I just learned the difference between balanced and unbalanced wires.....damn, how do guitar players have so much money!?!?
I'm gonna end up spending $200 on new wires and a DI
The new artificial leaves can work in water and on land, but have some way to go before real-world use.
Chinese researchers have developed a new kind of artificial leaf that can track the movement of the sun, much like real leaves. Able to produce electricity and potentially split water into hydrogen and oxygen, this new leaf could revolutionize fuel production.
The new artificial leaf combines flexible solar-powered electrodes with a protective gel coating. It also incorporates an innovative supporting structure from carbon nanotubes embedded in a temperature-sensitive polymer.
When the artificial leaf is exposed to sunlight, these nanotubes are locally heated, causing the polymer to contract. Areas not exposed to direct sunlight remain in an expanded form, which results in the leaf “bending” towards a light source.
This process effectively keeps the leaf automatically facing the light source without the need for motors or other devices. According to the researchers, this mechanism is similar to how plants, especially aquatic ones like Micranthemum glomeratum, track the sun.
The Ghost’s SWATH design enables it to carry larger payloads and be deployed in ISTAR, missile transport and special operations.
A merican aerospace and defense company General Dynamics has partnered with UK-based Juliet Marine Systems to develop a small surface vessel dubbed ‘Ghost’. The vessel features Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design that reportedly has the potential to revolutionize naval warfare.
The prototype of the vessel—which is currently undergoing tests—is versatile, stable and equipped to be deployed on manned, unmanned and remote-controlled operations. According to General Dynamics, the vessel boasts of a large payload capacity and innovative sea-keeping abilities. Its SWATH design enables the vessel to carry payloads in challenging sea states, typically not possible on other small surface vessels.
Stable speeds and compact size
The ‘Ghost’ is designed for quick deployment and easy construction, allowing it to be used in varying environments. Small vessels like the ‘Ghost’ are stable at speeds of up to 40.3 mph, making them extremely fast on the water, Slashgear reported.
Due to its compact size, the ‘Ghost’ can be deployed by amphibious and cargo ships, trucks or can even be dropped from airplanes, making it a highly versatile asset for the US Navy.
While frozen in place internally, electrons along the edges of twisted graphene move freely, creating a unique state of conductivity.
Graphene, also known as the wonder material, continues to surprise scientists. This time, it has revealed new quantum states. A team of researchers has found peculiar topological electronic crystals in twisted graphene layers.
Their study highlights a special way to arrange electrons in graphene, where they freeze into a perfectly ordered pattern. Surprisingly, while staying locked in place, all the electrons spin together like ballet dancers performing synchronized pirouettes without moving.
This unusual quantum behavior allows electric current to flow smoothly along the edges of the material while the interior remains non-conductive because the electrons are stuck in place.
In the future, such quantum states can be utilized for the development of energy-efficient electronic devices and fault-tolerant quantum computing applications.
DARPA’s Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program will focus on new sensor designs strategies instead of resorting to bulky shielding or isolation methods.
Quantum sensors offer exceptional precision in measuring magnetic fields, gravity and motion, making them invaluable for defense. However, they struggle in real-world conditions, especially on moving platforms.
To overcome these challenges, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching the Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program, which aims to develop quantum sensors that can withstand environmental disruptions while maintaining their high sensitivity.
The goal of the program is to ensure these sensors work reliably outside the lab and can be integrated into Department of Defense platforms.
Program targets robust quantum sensing for defense
Environmental disturbances like vibrations and electromagnetic interference diminish the performance quantum sensors, limiting their effectiveness. Existing solutions, such as isolation or bulky shielding, are impractical for large scale use.
The objective of the RoQS program is to bridge the gap between research and real-world deployment. RoQS prioritizes early collaboration between sensor developers and defense platform makers to streamline the transition from lab to field.
By fostering these partnerships early, DARPA aims to ensure the technology meets practical requirements and integrates smoothly into existing systems, cutting down the time and resources needed to make quantum sensors mission-ready.
This engine utilizes hydrogen as fuel, accelerating charged particles—electrons and protons—to a remarkable speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s)
Scientists at Rosatom have unveiled a plasma electric rocket engine that is claimed to be capable of propelling spacecraft to Mars in just one to two months.
As reported by Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, unlike traditional rocket engines that rely on fuel combustion, this innovative propulsion system utilizes a magnetic plasma accelerator and promises to significantly reduce interplanetary travel time.
“A plasma rocket motor is a type of electric motor. It is based on two electrodes. Charged particles are passed between them, and at the same time a high voltage is applied to the electrodes,” Egor Biriulin, a junior researcher at Rosatom’s scientific institute in Troitsk, told Izvestia.
“As a result, the current creates a magnetic field that pushes the particles out of the engine. Thus, the plasma receives directional motion and creates thrust.”
Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”
Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. A video of the interview was published today.
The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk (a key Trump ally) would acquire the app. Trump even told reporters that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.
But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating, “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”
“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”
He added that he doesn’t “use TikTok personally” and is “not that familiar with it.” And he described his acquisition of Twitter (now X) as an anomaly in his career: “I usually build companies from scratch.”
Arguments about what is and isn’t “open source” are often resolved by deferring to the Open Source Initiative (OSI): If a piece of software is available under a license rubber stamped as “open source” by the OSI’s formal “definition,” then that software is open source.
But waters muddy when you get into the nuts and bolts of legal definitions versus the “spirit” of what open source really means. Indeed, there is significant nuance in the open source versus proprietary software debate: Has an “open source company” hamstrung its project by sliding core features behind a commercial paywall? How much transparency is there around the project’s development? And how much direct input does the “community” really have in a given project?
To many, open source is not just about the legal ability to use and modify code; the culture, transparency, and governance around it is paramount.
Everyone knows about the Google-flavored version of Android that ships on smartphones and tablets, replete with an array of apps and services. The underlying Android Open Source Project (AOSP), released under a permissive Apache 2.0-license, is available for anyone to access, “fork,” and modify for their own hardware projects.
Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford computer scientist and startup founder sometimes known as “the Godmother of AI,” has outlined “three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking” ahead of next week’s AI Action Summit in Paris.
First, Li said policy must be based on “science, not science fiction.” In other words, policymakers should focus on the current reality of AI, not on grandiose futuristic scenarios, “whether utopia or apocalypse.”
In particular, Li said that it’s critical for policymakers to understand that chatbots and co-pilot programs “are not forms of intelligence with intentions, free will or consciousness,” so they can avoid “the distraction of far-fetched scenarios” and focus instead on “vital challenges.”
Second, she argued that policy should “be pragmatic, rather than ideological,” by which she means it should be written to “minimise unintended consequences while incentivising innovation.”
Lastly, Li said these policy must empower “the entire AI ecosystem — including open-source communities and academia.”
Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. In an update to its public AI principles page, the company erased a section titled “applications we will not pursue.” The company pointed TechCrunch to a blog post on “responsible AI,” which notes that Google should work together with governments and organizations “to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”
One of Meta’s earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company, alleges that Meta failed to take action after she reported sexual harassment and assault; retaliated against her after she flagged a video game product as racist and potentially harmful to minors; and was routinely passed over for promotions in favor of men on her team.
The Axial Age or Axial Period, as its sometimes called, was the period of antiquity circa 800 B.C. to 200 B.C. characterized by human thought directed toward understanding man’s place in the world. That inquiry sought a moral structure which would explain how man should live his life to achieve happiness and be in balance with the wishes of the gods. The Axial Age was not confined only to the West, but spanned the globe from the Middle East, though India, and included China. It featured individuals such as Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and Jeremiah, whose ideas had a profound influence on the future of religion and philosophy. The fact that these thinkers lived across the globe and emerged at nearly the same period in history suggests that human moral evolution had reached the same point simultaneously, perhaps under the influence of common factors.
Musk’s comments on TikTok came nearly 20 minutes into the interview, which initially focused on his plans for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken control of federal agencies and gained access to large troves of sensitive data.
“With respect to government, really the challenge is overcoming bureaucracy,” he said. “I think bureaucracy is perhaps the penultimate boss battle. The ultimate boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating bureaucracy. That’s how difficult it is to improve government.”
We’ve discussed the stages of Greek history many times. Greek philosophy began when its founders sought to explain the universe. Once the universe was placed in a philosophical framework, the Greeks began to think about his place in it. He wondered about the purpose of life, how the universe came into being, and how he could live in harmony with the wishes of the gods. Greek philosophy was built upon the foundation of Plato and Aristotle who represented the idealistic and practical approaches to an understanding of the world.
Nearly simultaneous with Greek philosophical development was the advent of philosophical systems under Buddha, Confucius, and the Hindu priests who had adapted the ancient Vedic religion to their time. In the middle east, the Jewish religion developed out of the monotheism of Zoroastrianism. In each case, religion was fused with philosophy. The gods were assumed to exist and what remained was for man to decipher their wishes.
“Open access to AI models and computational tools is crucial for progress,” she said. “Limiting it will create barriers and slow innovation, particularly for academic institutions and researchers who have fewer resources than their private-sector counterparts.”
Android, by just about any definition, is about as open source as it gets. And Google has used this fact in its defense against anti-competition criticism, noting that Amazon has reappropriated Android for its own lineup of Fire-branded devices. But all this ignores separate “anti-fragmentation agreements” Google signed with hardware makers that restrict them from using forked versions of Android. And unlike something like Kubernetes that sits under an independent foundation with a diverse range of corporate and community contributors, Android sits under the direct control of Google without a great deal of transparency over roadmap or community input.
“Android, in a license sense, is perhaps the most well-documented, perfectly open ‘thing’ that there is,” Luis Villa, co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift, said in a panel discussion at the State of Open Con25 in London this week. “All the licenses are exactly as you want them — but good luck getting a patch into that, and good luck figuring out when the next release even is.”
This gets to the crux of the debate: Open source can be something of an illusion. A lack of real independence can mean a lack of agency for those who would like to properly get involved in a project. It can also raise questions about a project’s long-term viability, evidenced by the countless open source companies that have switched licenses to protect their commercial interests.
Meta, meanwhile, has long tooted its open source horn with regards to its Llama-branded large language models (LLMs), even though Llama isn’t open source by most estimations — the models, while perhaps more “open” than others, have commercial restrictions.
“I have my quibbles and concerns about the open source AI definition, but it’s really clear that what Llama is doing isn’t open source,” Villa said.
Emily Omier, a consultant for open source businesses and host of the Business of Open Source podcast, added that such attempts to “corrupt” the meaning behind “open source” is testament to its inherent power.
“It goes to show how strong the brand of open source is — the fact that people are trying to corrupt it, means that people care,” Omier said during the panel discussion.
Much of this may be for regulatory reasons, however. The EU AI Act has a special carve-out for “free and open source” AI systems (aside from those deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk”). And Villa says this goes some way toward explaining why a company might want to rewrite the rulebook on what “open source” actually means.
“There are plenty of actors right now who, because of the brand equity [of open source] and the regulatory implications, want to change the definition, and that’s terrible,” Villa said.
Clear parameters
While there are clear arguments for applying additional criteria that incorporates the “spirit” of what open source is intended to be all about, having clear parameters — as defined by a license — keeps things simple and less subject to nuanced subjectivity.
How much community engagement would be necessary for something to be truly “open source”? On a practical and legal level, keeping the definition limited to the license makes sense.
Morris has some interesting thoughts on the Greeks and Romans.
He states:
“Greece’s real contribution to Axial thought came not from Democrats, but from the critics of Democracy, led by Socrates. Greece, he argued, didn’t need democracies, which merely pooled the ignorance of men who judged everything by appearances; what it needed was men like himself, who knew when it came to the one thing that mattered – the nature of the good – they knew nothing. Only such men could hope to understand the good… through reason, honed in philosophical debate.”
Of course the beliefs of Socrates were carried forward by his pupil Plato in The Republic and Laws, and Plato’s successor Aristotle in Ethics and Politics.
This prototype will be subjected to extensive ground testing to refine its operational modes and pave the way for the creation of a flight model, expected to be ready by 2030.
“The engine operates in pulse-periodic mode. Its power is about 300 kW. Earlier, the engine resource of more than 2400 h was justified, which is enough for a transportation operation to Mars,” Konstantin Gutorov, the project’s scientific adviser, told the Russian newspaper.
“Another positive feature of the new installation – in the proposed mechanism, the plasma does not need to be strongly heated. As a result, parts and components of the engine do not experience temperature overloads, and the electrical energy used for its operation is almost completely converted into motion,” concluded Biriulin.
With a calculated thrust of approximately 6N, the highest among comparable projects, the engine is expected to enable smooth acceleration and deceleration phases during interplanetary travel.
“It was a spectacular example of the advantages of backwardness, combining organizational methods pioneered in an older core with military methods honed on a violent frontier. It slaughtered, enslaved, and dispossessed millions; and drove social development forward at an accelerated pace.”
Another, more adamant, critic of the Axial Period was Antony Black, writing in the Review of Politics, 2008.
Black disputes any notion of an Axial “Period” because the change was not rapid enough and did not involve a greater number of cultures. He agrees that this period saw an advancement in complex human but wonders if it were merely due to the state of societies of that time - that turmoil was causing a rejection of the status quo and the desire to “invent” a new path forward.
The seacraft can be operated remotely or with a crew of two. It can carry up to ten passengers in standard seating or 16 with maximum seating, which makes it ideal for amphibious landings, whether crewed or not.
The vessel can transport passengers to safety or serve as a vehicle for deploying Navy SEAL teams to shorelines, and operate at its top speed for up to 6.4 hours, with a total endurance range of 20.4 hours.
Long time readers have heard me mention that studying history helps us understand the future and under my blog title it says “The future has already happened”. I believe that human behavior repeats itself generation after generation, as we can easily see if we go back and look.
The philosopher Santayana put it differently when he said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I disagree. History repeats itself because of the character of man, not his neglect of history, and no matter how diligent we might be at studying the past, we still can’t escape from ourselves.
The ‘Ghost’ modular design supports various missions, such as carrying missiles, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance), anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and special warfare load-out. The prototype is powered by two T53-L13B turboshaft engines, delivering a total of 2,380 shp.
These compact vessels displace between 22.4 and 30.2 tons of seawater and can carry over two tons of payload. They range from 25 to 40 feet in width, depending on the strut angle, and are 65 feet long overall.
The timeline for the ‘Ghost’ to move from the prototype stage to full-scale production remains uncertain, and it’s possible the project could be reconsidered before reaching completion. However, taking into account the vessel’s projected utility and capabilities, the Navy may show interest in procurement, Slashgear noted.
Why the West Rules tells the history of the world and then reduces the accomplishments of societies to an equation. Morris believes that history moves forward as a giant amorphous mass and is only minimally influenced by individuals or ideas. To him, there are three main forces acting on society: geography, climate, and the paradox of development. The latter refers to the fact that societal development is accompanied by forces which tend to undermine its progress.
And people are the problem. “Change is caused by lazy, greedy, frightened people looking for easier, more profitable, and safer ways to do things. And they rarely know what they’re doing.”
Morris has developed a theorem which claims that by mathematics one can determine which is the dominant culture on earth at any one time, and further, the formula can be used to predict the future. An index derived from the theorem is calculated using four characteristics of a society: energy capture per capita, social organization, the capacity to wage war, and the level of information technology. Each of these factors is assigned a value up to 250 so when we add them together we get a maximum index value of 1000.
The book compares the score of the Eastern world against the Western world throughout history and concludes that the East will regain superiority in 2103.
I have two large problems with Morris’ book and the reception to it. Let’s start with the latter. To quote one of the reviews of the book,
“Morris's success at finding an audience for that big story comes at a time of anxiety about the waning influence of historians, whose work is often hyper-specialized. Kenneth Pomeranz, president of the American Historical Association, recently lamented that "our space in the public sphere has been diminished to the benefit of fields like economics."
Morris reminds me of what’s wrong with the progressive movement. Its adherents have substituted science for God, and worse, they believe their science. Remember that FDR intended to appoint a board of economists who were going to dictate policy to all American corporations as part of an industrial plan. Funny to think anyone thought something as complicated as our economy could be reduced to a set of equations.
But here we have Morris trying to do the same with history. Who said there are four factors that influence the accomplishments of a society? Who says they should be equally weighted? Why go through the exercise when the assumptions are faulty? Now I’m not ready to condemn the factors and trends Morris cites. He is a well-respected historian. But when you quantify something, people assume the numbers are useful for comparison purposes, and they parse them up way beyond their relevance.
The U.S. Navy and Japanese Navy would have another major engagement at the Battle of Midway one month later. U.S. Navy codebreakers deciphered Japanese communications about planning an attack on Midway. With information about the attack, Adm. Chester Nimitz developed a plan to stop the Japanese invasion. The three-day battle ended with the U.S. losing two ships, 145 aircraft and roughly 360 service members, and Japan losing nearly 3,000 men and five ships. The U.S. victory was a turning point for the Allies and stopped further expansion into the Pacific for Japan.
The Senate of this period was made up of three factions, each amounting to one third of the voting power: conservatives who supported the Republic as it had always been, moderates including Cicero and Cato who allowed some adaptation of the political system, and the liberals who supported Pompey and Caesar. The conservatives were so strict in their point of view, they tried to block all efforts of the triumvirs, unable to perceive the harm they would eventually bring to themselves.
Pompey and Crassus decided to bury the hatchet and go in with Caesar. The latter was still the least influential of the triumvirs but he had two important assets: he was by far the best negotiator and he had previously been a supporter of Marius, the man of the people, whereas the other two were seen as allies of dictator Sulla.
Michael Grant, in his biography of Caesar described what followed:
“During the next ten years the triumvirate remained the controlling factor in Roman politics. This is not, as it is sometimes called, a defeat for democracy. The dispute was not between senatorial government and democracy, which never existed in Rome and never would, but between a haughty, reactionary, corrupt oligarchy and an equally ruthless tyranny conducted by three individuals.”
When the newly elected Caesar introduced the land bill to the Senate, they filibustered until he withdrew the measure and took it to the assembly. It was vetoed by three tribunes but Pompey and Crassus spoke in favor, making it plain they were allied with Caesar. When Bibulus, the other Consul, tried to block the bill, Caesar had Pompey’s troops burst into the assembly and intimidate the opposition into surrender.
Frustrated, Bibulus and his allies tried the alternative tactic of using auspices to block all assembly meetings. Whenever an Assembly meeting was scheduled, he would take auspices and declare that the date was unsuitable. Caesar ignored this blocking attempt and used the Assembly to pass legislation beneficial to the Triumvirs.
In April, Pompey, who was 43, married Caesar’s daughter Julia, 17. It has been suggested that Pompey needed the link to be able to count on Caesar’s political skills. Caesar also married for political advantage -- Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who Caesar sought as a puppet Consul for the next year. These matrimonial maneuverings prompted Cato to remark that the Roman political system had become a marriage bureau.
According to Dr Jonathan Hoffman, Program Manager at DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, quantum sensors could revolutionize the way critical information is gathered in defense scenarios. These advanced sensors offer unprecedented precision, but their deployment in real-world conditions remains a challenge owing to their fragility.
“With RoQS, we’re taking a bold step toward creating sensors that are not only extremely precise but also resilient in the face of real-world challenges,” Hoffman explained.
Now Caesar decided it was time to improve his financial position and sought to use Egypt as the golden nugget. The king of Egypt had died and left a dubious will declaring his country would be bequeathed to Rome. Caesar then bribed the Senate and the Assembly with borrowed money to recognize Ptolemy XII as the rightful king so that he could gain a fortune through his relationship with the new monarch.
The RoQS program aims to make quantum sensors more resilient by addressing their fragility head-on. Instead of using bulky shielding or isolation methods, RoQS will focus on new sensor designs strategies and architectures.
One approach is engineering sensor architectures that can naturally resist environmental disturbances, ensuring stable performance without the need for bulky shielding.
Another focus is developing compact sensor arrays capable of distinguishing useful signals from background noise, improving accuracy in complex environments. Additionally, RoQS will investigate advanced atomic systems that offer greater stability, allowing quantum sensors to function reliably even under dynamic and unpredictable conditions.
Last year, DARPA launched the ‘Theory of Mind’ initiative, focusing on improving national security decision-making. The program aims to develop technologies that help decision-makers better understand and engage with potential adversaries, improving strategies for deterrence and incentive-based actions.
According to DARPA, the program will combine advanced algorithms with human expertise to support these efforts. This integration will occur within a modeling and simulation environment to explore national security scenarios, giving decision-makers more options and improving their ability to assess potential actions.
I took a 20k salary cut to STAY employed by the small business that employs me. It requires me to travel a lot. I used to be able to stay in motels or crash at friends place's. Most of my friends have moved back in with parents so that is not an option anymore. Nor can I afford 125. A night for a motel in a questionable area...so i sleep in my car during the week. This is the new reality for many people.
Caesar was allocated three legions for his new dominion and as he prepared for the new assignment, fortune smiled down on him and changed history. Narbonese Gaul (also referred to as Transalpine Gaul) had previously been assigned with Cisalpine Gaul to a single Consul. This time the provinces were split with Metellus Celer receiving the former and Caesar receiving the latter. Before taken his post, however, Celer died, and Caesar used his father-in-law Piso and his son-in-law Pompey to argue that Narbonese Gaul should be added to his domain. The Senate gave in, possibly thinking that the more Caesar had on his plate away from Rome, the less he would meddle in its affairs.
But Caesar’s power remained a threat to the Senate. In July, an informer named Vettius accused Caesar or a plot to kill Pompey, but before the matter could be prosecuted, Vettius died mysteriously. An assassination attempt by a slave followed, but Caesar would survive to let history take its course.
He would spend eight years in Gaul conquering the tribes and write the Commentaries along the way. Julia, wife of Pompey and daughter or Caesar, would die in childbirth (54 B.C.) breaking the marital bond between husband and father. Crassus would be ambushed and killed in Pythia in 53 B.C. leaving no offset to any conflict Caesar and Pompey. Caesar would use Gaul to fortify his resume as a military leader while Pompey languished in Rome, a general out of place as a politician. By the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49 B.C, he knew he was the man who would change the Republic forever.
On June 6, 1944, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The beach landing at Normandy is one of the largest amphibious assaults in history. The invasion took place on five beaches with 156,000 troops. The landing on Omaha Beach resulted in 2,400 casualties. Along with the beach landings, 13,000 paratroopers were dropping behind enemy lines to break German supply lines and secure key areas for the Allies. With the Germans being driven out of northwestern France and Paris, the Allied forces claim victory in Normandy.
