- Morgan Stanley analyst predicts S&P 500 could leap another 11% this year, boosted by gains to ‘Magnificent Seven’ stocks Fortune
- S&P 500 Could Rally Another 11% by Year-End, Expert Says Markets Insider
- ‘We are buyers of gold on weakness’: Yellow metal resilient as real rates surge, says Morgan Stanley MarketWatch
- Morgan Stanley’s Slimmon Sees Strong Fourth-Quarter for Stocks Bloomberg Television
- Investors are ‘far from out of the woods’: Morgan Stanley chief investment officer The Globe and Mail
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: leap
‘Magnum P.I’ Moves To Fall On NBC; Network Stays In Scripted As ‘Quantum Leap’ & New Dramas ‘Found’ & ‘The Irrational’ Make Up Revised Schedule – Deadline
- ‘Magnum P.I’ Moves To Fall On NBC; Network Stays In Scripted As ‘Quantum Leap’ & New Dramas ‘Found’ & ‘The Irrational’ Make Up Revised Schedule Deadline
- NBC’s New Fall Schedule: 6 Series Delayed Amid SAG, Writers’ Strikes TVLine
- NBC Shuffles Fall 2023 Schedule Amid Strikes, ‘Night Court’ and New ‘Law & Order,’ ‘One Chicago’ Episodes Delayed Variety
- ‘Magnum P.I.’ Moves Into Fall as NBC Tweaks Schedule Hollywood Reporter
- One Chicago: NBC confirms shows will be delayed to 2024 One Chicago Center
- View Full Coverage on Google News
New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Posts Thread On Her Leap From NBCUniversal: “The Global Town Square Needs Transformation” – Deadline
- New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Posts Thread On Her Leap From NBCUniversal: “The Global Town Square Needs Transformation” Deadline
- Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino says company should be ‘global town square’ The Verge
- Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino echoes Musk in emphasizing freedom of speech in debut tweet thread CNBC
- Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino praises ‘the freedom to speak your mind’ Business Insider
- Twitter CEO Cites Need to Transform ‘Global Town Square’ in Memo to Staff The Wall Street Journal
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Electric vehicles confront the leap to the mass market
DETROIT, Dec 15 (Reuters) – The past year was sobering for investors who poured money into Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and rival electric vehicle startups that hoped to emulate Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s success.
As interest rates rose and financial markets gyrated, shares in many EV startups deflated. Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O), which had a higher market value than Ford Motor Co (F.N) shortly after it went public in 2021, lost more than 70% of its value over the past year.
Other EV startups fared worse. Electric van maker Arrival warned it could run out of cash in less than a year. Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O), backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, struggled to build its sleek Air luxury EVs. Chinese Tesla challenger Xpeng Inc’s (9868.HK) shares lost more than 80% of their value.
Now comes the hard part: Persauding more mainstream consumers to come along for the ride.
WHY IT MATTERS
The automobile industry is pouring more than $1 trillion into a revolutionary shift from combustion engines to electric vehicles guided by software. From Detroit to Shanghai, automakers and government policymakers have embraced the promise of electric vehicles to provide cleaner, safer transportation. European countries and California have set 2035 as the deadline for ending sales of new combustion passenger vehicles.
Tesla Inc’s (TSLA.O) surge to become the world’s most valuable automaker – achieving a $1 trillion valuation last year – humbled established automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) that once were reluctant to go electric.
Starting next year, a wave of new electric vehicles from pickup trucks to middle market SUVs and sedans will hit the world’s major markets.
Industry executives and forecasters do not agree on how rapidly electric vehicles could take over half the global vehicle market, let alone all of it.
In China, the world’s largest single automotive market, battery electric vehicles have captured about 21% of the market. In Europe, EVs account for about 12% of total passenger vehicle sales. But in the United States, EV market share is only about 6%.
Among the barriers to EV adoption, industry executives and analysts said, were a dearth of public fast-charging infrastructure, and the rising cost of EV batteries, driven by shortages of key materials and uncertainty over government subsidies that have buoyed EV purchases in major markets including the United States, China and Europe.
By 2029, electric vehicles could account for a third of the North American market, and about 26% of vehicles produced worldwide, according to AutoForecast Solutions, a consultancy.
Electric vehicle sales likely will not increase in a smooth, ever-ascending curve, said AFS President Joe McCabe. If there is a recession next year, as many economists forecast, that will slow EV adoption.
