Category Archives: Elon Musk

TipRanks

Watching the markets with an eye to the main chance, Raymond James strategist Tavis McCourt sees both risk and opportunity in current market conditions. The opportunity, in his opinion, stems from the obvious factors: the Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats in the recent runoff vote, giving the incoming Biden Administration majority support in both Houses of Congress and increasing the odds of meaningful fiscal support getting signed into law in the near term. More importantly, the coronavirus vaccination program is proceeding, and reports are showing that Pfizers vaccine, one of two approved in the US, is effective against the new strain of the virus. A successful vaccination program will speed up the economic recovery, allowing states to loosen lockdown regulations and get people back to work. The risks are also coming from the political and public health realms. The House Democrats have passed articles of impeachment against President Trump, despite the imminent natural closure of his term of office, and that passage reduces the chances of political reconciliation in a heavily polarized environment. And while the COVID strain is matched by current vaccines, there is still a risk that a new strain will develop that is not covered by existing vaccinations which could restart the cycle of lockdowns and economic decline. Another risk McCourt sees, beyond those two, would be a sharp rise in inflation. He doesnt discount that, but sees it as unlikely to happen soon. product/service inflation is only really a possibility AFTER re-openings, so the market feels a bit bullet proof in the very near term, and thus the continued rally, with Dems winning the GA races just adding fuel to the stimulus fire, McCourt noted. Some of McCourts colleagues among the Raymond James analyst cadre are keeping these risks in mind, and putting their imprimatur on strong dividend stocks. Weve looked into Raymond James' recent calls, and using the TipRanks database, weve chosen two stocks with high-yield dividends. These Buy-rated tickers bring a dividend yield of 7%, a strong attraction for investors interested in using the current good times to set up a defensive firewall should the risks materialize. Enterprise Products Partners (EPD) Well start in the energy sector, a business segment long known for both high cash flows and high dividends. Enterprise Products Partners is a midstream company, part of the network that moves hydrocarbon products from the wellheads to the storage farms, refineries, and distribution points. Enterprise controls over 50,000 miles worth of pipelines, shipping terminals on Texas Gulf coast, and storage facilities for 160 million barrels oil and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The company was hurt by low prices and low demand in 1H20, but partially recovered in the second half. Revenues turned around, growing 27% sequentially to reach $6.9 billion in Q3. That number was down year-over-year, slipping 5.4%, but came in more than 6% above the Q3 forecast. Q3 earnings, at 48 cents per share, were just under the forecast, but were up 4% year-over-year and 2% sequentially. EPD has recently declared its 4Q20 dividend distribution, at 45 cents per common share. This is up from the previous payment of 44 cents, and marks the first increase in two years. At $1.80 annualized, the payment yields 7.9%. Among the bulls is Raymond James' Justin Jenkins, who rates EPD a Strong Buy. The analyst gives the stock a $26 price target, which implies a 15% upside from current levels. (To watch Jenkins track record, click here) Backing his bullish stance, Jenkins noted, "In our view, EPD's unique combination of integration, balance sheet strength, and ROIC track record remains best in class. We see EPD as arguably best positioned to withstand the volatile landscape With EPD's footprint, demand gains, project growth, and contracted ramps should more than offset supply headwinds and lower y/y marketing results" Its not often that the analysts all agree on a stock, so when it does happen, take note. EPDs Strong Buy consensus rating is based on a unanimous 9 Buys. The stocks $24.63 average price target suggests an upside of 9% from the current share price of $22.65. (See EPD stock analysis on TipRanks) AT&T, Inc. (T) AT&T is one of the markets instantly recognizable stock. The company is a member in long standing of the S&P 500, and it has reputation as one of the stock markets best dividend payers. AT&T is a true large-cap industry giant, with a market cap of $208 billion and the largest network of mobile and landline phone services in the US. Its acquisition of TimeWarner (now WarnerMedia), in a process running between 2016 and 2018, has given the company a large stake in the mobile content streaming business. AT&T saw revenues and earnings decline in 2020, under pressure from the corona pandemic but the decline was modest, as that same pandemic also put a premium on telecom and networking systems, which tended to support AT&Ts business. Revenues in 3Q20 were $42.3 billion, 5% below the year-ago quarter. On positive notes, free cash flow rose yoy from $11.4 billion to $12.1 billion, and the company reported a net gain of 5.5 million new subscribers. The subscriber growth was driven by the new 5G network rollout and by premium content services. The company held up its reputation as a dividend champ, and has made its most recent dividend declaration for payment in February 2021. The payment, at 52 per common share, is the fifth in a row at current level and annualizes to $2.08, giving a yield of 7.2%. For comparison, the average dividend among tech sector peer companies is only 0.9%. AT&T has kept its dividend strong for the past 12 years. Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan sees AT&T as a classic defensive value stock, and describes Ts current state as one with the bad news baked in. [We] believe there is more that can go right during the next 12 months than can get worse for AT&T. Throw in the fact that shares are heavily shorted, and we believe this is a recipe for upside. Large cap value names are hard to come by, and we think investors who can wait a few months for a mean reversion while locking in a 7% yield should be rewarded for buying AT&T at current levels, Louthan opined. In line with these comments, Louthan rates T an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and his $32 price target implies room for 10% growth from current levels. (To watch Louthans track record, click here) What does the rest of the Street think? Looking at the consensus breakdown, opinions from other analysts are more spread out. 7 Buy ratings, 6 Holds and 2 Sells add up to a Moderate Buy consensus. In addition, the $31.54 average price target indicates ~9% upside potential. (See AT&T stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Elon Musk Told Twitter to 'Use Signal.' Investors Plowed Into the Wrong one - Yahoo Finance

