Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than state-owned and controlled. Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded by private individuals or corporations and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy.
A division of labor has always existed in human society. As a population grows, demand for goods and services forces the development of new skills. Capitalists show up in societies as salesmen or entrepreneurs who are clever at buying and selling, so they take opportunities for profit when they present themselves.
To hear modern historians tell it, capitalism began with the Enlightenment in the late 16th century. The break from the Catholic Church and authoritarian monarchs allowed people to exert their individual rights and take control of their lives. This new freedom, allowed citizens to form their own businesses, go to market, and make a profit.
While Tesla does not make vehicles that are safe to use without a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times, Elon Musk's automaker in January said it will "begin launching" a driverless ride-hailing business "later this year" starting in Austin.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, testing and operating a commercial robotaxi service in the state does not require the same types of special licenses and permits that other states require.
"Texas law allows for AV testing and operations on Texas roadways as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road," a spokesperson for the department told CNBC by e-mail.
The previous version of the company's AI principles said Google would "take into account a broad range of social and economic factors." The new AI principles state Google will "proceed where we believe that the overall likely benefits substantially exceed the foreseeable risks and downsides."
In its Tuesday blog post, Google said it will "stay consistent with widely accepted principles of international law and human rights — always evaluating specific work by carefully assessing whether the benefits substantially outweigh potential risks."
The new AI principles were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, ahead of Google's fourth-quarter earnings. The company's results missed Wall Street's revenue expectations and drove shares down as much as 9% in after-hours trading.
In this video, Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNET, TrueAGI and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI Alliance), analyzes DeepSeek LLM as an efficiency advancement rather than an AGI breakthrough. The model's open-source implementation and technical architecture (mixture of experts and multi-token training) improve accessibility while maintaining performance. This development demonstrates the continued democratization of AI capabilities and may redirect industry focus toward alternative computing architectures and decentralized systems.
Google established its AI principles in 2018 after declining to renew a government contract called Project Maven, which helped the government analyze and interpret drone videos using artificial intelligence. Prior to ending the deal, several thousand employees signed a petition against the contract and dozens resigned in opposition to Google's involvement. The company also dropped out of the bidding for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract in part because the company "couldn't be sure" it would align with the company's AI principles, it said at the time.
Touting its AI technology to clients, Pichai's leadership team has aggressively pursued federal government contracts, which has caused heightened strain in some areas within Google's outspoken workforce.
"We believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security," Google's Tuesday blog post said.
Google last year terminated more than 50 employees after a series of protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon that provides the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and AI services. Executives repeatedly said the contract didn't violate any of the company's "AI principles."
However, documents and reports showed the company's agreement allowed for giving Israel AI tools that included image categorization, object tracking, as well as provisions for state-owned weapons manufacturers. The New York Times in December reported that four months prior to signing on to Nimbus, Google officials expressed concern that signing the deal would harm its reputation and that "Google Cloud services could be used for, or linked to, the facilitation of human rights violations."
Meanwhile, the company had been cracking down on internal discussions around geopolitical conflicts like the war in Gaza.
Google announced updated guidelines for its Memegen internal forum in September that further restricted political discussions about geopolitical content, international relations, military conflicts, economic actions and territorial disputes, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC at the time.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The leaders said their first priority is supporting a stablecoin bill introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who has proposed new rules for stablecoins to create a "clear regulatory framework" for their use. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar.
Stablecoins have been gaining popularity but mostly overseas. Lawmakers are now promoting U.S.-based stablecoin issuance, reinforcing the dollar's dominance through digital finance. Supporters like Sacks say such a move could drive trillions of dollars in new demand for the dollar and help lower long-term interest rates.
Sacks on Tuesday told CNBC that a top agenda item for his new task force is evaluating "the feasibility of a bitcoin reserve," an idea President Donald Trump suggested during his campaign. Sacks noted that the president asked his digital assets working group to study "whether it's feasible to create either a bitcoin reserve or some sort of digital asset stockpile." He clarified that they "haven't committed yet to doing it, but it's one of the first things" they'll be considering.
The focus for today’s scholars may be on this new-found freedom of the Enlightenment, but that was not the origin of capitalism.
