SCOTUS RULES RACE-BASED COLLEGE ADMISSIONS UNCONSTITUTIONAL: Another good ruling from the current SCOTUS. Not that this will change anything. Universities announced weeks ago that they are already planning end-runs around this ruling. So, just like Bruen, it will be a moral victory, and the SOBs will keep doing the same things.

DUNE SHACK, BABY, DUNE SHACK: Park Service evicts Provincetown artist from “dune shack” after 80 years. Provincetown leaders worry the character of the shacks will be diminished if they are leased only to wealthy, high bidders. LOL. But did he sing sea chanteys [NSFW lyrics and drunken hooliganism] in his seaside shanty?

CITY USES FEDERAL COVID RELIEF FUNDS FOR GUN BUYBACK PROGRAM: “A gun buyback program is not going to change much,” VCU professor and law enforcement expert William Pelfrey said. “The people who bring guns in are not likely to be people who are criminals. The guns that come off the street are not likely to be used in a major crime event.” Yet later in the article Pelfrey pulls out the old, tired “if it saves even one life” trope. What if the life saved is that of a home invader, professor?

FINLAND MAN: On March 18, 1944, 27-year-old Aimo Koivunen and his Finnish ski unit were in Lapland, Finland’s northernmost region, when they were attacked by superior Soviet forces. Forced to retreat through deep snow, Koivunen found himself exhausted. He remembered he had a supply of Pervitin, an early form of crystal meth used in World War 2… We have questions about the “crystal” part, and about war propaganda in general, but still.

SPACEX DECIDES TO HOT-STAGE STARSHIP: And what is hot-staging you ask? Is it what aerospace engineers call a dutch oven? No, it’s when you ignite the second stage engines before the second stage separates from the first stage. The Russians have been doing it for years.

MARS SAMPLE RETRIEVAL MISSION COSTS SKYROCKET: In a June 26 statement to SpaceNews, NASA said that one “highly speculative” estimate for the full cost of MSR was in the range of $8 billion to $9 billion. An independent review in 2020 estimated the cost of MSR at $3.8 billion to $4.4 billion, which itself was a significant increase over earlier estimates. The MSR mission was originally supposed to use an ESA-supplied rover to collect the samples, but NASA decided last summer to go with helicopter retrieval.