Cars

Published on January 16th, 2021 | by Johnna Crider

January 16th, 2021 by Johnna Crider

Gruber Motor Company has shared a special story about the last Tesla Roadster, VIN 1459, which marked the end of Roadster production. This Roadster was signed by Elon Musk and preceded the final five, which were five specially painted Roadsters with carbon fiber plaque. VIN 1459 came to Gruber like many other vehicles dead and unable to charge. It had dying battery packs. Gruber shared the story of bringing it back to life in a blog post titled Elon Signed This Roadster.

The blog noted that transport took longer than originally planned, since the Roadsters wheels had locked, making it hard to move. Despite these challenges, Gruber Motors repaired the pack and brought this gem of an iconic car back to life.

We see a lot of low mileage collectible Roadsters, pampered and flawless. This one is over the top, with only 2400 miles (after 10 years), never in the rain (came from FL), and once we put it up on the lift, we realized this undercarriage and [the] internals were so clean and undisturbed, we thought we were looking at a Roadster that had just rolled off the assembly line (take note of the gallery images). This Roadster looked like it was in a time warp. Meticulously stored and preserved, nothing as we have ever seen, Gruber wrote in their blog post.

According to Gruber, the autograph by Elon Musk on the PEM appeared as fresh as the day it was signed. Gruber also pointed out that if the service plug being pulled on the battery pack, this particular Roadster would have been a Level 1 battery recovery that wouldnt even require pulling the battery pack. Aside from the transport delays, it would have been done super quickly.

Level 1 battery recovery is a procedure for Roadsters that have been bricked for 4 months or less or have been stabilized upon being bricked by pulling the service disconnect plug to prevent any further battery drain. However, this Roadster wound up having what the company calls Level 3 battery recovery which is simply a battery pull along with service on any of the 11 sheets inside the ESS battery pack. In this case, theres usually some cell degradation that requires Gruber to isolate and neutralize any resistive cells. In some cases, a sheet replacement is required. These come from donor packs, which are a scarce commodity.

VIN 1459 needed a sheet replacement since, as the company writes, one sheet had a battery brick which had been below 2 VDC for too long. Fortunately, Gruber was indeed able to bring this beautiful car back to life.

This Roadster was so perfect, we were able to reverse engineer and document much of the chassis and frame, providing a rare glimpse of what these cars looked like fresh off the assembly line. Using current state-of-the-art hi-res camera equipment, we were able to generate high-quality images of the mechanical portions of the Roadster. That is one fun weekend project!

Head on over to Gruber Motors to look at a couple dozen photos of this special Roadster and the companys work reviving it. Or watch the videos above.

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Tags: Elon Musk, Gruber Motor Company, Gruber Motors, Tesla, Tesla Roadster

Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, member of the International Gem Society, and a Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to Believe in Good. Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter at all hours of the day & night.

Read the original:

Elon Musk Signed A Roadster That Later Died And Was Resurrected (Videos) - CleanTechnica

Photo by AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Stats

Age49

Source of WealthTesla, SpaceX, Self Made

ResidenceAustin, Texas

CitizenshipUnited States

Marital StatusIn Relationship

Children7

EducationBachelor of Arts/Science, University of Pennsylvania

Musk was accepted to a graduate program at Stanford, but deferred attendance to launch his first business, software company Zip2.

As a kid Musk taught himself to code; he sold his first game, Blastar, for about $500.

$10.7B

Billionaires March 2016

$11.6B

Forbes 400 October 2016

$13.9B

Billionaires March 2017

$20.8B

Forbes 400 October 2017

$19.9B

Billionaires March 2018

$19.6B

Forbes 400 October 2018

$22.3B

Billionaires March 2019

$19.9B

Forbes 400 October 2019

$24.6B

Billionaires April 2020

$68B

Forbes 400 September 2020

I operate on the physics approach to analysis. You boil things down to the first principles or fundamental truths in a particular area and then you reason up from there.