When Rome began it was strictly an agrarian society. The only asset considered valuable was land. In Roman society, wealthy patricians controlled the land and those without wealth or land were the Plebeians. Patricians considered mercantilism beneath their dignity and refused to engage in such low enterprise. Cicero once referred to all salesmen as liars.
Also on Tuesday, the SEC made a major shift in its approach to digital asset regulation. Under new leadership, the agency announced it would open its doors to meetings with anyone interested in discussing crypto, an effort to show a clear contrast to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who emerged as an antagonist to the industry.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, now leading the agency's newly established Crypto Task Force, published a statement titled The Journey Begins. She said the idea is to create more transparent and predictable regulations, removing legal ambiguity and unnecessary roadblocks.
"The Task Force is working to help create a regulatory framework that both achieves the Commission's important regulatory objectives — including protecting investors — and preserves industry's ability to offer products and services," Peirce wrote.
Priorities include clarifying which crypto assets fall under securities laws, crafting a path for token issuers to gain regulatory approval and ensuring compliance measures don't stifle innovation. The group will also examine crypto lending, staking, exchange-traded products, and cross-border regulations. Peirce stressed that while the SEC aims to foster industry growth, it will not tolerate fraud.
The SEC said it's actively soliciting input from the public. Firms and individuals can submit written feedback or request meetings with the task force.
Tuesday's press conference was the first major policy event led by Sacks, who was named to the post in December. While he lacks direct control over regulatory agencies or congressional funding, Sacks' close ties to the White House and Elon Musk have positioned him as a key figure in the administration.
In June, Sacks, previously a Trump critic, hosted a fundraiser at his Pacific Heights mansion that raised $12 million for the Republican leader's presidential campaign.
Sacks was in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration last month and attended the Crypto Ball, surrounded by industry leaders and policymakers. He declared at the event that, "The war on crypto is over." During Trump's first week in office, Sacks stood alongside the president in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order on digital assets.
As Roman trade evolved, laws were passed that prohibited senators from investing in shipping. That left the Plebeians to control that market. The same story happened with the Roman civil service. As it grew, the new positions were given to the lower class, and the resulting economic environment fostered the growth of a new middle class (the Knights). The first “businessmen” were called Publicans. They were employed by the state to manage public contracts: to collect taxes, manage mining companies, and oversee road construction. Contracts were awarded to bidders at auction and their duration was five years.
During the Punic Wars Publicans built ships for the Roman Navy and equipped the Roman Army. In 215 BC, three Publican contractors were censured because they provided financing to Spanish tribes, who were Rome’s enemy at the time. They scuttled their ships and sued the Republic for reimbursement.
USPS says it will resume accepting inbound packages from China, Hong Kong
The USPS said it will resume accepting inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts, just hours after it suspended service from those regions.
"The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery," the agency wrote in a notice posted to its website.
The USPS announced late Tuesday it would stop accepting parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts "until further notice."
The move came after President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods, as part of sweeping new tariffs on the country's top three trading partners. Trump on Monday agreed to hold off on imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days.
As part of the tariffs, Trump also closed a nearly century-old trade loophole, called "de minimis," which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 in to the U.S. duty-free.
The difference, though, is that Modern Synthesis’s nanocellulose materials are ultimately biodegradable.
“You want your materials to last a lifetime or maybe two, like 100 years. You don’t want them sticking around for thousands, which is what most of the synthetic materials will do,” Keane said.
Because the basic building block of the startup’s textiles is cellulose, what’s left after they’ve decomposed is similar to what’s found on a forest floor. “It should behave similarly to other cellulosic materials,” she said. “Cotton’s a great example of that.”
The Senate chose to utilize the Knights commercially, instead of creating a civil service, but the power of the Knights grew, and they were able to exert great influence as a class. In 169 BC, the censor Tiberius Gracchus cancelled all Publican contracts because of corruption, but the Knights rebelled and accused him of treason against the state. Tiberius was acquitted, but all Rome now understood the power of the middle class.
By the fall of the Republic there were hundreds of corporations selling shares to investors. Manufacturing and trades flourished: including furniture making, leatherwork, weaving, metalworking, stone working, and food processing.
Many of the business terms we are familiar with today were in use in Roman times, including insurance, banks making loans, individuals owning shares in companies, competition, hoarding commodities to influence prices, investments, lawsuits, and monetary speculation.
