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Its safe to assume youve heard the term once in a blue moon, which refers to the rare occurrence when there is a second full moon in a calendar month. But you might not have heard the term “black moon.” However, on Saturday, August 23, at precisely 2:06 a.m. ET, a black moon is taking place. Although it sounds like something out of a dystopian novel, it’s not that ominous. Lets take a deeper look at what this all means. What is a black moon? Much like great artists such as Picasso, the moon goes through phases. The moons version is cyclical, lasting around 29.5 days. A full moon occurs when Earth is between the sun and the moon, and the side of the moon facing Earth is lit up by the sun. A new moon is the exact opposite of a full moon. It occurs when the orb is between Earth and the sunhowever, the side facing Earth is shadowed and dark, making the phenomenon invisible to the stargazer. Similar to a blue moon, if two new moons occur in the same month, the second is considered a black moon. But there are actually two types of black moons. The other type is based on seasons. It is the moniker given to a third new moon in a season of four new moons, which is what is happening this weekend. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, summer began on June 21, and new moons took place on June 25 and July 24, making August 23 the third in the lineup. (The fourth will take place on September 21, which is just a day before the equinox signaling the beginning of fall.) How often does this type of black moon happen? Seasonal black moons only happen about once every 33 months, according to the Time and Date website. What does this black moon have to do with the Milky Way? To some degree, our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is always visible in the night sky. During the summer months, the center of this massive grouping of stars, planets, and dark matter rises higher, making it more visible to the naked eye. A black moon sky is the perfect time to attempt to see the Milky Way, because the night is even darker than normal. So, although you cannot see a black moon itself, it might just benefit your Milky Way viewing.
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E-Commerce
Do you buy raw frozen shrimp at Walmart? If so, the Food and Drug Administration is recommending you throw away packages of the retailers Great Value brand that were purchased in 13 states because of possible contamination with a radioactive isotope. The FDA issued an alert Tuesday after the U.S. Customs & Border Protection detected Celsium-137, or Cs-137, in shipping containers at U.S. ports in Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami. This radioactive isotope was detected in five different shrimp products from an Indonesian supplier that does business as BMS Foodsthough the FDA said no affected shrimp entered the U.S. food supply. However, because the FDA couldnt rule out possible contamination, it is cautioning that consumers shouldnt eat or serve Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The federal agency has also recommended that Walmart recall its product. The product in question is Great Value brand frozen raw white Vannamei shrimp sold in 2-pound bags, with a best-by date of March 15, 2027. Full details about the affected lot numbers can be found on the FDAs press release. If you have recently purchased raw frozen shrimp from Walmart that matches this description, throw it away, the FDA said in the press release. Do not eat or serve this product. Safety Alerts Americans are routinely exposed to some trace amounts Cs-137 because of its presence in the environment from weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But the danger lies in exposure to large, concentrated amounts which can cause burns, acute radiation sickness, death, and an increased risk of cancer, according to the CDC. The FDAs investigation is ongoing, including working with Indonesian seafood regulatory authorities to determine the root cause of the contamination. Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the FDA, has not commented about the shrimp alert, though he did re-share a post on Tuesday on the X platform about the Pete & Bobby Challenge, an event hosted by Secretaries of Defense and Health Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to encourage Americans to get fit again. The FDA has issued nine safety alerts this year related to food and dietary supplement products.
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E-Commerce
The oil industry was a major donor to Donald Trumps presidential campaign, and it’s gotten a return on that investment. Trumps Big Beautiful Bill kills clean energy incentives, gives millions of dollars in tax breaks and handouts to fossil fuel companies and executives, and mandates new oil and gas lease sales on federal land. But Trump isn’t the only politician in the pocket of Big Oil. The Republican lawmakers who supported that tax bill have also taken money from the fossil fuel industryaccepting more than $105 million in donations collectively, according to a recent analysis from environmental advocacy group Climate Power. Thats even as the clean energy tax credits and other incentives in Joe Bidens Inflation Reduction Act sent more than $200 billion to Republican districts, bolstering their economies and creating thousands of jobs. Why did they vote to kill manufacturing jobs in their home-state energy industries and raise utility rates on their own constituents while sending their constituents tax dollars to oil and gas executives? Climate Power asks in its analysis. The mystery isnt hard to solve, it continues. These Republicans in Congress are caught red-handed taking massive donations from the oil and gas industry, and voting to give them billions and to destroy their competition from their own states clean energy industries. All but two Republican House members and three Republican Senators voted to pass Trumps budget bill. The Climate Power report, which was first published in the Guardian, tallied up how much those supporters have received in donations from the fossil fuel industry over their entire careers. Republican House members have accepted $54.4 million, the Guardian reports, and Republican senators $51.5 million. More than $3 million from the oil industry has specifically gone to 15 Republicans whose states have major renewable energy sectors. These 15 lawmakers all backed Trumps budget billrisking nearly 112,000 clean energy jobs in their states. Michigan, for example, is a hub for the battery sector, which was heavily supported by the Inflation Reduction Act. Representative Bill Huizenga has taken more than $200,000 in oil and gas contributions. In Arizona, a prominent state for solar power, three representativesDavid Schweikert, Eli Crane, and Juan Ciscomanihave collectively accepted more than $500,000 in donations from oil and gas companies. In Iowa, more than 60% of the state’s electricity came from wind energy in 2024. Wind is an industry that Trump has had particular ire for. And Iowa Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meek and Zach Nunn have accepted about $230,000 and $130,000 in oil and gas contributions, respectively. Big Oil has been lobbying politicians for decades, but the industry has found a prominent supporter in Trump. While campaigning for his second run at the presidency, he invited oil and gas executives to his Mar-A-Lago estate, promising them benefits if they donated $1 billion to his efforts. Though Trump ultimately didnt receive that massive total, the oil and gas industry did still give: In the last election cycle alone, the industry spent $445 million to influence both Trump and Congress members, a previous Climate Power analysis found. Since regaining control of the White House in January, Trump has led a uniquely damaging assault on the planet, giving free reign to polluters, rolling back dozens of environmental regulations, and freezing billions in funding to support clean technologies like solar farms and EV chargers.
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E-Commerce
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