TOP OF THE NEWS:
- The 10-Year Quest to Make Your Phone Do Everything (Wired) "The point is to remove the borders between our gadgets, to make them all work together. To turn every screen, keyboard, and surface into exactly the gadget you need, for exactly as long as you need it. So far, every attempt has ended somewhere between obscurity and outright failure. But there’s a different, more fundamental question still unanswered: Is this a good idea? The vision is this: As soon as you hit the power button on your computer, the front-facing camera could turn on, use computer vision to identify you, and then instantly pick up where you left off on your phone. When you ask your Echo for a wine recommendation, it would know exactly what you like, and which recipes you looked up on your iPad earlier. When you put on an augmented-reality headset, it could instantly personalize your avatar, adjust the lenses, and startElite Dangerous up from where you just died on your Xbox. Something has to bring all those services together, to make everything accessible everywhere. To make it so you don’t need any gadgets, because there are gadgets everywhere. All you need to do is log in."
- The U.S. Missile Defense Tech That’ll Protect South Korea—And Tick Off China (Wired) "A THAAD has four main elements: a radar unit that surveils and tracks objects in the protected area and airspace, a truck-mounted launcher that fires interceptors and can be reloaded quickly, interceptors themselves (eight to a launcher), and a digital controller that runs the launcher and coordinates communication and data flow between the THAAD and other command centers. 'THAADs are tailored to those medium-range threats that North Korea has in spades—North Korea regularly demonstrates that kind of capability,' says Thomas Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'THAADs are exactly the kind of thing that you would want for a regional area.'"
- The Race To Build An AI Chip For Everything Just Got Real (Wired) "Companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft can still run their neural networks on standard computer chips, known as CPUs. But since CPUs are designed as all-purpose processors, this is terribly inefficient. Neural networks can run faster and consume less power when paired with chips specifically designed to handle the massive array of mathematical calculations these AI systems require. In other words, the market for AI chips is potentially enormous. That’s why so many companies are jumping into the mix."
- No Longer a Dream: Silicon Valley Takes On the Flying Car (NYT) "More than a dozen start-ups backed by deep-pocketed industry figures like Larry Page...along with big aerospace firms like Airbus, the ride-hailing company Uber and even the government of Dubai — are taking on the dream of the flying car. There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy."
BUSINESS:
- Uber’s C.E.O. Plays With Fire (NYT) "In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr. Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage. In the process, Mr. Kalanick has helped create a new transportation industry, with Uber spreading to more than 70 countries and gaining a valuation of nearly $70 billion."
NEWS:
- A Hundred Days of Trump (New Yorker) "His Presidency has become the demoralizing daily obsession of anyone concerned with global security, the vitality of the natural world, the national health, constitutionalism, civil rights, criminal justice, a free press, science, public education, and the distinction between fact and its opposite. On Inauguration Day, at the Capitol, Trump no longer affected any awe of the task before him or respect for his predecessors [during his inauguration address]. As George W. Bush was leaving the grandstand, according to New York, he was heard to say, 'That was some weird shit."
- ‘Everyone tunes in’: Inside Trump’s obsession with cable TV (WaPo) "The president...uses details gleaned from cable news as a starting point for policy discussions or a request for more information... Sometimes, at night, he hate-watches cable shows critical of him, while chatting on the phone with friends, said someone familiar with the president’s routine — a quirk a senior official jokingly called 'multi-teching.' ...now a running joke in television green rooms that if a trade association or special-interest group wants to reach the president, the smartest use of their money is to buy morning television ad time or book a representative on air. Either way, Trump’s viewing habits have seeped into the ether of both the White House and the nation’s capital. During the Republicans’ failed health-care push last month, Trump invited a small group of conservative activists to meet with him in the Oval Office. When the meeting was over, said someone with knowledge of the gathering, the president made a plea to the participants: 'I know you have already said it’s a bad deal, but Kellyanne is going to walk you out to the microphones and I’d love it if you could say it’s great,' Trump said. The group never did embrace the health-care proposal. But speaking briefly to reporters that evening, the attendees were polite and took pains not to criticize Trump himself."
- Two-thirds of Americans think that the Democratic Party is out of touch with the country (WaPo) "While the political opposition generally views Trump or either party as about equally out of touch — with about 80 to 90 percent saying so — the Democratic Party is viewed as far more out of touch by Democrats than Trump or the GOP are by Republicans."
- A scholar asks, ‘Can democracy survive the Internet?’ (WaPo) "...the campaign of 2016 highlighted the degree to which elections are now carried out on terrain far different from when television and traditional print organizations were the dominant media. Candidate Trump understood the new landscape far better than did Hillary Clinton... ...the Internet reacted to the Trump campaign 'like an ecosystem welcoming a new and foreign species. His candidacy triggered new strategies and promoted established Internet forces. Some of these (such as the ‘alt-right’) were moved by ideological affinity, while others sought to profit financially or to further a geopolitical agenda.'"
