<h2>Harmful Prank</h2>
Across the United States, Black Americans are getting horrible text messages telling them that they're going to be enslaved under Donald Trump's second presidency.
As <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/racist-texts-black-residents-states/">CBS News reports</a>, people in states as politically and demographically diverse as New York, Ohio, California, Alabama, and Pennsylvania have reported these horrible anonymous texts to authorities. As a result, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Federal Communications Commission, and at least one state attorney general, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/feds-investigate-racist-text-messages-sent-to-black-people-in-several-states/">are investigating the matter</a>.
The nature of the texts vary slightly according to location, but all seem to <a href="https://x.com/CBSNews/status/1854688325820375413">adhere to a specific script</a> telling Black recipients that they had been "selected for cotton picking" and should pack up their things to head to "the plantation." Though not all texts include references to the president-elect, many seem to.
In its investigation, CBS found that area codes from 25 different states had been used to send these vile missives sent to people as young as middle school age. When contacted, many of the numbers had been disconnected, while others went to voicemail boxes saying they'd been created <a href="https://www.textnow.com/">using TextNow</a>, an app that allows people to create phone numbers for free.
After learning its service had been used to send these messages, TextNow said in a statement to CBS that it had shut down the offending accounts and would be working with authorities to make sure they don't sign up again in the future.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Officials condemned racist text messages that were sent to Black residents in several U.S. states after the election. The messages, which had almost identical language, told the recipient they had been “selected for cotton picking.” 
The texts were sent from numbers with area… <a href="https://t.co/ZDR1A9RsVA">pic.twitter.com/ZDR1A9RsVA</a>
&mdash; CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1854688325820375413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<h2>Fear and Loathing</h2>
In an interview with the broadcaster, a 29-year-old Atlanta woman said that both she and a friend in North Carolina had received similar messages earlier this week.
"I knew it was a prank, but to see that so early after the election I was shook," the woman said. "Just made me be more cautious of my surroundings and where I go."
Reporters at CBS also managed to get in touch with one person who'd sent a version of the messages as well. That individual said that they'd sent the texts as a prank before abruptly ending the call and rejecting all other attempts at contact.
That exchange seems very much to indicate the mindset behind these disgusting dispatches, showcasing not just the cowardice of hiding behind an anonymously-created phone number, but also an unwillingness to discuss outright the hatred that's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/07/right-wing-extremists-celebrate-trump-victory/">clearly bubbled back up</a> to the surface.
More on bigotry: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musks-mother-reporter-vietnamese">Elon Musk's Mother Attacks Reporter for Being Vietnamese</a>

Sickening

"I knew it was a prank, but to see that so early after the election I was shook."

Black People Across the Country Are Getting Racist Text Messages Saying They’re Going to Be Enslaved

<h2>Jim Beam</h2>
China's military is working on an experimental weapon system that converges multiple streams of microwaves into a powerful energy beam, the <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3284794/chinese-scientists-say-they-have-made-converged-energy-beam-weapon-reality">South China Morning Post reports</a>.
In other words, it's not entirely unlike the Death Star from the "Star Wars" franchise, albeit on a much smaller scale.
According to the report, scientists claim they've "completed experimental trials on its potential military use."
However, whether their efforts will ever culminate in a weapon capable enough to destroy a planet like in "Star Wars," let alone destroy much smaller targets, remains to be seen.
<h2>Shooting at Alderaan Places</h2>
For one, accumulating sufficient electromagnetic waves in the same location remains incredibly difficult. According to the SCMP, scientists calculated that they needed to achieve a positional accuracy of mere millimeters, and time synchronization of 170 trillionths of a second — more precise than an atomic clock.
Nonenthless, scientists claim to have achieved this level of accuracy during recent experiments. While it won't be blowing up adversary targets, the researchers found that it could jam signals of US-owned GPS satellites, "achieving multiple goals such as teaching and training, new technology verification, and military exercises."
The scientists say that combining streams of microwaves could end up with a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/space/star-wars-death-star-weapon-china-b2641623.html">higher output than the sum</a> of the individual beams.
Unsurprisingly, the researchers remain vague about the future potential uses of the tech.
Meanwhile, the United States has long dabbled in similar tech. For instance, the Air Force has developed a high-power microwave directed energy weapon system called the <a href="https://www.militaryaerospace.com/power/article/55140201/laser-weapons-high-power-microwaves-high-energy-weapons">Tactical High-power Operational Responder</a>, designed to counter drones.
Whether any of these efforts will culminate in a practical weapon is still hazy, though. For now, military powers will have to contend themselves with directed energy weapons that can disrupt electronics and disable communications signals to gain an edge on the battlefield.
More on energy weapons: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/us-navy-uses-laser-weapon-to-destroy-floating-target">US Navy Uses Laser Weapon to Destroy "Floating Target"</a>

Microwave 

Where have we heard this one before?

