Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalWebb telescope finds planet-like objects in Orion
Jupiter-sized "planets" free-floating in space, unconnected to any star, have been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
What's intriguing about the discovery is that these objects appear to be moving in pairs. Astronomers are currently struggling to explain them.
The telescope observed about 40 pairs in a fabulously detailed new survey of the famous Orion Nebula.
They've been nicknamed Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or "JuMBOs" for short.
One possibility is that these objects grew out of regions in the nebula where the density of material was insufficient to make fully fledged stars.
Another possibility is that they were made around stars and were then kicked out into interstellar space through various interactions.
"The ejection hypothesis is the favoured one at the moment," said Prof Mark McCaughrean.
"Gas physics suggests you shouldn't be able to make objects with the mass of Jupiter on their own, and we know single planets can get kicked out from star systems. But how do you kick out pairs of these things together? Right now, we don't have an answer. It's one for the theoreticians," the European Space Agency's (Esa) senior science adviser told BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66974738
Holy wow! That's about all I can say. Orion was one of the first constellations my dad taught me to identify.
Park ranger explains why Fat Bear Week is so popular
It's once again time to celebrate the fattest bears in all the land.
Fat Bear Week 2023, the ninth-annual edition of a "March madness-style" bracket competition that pits the fattest brown bears at Katmai National Park in Alaska against each other, is set to begin, Keith Moore, lead interpretive park ranger at Katmai National Park and Preserve, told ABC News.
The bears of the Brooks River have spent the summer fattening up on salmon, berries and grasses in preparation of their annual winter hibernation, according to the park.
In the bear kingdom, "fat is fit," and the more gargantuan, the better, according to Moore.
The brown bears are now in prime shape to enter hibernation around November and eventually experience a one-third loss of their body weight through the winter season, when they start to emerge from their dens around May, Moore said.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fat-fit-alaskas-katmai-national-park-gears-annual/story?id=103505845
Vote for your favorites at fatbearweek.org. Oct 4-10! I'll be watching and picking mine, will you?
Rightwing activist helps fund 'predatory payday lenders' in supreme court case
The rightwing activist Leonard Leo has helped fund a network of groups involved in a crucial US supreme court case that could fundamentally weaken the federal government’s ability to hold corporations to account, a leading watchdog said as the conservative-dominated court prepared for its new term.
“Leonard Leo spent years stacking the court with ideological kindred spirits,” said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. “Now he’s funding a dark web of special interest groups to push an extreme agenda.”
The case in question, in the term that starts on Tuesday, is Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v Community Financial Services Association of America, or CFPB v CFSAA.
The CFPB was set up under the Obama administration after the global recession of 2008 to 2009, to better protect ordinary Americans from predatory business interests. The CFSAA is an umbrella for a group of payday lenders.
Last week, writing for Scotusblog, Amy Howe, a law professor and counsel in supreme court cases, said: “The stakes in the case are high. The Biden administration … warns that a ruling for the challengers could call into question not only the payday-lending rule at the center of this case but also a wide swath of other regulations that protect consumers.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/oct/02/rightwing-activist-leonardo-leo-payday-lender-supreme-court-case
In France, workers build a castle from scratch the 13th century way
Deep in a forest of France's Burgundy region, a group of enthusiasts is building a medieval castle the old-fashioned way — that is, with tools and methods from the late 13th century.
Some of those working here are heritage trade craftspeople, others are ardent history buffs, but all say they share a deep respect for nature and the planet, and a desire to return to simpler times.
"This is a place you experience with all your senses," says Sarah Preston, communications director and guide of these grounds known as Guédelon Castle. "As soon as we walk onto the site you smell the woodsmoke. There's something so evocative about these sites and sounds."
Just as she speaks, a horse cart rolls past carrying wood. Tapping from stonemasons rings out in the distance.
Once beyond the entrance barn doors, visitors plunge into a bygone age. There are no mechanical sounds, no motor engines — and cellphones must be turned off.
The idea to build Guédelon was born in 1995 among three friends, residents of the area, who are also history buffs and nature lovers. One of the three owned a nearby 17th century château and was involved in work to restore different castles in the area.