Dec 29, 2020

After sparking speculation earlier this month his electric car company Tesla could add bitcoin to its balance sheet, Elon Musk has said a future Mars economy could be based on cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin...

Dec 29, 2020

Amazingly, California taxes could be heading even higher. One proposal would increase Californias 13.3% tax rate to 16.8% on some high income individuals. Another would impose a .4% wealth tax on all net worth above $30 million.

Dec 28, 2020

While many prominent entrepreneurs (like Elon Musk) have criticized the MBA-ization of America, these entrepreneurs bet on startups started by business students.

Dec 20, 2020

Musk, the billionaire serial entrepreneur who's ridden Tesla's soaring share price toward the top of the global rich list this year, asked whether it was possible to convert billions of Tesla's dollars to bitcoin...

Dec 19, 2020

Several Chinese billionaires also enjoyed strong gains this week, as did tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison.

Dec 18, 2020

The electric carmaker is set to boast the biggest year-to-date stock gain in the S&P when it officially joins on Monday.

Dec 16, 2020

Is the man who named his son X A-12 really qualified to comment?

Dec 15, 2020

Tesla CEO's corporate culture criticism is mistargeted and hurts functions like IT that most need MBAs.

Dec 14, 2020

The value of an MBA education has deteriorated over time. Mr. Musk criticized MBA programs for limiting an individual's ability to think creatively. Many deans immediately defended their programs. Here are five actions to make MBA education relevant in today's world.

Dec 10, 2020

Mr Tesla Elon Musk is moving to Texas. This could drastically lower his state tax bills. Would a similar move help you lower your taxes?

Dec 10, 2020

Despite the Starship SN8 prototype blowing up virtually in the second it set down from a test run at his Texas test facility, Elon Musk is clearly loving the state. So much so, that he's rumored to be looking at properties in Austin. Here's a close look at how Texas, and Musk, will get along.

Dec 8, 2020

Elon Musk's dream of transporting people at hypersonic speeds through vacuum-sealed tunnels moved one step closer to reality last month.

Dec 8, 2020

Tesla and SpaceX will continue to do work in California.

Dec 8, 2020

The Tesla and SpaceX chief has added more than $120 billion to his net worth in less than a year.

Dec 7, 2020

The Tesla CEO told friends hes planning on moving to the Lone Star State, according to media reports.

Nov 27, 2020

Starlinks mission is to deliver high speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.

More Articles

Tesla

Holds stake in Tesla Motors

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Elon Musk - Forbes

For the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germanys biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.

The 14-year-old self-named Tesla Kid has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musks GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin.

He is a huge visionary who has great ideas, which he has managed to realise, Heineken said in an interview.

Having hung out on his bicycle to see Musk when he recently visited, the schoolboy sees an electric car factory close to his home in the sleepy town of Grnheide as a huge opportunity for the region.

It is by far the biggest industrial settlement in the area in a century and Brandenburgs economics minister, Jrg Steinbach, has called it a chance for the region to become a leading energy revolution location in Germany and Europe. Musk has promised to create 10,000 jobs and turn out about 500,000 cars a year, starting with its Model Y, and construct the worlds largest battery plant at the site. His vision will put the region on the map.

Politicians talk off the record of their debt towards Musk, who they say could have easily gone to Asia instead, where labour costs are lower and environmental controls and construction standards less stringent.

But while landowners are among those rubbing their hands with glee, having seen land prices increase tenfold since Musk made public his intentions in November 2019, there are many opponents. Most of them say they like the bosky backwater of Grnheide precisely because it is not on the map, and are horrified when they see particularly on Heinekens videos, depicting the emergence of the foundry, the pressing plant, the paint shop and the assembly plant the speed at which the project is coming along, and the extent of the woodland it has already swallowed up.

Grnheide is just a small place of 9,000 souls, bordering a conservation area. Musks plans will turn it into a town of 40,000 it will become like Wolfsburg, says Werner Klink, referring to the city west of Berlin purpose-built in the 1930s around the production of the VW motorcar.

Klink is a member of the Grnheides citizens initiative, a group of locals who are campaigning to stop the project. Construction projects in Germany, he says, usually take time due to all the permits you need and regulations you must abide by before you even put a shovel in the ground. Musk has instead chosen the very un-German route of starting the work first and then securing the permits.

Even if they told him he would not be allowed to continue, he will have already caused so much damage theres no way he can take the site back to its original state, Klink argues. Immense, irreversible harm has been done to the nature, potentially to the groundwater, to the forest, the flora, fauna.

One hundred hectares of pine trees (the equivalent of approximately 26 football fields) have already been felled, and a further 86 hectares are likely to follow, after a court ruling last month.

