Archive for the 'News You Can Use.' Category
30th January 2026
The Telegraph (UK).
President Donald Trump has announced an “energy ceasefire”. For one week, Ukraine and Russia will cease attacks on one another’s cities and critical infrastructure.
Details are sparse, beyond Trump’s claims that he asked Putin “not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week. And he agreed to do that”. The Kremlin has yet to confirm or deny Trump’s claim. Nor has Ukraine said whether it will refrain from strikes on Russian energy and oil refining infrastructure, which have wreaked considerable damage to the Russian economy.
But in the context of a four-year war without a single day of meaningful truth, such a truce would be a landmark.
If it happens – and more importantly, holds – Trump will at long last be able to point to genuine progress from his hitherto fruitless peace-making efforts.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Trump Has Announced A Ukraine Ceasefire. Is It a Sham or Showstopper?
30th January 2026
The Times (UK).
Sebastian Gomez-Pena, who has no movement from the neck down, is testing the Neuralink implant which allows users to control a computer using their thoughts.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Elon Musk’s Brain Chip Feels Magical, Says Paralysed Briton
29th January 2026
Read it.
If, of course, that’s what you want to do.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on ScienceShot: An Illustrated Guide to Hippo Castration
28th January 2026
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Republicans could see a major shift in congressional seats to Texas and Florida, while Democrats could be facing painful losses in California and New York if redistricting projections based on the 2030 Census hold true.
Such population shifts could also translate into meaningful gains in electoral votes, potentially allowing Republican presidential candidates to win national elections without needing to carry traditional battleground states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin.
The projections were made by Jonathan Cervas of Carnegie Mellon University and released Tuesday on X by The Redistrict Network. They are based on 2025 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Red States Eye Big Gains as Census Shifts Hit Calif., N.Y.
28th January 2026
Times News (UK).
“In many cases these were pitched as senior-level roles, but they obviously don’t exist.”
A Times investigation by senior investigations reporter Shanti Das reveals how criminal networks are exploiting vulnerable migrants by selling fake job credentials which would allow them to remain in the UK for up to £20,000. The scheme uses real Home Office-approved companies to issue false paperwork for jobs that do not exist, with much of the activity taking place openly on public Facebook groups.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Inside the Black Market Selling Fake Jobs to Migrants So They Can Stay in the UK
28th January 2026
The Foundry.
Alex Pretti reportedly had at least one previous encounter with federal immigration officials before he was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday.
About a week before his death, federal officers tackled Pretti, breaking one of his ribs as he was shouting and blowing a whistle while agents were attempting to make arrests in Minneapolis, CNN first reported.
Anti-ICE protesters have commonly used whistles to alert passers-by to the presence of immigration enforcement agents in the area.
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28th January 2026
The Telegraph (UK).
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked by a protester as she called for the resignation of Kristi Noem during a town hall meeting in Minneapolis.
The man leapt from his seat while Ms Omar was addressing the audience and sprayed a liquid at her using a syringe, before being tackled and apprehended by security.
The incident came a day after Donald Trump said the 43-year old congresswoman was the subject of an investigation by the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Perhaps he thought she would melt, like the Wicked Witch of the East.
UPDATE: SHE STAGED IT??!
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Watch: US Congresswoman Attacked by Protester at Town Hall
27th January 2026
The Telegraph (UK).
Donald Trump has sacked the border patrol chief leading his immigration raids across the country after the fatal shooting of a nurse in Minneapolis, according to sources.
Gregory Bovino was removed from his role as “Commander at Large” of Border Patrol and is expected to retire soon, the Atlantic reported.
The removal of Mr Bovino, who has been the face of Mr Trump’s mass deportation campaign, is a signal that the US president is rethinking his administration’s most aggressive tactics.
I like to think that Trump has a plan but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.
Posted in News You Can Use. | 4 Comments »
26th January 2026
Times News (UK).
Overt comments by US representatives in support of a separatist movement in the Canadian province of Alberta are “unbecoming and troublesome,” says former deputy premier of Alberta and founder of the ‘Forever Canadian’ petition, Thomas Lukaszuk.
