A provocative manslaughter case is about to kick off in Los Angeles later this month, involving a fatal crash caused by a Tesla vehicle that had the company's controversial Autopilot feature turned on.

It's the first case of its kind, and one that could set a precedent for future crashes involving cars and driver-assistance software, Reuters reports.

We won't know the exact defense until the case gets under way, but the crux is that the man who was behind the wheel of the Tesla is facing manslaughter charges — but has pleaded not guilty, setting up potentially novel legal arguments about culpability in a deadly collision when, technically speaking, it wasn't a human driving the car.

"Who's at fault, man or machine?" asked Edward Walters, an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University, in an interview with Reuters. "The state will have a hard time proving the guilt of the human driver because some parts of the task are being handled by Tesla."

The upcoming trial is about a fatal collision that took place in 2019. The crash involved Kevin George Aziz Riad, who ran a red light in his Tesla Model S, and collided with a Honda Civic, killing a couple who were reportedly on their first date.

According to vehicle data, Riad did not apply the brakes but had a hand on the steering wheel. Perhaps most critically, though, the Tesla's Autopilot feature was turned on in the moments leading up to the crash.

Riad is facing manslaughter charges, with prosecutors arguing his actions were reckless.

Meanwhile, Riad's lawyers have argued that he shouldn't be charged with a crime, but have so far stopped short of publicly placing blame on Tesla's Autopilot software.

Tesla is not directly implicated in the upcoming trial and isn't facing charges in the case, according to Reuters.

A separate trial, however, involving the family of one of the deceased is already scheduled for next year — but this time, Tesla is the defendant.

"I can't say that the driver was not at fault, but the Tesla system, Autopilot, and Tesla spokespeople encourage drivers to be less attentive," the family's attorney Donald Slavik told Reuters.

"Tesla knows people are going to use Autopilot and use it in dangerous situations," he added.

Tesla is already under heavy scrutiny over its Autopilot and so-called Full Self-Driving software, despite conceding that the features "do not make the vehicle autonomous" and that drivers must remain attentive of the road at all times.

Critics argue that Tesla's marketing is misleading and that it's only leading to more accidents — not making the roads safer, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has argued in the past.

In fact, a recent survey found that 42 percent of Tesla Autopilot said they feel "comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving."

Regulators are certainly already paying attention. The news comes a week after Reuters revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating Tesla over Autopilot.

Last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an investigation of accidents in which Teslas have smashed into emergency response vehicles that were pulled over with sirens or flares.

This month's trial certainly stands the chance of setting a precedent. Was Riad fully at fault or was Tesla's Autopilot at least partially to blame as well?

The answer now lies in the hands of a jury.

READ MORE: Tesla crash trial in California hinges on question of 'man vs machine' [Reuters]

More on Autopilot: Survey: 42% of Tesla Autopilot Drivers Think Their Cars Can Drive Themselves

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Manslaughter Case Has a Strange Twist: Tesla That Killed Couple Was on Autopilot

Latest Feud

Another day, another Elon Musk feud on Twitter — except now, he's the owner of the social network, and he's beefing with a sitting member of Congress.

The whole thing started innocently enough earlier this week, when firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY, and better known by her initials, "AOC") subtweeted the website's new owner.

"Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that 'free speech' is actually a $8/mo subscription plan," the New York Democratic Socialist tweeted in a post that, upon Futurism's perusal, appeared to load only half the time.

Sweat Equity

Not one to be shown up, Musk later posted a screenshot of an AOC-branded sweatshirt from the congressperson's website, with its $58 price tag circled and an emoji belying the billionaire's alleged affront at the price.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez said she was proud her sweatshirts were made by union labor, and that the proceeds from their sales were going to fund educational support for needy kids. She later dug in further, noting that her account was "conveniently" not working and joking that Musk couldn't buy his way "out of insecurity."

Yo @elonmusk while I have your attention, why should people pay $8 just for their app to get bricked when they say something you don’t like?

This is what my app has looked like ever since my tweet upset you yesterday. What’s good? Doesn’t seem very free speechy to me pic.twitter.com/e3hcZ7T9up

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 3, 2022

Bricked

To be clear, any suggestion that Musk personally had anything to do with any Twitter glitches on AOC's part would seem ludicrously petty. But then again, this is a guy who once hired a private detective to investigate a random critic.

Occam's razor, though, suggests that it was probably AOC's mega-viral tweet that broke the site's notoriously dodgy infrastructure. Of course, that's not a ringing endorsement of the site that Musk just acquired for the colossal sum of $44 billion.

More on Twitter: Twitter Working on Plan to Charge Users to Watch Videos

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AOC Says Her Twitter Account Broke After She Made Fun of Elon Musk

Cat Burglar

Cats are known for not really minding their own business, getting their furry paws on just about anything they can.

And it turns out, this makes them effective vectors for DNA evidence, according to a study published last month in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetic Supplement Series.

Researchers collaborating with the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department in Australia found detectable human DNA in 80 percent of the samples collected from 20 pet cats, with 70 percent of the samples strong enough that they could be linked to a person of interest in a crime scene investigation.

"Collection of human DNA needs to become very important in crime scene investigations, but there is a lack of data on companion animals such as cats and dogs in their relationship to human DNA transfer," said study lead author Heidi Monkman, a forensic scientist at Flinders University, in a statement.

"These companion animals can be highly relevant in assessing the presence and activities of the inhabitants of the household, or any recent visitors to the scene."

Here Kitty

One possible takeaway is that cats — and other companion pets like dogs — could be harboring DNA that could help solve a case.

The bigger issue, though, is that pets could introduce foreign DNA that muddles a crime scene, possibly leading to an innocent person being implicated. A pet could be carrying the DNA of a complete stranger, or it might bring the DNA of its owner into a crime scene that they had nothing to do with.

Monkman's colleague and co-author of the paper, Maria Goray, is an experienced crime scene investigator and an expert in DNA transfer. She believes their findings could help clear up how pets might tamper a crime scene by carrying outside DNA.

"Are these DNA findings a result of a criminal activity or could they have been transferred and deposited at the scene via a pet?" Goray asked.

It's a question worth asking — especially because innocent people have been jailed off botched DNA science far too often.

More on DNA evidence: Cops Upload Image of Suspect Generated From DNA, Then Delete After Mass Criticism

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Cats May Be Tampering With Crime Scenes, Scientists Say

Spaceplane Buddy

After launching into orbit roughly three months ago, China's top-secret spaceplane has released a mysterious object, which is now circling the Earth behind it, SpaceNews reports.

