"After months of monitoring the ice by satellite and several days of surveying specific ice floes in the central Arctic Ocean, the scientists of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) have selected the piece of ice they plan to freeze into for the next year."
"In the struggle to end global warming, one community in central Pennsylvania is having remarkable success. It's growing, with tens of thousands of people, yet its greenhouse emissions have been dropping dramatically… Perhaps most amazing: Those reductions have paid for themselves." Well, it's not amazing to those of us who have been watching and listening. Also, waves to my friends at Penn State.
For my Russian friends. "In 1959, the Soviet Luna program launched three missions that, to one degree or another, were successful. Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to enter a heliocentric orbit, Luna 2 struck the Moon, and Luna 3—quite incredibly, for the time—captured photos of the far side of the Moon and returned them to Earth. This final mission, Luna 3, launched sixty years ago (last Friday) on a converted intercontinental ballistic missile from the Baikonur Cosmodrome." US dominance of the space race was never (and is never) a given. (Grokked from John)
"The NASA Insight lander on the Martian surface is equipped with an ultrasensitive seismometer to detect and record vibrations, from marsquakes to soft breezes to other unidentified vibrations."
"Musk thinks Starship could be the first fully reusable launch system. If his vision pans out, SpaceX may need only pay for fuel, minor refurbishment, and the system's development costs, which he told Rachel Crane of CNN Business on Saturday may be about $2-3 billion — not $10 billion, as he said in September 2018. The cost of sending one pound of stuff into orbit may, as a result, drop 100- to 1,000-fold, Musk has previously said." Isn't this the point where Bond discovers the lab creating toxins from orchids?
"Named Ferrodraco lentoni, the new fossil is far from a full skeleton; it includes parts of the upper and lower jaw, five partial neck bones, sections of both wings, and many teeth. But pterosaur finds in Australia are exceedingly rare, and these fossils are exceptionally well preserved." Ferrodraco, Iron Dragon (the soil was iron rich which likely helped in its preservation).
"But that goal moved further out of reach this week, when the World Health Organization quietly revealed that it has moved its expected Guinea worm eradication date, which had been 2020, ahead a decade, to 2030. The change was first reported in Nature." Life finds a way.
"The new deal means parents will have to sign up for HBO Max in order to get access to new Sesame Street episodes as they air, according to Vulture. Episodes will air for free on PBS “at some point” after the episodes debut on HBO Max, Vulture reports, but WarnerMedia plans to use Sesame Street to build out its family content offerings" Can't wait for them to add gratuitous nudity and sex. (Grokked from Seanan McGuire)
How go the Trade Wars? "The U.S. trade deficit grew to $54.9 billion in August, a 1.6 percent increase from July, and a spike over last year." Good thing winning this will be easy as the president says, because if not, oh man are we in a world of hurt. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
So, after pissing off the corn growers and ethanol producers by gutting ethanol requirements and seeing that about half of the ethanol plants would have to be shuttered… "The Trump administration unveiled a fuel proposal Friday that would buoy corn farmers and ethanol producers to the detriment of the nation’s oil industry… The proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would require oil refineries to blend more ethanol into gasoline, while also paving the way for year-round 'E15' fuels that are blended with 15 percent ethanol." There is so much wrong with this article it's hard to pick where I should start. First, I guess, is the president of the National Corn Growers Association crediting the president with telling the EPA to go back to requiring ethanol standards be enforced (note to Kevin Ross, the president is the one who directed them to drop the requirements in the first place, he even bragged about it). Next up is that the administration is still giving waivers to gas distillers. Also, when asked, the EPA says that it will enforce these new standards after making new rules (which is a year long process at least). (Grokked from Jim Wright)
That that person who yelled, "Eat the babies"? Yeah, she was a plant from the LaRouche movement. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)
"The identity of the U.S. government’s star witness in a high-profile trial—who subsequently fell out of a fifth-story Moscow window—was compromised in the course of a pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign run by Natalia Veselnitskaya, according to leaked emails." Keep safe, my Russian friends. Don't go near any high balconies. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"Weeks before the whistleblower's complaint became public, the CIA's top lawyer made what she considered to be a criminal referral to the Justice Department about the whistleblower's allegations that President Donald Trump abused his office in pressuring the Ukrainian president, U.S. officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News." That's not a good look on him. (Grokked form Jim Wright)
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