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Explanation: A once-in-a-lifetime crater has appeared on the Moon! A comet or asteroid roughly the size of a humpback whale (approximately 10-20 meters, 30-60 feet) crashed into the Moon sometime between April and May of 2024. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), with its monthly monitoring of the Moon, captured today’s images of the lunar surface before and after the event. The resulting crater, named after Apollo-era lunar scientist McGetchin, is two soccer fields across. Craters of this size are only expected once every 132 years! Follow up thermal imaging revealed a large cold spot that surrounds the warm crater. Surface...

Apple is making a much clearer bet on local AI computing with its latest Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops. Announced on August 25, 2026, the new machines are built around Apple’s new M6 and M5 Ultra chips, with the company emphasizing on-device AI, AI agents, large language models and professional workloads rather than treating AI as simply another feature. The new Mac mini starts at $899, while the Mac Studio starts at $2,499. Both are available for preorder, with availability beginning September 22. The bigger story, however, is not just faster Macs. Apple is increasingly positioning its desktop hardware...

Science is proving Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists wrongDawkins’ rejection of religion is waning while scientific discoveries are prompting fresh arguments for belief in GodTwenty years ago, Richard Dawkins published his international best-seller The God Delusion, thus establishing “New Atheism” as a major cultural force. Over the ensuing decade, other authors — such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss and Daniel Dennett — seized the popular imagination with their respective arguments about why belief in the divine is untenable.The physicists among them argued that the universe could be explained “from nothing”. The biologists argued that Darwinian explanations of...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Tuesday said he’s considering a third presidential run in 2028 as the Republican Party faces a bleak midterm outlook. Christie, a onetime Trump ally who ran against him for the GOP nomination in 2024, questioned whether the party will decide it needs to change its approach or “the dominant wing” of the party, “if we do a lot of losing six weeks from today.” “So, am I looking at it? Look, anybody who comes up here, anybody who comes up here and has ever run for president and not one and told...

Rev. Babs Miller, a minister at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, of which Democrat senatorial nominee James Talarico has been a longtime member, was recently interviewed by an undercover journalist for the "Daily Wire." On hidden camera Rev. Miller disapproved of Talarico's "efforts to portray himself as a moderate. I understand that he thinks he has to misrepresent his true views to win his election. But if it helps him win I guess it's a necessary evil." "Right now, all the Democrats are backing away from their radical beliefs," Miller added, "I'm confident that once James is in office...

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Texas to install air conditioning in all of its prisons, saying that inmates in lockups without it are being given punishments that violate their constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman said in the 150-page order that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice must come up with a plan to install air conditioning by the end of 2029 in every prison in the state where summer heat routinely soars above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). He ruled that a lack of air conditioning violates the constitutional right not to be given “cruel and...

Over at Salon.com, atheist Amanda Marcotte is in a state of joy over her belief that notorious biblical cherry picker James Talarico, could be an "existential threat" to the beliefs of Republican Christians during the course of his Texas campaign for the U.S. Senate.It is no error or slur to label Marcotte as an atheist since she herself flat out admitted it. In fact her brand of atheism goes beyond merely tolerating religion to outright hostility of Christianity in particular as you can see in "Salon’s Marcotte: ‘Merry Christmas!’ Is Conservative Code For ‘F**k You!’."With an attitude like that you...

Powerful organizations on the left created and helped sustain a nonprofit called Faith in Public Life in order to replicate the organizing power of the Religious Right, but the group announced that it will be closing its doors on Oct. 31. Jeanné Lewis, the group’s CEO, attributed the closure to fundraising issues, saying that the organization’s leadership “chose to proactively close the organization” once funding opportunities became “inconsistent.” While nonprofit organizations close their doors all the time, this one appears notable. ‘Organizational Anchor for the Religious Left’ As Baptist News Global reported, Faith in Public Life has its roots in...

A 105-year-old former Nazi-era prison camp guard is being investigated over alleged complicity in the mass murder of Allied prisoners of war. German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the former Wehrmacht soldier over his alleged role at the notorious Stalag 326 VI K Senne camp in western Germany. Now, more than 81 years later, German prosecutors are still pursuing those suspected of involvement in Nazi crimes. The extraordinary investigation began after Germany's Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg referred the case to prosecutors in Dortmund in February. A second former Stalag 326 guard had...