China Working on Energy Weapon That Converges Multiple Beams

<h2>Thwaiting Period</h2>
The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is called the "Doomsday Glacier" for a reason.
Larger than the state of Florida, the icy mass contains so much water that scientists predict that its melting could single-handedly raise global sea levels <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarcticas-doomsday-glacier-how-its-collapse-could-trigger-global-floods-and-swallow-islands-173940">by over two feet</a> — and possibly over five times more that, if it triggers a broader collapse of the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Two major studies this year have only heated up the debate around the glacier's future, as <a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-11-doomsday-antarctic-glacier-faster-fueling.html">highlighted in an article</a> from Columbia University's GlacierHub.
While their conclusions differ on how quickly the Thwaites will melt, there is a consensus that it will eventually fully disappear, leaving the door open to ambitious, large-scale geoengineering projects, such as <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/desperate-plan-insulate-doomsday-glacier">building an enormous barrier to keep out warm water</a>, as being worth seriously considering.
They may be desperate measures, but we need to start exploring them now, according to John Moore, a professor with the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland.
"It will take 15 to 30 years for us to understand enough to recommend or rule out any interventions," he told GlacierHub.
<h2>Meltdown Breakdown</h2>
A <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2404766121">study</a> published in May suggested that the Doomsday Glacier was <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/warm-water-rushing-under-doomsday-glacier">more vulnerable to warming</a> than once believed.
Using extensive satellite imaging, the researchers discovered that high tides are intermittently lifting the Thwaites by a few centimeters, exposing its underbelly that would otherwise be protected by the seafloor.
With this opening, warm seawater forces its way beneath the glacier, causing what the scientists dubbed "vigorous melting": the intruding seawater dilutes the melting freshwater with salt, lowering the solution's melting point and exacerbating the melt.
The study predicted that the glacier could fully disappear by 2100. However, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado7794">another paper</a> published in August argued that this is unlikely, instead projecting that the glacier's complete collapse will take place in the centuries following that.
Nonetheless, researchers agreed that Thwaites' rapid retreat would continue to accelerate, as it has been for the past thirty years.
<h2>All Bets Off</h2>
Scientists fear that if the Thwaites disappears, it could trigger a collapse of the entire West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), potentially raising sea levels by over ten feet. As it stands, the Doomsday glacier already contributes to about four percent of rising levels on Earth.
Barring an immediate societal shift away from burning fossil fuels, we might want to try a technological solution to slow the melt. One idea scientists have proposed is surrounding Thwaites and other vulnerable glaciers with huge, 62-mile-long <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/desperate-plan-insulate-doomsday-glacier">curtains to block the warm ocean water</a>. Far-fetched, perhaps, but there is serious research into this underway.
"For some polar tipping points like Arctic sea ice and the WAIS, glacial geoengineering seems to be the only way for us to more or less guarantee that we can address these tipping points," Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Climate School told GlacierHub.
Geoengineering projects, though, tend to catch flak for distracting from the real solution of eliminating carbon emissions. Which is why Wagner emphasizes that, "when we talk about glacial geoengineering, we need to tell the truth, which is that it's not a solution to climate change — at best, it's a painkiller."
More on climate change: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-slash-environmental-protections-states-droughts">As Trump Prepares to Slash Environmental Protections, 48 of the 50 States Are Facing Droughts</a>

Glacial Pace

"It's not a solution to climate change — at best, it's a painkiller."

