Covering All Things Florida
While President Donald J. Trump celebrated the first 100 days of his second term that began January 20 with a trip to Michigan, NASA today released a long litany of its own achievements during that same period. In his inaugural address, President Trump laid out a bold and ambitious vision for NASA’s future.
Summer is nearly back on the Space Coast, with warm temperatures and a persistent threat of rain in the afternoon and evenings — typical weather here, and it will stay this way for several months. That being said, Atlas V was able to beat the weather last night and launched at the opening of its window, with liftoff at 7:01 PM ET after an apparently quiet countdown, save for some concerns about the energy potential of a nearby anvil cloud (Cumulonimbus incus) lingering near the launch pad before dissipating.
Oh, China, you conniving, economic vampire, what have you done for us lately besides leeching our prosperity and cackling from your smog-choked throne? You’re not just flooding our markets with your dirt-cheap junk, fentanyl-laced death traps, and vapes so toxic they could double as chemical weapons—you’re orchestrating a full-scale assault on our economy while we twiddle our thumbs like spineless idiots. Your trade barriers on our goods are so blatant they might as well come with a middle finger emoji, yet here we are, drowning in your plastic garbage at every Walmart, Dollar Tree, and big-box cesspool. When’s the last time you saw our goods clogging up your stores in Shenzhen or Beijing? Oh, right—never. It’s a one-way con, and we’re the morons eating it up.
The scene on college campuses over the last few years has been pretty chaotic, with student protests erupting over everything from Gaza to gay rights. Social media and news feeds are full of stories of protests, campus takeovers, and vandalism. But this wasn’t the first generation to resort to these tactics, and it certainly won’t be the last.
Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist with a storied career as the longest-serving chair of the university’s Astronomy Department (2011–2020), has sparked intense debate with his bold claims about extraterrestrial visitation. Raised on a farm in Beit Hanan, Israel, Loeb’s early curiosity about the cosmos, nurtured by philosophy and science, propelled him to become a leading theorist on black holes and the early universe. Now heading the Galileo Project, which seeks empirical evidence of extraterrestrial technology, Loeb brings his contrarian spirit to Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (2021) and Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars (2023). These books offer a thought-provoking, scholarly investigation into the question “Have we been visited?”
Whether you live here or are considering moving to Florida, you may be wondering how Florida is doing in terms of jobs. The March numbers have just been released, and the news is mixed, depending on which part of the Sunshine State you live in.
SpaceX successfully launched 28 Starlink v2-mini satellites as part of their ever-growing Starlink internet constellation from SLC-40 last evening. The launch took place at 9:52 PM.
Florida lawmakers are weighing a new bill that would give homeowners the right to use “reasonable force” against drones flying over their property—a move likely triggered by a spike in unexplained drone sightings last year centered around New Jersey. That “reasonable force” might involve shooting the drone out of the air under some circumstances.
In today’s hyper-connected world, your personal information—name, address, phone number, even your birthdate—is a valuable commodity. Data brokers and people-search websites, such as Whitepages, Spokeo, and Intelius, collect and sell this data to advertisers, scammers, and cybercriminals, often without your consent. With over 4,000 data brokers amassing profiles on more than 500 million consumers globally, the risk of identity theft, phishing scams, and unwanted spam has never been higher. Fortunately, a growing suite of automated data removal services and proactive strategies can help you reclaim control over your digital footprint.
