Thursday, March 13
How to see tonight's lunar eclipse.
The actor who inspired Homer Simpson's "D'oh!"
Australian school learns boulder is actually dinosaur fossil.
The short and somewhat odd history of pickleball. (via YouTube)
How animals sound across languages.
Boy calls the cops after his mother ate his ice cream.
The hair fashion show at Minnesota's high school hockey tournament.
B-Dubs unveils multivision goggles for March Madness fans.
Clickbait: TSA finds live turtle in man's pants.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "Othello," starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, hauls in $2.8M to break record for highest-grossing week for a Broadway play (More)
> Wendy Williams taken to hospital after being removed from her assisted-living home following a wellness check by NYC police (More) | Stanley R. Jaffe, Oscar-winning producer known for "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Fatal Attraction," dies at age 84 (More)
> College basketball conference championship week is under way; see schedules and odds for the men's tournaments (More) | ... and complete schedule for the women's tournaments (More)
Science & Technology
> Researchers demonstrate recycling process that breaks down common plastics using only an inexpensive catalyst and moisture pulled from the air (More)
> Scientists create "berkelocene," the first metallic compound using the element berkelium; with an atomic number of 97, the achievement sheds light on chemistry with elements heavier than uranium (More)
> Water droplets flowing across a surface generate as much as 10 times more electric charge than previously believed; results shed light on the microscopic physics of interfaces, may lead to improved fuel systems (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.8%, Dow -1.1%, Nasdaq -0.2%) amid trade policy uncertainty (More)
> Ontario, Canada, temporarily suspends planned 25% surcharge on electricity exported to US states; comes after President Donald Trump vowed to raise Canadian steel and aluminum imports tariffs to 50% before reversing course (More)
> US job openings rose to 7.7 million in January, after falling in December, per the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Education Department sends reduction-in-force notices to 1,315 staffers yesterday evening, while 572 employees have accepted separation packages in recent weeks and 63 probationary workers were laid off last month; roughly 50% of around 4,000 agency employees have been let go (More)
> House Republicans vote 217-213 to pass bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, includes increasing military spending by $6B and rolling back $20B in IRS funding; bill heads to Senate ahead of shutdown deadline at midnight Friday (More) | Former US Rep. Katie Porter (D, CA-47) to run for California governor (More)
> UK police arrest 59-year-old man on suspicion of manslaughter a day after a container ship struck an oil tanker in the North Sea, leaving one crew member missing and presumed dead; 36 others were rescued alive (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
y (More) > Ontario, Canada, temporarily suspends planned 25% surcharge on electricity exported to US states; comes after President Donald Trump vowed to raise Canadian steel and aluminum imports tariffs to 50% before reversing course (More) > US job openings rose to 7.7 million in January, after falling in December, per the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report (More) Politics & World Affairs > Education Department sends reduction-in-force notices to 1,315 staffers yesterday evening, while 572 employees have accepted separation packages in recent weeks and 63 probationary workers were laid off last month; roughly 50% of around 4,000 agency employees have been let go (More) > House Republicans vote 217-213 to pass bill to fund the government through Sept. 30, includes increasing military spending by $6B and rolling back $20B in IRS funding; bill heads to Senate ahead of shutdown deadline at midnight Friday (More) | Former US Rep. Katie Porter (D, CA-47) to run for California governor (More) > UK police arrest 59-year-old man on suspicion of manslaughter a day after a container ship struck an oil tanker in the North Sea, leaving one crew member missing and presumed dead; 36 others were rescued alive (More) |
POV of a layman
to see what global countries in 2022 charged a tariff on imported goods from the USA.
While I did not count myself, it appears that almost every country in the world charged us some sort of tariff to protect their own goods.
What do tariffs accomplish?
Simply put...
I place a tariff on the goods I import from your country, it makes your goods more expensive relative to the cost of my goods, so my citizens in order to save money, will buy local goods rather than imported goods.
IN MY OPINION...
The problem with tariffs, especially in the USA, is that, if the US goods are cheaper to buy than imported goods, like:
- Cars
- Computers
- Cell phone
Then what incentive, do I have as a company, to invest money into my manufacturing process to improve the quality of my product?
