"The Ingenuity helicopter survived its first night on the freezing-cold surface of Mars, a major milestone in the rotorcraft's journey ahead of its historic first flight."
"D.C.'s first cherry trees were a gift to the United States from Japan in 1912. In Kyoto, Japan, the cherry trees' peak bloom this year was the earliest on record in 1,200 years. This follows a pattern of earlier and earlier blooms since the 1800s. This year's blossoms in D.C. peaked several days ahead of the 30-year average, according to The Washington Post."
"Osterholm previously supported sending children back to school. He said the virus was not a major threat to children. Now, the situation has changed… 'Please understand, this B.1.1.7 variant is a brand new ball game,' Osterholm said on NBC's Meet the Press. 'It infects kids very readily. Unlike previous strains of the virus, we didn't see children under 8th grade get infected often or they were not frequently very ill, they didn't transmit to the rest of the community.'" Other than calling bullshit on how SARS-CoV2 didn't infect kids prior to this… ta-da! And again, because this will come back up, the 3' rule isn't that 3' is safe, it's that at 3' you have the same infection and transmission rates as 6'. This virus is airborne (which means much smaller droplets) and can travel over 10'.
"A medical team in New York City says it has performed the first complete surgical transplant of a windpipe… The trachea is basically a tube that transports air to and from the lungs, so you might think it would be easy to transplant. But not so. In fact, trachea transplants have been one of the last big challenges in this area of medicine."
"It's an idea that has been debated widely across global capitals: impose the same minimum corporate tax rate all over the world to prevent companies from shopping around for the country that can offer the smallest tax bill… Now, it has a powerful new adherent. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday expressed support for a minimum tax rate, providing the vital backing of the U.S. government." Yeah, I doubt it'll happen. Although I do support the concept of an alternative minimum tax rate for corporations (like there is for actual humans).
"The International Monetary Fund is expecting a stronger economic recovery in 2021 as Covid-19 vaccine rollouts get underway, but it warns of 'daunting challenges' given the different rates of administering shots across the globe… The latest round of fiscal stimulus in the U.S., along with the vaccine rollouts across the world, have made the group more confident about the global economy this year." Funny how it works like that.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes endorsed in a vote last year." Just name him Tzar and move on.
"United Airlines started accepting applications for its flight academy on Tuesday, part of a push to hire 10,000 pilots by 2030 as more of its aviators reach the federally mandated retirement age of 65."
"In (Justice) Thomas' view, social media companies are 'sufficiently akin' to a common carrier, such as a public utility like a telephone company, and should be 'regulated in this manner,' he wrote." Remember when Trump's FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said exactly the opposite and conservatives all cheered?
"None of the leading figures in this debate are suggesting that privacy laws protecting Americans should be rolled back. But they are saying the U.S. must find a better way to guard against foreign spy agencies." And to do that, they need to violate those privacy laws.
"Arkansas' governor on Monday vetoed a bill that would have made the state the first to ban gender-affirming medical care, including surgery, for transgender minors, even with parental consent… But Hutchinson's veto may not be the end of the SAFE Act. The Republican-led legislature could still enact the measure since it would take only a simple majority to override the veto."
"Few doubted the United States and Iran deep-down preferred diplomacy -- even a new deal -- to escalating tensions, and possibly military confrontation. Now the moment of truth is here, in a Vienna conference room, where the E3+2 of the nuclear deal (UK, France, Germany, Russia and China) and Iran will sit down and talk about what comes next… The Biden administration will be in the wings, spiritually if not always physically. US officials will be in Vienna, though they will not meet directly with their Iranian counterparts."
Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "The truth is that Iran has seized control of this issue and will use these talks to dictate to Biden the terms of his surrender on the Iranian nuclear program."
"A new decision from the U.S. Senate's nonpartisan parliamentarian means Democrats could advance more of President Biden's agenda without the support of Republicans… The official's interpretation of Senate budget rules would allow the use of the reconciliation process more than once in a fiscal year, and it is viewed by Democrats as a possible strategy for moving top policy priorities with a simple majority, since getting the needed 10 Republican votes in a 50-50 Senate has proved difficult."
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