1. NASA's Plan is Coming Together
NASA is on schedule to start launching manned space flights from US soil by 2017, which means the U.S. won't have to rely on the Russians any longer.
"In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. It was part of a bold move designed to turn what’s known as low Earth orbit over to the commercial sector, which would allow NASA, with its limited budget, to focus on deep space exploration, such as getting to Mars."
"First NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Orbital ATK to fly cargo and supplies to the station in unmanned missions. Now it is getting ready to put its astronauts on board Boeing and SpaceX’s spacecraft for the first human space flight to launch from U.S. soil in years."
"Severe bleaching means that corals could die, depending on how long they are subject to these conditions. The scientists also reported that based on diving surveys of the northern reef, they already are seeing nearly 50 percent coral death."
NASA is on schedule to start launching manned space flights from US soil by 2017, which means the U.S. won't have to rely on the Russians any longer.
"In 2014, NASA awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. It was part of a bold move designed to turn what’s known as low Earth orbit over to the commercial sector, which would allow NASA, with its limited budget, to focus on deep space exploration, such as getting to Mars."
"First NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Orbital ATK to fly cargo and supplies to the station in unmanned missions. Now it is getting ready to put its astronauts on board Boeing and SpaceX’s spacecraft for the first human space flight to launch from U.S. soil in years."
In other SpaceX news, now that he's comfortable with the Earth orbit thing, Elon Musk is gunning for Mars. Full disclosure, I have a man crush on Elon Musk and I'm enthralled by what he's doing with SpaceX and what Jeff Bezos is doing with Blue Origin.
2. The Social Network?
Facebook's latest earnings report knocked it out of the park (sales rose 52 percent to $5.3 billion from a year ago, while profit increased to $1.5 billion, tripling from $512 million a year earlier). By all indications, the company is thriving. However, the feature it's known for - being a social network (people sharing information about themselves and interacting with others) - is waning.
"According to confidential company data obtained by the tech blog the Information, Facebook has seen a decline in “original sharing”—posts by people about themselves and their personal lives, as opposed to articles they’re sharing from elsewhere on the web."
So, what is Facebook doing about this?
"The company has reinvented itself in two distinct ways. First, Facebook as a platform has been quietly evolving into something different than a social network—something less personal, but no less useful. Second, Facebook as a company has been furiously hedging its bets on the future of technology and social media, to the point that it is no longer properly described as merely a social network—no more than Alphabet (né Google) is properly described as a search website."
In a nutshell, so far Facebook has positioned itself to thrive in the post-social network environment through its the purchases of Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus (Facebook has been trying to buy Snapchat, as well), and its heavy investment in Messenger.
3. "Ladies and gentlemen, the hottest band in the world, KISS!"
If you grew up a KISS fan in the 70's and 80's, you will appreciate these pictures of the band getting into makeup.
Also, "The guitarist from heavy metal band KISS is doing a kids’ storybook app"...about a hummingbird. Who the hell is Tommy Thayer... (Lew Thomson? Jeff Mier? A lil help...)?
4. What's In A Fee?
"Why do we pay so much for lousy investment advice?" If you are like me, it's because you just didn't know how much you were paying and were too lazy to do the math. There wasn't an easy way to get to what that fund fee cost was, and that's exactly how the fund managers want it. If you use financial software like Personal Capital, you can now easily see what your fund fees are costing you and it's eye opening. Eye opening enough to where you reconsider how you are investing your money because you realize you are giving away a big chunk or your hard earned cash for a statistically proven little return, or even worse, a loss.
"How big? Smith calculates that for a portfolio matching the stock market's long-term return of about 7% annually above inflation, a 1% annual fee could erode a retirement portfolio by a total 25% compared to no fee. (That's for a family that places 6% of its income in the portfolio every year.)"
5. The Sad State of Coral Reefs
Warming seas and a strong El Nino tropical weather system are having potentially devastating impacts on the ocean's coral reefs.
The Hawaiian islands, home to 85% of the coral under US jurisdiction, experienced mass bleaching toward the end of 2015 and it's still unknown what the permanent damage is as a result of the bleaching,
A recent Washington Post article discussed the impact of warming seas on the Great Barrier Reef.
"Australia’s National Coral Bleaching Task Force has surveyed 911 coral reefs by air, and found at least some bleaching on 93 percent of them. The amount of damage varies from severe to light, but the bleaching was the worst in the reef’s remote northern sector — where virtually no reefs escaped it."
2. The Social Network?
"According to confidential company data obtained by the tech blog the Information, Facebook has seen a decline in “original sharing”—posts by people about themselves and their personal lives, as opposed to articles they’re sharing from elsewhere on the web."
So, what is Facebook doing about this?
"The company has reinvented itself in two distinct ways. First, Facebook as a platform has been quietly evolving into something different than a social network—something less personal, but no less useful. Second, Facebook as a company has been furiously hedging its bets on the future of technology and social media, to the point that it is no longer properly described as merely a social network—no more than Alphabet (né Google) is properly described as a search website."
In a nutshell, so far Facebook has positioned itself to thrive in the post-social network environment through its the purchases of Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus (Facebook has been trying to buy Snapchat, as well), and its heavy investment in Messenger.
3. "Ladies and gentlemen, the hottest band in the world, KISS!"
If you grew up a KISS fan in the 70's and 80's, you will appreciate these pictures of the band getting into makeup.
Also, "The guitarist from heavy metal band KISS is doing a kids’ storybook app"...about a hummingbird. Who the hell is Tommy Thayer... (Lew Thomson? Jeff Mier? A lil help...)?
4. What's In A Fee?
"Why do we pay so much for lousy investment advice?" If you are like me, it's because you just didn't know how much you were paying and were too lazy to do the math. There wasn't an easy way to get to what that fund fee cost was, and that's exactly how the fund managers want it. If you use financial software like Personal Capital, you can now easily see what your fund fees are costing you and it's eye opening. Eye opening enough to where you reconsider how you are investing your money because you realize you are giving away a big chunk or your hard earned cash for a statistically proven little return, or even worse, a loss.
"How big? Smith calculates that for a portfolio matching the stock market's long-term return of about 7% annually above inflation, a 1% annual fee could erode a retirement portfolio by a total 25% compared to no fee. (That's for a family that places 6% of its income in the portfolio every year.)"
5. The Sad State of Coral Reefs
Warming seas and a strong El Nino tropical weather system are having potentially devastating impacts on the ocean's coral reefs.
The Hawaiian islands, home to 85% of the coral under US jurisdiction, experienced mass bleaching toward the end of 2015 and it's still unknown what the permanent damage is as a result of the bleaching,
A recent Washington Post article discussed the impact of warming seas on the Great Barrier Reef.
"Australia’s National Coral Bleaching Task Force has surveyed 911 coral reefs by air, and found at least some bleaching on 93 percent of them. The amount of damage varies from severe to light, but the bleaching was the worst in the reef’s remote northern sector — where virtually no reefs escaped it."
Maybe some good news from this New Yorker article describing a radical attempt to save reefs.
No comments:
Post a Comment