Wards Intelligence forecasts that combustion vehicles will make up just under 80% of North American sales in 2027. Based on automakers’ product plans, Wards analyst Haig Stoddard said at a recent conference that manufacturers “expect strong ICE (internal combustion engine) volume heading into the next decade.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR 2023?
Throughout 2022, established automakers such as Mercedes, Ford and General Motors Co (GM.N) unveiled dozens of new electric vehicles to challenge Tesla and the upstarts.
Mass production of most of these vehicles kicks into gear starting in 2023 and 2024.
By 2025, there could be 74 different electric vehicle models offered in North America, McCabe said. But he predicts fewer than 20% of those models are likely to sell at volumes above 50,000 vehicles a year. Automakers could be stuck with too many niche models and too much capacity.
Slowing economies threaten overall vehicle demand in Europe and China, too.
During the early years of the 20th Century, new auto companies sprang up, backed by investors eager to catch the wave of mass mobility that Henry Ford and other automotive pioneers started. By the 1950s, the global auto industry had consolidated and once-heralded brands such as Duesenberg had disappeared.
The next few years will determine whether the 21st Century’s crop of electric vehicle brands will follow a similar path.
Explore the Reuters round-up of news stories that dominated the year, and the outlook for 2023.
Reporting by Joe White
Editing by Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Artemis I mission launches in historic leap forward for NASA’s moon program
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CNN
—
The historic Artemis I mission took flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of anticipation. The milestone event kicked off a journey that will send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon, paving the way for NASA to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in half a century.
The towering, 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket lit its engines at 1:47 a.m. ET. It emitted up to 9 million pounds (4.1 million kilograms) of thrust to haul itself off the launchpad in Florida and into the air, streaking vibrantly across the night sky.
Atop the rocket was the Orion spacecraft, a gumdrop-shaped capsule that broke away from the rocket after reaching space. Orion is designed to carry humans, but its passengers for this test mission are of the inanimate variety, including some mannequins collecting vital data to help future live crews.
The SLS rocket expended millions of pounds of fuel before parts of the rocket began breaking away, and Orion was left to soar through orbit with just one large engine. That engine then set off two powerful burns to put the spacecraft on the correct trajectory toward the moon. Then, about two hours after liftoff, the rocket engine also fell away, leaving Orion to free-fly for the remainder of its journey.
Orion is expected to log roughly 1.3 million miles (2 million kilometers), taking a path that will lead it farther than any other spacecraft designed for human flight has traveled, according to NASA. After orbiting the moon, Orion will make its return trip, completing its journey in about 25.5 days. The capsule is then scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on December 11, when recovery teams will be waiting nearby to haul it to safety.
Throughout the mission, NASA engineers will be keeping a close eye on the spacecraft’s performance. The team will evaluate whether Orion performs as intended and will be ready to support its first crewed mission to lunar orbit, which is currently scheduled for 2024.
This mission also marks the debut flight of the SLS rocket as the most powerful ever to reach Earth’s orbit, boasting 15% more thrust than the Saturn V rocket that powered NASA’s 20th century moon landings.
And this mission is just the first in what’s expected to be a long series of increasingly difficult Artemis missions as NASA works toward its goal of establishing a permanent outpost at the moon. Artemis II will follow a similar path as Artemis I but will have astronauts on board. Artemis III, slated for later this decade, is expected to land a woman and a person of color on the lunar surface for the first time.
Read more: The big numbers that make the Artemis I mission a monumental feat
The mission team encountered a number of setbacks in the lead-up to Wednesday morning’s launch, including technical issues with the mega moon rocket and two hurricanes that have rolled through the launch site.
Fueling the SLS rocket with superchilled liquid hydrogen proved to be one main issue that forced NASA to wave off earlier takeoff attempts, but on Tuesday, the tanks were filled despite leak issues that halted fueling hours before launch.
To address that problem, NASA deployed what it calls a “red crew” — a group of personnel specially trained to make repairs while the rocket is loaded with propellant. They tightened some nuts and bolts to stop the fuel leaks.
“The rocket, it’s alive, it’s creaking, its making venting noises — it’s pretty scary. So … my heart was pumping. My nerves were going but, yeah, we showed up today. When we walked up the stairs. We were ready to rock and roll,” red crew member Trent Annis said in an interview on NASA TV after launch.
