Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalHow the James Webb Space Telescope transformed astronomy this year
One year ago, the James Webb Space Telescope began its journey through space.
"JWST was launched on Christmas day, and then was a present that took six months to unwrap," said Jane Rigby, an astronomer at NASA and the Operations Project Scientist.
After an initial calibration period, the telescope started collecting data. And the first results amazed astronomers.
"I downloaded the data, and I'm like, sitting in my pajamas...you know, it's pandemic, we're all working from home," Rigby said. "I pulled down those data, and just started paging through them, pouring through them. And it was so beautiful."
The telescope is only five months into its science mission, and it's already transforming astronomy. The telescope's instruments have allowed it to capture previously unobservable planets, stars and galaxies near and far.
NPR spoke with three astronomers in different disciplines of astronomy about how JWST is advancing research in their area of expertise. They all agree JWST is a game changer, and that there's plenty more groundbreaking research still to come.
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/25/1145025275/how-the-james-webb-space-telescope-transformed-astronomy-this-year
Here's which House members voted for or against the $1.7 trillion spending bill
The House on Friday passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that would finance federal agencies through September 2023 and provide more aid to a devastated Ukraine. This compilation of long-stalled appropriations bills, known as an omnibus, will now be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
The bill passed mostly along party lines, 225-201, with one member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), voting present. Only one Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), opposed it. Nine Republicans crossed the aisle to join Democrats in support of the bill, as the party stayed largely united behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the chamber’s minority leader.
See how each house member voted on the Omnibus Bill:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/heres-which-house-members-voted-or-against-17-trillion-spending-bill/
A whole bunch of lumps of coal to my congresscritter, the ever-wimpy Ben Cline, for showing once again his lack of both spine and conscience. Check on yours.
Roger Stone Took the Fifth When Asked How Old He Was
The House committee investigating the Capitol riot and former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election must have known they were going to get a lot of Republican witnesses refusing to answer questions.
But perhaps they didn’t know just how serious they were about invoking their Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate.
In a batch of dozens of transcripts published by the committee on Wednesday, high-profile right-wingers involved in the events of Jan. 6 refused to answer hard-hitting questions such as “Where do you live,” “Do you have a Twitter handle,” and, on multiple occasions, whether the witness understood what the Fifth Amendment actually means.
And ahead of the release of the committee’s full report Thursday, the transcripts show a substantial lack of cooperation from many of the key players allegedly involved in the events that led up to the Capitol riot.
During his deposition on Dec. 17, 2021, Longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone used his right to not self-incriminate by refusing to answer questions about his biography easily found on the internet.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vkz3/jan-6-roger-stone-pleads-the-fifth
I am in favor of blowtorches applied to snowflakes......
Has anyone here
used "Rocket Money" to keep track of subscriptions and stuff? It sounds a little too good to be true, so it probably is....
Rand Paul Blocks Bill That Would Ensure New Moms Are Allowed to Breastfeed at Work
Earlier this month, Senate Republicans—many of whom have endorsed a federal 15-week abortion ban, which would force people to stay pregnant against their will—blocked a bill to let pregnant workers take bathroom breaks without being fired. And on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a bill to ensure new parents are allowed to breastfeed on the job.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act and sought unanimous consent for the Senate to vote on the bipartisan bill, which would allow it to pass through the chamber swiftly. But Paul decided to block a vote on the PUMP Act because Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), the sponsor of the bill, didn’t include Paul’s amendment that would study the impact of increased regulations on businesses, a source familiar with his decision told Jezebel. Paul did not provide a comment.
On the Senate floor on Tuesday, Murray called the bill a matter of “common sense and basic human decency.”
“This is really straightforward. When new moms return to work, they should have the time and space they need to pump and breastfeed their baby,” Murray said. Speaking on the Senate floor, the Washington senator said the PUMP Act would have extended protections for breastfeeding while at work to about nine million potentially nursing working parents. The bill would close a loophole in the 2010 Break Time for Nursing Mothers Law, which mostly only covers hourly workers and excludes most salaried occupations, per the Economic Policy Institute.
Murray and Merkley’s bill would also ensure nursing workers receive reasonable break time and a private place to pump, and if they lose their jobs for pumping while working, they’ll have the rights to back pay and reinstatement.
https://jezebel.com/rand-paul-blocks-bill-to-ensure-new-moms-are-allowed-to-1849922671
Rand Paul hates women
High school football incidents spark racism talks, programs
Superintendent Torie Gibson felt she had no choice but to make the unpopular decision. When learning Amador High’s football team had a group chat titled, “Kill the Blacks,” filled with derogatory language and racial slurs, she ended the Northern California school’s varsity season.
That meant the 100-year anniversary game between rivals Amador and Argonaut was called off.
