'Broad support in Texas'

‘I'm looking forward to building a life‚ starting over’

'Uh right? Red‚ blue‚ orange‚ and yellow. Yellow? And green. Is that right?'

'My email may have offended'

'State of the art'

Myers called the tax 'a needlessly expensive way to cut emissions'

China’s shipbuilding capacity dwarfs America’s. According to the Pentagon‚ the Chinese navy will have constructed 440 warships by 2040. Meanwhile‚ the U.S. Navy is unlikely to meet its goal of 355 ships as a result of the severe limitations of current shipyards. Today’s shipyards also are incapable of effectively maintaining the Navy’s current fleet. Existing proposals fall short of reversing the industry’s decline‚ which will require increased financial commitment in the defense budget. Given its long history in the industry and skilled workforce‚ however‚ the Gulf Coast has great potential for expanded shipbuilding and ship maintenance. Within the past few months‚ a leaked Navy briefing sounded the alarm on the increasingly vast gap between Chinese and American shipbuilding. China’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times greater than American shipbuilding‚ at 23.2 million tons compared with 100‚000 tons‚ according to the briefing. The briefing included projected sizes for both U.S. and Chinese “battle forces”—that is‚ the total number of “combatant ships‚ submarines‚ mine warfare ships‚ major amphibious ships‚ [and] large combat support auxiliary ships.” By 2035‚ China is projected to field 475 warships while the U.S. will lag with a projected 305 to 317 warships (only a dozen or so ships more than the Navy’s current fleet). This yawning chasm between our aspirations and our capabilities is a gap that must be addressed to ensure that the Navy is adequately prepared to meet the rising threat of China. Our shipyards aren’t just insufficient for building new ships‚ they’re also unable to conduct maintenance on time‚ with ships sitting idle for years. From 2015 to 2019‚ for example‚ only five out of 33 submarines got maintenance conducted on time‚ and as a whole the submarine fleet faced 6‚296 days of maintenance delays. The Navy needs a new public shipyard. Its strategic plan to construct aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines relies on expanding public shipyards. Both public and private shipyards are in use by the Navy‚ and both are necessary. Public shipyards are critical‚ for example‚ because they can conduct maintenance on nuclear-powered ships such as aircraft carriers and submarines. But private shipyards also are needed to meet the needs of the Navy. One promising location for a public shipyard is the Gulf Coast‚ the region along the Gulf of Mexico and an area with immense potential to serve as a hub for expanded shipbuilding. The benefits of shipyards include job creation‚ economic development‚ skills development‚ and infrastructure investment. The lack of will lies in Washington‚ not on the Gulf Coast. The region—which includes parts of Florida‚ Alabama‚ Mississippi‚ Louisiana‚ and Texas—has a rich history of naval shipbuilding dating back to World War II in cities such as Houston‚ New Orleans‚ Pascagoula‚ Mississippi‚ and Mobile‚ Alabama. This win-win scenario would provide the Gulf Coast with thousands of jobs while dramatically improving the Navy’s capability to build ships to defend the interests of the American people. As Congress considers expanding America’s shipbuilding and maintenance capacity‚ it should keep the Gulf Coast in mind. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Navy Needs Shipyards to Protect America‚ and Gulf Coast Provides Options appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Just in time for Christmas‚ new data finds good news on education: Average graduation rates nationwide are up two percentage points. Before celebrating‚ though‚ research reminds us that students still are posting low scores in national and international comparisons‚ and a troubling share of college students need remedial work. Graduation rates may not represent what they once did‚ so what happens after students finish high school matters at least as much as what happens in school. When state legislatures go back into session in the new year‚ lawmakers should listen to social science researchers’ idea for quality course content that points to success after graduation and is backed by strong evidence. Educators and policymakers should be ready to listen. These researchers study an oft-overlooked topic: family formation. Some have charted a course with their findings that could lead K-12 educators to lesson plans designed to promote student success in school and in life. Researchers from the Brookings Institution‚ the American Enterprise Institute‚ the University of Virginia‚ and elsewhere consistently have found that married couples who have children have “higher family incomes and lower poverty rates” than unmarried couples who have children together. Students raised in two-parent‚ married families also do better in school and are twice as likely to graduate from college than peers who don’t live with married parents. In fact‚ the outcomes for individuals who grow up in intact‚ married homes are consistently positive across key indicators‚ including incarceration (lower)‚ poverty rates (lower)‚ and education (higher). All of this evidence supports what is known as the “success sequence‚” a set of decisions and behaviors that lead young people to better life outcomes into early adulthood. If a student obtains a high school diploma‚ works after graduation or pursues a college degree‚ and gets married before having children‚ he or she is less likely to live in poverty as an adult. And the numbers aren’t even close. A report on millennials (those born in the early 1980s to the mid-1990s) finds that 97% of those who followed this sequence “did not live in poverty when they reached adulthood.” The strong findings are nearly identical across racial lines‚ and some 80% of black and Hispanic adults who followed the success sequence “reached the middle class or higher by their mid-30s.” The Heritage Foundation has designed a blueprint that school boards and educators may use to integrate the success sequence into classrooms. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) Heritage’s new model resolution includes evidence of positive outcomes from the success sequence and provisions that call on educators to teach students the benefits of each behavior. The lessons are badly needed. The share of children living with married parents has declined by 12 percentage points over the past half-century‚ and nearly 1 in 4 children don’t live with married parents today. Marriage rates‚ in general‚ have fallen in recent years. These data have serious implications for children. For example‚ 42% of federal prison inmates reported living with only one parent while growing up‚ while 47% of state inmates reported growing up with only one parent. Boys from low-income homes who grow up without fathers “are particularly likely to be floundering at school and to be suspended at school‚” Institute for Family Studies senior fellow Brad Wilcox said at a Heritage Foundation event in 2018. The model policy doesn’t mandate that educators tell students to go to college after high school. It does‚ however‚ describe the evidence supporting the benefits of work or educational activity after high school and says educators should teach students the benefits of doing these things. The policy also doesn’t require that teachers tell students to get married‚ just that students should know the positive outcomes that are more likely for themselves and their children if they marry before children are born. Heading into 2024‚ school district boards and local educators may use Heritage’s resolution on the success sequence to give students and families hope in the present and for the future. Evidence of the importance of finishing school‚ heading to the workforce or college‚ and getting married before having children is too strong to ignore. This is the kind of evidence that should be behind more classroom content. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post New Education Model Charts Course for ‘Success Sequence’ in New Year appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In the quest to understand how and where life might arise in the galaxy‚ astronomers search for its building blocks. Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) are some of those blocks‚ and they include things like formaldehyde and acetic acid‚ among many others. The JWST has found some of these COMs around young protostars. What does this tell astronomers? While the molecules in question are complex and organic‚ they’re nowhere near as large as terrestrial COMs. For that reason‚ scientists sometimes call them iCOMs‚ where i stands for interstellar. iCOMS include simple alcohols‚ esters‚ nitriles‚ and ethers. To be a COM‚ a molecule must have at least six atoms‚ one of which must be carbon. Astronomers have found iCOMs inside star-forming regions‚ in clumps called hot cores or hot corinos. These cores and corinos give rise to massive and smaller protostars‚ respectively. As these protostars form‚ they also form protoplanetary disks. So‚ if astronomers can detect iCOMs in these protostars‚ then they can reasonably expect that they’ll be present in the protoplanetary disk on any rocky planets that might form. That means that there’s a plausible pathway from complex organic molecules around protostars to rocky planets and the potential for life. Astronomers have found some iCOMS before using radiotelescopes like ALMA and the VLA to see through the surrounding dust. This image is from 2020 research into hot corinos. Radio telescope observations revealed COMs in the hot corino around a pair of young‚ still-forming protostars. Image Credit: Bill Saxton‚ NRAO/AUI/NSF In new research‚ a team of astronomers examined a pair of young protostars and searched for COMs using the JWST. Their observations are part of the JOYS+ (JWST Observations of Young protoStars) observing program that examined 30 young stars. The observations were obtained with the JWST’s MIRI and MRS instruments. The researchers examined one high-mass protostar and one low-mass protostar from the 30-star sample. They’re called NGC 1333 IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385+6053‚ respectively. NGC 1333 is a star-forming region in the Perseus Molecular Cloud about 960 light-years away. NGC 1333 is an extremely active star-forming region. This Hubble image shows how dust obscures most of the star formation. Radio telescopes have found iCOMs around young protostars in this region‚ and now the JWST has found even more of them. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI Astronomers have detected COMS in the gas phase around protostars before‚ but only smaller ones no larger than CH3OH (methanol.) They expect that these gaseous COMs come from solid phase COMs formed on ice grains‚ but those are tough to detect. But like a host of other issues in astronomy and astrophysics‚ the JWST allows scientists to dig deeper. Its range and sensitivity allow it to detect more icy grain COMs that include oxygen. Oxygen’s significance in the chemistry of life can’t be overstated: there’s no water without it. This figure from the research shows the presence of different chemical ices in the protostar IRAS 2A (above) and IRAS 23385 (below.) Note that the recurrence percentage on the y-axis is a measure of how the data fits. It doesn’t mean‚ for example‚ that there is 100% of any single molecule present in the protostar. Image Credit: Rocha et al. 2023. The molecular ingredients for life spend a significant amount of time as ices. They become more complex over time through chemical processes depending on their environments. Leiden University maintains an ice database containing infrared spectra for a massive number of astrophysical ice analogs at different temperatures and chemical environments. It was built partly in anticipation of the launch of the JWST and its powerful infrared capabilities. The JWST’s Ice Age early-release science program is aimed at tracing the building blocks of life as they form and evolve around young stars and protoplanetary disks. Though these findings are from the JOYS+ program‚ all of these efforts are intertwined. Through all these efforts‚ scientists hope to one day have a well-defined understanding of how COMs form and evolve‚ and how they feed into the appearance of life. “They <;COMs>; are intrinsically important to comprehend the chemical complexity developed in star-forming regions since these materials are the feedstock for future exoplanetary systems‚” the researchers write in their paper. “Once available in primitive planetary systems‚ this material can potentially promote the habitability of planets.” This new research will appear in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The paper is “JWST Observations of Young protoStars (JOYS+): Detection of icy complex organic molecules and ions. I. CH4‚ SO2‚ HCOO?‚ OCN?‚ H2CO‚ HCOOH‚ CH3CH2OH‚ CH3CHO‚ CH3OCHO‚ CH3COOH.” The lead author is W.R.M. Rocha from the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. The post Webb Finds Icy Complex Organic Molecules Around Protostars: Ethanol‚ Methane‚ Formaldehyde‚ Formic Acid and Much More appeared first on Universe Today.

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