(huffpost.com)

Reid later asked Self about criticism that “prayers aren’t cutting it” when it comes to addressing gun violence before the Texas Republican took aim at the analysis.

“Well, those are people that don’t believe in an almighty God who has… who is absolutely in control of our lives,” said Self, who later emphasized a need for more ways to address mental health and remarked that he’d “like to stay away from the politics today” to focus on the shooting victims.

If some god is “absolutely in control of our lives,” aren’t we powerless to change anything? How would addressing his bogey man of a lack of mental health resources help end gun violence?

You’re an idiot, sir. You represent people who believe in a god, and those who don’t. You’ve got a problem on you hands, as we all do, and you’re tasked with fixing it. By all means continue praying if that’s your thing. But you also need to get to work on developing real world solutions that address the problem. That’s literally your job.

(wired.com)

No one expects further progress to come easily; but that has never deterred Milman and Neeman. “From my experience,” Milman said, “all of the major things that I was fortunate enough to be able to do required just not giving up.”

The problem here is fascinating, and I can grasp that. I can’t grasp the math of the solution, but I know somebody who can and I look forward to talking to him about it.

I love the closing paragraph quoted above. True in math, true in everything. Don’t give up. Ever.

(cnn.com)

Each CubeSat will orbit at about 340 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth’s surface and capture hourly observations of the precipitation, temperature and humidity of tropical storms. Current satellites take similar data, but only about every six hours, which makes it more difficult to measure the intensity of storms.

More frequent data can help scientists understand the rapid changes that can occur within a storm, impacting its structure and stability, and help meteorologists improve their prediction and forecasting models.

Looks like hurricane data will grow six-fold this season. Hopefully that finds its way into weather apps for phones and tablets, which, I think, is where most people track storms (true for me).

(huffpost.com)

In the days and weeks immediately afterward, an overwhelming majority of Americans understood that the former president had incited it, for the purpose of staying in the White House. Two years of Trump lies and lukewarm media pushback later, that percentage is far lower, and an increasing number of Republicans now believe Trump was not responsible for his own coup attempt.

How much deeper into the looking glass are we going to fall if journalists fail to provide the most basic of context to our audience?

In an age when most journalism is produced and consumed online, with no physical “column inch” limit like with print, there is simply zero excuse not to include just a sentence or two of context about Trump’s Jan. 6 conduct in every news account about him. The relative clause “who attempted a coup to remain in power” adds precisely eight words to a story.

Journalism is broken in many ways, the “horse race” nature of political journalism being just one of them.

(cnn.com)

The guard, who played high school basketball at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles, chose USC over Oregon and Ohio State.

My Buckeyes lost out. Or avoided the circus. Or both.