One of the breakthroughs that encouraged Keane to found Modern Synthesis with Ben Reeve, the company’s chief technology officer, was the ability to create materials only using nanocellulose. Other biomaterials can mimic leather, for example, but some synthetic materials might need to be added to the mix to pull it off successfully, she said.
Modern Synthesis buys its nanocellulose from existing producers, which already make the stuff in large quantities for a range of applications, from food additives to medical implants. The startup then processes the nanocellulose to create different materials. In 2023, for example, it made an artificial leather for Danish fashion brand Ganni, which used it to make a handbag that contained no petrochemicals.
Keane said the company is working to quintuple production at its pilot plant. Modern Synthesis recently closed a $5.5 million funding round, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The round was led by Extantia Capital with participation from Artesian and Collaborative Fund.
Though sneakers, clothing, and handbags are likely applications for Modern Synthesis’s materials, Keane is also looking into more sci-fi uses like smart textiles with embedded electronics and more prosaic ones like car dashboards.
“Cellulosic materials don’t melt like synthetics do,” she said. “If you think about car dashboards, how it starts to melt when you sit in the sun too long. Our materials won’t do that.”
!summarize #quantum #immortality #schrodingerscat #physics
Hi, @taskmaster4450le,
This post has been voted on by @darkcloaks because you are an active member of the Darkcloaks gaming community.
Get started with Darkcloaks today, and follow us on Inleo for the latest updates.
Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are privately owned and controlled rather than state-owned and controlled. Through capitalism, the land, labor, and capital are owned, operated, and traded by private individuals or corporations and investments, distribution, income, production, pricing and supply of goods, commodities and services are determined by voluntary private decision in a market economy.
A division of labor has always existed in human society. As a population grows, demand for goods and services forces the development of new skills. Capitalists show up in societies as salesmen or entrepreneurs who are clever at buying and selling, so they take opportunities for profit when they present themselves.
!summarize #nymets #mlb #petealonso #brandonnimmo
To hear modern historians tell it, capitalism began with the Enlightenment in the late 16th century. The break from the Catholic Church and authoritarian monarchs allowed people to exert their individual rights and take control of their lives. This new freedom, allowed citizens to form their own businesses, go to market, and make a profit.
While Tesla does not make vehicles that are safe to use without a human driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times, Elon Musk's automaker in January said it will "begin launching" a driverless ride-hailing business "later this year" starting in Austin.
According to the Texas Department of Transportation, testing and operating a commercial robotaxi service in the state does not require the same types of special licenses and permits that other states require.
"Texas law allows for AV testing and operations on Texas roadways as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road," a spokesperson for the department told CNBC by e-mail.
The previous version of the company's AI principles said Google would "take into account a broad range of social and economic factors." The new AI principles state Google will "proceed where we believe that the overall likely benefits substantially exceed the foreseeable risks and downsides."
In its Tuesday blog post, Google said it will "stay consistent with widely accepted principles of international law and human rights — always evaluating specific work by carefully assessing whether the benefits substantially outweigh potential risks."
The new AI principles were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, ahead of Google's fourth-quarter earnings. The company's results missed Wall Street's revenue expectations and drove shares down as much as 9% in after-hours trading.
In this video, Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNET, TrueAGI and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI Alliance), analyzes DeepSeek LLM as an efficiency advancement rather than an AGI breakthrough. The model's open-source implementation and technical architecture (mixture of experts and multi-token training) improve accessibility while maintaining performance. This development demonstrates the continued democratization of AI capabilities and may redirect industry focus toward alternative computing architectures and decentralized systems.
!summarize #pambondi #senate #attorneygeneral #congress
!summarize #disney #earnings #preview
Google established its AI principles in 2018 after declining to renew a government contract called Project Maven, which helped the government analyze and interpret drone videos using artificial intelligence. Prior to ending the deal, several thousand employees signed a petition against the contract and dozens resigned in opposition to Google's involvement. The company also dropped out of the bidding for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract in part because the company "couldn't be sure" it would align with the company's AI principles, it said at the time.
Touting its AI technology to clients, Pichai's leadership team has aggressively pursued federal government contracts, which has caused heightened strain in some areas within Google's outspoken workforce.
!summarize #lukadoncic #dallas #mavericks #nba #gambling
!summarize #trump #california #wildfires
"We believe that companies, governments, and organizations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security," Google's Tuesday blog post said.
