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Elon Musk Is Expected to Use Office Space in the White House Complex

Elon Musk is predicted to make use of workplace house within the White Home advanced as he launches the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, which goals to slash authorities spending within the Trump administration, in keeping with two folks briefed on the plans.

The house anticipated for Mr. Musk’s use is within the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing, which is adjoining to the White Home. The situation would permit Mr. Musk, who owns firms with billions of {dollars} in contracts with the federal authorities, to proceed to have important entry to President-elect Donald J. Trump when he takes workplace this month.

Mr. Musk has had discussions with transition officers about what his stage of entry to the West Wing can be, however that was left unclear, in keeping with two folks briefed on the matter. Workers members and others who’re capable of come and go freely within the West Wing sometimes require a particular move.

Mr. Musk donated a whole lot of tens of millions to assist Mr. Trump win the 2024 election and has been a daily by his aspect since then, typically using one of the cottages available for lease on Mr. Trump’s property at Mar-a-Lago. In the course of the transition, he has sat in on official conferences and at the least one overseas name, and weighed in on workers and cupboard decisions.

It was not clear whether or not Vivek Ramaswamy, Mr. Musk’s companion in main the mission, would even have workplace house within the Eisenhower constructing.

The Musk-Ramaswamy mission is known as the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, however it isn’t a “division” within the sense of the Justice Division — an official, congressionally approved a part of the federal government. Mr. Musk’s standing and the mission have raised myriad points concerning the guidelines for outsiders serving to to wield governmental energy.

DOGE workers members are currently working out of the Washington, D.C., workplaces of Mr. Musk’s SpaceX firm.

Officers with the Trump transition and related to DOGE didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The work round DOGE has thus far been shrouded in secrecy, with the transition revealing little to nothing about the way it will operate, or how it will likely be budgeted for.

It stays to be seen how giant Mr. Musk’s crew can be, in addition to what his personal standing can be. Some transition officers have urged he may grow to be a “particular authorities worker,” a standing that may be paid or unpaid and has extra versatile guidelines for private monetary disclosures than what’s required of atypical workers.

Ought to he try this, Mr. Musk, the richest man on this planet, would virtually actually forgo a wage. However there may very well be authorized implications to how the Trump administration finally ends up defining Mr. Musk’s position and the way DOGE suits within the government department forms.

One difficulty includes ethics rules, together with monetary disclosures and prohibitions on sure conflicts of curiosity, like limits on the power of former particular authorities workers to foyer on behalf of sure personal pursuits after having labored on related matters throughout momentary service.

Particularly, all authorities workers, together with particular momentary ones, are topic to a criminal conflict of interest law that bars them from collaborating in official issues wherein they or their households or organizations have a monetary curiosity. As a result of a few of Mr. Musk’s firms have contracts with the federal authorities, that statute would appear to bar DOGE from engaged on associated points if he takes on such standing.

If Mr. Musk or his workers had been to grow to be particular authorities workers, they must file monetary disclosure varieties. In the event that they determine to move up sizable authorities salaries, nevertheless, the Trump administration may maintain these data secret from the general public.

There would even be implications for presidency transparency legal guidelines.

One such legislation is the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which regulates boards, panels, councils and different sorts of committees that work with folks from exterior the federal government to supply recommendation to the manager department.

If Mr. Musk doesn’t search particular authorities worker standing for himself and all his workers members and everybody else who supplies enter, the act would appear to use to DOGE’s work. Amongst different issues, the legislation says that each one conferences of such committees are to be carried out in public, and all of the paperwork submitted to such a panel or produced by it are additionally alleged to be out there to the general public.

Mr. Musk has not but decided whether or not he’ll tackle the standing and obligations of being a particular authorities worker, in keeping with his allies.

One other related difficulty is the Freedom of Data Act, or FOIA. It permits members of the press or the general public to request entry to official data, with sure exceptions, and to file lawsuits for courtroom orders requiring their disclosure.

The president and his fast workers within the White Home whose sole operate is to advise him are thought of to be exempt from FOIA requests. However a lot of the bigger forms surrounding them is topic to such requests.

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Spring-loaded Robot Could Explore the Asteroid Belt Almost Indefinitely

The asteroid belt beckons – it incorporates sufficient sources for people to increase into the whole remainder of the photo voltaic system and has no biosphere to talk of. Basically, it’s a large mine simply ready to be exploited. So, a scholar workforce from the College of Texas at Austin has devised a plan to use it as a part of the Revolutionary Aerospace System Ideas – Educational Linkage (RASC-AL), a contest sponsored by NASA to encourage undergraduate and graduate college students to develop modern concepts to unravel a few of area exploration’s challenges. UT Austin’s submission to the competitors final yr, often known as the Autonomous Exploration By Extraterrestrial Areas (AETHER) undertaking, definitely matches that invoice.

