April 17, 2025

HMM: Astronomers say they’ve found strongest ever ‘hints’ of life beyond our solar system.

Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising “hints” of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed skepticism.

There has been vigorous debate in scientific circles about whether the planet K2-18b, which is 124 light-years away in the Leo constellation, could be an ocean world capable of hosting microbial life, at least.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, a British-US team of researchers detected signs of two chemicals in the planet’s atmosphere long considered to be “biosignatures,” indicating extraterrestrial life.

On Earth, the chemicals dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide are produced only by life, mostly microscopic marine algae called phytoplankton.

Developing. Slowly, but developing.

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

‘GHOST GUNS’ AND ‘HATE CRIME:’ Tulsi Gabbard Declassifies Biden Admin Docs Targeting ‘Domestic Terrorism.’

Biden’s intelligence community zeroed in on firearms — specifically “ghost guns,” “high-capacity magazines” and “assault weapons,” the documents show.

“Rein in the proliferation of ‘ghost guns’; encourage state adoption of extreme risk protection orders; and drive other executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” the strategy detailed under a section about “long-term contributors to domestic terrorism.” (RELATED: DOJ And ATF Repeal Biden’s ‘Zero Tolerance Policy,’ Delivering Win For Gun Owners)

Biden’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) cracked down on “ghost guns,” or un-serialized, privately made firearms.

The Second Amendment group Gun Owners of America slammed the document, deeming it “Biden’s secret plan to eliminate the Second Amendment in the name of ‘counterterrorism.’”

After his infamous bitter clingers Kinsley gaffe, in 2008, Obama lied promised, “I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people’s lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won’t take your handgun away.”

As Jim Geraghty liked to say, all of Obama’s promises came with expiration dates.

Especially during his third term.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 16

ANN ALTHOUSE IS UNPERSUADED BY HARVARD’S DEFENDERS: “Professor Connelly sees himself and his New York Times readers as the ‘we’ who look on as Trump breaks things and hope to excite ‘the American people’ to oppose and resist Trump. But the American people have supported Trump because the American people have seen what your ‘we’ has done with its power when it has had the chance. ‘Let the Experts Handle It Again’ is not a great rallying cry these days.”

Related: The Suicide of Expertise.

Posted at 1:27 pm by Glenn Reynolds 3

RAPE IS TERRIBLE, BUT ONLY IF IT’S BY WHITE MEN:

Someone once wrote in a review of Germaine Greer that no act was too unspeakable for her so long as the hand that performed it was suitably brown and weathered. I guess The Atlantic has moved beyond hands. . . .

Posted at 1:22 pm by Glenn Reynolds 57

EVERYONE IN THE FIELD KNOWS THIS. THEY DEMONETIZED ME OVER POLITICS, TOO.

When do I file for damages?

Posted at 1:01 pm by Glenn Reynolds 37

WHAT IS A WOMAN? JK ROWLING IS A WOMAN, A GENUINELY TOUGH WOMAN:

Posted at 12:45 pm by Stephen Green 76

BURGMENTUM, BABY: Burgum Takes the Wind Out of the Empire State’s Plans. “As much as I cracked on Doug Burgum as a presidential candidate, he is going gangbusters as Interior Secretary and is proving to be another of Trump’s inspired picks. All I can say is molto well done to him. As for the offshore waters South of Long Island, I hope the folks really enjoy them now. Things are always better savored when you realize what you almost lost.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 22

IMPRESSIVE: High School Student Discovers 1.5 Million Potential New Astronomical Objects by Developing an A.I. Algorithm. “Matteo Paz from Pasadena, California, recently won the first place prize of $250,000 in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search for combining machine learning with astronomy. Self-described as the nation’s ‘oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors,’ the contest recognized Paz for developing his A.I. algorithm. The young scientist’s tool processed 200 billion data entries from NASA’s now-retired Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope. His model revealed 1.5 million previously unknown potential celestial bodies.”

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green 58

CHANGE? Meet the Man Who Murdered the Democratic Party. “A pair of earthshattering, history-altering, Chris Christie-sized stories broke this week, but they’ve (mostly) skated beneath the political periphery. That’s because you can’t grasp the sheer enormity of the consequences until you connect them together.”

Posted at 11:12 am by Stephen Green 186

I’VE HAD SIMILAR THOUGHTS: Is It August 1941 Again? If So Is There A Chinese Operation Z In The Works?

For many years before the United States entered World War II, tensions between the United States and Japan escalated. In the months prior to December 7, 1941, those tensions reached the breaking point. Responding to the Japanese occupation of airfields in French Indochina, the U.S. froze all Japanese assets on July 26, 1941. On August 1st, it imposed an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan. Without those exports, the Japanese economy and military would grind to a halt.

The Japanese were faced with a clear choice. The sanctions imposed by the United States were a fatal blow to Japan’s economy. Tokyo could knuckle under, or it could strike first.

That didn’t work out very well.

Posted at 10:41 am by Stephen Green 346

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: James May reviews a fully driverless car (video).

The video goes on quite a bit too long, but for longtime Top Gear viewers, the punchline is a hoot.

It does make me slightly less apprehensive about riding in a self-driving car though: Lyft plans to launch robotaxi service in Dallas in 2026. “The ride-sharing company Lyft said Monday it plans to roll out a full self-driving robotaxi service in Dallas next year. The announcement comes as rival Uber plans to launch its self-driving taxi service with Google’s Waymo cars in Austin, Texas, next month.”

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll 44

THE DEMOCRATS’ APPEAL IS BECOMING MORE SELECTIVE: Politico: Guess Where Voters Are Getting Tired of La Résistance? “Voters, on the other hand, have had enough … even in California. According to Politico’s new poll, Golden State voters have no real interest in going to war with Donald Trump. Instead, they seem less enthused than ever about the state’s one-party rule and the fruits it has borne.”

Fruits of a poisonous tree.

Posted at 9:49 am by Glenn Reynolds 69

JOYLESS GUARDIAN WRITER SAYS: The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.

This lede is just too precious for writer Moira Donegan’s utter lack of self-awareness while decrying our lack of self-awareness: “There are some spectacles of US decadence and decline that almost seem too on the nose – the sort of orgies of vulgar provocation or fantastic lack of self-awareness that exceed the limits of parody, so that if they were in a novel, you’d think the writer was laying it on a little thick.”

Say what you will about the merits of Blue Origin’s all-female passenger flight but those women touched the edge of space on an American-built joyride that you can’t get in Britain at any price.

If that’s decadence and decline, then what do you call Britain’s ongoing dewesternization?

Posted at 9:39 am by Stephen Green 143