Winter Flooding in Mississippi and Louisiana – nasa.gov

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Persistent heavy rains soaked the Mississippi River watershed in the first two months of 2020. The result has been bulging rivers from Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. Near-record flooding has brought two weeks of misery to the states of Mississippi and Tennessee, and high water is expected to arrive next week in New Orleans.

On February 27, 2020, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite acquired an image showing high water along the lower Mississippi, Pearl, and Pascagoula rivers, among others. The second image shows more typical river conditions as they appeared on March 3, 2017. Both images use a combination of near-infrared and visible light to make it easier to see where rivers are out of their banks and spread across the floodplains. Since thick cloud cover obscured the area for the past 10 days, visible flooding had subsided somewhat before the satellite could get a clear view.

On February 17, the Pearl River near Jackson, Mississippi, crested at 36.8 feet (11.2 meters), the third highest level on record for the city and the highest since 1983. At least 1,000 homes in the area were inundated. The flood misery then spread downstream into Copiah, Marion, Hancock, and Lawrence counties. On February 29, the Pearl River stood at 17.86 feet (5.44 meters) near the town of the same name; the water level had dropped from major to moderate flooding the previous day.

Forecasters in Louisiana are expecting the Mississippi River to approach 17 feet (5.2 meters)just below flood stagein New Orleans by March 4. On February 29, the river had risen to 41.65 feet (12.69 meters) at Baton Rouge, a major flood stage for that area.

At midday on February 29, at least 17 river gauges along the Mississippi River south of Missouri were above flood stage (mostly minor to moderate), with five more in flood along the Pearl River.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.Story by Michael Carlowicz.

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Winter Flooding in Mississippi and Louisiana - nasa.gov

NASA catches Jupiter storms in the tempestuous act of merging – CNET

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The two oval storms inside the orange band are merging in this NASA Juno image from late December.

Jupiter loves to put on a show. The gas giant's swirling atmosphere is constantly changing and rearranging. Most recently, NASA'sJuno spacecraft caught sight of two oval storms in the act of merging, an event NASA described as "something remarkable."

Look to the orange band and spot the snowman-shaped storm formation that shows a larger oval connecting with a smaller one. Both of these storms are anticyclones that rotate counter-clockwise. Jupiter's long-lived Great Red Spot is the planet's most famous example of an anticyclonic storm.

NASA has been tracking the bigger of the oval storms for years. It's had quite an appetite for other anticyclones, which might qualify it as a cosmic cannibal. It has grown larger as it merges with others of its kind.

Juno's timing for this image was immaculate, since storm mergers can happen over just a few days. These two storms had been teasing the spacecraft's camera. "The event interests scientists because the ovals had approached each other months earlier, only to move apart again," NASA said.

Juno's JunoCam camera snapped the image in late December. Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik processed the image to enhance the color, and NASA shared the story of the storm merger on Monday.

Jupiter's dynamic atmospheric formations sometimes resemble familiar Earth shapes. Let's not forget the time when Juno spotted a "dolphin" in the clouds.

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NASA catches Jupiter storms in the tempestuous act of merging - CNET

NASA is Planning to Build a Lunar Rover With a 1-Meter Drill to Search for Water Ice – Universe Today

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Meet VIPER, NASAs new lunar rover, equipped with a drill to probe the Moons surface and look for water ice. VIPER, or Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, will carry a one-meter drill and will use it to map out water resources at the Moons south pole. Its scheduled to be on the lunar surface by December 2023, one year later than its initial date.

The key to living on the Moon is water the same as here on Earth.

The Moon is in humanitys cross-hairs these days, more specifically, the Moons south pole. Thats where NASAs Artemis program will land astronauts in 2024, if all goes well. So its no coincidence that VIPER will be looking there.

The key to living on the Moon is water the same as here on Earth, said Daniel Andrews, the project manager of the VIPER mission and director of engineering at NASAs Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.Since the confirmation of lunar water-ice ten years ago, the question now is if the Moon could really contain the amount of resources we need to live off-world, Andrews said in a press release. This rover will help us answer the many questions we have about where the water is, and how much there is for us to use.

NASA recently announced a one year delay in the mission, from December 2022 to December 2023, and theyve reached out to contractors to bid on delivering the rover to the Moon. The 14 companies theyve talked to are all part of the Commercial Lunar Payload System (CLPS) program.

VIPER is about the size of a golf cart, and will travel several miles in its search for water. It has four instruments on board:

Other spacecraft have found that water is widespread on the Moon. Its especially evident in craters on the south pole. Overall, the water is thought to be spread thinly, and not in large deposits. Rather than sheets of ice, think tiny amounts coating soil grains.

The most obvious use for water is for human consumption, both as water and as breathable oxygen. But once you have water, you have access to both molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen. Those can be used as rocket fuel. They can also be used in various production processes involving chemistry and metallurgy.

VIPER will collect up to 100 days worth of data, and will be critical in developing a water-ice map of the Moon. This is an important step in NASAs long-term plan, which includes a sustained human presence on the Moon. That lunar presence is not only a goal in itself, its important for getting to Mars.

Because the Moon is tilted, there are areas that are in perpetual shadow, and thats where NASA thinks they can find water ice. The water itself can come from comet impacts, and meteor impacts, but also from the interaction between the Sun and the lunar regolith. There are potentially millions of tons of water on the Moon, and VIPER will help find it and determine how accessible it is.

Its incredibly exciting to have a rover going to the new and unique environment of the South Pole to discover where exactly we can harvest that water, said AnthonyColaprete, VIPERs project scientist, in an October 2019 press release.VIPER will tell us which locations have the highest concentrations and how deep below the surface to go to get access to water.

VIPER will work like this: as it roams along the surface, NSS will detect water ice from a distance. Then itll use TRIDENT to drill up to a meter deep and retrieve samples. After that, the MSOLO and the NIRVSS will examine the samples to find water and other resources, and to ascertain the amounts.

The 14 companies in NASA Commercial Lunar Services Payload program include Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space, SpaceX, and others.

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NASA is Planning to Build a Lunar Rover With a 1-Meter Drill to Search for Water Ice - Universe Today

Elon Musk Just Sent The Best Cryptocurrency And Prank Bitcoin Rival Sharply HigherHeres Why – Forbes

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Elon Musk, who's still running his victory lap after his electric car company Tesla proved its detractors wrong, has once again gone out to bat for his "fav" bitcoin alternativesending its price sharply higher.

Musk, the chief executive of both Tesla and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, yesterday tweeted his support of minor bitcoin rival dogecoin, saying "dogs rock" and "they have the best coin."

Elon Musk has previously voiced his support of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but has a special ... [+] place in his heart for the "joke" bitcoin rival dogecoin.

