Monday, March 31
Robert Reich
Why Trump opponents can’t find a lawyer
His campaign of vengeance against lawyers and law firms is chilling opposition to his regime, which is exactly what he wants.
Friends,
Last week I wrote to you about Trump’s crackdown on the pillars of civil society — the universities, the scientific community, the media, the legal profession, and the arts — with the clear intent of intimidating them into silence.
Today I want to take a deeper dive into what Trump’s crackdown on the legal community — especially large law firms in Washington — actually means.
Frankly, I couldn’t give a sh*t about large law firms in Washington. They make boatloads of money for their partners. Even those whose partners are active Democrats push the party rightward as they round up campaign donations from corporate C-suites and Wall Street and urge Democratic members of Congress to move to the “center.”
But Trump’s bullying of Washington law firms is cutting off the litigation lifeline for nonprofit public-interest groups to challenge his policies — which is exactly why he’s doing it.
At A Glance
When you should aim for major life milestones.
Livestream the northern lights.
Did Bob Dylan steal a song from a high schooler? (via YouTube)
Even $14K can't get South Koreans to marry each other.
The man responsible for 1,000 Time covers.
... and the best of the 2025 World Press Photos.
Watch US figure skater Ilia Malinin land six quads and a backflip. (via YouTube)
Always relocate your rhinos upside-down.
Clickbait: The icy stare of a swine showwoman transfixes a nation.
Exploring Nuclear Power
Take a turn with the nuclear reactor simulator
Do you have what it takes to operate a nuclear plant? This simulator, developed by the University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute, takes you on a tour of a virtual plant before handing you the keys to the control room. Challenge yourself to produce enough energy to meet demand while avoiding a nuclear meltdown. Play here.
Detailing the promise of nuclear power
Isabelle Boemeke is the world's first nuclear energy influencer. The young Brazilian fashion model’s assumptions about nuclear power were challenged by a tweet in 2015. Now, she debunks common objections to it through her TikTok persona, Isodope—which has 34,000 followers. Watch Boemeke’s TED Talk to find out why she’s so excited about nuclear power.
Would Oppenheimer support nuclear power today?
What would J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, think of recent efforts to expand nuclear power? Oppenheimer's grandson Charles says his grandfather would support it. While Oppenheimer referred to the bombs as “an evil thing” after the Manhattan Project, he also described nuclear energy’s potential for good. Read more here.
A virtual tour of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the site of the world's most recent nuclear meltdown, is being decommissioned. It’s a decadeslong process with lots of safety precautions. See what the Japanese plant looks like in the aftermath of the accident in this virtual tour hosted by the company in charge of shutting it down. Take the tour here.
A timeline of the Chernobyl disaster
It started as a safety test so routine the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s director didn’t attend. It ended with a series of radioactive explosions that left the surrounding area uninhabitable. The 1986 meltdown is the worst nuclear accident in history, killing dozens and impacting thousands more. This timeline gives a play-by-play of what went wrong.
Which energy sources are the safest and cleanest?
There are many different power sources out there: coal, natural gas, solar, wind and, of course, nuclear. What is the best for human health and the environment? This article asks a few tough and uncommon questions to figure it out. How many deaths are caused per unit of electricity produced, for example? Explore the answers in these charts.
Do you have what it takes to operate a nuclear plant? This simulator, developed by the University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute, takes you on a tour of a virtual plant before handing you the keys to the control room. Challenge yourself to produce enough energy to meet demand while avoiding a nuclear meltdown. Play here.
Detailing the promise of nuclear power
Isabelle Boemeke is the world's first nuclear energy influencer. The young Brazilian fashion model’s assumptions about nuclear power were challenged by a tweet in 2015. Now, she debunks common objections to it through her TikTok persona, Isodope—which has 34,000 followers. Watch Boemeke’s TED Talk to find out why she’s so excited about nuclear power.
Would Oppenheimer support nuclear power today?
What would J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, think of recent efforts to expand nuclear power? Oppenheimer's grandson Charles says his grandfather would support it. While Oppenheimer referred to the bombs as “an evil thing” after the Manhattan Project, he also described nuclear energy’s potential for good. Read more here.
A virtual tour of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the site of the world's most recent nuclear meltdown, is being decommissioned. It’s a decadeslong process with lots of safety precautions. See what the Japanese plant looks like in the aftermath of the accident in this virtual tour hosted by the company in charge of shutting it down. Take the tour here.