The barriers to Tesla come in the form of the sand lizard and European smooth snake, species that live in the woodland, Germanys Nature Protection Union (NABU) has pointed out, and are at the heart of the legal battle to stop the project.

There is also the matter of an outstanding downpayment to the local environment agency of 100m to cover possible remediation costs, which a court also ruled on 18 December was reason to halt the project. Lawyers for Tesla have filed to extend the deadline for payment, the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has reported.

Despite 360 objections to the project having been lodged, authorities have effectively allowed it to go ahead by telling Musk he does so at his own risk. The practice is not so unusual in Germany, though on this scale it is unprecedented.

Musk is a risk-taker, thats what he does, and hes banked on the fact theyll never tell him to demolish his building, particularly when so many jobs are at stake, says Klink, a retired geophysicist.

He says the speed with which the site has sprung up has left no time to properly inspect the site. Theres a considerable danger that the digging will contaminate the groundwater. Just one metre below the surface there is salt water and there are signs its rising. If it mixes with the fresh water well have a huge problem on our hands.

A protest in December in front of Axel Springer House in Berlin over the German publishers tribute to Musks ambition to make the world a better place with its eponymous award drew climate activists and environmentalists, including NABU, the Society for Species Protection and the Grne Liga (green league).

Norbert He, the Brandenburg spokesman of the Ecological Democrats (DP), a small political party, has accused the larger Green party of violating their oath of office by helping to accelerate the project.

He says many aspects of the project have been poorly thought through. Why was consideration not given to the brown coal mining area of Lausitz in the south of Brandenburg, looking for a new raison detre after Germanys planned brown coal phase-out, he asks. The land where the opencast mines are is already stripped of nature, He says.

The Greens, in government in Brandenburg, say they welcome the project because it offers a viable alternative to the diesel motor, as well as creating much-needed local jobs.

Tesla shies away from talking to the media. It has tried to express that it is well-intentioned in the form of projects such as pledging to plant three times as many trees as it fells, and building fences to protect the lizards and snakes.

It also set up an information kiosk in the town, but that has been sparsely staffed. The coronavirus has reduced communication further.

Most statements come in the form of succinct tweets from Musk himself, such as one in the run-up to Christmas, which simply said: Thank you Brandenburg and Grnheide after the mayor doubled his commitment to the project by signing off plans to create a transport system around the plant, which is also to include a park-and-ride facility to transfer workers to and from the factory.

Klink said he has not yet met Musk, who occasionally turns up to see the progress of his project.

I dont have any need or desire to meet him, he said. But he does have a nickname for the Musk sycophants and flunkeys: SchlieMuskelkriecher, a play on Musks name, mixed with the German both for sphincter and brown-noser. At least thats how our initiative sees it, even if I admit its rather rude, he said.

Read more from the original source:

'He's a risk-taker': Germans divided over Elon Musk's new GigaFactory - The Guardian

This article comes to us courtesy ofEVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid byEVANNEXto publish these articles. We find the company's perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are happy to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!

Posted onEVANNEX January 04, 2021byMatt Pressman

Elon Musk overhauls industries ripe for disruption. Automotive and aerospace sectorswere, pre-Musk, gettingsomewhat stagnant. So after the sale of PayPal, Musk came along with Tesla and SpaceX and changedeverythingwith his penchant for innovation.

So what's next? Neuralink, Hyperloop, and The Boring Company are sure to be game-changers. But there's something else, under the radar, that deserves a mention.

At the heart of a fractured media landscape lies yet another broken industry: Public Relations.Now it appears Elon Musk wants to tackle Tesla PR on his own. And he's going to do it in his own disruptive way.

Matt McFarland atCNN Businessspoke with PR expert, Andy Cunningham, who once worked with Steve Jobs.McFarland asked Cunningham ifElon Musk really needs a PR department or a publicist to reign him in?

"Musk, she felt, just wants to be himself, and not be managed. The approach seems to be working... But she doesn't believe any other CEO could pull it off. Musk, she said, has the rarefied status of a visionary who is seen as making the world a better place. His work is so inspirational to [so] many," writes McFarland.

In turn, "Tesla has all but stopped engaging publicly with the traditional news media in the US, instead relying on Musk's Twitter account, the company's YouTube channel, social media influencers, and direct emails to inform the public," notes McFarland. In lieu of traditional PR,Elon Musk (and Tesla) have decided to go directly to the end-consumer.

"Tesla has 1.6 million subscribers on its YouTube channel, and at least 21 of its videos have been viewed more than a million times. Musk has 40.6 million followers on his Twitter account. Musk's personal audience may be larger than the combined circulation of the 10 biggest US newspapers of a decade ago," according to NYU's PR guru Jeffrey Sharlach.

