Monthly Archives: June 2020

By: Trends Desk | New Delhi | Updated: June 18, 2020 11:44:43 am The artistic interpretation of Elon Musks tweets has been turned into a colouring book for all. (Source: @_ill_ink/Twitter)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk loves Twitter and has posted everything from cryptic tweets to memes, that have created buzz and controversy. One woman has now come up with artistic interpretations of these tweets and theyre part of a colouring book that costs $30 (Rs 2284).

Titled The Illuminated Tweets of Elon Musk, the 52-page colouring book has sketches based on the billionaire entrepreneurs tweets from July 2016 to May 2020. Colorado-based artist Salina Gomez, who is popularly known as Ill Ink online, has come up with the sketches that are arranged in a chronological order in the book. This is expected to allow people to understand the changes in Musks vision and development.

Musks Twitter feed, once I had found it, brought me a lot of joy, Gomez wrote on her Kickstarter page. I decided to take on the role of a gonzo editorial cartoonist reading the Musk Twitter Headlines, subjectively interpreting them in a whimsical, positive manner, all the while immersing myself in the Twitterverse experience.

I wanted to keep the book light-hearted. There is a page dedicated to a Jupiter is big tweet, which is literally just a huge drawing of Jupiter. Another image show group of people sitting around a huge table, with the planets sketched at the foreground based on Musks poll for Make the Mars technocracy real where over 92 per cent people voted for yes.

Another picture captures the excitement of Musks tweet which mentioned the first private passenger for a voyage around the moon, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.

Saying that mostly editorial cartoons focus on societal ills and corruption, the young illustrator said she wanted to set herself apart.

I wanted (and needed) to counterbalance the worlds problems with positive and hopeful content. Not only was Elon Musk the perfect person to focus the projects energy on, I wouldnt have even come up with the project if it werent for him. Musk is a once in a lifetime entrepreneur, engineer and visionary and I think it is right to say that this book is a byproduct of his profound determination to dream big, she added.

The crowdfunding campaign has created some buzz online already and the artist said she was overwhelmed with support.

(Source: illink/kickstarter)Promising rewards to fellow Musk followers, the artist has also created a special poster just for a campaign. Based on one of her favourite pages, the Cyborg Dragon poster is basically a whimsically coloured version of the April 2018 tweet: Oh btw Im building a cyborg dragon.

People who have backed the project and pledged to buy the book will receive their orders in time for Christmas. Gomez said she planned to send out 200 signed copies of her book starting October.

The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Trending News, download Indian Express App.

IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd

Read the rest here:

Artist turns Elon Musks viral tweets into illustrations that are now part of a colouring book - The Indian Express

Elon Musk Is Attempting to Revolutionize HVAC Systems | 2020-06-19 | ACHR News This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

Read more from the original source:

Elon Musk Is Attempting to Revolutionize HVAC Systems - ACHR NEWS

Bitcoin giveaway scams have been around for more than two years, but a new twist in tactics has helped scammers make more than $2 million over the past two months from Elon Musk's name.

The new trick involves the use of Bitcoin vanity addresses in order to give the scam more credibility in the eyes of a suspicious user.

Vanity addresses are Bitcoin addresses that incorporate a custom word in the address itself -- such as "1MuskPsV7BnuvMuHGWmmXUyXKjxp3vLZX6" or "1ELonMUsKZzpVr5Xok8abiXhhqGbdrnK5C."

Over the past month, Justin Lister, CEO of cyber-security firm Adaptiv, has been tracking the use of Bitcoin vanity addresses abusing Elon Musk's name in giveaway scams.

Lister has been collecting the addresses with the help of BitcoinAbuse, a website where users can report Bitcoin addresses abused in ransomware, extortions, cybercrime, and online scams.

In a spreadsheet shared with ZDNet earlier this week, the Adaptiv CEO said he tracked down 66 addresses that have been reported by scammed users on BitcoinAbuse.

Lister said the 66 addresses received more than 201 in Bitcoin since being created in late April 2020.

Since receiving the spreadsheet from Lister earlier this week, a 67th Elon Musk vanity address was also submitted to the BitcoinAbuse website. This vanity address held an additional 13.9 Bitcoin, which brought the total to 214 Bitcoin, a sum that now stands over $2 million at today's exchange rate.

