Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495–435 BCE) was known as a poet, statesman, and physician, as well as philosopher. Empedocles encouraged people to look upon him as a miracle worker. Philosophically he believed there were elements that were the building blocks of everything else: earth, air, fire, and water. These are the four elements that are paired with the four humors in Hippocratic medicine and even modern typologies. The next philosophical step would be to realize a different type of universal element -- atoms, as the Pre-socratic philosophers known as Atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, reasoned.
Empedocles believed in transmigration of the soul and thought that he would be come back as a god, so he jumped into the Mt. Aetna volcano.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276–194 BCE) was the second chief librarian at Alexandria. He calculated the circumference of the earth, created latitude and longitude measurements, and made a map of the earth. He was acquainted with Archimedes of Syracuse.
Euripides (c. 484–407/406 BCE) was the third of the three great Greek tragic poets. He won his first first prize in 442. Despite winning only limited acclaim during his lifetime, Euripides was the most popular of the three great tragedians for generations after his death. Euripides added intrigue and the love-drama to Greek tragedy. His surviving tragedies are:
Orestes
Phoenician Woman
Trojan Women
Ion
Iphigenia
Hecuba
Heracleidae
Helen
Suppliant Women
Bacchae
Cyclops
Medea
Electra
Alcestis
Andromache
Hatshepsut was a long-ruling regent and female pharaoh of Egypt (r. 1479–1458 BCE) during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Hatshepsut was responsible for successful Egyptian military and trading ventures. The added wealth from trade permitted the development of high caliber architecture. She had a mortuary complex built at Deir el-Bahri near the entrance of the Valley of the Kings.
In official portraiture, Hatshepsut wears the kingly insignia—like the false beard. After her death, there was a deliberate attempt to remove her image from monuments.
The trio journeys to Crete, Babylon, Israel, and Persia guided by the tiniest threads of information about Jason’s father, while enduring the attacks of Barbarians and pirates who seek to enslave them. Along the way, Jason learns how to communicate to other lumins using his thoughts, and becomes intensely aware of the spiritual world.
At every step of the journey he hears rumors of a mysterious man, called the Rector, who is after him for reasons unknown.
Hippocrates of Cos, the father of medicine, lived from about 460–377 BCE. Hippocrates may have trained to become a merchant before training medical students that there are scientific reasons for ailments. Before the Hippocratic corpus, medical conditions were attributed to divine intervention. The Hippocratic medicine made diagnoses and prescribed simple treatments like diet, hygiene, and sleep. The name Hippocrates is familiar because of the oath that doctors take (Hippocratic Oath) and a body of early medical treatises that are attributed to Hippocrates (Hippocratic corpus).
Trump Orders Return to 'Common Sense Standards' on Appliances
President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reversal of the Biden administration's green energy regulations for household appliances Tuesday, as well as a return to the "common sense standards" on the environment enacted during his first White House term.
President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reversal of the Biden administration's green energy regulations for household appliances Tuesday, as well as a return to the "common sense standards" on the environment enacted during his first White House term.
Uranium Ban Repeal in Greenland Could Revive Massive Rare Earth Project
The mining company that owns the license to Greenland's Kvanefjeld deposit is hopeful a new government will repeal a ban on uranium mining after next month's election, potentially rejuvenating one of the world's largest rare earth projects.
The mining company that owns the license to Greenland's Kvanefjeld deposit is hopeful a new government will repeal a ban on uranium mining after next month's election, potentially rejuvenating one of the world's largest rare earth projects.
President Donald Trump last month voiced renewed interest in acquiring the strategically important Arctic island.
The government subsequently enacted a law banning extraction from deposits with uranium concentrations higher than 100 parts per minute (ppm).
The company had been on track to gain final approval for the mine under the previous government, but locals fear its development could harm the country's fragile environment. The site is located near a UNESCO World Heritage Site and just a few kilometers from Narsaq. Mamadou was met by local protesters from Narsaq when he visited the site last week.