The PR Industry, not surprisingly, is pretty upset. "In a world fraught with instability, disengagement is not a path to success and can result in dramatic reputational ramifications with long-term consequences," the Public Relations Society of America said of Musk's move to abandon PR.

So how's it going? So far, so good. "Musk hasn't been proven wrong to date, and Tesla appears stronger than ever. Its stock is up more than 500% this [past] year, adding an estimated $100 billion to Musk's wealth. Tesla reported its largest quarterly profit ever... and it [joined]the S&P 500," notes McFarland.

Ryan Brinkman, a J.P. Morgan automotive analyst who follows Tesla, told CNN Business that theautomaker has such a mystique around it that it can largely create its own news and steer the narrative. Unlike most corporations, Tesladoesn't need torely ontraditional news media.

"Excitement for Tesla is so high, they don't need anyone else's assistance," Brinkman said.

===

Source:CNN Business

More:

Is Public Relations The Next Industry Tesla's Elon Musk Will Disrupt? - InsideEVs

Dr. Ashish Jha started 2020 thousands of miles from home, taking a sabbatical in Europe from his academic post at Harvard. Then the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the U.S.

Jha, an expert on pandemic preparedness, returned to Massachusetts, and his blunt talk on the unfolding disaster was soon hard to miss on national news and social media.

Jha estimates his office fielded more than 100 media requests a day at its peak. He went from a few hundred Twitter followers pre-pandemic to more than 130,000 by December.

For me, the purpose of doing this was to fill a void and make sure people received credible scientific information, said Jha, who recently became dean of Brown Universitys School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. I thought it would go for a week or two, but the demand never really let up.

In another time, experts like Jha would have enjoyed the quiet esteem, respect and relative obscurity afforded by academia. But for better or worse, the coronavirus pandemic thrust virologists, epidemiologists and other normally low-profile scientists into the pop culture crucible.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of President Donald Trumps coronavirus task force, has been the unquestionable rock star among them. But a cadre of other scientists also rose to prominence this year. Many developed loyal social media followings and became regulars on the cable news circuit.

For Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a Seattle-based virologist affiliated with Georgetown University in Washington, her newfound notoriety hit home in July when she got into a Twitter debate with billionaire Elon Musk.

Rasmussen, who was then at Columbia University, criticized the Tesla CEOs tweets questioning data on the spread of the virus. Musk, to her surprise, chimed in, challenging her to produce evidence supporting her arguments.

Rasmussen tweeted back a series of graphs and other scientific data, which Musk dismissed as cherry-picked. Twitter users following along slammed Musk for attempting to mansplain the pandemic to a virologist.

Rasmussen, who has seen her Twitter followers explode from around 300 pre-pandemic to more than 180,000, said shed like to avoid unnecessary Twitter beefs, which also included testy exchanges with Dilbert comic strip creator Scott Adams and his fans over the pandemic in recent months.

But as the pandemic has worn on, she has become frustrated with the persistent misinformation from influential leaders and celebrities like Musk and Adams, and her strongly worded tweets show it.

Its exhausting, Rasmussen said. The same arguments keep coming back. Its like battling a hydra. Every time you cut one head off, another one grows back in place.

Laurel Bristow, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, suggests its an indictment of academia that misinformation and conspiracy theories thrive and that parts of American society remain deeply skeptical of true scientific work.

Experts in these fields have ignored the importance of communication and bringing information to people in a way that is understandable and relatable for so long, Bristow said. You have to put a face to something for people to be able to trust it.

Bristow, 32, whose Instagram username is kinggutterbaby, has gained more than 300,000 followers posting videos answering peoples questions and concerns about COVID-19.

She credits her online popularity to her unfussy approach. She shoots her short videos speaking directly at the camera while sitting in her kitchen.

It also helps, Bristow said, that her Instagram feed is filled with pictures of her posing with cuddly animals, riding motorcycles and other things from her daily life.

Having people see me as a whole person helps remind them scientists are people with families too, and that the best interest of people is really at the heart of what were doing, she said.

Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiology professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said she has sought interviews with conservative media outlets as a way to combat fear and misinformation, especially with the nationwide vaccine rollout underway.

Theres such a divide in society. Id really like to reach the other side and make a difference, said Iwasaki, who was already a notable advocate of women in science and tech fields before the pandemic but has seen her Twitter following swell to more than 90,000 this year.

Like other female scientists, she said that she has encountered frequent misogyny and mansplaining, but that it has only made her more determined to continue speaking up.

I have this platform, and Im going to use it, said Iwasaki. My priority is to get out the correct information, not respond to toxic comments.

Jha, meanwhile, admitted he wasnt prepared for the level of racial animus his pandemic commentary has generated a complaint shared by other scientists of color.

