Categories
Technology

Ukraine has grow to be the world proving floor for navy robots

The war in Ukraine has become the largest proving ground for autonomous and unmanned artificial intelligence vehicles in history. While the use of military robots is nothing new — remote-controlled war machines were born in World War II, and the US only deployed fully autonomous attack drones in 2020 — we are seeing the proliferation of a new class of combat vehicles in Ukraine.

This article discusses the “killer robot” technology used by both sides in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Our main takeaway is that the “killer” part of “killer robots” doesn’t apply here. Read on to find out why.

Unmanned versus autonomous

This war represents the first deployment of the modern class of unmanned vehicles and automated weapons platforms in a protracted invasion involving forces of relatively similar technology. While Russia’s military appears superior to Ukraine’s on paper, both sides have fielded forces with similar capabilities. Compared to the forces that Russia faced during its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, or, for example, those that the US faced during the skirmishes in Iraq and Afghanistan, what is currently happening on the ground in Ukraine demonstrates a more parallel engagement- Theatre.

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However, it is important to note that this is not a war waged by machines. Autonomous or unmanned weapons and vehicles are unlikely to make much of a difference in war simply because they are untested and currently unreliable.

Unmanned vehicles and autonomous vehicles are not necessarily the same thing. While nearly all autonomous vehicles — those that can operate without human intervention — are unmanned, many unmanned vehicles can only be operated remotely by humans. Perhaps most importantly, many of these vehicles have never been tested in combat. This means they are more likely to be used in “support” roles than as autonomous combat vehicles, even though they were designed for that.

But before we get into the how and why behind the use of military robots in modern warfare, we need to explain what kind of vehicles are currently in use. There are no “killer robots” in warfare. This is a collective term used to describe both autonomous and unmanned military vehicles.

These include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs, another term for unmanned sea or waterborne vehicles).

So the first question we need to answer is: why not just turn the robots into killers and let them fight the war for us? You may be surprised to learn that the answer has very little to do with regulations or rules governing the use of “killer robots”.

To put it simply, militaries have better things to do with their robots than just send fire down. That doesn’t mean they aren’t tested this way, it already is Evidence that happened.

A British “Harrier” UPS, credit: Wikicommons

However, we’ve seen it all before. The use of “killer robots” in warfare is now old hat. The US used drones in Iraq and Afghanistan and as we reported here at TNWit even sent a Predator drone to autonomously assassinate an Iranian general.

What is different in this war is the proliferation of UAVs and UGVs in combat support roles. We’ve seen drones and autonomous land vehicles before in the war, but never on this scale. Both armed forces use unmanned vehicles to perform tasks that traditionally either couldn’t be done or required additional human forces. It also has to be noted that they use gear that is relatively untested, which explains why we don’t see both countries using these units en masse.

A development crucible

Developing war technology is a tricky move. Despite manufacturers’ best assurances, there is simply no way of knowing what could possibly go wrong until a given technology is actually deployed in the field.

We saw a prime example of this paradigm in the Vietnam War the debut of the M-16 rifle. It was intended to replace the trusty old M-14. But as the first soldiers to use the new weapon tragically discovered, it was not fit for use in the jungle without modifications to its design and special training for the soldiers who would use it. Many soldiers died in the process.

A US Marine cleans her M16 during the US-Vietnam War, Credit: Wikicommons

That’s one of the many reasons why a number of nations that have so far refused to be directly involved in the war are eager to send state-of-the-art robots and weapons to the Ukrainian government in hopes of testing the capabilities of their technology without endangering their own soldiers’ skin.

TNW spoke with Alex Stronell, a Land Platforms Analyst and UGV leader jane, the Defense Intelligence Service. They explained that one of the more interesting aspects of the use of UGVs, especially in the war in Ukraine, is the lack of certain designs that we would otherwise have expected.

“For example, the issue has received a lot of attention inside and outside of Russia Career-9 … It certainly looks like a menacing vehicle and has been touted as the most advanced combat UGV in the world,” Stronell told us, before adding, “However, I have seen no evidence that the Russians used the Uranium-9 in the have used Ukraine. and that could be because it still needs further development.”

Uranium-9 Armed Combat Robot UGV Unmanned Ground Vehicle Rosboronexport Russia Russian Defense Industry – YouTube

On the other hand, Stronell previously wrote that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will soon deploy the world’s largest number of THeMIS UGVs (see video below). That’s extraordinary considering the nation’s arsenal is largely on loan from other countries.

Milremthe company that manufactures the THeMIS UGV, recently announced that the German Ministry of Defense had 14 of its vehicles sent to the Ukrainian armed forces for immediate use. According to Stronell, these vehicles will not be armed. They are equipped for casualty evacuation and for locating and removing land mines and similar devices.

Milrem Robotics’ THeMIS UGVs used in a manned and unmanned live fire teaming exercise – YouTube

But it’s also safe to say that troops on the ground will find other uses for them. As anyone who’s ever been deployed to a combat zone can tell you, space is at a premium and there’s no point in taking more than you can carry.

However, the THeMIS is equipped with Milrem’s “Intelligence Function Kit” which includes the “Follow me” ability. This means it would make an excellent combat mule for transporting ammunition and other equipment. And certainly nothing prevents anyone from retrofitting the THeMIS with combat modules or simply strapping a self-made autonomous weapon system onto it.

DIY Scrap Metal Auto-Turret (RaspberryPi Auto-Tracking Airsoft Sentry?!) – YouTube

on-the-job training

As much as the world fears the dawn of the age of killer robots in warfare, the current technology simply isn’t here yet. Stronell dismissed the idea that about a dozen UGVs could be equipped as killer protection robots, for example, that could be used to defend strategic points. Instead, he described a hybrid man-machine paradigm called “manned-unmanned teaming, or M-UMT” where, as described above, unmounted infantry entered the battlefield with machine support.

In the time since the M-16 was mass-adopted during an ongoing conflict, the world’s militaries have refined the methodology they use to deploy new technology. Currently, the Ukraine conflict is teaching us that autonomous vehicles are useful in support functions.

The simple fact is that we are already exceptionally good at killing each other when it comes to war. And it’s still cheaper to train a human to do everything a soldier needs to do than to build giant weapon platforms for every bullet we want to send down. The actual military need for “killer robots” is likely to be far less than the average civilian would expect.

However, the AI’s prowess at finding needles in a haystack, for example, makes them the perfect reconnaissance unit, but soldiers have to do much more than just identify the enemy and pull the trigger.

However, this will surely change as AI technology matures. Because of this, Stronell told us, other European countries are either in the process of introducing autonomous weapons or have already done so.

In the Netherlands, for example, the Royal Army involved in training operations in Lithuania to test their own complement of THeMIS units in what they call a “pseudo-operative” theater. Due to the proximity of the war in Ukraine and its ongoing nature, nearby nations are able to conduct analogous military training operations based on the most up-to-date information about the ongoing conflict. Essentially, the rest of Europe is watching what Ukraine and Russia are doing with their robots and simulating the war at home.

Royal Air Force AH-64 Apache helicopter, Credit: Wikicommons

This represents a gold mine for the technologies involved, and there’s no telling how much this time of warfare will advance things. We could see countless breakthroughs in both military and civilian artificial intelligence technology as the lessons of this war begin to filter out.

To illustrate this point, it is necessary to mention that Russia has freaked out a bounty of one million rubles (approx. €15,000) to anyone who captures a Milrem THeMIS unit from the battlefield in Ukraine. These types of bounties aren’t exactly uncommon in wartime, but the fact that this particular one was so publicized is a testament to how desperate Russia is to get its hands on the technology.

A look into the future

It is clear that not only is the war in Ukraine not a place where “killer robots” will be deployed en masse to overwhelm their fragile human enemy enemy soldier counterparts, but such a scenario is highly unlikely in any form of modern warfare.

