YEAH, WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? Stunned Massachusetts educators, ADL call for MassCUE apology after ‘hateful’ anti-Israel and Holocaust rhetoric at conference.

MassCUE’s fall education tech conference — held in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents at Gillette Stadium — apparently went off the rails during a panel on equity in education. That’s when the discussion reportedly delved into the current Middle East conflict in Israel and Gaza.

“Speakers leaned very heavily into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very one-sided, dangerous rhetoric,” Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin told the Herald.

That included references to “Israeli genocide” and “Israeli apartheid.”

A panelist also suggested that the teaching of the Holocaust has been one-sided, and “two perspectives needed to be taught,” recalled Rubin, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, during which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews.

“It was jarring, unexpected, and unprofessional,” added Rubin, who’s also the president of his synagogue.

If it was unexpected, it’s only because you haven’t been paying attention. Our institutions are infested with garbage people.

OPEN THREAD: Never give up! Never surrender!

TO BE FAIR, IT’S EASY TO FORGET:

ALL THE BEST PEOPLE TOLD ME THIS NEVER HAPPENS:

NOT PERFECT, BUT MUCH IMPROVED:

HAVING SOLVED ALL THE CITY’S OTHER PROBLEMS: ‘No One Has To Be Healthy’: San Fran Taps Fat Activist As ‘Weight Stigma’ Czar.

Tovar is against so-called diet culture for the obese, rejects Ozempic, and believes that “no one has to be healthy.”

“No one has to be healthy,” she said on a podcast. “Nobody owes anybody that.”

“No matter what size you are, you don’t owe anybody else your health.”

What does that even mean?

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Just Ban All the Cars Already. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, it’s an (almost) All Vehicular Madness/All the Time edition.”

IT’S HARDER THAN IT LOOKS: We’re about to fly a spacecraft into the Sun for the first time.

Almost no one ever writes about the Parker Solar Probe anymore.

Sure, the spacecraft got some attention when it launched. It is, after all, the fastest moving object that humans have ever built. At its maximum speed, goosed by the gravitational pull of the Sun, the probe reaches a velocity of 430,000 miles per hour, or more than one-sixth of 1 percent the speed of light. That kind of speed would get you from New York City to Tokyo in less than a minute.

And the Parker Solar Probe also has the distinction of being the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person. At the time of its launch, in August 2018, physicist Eugene Parker was 91 years old.

But in the six years since the probe has been zipping through outer space and flying by the Sun? Not so much. Let’s face it, the astrophysical properties of the Sun and its complicated structure are not something that most people think about on a daily basis.

However, the smallish probe—it masses less than a metric ton, and its scientific payload is only about 110 pounds (50 kg)—is about to make its star turn. Quite literally. On Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe will make its closest approach yet to the Sun. It will come within just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the solar surface, flying into the solar atmosphere for the first time.

Yeah, it’s going to get pretty hot. Scientists estimate that the probe’s heat shield will endure temperatures in excess of 2,500° Fahrenheit (1,371° C) on Christmas Eve, which is pretty much the polar opposite of the North Pole.

Merry Christmas, Parker.

THE 21ST CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I’D HOPED, BUT I’M OKAY WITH THIS:

#JOURNALISM:

And why didn’t these “cancer research advocates” know that their bill had passed the House ages ago and was now languishing in the Democratic Senate so that it could be used as a hostage against Republicans?

And why didn’t journalist Sam Stein know that, or choose to share it with his readers?

Oh, wait, the answer to that is in his bio: