It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, May 06, 2025
Some 'Star Wars' stories have already become reality
Tatooine’s moisture farming equipment stands in the desert of Tunisia, where parts of the ‘Star Wars’ movie series were filmed. Véronique Debord-Lazaro via Flickr, CC BY-SA/
Just 48 short years ago, movie director George Lucas used the phrase “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” as the opening to the first “Star Wars” movie, later labeled “Episode IV: A New Hope.” But at least four important aspects of the “Star Wars” saga are much closer – both in time and space – than Lucas was letting on.
And we, an environmental health engineer and a civil engineer, know there are at least three more elements of these ancient, distant Lucas stories that might seem like science fiction but are, in fact, science reality.
Moisture farming
In that first movie, “Episode IV,” Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen was a farmer on the planet of Tatooine. He farmed water from air in the middle of a desert.
Each day, a human needs to consume about the equivalent of 0.8 gallons of water (3 liters). With more than 8 billion people living on the planet, that means engineers need to produce nearly 2.6 trillion gallons (10 trillion liters) of clean drinking water every year. Taken globally, rainfall would be enough, but it’s distributed very unevenly – including landing in the oceans, where it immediately becomes too salty to drink safely.
Researchers at places such as Berkeley have developed solar-powered systems that can produce clean drinking water from thin air. In general, they use a material that traps water molecules from the air within its structure and then use sunlight to condense that water out of the material and into drinkable liquid. But there is still a ways to go before they are ready for commercial distribution and available to help large numbers of people.
Researchers can harvest water from air in the desert, in a process powered only by the Sun.
Space debris
When the second Death Star was destroyed in “Return of the Jedi,” it made a huge mess, as you would expect when blowing to smithereens an object at least 87 miles across (140 kilometers). But the movie’s mythology helpfully explains a hyperspace wormhole briefly opened, scattering much of the falling debris across the galaxy.
As best as anyone can tell, a hyperspace wormhole has never appeared near Earth. And even if such a thing existed or happened, humans might not have the technology to chuck all our trash in there anyway. So we’re left with a whole lot of stuff all around us, including in space.
According to the website Orbiting Now, in late April 2025 there were just over 12,000 active satellites orbiting the planet. All in all, the United States and other space-faring nations are trying to keep track of nearly 50,000 objects orbiting Earth. And there are millions of fragments of space debris too small to be observed or tracked.
Just as on Earth’s roads, space vehicles crash into each other if traffic gets too congested. But unlike the debris that falls to the road after an Earth crash, all the bits and pieces that break off in a space crash fly away at speeds of several thousand miles per hour (10,000 to 30,000 kph) and can then hit other satellites or spacecraft that cross their paths.
Engineers at NASA, the European Space Agency and other space programs are exploring a variety of technologies – including a net, a harpoon and a laser – to remove the more dangerous pieces of space junk and clean up the space environment.
Dodging obstacles in space is no picnic. The Force itself
There are many different kinds of mitochondria, and medical professionals are learning how to transplant mitochondria from one cell to another just like they transplant organs from one person’s body to another. Maybe one day a transplant procedure could help people find the light side of the Force and turn away from the dark side.
FILE PHOTO: United States Social Security Administration logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
The head of the Social Security Administration claims former President Joe Biden's "woke" policies are to blame for long wait times for those seeking help with their benefits, according to MSNBC.
"When asked by USA Today to respond to a report about long wait times and other delays for benefits, a spokesperson for acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Dudek blamed Biden, citing the agency’s prior work-from-home policy and 'advancing radical DEI and gender ideology over improving service for all Americans,'" the article said.
Editor Ryan Teague Beckwith wrote that blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion programs has become a way of life for the Trump administration.
"After a midair plane crash in Washington in January, Donald Trump rushed to blame the crash on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk blamed the California wildfires on DEI. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blamed it for undermining the 'warrior ethos of our military.' Trump has even blamed DEI for concerns about college accreditation," Beckwith wrote.
Beckwith called DEI a "scapegoat of convenience" for the administration, even when its own policies may be causing the issue.
Regarding Social Security, which has been targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, "the Trump administration has made delays worse by offering buyouts, changing data and issuing constantly changing directives that panicked Social Security recipients so much that some began taking benefits early," Beckwith wrote.
And, although President Donald Trump vowed not to touch Social Security, Medicaid, or Medicare, something will have to give in order for Congress to pass Trump's "Big beautiful" spending bill.
