Science, Time, and Spirit

Your TV is spying on you - Find out how, and turn it off! - YouTube Hidden surveillance features in popular television brands raise serious concerns about data collection and security Smart televisions have become the norm in American households, with their promise of convenient streaming and voice control. But these internet-connected devices are collecting far more data than most consumers realize—and doing so in ways that may compromise both privacy and security. The Hidden Cost of "Smart" Features While a 50-inch 4K smart TV can now be purchased for as little as $228 at major retailers, that low price comes with a catch: manufacturers are subsidizing hardware costs by monetizing viewer data. The real profit lies not in the television sale itself, but in the ongoing collection and sale of viewing habits, making consumers the product rather than the customer. Automatic Content Recognition: Beyond Your Streaming Apps The primary surveillance mechanism is Automatic Cont...

SpaceX Starship to the Moon in 2026 Without Refueling... Flight 12 Plans Changed! - YouTube SpaceX Starship Revives Apollo-Era Architecture as NASA Reopens Competition Complex orbital refueling architecture required for lunar missions could enable single-stage capability, though schedule delays prompt agency to seek alternatives By Staff Writer October 28, 2025 NASA's Artemis program has thrust the decades-old concept of direct lunar ascent back into the spotlight, though with a modern twist that reflects both the promise and challenges of SpaceX's revolutionary Starship architecture. While the company's massive launch vehicle theoretically possesses the capability for direct Earth-to-Moon missions, practical implementation requires an unprecedented orbital refueling infrastructure that has yet to be demonstrated—a reality that led Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy to reopen the Artemis III lunar lander contract on October 20. Revival of a Discarded Concept Direct ...

A Conversation About: Aging and Metabolic Disorders - YouTube  Scientists discover how metabolic health and longevity are intimately linked—and what you can do about it La Jolla, California — Imagine two identical twins in their 40s. One maintains a healthy weight and exercises regularly. The other carries extra pounds around the middle and lives a sedentary life. Fast-forward 20 years, and their aging trajectories will likely look dramatically different—not just in appearance, but in how their bodies function at the cellular level. The difference, scientists now understand, lies largely in the liver. In what amounts to a revolution in our understanding of aging, researchers have discovered that fatty liver disease—a condition affecting nearly one in three American adults—doesn't just damage your liver. It accelerates aging throughout your entire body, increasing your risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia, muscle loss, and even cancer. "If you're aging and you hav...

American chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky dies at 29 Beloved educator, streaming pioneer, and elite player remembered for transforming how millions experience chess October 21, 2025 The international chess community is reeling from the sudden death of American Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, who passed away unexpectedly on October 19, 2025, at age 29. The California-born chess prodigy, affectionately known as "Danya" to his hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, was announced dead by the Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina on Monday, sending shockwaves through the global chess community. The Naroditsky family released a statement through the Charlotte Chess Center, calling him "a talented chess player, educator, and beloved member of the chess community" and asking for privacy during this difficult time. The cause of death has not been disclosed. A Prodigy's Journey Naroditsky was born on November 9, 1995, in San Mateo, California, to Jewis...

  how commercial AI is turning global imagery into farmer profit Byline: Stephen Pendergast (adapted for publication) Agriculture is entering a new phase of industrial intelligence. Over the past five years, a steady stream of higher-resolution satellites, inexpensive drones, and more powerful machine-learning models has combined with falling compute and storage costs to make it commercially viable to turn petabytes of Earth imagery into concrete, field-level decisions — and to sell those decisions to farmers, insurers and commodity traders. Investors, incumbents and startups alike are racing to stitch together data pipelines that use AI to translate remote sensing into yield forecasts, disease alerts, irrigation schedules and inputs-optimization at scale. What’s changing: sensors + scale + AI Where early precision-agriculture tools relied on single sensors or on-farm probes, today’s systems fuse multi-spectral and hyperspectral satellite data, synthetic aperture radar, and dro...