Grandpa Joe

@djheijmen @elonmusk @jonstewart He bought it to replace the propaganda with facts. But he is a hell of a marketer.

@elonmusk @jonstewart You literally bought a social media platform

Elon Musk is an extremely skilled propagandist.

@TheMindScourge Well said, but it’s not true that it may never open. No chance of that. They would’ve been more accurate to say, even if it didn’t reopen.

Hormuz is a weapon that can only be fired once No one should expect a quick resolution to the current crisis, but across the next decade, even the next 3-5 years, the choke point of Hormuz will be massively substituted for The Gulf Arab states are all very rich, with high per capita GDP - the best single measure of relative state capacity - easy access to global markets, especially financial, and have the favorable backing of the US Everyone has known about the Hormuz vulnerability for decades. The Iranians have continually hinted around closing it, but never did. Now they have, but Hormuz is a gun that cannot be reloaded. Deterrents work only up to the point of use. Once used, they have failed. The purpose of a deterrent is to *not* be used Many analysts have made this basic mistake. They think that Iran is now in a position of strength, having exercised its Hormuz option. But the opposite is true. A state is weakest after it has used its deterrent. The cost of that deterrence is now priced in. The worst having been done, the targets of the deterrent are now free to make other arrangements. Before, they were reluctant to do so because of the switching costs. Now, they have no choice; they will not allow themselves to be controlled in this way again Hormuz may never reopen. But the importance of this is a depreciating asset.

@sethjlevy 3D chess, 4D actually. He’s a master strategist. This all started by taking the Venezuelan oil. Beautiful.

Trump couldn’t let anyone know at the beginning that Kharg Island was his ultimate aim. And Iran cutting off Hormuz gave him his justification. He played them. Chess not checkers.

@jaketapper Talk about shit for brains Jake.

FWIW Prime Minister Takaichi was born 20 years after Pearl Harbor

@timburchett @SecWar Way to pile on. We don’t even know this is true.

I am preparing a letter asking @SecWar to remove the name of Cesar Chavez from the USNS CESAR CHAVEZ.

@OwenGregorian It seems to me that living fat is stupid, because your brains made of fat. This is old food pyramid crap.

