In the early hours of a cold February Sunday morning, a full moon hung low behind NASA’s towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at Kennedy Space Center as the agency began a critical two-day practice countdown for Artemis II.  The rehearsal simulates every step of launch day short of engine ignition, including loading the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant. The “wet dress rehearsal” marks one of the final major tests before NASA attempts its first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years. If the test proceeds smoothly, it could clear the way for a launch attempt as early as February 8, within a narrow window dictated by orbital mechanics and weather. While rocket teams work in Florida, the Artemis II crew is already in quarantine at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen entered the agency’s health stabilization program in late January, a standard precaution to prevent illness from disrupting the mission.  The astronauts will monitor the countdown rehearsal remotely before traveling to Kennedy Space Center if the rocket is cleared for flight. Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. Over roughly 10 days, the Orion capsule, named Integrity by the crew, will carry the astronauts on a free-return trajectory around the Moon, passing about 6,400 miles beyond the lunar far side before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.  The crew has trained together since 2023, logging countless hours in Orion simulators, flying T-38 training jets, and participating in mission control tests at Kennedy Space Center. Wiseman is flying his second space mission, Glover his first, Koch returns to space after setting a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, and Hansen will become the first Canadian to fly on a lunar mission. For the astronauts, the flight represents both a technical and generational milestone. Wiseman has described Artemis as the moment when space exploration moves from memory back into lived experience. “In our lifetime, we’ve looked at the Moon knowing that people had been there,” he said in a NASA interview. “And now in the Artemis generation, kids will walk out and look at the Moon going, we are there. We are there now, and we are going further into our solar system.” The launch timeline has not been without challenges. The recent deep freeze has delayed the fueling demonstration by two days, forcing teams to adapt by adding heaters to the Orion capsule and adjusting rocket purge systems. The 322-foot-tall SLS rolled out to the launch pad two weeks ago and remains there as engineers work through final checks. Mission managers have said the lunar flight must launch by February 11 or wait until the next available window later in the year. The Artemis II crew has framed the mission as something deeper, more connected to human nature. Speaking on NASA’s Curious Universe podcast, Glover described exploration as a defining human impulse. “Pushing ourselves to explore is just core to who we are,” he said. “We want to know what’s out there just beyond the horizon, and so the Artemis program is our opportunity.” Koch echoed that sense of inevitability, framing the program not as a revival but as a continuation. “From the time humans started exploring, this was always in our future and in our fate,” she said. “We were always going to the Moon.” As NASA works toward a sustained human presence on and around the Moon, and eventually Mars, Artemis II marks the moment humanity takes one small step back to the heavens.

“Game of Thrones” actor Peter Dinklage recited an extremely cringeworthy poem dedicated to Renee Good, the anti-ICE activist killed by an ICE agent during an altercation in Minneapolis. The poem, entitled “For Renee Good,” was written by Amanda Gorman, best known for reciting a spoken-word poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021.  “They say she is no more,/ That there her absence roars,/ Blood-blown like a rose./ Iced wheels flinched & froze./ Now, bare riot of candles,/ Dark fury of flowers,/Pure howling of hymns,” Dinklage recited in the clip that’s been circulating online. “If for us she arose,/ Somewhere, in the pitched deep of our grief,/ Crouches our power,/ The howl where we begin,/ Straining upon the edge of the crooked crater/ Of the worst of what we’ve been,” the poem continues. “Change is only possible,/ & all the greater,/ When the labour/ & bitter anger of our neighbors/ Is moved by the love/ & better angels of our nature./ What they call death & void,/ We know is breath & voice; / In the end, gorgeously,/ Endures our enormity.” It concludes: “You could believe departed to be the dawn/ When the blank night has so long stood./ But our bright-fled angels will never be fully gone,/ When they forever are so fiercely Good.” The poem was posted by Gorman last month. She’s the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017 and was also dubbed “the worst poet in America” by The Daily Wire’s own Ben Shapiro. “She’s like if Shel Silverstein were clobbered by a two-by-four and after being run over by a truck,” Shapiro said of her poetry skills. “Trite, stupid, awful trash.” Gorman has recited poetry about liberals, including failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris. She also came under fire for rewriting the words to The Star Spangled Banner in 2022.  Celebrities, in particular, have latched onto Renee Good as being a martyr for their anti-ICE cause. Several A-listers have been spotted wearing “ICE OUT” and “BE GOOD” pins at various Hollywood events and have spoken publicly on the topic.