Other NASA personnel at the launch site’s firing room, where agency officials make crucial decisions in the hours and moments before liftoff, celebrated a victory.
“Well for once I might be speechless,” said Artemis I launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the first woman to hold such a role.
“I have talked a lot about appreciating the moment that you’re in,” Blackwell-Thompson said in remarks to the engineers in the firing room. “And we have worked hard as a team. You guys have worked hard as a team to this moment. This is your moment.”
Blackwell-Thompson then declared it was time for tie-cutting, a NASA tradition in which launch operators snip off the ends of their business ties. Blackwell-Thompson’s was cut by shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach, and she pledged to the others in the room, “I’ll stay all night if I have to. It’ll be my pleasure to cut ties.”
NFL Week 5 Power Rankings: All hail the NFC East (for now), as Cowboys crack top 10, Giants make sizable leap
Before the season, most laughed at the NFC East.
NFC Least, they said.
A month into the season, nobody is laughing now. The last remaining undefeated team in the league is the 4-0 Philadelphia Eagles, fresh off a comeback victory in the slosh over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. They remain atop my Power Rankings this week, but there are two other 3-1 teams in the NFC East.
The Dallas Cowboys, who have won three straight games with backup quarterback Cooper Rush, and the New York Giants, who somehow find themselves with three victories despite being anything but pleasing to the eyes, are both one game behind the Eagles.
The Cowboys have the look of a team that will stay there, with a big game against Philadelphia on the road looming in two weeks after a tough one with the Los Angeles Rams this week. The Giants don’t have that same look, but coach Brian Daboll deserves a ton of credit for getting this team off to a fast start. We will know a lot more about the Giants this week when they play the Green Bay Packers in London this Sunday.
For now, the top of the division is a combined 10-2, with only the 1-3 Washington Commanders dragging the division down, with two of their losses having come to the Eagles and the Cowboys.
The Eagles are the story for now. They faced the NFL’s best run defense in the Jaguars and ran through them for over 200 yards in the rain. They rallied from 14-0 down to win, 29-21, thanks to a fierce pass rush combined with that run game.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts didn’t put up gaudy numbers, but he again played a big part in the victory, which is why he’s smack dab in the middle of the MVP conversation.
The Cowboys are winning with defense and some timely throws by Rush. But any talk of a quarterback controversy when Dak Prescott is back healthy is absurd. It’s Prescott’s team and the Cowboys will be much better when he’s back.
As for the Giants, they’ve taken the old-school approach to winning, which is running the football and playing sound defense. Thanks to the resurgence of Saquon Barkley, who leads the league in rushing, the Giants have the top-ranked run offense in the league. They are also ninth in scoring defense.
At times, the Giants are ugly to watch. There is no dynamic passing game, but the old-time football has them at 3-1. I doubt they can continue to win without improving the passing game, which could be tough with their top two quarterbacks banged up. But the start deserves praise.
So, for now, let’s hail the NFC East — and especially the Eagles.
Biggest Movers
|
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
After a slow start, they showed how good they are in rallying to beat the Jaguars. They are the clear top team in the league. | — | 4-0-0 |
2 |
|
That was a big-time, comeback victory against the Ravens on the road. That speaks volumes about this team. | 1 | 3-1-0 |
3 |
|
Going to Tampa Bay and beating up on the Bucs gets them back on track after that loss to the Colts. They looked like the Chiefs offense of old in that game. | 2 | 3-1-0 |
4 |
|
They have to be better than what they showed against the Patriots, or they won’t be winning games against better teams down the road. The run defense isn’t good right now. | — | 3-1-0 |
5 |
|
The Tua Tagovailoa situation clouds their fast start. It’s Teddy Bridgewater this week against the Jets, which will be a tougher game than maybe they thought. | 3 | 3-1-0 |
6 |
|
The defense carried this team the first three weeks, but got beat up against the Chiefs. They haven’t played a complete game yet. | — | 2-2-0 |
7 |
|
At 3-1, they are in first place after a victory over the Saints in London. The good news is they got Justin Jefferson back on track. The defense, though, has to be better. | 4 | 3-1-0 |