Posted in News You Can Use. | 3 Comments »
24th January 2026
SciTechDaily.
“Humans possess a remarkable ability to talk about almost anything, sometimes putting words together into never-before-spoken or -written sentences,” said Morten H. Christiansen, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
According to language scientists, this flexibility comes from internal mental representations that help people recognize patterns in language and combine words into meaningful statements. While this ability is fundamental to communication, scientists are still working to understand exactly what those mental patterns look like and how they function, Christiansen said.
In a new study, Christiansen and co-author Yngwie A. Nielsen of Aarhus University present a different way of thinking about how language is represented in the mind. Their work questions the long-held belief that language depends on highly complex grammatical structures. Although the research focused on English, the authors suggest the results may apply to many languages and could influence future research on how language evolves, how children learn to speak, and how adults acquire new languages.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Have We Been Wrong About Language for 70 Years? New Study Challenges Long-Held Theory
23rd January 2026
Watch it.
Nick Norwitz (Harfard MD, Oxford PhD in metabolism) does a deep dive.
Good evidence for not blindly trusting “experts”.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Lowering Cholesterol Killed: a Study Buried for 40 Years
22nd January 2026
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Crowds of Canadian citizens stood in long lines across Alberta for hours this week to sign a petition for a referendum on leaving Canada – officially titled “A Referendum Relating to Alberta Independence.” The petition requires at least 177,000 signatures in order to trigger the referendum, which would ultimately decide if the province will separate.
Petitions have 120 days to collect the signatures needed. Pro-separation groups say they could get as many as 1 million signatures, which would be a clear indication that Alberta will leave Canada. Alberta’s population is currently 5 million people.
Some petition locations reported as many as 10,000 signatures in a day and the public response is described as “concerning” by critics who want to remain part of Canada’s “constitutional monarchy.” Alberta is widely considered the most conservative province in the country and has been at odds with the far-left Canadian government (ruled by Ontario progressives).
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Alberta Sees Large Turnout for Petition to Separate From Canada
22nd January 2026
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When the history of the great Net Zero climate hoax comes to be written, pride of place will be given to the terrifying sixth mass extinction scare. Mainstream media barely question the idea that human-controlled climate is wreaking havoc with the life chances of millions of animal and plant species around the world. In November 2024, the Guardian reported that “as the planet warms up, scientists predict a series of ‘extinction cliffs’”. We are in danger of forgetting what the climate crisis means: extinction, was the cheerful article headline. But a recent bombshell report from the UK Royal Society has knocked seven bells out of all this nonsense by showing that species-level extinctions related to climate change “have not significantly increased over the last approximately 200 years”.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Climate Change is Not Causing Mass Extinctions, Says Bombshell Royal Society Paper
22nd January 2026
PBS, a Voice of the Crust.
The gauze-and-cream dressing must be changed every day, a painful process. In the burn unit at Fortaleza’s José Frota Institute, patients contort as their wounds are unwrapped and washed.
Enter the humble tilapia, a fish that’s widely farmed in Brazil and whose skin, until now, was considered trash. Unlike the gauze bandages, the sterilized tilapia skin goes on and stays on.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Why This Brazilian City Uses Tilapia Fish Skin to Treat Burn Victims
21st January 2026
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A new study published in Nature provides the earliest evidence that our human ancestors lived in the tropical rainforests of Africa
The study involving University of Sheffield researchers dates humans living in rainforests back to 150,000 years ago, 80,000 years earlier than found in other rainforests sites around the world
Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance dating techniques were used to date sediments containing Middle Stone Age tools found at an archeological site in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa, to a time when tropical rainforests existed across the region
The study argues that tropical rainforests were not a barrier to the spread of modern humans and supports the theory that human evolution happened across a variety of regions and habitats.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Scientists Find Earliest Evidence That Our Ancestors Lived in Rainforests 150,000 Years Ago
21st January 2026
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In what could have been the starting gun of Trump’s de-escalation, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the US President was right about security in the Arctic.