There's very little we know about China's "reusable experimental spacecraft," except that it launched atop a Long March 2F rocket back in August. We don't know its purpose, what it looks like, or what cargo it was carrying during launch — but it's an intriguing development, nonetheless, for China's reusable launch platform.

Mysterious Object

The object was released between October 24 and October 31, according to tracking data being analyzed by the US Space Force's 18th pace Defense Squadron.

We can only hazard a guess as to what the mysterious object's purpose is. According to Harvard astronomer and space tracker Jonathan McDowell, it "may be a service module, possibly indicating an upcoming deorbit burn."

Based on the size and weight of payloads Long March rockets usually carry, China's mysterious spaceplane is likely similar to the Air Force's X-37B spaceplane, which is similarly shrouded in mystery and currently on its sixth mission.

We also don't know when the Chinese model will make its return back to Earth, but given recent activity at the Lop Nur base in Xinjiang suggests, it may land there in the near future, according to the report.

It's a puzzling new development for China's secretive spacecraft — but it does raise the possibility of a renewed interest in spaceplanes, a potentially affordable and reusable way to launch payloads into orbit.

More on the spaceplane: China Launches Mysterious "Reusable Test" Spacecraft

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Chinese Spaceplane Releases Mystery Object Into Orbit

Core Dump

Scientists studying a group of stars made an astonishing but "serendipitous" discovery when they realized that Gamma Columbae, a fairly average celestial body, might actually be the "stripped pulsating core of a massive star," according to a study published this week in Nature Astronomy.

If true, that means Gamma Columbae is missing the envelope, or vast shroud of gas, that hides a star's nuclear fusion powered core.

What caused the stripping of this atmospheric envelope is not definitively known, but the scientists posit that Gamma Columbae running out of hydrogen could've caused its envelope to expand and swallow up a nearby star, likely its binary partner. But in the middle of that relatively common process, something appears to have horrifically gone wrong and ejected the envelope — and possibly even led to the two stars merging.

Naked Core

Before the disaster, the scientists believe Gamma Columbae could have been up to 12 times the mass of our Sun. Now, it's a comparatively meager 5 stellar masses.

Although a naked stellar core missing its envelope has been theorized to exist, it's never been observed in a star this size.

"Having a naked stellar core of such a mass is unique so far," said study co-author Norbert Pryzbilla, head of the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics at the University of Innsbruck, in an interview with Vice.

Astronomers had an idea of what the cores of massive and low mass stars looked like, Pryzbilla continued, but there wasn't "much evidence" for cores of masses in between.

Star Power

It's an exceedingly rare find because the star is in a "a short-lived post-stripping structural re-adjustment phase" that will only last 10,000 years, according to the study.

That's "long for us humans but in astronomical timescales, very, very short," Przybilla told Vice. "It will always stay as a peculiar object."

The opportunity to study such a rarely exposed stellar core could provide scientists an invaluable look into the evolution of binary star systems. And whatever astronomers learn from the star, it's a fascinating glimpse at stellar destruction at a nearly incomprehensible scale.

More on stars: Black Hole Spotted Burping Up Material Years After Eating a Star

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Scientists Spot "Stripped, Pulsating Core" of Star Caused By Horrific Accident

Spying @ Home

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic drove a wave of working from home, companies have been relentless in their efforts to digitally police and spy on remote employees by using what's known as "bossware." That's the pejorative name for software that tracks the websites an employee visits, screenshots their computer screens, and even records their faces and voices.

And now, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an agency of the federal government, is looking to intervene.

"Close, constant surveillance and management through electronic means threaten employees' basic ability to exercise their rights," said NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, in a Monday memo. "I plan to urge the Board to apply the Act to protect employees, to the greatest extent possible, from intrusive or abusive electronic monitoring and automated management practices."

Undoing Unions

In particular, Abruzzo is worried about how bossware could infringe on workers' rights to unionize. It's not hard to imagine how such invasive surveillance could be used to bust unionization. Even if the technology isn't explicitly deployed to impede organization efforts, the ominous presence of the surveillance on its own can be a looming deterrent, which Abruzzo argues is illegal.

And now is the perfect moment for the NLRB to step in. The use and abuse of worker surveillance tech in general — not just bossware — has been "growing by the minute," Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown Law School, told CBS.

"Employers are embracing technology because technology helps them run a more efficient business," Gaston explained. "… What comes with that is monitoring a lot of things that employers have no business doing."

Overbearing Overlord

In some ways, surveillance tech like bossware can be worse than having a nosy, actual human boss. Generally speaking, in a physical workplace employees have an understanding of how much privacy they have (unless they work at a place like Amazon or Walmart, that is).

But when bossware spies on you, who knows how much information an employer could be gathering — or even when they're looking in. And if it surveils an employee's personal computer, which more often than not contains plenty of personal information that a boss has no business seeing, that's especially invasive.

Which is why Abruzzo is pushing to require employers to disclose exactly how much they're tracking.

It's a stern message from the NLRB, but at the end of the day, it's just a memo. We'll have to wait and see how enforcing it pans out.

More on surveillance: Casinos to Use Facial Recognition to Keep "Problem Gamblers" Away

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US Gov to Crack Down on "Bossware" That Spies On Employees' Computers

You know that "research" going around saying humans are going to evolve to have hunchbacks and claws because of the way we use our smartphones? Though our posture could certainly use some work, you'll be glad to know that it's just lazy spam intended to juice search engine results.

Let's back up. Today the Daily Mail published a viral story about "how humans may look in the year 3000." Among its predictions: hunched backs, clawed hands, a second eyelid, a thicker skull and a smaller brain.

Sure, that's fascinating! The only problem? The Mail's only source is a post published a year ago by the renowned scientists at... uh... TollFreeForwarding.com, a site that sells, as its name suggests, virtual phone numbers.

If the idea that phone salespeople are purporting to be making predictions about human evolution didn't tip you off, this "research" doesn't seem very scientific at all. Instead, it more closely resembles what it actually is — a blog post written by some poor grunt, intended to get backlinks from sites like the Mail that'll juice TollFreeForwarding's position in search engine results.

To get those delicious backlinks, the top minds at TollFreeForwarding leveraged renders of a "future human" by a 3D model artist. The result of these efforts is "Mindy," a creepy-looking hunchback in black skinny jeans (which is how you can tell she's from a different era).