'Blindsided': Experts say Trump threw major ally 'under the bus' with off-the-cuff remark
U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that Houthi rebels in Yemen "don't want to fight anymore," but that may be news to Israel, which has been engaging in retaliatory bombing of Yemen's main airport.
According to The New York Times, Tuesday's strikes that killed at least three people and injured more than 30, "came days after the Iran-backed Houthi militia fired a missile that struck near Israel’s main airport." During a question-and-answer session with reporters in the Oval Office with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said, "The Houthis have announced that they are not, or they announced to us at least, that they don't want to fight anymore... but, more importantly, we will take their word."
Trump continued, "They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore and that's what the purpose of what we were doing... so that's just news we just found out about that."
Amit Segal, who is described as "one of Israel top political commentators that is very close to [Israel's prime minister]" posted to social media, "Trump’s announcement that the US will stop attacking the Houthis is a resounding message to the entire region: attack Israel, just leave us Americans alone. If I were Iranian, that’s how I’d interpret it."
Israeli intelligence veteran Nadav Pollak wrote on X, "I’m sure Netanyahu feels blindsided tonight."
Ben Friedman of the Defense Priorities think tank posted, "Today Trump says Houthis capitulated so we'll stop bombing them. But yesterday the Houthis said they were expanding attacks on Israel. So either Trump is BSing or the US is throwing Israel under the bus by leaving them to deal with Houthis as long as they lay off shipping?"
Journalist Brian Krassenstein wrote that moments after Trump's statement, "the Houthis denied this and said that Trump's statement is not accurate. What a s--- show."
CNN's Juliette Kayyam, claimed, "The Israelis were apparently surprised."
Geopolitical risk analyst Gregory Brew wrote, "Declaring 'mission accomplished' and claiming Houthis have 'capitulated' after the US spent 2 month and approx. $1 billion to get the Houthis stop doing what they weren't doing anyway offers a glimpse into how this admin thinks about its foreign policy objectives."
Writer John Podhoretz wasn't buying any of it, writing, "You guys do realize Trump just made up that whole thing about the Houthis surrendering. Made it up. Out of thin air."
Pretty well hosed': Flight expert gives grim analysis of air traffic controller crisis
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Embraer ERJ-190AR airplane flies past the tower where air traffic controllers work. January 12, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
Newark Liberty International Airport continues to cause major headaches for travelers who are now worried about their safety.
At least five air traffic controllers had to take 45-day 'trauma leave' after equipment failures created chaos in the air and on the runway.
One air traffic controller was heard on released audio telling a pilot approaching the airport, "We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are."
CNN aviation expert Pete Muntean declared, "There is no end in sight right now," to the airport's problems, which have dragged on for more than a week. "To replace these controllers who are now out on trauma leave, [the FAA] can't drag and drop controllers from some other place. It's a very specialized job."
Muntean explained that some controllers for Newark Liberty are located at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control facility (TRACON), who can't make visual contact with planes.
"Controllers, they are essentially in this facility, stuck in a dark room with a radar scope and the radio. That's the only way they have to see airplanes and communicate with them," Muntean said. "This is not like controllers in a tower where they can look out a window and see what's going on. And, so, when they don't have those resources available to them, they are pretty well hosed. It's pretty hard for them to do this job. And, so, they're essentially doing the job blind. They need these resources, and this is something the FAA has to do in the immediate."
Muntean said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is planning an announcement Thursday, "Where the Trump administration will announce a wide-ranging revamp of the air traffic control system, because so many people agree here that the problem is the aging technology. That is the central issue."
Newark Liberty has cancelled some 800 flights since that equipment outage began last week.
Columbia University to lay off some 180 researchers amid Trump squeeze
Agence France-Presse May 6, 2025 Protesters at Columbia University demand the release of student activist Mahmoud Khalil. (AFP)
Columbia University said Tuesday it was laying off around 180 researchers amid a funding squeeze prompted by President Donald Trump's move to strip the Ivy League institution of $400 million.
Trump targeted Columbia as part of his campaign against elite US universities he claims are hotbeds of anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment, stripping them of funds and targeting their foreign students in response.
"Across the research portfolio we have had to make difficult choices and unfortunately, today, nearly 180 of our colleagues who have been working, in whole or in part, on impacted federal grants, will receive notices of non-renewal or termination," said a memo signed by Claire Shipman, Columbia's acting president.
"This represents about 20 percent of the individuals who are funded in some manner by the terminated grants." The update did not specify which research projects would be affected.
Columbia said it would seek to continue engaging with the federal government to press for the reinstatement of the funds.
Along with Columbia, Trump has focused his ire on Harvard, where he has already frozen $2.2 billion in grants.