Mounting his last major offensive on Dec. 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler and the German troops attempted to split the Allied forces. The Battle of the Bulge lasted for six weeks, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties for the U.S. Army. On Christmas Day, Allied forces began airstrikes on German positions.
Does DeepSeek point towards multiple future Singularities? Kurzweil predicts AGI by 2029 & the Technological Singularity by 2045, and Dr. Alessandro Fontana discusses five scenarios for a post-singularity world.
Before we get into Post-Singularity scenarios, let’s talk about The Singularity itself: Ray Kurzweil has predicted the development of Artificial General Intelligence by 2029, leading to a technological singularity by 2045. In this interview, Dr. Fontana outlines possible futures based on "AI alignment", which aims to steer AI systems toward a person's or group's intended goals, preferences, or ethical principles.
We also discuss the DeepSeek AI, which has reduced the cost of AI development and may result in a large number of AI & future AGI systems - thereby leading to the possibility of multiple Technological Singularities in disparate systems across the globe.
Dr. Alessandro Fontana is an interdisciplinary engineer specialized in Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and their growing mutual interactions.
Dr. Fontana works in IT Security and Data Science at Bosch, and his diverse of interests includes psychology, helped him pioneer the field of Cybersecurity and AI at Bosch engineering. His career work also includes experience in Cybersecurity, including the development of a novel method for rendering neural networks more resilient to adversarial intrusions.
He has a Master’s in Electronic Engineering from Milan Polytechnic University, and a PhD in Computer Science from Gdańsk University of Technology.
@pepetoken just sent you a DIY token as a little appreciation for your comment dear @selfhelp4trolls!
Feel free to multiply it by sending someone else !DIY in a comment :) You can do that x times a day depending on your balance so:
esto no tiene que nada que ver con leo...es otra cosa totalmente diferente, pero dejelo asi, este asunto me interesa a mi solamente. Ud no esta involucrada...
Get a hideout to calm down and don't let them know the location directly but indirectly so that when something happens to you, then can get a tracker to track you
Ray Dalio talks about the economic cycles, long and short. The cycles go on... and right now we're in the honeymoon period of the new US political cycle.
There's Euphoria and then eventually comes a downturn. Hopefully we grow a bunch before turning around!!
With Eisenhower and Patton restoring the Allied front alongside the 101st Airborne Division, Allies claimed victory in the Battle of the Bulge on Jan. 25, 1945. As the Allies made advances from the west and the Soviet forces closed in from the east, Nazi Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, marking VE Day.
As the war unfolded in Europe, U.S. Marines made an amphibious landing at the Japanese island of Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. The island was considered a tactical staging point for a possible invasion of mainland Japan. Just four days into the battle, Mount Suribachi was captured by U.S. Marines. Battles continued across the island until March 25, 1945, when Tadamichi Kuribayashi, a Japanese general, launched his final attack. After American forces declared the capture of Iwo Jima, soldiers spent weeks searching the island for Japanese troops who refused to surrender.
After serving as military tribune, Caesar was elected Questor in 69 B.C, Aedile in 66, and then Pontifex Maximus and Praetor Urbanus in 63. After his Praetorship, Caesar was appointed governor of Spain, but could not take that position until he satisfied his creditors. He appealed to Marcus Crassus for help and the richest man in Rome paid or guaranteed many of Caesar’s debts. Caesar stood for Consul in 59 B.C. and was elected in one of the most corrupt campaigns on record.
Gnaeus Pompey Magnus was born in 106 B.C. His father, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo served as Praetor in 92 B.C. and Consul in 89 B.C. He died during Marius’ siege on Rome in 87 B.C. The son served in the army under his father and found soldering to his liking. Prior to Sulla’s assault on Rome, Pompey raised three legions to support him and forever earned the trust of the new dictator. After victories over the remaining Marians in Sicily and Africa, Sulla dubbed his young general “Magnus” supposedly in derision because Pompey had no political experience worthy of a title. After putting down a revolt following the death of Sulla, Pompey demanded that the Senate name him proconsul of Hispania. Fearing his rising military power, the Senate said no, but Pompey got his way when he threatened the Senate by refusing to disband his legions. He remained in Hispania until 71 B.C. when the Senate requested that he help Crassus with the war against Spartacus.
With the capture of Iwo Jima, American forces moved their focus to the island of Okinawa. On April 1, 1945, U.S. troops landed on the beaches of Okinawa with little resistance. As American troops moved across Okinawa, they encountered resistance in Southern Okinawa. Throughout the battle, both sides took heavy casualties. The Japanese took their final stand on the southern coast of Okinawa. With certain defeat coming, Japanese Gens. Mitsuru Ushijima and Isamu Cho committed suicide, ending the Battle of Okinawa on June 22.
Those who are familiar with the history of Rome know that the Republic was preceded by a monarchy – seven kings, the last three Etruscan. These kings had no hereditary authority and were elected by the assembly to act as military and religious leaders of the Roman people. The purpose of this post is to try and separate fact from fiction in the story of those early monarchs.
The early-mid Iron Age period circa 700 B.C saw radical changes in the structure of political systems around the Mediterranean. In Greece, for example, the collapse of the Mycenaean dynasty ushered in the Dark Age period which lasted until about 700 B.C. New monarchies sprung up but the kings were weak and had no hereditary authority so their weakness ultimately allowed the Polis to take hold. Monarchies on the Italian peninsula were subject to the same pressures as we see in the behavior of the Etruscans during the time they controlled Rome.
President Harry Truman: The 33rd president, Truman ordered the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945), ending WWII.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The cities where the first atomic bombs were dropped, ending WWII.
VJ Day: The official end of WWII in Japan on Aug. 15, 1945.
Severus was the most noteworthy and remarkable of the Roman kings. He reorganized the assembly by creating the Comitia Centuriata as an assembly of economic classes which mapped to each class’s role in the army. For example, the Equites, or cavalry, were the most wealthy of the groups because they had to be wealthy enough to buy their own horses. Severus is credited with the creation of the Roman Timocracy – property ownership requirement for the privilege of voting in the assembly. He also advanced the cause of the middle class as a brake against the power of the patricians. After forty-three years on the throne, he was murdered by the grandson of Tarquinius, also named Tarquinius. After new monarch evolved into a tyrant, the Romans began calling him “Superbus”, a derogatory reference to his arrogance. After a reign of twenty-five years, the tyrant was exiled and the reign of Roman kings came to an end
Throughout the Korean War, 146 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 36,574 U.S. service members died in the Korean War.
Important Figures and Events of the Korean War
Korean War dates: June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953.
Inchon Landing (Sept. 15, 1950): Led by Gen. MacArthur, U.S. and South Korean forces land at the port of Inchon, forcing the North Korean Army to retreat up the Korean peninsula.
Operation Ripper (March 1951): The fourth and final Battle of Seoul. The battle began with the largest artillery strike of the war. The capital of Seoul was liberated on March 14, 1951.
Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (September to October 1951): A monthlong battle with a massive amount of artillery and airstrikes.
“I invite the reader’s attention to the much more serious consideration of the kind of lives our ancestors lived, of who were the men, and what the means in both politics and war by which Rome’s power was first acquired and subsequently expanded; I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
These words from two thousand years past anticipate the postmodern world we live in today.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur: Led the United Nations forces during the Korean War.
Gen. Matthew Ridgway: Replaced MacArthur and took command of the forces in Korea.
The Cold War
World War II had ended, but by 1948, tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union began to build. In June 1950, with support from the Soviets, North Korea invaded South Korea, leading to the start of the Korean War. The United States, believing the conflict signaled the start of communism spreading across the world, intervened. America used a containment strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union: Be patient and watch Russia to prevent its expansion of communism.
The U.S. strategy of containment set the stage for a deadly arms race with the Soviets. As the United States was developing more atomic weapons, the Soviets also were testing their own. Both countries continued developing increasingly destructive weapons, eventually leading to the development of the hydrogen bomb.
Not only did the Cold War take place on Earth, but it gave way to the Space Race. With the Soviets launching Sputnik, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer I, in 1958. The same year, President Dwight Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.
The Space Race pushed the U.S. into launching manned space missions. The first American in space was Alan Shepard, shortly followed by the Apollo 11 mission putting Neil Armstrong on the moon. The U.S. effectively won the Space Race with those first steps on the moon.
The story of the Etruscans is an interesting one -- interesting and obscure.
Their history is remarkable when measured by their accomplishments as merchants, craftsmen, traders, and influencers of Rome, but we only know pieces of their story. The emperor Claudius tried to help us by chronicling their history in twenty volumes, but his work did not survive. Meanwhile, the Etruscan language has defied our understanding and, other than some decoding of artifacts, we can’t read it. Still, three of the Roman kings were Etruscans who helped launch the Republic.
Ultimately, the Etruscan culture would die and fulfill an ironic prophesy.
Tensions between the countries calmed when President Richard Nixon took office. Nixon looked to use diplomacy instead of the U.S. military to solve the issues between the countries. This approach led to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), which was a first step in reducing the nuclear arsenal. Even with Nixon’s efforts, the tensions later rose again with President Ronald Reagan taking office. Reagan’s policies led to more conflict in Central America.
Tensions began to ease once again when Mikhail Gorbachev took office in 1985. With his new policies, Russia looked toward a new relationship of political openness with the rest of the world. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was destroyed, and the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, ending the Cold War.
Vietnam War
The conflict was rooted in the Cold War struggle between the Communist forces of North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, and the non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other anti-Communist allies. The war saw significant U.S. military involvement, with American troops fighting alongside South Vietnamese forces against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam claims its independence at a peace conference in Geneva. At this point, Vietnam was divided into the Communist North and the anti-Communist South. By 1958, the Viet Cong began using guerrilla tactics in the South.
The area of Italy we know today as Tuscany was originally settled by the Villanovans, an iron age culture that had migrated from Northern Europe. The Tuscan branch is referred to as the Northern Villanovans but there was also a southern faction extending beyond Rome into Campania. The term Villanovan comes from their discovery in an ancient cemetery near Villanova Italy, eight miles from Bologna. The Villanovans were not a uniform culture or society, but more of a group of tribes with common interests. They were expert metal smiths and potters who cremated their dead and buried them in cone-shaped graves. The earliest Villanovan evidence dates from the beginning of the Iron Age and continues to 500 B.C. Through artifacts, we can document their social evolution showing the tribes transitioning into a socio-economic hierarchy.
What we see in the archaeology is the appearance of Etruscan settlements where Villanovan settlements once stood. Why? Perhaps they co-existed and eventually merged into one culture. The Romans called these people Tusci or Etrusci, creating the link to the region later called Tuscany.
The Etruscans were farmers first – taming the wild land of Tuscany to grow emmer (a type of wheat) which was husked and unsuitable for bread making until they were able to create new cultivars. Olive oil was unknown in Etruria as late as 581 B.C, but must have been imported from Greece. Home grown wine grapes, like olive trees came later. The Etruscans were skilled at irrigation, and the excavated tunnels suggest an organized approach and central authority behind the engineering.
Although Italy is not blessed with significant metal resources, what is there was concentrated in Etruria and, as metalworkers, the Etruscans excelled. They mined and worked precious metals, tin to make bronze, and iron. The photograph below shows an example of Etruscan craftsmanship.
Jewelry and metalwork became items of trade for the Etruscans and they developed a substantial merchant fleet. Allies of the Carthaginians, they traded throughout the Mediterranean including Southern France and Spain.
Tarchna (Tarquinnii) was perhaps the richest and most famous of the Etruscan cities. At its peak from 650-500 B.C, Tarchna was the center of bronze production in Etruria. Everywhere in the archaeology of the city we see a culture with evolving sophistication. The dead were cremated and buried in painted amphoras, temples were built, and life was represented in art – banquets, dancing, athletics, chariot racing, and hunting. We also see an early political system made up of clans, anticipating the Republic.
U.S. involvement was limited until August 1964, when North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Lyndon Johnson ordered airstrikes in retaliation, which ended with U.S. pilot Everett Alvarez Jr. becoming a prisoner of war. The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing President Johnson to take all necessary measures to use military force in Southeast Asia, including responding to attacks against U.S. forces and preventing any further aggression in the region.
In March 1965, U.S. troops entered Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder began the continuous bombing of North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Over the next year, the U.S. continued to increase the number of troops in the region. After many battles, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Minh began the Tet Offensive in January 1968. Attacks were launched in cities across South Vietnam, including Saigon and the invasion of the U.S. Embassy. The Tet Offensive marked the turning point in the war and began the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.
After taking backlash about the war, Johnson withdrew from the election. With promises of ending the draft and restoring peace, Richard Nixon took the presidency in November 1968. As Nixon took office, the U.S. pushed for "Vietnamization," giving South Vietnam more responsibility in the war.
Ancient Rome was also Villanovan, but there was no Etruscan Villanovan marriage there. One suspects the independent nature of the native Latins was responsible for blocking Etruscan assimilation. Ultimately the Etruscans would occupy Rome, but it was not by a gradual mixing of cultures. Prior to their arrival, the Latins were mostly a pastoral people. The Etruscans influenced them to become more commercial (and maybe the Greeks in Campania had an influence also). The end result was the light went on for the Latins and their culture began to advance. In Rome, the Etruscan influence was everywhere – from the new temples that were constructed to the evolving political system.
In January 1973, U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam and POWs were released when an agreement was reached, effectively ending the war for the U.S. The war concluded with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, leading to the reunification of North and South Vietnam under Communist control.
Throughout the Vietnam War, 261 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 58,220 U.S. service members died in the Vietnam War.
Historically, Etruria was made up of an alliance of free independent city-states. Although they had common interests, the cities openly competed with each other and went to war when necessary. The ruler was an all-powerful king who acted as both a political and religious leader. Unfortunately, we know little of the Etruscan political system outside the period when they gained influence over Rome and the history was recorded. The last three kings of Rome were Etruscan (616-510 B.C.), so we can see Etruscan influence over the formation of the Roman government, which was different from the historical Etruscan model. During that period, across the Mediterranean and into Asia, aristocratic factions had begun to peck away at the authority of the kings.
Vietnam War dates: Nov. 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975.
Ho Chi Minh: The Communist leader of North Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem: The U.S.-backed leader of South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh Trail: North Vietnam supply routes that supplied supporters and guerrillas in South Vietnam.
Operation Ranch Hand (1962-1971): U.S. aircraft spray Agent Orange across South Vietnam in attempts to remove any food or cover for North Vietnamese guerrillas.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Aug. 2, 1964): North Vietnam boats attack the USS Maddox.
Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968): President Lyndon Johnson's campaign of sustained bombing of North Vietnam.
Operation Starlite: (August 1965): The first U.S. ground offensive, in which Marines engaged with the Viet Cong.
Battle of Ia Drang (Nov. 14-18, 1965): The U.S. Army inserted troops by helicopter to battle the North Vietnamese Army.
Battle of Khe Sanh (Jan. 21 to July 9, 1968): A 77-day attack on U.S. Marines at the base in Khe Sanh. Operation Pegasus put an end to the battle.
The first Etruscan king of Rome, L. Tarquinius Priscus, created one hundred new Senators to win popular support, so even at this early point of Roman history the king was not powerful enough to function as an autocrat. Priscus also build the first wall around Rome and added sewers to drain the Forum. His successor, Servius Tullius, divided Rome into tribes and instituted the census for the first time. He created the Centuriate assembly which classified the army by wealth and gave the wealthy the most powerful voting blocks. In 509 B.C, the last Roman king, L. Tarquinius Superbus, was expelled and Rome became a Republic.
Tet Offensive (Jan. 30 to Sept. 23, 1968): North Vietnamese Army and Viet Minh carry out attacks on South Vietnam. This was a turning point in the war and began the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Hamburger Hill (May 10-20, 1969): In the battle at Ap Bia Mountain, U.S. troops stopped North Vietnamese forces from moving into Laos.
Paris Peace Accord (Jan. 27, 1973): Signed by President Richard Nixon, it ended U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Fall of Saigon: The North Vietnamese Army took the south capital of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ending the war.
No Medals of Honor were awarded to U.S. troops during the Gulf War.
Important Events of the Gulf War
Gulf War dates: Aug. 2, 1990, to Jan. 17, 1991.
Operation Desert Sabre (Feb. 24-28, 1991): A ground offensive by coalition forces to recapture Kuwait.
Battle for Jalibah Airfield (Feb. 27, 1991): U.S. 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, captured the Jalibah Air Base.
Battle of Medina Ridge (Feb. 27, 1991): A two-hour tank battle outside Basra, Iraq, between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and the Iraqi Republican Guard. This was the largest tank battle of the war.
The Global War on Terror
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead and sent shock waves across the United States. After the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush announced the Global War on Terror in an address to the nation. Nations across the globe -- including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey and several other NATO and non-NATO allies -- joined in the campaign to combat terrorism.
The first targets in the War on Terror were Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, who were responsible for carrying out the attack on American soil. Other targets were the Taliban regime, as well as terrorist training camps and other insurgent and militant groups in Afghanistan.
The ascendancy of the Republic hastened the decline of the Etruscans. The nearest Etruscan city, Veii, fell to the Romans in 396 B.C. At the same time, the Northern Etruscan cities were attacked and ravaged by a Gallic invasion. By 273 B.C. Etruria was firmly under Roman control as part of an Italian confederation. As time went on. the Etruscans provided troops to the Republican army and, during the Second Punic War, they were able to avoid Hannibal all together. Later, they took sides in the civil wars supporting Caesar and suffered devastation as a result. The Etruscan culture ultimately faded into history.
In the beginning of the article I mentioned an ironic prophesy, which was the prediction of the end of their civilization. The Etruscans were ultra-religious and I think it was Cicero who said they were the most religious people in the world. They believed their race (or any race) is given a fixed span of time by the gods – in their case 10 saecula of 70 years. The Etruscan civilization was established in about 750 B.C and after the 700 years had passed, they were no more.
NATO then began withdrawing troops, ending the organization’s combat operations in December 2014. But about 9,800 U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan as part of the Resolute Support Mission, as the U.S. and Afghan governments looked for a diplomatic end to the conflict. The number of U.S. troops fluctuated through the years.
However, for several years, Afghan security forces faced persistent threats from insurgent groups. Despite extensive training and support from the international community, the Afghan forces had trouble maintaining territorial control and countering the resurgent Taliban.
In February 2020, the U.S. and Taliban reached an agreement and signed a peace deal. This agreement required the U.S. to leave Afghanistan within 14 months. As the U.S. began withdrawing troops, the Taliban quickly started taking areas of the country and regaining rule of Afghanistan.
At the time of Alexander’s death in 323 B.C, Rome was in the middle of the Second War with the Samnites, which would end in 304 B.C. Rome, in those early days, did not have control of central and southern Italy, much less the whole peninsula. There were strong neighbors allied against her and her future depended on guile and perseverance.
In the winter of 318/317 B.C. Samnium was threatening the whole Italian peninsula and since their failure at Caudine Forks in 320 B.C, the Romans sought a different strategy to use against their principle adversary. They reasoned that a move across the Apennines to the Adriatic and then south would allow them to seek allies along the way and outflank the Samnites. Rome succeeded in making allies of Frentani, Teanum Apulum, and Canusium by 318 and was gaining strength when Ptolemy, representing Alexander, landed in Tarentum. The Tarentine government was anxious to avenge the death of the king of Epirus and looked to Alexander as the agent of that purpose.
Ptolemy toured the states of Peucetia and Apulia and offered their leaders an alliance with Alexander against Samnium as a preview to Alexander’s arrival the next season when he would crush the Samnites. Ptolemy also visited Teanum Apulum and Canusium urging them to think twice about an alliance with Rome, a minor power, when they could be allied with Macedon. Both cities abandoned their treaties with Rome in favor of the Greeks.
Important Events of the War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan dates: Oct. 7, 2001, to Aug. 30, 2021.
Battle of Tora Bora (Dec. 12-17, 2001): A mission launched by the U.S. in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Operation Anaconda (March 2-18, 2002): A military operation to destroy Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains. This was the first major military battle since Tora Bora.
Operation Red Wings (June 28, 2005): An operation launched to disrupt Taliban and anti-coalition militias to regain stability in the region for the National Assembly of Afghanistan elections.
Extortion 17 (Aug. 6, 2011): Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter, which had the call sign "Extortion 17," during a night mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province. Thirty U.S. service members, including 22 Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six, were killed. It was one of the deadliest single events for U.S. forces during the conflict.
The Iraq War
With intelligence suggesting Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, U.S. and coalition forces moved into Iraq on March 20, 2003. Within three weeks, coalition forces captured the major cities. President George W. Bush ended combat operations in May 2003. Despite the declaration of military victory, a persistent guerrilla war waged on for years following the initial combat operations.
In December 2003 in Iraq, Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a hole in ad-Dawr. Without resisting, he was arrested by U.S. soldiers. In November 2006, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity. He was executed on Dec. 30, 2006. In December 2011, the U.S. declared an end to the war in Iraq.
Despite this, the situation in Iraq became increasingly complex. The sectarian insurgency, fueled by tensions between Shiite and Sunni communities, intensified. On top of that, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the mid-2010s posed a significant threat. In response, the United States implemented a troop surge in 2007, with the goal of stabilizing the country and curbing the escalating violence.
Throughout the war in Iraq, six U.S. service members received Medals of Honor.
About 4,424 U.S. service members died in the Iraq War.
With his diplomatic mission completed in southeastern Italy, Ptolemy moved on to Rome with two advantages over the Romans: he was representing the conqueror of the world and Rome was still weak from her loss at the Caudine Forks. Ptolemy planned to offer an alliance that would offer Rome protection, but would the Romans see it as disguised servitude? Ptolemy offered a treaty similar to that of Porus, Alexander’s Indian ally -- an equal partnership – and the terms allowed Rome to retain all of its current territories. Alexander would not challenge the new Roman alliance with Frentani or another recent alliance with Neapolis, although he frowned on the latter as Roman hegemony against a Greek city.
Once Samnium was overthrown, Rome could claim some of the resulting spoils including the Caudine Canton. Rome could also seek alliances with central Italian cantons, but in no case was she allowed to compel them to accept alliances with her. Alexander would also give Rome access to the Po valley with her rich agricultural potential.
Important Events of the War in Iraq
Iraq War dates: March 20, 2003, to Dec. 15, 2011.
Mosul Raid (July 22, 2003): A U.S. military operation that led to the death of Uday and Qusay Hussein, the sons of Saddam Hussein.
