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Time Is Money

Aug 11, 2024 • 6 min read

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Brazil Plane Crash
NASA Spacecraft Completes Mission

Week Recap:

Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has significantly increased his holdings in United States Treasury Bills, surpassing the Federal Reserve's holdings. As of June 30, 2024, Buffett's company held $235 billion in short-term investments in these government securities, up from $130 billion in the previous quarter. This substantial holding represents 4% of all Treasury Bills issued to the public, compared to the $195 billion held by the Federal Reserve.
CrowdStrike's recent root cause analysis revealed that a problematic update to its Falcon EDR sensor caused a significant global IT outage on Windows systems. The deeply integrated Falcon sensor, which plays a crucial role in monitoring and defending against malware, failed after the update introduced several issues. These issues included a mismatch between validated inputs and those processed by the system, an out-of-bounds read error, and the lack of a specific test to catch these problems.
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have officially agreed to participate in a debate on September 10, which will be hosted by ABC News. This announcement came on Thursday, with both the former Republican president and the current Democratic vice president confirming their involvement. The debate is expected to be a significant event as it will bring the two presidential candidates face-to-face to discuss critical issues in the lead-up to the election.
A court has ruled that FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, must pay $12.7 billion in compensation to its customers, as announced by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday. Specifically, the settlement requires FTX to provide $8.7 billion in restitution to customers who lost their funds during the company’s 2022 collapse and an additional $4 billion in disgorgement, which is intended to strip FTX of any profits gained through its misconduct.
The United States has recently handed over its last military base in Niger, Airbase 201 in Agadez, to the local ruling junta. This base was a key hub for U.S. counterterrorism operations under AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command), which oversees U.S. military efforts across Africa. The withdrawal was triggered by last year’s military coup in Niger, which ousted the pro-U.S. president and shifted the country's alliances toward Russia. This marks a significant shift in the Sahel region’s geopolitical landscape and presents a challenge to AFRICOM’s influence in Africa.

Brazil Plane Crash:

Yesterday, a plane crash occurred in the town of Vinhedo, northwest of São Paulo, Brazil, claiming the lives of all 62 people on board. The ATR 72-500 aircraft, operated by Voepass, was on a routine flight from Cascavel in Paraná state to São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport when it suddenly lost altitude and plummeted to the ground. Witnesses captured footage of the plane spiraling downward before it crashed into a residential area, landing on its belly and erupting into flames.
In the aftermath, Brazilian authorities quickly began investigating the cause of the disaster. Experts from Brazil's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) have retrieved the plane's black boxes, which contain critical in-flight data and cabin recordings that could provide insight into what went wrong. Initial reports indicate that the plane, which had been flying at 17,000 feet, suddenly began to lose altitude at 1:21 p.m., but at no point did the crew declare an emergency or report adverse weather conditions. The aircraft, which had been in service since 2010, had undergone routine maintenance the night before, and no technical problems were detected.
A preliminary report is expected within 30 days. The crash has plunged Brazil into mourning, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declaring three days of national mourning in honor of the victims. This tragic incident is one of the worst aviation accidents in Brazil in recent years, bringing back memories of the 2007 TAM Airlines disaster in São Paulo, which claimed 199 lives. As the investigation continues, the quiet town of Vinhedo remains the focus of intense activity, with emergency vehicles and investigators working tirelessly at the crash site.

NASA Spacecraft Completes Mission:

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft, later renamed NEOWISE, has reached the end of its mission and was recently placed into final hibernation by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Originally launched in 2009 to map the sky in infrared, the spacecraft was repurposed in 2013 to focus on detecting and studying near-Earth objects (NEOs) like asteroids and comets that could potentially collide with Earth.
Over more than a decade, NEOWISE provided crucial data on over 3,000 NEOs, including many newly discovered objects. However, without a propulsion system to maintain its orbit and due to increased solar activity, the spacecraft is now expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up by late 2024. NEOWISE was a key part of NASA’s broader planetary defense strategy, which involves detecting and tracking celestial objects that might pose a threat to Earth.
The spacecraft’s ability to conduct infrared surveys allowed it to identify NEOs that might be missed by other detection methods. NEOWISE’s contributions were part of a larger effort that includes missions like the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST), developed with the U.S. Department of Defense to track space debris and other threats, and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which aims to demonstrate methods for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids. As NEOWISE concludes its mission, NASA is preparing to launch the NEO Surveyor spacecraft, scheduled for no earlier than September 2027.
This new mission will build on NEOWISE’s legacy by specifically targeting the detection of NEOs larger than 140 meters in diameter, which could cause significant damage if they were to collide with Earth. NEO Surveyor is expected to find over 90% of these objects within the next decade, further enhancing our ability to protect the planet from space-based threats. In the interim, NASA will rely on ground-based observatories and international collaborations to continue monitoring the skies for potential dangers.

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