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Comment Re:National security: Obscures radars-Sweden (Score 2) 131

by schwit1 (#65876259) Attached to: US Blocks All Offshore Wind Construction, Says Reason Is Classified

Last year, Sweden blocked the construction of new wind farms over concerns they could interfere with military radar, amid heightened tensions between the European Union and Russia. But experts have noted the design of wind farms can be adjusted to account for the issue, and it’s something US government officials have been aware of for decades.

Submission + - Court rules Musk's $56 billion Tesla pay package must be restored (cnbc.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Elon Musk’s 2018 CEO pay package from Tesla, worth some $56 billion when it vested, must be restored, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled Friday.

“We reverse the Court of Chancery’s rescission remedy and award $1 in nominal damages,” the judges wrote in their opinion.

In the decision, the Delaware Supreme Court judges said a lower court’s decision to cancel Musk’s 2018 pay plan was too extreme a remedy and that the lower court did not give Tesla a chance to say what a fair compensation ought to be.

The decision on the appeal in this case, known as Tornetta v. Musk, likely ends the yearslong fight over Musk’s record-setting compensation.

Musk’s net worth is currently estimated at around $679.4 billion, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires List.

Submission + - James Webb Space Telescope confirms 1st 'runaway' supermassive black hole (space.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Astronomers have made a truly mind-boggling discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): a runaway black hole 10 million times larger than the sun, rocketing through space at a staggering 2.2 million miles per hour (1,000 kilometers per second).

That not only makes this the first confirmed runaway supermassive black hole, but this object is also one of the fastest-moving bodies ever detected, rocketing through its home, a pair of galaxies named the "Cosmic Owl," at 3,000 times the speed of sound at sea level here on Earth. If that isn't astounding enough, the black hole is pushing forward a literal galaxy-sized "bow-shock" of matter in front of it, while simultaneously dragging a 200,000 light-year-long tail behind it, within which gas is accumulating and triggering star formation.

Comment What about the upside? (Score -1) 48

Warmer climate means land will become farmable further north, higher CO2 will mean greater agricultural yields and less severe forest fires, glacial melt will free up more water for agriculture and consumption, and real estate will become attractive in northern latitudes.

Climate change solves the water, housing, food, and air quality problems.

Submission + - Isaacman confirmed for NASA head (politico.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Senate on Wednesday approved Jared Isaacman for the top job at NASA — an unprecedented comeback after President Donald Trump yanked his nomination this spring.

Trump renominated Isaacman for NASA administrator in November, after pulling his original nomination in May. He cited Isaacman’s relationship with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with whom Trump had just had a falling out, as the rationale for his decision.

Isaacman’s surprise rebound followed months of political jockeying and help from high-profile figures in Trump’s orbit.

Submission + - Oh look, yet another Starship clone has popped up in China. (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The trend began with the Chinese government. In November 2024 the government announced a significant shift in the design of its super-heavy lift rocket, the Long March 9. Instead of the previous design, a fully expendable rocket with three stages and solid rocket boosters strapped to the sides, the country’s state-owned rocket maker revealed a vehicle that mimicked SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship.

Around the same time, a Chinese launch firm named Cosmoleap announced plans to develop a fully reusable “Leap” rocket within the next few years. An animated video that accompanied the funding announcement indicated that the company seeks to emulate the tower catch-with-chopsticks methodology that SpaceX has successfully employed.

But wait, there’s more. In June a company called Astronstone said it too was developing a stainless steel, methane-fueled rocket that would also use a chopstick-style system for first stage recovery. Astronstone didn’t even pretend to not copy SpaceX, saying it was “fully aligning its technical approach with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.”

And then, on Friday, the state-aligned China.com reported that a company called “Beijing Leading Rocket Technology” took things a step further. It has named its vehicle “Starship-1,” adding that the new rocket will have enhancements from AI and is billed as a “fully reusable AI rocket.”

Comment Section 230 repealed hands the internet to the CCP (Score 1) 168

The lawyers will destroy social media platforms without section 230. Chinese platforms will tell lawyers to FO.

Section 230 needs tweaking. Any platform that alters or removes postings that are 1st amendment compliant should be deemed a publisher. Adding context or community notes is not an alteration.

Submission + - Startup discovers hidden abundant, clean energy and did it in an unusual way (cnn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It’s a “classic needle in the haystack problem,” said Joel Edwards, co-founder and CTO of Zanskar. “There’s no one type of data that tells you that a system is below you, even if you’re right on top of it.” Instead, there are multiple indicators which are really hard for humans to put together to figure out if a system exists.

That’s where AI comes in.

The AI models Zanskar uses are fed information on where blind systems already exist. This data is plentiful as, over the last century and more, humans have accidentally stumbled on many around the world while drilling for other resources such as oil and gas.

The models then scour huge amounts of data — everything from rock composition to magnetic fields — to find patterns that point to the existence of geothermal reserves. AI models have “gotten really good over the last 10 years at being able to pull those types of signals out of noise,” Hoiland said.

Once a potential location has been found, the next step for the company is to drill down to confirm the reserve exists and is hot enough to produce utility-scale power.

That’s exactly what they did at Big Blind over the summer, drilling wells to depths of around 2,700 feet where they found porous rock at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. They know the site is at least the minimum size needed to support a power plant, but don’t yet have a sense of how big it could be.

There is also work to be done to navigate permitting processes and grid interconnection, but the company estimates the first electricity could be produced here in three to five years’ time.

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