June 16, 2025

IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Scientists find universe’s missing matter while watching fast radio bursts shine through ‘cosmic fog.’ “This previously missing stuff isn’t dark matter, the mysterious substance that accounts for around 85% of the material universe but remains invisible because it doesn’t interact with light. Instead, it is ordinary matter made out of atoms (composed of baryons) that does interact with light but has until now just been too dark to see.”

Dark matter always felt like a kludge to me.

Posted at 5:44 pm by Stephen Green

FLOPPENHEIMER: IAEA chief: Likely all machines at Iran’s main enrichment plant ‘severely damaged.’

It is very likely all the roughly 15,000 centrifuges operating at Iran’s biggest uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were badly damaged or destroyed because of a power cut caused by an Israeli strike, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told the BBC on Monday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General Rafael Grossi had previously said the centrifuges at the underground enrichment plant at Natanz may have been damaged as a result of an airstrike on its power supply, even though the hall housing the plant itself did not seem to have been hit.

“Our assessment is that with this sudden loss of external power, in great probability the centrifuges have been severely damaged if not destroyed altogether,” Grossi said in an interview with the BBC.

And that’s why you always want a really strong UPS on your valuable computing equipment.

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 28

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! Green group with ties to Chinese Communist Party part of network influencing U.S. policy. “‘This isn’t environmentalism—it’s economic warfare. The Chinese Communist Party is using American nonprofits to make us dependent on their supply chains, from solar panels to EV batteries, while our policymakers walk straight into the trap,’ said Michael Lucci, CEO of State Armor, which produced the report.”

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 13

HEH:

Posted at 4:55 pm by Stephen Green 39

IT’S WEIRD HOW DEMOCRATS KEEP BLEEDING MALE VOTERS:

And that’s just in Texas.

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green 121

WATERMELONS: Green group with ties to Chinese Communist Party part of network influencing U.S. policy. “A national-security watchdog group is asking members of Congress to take a closer look at an energy transition advocacy nonprofit that has ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). According to State Armor, the watchdog group, nonprofits are coordinating with U.S. climate groups to influence climate policy, advance the interests of the CCP and undermine U.S. national security.”

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green 12

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Salt Lake City ‘No Kings’ protest murder suspect pushed Antifa views.

Arturo Gamboa, the man charged with murder after a deadly shooting at Salt Lake City’s “No Kings” protest, appears to be a self-described anti-government radical who publicly supported Antifa, rejected the US electoral system, and once said justice should be taken “by any means necessary,” a Facebook page with the same name from Utah reveals.

While Gamboa did not fire the shot that took the life of 39-year-old Arthur Ah Loo, police say his armed and threatening behavior sparked the confrontation, says the Salt Lake Tribune.

Witnesses say Gamboa appeared at the protest wearing a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle in a backpack. He allegedly emerged from behind a wall and began running toward the crowd with the rifle raised.

A designated “peacekeeper” at the event, wearing a high-visibility vest, opened fire with a handgun—striking Gamboa and inadvertently hitting Ah Loo.

What a mess.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green 270

TWO IRANIAN F-14s PERMANENTLY GROUNDED: In 2022, National Interest reported, “According to a survey by Flight Global, the Iranian air force in 2019 operates around 24 F-14 Tomcats from a batch of 79 of the Grumman-made, swing-wing fighters that Iran acquired in the mid-1970s before the Islamic revolution.” The Iranian air force appears to have lost another two F-14s:

Maverick and Rooster hardest hit.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 110

NEW FRONTIERS IN IMAGING: Scientists detect light passing through entire human head, opening new doors for brain imaging. “To achieve this, the team used powerful lasers and highly sensitive detectors in a carefully controlled experiment. They directed a pulsed laser beam at one side of a volunteer’s head and placed a detector on the opposite side. The setup was designed to block out all other light and maximize the chances of catching the few photons that made the full journey through the skull and brain.”

Posted at 2:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 89

THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA sets new potential launch date for Ax-4 mission to ISS.

In a June 14 statement, NASA said it is working with Axiom Space and SpaceX on “reviewing launch opportunities” for the Ax-4 mission, with the earliest such opportunity on June 19.

The mission was set to launch June 11 but was postponed the evening before to correct a liquid oxygen leak in one of the engines in the Falcon 9’s first stage. That repair appeared to be ready to support a launch as soon as June 13, but NASA announced June 12 it put the launch on hold to allow the agency and Roscosmos to assess a “new pressure signature” in a Russian ISS module after recent work there.

The assessment involved a vestibule or “transfer tunnel” known as PrK at one end of the Zvevzda module, connecting a docking port to the rest of the module. That vestibule has had a small leak for several years, despite efforts by Roscosmos to seal it, and the vestibule is usually sealed off from the rest of the station.

NASA said that after the recent work, pressure in PrK remained stable rather than dropping slightly as previously detected.

Previously: ‘Possibility of a catastrophic failure’: Inside the space station leak problem that has NASA worried.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green 7

NEW GOLDEN GIRLS REBOOT FLOPS BADLY: Check out these hilarious clips of the geriatric “No Kings” protests that flopped hard despite big crowds.

Related: No Kings at the Old Folks’ Home.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 144

WARNING: MAY LEAVE A SMILE ON YOUR FACE ALL DAY: Confirmed video shows the moment Israel hits Iran’s state propaganda channel.

Posted at 1:34 pm by David Bernstein 152

WHY HURRICANES AND TYPHOONS DON’T CROSS THE EQUATOR. I figured they were just afraid of being hazed by King Neptune.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 31