However, when it comes to augmenting our current armed forces with UGVs or replacing manned aerial and surface reconnaissance vehicles with robots, Military leaders are excited about the potential benefits of AI. And what we’re seeing right now in the war in Ukraine is the most likely way forward for technology.

That’s not to say the world shouldn’t be concerned about killer robots, or their development and proliferation through wartime use. We should be concerned because Russia’s war in Ukraine has almost certainly lowered the world’s inhibitions about developing autonomous weapons.

Categories
Health

Our grandchildren pays if we do not repair local weather change

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp, delivers his speech to the National Assembly August 16, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.

swimming pool | News from Getty Images | Getty Images

The idea of ​​becoming a grandparent is emotional for Bill Gates to write about.

“I recently started seeing the world through a new lens — when my older daughter broke the amazing news that I’m going to be a grandfather next year,” Gates wrote in a letter posted overnight to his personal blog, Gates Notes would.

Gates’ daughter Jennifer, 26, and her husband Nayel Nassar are expecting their first baby in 2023.

“Just typing that phrase ‘I’m going to be a grandfather next year’ makes me emotional,” wrote the 67-year-old billionaire philanthropist, who made his fortune through co-founders Microsoft in the 1970s. “And the thought gives my work a new dimension. As I think of the world my grandchild will be born into, I am more inspired than ever to help all children and grandchildren have a chance to survive and thrive.”

Gates summarizes the work his eponymous philanthropic organization, the Gates Foundation, is doing for children living in global poverty to improve education, pandemic preparedness and the fight against polio and AIDS.

Gates also talks about his work to fight climate change, both through the Gates Foundation and by supporting early-stage climate companies with his investment firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

The response of current leaders to climate change will affect future generations, which is the first point Gates makes in the section of his letter where he addresses climate change.

“I can sum up the solution to climate change in two sentences: we must eliminate global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050,” writes Gates. “Extreme weather conditions are already causing more suffering, and unless we reach net-zero emissions, our grandchildren will grow up in a world that is dramatically worse off.”

Getting to zero will be the hardest thing humans have ever done.

Bill Gates

Co-founder of Microsoft, climate investor

The implications are enormous – and so is the challenge.

“Getting to zero will be the hardest thing humans have ever done,” writes Gates. “We have to revolutionize the entire physical economy – how we make things, move around, generate electricity, grow food and stay warm and cool – in less than three decades.”

Gates began working on climate change after learning about the struggles of small farmers in countries where his eponymous philanthropic organization operates. The Gates Foundation funds climate change adaptation efforts, helping people adapt to the effects of a warming world where a commercial enterprise cannot turn a profit.

“It starts from the idea that the poorest suffer most from climate change, but companies have no natural incentive to make tools to help them,” Gates writes.

“For example, a seed company can make a profit on a new variety of tomato that’s a nicer shade of red and doesn’t bruise easily, but it has no incentive to produce better cassava varieties that (a) survive floods and droughts and (b) are cheap enough for the world’s low-income farmers,” Gates writes. “The foundation’s role is to ensure that the poorest benefit from the same innovative skills that richer countries benefit from.”

Not all of Gates’ climate work is philanthropic. Breakthrough Energy Ventures funds early-stage companies that are working to build and grow businesses to decarbonize various sectors of the economy. Building for-profit companies to address a problem affecting the well-being of the world’s population may seem unsavory to Gates, who already has a fortune to his name — $103.6 billion, according to Forbes Monday.

But Gates says decarbonizing the global industry is too big a problem even for his deep pockets.

“Philanthropy alone cannot eliminate greenhouse gases. Only markets and governments can achieve this kind of pace and scale,” Gates said. Any profits Gates makes investing in breakthrough energy companies will go back to climate work or to the philanthropic foundation, he said.

And if companies committed to fighting climate change can be self-sustaining, it will encourage other investors to put money into them.

“Companies need to be profitable in order to grow, keep going, and prove there’s a market for their products,” Gates writes. “The incentive to win will attract other innovators and create competition that will drive down the prices of zero-emission inventions and have a significant impact on emissions from buildings.”

Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise

The bad news is that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

“Unfortunately, we are missing short-term goals. Indeed, between 2021 and 2022, global emissions increased from 51 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent to 52 billion tonnes,” Gates writes.

On Monday, the United Nations Secretary-General also underscored the grim reality of the current climate change moment.

“We’re still moving in the wrong direction,” said António Guterres on Monday. “The global emissions gap is growing. The 1.5-degree target is gasping for breath. National climate plans fall woefully short.”

Despite the bleak current climate situation, Gates is optimistic about increasing investments in decarbonization technologies.

“We’re a lot further along than I would have expected a few years ago in getting companies to invest in zero-carbon breakthroughs,” Gates writes.

Public funding for climate research and development has increased by a third since the 2015 Paris climate accord, and legislation passed in the United States this year will allocate $500 billion to shift US energy infrastructure away from fossil fuel sources gates

Private funds are also flowing into climate technologies at a rapid pace. Venture capital firms have invested $70 billion in clean energy startups over the past two years, Gates writes.

Categories
Sport

Phoenix Suns buy is the newest gross sales file for US sports activities groups

Another American sports franchise sold for another record price.

Mat Ishbia, a billionaire mortgage lender, is completing the purchase of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury from the WNBA for $4 billion, a record for an NBA team, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Tuesday.

Ishbia, President and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, a Michigan-based company, was a walk-on for Michigan State and part of the 2000 Spartans national championship team.

The sale could be approved as early as Tuesday and would end the Suns’ tumultuous Robert Sarver era, which dates back to 2004 when Sarver bought Jerry Colangelo’s team. Sarver announced the September 2022 sale after the NBA announced the results of a 10-month investigation into Sarver’s conduct. In November 2021, ESPN reported allegations of racism and misogyny during Sarver’s 17 years as owner.

The sale of the Suns and Mercury is the second record-breaking franchise sale of 2022. In June, the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion, a record for a North American franchise.

They are contributing to a recent increase in franchise selling prices. Here is a list of some of the most expensive franchise purchases in US esports:

Selling price: $4.65 billion

The upcoming $4.65 billion purchase of the Broncos by the Walton-Bum Group far exceeds the previous record sale price for an NFL team. Former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson sold the franchise to billionaire David Tepper in 2018 for $2.275 billion. It’s also over $2 billion more than the closest sale by a US sports team.

Walton’s net worth is $57.9 billion, according to Forbes. His cousin and another Walmart heiress, Ann Walton, is the wife of Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Kroenke also owns three Colorado sports teams: the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and the MLS’s Colorado Rapids.

Phoenix Suns and Mercury

Selling price: 4 billion dollars

The combined sale set a new high for NBA franchises of more than $1.5 billion compared to what the Brooklyn Nets sold for in 2019.

According to Woj, Ishbia pursued a deal to buy an NFL or NBA team before securing the Suns. Forbes estimates Ishbia’s net worth at $4.9 billion. He is expected to receive a significant investment from his brother Justin Ishbia, a founding partner of Shore Capital.

Selling price: $2.4 billion

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)

The Mets had the honor of having the most expensive team sale in American sports until the Broncos showed up. In 2020, hedge fund manager Steve Cohen bought the Mets for $2.4 billion. The Los Angeles Dodgers previously held the brand for the most expensive MLB team sale when they sold for $2 billion in 2012.

Cohen is the founder of Point 72 Asset Management and the now defunct SAC Capital Advisors.

Selling price: $2.35 billion

In 2019, Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai bought the networks from Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov for $2.35 billion. Tsai already owned 49% of Prokhorov’s shares in 2018, but accelerated the timeline for full acquisition. Along with Brooklyn’s then-record purchase, Tsai also acquired Barclays Center, the Nets’ home arena, for approximately $1 billion in a separate transaction.

