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U.S. troops last weekend reportedly found themselves in a standoff with Russian forces trying to gain access to key oil fields in northeastern Syria. The Saturday standoff — first reported by Turkish media outlets, citing unnamed local officials in the Turkey-Syria border region — seems to have ended without any shots being fired or any real risk of violence between the two sides. American military personnel reportedly stopped a Russian convoy near the town of Rmelan, and the Russian forces then apparently turned back and returned to their home base. Still, the near-clash serves as a reminder of the high...

Mango season may be months away, but if you live in South Florida today, your trees may be ripe for the picking — of iguanas. Iguana meat, dubbed “chicken of the trees,” started showing up on Facebook Marketplace overnight, as the temperature dipped into the 40s. The green iguanas are an invasive species, stunned lifeless by South Florida’s occasional cold snaps, and they die if the chilly weather holds. The National Weather Service even tweeted to watch out for falling iguanas. That apparently makes them easy pickings for backyard harvesters.

In 2017, Bennet Omalu traveled the globe to accept a series of honors and promote his autobiography, "Truth Doesn't Have A Side." In a visit to an Irish medical school, he told students he was a "nobody" who "discovered a disease in America's most popular sport." In an appearance on a religious cable TV show, he said he named the disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, because "it sounded intellectually sophisticated, with a very good acronym." And since his discovery, Omalu told "Sports Illustrated," researchers have uncovered evidence that shows adolescents who participate in football, hockey, wrestling and mixed martial...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday ruled out a so-called witness trade in which Republicans call witnesses Democrats want in exchange for former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden testifying in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. “I think that’s off the table. First of all the Republicans have the right to bring in any witness they want. They haven’t wanted to and that trade is not on the table,” Schumer told reporters during a break in the Senate trial.

Senate Democrats are dismissing chatter about attempts at an agreement that would guarantee former national security adviser John Bolton testifies in President Trump's impeachment trial in exchange for former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden also testifying. The idea has been floated by conservatives, who argue there should be "witness reciprocity." But Democrats shot down such talk, saying Trump allies are demanding an irrelevant witness in exchange for one with firsthand knowledge of Trump's actions. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), asked about a potential swap, argued that "witnesses should have something to do with and direct knowledge of...

================================================================= Bespoke car maker Rolls-Royce is advancing research on nuclear small modular reactors. Rolls-Royce's staid reputation as haute luxury belies its legacy of innovation in aerospace and other engineering. Modular reactors are easier to manufacture, making costs both lower and more predictable. =================================================================== Rolls-Royce has taken a sharp right turn, from making million-dollar luxury sedans to researching cutting-edge nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs). Modular reactors are au courant in energy technology, and Rolls-Royce joins startups and governments around the world in trying to shrink the footprint and increase the safety of nuclear energy. With its SMR design, which is "just...

Schweizer added, “The common theme [of Profiles in Corruption] is to really investigate them from the standpoint: What have they done with the power they have had?” Schweizer continued, “These progressives are saying, ‘Give us more power. We will take care of you,’ and what I think the book demonstrates clearly is the power that they have already now, they have abused it. They’ve used it for their own self interest, for the profit of their family, to advance their political careers, and it’s really abuse of power in the true sense of the word, not what’s being discussed on...

In his paternity case, Hunter Biden has missed a Jan. 16 deadline to provide financial information for the past five years as ordered by the court and has now been ordered to appear January 29th to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating a court order. Arkansas Gazette reports Hunter Biden must appear Jan. 29 in a Batesville courtroom and explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating court orders to provide financial information in his Arkansas paternity case. Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer signed an “Order to Appear and Show Cause” on Monday,...

Police arrested a man Wednesday morning for Sunday's fatal hit-and-run in Sherman Heights. At this time, police have not released his identity, but confirm that the driver is in custody. On Tuesday, the San Diego Police Department released photos of a male suspect believed to be the driver of an SUV that fled east on Market Street after hitting and killing 41-year-old Jason Gordon early Sunday morning. According to SDPD, the male suspect then drove to Humberto’s Taco Shop at the corner of Broadway and 25th Street where he ordered food. As he drove away from the taco shop, he...

