1,000,002,021

We all die, earth, sun, the Milky Way, galaxies, etc., etc but we already know that. Regarding earth, the sun will do the job, expanding and getting hotter, first doing away with CO2, the gas all plants depend on and then, completing the job by engulfing earth as it gets bigger. When this happens, we go so ... the exact year said life ends, is, you guessed it, 1,000,002,021.  :)

The Sun will end all life on Earth

For now, this story may sound like sci-fi. But as time goes by – a lot of time – the Sun will grow in size as it reaches the end of its life as a giant star. As it grows, the Sun will emit increasing amounts of thermal energy, and will eventually engulf all inner planets of the Solar system, including Earth. This process means that our days on Earth are numbered.

Advance mathematical models have predicted that the Sun's expansion will significantly worsen air quality, as Earth temperatures rise. According to these calculations, life on Earth will be impossible by the year 1,000,002,021 – which means there are still 999,999,996 years to go until then.

Although the end is still billions of years away, the Sun is already causing some disturbances. Last year, NASA detected a large number of solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections (CME) which ejected billions of tons of particles and magnetic field towards Earth – resulting in the most intense solar storm in two decades. Solar storms are known to cause changes in the atmosphere, reducing available oxygen. As time goes by, this phenomena will continue to alter the atmosphere, reducing oxygen levels and increasing global temperatures.

 

Survival on planet Earth will be impossible in about 1 billion years,
when conditions become too extreme for life as we know it.

Anger & sorrow ...

Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean during the second moonwalk.
NASA/Recall Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo

Complex tech takes years to develop beginning with base research and leveraging it to create tech able to change the world. From quantum mechanics leading to the creation of the computer to the invention of software to build AI, complex systems are fragile beasts requiring patience, intelligence and vision in order for said system to thrive. The somber take by Scientific American regarding proposed cuts to NASA by the administration from hell is spot on because once you gut a complex system, it takes years, if even possible, to resurrect the system. Anger and sorrow on this potential dismantling of something wonderful and far reaching breaks my heart without question.

For more than half a century planetary exploration and space science have been a hallmark of American achievement and excellence. From Mercury to Pluto and beyond, we have gained enormous understanding about planetary origins and evolution. We have learned about the atmospheric, surface and interior dynamics of other worlds. All those discoveries have carried implications for what’s happening here on Earth. In classrooms around the world, exploring new worlds and probing the mysteries of the universe is an emblem of America.

But that may now end; the Trump administration is poised to take the chainsaw to space science, just as it has to almost everything else in the U.S. science portfolio. Trump officials are planning huge, destructive cuts for space science, according to news reports, likely killing all new mission plans for this decade, including the long-sought, all-important Mars Sample Return mission. This flight was meant to return now-waiting samples from the red planet.

China is already leading the way to the moon and Mars with robotic vehiclelike rovers and sample returns and is also likely to do so with human missions. The U.S. human space program, meanwhile, is bogged down with a stumbling Artemis program, built with a convoluted architecture marked so far by failures and delays in nearly every major component. The latest is the repeated failure of SpaceX’s Starship, which twice now has exploded in flight. Reminiscent of the 1980s, when we paused planetary exploration after the success of Viking and launch of Voyager 1 and 2, the U.S. has iced new Mars missions, with plans to cancel Mars Sample Return, and redirected our once great lunar capability to small experimental landers built by inexperienced new companies. Beyond specific missions, the loss of space science research capability will be a generational calamity.

Truer words never spoken.

We were there ... back in the day ...

Hate to say it ...

Pete Hegseth

Hate to say it but Hegseth is actually advocating something needing to be done in the military, cull flag officers as the officer bloated environment the arm services has become since WW II is staggering, not only leading to excessive costs but also to increased inefficiencies in terms of military prowess for over 60+ years.