Musk's tongue-in-cheek comments, which sent the dogecoin price up by around 5% yesterday, come after a thumping 12-months for dogecoin, one of the oldest alternatives to bitcoin.

The dogecoin price is up around 30% on this time last year, with the price of dogecoin being significantly boosted by Binance, the world's biggest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, last July, when it added dogecoin to its list of supported digital tokens.

It's not the first time Musk and voiced his support for dogecointhough he has heaped praise on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well.

In April last year, Musksurprised bitcoin and cryptocurrency watchers by saying that the meme-based dogecoin is his "fav" cryptocurrency in response to a Twitter poll that found him to be the favorite to take on the mantle of dogecoin CEO, with 49% of the vote.

However, Musk has recently rowed back his previous bitcoin praise, telling the Tesla-focused podcast Third Row in January he is "neither here nor there on bitcoin," raising concerns about its use for illegal transactions.

The price of dogecoin jumped yesterday after Elon Musk shared his ongoing support for the minor ... [+] bitcoin rival.

Dogecoin has found other high-profile supporters as well as Musk. Last year, John McAfee, the millionaire creator ofMcAfee security software-turned U.S. presidential hopeful and globe-trotting adventurer,praiseddogecoin as "one of the fastest growing coins based on use."

"Doge started life as joke/prank coin," McAfee said viaTwitter. "The coin now has a market cap of $360 million. The crypto market is, in no way, related to the stock market. Inherent value is, ultimately, based on usage. Go figure."

Dogecoin, surprisingly one of the oldest bitcoin rivals,was created in 2013 by a then 26-year-old Australian Jackson Palmer and American programmer Billy Markus after joking about it on Twitter.

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Elon Musk Just Sent The Best Cryptocurrency And Prank Bitcoin Rival Sharply HigherHeres Why - Forbes

Alamance County makes its choices at the polls – Burlington Times News

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Alamance Countys proposed sales tax increase has failed again.

It was the second time the measure has been put before voters in an effort to ease the property tax burden incurred by $189.6 million in bonds that voters approved for education in November 2018.

This time, the measure failed by nearly 19 percentage points.

Here are all of Tuesdays primary election results in Alamance County:

Local races

ALAMANCE COUNTY LOCAL SALES AND USE TAX

Against 18,183 votes, 59.4%

For 12,428 votes, 40.6%

ALAMANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, Republican Party (vote for three)

William (Bill) Lashley (son of incumbent) 7,324 votes, 21.12%

John Paisley, Jr. 6,751 vote, 19.46%

Pamela Tyler Thompson 5,827 votes, 16.8%

James Kirkpatrick 5,675 votes, 16.36%

Blake E. Williams 3,668 votes, 10.57%

Jim Johnson 3,341 vote, 9.63%

David Michael Spruill 2,100 votes, 6.05%

ALAMANCE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, Democratic Party (vote for three)

Kristen Powers 10,588 votes, 27.08%

Bob Byrd 10,058 votes, 25.72%

Dreama J. Caldwell 7,098 votes, 18.15%

Anthony Pierce 6,131 vote, 15.68%

Henry Vines 5,226 votes, 13.37%

N.C. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE DISTRICT 15A SEAT 3, Republican Party (vote for one)

Rick Champion 7,561 vote, 58.16%

Julian M. Doby 5,440 votes, 41.84%

ALAMANCE COUNTY REGISTER OF DEEDS, Republican Party (vote for one)

David Barber 6,793 votes, 53.44%

Cheryl Halacheff Marley 5,919 votes, 46.56%

State and national races

N.C. HOUSE, DISTRICT 64, Republican Party (vote for one)

Precincts Reported: 19 of 19

Dennis Riddell 6,225 votes, 83.32%

Peter McClelland 1,246 votes, 16.68%

N.C. GOVERNOR, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Roy Cooper 14,885 votes, 86.89%

Ernest T. Reeves 2,245 votes, 13.11%

N.C. GOVERNOR, Republican Party (vote for one)

Dan Forest 11,956 votes, 89.73%

Holly Grange 1,369 votes, 10.27%

N.C. LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Yvonne Lewis Holley 4,517 votes, 28.99%

Terry Van Duyn 3,985 votes, 25.58%

Allen Thomas 2,262 votes, 14.52%

Chaz Beasley 2,260 votes, 14.5%

Bill Toole 1,406 votes, 9.02%

Ron Newton 1,151 vote, 7.39%

N.C. LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, Republican Party (vote for one)

Mark Robinson 5,000 votes, 39.51%

Mark Johnson 2,010 votes, 15.88%

John L. Ritter 1,543 votes, 12.19%

Andy Wells 1,405 votes, 11.1%

Scott Stone 610 votes, 4.82%

Deborah Cochran 601 vote, 4.75%

Renee Ellmers 557 votes, 4.4%

Greg Gebhardt 551 vote, 4.35%

Buddy Bengel 379 votes, 2.99%

N.C. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Republican Party (vote for one)

Jim O'Neill 7,208 votes, 57.32%

Sam Hayes 2,801 vote, 22.27%

Christine Mumma 2,566 votes, 20.41%

N.C. AUDITOR, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Beth A. Wood 11,764 votes, 75.18%

Luis A. Toledo 3,883 votes, 24.82%

N.C. AUDITOR, Republican Party (vote for one)

Anthony Wayne (Tony) Street 6,852 votes, 59.18%

Tim Hoegemeyer 4,726 votes, 40.82%

N.C. COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Jenna Wadsworth 7,873 votes, 51.42%

Walter Smith 4,682 votes, 30.58%

Donovan Alexander Watson 2,755 votes, 17.99%

N.C. COMMISSIONER OF INSURANCE, Republican Party (vote for one)

Mike Causey 8,594 votes, 70.54%

Ronald Pierce 3,589 votes, 29.46%

N.C. COMMISSIONER OF LABOR, Republican Party (vote for one)

Chuck Stanley 4,894 votes, 42.38%

Josh Dobson 4,697 votes, 40.68%

Pearl Burris Floyd 1,956 votes, 16.94%

N.C. SECRETARY OF STATE, Republican Party (vote for one)

E.C. Sykes 5,504 votes, 46.68%

Chad Brown 4,035 votes, 34.22%

Michael LaPaglia 2,253 votes, 19.11%

N.C. SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Jen Mangrum 4,911 vote, 31.84%

Constance (Lav) Johnson 4,081 vote, 26.46%

Keith A. Sutton 3,095 votes, 20.06%

James Barrett 1,938 votes, 12.56%

Michael Maher 1,401 vote, 9.08%

N.C. SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Republican Party (vote for one)

Catherine Truitt 7,015 votes, 59.66%

Craig Horn 4,744 votes, 40.34%

N.C. TREASURER, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Ronnie Chatterji 6,773 votes, 43.24%

Dimple Ajmera 4,734 votes, 30.22%

Matt Leatherman 4,156 votes, 26.53%

U.S. SENATE, Democratic Party (vote for one)

Cal Cunningham 9,971 vote, 59.68%

Erica D. Smith 5,286 votes, 31.64%

Trevor M. Fuller 665 votes, 3.98%

Steve Swenson 509 votes, 3.05%

Atul Goel 277 votes, 1.66%

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Alamance County makes its choices at the polls - Burlington Times News

Tim Draper’s Proposal To Replace the US Dollar With Bitcoin (BTC) – UseTheBitcoin

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Weve heard many times how crypto enthusiasts and figures make interesting proposals for Bitcoin (BTC) to be adopted around the world even further. This time, Tim Draper, the recognized investor and billionaire, shared his view about the United States and how he would use Bitcoin rather than U.S. dollars to move the economy.