Grotesque model reveals what humans could look like in the year 3000 due to our reliance on technology

Full story: https://t.co/vQzyMZPNBv pic.twitter.com/vqBuYOBrcg

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 3, 2022

"To fully realize the impact everyday tech has on us, we sourced scientific research and expert opinion on the subject," the TollFreeForwarding post reads, "before working with a 3D designer to create a future human whose body has physically changed due to consistent use of smartphones, laptops, and other tech."

Its sources, though, are dubious. Its authority on spinal development, for instance, is a "health and wellness expert" at a site that sells massage lotion. His highest academic achievement? A business degree.

We could go on and on about TollFreeForwarding's dismal sourcing — some of which looks suspiciously like even more SEO spam for entirely different clients — but you get the idea.

It's probably not surprising that the this gambit for clicks took off among dingbats on Twitter. What is somewhat disappointing is that it ended up on StudyFinds, a generally reliable blog about academic research. This time, though, for inscrutable reasons it treated this egregious SEO spam as a legitimate scientific study.

The site's readers, though, were quick to call it out, leading to a comically enormous editor's note appended to the story.

"Our content is intended to stir debate and conversation, and we always encourage our readers to discuss why or why not they agree with the findings," it reads in part. "If you heavily disagree with a report — please debunk to your delight in the comments below."

You heard them! Get debunking, people.

More conspiracy theories: If You Think Joe Rogan Is Credible, This Bizarre Clip of Him Yelling at a Scientist Will Probably Change Your Mind

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That "Research" About How Smartphones Are Causing Deformed Human Bodies Is SEO Spam, You Idiots

Advertisers are fleeing Twitter in droves now that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken over control.

Ever since officially closing the $44 billion deal, Musk has been busy gutting the company's executive suite and dissolving its board. Senior executives, as well as Twitter's advertising chief Sarah Personette, have departed as well.

After all, Musk has been very clear about his disdain for advertising for years now.

The resulting uncertainty has advertisers spooked — major advertising holding company IPG has already advised clients to pull out temporarily — and the billionaire CEO is in serious damage mode.

Now, Reuters reports, Musk is spending most of this week meeting with advertisers in New York, trying to reassure them that Twitter won't turn into a "free-for-all hellscape."

According to one of Reuters' sources, the meetings have been "very productive" — but plenty of other marketers are far from satisfied.

Advertisers are reportedly grilling Musk over his plans to address the rampant misinformation being spread on the platform, a trend that Musk himself has been actively contributing to since the acquisition.

And if he's succeeding in ameliorating advertisers in private, he's antagonizing them publicly. On Wednesday, Musk posted a poll asking users whether advertisers should support either "freedom of speech," or "political 'correctness'" — a type of false dichotomy that echoes the rhetoric of far-right conspiracy theorists and conservative pundits.

"Those type of provocations are not helping to calm the waters," an unnamed media buyer told Reuters.

Some are going public with the same sentiment.

"Unless Elon hires new leaders committed to keeping this 'free' platform safe from hate speech, it's not a platform brands can/should advertise on," Allie Wassum, global media director for the Nike-owned shoe brand Jordan, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

So far, Musk's plans for the social media platform remain strikingly muddy. In addition to the behind-the-scenes advertising plays, he's also announced that users will have to pay to retain their verification badge, though he's engaged in a comically public negotiation as to what the cost might be.

He's also hinted that previously banned users — former US president Donald Trump chief among them — might eventually get a chance to return, but only once "we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks."

The move was seen by many as a way to wait out the impending midterm elections. After all, Twitter has played a huge role in disseminating misinformation and swaying elections in the past.

While advertisers are running for the hills, to Musk advertising is clearly only a small part of the picture — even though historically, social giants like Twitter have struggled to diversify their revenue sources much beyond display ads.

Musk nodded to that reality in a vague open letter posted last week.

"Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!" he wrote in the note, addressed to "Twitter advertisers."

Big picture, Twitter's operations are in free fall right now and Musk has yet to provide advertisers with a cohesive plan to pick up the pieces.

While he's hinted at the creation of a new content moderation council made up of both "people from all viewpoints" and "wildly divergent views," advertisers are clearly going to be thinking twice about continuing their business with Twitter.

With or without advertising, Twitter's finances are reportedly in a very deep hole. The billions of dollars Musk had to borrow to finance his mega acquisition will cost Twitter around $1 billion a year in interest alone.

The company also wasn't anywhere near profitable before Musk took over, losing hundreds of millions of dollars in a single quarter.

Whether that picture will change any time soon is as unclear as ever, especially in the face of a wintry economy.

But, of course, Musk has proved his critics wrong before. So anything's possible.

READ MORE: Advertisers begin to grill Elon Musk over Twitter 'free-for-all' [Reuters]

More on the saga: Elon Musk Pulling Engineers From Tesla Autopilot to Work on Twitter

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Elon Musk Meeting With Advertisers, Begging Them Not to Leave Twitter

Chinese scientists are reportedly planning to send monkeys to its new Tiangong space station for experiments that will involve the animals mating and potentially reproducing, the South China Morning Post reports.

It's a fascinating and potentially controversial experiment that could have major implications for our efforts to colonize space: can mammals, let alone humans, successfully reproduce beyond the Earth?

According to the report, the experiment would take place in the station's largest capsule, called Wentian, inside two biological test cabinets that can be expanded.

After examining the behavior of smaller creatures, "some studies involving mice and macaques will be carried out to see how they grow or even reproduce in space," Zhang Lu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, said during a speech posted to social media earlier this week, as quoted by the SCMP.

"These experiments will help improve our understanding of an organism’s adaptation to microgravity and other space environments," he added.

Some simpler organisms, including nematodes and Japanese rice fish, have been observed reproducing in space.

But more complex life forms have struggled. In 2014, a Russian experiment to see whether geckos could produce offspring in space failed when all the critters died.

And the failure rate for mammals, so far, has been total. Soviet Union scientists got mice to mate during a space flight in 1979, but none of them gave birth after being returned to Earth.

In other words, getting monkeys to reproduce on board a space station will be anything but easy. For one, just dealing with living creatures in space can pose immense challenges. The astronauts will "need to feed them and deal with the waste," Kehkooi Kee, a professor with the school of medicine at Tsinghua University, told the SCMP.

Then there's the fact that astronauts will have to keep the macaques happy and comfortable, something that experts say will be challenging since long term confinement in the spartan environments of space habitats could cause immense stress for the simians.

And even if astronauts successfully set the mood for the monkeys, the physics of sex in space are predicted to be challenging.

