WE ARE ALL DESIGNIST NOW:

Since the '70s, astronomers and physicists have been unable to identify any evidence of dark matter. One theory is it's all tied up in space-bound objects called MACHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects). These include black holes, supermassive black holes, brown dwarfs, and neutron stars.

Another theory is that dark matter is made up of a type of non-baryonic matter, called WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). Baryonic matter is the kind made up of baryons, such as protons and neutrons and everything composed of them, which is anything with an atomic nucleus. Electrons, neutrinos, muons, and tau particles aren't baryons, however, but a class of particles called leptons. Even though the (hypothetical) WIMPS would have ten to a hundred times the mass of a proton, their interactions with normal matter would be weak, making them hard to detect.

Then there are those aforementioned neutrinos. Did you know that giant streams of them pass from the Sun through the Earth each day, without us ever noticing? They're the focus of another theory that says that neutral neutrinos, that only interact with normal matter through gravity, are what dark matter is comprised of. Other candidates include two theoretical particles, the neutral axion and the uncharged photino.

Now, one theoretical physicist posits an even more radical notion. What if dark matter didn't exist at all? Dr. Melvin Vopson of the University of Portsmouth, in the UK, has a hypothesis he calls the mass-energy-information equivalence. It states that information is the fundamental building block of the universe, and it has mass. This accounts for the missing mass within galaxies, thus eliminating the hypothesis of dark matter entirely.

Information theory 

To be clear, the idea that information is an essential building block of the universe isn't new. Classical Information Theory was first posited by Claude Elwood Shannon, the "father of the digital age" in the mid-20th century. The mathematician and engineer, well-known in scientific circles--but not so much outside of them, had a stroke of genius back in 1940. He realized that Boolean algebra coincided perfectly with telephone switching circuits. Soon, he proved that mathematics could be employed to design electrical systems.

Shannon was hired at Bell Labs to figure out how to transfer information over a system of wires. He wrote the bible on using mathematics to set up communication systems, thereby laying the foundation for the digital age. Shannon was also the first to define one unit of information as a bit.

There was perhaps no greater proponent of information theory than another unsung paragon of science, John Archibald Wheeler. Wheeler was part of the Manhattan Project, worked out the "S-Matrix" with Niels Bohr and helped Einstein develop a unified theory of physics. In his later years, he proclaimed, "Everything is information." Then he went about exploring connections between quantum mechanics and information theory.

He also coined the phrase "it from bit" or that every particle in the universe emanates from the information locked inside it. At the Santa Fe Institute in 1989, Wheeler announced that everything, from particles to forces to the fabric of spacetime itself "... derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely ... from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits."

WITCH HUNTS ARE A FUNCTION OF WITCHES:

After a nationwide FBI operation resulted in the arrest of eight members of The Base--a neo-Nazi terror group with cells of radical followers around the world--its shadowy leader released a statement on an encrypted chat network.

Roman Wolf--not a real name, but an alias--told followers on what is believed to be one of the group's official propaganda channels that the recent arrests of eight members wouldn't stop his militant organization from continuing its plans preparing for a "race war."

Wolf's defiance comes at a time when eight members of his group across the U.S. face various court cases and potentially lengthy sentences for serious crimes, as The Base continues to exhibit its evolution into a dangerous domestic terror threat on the radar of the FBI.

IT ALL BEGINS WITH HATING MUSLIMS:

The plight of those sliding into the category known as "absolute poverty" is even more tragic. According to the Iranian Parliament's Research Center, in fiscal year 2016-17 (calculated in the Iranian calendar), 16 percent of the population lived in absolute poverty, defined as living on or less than $1.08 a day. In 2017-18, the figure increased by an average of 30 percent. That figure must have risen even higher in the past year. This means at least another 10 percent of the population has fallen into absolute poverty in just two years.

All you have to do to see the impact of the sanctions is observe buyers' behavior in municipal stores reserved for fruits and vegetables. "Before, except for the homeless people, you would hardly ever see anyone asking for rotting produce from us," said a manager at one of these stores. "We just threw them into giant bins to be picked up by garbage trucks the next day. Today, for every individual buying our 'normal' produce, twice, sometimes three times as many people could be seen scurrying about until the closing hours when we offer our rejected produce at reduced rates." He said the competition to grab this rejected produce could get quite fierce. "They just need to feed themselves and their family no matter what, pride be damned," he added wryly.