Greenland's government is in a caretaker period because the election has been called and is no longer fully active. The ruling IA party says it is still opposed to the project and wants to keep the uranium ban in place.
The U.S. was noticeably absent from a joint statement signed by more than 60 nations, pledging to "promote AI accessibility to reduce digital divides" and "ensure AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy."
The agreement also called for "making AI sustainable for people and the planet" and protecting "human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, protection of consumers and of intellectual property rights."
In a surprise, China — long criticized for its human rights record — signed the declaration, leaving the U.S. as the outlier.
Macron also hailed newly announced investments in France and across Europe, underscoring the continent's ambitions in AI. "We're in the race," he said.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, special envoy of Xi Jinping, reinforced Beijing's intent to shape global AI standards.
Vance, a vocal critic of European content moderation policies, has suggested the U.S. should reconsider its NATO commitments if European governments impose restrictions on Elon Musk's social media platform, X. His Paris visit was also expected to include candid discussions on Ukraine, AI's role in global power shifts, and U.S.-China tensions.
Back in March, while writing the post on the Visigoth sack of Rome, I came upon an interesting story about a siege the Goths conducted during the time period of the sack of Rome. The author said “this siege was the largest in history next to Dyrrhachium.” Huh? I had never heard of Dyrrhachium. After going back to retrieve the reference I couldn’t find it. Thought it was in Gibbon, but no.
The reference mentioned Pompey against Caesar and I realized that this battle was alluded to but unnamed in the HBO Rome series. Pompey and Cicero took refuge in Greece where Caesar eventually attacked them. He won with an inferior force for reasons I never understood.
After Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C, Pompey retreated from the city, crossed the Adriatic, and set up camp in Greece. Caesar, not in a hurry to chase him, decided to stabilize Spain first. He also lacked ships to transport his troops so he had to wait for them to be constructed. By the end of the year 49 B.C, a now impatient Caesar was anxious to attack his old triumvir friend. There were only enough ships for half the fleet but Caesar decided to proceed immediately even though the January storms would make passage difficult.
The National Intelligence Service said it sent an official notice to government agencies last week urging them to take security precautions over the artificial intelligence app.
"Unlike other generative AI services, it has been confirmed that chat records are transferable as it includes a function to collect keyboard input patterns that can identify individuals and communicate with Chinese companies' servers such as volceapplog.com," the NIS said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Jesus is the central figure of Christianity. For believers, he is the Messiah, the son of God and the Virgin Mary, who lived as a Galilean Jew, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was resurrected. For many non-believers, Jesus is a source of wisdom who provided the seeds of a reformed Jewish philosophy. Some non-Christians believe he worked healing and other miracles. At its start, the new messianic religion was considered one of numerous mystery cults.
Tesla Robotaxis by June? Musk Turns to Texas for Hands-off Regulation
In a state where the company is taking advantage of Republican-led deregulation, Tesla will roll out autonomous ride-hailing for money by June in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk told investors in late January.
Elon Musk told investors in late January that Tesla would roll out "autonomous ride-hailing for money" by June in Austin, Texas — a state where the company faces almost no regulation, raising questions about how much safety and legal risk Tesla is willing to take on as it deploys unproven driverless technology on public streets.
Tesla has long blamed its customers for accidents involving the driver-assistance systems it calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), noting it warns Tesla owners to stay ready to take over driving.
Nothing in Texas law would stop Tesla from launching a robotaxi service. The state takes a hands-off regulatory approach that aligns with Musk's increasingly anti-government political stances as an advisor to President Donald Trump. State law allows autonomous-vehicle companies free access to public streets provided they are registered and insured, like any human-driven car, and equipped with technology to record data about any potential crashes.
No state agency issues permits for or oversees driverless-taxi services — and state law forbids cities and counties from enacting their own driverless-vehicle regulations.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock, who sponsored the state's 2017 autonomous-driving legislation, said the legislature wanted to promote the industry's growth in a competitive marketplace and avoid barriers to entry.
"Being a conservative, I wanted to minimize government's impact," he told Reuters. "We can't have a thousand different regulations. That's how you kill an industry."