The British military has been jamming or blocking satellites from other countries in order to defend itself from hostile threats, the BBC has been told. The RAF has been using a ground-based system for the past year, which a defence source said had already been used "to deter our adversaries". It is understood the system could be used to prevent a hostile nation's satellites from tracking the movement of the UK's nuclear armed submarines or other sensitive military operations, such as those involving special forces. It comes as the head of the RAF said the UK faced "unprecedented threats" from...

The Letter That Changed the Church: Cardinal Bea, John XXIII & the Vatican II RevolutionIn 1960 Cardinal Augustin Bea brought a letter before Pope John XXIII, who swiftly aprroved it. The letter placed Cardinal Bea at the head of a new Pontifical Commission, giving him a powerful platform for advancing ecumenism. The result was an ecumenical movement that would profoundly shape Vatican II and the Church that followed, and ultimately serve the Church’s enemies.“The Council is Cardinal Bea’s Council!” (Fr. Yves Congar, My Journal of the Council, November 22, 1962 entry)In his Augustin Bea: The Cardinal of Unity, Cardinal Bea’s...

In the expansive grasslands of Inner Mongolia, farmers are picking plump potatoes alongside new neighbours: huge, rectangular blocks that will fuel China's AI platforms. Ulanqab, with its steppes and volcanoes, is an unlikely digital frontier. For years, it has been China's official "potato capital". But now its fields have also become construction sites for a slew of data centres, as Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping meet to discuss AI safety among other things. Hundreds of workers in yellow helmets carry heavy equipment into the building site as welding sparks fly off metal scaffolding. Above them huge cranes...

President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly preparing to institute a 90-day ban on diesel exports amid soaring prices, despite Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying such a move would not bring down prices. Wright, in fact, warned a ban could actually make the situation worse in the long run. Politico reported on the upcoming ban on Wednesday, citing “five people familiar with the discussions” inside the administration. “The blunt tool ​of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work,” Reuters reported Wright saying on Wednesday while at an event hosted by the Economist in New York. “If you can’t ⁠export the diesel that...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City mother will spend 13 years in prison after pleading guilty in the 2024 death of her 1-month-old daughter. Mariah Thomas pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death. A Jackson County judge sentenced her to 13 years in prison, with credit for time she has already served. The case goes back to February 2024. Kansas City police were called to a home near 41st Street and Forest Avenue after getting a report of a baby who wasn't breathing. Emergency crews tried to save the 1-month-old girl, but...

Imagine you are the parent of a 13-year-old daughter in the Commonwealth of Virginia. You love and care for your child and you and your spouse work two jobs to provide for your family. Life is busy, with work, school, sports, and other recreation. You are an involved and caring parent, but family time is curtailed and, after all, no family is perfect. Occasionally something goes awry and you face a challenge you didn’t expect — this time it’s the fact that your daughter was pregnant. Was. You only know this because you have taken her to the emergency room...

The milestone makes it possible for a single standard computer processor to find, fix and decode computer errors as they happen, as it runs continuously in the background. The successful test stands to alleviate a significant industry bottleneck in which previous systems became easily overwhelmed in fixing errors, leading to delays.

A statement from the referees' union added: "A male head coach committed two deliberate acts of physical abuse and sexism against a female official - squeezing her hand and refusing to let go after being told to stop three times."This physical intimidation was compounded by a demeaning, sexist remark to the official: 'Don't forget, this is a man's game.'

Fool's Ball, Week Three, Pigskin Pickem ThreadYour home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

Milwaukee County Executive and Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Crowley has attacked beer gardens in the past, claiming they are systemically racist. In a post on X from December 2021, Crowley responded to a post from Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) about how Crowley had said, “it’s important to understand that the way we fund parks is just not sustainable.” Crowley, who defeated socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin’s Democrat gubernatorial primary, has repeatedly increased taxes while serving as Milwaukee County Executive. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, while Crowley “takes credit for ‘the largest property tax cut’ in the county’s history,”...

[Catholic Caucus] Rupnik victims publish open letter to Pope Leo ahead of Lourdes visitFive women who have accused disgraced Fr. Marko Rupnik of sexual abuse condemned the Vatican’s ‘violence of silence and abandonment’ and called for transparency and a fair trial.Five alleged sex abuse victims of Father Marko Rupnik have published an open letter to Pope Leo XIV saying that the continued “deathly silence” from the Vatican surrounding Rupnik’s case adds to the violence against them. Timed to coincide with the pope’s upcoming trip to Lourdes, the signatories contrasted Monsignor Jean-Marc Micas, bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes’, move to permanently...