Battle of Baghdad (April 5 to April 10, 2003): U.S. and coalition forces take the capital of Baghdad and declare victory.
Battle of Fallujah (April 4 to April 30, 2004): The first battle of Fallujah was aimed to capture or kill militants who killed and mutilated U.S. contractors.
Marine Crew Chief Who Died Trying to Save Trapped Pilots in Osprey Crash Awarded Service's Highest Noncombat Honor
Gen. Eric Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps, awarded the service's highest noncombat award for heroism -- the Navy and Marine Corps Medal -- to Cpl. Spencer Collart's family in a ceremony at Marine Corps Barracks Washington.
A Marine officer gingerly adjusted a picture of Cpl. Spencer Collart so it wouldn't blow away in the light breeze that drifted through the Marine Family Garden on Tuesday, minutes before the young crew chief was posthumously awarded for valor after attempting to rescue two trapped pilots in an Osprey crash last year.
Ptolemy now moved on to the more delicate part of the negotiations, namely what Rome must agree to in return for the benefits Alexander would provide them. Alexander wished to set limits to Rome’s territorial expansion. The Italian land east of the Apennines, including the major portion of Samnium, and all of Magna Graecia would be off limits. These territories would be organized into a territory of Tarentum. To mark the bounds of the new territory, Alexander would be planting Greek colonies at Maluentium, Luceria, and near Mount Vultur.
As to the Etruscan territories, Alexander would make treaties with them identical to those that had been negotiated with Rome.
"That decision reflected the highest commitment we have as Marines, to never leave a fellow Marine behind, no matter the circumstances," Smith said during the ceremony, seemingly holding back tears. "This kind of selflessness is rare, but it's the kind of bravery that defines Marines across generations."
An investigation released last month pointed to "pilot error and complacency" as the primary cause of the crash, but experts and surviving family members recently told Fire Watch, Military.com's flagship podcast, that pilots and crews are often unfairly blamed for strings of decisions made prior to tragic mishaps and despite known mechanical failures that have sprung up with the Osprey.
In the ancient world, politics was often conducted through warfare, and power was expressed through military engineering. Engineers changed geography and the shape of the landscape; heaped things up and dug things away, build roads, water courses, bridges, towns, and forts. While what remains is stone, but most of the past was formed from earth, straw, and the key engineering component of the ancient world, wood.
Political Engineering
It was in wooden ships, built by Celtic shipwrights in Gaul that the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, first arrived in Southern England in 55-54 BC. We know this because in Caesar’s account of his wars in Gaul we get an unprecedented insight into both military engineering and the mechanics of the imperial machine.
While there were no known mechanical failures during the Australia crash, that Osprey should have never been deemed safe for flight that day, according to the investigation. It was also loaded with excess fuel not accounted for during the planning phase of the operation, meaning the pilots had to maneuver a heavy aircraft with seconds to react during a near-miss collision with another Osprey.
Twenty other Marines aboard the Osprey survived the crash, and Collart's family attributed that to the skill and competence of Lewis and LeBeau.
"God bless the three of them; we consider them all to be heroes," Bart Collart, Spencer's father, said during the ceremony. Quoting one of the surviving Marines in the crash, he said, "Those three Marines made the ultimate sacrifice, putting the lives of others before their own. Because of their bravery, skill and training, 20 Marines are alive today."
While Caesar did not stay, he established the political relationships that got Rome a foothold using the actuality or threat of a Roman intervention to destabilize existing regional politics. Once an area came within range of Rome’s political and military interests, it’s leaders had two choices; cut a deal or fight. All of this on top of the traditional political and military pressures from other rivals beyond Roman control. Invariably, this put the ruling elite between a rock a hard place. For perfectly honorable reasons they might resist and then end up with a worse deal, although not as bad if you make a deal and then broke it. Punitive sanctions went as far as genocide, or you might have gotten away with enslavement.
Once you were a client of the Rome, her army will ensure your security, in return for your assurance that it receive the necessary supplies, principally wheat, but also other material assistance and access to resources. This sort of ‘taxation’ did not need micromanagement -- a treaty was made with the local political authority, so the Romans knew who to blame if obligations were not met. Beyond this, engineering made the Roman army self-sufficient in managing its security.
The garden was filled with surviving family members, Marines and well-wishers who came to honor Collart's act of bravery as traffic bustled down 8th Street outside of the Marine barracks. Smith was accompanied by the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz, who was by his side as they presented the honor to Collart's family.
"Spencer, you never cease to amaze me, buddy," Alexia Collart, Spencer's mother, said as she briefly looked to the sky. "I just want to let you know we are so proud of you. We only got to have two decades with you. We love you so, so much, and we feel you are around us every single day, and we will never forget."
When the Romans returned in 43 AD they had controlled the Atlantic Seaboard for ninety years, so Claudius was more properly prepared for a long campaign; not just an army, but a navy also, since control of the sea was key to taking and holding an Island.
When Agricola made the first significant push into the north in the early 80s he had a naval presence on both coasts and even thought about an expedition to Ireland. Then, after the near disaster of the Boudicca revolt, the south was secured, and Rome was on the offensive, initially in the west and then in the North. In a typically aggressive series of campaigns Agricola punched his way north culminating in a battle of Mons Graupius, where his auxiliary troops reportedly killed about a third of a thirty thousand man highlander force.
The year was 84 A.D. and it was a high water mark when the highlanders retreated back into their glens in the mountains or the Islands in the West, and reverted to an over the horizon threat. Rather than pursuing them, the Romans chose to construct rough perimeter of timber forts and watch towers blocking off enemy territory. An opportunity and the strategic initiative had been lost due to external decisions and changes in military priorities of the Empire.
A Marine read Collart's award citation to the crowd, which lauded his efforts as courageous and selfless. Collart made sure to account for the other Marines after he left the burning wreckage and went back in "at great risk to his own life" to save the others, the citation said.
"Mr. and Mrs. Collart, no words can fully express the depth of our gratitude for your son's bravery," Smith said. "You raised a Marine who, in his final moments, thought not of himself, but of his fellow Marines. And we honor you for that. Spencer's legacy is one of selfless devotion to duty, and we're forever in his debt."
At some point towards the end of the first century, the Romans withdrew the majority of their forces from Scotland to the territory of the Brigantes, who controlled Northern England. Their main base was set up at York and occupied by the twentieth legion. The Brigantes had long been loyal to Rome and provided a key buffer state for the Lands to the south. We also presume that some political relations continued with former allies in Scotland, although everything between the campaigns of Agricola and the building of the wall 40 years later is very sketchy.
At this point Hadrian arrives, possibly in response to a revolt in the north involving the Brigantes, who may have been triggered by the death of Trajan. Hadrian brought fresh troops, and re-established a ‘frontier’ in the North of Brigantes territory. After 80 years, the Romans understood that most of what they valued was in the South, so the north was no more than a security zone.
Topology is the study of shapes and spaces that don’t change even if they are stretched, twisted, or deformed—without cutting or gluing.
“An everyday example of topology is the Möbius strip—a simple yet mind-bending object. Amazingly, no matter how you try to manipulate the strip, you cannot untwist it back into a normal loop without tearing it apart,” the study authors note.
A material exhibiting topology is of great importance because it has the uncanny ability to remain unaffected by external factors. Such a material can demonstrate robust quantum behavior, as its quantum states in such material are immune to small disturbances.
Finding topological electronic crystal in graphene
The study authors began with two thin layers (flakes) of graphene, a material made of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Normally, electrons in graphene move freely, similar to how they do in metals like copper.
Next, they stacked the two graphene layers on top of each other but rotated one slightly. This small twist created an interesting pattern called a moiré pattern, where some carbon atoms from both layers were aligned perfectly, but others were misaligned.
When electrons moved through this twisted structure, their behavior completely changed. “For example, the electrons slow way down, and sometimes they develop a twist in their motion, like the vortex in the water at the drain of a bathtub as it is draining out,” Joshua Folk, one of the study authors and a physics professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), said.
All appears to have gone well at first, but at some point, work appears to have virtually stopped. It is likely that warfare disrupted the construction process. Once the work was restarted again, the quality and quantity of the building was scaled back, the plan to build the road was abandoned, and extra forts were added.
So the wall was built in a war zone, as an army installation and a fortified frontier to contain the threat that had not been eliminated forty years earlier. Whatever the technical and in particular logistic achievements, the Wall did not work, and Hadrian’s successor moved the frontier North to Forth Isthmus, where forces could be concentrated on a shorter frontier.
In the past I’ve discussed many of Rome’s great engineering feats -- Aqua Marcia, Caesar’s bridge over the Rhine, and the siege works at Masada, to name a few. The Romans were the greatest engineers of antiquity because structure and organization were fundamental to their view of the world.
For this post, we turn to Hadrian’s Wall, that enigmatic barrier built across Northern Britain in the early 120s A.D. There are many holes in the story of the wall including the purpose of its construction -- but its existence can't be disputed as you can see from the photographs below.
Don’t expect that in headlines. To paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron:
The homesteading will not be televised.
not be televised, not be televised.
The homesteading will be live.
The film deals with topics of revolutionary changes without and within. Capitalizing on a growing audience interested in such subjects, “Homestead” joins other films and shows on small farm communities such “The Lunatic Farmer,” the multi-season “Clarkson’s Farm,” and, in its own way, 2024’s “Civil War.”
Rather than a full movie about escaping LA, reaping harvests of food when it counts, and picking off interlopers by rifle, “Homestead” is also a Bible-based message about walking with the prudence and kindness worthy of God, no matter the trials one faces.
Some more metropolitan establishment reviewers have called that a relief about the movie, since they find prepping films “preachy” or off-putting, Why spoil the unity a movie like this can achieve and make survival with humanity an either-or matter?
There were seventeen forts along the wall averaging about five miles between them. Seven were built astride the wall and six were attached to its southern side. The forts were of two sizes: two and a half acres, the size required to accommodate 500 men and 5 acres, the size required to accommodate 1000 men.
At regular intervals, approximating a mile, the Romans constructed milecastles with dimensions of about 70 x 60 feet and attached them to the wall. They were of a size to accommodate 100 men and had gates to the north and south.
Turrets were located between each milecastle at 1/3 and 2/3 of the distance between them. Each turret was about thirteen feet square internally and contained a staircase used to climb to the rampart on the top of the wall. There were no stairways on the wall except at forts, milecastles, and turrets.
A road ran behind the wall, passed through the east and west gates of the forts and also branched off to a road leading to the milecastles and a path to the turrets.
At varying points behind the wall sat a defined earthwork barrier called the Vallum. A ditch was dug thirty feet deep and seven feet wide at the flattened bottom. The contents of the ditch were used to create a mound on either side of it about six feet high and twenty feet across. The ditch and mounds were separated by berms of about twenty-four feet in width. The entire barrier of mound, berm, ditch, berm, and mound was about one hundred and twenty feet across.
Lastly, behind the Vallum sat a Roman road called the Standgate.
Kevin Costner says making movies has ‘nothing to do with politics’
Costner said filmmakers should keep the 'audience in mind' while attending the Fanatics Super Bowl party in New Orleans
Kevin Costner shared his view that American politics shouldn't have any impact on how Hollywood movies are made.
Ahead of taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump named Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as his special ambassadors to Hollywood with the aim of bringing back business that he said had been lost to "foreign countries."
During an interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday, Costner, 70, explained that he didn't believe any change was needed in Hollywood with the advent of the Trump administration and filmmakers should focus on theater-goers when creating content.
"I think you make the best movie you can for an audience and understand that…you have a chance. Every so often you have a chance to do something meaningful," he said while attending Michael Rubin's Fanatics Super Bowl party in New Orleans.
Costner continued, "And sometimes it's just pure fun. Movies don't have to be important, but they have to have an audience in mind."
"Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1" was released in theaters last August but disappointed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics. On Friday, Costner premiered the second installment at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, but a wider theatrical release in the U.S. has not been announced.
After "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1" performed poorly at the box office, Costner defended the film and asserted that audiences would come to appreciate the saga over time.
"I've faced life with people being dismissive of me," Costner told E! News. "But they can't be dismissive of ‘Horizon,’ because now it's out of their hands. And they might point to the finish line – well, this is what it did at the box office – but I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years."
"There's a moment in time where you want [your children] to see this movie," he said. "To understand that this is what their [ancestors] went through. It's not just a Western, it's a history of migration and what they had to do to survive. And I'm really proud of it."
During a February 2024 interview with Forbes, Costner, who previously directed the movies "Dances With Wolves," "Open Range," and "The Postman," explained his approach to filmmaking.
The purpose of the wall has been endlessly debated, which seems surprising. One would think it obvious that the goal was to keep the northern tribes from attacking territory controlled by the Empire, but there are those that have argued that the tribes didn’t pose enough of a threat to justify the enormous expense of building the structure. The true answer may be as simple as Hadrian employing his "defense before expansion" strategy or perhaps he simply decided to draw a line where the Empire in Britain would end.
Still, it is clear that the wall was built as a defensive structure. Examine the following graphic, provided to me by Geoff Carter, which demonstrates how the wall was designed to facilitate a counterattack against invaders.
Roman Strategy -- Defending the Frontier 20 B.C. to 300 A.D.
During the period that begins in the late Republic and extends to the time of Diocletian, Rome utilized three different strategies for defending its frontier. One can refer to them as the Republican, Antonine, and Diocletian strategies, the names an indicator of the time period when they were first utilized. Each reflected the strength of Rome at the time of its adoption – in the beginning a strong Rome expanding itself and intimidating its neighbors, in the middle a powerful Empire seeking to control a vast territory, and in the end a weak Rome trying vainly to resist united enemies.
I was writing a blog when the mobile app started adding extra text on its own and suddenly it erased everything I had typed, in that same moment the draft saved automatically and I lost it all. Very frustrating #feedback
Laurens van der Post, in his book The Lost World of the Kalahari, narrates his experience living with the foresters of the Kalahara Desert, an ancestral people deeply connected to nature.
One of the most shocking stories is when foresters were surprised to discover that Van der Post couldn’t “hear the stars.” At first they thought he was joking or lying, but when they realized he was telling the truth, they were filled with sadness. For them, not hearing the whisper of the universe is not a simple lack, but a sign of spiritual illness: total disconnection with the natural world.
"Someone sent me a Miss Peaches coin from the sky, valued at 25k! I sold it and invested it all into #jailstool. You’re welcome, #jailstool community. And please, don't send free coins with the expectation of anything in return; that's a
Expectations are that the new budget favors Main Street by reallocating wealth from the top earners through capital gains adjustments and limiting sports team depreciation benefits.
In this context, tariffs seem crucial to the solution.
A hypothesis suggests that major tariffs are on the horizon, as recent discussions indicate that Treasury Secretary Bessent aims to shift Trump's focus from stock market performance to achieving lower 10-year yields. This strategy,
“If you think about the practical accessibility of open source, it goes beyond the license, right?” Peter Zaitsev, founder of open source database services company Percona, said in the panel discussion. “Governance is very important, because if it’s a single corporation, they can change a license like ‘that.’”
These sentiments were echoed in a separate talk by Dotan Horovits, open source evangelist at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where he mused about open source “turning to the dark side.” He noted that in most cases, issues arise when a single-vendor project decides to make changes based on its own business needs among other pressures. “Which begs the question, is vendor-owned open source an oxymoron?” Horovits said. “I’ve been asking this question for a good few years, and in 2025 this question is more relevant than ever.”
These debates won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, as open source has emerged as a major focal point in the AI realm.
China’s DeepSeek arrived with a bang off the back of open source hype, and while the models’ MIT licenses are very much recognized as open source, there remains black holes around training data among other components. Which is why researchers at Hugging Face are trying to create an even “more open” version of DeepSeek’s reasoning model.
The label Axial Age was first described by the philosopher Karl Jaspers who wrote about the evolution of human thought during the first millennium B.C. Jaspers introduced the concept in a book called The Origin and Goal of History, published in 1968. He considered the Axial Age as unique and one which ushered in the age of human thought. The term Axial is a translation of the German word for pivot, referring to a change in human direction.
Like any new idea the Axial Age has its proponents and detractors. Let’s delve into that a little further.
In the previous post, I discussed the book Why the West Rules, by Ian Morris. Morris is supporter of the Axial Period as a change in the direction of human history, although with reservations. I quote from his book: “Karl Jaspers, a German philosopher struggling to make sense of the moral crisis of his day, called the centuries around 500 B.C. the Axial Age…Jaspers portentously declared, ‘Man as we know him today, came into being’”
Stefano Maffulli, executive director at the OSI, said that while some organizations and foundations do lean into ideas around “open design, community, and development,” these are all fundamentally philosophical concepts.
“The point of having definitions is to have criteria that can be scored, and focusing on licensing is how that is accomplished,” Maffulli said in a statement issued to TechCrunch. “The global community and industry have come to rely on the Open Source Definition and now the Open Source AI Definition as objective measures that they can rely on.”
Under this approach, hydrogen is used as fuel, and the engine accelerates charged particles – electrons and protons – to a speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s).
“In traditional power units, the maximum velocity of matter flow is about 4.5 km/s, which is due to the conditions of fuel combustion. In contrast, in our engine, the working body is charged particles that are accelerated by an electromagnetic field,” said Alexei Voronov, first deputy general director for science at the Troitsk Institute, as reported by Izvestia.
A faster journey to Mars would not only increase efficiency but also minimize the risks associated with prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation for astronauts.
A laboratory prototype of the engine has already been developed at Rosatom’s Troitsk Institute.
To facilitate testing, a specialized experimental stand has been built to simulate the conditions of space. This 4-meter diameter, 14-meter long chamber is equipped with advanced sensors, vacuum pumping systems, and heat removal mechanisms.
While the initial launch into orbit will rely on traditional chemical rockets, the plasma engine will be activated once the spacecraft reaches its designated orbit. This technology could also be incorporated into space tugs used for transporting cargo between planets.
The engine’s design involves two electrodes with a high voltage applied across them. As charged particles pass between the electrodes, a magnetic field is created, propelling the particles out of the engine and generating thrust.
Morris doubts whether the philosophical geniuses of the first millennium B.C. guided societies through some type of intellectual barrier. He gives three reasons for this opinion: 1) the Axial Period covered many centuries and is not a sudden event, 2) the most important Axial thinkers came from small communities and were not well known, and 3) since Axial thinking was a reaction against kings and their bureaucrats, its real contribution was in the area of social development, not societal behavior.
Morris believes that the real engine for the advancement of man was the character of man himself: lazy, greedy, and frightened. Morris believes these are the true characteristics that propel the human race forward and uses the Romans to prove his point.
Future of space propulsion
The arena of space propulsion technology has been witnessing several advances.
Recently, an Italy-based research team revealed that they are working on developing a space propulsion system that will use water as fuel.
Scientists are also testing the concept of lightsails that use the pressure from lasers or starlight to propel spacecraft.
However, it must be noted that these technologies are still in their nascent stages, and it may take years before they can be used in real-world missions.
A rational view would dictate that power be based on merit instead of birth and that the rich should care for the poor and this intellectualizing of human behavior eventually led to a deepening relationship among members of a society who shared a common belief.
I find Jaspers' theory quite interesting. The fact that the tendency to complex human thought sprang up at approximately the same time in human history indicated a common human desire to create philosophical systems which would light the way for man to achieve wisdom. Whether it was a driving force or an incidental attribute of forces already at work, is a matter for future debate.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war involved many of the world's nations, with the Allies led by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China; and the Axis led by Germany, Italy and Japan. The war lasted until Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, marking the official end of the conflict. The war had various theaters of operation, including Europe, the Pacific, Africa and Asia, and resulted in significant geopolitical changes and the formation of the United Nations in an effort to prevent future global conflicts.
The study of antiquity becomes more interesting when we realize that people have always acted the same. We see these behaviors repeat in cycles and can compare them to what’s happening in the world today. Even though we have developed a brain capable of taking us beyond what mere “animalness” can accomplish, we’re still animals. Yes, we developed civilization quickly – the pottery wheel, agriculture, trade, cities, metallurgy, armies, political systems – all between 4000 B.C. and 500 B.C, but we remain jealous, hateful, militant, distrustful, power hungry, and greedy.
I recently came across a paper by Ian Morris, professor of Antiquity at Stanford. The paper, “The Collapse and Regeneration of Complex Society in Greece, 1500-500 B.C”, was written in 2005. I plan to discuss this paper in a future post but for now I would like to discuss Professor Morris himself. Not being familiar with his work, I looked him up and discovered his recent book, “Why the West Rules for Now.” I read a review where it was mentioned that Morris was summoned to CIA headquarters to talk about his book.
Spooks into antiquity? Go figure! Reminds me of the FBI interrogation of Indiana Jones when they were trying to understand Hitler’s interest in the occult.
Last year, General Dynamics won a US Navy contract worth an estimated $15.9 million to develop its planned Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) System. The system is intended for use by the Navy’s submarine fleet.
Experts and analysts viewed the contract as part of a larger strategy to create a hybrid fleet of both crewed and uncrewed vessels, aimed at significantly enhancing the Navy’s operational effectiveness and agility across various maritime environments. This is also where the ‘Ghost’ fits in.
In their accompanying paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers showed that the new leaf is a marked improvement over more conventional rigid systems.
For example, they found that at a 45-degree angle of incidence to light, the device maintains 47% higher water-splitting efficiency than fixed alternatives. If light strikes the leaf at 90 degrees, the tracking system produces 866% more hydrogen and oxygen fuel.
The leaf was developed using a new fabrication technique to deposit photoactive materials on lightweight plastic instead of glass. They also created an artificial replica of plant cell cytoplasm using hydrogel coatings.
This coating is also permeable, allowing water to enter and “waste” gases to escape the system. During operation, the leaf’s photoanode (a device that splits water) retained 73% of its activity after 65 hours of continuous operation.
Inspired by nature, the artificial leaf also works exceptionally well underwater, an environment where traditional solar panels and other artificial leaves often struggle.
According to the researchers, their new leaf also demonstrated stable hydrogen and oxygen production through complete water splitting, with products concentrating on each of the electrodes.
As impressive as this all sounds, the team notes that significant challenges remain before the technology can be scaled. For example, the nanotube structural elements were shown to degrade in performance over multiple tracking cycles.
This degradation also dramatically impacted the light tracking response time. The team also points out that wind and water currents would likely significantly impact real-world applications, substantially reducing their motion and efficiency.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
If technology like this could be scaled up and made more robust, it could usher in an era of new solar energy and solar fuel production systems that can operate autonomously without mechanical tracking systems. This would enable industries to produce energy and biofuels more efficiently and cheaper.