A native of India who has lived in the U.S. since the 1980s, he said much of it is of the go back to your country variety that he simply shrugs off.

But a gut check moment came in November, when Jha began receiving death threats after testifying before Congress and strongly rejecting assertions made by Trump and others that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine could also protect people against COVID-19.

Jha said the threats were concerning enough that he notified local police, who sent patrols past his familys Boston-area home as a precaution.

Now, as 2021 dawns, he said he is looking forward to being less in the public glare.

When President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Jha said, he expects federal government authorities will take their rightful role as the public face of the nations pandemic response, after being diminished and undermined at critical times this year.

Thats who the American public needs to be hearing from more, he said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and experts like Fauci at other federal agencies. Im a poor substitute for whats needed.

Related Content:

Visit link:

Twitter debates with Elon Musk, death threats after testifying before Congress: These experts in viruses are - MassLive.com

SPACEX appears to be launching its controversial "space WiFi" in the UK after trialling the service in the United States last year.

A photo posted last week by a Reddit user who claims to live in Devon shows a large grey box emblazoned with the Starlink logo.

The packaging resembles that received by early Starlink tester in the US and Canada, and reportedly contains the starter kit for early adopters.

That starter kit includes a Starlink router, as well as a satellite dish that users must affix to their homes.

"First Starlink in the UK?" wrote Reddit user OptiSport, who shared the image on December 31.

Starlink is a controversial scheme that aims to beam WiFi to people from space using a "mega constellation" of thousands of satellites.

4

4

The project's maiden flight lifted off in 2018 and SpaceX, which is based in California, has shot almost 1,000 satellites into orbit so far.

The network is eventually set to reach 12,000, rising to as many as 42,000 in future.

SpaceX has not officially announced that it has launched Starlink in the UK. The Sun has reached out to the company for comment.

It follows reports in late December that SpaceX had begun sending out Starlink invites to UK fans on its mailing list.

4

The service reportedly costs 89 a month on top of a 439 fee for the router and dish.

Once set up, the dish connects to SpaceX's satellite constellation, promising download speeds of up to 210 megabits per second (Mbps).

That's more than six times the average download speed in the UK, orfaster than 95 per cent of US connections.

SpaceX, which is run by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, launches Starlink satellites in batches of 60, firing hundreds into orbit every year.

4

Astronomers and amateur stargazers have repeatedly blasted the firm for obscuring the night sky and ruining observations with orbiting tech.

SpaceX argues its satellites are only bright shortly after launch. Over several weeks, they move further from Earth, apparently dampening their disruptive glow.

The primary goal of Starlink is to create a network that will help provide WiFi to people in remote areas who are not yet connected.

SpaceX says the satellites will also provide reliable and affordable internet across the globe.

What is Starlink?

Here's what you need to know...

In the UK, Starlink is competing with OneWeb, a failed US satellite company that Downing Street pumped 400million into last year.

The move means Britain is part of is part of a consortium with India's Bharti Global which won a bidding war for the firm.

OneWeb has 74 satellites in orbit and eventually plans to beam WiFi from space using a constellation numbering in the thousands.

Ministers hope the investment will compensate for the loss of access to the EU's Galileo programme in the wake of Brexit.

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In other news, SpaceX recently launcheda spy satellite into orbit.

ESA researchers think they've spottedan angel on Mars.

And a satellite that canlook inside buildingsat any time of day has been launched.

What do you think of Starlink? Let us know in the comments!

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Elon Musk launches Starlink space WiFi service in the UK but it costs 89 a month - The Sun

In todays Movie News Rundown: The Tanya Roberts situation; Dr. Fauci tells us when we can maybe go see a movie; that time Elon Musk produced a very funny satire; are you beginning to feel like youve already seen WandaVision?

Tanya Roberts Lives: Rumors of the Beastmaster and AView to a Kill actress death have been greatlyexaggerated. Her rep Mike Pingel told Variety that although her partner, Lance OBrien, originally thought she had died, the hospital called Monday morning to report she was still alive, Variety writes. However, Pingel said that Roberts remains in the ICU in dire condition. I love you, Variety, but maaaaaaybe you should take this article down?

Faucis Theater Prediction: In a talk with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicts that theaters and other shuttered businesses could reopen by early fall, if we all, you know, get it together. Hisanswer begins around the 22-minute mark below. A summary and brief transcription follows the video.

Summary: Fauci starts by says the U.S. first needs to speed up the process of vaccinating those who are most in need.Lets say at April, it will be what I call open season. Namely, anybody who wants to get vaccinated can get vaccinated. If we then diligently vaccinate people in April, May, June, July, that we will gradually and noticeably get a degree of protection approaching herd immunity. He clarified that no one knows what will constitute herd immunity yet, but estimated it will be somewhere between 70 and 85 percent of the population. If that happens, he said, we can expect some strong semblance of normality by early fall. Schools, theaters, sports events, restaurants. I believe if we do it correctly, we will be there by the early fall.

