https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/moon-trees-stand-as-living-testaments-to-first-voyages-to-moon.html

Flying passively in Roosa’s personal travel kit on Kitty Hawk 50 years ago was a canister of approximately 400-500 loblolly pine, sweet gum, redwood, Douglas fir, and sycamore tree seeds. Upon return, the seeds were germinated and grew into “Moon Trees” found around the U.S. and world.

A joint effort between NASA and the U.S. Forest Service, the seeds were flown as an experiment to determine the effects of deep space on seeds and also to help raise awareness about the Forest Service and the wildland forest firefighters called smokejumpers. Roosa served as a smokejumper in the 1950s – jumping out of airplanes to combat the blazes – before becoming a military aviator and astronaut.

Moon Tree saplings were gifted to schools, universities, parks, and government offices, many as part of the U.S. bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Locations were chosen, in part, to ensure proper climate conditions for the respective tree species.

Some trees were planted beside their Earth-grown counterparts. After decades of growth, no discernable differences can be found between the trees that grew from seeds that traveled to the Moon and those that never left Earth.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/south-bay/nearly-half-of-santa-clara-county-sheriffs-deputies-and-staff-decline-vaccine-report/2460989/

As Santa Clara County works to boost its COVID-19 vaccinations by expanding sites to get a shot, information released during a Public Safety meeting this week shows that of the sheriff’s deputies and staff, 48% declined the vaccine when asked.

“Mind-boggling number,” said Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, who was shocked because it includes a large chunk of deputies working in the jail system.

“I am a little bit speechless,” she said. “We can’t significantly reduce or eliminate outbreaks in the jail if every day we have people coming into the jail who haven’t been vaccinated.”

The sheriff’s office says some declined for medical reasons, or said they had COVID-19 recently and believe they’re protected -- others are hesitant.

Very well researched and interesting article. I’m not a fan of new country at all. Several issues are discussed but one specific to this Wallen guy is different - he’s a voice on the radio. Yea there are videos but he has NOT had much of a chance to tour and connect with his audience. Will they stay with him? To what extent will they fight “cancel culture”?

Good read.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/next-morgan-wallen-country-music-041704792.html

Where do he and his career go from here? And what does it mean for country music, which has to deal with its biggest success story in years subjecting it to a collective black eye — caught between those who think Wallen finally exposed the genre’s racist underbelly once and for all and some conservative fans who think his “cancellation” is nothing but performative wokeness at the expense of a bad-boy hero?

Man who wore horns in US Capitol riot moved to Virginia jail

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns was moved to a jail in Virginia on Thursday after a federal judge ordered authorities to provide him with organic food while he’s in custody.

Jacob Chansley was transferred to the Alexandria Detention Center after his attorney argued that his client had gone nine days without eating because organic food wasn’t served at the jail in Washington. A judge ordered corrections officials to provide the special diet.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said the U.S. Marshals Service told the court that the District of Columbia Department of Corrections had asked for Chansley to be moved because they couldn’t honor the court’s order to feed him organic food.

The judge said jail officials in nearby Alexandria could accommodate the special diet.

https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-michael-pence-virginia-9a28be7295c76947aaf5b223411c1ddd

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1357404723154997253?s=21
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1357389221074530307?s=21

Source: CNN

Full title - Leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold products with high levels of toxic metals, a congressional investigation found

Four leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold baby food that contained high levels of toxic heavy metals, according to internal company documents included in a congressional investigation released Thursday.

"Dangerous levels of toxic metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury exist in baby foods at levels that exceed what experts and governing bodies say are permissible," said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, which conducted the investigation, signed by the Democratic members.

Inside information
Internal testing done by Gerber; Beech-Nut Nutrition Company; Nurture, Inc., which sells Happy Baby products; and Hain Celestial Group, Inc., which sells Earth's Best Organic baby food, showed levels of heavy metals far above limits set for bottled water by the FDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency, the congressional investigators found.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/health/baby-food-heavy-metal-toxins-wellness/index.html

---

Heavy Metal babies

"I write to you today regarding the so-called Disciplinary Committee hearing aimed at revoking my union membership. Who cares!" Mr Trump wrote in the letter. "While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and television shows including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Saturday Night Lives, and of course, one of the most successful shows in television history, The Apprentice—to name just a few!"

"Which brings me to your blatant attempt at free media attention to distract from your dismal record as a union," Mr Trump wrote. "Your organization has done little for its members, and nothing for me—besides collecting dues and promoting dangerous un-American policies and ideas—as evident by your massive unemployment rates and lawsuits from celebrated actors, who even recorded a video asking, ‘Why isn’t the union fighting for me?’"

In a "you can't fire me, I quit" moment, Mr Trump - who the union was going to expel - said "I no longer wish to be associated with your union" and that "You have done nothing for me."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-screen-actors-guild-expel-b1797785.html

$130 for the entire year. Should be a couple thousand.

My wife opened the W-2’s we got in the mail only to find I’d barely paid anything. I switched positions within an organization last February. My withholding for the first 5 weeks was about right.

I contacted HR. They got back with me today. They said that’s correct. I checked off 2-Married filing Jointly and one dependent ($2,000). HR said it had something to do with people getting their EITC during the year rather than at tax time. I have no idea how that affects me but ....here we are. The person I spoke to at HR said she’s been getting a lot of calls on this. I’ll bet she has.

The pandemic nest egg will be diminished a bit but we’ll be okay. I’ve filed a new W-4 for 2021.

Personally I think they need to tamp down ball technology more than anything.


https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/30821872/usga-ra-unveil-equipment-standards-changes-include-different-rules-elite-players

For the first time, golf's governing bodies appear poised to allow for significant rules differences between elite players and other golfers as a way to combat the distance gains the sport has seen with the advancement of technology.

On Tuesday, they announced three proposed changes:

A limit on the maximum driver length from 48 inches to 46 inches. U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau is one of the high-profile players who has experimented with the longest-shafted driver in order to attain more distance off the tee.

Changes to how drivers are tested for distance, which is known as the spring-like effect, and changes to how golf balls are tested by revising the conditions.

The driver-length maximum will have a one-month review period, while the other testing proposals will be reviewed over six months.

"The reason for this is the hatred and fear of one person who is hiding in the bunker. I've offended him so deeply by the fact that I've survived," Navalny charged.
When a prosecutor tried to object, Navalny snapped back: "I don't need your objections."
"He can pretend he is this big politician, the world leader, but now my main offense to him is that he will go down in history as Putin the Poisoner. There was Alexander the Liberator and Yaroslav the Wise, and there will be Vladimir the Poisoner of Underpants,"Navalny added.

I have not, to my knowledge, been poisoned.


Navalny also duped one of the agents into revealing that he was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok applied to his underwear.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/europe/alexey-navalny-russia-court-hearing-intl/index.html