Thursday 6th June 2024

2024's summer solstice is Earth's earliest since 1796

On average, the summer solstice occurs on June 21 of most years, as the Earth’s north pole is tilted maximally toward the Sun at a particular moment on that day. As the Earth revolves around the Sun over the course of a year, its axis remains pointed in the same direction, so that the orientation of Earth in space goes through a cycle:

The equinoxes and solstices given here apply to the northern hemisphere; in the southern hemisphere, seasonal equinoxes and solstices are opposed, as seasons are determined by the direction that Earth’s south pole points, rather than the north pole.

Continued here

Skill-building to the max: Why fluid "scaffolding" is essential

While we can go it alone when it comes to challenge, the research clearly shows that we often shouldn’t. As you get into a bit of hot water while trying to get better, you have to focus. Intently. And it’s often harder than we expect to maintain that focus and self-control in the right ways for the right amount of time to get better. With an expert’s help, we can take on more challenge and get more skill out of it. 

This conclusion is central to the heap of rigorous research on how kids build skill. Early in the twentieth century, but in only the last few years of his short life, psychologist Lev Vygotsky introduced a powerful idea, which he called “a zone of proximal development.” Vygotsky spent many hours studying the effects of school instruction. He found that whatever the lesson—say reading—kids could do some things unaided, couldn’t do some things at all, but there was an interesting middle ground where they could do some tasks with guidance. He called this interesting middle a zone of proximal development and inspired generations of educational researchers to study how teachers could most effectively help kids enter this zone and get the most from it. Self-directed learning was all the rage back then—this was when Montessori and Waldorf-style schools surged in popularity—and he believed there was an important role for just the right kind of guidance on tasks. 

Continued here

Here's why China's economy is stumbling -- but not about to fall

On January 29, 2024, a court in Hong Kong ordered Chinese real-estate giant Evergrande Group to begin liquidating its assets. The company, founded in 1996, had taken advantage of China’s decades-long real estate boom, quickly becoming the biggest developer in the world. But by 2024, it had also become the most debt-ridden. Prohibited from borrowing more money to complete its construction projects — 1,322 according to statistics from the China Index Academy — Evergrande’s empire crumbled, sending shockwaves throughout the Chinese economy and, by extension, the world.

For years, it seemed like the only direction the Chinese economy could go was up. Once one of the poorest countries on Earth, China underwent an unprecedented transformation following the market-oriented reforms of CCP Chairman Deng Xiaoping, who, reminiscent of Vladimir Lenin’s short-lived New Economic Policy, opened up its state-owned markets to private enterprise. The growth kickstarted by these reforms, implemented in the 1970s, lasted well into the late 2010s. During this time, the Chinese economy consistently grew at a much faster pace than the U.S. or Western Europe, elevating the lion’s share of its 1.4 billion citizens from lower to middle class.

Continued here

Autonomous Vehicles Aren't Going Anywhere Without Nvidia

The Taiwanese company supplies startups with the microchips that form the infrastructural backbone of the AI revolution. It has an ever-present grip on demand for the monstrous computing power necessary to build generative AI tools. 

Among those tools are autonomous vehicles. Company CEO Jensen Huang said as much in Nvidia's most recent earnings call, telling shareholders that Nvidia microprocessors are vital for around 20,000 startups--including automotive companies. It wasn't the first time a Nvidia executive hyped the company's role in bringing the futuristic technology to life. In February, CFO Colette Kress said on a separate investor call: "Nearly every automotive company working on AI is working with Nvidia."


Continued here

Move Over Apple, Nvidia Set to Become the Second Most Valuable Company

Shares of Nvidia rallied to record highs on Wednesday, with the AI chipmaker's stock market valuation on the verge of hitting the $3 trillion mark and overtaking Apple to become the world's second most valuable company.

Nvidia's stock has surged 145 percent so far in 2024, with demand for its top-of-the-line processors far outstripping supply as Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Google-owner Alphabet race to build out their AI computing capabilities and dominate the emerging technology.


Continued here

From Downeast to Outer Space: bluShift Aerospace Setting Up in Maine

Brunswick-based bluShift Aerospace hopes to turn Maine into a hub for the launching of commercial nanosatellites and has been making progress toward that goal for more than three years. A successful recent round of fundraising means commercial suborbital launch is on track to start in 2025, company officials said Tuesday.

The small satellite market currently relies on large companies, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX, for deployment of satellites, and that leads to long wait times, said bluShift CEO and founder Sascha Deri. Launching small satellites from Maine can change that, Deri said."We see an enormous need for dedicated, small-lift satellite deliveries to space," Deri said, adding that customers are "seeking rapid, affordable access to space and direct delivery to their desired orbit."


Continued here

Tariff Hike on

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday quadrupling import duties on Chinese electric vehicles to over 100 percent in August as planned is crucial to the health of the U.S. auto sector.

"We need to have this industry here. And if we didn't do that, we would just be ceding the entire territory to China like we saw happen with solar panels," Granholm said in an interview Tuesday with Reuters reporters and editors.


Continued here

SpaceX's Next Starship Rocket Test Gets FAA Go-Ahead

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday said it issued a license for SpaceX's fourth flight of its Starship rocket system, another test mission along the company's path to building a reusable satellite launcher and moon lander.

SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, is aiming to launch its nearly 400-foot-tall, two-stage Starship as early as Thursday at 7 a.m. CDT from its rocket facilities in south Texas, from which past flights in the company's test-to-failure development campaign have launched.


Continued here

Musk Confirms He Gave

Tesla CEO Elon Musk redirected a shipment late last year of Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips to the social media platform he owns, X. The chips are crucial to Musk's ambitions to make Tesla into an AI and robotics company, a controversial strategy that is tied to an ongoing dispute over his compensation package. His choice to redirect them from Tesla stokes critics' concerns over Musk's split leadership duties.

CNBC initially reported the H100 chip redirect, based on an internal Nvidia memo from December, which also noted that two subsequent shipments (in January and June) of chips, originally intended for X, would be given to Tesla.


Continued here

Small, Local Businesses May Have New Opportunities to Get Into Sam's Club Stores

After hosting an open call with local suppliers in Texas last month, Walmart selected about 20 region-specific products--chosen from more than 350 attending brands--to be stocked in Sam's Club locations across the state, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The products, including Yellowbird hot sauce and Culinary Cowgirls queso, will be in Texas stores later this year. 

This isn't the first time Walmart has made an effort to bring small businesses into its stores. Walmart's annual Open Call in Bentonville, Arkansas, invites American entrepreneurs and business owners to pitch their products to Walmart and Sam's Club merchants, but its May event was the company's first Texas-specific event. Sam's Club executives told Bloomberg that the next local supplier open call is planned for California, with events in other states to come. 


Continued here