Brooklyn isn’t the only New York-based sports team to own Tsai. He bought the WNBA’s New York Liberty franchise in January 2019.

Selling price: $2.275 billion

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The Panthers were put up for sale after the 2017 NFL season following allegations of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct against former owner Richardson. Tepper, whose net worth is $16.7 billion according to Forbes, bought the team for $2.275 billion. Before acquiring Carolina, Tepper owned a 5% stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Appaloosa founder also spent $325 million in 2019 to bring his 30th team, Charlotte FC, to MLS.

Selling price: $2.2 billion

Former Rockets owner Leslie Alexander sold the team to Texas native and billionaire Tilman Fertitta in 2019 for $2.2 billion. Fertitta grew up in Galveston, Texas and regularly attended Houston games before buying the franchise.

According to his website, he is the sole owner of Fertitta Entertainment, which owns restaurant giant Landry’s, Golden Nugget Casinos and Hotels, and the Rockets. Fertitta also has his own TV show on CNBC called Million Dollar Buyer.

Categories
Science

The Cult of Darkness – Watt with it?

From MasterResource

By Edward Hudgins – December 20, 2022

“Energy is not for saving; It serves to unleash us to improve our lives, to enable us to achieve our dreams and to reach for the stars, those bright lights that pierce the darkness of the night.”

Since early humans lit the first fires in caves, the release of energy for light, warmth, cooking and all human needs has been the essence and symbol of what it means to be human. The Greeks saw Prometheus conquering darkness with the gift of fire for humans. The Romans kept an eternal flame burning in the Temple of Vesta. Our deepest thoughts and insights are described as sparks of fire in our mind. A symbol of death is a fading flame; The poet Dylan Thomas urged us to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Therefore, the recent extinguishing of the lights in cities across Australia and in other developed countries is seen as a symbol of the deepest social darkness, not as a result of power outages or natural disasters, not as a conscious act of homage to the death of a few worthy souls, but to remind us all urging to limit energy use over fears of global warming.

This is not the symbol of death, but of a civilization’s suicide.

Certainly most people who turned off their lights saw their actions in a narrower perspective. You have been told by all the media that the warming of the earth’s atmosphere due to human activities will surely cause a global catastrophe unless we act now to radically reduce our energy consumption. The case for disaster is still weak; but this matter, which deserves dispassionate and serious consideration, is hyped up by the entertainment industry and pandering politicians like the problematic products aimed at attention-deprived audiences.

In our individual lives, wanting the best for the least is quite rational. We want the highest quality food, cars and homes at the lowest price. And we want to pay as little as possible to run our cars, heat our homes and power our consumer electronics. This means that we want to waste as little as possible, because waste is money that could be spent on other things. So turning off the light in an unused space is an act of self-interest.

The aim of our actions should always be our own well-being. And basically this means using the materials and energies in the world around us for our own well-being. The means is to train our rational mind to discover how to start a fire, build a dynamo to generate electricity by burning fossil fuels, or tap into the inexhaustible energy of the atom. The yardstick for choosing the best remedy is cost-effectiveness. If producers in a free market can generate a kilowatt of electricity for pennies by burning oil compared to dollars per kilowatt from windmills and solar panels, there’s no point in using the latter.

Some will argue that the full cost of any remedy must account for unintended adverse consequences, such as pollution that causes measurable damage to our lives, health, and property. But there are means of dealing with such externalities – which usually involve strict application of property rights – that will do us little more harm than the supposed evils they seek to mitigate by dampening creative human activity and innovation.

If the cost of generating energy from oil rises too high as supplies dwindle – many decades, if not centuries, away – our creative minds will develop more cost-effective ways to harness wind, waves and sunlight in a free market.

Through myopia, sloppy thinking, emotional indulgence, and even a deep malice, many environmentalists today—particularly in their approach to global warming—perpetuate an ethos of darkness. Consider the damage done by their symbolic actions, not to mention the policies many of them advocate.

Most individuals acquire their values ​​through culture, often through implicit messages that they do not subject to rational analysis. The implicit message for many of turning off a city’s lights is that we should feel guilty for the act of being human, that is, for changing and using the environment for our own benefit.

In her novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand describes the implications of such an assumption viewed from an airplane flying over a collapsing country:

New York City… rose in the distance ahead of them, still spreading its lights in the sky, still defying the original darkness… The plane was over the tops of the skyscrapers when suddenly… as if the ground parted, um devouring it, the city vanished from the face of the earth. It took them a moment to realize… that the lights of New York had gone out.

In any discussion of the environment, we must clearly focus on the fundamental issues: the right of individuals to pursue their own well-being as they see fit; the requirement that man, as creator, use the material and energy in the environment to meet his needs; the rational exercise of our mind as a way of discovering the best means of doing so; and exercising that ability as a source of pride and self-esteem

The spectacle of a night skyline is the beauty of millions of people at their most human.

Energy is not for saving; it is unleashing, to serve us, to make our lives better, to enable us to achieve our dreams and to reach for the stars, those bright lights that pierce the darkness of the night.

—————————-

Edward Hudgins is the founder and director of the Human Achievement Alliance. His previous affiliations were with the Heartland Institute (Research Director); the Atlas Society (director of advocacy, senior scientist); and the Cato Institute (Director of Admissions Studies).

Hudgins is the author of Freedom to Trade: Refuting the New Protectionism; The Last Monopoly: Privatizing the Postal Service for the Information Age; Mail @ the Millennium: Will the Postal Service Go Private? and Space: The Free-Market Frontier and Other Studies.

This paper, originally published by the Atlas Society in 2007, is a classic in free market energy thinking.

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Categories
Entertainment

How Tom Brady feels about celebrating Christmas late together with his children

Everything Tom Brady wants family time for Christmas – and a big win.

On December 24, the NFL quarterback will not be spending Christmas Eve with family at his home. Instead, he will be staying at an Arizona hotel preparing to face the Arizona Cardinals in a football game on Christmas Day.

“It’s going to be a new experience that I’ve never had before that I’m going to learn to deal with,” Tom shared on the episode of his SiriusXM podcast Let’s Go! from December 19 with. Starring Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray. “And I think that’s what life is about … I’m going to learn how to deal with Christmas Eve in a hotel and I have to learn how to deal with Christmas and Christmas Eve and still go out there and be a pro.” and I look forward to celebrating Christmas with my children the next day.”

Tom and his ex-wife Gisele Bundchen share children Benjamin12 and Vivian9. The BRADY fashion designer also shares a son Jack15, with example Bridget Moynahan.

Categories
Health

Jim Cramer’s Investing Membership Meets Monday: Industrials, Massive Tech

Categories
Technology

If you’re a gamer, the Meta Quest Professional isn’t for you

Last week’s Meta Connect got off to a promising start on the gaming front. Viewers received release dates for Iron Man VR, an upcoming quest game previously exclusive to PS VR, as well as Among Us VR. Meta, which owns Facebook, also announced that it will acquire three major VR game studios — Armature Studio, Camouflaj Team, and Twisted Pixel — though we don’t yet know what they’re working on right now.

Unfortunately, this is where the gaming section of Meta Connect usually ended. In addition to small insights and a fitness look, video games were not the focus of the show. Instead, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted to focus on his company’s seemingly true vision of the future of VR, which involves lots of legs and lots of work with the Quest Pro, a mixed-reality headset that will cost a whopping $1,500.

It’s a remarkable narrative shift for the technology that may leave video game players confused as to whether VR is still something for them. When Oculus made a splash in the 2010s with its headset prototypes and eventually its Oculus Rift system, many wondered if it was finally time to make video game VR dreams come true. Things actually seemed to be progressing at a slow and flawed pace. However, since Meta bought Oculus in 2014, it has slowly integrated it into its own grand goal of not just being a mere social network, but becoming a place where people simply exist. And that apparently means underestimating video games as the core goal of technology… at least in Meta’s world, with the Quest Pro as its signifier.

