"A leftover rocket part that has been hurtling through space is about to smash into the moon. The mysterious hunk of metal is set to make its violent mark on our lunar neighbor Friday around 7:25 a.m. Eastern, marking what's believed to be the first time a manmade space missile has unintentionally hit the moon… While experts say there's no potential threat to us here on Earth, it does highlight a growing problem around our planet — space junk."
"When it’s fully assembled, NASA’s Europa Clipper will be as large as an SUV with solar arrays long enough to span a basketball court – all the better to help power the spacecraft during its journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. And just about every detail of the spacecraft will have been hand-crafted… The assembly effort is already underway in clean rooms at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Now, engineering components and science instruments are beginning to stream in from across the country and Europe. Before year’s end, most of the flight hardware – including a suite of nine science instruments – is expected to be complete."
"The ancient fossil belongs to a stegosaur, an herbivorous dinosaur with a tiny head and bony plates marching down its back, ending in a spiked tail. The specimen also had some unique characteristics that can't be traced in other stegosaurs. It's the oldest one recovered from Asia and may belong to one of the earliest stegosaurs ever found, according to new research."
"If you're going to drink alcohol, drink wine — not beer or liquor — with meals, a new study about alcohol intake and diabetes risk suggests… Past research has shown moderate drinkers may have a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than non-drinkers or never-drinkers, but the current study is the first to show how diabetes risk may differ based on how drinkers consume their booze." Here we go again.
"Samsung is once again in hot water over how it treats benchmark apps. This time, the company is accused of throttling 10,000 Android apps—but not benchmark apps. It sounds like the scheme OnePlus was caught running last year. Instead of boosting the SoC speeds when a benchmark app is running, Android OEMs are now turning down phone performance any time a benchmark app isn't running. It's like benchmark cheating but in reverse."
"Scientists who weren't involved in the research papers are calling the new data 'very convincing' and a 'blow' to the lab-leak theory — that the virus somehow escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which does research on coronaviruses. In reaction to the papers, they say the newly published data is tipping the scales toward wildlife sold at the market." Ah, but have you considered those who push the lab-leak theory aren't interested in science at all, but instead want to fan the flames of racism and have the goal of blaming the Chinese and will just dismiss any evidence to the contrary with a devastating "nu uhn"?
"The NFL and the NFL Players Association announced Wednesday they have agreed to suspend all COVID-19 protocols going into the 2022 football season, effective immediately… In a memo released by the league, both the NFL and the players' association announced the suspension, meaning the NFL will no longer conduct mandatory testing for any of its players and staff." What could go wrong?
"The London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in 27 Russian-linked companies, including its largest lender Sberbank and energy giant Gazprom… Other companies blocked from trading in London include Lukoil, Polyus and EN+, while the subsidiary of VTB, Russia’s second-largest bank, was suspended last Friday."
"Hiring accelerated sharply last month as U.S. employers added 678,000 jobs, the largest gain since last July, as a resilient economy continues its recovery from the stubborn coronavirus pandemic… The unemployment rate fell to 3.8% last month, from 4% in January. Job gains for December and January were also revised up by a total of 92,000 jobs."
"Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a vocal union opponent, is now inviting the United Autoworkers to organize his company in an attempt to goad the labor union… Musk tweeted Thursday that he's able to maintain the Tesla workforce because the company compensates and treats its employees well. Because of this, Musk claimed, he's not worried about union organizing at his company." You know, except for the lawsuits and the high turnover.
"Tesla has gained approval to begin commercial production at its new factory near Berlin, local German officials announced Friday… The conditional license for the vehicle and battery plants in Brandenburg was expected following months of delays. Tesla had intended to start production of vehicles by early summer of 2021 in Brandenburg, but the Covid pandemic, supply chain complications and clashes with environmentalists all slowed their pace." IIRC, most production in Germany is unionized.
"US oil prices briefly spiked on Thursday to their highest level in nearly 14 years, as concerns about disruptions to Russia's supplies continue… US crude jumped as much as 5.4% to $116.57 a barrel early Thursday -- the highest trade since September 22, 2008. A week earlier Lehman Brothers collapsed."
"Despite the bleak situation on the ground, NATO is unwilling to get directly involved in the conflict -- including setting up a no-fly zone -- beyond supporting Ukraine's resistance to an invasion that is killing innocent civilians… NATO's Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Friday that a no-fly zone over Ukraine is not an option being considered by the alliance. 'We've agreed that we should not have NATO planes operating over Ukrainian airspace or NATO troops on Ukrainian territory,' he said." A No Fly Zone would be a dangerous escalation of the war and would put several nuclear powers in a shooting war with each other.
"A fire burned at Europe's largest nuclear power plant on Friday after it came under attack from Russian troops in Ukraine… The fire burned after Ukraine's foreign minister said on Twitter earlier on Friday that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was under fire from Russian troops." Totally normal, nothing to see…
"Russian invasion forces seized Europe's biggest nuclear power plant on Friday in what Washington called a reckless assault that risked catastrophe, although a blaze in a training building was extinguished and officials said the facility was now safe."
