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The crypto giant FTX and its affiliated companies have started the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepping down as CEO. Bankman-Fried sent out a series of tweets on Friday stating his hope that FTX would be able to continue as a going concern following its bankruptcy. Media outlets have reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department are now investigating FTX. In the days following the report, rival crypto exchange Binance announced it was liquidating its FTT holdings. Unable to find an out, FTX announced its bankruptcy filing Friday morning.

☆ Factbox: Sam Bankman-Fried: The crypto mogul whose empire came crashing down
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday resigned from his role as chief executive of FTX and the crypto exchange said it will initiate bankruptcy proceedings in the United States, capping off a tumultuous week for the industry. Following are some facts about the co-founder and former CEO:EDUCATION AND VENTURES BEFORE FTXBorn in 1992, Sam Bankman-Fried grew up in California. Bankman-Fried later graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a degree in physics. After a more than three-year stint at the New York-based firm, he moved to crypto trading and founded Alameda Research in 2017. The company offered trading on crypto tokens and derivatives, while also boasting of a robust risk management system.

☆ The Taurids meteor shower is expected to peak this weekend. Here's how to watch bright fireballs dazzle the night sky.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Northern Taurids meteor shower will be at its best overnight, between November 11 and 12. In the Southern Hemisphere, the meteor shower reached another peak in mid-October. The Southern and Northern Taurids' last peaks were in 2015. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Southwest Research InstituteIn 2005, a Taurids meteor struck the surface of the moon. During the peak, the American Meteor Society says you might see around five meteors per hour under clear, dark skies.

☆ NASA's Hubble Space Telescope watched a distant star die, explode, and fade away in rare, colorful detail
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a star that exploded and died 11 billion years ago. The three imprints show different colorful stages of the supernova explosion. Hubble watched the star collapse, expell its outer layers in a violent explosion, and then cool. Three different reflections of the supernova, spotted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The paths had different lengths, so the light arrived at different times, reflecting images from three different stages in the star's death.

☆ Netflix COO Greg Peters is charged with driving the streamer's new ads business. Here's what's at stake and why insiders see him as a future CEO.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Lucia Moses | Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Netflix has tasked COO Greg Peters with figuring out its ad push, its biggest initiative in a decade. And the executive tapped to lead the charge is chief operating officer Greg Peters, who's long been the company's go-to for new business ventures. Joining Netflix in 2008 as chief streaming and partnerships officer, Peters quickly stood out as a rising star. The ads tier could also help Netflix with its expansion overseas, where its results have been uneven so far, Mahaney said. Peters played a key role in getting Netflix's creative execs on board with the ads business, one Hollywood insider noted.

☆ Twitter early investor Chris Sacca says Elon Musk is 'alone right now and winging this'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In a tweet thread on Monday, Sacca said he's always admired Musk and he referred to electric carmaker Tesla as "world positive." "His success to date is not an accident," Sacca wrote to his 1.6 million followers. But the challenges that come with running a popular social-messaging service like Twitter require a level of nuance and human understanding that Musk so far has not demonstrated, Sacca wrote. "Batteries and motors and rockets and tunnels and solar panels have definitively right and wrong answers," Sacca wrote. The "hard truth" for Musk is that "he is straight-up alone right now and winging this," Sacca wrote.

☆ Unseen Jan. 6 Video Shows Lawmakers' Response to Capitol Attack
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Watch: China’s Space Station Takes Shape With Docking of Final Module After a 13-hour flight, China successfully docked the final module to its space station. Mengtian, which translates to “Dreaming of the Heavens,” is designed to study physics and microgravity and marks a milestone in China’s plan to become a global space power. Photo: Hu Zhixuan/Xinhua via ZUMA Press

☆ Midterms 2022: Where Republicans and Democrats Stand on the Issues
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Republican Catalina Lauf seeks to oust incumbent Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 11th Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Republican Catalina Lauf looks to unseat Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 11th Congressional District. IL-17IL-06IL-13 HouseRepublican Catalina Lauf looks to unseat longtime Democratic Rep. Bill Foster in Illinois' 11th Congressional District. Illinois' 11th Congressional District candidatesLauf, who sits on the large bench of Republican Latino candidates the GOP built this year, is a Woodstock, Illinois, native and daughter of Latin American immigrants. "I think for many women of all ages it may be the number one issue," Foster told a local station. Voting history for Illinois' 11th Congressional DistrictIllinois' 11th Congressional District, which under its previous boundaries covered the west and southwest suburbs, now stretches into the northwest territory of McHenry, Boone, DeKalb, and Kane counties.

☆ What it feels like to visit a fusion company lab on a day when wildfire smoke cloaks the horizon
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

The Helion Energy building under construction to house their next generation fusion machine. For the employees of Helion Energy, building a fusion device is their job. Helion Energy's building under construction to house the seventh generation fusion machine on a day when wildfire smoke was not restricting visibility. On the one hand, I had a newfound sense of hope about the possibility of fusion energy. This is the Polaris Injector Test, where Helion Energy is building a component piece of the seventh generation fusion machine.

