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.

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.

CHANGE: Pentagon issues new transgender policy limiting service members to birth gender.

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?

TYLER O’NEIL: Weaponizing ‘Hate:’ The Insidious SPLC Launches a Political Action Fund.

The scare quotes around “hate” are well-earned.

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.”

BRAVO:

YOU CAN’T FIRE ME. I QUIT. Avenatti: I broke up with Stormy before she broke up with me!

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Cheating scandal, Lisa Page and much, much more. “I didn’t know this kind of thing was an FBI matter, but I guess we should all be thankful the FBI isn’t busy trying to overthrow an election.”

Heh.

A REMARKABLY SCANDAL-FREE ADMINISTRATION (CONT’D): Lisa Page said FBI discussed charging Hillary Clinton with ‘gross negligence’ in 2016, and DOJ told them no.

BRAVE SIR ROBIN BRAVELY BACKED AWAY: Adam Schiff says impeachment gamble not worth it without ‘very graphic evidence.’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., rushed to the defense of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday, saying only “graphic evidence” would warrant an impeachment gamble against President Trump.

“In the absence of very graphic evidence, it would be difficult to get the support in the Senate needed to make an impeachment successful. Again, my feeling is let’s see what Bob Mueller produces. But the evidence would have to be pretty overwhelming,” Schiff told CNN.

Across the caucus, Democrats have been asked to comment about Pelosi, D-Calif., abruptly shutting the door on impeachment in an interview published Monday.

He’s letting the flock down as easily as possible.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Five of the Most Hysterical Environmentalist Claims.

SO DEREGULATE: Some Regulations Deter Private Schools from Participating in Voucher Programs.

Our overall results suggest additional government regulations, beyond those that all private schools face, largely reduce the number of options available to families. But it is possible that regulations were more likely to deter lower-quality private schools from participating in the programs. If so, regulations could have increased the quality level of the private schools participating in the hypothetical voucher programs, on average.

However, using four different measures of school quality – Google review scores, GreatSchools review scores, tuition levels, and enrollment trends – we did not find any statistically significant evidence to suggest that any of the regulations improved the average quality of participating private schools by disproportionately deterring lower-quality schools from participating.

If the purpose of regulation is to reduce participation and enrollment, rather than to increase educational opportunities, then it’s working splendidly.

BERNARD GOLDBERG: Hollywood Conservatives Live in Fear.

Once again we learn that conservatives in Hollywood mostly stay silent on the issues of the day. To do otherwise could cost them their next gig, or even their career.

Goldberg spoke to shy Hollywood conservatives as well as their ideological foes – Tinsel Town progressives. Like the best reporters, he doesn’t just engage one side of the aisle. What he found, though, should be alarming to anyone who clings to this country’s core principles.

“If you’re a conservative in Tinsel Town, it’s best to fly under the radar,” he warns. It’s why Goldberg doesn’t “name names,” affording his sources a measure of protection. It’s the kind of protection no Hollywood liberal asks for, or requires.

Today’s talent can share the most hateful, biased commentary and not fear a single repercussion. Just ask Tom Arnold, Joss Whedon or Jimmy “Blackface” Kimmel.

A Hollywood conservative, by comparison, must stay in the ideological closet lest he or she incur the industry’s wrath.

It’s not easy being a Friend of Abe.

BUT OF COURSE: ‘Gosnell’ Producer Blocked by Twitter for Defending Tucker Carlson.

I’m off Twitter entirely now. Not for the things they won’t let conservatives and libertarians say, but for the awful things it encourages anyone to say.

WELL, GOOD: Feds to Unseal Epstein Documents Revealing Scope of Billionaire’s Int’l Child Sex Trafficking Ring.

On Monday, a Manhattan appeals court gave billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s former alleged partner in crime, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, until March 19 to establish good cause as to why documents detailing the scope and size of their international child sex trafficking operation should remain sealed. Failing to do so would mean these documents will be made public.

“We’re grateful that the court ruled the summary judgment papers are open and they are moving to expedite having them unsealed,’’ said Sanford Bohrer, the attorney representing the Miami Herald. “This is very unusual for a court to do this.”

The Herald reports that the appeal is supported by 32 other media companies, including the New York Times and Washington Post.

Good on WaPo and NYT for pursuing this.

And, needless to say, “protecting rich and famous people who might be embarrassed by having cavorted with a convicted pedophile to Sex Island” is not “good cause.”

VIDEO: GreenPeace Co-Founder Says ‘The Whole Climate Crisis Is Not Only Fake News, It’s Fake Science.’

HEINLEIN’S CRAZY YEARS (CONT’D): Actress Debra Messing Posts Empowering ‘Vagina’ Cupcakes, Gets Trashed As Transphobic And Issues Apology.

PRIVACY: Former Florida police officer accused of using federal databases to prowl for women.

NEWS YOU CAN USE? How to know if you’re flying on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane.

SO THAT HAPPENED: Alyssa Milano Apologizes for Claiming to Be a Trans Gay Disabled Immigrant Lesbian of Color. “If Milano has felt the Boot of Oppression at any time in the last 20 years, it was probably Gucci and she was probably wearing it.”

ENDGAME: US withdrawing last of its embassy personnel from Venezuela.

DIGITAL HORSE, VIRTUAL BARN DOOR: Could social media become weaponized?

PLEASE CLAP: FEC fines Jeb Bush super PAC over foreign donation.

The Federal Election Commission on Monday doled out $940,000 in fines to the super PAC that backed Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential bid and a Chinese-owned corporation that made illegal donations to it.

The unusually large FEC fines came after the commission found evidence Bush’s super PAC took money from a foreign national, which is prohibited under federal election law. The super PAC, Right to Rise, was fined $390,000 for the violation, while the FEC gave an additional $550,000 fine to American Pacific International Capital, Inc. The company had donated $1.3 million to Bush’s super PAC in the spring of 2015, as Bush was gearing up for a run for president.

And:

The FEC did not find that the donations were “knowing and willful” violations of the law, according to new documents released on Monday.

The donation came after Jeb Bush’s brother Neil, who sits on the board of APIC, discussed a contribution in February 2015 with Gordon Tang, another APIC board member who is a Chinese national.

Yes, that Neil Bush.