"Firstly, just staying in close contact with each other under zero gravity is hard," Adam Watkins, an associate professor of reproductive physiology at University of Nottingham, wrote in a 2020 open letter highlighted by the SCMP. "Secondly, as astronauts experience lower blood pressure while in space, maintaining erections and arousal are more problematic than here on Earth."

With its new space station in nearly full operation, China isn't shying away from asking some big questions — but whether these experiments will play out as expected is anything but certain.

READ MORE: Chinese scientists plan monkey reproduction experiment in space station [South China Morning Post]

More on sex in space: Scientists Say We Really Have to Talk About Boning in Space

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China Plans to Send Monkeys to Space Station to Have Sex With Each Other

Fill 'Er Up

A team of Chinese researchers say they managed to convert actual lunar regolith samples into a source of rocket fuel and oxygen — a potential gamechanger for future space explorers hoping to make use of in-situ resources to fuel up for their return journey.

The researchers found that the lunar soil samples can act as a catalyst to convert carbon dioxide and water from astronauts' bodies and environment into methane and oxygen, as detailed in a paper published in the National Science Review.

"In situ resource utilization of lunar soil to achieve extraterrestrial fuel and oxygen production is vital for the human to carry out Moon exploitation missions," lead author Yujie Xiong said in a new statement about the work. "Considering that there are limited human resources at extraterrestrial sites, we proposed to employ the robotic system to perform the whole electrocatalytic CO2 conversion system setup."

That means we could have a much better shot at carrying out longer duration explorations of the lunar surface in the near future.

Set It, Forget It

According to the paper, which builds on previous research suggesting lunar soil can generate oxygen and fuel, this process can be completed using uncrewed systems, even in the absence of astronauts.

In an experiment, the team used samples from China's Chang'e-5 mission, which landed in Inner Mongolia back in December 2020 — the first lunar soil returned to Earth since 1976.

The Moon soil effectively acted as a catalyst, enabling the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into methane and oxygen.

"No significant difference can be observed between the manned and unmanned systems, which further suggests the high possibility of imitating our proposed system in extraterrestrial sites and proves the feasibility of further optimizing catalyst recipes on the Moon," the researchers conclude in their paper.

Liquified

But there's one big hurdle to still overcome: liquifying carbon dioxide is anything but easy given the Moon's frosty atmosphere, as condensing the gas requires a significant amount of heat, as New Scientist reported earlier this year.

Still, it's a tantalizing prospect: an autonomous machine chugging away, pumping out oxygen and fuel for future visitors. But for now, it's not much more than a proof of concept.

READ MORE: Scientists investigate using lunar soils to sustainably supply oxygen and fuels on the moon [Science China Press]

More on lunar soil: Bad News! The Plants Grown in Moon Soil Turned Out Wretched

The post Scientists Use Actual Lunar Soil Sample to Create Rocket Fuel appeared first on Futurism.

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Scientists Use Actual Lunar Soil Sample to Create Rocket Fuel

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin claim to have found a way to control how high mice can get on a given amount of cocaine.

And don't worry — while that may sound like a particularly frivolous plot concocted by a team of evil scientists, the goal of the research is well-meaning.

The team, led by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Santiago Cuesta, was investigating how the gut microbiome can influence how mice and humans react to ingesting the drug.

The research, detailed in a new paper published this week in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, sheds light on a vicious feedback loop that could explain cases of substance abuse disorders — and possibly lay the groundwork for future therapeutic treatments.

In a number of experiments on mice, the researchers found that cocaine was linked to the growth of common gut bacteria, which feed on glycine, a chemical that facilitates basic brain functions.

The lower the levels of glycine in the brain, the more the mice reacted to the cocaine, exhibiting abnormal behaviors.

To test the theory, the scientists injected the mice with a genetically modified amino acid which cannot break down glycine. As a result, the behavior of mice returned to normal levels.

In other words, the amino acid could curb cocaine addiction-like behaviors — at least in animal models.

"The gut bacteria are consuming all of the glycine and the levels are decreasing systemically and in the brain," said Vanessa Sperandio, senior author, and microbiologist from the University of Wisconsin, in a statement. "It seems changing glycine overall is impacting the glutamatergic synapses that make the animals more prone to develop addiction."

It's an unorthodox approach to treating addiction, but could be intriguing — if it works in people, that is.

"Usually, for neuroscience behaviors, people are not thinking about controlling the microbiota, and microbiota studies usually don't measure behaviors, but here we show they’re connected," Cuesta added. "Our microbiome can actually modulate psychiatric or brain-related behaviors."

In short, their research could lead to new ways of treating various psychiatric disorders such as substance use by adjusting the gut microbiome and not making changes to the brain chemistry.

"I think the bridging of these communities is what's going to move the field forward, advancing beyond correlations towards causations for the different types of psychiatric disorders," Sperandio argued.

READ MORE: How gut bacteria influence the effects of cocaine in mice [Cell Press]

More on addiction: Study: Magic Mushrooms Helped 83% of People Cut Excessive Drinking

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Scientists Found a Way to Control How High Mice Got on Cocaine

Observatory Offline

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile has been hit with a cyberattack that has taken its website offline and forced it to suspend all observations, authorities there said.

Even email services were limited in the aftermath, illustrating the broad impact of the hack.

Nested high up on a plateau in the Chilean Andes at over 16,000 feet above sea level, ALMA is one of the most powerful and advanced radio telescopes in the world. Notably, ALMA helped take the first image of a black hole in 2019, in a collaborative effort that linked radio observatories worldwide into forming the Event Horizon Telescope.

Thankfully, ALMA's impressive arsenal of 66 high-precision antennas, each nearly 40 feet in diameter, was not compromised, the observatory said, nor was any of the scientific data those instruments collected.

In High Places

What makes ALMA so invaluable is its specialty in observing the light of the cooler substances of the cosmos, namely gas and dust. That makes ALMA a prime candidate for documenting the fascinating formations of planets and stars when they first emerge amidst clouds of gas.

Since going fully operational in 2013, it's become the largest ground-based astronomical project in the world, according to the European Southern Observatory, ALMA's primary operators.

So ALMA going offline is a distressing development, especially to the thousands of astronomers worldwide that rely on its observations and the some 300 experts working onsite. Getting it up and running is obviously a top priority, but the observatory said in a followup tweet that "it is not yet possible to estimate a date for a return to regular activities."

As of now, there's no information available on who the hackers were, or exactly how they conducted the attack. Their motivations, too, remain a mystery.

