Month: August 2024

Enlarge / Boeing's Starliner is seen atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

During a news conference on Wednesday, NASA officials for the first time publicly discussed divisions within the agency about whether the Starliner spacecraft is really reliable enough to return two veteran astronauts—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—back to Earth from the International Space Station.

The space agency also confirmed key elements exclusively reported by Ars over the last week, chiefly that NASA has quietly been working for weeks with SpaceX on a potential rescue mission for Wilmore and Williams, that the Crew-9 mission launch has been delayed to September 24 to account for this possibility, and that Starliner in unable to undock autonomously with the current software configuration on the vehicle.

The chief of space human spaceflight operations for NASA, former astronaut Ken Bowersox, said no final decisions have been made on how Wilmore and Williams return to Earth. He said there were reasonable disagreements among engineers at NASA, which is the customer for the spaceflight, and Boeing, which developed and operates Starliner, about the viability of the 28 reaction control system thrusters that are used for delicate maneuvering and pointing of the vehicle.

Enlarge / Joe Biden—or is it his AI-powered hologram? (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

At 1:18 pm ET on July 21, 2023, President Joe Biden stepped to the podium in the White House's Roosevelt Room and announced, "I'm the AI." The official transcript of the event says that this remark was followed by "laughter," but it's no joke to the increasing number of conspiracy theorists who claim that the real Joe Biden has been somehow replaced by artificial intelligence.

For instance, in a new story published today, The New York Times looked at conspiracy theorists who questioned whether (or even claimed that) Biden had died. Of course, if he was dead, the cabal of elites running the Biden administration, in true Weekend at Bernie's fashion, certainly couldn't admit that he was dead. Fortunately, they could use AI to make it look like Biden was still alive!

That sort of thinking led to one influencer's "just asking questions" post on July 24, 2024, which was viewed 78,000 times: “What If [sic] during this supposed live broadcast to the nation the holographic AI glitches and Joe Biden dissappears [sic] for a few seconds now that we know the software they have been using in Azure has been compromised?”

Enlarge / A 2003 photo of the arms and legs of a 4-year-old girl infected with mpox in Liberia. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

A deadly outbreak of mpox (previously called moneypox) is spilling out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raising alarm among global health experts.

The DRC has reported more than 22,000 suspected cases since the start of 2023, including 1,200 suspected deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A high proportion of the cases are in children younger than 15 years old.

On Wednesday, the CDC released a health advisory noting that although mpox is endemic to the DRC, the current outbreak is larger and more widespread than any outbreak the country has previously seen. The virus has also spilled over to several neighboring countries in recent months, including the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. The World Health Organization reported that cases have also been detected in Kenya.

Enlarge / A 2003 photo of the arms and legs of a 4-year-old girl infected with mpox in Liberia. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

A deadly outbreak of mpox (previously called moneypox) is spilling out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, raising alarm among global health experts.

The DRC has reported more than 22,000 suspected cases since the start of 2023, including 1,200 suspected deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A high proportion of the cases are in children younger than 15 years old.

On Wednesday, the CDC released a health advisory noting that although mpox is endemic to the DRC, the current outbreak is larger and more widespread than any outbreak the country has previously seen. The virus has also spilled over to several neighboring countries in recent months, including the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. The World Health Organization reported that cases have also been detected in Kenya.

Enlarge / A scene from Secret Invasion, a Disney+ exclusive. (credit: Marvel)

Yesterday, The Walt Disney company announced it will soon raise prices for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Today, it revealed that its streaming business has become profitable for the first time.

So if Disney is starting to make money, why has it decided to jack up prices ...again?

Disney says it has “earned” higher prices

On October 17, pricing for ad and ad-free subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ will increase by as much as 25 percent, depending on the plan (you can see a breakdown of pricing changes here). The pending price hikes follow price increases for the platforms issued in October 2023 and August 2022.

Enlarge / A scene from Secret Invasion, a Disney+ exclusive. (credit: Marvel)

Yesterday, The Walt Disney company announced it will soon raise prices for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Today, it revealed that its streaming business has become profitable for the first time.

So if Disney is starting to make money, why has it decided to jack up prices ...again?

Disney says it has “earned” higher prices

On October 17, pricing for ad and ad-free subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ will increase by as much as 25 percent, depending on the plan (you can see a breakdown of pricing changes here). The pending price hikes follow price increases for the platforms issued in October 2023 and August 2022.