Eating Blueberries and Chicken May Slow the Shrinking of Your Brain | Ben Sullivan, ScienceBlog Key Takeaways - A new study shows that the brain health diet, specifically the MIND diet, can slow age-related brain changes. - Researchers tracked 1,650 older Americans, finding that better adherence to the MIND diet reduced grey matter loss by about 20%. - Key foods like berries and poultry support brain health, while fried fast foods harm it. - Unexpected results showed whole grains linked to faster decline, while cheese appeared to help, highlighting the complexity of dietary impacts. - The findings suggest that even partial adherence to the MIND diet can offer significant benefits for brain health over time. --- Every year, without your noticing, your brain gets a little smaller. Grey matter contracts, the fluid-filled chambers inside the skull expand slightly outward, and the tissue that does most of your remembering and deciding quietly retreats. This is not pathology; it is simply ageing, written in cubic centimetres. What a new study from the Framingham Heart Study suggests, though, is that what you eat might influence the rate at which that clock runs. For more than a decade, researchers tracked nearly 1,650 middle-aged and older Americans, measuring their brain volumes with MRI every few years while also recording, in considerable detail, what they ate. The question was whether adherence to the MIND diet, a dietary pattern designed specifically to protect the ageing brain, was associated with slower structural changes over time. The answer, it turns out, is yes, though with some rather unexpected wrinkles. The MIND diet (which stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, a name so unwieldy it perhaps explains why researchers universally prefer the acronym) combines elements of two well-established eating patterns: the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which was developed to lower blood pressure. Where MIND differs is its particular focus on foods thought to benefit the brain, above all dark leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, fish, beans, poultry, and olive oil, while encouraging limits on butter, cheese, red meat, pastries, and fried fast food. Previous work had linked the diet to slower cognitive decline and lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, but whether it actually changed the physical structure of the brain over years was a harder question to answer. Cross-sectional studies, which take a single snapshot in time, can show associations but cannot tell you about the direction of change. The Framingham data offered something rarer. Participants had brain scans repeated two to three times over a median of twelve years, giving researchers a genuine view of how brain structure evolved. Dietary intake had been recorded at multiple points in the 1990s, before the imaging began, which matters because it reduces the risk that early disease was already influencing what people chose to eat. The headline finding is striking in its precision. Each three-point improvement in a participant’s MIND diet score, on a scale running from zero to fifteen, was associated with grey matter shrinking roughly 0.28 cubic centimetres per year more slowly than in lower-scoring participants. That translates, the researchers calculate, to about 20 percent less age-related grey matter loss during the study period, or the equivalent of slowing the ageing clock by two and a half years. A similar pattern appeared for ventricular expansion, the outward creep of the brain’s fluid spaces that accompanies tissue loss: higher MIND scores were linked to about 8 percent less enlargement over the follow-up period, roughly one year’s worth of delayed ageing. The foods driving most of the benefit were berries and poultry. Both were associated with slower ventricular expansion; poultry also appeared to protect grey matter volume independently. The researchers suggest that antioxidants in berries may reduce oxidative stress and mitigate neuronal damage, while poultry provides high-quality protein that perhaps supports neuronal maintenance. Conversely, fried fast foods and sweets were associated with faster hippocampal atrophy, the hippocampus being a structure deeply involved in memory and particularly vulnerable to the early stages of neurodegeneration. Two findings broke from expectation in ways the authors flag as genuinely puzzling. Higher whole grain intake, supposed to be among the diet’s most protective elements, was associated with faster grey matter and hippocampal decline in this dataset, and with increased ventricular expansion. Cheese, explicitly restricted by the MIND diet, was associated with slower grey matter and hippocampal decline and less ventricular enlargement. Neither result has a clean explanation. The researchers do not dismiss the findings, but they are appropriately cautious: these are secondary analyses within a larger pattern, and the counterintuitive signals may reflect unmeasured confounders, differences in the types of whole grains or cheeses consumed, or simply statistical noise that will not survive replication. There are real limits to what this kind of study can conclude. No randomised trial can ethically assign participants to decades of eating particular foods. Observational data, however carefully analysed, leaves residual confounding: people who eat more berries and less fast food also tend to exercise more, smoke less, and have lower rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, all of which independently affect the brain. The Framingham cohort is predominantly White and relatively well-educated, which limits how far these findings travel to other populations. The subgroup analyses add nuance worth noting. The associations were meaningfully stronger in participants over sixty than in younger adults, suggesting that the diet’s structural benefits may be most pronounced when brain ageing is already accelerating. They were also stronger in more physically active participants and in those who were not overweight, which fits a broader picture in which lifestyle factors interact rather than operate in isolation. Grey matter is not an abstraction. It houses the neuronal cell bodies, dendrites, and synapses that underpin memory, learning, and the capacity to make decisions. The ventricles, in contrast, are spaces; when they enlarge, it is because the surrounding tissue has contracted. Slowing either process does not prevent ageing, but in a landscape where no pharmacological intervention has yet demonstrated convincing efficacy against neurodegeneration at population scale, the possibility that diet might offer a partial brake is not a small thing. Berries and chicken are considerably more accessible than any drug currently in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, and considerably cheaper. What remains unknown is whether starting the MIND diet in midlife is equivalent to starting it earlier, or whether a decade of adherence is substantially different from two. Randomised controlled trials of shorter duration have given mixed results on cognitive outcomes, which may simply mean that structural changes to the brain require years of intervention to become detectable. The Framingham data suggests the timescale for dietary effects on brain structure is long, probably measured in decades, which makes the results harder to test but rather more relevant to the choices people make at every meal. Read more: scienceblog.com/eating-blueber…

@XFreeze Musk reveals? He has said this about a thousand times.

Elon Musk reveals the deeper purpose of becoming a multiplanetary species: “Having two planets that are both self-sustaining and strong is going to be incredibly important for the long-term survival of civilization The goal is not just to visit Mars - it’s to ensure the light of consciousness never goes out”

@OwenGregorian That would be less than the cost of a nuclear strike on our country.

Golden Dome Defense Cost Projected at $185 Billion | Jim Mishler, Newsmax The projected cost of the U.S. Golden Dome missile defense system has risen to $185 billion, an increase of $10 billion aimed at accelerating development of key space-based capabilities, according to the program's director. The system is designed to expand ground-based defenses, including interceptor missiles, sensors, and command systems, while adding space-based elements to detect, track, and potentially counter missile threats from orbit, Reuters reported. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein said the added funding will accelerate several major programs, including the Advanced Missile Tracking Initiative, a space data network, and the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, known as HBTSS. HBTSS is intended to provide persistent tracking of hypersonic and ballistic missiles from space, reflecting increased focus on countering emerging threats as adversaries expand their advanced missile capabilities. Guetlein said the $185 billion estimate reflects the full "objective architecture" of the system over the next decade. He pushed back on higher outside projections that have placed potential costs above $1 trillion. "They're not estimating what I'm building," Guetlein said, arguing those estimates rely on more expensive systems designed for overseas combat rather than a homeland defense model. Golden Dome's command-and-control network was described as a central component of the system, supported by a consortium of defense firms that counts Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman as prime contractors. The consortium, which meets regularly to coordinate development, is structured to maintain performance standards, including the ability to remove underperforming participants. Guetlein identified space-based interceptors as the program's highest-risk element, citing challenges tied to scalability and cost, while pointing to directed energy systems and artificial intelligence as potential ways to improve effectiveness and reduce costs. The program's expansion drew a warning from Russia in February. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would consider countermeasures if the United States proceeded with those plans, calling the situation "a new reality." newsmax.com/newsfront/gold…

@robbysoave Isn’t this pedophilia and why doesn’t anybody say that?