What was missing from Meta Connect?

We already knew that Meta delved deep into the Metaverse (after all, it says so in the name). Horizon Worlds, the company’s Metaverse app, is technically a video game. His website touts cartoonish social hangouts, concerts with the likes of Post Malone, and the ability to build your own world. If you didn’t know better, it would look like a direct Fortnite competitor.

But according to the messages from executives, that’s not the true potential of the software. In 2021, Meta Horizon introduced workrooms – just put on your headset, create your avatar and meet with your colleagues in a virtual conference room. Sure, you can do all of this using video conferencing software like Google Meet or Zoom, but what if you can do it in virtual reality? Isn’t this the future?

The Connect focused on this idea with the new Quest Pro taking up most of the presentation. This headset features impressive technology that allows the user to interact with real-world elements in VR. However, it costs $1,500 and is due out this month. It’s an incredible move considering even Zuckerberg admitted to The Verge that the technology is still years away from being “fully mature”.

Based on Meta Connect and subsequent minor announcements, there are very few experiences that show off Quest Pro’s enhanced passthrough technology. I Expect You to Die, the cooperative VR game, is getting an expansion called Home Sweet Home. It’s described as a “mixed reality mini-mission” where players interact with real objects while using the headset. There was also a short demo playing Beat Saber in mixed reality, but it didn’t show anything new or unique to Quest Pro.

Video games, or rather video game experiences, felt like an afterthought on Meta’s grand plan. Beyond Among Us VR gets a release date and the announcement of Iron Man VR meeting Oculus for the first time, the other news emphasizing Metaverse-like features. Population: One, a VR battle royale, gets a sandbox mode that allows players to create their own maps and game modes.

Other interactive quest experiences that received airtime were related to fitness. Movement is great for VR as the headset allows for different types of movement than a user would normally exercise from home. It can also make training more visually appealing, allowing users to soar through beautiful landscapes or box against more realistic opponents. Meta also announced that its Quest Active Pack will be released later this year, offering people accessories specifically for training in VR.

Meta Quest Xbox Cloud Gaming

Finally, there’s Microsoft. CEO Satya Nadella popped up during Connect to reveal that Xbox Cloud Gaming will be coming to the Quest soon, although we don’t have a release date yet. However, that was a footnote to the rest of Microsoft’s news, which focused on bringing Teams, Office, and other Windows apps to the Search.

The Oculus (now Meta) brand started with hardware for game developers, and the Oculus Store is filled with games and apps for regular gamers to use with their headsets. With the meta rebrand and Quest Pro’s upcoming corporate focus, it seems like gaming is becoming less of a focus, even amid some studio acquisitions.

Games vs. the Metaverse

Facebook has always been a social platform, and according to Zuckerberg, that’s why the company has put so much focus on building its metaverse. He believes this will be the future of the internet, the next step in browser windows and 2D screens.

“The defining quality of the metaverse will be a sense of presence — as if you were right there with another person or in a different place,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post shortly after Meta’s rebrand. “Feeling truly present with another person is the ultimate social technology dream.”

The main reason Facebook bought Oculus in the first place was to use VR to expand social connectivity online. But games still played a big part in it. “Oculus’ mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new experiences. Immersive gaming will be first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won’t change and we hope to accelerate them,” Zuckerberg said in a statement following Meta’s purchase of Oculus.

“But this is just the beginning. After games, we will make Oculus a platform for many other experiences.”

A model poses with a Meta Quest Pro against a colored background.

Of course, games are still part of the meta structure. Video games and other apps from the Quest Store are still bringing in money, too — $1.5 billion so far, with a third of titles bringing in more than $1 million in revenue (via TechCrunch). However, according to company news, the future will be defined by two things: Horizon Worlds and Quest Pro. And both show that the metaverse isn’t ready for prime time.

While Meta says using Horizon Worlds to meet up with colleagues will be the future of work, a report by The Verge says the app is so buggy that Meta employees refuse to use it despite being told by supervisors were asked to do so. The Quest Pro is another bizarre move from the company. It costs $1,500 for a headset (did I mention that?) and doesn’t have many features that are separate from the much cheaper Quest 2. From first impressions, its weight is more balanced, it has an improved display and controllers, and it still works with Oculus games. Of course, the big showcase for passthrough is, and while it goes a long way in making users feel less isolated in VR – and can be used for some unique gaming experiences – it’s not worth the high price that Meta charges when you’re VR use more casually. For gamers already spending hundreds of dollars on consoles and games, the Quest Pro’s existence is not only unnecessary, it’s exclusionary.

I’m not denying that VR has applications outside of games, including in the medical and automotive fields. There are professional areas where VR and AR can be useful. But VR games have only grown. Transparency Market Research expects it to grow 32.3% through 2031, while Zippia estimates the market will grow from $7.7 billion to $26.9 billion by 2027. Meta was able to corner the consumer VR market with the wireless and affordable Quest 2 Aside from consumer-friendly video games with the Quest Pro, we’re left with the upcoming PlayStation VR2, expensive Valve Index, and other lesser-known headsets to fill the void.

The future of meta and games doesn’t look good

Responding to criticism of its long-term focus on virtual workplaces, Zuckerberg and other executives said it was just the first phase of a long-term, multi-year plan to reshape the internet. Zuckerberg himself said that the Metaverse is the “next chapter” of the internet.

But the company’s message was everywhere, particularly in regards to how video games fit into that future. Of course, much can also be said about how the metaverse is discussed in relation to work. But considering virtual reality has found a lot of use in games and will only grow with the release of the PS VR2, it seems odd – if not surprising – that Meta should give it the sheer attention at an annual showcase. For a company that wants to bring people together, Meta has a heavy focus on work, buying digital clothes, legs (which we found out aren’t as finished as the presentation made it appear), and Microsoft Office, although it’s missing out on one of the biggest ways people socialize in the 21st century. Instead of releasing $1,500 headsets with no practical uses or even great tech demos, Meta should take a look at what made the technology so great in the first place and not alienate a large chunk of its audience.

Despite the dreams of VR users who saw it as the next frontier for video games, the reality currently says otherwise.

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Technology

European startups within the residential photo voltaic house raised over 500 million euros in 2022

above that past year, the exploding fuel Prices over Europe have increased consumer interest in alternative sources of energysuch as solar power. And as demand has increased, 2022 has been a good year financing year for startups Focused on providing photovoltaic (PV) technology to residential customers.

Special, European startups in the sector have raised over €488 million — and that’s without the €855-million fault financing Round attracted by Berlin-based unicorn Enpal.

Remarkably, 86.4% of the amount was injected German-based startupsincluding 1point5°, Zolar, Sunhero, Enpal, One hundred, and Sunvigo.

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1Komma5° received the highest financing all year round for €200 million. Founded in 2021 Pursue has risenlevel investors such as Porsche and presents an interesting one business strategy: aggregation Individually Pursue that offer solar Services and bundle them together.

Outside of Germanyresidential solar Technology Pursue who have experienced a capital increase are also active Spain (Samara), Sweden (Sunroof), Norway (Otovo), Estonia (Sunstone) and the United Kingdom (Naked energy, Solivus).

underneath, Spain-based Samara offers another interesting Case. Founded in the summer of 2022 beginning managed to collect €6.4 million within six months.

That Pursue Used software to develop a comprehensive customer-centric solution ranging from the installation from solar panels to EV chargers. The technology makes it possible user to preview the solar panel installation through a 3D modelestimate energy Savings and calculate their positive environmental impact by reducing CO2 emissions.

What all Pursue They all share the goal of making the switch to solar possible energy by focusing on affordability and convenience: from simple installation practices and maintenance Services to customizable options and energy monitoring Tool.