Elon Musk, Movie Producer: Last night,watching the terrific 2005 satire Thank You For Smoking, the missus and I noticed that one of the films producers is Elon Musk! And another is Peter Thiel. At that point, both were perhaps best known for making scads of money on PayPal.Say what you will about those guys in 2005 they produced a great movie. The only thing I dont love about the movie is when the reporter (Katie Holmes) who gets inappropriately involved with someone shes covering (Aaron Eckhart) because honestly, that doesnt happen in real life.

WandaVision: Heres a new TV ad for WandaVision, a new TV show made to look like old TV shows. Do you feel like youve seen this already, because of the long buildup and many teasers and trailers and whatever? Me too. But a prediction (and I have no inside information here): All the flashback-through-TV-history stuff weve seen previewed will happen very quickly in the first episode and then the show will get into some cool drama about whereWanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) actually are.

R.I.P. Marjo Bernay: Deadline has a good obituary for Bernay, who once led three Los Angeles-based IATSE locals and served on the board of another. She died Sunday at 79. Marjo also served on the California Film Commission, the Los Angeles Film Development Committee and the Los Angeles County Film Commission, and served as a trustee of the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans.

Comment of the Day: In response to our list of What Film Festivals Want, Ned Cordery writes: OK, we hear the festivals now for the festivals to hear this film maker. Tell us how many entries you receive and how many are screened for the previous year. Tell us how many entries are requested by the festival to be screened, bypassing the entry process. Detail your screening selection process. Thanks Rob. These are things we get into in our annual list of FilmFestivals Worth the Entry Fee, but well keep digging for moredetail.

Link:

Fauci's Theater Prediction; Elon Musk, Film Producer; WandaVision - MovieMaker Magazine

Our nerds here at the Walter Bradley Center have been discussing the top twelve AI hypes of the year. Our director Robert J. Marks, Eric Holloway and Jonathan Bartlett talk about overyhyped AI ideas (from a year in which we saw major advances, along with inevitable hypes). From AI Dirty Dozen 2020 Part III, heres #4: Elon Musks fully self-driving software is finally going to work:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that the test version of the companys Autopilot system will be released in a month or so. While he didnt describe its capabilities, Musk said that once its out, youll see what its like. Its amazing. Its clearly going to work.

Well then, what happened to Musks robotaxi fleet that was supposed to take over the roads in 2020 while their owners slept? Is there a point at which we can talk about that?

Oh, maybe not.

Our story begins at 01:12. Heres a partial transcript. Show Notes and Additional Resources follow, along with a link to the complete transcript.

Robert J. Marks: Number four of the hype list is Elon Musk claiming self-driving cars will be here next year, again. This is clearly hype, isnt it, Jonathan? Tell us whats going on.

Jonathan Bartlett: Bob, have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray?

Robert J. Marks: Yes, I have. He wakes up to the same environment every day again and again and again. Yes.

Jonathan Bartlett: Yes. And so this is what we have. Elon Musk has been claiming that hes going to have self-driving cars next year since 2016. Now, I have to say, part of me loves Elon Musk and part of me cant stand the guy. And I appreciate his humor. I appreciate the fact that he is more approachable than a lot of the other tech billionaires. But theres also this huckster-ish salesmanship that just really drives me the wrong way. And so hes actually been selling self-driving cars since 2016. People are literally paying him thousands of dollars for this feature that doesnt exist. And he says, Oh yeah, itll be here next year. Next year, I promise.

And he says that your car will actually be worth more. Most people when they buy a car and they drive it off the lot, its worth less as soon as you drive it off the lot. And he says, Oh, our cars are going to be worth more because youre going to be able to make money with them by simply sending when you go to sleep, you can send them out to earn money for you by being a robo taxi, so you dont have to be there. And he makes claims like this, and he makes them every year. And its not surprising that hes making them right now because last year, he did it right before a $2 billion capital raise for his company. And now, hes doing it right before a $5 billion, thats billion with a B, a $5 billion capital raise.

And so he keeps on. In 2016, he said that youre going to be able to summon your car from across the United States. And it would be able to come and get you on its own, finding charging stations on the way. And it wouldnt even need a driver. And he said the only thing that could stop that was if we didnt get regulatory approval. Anyway, he keeps on saying that its going to be next year, next year, next year. Hes saying it again. And anyway, I just wish the media would stop falling for it.

Eric Holloway: Isnt his company supposedly now worth more than Apple?

Jonathan Bartlett: Oh yeah. So, basically, hes got this company so Tesla Motors, its a tiny percentage of the car market, but its basically worth more than the rest of it combined in terms of the value of the stock.