Available data for the economy are hard to come by, but from what is published, the emerging picture is of a society on the brink. For instance, according to the Central Bank of Iran, after a 12 percent growth in GDP in 2016, the first year after the conclusion of the multilateral nuclear agreement (officially, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), it dropped to 3 percent growth in 2017, followed by a 4 percent contraction in 2018 and a further projected 10 percent contraction in 2019, showing the effect of the new sanctions imposed after Trump's 2018 withdrawal from the JCPOA. This is a cumulative contraction of 14 percent in just two years, which, when combined with the impact of the previous sanctions regime, easily surpasses the Great Depression in its severity and devastating consequences (this year's conditions are expected to be worse than those of the previous two years).

 

It seems that, for once, Trump is not exaggerating when he describes the sanctions against Iran as "the most severe ever imposed on a country." Indeed, the situation is uniformly bleak for all social and economic indicators. From suicide rates to divorce rates to substance abuse to air and water quality to crime rates, the story is the same.

VLAD'S GIMP:

President Trump -- who in 2016 invited Russia to "find" Hillary Clinton's "missing" emails ("Russia, if you're listening ..."), who was impeached partly for soliciting Ukraine's help to damage Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and who has also called on China to interfere in the 2020 campaign -- fared poorly in the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. More than half of Americans (56 percent) said he has done little or nothing at all to prepare the country for interference and online propaganda in the upcoming election.

And almost as many people (51 percent) said Trump has personally invited election interference.

IN CASE THERE WERE ANY LINGERING DOUBTS...:

The official on the line told the president that Soleimani and the Iraqi military leader he was meeting with were "gone" and then hung up, according to Trump.

"I said, 'Where is this guy?' " Trump said. "That was the last I heard from him."

While the dramatic description of Trump's experience watching the strike is new, Trump has spoken at rallies and on Twitter about the Soleimani attack as he hones his reelection talking points on his capability as commander in chief.

In a separate audio clip, Trump is heard boasting about increasing the defense budget by $2.5 trillion -- a massive sum he may have gotten to by adding several years' budgets; the Pentagon budget for fiscal 2020 is $738 billion. To those who criticized his spending and the growing national debt, Trump said: "Who the hell cares about the budget? We're going to have a country."

For most of President Barack Obama's time in office, Republicans seemed to care very much about the budget, making fears around the national debt and deficit their top talking point. They've backed off those concerns under Trump.

ONLY SOUTHERNERS DEPEND ON GUNS:

KENSINGTON, N.H. -- A New Hampshire man fought off and eventually killed a coyote that attacked his family Monday near Judes Pond on the Exeter-Kensington line, local police departments confirmed to Boston 25 News. [...]

"There was no interest in it going away. [I] ultimately had to make the decision to become the aggressor and jumped on it, attacked it and [got] it to the ground," O'Reilly said. "When I was able to get on top of it, I put my hand on its snout so it wasn't able to attack me. There was quite a bit of snow on the ground, so I shoved the face into the snow and then eventually was able [to] put my hand on its snout and expire it through suffocation. Ultimately one hand on its windpipe and one hand on its snout did the trick."

O'Reilly was apparently bitten in the arm and chest by the coyote. The child involved was also bitten, though the animal did not break the child's skin due to the snowsuit he was wearing at the time. Since the incident, O'Reilly has already received his first round of rabies shots; he'll have four more follow-up visits with doctors for more.

The father of three said he was running off of adrenaline and instinct when the nearly 10-minute long struggle ensued. He added that he did not take any pleasure in killing the animal, but believed he had no choice but to protect his wife and kids, given the coyote's behavior.

...AND CHEAPER...:

A new form of combined solar power generation and storage is being developed for the UK.

It couples thin, flexible, lighter solar sheets with energy storage to power buildings or charge vehicles off-grid.

The company behind it, Solivus, plans to cover the roofs of large industrial buildings with the solar fabric.

These include supermarket warehouses and delivery company distribution centres.

But Solivus also plans to manufacture solar units or "arcs" for home use.

The aim is to create local, renewable energy, to give people and business their own power supply and help the UK towards its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

DUDES, YOU'RE HARSHING THE NARRATIVE:

The Tor is among the most modern air-defense systems Iran has, Duitsman said, and can attack two targets at once with up to two missiles each. When Iran purchased them from Russia in the mid-2000s, "the capability was such that at the time the US was concerned about the sale," he added.

Iran fields "small numbers" of Tor systems, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report last year.

"They hit General Soleimani in a cowardly act, but there are freedom-seekers across the world who want to revenge for him with God's help, and God willing, we will hit his enemy chivalrously," said Gen. Esmail Ghaani at a ceremony in Tehran.

"Our enemy understands no language but force and therefore, we should stand against them strongly," he added, according to the Fars news agency.