AETHER was submitted to the AI-Powered Self-Replicating Probes sub-section of RASC-AL 2024, which solicited concepts that might advance John von Neumann’s thought of a self-replicating area probe. AETHER addresses these challenges in two distinct methods.

First, it combines a spring-loaded touchdown system and a metal-burning rocket engine to hop between totally different asteroids within the belt. To gasoline its rocket, it makes use of a system to reap water and metallic (particularly aluminum) from the floor of the asteroid it’s at the moment on, splits it into its parts, after which dumps them right into a gasoline tank that can be utilized to energy its subsequent journey to a unique asteroid. All of that is powered by a Kilowatt Reactor Utilizing Stirling TechnoloY (KRUSTY) nuclear reactor that has been present process NASA and DoE testing for over a decade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo863_0SI_o

How Close Are We To Self-Replicating Robots Conquering Space? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo863_0SI_o)

Fraser discusses the idea of von Neumann probes.

The springs in AETHER’s legs have a two-fold goal. First, they permit for a tender touchdown on the floor of the gravitationally weak asteroid and might switch a number of the vitality created by that touchdown into saved vitality, which can be utilized to launch the system from its touchdown place later. It additionally has a set of wheels to navigate across the asteroid’s floor. When it’s time to leap off once more, it replants its legs and is derived again into area – with slightly assist from its rocket engine.

The rocket engine designed as a part of AETHER can burn metallic, corresponding to aluminum, that the craft harvests from the asteroid to make use of as gasoline. It’s the major system designed to take the craft from asteroid to asteroid, and it’s meant to be a high-delta-v choice for doing so rapidly.

AETHER additionally tries to imitate a von Neumann probe by utilizing a machine-learning algorithm to enhance its resource-harvesting efforts. It could take knowledge from varied sensors, together with artificial aperture radar and a spectrometer, and estimate the place the perfect spot could be to land to refuel. Whereas accumulating that extra gasoline materials, it will talk again with Earth by way of a high-speed optical communication hyperlink, permitting an Earth-based server to replace the machine studying parameters and enhance the algorithm’s consequence for the following hop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VeTRH_fHxI

Fraser Cain pitches Self-Replicating Robots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VeTRH_fHxI)

Fraser’s curiosity with self-replicating robots goes again a good distance – right here’s his clarification on HeroX in regards to the idea.
Credit score – HeroX YouTuBe Channel

The unique mission design for AETHER has it stopping at two particular asteroids earlier than shifting on to as-yet-unnamed ones. The primary, which might be no shock, is Psyche, the large metallic asteroid that’s about to be visited by its personal devoted probe. Information from that probe will assist inform the primary iteration of AETHER’s studying algorithm, and the enter the sensors present from its go to will replace it earlier than its subsequent step – Themis. That asteroid, although smaller, is predicted to comprise a considerable amount of water ice, which is a mandatory element for AETHER’s rocket engines.

After visiting the primary two asteroids, the mission strikes on to locations unknown, as finishing these steps could be thought of a hit. However given the longevity of the KRUSTY reactor and the craft’s capability to refill its personal gasoline tank, it’s potential, and even possible, that AETHER would contemplate working effectively previous its rendezvous with Themis.

The UT Austin workforce was comprised solely of undergraduate college students, although it’s unclear what yr of research they had been in. However, given their expertise with the 2024 model of RASC-AL, they would appear well-placed to submit a undertaking proposal for the just lately introduced 2025 model. In the event that they do, hopefully, their thought shall be simply as modern as AETHER’s.

Be taught Extra:
Flores et al – AETHER
UT – Miniaturized Jumping Robots Could Study An Asteroid’s Gravity
UT – NASA Funds the Development of a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon That Would Last for 10 Years
UT – Engineers Design a Robot That Can Stick To, Crawl Along, and Sail Around Rubble Pile Asteroids

Lead Picture:
Touchdown and take-off depiction of AETHER.
Credit score – Flores et al.

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Two earthquakes near Malibu, one in Inland Empire rattle L.A. region

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Two small earthquakes rattled the Malibu space Friday and Saturday, adopted by one other one within the Inland Empire.

The primary Malibu quake was reported round 11:44 p.m. Friday and was registered as a magnitude 3.7, with an epicenter about 6.8 miles northwest of Malibu, in line with the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt throughout the Westside, San Fernando Valley and Ventura County in addition to within the Los Angeles Basin and South Bay.

A second quake, which was measured as a magnitude 3.5, struck in roughly the identical space at 6:30 a.m. Saturday. Residents in Ventura County reported feeling a pointy jolt, and the shaking triggered some automobile alarms.

