All posts tagged: Debacle

The California Governor’s Race Is a Debacle

The California Governor’s Race Is a Debacle

Published by Daniella Wilson

On a chilly Saturday late last month, I met Eric Swalwell at a Little League diamond near Capitol Hill, where the Bay Area congressman and his wife, Brittany, would be watching their 8-year-old son. Swalwell, who was running to succeed Gavin Newsom as the next governor of California, had been gradually rising above a Lilliputian cast of candidates and had acquired a strong scent of momentum in the race. “Impeccable timing for you,” he’d texted me on my drive over. He attached a just-published Washington Post article reporting that FBI Director Kash Patel was seeking to release files relating to a decade-old investigation into Swalwell that had turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. If true, the Post story presented a publicity godsend to Swalwell’s campaign, further elevating his status as a nemesis of the vindictive president. The family-guy tableau of the Little League game felt consistent with the wholesome image that the campaign had been straining to project of late, for reasons that would become clear soon enough. Our interview occurred on the same weekend …

Australia board to keep hands off pitches despite Ashes debacle

Australia board to keep hands off pitches despite Ashes debacle

Published by Sam Flores

MELBOURNE, March 23 : Australia’s cricket board will resist calls to exert greater control over the nation’s test wickets despite a pair of two-day matches during the Ashes that cost the local game millions of dollars. The first Ashes test against England at Perth Stadium and the fourth at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) were decided in two days, prompting widespread criticism of the pitches’ preparation. While the Perth wicket was rated highly by the International Cricket Council’s match referee, the MCG pitch was given an “unsatisfactory” rating for being too much in favour of the bowlers after 36 wickets fell. Test wickets are prepared independently by ground staff at the venues but after day one of the Melbourne test, Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Todd Greenberg said it would be “hard not to get more involved” in them, saying two-day matches were bad for business. On Monday, however, CA’s head of operations Peter Roach said the governing body would keep its distance, saying Australia’s vast size and different conditions made it impractical to centralise pitch …

The El Paso No-Fly Debacle Is Just the Beginning of a Drone Defense Mess

The El Paso No-Fly Debacle Is Just the Beginning of a Drone Defense Mess

Published by skeptic

A shocking but ultimately brief airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, and parts of New Mexico last week is stoking unease among pilots and the broader public about the status of United States anti-drone defenses. As low-cost UAV equipment proliferates around the world, analysts have repeatedly warned that destructive attacks perpetrated using drones are inevitable. It is challenging to develop nimble and safe countermeasures, though, given that things like jamming or attempting to shoot down a drone are difficult—or even impossible—to carry out safely in populated areas, much less densely populated cities. In the case of the El Paso incident, the Federal Aviation Administration originally set the airspace closure to last 10 days, but ultimately lifted it after eight hours. The Trump administration initially said the move was related to possible incursion of Mexican drug cartel drones, but the New York Times and others reported that it came from FAA concerns that Customs and Border Protection officials were using a Pentagon-provided anti-drone laser weapon in the area despite questions about potential dangers to civilian aircraft. …

Cofounders Fleeing Elon Musk’s xAI After CSAM Debacle

Cofounders Fleeing Elon Musk’s xAI After CSAM Debacle

Published by José Betancourt

Marc Piasecki/Getty Images On paper, Elon Musk’s xAI is gearing up for a big year. After being folded into Musk’s SpaceX, the Grok maker could now be involved in one of the biggest — if not the biggest — IPO in history later this year. Despite plenty of optimism and an enormous wealth of unlocked funding, a striking number of the company’s cofounders are now jumping ship. As CNBC reports, the company lost two of its cofounders in just two days, only the latest in a growing list of executives looking for greener pastures. “Grateful to have helped cofound at the start,” AI researcher Jimmy Ba tweeted. “And enormous thanks to Elon Musk for bringing us together on this incredible journey.” Fellow cofounder and University of Toronto professor Tony Wu, who worked on the latest generation of Grok chatbots, exited a day earlier, posting that “it’s time for my next chapter” on Tuesday. They join a growing list of departed cofounders since the company kicked off in 2023. Igor Babuschkin left the company in August …

Alan Carr Has Amanda Holden In Hysterics After Water Slide Debacle

Alan Carr Has Amanda Holden In Hysterics After Water Slide Debacle

Published by Sam Flores

If you’ve missed having Alan Carr as a regular fixture on your screen since his epic stint on The Celebrity Traitors came to an end, we’ve got a clip that’s definitely going to chase away your January blues. You see, the stand-up comic and his right-hand woman Amanda Holden recently unveiled the latest iteration of their home makeover travel series Amanda And Alan’s Greek Job, which is now available to watch in full on BBC iPlayer. In episode three, the duo down tools for a while and take some time out from their regular manual labour to have some fun at a water park. Unfortunately for Alan, that includes an ill-fated trip down a water slide that leaves Amanda (and pretty much anyone else who happens to be watching) in hysterics. Days after the series debuted on iPlayer, one fansite reposted a clip of the scene on X and hailed it as an early contender for “TV moment of the year”, and it’s already racked up hundreds of thousands of views… I lost it. Couldn’t …