8 |
|
Cooper Rush has done a great job in place of Dak Prescott as the Cowboys have won three straight. The defense is carrying the team. | 5 | 3-1-0 |
9 |
|
That defense is outstanding, even with guys missing time. DeMeco Ryans is doing a great job, and they looked like a playoff team against the Rams. | 6 | 2-2-0 |
10 |
|
They just don’t look good right now. Matt Stafford isn’t playing well behind a bad offensive line and they lack playmakers not named Cooper Kupp. | 3 | 2-2-0 |
11 |
|
Their defense is awful right now, which limits their chances to win. That is not a Ravens team we’ve come to expect. | 3 | 2-2-0 |
12 |
|
They’ve won two straight in typical Titans fashion: Using their toughness. They have righted things since that Bills debacle. | 4 | 2-2-0 |
13 |
|
They evened up their record by beating Miami, but now face a big division game at Baltimore. They still don’t seem to be clicking on offense just yet. | 5 | 2-2-0 |
14 |
|
They showed well early against the Eagles, but then fell apart. Trevor Lawrence has to be better, and really has to do a better job of taking care of the football. | 5 | 2-2-0 |
15 |
|
They did some good things on offense against the Texans, bouncing back from that Jaguars loss. They still need to be better on defense. | 5 | 2-2-0 |
16 |
|
At 3-1, they are one of the early surprises of this season. They don’t win pretty, but they find a way. The quarterback injuries are concerning. | 7 | 3-1-0 |
17 |
|
The injuries have impacted their defense, but they had their chances against the Falcons. Now 2-2, they haven’t looked like a playoff team yet. | 5 | 2-2-0 |
18 |
|
At 2-2, they haven’t come close to looking like the team many expected. They’ve been just off on both sides of the ball at different times this season. | 4 | 2-2-0 |
19 |
|
At 1-2-1, they are limping into their Thursday night game with the Broncos. The Jonathan Taylor injury situation bears watching. | 2 | 1-2-1 |
20 |
|
At 2-2, they had to have the road game at Carolina and they got it with an impressive second half. Now they face the league’s top team in the Eagles at home in prove-it game. | 1 | 2-2-0 |
21 |
|
They faced a must-win game against the Broncos, and they won it. Maybe that’s the game that gets this team going, but now they get the Chiefs on the road. | 4 | 1-3-0 |
22 |
|
At 2-2, they are tied for first place in their division. Give Arthur Smith credit for this team’s start. | 4 | 2-2-0 |
23 |
|
They showed a lot of fight against Green Bay after being forced to play Bailey Zappe at quarterback because of injuries. But they are limited in a lot of ways. | 3 | 1-3-0 |
24 |
|
Injuries have hurt them a lot, but at 1-3 they are one of the early-season disappointments. The good news is nobody is running away with the division. | 3 | 1-3-0 |
25 |
|
They can’t pass the football or protect their quarterback. That limits what they can do, which looks like it will be a season-long problem. | 1 | 2-2-0 |
26 |
|
Zach Wilson looked good in his first game back from injury, which is encouraging for the future. Robert Saleh has this team heading in the right direction. | 1 | 2-2-0 |
27 |
|
Geno Smith is playing outstanding football at quarterback. Their offense has become fun to watch. The defense has issues. | 4 | 2-2-0 |
28 |
|
It’s Kenny Pickett time now, which is a good thing. But at 1-3, this might be a season for him to learn and grow and not about wins and losses. | 6 | 1-3-0 |
29 |
|
They are fun to watch since they score a lot, but that defense is awful. They can’t stop anybody, which is going to make for a long season. | 1 | 1-3-0 |
30 |
|
The Baker Mayfield experiment just isn’t working. He is playing poorly, and this team could be headed for a coaching change. | 1 | 1-3-0 |
31 |
|
They have lost three straight and have looked bad in doing so. Are changes coming, both with starters and coaches? | 1 | 1-3-0 |
32 |
|
They showed something in coming back against the Chargers, but they aren’t good enough to win games like that. This is going to be a long season. | — | 0-3-1 |
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NFL Week 4 Power Rankings: Eagles soar to No. 1 spot with Dolphins right behind; Jaguars leap into top 10
All those out there who had the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins as the last two undefeated teams after three weeks please stand up.
OK, so maybe there are a few of you. But there can’t be many who had that parlay.
Yet here were are after three weeks, and the Eagles and Dolphins are both 3-0 and at the top of my Power Rankings, with the Eagles in the top spot and the Dolphins right behind at No.2. The Eagles have really impressed in blowing out three so-so teams to get to the top spot, but Miami has defeated two good teams in the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills.
