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Good morning and welcome to Thursday.
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⏰🚀 Ready, Set, Go: Today’s newsletter takes 4.98 minutes to read. (With the 360° view: +3.23 minutes.)
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👇📰 Quick Bits
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💉 California Schools & COVID
Image: Andrea Price/Sacramento State
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🎁 DONUT Headline: California became the first state to mandate all school personnel - apart from students - be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
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California will require all teachers and school staff to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing, Gov. Newsom announced yesterday.
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It mirrors a similar order for state employees that took effect last week, which didn't apply to teachers since they work for local districts and not the state.
📝 Details, details... Under the new rules, public and private school personnel in the state will need to prove they are fully vaccinated by October 15 or agree to weekly testing.
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Those affected by the new requirement include teachers, paraeducators, custodial staff, and bus drivers. Exceptions will be provided for those who cannot take the shot for medical reasons. (It's currently unknown whether religious exceptions will be provided.)
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The vaccine-or-test mandate does not extend to any students, even those who are eligible to be vaccinated. When asked about enacting such a requirement in the future, Newsom said his administration would "consider that if necessary."
📸 The big picture... California, home to the largest student enrollment in the country, is the first state to impose a test-or-vaccine mandate for school personnel – but it may not be the last.
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Most states thus far have left it up to individual school districts to decide on vaccine requirements, while other states have banned school vaccine mandates entirely.
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A similar trend can be observed when it comes to masks in schools. Ten states have enacted school mask mandates, and eight states have passed laws forbidding them, while the rest have left the decision to the school districts themselves.
From the Right: WSJ
From the Left: CBS News
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🌎☄️ Here & Gone: The Extinction Origin Story
Image: Astronomy.com
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🎁 DONUT Headline: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for 180 million years – and then, almost overnight, ceased to exist. Around 66 million years ago, a ~7-mile wide asteroid crashed into the Earth near the Yucatán Peninsula, wiping out most of the planet’s life and leaving an impact crater more than 100 miles wide.
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Now, researchers think they know where the object came from. 👇
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Allow us to slip in a necessary caveat: When we’re talking about events that happened tens of millions of years ago (🤯), it’s impossible to know everything for sure… but here’s the scientific tea.
🌊 What we know about the impact…
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The asteroid hit the Earth with a force of 100 million megatons of TNT – two million times stronger than the most powerful man-made bomb.
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Shockwaves rippled outwards from the site, triggering earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and megatsunamis measuring thousands of meters high. Massive amounts of debris were kicked up into the atmosphere and beyond.
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Some of the larger ejected chunks came speeding back down, igniting in the atmosphere and setting off global firestorms. A cloud of dust covered the Earth, blocking sunlight and preventing photosynthesis for years. Around 75 percent of the animals in existence died at the same time.
Geochemical analysis suggests the impacting object was part of a class of carbonaceous chondrites, a primitive group of meteorites containing a relatively high amount of carbon that were likely created very early on in the solar system's history. (Pause for a second… these space rocks are thought to be almost as old as the universe itself.)
⏩ Now, fast forward millions of years… Researchers are trying to figure out the asteroid’s origin story.
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Theory #1: The object came from the inner part of the asteroid belt. This was disproven after looking at geochemical composition.
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Theory #2: Research published in February posited that the impact was caused by a long-period comet – but this research was criticized in a paper published in Astronomy & Geophysics this past June.
📝 Then along came this study… According to the newest research, set to be published this November, the impact was caused by a giant dark primitive asteroid from the outer reaches of the asteroid belt.
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The researchers built a model that showed thermal forces and gravitational tugs from planets periodically slingshotting large asteroids out of the belt over hundreds of millions of years of simulations. For the sake of brevity, we’ll spare you the specifics (which you can read here).
"This is just an excellent paper," Jessica Noviello, NASA fellow in the postdoctoral management program at the Universities Space Research Association at Goddard Space Flight Center, who was not involved with the new research, told LiveScience. "I think they make a good argument for why [the Chicxulub impactor] could have come from that part of the solar system."
🔭 Zoom out: The other two largest impact craters on Earth - the Vredefort crater in South Africa and the Sudbury Basin in Canada - have no known impactor origins.
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In addition to possibly explaining the origin of the dinosaur-eradicating asteroid, the findings can also help scientists understand the origins of other asteroids that have struck Earth in the past (and where the future ones could come from).
🌌 Eyes on the skies… "We find in the study that some 60% of large terrestrial impactors come from the outer half of the asteroid belt," David Nesvorný, a researcher from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado who led the new study, said.
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"So there is a 60% — 3 in 5 — probability that the next one will come from the same region.”
Hopefully not sometime soon. 🤞
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🍩 DONUT Holes…
Image: Sony Pictures
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☝️ "Jeopardy!" has new hosts: The show's longtime executive producer, Mike Richards, will host the daily syndicated program. Actress Mayim Bialik will host the prime-time and spinoff series.
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🌍 Mr. Worldwide: A British man accused of spying for Russia was arrested in Germany yesterday.
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♨️ Nearly 200 million Americans are under heat advisories or excessive heat warnings as dual "heat domes" affect the Pacific Northwest, Central states, and East Coast. | Sicily recorded a temperature of 119.85°F over the past few days. If verified by the World Meteorological Organization, it would be the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.
