The Final Frontier: Space Stocks To Watch – Trefis

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Investor interest in the space exploration area has been rising after Elon Musks SpaceXs successfully completed its first manned mission this year. There are a couple of broad trends driving the industry. Firstly, there is a gradual shift from government-driven space programs toward enterprise backed programs. Moreover, new markets appear to be opening up, ranging from reusable rockets, satellite-based Internet, space travel, and point-to-point transport around the earth. Per Morgan Stanley, the global space industry is poised to expand significantly over the next two decades, growing from roughly $350 billion currently to over $1 trillion by 2040. []

Although SpaceX remains privately held, weve picked a theme of a few publicly listed space companies including Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE: AJRD), Iridium (NASDAQ: IRDM), and Virgin Galactic (NASDAQ:SPCE) as part of our theme Space Stocks To Watch. Parts of the analysis are summarized below.

Lockheed Martin ($108 billion market cap, +0% YTD), is a diversified aerospace company that also makes satellites and space craft for government and commercial customers. The company is developing the Orion spacecraft that is intended to be used in NASAs human spaceflight programs that will venture into deep space and lunar orbit. The company also provides launch services under the United Launch Alliance partnership with Boeing.

Virgin Galactic ($4 billion, +55%) is an aerospace company focused on suborbital spaceflight for private individuals and researchers. While the company is currently in the test phases and doesnt generate meaningful revenues just yet, things are likely to change in the next few quarters, as it likely begins commercial space flights carrying paying space tourists from 2021, charging each passenger roughly $250,000.

Aerojet Rocketdyne ($3.4 billion, -7%) is an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer. While the company derives more than half its revenues from missile defense systems, its space business is also poised to grow considering its contracts with Boeings SLS rocket, Northrops OmegA, and the United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket.

Iridium Communications ($4 billion, +20%) operates a constellation of satellites that are used for worldwide voice and data communication from hand-held satellite phones and other devices. The company essentially provides communication services across the world, even in areas where there is no cellphone coverage. Iridium largely caters to governments and private sector companies including maritime and aviation solutions.

Did you know that much of SpaceXs valuation comes from its proposed satellite-based Internet service, Starlink? Find out more in our analysis SpaceXs Revenues and Valuation

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As The Agents Of SHIELD Finale Looms, Remembering Its Impressive Achievement – Forbes

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Agents of SHIELD

We are just two days away from the series finale of Agents of SHIELD, wrapping up the time-travel-based final season 7 that has taken its cast all over the map and the timeline in an effort to preserve the continuity of the MCU.

If they do their job right, no one will even know they ever did anything. Which is kind of an unfortunate metaphor for how overlooked the show has been all these years.

Agents of SHIELD has been an extremely interesting and confounding project for Marvel, the last remaining relic of the old TV era that has gone through three phases now:

Phase 1: Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter, employing characters directly tied into the MCU, and yet affording them little connection to the ongoing films once they got their own series.

Phase 2: Netflixs Defenders, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and the Punisher, R-rated offerings allowed pretty much zero connection to any of the films, existing in their own little microuniverse set before Infinity War. All shows were summarily executed in the past year or two with Disney Plus making new plans and Netflix becoming a huge rival.

Phase 3: Disney Plus, a phase which has not started yet, and has been delayed due to the pandemic. Now theyre pulling in their big name name MCU movie stars for smaller, shorter, often limited series, as well as a few different experiments like WandaVision, and then later, bringing in new characters like She-Hulk, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel. Until these shows air, once SHIELD is done, there will be no mainline Marvel shows on the air.

Agents of SHIELD

What I think is overlooked is a record that Agents of SHIELD has set over the years, however, lasting long past when many assumed it would be cancelled with a dedicated fanbase and endless ways to keep the series fresh, with a hefty Inhumans plotline, space travel and now time travel, almost all of it completely divorced from the MCU after season 1 was hugely impacted by the events of Winter Soldier (Hydra dismantling SHIELD from the inside).

The record is that most of the main cast have technically had the most screen time in the MCU of any characters in the universe, including big name movie stars that have appeared in so many films like Robert Downey Jrs Tony Stark or Chris Evans Captain America.

The ranking order for really the entire MCU is the cast here:

Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson) 136 Episodes

Chloe Bennet (Daisy Johnson ) 136 Episodes

Ming-Na Wen (Melinda May) 136 Episodes

Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma Simmons) 136 Episodes

Iain De Caestecker (Leo Fitz) 126 Episodes

Henry Simmons (Alfonso Mack Mackenzie) 114 Episodes

All of those are legions beyond anyone else in the MCU, and also, even the Netflix MCU where Matt Murdoch has 39 episodes plus maybe 10 more in the Defenders.

Agents of SHIELD

136 episodes across the four most present cast members at 42 minutes an episode is 95.2 hours in the MCU. The ultimate winner is Phil Coulson, who has those 95.2 hours, and yet has also appeared in many Marvel movies, Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Avengers and Captain Marvel. His character died at least twice onscreen and the current version of Coulson is (spoiler) actually just a very advanced robot filled with all his memories. But that still counts, and Coulson is easily attached to over 100 hours of various offerings in the MCU. Thatsimpressive.

I will miss SHIELD. I think it did the best with what it was able to work with, which was an extremely limited selection of characters and plotlines, given the huge wall Marvel threw up between TV and the movies. They pressed on, adapting creatively, and giving us perhaps some of the most endearing characters across the whole of the MCU, even if none got the chance to ever cross over to the big screen, minus Coulson.

We will see what the new MCU movie-star slate of TV shows holds, but SHIELD did it first, and may have done it best.

Follow meon Twitter,YouTubeandInstagram. Pick up my sci-fi novelsHerokillerandHerokiller 2, and read my first series,The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also onaudiobook.

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Places That May Make You Feel Like You’re Traveling in Space – Peter Greenberg.com Travel News

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Based on whats going on on this planet, are you dreaming of space travel? I totally understand.

But there are actually some places right here in the United States that come close gravity and temperature notwithstanding to replicating some planets.

Do you want to travel to Venus? Head to Colorado and the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, and youll see 30 square miles of sand dunes. Some are as high as 750 feet. Its also a dark sky park, and so its great for real star and planet gazing.

The Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area in Arizona does a great job of resembling a Martian landscape. It has swirling red, orange, and grey sandstone.

And, if you really want to feel like youre on Mars, stop by the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah and if you time it right, you may get to see scientists simulating what it would be like to actually live on Mars spacesuits and all.

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Places That May Make You Feel Like You're Traveling in Space - Peter Greenberg.com Travel News

In space, bacteria is even more deadly and resilient to antibiotics – The Next Web

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China recently launched its Tianwen-1 mission to Mars. A rocket holding an orbiter, lander and rover took flight from the countrys Hainan province, with hopes to deploy the rover on Marss surface by early next year.

Similarly, the launch of the Emirates Mars Missionmarked the Arab worlds foray into interplanetary space travel. And on July 30, we saw NASAs Mars Perseverance rover finally take off from Florida.

For many nations and their people, space is becoming the ultimate frontier. But although were gaining the ability to travel smarter and faster into space, much remains unknown about its effects on biological substances, including us.

While the possibilities of space exploration seem endless, so are its dangers. And one particular danger comes from the smallest life forms on Earth: bacteria.

Bacteria live within us and all around us. So whether we like it or not, these microscopic organisms tag along wherever we go including into space. Just as spaces unique environment has an impact on us, so too does it impact bacteria.

[Read: Why are scientists trying to manufacture organs in space?]

All life on Earth evolved with gravity as an ever-present force. Thus, Earths life has not adapted to spend time in space. When gravity is removed or greatly reduced, processes influenced by gravity behave differently as well.

In space, where there is minimal gravity, sedimentation (when solids in a liquid settle to the bottom), convection (the transfer of heat energy), and buoyancy (the force that makes certain objects float) are minimized.

Similarly, forces such as liquid surface tension and capillary forces (when a liquid flows to fill a narrow space) become more intense.

Its not yet fully understood how such changes impact lifeforms.

NASAs Perseverance Mars rover will be launched later this month. Among other tasks, it will seek out past microscopic life and collect samples of Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) to later be returned to Earth. NASA/Cover Images

Worryingly, research from space flight missions has shown bacteria become more deadly and resilient when exposed to microgravity (when only tiny gravitational forces are present).

In space, bacteria seem to become more resistant to antibiotics and more lethal. They also stay this way for a short time after returning to Earth, compared with bacteria that never left Earth.

Adding to that, bacteria also seem to mutate quicker in space. However, these mutations are predominately for the bacteria to adapt to the new environment not to become super deadly.

More research is needed to examine whether such adaptations do, in fact, allow the bacteria to cause more disease.

Research has shown spaces microgravity promotes biofilm formation of bacteria.

Biofilms are densely-packed cell colonies that produce a matrix of polymeric substances allowing bacteria to stick to each other, and to stationary surfaces.

Biofilms increase bacterias resistance to antibiotics, promote their survival, and improve their ability to cause infection. We have seen biofilms grow and attach to equipment on space stations, causing it to biodegrade.

For example, biofilms have affected the Mir space stations navigation window, air conditioning, oxygen electrolysis block, water recycling unit, and thermal control system. The prolonged exposure of such equipment to biofilms can lead to malfunction, which can have devastating effects.

Another effect of microgravity on bacteria involves their structural distortion. Certain bacteria have shown reductions in cell size and increases in cell numbers when grown in microgravity.

In the case of the former, bacterial cells with the smaller surface areas have fewer molecule-cell interactions, and this reduces the effectiveness of antibiotics against them.

Moreover, the absence of effects produced by gravity, such as sedimentation and buoyancy, could alter the way bacteria take in nutrients or drugs intended to attack them. This could result in the increased drug resistance and infectiousness of bacteria in space.

All of this has serious implications, especially when it comes to long-haul space flights where gravity would not be present. Experiencing a bacterial infection that cannot be treated in these circumstances would be catastrophic.