The Eagles look like the better team right now, with a high-scoring offense and a defense that can really rush the passer. The Dolphins didn’t do a ton on offense Sunday to beat the Bills, but they found a way with a late touchdown and then held on to win it.
Coach Mike McDaniel’s Miami team has won one game with a lot of offense, another with good defense and another with a combination of the two. The Eagles have been the NFL’s best offense over three weeks, with Jalen Hurts playing at an MVP level. The reason the Eagles are ranked higher than Miami is because they started higher up and because I think if they met on a neutral field the Eagles would win it.
Both teams play tough games this week. Miami travels to Cincinnati to play the Bengals on a short week, while the Eagles play host to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are coming off a dominating road victory over the Chargers on Sunday.
The Jaguars are the biggest climbers in this week’s rankings, going from No. 22 to No. 9 after beating up the Chargers, 38-10. Yes, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert came in banged up, but that beating was much worse than that.
If Jacksonville beats the Eagles this week in coach Doug Pederson’s return to Philadelphia to face a team he won the Super Bowl with three years ago, they will be a top-5 team next week.
Anybody see that coming?
Of course not. That’s why figuring this league out year to year is so tough to do. Just look at the two remaining unbeaten teams.
Who saw it coming?
Biggest Movers
|
Rk |
Teams |
Chg |
Rcrd |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
|
Jalen Hurts has carried this team to a 3-0 start. His ability to run and pass makes it a real challenge to defend this offense. The Jaguars defense will be a challenge this week. | 3 | 3-0-0 |
2 |
|
At 3-0, they are off to a great start. The offense didn’t do a lot against the Bills, but the defense made many key stops. They have a tough game this Thursday at Cincinnati on a short week. | 6 | 3-0-0 |
3 |
|
The injuries are becoming a problem for this team, especially on defense. The talk of cruising to a Super Bowl has subsided for at least a week as they head to Baltimore to face a good Ravens team. | 2 | 2-1-0 |
4 |
|
They still don’t do a lot on offense, but that will come as Aaron Rodgers gets more comfortable with his receivers. The defense impressed in beating Tampa Bay. | 1 | 2-1-0 |
5 |
|
The passing game hasn’t been as good the past few weeks, which is a concern. Now they head to Tampa to play a Bucs team coming off a loss. That won’t be easy. | 3 | 2-1-0 |
6 |
|
The offense has too many players out with injuries, so much so that Tom Brady can’t even bail them out. The defense has played well in three games, but now they get Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. | 3 | 2-1-0 |
7 |
|
They are 2-1, but they haven’t played like the team we saw win it all last year. They look to be off just a click here and there. | — | 2-1-0 |
8 |
|
Lamar Jackson has been special this season, but he has to be because of the defense. He’s shown that he’s back to his MVP level of play — probably even better. | 2 | 2-1-0 |
9 |
|
The Jaguars served notice the past two weeks that they might be ahead of schedule. They can be nasty on defense and are improving on offense, but the Eagles will be a real challenge this week. | 13 | 2-1-0 |
10 |
|
They looked terrible in losing to the Jaguars, getting dominated on both sides of the ball. Injuries are a concern with this team now in a big way. | 4 | 1-2-0 |
11 |
|
They looked lifeless early against the Lions, but they came alive late to win it to get to 2-1. The offense still isn’t clicking like it will be. | — | 2-1-0 |
12 |
|
The run game keyed the victory against the Steelers, which is what we expect. But Jacoby Brissett made a lot of timely throws. | 5 | 2-1-0 |
13 |
|
Getting to 2-1 with Dak Prescott out with injury is a good thing for this team. Cooper Rush has played well in his place. Good defense has helped. | 6 | 2-1-0 |
14 |
|
The offense actually showed some life on the last drive to beat the 49ers. Russell Wilson has to be better than he was for most of that game. | 1 | 2-1-0 |
15 |
|
They have to get more out of Jimmy Garoppolo than they did against the Broncos. The loss of left tackle Trent Williams for a while will hurt those chances. | 6 | 1-2-0 |
16 |
|
That was a heck of a bounce back against the Raiders. They showed they are a well-coached team. Now comes a key divisional came at Indianapolis. | 8 | 1-2-0 |