A construction worker in Florida has been accused of murdering his pro-Trump boss with a trowel after a political argument on the construction site where they both worked and then throwing an American flag on the man's body. The incident occurred on Monday morning at approximately 10:30 a.m. when emergency dispatchers received a call from co-workers saying that Mason Trever Toney, 28, had stabbed and killed their boss, 28-year-old William Steven Knight on the Florida Turnpike job site, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by ABC News' Orlando affiliate WFTV. The Orange County Sheriff's Office says that the murder appears...

Donald Trump’s inaugural committee spent more than $1 million to book a ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in the nation's capital as part of a scheme to “grossly overpay” for party space and enrich the president's own family in the process, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The District of Columbia's attorney general, Karl Racine, said the committee misused nonprofit funds and coordinated with the hotel’s management and members of the Trump family to arrange the events. He said one of the event’s planners raised concerns about pricing with Trump, the president's daughter Ivanka Trump and Rick Gates, a...

A "very big" tax cut for middle-class Americans will be announced over the next 90 days, President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday. "We will make that permanent for the middle class," Trump told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davis, Switzerland, where he also added that further initiatives are coming on healthcare. "We've done well with health care. We got rid of the individual mandate. That was a thing people couldn't do, they couldn't afford it, they didn't want it," said Trump. "They were forced to pay a number and not...

“Why do you feel like you were assigned the wrong sex at birth?” “Did your gender dysphoria start as a result of something like a trauma?” “Have your parents or friends encouraged you to believe you are trans?” These are just a few questions that a therapist is no longer able to ask children in states that have banned “conversion therapy.” According to the Equality Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, “conversion therapy” is a “discredited practice” and “is a form of discrimination that harms LGBTQ people by undermining individuals’ sense of self-worth, increasing suicide ideation...

Yesterday, Karen wrote about the contrast between the statements made by President Trump and Greta Thunberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The NY Times has published Thunberg’s full remarks at the forum and they are pretty striking. In addition to her usual tone of condescension toward world leaders, Thunberg explained that the only solution was to completely abandon fossil fuels immediately. She doesn’t want to talk about “net zero” emissions she wants to see “real zero” right now. One year ago I came to Davos and told you that our house is on fire. I said I...

XCLUSIVE: The attorneys general of 21 states have come forward with a blistering rebuke of the impeachment of President Trump, asserting that it "establishes a dangerous historical precedent." The Republican attorneys general, in a letter submitted to the Senate Wednesday morning and obtained by Fox News, urged the chamber conducting Trump's trial to "reject" the impeachment articles. "If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers' design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers," they wrote....

In this video I use a type II superconductor to perform a quantum locking demonstration using YCBO (Yttrium barium copper oxide). I then explain in depth how superconductors and quantum locking (Flux pinning) works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GY4m022tgo&t=370s

Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden freaked out at a reporter Wednesday after a campaign event in Mason City, Iowa, after he was grilled about his ongoing feud with Bernie Sanders.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as "Bugs Bunny" during the network's live coverage of the Senate impeachment trial. The "Hardball" host said the Kentucky senator "always gets away" with something he did wrong. “If the Bugs Bunny, I call him, of this business, the clever Mitch McConnell, who is so much a Bugs Bunny character, he always gets away with it," Matthews said. "And we know he got away with something that he did wrong, just like Bugs Bunny.” The Senate early Wednesday morning approved a rules resolution for the impeachment trial that largely...

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Pat Cipollone is the White House counsel leading the defense of President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial in the Senate. Cipollone, who has been a licensed attorney for nearly 30 years, went to work for the Trump administration in December of 2018. But Cipollone was within the president’s orbit before then. He served as an informal advisor for the White House during the Russia investigation. Cipollone also assisted the Trump campaign with debate prep during the 2016 election