A note to Mike Malloy at MikeMalloy.com:
I noticed during the 2015/2016 television season that characters could say … shit, along with the shit-esque variations: Bull and horse. Oh … and asshole. You can say those on TV now. But I'll be dead and stuffed into an urn on the mantle long before anyone can say fuck on AM radio.
I've sent you about 180 “moments” over the last ten years and not once have I been able to write precisely what I meant to say. But you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've spent your entire career skating along the edge of what the Federal Communications Commission will allow on the air.
Bob Alexander: Welcome to “The Other Side”
U.S. planned major cyber attack on Iran if diplomacy failed
The United States had a plan for an extensive cyber attack on Iran in case diplomatic attempts to curtail its nuclear program failed, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing a forthcoming documentary and military and intelligence officials.
Code-named Nitro Zeus, the plan was aimed at crippling Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its electrical power grid, but was put on hold after a nuclear deal was reached last year, the Times said.
US military burn pits built on chemical weapons facilities tied to soldiers' illness
In 2007, shortly after vice-president Joe Biden learned that his eldest son would be deployed to Iraq, the then-presidential hopeful turned to a modest crowd at the Iowa state fair and admitted that he didn’t want Beau to go. “But I tell you what,” he said, his family lined up behind him. “I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference.”
Beau arrived in Iraq the following year, and spent the next several months serving as a Jag officer at Camp Victory, just outside of the Baghdad airport, and Joint Base Balad, nearly 40 miles north of Baghdad. Though he returned home safely in September 2009, he woke up one day a few months later with an inexplicable headache, numbness in his limbs and paralysis on one side of his body. Beau had suffered a mild stroke. His health deteriorated, and he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Less than two years later, he died at the age of 46.
Scientists revive 'water bears' that were frozen for 30 years
Microscopic tardigrades, or "water bears," have successfully reproduced after emerging from 30 years frozen in an Antarctic moss sample.
The tiny creatures' revival after three decades in frozen moss is a new record, and the resumption of reproductive abilities is a first.
Researchers in Japan say the findings will offer new insights into tardigrades' cryptobiosis abilities -- the species' ability to temporarily shut down metabolic activity in response to external changes, like cold temperatures.
Virgin Atlantic flight turned back after 'laser incident'
A Virgin Atlantic flight heading to New York was turned back Sunday after one of the pilots was effected by a "laser beam incident," the airline said.
When the flight reached the west coast of Ireland, a crew member reported to Irish air traffic controllers there was a "medical issue with one of the pilots after a laser incident after take-off."
London's Metropolitan Police tweeted: "Aircraft forced to return to Heathrow after being hit by a laser strike... #laserstrike CAD4."
Alex Baer: Troll Models
It may be the early Egyptians built the pyramids not with blocks, tackles, or roller logs, or even long-speculated minerals with anti-gravity properties. They could have been hupped together by really, really strong coffee.
Although I admit the anti-gravity thing would be a nice touch, and would also help keep this season's ant parade from finding my triple-espresso mocha-supremo extra-grande within six seconds of touchdown of my free, attached, limited-edition, celebrity-signature model hand-truck-beverage-holder, up to the computer station, where it gets strapped in like tanks of liquid oxygen near the thruster ports.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dies At 79
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said.
Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.
According to a report, Scalia arrived at the ranch on Friday and attended a private party with about 40 people. When he did not appear for breakfast, a person associated with the ranch went to his room and found a body.
Alex Baer: Another Fine Week
It's been a heckuva week or so for Science lately: Watching as black holes merged, observing gravitational ripples and waves, proving correct more of Einstein's theories...
That was just for openers. We also learned that electrons in the metal graphene can behave like a liquid -- a real first -- and that the explanation for the Yellowstone supervolcano may need to be revised.
Plus, it also looks like Earth might have been formed by the collision of two early bodies -- and, for good measure, hundreds more galaxies have been discovered playing peekaboo behind our own Milky Way.
There have been major scientific downsides recently as well:
An Indian man is believed to be the first person killed by a meteorite;
The European Space Agency says after 60 hours of operation after a jarring landing, it's now bidding farewell to its Philae comet lander after no response; and
An Alaska woman says her 6-year-old Happy Meal refuses to decompose.
There have also been developments somewhere in the middle:
Scratch-and-sniff posters have been hung in NY subway cars, to give riders an olfactory break from the environs;
LA's mayor has recorded an R&B video to alert residents of a road closure; and
A city in Switzerland has cancelled plans to allow a silent disco to carry on all night long.
Japan: Fukushima clean-up may take up to 40 years, plant's operator says
Cleaning up Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which suffered catastrophic meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami hit in 2011, may take up to 40 years.
The crippled nuclear reactor is now stable but the decommissioning process is making slow progress, says the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co, better known as TEPCO.
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