Archive for 2019
March 13, 2019
SCIENCE: 50 Years Later, Precious Moon Samples Will Finally Be Opened.
During the Apollo missions, NASA smartly set aside some lunar materials knowing future scientists would likely be better equipped to analyze them. Now, nearly 50 years later, the space agency is giving a select group of researchers the extraordinary opportunity to study these unopened and untarnished samples.
Nine proposals to study unopened Apollo samples were selected by NASA under its Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis program, or ANGSA, according to a NASA Goddard press release. The lunar materials were collected during Apollo 15 (the fourth lunar mission, which began on July 26, 1971) and Apollo 17 (the sixth and final lunar mission, which commenced on December 7, 1972). Some of the returned samples were never opened to prevent possible contamination, while other lunar materials, after some initial processing, were re-sealed and placed in cold storage.
The point of all this was to ensure the integrity of lunar materials for later study, allowing future scientists—equipped with new technologies and new questions—to take a look. Given that no lunar materials have returned to Earth since 1972, this was a remarkably prescient idea.
The guys who ran Apollo were pretty sharp, and no one seemed to care what shirts they wore.
The real shame of this though is that it’s been nearly 50 years since we collected any Moon samples.
THAT’S DIFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
● Shot:
Biden covered a number of potential campaign themes, the AP noted, including criticizing Trump and Republicans on policies he said favored the wealthy. He also warned of the divisiveness in politics.
“We can’t be divided by, race religion, by tribe. We’re defined by those enduring principles in the Constitution, even though we don’t necessarily all know them. In America everybody gets a shot,” Biden said. “That’s what I don’t think this current president understands at all.”
—“‘Run Joe, run’: Biden criticizes Trump amid reports of a possible 2020 run,” USA Today, yesterday.
● Chaser: Biden tells African-American audience GOP ticket would put them “back in chains.”
—CBS News, August 14, 2012.
HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): Courage Award Recipients Chosen By Connecticut Sports Writers.
Highly decorated track athletes Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell High School and Terry Miller of Bloomfield High School have been selected co-recipients of the 2019 Bob Casey Courage Award by the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance.
Both juniors, Yearwood and Miller are transgender athletes in girls track who have won individual Connecticut state track championships in multiple sprint events. Miller, who previously attended Hartford’s Bulkeley High School, recently won New England indoor track championships in the 55 and 300 meters.
Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference rules allow high school athletes to compete based on their gender identity, rules supported by Connecticut state law.
The teenage girls have publicly and courageously championed the rights of transgender high school athletes.
And the right of actual teenage girls to compete on a level playing field? Sorry, ladies, but your Progressive “allies” don’t find you intersectional enough to matter.
THE LEFT’S WEAKNESS: “Deep, burning class rage.” Of the lower-upper-middle-class toward the upper-upper-middle-class, of course, which is the most heartfelt class rage there is. “I work in book publishing in New York, which definitely compounds this problem.”
Read the comments. My favorite: “‘Class rage’ but with an MFA. What you’re evoking with the phrase ‘class rage’ is pseudo Marxist, but in the end, this article is about counting the zeros in your peers’ bank accounts. You live with a lot of privilege. Try having some gratitude for that.”
UNDER PRESSURE: Google Quietly Adds DuckDuckGo As A Search Engine Option.
In an update to the chromium engine, which underpins Google’s popular Chrome browser, the search giant has quietly updated the lists of default search engines it offers per market — expanding the choice of search product users can pick from in markets around the world. Most notably it’s expanded search engine lists to include pro-privacy rivals in more than 60 markets globally. The changes, which appear to have been pushed out with the Chromium 73 stable release yesterday, come at a time when Google is facing rising privacy and antitrust scrutiny and accusations of market distorting behavior at home and abroad.
A few words from President Trump and Senator Warren, and . . . .
MARK PULLIAM: Getting Over The New Deal with Janus.
MY LOCALLY-OWNED GUN SHOP HAS LOWER PRICES, BETTER SELECTION, AND IS RUN BY MUCH BETTER PEOPLE: Dick’s Sporting Goods Going After Guns Again.
ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: AOC EDITION. Can anyone this mal-informed be real?
AT THE VERY LEAST, THE DEBATE SHOULD EMBARRASS PROGRESSIVES: School Choice for All? While Betsy DeVos’ plan to use federal tax credits to provide “education freedom scholarships” may seem like a political non-starter, Max Eden argues that it could happen: “Any federal school-choice initiative has at least two obstacles: conservatives are wary of “federal” and progressives hate “school choice.” But EFS potentially has appeal for both sides.”
TYLER O’NEIL: Weaponizing ‘Hate:’ The Insidious SPLC Launches a Political Action Fund.
The scare quotes around “hate” are well-earned.
COLLEGES CONTINUE TO TRY TO INCREASE MINORITY STEM MAJORS: But they’re still refusing to put away their political correctness and do the most obvious thing to achieve that goal. Sometimes it is hard to take them seriously.
SOD OFF, SWAMPY: F-35 opponents shift focus to nuclear risks. “A new citizens group is raising alarms about the nuclear capacity of the F-35 fighter jet.”
BUFF WITH FRIENDS: Off the coast of Guam, a B-52 flies in formation with U.S., Japanese and Australian fighters.
JOHN HINDERAKER: Exposing the Real Costs of “Green” Energy.
Full report here.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Universities have created a generation of intolerant white liberals. Here’s how.
YOU CAN’T FIRE ME. I QUIT. Avenatti: I broke up with Stormy before she broke up with me!
GREEN NEW STEAL: Hans Bader finds that Americans are happy to support the Green New Deal – so long as others pay for it. Which reminds me of this classic Onion piece.
THAT’S THE PROPER RESPONSE: Profs say UWyoming ‘cowboy’ slogan is offensive. UWyoming says get over it.