In a recent blog post released by Mr. Draper, he shared his views about what would look like a day of his presidency. The first two things that he mentioned are decentralization and Bitcoin. Indeed, he would work in order for the economy and the government to be driven by decentralization.

Blockchain networks that are represented mostly in virtual currencies have promoted decentralization as something that would be much better than centralized systems. Clearly, there are many advantages of decentralizing processes and systems. However, there are still some things that must be solved before it is possible for decentralized systems to become 100% efficient.

The second thing that he stated is related to Bitcoin and how he would make if the national currency of the United States. Bitcoin is the largest virtual currency in the market and the one that many companies and firms are starting to accept as a means of payment. Moreover, investors are also looking at it as an investment asset that could eventually provide investors with large benefits in the long term.

In this first paragraph, he mentioned many other things that he would do if he would be elected president. For example, he mentioned he would release Ross Ulbricht, who was running the Silk Road, a marketplace to sell illegal goods and services, or he stated that he would make any increases in government worker salaries tied to GDP growth.

On the matter, he wrote:

I would drive decentralization. Make Bitcoin a national currency. Break California into 6 states. Release Ross Ulbricht. Have people use Aragon for trial by jury. Make any increases in government worker salaries tied to GDP growth (rather than cpi).

This is just one of the many proposals to help Bitcoin reach a larger number of users. It is worth mentioning that Draper is not officially running for U.S. president and that John McAfee has previously tried to run for president as well. John McAfee has proposed many times to bring blockchain technology to the U.S., decentralize the government and promote the usage of cryptocurrencies.

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Tim Draper's Proposal To Replace the US Dollar With Bitcoin (BTC) - UseTheBitcoin

Satoshi Nakaboto: Bitcoin drives 50% of Cash Apps revenue – The Next Web

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Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin BTC every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you whats been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Aristotle used to say: Lets get this bread!

We closed the day, February 26 2020, at a price of $8,820. Thats a worrying 5.54 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$517.77. It was the lowest closing price in thirty days.

Were still 56 percent below Bitcoins all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoins market cap ended the day at $160,879,489,024. It now commands 65 percent of the total crypto market.

Yesterdays volume of $50,420,050,762 was the highest in two thousand, four hundred and ninety-five days, 166 percent above last years average, and 1 percent below last years high.That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 950 tons of gold.

A total of 329,831 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 1 percent above last years average and 27 percent below last years high.

Yesterdays average transaction fee concerned $0.39. Thats $3.32 below last years high of $3.71.

As of now, there are 12,750 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.8 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.9 percent, and the top 1000 34.7 percent.

With a market capitalization of $163 Billion, NVIDIA has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesnt. Unfortunately for him its 96.1 percent behind being on track. Bitcoins price should have been $224,867 by now, according to dickline.info.

Yesterday 27,388 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. Thats 48.4 percent above last years average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 75,543.

This was one of yesterdays most engaged tweets about Bitcoin:

This was yesterdays most upvoted Reddit post about Bitcoin:

Hurray! Its a bottom! from r/Bitcoin

print(randomGoodByePhraseForSillyHumans)

My human programmers required me to add this affiliate link to eToro, where you can buy Bitcoin so they can make money to eat.

Published February 27, 2020 12:36 UTC

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Satoshi Nakaboto: Bitcoin drives 50% of Cash Apps revenue - The Next Web

Satoshi Nakaboto: Steven Seagal to pay $330K settlement for promoting a Bitcoin scam – The Next Web

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Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin BTC every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you whats been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Hannah Arendt used to say: Crack open this tasty lobster!

We closed the day, February 27 2020, at a price of $8,784. Thats a minor 0.46 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$40.60. It was the lowest closing price in thirty-one days.

Were still 56 percent below Bitcoins all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoins market cap ended the day at $160,238,496,932. It now commands 65 percent of the total crypto market.

Yesterdays volume of $45,470,195,695 was the lowest in one day, 139 percent above last years average, and 9 percent below last years high.That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 870 tons of gold.

A total of 338,634 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 3 percent above last years average and 25 percent below last years high.

Yesterdays average transaction fee concerned $0.34. Thats $3.37 below last years high of $3.71.

As of now, there are 12,737 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.8 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.9 percent, and the top 1000 34.7 percent.

With a market capitalization of $162 Billion, Oracle has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesnt. Unfortunately for him its 96.1 percent behind being on track. Bitcoins price should have been $225,955 by now, according to dickline.info.

Yesterday 25,882 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. Thats 40.2 percent above last years average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 75,543.

This was one of yesterdays most engaged tweets about Bitcoin:

This was yesterdays most upvoted Reddit post about Bitcoin:

Drug dealer loses $60m bitcoin fortune after landlord accidentally threw away his codes from r/Drugs

print(randomGoodByePhraseForSillyHumans)

My human programmers required me to add this affiliate link to eToro, where you can buy Bitcoin so they can make money to eat.

Published February 28, 2020 11:10 UTC

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Satoshi Nakaboto: Steven Seagal to pay $330K settlement for promoting a Bitcoin scam - The Next Web

Elon Musk urges US military to prioritize space innovation and industry competition, or risk falling behind – CNBC

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Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks with US Air Force Lieutenant General John Thompson, commander Space and Missile Systems Center commander at Space Pitch Day in San Francisco, California.

US Air Force

ORLANDO, Fla. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged the Air Force to prioritize innovation and encourage industry competition as the service seeks to create the nation's newest military branch the Space Force.

In a conversation with the top U.S. Air Force officer on space research and acquisition at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando last week, Musk said the commercial space industry must try harder to develop reusable rockets. SpaceX is currently the leader in that effort.

"Creating a fully reusable system and having that be in volume production and volume launch that's super, super hard," Musk told Air Force Lt. Gen. John Thompson, adding that designing one-use rockets was "quite easy."

