March 17, 2026

PANSPERMIA: Asteroid Ryugu Contains All 5 DNA and RNA Building Blocks, Study Shows.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa2 mission in 2014, sending a spacecraft on a 186-million-mile (300-million-kilometer) journey to Ryugu. One year after reaching the asteroid in 2018, the spacecraft landed on its surface and fired a projectile into it. Hayabusa2’s “catcher” then gathered up the chunks of ejected debris, and the spacecraft carried them back to Earth.

Astronomers have run many analyses of the Ryugu samples since then, but Koga and his colleagues are the first to find all five nucleobases inside them. The researchers studied samples that were collected and curated under strictly controlled conditions and conducted their analysis in a cleanroom to further prevent contamination. They also ran tests to confirm the molecules formed on Ryugu rather than coming from Earth.

Fascinating.

Posted at 2:49 pm by Stephen Green

THE REVOLUTION DEVOURS ITS OWN:

Flashback: “[T]here is no sign of the humour industry taking the side of traditional morality, patriotism or civility. The best it can do is dignify itself with noisy and public collections for sentimental and prominent charity. Once you step beyond the fringe, you sooner or later find yourself in very wild country indeed.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

BELIEVE THEM WHEN THEY TELL YOU WHO THEY ARE, PARTICULARLY WHEN THEY DO IT EVERY TIME, GOING BACK DECADES:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

DOMESTIC ABUSE: Jerry O’Connell claims wife, daughters ‘became physical’ after his comments about Harris losing to Trump:

“I said something along the lines of ‘there was no planning. This is what they get. There should have been a primary.’ I said something along those lines, you know, like I was just spit-balling ideas. It was a shock. My wife and daughters, without saying anything, became physical with me. They were filled with rage,” O’Connell said.

He continued, “So if I am being careful with you in how I say things, yes, I live in California. I live with not one, not two, but three people who, if I made any kind of joke, they’d become very angry with me.”

Luckily, we have he-man Bill Maher to teach O’Connell how to stand up for himself:

“Whatever household situation I’m in, I say what I truly think, and if it makes you angry, I’m sorry. We’ll have to work that out. But I am not going to tuck my tail between my legs and just shut the f— up,” Maher said.

O’Connell needs to pick up a copy of my new book and learn to set some boundaries with the abusive women in his house.

Posted at 2:01 pm by Helen Smith

DATA REPUBLICAN: Data Analysis of the State of the Iranian Conflict on March 16, 2026.

PART A: THE US ENDGAME

Why this is America First, not Israel First.

  • Energy: The US is a net petroleum exporter. At $100+ Brent, US shale producers benefit. The US saves approximately $250 million per day compared to Asia and Europe on energy costs during the war. [CONFIRMED — Forbes, March 16]
  • China hurt directly: China was purchasing ~90% of Iran’s sanctioned oil — ~1.7 million barrels/day at deeply discounted prices. That supply is now disrupted. China’s teapot refineries face acute shortages. A direct strategic blow to a US competitor.
  • Taiwan deterrence signal: Chinese intelligence watched B-2s deliver GBU-57s against hardened targets successfully. The US capability to rapidly close an adversary’s entire air defense network, then strike freely — that signal is unambiguous. PLA is studying the campaign. [CONFIRMED — Taiwan News]
  • Dollar hegemony: The post-1973 global financial architecture rests on oil priced in dollars, with US security guaranteeing the flow. Saudi Arabia was exploring yuan oil pricing in 2023. The 2026 Iran war — demonstrating US willingness to use force to keep the system functioning — sends a specific signal to Riyadh about which security relationship is structural. [CONFIRMED — Hindustan Times]
  • What winning looks like: Iran agrees to verifiable nuclear dismantlement and ends proxy funding, from a position of economic and military weakness. No ground invasion, no occupation, no nation-building.
  • Cost comparison: The Iraq War cost ~$2.4 trillion; Afghanistan ~$2.3 trillion (Brown University). Both were driven by ground deployment, force protection, and nation-building. The Iran air campaign runs almost entirely on munitions already procured and carrier strike groups already forward-deployed. [CONFIRMED — CRS;Brown University Watson Institute]

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

SAIL ON: Aircraft carrier Nimitz service life extended until 2027.