Eric Holloway: Yeah. Who said you cant make money with science fiction?

Note: The actual advances in autonomous vehicles are Level 4 (Waymos level), not Level 5 (Musks level), as Jonathan Bartlett has pointed out. The vehicle drives on supervised roads in controlled environments.

Well, heres the rest of the countdown to date. Read them and think:

5 AI hype: AI could go psychotic due to lack of sleep Well, thats what we can hear from Scientific American, if we believe all we read. It seems to be an effort to make AI seem more human than it really is.

6 in our Top 12 AI hypes A Conversation bot is cool If you really lower your standards. A system that supposedly generates conversationbut have you noticed what is says? Bartlett: you could also ask Who was President in 1600, and it would give you an answer, not recognizing that the United States didnt exist in 1600.

7 AI Can Create Great New Video Games All by Itself! In our 2020 Dirty Dozen AI myths: Its actually just remixing previous games. Eric Holloway describes it as like a bad dream of PACMan. Well, see if it is fun.

8 in our AI Hype Countdown: AI is better than doctors! Sick of paying for health care insurance? Guess what? AI is better ! Or maybe, wait Only 2 of the 81 studies favoring AI used randomized trials. Non-randomized trials mean that researchers might choose data that make their algorithm work.

9: Erica the Robot stars in a film. But really, does she? This is just going to be a fancier Muppets movie, Eric Holloway predicts, with a bit more electronics. Often, making the robot sound like a real person is just an underpaid engineer in the back, running the algorithm a couple of times on new data sets. Also: Jonathan Bartlett wrote in to comment Erica, robot film star, is pretty typical modern-day puppeteering fun, for sure, but not a big breaththrough.

10: Big AI claims fail to work outside lab. A recent article in Scientific American makes clear that grand claims are often not followed up with great achievements. This problem in artificial intelligence research goes back to the 1950s and is based on refusal to grapple with built-in fundamental limits.

11: A lot of AI is as transparent as your fridge A great deal of high tech today is owned by corporations. Lack of transparency means that people trained in computer science are often not in a position to evaluate what the technology is and isnt doing.

12! AI is going to solve all our problems soon! While the AI industry is making real progress, so, inevitably, is hype. For example, machines that work in the lab often flunk real settings.

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#4 Elon Musk: This Time Autopilot Is Going To WORK! - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

It's not just Elon Musk who is moving to Texas, according to the media. Stories abound of techies, newly liberated from tiny, overpriced coastal apartments by remote work, fleeing to warmer, cheaper cities. If you believe the tech press and your social media feeds, about half of San Francisco is joining Musk in Texas.

But as lovely as Austin may be, is this story that hip, low-tax, high-temperature cities are going to be the big beneficiaries of a post-pandemic migration from traditional tech hubs actually true?

Not according to the Big Technology newsletter from tech reporter Alex Kantrowitz. A few weeks back, Kantrowitz announced he had gotten his hands on some exclusive LinkedIn data that shows the standard media narrative about where techies are heading just isn't correct.

Sorry, Austin

The numbers in question are what LinkedIn calls "inflow/outflow"data, which takeaccount of not just how many techies are moving into a citybut also how many are moving out. Is a particular area experiencing a net gain or loss of talent? This numberwill tell you. And Kantrowitz claims that if you compare this stat in 2020 withpast years, the big winners in the usual media narratives actually aren't.

"Austin, for its part, is not experiencing a pandemic-induced tech worker surge. Last year, Austin was gaining 2.06 tech workers for every one that left; now it's down to 1.84, a drop of 10.78 percent. Though Austin is still gaining tech workers this year, the notion that 2020 was a watershed year for tech workers moving there is a myth,"he writes.

Miami, another much buzzed about destination, is only gaining 3 percent more tech workers this year compared with last.

So who is actually winning the war to attract those fleeing the big cities because of the pandemic? Kantrowitz's newsletter offers all the details, but the short answer is a bunch of cities you probably haven't heard much about, including:

The larger lesson

Kantrowitz's newsletter is worth a read if you're looking for a deep dive into the data and its implications, but the biggest takeaway is probably also the simplest: Take media trend stories with a grain of salt. Predictions made in the midst of crises are notoriously unreliable, and as Kantrowitz and other data-focused commentators have pointed out, when it comes to real estate trendsreality is usually more complex than popular narratives.

Will the pandemic end up changing how we work and therefore the calculus of where we live? Almost certainly. But that doesn't mean the results will be as simple as an instant mass migration from San Francisco to Austin (or any other particular city). It will be a while yet before we see how this all shakes out, but wherever people land it's likely to be more surprising than the headlines you're currently reading.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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These Are the Cities Techies Are Really Moving To, According to New LinkedIn Data - Inc.