Overall made 2022 possible startups in which Space to attract even more capital and demonstrate their performance potential better Services to consumers and in turn further promote the Switch to solar power.

And how Europe urges the adoption of consistent types of energycan we expect solar Technology startups will expect higher investments in the coming year.

Categories
Science

Hubble and Spitzer crew as much as discover a pair of Waterworld exoplanets

As of December 19, 2022, 5,227 extrasolar planets have been confirmed in 3,908 systems, and over 9,000 more await confirmation. While most of these planets are Jupiter- or Neptune-sized gas giants or rocky planets many times the size of Earth (super-Earths), a statistically significant number were planets with water making up a significant portion of their mass fraction – aka. “Water Worlds”. These planets are unlike anything we’ve seen in the solar system and raise several questions about planet formation in our galaxy.

In a recent study, an international team led by researchers from the University of Montreal’s Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) found evidence of two water worlds in a single planetary system located about 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. Based on their densities, the team found that these exoplanets (Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d) are lighter than rocky “Earth-like” ones, but heavier than gas-dominated ones. The discovery was made using data from NASA’s now-defunct Spitzer Space Telescope and the venerable Hubble Space Telescope.

The team was led by Caroline Piaulet, a researcher and Ph.D. candidate with the iREx, as part of her Ph.D. Thesis. She was taught by astrophysics professor Björn Benneke, her Ph.D. Advisor at iREx and researcher at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExSci), the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and several universities. The paper describing their findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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This artist’s rendering shows the planet K2-18b, its parent star, and a companion planet in this system. Photo credit: ESO

During her internship at iREx, Piaulet’s work consisted of using transit and solar eclipse spectroscopy data obtained from Spitzer, Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to determine the composition of intermediate-sized exoplanets that lie between Earth and Neptune lie greatness. Here are water worlds, planets that are more massive than Earth but many times the volume – meaning they are significantly less dense. As Benneke explained in a recent NASA press release:

“We used to think that planets slightly larger than Earth were big spheres of metal and rock, like enlarged versions of Earth, and that’s why we called them super-Earths. However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138c and d, are quite different in nature and that much of their total volume is likely to be water. It’s the best evidence yet of water worlds, a type of planet that astronomers suspected had existed for a long time.”

The exoplanets addressed in this study were previously discovered in 2014 by the Kepler space telescope using the transit method, which also discovered a third exoplanet (Kepler-198b) orbiting closer to the star. Between 2014 and 2016, Benneke and his colleague Diana Dragomir (University of New Mexico) came up with the idea of ​​observing the planetary system with Hubble and Spitzer to look for further transits of Kepler-138d to study its atmosphere. In addition to Piaulet, the team was able to constrain the size of Kepler-198c and d based on 13 Hubble and Spitzer transit observations.

These were combined with new radial velocity measurements of the host star made with the high-resolution echelle spectrometer (HIRES) at the WM-Keck Observatory. This allowed the team to constrain the size and mass of Kepler-198c and d, leading them to produce size estimates of roughly two Earth masses, suggesting they were “super-Earths.” These results also indicate that Kepler-198c and d are “twin planets” of virtually the same size and mass – contradicting previous estimates that they were radically different.

The “sea worlds” of the solar system (left to right, top to bottom): Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Titan, Enceladus, Dione, Triton, and Pluto. Credit: NASA/JPL

However, their estimates also suggest that these exoplanets are about three times the volume of Earth (which means they are less dense). This led to the conclusion that up to half of their volume is made up of volatile elements (most commonly water). These results were surprising since most exoplanets (slightly larger than Earth) studied in detail so far all appeared to be rocky. According to researchers, some of the icy moons in the outer solar system (like Europa, Enceladus, Ganymede, Titan, etc.) would be the closest comparison.

These bodies are composed largely of water and other volatiles surrounding a rocky-metallic core, leading to the nickname “Ocean Worlds”. Similarly, “water worlds” may not have surface oceans like Earth, but interior oceans beneath a layer of surface ice. As Piaulet said:

“Imagine larger versions of Europa or Enceladus, the water-rich moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn but brought much closer to their star. Instead of an icy surface, they would host large shells of water vapor. The temperature in Kepler-138d’s atmosphere is probably above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick, dense atmosphere of steam on this planet. Only under this vapor atmosphere could there possibly be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressure, a so-called supercritical fluid.”

While neither Kepler-138c nor d are in the habitable zone, the team also found evidence in the Hubble and Spitzer data of a fourth planet that is! This newly discovered planet (Kepler-138e) continues to orbit its parent star, takes 38 days to complete an orbit, and appears to be similar in size to Mars. However, the properties of this planet remain poorly constrained as it does not appear to transit through its host star. But with next-generation telescopes like JWST and more sensitive techniques, astronomers are likely to find more aquatic worlds orbiting farther from their stars.

Artistic representation of a water world. A new study suggests that Earth is in the minority when it comes to planets and that most habitable planets may be covered by very deep oceans. Photo credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

Since beginning to observe the cosmos, JWST has demonstrated a key capability, directly imaging exoplanet HIP 65425 b and obtaining spectra from WASP-39b’s atmosphere. In the latter case, the spectra provided the first unequivocal evidence of carbon dioxide in this planet’s atmosphere (considered an important biosignature). During his time at iREx, Piaulet also developed a new method to constrain exoplanet atmospheric temperatures from emission spectra that the JWST will obtain. This method will allow astronomers to directly measure a key indicator of planetary habitability.

Further reading: NASA, natural astronomy

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Sport

‘When are others going to be held accountable?’

ON THE AFTERNOON of Sept. 21, Phoenix Suns employees logged onto an all-hands Zoom session led by team president and CEO Jason Rowley. Hours earlier, Robert Sarver had announced he was selling the Suns and Phoenix Mercury amid continuing and widespread anger over his conduct as majority owner. While employees eagerly anticipated what Rowley might say about the sale and how it could impact their futures, another thought was burning on the minds of many on the call.

It was a question that had been percolating for days throughout the organization. Like all of them, it was submitted anonymously through the team’s new human resources department.

After a 10-minute opening statement, Rowley began reading questions from his staff.

“While Robert has been around for the last 18 years, many other leaders in our organization overseeing the day-to-day have been here as well,” Rowley read aloud. “Are there any sanctions coming for specific members of our organization as a result of this investigation?”

That query tied back to a specific passage in the report from the New York-based Wachtell Lipton lawyers the league had hired to probe Sarver’s tenure:

“Many current and former executives and employees told investigators they believed Sarver’s conduct had a trickle-down effect: he behaved poorly toward his direct reports, and those reports in turn felt they had license to mistreat their own reports,” the report read.

The line hit hard for one longtime Suns executive who recently left the team. “I went into therapy because of [the trickle-down effect],” the former executive said.

The Suns and Rowley were prepared for such questions. They had commissioned global advisory firm the Brunswick Group to prepare a communication plan for the team in advance of the NBA’s report, team sources told ESPN, and the topic of punishment for executive misconduct was included in one of many proposed questions along with suggested answers.

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The 166-word Brunswick Group-prepared response largely deflected, current employees said, framing issues and incidents as “historical matters” and highlighting improvements in workplace culture over “the past several years.” But the NBA report was blunt, noting that the “investigation finds instances in which certain Suns executives yelled at and subjected their colleagues to embarrassment, humiliation, and intimidation in the workplace, including conduct that constitutes ‘bullying’ under the Suns Workplace Policy.”

And on multiple occasions in the report, the Wachtell lawyers noted that they had elevated misconduct by Suns executives to the league for further action.

“Both the sales process of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury and the review of alleged misconduct by others at the organization are ongoing,” said NBA spokesperson Mike Bass. “That review will remain an internal personnel matter.”