☆ Palm oil is in almost everything, and it's devastating rainforests. This Bill Gates-backed company used microbes to create an alternative
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Palm oil grows best in the regions right around the equator, so palm oil producers chop down rainforest and clear that felled vegetation by burning it, making it a prime target of conservation organizations like the Rainforest Rescue and the World Wildlife Fund. Palm oil trees grow at the Cikasungka palm oil plantation, operated by PT Perkebunan Nusantara VIII, in Bogor Regency in West Java, Indonesia, on Monday, June 20, 2022. To make its palm oil alternative, C16 Biosciences uses a wild yeast microbe that makes a functional equivalent to palm oil with a kind of fermentation process. Photo courtesy: Cat Clifford, CNBCChemically, the palm oil that C16 Biosciences makes is not identical to the palm oil that is grown in industrial agriculture farms. However, "it contains the same fatty acids, which are the molecular fingerprints of fats and oils, that palm oil does," Heller told CNBC.

☆ Fact Check-The Earth is not covered by a dome or ‘firmament’
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Users on social media are saying people on Earth are living under a dome, also called a “firmament,” without providing evidence to support the claim. But the video’s examples offer no proof of humans living under a dome or firmament, while there is ample evidence that no dome exists. “Rocket hitting the flat earth dome”, reads the title of one of the YouTube clips. SIXTY YEARS OF SPACEFLIGHTExperts pointed out that if there were a dome that covered the Earth, astronauts would have encountered it by now. A video provides no evidence that the Earth is under a dome or “firmament”.

☆ A rule of physics dictates when a crowd crush turns deadly, like in Seoul, South Korea, where 154 died
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A Halloween party in Seoul ended in at least 154 deaths after the streets became badly crowded. The phenomenon, called crowd surging, comes down to basic physics, an expert told Insider. At least 154 people died in Seoul on Saturday when a Halloween street party caused a crowd so dense it crushed people to death. Drone footage of the empty stage that hosted the 2021 Astroworld Festival where people died from crowd surging. Nathan Frandino/ReutersInformation is keyThis is not the first time crowd surging has killed.

☆ Why paganism and witchcraft are making a comeback
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Antonio Pagliarulo | Antonio Pagliarulo Is The Author Of The Forthcoming | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Witchcraft, which includes Wicca, paganism, folk magic and other New Age traditions, is one of the fastest-growing spiritual paths in America. Witchcraft, which includes Wicca, paganism, folk magic and other New Age traditions, is one of the fastest-growing spiritual paths in America. Berger is one of the foremost academic experts on contemporary witchcraft and paganism in America and draws knowledge about its appeal from surveys she’s co-conducted on the pagan community. This blending of faiths has been a seamless process for me and other folk magic practitioners despite what traditional religious authorities might say. Blending of faiths has been a seamless process for me and other folk magic practitioners despite what traditional religious authorities might say.

☆ Fact Check-Alexander Gleason’s map of the world does not prove the earth is flat
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

One Instagram user (here) shared a TikTok video which tries to challenge the fact that that Gleason’s map is a projection of the earth as a globe. Gleason argued that the earth is flat in his 1890 book “Is the Bible from Heaven? ALL 2D MAPS DISTORT EARTHAs Gleason’s map is centered on the north pole, the edges indicate the south pole. “A projection of a person on a page is also flat (see Jeff Brown’s ‘Flat Stanley’ character), but people aren’t flat,” Bennett said. Gleason’s map is a depiction of the earth as a globe in a north-polar azimuthal equidistant projection and is not proof that the earth is flat.

☆ NASA's UFO panel convenes to study unclassified sightings
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 24 (Reuters) - A first-of-its-kind panel organized by NASA opened a study on Monday of what the government calls "unidentified aerial phenomena," commonly termed UFOs, bringing together experts from scientific fields ranging from physics to astrobiology. The 16-member panel, convened with little fanfare, will focus its inquiry entirely on unclassified sightings and other data collected from civilian government and commercial sectors, according to NASA. The team's inquiry is separate from a newly formalized Pentagon-based investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, reported by military aviators and analyzed by U.S. defense and intelligence officials. Announcing the formation of its panel in June, NASA said: "There is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin." "Understanding the data we have surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what's happening in our skies," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate NASA administrator.

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Ash Carter, who served as a U.S. defense secretary during the Obama administration, died late on Monday at the age of 68 after a sudden cardiac event, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. Under Carter, the U.S. military opened all military roles to women and also ended a ban on openly serving transgender service members. "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Carter said at the time. Before becoming defense secretary, Carter served as deputy defense secretary and chief operating officer in the Pentagon. Since leaving public service, Carter led the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School.