The reviewer plays this game – “Look history is relevant again. It’s useful”, as if he had a clue about the subject. And then we have the following:
“Why the West Rules won praise in publications like The Economist and the Financial Times, which called it "the first history of the world that really makes use of what modern technology can offer to the interpretation of the historical process."
Which brings me to my second problem. I don’t buy the notion that history has to create some way to be relevant in order to impart value. It doesn’t need a technological methodology at all, because it’s one of the subjects of the Humanities, not the computer science department.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. After the devastating attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies, Germany and Italy. Five months later, after discovering Japan’s plan to invade the Solomon Islands, the U.S. intercepted the Japanese Navy. The Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942) was the first modern naval engagement in history. The Japanese succeeded in this four-day battle between aircraft carriers, but the cost of this victory stopped Japan from occupying other areas of the South Pacific.
The rule for election of Consuls of Rome required that a man be 43 years of age unless he was of the patrician class and then he would get two years credit and be eligible at 41. Election during the first year of eligibility was on Caesar’s mind as he waited for the end of 60 B.C. and the voting. During his term as provincial governor of Spain, Caesar had acquired enough capital to pay off many of his debts. Moreover, his experience leading men in battle had energized him for more efforts in the arena of war. But first it had to be Rome and the Consulship.
Caesar’s competitors in the election were Bibulus and Lucceius. Bibulus had served with Caesar as Aedile, but disliked him immensely. Nonetheless he offered bribes to Caesar for his support. Caesar refused and short on cash himself, borrowed money from Lucceius. He did not approach Crassus, as he was accustomed to because he didn’t want to offend Pompey who was still at odds with the wealthiest man in Rome. When the votes were tallied, Caesar was elected along with Bibulus who had benefitted from a campaign of bribery undertaken by Cato.
The force bringing the triumvirs together was now set in motion. Caesar was snubbed by the Senate when it assigned the “forests and cattle runs” of southeastern Italy as the province to be administered by the new Consuls.
Pompey was snubbed when the land bill he proposed to accommodate his veterans was defeated. The Senate looked down on Pompey as beneath their class – a plebian by heritage and only now elevated because of his father. They distrusted him fearing he would try to use his army to overthrow the government.
Finally, Crassus was snubbed when he supported the re-write of a tax collection contract favored by the knights. He got Cicero over to his position, but Cato killed the bill.
Peter Zeihan breaks down China's looming economic disaster, exposing the hidden cracks behind its so-called recovery. With a collapsing property sector, deflation fears, and a shrinking workforce, Beijing's official numbers don’t tell the full story. As Western sanctions mount and TikTok faces a U.S. ban, China’s global position is at risk. Is this the beginning of the end for the world’s second-largest economy?
The allies decided to add a fourth man to the group – make a quatumvirate, no less. The man they chose was Cicero, because of his oratorical skills. The invitation to join was delivered to him by Balbus, a confidant of Caesar. Cicero was certainly angry at the conservatives who were in the process of wrecking the Republic, but he could not abide the triumvirs either. He felt Pompey and Crassus were not supportive enough of his handling of the conspiracy of Cataline, while his antipathy toward Caesar was visceral. In the end, he refused to join the others and would suffer later because of it.
Even more important were Caesar’s efforts to secure a province for himself after his term of Consulship ended. Working through a trusted Tribune, Vatinius, he moved a bill through the assembly to allocate to himself Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years instead of the normal two. The Senate was not even consulted. Bibulus declared the law invalid because the omens were not favorable, but, once again, he was ignored. During a subsequent shouting match in the Senate, Caesar declared that he had gotten what he wanted despite the moanings of the Senate and that from now on he would “mount on top of the heads of the Senators”.
With German and Italian troops surrendering in North Africa, the Allies turned their attention to Italy. The British launched Operation Mincemeat, creating a diversion that allowed Gen. George Patton and the Allies to move into Sicily. As the Allies moved to the Italian mainland, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s government collapsed in July 1943, and the new government under Pietro Badoglio began negotiations for an armistice. On Sept. 3, the Italian government surrendered to the Allies. Despite this, the Allies' advances through Italy were very slow due to Britain and the U.S. moving their focus to Normandy, France.
The first triumvirate of the Roman Republic was a classic study in power and politics. Three men, each with their own unique personality, battled for control of Rome, but it took a titan of titans to defeat the other two, and that man removed the final brick from the Republic and used it to establish the foundation for an empire.
Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 100 B.C. A member of the famed Julian clan, he was the son of another Gaius Julius Caesar whose sister Julia married Gaius Marius, the famous general. Caesar matured during the civil war between Marius and Sulla (88-82 B.C), although his allegiance to Marius almost cost him his life. During the time Marius was in control of Rome, Caesar was named priest and married the daughter of Marius’ ally Cinna. But then Sulla took control of the city causing Caesar to lose his wife’s dowry, title, and was forced into hiding. Ironically, the loss of priestly office freed Caesar to join the army and serve in the east. Hearing of Sulla’s death in 78, he returned to Rome to work as an attorney in order to hone his skills in rhetoric and oratory. Then, by 70 B.C, Caesar was ready to begin his political career.
Marcus Licinius Crassus was born in 115 B.C, son of P. Licinius Crassus, who was Consul in 97 B.C and Censor in 89. During the civil war, Crassus’ father and brother committed suicide rather than being captured by the troops of Marius. Later, after Marius’ death, his ally Cinna began proscriptions on all those who had supported Sulla, forcing the younger Crassus into exile. Then, after Cinna’s death in 84 B.C, Crassus joined Sulla in Africa and eventually became one of the leaders of the attack force that retook Rome in 82 B.C. Crassus spent the next few years amassing the greatest fortune in Roman history through land speculation, proscriptions against the followers of Marius, and slave trade. Now wealthy, he began his political career through the curule path.
Political advancement was interrupted by the slave war with Spartacus, which Crassus helped put down in 71 B.C, but he was elected consul in 70 B.C, serving with Pompey and then Censor in 65 B.C. In 60, he was returned to consul, again serving with Pompey.
Pompey was elected consul with Crassus in 70 B.C. without having first served in the Senate, a very unusual accomplishment. At 35 years of age, he was already Rome’s greatest general and, as head of the army, a power to be reckoned with. Following his consulship, Pompey continued his military exploits, fighting in the east against Mithridates, and then on to Syria and Palestine. He returned to Rome for his third triumph in 61 B.C. and again joined Crassus as consul in 60.
So we had three men, three personalities, who had accumulated great power on their own, each harboring a defect preventing further glory. Caesar, the youngest, had little military experience and substantial debts which limited his influence. Crassus lacked leadership skills and was forced to use coin in its place. Pompey had no political resume and lacked a skill for politics. They all experienced Sulla’s attempts to reform the Republic, but Pandora’s box had been opened and Sulla could not put the Republic back to the way it used to be. The new world would be fashioned by the triumvirate and that which would follow it.
Where do we get our information about this period in Roman history? Livy, writing six centuries later is our most detailed source, but his story is a retelling of folklore and myth that was given to him. Let’s take a few moments and review what has been written about those early kings.
Romulus was the first of the named kings -- invented to create an origin for the Roman culture. After 38 years as king, he ascended into heaven during a thunderstorm creating the the link to the gods necessary for the myth to be complete.
The second king, named Numa Pompilius, was said to be of Sabine origin. He built the king’s palace in the Forum (Regia) and organized the religion of Rome including the Temple of Vesta and its servants, the Vestal Virgins. Numa also expanded the Roman calendar to twelve months. He reigned for forty three years and then passed from this life.
Next was Tullus Hostilus, a strong military leader whose most notable achievement was the defeat of the Albans which led to their annexation to Rome. Tullus also built the first Senate house and called it the Curia Hostilia. He died in 642 B.C. after a reign of thirty one years.
The fourth king was Ancus Marcius. He is credited with building the first bridge across the Tiber and with extending Roman influence to Ostia. He lost a popular election in 616 B.C. to L. Tarquinius Priscus.
Capturing the island of Okinawa gave the Allied forces a tactical strong point to launch attacks on the Japanese home islands. Wanting to end the war quickly ahead of a costly invasion of Japan, President Harry Truman dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, with a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later. World War II ended with the surrender of Emperor Hirohito and Japan on Aug. 14, 1945. On Sept. 2, 1945, Japan signed its formal surrender, marking VJ Day and the official end of the war.
Throughout World War II, 473 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 405,399 U.S. service members died in World War II.
Tarquinius was an Etruscan and owed his election to the influence of his Etruscan friends who had followed him to Rome. He reigned until 579 B.C. when he was murdered by the sons of Ancus Marcius who were unhappy with their exclusion from the affairs of state. In the melee that followed, his son, Servius Tullus, became king when his wife (Tarquinius’ daughter) convinced a crowd that Tarquinius was alive but injured and Rome needed Severus to temporarily serve in his place. Severus continued with the ruse until he had consolidated his power and was elected king.
Important Figures and Events of WWII
World War II dates: Sept. 1, 1939, to Sept. 2, 1945.
Attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941): The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the U.S. to declare war on Japan and its allies.
Adm. Chester Nimitz: Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Battle of Midway (June 4 to 7, 1942): A key turning point in the war, stopping Japanese forces from further expansion into the Pacific.
Gen. George Patton: Commander of the U.S. Seventh Army during the invasion of Sicily.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: Commander of the Allied forces leading the invasion of Normandy (D-Day; June 6, 1944). Eisenhower would become the 34th president.
Tuskegee Airmen: The first Black aviation unit. The Tuskegee Airmen played a critical role, flying more than 15,000 missions in World War II.
Invasion of Normandy: (D-Day; June 6, 1944): The landing on the beaches of Normandy was the largest amphibious assault in history.
VE Day (May 8, 1945): The official end of WWII in Europe.
Battle of Iwo Jima (Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945): The U.S. Navy and Marines take Iwo Jima as a strategic area to launch attacks on the mainland of Japan.
Mount Suribachi: Site of the famed U.S. Marine flag-raising on Feb. 23, 1945.
Historians have been skeptical of much of the history we have outlined here. It appears that the date of Rome’s origin and the number of kings were selected before dates were fitted to them. It seems unlikely that all these kings could have reigned for twenty four years or longer. In addition, the accomplishments of the kings appear to be equally alloted between them to appear as if each helped in the formation of the Republic. Still, the history of the Etruscan kings appears solid for two reasons: we know that the Etruscans were expanding south during this time so it makes sense that they would gain power in Rome. More importantly, the Romans would not have acknowledged their subservience to the Etruscans unless it was actually true.
The Korean War
The Korean War is often referred to as the "Forgotten War" due to its overshadowing by other major conflicts, such as World War II and the Vietnam War.
The war began on June 25, 1950, when North Korean forces, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea. The conflict was the result of the division of Korea along the 38th parallel, the ideological differences between the Communist North and the democratic South, and a desire to contain the spread of communism in the region. The United States and other Western nations intervened to support South Korea, while the Soviet Union and China backed North Korea.
“My task, moreover, is an immensely laborious one. I shall have to go back more than seven hundred years, and trace my story from its small beginnings until these recent times…Events before Rome was born or thought of have come to us in old tales with more of the charm of poetry than of a sound historical record, and such traditions I propose neither to affirm or refute. There is no reason, I feel, to object when antiquity draws no hard line between the human and the supernatural: it adds dignity to the past, and, if any nation deserves the privilege of claiming a divine ancestry, that nation is our own…”
With the North Korean Army pushing further into the south, Gen. Douglas MacArthur launched an amphibious assault on Inchon. The assault on the west coast of Korea led to recapturing the South Korean capital of Seoul.
After disobeying presidential orders and pursuing a plan to expand the Korean War into China, MacArthur was relieved of his command. He was replaced by Gen. Matthew Ridgway, who held off the Communist north while peace negotiations dragged on.
With President Dwight Eisenhower taking office, negotiations continued until July 27, 1953, when an armistice agreement was signed. The Korean Armistice Agreement led to a cease-fire and the establishment of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the 38th parallel, which remains one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. However, a formal peace treaty was never signed, and the two Koreas technically remain in a state of war.
Around 750 B.C. another race arrived and displaced the Villanovans. According to Herodotus, the newcomers, eventually labeled Etruscans, came from Asia Minor. He writes in book 1 chapter 94:
“The customs of the Lydians (Asia Minor east of Ionia) are like those of the Greeks... They were the first men whom we know who coined and used gold and silver currency; and they were the first to sell by retail. …In the reign of Atys son of Manes there was great scarcity of food in all Lydia. For a while the Lydians bore this with what patience they could; presently, when the famine did not abate, they looked for remedies, and different plans were devised by different men… But the famine did not cease to trouble them, and instead afflicted them even more.
At last their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed. Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to Smyrna and built ships, in which they loaded all their goods that could be transported aboard ship, and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country; until at last, after sojourning with one people after another, they came to the Ombrici (Umbria Italy) where they founded cities and have lived ever since. They no longer called themselves Lydians, but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them there.”
The Gulf War
The Gulf War, also known as the Persian Gulf War, had profound geopolitical implications and marked a major conflict in the post-Cold War era. It began in August 1990, when Iraqi forces, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. The international response to this aggression was swift, and a coalition of nations, led by the United States, initiated Operation Desert Shield to deter further Iraqi advances.
Defying the U.N., Hussein prompted President George H.W. Bush to launch Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. The coalition employed new military technology in its swift-moving offensive against Iraqi forces. On Feb. 24, coalition forces began Operation Desert Sabre. U.S. and coalition forces took back Kuwait and defeated Iraqi forces. A cease-fire was declared on Feb. 28, 1991, ending the Gulf War and liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
The War in Afghanistan
Operation Enduring Freedom began on Oct. 7, 2001, with U.S. and British airstrikes on al-Qaida and the Taliban. Special operations forces also began striking targets around the country. With sustained airstrikes and ground forces attacking key areas, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and Kandahar were quickly taken by the U.S. and coalition forces. As the Taliban was pushed from key areas of Afghanistan, the first elected president, Hamid Karzai, took office.
On May 2, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear began. In the early morning hours, U.S. Black Hawks left Afghanistan bound for Abbottabad, Pakistan. The target was Osama bin Laden. Navy SEALs landed at the Abbottabad compound to carry out this mission. As the SEALs moved through the compound, they located and killed bin Laden on the third floor. SEALs also discovered valuable intelligence in the compound. The 40-minute operation carried out by SEAL Team Six was a success.
Alexander the Great – What if he had lived?
One of the most fascinating stories from antiquity is the life of Alexander the Great, the man who conquered the world by age thirty. Alexander has to be considered one of greatest military commanders of all time and one of the most important personalities of the ancient world.
Unfortunately, the story of his life ends abruptly. He became ill in early June of 323 B.C. and died on either the tenth or eleventh of that month at age thirty-two. The cause of Alexander’s death has been debated throughout the centuries, even up to the present day. Was he poisoned, or was it an infection that killed him? The truth eludes us but the fact that Alexander was ill for ten days suggests that disease rather than poison was the culprit.
What would Alexander have accomplished if he had not died so young? We can only guess, but it makes an interesting topic for discussion nonetheless.
To try and imagine Alexander’s world after 323 B.C, I’m going to employ Arnold Toynbee, a well-known scholar of antiquity, to help us. Toynbee, known mostly for his Study of History, wrote many fine books about the ancient world including a favorite of mine called Some Problems in Greek History.
There is a chapter in the latter entitled “If Alexander the Great had lived on”, where Toynbee speculates about Alexander’s efforts and successes during the period after 323 B.C. It’s a long chapter, spanning some forty-five pages, and I will not attempt to re-tell his whole story, but I found the section on Alexander’s relationship with Rome particularly interesting.
The last U.S. troops departed Kabul on Aug. 30, 2021, ending nearly 20 years of military engagement in Afghanistan and marking the end of America's longest war. The withdrawal, however, was marred by scenes of chaos and heightened tensions. The desperate attempt of Afghan citizens to flee the country before the Taliban takeover resulted in a frenzied and overcrowded Kabul airport. Tragically, on Aug. 26, 2021, a suicide bombing near the airport's Abbey Gate claimed the lives of numerous Afghan civilians and U.S. service members.
Throughout the war in Afghanistan, 25 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 2,300 U.S. service members died in the War in Afghanistan.
Gen. Eric Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps, awarded the service's highest noncombat award for heroism -- the Navy and Marine Corps Medal -- to Collart's family in a small but well-attended ceremony at Marine Corps Barracks Washington, right outside of the head Marine's own home.
Collart, a young, but seasoned crew chief, escaped the aircraft in August 2023 after it crashed on an island north of the Australian mainland during a training exercise. Realizing that the two Osprey pilots -- Maj. Tobin Lewis and Capt. Eleanor LeBeau -- were still trapped inside the burning aircraft, he reentered the wreckage in an attempt to save them, but all three tragically perished.
Wealthy individuals don't earn income the traditional way; instead, they let their money generate more wealth. The key distinction between merely surviving financially and creating true prosperity lies in investing. It's important to
I just learned the difference between balanced and unbalanced wires.....damn, how do guitar players have so much money!?!?
I'm gonna end up spending $200 on new wires and a DI
Here is the daily technology #threadcast for 2/9/25. The goal is to make this a technology "reddit".
Drop all question, comments, and articles relating to #technology and the future. The goal is make it a technology center.
I discus this in my article...
Breakthrough artificial leaf follows sun for over 800% solar energy efficiency boost
The new artificial leaves can work in water and on land, but have some way to go before real-world use.
Chinese researchers have developed a new kind of artificial leaf that can track the movement of the sun, much like real leaves. Able to produce electricity and potentially split water into hydrogen and oxygen, this new leaf could revolutionize fuel production.
The new artificial leaf combines flexible solar-powered electrodes with a protective gel coating. It also incorporates an innovative supporting structure from carbon nanotubes embedded in a temperature-sensitive polymer.
#solar #energy #efficiency
When the artificial leaf is exposed to sunlight, these nanotubes are locally heated, causing the polymer to contract. Areas not exposed to direct sunlight remain in an expanded form, which results in the leaf “bending” towards a light source.
This process effectively keeps the leaf automatically facing the light source without the need for motors or other devices. According to the researchers, this mechanism is similar to how plants, especially aquatic ones like Micranthemum glomeratum, track the sun.
General Dynamics’ small surface vessel prototype could revolutionize naval warfare
The Ghost’s SWATH design enables it to carry larger payloads and be deployed in ISTAR, missile transport and special operations.
A merican aerospace and defense company General Dynamics has partnered with UK-based Juliet Marine Systems to develop a small surface vessel dubbed ‘Ghost’. The vessel features Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) design that reportedly has the potential to revolutionize naval warfare.
#generaldynamics #vessell #navy #warfare
The prototype of the vessel—which is currently undergoing tests—is versatile, stable and equipped to be deployed on manned, unmanned and remote-controlled operations. According to General Dynamics, the vessel boasts of a large payload capacity and innovative sea-keeping abilities. Its SWATH design enables the vessel to carry payloads in challenging sea states, typically not possible on other small surface vessels.
Stable speeds and compact size
The ‘Ghost’ is designed for quick deployment and easy construction, allowing it to be used in varying environments. Small vessels like the ‘Ghost’ are stable at speeds of up to 40.3 mph, making them extremely fast on the water, Slashgear reported.
Due to its compact size, the ‘Ghost’ can be deployed by amphibious and cargo ships, trucks or can even be dropped from airplanes, making it a highly versatile asset for the US Navy.
!summarize #technology #cars #energy
Never seen before quantum state discovered in graphene could advance computing
While frozen in place internally, electrons along the edges of twisted graphene move freely, creating a unique state of conductivity.
Graphene, also known as the wonder material, continues to surprise scientists. This time, it has revealed new quantum states. A team of researchers has found peculiar topological electronic crystals in twisted graphene layers.
Their study highlights a special way to arrange electrons in graphene, where they freeze into a perfectly ordered pattern. Surprisingly, while staying locked in place, all the electrons spin together like ballet dancers performing synchronized pirouettes without moving.
#graphene #quantum #computing #state #physics
This unusual quantum behavior allows electric current to flow smoothly along the edges of the material while the interior remains non-conductive because the electrons are stuck in place.
In the future, such quantum states can be utilized for the development of energy-efficient electronic devices and fault-tolerant quantum computing applications.
Bukele proposes putting a Bitcoin Miner in every home.
This man thinking out of box
Yes he is, and I think it is amazingly creative.
!summarize #services #business #automation #ai
DARPA’s new program to make quantum sensors brave disruptions for real-world use
DARPA’s Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program will focus on new sensor designs strategies instead of resorting to bulky shielding or isolation methods.
Quantum sensors offer exceptional precision in measuring magnetic fields, gravity and motion, making them invaluable for defense. However, they struggle in real-world conditions, especially on moving platforms.
To overcome these challenges, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is launching the Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program, which aims to develop quantum sensors that can withstand environmental disruptions while maintaining their high sensitivity.
#darpa #quantum #sensors #technology
The goal of the program is to ensure these sensors work reliably outside the lab and can be integrated into Department of Defense platforms.
Program targets robust quantum sensing for defense
Environmental disturbances like vibrations and electromagnetic interference diminish the performance quantum sensors, limiting their effectiveness. Existing solutions, such as isolation or bulky shielding, are impractical for large scale use.
The objective of the RoQS program is to bridge the gap between research and real-world deployment. RoQS prioritizes early collaboration between sensor developers and defense platform makers to streamline the transition from lab to field.
By fostering these partnerships early, DARPA aims to ensure the technology meets practical requirements and integrates smoothly into existing systems, cutting down the time and resources needed to make quantum sensors mission-ready.
!summarize #science #energy #artificialleaf #solar
!summarize #ucla #plastic #supercapacitor #technology
Russia’s plasma engine could reach Mars in 30 days, drastically reduce space travel time
This engine utilizes hydrogen as fuel, accelerating charged particles—electrons and protons—to a remarkable speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s)
Scientists at Rosatom have unveiled a plasma electric rocket engine that is claimed to be capable of propelling spacecraft to Mars in just one to two months.
As reported by Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, unlike traditional rocket engines that rely on fuel combustion, this innovative propulsion system utilizes a magnetic plasma accelerator and promises to significantly reduce interplanetary travel time.
#russia #plasma #mars #engine #space
“A plasma rocket motor is a type of electric motor. It is based on two electrodes. Charged particles are passed between them, and at the same time a high voltage is applied to the electrodes,” Egor Biriulin, a junior researcher at Rosatom’s scientific institute in Troitsk, told Izvestia.