“When it comes to the Arctic, I think President Trump is right. Other leaders in NATO are right. We need to defend the Arctic,” the former Dutch prime minister said. “We know that the sea lanes are opening up.”
Rutte said that China and Russia were becoming increasingly active in the Arctic Circle, and acknowledged that this posed a problem for the alliance.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Trump Right About Arctic Security, NATO’s Rutte Says
21st January 2026
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If there’s anything Republicans and Democrats can agree on, it’s how to spend money. Both parties created the federal budget deficit and contributed to the looming $38 trillion national debt, but President Donald Trump’s administration is actively working to close it.
Since the budget is essentially financed by taxpayers, closing the gap means reduced borrowing and interest payments, lower national debt, and boosted long-term economic growth all Americans can feel.
The Monthly Treasury Statement highlights fiscal year 2025, in which the federal government spent over $7 trillion in outlays and generated $5.2 trillion in receipts. Despite including President Joe Biden’s last four months in office, the budget deficit of approximately $1.8 trillion was still down 2% from fiscal year 2024.
Early data for fiscal year 2026 (October to December 2025) shows further fiscal responsibility. The cumulative deficit of $602 billion is approximately 15% lower than the same period in fiscal year 2025.
The deficit’s closure—or at least slowed rate of growth—under the Trump administration, can be attributed to a combination of receipt (revenue) increases and targeted outlay (spending) reductions.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Federal Budget Deficit Shrinks Under President Trump
21st January 2026
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Scientists at Stanford Medicine have discovered a treatment that can reverse cartilage loss in aging joints and even prevent arthritis after knee injuries. By blocking a protein linked to aging, the therapy restored healthy, shock-absorbing cartilage in old mice and injured joints, dramatically improving movement and joint function. Human cartilage samples from knee replacement surgeries also began regenerating when exposed to the treatment.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Stanford Scientists Found a Way to Regrow Cartilage and Stop Arthritis
20th January 2026
The Register.
Perhaps not helping is that datacenter firms consistently expect power to be available up to two years earlier than the utilities and power generating companies say it can be delivered, according to the report.
This is forcing operators to go where the power is, and Texas is expected to be a big winner here, thanks to its ample energy resources. Bloom Energy forecasts that, by 2028, the state could exceed 40 GW of IT capacity, nearly 30 percent of the anticipated US total, and more than double its current share.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Power Scarcity Drives Datacenters to Texas, Where the Juice Is
18th January 2026
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Epoxy resin is a clear, robust polymer that is widely used – especially as part of fiber-reinforced materials in aviation, the automotive industry, and more. Until now, however, it has not been possible to recycle it. Researchers at Empa have developed an epoxy resin that can be reprocessed and chemically recycled, in addition to being flame-retardant and easy to manufacture.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on More Sustainable Epoxy Thanks to Phosphorus
17th January 2026
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They combined a blend of slimy and sticky proteins to produce a fast-acting, bacteria-blocking, waterproof adhesive for use in biomedical applications.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Engineers Turn The Body’s Goo Into New Glue
16th January 2026
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A 2025 Intelligence Assessment by the government of Denmark highlights the long term Russian and Chinese ‘threat’ in Arctic waters, at a moment Greenland officials have rejected the US assertion that the large resource-rich island and its waters are being gradually influenced and taken over by the Russia/China ‘menace’.
Trump has recently stated, “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t.”
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Danish Intelligence Confirms the Russia-China Threat to Greenland
16th January 2026
SciTechDaily.
For generations, scientists and food companies have been trying to recreate the taste of sugar without the health problems that come with it. From saccharin in the 19th century to newer alternatives like stevia and monk fruit in the 21st, the goal has been to keep sweetness while reducing excess calories, tooth decay, and the growing risks of obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes.