After Rowley read the question, he began to respond, noting that they had only seen the report a week prior and that there were items in it that the organization would be looking into, with potential “corrective action” to follow. He praised the efforts the organization had recently made to improve — such as an updated respect-in-the-workplace training — and offered commitment toward those efforts.

“This is about holding people accountable, from top to bottom,” Rowley said, “and making sure that we never find ourselves in a situation like this again.”

On Sept. 21, amid widespread anger over his conduct as majority owner, Robert Sarver announced his intention to sell the Phoenix Suns and the Mercury. Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The findings in the league-commissioned 43-page report by Wachtell Lipton were shrouded in anonymity, but current and former Suns employees quickly noticed that specific instances of executive misconduct were tied to Suns executives — and directly to Rowley.

Said one female former employee, “I remember when all this stuff came out about Robert, I thought, ‘Finally, but when are others going to be held accountable?'”

“It was really disturbing,” said a female current employee of the findings. “It was really hard to read. It still is.”

In interviews with more than two dozen current and former Suns employees, ESPN confirmed specific accounts of alleged misconduct by Rowley and other Suns executives in the report — and uncovered additional allegations, including verbal abuse of employees, mistreatment of pregnant and postpartum employees, and other instances of retaliation and intimidation.

Echoing a sentiment held by many current and former Suns colleagues, one current employee said: “Sarver created the culture, but [the executives] upheld it.”

“Leadership matters. I have taken full responsibility for my mistakes, and I have apologized for any harm that my words caused people,” Sarver said. “The idea that anyone had a ‘license to mistreat’ other employees is false and insulting — and not consistent with the high level of performance of the franchise and the experience of employees as reported in their anonymous feedback to the league in every survey conducted.”

After Rowley mentioned on the Zoom call that people tied to the investigative report’s findings would be held accountable, current and former employees were left to consider a different question: How, if at all, that desire would apply to key Suns executives, including the team president.

“That question really was asking,” one former employee said, “‘Are you going to fire yourself?'”

On Sept. 15, two days after the NBA announced its punishment for Sarver — a yearlong suspension and a $10 million fine — the league, working with Sarver, appointed Sam Garvin the team’s interim governor. Garvin is one of 13 minority owners who signed a statement in support of Sarver immediately after ESPN published its November 2021 story that prompted the league to investigate.

In the NBA’s official punishment letter to the Suns, according to team sources, it lists a series of provisions. In the section regarding the team’s interim governor, it reads: the Interim Governor shall not have the authority to do, or cause the Teams (or their holding company) to do, any of the following without Mr. Sarver’s prior written approval (and in all cases subject to applicable League rules and agreements):

The last provision: “terminate or hire a new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, or Chief Revenue Officer of either team.”

In other words, CFO Jim Pitman, CRO Dan Costello and CEO Jason Rowley cannot, without Sarver’s written approval, be removed.

“The League’s letter carves out a limited number of responsibilities that I continue to retain based on my fiduciary duties as the managing partner of the entity that owns the Suns organization,” Sarver said. “Specifically, the League agreed that I retain approval on certain actions that could have a meaningful financial impact — including the makeup of the senior leadership team.”

The NBA declined to comment on the content of its confidential communication with the team.

Jason Rowley joined the Suns organization in 2007. By the summer of 2012, he was the team’s president and CEO. Rob Schumacher/The Republic/Imagn

ROWLEY’S INVOLVEMENT WITH the Suns dates back to Sarver’s acquisition of the team in 2004. At the time, Rowley was an attorney at Phoenix law firm Snell & Wilmer LLP, which facilitated the purchase. Rowley, according to a 2011 story in the Phoenix Business Journal, made an impression on Sarver, who brought him aboard in 2007. In October 2011, Rowley became the team’s chief operating officer after serving four seasons as the team’s senior vice president and general counsel. The next summer, Rowley became the team’s president.

Alleged incidents arose early in Rowley’s tenure with the Suns, multiple former employees said. Said one female former employee, “He was a nice guy when he started. Then he became team president.” In the report, the lawyers wrote, “On one occasion, an executive ‘barged’ into a female employee’s office, leaned over her desk, and cursed at her when he learned the employee had informally complained to a colleague about her reporting structure.” The executive referenced in this account is Rowley, several former employees said.

This alleged incident occurred in early 2013, the former employees said. After complaining about the change in reporting structure following a new hire, the woman, who worked in the legal department, returned to her office. Soon after, Rowley entered. One former employee described him as “red-faced” and “screaming at the top of his lungs,” as he unleashed a profanity-laced tirade toward the woman, allegedly saying, “‘Who the f— do you think you are? Who are you to question the reporting structure?’ If I tell you to report to someone, you f—ing report to them.”

From that point on, a former employee said the woman felt “iced” out by Rowley. The woman was pregnant at the time, the former employee said, although she had yet to disclose it. Later in 2013, another incident referenced in the Wachtell report involved this same woman, former employees told ESPN. As the lawyers wrote, a woman “faced difficulty in trying to get her maternity leave approved and was fired shortly after she returned from maternity leave. Male team executives tried to terminate the female employee while she was on leave, but the employee’s female supervisor persuaded them to wait until the employee returned to work to eliminate her position.”

One former employee added that one of the executives who sought to have the woman terminated while on maternity leave was Rowley.

About a month after the woman returned to the office early in 2014, former employees said, she was called into a meeting with her supervisor, a female executive. The executive, who declined to comment for this story, felt uncomfortable and “couldn’t look the woman in the eye,” a former employee said, as she explained that the woman’s role had been eliminated.

“[The executive] looked as white as a ghost when she came in,” a former employee said. “You could tell she was the executioner sent by them and that she didn’t want any part of it.” The woman was offered a severance package and asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement, the former employee said.

From the Wachtell Lipton report: “Many current and former executives and employees told investigators they believed Sarver’s conduct had a trickle-down effect.” Said one former executive: “I went into therapy because of [the trickle-down effect].” Michael Gonzales/NBAE/Getty Images

Another incident not mentioned in Wachtell’s investigation occurred in 2015. The Suns had set up an executive gathering at a Phoenix-area restaurant, an event a female Suns employee had helped arrange. When the attendees arrived, a restaurant representative apologized for a scheduling mistake on their part and explained that the restaurant wasn’t prepared to accommodate the event, current and former employees said. Rowley allegedly then “tore into” the female Suns employee, according to one employee who witnessed the exchange, telling her how the mistake was unacceptable. “It was not her fault at all, and she was in tears,” the employee said.

Ultimately, the incident was a catalyst for the woman departing the organization.

Rowley’s conduct extended beyond misconduct toward women, according to the Wachtell findings and additional ESPN reporting.

About a half-decade into his tenure, multiple former employees said, Rowley and his wife entered the Suns’ arena for a concert, and Rowley sought to bypass security at the main entrance but was stopped. “Don’t you know who I f—ing am?” Rowley allegedly asked security officials, according to one former employee who was present. “Do you want to lose your f—ing job?” Soon after the incident, arena officials created a special orange badge that would go to key Suns executives, including Rowley, multiple former employees said. While other Suns executives could also wear the orange badge, they didn’t need it because they often wore their own credentials; Rowley did not, a former employee said, and often sought to bypass security lines and allegedly “blew up time and again” whenever he was stopped. Arena security officials soon called the orange badge the “Rowley badge,” and, the former employee said, arena officials were instructed not to ask Rowley if he had a ticket if they saw him, and if he came through the entrance with a large group, not to engage him.

In early 2020, in another incident not in the Wachtell report, Rowley and his wife were attending another concert at the Suns’ arena. Neither of them, one former employee present then said, was wearing the orange badge. At one point, Rowley’s wife was stopped by an arena employee when she entered a restricted area, two former employees said.

