Touchdown complete

October 15, 2024

🚀 Touchdown complete: SpaceX nailed the upright landing of one of its massive Starship rockets. As it fell from the sky, thrusters slowed it down before it was caught by two “chopstick” arms attached to a giant metal tower. Why’s this a big deal? It’s a step toward reusable rockets. The video is incredible.

Tags: rockets, SpaceX

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Elon’s future: Autonomous cabs, vans and robot butlers

I know you’ve seen it all over the news. Elon Musk took to the stage at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank to spotlight what he says is the future of transportation … and to show off his army of cowboy-hat-wearing robots. Will any of this make it to production and into our homes? Well, I’ll get to that.

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Tropicana Las Vegas implosion

The site of the former 23-story, 917,400-square-foot hotel is becoming a Major League Baseball stadium for the Oakland A’s, who are relocating to Las Vegas. The controlled demolition used 22,000 lineal feet of detonating cord, dang.

43% drop

In trolls taking over “Call of Duty” voice chats, thanks to AI. The software, ToxMod, listens for and reports bad behavior. The snitch bot is definitely working; there’s been a 67% reduction in repeat offenders.

WOW! Watch SpaceX catch a starship booster in air

🚀 Touchdown complete: SpaceX nailed the upright landing of one of its massive Starship rockets. As it fell from the sky, thrusters slowed it down before it was caught by two “chopstick” arms attached to a giant metal tower. Why’s this a big deal? It’s a step toward reusable rockets. The video is incredible.

Zero, zip, zilch, nada

Aliens out there thinking about invading Earth. Elon Musk says UFO sightings are government weapons programs — for instance, the 1950s flying saucers were really advanced U.S. spy planes. SpaceX has thousands of satellites in orbit and has never encountered an alien spacecraft.

Introducing: Bolt & Bolt-M

💣 War drones need specially trained operators: Well, they did. The U.S. Marine Corps is testing a new AI-powered strike drone. Select any target, and Bolt-M follows autonomously, even if it loses connection. To attack, choose the direction, angle and height, and it does the rest. Just … wow.

What is STOL? What are the rules?

This trend is going to take off: Competitive short takeoff and landing, aka STOL, looks like a lot of fun. It’s one of aviation’s fastest-growing sports, thanks, in part, to Microsoft Flight Simulator. Watch how it works — I’d love to try this!

Tesla: 'We, Robot' event livestream

I know you’ve seen it all over the news: Elon Musk recently took to the stage at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank to spotlight what he says is the future of transportation — and show off his army of cowboy hat-wearing robots. Will any of this make it to production and into our driveways? Well, we’ll see.

24,000 Redbox machines

Left abandoned across the U.S. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Dollar General, Albertsons and Kroger all are trying to get permission from Redbox’s bankruptcy court to trash the 890-pound DVD vending machines (paywall link). Hey, maybe you can score one.

Introducing 'Dookie Demastered'

Green Day is going all out: To celebrate their “Dookie” album’s 30th anniversary, the California punk rock band has released “demastered” versions of their songs played on some hilariously inconvenient formats, including “Pulling Teeth” on a toothbrush, “Chump” on a Teddy Ruxpin and “Welcome to Paradise” on a Game Boy cartridge.

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