鈥淣ever confuse a love of sailing with a love of boats.鈥�
鈥� No known attribution, but a great saying that speaks to the differences between romantic quality and classic quality.
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1.
After sitting on the nuclear sidelines for 65 years, the World Bank is back in the reactor game! With nudging from the United States and global support, it's gone nuclear, funding small modular reactors (SMRs) and giving aging plants a new lease on fission. World Bank President Ajay Banga says it鈥檚 about powering development, not preaching climate salvation. Grid upgrades, SMRs, and pragmatism? Now that鈥檚 atomic progress.
2.
ETH Zurich taught badminton to a quadruped robot through reinforcement learning and an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti. (Fellow RTX 20-series owners represent!) No fancy tweaks 鈥� just an ANYmal-D bot, a DynaArm, and Nvidia鈥檚 Isaac Gym. To chase the shuttlecock across the court, the robot learned to serve, swing, sprint, and recover 鈥� all autonomously. The tech鈥檚 not just for show; this badminton champ could soon inspect oil rigs or trot through hazard zones. Moral of the story? Never challenge a robot to a footrace or a rally.
3.
Despite a predicted dip, metalworking machinery orders are up nearly 18% for the year through April, clocking in at $1.69 billion. April orders crushed last year鈥檚 by 40%, as buyers may be racing ahead of tariff hikes and reshoring buzz. Aerospace cooled, but metals ramped up to their busiest level since February 鈥�24. Despite gloomy vibes in the latest sentiment surveys, shops are still spending cheese. Because when the chips are down, we invest in chipmaking. Oh, and lathes. And mills. And grinders. And鈥�
4.
Open-source robotics is the gift that keeps on innovating 鈥� until someone bolts it to a drone and gets a little too, uh, 鈥渃reative.鈥� Dual-use tech isn鈥檛 new, but as bots get better and access gets easier, the line between helpful and harmful could get blurrier. Rather than locking it all down, the authors of this essay propose a roadmap: Teach smarter, share smarter, and maybe think twice before publishing your code with zero guardrails. After all, openness and responsibility can play nice if we let them.
5.
Movie time! YouTuber and watchmaker Mike manually machines a barrel bridge for his tourbillon pocket watch using a pantograph, 3D printed templates, and a healthy dose of skill (plus compressed air for style points). Precision cuts, skeletonized flair, and a few 鈥渉appy little mistakes鈥� remind us: Manual machining isn鈥檛 obsolete; it鈥檚 mechanical watchmaking鈥檚 artisanal soul. CNC may rule the shop floor, but in horology, with a stylus in hand and brass on the bed, it鈥檚 still a craftsman鈥檚 game.
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