Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

Bennu asteroid reveals its contents to scientists − and clues to how the building blocks of life on Earth may have been seeded

This photo of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 Polycam images collected on Dec. 2, 2024, by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. NASA By Timothy J McCoy, Smithsonian Institution and Sara Russell, Natural History Museum A bright fireball streaked across the sky above mountains, glaciers and spruce forest near the town of Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, on the evening of March 31, 1965. Fragments of this meteorite, discovered by beaver trappers, fell over a lake. A layer of ice saved them…

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Employee groups, Democrats, experts warn feds not to risk accepting ‘deferred resignation’ offer

Employee groups, Democrats, experts warn feds not to risk accepting ‘deferred resignation’ offer

Government Executive reports: Following the haphazard rollout Tuesday of a plan the White House claimed offered “buyouts” to nearly the entire federal workforce but ultimately looked more like extended paid leave prior to leaving government, federal employee groups, Democratic lawmakers and good government experts are warning federal workers not to respond to the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” email. According to the terms of the offer, if a federal employee decides to resign by Feb. 6, they can retain their current…

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Did Musk illegally install an email server at OPM?

Did Musk illegally install an email server at OPM?

Nextgov/FCW reports: The Office of Personnel Management’s recent mass verification email to all civilian federal employees is raising concerns that the Trump administration circumvented longstanding procurement and cybersecurity laws to install an email system used to communicate widely with employees across the government. On Friday, an email landing in employees’ inboxes from the address hr@opm.gov told recipients that it was a “test of a new distribution and response list” and asked them to reply “YES” to it. Many workers noted…

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The Musk-Miller-Trump administration seems to believe it has the power to change law on a whim

The Musk-Miller-Trump administration seems to believe it has the power to change law on a whim

A federal civil servant writes: The new Trump administration’s effort to both get a grip on and dismantle the federal workforce has also been a dystopian farce, climaxing Tuesday evening, after the Office of Personnel Management sent an email offering what the media has described as a “buyout” to all federal employees. This saga began shortly after Donald Trump took office, when someone asserting the authority of OPM began spamming federal workers with emails demanding a reply. In one breath,…

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USDA inspector general who served in five administrations, escorted out of her office after defying White House

USDA inspector general who served in five administrations, escorted out of her office after defying White House

Reuters reports: Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Phyllis Fong, a 22-year veteran of the department, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday, saying that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols, the sources said. In an email…

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Elon Musk bragged about his talent at video games — until he was exposed as a cheat

Elon Musk bragged about his talent at video games — until he was exposed as a cheat

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk — head of six companies, father of 11 children, a friend of the president and the richest man on the planet — often brags to the world about one of his great passions: his skill at video games. He boasted to Joe Rogan that he ranked among the world’s best players of the role-playing game “Diablo IV,” a feat for which Rogan said he had “to be exceptional — period — as a human…

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The major technology companies are eating themselves alive

The major technology companies are eating themselves alive

Mihir A. Desai writes: Nvidia, the much-beloved creator of the next generation of A.I. chips whose stock was crushed on Monday, gets almost half of its revenue from its siblings in the Magnificent 7 [Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, Meta and Alphabet]. In 2022, Google paid Apple $20 billion for the privilege of being the default search engine on Safari, according to unsealed court documents, and therefore very likely accounts for around 20 percent of Apple’s profit. Meta employs Amazon…

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Biden landed us in this mess because of his own selfishness and lies

Biden landed us in this mess because of his own selfishness and lies

Matthew Yglesias writes: When Joe Biden stepped aside in favor of Kamala Harris, the overwhelming majority of Democrats praised him for the decision and painted an overall flattering portrait of Biden’s presidency and his career. I think that was the right way to approach the situation. Voluntarily relinquishing a claim to power is a big ask, and the way to align incentives for the future is to praise people, like Biden, who do the right thing and criticize people who…

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Trump tries to seize the power of the purse with ‘an illegal executive order’

Trump tries to seize the power of the purse with ‘an illegal executive order’

Russell Berman writes: Buried within one of the dozens of executive orders that President Donald Trump issued in his first days in office is a section titled “Terminating the Green New Deal.” As presidential directives go, this one initially seemed like a joke. The Green New Deal exists mostly in the dreams of climate activists; it has never been fully enacted into law. The next line of Trump’s order, however, made clear he is quite serious: “All agencies shall immediately…

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Musk operatives have taken over the Office of Personnel Management, HR for the entire government

Musk operatives have taken over the Office of Personnel Management, HR for the entire government

Wired reports: Centibillionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of the former US Digital Service—now the United States DOGE Service—has been widely publicized and sanctioned by one of President Donald Trump’s many executive orders. But WIRED reporting shows that Musk’s influence extends even further, and into an even more consequential government agency. Sources within the federal government tell WIRED that the highest ranks of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—essentially the human resources function for the entire federal government—are now controlled by people…

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Elon Musk is deliberately ‘strengthening those who are weakening Europe’

Elon Musk is deliberately ‘strengthening those who are weakening Europe’

Anne Applebaum writes: Only one institution on the planet is large enough and powerful enough to write and enforce laws that could make the tech companies change their policies. Partly for that reason, the European Union may soon become one of the Trump administration’s most prominent targets. In theory, the EU’s Digital Services Act, which took full effect last year, can be used to regulate, fine, and, in extreme circumstances, ban internet companies whose practices clash with European laws. Yet…

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How youth pop culture has embraced Trump

How youth pop culture has embraced Trump

Brock Colyar writes: [T]he youngest, most online members of Trump’s party have acquired his knack for turning the culture wars into something as entertaining as reality TV. Attention is power. One honoree of the night [at the Power 30 Awards, held at Sax nightclub in Washington DC, the night before the inauguration] was DuRousseau, whose TikTok is full of sometimes transphobic rants for a target audience he describes as “Beverly Hills conservatives.” “When you look back, this was the first…

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What to make of China’s suddenly popular DeepSeek AI model

What to make of China’s suddenly popular DeepSeek AI model

Matteo Wong writes: One week ago, a new and formidable challenger for OpenAI’s throne emerged. A Chinese AI start-up, DeepSeek, launched a model that appeared to match the most powerful version of ChatGPT but, at least according to its creator, was a fraction of the cost to build. The program, called DeepSeek-R1, has incited plenty of concern: Ultrapowerful Chinese AI models are exactly what many leaders of American AI companies feared when they, and more recently President Donald Trump, have…

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They followed North Carolina election rules when they voted. Now their votes could be tossed out.

They followed North Carolina election rules when they voted. Now their votes could be tossed out.

By Doug Bock Clark This story was originally published by ProPublica A Republican judge has spent more than two months trying to overturn his narrow defeat for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat by arguing that around 60,000 ballots should be tossed out. But many residents have only recently learned that their votes are in danger of not being counted and say they have done nothing wrong. ProPublica has heard from dozens of voters who expressed astonishment and anger at…

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