The $2 million sum is enormous if we take into consideration the low effort required to run one of these scams.

Because BitcoinAbuse also requires users to add a short description of where they encountered the Bitcoin address, this made investigating the source of some of these scams much easier.

Based on ZDNet's review, most of the Bitcoin vanity URLs had been shared with the help of YouTube live streams.

Hackers hijacked high follower-count YouTube accounts, changed the account name and its graphics to mimic the account of a celebrity or a trusted brand, and then launched a live stream to broadcast their scam.

The scam relied on tricking users into sending Bitcoin to the scammers' address, on the promise of doubling their profits, part of the giveaway -- usually organized on the occasion of an important event in the celebrity/brand's history.

In our investigation, we found that hackers had either renamed the channels to Elon Musk's name, the SpaceX brand, or news outlets such as Euronews, seeking credibility.

The Bitcoin address was usually embedded either in the live stream itself, and users had to scan it with a QR code reader, or users were asked to visit a dedicated "giveaway" website.

But we're not reporting on something new here, with multiple of these fake Elon Musk giveaway live streams making the news this month alone [1, 2].

Bitcoin giveaway scams abusing the Elon Musk and SpaceX names have been going on all month, ever since SpaceX and Musk made the news last month for the company's first successful rocket launch carrying a live NASA astronaut crew.

Bitcoin and Ethereum giveaway scams have been around since at least February 2018, when the first such case was reported. Since then, the trick has gotten old and users have gotten better at spotting the scammers.

The role of the Bitcoin vanity address was to give more credibility to the scam and make it look authentic, similar to how "verified profiles" give more authenticity to accounts on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The Bitcoin network doesn't have a way to "verify" addresses, so vanity addresses, which are hard to come by, are the closest thing to a "verified" Bitcoin address.

The trick of using Elon Musk vanity addresses was, obviously, successful, helping crooks net more than $2 million, but it wasn't the only one.

ZDNet also found other vanity addresses submitted to the BitcoinAbuse database and reported as being abused in similar YouTube-based giveaway scams.

We similarly found vanity addresses for SpaceX and Bill Gates. Both have been used in similar YouTube-hosted giveaway scams, with the Gates-themed addresses holding more than $100,000 in stolen funds.

In addition, we also found another Bitcoin vanity address that was not available on the BitcoinAbuse website. This one had been used for a giveaway scam that tried to take advantage of the recent launch of the Play Station 5 gaming console. Luckily, no user fell victim to such a scam.

Similar scams abusing Linus Torvald and Mark Zuckerberg's names have also been reported, along with brands like Facebook, Twitter, and even the UN.

As long as these scams have a giant return-on-investment and crooks make more than they spend setting up the scam, the "giveaway" scourge will continue to haunt cryptocurrency owners.

Users should be wary as these scams aren't limited to YouTube live streams only, and have been also spotted on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more recently on TikTok -- similarly by hacking into high-follower profiles and broadcasting the scam for a short period.

In most cases, these scams are powered by hacked accounts sold on hacking forums for prices going from $5 to thousands, depending on the follower count. Taking into account that some scammers are making as much as $180,000 a day, the scams are most likely to go on for years, or until users stop falling for the scams.

See the article here:

Elon Musk Bitcoin vanity addresses used to scam users out of $2 million - ZDNet

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach appears to be pursuing a partnership with Tesla leader Elon Musk.

Streckenbach posted on Twitter Thursday, "I want to send a shout out to Elon Musk because Brown County has a proposal for you. Unfortunately, we snail mailed it, but if you DM me your info, we'd love to get this to you digitally and see if we can collaborate. #Titletown is ready to transform into #Testlatown!"

When we reached out for comment, Brown County Deputy Executive Jeff Flynt said Streckenbach was trying to grab Musk's attention to "explore potential collaboration efforts as the county continues to try and save taxpayers money through energy savings while doing what's right for the environment."

In addition to Tesla's electric cars, Musk's companies have been developing leading-edge battery, power storage and solar panel technology.

Read more here:

Titletown to Teslatown? Brown County reaches out to Tesla's Elon Musk - WBAY

Love them or hate them, Elon Musk and Steve Jobsare known astwo of the most brilliant minds the business world has ever seen.

Yet, despite their ability to process information, think critically, and identify key insights--many of which helped Tesla and Apple reach valuations into the billions of dollars--both men became known foran unexpectedhabit:

They've embraced the rule of awkward silence.