On the other hand, the effects of space also result in a unique environment that can be positive for life on Earth.

For example, molecular crystals in spaces microgravity grow much larger and more symmetrically than on Earth. Having more uniform crystals allows the formulation of more effective drugs and treatments to combat various diseases including cancers and Parkinsons disease.

Also, the crystallization of molecules helps determine their precise structures. Many molecules that cannot be crystallized on Earth can be in space.

So, the structure of such molecules could be determined with the help of space research. This, too, would aid the development of higher-quality drugs.

Optical fiber cables can also be made to a much better standard in space, due to the optimal formation of crystals. This greatly increases data transmission capacity, making networking and telecommunications faster.

As humans spend more time in space, an environment riddled with known and unknown dangers, further research will help us thoroughly examine the risks and the potential benefits of spaces unique environment.

This article is republished from The ConversationbyVikrant Minhas, PhD candidate, University of Adelaideunder a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Martian’ movie’s toilet tuber could happen: NASA testing machine that turns poop into veggie fertilizer – SYFY WIRE

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Matt Damon growing potatoes from his own poop inThe Martianmay be closer to reality than some sci-fi fans might think. Thanks to a new system that replicates waste-reclamation practicesused bycommunities on Earthto generate clean water and fertilizer, astronauts may soon have access to fresh vegetables over long spaceflights.

According to a release, this technology dubbed theOrganic Processor Assembly comes from NASAandUniversity of South Florida professorDaniel Yeh, the latter of whom also developed theNEWGeneratorresource recovery machine thatis helping achieve these same principles inIndia and South Africa. Cleaning up toilet water into useful components is helpful everywhere, both in earthbound communities and the hardships of space.

Over the years, our team has gotten pretty good at coming up with technologies that work well on Earth, Yeh said in a statement. Developing resource-recovery solutions for space was something new. It presented a whole new series of design challenges to overcome, such as those related to mass, volume, modularity, and reduced gravity.

Around the size of a washer-dryer combo (the smaller, stackable kind), theOrganic Processor Assembly heads toNASAs Kennedy Space Center next week, where it will be tested inPrincipal Investigator Luke Roberson's lab. That means churning through four astronauts worth of wastewater (synthetic, thankfully) and generating clean water. Then, that water's excess nutrients are conditioned into fertilizer thanks to an algae bioreactor.

Not only does it need to work, though, it needs to work with everything else on the spacecraft. But if it works, it'll be a big step in the right direction for longer manned missions.

NASA can only resupply a limited mass and volume to the Moon and Mars habitats. This limitation forces research advancements to provide a reliable, closed-loop system between food consumption and production, saidRoberson. With the OPA technology, were investigating if we can sustainably begin recycling human wastewater resources into potable water and fertilizer nutrients. There is a big difference between a fresh and canned strawberry in both nutrient content and interaction with your senses.

This tech isn't just a morale boost: It couldhelp upgrade the existing fresh veggie system called Vegetable Production System or VEGGIE, suitably into something sustainable. Although it's much smaller, the current system islimited in resourcessince it uses "clay-based soil and fertilizer." The astronauts just have to avoid thinking about their food growing in stuff taken "directlyfrom the toilet."

"Waste not, want not" has never been so applicable. But that's what astronauts get when looking beyond the ISS. Extended space travel means food needs andwaste problems, with storage already at a premium. So why not make the most of the stuff that's going to be generated naturally? If it was good enough for Matt Damon, it's good enough for NASA.

NASA expectsto make a decision on whether theOrganic Processor Assembly will go to the Moon over the next few years, possiblythrough the Artemis program that hopes to launch in 2024.Another Organic Processor Assembly will stay on terra firma for continued testing ... but if it works on the Moon, there's no telling the distances to which our own by-products could take us.

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The Martian' movie's toilet tuber could happen: NASA testing machine that turns poop into veggie fertilizer - SYFY WIRE

Virgin Galactic’s Supersonic Jet Is a Commercial Failure in the Making – The Motley Fool

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Last week, Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) delayed its first commercial space flight again: this time to 2021. However, the buzzy aerospace start-up offered investors and fans a new reason to be excited, announcing that it had completed the initial "Mission Concept Review" for a new supersonic jet that would travel at Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound, or roughly 2,300 miles per hour).

Virgin Galactic's management appears to be very excited about this concept. Earlier this year, then-CEO (and current chief space officer) George Whitesides argued that the annual revenue opportunity from supersonic passenger travel could be $10 billion to $15 billion. Unfortunately, the business plan is unlikely to live up to the hype.

The design concept revealed by Virgin Galactic calls for a small cabin seating between nine and 19 passengers, along with a triangular delta wing and engines supplied by Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce has experience in this area, having built the engines for the Concorde supersonic jet decades ago. The plane would reach Mach 3 at an altitude exceeding 60,000 feet.

Virgin Galactic envisions a flexible cabin that could support luxurious business class and first class seating. The company noted that the proposed supersonic jet would be able to use existing airport infrastructure. Virgin Galactic also mentioned using sustainable aviation fuel to reduce emissions.

Image source: Virgin Galactic.

The commercial failure of the Concorde -- the only supersonic jet ever to see regular passenger service -- is a big reason for caution. Despite high hopes initially, airlines lost interest due to development delays and cost overruns. Only 14 Concorde jets were ever used for commercial flights, and the only customers were British Airways and Air France, which faced government pressure to fly the Concorde, which was developed by a British-French joint venture.

Aside from the high cost, there were numerous problems with the Concorde concept. Most notably, many countries (including the U.S.) have banned supersonic flights over land due to the "sonic booms" that come from breaking the sound barrier. While the FAA is reviewing its noise standards for supersonic flight, it is not reconsidering the ban on supersonic flight over land. Unless policies change, these restrictions dramatically reduce the addressable market for supersonic travel.

Supersonic travel is also extremely environmentally unfriendly. The Concorde burned about 6,700 gallons of fuel per hour. Next-generation supersonic jets are likely to burn five to seven times as much fuel per passenger as comparable subsonic jets, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. Leaving aside the cost of all that fuel, the environmental impact could lead to regulatory issues and cause many people to avoid supersonic flights. Using sustainable jet fuel (such as biofuels) would only partially address this issue.

A Mach 3 jet would make round-trip travel in one day feasible for 85% of the most popular global airline routes, according to Virgin Galactic's management. That may be true in theory, but the nature of time zones limits the utility of long-haul supersonic travel.

For example, on the popular New York-London route, a traveler taking a 6 a.m. flight out of New York wouldn't get to London until 2 p.m., assuming a realistic gate-to-gate travel time of three hours. That might be fine if the goal is to squeeze in a single two-hour meeting. But if you need a full day in London, a traditional subsonic redeye flight is more convenient, given that virtually all full-service airlines have flat-bed seats in international business class today. By contrast, taking a supersonic redeye flight would mean arriving in London with no time to sleep.

Supersonic travel would be more useful on transpacific routes -- assuming the plane had sufficient range. Many major routes from the West Coast to Asia and Australia are 6,000 miles long or more. The Concorde didn't have enough range to serve such routes. Virgin Galactic may opt for greater range, but that would come at the cost of even higher fuel burn.

The Concorde supersonic jet was a massive commercial failure. Image source: Getty Images.

Whereas the Concorde at least aimed to serve moderately wealthy passengers (with the potential to seat up to 128 customers), Virgin Galactic's Mach 3 concept is basically a high-speed luxury business jet. Ticket prices will be lower than the $250,000 Virgin Galactic plans to charge for brief trips into space, but not by all that much.

Sales of large, long-range business jets have been lackluster in recent years. Virgin Galactic is unlikely to do any better. The appeal of a jet capable of flying Mach 3 will be severely limited by the acquisition cost, operating costs, environmental impact, and lack of utility for many heavily traveled routes.

Perhaps Virgin Galactic will find a way to add range, mitigate environmental impacts, and bring the cost of supersonic travel down to a reasonable level. However, I wouldn't count on it, and neither should you. Investors should hope management sticks to its main niche of space travel and doesn't throw away lots of money trying to develop a supersonic jet that is extremely unlikely to be profitable.

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What leaders can learn from astronauts to build more connected remote teams – Business Insider – Business Insider

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What happens to teamwork during extended periods of isolation and confinement?

While that sounds like a question tailored for much of today's housebound workforce, it's actually a research topic that professorsNoshir ContractorandLeslie DeChurchhave studied in an entirely different context: space travel.

The researchers never thought "that we would be drawing conclusions from space teams to our teams here on Earth," DeChurch said.

But they did just that during arecent webinar from Kellogg Executive Education. Contractor, a professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, and DeChurch, a professor in Northwestern's School of Communication, discussed their research with NASA, and shared some insights that workers and leaders can use to help remote teams function cohesively.

For example, astronauts are acutely aware of their organization's lofty goals and how their own individual efforts fit into that. So even when the task is mundane such as practicing putting away tools one more time they have a clear sense of how that work fits into the bigger picture.

Leaders here on Earth should likewise ensure that all of their employees understand how their work, however high-minded or mundane, fits into the organization's goals. This is particularly important, Contractor says, if you're onboarding a new employee.

"Talk to each of them at some length about what the bigger picture is, what the dream is, what the vision is, and why what they are doing is a significant component within that," he said. "As a leader, it is really one of the most important things you can do."

Contractor and DeChurch also advised leaders to be aware of the "third-quarter phenomenon," the idea that teams, whether on football fields or space stations, tend to see slumps in mood and motivation in the third quarter. So team leaders need to manage those slumps, perhaps by offering more support, introducing new routines, or weaving in some light-hearted moments where humor can help restore people's energies.

But, in the midst of a continuing crisis like COVID-19, how do you know when the third quarter has arrived? After all, few remote workers know when their offices or their children's schools will reopen.

Contractor says this unknown actually doesn't matter that much. "If we don't have [a timeline] we make one up in our minds and we use those as a way to pace ourselves," he said.

