Elon Musk, at it again. The Tesla CEO and social media shitlord tweets he once approached Apple CEO Tim Cook about buying Tesla, but says Cook 'refused to take the meeting.'
Musk says he reached out to Cook "during the darkest days of the Model 3 program" to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla for "1/10th of our current value."
During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.
"He refused to take the meeting," said Musk replying to a Twitter chain which cited a Reuters story on Apple targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology on Monday.
The iPhone maker's automotive efforts, known as Project Titan, have proceeded unevenly since 2014 when it first started to design its own vehicle from scratch.
Apple hasn't commented on the story.
Reminder that Musk also tweeted that that Tesla once got "about a month" from bankruptcy during the Model 3 ramp-up — a detail that the company never disclosed in its quarterly filings. https://t.co/QfkViqzilM
The administration of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is close to a deal with Pfizer that could provide tens of millions more doses of the coronavirus vaccine to Americans in 2021, the NYT reports.
Pfizer and Moderna are the two pharmaceutical companies whose COVID vaccines have been approved for accelerated use by the U.S. FDA, under an emergency use authorization.
From the New York Times, which broke the story late Tuesday:
An agreement, which could be announced as early as Wednesday, would help the United States at least partly offset a looming vaccine shortage that could leave as many as 110 million adult Americans uncovered in the first half of 2021.
(…)
In the negotiations, the government is asking for 100 million additional doses from Pfizer from April through June. The company has signaled that it should be able to produce at least 70 million, and perhaps more, if it can get more access to supplies and raw materials.
To help Pfizer, the deal calls for the government to invoke the Defense Production Act to give the company better access to roughly nine specialized products it needs to make the vaccine. One person familiar with the list said it included lipids, the oily molecules in which the genetic material that is used in both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is encased.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Tuesday it has filed an action against Ripple, the blockchain payments company associated with the cryptocurrency XRP, charging it with conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering.
SEC said it also named two executives of San Francisco-based Ripple in the action. Ripple created and sold XRP, the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value.
SEC Charges Ripple and Two Executives with Conducting $1.3 Billion Unregistered Securities Offering
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington D.C., Dec. 22, 2020 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives, who are also significant security holders, alleging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.
According to the SEC's complaint, Ripple; Christian Larsen, the company's co-founder, executive chairman of its board, and former CEO; and Bradley Garlinghouse, the company's current CEO, raised capital to finance the company's business. The complaint alleges that Ripple raised funds, beginning in 2013, through the sale of digital assets known as XRP in an unregistered securities offering to investors in the U.S. and worldwide. Ripple also allegedly distributed billions of XRP in exchange for non-cash consideration, such as labor and market-making services. According to the complaint, in addition to structuring and promoting the XRP sales used to finance the company's business, Larsen and Garlinghouse also effected personal unregistered sales of XRP totaling approximately $600 million. The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to register their offers and sales of XRP or satisfy any exemption from registration, in violation of the registration provisions of the federal securities laws.
"Issuers seeking the benefits of a public offering, including access to retail investors, broad distribution and a secondary trading market, must comply with the federal securities laws that require registration of offerings unless an exemption from registration applies," said Stephanie Avakian, Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "We allege that Ripple, Larsen, and Garlinghouse failed to register their ongoing offer and sale of billions of XRP to retail investors, which deprived potential purchasers of adequate disclosures about XRP and Ripple's business and other important long-standing protections that are fundamental to our robust public market system."
"The registration requirements are designed to ensure that potential investors – including, importantly, retail investors – receive important information about an issuer's business operations and financial condition," said Marc P. Berger, Deputy Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "Here, we allege that Ripple and its executives failed over a period of years to satisfy these core investor protection provisions, and as a result investors lacked information to which they were entitled."
The SEC's complaint, filed today in federal district court in Manhattan, charges defendants with violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, and seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.