Trump had demanded that Columbia accept external oversight, but the school stopped short of that with measures it announced to placate Trump in March.
Trump is on a fierce offensive against many major US institutions, attacking not just academia but also the news media, big law firms, the courts and other centers of American power as he issues executive orders to an unprecedented extent. His goal is to bring to heel institutions he sees as too liberal, or "woke."
Columbia’s student movement has been at the forefront of protests that have exposed deep rifts over the Gaza war.
Activists call them a show of support for the Palestinian people, while Trump condemns them as anti-Semitic, and says they must end.
The president cut $400 million in federal funding for Columbia -- including research grants and other contracts -- on the grounds that the institution had not adequately protected Jewish students from harassment.
Besides cuts to Columbia's federal funds, with more threatened, immigration officers targeted a leader of the campus pro-Palestinian protests, Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil, a US permanent resident with Palestinian roots and a graduate student at Columbia, was arrested by officers and has been held in Louisiana as he and his supporters fight the administration's attempt to deport him on grounds he is hindering US foreign policy.
SpaceX gets US approval to launch more Starship flights from Texas
Federal authorities will allow more rockets to be launched from the SpaceX launchpad on Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, Texas. (AFP)
Elon Musk's SpaceX on Tuesday received approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to increase the number of annual Starship rocket launches from five to 25 at its Texas base, marking a major boost for the company's ambitions.
Following a multi-year environmental review, the FAA concluded that the expanded cadence of launches and landings would not significantly affect the environment, overruling objections from conservation groups who warned the move could endanger species such as sea turtles and shorebirds.
Musk's massive campaign donations and close ties to US President Donald Trump have raised concerns over possible conflicts of interest, particularly given the influence of the Department of Government Efficiency -- an entity Musk led -- which exerts significant sway over federal agencies.
"The purpose of SpaceX's proposed action is to provide greater mission capability to NASA and the Department of Defense," the FAA said in its finding.
"SpaceX's activities would continue to fulfill the US expectation that increased capabilities and reduced space transportation costs will enhance exploration (including within the Artemis and Human Landing System programs), support US national security, and make space access more affordable."
The agency reviewed SpaceX's application across multiple criteria, including air quality, noise pollution, and impacts on historic buildings, as well as biological effects at the company's Starbase facility in southern Texas.
A couple weeks after winning the election, Trump visited the facility built by Musk, the world's richest person, who donated more than $270 million to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
That facility officially became Starbase City on Saturday, following an election involving 283 eligible voters -- most of whom were SpaceX employees or connected to the company.
The FAA noted that SpaceX was back in compliance after previous unpermitted water discharges associated with launch operations, which made it subject to state and federal enforcement.
It further stated that while launches and sonic booms could "startle" sensitive species, including shorebirds, the overall impact would be minimal.
Ahead of the decision, the public and environmental groups submitted numerous objections.
"In April 2023, a Super Heavy exploded during a failed launch attempt, raining boulder-sized chunks of concrete and flaming debris onto the wildlife refuge," Defenders of Wildlife and Audubon Texas wrote in a joint letter.
"Even a relatively uneventful launch in June 2024 propelled a high-velocity gravel plume that destroyed bird nests."
The groups also flagged potential impacts to critically endangered Rice's whales -- of which only a few dozen are thought to remain -- stemming from ocean landings.
Starship is key to Musk's long-term goal of colonizing Mars, and NASA is relying on a modified version of the vehicle to land astronauts on the Moon under its Artemis 3 mission.
To date, Starship has completed eight integrated test flights atop the Super Heavy booster, with four successes and four failures ending in explosions.
'Disaster!' Trump takes aim at 'woke' construction in lengthy rant on Obama library
Former President Barack Obama during the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States takes place inside the Capitol Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building. Kenny Holston/Pool via REUTERS
President Donald Trump launched a scathing tirade against former President Barack Obama’s presidential library, which he slammed as a “disaster” being built by “woke” construction workers.
“I think it’s bad for the presidency that a thing like that should happen," he said The off-script remarks came Tuesday during an Oval Office meeting with new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. While the two world leaders discussed tariffs and the relationship between the two countries in front of reporters, Trump veered into criticizing Obama’s library, which is being built in Chicago’s Jackson Park, according to CBS News.
“He’s building his library in Chicago. It's a disaster," Trump said. "And he said something to the effect, 'I only want DEI, I only want woke.' He wants woke people to build it. Well, he got woke people, and they have massive cost overruns. The job is stopped. I don't know, it's a disaster."