Factoid

There are approximately 900 Active-duty general/flag officers (GO/FOs) today of 1.3 million troops. This is a ratio of 1 GO/FO for every 1,400 troops. During World War II, an admittedly different era, there were more than 2,000 GO/FOs for a little more than 12 million Active troops (1:6,000). This development represents “rank creep” that does not enhance mission success but clutters the chain of command, adds bureaucratic layers to decisions, and costs taxpayers additional money from funding higher paygrades to fill positions. As end-strength fluctuates, force structure and strength projections for the next decade show the uniformed Services maintaining substantial excess capacity at senior ranks. Although historical numbers are inexact guides and future threats could radically change circumstances, the case for reduction is strong. The Department of Defense (DOD) should reduce the numbers, billets, and percent of GO/FOs in each Service to increase efficiency, streamline decisionmaking, achieve modest cost savings, and enhance accountability of decisionmaking.

Hegseth's take.

In a video posted to social media later on Monday, Hegseth announced that the order, which he referred to as “Less Generals, more GIs,” would “shift resources from bloated headquarter elements to our warfighters.”

The move would take an axe to the already limited number of four-star generals and admirals, as there were just 37 such individuals as of 2023. Hegseth’s directive would put that number south of 30.

The move would also diminish the roughly 900 current general and flag officers to below 720.

Hegseth writes that the cuts are a “critical step” in “removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions.”

In ensuring the lethality of the military, “we must cultivate exceptional senior leaders who drive innovation and operational excellence, unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness,” according to Hegseth.

It should be 50% but beggars can't be choosers. 

8% & counting ...

Mark Wagner

Looking at this sad pix of the dollar cutting itself to pieces is emblematic to what is happening under Agent Orange whether it be attacks on SS by Musk and his horde of incompetents or attacks on the press and education by hastily written executive orders by a sorry excuse of a man lusting to be dictator as it matters not as America's in serious trouble and the world knows it. We have four more years of this insanity, driven by a policy channeling Project 2025, the 900 page textbook on how to create a christian driven nazi fascist society not thought possible until now. As stated before, the nation's future's in doubt and nothing's being done right now but wait until Trump's tariffs hit and the dollar continues to tank because all bets are off when people's economic well being becomes questionable at best.

One never knows, do one? -  Fats Waller

The U.S. dollar has been a symbol of American power for decades. Of the $7.5 trillion in global currency transactions that take place each day, some 90 percent feature the dollar. The majority of central banks see it as the core of their reserves. Consumers run to it in times of stress. Businesses prefer it for trade invoicing, whether they are based in Milwaukee or Malaysia.

The dollar may not lose its globally dominant role anytime soon. After all, there isn’t an obvious alternative waiting in the wings. But it is suffering from a self-inflicted wound and the consequences are just starting to be felt around the world.

A trickle of selling began in mid-January as investors bought euros on the hopes that a new German government would loosen its purse strings. That trickle turned into a “sell America” torrent after President Trump unveiled shockingly large, broad-based tariffs on April 2, and followed that by stepping up his attacks on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell.

A search for new safe harbors began. In the week ending April 16, gold funds had their biggest inflows since 2007, while selling of U.S. bond funds was the highest recorded since late March 2020. Stock markets churned in ways not seen since either the pandemic or the 2008 financial crisis.

An uneasy stability has returned since the president paused most tariffs and seemed to back down from his threats to fire Mr. Powell. But damage has been done. This year, through April 25, the dollar has lost more than 8 percent in value versus the currencies of its major trading partners.

The Jetty

The traitors ... :)

Ralph Fiennes in the film 'Conclave/Focus Features

Have not seen the film but will as it echoes, from what people are saying, the process of selecting the next pope. What's interesting about this is the take by Robbert Harris, the author of Conclave, on what really happens behind closed doors. 

The forthcoming conclave to select the new Pope has gained a whole new group of interested observers, following the success of Oscar-nominated film Conclave starring Ralph Fiennes.

Based on the bestselling 2016 novel by Robert Harris, it details the process where cardinals (male, under the age of 80) from across the world gather in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel for a process to choose the next Pontiff, while the public wait outside for a decision. The news is then announced with a puff of white smoke emerging from a chimney on the roof of the Chapel. The conclave to elect Pope Francis’s successor will begin on Wednesday May 7.

However, with all the secrecy, private discussions that occur in corridors outside the Chapel and reports of deal-making, Harris says the process is more akin to another screen hit – TV show The Traitors.

