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Investors will buy into the market-leading tech and cult of Musk despite a price that is defying gravity
“Our mission,” says the opening sentence of SpaceX’s listing document with a straight face, “is to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multi-planetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”
The last bit has an echo of the laughable WeWork, which was going to “elevate the world’s consciousness” via the medium of shared office spaces. But, yes, if SpaceX could tick off all the items on Elon Musk’s to-do list, one could make a case that the company should be valued at $1.77tn (£1.32tn).
Continue reading...Zulkernain Ahmed was in pursuit of a group on bikes when he hit Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb, who was walking on pavement
Two brothers have been jailed for killing a 16-year-old boy who was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” when he was hit while walking by a car being deliberately driven at a group on bikes.
Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb, who had come to the UK “in search of safety and a better life”, was hit by the vehicle, driven by 21-year-old Zulkernain Ahmed in Sheffield in June 2025.
Continue reading...Insects join list of species capable of solving simple ‘box-and-banana’ problem that demonstrates basic intelligence
Bumblebees can use tools to solve a problem, according to experiments that demonstrate their remarkably advanced cognitive abilities.
The bees were given an adapted version of an experiment that, 100 years ago, first demonstrated chimpanzees could work out how to retrieve an out-of-reach banana by stacking boxes. Since then, various other primates, elephants and crows have joined an elite cohort of species known to be capable of this level of insight and spontaneous problem solving.
Continue reading...The president’s image and name are proliferating in Washington and beyond, overturning well-advised democratic taboos on glorifying sitting leaders
One of the surest signs of an authoritarian regime is the ubiquity of its leader. Mussolini’s face was plastered across fascist Italy. In North Korea, pictures of Kim Jong-un have appeared alongside those of his father and grandfather, which are present in every home and public building. The golden statue of Turkmenistan’s leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, perching on a marble cliff in the capital is one of a multitude of portrayals.
Thriving democracies spurn such displays, rightly judging it safer to laud leaders once they are out of power. The first US president, George Washington, refused to appear on currency, believing that redolent of European monarchs. The 47th has no such concerns. The administration wants a $250 bill depicting Donald Trump to commemorate the 250th anniversary of independence, though federal law does not currently allow banknotes to depict living people. His signature will soon appear on $100 bills: a first for a US president.
Continue reading...TRIPOLI (ANP/RTR) - Bij het kantoor van de VN-vluchtelingenorganisatie UNHCR in de Libische hoofdstad Tripoli hebben honderden mensen betoogd tegen de stroom migranten in het land. Het was een van de grotere recente betogingen tegen de migratie. Het kantoor werd enige tijd geblokkeerd.
Sinds het militaire ingrijpen van de NAVO en de val van het regime van Muammar Kaddafi in 2011 trekken honderdduizenden mensen door het in chaos vervallen land. Bijvoorbeeld op weg naar Europa of om ook in Libië wat te verdienen, zoals in de sector van de oliewinning of in de bouw. Veel mensen uit Afrikaanse landen beneden de Sahara hopen in Libië een boottocht te kunnen regelen naar vooral Italië.
De vele migranten wordt verweten een oorzaak te vormen van de sociale en economische problemen in het dunbevolkte Noord-Afrikaanse land van 7,5 miljoen inwoners. Er zouden daarnaast naar schatting 900.000 migranten huizen. Betogers riepen "geen huisvesting voor migranten" en "Libië is voor de Libiërs".
On this date in 2004, the Killdozer rampage took place. “The bulldozer effortlessly demolished cars and buildings, including the home of a former mayor, the office of a newspaper that had sided against him in an editorial…”
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