Category: Uncategorized

When An Otherwise Long-Silent Pair Of Neutron Stars Collide, Under Just The Right Conditions, A Magnetar May Form: New NU Astronomy Research

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Well… this is highly unexpected — but the poetic metaphor it engenders… almost feels… destined to be: much more explosive energy is given off (like ten times as much), when two bodies long silent and separated, come together — merge.

And at least once… in a great while — the oddest of all stellar species results: a highly magnetic very dense star remains where the two once were. But it is not (yet) a black hole / collapse scenario — at least not in this case. Fascinating.

Here is the latest, from Space.com’s fine reporting:

…[As multiple-source] observations came in, researchers realized there was something strange going on: The flash included far more infrared light than predicted, 10 times more. The scientists behind the new research think that discrepancy may mean the crash produced something unexpected.

“These observations do not fit traditional explanations for short gamma-ray bursts,” Wen-fai Fong, an astronomer at Northwestern University in Illinois and lead author on the new research, said in a statement. “Given what we know about the radio and X-rays from this blast, it just doesn’t match up….”

“We know that magnetars exist because we see them in our galaxy,” Fong said in a second statement. “We think most of them are formed in the explosive deaths of massive stars, leaving these highly magnetized neutron stars behind. However, it is possible that a small fraction form in neutron star mergers. We have never seen evidence of that before, let alone in infrared light, making this discovery special….”

The research is described in a paper announced for publication in The Astrophysical Journal today, and available to read on the preprint server arXiv.org….

Now you know… sometimes, the long-silent ones do surprise — sometimes, the quiet ones are the ones that shine… the brightest. Grin….

नमस्ते

Compared To The Rest Of His Manifold Sins Against Our Troops And Vets — This May Seem Minor (But Completely “On Brand”): Disgusting.

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I simply must note it. My grandad served in that war.

And no sitting president, ever since this ceremony was inaugurated, has ever been… late. The wreath is to be laid at the eleventh minute, of the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month — as it was at 11:11 on this day, in 1918, that “the war to end all wars” was itself ended, by an armistice. Germans and Americans and English and French soldiers all stopped firing at each other, at that very moment.

This year, for the first time since at least 1954, the laying of the wreath was delayed more than 20 minutes… because Trump was… late.

This man is an insufferable… ass. Forget that the entire world knows he is doing no work — and has lost, by nearly five million votes… he cannot even bother to be on time, for those who bled and died for his freedom to be such a… petulant, sniveling, small-minded… loser. That is all.

नमस्ते

Paul Would Have Us Believe That Democrats WOULD NOT Have Wanted To Win The Senate…

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As is true with similarly stupid claims Hinderaker has made, about Wisconsin and Michigan, tonight Paul M. echoes truly numb-skull “theories” — about how what he claims are “anomalies” in the way the Georgia voting came in, down ticket is… (wait for it!) proof of some crazily-complex, but ultimately, deeply inept Democratic controlled and orchestrated… vote fraud, across perhaps 30 counties.

Paul tells us that since more votes went for Biden at the top of the ticket, proportionately [ballots that were filled-in down-ticket, at the top line of the ticket, but not for Trump up top (abstentions there, but did vote Republican at the Senate race level), or that didn’t bother to vote for anyone in the two Senate races, but outright voted Democratic only as to the Presidential race], compared to the total votes for Democratic Senate candidates…

That is… fraud.

What. The. Actual. Hell?!

How can he not comprehend that a good chunk of truly moral Republicans may have voted GOP on the Senate races, but left the Trump line blank, or worse yet — voted Biden as a protest?

How can he not conceive of that?! [Trump got walloped, by over 4.5 million more votes nationwide — or 1.5 million more votes than he lost to HRC by, in the 2016 popular vote count — i.e., the popular vote bears out the result in Georgia. There was massive new turnout to vote blue and some new turnout to vote GOP as well in Georgia.]

All of this is especially clear, if we are to assume that it is Democratic fraud, then… why-oh-why wouldn’t the Democrats “cook” the Senate vote, as well — to gain control of that chamber?!

It makes absolutely no sense. But then again, almost nothing that the reality denial-ists at Powerline espouse… now does.

Actually… it never did.

Cheers.

