Holy hell, what a wild offseason it's been for the Cowboys

The last several years have shown that there is a lot more to understand about Venus, both present and past. As worlds go, Venus is hellish. A surface temperature high enough to melt lead and a surface pressure like being a kilometer underwater don’t make it homely, plus the clouds that cover the whole planet are rich in a variety of acids – and yet the picture is more complicated. Venus might once have had the same amount of water as Earth.Evidence of active volcanos is mounting, and intriguing molecules such as phosphine and potentially ammonia have been spotted. Now, researchers at Tohoku University have probed the water distribution of the Venusian atmosphere, revealing more peculiarities."Venus is often called Earth's twin due to its similar size," study co-author Hiroki Karyu, a researcher at Tohoku University, said in a statement. "Despite the similarities between the two planets, it has evolved differently. Unlike Earth, Venus has extreme surface conditions."The planet and its clouds are dry now, but there is still water floating about. The researchers used data from the Solar Occultation in the Infrared (SOIR) instrument, part of ESA’s Venus Express, to measure the abundance of two different types of water molecules: regular and semiheavy.Regular water is just your standard H2O. We love it as it is crucial to the survival of all life on Earth. You might have heard of semiheavy water in the context of nuclear power plants. This is water where one of the two hydrogen atoms has been swapped for an atom of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope. Regular hydrogen is made of an electron orbiting a proton, while deuterium has an electron orbiting a proton and a neutron.The ratio between the two types of water is expected to be the same between Venus and Earth, but there is 120 times more deuterium in the Venusian atmosphere than in Earth’s water. The enrichment on Venus is caused by sunlight. It breaks all water molecules, but since hydrogen is lighter than deuterium, the regular version is lost to space more readily than the heavier version.This is not all: The researchers found that there is more water, both versions, higher in the atmosphere. That’s between 70 and 110 kilometers (43.5 and 68 miles), much higher than the clouds. The ratio between the two versions increases dramatically. At the highest point, there’s 1,500 times more semiheavy water than regular.The dramatic distribution is believed to be caused by a water and sulfuric acid cycle in the atmosphere. Hydrated sulfuric acid forms just above the clouds and it floats up where it releases more semiheavy water. The vapor tends to float back down, where it condenses again starting the cycle anew. The team thinks it's very important to include the altitude-dependent changes in models.We will find out more about Venus soon. The Rocket Lab Probe, part of the Morning Star Missions, is expected to launch in January 2025 and be the first private mission to another planet. It will enter Venus's atmosphere delivering insights from location. Then there is NASA's DAVINCI+, one of the two NASA missions to go to Venus in the next decade. There will also be EnVision, the European Space Agency mission, set to understand the relationship between the peculiar atmosphere and geological activity of the planet.The paper is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The national prestige press proclaim the dangers of “misinformation” in this election and how our democracy is too important for voters to be misinformed, or “mis-influenced.” But you can sense that what they mean is Republican arguments are inherently false, and must be rebutted. This is the task of “journalism.” On the first night of the Democrat convention, the PBS News Hour brought on their Monday night pundits, election prognosticator Amy Walter and NPR White House correspondent Tamara Keith. When the voters are misinformed in favor of the Democrats, that is an opportunity, not democracy in peril. Walter cited a new Washington Post poll that found “part of the reason Harris is doing as well as she is that she's not seen as part of the Biden legacy. In other words, she's not as closely tied to decisions that the Biden administration made.” She said “one of the most interesting data points I have seen” was The Post asking "How much influence do you think that Kamala Harris has had within the Biden administration on economic policy and immigration?" Now why is The Post asking a question with the essence of “is the sky blue?” Even if she didn’t have “influence,” she can absolutely be connected to it. Walter said only about a third of voters recognized she had influence on those issues: “So, on the one hand, she wants Biden to say nice things about her, of course. On the other hand, she's going to want a little, like, maybe we can have a little distance here. I like you, but I have got to go my own way.” PBS and their pundits, including their “fact-checking” partners at PolitiFact, are interested in Harris creating “distance” from Biden, “distance” that is blatantly dishonest. News Hour anchor Amna Nawaz played along: “But does she need to break more from especially problematic issues, problematic policies that have created issues with voters from the Biden administration?” Tamara Keith declared Harris is “creating a tonal distance, but not actually a policy distance.” She sounds different on Gaza, and on inflation, “in a way that is somehow more empathetic.” She’s pursuing “tonal separation from Biden.” PBS and the rest of the pro-Democrat press want to preserve her political viability, as Bill Clinton once said. They want to help her say the right things and strike the right chords with the less informed voters, and the facts can be dismissed as malleable things.   In much the same way, a Media Research Center poll of 2020 Biden-Harris voters – both Democrats and independents – from August 2 to 5 found they knew very little about radical views Harris expressed during her shambolic 2020 presidential campaign. For example, 86 percent didn’t know Harris wouldn’t say “no” to granting voting rights to imprisoned rapists or terrorists (CNN mentioned the Boston Marathon bombers). Or 78 percent didn’t know she promoted a fundraising link to bail out rioters in Minneapolis in 2020, and 73 percent had no concept that she endorsed the radical “Green New Deal.” On immigration, 74 percent were unaware she wanted to decriminalize illegal immigration and 77 percent didn’t know she supported abolishing ICE (Immigrations and Custom Enforcement). Right now, the Harris campaign has signaled to their reporter friends that she no longer supports much of her 2020 agenda. She’s slippery, and journalists appear to think it’s fine to let her slink out of that stink. Reporters are more interested in beating Trump with misinformation than dwelling on inconvenient correct information. 