Musk moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin in late 2021 from California, where regulators tightly control where and how firms can operate autonomous vehicles. The only two companies that have secured permits to operate paid driverless taxi services to date, General Motors' Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo, logged millions of miles with regulators under more restrictive permits before getting approval to pick up passengers. (Cruise has since halted robotaxi operations).
Mithridates VI (114–63 BCE) or Mithridates Eupator is the king who caused Rome so much trouble during the time of Sulla and Marius. Pontus had been awarded the title of a friend of Rome, but because Mithridates kept making incursions on his neighbors, the friendship was strained. Despite the great military competence of Sulla and Marius and their personal confidence in their ability to check the Eastern despot, it was neither Sulla nor Marius who put an end to the Mithridatic problem. Instead, it was Pompey the Great who earned his honorific in the process.
Moses was an early leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism. He was raised in the court of the Pharaoh in Egypt, but then led the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Moses is said to have talked with God, who gave him tablets inscribed with laws or commandments referred to as the 10 Commandments.
Moses' story is told in the Biblical book Exodus and is short on archaeological corroboration.
Nebuchadnezzar II was the most important Chaldean king. He ruled from 605–562 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar is best remembered for turning Judah into a province of the Babylonian empire, sending the Jews into Babylonian captivity, and destroying Jerusalem. He is also associated with his hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Musk did say "unsupervised" FSD would be capable of driving with "no one in the car."
Such comments often leave investors guessing what Tesla will actually deliver, and when, said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, a Tesla investor.
"This is the challenge with Elon: You're kind of reading through the tea leaves here and trying to extrapolate from some fragments what might actually happen," he said.
Mulberry added he was not particularly concerned about the specifics of Musk's promises and timelines this year, provided Tesla shows progress: "The blueprint, I think, is there."
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor focused on autonomous driving, said Texas requires no "pre-market approval" before Tesla can deploy driverless vehicles. Yet he doubted Tesla would attempt any broad deployment of autonomous technology – in Texas or anywhere – after what he called its underwhelming demonstration of a robotaxi concept, the Cybercab, last October on a Los Angeles-area movie-studio lot.
"Tesla is not going to flip a switch and suddenly make all of their cars capable of driving by themselves, anywhere, under any conditions," he said.
Smith said the company might more likely attempt a small-scale test of its technology, possibly in limited areas of Austin in good weather, or with humans able to intervene by remote control to prevent crashes.
We know her as the New Kingdom Egyptian queen who wore a tall blue crown, lots of colored jewelry and held up a neck like a swan—as she appears on a bust in a Berlin museum. She was married to an equally memorable pharaoh, Akhenaten, the heretic king who moved the royal family to Amarna, and was related to the boy king Tutankhamen, known mostly for his sarcophagus. Nefertiti may have served as pharaoh under a pseudonym, but at the least she assisted her husband in the governing of Egypt and may have been co-regent.
Autonomous vehicle testing and operation is allowed on Texas roads "as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road," said Adam Hammons, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation.
Austin has seen a surge in driverless vehicles on its streets over the last two years, which has led to resident and government concerns after a series of near-miss incidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. In 2023, a group of more than 20 Cruise robotaxis caused a traffic jam near the University of Texas campus, blocking the street as they struggled to navigate around one another.
The city has logged 78 formal complaints from law enforcement, emergency responders and residents since July 2023, which officials say may not capture all incidents involving the vehicles. One resident complaint from December described a Waymo vehicle blocking a lane of traffic for half an hour, causing "at least three very close call accidents."
The complaint added: "I can't believe that y'all are allowing potentially deadly technology to be tested on the citizens of this city."
A Waymo spokesperson said the company has worked with local leaders and first responders to "earn the trust of Austin's communities" and is constantly working to improve its service.
Fast Moving Storms Leaves Fluffy Piles of Snow Across New England
New Englanders stocked up on both Super Bowl snacks and staples like bread and milk this weekend ahead of a fast-moving storm that dropped up to a foot of light, fluffy snow.
