The  Vera C. Rubin Observatory  atop Cerro Pachón in Chile recently experienced first light last night, and released the above photo. But before focusing on that new telescope, the latest summary of what is occurring in the Israel and USA vs Iran War, where controlled orchestration seems to be the mode of operation. Iran did "take revenge" at Trump's attack on its nuclear facilities by lobbing a few missiles into U.S.'s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar . However, Iran first alerted Qatar that this was coming, with a sense that we are not at war with you, but only hate America.  Sort of Trump saying we are not at war with Iran, but only its nuclear facilities.  There were no casualties at the U.S. base. Of course, Qatar informed the U.S., so the ten missiles were all intercepted and destroyed in the air. It seems that Iran had to satisfy it's people, so on TV exaggerated the magnitude of its attack. There are more than 50,000 American troops scattered throughout the Midd...

The science and research fields are alarmed by President Donald Trump's anti-science policies.  The White House would argue that it is pushing for  gold-standard science . What is that? The administration released their  MAHA Report , injecting politics into science. And in a “Gold Standard Science” executive order last week, President Donald Trump outlined a new level of oversight over what counts as quality evidence and what does not, putting “a senior appointee designated by the agency head” in charge of overseeing “alleged violations.” Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a briefing that the goal of the executive order is to “rebuild the American people’s confidence in the national science enterprise … the status quo of our research enterprise has brought diminishing returns, wasted resources and public distrust.” A petition led by the advocacy group Stand Up for Science with more than 5,000 signatories says th...

 First, some latest information about COVID-19: Sweden now recommends a  second booster shot for people who are 80 and over . New York City has a vaccination mandate.  They just  fired 1430 employees  for not complying.  That turned out to be 0.4% of the 400,000 work force. About the Beijing Winter Olympics: Eileen Gu  of San Francisco, but representing China, won a silver medal in freeski slopestyle. Mikaela Schffrin  finished 18th in the women's downhill.  But she competed. Germany  won gold, silver and bronze medals in the two-man bobsled. Looks like 15-year old Russian figure skater  Kamila Valieva  ( right ) will be allowed to continue competing, and seems likely to gain a second gold on Thursday.  Something to do with being a minor and thus a "protected person."  Very troublesome decision, for Russia is already on probation for a variety of doping tests.  A little known heart medication, trimetazidine, is a...