BLOVIATING ABOUT THE TEXAS BORDER CRISIS: I believe that this moment will go down in the history books as the beginning of the Texit movement. My sense is that Gov Abbott is doing this to lay the groundwork for pressuring the Texas legislation to put a secession referendum on the ballot. Until then, the best course of action is malicious compliance with court rulings in concert with more and different deterrents to border crossing.

LIKING THE CUT OF THEIR JIB: As a result of this pants-shitting article about a pro property-rights bill in KY, I learned about these fine people who apparently wrote the model legislation upon which the KY bill was based. “We develop and fight for policies at the state level that restore liberty, accountability, and innovation in American governance.” I touched myself just a little when I read that.

TOTALLY NOT AN ORBITING DEATH BEAM: NASA study says clean, space-based solar power beaming is possible. “The idea is to use huge solar arrays parked in space to collect and beam solar [generated electrical] energy down to remote ground stations on Earth via focused microwaves.” An unholy alliance between the tech bros and the greens, and the deep state pops a chub at the possibility of coopting this technology to destroy its enemies. There is a ray of  hope, though – the greens are generally hostile towards space technology, and some of them fear microwaves to the point that they employ magic talismans against them. (h/t Neph for making me aware of this Luddite tomfoolery)

SPACE-X SEEKS TO EXPAND TEXAS LAUNCH FACILITY: Seeks to do land swap with adjacent Texas park. Might come in handy if Texas secedes and Musk decides to become part of that.

HOW TARDIGRADES GO INTO SUSPENDED ANIMATION: Link to archive since article is behind a wall.

NASA BANGS KNIFE HANDLE ON LID TO OPEN JAR:  Ok, not really, but they finally got the sample container from the asteroid mission open without contaminating the sample.