17 |
|
That was a nice bounce-back victory against the Chiefs. The defense played well and Matt Ryan made enough plays to win it. | 8 | 1-1-1 |
18 |
|
The Joe Burrow we saw against the Jets is who we expected to see this season. Now let’s see how they do on a short week against Miami with a chance to even up the record. | 3 | 1-2-0 |
19 |
|
So much for the idea that the comeback against the Raiders would get this team going. They did nothing on offense against the Rams, which brings back those questions about the direction of this team. | 7 | 1-2-0 |
20 |
|
Before the season, I thought it would be a miracle if this team made the playoffs. Now I am convinced of it. They aren’t good. | 6 | 1-2-0 |
21 |
|
They can’t get anything going on offense, which is why they are 1-2 on the season. Is Andy Dalton taking over as quarterback a possibility? | 6 | 1-2-0 |
22 |
|
It’s almost Kenny Pickett time, even if the Steelers aren’t ready to admit it. The offense isn’t good right now, but the defense let them down against Cleveland as well. | 4 | 1-2-0 |
23 |
|
They are now 2-1 after losing to the Cowboys, but they are an improved team. Brian Daboll has them heading in the right direction. | 3 | 2-1-0 |
24 |
|
They are 2-1, but have hardly looked like that type of team. The offense can run it, but Justin Fields continues to struggle. | 4 | 2-1-0 |
25 |
|
At 0-3, they’ve lost three close games. But at some point they have to find a way to win those games. This week’s game with Denver is a must-win for them. | 9 | 0-3-0 |
26 |
|
They really impressed on offense in winning at Seattle. Marcus Mariota was sharp and the run game was outstanding with Cordarrelle Patterson. They are going to be a problem for teams this season. | 6 | 1-2-0 |
27 |
|
Maybe the whole taking-receipts talk is something Robert Saleh should re-visit. This team isn’t going anywhere. They need Zach Wilson on the field soon. | 4 | 1-2-0 |
28 |
|
They had no business losing that game to the Vikings. This is a team that has to learn how to close out games | 2 | 1-2-0 |
29 |
|
The defense won the game against the Saints last week, but the offense needs to do more. At least Matt Rhule is in the win column to stave off the talk of him being fired — for now. | 2 | 1-2-0 |
30 |
|
The defense is a disaster right now, the offensive line can’t protect, and Carson Wentz is playing bad. Aside from that, this team is just fine. | 3 | 1-2-0 |
31 |
|
This is going to be a long season in large part because the defense isn’t very good. They were destroyed by Falcons at home. That’s not what we expect from a Pete Carroll team. | 2 | 1-2-0 |
32 |
|
Davis Mills is really struggling right now. They are 0-1-2 and have to be thinking quarterback in next year’s draft. | 2 | 0-2-1 |
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‘Quantum Leap’ Episode 1 Recap: Al Calavicci Dean Stockwell Tribute
Warning: The following contains spoilers from Monday’s Quantum Leap premiere.
In Quantum Leap‘s premiere episode, Ben Song (played by Raymond Lee) made an unauthorized leap and wound up in the body of a would-be diamond thief in 1985. The details of why he jumped remain unclear, but we now know that Al’s daughter Janice Calavicci is somehow involved.
At the end of the hour, Herbert “Magic” Williams (Ernie Hudson) revealed that Janice wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and take part in the new Quantum Leap project. However, the Department of Defense denied her over concerns about her emotional ties to Al (played in the original series by Dean Stockwell), who died last year, and Sam (Scott Bakula), who never made it back home. On the night of Ben’s jump, Janice sent Ben urgent messages to do so now since they were “running out of time.”
According to showrunner Martin Gero, we’re only just getting started with Janice. “The Calaviccis play a huge part of Season 1,” he tells TVLine. “Georgina Reilly, who plays Janice, will recur heavily on the show.”
NBC’s new take on Quantum Leap was being developed while Stockwell was still alive, and producers always knew the Calavicci family would be a major part of the story. But after Stockwell’s death in November 2021, the show’s handling of Al’s character evolved.
“The dream was always to potentially have Dean play a small role on the show,” Gero shares. “But when he passed, it was important for us to maintain the legacy of that character in the show in a real and profound way.”
Read on for additional tidbits from showrunner Martin Gero and stars Raymond Lee and Ernie Hudson.