Trump, who built his career in real estate, said he would help if asked. “He’s got a library that’s a disaster,” the MAGA leader said Tuesday.
"If he wanted help, I'd give him help because I’m a really good builder and I build on time, on budget,” Trump said.
He added, “He wanted to be very politically correct, and he didn't use good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love."
Trump went on to claim that Obama’s library project is “like millions of dollars, many, many — I mean, really, many millions of dollars over budget.”
“It was not built in a professional manner,” the president concluded.
Trump's toadies are peddling a dangerous lie to America's working class
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures on stage during a rally at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. October 18, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Trump and his billionaire toadies like Howard Lutnik and Scott Bessent are peddling a dangerous lie to working-class Americans. They’re strutting around claiming their tariffs will bring back “good paying jobs” with “great benefits,” while actively undermining the very thing that made manufacturing jobs valuable to working people in the first place: unions.
Let’s be crystal clear about what’s really happening: Without strong unions, bringing manufacturing back to America will simply create more sweatshop opportunities where desperate workers earn between $7.25 and $15 an hour with zero benefits and zero security.
The only reason manufacturing jobs like my father had at a tool-and-die shop in the 1960s paid well enough to catapult a single-wage-earner family into the middle class was because they had a union — the Machinists’ Union, in my dad’s case — fighting relentlessly for their rights and dignity.
My father’s union job meant we owned a modest home, had reliable healthcare, and could attend college without crushing debt. The manufacturing jobs Trump promises? Starvation wages without healthcare while corporate profits soar and executives buy their third megayacht.
The proof of their deception is written all over their actions: They’re already reconfiguring the Labor Department into an anti-worker weapon designed to crush any further unionization in America.
Joe Biden was also working to revive American manufacturing — with actual success — but he made it absolutely clear that companies benefiting from his Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act should welcome unions in exchange for government support.
Trump and his GOP enablers want the opposite: docile workers grateful for poverty wages.
While Republicans babble endlessly about “job creators,” they fundamentally misunderstand — or deliberately obscure — how a nation’s true wealth is actually generated.
It’s not through Wall Street speculation or billionaire tax breaks. It’s through making things of value; the exact activity their donor class has eagerly shipped overseas for decades while pocketing the difference.
There’s a profound economic reason to bring manufacturing home that Adam Smith laid out in 1776 and Alexander Hamilton amplified in 1791 when he presented his vision for turning America into a manufacturing powerhouse. It’s the fundamental principle behind Smith’s book “The Wealth of Nations” that I explain in detail in The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America.
A tree limb lying on the forest floor has zero economic value. But apply human labor by whittling it into an axe handle, and you’ve created something valuable. That “added value” — the result of applying human (or machine) labor to raw materials — is wealth added to the nation, often lasting for generations if the product endures. Axes made in the 17th century are still being sold in America; manufacturing can produce wealth that truly lasts generations.
Manufacturing, in other words, is the only true way a country becomes wealthier. It’s why China transformed from the impoverished nation I witnessed firsthand when I lived and studied there in 1986 to the economic juggernaut it is today. It’s why Japan and South Korea emerged from the devastation of war to become industrial powerhouses within decades.
This is not generally true, by the way, of a service economy, the system that Reagan and Clinton told us would give us “clean jobs” as America abandoned manufacturing in the 1980-2000s era.
If I give you a $50 haircut and you give me a $50 massage — a service economy — we’ve merely shuffled money around while the nation’s overall wealth remains unchanged. But build a factory producing solar panels, and you’ve created something from raw materials that generates power for decades: that’s real wealth that didn’t exist before.
Republicans used to understand this basic economic principle before they sold their souls to Wall Street speculators and foreign dictators who shower them with “investments.”
Service-only economies don’t generate wealth; they just recirculate existing money. This fundamental truth is the strongest argument for rebuilding American manufacturing capacity, yet it’s one that economists and political commentators almost never mention. Trump certainly doesn’t grasp it — or care — as he hawks Chinese-made MAGA hats while pretending to champion American workers.
The hypocrisy is staggering. This is the same Donald Trump whose branded clothing lines were manufactured in China, Mexico, and Bangladesh. The same Republican Party that pushed “free trade” deals for decades that gutted American manufacturing communities. Now they’re suddenly tariff champions? Please.
So yes, let’s use thoughtfully designed tariffs and other trade policies to bring manufacturing back to our shores. Let Congress debate and pass these measures with 3- to 10-year phase-in periods so manufacturers can plan their transition to American production without the chaos of Trump changing his mind every time some foreign dictator slips another million into his back pocket.
