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Over a 17-year period, an international team of astronomers monitored Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures. They discovered that Neptune’s global temperatures dropped unexpectedly, followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. Credit: ESO/M. Roman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Using ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), an international team of astronomers track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period. They found a surprising drop in Neptune’s global temperatures followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. “This change was unexpected,” says Michael Roman, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Leicester, UK, and lead author of the...

MOVING BEYOND CAPE BOJADOR The early Portuguese explorers believed that the oceans were impassable below Cape Bojador, a point on the West African coast. When sailors set aside their fears and moved past Cape Bojador, they found that their fears were groundless, that their limitations were imaginary. We all have our own Cape Bojador. We fear things that we need not fear. We draw boundaries around areas of our lives and decide that we can't go past them. Since we believe these false paradigms, we will stay within their artificial boundaries and lose whatever experiences we might have found...

In the collective memory of American Jewry, the entanglement of Jews and Communists merits hardly a footnote. —Jerry Z. Muller, Capitalism and the Jews, p. 161 For paid subscribers, Jerry and I will be talking about this topic on Zoom on Monday evening, February 26, at 8 PM New York time. I’ll send out a reminder with a link closer to the date. In my own memory as an American Jew, the entanglement of Jews and Communists has more significance. The Harvard Library houses a document “Investigation of Communist Activities in the St. Louis, Mo. area. Hearing” This was a...

Recent research challenges the traditional view of early human diets in the Andes, suggesting a shift from “hunter-gatherers” to “gatherer-hunters.” The study, analyzing remains from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik’aya Patjxa sites in Peru, reveals an 80 percent plant-based and 20 percent meat diet among early Andeans. This finding, based on isotope chemistry and statistical modeling, contradicts previous beliefs and influences current perceptions of diets such as the Paleodiet. It also indicates a need to reassess archaeological frameworks globally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The commonly used term “hunter-gatherers” for describing early humans should be revised to “gatherer-hunters” in the context of the...

California’s Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act requires voter approval for all new taxes passed by the legislature and two-thirds voter approval for all new special tax increases. The Act also demands clear definitions of what is a tax or a fee, along with truthful descriptions of new tax proposals. Before any tax or fee is enacted, politicians must clearly outline how the revenues would be spent, and so on. The measure has qualified for the November 5 ballot but Gov. Gavin Newsom and former governor Jerry Brown want the state supreme court to take the Act off the ballot....

Avidivka crushed. Ukies Flee, many captured, many KIA, many WIA.

A portrait of Beethoven painted in 1820 by Karl Joseph Stieler. (Karl Joseph Stieler/PD) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One stormy Monday in March, 1827, the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven passed away after a protracted illness. Bedridden since the previous Christmas, he was attacked by jaundice, his limbs and abdomen swollen, each breath a struggle. As his associates went about the task of sorting through personal belongings, they uncovered a document Beethoven had written a quarter of a century earlier – a will beseeching his brothers make details of his condition known to the public. Today it is no secret that one of...

Russia’s leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, who united people in his fight against Vladimir Putin’s regime, died Friday in a remote Arctic prison, where he was serving a decades-long sentence on trumped-up charges. He is survived by his wife, two kids, and the millions of Russians at home and abroad who yearned for a better future. The Kremlin’s propaganda machine, now in overdrive, lists the cause of death as a blood clot, spinning a narrative that Putin — ever-so-popular with the people — didn’t need Navalny to die. In his 25 years in power, Putin has killed journalists, politicians, oligarchs,...

KGW has a policy of thoroughly screening all content for standards and accuracy before broadcast, but failed to uphold it, the station said.A television station in Portland, Oregon, apologized Friday for inadvertently showing a racist image during a program aimed at highlighting positive stories. KGW-TV displayed the image Thursday evening during “The Good Stuff,” which includes a “Throwback Thursday” segment sharing “cheesy, silly, or memorable” photos submitted by viewers. “The image, seemingly from the 1950s, depicted children throwing balls towards a sign prominently displaying (a racial slur),” the station said Friday in a statement posted to its website. “We understand...