Column Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Endgame” The only obstacle remaining between Sheridan and Earth is a fleet near Mars… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on February 2, 2026 Credit: Warner Bros. Television Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Warner Bros. Television “Endgame”Written by J. Michael StraczynskiDirected by John CopelandSeason 4, Episode 20Production episode 420Original air date: October 13, 1997 It was the dawn of the third age… The Army of Light fleet—which now includes most of the White Star fleet, a mess of EarthForce ships that have defected, and a bunch of support form the Minbari, the Narn, the Centauri, and various League of Non-Aligned Worlds nations—is in hyperspace, getting ready to jump to Mars. Delenn convinces Cole to leave Ivanova’s bedside and assume his post in command of one of the White Stars and allow Ivanova to be sent back to B5 where she can be better cared for in her final days than she can be aboard a Minbari warship. Cole is reluctant—he insists she’d want to be part of the battle, even passively—but eventually gives in. With the help of a supply officer who is sympathetic to their cause, the Mars Resistance has worked out getting the various altered telepaths onto the EarthForce ships in orbit of Mars, who are waiting for Sheridan’s fleet to show up. Said supply officer is taken aback by smuggling people—she thought it was weapons being smuggled on. Franklin allows as how they are weapons… On the surface of Mars, Garibaldi coordinates attacks on various ground bases, aided by sympathetic EarthForce personnel on the inside. They take over the ground bases after the supply ships with the telepaths have already taken off. Franklin then puts a headset on Alexander. Credit: Warner Bros. Television On the Agamemnon, Sheridan gives an inspirational speech to the fleet before they start their attack. The plan is to neutralize Mars, then head for Earth. The attacks will be carried out by the White Stars, which all have human captains, and the EarthForce defectors. The non-human ships are to hang back and provide support and rescue—and also to defend themselves if necessary. On the Apollo, General Lefcourt explains to Captain Mitchell why he’s been given command of the fleet over Mitchell himself: he knows Sheridan, having trained him. Lefcourt is also old-school, believing in the chain of command, regardless of who’s in command. On Mars, Garibaldi sends exact coordinates of everything on the surface to Cole, who then jumps his White Star inside Mars’ atmosphere and starts attacking targets on Mars. Lefcourt, however, refuses to take the bait, not letting anyone break formation to defend Mars—the general knows that this is a feint. At Sheridan’s signal, Alexander goes out onto the surface of Mars and awakens the telepaths. They awaken and immediately start taking over the ships’ computers. This disables twenty of the thirty ships—including the Apollo—and five more are badly messed up. Of the five remaining, the fleet is able to make short work, with Sheridan ordering his people to minimize the damage done. Sheridan has Delenn and the other non-human ships stay behind to render aid to the now-devastated Earth fleet. The White Stars and EarthForce vessels move on to Earth. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Cole takes the opportunity of the transit time from Mars to Earth to investigate ways to save Ivanova, because he apparently knows that he’s a character in a TV show, which means that deus ex machinae are just right around the corner… He comes across Franklin’s log entries about the Great Hit Point Rearranger that was being used in the clinic in downbelow, and which Franklin and Sheridan used to save Garibaldi after the latter was shot in the back. He then sends Lennier off to Delenn’s ship to distract him while he buggers back to B5. Lennier not being stupid, he figures out what Cole’s up to pretty quickly. Delenn shares this with Sheridan, but there’s no way to go after him without jeopardizing the mission. The fleet arrives at Earth. Sheridan sends out a communiqué saying that they’re there to arrest Clark, disband Nightwatch, and return EarthGov to the people. Even as he delivers those terms, Senator Crosby, joined by a bunch of EarthForce Marines, goes to Clark’s office. However, by the time they arrive, Clark—having written a suicide note—has shot himself in the head. His last act before taking his own life was to turn Earth’s planetary defenses onto the planet itself, causing incalculable damage and loss of life. The fleet does its best to stop the orbital platforms from doing what Clark has programmed them to do—aided by the Apollo, which shows up at the last minute, having monitored the situation. Lefcourt is apparently now okay with helping Sheridan, with Clark (a) dead and (b) having pointed some very large guns at Earth itself. Sheridan’s presence has been requested on Earth. Meanwhile, Franklin is taking a White Star back to B5 in the hopes of stopping Cole. On B5, Cole has hooked himself and Ivanova up to the Great Hit Point Rearranger and declares his love for her. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Get the hell out of our galaxy! Sheridan is remarkably fit and confident and commanding even though he was tortured and drugged for several days. Impressive! Ivanova is God. Ivanova spends the entire episode comatose. Exciting stuff. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi has gone from persona non grata and people wanting him shot on sight to being trusted with running an important war op in just one episode! Impressive! If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Delenn is pretty much pointless in the episode, as she spends it as a glorified background extra. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Alexander is able to work her magic controlling the Shadow-altered telepaths. The Marine at the ground base castigates our heroes for using the telepaths this way, but Franklin and Garibaldi are able to justify it. And it’s fitting that they’re used against Clark’s forces, since they were given to the Shadows by the Clark Administration in the first place. We live for the one, we die for the one. Apparently Cole’s Ranger-osity is powerful enough to convince an entire ship full of Minbari to take him back to B5 in the middle of a war. Impressive! No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Cole’s dying words are declaring his love for Ivanova. It’s almost sweet. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Welcome aboard. J. Patrick McCormack makes the first of two appearances as Lefcourt; he’ll be back in an earlier timeframe in In the Beginning. The great Carolyn Seymour plays Crosby, Julian Stone plays Mitchell, and Ungela Brockman plays the never-named Marine who helps secure the ground station. And we have a mess of recurring regulars: Marjorie Monaghan and David Purdham are back from “Between the Darkness and the Light” as, respectively, Number One and James, Gary McGurk is back from “Voices of Authority” as Clark, and Maggie Egan makes a triumphant return from “Severed Dreams” as Jane the ISN anchor. Monaghan will return in “Objects in Motion” while Egan will return in the very next episode, “Rising Star.” Trivial matters. The Shadow-altered telepaths were first seen trying to take over B5’s computer systems in “Ship of Tears.” Alexander showed that she could activate and, to a degree, control those telepaths in “The Exercise of Vital Powers.” The Great Hit Point Rearranger was first seen in “The Quality of Mercy,” and Sheridan and Franklin used it to heal Garibaldi in “Revelations.” Amusingly, this is the only time Clark appears directly in a scene and not over a viewscreen or in footage. One of the log entries Cole watches is Franklin declaring the death of Cailyn James, the singer he met in “Walkabout,” which is the first on-screen confirmation that she finally succumbed to her illness. Finally, for something really trivial, this is the third thing I’ve rewatched for this site that has the title “Endgame,” the other two being the Avengers movie and the Star Trek: Voyager series finale. I guess my next thing would be to rewatch the Highlander movies? The echoes of all of our conversations. “We know that many in the government have wanted to act but have been intimidated by threats of retaliation against your families, your friends. You are not alone anymore. We call upon you to rise up and do what’s right. We have drawn their forces away from Earth and disabled them. The time to act is now! This is not the voice of treason. These are your sons, your daughters, whose loyalties have never wavered, whose beliefs in this alliance has forced us to take extraordinary means. For justice, for peace, for the future.” Sheridan being all inspirational and stuff. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “Welcome home, John.” You know, I was really looking forward to rewatching this episode, and when I actually sat down and watched it, I found myself overwhelmed by how incredibly unimpressed I was with it. There’s the problem I expected to have with the episode, which is how completely unmoved I was by Clark’s death. The biggest flaw in the entire Earth-goes-fascist storyline is that we saw very little of Clark and what we did see was a nondescript bald white guy. Here’s the thing: while the acts of fascism are carried out by ordinary people, the leaders of fascism usually have someone with significant charisma at the top. While there is very good reason for us to think of Adolf Hitler as a near-caricature of the evil dictator, that makes it easy to forget that he was one of the greatest public speakers of the twentieth century. That’s how he rose to power, his spectacular ability to work a crowd. Gary McGurk is basically nowhere as an actor and it makes Clark nowhere as a character, which takes a lot of the wind out of the sails of the plotline. Most of the time, it isn’t an issue, but when we first see Clark in his office writing his suicide note, I wasn’t even sure who it was. But even if we grant that Clark isn’t nearly the point so much as the results of his efforts, the episode itself just doesn’t work for me. We start with Sheridan, who spent most of the last three episodes being beaten, tortured, and drugged. Yet here he is on the bridge of the Agamemnon, showing absolutely no signs of any of that, proudly leading his fleet into battle. No physical injuries, no psychological injuries, just right back in the forefront. Now, B5 was a forerunner of the current trend toward serialization and stronger inter-episode continuity, something that made it stand out from most of the TV that was aired around it at the time. That means, however, that viewers in 1997 were used to people suffering injuries of all kinds and being all better by the next episode. But B5 was predicated on being better than that—and yet we have this. On top of that, there’s Garibaldi. Just three episodes ago, Ivanova was refusing communications from Garibaldi and ordering him to be shot on sight. Just one episode ago, he almost got a PPG to his head, and only didn’t due to a telepathic magic trick. And yet, here he is at the forefront of ground operations on Mars, and what the hell? Yes, fine, they know that Bester fucked with his head, and that’s why he betrayed Sheridan, and that can, possibly be forgiven, but also, Bester fucked with his head!!!!! There is no way you ever trust this guy with anything important after this because