Researchers at Tufts University now report progress toward that goal. In a study published in Cell Reports Physical Science, the team describes a new biosynthetic method for producing tagatose, a naturally occurring but very rare sugar. Tagatose closely resembles table sugar in taste and could offer a way to sweeten foods with fewer negative effects. Scientists say it may also come with additional health benefits.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Scientists May Have Finally Found the “Holy Grail” of Sugar Substitutes
16th January 2026
The Telegraph (UK).
Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, has “presented” Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize as she attempted to woo the US president.
Mr Trump has made no secret of his desire to be awarded the honour, which has been bestowed on several former presidents including Barack Obama. [For no reason other that being The Magic Negro.]
Ms Machado, whose liberal Vente Venezuela party is widely believed to have won the 2024 election, was given the award for “promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”.
It follows claims Mr Trump did not back installing Ms Machado as the country’s leader following Nicholas Maduro’s capture because she was given the honour.
Asked whether she had given Mr Trump her award during their meeting on Thursday, Ms Machado said: “I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize.”
She said she had done so “in recognition [of] his unique commitment [to] our freedom”, although it was not clear whether Mr Trump accepted the medal.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Trump ‘Presented’ With Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuelan Opposition Leader
15th January 2026
ABC News, a Voice of the Crust.
The U.S. experienced negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in at least half a century as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to a report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution.
Although the administration has undertaken aggressive removal efforts, the negative number is mostly due to a significant drop in entries into the U.S., the report said.
“We estimate net flows of -295,000 to -10,000 for the year,” the Brookings study stated. “Though a high degree of policy uncertainty remains, continued negative net migration for 2026 is also likely.”
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on US, for 1st Time in 50 Years, Experienced Negative Net Migration in 2025: Report
10th January 2026
The Robb Report.

Wouldn’t mind having one of these.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on This Bonkers All-Terrain Robot Horse Is Going Into Production
10th January 2026
Read it.
Dick Smothers: “Take it, Tommy!”
Tom Smothers: “Take it where?”
Posted in News You Can Use. | 3 Comments »
9th January 2026
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Guyana: The Little Caribbean Country With a Big Role to Play in Trump’s Regional Shift
9th January 2026
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The Trump administration is considering sending lump-sum payments of up to $100,000 to each of Greenland’s roughly 57,000 residents as part of an effort to buy the Arctic island, media outlets reported Thursday.
The reports followed comments Wednesday from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he told lawmakers earlier this week that the goal is to buy the semiautonomous territory from Denmark, The Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, according to Reuters, which cited two sources who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
“We can make you rich or we can make you dead. Which do you choose? — The Mafia
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on US Weighs Buying Greenland, Giving Each Resident $100K
9th January 2026
Watch it.
I am as skeptical as Ryan Inis is. But if it works out (and the company involved has a history of innovation) it could be a real breakthrough. At any rate, it will tell you more about batteries than you probably want to know.
Robert A. Heinlein, in his 1982 novel Friday, mentions a similar product called ‘shipstone’. (If you haven’t read Friday, do so. You’ll enjoy it.)
Mackey Chandler’s April series (which I also heartily recommend) use a similar energy storage device, invented by Jeff Singh, one of the protagonists, as a major plot device.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Investigating the World’s First Solid State Battery
8th January 2026
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on CES 2026: I Made Fun of My Daughter, but This Rideable Luggage Made Me a Believer
8th January 2026
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U.S. forces stormed into Venezuela before dawn on Jan. 3 and captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a lightning operation that punched in and out of Caracas before its air defenses could mount an effective response.
The operation resulted in no U.S. fatalities and no loss of U.S. military equipment, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. mission—code-named Operation Absolute Resolve—has quickly become more than a political shockwave. Analysts have said it was also a real-world test of U.S. military power against a country that has spent years buying Chinese- and Russian-made air-defense systems and showcasing them as proof that it could deter Washington.
The raid raised uncomfortable questions for Beijing about the limits of the Chinese-supplied systems that Venezuela has leaned on—especially “anti-stealth” radar that China advertised as capable of spotting and stopping U.S. stealth aircraft, a military analyst said.
