Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA
BREAKING: After @GregAbbott_TX surged @TxDPS troopers into Del Rio, it appears that illegal migrants crossings at the river have come to a halt for now. DPS tells me hundreds of their troopers are now there to provide security and a physical deterrent.
Courtesy: TX DPS
@FoxNews //

Greg Abbott
@GregAbbott_TX
The Texas Department of Public Safety is in full force along the border around the Del Rio area.

They have built a barricade with their squad cars and State Troopers.

The National Guard is working with them to secure the border.

⁦@TxDPS⁩ ⁦@TexasGuard //

Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA
I’m now on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande where thousands of migrants crossed illegally into Del Rio today. The migrants left piles of trash, and the area has now been secured with barbed wire by Texas DPS. The flow of migrants has stopped & DPS is here in force. @FoxNews //

Texas DPS
@TxDPS
DPS Troopers and @TexasGuard remain on the scene in Del Rio to monitor the #bordercrisis. Thanks to @GovAbbott’s leadership and support from the #txlege, #OperationLoneStar allows Texas to step up where the federal government has failed to #securetheborder.

Michael Richardson, a special collections librarian at the University of Bristol, found the parchment pieces glued into a 15th-century book in 2019, reports Sarah Durn for Atlas Obscura. Since then, Campbell and colleagues Leah Tether and Benjamin Pohl, both medieval historians at Bristol, have concluded that the pages made their way to England about 80 years after they were written. //

“We know it was in England by that point [because] someone has written ‘my god’ in the margins in English,” Campbell tells Atlas Obscura. “From the handwriting, we’ve dated that to the early 14th century.”

By 1520, the pages had ended up in a scrap pile at a British bookshop, where they were used as binding materials for a French philosophy text. That book found its way to the Bristol public library sometime after the collection’s establishment in 1613. As the scholars explain in a statement, the book’s “likely route to Bristol” was Archbishop of York Tobias Matthew, who co-founded the library and collected many books in Oxford. Matthew left his collection to the library after his death in 1628.

The text probably remained at the library until Richardson discovered the pages in 2019. Now, the scholars have published the translation, as well as their study of the manuscript fragments, in a book titled The Bristol Merlin: Revealing the Secrets of a Medieval Fragment. //

The team found that the account differed from other versions of the story in several key ways. A sexual encounter between Merlin and Viviane, also known as the Lady of the Lake, is “slightly toned-down,” Tether tells the Guardian. //

Merlin’s image has changed dramatically over the centuries. In more modern versions of the King Arthur legends, he is a wise advisor to the king. In the earliest iterations of the story, however, Campbell says he was a “morally dubious” magical seer or even a “creepy little boy [whose] father is a devil.”

When it comes to finding ways to help people deal with life's challenges, it would be strange if thousands of years of religious thought didn’t have something to offer. //

This story is adapted from How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion, by David DeSteno.

Even though I was raised Catholic, for most of my adult life, I didn’t pay religion much heed. Like many scientists, I assumed it was built on opinion, conjecture, or even hope, and therefore irrelevant to my work. That work is running a psychology lab focused on finding ways to improve the human condition, using the tools of science to develop techniques that can help people meet the challenges life throws at them. But in the 20 years since I began this work, I’ve realized that much of what psychologists and neuroscientists are finding about how to change people’s beliefs, feelings, and behaviors—how to support them when they grieve, how to help them be more ethical, how to let them find connection and happiness—echoes ideas and techniques that religions have been using for thousands of years. //

Regularly taking part in religious practices lessens anxiety and depression, increases physical health, and even reduces the risk of early death. These benefits don’t come simply from general social contact. There’s something specific to spiritual practices themselves.The ways these practices leverage mechanisms of our bodies and minds can enhance the joys and reduce the pains of life. Parts of religious mourning rituals incorporate elements science has recently found to reduce grief. Healing rites contain elements that can help our bodies heal themselves simply by strengthening our expectations of a cure. Religions didn’t just find these psychological tweaks and nudges long before scientists arrived on the scene, but often packaged them together in sophisticated ways that the scientific community can learn from.

