Saturday, April 26
Planet Found Orbiting Two Stars at a Perfect 90-Degree Angle
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered a truly bizarre planet — one that orbits two stars at a perfect 90-degree angle.
This “polar planet” circles a rare eclipsing pair of brown dwarfs, making it the first confirmed world with this kind of alignment. It was a surprising and accidental find, defying expectations and proving that planet formation in extreme orbital setups is not only possible — it’s real.
Hints of Polar Planets Come to Life
In recent years, scientists have found several planets orbiting two stars at once — similar to the fictional planet Tatooine from Star Wars. Typically, these planets orbit in the same plane as the stars themselves. While researchers have long suspected that planets could also form in perpendicular, or polar, orbits around binary stars — and have even observed planet-forming discs tilted this way — there had been no direct evidence of a planet on such an orbit until now.
In recent years, scientists have found several planets orbiting two stars at once — similar to the fictional planet Tatooine from Star Wars. Typically, these planets orbit in the same plane as the stars themselves. While researchers have long suspected that planets could also form in perpendicular, or polar, orbits around binary stars — and have even observed planet-forming discs tilted this way — there had been no direct evidence of a planet on such an orbit until now.
Friday, April 25
Robert Reich
My last class
Coming to you
Friends,
I’ve done a lot of things over my lifetime, but I’ve always come back to teaching. Teaching is my love, my calling, my joy. And even though I’ve officially retired from it, I continue to teach. (Today, for example, I’m giving a talk at UC Berkeley on “The Roots of Trumpism.”)
As many of you know, I taught at UC Berkeley for almost 20 years and witnessed its power as one of the most successful engines of upward mobility in America.
When I decided to retire from teaching two years ago, I wanted to do it quietly. I preferred to make it about the students, not me. My lectures in the Wealth and Poverty course I taught each year to more than 800 students were mainly to students in their last undergraduate year — to seniors. (Some of you have even “taken” the course since a video version of it has been available here on this Substack.)
READ MORE...
At A Glance
New evidence suggests gladiators fought lions.
Google's AI overview reduces clicks by almost 35%.
The deep roots of cheese in America. (via YouTube)
How Americans are grappling with tipping pressure.
A guide to forest bathing.
1440 Topics: Everything you need to know about time travel.
Over 50 Shakespearean insults that still land.
Tips for practicing gratitude.
A guide to charcuterie nachos.
Clickbait: A bone-collecting caterpillar.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> Harvey Weinstein's retrial on rape and sexual assault charges begins in New York with opening statements; Weinstein's previous conviction was overturned last year by a court of appeals (More)
> American Music Awards (May 26) nominations announced with rapper Kendrick Lamar leading all artists with 10 nods (More)
> Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions tapped to kick off 2025 NFL season at the Pro Football Hall of Fame game (July 31) (More) | Three-time Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become first woman to run a sub-four-minute mile June 26 in Paris (More)
Science & Technology
> An estimated 84% of the world's ocean reefs affected by ongoing global coral bleaching event; phenomenon occurs when external stress, including warming water temperatures, causes coral to expel algae living in their tissue (More)
> Engineers develop ultrathin electronic skins roughly 10 nanometers, fractions of the width of a human hair; advance has applications in a wide range of wearable and medical applications (More)
> Genetic analysis reveals the ancient Phoenician culture spread primarily through cultural transmission, versus mass migration; findings shed light on the development of early Mediterranean society (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +1.7%, Dow +1.1%, Nasdaq +2.5%) on hopes of easing trade tensions between the US and China as well as between President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (More)
> Apple and Meta fined roughly $570M and $200M, respectively, by the European Union for allegedly breaching the bloc's Digital Markets Act, which seeks to prevent tech giants from monopolizing digital markets (More)
> Chipotle misses Q1 revenue forecasts after its same-store sales declined for the first time since 2020; earnings report comes a few days after the burrito chain said it was expanding into Mexico (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> India closes main border crossing with Pakistan, revokes key water treaty, and orders Pakistani nationals to leave; comes a day after suspected militants killed at least 26 tourists in the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir (More) | The role of Kashmir in the Pakistan-India conflict (More)
> US Sen. Dick Durbin—the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat—won’t seek reelection to a sixth term in 2026, will retire after 44 years in Congress (More)
> Remains of mom, child found near Gilgo Beach identified, though deaths may be unrelated to serial killings; Rex Heuermann was previously charged in deaths of at least seven other women whose remains were found in or near Gilgo Beach (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Living in the South
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All of my life (so far), I have lived in the south, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, with a majority of that life in Tennessee, specifically East Tennessee.
It is said by the experts and professionals, who know more than me, that students get a better high school education in northern schools or private schools rather than schools in the south.
While those school might have the financial resources to hire more qualified teachers so that those teachers can help the mediocre students... whereas those students who are not mediocre will do fine or even better than fine with less qualified teachers.
That aside, the south is simply a much better place to live because of the following:
- cheaper cost of living
- less crowded - less traffic
- Less pollution
- Less crime
- better annual climate
- friendlier people
- slower life style
The only other issue that might be of concern and that is healthcare/medical facilities. For instance, in North Carolina there is Duke Medical, in Tennessee there is Vanderbilt and those other healthcare facilities have access to the latest trends and discoveries.
My healthcare, University of TN Medical Center, followed the advice of MD Anderson Healthcare, a leading cancer hospital, on treating my Melanoma with radiation and immunotherapy simultaneously and it worked.
I will stay in the south until I am no longer alive and have no desire to even visit a northern state.
Mars Kept a Secret for 3.5 Billion Years – NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finally Dug It Up
Scientists using NASA’s Curiosity rover have discovered siderite—an iron carbonate—in the sulfate-rich rocks of Gale Crater, solving a long-standing mystery about Mars’ missing carbonates.