I have no incentive because my goods are cheaper and the consumer will buy my product.
So, why would any government want to protect their companies like that so their citizens are buy poor quality products?
Does not seem very smart to me unless the GENERAL PUBLIC is not that smart and does not realize what is happening to them...
Something to ponder.
New Theory Bridges Quantum Mechanics and Gravity
Diagrammatic representation of the entropic quantum gravity action. The action for gravity is given by the quantum relative entropy between the metric of the manifold and the metric induced by the matter field and the geometry. Image Credit: Queen Mary University of London
In a recent study that was published in Physical Review D, Queen Mary University of London Professor Ginestra Bianconi, offered a novel framework with the potential to completely alter knowledge of gravity and how it relates to quantum mechanics.
The study bridges the gap between Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics, two of the most fundamental but seemingly incompatible theories in physics, by introducing a novel method that derives gravity from quantum relative entropy.
The Challenge of Quantum Gravity
Physicists have been trying for decades to make sense of the differences between general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity explains the force of gravity on cosmic scales, whereas quantum mechanics controls the behavior of particles at the smallest scales. One of the most elusive objectives in contemporary science has been to bring these two frameworks together. READ MORE...
The study bridges the gap between Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics, two of the most fundamental but seemingly incompatible theories in physics, by introducing a novel method that derives gravity from quantum relative entropy.
The Challenge of Quantum Gravity
Physicists have been trying for decades to make sense of the differences between general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity explains the force of gravity on cosmic scales, whereas quantum mechanics controls the behavior of particles at the smallest scales. One of the most elusive objectives in contemporary science has been to bring these two frameworks together. READ MORE...
Wednesday, March 12
At A Glance
Why honey never expires—really.
Eighty-five women who made history.
The tale of Nikola Tesla's "mind-controlled" boat.
Visualizing the best age to take Social Security.
How do two-way mirrors work?
The 100 best sports moments in the last 25 years.
Vegetable-playing orchestra wins world record.
The octopus that takes drastic measures to survive mating.
Clickbait: The hologram doctor will see you now.
SNACKS
PUBLISHED BY 
We analyzed dozens of ultra-processed snacks. These are the healthiest options.
(Linnea Bullion for The Post)
Eating better snacks can have a positive impact on your health.
By Anahad O’Connor
Read more
We analyzed dozens of ultra-processed snacks. These are the healthiest options.
(Linnea Bullion for The Post)
Eating better snacks can have a positive impact on your health.
By Anahad O’Connor
Read more
Robert Reich
A view from France
Mar 11
Friends,
From time to time, I bring you views from outside the United States on what we are enduring here. The following is an English translation of a speech made last week by by Claude Malhuret, a French senator who is largely unknown outside France. Malhuret’s words are chillingly relevant to what is now happening in the United States.
Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is slipping, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened.
Washington has become the court of Nero, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a jester high on ketamine in charge of purging the civil service.
This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you.
The ‘king of the deal’ is showing what the art of the deal is on his stomach. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down in front of Putin, but Xi Jinping, seeing such a submissiveness, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.
Never in history has a US President capitulated to the enemy. Never has any one of them supported an aggressor against an ally, trampled on the US Constitution, issued so many illegal executive orders, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, dismissed the military senior staff in one fell swoop, weakened all checks and balances, and taken control of social media.
This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.
I have faith in the strength of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.
Eight days ago, at the very moment that Trump was rubbing Macron’s back in the White House, the United States voted at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to bend or resign.
Tonight, he took another step into infamy by stopping the delivery of weapons that had been promised. What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: confront it.
And first of all, let’s not be mistaken. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.
The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it.
What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with as its first principle the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.
This idea is at the core of the United Nations, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries.
“Give me Greenland, Panama, and Canada. You can get Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. He can get Taiwan and the China Sea.”
In the dinners of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago, they call this “diplomatic realism.”
So we are now standing alone. But the idea that Putin cannot be confronted is false. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second largest army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country three times less populated.