A timeline of the Chernobyl disaster
It started as a safety test so routine the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s director didn’t attend. It ended with a series of radioactive explosions that left the surrounding area uninhabitable. The 1986 meltdown is the worst nuclear accident in history, killing dozens and impacting thousands more. This timeline gives a play-by-play of what went wrong.
Which energy sources are the safest and cleanest?
There are many different power sources out there: coal, natural gas, solar, wind and, of course, nuclear. What is the best for human health and the environment? This article asks a few tough and uncommon questions to figure it out. How many deaths are caused per unit of electricity produced, for example? Explore the answers in these charts.
Time, Age, Health, Beauty
When males or females go to college and graduate from college, they perceive themselves as knowing everything, when in reality they know very little.
This lack of knowledge is worse these days because most college students memorize for the grade, retaining very little because of the perception that grades will get them a better job.
That is INCORRECT...
During my 45-year career from 1970 to 2015, not one employer hired me on the basis of my college grades or GPA. This included colleges and universities that hired me to teach.
But the main issue about age, health, and beauty is that all three deteriorate faster than you realize. That is to say that AGE moves by faster than one realizes even though it seems like life takes its sweet ass time passing by.
Everyone who I have ever talked to who is 60 years of age or older, swears they had no idea that time would move by so quickly... or that they took for granted the passing of time while they were trying to live life.
I am in my seventies now, been retired for ten years, and fully understand and appreciate how quickly time has passed by me. I am in relatively good health but there are many people my age, who did not take care of themselves and who are paying the price for that lifestyle now.
Whether you believe the old people or not, do yourself a favor and start thinking right now that time is flying by and that you need to take advantage of every minute you have from a variety of standpoints.
The universe doesn't care about your precious standard model
This week, ALMA researchers reported the discovery of oxygen in the most distant known galaxy. Geologists believe unusual structures in rock in the desert regions of Namibia, Oman and Saudia Arabia may be evidence of an unknown microorganism. And a group of physicists may have generated a tiny charge of electricity using the Earth's rotational energy. But the biggest story by far is the second release of data from the DESI survey of the universe, which could upend the standard model:
DESI is coming for the standard model
An emerging generation of cosmological surveys launched this week with the second release of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, which is mapping an unprecedentedly huge number of galaxies spanning 11 billion years of cosmic history in order to better understand dark energy.
Astronomers have known for many decades that the universe is expanding; in the 1990s, the first image of the cosmic microwave background—the echo of the big bang—revealed that this expansion is accelerating for unknown reasons. Astronomers call this expansion "dark energy," which translates to "we don't understand what this energy is."
Sunday, March 30
Robert Reich
Sunday thought
Comedy and tragedy
Friends,
The past week has been another horror show, and I share your anxiety and sleeplessness.
But the past week also reveals the utter incompetence of Trump and his regime.
Even The Wall Street Journal criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for trying to dismiss “Signalgate” as a hoax, calls Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff “out of his depth in dealing with world crises,” and condemns the administration for thinking “it can bully its way through anything by shouting Fake News.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) instructs the administration to “own it and fix it.”
During the ensuing uproar, Witkoff goes off the deep end, telling Tucker Carlson that Vladimir Putin is “straight up” and not a “bad guy,” claiming he’s “100 percent” certain Russia “doesn’t want to overrun Europe,” and embracing Russia’s claim that people in the seized Ukrainian territory “want to be under Russian rule.”
At A Glance
Society & Culture
> Movies that killed these actors' careers.
> The story of pizza in America.
> Mark her 100th birthday by reading Flannery O'Connor's best letters.
> How Picasso inspired an art movement.
> The history of rock 'n' roll in 60 seconds.
World History
> Tenochtitlan, the Aztec Venice of the Americas.
> The first Potomac cherry trees were planted 113 years ago.
> Who first said, "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God"?
> How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean?
> The ancient crops we've forgotten how to grow.
Business & Finance
> The bitcoin mine running on hydropower in remote Zambia.
> How one of India's poorest states became prosperous.
> Novak Djokovic's role (or lack of one) in wineries, cheese, and more.
> A look into the ongoing snack recession.
> Speaking coach shares insights on how to resolve conflict.
Health & Medicine
> Fifteen possible answers to "what is the meaning of life?"
> Why Friday surgeries are (likely) riskier.
> What's the point of pain?
> How often you should wash your water bottle.
