Christmas cheer 'n stuff 'n whatnot

Merry Christmas to all!!

From Those Whacky Physicists 

Are At It Again Files

A website, maybe called Science Daily 24x7, posted a breakthrough in control of itty bitty, very tiny, little things. For example, like a single molecule. Unknown website writes:

Scientists turn single molecule clockwise

or counterclockwise on demand

Controlling the rotation of this molecule could lead to new technologies for microelectronics, quantum computing and more.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory report they can precisely rotate a single molecule that small on demand. The key ingredient is a single atom of europium, a rare earth element. It rests at the center of a complex of different atoms and gives the molecule many potential applications.

"We are able to rotate this europium complex by 60 or 120 degrees to the right or left," said Saw Wai Hla, physicist at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne, and a physics professor at Ohio University. "The ability to control the motion of a rare earth complex such as this could impact a wide spectrum of technologies." That includes next generation microelectronics, quantum technologies, catalysis to speed up reactions, conversion of light into electricity and more.

The term "rare earth" is deceptive. The rare earth elements are not exactly rare but are critical materials used in many electronic devices, such as cellular phones, computer hard drives, solar panels and flat screen monitors. 

Scanning tunneling microscopy image of a 

rotating europium (Eu) complex on a gold sheet 

The dark spot in disc indicates the single Eu atom

From The Endless Abortion Wars Files:

Plan B: Is it an abortion or something else?

This one is pretty interesting. It points to the sometimes life and death importance of getting facts straight. The NYT writes:

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday significantly changed the information that will be in every box of the most widely used emergency contraceptive pills to make clear that they do not prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. The agency explained in an accompanying document that the products cannot be described as abortion pills.

Up to now, packages of the brand-name pill, Plan B One-Step, as well as generic versions of it have said that the pill might work by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb — language that scientific evidence did not support. That wording led some abortion opponents and politicians who equate a fertilized egg with a person to say that taking the morning-after pill could be the equivalent of having an abortion or even committing murder.

The F.D.A. revised the leaflets inserted in packages of pills to say that the medication “works before release of an egg from the ovary,” meaning that it acts before fertilization, not after. The package insert also says the pill “will not work if you’re already pregnant, and will not affect an existing pregnancy.” 

In a question-and-answer document posted on the F.D.A.’s website, the agency explicitly addressed the abortion issue. In answer to the question, “Is Plan B One-Step able to cause an abortion?” the agency writes: “No.” It added: “Plan B One-Step prevents pregnancy by acting on ovulation, which occurs well before implantation. Evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of pregnancy after implantation, therefore, it does not terminate a pregnancy.”  

Students for Life of America, which earlier this year posted an Instagram video with a caption saying “Plan B can cause an abortion. It’s right there on the box,” said in an email on Friday that it rejected the F.D.A.’s new language on the science of the pills.

“For years we’ve been saying that the packaging indicated abortions could take place,” the organization said. “Their answer is to just change the box.”  

By 2007, evidence was accumulating that morning-after pills did not block implantation. In 2009 to 2010, during discussions about making Plan B available over the counter for all ages, Teva also asked that implantation be deleted from the label.

Although blind anti-abortion zealots will not accept the fact that Plan B does not cause an abortion, that fact is too inconvenient to be accepted. Plan B is in fact a contraceptive, not an abortion-inducing medication. Why it took the FDA this long to get its facts straight points to either inexcusable incompetence and/or intentional sabotage by anti-abortion zealots in the agency as the most likely culprits. The FDA claims some baloney excuse about COVID. The real reason(s) is something we will probably never know for sure. After all, we're just mushrooms. 

Are mushrooms a vegetable?

Gotta get the minions on this one right away

From the 1/6 Committee Files:

Oh Goody! Republican sleaze is 

oozing out into public view!

The AP writes about those fake electors that Republican fascist elites tried to pass off as real electors to help subvert the 2020 presidential election:

New transcripts of closed-door testimony to the Jan. 6 House committee show Donald Trump and his allies had a direct hand in the Nevada Republican Party’s scheme to send a phony electoral certificate to Congress in 2020 in a last-ditch attempt to keep the former president in power.