DeChurch explains that leaders need to recognize the importance of having the whole team working on the same clock, even if it's "a manufactured clock, and to recognize explicitly when it needs to be changed." This could mean working toward a particular re-opening goal, even if it ends up needing to be pushed back. At least that way the full team knows what the timeline is and will sync up their "quarters" accordingly.

Another lesson from space: crews do not like being micromanaged remotely.

Contractor toldthe story of the US Skylab crew, which in 1974 rebelled against mission control.

"The crew was so completely frustrated with the structured tasks they were given," Contractor said, that they simply shut off communication with mission control for a period of time. "It's referred to as the first mutiny in space, or the first strike in space."

The issue, DeChurch says, is that leaders and their team members can "have misaligned needs" when working remotely. Leaders want to regain some of the control that they've lost in not being able to see work being done, while their staff want a sense of autonomy in their work, which makes it feel more meaningful to them.

"It's important to recognize that this discord can happen," she said.

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Mission to the Red Planet from NASA in Alabama – AL.com

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Right now, NASAs Perseverance rover is flying through space toward a February landing on Mars, and no one is watching closer than Dr. Caleb Fassett of Huntsvilles Marshall Space Flight Center. Fassett wrote the scientific paper almost 20 years ago that gave Perseverance its destination.

Fassetts research found evidence that the crater - since named Jezero Crater - once held a lake and has good odds of holding signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. NASA has bet the $3 billion mission cost that Fassett and the scientists who share his view are right. And NASA upped the ante. For the first time, a rover will try to send samples from the planet back to Earth.

This particular place on Mars was something I had spotted in very low-resolution data in 2003, 2004, Fassett said last week. In that data, it was really clear that there were these valleys in this crater. What Fassett saw in images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which is still orbiting Mars, were signs of sedimentary deposits on one side of the crater and an outlet on the other side. To have an outlet form, you have to fill the whole (crater) up and have it overflow, Fassett said. That basically demands the existence of a lake.

That was exciting when I found it initially, Fassett said. Its gotten cooler since then.

This map shows regions in and around Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site of NASA's Perseverance rover. The green circle represents the rover's landing ellipse. Jezero held a lake and river delta billions of years ago; scientists want to capture samples of rock in these regions that may contain evidence of ancient microscopic life, which will be returned to Earth by a future mission for extensive study.

In a study led by colleague Bethany Ehlmann, Fassett also was part of a team that discovered carbonate in the crater, a mineral that requires relatively moderate conditions to form. A lot of the carbonates on Earth, the reason they (form) is because of organisms, Fassett said. You can also get them to precipitate inorganically without biology at all, and that may very well be the case with these Mars ones.

Scientists have seen this before. Carbonates were found in a rock sample from a Martian meteorite that hit Earth, Fassett said, and that was one of the things that set off the Mars program re-invigoration in the 1990s, because people were arguing it was biology.

Scientists dont think that now, he said, and Fassett believes finding evidence of life on Mars next year is unlikely. The rover is very capable, he said, but we have a hard time on Earth identifying the signatures of life in 3 billion-year-old rocks. Youve got to be very lucky, and people will argue about it in the literature for decades. So, the idea were going to send a robot that is going to solve this problem I think is actually unlikely.

Thats why NASA is looking at the big step of bringing samples back to Earth. Scientists are skeptical, Fassett said, and if were going to convince scientists, its going to be (with) samples that are returned. I could be wrong. There could be a fossil I just dont think its very likely.

The plan is that if Perseverance finds interesting samples, they will be gathered and stored in the rover until a Mars Ascent Vehicle arrives later in the 2020s.

his illustration shows a concept of how the NASA Mars Ascent Vehicle, carrying tubes containing rock and soil samples, could be launched from the surface of Mars in one step of the Mars sample return mission.

The return mission will be a partnership with the European Space Agency. It includes a fetch rover to land on Mars and retrieve the samples from Perseverance and then transfer them to a return rocket that will launch them into Mars orbit. Another spacecraft in orbit will collect the samples and return them to Earth.

All of this will be expensive, complicated and take time, but it will be cheaper by billions of dollars, far faster and less complicated than the first flight of humans to the planet. And it could answer the fundamental question of life beyond Earth. We havent found life anywhere else in the Universe except Earth, Fassett said, so the first time were going to have to be very conscious to make a case for it. That would be a paradigm shifting discovery.

Fassetts discovery and the long wait to test it is part of the story of space exploration. One of the things you get used to as you explore other planets is the possibility that your findings are going to be hard to test further, he said. There was no guarantee when I was working on this in 2004, 2005 that wed ever go to this place on Mars. Mars has the land area of all the continents of the Earth put together. So, the odds you just pick one particular spot and thats where youre going to go, you have to get pretty lucky to follow up on your observations to go there.

Dr. Caleb Fassett is a planetary scientist at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. Originally from Maryland, Dr. Fassett earned his BS from Williams College in 2002, and MS and PhD from Brown University in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Its not just patience, he said. Its also luck that allows us to push the envelope on this particular location.

Would he like to go to Mars to see for himself? I think given the chance, I probably would, Fassett said. Im pretty risk averse, so I dont know if Im the guy that would be your first choice as an astronaut. I think the reason we get the people we get is a certain tolerance for well-chosen risk.

I love the fact we can build these robots to be our explorers in the distant part of the universe without us having to be there to breathe and keep fed and come back, hopefully, he said. So, yeah, I hope 50 years from now people are doing space travel more routinely, but Im not personally going to go there.

Probably, he added.

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Deflated Croissant Uncovering the True Shape of Our Solar System – SciTechDaily

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An updated model suggests the shape of the Suns bubble of influence, the heliosphere (seen in yellow), may be a deflated croissant shape, rather than the long-tailed comet shape suggested by other research. Credit: Opher, et al

Scientists have developed a new prediction of the shape of the bubble surrounding our solar system using a model developed with data from NASA missions.

All the planets of our solar system are encased in a magnetic bubble, carved out in space by the Suns constantly outflowing material, the solar wind. Outside this bubble is the interstellar medium the ionized gas and magnetic field that fills the space between stellar systems in our galaxy. One question scientists have tried to answer for years is on the shape of this bubble, which travels through space as our Sun orbits the center of our galaxy. Traditionally, scientists have thought of the heliosphere as a comet shape, with a rounded leading edge, called the nose, and a long tail trailing behind.

Research published in Nature Astronomy in March and featured on the journals cover for July provides an alternative shape that lacks this long tail: the deflated croissant.

The shape of the heliosphere is difficult to measure from within. The closest edge of the heliosphere is more than ten billion miles from Earth. Only the two Voyager spacecraft have directly measured this region, leaving us with just two points of ground-truth data on the shape of the heliosphere.

Some research suggests that the heliosphere has a long tail, much like a comet, though a new model points to a shape that lacks this long tail. Credits: NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio/Conceptual Imaging Lab

From near Earth, we study our boundary to interstellar space by capturing and observing particles flying toward Earth. This includes charged particles that come from distant parts of the galaxy, called galactic cosmic rays, along with those that were already in our solar system, travel out towards the heliopause, and are bounced back towards Earth through a complex series of electromagnetic processes. These are called energetic neutral atoms, and because they are created by interacting with the interstellar medium, they act as a useful proxy for mapping the edge of the heliosphere. This is how NASAs Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission studies the heliosphere, making use of these particles as a kind of radar, tracing out our solar systems boundary to interstellar space.

To make sense of this complex data, scientists use computer models to turn this data into a prediction of the heliospheres characteristics. Merav Opher, lead author of the new research, heads a NASA- and NSF-funded DRIVE Science Center at Boston University focused on the challenge.

This latest iteration of Ophers model uses data from NASA planetary science missions to characterize the behavior of material in space that fills the bubble of the heliosphere and get another perspective on its borders. NASAs Cassini mission carried an instrument, designed to study particles trapped in Saturns magnetic field, that also made observations of particles bouncing back towards the inner solar system. These measurements are similar to IBEXs, but provide a distinct perspective on the heliospheres boundary.

Additionally, NASAs New Horizons mission has provided measurements of pick-up ions, particles that are ionized out in space and are picked up and move along with the solar wind. Because of their distinct origins from the solar wind particles streaming out from the Sun, pick-up ions are much hotter than other solar wind particles and its this fact that Ophers work hinges on.

Our heliosphere blocks many cosmic rays, shown as bright streaks in this animated image, from reaching the planets of our solar system. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptual Image Lab

There are two fluids mixed together. You have one component that is very cold and one component that is much hotter, the pick-up ions, said Opher, a professor of astronomy at Boston University. If you have some cold fluid and hot fluid, and you put them in space, they wont mix they will evolve mostly separately. What we did was separate these two components of the solar wind and model the resulting 3D shape of the heliosphere.

Considering the solar winds components separately, combined with Ophers earlier work using the solar magnetic field as a dominant force in shaping the heliosphere, created a deflated croissant shape, with two jets curling away from the central bulbous part of the heliosphere, and notably lacking the long tail predicted by many scientists.

Because the pick-up ions dominate the thermodynamics, everything is very spherical. But because they leave the system very quickly beyond the termination shock, the whole heliosphere deflates, said Opher.

The shape of the heliosphere is more than a question of academic curiosity: The heliosphere acts our solar systems shield against the rest of the galaxy.

Energetic events in other star systems, like supernova, can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light. These particles rocket out in all directions, including into our solar system. But the heliosphere acts as a shield: It absorbs about three-quarters of these tremendously energetic particles, called galactic cosmic rays, that would make their way into our solar system.

To understand the potential habitability of exoplanets, it can help scientists to know if our heliosphere more closely resembles the relatively shortened astrosphere of BZ Cam (left), the long astrosphere of Mira (right), or has another shape entirely. Credit: ASA/Casalegno/GALEX

Those that do make it through can wreak havoc. Were protected on Earth by our planets magnetic field and atmosphere, but technology and astronauts in space or on other worlds are exposed. Both electronics and human cells can be damaged by the effects of galactic cosmic rays and because galactic cosmic rays carry so much energy, theyre difficult to block in a way thats practical for space travel. The heliosphere is spacefarers main defense against galactic cosmic rays, so understanding its shape and how that influences the rate of galactic cosmic rays pelting our solar system is a key consideration for planning robotic and human space exploration.