A Michigan resident recently received a disturbing "cease and desist" letter from the office of Attorney General Dana Nessel, a far-left radical known for targeting Christians with lawfare. Based on the contents of the letter, it appears that Nessel has expanded her lawfare into encouraging Michiganders to report on any family member, friend, or neighbor who happens to discuss elections in a way Nessel doesn't like.Blaze News spoke with the recipient of the letter — 57-year-old Kerry Lynn Elieff of Ross Township — on Thursday to better understand the context of the letter and how she plans to respond to it.Blaze News also reached out to Nessel's office for comment on the letter but did not receive a response.'Do your part!' Michigan Dems want help unearthing election disinfoFor weeks now, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, another leftist Democrat, has been sounding the alarm about so-called "election misinformation." Benson recently claimed that misleading statements about elections "create mistrust in our elections process and are damaging to a healthy democracy."'Help us fight misinformation during the 2024 election season with this new reporting tool.'To guard against unwittingly sharing election misinformation, Benson advised each Michigander to become "a critical consumer of media" and to be wary of possible deep-fake videos and audio clips generated by AI. She also directed residents to check their facts at Snopes.com and PolitiFact, which Benson describes as purveyors of "nonpartisan" information, even as bias-checker website AllSides rates both of them as "left-leaning."Benson even invited Michiganders to "report" any and all examples of alleged election misinformation to the state. "If you see misleading or inaccurate information regarding voting or elections in Michigan, please report it — and include an image if possible — to Misinformation@Michigan.gov," her statement said."Do your part!"AG Nessel is likewise gravely concerned about Americans freely discussing elections on social media in accordance with their First Amendment rights. At a speech before the National Press Foundation last month, Nessel lamented that too few employees at social media companies are now "coordinating with government agencies in terms of removing false [election] information" compared with previous years."We've had some some success in the 2020 election cycle getting false information taken down from social media, but unfortunately, a lot has changed since that time," she said.Nessel even took a swipe at X and its owner, Elon Musk, who recently endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2024, for refusing to do the government's bidding. "There's a pretty major social platform that was purchased since [2020] by a particular person who himself likes to share misinformation and disinformation," she claimed."And that's really concerning."Nessel and Benson even apparently convinced one of the state's most prominent newspapers, the now perhaps inappropriately named Detroit Free Press, to join with them in the hunt for anyone engaged in election wrong think. "Help us fight misinformation during the 2024 election season with this new reporting tool," read an August 5 headline from Detroit Free Press audience engagement intern Diamy Wang, who prefers the pronouns "she/they.""This could be a social media post you see floating around that seems off, or an article with information you can't verify," Wang added.The link in the article directs readers to a database run by the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.Nessel warns Elieff to 'cease and desist'For some time now, Kerry Lynn Elieff has been actively involved in politics in and around Ross Township, Michigan, about 15 miles east of Kalamazoo. She has been a precinct delegate for the past two years and even ran for Ross Township supervisor this year and in 2022 as a Republican, bids that were both ultimately unsuccessful.Even with her political involvement, Elieff was still surprised late last month when she received in the mail a letter with Nessel's name emblazoned across the top. She was even more surprised when she read the contents of the letter.'It was kind of like they're threatening to put me in jail.'"This CEASE and DESIST notice is to inform you that you are in violation of Michigan election law. It has come to the attention of our office that you have spread misleading or false election information regarding polling locations in Ross Township," it said."You are hereby ordered to CEASE AND DESIST the use of online platforms to continue spreading false or misleading information regarding Ross Township polling locations," it continued."Failure to comply with this notice may result in criminal prosecution."It was dated July 24, 2024, and signed by Robbin N. Liddell, chief of the Criminal Trials Division in the State of Michigan Department of Attorney General. Screenshot shared with Blaze News. Used with permission.Elieff told Blaze News that she had recently