New Englanders stocked up on both Super Bowl snacks and staples like bread and milk this weekend ahead of a fast-moving storm that dropped up to a foot of light, fluffy snow.
The parking lot was packed and the checkout lines were long at a Market Basket grocery store in Epping, New Hampshire, on Saturday, WMUR-TV reported. None of the shoppers seemed to panic about the storm, which cleared out by Sunday morning well ahead of kickoff time.
Meanwhile, the weather service issued freeze warnings for parts of south central California and the San Francisco area on Sunday, cautioning that below-freezing temperatures could kill crops, damage unprotected outdoor plumbing and put vulnerable populations at risk of hypothermia.
Homan Blasts Pope: 'Fix' the Church; Leave Border to Us
Border Czar Tom Homan, responding on Newsmax to Pope Francis' stern rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said the pontiff should concentrate on the Catholic Church's woes instead.
Border Czar Tom Homan, responding on Newsmax to Pope Francis' stern rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said the pontiff should concentrate on the Catholic Church's woes instead.
"You ought to get out of the business of our national security and our border enforcement work and concentrate on the Catholic Church," Homan told "Wake Up America" on Tuesday. "You got a lot of problems right there in the Catholic Church, You got enough to do. You got enough to fix in your own home. Leave the border stuff to us. We know what we're doing."
Rare earths are a group of metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics. There are no viable substitutes, and demand is widely expected to grow.
A number of other U.S. officials are traveling to Europe this week, in part to discuss the Ukraine war with Kyiv and other European allies. They include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Keith Kellogg, the U.S. envoy for the Ukraine war.
Reuters reported this week that the Trump administration plans to push European allies to buy more American weapons for Ukraine ahead of potential peace talks with Moscow.
Pericles (c. 495–429 BCE) brought Athens to its peak, turning the Delian League into the empire of Athens, and so the era in which he lived is named the Age of Pericles. He helped the poor, set up colonies, built the long walls from Athens to the Piraeus, developed the Athenian navy, and built the Parthenon, the Odeon, the Propylaea, and the temple at Eleusis. The name of Pericles is also attached to the Peloponnesian War. During the war, he ordered the people of Attica to leave their fields and come into the city to stay protected by the walls. Unfortunately, Pericles didn't foresee the effect of disease on the crowded conditions and so, along with many others, Pericles died of the plague near the start of the war.
"To ensure that we are complying with the President's Executive Order, we have closed our DEI office, and Cecilia Loving and Gina Leow are leaving PBS," said PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger in a statement to staff posted on X by a New York Times reporter.
Leow was director of DEI and Loving senior vice president of DEI at PBS.
"I know you join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors," Kerger said. "Our mission to educate and inspire a wide variety of American communities we serve will continue to be at the center of our work, and we'll also continue to ensure that PBS remains a welcoming place for everyone."
Pope Hits Trump, Vance Over Migrant Deportations
Pope Rebukes Trump Administration over Migrant Deportations, Warns 'it Will End Badly'
Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”
Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops in which he appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance's defense of the deportation program on theological grounds.
“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he wrote. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."
David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham University, said in a social media post that Francis' letter “takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate)."
“This is the pope also directly countering misinformation about the Catholic faith that is being expounded by the Catholic vice president,” he added to The Associated Press. “And it is the pope supporting the bishops as well.”
!summarize #javonsintellgence #ai #agents #coders #software
Empedocles of Acragas (c. 495–435 BCE) was known as a poet, statesman, and physician, as well as philosopher. Empedocles encouraged people to look upon him as a miracle worker. Philosophically he believed there were elements that were the building blocks of everything else: earth, air, fire, and water. These are the four elements that are paired with the four humors in Hippocratic medicine and even modern typologies. The next philosophical step would be to realize a different type of universal element -- atoms, as the Pre-socratic philosophers known as Atomists, Leucippus and Democritus, reasoned.
