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Submission + - North America's first lithium refinery built and completed in Texas (msn.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The first battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility in North America is now operational in Texas. In May 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott, Tesla founder Elon Musk and other officials broke ground at what would become Tesla North America’s new lithium refinery in Robstown. By January 2026, it was fully operational.

The facility is the first of its kind to ever be built in North America, The Center Square reported. The facility is part of Abbott’s goal for Texas to lead in reducing reliance on China for critical minerals and technology. Under Abbott, Texas is leading in semiconductor manufacturing and development, state-led Artificial Intelligence development and nuclear energy expansion to counter Chinese dominance and threats, The Center Square reported.

Australia, Chile and China account for 90% of lithium production; China overwhelmingly refines the majority of lithium, controlling global supply, according to International Energy Agency and other reports. China also sources materials used for lithium-ion batteries mined through forced child labor in the Congo and Nigeria, raising human rights concerns.

Submission + - Insurer Lemonade offers 50% rate cut for Tesla drivers when FSD is steering (x.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: U.S. insurer Lemonade has announced that it will offer a 50% rate cut for drivers of Tesla vehicles when FSD is steering because it had data showing it reduced accidents.

“A car that sees 360 degrees, never gets drowsy, and reacts in milliseconds can’t be compared to a human. Beyond the product announcement today, we’re also announcing our commitment to the Tesla community – the safer FSD software becomes, the more our prices will drop,” said Shai Wininger, co-founder and president at Lemonade.

Submission + - China Builds Wild Gravity Machine. It can compress space and time (futurism.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: It can effectively compress space and time, allowing researchers to recreate the conditions during catastrophic events, from dam failures to earthquakes. For instance, it can analyze the structural stability of an almost 1,000-feet-tall dam by spinning a ten-foot model at 100 Gs, meaning 100 times the Earth’s regular gravity.

It could also be used to study the resonance frequencies of high-speed rail tracks, or how pollutants seep into soil over thousands of years.

The previous record holder was the centrifuge at the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which can generate 1,200 g-tonnes, a metric that combines gravitational acceleration (G) and a mass measured in tonnes (2,200 pounds), of force.

To generate these forces, CHIEF1900 spins a payload inside a beefy centrifuge, not unlike those being used by the US Air Force to simulate high G-forces during pilot training.

Except that the forces are orders of magnitude stronger. It can generate 1,900 g-tonnes of force, or 1,900 times the Earth’s gravity. To put that into perspective, a washing machine only reaches about two g-tonnes.

Submission + - This Is What Convinced Me OpenAI Will Run Out of Money (archive.is) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Last March, Mr. Altman surpassed himself, raising $40 billion from investment funds, far more than any other company has raised in any private funding round, ever. (Second prize goes to Ant Group, a Chinese fintech company that raised a comparatively modest $14 billion in 2018.) Mr. Altman’s $40 billion triumph also exceeded the amount that any company has raised by going public. The biggest I.P.O. ever was Saudi Aramco in 2019, which raised less than $30 billion for its government owner. Whereas Ant Group was profitable and Saudi Aramco was extremely so, OpenAI appears to be hemorrhaging cash. According to reporting by The Information, the company projected last year that it would burn more than $8 billion in 2025 and more than $40 billion in 2028. (Though The Wall Street Journal reported that the company anticipates profits by 2030.)

Not even Mr. Altman can keep juggling indefinitely. And yet he must raise more — a lot more. Signaling the scale of capital that he believes he needs, OpenAI has committed to spending $1.4 trillion on data centers and related infrastructure. Even if OpenAI reneges on many of those promises and pays for others with its overvalued shares, the company must still find daunting sums of capital. However rich the eventual A.I. prize, the capital markets seem unlikely to deliver.

The probable result is that OpenAI will be absorbed by Microsoft, Amazon or another cash-rich behemoth.

Comment Re:Turns out, not (Score -1, Offtopic) 32

by schwit1 (#65925140) Attached to: House Sysadmin Stole 200 Phones, Caught By House IT Desk

We are finding that this isn't true in Minnesota with all of the Somali day care facilities having zero kids enrolled.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone...

At Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, the volume of cash leaving in passenger luggage has turned a regional hub into a national outlier. What began as a local curiosity about suitcases stuffed with bills has evolved into a broader debate over Somali remittances, welfare fraud, and whether MSP is functioning like a de facto foreign ATM for money headed overseas.

Submission + - UK: Starmer is hell-bent on destroying your right to a private life (telegraph.co.uk) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Sir Keir Starmer is about to turn your smartphone into a government surveillance device with access to all your private messages in real time.

This is the terrifying endpoint for the Online Safety Act (OSA), legislation that serves as a weapon against British citizens that was passed by the Tories, and is now being enriched by Labour.

Section 121 of this Orwellian Act grants Ofcom the power to compel messaging platforms like WhatsApp and iMessage to deploy “accredited technology” for scanning messages sent with end-to-end encryption. Officially, it’s targeted at child sexual exploitation and abuse material and terrorism content.

Who could object to stopping these most heinous crimes? But make no mistake: this is “client-side scanning”. Messages will be analysed on your device, before encryption, meaning true end-to-end privacy evaporates. Every text, photo, or voice note you send could be inspected in real time – not just flagged ones, but all of them.

Lord Hanson of Flint, who is steering this awful mission, recently confirmed the Government expects Ofcom to exercise these powers swiftly, in fact he “set a date of April 2026”. That’s when Ofcom will finalise guidance and minimum standards for the technology, paving the way for mandatory deployment. The clock is ticking. Within months, your private conversations will likely be subject to real-time state-mandated surveillance.

Starmer's Great Firewall is going to rival China's.

Comment Every company should do this. Fight fire with fire (Score 3, Insightful) 50

If the UK wants to force Apple to backdoor their systems, Apple should shutdown Apple accounts and devices for UK government officials AND their families. Tell them to use Android.

The outcry would get the government to back off SO quickly.

Set a precedent.

Submission + - 'Kill Switch'—Iran Shuts Down Starlink Internet For First Time (forbes.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: We have not seen this before. Iran’s digital blackout has now deployed military jammers to shut down access to Starlink. This is a game-changer for Plan-B connectivity for protesters and anti-regime activists when domestic internet plugs are pulled.

Simon Migliano, who has just compiled a comprehensive report into recent internet shutdowns, told me “Iran’s current nationwide blackout is a blunt instrument intended to crush dissent," and this comes at a stark cost to the country, underpinning the regime’s desperation. “This 'kill switch’ approach comes at a staggering price, draining $1.56 million from Iran’s economy every single hour the internet is down.”

Overnight, NetBlocks reported that “Iran’s internet blackout is now past the 60 hour mark as national connectivity levels continue to flatline around 1% of ordinary levels."

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