But don’t be fooled for one second: the GOP’s plan to resurrect American manufacturing while continuing their war on unions is nothing but a cynical ploy to create an army of desperate, low-wage workers with no power to demand their fair share.
It’s not “Making America Great Again” — it’s making America into exactly what their corporate donors have always wanted: a docile workforce with no voice, no protections, and nowhere else to go.
We need manufacturing AND unions. Anything less is just another con job from the party that’s perfected the art of getting working class Americans to vote against their own economic interests.
WWIII
India launches strikes on Pakistan as Islamabad vows retaliation
India fired missiles at Pakistani territory early Wednesday in a major escalation of tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals, as Islamabad vowed retaliation.
The Indian government said it had attacked nine sites, describing them as "precision strikes at terrorist camps" in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region.
Pakistan's army said three locations had been targeted, citing two in Pakistani-run Kashmir and one in Bahawalpur, a city in the country's most populous province of Punjab, bordering India.
AFP correspondents in Pakistani-run Kashmir and Punjab heard several loud explosions.
"We will retaliate at the time of our choosing," said Pakistani military spokesman Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, calling the strikes a "heinous provocation."
India had been widely expected to respond militarily to the attack on tourists in Kashmir last month by militants which it has said were from Pakistani group Lakshar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
The assault left 26 people dead.
New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures.
Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army.
Wednesday's missile strikes are a dangerous heightening of friction between the South Asian neighbours, who have fought multiple wars since they were carved out of British colonial India in 1947.
For days the international community has piled pressure on Pakistan and India to step back from the brink of war.
"We continue to urge Pakistan and India to work towards a responsible resolution that maintains long-term peace and regional stability in South Asia," US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday, hours before the strikes. - Insurgency -
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said India will "identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer" who carried out the attack at Pahalgam in Kashmir last month.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three suspects -- two Pakistanis and an Indian -- who they say belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Pakistani military has said it has launched two missile tests in recent days, including of a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 kilometres (280 miles) -- about the distance from the Pakistan border to New Delhi.
India is set to hold several civil defence drills Wednesday preparing people to "protect themselves in the event of a hostile attack".
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected in New Delhi on Wednesday, two days after talks in Islamabad with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Tehran has offered to mediate between the two nations, and Araghchi will be first senior foreign diplomat to visit both countries since the April 22 attack sent relations plunging.
Rebels in Indian-run Kashmir have waged an insurgency since 1989, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan.
India regularly blames its neighbour for backing gunmen behind the insurgency. - 'Act of war' -The strikes came just hours after Modi said that water flowing across India's borders would be stopped. Pakistan had warned that tampering with the rivers that flow from India into its territory would be an "act of war."
Modi did not mention Islamabad specifically, but his speech came after New Delhi suspended its part of the 65-year-old Indus Waters Treaty, which governs water critical to Pakistan for consumption and agriculture.
"India's water used to go outside, now it will flow for India," Modi said in a speech in New Delhi.
'Don't see how this is possible': Expert slams Trump's push to resettle white Afrikaners
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators hold placards in support of U.S. President Donald Trump's stance against what he calls racist laws, land expropriation, and farm attacks, outside the American Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, February 15, 2025. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo/File Photo
An immigration law expert is suspicious of President Donald Trump's reported new efforts to resettle white South Africans into the United States.
Trump signed a controversial executive order in February extending refugee status to Afrikaners, a move long desired by white supremacists and that appears to have been a pet issue of Trump's longtime ally and South African immigrant Elon Musk, who has said that country's government has enacted racist policies against the group responsible for Apartheid.
But a new report by The Lever suggests these efforts could be taking a dramatic new step, even as the Trump administration has essentially shut down the refugee resettlement program for everyone else.
"The first group of Dutch-descended Afrikaners is scheduled to arrive in the United States imminently, and they will be receiving emergency support from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the memo, which was signed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and Office of Refugee Resettlement assistant secretary Andrew Gradison," reported Katya Schwenk.
American Immigration Council attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, however, expressed doubts about this whole thing in a post on X.
"I am skeptical," he wrote. "I don't see how this is legally or even physically possible; the refugee resettlement organizations which are necessary to complete this process have been iced out completely and people would need to be screened by Refugee Officers before they could come."
Trump's executive order back in February raised eyebrows because it focused not just on South Africa's new land expropriation policy, but on "violent attacks" on white farmers, which echoes longstanding white nationalist conspiracy theories pushed by Tucker Carlson and others on the far right that there is a plot to ethnically cleanse white people from the nation.