More on ALMA: Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy

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Hackers Just Took Down One of the World's Most Advanced Telescopes

Droning On

Someone thinks it's a great idea to fly 500 drones over New York City to create a huge ad in the sky on Thursday evening. Because New Yorkers certainly don't have any historical reason to mistrust unknown aircraft over their skyline, right?

As Gothamist reports, the drone swarm is part of a "surreal takeover of New York City’s skyline" on behalf of — we shit you not — the mobile game Candy Crush.

Fernanda Romano, Candy Crush's chief marketing officer, told Gothamist that the stunt will "turn the sky into the largest screen on the planet" using the small, light-up drones.

Though this is not the first time the Manhattan skyline has been used as ad space — that distinction goes to the National Basketball Association and State Farm, which did a similar stunt this summer during the NBA draft — local lawmakers are ticked off about it nonetheless.

"I think it’s outrageous to be spoiling our city’s skyline for private profit," Brad Hoylman, a state senator that represents Manhattan's West Side in the NY Legislature, told the local news site. "It’s offensive to New Yorkers, to our local laws, to public safety, and to wildlife."

Freak Out

Indeed, as the NYC Audubon Society noted in a tweet, the Candy Crush crapshoot "could disrupt the flight patterns of thousands of birds flying through NYC, leading to collisions with buildings" as they migrate.

Beyond the harm this will do to birds and the annoyance it will undoubtedly cause the famously-grumpy people of New York, this stunt is also going down with very little warning, considering that Gothamist is one of the only news outlets even reporting on it ahead of time.

While most viewers will hopefully be able to figure out what's going on pretty quickly, the concept of seeing unknown aircraft above the skyline is a little too reminiscent of 9/11 for comfort — and if Candy Crush took that into consideration, they haven't let on.

So here's hoping this event shocks and awes Thursday night city-goers in a good way, and not in the way that makes them panic.

More drone warfare: Russia Accused of Pelting Ukraine Capital With "Kamikaze" Drones

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Huge Drone Swarm to Form Giant Advertisement Over NYC Skyline

Rock of Riches

After disappointing setbacks and a delay over the summer, NASA says it's finally reviving its mission to explore a tantalizing and giant space rock lurking deep in the Asteroid Belt.

Known as 16 Psyche, the NASA-targeted asteroid comprises a full one percent of the mass of the Asteroid Bet, and is speculated to be the core of an ancient planet. But Psyche's size isn't what intrigues scientists so much as its metal-rich composition, believed to be harboring a wealth of iron, nickel, and gold worth an estimated $10 quintillion — easily exceeding the worth of the Earth's entire economy. Although, to be clear, they're not interested in the metals' monetary value but rather its possibly planetary origins.

Back On Track

Initially slated to launch in August 2022, NASA's aptly named Psyche spacecraft became plagued with a persistent flight software issue that led the space agency to miss its launch window that closed on October 11.

But after surviving an independent review determining whether the mission should be scrapped or not, NASA has formally announced that its spacecraft's journey to Psyche will be going ahead, planned to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as early as October 10, 2023.

"I'm extremely proud of the Psyche team," said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "During this review, they have demonstrated significant progress already made toward the future launch date. I am confident in the plan moving forward and excited by the unique and important science this mission will return."

Although the new launch date is only a little over a year late, the expected arrival at the asteroid Psyche is set back by over three years — 2029 instead of 2026 — due to having to wait for another opportunity to slingshot off of Mars' gravity.

Peering Into a Planet

Once it arrives, the NASA spacecraft will orbit around the asteroid and probe it with an array of instruments, including a multispectral imager, gamma ray and neutron spectrometers, and a magnetometer, according to the agency.

In doing so, scientists hope to determine if the asteroid is indeed the core of a nascent planet known as a planetesimal. If it is, it could prove to be an invaluable opportunity to understand the interior of terrestrial planets like our own.

More on NASA: NASA Announces Plan to Fix Moon Rocket, and Maybe Launch It Eventually

The post NASA Sets Launch Date for Mission to $10 Quintillion Asteroid appeared first on Futurism.

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NASA Sets Launch Date for Mission to $10 Quintillion Asteroid

Now that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, the billionaire has been frantically shuffling through ambitious plans to turn the ailing social media platform into a revenue-driving business.

Case in point, according to internal email obtained by The Washington Post, Musk is plotting for Twitter to charge users to view videos posted by content creators and take a cut of the proceeds — a highly controversial idea that's already been met with internal skepticism.

The team of Twitter engineers has "identified the risk as high" in the email, citing "risks related to copyrighted content, creator/user trust issues, and legal compliance."

In short, Musk is blazing ahead with his infamously ambitious timelines — a "move fast and break things" approach that could signify a tidal change for Twitter's historically sluggish approach to launching new features.

Musk has already made some big structural changes to Twitter, having fired high-up positions at the company and dissolved its board of directors.

The company will also likely be facing mass layoffs, according to The Washington Post.

The new feature detailed in the new email, which is being referred to as "Paywalled Video," allows creators to "enable the paywall once a video has been added to the tweet" and chose from a preset list of prices, ranging from $1 to $10.

"This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk tweeted on Tuesday, adding that "creators need to make a living!"

But whether Twitter users will be willing to pay for stuff that was previously free remains anything but certain.

Musk has already announced that he is planning to charge $8 a month for Twitter users to stay verified, which has been met with derision.

The billionaire CEO is facing an uphill battle. Now that the company is private, he has to pay around $1 billion in annual interest payments, a result from his $44 buyout, according to the WaPo.

Compounding the trouble, Reuters reported last week that Twitter is bleeding some of its most active users.

Meanwhile, Musk's chaotic moves are likely to alienate advertisers, with the Interpublic Group, a massive inter-agency advertising group, recommending that its clients suspend all paid advertising for at least the week.

That doesn't bode well. It's not out of the question that a paywalled video feature may facilitate the monetization of pornographic content, which may end up scaring off advertisers even further — but Twitter's exact intentions for the feature are still unclear.

According to Reuters, around 13 percent of the site's content is currently marked not safe for work (NSFW).

It's part of Musk's attempt to shift revenue away from advertising on the platform. In a tweet last week, he promised advertisers that Twitter wouldn't become a "free-for-all hellscape."

But that hasn't stopped advertisers from already leaving in droves.

All in all, a paywalled video feature could mark a significant departure for Twitter, a platform still primarily known for short snippets of text.

For now, all we can do is watch.

