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☆ SpaceX’s Starship ‘Learning Experience’ Ends in Explosion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Kenneth Chang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded above the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, minutes after lifting off from a launchpad in South Texas. There were no people aboard the spacecraft, the most powerful ever to launch. While it failed to reach orbit, it was not a fruitless failure for the private spaceflight company. Before the launch, Elon Musk, the company’s founder, had tamped down expectations, saying it might take several tries before Starship succeeds at this test flight. The brief flight produced reams of data for engineers to understand how the vehicle performed.

☆ Column: N America wind power sector needs cost cuts & supply chain revamp
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Gavin Maguire | Thomson Reuters | Gavin Maguire Is The Global Energy Transition Columnist. He Was Previously Asia Commodities | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

However, such an upbeat projection will require North America to rapidly catch up with Greater China and Europe in terms of wind power expertise. But for wind power generation to expand by the degree needed to attain emissions targets, more substantial cost cutting and streamlining is required throughout the entire supply chain. WIND PLAYING CATCH UPSince 2015, cheap components and quick installation times have driven North American utilities to increase solar power generation at more than twice the pace of wind power, data from think tank Ember shows. Since onshore wind sites cost around 4.2 cents per kWh, and fixed offshore wind farms 4.84 cents per kWh, wind power looks like the most attractive option for year-round clean power potential. In China, the top producer of several key wind power parts, the price of key industrial inputs has risen notably since mid-2020, including steel (up 22%), aluminium (up 55%) and copper (up 64%), which are all critical in wind power products.

☆ Defamation suit settlement will hold Fox accountable for election claims, Dominion negotiator says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The last-minute $787.5 million settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. was a major step toward making Fox News answer for false claims that Dominion's machines influenced the 2020 election, a key negotiator of the deal said Wednesday. Yaghoobzadeh was one of the people who cut the settlement deal. He declined to disclose when Fox had made its first offer, saying only that the initial sum "was not enough." CNBC previously reported that anchors will not have to acknowledge the settlement or apologize on air, according to people familiar with the matter. The massive settlement sum will go to legal fees and taxes first, Yaghoobzadeh said.

☆ The FBI is struggling to analyze Sam Bankman-Fried's laptop because it has so much data on it, prosecutors say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors said they're struggling to analyze a laptop for their case against Sam Bankman-Fried. Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to federal prosecutors' new criminal charges against him. In a hearing in Manhattan federal court Thursday morning, Assistant US Attorney Nicholas Roos said the FBI was struggling to extract data from a laptop they obtained from the FTX founder. Prosecutors have already produced around 6 million pages' worth of discovery material to Bankman-Fried's legal team, Roos said at the hearing. Federal judges look to sentencing guidelines articulated by a pre-sentence department, part of the US probation office that works for the federal court.

☆ Dominion wants Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, other Fox News hosts to testify at trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Dominion's live witness list of Fox Corp .'s right-wing TV networks includes Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, as well as former host Lou Dobbs and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, according to court papers. Dominion has pointed to 20 broadcasts in which they believe the hosts on Fox News and Fox Business repeated false claims of election fraud and continuously had on guests who repeated those claims. Documents, including text messages and emails, show Fox's TV hosts were skeptical of the election fraud claims being made on air. Dominion is also requesting the depositions of Fox Corp. executives, including Chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, as well as others, be included in the trial. "Dominion's needlessly expansive live witness list is yet another attempt to generate headlines and distract from the many shortcomings of its case.

☆ Why TikTok is taking months to delete personal US user data from servers outside its Project Texas firewalls, even as its political standing sours
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Dan Whateley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Under attack from Congress, TikTok has used its data-gating program Project Texas as a defense. But after 2 years and $1.5 billion spent to-date, Project Texas is still not complete. But after two years and $1.5 billion spent to-date, Project Texas is far from complete. Among those industry standards are state laws around data retention and requirements for safeguarding user data so that it's not lost accidentally, Zweifel-Keegan said. The company also announced on March 8 details for a European version of Project Texas that it's calling Project Clover.

☆ How drag was pushed back into the shadows in Tennessee
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Now, a Tennessee law restricting drag in front of minors is due to come into force on April 1. Several planned drag events were canceled over the winter after protests, and many venues felt forced to make previously family-friendly drag shows into adults-only events. Drag performers and venue owners say they are worried about their livelihoods and their rights of free expression. The Starbucks say there is no such thing as family-friendly drag; drag performers cite Bugs Bunny, Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedies and the Robin Williams film "Mrs. Doubtfire" among counterexamples. Outside of public Pride events, most Tennessee drag performers largely work in clubs and bars that admit only those over 18.

☆ Fox, Dominion urge judge to rule in $1.6 billion defamation suit ahead of April trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

However, Fox and Dominion didn't close up their arguments on Tuesday and will meet in court Wednesday morning. (Trump's false claims of election fraud are at the center of multiple criminal probes.) Chairman Rupert Murdoch said some anchors parroted false fraud claims in the months following the election. Fox has consistently denied the claims it knowingly made false claims, and has argued it is protected by the First Amendment. These cases are often settled out of court or quickly dismissed by a court judge, but neither said has had such discussions, CNBC previously reported.