Empedocles believed in transmigration of the soul and thought that he would be come back as a god, so he jumped into the Mt. Aetna volcano.
!summarize #pauldanning #karolineleavitt #liberal
!summarize #spain #madrid #populists #politics
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276–194 BCE) was the second chief librarian at Alexandria. He calculated the circumference of the earth, created latitude and longitude measurements, and made a map of the earth. He was acquainted with Archimedes of Syracuse.
Euripides (c. 484–407/406 BCE) was the third of the three great Greek tragic poets. He won his first first prize in 442. Despite winning only limited acclaim during his lifetime, Euripides was the most popular of the three great tragedians for generations after his death. Euripides added intrigue and the love-drama to Greek tragedy. His surviving tragedies are:
Orestes
Phoenician Woman
Trojan Women
Ion
Iphigenia
Hecuba
Heracleidae
Helen
Suppliant Women
Bacchae
Cyclops
Medea
Electra
Alcestis
Andromache
!summarize #scottjennings #theview #cnn #media
Hatshepsut was a long-ruling regent and female pharaoh of Egypt (r. 1479–1458 BCE) during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Hatshepsut was responsible for successful Egyptian military and trading ventures. The added wealth from trade permitted the development of high caliber architecture. She had a mortuary complex built at Deir el-Bahri near the entrance of the Valley of the Kings.
In official portraiture, Hatshepsut wears the kingly insignia—like the false beard. After her death, there was a deliberate attempt to remove her image from monuments.
The trio journeys to Crete, Babylon, Israel, and Persia guided by the tiniest threads of information about Jason’s father, while enduring the attacks of Barbarians and pirates who seek to enslave them. Along the way, Jason learns how to communicate to other lumins using his thoughts, and becomes intensely aware of the spiritual world.
At every step of the journey he hears rumors of a mysterious man, called the Rector, who is after him for reasons unknown.
Hippocrates of Cos, the father of medicine, lived from about 460–377 BCE. Hippocrates may have trained to become a merchant before training medical students that there are scientific reasons for ailments. Before the Hippocratic corpus, medical conditions were attributed to divine intervention. The Hippocratic medicine made diagnoses and prescribed simple treatments like diet, hygiene, and sleep. The name Hippocrates is familiar because of the oath that doctors take (Hippocratic Oath) and a body of early medical treatises that are attributed to Hippocrates (Hippocratic corpus).
Trump Orders Return to 'Common Sense Standards' on Appliances
President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reversal of the Biden administration's green energy regulations for household appliances Tuesday, as well as a return to the "common sense standards" on the environment enacted during his first White House term.
President Donald Trump ordered the immediate reversal of the Biden administration's green energy regulations for household appliances Tuesday, as well as a return to the "common sense standards" on the environment enacted during his first White House term.
!summarize #fema #employees #firing
!summarize #jdvance #ai #predictions
Uranium Ban Repeal in Greenland Could Revive Massive Rare Earth Project
The mining company that owns the license to Greenland's Kvanefjeld deposit is hopeful a new government will repeal a ban on uranium mining after next month's election, potentially rejuvenating one of the world's largest rare earth projects.
The mining company that owns the license to Greenland's Kvanefjeld deposit is hopeful a new government will repeal a ban on uranium mining after next month's election, potentially rejuvenating one of the world's largest rare earth projects.
President Donald Trump last month voiced renewed interest in acquiring the strategically important Arctic island.
The government subsequently enacted a law banning extraction from deposits with uranium concentrations higher than 100 parts per minute (ppm).
The company had been on track to gain final approval for the mine under the previous government, but locals fear its development could harm the country's fragile environment. The site is located near a UNESCO World Heritage Site and just a few kilometers from Narsaq. Mamadou was met by local protesters from Narsaq when he visited the site last week.
Greenland's government is in a caretaker period because the election has been called and is no longer fully active. The ruling IA party says it is still opposed to the project and wants to keep the uranium ban in place.
!summarize #nygiants #matthewstrafford #quarterback #nfl #losangeles #rams
The U.S. was noticeably absent from a joint statement signed by more than 60 nations, pledging to "promote AI accessibility to reduce digital divides" and "ensure AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy."