The analyst told The Epoch Times that the most damaging takeaway for China isn’t the failure of a single piece of equipment—it’s what the operation suggested about deeper weaknesses: corruption in China’s defense industry and lack of reliability of the technology and command structure meant to tie those systems together.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on How Chinese-Made Radar Defense Systems Failed in Venezuela
8th January 2026
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. to withdraw from 66 international organizations that the White House said no longer serve American interests.
The White House said the directive orders all executive departments and agencies to stop participating in and funding 35 non-United Nations organizations and 31 U.N. entities that the administration concluded operate contrary to U.S. national interests, security, economic prosperity, or sovereignty.
The White House said the action follows a review of every international intergovernmental organization, convention, and treaty that the U.S. belongs to, funds, or otherwise supports.
And about fargin time. We waste entirely too much money on this socialist crap.
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7th January 2026
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Hilton Worldwide Holdings has removed from its system the ?Minneapolis hotel that ?canceled the bookings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ?agents, the hotel operator said in a post on X on ?Tuesday.
After ICE officers booked rooms using official government emails and rates, ?Hilton canceled their reservations, the Department of Homeland ?Security said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.
“We are taking immediate ?action to remove ?this ?hotel from our systems. Hilton is-and has ?always been-a welcoming place for all,” the statement ?from Hilton said. In a previous statement, the company said the ?hotel ?in question ?is independently owned and operated.
ATQUE: Hilton’s Swift Response to DHS Snub Shows How the Left’s Institutional Power Has Faded
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6th January 2026
The Financial Times, a Voice of the Crust.
(The Financial Times is the British analog of the Wall Street Journal—if the Wall Street Journal were run by the staff of Mother Jones.)
Venezuela’s government has launched a crackdown in the wake of the US capture of Nicolás Maduro, arresting journalists and deploying paramilitary forces to suppress any show of support for the authoritarian leader’s removal.
The wave of repression comes as Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy and the country’s new leader, moved to consolidate her hold over the oil-rich nation in the wake of the surprise US commando operation, which snatched Maduro from a military base to face trial.
Gun-toting paramilitaries known as colectivos have been deployed to the streets of Caracas under a state of emergency announced on Monday, which forbade Venezuelans from showing support for the US raid. Media unions said 14 journalists and media workers — 11 from foreign outlets — had been detained for hours before being released.
Most of the arrests of journalists took place around the National Assembly building as Rodríguez — whom US President Donald Trump said would lead a government open to Washington’s interests — was formally sworn in as acting president, according to the National Syndicate for Press Workers in Venezuela.
Since US commandos seized Maduro and his politician wife Cilia Flores on Saturday, the remainder of his regime has sought to stifle public celebration.
Thereby proving Trump’s point, and outing American Democrats as anti-democracy statists.
ATQUE: Venezuela detains journalists and seizes communication devices after Maduro’s removal (Sibylla Brodzinsky/The Guardian)
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Venezuela Launches Wave of Repression After U.S. Seizure of Nicolás Maduro
4th January 2026
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They immediately qualified for an array of generous Federal and State programs….
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Bison Return to Illinois’ Kane County After 200 Years, a Crucial Step for Conservation and Indigenous Connection
4th January 2026
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A treatment that blocks an age-related protein restored cartilage in aging and injured joints by reprogramming existing cells rather than using stem cells.
Researchers at Stanford Medicine report that blocking a protein linked to aging can restore cartilage that naturally wears away in the knees of older mice. In the study, the injectable treatment not only rebuilt cartilage but also stopped arthritis from developing after knee injuries similar to ACL tears, which are common among athletes and active adults. A pill-based version of the same therapy is already being tested in clinical trials aimed at treating muscle weakness associated with aging.
Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
Together, these findings point to the possibility that cartilage lost through aging or arthritis could one day be restored using a localized injection or an oral medication, potentially eliminating the need for knee or hip replacement surgery.
Thanks to multiple levels of government regulation, this treatment may be available to your grandchildren.
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3rd January 2026
Reuters, News Service of the Crust.
And the hits just keep on comin’….