The documents made public Wednesday evening included interviews with state party leader Michael McDonald and Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid in February. Both men served as fake electors in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020.

McDonald and DeGraffenreid invoked Fifth Amendment protection hundreds of times in their separate interviews with the Jan. 6 committee, refusing to answer questions about their involvement and the extent to which Trump’s top allies had helped in orchestrating the plot.

On Nov. 4, 2020, for example, the day after the election, McDonald had a conference call with Trump, his then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani and son Eric Trump.

“They want full attack mode,” McDonald later wrote in a text message describing that call. “We’re gonna have a war room meeting in about an hour.”

Those documents, detailed at length in the transcripts, included text messages, emails and internal memorandums distributed by the national GOP arm; handwritten charts, templates for press releases and the phony certificate itself; and talking points “explaining the rationale for the electors.”

Valiant patriots is not what comes to mind here. Crooks, liars, traitors, bums, hypocrites, thugs and fascist tyrants are feelings that float gently to mind in this season of joy and . . . . . forgiveness? Nah, not forgiveness.

Republican fascist tyrant 

Michael McDonald

The GOP tried its best to shield him from

the light of public scrutiny 

Republican fascist tyrant 

Jim DeGraffenreid

The GOP tried its best to shield him from

the light of public scrutiny 

More from the 1/6 Committee Files:

Oh Goody! More Republican sleaze is 

oozing out into public view!

A WaPo opinion piece writes about the glue that holds Trumplandians together. It is not a nice glue at all. It is a nasty glue. The WaPo writes:

Cassidy Hutchinson knew better than to put herself in debt to what she called “Trump world.” As she would later testify, “Once you are looped in, especially financially with them, there is no turning back.”

The deadline for turning over documents was looming, and Hutchinson was, she said, “starting to freak out.” One lawyer she consulted said he could assist — then demanded a $150,000 retainer.

So, the young aide, out of work since Trump had left office a full year earlier, initially decided to turn to Trump world for help. Which is how she came to receive a phone call from Stefan Passantino, previously a lawyer in the Trump White House counsel’s office.

“We have you taken care of,” he told Hutchinson. When she asked who would be paying the bills, Passantino demurred — this despite legal ethics rules that let attorneys accept payment from third parties but only with the “informed consent” of their client.

“If you want to know at the end, we’ll let you know, but we’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now,” Hutchinson, in her deposition, recalled him saying. “Like, you’re never going to get a bill for this, so if that’s what you’re worried about.”

If Hutchinson’s live testimony before the select committee was riveting, her deposition testimony, taken several months later and released Thursday, is a page-turner: The Godfather meets John Grisham meets "All the President’s Men." Before, we could only imagine how frightening the situation must have been for the 20-something Trump staffer. Now, we can read of her frantic search for help, and her terror as she contemplated telling the truth.

One thing that bears mention here is how Trumplandia can trap people and subvert or corrupt them. Trumplanders try to get a person to cross a line, usually by breaking a law, incurring serious financial debt or by bribery. Taking a bribe is usually illegal. Once the line is crossed, Trumpland elites can then blackmail the person who crossed the line. 

IMO, that is what Passantino's offer of free legal help to Hutchinson amounted to. Once she took the offer, her attorney would advise her to lie to the 1/6 Committee, for example, using the always popular "I don't recall" lie or the "5th" (5th Amendment) shield against self-incrimination. Hutchinson understood the danger and refused temptation to fall into the clutches of fascist Trumplanders. That left her free to be honest in her testimony to the 1/6 Committee.

So when any Republican now attacks Hutchinson as a liar or a self-serving traitor, it is defensible to reject the attack as a fascist Republican lie unless there is ample evidence to support it. From what I can tell, there will never be ample evidence to undermine Hutchinson. Trumpland fascists will have to either fabricate evidence or just fall back on the KYMS propaganda tactic.

KYMS = keep your mouth shut

Cassidy Hutchinson - an actual Republican patriot 

and a woman with real guts and real moral values

Stefan Passantino - another Republican fascist 

and a thoroughly morally rotted man

Trump Lawyer Suing Over Georgia Votes 

Is Tied To Extremists & Controversies