- It’s Time to Crush Campus Censorship (National Review) "...campus radicals will let you speak only when they deem your speech is worthy. And if they don’t? Then, the mob isn’t a mob, it’s a collection of idealists 'keeping watch over the soul of our republic.' Enough. If we can’t count on courts or colleges to protect free speech, then it’s time for Congress to step up. All it would take is a law holding that if a court of final jurisdiction finds that a public university has violated the constitutional rights of a student or faculty member, then the university will pay liquidated damages to the plaintiff in the amount of no less than $5 million. It will also forfeit 25 percent of its federal funding in that current fiscal year. If a university is a repeat offender at any point in the five years following, it will forfeit 100 percent of its federal funding in that fiscal year." and How To Restore Free Speech on Campus (Weekly Standard) "George P. Shultz...told me 'if you don't get rioted at Berkeley today, your reputation is ruined.' I spoke at Berkeley on April 20—which turns out, unbeknown to me, to be famous as '420.' For reasons that are hotly disputed, 420 is now code for marijuana. It wasn't that, as Secretary Shultz was warning me, the commies had forgotten the great battles of the Reagan years, or—God forbid—no longer recognized my name. It wasn't that foreign policy is now considered boring, and they only break up meetings when provocateurs like Ann Coulter show up. No, it was that they were Too Stoned to Riot! This is the solution."
- Census Bureau Report: Young American Men Are Falling Behind (Weekly Standard) "'Since 1975, young men have swelled the ranks at the bottom of the income distribution. Some 41 percent of all men aged 25 to 34 have incomes less than $30,000 today [in 2015 dollars], up from 25 percent in 1975,' the report stated."
- How to lose friends and 'exfoliate' people — Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is caught between 2 worlds, and his friends are cutting ties (Business Insider) "Those who know Kushner say he never intended to go into politics. His heavy involvement, these sources told Business Insider, spiraled from the fact that Trump ran a nontraditional campaign with few experienced advisers, often relying on people close to him like Kushner for guidance."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- CNY bowler sets world record by rolling 300 game in 86.9 seconds (Syracuse.com) "Ketola, of Preble, is believed to have recorded the world's fastest 300 game at the 10-lane 281 Bowl in Cortland on April 5 by rolling 12 strikes in 1 minute, 26.9 seconds. The 23-year-old two-handed bowler raced from one lane to the next and registered strikes using a different ball on each lane -- striking twice on lanes 1 and 2 -- to score 12 in a row for a perfect game in approximately the same time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Mr. Roboto (Styx)
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- The U.S. Missile Defense Tech That’ll Protect South Korea—And Tick Off China (Wired) "A THAAD has four main elements: a radar unit that surveils and tracks objects in the protected area and airspace, a truck-mounted launcher that fires interceptors and can be reloaded quickly, interceptors themselves (eight to a launcher), and a digital controller that runs the launcher and coordinates communication and data flow between the THAAD and other command centers. 'THAADs are tailored to those medium-range threats that North Korea has in spades—North Korea regularly demonstrates that kind of capability,' says Thomas Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'THAADs are exactly the kind of thing that you would want for a regional area.'"
- The Race To Build An AI Chip For Everything Just Got Real (Wired) "Companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft can still run their neural networks on standard computer chips, known as CPUs. But since CPUs are designed as all-purpose processors, this is terribly inefficient. Neural networks can run faster and consume less power when paired with chips specifically designed to handle the massive array of mathematical calculations these AI systems require. In other words, the market for AI chips is potentially enormous. That’s why so many companies are jumping into the mix."
- No Longer a Dream: Silicon Valley Takes On the Flying Car (NYT) "More than a dozen start-ups backed by deep-pocketed industry figures like Larry Page...along with big aerospace firms like Airbus, the ride-hailing company Uber and even the government of Dubai — are taking on the dream of the flying car. There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy."
BUSINESS:
- Uber’s C.E.O. Plays With Fire (NYT) "In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr. Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage. In the process, Mr. Kalanick has helped create a new transportation industry, with Uber spreading to more than 70 countries and gaining a valuation of nearly $70 billion."
NEWS:
- A Hundred Days of Trump (New Yorker) "His Presidency has become the demoralizing daily obsession of anyone concerned with global security, the vitality of the natural world, the national health, constitutionalism, civil rights, criminal justice, a free press, science, public education, and the distinction between fact and its opposite. On Inauguration Day, at the Capitol, Trump no longer affected any awe of the task before him or respect for his predecessors [during his inauguration address]. As George W. Bush was leaving the grandstand, according to New York, he was heard to say, 'That was some weird shit."