“We canceled the football season, and we did it for all the right reasons because the behavior is not acceptable,” said Gibson, who oversees the Amador County Unified School District. “However, football is an extracurricular activity. It is not a given. It is not a right. It is strictly extra.”
The discipline was swift and abrupt. Moments before Amador was to play Rosemont — a predominantly Black and Latino school in nearby Sacramento — the game was called off.
There was more fallout. Amador’s football coach, athletic director and principal were put on leave.
In Gibson’s mind, the discipline was the easy part. The hard part will be setting the table for real change, and the key will be presentation. The school is based in a mostly white, rural area an hour’s drive east of Sacramento. Amador has just four Black students out of about 750.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/high-school-football-incidents-spark-racism-talks-programs-rcna62944
In Florida, 'health freedom' activists exert influence over a major hospital
A Florida hospital has become the latest front for political activists eager to challenge protocols for treating COVID.
While most of the 6,000 hospitals in the United States are privately-run, about 200 are controlled by publicly-elected board members, according to Larry Gage, former president of the National Association of Public Hospitals. Typically, those elections usually have nothing to do with national politics or culture war issues.
But with seats opening on the Sarasota Memorial Hospital's board earlier this year, a group of political activists opposed to COVID protocols saw an opportunity. Now, the hospital has three new board members who question the effectiveness of vaccines and spread medical misinformation. While they're a minority on the nine-person board, their victory has thrown the hospital board's typically quiet meetings into chaos.
More than 200 people showed up to the new members' first meeting in late November, the largest turnout that chairman Tramm Hudson had ever seen in his eight years on the board.
Micheila Matthew and more than a dozen self-described "health freedom activists" demanded an investigation into the hospital's management during the worst of the pandemic. Some had lost loved ones during the peak of the pandemic and blamed the hospital. Others blasted the hospital's leadership for ignoring non-mainstream COVID treatments such as ivermectin, which studies have established do not effectively treat COVID.
What a bottle of ivermectin reveals about the shadowy world of COVID telemedicine
"We want answers," Matthew said. "There will be no amnesty. You failed."
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/21/1144798353/in-florida-health-freedom-activists-exert-influence-over-a-major-hospital
FloriDUH. Can we just secede from this hateful place?
Update on Josie
My new barn cat, Josephine aka Josie, seems to be adjusting well although still not engaging directly with me. She likes her feral house in the crate but comes out frequently to survey the passing scene. She's had words with the local possum, who has stopped trying to get at her food, and with the neighborhood marauder, a tuxie boy who comes around mooching. She and Winnie both cursed his ancestors all the way back to Hatshepsut yesterday and he took off into the woods. I am curious as to what will happen when she comes out of the crate. She now seems to recognize my voice as belonging to "she who brings food" and will look directly at me when I speak to her, she just doesn't come out of her house when I'm around yet. Saturday marks her second week in the crate. Two, possibly three to go.
Far-Right Republicans Shunned Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got a standing ovation from a joint session of Congress for bravely leading his nation in the fight against a brutal Russian invasion. But not all of Congress.
Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert spent part of the speech glued to their phones and barely paying attention. Several others remained seated for many of the portions of the speech where Zelenskyy received standing ovations, and more didn’t attend the speech at all.
One, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, tweeted prior to the address that he was intentionally missing it while dismissing Ukraine’s war effort. “I’m in DC but I will not be attending the speech of the Ukrainian lobbyist,” Massie said.
In all, roughly 90 House Republicans out of 213—fewer than half—bothered to attend the speech, according to CQ Roll Call.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy7qxz/zelenskyy-speech-republicans-ukraine
Disgusting scheissefressers!
Alex Jones Told Jan. 6 Team He's Too Stressed to Spell His Own Name, Spells Wrong Anyways
Notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told investigators from the January 6 committee that he was “too stressed out” to spell his name for them, before eventually spelling his middle name incorrectly.
Jones, who was one of former President Donald Trump’s loudest mouthpieces in the days leading up the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, used his Fifth Amendment right to virtually every question asked by investigators. The Fifth Amendment allows a person to refuse to answer a question on the grounds the answer may be used against them in a criminal prosecution.
From the very start of Jones’ deposition on Jan. 24, 2022, the man best known for mocking the parents of the 20 children killed in Sandy Hook massacre appeared antagonistic with investigators.
“Could you please spell your middle name for the record?” an investigator (names are blacked out in the official transcripts) asked after noting it was assumed Alexander Jones would be spelled in the traditional manner. Jones’ middle name is Emerick.
“You guys know what my name is. It’s on the record,” Jones replied.
“I’m just asking for the court reporter,” the investigator said.
“E-M…I’m so stressed out, I can’t even spell it for you, so,” Jones answered.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5vedb/alex-jones-january-6-deposition
To be fair, Ashley, the Iowa State basketball star, spells her last name "Joens" so maybe he's confused
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
Number of posts: 9,971