you don’t know what else Bester might have done. We only have Bester’s word for it that he’s done with Garibaldi and that he has no more use for him, and that’s not exactly a trustworthy source. And even if you believe Bester, he also said that he didn’t change the essence of who Garibaldi is, just made some small adjustments, but kept his distrust of authority and general personality intact. Which means you don’t trust this guy with your lunch order, much less running your super-important rebel ground operations. Even if you buy that Sheridan and Franklin and Alexander have forgiven and forgotten, why is the Mars Resistance just going along with everything? Sure, Sheridan promised them independence, but why would they trust Garibaldi? Why would they trust Alexander, given what the Psi Corps has done to them? And then we have the character assassination of Marcus Cole. He’s a dedicated enough Ranger that he’s willing to let Neroon beat the living shit out of him to save Delenn, but not so dedicated that he won’t leave his post in the middle of a critical battle, taking a very powerful ship with him, in search of a deus ex machina to save the woman he loves. Some may find that romantic. I find it ridiculous, and, again, out of character. Cole’s attitude at the top of the episode—when he doesn’t want her sent back to B5 because she should be present for the final battle that she was primarily responsible for getting that far—made much more sense. Ivanova deserved to be there for Earth’s liberation. (More on this particular plotline next week.) And then we have Lefcourt, played by the aggressively dull J. Patrick McCormack. We’re introduced to him when he awkwardly explains why he’s in command of the fleet to Mitchell, a bit of dialogue that manages to be incredibly clumsy exposition and incredibly clumsy foreshadowing, all at the same time. Because he’s self-described “old school” who believes in the chain of command—as opposed to a Clark toady like Captain Hall—we’re set up for him riding to Earth’s rescue at the end. It’s supposed to be a heroic moment, but it just shows up Lefcourt as a borderline sociopath. “I’ll obey these incredibly illegal and morally repugnant orders as long as the president’s alive, but now that he’s dead, I can ignore his orders,” which isn’t really how that works…. The episode does end on a high note. After getting the vapid propaganda from ISN ever since it went back on the air in “Ship of Tears,” seeing Maggie Egan back in the anchor chair for the first time since troops attacked ISN’s studio in “Severed Dreams” is a joyous and wonderful sight. Egan plays it beautifully too, as you get the impression she went straight from her jail cell to the studio to go on the air. More than anything else in the episode, it’s a moment of hope and optimism. Next week: “Rising Star.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Endgame” appeared first on Reactor.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has responded after a federal judge’s ruling claimed the department is “traumatizing children.” Federal Judge Fred Biery for the Western District of Texas, appointed by President Bill Clinton, on Saturday ordered the release of a five-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father from immigration detention. Biery asserted the case of the child and his father “has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.” Reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents taking a 5-year-old into custody in Minneapolis became national news about 10 days ago, when an image of ICE agents with a little boy in a blue hat and a Spiderman backpack went viral. ICE agents sought to arrest the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, when the man fled from agents on foot, “abandoning his child,” DHS said in a statement on Jan. 22. ICE agents, according to the agency, stayed with the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, while his father was apprehended. Federal authorities attempted to reunite the boy with his mother, but the mother refused to take custody of her child, even after officers “assured her that they would NOT take her into custody,” DHS reports. Officers then abided by the father’s wishes for the boy to remain with him in immigration detention custody. The administration says Arias entered the U.S. illegally in December 2024. However, the lawyer for Arias and his son says they entered the country legally as asylum applicants, Reuters reported.  The lawyer claimed that Arias did not abandon his son, and that the mother would not accept custody of Liam out of fear of being apprehended, Reuters reported. “Let me be clear: these families always get the opportunity to stay together,” Noem said Sunday on Fox News. “This child has been with his father, which was the father’s choice.” Noem also denied Biery’s claim that DHS imposes “daily deportation quotas” on immigration agents. Speaking of the father and his son, Noem said DHS “offered them the opportunity to go home, to send them back to their home country, if they would like to. The father chose to stay, and therefore, we’re following the legal process.” .