Scientists Consider Drastic Action as Doomsday Glacier Threatens to Flood Entire Islands and Coasts

<h2>Soulless Ink</h2>
A tattoo enthusiast was mighty peeved when she learned mid-session that her tattoo artist had used artificial intelligence to "draw" her massive leg piece.
"He was kind of proud," 30-year-old Helsinki resident Kaarina Vuorinen <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-artificial-intelligence-tattoo-artist-c895ea01">told the Wall Street Journal</a>, referring to her gothic sword tattoo session. "I was like, in shock. I was so disappointed."
Ultimately, Vuorinen decided to let her artist finish the neo-traditional piece he'd "designed" for her. Still, she's not really happy with the sword.
"It’s pretty," she remarked, "but it doesn’t have a soul."
That sentiment seems to be one shared among other tattoo traditionalists who consider the practice of using AI to create skin art taboo — a growing trend given the wide proliferation of popular AI image generators.
"You’re essentially cheating," New Jersey-based tattoo artist Matt Doherty told the WSJ. "It’s like doing sports on steroids."
<h2 data-type="paragraph">Cardinal Sign</h2>
As Doherty points out, image generators often <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-image-generators-copyrighted-characters">build from</a> — or <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/midjourney_artists_spreadsheet/">rip off</a>, depending on who you ask — publicly posted work from other artists, which seems to be as frowned upon in the tattoo world as it is among <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/voice-actors-shocked-sag-ai">other artistic mediums</a>.
To test it out, this Futurism reporter fed <a href="https://www.cocreate.ink/">CoCreate's free tattoo image generator</a> a prompt similar to one of her own, very real tattoos: "a red cardinal with dogwood flowers," which both <a href="https://www.ourstate.com/north-carolinas-official-state-symbols/">symbolize her home state</a>, North Carolina.
The output admittedly turned out alright, though it came with the word "imagine" emblazoned underneath it for some reason. Ultimately, it looks far more uncanny and, yes, soulless than the real thing.
<figure id="attachment_335308" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-335308" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-335308 size-full" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2024/11/imagine.png" alt="" width="1200" height="650" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-335308" class="wp-caption-text">Images via CoCreate/Futurism (left) and the author (right).</figcaption></figure>
For a design as simple as the aforementioned, using AI to draft up ideas could work in a technical sense. But for others, like one AI mockup brought into the Toronto tattoo studio where interviewee Matthew Hatch works, AI imagery just wouldn't translate well into ink on skin.
Hatch told the WSJ that someone came in recently with an AI-generated image of galaxies in space. The 27-year-old artist said that if had ended up being tattooed on the person who brought it in, it would have just looked like a bruise.
"There are limitations on what is possible," Hatch remarked.
With anything as personal as tattoos, there are invariably going to be emotional responses to new technology that can change the game.
But if you're going to get something imprinted on your skin for life, it certainly feels like a questionable choice to resort to AI.
More on AI and tattooing: <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-generated-tattoo-posters-nyc">What's Up With Those Sloppy AI-Generated Tattoo Posters in New York City?</a>

Tattoo U

"It doesn't have a soul."