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🍦 A lawsuit alleges the company that makes McDonald's ice cream machines intentionally "designed flawed code" to profit from repairs.
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💉 The CDC strengthened its COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for pregnant women following data analysis; is expected to authorize a third vaccine shot for some immunocompromised people today. (From the Left | From the Right)
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🔥 Former criminal justice and deviant behavior professor Gary Maynard was arrested for an alleged "arson-setting spree" in California.
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🔥 The Hot Corner
💬 Heard Through the Grapevine… "It’s time again for one of the biggest meteor showers of the year! The Perseids are already showing up in our night skies—and when they peak in mid-August, it’s likely to be one of our most impressive skywatching opportunities for a while.” – from NASA's blog.
🔢 Stat(s) of the Day... 1 year, $5.9 million = the contract Dennis Schröder signed with the Boston Celtics on Tuesday.
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4 years, $84 million = the contract offer Dennis Schröder turned down from the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this year.
Ouch. 😬
📖 Worth Your Time… How Big Beverage poured empty promises down our throats
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🗣👂 Dose of Discussion
🇦🇫 The Situation In Afghanistan
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🎁 DONUT Headline: The Taliban launched a recent offensive in Afghanistan - capturing at least nine provincial capitals over the past six days - as the U.S. military nears complete withdrawal from the country. The militant group now controls two-thirds of the nation.
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The Taliban's advance comes as the U.S. and its NATO allies finalize a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by the end of the month.
🤿 A deeper dive... The U.S. military has attempted to hold off the latest Taliban offensive with some airstrikes but has largely avoided involving itself in the ground campaign.
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President Biden on Tuesday told reporters he doesn't regret his administration's decision to withdraw and remains committed to the August 31 deadline.
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"We spent over a trillion dollars, over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces ... they've got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation."
👁️ Looking ahead... According to multiple sources (AP, WaPo, Reuters), the Taliban's recent advances have forced U.S. military
intelligence to revise their previous assessment that the Afghanistan government would collapse within six to 12 months of U.S. troops departing.
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The new analysis reportedly warns the Taliban could isolate Kabul within 30 days and possibly overthrow the government within 90.
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📣🗣💬 This Week’s Poll Responses
More – "The window for action is sharply closing. Individuals can’t make the necessary drastic changes that are required for our species (and others) to continue to live on this planet. Private companies don’t have any incentive to change their behaviors as their focus is to make profits. Government can hold corporations accountable and have the financial ability to create the infrastructure that will put us on a better path."
Less – "We can care for the environment without massive government programs that are costly and make little impact long term. We should be using our resources to address legitimate problems in society, not hypotheticals."
About the same – "States and private industry are making progress – I don’t think the federal government needs to add to the budget."
Unsure – "While I want to say that they should be doing more, we are only one portion of the world. This needs to be a global effort if we want change."
+Note on Sample Size: We received 1,023 responses. 👏🥳 Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.
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🛸🌄📲 Calling from the Future…
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🔗 The Strongest Link
Image: California Institute of Technology
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🎁 DONUT Headline: Engineers at Caltech developed a material that can transform from a fluid-like state to solid shapes (it was inspired by chain mail… and Batman’s cape from 'Batman Begins').
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When acted on by an outside stress, the material - which is made from 3D-printed linked octahedrons - compresses into a stiff form capable of supporting a load 50 times its own weight.
The fabric is modeled after other materials that similarly change properties:
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“Think about coffee in a vacuum-sealed bag. When still packed, it is solid, via a process we call 'jamming.' But as soon as you open the package, the coffee grounds are no longer jammed against each other and you can pour them as though they were a fluid,” says Caltech Professor Chiara Daraio.
The new material could serve as a smart fabric for exoskeletons, an adaptive cast that adjusts as an injury heals, or as a bridge that could unroll and stiffen.
Keep reading.
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🤗 Daily Dose of Positive
🧠🥊Boxing Brain
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Images: Nassau Herald
Lorenzo Thomas was “with some bad company” in October of 2013 when he was shot by a stray bullet to the head. After suffering an intense brain injury, he returned home in December with a host of challenges to overcome.
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In the first few years post-recovery, Lorenzo focused on relearning basic motor functions such as walking, talking, and eating.
Eventually, the 20-year-old turned to more challenging activities - like playing the guitar or piano - to regain his fine motor skills.
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It wasn’t until 2019 that his recovery would take an inspiring turn... (Cue 'Rocky' theme).
Keep reading.
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💡 Dose of Knowledge
🗺️ Border Dispute
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Which of these states does not share a border with Mexico?
A) California
B) Arizona
C) Nevada
D) New Mexico
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(keep scrolling for the answer) |
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🍩 Share The DONUT
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Access exclusive rewards and even an all-expenses-paid round trip to Austin, TX, just for sharing this newsletter.
Simply:
1. Copy your unique referral link.👇
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3. Watch the rewards roll in. |
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Ambassador Rewards and Progress → |
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💡 Dose of Knowledge Answer
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C) Nevada
The only four states to share a border with Mexico are California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
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🍩 Daily Sprinkle
"There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge."
–Napoleon Hill (1883-1970)
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