The SEC's investigation was conducted by Daphna A. Waxman, Jon A. Daniels, and John O. Enright of the SEC's Cyber Unit. The case is being supervised by Kristina Littman, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division's Cyber Unit. The SEC's litigation will be conducted by Jorge G. Tenreiro, Dugan Bliss, Ms. Waxman, and Mr. Daniels, and supervised by Preethi Krishnamurthy.
In Tennessee, this goat got into the Christmas spirit by enjoying some whipped cream in a Starbucks cup, December 4.
Surrounded by a Christmas tree and wearing festive apparel, MaDolly the goat can be seen licking at sprinkles and foam on the top of the cup in footage captured by her owner. MaDolly is one of several goats cared for and frequently dressed up by Tennessee resident Britney. Britney runs a YouTube channel called Goat Life where she documents the different themed outfits they wear and the fun they get up to.
You may be relaxed, but will you ever be as relaxed as this happy kitty who took over a newborn baby's electric rocking cradle gizmo for a cozy little nap?
Former congresswoman Katie Hill filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles on Tuesday that claims ex-husband and the owners of Redstate.com and the Daily Mail distributed sexual images of her that amounted to "nonconsensual porn."
The suit claims the outlets did not have a "carte blanche right" under the First Amendment to "sexually degrade and expose public officials."
From NBC News:
The 41-page lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress and violation of state law for distribution of intimate personal material without Hill's consent, lists as defendants Salem Media Group Inc., Mail Media, Inc., as well as writer Jennifer Van Laar, the deputy managing editor of Redstate.com whose work also has appeared in the Daily Mail, and Joseph Messina, the host of "The Real Side" Radio Show, as well as other unnamed individuals.
The legal action comes two weeks after a judge approved a temporary restraining order against Kenny Heslep, Hill's ex-husband, directing him to stay 100 yards away from his ex-wife, her relatives and pets. In seeking the order, Hill said she feared for her life and detailed 15 years of alleged abuse by Heslep, including accusations that he choked her unconscious, threatened her with a gun, abused her pets and released sexually explicit pictures of her.
The civil lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by attorneys Carrie Goldberg and Ashley Parris, goes further in targeting the media outlets that Hill alleges helped Heslep destroy her political career and continue to damage her reputation.
• Russia's Defense Ministry: "the measure was conducted as part of implementing the provisions of the 2020 military cooperation plan and is not aimed against third countries"
Russian and Chinese bomber aircraft flew a joint mission over the Western Pacific on Tuesday. The patrol operation is the second such flight since a July 2019 patrol over the same area, and shows increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.
A of Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, the Russian military reported on Tuesday.
"The Russian Aerospace Force and the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army conducted the second joint air patrol by long-range aircraft in the Asia-Pacific Region. The air group consisting of two Tu-95MS strategic bombers of Russia's Aerospace Force and four Hong-6K strategic bombers of the Air Force of China's People's Liberation Army conducted the air patrol over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea," the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the joint mission was intended to "develop and deepen the comprehensive Russia-China partnership, further increase the level of cooperation between the two militaries, expand their ability for joint action and strengthen strategic stability."
The ministry added that the patrol flight "wasn't directed against any third countries."
"His failure will land on my doorstep" — President-Elect Joe Biden on Donald Trump, and the ongoing hack of U.S. government computer systems, which intelligence experts pin on Russia.
Timing is everything. The New York Times and other news organizations report today that Rosemary Vrablic, the longtime personal banker at Deutsche Bank for client Donald Trump, has resigned. One of her colleagues, Dominic Scalzi, has also reportedly quit.
"I've chosen to resign my position with the bank effective Dec. 31 and am looking forward to my retirement," Ms. Vrablic, 60, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Rosemary Vrablic, a managing director and senior banker in the lender's wealth management division, recently handed in her resignation, which the bank accepted effective as of year-end, Dan Hunter, a spokesman for the lender, confirmed.