> A town overtaken by the ergot fungus.
Science & Technology
> Inside the world's largest two-headed calf collection.
> How industrial giant Faber-Castell makes 2 billion pencils a year.
> The rise in the malicious use of drones.
> Unique "fish doorbell" lets people online open locks for fish.
> The latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Nuclear Fission
Background
Nuclear power is electricity derived from the energy at the core of an atom. Energy is released when the nucleus of an atom splits (fission) or merges with the nucleus of another atom (fusion).
Conventional nuclear power relies on fission; it accounts for nearly 20% of electricity production in the United States and 10% worldwide. But we’re still learning how to utilize fusion reactions.
Nuclear plants take years and cost tens of billions of dollars to build, but they don’t produce greenhouse gases and have large generating capacities. See a map of active US nuclear plants here.
History
Nuclear fission was discovered in 1938 in a Berlin laboratory. It was quickly co-opted by the Axis and Allied powers racing to create destructive weapons during World War II. The top-secret American effort, known as the Manhattan Project, produced the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945.
Six years later, in a rural Idaho desert, the US built the world’s first nuclear power plant. At first, it could power only four 200-watt light bulbs. Today, nuclear power accounts for roughly half of carbon-free electricity in the US.
Most US nuclear reactors were built between 1967 and 1990. Further construction became hindered, however, for a variety of reasons, including construction time, cost, safety concerns, and the introduction of cheap natural gas.
How It Works
All commercially operating nuclear plants generate power via fission, and most use uranium as fuel. The silvery-white metal is mined, milled, and then enriched (see overview).
When a neutron hits these uranium atoms, it sets off a chain reaction (visualize here). As the atoms split into smaller atoms and neutrons, they release energy in the form of heat and radiation. The heat is used to boil water. The resulting steam is funneled through a large turbine, causing it to spin and produce electricity that’s fed to the power grid.
Spent uranium fuel must be carefully cooled and buried underground because it’s highly radioactive and capable of damaging or killing cells in living things. Read about the long-standing debate over waste storage here.
Meltdowns are rare but dangerous accidents that occur when the core of a reactor overheats and melts. Radioactive materials can escape into the surrounding area, poisoning nearby communities and ecosystems. The worst meltdowns occurred at Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant in 1986 and Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011. The most serious domestic accident was a partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979.
While it's difficult to trace diseases back to radiation exposure, studies have linked the Chernobyl meltdown to increased cancer prevalence, and these accidents have severely damaged public perception of nuclear power.
Future
The advent of power-hungry data centers and the race to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury have renewed interest in nuclear power. The Biden administration unveiled a roadmap to triple the nation’s nuclear capacity by 2050, and tech giants at the forefront of AI have also announced multibillion-dollar investments in nuclear power.
Since building traditional reactors is so expensive and time-intensive, significant attention is being given to restarting mothballed reactors and developing small modular reactors, which produce less power but are safer and cheaper.
Scientists have also spent decades trying to generate power from fusion, which could bring more low-carbon electricity to the grid without producing long-lasting nuclear waste. They achieved a breakthrough in California Dec. 5, 2022, sparking a fusion reaction that created more energy than it used. The feat, known as ignition, has since been replicated with steadily increasing energy yields.
In The NEWS
Utah becomes first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water.
Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed legislation Thursday preventing people or government entities from adding fluoride to water systems in the state, effective May 7. Fluoride is a mineral that helps inhibit or reverse cavities and tooth decay and can be naturally found in water, soil, and rocks (see overview). As of 2022, roughly 44% of Utah's population received fluoridated water, according to the CDC (see stats)—among the lowest in the US.
State Department formally notifies Congress it is dissolving USAID.
The State Department officially informed Congress of its plan to shutter the US Agency for International Development and transfer some of its functions to the department by July 1. The move, expected to face legal challenges, comes after the Trump administration laid off thousands of USAID employees and revoked funding for over 80% of the agency's programs. The administration has argued USAID mismanaged taxpayer funds and supported programs not aligned with US interests. See our previous write-up here.
Nearly 500 cases of measles reported across 20 states, per CDC.
As of Friday, the measles outbreak in Texas had infected 400 people, while four other states are also experiencing outbreaks. The outbreaks—defined as three or more cases—include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio, and Oklahoma. In total, the US has 483 confirmed measles cases, with 157 cases in children under the age of 5 and 204 in those between the ages of 5 and 19. See data from the CDC here.
