CHANGE: NASA to look for new options to carry out Mars Sample Return program.

NASA will seek “out of the box” ideas in a bid to reduce the costs and shorten the schedule for returning samples from Mars.

In an April 15 briefing, agency officials announced they would solicit proposals from NASA centers and from industry on “innovative designs” to reshape its Mars Sample Return (MSR) effort after an internal review confirmed the ballooning costs of the overall program.

That review found that the current program would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion, the same range offered by an independent assessment completed last September. To fit that into the overall planetary science budget without affecting other programs would delay the return of samples from the early 2030s to 2040.

“The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the briefing.

By 2040, some helpful resident of Elon City might mail back a sample via SpaceXpress.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Glocusent LED Neck Reading Light, Book Light for Reading in Bed. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: While Biden’s World Burns, Dems Froth Over Trump’s Kangaroo Trials. “The rogue’s gallery of scofflaw prosecutors and judges they’ve put together have kept the fantasy alive for now. Legal precedent be damned, these commies are just making up the law as they go along.”

THREAD:

(Thread) In reaction to Florida’s DEI ban, FSU is renaming its DEI office the Office of Equal Opportunity Compliance and Engagement. That’s cute, but they gave me an idea. https://t.co/2mn4cDRYgR

— David Mastio (@DavidMastio) April 16, 2024

TYRANNY IN BELGIUM: Police Shut Down Nigel Farage Speech.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Biden’s Middle East policy is beyond parody. “Is this ineptitude, or is it corruption? As the girl in the taco commercials says, ‘Why not both?'”

GOODER AND HARDER, GERMANY: German minister threatens ‘indefinite driving bans’ on weekends.

The federal coalition government, made up of the center-left Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats, has been at odds for months over issues including a payment card for refugees, Germany’s debt brake and, lately, elephants.

The planned amendment to the emissions-reduction law allows climate goals to be reviewed for compliance by looking at all sectors together instead of individually. If the overall target is missed two years in a row, then the federal government is to decide in which sector and with which measures the permitted total amount of carbon dioxide emissions is to be achieved by 2030.

If the planned reforms are not passed through parliament by July 15, Wissing warned, the Ministry for Digital and Transport would be obliged to submit an “immediate action program that ensures compliance with the annual emission levels of the transport sector” until 2030 — which would include a driving ban on weekends.

Environmental organizations — including Greenpeace, the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation BUND, and Fridays for Future — criticize the planned abolition of individual sector targets. They fear that an overall calculation obscures the impact of certain sectors — especially the traffic sector, which frequently doesn’t meet targets.

“This claim is simply wrong,” Green parliamentary group leader Julia Verlinden told the German Press Agency, referring to Wissing’s threat of a weekend driving ban. She added that Wissing should not aggravate people unnecessarily because there are other ways to tackle climate issues, such as a speed limit.

It’s nice to see that there are lines that the German Green party won’t (yet?) cross, but I’m not sure they’ll find many friends on the country’s autobahns if they try to impose a speed limit.

SALENA ZITO: The politics of steel are center stage in Pennsylvania.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Switzerland Signs Artemis Accords.

IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH ALL THESE RIDICULOUS CHARGES WERE JUST ANOTHER WAY FOR DEMOCRATS TO RIG THE ELECTION: Judge Merchan Threatens Trump With Arrest. “The judge is essentially preventing Trump from campaigning for president.”

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Ex-TikTok Employee Says He Was Ordered To Send US Data to China.

WHEN THE LAW NO LONGER DEFENDS PROPERTY, PEOPLE WILL: Real estate mogul concerned how Americans will deal with squatters: ‘Something really bad is going to happen.’

They bought a property. They believe in the American dream. They wanted to get ahead. And the American dream became the American nightmare because somebody took what was theirs and the law was on the criminal’s side. It’s a scary place to be,” Meaike said.

Meaike, who went on to build fruitful business in waste management and life insurance after thriving in real estate, said that he began investing rental properties in his early 20s as a way to add additional income. He eventually accumulated hundreds of properties, launching him into a successful career as a serial entrepreneur who has earned generational wealth. But nowadays, when people have the ability to break into a rental property and law enforcement isn’t able to help, it’s much more difficult to rely on an investment property.

“How many amazing Middle American families decided to pull together $40,000, put it as a down payment on two or three family home, and then somebody who doesn’t have any regard for any other human being breaks in and lives there,” Meaike said. “Now, what’s going to start happening?”

Nothing good but certainly inevitable.

THE MORE HE RECOVERS FROM HIS BRAIN DAMAGE, THE LESS HE SOUNDS LIKE A DEMOCRAT: Fetterman: Biden Panders to the Fringe As He Distances U.S. From Israel.

THINGS NOT HAPPENING IN FLORIDA: Road-blocking protests. “‘If you riot, if you loot, if you harm others, particularly if you harm a law enforcement officer during one of these violent assemblies, you’re going to jail.’ — Governor DeSantis.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE:  I’m a doctor — and here’s what I want you to know about concussions.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: They chant it before they know what it means. Then someone asks what it means. And they chant it again when they know what it means. “Anti-war” activists learn “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Farsi.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Would You Like a Lesson on Free Markets With Your Clothesline From Hell?

MY FRIEND IS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS. I’M LESS SO, BECAUSE KIDS LEARNED TO READ FOR CENTURIES WITHOUT ANY SCIENCE. MOSTLY WE NEED TEACHERS OUT OF THE WAY:  Kansas Blueprint for Literacy requires ‘science of reading’ in comprehensive education reform.

But he says it’s a good thing and I’m willing to trust him. Has to be better than what we have.

REMEMBER WHEN DEMOCRATS JUMPED ALL OVER REAGAN FOR BEING ‘SENILE’? GOOD TIMES, GOOD TIMES:  Biden cheat sheet for Iraq PM meeting caught on camera — including instructions to ‘pause’.

WINNING FRIENDS AND INFLUENCING PEOPLE:  Hundreds of anti-Israeli protesters wreak havoc in downtown NYC, disrupt bridge traffic as cops make arrests.

IRAN MANAGES INTERNAL ISSUES:  Iran state TV uses footage of crazed One Direction fans to show ‘Israelis panicking’ after missile attacks.

‘TAKE THE WIN’ – AND SHOVE IT DOWN THE MULLAHS’ CRAWS:  Israel prepares air force to hit Iran ‘clearly and forcefully’ in response to missile barrage: report.

LET THE GOP TAKE NOTE: THE TORIES HAVE BEEN SO BAD THAT NOT EVEN LABOUR’S RECORD WILL SAVE THEM:  Labour’s Metro Mayors and seven years of dismal failure.

NOTHING TO SEE HEAR, IGNORE THIS DISINFORMATION*:  Massive cancer deaths study vindicates my warnings over covid boosters.

*Disinformation meaning: Inconvenient (to the “elites”) news.

THEIR EFFORTS TO HIDE IT ARE NEARLY AS INCOMPETENT AS THEIR EFFORTS SELLING THOSE VACCINES – IT’S LIKE THEIR WHOLE PURPOSE IS TO MAKE US EAT THOSE LIES:  The vast scale of vaccine damage America tried (and failed) to hide.