Hold onto your tinfoil hat

November 4, 2024

👽 Hold onto your tinfoil hat: The Pentagon’s former chief investigator leaked a new government program to scoop up alien tech if it’s ever shot down. He swears there’s zero evidence of alien spacecraft so far. Meanwhile, a UFO analyst and a missile expert both claim that not only has the U.S. recovered a craft, but they’ve even been inside one.

Tags: aliens, Conspiracy theories, government, outer space, Pentagon, UFOs

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Robot plays cello with Malmö Symphony Orchestra at concert

🎻 Keep calm and cello on: A Swedish composer put together a symphony with a robot cellist playing in sync with humans. But there’s good news: Afterward, the composer said, “It will be impossible to replace all human musicians with robots.” Watch the video — it’s really something.

130,000 feet

How far a Samsonite suitcase fell without taking any damage. The travel brand catapulted the suitcase through the atmosphere to demonstrate its strength, and they captured the whole thing on video.

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'Star Wars: Skeleton Crew' official trailer

🎬 The Wookie’s cookie is a little Chewie: “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” drops on Disney+ on Dec. 3. Set during the same era as “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka,” the series follows a group of kids who discover a spaceship and embark on an adventure. It stars Jude Law as a Jedi and looks like a 1980s Steven Spielberg movie. Check out the trailer.

Ready to play (again)?

Netflix dropped an early Christmas gift — the trailer for “Squid Game” season 2. The first season was the most-watched series of all time on the platform. I liked it, despite all the blood. New season drops Dec. 26. How festive.

130-year record

Mount Fuji has never been snowless this late in the year. The peaks are usually white by Oct. 2. Blame unusually high temperatures. My Mount Fuji pun isn’t just funny — it’s hill areas. (Oh, was that a groan I heard, or are you hungry?)

275 million accounts

Using Meta’s Threads, the rival to X. Zuckerberg says it’s on track to be their next major social app, with over 1 million people signing up each day. I think it’s kinda lame …

25% of Google’s code

Is now generated by AI — and it’s working. Just look at their cloud business stats: Third-quarter earnings totaled $11.4 billion, a 35% increase from the same stretch last year. I wonder how many developers making over $500,000 a year are getting the boot.

Boston Dynamics' Atlas goes hands-on

Atlas doesn’t need lunch breaks: Boston Dynamics just dropped new footage of its humanoid robot Atlas. The bot does factory work, like moving engine covers between supplier containers and a mobile sequencing dolly — complete with full-motion bending and turning. The big deal is that no human needs to tell the bot what to do after training.

80 times the going rate

What the Air Force paid for soap dispensers on its C-17 aircraft — almost $150,000. They also overpaid by nearly $1 million for a dozen different spare parts. Why? Contracting officials failed to review invoices. If you’re reading this with any government pull, I can provide a daily newsletter 80 times the going rate. Oh … that’d still be free.

$29.9 million in profits

For Reddit in the third quarter. What’s the big deal? It’s the first time the company has been profitable in its nearly 20-year existence. The number of users jumped almost 50%, too, and they’re making millions letting AI companies use posts and comments for training.