The Traitors has been a huge hit for the BBC since debuting in the UK in 2022, with international versions now screening across the world. It sees “faithful” contestants tasked with trying to work out the “traitors” among them, before being “murdered” and eliminated from the game and a chance to share in the cash prize.

“[It’s] the nearest analogy I can come to. Suddenly everyone swings to one person – you can’t see why, particularly, but it happens,”

“And in a funny way, a similar dynamic does operate in a conclave, which is why often it produces a surprise.”

Harris suggested that political parties electing a new leader could learn from the process:

“To lock the door and say you’re not going to come out until you’ve come up with a result concentrates the mind – and if you look back, the popes have been pretty good.

“I didn’t come away from researching the novel thinking this is a terrible idea [and that] I must write a novel to expose how awful it is. In a way, the novel shows a conclave working.”

Interesting to a fault. :)

The Constitution ...

CreditCredit...Illustration by Ezekiel Aquino

The Constitution drastically needs an update, something Jefferson recommended back in the day as he, as architect and scientist, knew that nothing remains static and that change is a given, a reality the political powers at be seem to not understand in any way, shape or fashion. 

Written in the 1780s, it both enlightens and confounds. Its brilliance is undiminished, but the intervening years make it feel distant, at times impossibly so, challenging modern interpreters to understand what an 18th-century text means today.

Sadly, our attempt to understand the U.S. Constitution has too often become a mechanistic search for a correct answer, with little nuanced judgment. That is thanks to the ascendance of originalism on the Supreme Court. The originalist justices believe the meaning of the document was fixed when it was enacted, as opposed to living constitutionalists, who argue that the meaning and application of the Constitution should adapt to a changing world and not be bound by the judgments of men who lived centuries ago.

 Exactly.

In the letter, Jefferson states that each new generation has a right to choose for itself “the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness.” That every 20 years, the state constitution should be handed off to the next generation to amend and repair as they see fit.

Works for me. 

Griftopia 2025 ...

The campus at Harvard University in Cambridge.

Credit...Sophie Park for The New York Times

It's all about the money/rev LX and ... it's all about control because if you tax universities, you gut education, a most desired objective for an emerging dictatorship courtesy Project 2025.

President Trump said on Friday that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status, repeating his intent to enlist the Internal Revenue Service in his feud with the wealthy research university and upend the school’s finances.

“We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!” Mr. Trump wrote on social media.

It was not immediately clear if the I.R.S. was in fact moving forward with revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status, a change that could only typically occur after a lengthy process. Federal law prohibits the president from directing the I.R.S. to conduct tax investigations, and I.R.S. employees who receive such a command are required to report it to an inspector general.

After Mr. Trump first publicly called for Harvard to lose its tax exemption last month, White House officials said that the I.R.S. would make its own conclusion about whether to do so.

Spokespeople for the I.R.S. and Treasury Department, which oversees the tax collector, did not respond to a request for comment. A Harvard spokesperson said in a statement that there was “no legal basis to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status” and that “such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission.”

With its tax-exempt status, Harvard not only does not have to pay most taxes, but donors can write off gifts to the school on their own tax returns. Losing the status would not only force Harvard to start paying tax to the federal government but could cause donations to dry up.

The intensifying standoff between the Trump administration and Harvard is part of a broad pressure campaign by the administration against some of the nation’s most elite universities.

The Trump administration has painted many top U.S. schools as hotbeds of antisemitism and discrimination that require federal intervention.

In recent weeks, Harvard has taken a decidedly confrontational posture toward the Trump administration. The university rejected a roster of demands from the government, including that it submit to audits, alter its admissions and hiring policies and bring in an outsider to examine “those programs and departments that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.”

After the administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funds in retaliation for Harvard’s defiance, the university sued.

When thinking about this rampant corruption and power grab, Matt Tiabbi's 2010 insightful Griftopia book comes to mind when pols and investment banks gamed the system, causing the vapor lock known as the 2008 financial crisis.

The subtitle says it all.

Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America is a 2010 book by American political journalist Matt Taibbi about the events that led to the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

It argues that the crisis was not an accident of the free market but the result of a complex and ongoing politico-financial process taking place in the United States whereby wealth and power are transferred to a super-rich "grifter class" that holds a grip on the political process. Taibbi maintains that "all of us, conservatives and progressives, are being bled dry by a tiny oligarchy of extremely clever criminals and their castrato henchmen in government."[1]

Seems Trump & company channeled Tiabbi's take to the extreme. Question, do you think Trump and company will tax churches and synagogues? I thought so.

Mushroom Management ...

Signs supporting NPR outside its headquarters in Washington in March.

Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

The move toward dictatorship continues unabated, this time, attacking NPR by Trump shutting off federal funds by executive order as it's the smart thing to do to keep people in the dark along the lines of mushroom management whereby employees of a given company are kept in the dark regarding corporate operations.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, accusing the news outlets of producing biased coverage and “left-wing propaganda.”

Mr. Trump instructed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds public broadcasters in the United States, to end federal funding for NPR and PBS, to the extent allowed by law. The outlets receive only a small portion of their funding from Congress, with the rest coming from donors and sponsors.

The immediate impact of the order was unclear. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a taxpayer-backed, private entity created by an act of Congress, is funded two years in advance to protect it from political maneuvering.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Patricia Harrison, the president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, said in a statement on Friday. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

Mr. Trump ordered the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all federal agencies to also cut indirect funding by forbidding public radio and television broadcasters that receive federal funds from using that money for PBS or NPR programs.

The headquarters for National Public Radio (NPR) is seen in Washington, D.C.

Charles Dharapak/AP

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS," the nation's primary public broadcasters. Trump contends that news coverage by NPR and PBS contains a left-wing bias. The federal funding for NPR and PBS is appropriated by Congress.

The executive order, like many that have been signed by the president, could be challenged in court.

"Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter," the executive order says. "What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens."

The useful idiot speaks.

A periodic table of a different kind ...

MIT Researchers Have Just Created a Periodic Table for AI. 

Credit: Canva | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

AI's growing up. It now has a periodic table of its own but this one's different, its evolving 24/7.

MIT researchers have recently unveiled an innovative framework that organizes artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in a way that mirrors the periodic table of elements. This new “periodic table” categorizes algorithms based on their shared properties.

According to Popular Mechanics, the AI periodic table is built on the foundation of information contrastive learning, abbreviated as I-Con.

This mathematical framework allows researchers to group algorithms based on their shared characteristics and their performance measured by a loss function.

Just like the periodic table organizes elements based on their atomic properties, the AI periodic table categorizes algorithms by their mathematical characteristics.

In this table, algorithms that share similar features are grouped together, making it easier for researchers to identify the most effective tools for specific tasks.

By organizing algorithms in this way, MIT researchers hope to streamline the process of selecting the right tools for AI projects, helping the community improve efficiency and collaboration.

And so it goes. - K. Vonnegut

19 ...

Irene Pérez for Quanta Magazine

Ah, QM does it again, this time in detailing the 19 essential terms defining AI, something folks like me need to read to keep up to snuff regarding tech of a different kind. :)

Here are 3 for your reading pleasure.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines,” according to John McCarthy, who coined the phrase in 1955 (opens a new tab). Over the following decades, the ideas and practices associated with artificial intelligence have intersected with fields as diverse as cognitive science, machine learning, robotics and linguistics. The term AI now refers mainly to systems that use artificial neural networks. Specific AI applications — especially ones based on “generative” models such as AlphaFold3 or ChatGPT — are often simply called AIs.

EMBEDDINGS / Long lists of numbers that neural networks use to represent particular relationships within their training data. They’re like coordinates: In a pretrained language model, the embedding for “dog” is geometrically similar to the embedding for “puppy,” and less similar to the one for “risotto.” But because these numerical values are assigned by a machine learning algorithm, they are rarely interpretable by humans.

BIAS / Information in an AI system that influences its output in particular ways. Generative models trained on large internet datasets often contain negative biases: For example, in 2023 (opens a new tab), the AI image generator Stable Diffusion was more likely to depict “CEO[s]” as men with light skin. However, methods like reinforcement learning and symbolic regression can be used to give AI systems more productive biases, such as taking turns in a dialogue (opens a new tab) or respecting the laws of physics (opens a new tab).

Simply awesome without question. :)