The heliospheres shape is also part of the puzzle for seeking out life on other worlds. The damaging radiation from galactic cosmic rays can render a world uninhabitable, a fate avoided in our solar system because of our strong celestial shield. As we learn more about how our heliosphere protects our solar system and how that protection may have changed throughout the solar systems history we can look for other star systems that might have similar protection. And part of that is the shape: Are our heliospheric lookalikes long-tailed comet shapes, deflated croissants, or something else entirely?

Whatever the heliospheres true shape, an upcoming NASA mission will be a boon for unraveling these questions: the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, or IMAP.

IMAP, slated for launch in 2024, will map the particles streaming back to Earth from the boundaries of the heliosphere. IMAP will build on the techniques and discoveries of the IBEX mission to shed new light on the nature of the heliosphere, interstellar space, and how galactic cosmic rays make their way into our solar system.

Ophers DRIVE Science Center aims to create a testable model of the heliosphere in time for IMAPs launch. Their predictions of the shape and other characteristics of the heliosphere and how that would be reflected in the particles streaming back from the boundary would provide a baseline for scientists to compare with IMAPs data.

Read Astrophysicists Reveal a New Model of Our Solar Systems Protective Bubble, the Heliosphere for more on this research.

Reference: A small and round heliosphere suggested by magnetohydrodynamic modeling of pick-up ions by Merav Opher, Abraham Loeb, James Drake and Gabor Toth, 16 March 2020, Nature Astronomy.DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1036-0

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Deflated Croissant Uncovering the True Shape of Our Solar System - SciTechDaily

With Her Restaurant Forced to Close, Sat Kampars Chef Pivots to Pop-Ups – Eater Philly

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When she was forced to permanently close her acclaimed Malaysian restaurant during the coronavirus pandemic, chef Ange Branca wanted to find a way to keep Sat Kampars staff employed. She thought about finding a commissary kitchen where they could continue to feed the front lines and other community organizations, which the team has been doing throughout the pandemic, and do a little takeout and delivery on the side. Instead, she has become the queen of pop-ups.

Since May, Branca held a five-night pop-up at the open-air, rooftop Bok Bar in South Philly, settled into a kitchen residency at the Goat in Rittenhouse, and started planning for the private Fitler Clubs first pop-up open to the public, taking place this Sunday. Later this month, shell set up one-night events at the rooftop Sunset Social and outside at Walnut Street Cafe, and plans to host something in the Poconos.

Part of the decision to go the pop-up route was based on rent, Branca says. Even at a commissary kitchen with no retail space to host diners, she was looking at a five-year lease, which she wasnt ready to commit to. At regular restaurant spaces, the rents she was seeing matched pre-pandemic prices, despite dining rooms being closed and the business model for restaurants turning on its head.

When we share space with friends who [own restaurants], we contribute to their rent a little bit, but we arent taking on that huge risk of signing up for five years in a space, says Branca, who owned Sat Kampar with her husband, John.

At least with the pop-ups, especially the long-term one at the Goat, she can keep her core staff intact, though their hours are less predictable. Its also an opportunity to cook dishes that wouldnt have made sense at her East Passyunk Avenue restaurant.

We built the kitchen and restaurant at Sat Kampar for one specific experience, says Branca. Even though there are so many Malaysian dishes that I love, sometimes I held back from serving them because it didnt quite work for the experience.

The grill at the restaurant, for example, was specifically built for satay, the marinated skewered meats that were the focus of the menu. While that grill didnt have space to accommodate whole fish alongside the other menu items, at her Bok Bar pop-up Branca decided whole grilled fish was perfect for the outdoor setting.

I saw the sunset the first night at Bok Bar and it reminded me of the sunset at beach towns in Malaysia, she says. We would always go to these little huts with a big charcoal grill and eat whatever the fishermen caught that day, grilled really simply with rice and a variety of sauces. Its a fun and relaxing way to eat, and very connected with nature.

The Bok Bar pop-up sold out each night. But tackling the Goat summer residency required a different process. We were trying to figure out how to make our food make sense at an Irish pub, with beer and sidewalk seating, Branca says. She opted to go with the double patty, omelet-wrapped, sambal mayo-tinged Ramly burger, a Malaysian street food favorite that pairs well with beer.

For the Fitler Club on August 16, shes teaming up with Fishadelphia, a student-run South Philly-based seafood company with a focus on local fish, to highlight lesser-known, sustainable types of fish and encourage diners to branch out from salmon and tuna. There are two seatings for the dinner; both are $65 per person.

My view of sustainability is to eat all types of fish that are available, Branca says. And you eat fish from head to tail. Were not going to fillet anything everything will be grilled from head to tail.

At the upcoming Sat Kampar pop-up at Walnut Street Cafe in University City (the date has not been announced), Branca wants to take diners on a tour through Malaysia by cooking dishes from different villages shes visited. The idea is to recreate some of the regional flavors she remembers from visits home, and give people a taste of travel during the pandemic, while actual travel is ill-advised.

I have so many memories of traveling through Malaysia, Branca says. The menu [for Walnut Street Cafe] is set up to tell those stories, because we cant travel. And of course I want to go back home so badly, so Im using these dinners to transport myself.

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Sims 4 new game pack theories and hints: Underwater? Star Wars? Space? – Extra Time Media

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This article will be updated as new information becomes available. Updated: Weve been thinking about whether a winter resort pack would fit with the hints and the icon and we have arrived a conclusion that the leaked icon for the new Sims 4 game pack might very well suit a winter-resort type pack.

The accidental (if it was accidental) leak of the icon for the new Sims 4 Game Pack has sent the communitys speculation into overdrive.

As often is the case when there are leaks real or not some theories hold up better than others. So we thought wed try and collate some of the most popular and some of the more out-there theories all in one place because there is a lot going on right now. And we need something to distract us from the disappointment of the Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack (review to come this week).

Also read: Sims 4 leaked Game Pack icon is it Star Wars or Atlantis?

Before we continue, though, we must stress again that everything here is just speculation until stated otherwise. A recreated version of the icon that was leaked (adjusted in resolution) is pictured below.

To keep things somewhat sensible, well divide the theories into three major themes Star Wars/Space, Time Travel/Other and Atlantis/Underwater. Finally, well group some Not Sure/Could be nothing hints together later on, too.

Leading the theory race at the moment is that the new Sims 4 game pack will be some sort of Star Wars-inspired pack. The official forums have been packed with speculation and some Simmers have done some excellent detective work.

Whether that is a full-on co-lab or simply a crossover, many signs point to this most notably the similarities between the leaked icon and the Galaxys Edge Disney theme park. Theres also the fact that droids exist in the form of robots after Discover University and the whole EA owning the rights to Star Wars video games thing.

EliasVersace pointed to this object from the Eco Lifestyle expansion pack which has a description that includes the line: It was mined in space byancient astro travelersand stored on earth. This could fit space travel but also time travel (more on that in the next section).

Aether is is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere. It has been used to explain things like the travelling of light and gravity. There have previously been hints about whats to come in The Sims build/buy catalogue so its not too much of a reach to wonder if there might be clues hidden in some out of place objects.

Ancient Greeks saw aether as the god of light and the fifth element of the universe. To the medieval alchemists, it was the fabled philosophers stone that could turn lead into gold and prolong life. So this could tie in with the Atlantis theory, too.

GracieO312 also pointed out that there were possible space-related hints in the Discovery University pack. The first two are seemingly innocuous posters and while the computer references space but could also fit the Atlantis theory (more on that later).

There were also a few curious Tweets shared by Sim Guru George, with more to come. One of the clues was this about the scrolls.

The words that can be spotted in the scrolls are mystery, hidden and hint. The scrolls themselves could point to the Jedi Scrolls or scrolling text used in the opening sequence of Star Wars. The words themselves dont make that much sense.

Central to the time travel theory (which could also apply to the space travel, really) are the April 2020 patch notes. Most specifically, the note about a travel-related bug fixes: This is the second travel issue in the game was it trying to tell us something?

At the time, some brushed it off as being just about the pandemic and the restrictions on movement. But perhaps not.

Another theory that is being floated is a sort of dystopian disaster pack. Evidence for this one is pretty thin, but mcrudd on The Sims forums did share this poster which does share some resemblance (mostly the beam) with the leaked icon.

This might be a bit out there, but there is a case for Atlantis/Underwater pack theory if the three bubbles on the icon are viewed as ..wellbubbles rather than suns or moons. There are also a few references to Paris (through the Pig Chef) which could refer to The Elopement of Paris from Greek Mythology. Also worth considering:

The mention of Athena as the computers name might also hint at such. She is central to the Judgement of Paris, one of the events leading to the Trojan War. The Trojan War featured an Elopement of Paris and Helen one of the Future Cube hints referenced an elopement.

There is also the Water Discus Underwater Hotel in Dubai which looks like this.

Not quite exactly like the icon but there are some similarities. The pack could combine Atlantis/Ancient Greece with a sort of underwater hotel.

Remember those scrolls posted by Sim Guru George? The words hidden in them would also make sense in the context of a hidden city or world like Atlantis.

In response to the scrolls, one Twitter user guessed 42 a reference to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. To that, Sim Guru George responded with the best theory yet. Now this could be him winding people up or it could be a reference to galaxy/space travel.

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Sims 4 new game pack theories and hints: Underwater? Star Wars? Space? - Extra Time Media

24 Classic Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books To Read Based On Your Favorite Star Trek Character – Star Trek

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This summer, catch up on the classics by reading one of these 24 classic science fiction novels based on your favorite Star Trek character. Some of these books predate Star Trek and influenced its making, while others were written during or shortly after The Original Series. Because Star Trek watchers tend to be avid readers already, most of these books are outside the typical canon, even when written by well-known authors! Hopefully, everyone can find a book on this list theyve never read before.

