🐤 Digging up the past

🎟️ That’s the ticket: Anyone who’s been frustrated by the hassle and unexpected fees associated with buying a ticket to a live show in recent years probably understands the widespread backlash against Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation. The companies control about 80% of ticket sales for major concert venues and a majority of concert promotions. The Department of Justice says that’s too much power for one company and filed a lawsuit (with support from 29 states) this week citing alleged antitrust violations that could force the company to break up.

⛳ Camera shy: When golf champ Scottie Scheffler was arrested last week outside the Valhalla Golf Club in Georgia, there was a lot of confusion surrounding the incident. Cops say Scheffler disobeyed their instructions but he insists it was all a big misunderstanding. While the body camera being worn by Detective Bryan Gillis could have cleared things up a bit, Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel confirmed that it was not turned on at the time. As a result, Gillis will be subjected to “corrective action” for his violation of department policy, the chief said.

🎬 Tough competition: Famed director Steven Spielberg is pursuing his next big blockbuster, an as-yet untitled movie being written by David Koepp (who also wrote “Jurassic Park” and “War of the Worlds”). From what has been released so far, all we know is that the idea came directly from Spielberg and it apparently features UFOs. The expected release date of early summer 2026 not only suggests that it’s going to be a big-budget feature, it also means the film will be squaring off against the next installments of “The Avengers” and “Star Wars.”

⛈️ Season’s greetings: We recently advised you of an earlier-than-normal heat wave striking much of the country. Now, meteorologists are warning that hurricane season will likely strike earlier and more severely than usual. According to National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration head Rick Spinrad: “The forecast for named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes is the highest NOAA has ever issued for the May outlook. At this point, the forecast includes up to 25 named storms (39 mph winds or higher) and as many as 13 hurricanes.

🏦 Markets: Chipmaker Nvidia built on its recent gains in a big way on Thursday after positive earnings results released the previous day. Its stock price surged to nearly $1,000 per share after a whopping 5% single-day boost.

Investors rewarded the company based on its rapid growth — both profits and revenue topped analyst expectations — in the AI industry. Now, Nvidia stock is headed for a 10-to-1 split.

It wasn’t enough to salvage the day for the broader market, though, with all three major indexes finishing lower.

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Home improvement projects often involve unexpected delays and complications … but for one man in Austria, it led to a discovery of mammoth proportions.

“I thought it was just a piece of wood”

Andreas Pernerstorfer is a winemaker in the town of Gobelsburg, so it’s important for his cellar to be in tiptop shape. That’s why he was busy working on it recently — at least until he came across an unusual object buried just beneath the soil.

At first, he didn’t really think much of it, recalling: “I thought it was just a piece of wood left by my grandfather.”

Upon further inspection, however, Pernerstorfer realized he’d found a bone. And thinking back to his grandfather’s stories about discovering teeth in the area, he came to the conclusion that he’d probably discovered the remains of a mammoth that lived tens of thousands of years ago.

He quickly contacted some experts, who showed a lot of interest in his cellar.

“Never seen something like that before”

A team of excavators from the Austrian Archaeological Institute showed up and began analyzing what they found, and it was a surprise even to them.

After some research, they determined that the remains were up to 40,000 years old, and they kept finding new bones to piece together a surprisingly complete skeleton.

“Our older and more experienced team members there had never seen something like that before,” explained Hanna Parow-Souchon.

There have been similar discoveries in the area, but most were a century or more ago and the bones were not preserved. So Pernerstorfer’s chance encounter with a mammoth represents a huge milestone for the nation’s archaeological community.

New technology can shed additional light on the lives of these creatures, the prehistoric humans who hunted them, and the bones they left behind.

There’s been a lot of focus on emissions from automobiles in recent years, with a shift toward more electric vehicles and strides toward making combustion engines cleaner. But the pollution caused by the shipping industry has not received as much attention.

Experts have been working on projects they hope will make cargo ships greener, many of which involve complex redesigns of existing vessels. One strategy that is showing a lot of promise, however, doesn’t require any of that.

All about efficiency

Just as driving a car at higher speeds results in less lower gas mileage and higher emissions, inefficient shipping practices are also disproportionately harmful to the environment. And that simple fact is the platform for something called the “Blue Visby Solution.”

Removing carbon emissions from existing ships would be all but impossible, but making seemingly small changes — like lowering speeds and optimizing schedules — can take a big bite out of how much pollution each ship releases.

Here are some stats that break down the results so far:

• The team analyzed 20,580 trips by 3,651 different cargo ships in 2022
• Smart schedule changes cut emissions by an average of more than 23%
• An early study saw a 16% reduction by reducing speeds by just 1 knot

Better yet, these changes still allow for ships to meet their delivery deadlines without any significant delay in the global supply chain.

Real-world application

Two major shipping vessels — M/V Gerdt Oldendorff and M/V Begonia — have already started to implement the Blue Visby Solution in their operations. And the early feedback shows that the earlier results weren’t a fluke.

Between the two carriers, the average reduction in carbon dioxide emissions was 17.3%.

Since shipping accounts for roughly 3% of global human-caused carbon emissions, these reductions can have major cumulative impact.

When it comes to rapidly evolving tech (particularly artificial intelligence), U.S. officials are naturally concerned about powerful information falling into the wrong hands. Now that Microsoft is entering into an agreement that will likely export AI chips and other components to the United Arab Emirates, some skeptics are sounding the alarm.

Awaiting final approval

From his perspective, Microsoft President Brad Smith is enthusiastic about the company’s partnership with G42, an AI company headquartered in the UAE. He recently confirmed that there’s a second phase currently in the works that could result in the transfer of particularly powerful AI tools.

For now, however, there aren’t too many details of that second phase set in stone — including when the sale of Microsoft components will commence. That’s primarily because the Commerce Department would have to sign off on any such agreement, as stipulated in a mandate handed down by the Biden administration last year.

With a growing number of regulators and lawmakers worried about the implication of the international accord, that approval might be hard to secure.

One legislator’s concerns

Even though Microsoft insists it has addressed major security risks, including the possibility that Chinese actors could get their hands on the tools, many folks aren’t convinced. At this point, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul is among the most outspoken critics of the arrangement.

“I am concerned the right guardrails are not in place to protect sensitive U.S.-origin technology from Chinese espionage given the [Chinese Community Party’s] interest in the UAE,” he said.

There’s also some uncertainty surrounding how existing laws impact the transfer of AI tech, but Smith says his company is open to reaching an agreement, adding: “Fundamentally, what we’re focused on is trying to ensure that American technology can move around the world safely and securely.”