Google last year terminated more than 50 employees after a series of protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon that provides the Israeli government and military with cloud computing and AI services. Executives repeatedly said the contract didn't violate any of the company's "AI principles."
However, documents and reports showed the company's agreement allowed for giving Israel AI tools that included image categorization, object tracking, as well as provisions for state-owned weapons manufacturers. The New York Times in December reported that four months prior to signing on to Nimbus, Google officials expressed concern that signing the deal would harm its reputation and that "Google Cloud services could be used for, or linked to, the facilitation of human rights violations."
Meanwhile, the company had been cracking down on internal discussions around geopolitical conflicts like the war in Gaza.
Google announced updated guidelines for its Memegen internal forum in September that further restricted political discussions about geopolitical content, international relations, military conflicts, economic actions and territorial disputes, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC at the time.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The leaders said their first priority is supporting a stablecoin bill introduced by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who has proposed new rules for stablecoins to create a "clear regulatory framework" for their use. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset, such as the U.S. dollar.
Stablecoins have been gaining popularity but mostly overseas. Lawmakers are now promoting U.S.-based stablecoin issuance, reinforcing the dollar's dominance through digital finance. Supporters like Sacks say such a move could drive trillions of dollars in new demand for the dollar and help lower long-term interest rates.
!summarize #johnthume #government #agency
!summarize #gravity #physics #briancox #particle
!summarize #china #taiwan #fridman #war
!summarize #humanoid #robot #tesla
Sacks on Tuesday told CNBC that a top agenda item for his new task force is evaluating "the feasibility of a bitcoin reserve," an idea President Donald Trump suggested during his campaign. Sacks noted that the president asked his digital assets working group to study "whether it's feasible to create either a bitcoin reserve or some sort of digital asset stockpile." He clarified that they "haven't committed yet to doing it, but it's one of the first things" they'll be considering.
The focus for today’s scholars may be on this new-found freedom of the Enlightenment, but that was not the origin of capitalism.
When Rome began it was strictly an agrarian society. The only asset considered valuable was land. In Roman society, wealthy patricians controlled the land and those without wealth or land were the Plebeians. Patricians considered mercantilism beneath their dignity and refused to engage in such low enterprise. Cicero once referred to all salesmen as liars.
!summarize #rickpitino #stjohns #marquette #college #basketball
!summarize #usaid #doge #government #spending
!summarize #battery #q1 #deliveries #energy
Also on Tuesday, the SEC made a major shift in its approach to digital asset regulation. Under new leadership, the agency announced it would open its doors to meetings with anyone interested in discussing crypto, an effort to show a clear contrast to former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who emerged as an antagonist to the industry.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, now leading the agency's newly established Crypto Task Force, published a statement titled The Journey Begins. She said the idea is to create more transparent and predictable regulations, removing legal ambiguity and unnecessary roadblocks.
!summarize #ycombinator #ai #agents #technology
!summarize #hughhewitt #fbi #trump #lawenforcement
"The Task Force is working to help create a regulatory framework that both achieves the Commission's important regulatory objectives — including protecting investors — and preserves industry's ability to offer products and services," Peirce wrote.
Priorities include clarifying which crypto assets fall under securities laws, crafting a path for token issuers to gain regulatory approval and ensuring compliance measures don't stifle innovation. The group will also examine crypto lending, staking, exchange-traded products, and cross-border regulations. Peirce stressed that while the SEC aims to foster industry growth, it will not tolerate fraud.
!summarize #investing #bubble #markets
!summarize #derrickwhite #boston #celtics #cleveland #cavs #nba
The SEC said it's actively soliciting input from the public. Firms and individuals can submit written feedback or request meetings with the task force.
Tuesday's press conference was the first major policy event led by Sacks, who was named to the post in December. While he lacks direct control over regulatory agencies or congressional funding, Sacks' close ties to the White House and Elon Musk have positioned him as a key figure in the administration.
In June, Sacks, previously a Trump critic, hosted a fundraiser at his Pacific Heights mansion that raised $12 million for the Republican leader's presidential campaign.
!summarize #retirement
Sacks was in Washington, D.C., for the inauguration last month and attended the Crypto Ball, surrounded by industry leaders and policymakers. He declared at the event that, "The war on crypto is over." During Trump's first week in office, Sacks stood alongside the president in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order on digital assets.