Dover Publishing

In this H.G. Wells classic, a down-on-his-luck writer and eccentric scientist become the first men to travel to the moon. Neither is prepared for what they find there thick vegetation, mooncalves, and the sinister alien Selenites. Published in 1900, The First Men in the Moon is an adventurous romp and surprisingly funny. As the captain of the first starship, it seems fitting to pair Jonathan Archer with one of the first books about space travel and encountering alien life.

R is for Rocket contains 15 short stories from classic science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 and the short story collection The Martian Chronicles. Like Trip, these stories are full of the wonder of space, and the collection is just as good as The Martian Chronicles.

Washington Square Press

Pauline Hopkins was an African American journalist and writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Published in 1903, Of One Blood her fourth and final novel follows Black medical student Reuel Briggs on an archaeological trip to Ethiopia. What begins as a plan to steal Ethiopian treasures turns into a quest of self-discovery as death, kidnapping, and murder plague the expedition and he finds himself falling in love with a queen. The novel combines religion with science and has a fantastical feel. Given Michael Burnhams enjoyment of Alice in Wonderland and also her love for science, this seems like just the book shed want to read during her downtime.

Grand Central Pub

Hawksbill Station is a penal colony for political prisoners. Set one billion years in the Earths past during the Cambrian Period it can only be reached by time travel. Despite being sent to Hawksbill Station decades ago, Jim Barretts arrest still haunts him. Hes become something of a leader with the other 150 prisoners, but when a new prisoner arrives who is much younger and apolitical, he begins to wonder about the nature of Earths future. This is a fast-paced novella that examines political philosophies and the effects of isolation. Ash Tyler, with his experience between two different political factions, would find it fascinating.

Tara Books

First published in 1905 by the Bengali Muslim feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the short story Sultanas Dream depicts a utopia where women rule peacefully while men are delegated to the home. Women scientists have made many scientific advances: flying cars, cloud condensers that control the weather, solar-powered ovens. Women came to be in charge after winning a war with men, and since men are only good at war-mongering and smoking their pipes, theyre forced to stay at home while the women improve society. This story encapsulates both versions of Georgiou: the peaceful and kind captain and the ruthless and cunning imperial majesty.

Chump Change

Flatland is a satirical mathematical novella first published in 1884 that introduces multidimensional space. The narrator, A Square, lives in a two-dimensional world, Flatland, and tries to convince its monarch of the possibility of multiple dimensions. A Square is mocked, but afterward, hes visited by a sphere from Spaceland, who comes to him at the turn of each millennium to show him the possibilities of three-dimensional space. A Square also dreams of Lineland one-dimensional space and hopes to someday visit the fourth dimension. Paul Stamets would certainly appreciate this treatise on multiple dimensions and the possibilities of geometry and empathize with A Square as he travels between worlds that expand his conceptions of reality.

Orb Books

The End of Eternity depicts a future where time can be shaped to the benefit of humankind. Andrew Harlan is an Eternal who travels back and forth in time making slight alterations to a timeline to improve the future. Hes dedicated to his work and following the rules until he meets a beautiful woman and promptly falls in love. Now hes willing to disrupt all of time to be with his girl. This is an intriguing time travel novel and Andrew Harlan shares some of Captain Kirks proclivities. Authoring or editing more than 500 sci-fi books, Isaac Asimov was a powerhouse of science fiction, and The End of Eternity is one of his best.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Arthur C. Clarke was a contemporary of Asimov and another one of the most popular science fiction authors of the time. In The Fountains of Paradise, engineer Van designs a space elevator that will connect Earth to the stars and planets above. When the head of a Buddhist temple refuses to let Van build the elevator on their land the only feasible spot Martians contact him asking that he build the elevator on Mars instead. As construction gets underway, a series of mishaps plague the project. Spock would be interested in this mix of hard science with the foibles of early humankind.

Macmillan

After starship pilot Grangier is rescued from a shipwreck in the Halcyon Drift, hes forced to fly a prototype of a new intergalactic spaceship called the Hooded Swan. Of course his new mission takes him right back to the Halcyon Drift, where he has to help his old boss, a mad scientist, hunt for another lost spaceship. Meanwhile, theres an alien parasite living in Grangiers head thats decided to be his conscience. While the plot may not sound too similar to anything McCoy has experienced, Grangiers acerbic and independent-minded personality is very similar to McCoys.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis posits that language shapes thoughts. In Babel-17, Delany extrapolates on this hypothesis by creating a language that can be used as a weapon. The Alliance tasks Starship Captain, linguist, and poet Rydra Wong with trying to determine how the Invaders are infiltrating their plans. She at first thinks Babel-17 is a code used by the Invaders, but she soon realizes its a powerful language, and the more she learns it, the more it changes her way of thinking. This fascinating linguistic space opera is perfect for Uhura fans.

Bibliotech Press

Published in 1937 by British philosopher Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker influenced many science fiction authors, including Arthur C. Clarke, and was lauded by famous contemporaries like Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges. It tells the story of a man who is transported out of his body and finds himself able to travel to other planets. After studying the alien life on an advanced planet closely, hes able to merge his mind with one of its inhabitants, and they travel together through space and time as more minds join theirs. Star Maker is a breathtaking vision of alien life and the universe, sure to impress Picard with its philosophical and far-reaching ideas.

Berkley Publishing Corp

Up the Walls of the World was the debut novel of Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. It entwines three storylines that explore telepathic powers. The Destroyer is a giant alien entity that seeks to destroy intelligent life. Tivonel is a manta-ray like alien on the planet Tyree. Tyree is threatened by the approach of the Destroyer, and the Tyreens decide to transmit their minds to humans on Earth in an attempt to save themselves. Dr. Daniel Dunn works in a telepathic medical lab run by the navy, and his mind is the first to be taken by the desperate Tyreens. Troi fans will enjoy the multiple explorations of telepathic powers and how they can be used for both good and evil purposes.

Quercus Publishing

On a post-apocalyptic Earth, a young healer named Snake heals by using snake venom. She travels from village to village healing those she can, but one villages fear leads to the death of her rare dreamsnake. Dreamsnakes come from another world and the few that exist on Earth have been cloned. Snake must make amends with her estranged royal family in order to acquire a new one but, on her way there, she finds more and more people who need her help and who become bound to her quest to replace her dreamsnake. Dr. Crusher would love reading about a young healer going on adventures in her quest to help others.

Nelson Doubleday

HARLIE is the first artificial intelligence, and his name is an acronym for Human Analog Replication, Lethetic Intelligence Engine. Hes raised by psychologist David Auberson from childhood to adulthood. David teaches HARLIE all the intricacies and complications of being human, from emotions to gender identity to religion. When the department threatens to cut funding and shut HARLIE off, he decides that now might be a good time to create God. Data and HARLIE have many of the same struggles in their quest to become more human.

DAW

The mri are honor-bound and warrior aliens who once served as galactic mercenaries, but now have lost a war with humans. In book one, The Faded Sun: Kesrith, Niun one of the last remaining mri warriors teams up with his sister and priestess Melein, and the human Sten Duncan to try and find a holy relic that could possibly save the mri from extinction. Niun and Worf share many characteristics, and Worf would surely empathize with Niuns quest to save his species while feeling honor-bound to reject any and all help from well-meaning members of the enemy species.

Nova combines philosophical meanderings with a plot that revolves around revenge, space pirates, and a holy grail-type quest. It alternates perspectives between three characters: Mouse, a young traveler from Earth who plays a musical instrument called the sensory syrynx; Katin, an intellectual who dreams of writing a real novel, which are now obsolete; and Captain Lorq van Ray, who leads his crew on a perilous revenge mission against a family almost as powerful as his own. Siskos character Benny Russell from the episode Far Beyond the Stars (DS9, S6, E13) was partially based on Samuel R. Delany and his career.

Anthropologist Sutty crosses space to study Aka culture, but by the time she arrives (space travel takes decades), Aka culture has shifted from a literate society to an intentionally illiterate society of producer-consumers. Books, written language, and religion are outlawed, and those found rebelling against The Corporation are sent to camps to be rehabilitated. Sutty is sent to a remote village where the villagers still practice the old religion, the Telling, and hide their books in a secret location. While The Telling is one of Le Guins later works, it best captures the combination of Kiras rebellious and spiritual personality.

First Second

Jack Vance first published the short story The Moon Moth in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1961, and it has since been turned into a graphic novel with beautiful illustrations by Humayoun Ibrahim. Edwer Thissell is Earths consul on the planet Sirene. The Sirenese take etiquette very seriously and cover their faces with intricate masks to indicate social status. They also sing to communicate. Edwer, a terrible singer and unfamiliar with Sirenese customs, is forced to wear the Moon Mask, which denotes those of lowest status. When a notorious assassin lands on the planet and manages to impersonate one of the Sirenese, its up to Edwer to find and arrest him. Odo would relish trying to solve this murder mystery wrapped up in an alien culture.

Random House Inc.

Pamela Sargent compiled the 13 stories and poems in this anthology in 1975, a time when women science fiction writers were in the minority. The oldest story in the collection That Only a Mother by Judith Merril was first published in 1948. The collection includes famous authors like Ursula K. Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey as well as lesser-known authors like Sonya Dorman and Katherine Anne MacLean. Fans of Janeway will be fascinated by these early women science fiction authors and their impact on the genre.

Dawn is book one of Octavia Butlers Xenogenesis trilogy. After Earth has been consumed in atomic fire, Lilith awakens on an alien ship 250 years later. Aliens called the Oankali have saved what humans they could, and now plan to repopulate Earth with a genetic combination of humans and Oankali. They believe the combination of the two will create a superior being. They expect Lilith to be a liaison between the remaining humans and the Oankali and to help train them to the hardships theyll face on Earth. Though well-meaning, the Oankali are as sinister as the Borg, and there are many parallels to be made between their motivations and the Borgs. Content warning for rape.

