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Who Knew?! Thunderstorms Make “Terrestrial” Gamma Ray Bursts — And Are Thus Earth’s Most Powerful Particle Accelerators!

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It seems both gamma rays, and very rarely, antimatter — are produced in terrestrial lightning storms like those hovering over Southern California this morning.

NASA offers Fermi data that confirms the phenomenon. [This NASA press release is written in a way — with graphics! — to make it both useful, and engaging for middle school students.] Here’s the latest:

…A flash of lightning. A roll of thunder. These are normal stormy sights and sounds. But sometimes, up above the clouds, stranger things happen. Our Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has spotted bursts of gamma rays – some of the highest-energy forms of light in the universe – coming from thunderstorms. Gamma rays are usually found coming from objects with crazy extreme physics like neutron stars and black holes. So why is Fermi seeing them come from thunderstorms?

Scientists suspect that lightning reconfigures the cloud’s electrical field. In some cases, this allows electrons to rush toward the upper part of the storm at nearly the speed of light. That makes thunderstorms the most powerful natural particle accelerators on Earth! When those electrons run into air molecules, they emit a terrestrial gamma-ray flash, which means that thunderstorms are creating some of the highest energy forms of light in the universe. But that’s not all – thunderstorms can also produce antimatter! Yep, you read that correctly! Sometimes, a gamma ray will run into an atom and produce an electron and a positron, which is an electron’s antimatter opposite….

Great middle school geo-science stuff, that!

And — no surprise…. The DC Circuit has told Tangerine he has no absolute immunity (upholding USDC Judge Tanya Chutkan’s solid ruling — in 57 pages of a PDF). Very shortly the Supremes will say… the same. Onward, grinning.

[That’s a legacy graphic at left — of the Earth based Fermi-accelerator, but the above data came from a NASA Fermi spacecraft, in orbit, just to be clear.]

नमस्ते

Merck To Buy Fish Farm Animal Health Biz, For $1.3 Billion In Cash — Formerly A Bayer Unit, Now Elanco Owned.

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Again, Rahway does need to spend some of that pembrolizumab $25 billion a year somewhere, to reduce tax liabilities around the globe, and begin to prepare for 2035 or so, when it comes off patent (taking into account likely extensions). And it has a very decent veterinary, or animal health business already — so adding farmed fish drug lines… makes sense.

But perhaps most of all, this $1.3 billion cash amount is immaterial to the company. [That’s an enviable strategic advantage — being able to hit singles (and feel good about it!), rather than forever swinging for the fences.] And so… this is all good news:

…Merck agreed to buy Elanco Animal Health Inc.’s unit that makes farmed fish health products for $1.3 billion.

The purchase price represents about 7.4 times the estimated revenue of the aqua business, Elanco said Monday in a statement. Elanco shares rose 5.8% in trading before US markets opened, while Merck’s were little changed….

Up Next:

Harvard Names Ex-Merck CEO Kenneth C. Frazier to Its Board….

And, on that last (bolded) blurb — at Bloomberg, given the recent Bill Ackman nonsense: I am thrilled to see Ackman did not win any seats on the Harvard Board, but Mr. Frazier has been elected to that august body. Hey now — “Karma is a wheel, Billy Ackman!“ Heh.

नमस्ते

Interesting: Hinderaker Is Mum On Texas Corporate Welfare of ~$90 Million..

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Tonight John burped about how solar homes (supposedly) don’t pay all the infrastructure costs that regular California electricity consumers must shoulder.

Y A W N.

I disagree with the notion that a solar home hasn’t paid its share in Cali., but that’s just a quibble.

No, I write to laugh that Hinderaker doesn’t make the same complaint, about the far more rickety Texas grid — which flat out pays cash credits to vastly money losing Bitcoin mining companies.

Some pigs… are more equal, eh John?

What a putz.

The Senate “Deal” — Just Like The May ‘23 House Bill — Won’t Become Law.