Woman Furious When Tattoo Artist Admits Her Half-Finished Tattoo Is AI-Generated

<h2>Big Push</h2>
SpaceX is planning to fire the engines of its Dragon cargo spacecraft this week, which is currently docked to the International Space Station, to practice for the eventual retirement of the orbital lab roughly six years from now.
As <a href="https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-dragon-spacecraft-will-raise-iss-orbit-tomorrow-in-1st-ever-reboost">Space.com reports</a>, it's the first time a SpaceX capsule has fired its thrusters while actively docked to "reboost" the ISS, or keeping it in a stable orbit, a task that historically has been <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-faq-russia-space-station">taken care of by Russia's Soyuz spacecraft</a>.
In addition to keeping the space station at the correct altitude, SpaceX and NASA are using the opportunity to collect data for their joint plans to destroy the ISS.
NASA <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-hires-spacex-destroy-international-space-station">contracted the Elon Musk-led space company</a> in June to develop a "US Doerbit Vehicle," as part of an effort to destroy the ISS no sooner than 2030. Broadly speaking, the plan is to push it out of orbit, have it reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and harmlessly plunge into the ocean.
To prepare for the daring stunt, SpaceX is flexing its muscles by taking over the task of "reboosting" the ISS.
"The data that we're going to collect from this reboost and attitude control demonstration will be very helpful... and this data is going to lead to future capability, mainly the US deorbit vehicle," SpaceX director of flight reliability Jared Metter told reporters on Monday, as quoted by Space.com.
<h2>Dragon Destroyer</h2>
SpaceX is planning to use a beefed-up Dragon cargo spacecraft to give the aging orbital lab, a 900,000-pound and 358-foot behemoth, a massive push.
The capsule is expected to feature 46 Drago thrusters, as compared to just 18 for the cargo variant, along with an "enhanced trunk section that will host propellant tanks, engines, avionics, power generation and thermal hardware tailored to complete this mission," as SpaceX Dragon mission management director Sarah Walker <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-dragon-iss-deorbit-vehicle-design-revealed">told reporters in July</a>.
For now, SpaceX's current Dragon cargo capsule is following the footsteps of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which was <a href="https://news.northropgrumman.com/news/releases/northrop-grummans-cygnusTM-spacecraft-successfully-reboosts-the-international-space-station">successfully used to "reboost" the ISS</a> back in 2022 as part of a similar test.
The spacecraft has been used to send supplies to the ISS since 2012. Earlier this week, SpaceX completed <a href="https://www.kcentv.com/article/tech/science/aerospace/nasa-31st-spacex-resupply-mission-to-international-space-station-successful/500-743fec99-435f-4b64-8d31-810df6d5c8c8">NASA's 31st SpaceX resupply mission</a>.
Now that US-Russia relations have hit new lows following the invasion of Ukraine, NASA is clearly looking for alternative ways to keep the space station in orbit.
Russia has <a href="https://spacenews.com/russia-commits-to-iss-extension-to-2028/">vowed to abandon the ISS no sooner than 2028</a>, which could leave the space agency in a difficult position without the Soyuz in the picture.
But thanks to SpaceX's alternative, the space station's days aren't numbered just yet — or at least not before 2030.
More on the ISS: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-sell-off-starliner">Boeing Reportedly Looking to Sell Off Its Disastrous Starliner Spacecraft</a>

Dragon Booster

SpaceX's Dragon is flexing its muscles.

SpaceX Activating System to Practice for Destroying Space Station

<h2>Cosmic Channel</h2>
Astronomers say they've found an "interstellar tunnel" in our solar neighborhood that could lead to other star systems.
As detailed in a <a href="https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202451045">new study</a> published in the journal Astronomy &amp; and Astrophysics, the tunnel exists as part of an enormous structure of hot gas with a radius of hundreds of light years that surrounds our solar system known as the Local Hot Bubble. What's more, the findings suggest that it could connect with a nearby and even larger bubble.
Using extensive data collected by the eROSITA telescope, the first x-ray observatory fully outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the researchers generated a 3D model of the entire LHB, confirming some features that astronomers had predicted, but also uncovering entirely new ones.
"What we didn't know was the existence of an interstellar tunnel towards Centaurus, which carves a gap in the cooler interstellar medium," said study coauthor Michael Freyberg, an astronomer at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, <a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-10-erosita-survey-unveils-asymmetries-temperature.html">in a statement</a>. "This region stands out in stark relief thanks to the much-improved sensitivity of eROSITA and a vastly different surveying strategy compared to ROSAT," the space telescope's predecessor.
<h2>Living in a Bubble</h2>
The existence of the LHB, or simply the Local Bubble, was first proposed over fifty years ago to explain the pervasive presence of background x-ray radiation. Since the space between star systems is filled with diffuse clouds of gas and dust known as the interstellar medium — the stuff that coalesces to form stars — these low energy x-ray emissions should have been absorbed long before we could detect them.
But what if our cosmic neck of the woods was empty for some reason? That would be the Local Bubble. Astronomers believe it formed some <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/939516?">fourteen million years ago</a>, when a chain of supernovas blew all nearby interstellar material away, creating a cavity around 1,000 light years in diameter. As evidence, we can see remnants of these supernovas today.
The idea has faced challenges; decades ago, it emerged that an interaction between our Sun's solar winds and our planet's outer atmosphere could produce similar x-ray emissions, according to the researchers. But the idea has been <a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/1000-light-year-wide-bubble-surrounding-earth-source-all-nearby-young-stars">further supported</a> in recent years with observations of clusters of nascent stars forming on the border of this bubble.
<h2>Tip of the Iceberg</h2>
The authors suggest that the interstellar tunnel may be part of an entire interstellar medium network <a href="https://cosmiclog.com/2024/02/20/scientists-confirm-that-our-galaxys-wave-is-waving/">that spans the Milky Way</a>, formed by blasts of energy released by stars.
Along with the interstellar tunnel, the detailed modeling of the Local Bubble revealed a temperature gradient across the structure, with the northern region notably hotter than the southern one.
This suggests that there may have been more recent supernovas that expanded the bubble and reheated its material, perhaps in the last few million years.
More on space: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-theoretical-limit">There's Something Impossible About This Ravenous Black Hole, Scientists Say</a>

Hidden Route

It may be part of an entire, galaxy spanning network.

