Friday, February 23, 2024

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Good Morning! On this date in 1896, the first tootsie roll was sold for a penny at a small Brooklyn store by inventor Leo Hirshfield. Every day, 65 million Tootsie Rolls roll out of a giant factory. (See How They’re Made)

Our lead story today is America’s return to the moon with the successful landing of the Odysseus, built by a Texas company and launched by Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket — a great win for the entrepreneurial spirit.

In case you haven’t signed up for The Flyover yet, you can do that here with one click.

Today’s edition is by our friends at NativePath. Be sure to check them out below.

U.S. Puts a Lander on the Moon

America has returned to the moon for the first time since 1972 with the touchdown of Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander Thursday afternoon, marking the first successful private moon mission.

The final touchdown grew tense after the main navigation system failed, and the ship had to use experimental NASA technology to land. The lander’s communications signals were weak but still strong enough to confirm the landing.

The mission was largely funded by $118 million paid to Intuitive Machines by NASA to carry science equipment. A different company, Astrobotic Technology, attempted a moon mission last month, but it failed shortly after launch.

Cell Phone Outage Hits Nationwide

A nationwide disruption in cell phone service Thursday cut off tens of thousands of cell phone customers with AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular, and Consumer Cellular who were unable to place calls, send texts, or use the internet.

The service problems began sometime around 3:30 a.m. EST and lasted throughout the day. More than 100,000 incidents were reported by customers, according to outage tracker Downdectector.

AT&T customers appeared to be affected the worst. The company issued an apology and said it was in touch with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to determine the cause of the outage.

Google AI Overdoses on Diversity

Google suspended the imaging feature of its Gemini artificial intelligence tool after widespread criticism that it had been programmed to place diverse people of color into every image request. You can see samples here.

Google acknowledged that Gemini was “offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions,” and that it would work to solve those problem while pausing the image-generation function.

On social media, the reaction was fierce to images showing George Washington as Black, a female Pope, Asian women and Black men as Nazi soldiers and an Indian King of England.

As one X user posted: “New game: Try to get Google Gemini to make an image of a Caucasian male. I have been unsuccessful so far.”

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➤ Sources say President Biden is considering bypassing Congress and reviving Trump-era border policies via executive order to combat criticism of his handling of the southern border. (More)

➤ The Teamsters Union donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee’s convention fund, the union’s largest gift to the RNC since 2004. It comes a month after union leaders met with Donald Trump. (More)

➤ A new poll shows Democrat Ruben Gallego leading in a potential three-way Arizona Senate race against Republican Kari Lake and the current seat-holder, Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. (More)

➤ South Carolina voters head to the polls Saturday for the state’s Republican primary. The contest is open to all voters, provided they didn’t participate in the Democratic primary earlier this month. (More)

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➤ Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews reached 50 goals Wednesday after only 54 games, the fastest U.S.-born hockey player to reach that total. The record came in a 6-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes. (See Video)

➤ LSU stunned No. 17 Kentucky on Wednesday with a buzzer-beating put-back by sophomore forward Tyrell Ward. (See Video)

➤ 1984 Olympics gold medalist Scott Hamilton revealed he has developed a third brain tumor but will delay “complicated” treatment until he shows symptoms. (More)

Market Report 2/22/24

▲	NASDAQ Natl. Assoc. of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations	16,041.62	+2.96%
▲	SPX S&P 500	5,087.03	+2.11%
▲	DJI Dow Jones Industrial Average	39,068.98	+1.18%
▼	BTC Bitcoin	$51,235.84	–0.09%
▲	SMCI Super Micro Computer, Inc.	$975.52	+32.87%

➤ Big Stock Move: Super Micro Computer shares shot up 33% Thursday, riding the wave of enthusiasm for all computer chip stocks after Nvidia Corp. (below) announced its blowout results Wednesday. (More)

➤ Artificial intelligence company Nvidia beat fourth quarter estimates and reported $22.1 billion in revenue, a 265% increase over last year. The positive news sent its stock to an all-time high, $774.20 per share. (More)

➤ In response to its reported $5.4 billion in losses, electric carmaker Rivian announced it will reduce its salaried workforce by 10%. (More)

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➤ More than 200 people witnessed a meteor burning up in the night sky Wednesday. It was visible in 11 eastern U.S. states and parts of Canada. (See Video)

➤ NASA’s Webb Space Telescope confirmed that a supernova witnessed from Earth in 1987 produced a “pulsing super-hot” neutron star, the universe’s most dense object after a black hole. (See Image)

➤ Divers in Japan discovered a new aquatic species called the “skeleton panda sea squirt,” a tiny creature about ¾ inch long that resembles a panda. (See Video)

➤ A young boy in tears because he didn’t have any PJs for school “Pajamas Day” was rescued by his bus driver, who bought new pajamas nearby and returned to the school to give them to the happy boy. (See Photos)

➤ An Alaska Airlines flight attendant saved a clutch of baby flamingo eggs during a flight by creating a makeshift incubator with rubber gloves filled with hot water. (See Photos)

➤ A college baseball player who lost his leg in a boating accident became the first NCAA Division 1 player to play in a game with a prosthetic leg. He drew a walk, and a pinch runner was brought in. (See Video)

➤ China is renewing “panda diplomacy” with plans to send a new pair of giant pandas to the San Diego Zoo. Currently, only four pandas are left in the U.S. at the Atlanta Zoo. (See Video)

➤ Federal prosecutors charged a Japanese Yakuza leader of trafficking in nuclear materials, including samples of uranium and weapons-grade plutonium. (More)

➤ A survey of most-searched legal terms on Google in 2023 shows the top four topics nationally to be indictments, marriage and divorce, intellectual property, and marijuana, though search topics varied by state. (See State by State List)