According to the New York Times, which first reported Vrablic's resignation, she arranged for the lender to grant hundreds of millions of dollars of loans to Trump's company.
Deutsche Bank in August opened an internal review into a 2013 transaction between Vrablic and a company owned in part by Jared Kushner, and a client of Vrablic's. Dominic Scalzi, who played a role in that transaction, will also leave the bank.
• "We all have to stay apart just a little longer," cautions President-Elect
• Biden on cyberattack: "We know this much: This attack constitutes a grave risk to our national security."
President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to the nation from Delaware today, a pre-Christmas message.
"Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us, so we need to prepare ourselves, steel our spine. (…) It's going to take patience, persistence and determination to defeat this virus."
"We all have to stay apart just a little longer," said @JoeBiden in Wilmington, Delaware.
Biden promised "masking requirements, a new strategy for testing," and "accelerated production of protective gear" starting on his administration's first day in office.
He also said the recent cybersecurity attack by Russia "constitutes a grave risk to our national security. It was carefully planned and carefully orchestrated."
"The truth is this: The Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity," Biden added, vowing a response to the attack which experts pin on the Russian intelligence services.
More from his speech, below, from reporters covering it live.
Biden: Our darkest days with COVID are ahead of us, not behind us
Biden: "Here is the simple truth. Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves. To steel our spines. As frustrating as it is to hear, it's gonna take patience, persistence, and determination to beat this virus."
"Experts say things are going to get worse before they get better," adds @JoeBiden, noting the US will lose "tens of thousands of more lives in the months to come."
Biden: "One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth. And here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us, not behind us." pic.twitter.com/h9qHnE2F49
"Cyberattacks must be treated as a serious threat by our leaders at the highest level," says @JoeBiden. "This all happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching."
"Our darkest days, our battle against covid, are ahead of us — not behind," Biden says, a far different tune than Trump who has said for months that the US is "rounding the turn."
BIDEN: "Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us — not behind us — so we need to prepare ourselves, steel our spine." "It's going to take patience, persistence and determination to defeat this virus."
President-elect Biden: "Cyber threats are among the greatest threats to our global security in the 21st century, and I believe we have to treat them with the same seriousness of purpose that we treated threats of other unconventional weapons." https://t.co/SNZ8SXmawppic.twitter.com/Ch13hP1y5s
This sweet cow really enjoys trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.
From December 16, on a farm in Wooster, Ohio:
"Stella was so excited for the first big snowfall that she got out of her gate and was running around. After getting her back in, I turned around and saw her trying to catch snowflakes."
A Russian scientist credited with working on a coronavirus vaccine has been stabbed and somehow fell out of a window of a multi-story St. Petersburg apartment building, and has died, reports Moscow Times.
Geneticist and molecular and cellular biologist Alexander Kagansky was 45.
Kagansky's affiliations included the Maryland-based National Cancer Institute, and the University of Edinburgh, where he was reportedly recently working on a Covid-19 vaccine.
The body of geneticist and molecular and cellular biologist Alexander Kagansky, 45, was found in the courtyard of a 16-story apartment block Saturday. The Fontanka.ru news website reported that he had been visiting an old schoolmate on their birthday the day of his death.
Russia's Investigative Committee, which only identified Kagansky by his birth year of 1975, said it detained an unnamed 45-year-old suspect as part of a murder investigation.
The suspect denied that he had stabbed Kagansky and claimed that the scientist had wounded himself, Fontanka.ru reported, citing unnamed sources.
As thousands die each day from the pandemic, outgoing President Donald Trump signs an executive order that declares classical architecture is the official style in D.C., and that all new federal construction shall henceforth be "beautiful."
Nope, not a joke.
These can be reversed by Biden, it's just so dumb.
At least he stopped short of the all-out ban on modern architecture that was proposed earlier this year.