“As a result, the current creates a magnetic field that pushes the particles out of the engine. Thus, the plasma receives directional motion and creates thrust.”
!summarize #amazon #aws #cloud
Elon Musk said he’s not interested in acquiring TikTok
Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”
Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28. A video of the interview was published today.
The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk (a key Trump ally) would acquire the app. Trump even told reporters that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.
#tiktok #elonmusk #china #socialmedia
But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating, “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”
“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”
He added that he doesn’t “use TikTok personally” and is “not that familiar with it.” And he described his acquisition of Twitter (now X) as an anomaly in his career: “I usually build companies from scratch.”
Why the 'spirit' of open source means much more than a license
Arguments about what is and isn’t “open source” are often resolved by deferring to the Open Source Initiative (OSI): If a piece of software is available under a license rubber stamped as “open source” by the OSI’s formal “definition,” then that software is open source.
But waters muddy when you get into the nuts and bolts of legal definitions versus the “spirit” of what open source really means. Indeed, there is significant nuance in the open source versus proprietary software debate: Has an “open source company” hamstrung its project by sliding core features behind a commercial paywall? How much transparency is there around the project’s development? And how much direct input does the “community” really have in a given project?
#opensource #software
To many, open source is not just about the legal ability to use and modify code; the culture, transparency, and governance around it is paramount.
Everyone knows about the Google-flavored version of Android that ships on smartphones and tablets, replete with an array of apps and services. The underlying Android Open Source Project (AOSP), released under a permissive Apache 2.0-license, is available for anyone to access, “fork,” and modify for their own hardware projects.
AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li says AI policy must be based on ‘science, not science fiction’
Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford computer scientist and startup founder sometimes known as “the Godmother of AI,” has outlined “three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking” ahead of next week’s AI Action Summit in Paris.
First, Li said policy must be based on “science, not science fiction.” In other words, policymakers should focus on the current reality of AI, not on grandiose futuristic scenarios, “whether utopia or apocalypse.”
#feifeili #ai #policy
In particular, Li said that it’s critical for policymakers to understand that chatbots and co-pilot programs “are not forms of intelligence with intentions, free will or consciousness,” so they can avoid “the distraction of far-fetched scenarios” and focus instead on “vital challenges.”
Second, she argued that policy should “be pragmatic, rather than ideological,” by which she means it should be written to “minimise unintended consequences while incentivising innovation.”
Lastly, Li said these policy must empower “the entire AI ecosystem — including open-source communities and academia.”
Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. In an update to its public AI principles page, the company erased a section titled “applications we will not pursue.” The company pointed TechCrunch to a blog post on “responsible AI,” which notes that Google should work together with governments and organizations “to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”
Ex-Meta employee sues for sexual harassment
One of Meta’s earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company, alleges that Meta failed to take action after she reported sexual harassment and assault; retaliated against her after she flagged a video game product as racist and potentially harmful to minors; and was routinely passed over for promotions in favor of men on her team.
Single Paragraphs
The Axial Age or Axial Period, as its sometimes called, was the period of antiquity circa 800 B.C. to 200 B.C. characterized by human thought directed toward understanding man’s place in the world. That inquiry sought a moral structure which would explain how man should live his life to achieve happiness and be in balance with the wishes of the gods. The Axial Age was not confined only to the West, but spanned the globe from the Middle East, though India, and included China. It featured individuals such as Plato, Confucius, Buddha, and Jeremiah, whose ideas had a profound influence on the future of religion and philosophy. The fact that these thinkers lived across the globe and emerged at nearly the same period in history suggests that human moral evolution had reached the same point simultaneously, perhaps under the influence of common factors.
Musk’s comments on TikTok came nearly 20 minutes into the interview, which initially focused on his plans for his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken control of federal agencies and gained access to large troves of sensitive data.
“With respect to government, really the challenge is overcoming bureaucracy,” he said. “I think bureaucracy is perhaps the penultimate boss battle. The ultimate boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating bureaucracy. That’s how difficult it is to improve government.”
We’ve discussed the stages of Greek history many times. Greek philosophy began when its founders sought to explain the universe. Once the universe was placed in a philosophical framework, the Greeks began to think about his place in it. He wondered about the purpose of life, how the universe came into being, and how he could live in harmony with the wishes of the gods. Greek philosophy was built upon the foundation of Plato and Aristotle who represented the idealistic and practical approaches to an understanding of the world.
Nearly simultaneous with Greek philosophical development was the advent of philosophical systems under Buddha, Confucius, and the Hindu priests who had adapted the ancient Vedic religion to their time. In the middle east, the Jewish religion developed out of the monotheism of Zoroastrianism. In each case, religion was fused with philosophy. The gods were assumed to exist and what remained was for man to decipher their wishes.
!summarize #bigtech #stocks #markets
!summarize #finance #Business #learning
“Open access to AI models and computational tools is crucial for progress,” she said. “Limiting it will create barriers and slow innovation, particularly for academic institutions and researchers who have fewer resources than their private-sector counterparts.”
Android, by just about any definition, is about as open source as it gets. And Google has used this fact in its defense against anti-competition criticism, noting that Amazon has reappropriated Android for its own lineup of Fire-branded devices. But all this ignores separate “anti-fragmentation agreements” Google signed with hardware makers that restrict them from using forked versions of Android. And unlike something like Kubernetes that sits under an independent foundation with a diverse range of corporate and community contributors, Android sits under the direct control of Google without a great deal of transparency over roadmap or community input.
“Android, in a license sense, is perhaps the most well-documented, perfectly open ‘thing’ that there is,” Luis Villa, co-founder and general counsel at Tidelift, said in a panel discussion at the State of Open Con25 in London this week. “All the licenses are exactly as you want them — but good luck getting a patch into that, and good luck figuring out when the next release even is.”
This gets to the crux of the debate: Open source can be something of an illusion. A lack of real independence can mean a lack of agency for those who would like to properly get involved in a project. It can also raise questions about a project’s long-term viability, evidenced by the countless open source companies that have switched licenses to protect their commercial interests.
Meta, meanwhile, has long tooted its open source horn with regards to its Llama-branded large language models (LLMs), even though Llama isn’t open source by most estimations — the models, while perhaps more “open” than others, have commercial restrictions.
“I have my quibbles and concerns about the open source AI definition, but it’s really clear that what Llama is doing isn’t open source,” Villa said.
!summarize #ford #ev #automotive #vw #eu #china
Emily Omier, a consultant for open source businesses and host of the Business of Open Source podcast, added that such attempts to “corrupt” the meaning behind “open source” is testament to its inherent power.
“It goes to show how strong the brand of open source is — the fact that people are trying to corrupt it, means that people care,” Omier said during the panel discussion.
Much of this may be for regulatory reasons, however. The EU AI Act has a special carve-out for “free and open source” AI systems (aside from those deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk”). And Villa says this goes some way toward explaining why a company might want to rewrite the rulebook on what “open source” actually means.
“There are plenty of actors right now who, because of the brand equity [of open source] and the regulatory implications, want to change the definition, and that’s terrible,” Villa said.
Clear parameters
While there are clear arguments for applying additional criteria that incorporates the “spirit” of what open source is intended to be all about, having clear parameters — as defined by a license — keeps things simple and less subject to nuanced subjectivity.
How much community engagement would be necessary for something to be truly “open source”? On a practical and legal level, keeping the definition limited to the license makes sense.
Morris has some interesting thoughts on the Greeks and Romans.
He states:
“Greece’s real contribution to Axial thought came not from Democrats, but from the critics of Democracy, led by Socrates. Greece, he argued, didn’t need democracies, which merely pooled the ignorance of men who judged everything by appearances; what it needed was men like himself, who knew when it came to the one thing that mattered – the nature of the good – they knew nothing. Only such men could hope to understand the good… through reason, honed in philosophical debate.”
Of course the beliefs of Socrates were carried forward by his pupil Plato in The Republic and Laws, and Plato’s successor Aristotle in Ethics and Politics.
This prototype will be subjected to extensive ground testing to refine its operational modes and pave the way for the creation of a flight model, expected to be ready by 2030.
“The engine operates in pulse-periodic mode. Its power is about 300 kW. Earlier, the engine resource of more than 2400 h was justified, which is enough for a transportation operation to Mars,” Konstantin Gutorov, the project’s scientific adviser, told the Russian newspaper.
“Another positive feature of the new installation – in the proposed mechanism, the plasma does not need to be strongly heated. As a result, parts and components of the engine do not experience temperature overloads, and the electrical energy used for its operation is almost completely converted into motion,” concluded Biriulin.
With a calculated thrust of approximately 6N, the highest among comparable projects, the engine is expected to enable smooth acceleration and deceleration phases during interplanetary travel.
“It was a spectacular example of the advantages of backwardness, combining organizational methods pioneered in an older core with military methods honed on a violent frontier. It slaughtered, enslaved, and dispossessed millions; and drove social development forward at an accelerated pace.”
Another, more adamant, critic of the Axial Period was Antony Black, writing in the Review of Politics, 2008.
Black disputes any notion of an Axial “Period” because the change was not rapid enough and did not involve a greater number of cultures. He agrees that this period saw an advancement in complex human but wonders if it were merely due to the state of societies of that time - that turmoil was causing a rejection of the status quo and the desire to “invent” a new path forward.
!summarize #hanginggardens #babylon #ancient #history
The seacraft can be operated remotely or with a crew of two. It can carry up to ten passengers in standard seating or 16 with maximum seating, which makes it ideal for amphibious landings, whether crewed or not.
The vessel can transport passengers to safety or serve as a vehicle for deploying Navy SEAL teams to shorelines, and operate at its top speed for up to 6.4 hours, with a total endurance range of 20.4 hours.
Long time readers have heard me mention that studying history helps us understand the future and under my blog title it says “The future has already happened”. I believe that human behavior repeats itself generation after generation, as we can easily see if we go back and look.
The philosopher Santayana put it differently when he said, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I disagree. History repeats itself because of the character of man, not his neglect of history, and no matter how diligent we might be at studying the past, we still can’t escape from ourselves.
The ‘Ghost’ modular design supports various missions, such as carrying missiles, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance), anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and special warfare load-out. The prototype is powered by two T53-L13B turboshaft engines, delivering a total of 2,380 shp.
These compact vessels displace between 22.4 and 30.2 tons of seawater and can carry over two tons of payload. They range from 25 to 40 feet in width, depending on the strut angle, and are 65 feet long overall.
The timeline for the ‘Ghost’ to move from the prototype stage to full-scale production remains uncertain, and it’s possible the project could be reconsidered before reaching completion. However, taking into account the vessel’s projected utility and capabilities, the Navy may show interest in procurement, Slashgear noted.
So what is it this time?
Why the West Rules tells the history of the world and then reduces the accomplishments of societies to an equation. Morris believes that history moves forward as a giant amorphous mass and is only minimally influenced by individuals or ideas. To him, there are three main forces acting on society: geography, climate, and the paradox of development. The latter refers to the fact that societal development is accompanied by forces which tend to undermine its progress.
And people are the problem. “Change is caused by lazy, greedy, frightened people looking for easier, more profitable, and safer ways to do things. And they rarely know what they’re doing.”
Morris has developed a theorem which claims that by mathematics one can determine which is the dominant culture on earth at any one time, and further, the formula can be used to predict the future. An index derived from the theorem is calculated using four characteristics of a society: energy capture per capita, social organization, the capacity to wage war, and the level of information technology. Each of these factors is assigned a value up to 250 so when we add them together we get a maximum index value of 1000.
The book compares the score of the Eastern world against the Western world throughout history and concludes that the East will regain superiority in 2103.
I have two large problems with Morris’ book and the reception to it. Let’s start with the latter. To quote one of the reviews of the book,
“Morris's success at finding an audience for that big story comes at a time of anxiety about the waning influence of historians, whose work is often hyper-specialized. Kenneth Pomeranz, president of the American Historical Association, recently lamented that "our space in the public sphere has been diminished to the benefit of fields like economics."
!summarize #china #ev #tesla #automotive
Morris reminds me of what’s wrong with the progressive movement. Its adherents have substituted science for God, and worse, they believe their science. Remember that FDR intended to appoint a board of economists who were going to dictate policy to all American corporations as part of an industrial plan. Funny to think anyone thought something as complicated as our economy could be reduced to a set of equations.
But here we have Morris trying to do the same with history. Who said there are four factors that influence the accomplishments of a society? Who says they should be equally weighted? Why go through the exercise when the assumptions are faulty? Now I’m not ready to condemn the factors and trends Morris cites. He is a well-respected historian. But when you quantify something, people assume the numbers are useful for comparison purposes, and they parse them up way beyond their relevance.
!summarize #markwilliams #lalakers #nba #charlotte #hornets
The U.S. Navy and Japanese Navy would have another major engagement at the Battle of Midway one month later. U.S. Navy codebreakers deciphered Japanese communications about planning an attack on Midway. With information about the attack, Adm. Chester Nimitz developed a plan to stop the Japanese invasion. The three-day battle ended with the U.S. losing two ships, 145 aircraft and roughly 360 service members, and Japan losing nearly 3,000 men and five ships. The U.S. victory was a turning point for the Allies and stopped further expansion into the Pacific for Japan.
The Senate of this period was made up of three factions, each amounting to one third of the voting power: conservatives who supported the Republic as it had always been, moderates including Cicero and Cato who allowed some adaptation of the political system, and the liberals who supported Pompey and Caesar. The conservatives were so strict in their point of view, they tried to block all efforts of the triumvirs, unable to perceive the harm they would eventually bring to themselves.
Pompey and Crassus decided to bury the hatchet and go in with Caesar. The latter was still the least influential of the triumvirs but he had two important assets: he was by far the best negotiator and he had previously been a supporter of Marius, the man of the people, whereas the other two were seen as allies of dictator Sulla.
Michael Grant, in his biography of Caesar described what followed:
“During the next ten years the triumvirate remained the controlling factor in Roman politics. This is not, as it is sometimes called, a defeat for democracy. The dispute was not between senatorial government and democracy, which never existed in Rome and never would, but between a haughty, reactionary, corrupt oligarchy and an equally ruthless tyranny conducted by three individuals.”
Let me provide more detail for year one – 59 B.C.
When the newly elected Caesar introduced the land bill to the Senate, they filibustered until he withdrew the measure and took it to the assembly. It was vetoed by three tribunes but Pompey and Crassus spoke in favor, making it plain they were allied with Caesar. When Bibulus, the other Consul, tried to block the bill, Caesar had Pompey’s troops burst into the assembly and intimidate the opposition into surrender.
!summarize #trump #nih #media #payments
Frustrated, Bibulus and his allies tried the alternative tactic of using auspices to block all assembly meetings. Whenever an Assembly meeting was scheduled, he would take auspices and declare that the date was unsuitable. Caesar ignored this blocking attempt and used the Assembly to pass legislation beneficial to the Triumvirs.
In April, Pompey, who was 43, married Caesar’s daughter Julia, 17. It has been suggested that Pompey needed the link to be able to count on Caesar’s political skills. Caesar also married for political advantage -- Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Piso, who Caesar sought as a puppet Consul for the next year. These matrimonial maneuverings prompted Cato to remark that the Roman political system had become a marriage bureau.
According to Dr Jonathan Hoffman, Program Manager at DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, quantum sensors could revolutionize the way critical information is gathered in defense scenarios. These advanced sensors offer unprecedented precision, but their deployment in real-world conditions remains a challenge owing to their fragility.
“With RoQS, we’re taking a bold step toward creating sensors that are not only extremely precise but also resilient in the face of real-world challenges,” Hoffman explained.
Now Caesar decided it was time to improve his financial position and sought to use Egypt as the golden nugget. The king of Egypt had died and left a dubious will declaring his country would be bequeathed to Rome. Caesar then bribed the Senate and the Assembly with borrowed money to recognize Ptolemy XII as the rightful king so that he could gain a fortune through his relationship with the new monarch.
The RoQS program aims to make quantum sensors more resilient by addressing their fragility head-on. Instead of using bulky shielding or isolation methods, RoQS will focus on new sensor designs strategies and architectures.
One approach is engineering sensor architectures that can naturally resist environmental disturbances, ensuring stable performance without the need for bulky shielding.
Another focus is developing compact sensor arrays capable of distinguishing useful signals from background noise, improving accuracy in complex environments. Additionally, RoQS will investigate advanced atomic systems that offer greater stability, allowing quantum sensors to function reliably even under dynamic and unpredictable conditions.
Last year, DARPA launched the ‘Theory of Mind’ initiative, focusing on improving national security decision-making. The program aims to develop technologies that help decision-makers better understand and engage with potential adversaries, improving strategies for deterrence and incentive-based actions.
According to DARPA, the program will combine advanced algorithms with human expertise to support these efforts. This integration will occur within a modeling and simulation environment to explore national security scenarios, giving decision-makers more options and improving their ability to assess potential actions.
I took a 20k salary cut to STAY employed by the small business that employs me. It requires me to travel a lot. I used to be able to stay in motels or crash at friends place's. Most of my friends have moved back in with parents so that is not an option anymore. Nor can I afford 125. A night for a motel in a questionable area...so i sleep in my car during the week. This is the new reality for many people.
Caesar was allocated three legions for his new dominion and as he prepared for the new assignment, fortune smiled down on him and changed history. Narbonese Gaul (also referred to as Transalpine Gaul) had previously been assigned with Cisalpine Gaul to a single Consul. This time the provinces were split with Metellus Celer receiving the former and Caesar receiving the latter. Before taken his post, however, Celer died, and Caesar used his father-in-law Piso and his son-in-law Pompey to argue that Narbonese Gaul should be added to his domain. The Senate gave in, possibly thinking that the more Caesar had on his plate away from Rome, the less he would meddle in its affairs.
But Caesar’s power remained a threat to the Senate. In July, an informer named Vettius accused Caesar or a plot to kill Pompey, but before the matter could be prosecuted, Vettius died mysteriously. An assassination attempt by a slave followed, but Caesar would survive to let history take its course.
He would spend eight years in Gaul conquering the tribes and write the Commentaries along the way. Julia, wife of Pompey and daughter or Caesar, would die in childbirth (54 B.C.) breaking the marital bond between husband and father. Crassus would be ambushed and killed in Pythia in 53 B.C. leaving no offset to any conflict Caesar and Pompey. Caesar would use Gaul to fortify his resume as a military leader while Pompey languished in Rome, a general out of place as a politician. By the time Caesar crossed the Rubicon in January 49 B.C, he knew he was the man who would change the Republic forever.
On June 6, 1944, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The beach landing at Normandy is one of the largest amphibious assaults in history. The invasion took place on five beaches with 156,000 troops. The landing on Omaha Beach resulted in 2,400 casualties. Along with the beach landings, 13,000 paratroopers were dropping behind enemy lines to break German supply lines and secure key areas for the Allies. With the Germans being driven out of northwestern France and Paris, the Allied forces claim victory in Normandy.
Mounting his last major offensive on Dec. 16, 1944, Adolf Hitler and the German troops attempted to split the Allied forces. The Battle of the Bulge lasted for six weeks, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties for the U.S. Army. On Christmas Day, Allied forces began airstrikes on German positions.
!summarize #exponential #ai #Technology
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!summarize #energy #grid #electricity #renewable
!summarize #technology #ai #google
!summarize #technology #meta
!summarize #technology #space
!summarize #technology #cars
!summarize #technology #mars #space
!summarize #agi #openai #o3mini #ai #thinking #reasoning
!summarize #apple #robot #driver #tesla #automation
!summarize #deepresearch #openai #ai #thinking #agi
!summarize #mars #space #travel
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!summarize #singularity #technology #ai #agi #post
Does DeepSeek point towards multiple future Singularities? Kurzweil predicts AGI by 2029 & the Technological Singularity by 2045, and Dr. Alessandro Fontana discusses five scenarios for a post-singularity world.
Before we get into Post-Singularity scenarios, let’s talk about The Singularity itself: Ray Kurzweil has predicted the development of Artificial General Intelligence by 2029, leading to a technological singularity by 2045. In this interview, Dr. Fontana outlines possible futures based on "AI alignment", which aims to steer AI systems toward a person's or group's intended goals, preferences, or ethical principles.
We also discuss the DeepSeek AI, which has reduced the cost of AI development and may result in a large number of AI & future AGI systems - thereby leading to the possibility of multiple Technological Singularities in disparate systems across the globe.
Dr. Alessandro Fontana is an interdisciplinary engineer specialized in Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and their growing mutual interactions.
Dr. Fontana works in IT Security and Data Science at Bosch, and his diverse of interests includes psychology, helped him pioneer the field of Cybersecurity and AI at Bosch engineering. His career work also includes experience in Cybersecurity, including the development of a novel method for rendering neural networks more resilient to adversarial intrusions.
He has a Master’s in Electronic Engineering from Milan Polytechnic University, and a PhD in Computer Science from Gdańsk University of Technology.
technology is making life easier
"Small daily improvements over time lead to stunning results" (Robin Sharma)
That is true.
Thanks to @manclar for supporting @thebbhproject Witness :) :) :) #bbh
damn...you guys can see who unvotes your witness that easily....? That's a scary thought....whale wrath upon thee?
I'd never unvote you though buddy
Eet's on the Blockchain. :) !BBH !DIY !DOOK
yaaa but not everything on chain is equally easy to find. That looks very easy
Yes, and as you can, who supports also ;) !BBH #bbh
You can query your personal balance by
@pepetoken just sent you a DIY token as a little appreciation for your comment dear @selfhelp4trolls! Feel free to multiply it by sending someone else !DIY in a comment :) You can do that x times a day depending on your balance so:!DIYSTATSque bien @manclar bienvenido
Estoy bastante claro en mi decisión, y estoy seguro de que ud no entiende de que se trata o lo que aquí esta pasando.
No voy a explicarlo tampoco, esto es un asunto personal, cada quien hace lo que quiere con su cuenta.
No se de que hablas, déjame revisar los mensajes arriba. Solo te estaba felicitando por dar apoyo en leo.
esto no tiene que nada que ver con leo...es otra cosa totalmente diferente, pero dejelo asi, este asunto me interesa a mi solamente. Ud no esta involucrada...
Ok ya leí, eso es correcto cada quien apoya a quien quiere, me contente al verte por allí. Son decisiones propias.
Everyone does with their stake what they want, it is a personal decision :)
Morning all! Anyone in New York State? I'm running into some problems buying USDC on arbitrum because I'm a NY resident... What do you do?