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on California ban on Openly Carrying Guns Is Unconstitutional, Court Rules
3rd January 2026
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A federal judge has granted a Lexington, Kentucky, father a preliminary injunction excusing his kindergartener from lessons featuring LGBTQ themes that conflict with his Christian values, reports Universal Hub.
“While defendants contend that implementing the notice and opt-out procedures contemplated by plaintiff’s proposed injunction would burden them to some degree, any potential harm they face does not outweigh that faced by plaintiff — particularly where defendants concede that [the parent’s son] must be opted out of at least some materials,” U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV wrote in his order Tuesday.
The father, who sued under the pseudonym “Alan L.” in mid-October, said it goes against his religious beliefs to allow his child to be instructed in content that touches on “diversity, equity, and inclusion issues, including issues of race, gender, and sexuality, taught from a secular worldview.”
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31st December 2025
Popular Mechanics.
The average adult human body contains 206 bones—the hardened mixtures of calcium, minerals, and collagen that provide the biological scaffolding that walks us through our day. While we may not think of them much, bones are incredibly resilient. But if they do break, they have this nifty trick of regrowing themselves.
Teeth, however, are not bones. Although they’re made of some of the same stuff and are the hardest material in the human body (thanks to its protective layer of enamel), they lack the crucial ability to heal and regrow themselves. But that may not always be the case. Japanese researchers are moving forward with an experimental drug that promises to regrow human teeth. Human trials began in September 2024.
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31st December 2025
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U.S. Congress quietly rewrote the rules for military service, veterans’ benefits and troop transitions in 2025, forcing legislative changes on everything from tuition bills, foreclosure protections and toxic exposure records.
Between January and late December, Congress passed 14 laws reshaping military and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits in accordance to rising costs, ongoing deployments, and pressure from veterans’ groups. The laws take effect on staggered timelines into the new years, occurring with less fanfare and without the political theater that derailed previous bigger congressional battles over issues like immigration.
The lawful measures range from automatic increases for disability and survivor benefits; in-state tuition for Selected Reserve students to new foreclosure protections; repayment guarantees for stolen benefits; and required separation counseling for troops leaving the force. Several also fold in wildfire aircraft transfers, clinic construction, and major changes to tax and border spending.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Congress Redrew Military, VA Benefits in 2025. The Changes Are Massive.
31st December 2025
BBC, a Voice of the Crust.
On 24 October 2024, a brief post was shared on the social media network LinkedIn. In it Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s airship company LTA Research finally announced Pathfinder 1’s first if brief untethered flight at Nasa’s Moffett Field in California, part of the space agency’s Ames Research Center. “This morning, Pathfinder 1 reached another milestone: untethered outdoor flight. This successful test marks another important step in our journey, and we are excited to build on this achievement through our rigorous testing program.”
Airships are hard to hide. Despite the secrecy, one YouTuber filmed it from the road and uploaded it to the video-sharing site.
“Pathfinder 1 is a pretty amazing vehicle,” says Alan Shrimpton, editor of the Airship Journal. “It is the first fully rigid airship, certainly of that size, for a very long time, and there was a great expectation that it would fly shortly after it began its outdoor testing programme.
“But Alan Weston [founder and former CEO of LTA Research] always said the biggest fault with rigid airships was that people in the past rushed their development and they were not going to make that same mistake. They were going to check it and check it again – and they did.”
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31st December 2025
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Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp last week announced that his university has surpassed even the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now has the nation’s largest nuclear engineering research department.
And just in time, because Sharp also announced that Texas A&M is offering land near its RELLIS Innovation and Technology campus, located on 2,400 acres in Bryan, Texas, to several nuclear reactor companies to build small modular reactors (SMRs).
“Plain and simple,” said Sharp, a former State Comptroller and former member of the Texas Railroad Commission, “the United States needs more power. And nowhere in the country, other than Texas, is anyone willing to step up and build the power plants we need.”
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28th December 2025
Check it out.