Index Case: Freedom To Collect News And Observe Protests — In Portland — May See Oral Argument In Ninth Circuit, But Not Before March 2021…

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I suspect the US Attorneys’ office in Portland will be only to happy to dismiss this entire stupid appeal, shortly after Mr. Biden takes office in January. Trump here sought to permit federal troops, while obscuring their ID numbers, to fire indiscriminately on both the press and legal observers (both clearly marked as such with bold reflective lettering vests)… during the Portland uprisings.

To say that these goon squads violated over 60 years of well-settled first amendment jurisprudence (and the rights of the press, and lawyers) is to significantly understate the evil at work under Barr/Trump. No court is going to grant the appeal the government took from its loss at the trial court level, in Portland.

So… as I say, by pushing out a March 2021 potential argument date, the Ninth Circuit is allowing for the system of checks and balances… to save them the time and trouble of hearing argument, and then issuing an opinion repudiating the Trump/Barr gestapo tactics. Here’s that, entered overnigt:

…This case is being considered for an upcoming oral argument calendar in Portland.

Please review the Portland sitting dates for March 2021 and the 2 subsequent sitting months in that location at [web-address]. If you have an unavoidable conflict on any of the dates, please file Form 32 within 3 business days of this notice using the CM/ECF filing type Response to Case Being Considered for Oral Argument. Please follow the form’s instructions carefully.

When setting your argument date, the court will try to work around unavoidable conflicts; the court is not able to accommodate mere scheduling preferences. You will receive notice that your case has been assigned to a calendar approximately 10 weeks before the scheduled oral argument date.

If the parties wish to discuss settlement before an argument date is set, they should jointly request referral to the mediation unit by filing a letter within 3 business days of this notice, using CM/ECF (Type of Document: Correspondence to Court; Subject: request for mediation).[11887324]. [20-35739] (AW) [Entered: 11/09/2020 04:51 PM]….

Expect several more of these “clean up” posts, as the judiciary branch itself serves notice that it will focus on disputes with real merit, on both sides — and not these fevered imaginings of a (now deposed) faux-dictator — of what he wishes the law might be.

Grinning — onward.

नमस्ते

Hinderaker Should Simply Admit It: None Of This Finds New Trump Votes. Full Stop.

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Y A W N.

John has written about six posts claiming widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Curiously, the claim is that only Trump was defrauded, not any Republican House winner, or Republican Senate winner. Only the one guy that Republicans (obviously in large numbers) voted AGAINST: Donald Trump. Whatever, John.

To be fair, at least this latest one claims to be backed by dozens of affidavits, some of which apparently… are NOT signed by convicted sexual predators, beside a dildo factory, at a lawn and garden warehouse.

Charming.

But as John’s post admits… none of them allege — let alone “find” the perhaps 120,000 votes needed to change the outcome in Michigan.

Sit down John. These too will be tossed from the courts.

Bub-bye.

No Need To Listen To Supremes’ Argument This Morning… Obamacare Will Remain The Law. Full Stop.

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We have covered this latest Texas challenge extensively (with its antecedents going back almost a decade now — to 2012). Even with a potentially reactionary conservative added to the court, it remains true that she would have to repudiate the thinking of late Justice Scalia, for whom she clerked, on the court two decades ago. . . in order to find that “Congress really has hidden an elephant, in a mousehole” (as Texas alleges). Here is one of dozens I’ve written on the topic over the last decade.

No — this one is safe. The real question now is what will President-Elect Biden do to shore up the reform of health care delivery. Stay tuned for that, in the coming months here. Here’s a well reasoned quote from NPR’s reporting on it, this morning:

…In the ACA case, Verrilli, representing the House, will tell the justices that “the easy and obvious answer is to sever the rest of the law and let it continue to operate just as Congress intended in 2017.”

“It is Congress’ job to make policy, not the court’s,” and “Congress has repeatedly refused to repeal the law, including in 2017” when it zeroed out the penalty, Verrilli contends.

To do otherwise, he says, would “throw the health sector into chaos.”

In fact, there would be enormous practical consequences were the court to throw out the whole ACA. Health care accounts for about one-fifth of the U.S. economy….