This find provides powerful new clues about the planet’s ancient atmosphere and supports theories that it once harbored conditions suitable for liquid water. The discovery challenges previous satellite data and suggests that more carbon may be hidden below the Martian surface or lost to space.
Rethinking Mars’ Ancient Atmosphere
Scientists have long believed that Mars once had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere and flowing liquid water on its surface. According to that theory, the CO2 and water should have reacted with the planet’s rocks to form carbonate minerals. But until recently, surface analyses by rovers and orbital instruments using near-infrared spectroscopy hadn’t detected the expected levels of carbonate.
Now, new findings reported in Science reveal otherwise. Data from three drill sites examined by NASA’s Curiosity rover show the presence of siderite—an iron-based carbonate mineral—within sulfate-rich rock layers on Mount Sharp, located in Gale Crater.
Thursday, April 24
Robert Reich
Trump is fundamentally incapable of governing.
Friends,
Some Democrats fear they’re playing into Trump’s hands by fighting his mass deportations rather than focusing on his failures on bread-and-butter issues like the cost of living.
But it’s not either-or. The theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.
In his first term, not only did his advisers and Cabinet officials put guardrails around his crazier tendencies, but they also provided his first administration a degree of stability and focus. Now, it’s mayhem.
A sampling from recent weeks:
1. The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth disaster. Hegseth didn’t just mistakenly share the military’s plans with the editor of The Atlantic; we now know he shared them with a second Signal group, including his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
At A Glance
See the shortlist of the year's best food photography.
Meet Japan's 97-year-old cherry blossom guardian.
... and Japanese robots from the 17th century.
A map of this year's cicada hot spots.
Little League is undergoing a fashion revolution.
How bad data created the myth of the "blue zones."
All the NFL Draft No. 1 picks since 1983.
Letter reveals Shakespeare did not, in fact, abandon his wife.
Clickbait: Google AI attempts to define imaginary idioms.
In The NEWS
Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> WWE's WrestleMania 41, which was broadcast on Peacock and Netflix over two nights, saw 114% increase in viewership over 2024's event (More) | Professional wrestling 101 (More)
> Mike Patrick, play-by-play commentator and voice of ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" for 18 seasons, dies at age 80 (More) | NCAA conditionally approves rule to allow direct payment to athletes, pending House of Representatives settlement (More)
> "60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens resigns after 37 years with CBS News, citing inability to make "independent decisions" about the show's programming (More) | Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) loses retrial of defamation lawsuit against The New York Times (More)
Science & Technology
> Astronomers discover rapidly disintegrating planet, producing a comet-like tail as it orbits; Mercury-sized planet loses amount of material equivalent to Mount Everest roughly every 30 hours (More)
> Genomic analysis reveals 60-million-year evolutionary history of domesticated and wild apples; results may lead to more resilient and flavorful varieties (More)
> Study of 2016 bird flu strain reveals the virus was a single mutation from being able to bind to receptors in human cells, becoming much more transmissible; variant is no longer in circulation (More) | How zoonotic diseases work (More)
Business & Markets
> US stock markets close higher (S&P 500 +2.5%, Dow +2.7%, Nasdaq +2.7%) after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade talks with China will likely lead to de-escalation (More)
> Tesla reports 20% drop in auto revenue as Q1 results miss estimates; company reports $409M in net income on $19.3B in revenue, a 71% drop in profit from same period last year (More) | Everything you want to know about Tesla (More) | Elon Musk says he will scale back DOGE work starting in May (More)
> Boeing to sell parts of its digital aviation business to private equity firm Thoma Bravo in all-cash deal valued at over $10B (More) | RTX and GE Aerospace expect estimated $850M and $500M losses from US import tariffs, respectively (More)
Politics & World Affairs
> Food and Drug Administration to phase out the use of eight petroleum-based artificial dyes from US food supplies and medications by end of 2026; comes three months after the FDA ordered a ban on Red Dye No. 3 by January 2027 (More)
> Three federal prosecutors who worked on now-dropped criminal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) resign, say they won't admit to any wrongdoing as a condition for their reinstatement from administrative leave (More)
> At least 26 tourists at a resort in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed after gunmen open fire in region known for separatist violence; India and Pakistan divided control of the Kashmir region in 1947, but both claim the entire territory (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Illegal Immigrants
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Today, we live in a country that questions its own right to remain FREE... Our families are questioned, our laws are questioned, our rights are questioned, our politics are questioned, our education is questioned, and our religious freedoms are questioned.
Sooner or later, this was bound to happen because of all those freedoms that we give ourselves.
Illegal Immigrants have been allowed to enter our homeland, and by definition they broke our laws to get here, now they are using the law to remain here...
These people may have had good intentions for themselves and their families, but they are ruining our country by imposing their wills and desires on us.
What will they do when they realize they are no better off here than they were where they were before? Will they continue to break our laws to survive? How will they contribute to the advancement of our society or will they be a restraint on that advancement?
The liberals only want them here to pick our crops, clean our homes, maintenance our yards, do all the jobs that Americans refuse to do and vote DEMOCRATIC.
Liberals are willing to ruin our country to try and remain in power.
Researcher proposes first-time model that replaces dark energy and dark matter in explaining nature of the universe
Dr. Richard Lieu, a physics professor at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has published a paper in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity that proposes a universe built on steps of multiple singularities rather than the Big Bang alone to account for the expansion of the cosmos.
The new model forgoes the need for either dark matter or dark energy as explanations for the universe's acceleration and how structures like galaxies are generated.
The researcher's work builds on an earlier model hypothesizing that gravity can exist without mass.
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