The surprise my colleagues and I felt when we saw evidence of religion’s benefits was a sign of our hubris, born of a common notion among scientists: All of religion is superstition and, therefore, could have little practical benefit. I’ll admit that we’re unlikely to learn much about the nature of the universe or the biology of disease from religion. But when it comes to finding ways to help people deal with issues surrounding birth and death, morality and meaning, grief and loss, it would be strange if thousands of years of religious thought didn’t have something to offer.

Over the past few years, as I’ve looked back at the results of my studies and those of other researchers, I’ve come to see a nuanced relationship between science and religion. I now view them as two approaches to improving people’s lives that frequently complement each other. It’s not that I’ve suddenly found faith or have a new agenda to defend religion. I firmly believe that the scientific method is a wonder, and offers one of the best ways to test ideas about how the world works. Like any good scientist, I’m simply following the data without prejudice. And it’s humbling.

Rather than scoffing at religion and starting psychological investigations from scratch, we scientists should be studying rituals and spiritual practices to understand their influence, and where appropriate, create new techniques and therapies informed by them.

A consortium of companies including Intel, Motorola, and AMD began studying EUV as the next step in lithography in the 1990s. ASML joined in 1999, and as a leading maker of lithography technology, sought to develop the first EUV machines. Extreme ultraviolet lithography, or EUV for short, allows a much shorter wavelength of light (13.5 nanometers) to be used, compared with deep ultraviolet, the previous lithographic method (193 nanometers).

But it has taken decades to iron out the engineering challenges. Generating EUV light is itself a big problem. ASML’s method involves directing high-power lasers at droplets of tin 50,000 times per second to generate high-intensity light. Lenses absorb EUV frequencies, so the system uses incredibly precise mirrors coated with special materials instead. Inside ASML’s machine, EUV light bounces off several mirrors before passing through the reticle, which moves with nanoscale precision to align the layers on the silicon. //

ASML’s new machine introduces an additional trick to produce smaller features on a chip: a larger numerical aperture, which increases the resolution of imaging by allowing light to travel through the optics at different angles. This requires significantly larger mirrors and new software and hardware to precisely control the components. ASML’s current generation of EUV machines can create chips with a resolution of 13 nanometers. The next generation will use High-NA to craft features 8 nanometers in size. //

Demand for faster chips is hardly likely to go down. Mark Lundstrom, a professor at Purdue who began working in the chip industry in the 1970s, wrote an article for Science magazine in 2003 that predicted Moore’s law would run into physical limits within a decade. “In my career, multiple times we thought ‘OK, this is the end,’” he says. “But there's no danger at all that things will slow down in 10 years. We'll just have to do it differently.”

Lundstrom remembers visiting his first microchip conference in 1975. “There was this fellow named Gordon Moore giving a talk,” he recalls. “He was well known within the technical community, but nobody else knew him.”

“And I remember the talk that he gave,” Lundstrom adds. “He said, ‘We will soon be able to place 10,000 transistors on a chip.’ And he added, 'What could anyone possibly do with 10,000 transistors on a chip?’”

Where do things go from here? They go nowhere. There is no massive “right-wing” threat. There will be no redux of January 6th. Democrats are going to have to compete in 2022 on their own merits, and boy, do their merits suck. The feds can keep poking and prodding, hoping to stoke a reaction that provides fodder, but it seems no one is up for taking the bait. Thus, you end up with today’s laughable scene.

This country has real problems. People gathering to protest is not one of them. And let’s not forget that while the feds were wasting masses of men and resources to stand around at a non-violent rally, the Southern border is quite literally being invaded due to a lack of law enforcement personnel. That’s the idiocy of our government perfectly illustrated.

As we reported earlier, there were more police and media than demonstrators at the Justice for J6 rally in DC today. //

These guys were so obvious that a lot of people had fun mocking them — the coordinated shirts, shorts, watches, and sunglasses. Also, what looked like possible guns in their pockets. //

But it’s hilarious that even the participant allegedly arrested for a gun was actually law enforcement of some sort. So many feds, they’re arresting each other.

Fed-a-palooza.

Rush
@exRAF_Al
This is a seminal moment. The police hold power through illusion, they are only bestowed moral authority. Once it’s gone it’s gone - and it has gone, openly now. The issue now for Australian coppers is where do they go from here? #Australia #Melbourne //

What happens when the government has pushed normally law-abiding people much too far, completely abridging their basic freedoms? This is what happens, and it’s likely just the start. It’s likely to get even crazier there, as people let the government know that they’ve had enough.