Now that Cesar Chavez is credibly accused of sexual abuse of numerous women, including 12 and 13-year-old girls, I presume we are going to be releasing any and all government files pertaining to him, scrutinize his relationships with other labor leaders and the Democratic Party, publish his private correspondence, and consider as tainted or (possibly even complicit) anyone who met with him or traveled with him, particularly in the presence of young girls. That's how this goes, right?

@techdevnotes Is this an actual dictation feature and not just it listens for a while and then shows you what you’ve dictated? So you can’t monitor what’s being interpreted?

Dictate feature in Grok Web can now be activated with shortcut Ctrl + D

@MinimalDuck @Tesla @teslaeurope @elonmusk Gorgeous! Unusually nice soundtrack for a video. Great, subtle, marketing.

Explore Vik. Tesla Model Y Episode 3. @tesla @teslaeurope @elonmusk

@HedgieMarkets @prayingmedic The cost is insanely high! How are they gonna compete with a $30,000 Tesla Optimutt that is a million times smarter?

🦔 Boston Dynamics says data centers are buying robot dogs to patrol facilities, with Spot units priced between $175,000 and $300,000 depending on configuration. The company claims payback within two years compared to human security costs. The robots do perimeter patrols, respond to alerts, conduct industrial inspections, and detect hazards like leaks. Companies are pouring nearly $700 billion into AI infrastructure, and some facilities are massive. Meta's Hyperion data center will be four times the size of Central Park. Ghost Robotics, another quadruped manufacturer, advertises its robots for military reconnaissance and surveillance. My Take The economics probably work out. A $300,000 robot that runs 24/7 for years without benefits, breaks, or bathroom access will beat the cost of multiple security guards over time, especially for facilities this large. The interesting question is what happens when the cost comes down, since Spot launched at around $80,000 and Chinese competitors like Unitree sell quadrupeds for a few thousand dollars. Once the price drops enough, these things will be everywhere and the security guard job category starts to shrink the way manufacturing jobs did. There's also something worth noting about using robots to guard the buildings where you're training the AI that might take people's jobs. These companies are spending hundreds of billions on infrastructure while simultaneously developing technology that could displace a lot of workers, and now they're automating the security too. Deloitte projects robot shipments doubling by 2030 and hitting $5 trillion in revenue by 2050, which is speculative, but the direction seems clear and physical labor is probably next after knowledge work on a shorter timeline than people expect. Hedgie🤗

Great analysis. I just recently realized how freeing Venezuela crippled Cuba, along with China. What’s the endgame from Cuba? Were they in significant projection of power from Russia or China? How do you answer those that say there’s no “imminent threat”? Do you think that Trump allowed the Ukraine war to go on longer to keep Russia crippled?

Non-strategic thinkers believe the purpose of war is always obvious. Trump is the most strategic president we've ever had. Non-strategic thinkers cannot accurately assess his actions because they fail to understand his underlying motives. Every geopolitical move Trump makes has multiple objectives and diverse motives. The Iran war is not just about Iran. Trump's actions on the Panama Canal were not primarily about Panama. Venezuela was not just about Venezuela. Trump's next move on Cuba will not primarily be about Cuba. All these nations were (or are presently) being used by China or Russia to gain global influence. Trump's actions are primarily intended to sever their points of leverage against the West. One example: China provides covert uranium enrichment and missile technology to Iran as a means of creating leverage against the West while pretending they have nothing to do with it. In exchange, Iran sells oil to China at a discount in Yuan, which weakens the dollar. Another example: Iran and North Korea provide material and personnel support to Russia in the war against Ukraine. Trump has tried unsuccessfully to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Plan B is weakening Russia's strategic partners, thereby weakening China's allies. If Trump does not deal with the nations Russia and China are using to build an Eastern axis of power, the US will eventually come under their rule. Trump knows this opponent's endgame, even if the public doesn't. He applies game theory principles to prevent them from achieving their goals.

@pbeisel Google will have nothing on this spy network. Oh my God, the personal data collection. There will be zero privacy. If Tesla the builds the biggest robot fleet, it can be the biggest information broker in the world.