@Sec_Noem: "These families always get the opportunity to stay together… it's shocking to me, the media's lies… about what we do for work in this country to bring people that are dangerous criminals to justice, and then remove them from our country." pic.twitter.com/Rii0f1a3aI— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 1, 2026 Biery ruled that the detention of Arias and his son was unconstitional, in his order responding to Arias’ petition for habeas corpus. “The Court finds that the Constitution of these United States trumps this administration’s detention of petitioner Adrian Conejo Arias and his minor son,” the judge wrote, ordering the man and his son be released and allowed to return to Minneapolis. “Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency,” the judge wrote in his order, adding, “[a]nd the rule of law be damned.” The judge ended the order, writing: “With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike, It is so ORDERED,” before incorrectly dating it, “this 31st day of February, 2026.” Biery did not address the immigration aspect of the case, acknowledging that Arias may still choose to self-deport or may be forced to leave the U.S. “involuntarily.” DHS will pay illegal aliens $2,600 to self-deport through the CBP Home mobile application. Over 2 million illegal immigrants have chosen to self-deport since January 2025, according to Noem. The post DHS Secretary Noem Responds to Ruling Over Detention of 5-Year-Old   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A federal court in Virginia has ruled that the network of 176 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras deployed by Norfolk police does not amount to unconstitutional surveillance. The 51-page opinion by US District Judge Mark Davis concluded that the system’s limited scope does not violate residents’ Fourth Amendment rights, even though it operates without warrants. We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here. Judge Davis wrote that “at least in Norfolk, Virginia, the answer is: not today,” referring to whether the city’s use of the technology had crossed into unconstitutional territory. While acknowledging the potential for future overreach, he stated that the Norfolk program “captures only the public movements of vehicles that happen to pass by locations on a public street in view of an ALPR camera.” The case, brought by the Institute for Justice on behalf of two Norfolk residents, challenged the cameras as a “dragnet” surveillance system. Plaintiffs argued that the constant collection of location data could reveal “the whole of a person’s movements.” But Davis disagreed, finding that the 75 clusters of cameras scattered across 66 square miles were not pervasive enough to constitute “too permeating police surveillance.” The ruling detailed how Norfolk’s cameras function. Davis noted that the Flock system photographs license plates and vehicle characteristics visible to the naked eye and that the data is retained for 21 days. “Defendants’ 176 ALPR cameras are generally located at busy intersections, in commercial areas, and near freeway onramps and offramps,” he wrote, adding that “the 75 Flock camera clusters therefore monitor a very small percentage of Norfolk’s public roadways.” Drawing from precedents such as Carpenter v. United States and Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Department, Davis contrasted the limited snapshots collected by Norfolk’s system with the continuous and highly invasive monitoring condemned in those cases. In Carpenter, he recalled, the Supreme Court found that mobile phone location data provided “an intimate window into a person’s life.” By contrast, Davis wrote: “the limited number of photographs available on a 21-day rolling basis from 75 camera clusters in Norfolk does not track the whole of a person’s movements nor does it provide an intimate window into where citizens drive, park, visit, linger, sleep, or patronize.” He emphasized that, on average, plaintiffs’ vehicles were photographed two to three times per day, with captures “miles and hours apart.” These “data points are infrequent and often widely spaced,” Davis wrote, finding that the system “is not like an ankle monitor attached to that citizen (or even to their car).” Responding to the plaintiffs’ claim that ALPR images could be merged with other investigative materials to reconstruct an individual’s travel history, Davis rejected what he called a “jigsaw theory.” He wrote: “Neither Carpenter nor Beautiful Struggle supports Plaintiff’s argument that the collection and analysis of 2 or 3 (or even several more) scattered ALPR data points, sometimes miles and hours apart, constitutes a ‘search’ simply because this data contributes one or more pieces to a larger investigative jigsaw puzzle.” The court acknowledged that “rapid technological advances, such as the rise of artificial intelligence, make it impossible to predict how police surveillance will evolve,” cautioning that “the Fourth Amendment analysis must remain nimble even as it remains grounded in founding-era traditions.” Still, Davis concluded that Norfolk’s current use did not yet reach the threshold of a constitutional violation. “While ALPR surveillance could become too intrusive and run afoul of constitutional privacy standards at some point,” he wrote, “the answer is: not today.” Lee Schmidt, one of the plaintiffs whose car was recorded 475 times over four months, said after the ruling: “Although I’m of course disappointed by the court’s decision, I remain committed to fighting against this dragnet warrantless surveillance.” The ruling shows that courts remain hesitant to draw firm boundaries around emerging surveillance technologies until their reach becomes overwhelming. Yet as Judge Davis himself warned, the question of “when” automated tracking becomes unconstitutional remains unresolved, and likely inevitable as surveillance networks expand. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Virginia Court Upholds Norfolk Police License Plate Camera Use appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

What Does 'Sanctuary' Really Mean?

Heartbreaking: Savannah Guthrie's Mother Disappears; 'Crime Scene'

The researchers warned of "choking, accidental inhalation, overconsumption, injury, and death.”

When the Sun goes down, the rovers go to sleep – but not always.

Parasitic spider mites anyone?