Our World Faces ‘Unprecedented’ Spike in Electricity Demand
February 14th, 2025Via: The Register:
The world is going to need a lot of new electricity generation in the next three years to keep up with an “unprecedented” spike in demand, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) – and it’s going to be a tough goal to meet.
The IEA’s report examines the current state of the electricity market and how it’s likely to change between 2025 and 2027, forecasting that the world is going to need an additional 3,500 terawatt-hours of energy generation to meet rising demand over the next three years. That, the IEA noted, is the equivalent of adding more electricity consumption than Japan, per year, between now and 2027.
To put that into further perspective, Japan is the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the world, eating up more than 1,000 TWh of electricity per year. That’s a lot of juice to add to global energy generation in a mere three years, and most of that is going to be in emerging markets, the IEA said.
World’s First Hybrid Quantum Supercomputer Reimei Activated in Japan
February 14th, 2025Via: Interesting Engineering:
Engineers in Japan have activated Reimei, the world’s first hybrid quantum supercomputer. The 20-qubit quantum machine has been integrated into Fugaku, the world’s sixth-fastest supercomputer.
The hybrid system is designed to solve problems that classical supercomputers take much longer to process. The machine is housed at the Riken scientific institute in Saitama, near Tokyo, and will primarily support research in physics and chemistry.
Ron Paul: Trump’s Good Ideas and Bad Ideas
February 14th, 2025“If you really want to know what’s behind this whole mess, you have to audit the Fed.”
President Trump likes to keep everyone on their toes. He has proven to say things that (in the end) were perhaps never meant to be taken seriously in the first place.
Sometimes the president's statements are bad ideas, like the U.S. owning Gaza. But at other times, his… pic.twitter.com/ofjOcH67ZX
— Ron Paul (@RonPaul) February 14, 2025
HHS Spent More Than $22B on Grants for Migrants — Including Cash for Cars, Home Loans and Startups
February 13th, 2025Via: New York Post:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ramped up grants for migrants from 2020 to 2024 — which included cash assistance to buy cars, homes and even build credit for startup businesses, according to a shocking watchdog report that found taxpayers were left on the hook for $22.6 billion.
HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — which came under fire last year for having lost track of 32,000 migrant kids in the US — handed out the high sum to a host of nonprofits, effectively acting as a “giant magnet” for those crossing the US border and claiming asylum, auditors from the money monitor OpenTheBooks revealed exclusively to The Post.
Tasked with settling migrants, asylum seekers and other refugees in America, ORR drastically increased the number of noncitizens eligible to receive funding over the bulk of President Joe Biden’s term, with more than $10 billion shelled out to grant-receiving organizations just in fiscal year 2023.
That coincided with all-time records being set for southern border crossings into the US, with 2.4 million apprehensions by Customs and Border Protection over the same period.
Non-governmental groups bilked taxpayers for up to $1.7 billion in services including dollar-for-dollar matching savings plans for cars, homes, college educations or startups; small-business loans of up to $15,000; loans to repair credit history of up to $1,500; “cultural orientation,” “emergency housing support,” legal assistance and Medicaid care.
Larry Ellison Wants to Put All America’s Data, Including DNA, in Giant Database for AI to Study
February 13th, 2025Tell us another one, Larry.
Via: Register:
If governments want AI to improve services and security for their citizens, then they need to put all their information in one place – even citizens’ genomic data – according to Larry Ellison, the Oracle database tycoon.
Ellison shared his take on what governments need to do to succeed with AI during a discussion with his buddy former UK prime minister Tony Blair at the World Governments Summit in Dubai today.
The world’s fourth-most-richest man – a good friend also of the world’s richest man Elon Musk – insisted artificial intelligence is soon going to change everyone’s lives “across the board.”
If governments want in, they’ll need to gather all their data – spatial information, economic data, electronic healthcare records including genomic data, and info about infrastructure. Whatever they’ve got, basically. And put it all in one place to be analyzed by algorithms. The American multi-billionaire used the United States as an example, if not a goal.