Astronomers Discover "Interstellar Tunnel" In Our Solar Neighborhood

<h2>Tag Team</h2>
What's better than one Starship? You guessed it: two of them.
By next year, we may get to see a pair of the world's largest spacecraft work in tandem in a spectacular attempt to refuel one of them in orbit, serving as a crucial milestone towards demonstrating that <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/close-up-spacex-starship-launch">Starship</a> is capable of carrying out NASA's <a href="https://futurism.com/nasa-keeping-issue-moon-rocket-secret">Artemis III mission</a>, which will see humans return to the lunar surface for the first time in over fifty years.
Spotted <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/01/spacex-wants-to-test-refueling-starships-in-space-early-next-year/">by TechCrunch</a>, the timeline for the anticipated test was revealed in a Spaceflight Now <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyjYETLJjHs">interview</a> with deputy manager for NASA's Human Landing System program Kent Chojnacki.
According to Chojnacki, the watershed test, which will span several weeks, is scheduled to begin March 2025, and will wrap up that summer — although there have been no official announcements on this from either NASA or SpaceX.
<h2>Longshot, Chaser</h2>
The <a href="https://spacenews.com/spacex-making-progress-on-starship-in-space-refueling-technologies/">refueling plan</a> is ambitious. First, SpaceX will launch two Starships to low Earth orbit three to four weeks apart.
Parked above our planet, the initial spacecraft will need to be gassed up for the demonstration's purposes, and will patiently hunker down.
Weeks later, the second "chaser" rocket will fly up for a rendezvous with its companion, after which the two Starships will dock with each other. Then the latecomer will transfer propellant to the first rocket, and once it's topped it off, undock. From there, both will deorbit.
This would mark the first time that ship-to-ship propellant transfer is demonstrated at this scale, according to Chojnacki.
"And once you've done that, you've really cracked open the opportunity to move massive amounts of payload and cargo outside of the Earth's sphere," he said in the interview. "If you can have a Starship with propellant aggregation, that's going to be the next step to doing an uncrewed demonstration."
<h2>Relight the Way</h2>
In the long term, the goal is that a variant of Starship called the Human Landing System will serve as the lunar lander that will bring NASA astronauts down to the surface of the Moon.
Certainly, SpaceX's progress with the rocket of late has been promising. Its most recent, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-caught-starship-booster-chopsticks-tower">fifth orbital flight test</a> saw Starship pull off a ridiculously impressive landing by guiding itself into the mechanical arms of its launch tower dubbed "Mechazilla," which <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/close-up-spacex-starship-launch">caught the rocket midair</a>.
That proved that Starship was well on its way to being the reusable launch platform as promised. Next up, SpaceX plans to demonstrate that the vehicle's upper stage, the Starship itself, can relight one of its rocket engines in space — which will be essential for the spacecraft to perform controlled reentries into the Earth's atmosphere in the future.
According to SpaceX, that could come <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/the-next-starship-launch-may-occur-in-less-than-two-weeks/">as soon as November 18</a>. Keep your eyes peeled.
More on SpaceX: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-diablo-iv-starship">In Video of Elon Musk Playing Diablo IV, Background Gives Away Wild Details About Starship</a>

Pit Stop In Space

And it's scheduled to happen sooner than you might think.