Wordsworth Classics

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a Jules Verne classic. First published in 1869, it came to shape science fiction as a genre. When a monster appears in the seas, the United States Navy forms an expedition to destroy it. After months of searching, the crew finally find the monster and attack it. Several of the crew manage to climb atop it and discover that its a giant, futuristic submarine, not a monster. Theyre captured and brought inside the submarine, where Captain Nemo informs them theyll never be allowed to leave. In the episode Thirty Days (VOY, S5, E9), Paris recalls that this was one of his favorite books growing up.

Spectrum Literary Agency

First published in 1948, The Humanoids has become a classic in artificial vs. natural life. Scientist Dr. Warren Mansfield creates the perfect servants for humankind--human-like androids who are programmed to serve and obey, and guard men from harm. He calls them the Humanoids, and theyre sent out into the world ready and willing to keep people from harm, and the best way to do that is to forbid them from doing anything potentially dangerous. As they spread through the galaxy, they slowly become the masters of humanity. This book is an early predecessor to Dahjs storyline in Star Trek: Picard.

Dalkey Archive Press

Igncio de Loyola Brando is an award-winning and bestselling author in Brazil, and And Still the Earth is considered one of his best novels. It takes place in a near future dystopian So Paulo after an environmental collapse. The System keeps people in check by ensuring no one consumes too much or uses too much energy, and it does so by monitoring every individuals movements. Sous used to be a history professor, but now he works as a minor functionary and spends most of his time ruminating about the past. Rios would be drawn to Souss existential plight.

E.M. Forster is best known for the beautiful classic novels A Room with a View and Howards End which have no sci-fi elements whatsoever but he also wrote short stories, and this one was amazingly prescient. In a dystopian future, humanity lives underground where the Machine takes care of all their needs. People live in isolation and communicate through videos and instant messaging. Vashti is content with her life being served by the Machine, but her son Kuno, who lives across the world, is not. Kuno wants to escape the Machine and live above ground. Despite being written more than a century ago, The Machine Stops predicts technologies like the cell phone and the internet. The Machine performs many of the same actions as the Computer from Star Trek, though this story has more sinister tones.

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Margaret Kingsbury (she/her) is a contributing writer at Book Riot, where she raves about the SFF books she loves. She writes about children's books at Baby Librarians, a website she co-founded, and you can find her on Twitter @areaderlymom and on Instagram @babylibrarians

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24 Classic Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books To Read Based On Your Favorite Star Trek Character - Star Trek

Be of good cheer: What is the truth? – Wilmington News Journal, OH

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Sage advice once was to refrain from talking about religion or politics in polite company.

Notwithstanding, this politically correctness has long gone the way of party line phones, VHS tapes, and dinosaurs. Things have changed. This just isnt the same world.

In our current era, newsworthy topics are wrought for impertinent commentary by everyone, regardless of the social etiquette advised (polite company). Since a persons perception of truth in 2020 is considered subjective at best, and with unsubstantiated sentiments cascading like a Niagara Falls of contempt, who are we to believe these days?

It has become fashionable, even expected, that we all should be lambasting somebody about something.

Peacemaking just isnt in vogue; polarization is. Its unpopular in many circles to advocate for cooperation; its an us-versus-them world, and meekness is considered a weakness.

We tend to align ourselves with causes and personalities that are best suited to strong-arm opposing perspectives. The hope is we will appear right, at the expense of whoever else is seen as wrong.

For instance, if you watch Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, youre going to get a radically different rendition of the same stories shared by Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, and Erin Burnett. Both Fox and CNN, not to mention other cable news sources, are laden with innuendo and conspiracy, not unlike the tabloids at the cashier. Current events are sensationalized and spun like a Tasmanian Devil on steroids.

What is the truth?

I frequent NPR (National Public Radio) regularly, a very creative, quality but overtly left-leaning news broadcast. It keeps me well apprised of each days news, but with an editorialized liberal influence disguised subtly beneath the surface.

So, I leave hook, line and sinker in the tackle box when listening to NPR. My core values are often confronted, but over time have become stronger as I reconcile the challenging alternatives I hear on the radio.

Though the content of conservative Talk Radio is 180 degrees different from NPR, it is the same regarding spin. Verbose, pompous commentators (does Rush Limbaugh ring a bell?) who are so convicted (or perhaps should be convicted) in their unswerving rightness (pun intended) that they delight in ostracizing open-minded people from considering the conservative mindset. These DJs are my way or the highway, declaring dont let the door hit you in the posterior if you disagree with them. Offended channel surfing listeners hear the gauntlet thrown down, and exit to vote assuredly against the Republicans. Although thats not a good growth strategy for conservatism, it does sell lots of commercials.

Our nation is resembling a house built without a square, level or tape measure. We no longer have a reliable plumb line.

The Bible, once considered foundational in America, is discounted and scorned as irrelevant and unreliable, even by many in the church. The United States Constitution is ridiculed as an obsolete experiment that has failed and needs radical revision. Our countrys heritage degraded; freedoms disgraced; and posterity disregarded.

I understand the consternation being expressed over the Confederate flag (I get it), but does that justify protesters burning the American one? Our world is out of whack.

For those of us who still contend the resurrected Jesus is real, and that the Bible reveals the reality, we shouldnt be surprised by current conditions. Theyre to be expected.

Jesus forewarned us in the gospel of John, chapter 16, verse 33, saying: These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

This is a truthful declaration we can take to the bank. No doubt about it.

And it begs a corresponding question: In these days of ongoing dissension, how could we be of good cheer?

In a nutshell, to overcome this world we reside in, we have to maintain some separation from it. Well talk more about that later.

Next Friday lets consider which political party best represents the values upheld in the Bible. How would you weigh in about that?

Dave Hinman is Pastoral Elder at Dove Church in Wilmington. Reach him at davefromdove@gmail.com.

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Be of good cheer: What is the truth? - Wilmington News Journal, OH

The Last Temptation of Jerry – The Nation

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Jerry Falwell Jr., former president of Liberty University, at a commencement ceremony there in 2017. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

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Jerry Falwell Jr., recently deposed as president of Liberty University, is a new type of Christian sinner. The figure of a pious hypocrite is as old as religion itself, an inevitable by-product of the fact that any moral system will be upheld by flawed people. But usually godly miscreants try to keep their transgressions secret.Ad Policy

A prime example is Jimmy Swaggart, who was disgraced and defrocked after revelations of hiring sex workers in 1987. Furtive, sweaty, twitchy, and given to wailing, I have sinned, Swaggart acted like an escapee from the fictions of Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Flannery OConnor: a God-haunted and superstitious primate driven by compulsions he could neither understand nor control. As creepy as he is, Swaggart has given every evidence of a complex and tormented inner life.

Falwell Jr., by contrast, is a shallower creature who has not tried to hide his misdeeds. Rather, he has flaunted them. The latest scandal involving Falwell Jr. grew out of a photo he posted on Instagram that shows him with his arms around a woman who was not his wife, both parties with their pants unzipped. Yeah, it was weird, Falwell admitted in a radio interview. Shes pregnant. She couldnt get her pants zipped and I was like trying to like I had on a pair of jeans I havent worn in a long time and couldnt get zipped either. So, I just put my belly out like hers. Shes my wifes assistant, shes a sweetheart. I should have never put it up and embarrassed her. Ive apologized to everybody. I promised my kids I will try to be a good boy from here on out.

This explanation wasnt sufficient, coming as it did on top of a long list of previous scandals, including still unexplained land deals he made with his pool boy and photos in which he appears to be drinking and dancing at a Florida nightclub. These photos were a problem because Liberty University holds its students and staff to strict moral standards. Students can receive demerits if they dance with a partner of the opposite sex and be expelled for drinking. Sex outside of marriage is prohibited for students. MORE FROM Jeet Heer

As Politico reported last year, Falwell Jr. was notorious for flouting these rules, taking an exhibitionists glee in lewd conversations: At Liberty, Falwell is very, very vocal about his sex life, in the words of one Liberty officiala characterization multiple current and former university officials and employees interviewed for this story support. Falwell Jr. reportedly circulated to Liberty University staff photos of his wife dressed as a French maid.

Falwell Jr.s behavior was certainly in bad taste and in violation of not just his own evangelical code but also secular rules about workplace sexual harassment. Its not appropriate for an employer to talk to his staff in explicit detail about his sex life, as Falwell reportedly did. The latest scandal proved a bridge too far for the board of trustees at Liberty University, which placed him on an indefinite leave of absence.

Falwell Jr.s exhibitionism, his compulsive need to publicize his sexual antics even at the cost of his job, helps illuminate his fateful political alliance with Donald Trump. Falwell Jr. was among the earliest major evangelical leaders to embrace Trump and has remained a steadfast supporter. During Trumps highly publicized visit to Liberty University in January of 2016, Falwell Jr. stated, In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment. Two weeks later, Falwell Jr. enthusiastically endorsed Trump for the Republican Partys presidential nomination.Current Issue

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The alliance between Trump and white evangelicals has puzzled many observers. Evangelicals for years have defined themselves as the values voters, people who prized the Bible and sexual moralityand loving your neighbor as yourselfabove all, notes New York Times reporter Elizabeth Dias. Donald Trump was the opposite. He bragged about assaulting women. He got divorced, twice. He built a career off gambling. He cozied up to bigots. He rarely went to church. He refused to ask for forgiveness.

Yet, as Dias observes, this seeming contradiction disappears when we realize that evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly.

This argument echoes a case made in greater detail by reporter Sarah Posner in her compelling new book, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump. Posner places the story of Trump and white evangelicals within the larger history of the backlash against civil rights, feminism, and LGBTQ rights that gathered force in the 1960s. This backlash, Posner demonstrates, fueled both the religious right and Trumpism.