Rowley allegedly became incensed and yelled at the employee, “Do you know who the hell I am?” Soon after, Rowley allegedly yelled at the employee’s manager, telling him to “fix the problem,” the former employees said. Rowley’s wife allegedly stood behind him, mouthing the words, “I’m so sorry.” Soon after, Rowley allegedly emailed the manager, demanding that the arena employee be fired, the former employees said. The manager, believing he would be terminated for not following orders, consulted with other Suns executives and was instructed not to fire the employee.

“The work is not complete,” said a current employee. “There are still senior executives who are currently on staff that have helped to foster this toxic workplace for the last 15-plus years with no culpability for their actions.” Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

CURRENT AND FORMER Suns employees told the lawyers from Wachtell that Rowley wasn’t the only executive complicit in workplace misconduct.

One incident in the report was described as an “institutional failure.” In 2019, “a representative of a team sponsor made unwanted advances toward a female Suns employee and grabbed her buttocks during a work trip. Two team executives were nearby when the incident occurred, and the female employee reported the touching to at least one of these executives. The incident was also reported contemporaneously, at least in part, to another senior team executive and, approximately one month later, to three additional senior team executives. No action was taken against the sponsor representative, who has continued in that role to date. As a result, the female employee has been required to continue working at events where the sponsor representative is present.

“In interviews with investigators, senior team executives acknowledged that the Suns mishandled this matter. The Suns legal department engaged outside legal counsel to review the incident.”

Rowley; Costello; Kyle Pottinger, the Suns’ senior vice president of ticket sales and service; and Melissa Goldenberg, the team’s general counsel, were among the executives who were aware of the incident, according to team sources.

According to several current employees, the incident occurred at a bar in December 2019 in Mexico City, where the Suns were playing the San Antonio Spurs. Along with making unwanted sexual advances, including grabbing the female Suns employee’s buttocks, the representative of the team sponsor texted the employee his hotel room number and photos of his room, a current employee said. Pottinger, who was in the bar when the alleged groping occurred, spoke to the employee that night, asking if she was OK. The day after, the representative of the team sponsor called the female Suns employee, allegedly saying that he was told that he owed her an apology.

Back in Phoenix, during an executive meeting to discuss the trip, the incident was not broached, the current employee said. The issue also wasn’t initially brought to the team’s HR department, the current employee said, because the department then had a reputation of being retaliatory. (A number of current and former employees have previously told ESPN about problems with the team’s then-HR department and how a range of issues over the years were never brought to HR.) Several high-ranking executives — including Rowley and Pottinger, the female employee’s manager — spoke to her about the incident, but the employee was still tasked with planning events that the representative of the team sponsor attended. “He’s still on the account,” the current employee said. “He’s still considered on the VIP list. He’s still treated as if we roll out the red carpet any time he’s there.”

Nov. 4, 2021: ESPN releases its story on Suns owner Robert Sarver and the workplace culture in Phoenix.

Nov. 4, 2021: NBA launches investigation into Sarver over racism, sexism charges.

Nov. 9, 2021: Penny Sarver, wife of Robert Sarver, sends messages to three former Suns employees.

Nov. 15, 2021: Investigators say team employees will be granted confidentiality.

Nov. 30, 2021: Uncertainty remains over whether Suns employees who signed NDAs can participate in investigation.

Dec. 10, 2021: Suns employees released from NDAs for investigation.

Jan. 25, 2022: Suns to create confidential internal employee hotline amid investigation.

March 4, 2022: Sarver to speak with investigators as part of NBA inquiry.

March 19, 2022: Rev. Al Sharpton calls for NBA to end Suns investigation, remove Sarver.

April 6, 2022: Commissioner Adam Silver says at Board of Governors meeting says the investigation is “certainly closer to the end than the beginning.”

April 15, 2022: Sarver retires as Western Alliance executive chairman amid NBA probe.

June 14, 2022: Longtime Suns employee resigns, cites retaliation after reporting concerns about workplace culture.

July 12, 2022: At BOG meeting in Las Vegas, Silver says the investigation is in its “last stage.”

Sept. 13, 2022: NBA announces the conclusion of its investigation, suspending Sarver for one year and fining him $10 million.

Sept. 14, 2022: At BOG meeting in New York, Silver says Sarver’s conduct was “indefensible,” adds “I didn’t have the right to take away his team.”

Sept. 14, 2022: LeBron James expresses disappointment with the NBA’s decision on Sarver, writing, “Our league definitely got this wrong.”

Sept. 15, 2022: Suns minority owner Jahm Najafi calls for Sarver’s resignation

Sept. 16, 2022: PayPal says it will not continue its sponsorship if Sarver returns after ban

Sept. 20, 2022: Draymond Green says NBA owners should vote whether Sarver should be out as Suns owner

Sept. 21, 2022: Sarver announces he has begun the process to sell the Suns and Mercury

Sept. 21, 2022: Suns CEO Jason Rowley fields staffers’ questions on post-Sarver era

Sept. 28, 2022: Inside the seven days that led to Sarver’s stunning exit

Oct. 4, 2022: Suns likely to fetch record sale price for an NBA team, bankers say

The organization’s response to the 2019 incident in Mexico City ran in stark contrast to how the organization handled a February 2022 incident during which a male courtside seat-holder was alleged to have inappropriately touched a female guest services staff member at the team’s arena, multiple current and former employees said.

That incident was captured on film, one former employee said. Within 24 hours, the Suns revoked the man’s courtside seats and suspended him from entering the arena for a year, current and former employees said. Almost immediately, Pottinger allegedly hosted a Zoom session with members of the Suns’ ticket sales team. On it, Pottinger explained that the team had fired a client — who one former employee estimated had spent roughly $500,000 with the Suns in the 2021-22 fiscal year — because he had harassed one of the team’s guest service representatives.

By then, the Suns had rebounded from a decade of malaise and were considered a championship contender. “Now that we’re a winning team in a good financial situation,” Pottinger allegedly said, according to a former employee who was on the call, “we don’t have to stand for this anymore.” (A second employee confirmed that Pottinger mentioned the team’s success and revenue as being a reason they didn’t need to maintain a relationship with the client.) Later, one of the employees asked Pottinger about the swift action the team had taken with this client and wondered why they hadn’t done the same with respect to the 2019 incident in Mexico City.

In response, Pottinger, the employee recalled, became “very defensive.”

Two weeks after initially responding to ESPN’s questions through Suns Legacy Partners, the LLC that operates the Suns, Mercury and Footprint Center, the team issued a second statement, responding to the same questions.

The team declined to make any of the executives named in this story available for comment but said several of ESPN’s questions contained “factual inaccuracies and/or are deprived of important context necessary to understand the totality of situations that are complicated and matters of some dispute.”

Regarding the 2019 allegation in Mexico City, the team said: “As noted in the NBA report — and as our senior leaders affirmed in hindsight to Wachtell Lipton — we did not do enough in response to the December 2019 incident. The fact that the details related in [ESPN’s] question differ from what was initially presented to us does not excuse the lack of an effective response. Neither does the fact that financial concerns and the organization’s profitability played no role in our handling of either matter,” the team said in its second statement. “The plain truth is, we should have been disciplined and diligent in the reporting and remediation process. And our organization should have had in place more effective structural safeguards to respond to allegations such as the one raised in December 2019.

“That is deeply regrettable. We believe we have made meaningful progress since then.”

On Nov. 10 of this year, the Suns held respect-in-the-workplace training sessions for employees in the food court of the team’s arena, multiple current employees said. One hourlong session was introduced by the head of Suns HR, then led by a Phoenix-area attorney who focuses on labor and employment law. At one point early in the session, the lawyer noted that harassment against team employees also extends to vendors — which would include a team sponsor — and fans. Two employees present immediately thought of the situation in Mexico City in 2019 — and the “institutional failure” described in the report. “I sat there and thought, “Why didn’t we enforce this before?” one current employee said. “This is too late. And what’s happening to the executives who should have pursued what happened?”

