Possible evidence of water on mars

The Curiosity rover went over an area that has all the tell-tale signs we have on earth for this being a likely former lake bed. 

It's intriguing, I have to say. Mars may very well have been like earth at some point, maybe millions or 100s of millions of years ago. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/curiosity-finds-evidence-of-open-water-on-ancient-mars

There will be no yeti in Utah

The Utah hockey club held a naming contest and The Yetis won, so the club applied for patent protection for the name. 

If you're keeping score at home, all major sports teams get trademarks so that no one else can produce merchandise using that name. Sure, it protects them from another club using the name and causing some confusion, but if we're being honest it's about money. 

The trademark office said no, because it might be confused with the yeti cooler products which already have the yeti brand trademarked. 

Sure the hockey club would be yetis with an s, but because they will sell merchandise including mugs and coolers, there likely will be confusion by the consumer. 

That leaves the hockey club these likely options:

1. Respond to the trademark office, and try and convince them that it's different. - this would probably end up in expensive and time consuming litigation 

2. Find a way to work with the Yeti brand (thus eliminating the confusion) - this would probably be infeasible 

3. Select another name - while this makes the most sense, will a billionaire accept defeat?

https://www.ksl.com/article/51234156/utah-hockey-club-facing-trademark-hurdles-in-finding-permanent-name

Sports in bizarro world

The Australian open tennis tournament was unable to provide live video from the tournament due to some quirky (and all too common) licensing deal.  The rights holders don't allow for it to be broadcast.

And that meant that the production company had to get creative.  They came up with a solution that had very wii-like figures playing, and included the audio commentary from the match, with a few minute delay.

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/nx-s1-5261006/australian-open-wii-animation

Now this isn't the first time we've seen this kind of thing, The NFL has had several football games that they have similarly animated.  Its a crazy, tech world we live in,  

Unbiased reporting

One of the challenges we're faced with is finding some sort of reasonable, independent journalism.  

Billionaires and corporate giants own most of the newspapers, tv new stations, and services that allow for consuming content on the internet that is timely and "news worthy" .... 

That leaves us in a position where we're (mostly) unable to find truth in reporting, or at least finding unbiased information.

Of the major news outlets, the NY Times still tends toward balance, but I believe they could do more more, and they are at risk of tipping farther.  And of course NPR still has integrity and does a little thing called "journalism," but they will probably get defunded under the new administration and have to evolve in order to stay solvent.  What that means at this point is mostly unknown.

The alternative is to find some independent journalism and support it.  At the top of my list is the Contrarian, which is run by journalists (including Jen Rubin) who left the big media and are now reporting as a "pro-democracy news outlet."  You can find them here: https://contrarian.substack.com/

And Meadowlark Media, formed by former people at ESPN, delves into sports, culture, and politics, too.  Its about informative entertainment.   https://www.meadowlark-media.com/

I also rather enjoy reading about good in the world, from The Good News Network https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

But there are plenty of others. I found these two recently, and as far as I can tell they're somewhat independent, and may be worth some time to evaluate. 

• DCReport https://www.dcreport.org/
• WhoWhatWhy https://whowhatwhy.org/

And finally, there is also a site that is collecting some outlets that I haven't explored yet: https://www.trustworthymedia.org/list-of-independent-media/

As always, use your own best judgment to find outlets that work for you.

And of course, if any of you know about any others, please feel free to let me know!

The NFL playoffs

I find it intriguing how balanced the teams are in the playoffs. Doesn't matter if you were the best team in the regular season. Doesn't matter if you're at home. 

Everyone has a chance to win. Except for whoever is playing the chiefs; they get all the breaks. 

Anyway, the commanders story is that they had a bad owner and were wallowing in mediocrity. Then a new owner comes in. He cares about the team. He cares about the community. He cares about winning. 

He hires a coach who has a good philosophy and they draft a QB who understands the game and is the right fit. 

He's a rookie, and yet they knock off two good teams and are headed to the NFC championship. 

And let's see. Who are the two teams left without a playoff win for most of this century? The raiders who have a bad owner, can't find a coach and churn through QBs

And the dolphins. Who have a bad owner, think they have a good coach (but clearly don't), and have committed to a QB who they "hope" will be decent even though it's been 5 years and he's had more games missed due to injuries than wins (that last one may not be true, but he has had a significant number of injuries). 

It's amazing what a passionate owner can do isn't it?

That’s an oddly phrased message.

And the irony is not lost on me: there was consensus on banning a social media platform, which raises a first amendment concern. Yet no one has an appetite for banning assault weapons because the second amendment is important. 

(And I am aware that maybe TikTok is sharing information with be Chinese government. But there’s a lot more nuance to it than that)

Starship failure

Earlier this week, SpaceX made their 7th test launch of Starship. The main goals were to:

1. Achieve successful stage separation

2. Catch the booster on the launchpad

3. Reach orbit and deploy faux satellites

4. Splashdown with the upper stage and recover it.

They achieved the first two...but the upper stage had an issue with a valve (apparently) and blew up before it reached orbit.

The debris field was extensive, and the FAA had to temporarily reroute planes around it.  And, that debris field rained down on the Atlantic Ocean where it meets the Gulf of Mexico; there were reports of damage in Turks and Caicos.

And now the FAA is investigating again, and has told SpaceX that they need time to evaluate before allowing for another launch attempt.

But here's where things might get sticky.  Don't forget that Elon Musk owns SpaceX.  Elon Musk is also acting as the shadow president, and will soon have direct authority over the FAA. I have to wonder what will happen here. Will he exert his will and do as he pleases?  Or will he play nice and work toward a reasonable resolution?