Amid the strain of extended deployments, the Navy told Breaking Defense it has officially decided to keep its oldest active aircraft carrier in the water a little longer, prolonging the service life of the USS Nimitz to March 2027.

A service official revealed the change late Friday, pushing back previous plans to mothball the ship this May.

Extending the Nimitz’s service life means that the Navy could maintain its fleet of 11 carriers. The service is awaiting its newest aircraft carrier, the second Ford-class John F. Kennedy, which is currently slated for delivery in March 2027.

The Nimitz departed Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington on March 7 to head to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia as part of a scheduled homeport shift for the remainder of its service life. It will then undergo its inactivation and defueling of the reactor at HII in Newport News.

Nimitz was the first of the class of 10 carriers that basically defined American power projection for five decades.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Stephen Green

SUCH ERRORS DO NOT HAPPEN ORGANICALLY:

Posted at 12:34 pm by Glenn Reynolds

I POSTED SOMETHING ON THIS YESTERDAY, BEFORE WE KNEW THE REST OF THE STORY:

Posted at 12:27 pm by Stephen Green

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST: Israel Eliminates Iranian Regime Security Chief and De Facto Leader Ali Larijani.

Israeli forces killed the Iranian regime’s security chief and de facto leader, Ali Larijani, in a Tuesday morning airstrike that has the potential to foment greater chaos within the Islamic Republic’s remaining leadership.

The IDF announced that Larijani was killed through “a precise strike” on his location near Tehran.

“His elimination adds to the elimination of dozens of senior commanders and leaders of the Iranian terror regime, who were eliminated by the IDF during Operation Roaring Lion, and constitutes a further blow to the Iranian regime’s abilities to manage and coordinate hostile activity against the State of Israel,” the IDF wrote in its statement.

After Ali Khamenei’s death, Larijani emerged as the country’s de facto leader, consolidating his power and overseeing combat operations against Israel and other Arab nations in the region. Along with his brother, Sadeq, Larijani waged outsized influence in the Iranian leadership and positioned himself as a successor after Khamenei’s death. He also served as secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, the body that orchestrated attacks on Israel and led efforts to violently suppress the Iranian people.

Curiously, employees of the New York Times and the BBC are taking his demise rather hard:

 

Posted at 12:25 pm by Ed Driscoll

MEANWHILE, OVER AT X…:

Full text:

I’ve read the poetry of Jim Morrison; the columns of Maureen Dowd; the backs of countless boxes of Boo Berry Cereal; the 1988 Libertarian, Republican and Democrat political platforms in their entireties; the works of various Brontë sisters; particularly heartfelt lines from love letters I wrote to my high school sweetheart; I even read George Friedman’s The Coming War with Japan — which he wrote in 1991.

These are the credentials you need to know when I tell you: In the 54 years since I learned to read, I have read some really stupid shit.

But I have never read anything quite so stupid as your post.

And since BBC “presenter” John Simpson chose to delete the post rather than defend it, here it is:

Posted at 12:06 pm by Stephen Green

THE LEFT IS GOING INSANE ABOUT THE COMING DOWNFALL OF CUBA:

The Cuban government is on its last legs, begging for help from the Trump administration, if you can believe that.

Guess who is hardest hit by the coming collapse?

Greta Thunberg and the internationalist left, that’s who. These eco- and social-justice warriors are demanding oil for Cuba!

The global left is losing all its favorite regimes, and it is driving them absolutely crazy. Suddenly, they are all about increasing oil consumption, demanding American capitalists save a communist country from collapse, so that the communists can use it as a base to destroy…evil capitalism.

Exit quote: “This is what I voted for. Four years is not enough to completely dismantle the global left and the internationalist world order, but it sure is a good start that Trump is making. By the end of 2026, we may see Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran freed. Unfortunately, it will take longer to free the rest of us.”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll