🇺🇸 Elon Musk's impact and influence on the US government, new achievement in quantum reached, and the first human fire found

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Elon Musk’s intention to go farther and further than any CEO has gone before is proving true in more ways than one. As one of the newly elected leaders of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), he’s slated to cut 2 trillion dollars off government spending.

As the richest man in the world, he might be right for the job. However, with a long-standing contentious relationship with the US government, many question his motivations — wanting to cut pesky regulators out of the way to advance his space interests.

“We are now entering a weird, uncharted period in our history, where an acting CEO of several companies—one of the most powerful figures in the space industry—has the power to cut regulatory costs at their behest.” Dive deeper into this Must-Read.

🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on jobs.interestingengineering.com:

> Principal Data Engineer
> Sr. Staff Engineer

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MUST-READ

🇺🇸 Conflict of interest? Elon Musk’s impact and influence on the US government

It’s long been known that Elon Musk has had a tough relationship with regulators in the US government, but now, he’s working with the Trump administration to cut government spending though, maybe, also significantly increasing his own wealth.

The Obama administration made an effort to fund the private space sector, but Biden snubbed Musk, which encouraged his distaste for the democratic party. He became the major funder of the Trump campaign and will now have in hands deeply involved in the government’s spending.

He will now have the power to strip away the regulatory agencies overseeing his own companies, but then, companies have famously been wrapped up in the government advancing their own interests, so what will happen? Will we begin colonizing Mars before knowing if any life was ever there?

⚛️ Secret to entangling light, sound in quantum world revealed in new scientific feat

Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPL) for the Science of Light propose a novel way to entangle optical photons (particles that make light) with phonons (quasiparticles that represent sound waves).   

This approach represents a significant step in quantum entanglement as it shows that it is possible to establish hybrid systems with different types of fundamental particles connected to each other over a large distance.

The entanglement of hybrid systems is crucial for the development of state-of-the-art quantum communication and quantum computing applications.

🔥 41,000-year-old evidence of first fire use in Tasmania unveils ancient human practices

The last Ice Age marked a significant human migration from Africa, with humans reaching northern Australia around 65,000 years ago. It is home to the world’s oldest Indigenous culture.

New analysis of mud has shown that the first humans to arrive in Tasmania used fire to shape and manage the landscape over 41,000 years ago, the earliest evidence ever found.

The researchers assert that understanding this ancient land management practice could help define and restore pre-colonial landscapes.

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