Gero on Quantum Leap’s ties to the original series: “The show is its own thing, but we have this really beautiful connection to the past that is informing everything that we’re doing, and in a way that I think will reward viewers of the old show but not alienate new viewers who maybe haven’t seen all 90-plus episodes of Quantum Leap. It’s a really cool story, and it’s going to some really awesome places, and I can’t wait for you all to see some more of Georgina as Janice Calavicci.”
Lee on Addison telling Ben, who lost his memory, that she was originally intended to jump and Ben was supposed to be her hologram: “It’s up to Addison to reveal what she can reveal because there are some things better left unsaid for Ben’s own benefit and health and well-being. She might know a reason why he would [make an unauthorized jump], but it might not be OK for her to tell me. But there’s so much to uncover there, so much drama.”
Hudson on his costar Lee: “He’s someone that you can relate to. Scott Bakula, what I loved about [him in the original], he was so funny and goofy and charming, but he was that guy you liked. He’d find himself in these situations, but it was hard not to feel for him, and I think Raymond has a lot of that as well.”
Gero on including Easter eggs throughout the series: “We’re trying to have a couple every [episode], and there’s some iconic props that eventually will make its way back into the canon of this show as well. This show is being made by fans of the original show, and it’s also being made by the people that made the original show, so that connection to the old show is very palpable.”
What did you all think of Quantum Leap’s first episode? Grade the premiere below, and then sound off in the comments.
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Earth’s Days Are Mysteriously Getting Longer, Scientists Say
Atomic clocks, combined with precise astronomical measurements, have revealed that the length of a day is suddenly getting longer, and scientists don’t know why.
This has critical impacts not just on our timekeeping, but also things like GPS and other technologies that govern our modern life.
Over the past few decades, Earth’s rotation around its axis – which determines how long a day is – has been speeding up. This trend has been making our days shorter; in fact, in June 2022 we set a record for the shortest day over the past half a century or so.
But despite this record, since 2020 that steady speedup has curiously switched to a slowdown – days are getting longer again, and the reason is so far a mystery.
While the clocks in our phones indicate there are exactly 24 hours in a day, the actual time it takes for Earth to complete a single rotation varies ever so slightly. These changes occur over periods of millions of years to almost instantly – even earthquakes and storm events can play a role.
It turns out a day is very rarely exactly the magic number of 86,400 seconds.
The ever-changing planet
Over millions of years, Earth’s rotation has been slowing down due to friction effects associated with the tides driven by the Moon. That process adds about about 2.3 milliseconds to the length of each day every century. A few billion years ago an Earth day was only about 19 hours.
For the past 20,000 years, another process has been working in the opposite direction, speeding up Earth’s rotation. When the last ice age ended, melting polar ice sheets reduced surface pressure, and Earth’s mantle started steadily moving toward the poles.
Just as a ballet dancer spins faster as they bring their arms toward their body – the axis around which they spin – so our planet’s spin rate increases when this mass of mantle moves closer to Earth’s axis. And this process shortens each day by about 0.6 milliseconds each century.
Over decades and longer, the connection between Earth’s interior and surface comes into play too. Major earthquakes can change the length of day, although normally by small amounts.
For example, the Great Tōhoku Earthquake of 2011 in Japan, with a magnitude of 8.9, is believed to have sped up Earth’s rotation by a relatively tiny 1.8 microseconds.
Apart from these large-scale changes, over shorter periods weather and climate also have important impacts on Earth’s rotation, causing variations in both directions.
The fortnightly and monthly tidal cycles move mass around the planet, causing changes in the length of day by up to a millisecond in either direction. We can see tidal variations in length-of-day records over periods as long as 18.6 years.
The movement of our atmosphere has a particularly strong effect, and ocean currents also play a role. Seasonal snow cover and rainfall, or groundwater extraction, alter things further.
Why is Earth suddenly slowing down?
Since the 1960s, when operators of radio telescopes around the planet started to devise techniques to simultaneously observe cosmic objects like quasars, we have had very precise estimates of Earth’s rate of rotation.
A comparison between these estimates and an atomic clock has revealed a seemingly ever-shortening length of day over the past few years.
But there’s a surprising reveal once we take away the rotation speed fluctuations we know happen due to the tides and seasonal effects. Despite Earth reaching its shortest day on 29 June 2022, the long-term trajectory seems to have shifted from shortening to lengthening since 2020. This change is unprecedented over the past 50 years.