#help #leo
don't live in NY.
It is kind of a black-eye for the country
Hi, @simplegame,
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.
Yeah but the roots have taken too strong of a hold now... We made ourselves a good life!
you can always move. That is the joy of life. Vote with your feet
Easier said than done!
not really.
just pack up and move people do it every day.
I would but the last 8 times I moved out on New York, I found myself moving back a year later... Somthing draws me back so I'm staying!
use leodex to swap any other asset straight to USDC on arbitrum
use leodex
@badbitch The future of the Art market; how tokenization will drive liquidity #Art #Tokenization #Liquidity #Neoxian #gosh
exactly, thats why Soros own the whole world media.
Sometimes I feel there should be no weekend. There's just too much of noise and disturbance from kids and family members.
Get a hideout to calm down and don't let them know the location directly but indirectly so that when something happens to you, then can get a tracker to track you
I am now on the YouTube partner Program 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
let's gooo
Every cent counts
ttrue
whats the name of your channel I will give you a follow
This is it
Nice one
always trying to have fun
that is really good congratulations 👏
sweet
M👁’s M👁rningwalks
Wir Sind Berlin
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See & Read MOAR
on my #actifit account 👇🏽 linked in the comments
#morningwalk #graffiti #photographers #photography #photofeed #visualshots #mmw
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#gosh #morningwalk
Is it feasible to allocate 20% of one’s income towards investments?
if you can afford it
Bitcoin is poised to surprise everyone, so don't be misled by the recent months!
@omarcitorojas por @fulldeportes y #hive Abdomen Y Golpes [Esp/Eng + Sub Eng] #deportes #spanish #sports #fitness #sportstalk #gosh
#dash offer the speed of Lightning Network without any of the hassles on top of having usernames like what we have on #hive. $DASH is Digital Cash.
https://inleo.io/threads/view/dashpay/re-leothreads-2hiwnbf4i
I love it when Hivers make graphics :) #bbh
Ray Dalio talks about the economic cycles, long and short. The cycles go on... and right now we're in the honeymoon period of the new US political cycle.
There's Euphoria and then eventually comes a downturn. Hopefully we grow a bunch before turning around!!
After a workout I like to drink a hot cocoa with peanut powder, turmeric, cayenne pepper, milk and cordyceps...
What's your drink of choice?
Data
!summarize #bradgerstner #altieter #ceo #technology
With Eisenhower and Patton restoring the Allied front alongside the 101st Airborne Division, Allies claimed victory in the Battle of the Bulge on Jan. 25, 1945. As the Allies made advances from the west and the Soviet forces closed in from the east, Nazi Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, marking VE Day.
As the war unfolded in Europe, U.S. Marines made an amphibious landing at the Japanese island of Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945. The island was considered a tactical staging point for a possible invasion of mainland Japan. Just four days into the battle, Mount Suribachi was captured by U.S. Marines. Battles continued across the island until March 25, 1945, when Tadamichi Kuribayashi, a Japanese general, launched his final attack. After American forces declared the capture of Iwo Jima, soldiers spent weeks searching the island for Japanese troops who refused to surrender.
!summarize #boston #skyscraper #construction
After serving as military tribune, Caesar was elected Questor in 69 B.C, Aedile in 66, and then Pontifex Maximus and Praetor Urbanus in 63. After his Praetorship, Caesar was appointed governor of Spain, but could not take that position until he satisfied his creditors. He appealed to Marcus Crassus for help and the richest man in Rome paid or guaranteed many of Caesar’s debts. Caesar stood for Consul in 59 B.C. and was elected in one of the most corrupt campaigns on record.
!summarize #tesla #stock #investing
Gnaeus Pompey Magnus was born in 106 B.C. His father, Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo served as Praetor in 92 B.C. and Consul in 89 B.C. He died during Marius’ siege on Rome in 87 B.C. The son served in the army under his father and found soldering to his liking. Prior to Sulla’s assault on Rome, Pompey raised three legions to support him and forever earned the trust of the new dictator. After victories over the remaining Marians in Sicily and Africa, Sulla dubbed his young general “Magnus” supposedly in derision because Pompey had no political experience worthy of a title. After putting down a revolt following the death of Sulla, Pompey demanded that the Senate name him proconsul of Hispania. Fearing his rising military power, the Senate said no, but Pompey got his way when he threatened the Senate by refusing to disband his legions. He remained in Hispania until 71 B.C. when the Senate requested that he help Crassus with the war against Spartacus.
With the capture of Iwo Jima, American forces moved their focus to the island of Okinawa. On April 1, 1945, U.S. troops landed on the beaches of Okinawa with little resistance. As American troops moved across Okinawa, they encountered resistance in Southern Okinawa. Throughout the battle, both sides took heavy casualties. The Japanese took their final stand on the southern coast of Okinawa. With certain defeat coming, Japanese Gens. Mitsuru Ushijima and Isamu Cho committed suicide, ending the Battle of Okinawa on June 22.
!summarize #Politics #biden #crimes #family #republican
!summarize #university #warehouse #jobs #degrees #education
Those who are familiar with the history of Rome know that the Republic was preceded by a monarchy – seven kings, the last three Etruscan. These kings had no hereditary authority and were elected by the assembly to act as military and religious leaders of the Roman people. The purpose of this post is to try and separate fact from fiction in the story of those early monarchs.
The early-mid Iron Age period circa 700 B.C saw radical changes in the structure of political systems around the Mediterranean. In Greece, for example, the collapse of the Mycenaean dynasty ushered in the Dark Age period which lasted until about 700 B.C. New monarchies sprung up but the kings were weak and had no hereditary authority so their weakness ultimately allowed the Polis to take hold. Monarchies on the Italian peninsula were subject to the same pressures as we see in the behavior of the Etruscans during the time they controlled Rome.
!summarize #automotive #repos #economy #luxury
!summarize #cancer #healthy #nuts
!summarize #workday #layoffs #sanfrancisco #california #jobs
President Harry Truman: The 33rd president, Truman ordered the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug. 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945), ending WWII.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The cities where the first atomic bombs were dropped, ending WWII.
VJ Day: The official end of WWII in Japan on Aug. 15, 1945.
!summarize #divorce #relationships #marriage
I'm rewatching Star Trek again and realized Data changed hair styles 😀
!BBH
Severus was the most noteworthy and remarkable of the Roman kings. He reorganized the assembly by creating the Comitia Centuriata as an assembly of economic classes which mapped to each class’s role in the army. For example, the Equites, or cavalry, were the most wealthy of the groups because they had to be wealthy enough to buy their own horses. Severus is credited with the creation of the Roman Timocracy – property ownership requirement for the privilege of voting in the assembly. He also advanced the cause of the middle class as a brake against the power of the patricians. After forty-three years on the throne, he was murdered by the grandson of Tarquinius, also named Tarquinius. After new monarch evolved into a tyrant, the Romans began calling him “Superbus”, a derogatory reference to his arrogance. After a reign of twenty-five years, the tyrant was exiled and the reign of Roman kings came to an end
!summarize #accountants #accounting #cpa
!summarize #mantaray #fish #biology #ocean
Throughout the Korean War, 146 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 36,574 U.S. service members died in the Korean War.
Important Figures and Events of the Korean War
Korean War dates: June 25, 1950, to July 27, 1953.
Inchon Landing (Sept. 15, 1950): Led by Gen. MacArthur, U.S. and South Korean forces land at the port of Inchon, forcing the North Korean Army to retreat up the Korean peninsula.
Operation Ripper (March 1951): The fourth and final Battle of Seoul. The battle began with the largest artillery strike of the war. The capital of Seoul was liberated on March 14, 1951.
Battle of Heartbreak Ridge (September to October 1951): A monthlong battle with a massive amount of artillery and airstrikes.
!summarize #usaid #government #Unitedstates
And then, interestingly, Livy turns philosopher:
“I invite the reader’s attention to the much more serious consideration of the kind of lives our ancestors lived, of who were the men, and what the means in both politics and war by which Rome’s power was first acquired and subsequently expanded; I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
These words from two thousand years past anticipate the postmodern world we live in today.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur: Led the United Nations forces during the Korean War.
Gen. Matthew Ridgway: Replaced MacArthur and took command of the forces in Korea.
The Cold War
World War II had ended, but by 1948, tensions between the U.S. and Soviet Union began to build. In June 1950, with support from the Soviets, North Korea invaded South Korea, leading to the start of the Korean War. The United States, believing the conflict signaled the start of communism spreading across the world, intervened. America used a containment strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union: Be patient and watch Russia to prevent its expansion of communism.
The U.S. strategy of containment set the stage for a deadly arms race with the Soviets. As the United States was developing more atomic weapons, the Soviets also were testing their own. Both countries continued developing increasingly destructive weapons, eventually leading to the development of the hydrogen bomb.
!summarize #radio #silence #border #immigration
Not only did the Cold War take place on Earth, but it gave way to the Space Race. With the Soviets launching Sputnik, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer I, in 1958. The same year, President Dwight Eisenhower created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.
The Space Race pushed the U.S. into launching manned space missions. The first American in space was Alan Shepard, shortly followed by the Apollo 11 mission putting Neil Armstrong on the moon. The U.S. effectively won the Space Race with those first steps on the moon.
!summarize #ai #time #tokenization #thinking
The story of the Etruscans is an interesting one -- interesting and obscure.
Their history is remarkable when measured by their accomplishments as merchants, craftsmen, traders, and influencers of Rome, but we only know pieces of their story. The emperor Claudius tried to help us by chronicling their history in twenty volumes, but his work did not survive. Meanwhile, the Etruscan language has defied our understanding and, other than some decoding of artifacts, we can’t read it. Still, three of the Roman kings were Etruscans who helped launch the Republic.
Ultimately, the Etruscan culture would die and fulfill an ironic prophesy.
Tensions between the countries calmed when President Richard Nixon took office. Nixon looked to use diplomacy instead of the U.S. military to solve the issues between the countries. This approach led to the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), which was a first step in reducing the nuclear arsenal. Even with Nixon’s efforts, the tensions later rose again with President Ronald Reagan taking office. Reagan’s policies led to more conflict in Central America.
Tensions began to ease once again when Mikhail Gorbachev took office in 1985. With his new policies, Russia looked toward a new relationship of political openness with the rest of the world. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall was destroyed, and the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, ending the Cold War.
!summarize #disaster #capitalism #Profits
Vietnam War
The conflict was rooted in the Cold War struggle between the Communist forces of North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, and the non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other anti-Communist allies. The war saw significant U.S. military involvement, with American troops fighting alongside South Vietnamese forces against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.
After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam claims its independence at a peace conference in Geneva. At this point, Vietnam was divided into the Communist North and the anti-Communist South. By 1958, the Viet Cong began using guerrilla tactics in the South.
The area of Italy we know today as Tuscany was originally settled by the Villanovans, an iron age culture that had migrated from Northern Europe. The Tuscan branch is referred to as the Northern Villanovans but there was also a southern faction extending beyond Rome into Campania. The term Villanovan comes from their discovery in an ancient cemetery near Villanova Italy, eight miles from Bologna. The Villanovans were not a uniform culture or society, but more of a group of tribes with common interests. They were expert metal smiths and potters who cremated their dead and buried them in cone-shaped graves. The earliest Villanovan evidence dates from the beginning of the Iron Age and continues to 500 B.C. Through artifacts, we can document their social evolution showing the tribes transitioning into a socio-economic hierarchy.
What we see in the archaeology is the appearance of Etruscan settlements where Villanovan settlements once stood. Why? Perhaps they co-existed and eventually merged into one culture. The Romans called these people Tusci or Etrusci, creating the link to the region later called Tuscany.
The Etruscans were farmers first – taming the wild land of Tuscany to grow emmer (a type of wheat) which was husked and unsuitable for bread making until they were able to create new cultivars. Olive oil was unknown in Etruria as late as 581 B.C, but must have been imported from Greece. Home grown wine grapes, like olive trees came later. The Etruscans were skilled at irrigation, and the excavated tunnels suggest an organized approach and central authority behind the engineering.
!summarize #china #europe #trump #geopolitics
Although Italy is not blessed with significant metal resources, what is there was concentrated in Etruria and, as metalworkers, the Etruscans excelled. They mined and worked precious metals, tin to make bronze, and iron. The photograph below shows an example of Etruscan craftsmanship.
Jewelry and metalwork became items of trade for the Etruscans and they developed a substantial merchant fleet. Allies of the Carthaginians, they traded throughout the Mediterranean including Southern France and Spain.
Tarchna (Tarquinnii) was perhaps the richest and most famous of the Etruscan cities. At its peak from 650-500 B.C, Tarchna was the center of bronze production in Etruria. Everywhere in the archaeology of the city we see a culture with evolving sophistication. The dead were cremated and buried in painted amphoras, temples were built, and life was represented in art – banquets, dancing, athletics, chariot racing, and hunting. We also see an early political system made up of clans, anticipating the Republic.
U.S. involvement was limited until August 1964, when North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Lyndon Johnson ordered airstrikes in retaliation, which ended with U.S. pilot Everett Alvarez Jr. becoming a prisoner of war. The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing President Johnson to take all necessary measures to use military force in Southeast Asia, including responding to attacks against U.S. forces and preventing any further aggression in the region.
In March 1965, U.S. troops entered Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder began the continuous bombing of North Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Over the next year, the U.S. continued to increase the number of troops in the region. After many battles, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Minh began the Tet Offensive in January 1968. Attacks were launched in cities across South Vietnam, including Saigon and the invasion of the U.S. Embassy. The Tet Offensive marked the turning point in the war and began the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam.
After taking backlash about the war, Johnson withdrew from the election. With promises of ending the draft and restoring peace, Richard Nixon took the presidency in November 1968. As Nixon took office, the U.S. pushed for "Vietnamization," giving South Vietnam more responsibility in the war.
!summarize #retirement #money #finance
!summarize #Robotaxi #tesla #arkinvest
!summarize #deflation #market #volatility
!summarize #washington #nfl #jaydendaniels #quarterback #commanders
!summarize #laidoff #tech #career #passion #cars
!summarize #uk #economy #boe
Ancient Rome was also Villanovan, but there was no Etruscan Villanovan marriage there. One suspects the independent nature of the native Latins was responsible for blocking Etruscan assimilation. Ultimately the Etruscans would occupy Rome, but it was not by a gradual mixing of cultures. Prior to their arrival, the Latins were mostly a pastoral people. The Etruscans influenced them to become more commercial (and maybe the Greeks in Campania had an influence also). The end result was the light went on for the Latins and their culture began to advance. In Rome, the Etruscan influence was everywhere – from the new temples that were constructed to the evolving political system.
In January 1973, U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam and POWs were released when an agreement was reached, effectively ending the war for the U.S. The war concluded with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, leading to the reunification of North and South Vietnam under Communist control.
Throughout the Vietnam War, 261 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 58,220 U.S. service members died in the Vietnam War.
Historically, Etruria was made up of an alliance of free independent city-states. Although they had common interests, the cities openly competed with each other and went to war when necessary. The ruler was an all-powerful king who acted as both a political and religious leader. Unfortunately, we know little of the Etruscan political system outside the period when they gained influence over Rome and the history was recorded. The last three kings of Rome were Etruscan (616-510 B.C.), so we can see Etruscan influence over the formation of the Roman government, which was different from the historical Etruscan model. During that period, across the Mediterranean and into Asia, aristocratic factions had begun to peck away at the authority of the kings.
Important Figures and Events of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War dates: Nov. 1, 1955, to April 30, 1975.
Ho Chi Minh: The Communist leader of North Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem: The U.S.-backed leader of South Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh Trail: North Vietnam supply routes that supplied supporters and guerrillas in South Vietnam.
Operation Ranch Hand (1962-1971): U.S. aircraft spray Agent Orange across South Vietnam in attempts to remove any food or cover for North Vietnamese guerrillas.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident (Aug. 2, 1964): North Vietnam boats attack the USS Maddox.
Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968): President Lyndon Johnson's campaign of sustained bombing of North Vietnam.
Operation Starlite: (August 1965): The first U.S. ground offensive, in which Marines engaged with the Viet Cong.
Battle of Ia Drang (Nov. 14-18, 1965): The U.S. Army inserted troops by helicopter to battle the North Vietnamese Army.
Battle of Khe Sanh (Jan. 21 to July 9, 1968): A 77-day attack on U.S. Marines at the base in Khe Sanh. Operation Pegasus put an end to the battle.
The first Etruscan king of Rome, L. Tarquinius Priscus, created one hundred new Senators to win popular support, so even at this early point of Roman history the king was not powerful enough to function as an autocrat. Priscus also build the first wall around Rome and added sewers to drain the Forum. His successor, Servius Tullius, divided Rome into tribes and instituted the census for the first time. He created the Centuriate assembly which classified the army by wealth and gave the wealthy the most powerful voting blocks. In 509 B.C, the last Roman king, L. Tarquinius Superbus, was expelled and Rome became a Republic.
Tet Offensive (Jan. 30 to Sept. 23, 1968): North Vietnamese Army and Viet Minh carry out attacks on South Vietnam. This was a turning point in the war and began the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Hamburger Hill (May 10-20, 1969): In the battle at Ap Bia Mountain, U.S. troops stopped North Vietnamese forces from moving into Laos.
Paris Peace Accord (Jan. 27, 1973): Signed by President Richard Nixon, it ended U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Fall of Saigon: The North Vietnamese Army took the south capital of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ending the war.
!summarize #workethic #workers #uk #productivity
No Medals of Honor were awarded to U.S. troops during the Gulf War.
Important Events of the Gulf War
Gulf War dates: Aug. 2, 1990, to Jan. 17, 1991.
Operation Desert Sabre (Feb. 24-28, 1991): A ground offensive by coalition forces to recapture Kuwait.
Battle for Jalibah Airfield (Feb. 27, 1991): U.S. 2nd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, captured the Jalibah Air Base.
Battle of Medina Ridge (Feb. 27, 1991): A two-hour tank battle outside Basra, Iraq, between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and the Iraqi Republican Guard. This was the largest tank battle of the war.
!summarize #nymets #petealonso #Mlb #davidstearns
!summarize #leodex #arbitrage #dex #leo
The Global War on Terror
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left nearly 3,000 people dead and sent shock waves across the United States. After the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush announced the Global War on Terror in an address to the nation. Nations across the globe -- including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey and several other NATO and non-NATO allies -- joined in the campaign to combat terrorism.
The first targets in the War on Terror were Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, who were responsible for carrying out the attack on American soil. Other targets were the Taliban regime, as well as terrorist training camps and other insurgent and militant groups in Afghanistan.
The ascendancy of the Republic hastened the decline of the Etruscans. The nearest Etruscan city, Veii, fell to the Romans in 396 B.C. At the same time, the Northern Etruscan cities were attacked and ravaged by a Gallic invasion. By 273 B.C. Etruria was firmly under Roman control as part of an Italian confederation. As time went on. the Etruscans provided troops to the Republican army and, during the Second Punic War, they were able to avoid Hannibal all together. Later, they took sides in the civil wars supporting Caesar and suffered devastation as a result. The Etruscan culture ultimately faded into history.
In the beginning of the article I mentioned an ironic prophesy, which was the prediction of the end of their civilization. The Etruscans were ultra-religious and I think it was Cicero who said they were the most religious people in the world. They believed their race (or any race) is given a fixed span of time by the gods – in their case 10 saecula of 70 years. The Etruscan civilization was established in about 750 B.C and after the 700 years had passed, they were no more.
NATO then began withdrawing troops, ending the organization’s combat operations in December 2014. But about 9,800 U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan as part of the Resolute Support Mission, as the U.S. and Afghan governments looked for a diplomatic end to the conflict. The number of U.S. troops fluctuated through the years.
However, for several years, Afghan security forces faced persistent threats from insurgent groups. Despite extensive training and support from the international community, the Afghan forces had trouble maintaining territorial control and countering the resurgent Taliban.
In February 2020, the U.S. and Taliban reached an agreement and signed a peace deal. This agreement required the U.S. to leave Afghanistan within 14 months. As the U.S. began withdrawing troops, the Taliban quickly started taking areas of the country and regaining rule of Afghanistan.
!summarize #mikehuckabee #politics
!summarize #politico #media #usaid
At the time of Alexander’s death in 323 B.C, Rome was in the middle of the Second War with the Samnites, which would end in 304 B.C. Rome, in those early days, did not have control of central and southern Italy, much less the whole peninsula. There were strong neighbors allied against her and her future depended on guile and perseverance.
!summarize #japan #economics #stagnation #demographics
!summarize #newyorkcity #immigration #ice #ghsottowns
So we begin Toynbee’s narrative…
In the winter of 318/317 B.C. Samnium was threatening the whole Italian peninsula and since their failure at Caudine Forks in 320 B.C, the Romans sought a different strategy to use against their principle adversary. They reasoned that a move across the Apennines to the Adriatic and then south would allow them to seek allies along the way and outflank the Samnites. Rome succeeded in making allies of Frentani, Teanum Apulum, and Canusium by 318 and was gaining strength when Ptolemy, representing Alexander, landed in Tarentum. The Tarentine government was anxious to avenge the death of the king of Epirus and looked to Alexander as the agent of that purpose.
Ptolemy toured the states of Peucetia and Apulia and offered their leaders an alliance with Alexander against Samnium as a preview to Alexander’s arrival the next season when he would crush the Samnites. Ptolemy also visited Teanum Apulum and Canusium urging them to think twice about an alliance with Rome, a minor power, when they could be allied with Macedon. Both cities abandoned their treaties with Rome in favor of the Greeks.
Important Events of the War in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan dates: Oct. 7, 2001, to Aug. 30, 2021.
Battle of Tora Bora (Dec. 12-17, 2001): A mission launched by the U.S. in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan to capture al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Operation Anaconda (March 2-18, 2002): A military operation to destroy Taliban and al-Qaida forces in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains. This was the first major military battle since Tora Bora.
Operation Red Wings (June 28, 2005): An operation launched to disrupt Taliban and anti-coalition militias to regain stability in the region for the National Assembly of Afghanistan elections.
Extortion 17 (Aug. 6, 2011): Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter, which had the call sign "Extortion 17," during a night mission in the Tangi Valley of Wardak Province. Thirty U.S. service members, including 22 Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six, were killed. It was one of the deadliest single events for U.S. forces during the conflict.
The Iraq War
With intelligence suggesting Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, U.S. and coalition forces moved into Iraq on March 20, 2003. Within three weeks, coalition forces captured the major cities. President George W. Bush ended combat operations in May 2003. Despite the declaration of military victory, a persistent guerrilla war waged on for years following the initial combat operations.