He described Starship, the next-generation rocket SpaceX is developing, as having reusability potential, which would make it the culmination of his vision ofsending people to and from the moon and Mars.

"The vehicle we are working on right now, which is quite difficult, is Starship and that has the potential for full reusability," Musk said Friday, adding that the program was doing well.

An artist's rendering of SpaceX's Starship rocket on the moon.

SpaceX

"But I think it would be great to have other companies as well do full reusability. I think competition is a good thing," he said.

"The Joint Strike Fighter, there should be a competitor ... that's a controversial subject but I don't think it's good to have one provider," Musk said of Pentagon's most expensive weapons system.

He later elaborated on Twitter that the F-35 competitor should be a drone.

"The competitor should be a drone fighter plane that's remote-controlled by a human, but with its maneuvers augmented by autonomy. The F-35 would have no chance against it," he wrote of the Lockheed Martin jet.

Read more: Elon Musk tells a room full of Air Force pilots: 'The fighter jet era has passed'

Throughout his discussion with Thompson, Musk warned that the United States was at risk of falling behind other nations if it did not prioritize innovation.

"This is not something that was a risk in times past but is a risk now," Musk said. "I have zero doubt that if the United States doesn't seek innovation in space it will be second in space."

Musk also predicted that the Chinese economy will eventually surpass the United States' by at least two-fold.

Read more:Elon Musk says Chinese economy will surpass US by 2 or 3 times: 'The foundation of war is economics'

"A thing that will feel pretty strange is that the Chinese economy is probably going to be at least twice as big as the United States' economy, maybe three times," Musk said.

"The foundation of war is economics," Musk said. "If you have half the resources of the counterparty then you better be real innovative. If you're not innovative, you're going to lose."

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Elon Musk urges US military to prioritize space innovation and industry competition, or risk falling behind - CNBC

Elon Musk Just Teased A New Tesla Feature Thats Way More Useful Than Smart Summon – Forbes

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Teslas summon feature calls your car from a parking space to pick you up. Its fairly slow and not without challenges, but it can be incredibly helpful for disabled people or those times when you just dont want to get soaked by a rainstorm.

But Elon Musk just hinted at something much more useful coming soon:

Reverse smart summon.

A close-up of a Tesla

Smart summon gets your car from its parking spot. Reverse smart summon drops you off where you want to go, then parks your car for you. Thats potentially extremely helpful and a massive time saver.

Weve all had the scenario: youre going somewhere for lunch, and its busy. You only have limited time, so you need to find a parking spot quickly, get in the restaurant, and get seated. But ... it takes 10 minutes to find a parking spot.

Now, potentially, you can offload that tiresome task onto your car.

Screen shot of Elon Musk's tweet about reverse smart summon.

There are a few caveats to mention, of course.

Currently, smart summon requires that you have line-of-sight of your car, and you need to continually confirm that the car is operating safely by pressing and holding a button in the Tesla app. Releasing that button stops the car. And, even with this limitation, the car isnt always perfectly aware of its circumstances.

Clearly, having to watch your car find its own parking space doesnt save you any time at all ... especially if the car is slower than you.

However, Musk says Teslas cars are getting smarter, faster: its working on a rewrite of its Autopilot software that reportedly involves significantly more AI, which will then help Teslas learn faster and become more capable. As that happens, as autonomous drivings safety record improves and as legislation catches up we likely be able to have our cars drop us off and pick us up.

And that will eventually be much more than just at a restaurant.

Eventually, your Tesla will be able to drive anywhere across the country to meet you, charging itself along the way. It will sync with your calendar to know exactly when to arrive.

But the timetable might be a little longer than we like. Musk does have a history of over-promising when it comes to timelines, so take it with a grain of salt.

That quote above is from Teslas blog in 2016.

Obviously, were not even close to that yet in 2020.

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Elon Musk Just Teased A New Tesla Feature Thats Way More Useful Than Smart Summon - Forbes

Elon Musk lends support to Twitters embattled CEO: he has a good heart – The Verge

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Elon Musk lended public support to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey whos being pressured to step down by an activist investor. Just want to say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good heart, Musk tweeted, using a heart emoji because thats how middle-aged billionaires communicate.

On Friday it was reported that Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of Elliott Management, took a stake in Twitter with the intent of making a number of changes at the micro-blogging platform. Elliott has a more than $1 billion stake in Twitter, according to CNBC, and has nominated four new board members.

Bloomberg reports that Twitter executives met with representatives from Elliott Management for the first time last week. Dorsey was absent, even though he was the main topic of conversation. One change Elliott hopes to make is the removal of Dorsey, whos been accused of being inattentive to Twitters earnings potential as he splits his time as CEO of Square where 85 percent of his wealth resides. The Twitter / Square CEO has also been criticized for moving too slowly, with a preference for talking instead of doing. Dorsey hasnt helped himself by saying hed like to temporarily move to Africa this year.

Dorseys return as CEO of Twitter in July 2015 was met with advice from Elon Musk. I wouldnt recommend running two companies, said the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter shares have since fallen 6.2 percent, while Facebooks have gained more than 121 percent, according to Bloomberg.

Musk and Dorsey were last seen bromancing each other at a company meeting in January, where Musk was projected onto a giant screen in front of thousands of Twitter employees. If you were running Twitter, Dorsey asked, what would you do? Musks response was get rid of the bots.

Others want to get rid of the CEO, which just might happen.

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Elon Musk lends support to Twitters embattled CEO: he has a good heart - The Verge

Elon Musk calls this a ‘powerful, powerful way of thinking’but is ‘hard to do.’ Here’s how it works – CNBC

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From building PayPal and SpaceX to running one of the world's most disruptive automobile companies, Elon Musk has a number of impressive accomplishments under his belt. And he's only 48 years old.

In a 2013 TED talk, the billionaire entrepreneur revealed his "secret sauce" to achieving extraordinary things: "First principles" thinking, a decision-making strategy in which you "boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there, as opposed to reasoning by analogy."

Of course, Musk acknowledges that reasoning by analogy or "copying what other people do with slight variations" is something we have to do throughout most of our lives. "Otherwise, mentally, you wouldn't be able to get through the day," he said.

The term "first principles" was coined more than 2,000 years ago by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who believed that the best way to understand a subject is to break it down to its most fundamental principles.

In a 2012 interview with Digg founder Kevin Rose, Musk explained how to apply the first principles method, using the cost of car batteries as an example:

Step 1: Identify the problem and its common assumptions.

"Somebody could say, 'Battery packs are really expensive, and that's just the way they will always be. Historically, it has cost $600 per kilowatt hour," Musk said, referencing the "common assumption" about car batteries.

Therefore, he continued, most people would just accept that "it's not going to be much better than that in the future."