The agreement also called for "making AI sustainable for people and the planet" and protecting "human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, protection of consumers and of intellectual property rights."
In a surprise, China — long criticized for its human rights record — signed the declaration, leaving the U.S. as the outlier.
!summarize #selfishness #greedy #success
!summarize #asml #ceo #chips #semiconductors
Macron also hailed newly announced investments in France and across Europe, underscoring the continent's ambitions in AI. "We're in the race," he said.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, special envoy of Xi Jinping, reinforced Beijing's intent to shape global AI standards.
Vance, a vocal critic of European content moderation policies, has suggested the U.S. should reconsider its NATO commitments if European governments impose restrictions on Elon Musk's social media platform, X. His Paris visit was also expected to include candid discussions on Ukraine, AI's role in global power shifts, and U.S.-China tensions.
!summarize #Marriage #relationships #Money #life
Back in March, while writing the post on the Visigoth sack of Rome, I came upon an interesting story about a siege the Goths conducted during the time period of the sack of Rome. The author said “this siege was the largest in history next to Dyrrhachium.” Huh? I had never heard of Dyrrhachium. After going back to retrieve the reference I couldn’t find it. Thought it was in Gibbon, but no.
The reference mentioned Pompey against Caesar and I realized that this battle was alluded to but unnamed in the HBO Rome series. Pompey and Cicero took refuge in Greece where Caesar eventually attacked them. He won with an inferior force for reasons I never understood.
After Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C, Pompey retreated from the city, crossed the Adriatic, and set up camp in Greece. Caesar, not in a hurry to chase him, decided to stabilize Spain first. He also lacked ships to transport his troops so he had to wait for them to be constructed. By the end of the year 49 B.C, a now impatient Caesar was anxious to attack his old triumvir friend. There were only enough ships for half the fleet but Caesar decided to proceed immediately even though the January storms would make passage difficult.
The National Intelligence Service said it sent an official notice to government agencies last week urging them to take security precautions over the artificial intelligence app.
"Unlike other generative AI services, it has been confirmed that chat records are transferable as it includes a function to collect keyboard input patterns that can identify individuals and communicate with Chinese companies' servers such as volceapplog.com," the NIS said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Jesus is the central figure of Christianity. For believers, he is the Messiah, the son of God and the Virgin Mary, who lived as a Galilean Jew, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was resurrected. For many non-believers, Jesus is a source of wisdom who provided the seeds of a reformed Jewish philosophy. Some non-Christians believe he worked healing and other miracles. At its start, the new messianic religion was considered one of numerous mystery cults.
Tesla Robotaxis by June? Musk Turns to Texas for Hands-off Regulation
In a state where the company is taking advantage of Republican-led deregulation, Tesla will roll out autonomous ride-hailing for money by June in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk told investors in late January.
Elon Musk told investors in late January that Tesla would roll out "autonomous ride-hailing for money" by June in Austin, Texas — a state where the company faces almost no regulation, raising questions about how much safety and legal risk Tesla is willing to take on as it deploys unproven driverless technology on public streets.
Tesla has long blamed its customers for accidents involving the driver-assistance systems it calls Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD), noting it warns Tesla owners to stay ready to take over driving.
Nothing in Texas law would stop Tesla from launching a robotaxi service. The state takes a hands-off regulatory approach that aligns with Musk's increasingly anti-government political stances as an advisor to President Donald Trump. State law allows autonomous-vehicle companies free access to public streets provided they are registered and insured, like any human-driven car, and equipped with technology to record data about any potential crashes.
No state agency issues permits for or oversees driverless-taxi services — and state law forbids cities and counties from enacting their own driverless-vehicle regulations.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock, who sponsored the state's 2017 autonomous-driving legislation, said the legislature wanted to promote the industry's growth in a competitive marketplace and avoid barriers to entry.
"Being a conservative, I wanted to minimize government's impact," he told Reuters. "We can't have a thousand different regulations. That's how you kill an industry."