Interest rates at 25 percent, the collapse of foreign exchange and gold reserves, the demographic collapse, all show that [Russia] is on the brink of the abyss. The American helping hand to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made in a war.
The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives.
Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that it holds out, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation.
This will be costly. It will be necessary to end the taboo of using frozen Russian assets [and] circumvent Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only the willing countries, which includes, of course, the United Kingdom.
Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.
Finally—and this is the most urgent because it is what will take the most time—we must build a European defense, too-long neglected to the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.
Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a way to recognize that France has been right for decades in arguing for strategic autonomy.
It remains to build it.
It will be necessary to invest massively, strengthen the European Defense Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate the entry into the [European] Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, relaunch the anti-missile defense and satellite programs.
The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And much more will be needed.
Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be implemented. For good.
But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.
We must convince public opinion against war weariness and fear, and especially in the face of Putin’s cronies, the far right and the far left.
They argued again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defense.
They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of “de Gaulle Zelensky” by a “Ukrainian Pétain” at Putin’s beck and call. The peace of the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years.
Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great.
But in the last few days, the public humiliation of Zelensky and all the crazy decisions taken during the past month have finally made the Americans react.
Polls are falling. Republican lawmakers are being greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.
The Trumpists are no longer in their majesty. They control the executive, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social networks.
But in American history, the defenders of freedom have always prevailed. They are beginning to raise their heads.
The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the US who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, find the means for their common defense, and make Europe the power it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again.
Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost.
The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.
Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.
Mar 11
Friends,
From time to time, I bring you views from outside the United States on what we are enduring here. The following is an English translation of a speech made last week by by Claude Malhuret, a French senator who is largely unknown outside France. Malhuret’s words are chillingly relevant to what is now happening in the United States.
Europe is at a critical turning point in its history. The American shield is slipping, Ukraine risks being abandoned, Russia strengthened.
Washington has become the court of Nero, an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a jester high on ketamine in charge of purging the civil service.
This is a tragedy for the free world, but it is first and foremost a tragedy for the United States. Trump’s message is that there is no point in being his ally since he will not defend you, he will impose higher tariffs on you than on his enemies and will threaten to seize your territories while supporting the dictatorships that invade you.
The ‘king of the deal’ is showing what the art of the deal is on his stomach. He thinks he will intimidate China by lying down in front of Putin, but Xi Jinping, seeing such a submissiveness, is probably accelerating preparations for the invasion of Taiwan.
Never in history has a US President capitulated to the enemy. Never has any one of them supported an aggressor against an ally, trampled on the US Constitution, issued so many illegal executive orders, dismissed judges who could have prevented him from doing so, dismissed the military senior staff in one fell swoop, weakened all checks and balances, and taken control of social media.
This is not an illiberal drift, it is the beginning of the confiscation of democracy. Let us remember that it took only one month, three weeks and two days to bring down the Weimar Republic and its Constitution.
I have faith in the strength of American democracy, and the country is already protesting. But in one month, Trump has done more harm to America than in four years of his last presidency. We were at war with a dictator, now we are fighting a dictator backed by a traitor.
Eight days ago, at the very moment that Trump was rubbing Macron’s back in the White House, the United States voted at the UN with Russia and North Korea against the Europeans demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Two days later, in the Oval Office, the military service shirker was giving war hero Zelensky lessons in morality and strategy before dismissing him like a groom, ordering him to bend or resign.
Tonight, he took another step into infamy by stopping the delivery of weapons that had been promised. What to do in the face of this betrayal? The answer is simple: confront it.
And first of all, let’s not be mistaken. The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe. The Baltic States, Georgia, Moldova are already on the list. Putin’s goal is to return to Yalta, where half the continent was ceded to Stalin.
The countries of the South are waiting for the outcome of the conflict to decide whether they should continue to respect Europe or whether they are now free to trample on it.
What Putin wants is the end of the order put in place by the United States and its allies 80 years ago, with as its first principle the prohibition of acquiring territory by force.
This idea is at the core of the United Nations, where today Americans vote in favor of the aggressor and against the attacked, because the Trumpian vision coincides with that of Putin: a return to spheres of influence, the great powers dictating the fate of small countries.