INBOX: @realDonaldTrump has signed an executive order prohibiting new federal buildings from being built in anything other than Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, or Art Deco styles. pic.twitter.com/gPbaYk9yEe
Under the order, a "Council for Improving Federal Civic Architecture" will be formed to recommenced updates to the General Services Administration's architectural guidelines.
The administration has been writing the executive order for months, and an early draft that would have banned modernist design prompted condemnation from the American Institute of Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"Architecture should be designed for the specific communities that it serves, reflecting our rich nation's diverse places, thought, culture and climates," the AIA said in a statement. "Architects are committed to honoring our past as well as reflecting our future progress, protecting the freedom of thought and expression that are essential to democracy."
Officials in Hawaii have raised Kilauea's alert to "warning" level and the aviation color code to red, as the volcano erupts and lava threatens homes. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park are urging residents to stay indoors, and describe the situation as "rapidly evolving."
A magnitude 4.4 earthquake hit about an hour after the volcano began erupting.
HVO Kilauea RED/WARNING – Shortly after 9:30 p.m. HST an eruption commenced within Kīlauea's summit caldera. https://t.co/JrIaEgXyAa
Tom Birchard, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Hawaii, said a new lava flow interacted with a pool of water inside the crater and that led to a short-lived but a fairly vigorous eruption.
All the water evaporated out of the lake and a steam cloud shot up about 30,000 feet (9 kilometers) into the atmosphere, Birchard said.
An advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, warning of fallen ash from the volcano. Excessive exposure to ash is an eye and respiratory irritant, it said. The agency later said the eruption was easing and a "low-level steam cloud" was lingering in the area. By 1 a.m., USGS officials told Hawaii News Now that there were reported lava fountains shooting about 165 feet (50 meters) into the sky.
David Phillips, a Hawaiian Volcano Observatory spokesman, said the agency was monitoring the situation. "We will send out further notifications on Kilauea and other Hawaiian volcanoes as we observe changes," he said.
Webcam captures start of #Kīlauea summit eruption. First image is from Dec 20 at 9:20 p.m. HST, approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the eruption. Final image taken at 1:06 a.m. HST on Dec 21. #Kilauea2020pic.twitter.com/ffUwAUKL2Z
Lava is cascaded into the summit water lake, boiling off the water and forming a new lava lake. The northern fissure, pictured, was producing the tallest lava fountain at roughly 50 m (165 ft), and all lava was contained within Halemaʻumaʻu crater in Kīlauea caldera. pic.twitter.com/4uEEL7qxOT
Annotated map shows locations of fissure vents that opened late on Dec 20. Red spots are approximate locations of fissure vents feeding lava flowing into the bottom of Halema'uma'u crater. Water lake at the base of Halema'uma'u crater has been replaced with a growing lava lake. pic.twitter.com/1RbBLWKLhZ
A steam and gas plume from the eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea summit. Lava contained within the crater illuminates the steam produced by the lava interacting with, and boiling off, the summit water lake that resided in the base of Halemaʻumaʻu crater. pic.twitter.com/8Dw1yBLH85
Funny how times change! The Vatican has declared that it is "morally acceptable" for Roman Catholics to receive coronavirus vaccines developed from research that used fetal tissue from abortions.
The Catholic Church still says that abortion is a grave sin.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's watchdog office for doctrinal orthodoxy, said it had received several requests for "guidance" during recent months. The doctrinal office pointed out that bishops, Catholic groups and experts have offered "diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements" on the matter.
Drawing on Vatican pronouncements in past years about developing vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted fetuses, the watchdog office's statement was examined by Pope Francis, who ordered it to be made public.
(…)The Vatican concluded that "it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses" in the research and production process when "ethically irreproachable" vaccines aren't available to the public. But it stressed that the "licit" uses of such vaccines "does not and should not in any way imply that there is a moral endorsement of the use of cell lines proceeding from aborted fetuses."
The Vatican did not name any specific COVID-19 vaccine in its proclamation.