"Comic-turned-hero Volodymyr Zelensky has survived at least three precision assassination attempts by elite hit squads since Russia’s week old war began, according to Ukrainian officials who say his survival was all thanks to tip-offs from Russian spies… Both the the Kremlin-funded Wagner group mercenaries and Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov’s kill teams have allegedly tried to kill the Ukrainian president, who is hiding out in various bunkers deep below the capital Kyiv, according to the Washington Post."
"French authorities say they have seized a yacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Igor Sechin… Sechin served as Russia's deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2012 and is the current CEO of state oil company Rosneft."
"Russia's relentless bombardment of residential areas across Ukraine has so far forced more than one million refugees to flee the country in just seven days, according to the United Nations, as fierce fighting continues into its second week."
"Five Russian soldiers sit in a brick building. They are blindfolded: the latest prisoners to be captured inside Ukraine. A Ukrainian voice interrogates them. “Speak,” he says to the group’s Russian officer. What message would he like to send to his soldiers and to Russians back at home?… 'Frankly speaking, they tricked us,' the officer replies, referring to his military superiors sitting in Moscow. 'Everything we were told was a fake. I would tell my guys to leave Ukrainian territory. We’ve got families and children. I think 90% of us would agree to go home.'"
"Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday defended calling for Russians to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, saying it would be the quickest way to end the war in Ukraine… In an interview on Fox News' 'Fox and Friends,' Graham said he hopes someone in Russia will understand that Putin is 'destroying Russia and you need to take this guy out by any means possible.'" I'm not saying I disagree with him, but there is a world of difference between Joe Average Me saying they need to get a briefcase bomb over on Putin's half-acre of table and having an elected official say it. Also, Senator, you want a Gaius Cassius Longinus, not a Brutus.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to stem the flow of Western businesses fleeing the country over his decision to wage war on Ukraine… Capital controls designed to stop the exodus were announced by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, state news agencies TASS and RIA reported on Tuesday. Western companies were taking decisions because of 'political pressure,' he said, and they would be prevented from selling Russian assets until that pressure subsides."
In China… "Such comments reflect the stance of a ruling party that is the closest thing Putin has to a major ally: The war should stop but the United States is to blame… President Xi Jinping’s government has tried to distance itself from Russia's offensive but avoided criticizing Moscow. The government has offered to act as mediator and denounced trade and financial sanctions against Russia."
"The distribution of white supremacist propaganda around the country remained high last year, with nearly 5,000 incidents reported, or an average of 13 per day, the Anti-Defamation League says… The ADL's annual report on such incidents noted increasing levels of coordination and mobilization within the movement."
"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to sign into a law a bill that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, allowing only for exceptions involving "serious risk" to the pregnant person and fatal fetal abnormality but with no exceptions for rape or incest… The Republican-sponsored bill was passed by the state Senate on Thursday night, and was swiftly condemned by President Joe Biden. DeSantis, who has voiced support for the measure, has a seven-day deadline after the bill is presented to him to sign or veto it."
"The Supreme Court on Friday reimposed the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, reversing a federal appeals court ruling that had voided it."
"A Northern California woman whose disappearance and mysterious reappearance set off a frantic three-week search more than five years ago was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to federal agents about being kidnapped and defrauding the state's victim compensation board of $30,000."
"The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government can shield former government contractors from testifying about the torture of a post-9/11 detainee. The decision likely will make it harder for victims to expose secret government misconduct in the future." That is not justice.
"Georgia's race to oversee voting pits an election denier against an election defender." Because it's never over when it comes to right-wing nuttery.
"By last count at the Arizona State Capitol, close to a hundred voting bills have been introduced, part of a nationwide push by far-right Republican controlled legislatures to pass restrictive voting laws… The swing state of Arizona is front and center — home to 10% of all the proposed legislation — despite two audits showing no problems with the 2020 Presidential Election. One of those, done by the Florida firm, Cyber Ninjas, actually handed more votes to President Biden, who narrowly won Arizona."
"A soft-spoken 19-year-old told jurors he felt uncomfortable after he decided to alert the FBI about 'surreal and scary' text messages from his father in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol… Testifying in the first trial related to the insurrection, Jackson Reffitt said his father, Guy Reffitt, warned that he and others were about to 'rise up,' in a family text chain on Christmas Eve 2020."
"'We’ve never seen this before,' says Joanne Fitzpatrick, a Democrat from DuBois, running through a tally in her head of anti-Biden signs that still cover her town and surrounding communities. 'I’m not a prude by any stretch, but it’s offensive. We’ve just never seen this level of vulgarity after an election — and so long after the election at that… 'In a civilized society,' she added, 'we just don’t do that.'" Yeah, I've just taken to flipping off those houses and trucks that fly these and the "Trump 2020" (or some are now 2024) as I drive by. And for those who think this is new, well, boy do I have a shocker for you.
"Buried in a court filing late Wednesday from the January 6 committee is an explosive email exchange between Greg Jacob, a top lawyer for then-Vice President Mike Pence, and John Eastman, a lawyer who was working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team, that absolutely nails the culpability of Eastman in the events of that terrible day… The email exchange began on January 5, with Eastman attempting to push the idea that Pence had the constitutional authority to reject certain electors from swing states when the votes were counted in Congress the next day."
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