- ‘Everyone tunes in’: Inside Trump’s obsession with cable TV (WaPo) "The president...uses details gleaned from cable news as a starting point for policy discussions or a request for more information... Sometimes, at night, he hate-watches cable shows critical of him, while chatting on the phone with friends, said someone familiar with the president’s routine — a quirk a senior official jokingly called 'multi-teching.' ...now a running joke in television green rooms that if a trade association or special-interest group wants to reach the president, the smartest use of their money is to buy morning television ad time or book a representative on air. Either way, Trump’s viewing habits have seeped into the ether of both the White House and the nation’s capital. During the Republicans’ failed health-care push last month, Trump invited a small group of conservative activists to meet with him in the Oval Office. When the meeting was over, said someone with knowledge of the gathering, the president made a plea to the participants: 'I know you have already said it’s a bad deal, but Kellyanne is going to walk you out to the microphones and I’d love it if you could say it’s great,' Trump said. The group never did embrace the health-care proposal. But speaking briefly to reporters that evening, the attendees were polite and took pains not to criticize Trump himself."
- Two-thirds of Americans think that the Democratic Party is out of touch with the country (WaPo) "While the political opposition generally views Trump or either party as about equally out of touch — with about 80 to 90 percent saying so — the Democratic Party is viewed as far more out of touch by Democrats than Trump or the GOP are by Republicans."
- A scholar asks, ‘Can democracy survive the Internet?’ (WaPo) "...the campaign of 2016 highlighted the degree to which elections are now carried out on terrain far different from when television and traditional print organizations were the dominant media. Candidate Trump understood the new landscape far better than did Hillary Clinton... ...the Internet reacted to the Trump campaign 'like an ecosystem welcoming a new and foreign species. His candidacy triggered new strategies and promoted established Internet forces. Some of these (such as the ‘alt-right’) were moved by ideological affinity, while others sought to profit financially or to further a geopolitical agenda.'"
- It’s Time to Crush Campus Censorship (National Review) "...campus radicals will let you speak only when they deem your speech is worthy. And if they don’t? Then, the mob isn’t a mob, it’s a collection of idealists 'keeping watch over the soul of our republic.' Enough. If we can’t count on courts or colleges to protect free speech, then it’s time for Congress to step up. All it would take is a law holding that if a court of final jurisdiction finds that a public university has violated the constitutional rights of a student or faculty member, then the university will pay liquidated damages to the plaintiff in the amount of no less than $5 million. It will also forfeit 25 percent of its federal funding in that current fiscal year. If a university is a repeat offender at any point in the five years following, it will forfeit 100 percent of its federal funding in that fiscal year." and How To Restore Free Speech on Campus (Weekly Standard) "George P. Shultz...told me 'if you don't get rioted at Berkeley today, your reputation is ruined.' I spoke at Berkeley on April 20—which turns out, unbeknown to me, to be famous as '420.' For reasons that are hotly disputed, 420 is now code for marijuana. It wasn't that, as Secretary Shultz was warning me, the commies had forgotten the great battles of the Reagan years, or—God forbid—no longer recognized my name. It wasn't that foreign policy is now considered boring, and they only break up meetings when provocateurs like Ann Coulter show up. No, it was that they were Too Stoned to Riot! This is the solution."
- Census Bureau Report: Young American Men Are Falling Behind (Weekly Standard) "'Since 1975, young men have swelled the ranks at the bottom of the income distribution. Some 41 percent of all men aged 25 to 34 have incomes less than $30,000 today [in 2015 dollars], up from 25 percent in 1975,' the report stated."
- How to lose friends and 'exfoliate' people — Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is caught between 2 worlds, and his friends are cutting ties (Business Insider) "Those who know Kushner say he never intended to go into politics. His heavy involvement, these sources told Business Insider, spiraled from the fact that Trump ran a nontraditional campaign with few experienced advisers, often relying on people close to him like Kushner for guidance."
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS:
- CNY bowler sets world record by rolling 300 game in 86.9 seconds (Syracuse.com) "Ketola, of Preble, is believed to have recorded the world's fastest 300 game at the 10-lane 281 Bowl in Cortland on April 5 by rolling 12 strikes in 1 minute, 26.9 seconds. The 23-year-old two-handed bowler raced from one lane to the next and registered strikes using a different ball on each lane -- striking twice on lanes 1 and 2 -- to score 12 in a row for a perfect game in approximately the same time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn."
TODAY'S SONG:
- Mr. Roboto (Styx)
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