SpaceX Working on Orbital Refueling Test Between Two Starships

<h2>Fire With Fire</h2>
Vivian Jenna Wilson, Elon Musk's estranged transgender daughter whom he's taken to attacking in public, is once again illustrating why she wants nothing to do with her famous father.
Responding to Wilson's assertion that she cannot "<a href="https://www.threads.net/@vivllainous/post/DCDViBCy_w6?xmt=AQGz-sxN4GoBQxZa8k1pxA203rxpg7qfpH3wksnt-NpW_g">see my future being in the United States</a>" under another <a href="https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-trump-transgender/">transphobic Donald Trump administration</a>, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1854576310699348325">Musk again misgendered</a> his 20-year-old daughter.
Not one to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trans-daughter-response">take such attacks</a> lying down, the young woman — who legally changed her name at age 18 to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trans-daughter">distance herself from her father</a> — cut to the heart of the matter.
"If I'm correct, the reason why this particular post is the one that got to you is that you're mad that you finally don't have power over someone," <a href="https://www.threads.net/@vivllainous/post/DCFUO7hTEIb?xmt=AQGzDAT21d5okiyswjXqu9nRq3TYsTwD4WdN2Ii6p5ardg">Wilson posted</a>, referencing her <a href="https://www.threads.net/@vivllainous/post/DCDViBCy_w6?xmt=AQGz-sxN4GoBQxZa8k1pxA203rxpg7qfpH3wksnt-NpW_g">post-election missive</a> about wanting to leave the US. "You're upset because at the end of the day everyone around you knows you as a delusional and grubby little control freak who hasn't matured as a person for 38 years."
"However," she continued, "last time I checked that's not my fucking problem."
Earlier in the same thread, Wilson also took on <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1854576310699348325">her father's bigoted claim</a> that he'd "lost" his "son" to wokeness.
"Did anyone ever actually believe this?" <a href="https://www.threads.net/@vivllainous/post/DCFUOgETs7l?xmt=AQGz-sxN4GoBQxZa8k1pxA203rxpg7qfpH3wksnt-NpW_g">she wrote</a>. "It's just tired, it's overdone, it's cliché. I'm just bored honestly, like is this really the best you could come up with?"
<h2>Second Time's the Charm</h2>
This isn't the first time Wilson has <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-daughter-interview">suggested her dad</a> is misleading people about her childhood.
After his <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-transphobic-trans-child">first time claiming</a> that the woke mind virus had killed her, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-daughter-attack">Wilson rebutted</a> that the entire conceit was "completely made up."
"He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there, and in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness," <a href="https://www.threads.net/@vivllainous/post/C91xFT8yhWo?xmt=AQGzqkaZyA6O5ZaG57fOUTOgjl_bJXGPBPJyUPcDL0_s7Q">she wrote in that July post</a> on Meta's Twitter clone. "Obviously he can’t say that, so I’ve been reduced to a happy little stereotype f*g-ing along to use at his discretion."
"I think that says alot about how he views queer people," Wilson continued, "and children in general."
With her assertion that her dad is a "grubby little control freak," Wilson seems to once again be suggesting that Musk's attitude towards children (<a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-daughter-vivian-taylor-swift">and women</a>) is less one of love than of conquest — one that's apparent to onlookers even without this intimate insider's perspective.
More on Musk's family: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/grimes-joining-elon-musk-compound-children-mothers">Grimes Reportedly Joining Elon Musk's Compound for His Children and Mothers</a>

Get His Ass

"That's not my fcking problem."

Elon Musk’s Daughter Vivian Says He’s a "Delusional and Grubby Little Control Freak"