The rule of awkward silence is simple: When faced with a challenging question, instead of answering, you pause and think deeply about how you want to answer.

But make no mistake, this is no short pause. You might go five, 10, or even 15 seconds before offering a response. Which, if you're not used to doing it, will feel very awkward--at first.

Garrett Reisman, an engineer and former astronaut who left NASA to join SpaceX, described how Musk uses this technique ina recent interview.

"If you pose to [Elon] a serious question," says Reisman, "he'll consider it. And he'll kind of go into this, almost like a trance--he'll stare off into space and you can see the wheels turning. And he's focusing all of his intellect, which is considerable, on this one question."

You can actually see this happen almost anytime Musk himself gives an interview. In fact, it's not uncommon for Musk to take from between five to even 15seconds to think before giving an answer. (Just check out the 20:00 mark of this interview.)

Apple co-founder Jobs was known to do the same. In fact, there's a perfect example captured on video over 20 years ago.

It was 1997, and Jobs had just returned to Apple after being ousted from the company over a decade earlier. He was conducting a Q&A at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference when an audience member took a shot at him, telling Jobs, "You don't know what you're talking about" and sarcastically asking what the famous founder had been working on for the past seven years.

He takes a sip of water ... and sits.

After making a short joke, he pauses again.

This time for eight seconds.

What follows, after Jobs reflects on the question and contemplates the criticism, inwhat amounts to20 seconds of awkward silence, isa masterful demonstration of how to respond to an insult. (Ibroke down Jobs's entire response here,if you're interested.)

As these examples illustrate, the rule of awkward silence is a great tool of critical thinking. It can help you to give deeper, more analytical, more thoughtful answers. It can help you get to root problems more effectively, which leads to greater understanding.

But the rule of awkward silence offers another major advantage, and it has muchto do with the way our brains process emotions.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions--and the rule of awkward silence is a great way to show it.

When it comes to calm and rational thought, we typically engage a part of our brain known as the prefrontal cortex. But when we feel attacked or under pressure, we engage another part of our brain known as the amygdala, which tends to take over in a type of "emotional hijack."

That's not always bad, as our emotions can help us get out of difficult situations.

The problem comes when those emotions go unchecked, and we say or do things that we later regret.

Think back to the example of Steve Jobsresponding to the insult. This was one of Jobs's first major appearances after rejoining Apple. By the time he left many years previous, he had built a reputation as being arrogantand unable to work well with others. With the wrong response,he could have lost the confidence of his company, investors, and the public before his turnaround plans got underway.

Instead, by embracing the rule of awkward silence, he was able to keep his emotions under control and deliver a perfect response.

Think also about Musk's interview style, and the lessons we learn from it.

When it comes to answering challenging questions, you might be tempted to just spit out anything, even if doesn't make much sense. Or, you might say what you think the other person wants to hear instead of what you truly believe.

But is that what you really want? Or would you prefer to take some seconds to pause, to think things through, and then to respond in a way you're proud of later?

So, the next time someone asks you a challenging question, try to take your time before giving an answer. In doing so, you will:

The more you practice, the awkward pause won't feel so awkward anymore--andthe more you will be able tomake emotions work for you, instead of against you.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Read more:

Why Intelligent Minds Like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs Embrace the Rule of Awkward Silence - Inc.

LONDON (Reuters) - The unpredictable Elon Musk strikes again.

FILE PHOTO: Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk speaks onstage during a delivery event for Tesla China-made Model 3 cars at its factory in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Just when his electric vehicle (EV) company Tesla seemed to be pivoting away from using cobalt in its batteries, it signs a long-term supply deal for the controversial metal with Glencore.

This from the man who has vowed to eliminate cobalt from the Tesla product mix because of its financial cost and the reputational cost of a metal associated with child labour and poor safety conditions at artisanal mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the worlds dominant producer.

Teslas not the first auto company to lock in future cobalt supplies with a miner. BMW did the same last year, also with Glencore as well as with the Bou-Azzer mine in Morocco.

But Tesla is the standard-bearer for the EV revolution and its deal with Glencore has strategic significance for the global battery raw materials supply chain.

Its a boost for cobalts prospects, both in terms of physical demand and, more importantly, in the apparent admission that cobalt isnt going away as a battery material any time soon.