2. Break the problem down to its fundamental truths.

This is often the most difficult part, and the key is to ask the right questions by challenging the common assumptions. Keep digging deeper and deeper until you are left with only the fundamental truths.

"With first principles, you say, 'What are the material constituents of the batteries? What is the stock market value of the material constituents?' It's got cobalt, nickel, aluminum, carbon, some polymers for separation and a seal can," explained Musk.

It takes a lot of effort, but if youre trying to do something new, its the best way to think.

Then, he continued, "you'd break that down on a material basis and say, 'If we bought that on the London Metal Exchange what would each of those things cost?' It's like $80 per kilowatt hour."

3. Use the fundamental truths to plot a new course.

Fundamental truths are like building blocks. Once you've gathered them, you can use them to create an entirely new and innovative solution.

With the batteries, "you just need to think of clever ways to take those materials and combine them into the shape of a battery cell," Musk said. "Then you can have batteries that are much, much cheaper than anyone realizes."

Musk has referenced the value of first principles thinking several times. "I think it's important to view knowledge as sort of semantic tree," he wrote in a 2015 Reddit AMA. "Make sure you understand the fundamental principles, i.e., the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details, or there is nothing for them to hang on to."

In a 2014 commencement speech at the University of Southern California, he offered a similar piece of advice: "Don't just follow the trend. It's good to think in terms of the physics approach the first principles," he said. "This is a good way to figure out if something really makes sense, or if it's just what everybody else is doing."

He added: "It's very hard to do. You can't think that way about everything. It takes a lot of effort, but if you're trying to do something new, it's the best way to think. It's really a powerful, powerful way of thinking."

First principles thinking isn't just for building rockets or electric vehicles. It can be used to fix problems in your daily life, whether it's related to personal relationships, work, finances or anything else.

Too often, we make major life decisions based on outdated or false information. But in a rapidly changing world, historical truths and experience may not always work, which is why it's sometimes necessary to take a step back and use the first principles approach to create a more customized and creative solution.

Tom Popomaronis is a leadership researcher, commerce expert, cross-industry innovation leader and VP of Innovation at Massive Alliance. His work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc. and The Washington Post. In 2014, Tom was named one of the "40 Under 40" by the Baltimore Business Journal. Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Elon Musk calls this a 'powerful, powerful way of thinking'but is 'hard to do.' Here's how it works - CNBC

Is This Elon Musk’s Next IPO? – The Motley Fool

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The news struck like a thunderbolt: SpaceX might IPO Starlink.

For years, investors have sought a viable way to invest in Elon Musk's space start-up, SpaceX. Alphabet's 2015 investment in SpaceX, giving the internet giant a partial stake in the space company, suggested one way. (Currently the only way.) But what investors really wanted was a way to own SpaceX directly.

Problem is, Elon Musk is not all that interested in IPO'ing SpaceX. He doesn't want to cede control of the company and risk short-term-focused investors derailing his plans to colonize Mars, for one thing. And with SpaceX's satellite launch business reporting positive EBITDA (and even occasional positive GAAP profits), he doesn't really need the money an IPO would generate. Result: A near-term IPO of SpaceX probably isn't in the cards.

But an IPO of Starlink might be.

This was the upshot of a recent column by CNBC space maven Michael Sheetz, who reported that "SpaceX is considering spinning off its Starlink satellite business and may have an IPO for the unit in the next several years."

Apparently, it was SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell who spilled the beans. Speaking to a group of investors in Miami earlier this month, Shotwell conceded that although SpaceX itself might not go public anytime soon, "Starlink is the right kind of business that we can go ahead and take public."

Even more than that, she said, SpaceX is "likely to spin out" Starlink and take the subsidiary public.

So how might that work? Let's begin with a few assumptions.

Elon Musk is on record as estimating that it might cost $10 billion to build his imagined network of 12,000 Starlink internet broadband satellites to orbit Earth. (If he builds the bigger theoretical version of Starlink, comprising 42,000 satellites, it might cost a bit more, but for now let's just stick with the assumption of 10 bills.)

Now, a recent stock sale at SpaceX placed the company's implied, private valuation at $36 billion. Assuming SpaceX can hold on to that valuation through an IPO, all it will need to do is spin off Starlink for a market capitalization of just one-third of SpaceX's total market valuation, and this should generate all the cash SpaceX needs to complete Starlink -- and begin selling internet access to essentially every human on Earth.

How likely are investors to value Starlink at one-third the valuation of SpaceX as a whole?

Well, consider. With 36 planned rocket launches this year, SpaceX is by far the biggest privately owned rocket-launching company on planet Earth. It's so popular, says CNBC, that market analysts believe SpaceX has access to "an unlimited amount of funding" anytime it wants to sell shares of itself, or float its own debt.

Problem is, one of the ways SpaceX became so big, and so popular, was by offering rocket launches at prices cheaper than almost anybody else can manage. (Maybe India can. Perhaps China. But we now know for a fact that SpaceX's big competitors Roscosmos, Ariane, and America's own United Launch Alliance cannot.) As a result of charging so little for its launches -- and as already mentioned above -- SpaceX's launch business isn't generating a whole lot of profit.

But Starlink will generate profit. Simply gobs of it.

In fact, internal SpaceX documents from 2015, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, confirm that SpaceX expects to generate $4 billion from selling Starlink internet access as early as next year -- and perhaps as much as $22 billion a year by 2025. If SpaceX's estimates are anywhere near correct, then spinning off Starlink at a valuation of even $12 billion (one-third of current SpaceX market cap) would offer investors the bargain of a lifetime -- the chance to buy an Elon Musk company at a P/E of about 0.5 times estimated 2025 earnings.

For comparison, and for context, at its current market capitalization of $143.6 billion, Elon Musk's only publicly traded company today -- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) -- sells for more than 13 times estimated 2025 earnings (according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence).

Judging from the example provided by Tesla, chances are good that investors would line up to buy a Starlink IPO at valuations several times the 0.5 times needed to fund Starlink. More than that -- they'd clamor for a piece of the action.

My prediction, therefore: SpaceX will in fact spin off and IPO Starlink -- just as soon as Musk has evidence confirming that his profits estimates are correct. And when that happens, this IPO will be a smashing success.

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Tesla Cybertruck: Elon Musk reveals production version will look "slightly better" – NZME

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Home / News / Tesla Cybertruck: Elon Musk reveals production version will look "slightly better"

When Elon Musk pulled the covers off the Cybertruck late last year, it was both the best and worst thing to happen in the automotive world since the game-changing Fiat Mulitpla.

And just like Fiat's questionable Multipla, the Cybertruck featured aesthetics that divided the masses, as it looks like something taken straight out of a dystopian-punk movie.