“Give me Greenland, Panama, and Canada. You can get Ukraine, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe. He can get Taiwan and the China Sea.”
In the dinners of the oligarchs of the Gulf of Mar-a-Lago, they call this “diplomatic realism.”
So we are now standing alone. But the idea that Putin cannot be confronted is false. Contrary to the Kremlin’s propaganda, Russia is in bad shape. In three years, the so-called second largest army in the world has managed to grab only crumbs from a country three times less populated.
Interest rates at 25 percent, the collapse of foreign exchange and gold reserves, the demographic collapse, all show that [Russia] is on the brink of the abyss. The American helping hand to Putin is the biggest strategic mistake ever made in a war.
The shock is violent, but it has a virtue. Europeans are coming out of denial. They understood in one day in Munich that the survival of Ukraine and the future of Europe are in their hands and that they have three imperatives.
Accelerate military aid to Ukraine to compensate for the American abandonment, so that it holds out, and of course to impose its presence and that of Europe in any negotiation.
This will be costly. It will be necessary to end the taboo of using frozen Russian assets [and] circumvent Moscow’s accomplices within Europe itself by a coalition of only the willing countries, which includes, of course, the United Kingdom.
Second, demand that any agreement be accompanied by the return of kidnapped children, prisoners and absolute security guarantees. After Budapest, Georgia and Minsk, we know what agreements with Putin are worth. These guarantees require sufficient military force to prevent a new invasion.
Finally—and this is the most urgent because it is what will take the most time—we must build a European defense, too-long neglected to the benefit of the American umbrella since 1945 and scuttled since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It is a Herculean task, but it is on its success or failure that the leaders of today’s democratic Europe will be judged in the history books.
Friedrich Merz has just declared that Europe needs its own military alliance. This is a way to recognize that France has been right for decades in arguing for strategic autonomy.
It remains to build it.
It will be necessary to invest massively, strengthen the European Defense Fund outside the Maastricht debt criteria, harmonize weapons and munitions systems, accelerate the entry into the [European] Union of Ukraine, which is today the leading European army, rethink the place and conditions of nuclear deterrence based on French and British capabilities, relaunch the anti-missile defense and satellite programs.
The plan announced yesterday by Ursula von der Leyen is a very good starting point. And much more will be needed.
Europe will only become a military power again by becoming an industrial power again. In a word, the Draghi report will have to be implemented. For good.
But the real rearmament of Europe is its moral rearmament.
We must convince public opinion against war weariness and fear, and especially in the face of Putin’s cronies, the far right and the far left.
They argued again yesterday in the National Assembly, Mr Prime Minister, before you, against European unity, against European defense.
They say they want peace. What neither they nor Trump say is that their peace is capitulation, the peace of defeat, the replacement of “de Gaulle Zelensky” by a “Ukrainian Pétain” at Putin’s beck and call. The peace of the collaborators who have refused any aid to the Ukrainians for three years.
Is this the end of the Atlantic Alliance? The risk is great.
But in the last few days, the public humiliation of Zelensky and all the crazy decisions taken during the past month have finally made the Americans react.
Polls are falling. Republican lawmakers are being greeted by hostile crowds in their constituencies. Even Fox News is becoming critical.
The Trumpists are no longer in their majesty. They control the executive, Congress, the Supreme Court, and social networks.
But in American history, the defenders of freedom have always prevailed. They are beginning to raise their heads.
The fate of Ukraine is being played out in the trenches, but it also depends on those in the US who want to defend democracy, and here on our ability to unite Europeans, find the means for their common defense, and make Europe the power it once was in history and that it hesitates to become again.
Our parents defeated fascism and communism at great cost.
The task of our generation is to defeat the totalitarianisms of the 21st century.
