads through an existing SpaceX contract — putting the agency in a position to direct business toward Musk.
The Department of Transportation regulates aspects of SpaceX and his electric car company Tesla. NASA and the Department of Defense are major customers of SpaceX. His brain-computer interface company Neuralink has regulatory issues in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.