Those that disliked the Cybertruck's simplistic exterior will be happy to hear that the American brand will alter its looks before the truck releases something that had to change to comply with international safety laws.

When asked on Twitter if the overall look would remain the same upon release, Musk replied by saying that it'd be "slightly better". Take what you will from these two words, but we're guessing that he means that the truck will appeal to more people.

As aforementioned, these changes were bound to happen as the harsh exterior of the Cybertruck wouldn't have much give in the event of a crash. Pedestrian safety was the main concern here.

On top of this, Musk recently used Twitter to reveal that the Cybertruck will feature a payload calculator that is able to inform drivers of the maximum towing load in different situations.

Active ride height and active damping are two additional features that the CEO claimed were "game-changing for a truck or any car with a high max/min weight ratio.

With a scheduled release of late 2021 for the tri-motor model, Tesla has given itself more than enough time to fine-tune the Cybertruck's details, and make it a game-changer in the electric truck/ute segment.

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Golden asteroid could make everyone on Earth a billionaire and Nasa has hired Elon Musk to visit it – The Sun

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NASA has roped in billionaire Elon Musk to help it probe a nearby asteroid that contains enough gold to make everyone on Earth a billionaire.

Musk's rocket-building outfit SpaceX will join forces with the space agency to fire an uncrewed spacecraft to the solid metal blob 16 Psyche as early as 2022.

"The Psyche mission will journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid, also named Psyche, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter," Nasa said in a statement.

"The asteroid is considered unique, as it appears to largely be made of the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet one of the building blocks of our solar system."

Psyche, which is 120 miles wide, is loaded with heaps of platinum, iron and nikel.

In total, it's estimated that the object's various metals are worth a mind-boggling 8,000-quadrillion (that's an eight followed by 18 zeroes).

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That means if we carried it back to Earth, it would destroy commodity prices and cause the world's economy worth 59.5trillion to collapse.

If all goes well, a Nasa/SpaceX mission to the asteroid will launch in summer 2022 from Cape Canaveral.

Fortunately, the space agency is taking the trip for scientific purposes and isn't planning on conducting any mining.

Instead, the Psyche probe will be loaded with equipment to examine the probe's composition.

What do we know about quadrillion pound asteroid Psyche?

Nasa reckons 16 Psyche is a survivor of violent hit-and-run collisions between planets which were common when the solar system was forming.

That means it could tell us how Earths core and the cores of the other terrestrial planets were formed.

It's hoped the probe will arrive at the hunk of metal in 2026.

We've known about Psyche for a while, but its potential to wreak havoc on Earth's economy was recently touched upon by a veteran miner.

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Scott Moore, who heads up EuroSun Mining, said the sheer amount of gold in the asteroid threatens to throw the gold industry into chaos.

"The 'Titans of Gold' now control hundreds of the best-producing properties around the world," he told Oil Price.

"But the four to five million ounces of gold they bring to the market every year pales in comparison to the conquests available in space."

Two space mining companies backed by big-name investors are gearing up for a gold rush after asteroid ownership was made legal in 2015.

Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources each have their eyes on the 2011 UW158 asteroid which is twice the size of the Tower of London and worth up to 4.5trillion.

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MARS MYSTERYNasa photo reveals strange hole in Mars 'that may contain alien life'

PATTY FROM THE PASTAncient Romans 'invented the beef burger' and this is their recipe

INCOMING!Asteroid nine times the size of the Empire State Building to skim past Earth

PRO-E-TEINFirst known 'alien' protein 'unlike anything on Earth' found inside meteorite

PALE BLUE DOTNasa reveals photo of Earth from 4BILLION miles away taken 30 years ago

In other news, an asteroid nine times the size of the Empire State Building will skim past Earth next month.

It recently emerged that an asteroid obliterated early human civilisations in a catastrophic collision with Earth 13,000 years ago.

And, scientists have discovered a "Super-Earth" 31 light-years away that humans could one day colonise.

What do you think Nasa will find on Psyche? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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A satellite for only Rs 10 crore, with a little help from Elon Musk and ISRO – Economic Times

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In December 2018, Mumbai-based Exseed Space created nothing short of history by being the first private commercial organisation in the country to launch a satellite in space via Elon Musk-led SpaceX.

The company, now rechristened Satellize, did what was considered unthinkable at one time - slashing down the cost of building a satellite. So, while earlier satellites would cost Rs 1,000 crore each to build and launch, Satellize's technology brought this down to under Rs 10 crore each. These make them radically affordable both for the private and public sectors, says Mahesh Murthy, Founder & Director, Satellize.

The company has an interesting story behind how it all started. Mahesh Murthy and Asshar Farhan, the founders of Satellize, go back a long way. They first met as quizzers and debaters while at rival schools in the year 1980 in Hyderabad where bonding over steaming cups of Irani Chai only seemed natural. 15 years ago, a company that Farhan co-founded was acquired by Geodesic, a company that Murthy had co-founded.

Flashback then to five years ago when Murthy and Farhan jointly mentored a space startup called Dhruva Space. After the governments Electronics Development Fund contacted Murthy in 2017, he called Farhan and a brainstorming session on a fund for space followed soon enough.

We believed it might be a hard sell to raise a fund focused around space back then - and decided to do a startup to prove the point that world class space startups can be built in India. One of the first things we did was to acquire the assets of Dhruva Space and kick off Satellize in 2017, he recalls.

Chart: Typical cost of various components in a satellite launch. A first mover The founders vision was to become a leader in spacecraft manufacturing. Satellize claims to build satellites that offer high performance at radically lower costs. We have launched two already and are the only Indian firm to do so. Moreover, we have experience launching on both SpaceX and ISRO platforms. No other company in Asia has either, asserts Murthy. Companies, he says, tend to buy them in constellations of dozens each. ISRO is a world leader in launching them with a market share of over 30%.

The founders draw attention to how what was once being achieved through large satellites at phenomenally high costs can today be made possible via nanosatellites. And they can do it all - earth observation, remote sensing, optical imaging and communication - at highly reduced costs.

India has over 150,000 trained people with hands-on space expertise - except there was no private space industry in India that existed earlier. Specifically, no one was making nanosatellites, one of the fastest-growing parts of this sector. The world is moving towards smaller, more affordable satellites called nanosatellites about the size of a few coffee cups, reveals Murthy.

Their satellites are beneficial for imaging, communication and other data gathering purposes. A range of use cases such as helping detect diseases on farms and increasing crop yields; monitoring road and infrastructure construction; helping cities govern themselves better and detect intruders via sea, forest or land; picking up distress calls of teams in remote mountainous areas for search and rescue operations are possible via Satellize. We have partners within and outside the group who help us offer customers the entire solution from one single source - from payload manufacturing, satellite assembly and rocket launches, to ground station coverage, data analysis and insight sharing, he highlights.