As Roman trade evolved, laws were passed that prohibited senators from investing in shipping. That left the Plebeians to control that market. The same story happened with the Roman civil service. As it grew, the new positions were given to the lower class, and the resulting economic environment fostered the growth of a new middle class (the Knights). The first “businessmen” were called Publicans. They were employed by the state to manage public contracts: to collect taxes, manage mining companies, and oversee road construction. Contracts were awarded to bidders at auction and their duration was five years.
During the Punic Wars Publicans built ships for the Roman Navy and equipped the Roman Army. In 215 BC, three Publican contractors were censured because they provided financing to Spanish tribes, who were Rome’s enemy at the time. They scuttled their ships and sued the Republic for reimbursement.
!summarize #medicare #home #realestate #selling
!summarize #tulsigabbard #lindseygraham #senate
USPS says it will resume accepting inbound packages from China, Hong Kong
The USPS said it will resume accepting inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts, just hours after it suspended service from those regions.
"The USPS and Customs and Border Protection are working closely together to implement an efficient collection mechanism for the new China tariffs to ensure the least disruption to package delivery," the agency wrote in a notice posted to its website.
The USPS announced late Tuesday it would stop accepting parcels from China and Hong Kong Posts "until further notice."
!summarize #jobs #china
The move came after President Donald Trump on Saturday imposed an additional 10% tax on Chinese goods, as part of sweeping new tariffs on the country's top three trading partners. Trump on Monday agreed to hold off on imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days.
As part of the tariffs, Trump also closed a nearly century-old trade loophole, called "de minimis," which allows exporters to ship packages worth less than $800 in to the U.S. duty-free.
!summarize #stevebannon #washingtondc #trump
The difference, though, is that Modern Synthesis’s nanocellulose materials are ultimately biodegradable.
“You want your materials to last a lifetime or maybe two, like 100 years. You don’t want them sticking around for thousands, which is what most of the synthetic materials will do,” Keane said.
Because the basic building block of the startup’s textiles is cellulose, what’s left after they’ve decomposed is similar to what’s found on a forest floor. “It should behave similarly to other cellulosic materials,” she said. “Cotton’s a great example of that.”
The Senate chose to utilize the Knights commercially, instead of creating a civil service, but the power of the Knights grew, and they were able to exert great influence as a class. In 169 BC, the censor Tiberius Gracchus cancelled all Publican contracts because of corruption, but the Knights rebelled and accused him of treason against the state. Tiberius was acquitted, but all Rome now understood the power of the middle class.
By the fall of the Republic there were hundreds of corporations selling shares to investors. Manufacturing and trades flourished: including furniture making, leatherwork, weaving, metalworking, stone working, and food processing.
Many of the business terms we are familiar with today were in use in Roman times, including insurance, banks making loans, individuals owning shares in companies, competition, hoarding commodities to influence prices, investments, lawsuits, and monetary speculation.
!summarize #tsa #airport #baggage
One of the breakthroughs that encouraged Keane to found Modern Synthesis with Ben Reeve, the company’s chief technology officer, was the ability to create materials only using nanocellulose. Other biomaterials can mimic leather, for example, but some synthetic materials might need to be added to the mix to pull it off successfully, she said.
Modern Synthesis buys its nanocellulose from existing producers, which already make the stuff in large quantities for a range of applications, from food additives to medical implants. The startup then processes the nanocellulose to create different materials. In 2023, for example, it made an artificial leather for Danish fashion brand Ganni, which used it to make a handbag that contained no petrochemicals.
!summarize #homes #housing #realestate #unitedstates
!summarize #lukadoncic #lalakers #dallas #mavericks #mlb
Keane said the company is working to quintuple production at its pilot plant. Modern Synthesis recently closed a $5.5 million funding round, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The round was led by Extantia Capital with participation from Artesian and Collaborative Fund.
Though sneakers, clothing, and handbags are likely applications for Modern Synthesis’s materials, Keane is also looking into more sci-fi uses like smart textiles with embedded electronics and more prosaic ones like car dashboards.
“Cellulosic materials don’t melt like synthetics do,” she said. “If you think about car dashboards, how it starts to melt when you sit in the sun too long. Our materials won’t do that.”