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Both are full of awful border overreach provisions. But it will be the MAGA GOP Congress-critters who will kill this iteration (and it doesn’t even matter why).

And the House bill will never garner 51 votes in the Senate. So I don’t intend to discuss the provisions of either one here. [Hinderaker’s whining notwithstanding.]

Mr. Biden will be re-elected, and if the stars align, a much fairer bill will result. One Mr. Biden might even sign.

Otherwise… none of this will become law.

नमस्ते

Powerline’s Slide — Into Embittered Irrelevance — Is Nearly Complete.

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The three latest posts there… confirm it:

One — (making light of serious issues, while feeling sorry for oneself)…

Two (angst over Taylor Swift’s popularity at NFL games?!)…

And… Three (Steve is sad that Nikki Haley was on SNL).

These guys… can’t accept help — even when offered magnanimously… to what are obviously… the ultimate losers.

Hilarious.

Out.

In Which Mirengoff Claims That If One Forgets A Violent Assault, Under US Law, One CAnnot Be Held Liable. INSANE.

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Again Paul offers a defense of the indefensible.

He ignores that the US rules of civil and criminal procedure do not favor the making false accusations, or false denials, outside the courtroom. We don’t try cases in the press.

But if Tangerine decides to try his cases in the press… well, so be it.

He must live with serially-increasing damage awards, for libel.

What an idiot old Paulie is here.

There is not even a shred of any legitimate argument — for the idea that I can say “it was long ago… I forget whether I did it…” to escape liability.
[And in any event, he actually forcefully denied raping her — by saying “she wasn’t his type”.]

And… under oath, he identified a photo of one Marla Maples, his first wife… as E. Jean Carroll. [Musta’ been “his type“, no — Paul?!]

Anyhoo — Mirengoff is ignoring the first rule of holes, here.

Out.

GOP / MAGA Gov. Kristi Noem Banned From Oglala Sioux / Pine Ridge Territories — By Indigenous Peoples’ President — Over Her Hateful Border Rhetoric…

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The feckless cluelessness these GOP governors display… is jaw slacking. Many of the people living in South Dakota have been on that land for nearly a thousand years prior to the arrival of the “illegals” — the whyte men and women, from across the ocean.

Yet here in 2024, it is [whyte] Noem trying to prevent the distant brothers and sisters of the Oglala, the rightful owners of all this land, from entering the place upon which Noem and her ancestors are… lawless squatters.

Damnation. I applaud this very well phrased response from “Frank Star Comes Out”.

Here’s the story, in full — and a bit:

…A South Dakota tribe has banned Republican Gov. Kristi Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she spoke this week about wanting to send razor wire and security personnel to Texas to help deter immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and also said cartels are infiltrating the state’s reservations. . . .

“[To preserve] the safety of the Oyate, effective immediately, you are hereby Banished from the homelands of the Oglala Sioux Tribe!” Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out said in a Friday statement addressed to Noem. “Oyate” is a word for people or nation.

Star Comes Out accused Noem of trying to use the border issue to help get former U.S. President Donald Trump re-elected and boost her chances of becoming his running mate….

Of course, the Sioux teach that we belong TO the land, not the other way around. And of course, they open their arms to all who come in peace. They are, in a word, far “better” — as humans, than the small-minded, embittered Noem (or Abbott or DeSantis) will ever be.

[Since Elon Musk has also uttered some deeply ignorant, hateful things about the border… this is cross posted here. Musk, too ought to consider himself banned, here.]

Yes — this nonsense must… end. These rogue “governors” need to accept that their people (in the Dakotas, especially!) will literally starve, without the… rest of us, supporting them (and her). Soon enough, Tangerine’s whole schtick will be in the review mirror.

Onward, grinning just the same.

नमस्ते

[Tangent:] Some Sunday Thoughts, On ’34 Act Bitcoin Miners Being Most Susceptible — As A Group — To Exploit, By Rapacious CEOs And Boards…

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I have been doing some deeper reflecting — and I think (regardless of how one views what Bitcoin has become)… Satoshi flat-out misjudged human nature, in formulating his white paper.