The Magic of Optimus – Part 2: From Data to Knowledge As discussed in the article, Optimus isn’t just a just a task-based robot— it’s a massive, distributed data collection engine. The real question is: how does that raw data become knowledge and how do we access it? The scale is enormous. If Optimus uses a camera stack similar to a Tesla vehicle, it could generate roughly 2–5 TB per hour uncompressed, or 15–30 GB per hour compressed. Moving that volume of raw data to the cloud simply doesn’t work. So the processing has to start at the edge. Each Optimus unit must convert raw sensor data into structured, meaningful collections— a kind of higher-order compression. Instead of shipping video, it extracts what matters. These collections are then uploaded to the Tesla cloud. Importantly, these are not random datasets. They are targeted collection requests generated in the cloud and distributed across the Optimus fleet (or sub-fleet). Once uploaded, these collections are aggregated and processed into a unified data index. That process should feel familiar— it’s essentially training. More specifically, it’s the continuous refinement of Optimus’s reasoning layer, similar to how an LLM is updated with new data. After training, the updated model is pushed back to the fleet (much like a FSD update). Every Optimus improves simultaneously. Example: Bird Population Mapping To make this concrete, imagine a request to measure bird populations across the United States. A collection task is sent to the fleet. Only the Optimus units within relevant regions participate. For, say, 30 days, each robot identifies birds it encounters, deduplicates observations, and records time and location. At the end of the period, each unit holds a compact data collection— not raw video, but structured observations. These datasets are uploaded, aggregated, and fed into a training run. The result is an updated Optimus model that now encodes knowledge about bird populations. Once deployed, any Optimus can answer questions about bird distribution across the U.S. Bird mapping is just one example. In practice, Optimus could handle hundreds or thousands of collection requests simultaneously, all while continuing its normal work.

@elonmusk @BillyM2k Yes. I had many posts from diaspora every day. Now zero! Also, no more bombing videos. WTF?

@BillyM2k 😮‍💨

why is the algorithm dogshit again

@MakisMedicine @FreeAlbertaRob I’ve been seeing these post all along, but I never understood that you meant actual murder. You could’ve put a few more words in your posts explaining what you meant.

@FreeAlbertaRob Interesting that your team chose to conspire with far left extremists to attempt to murder over 9000 cancer patients, most of them terminally ill.

What a grossly dishonest headline. The Globe seems to believe those suffering from “incurable” mental illness should be enabled to end their lives through MAID. The new Alberta MAID law prohibits those suffering from metal illness (and no terminal condition) from ending their lives. Oh and children as well can’t be killed either…imagine that. What a rag the Globe has become. Happily no one in Alberta believes or even reads their paper but sadly, many in the east are deceived by them daily.

@E_Over_Under @WomenAreReals @Sac_TERF_Ca @JonniSkinner @LJDetrans I think evil is an moral or ethical label not a religious label. There is clearly evil.

@WomenAreReals @Sac_TERF_Ca @JonniSkinner @LJDetrans As an atheist I don’t like to use the word “evil” but what I saw there yesterday from the Assembly Members during the testimonies was evil. So much respect for @JonniSkinner and @LJDetrans

I was in Sacramento yesterday and I can’t tell you how grotesque it is that detransitioners like @JonniSkinner and @LJDetrans have to bare their souls, their trauma, details about their bodies, all in a noble & brave attempt to prevent another child from this harm, just to have those assholes on the committee NOT ASK A SINGLE QUESTION. They sat there, tried to ignore every word (I saw their faces though, they failed at that task), then read their pre-written speeches, congratulated themselves on standing up to big, bad Trump or being kind or whatever lie they tell themselves, and voted to move the bill supporting the chemical castration of kids forward.

@FranklinCamarg0 @prageru Brilliantly stated!

Today I testified before the U.S. Congress to make a few things very clear: Maduro was not a legitimate president. He is a narco-terrorist who committed crimes against Americans. He was not “kidnapped”. He was a fugitive who was captured. His capture was not only justified. It was necessary for the security of the American people.

@Handre What SOME people think. Try to be accurate.

What people think universal healthcare does: - Provides "free" medical care for all - Eliminates medical bankruptcies - Creates efficient single-payer system - Reduces overall costs through economies of scale What universal healthcare actually does: - Forces productive citizens to subsidize others' poor health choices through taxation - Creates artificial scarcity through price controls and rationing - Eliminates price signals that coordinate supply and demand - Generates massive waiting lists and deteriorating quality You're not getting "free" healthcare. You're getting Soviet-style central planning applied to life-and-death decisions.

@elonmusk Something weird happening today here Elon. Zero posts from the diaspora. I was getting many of them before.

Grok upgrades