READ MORE: Elon Musk’s Twitter is working on paid-video feature with ‘high’ risk [The Washington Post]

More on Twitter: Elon Musk Pleads With Stephen King to Pay for Blue Checkmark

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Twitter Working on Plan to Charge Users to Watch Videos

Jeff Bezos' former housekeeper is suing the Amazon founder for workplace discrimination that she says forced her to literally climb out out the window of his house to use the bathroom.

In the suit, filed this week in a Washington state court, the former housekeeper claimed that she and Bezos' other household staff were not provided with legally-mandated eating or restroom breaks, and that because there was no "readily accessible bathroom" for them to use, they had to clamber out a laundry room window to get to one.

In the complaint, lawyers for the ex-housekeeper, who is described as having worked for wealthy families for nearly 20 years, wrote that household staff were initially allowed to use a small bathroom in the security room of Bezos' main house, but "this soon stopped... because it was decided that housekeepers using the bathroom was a breach of security protocol."

The suit also alleges that housekeepers in the billionaire's employ "frequently developed Urinary Tract Infections" that they believed was related to not being able to use the bathroom when they needed to at work.

"There was no breakroom for the housekeepers," the complaint adds. "Even though Plaintiff worked 10, 12, and sometimes 14 hours a day, there was no designated area for her to sit down and rest."

The housekeeper — who, like almost all of her coworkers, is Latino — was allegedly not aware that she was entitled to breaks for lunch or rest, and was only able to have a lunch break when Bezos or his family were not on the premises, the lawsuit alleges.

The Washington Post owner has denied his former housekeeper's claims of discrimination through an attorney.

"We have investigated the claims, and they lack merit," Harry Korrell, a Bezos attorney, told Insider of the suit. "[The former employee] made over six figures annually and was the lead housekeeper."

He added that the former housekeeper "was responsible for her own break and meal times, and there were several bathrooms and breakrooms available to her and other staff."

"The evidence will show that [the former housekeeper] was terminated for performance reasons," he continued. "She initially demanded over $9M, and when the company refused, she decided to file this suit."

As the suit was just filed and may well end in a settlement, it'll likely be a long time, if ever, before we find out what really happened at Bezos' house — but if we do, it'll be a fascinating peek behind the curtain at the home life of one of the world's most powerful and wealthy men.

More on billionaires: Tesla Morale Low As Workers Still Don't Have Desks, Face Increased Attendance Surveillance

The post Jeff Bezos' Housekeeper Says She Had to Climb Out the Window to Use the Bathroom appeared first on Futurism.

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Jeff Bezos' Housekeeper Says She Had to Climb Out the Window to Use the Bathroom

EAGAN When cornerback Chandon Sullivan signed in Minnesota as a free agent, he went to Patrick Peterson with some questions.

He wanted to know why Peterson keeps playing.

When I first got here I asked Pat P, You have all the accolades, youve been doing this for such a long time at a high level even going back to college, what keeps you going? Sullivan told Purple Insider during Mondays open locker room session at TCO Performance Center.

Peterson told Sullivan that he wants a ring. Thats the only thing he doesnt have in his trophy case. He has eight Pro Bowls, three All-Pros and was named to the Hall of Fames All-2010s team. According to Pro-Football References Hall of Fame Monitor, the comparable defensive backs to Peterson are Richard Sherman and Darrell Green. One of those guys has a gold jacket and the other will soon. Those guys have rings though.

Sullivan also wanted to know how Pat P keeps going as he enters Year 12 in the NFL.

What does it take? Sullivan inquired. Statistically youre only supposed to be in this league for a few years and Im like, for you to be going that long and playing corner, which is arguably one of the hardest positions, how do you train your body to still be fast and quick and be able to move? I asked all his secrets.

Well, Peterson treats his health and conditioning like a game within the game.

I love grinding, Peterson said, standing on the hot concrete outside the Vikings locker room. I love putting my body in positions to where Im getting ready for the season. I love when I run seven miles to see how my endurance is. I love waking up early in the morning to see if I can get through this workout. I love putting my body in certain situations [during training camp] to where when those situations pop up during a game or in the season Ive already mentally prepared myself and been through those processes so its second nature.

Sullivan uncovered some of the why and how with the future Hall of Famer, but theres a lot more to the story with Peterson than ring chasing and knowing how to keep his body right. Peterson has something in his DNA that he cant pass down with words of wisdom. It cant be taught or learned. It just has to be there in order to play 12 years and keep going.

My wife tells me all the time Youre probably the only person that I know that still has the same love and passion for the game since I met you as a rookie, Peterson said. Its how deep the game runs in my blood.

Passion for the game takes different forms for different players. Some get a thrill from gameday but end up being bogged down by the endless workouts, tape watching, waking up early, commitment to eating the right way, and always trying to stay one step ahead. Some players dont like much about football except for all of the things that come along with it i.e. money, fame, purpose.

Peterson enjoys all of it.

He remembers the first time he felt indefatigable when it came to football. When he first started playing little league, he would work out with his dad after games rather than playing video games or watching TV. Improving his game was Patricks favorite hobby.

I always wanted to find ways to get better, always wanted to find ways to work at my craft, Peterson said. Thats just how I was, its just how Im built, its just instilled in me. Ive done it for so long that when I wake up in the morning my body already knows what to do.

Throughout his life in football Peterson has constantly been setting the bar higher and then trying to reach it. Petersons cousin Bryant McFadden, a former Pittsburgh Steeler who now co-hosts the All Things Covered podcast for CBS Sports with Peterson, remembered issuing him a challenge in high school.

When I came out of high school I was the number one corner I remember when he was in high school and at that time I was in the [NFL] I said: I need you to do everything that I did plus more, McFadden said. Hes like, I got you. He said it so casually like it was easy. A year-and-a-half or two years later hes the number one corner in the country, hes the number one player in the country.

Scroll to Continue

Peterson had a choice of any college program he wanted. At that time LSU was not known as Defensive Back University that was probably Florida State or Ohio State but he wanted to blaze his own path at the position.

He put on that number seven and took it to a whole other level, McFadden said. That was one of the main reasons he wanted to go to LSU. He wanted to create something for that university that was never done before and that was magnifying cornerback play.

McFadden isnt exaggerating when he says Peterson took the No. 7 to a different level. His excellence at LSU kicked off a tradition of the university giving that number to an exceptional playmaker. It has been handed down from Peterson to Tyrann Mathieu to Leonard Fournette to DJ Chark and so on since he starred for the Tigers.