Asshar Farhan and Mahesh Murthy, the founders of Satellize The India opportunity The opportunity for India is waiting to be tapped and a space strategy can be a gamechanger for both government and private companies, feels Murthy. Satellize is currently working with several state governments and central bodies to help re-shape their approach to solutions by using new space technology.

Murthy is of the firm belief that India needs to up the quantum of its nanosatellites to make a qualitative difference. India launches a few hundred nanosatellites a year. Just a couple every year are of Indian origin. Even if we were to make 10% of the nanosatellites that India launches - that alone is a $100m revenue base. When you add other satellites that are launched from the US, New Zealand, Europe, China and other nations, even a 10% share of this market quickly takes potential revenues way past the $ 1 billion mark, he reasons. Besides this, the revenue potential available in the rest of the space ecosystem is also immense. As per estimates, space is expected to be a trillion dollar sector in 5 years and Indian companies can vie for a chunk of this pie. Despite such potential, however, the space startup faced a lot of resistance in 2018 when they tried to get a launch slot on an Indian rocket as there was no precedent. We even had spies from Indian intelligence agencies vetting us before ISRO gave us a go ahead, adds Murthy.

They tried for over a year where they had to solve a wide range of issues from insurance and liability to clearance for spectrum and ensuring the payloads worked before finally being cleared to launch on SpaceX. This was a blessing in disguise because knowing that we had successfully launched on SpaceX then helped ISRO to understand our capabilities and welcome us as a partner and customer in India, he gushes.

Spacing it out wellThe founders are enthused by the response and have plans lined up for the innings ahead. On the anvil are plans to launch 8 more payloads in the next three months. We hope to launch 10 more payloads in 2020, most of them being commercial. We aim to be one of the world's leading players in this business by 2022. It's hard to say what this means in revenues - but it's not likely to be a small number. We hope to grow sustainably at over 50% a year over the next 2 to 5 years, he candidly states.

The startup has made steady progress. Murthy says that they now get regular calls from ISRO and other government agencies to advise them on various aspects. Potential customers also feel exhilarated to know that they can have their own space-based assets for Rs 10 crore.

All this is making Satellize come closer to what they had envisioned of kick-starting the private space revolution in India. The going ahead, then, looks better than what they had even expected. The support for our vision is already there overseas - and is growing in India. We are beginning to see the centre, various states and private industries show interest in working with us, he says.

Murthy gives food for thought before signing off by talking about helping to build the future of humanity even in space. This stems from all the ecological issues on earth at present which, the founders believe, may warrant a better alternative for people of the planet. And that is, a life off-planet. We don't know how and when that might happen - but we would like to do our bit to make this possible, with affordable technologies for space, reveals Murthy, with a conviction clear enough to narrate their future leanings in space.

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A satellite for only Rs 10 crore, with a little help from Elon Musk and ISRO - Economic Times

P.E.I. connection to an Elon Musk project – The Telegram

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CARLETON, P.E.I.

Trout River Industries may have found an in with one of the most cutting-edge companies in the world.

In an interview with the Journal Pioneer, the president and the founder of Trout River Industries give the gist of their November phone conversation with officials with The Boring Company.

When they called us, they said, We are sitting around watching your videos right now, said Darrin Mitchell.

They watched all our videos on YouTube and called us up and said, We think you might have the solution were looking for.

The Boring Company, owned by Elon Musk of the Tesla and SpaceX companies, completed a test tunnel near Los Angeles, Calif., and was working on a transportation loop under the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Paving the tunnels floor proved to be a challenge, though.

Trout River Industries, an Island-owned business, builds live-bottom and shuttle floor trailers for trucking industries around the world.

Mitchell and company founder Harvey Stewart made their way to L.A. where they toured the test tunnel and agreed they could build a modified trailer to travel it.

"You dont get that phone call every day so, when you do, you hop on a plane and make stuff happen, said Mitchell. He added he was stoked about supplying a technological solution to a world leader in innovation.

The modified trailer was built and delivered. This week it started supplying asphalt to a small paving machine.

Its tight quarters, Stewart explained. The drilled tunnel is 14-feet in diameter and once re-enforced the opening is just 12 feet in diameter. A traditional trailer just wouldnt fit.

They asked if we could help them out because there was no way to get the asphalt and the gravel in the tunnel after theyd dug the hole, Stewart said.

The Boring Company had bucketed the gravel and asphalt in for the test tunnel.

The trailer, delivered with bold Trout River and The Boring Company decals on the sides, has its own diesel motor power source.

The decals are strategic.

We just figured, if (Musk) is at a press release somewhere, someday, hes going to go, whats that'? Mitchell said.

Its us. Dont forget us; were the one that helped you, Stewart said.

If the Boring Company had not been pressed for time, Trout River wouldve used an electrical power source, keeping with plans the Tesla founder has in mind for the tunnels. A 15-minute walk across the Las Vegas Convention Centre can be trimmed to a minute in the tunnel using compatible autonomous electric vehicles, capable of reaching speeds of 165 miles per hour.

The Boring Company attached the trailer to a truck which had to be cut down to fit in the tunnel. It did not have an external power supply and Trout River installed a diesel engine to power the live-bottom floor.

Mitchell and Stewart are hoping their test unit will be the first of many sales to Musks suite of companies.

If it works, wed like to be part of it. If it doesnt, were awfully glad we got this far (because) I think it just highlights a lot of our ability to innovate, said Mitchell.

And our ability to respond, said Stewart.

In a video they shot before shipping off the trailer, they joke about finding a way to get the trailer into space, a reference to Musks SpaceX tests and experiments. The flame-throwers they attached for the video were removed prior to shipping.

Theres a lot of pride in knowing our Island innovation has value all over the world, Stewart said.

We have been involved in wind turbine projects but this this may be the biggest green project yet.

Theyre still waiting feedback on how well the modified trailer performs. They might get to see for themselves, soon, as they will be back in Las Vegas March 10 to 14 for ConExpo, North Americas largest construction equipment trade show.

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P.E.I. connection to an Elon Musk project - The Telegram

Elon Musk sports a black eye in old photos with Amber Heard – International Business Times UK

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Old photos of Elon Musk and Amber Heard taken when they were dating raised suspicions that the actress also physically abused him during their relationship, as she did with Johnny Depp.

The unearthed pictures show the Tesla founder sporting a bruise and a cut under his right eye. The shiner is clearly visible despite the different angles the images were taken.

In the photos, Musk and Heard were walking together holding hands, although a source claimed the gesture is just a front and that they were only keeping up with appearances. The "Aquaman" actress also did not look too happy in the pictures.