☆ Mistakes by the US's top spies allowed China to turn a deadly mid-air collision into an intelligence coup
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( James Bamford | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

On April 1, 2001, a US EP-3 spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea. One of eleven left in the fleet, the tired 1960s-era spy plane bristled with porcupine-like antennas. Within minutes, however, the fighters had reached the lumbering spy plane, and while Zhao Yu hung back about a half-mile, Wang Wei rapidly closed in. In severe trouble, he immediately radioed the base, telling them he was unable to maneuver and being sucked in by the spy plane. "You are not allowed aboard the aircraft," Osborn said.

☆ George W. Bush misrepresented our work at CIA to sell the Iraq invasion. It's time to call him what he is: 'A liar.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Two former CIA officials spoke to Insider before the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. They gave a firsthand account of the George W. Bush administration's attempts to misrepresent intelligence and assert a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. The closest they came was this alleged, and apparently nonexistent, help that Iraq gave al-Qaeda [via Atta] in bringing about the attacks. Alice: Today, people say that Bush was looking to justify the invasion of Iraq. Pretty soon it became clear that the administration was focused on this alleged meeting between Atta and Iraqi intelligence in Prague.

☆ Cats vs. Birds: The Whimsical Way to Fill Out Your NCAA Tournament Bracket
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Rosie Ettenheim | Laine Higgins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Filling out brackets for the NCAA tournament is a rite of March. It’s also a famously inexact science, where the grandmother who picks teams based on their mascots has as good a chance of winning as the analytics geek who spent hours poring over team sheets. You could reference the Madness Machine, The Wall Street Journal’s bracket generator based on reams of data from the NCAA and basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy. Or you could go for a more subjective approach: Is red your favorite color? Do you like to watch teams where super tall players dominate?

☆ Ford taps masses of vehicle data to stay ahead in commercial van market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Nick Carey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Ford, which leads the commercial vehicle market in both Europe and the United States, launched the system in 2021. Hans Schep, European head of Ford Pro, the company's commercial vehicle business, said it is already close to hitting long-term targets of increasing vehicle "up time" by up to 60%. Ford recently announced engineering job cuts in Europe, but is still hiring software experts for its data services. Data is a huge battleground for commercial vehicle makers and competition will only intensify with electric models, which are essentially computers on wheels. Starting with 2024 models, GM will provide a range of OnStar data services free for fleet vehicles.

☆ Only 9% of Americans think AI development will do more good than harm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

46% of respondents think that AI development will do about the same amount of good and harm, and 41% of people in the sample believe that the technology will ultimately do harm to society overall. Large language models are increasingly being used in generative AI tools, like ChatGPT or Google's unreleased Bard, which can spit out blocks of text. But there have been issues with large language models, which can simply make information up, a phenomenon known as "hallucinating." Both Google and Microsoft's recent AI launches showed their software making factual errors. Some artificial intelligence algorithms can be used for facial recognition, for example, to identify people who attend sporting events.

☆ Microsoft plans to start using AI tech to write emails for salespeople, and it's not hard to see why
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Microsoft plans to use artificial intelligence from ChatGPT maker OpenAI to write emails for people. This new tech is to be deployed in Viva Sales, Microsoft's sales app launched in October, that manages customer information and uses AI to scan calls and emails with clients. My company needs 20,000 reams next month, and we have a budget of $100,000. ChatGPT responded like so:Dear Jerry, Thank you for your interest in ordering paper from Dumble Muffin. Best regards, Mike WazowskiSales Representative, Dumble MuffinWe had "Jerry" respond by adding a few more details and a request for a suggestion.

☆ Uncertain Economy Spurs Growth in AI-Powered Office Automation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Corporate technology leaders are leaning on artificial intelligence and other software automation tools to help companies grow without hiring additional workers anytime soon. Diogo Rau, chief information and digital officer at Eli Lilly. The reports are often filled with scientific terms that require professionals to decipher, Mr. Rau said. Similarly, Mr. Rau is applying natural-language models to produce in-house clinical reports, replacing on-staff medical writers. All told, Gartner expects global enterprise spending on AI and other software automation systems this year to reach $728.9 billion, up from $643.3 billion in 2022.

But the perceived spectacle means that not only will Murdaugh be on display — so will the county seat of Walterboro, population 5,460. “We didn’t want this, but it’s happening, and it’s here,” Scott Grooms, Walterboro’s director of tourism and downtown development, said last week. A portrait of Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr., Alex Murdaugh's late grandfather, was removed from the Colleton County Courthouse ahead of Alex Murdaugh's trial. From left, Paul, Margaret and Alex Murdaugh. While he didn’t know Alex Murdaugh personally, he said few with longstanding ties in the area had not been touched by the Murdaughs’ orbit in one way or another.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty in the US government's criminal case over FTX crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried entered a plea of not guilty to the fraud and conspiracy charges against him, according to reports. If Bankman-Fried doesn't reach a deal with the government, the case would head to a trial. "Just because he enters a plea of not guilty, it doesn't mean he's not working with prosecutors." How those cases proceed would also depend on the course of the criminal case. A criminal trial, for instance, could help him put civil suits against him on hold.