In December 2003 in Iraq, Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a hole in ad-Dawr. Without resisting, he was arrested by U.S. soldiers. In November 2006, Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity. He was executed on Dec. 30, 2006. In December 2011, the U.S. declared an end to the war in Iraq.
Despite this, the situation in Iraq became increasingly complex. The sectarian insurgency, fueled by tensions between Shiite and Sunni communities, intensified. On top of that, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the mid-2010s posed a significant threat. In response, the United States implemented a troop surge in 2007, with the goal of stabilizing the country and curbing the escalating violence.
Throughout the war in Iraq, six U.S. service members received Medals of Honor.
About 4,424 U.S. service members died in the Iraq War.
!summarize #nymets #trade #rumoras #dylancease #mlb #sandiego #padres
With his diplomatic mission completed in southeastern Italy, Ptolemy moved on to Rome with two advantages over the Romans: he was representing the conqueror of the world and Rome was still weak from her loss at the Caudine Forks. Ptolemy planned to offer an alliance that would offer Rome protection, but would the Romans see it as disguised servitude? Ptolemy offered a treaty similar to that of Porus, Alexander’s Indian ally -- an equal partnership – and the terms allowed Rome to retain all of its current territories. Alexander would not challenge the new Roman alliance with Frentani or another recent alliance with Neapolis, although he frowned on the latter as Roman hegemony against a Greek city.
Once Samnium was overthrown, Rome could claim some of the resulting spoils including the Caudine Canton. Rome could also seek alliances with central Italian cantons, but in no case was she allowed to compel them to accept alliances with her. Alexander would also give Rome access to the Po valley with her rich agricultural potential.
Important Events of the War in Iraq
Iraq War dates: March 20, 2003, to Dec. 15, 2011.
Mosul Raid (July 22, 2003): A U.S. military operation that led to the death of Uday and Qusay Hussein, the sons of Saddam Hussein.
Battle of Baghdad (April 5 to April 10, 2003): U.S. and coalition forces take the capital of Baghdad and declare victory.
Battle of Fallujah (April 4 to April 30, 2004): The first battle of Fallujah was aimed to capture or kill militants who killed and mutilated U.S. contractors.
Marine Crew Chief Who Died Trying to Save Trapped Pilots in Osprey Crash Awarded Service's Highest Noncombat Honor
Gen. Eric Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps, awarded the service's highest noncombat award for heroism -- the Navy and Marine Corps Medal -- to Cpl. Spencer Collart's family in a ceremony at Marine Corps Barracks Washington.
A Marine officer gingerly adjusted a picture of Cpl. Spencer Collart so it wouldn't blow away in the light breeze that drifted through the Marine Family Garden on Tuesday, minutes before the young crew chief was posthumously awarded for valor after attempting to rescue two trapped pilots in an Osprey crash last year.
Ptolemy now moved on to the more delicate part of the negotiations, namely what Rome must agree to in return for the benefits Alexander would provide them. Alexander wished to set limits to Rome’s territorial expansion. The Italian land east of the Apennines, including the major portion of Samnium, and all of Magna Graecia would be off limits. These territories would be organized into a territory of Tarentum. To mark the bounds of the new territory, Alexander would be planting Greek colonies at Maluentium, Luceria, and near Mount Vultur.
As to the Etruscan territories, Alexander would make treaties with them identical to those that had been negotiated with Rome.
"That decision reflected the highest commitment we have as Marines, to never leave a fellow Marine behind, no matter the circumstances," Smith said during the ceremony, seemingly holding back tears. "This kind of selflessness is rare, but it's the kind of bravery that defines Marines across generations."
An investigation released last month pointed to "pilot error and complacency" as the primary cause of the crash, but experts and surviving family members recently told Fire Watch, Military.com's flagship podcast, that pilots and crews are often unfairly blamed for strings of decisions made prior to tragic mishaps and despite known mechanical failures that have sprung up with the Osprey.
!summarize #mlb #texas #rangers #prospects #kumarrocker #sebastianwalcott
!summarize #starlink #satellite #internet #spacex #communications
!summarize #gold #stocks #bubble #metals #investing
In the ancient world, politics was often conducted through warfare, and power was expressed through military engineering. Engineers changed geography and the shape of the landscape; heaped things up and dug things away, build roads, water courses, bridges, towns, and forts. While what remains is stone, but most of the past was formed from earth, straw, and the key engineering component of the ancient world, wood.
Political Engineering
It was in wooden ships, built by Celtic shipwrights in Gaul that the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, first arrived in Southern England in 55-54 BC. We know this because in Caesar’s account of his wars in Gaul we get an unprecedented insight into both military engineering and the mechanics of the imperial machine.
While there were no known mechanical failures during the Australia crash, that Osprey should have never been deemed safe for flight that day, according to the investigation. It was also loaded with excess fuel not accounted for during the planning phase of the operation, meaning the pilots had to maneuver a heavy aircraft with seconds to react during a near-miss collision with another Osprey.
Twenty other Marines aboard the Osprey survived the crash, and Collart's family attributed that to the skill and competence of Lewis and LeBeau.
"God bless the three of them; we consider them all to be heroes," Bart Collart, Spencer's father, said during the ceremony. Quoting one of the surviving Marines in the crash, he said, "Those three Marines made the ultimate sacrifice, putting the lives of others before their own. Because of their bravery, skill and training, 20 Marines are alive today."
While Caesar did not stay, he established the political relationships that got Rome a foothold using the actuality or threat of a Roman intervention to destabilize existing regional politics. Once an area came within range of Rome’s political and military interests, it’s leaders had two choices; cut a deal or fight. All of this on top of the traditional political and military pressures from other rivals beyond Roman control. Invariably, this put the ruling elite between a rock a hard place. For perfectly honorable reasons they might resist and then end up with a worse deal, although not as bad if you make a deal and then broke it. Punitive sanctions went as far as genocide, or you might have gotten away with enslavement.
Once you were a client of the Rome, her army will ensure your security, in return for your assurance that it receive the necessary supplies, principally wheat, but also other material assistance and access to resources. This sort of ‘taxation’ did not need micromanagement -- a treaty was made with the local political authority, so the Romans knew who to blame if obligations were not met. Beyond this, engineering made the Roman army self-sufficient in managing its security.
The garden was filled with surviving family members, Marines and well-wishers who came to honor Collart's act of bravery as traffic bustled down 8th Street outside of the Marine barracks. Smith was accompanied by the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz, who was by his side as they presented the honor to Collart's family.
"Spencer, you never cease to amaze me, buddy," Alexia Collart, Spencer's mother, said as she briefly looked to the sky. "I just want to let you know we are so proud of you. We only got to have two decades with you. We love you so, so much, and we feel you are around us every single day, and we will never forget."
When the Romans returned in 43 AD they had controlled the Atlantic Seaboard for ninety years, so Claudius was more properly prepared for a long campaign; not just an army, but a navy also, since control of the sea was key to taking and holding an Island.
When Agricola made the first significant push into the north in the early 80s he had a naval presence on both coasts and even thought about an expedition to Ireland. Then, after the near disaster of the Boudicca revolt, the south was secured, and Rome was on the offensive, initially in the west and then in the North. In a typically aggressive series of campaigns Agricola punched his way north culminating in a battle of Mons Graupius, where his auxiliary troops reportedly killed about a third of a thirty thousand man highlander force.
The year was 84 A.D. and it was a high water mark when the highlanders retreated back into their glens in the mountains or the Islands in the West, and reverted to an over the horizon threat. Rather than pursuing them, the Romans chose to construct rough perimeter of timber forts and watch towers blocking off enemy territory. An opportunity and the strategic initiative had been lost due to external decisions and changes in military priorities of the Empire.
A Marine read Collart's award citation to the crowd, which lauded his efforts as courageous and selfless. Collart made sure to account for the other Marines after he left the burning wreckage and went back in "at great risk to his own life" to save the others, the citation said.
"Mr. and Mrs. Collart, no words can fully express the depth of our gratitude for your son's bravery," Smith said. "You raised a Marine who, in his final moments, thought not of himself, but of his fellow Marines. And we honor you for that. Spencer's legacy is one of selfless devotion to duty, and we're forever in his debt."
!summarize #offshore #oil #goldeneagle
At some point towards the end of the first century, the Romans withdrew the majority of their forces from Scotland to the territory of the Brigantes, who controlled Northern England. Their main base was set up at York and occupied by the twentieth legion. The Brigantes had long been loyal to Rome and provided a key buffer state for the Lands to the south. We also presume that some political relations continued with former allies in Scotland, although everything between the campaigns of Agricola and the building of the wall 40 years later is very sketchy.
At this point Hadrian arrives, possibly in response to a revolt in the north involving the Brigantes, who may have been triggered by the death of Trajan. Hadrian brought fresh troops, and re-established a ‘frontier’ in the North of Brigantes territory. After 80 years, the Romans understood that most of what they valued was in the South, so the north was no more than a security zone.
Topology is the study of shapes and spaces that don’t change even if they are stretched, twisted, or deformed—without cutting or gluing.
“An everyday example of topology is the Möbius strip—a simple yet mind-bending object. Amazingly, no matter how you try to manipulate the strip, you cannot untwist it back into a normal loop without tearing it apart,” the study authors note.
A material exhibiting topology is of great importance because it has the uncanny ability to remain unaffected by external factors. Such a material can demonstrate robust quantum behavior, as its quantum states in such material are immune to small disturbances.
Finding topological electronic crystal in graphene
The study authors began with two thin layers (flakes) of graphene, a material made of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Normally, electrons in graphene move freely, similar to how they do in metals like copper.
Next, they stacked the two graphene layers on top of each other but rotated one slightly. This small twist created an interesting pattern called a moiré pattern, where some carbon atoms from both layers were aligned perfectly, but others were misaligned.
When electrons moved through this twisted structure, their behavior completely changed. “For example, the electrons slow way down, and sometimes they develop a twist in their motion, like the vortex in the water at the drain of a bathtub as it is draining out,” Joshua Folk, one of the study authors and a physics professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), said.
All appears to have gone well at first, but at some point, work appears to have virtually stopped. It is likely that warfare disrupted the construction process. Once the work was restarted again, the quality and quantity of the building was scaled back, the plan to build the road was abandoned, and extra forts were added.
So the wall was built in a war zone, as an army installation and a fortified frontier to contain the threat that had not been eliminated forty years earlier. Whatever the technical and in particular logistic achievements, the Wall did not work, and Hadrian’s successor moved the frontier North to Forth Isthmus, where forces could be concentrated on a shorter frontier.
In the past I’ve discussed many of Rome’s great engineering feats -- Aqua Marcia, Caesar’s bridge over the Rhine, and the siege works at Masada, to name a few. The Romans were the greatest engineers of antiquity because structure and organization were fundamental to their view of the world.
For this post, we turn to Hadrian’s Wall, that enigmatic barrier built across Northern Britain in the early 120s A.D. There are many holes in the story of the wall including the purpose of its construction -- but its existence can't be disputed as you can see from the photographs below.
Homestead
Don’t expect that in headlines. To paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron:
The homesteading will not be televised.
not be televised, not be televised.
The homesteading will be live.
The film deals with topics of revolutionary changes without and within. Capitalizing on a growing audience interested in such subjects, “Homestead” joins other films and shows on small farm communities such “The Lunatic Farmer,” the multi-season “Clarkson’s Farm,” and, in its own way, 2024’s “Civil War.”
Rather than a full movie about escaping LA, reaping harvests of food when it counts, and picking off interlopers by rifle, “Homestead” is also a Bible-based message about walking with the prudence and kindness worthy of God, no matter the trials one faces.
Some more metropolitan establishment reviewers have called that a relief about the movie, since they find prepping films “preachy” or off-putting, Why spoil the unity a movie like this can achieve and make survival with humanity an either-or matter?
There were seventeen forts along the wall averaging about five miles between them. Seven were built astride the wall and six were attached to its southern side. The forts were of two sizes: two and a half acres, the size required to accommodate 500 men and 5 acres, the size required to accommodate 1000 men.
At regular intervals, approximating a mile, the Romans constructed milecastles with dimensions of about 70 x 60 feet and attached them to the wall. They were of a size to accommodate 100 men and had gates to the north and south.
Turrets were located between each milecastle at 1/3 and 2/3 of the distance between them. Each turret was about thirteen feet square internally and contained a staircase used to climb to the rampart on the top of the wall. There were no stairways on the wall except at forts, milecastles, and turrets.
A road ran behind the wall, passed through the east and west gates of the forts and also branched off to a road leading to the milecastles and a path to the turrets.
At varying points behind the wall sat a defined earthwork barrier called the Vallum. A ditch was dug thirty feet deep and seven feet wide at the flattened bottom. The contents of the ditch were used to create a mound on either side of it about six feet high and twenty feet across. The ditch and mounds were separated by berms of about twenty-four feet in width. The entire barrier of mound, berm, ditch, berm, and mound was about one hundred and twenty feet across.
Lastly, behind the Vallum sat a Roman road called the Standgate.
Kevin Costner says making movies has ‘nothing to do with politics’
Costner said filmmakers should keep the 'audience in mind' while attending the Fanatics Super Bowl party in New Orleans
Kevin Costner shared his view that American politics shouldn't have any impact on how Hollywood movies are made.
Ahead of taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump named Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as his special ambassadors to Hollywood with the aim of bringing back business that he said had been lost to "foreign countries."
During an interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday, Costner, 70, explained that he didn't believe any change was needed in Hollywood with the advent of the Trump administration and filmmakers should focus on theater-goers when creating content.
"I think you make the best movie you can for an audience and understand that…you have a chance. Every so often you have a chance to do something meaningful," he said while attending Michael Rubin's Fanatics Super Bowl party in New Orleans.
Costner continued, "And sometimes it's just pure fun. Movies don't have to be important, but they have to have an audience in mind."
"Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1" was released in theaters last August but disappointed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics. On Friday, Costner premiered the second installment at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, but a wider theatrical release in the U.S. has not been announced.
After "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1" performed poorly at the box office, Costner defended the film and asserted that audiences would come to appreciate the saga over time.
"I've faced life with people being dismissive of me," Costner told E! News. "But they can't be dismissive of ‘Horizon,’ because now it's out of their hands. And they might point to the finish line – well, this is what it did at the box office – but I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years."
"There's a moment in time where you want [your children] to see this movie," he said. "To understand that this is what their [ancestors] went through. It's not just a Western, it's a history of migration and what they had to do to survive. And I'm really proud of it."
During a February 2024 interview with Forbes, Costner, who previously directed the movies "Dances With Wolves," "Open Range," and "The Postman," explained his approach to filmmaking.
The purpose of the wall has been endlessly debated, which seems surprising. One would think it obvious that the goal was to keep the northern tribes from attacking territory controlled by the Empire, but there are those that have argued that the tribes didn’t pose enough of a threat to justify the enormous expense of building the structure. The true answer may be as simple as Hadrian employing his "defense before expansion" strategy or perhaps he simply decided to draw a line where the Empire in Britain would end.
Still, it is clear that the wall was built as a defensive structure. Examine the following graphic, provided to me by Geoff Carter, which demonstrates how the wall was designed to facilitate a counterattack against invaders.
!summarize #harrisonford #indianajones #Hollywood
Roman Strategy -- Defending the Frontier 20 B.C. to 300 A.D.
During the period that begins in the late Republic and extends to the time of Diocletian, Rome utilized three different strategies for defending its frontier. One can refer to them as the Republican, Antonine, and Diocletian strategies, the names an indicator of the time period when they were first utilized. Each reflected the strength of Rome at the time of its adoption – in the beginning a strong Rome expanding itself and intimidating its neighbors, in the middle a powerful Empire seeking to control a vast territory, and in the end a weak Rome trying vainly to resist united enemies.
!summarize #cbsnews #fcc #60minutes #kamalaharris #election #news #television
!summarize #thai #israel #hostages #hamas
!summarize #jamesclerkmaxwell #physics #math
!summarize #steveyoung #billwalsh #Business #sports #nfl
Ascend quickly, descend just as swiftly.
I was writing a blog when the mobile app started adding extra text on its own and suddenly it erased everything I had typed, in that same moment the draft saved automatically and I lost it all. Very frustrating #feedback
This is endless.
“Tax reform is necessary. There are too many loopholes.”
I am back now preparing for workshop in the evening by 5pm
#sundayvibes #threads #inleo
Laurens van der Post, in his book The Lost World of the Kalahari, narrates his experience living with the foresters of the Kalahara Desert, an ancestral people deeply connected to nature.
One of the most shocking stories is when foresters were surprised to discover that Van der Post couldn’t “hear the stars.” At first they thought he was joking or lying, but when they realized he was telling the truth, they were filled with sadness. For them, not hearing the whisper of the universe is not a simple lack, but a sign of spiritual illness: total disconnection with the natural world.
Hold on to your Bitcoin indefinitely.
Traveling to Crooksville on the bullet train was quite an experience.
"Someone sent me a Miss Peaches coin from the sky, valued at 25k! I sold it and invested it all into #jailstool. You’re welcome, #jailstool community. And please, don't send free coins with the expectation of anything in return; that's a
risk you take."
Offering support and encouragement! 🤝
Current thoughts align with a significant potential for a MAGA dynasty if asset deflation occurs, allowing Main Street to succeed against Wall Street.
In a scenario where the stock market declines and housing prices drop alongside budget cuts and new controls on future spending:
Less deficit spending leads to decreased borrowing, effectively reinforcing the first point.
Wage stagnation could improve due to tighter border security, leading to more disposable income for individuals.
Expectations are that the new budget favors Main Street by reallocating wealth from the top earners through capital gains adjustments and limiting sports team depreciation benefits.
In this context, tariffs seem crucial to the solution.
A hypothesis suggests that major tariffs are on the horizon, as recent discussions indicate that Treasury Secretary Bessent aims to shift Trump's focus from stock market performance to achieving lower 10-year yields. This strategy,
Paragraphs
“If you think about the practical accessibility of open source, it goes beyond the license, right?” Peter Zaitsev, founder of open source database services company Percona, said in the panel discussion. “Governance is very important, because if it’s a single corporation, they can change a license like ‘that.’”
These sentiments were echoed in a separate talk by Dotan Horovits, open source evangelist at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), where he mused about open source “turning to the dark side.” He noted that in most cases, issues arise when a single-vendor project decides to make changes based on its own business needs among other pressures. “Which begs the question, is vendor-owned open source an oxymoron?” Horovits said. “I’ve been asking this question for a good few years, and in 2025 this question is more relevant than ever.”
!summarize #selfdriving #cnbc #fraud #safety
!summarize #nyknicks #boston #Celtics #nba
These debates won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, as open source has emerged as a major focal point in the AI realm.
China’s DeepSeek arrived with a bang off the back of open source hype, and while the models’ MIT licenses are very much recognized as open source, there remains black holes around training data among other components. Which is why researchers at Hugging Face are trying to create an even “more open” version of DeepSeek’s reasoning model.
The label Axial Age was first described by the philosopher Karl Jaspers who wrote about the evolution of human thought during the first millennium B.C. Jaspers introduced the concept in a book called The Origin and Goal of History, published in 1968. He considered the Axial Age as unique and one which ushered in the age of human thought. The term Axial is a translation of the German word for pivot, referring to a change in human direction.
Like any new idea the Axial Age has its proponents and detractors. Let’s delve into that a little further.
In the previous post, I discussed the book Why the West Rules, by Ian Morris. Morris is supporter of the Axial Period as a change in the direction of human history, although with reservations. I quote from his book: “Karl Jaspers, a German philosopher struggling to make sense of the moral crisis of his day, called the centuries around 500 B.C. the Axial Age…Jaspers portentously declared, ‘Man as we know him today, came into being’”
!summarize #ev #winter #driving
Stefano Maffulli, executive director at the OSI, said that while some organizations and foundations do lean into ideas around “open design, community, and development,” these are all fundamentally philosophical concepts.
“The point of having definitions is to have criteria that can be scored, and focusing on licensing is how that is accomplished,” Maffulli said in a statement issued to TechCrunch. “The global community and industry have come to rely on the Open Source Definition and now the Open Source AI Definition as objective measures that they can rely on.”
Under this approach, hydrogen is used as fuel, and the engine accelerates charged particles – electrons and protons – to a speed of 100 km/s (62 miles/s).
“In traditional power units, the maximum velocity of matter flow is about 4.5 km/s, which is due to the conditions of fuel combustion. In contrast, in our engine, the working body is charged particles that are accelerated by an electromagnetic field,” said Alexei Voronov, first deputy general director for science at the Troitsk Institute, as reported by Izvestia.
A faster journey to Mars would not only increase efficiency but also minimize the risks associated with prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation for astronauts.
A laboratory prototype of the engine has already been developed at Rosatom’s Troitsk Institute.
!summarize #scientists #bigbang #cosmology #space #history
To facilitate testing, a specialized experimental stand has been built to simulate the conditions of space. This 4-meter diameter, 14-meter long chamber is equipped with advanced sensors, vacuum pumping systems, and heat removal mechanisms.
While the initial launch into orbit will rely on traditional chemical rockets, the plasma engine will be activated once the spacecraft reaches its designated orbit. This technology could also be incorporated into space tugs used for transporting cargo between planets.
The engine’s design involves two electrodes with a high voltage applied across them. As charged particles pass between the electrodes, a magnetic field is created, propelling the particles out of the engine and generating thrust.
Morris doubts whether the philosophical geniuses of the first millennium B.C. guided societies through some type of intellectual barrier. He gives three reasons for this opinion: 1) the Axial Period covered many centuries and is not a sudden event, 2) the most important Axial thinkers came from small communities and were not well known, and 3) since Axial thinking was a reaction against kings and their bureaucrats, its real contribution was in the area of social development, not societal behavior.
Morris believes that the real engine for the advancement of man was the character of man himself: lazy, greedy, and frightened. Morris believes these are the true characteristics that propel the human race forward and uses the Romans to prove his point.
Future of space propulsion
The arena of space propulsion technology has been witnessing several advances.
Recently, an Italy-based research team revealed that they are working on developing a space propulsion system that will use water as fuel.
Scientists are also testing the concept of lightsails that use the pressure from lasers or starlight to propel spacecraft.
However, it must be noted that these technologies are still in their nascent stages, and it may take years before they can be used in real-world missions.