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee. Below you can find lists of some of the most notable books, characters, comics, and cartoons, films, songs, sound recordings, and art entering the public domain. After each of them, we have provided an analysis of their significance.
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26th December 2025
Watch it.
Nick Norwitz (MD Harvard, PhD Oxford) explains it all to you.
Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Lower Blood Sugar, Without Cutting Carbs
24th December 2025
The Register (UK).
testing, the FAA has confirmed a small plane made a safe emergency landing completely guided by automation at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado.
Garmin’s Emergency Autoland system is built to automatically take “complete control of the flight to land the airplane in an emergency where the pilot is unable to fly.” It can also be activated at the press of a button.
After initial reports speculated that the pilot or pilots may have been incapacitated after the plane, a Beechcraft Super King Air, had pressurization problems, the plane operator assured the public that triggering autoland was a deliberate act by the pilots. No passengers were on board on the flight, which according to the tail number given to the ATC, landed at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport on Saturday afternoon, after flying in from Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, also known as Sardy Field, a small mountain airport measuring just 573 acres.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed in a statement that the “Beechcraft Super King Air landed safely at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado around 14:20 local time on Saturday, December 20, after the pilot lost communication with air traffic control.” The FAA added: “An onboard emergency autoland system was activated. Two people were on board. The FAA is investigating.”
While the aircraft did experience “a rapid, uncommanded loss of pressurization,” the pilots put on their oxygen masks, the CEO of the charter company, Chris Townsley, said in a statement to CNN. Townsley reiterated that the pilots had “made the decision to leave the system engaged,” and “automatically engaged exactly as designed when the cabin altitude exceeded the prescribed safe levels.”
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24th December 2025
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Scientists from the University of Cambridge have developed a new reactor that converts natural gas (a common energy source primarily composed of methane) into two highly valuable resources: clean hydrogen fuel and carbon nanotubes, which are ultralight and much stronger than steel.
Hydrogen is a promising green fuel because it burns completely, producing only water vapor and zero carbon dioxide. However, the way we make hydrogen today typically involves using high-pressure steam to break apart gas molecules, which releases significant amounts of CO2 as a byproduct.
To avoid this, the Cambridge team wanted to perfect a technique called methane pyrolysis, which converts methane into hydrogen and solid carbon without producing carbon dioxide. However, until now, no one has been able to perform this process efficiently enough for large-scale use because traditional reactors waste too much gas.
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23rd December 2025
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A federal judge ruled Monday against a California school district’s policy ordering teachers to hide kids’ transgender identities from their parents, in a ruling that a lawyer hails as the definitive end to gender secrecy policies in the Golden State.
“The court has fully and permanently dismantled gender secrecy policies across the state of California,” Paul Jonna, a partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP and special counsel to the Thomas More Society, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday.
The office of Attorney General Rob Bonta, D-Calif., told The Daily Signal that it filed an application to stay the injunction.
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23rd December 2025
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The military reported its best recruitment numbers in more than 15 years in 2025, according to the Pentagon.
“In 2025, the department exceeded our annual active-duty recruitment accession goals across all five services,” Undersecretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony J. Tata said Monday.
Tata credited President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth with the influx of new recruits.
Trump and Hegseth “are focused on our troops and our mission, and on ensuring that we remain the most lethal fighting force on the planet,” Tata said.
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23rd December 2025
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Ziroth runs a YouTube channel that keeps an eye on technological advances. Nothing needs technological advance more than the energy storage area.
The reason gasoline is so pervasive is that it is very energy-dense, pretty stable as commonly stored, reasonably safe (movie car gas tank explosions to the contrary notwithstanding—it’s actually very difficult to get liquid gas to explode), and we’ve got an extensive industry devoted to getting high quality stuff to consumers quickly and cheaply.
The use of electricity for transportation is hampered by the fact that electrons can’t just be stuffed into a tank for later use. You either have to generate them on-site (which is how hybrids operate) or store them chemically (via batteries). Energy storage for electrons is neither cheap nor efficient. So I keep an eye out for discoveries that will make our lives easier in this respect.
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