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Seth Meyers Wants to Help You Communicate With Cool Teens This Christmas https://nym.ag/2EwkXyr

Red cup
My photos https://www.paolodalprato.com/galleries

The U.S. Senate's top Republican and Democratic leaders began negotiating Tuesday (Dec 18) after the White House indicated President Donald #Trump does not want a federal #governmentshutdown over his demand for $5bn US for the border wall with Mexico. Without a resolution, more than 800,000 government workers could be furloughed or sent to work without pay, disrupting government operations days before the Christmas holiday. Democratic leader #NancyPelosi called it a 'good sign' that the #WhiteHouse appeared to be backing off its demands.

The White House showed a willingness to budge earlier Tuesday as it became apparent the president does not have support in #Congress for funding the wall at the $5bn level he wants. While Trump said last week he would be 'proud' to have a shutdown over the wall funding, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday said are 'other ways' to secure the $5bn that he wants.


#WorldEconomy #AmericanPolitics #POTUS #Politics #AmericanPoliticians #America #GOP #Republicans #TrumpAdministration #RepublicanParty #USEconomy
U.S. leaders start talks to avert government shutdown after Trump backs off threat
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/politics-sanders-shutdown-trump-congress-1.4950673

An international team of astronomers has discovered the furthest object ever detected in the Solar System. Nicknamed “Farout”, it’s a small round object with a pinkish hue located 17.95 billion kilometers (11.15 billion miles) from the Sun. The color is common in ice-rich objects.

Its official designation is 2018 VG18 and it is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter. It's the first object discovered further than 100 astronomical units (AU) from our star, with 1 AU being the Earth-Sun distance. Farout is at a distance of 120 AU, significantly further out than dwarf planet Eris, which is at 96 AU. Pluto, by comparison, is at 34 AU.

The object was discovered in images taken with the Japanese Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10. Follow-up observations to confirm the distance were conducted in December from Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

“All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its color,” co-discoverer David Tholen, from the University of Hawaii, said in a statement. “Because 2018 VG18 is so distant, it orbits very slowly, likely taking more than 1,000 years to take one trip around the Sun.”

Farout adds to the intriguing family of peculiar objects so far discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto. The orbits of these trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) seem to be influenced by the gravity of a massive planet so researchers have put forward the idea that Planet 9 exists over 200 AU from the Sun. So far the search hasn’t uncovered definitive proof, but TNOs are helping astronomers understand what’s going on at the edge of the Solar System.

“2018 VG18 is much more distant and slower moving than any other observed Solar System object, so it will take a few years to fully determine its orbit,” added co-discoverer Scott Sheppard, from the Carnegie Institution for Science. “But it was found in a similar location on the sky to the other known extreme Solar System objects, suggesting it might have the same type of orbit that most of them do. The orbital similarities shown by many of the known small, distant Solar System bodies was the catalyst for our original assertion that there is a distant, massive planet at several hundred AU shepherding these smaller objects.”

While we are only just starting to understand the further rims of the Solar System, discoveries like this show that there are still many worlds out there left to find.

WWF Wrestling Tidbits ... Hulk Hogan vs The Iron Shiek ... January 23rd, 1984 at Madison Square Garden ... 8 out of 10

This week marks one year since the passage of the #TaxCuts & Jobs Act, which reduced tax rates for individuals, increased the standard deduction and cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Since the tax cuts took effect this year, they've been credited with boosting the economy but also criticized for not helping working families.

The federal budget deficit surged to $779bn in fiscal year 2018, its highest level in six years. The deficit worsened because tax revenues are not keeping pace with government spending after Mr. #Trump's tax cuts took effect. Proponents of the bill argued that corporations would use the tax rate cut to increase wages and reinvest in the economy. So far though, we have yet to see a corporate impact on the overall #GDP.


#WorldEconomy #EconomicOutlook #EconomicPolicy #AmericanEconomy #EconomicGrowth #EconomicSlowdown #EconomicRisk #EconomicRecession #UnitedStates #TrumpAdministration #Economy #Politics #DebtCrisis #GovernmentDebt #SovereignDebt
Gary Cohn: #USeconomy is "really strong" but "we've got a huge debt problem"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-cohn-u-s-economy-is-really-strong-but-weve-got-a-huge-debt-problem/

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry is set to visit the US and Canada next year, with their new baby for a royal overseas tour, it has been claimed. This is a chance for Meghan Markle visit to her mother, Doria Ragland.

Meghan and Harry delighted royal well-wishers by completing several engagements a day during their Commonwealth trip earlier this year.
#MeghanMarkle #PrinceHarry #royaltour
https://youtu.be/7bZtY918tqY

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Withheld Russia Data, described by researchers as having “evaded” and “misrepresented” themselves and the extent of Russian activity on their sites.

Seth Meyers Wants to Help You Communicate With Cool Teens This Christmas https://vult.re/2Cl7Yy2

"Cuba’s government has backed away from enshrining gay marriage protections in its new constitution after widespread popular rejection of the idea.

Gay rights advocates had proposed eliminating the description in the constitution of marriage as a union of a man and woman, changing it to the union of “two people ... with absolutely equal rights and obligations.” But the government said on Tuesday [18 December 2018] that language promoting the legalisation of gay marriage would be removed from the draft."

Carlton's suing!

Fed may raise rates as Trump presses criticism

Factbox – What do British politicians say about another #Referendum on #Brexit? - The crisis in Prime Minister Theresa May’s government over her plans to leave the European Union has stirred interest in the possibility that Britain may hold a second vote on whether to end decades of membership of the world’s largest trading bloc, writes Andrew MacAskill. A few months ago, such an idea looked inconceivable. But the idea is now being widely debated. May last week survived the gravest threat y...

It's Tuesday, December 18, 2018, and here are some of the highlights from the dozen or so posts I published today:

* The scandal-plagued Trump Foundation is permanently closing its doors, but the investigation into the so-called "charity" is just getting started. New York's top prosecutor said it exhibited a "shocking pattern of illegality" (https://on.msnbc.com/2R2AWuQ).

* The former top national security official in the Trump White House lied about his Russian contacts and lied about being a paid agent of a foreign government. It makes the Republican defenses of Michael Flynn ... odd (https://on.msnbc.com/2QB1Qup).

* "At some point, someone has to stand up and in the face of fear of Fox News, fear of their base, fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country." James Comey's latest comments stand out for more reasons than one (https://on.msnbc.com/2ClfkBK).

* The good news: The White House seemed to back off its shutdown threats. The bad news: The White House suggested it might try to pay for a border wall in a way that law does not allow (https://on.msnbc.com/2STvbwM).

* The stock market's poor performance under Donald Trump is not his principal problem. Rather, the trouble is, Trump went out of his way to take credit for Wall Street gains, failing to think through the implications (https://on.msnbc.com/2ChRnes).

* Russian efforts to help boost Trump didn't end on Election Day 2016. In fact, those efforts included an aggressive initiative against Special Counsel Robert Mueller (https://on.msnbc.com/2Ln6mqo).

Brad Pitt: Inside His Best Birthday - He Spent It With His Kids!
http://celebrityinsider.org/brad-pitt-inside-his-best-birthday-he-spent-it-with-his-kids-226192/
#celebritynews #AngelinaJolie, #BradPitt celebrityinsider.org #Hollywood #celebrities #celebrity #celebrityinsider

#Iranian #President Due in #Turkey for Official Visit

Top Food Technology Trends You Will See In 2019
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2018/12/18/top-food-technology-trends-you-will-see-in-2019/#7bbf4ed55a7e

"Using the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), astronomers have detected a new bright quasar at a redshift of about 6.8. The newly identified quasar, designated VHS J0411-0907, is the brightest object in the near-infrared J-band among the known quasars at redshift higher than 6.7. The finding is reported in a paper published December 6 on arXiv.org."

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-12-bright-high-redshift-quasar-vista.html

PLANT POWER! https://trib.al/HCP08Hp