Ali Alexander said he believed White House wanted him to lead rallygoers to Capitol "Stop The Steal" organizer Ali Alexander believed the White House wanted him to lead attendees of Trump's Jan. 6 rally to the Capitol, the report said. Alex Jones, who has claimed the White House told him to lead the march, texted Wren at 12:27 p.m. Finally one of the staffers told Trump they thought he should focus on his speech. Trump told Jan. 6 demonstrators at the Capitol in a Twitter video that he loved them but that they should go home. The information was expected to be available as soon as Thursday — the day the House Jan. 6 committee is set to issue its final report on the riot.

☆ Cramer: What I learned about investing from the first millionaire I met as a kid
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

He didn't talk much on the drive in, just listened to call-in radio shows and then the opera, the Metropolitan Opera, brought to you by Texaco. And if you ran out of those, you might have to close on one of the most important business days leading up to Christmas. But Mr. Paul was a supplier, a decent man, and most importantly a retired Marine Corps colonel. One day Pop asked me to summon up the courage and ask Mr. Paul to show him his stock ledger. Mr. Paul, in short, was a millionaire.

☆ Why This Housing Downturn Isn’t Like the Last One
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Ben Eisen | Nicole Friedman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The pandemic housing boom is over. The bust will look nothing like the last one. Before the financial crisis of 2008, lenders barely bothered to verify mortgage applicants’ income. Today they demand reams of evidence that borrowers can afford their loans.

The biggest event of her life — her Sweet 16 — was due to start in a few hours. “I have anxiety and today ... i didn’t get as nervous maybe cause I’m not speaking to anyone but hands are a little shaky.”Angie documenting her Sweet 16 makeup artist’s skills. As Henriquez’s sole daughter, Angie was the family’s uncontested diva, its “only queen” — a girl who seemed to have left the Bronx all but physically. As her 16th birthday approached, she resisted the idea of a Sweet 16. Angie lighting her Sweet 16 candles with, from left, her brothers, Fidel and Angel, and her stepbrother, Cameron.

☆ Qatar 2022: $480,000-per-week yacht plays host to super rich
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Doha, Qatar CNN —It’s been dubbed the ‘Arabian Riviera,’ where the streets are immaculate and are interspersed with luxury hotels offering shimmering views across the marina. Now in Doha, guests can organize limousines ferrying them to World Cup stadiums for the tournament’s games. Guests can also request to take the yacht out of the marina to view the city from afar. A superyacht World Cup stay offers something very different from some of the other accommodation available to guests in the city during the tournament. From tents in the desert to portacabins on the edge of Doha, World Cup organizers have had to be innovative in providing accommodation options to fans with the influx of an estimated 1.5 million people staying in a nation smaller than Connecticut.

☆ Indiana Attorney General files lawsuits against TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN Business —Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on Wednesday announced he has filed two separate lawsuits against TikTok, which accuse the company of making false claims about the safety of user data, and age-appropriate content. “The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full well the harms it inflicts on users,” Rokita said in a statement. “With this pair of lawsuits, we hope to force TikTok to stop its false, deceptive, and misleading practices, which violate Indiana law.”The lawsuits mark the most serious action taken yet by a state against TikTok, amid increasing attention to and concern about TikTok from state and federal officials in recent months. TikTok does not comment on pending litigation, but said, “the safety, privacy and security of our community is our top priority,” according to a statement from a company spokesperson. And there has been renewed criticism of TikTok this year, stemming from a Buzzfeed News report in June that said some US user data has been repeatedly accessed from China.

☆ An interior designer to New York City's elite shares the 3 fresh trends that are all the rage and 2 that are out of style
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Zoe Rosenberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

NYC interior designer Bennett Leifer outlined what's in and what's out right now. He spoke with Insider about what his clients are seeking in their homes now, and the tired trends they're ready to leave behind. John Keeble/Getty ImagesLeifer said his clients aren't using white as a fallback anymore, but rather an intentional decision. "It has to finish a space to a certain degree," Leifer said, but clients aren't falling back on the old rulebook. Instead they're curious to experiment with new touches, like the project where Leifer's using bronze casings around windows.

☆ Recession obsession: Warnings grow but nobody knows for sure
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Christine Romans | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The welcome GDP report comes amid almost daily recession warnings from bank CEOs, business economists, think tanks and former Treasury secretaries. But as the dread grows, today’s news is a reminder that no one knows for sure whether the US economy will tip into a recession. Moreover, most of those same prognosticators agree that even if we do have a recession, it would be mild. Thirdly, we won’t know if we are, or were, in a recession until it is over:A recession may be coming. But even the staunchest recession hawks think a recession — if it happens — would be mild.

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