The miners (at least the ones which trade on US stock exchanges, as ’34 Act companies) are run by… sociopaths.

Inexplicably, he did not foresee that probability, despite having watched the “banksters” in the 2008 meltdown (and openly commented upon them in his writings).

So — for @Tatech at SA — big picture?

Miners. Never. Become. Consistently. GAAP Profitable. To wit:

Satoshi designed it all into the system — his white paper posited it… that way.

What Satoshi didn’t count on was… the insatiable greed of public company officers and directors. They are essentially looting the miners, as a group — by taking out ~$360 million a year in compensation. [All while never generating a penny of GAAP operating profit — in seven long years. And more than a few have gone bankrupt, due to the greed of the control groups.]

He knew about “too big to fail” yet did not foresee that these same sociopaths would get control of the miners — as a group.

That is where his model… falls apart. Watch and see. He was very smart — and (I think) benevolent, and meant to improve things.

He just didn’t fully grasp that every year a new batch of narcissists are spit out of the MBA programs nationwide.

And the raptors found the weakest spot in his perimeter fence: the miners.

Out.

नमस्ते

“Squishy Robots” — Another Marvel Of NASA Research, And The Space Age… Spinning Off, Into Home-Grown High-Risk Situ Helpers.

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The commercial version of this tech may be flown overhead, by drone, and dropped in on a burning, or already collapsed, building — or into an unstable mountain’s ice crevasse, to look for suspected survivors. It was originally designed to aid in searching for landing spots on Mars, or exploring inside steep craters on Mars (inaccessible by chopper — or rover). But clearly, they will be useful here on Earth, as well.

They fold essentially flat — for storage, making them easily deliverable to almost any emergency site. Here’s that story — and a bit:

…Dr. Alice Agogino was researching spherical, skeletal robots that might one day be dropped onto Mars or the Moon to collect information and conduct science experiments, when she realized her NASA-funded technology could have terrestrial benefits as well.

Reading a report on the dangers and high death toll of disaster response, Agogino recognized that her robots, fitted with the right sensors, could gather data at the scenes of fires, crashes, explosions, and other disasters to help first responders assess situational dangers like toxic gas leaks and plan their approach.

“We thought, wow, if we can do this on the Moon, we should be able to do it on planet Earth and save some lives,” said Agogino, director of the Berkeley Emergent Space Tensegrities Lab at the University of California at Berkeley.

She went on to cofound Berkeley, California-based Squishy Robotics Inc. The company makes impact-resistant, customizable robots for public safety, military, and industrial uses….

NASA also researched Earth science applications for tensegrity robots, which might be used to monitor, for instance, a glacier that’s about to break off into the ocean.

“That’s the kind of place you just would not want to, or could not, send a person to because it’s very risky,” Fong said. “The whole surface could collapse. With a structure that could survive a drop but still be mobile afterwards, you would have basically a super instrument positioning system….”

It is an… amazing time — in the history of science. How fortunate we all are, to have federal government programs that deliver real, practical and tangible benefits — for all of humanity. Now you know. Onward, into the cool sunshine.

नमस्ते

The Powerliners’ Favorite “Strike Suit” Team… Fails At The Supremes, Tonight.

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Whelp. The Supremes had previously made it plain in the obiter dicta of the UNC and Harvard cases of last summer, that the US military service academies were not bound by the same rules as a regular college might be.

That differing, more widespread egalitarian forces are at work when selecting schooling / programs for future officers in the armed forces. [The reason: officers of the US military should be broadly reflective of the backgrounds of the troops serving under them. Makes sense –forma national security / patriotism point of view.]

So the US S.Ct. just told Scott’s and John’s concocted plaintiff group… to pound sand, No TRO / No Injunction / No stays.

The minute order, just entered, then:

23A696 STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS V. USMA AT WEST POINT, ET AL.

…The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied. The record before this Court is underdeveloped….

Not a great day, for the boys.