CoreWeave begins trading on Nasdaq after raising $1.5B in IPO.
The Nvidia-backed cloud computing firm provides graphics processing unit infrastructure to artificial intelligence developers. Its initial public offering is the largest tech IPO since 2021 after selling 37.5 million shares priced at $40 each. CoreWeave initially planned to sell 49 million shares for between $47 and $55 each. Its shares began trading at $39 each Friday and closed at $40. Learn more about IPOs on our 1440 Topics page.
Trump pardons Nikola founder Trevor Milton in securities fraud case.
Milton was convicted in October 2022 on securities and wire fraud charges for falsely claiming to investors about the success of Nikola's electric and hydrogen-powered trucks. He was sentenced to four years in prison (but had been free on a $100M bail while appealing the case). President Donald Trump's pardon exempts Milton from serving prison time and paying restitution to Nikola shareholders, though he may still face civil lawsuits.
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Deporting Criminals
Do you want criminals from foreign countries living in our country selling drugs, trafficking in females and males, stealing, and committing other crimes because the previous government allowed them to enter this country unmolested?
Forget the fact that they entered this country, do you want these kinds of people living in the the USA?
We heard that the NUMBER THREE man for MS-13 was caught in Dale City, Virginia a few days ago.
Well... my wife's sister called that night and said that person was living five miles from her house.
NOW... there is a group of Democrats who have hired themselves a lawyer to prevent the Trump Administration from DEPORTING members of TREN DE ARAGUA, the notorious gang from El Salvador.
Trump has designated this gang as a terrorist group and there are Americans who want this terrorist group to remain in the USA... WHY?
Do they want this terrorist group to remain in the USA because they HATE TRUMP or because they want a TERRORIST GROUP to operate here in the USA?
Neither answer makes much sense to me.
Curiosity rover cracked open a rock and may have settled the 'life on Mars' debate
Imagine taking a leisurely Sunday drive, and you accidentally smash something on the road that turns out to be an unprecedented scientific revelation. Well, that’s exactly what happened to NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover when it struck yellow sulfur on the Red Planet.
While working its usual Martian shift, the rover stumbled upon, rather drove over, a rock and cracked it wide open, revealing a sight never before seen on Mars – a dazzling display of yellow sulfur crystals.
This unexpected discovery was relayed to a team of astounded scientists, including Ashwin Vasavada, the Curiosity’s project scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Saturday, March 29
Robert Reich
Is the Trump Fever Breaking? | Saturday Coffee Klatch for March 29, 2025
With Heather Lofthouse and yours truly, Robert Reich
Friends,
Today Heather and I assess how far the Trump regime is falling — starting with this week’s “Signalgate” fiasco, the regime’s increasing detention of international students without due process of law, wildly unconstitutional executive orders, brainless tariffs, and coming assault on Greenland (of all places).
We also take a look at how voters seem to be responding — overwhelmingly against Trump and Musk — and ask if the Trump fever is finally breaking.
Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our survey, and join the conversation.
With Heather Lofthouse and yours truly, Robert Reich
Friends,
Today Heather and I assess how far the Trump regime is falling — starting with this week’s “Signalgate” fiasco, the regime’s increasing detention of international students without due process of law, wildly unconstitutional executive orders, brainless tariffs, and coming assault on Greenland (of all places).
We also take a look at how voters seem to be responding — overwhelmingly against Trump and Musk — and ask if the Trump fever is finally breaking.
Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our survey, and join the conversation.
At A Glance
Bookkeeping
> 25: The number of 3-pointers made by Alabama in an NCAA game against BYU, breaking the record for most 3-pointers in a March Madness game.
> 1.5 feet: The longest tail ever on a domestic living cat. See photos of Pugsley.
Browse
> MLB's most-followed mascots.
> Kermit the Frog college commencement speaker.
> USPS officially releases Betty White stamps.
> Earth’s five catastrophic mass extinctions, explained.
> Astrophotographer captures stunning shots of the world's skies.
Listen
> How to find your purpose and fill your life with small joys.
Watch
> Inside the multimillion-dollar office building featured in "Severance."
> Why only some people can see the Hat Man during sleep paralysis.
> The man who makes pizzas on an active Guatemalan volcano.
Long Read
> How volunteering can help you stay healthier and more fulfilled later in life.
> The ancient "forest" that kept Venice afloat for more than 1,600 years.
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