"But we thought, how amazing would it be to actually build a castle from scratch?" Maryline Martin, CEO and a co-founder of Guédelon, told public radio station France Culture last year.
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/01/1200546214/france-medieval-guedelon-castle-burgundy
I would give my eyeteeth to watch this for a day.....
Hair-Pulling, Brawls, Dead Horse: Cheerleader Sues NY School
After more than a year of relentless bullying, including a brutal, hair-pulling beatdown that was filmed and posted online, things got so bad for a 10th-grade cheerleader in Long Island, New York, that her parents put their house up for sale and tried to leave the area altogether—but not before the teen’s emotional support horse “was tragically killed in front of her by the veterinarian.”
That’s according to a $6 million lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast, which says the 16-year-old was promptly dubbed “horse girl” by her tormentors, whose vicious taunts about the beloved pet and ongoing physical attacks eventually drove the young woman from Smithtown West High School altogether.
The suit alleges the school, the school district, the Board of Ed, and the school superintendent were aware of what was happening but never did anything about it.
“The district does not comment on matters pertaining to litigation, but we take all allegations regarding bullying very seriously and thoroughly investigate such claims,” Smithtown Central School District Superintendent Mark Secaur said in an email. “We remain steadfast in our efforts to create and maintain a positive, safe and nurturing academic environment for all students.”
Not so, argues lawyer Kenneth Mollins, who is representing the cheerleader in the lawsuit.
“The law requires that schools act in loco parentis, or, ‘as parents,’ while kids are in their care and custody,” Mollins told The Daily Beast. “And it has become clear that schools cannot protect their students from bullying. They don’t have the staff, they don’t have the resources, the knowledge, or the know-how to protect students from violence by one student against another. There have been repeated cases, over and over and over again, where schools say they will take affirmative action. And then they do absolutely nothing.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hair-pulling-brawls-a-dead-horse-cheerleader-sues-smithtown-school-over-bullying?ref=home
I can't understand why the parents didn't charge the girls win the video with assault, just for starters. Don't wait on the school to do something.....
We have Covid
Spousal unit got sick Monday night. I woke up to him chilling so hard he was shaking the bed, and by that point I decided as the old saying goes, in for a penny, in for a pound, and there was no sense in going to sleep in the other room as a) the bed was full of clothes being sorted, and b) I'd probably gotten it anyway, as we had both been to The Chicks' concert on the previous Wednesday (a likely source, even though it was outside) and done a gem show all weekend, so I continued to sleep in the same bed, and sure enough, I got sick Wednesday evening. I didn't chill as hard, but had all the other fun of coughing, not sleeping, dizziness, etc. I stayed pretty much flat on my back in bed for 2 days and got up for the first time today, even though I didn't feel very much like it. I'm super-dizzy, don't want to eat, and still coughing a fair amount although it no longer sounds like I'm trying to bring up a lung. I also don't want to eat and am glad I made a big pot of congee the other night before I got sick. It might taste good later.
'I call it botanarchy': The Hackney guerrilla gardener bringing power to the people
Anarchism gets a bad rep. In the popular imagination, anarchists dress in black, they smash windows and hurl firebombs at police. Or else, they are young social misfits with green hair and too many piercings. Often they are both.
But what if anarchy could be beautiful, what if it could bring local communities together planting flowers in the streets? For Ellen Miles, the new doyenne of guerrilla gardening, it is. “I call it botanarchy,” she says.
With trowel in one hand and watering can in the other, Miles is inspiring young people to take up rakes and hoes, not to wave them at the gates of Downing Street, but to till the soil in the neglected flower beds and green patches of their streets and estates.
And in so doing, she says, they are not just brightening up the concrete vistas of urban cityscapes, but beginning the essential adaptations industrialised societies need to make to preserve biodiversity and become more resilient to global heating – and all the while challenging the liberal capitalist state.
“Guerrilla gardening is the practice of planting in public spaces in your neighbourhood” she says on a humid summer afternoon, walking between outlaw flower beds in Hackney, east London.
