Friday, January 24
Thursday, January 23
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner voted into 2025 class of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Suzuki becomes first Japanese-born player elected to Hall of Fame (More) | Novak Djokovic tops Carlos Alcaraz to reach Australian Open men’s semifinals (More)
> Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, screenwriter, and cartoonist, dies at age 95 (More) | Garth Hudson, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and last surviving member of The Band, dies at age 87 (More)
> Comedian Trevor Noah tapped to host Grammy Awards (Feb. 2) for a fifth consecutive time (More) | Netflix adds record-breaking 19 million subscribers in Q4; platform raises prices for ad-support tier to $7.99, standard tier to $17.99, and premium tier to $24.99 (More)
Science & Technology
> Chinese AI lab DeepSeek releases large language model it says rivals OpenAI's o1 model in reasoning and performance; model released under MIT license, allowing commercial use (More)
> Engineers develop desalination technology to create safe drinking water from salt water at a 15% reduction in cost from current approaches (More)
> Transplant of fibers from the soles of patients' feet makes areas like the thighs more resistant to rashes and wounds; technique may eliminate contact damage for people with prosthetics (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +0.9%, Dow +1.3%, Nasdaq +0.6%) as investors digest President Donald Trump's first policy moves (More) | Reddit shares rise over 7% to record high after analysts reiterate "strong buy" rating (More)
> Trump announces $500B in infrastructure investments for artificial intelligence through new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank (More)
> Smithfield Foods—largest US pork producer—sets initial public offering terms, targeting up to $10.7B valuation; expects to raise up to $940M in biggest food company listing in the US since oat milk maker Oatly raised $1.4B in 2021 (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Israeli military chief to resign in March, citing failure to prevent Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack (More) | Israeli forces launch operation in West Bank city of Jenin (More) | Taliban frees two Americans held in Afghanistan in prisoner swap (More)
> At least 76 people killed, 51 injured in ski resort fire in northwestern Turkey; hotel owner and eight others arrested as authorities investigate cause of blaze (More)
> New fires break out in San Diego area, including Lilac Fire, which has burned 85 acres and is 50% contained as of this writing (More) | Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire in Los Angeles are so far 65% and 89% contained, respectively (More, w/map)
Time - Age - Attitude
Scientists Discover Super-Earth
An international research team, led by scientists from Japan and Europe, has identified a new multi-planet system orbiting a Sun-like star. Among the discoveries is an ultra-short period planet with one of the highest densities ever recorded. These findings, published on November 8 in Nature Scientific Reports, provide fresh insights into how planets form and evolve under extreme conditions.
The system, designated K2-360, is located approximately 750 light-years from Earth and features two planets orbiting a Sun-like star:
- K2-360 b: A rocky “super-Earth” that is about 1.6 times the size of Earth and completes an orbit around its star in just 21 hours. With a mass 7.7 times that of Earth, it is the densest well-characterized ultra-short period planet discovered to date.
- K2-360 c: A larger outer planet with a minimum mass of 15 Earth masses. This planet orbits its star every 9.8 days but does not transit, making its exact size uncertain. READ MORE...
Wednesday, January 22
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "FireAid" benefit concert (Jan. 30) expands as Olivia Rodrigo joins Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, and more at fundraiser for Los Angeles wildfire relief (More)
> Lynne Taylor-Corbett, two-time Tony-nominated choreographer known for "Swing!" and "Footloose," dies at age 78 (More) | Cecile Richards, former Planned Parenthood president, dies of cancer at age 67 (More)
> Man arrested in Jan. 16 stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan; Khan is currently recovering in a hospital (More)
Science & Technology
> X, Bluesky roll out vertical video feeds as the status of TikTok—the short-form video-sharing platform that relies largely on the format—remains in limbo (More)
> Study suggests sleeping pills restrict the brain's ability to clear cellular waste from the brain during non-REM sleep cycles (More) | Learn how the brain uses cerebrospinal fluid to clear waste (More)
> Researchers detail the evolution of bacteria behind Pierce's disease, which decimates grapevines and causes $100M in annual losses in California alone; specimen was isolated from a 120-year-old grapevine sample (More)
Business & Markets
> Annual World Economic Forum begins in ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland, hosting government leaders, multinational CEOs, and global financiers (More) | Billionaire wealth grew by $2T in 2024, report finds; at least five trillionaires expected to emerge over next decade (More)
> Bitcoin hits new record above $109K after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump launched a pair of meme coins; bitcoin has jumped roughly 40% since Trump was elected in November (More)
> Apple under investigation by Belgium for allegedly using "blood minerals" from the Democratic Republic of Congo—mineral sources that finance armed conflict and are associated with human rights abuses (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Vivek Ramaswamy (R) to run for Ohio governor and leave colead role on President Donald Trump's federal spending watchdog group, known as the Department of Government Efficiency (More) | Senate confirms Marco Rubio (R) as secretary of state (More)
> UK teen pleads guilty to murder in July 2024 stabbings of three girls at Taylor Swift-themed dance class (More) | China executes two men for separate deadly attacks in November; one man killed 35 people in car rampage, another man killed eight people in school knife attack (More)
> At least 100 people killed and 11,000 displaced from guerrilla violence in Colombia following the government's failed peace talks with the rival National Liberation Army (More)
Climate Change
Roughly 1.3 billion years from now, "humans will not be able to physiologically survive, in nature, on Earth" due to sustained hot and humid conditions. In about 2 billion years, the oceans may evaporate when the sun's luminosity is nearly 20% more than it is now..." Kopparapu said.
Ravi Kopparapu, is a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told Live Science.
It would appear that we have a few years before there is anything that we really need to worry about...
I guess what bothers me about this is the fact that all these climate control scientists say that if we don't reverse our current pollution by 40% by 2030 that earth only has 20 years of habitability left.
It is because the Democratic party believed this that the Biden administration tried to push EVs on Americans to force them away from Petroleum Crude Oil and gasoline.
The American people rejected that approach, but it did not negate the fact that half the USA believes that climate changes is going to destroy the planet in a few short years.
Their worries are coming from several PhDs who believe their concerns are valid...
So, why is this NASA scientist saying something differently???
China Outnumbers US
After being overtaken by China in naval strength, a senior US military official has now warned that by 2027, China’s modern fighter jet fleet will outnumber US forces about 12 to 1 in key regions of the Western Pacific.
Brigadier General Doug Wickert, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base, shared the information regarding the anticipated dominance of Chinese aerial power during the Back-in-the-Saddle Day event on January 6.
The US Air Force General stated that the speed at which China is modernizing its military is “unprecedented,” further noting that it is “far outpacing” comparable modernization efforts by the United States.
The warning follows the PLA’s introduction of two new combat aircraft on December 26, touted as sixth-generation fighter jets, to celebrate Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong’s birthday. READ MORE...