The reason for this change is not clear. It could be due to changes in weather systems, with back-to-back La Niña events, although these have occurred before. It could be increased melting of the ice sheets, although those have not deviated hugely from their steady rate of melt in recent years.
Could it be related to the huge volcano explosion in Tonga injecting huge amounts of water into the atmosphere? Probably not, given that occurred in January 2022.
Scientists have speculated this recent, mysterious change in the planet’s rotational speed is related to a phenomenon called the “Chandler wobble” – a small deviation in Earth’s rotation axis with a period of about 430 days.
Observations from radio telescopes also show that the wobble has diminished in recent years; the two may be linked.
One final possibility, which we think is plausible, is that nothing specific has changed inside or around Earth. It could just be long-term tidal effects working in parallel with other periodic processes to produce a temporary change in Earth’s rotation rate.
Do we need a ‘negative leap second’?
Precisely understanding Earth’s rotation rate is crucial for a host of applications – navigation systems such as GPS wouldn’t work without it. Also, every few years timekeepers insert leap seconds into our official timescales to make sure they don’t drift out of sync with our planet.
If Earth were to shift to even longer days, we may need to incorporate a “negative leap second” – this would be unprecedented, and may break the internet.
The need for negative leap seconds is regarded as unlikely right now. For now, we can welcome the news that – at least for a while – we all have a few extra milliseconds each day.
Matt King, Director of the ARC Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, University of Tasmania and Christopher Watson, Senior Lecturer, School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
DeepMind uncovers structure of 200m proteins in scientific leap forward | DeepMind
Artificial intelligence has deciphered the structure of virtually every protein known to science, paving the way for the development of new medicines or technologies to tackle global challenges such as famine or pollution.
Proteins are the building blocks of life. Formed of chains of amino acids, folded up into complex shapes, their 3D structure largely determines their function. Once you know how a protein folds up, you can start to understand how it works, and how to change its behaviour. Although DNA provides the instructions for making the chain of amino acids, predicting how they interact to form a 3D shape was more tricky and, until recently, scientists had only deciphered a fraction of the 200m or so proteins known to science.
In November 2020, the AI group DeepMind announced it had developed a program called AlphaFold that could rapidly predict this information using an algorithm. Since then, it has been crunching through the genetic codes of every organism that has had its genome sequenced, and predicting the structures of the hundreds of millions of proteins they collectively contain.
Last year, DeepMind published the protein structures for 20 species – including nearly all 20,000 proteins expressed by humans – on an open database. Now it has finished the job, and released predicted structures for more than 200m proteins.
“Essentially, you can think of it as covering the entire protein universe. It includes predictive structures for plants, bacteria, animals, and many other organisms, opening up huge new opportunities for AlphaFold to have an impact on important issues, such as sustainability, food insecurity, and neglected diseases,” said Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s founder and chief executive.
Scientists are already using some of its earlier predictions to help develop new medicines. In May, researchers led by Prof Matthew Higgins at the University of Oxford announced they had used AlphaFold’s models to help determine the structure of a key malaria parasite protein, and work out where antibodies that could block transmission of the parasite were likely to bind.
“Previously, we’d been using a technique called protein crystallography to work out what this molecule looks like, but because it’s quite dynamic and moves around, we just couldn’t get to grips with it,” Higgins said. “When we took the AlphaFold models and combined them with this experimental evidence, suddenly it all made sense. This insight will now be used to design improved vaccines which induce the most potent transmission-blocking antibodies.”
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AlphaFold’s models are also being used by scientists at the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Enzyme Innovation, to identify enzymes from the natural world that could be tweaked to digest and recycle plastics. “It took us quite a long time to go through this massive database of structures, but opened this whole array of new three-dimensional shapes we’d never seen before that could actually break down plastics,” said Prof John McGeehan, who is leading the work. “There’s a complete paradigm shift. We can really accelerate where we go from here – and that helps us direct these precious resources to the stuff that matters.”
Prof Dame Janet Thornton, the group leader and senior scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute, said: “AlphaFold protein structure predictions are already being used in a myriad of ways. I expect that this latest update will trigger an avalanche of new and exciting discoveries in the months and years ahead, and this is all thanks to the fact that the data are available openly for all to use.”