So — for Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett to hold that Obamacare is stricken entirely, they would have to directly repudiate their mentor, Scalia — who regularly said it is the Congess, not the courts that sets policy. And the Congress has spoken — at least five distinct times since 2010, chosing not to repeal — but modify… the law. Full stop, on these insane efforts.

नमस्ते

Pfizer Is Still Two Months Behind Moderna — Moderna Will Shortly File With FDA… But Good News For All, On COVID-19 Vaccines’ Progress

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This is quite encouraging, to be certain.

But I am equally certain that any 1,200 point pop in the Dow is overheated, based on this news. New record highs are not warranted, at least not yet. That said, I do believe we will have an FDA-approved, safe and effective vaccine being distributed by the end of March 2021 — but likely not too much before then. And, at the moment, Moderna’s mRNA candidate has the lead from where I sit. There will be many winners to be sure, as we vaccinate perhaps hundreds and hundreds of millions, globally — but here’s FierceBiotech on it all, and a bit.

…On Monday, pharmaceutical company Pfizer said that its vaccine, in partnership with BioNTech, was effective in preventing COVID-19 infection in more than 90% of people, based on initial data from a large study. The new data indicates that the company is on track to file an emergency use application with US regulators. . . .

The pair’s mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, has shown in its closely watched phase 3 that it was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.

This is a big deal, given that most saw 50% to 70% effectiveness as a strong win; 90% is likely the best case for the vaccine, and Pfizer cautioned that as more data come in, this could change.

The data are based on a two-shot dosing schedule, and the 90% figure comes 28 days after the initial dose….

Still. . . let’s let the real bio-science call the shot here. I should mention specifically that the Pfizer candidate showing nice preliminary results today is not part of the Trumpian “Warp Speed” initiative. Nor is the Moderna mRNA candidate; both follow. . . real science, exclusively and only.

नमस्ते

Lanham Act Corporate Name Case Now Set For Settlement Conference On December 22 — Via Zoom, Before USDC Mag. Judge Michael Hammer

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Bending our narrative arc back toward life sciences law and policy now — an update on the global Merck v. Merck name disputes. [One of dozens of prior posts on this, here — from a year and a half ago.]

We now have a firm date — three days before Christmas — for a full day Zoom settlement conference. The goal is a world-wide agreement. I am hopeful the parties can acheive it, thus (from an order originally published last Thursday, in New Jersey which was effectively buried amid all that election tumult):

…TEXT ORDER

Settlement Conference set for 12/22/2020 at 11:00 a.m. before Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer via Zoom. In addition to and wholly separate from counsel, individual clients with full settlement authority are required to be available via Zoom. The Court will provide the parties with the Zoom information via email.

Each party must submit a confidential settlement memorandum on or before 12/17/2020, limited to five (5) double-spaced pages and only those exhibits that are absolutely necessary for the conference….

I fully expect we will now be able to move back to primarily covering the life sciences here — since it would seem sanity in politics will soon make a full come-back.

Next up after this one will be thoughts on Pfizer’s vaccine news (preliminary data only there), and the fine panel President-Elect Biden will name to tackle COVID-19, on his first day in January — along with a mask mandate. Flawless.

नमस्ते

A Hinderaker “Thoughts” Column, Largely Bereft Of Analytical, Rational… “Thoughts”

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Earlier today (this afternoon), and again tonight, Hinderaker opens a broader post — on the state of the party — by claiming “massive” election fraud by Democrats. But. He. Explicitly. Admits… he cannot provide a shred of evidence to support that preposterous claim, here nearly four days on.

That’s just sad.

It is also… deeply corrosive to free and fair elections, and peaceful transfers of power.

His (and others’) rhetoric… will be now be prominently featured in the campaigns to unseat both Georgia Sens. Loefler and Perdue, by runoffs — inside the newly blue landscape there, at the national political level –and take control of… essentially everything, then in Biden/Harris hands, after January 2021. Is it a certainty? Nope.

But even John now admits… it is a distinct possibility. [He also hints that we may see an inaugurated President Harris, by 2022 — but doesn’t offer a theory about that. He would be well-advised not to, as wishing any premature infirmity on a sitting President is… decidedly bad form.]

Delicious. Out — time to tune in to the Biden speech.