JWST Findings May Suggest Our Universe Exists Inside a Black Hole
Sunday, March 23
Robert Reich
Friends,
It’s been another terrible week for America. Not only is the nation being severely tested, we as individuals are being tested as almost never before.
I know how hard it is to keep up your strength and determination in light of the daily onslaught from Trump, Musk, and their horrendous regime.
It’s devastating and depressing to witness their attempts to intimidate lawyers, law firms, universities, the media, and every other institution of civil society.
I thank you for hanging in there, nonetheless — protecting those who are most vulnerable, appearing at political town halls and demanding that Republicans be held accountable, demanding that Democrats speak out, holding “empty chair” town halls when your representative doesn’t show up, showing up for Bernie and AOC, organizing and mobilizing in Wisconsin and elsewhere, jamming the White House switchboard, and making good trouble when and however you can.
I also thank you for reading and sharing this letter. In doing so, you’re helping inform and reassure many others.
A few of you worry that I’m “preaching to the converted” and not reaching the people who need to be reached — mainly the followers of Trump and Musk. I sometimes worry about that, too.
At A Glance
> Why some people doubt Shakespeare's identity.
> The artist making masterpieces with Microsoft Excel.
> A primer on the lost art of attending the opera.
> Taking a look at the music scene in North Korea.
> The scammer who used a fake diagnosis to garner donations.
World History
> The history of brainwashing in America.
> How awareness of mortality can enrich our daily lives.
> Mapping the Soviet gulags.
> How the British Empire marketed itself with posters.
> An in-depth cultural history of tattoos.
Business & Finance
> Inside the circus th
at is a company's IPO.
> Visualizing the minimum wage around the world.
> Amazon's first letter to shareholders.
> Does the Federal Reserve print money?
> The American Dream costs more more than $4M.
Health & Medicine
> How do muscles contract?
> What conditions can be treated with stem cells?
> The most common addictions in America.
> What is a coronavirus?
> How light pollution is causing insomnia in oysters.
Science & Technology
> Who owns your brain implant?
> The role the medieval belief in angels played in modern physics.
> Explaining solar energy's duck-shaped usage curve.
> How companies plan to monetize space trash.
> Comparing the major types of quantum computers.
In The NEWS
Small Business Administration to cut more than 40% of workforce.
The Small Business Administration plans to cut 43% of its staff as part of the Trump administration's effort to downsize the government and reduce federal spending. The SBA employs roughly 6,500 people, or less than half a percent of the total federal workforce. President Donald Trump also announced the SBA would handle student loans. See other changes here.
Texas measles outbreak rises to 309 cases with 40 hospitalizations.
The Texas outbreak has grown to 309 cases in roughly two months, surpassing the 285 cases reported nationwide last year. Most cases are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown. Thirty of the cases were reported this week. Meanwhile, New Mexico's outbreak has grown to 38 cases. See CDC data here.
Johnson & Johnson pledges $55B investment in US amid looming tariffs.
The pharmaceutical giant will invest more than $55B over the next four years, building four new manufacturing plants and expanding existing facilities. The investment is a 25% increase compared to the previous four years and appears to be a response to potential drug import tariffs from the Trump administration.
Sudan's army retakes Khartoum presidential palace from paramilitary forces.
The development marks a symbolic victory for Sudan's military in the ongoing civil war against the Rapid Support Forces militia. The nearly two-year conflict between forces of two formerly allied generals—army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—has killed an estimated 28,000 people and displaced an estimated 10 million others, about one-fifth of the country’s population.
Bones of mammoths butchered for their tusks 25,000 years ago unearthed.
Archaeologists in Austria found the ancient remains of butchered mammoths, including dismembered tusks, suggesting the site was used for ivory processing. The discovery provides insights into how humans hunted mammoths and used their resources before the peak of the last Ice Age.
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Professional Athletes
Years ago, I was very athletic, I played first base in baseball, forward in basketball, middle linebacker in football, and threw the shot, discuss, and javelin in track and field.
I also played softball and volleyball. I was pretty good, but I was not great; I suppose I could have become great if I had practiced but I was engaged in other interests, so there was not one area that manipulated my time.
My father loved sports as well focusing on football and tennis and when I was living at home, those were the sports that we watched on television on the weekends or during the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Over the years, I got tired of watching sports; I'm not sure why, I just did. The players got paid way to much money and they lived celebrity lifestyles that embraced recklessness, alcohols, sex, and drugs.
If professional athletes were ever role models in my mind, but the age of 50, they were no longer in that category.
Professional athletics is a multibillion-dollar industry these days and like all industries that large they have their problems. In the past, athletes were associated with the selling of products, now they are associated with politicians.
That alone negatively taints their profession in my mind. They have a right to endorse politicians don't get me right, I just don't think it is appropriate.
Mysterious ‘Gravity Hole’ discovered at the center of the Indian Ocean
The ground beneath your feet may feel solid, but Earth is constantly shifting. While we have mapped the surface in detail, its deep interior remains a mystery. Even with modern technology, no probe has ever reached beyond the thin crust, which is only about 35 kilometers deep. To study the Earth's core and mantle, scientists must rely on indirect methods.
From space, Earth appears as a smooth blue sphere, but its shape is far from perfect. Beneath the surface, unevenly distributed mass creates gravitational variations, distorting its form. The movement of tectonic plates further reshapes the planet, building mountains, carving valleys, and adding to its irregularity.
These distortions extend to the oceans, which cover 71% of the surface. Without tides or currents, seawater would settle into a shape known as a geoid—a wavy, gravity-defined surface. Some areas rise where gravity is stronger, while others dip where it is weaker. These variations, called "geoid anomalies," reveal how mass is distributed deep within the Earth.
Saturday, March 22
Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse
Today Heather and I delve into the forces holding Trump back — specifically, the federal courts, Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, and Republican constituents in Republican town halls. Which of these, if any, is likely to be most effective over the long term in preventing Trump and Musk from doing their worst?
We also have a special guest — Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, who this week was illegally fired by Trump for no reason other than … well, we’ll talk with her about that.
Please grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, take our poll, and join the conversation.
At A Glance
Bookkeeping
> $1.1M: The selling price of a 1-of-1 baseball card featuring Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (only five baseball cards have sold for more).
> 19 minutes: How long it took San Antonio Spurs' Sandro Mamukelashvili to score 34 points, becoming the first NBA player to do so in such a short time.
Browse
> Parade of nearly 900 dachshunds breaks world record.
> Washington, DC's Cherry Blossoms are almost in bloom.
> Interactive simulator predicts individual life spans.
> Ten US cities with the most green space.
> Reimagining movies as old, worn books.
Listen
> A Toronto police officer, involved in an affair with a government worker, discovers an elderly man had died with a large estate—and no will.
Watch
> Rare red sprite lightning strikes above the Himalayas.
> Slow motion flight comparison of 23 different insects.
> The three cognitive scripts that rule over your life.
> ... and why your brain blinds you for 2 hours each day.
Long Read
> A statistical analysis of the perfect song length.
> How eastern North America formed and lessons for how continents are built.
> The man who finds melodies inside mushrooms. (w/video)
Most Clicked This Week: The worst US cities for allergy sufferers.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NCAA women's basketball tournament kicks off in earnest today; see full preview (More) | ... and see latest men's tourney bracket (More)
> Mariah Carey wins lawsuit against songwriter who alleged copyright infringement on Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" (More) | "Coco" sequel in the works at Disney with a 2029 release date (More)
> Kirsty Coventry, two-time swimming gold medalist and current Zimbabwe Minister of Sport, elected as the first woman and first African president of the International Olympic Committee (More)
Science & Technology
> AI startup Anthropic adds web search in preview to Claude 3.7 Sonnet for paid US users, enabling the chatbot to automatically search for information across the internet (More) | Everything you need to know about generative AI (1440 Topics)
> Babies form episodic memories in hippocampus, study finds, challenging long-held belief that infantile amnesia is due to inability to store memories; finding suggests issue may instead be an inability to access those memories (More)
> Scientists successfully replace defective gene in mice to alleviate symptoms of Dravet syndrome—a rare form of epilepsy—without adverse side effects or death (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.0%, Nasdaq -0.3%) (More) | Fintech startup Klarna inks deal with DoorDash to offer US customers deferred and installment food delivery payments; comes ahead of initial public offering (More)
> Tesla recalls 46,000 Cybertrucks manufactured from November 2023 to February 2025 due to an exterior trim panel that can detach from the vehicle (More) | US charges three people accused of using Molotov cocktails to set fire to Tesla cars, dealerships, or charging stations (More)
> US existing home sales rose 4.2% month over month in February, beating estimates of 3.2%; median home price of $398,400 is up 3.8% from a year ago and is the highest median home price for any February (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> At least 85 dead from expanded Israeli strikes in Gaza, while Hamas fires rockets back at Tel Aviv, with no casualties reported; Israeli military says Palestinians will no longer be allowed to enter northern Gaza from the south (More)
> European Union delays implementing first retaliatory tariffs on US goods, including a 50% levy on whiskey, to mid-April for more time to negotiate (More)
> Delta plane that crashed and overturned upon landing at Toronto's international airport last month descended too quickly, preliminary report finds (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
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