A rational view would dictate that power be based on merit instead of birth and that the rich should care for the poor and this intellectualizing of human behavior eventually led to a deepening relationship among members of a society who shared a common belief.
I find Jaspers' theory quite interesting. The fact that the tendency to complex human thought sprang up at approximately the same time in human history indicated a common human desire to create philosophical systems which would light the way for man to achieve wisdom. Whether it was a driving force or an incidental attribute of forces already at work, is a matter for future debate.
World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war involved many of the world's nations, with the Allies led by the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China; and the Axis led by Germany, Italy and Japan. The war lasted until Sept. 2, 1945, when Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri, marking the official end of the conflict. The war had various theaters of operation, including Europe, the Pacific, Africa and Asia, and resulted in significant geopolitical changes and the formation of the United Nations in an effort to prevent future global conflicts.
!summarize #nfl #conspiracy #taylorswift #kansascity #chiefs
!summarize #china #mexico #madeinmexico #manufacturing
The study of antiquity becomes more interesting when we realize that people have always acted the same. We see these behaviors repeat in cycles and can compare them to what’s happening in the world today. Even though we have developed a brain capable of taking us beyond what mere “animalness” can accomplish, we’re still animals. Yes, we developed civilization quickly – the pottery wheel, agriculture, trade, cities, metallurgy, armies, political systems – all between 4000 B.C. and 500 B.C, but we remain jealous, hateful, militant, distrustful, power hungry, and greedy.
!summarize #tesla #model3 #ev #automotive
I recently came across a paper by Ian Morris, professor of Antiquity at Stanford. The paper, “The Collapse and Regeneration of Complex Society in Greece, 1500-500 B.C”, was written in 2005. I plan to discuss this paper in a future post but for now I would like to discuss Professor Morris himself. Not being familiar with his work, I looked him up and discovered his recent book, “Why the West Rules for Now.” I read a review where it was mentioned that Morris was summoned to CIA headquarters to talk about his book.
Spooks into antiquity? Go figure! Reminds me of the FBI interrogation of Indiana Jones when they were trying to understand Hitler’s interest in the occult.
Last year, General Dynamics won a US Navy contract worth an estimated $15.9 million to develop its planned Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset (MEDUSA) System. The system is intended for use by the Navy’s submarine fleet.
Experts and analysts viewed the contract as part of a larger strategy to create a hybrid fleet of both crewed and uncrewed vessels, aimed at significantly enhancing the Navy’s operational effectiveness and agility across various maritime environments. This is also where the ‘Ghost’ fits in.
In their accompanying paper published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers showed that the new leaf is a marked improvement over more conventional rigid systems.
For example, they found that at a 45-degree angle of incidence to light, the device maintains 47% higher water-splitting efficiency than fixed alternatives. If light strikes the leaf at 90 degrees, the tracking system produces 866% more hydrogen and oxygen fuel.
The leaf was developed using a new fabrication technique to deposit photoactive materials on lightweight plastic instead of glass. They also created an artificial replica of plant cell cytoplasm using hydrogel coatings.
This coating is also permeable, allowing water to enter and “waste” gases to escape the system. During operation, the leaf’s photoanode (a device that splits water) retained 73% of its activity after 65 hours of continuous operation.
Inspired by nature, the artificial leaf also works exceptionally well underwater, an environment where traditional solar panels and other artificial leaves often struggle.
According to the researchers, their new leaf also demonstrated stable hydrogen and oxygen production through complete water splitting, with products concentrating on each of the electrodes.
!summarize #sap
As impressive as this all sounds, the team notes that significant challenges remain before the technology can be scaled. For example, the nanotube structural elements were shown to degrade in performance over multiple tracking cycles.
This degradation also dramatically impacted the light tracking response time. The team also points out that wind and water currents would likely significantly impact real-world applications, substantially reducing their motion and efficiency.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
That being said, the core innovation demonstrates how mimicking nature’s solutions can overcome persistent technical barriers. This interesting development helps advance artificial photosynthesis by addressing the fundamental problem of angular dependence in solar energy capture.
If technology like this could be scaled up and made more robust, it could usher in an era of new solar energy and solar fuel production systems that can operate autonomously without mechanical tracking systems. This would enable industries to produce energy and biofuels more efficiently and cheaper.
!summarize #depression #Economics #2030 #forecast
!summarize #u2 #music #rock #bono
The reviewer plays this game – “Look history is relevant again. It’s useful”, as if he had a clue about the subject. And then we have the following:
“Why the West Rules won praise in publications like The Economist and the Financial Times, which called it "the first history of the world that really makes use of what modern technology can offer to the interpretation of the historical process."
Which brings me to my second problem. I don’t buy the notion that history has to create some way to be relevant in order to impart value. It doesn’t need a technological methodology at all, because it’s one of the subjects of the Humanities, not the computer science department.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese launched an attack on Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii. After the devastating attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies, Germany and Italy. Five months later, after discovering Japan’s plan to invade the Solomon Islands, the U.S. intercepted the Japanese Navy. The Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4-8, 1942) was the first modern naval engagement in history. The Japanese succeeded in this four-day battle between aircraft carriers, but the cost of this victory stopped Japan from occupying other areas of the South Pacific.
The rule for election of Consuls of Rome required that a man be 43 years of age unless he was of the patrician class and then he would get two years credit and be eligible at 41. Election during the first year of eligibility was on Caesar’s mind as he waited for the end of 60 B.C. and the voting. During his term as provincial governor of Spain, Caesar had acquired enough capital to pay off many of his debts. Moreover, his experience leading men in battle had energized him for more efforts in the arena of war. But first it had to be Rome and the Consulship.
!summarize #nyknicks #boston #celtics #nba
Caesar’s competitors in the election were Bibulus and Lucceius. Bibulus had served with Caesar as Aedile, but disliked him immensely. Nonetheless he offered bribes to Caesar for his support. Caesar refused and short on cash himself, borrowed money from Lucceius. He did not approach Crassus, as he was accustomed to because he didn’t want to offend Pompey who was still at odds with the wealthiest man in Rome. When the votes were tallied, Caesar was elected along with Bibulus who had benefitted from a campaign of bribery undertaken by Cato.
The force bringing the triumvirs together was now set in motion. Caesar was snubbed by the Senate when it assigned the “forests and cattle runs” of southeastern Italy as the province to be administered by the new Consuls.
Pompey was snubbed when the land bill he proposed to accommodate his veterans was defeated. The Senate looked down on Pompey as beneath their class – a plebian by heritage and only now elevated because of his father. They distrusted him fearing he would try to use his army to overthrow the government.
Finally, Crassus was snubbed when he supported the re-write of a tax collection contract favored by the knights. He got Cicero over to his position, but Cato killed the bill.
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Peter Zeihan breaks down China's looming economic disaster, exposing the hidden cracks behind its so-called recovery. With a collapsing property sector, deflation fears, and a shrinking workforce, Beijing's official numbers don’t tell the full story. As Western sanctions mount and TikTok faces a U.S. ban, China’s global position is at risk. Is this the beginning of the end for the world’s second-largest economy?
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The allies decided to add a fourth man to the group – make a quatumvirate, no less. The man they chose was Cicero, because of his oratorical skills. The invitation to join was delivered to him by Balbus, a confidant of Caesar. Cicero was certainly angry at the conservatives who were in the process of wrecking the Republic, but he could not abide the triumvirs either. He felt Pompey and Crassus were not supportive enough of his handling of the conspiracy of Cataline, while his antipathy toward Caesar was visceral. In the end, he refused to join the others and would suffer later because of it.
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Even more important were Caesar’s efforts to secure a province for himself after his term of Consulship ended. Working through a trusted Tribune, Vatinius, he moved a bill through the assembly to allocate to himself Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years instead of the normal two. The Senate was not even consulted. Bibulus declared the law invalid because the omens were not favorable, but, once again, he was ignored. During a subsequent shouting match in the Senate, Caesar declared that he had gotten what he wanted despite the moanings of the Senate and that from now on he would “mount on top of the heads of the Senators”.
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With German and Italian troops surrendering in North Africa, the Allies turned their attention to Italy. The British launched Operation Mincemeat, creating a diversion that allowed Gen. George Patton and the Allies to move into Sicily. As the Allies moved to the Italian mainland, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s government collapsed in July 1943, and the new government under Pietro Badoglio began negotiations for an armistice. On Sept. 3, the Italian government surrendered to the Allies. Despite this, the Allies' advances through Italy were very slow due to Britain and the U.S. moving their focus to Normandy, France.
The first triumvirate of the Roman Republic was a classic study in power and politics. Three men, each with their own unique personality, battled for control of Rome, but it took a titan of titans to defeat the other two, and that man removed the final brick from the Republic and used it to establish the foundation for an empire.
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Gaius Julius Caesar was born in 100 B.C. A member of the famed Julian clan, he was the son of another Gaius Julius Caesar whose sister Julia married Gaius Marius, the famous general. Caesar matured during the civil war between Marius and Sulla (88-82 B.C), although his allegiance to Marius almost cost him his life. During the time Marius was in control of Rome, Caesar was named priest and married the daughter of Marius’ ally Cinna. But then Sulla took control of the city causing Caesar to lose his wife’s dowry, title, and was forced into hiding. Ironically, the loss of priestly office freed Caesar to join the army and serve in the east. Hearing of Sulla’s death in 78, he returned to Rome to work as an attorney in order to hone his skills in rhetoric and oratory. Then, by 70 B.C, Caesar was ready to begin his political career.
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Marcus Licinius Crassus was born in 115 B.C, son of P. Licinius Crassus, who was Consul in 97 B.C and Censor in 89. During the civil war, Crassus’ father and brother committed suicide rather than being captured by the troops of Marius. Later, after Marius’ death, his ally Cinna began proscriptions on all those who had supported Sulla, forcing the younger Crassus into exile. Then, after Cinna’s death in 84 B.C, Crassus joined Sulla in Africa and eventually became one of the leaders of the attack force that retook Rome in 82 B.C. Crassus spent the next few years amassing the greatest fortune in Roman history through land speculation, proscriptions against the followers of Marius, and slave trade. Now wealthy, he began his political career through the curule path.
Political advancement was interrupted by the slave war with Spartacus, which Crassus helped put down in 71 B.C, but he was elected consul in 70 B.C, serving with Pompey and then Censor in 65 B.C. In 60, he was returned to consul, again serving with Pompey.
Pompey was elected consul with Crassus in 70 B.C. without having first served in the Senate, a very unusual accomplishment. At 35 years of age, he was already Rome’s greatest general and, as head of the army, a power to be reckoned with. Following his consulship, Pompey continued his military exploits, fighting in the east against Mithridates, and then on to Syria and Palestine. He returned to Rome for his third triumph in 61 B.C. and again joined Crassus as consul in 60.
So we had three men, three personalities, who had accumulated great power on their own, each harboring a defect preventing further glory. Caesar, the youngest, had little military experience and substantial debts which limited his influence. Crassus lacked leadership skills and was forced to use coin in its place. Pompey had no political resume and lacked a skill for politics. They all experienced Sulla’s attempts to reform the Republic, but Pandora’s box had been opened and Sulla could not put the Republic back to the way it used to be. The new world would be fashioned by the triumvirate and that which would follow it.
Where do we get our information about this period in Roman history? Livy, writing six centuries later is our most detailed source, but his story is a retelling of folklore and myth that was given to him. Let’s take a few moments and review what has been written about those early kings.
Romulus was the first of the named kings -- invented to create an origin for the Roman culture. After 38 years as king, he ascended into heaven during a thunderstorm creating the the link to the gods necessary for the myth to be complete.
The second king, named Numa Pompilius, was said to be of Sabine origin. He built the king’s palace in the Forum (Regia) and organized the religion of Rome including the Temple of Vesta and its servants, the Vestal Virgins. Numa also expanded the Roman calendar to twelve months. He reigned for forty three years and then passed from this life.
Next was Tullus Hostilus, a strong military leader whose most notable achievement was the defeat of the Albans which led to their annexation to Rome. Tullus also built the first Senate house and called it the Curia Hostilia. He died in 642 B.C. after a reign of thirty one years.
The fourth king was Ancus Marcius. He is credited with building the first bridge across the Tiber and with extending Roman influence to Ostia. He lost a popular election in 616 B.C. to L. Tarquinius Priscus.
Capturing the island of Okinawa gave the Allied forces a tactical strong point to launch attacks on the Japanese home islands. Wanting to end the war quickly ahead of a costly invasion of Japan, President Harry Truman dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, with a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later. World War II ended with the surrender of Emperor Hirohito and Japan on Aug. 14, 1945. On Sept. 2, 1945, Japan signed its formal surrender, marking VJ Day and the official end of the war.
Throughout World War II, 473 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 405,399 U.S. service members died in World War II.
Tarquinius was an Etruscan and owed his election to the influence of his Etruscan friends who had followed him to Rome. He reigned until 579 B.C. when he was murdered by the sons of Ancus Marcius who were unhappy with their exclusion from the affairs of state. In the melee that followed, his son, Servius Tullus, became king when his wife (Tarquinius’ daughter) convinced a crowd that Tarquinius was alive but injured and Rome needed Severus to temporarily serve in his place. Severus continued with the ruse until he had consolidated his power and was elected king.
Important Figures and Events of WWII
World War II dates: Sept. 1, 1939, to Sept. 2, 1945.
Attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941): The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, prompting the U.S. to declare war on Japan and its allies.
Adm. Chester Nimitz: Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Battle of Midway (June 4 to 7, 1942): A key turning point in the war, stopping Japanese forces from further expansion into the Pacific.
Gen. George Patton: Commander of the U.S. Seventh Army during the invasion of Sicily.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: Commander of the Allied forces leading the invasion of Normandy (D-Day; June 6, 1944). Eisenhower would become the 34th president.
Tuskegee Airmen: The first Black aviation unit. The Tuskegee Airmen played a critical role, flying more than 15,000 missions in World War II.
Invasion of Normandy: (D-Day; June 6, 1944): The landing on the beaches of Normandy was the largest amphibious assault in history.
VE Day (May 8, 1945): The official end of WWII in Europe.
Battle of Iwo Jima (Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945): The U.S. Navy and Marines take Iwo Jima as a strategic area to launch attacks on the mainland of Japan.
Mount Suribachi: Site of the famed U.S. Marine flag-raising on Feb. 23, 1945.
Historians have been skeptical of much of the history we have outlined here. It appears that the date of Rome’s origin and the number of kings were selected before dates were fitted to them. It seems unlikely that all these kings could have reigned for twenty four years or longer. In addition, the accomplishments of the kings appear to be equally alloted between them to appear as if each helped in the formation of the Republic. Still, the history of the Etruscan kings appears solid for two reasons: we know that the Etruscans were expanding south during this time so it makes sense that they would gain power in Rome. More importantly, the Romans would not have acknowledged their subservience to the Etruscans unless it was actually true.
The Korean War
The Korean War is often referred to as the "Forgotten War" due to its overshadowing by other major conflicts, such as World War II and the Vietnam War.
The war began on June 25, 1950, when North Korean forces, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea. The conflict was the result of the division of Korea along the 38th parallel, the ideological differences between the Communist North and the democratic South, and a desire to contain the spread of communism in the region. The United States and other Western nations intervened to support South Korea, while the Soviet Union and China backed North Korea.
Livy admitted his history lacked authenticity:
“My task, moreover, is an immensely laborious one. I shall have to go back more than seven hundred years, and trace my story from its small beginnings until these recent times…Events before Rome was born or thought of have come to us in old tales with more of the charm of poetry than of a sound historical record, and such traditions I propose neither to affirm or refute. There is no reason, I feel, to object when antiquity draws no hard line between the human and the supernatural: it adds dignity to the past, and, if any nation deserves the privilege of claiming a divine ancestry, that nation is our own…”
With the North Korean Army pushing further into the south, Gen. Douglas MacArthur launched an amphibious assault on Inchon. The assault on the west coast of Korea led to recapturing the South Korean capital of Seoul.
After disobeying presidential orders and pursuing a plan to expand the Korean War into China, MacArthur was relieved of his command. He was replaced by Gen. Matthew Ridgway, who held off the Communist north while peace negotiations dragged on.
With President Dwight Eisenhower taking office, negotiations continued until July 27, 1953, when an armistice agreement was signed. The Korean Armistice Agreement led to a cease-fire and the establishment of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) along the 38th parallel, which remains one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. However, a formal peace treaty was never signed, and the two Koreas technically remain in a state of war.
Around 750 B.C. another race arrived and displaced the Villanovans. According to Herodotus, the newcomers, eventually labeled Etruscans, came from Asia Minor. He writes in book 1 chapter 94:
“The customs of the Lydians (Asia Minor east of Ionia) are like those of the Greeks... They were the first men whom we know who coined and used gold and silver currency; and they were the first to sell by retail. …In the reign of Atys son of Manes there was great scarcity of food in all Lydia. For a while the Lydians bore this with what patience they could; presently, when the famine did not abate, they looked for remedies, and different plans were devised by different men… But the famine did not cease to trouble them, and instead afflicted them even more.
At last their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed. Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to Smyrna and built ships, in which they loaded all their goods that could be transported aboard ship, and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country; until at last, after sojourning with one people after another, they came to the Ombrici (Umbria Italy) where they founded cities and have lived ever since. They no longer called themselves Lydians, but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them there.”
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The Gulf War
The Gulf War, also known as the Persian Gulf War, had profound geopolitical implications and marked a major conflict in the post-Cold War era. It began in August 1990, when Iraqi forces, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. The international response to this aggression was swift, and a coalition of nations, led by the United States, initiated Operation Desert Shield to deter further Iraqi advances.
Defying the U.N., Hussein prompted President George H.W. Bush to launch Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. The coalition employed new military technology in its swift-moving offensive against Iraqi forces. On Feb. 24, coalition forces began Operation Desert Sabre. U.S. and coalition forces took back Kuwait and defeated Iraqi forces. A cease-fire was declared on Feb. 28, 1991, ending the Gulf War and liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
The War in Afghanistan
Operation Enduring Freedom began on Oct. 7, 2001, with U.S. and British airstrikes on al-Qaida and the Taliban. Special operations forces also began striking targets around the country. With sustained airstrikes and ground forces attacking key areas, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul and Kandahar were quickly taken by the U.S. and coalition forces. As the Taliban was pushed from key areas of Afghanistan, the first elected president, Hamid Karzai, took office.
On May 2, 2011, Operation Neptune Spear began. In the early morning hours, U.S. Black Hawks left Afghanistan bound for Abbottabad, Pakistan. The target was Osama bin Laden. Navy SEALs landed at the Abbottabad compound to carry out this mission. As the SEALs moved through the compound, they located and killed bin Laden on the third floor. SEALs also discovered valuable intelligence in the compound. The 40-minute operation carried out by SEAL Team Six was a success.
Alexander the Great – What if he had lived?
One of the most fascinating stories from antiquity is the life of Alexander the Great, the man who conquered the world by age thirty. Alexander has to be considered one of greatest military commanders of all time and one of the most important personalities of the ancient world.
Unfortunately, the story of his life ends abruptly. He became ill in early June of 323 B.C. and died on either the tenth or eleventh of that month at age thirty-two. The cause of Alexander’s death has been debated throughout the centuries, even up to the present day. Was he poisoned, or was it an infection that killed him? The truth eludes us but the fact that Alexander was ill for ten days suggests that disease rather than poison was the culprit.
What would Alexander have accomplished if he had not died so young? We can only guess, but it makes an interesting topic for discussion nonetheless.
To try and imagine Alexander’s world after 323 B.C, I’m going to employ Arnold Toynbee, a well-known scholar of antiquity, to help us. Toynbee, known mostly for his Study of History, wrote many fine books about the ancient world including a favorite of mine called Some Problems in Greek History.
There is a chapter in the latter entitled “If Alexander the Great had lived on”, where Toynbee speculates about Alexander’s efforts and successes during the period after 323 B.C. It’s a long chapter, spanning some forty-five pages, and I will not attempt to re-tell his whole story, but I found the section on Alexander’s relationship with Rome particularly interesting.
The last U.S. troops departed Kabul on Aug. 30, 2021, ending nearly 20 years of military engagement in Afghanistan and marking the end of America's longest war. The withdrawal, however, was marred by scenes of chaos and heightened tensions. The desperate attempt of Afghan citizens to flee the country before the Taliban takeover resulted in a frenzied and overcrowded Kabul airport. Tragically, on Aug. 26, 2021, a suicide bombing near the airport's Abbey Gate claimed the lives of numerous Afghan civilians and U.S. service members.
Throughout the war in Afghanistan, 25 U.S. troops received the Medal of Honor.
About 2,300 U.S. service members died in the War in Afghanistan.
Gen. Eric Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps, awarded the service's highest noncombat award for heroism -- the Navy and Marine Corps Medal -- to Collart's family in a small but well-attended ceremony at Marine Corps Barracks Washington, right outside of the head Marine's own home.
Collart, a young, but seasoned crew chief, escaped the aircraft in August 2023 after it crashed on an island north of the Australian mainland during a training exercise. Realizing that the two Osprey pilots -- Maj. Tobin Lewis and Capt. Eleanor LeBeau -- were still trapped inside the burning aircraft, he reentered the wreckage in an attempt to save them, but all three tragically perished.
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What is it about true crime podcasts that captivates a partner so much?
Is there any reason for concern?
Shorting $PLTR:
The company's core operations are unclear.
Homicide: Life on the Street. (link in reply)#moviesonleo #television #review One of the more forgettable episodes of
https://inleo.io/hive-166847/@drax/television-review-nothing-personal-homicide-life-on-the-street-s3x18-1995-6kg
Listening to this this morning.. super interesting with Ray Dalio:
The essence of building wealth lies in simplicity:
These represent the entirety of personal financial accounts.
Here are four strategies to enhance financial growth by simplifying:
The current atmosphere in the crypto space is filled with strong emotions and negativity.
It appears we're nearing the lowest point.
Stay resilient and hold on!
Who one evolves into in five years is influenced by:
The individuals surrounded by today
The discussions engaged in today
The decisions made today
The literature consumed today
The meals enjoyed today
Make thoughtful choices today to shape a different life for the future. #PersonalGrowth #Mindset
The bullish trend for Bitcoin will continue until fiat currency ceases to exist.
In a year, when #bitcoin reaches $500k, many will reflect, "I wish I had purchased more at $95k."
Wealthy individuals don't earn income the traditional way; instead, they let their money generate more wealth. The key distinction between merely surviving financially and creating true prosperity lies in investing. It's important to
position oneself favorably in financial dealings.