<h2>Oiled Up</h2>
The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP), a yearly climate change conference where world leaders convene to discuss just how screwed we really are, has <a href="https://futurism.com/dubai-climate-conference-warning">long been revealed to be a sham</a>.
The grip the fossil fuel industry has had over the organizers and host countries became painfully apparent last year when conference leader and Emirati oil executive Sultan Al Jaber <a href="https://futurism.com/climate-conference-oil-exec-fossil-fuels">claimed that there's "no science</a>" behind phasing out fossil fuels to keep global temperatures from creeping above 1.5 degrees Celsius, a preposterous and self-serving claim that flies in the face of decades of scientific evidence.
And this year's COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan is seemingly no different. A <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmzvdn9e18o">secret recording obtained by the BBC</a> shows Elnur Soltanov, the chief executive of the COP29 team — who also happens to be the Asian nation's deputy energy minister and senior executive at the national oil and gas company Socar — discussing "investment opportunities."
"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed," he can be heard saying in the video.
<h2>Call the COPs</h2>
Soltanov was trying to woo an undercover representative from the human rights watch campaign Global Witness, who told the oil exec he represented the interests of a fictitious Hong Kong-based oil and gas company.
"I would be happy to create a contact between your team and their team [Socar] so that they can start discussions," Soltanov told the fake oil operative.
None of this should come as much of a surprise. Azerbaijan's economy relies massively on oil, accounting for a <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/azerbaijan-energy-profile/overview">whopping 90 percent of its experts</a>.
Naturally, the UN body reacted with outrage, telling the BBC that Soltanov's naked interest in furthering oil and gas investments was "completely unacceptable" and a "betrayal."
Christiana Figueres, who oversaw the signing of the historic Paris Agreement in 2015, told the BBC that Soltanov's behavior was "contrary and egregious" to the purpose of the yearly conferences, and a "treason."
Last year's COP28 conference turned into a counterproductive circus, as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331">BBC revealed at the time</a>, with the United Arab Emirates using scheduled meetings for "private" oil and gas business talks.
In other words, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-conferences">claiming</a> these summits are designed to "measure progress and negotiate multilateral responses to climate change" is in many ways misleading and disingenuous.
The kind of investments Soltanov is encouraging, after all, directly contradict the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/at-cop28-nations-agree-to-transition-away-from-fossil-fuels-and-reach-world-net-zero-carbon-emissions-by-2050#:~:text=emissions%2Dby%2D2050-,At%20COP28%2C%20nations%20agree%20to%20transition%20away%20from%20fossil%20fuels,zero%20carbon%20emissions%20by%202050">promise nations made</a> at last year's climate change conference when they agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.
In short, COP29 sounds like little more than a forum for oil and gas executives to strike new deals — and world leaders to make vacuous promises often without taking any meaningful action.
More on COP: <a href="https://futurism.com/dubai-climate-conference-warning">Scientists Warn That the Dubai Climate Conference Is Full of Crap</a>

Gotcha

"We have a lot of gas fields that are to be developed."

Secret Video Shows Top Climate Change Conference Official Promising to Facilitate Fossil Fuel Deals

<h2>2(8) Days Later</h2>
On Wednesdady, news emerged that <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/police-lock-houses-escaped-monkeys">over 40 research monkeys had broken free</a> from a research facility in South Carolina.
The local Yemassee Police Department <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yemasseepolice/posts/pfbid02NMa3e596xxVBXj782UV7ojTV2xqjuvEDd2tPzGB9UhcdwM9dqkoDLcBH16xvX58El">confirmed</a> that a total of 43 macaques had escaped from a facility run by Alpha Genesis, one of the largest monkey breeders in the world — because their keepers forgot to keep doors to their enclosures shut.
And according to the latest reports, the monkeys still on the run in the forested region surrounding the facility near Yamassee, South Carolina.
Law enforcement <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/08/monkeys-escaped-alpha-genesis-yemassee-sc/76128503007/">told USA Today</a> on Friday that while the furry rascals have since been located, recapturing them may prove difficult.
Footage obtained by the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14059875/wild-video-escaped-south-carolina-monkeys-lab-lockdown.html">Daily Mail reportedly shows</a> the monkeys scuttling off into the nearby woods.
Fortunately, the situation is unlikely to turn into a "28 Days Later"-like apocalypse, because the six-to-seven-pound females are "too young to carry disease," as an Alpha Genesis spokesperson told police, per USA Today.
"We want to assure the community that there is no health risk associated with these animals," the police confirmed on Wednesday.
<h2>Human Error</h2>
According to the report, Alpha Genesis staff are "attempting to entice the animals back using food."
Unsurprisingly, authorities are also advising local residents from approaching the animals or interacting with them in any way.
"These animals are highly sensitive and easily startled," the Yemassee Police Department said in a statement. "The public is advised to avoid the area as these animals are described as skittish and any additional noise or movement could hinder their safe capture."
"The incident yesterday involved a new enclosure, and occurred because the caretaker who was doing routine cleaning and feeding failed to secure two separate," Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/43-escaped-research-monkeys-still-loose-south-carolina-caretaker-faile-rcna179278">told NBC</a>. "It was purely human error."
It's not even the first time monkeys have escaped from the same Alpha Genesis facility. In 2016, 19 of the animals slipped free — but were promptly returned just six hours later.
More on the situation: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/police-lock-houses-escaped-monkeys">Police Warn Homeowners to Lock Down Houses as Dozens of Monkeys Escape Research Facility</a>