You know about the rest of his career but some of it is so crazy good that it bares repeating. Peterson was first-team All-Pro as a rookie. He returned four punts for touchdowns in his first season in the NFL, which is inconceivable. He intercepted seven passes in Year 2. In 2015 opposing quarterbacks only completed 47.7% of passes into his coverage (per PFF), the second lowest mark in the NFL that year to peak Darrelle Revis.

But all of that is in the past. The new bar that hes set is playing effectively into his latter years. He has a chance to prove that hes better than those final seasons in Arizona when there were whispers of age catching up with him.

This might be the most Ive seen him fired up for a season that Ive seen in quite some time, McFadden said.

Peterson says he thinks he has four more years in him. Thats not impossible since other Hall of Fame corners like Deion Sanders and Darrell Green played until age 38. Champ Bailey was 35 in his final season. Peterson just turned 32 and is coming off a year in which he was solid for Minnesota. He allowed under 60% of passes his way to be completed and a shade under a 90 quarterback rating when targeted, good for 38th out of 91 starting CBs (per PFF). Opposing QBs also didnt go after him that often. Peterson ranked 16th best in snaps per target.

My mind is still all into the game, my passion and my love is still all into the game, Peterson said. As long as my body continues to hold up, Im going to continue to play. I still feel like I can play at a high level.

The Vikings absolutely need him to play at a high level. Mostly unproven Cam Dantzler will start opposite of the NFL legend and Sullivan is set to play the nickel. At safety the Vikings will have the promising but inexperienced Cam Bynum alongside Harrison Smith. When it comes to the toughest matchups, those will often rest on the shoulders of Pat P.

While hes working to maintain his body and push himself to prepare for every situation, Peterson also commented in minicamp that the Vikings approach to player health can help him feel more fresh as the season goes along. He thinks that defensive coordinator Ed Donatells system will help too.

I think its going to help me out a lot having the opportunity to play with my eyes a little bit more versus being in the receivers face and having more stress on my body and having to guard every route, Peterson said. Now I can let everything unfold in front of me.

He understands the challenge of the assignment and how difficult winning a ring will be but he isnt hesitant to say that hes taking some time to smell the roses on the back nine of his career. Maybe thats part of the why and how as well.

Definitely enjoying the ride, Peterson said. Enjoying every practice that I have every opportunity to lace the cleats up for. The road trips with my brothers. Those nights out for dinner before the game, the Thursday night games that we watch at someones houseIm in a great state of mind.

So what did Sullivan learn from talking with Peterson about what has allowed him to stick around for this long?

I think its more cerebral, Sullivan said. Its all about whats between his ears. He has all the intangibles that make him great but its also his mindset.

Amazing guy, Sullivan added.

Continue reading here:

Patrick Peterson is enjoying the ride -- and the grind - Sports Illustrated

A Spokane mother in a gray jail jumpsuit told a federal judge Wednesday there will never be an excuse for her decision to film herself performing a sexual act on her own daughter, then sending it over the internet to at least 10 people.

I will live every day with the knowledge that I caused your pain, Jessica Barrington, 31, said in remarks directed to her child, who was not present in a federal courtroom Wednesday.

The admission of guilt and pledge to improve herself convinced U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson to reject the federal prosecutors office request that Barrington, previously known as Jessica Cunnington, spend 28 years behind bars. Instead, Peterson sentenced her to 20 years on a charge of production of child pornography. Barrington pleaded guilty in April.

After a frequently contentious back-and-forth with Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Herzog concerning other child sexual abuse cases brought in the district, Peterson said she saw no value in imprisoning Barrington for another eight years based on her motivation to seek treatment while in jail since January 2019.

In one particularly heated moment, Herzog told Peterson that her decision to sentence Barrington to a decade of supervised release following imprisonment violated the terms of the plea agreement, in which federal prosecutors, Barringtons defense attorney and the county prosecutors who had charged her with child rape had agreed to a lifetime of supervision. Peterson then said shed change her ruling on supervision to life, telling Barrington that she could petition to have it removed for good behavior after her release.

That will look better in the press release, Im sure, Peterson said, looking at Herzog.

Herzog said because of Barringtons actions, her children will not know their mother, and asked Peterson to send a message with her verdict.

The community should know, if you assault your child, the consequences are severe, Herzog said.

Amy Rubin, Barringtons attorney, told Peterson that her client was not a monster, and argued for Peterson to give the mother a chance to reform herself. She said Barrington had been housed in an area of the Spokane County Jail reserved for female offenders awaiting trial for similar sexual offenses, sitting in solitary confinement in a section known as the dog pound.

As an infant, Barrington watched her father bludgeon her mother to death, Rubin said. Four psychologists met with her in prison and found that she suffered from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, but that she was treatable.

Barrington said she still physically recoils from confrontation and was not encouraged in her adopted home to talk about the death of her mother.

I do not cognitively remember her death, Barrington told Peterson on Wednesday. But my body does.

Herzog said prosecutors considered Barringtons past trauma in their request for 28 years. She could have been facing a life sentence, he said. Herzog argued that the evidence showed Barrington was reaching out online for attention.

I do not understand why children had to come into it, Herzog said.

Authorities were alerted to the online activity in December 2018, after a friend of Barringtons and her then-husband, Jason Cunnington, told police the mother of three had admitted to filming the sexual acts with her toddler and shared them online. The FBI, meanwhile, was already involved in a sting in California involving a man named Tim Marchini when they discovered messages between him and Barrington, as well as the images Barrington had taken of her daughter.

Investigators recovered at least one image of Barrington performing oral sex on her 3-year-old daughter, according to court records, recorded in August 2018. The messages between Barrington and Marchini, who had previously been convicted on child sex charges, discussed additional sexual acts involving Barringtons other children, all under the age of 7, according to court records.

Marchini pleaded guilty in May 2020 to a single count of possession of child pornography. Peterson sentenced him to 10 years in prison in August 2020.

At the time of the criminal activity, Barrington was married to Cunnington. The two have since divorced. Cunnington was in the courtroom Wednesday and told Barrington that her daughter had told friends at school that her mother was dead.

You are no longer part of our lives, Cunnington said.

Peterson let Barrington, led by U.S. Marshals, listen to the statement of her ex-husband about the crimes effect on their children in another room, through a door that was cracked open.

A row of friends and family, including Barringtons adoptive parents, sat behind her Wednesday morning as she delivered an at-times tearful admission of guilt for an act she called reckless and selfish.

The most important part of all this is how my children have been affected, and how they will hopefully heal, Barrington said.