The real driving force of the Christian right, Posner contends, was not religion but grievances over school desegregation, womens rights, LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, and more. Trump became their hero despite being a thrice-married philanderer who talked about dating his daughter, paid off a porn star to keep quiet about an affair, and was terrible at God talk. He became their savior because he spoke the language that tied them and himtogether against political correctness, civil and human rights, and at its core, the entire arduous project of maintaining a pluralistic, secular, liberal democracy.

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One of the best examples of how the religious right emerged out of the backlash to the freedom movements of the 1960s is Jerry Falwell Jr.s illustrious father. Jerry Falwell Sr. often claimed he was politicized by his opposition to abortion. But as Posner documents, the earlier impetus to Falwell Sr.s career was his hostility toward the civil rights movement. In 1964, Falwell Sr. described the Civil Rights Act as a terrible violation of human and private property rights. According to Posner, Falwell Jr. helped distribute literature disparaging Martin Luther King, Jr., by thenFBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who oversaw agency surveillance, including wire-taps, on the civil rights icon. In 1968, Falwell Jr. invited leading segregationist George Wallace to address his church.

If we see the Christian right and Trumpism as products of the same backlash, their convergence becomes easy to understand. Trump is the leader of the secular wing of the backlash and Falwell Jr. is the leader of its religious wing. But they share the same agenda of preserving the privileges of straight white well-to-do men from social movements pushing for greater equality.

As part of Trumps anti-feminism, hes fashioned a public persona of gleeful chauvinism, offering an unapologetic sexism that refuses even to wear the mask of chivalry found in early forms of patriarchy. Trumps sleaziness is very much a part of his political identity. It shows that hes a real man, not one whos cowed by feminist criticism.

Being a louche politician has cost Trump few votes among white evangelicals because many of them secretly admire such behavior. Lewdness is proof of heterosexual virility. Perhaps the final temptation that Jerry Falwell Jr. fell into was to go beyond envying Trumps decadent lifestyle and openly try to imitate it.

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The Last Temptation of Jerry - The Nation

Which Sport is Doing Best on TV Since Return from COVID? – newstalk870.am

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Analysts say it's perhaps for a variety of reasons, but so far the sport that Americans (and others) appear to be watching is the NHL. Of the major American sports (not including the mess that is NASCAR now), hockey appears to be it.

After a spike on the return day of Major League Baseball, the ratings have slipped for Fox and ESPN. According to sportsmediawatch.com, the three ESPN games last week all had lower ratings than theleast-watchedgame they showed in all of 2019.

Fox had it's lowest numbers for a prime time game since September of 2018.

Meanwhile, despite a lift from some marquee games this week such as Lakers-Rockets, overall NBA numbers are 6 million viewers (four percent) lower than where they were pre-COVID (ESPN, TNT, and ABC combined). Aside from BIG matchups, the numbers continue to slip as a whole.

Meanwhile, the NHL has seen a surge in cable viewership, six of the 10 most-watched games of the entire season (2019-2020) have been played since the league restarted August 1st. The Round Robin playoff system appears to be grabbing viewers big time. Overall viewership is up, and ratings are climbing.

And, we've been paying attention to the Sling and other online cable-less sports ads you see on Facebook and other social media. One of them over the weekend proclaimed "basketball is back!" and advertised one of the upcoming NBA Weekend games. These are those 'sponsored' posts that show up in your feed. (watch this league or that league on your phone or other devices!)

We counted the reactions to this NBA weekend game post. Of 3.4K reactions, 1.6K laughed, 1.4 posted the angry face, and it was liked by only 261 people. The comments we read used a variety of "language" to basically show displeasure with the social-political stance being taken by the league.

Severalcommentsput it this way: 'sports are supposed to be an enjoyable distraction from life, something to root for and smile; not a woke lecture by a bunch of spoiled ignorant athletes who know nothing about the average person's life.'

Many analysts concur that all the social justice finger-wagging and 'woke' programming in baseball and basketball is steadily turning viewers away. The political statements have been almost negligible in the NHL, and viewership is responding.

What was once a longed-for return for pro sports, hope from the cloud of COVID, has gone down the rabbit hole of political correctness.

Wonder if the NFL is paying attention? They better, unless they really want to take a hit this season.

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Which Sport is Doing Best on TV Since Return from COVID? - newstalk870.am

NASA to remove offensive names from planets and other heavenly bodies – New York Post

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Political correctness has now expanded to space, where NASA says planets, galaxies and other heavenly bodies will no longer be referred to by offensive nicknames.

In a press release Thursday, the space agency said all planets and heavenly bodies will be referred to only by their scientific names, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Under the new rules, the Eskimo Nebula, discovered in 1787 by William Hershel, will only be referred to as NGC 2392.

The so-called Siamese Twins Galaxy will likewise be known only as NGC 4567 and NGC 4568.

As the scientific community works to identify and address systemic discrimination and inequality in all aspects of the field, it has become clear that certain cosmic nicknames are not only insensitive but can be actively harmful, the agency said in a news release.

NASA is examining its use of unofficial terminology for cosmic objects as part of its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

NASAs associate administrator for diversity and equal opportunity, Stephen T. Shih, agreed, saying, These nicknames and terms may have historical or culture connotations that are objectionable or unwelcoming, and NASA is strongly committed to addressing them.

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NASA to remove offensive names from planets and other heavenly bodies - New York Post

Deep Inside, Rioters Are Angry That They Never Learned Anything But Lies – The Federalist

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I suspect many members of todays street mobs have a secret in common: At some deep level, they know they are awash in ignorance of core knowledge. Claiming to be woke is cover for the ignorance educrats have systematically instilled in them.

For decades, leftist academics have attacked the study of history and real humanities, and now an Illinois legislator has openly called to abolish the study of history. Recent episodes of Bible burning in the streets of Portland indicate the trashing of Americas cultural memory is well past the boiling point.

Our educational institutions have committed intellectual grand theft. They have withheld critical knowledge from students and replaced it with the poison of identity politics and political correctness. This makes it difficult for students to express independent thoughts, or even to think them. Where does that leave the victims who have been forcibly injected with this ignorance?

They cant really articulate what has been stolen from them, but they seem to sense the loss deeply. How else can one explain their primal screams and street theater, in which they both accuse and confess systemic racism? After educrats and media hounded them for years with the talking point that Western culture is just tales of dead white males, how can they even be openly curious about it without the threat of being smeared?

Its no wonder they cant, since the rabbit hole into which theyve been thrown is very deep. Imagine being trained to think only with your emotions. The consequence is unbridled passions and confusion, like that of someone who cant read but pretends to. The resulting impulse undergirds the perverse toppling of a statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, or the burning and vandalizing of a beloved elk statue in Portland while protesting for justice. Could the angst behind such senseless acts amount to the deep frustration of knowing so little about so much?

If you dont understand what it feels like to be in the dark about core knowledge, consider the poignant excerpt below. Its from a 2012 high school newspaper in which a student mourns her ignorance of basic Bible references. The letter illustrates how illiteracy of a huge part of our culture, whether biblical or secular, can cause painful feelings of alienation. While in English class, this student felt disconnected from the culture and from others because of her ignorance.

We were discussing biblical references in passages of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, and how the story of Adam and Eve was reflected into the novel. I thought to myself, Adam and Eve isnt that the passage about someone eating an apple? I had no idea what the story was about, and no idea what the lesson or moral was. And this wasnt the first time something like this had occurred. Genesis? What is that? Moses parting the Red Sea? How did that work? When people bring up these essential topics in religious history, I feel like I am the only one who doesnt know the story.

My lack of religious knowledge, no matter what religion it may be, is also keeping me from being a well-versed person.

Forget for a minute that todays public school classrooms are unlikely to allow such discussions. This student felt alone because of her lack of general cultural knowledge of the Western canon. Probably millions of millennials and Gen Zers feel the same way but cannot articulate what its like to be in that darkness.

I can personally relate to it. I spent a long time educating myself in the humanities after miseducation in my high school and college years left huge gaps in my own cultural knowledge. Its a miserable feeling.

Notre Dame Professor Patrick Deneen offered a deep and compelling reflection on this situation, writing in 2016 that our students ignorance is not a failing of our educational system it is its crowning achievement. He described his students as know nothings while acknowledging they were good test-takers and nice people.

Their brains are largely empty. Ask them some basic questions about the civilization they will be inheriting, and be prepared for averted eyes and somewhat panicked looks. Who fought in the Peloponnesian War? Who was Saul of Tarsus? Why does the Magna Carta matter? What did Lincoln say in his Second Inaugural? What are the Federalist Papers? At best, they possess accidental knowledge, but otherwise are masters of systematic ignorance.

What our educational system aims to produce is cultural amnesia, a wholesale lack of curiosity, history-less free agents, and educational goals composed of content-free processes and unexamined buzz-words like critical thinking, diversity, ways of knowing, social justice, and cultural competence.

On the surface, students seem to make do with what little real knowledge they glean. But mostly they go through the politically correct motions demanded of them by some 90 percent of higher education personnel who are on board with the curriculum of cultural amnesia. When asked a simple question about a basic historical event or classic work, they avert their eyes. They panic.

The process of imparting this systematic ignorance has been generations in the making. One of the many turning points in recent times was the gutting of Stanford Universitys Western Civilization program. Ironically, Stanfords program had been immensely popular among students. Those intent on destroying it used the most potent weapon they could: a smear and fear campaign, by which anyone who might promote the program would feel intimidated into silence from accusations of bigotry or white supremacy for supporting it.

When Jesse Jackson and a cohort of activists marched through the Stanford campus in 1987 chanting, Hey hey! Ho ho! Western Civ has got to go! that was pretty much all it took to create a domino effect in at least 50 other universities. Its odd how easily people give up something they love just because of social pressure from a tiny minority.

The upshot is that our institutions academia, media, government, medicine, and more are now filled with a lot of know-nothings who pretend to know it all. Most dont understand basic biblical allusions or standard terms from William Shakespeare embedded in the culture.