Its also a warning to other auto companies that if they want cobalt, theyre going to have to take control over their own supply chain.

Tesla and its battery partner Panasonic have until now largely used a nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) formula in their lithium-ion batteries.

Other automotive companies targeting the passenger vehicle market have adopted nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) technology.

Everyone has been trying to reduce the amount of cobalt in the metallic mix. Cobalt is expensive, currently trading around $33,000 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange. It has a history of volatility both in terms of price and supply, which is dominated by production, both official-sector and artisanal, in the Congo.

The human cost of artisanal mining also weighs heavy on an industry that is driving towards a green and socially responsible future.

Teslas desire to shift away from cobalt usage seemed to be borne out by the revelation its new Chinese plant would use cobalt-free batteries.

Lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries have been around a long time, are cheaper than cobalt-containing batteries, but lack energy density. The biggest market is China, where they are used in vehicles that dont need extensive range or high performance, such as municipal garbage trucks.

However, it seems that Chinese LFP battery makers such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) have been quietly improving the technology to the point that Tesla is now interested in using it in its Model 3 cars in China.

But its also clear from the Glencore deal that Tesla, however reluctantly, is going to continue using cobalt in other markets.

Teslas willingness to consider a range of battery types is testament that the EV revolution is going to be characterised by multiple chemistries depending on vehicle type and geographic market.

And some of them at least are going to use cobalt.

GRAPHIC: Tesla's reluctant commitment to cobalt a warning to others - here

Teslas deal to buy 6,000 tonnes per year of cobalt from Glencores Congo operations is a double boost for the market, representing a long-term affirmation of demand and a short-term way of clearing excess stocks.

The cobalt market has yet to recover from the crash that followed the price boom of 2017-2018 as too much supply, particularly from the Congos artisanal sector, swamped demand.

Glencore last year placed its Mutanda mine in the Congo on two-year care and maintenance, while its Katanga mine was carrying stocks of almost 13,000 tonnes at the end of 2019.

Those stocks have weighed heavily on the price. Fastmarkets assessment of standard-grade cobalt currently sits at an 11-month low of $14.75 per kilogram ($30,250 per tonne)

However, Glencore has recently concluded a flurry of supply deals with battery-makers and now with Tesla, signalling the company has placed a strategic focus on forward selling its built-up hydroxide stocks, according to analysts at Roskill.

The research house estimates that Glencore has now locked in sales representing around 82% of production at Katanga. That, combined with Mutanda on care and maintenance, significantly reduces the volumes of cobalt available in the open market.

That may translate into an accelerated price recovery when the next EV-led demand surge happens.

It also means theres potentially less around for everyone else. There are several new cobalt mines in the planning or development stage but the Congo and its artisanal miners are going to remain the dominant supplier for the foreseeable future.

That simple fact explains why Tesla has moved directly to ensure its own supply with the largest non-Chinese producer in the country.

Other automotive makers may well take heed.

Teslas move directly to take responsibility for its cobalt supply isnt without risk.

Glencore may be a London-listed multinational, but its not immune to the negative headlines that go with doing business in the Congo.

It is under intense regulatory scrutiny; the Swiss Attorney Generals Office (OAG) last week joining the list of ongoing investigations into its conduct in the country.

Last year saw the death of 43 illegal miners on Glencores Kamoto concession, a human tragedy that was compounded by the governments decision to send in the army to forcibly clear the area.

Tesla, though, has evidently decided the risk of not getting enough future cobalt outweighs the potential reputational risks of taking supply directly from the Congo.

Such direct mine sourcing is not the norm for auto companies. They dont, for example, directly buy the iron ore that goes into the steel they use. Or the bauxite that makes the aluminium.

But cobalt is different. Theres not much around and too much of what is around comes from the Congo.

The EV revolution may have been stalled by COVID-19, but the build-out of battery manufacturing capacity has continued uninterrupted.

And with the European Union in particular focusing its industrial stimulus package on green technology, the next EV wave may already be building.

Teslas reluctant commitment to cobalt is a warning sign for other automakers they may have to do the same if they want to be sure theyve got enough of the stuff to meet that coming demand surge.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

Go here to read the rest:

Column: Tesla's reluctant commitment to cobalt a warning to others - Andy Home - Reuters