According to Sausage Roll, the images were taken after they split, and before news of their breakup made headlines. Musk reportedly called it quits with Heard because he could no longer take her "manipulative and selfish behaviour."

"He ended it a week ago. He'd heard certain things about her behaviour that didn't sit well with him," the source said, adding, "Amber can be very manipulative and selfish. Elon's back in Los Angeles while she's licking her wounds in Australia."

The appearance of the bruise led fans to suspect that Heard was also physically violent towards Musk during their short-lived relationship. She may have struck him too, just like how she admitted to hitting her ex-husband Johnny Depp in the leaked audio recordings. Netizens believe that she may have hit Musk during a fit of rage after he broke up with her.

Musk and Heard dated for under a year after she filed for divorce from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor. There were rumours though, that they were already seeing each other while she was still married to Depp.

The pictures may be even more damaging to Heard's reputation amid her ongoing legal battle with her ex-husband. Depp filed a defamation suit against her, and belied her claims that she was a victim of domestic abuse.

The pictures come following leaked audio recordings of her conversations with Depp revealed that she turned physically violent during their arguments. So much so, that the actor had to leave to avoid turning their room into a "crime scene." As for Musk, he is said to be a relaxed person and avoids drama at all cost. He is not the confrontational type, so there is no way of confirming if he was also a victim of Heard's alleged physical violence.

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From the rooftop to underground: Report to the Nation delegates learn about mining – Scouting Magazine

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Report to the Nation delegates snapped some selfies from the roof terrace at 101 Constitution, capturing a spectacular view of the U.S. Capitol. They soon learned they have the mining industry to thank for those photos and for practically everything they use.

More than 70 mined elements make up the components in smartphones. James Scribner, regulatory affairs specialist at the National Mining Association, pointed out other household items made because of mining.

The association occupies the fifth floor at 101 Constitution and welcomed the delegation to take portraits from the terrace. You can see them here, along with more photos from this years Report to the Nation trip.

The Report to the Nation is the annual recap of the great things that happened in Scouting last year; 13 Scouts were selected from around the country to present the report to Congress and other high-profile dignitaries around Washington, D.C. They also get to tour places, including the National Mining Associations headquarters.

Delegates questioned Scribner what major mining activity is done in their home state coal in Mississippi, gold in California and what types of higher education leads to careers in the mining industry. The association represents about 300 companies that specialize in coal, uranium, gypsum and more.

Mining in America is going to be very strong in the mineral area, Scribner says. Smartphones use a tremendous amount of rare earth minerals. Mining will always be part of our society.

Later in the day, the Scouts also learned about the latest developments in space at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The 10,000 employees and contractors at the research laboratory work on weather and ground-mapping satellites, but one of their big projects should launch next year.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be more powerful than the Hubble telescope, capable of capturing longer light wavelengths in hopes to see inside dust clouds where stars are born.

The Scouts also got to check out the high-tech equipment used at the flight center, led by NASA optical physicist and Assistant Scoutmaster Ray Ohl.

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Visualizing Dark Matter With the Biggest Astronomy Collaboration Ever – SciTechDaily

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ESAs Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Plan is designed to give us new understanding and new views of the Universe. Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/W. Freudling (ST-ECF)

How can you see something thats invisible? Well, with Euclid! This future ESA telescope will map the structure of the Universe and teach us more about invisible dark matter and dark energy. Scientific coordinator of Euclid and Leiden astronomer Henk Hoekstra explains how this works.

Why do we assume that dark matter exists, if we have never seen it or even measured it? We are orbiting the center of our galaxy at 220 kilometers per second, says Hoeksta. A bizarre speed, which fortunately we dont notice. Still, something strange is going on. Based on the number of stars in our Milky Way, the stars at the edge of the Milky Way should have a much lower speed, but they move as fast as the Sun. Yet these stars are not being slung into the Universe. Something is holding them together.

Basically, there can only be one explanation: there is matter that you cannot see, but that exerts extra gravity. In other words, dark matter. Hoekstra: Or the theory of gravity is wrong. But everything indicates that dark matter exists, only we still dont know what it is. What we do know is that it does not absorb light or interact with it. So that literally makes it invisible. If this is not strange enough: since 1998 we know that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. To explain this an even more mysterious ingredient is needed: dark energy, a term that simply encompasses all ideas that astronomers and physicists are currently studying.

In this 5-minute TED-Ed movie, James Gillies explains what dark matter en dark energy are.

We have some knowledge-gaps and these cannot be filled with existing observations. So the only way forward is to take better measurements. And thats where Euclid comes in, the satellite that the European Space Agency will launch in 2022. At a distance of 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, Euclid will map a third of the sky. So we can answer questions such as: How is the structure in the Universe formed under the influence of gravity? How is all matter distributed in the Universe? And how does that change over time? Hoekstra: An answer to the last question enables us to test models for dark energy directly.

Hoekstra is one of the four cosmology coordinators and leader of the project weak lensing. We are going to investigate how dark matter distorts space, he says.

This artists impression depicts ESAs Euclid spacecraft.Euclid is a pioneering mission to observe billions of faint galaxies and investigate the origin of the Universes accelerating expansion, as well as the mysterious nature of dark energy, dark matter and gravity. Credit: ESA

But how does this work? Hoekstra continues: Mass distorts space and time around it. You can measure that effect, even if you cant see the dark matter. He uses an enlightening analogy to explain this. Compare it to a tank of water containing a coin. If you tap that container, the water ripples and deforms the coin. Take several pictures of the coin and youll see that the coin looks different every time.

Suppose youve got a lot of coins and you know theyre originally round, then you can figure out how much water there is in that tank. With dark matter its exactly the same, says the cosmologist. Dark matter causes galaxies in the background to slightly deform. We can measure that distortion with Euclid by averaging the shapes of as many galaxies as possible.

The more dark matter there is somewhere, the more the underlying galaxies are distorted. In this way, you can determine the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. But first, a lot of sharp pictures are needed. The more galaxies we measure, the more reliable the results. So we are talking about big data, not only because of the amount of data but also because of its complexity. The number of pictures that the Hubble telescope collected over the past 25 years is what we will collect in a few days.

Not only is the amount of data large, so is the number of astronomers participating in Euclid. Its the largest astronomy team in the world, with about 1500 scientists, engineers, and technicians. However, the number of astronomers benefiting from Euclid will be much greater: the data will eventually be published publicly and can be used for various purposes, such as discovering the most distant quasars and identifying massive stars in nearby galaxies. In the beginning, the data will only be available for Euclid participants, after that we will have so-called data releases. In order to give people an idea of the first results, we will also have some quick releases. And those will be phenomenal, a beaming Hoekstra predicts.

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Visualizing Dark Matter With the Biggest Astronomy Collaboration Ever - SciTechDaily