“And that’s how I define it … because, for me, it’s all about community ownership and belonging, and I think we have a right to cultivate these spaces in the areas we call home – and a responsibility to, as well.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/i-call-it-botanarchy-the-hackney-guerrilla-gardener-bringing-power-to-the-people
Great stuff! Let's all do a little of this if we can....
A 23-year-old was arrested for gun possession. It led the FBI to a global Satanic cult
An arrest on gun possession charges in Queens, New York, in November 2021 has led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to a pedophilic, Satanist extortion cult that has victimized dozens if not hundreds of minors, according to law enforcement documents, court records and sources with knowledge of the investigation.
Law enforcement discovered the organization, known as 764 and a range of aliases, while investigating alarming social media posts made by Angel Almeida, a 23-year-old resident of Astoria, Queens.
On 12 September 2023, the FBI issued a public warning about 764, noting the group is “deliberately targeting minor victims on publicly available messaging platforms to extort them into recording or livestreaming acts of self-harm and producing child sexual abuse material”. The advisory is the first formal mention of 764 by any American law enforcement agency.
The group appears to target children between the ages of eight and 17, the advisory notes, and particularly focuses on young people of color, youth identifying as LGBTQ+ or youth who struggle with mental health issues. Researchers familiar with 764 indicate the group’s members cultivate ties with minors through a wide range of platforms: either in wildly popular games like Roblox or gaming communications platforms like Discord and Twitch, as well as curated playlists on the streaming service SoundCloud. The group’s main form of communication is on Telegram, which has long been the platform of choice for many far-right extremists.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/new-york-satanic-cult-764-fbi
Pretty scary stuff.
Authorities rescue nearly 100 goldendoodles from Iowa puppy mill
Iowa authorities rescued nearly 100 dogs from a puppy mill over the weekend, many of whom were living in their own excrement.
On Friday, a deputy from the Boone county sheriff’s office was conducting a welfare check on a missing woman and came across what appeared to be a puppy mill, the sheriff’s office said in a press release.
Local outlets reported that the missing woman, Sara Stanfield, was connected to the Paris Puppies Paradise facility, which breeds goldendoodles, according to its website. The sheriff’s office has not disclosed the extent of Stanfield’s involvement in the puppy mill’s condition.
Puppy mills are high-volume breeding facilities that produce puppies for profit and disregard the needs of the puppies and their mothers, according to the Humane Society. Animals in puppy mills are treated as cash crops and are often trapped in overcrowded cages with minimal shelter from extreme weather and forced to sit and sleep in their own excrement, said the non-profit Paws.
Many suffer from malnutrition or starvation as a result of inadequate or unsanitary food and water while adult animals are bred until they can no longer produce before being destroyed or discarded, added Paws.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/goldendoodles-rescue-puppy-mill-iowa
AOC accuses Republicans of fabricating evidence in Biden impeachment
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez prompted three Republican witnesses to directly concede they had no first-hand knowledge of criminal actions by Joe Biden in a dramatic moment during a Republican-led impeachment hearing into the president on Thursday.
The New York Democrat also accused Republicans of presenting a fabricated text message between Jim and Hunter Biden – the president’s brother and son, respectively – that she pointed out omitted critical context. Representative Byron Donalds of Florida displayed a selectively edited exchange between the two in the format of iMessages, which was not how the committee originally received the communication.
Thursday’s hearing was the latest step in a months-long effort investigating the president and his son Hunter’s business dealings that has yet to turn up substantial evidence of wrongdoing.
The impeachment inquiry appears to be a thinly veiled effort to try and muddy the waters as Donald Trump, who leads the Republican primary field, faces four different criminal cases. The hearing was at times chaotic for Republicans, who struggled to establish what evidence they were putting forth for investigating Biden.
Despite investigating Biden for months, Republicans on Thursday largely focused on the financial dealings by Hunter Biden, using innuendos and the suggestion of potential criminal activity to recommend that further investigation was necessary. The strategy appeared to be to lay the groundwork to justify a longer fishing expedition.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/28/biden-impeachment-hearing-house-republicans
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