Musk moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin in late 2021 from California, where regulators tightly control where and how firms can operate autonomous vehicles. The only two companies that have secured permits to operate paid driverless taxi services to date, General Motors' Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo, logged millions of miles with regulators under more restrictive permits before getting approval to pick up passengers. (Cruise has since halted robotaxi operations).
!summarize #ev #petpetualmotion #technology #innovation
Mithridates VI (114–63 BCE) or Mithridates Eupator is the king who caused Rome so much trouble during the time of Sulla and Marius. Pontus had been awarded the title of a friend of Rome, but because Mithridates kept making incursions on his neighbors, the friendship was strained. Despite the great military competence of Sulla and Marius and their personal confidence in their ability to check the Eastern despot, it was neither Sulla nor Marius who put an end to the Mithridatic problem. Instead, it was Pompey the Great who earned his honorific in the process.
Moses was an early leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism. He was raised in the court of the Pharaoh in Egypt, but then led the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Moses is said to have talked with God, who gave him tablets inscribed with laws or commandments referred to as the 10 Commandments.
Moses' story is told in the Biblical book Exodus and is short on archaeological corroboration.
Nebuchadnezzar II was the most important Chaldean king. He ruled from 605–562 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar is best remembered for turning Judah into a province of the Babylonian empire, sending the Jews into Babylonian captivity, and destroying Jerusalem. He is also associated with his hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
!summarize #tesla #modelq #ev #elonmusk
Musk did say "unsupervised" FSD would be capable of driving with "no one in the car."
Such comments often leave investors guessing what Tesla will actually deliver, and when, said Brian Mulberry, client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, a Tesla investor.
"This is the challenge with Elon: You're kind of reading through the tea leaves here and trying to extrapolate from some fragments what might actually happen," he said.
Mulberry added he was not particularly concerned about the specifics of Musk's promises and timelines this year, provided Tesla shows progress: "The blueprint, I think, is there."
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor focused on autonomous driving, said Texas requires no "pre-market approval" before Tesla can deploy driverless vehicles. Yet he doubted Tesla would attempt any broad deployment of autonomous technology – in Texas or anywhere – after what he called its underwhelming demonstration of a robotaxi concept, the Cybercab, last October on a Los Angeles-area movie-studio lot.
"Tesla is not going to flip a switch and suddenly make all of their cars capable of driving by themselves, anywhere, under any conditions," he said.
Smith said the company might more likely attempt a small-scale test of its technology, possibly in limited areas of Austin in good weather, or with humans able to intervene by remote control to prevent crashes.
We know her as the New Kingdom Egyptian queen who wore a tall blue crown, lots of colored jewelry and held up a neck like a swan—as she appears on a bust in a Berlin museum. She was married to an equally memorable pharaoh, Akhenaten, the heretic king who moved the royal family to Amarna, and was related to the boy king Tutankhamen, known mostly for his sarcophagus. Nefertiti may have served as pharaoh under a pseudonym, but at the least she assisted her husband in the governing of Egypt and may have been co-regent.
Autonomous vehicle testing and operation is allowed on Texas roads "as long as they meet the same safety and insurance requirements as every other vehicle on the road," said Adam Hammons, a spokesperson for the state Department of Transportation.
Austin has seen a surge in driverless vehicles on its streets over the last two years, which has led to resident and government concerns after a series of near-miss incidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles. In 2023, a group of more than 20 Cruise robotaxis caused a traffic jam near the University of Texas campus, blocking the street as they struggled to navigate around one another.
GM declined to comment.
The city has logged 78 formal complaints from law enforcement, emergency responders and residents since July 2023, which officials say may not capture all incidents involving the vehicles. One resident complaint from December described a Waymo vehicle blocking a lane of traffic for half an hour, causing "at least three very close call accidents."
The complaint added: "I can't believe that y'all are allowing potentially deadly technology to be tested on the citizens of this city."
