"Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter again. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its 53-day, highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 16, the sixteenth time that Juno has passed near Jupiter since it arrived in mid-2016." (Grokked from Mary Robinette Kowal)
We've been lied to. "Scientists have known since the 1950s that the spiral-shaped Milky Way’s disk is warped, bending by thousands of light-years at its outskirts. Now, researchers have created a map of stars called Cepheid variables in order to create a 3D map of our galaxy and understand the warping better than ever."
"Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world's oceans, and a new MIT study finds that over the coming decades these changes will affect the ocean's color, intensifying its blue regions and its green ones. Satellites should detect these changes in hue, providing early warning of wide-scale changes to marine ecosystems."
"That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz… (She) has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites — minerals for a new generation of cheaper solar cells — that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs." Mostly it's one of those, "don't you want to be an investor" articles. But still, inkjet-able (industrial inkjets spitting chemicals, which is more akin to a 3D printer) solar panels. (Grokked from John)
"More recently, researchers have published randomized controlled trials that can better pinpoint the effects that eating or skipping breakfast have on weight loss. In these studies, participants are assigned to eating breakfast or skipping, then compared to each other. Since the only difference between the two groups is whether they ate breakfast or not, it’s easier to tell if an early meal caused a difference in health outcomes… The largest such trial to date, published in 2014, followed 300 people who were trying to slim down for 16 weeks. The researchers found that eating breakfast had no effect on weight loss during this period." One, 300 people is a small sample, and 16 weeks isn't sufficient time. But, yes, most medical research like this is really piss poor science and the researchers invariably rely on inference rather than data in their (public facing) results. A change in one meal doesn't a healthy-life make. Also note the researchers didn't track what the people ate. But here's the thing, when you wake up (and go to sleep) you get a spike of cortisol. Cortisol (among other things) triggers your cells to take in glucose (sugar, see earlier discussion about the shape and form of sugar and its importance to the body). However, if there isn't enough glucose available, this cortisol spike will strip your lean muscle of protein to convert to glucose instead of stripping fat for glucose. So if you don't have something for breakfast, you are losing muscle mass (and as we get older, that's harder to replace). But processed foods are bad for you (and please note that except for the Quaker Oats, all the other foods they highlight in the chart are all highly processed foods), try the complex carbs from fruits and maybe some protein. All in moderation (don't eat a steak for breakfast). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"In legal papers released in unredacted form on Thursday, the Massachusetts attorney general said McKinsey had helped the maker of OxyContin fan the flames of the opioid epidemic. McKinsey’s consultants, the attorney general revealed, had instructed the drug company, Purdue Pharma, on how to 'turbocharge' sales of OxyContin, how to counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opioid use, and were part of a team that looked at how 'to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed' on the drug." Ah that unfettered capitalism. Celebrate that in your libertarian business schools. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Why are judgeships important? "Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man?… A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet." It's more than Roe v Wade, it's about our national character and a respect for the facts and the law. And in case you're wondering where I come down in this case (and I now this won't happen and it totally illegal to suggest) I think both the defendant and the judge should die in a fire, and if you need someone to light it, all I ask for is airfare and expenses. (Grokked from Stewart Sternberg)
"Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes sued the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center on Monday for defamation after it labeled his organization a hate group, alleging the designation was aimed at getting him kicked off social media platforms." Ah the last act before obscurity (at least if we're lucky), claiming all those do-gooders were out to get ya.
How goes Brexit? "Brexit Britain is an object lesson in how a modern nation fails. It's the last act in a familiar unhappy marriage plot, with ruthless neoliberal economic orthodoxy wedded to the genteel thuggery of old-school conservative entitlement, combining to create something so much weirder, and so much worse, that the result can collapse an entire culture."? Well, someone is willing to have that uncomfortable conversation. Doubt the rest of the country, least of all the conservative politicians want to have it (because they'd have to accept the blame for selling out their country). "We could stop this train if we wanted to. All it would take is for Parliament to turn around and admit that it got it wrong, and face the consequences at the polls…" So that ain't gonna happen. And then, "… But if Europe lets us leave, member states will feel the knock-on financial effects—and it will set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the break-up of the already fragile European bloc. At which point, the only person who goes home happy is Russian President Vladimir Putin." Ta-da! But not try and read the article without making comparisons to our own conservative movement here in the US. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"But for some Republicans, the controversy holds additional context. First and foremost, they argue that the photograph shows Northam and his allies’ claims that his Republican gubernatorial opponent, Ed Gillespie, was running “the most racist campaign in Virginia history” was merely cheap politicking." GOP saying, "See, they're just as racist" probably isn't the best political strategy here, but you do you.
"President Trump has spent about 60 percent of his time over the past three months in 'Executive Time,' according to leaked schedules obtained by Axios… A source told Axios that Trump typically spends the first five hours of his day in his residency. There he is understood to be watching television, reading newspapers and making phone calls to aides, lawmakers, friends, advisers and administration officials."
"After days of protest and growing outrage, inmates housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, have had power restored." Our status as third-world nation continues to be developed. Note that most of the people in this jail are waiting trial.
"Iraqi President Barham Salih on Monday said President Trump didn't ask permission to leave U.S. troops in Iraq to monitor Iran." Can't wait for the president to get schooled in the fact that some countries really don't want us there.
"Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents from President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, a representative of the committee said Monday night." Insert ominous music here.
"President Trump's second State of the Union address will be delivered Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress with all the usual pomp and circumstance. But the political backdrop is unusual, coming in the aftermath of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history and on the eve of what could be another vicious fight or even another shutdown." Much has been promised, my bet is little will be delivered. Unless I'm extremely bored or need to stay up, I'm gonna skip and wait for the highlight reel. Listening to this president speak live is more infuriating than listening to GW Bush speak. Not so much for their political stance, but their inability to be clear and concise (and grammatical). And they both peg the bullshit meter right away and I don't have time for that.
"As Powell has also pointed out, there is nothing unusual about a Fed chair meeting with the president." Chairman Powell isn't much concerned, because the adults he usually deals with wouldn't imply their meeting supported their views of which they are about to spew all over us in the SOTU address. I expect Trump to say something to the effect of the people who "know" think he's doing a wonderful job on the economy, implying it was the Chairman.
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