Long live free Ukraine, long live democratic Europe.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Michelle Obama and her brother, former college basketball coach Craig Robinson, launch "IMO" podcast, produced by Obama's media company Higher Ground (More)
> UEFA Champions League knockout stage second leg kicks off today; see full schedule and storylines (More) | Stephen Curry takes assistant general manager role for men's and women's basketball at his alma mater, Davidson College (More)
> Grammy-winning rapper Doechii named Billboard’s 2025 Woman of the Year (More) | Los Angeles district attorney withdraws request to reduce sentencing in high-profile Menendez brothers murder case (More)
Science & Technology
> NASA to eliminate the agency's office of the chief scientists and other roles as part of Trump administration's reduction in force (More)
> Analysis questions Microsoft's recent announcement of a quantum computer relying on exotic Majorana particles, arguing the test used to confirm performance was insufficient (More) | See previous write-up (More)
> New study suggests megalodons—a prehistoric shark considered to be one of the largest predators in history—grew up to 80 feet long, weighed 94 tons, and was shaped like a blue whale (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets slide (S&P 500 -2.7%, Dow -2.1%, Nasdaq -4.0%); Nasdaq records worst day since 2022 as tariff policies worry investors over health of US economy (More) | Tesla shares fall over 15% in steepest drop since 2020 (More)
> Mortgage giant Rocket Companies to acquire digital real estate brokerage Redfin and take it private for $1.75B; Redfin shares close up nearly 68% on the news (More)
> Nirvana Insurance secures $80M in Series C funding, valuing the AI-driven commercial trucking insurer at $830M (More) | Venture capital 101 (1440 Topics)
Politics & World Affairs
> Senate confirms former Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R) to lead the Labor Department (More) | House to vote today on stopgap funding bill ahead of Friday shutdown deadline (More) | US secretary of state says 83% of USAID programs will be cut (More) | Judge blocks deportation of Palestinian student who led Columbia University protests against Israel, pending ruling on petition; student has lawful permanent residency in the US (More)
> Cargo ship carrying toxic chemicals crashes with US oil tanker in the North Sea off England's east coast; cause of fiery collision unknown, 37 people from both vessels brought ashore alive (More)
> Guatemala's Volcano of Fire erupts, forcing 300 families to evacuate and putting another 30,000 at risk; the volcano, about 33 miles from Guatemala's capital, is one of the most active in Central America (More) | See photos (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Lifestyle Change
In 2010, my wife and I were able to pay off our mortgage, our vehicle and all our credit card debt because of an inheritance. That inheritance was exactly enough to eliminate our debt, so we decided to that rather than spend the money on a more expensive home, more expensive vehicles, or take several luxury vacations.
In short, my wife and I decided to make a lifestyle change. Making a lifestyle change is not an easy task to execute, but it is a task that nevertheless was something we both wanted to do.
We have been DEBT FREE for 15 years.
We have been retired for 10 years.
We pay cash for our vehicles, either through money we have save or through interest we have earned on our investments.
We use a credit card often for purchases so we can get frequent flyer points/miles on Delta but pay off that card at the end of the month before any interest is due.
We don't live HIGH ON THE HOG as the saying goes but we do not deny ourselves anything either, always making sure our health comes first.
The reason why we don't deny ourselves anything is because we have made a LIFESTYLE CHANGE.
- We recently downsized our home so we would not have so much to maintain
- We don't purchase new clothes unless we NEED them
- We don't go out to eat except once a week
- We don't go on expensive vacations
- We don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes
The Quantum World Isn't so Weird?
Down at the level of atoms and electrons, quantum physics describes the behavior of the very smallest objects. Solar panels, LED lights, your mobile phone and MRI scanners in hospitals: all of these rely on quantum behavior. It is one of the best-tested theories of physics, and we use it all the time.
On the face of it, however, the quantum realm is extraordinary: Within it, quantum objects can be “in two places at once”; they can move through barriers; and share a connection no matter how far apart they are. Compared to what you would expect of, say, a tennis ball, their properties are certainly weird and counterintuitive.
But don’t let this scare you off! Much of quantum physics’ odd behavior becomes a lot less surprising if you stop thinking of atoms and electrons as minuscule tennis balls, and instead imagine any “quantum object” as something like a wave you create by pushing your hand through water. You could say that, at small scales, everything is made of waves.
In the spirit of demystifying quantum behavior, here are three key types of “weird” quantum phenomena that normal water waves can do just as well, and the one thing that sets the quantum world apart. READ MORE...
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