A Humanities major walks into the Jet Propulsion Lab... It sounds like the set-up to a joke, but it's actually an intro into a great article on the government-funded, humble, and deeply inspired people looking for signs of intelligent life somewhere out there (while the rest of us look for it some place down here). And the searchers are getting closer. The always excellent Dave Eggers with a Heartwarming Work of Stargazing Genius in WaPo(Gift Article): The Searchers. "In all likelihood, in the next 25 years, we’ll find evidence of life on another planet. I’m willing to say this because I’m not a scientist and I don’t work in media relations for NASA. But all evidence points to us getting closer, every year, to identifying moons in our solar system, or exoplanets beyond it, that can sustain life. And if we don’t find conditions for life on the moons near us, we’ll find it on exoplanets — that is, planets outside our solar system. Within the next few decades, we’ll likely find an exoplanet that has an atmosphere, that has water, that has carbon and methane and oxygen. Or some combination of those things." A few decades into the tech revolution we may have forgotten that science is a passion, it’s a hope, science is an art. Ironically, science, known as the opposite study from humanities is actually the study of our humanity. And in the case of the scientists we meet in this article, it's also the study of our humility. It turns out that some of the smartest people in the world are pretty down to earth about their achievements, and about their broader place in the world. Here's how one of the researchers described what it would be like to find signs of life on another planet. "I mean, on a day-to-day basis, I think our work is so in the fine details and not in the big picture that we don’t usually ask ourselves this. But personally, I would find that incredibly inspiring, finding life on another planet. I like feeling small. I like going into Yosemite with the mountains and feeling part of an inconsequential piece, but part of this bigger whole. So, to me, I think finding life elsewhere would only expand that sense, but in a very positive and I think a hopeful way. It also lessens the pressure on you to get everything right because you’re not so special."

2

Bet the Harm

"Readers may be quick to dismiss these developments as harmless. Many sports fans enjoy betting on the game, they say. Is it such a big deal if they do it with a company rather than their friends? A growing body of social-science literature suggests that, yes, this is in fact quite different. The rise of sports gambling has caused a wave of financial and familial misery, one that falls disproportionately on the most economically precarious households. Six years into the experiment, the evidence is convincing." Charles Fain Lehman in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake. (I admit I have a bit of confirmation bias on this topic. I've been betting it wouldn't go well.)

3

Exxonerating Evidence

"California has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil for allegedly deceiving the public about the plastic pollution crisis, the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced on Monday." (I wonder if it matters that we never really believed that "plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis.") California sues ExxonMobil over alleged role in plastic pollution crisis.

+ "California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable." (In other words, the problem on a bag by bag basis was made worse.) California governor signs law banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores.

4

Lighthouse is On But Nobody's Home

"There’s no question that many American parents desperately need more support. Yet the surgeon general is missing one important strategy that is within the control of every parent: a look in the mirror. What if the ways in which we are parenting are making life harder on our kids and harder on us? What if by doing less, parents would foster better outcomes for children and parents alike?" The Atlantic (Gift Article): Lighthouse Parents Have More Confident Kids. "Sometimes, the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all." (I'm a sucker for the rare article than can make me feel like I'm overachieving as a parent.)

5

Extra, Extra

Northern Exposure: The gradual increase in fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has dramatically escalated in the past 48 hours. Israel is determined to move its citizens back to the North without the threat of what has become constant rocket attacks from the (other) Iran-backed terror group. Meanwhile, the US is under increased pressure to find a way to keep things from spreading. Here's the latest from CNN.

+ Rue the Day: "Bomb scares at elementary schools. A police dog checking the bushes outside City Hall. Threats against local officials. It has been a chilling couple of weeks for Springfield, Ohio, since former President Donald J. Trump pulled the city into the presidential race with baseless claims that Haitian immigrants there were abducting and eating household pets. And trying to hold the city together has been Mayor Rob Rue, who took office not even a year ago, taking on a part-time post that has been anything but that over the last several days." NYT (Gift Article): He Makes Less Than $15,000 and Is Trying to Hold Springfield, Ohio, Together.

+ Mark Down: "Several top operatives on Republican Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor have stepped down, just days after a CNN report uncovered inflammatory comments the candidate made on a p-rn website." (Hey, at least Mark Robinson didn’t go on TV in front of 67 million people and say they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs. Now thatwould be bad.)

+ Husker Don't: "A Nebraska Republican state lawmaker said Monday that he remains opposed to switching how the state allocates its electoral votes, effectively blocking a bid by President Donald Trump and his allies to change the system in a bid for an extra electoral vote this fall." (There are constant efforts to change the rules, erase votes, and rig the election, and so often, they are resisted by a margin of one or two people.)

+ Three Peat: "Three Mile Island, the power plant near Middletown, Pa., that was the scene of the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, will reopen to power Microsoft's data centers." This brings back eerie memories of humanity’s worst meltdowns: Three Mile Island and Internet Explorer 6.

+ Put It in Writing: "The man who authorities say sat with a rifle in the trees where Donald Trump was golfing earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Florida, previously wrote a letter stating 'this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump,' according to a new filing Monday by federal prosecutors."

+ Nose Bridge: You can get an at-home flu ‘shot’ starting next year. And it's not a shot, it's a nasal vaccine.

6

Bottom of the News

"There are the predictable culprits: surging production costs, high ticket prices and consumer demand dropping harder than an EDM beat. But the festival slump may also be driven by factors that are more thought-provoking: technological changes in music listenership and a generation of kids who may lack the same enthusiasm for festivals as generations past." So many music festivals have been canceled this year. What's going on?

+ Diddy’s music streams jump after arrest and indictment.