been in a serious car crash and was still struggling with the aftereffects of a concussion when the letter arrived, so she had to reread the letter several times just to be sure she really understood it."They never stated anything specifically that I said that was in violation. There was no specifics," she said.And indeed, the letter pointed to a Michigan statute, MCL 168.932(a), insisting that the statute "prohibits and criminalizes" some of Elieff's "conduct" but never actually identified what that conduct was.Moreover, the statute does not seem to relate to sharing "misleading or false election information" at all. Instead, it forbids doing or encouraging someone else to do any of the following: vote under a false name or the name of a different person, vote in the wrong precinct, or vote twice in the same election. Screenshot of Michigan government website"That law that they state that I violated has absolutely nothing to do with what I stated or what I did," Elieff told Blaze News.Without a specific accusation, Elieff has been left to speculate about her alleged offense. She recalled that in June, she made a few posts on Facebook and Nextdoor, informing friends and neighbors that polling stations in Ross Township had recently changed and expressing concern that those sudden changes might affect voter turnout."I'm not saying that the intent was election interference, but the result could be," Elieff told Blaze News she said on some social media videos that have since been deleted."People are going to go to the place where they voted for decades," Elieff continued, adding that if they wind up at the wrong spot, "they're going to turn around and go home." Whether voter turnout was impacted by the polling changes is unclear, but there is no dispute that polling stations for both Ross Township precincts were recently changed. Clerk Mary Stage confirmed the changes in an undated statement posted to the township website."In January 2024 a motion was proposed to the Ross Township Board to move precinct 2 to a new location for the August, 2024 election. This motion was unanimously approved. In April 2024 a motion was proposed to the Ross Township Board to move precinct 1 for the August 2024 election," Stage wrote.These changes were made "in accordance with Michigan law," she added.Elieff did ultimately remove her social media posts and videos about the changes in polling locations in Ross Township, intimidated by the warning from Nessel's office about possible "criminal prosecution." Plus, Nessel has previously called providing "a false time or place of voting" "the worst form of misinformation.""It was kind of like they're threatening to put me in jail," Elieff told Blaze News."This was a beatdown."'A right to be wrong': Infringement on free speechAs Elieff's posts are no longer publicly available, it is difficult to ascertain independently whether Elieff shared false polling information in any of them. But according to traditional understandings of the U.S. Constitution, the veracity of Elieff's social media statements should not matter.Unfortunately, Nessel has some legal precedent to buttress those efforts.The First Amendment states very clearly: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (emphasis added).And while Nessel and Benson are state executives, not members of Congress, they have given Michiganders the impression that they can capriciously "abridge" residents' speech regarding elections. Nessel's office even recently boasted that it would seek to "eliminate misinformation from social media platforms" as part of larger efforts to shore up "election integrity" in the state.Unfortunately, Nessel has some legal precedent to buttress those efforts. In March 2023, Douglass Mackey aka Ricky Vaughn was convicted of a federal charge related to the Conspiracy Against Rights Act, also referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act. According to the DOJ, Mackey illegally interfered with people's right to vote in the 2016 presidential election by posting allegedly "deceptive" images on social media that encouraged Hillary Clinton supporters to vote for her via text or on social media, which were then, as now, "legally invalid" means of casting a ballot. Mackey was later sentenced to seven months in prison, though he has yet to serve that sentence while the appeals process continues.Before his conviction though, Mackey attempted to have the charge against him dismissed on First Amendment grounds. However, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis — nominated by Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill — denied Mackey's motion, arguing that prosecutors' unusual application of the KKK Act against Mackey did not "violate" his First Amendment rights "because although the case involves false utterances, it is at its core, about conspiracy and injury, not speech."Like Mackey, Elieff believes that she has the right to speak freely on social media, even about elections and even if what she says turns