Peterson said the 20-year sentence would give Barrington a chance to continue to improve herself.

I agree with Ms. Rubin, Peterson said. People can be fixed. People can be redeemed.

Rubin and Barrington shared an embrace after the verdict. The 31-year-old was then led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

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Spokane mother who filmed herself sexually assaulting her 3-year-old daughter gets 20 years in prison - The Spokesman Review

HARMONY, Minn. - The Fillmore Central Falcons face the Rushford-Peterson Trojans this week.

These teams met in the Section 1A Championship game last year and the Trojans won by just a touchdown.

But it's a new year.

Fillmore Central won their first game of the season, blanking Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 14-0.

Falcons Head Coach Chris Mensink says he wants them to clean up the pre-snap penalties, but the offense scored touchdowns on the first two drives of the game.

This matchup is always a big one for both teams.

"The feeling is always pretty intense, getting ready for the game. There's a little bit of butterflies. It comes with the game. You've got to deal with it," says Jayce Kiehne.

"When we play Rushford, and just like any other team, I think consistency. The team that executes and the team that makes the fewest mistakes and doesn't turn the ball over. Those things win football games. So just as it comes down to every year, whoever makes the play and whoever makes the fewest mistakes is going to win that ball game. So that's our focus right now," says Coach Mensink.

The Falcons are making the trip to Rushford-Peterson on Friday night to take on the Trojans.

Kickoff is set for 7.

View post:

Fillmore Central football team prepares for Rushford-Peterson this week - KIMT 3

Im asking a favor from readers of this blog who live, move, and have their being outside of the United States of America.

Recently, during our extensive travels overseas (which are, alas, far from over for the year), Ive been made aware of limitations in the distribution of Witnesses and Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon that I had not expected. It turns out that streaming rules vary in surprising ways from country to country. And that DVDs that are playable here in the States are not always playable elsewhere. In recent weeks, weve learned about problems in both Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which represent reasonably large potential audiences for the two films. (Were not expecting to reap profits from those audiences; we simply want people to see the films.)

So Im posing a question, particularly to those of you who might be in the United Kingdom or Canada, but also, I think, to any of you who happen to be in such locations as Australia and New Zealand and, for the matter, in Asia, on the European continent, and so forth:

Do American DVDs or BluRays work where you are? Are you able to stream Witnesses or Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon where you are? The former, in particular, is now available for streaming via Living Scriptures, Deseret Video+, and Amazons Prime Video. But it seems that those streaming services work differently in different countries, leaving me somewhat unsure of where our two films are actually accessible to those who want to see them.

Im interested in feedback on this question because Im about to make contact with a distribution company based in the Los Angeles area that should be able to help in this regard. And I need to know exactly where we need help.

Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets Two Ways to Remember the Dead

Between 7 March 1954 and 17 October 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of thirty weekly lectures on KSL Radio that were also published as pamphlets. The series, called Time Vindicates the Prophets, was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to call themselves Christians.

This lecture is a discussion of better ways to remember the dead.

Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Old Testament Lesson 38: A Marvellous Work and a Wonder: Isaiah 1314; 2430; 35

Stephen O. Smoot is the guest for the Interpreter Radio Roundtable on Come, Follow MeOld Testament Lesson 38,A Marvellous Work and a Wonder on Isaiah 1314; 2430; 35. He joined the panelists for the roundtable, who were Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, and Hales Swift. The roundtable has been extracted from the 7 August 2022 broadcast of the overall Interpreter Radio Show, with commercial and other interruptions removed, and is now available for your edification and delight. The complete two-hour 7 August 2022 program can be heard, at absolutely no charge (were a volunteer organization that functions very frugally on the basis of donated funds) at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreter-radio-show-August-7-2022/. The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard Sunday evenings, each and every week of every year, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640. Or, if that doesnt work for you, you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com. Please be aware that we have had some technical difficulties with this show. We will replace this recording with a clearer version as soon as it becomes available.

Come, Follow Me Old Testament Study and Teaching Helps: Lesson 38, September 1218: Isaiah 1314; 2430; 35 A Marvellous Work and a Wonder

Once again, Jonn Claybaugh has generously shared notes for teachers and students of the Churchs Come, Follow Me curriculum.

And now for some links to items that have recently caught my notice:

Hanna Seariac delves into one of the great mysteries of the faith:

Deseret News:Why do Latter-day Saints make funeral potatoes? Latter-day Saints love funeral potatoes, there is no doubt. But why do they make them?

Ive read at least one of his books, and I very much admire what hes accomplished. I think that there may be useful lessons to be learned from his success:

Wall Street Journal:Pastor Timothy Keller Speaks to the Head and the Heart: The founder of New Yorks Redeemer Presbyterian Church preaches conservative Christianity to a cosmopolitan flock

I dont think that Im going to be able to attend. But it sounds interesting. Perhaps theyll record it and/or stream it:

Holy Envy: Living Faithfully with Religious Difference (Wednesday, September 07)

It turns out I must have been out of town and missed the memo that it was, in fact, arson:

In arson investigation, AFT offers $5K reward for info on Orem Utah Temple fire: Flames on the upper floor resulted in little fire damage, but the temple suffered extensive smoke damage throughout

What a mess. And, it increasingly seems, a wholly unjustified one:

Deseret News: BYU on trial in the court of public opinion: BYU volleyball incident made national headlines, but where do we go from here?

As the old Chinese curse is supposed to have read, May you live in interesting times. And we do:

National Review: Irish Teacher Imprisoned for Continuing to Teach after Refusing to Use Gender-Neutral Pronouns

National Review: Trans Toddlers and Secret Abortions: Elite NYC Private Schools Use Summer Reading Lists to Push Radical Agenda

DailyWire.com: I Underwent Gender Transition Surgery: Heres What The Media Doesnt Tell You

Cassandra Hedelius on substack: A video is worth a million words: The term family friendly is not among those words. (This is a follow-up to her article What You Didnt Hear About the LGBT Pamphlet at BYU: BYU was right to remove an LGBT resource pamphlet from freshman welcome bags, but the public doesnt understand why. It disturbingly promoted a drag show and gender transition to students. By the way, I was able to see the YouTube videos by simply clicking on the relevant Watch on YouTube links.)

The Daily Beast:Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Are Going Mainstream: A prominent professor speculated that the assassination attempt on Salman Rushdie could have been part of an Israeli conspiracy. What should we call that?

More here:

Seeking help from readers in Canada, the UK, and beyond - Patheos