One Suns executive, speaking of the 2019 incident in Mexico City, said, “We were never, never going to let go of [the representative of the team sponsor]. We were never going to let go of him, because revenue was that important. It’s changed internally, but it’s only changed because we’re so good and we have so much revenue, and we can afford to cut ties with people who do things like that.”

In 2014, a female employee who was about 35 weeks pregnant discussed her status with Costello. About a month after she returned to the office, he allegedly told her, “You and your husband need to have a discussion about who’s going to take care of your kids, because you can’t work here and do both.”

Costello and another Suns’ executive, Doug Chisholm, the Suns’ VP of business operations, allegedly wouldn’t make any accommodations for her pregnancy, two former employees said, and asked for a doctor’s note if she needed to cut back her hours. Later, Chisholm told the employee, “While we want to support you personally, we can’t do it professionally.” Said a former Suns employee, “It’s chilling to me that they would say something like that.”

The employee was demoted and left soon after, two former employees said.

“They made it really hard for her to be a mom,” one former Suns employee said. “Now that I’ve had a child, the biggest thing is I don’t know how anyone there had kids.”

“Sarver created the culture, but [the executives] upheld it.”

Current Phoenix Suns employee

Five years later, a similar situation allegedly arose. An employee, who was with the team between 2019 and 2021 and wasn’t contacted by the Wachtell lawyers, was 10 weeks pregnant when she began with the Suns, a former employee said. In 2019, the employee told Goldenberg about her pregnancy. A former employee said that Goldenberg allegedly told the pregnant employee that the team didn’t have a formal maternity leave policy because “Robert doesn’t believe in one.”

“This is nonsense,” Sarver said. “During my time leading Western Alliance Bank, I spearheaded expanding maternity leave benefits for employees. My actions demonstrate not only that I ‘believe’ in maternity leave policies, but I improved them.”

Goldenberg’s professional connection to Sarver dates back to 2011, when, for a three-year period before joining the Suns, she served as corporate counsel for Western Alliance Bancorporation, where Sarver held a seat on the company’s board since 2002 and the title of executive chairman from 2018 to 2022.

The pregnant employee contacted other NBA teams to learn about their maternity leave programs, then presented this information to Goldenberg, the former employee said. Asked whether Sarver had been convinced after being presented the information, Goldenberg allegedly told the employee that Sarver wasn’t, the former employee said.

Sarver denied he was presented with information about other NBA teams’ maternity leave policies.

The employee went into preterm labor at 29 weeks, and her premature baby required treatment from an intensive care unit for the next two months, the former employee said. Goldenberg allegedly told the employee she needed to work from the hospital, which the employee did. The postpartum employee later applied for short-term disability and asked Goldenberg for an additional one to two weeks at home, according to the former employee. Goldenberg allegedly replied, “You can be a stay-at-home mom or you can work, but I need you f—ing here.”

In the fall of 2020, with the COVID pandemic sweeping the country, the employee was furloughed along with a number of other Suns employees. She left the company altogether the next spring.

“Prior to our current Paid Family Leave Policy and workplace flexibility policy,” said Suns Legacy Partners, “a new mother relied on short-term disability coverage to address her desired time off after giving birth and there were no processes in place for managers to deviate from that.”

Among the scenarios the Brunswick Group played out for the Suns as their crisis public relations firm was how to answer questions about the team’s prior handling of maternity-related issues.

A potential question from Brunswick:

“The investigation showed that the lack of a comprehensive parental leave policy contributed to significant gender issues within the Suns Culture. Did the lack of policy cause women within the organization to be discouraged from returning to work?”

The suggested answers:

“As part of our commitment to create a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment and our efforts to implement best-in-class policies, over the last several years we have enhanced our paid parental leave policy.”

“The organization currently maintains a Paid Parental Leave (PPL) program made up of multiple options to support all colleagues as they welcome new additions to their family.”

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In the Wachtell report, the lawyers wrote, “The investigation finds that the Suns organization has been a difficult place for women to work, particularly if they have young children, and that Suns executives have on occasion treated female employees differently because of their gender and/or pregnancy.”

“As I mentioned, I was deeply involved in developing and implementing the maternity leave policy as the CEO of Western Alliance Bank — and I invested heavily in expanding the benefit over time,” Sarver said. “And I wanted the same thing for our employees of the Suns and Mercury. Like all of the day-to-day operational issues, that was the responsibility of the executive team.”

The team was required to fulfill various workplace improvements as a result of the NBA’s investigation, one of which was to retain an outside firm to evaluate and make recommendations “with respect to both existing and newly-created workplace policies and procedures including, but not limited to, the teams’ new Paid Parental Leave program.”

“We spent multiple years listening to employees, conducting employee focus groups, researching best-practices (including those catalogued in an employee’s doctoral thesis), and constructing a policy that we believe is above industry standard in what it provides to child-bearing, non-child-bearing, and adoptive parents,” said Suns Legacy Partners. “We have also hosted trainings for employees to ensure our entire organization understands the expectations and sensitivities around paid family leave and how best to support new parents in our ranks.”

That new paid program was implemented in the spring of 2022.

“Put simply, we get it: Across the past 18 years, there have been instances where our owner, our leaders and our organization did not meet the expectation of our employees, the League and our community,” the team said in its second statement. “That is unacceptable. We have taken accountability. We have made changes. And we will continue to do so until we get this exactly right. …”

“Across 18 years — the time period examined by Wachtell Lipton in a review that encompassed more than 80,000 documents and 320 interviews – have there been regrettable moments, moments where past or current senior leaders have let their frustration or disappointment show in inappropriate ways? Unfortunately, yes. Any senior leader still employed by the Suns must own his or her actions both good and bad, learn from those actions, and do better. That is non-negotiable.”

During an all-hands Zoom on Sept. 21, Rowley answered questions from his staff. The first was whether others would face sanctions as a result of the NBA’s report. Said one former employee: “That question really was, ‘Are you going to fire yourself?'” David Wallace/The Republic/Imagn

AFTER ROWLEY’S 20-MINUTE Zoom call, some employees described his words and answers as boilerplate corporate-speak.

What Rowley didn’t mention on the call was that in the days leading up to the release of the NBA’s report, word had begun to spread throughout the organization, including to Rowley, that the investigation contained multiple lanes of findings beyond Sarver that included misconduct by Suns executives.

A team source told ESPN that Rowley had been informed by Sarver that the report contained executive misconduct directly pertaining to him.

Rowley had been a staunch defender of Sarver ahead of the ESPN report and after the NBA had hired Wachtell to look into the Suns. One current employee described Rowley as being “in denial” about potential ramifications for Sarver, who Rowley allegedly believed would get a “slap on the wrist.” At one point before the report was released, Rowley told the employee that the organization would soon see who was on “Team Robert,” the employee said, calling it a sign of Rowley’s allegiance to Sarver, for whom he had worked for nearly two decades.

That alleged allegiance seemed misguided, the employee said. “Robert could say that he didn’t know what was going on, but Jason can’t say that,” the employee said. “It’s too small of a company, and he’s been there too long.”

On the day the report came out, one current employee said executives frantically scoured through the language in their offices with the doors closed. Rowley, meanwhile, drove the message that many events in the report were “historical matters,” the employee said.

All the while, rage boiled from some employees throughout the organization.

“There’s a lot of people in leadership that have been there for 10-15 years that are contributing to the problem,” a current employee said. “They’re not good people. That’s what it comes down to. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.”

“The work is not complete,” a second current employee said. “There are still senior executives who are currently on staff that have helped to foster this toxic workplace for the last 15-plus years with no culpability for their actions.”

Said a third: “Some of the same toxic people that caused the problems are still here and have not been fired. That’s a huge problem. The abusers continue to work under our roof.”