out to be false."It was absolutely against my First Amendment rights," Elieff said about the letter she received from Nessel's office. "I have a right to be wrong."'It's a shame': Elieff plans her next movesBlaze News also spoke with Republican state Sen. Jim Runestad, who represents a district on the other side of the state from Elieff but who nevertheless expressed concern about the "cease and desist" letter she received, describing it as "outrageous." He asked Blaze News to furnish him with a copy of the letter and promised to look into it.In his conversation with Blaze News, Runestad also called out Nessel and Secretary of State Benson for masquerading as defenders of election integrity when they so regularly restrict people's constitutional rights.'That's what this is about — control power, always with the Democrats, control power. Nothing to do with telling the truth.'"The idea that these people ... [are] the arbiter of truth and justice and the American way when it comes to elections — what a joke," he said."I wouldn't trust [Benson] as far as I could throw her in terms of accurately telling me anything about what's going to happen in the elections," Runestad added. "And then she's going to be saying, 'We're going to figure out what the truth is and what the falsehoods are'?"Runestad insisted that Democrats in Michigan aren't interested in protecting the truth or the state's voters. Instead, he said, they want "control and power.""That's what this is about — control power, always with the Democrats, control power. Nothing to do with telling the truth," he told Blaze News."They're more than happy to spew lies in every direction," Runestad continued. "They want people falling in line and being fearful of them."Blaze News reached out to Nessel and Benson for comment but did not receive a response.In addition to speaking with the media about the "cease and desist" letter, Elieff told Blaze News that she is keeping all of her "options" — including a possible lawsuit — on the table."I'm even looking at the township because of what they've done and then come after me," she said. "I really believe it was a 'cover your fanny' moment."Elieff reiterated to Blaze News that any action she may take in response to the letter would be on behalf of other Michiganders cowed into silence by Nessel and Benson's heavy-handedness."I don't want it to happen to anybody else, and it better not happen to anybody else," she said."It's a shame that we've come to this place in Michigan."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The iPhone 16 will deliver a big design change to the Pro models. They're going to feature larger displays in slightly larger bodies. Apple wants to give the smaller Pro the same telephoto zoom camera as the Pro Max. Therefore, the iPhone 16 Pro has to feature a slightly larger body to accommodate the tetraprism camera without impacting the battery size. With the iPhone 16 Pro growing in size, the Pro Max has to get the same treatment. Each device will feature displays that are 0.2 inches larger than before. All the iPhone 16 leaks that we saw recently showed that the new Pros will be that much taller and wider than their predecessors. The key design improvement that allows Apple to increase the screen size of the Pro is the new bezel tech. We now have a leak that shows us how incredibly thin the iPhone 16 Pro Max bezels are, and I have to say that we've probably reached peak smartphone bezel design. We can't possibly go smaller, can we? Continue reading... The post This iPhone 16 Pro Max leak tells us we’ve reached peak bezel appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $65 smart TV, $18.50 Apple AirTags, $30 electric toothbrush, $424 Lenovo laptop, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2024: Get $525+ free Today’s deals: Rare Nintendo Switch discount, $75 WiFi 6 router, $139 AirPods 3, $260 Vitamix blender, more

George Santos' willingness to spend a minimum two years in prison was a critical part of his agreement to plead guilty to fraud and identity theft, the federal prosecutor who charged the scandal-plagued former U.S. congressman said on Tuesday. Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for...

China is seriously concerned about a report that said the United Stated approved a nuclear strategic plan to focus on China's rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal, the Chinese foreign ministry said Wednesday.

Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region means there will be no talks between Moscow and Kyiv until Ukraine is completely defeated on the battlefield, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's Security Council, said Wednesday.

Astronomers have pinned down a faraway black hole's snack schedule after watching it devour a star across years.

For the first time ever, a single gold bar is worth $1 million, thanks to a surge in prices. Gold bars weighing 400 troy ounces hit the million-dollar mark after the price of the precious metal climbed…