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Scientists Create Robots Smaller Than a Grain of Sand by Daniel Akst

William Attardi on January 11, 2026

They run on light and are the world’s smallest, fully programmable, autonomous devices. Now researchers at Penn and the University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest, fully programmable, autonomous robots, packing significant capacities into a device smaller than a grain of salt. These are parsimonious little things, barely visible to the naked eye yet able to sense their environment, respond to it and move around in complex patterns. As described in a new paper in the journal Science Robotics, they run on infinitesimally small quantities of energy and gain power from light. Tiny robots do have potential medical functions and a second area of potential use could be in manufacturing tiny devices such as computer chips with intricate circuitry. Scientists Create Robots Smaller Than a Grain of Sand – WSJ

Nvidia Becomes First $5 Trillion Company

William Attardi on November 1, 2025

It seems nothing can stop Nvidia. This week it became the first company ever to smash through a $5 trillion market value—thanks to a frenzy of AI deals spanning everyone from OpenAI and Oracle to Nokia and even drugmaker Eli Lilly. CEO Jensen Huang’s MAGA-friendly speech in D.C. also juiced gains. Sure, many are whispering “AI bubble,”but for now Nvidia is worth more than entire chunks of the S&P 500, like utilities, industrials or consumer staples. Basically, everything that doesn’t require a GPU.  Nvidia Becomes First $5 Trillion Company – WSJ

Trump Sets 100% Chip Tariffs Unless Firms Invest in U.S.

William Attardi on August 7, 2025

President Trump said he would impose roughly 100% tariffs on all chips coming into the U.S. but exempt tech companies that have promised to manufacture domestically, a big win for Apple and other electronics firms worried about new trade challenges. Trump’s announcement came at an event trumpeting a new $100 billion investment pledge from Apple. The company has increased its commitments in the U.S. but stopped short of moving iPhone production to the U.S. as Trump wants. The company’s $100 billion promise adds to a $500 billion, four-year commitment Apple made in February that repackaged much of Apple’s existing spending plans in the U.S. Nearly every major tech firm has promised to put more into their U.S. operations, resulting in over $2 trillion in new pledges in the past seven months. f16AjRmObp1pmp4xDQAH-WSJNewsPaper-8-7-2025.pdf

Telling Time – 12-hour time is a very ancient system that traces back to the Mesopotamian empires. They had a cultural fixation with the number 12, used a base-12 numerical system, and divided up most things into 12ths whenever possible – including day and night. The 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night system spread throughout Europe and the Middle East and has defied multiple attempts to change it over the centuries. Also, for anyone curious as to why there was such a love of the number 12, it was because that was how they counted on their hand. Look at your hand. Notice how each of your fingers minus your thumb has three easily identifiable parts to it. They used to count by using their thumb to count each part of the finger, much in the same way we count to 10 using our fingers today. So, 12 was the max you could count on one hand.