Theyve not a clue what it means to cross the Rubicon. Maybe they think baroque means something doesnt work anymore, or that Trinity only means Neos girlfriend, or that Norway (unlocatable on a map) flies the Confederate flag. Perhaps saddest of all is the inability of the culturally ignorant to appreciate good comedy, especially satire.

Nevertheless, Deneen writes that these students deeply sense a great loss from having the study of their heritage and all of Western civilization stolen from them: I discern their longing and anguish and I know that their innate human desire to know who they are, where they have come from, where they ought to go, and how they ought to live will always reassert itself.

The desire for real cultural knowledge is innate because its tied into the need to connect with our common humanity as well as to know thyself. Identity politics frustrates and mocks those deeply human desires by assigning students into demographic boxes and locking them in. They must spend all their God-given time in those boxes thinking of themselves only as victims or oppressors. Victims must stay where they are. Oppressors must do the hard work of trying to be an ally, an exhausting and total waste of life.

Our instinct is to thrash about when locked up for long in any kind of box, but especially that kind. The raging of many of todays wannabe wokesters likely has much in common with this deep sense of loss. They seem to be trying to make sense of the senseless, thirsting for the real knowledge that comes from open conversations and strong relationships. They dont know how to go about getting it in a world that seems so hostile to curiosity and learning, to civilization and love.

Im sure Deneen is right that the desire for real knowledge will reassert itself. The big question going forward is for those who can understand the pain of losing it. How can we begin to rectify this loss, if only for those who are not too far gone down the rabbit hole?

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Deep Inside, Rioters Are Angry That They Never Learned Anything But Lies - The Federalist

What KC used to loveor hateabout Whitlock – The Platte County Landmark Newspaper

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This is what Kansas Citians used to love (or hate) about Jason Whitlock

Aside from pimping local sports fans in the pages of the Kansas City Star, Whitlock regularly delivered the pro white guy goods to the newspapers mostly non-black readership. Now hes poking holes and obliterating political correctness online, like his column about the mainstream medias current favorite topic, the George Floyd mythology.

It didnt really take that much, but Whitlocks perspective on racial politics carried more cred given that a black dude was doing the honors. And despite the ups-and-downs of his career in the decade since he left KC, its made big sexy a popular Fox News guest for Bill OReilly, Tucker Carlson and the like.

Because almost without fail, Jason loves to debunk phony racism claims.

Usually skillfully, I might add.

Case in point, London Daily Mails recent release of the dramatic body-camera footage of George Floyds arrest.

Unfortunately, the way mainstream news organizations like USA Today and CNN covered the story, they misled readers by casting police in a bad light so as not to contradict the media narrative that Floyd was a innocent victim of police racism.

Yet anyone who bothered to watch the video like Whitlock did can see that the cops were polite and unlike USA Todays report, the officer did not approach Floyds car with his gun drawn. Only after repeated requests for Floyd to raise his hands did the officer briefly take his gun out, holstering it when Floyd finally complied.

The online headline for Whitlocks column pretty much says it all:

Leaked Video Exposes George Floyds Death as a Tragedy & Race Hoax Used to Divide Us

Will anyone locked inside the NBAs groupthink bubble react to the leaked bodycam footage of George Floyds arrest and tragic death? Whitlock begins.

The videos show police verbally and physically struggling to get Floyd to comply. Floyd appears panicked, disoriented, desperate and totally non-compliant. He complains that he cant breathe while standing on two feet. He claims his mother just died and that he cant sit in the back of the police car because hes claustrophobic. He repeatedly begs the officers not to shoot him. He worms the upper part of his body out of the police car and asks to lay on the ground.

As for the cops being racist:

The behavior of the police officers seems appropriate and restrained given Floyds level of resistance and bizarre conduct, Whitlock writes. The footage reasonably explains how and why Floyd wound up on the ground with multiple officers restraining him.

The video does not justify officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck for nearly nine minutes. But it does offer context why Chauvin would be reluctant to believe Floyds I cant breathe cries. Nearly every word out of Floyds mouth was a desperate lie.

And remember, long before Floyd was pinned to the ground, he said four times that he couldnt breath.

Whitlocks overall take on an event that sparked widespread rioting:

.Floyds behavior escalated a routine arrest into a possible abuse of force.

.The George Floyd case is not a race crime. No rational person can watch that footage and conclude the police were motivated by Floyds black race.

.Its going to be virtually impossible to convict former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao of any crime.

.It will be equally difficult to convict Chauvin of murder.

Whitlocks bottom line:

Years from now when the mainstream media finally objectively evaluates this era of sports (and realizes theyve) been played and used by anarchists and communists who are using opportunists to promote an American race war their fear-driven leadership (will have) turned Americas great unifier sports into a racial divider.

The sad reality if American society continues to devolve:

LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and all the other entitled millionaires will be locked in their gated bubbles watching poor peoples lives destroyed on CNN (and) No one will ever question them about the roles they played in stirring the racial outrage Whitlock concludes.

The $64 million question:

How in the world would the Star editorial board have reacted to Jasons pro police, law and order takes if he was still choking them out here in the Cowtown?

My take is hed have the journalistic life expectancy of a gnata high paid gnat.

(For more Hearne, go to kcconfidential.com)

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What KC used to loveor hateabout Whitlock - The Platte County Landmark Newspaper

Cabot Phillips: Cancel culture distorts history to portray US as evil nation that must be transformed – Fox News

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This has been the year of cancel culture, with celebrities, politicians, and anyone whos ever held an opinion that ismildly divergent from the politically correct left coming under attack.

Amidst all the public apologies, disavowals, and firings that this political correctness crusade has wrought, the biggest victim of all has been American history. And now the assault is poised to get worse.

A concerted effort to revise history to fit the modern social justice narrative and insert works of fiction in our education system from kindergarten through higher education is well underway.

JOE CONCHA ON 'CANCEL CULTURE': YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED FOR SAYING THINGS THE 'WOKE MOB' DOESN'T LIKE

The1619 Project, which describes itself as an ongoing initiative of The New York Times Magazine, is the clearest evidence that this indoctrination has become institutionalized in the American education system but certainly not the only evidence.

Despite being labeled so wrong in so many ways by a group of Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, the1619 Projectis set to hit K-12 classrooms this fall. Soon, 6-year-olds will be learning a reframed version of Americas founding, shaped to fit todays standards and train the next generation of social justice warriors.

According to the projects makeover of U.S. history, 1619 not 1776, when American colonists declared independence from Britain is actually our nations birth year. Thats because 1619 was the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in the colonies.

Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years, said an article in the New York Times Magazine published in December 2019. This is sometimes referred to as the countrys original sin, but it is more than that: It is the countrys very origin.

The magazine goes on to state: Out of slavery and the anti-black racism it required grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, its diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as a land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day. The seeds of all that were planted long before our official birth date, in 1776, when the men known as our founders formally declared independence from Britain.

The pace at which our educational system has removed or revised history has been staggering.

In other words, the Founding Fathers were a bunch of evil white supremacists and the most important thing they did was to institute and perpetuate slavery. Obviously, slavery was horrific and wrong. But it shouldnt erase all the accomplishments of Americas founders and the good things about our nation like our Constitution, representative democracy, Bill of Rights guaranteeing our freedoms, economic prosperity and so much more.

The pace at which our educational system has removed or revised history has been staggering. On many college campuses, American history courses have been replaced with mandatory white privilege courses or diversity and inclusion workshops.

The history courses thataretaught often seek to indoctrinate students with the idea that Americas lasting legacy is one of genocide and oppression, not freedom and liberty for all.

History courses have been politicized with the clear objective of convincing the next generation that their nation is not one to be proud of, but a place they should be ashamed of.

This narrative of an evil America lays the foundation for the embrace of far-left ideology that would upend our entire social and economic order with endless protests and other actions even violent ones to transform our evil country into an imagined utopian society.

The repercussions of this massacre of our nations history are real and significant look no further than the images of young Americans tearing down statues and destroying vehicles of oppression like businesses that support capitalism and courthouses that carry out justice.

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People arent going to protect what they dont understand. The reason we see so many young Americans behave this way is that so many of them dont understand our history.

Pride in America only happens when people know what theyre proud of.When apollcame out this year showing patriotism levels among young Americans at a record low, the response from many was shock and dismay. But it shouldnt have been. Why would someone take pride in a country when theyve been taught is evil?

We must not stand idly by while our education system is hijacked, and our children misled and brainwashed to hate our nation instead of loving it.

Last month, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., proposeda bill that would prevent federal funds from being used to teach the 1619 Project in public schools. Bold steps like this must be taken, and Americans must demand a say in whats being taught in our schools.

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Without action, our education system will continue to indoctrinate students with anti-American propaganda, and future generations will think our culture and way of life is nothing worth preserving.

If that happens, we wont need to teach American Exceptionalism in schools, because America will no longer be exceptional.

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Cabot Phillips: Cancel culture distorts history to portray US as evil nation that must be transformed - Fox News

Letter: Confederate flag a symbol of hate | Letters to the Editor – Reading Eagle

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Editor:

Allow Confederate flag and leave statues alone (Reading Eagle, July 21) contains several absurd assertions. It states that to blame the Souths banner for slavery is a perversion of political correctness and contends that the same applies to the removal of Confederate statues. If thats the case, then why has the conservative Mississippi Legislature finally voted to take the stars and bars off of their state flag?

The letter also states that NASCARs decision to ban the Confederate flag is akin to burning books. Thats hogwash. No one is advocating burning books. Confederate symbols belong in libraries and museums so people can study them and, as the letter writer correctly says, so that the negatives are not repeated. However, these symbols of hate should not be honored and displayed in public places.

Those who express displeasure over the public display of Confederate flags and statues are accused of wanting to suppress history. However, those who defend these symbols are trying to rewrite history. News flash: the Southern states lost. The Confederacy was an enemy of the United States and was defeated in war. Those behind it should be remembered, but certainly not honored.

Michael P. Pardo

Lower Alsace Township

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Letter: Confederate flag a symbol of hate | Letters to the Editor - Reading Eagle