“I have to tell [the] AI model as much about my country as I can,” Ellison said. “We need to unify all the national data, put it into a database where it’s easily consumable by the AI model, and then ask whatever question you like,” he said. “That’s the missing link.”
Related: Omnipresent AI Cameras Will Ensure Good Behavior, Says Larry Ellison
Trump Announces Upcoming Meetings with Putin
February 13th, 2025Via: The Hill:
President Trump said Wednesday he expects to meet in person with Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times, suggesting they are likely to meet first in Saudi Arabia.
“We ultimately expect to meet,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “In fact, we expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there, and we’re going to meet also, probably in Saudi Arabia. The first time we’ll meet in Saudi Arabia.”
The timing of when the meetings would happen were not yet clear, but Trump said it would be “not in the too distant future.”
Trump’s comments came hours after he spoke with Putin on the phone and as his administration pressed forward with plans to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Confirmed as HHS Secretary
February 13th, 2025Via: New York Post:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the Senate as President Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday, capping a contentious fight over his skepticism on vaccines that had divided Republicans.
Senators voted 52-48 to place Kennedy, 71, atop the nation’s health bureaucracy with oversight of a budget of roughly $1.7 trillion.
PassMark Sees First Yearly Drop In Average CPU Performance In Its 20 Years Of Benchmark Results
February 11th, 2025Via: Tom’s Hardware:
Benchmarking software developer PassMark publishes the average results of all Windows PC tests across the globe every two weeks in a line graph. In line with what many enthusiasts might expect, the PassMark graph has always shown a consistent increase in processor performance year-on-year. However, for the first time since the company started keeping track in 2004, the average CPU mark score for desktop and laptop processors has dropped, with laptops dropping 3.4% year-over-year.
Anna Paulina Luna to Lead Task Force on Declassification of UFOs, JFK Assassination, 9/11, Epstein
February 11th, 2025Limited hangouts for all the things.
? LIVE: Chairman @RepJamesComer and Congresswoman Luna Hold Press Conference to Make Major Announcement https://t.co/hM315q7fWk
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) February 11, 2025
Via: Fox:
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., will lead a new task force focused on the declassification of federal secrets – including records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other documents in the public interest, Fox News Digital has learned.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., appointed Luna to chair the “Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.”
Luna is expected to focus on examining the declassification of materials in the public interest, including the client list of Jeffrey Epstein, and files relating to Sept. 11, 2001, COVID-19 origins, UFOs and more.
Fox News Digital has learned that Comer and Luna are sending letters to necessary agencies to kick off the declassification investigations.
Trump Says No Right of Return for Palestinians Under His Gaza Proposal
February 10th, 2025Annexing Canada? Annexing Greenland? Those are somewhat easy to dismiss. (Right? Right!?!)
There is, however, some sort of X factor between Trump and Zionism, which means that we should take Trump much more seriously when it comes to the Gaza situation.
When I first heard Trump’s Gaza plan, my first thought was, “He’s having some sort of Biden moment.”
It isn’t that.
Despite his staff continuously trying to walk this back, Trump keeps reiterating it.
In trying to understand this, everything I’m finding is similar to this discussion below. Essentially, there’s a lot of bewilderment and a belief that Trump isn’t actually going to do it:
Via: Al Jazeera:
United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that his proposal for mass displacement in Gaza does not include a right of return for Palestinians in the enclave.
In an interview with Fox News, partially aired on Monday, Trump also reiterated his push to “own” Gaza.
Asked whether Palestinians would be allowed to return to their territory under his plan, Trump said, “No, they wouldn’t.”
The US president’s plan to empty Gaza of its population has been forcefully rejected across the Middle East – including by Egypt and Jordan, the main countries that Trump says he wants to host displaced Palestinians.
Rights groups have also condemned the push, saying that it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Trump’s assertion that he is seeking the permanent displacement of people in Gaza appears to contradict recent comments by his aides who said that the enclave’s residents would be able to return after the area is rebuilt.
Last week, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said people in Gaza would be “temporarily relocated”.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said that the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza would be in the “interim”, and residents would be able to “move back in” after reconstruction.
