Author: Zech

Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that he was relocating two of his companies, X and SpaceX, from California to Texas, claiming that new legislation to protect LGBTQ children in California was the “final push.”Musk said SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to its Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and that the San Francisco-based company would move to Austin, a move that was expected as the company had begun selling office space in the Mid-Market district.Both CEOs blamed the situation on a California law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday. The law prohibits school districts from…

BUSAN, South Korea — NASA’s head of space technology is leaving the agency just six months after taking the job, and the director of Langley Research Center will take over on an interim basis. NASA announced on July 16 that its associate administrator for space technology, Kurt “Spazz” Vogel, is retiring effective immediately. The announcement did not give a reason for his departure. “I thank Dr. Vogel for his contributions to NASA and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement announcing the transition. Vogel became deputy administrator for the Space Technology…

Allies of former President Donald Trump have launched a series of “Manhattan Projects” to develop military technology and are drafting a sweeping AI executive order calling for an immediate review of “unnecessary and burdensome regulations,” signaling that a second Trump administration may pursue AI policies that favor Silicon Valley investors and companies.The framework would also create an “industry-led” body to evaluate AI models and protect the systems from foreign adversaries, according to a copy of the document seen exclusively by The Washington Post. The framework, which includes a section titled “Putting America First on AI,” is a sharp departure from…

Get your free copy of Editor’s DigestFT editor Roula Khalaf picks her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Koo, the Indian startup with its yellow bird logo and 400-character limit, has never hidden which U.S. social media company it wants to emulate. Founded in 2020, Koo gained success at a time of rising tensions between Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Twitter Inc., which ignored government requests to take it down during the massive farmer protests of 2021, forcing ministers and supporters to switch to the startup.But Koo, which raised funding from Tiger Global and became known as India’s “nationalist…

Donald Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate for 2024 is being seen as a potential windfall for Silicon Valley, with major tech venture capital firms voicing their support. The Ohio Republican is best known as the author of the blockbuster memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which detailed the plight and concerns of Rust Belt voters, but he also has close ties to the tech industry. Before entering politics, he worked as a venture capitalist alongside billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund. JD Vance is a former tech venture capitalist. Reuters The vice presidential…

Kathryn Breslin and team, Adobe Firefly / AI for Better Images / Silicon Chipping / CC-BY 4.0Governments often talk about restricting access to silicon chips, and in the case of the United States, some have even enacted laws to do so, but few outside of industry experts talk about the details of chips. In policy circles, chips are treated as black boxes that humans cannot understand.The workings of a chip are indeed microscopic and invisible to the naked eye. But they also rely on understandable technological choices that have been accumulated over many years in the computer industry. Digging deeper…

Variation of vertex properties across the cortex. a, Vertex distribution for fsavg, fslr, onavg measured by vertex-to-vertex distance. b, Standard deviation of vertex-to-vertex distance, vertex area, and vertex count at 20 mm searchlight for fsavg, fslr, onavg. c, Classical surface templates sample the cortical surface based on a sphere obtained by fully dilating the original anatomical surface. For these templates, the distribution of vertices is nearly uniform on the sphere (right), but far from uniform on the anatomical surface (left) due to geometric distortions introduced by the dilation. Vertices with the same color (red/green, also in zoomed views) are homologous…

Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, has commended stakeholders for their efforts in advancing biotechnology. Speaking at the inaugural International Conference on Biotechnology 2024 (ICOB24), a week-long event themed “Biotechnology as an Engine of Economic Growth” in Abuja, Shettima highlighted the potential of biotechnology to drive Nigeria’s development. “Biotechnology has great potential for the development of our country and it is heartening to see our experts persisting in this field despite the challenges,” Shettima said. Shettima, who spoke on behalf of the Special Adviser on General Duties, Senator Aliyu Modibo, called for perseverance in promoting biotechnology in Nigeria. “We need to…

A Houston company developing the next generation of space exploration technology is celebrating a new milestone in one of its technologies.Intuitive Machines reports that the VR900 has completed a full period of hot-fire testing, qualifying it for the IM-2 lunar mission. The company says this qualification also advances development of the VR3500, an engine designed for large cargo-class landers.The engine technology is all designed, 3D printed and tested at Intuitive Machines’ Houston facility, which opened at the Houston Spaceport last year.Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Artemas said in a news release that the company’s goal was to pioneer scalable deep-space engines…

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