"As the spacecraft approached the moon, SpaceIL lost contact with Beresheet several times. The scientists kept hope as the connection was restored, but just minutes before the spacecraft was supposed to touch down, contact was lost once again and it crashed on the moon." Space is hard. (Grokked from Dan)
"SpaceX launches Falcon Heavy and lands all three rocket boosters for the first time."
"A team of researchers with members from Norway, Austria, Russia and Germany has found a kind of bacteria that oxidizes methane. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their findings and suggest their work could lead to progress in combating global warming." Remembers reports on how bad water run off is because of how much soil we've entombed beneath concrete and paving. We're boned. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
"Thirty-five miles out of Carlsbad, in the pancake-flat desert of southeast New Mexico, there's a patch of scrub-covered dirt that may offer a fix — albeit temporarily — to one of the nation's most vexing and expensive environmental problems: What to do with our nuclear waste?" You know for a "non-polluting" form of energy generation, there sure is a lot of byproduct that needs to be handled.
"These scientists believed that plants couldn't become immune to Roundup because it required too big of a change in a plant's biology." Life finds a way. Also here's a perfect example of the "sunk-cost fallacy." Maybe not using these chemicals and returning to more traditional methods of weed control and maybe heirloom seeds might be the answer. But then Monsanto/Bayer wouldn't be in the seed business anymore and that'a lotta money they wouldn't make. Farmers would be ecstatic after a few years. They'll bitch like a stuck pig before then, though.
"A gross, yet fascinating new video shows a troop of deep-sea bugs chowing down on the carcass of an alligator, which researchers from Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) dropped two kilometres (1.2 miles) deep in the Gulf of Mexico." Because SCIENCE!
"A father and son have been federally charged for allegedly selling body parts on the black market they knew were contaminated with infectious diseases."
"Georgetown University could become the first college in the nation to mandate a fee to benefit descendants of slaves sold by the university nearly 200 years ago -- a debate that takes place against the backdrop of a broader political conversation unfolding on the 2020 presidential campaign trail about reparations."
"In his 6,000-word essay, published Thursday in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with an English translation by the Catholic News Agency, Benedict blames the epidemic of clergy sex abuse largely on a collapse of moral standards in the 1960s and the subsequent failure of Catholic leaders to uphold traditional church teaching." Lemme stop you right there and call bullshit. As many long time readers know, it's my position that the Right-to-life movement is actually a reaction to the sexual revolution in the 60s. Well, here is the Pope making the same argument except about "clergy abuse." He might have a point if it weren't for the fact that the abuse goes well back into history and predates the 60s. So, nice try, but no cookie.
"The six-week abortion ban known as the 'heartbeat bill' is now law in Ohio. That makes Ohio the sixth state in the nation to attempt to outlaw abortions at the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected." Because of course they did. But I want to point out the language here, about how the governor said "The essential function of government is to protect the most vulnerable among us…". Notice there is no bill to reform sentencing, no bill to halt predatory business practices, with the increased gas tax we're shifting more burden to the poor, no major change to public school financing, no protection to the other "vulnerable among us." Conservatives are hypocrites through and through. At six weeks, the fetus still doesn't have a brain or spinal cord and the "heartbeat" is a heart just beginning to form.
How go the Trade Wars? "China’s exports for the month of March came in much higher than expected, while its imports came in much lower than expected, according to customs data released on Friday… For the first quarter in total, China notched a $62.66 billion surplus with the United States, according to the data."
"Hearts pounding, guns ready to fire, they counted down and entered the bathroom. But instead of confronting a suspect, they found ... a rogue Roomba robot vacuum that was apparently doing 'a very thorough' job." They shot it anyway, for good measure. I'm kidding, no robots were harmed.
"A woman wanted by police is behind bars after revealing her whereabouts in an online spat on the force's Facebook page."
"The Army and Air Force Exchange Service, one of the largest retailers in the United States which serves millions of active-duty military members and their families, is clarifying a memo sent this week which recommended that stores stop displaying the news on their televisions."
"But Alaska's new Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, is taking aim at the ferry system's budget, proposing sharp cuts that are threatening its future. He's also pushing major reductions to public schools, health care and the state university system. The savings would be used to boost dividends from the state's oil-wealth fund up to $3,000." Sometimes the sun doesn't shine and the grass doesn't grow. So basically this rum runner promised more free money for the people and nobody bothered to ask where it was coming from. Isn't that what the conservatives say Democrats do? Anyway it's all "sure, more for us" until the rubber meets the road and you have to decide if you want to cut off your arm or leg to pay the bill.
Sure drilling in water is safe. "MacDonald is a scientist at Florida State University where he studies oil spills. This one is not a black, sticky slick, but it stretches on for miles. And here, where the murky Mississippi River dumps into the Gulf, it's been leaking for more than 14 years."
"Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday warned the Trump administration not to go to war with Iran, at least not without getting permission from Congress… The libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican spoke directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
"Kim Jong Un is skirting sanctions and pursuing this energy strategy to keep North Korea afloat."
"White House officials have tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of 'sanctuary cities' to retaliate against President Trump’s political adversaries, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and email messages reviewed by The Washington Post." This may sound like a lunatic idea… but instead it's an indication of the serious criminal mindset of this White House. Seriously, this is tin-pot, banana-republic thuggery. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"The dramatic end to Julian Assange's asylum has sparked curiosity about his 7-year stay inside Ecuador's Embassy in London that was marked by his late-night skateboarding, the physical harassment of his caretakers and even the smearing of his own fecal matter on the walls of the diplomatic mission." And he apparently left the toilet seat up. "The final straw for (Ecuadorian President Lenin) Moreno was WikiLeaks' decision to spread information about a purported offshore account controlled by the president's brother. Personal photographs of Moreno lying in bed, as well as images of close family members dancing, were also leaked, further incensing him." As the saying goes, don't poop where you eat.
"A former Obama White House counsel has been charged by a grand jury with lying to officials and concealing information about his lobbying efforts in Ukraine." And as you'd expect, this is getting a lot of play in the conservative media space. Which is strange, because it's a part of the Manafort case. But I guess as long as conservatives can says, "See, it's liberals too" they can eventually stop saying, "too" and their base won't even notice.
"Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is already accused of federal financial crimes, has been indicted on 36 counts of embezzlement and fraud by a California federal grand jury, U.S. prosecutors announced Thursday." Look, if you're gonna grab the spotlight and mold yourself as a champion of truth, you gotta deal with the ghosts of your past first of all, and maybe not think your new status will wipe away the old. Just ask the president.
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says the path to GOP success in 2020 is running "to be the firewall that saves the country from socialism.'" I guess scaring people with "teh gayz" weren't bringing in the money or votes anymore so we gotta play this other card. But here is Mitch acknowledging the demographic switch from "conservatism" and watching his party being the permanent minority (which, again, is why they're so committed to stacking the courts, it's the last branch of government they'll control until something drastic changes the demographics again).
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