Elon Musk said on Saturday that he will file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against non-profit watchdog Media Matters and others, as companies including Disney, Apple and IBM reportedly have paused advertising on X amid an antisemitism storm around the social media platform.
Media Matters, a U.S. group that describes itself as “a progressive research and information center” that monitors “media outlets for conservative misinformation,” published earlier this week research showing that X has posted ads appearing next to pro-Nazi posts.
Make no mistake: This is about silencing a free press. In other words, it’s dangerous.
SpaceX attempted a second launch of its fully assembled Starship rocket and spacecraft on Saturday from its facility in South Texas. The first test flight in April ended with the rocket tumbling and exploding when an onboard detonation system destroyed the vehicle as it veered off course.
Since then, SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration have been investigating the mishap. The FAA has cleared the company for a second flight after it made upgrades to the rocket and the launchpad and resolved concerns with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over the environmental impacts of the first launch.
The flight made it to separation of the booster from its second stage and appeared to reach space, achieving an altitude of about 90 miles. But shortly after that occurred, SpaceX lost contact with the craft. Engineers believe the self-destruct mechanism was triggered.
Musk seems all-too-familiar with pushing the self-destruct button. May he keep on pushing it. Hmmm, reminds me of a great song:
You’ve probably seen the news that Open AI, which created ChatGPT, has fired CEO Sam Altman because the board concluded he was “not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” Yikes. He was sacked as CEO and removed from the board. I come at this with no knowledge of the inner workings of the company or Altman. But when a board out of the blue fires a CEO at the helm of a company that has skyrocketed to around $80 billion in value and is at center of huge bets about future economic gains across the economy you have to assume that something really, really bad must have happened.
Today is my wedding anniversary, 51 years with my best friend, Karolyn.
Congratulations! May your marriage last as long as the Carters.