Butch Wilmore says Elon Musk is “absolutely factual” on Dragon’s delayed return

“We came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short.”

Three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut are due to return home on a Crew Dragon spacecraft in a couple of weeks. For two of the crew members, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, it has been a long, strange trip.

To recap:

  • Wilmore and Williams launch on the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024
  • During Starliner's flight to the International Space Station, the vehicle has thruster issues and helium leaks
  • In August, NASA announces Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed due to unresolved technical issues
  • Crew 9 mission launches with just two astronauts, NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Aleksandr Gorbunov, in late September
  • Wilmore and Williams join Crew 9, extending their flight from eight days to more than eight months
  • After SpaceX experiences a development issue with a Crew Dragon, Crew 9's return is delayed a month more, to March
  • In February 2025, Elon Musk and Donald Trump politicize Wilmore and Williams' long-duration stay
  • When a European astronaut calls Musk out for his "lie" about this, Musk replies, "You are fully retarded."
  • Musk recommends space station be deorbited as soon as 2027, three years ahead of schedule.

On Tuesday Wilmore, Williams, and Hague participated from orbit in a news conference with reporters. What is notable about the news conference is that it marks the first time any NASA official—a handful of previously scheduled media availabilities have been canceled—has been on the record with media since the politicization of Crew 9's return and Musk's call to deorbit the space station early.

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Apple brings M3 chip to the iPad Air, and updates the entry-level iPad to an A16 chip

Apple is refreshing its iPad lineup with two new models. One is a new iPad Air with M3 that sells for $599 and up, and it comes less than a year after the iPad Air with an M2 chip. While it’s treated as something of an afterthought in Apple&#8217…

Apple is refreshing its iPad lineup with two new models. One is a new iPad Air with M3 that sells for $599 and up, and it comes less than a year after the iPad Air with an M2 chip. While it’s treated as something of an afterthought in Apple’s press release, the company is also […]

The post Apple brings M3 chip to the iPad Air, and updates the entry-level iPad to an A16 chip appeared first on Liliputing.

Trump’s 25% tariffs take effect; Canadian PM calls it “a very dumb thing”

Stock markets sink; US faces retaliatory tariffs and complaints at the WTO.

President Trump's 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect today, and the White House increased a tariff on China from 10 to 20 percent in an executive order. Canada, Mexico, and China announced retaliatory moves, and stock markets sank globally.

Industry groups and companies have warned the Trump tariffs will raise prices for cars, groceries, consumer technology, and other products.

Canada was hit with a 10 percent tariff on energy exports to the US, while other Canadian exports are subject to the 25 percent tariff. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his country would impose 25 percent tariffs on over $100 billion worth of US goods.

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Elon Musk: Telekom-Chef will Doge für Europa

Tim Höttges stören die vielen Regulierer. Der Telekom-Chef will einen Stellenkahlschlag in Behörden wie in den USA unter Trump. (Doge, Telekom)

Tim Höttges stören die vielen Regulierer. Der Telekom-Chef will einen Stellenkahlschlag in Behörden wie in den USA unter Trump. (Doge, Telekom)

Google’s March Pixel Drop is here with a ton of Android upgrades

Even non-Pixel phones will get some goodies.

It's time for Google's newest Pixel Drop update, which will deliver a batch of enhancements to the company's smartphones. Pixel Drops, which arrive quarterly, refine and expand the features on Pixel phones. This probably won't come as a surprise, but AI plays a big role in the changes rolling out to Pixels this time around. There are also some new connectivity and photography options.

A long-overdue update is coming to Google's Pixel Studio app, which is preinstalled on the Pixel 9 series. The app lets you generate AI images, but person generation was not available at launch because of well-documented problems with the Imagen 3 model's penchant for diversity. Google re-enabled person generation on the web about six months ago, but Pixel Studio is just now gaining this ability.

Google's AI will also begin butting in if it suspects a caller or message is attempting to scam you. Google says this feature (previously available as a limited beta) is not foolproof, as scammers often change up their tactics. However, it may help catch some of the less sophisticated scams that regularly ensnare your less technologically literate family and friends. This feature will be available in Google Messages with the Pixel 6 and later, but the phone call scam detection will require a Pixel 9 because it uses on-device AI features that only exist on Google's latest phones. That makes it a little less creepy.

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Anzeige: So geht Bildverarbeitung mit neuronalen Netzen

Neuronale Netze sind die Grundlage moderner Bilderkennungssysteme. Ein Workshop zeigt, wie mit Python und Keras leistungsfähige Deep-Learning-Modelle entwickelt und auf Nvidia Tesla P100s in der Cloud trainiert werden. (Golem Karrierewelt, Python)

Neuronale Netze sind die Grundlage moderner Bilderkennungssysteme. Ein Workshop zeigt, wie mit Python und Keras leistungsfähige Deep-Learning-Modelle entwickelt und auf Nvidia Tesla P100s in der Cloud trainiert werden. (Golem Karrierewelt, Python)