Iran gets in the fray.
Global Moderators
Private
Forum wide moderators
Posts
-
One-upping the Pope -
Some of our old stuff that Gen Z might actually want -
Fusion. Again.Seems to be promise that never quite comes to fruition...
Fusion power startup Inertia Enterprises said on Tuesday that it has signed three agreements with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to help bring the laser-based fusion reactor pioneered at the Californian lab to market.
The deals could give Inertia a boost over rival startups. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at LLNL is so far the only experiment to prove that controlled fusion reactions could produce more power than they require to ignite. Inertia burst onto the scene in February with a $450 million Series A, making it one of the best capitalized startups in the industry.
Inertia and LLNL are working on a type of fusion called inertial confinement, which generates fusion conditions by compressing a fuel pellet using some external force, unlike other approaches that use powerful magnetic fields to confine plasmas until atoms fuse.
-
Riding the Rails with Geoffrey BaerCalling @big_al ... Another PBS documentary from Chicago's Geoffrey Baer.
Watch here:
https://www.wttw.com/riding-the-rails/watch?v=riding-rails-geoffrey-baer
-
Lucky guy!Raffle winner thrilled to claim a $1 million Picasso with a $117 ticket
https://apnews.com/article/france-picasso-alzheimers-raffle-63f48af536760e116885d48b211015de
-
Another criminal caught in the immigration netAn 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US last year after rekindling a 1960s romance is being detained at an immigration enforcement centre in Louisiana.
The son of Marie-Thérèse, from the city of Nantes, sounded the alarm after his mother was arrested in Anniston, Alabama, earlier in April.
"They handcuffed her hands and feet like she was a dangerous criminal," he told French outlet Ouest-France.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told the BBC that an "illegal alien from France" matching Marie-Thérèse's name had entered the country in June 2025 and overstayed her 90-day visa.
According to her son, however, Marie-Thérèse was awaiting a green card when she was detained.
-
On the farmKey Takeaways
Fertilizer pre-booking rates varied significantly by region, with just 19% of Southern producers reporting fertilizer purchases secured ahead of the season, compared to 30% in the Northeast, 31% in the West and 67% in the Midwest, reflecting differences in planting decision timelines and exposure to recent price increases.
Fertilizer affordability challenges are most acute in the South and Northeast but remain a concern for farmers across all regions. Around 70% of respondents report being unable to afford all the fertilizer they need.
Farm diesel prices have increased 46% since the end of February, raising costs for fieldwork, fertilizer transport and irrigation during both planting and growing seasons.
Nearly six in 10 farmers report worsening finances, reflecting rising fertilizer and fuel costs during spring planting and underscoring the urgent need for immediate economic assistance to keep farms gates open.
Rising input costs tied to the conflict in the Middle East are adding strain to an already challenging farm economy. To better understand how global fertilizer market disruptions are affecting producers during spring planting, the American Farm Bureau Federation conducted a Fertilizer Availability Survey of farmers and ranchers across the country. More than 5,700 farmers responded to the survey, which was conducted April 3 through April 11.
-
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saved at the last minuteThe publisher of a highly regarded nonprofit digital news outlet based in Baltimore announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire the assets of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ending nearly a century of family control of the newspaper and ensuring the future of Western Pennsylvania’s largest news organization.
Toledo, Ohio-based Block Communications Inc. is selling the Post-Gazette assets to the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, publisher of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore Banner. The newsroom and local business leadership will remain in Pittsburgh while other functions, including technology and business operations, will be combined with teams at the Venetoulis Institute.
The sale becomes effective May 4 and the Post-Gazette name will be unchanged. The Post-Gazette, one of the country’s oldest newspapers with roots dating back more than two centuries, was scheduled to cease operations on May 3.
The new owners said they plan to maintain the Post-Gazette’s two print publication days, Thursday and Sunday.
-
Faunascrolling--what's visiting where you are?Hummingbirds, "tiny harbingers of spring"...
None around here quite yet...but soon!
-
Christopher Sotomayor?For the first time, a new scientific study has provided genetic evidence that points to Christopher Columbus having descended from Galician nobility in Spain and specifically from the Sotomayor lineage..