A 3rd quake, measured at magnitude 3.5, was recorded close to the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County at 2:16 p.m. Saturday, with an epicenter a number of miles south of Idyllwild.

There have been no reviews of harm from any of the quakes.

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Heavy Rain Strikes Kentucky and Tennessee

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Uncommon downpours in February started to pound a broad swath of the Decrease Mississippi Valley, from western parts of Kentucky and Tennessee and increasing to southwestern Virginia, officers and residents reported on Saturday.

Flooding in these areas could possibly be “life-threatening,” the Nationwide Climate Service stated on Saturday. It additionally stated that widespread flash flooding was anticipated over components of the decrease Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.

“That is unprecedented for mid-February, at the least within the final 20 years,” stated Phil Baker, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Memphis, of the rain in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Whereas there have been no fast stories of deaths or catastrophic property harm, officers warned residents to be ready for the heavy rain, and not to drive by way of floodwaters as a result of the water can change into electrified.

Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said on Saturday afternoon {that a} landslide would preserve Freeway 160 in Knott County closed for a number of hours. Mr. Beshear additionally stated that the water in Elizabethtown, a metropolis of 33,000 residents, was reaching document ranges. Some houses in Perry County had been evacuated, he stated.

In Tennessee, officers stated that some roads, principally within the western a part of the state, had been flooding, together with State Route 210 in Lauderdale County.

For the remainder of the jap United States, frost, ice or snow was anticipated to coat a lot of the jap United States on Saturday into Sunday. However the uncommon springlike surge of hotter, wetter climate into Sunday morning might imply that components of the area will even face flooding rains, extreme storms, freezing rain and, within the far north, heavy snow.

Listed here are the hazards to observe for.

Flooding rain: From northeastern Arkansas to southwestern West Virginia, there’s a average threat of extreme rainfall that would trigger rivers to rise or result in flash flooding. One to a few inches of rain fell over northwest Arkansas to northwest Tennessee on Friday evening.
Extreme storms: Within the Deep South, primarily in northern Louisiana and Mississippi, an outbreak of extreme storms that would embrace tornadoes and damaging winds is feasible from Saturday afternoon into the night.
Heavy snow: Average to heavy snow has been hitting the Midwest, which might stand up to 13 inches of snow by Sunday. It was anticipated on Saturday to maneuver towards the Nice Lakes by way of New England. Maine might see as much as 19 inches of snow by Monday.
Wintry combine: New York and different cities alongside the Northeast coast will see snow first on Saturday afternoon, earlier than heat air strikes in, turning the precipitation to a large number of sleet, freezing rain after which rain. Some areas, particularly near the coast, will transition shortly from snow to rain. Some average snow might fall throughout the upper elevations of the Appalachians.

The rainfall is the rarity of this mid-February storm.

The area most susceptible to flooding — together with Tennessee and Kentucky — is already soaking wet, with some rivers close to or at flood stage after having seen weeks of latest rainfall.

This uncommon quantity of moisture surging north is extra intense than the rain that has already fallen. And a few locations, like Lexington, Ky., the place three to 5 inches of rain is forecast, might break their February document for each day rainfall. (Over three inches of rain was measured there on Feb. 13, 1989.)

“A part of the issue is earlier than this rain occasion even began this morning, the grounds have already been saturated from earlier rainfall,” stated Mr. Baker, the forecaster. “There’s going to be river flooding that’s going to persist for days.”

As of Saturday, the heaviest rainfall was anticipated over northwest Tennessee and western Kentucky, Mr. Baker stated, with 4 to 6 inches of rain anticipated. As much as eight inches of rain might fall in some remoted areas, he stated.

With the bottom already saturated, forecasters in locations like Paducah, Ky., are particularly involved by a few of the outlier rainfall quantities of as much as seven inches.

“It received’t take a lot to provide flooding,” one forecaster there wrote, warning that the area “could have a major flooding occasion on our fingers.”

Forecasters within the mountainous areas within the jap areas of the locations most in danger for flooding warned that the bottom had produced situations ripe for landslides and particles flows on steep slopes across the space.

Forecasters in Charleston, W.Va., reminded residents who stay on or on the base of hillsides to observe for indicators of potential floor motion: timber leaning in uncommon orientations, or water and dust seeping in the place they aren’t anticipated.

The hotter, springlike storm is predicted to maneuver off the Atlantic seaboard by Sunday night, and winter will return on Monday.

Temperatures will plunge to under common throughout the jap United States. Snow is prone to return on Tuesday and Wednesday, coating the identical areas that will probably flood this weekend in Tennessee and Kentucky — all as a coastal storm presumably returns heavy snow again to northeast coastal cities.

Adeel Hassan contributed reporting.