☆ The markets are returning to the 'old normal' of higher bond yields — what it means for investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Michael Santoli | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Yet the effects from this point of a return to the "old normal" of higher bond yields and positive real (inflation-adjusted) yields, aren't clearly linear nor entirely negative. The 10-year Treasury yield on those dates: 4.24% now, 3.69% Sept. 22 and 3.07% on June 30. Yet as stock valuations fall and bond yields rise, risk to a long-term buyer is declining and expected future returns climbs. It's common to hear market handicappers discuss higher yields compressing overall equity valuations as if it's a law of physics. Maybe the difference in these regimes has something to do with the absolute level of bond yields and whether deflation or inflation was the main adversary?

☆ Central banks get sucked into financial black hole
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Central bankers around the world want to bring inflation down by returning interest rates to “normal” levels. As a result, the average UK mortgage has grown to 3.4 times average income, up from 1.5 times in the early 1980s, according to housing analyst Neal Hudson. But it’s left many homeowners extremely vulnerable to higher interest rates. As a result, the government’s fiscal position is more exposed to interest rate fluctuations. As a financial black hole opens up, central banks will be forced to stop tightening.

☆ Now Even Science Grants Must Bow to ‘Equity and Inclusion’
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Lawrence Krauss | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

America’s largest research funder in physical sciences isn’t the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or the National Science Foundation. It’s the Energy Department’s Office of Science, which gives money to university programs throughout the country and oversees the 10 major national laboratories, from Livermore to Los Alamos. Its brief includes energy and research into fundamental questions: the structure of matter, the nature of the cosmos, high-energy and nuclear physics with large accelerators, materials physics with X-ray synchrotrons, fusion and advanced scientific computers. And now, social justice.

☆ Here are the origins of the oldest public library in the Americas
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

PUEBLA, Mexico — It is, according to UNESCO, the oldest public library in the Americas, tucked away from the street front at a cultural center in the historic heart of this Mexican city. “Everything that was imagined at that time is in the library,” said Juan Fernández del Campo, the library’s current manager. Palafox’s passion for books is evident in a quote from him, written on a mosaic outside the library. This was not the time for Mexico to raise its wings toward freedom of thought,” the library manager said. The library reopened in 2002; two years later it was added by UNESCO to its Memory of the World Register.

☆ Factbox: Winners of 2022 Nobel prizes
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nobel Prize for Peace - Jailed Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski, Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize amid a war in their region that is the worst conflict in Europe since World War Two. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterNobel Prize for Literature– French author Annie Ernaux won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature for "the courage and clinical acuity" in her largely autobiographical books examining personal memory and social inequality. Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering reactions that let molecules snap together to create new compounds and that offer insight into cell biology. Nobel Prize in Physics - Scientists Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments in quantum mechanics that laid the groundwork for rapidly-developing new applications in computing and cryptography. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that underpin our understanding of how modern day people evolved from extinct ancestors at the dawn of human history.

☆ 3 U.S.-based economists given Nobel Prize for work on banks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM — This year’s Nobel Prize in economic sciences has been awarded to the former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, and two U.S.-based economists, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, “for research on banks and financial crises.”The prize was announced Monday by the Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, half of the award went to David Card for his research on how the minimum wage, immigration and education affect the labor market. The Nobel Economics Prize was awarded to a US trio for their contributions on explaining the role of banks in the economy. French author Annie Ernaux won this year’s Nobel Prize in literature Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize went to jailed Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties on Friday.

☆ SpaceX capsule heads to space station ferrying NASA crew and Russian
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

A high-ranking official of the Russian space agency Roscosmos said shortly after the launch that the flight marked “a new phase of our cooperation” with the U.S. space agency NASA. The SpaceX launch vehicle, consisting of a Falcon 9 rocket topped with a Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Endurance, lifted off into clear skies at noon EDT (1600 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. As the spacecraft entered Earth orbit, Kikina radioed her thanks to NASA, Roscosmos and their International Space Station (ISS) partners for “giving us this great opportunity.”“We’re so glad to do it together,” Kikina said. The mission, designated Crew-5, marks the fifth full-fledged ISS crew NASA has flown aboard a SpaceX vehicle since the private rocket venture founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk began sending U.S. astronauts aloft in May 2020. Rounding out the crew from Japan’s space agency JAXA was veteran astronaut Koichi Wakata, 59, a robotics expert making his fifth voyage to space.

☆ The era of Big Tech moonshots is over. Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are pulling back on ambitious, risky long-term projects after many of them failed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Hugh Langley | Eugene Kim | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have scaled back their ambitious "moonshot" projects. Moonshots like Google X and Amazon Grand Challenge allowed tech firms to build innovative projects. Before Amazon, Parviz led a similar team at Google called Google X. Page and Brin championed X projects they loved, helping them gain funding and headcount within the unit. Parviz, who created the once-hyped-up Google Glass, left Google X in 2014 to start Amazon's Grand Challenge.

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