Powered by a Jet Engine, the Chrysler Turbine Car Could Run on Perfume or Tequila

With a jet engine adapted for automotive use that could gobble up almost any flammable liquid, the Chrysler Turbine Car was one of the most revolutionary vehicles that ever roamed on American roads.

Free video editing software that works like a champ

DaVinci Resolve 16 for Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems uses innovative smart technology that allows you to make quick edits to your video clips or packages. The downloadable software works great for teams as projects can be accessed by anyone on a team from anywhere.

Almost every afternoon in the Dworzak neighborhood of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Yebu Bare hikes up a steep hillside to fill a 5-gallon bucket with water that spills from a crack in a giant cement cistern. The spindly 12-year-old carefully puts the bucket on her head, then treks down the winding dirt path home.

Her mother, Isate Bare, says their family needs five buckets of this water a day for bathing, washing dishes and cleaning. Isate, Yebu and her siblings take turns hauling it.

In our search for speed, humans have achieved some pretty amazing feats. That’s not to say that there haven’t been some crazy ideas, some that actually ended quite badly for the speed seekers. However, let’s take a look at what happens when you strap a jet engine to a standard road bike and live to tell the tale.

Even taking into account the physical separation of second-factors I mentioned earlier, and the reliance on your smartphone, it’s still a win-win for most people, most of the time. That’s becuase most people don’t have unique, long, complex, random passwords for every account and use a password manager to, well, manage them. That said, if you do, then there’s no real rush to dump your password access route to be honest.

West Africa is a very large region with great plant diversity and a high degree of endemism. However, the impact of Man on the native vegetation of the region is great and plant species are being lost without there being any record of their existence.

Let's put together a photographic record of plants found growing in West Africa. And who knows, you may be the first person to have photographed (or even the first to have seen!) that plant.

Parkia biglobosa, also known as the African locust bean (West African names: néré, dodongba, doruwa, netetou, netto, sumbala or iru) is a perennial deciduous tree of the family Fabaceae, in the genus Parkia.[2] It is found in a wide range of environments in Africa and is primarily grown for its pods that contain both a sweet pulp and valuable seeds. Where the tree is grown, the crushing and fermenting of these seeds constitutes an important economic activity. Various parts of the locust bean tree are used for medicinal and food purposes. As a standing tree, locust bean may have a positive effect on the yield of other nearby crops.

Trump was tough on China; kept them guessing and back on their heels. He was tough, showing strength, so they knew that they couldn’t take chances or they would hear from him. He held them in check.

What Milley did with his alleged comment was interfere in that, saying to them that they would get a heads-up before any attack. Not only was that unconscionable, it now frees their actions to push as far as they can, knowing that they will get a “heads-up” from Milley before anything happens to them. They know that Joe Biden has said that he has full confidence in Milley, so they know they can count on being tipped off by Milley and there’s no one pushing back against this. And this is incredibly bad because it feeds their ambitions for power grabs.

So what do we see now?

We see China out and out threatening to “reunify” with Taiwan.

Lijian Zhao 赵立坚
@zlj517

China government official
Taiwan is part of China. China must and will be reunified. This historical trend cannot be stopped by any force. We warn the Taiwan authorities that any attempt to seek independence and reject unification is doomed to fail.
7:08 AM · Sep 16, 2021 //

The editor of China’s state-run media Global Times says Chinese warships could “show up near Hawaii and Guam one day” and “that day will come soon.”

Hu Xijin 胡锡进
@HuXijin_GT

China state-affiliated media
Hopefully when Chinese warships pass through the Caribbean Sea or show up near Hawaii and Guam one day, the US will uphold the same standard of freedom of navigation. That day will come soon. //

Milley isn’t even supposed to have any operational command, as we previously said, so again he has no right to say anything in this regard. But he’s literally interfering in our potential future actions and plans we might have with his alleged comment, taking away their fear.

Here’s Mark Milley in 2015 saying China is not an enemy. //

In other words, he’s either ignorant or defending China. Now, whether or not he thinks China is an enemy, they obviously view themselves as our enemy. Friends don’t address each other the way they are talking to us and threatening us. It’s incredibly troubling that he’s that deluded and has allegedly inserted himself so improperly into operational command.