A Waymo spokesperson said the company has worked with local leaders and first responders to "earn the trust of Austin's communities" and is constantly working to improve its service.
!summarize #jesus #homosexuality #teaching
!summarize #almontyindustries #ceo
Fast Moving Storms Leaves Fluffy Piles of Snow Across New England
New Englanders stocked up on both Super Bowl snacks and staples like bread and milk this weekend ahead of a fast-moving storm that dropped up to a foot of light, fluffy snow.
New Englanders stocked up on both Super Bowl snacks and staples like bread and milk this weekend ahead of a fast-moving storm that dropped up to a foot of light, fluffy snow.
The parking lot was packed and the checkout lines were long at a Market Basket grocery store in Epping, New Hampshire, on Saturday, WMUR-TV reported. None of the shoppers seemed to panic about the storm, which cleared out by Sunday morning well ahead of kickoff time.
Meanwhile, the weather service issued freeze warnings for parts of south central California and the San Francisco area on Sunday, cautioning that below-freezing temperatures could kill crops, damage unprotected outdoor plumbing and put vulnerable populations at risk of hypothermia.
Homan Blasts Pope: 'Fix' the Church; Leave Border to Us
Border Czar Tom Homan, responding on Newsmax to Pope Francis' stern rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said the pontiff should concentrate on the Catholic Church's woes instead.
Border Czar Tom Homan, responding on Newsmax to Pope Francis' stern rebuke to the Trump administration over its mass deportation efforts, said the pontiff should concentrate on the Catholic Church's woes instead.
"You ought to get out of the business of our national security and our border enforcement work and concentrate on the Catholic Church," Homan told "Wake Up America" on Tuesday. "You got a lot of problems right there in the Catholic Church, You got enough to do. You got enough to fix in your own home. Leave the border stuff to us. We know what we're doing."
Bloomberg first reported Bessent's travel plans.
Rare earths are a group of metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics. There are no viable substitutes, and demand is widely expected to grow.
A number of other U.S. officials are traveling to Europe this week, in part to discuss the Ukraine war with Kyiv and other European allies. They include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Keith Kellogg, the U.S. envoy for the Ukraine war.
Reuters reported this week that the Trump administration plans to push European allies to buy more American weapons for Ukraine ahead of potential peace talks with Moscow.
Pericles (c. 495–429 BCE) brought Athens to its peak, turning the Delian League into the empire of Athens, and so the era in which he lived is named the Age of Pericles. He helped the poor, set up colonies, built the long walls from Athens to the Piraeus, developed the Athenian navy, and built the Parthenon, the Odeon, the Propylaea, and the temple at Eleusis. The name of Pericles is also attached to the Peloponnesian War. During the war, he ordered the people of Attica to leave their fields and come into the city to stay protected by the walls. Unfortunately, Pericles didn't foresee the effect of disease on the crowded conditions and so, along with many others, Pericles died of the plague near the start of the war.
"To ensure that we are complying with the President's Executive Order, we have closed our DEI office, and Cecilia Loving and Gina Leow are leaving PBS," said PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger in a statement to staff posted on X by a New York Times reporter.
Leow was director of DEI and Loving senior vice president of DEI at PBS.
"I know you join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors," Kerger said. "Our mission to educate and inspire a wide variety of American communities we serve will continue to be at the center of our work, and we'll also continue to ensure that PBS remains a welcoming place for everyone."
Pope Hits Trump, Vance Over Migrant Deportations
Pope Rebukes Trump Administration over Migrant Deportations, Warns 'it Will End Badly'
Pope Francis issued a major rebuke Tuesday to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”
Francis took the remarkable step of addressing the U.S. migrant crackdown in a letter to U.S. bishops in which he appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance's defense of the deportation program on theological grounds.
!summarize #controversy #files
“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” he wrote. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception."
David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham University, said in a social media post that Francis' letter “takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate)."
“This is the pope also directly countering misinformation about the Catholic faith that is being expounded by the Catholic vice president,” he added to The Associated Press. “And it is the pope supporting the bishops as well.”