<p>Mohammad Enayah was asleep when his pinging cell phone alerted him to the message from Gaza. It was 2 a.m. “I hate to tell you this news,” his cousin wrote.</p><p>Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. Thirty-seven members of his extended family had been killed in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian refugee camp. Enayah read the first name on the list of victims, his father’s cousin. He scrolled further, then put the phone aside. He couldn’t read on. It would take a week before he would finally make it through the list of those who had died.</p>

Financial turmoil continued to unfold in south suburban Dolton Thursday after a bank said the village failed to make a payment worth tens of thousands of dollars, which may result in police cruisers and other public works vehicles being repossessed. According to a letter dated Feb. 14, 2024, representatives from KS StateBank are threatening to take possession of more than a dozen village vehicles, which includes six police cruisers, after the village failed to make a payment of more than $76,000 on the vehicles’ loan some nine months ago. Lawyers for KS StateBank said in the letter, that the village...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated that the Department of Transportation has “taken so many steps on rail safety policy” since the East Palestine derailment and is “doing everything we can with the authorities that we already have,” but accidents have gone up despite this because Congress needs to act. Buttigieg said, “For our department, the process mainly has to do with making sure things like this can’t happen again, which is why we’ve taken so many steps on rail safety policy and are pressing Congress to do more with the power that it has.”

The essence of the case, the Manhattan D.A. says, is that Trump "corrupt[ed] a presidential election" by concealing embarrassing information.When Donald Trump's lawyers urged a federal appeals court to approve "absolute" presidential immunity last month, they argued that it was necessary to prevent frivolous, politically motivated criminal charges against former presidents. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected that argument, along with the other reasons Trump offered for shielding him from prosecution for trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The three-judge panel said the danger Trump perceived "appears slight" given...

There wasn’t much to report regarding the latest updates on the Kansas City Super Bowl parade shooting other than it was a “dispute” among several people that led to gunfire. Three people were arrested—all juveniles. One has since been released after it was determined this individual was not part of the shooting, but two have been booked on firearm-related charges. One person was killed, with at least 20 injured—11 of them were children. Nine kids had gunshot wounds, but all survived. That’s the good news. We’re still waiting on the suspects' names and the real motive. What we do know...

A Massachusetts couple who volunteered to house illegal immigrants said that a family of four showed up at their doorstep less than an hour after they signed up. The couple, Chris and Jessica Stokes, live in Brookline. In the days before the couple signed up to house immigrants, hundreds of illegals were sleeping on the floor of Boston Logan International Airport with no place to go. The family that arrived at the Stokes’ house was in this type of situation. “We really knew nothing,” Jessica Stokes said in an on-camera interview, emphasizing that they didn’t know their ages, where they...

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced on Friday that he is not pursuing a third party or independent presidential bid for the 2024 election. Manchin has frequently been mentioned as a potential No Labels nominee or independent candidate. “I will not be seeking a third party run,” Manchin said in a speech in West Virginia this morning, according to the New York Times . “I will not be involved in a presidential run.” Manchin’s announcement comes one day after he shared who he would consider as a running mate for a hypothetical third-party or independent presidential run at a recent...

Guest columnist Perry Pendley writes, "Denver will spend $180 million, 10% of its annual budget, giving illegal immigrants housing, food, and other services. As they push its illegal immigrant problem off on other jurisdictions, Wyoming should expect illegal aliens heading north to Cheyenne and Laramie." Like most Americans, Wyomingites are horrified by the nation’s illegal immigration crisis; it is their number one issue says a new public opinion poll. Once a concern of Texans and south westerners, it is now a national problem; after all, the sight at the border of hordes of single, military-aged men from scores of countries...

It’s called “the narrative” — which is usually just a polite name for a fashionable lie. A black Ivy League academic has learned the price of contradicting cherished narratives, too: threat to life and limb.In fact, after releasing a credible study finding “no evidence of racial bias” in police shootings, Harvard economics professor Roland Fryer said that not only did he become a pariah in many circles, but he actually needed police protection.As striking as this is, however, there’s another big story within this story: Fryer’s study possibly did find a racial bias — against whites. Yet this is so...

Truckers to the rescue—again. Truckers bravely exposed some of the worst COVID shutdowns in the world when they parked their trucks in Ottowa to protest the iron-fisted approach used against citizens by the Justin Trudeau regime. Truckers in the US showed solidarity for their Canadian neighbors and helped block shipping between the US and Canada in Detroit, Michigan. Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was being considered for Joe Biden’s VP, quickly threatened arrest for truckers who dared to block the Ambassador Bridge. American truckers are now reportedly threatening to stop deliveries into New York City over the grotesque $364 million...