Biden not calling him out on this also means Biden is completely fine with his constitutional powers being usurped. If Milley sought to substitute his judgment for that of Trump, what stops him from doing the same thing with Biden? Yet, Biden professes not to care, which shows Biden’s incompetence, yet again.

Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck
AMAZING -- Since the Biden administration has kicked @BillFoxLA and his team out from flying Fox News's drones along the U.S./Mexico border in Del Rio, TX, local law enforcement decided to get him a helicopter to hop in and go check things out to continue reporting.

.@BillFOXLA on what Joe Biden DOESN'T want you to see: Border Patrol sources "tell me that this situation is 'out-of-control.' They need help. They say there aren't even enough porta-potties or food or anything...It looks like a large refugee camp."

.@BillFOXLA: "It is incredible to see this perspective up here. We hear the administration saying the border is closed. There's extremely progress being made. This doesn't not look like a closed border...This is hundreds of people streaming in...Pretty remarkable footage."

Bill Melugin
@BillFOXLA
BREAKING: FAA has cleared @FoxNews to fly our drones to fly in the restricted airspace around the international bridge in Del Rio.

DENVER, Colorado — Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USA announced that seven recipients received grants as a result of its “Chill Challenge,” an initiative to create affordable refrigeration technologies and community ice-makers for off-grid communities in developing nations. These developments will lead to less food waste and improved nutrition for the poor and will also be crucial in delivering vaccines and other healthcare services to disconnected communities. These innovative developers created unique ways to access affordable refrigeration in developing countries.

Nearly 47 years after construction began on the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Northeast Alabama, the Tennessee Valley Authority is giving up its construction permit for America's biggest unfinished nuclear plant and abandoning any plans to complete the twin-reactor facility.

TVA notified the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week that it would not renew its regulatory permit at Bellefonte after a federal court agreed to cancel the proposed sale of the nuclear plant to an investment group that had hoped to complete the two boiling water reactors and operate the nuclear facility.

Former Chattanooga developer Franklin L. Haney, whose Nuclear Development LLC agreed to buy the Bellefonte plant five years ago, was unable to transfer the construction permit from TVA and a federal judge ruled last month that TVA could cancel the sale of Bellefonte to Haney's group.

Giving up the construction permit at Bellefonte signals the end of any new nuclear plant construction at TVA with only seven of the 17 nuclear reactors the utility once planned to build ever completed.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Download the eBook here.

History may be seen as a series of trying and tumultuous events—tragic times of loss and sorrow.

The United States has certainly had its share of such experiences. And each time our people have responded with resolve and resilience.

Nothing reflects that resilience more than our Constitution, signed by 39 of the Framers on Sept. 17, 1787—a day now celebrated nationally as Constitution Day.

It is a remarkable document.

It set forth a series of guiding principles that organized power so that we have a workable government that would not unduly encroach on our liberties but would, instead, preserve freedom and order for generations to come.

To that end, it limited the powers vested in the federal government, divided those powers among several branches, and incorporated a series of checks and balances to limit the power of each branch, and established an independent judiciary that would ensure that those boundaries were observed.

Once the Constitution was drafted, people took the time to study and debate it in town halls, public squares, and ratifying conventions in the 13 states. There was profound civic engagement as they discussed the pros and cons of the document that had been sent to them for their consideration.

That debate, while surely contentious, was also a blessing. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” The clear corollary of this statement, also noted by Jefferson, is that a civilized nation cannot expect to be both “ignorant and free.”

If Jefferson is correct (and we believe he is), then America today is in trouble. A 2017 poll conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center revealed the American people know precious little about even the most essential elements of our government and the Constitution that formed it.

For example, only 37% of Americans can name any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Barely a quarter (26%) can name all three branches of the federal government.

In modern America, more people know more about the Kardashians than they do about those who govern them or would seek to govern them. Imagine going to the polls with only the faintest of ideas about the powers exercised by those we are voting for and the control they have over our lives.

Ignorance and complacency foster a feeling of powerlessness. Over time, this can lead to acquiescence to an expanded role for government—and an undue reliance upon government—at the expense of our freedom and individual liberties.

Widespread ignorance of how the Constitution helped establish “a more perfect Union” designed to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity” is a dangerous development which must be corrected. Samuel Adams once wrote that our nation would be free and prosperous “[i]f virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people.”